[X] My Assistant

I remember using that program many years ago.

Freeware that turns into payware is the worst. I am continually worried MakeMKV will do that.

Freeware that turns into payware is the worst. I am continually worried MakeMKV will do that.

Better than freeware that turns into spyware behind your back. The fucking Audacity to do so.

work

We now know why they didn't want Elon buying Twitter now. The Biden admin had facilitated DHS, NGOs and law enforcement agencies to censor topics on social media that the current administration did not like.

[theintercept.com] https://theintercept.com/2022/10/31/social-...nformation-dhs/

I wish you didn't have to do so much math to figure out a screen's real-world width, height, and DPI from a manufacturer's specs.

Example:
Most manufacturers give you three numbers, or one number plus a cryptic abbreviation name for a screen size.
Example of the former:

14.1"
1920x1200 pixels

Or the latter (which I find to be more common in practice):

14.1"
WUXGA

You could also see something like "Full HD", which I guess means 1920x1080?
You might even see diagonal physical size plus DPI, I suppose, which actually gives you even less information since you can't determine the aspect ratio:

To get DPI, you need a diagonal "pixel" measurement, which you can derive from the Pythagorean theorem:

CODE

15", 1440x960:
1440px² + 960px² = diagonal_px²
√(1440² + 960²) ≈ 1731 diagonal "pixels"
1731px ÷ 15" ≈ 115 pixels per inch (dots per inch, or DPI)

To get width and height, you need to know DPI as well and divide your width and/or height in pixels by it. So in addition to the above, you need to do:

CODE

1440px ÷ (115px/1") ≈ 12.5" wide
960px ÷ (115px/1") ≈ 8.35" tall

verification:

CODE

√(12.5²" + 8.35²") ≈ 15"

I guess manufacturers either can't be assed to add three more lines to their specs sheet (DPI, screen width, screen height) or they just really want to mislead customers. I think it's more the latter, especially since the wider aspect aspect ratio your screen is, the larger the disparity between the diagonal measure and screen height becomes and the worse the DPI is for a given diagonal.

CODE

a 27" 1:1 monitor is about the same width as a 24" 8:5 (16:10) monitor.
1920x1920 (1:1) at 27" -> 2715 diagonal px -> ~100.5 DPI; 1920/100.5 ≈19.1 inches wide and tall (19.1"×19.1").

1920x1200 (8:5) at 27" -> 2264 diagonal px -> ~84 DPI; 1920/84 ≈ 22.85 inches wide, 1200/84 ≈14.29 inches tall (22.85"×14.29").

Meanwhile, a 24" widescreen is closer to the width of a 27" 1:1 panel:
1920x1200 (8:5) at 24" -> 2264 diagonal px -> 94 DPI; 1920/94 ≈20.42 inches wide, 1200/94 ≈ 12.76 inches tall (20.42"×12.76").

And the more common 16:9 is even worse, of course.

TL;DR: the wider you make a screen, the lower its DPI is for a given diagonal size measurement.

If we actually cared about screen quality and versatility, we would all be using 1:1 monitors - maybe 4:3 if we wanted them a little smaller to fit in backpacks. And digital artists especially could benefit from taller screens. But no, we just care about gaming and watching movies - i.e., consuming ever greater amounts of content.

Apple's brilliance (and their reason for re-popularizing widescreen laptops, which hadn't really been a thing since the luggable era) was realizing that most people don't actually create jack shit on their computers - apart from possibly word documents or other office stuff. They buy laptops to consume media.

This post has been edited by dragontamer8740: Nov 1 2022, 18:41

I installed a linux distro on the laptop that was delivered last week.

For the first time, I threw Devuan on it instead of regular debian. Still needed a lot of setting up to get all my favorite little utilities on – and even more than if it were a newer laptop, since I had to recompile the ones I wrote in C for 32-bit intel, as well as my web browser – but overall it was pretty nice to be able to avoid getting systemd and pulseaudio and network-manager hurled at me only to rip them out later.

Mesa apparently dropped support for i915 GPU's last year, so that was a fun one to figure out. I have acceleration working now (for now, anyway).

Now that it's all set up and comfy (I'm writing this post on it), it really makes me wish that I knew a way to throw slightly more modern laptop guts into this thing. a 1400x1050 (4:3) 14" screen... (*chef's kiss*). So tall. It's great for reading manga... it'd just be even better if it were 64-bit and not having to juggle between everything it does on a single core.

It's the same width (roughly) as my X201 tablet. But it's just so much bigger!

The timing of the 64-bit transition really was unfortunate, since it happened just as/after laptops were moving away from good aspect ratios.
They're getting a little better now – you can find 3:2 laptops being made today, for instance – but I would kill to have this form factor (keyboard, pointing stick and all) on a newer machine. I don't want some junk like a framework.
It's also got a parallel port on the back, and supports floppy disks, which makes it a really versatile computer. But for fast image viewing I have to use it tethered to an ethernet cable (gigabit ethernet) and handle all the rendering on a remote computer (using X forwarding, although VNC would also work mostly).

It took me ten screws to completely replace the lid on this laptop, swapping the old LCD into the new lid. It was easier than my thinkpad.

This post has been edited by dragontamer8740: Nov 5 2022, 06:02

I'm thinking about blank page.

Ported all of my tweaks to mcomix back to the main branch/version, since it finally released for Python3/GTK3 properly.

Was pretty annoying, and it also made me realize just how much I've changed about it over the years.

I have a couple newish (mini model 1) three button USB pads. I turned one into a real mega drive pad so that I could have one with red print on the buttons that has a D-pad which doesn't suck ass (the Saturn-style dpads are great, early controllers feel like Switch pro controller or master system pads though, and actuate diagonally way too easily).

If I could get my hands on a new Sega Japanese-sized six button pad, I'd probably take the plunge on it. I love that controller. I have the "Sega Club" MK-1937 six button pad, which is identical to the Japanese six button. Only other way to get one in the US besides importing is to get one from a Pioneer LaserActive.

I do not like the US-sized six-button quite as much, since I often play on my side.


The perfect size.

Well I ended up wit the retroflag repo controller (USB) which is a bit smaller than the standard US six button and the new official controller which works with USB and Megadrive ports.

The new controller fells pretty good but its lighter than I remember.




The new megadrive wireless controller is a bit of a meme at this stage, where they say its for Mega Drive, Megadrive 2, Megadrive mini, PC, Mac, and Steam Deck and Switch.

edit: The 4090 launched at such a high price that 3000 series prices went back up a bit. Hopefully the new AMD cards test well and can get more market share.

This post has been edited by EsotericSatire: Nov 7 2022, 02:54

Well I ended up wit the retroflag repo controller (USB) which is a bit smaller than the standard US six button and the new official controller which works with USB and Megadrive ports.

The new controller fells pretty good but its lighter than I remember.

That one looks burger-sized to me. Or like some compromised middle-of-the-road so they only had to make one mould.
I see it has shoulder buttons, though; that's a nice touch.

The new megadrive wireless controller is a bit of a meme at this stage, where they say its for Mega Drive, Megadrive 2, Megadrive mini, PC, Mac, and Steam Deck and Switch.

Funny that's the case, because my original mega drive mini controllers do NOT work on the switch.

edit: The 4090 launched at such a high price that 3000 series prices went back up a bit. Hopefully the new AMD cards test well and can get more market share.

Serves people right who continue to buy nvidia.
It's sad they're still expensive, but I'm not sad.

Linux kernel 6.0 has a bug on my old laptops that causes the GPU to hang. I can still SSH in, though.

Downgraded the kernel and the bug went away.

This post has been edited by dragontamer8740: Nov 7 2022, 03:10

That one looks burger-sized to me. Or like some compromised middle-of-the-road so they only had to make one mould.
I see it has shoulder buttons, though; that's a nice touch.

Funny that's the case, because my original mega drive mini controllers do NOT work on the switch.

A little, the blue tooth version is crap because they jammed in rumble packs and they had to raise the d-pad to an absurd degree.

It seems to have multiple compatibility modes, its a bit annoying that I will need the instructions to set it to the correct mode when using different devices.

Serves people right who continue to buy nvidia.

Well yeah maybe, all varieties of the 4090 cables are melting at this stage. The problem is that disconnecting and reconnecting the power cable to check on it repeatedly also increases the risk of melting rofl.

The was a case where someone with the perfect correct cable, PSU and cable routing had a melt after a few weeks.

A little, the blue tooth version is crap because they jammed in rumble packs and they had to raise the d-pad to an absurd degree.

It seems to have multiple compatibility modes, its a bit annoying that I will need the instructions to set it to the correct mode when using different devices.
Well yeah maybe, all varieties of the 4090 cables are melting at this stage. The problem is that disconnecting and reconnecting the power cable to check on it repeatedly also increases the risk of melting rofl.

The was a case where someone with the perfect correct cable, PSU and cable routing had a melt after a few weeks.

Is the d-pad actually raised? Or is the entire controller too thick?

The compatibility modes thing is probably out of their control (and partially their fault). The mini genesis will only accept USB controllers that have Sega's vendor ID on them, even though they are bog standard USB HID controllers. They modified their version of the linux kernel's USB stack to refuse to even acknowledge non-sega pads. Wouldn't surprise me if other companies are doing that, too.

Alternately you could argue the compatibility modes are like the 'mode' switch on the back of six button controllers.

If I were getting a universal pad, I'd much rather have a Saturn (japanese/v2 american) controller.
-------------------
Edit/update:
Mesa removed accelerated 3d support for my laptop's graphics chipset last year in the form of the i915 DRI driver.

Apparently, my card SHOULD still be supported by i915g, but it seems Debian doesn't package it for some reason(?!) - so I'm building mesa from source on a 2GHz single-core CPU from 2005.

I'm sure it'll finish sometime today. These things are still way faster than my G4.

This post has been edited by dragontamer8740: Nov 8 2022, 19:59

Is the d-pad actually raised? Or is the entire controller too thick?

On the version I have it feels fine but on the bluetooth people are complaining about how the whole thing feels, probably why they took the rumble out of the latest versions.

The compatibility modes thing is probably out of their control (and partially their fault). The mini genesis will only accept USB controllers that have Sega's vendor ID on them, even though they are bog standard USB HID controllers. They modified their version of the linux kernel's USB stack to refuse to even acknowledge non-sega pads. Wouldn't surprise me if other companies are doing that, too.

Its kinda retarded but I guess if they are selling new control pads they want their money.

If you bought their official bluetooth dongle for mega drive though, it supports xbox and PS3/4 controllers as well.

I have a retropie box, so it uses most controllers.

If I were getting a universal pad, I'd much rather have a Saturn (japanese/v2 american) controller.

I think they re-released saturn pads too but I never had a saturn. It was kind of expensive and niche in my country and PSX kinda killed it.

On the version I have it feels fine but on the bluetooth people are complaining about how the whole thing feels, probably why they took the rumble out of the latest versions.
Its kinda retarded but I guess if they are selling new control pads they want their money.

If you bought their official bluetooth dongle for mega drive though, it supports xbox and PS3/4 controllers as well.

I think they re-released saturn pads too but I never had a saturn. It was kind of expensive and niche in my country and PSX kinda killed it.

Still oesn't support arbitrary wired USB controllers, which is all that I wanted.

And I don't have a Saturn, either. I just love their controllers' feel. Basically an upgraded six button mega drive pad.
------------
Edit/update:
I got a free German Amiga 500 today. And a Pentium II Gateway. And I got to see an obscure Japanese calculator that has an official built in C compiler and assembler in person. And I got to play with an HP-21C calculator. And got to show off my HP-48SX. It was a good day.

Here's hoping american politics don't manage to spoil my mood too much.

This post has been edited by dragontamer8740: Nov 9 2022, 01:44

Still oesn't support arbitrary wired USB controllers, which is all that I wanted.

Well the real reason was to try to make it hard to side load roms via USB ports so they could sell multiple different Mega Drive Mini consoles.

Didn't stop people though.

Well the real reason was to try to make it hard to side load roms via USB ports so they could sell multiple different Mega Drive Mini consoles.

Didn't stop people though.

That's not it, though, or they wouldn't have left the data pins connected on the rear connector and let you enter a firmware upload mode.

The USB power cable it ships with has no data lines, but the connector itself still does.

Modified a thinkpad trackpoint cap to fit on one of my dells' pointing sticks. They use different sized posts.

But, lenovo is probably using some third party strain gauge, because they're fitting a little plastic piece on top of the actual strain gauge post to make the post fit the footprint of the post on older IBM boards.

So I was able to take that adapter piece off a broken thinkpad keyboard, cut away at the inside just a little bit with a leatherman (knife), and slide it on top of the strain gauge post on my latitude. And then shave down a trackpoint cap with some edge clippers and pop it on the adapter piece.

I used one of the "rubber eraser' type caps that Unicomp sells (which IBM used in the very early days), and it's working great. I think it's a keeper. I chose the eraser type because it's still in production, it isn't as bulky as "modern" trackpoint caps, and is more durable than the rough 'cat's tongue' caps are in my experience.

[www.pckeyboard.com] Also it's not too expensive.

Looks a little weird on a Dell laptop, with the otherwise gray-and-silver color scheme (with some blue on some models), but it doesn't look too bad either.

Also Dell's rough-textured caps that originally came on this laptop are unobtainium. I thought I had a little pouch of NOS ones somewhere, but I can't find the damn things. I hope they're not permanently lost. You can still find later model caps that fit, but IMO they look even more out of place than a trackpoint nub and they certainly feel more different than this does.

[postimg.cc] (IMG:[i.postimg.cc] https://i.postimg.cc/R0XPS85n/IMG-20221109-013507-crop.jpg)

This post has been edited by dragontamer8740: Nov 9 2022, 08:46

Pardon my intrusion; just wanted to share an unrelated thought:

I'm increasingly scared at how little I understand of the technology I use every day - technology that underpins if not defines so many wide-reaching facets of my daily existence.
I'm left wondering who does understand it, and if those individuals who do are particularly bothered with exercising ethical restraint over said understanding.
As in, I feel vulnerable as all hell to manipulation or malice through ignorance.

It's partially my fault for being ignorant. I'm not proud of how surface-level my understanding of a lot of tech is.
...But I also don't feel we should all need to have such an intimate familiarity with increasingly complex and opaque systems just for basic accountability and integrity to exist.

Well we have too many insecure and/or malicious smart devices.

Amazon devices that great their own secret network.

Smart devices from certain communist country that attack your home network.

The problem is that people put a ton of not very secure devices into their homes. Data security seems to be a dream from the 80s.

I'm increasingly scared at how little I understand of the technology I use every day (...). I feel vulnerable as all hell to manipulation or malice through ignorance. It's partially my fault for being ignorant. (...) But I also don't feel we should all need to have such an intimate familiarity with increasingly complex and opaque systems just for basic accountability and integrity to exist.

My two pfennigs regarding how I’d approach the problem:

It’s wonderful to what degree I understand what I’m doing as I mend a tiny hole in a garment with a needle, or cut some paper with scissors, or join two pieces of wood with a hammer and three nails. However, we do need advanced machinery to keep up our standard of living. I cannot (and in any case, do not want to) refrain from traveling by train until I understand the functionings of all the mechanical, electrical and electronical parts of modern trains.

Similarly, it sometimes feels we have created a monster when I learn about how conglomerate corporations are able to hide much of their questionable actions and avoid taking responsibility because their own structures are so difficult to grasp and see through. Would the world be a better place if people could do business only as sole proprietors or as very small general partnerships, always taking full financial responsibility for all their actions?

Simply put, development comes with more complexity, and more complexity comes with more opportunities for manipulation.

I don’t think we should feel guilty about not understanding how everything around us works. If a person puts enough effort into understanding a few central branches of technology, he or she will likely miss some crucial questions of psychology, sociology, economics, or whatever – and vice versa.

Hence I think the open-source-software movement has the right idea, and that idea should be implemented in many fields of human activities.

The way I understand this, we should not actively hinder development towards things becoming more complex. Instead, much of the benefit we gain from new, more complex systems should be directly put into building open, easy-to-use databases that describe those new systems, and building tools with which people can access and understand that information whenever they feel the need (or just some human interest).

That sort of openness might or might not slow down economical growth compared to what we have now. We’ll never know unless we try. But slower growth is a small price to pay for a world where knowledge is spread far and wide instead of being guarded in a few select strongboxes.

...Would somebody care to explain why the Debian Project has not come up with free and libre operating systems for smartphones, at least for some older models? It might be common knowledge, but I have not come across it so far. Feel free to link a thread if one already exists, or start a new one if my question seems worth a bit of discussion.

This post has been edited by Katajanmarja: Nov 9 2022, 16:52

My two pfennigs regarding how I’d approach the problem:

It’s wonderful to what degree I understand what I’m doing as I mend a tiny hole in a garment with a needle, or cut some paper with scissors, or join two pieces of wood with a hammer and three nails. However, we do need advanced machinery to keep up our standard of living. I cannot (and in any case, do not want to) refrain from traveling by train until I understand the functionings of all the mechanical, electrical and electronical parts of modern trains.

Similarly, it sometimes feels we have created a monster when I learn about how conglomerate corporations are able to hide much of their questionable actions and avoid taking responsibility because their own structures are so difficult to grasp and see through. Would the world be a better place if people could do business only as sole proprietors or as very small general partnerships, always taking full financial responsibility for all their actions?

Simply put, development comes with more complexity, and more complexity comes with more opportunities for manipulation.

I don’t think we should feel guilty about not understanding how everything around us works. If a person puts enough effort into understanding a few central branches of technology, he or she will likely miss some crucial questions of psychology, sociology, economics, or whatever – and vice versa.

Hence I think the open-source-software movement has the right idea, and that idea should be implemented in many fields of human activities.

The way I understand this, we should not actively hinder development towards things becoming more complex. Instead, much of the benefit we gain from new, more complex systems should be directly put into building open, easy-to-use databases that describe those new systems, and building tools with which people can access and understand that information whenever they feel the need (or just some human interest).

That sort of openness might or might not slow down economical growth compared to what we have now. We’ll never know unless we try. But slower growth is a small price to pay for a world where knowledge is spread far and wide instead of being guarded in a few select strongboxes.

...Would somebody care to explain why the Debian Project has not come up with free and libre operating systems for smartphones, at least for some older models? It might be common knowledge, but I have not come across it so far. Feel free to link a thread if one already exists, or start a new one if my question seems worth a bit of discussion.

With how locked down smartphones are, and beholden to carriers they are, and with how closely guarded baseband processors are, I'd say it's not surprising.

There are other "free software" phone OSes though ("Librem" I think was the name of one of them).
[puri.sm] https://puri.sm/products/librem-5/
I only know that one because I have a friend who talks about it sometimes. No personal experience.

I am not in favor of advancements unless everyone is allowed to participate on equal terms and become privy to that knowledge. And not just nominally, as in "pay us for a $50,000 license and we'll give you access to this standard document."

Goddamn CD-R's are still under lock and key like that. Part of the standard is public, but that standard tells the user to refer to the (still proprietary and expensive) "orange book" in several key places.

This post has been edited by dragontamer8740: Nov 9 2022, 18:48