Random nerd who has an interest in computers, privacy, AI, videogames, and CDs. I also like dogs and horses.

Mastodon: https://mastodon.nl/@Cambion

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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 8th, 2023

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  • Historical Chinese drama, especially the palace intreague ones. The better ones are high budget productions with the most beautiful aestethics and well thought out stories. Instead of seasons with set episodes they just have shows of 4 to 100 episodes. Due to that each issue can take the time it needs to be told, without the need of season finals and such, making the pacing very natural. The better ones are also not always predictable and keep you hooked. Most western dramas can’t compare, exceptions like Julian Fellowes’ shows asside.

    I would suggest watching 延禧攻略/Story of Yanxi Palace (not the spin-off on Netflix!) if you want to give it a try. It’s not too old, has a good story, and is quite fast-paced despite it’s length, making it a great one for starters. It’s also easily available with good subtitles, you can find it on Viki for example.




  • TPM on my motherboard is forever disabled

    If that’s just to stop W11 that’s stupid. TPM chips are security related. Disabling them has some serious drawbacks.

    Now there are discussion on if you’d even want a TPM chip or not, and if you choose not to use it for such reasons it may be a well thought out decision. Then you won’t hear me complain. But to trow out security components just to prevent an update, without looking at the possible consequences, is stupid. There are better ways to prevent that anyways.


  • Funny. My grandpa has been using Thunderbird and Libre Office for years, and he never realised it until recently (and he uses it a lot). He recently had an issue for the first time and asked me as he was trying to fix it with Microsoft but didn’t get anywhere, and I had to break the news to him it wasn’t their product.

    I’m not the one who set it up for him btw. But whoever did so made it look as much as to make it easier for him to switch. Which worked as he had no clue and thought he got some free version or so.

    I do also use it, but my setup isn’t Microsoft-like per se. I’m rather happy with it tho.






  • Last time I was on vacation alone I googled the few things I knew I wanted to see/do, and the rest of the time I just went out and see where I end up. Looking where locals go and do that is also a great trick.

    My experience is that most easily online findable things are very tourist-y. I preffer to see more of the non-tourist stuff. Knowing a local is then the best, but by lack there off, just go with the flow.




  • You can try getting your hands on an AsteroidOS compatible watch and flash it with that. It’s basically Linux on your wrist. There is a health app here and the required sensor logging is here, which are in early development but work well in what it does, like step counting and heartbeat graph. Past days aren’t shown further than a week but they are logged, so you could probably get it by hand in terminal after accessing the watch with SSH if you need to until it’s implemented (I think it’s on the to do list).

    It’s my daily watch for months now, sold my Galaxy Watch4 in favor for it. It works well, is completely FOSS, and works without internet, bluetooth, or phone. Altrough both can be enabled and phones can be connected with GadgetBridge or their own app. Both are in F-Droid. You won’t find a more privacy friendly smartwatch solution really.

    There is an issues with the current nightlies tho, so downloads are taken offline for now. So you need to wait for that or see if anyone has old files from before the issue.

    Devs are quite active on Matrix. If you have no patience you can ask there if anyone has the files. Any kind of support is also allowed there, no matter if it’s very noob or advanced level.



  • Article says:

    We’re also beginning the beta for our upcoming macOS desktop app for Proton Drive. […] Once the macOS app is released, we’ll also work on our planned Linux version.

    Based on Proton’s trackrecord in development times I’ld say a far future, but I must admit they’ve been making meters lately when it comes to releasing stuff. It may be sooner than expected (or it might take years, we’d have to wait and see).


  • Well, I also have both atm. Altrough I need to admit my DS Lite is only used as GBA console and for stuff that requires the GBA slot because of weird accesouries (like Guitar Hero On Tour).

    I think it’s because of that. I play the old DS games on my new 3DS. And while the games did improve, the games on 3DS still wheren’t that advanced even for most of the time it was alive, since it laster quite long. So it easily feels more “backwards” than "last gen”. I also don’t see as much difference between them as the jump from PS1 to PS2 to PS3. Or the jump from GameBoy to DS serries, and 3DS to Switch for that matter. For the most part, the different DS’ feel more like different models than different consoles.

    While the 3DS was released in 2010, the DS is only 6 years younger releasing in 2004. The hardware isn’t thát far apart. And while the last game for the 3DS was released in 2021, that still was made for at that moment 11 year old hardware (and by now 13 year old). And while the size of games may have quadruppeld between the first DS and the last, 4GB games where nothing in 2021. They bassically kept making games with restrictions of old hardware longer, rather than having a huge improvement.


  • Personally, for me PS2 era and older is retro for sure. There is a clear distinction where many PS3 games share similar feeling with modern games, while my PS2 ones feel from a past time. We also still had things like memory cards, altrough obviously not all consoles in that generation do. Still, I would put generations on one line, as most console games where ports of the same game across consoles of the same generation, so then that’s the last generation with these kinda old ways of storing. PS2’s gen is also the last generation console games where completely different from PC, and in my childhood gaming up to then wasn’t mainstream but a nerd hobby, causing it to have a very different community. With the generation of the PS3, all of that changed to modern standards.

    PS3 and DS I’m a bit in dubio about. Whenever I feel bored with modern games, PS3 and my (3)DS are on the list of “old” consoles I grab back to (together with PS2, PS1, and recently GBC/GBA which I’d consider retro for sure). On the other hand, at least half the games released on it are games I still play on my PC as “modern games”. DS is extra hard, as I barely distinct between 3DS as DS in my mind, unless it’s using the GBA port for stuff. After all, I play them on the same console and the transition was quite smooth between the DS models making it not feel like a huge gab, unlike the PS2 to PS3. But at the same time, early DS is much older than late 3DS, which I would consider too new for sure.

    Anything after that, modern for sure.

    (One of) the biggest tech sites in my country uses “at least two generations old” as definition, making PS3 the last retro generation currently. I like it because it fits my usage, but as said I’m a bit in dubio about actually calling the PS3 retro. It doesn’t feel old fashioned enough. I mean, that would technically make Skyrim retro. But that’s definitly one of those games that are in my “modern gaming” list on PC and Switch…

    I can at least personally attest that PS3 is currently the newest gen where people either think you’re awesome for buying it now because they get the fun of old stuff, or stupid because they think the old stuff is crap and only the new is cool. For that reason I would agree to allow it on retro places, as modern gaming places just wouldn’t appriciate it at all while people who are already into older stuff do on a somewhat regular basis. But that doesn’t make it truly retro per se, and it really should take over or be all you use.


  • I actually used to have YT Premium because I’m a strong believer that nothing is free, so you either pay with data or money (on anything slightly commercial, not counting FOSS projects made as hobby or under foundations etc. as things get more complex then. But even then I pay/donate for some stuff in the same way of reasoning).

    Yet I cancled the YT Premium subscription. Simply for one reason, privacy. I don’t mind paying, but then I don’t want just no adds, I also want no tracking. I pay with money, so I don’t want to pay with data as well having a whole profile made.

    Switched to NewPipe with sponsorblock on phone and TV and FreeTube on PC. Got a redirect extension in FireFox automatically sending YT videos to either Invidious or Pipe.



  • Business software has very different requirements. It’s much harder to implement stuff for them without breaking those requirements. Think compliances like (ISO) norms and laws regarding commercial businesses, contracts, or even the software being made to work and be administrated on a whole different scale. You can’t compare really…

    While I agree it could go worse from here into a downwards spiral of enshitification, all I meant was that the title is a bit misleading into the other direction; making it sound like they would force telemetry onto users. If they wouldn’t say shit about this option, no one would sign up, even if they wouldn’t mind it. And basically, they’re explaining how they tried to make it as anonymous as possible and that’s it’s opt-in, which would also be a way to go if you legitimatly want to get data for improvement only. If that’s truly what they want, time will tell.

    The moment it stops being optional I’m looking for a different password manager right away, I switched more complex and important things for similar reasons. But since my experience with them has been good, I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt for now.