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tal

@tal@lemmy.today

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tal, (edited )
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

Mostly Amazon, myself.

If one wants an occasional old gizmo that’s no longer made, eBay can be helpful.

Specifically for cables – which aren’t that pricy relative to other items people buy, and are often marked up a lot by retailers – I’ve gone to Monoprice for quite some years. Useful if getting a bunch of cables.

tal, (edited )
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

Ironically, I just noticed this morning that the pizzaria on the corner (here, in the US) can take orders via fax (as well as in person, via phone, and on the Web).

I don’t know about today, but back around 2000, stuff on the Japanese market was quite a bit ahead of the US in small, portable, personal electronic devices, like palmtop computers and such. I remember being pretty impressed with it. But then I also remembered being surprised a few years later when I learned that personal computer ownership was significantly lower than in the US. I think that part of it is that people in Japan spend a fair bit of time on mass transit, so you wanted to have small, portable devices tailored to that, and that same demand doesn’t really exist in the US.

Then everyone jumped on smartphones at some point after that, and I think things homogenized a bit.

tal,
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

Magnesium supplement pills, I imagine.

Possible workaround for 0.19.1 outbound federation issues

If anyone else is having problems with 0.19.1 federation where outgoing messages don’t seem to make it out to other instances other than at instance restart, it sounds like @mrmanager, the lemmy.today admin, may have managed to resolve the federation issues on his instance. He hasn’t posted here yet (I assume because he...

tal,
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

The most-recent release of lemmy dicked up outbound federation pretty badly on the instance I use.

How to pull rocks out of pipe in the ground?

My mom has a hole in the ground that she puts her clothes drying hanger in. Like this. The hole in the ground is a 2" or so pipe, set in concrete. The pipe has filled with gravel. Anyone have a tip on getting the rocks out? I can only get so many out using my fingers and then trying to use a set of chopsticks.

tal,
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

a powerful vacuum

A shop vac, maybe with a narrow extender.

If OP is in the US – which I assume he is, from the inch measurement – I’d bet that he can probably rent one at a large hardware store, like Home Depot, if he doesn’t have any use for one outside of this.

tal,
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

There isn’t a legal right of fair use for fan fiction, if that’s what you’re asking. Rights holders often ignore it, though.

tal, (edited )
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

Also, Prometheus paid a horrific price for helping humanity. Generally-speaking, the Greek pantheon is fairly self-interested, and not terribly interested in helping humanity in general.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prometheus

In Greek mythology, Prometheus (/prəˈmiːθiəs/; Ancient Greek: Προμηθεύς, [promɛːtʰéu̯s], possibly meaning “forethought”)[1] is sometimes referred to as the God of Fire.[2] Prometheus is best known for defying the Olympian gods by stealing fire from them and giving it to humanity in the form of technology, knowledge, and more generally, civilization.

In some versions of the myth, he is also credited with the creation of humanity from clay.[3] Prometheus is known for his intelligence and for being a champion of mankind,[4] and is also generally seen as the author of the human arts and sciences.[5] He is sometimes presented as the father of Deucalion, the hero of the flood story.[6][7][8]

The punishment of Prometheus for stealing fire from Olympus and giving it to humans is a subject of both ancient and modern culture. Zeus, king of the Olympian gods, condemned Prometheus to eternal torment for his transgression. Prometheus was bound to a rock, and an eagle—the emblem of Zeus—was sent to eat his liver (in ancient Greece, the liver was thought to be the seat of human emotions). His liver would then grow back overnight, only to be eaten again the next day in an ongoing cycle.

I don’t think that any other character in the pantheon could realistically be called as sympathetic. I’m not sure that any other divide Greek figure deserves humanity’s gratitude.

tal, (edited )
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

You can link to videos if you want. I don’t think that lemmy or kbin instances will likely provide free hosting for them, though.

There is a Fediverse service that provides video hosting, PeerTube.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PeerTube

I’m skeptical that it will scale – it costs to host video – but it’s there. You can host something on any PeerTube host willing to serve your content and link to it from the Threadiverse, same as you could on YouTube.

joinpeertube.org

EDIT: For a list of nearby instances:

peertube.fediverse.observer

Is there an app or way to set a start time and end time and totally simulate an automatic sunset with Hue lighting

I want to set a start time and end time and have my Hue lights slowly and very gradually over that timeframe shift from like yellow–> red or even white/blue at the start of the day–> red at end and have it automatically carry that out....

tal, (edited )
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

I rigged up a simulated sunrise about 20 years back with a regular light, a computer, and an X10 controller back when I slept in a room without windows and wanted a more-gentle way of waking up than an alarm clock. So I totally get wanting to simulate a sunrise.

But why do you want to simulate a sunset?

Also, you might want to ask on !homeautomation, as they specialize in this sort of thing.

tal,
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

upliftingnews

I agree with the insight that a lot of news has a really negative focus. That is, a lot of things like murders or disasters or the like that don’t really have all that much direct impact on the lives of most people are very mediagenic, so get disproportionately-heavy coverage. We wind up with a really skewed-negative perspective in the news media relative to reality.

However, I also have to say that I wasn’t necessarily blown away by some past efforts I’ve seen along the lines of remedying this either – that is, a lot of feel-good stories aren’t necessarily all that important to someone’s life either. Not to say that someone can’t want and consume feel-good stories either, but if one’s goal is to try to pick up useful information, probably what one would best read is neither material about shark attacks, nor about someone who overcame cancer or whatnot.

tal, (edited )
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

Copyright violations are not dependent on profit. Profit just makes it easier to calculate damages.

Ehhh…sort of.

You’re right to the extent that it’s not a straight “copyright infringement requires that the infringer profit”, but in US copyright law:

First, the copyright holder can take profits that are made by the infringer:

www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/504

(b) Actual Damages and Profits.—

The copyright owner is entitled to recover the actual damages suffered by him or her as a result of the infringement, and any profits of the infringer that are attributable to the infringement and are not taken into account in computing the actual damages. In establishing the infringer’s profits, the copyright owner is required to present proof only of the infringer’s gross revenue, and the infringer is required to prove his or her deductible expenses and the elements of profit attributable to factors other than the copyrighted work.

Second, some forms of fair use – which permit use of copyrighted material – do take into account whether someone was aiming to make money from it (though it’s not a “all noncommercial use is fair game” sort of thing):

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use

Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 17 U.S.C. § 106 and 17 U.S.C. § 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include:

  1. the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
tal, (edited )
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

Robin Hood is another example of a set of works that had many people contributing different stories into what became the present-day collection.

Historically, a lot of works had many authors using the same character. I think that it’s a bit unfortunate that modern copyright law tends to discourage that.

H. P. Lovecraft was unusual in that he allowed other authors to make use of his characters (and settings, which are also covered by copyright), which is why his world – with Cthulhu and all that – has been widely used.

tal, (edited )
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

I don’t really want to force a specific bottom limit on sound insulation, which is what that would do, though.

Some people won’t care as much as others relative to price and may not want to pay what it’d cost. And some people may want a much-quieter unit than any bottom limit would place.

The problem is that they can’t make an informed decision now because the information isn’t available.

tal, (edited )
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

I kind of wish that multi-unit housing came with sound isolation ratings. That’d create an incentive to have better isolation and help customers weigh the tradeoffs.

What is your unpopular flim opinion

I’ll go first. Mine is that I can’t stand the Deadpool movies. They are self aware and self referential to an obnoxious degree. It’s like being continually reminded that I am in a movie. I swear the success of that movie has directly lead to every blockbuster having to have a joke every 30 seconds

tal, (edited )
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Not only that, but looking at the cast, it looks like LOTR is New Zealanders, Australians, or Brits.

lotr.fandom.com/…/List_of_the_Lord_of_the_Rings_f…

I mean, if there was a single internationally-popular movie or series that you could choose to take issue with as being “too American”, this doesn’t seem like it’d be the one I’d choose.

tal, (edited )
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

Mine is that I can’t stand the Deadpool movies. They are self aware and self referential to an obnoxious degree.

I haven’t read the comic books that they’re based on for a long time, but as I recall, they also break the fourth wall. I don’t think that that was introduced specifically for the movie.

googles

Apparently that wasn’t always there:

screenrant.com/deadpool-fourth-wall-break-first-t…

When Did Deadpool First Break The Fourth Wall?

Marvel’s Deadpool is known for his over-the-top violence and crude and crass humor, but perhaps his best-known character trait is his penchant for repeatedly breaking the fourth wall. Deadpool talks to the audience in comics, films and videogames - but he didn’t always have this power. In fact, early Deadpool was known for being quite serious and firmly rooted in the fictional realm…so when did the Merc with a Mouth first break the fourth wall - and how did he insult editors everywhere by doing so?

Deadpool and the assassin with superhuman accuracy Bullseye teamed up in previous issues, and in Deadpool , the two are reunited after a long absence. “How long has it been!?” Bullseye exclaims. Deadpool simply states “Issue sixteen.” It’s the smallest of fourth-wall breaks (he hadn’t even began speaking to the readers yet), but it shows that Deadpool is doing more than acting out - he’s acting as his own editor. Considering convoluted comics continuity, it’s normal for editors to occasionally place footnotes in certain panels, specifically when characters reference past events. Perhaps Kelly and Woods considered the old method, but wanted to try a new technique. Whatever their reasoning, Deadpool’s fourth wall breaks became a staple of the character.

Looks like Deadpool dates to 1997, though, so Deadpool breaking the fourth wall has been around for over a quarter of a century.

tal, (edited )
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

I don’t think that RSS is a reasonable alternative for social media at all. Different use case for me.

I mean, I’d use it if I had a selection of known sources that publish content regularly that I like enough of to see all the content and have a website. Only a few sources actually meet that bar for me. Then, RSS lets me put a common interface on all of them, combines a list of new content.

I use something like Reddit or the Fediverse to take advantage of people finding useful content elsewhere, which is kind of a different use case.

I mean, you’re on social media here, rather than just following an RSS feed, so presumably RSS doesn’t replace social media for you either.

tal,
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

This extension will automatically remove tracking elements from URLs to help protect your privacy when browsing through the Internet.

Firefox:

addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/…/clearurls/

Chrome:

…google.com/…/lckanjgmijmafbedllaakclkaicjfmnk/

tal,
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

Or something was standing next to your bed while you were asleep and thought that some salt would make you taste better.

tal,
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

I don’t think that there is likely such a thing that would produce a direct response. If you wanted to not be noticed, why would you change your behavior based on what something else transmits?

tal, (edited )
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

If you read the response, he’s talking about scrambled eggs, which you can get in a bag.

tal,
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

Another response says I can put a hard boiled egg into a bag.

That was someone else guessing. The person talking about scrambled eggs was the original person who referenced “bagged eggs”.

Why do people hate on mobile games, call them "not real games" and mock them, when some mobile-exclusive games are the best games I've played?

The Infinity Blade or Minigore series, for example, or anything made by Illusion Labs. These games are genius and most consoles don’t even have a touch screen or utilise it well like some smartphone games do....

tal, (edited )
@tal@lemmy.today avatar

I wouldn’t call one “not a real game”. If you like them, great, play them. I have not been very happy with mobile games, myself, however.

A couple of reasons:

  • While they don’t have to do so, many mobile games appear to me to be designed to cater to people playing in short spurts. That is, you don’t have to build up a lot of metal state about the game; you can play a bit while waiting in a line or something, put the thing on hold, do something else, come back. A lot of my favorite games don’t work like that.
  • For a number of genres, using a touchscreen is a serious limitation, because part of the screen is obstructed by fingers. Phones can use external input devices, usually via Bluetooth, and so you can make a game that requires an external input device, but it’s an inconvenience to lug one around with a phone, so smartphone games generally need to be designed to be at least reasonably-able to be played on the touchscreen alone. That places some constraints on the way the game can work.
  • Touchscreen accuracy is limited compared to a mouse pointer, which again limits a number of genres of games.
  • Not everyone using a smartphone game can be playing sound while doing so; carrying headphones/earbuds around isn’t something that all players will do. That means that smartphone games generally need to be playable without sound, which is a constraint that PC games generally don’t have.
  • The major benefit smartphones have is that they’re mobile. A smartphone can generally run for a while, as long as most of that is idling. Playing games in most genres burns through their battery quickly. You can carry USB powerstations, but kind of a pain.
  • Even in genres – like turn-based ones – that really don’t need much battery consumption, for some reason, game developers – unlike developers of many other application types – often seem to feel the need to have stuff going on while nothing’s happening in the game, burning battery life. I’d like to have the option to minimize battery usage.
  • I would say that a greater proportion of smartphone games than PC games have in-app purchases and ads, neither of which I like.
  • Many game genres tend to benefit from a wider field of view. Smartphone screens held normally take up a very small portion of one’s visual field.
  • I am not particularly enthusiastic about having Google track and profile me. A large portion of the commercial games on Android require that one use Google Play Services and this requires a Google account. I’m not willing to get a Google account. This limits availability of many commercial games. I have no problem with getting a GOG account on the PC, and am at least less concerned about Valve, with Steam, than Google.
  • I have no idea why, but a higher percentage of mobile games seem to go for a cutesy, simplified vector aesthetic. Maybe it’s because they need to run on screens that may vary a great deal in size; I don’t know, but it’s there. Nothing intrinsically wrong with that style, but I’m not especially enthusiastic about it. The Game Boy had the same “cutesy” tendency back when, relative to larger, fixed consoles, so maybe it’s to deal with small screens.
  • Most mobile games I’ve played that I’ve liked (e.g. Shattered Pixel Dungeon) are also available on the PC, and I find that it’s more-comfortable to play there.

So for me, at least, the mobile gaming experience hasn’t really been one that I’ve been all that happy with.

I could certainly see games that I think would work well with a smartphone. Choice of Games-type multiple-choice interactive fiction, or gamebooks. Those are (or at least can be) light on a battery, are fine on a touchscreen. I’ve generally played those on a tablet rather than a phone – I think that even with those, more screen space is desirable, given the option – but I have done those, and I think that they’re all right. Annoyingly-enough, Twine games – which I would think could be a good match for mobile – aren’t, because Android browsers don’t have an ability to view file:// URLs and Twine builds pages that don’t always work well on small mobile screens. There hasn’t been the kind of explosion of freely-available games in this genre that there have been for the keyboard-oriented Z-Machine and TADS interactive fiction VMs on the PC, though.

Deckbuilding games – though I’d rather have ones without animation or 3D stuff going on, to reduce battery consumption – would be another possibility that I’d like. If cards are designed for a small screen, I think that it’d be reasonable.

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