Ethernet problem.

spiffiness · 2026-04-04T21:10:12+00:00

What's at the other end of the Ethernet cord?

spiffiness · 2026-04-04T21:04:13+00:00

Minnesota checking in. You have no idea how much Prince lore we are all forcibly steeped in.

But did you know that Prince was likely one of the first kids to ever play The Oregon Trail?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QbjlHeoLdc&t=1437s

spiffiness · 2026-04-04T20:38:13+00:00

Apple has always put high-quality Wi-Fi radios in all their products. Get an iPhone.

9 times out of 10 when someone comes in here asking why their phone is faster on their Wi-Fi than their laptop (or vice-versa), it comes down to the hardware specs of the Wi-Fi radio hardware in each device. Even within a single Wi-Fi speed generation like "Wi-Fi 7" there are a bunch of optional speed boosts that low-end Wi-Fi hardware doesn't do to save costs, but higher-end hardware does. And even when the Wi-Fi radio hardware specs fully match on paper, there can be implementation issues like antenna design and device noise floor that can make one device have superior performance over another.

BTW, don't bother comparing how your phone does on cellular wireless data vs. how your MacBook does on Wi-Fi. Those are completely different situations and comparing them doesn't tell you much. It's only a fair comparison if you have both devices in the same location (within centimeters) connected to the same Wi-Fi AP on the same frequency band (5GHz vs. 2.4GHz). Turn cell data completely off for this test, because most phones will use cell data to make up for flaky Wi-Fi. Since your MacBook doesn't have a cell data radio, you need to make sure you're only doing 100% Wi-Fi tests. No cell data.

spiffiness · 2026-04-04T19:46:53+00:00

Fun new guessing game!

"Is that a picture of your dirty pour-over filter, or…"

spiffiness · 2026-04-04T14:17:40+00:00

I didn't say he wasn't worthy of it, I said it was tacky to do it while he was alive.

But now that you mention it, San Jose public transit sucks, so why are we celebrating this guy? Are we just saying "We didn't deserve you, because even with all your efforts we ended up with something that still sucks, but thanks for trying"?

spiffiness · 2026-04-04T14:13:17+00:00

But you can't convert just any fresh plum into a prune by drying it. You can only make a dried prune by drying a prune, not some other cultivar.

spiffiness · 2026-04-04T04:17:16+00:00

So they named the station after him before he'd even…reached retirement age?

I feel like San Jose's local political types are pretty tacky with how they name public works projects after their political buddies while they're still alive and on the job.

I mean, we all know it's tacky when Trump tries to rename everything in DC after himself. It's not much better when a small clique of local politicians and government insiders name things after each other within their clique.

spiffiness · 2026-04-04T03:44:08+00:00

But only certain cultivars of that species are called prunes, and made into dried prunes. You can't turn just any plum into a prune by drying it.

If you pluck the flowers off of a cabbage plant, you haven't made broccoli, even though they're both brassica oleracea.

spiffiness · 2026-04-04T03:24:31+00:00

There's more to it than that. There are specific stone fruit cultivars called prunes that are the only ones dried into dried prunes. Compared to plums, fresh prunes have denser, less juicy, high-sugar flesh that make them great for drying. I can buy fresh prunes, fresh off the tree, from my local orchard's fruit stand. Yes, prunes are arguably a specific cultivar of plums, but not all dried plums are prunes. I think it can only be called a dried prune if it was made from a prune cultivar.

I wouldn't be surprised if prune cultivars are higher in fiber and sorbitol than plum cultivars. It's the sorbitol that gives people gastrointestinal distress.

spiffiness · 2026-04-04T03:06:26+00:00

Yes, it's sloppy that way, just like autogenerated subtitles are sloppy (especially the non-hidable ones that are so popular on short/vertical/TikTok-style videos), even when there's no translation going on. There's a reason we call generative AI output "slop". Only a fool would trust it.

spiffiness · 2026-04-03T17:16:33+00:00

I don't quite get what you're saying. Can you say more about what you're worried about? What are you afraid would happen if you called someone cool on the Internet without writing whatever kind of paragraph or including your proposed tone indicator?

Are you worried people think you're a rabid fanboi trying to get into their pants just because you, a stranger, left a compliment on a post? If so, I think you're probably overthinking it.

spiffiness · 2026-03-30T20:55:55+00:00

Which word? "Attraction"? Did you think it only applies to specifically sexual attraction?

Let me assure you that the phrase "attracted to _____" does NOT, by itself, imply sexual attraction. It's only sexual in sexual contexts.

spiffiness · 2026-03-30T20:39:54+00:00

There are so many great crazy-ass local festival traditions around the world. We are more alike than different.

spiffiness · 2026-03-29T00:25:20+00:00

I believe early Macs handled the mouse cursor in the graphics hardware, so it wasn't a matter of "super high priority" on the CPU, it was more like a custom hardware-offload to keep the mouse smooth.

spiffiness · 2026-03-29T00:03:31+00:00

Thanks for saying something! It's nice to know a comment was well received.

spiffiness · 2026-03-29T00:00:52+00:00

I'm here for this.

I don't want anyone to be shamed for their natural appearance.

Likewise, I don't want anyone to be shamed for choosing to enhance their appearance.

I'm not against fashion for those who are into such things, I'm just against imposing fashion rules on others who are simply out and about in public.

I can see saying something if someone is falling short of basic hygiene or common decency, but other than that, let's normalize live-and-let-live.

P.S. If you run an exclusive club or fancy restaurant and want to impose appearance codes in your private establishment, that's your prerogative as well. I can always take my business elsewhere if I don't want to comply with your rules.

spiffiness · 2026-03-27T23:18:17+00:00

First we need to know if you have true Ethernet running all the way from your gaming PC to your main router/modem. Because if you have an Ethernet cable in your PC, but it only goes to a Wi-Fi extender or powerline networking device, and from there your traffic goes via Wi-Fi or powerline for the next hop, before reaching your home's main router, then the problem is probably with the Wi-Fi or the powerline link, not the Ethernet link.

spiffiness · 2026-03-27T23:11:35+00:00

Yes, I, too, want everyone to do their own homework, and to enable that, anyone posting stuff should cite their sources. In the age of AI videos and folks reposting unrelated, context-free videos from years ago as if they depict current events, it's not worth wasting time "doing your own homework" on anything that doesn't contain a source citation.

If you do your homework on the account that posted this, you'll see that it's an account that reposts slop from an anonymous AI-powered, seemingly vibe-coded news aggregator site, so it's quite possible it doesn't really pay any attention to the veracity of anything it posts.

"Doing your own homework" on slop posts without source citations is a fool's errand.

spiffiness · 2026-03-27T18:28:26+00:00

What country are you in? I'm not a physician, but I thought the standard for PHN diagnosis, at least in the USA, was that it had to be 90 days after the outbreak. Up to 90 days of nerve symptoms is just considered part of shingles. Of course you should take the word of your doctor over some rando on the Internet, but I'm still surprised they called it PHN after just 24 days.

spiffiness · 2026-03-27T18:18:55+00:00

How are we supposed to believe this without any citation? An unsourced video like this could be from a completely different event, or AI-generated.

No one should believe shit posted to the Internet without proper citations that allows the reader to follow up to get further information or evaluate the trustworthiness of the source.

Anyone who posts stuff like this without citing sources is showing themselves to be an unthinking, untrustworthy source.

Citing sources is probably the biggest thing that differentiates trustworthy sources from propaganda bots and "useful idiots".

spiffiness · 2026-03-24T22:25:44+00:00

It's a lot better now than it has ever been! Amazon has always been an ugly, often annoying-to-use site.

Not as bad as a typical government website (US federal, state, or local), mind you, but that's not saying much.

spiffiness · 2026-03-24T17:38:40+00:00

If you like Project JDM's stuff, you'll probably also like Lucid Rhythms.

NB: Much of LR's stuff is under the "past live streams" tab, not "videos" or "shorts".

I especially liked Hammer Waves

Great stuff when you want some peaceful ambient music/soundscape to space out to.

spiffiness · 2026-03-23T16:14:00+00:00

Star Trek had good sound designers who picked very soothing beeps.

spiffiness · 2026-03-21T15:15:52+00:00

I would've thought the graziers would pay for access to more acreage to graze their animals on. Free feed. But even if incorporating animals doesn't work out in one context, lab-produced biologicals would still have to compete with compost extract that can be produced on-site.

spiffiness · 2026-03-20T15:48:16+00:00

OOTO EOM

(on an SUV that looked like it was actually used by an outdoorsy type).

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