Try booting with the HDD disconnected. Try disconnecting the battery and BIOS battery (where is it on this model?!) for a few minutes.

You would still need good RAM to get into the BIOS update…

GPU failure, since a text-mode boots but not much else?

Privacy Breacher hasn’t been updated in four years and still seems to be able to list all the apps on an Android device without any permissions.

PrivacyBreacher is an Android app built as a proof of concept for a research article describing the privacy issues in Android. This app can access the following information from your phone without requesting any permissions: Figure out at what time your phone screen turned on/off. Figure out at what time you plugged in or removed your phone charger and wired headphones. Figure out at what time you switched on/off your phone (i.e., it captures the device uptime and ACTION_SHUTDOWN broadcasts). Access most of your device related information like your phone model, manufacturer etc. Keep track of your WiFi/Mobile data usage. Get a list of all the apps installed on your phone. Construct a 3D visualization of your body movements.

Edit: A knowledgable user says this app can still do this because it’s built for pre-Android 11 (when the privacy fix was implemented).

https://sh.itjust.works/comment/17677309

checked the code and it just queries the package manager as usual. it works because the system tries to maintain compatibility with apps made for older android versions (targetsdk). this app was built for api 29 (android 10), and the query apps permission gating was introduced in api 30 (android 11) https://web.archive.org/web/20250331021341/https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/10158779?hl=en the play store is strict about the min targetsdk allowed for new apps and updates, and while that is also a negative thing, api 29 cannot be targeted anymore for apps: https://web.archive.org/web/20250331021653/https://developer.android.com/google/play/requirements/target-sdk

I have several Android devices that work without signing into any account. I get my apps from F-Droid and some apks extracted from my phone that does have a Google account.

Samsungs are annoying, with their regular nagging, begging you to also make a Samsung account. I would never buy one but I’m on-call with a work-owned Samsung and there’s one notification that can’t be disabled. It goes off every once in a while and makes me think I have a service call.

Windows, eh, I switched to Linux long ago, but there’s always alphabet soup edition (IoT LTSC) that is far less bloated.

It sounds like these are modchipped if they come with a USB stick of games (that the owner then burns as they wish?)

In the US: Just kidding! Bootloader is locked and your cell carrier told manufacturers “only one major Android version update or we’ll refuse to sell your phones!”

Snaps, their own app-in-a-box format. Which would be fine, except they’re provided only by Ubuntu’s closed-source Snap Store, have larger size and inferior performance because dependencies are redundantly rolled into each one, and the worst part is that they started turning nearly every app in their OS into a Snap. If you sudo apt install firefox, you get a Firefox Snap instead of a native package.

Huh. Yeah, proton is from Valve… it’s not difficult to get proton-ge from Glorious Eggroll in the mix for some finicky games. I don’t try to put non-Steam games in Steam because Lutris is good at getting everything the game might need. It’s not Valve’s or a Linux OS’s fault if Windows games can’t package everything the game actually needs to run with the damn game. Yeah, yeah, people just want the software to work… For Windows software, that means automatically downloading shit from all over the place and Wine/proton needs to have all that software set up in a workable fashion. It’s like having a bubble of chaos properly contained within the order of Linux but letting in what the bubble needs.

I saw antialiased text in Wine for the first time the other day, that was exciting. 😂

Linus Torvalds, creator of the Linux kernel, can’t control what support Nvidia offers for their own products, but he often shows his opinion of them:

Sure thing, friend. I only started on Knoppix and Mandrake. Commodore 64 didn’t have it… I saw in the modern age C64 can run a Unix that takes weeks to boot. 😂 I haven’t managed to put a Debian in dependency hell in about 10 years. 😅

PowerPC YellowDog

Reminds me of swap-trick to install burned Linux for PlayStation 2. I see someone is still compiling kernels for PS2, up to 5.x 😆

Snaps would be fine if they worked but I don’t know how that shit passed QA AND Ubuntus will install Snaps even when you apt install expecting the proper deb. I’ll keep repeating: Mint Debian for noobs. Mint is what Ubuntu was before this snap crap and Debian base gets away from Canonical entirely.

Did you install Steam for Windows in Linux or Steam as a flatpak or something? My experience on many PCs is install Linux, install Steam from the distro’s repo, flip the compatibility switch in Steam settings, and only customize bits here and there because I’m busy gaming or doing work.

You’re either running Arch/some other bleeding-edge system without Linux experience (do not recommend) or you haven’t tried Linux in 10 years.

Canonical (Ubuntu) bastardized their own OS. I recommend Mint Debian for noobs; Mint is what Ubuntu used to be when it was good and going Debian gets away from Canonical entirely.

how to change mouse sensitivity in Linux

They don’t need to understand DEs or any of that. Press Super (“the Windows key”) and start typing “mouse”. Please teach people how to use PCs properly; this is the fastest way to access any program or setting in both Windows and popular DEs: Cinnamon, KDE, MATE… Windows will even happily send anything you type here to Bing for easy web search by default 😑

I almost wish I hadn’t looked; knew my area had paper mills and wood processing, they’ve been dredging the waterways for PCBs (chlorinated organics) for decades.

I work with electronics and have heard from multiple older gentleman that when they were young, they saw old high-voltage transformers from power poles being replaced which would be leaking off the backs of the trucks until empty or even purposely tipped into the storm drains. Why is healthcare so expensive? 🤔

No apologies for being politics-adjacent in the Gaming community, billionaires aren’t keeping their hands out of anything either. Keep rewarding Valve and the good companies and shitting on the bad ones!

Valve applying a bit of regulation (the right way) and still making piles of money, weird how that works.

I’ve been saying for years that if we want healthy economies, compare to human health. When the factors keeping growth at a controlled rate are disrupted, you end up with cancer.

Rant is related although covering hardware manufacturing rather than software:

Commodore manufactured in the USA and Europe some of the best-selling personal computers ever under lack of regulation. When the market became dominated by IBM-compatibles and Macintoshes, Commodore folded and left Superfund sites all over. (Superfund is basically EPA disaster declaration allowing for taxpayer funds release for large-scale cleanup operations.) Privatize the profits and socialize the losses. (lack of regulation led to the wrong way)

“The new console unfortunately is not backwards-compatible.” -> riots

…versus…

“The new console is backwards-compatible because it’s an upgraded version of the old console.” -> riots

Japan never got a front-loader with bonus connection problems and extra empty space in the carts.

They said “home consoles”, which is still a bunk claim. The Wii was, internally, an upgraded GameCube that could still play GC games using GC controllers and memory cards; and then Wii got its own upgrade…

…and you have to be a Nintendo Switch Online member (or go to New York Nintendo Store) to even purchase it. Scalpers…

It collects sleep-tracking data for you (and Nintendo’s partners) to view, like other devices in this price range and beyond.

Don’t remind me. I need a PVM to go with it. 😅 Although, I actually like the 240p composite video on the Trinitron TV, it looks exactly like it did back-in-the-day and indistiguishable from the real consoles’ composite output.

The Lakka image I’m using is well-tuned with noticably less lag than some Pi setups I’ve seen. Interested Pi owners can find it here.

I can’t find it, but someone has been collecting stats on input lag for many different USB gamepads/controllers as well.

I was shocked at how badly I was playing Symphony of the Night on a PS Vita TV with a DualShock 4… it turned out to be the input lag… of an real Sony controller on a real Sony console. Connect it by USB cable - noticable lag went away. 🤬

raises hand

As an owner of hundreds of Nintendo pieces from arcade to Switch… I’ve turned.

Original console or RPi3 with Lakka for classics on the Sony Trinitron, and GOG or Steam on Linux for anything new.

I used to use Game Genie to make replays of already-completed games more difficult. By getting more entertainment from what I already had instead of buying new games, I was obviously stealing from the game publishers.

Japan also got Game Boy Light, which is a Game Boy Pocket with green EL backlighting (like Indiglo).

It’s interesting that using Xim-like devices (Cronus Zen/Cronus Max) is a bannable offence on some games. They have to draw the line somewhere… one could build a device using OpenCV to recognize enemy characters and auto-aim towards them, basically adding aim-assist to games that don’t have it.

I just played through Portal again, using a DualShock 4… up until Test Chamber 18. It was simply not possible to look left/right without ever-so-slightly moving, enough to miss falling back into the portal. Mouse and keyboard- cleared it instantly.

Edit: I may try again, using a controller that has 8-way detents on the analog sticks (i.e. GameCube gamepad)

Thanks, I’ll check it out! Recently also got Celeste, Blasphemous 1 & 2, and the Metroidvania Humble Bundle: Axiom Verge 1 & 2, 9 Years of Shadows, Cookie Cutter, Death’s Gambit, The Knight Witch… building a backlog. 😂

itch.io has a summer sale as well!

Bloodstained is $3 on cdkeys. I Kickstarted it and got the Switch cart when the PS Vita port was cancelled. For that price, it was a no-brainer getting it for PC now, too!