Dad. Software engineer. Gaming / electronics / computing enthusiast (especially retro). Xennial suburban white cis het ex-religious SJW. I microblog my way through old games a lot (especially CRPGs).
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2026-08-07T21:54:33Z Event JSON
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Last Notes npub12ase8g7udrz0n6veueakdwj53vflzv387usgn7freua0nc0jyuqqcltsqu Ben S. There are some really weird people on this platform. npub12ase8g7udrz0n6veueakdwj53vflzv387usgn7freua0nc0jyuqqcltsqu Ben S. Hearing people debate the usefulness of AI sounds an awful lot like Boromir arguing that the One Ring should not be cast into the fires of Mount Doom. npub12ase8g7udrz0n6veueakdwj53vflzv387usgn7freua0nc0jyuqqcltsqu Ben S. wow, posting that got me followed by someone from a "skinhead" instance. That's an immediate instance block from me. npub12ase8g7udrz0n6veueakdwj53vflzv387usgn7freua0nc0jyuqqcltsqu Ben S. I do not consent to your harassers being gatekeepers of who belongs here. You belong here. You make this place better. npub12ase8g7udrz0n6veueakdwj53vflzv387usgn7freua0nc0jyuqqcltsqu Ben S. I'm concerned to hear you talking like this - many folks go down this slippery slope and become True Believers. npub12ase8g7udrz0n6veueakdwj53vflzv387usgn7freua0nc0jyuqqcltsqu Ben S. I am a software engineer in exactly the same way that Scotty on Star Trek is a starship engineer: a miracle worker when it comes to jury rigging. npub12ase8g7udrz0n6veueakdwj53vflzv387usgn7freua0nc0jyuqqcltsqu Ben S. I actually clipped this exchange when I saw it the other day: https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxfalI8oBM60-KitT3WKHT18YxWZHGfnC4 npub12ase8g7udrz0n6veueakdwj53vflzv387usgn7freua0nc0jyuqqcltsqu Ben S. Trying to write modern C++ is frustrating because they add new features but not completely enough for them to feel first-class. npub12ase8g7udrz0n6veueakdwj53vflzv387usgn7freua0nc0jyuqqcltsqu Ben S. I didn't take it as a critique, but rather that non-US folks may not realize just how much of a dystopia we're living in over here these days, due to a half century project to dismantle the middle class in order to create billionaires. npub12ase8g7udrz0n6veueakdwj53vflzv387usgn7freua0nc0jyuqqcltsqu Ben S. you may not be able to stand in line for several hours if you are disabled or immunocompromised, have a job that won't let you (or that you can't afford to) skip out on, live in a place without decent public transportation, don't have a polling place within several miles or with lines short enough to vote in, etc. - each of which are very common circumstances in the US due to public policy heavily favoring the investor class and minority repression. npub12ase8g7udrz0n6veueakdwj53vflzv387usgn7freua0nc0jyuqqcltsqu Ben S. PSA: #jetbrains is going to feed your code and other interactions into AI unless you opt out. npub12ase8g7udrz0n6veueakdwj53vflzv387usgn7freua0nc0jyuqqcltsqu Ben S. is that how the disks were distributed? Somehow I came into second-hand possession of a couple of the disks back in the day, but wasn't aware of the toys. I guess someone must have handed them off due to not being able to use them. npub12ase8g7udrz0n6veueakdwj53vflzv387usgn7freua0nc0jyuqqcltsqu Ben S. if you don't mind me asking, what desktop environment did you pick (if any)? There are so many to choose from these days. npub12ase8g7udrz0n6veueakdwj53vflzv387usgn7freua0nc0jyuqqcltsqu Ben S. any idea why they went with 5V for the CX16? Some kind of peripheral/expansion consideration? npub12ase8g7udrz0n6veueakdwj53vflzv387usgn7freua0nc0jyuqqcltsqu Ben S. I also have an SC-88 non-pro, and was informed that even in compatibility mode it's not 100% accurate. It's good enough that I haven't bothered to seek out an SC-55MkII though, and even sounds better in some games like Descent. npub12ase8g7udrz0n6veueakdwj53vflzv387usgn7freua0nc0jyuqqcltsqu Ben S. I think a PHP solution would be uniquely interesting because it could be made to work on web hosting providers that don't allow long running processes. Since computers are fast now, it could run up a z-machine for each input, inject session state and input into it, then save the new state and report the output back to the user as HTML. npub12ase8g7udrz0n6veueakdwj53vflzv387usgn7freua0nc0jyuqqcltsqu Ben S. I installed an interpreter on a Linux based home Internet router to do this a while back lol. It did not allow WAN connections though for security reasons. npub12ase8g7udrz0n6veueakdwj53vflzv387usgn7freua0nc0jyuqqcltsqu Ben S. I see almost 20 browser implementations on the Wikipedia z-machine article, but at least some of them are flash or JavaScript based. npub12ase8g7udrz0n6veueakdwj53vflzv387usgn7freua0nc0jyuqqcltsqu Ben S. thanks, that's good data and sounds reasonable. My surrounds are 4 inch with a rated frequency bottom of 100Hz, so I might go with 100-120 as the crossover frequency for those. npub12ase8g7udrz0n6veueakdwj53vflzv387usgn7freua0nc0jyuqqcltsqu Ben S. Looks like the minimum frequencies in the specs are: npub12ase8g7udrz0n6veueakdwj53vflzv387usgn7freua0nc0jyuqqcltsqu Ben S. I'm not quite sure what to do with crossover settings. The subwoofer's internal crossover is disabled in LFE mode, but the Denon provides crossover frequency configuration for subwoofer, front, center, and surround stages. Calibration keeps setting the surrounds to a hilariously low 80Hz (their 4" woofers are the smallest in the set!). npub12ase8g7udrz0n6veueakdwj53vflzv387usgn7freua0nc0jyuqqcltsqu Ben S. I don't know if it's because of the timbre matching, or the tweeters being in better shape, but positional audio tests via YouTube and Wii games proved a lot more immersive. npub12ase8g7udrz0n6veueakdwj53vflzv387usgn7freua0nc0jyuqqcltsqu Ben S. In fact, all the numbers came out more reasonable - probably owing to my more conservative placement of the calibration mic on tests 2 and 3. npub12ase8g7udrz0n6veueakdwj53vflzv387usgn7freua0nc0jyuqqcltsqu Ben S. The new old-stock speakers showed up yesterday - Infinity Primus P150 bookshelf speakers to go with my center/surrounds/subwoofer of the same vintage. npub12ase8g7udrz0n6veueakdwj53vflzv387usgn7freua0nc0jyuqqcltsqu Ben S. While testing Metroid Prime 2 on the Wii, which has 3D positional audio via Dolby Pro Logic II, I noticed that the surrounds were way too loud - even thought the receiver's test tones seemed fine. npub12ase8g7udrz0n6veueakdwj53vflzv387usgn7freua0nc0jyuqqcltsqu Ben S. Decided to download a random decibel meter app on my phone and see how the receiver's test tones registered out of each speaker - and it was a mess. Adjusted them all at a couple of volume levels, and I think it sounds much better. npub12ase8g7udrz0n6veueakdwj53vflzv387usgn7freua0nc0jyuqqcltsqu Ben S. The last thing to get used to is that the Denon loves to mute itself whenever the audio or video signal changes, or I got into our out of a menu on the receiver, etc. npub12ase8g7udrz0n6veueakdwj53vflzv387usgn7freua0nc0jyuqqcltsqu Ben S. I was going to test its ability to matrix decode Netflix' stereo mis-advertised as 5.1, but we've reached season 3 of Peaky Blinders, which actually has a real 5.1 soundtrack. I'll have to go back and test with an older episode later. npub12ase8g7udrz0n6veueakdwj53vflzv387usgn7freua0nc0jyuqqcltsqu Ben S. I say "mostly" because for some reason I was getting stuttering when watching a 4K Star Wars movie on Disney+. It did go away after power cycling everything, so hopefully it was a fluke. npub12ase8g7udrz0n6veueakdwj53vflzv387usgn7freua0nc0jyuqqcltsqu Ben S. I will say it has a nice menu system on the HDMI out, but would probably be a pain to navigate via the front panel instead (the Yamaha's sparse menus were easily navigable on either the TV or the front panel). npub12ase8g7udrz0n6veueakdwj53vflzv387usgn7freua0nc0jyuqqcltsqu Ben S. It also knocked the center channel down too far IMO, and detected a higher crossover frequency on it versus the surrounds, even though the center has two equal-or-larger drivers and is from the same set. npub12ase8g7udrz0n6veueakdwj53vflzv387usgn7freua0nc0jyuqqcltsqu Ben S. After mucking around with settings, I went through the Audyssey calibration. This was an almost identical process to the old Yamaha RX-V665, except the Denon allows testing at multiple listening positions (I guess it averages them out?). npub12ase8g7udrz0n6veueakdwj53vflzv387usgn7freua0nc0jyuqqcltsqu Ben S. The Denon AVRX1800H showed up. Swapped the speakers, Fire Stick 4K, HDMI-adapted Wii, and TV over to it. npub12ase8g7udrz0n6veueakdwj53vflzv387usgn7freua0nc0jyuqqcltsqu Ben S. Ordered a factory refurb Denon AVRX1800H from accessories4less, as they're an authorized retailer with the same terms but another $100 cheaper than Denon's website (which was $200 cheaper than new). I imagine that Denon gets value out of a retailer providing first-line return processing, and/or doesn't want to undercut the business of a retailer that moves a lot of product. npub12ase8g7udrz0n6veueakdwj53vflzv387usgn7freua0nc0jyuqqcltsqu Ben S. I'm eyeing the Denon AVRX1800H as a possible replacement for the 15 year old Yamaha, which would simplify things greatly: npub12ase8g7udrz0n6veueakdwj53vflzv387usgn7freua0nc0jyuqqcltsqu Ben S. TV digital audio mess: npub12ase8g7udrz0n6veueakdwj53vflzv387usgn7freua0nc0jyuqqcltsqu Ben S. there's something wrong with the tweeters in mine I think - they're muffled to the point that I can't make out dialogue when it comes out of them instead of from my center speaker (streaming trailers/recaps are sometimes only in stereo while my receiver thinks they're 5.1 for some reason). npub12ase8g7udrz0n6veueakdwj53vflzv387usgn7freua0nc0jyuqqcltsqu Ben S. Infinity, which I gather was well-regarded as a solid budget brand. npub12ase8g7udrz0n6veueakdwj53vflzv387usgn7freua0nc0jyuqqcltsqu Ben S. Just bought a unicorn: New-in-box front bookshelf speakers for the 5.1 set that I only bought the center+surrounds+subwoofer for around 15 years ago. npub12ase8g7udrz0n6veueakdwj53vflzv387usgn7freua0nc0jyuqqcltsqu Ben S. Since I've been revisiting my softmodded Wii, I decided to do a refresh of its homebrew software. Wii development has slowed down a lot, but I missed some updates over the past few years - some of which are revival forks of stuff I was using. npub12ase8g7udrz0n6veueakdwj53vflzv387usgn7freua0nc0jyuqqcltsqu Ben S. This video is wild: Someone got super lucky (and had a lot of help) acquiring the largest CRT TV ever made: https://youtu.be/JfZxOuc9Qwk?feature=shared npub12ase8g7udrz0n6veueakdwj53vflzv387usgn7freua0nc0jyuqqcltsqu Ben S. Also the "App Center" pinned app is just snap-store, and it fails to update itself...because it's already running lmao. Why would you make an upp updater UI that can't update itself?! npub12ase8g7udrz0n6veueakdwj53vflzv387usgn7freua0nc0jyuqqcltsqu Ben S. Installed Ubuntu LTS in a VM after having abandoned it for Debian several years ago, as first steps towards migrating a Win10 game server to Linux, because apparently Steam-adjacent stuff is best supported on Ubuntu. npub12ase8g7udrz0n6veueakdwj53vflzv387usgn7freua0nc0jyuqqcltsqu Ben S. I've heard that fosstodon has a reputation for argumentative reply guys. npub12ase8g7udrz0n6veueakdwj53vflzv387usgn7freua0nc0jyuqqcltsqu Ben S. good point: regardless of how bsky turns out, it's on track to be remembered as one of the major elements of Twitter's demise, and that's good. npub12ase8g7udrz0n6veueakdwj53vflzv387usgn7freua0nc0jyuqqcltsqu Ben S. that's valid. Personally I don't enjoy chasing the shiny new thing, and am also extremely tired of corporate web platforms. npub12ase8g7udrz0n6veueakdwj53vflzv387usgn7freua0nc0jyuqqcltsqu Ben S. Them: "I'm probably going to lock my Mastodon account and take a mental health break from social media." npub12ase8g7udrz0n6veueakdwj53vflzv387usgn7freua0nc0jyuqqcltsqu Ben S. I've been saying for years that centering Trump is a big part of the problem, because he understands that even negative attention is still attention. npub12ase8g7udrz0n6veueakdwj53vflzv387usgn7freua0nc0jyuqqcltsqu Ben S. making her victory about Trump seems fraught. I also expect she'd avoid sounding vindictive out of concern that it would increase the chance of post election unrest. npub12ase8g7udrz0n6veueakdwj53vflzv387usgn7freua0nc0jyuqqcltsqu Ben S. worried about all of that, plus the possibility that he'll lose and people will just throw a violent shit-fit over it. npub12ase8g7udrz0n6veueakdwj53vflzv387usgn7freua0nc0jyuqqcltsqu Ben S. Desperately need to get a new tablet. It can emulate PSX games with shaders, but can barely manage to show me a twitch stream because it runs out of RAM trying to process the massive javascript burden that saddles every website in 2024. npub12ase8g7udrz0n6veueakdwj53vflzv387usgn7freua0nc0jyuqqcltsqu Ben S. ready player piano one npub12ase8g7udrz0n6veueakdwj53vflzv387usgn7freua0nc0jyuqqcltsqu Ben S. Streaming services / media players put subtitles in the dead area of the letterbox instead of over the content challenge (level: impossible). npub12ase8g7udrz0n6veueakdwj53vflzv387usgn7freua0nc0jyuqqcltsqu Ben S. so if it's a niche hobby project then there's no point bothering to support Linux, because it's not worth anyone's time to push through the friction of the package maintainer cathedral. npub12ase8g7udrz0n6veueakdwj53vflzv387usgn7freua0nc0jyuqqcltsqu Ben S. my software depends on third party libraries. Users may not have those at hand. They may not even have development tools installed, since they may not be developers. You're not seeing past the cushy bubble we exist in as developers. npub12ase8g7udrz0n6veueakdwj53vflzv387usgn7freua0nc0jyuqqcltsqu Ben S. so if a game server admin who is not a developer wants to run my stuff on Linux, they have to convince a distro package maintainer to produce an ongoing formal release of my hobby stuff? That sounds terrible for both of us. npub12ase8g7udrz0n6veueakdwj53vflzv387usgn7freua0nc0jyuqqcltsqu Ben S. is this a symptom of people wanting to deliver one binary instantiation of their stuff that works on the widest possible array of Linux instantiations? npub12ase8g7udrz0n6veueakdwj53vflzv387usgn7freua0nc0jyuqqcltsqu Ben S. Just saw this headline under "positive news": "9-year-old sells lemonade to help pay for dad's kidney surgery" npub12ase8g7udrz0n6veueakdwj53vflzv387usgn7freua0nc0jyuqqcltsqu Ben S. Twitch is such a bumbling platform that the same Applebees ad that I'm forced to watch every 5 minutes has a 50% chance of returning me to a blank screen instead of the stream I actually wanted to watch. npub12ase8g7udrz0n6veueakdwj53vflzv387usgn7freua0nc0jyuqqcltsqu Ben S. wow, that's a bin full of nostalgia right there lol
