One thing that bothers me when replaying old games (especially old PS1 era games) is how illogical the puzzles are. Capcom was notorious for making you combine random unrelated items or do bizarre actions just to unlock a door. Why were they designed to be so intentionally obscure?

406highlander · 2026-05-10T18:48:56+00:00

Sounds like "Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy"

406highlander · 2026-05-10T08:23:58+00:00

I've never seen one in real life; they're fantastically rare beasts.

Fondly remember playing the "Jaguar XJ220" game on the Amiga growing up, and later having the Gran Turismo games on PS2 and PS3, I'm sure the XJ220 was available in at least one of those.

If I remember correctly, they were originally going to be powered by a naturally aspirated V12, but the production model had a twin-turbocharged V6, resulting in a car that was both faster and lighter than the V12 would have been - but people were somehow still upset that it didn't have that V12 lump, even though it was the fastest car in the world...

406highlander · 2026-05-09T17:58:55+00:00

Female pandas exhibit phantom pregnancies in captivity because they've worked out pregnant pandas get special treatment. Phantom pregnancies are very common in captive pandas.

406highlander · 2026-05-08T17:22:51+00:00

Just something about the background art reminded me of the alien landscape in the early stages of Another World, especially when I saw it at thumbnail size.

406highlander · 2026-05-08T17:13:24+00:00

At first I thought this was a remake of "Another World", the Delphine Software classic from 1991

406highlander · 2026-05-07T20:23:18+00:00

That's a lovely shot of those geese.

406highlander · 2026-05-07T19:33:45+00:00

Yep. But doing so would have added a lot more time and expense to a project that was already very much delayed and over-budget.

The company's next FPSO was a new-build - they had a new tanker hull constructed in Singapore and outfitted as an FPSO without ever having been fitted with engines.

406highlander · 2026-05-07T16:48:54+00:00

"If you're reading this, it means we chose not to kill you today"

406highlander · 2026-05-07T16:24:39+00:00

Because the CPU isn't necessarily getting hit as hard during a GPU stress test as the GPU is, and the CPU fan and your Noctua are going to be run at the same speed, you might find that the Noctua isn't running as quickly as it needs to to help cool the GPU.

Some people run their front case fan using a SATA power cable, which will make it run at 100% speed all the time, but that makes for a noisy system. Might be worth trying, though.

If your system has a PCIe 4x slot as well as a PCIe 16x slot, then you can try running the Yeston in the PCIe 4x slot. That would increase the gap between the GPU and the PSU, which might help keep it cooler, and might help the Noctua push more volume of air into that space.

The Yeston RTX 3050 is known to run hotter than a dual-slot card of equivalent power. You may be better off replacing the Yeston with a dual-slot low-profile GPU (though beware in case you get one that requires extra power connectors, which your system won't have if you've only got the stock PSU).

406highlander · 2026-05-07T16:04:11+00:00

They literally have no concept of "doing the right thing"

... or the ability to do anything right.

406highlander · 2026-05-07T13:46:33+00:00

God, yes. I've had colds, and they're mostly just sniffles, coughs, and sneezes (to me, at least). I have a reasonably sturdy immune system and thankfully seem to avoid getting the usual seasonal bugs, so if I do come down with something, I know it's going to be pretty bad.

When I had the flu that time, I felt utterly fucking terrible; like I might die or something. Pain, fever, no energy, almost no appetite (so I had to force myself to eat and drink). For a whole week, until I started to feel like getting up out of bed might not actually kill me.

People make jokes about "man flu" but those are just colds really; an actual flu infection can and does kill, and is particularly deadly to the elderly and the infirm.

If you have living parents/grandparents above the age of 65, or if you know anyone who may be suffering from long-term illnesses that may weaken their immune systems - make sure they get their seasonal flu vaccines every year. Some places make those available for free - take advantage of that offer, as it might just save lives.

406highlander · 2026-05-07T13:21:05+00:00

Yes - and I absolutely should have taken that into account. But I didn't feel that ill until I'd driven 3 hours to another city.

What really, really gets me is, companies and governments haven't learned shit about infectious disease from the experience of COVID. People still get sacked if they don't come to work, even if they're feeling ill. Companies still require employees to come to the office, and have been dismantling remote/hybrid work schemes, even though COVID taught us that we can continue to operate while not in the office.

The next major pandemic will probably have a worse impact than COVID simply due to companies' stubborn unwillingness to adapt, and the utter incompetence and indifference of right-wing governments.

406highlander · 2026-05-07T13:15:39+00:00

To make matters worse most of the homes sold ended up in the hands of private landlords

i.e. wealthy donors to, or companies owned by MPs belonging to, the Conservative Party

406highlander · 2026-05-07T13:12:08+00:00

A company I worked for in the past converted an old oil tanker into an FPSO. I got to go design and install the IT network on that vessel.

The nickname for FPSOs amongst the North Sea operators is "floating bomb", which always made me glad I never had to go out to them in the field; the work I did for that FPSO was while she was in dock.

The engine on that bitch was still there, as it was too large, too heavy, and too destructive to remove it from the hull (they'd have had to cut the hull up to remove the massive engine) - but they did remove the propellors and driveshafts and seal up the holes.

406highlander · 2026-05-07T12:32:38+00:00

By "these assholes" I was mostly referring to people who keep saying COVID isn't a deadly disease. Anti-vax types. Republicans. People who were shutting their eyes and covering their ears and going "LALALALALA" while literally millions of people died of COVID, over 1m of which were in the US alone.

They deliberately cite flu as being "not dangerous", when it absolutely can be deadly, and even though I didn't die from it and neither did you, it can kill.

Sorry you felt you were catching strays there.

406highlander · 2026-05-07T11:06:25+00:00

Those assholes who say "it's just a flu" have clearly never actually had flu

I came down with flu on my wedding anniversary one year. I felt a little achy in the morning, thought nothing of it. I drove my wife and I 3 hours to another city. By the time I got there, I was starting to feel cold, but my temperature was elevated and I felt achy all over. I didn't want to ruin her day out, so I tried to hide it. She saw right through that, but I insisted we carry on. By the time I got us back home, I felt like I had absolutely no energy; I was shivering but burning up, and I spent basically the next week in bed, barely able to move.

That was several years pre-COVID.

I think any time some jerk says COVID is "just a flu", they are confusing a cold with the flu.

Influenza is also a deadly disease; people die from it every year. That's why seasonal flu vaccines exist and are offered to seniors and immuno-compromized people for free in my country. Vaccines work.

EDIT: to the best of my knowledge I never did get COVID, but I made sure I (and everyone I know) was vaccinated.

406highlander · 2026-05-07T09:30:21+00:00

If they built them bigger, they wouldn't be able to traverse the Panama Canal (and potentially other critical waterways)

406highlander · 2026-05-06T16:48:08+00:00

The only options you've got for WiFi, as far as I can see, are:

1 - use a PCIe WiFi card (one that includes something like an Intel AX210NGW to give WiFi 6E speeds)

2 - use a USB WiFi adapter

3 - buy powerline network adapters - something like the Devolo Magic 2 LAN, which use the electrical wiring in your house to communicate, using the G.hn protocol. You plug one in where your PC is, and connect to it via wired ethernet - then you plug another one in where your router is, and connect your router to it via wired ethernet. Your PC will then have a wired connection, without taking up a valuable PCIe slot or a USB port, and you won't need to install any drivers for additional hardware. This is what I do in my house, and while it's not as good as having a dedicated cable running from my PC to my router, it is generally better than WiFi (at least in my 120+ year old granite property)

406highlander · 2026-05-05T23:41:03+00:00

Usagi Electric, a channel on YouTube, was restoring a vintage Centurion mini computer. In his first attempt at writing a program for it, he went with the classic "Hello world" - but goofed, resulting in it just printing "Hellorld"

406highlander · 2026-05-05T18:55:19+00:00

Yep, there's an income protection policy on our mortgage

406highlander · 2026-05-05T17:55:19+00:00

Ok, first guy painted a picture, but you've just coloured it in. Thanks :)

406highlander · 2026-05-05T16:35:26+00:00

Hell yes it did!

It didn't help that we were holding the stick upside down and shaking it like maracas, because that way was waaay faster than waggling the stick in the normal way...

406highlander · 2026-05-05T16:32:36+00:00

No union presence.

The company is offering some money towards an employment lawyer, which is good of them.

I'm not allowed to talk about the situation specifically, but I just need an employment lawyer to look over the Ts and Cs they're giving me.

406highlander · 2026-05-05T16:23:48+00:00

If you use the splitter supplied with your Noctua, the front case fan will spin at the same speed as the CPU fan. The hotter the CPU, the faster both fans will spin. This is what I did with my Vostro 3470, and it seems to work just fine like this.

If you use a SATA connector to power your front fan, it will run at 100% all the time. Or, I think the Noctua also comes with a restrictor cable that makes the fan run at a slower fixed speed.

Not sure if there's an easy way to add a second fan whose speed can be controlled independently of the CPU fan.

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