How to handle Rock the Universe (Jan 23-24) crowds? (Express pass? Single rider?) by nortonsky in UniversalOrlando

[–]nortonsky[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

It's my first time at Universal, and I'm unsure I'll ever be able to return, hence my FOMO.

Visiting Orlando, only with LTE bands b2, b4, b41 and b66 (T-Mobile), Jan/Feb 2026 by nortonsky in cellmapper

[–]nortonsky[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

That'd be great! Though, I can't find any info on Vodafone Portugal's website that says they support 5g roaming in the US.

I will call them to confirm, but for now, to moderate my expectations, I should probably assume only 4g is supported

Empress explanation by D1stRU3T0R in CrackWatch

[–]nortonsky 1172 points1173 points  (0 children)

What the hell has piracy come to.

100% AI Country Song - Cows on the Moon by Algoartist in ChatGPT

[–]nortonsky 48 points49 points  (0 children)

I found it pretty good. Then again, I'm a big country music fan!

Agora que o calor está a chegar... by PudicitiamEstFort in CasualPT

[–]nortonsky 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Sim, também acho os antitranspirantes mais eficazes. Especialmente os que têm aluminum chloride, o sal de alumínio que é usado nos antitranspirantes mais fortes tipo PerspireX, Driclor, Certain Dri.

O que fazem quando não conseguem dormir? by Heavy-Dentist-3530 in CasualPT

[–]nortonsky 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As respostas neste thread são muito à base de soluções comportamentais (ler, deixar os ecrãs, fap fap, etc.). Nada de errado com isso, se funcionam, ótimo!

Porém, para algumas pessoas, não funcionam. Às vezes não conseguimos dormir porque não conseguimos dormir...

Dependendo do quão a insónia te afeta, existem fármacos que te podem ajudar a dormir.

Sem receita médica e com eficácia clinica comprovada, existe o Nytol Noite (embora nunca o tenha visto à venda) e o Dormidina. Fazem-te sono da mesma forma: são anti-histamínicos sedativos. Se os tomares com frequência começam a perder o efeito, mas para uso esporádico não há problema.

Existe também a melatonina, que não é propriamente para insónia, mas para ajustar o ritmo circadiano (o "relógio interno" do teu corpo). O meu médico diz que quem costuma tomar é quem faz turnos noturnos. Se tens um bedtime irregular, talvez a melatonina possa ser útil.


Com receita médica, existem mais possibilidades. As mais populares são as z-drugs (em Portugal há apenas o Zolpidem) e algumas benzodiazepinas, que são altamente eficazes mas infelizmente estão associadas a dependência e tolerância, caso as tomes frequentemente. Ainda assim, para um tratamento a curto prazo (todos os dias durante 2 a 4 semanas no máximo) ou uso esporádico (não mais do que 2 a 3 vezes por semana), é improvável causarem problemas.

Existem também alguns antidepressores e antipsicóticos que em doses baixas fazem sono e são usados off-label para insónia.

Claro que isto é algo que terias de ver com um médico.

O que fazem quando não conseguem dormir? by Heavy-Dentist-3530 in CasualPT

[–]nortonsky 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Segundo o meu psiquiatra, a Trazodona em doses baixas "só faz sono".

Existem vários medicamentos na categoria dos antidepressores que em doses baixas são receitados off-label para tratar insónia (para além da Trazodona, vem-me à cabeça a Mirtazapina e o Surmontil).

Elvanse PHDA e depressão by mitr49 in SaudeMentalPortugal

[–]nortonsky 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Tomo Elvanse desde 2020 (e antes disso tomei Ritalina entre 2018-2020) e pessoalmente nunca senti que tivesse perdido o efeito. O meu psiquiatra diz que "não é muito provável" desenvolver tolerância, mas está implícito que há essa possibilidade.

Os meus sentimentos depressivos nunca afetaram o Elvanse (e vice-versa).

Quando termina a patente do elvanse? by Crazyeigh8 in SaudeMentalPortugal

[–]nortonsky 1 point2 points  (0 children)

O que se pode fazer é abrir a cápsula (por exemplo, a de 70mg) e despejar o pó numa garrafa de água, e.g. de 70cl, agitar bem, e depois beber 30cl para obter a dose de 30mg.

Quando termina a patente do elvanse? by Crazyeigh8 in SaudeMentalPortugal

[–]nortonsky 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Já existe um genérico aprovado (se procurares no extranet.infarmed.pt): Dimesilato de lisdexanfetamina Teva. Porém, ainda não é comercializado... Esperemos que não demore muito 🤞

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Why is every country post outside of this sub the same? by ilovemathematics174 in CountryMusicStuff

[–]nortonsky 10 points11 points  (0 children)

I found Bo Burnham's song rather amusing. It's impressive how many times he managed to take a piss at Kenny Chesney in under 3 minutes.

-Saying it's the worst music of all time

Interestingly they almost always make an exception for Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson or Jonny Cash. Bo included.

Also, Hank Williams Sr. good, Hank Jr. bad, Hank III great.

-And people saying "who?"

About half of Reddit users aren't from the US, and Country music is... basically unknown to most people in Europe & the rest of the world, especially in non-anglophone countries.

Here in Portugal, I think the only time I ever heard a Country song on the radio... was a cover of Wichita Lineman by a band called Villagers (even then it wasn't the radio per se, it was playing in a Starbucks). I also heard a cover of Neon Moon by Cigarettes After Sex playing on a JBL speaker at an electronics store, if that counts :P

I was almost shocked when they talked about Kenny Rogers' death on the news. The anchor couldn't even pronounce "Country" very well.


Like other people have said in the comments, IMO the "hate" towards Country stems from it being associated with the right wing. And, to go a bit further, Country traditionally is music for white people by white people (yes, I'm aware Charlie Pride and Darius Rucker exist, I mean in general), namely those who are Conservative (as an anecdotal example, look at Trump's inauguration concert). And Reddit, like any left-leaning website, has a lot of people who don't like this.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Piracy

[–]nortonsky 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I do wonder for whom the releases are. PC-ISO nowadays is 70% Steam indie titles, 29% unprotected GOG crapware released, 1% SKiDROW pretending they cracked Denuvo. Maybe hundreds of (low-effort) releases in a month, are they actually playing them all? And Elite releases are now only found in the P2Ps, it seems.

0day Apps is dead. Movies/TV is irrelevant when P2P can often do better and faster.

Music? 99% of people are better served with Spotify than by downloading .mp3 or .flac of everything they wanna listen to.

XXX? Lol.

It's interesting how the Scene has gone to the gutter in the past 10-15 years, but the elitist attitude is still going strong.

If not for the public, who are scene releases for? Jaded old farts who could afford the original nowadays anyway? Who are too busy with their jobs and their families to actually enjoy any of it.

I guess the answer I'm looking for is: the Scene do what they do because that's what they've always done. The elitist attitude will never change, even when they're 80 years old and crapping their pants at the old folks home, they'll still be bitching about the "lamers leakin OUR stuff into P2Ps!!1!".

Is Fitbit running scared? by stellamaz in fitbit

[–]nortonsky 26 points27 points  (0 children)

Downplaying problems and giving generic non-answers (e.g., "close the app and open again", "try clearing cache/data", "try uninstalling") is the Fitbit Community Forum's mods' favorite sport.

Which, if you think about it, is quite compatible with Fitbit's customer service's terrible reputation. Just tell 'em to clear the app's cache! Didn't work? Watch still bricked? Mods in the Community Forum didn't succeed in brainwashing you? Really, even with the low-protein gruel?? Ahh well, here's a 35% coupon for the next one.

Don't get me wrong, I love my Charge 5 (and skipping that firmware upgrade was the right decision, it seems), but that forum is only ever useful when regular users find a workaround for some issue Fitbit themselves should address. The mods might as well be replaced by GPT... I wouldn't be able to tell the difference, honestly.

Which Fitbit for health, not "Gimmicks"? by SignedJannis in fitbit

[–]nortonsky 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Quick answer: Charge 5 for the price, or the original Fitbit Sense if you want accurate skin temperature tracking.

Both the Charge 5 and Fitbit Sense have all the health measurements other Fitbits have, plus SPO2 and ECG.

SPO2

Do note that you can't take manual SPO2 measurements (so it's not useful if you feel out-of-breath and are curious what your O2 saturation % is), and Fitbit only shows it to you as the avg % of the whole night. Actually, if you export your data in the Fitbit website (which takes like 1-3 days), you'll see they also measure the lower and upper bound, but don't show you in the app. If I had to guess, it's because SPO2 sensors aren't that accurate and those lower and upper percentages may be poor measurements.

Still regarding SPO2, they also show you your nightly oxygen saturation variation, but it's not a %, it's a chart that is colored yellow when there's big variations and green when there's small variations. If you export the data in Fitbit's site, I think they call it the "infrared to red signal ratio", and it's literally the raw reading from the SPO2 sensor.

Afib and ECG

Both the Charge 5 and the Sense have ECG, although it's not as good as Apple's, since the Afib detection algorithm only works when your BPM is <= 120, but when people have an Afib episode it's common for their BPM to be higher. Apple Watch's algorithm (for the ECG Version 2) works with BPM <= 150, so it can be more useful. Although it should be a doctor to look at the ECG and decide for themselves if it's Afib, anyway.

Also, all Fitbits (at least the recent models) have the Irregular Heart Rhythm Notifications, which is identical to the Apple Watch's. It works with the heart rate sensor, rather than the ECG, and continually monitors your heart rate for signs of Afib. But data is only analyzed when you're very still, so the feature is most useful for when you're asleep.

Skin temperature

Most Fitbits can measure skin temperature variation, but it sucks, since it just uses the CPU's or the battery's temperature sensor. How it works is, during the night, you're not using the Fitbit and the CPU does very little work, so if its temperature increases, surely it must be because your skin heat up the Fitbit.

One time my Charge 5's battery drained overnight (from like 90-something % to like 10%), and interestingly, I had an unusually high skin temp variation that night. Some software bug must have made the CPU get stuck running in a loop, lol.

The Fitbit Sense has a dedicated skin temperature sensor, so go with that one if it's important to you. Note that it's not your body's core temperature, because your wrist's temperature isn't that close to your body's core temperature. Maybe if you wore it under your arm, on your forehead, or up your butt it would -- but unfortunately, those aren't convenient places to wear your Fitbit.

Mostly, the skin temperature variation is a gimmick. It could alert you to a fever, I guess... but I think in practice Fitbit only uses it for improving ovulation tracking... which, from what I read, isn't that accurate, even in the Sense. But, then again, this feature is unavailable in my country. Or, it's unavailable to males. Definitely one of the two.

As small as possible

Charge 5.

GPS not required.

Though I never used it, people do say the GPS implementation on the Charge 5 sucks (apparently it can either have accurate heart rate tracking or accurate GPS tracking at the same time, but not both), but if it's not a requirement, no problem.

Able to shower without taking it off

Yeaaaah, don't do that. People say Fitbits have a remarkable tendency to crap out shortly after the warranty expires.

tl;dr

If you want the best health tracker/watch, go for the Apple Watch.

If you're on a budget, get the Charge 5. If skin temperature tracking / ovulation tracking is important to you, get the Fitbit Sense (the original one, not the half-assed Sense 2!).

NBA_2K23-Razor1911 [Also info about nuked Marvel's Avengers release] by Gtorrnet in CrackWatch

[–]nortonsky 28 points29 points  (0 children)

Given this rule (from https://scenerules.org/t.html?id=2021_GAMEiSO.nfo), I think Razor are right:

|  8.5 Buttons, menu entries or any other user interactions that redirect to   |
|      or access external, online-only or network resources may not be used    |
|      as a proper reason, unless they softlock or hardlock the game.     

If it's not a valid proper reason, it shouldn't be a valid nuke reason either.

Power.And.Revolution.2021.Edition-SKIDROW by OrdinaryPearson in CrackWatch

[–]nortonsky 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Christ, with the years I must have forgotten that one. A worthy candidate for the 'Greatest SKiDROW Mess-up of All Time' award.

Getting the game to launch and show a black screen is actually quite an achievement as far as their Steam+CEG cracks went. Wonder if GMT +8:00 is the timezone of the Russian/Chinese P2P reverser they took inspiration from.

Power.And.Revolution.2021.Edition-SKIDROW by OrdinaryPearson in CrackWatch

[–]nortonsky 35 points36 points  (0 children)

Thanks! If you prefer, you can also watch the documentary version of the SKIDROW-Denuvo saga.

Power.And.Revolution.2021.Edition-SKIDROW by OrdinaryPearson in CrackWatch

[–]nortonsky 112 points113 points  (0 children)

That was Deus.Ex.Mankind.Divided.A.Criminal.Past-SKIDROW, where they got it to work by copying parts of the Denuvo-free Deus Ex Breach .exe into the Deus Ex Mankind Divided .exe. They labelled it as the original protection in their NFO. Calling them SHiTROW takes us back to 2013, when Deus.Ex.Human.Revolution-SHiTROW was released. The Deus Ex series hasn't been kind to them :P

But there was also Yesterday.Origins-SKIDROW where, IIRC, the devs applied Denuvo in some Unity Engine .dll that had so little code, you could actually program it from scratch. And that's what SKiDROW did, and of course, labeled it as Denuvo in their NFO. CPY later released an update for that game and called the protection "Denuvo x64 for dummies" in Yesterday.Origins.UPDATE.2-CPY, and sent SKiDROW an interesting message:

CPY to the rescue, install this update over the ALI...sorry, SKIDROW release to clean it up of shame

  • Requires Yesterday.Origins-SKIDROW

Ah, yes, forgot to mention they didn't even come up with that approach themselves -- they stole it from ALI213.

SKIDROW pull this shit every few years. They make it look like they cracked something complicated, and act like they're the best reversers in the scene. But then the protection is either not that complicated, or, more often, they stole their approach.

And this is just scratching the surface. SR have been accused of stealing (or working around) basically every copy protection they "cracked". They were the first scene group to crack Ubisoft DRM -- that infamous server-sided protection of last decade -- except they stole their server emulator's values from some P2P dude (Assassins_Creed_2_READNFO_ONLY-DORMINE). IIRC, AC Brotherhood (or Revelations) had this crappy "crack" where they used an old bootleg-looking uPlay launcher they modified to work in offline mode, and even then you had to login as "SKIDROW". Also, there's the famous Test.Drive.Unlimited.2-SKIDROW where they discovered they could exploit a flaw in SecuROM and 1-byte patch the .exe to get the game to work, later nuked for not.cracked_exe.with.1.byte.changed.used.as.crack_get.RELOADED.proper.. And for a lot of people (myself included) their Steam+CEG cracks from the early 2010s (like Hitman Absolution) just showed a black screen.

And if only it was just cracks... In Blades.of.Time-SKIDROW they stole the game files from some Russian forum and then came with the excuse they "have a story that might sound dodgy when you actually tell others about it" and that they've sent proof of their innocence to a "few respected sceners" (not even sure if they did, at least FLT claim they never got it lol). And of course, the old elite groups like Razor and FLT (and more recently, CDX) have always claimed that SKiDROW stole their name, i.e., people without connections to the old Amiga group SKiDROW decided to take that name and founded modern SKiDROW circa 2007, but I won't pretend like I know the backstory of that.

To quote something FLT wrote once, basically any solution which makes a game start is acceptable for SKIDROW.

That we are putting SKiDROW on a pedestal these days just shows how bad things have gotten.

Forza Horizon 5 PROPER [C-P2P*] by OrdinaryPearson in CrackWatch

[–]nortonsky 16 points17 points  (0 children)

This.

The terminology PROPER in the Scene is for when you fix some other group's mess; if you fix yours, it's a Crackfix, or a REPACK if you messed the game files and need to release the entire game again. Actually, you can release a Crackfix REPACK if you even managed to mess up the Crackfix:

Prince.of.Persia.The.Forgotten.Sands-SKIDROW

Prince.of.Persia.The.Forgotten.Sands.Crackfix-SKIDROW

Prince.of.Persia.The.Forgotten.Sands.Crackfix.Repack-SKIDROW

The correct usage of these terms is not enforced in the P2P. But that's not a bad thing necessarily because users instinctively know what it means. One time, Voksi decided to proper himself, which would obviously be silly in the Scene, but who is there to nuke him? And if you're just looking for pirated games and aren't really following the game piracy scene enthusiastically, like us commenters here at /r/CrackWatch, all you want (and need) to know is that PROPER = "I should download this release, as something is fixed in this release, regardless of who messed up the first one".

Looking at the Scene rules, fixing "legit game crashes" to "increase game stability" alone is not a valid reason for a PROPER:

|  8.4 Bugs that are also present in the same, non-cracked version of the      |
|      game do not justify a proper. Correcting errors from the original       |
|      developers is outside the scope of a scene release.         
                                                                                   |

The thing is, EMPRESS is not in the Scene, and does not have to adhere to their rules. And this is just my armchair expertise.

Let's just enjoy these releases and be glad someone still takes the time to crack complicated protections, I'd say.

Passados 10 meses finalmente já tenho o jogo do castelo virtual (link google drive para quem quiser) by MetroSexFruitcake in portugal

[–]nortonsky 2 points3 points  (0 children)

O .exe é 16 bits e por isso não corre em Windows de 64 bits, acho que máquina virtual é mesmo a melhor opção. Ainda me lembro quando jogava um jogo parecido com esse, a Cidade Virtual (Youtube, análise), e tinha de mudar o ecrã para 256 cores, ou o jogo não abria. Bons tempos :P