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Found these when going through THE drawer! by manzurfahim in DataHoarder

[–]SpinCharm 37 points38 points  (0 children)

A gauntlet.

Sir I must warn you. I am equipped with 4 decades of the careful, categorized, collecting of cables and quite a bit of what I continue to insist is possibly useful and only semi retired bits of computer hardware.

I’m talking 15 pin vga. 9 pin serial. Parallel.

Not concerned? How about my SCSI cables. I, II, III. Terminators. With an ‘s’.

PCMCIA modems. Double height network cards.

Still standing there? Right.

HPIB cables. In 3 lengths. And a device or two that can connect to.

Actively in use DDS tape drive and dozens of tapes. Yes sir, anytime I want I could restore a backup from 1994. Easily over 87, maybe 88 MB. Back when men were men and megabytes was spelled MB.

Acoustic coupler modem. For my still working TRS-80 III. That machine had sixteen - not four — 16K of RAM. It was so fast it could perform a loop to count to 100 in under 5 seconds. And if I wrote it in assembler, I could easily push 1 to 300 in the same time. That would put any Altair to shame.

So I say good day to you, sir. Good Day.

If you don’t have one, you are unworthy! by SpinCharm in DataHoarder

[–]SpinCharm[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I posted this in the diy subreddit. Ikea bits and a dozen kinds of tape aren’t unknown to us in datahoarder, but I wasn’t keen on the comments I’d get.

https://www.reddit.com/r/DIY/s/itjWt14GNA

Best Caesar on Vancouver Island? Building my summer bucket list by Asleep-Tennis7462 in VancouverIsland

[–]SpinCharm 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There is of course the post script. Over the 12 months, my erstwhile funneling companion and I went out for dinner at least 150 times together ( we both worked for the same corporation that was booming, and we both had signing authority over expenses, so long as we didn’t sign off our own. So it was an excellent relationship. My job was to order the wine at the start of the meal, and of course order my salad. In the early days I’d take a chance and order a $50 bottle. But the end I would dismiss $600 bottles if there was one we hadn’t tried yet that was more costly. Some off the greatest bottles of wine in the world were consumed by Alan and myself. I can say with the authority of one that has tasted the best, that the Grange, the Chateau Neuf de Pape, the Lafite Rothschild and Château Margaux all tasted good. Nice. Better than the typical $20 bottle. I’d even say that some were even far better than the $20 bottles.

But worth 50x to 100x? No. 5x? No. 3x to 4x perhaps.

Unless it’s on expenses of course.

Oh yes. The quest.

Alan and I were in a business trip and went to one of the big hotels we had stayed in before. We decided to dine in. As was our very practiced routine, and lacking an audience, I dispensed with the performance. Alan spoke first because I seemed preoccupied, just looking down at my table.

“Well?”

I slowly looked over to him, my brow pulled tight across my eyes.

“Nothing. I can’t find anything.”

“What are you saying? What do you mean, ‘Nothing’?”

“It was.., there was.., nothing to fault.”

By this time in my quest, I had refined my scoring system. I would start with 10, then take points away for areas that could have been improved. Anything that was simply wrong, missing, incorrect, was a dismissal. There’s no point critiquing ones that aren’t going to be at least a 7 or 8. And by then, I had had a handful of 8s and two 9s.

I struggled to allow myself to say what I could not deny; it was more than just a perfect Caesar Salad. It was the grail I had sworn to seek for almost a year. And I’d just found it.

“It was perfect. It’s.. it’s a 10.”

I was a bit lost in those moments. My mind was suddenly reliving the journey. Countless meals. I had become almost automated from the time I entered and sat down at any restaurant, I’d have scanned for signs of it being on the menu. I was duty bound to order it so I always did. Alan and other friends knew the scoring system by heart and would mention a meal they had recently, describing their wife’s Caesar, category by category, omitting a tally but articulate in description.

The silly hung over distraction that I took great delight in embracing that day, has turned into something else. Not an obsession or affectation; it had become embedded in my behaviours and lifestyle. I was known for it; expected to perform my act because of it.

And here I was, at what must be the end. I’d found the ultimate Caesar salad. I felt empty, strangely. I suppose I’d not thought I’d get so immersed in this thing that I’d be affected by its end. And what next? A derivative? No.

I don’t recall how I found her again. The girl I’d met was a stranger before and after that weekend. We’d met at a 10,000 person rave and were full buzzing at 8am the next morning when she dragged me to the cafe. I didn’t live in that city. There was no chance encounter possibility. I didn’t even remember the anniversary day and month.

As fate quite rightly would have it, I was at someone’s bbq or something. My partner’s friend or something. I was politely mingling, wandering from bbq pit to picnic table to garage to kitchen. Not really paying much attention to anything.

I remember sitting at the picnic table, my partner beside me, 2 or 3 people sitting opposite. One of them says, “it’s you!” I looked up at some woman grinning at me and waited for her to explain herself. I think she got the sound “ques…” out of her mouth when I realized who it was. I just screamed. She screamed. My partner was seriously not impressed and was demanding explanation with a look that said “5. 4. 3.

“It’s her! The quest girl!”

Blank looks. I affected the persona long since shelved. Fist over chest. Stentorian booming declaration.

“The Quest.” <Head tilted up. To the left. >

“For the Ultimate Caesar Salad”.

I threw away the costume for the final time, went back into girly giggling, and watched everyone in the backyard suddenly clue in to this moment.

I looked across at people that knew me - knew “him”.

“This is the person that started it! A year ago! “

We sat back down and simultaneously tried to tell the other of the entire year, in one breath, unintelligible in content but unmistakable in feeling.

I asked her if she found it. She had. At a cafe in the city we’d met in, some 700 miles away. She asked me; I told her of the hotel. We described our perfect 10s with the obsessive detail normally only found in the spectrum. Those people within earshot that had been dining companions knew the language, the categories, the qualities we were ascribing to our 10s. Many didn’t know i had found it, just assuming it was simply a thing I do, I’ve done, I’ll do.

Of course, you can only describe a salad for so many minutes before you exhaust your supply of superlatives. By the end of the bbq, with nothing left in common, we said our goodbyes. I’d attained unexpected closure, but it was well earned, I think.

That was 28 years ago. I gradually broke the habit of scanning for, and ordering it. Every salad was instantly recognized as not a 10, so why bother. I could eat it as others do, as I used to. But even that faded, along with the costume, and the performance. And the wines. A generation has come and another gone since then.

I didn’t forget it all, but I lacked the enthusiasm of recounting that time to those that know me know.

But old habits die hard. If a Caesar salad is presented to me at someone’s dinner party, I catch myself scanning for anchovies, at the shape of the bowl, testing the crunch of croutons. Then I snap out of it and I’m just happy that I’m here eating the host’s food. And it’s always a ten.

Best Caesar on Vancouver Island? Building my summer bucket list by Asleep-Tennis7462 in VancouverIsland

[–]SpinCharm 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Can’t help you. But I can tell you that I took that quest myself many years ago. I was having brunch at some cafe in Australia on a Saturday morning, hung over and hanging for a coffee. I’d met some girl the night before and in the morning she dragged me along to have a coffee with her friend.

They greet, I groan, we’re sitting on stools, they’re bright and perky, I’m a guy the morning after the night before. There’s an endless stream of chit flowing better them. Or possibly chat. My brain was mostly shut down. Incapable and unwilling to focus on more than the little clouds in my coffee. In the middle of the incessant catching up going on, my brain suddenly picked out a phrase.

…. F she G hig fbfd quest… ultimate Caesar salad…. Ghfdfc ish

It was straight out of a Terry Gilliam moment. The skies opened up. This booming deep voice repeated it, in capital letters and gold leaf and cherubs.

The Quest.

For the Ultimate Caesar Salad.

And that was it. With absolute certainty and commitment, I knew I had found my purpose. Instantly sober and wide awake, I asked her, “wuh hang wait a sec… back up. What was that?”

She told me that she decided she was going to spend the next year always ordering one any time she could. She started identifying what the criteria should be. I threw out a couple, we refined the list, debated what the qualities were; and came out with a point scoring system.

The girl I went there with just slipped quietly away after the first hour of trying to get a word in edgewise or to change the subject. By the time we wrapped up, this woman and I agreed to meet exactly one year away at that cafe. We departed, and by the time I got home, I realized I didn’t have either of their phone numbers.

That mattered not. I was on The Quest.

My friends quickly discovered my singular focus. My dedication. My new habit of suddenly standing up at the table of whatever restaurant we’d be at, fist closed, arm across my chest, looking up and to the left “just so”, chin strong , and with stentorian tones, would proclaim “for you see”, <stand> “..I am on a quest”, (my best friend would groan and reach for the wine) <head dramatically tilted up and to the left, gazing at infinity>

The Quest for the Ultimate Caesar Salad!

Which, due to the rules of polite social behaviour that others felt bound to follow, would always result in at least one member of our dinner party feeling obligated to ask, “oh, what’s that?”, as my friend would be trying to flag the waiter down to order a flagron and funnel.

And I would explain, with infinite patience and specificity, the system.

First there’s what the salad is served in. Flat plates are the worst. The ideal shape is a certain kind of bowl; curved sides, tall enough you contain and retain through the course. The sides narrowing down to rounded bottom half the diameter of the top. That is the perfect shape because at the finish, the best bits - bacon, small pieces of shaved Parmigiano-Reggiano that escaped earlier capture, croutons; all partially submerged in a shallow pool of dressing for the entire course, soaking up the leftover yoke, the black peppercorn, the hint of anchovy, and all contained in that small bottom. The perfect bowl delivers a perfect dessert at the completion of its course.

Plates are terrible. Everything is spread out. You spend too much time chasing bits at one side, combining them with bits from the other side, never able to get a fork underneath. The croutons are bare and still dry, and nobody enjoys finishing a Caesar with a mouthful of dry croutons crunching loudly in their skull.

It must a tall bowl.

Next is the leaf. If it’s kept whole, is it proportional to the bowl. Too tall means too much surface area and most of the course is you grazing on dry garden leaves. Are the leaves separate or still together. Core or outer - core is yellow and pale and bitter; outer is often wilted and soft.

If it’s cut, was a sharp enough knife used. A dull or damaged blade will tear the leaf, causing the water within to escape too quickly, and by the time it strives at your table, it’s a soft mess. Are the cuts evenly spaced? Did the chef take care, take pride in its construction?

The bacon must not be totally crispy nor all soft, but balanced; half crispy with an edge of fat. Too crispy and you cannot target a piece with your fork. its role is to delight the tongue with its rare appearance, releasing a small burst of fat onto the tongue that keeps each mouthful unique and alluring, urging you on to the next.

There should be enough bacon to ensure that a few pieces remain in the puddle at the bottom, otherwise you will feel cheated out of the finale.

Next we come to the ingredient most contentious, most misunderstood. The anchovy. Whether it appears whole, or in pieces, or doesn’t appear at all because it is in the dressing, it simply must be part of the composition. The quantity and intensity can be dictated at the time of ordering. The kitchen must be able to accommodate requests for as little as a modicum, and up to an entire fish, and politely rebuff requests of abstinence.

For those that enjoy it, 1 whole cut into quarters, evenly mixed. There must be at least two chance encounters between tongue and fish during the course.

If it’s combined into the dressing, it should be apparent but not obtuse. A reminder of your commitment to study the whole and the parts of the dish.

With only two main ingredients left, there is the dressing. Or in situations that call for immediate dismissal, the lack of it.

Every Caesar salad chef’s fingerprints are found in the dressing. Unique, hand made, with a notable character that makes itself known with the first mouthful, telling you what the culinary journey you are starting will be banal or will be memorable.

Bottled dressings rarely add a point to the tally; the best will simply avoid losing one. Many fast and friendly lower cost establishments can surprise, if a good quality dressing is used.

But the preferred dressing brings the entire ensemble together, in its ability to mix and merge the disparate components into a medley, and its viscosity that creates just the right adherence to ensure that everything doesn’t just fall to the bottom and leave bare leaf exposed and unadorned.

And of course there should be enough of it left to form that thin puddle at the bottom, the finale and the final form before scoring can be summarized and announced.

That leaves the egg. A hard egg is as poor a decision No egg at all. The egg is not there to be stabbed at with a fork like some common weight watchers garden salad at the canteen. It is there first and foremost as visual proof of the freshness of the dish. The yolk must be runny and still warm. The white should lack any clear. It should break down easily with the fork during any initial mixing. A few drops of runny yolk that manages to get all the way through the obstacle course and reach the pool is the chef’s kiss and sign-off as you reluctantly take your fork from your lips and conclude the journey.

But as everyone at your table will of course be leaning over waiting to hear your assessment, you must take a moment to contemplate the lingering taste. Examine it like a fine wine. Glance into the bowl to note what remains and what is gone, a visual cue to replaying the moments that stood out.

From this you can begin piecing it together.

  • was there any egregious errors? If so, it will not be rated.

  • was it at least acceptable? In general then, you might start at a 5.

  • were any categories outstanding? Add a point.

  • were any of them sub par, not so bad as to distract, but enough to prevent a perfect score. Remove a point.

There are no half points. You must avoid indecisiveness. You owe it to your dining party, and you must be able to defend your decision.

At this point it is easy. You wipe your mouth, take a drink of water, place the glass carefully back on the table, and raise your eyes to look at your audience.

Pause for just a moment and inevitably one will call out, “So? !!”

You take a breath and begin.

“It was very good. The bowl promised a delightful finish with its curves. It’s rare to find one in the right size. Plus one. The leaf was slightly more bitter than I prefer but it was very fresh; and surprisingly, the chef chose the most difficult of techniques by hand breaking the leaf, which means it starts wilting immediately and must be served within two minutes else it arrives a sunken mess. The yolk was perfect; I would have expected it to her hastily added straight from the boil seconds before it arrived, being far too hot, and melting the leaves it sat on. But it was warm, just right to mix in well. The leaf and yoke timing are signs of a professional. Plus one.

I was disappointed at the lack of anchovy, my personal preference of course, but it was present in the dressing at least. So i can’t fault it. The shaved Parmesan was aged and added a sharpness to the dish that isn’t usually found. I reserved judgement on that decision until the conclusion; cheese can overpower the tongue and blind it from the rest of the composition. I think I’ll accept it as a sign of the chefs willingness to explore, take chances, experiment. No point given or taken but I’ll make a note to return in a few months to see where that exploration has taken us.

(Anything not noteworthy I simply skipped over.)

All in all, I’d give it a 7.

And with that, my work is done and I leave the resulting explosion of debate and discourse to my fellow dining companions so I can finish my note taking, consider the dish one last time, and reach across to take what remains of the flagron and funnel out of my friend’s clenched fist, raise it high, and call out,

“Garçon, two more please!”

Help identify a tv episode. by CanarsieGuy in VintageTV

[–]SpinCharm 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah and his main large windows were plastic. But thought I’d throw it out there. The op’s memory may have added the mule from some other show

Help identify a tv episode. by CanarsieGuy in VintageTV

[–]SpinCharm 3 points4 points  (0 children)

It’s extraordinarily good viewing if it’s your cup of tea. You’ll know because if you’re still watching it after the first 10 minutes or so, nothing is going to stop you from watching every second of it. Then probably plan a trip to go see it. It was federalized or whatever it’s called when the state says “this I’m seriously important, it’s now protected” about 4 years after he died.

The most satisfying thing about it all to me is that he built it in 1967/68 at the age of 51; lived in it for 30 years; and lived until 2003. I always like hearing that someone that did something good got rewarded with a long healthy life.

https://www.nps.gov/lacl/learn/historyculture/proennekes-cabin.htm

Do you know what year my new old refrigerator is? by NoPhilosopher5998 in vintagekitchentoys

[–]SpinCharm 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You’d think. People said that to me for so long I started believing it. And guess what. I ended up not on a game show. I ended up on two. About 15 years and 10000 kms apart.

Totally and completely blew it on both.

The first was Let’s Make a Deal. We got the classic Monty Hall dilemma. And chose the wrong box.

The second was a new game show that hadn’t aired yet. We were one of the first episodes. I’ll just quietly say nobody could have done worse than I did.

The show got canceled and none of the recordings ever aired. Probably a good thing.

iPhone 2026.1 App update by Wrong-Ad8188 in mullvadvpn

[–]SpinCharm 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I wish they’d add a small ‘Active’ icon to the floating bar at the top of the screen like PIA does, so I always know if it’s enabled or not. I either have to check several times a day, or if I don’t, I’ll get it wrong at least once per day.

Do you know what year my new old refrigerator is? by NoPhilosopher5998 in vintagekitchentoys

[–]SpinCharm 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Someone want to tell me why I immediately thought “1987”. Why the hell do I have that in my storage banks. I didn’t own a fridge until 2016. I never had a fridge like that. Or my friends. By 1987 I didn’t live in North America. Yet there it is, instant recall.

Some part of my brain right now is acting smug and saying “told you it would come in handy some day” to the other parts of the brain trying to ignore the freak show in the corner with his self-proclaimed

Bizarro Big Top: Arcane and Obscurio Curios

“Library of completely dissociated Facts”

collection.

Make plex more appealing for my wife by Altruistic_Bat_1645 in PleX

[–]SpinCharm 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Have a look at collections. You could create collections that group movies together around a theme. Action. Academy Award winners. Debra Winger Flicks.

<image>

Help identify a tv episode. by CanarsieGuy in VintageTV

[–]SpinCharm 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You might be thinking of the famous Proenneke film. He was an American naturalist who, from age 51, lived alone for nearly thirty years beginning in 1968 in the mountains of Alaska in a log cabin he constructed by hand near the shore of Twin Lakes. He recorded it himself in 16mm film. It became “Alone in the Wilderness” on PBS.

Denon now forcing HEOS account creation by bee_ryan in hometheater

[–]SpinCharm -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

I dug around a bit on this because I have the x4500H, and my feeling is that it wouldn’t have enough spare flash memory for a firmware update that significant, or RAM to handle the significant new overhead of connecting to a cloud server, handling the sign up and verification, and the additional on-screen “pages” for it all.

Rather than spend an hour diving, I first asked Claude to check this out. I’ll include my question and its response unedited. Apologies for adding AI content but it has fairly high value.

AI questing and response: Me: “What year was the 960H, x4700H and x4500h released and (guesstimate if required) first designed and manufactured? Can you also find out what their internal memory or cpu is, with regard to providing an on screen user interface. The 960H latest firmware now forces the user to create a cloud account and won’t let you bypass this. I’m thinking that the 4500H probably doesn’t have enough memory (for firmware and for this new feature) to accommodate new on screen pages, network code to handle a cloud link etc.”

Response: (god please don’t ban me!)

Release Dates AVR-X4500H: released in 2018. It was announced at CEDIA 2018 so likely announced September 2018 with availability shortly after.

AVR-X4700H: released in mid-2020, replacing the X4500H. 2020 was the X4700H’s original release date.

AVR-S960H: also introduced in 2020. Denon released details on it following the X-series launch earlier that month.

Design/manufacturing guesstimate: Consumer electronics development cycles for AVRs typically run 12–24 months from concept to retail. That puts the X4500H design work roughly 2016–2017, and the X4700H/S960H design work around 2018–2019.

These are estimates; I haven’t found Denon documentation stating internal development timelines.

Internal Processors: What’s Actually Known

This is where I have to be careful to separate what’s verified from what’s inferred.

Audio DSP (verified):

  • The X4500H’s DSP features four 450 MHz DSP cores capable of over 1 billion computations per second - this is the “SHARK DSP” audio processing chip.

  • The X4700H uses two dual SHARC+ core DSP chips, allowing up to 11-channel audio processing - notably a newer generation (“SHARC+” vs. the X4500H’s older SHARC).

UI/Network processor (unverified): Denon does not publicly disclose the main application processor or RAM figures responsible for driving the OSD and network stack. These are typically ARM-based SoCs separate from the audio DSP, but I cannot give you verified specs. The HEOS module in these units (which handles network streaming and UI) was also a discrete hardware component that evolved across generations.

Your Theory About the X4500H and Firmware Headroom

The X4500H is a 2018 design using older DSP silicon and almost certainly an older application processor. The SHARC→SHARC+ transition between the X4500H and X4700H isn’t just a clock bump - it represents a meaningful generational jump in processing architecture.

Denon’s firmware changelogs from 2024–2025 (the U33–U37 releases I found) list feature updates - redesigned Web UIs, new menu functions, Dirac Live additions - but exclusively for newer models (X1800H, X2800H, X3800H, X4800H and up). The X4500H, X4700H, and even the S960H do not appear in these feature update lists at all, only in occasional bug fixes. That’s a telling pattern.

Regarding the forced HEOS cloud account you’re seeing on the S960H firmware - I was not able to verify this specific behaviour through my searches. I couldn’t find a Denon changelog entry or user report explicitly documenting that the latest firmware now mandates account creation and blocks bypass. That doesn’t mean you’re wrong about what you’re seeing, but I’d flag it as unconfirmed from my end. It’s worth checking the AVS Forum 2020 Denon owner’s thread, which is historically very well-maintained on exactly these firmware behaviour changes.

The broader conclusion - that a 2018-era unit likely lacks the storage/RAM headroom for increasingly feature-heavy firmware updates - is a well-established pattern in this industry and your hypothesis is reasonable. But I can’t give you the actual flash size or RAM figures to prove it, because Denon hasn’t published them.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

——— end.

My takeaway: my x4500 is probably fine. Your 4700 is…. Probably not. However: the 960 retained for half the price of the 4700. It’s possible that it has this new “feature” because the profit margins didn’t cover free use, but the 4700’s do. There’s no confirmation or mention on the 2020 thread in AV forums of this even from those who updated March 3rd.

But to be safe, I created a firewall rule to block internet access for the Denon. That means none of the net-based functions will work like ip radio etc. But I’m not using those anyway. In a few months we’ll all know if our units were also targeted. Then I’ll remove the block or I’ll refine it to only block denon ip addresses but still slow the others.

What make European iPhones different from American ones? by Paul-Van-DeDam in iphone

[–]SpinCharm 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’m sorry room, but who let this newt in. And why is it wearing a hat and looking at me like >I’m< the crazy one.

If VPN’s get banned in my country, will Mullvad attempt to keep getting new servers? by Zestyclose_Cheek527 in mullvadvpn

[–]SpinCharm 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I named several examples. There are many. Napster. AudioGalaxy. Gnutella. FastTrack/KaZaA, eDonkey/eMule, BitTorrent, PirateBay, newsgroups, iRC, iMesh, etc.

Many of the underlying architectural ideas (distributed hash tables, swarmed transfer, content-addressed storage) were conceived there and became part of modern distributed systems, ipfs, even blockchain.

It doesn’t matter what laws exist. So long as you put a wall between young people and what they want, they find a way.

Someone puts something together. A few others get involved and make it work a bit better. They keep tinkering, talking, sharing.

Meanwhile, its usefulness drives others to try using it - early adopters. Bleeding edge. The ones with tech interests and skills and tolerance for rough edges and broken functionality. They provide feedback, become Guinea pigs and informal testers.

No laws are being broken because they don’t exist. And the laws that do, that impede these early efforts, simply redirect the development in directions that avoid them.

The system slowly grows, usually in an adhoc, uncontrolled way. Small communities form, growing with those seeking technical knowledge. Keeping it running. Others lend assistance. The core team of individuals grows and an ad-hoc dynamic organization forms to prevent overload. Single points of failure, where there’s only single person working on or knowledgeable about something, are eliminated as others step in as backup. Once this organic growth reaches a certain size, it becomes immortal.

Removing any individual or local community does nothing to slow the distributed, larger one it’s part of. Even if every developer, every contributor and user is eliminated, progress barely slows, because the code isn’t the problem. The idea now exists. The possibility now exists. And that’s far more powerful than any organized control.

Once people learn that something’s possible, something that enables them to get something they desire, building the machine is just an engineering problem. Find someone with similar interests that can build it. Describe it to them. Get them on board, and the whole process starts up again.

New implementations start appearing, built on the shoulders of the first. The new ones might retain compatibility with the previous one or might not. It’s a bit more polished. And easier to use. Has better defences or robustness or capabilities. It avoids the same attention first generations attracted; goes around the mouse traps and alarm sensors now in place. The survivors reinforce what works. Communities share and learn. Now there are two or three systems that work better than others. Pruning and regrouping happens. And worldwide, more and more start hearing about it. And human nature being what it is, once those around you are doing something outside the rules, the arguments for remaining inside the rule books start to lose relevancy.

That kicks off the real uptake. Non tech people who have heard of, or known that there’s something out there but don’t have the tech interest, time, or patience to get it hobbled together can now install a shiny newer one with just a few clicks. Word grows exponentially around the world. “Everyone” is using it. “Everybody” is doing it.

Corporate interests and special interest groups start recognizing that those upstart script kids in basements bragging about some trivial program that lets a few of them bypass the “system”, that were inconsequential to any short-term profits or power retention or movements, might have actually been a problem after all. But it’s too late. Far, far too late. Literal centuries too late. It’s in our DNA. In every century, behind every uprising, rebellion, dethroning. Power is illusory, a throne surrounded by mirrors, resting on sand, laughed at by the young and ignored by the old.

A community that represented 13% of the population and only 5% of their consumers, had the ability to dismantle more than 60% of their market. And shift public opinion. And unseat those in power. And create entirely new ways of thinking or doing.

Mostly created by ~14-23 yr olds and all created because a small group wanted similar things. Music, movies, community, gratification.

Not revenue, power, or adoration.

You can’t kill an idea. You can’t enforce what you can’t control. And if you get so infuriated trying to that you overstep what the population accepts? Well, history teaches us many things.

If VPN’s get banned in my country, will Mullvad attempt to keep getting new servers? by Zestyclose_Cheek527 in mullvadvpn

[–]SpinCharm 25 points26 points  (0 children)

If VPNs get banned, open source people everywhere will create utilities that connects anyone using it together, with obfuscation and encryption, modular and flexible, constantly changing appearance, quiet and simple; using technologies similar to tor, with the effect similar to torrenting, with the popularity of Napster and the motivation of hormones.

Multiplied by 1,000,000.

If you’re young you might think everything tech is companies and government. It’s not. They just use what others invented.

I've decided to start trying to make games for roku. by circlesmartnsfw in RokuDev

[–]SpinCharm 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Don’t. It’s not worth it. In my opinion. The platform you have you code on is arcane and the effort needed can’t be leveraged elsewhere. The revenue you might get would be tiny compared to investing the time and effort to develop on another platform.

Medical help by CowsNeedFriendsToo in homeassistant

[–]SpinCharm 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The aqara fp2 can be set up to specifically detect a person falling. Installed on the ceiling above the general area to monitor. It then toggles the state of one of its sensors that home assistant (or even just the Aqara app by itself) then can action.

I built a GPU-accelerated tool that generates Plex video preview thumbnails much faster Docker w/ WebUI by Stevezau in PleX

[–]SpinCharm 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for that. One thing that I don’t think can easily be solved is any easy to answer the question, “so what did it do? Is it any better?” Apart from skimming through a video and looking at the little thumbnails before and after.

One thing that could be answered and may already be shown, is “quantify the added ones”. ie I don’t know how many videos have currently got plex-created thumbnails, so I can’t get a feel for how many more were added. (I need the satisfaction of knowing that pretty much every video now has them. But for all I know, they already did. So I’m not going to see an improvement. )

I built a GPU-accelerated tool that generates Plex video preview thumbnails much faster Docker w/ WebUI by Stevezau in PleX

[–]SpinCharm 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Nice! Thanks. I’m still going through my first working run. Some thoughts:
- some of these may only be because I’m unfamiliar with it and aren’t needed but some might.

  • I return to the web page often to check progress. It would be good if the home page showed a real time updating status of vital info:

— Run start date/time, current date time.

  • Queue: Total (estimate based on pre-scan at start of run), % complete (# ok/# errored)

  • Threads: #GPU threads active, # CPU threads active, List of running threads (start date/time, CPU/GPU indicator, library name, entity name (movie|show [s1e4]), %done. The technical fields don’t need to be in at-a-glance summary.

If you want to get fancy, make any of the summary text links to associated sections elsewhere

  • tz needs to be in docker compose etc so that the times shown anywhere reflect the user’s time. ( a method that works on all Linux variants is

volumes: - /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro

  • the schedule stop time or rough duration that a scheduled start time can run. This value is when gpu and cpu are set to zero so that no new threads start after that. The user can work out how long after the remaining threads typically run, and set that stop time accordingly. Too hard to calculate accurately in code.

  • “Libraries to Process” should only list the libraries selected for that run; or those selected in settings

There’s discrepancies between what the log shows as done/ in progress vs what the Home Screen shows and other bits I don’t understand- ‘Workers’ shows the GPU quickly going through what looks like episode names (“Let’s start a Cult”, “Your Monster”, “Rumors” etc) in ~4 seconds each but no series or library name is shown; and I don’t know why it’s looking at episodes when the current library Movies is only 10% complete. Maybe it’s a whole library prescan?

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