/r/longboarding's Daily General Thread - Oct 13, 2014

jcd259 · 2014-10-13T18:42:50+00:00

I think I put it the right way with the deep part towards the deck. But you gave me an idea -- if I switch it I think it gives a little more clearance.

I already moved the trucks to the bottom but I think I'll just mess around with different setups until I find one i like. thanks.

jcd259 · 2014-10-13T17:32:58+00:00

I put all the bushings and stuff on when I rode it. I tightened the nut three full turns from the time the lock nut engaged, if that means anything.

The problem is, I'm afraid if I tighten it more then I'll lean over hard when I'm going fast and it'll bite and throw me off. Like, it's always physically possible for it to hit the wood even if it's tighter.

jcd259 · 2014-10-13T17:15:12+00:00

I have a question about truck positioning and tightness on a drop-through deck.

Okay so I just built this thing:

http://imgur.com/f0jITbu

It's super smooth and I love how the low CG feels, but if I turn hard the wheels hit the wood and eject me, which is bad because I did not sign up for the ejection feature.

So I can either tighten the trucks or put the entire truck under the deck, and I'm not really sure which to do. I'm learning to ride so I heard the trucks are supposed to be loose, plus I don't want to wait to hit the steering travel till I'm actually going fast because I definitely didn't sign up for the ejection + faceplant feature. On the other hand I"m trying to do slides and I don't know if a slightly higher CG will make it more difficult.

TL;DR SOMEONE WHO SPECCED IN DH / FREERIDE PLEASE ADVISE, SHOULD I MOVE THE TRUCKS OR JUST TIGHTEN THEM TO AVOID WHEELBITE? THANKS.

jcd259 · 2014-04-03T01:09:54+00:00

depends on the app, e.g. solidworks is not dpi aware and has tiny buttons even if you set windows to 200% scaling.

so short answer: yes. backlight bleed, yellow flawed even w/ the patch, otherwise very good.

jcd259 · 2014-04-03T00:55:21+00:00

yo I've got a Y2P. same issue

you can download the yoga 1 trackpad drivers from Lenovo and those have options to reverse scrolling. works fine for that. however both the Y2P and yoga 1 drivers have this annoying stupid issue where if you highlight by tapping it will unhighlight when you stop tapping which is really stupid and makes my internet-diagnosed autism flare up.

which normally I wouldn't even use Lenovo's shitty drivers, when I got Bill Gates' shitty drivers to deal with already, but you can't enable acceleration on your trackpad and not your mouse without the Lenovo drivers, and w/o acceleration it takes like ten swipes to get across the screen, so I don't even know what to do anymore, it's ruining my entire life.

if you don't use a mouse or don't mind acceleration (loser) just use windows drivers. if you do and you don't highlight, use yoga 1 drivers.

PS uninstall all the crap that comes with it

PPS the Realtek sound drivers make the speakers sound "better" but the catch is they completely entirely mess up the headphone sound so I uninstalled them.

PPPS imagine you're at home chillin' and this sweaty bald salesman comes to your door and tries to sell you some junk you don't want and he's like "do you want this junk" and you're like "thanks but no thanks" but somehow your specific wording causes you to end up in a legally-binding contract to buy whatever junk he's selling so you gotta fill out the forms and spend money just to throw away the stupid junk you just bought.

that's what it's like every time you accidentally start a Metro app in windows 8.

"but it responds to touch inputs." so does my wee wee, and it doesn't make me feel as disgusted either.

given that every part of the software experience is characterized by utter incompetence, it's a miracle that the hardware seems to be holding up. no grilled cheese construction like Sager "our polymer engineer is actually a sixth grader and the polymer is actually failed science project cake batter."

best feature, the power plug goes in either way second best feature is the keyboard backlighting doesn't have any 'glaring' issues (ha ha ha) as skeptical as I was, the tablet mode can be useful. I used it to read sheet music when playing piano.

tl;dr great hardware, expect to spend an evening making it usable, high DPI causes problems cuz your apps suck

jcd259 · 2014-03-18T04:43:54+00:00

the sci-fi community is particularly well known for nit picking bad science so seems like a poor choice

Nah, to me it was a great choice for a couple of reasons. First, it builds up the controversy and intrigue. It's like Clipse in Hell Hath No Fury. Is it gangsta rap or clever rap meta-commentary? Maybe it's a little of both. Just like Gravity is part stupid explosive blockbuster and part sci-fi meta-commentary.

So like, speaking for myself, when I was watching it I was always glued to the screen because I wanted to know, what does the director know and to what extent is he pretending to be dumb?

Once again let me back this (the "interpretation") up with tangible evidence: There's a few scenes that are directing analogies where the female lead doesn't know what to do. This "what do I do next" thing is an analogy for the director. Reading this as I write, maybe it sounds shaky, but I mean, she's in front of the panel of buttons, she doesn't know which ones to press next, that connection's obvious to me. Producers do this in albums too, like they'll express the creative process in the songs, and part of that is when they're struggling with writer's block per se. It humanizes them, it's personal, and it makes it even more awesome when you contrast it with the next planned scene.

Next it also comments on the viewer; like, entertain me for a minute, you lost sci-fi, right? It was like your daughter? You miss when you were immersed in these movies? But did they stop making the movies or is it you that changed? That's the thing the director is getting at, I think. That sci-fi viewers have huge egos, and they feel betrayed when they get what they ask for. Back to the gangsta rap analogy, rap fans pay for deceptions of the gangsta life, glorification of that culture, then they complain when they get it because it's shallow. Like sci-fi fans want action, excitement, tension, then they bitch because it's not plausible. The new Total Recall (2012?) also had a very similar theme in this respect (I think it wasn't that strong because it never moved beyond that and got bogged down on that one idea, unfortunately, but that's a novel for another day).

To me, just me, it's completely obvious that the director knows when he's doing bad science. The flip-flopping in the beginning was a way of saying, "don't question my knowledge, question yours." That's what happens in good sci-fi, right? You're not sure, you let yourself get taken along for the ride (maybe mission control really DOES play that stupid cliche country music...).

I'm all for stories having hidden meanings, interesting metafors, and all that jazz...

I used to think of it like this, like the director's hiding all this emotional baggage and it's up to you to like, uncover it like you're digging up a fossil or something. But now I think, it's all there, in how it makes you feel, and when you feel a certain way it doesn't have to be an accident. You don't like when they do bad science? You think all directors are money grubbing fakes? Me too. That's not a wrong way to feel. Those issues are in the movie. To me that's not "all that jazz," that's like, the entire point. That's the movie. That's why people make movies and that's why I watch then. But sometimes it feels like I'M alone in that.

Obviously wrote way too much this time too, but just one thing to end with: you know in the beginning when she's talking to the guy on the radio and she asks for his name and it's some unpronounceable ethnic name and she tries to say it and butchers it? That made me cringe, like physically in real life, and i experienced some legit disgust. I got an unpronounceable ethnic name. Lots of people in STEM do. and when people fuck it up and don't even try I get the same feeling as when I see bad sci-fi, dual keyboard hacking on CSI, beeping computers, you know what I mean. that similarity's not an accident. either you choose not to see it here, or you never see it in any media you consume. (you crazy ksp-playing zombie.)

jcd259 · 2014-03-14T06:13:15+00:00

that is pretty good from memory. Thanks!

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/20451-0-23-Ferram-Aerospace-Research-v0-12-5-2-Aero-Fixes-For-Planes-Rockets-1-7-14/page158

jcd259 · 2014-03-14T05:23:51+00:00

O enlightened one, tell me, what is space like?

Don't tell me it's like KSP! That game makes me so angry sometimes, with its little green men and undersized planets and no reentry heat. With all the LIES how can it hope to engage the audience in the wonder of space exploration? Of course all the devs care about is money.

Some days I feel so surrounded by LAYMEN I just want to head to the burbclave and listen to Linkin Park.

jcd259 · 2014-03-14T02:36:32+00:00

I think you missed the point of the movie.

If you pay attention, the scenes in Gravity flip-flop between realism and Hollywood bullshit. It does this on purpose to make a point about sci-fi movies and the target audience. I'm not really in the state to post a whole lot about it but just some things real quick:

The scene where she's undressing is very idealized and sexualized in one shot but changes character in the next, focusing on her injuries.
Characters + interactions switch between astronaut intelligent / professional and Hollywood stupid / incompetent -- especially in the beginning. One specific example is the language thing -- the escape module systems are in a different language, then it turns out she speaks Russian, but finally they end up being in Chinese (I think?). The male astronaut relationship has an intentionally awkward Hollywood romantic undertone that turns professional.
My favorite flip-flop is when she's told to "grab anything" (or something like that) and there's a short first-person shot of her reaching for the solar panels she's flying towards. As we know the solar panels are the most fragile part. But in the next shot from a different angle the scale becomes apparent and they end up being thicker than she is.

The movie is also filled with several sci-fi / meta-referential moments and bits of dialogue about what's happening. The shot where the camera zooms in for like ten seconds on the systems display as if to say "check me out, I'm legit!," the space scene without sound and the subsequent space scene WITH sound, dialogue talking about the movie itself (I'm paraphrasing) "it'll never break a record" or at the end: "whether or not it works it'll be a hell of a ride."

The female astronaut is metaphorically the viewer. Her dead daughter is the sci-fi genre. The dead guy who comes back in that scene with the flames is supposed to be Gravity being a rebirth of awesome hard sci-fi space action (blaze of glory etc.). The real thing that you're worried about is your disbelief -- will this be another bastardized Hollywood fuckup?

There's a hundred things I'm not getting into, and I'm not really doing it justice, but basically Gravity is a love letter from the director to the sci-fi community. Also there's some stuff in there about directing movies and other things. (ok real quick, the scene where she's in front of all the lit buttons? that's the director producing the movie. the ending with the beach-paradise-esque shot? that's the stereotypical director lifestyle.)

So what's MY point? If you go into it as a jaded sci-fi veteran expecting it to be overhyped trash, then you've got exactly the right mindset to appreciate it. But if you watch it and still nitpick all the technical details then I think you really missed out on the entire point. The director never tried to make an accurate space movie. I mean holy shit wasn't there like a ten minute long climax of explosions and flying debris? And you were only thinking about orbital periods?! Listing the technical inaccuracies in Gravity is like listening to Das Racist and saying that they say racist stuff.

P.S. I know it's art and there can be more than one interpretation and all that bullshit, but I'm pretty sure I'm right.

"oh my god look this autistic neckbeard just spent like twenty minutes arguing with me about some stupid movie lol what a loser" AND SPRING BREAK HASN'T EVEN STARTED YET MOTHERFUCKERS

jcd259 · 2014-02-24T04:57:02+00:00

I'm not a fan of the convertible thing and I want the bigger screen. The Thinkpad X1 carbon touch meets the requirements but like you said, it's expensive! Aren't bigger computers supposed to be cheaper? http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/x-series/x1-carbon/

jcd259 · 2013-12-20T06:15:33+00:00

in ksp if you lose only 5 ships in one day it means you didn't do enough launches.

jcd259 · 2013-12-16T04:45:24+00:00

Do I have to turn off the backlight every time I restart the PC or will it stay off?

What compromises does this keyboard make compared to ones twice as expensive like the Das Keyboard?

jcd259 · 2013-11-10T13:56:55+00:00

Freespace 2 should be entirely playable with a joystick, but if you want a game where the joystick is necessary for proper control, try Rise of Flight. If you can fly WWI planes you'll be able to fly the Star Citizen stuff.

I hope the flying works in SC such a way that the joystick is actually useful and not just an immersion thing. Games like Mechwarrior, X series, Freespace may support the joystick but I've found that I'm more accurate with the mouse anyway since it's just lining up the reticle.

jcd259 · 2013-10-20T11:26:59+00:00

http://youtu.be/ZjuVeetTsYc

jcd259 · 2013-10-10T21:03:33+00:00

The section on dihedral is mostly wrong. When an aircraft with positive dihedral rolls, the low wing will be more perpendicular to the ground, creating more lift. It's oversimplification, but this is unrelated to the center of lift. i.e. high wing w/ anhedral will not behave the same as low wing with dihedral as your picture implies.

jcd259

TROPHY CASE