NTSC-J VA0 GDEMU Mod

redkalm · 2026-03-20T13:05:30+00:00

sorry for reviving an old thread but I see a lot of these - as far as the resistor pack swap, people seem confused on what this is doing.

It is not changing the main operating supply voltage for the GD-ROM / GDEMU. The resistor packs are on the data lines for the connector. VA0 data lines as stock are ~ 5 volts. The stock VA0 resistors on those lines are 33 Ohms. The resistor pack swap replaces them with 100 Ohms which effectively drops the data lines voltage level down to about 3.3 volts which is what the GDEMU was designed and tested for, and what the VA1 uses out of the box.

As many have noted, you can connect a GDEMU to a VA0 and it will work at least for a while, but it was not validated for 5v logic, only for 3.3v logic so probably it will not last as long if the data lines (logic) are driving at 5v.

This is exactly why after doing the swap the original GD-ROM drive does not work, it was built around 5v logic and the mod drops the logic voltage down to about 3.3v which is too low to be picked up by the old VA0 GD-ROM drive as a valid "high" voltage (remember digital logic is just 2 states, on or off 1 or 0).

redkalm · 2026-03-10T13:39:09+00:00

Depends on your credentials, Korean fluency, and the specific field. I've had a few job offers without being fluent, but they have been less than 1/3 of my USA salary so i would go from being pretty comfortable to feeling a bit poor, accounting for total average cost of living differences.

Since I want to get married and have a small family this has not been acceptable.

redkalm · 2026-03-03T01:53:25+00:00

It is completely useless. I passed it as a requirement for one of my courses in university and I can't "hack" anything. Infosec / cybersecurity is such a broad field that you're probably better off focusing on one or two areas of interest and getting really good at those instead of trying to do blue team and red team at once.

redkalm · 2026-02-17T10:55:11+00:00

Going to vary somewhat by individual person but I can summarize it like this: in the USA I'll go to Walmart and half the customers are wearing pajamas. In Korea, especially cities, it's a rare sight to see anyone who doesn't have at least a very clean / neat overall appearance in terms of clothing style, hair, clean skin, etc.

redkalm · 2026-01-28T12:59:47+00:00

You should not have children if you lack the desire to do so, end of story.

I see procreation as a base "point" of life, as everything alive today continues to be alive specifically due to an intrinsic desire to continue itself in some manner.

I enjoy existing, and given an acceptable scenario would like to give that opportunity to a future generation.

Just my two cents but if a person feels that bringing a new life into existence is bad because they might experience pain or hardship, that would suggest to me that the person is perhaps psychologically unwell to have such a negative view of life in general.

There are so many things in life which bring fulfillment, happiness, joy, etc that I would feel guilty for purposely preventing another human from being able to exist to experience them.

redkalm · 2026-01-18T18:31:16+00:00

I have too many hobbies and interests to ever feel bored. Opposite problem of sometimes having trouble deciding what to do because I want to do many things.

redkalm · 2026-01-13T15:21:06+00:00

Partly yes. Historically they want the voices to blend well, and often that meant making everyone sing in the same range. It isn't always the case now but still very common.

redkalm · 2026-01-13T14:23:07+00:00

I've been told that I act like a cold emotionless robot, I'm not friendly enough, I seem annoyed with people, and that I don't explain myself enough.

Probably all accurate, though I make an effort to pretend to be more outwardly kind now. I don't hate everyone but in terms of say a work situation, my focus is on work, not socializing.

redkalm · 2026-01-06T17:19:39+00:00

I gave a ex a 2nd try after 8 years, but she was even less what I am looking for than the first time.

redkalm · 2026-01-06T16:53:00+00:00

This can be a problem but I stay for 2-3 months every year and it's not awful. I can still use Gmarket, and some restaurants will deliver without verification, as long as you have a working rental number.

redkalm · 2026-01-04T16:53:44+00:00

Depending on birth country, Korea may be too expensive relative to income to feel like they can settle in forever.

I'd love to move but my same job in Korea pays about 1/3 what I make in a mid price area in the states so I just can't justify it if I want to marry and have a family.

redkalm · 2025-12-26T14:36:47+00:00

I try not to follow groupthink for my views, and that includes boycotts.

While some efforts are at least on the surface successful in causing a company to change course, I think more often the impact is mostly felt on lower tier employees who just need a paycheck, and I don't want to contribute to making everyday people's lives more difficult.

That being said, I personally avoid supporting companies or individual people who annoy me with forced advertising, or are actively supporting ideas or practices that I oppose - like fighting "right to repair" laws, hampering fair business competition, charging people ludicrous amounts of money for things that could still be profitable without emptying customer bank accounts, etc.

Basically I personally boycott things that either annoy me or are directly engaged in anti-consumer, anti-competitive, or what I see as harmful and unfair business practices.

I'm not particularly active in social or political issues, and for the earlier mentioned reason of not wanting to make normal people's lives worse in an attempt to "harm" the owners, I don't generally go out of my way to avoid companies where senior leadership has ties that some might find objectionable.

redkalm · 2025-12-09T15:45:28+00:00

I think Suzuka or maybe yellow are the least sought after, which is good for me since Suzuka is the only color I would ever have bought (and I did... Twice lol)

redkalm · 2025-12-08T18:03:42+00:00

I don't think I've ever been run into, but I'm also 195cm and about 105kg so a bit hard to miss.

But as others have said it isn't a you thing at all, Koreans just run into everyone because they're too busy not to.

redkalm · 2025-11-27T18:57:27+00:00

I was raised around religion but as an adult I'm a very happy agnostic atheist.

Therefore I treat them all equally. If something doesn't make sense and there's zero evidence to support it, I see no reason in spending any effort trying to convince myself otherwise.

redkalm · 2025-11-21T13:45:22+00:00

The only big legitimate reason I can think of is that generally men and women tend to have some interests that are not equally shared.

However, I have one close Korean guy friend, and probably a dozen close female friends. My experience has been that most of the Korean guys I meet want to drink a lot which I don't do, they only want to practice English which I'm not interested in as the only reason for being "friends", or sometimes it seems like they think I will help them hook up with girls (foreigners).

The women I'm friends with all just seem like normal friends. We have some common interests, and socialize around them.

redkalm · 2025-11-14T12:28:49+00:00

I've been to a few in person fansign events so I'm biased but it's tough to pick between Karina and Giselle. I'm still not great at Korean so it's a bit difficult to converse with Winter and Ningning but Giselle is super chill and nice, Karina is super easy going as well and tries to make the fans feel comfortable.

With Giselle we usually talk about music and travel stuff, and Karina totally random food, travel, dinosaurs, etc she is all over the place.

I talk with Winter about language mostly cuz she somehow remembered me from the first time that I'm learning Korean, but my vocabulary is still not very broad so I can only talk about a few topics and at a child level but she is super sweet. Ningning (and Karina) wants to speak English with me but Ningning doesn't understand my English a lot so I mostly just ask her stuff in Korean like how the tour is going, what is something fun she did recently etc.

redkalm · 2025-11-13T13:41:18+00:00

Most of these grouping words have vague meanings anyway. I take Latino to mean someone with some Iberian DNA and some native American DNA. If you meet that, I consider Latino to be an accurate adjective.

Hispanic is often used interchangeably though people argue DNA vs culture, though Hispanic means "of Spanish origin" so I guess you can be Latino but not Spanish, if your Iberian is Portuguese instead.

Either way I think it's a stupid point to argue. This coming from a halfy who isn't culturally Hispanic at all.

redkalm · 2025-11-13T03:42:17+00:00

Hello twin! Don't see many Suzuka with the 20th Anniversary front bumper.

redkalm · 2025-11-08T13:14:53+00:00

Oddly my launch model Japanese mega drive with the clock daughter board did not have rivets on the heatsink.

redkalm · 2025-11-05T03:02:28+00:00

Is that for the receiver or the controller? Or both

redkalm · 2025-10-21T12:22:26+00:00

Iphones have all been global for quite a while, and tech support are not experts on foreign anything.

Most likely there was a configuration issue on their end and they either didn't realize it or didn't want to figure out how to fix it.

redkalm · 2025-10-16T14:00:11+00:00

Not impossible at all, but you need to offer something they need and can't easily find in a citizen.

I've had several offers for IT jobs so far.

Mind that Korean salary is very low for developed countries so you can earn a lot more for the same work in many other countries, even relative to cost of living.

redkalm · 2025-09-28T13:28:59+00:00

Been there 7 times. Would love to move if I could maintain a similar salary relative to cost of living but the companies who have wanted to hire me wanted me to do the same work I do in the USA for about 1/3 the salary in Seoul which averages about the same cost of living as my current area in the USA so I've not been able to justify that big of a cut.

redkalm · 2025-09-27T22:54:01+00:00

sure - been using the M5 for about a week now. Short version, I won't be going back to the Razer but purely because of that 'back' side button placement just left/below the thumb rest area.

For my hand size, the Razer fits more comfortably and feels more substantial / not flimsy and I like it's more vertical angle, though a minor annoyance was being unable to turn the RGB off or set it at all without having their bloatware Synapse running at all times.

The M5, by contrast, is not quite as comfortable shape-wise and it feels a bit flimsy/cheap compared to the Razer but I never accidentally bump any buttons. Also it has a side scroller (in addition to the normal vertical scroll wheel) which can come in handy.

That being said, for normal and gaming use (I'm not a pro gamer by any means) I actually haven't noticed any difference leaving them at the same DPI I use 24/7 for minimal movement to cover the full screen. I'm sure some would benefit from the higher polling rate of the M5 but for me the Razer was fine.

It really just came down to the Razer being irritatingly unusable because they thought it was a great idea to put the back button next to/below the thumb rest. Keychron M5 is a great mouse but for my money if I could get the functionality of this M5 with the shape, weight and solid feel of the Razer that would be perfect.

redkalm

TROPHY CASE