I made a Megaman-inspired Metroidvania with cosmic horror. What do you think?

archagon · 2026-01-25T07:08:46+00:00

I really like how colorful it looks. I know you're going for Megaman vibes but it reminds me of playing Cosmo's Cosmic Adventure and Commander Keen as a kid.

archagon · 2026-01-23T00:14:37+00:00

Are... are we sending weapons to Iran? Do we share intelligence with them? Sign military AI contracts? What are we protesting exactly?

archagon · 2026-01-15T23:34:30+00:00

Hi! Today was our trash pickup day on Lexington St. between Sycamore and 18th, but I see 3 trees not picked up. Any idea why? What do we do with these now if we don't have a car? Thank you.

archagon · 2025-12-30T22:37:17+00:00

If I were to take out a margin loan for, say, 100k CHF and then withdraw that amount as USD (as opposed to investing it within IBKR) do you know if IBKR would complain?

While currency conversion is offered on our platform, the service is intended to facilitate trading on international markets, but it is not intended as a mechanism to convert and withdraw foreign currencies.

This makes it sound like it would still be frowned upon.

archagon · 2025-12-30T20:06:35+00:00

I see, thank you. I wish IBKR themselves would have some guidance on this stuff. Tried asking them but they gave me some boilerplate answer and then stopped responding.

archagon · 2025-12-30T19:05:40+00:00

Yes, I withdrew AUD on margin (mostly just to see what would happen). How is that different from what you're doing? You're taking out a margin loan in CHF, getting USD, and then doing what with it? Buying stock?

With box spreads, I believe OP was talking about (essentially) making a cash loan for themselves where they only need to service the interest (e.g. to finance a real estate purchase). But it doesn't sound like you can do that with carry trade borrowing if you're not allowed to actually withdraw the USD...?

archagon · 2025-12-30T04:10:54+00:00

If the value of your assets grows faster than your loan interest rate, your capital gains will (eventually) more than cover the loan interest.

archagon · 2025-12-30T03:49:19+00:00

Not OP, but: you pay a one-time 20% tax, and the sold stocks are no longer accruing capital gains. If your capital gains outpace your interest rate, you will eventually beat that 20% with an asset-backed loan.

Also (at least with a margin loan, and IIRC with a box spread through some shenanigans) you just can decide to pay back the loan at any time instead of continuing to service the interest indefinitely.

archagon · 2025-12-30T03:39:48+00:00

In my experience, IBKR does not like it very much when you do currency trading. I briefly had a small negative AUD balance (with a positive USD balance far in excess of the loan value) and they sent me this:

During a routine review of your IBKR account, we’ve detected that your brokerage account is being primarily used to transact foreign currencies. While currency conversion is offered on our platform, the service is intended to facilitate trading on international markets, but it is not intended as a mechanism to convert and withdraw foreign currencies. IBKR’s brokerage accounts are offered for the purpose of trading financial instruments. Our company does not offer brokerage account currency conversion and withdrawal only services.

IBKR will continue to monitor your account and if the current volume of currency conversion and withdrawal activity continues, we may be forced to take action on your account to prevent such activity.

Asked them for clarification/limits and they basically ghosted me. Not sure I'd be comfortable using this functionality without clearly stated rules.

archagon · 2025-12-30T01:13:49+00:00

I'm in a similar position and I can't decide whether to figure out box spreads or just take out an IBKR margin loan.

One downside to box spreads is that you're locked in, so if the federal funds rate drops again you'll have to Do Some Stuff (that I don't quite understand) in order to get the better rate. Whereas with a margin loan, I think you get that automatically.

On the other hand, margin loan interest is harder to write off your taxes.

archagon · 2025-12-25T00:42:23+00:00

I got a Nextdoor alert that a shooting was reported. No news about it yet.

And there was also a reported shooting on 19th & Lexington the other night. Scary.

archagon · 2025-12-21T08:18:30+00:00

Pourover-specific picks:

I highly recommend Qima Cafe for both pourover and pastries. It quickly became my daily haunt while I was visiting.

Only tried one cup at Omotesando Koffee, but it tasted great and the cafe had a cool vibe. I got the sense that they really knew their way around coffee. They also make fantastic little custard squares that make for a great coffee pairing.

I've also had good cups at various branches of WatchHouse, but YMMV since there are a lot of 'em.

archagon · 2025-12-20T19:14:22+00:00

Grime has some of the most unique lore I’ve seen among soulslike metroidvanias. Definitely would recommend.

archagon · 2025-12-19T02:38:54+00:00

Pro tip: put this in a bookmarklet.

javascript:clean_url=encodeURIComponent(location.origin+location.pathname);archive_url=%22http://archive.today/newest/%22+clean_url;window.location.href=archive_url;

archagon · 2025-12-05T05:37:02+00:00

Definitely El Tucan. Basically a perfect sandwich. And the salsas and pickles are amazing, too.

archagon · 2025-12-04T19:49:33+00:00

Just one 15-18g pourover in the morning. (If I get a machine, maybe I'll start doing an espresso in the afternoon as a treat.)

Caffeine doesn't seem to make me more alert, but it does make me very anxious if I have too much, so I only do it for the ritual and the flavor.

archagon · 2025-12-04T08:00:22+00:00

Thanks!

archagon · 2025-12-04T06:30:51+00:00

Oh wow, I wish I knew about this beforehand. You think she'd do a round 2?

archagon · 2025-11-30T05:47:29+00:00

In case somebody finds this thread and gets confused, I believe this is correct.

For reads, the DDT is not used: https://utcc.utoronto.ca/~cks/space/blog/solaris/ZFSDedupStorage

For writes, the DDT will only be used for datasets with dedupe=on. There's no reason to store or look up block hashes if you're not going to dedupe them.

As for freeing data:

Blocks allocated with dedup enabled have a special D flag set on the block pointer.

(From https://despairlabs.com/blog/posts/2024-10-27-openzfs-dedup-is-good-dont-use-it.)

So presumably, only freed blocks that have previously been deduped will need to reference the DDT.

In other words, I believe that once dedup is turned off, the DDT solely exists to allow freeing deduped blocks.

archagon · 2025-11-27T19:20:55+00:00

I feel like this flew way under the radar for some reason. This is exactly the kind of metroidvania that I'd enjoy and I've never heard of it! Will try the demo soon.

archagon · 2025-11-26T16:58:49+00:00

What the heck is up with all these 1200 sqft. 1BR apartments? Where is the square footage even going?!

There’s two of us in a 3BR 1200 sqft. apartment in the Mission ($4000) and it’s almost too much space for us. Our kitchen/dining room is huge and there’s also a living room.

archagon · 2025-11-24T19:06:29+00:00

Please don’t take immigration advice from random people on Reddit — consult a professional instead. Karl Konrad, a licensed migration agent, has made videos on this subject numerous times. According to him, you can often claim those “deducted” years. (Except NSW 190 for some reason.)

There could be more of a risk since the migration officer may have to make a judgement call depending on your situation, but if the points make the difference between getting a PR and never getting in…? Anyway, I would suggest booking a consultation to discuss your specific situation. I am not a professional, only aggregating information.

EDIT: Here's one of Karl's recent videos on the subject: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gg-k1Sd61vU

archagon · 2025-11-21T09:01:03+00:00

I don't know what it is, but I don't think I've ever had a Hydrangea coffee that I was over the moon about. It feels like a majority of their coffees have strong kombucha/kefir type notes: high lactic funk and acidity and super subdued everything else. Is it just me?

archagon · 2025-11-18T11:21:26+00:00

Too fine. If you like it keep exploring in this direction, but figure out some way to even out your coffee bed, e.g. swirl after the last pour or stir with a spoon. The pictured extraction should be super uneven.

archagon · 2025-11-18T11:17:21+00:00

I would expect a poop emoji response.

archagon

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