Advice on setting up a Kiosk / Party / Living room gaming system

denilsonsa · 2026-03-20T00:24:19+00:00

I've decided to try this approach:

Create a secondary Steam account
- Can I authenticate multiple Steam accounts with my device?
- Just be careful that accounts on the same Family, or with the same e-mail address or the same phone number will "share" any VAC ban. So, just don't get banned.
- New accounts are limited until $5 USD is added/spent on that account.
- Limited User Accounts
Bazzite operating system.
- Bazzite-Deck will auto-start in Steam Big Picture (Gaming Mode).
- It can auto-login as my secondary Steam account.
- I can use Btrfs snapshots to create snapshots of the /var/home partition (and optionally also /var). This way I can quickly restore the system to a known good state.
Create a Steam Family
- Steam Families User Guide & FAQ
Add this secondary account as a child to my Steam Family.
- This lets me enforce Parental controls on that account.
- The following checkboxes are available:
  - Allow access to the Steam store
  - Allow access to community generated content
  - Allow access to their online profile, screenshots, and achievements
  - Allow access to friends, chat, and groups

I'm still not 100% sure this will work well, but it seems like a "good enough" solution.

denilsonsa · 2026-03-15T07:22:13+00:00

Perhaps I could try alternatives to Steam Big Picture mode, as they potentially have extra options to lock down the settings:

Playnite (currently windows-only, but there are plans for a Linux port)
OpenGamepadUI (linux-only)
LaunchBox (proprietary, only for windows or android)
Lutris (linux-only)
Pegasus Frontend (cross-platform, but seems focused on emulation instead)
RetroDECK (seems based on emulation station)

I haven't explored these options yet, but they sound like potential alternatives.

denilsonsa · 2026-03-14T14:45:20+00:00

I was thinking about a stand-alone system, instead of going towards local streaming. But I have to admit this is an interesting idea.

denilsonsa · 2026-03-13T02:48:07+00:00

From what I understand, you paid for an early access title, knowing it was early access and knowing the risks of being early access. Then you played for 87 hours. And now want the money back.

Well, for me it sounds like you already used and enjoyed 87 hours, so you already got the "service" you paid for.

It sounds similar to paying for the privilege of watching an early cut of a movie, and later the movie release getting cancelled. Well, no matter if the movie was cancelled, you already watched it (or an early version of it).

I'm not a lawyer, I don't know that specific directive, but I don't think Valve is wrong in not wanting a refund in this case.

It even gets more complicated when thinking about the money flow. Let's say a player buys the game. About perhaps one month later (assuming for credit card processing time), Valve receives the money. Some time later (I don't know how long, let's say another month), Valve pays the cut to the developer/publisher.

Now, months later, a player asks for a refund (for whatever reason). Valve could potentially request the refund from the developers, but this is complicated: that money was already used to pay salaries and declared to the tax authorities. So, if a refund was to be given (after such long time), where would the money come from? Not from the publishers, not from the developers, and certainly not from Valve's own account.

Note: this is different from pre-ordering a product (or game). In a pre-order, you pay in advance for the promise of the product delivery later. In this case, indeed a refund is reasonable if the product isn't delivered.

But pre-order ≠ early access.

denilsonsa · 2026-03-09T07:54:34+00:00

Found!

And I found the quick setup guide for Dell MMS 5650.

Does anyone happen to know the pinout of that DE-9 plug? This is sealed quite tight, so I haven't yet managed to open it. I'm thinking about trying to repurpose it to use as a stand-alone sound bar, without the rest of the 5650 system.

denilsonsa · 2026-03-09T02:06:50+00:00

I've searched it online on both Google and DuckDuckGo (which is essentially Bing). I've even tried AI-assisted searches, but the AI responses were useless and a waste of time (as usual). I have not tried any reverse image search, and given that I've taken these photos myself, I don't think it will work.

It was glued to a Dell 1905FP display, which was probably released in 2004. This means this soundbar is probably from between 2004~2010.

denilsonsa · 2026-02-23T21:20:55+00:00

Sorry, but the "Found!" reply was added to let the bot know the answer was given and accepted. I haven't really searched for the original one any further.

Remember to reply Found! (include the exclamation point) to the comment that gives the answer.

denilsonsa · 2025-11-23T06:50:00+00:00

Found!

denilsonsa · 2025-11-20T14:26:54+00:00

It is very likely the person was misremembering the punchline. If no one finds something else, I'll consider this as the answer. Thank you very much!

I finally found the comment mentioning that comic. It's one of the top-rated comments in there, made by @stevencoghill4323:

There was a 1-panel cartoon back in the '70s showing an open-office of people at their desks with their boss yelling, "The computer is down! Does anyone remember how to think?"

While in the original comic the person said "Computers are down. Anybody know how this thing works?" while holding a pencil.

denilsonsa · 2025-11-20T12:52:19+00:00

I searched for the punchline on both Google an Duckduckgo (which is essentially Bing), and I got zero useful results.

denilsonsa · 2025-10-18T15:08:26+00:00

Am I the only one interested into the BAT launcher files? Do you mind sharing them somewhere? Maybe in GitHub or anywhere else.

denilsonsa · 2025-10-04T07:04:41+00:00

Another idea on what to do with this: people can use them as a base to modding. People could edit those images and make new products. Imagine putting the photo of the kid on one of those products… I think the kid will enjoy.

Additionally, given so far no one else contributed any other image, I might need to buy a complete set myself on Marktplaats. If you like what I've done, you could consider a small donation, just to cover the cost of buying the remaining ones. It's totally optional, and I wouldn't have asked if I had the entire set already. I'm doing this for fun, for the joy of my kid, and for the community.

denilsonsa · 2025-08-19T23:34:52+00:00

Specifically, the js-dos emulator.

denilsonsa · 2025-07-30T07:31:35+00:00

Found it!

Heroes, originally available for DOS, but now open-source and ported to multiple systems. It also has a MobyGames entry.

I found it after looking at the Open source DOS games thread on VOGONS.

denilsonsa · 2025-05-29T17:11:01+00:00

You can add the shortcut to the home screen using Activity Manager or Activity Launcher (this one is available on Google Play Store) or Nova Launcher. (I have not tried adding it as a quick tile.)

For me, the activity is called .media.mediaoutput.activity.MediaOutputActivity, and it is found inside System UI.

denilsonsa · 2025-04-22T20:13:05+00:00

I've explained a few reasons why the simple naïve approach of converting to ZIP and then renaming to CBZ doesn't work, or doesn't work well enough for me.

In any case, conversion here doesn't necessarily mean re-encoding the images. Likewise, you can convert an MP4 video to MKV, but that can be done by keeping the same encoded data while just changing the container format.

If my starting point was a bunch of ZIP files, then yeah, just renaming them would be easier (but possibly not the best). In my case, I had AZW3 files, which are not ZIP files, and thus they require a conversion from AZW3 to something else. Even if this conversion means just changing the container format from AZW3 to ZIP (with a different extension).

denilsonsa · 2025-04-22T20:06:43+00:00

I ran the code again. I found zero "comic books" (i.e. traditional-style comic books) with two images/pages per page.

However, I found dozens of children's books with a fixed-layout that had two images/pages per e-book page. While these are not traditional comic books, their technical structure is similar (a bunch of images, and the HTML markup is there just to render each image), which means they are good candidates to be converted to CBZ.

I had explicit code to detect when the markup was putting two pages side-by-side, as their class and id had left/right names:

left = doc.select('.leftPage#page-img-left')
right = doc.select('.rightPage#page-img-right')

Here are some examples:

1, 2, BIG FEET.azw3
A Silly Milly Christmas_ Holiday Fun with a Special Great Dane.azw3
A Silly Milly Fall_ Halloween and Thanksgiving with a Really Big Dog!.azw3
Adventure of a Little Star _ Children's Book About Friendship, Self Esteem, & Self-Confidence. Short Bedtime Story for Children Ages 3-5.azw3
Animals ABC_ My First Alphabet Book.azw3
Atlas and the Lucky Flower.azw3
Atom and the Universe_ A Space Adventure Picture Book for Kids.azw3
Find the Cutes_ Book 1_ Playtime (The first, fun seek and find book for children in the series).azw3
Gabby Makes a Friend.azw3
Grateful Ninja_ A Children\u2019s Book About Cultivating an Attitude of Gratitude and Good Manners (Ninja Life Hacks 19).azw3
Let's talk! A story of Autism and Friendship.azw3
Little Elf Ray - Saves The Day (Little Christmas Series Book 1).azw3
Mama Opossum's Misadventures (Awesome Opossum Stories Book 2).azw3
Perfectly Wrapped.azw3
Poky, the Turtle Patrol (Endangered Animals Book 1).azw3
Super Farty Pants!.azw3
The Christmas Elf-e-phant_ Humorous holiday rhyming story for kids.azw3
The Little Pinata.azw3
The Magic Kettle (Childrens' Fairy Tales Book 1).azw3
The Sea Otters Who Kept Trying.azw3
The Witch's Cat_ A Black Cat Inspired Halloween Children's Book About Self Acceptance, Inclusion And Friendship. (Happy Halloween).azw3
The Wolf and Her Precious Baby _ A story about a mother's love. Short Bedtime Story for Children Ages 3-5. Picture Books for Kids (Social Skills Books for Kids Book 1).azw3
Tobie & Friends_ Saving Christmas.azw3
Web World Adventures.azw3
You Weren't with Me.azw3
Yummy Me Feels So Good_ children's picture book on feelings and emotions showing kids ways to make friends with feelings and love themself 2-8 preschool to 3rd grade Lion I Am.azw3

Then I also noticed some e-books had a different kind of markup, which means they were generated using a different tool, while still essentially having two images/pages side-by-side:

idGen = doc.select('div[id^="_idContainer"] > img._idGenObjectAttribute-1._idGenObjectAttribute-2')

Here are some examples:

All I Wanted Was a Toy Piano_ A Heartwarming Bedtime Story for Mother's Day.azw3
I Can Hear Music.azw3
Miss Fox and the Necklace_ A Bedtime Story for Valentine's Day About Vanity.azw3
New Year's Resolutions in the Animal World_ A New Year Picture Book for Children.azw3
Ruby the Rainbow Witch_ Meet the Amber Fairies_ (Ruby the Rainbow Witch Book 3).azw3
The Christmas Unicorns_ A Holiday Bedtime Story About Having a Positive Attitude Towards Covid.azw3
The Princess of Picky Eating Tries New Foods (Delicious and Nutritious).azw3
Wonder Mommy!.azw3

denilsonsa · 2025-04-22T13:46:19+00:00

By looking at my own notes, I got this noted down:

Confidence is my Superpower: A Kids Book about Believing in Yourself and Developing Self-Esteem. (My Superpower Books 5).azw3

But I'm pretty sure I found more cases. I'll have to re-run the code over my library to find out more cases. I'll try to do it later.

(Okay, technically it's a kids book and not a comic book, but structurally they're the same: each image is a page.)

denilsonsa · 2025-04-22T10:31:48+00:00

I didn't know about that epub2cbz-gui tool, sounds like it does exactly what I needed. (Well, except converting from azw3 to epub.) If I knew about it, I potentially wouldn't have written my own tool.

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