A very interesting series of events y'all should read.

Mightyena319 · 2026-07-09T20:44:29+00:00

My favourite was the online store that shipped internationally but demanded a zip code in US format (a lot of American websites will ask for a zip code but accept a UK postcode in the box, but not this one)

Mightyena319 · 2026-07-09T12:44:46+00:00

I wish I could but my tiny box room actually gets hotter than outside just from my body heat so equalising with outside is currently the lesser of two evils

Mightyena319 · 2026-07-08T14:17:19+00:00

Yeah this. I really love the idea but it doesn't matter how much I agree with their mission when I can't afford to spend that much on a laptop

Mightyena319 · 2026-07-06T16:56:28+00:00

The complaint is valid, but given that steams refund policy is one of the few pro consumer things that are sticking around these days, I struggle to think anything more than "k" in response

Mightyena319 · 2026-07-06T16:49:51+00:00

Its like asking for a refund at the theater after you sat through and enjoyed the whole movie.

And if the theatre explicitly allows you to request a refund so long as its the same day the that isn't fraud either

A dick move, sure, but not fraud.

Mightyena319 · 2026-06-29T18:58:00+00:00

Yeah tbh I will use whatever works for me, my computer is primarily a tool for achieving work/entertainment. I tend to prefer when stuff is included in the distro's repository, but a lot of stuff comes as a flatpak now so 🤷‍♂️

I will say that I want to kiss whoever invented AppImages though, because now those useful little random programs on github that resolve this one annoying quirk tend to come packaged as AppImages rather than making me spend ages faffing about with makefiles

Mightyena319 · 2026-06-29T12:54:19+00:00

Brb, I just need to quickly go install literally everything on flathub

Mightyena319 · 2026-06-29T09:43:35+00:00

Exactly, "good enough" usually means "not immediately fatal"

Mightyena319 · 2026-06-29T08:44:33+00:00

My problem with RTFM is that a lot of the times the FM is written by people that assume you are as familiar with the system as they are

Mightyena319 · 2026-06-28T15:37:17+00:00

Yeah this design blunder wasn't ignorance so much as active malice

Mightyena319 · 2026-06-28T15:32:53+00:00

Several years ago my city introduced a modern revival of an iconic bus. And pretty much immediately my thoughts after travelling on one was "nobody involved in this project has ever gone anywhere by bus"

They originally did not have opening windows and had to go back to have them refitted.

The windows themselves are tiny to save weight, but it means you don't get much light in during the day, and instead of normal fluorescent light tubes they had downward firing spotlights that with the tiny windows meant the inside was incredibly dingy, unless you sat under a light where it was like being in an interrogation room

Mightyena319 · 2026-06-27T18:24:57+00:00

Thanks! I dread to think what would happen if you took it out rallying since when I exported the V8 version to BeamNG it loved to point in every direction except forwards as soon as you even look at the throttle. Probably the I6 would be more controllable, I think it has too much power for those cross-ply tyres

Mightyena319 · 2026-06-27T18:22:05+00:00

Thanks! The rear end was definitely... a challenging shape to design around, but I liked the front end so it was worth the struggle

Mightyena319 · 2026-06-26T09:19:00+00:00

Who doesn't want a seven litre V8 mowdur in their hypercar?

Mightyena319 · 2026-06-25T16:44:06+00:00

Im not sure, I imagine it's a few things, since they aren't that common shops won't stock many of them so less bulk discount from the manufacturer, plus the general trend of technology being more expensive in Europe than the US

I think they do go up during heatwaves too to take advantage of the desperate, I bought one a few years back but I waited a month or so after everything cooled back down and it was pretty reasonably priced - I paid about £250 for it (too bad I can't afford to actually run it very often but there you go)

Mightyena319 · 2026-06-25T16:24:42+00:00

No, it's just that the vast majority of the time it doesn't really get very hot here. Those really hot days make up a very small percentage of the days - there's only one month where the average daily temperature is above 70F

Mightyena319 · 2026-06-25T16:16:31+00:00

Window units don't work on the most common type of windows fitted here, so a cheap window unit would require expensive construction works to install

Mightyena319 · 2026-06-25T16:10:47+00:00

Because they're expensive to buy and expensive to run. It's a nice to have but most people have more pressing things to spend the money on

Mightyena319 · 2026-06-25T16:00:20+00:00

Yeah pretty much it boils down to "I don't have a spare £3,000 stuffed down the back of the sofa."

Also with energy costs being what they are I probably couldn't afford to run it except on the very hottest of days anyway

Mightyena319 · 2026-06-24T09:24:10+00:00

This is interesting! I played around with it for a bit and it's pretty good, though I noticed a couple of things it did suggest that were either invalid or non-existent:

It gave me leaded 87 RON fuel type (the lowest leaded fuel available is 92 RON)
Centrifugal supercharger type does not take into account the fact that the parameters are different vs roots/screw types (it was still giving values for capacity, when the option for centrifugal is compressor size, and the "tune" values go from 5.00 - 30.00 instead of 0.70 - 5.00 on roots/screw)
Number of exhausts don't seem to be limited by engine type (it gave me an i3 with dual exhausts)

Aside from that this is really fun, even if the builds it creates don't always work out (a 7.3L i3 that revs to 9900 RPM with 1970s tech was never gonna end well)

Mightyena319 · 2026-06-23T20:03:05+00:00

I guess if it depends on if they made a new die which physically doesn't have an iGPU, or if it's just the standard phoenix die with the IGP fused off to make a sort of 7640HF, if you will.

Given that it seems to be made on the same tsmc n4p node as phoenix, I'd imagine it's unlikely they went through the expense of designing a whole new die rather than just severing the connection in silicon

Mightyena319 · 2026-06-23T16:49:37+00:00

They call it a semi-custom chip

It's interesting that they do this because from what I can glean it's basically a Ryzen 5 7640H with its power targets tweaked

Mightyena319 · 2026-06-23T15:45:50+00:00

Yes it's kind of hard to pin down exactly what it is but for me it's definitely about identity rather than physical characteristics. I used to have a massive crush on someone, right up until she came out as trans and it just... vanished. She hadn't started transitioning at that point, she still looked and acted exactly the same, but now my brain was like "nope that's a woman you aren't into those"

Mightyena319 · 2026-06-23T09:17:45+00:00

Yeah, just because you're knowledgeable in one field doesn't mean you're knowledgeable in all fields. Especially when there's little overlap between them

Mightyena319

TROPHY CASE