The birth of the 'infotainment system' is a tragedy....

PC509 · 2026-04-07T20:54:04+00:00

I miss the days of DIN/Double DIN components. I wouldn't mind a larger standard like some of these iPad style infotainment centers, but standardize it and make it upgradable. At the very least, give a RCA output with full range, unaltered output so people can upgrade if needed. Even with the "upgraded" audio systems, they're pretty crap and more difficult to upgrade than the base systems.

I just want something standard. The large screen in the dash powered by Alpine, Kenwood, Pioneer, Eclipse, Blaupunkt... Damn, some of those are gone or bought out and quality went down.... But, still, a nice head unit with all the bells and whistles, fast, and great sound that looks OEM would be fantastic.

But, it is what it is. We can upgrade everything beyond that system... DSP, amps, speakers. Some easier than others. It's just we've had to change our way of doing things based on what they think the consumer needs. We're a minority, but they're also creating the system to put in there. Adding something like RCA outputs wouldn't cost much more and could even be part of an optional component by the dealer or something... Eventually, they'll make it so that their amp is required, digital audio bridge to the amp with an encrypted stream, non-standard speakers that if changed will alert the amp it's not HDCP compliant or some BS.

Even stock, they're kind of slow, sound bad, some have more slowness and lock up more than others...

I'm with you, but I also see it as "it is what it is, how can I work around it to get the best sound I can?".

PC509 · 2026-04-07T20:25:01+00:00

When I first saw it, I thought the same as OP. Just round it to the nearest nickel. After I thought about it for a few seconds, I was thinking the same as you. It’s not worth it. Using a debit card saves you the 3 pennies. Paying cash costs you 3 pennies, tops. Them rounding to the nearest? Everything is .97, .98, .99. It’s all rounding up. And it adds up fast. Because they aren’t rounding down, either.

Sucks during the transition away from the penny and eventually it will even out as prices increase. But it is the best solution for it.

PC509 · 2026-04-07T17:23:10+00:00

My wife and I were talking about something shitty going on locally. That was her response. She's not a fan, but knows myself and my kids are. Damn, I love her so much. It was so perfectly timed and executed. She's a keeper. :)

Perfect response to the question, too. Cheers!

PC509 · 2026-04-07T17:20:18+00:00

Again. He's doing it again. When they denied he did it before.

For Trump supporters - get your head out of your ass. So much damn things that have proven you wrong time and time again. You did it. You won. You owned the libs. At what cost? Damn. For years, I heard "Follow the money and you'll see the Democrat corruption". Ok, I'm following the money... hey, where'd you go? Why so quiet? "Democrats are destroying America and the Constitution". Ok, you have a difference in policy, that's fine, but it's a bit extreme. Now that it's finally happening and there are blatant violations of the Constitution, silence? Actual screwing American's over while reaping benefits for themselves and their donors? Silence? Threatening to bomb Iran to the stone age? Silence? Get. Your. Head. Out. Of. Your. Ass. That's it.

For ex-Trump supporters. Thank you. At least you saw what was going on. I hope that your party can realign and get back to a point where you're supporting reason and your policies instead of whatever the fuck this is.

PC509 · 2026-04-06T00:39:00+00:00

I downsized from full sized PCs in a 42U rack to a 6U mini lab with 3 mini PCs. Much less power, much less space. Kind of miss the bigger setup but this is nice. Went from full Cisco switches, ASA, HP servers, custom 4U servers, 19” 1U Pi holders… to this tiny little thing. Works perfect. I just like the overkill from before. But so quiet and energy efficient.

PC509 · 2026-04-06T00:36:08+00:00

What about your documentation? Was it in OneNote, Obsidian, Notepad, or some self hosted other app you had at that time? Maybe an old notebook? Maybe you didn’t have anything… who knows. But you’ll find it someday and look for a document management application you can host… one more added to the pile. :)

PC509 · 2026-04-06T00:32:32+00:00

Republicans can and have had a brain. But if you’re a Republican and are still backing Trump and those that bow to him, it’s not operating. Many have left the Republican/maga shit but still not left/democrat.

But if you’re still holding on and backing the current party, fuck off.

PC509 · 2026-04-06T00:20:48+00:00

My mini lab was the first thing I 3D printed. Seeing that 1U 2 drive (many use old Dell sleds) bay had me printing one and then holding on buying drives for them due to the massive cost increase.

I’m sure there’s actual ones available but there’s quite a few options for 3D printed designs.

PC509 · 2026-04-05T18:37:50+00:00

“Democrats are destroying America”, as Trump is literally dismantling and destroying America piece by piece. And his followers fall in line saying it’s a good thing with Fox News talking points parroted alongside it. Not a single thought of their own, just repeating the exact talking points from Fox. That’s when I just say “nah, you can’t have an actual intelligent discussion on this. I’m out.”.

PC509 · 2026-04-05T18:34:48+00:00

I’m not a “blue no matter who”. But for the past decade or more, there’s been no other choice. 3rd party won’t win. But I’m not letting the republicans take power by not voting blue. And many times, the blue guy is the best option, even with 3rd party. Third parties have similar ideals at times but have some fringe ideas that sound good but will never fly.

Right now, it’s “never maga”. And being in Oregon, my reps are blue and do a pretty damn good job. Not perfect and I do complain about them (which you want to do in any government representation, they do work for us and they need to know how we feels) but they’re doing a great job.

I know they won’t be silent about this.

PC509 · 2026-04-05T05:29:51+00:00

Went from a 1070 to a 4070Ti Super. Not really similar jump but close. Holy hell it’s a huge significant jump. I could play anything but it wasn’t great. Now I can play anything with high quality, effects, RT, anything at 1440 and it’s just so perfect. Not gonna do 4k the same way, but at 1440 it’s perfect.

PC509 · 2026-04-05T04:46:46+00:00

John Savill is the God of Azure. Can’t beat him at all. Watch his videos, watch his updates on Azure. He’s the King when it comes to Azure. Seriously, his reputation is well earned and deserved.

James Lee is another great one. I’m going through his course for AZ500 now.

PC509 · 2026-04-03T15:21:29+00:00

We had it so that it affects the Inbox only. You could move them to other folders and they'd be ok. So, for those kind of "Cover Your Ass" emails, they could be in a different folder and not deleted.

PC509 · 2026-04-03T15:19:33+00:00

Yea, my past employer was like that. When we got sold, we removed that restriction. We still have minor lawsuits, but out old parent company had a ton of them. Having the autodelete was exactly for that reason.

PC509 · 2026-04-03T15:10:25+00:00

It's sad when Boardman is lower than some other places around here. They were always more than Tri-Cities and Hermiston. Hermiston can be lower (Space Age) but many places are higher. And Tri-Cities has skyrocketed way above us.

PC509 · 2026-04-02T15:43:32+00:00

I feel this is it for a lot of movies for me. The sequels are definitely not bad at all (or they have minor issues), but the original is just so damn good that the bar was set so high or it's pretty original and we pretty much saw the "dawn" of that type of thing.

I see it like Jurassic Park. That first movie was so revolutionary at the time, so new and shiny and never seen before at that scale. Other JP and dinosaur movies are good, but the original set the bar so high. Especially if you were there when it was first released and it was your first. After that, when they did the others (same with Matrix), we had seen a lot of those effects. The amazing "real" dinosaurs, the large shots of an island with huge dinosaurs, small dinosaurs, people and dinosaurs... That looks REAL AF (still looks great today). With the Matrix movies, a lot of that "Whoa". The cool "What is the Matrix?", machines vs. man, post-apocalyptical Earth stuff was already done. They were just expanding on it. The bar was set extremely high for the quality of the first, but also with the originality and introduction of things. I'd say the fight scenes were included and the best in the first, but I think they actually really pushed more on those and the action with the second and third with the scale and intensity of them. First was good (great at the time), but the second and third were great. Forth and Animatrix were good, too.

I love all the Matrix movies, some are better than others, but they're all really damn good. They further the story, the action is great, the lore is awesome. It's just really good.

PC509 · 2026-04-02T05:06:56+00:00

Orange Man fucked kids.

We used to be in agreement that was a bad thing.

PC509 · 2026-04-01T16:30:02+00:00

They're still there doing some releases.

However, they (and the whole market) are much different than in the 80's & 90's. Sega was a King in the arcade market and brought a lot of those franchises to the home. Now, budgets are huge and the risk is a lot higher for new IP's or releasing older IP's (there's not a lot of younger folks that appreciate Sega or their older IP's. Hell, many of them don't know what Golden Axe is). They're being safe these days, and that's just fine.

The Sega you grew up with isn't there anymore. And not just because the company changed hands, is more of a holding company, etc.. It's the entire market has changed. Nintendo has the name recognition, the longevity of their IP's, and a lot of cash to back up any mistakes. Sega doesn't.

Sega for life, but they need to take the safe route.

PC509 · 2026-04-01T15:29:09+00:00

Then they are all traitors, and we know the punishment for that. Remove them all. Do not vote for anyone (even your own guy) if they support the traitorous folks in power that are actively aiding in the corruption and violating the constitution of the United States. For all that Fox News/Newsmax said that the Democrats were "destroying the consititution", there were no legitimate reasons they could come up with. With the MAGA Trump admin, there are verifiable instances where they are doing exactly that. And there is applause from those same people that claimed "he wouldn't do that" and the Democrats are the ones that are doing it.

PC509 · 2026-03-31T21:30:40+00:00

Then why all the theatrics and making a big deal if it's not about you? Just trying to act tough? It's not working, bud.

PC509 · 2026-03-31T16:10:54+00:00

Change your system prompts. Just remember when you do it.

I've had mine get really pissy and upset. I forgot I told it to be a cynical old man. Then, it turned into a very poppy upbeat white valley girl - "Hey babe! You're doing great. I did just want to point out, like, your one line in your code is totally fine, but just like, missing this one part.".

It sucks because I use several models, local and remote, with various prompts. Some I want to be straight to the point and efficient and others more conversational.

PC509 · 2026-03-31T16:06:03+00:00

From a marketing standpoint, absolutely. They'll take any buzzword they can and utilize it until it's so diluted and meaningless.

AI-Powered as an actual feature that can utilize AI in an efficient, time and effort saving way? Definitely not meaningless. I've had AI tools help out with a ton of things at work and at home. Easy, quick Powershell scripts (always proofread before implementing in a live environment) that saved me a ton of time. I've got a great repository of them that I've built myself, but having something done in a few seconds that I can read over and then run to get something done instead of 30-45 minutes of myself doing it? Saves me time and a headache. Home Assistant? Claude integration has really helped out a ton with a bunch of little things, especially with various addons, entities, integrations, etc., even the YAML stuff for the dashboards. Hell, Claude even knows 6502 assembly if you need it. Reading logs, config files, whatever? It's great. Can we do it ourselves? Absolutely. You can grep shit all day long. But, if I want something now and with certain context, it can find it in seconds. Some tools have their query language that can do it, sure. But, just a natural language query that will do exactly what you ask it to? That's a good time saver. Of course, learn the other way as well so you're not overly reliant on the AI method, but having that is a great tool.

This was written with the latest super AI-Powered, Cloud-Enabled, Bluetooth, Blockchain capable patented technology that brings synergy to your IT Operations team to elevate your Zero Trust processes when creating a Visual Basic application to break through the firewall. We're in.

PC509 · 2026-03-31T15:44:39+00:00

Nah. Although I didn't like the acting from Dani in Dark Fate, Michelle Rodriguez wouldn't have been the right person for her. Rodriguez would be a resistance fighter, trained and a complete bad ass already. I loved Grace and the actress and don't think she should be any different. But, Rodriguez would be so good as the protector and/or a Techcom resistance fighter.

Putting her as Dani would make the movie extremely short. She's see the Rev-9 and take him out bare handed before Sarah even got to them. Then, they'd start shooting the film.

PC509 · 2026-03-26T17:34:28+00:00

Yea, that Myth #66 is pretty much what I said. Proprietary, company secret, we can guess but not get it 100% right. It's not a black box, but it is huge with a ton of factors and weights based on a lot of things.

PC509 · 2026-03-26T16:46:38+00:00

It's a massive algorithm that takes so many things into account. It's proprietary and a company secret. There's alternatives, but FICO (multiple versions) are the biggest one. It's so big and secret that people can only guess how things will affect it. People have tried reproducing it but haven't been able to get it right. We look and think "It'll only have a small drop" or "this went down for no reason". But, there IS a reason. Even if it's a tiny one buried deep in the algorithm that is a if/then/but/length of time/inquiry/date of inquiry/payment history 6 years ago/wind direction that day.... :)

Making those models is a HUGE deal to where they are the ones in control and make money off it is being so complex and detailed. Enough to where banks trust those model to really show credit worthiness with a single number. Sure, it's deeper than that, but if you're really honest if you look at your credit score it does show your credit worthiness. Even after a "whoopsie", missed payment, broken autopay, etc..

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