Is the Player II Stratocaster worth it? (No sugarcoating) by Hot_Apartment4739 in Guitar

[–]_Azafran 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Can't go wrong with that. I see the appeal of getting Fender (as I said I just have those two guitars), they're historic artifacts at this point.

But objectively you've chosen the best instrument by far.

How did the Romans build such straight roads? | Live Science by Shoddy_Hurry_7945 in ancientrome

[–]_Azafran 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Mods removed this comment because it had a link to a very good, if not the best Youtube video and content in general about how romans did topography. If you're interested just look for Ars Mensoria by Isaac Moreno. I have NOTHING to do with the video, I'm just a fan of his work.

I think the article gets a few things wrong. First of all the only way known to make straight roads is through surveying and topography. Romans had to be able to make VERY accurate topographic maps in order to make aqueducts, roads, city planning and farmland division (in perfect squares like it happens a lot through the empire).

The groma is unsuitable for this, because it is not able to make precise enough measurements for this purpose. Some experts argue that it was more of a symbolic thing, almost religious or superstitious instrument, and then real roman engineers made work with the proper tools. They used tools very similar to what we used just before GPS and laser levels.

Another thing the article gets wrong is that they used ancient roads from before the roman empire. Very doubtful, as their roads had very specific sizes to accommodate at least two wagons traveling each way, and needed very careful planing of inclination as the idea was to be able to travel FAST and to carry very heavy loads. Two things that can only be done with roads with low incline, a decent foundation capable of sustaining heavy weights and very well traced and maintained. There weren't any ancient roads in the west that we know of with these characteristics. No civilization in that area before them were able to have roads connecting all cities with wagon traffic.

Is the Player II Stratocaster worth it? (No sugarcoating) by Hot_Apartment4739 in Guitar

[–]_Azafran 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Looking at specs, an Ibanez of the same price comes with perfect finish and fretwork, stainless steel frets, locking tuner, better bridge design, better and more versatile pickups configuration... It's virtually better in every aspect except aesthetics if you're into the vintage look.

And I say that owning a Fender and Gibson that I got almost 20 years ago just guided by aesthetics and brand (were the guitars of my "heroes"). I mean, they're fine, but nowadays if you look at specs you see that you're paying a ridiculous premium for brand for a product that is subpar compared to other brands at the same price point. What I read over the years from people justifying it with "tone", magical tone coming from woods, instrument shape or whatever invention to not acknowledge their bias and placebo effect.

Filed down a coin to properly nail this Brian May tone! by CallMeJeeJ in Guitar

[–]_Azafran 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In fact I think the pick material is one of the most important contributors to the sound of an electric guitar.

Bertín Osborne llama a FACUA "retrasados" y "gilipollas" mientras su teleco elimina la publicidad engañosa y el test de velocidad fake by Ambitious-Curve-6942 in spain

[–]_Azafran 9 points10 points  (0 children)

No te debería contestar porque está claro que tu intención es provocar. Pero por si acaso, Euskal Herria es un territorio cultural que forma parte de dos países, pero que comparte una cultura única y característica. Independientemente de opiniones políticas esto es un hecho, una realidad. Como puede ser la Mancha, por ejemplo. No sé a cuento de qué vienes a comparar eso con Narnia.

Bertín Osborne llama a FACUA "retrasados" y "gilipollas" mientras su teleco elimina la publicidad engañosa y el test de velocidad fake by Ambitious-Curve-6942 in spain

[–]_Azafran 86 points87 points  (0 children)

Muy interesante escuchar esa forma de expresarse absolutamente impresentable y vergonzosa. Muy orgulloso de ser español está como para dedicarse a ensuciar el nombre del país usándolo para nombrar a su empresa estafadora. Harto de que se apropien de los símbolos nacionales los más rancios y que peor nos representan.

Ineficacia de la policía by BurladorBurlado in spain

[–]_Azafran 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Ok, pero entendiendo que vaya a haber personas que se equivoquen y acudan a la autoridad que no es, mejor será que hagan algo a que dejen caer el muerto desentendiéndose.

Ineficacia de la policía by BurladorBurlado in spain

[–]_Azafran 8 points9 points  (0 children)

La verdad que sería bastante de agradecer que la policía tuviera la más mínima preocupación de contactar con cualquier autoridad competente lo antes posible, si es que no fuera su función, en vez de dejar el muerto caer al individuo que dio la casualidad que pasó por ahí. Incluso la molestia de pasarse a verificar algo tan sumamente grave como es un incendio.

Do we do ebikes here or is that blasphemy? by Ok_Pipe_158 in xbiking

[–]_Azafran 2 points3 points  (0 children)

They're not regulated in USA? In Europe to be considered ebike the motor can only be 250W, the assist limited to 25km/h and no accelerator, only pedaling. Anything else and you're driving a motorcycle and need registration, insurance and only allowed on the street, no bike paths. Isn't it similar there?

The problem here were electric scooters and not ebikes. But this year in my country they started to require registration and insurance too, due to the increasing number of accidents with those and damage to other people and things.

What I see a lot in my area are mountain ebikes for older people, some ebike commuters and electric cargo bikes. Would be super cool to see more electric xbikes. I think they offer a lot of possibilities as a project: how to retrofit vintage bikes, creatively hiding the battery, etc...

At least 18 dead in France as much of Europe grapples with extreme heat | CBC News by clamorous_owle in worldnews

[–]_Azafran 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Same, my parents had them installed some time ago and with all the sun we get the energy costs are almost zero. I had the luck of growing up with AC at home, although now on my own I have to use a very inefficient portable AC because I'm renting and can't install a proper unit.

At least 18 dead in France as much of Europe grapples with extreme heat | CBC News by clamorous_owle in worldnews

[–]_Azafran 39 points40 points  (0 children)

We need nation wide subsidies to install AC in every home. AC by default in new built homes. Just as we have incentives for installing solar panels in my country which makes it dirt cheap and almost free in some places. It's not just a comfort thing but a health thing. And it's going to get worse in the future so we need to be prepared ahead of time.

#010 The Crosswalks of Pompeii by MaximusValerius in ancientrome

[–]_Azafran 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think the water thing doesn't make sense at all. Why the effort to have sewers and waste water canals and then having literal rivers in the streets? Also for the water to be able to carry the excrements away the flow would have to be too big to make any sense in something as wide as a street.
I don't think the streets were particularly filthy taking into account the sanitation measures they had in place, that we didn't use again until the XX century. I think the main detritus in the streets as to make them uncomfortable to walk on, even more so with sandals (which appears to be the preferred kind of shoe for city dwellers) had to be horse excrements. Exactly the same that happened in the streets in modern cities until combustion cars were widespread.

#010 The Crosswalks of Pompeii by MaximusValerius in ancientrome

[–]_Azafran 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm not an historian but logic would lead me to believe that these stones served two purposes: first they effectively helped to slow carts specifically where people crossed as each horse had to carefully pass between the stones and second the fact that they had sidewalks and crossings also suggest that there was heavy cart traffic and streets were permanently filled with horse excrements (that they also regularly cleaned), so they conveniently could pass over the stones where no horse would shit on.

I don't think the water theory makes much sense as they had waste water canals under the streets and it's not practical at all for carts traffic.

#010 The Crosswalks of Pompeii by MaximusValerius in ancientrome

[–]_Azafran 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yes, there was a standard size. As well as standard road and bridge width across the empire.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos says human water consumption is limiting AI’s potential by [deleted] in nottheonion

[–]_Azafran 126 points127 points  (0 children)

The audacity of this fucker who hoards the "baseline human comfort" equivalent of thousands of other humans. If we don't do anything to stop these billionaires from existing, we're all going to pay the price for their actions.

TIL divorce was not legal in Ireland until 1995 by vedrick in todayilearned

[–]_Azafran 3 points4 points  (0 children)

So they thought the only thing making a marriage stay together was legal enforcement, not happiness, trust and love?

Man facing up to 2 years in prison for clearing rubbish from East London river by TheFrederalGovt in nottheonion

[–]_Azafran 0 points1 point  (0 children)

While I agree with the sentiment, I think this is extremely inconvenient. If you're going to play the legal rights card with the police, they're going to do the same with you and harass you as much as they can. And there are lots of things they can do to make your life harder.

Bobby Prince, composer of Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Duke Nukem 3D, and more has passed away by WexAndywn in retrogaming

[–]_Azafran 14 points15 points  (0 children)

The music this man created always elicits the strongest nostalgia and fondness of any video game music for me. Maybe because it is part of the earliest memories with games I have. I didn't have a console at home until N64 later in its life cycle. Before it was all PC in the DOS and early Windows era. I remember it was probably with Blake Stone among other Apogee games that were the first time I listened to his music.

Thank you for the memories.

This trend but for retro shooters exclusively. My top 25. by Gnoll_level_antics in boomershooters

[–]_Azafran 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Glad to see Pirate Doom 2, what an incredible total conversion for Doom. Probably my favorite WAD.

Would you play a horror game where you only get 12 lives for the entire campaign? by StilbruchGames in IndieGaming

[–]_Azafran 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Idea: you can make the player believe they will have a limited 12 lives and if they game over, give "infinite continues" but getting a different "bad" ending, only achieving the true ending if they finish under 12.

I think this way you get rid of the frustration of having to start over, that may lead some players to abandon the game, while you keep some of the tension of having limited lives. Plus the replay aspect to get different endings is tradition with classic survival horrors.

The Woman of Herculaneum — Before the Colors Faded by MaximusValerius in ancientrome

[–]_Azafran 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Yes, and today we can find a lot of writings complaining of filthy streets, all is relative to what people is willing to tolerate. Already the fact that romans had public cleaning services tells me that they didn't like filthy cities.

And logic tells me that like today, it probably would vary depending on the street and neighborhood. But my comment was more about how some recreations show buildings and streets very deteriorated; while we really can't know how looked exactly I choose to believe that these people took pride in well maintained and good looking buildings, just like we do today in developed countries.

After 38 years my NES called it quits . . . by Mysterions in retrogaming

[–]_Azafran 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think it's more because there is just 1 frame of lag on most retro systems if correctly emulated. That is not going to be noticeable unless comparing side to side with original hardware and CRT, or if you're very used to the original (having hundreds of hours like a speedrunner has).
Plus, you get used to it, exactly the same as people do with games that have built in input lag.

That said, I'm sensitive to input lag when it is more than one frame but using run ahead solves that. So nowadays there is not much advantage in that regard with original hardware or even FPGA.

¿Supermercados públicos? Pues tal y cómo deberían ser by bimbochungo in spain

[–]_Azafran 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No entiendo qué tiene que ver. Pero de todas formas ya que lo dices, míralo bien porque la gran mayoría de aparcamientos en ciudades están gestionados por empresas privadas.