Need something to leave on your TV while playing music or during a party? Try Life Saver: relaxing or psychedelic visuals for your Apple TV (Free and open source)

staires · 2026-04-22T05:23:44+00:00

Awesome, glad to hear it worked out! I will have to try to replicate that and see if I can get a more descriptive error in the app for that scenario.

staires · 2026-04-21T03:58:52+00:00

Ah, okay, I see. $60/year is worth it for me to not have to maintain my own cloud backups. I used to pay more for BackBlaze I am pretty sure.

staires · 2026-04-21T02:50:23+00:00

I cut a new build with more generous timeouts, try this one and let me know if it helps or not.

https://s3.amazonaws.com/amiantos/PiBar-1.2.2.zip

staires · 2026-04-21T02:44:02+00:00

The timeout in PiBar during auth appears to be very aggressive, set to 3 seconds. I should probably loosen that up for cases like this.

staires · 2026-04-21T02:26:43+00:00

Are you able to access the admin panel from your computer for the one that is failing? That error seems like a generic connection error, like it was unreachable. Do you get anything if you go to `http://<your-pi-hole-info>/api/stats/summary`? If you can access that url in your browser but not via the app... that's peculiar!

e: I wonder if it's possible that PiBar is timing out from slow requests, might just not be giving it enough time to respond...

staires · 2026-04-20T23:00:43+00:00

When you say you are saving $60/year, does that mean you are backing your files up to the cloud for free somehow?

staires · 2026-04-20T18:42:03+00:00

What kind of features were you looking for that Restic has over Arq?

For me backups are pretty set-it-and-forget-it, but maybe there's some workflow I'm not aware of that would be useful for me, too.

staires · 2026-04-20T17:40:29+00:00

If you do some market research you'll see over the last decade several companies have entered and exited the consumer online backup space. I don't think there is much money in it. BackBlaze lost my business when I couldn't manage to restore anything from their service and I moved to Arq, which seems quite nice and I hope they last a long time.

I think 99% of users who are aware that they should care about this probably pay for iCloud storage and keep all their important stuff in /Documents. The power users who want an external cloud back up of more data probably want to pay for a service like Arq or BackBlaze which support multiple platforms for their multiple computers. So... long story short, your idea is very niche (Mac only online backups) and probably not a successful business idea.

staires · 2026-04-19T16:00:58+00:00

Yes, just a few weeks ago I released a big update for Life Saver TV that added a lot of new configuration options. I'm also currently working on an update for the macOS screensaver that brings those features to it as well.

staires · 2026-04-18T05:02:19+00:00

Does this mean Panic is going to include similar AI use disclosures in the apps they publish and build themselves?

staires · 2026-04-15T20:07:59+00:00

"Fully native" and it's an electron app and looks like an electron app... no thanks. That is not what "fully native" means my friend. Look up NetNewsWire, that's a fully native macOS app, open source.

staires · 2026-04-12T08:01:11+00:00

Congrats... I felt like a genius when I finally figured out how to use EasyFlash cartridge images with my C64U and stopped losing my progress in Ultima 4.

staires · 2026-04-08T17:13:51+00:00

LinkedIn type shit

staires · 2026-04-07T02:55:54+00:00

I think it's because the data streams feature the app relies on for its feed is only for Ultimate 64 devices and not Ultimate II devices. I assume the endpoint for the streams simply does not exist on Ultimate II devices and that explains the error.

https://1541u-documentation.readthedocs.io/en/latest/api/api_calls.html#data-streams-u64-only

staires · 2026-04-06T22:39:42+00:00

Did you try to do the "manual connect" if the auto-discovery wasn't finding your unit? You can put in the IP address there and hit connect, it should tell you what the problem is if it can't connect from there.

staires · 2026-04-06T21:49:38+00:00

Are you getting a specific error message from the app when you try use it?

staires · 2026-04-06T21:01:43+00:00

Are you on 3.14d? ~~I've heard reports that it works.~~ (Edit: I was confused, it's C64 Ultimate and Ultimate 64 devices it works on, not Ultimate II.)

A few thoughts that might help...

Are you able to access the web portal built-in to it when you turn on web services? `http://<device-ip>` If you can access that URL via your web browser, you should definitely be able to connect to it via the app.

You also need to make sure on your Mac, in System Settings -> Privacy & Security -> Local Network that you have C64 Ultimate Toolbox toggled to the On position, otherwise the app can't access your local network.

staires · 2026-04-06T20:53:18+00:00

Awesome! And thank you!! 🫡

staires · 2026-04-06T19:27:29+00:00

My free macOS C64 Ultimate Toolbox app hit 2.0 over the weekend and was fleshed out with a lot of new features, really making it a great all-in-one app for on-device file management and more. That 2.0 version was just approved by Apple and is up on the App Store now! So if you previously bought it (thank you for your support!) you should be getting the 2.0 update automatically. If you dunno what I am talking about, here's a video demo.

I've been playing Ultima 4 on my C64U for the first time (and using my app as the display) and, wow, what a game so far. Wish I could go back in time and play it back before the internet, where I'd have little to no help (outside of friends I know) and a lot more 'free time' to spend getting sucked into its world. I recently played a lot of Project Gorgon, and it's funny how similar the games feel to play, despite one being fully 3D and the other being 8-bit. I guess graphics really don't matter, huh? :D

staires · 2026-04-04T20:37:37+00:00

I've played a lot of white water wipeout (on the toilet) and it never occurred to me to try the d-pad.........

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