d-RLY?

I might end up looking at newer stuff, but… how tf am I going to avoid shitty touchscreens, spyware, LED headlights, and all that garbage?

And going to get harder to avoid a lot of that stuff once enough of them eventually get into the much cheaper levels of the used market. Though by then (and even currently in the higher priced used levels) most of the stuff will no longer even be supported to use (even if you for some reason did find a need to use them and be okay paying).

I got a 2015 Rogue SV that stuff like nav or whatever other stuff doesn’t even have access to the apps from Nissan to set them up. And was like one or two years behind Android Auto or even Apple’s stuff. So can’t just have the main screen just cast my phone’s maps. Really only irritates me when I need to go into settings and see stuff for features I can’t use if I wanted to do so. But the backup camera and phone pairing over blutooth for calls and music works, so that is nice to have and useful daily.

I am torn on replacing the head-unit like I did with my much older cars in the past. But those were so much more easy and “normal” to replace. I mostly worry that since it is much more integrated, that beyond just not flowing with the design, that there would be more problematic issues caused with the electrics (especially after seeing how much just replacing headlights with LEDs messed up a lot of cars when they were not a standard part) and the main computer.

Had really randomly bad issues with my last car’s computer towards the last four or five years that I never had with much older cars before. But is also possible that aside from my much more abusive driving while being younger, that I just hadn’t had something with any computer element (just the main one as it wasn’t anything built-in with lots of features.

I think all of these also have Chrome versions, but still better on FF due to being able to install (or side-load if not listed or not whitelisted for mobile) onto the mobile version. The day I learned how to get non-whitelisted ones to install and install from xpi was game over for bothering with other mobile browsers.

• FastStream for downloading videos from YT and a lot of other sites (I daily use it for grabbing stuff on Twitter)
• Bypass Paywalls Clean for the obvious (this one is to the dev’s not github but same kind of site site as it has to be installed via xpi)
• Watch on Odysee for seeing if a YT channel also uploads to Odysee to go watch there if possible and at least give my view there
• SponsorBlock for being able to skip hard-coded ads from the uploads and other sections of YT videos
• DeArrow for being able to view titles for YT videos that are more reflective of content
• Wayback Machine for saving pages to Archive.org along with saving them to my account on there.
• Privacy Possum for more aggressive blocking of tracking (though it does require remembering it is on if a site breaks as it will block things that uBO isn’t the cause of the issue)

Sorry if my wording was bad. I meant installing Irfanview with WINE. Xnview having versions for the different platforms is a major good thing. If I can get myself to use it more than I do Irfanview, then I at least know any future jumps to daily using Linux or Mac OS will work fine (at least for image viewing lol).

I was so happy to learn about Libro.fm randomly. Makes things so much easier to just download and have on my dedicated audio player. No DRM to strip or having to use their player. Only thing that annoys me about them (along with other audiobook services) is that they list books that they can’t sell due to DRM. Most of the time if they don’t have a book you just don’t get a result, but for some reason they will show some books and I get excited to see them. Just to then load the page and see that they currently can’t offer it due to DRM. Would much rather not see the search result. Another mildly annoying thing with their search is that searching for books by authors will include other authors and show results for all their books. Both are just annoyances that aren’t deal breakers so long as everything else is kept the same.

Same here. Every time I have used Linux or MacOS for long periods of time as my main OS. I run into that moment when I need/want to look at images (or even just one), and all the other fun things go right out the door. It is such a weird problem that other viewers can’t manage to “feel correct,” Always amazes me at how this one program is the cause of such a specific emotional response from me. lol

I try out Xnview from time to time on Windows to try and adapt to it, but always run into just something (but it is a very good program and is why I make the effort to check-in on it at all). I think that in Xnview’s case, it is just waaaay too much going on and even with the massive amount of settings I can’t find the ones that “just work” for me. Just end up installing it through WINE and deal with the random weird things that come from using it that way (most tend to be the UI looking so different due to not matching the OS and presenting the fake C: when opening a file from the menu). And still “feels” much better.

Other more simple viewers also don’t “feel” right due to not having some of the additional settings/features Irfanview has for light editing. Would maybe help in the case of Xnview if someone was able to mod it to have Irfanview look (kind of like the various mods of GIMP to layout like Photoshop) and hide the tons of advanced stuff that Irfanview doesn’t have in sub menus or a toggle to switch to the normal setup. Though I can get it kind of close if I play around with moving stuff around on the main toolbar. So still like the best next option I have used.

You are very correct on how lots of sites have made RSS basically a method for just spamming you with crap. They just give a headline and link (not even a paragraph to know what the thing is about). But RSS itself still works the way it used to. It is the sites that enshittify the feeds.

Agreed, sometimes we get caught-up in ideas of these things that we are told are “major” events. But don’t really calm down to what is after them. Like finishing school (any level) feels like it will just “be” the answer, but then the structure is gone and then there isn’t a firm predictable path to follow. Just left with the feeling of “now what do I do?” Or the realization of how quickly dull/mundane it is after the initial goal is met.

I remember how excited I was to learn how to use my dad’s riding mower was (both because it was something to drive around and seemed like an “adult” task), but then I just became the one that had to mow. But I have found it kind of a great time to listen to books. So I now look forward to it (most of the time), because it is uninterrupted time to listen to them. No distractions aside from like the bagger getting stopped-up.

I am not sure of where you live or what side of the road you drive on but dear god, learn where the passing lane is and what the etiquette for it is.

Would add that it is not good to stay in the left-most lane on the interstate if you aren’t passing. If someone is going faster than you are while in that lane, move out of it. So many slow folks and/or big trucks love to just stay in the left lane for no reason. Obviously there are moments that make it impossible. Like when all lanes are filled due to construction, or due to those cascade waves of stand-still traffic cause by folks doing that sudden jumps from one side to the other because of missing exits or whatever.

Specs:

• Asus TUF Gaming X570-Plus WiFi
• AMD Ryzen 5950X
• 64GB of G.Skill F4-3600C18-32GVK
• Gigabyte AMD RX-7900XTX
• Samsung 980 Pro 500GB (OS drive)
• Samsung 990 Pro 4TB (Game Drive)
• Samsung 870 EVO (one 2TB and one 4TB for main non-game storage)
• WD Black 1TB HDD (mostly used for books, comics, file history for my user profile, and misc storage)
• LG M-Disc Ultra-HD/4k internal burner/reader with hacked firmware to use with MakeMKV.
• Seasonic 850W 80+ Platinum
• Noctua NH-D15 Gen 2 (had a NH-U12S) and 5 140mm case fans from them (can’t remember which models but one is the newer version).
• Fractal Define R4 (main reason I have air cooling instead of an AIO as the 5.24in bays and older style from a 2013 build I bought from a different friend in 2015 that wanted to downsize to do two years of Van-Life).
• Windows 10 Pro (will likely move to a Linux distro after I have a new build and use this one as a dedicated Plex/Jellyfin/long-term data storage).

Built piecemeal over the past 6ish years (original CPU: Ryzen 3800X as a bundle with the board and GPUs first RX-580 8GB then RX-5700XT also 8GB, drives changed out also over time along with the RAM). So the cost of all the parts has been spread out. I got the RX-7900XTX for $800 off a friend that was down-sizing on things which was too good to pass-up as the price was still $1000~1100 at the time (2023 within the first year).

Usecase: Mostly games, general daily tasks and browsing, also as my Plex server and more recently ripping/re-encoding my Blu-rays and DVDs.

I plan to build a more straightforward PC for games and daily tasks. I don’t have the parts selected yet for it, but plan to stay all AMD. Also plan to run a Linux distro from the start with that one since Proton has worked so well on my Steam Deck (along with Windows 11 being so much more invasive than even 10). Might still need to setup a VM with Windows for really specific situations and to keep-up with how things work and trying out things that might help in fixing PCs I work on for my job.

I have heard that doing hardware pass-through on VMs is maybe easier if the host is Linux to be able to actually use my GPU in the client OS. So I am looking forward to seeing how that might work (I don’t use VMs much since I haven’t had proper GPU support which annoys me lol). —

Not really things that I can use less. But I really hate when companies that are already fully saturated (or basically have monopolies) really push ads for their shit. Example being shit like Spectrum. While there are now more options in my area for internet (AT&T did start laying fiber in my area like last summer), it really just seems like all the money put into the marketing departments could be saved. Same goes for AAA games.

We keep seeing how all the major fucking companies keep purging staff or dev studios they bought do to sales “not meeting expectations.” But it seems like they should be cutting marketing first. Every “gamer” I know is already aware that something was announced with a release date via YT trailers and gaming outlets that were already going to cover it. So pushing so many more millions of dollars into shit really just looks like wasted money.

Same. I initially decided to try it to see if it was even close to as good taste wise as it is advertised. Also because it is gluten-free and might be something my dad might like since he had to switch to GF. But none of the four boxes really came close to being similar to what they would replace. And the price (that they make such a point about being “affordable”) was like two or three times more expensive than better options we did find.

It really reminds me that basically everything that is called “affordable” on most social media is really pushed to tech-bro/massive city areas. Which $7~9 might be “affordable” if in super high cost of living cities. Just like how most of the “hot” tech things or trends tend to act like other places are just as “modern.” Most small towns/rural areas are always like a decade behind on things. Which makes it beyond difficult to help regular people with basically everything tech-wise at my job. Which I won’t make my already long reply even longer by ranting more.

I was happy to see that it finally got them after so long (was kind of embarrassing that Edge got them officially before FF and even other Chromium browsers). But I started using Zen before FF got them. Just happy that they look nice and “feel” good to use. The extensions have more “power user” features but never “felt” cohesive with the browser. Though I hope that they can better integrate now that the base browser can render better. Possible “win-win” if so imo.

LibreWolf did a pretty good job on their end. I keep a portable version on my PC to mess with every so often. Too locked down for my daily uses, but that is kind of their thing (which I respect and support). It is awesome to see solid forks of FF that are extremely active.

That is awesome to hear that the pipes and the pads you added are keeping it solid. I always get frustrated when laptops that have R9/i9 with good GPUs are anything less than “thicc.” Thin and sleek laptops are nice to have for portability, but have no business having anything above R7/i7 (really should be high bin R5/i5 for both heat and the poor batteries). I might look into those pads for when I get around to opening my PS3 and 4 that need to get a real cleaning.

I have been using Zen-Browser as my main desktop browser for around almost a year (I think). Initially just wanted to give it a try because it has nice vertical tabs that aren’t clunky or just an extension. It also looks better (imo) than most of the other FF-forks that I have tried.

On Android I use FF since it isn’t Chrome/Chromium and most importantly can turn on basically “Dev Mode” in a similar way that you enable Dev Mode in Android. This allows you to install all normal extensions that you can on desktop FF. Even if that wasn’t an option, uBO is installable (unlike basically every Chromium-based option). Really really helps going to websites while on my phone or tablets not feel like a complete downgrade compared to just turning my desktop on.

There are some Chromium and FF forks for Android that do allow some extensions, just not a lot to pick from. And I don’t want to use Chromium stuff since it further pushes sites to pull an IE and code sites to work only for Chrome/Chromium.

I wasn’t ready to see that thing. Would have sprayed my drink out if I were drinking at the moment your link loaded. lol

I would love to have that just to show to co-workers and friends, just to see their reactions. I could see it being kind of nice to have if I really really needed multiple screens. But would never want to bring it anywhere unless it is staying in a hotel room for like a week and working (which I don’t have a job that would even give that situation to happen anyway). Still nice to see mobile workstations still have room for wild-ass designs like that. Kind of like how more smart phones used to have really wild selling points.

How hot does it get under load of stuff like Cyberpunk or similar programs? I am always jazzed to see high-end laptops, but I am aware of heat being a given. We get a lot of normies (or gamers that dip their toes into PC gaming) that have more money than sense just demanding the most powerful laptop. And they bring them in for us to check-out due to how hot they get. Some of it comes down to them not knowing how to stop all the programs from starting up with it and causing it to heat up from the jump even before launching a game or whatever. lol

For daily use of temps, I found it best to just switch my apps and stuff to use Celsius. Then just made a point to take mental notes as to see what the current temps were on my devices. Especially when it was feeling too hot or cold. On days that felt nice, would see what temps they were and just kind of learned what ranges were between them (I tend to find 16-23C to be fine warm temps).

I can’t say exactly what the temps in Fahrenheit directly. But can give a range for friends and co-workers if they happen to ask me what the temps are outside (they obviously take the Celsius value as not helpful but they know I am going to give them). I can say that for me the “exposure therapy” of just using Celsius has been much easier than things like distance. I can kind of handle thinking of static distances, but I am not able to translate active things like speed.

The fact that it all came from just brainstorming while baked on a podcast and then just doing the thing is what I respect about it. It didn’t need to be something that the majority of people would like. It stuck to the layout basically completely, and didn’t give a fuck. Was also cool that the actors really committed to the bit.

Thanks for the recommendation! I will give it a try sometime. My typing has gotten better over the years since that job. Mostly due to having co-workers at my current job being faster. Just depends on if I am typing out notes that are basically the same and needing to get things closed at the last minute. lol

Since you at least know the layout. Typing of the Dead can be fun for forcing you to start using more fingers as things come at you. I needed to force myself to get better in order to make sure I could pass a timed typing speed and accuracy test for a data entry job. Played it a little every night for at least a week before my interview. I was still kind of slow, but was much more accurate. Which got me into a position that corrected or found missing information from the main data entry folks. If arcade zombie games aren’t your thing, there are some other good games mentioned in the other comments.