Midnight Wolf
Hello! Some info about me is up on my website: https://wreckedcarzz.com
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I have decided on Haven, since self-hosting is a requirement (I don’t trust anyone but me), it’s UI is similar, and it can do text, voice, and video. I found it a few months ago when the discord data breach broke, but waited because it doesn’t have a docker image. It does have a Dockerfile and compose file now because of my suggestion and work of a couple different contributors, but no image yet.
Well a week into this and I have been giving issue reports, feature suggestions, and feedback to the dev, and I think it’s the best combo of ‘in control of my data’ with ‘ease of setup’ and genuine, working, features. And the dev seems really excited to see users, and the back and forth on Github is something I don’t expect - just the excitement, the welcoming of ‘can we do this’ and ‘could this be changed to make that easier’.
It’s almost discord, as a web app, controlled by you, and made by just the one dev and a couple contributors. And the differences are easy to understand.
I’ll be that guy and say that I do prefer buying from GOG, going as far as paying more money in doing so, so the issue isn’t really ‘friction’ but ‘mfs don’t bother offering on GOG’.
My hate for drm has only grown over the last two decades, and so I’ll get stuff wherever I can that isn’t plastered with it. But it’s not even a rounding error in comparing the number of games available of steam vs GOG. You’d have to go so far out with zeros that you fall off the page before encountering a positive value (0.00000[…]00001%). Which is upsetting and frustrating, since the other option is steam or piracy. And I do like rewarding developers for their work, so that leaves one option basically all the time.
I have a pinephone, it was $200. It is also hot garbage, with the performance of a 56k modem with the software cohesion of liquid shite with sprinkles.
And I knew going in that it was bad. But it was so much worse. I tried using it as my main phone for a few days, and jesus it was pain. From programs not scaling, UI elements being inaccessible, the phone locking up, the lock screen freaking out, the camera not working, the fact that it only ‘works’ on 1/3 carriers in the US, I don’t think I ever got hotspot functionality working, then I threw it in a drawer for a few months, tried it again, manjaro’s package manager freaked out and corrupted itself (and some other stuff, it’s been a few years), and the only way to fix it without going insane and restoring file-by-file was to reinstall from scratch… which required setting up the distro from inside another system.
Jesus fucking christ, what a shitshow. And I’ve been using Linux off and on for just about 20 years now for desktops, 10 years for servers.
‘you get what you pay for’ couldn’t be any more true here. For a niche device, it can be good or it can be cheap. If it is both, it is using economies of scale, and thus is not niche. And let me tell you, every single phone that is running ‘full’/‘desktop’ Linux, I assure you, is a niche product.
[citation needed], my family all runs pixels and my father is still on the pixel 6, so nearing 4.5y of daily use. Other family members get my previous models (7 Pro, 8 Pro) when I upgrade, so they are getting phones that have been used heavily every day for at least a year before I upgrade. I haven’t heard any complaints from any of them regarding battery charge/duration. I upgrade whenever I am interested in the new model, or when their device goes EoL for security updates, then pass it on.
Last issue we had regarding hardware was the nexus 5X dying, and that was because LG fucked up during manufacturing… again…
Same thing but flipped: I have never understood the appeal of fat-fingering the screen and vaguely rolling over the keys of a word so software can take a wild guess at wtf you are trying to say. “byrpkugs”? Ah yes, buttplugs, clearly.
My first phone was a bar slider qwerty dumbphone, followed by a bar slider qwerty running android 2.1, if I remember right. The phones were both garbage but the physical keys were fucking fantastic.
I’m disabled now and so only have the use of one hand, otherwise I’d be all over phones like this. Shit, even though this is not ideal for me, I’m still like 🤔
Just a data point, but I’ve been using wireless charging since the… Nexus 6? Maybe the 6p. And I’ve owned most of the nexus/pixel phones, including the 6 Pro. Never had issues with wireless charging, even when actively using the phone. It would warm up a bit from the constant use, but it would still fill the battery. It’s my primary way to charge, I only use the cable if I need the phone next to me (streaming twitch at my desk, watching Netflix in bed…) and the battery is low. As soon as I’m done/back home, it goes straight to the wireless charger. Get a text, grab the phone, reply, back it goes.
You might have a fault somewhere :/
Jeez, even $10 is pricy. I think I paid $5 for nova, and that took some thought. I have only bought a handful of apps in the last like… 17 years? Most expensive was fairemail (I actually bought it twice, one from the website, one from the play store) at like, $7? But that has a feature set that nobody can touch, it’s better than Thunderbird on the desktop imo. So $10 for a launcher is absolutely wild.
E: and $45 is more than what I pay for most AAA games lol
I’ve been watching mrmobile for several years, like almost a decade now? The dude seem to be nice, no bs tech reviewer. I don’t watch for buying advice or anything, just to keep up with what’s new, but I definitely put way more weight behind him vs other reviewers like mkbhd. No reasoning or trying to explain why X is/has/isn’t/can’t Y, just ‘here’s what it can do, here’s what I don’t/like, here is the price’ - usually in a sort-of real-life/daily driver/vlog experience.
Just my thoughts.
I run a synology nas, and use their photo system. Occasionally I’ll run thru critical apps (med schedule/dosing/refill reminder, blood pressure logs, signal…) and make backups, then stick them/update them in a folder on the nas, etc.
Basically anything I want to keep, goes on the nas. What’s on my phone is just temporary, and disposable.
For stuff like calendar and contacts, I run radicale and then sync it via DAVx5, then use Fossify Calendar and such. I moved away from G 8 years ago, and the only link is my yt channel (meh, disposable), nest (smoke alarms and thermostat), and store credit card (for buying devices). Calendar, contacts, tasks, notes, drive, photos, etc are all handled by the nas; email is through my hosting provider.
And while I’d like to roll my own hardware for a nas, the synology system is pretty forgiving to new users, and while I think I can do it, it’d be more work and more monitoring, so I’m staying put until something lights a fire under me.
Payday 3, if all players enter the pause menu, the game actually pauses. Anyone can exit the menu at any time, and re-enter it - which again pauses the game, if all other players remain in the pause menu.
It’s nice because it lets players loot and plan while others are away, but if they too need to afk, the team isn’t screwed by a guard coming around a corner with nobody to react.
Hard disagree. I’m still in my starter car in Heat because the physics are 110% garbage. A stock 240 should not be able to pull off drifts like it has 800+ more hp than it has, or the fact that it forces a drift when you merely want to take a standard corner. In street tires. In a standard circuit/sprint race. Or how it’s tied to online servers, thus when the servers freak out, your single player event kicks you off. Or how there are objects that retain their lowest LOD no matter how close you are, or how long you wait. That’s just off the top of my head, it’s been a while.
I got the ‘premium’ or whatever version for $1.25 on steam a couple years ago. I played the 10 hour demo before that, reviewing it blind for a friend and then revisiting it 6 months later, each for a few hours. ‘surely, it’s been a couple years, they must have fixed it some’. Nope, not even a bit. I want my $1.25 back.
Shit, I think Unbound is a decent upgrade from Heat. And I don’t particularly like Unbound, so that’s kind of both a complement and an insult at once. The bar was so low it was touching the floor, it could have only gotten worse with DRM that opens a backdoor to my machine or something. I spent $10 for Unbound, and I don’t want my $10 back for that installment (I mean I’ll take it if they are offering but), so… Heat is baaaaad. Unbound is meh, but meh beats the hell out of baaaaad.
You mean like NFS World? I was a closed beta tester. While it was a P2W system (buy powerups, etc) it wasn’t ruined by it, and if you could beat a nfs game you can do just fine in World.
I only played for the first year or so - and haven’t played the 3rd party rebirths - but World had potential. And EA killed it, like the dumbasses they are.
E: word
I’m a huge (old) nfs fan, and I love HP '10 and MW '12. It’s no U2 but both are damn good games. I fired up MW not too long ago, just to cruise.
Burnout was the shit too. Mostly for Crash Mode. Paradise was cool with the open-world but them kneecapping crash for whatever the fuck they called ‘bounce your car endlessly down the street’ mode was fucking atrocious. EA selling the ‘ultimate box’ on the pc without the fucking island - and no way to get it - was bullshit, always been pissed of about that.
Re 2, I was and am angry about how MS handled the Xbox exclusives. They spent the 90s making games for the pc that were great, and then the Xbox drops and the pc market is ignored for years. “just buy the console” makes no sense when I have a far superior machine right here, and when multi-player is behind a subscription. I was gifted an Xbox a few years after launch, along with Midtown Madness 3, the only game I wanted - and never gave MS a cent of my own money. I stayed on Halo 1 for years, then when Halo 2 finally dropped for the pc, I got it and enjoyed my first playthrough on my computer. My first playthrough of H3, ODST, and 4 weren’t until the MCC dropped on steam. I got Forza bundled with the Xbox, but it wasn’t until Horizon 3 released on pc that I got into it.
I fucking despise the 15-year window where MS just abandoned their loyal customers on pc to milk people with their inferior box and subscription bullshit. The smartest move they have made was re-embrace the pc as a customer base. And 8 year-old me could have told those moronic C-suites in 2001. They isolated a core customer base for short-term profits, and they have earned nothing but resentment for it.
The Xbox should have always been a product for “I don’t understand computers, but I want to play games”, while the pc should have remained a “I know what I’m doing, and I don’t need a walled garden”. MS fucked up massively, and lost out on revenue trying to force their hand for a decade+. The fact that they release on both is nothing but positive, as they get customers from both camps, and they finally are undoing a bit of the hate and resentment they caused.
Kotaku: “sold to click-farm powerhouse Valnet”
That very same page: click-bair links after paragraph 1, paragraph 2, a top-anchored video link after paragraph 3, and an endless list of links at the bottom of the page. And that’s with DNS ad-blocking and ublock. I’m curious what it looks like without, but I don’t want to get tech-cancer.
Don’t throw shit if you are also covered in it, Kotaku. I never really liked the site but I don’t remember it being in this sad of a state…
Disagree - I’ve done it, it is easy and straightforward, but anyone who hasn’t installed an OS on bare metal and used a certain tool that you can get from Github to activate MS products, isn’t going to explain the process as “super easy”. More like “a mother-fucking pain in the ass” and “why did you suggest this” and “what the fuck is an iso”.
This is definitely “I’ll swing by this month and install it” territory, not “here’s a guide, ez pz” for anyone older than 40 who didn’t major in CS.
Unbound is… an improvement over heat, yeah. I own a copy, only because it’s a birthday gift and it was $10. I also own heat, got it for $1.25, want my $1.25 back. Whatever the one with the upgrade cards system is trash - and I pre-ordered it. NFS 2015 is… Soulless, awkward. Nevertheless, they all pale in comparison to their older brethren. I’ve been on the nfs train since 3, I own almost all of them, across multiple systems. It’s been an honestly depressing downward spiral - and my friends agree, so it’s not just a sole data point. I think I’m the only one who has heat or unbound, even though I poked people when heat was a dollar, even when unbound was five. That’s… not good. These are people who also love racing games, also love the series.
Burnout got a remaster on the EA App. I bought it, because the ultimate box on pc never included big surf island, and I wanted to experience it. But also, EA bought Criterion to shutter the competing series. They belong in that list. EA killed the game, then they gutted and merged the studio, then restarted the studio in name only trying to do damage control. Then, they used it for a quick buck with burnout, with no effort at all. Similar how the re-release of TS1 and 2 is. EA is essentially serving shovelware itself at this point, ruining the last of their goodwill from the ‘good old days’.
I’ve read battlefield (whatever the latest one is) was half-baked on launch, and from friends who play it, told me to get CoD instead (which is a low blow if I’ve ever seen one; that’s a series that needs to be put out to pasture, imo). Older versions apparently have shitty/broken multi-player game browsing now, and the player base is dwindling because of it. I can’t independently verify any of this, just trusted friends and reviews. The last one I played myself was bad company 2, and I thought it was alright, no big problems.
shrug
E: yeah, it was payback with the card bs
Normal is taking a publishers promises up the ass to fund the game. Granted if I see the next Need for Speed up on early access for $60 then yeah, I get what you are saying, but early access was made so small teams (or solo devs) can not starve while working on a passion project.
A couple of games that come to mind are BeamNG, which only released on early access after 3 years in development (and offering the full game at a very low price); it’s still in development, almost 13 years so far, with regular updates. And Motor Town, which afaik is a team of two people, one making the world and the other doing everything else; they have been in development for 3 years now.
An example of a successful game that started in early access and was finished is Wreckfest. It took something like 5 years. If I remember correctly they had to take a publishing deal midway through, which is unfortunate, but the finished project is great.
Early access is an alternative way to stay afloat while making a game. At least, that’s how it should be. Everything in life has risks. Losing $10-20 after a year of playing a game in development just to have the dev croak, lose interest, change career paths… Isn’t that big of a deal. I’d much rather take that frustration and channel it to piece of shit publishers that axe games a few years after release, taking the full amount and running.
I’ll take “How to tell that someone doesn’t pay attention to history” for $1,000 Alex.
IT’S THE DAILY DOUBLE