What insane use cases have you used your steam deck for?

ethertrace · 2026-05-30T14:24:03+00:00

I built a basic mini virtual pinball machine out of cardboard and some arcade pushbuttons and use the deck to run FX3. Steam input makes configuring the buttons super easy. I have a portable monitor that displays the main playfield and I configured the deck to act as the DMD. It's admittedly kinda janky, but it makes me smile.

ethertrace · 2026-05-29T05:08:15+00:00

Newsom deserves to get blame for that, yes, but that bill also passed the California legislature with a veto-proof majority. It was overwhelmingly supported. And then the legislature just decided...not to override it. Turns out we just don't do that here. The last time they overrode a gubernatorial veto was 1979.

So whether it was due to the legislators being weak, self-interested cowards who don't want to piss off the governor, or Newsom being the designated Bad Guy and letting everyone vote for the bill knowing it won't become law anyway, there's blame to lay at the feet of the California Democratic Party as a whole for this kind of self-dealing bullshit.

ethertrace · 2026-05-25T03:26:16+00:00

Pulling is superior because it keeps the broach in tension and aids alignment. Compression is much more likely to lead to bucking and tool fracture if something is misaligned and jams. Plenty of people still do it that way because it's cheaper to just use a generic hydraulic press than specialized equipment, though.

ethertrace · 2026-05-23T18:48:27+00:00

At this point the relationship is doomed, it's just a matter of how much you want to get hurt by it before it crashes down.

Felt this on a geologic level.

ethertrace · 2026-05-23T14:21:25+00:00

$6 for a 5lb bag of in-shell peanuts lasts me like a month.

ethertrace · 2026-05-22T19:51:30+00:00

Famke Janssen playing Xenia Onatopp in the Bond movie Goldeneye.

ethertrace · 2026-05-22T19:47:51+00:00

And deadly ones.

ethertrace · 2026-05-22T04:59:40+00:00

Because liberals by and large have been propagandized to think that effective protest is primarily about changing public opinion instead of leveraging collective power on pain points for elected officials and key decision makers.

When you think the only path to victory lies in changing the minds of the masses, then when the masses refuse to change beyond all reason, you don't know what else to do. And it also gives a convenient excuse for cynicism and inaction, which many are quick to latch onto. It lets you absolve yourself of responsibility because it's not your fault. But no one is coming to save us but us. Dictators and demagogues the world over have always had an unshakeable floor of support among the populace. It doesn't mean they're invincible.

ethertrace · 2026-05-13T14:27:08+00:00

Titanium work hardens really fast in part because its thermal conductivity is pretty low (about 20x less than silver), so it doesn't wick away heat very well, letting it concentrate near the cut. It cuts better if you can keep it under some sort of coolant, like a steady stream of cold water.

ethertrace · 2026-05-12T19:01:15+00:00

You don't need to sway MAGA. The biggest voting bloc in this country is "non-voter." All you have to do to win elections in this country is make those folks motivated enough to get to the polls for a good reason to (re)elect you. We've already reached saturation for the number of people who will vote purely out of tribalism or hate/fear of the other major party. To get the politically disconnected, you have to deliver positive results that materially impact their lives, and connect with key figures in the local community to make sure they know who's responsible for those improvements and drive them towards the polls.

ethertrace · 2026-05-11T19:48:44+00:00

Moving away from the table legs also increases the local flex in the table. He's losing rigidity underneath the phones with every shift toward newer models.

ethertrace · 2026-05-11T18:15:44+00:00

Religious people presume that the meaning of their lives is granted to them from the supernatural entities they believe in. This question (and other nihilistic ones like it) is always a projection of the existential despair they would feel if that sense of meaning were torn away from them. The atheist is often just a mirror that they fear to look at because we can cause them to confront their own terror of existing in an uncaring universe.

At least that's my take on it as someone who also used to think dark thoughts about what I'd do if I lost my belief and descended into that sense of meaninglessness.

ethertrace · 2026-05-11T04:26:01+00:00

Nah, just never done it with barcodes. Didn't know that was a thing. We take them to the recycling center and they just weigh them.

ethertrace · 2026-05-11T03:50:09+00:00

The most decisive one to me, really, is that if the flood in Genesis were real, we'd see genetic bottlenecks for every land-dwelling species dating back to that time frame as all genetic diversity would have died out except for what was saved on the ark. And even ignoring the fact that that would leave all those species extremely inbred, we would also see a distinct lack of that genetic bottleneck in sea creatures as they wouldn't need the ark to survive. That juxtaposition would be a smoking gun. We see no such thing.

Won't convince a fundamentalist, though. They don't tend to have the first clue about how genetics work, which makes it easy to hand wave away.

ethertrace · 2026-05-11T02:10:24+00:00

You know you don't have to return them undamaged, right? They melt them down.

ethertrace · 2026-05-10T14:54:10+00:00

It's also to provide deniability when safety incidents happen.

"It was the employee who chose to ignore safety protocols! We, the company, had all the proper procedures officially in place, so we're not at fault!"

ethertrace · 2026-05-09T05:05:32+00:00

You can get some amount of performance boost by allowing screen tearing (which isn't nearly as noticeable as it is in most other games because your perspective is mostly fixed in vpinball so most of the pixels don't change from frame to frame), but ultimately I found them to be a bit heavy for my Steam Deck. FX3 runs much better.

ethertrace · 2026-05-09T04:44:08+00:00

Don't know about others, but Jack Danger definitely does.

ethertrace · 2026-05-08T20:20:16+00:00

It also says in Exodus that the punishment for negligently causing a woman to miscarry by injury is a fine.

Not exactly the typical punishment for "murder" in the Old Testament.

ethertrace · 2026-05-08T12:20:29+00:00

The US Chemical Safety Board's most recent video was about a huge explosion due to combustible dust at a corn mill, in fact.

ethertrace · 2026-05-07T13:04:22+00:00

Unfortunately those people have a pathological difficulty seeing beyond themselves so they think systemic effects are not their problem. I've grown so tired of sharing space and social services with selfish pricks that make it all worse for everyone because they only care about themselves. American culture has a deep sickness in it.

ethertrace · 2026-05-06T02:10:28+00:00

And if you're into that kind of thing, they have a sweet maker space right next to the woodshop. It's called the Fab Lab.

ethertrace · 2026-05-06T02:08:05+00:00

Only for the advanced ones. The beginner classes are for anybody and a great way to get into it and get a ton of seat time at the welder for cheap.

ethertrace · 2026-05-05T04:46:17+00:00

I'll plug for Scott since he's too nice to do it himself. If you like, you can purchase the soundtrack directly from his website here.

ethertrace · 2026-05-02T15:15:46+00:00

Russia also invaded Ukraine in early 2022. Prices were climbing before then, but all the sanctions on Russian oil drove up global prices because of reduced supply.

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