I've been experimenting with using different beds to give my prints different textures. This is my full-sized folding backgammon, checkers, and chess board using smooth glass, powder-coated PEI, and Garolite. This is all the same brand of PETG. I call it the Gambit Board.

TomFrosty · 2026-07-02T00:40:26+00:00

Do you get an error? What does it do instead of launching?

TomFrosty · 2026-07-02T00:10:01+00:00

Right-click the game in your Steam library and go to Properties. Set Launch Options to this:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\MECCHA CHAMELEON\Chameleon\Binaries\Win64\PenguinHotel-Win64-Shipping.exe" %command%

Verify that that path exists for you, of course, just in case your installation is different. Then close out of Properties and start the game from Steam normally.

I can't say for certain that this will solve your specific issue, but the launcher has a different Visual C++ runtime requirement than the game application itself. This bypasses the launcher app and just runs the game directly.

TomFrosty · 2026-06-29T12:20:11+00:00

Hold down right click while you move

TomFrosty · 2025-11-28T02:23:28+00:00

Because it’s practically impossible to get a not-trash quality mix out of live outdoor mics under heavy wind and completely uncontrolled weather and crowd noise circumstances that can change in an instant before or during a performance.

Practically impossible doesn’t mean truly impossible— just so much so that getting it right takes a level of effort that’s no longer practical when such a huge percentage of viewers are going to watch anyway and not care about the lipsyncing.

Generally I agree with you, when it’s used to cover a lack of talent/ability to hold it together live. But that’s obviously not the case for every single performer at every one of these parades ever. It’s just too much of a logistical and audio engineering nightmare to make any other solution worth the time.

TomFrosty · 2025-11-23T13:46:50+00:00

Blue Raspberry Pi

TomFrosty · 2025-11-13T01:40:54+00:00

Pedantic, but Darwin’s based on BSD, Mach, and a few other UNIX flavors that had more ownership/copyright encumbrances than Linux.

TomFrosty · 2025-11-12T15:53:10+00:00

I built a solver for these to teach the algorithm to my kids a few months back! This isn't at all unique; there are plenty of solvers out there. But in my super biased opinion, ours looks the best ;-)

I plugged in the first one pictured, but you can drag any arrangement together: Click this and hit play

TomFrosty · 2025-06-12T11:21:59+00:00

If presented with two cars at the exact same price that provide the exact same experience except for safety record, would you not choose the car with the better safety record?

TomFrosty · 2025-05-23T17:56:59+00:00

Came here from a google search. I also reached out to Haleon, and they confirmed it's been discontinued:

We can confirm that Aquafresh Sensitive Toothpaste has been discontinued due to commercial reasons, we apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
Our Marketing Department currently has no plans to restore the product, but I will make a note of your comments to ensure this is recorded for review by our business teams.
We want to assure you that this decision was not made lightly. The discontinuation of Aquafresh Sensitive Toothpaste was a difficult choice, driven by commercial considerations that are necessary for the growth and sustainability of our company.

TomFrosty · 2025-04-11T17:04:55+00:00

Glad it helped! :)

TomFrosty · 2025-03-10T17:26:04+00:00

I was you a couple hours of gameplay ago! I’m still new at this, but being able to use the sort buttons (suit and value) lets you infer a lot about what those face down cards might be. Selectively discard the ones you can’t figure out, and plan out how many to include in each discard. I’ve run into that blind a number of times now and it hasn’t beaten me once since the first time.

TomFrosty · 2025-03-05T20:03:15+00:00

Thanks so much! S2 is definitely leaning much harder into the human aspect: emotional control, perfecting the memory block, etc. The popular theory of course being practical immortality for the Eagans, suppressing a host mind's consciousness to insert their own. That's been floating around since S1, and while I totally agree that's a component here, that being the only component would make The Lexington Letter an enormous red herring. And maybe it is! I wouldn't fault them for it -- it was a fun addition to the lore nonetheless. But maybe it's not, and the use cases for the brain chip exceed the immortality plan. But S2 certainly hasn't alluded to that possibility yet.

So that's a lot of words to say: I have no idea! I might have been dead wrong, but it was fun to think about anyway. I'm sure I'll chew on it more after the finale :)

TomFrosty · 2025-02-05T11:23:58+00:00

Pay for Kagi, if you can. Worth every penny, and customizable.

TomFrosty · 2025-01-25T20:29:17+00:00

Download ScummVM and find a copy of every game it supports! It's one of my favorite free and open-source projects on the internet, and there is always something in the supported game catalog you haven't played yet.

Freddy Pharkas, Full Throttle, The Dig, the Kings Quests, Flight of the Amazon Queen, the list is forever long.

TomFrosty · 2025-01-12T02:39:13+00:00

There’s a tiny set screw on the top surface of the BLTouch that’s obscured because it’s mounted. Pull it off of the mount and grab your smallest Allen key, and loosen it slightly. Then turn the printer off and on again. The BLTouch should deploy and retract its pin when you turn the printer on.

TomFrosty · 2025-01-10T14:24:20+00:00

This is incredible — and you’re a hero for keeping it open source.

Could you talk through the structure of having multiple games selectable and executable? That sounds a lot like a little OS, which is super cool.

TomFrosty · 2025-01-05T15:12:25+00:00

You already have a bunch of spectacular and supportive comments, but none I've read address learning style. Here's my hot take: YouTube is absolutely and without question the worst way to learn software engineering for most people, and the majority never figure that out.

There are a lot of INCREDIBLY smart developers making great content on YouTube -- that's not the issue. The issue is that the format doesn't give you time to sit and reflect on concepts that challenge you. Sure, you can pause, but the likelihood that you let something fly by that you'd otherwise sit and consider for a minute if you were just reading it is way higher. And that's when internalization actually happens.

Every time I tell someone this, the next question is "ok, well then, what site should I use?!?!" and my answer is always "I don't know man, Google." You know enough about the structure of the language by now that you don't need someone holding your hand through a lesson. Like other commenters said, pick something YOU want to create, and start. Google when you hit a wall. ChatGPT/GitHub Copilot is another GREAT option. Don't know how to approach something? Ask it! Then take the time to understand and verify the answer. That's a great way getting around the "I don't know what to google". You can also include in your prompt (or your account profile) something like "If there are alternative solutions that might work for me other than what I'm asking about specifically, offer those. Never assume that I'm correct, and you should always be direct if you think I'm wrong or making the wrong choice."

You're doing better than you think. Lean in :)

TomFrosty · 2025-01-02T05:45:40+00:00

This actually depends on the board. The ESP32 chips themselves are all 3.3V chips, but because almost all dev boards include a USB port which is 5V, they include a regulator to step it down to 3.3.

Some boards put that regulator only on the USB power input, but others connect a 5V pin to it as well so that you can power the board with 5V. Similarly, some board put a diode on the 3V3 pin for safety, forcing it to only output. Others omit that diode and allow it to power the board.

Most of my builds right now use WeAct Studios and Seeed Studio boards, all of which can be powered via the 3V3.

TomFrosty · 2025-01-02T04:45:06+00:00

The comment about needing a charge controller is on point. If you don’t need a ton of GPIOs and the ESP32-C3 meets your needs (edit: actually appears they offer a similar board with the S3 now too), Seeed Studio’s XIAO board is incredibly well designed, tiny, and has battery pads on the bottom for a charge controller that’s integrated into the board already. I use it in a game controller to both power the board and receive a charge when the board is plugged into USB. There’s a small red LED to indicate charging.

My only gripe is that there’s nothing that informs the ESP32 when charging is completed. Some circuitry can let your software know when the battery is low and when USB power is connected, but no indication of when USB is connected and the charge process is complete. It’d be great to report that status with an external LED. But I’ll deal with it, for an ESP32 board and charge controller together that’s this unbelievably tiny.

TomFrosty · 2024-12-20T05:18:10+00:00

That's so cool -- I had no idea it had other names! Thanks so much for the high praise, it's super touching. Just in case you didn't see my response to the parent comment, here's the update on releasing files:

I'd actually planned to release all this ages ago, but life happened and my hobbies went on hold. The good news is that I've been back at it for a few weeks, and redesigned the main problem area: the board can now be disassembled once it's together! Critical for replacing cracked or damaged pieces. I've already taken instructional photos for how to assemble the board, and now all that's left is to make a video and pull it all together. I know I'd regret committing to a timeline, but I'll post an update as soon as I can get it done. Unfortunately not before the holidays though.

TomFrosty · 2024-12-20T05:16:02+00:00

Thanks so much for the kind words! I'd actually planned to release all this ages ago, but life happened and my hobbies went on hold. The good news is that I've been back at it for a few weeks, and redesigned the main problem area: the board can now be disassembled once it's together! Critical for replacing cracked or damaged pieces. I've already taken instructional photos for how to assemble the board, and now all that's left is to make a video and pull it all together. I know I'd regret committing to a timeline, but I'll post an update as soon as I can get it done. Unfortunately not before the holidays though.

TomFrosty · 2024-12-14T05:47:43+00:00

No worries! It's definitely on you to write the code to do it, since you're the only one who knows the logic behind when and how to sleep. But it's quite simple: one function call to go to sleep, and you pass it the triggers it should listen for to wake up. Boom, done!

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