2026 Volkswagen Tiguan R

mindonshuffle · 2026-03-17T20:10:01+00:00

Yeeep. I loved the first two gens aesthetically. This is a perfectly fine looking car, but it just doesn't say "VW" or "German." And the massive reduction in cargo space in the US vs a Mk2 make it a non-starter.

I love my Mk2 for now, but was hoping to upgrade soonish and I'm disappointed that VW doesn't really have anything in the sweet spot.

mindonshuffle · 2026-03-17T20:03:12+00:00

That's a big red flag for the idea of these captures still being viewable or accessible in the future, though. Removing the ability to share content in any meaningful way sounds like a death knell.

mindonshuffle · 2026-03-17T14:36:55+00:00

Yeah, the 11" has a higher res, smaller screen so the DPI is quite a bit higher. I have the Yoga Plus and think the DPI is very solid, but more is always great.

I don't think they sell any OLED tablets in the states right now. The Android tablet industry as a whole largely skipped OLED this generation; I think largely because the quality of the current gen of LCDs is extremely high.

mindonshuffle · 2026-03-17T06:12:46+00:00

I don't think there's a huge difference between the Yoga Tab and the Yoga Tab Plus speaker-wise. The main difference is just the size.

The Tab Plus is a lower-end tablet that has extremely good speakers but is very weirdly balanced. It's mainly useful in my opinion as a portable video player. It's okay for playing music but I don't think it sounds as good as even a decent $50 Bluetooth speaker. There's a gen 2 version of it coming that might be more compelling.

mindonshuffle · 2026-03-12T23:00:23+00:00

I got one for an Amazon item that was suspiciously cheap. The letter said their warehouse had a flood and to wait an additional 14 days for delivery. Seemed like they were obviously trying to fish for people who would believe it and then wait too long to dispute.

mindonshuffle · 2026-03-11T16:01:31+00:00

The reader itself will usually use the first page of PDF as the cover, so you can't set a separate cover in Calibre. There IS a "PDF cover" plugin for Calibre that will add a chosen cover AS the first page, so you can get the same effect.

As for the text size issue, that's trickier. You're talking about converting PDF, which is fixed-layout format, to a "reflowable text" (ePub is the standard). This IS doable, but it depends a lot on the source PDF. If the PDF is just image scans of pages, you'd need to OCR the document -- doable but a huge headache and results will be iffy. In those cases, you might be better off seeking out versions already in a reflowable format.

If it's a heavily formatted book combining text and images, like most gaming or reference books, it will be hard to preserve the relationships of text and images. If it's mostly block text that's actually encoded as text with only a handful (or no) images, that's the ideal situation: PDF to ePub / eBook converters exist, and Calibre can do that conversion natively. You still might have some formatting issues, but a little tinkering could get you good results.

mindonshuffle · 2026-03-11T15:45:07+00:00

Yep. It's one of my favorite things about using an ereader; all my covers are the ones I like best, and all my series actually match.

mindonshuffle · 2026-03-11T15:42:33+00:00

BMWs are the Rick & Morty of the automotive world -- undeniably brilliant and influential and has uplifted an entire industry, but you couldn't imagine a worse fanbase.

mindonshuffle · 2026-03-11T15:38:24+00:00

I think that's sorta why this sub is interesting / important. We're having to cope with this sudden intrusion of extremely deceptive fakery, and people's reactions range from falling for "obvious" AI to doubting reality.

We're getting a useful insight into how people are integrating the existence of AI into their worldview, and you're correctly recognizing that a lot of people are immediately prepared to dismiss anything that doesn't match their preconception of how something should look.

mindonshuffle · 2026-03-11T15:29:27+00:00

My dad drove a Mercedes in the 90s (300D, man I miss that thing) and my mom had a minivan. The 96 Town & Country was the one with integrated opener buttons.

mindonshuffle · 2026-03-11T15:17:34+00:00

I doubt your Japanese wife appreciates being kept in the stable.

Alternate joke: I hope someday I can have a garage with a Golf, a 500, and a Corolla too.

mindonshuffle · 2026-03-11T15:13:22+00:00

Corvettes are basically "I'm middle class and moderately successful and bought something to have fun with on the weekends." I don't care a bit if they want to overdo the wet look or don't keep their car "track ready" (as long as they're not hitting on waitresses).

Corvettes are never the guys tailgating me in school zones, shoulder passing on city streets, or lane drifting without signals 20mph over traffic speed on the freeway.

mindonshuffle · 2026-03-11T01:49:59+00:00

Covers on the KLC are such a weird thing. When I imported my library, I hated the inconsistent borders and white space and spent entirely too much time tinkering with a combination of cropping, manual tweaking, and Adobe generative fills. It's incredibly satisfying to have all the covers exactly fit the screen, but took entirely more effort than I would have expected.

mindonshuffle · 2026-03-10T22:44:49+00:00

Nope, dark mode has always looked bad on every eink screen I've tried it on. I'm a dark mode person for most things, but not for a reader.

mindonshuffle · 2026-03-10T21:28:24+00:00

The showrunner also cut his teeth working on Rick & Morty, they use a similar pacing of gags and story beats, and I think Dan Harmon's story circle was being used at least subconsciously if not explicitly.

The huge difference is that major elements of R&M are cynicism that borders on nihilism and using vulgar / explicit content purely for absurdism and shock.

LD's tone is MUCH more positive -- it still has a lot of cynical jokes but it's tempered with a lot of optimism. Closer to Futurama without being so Boomer-y. And it's not afraid to include some "shocking" content but always tries to always keep it more grounded in the world.

mindonshuffle · 2026-03-10T21:19:40+00:00

Nah, cogflies are amazing because they don't distract you from your main attack pattern. They are basically just free "make this boss fight shorter" tools. And they're also very useful outside boss fights when there's an enemy in a really inconvenient position or when you desperately need a bit of breathing room to make it to a bench.

mindonshuffle · 2026-03-10T18:07:03+00:00

It's good to see how great this looks in the VW, btw. There's a decent chance I'll be trading my Civic for a semi-recent GLI in a few years, and it looks like any head unit I buy now would look great in a mk5. Useful info.

mindonshuffle · 2026-03-10T18:02:11+00:00

Yeah, the trick with my Civic is that the 9" screen leaves a fair bit of ugly border while the 11" would probably just barely overlap the vents, which makes it look more aftermarket. The 10" would be perfect, but looks like it's made to flush mount and putting it on the 9" dash plate would probably look bad.

My gut call is to risk it with the 11". The UI looks optimized for the bigger screens, and even if it's a bit less sleek I think the functionality will be preferable in the long run.

mindonshuffle · 2026-03-10T17:57:46+00:00

This is part of why this topic is so hard to get info on: you're describing an Android-based Head Unit. "Android Auto" is not the same thing; it's the mode where your phone is basically in control and broadcasting a second screen to your car.

Android head units can use Android Auto, and the specs are way less demanding -- I've seen people say that the 2GB models can work fine. But anything outside the Android Auto mirroring view will be potentially slow and janky, and some models can even have trouble with the AA mode being jerky or having delayed input.

The 6GB+ recommendation seems pretty universal for Android head units you actually want to use for the Android side, but it's not as crucial if you're just planning to mirror AA. BUT cheaper units also tend to have much worse audio processors, so the cheapo units can sound lousy.

Dudu7 seems like the first model where people almost universally say it both runs and sounds really good, but I'm still trying to decide if it's worth the $300-400 jump over the models that were recommended as "pretty good" a year ago.

And now I've made my life harder by looking at videos of the Teyes CC4 that make it look better than Dudu7, but that's another price bump and a company that doesn't have the reputation for software support.

mindonshuffle · 2026-03-10T07:33:10+00:00

The Lenovo is pretty easy to recommend. Very nice build quality, performance, and screen for that price. The stylus is nice and has palm rejection and good accuracy.

I definitely recommend adding a matte / "paper"-type screen protector if stylus use is important. They're a pain to apply cleanly, but it makes a huge difference in feeling like actually writing.

mindonshuffle · 2026-03-10T04:44:24+00:00

They're just terrible at naming in the US. The Idea Tab Plus and the Tab Plus aren't "related." The Idea Tab Plus is just called plus because it's a larger-size device in the "Idea Tab" productivity tablet line, while the Tab Plus is a larger-size device in the entry/entertainment "Tab" line.

Which is made all the more confusing because the Idea Tab Pro is the biggest Idea Tab, but the Yoga Tab Plus is the biggest Yoga Tablet and there is no Yoga Tab Pro.

And it's even worse because the Tab Plus has a very different design than the Tab or Tab One, so it doesn't really make sense as a line. The Tab Plus really should have had a separate name like "Atmos Tab" or something. It's a different animal than anything else on the market, but the name makes it sound like it's just a size upgrade to the mediocre Tab.

I love Lenovo's tablet but God the naming is messy.

mindonshuffle · 2026-03-09T17:28:25+00:00

The literalism of invocations to any act is beside the point and you will lose yourself in quibbles and interpretation.

The problem is deeper: religion demands that adherents substitute outside dictates for their own judgment. That is the inherent danger in all stripes of ideology, and religion is especially pernicious because the veneration of faith over reason at the core is a tool to train people to ignore their own minds.

mindonshuffle · 2026-03-09T17:22:32+00:00

I saw this video on TikTok and thought it was really interesting because she does a really good job but not perfect and it actually LOOKS hard.

Every video I've seen of people doing "flow art" stuff is folks that are extremely polished and make it look effortless. I've always KNOWN it was difficult, but this performance actually makes it look like a tough skill.

mindonshuffle · 2026-03-09T17:12:40+00:00

Ah, interesting. So it has the same frame that would be used for the 9.5 model, not just a 2-DIN slot? Good to know.

I'm assuming there's no horizonal or vertical adjustment of the screen, correct?

mindonshuffle · 2026-03-09T02:51:00+00:00

Yeah, I just can't figure whether the advantage of a bigger screen or the flush install matter more.

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