The Spam Thread!

[huckleberrypie]

Considering the pandemic and the shitstorm ensuing from the chip shortages, MS's mandate for newer processors definitely is a tough sell. There ought to be workarounds without having to trash earlier processors even if they had hardware-level security issues.

[cpd2009]

https://www.theverge.com/2021/7/9/225698...neutrality

Looks like the battle for right-to-repair is heading for the US Congress. This is a good first step to ensure that future devices are easily repairable and not locked down.

But how far will Congress will go? And how much of a fight will the big tech companies put forward to try and stop this?

I am hoping this succeeds since Steve Wozniak, the co-founder of Apple, is now advocating for right-to-repair. Apple computers used to be easily servicable and upgradable before the late 90s, and I imagine Apple computers would become more popular if they made repairs or upgrades easier once again. This may end Apple's quest of making everything super thin and light, but tech companies need to stop embracing form over function. Ultra thin devices are a pain to repair, and are also less durable.

[huckleberrypie]

Apple's trend of locking down their devices is a disservice to what the Woz did back in the day.

[cpd2009]

That time has come where my personal finances are in such a tight place that I need to seriously think about letting go of certain things that are no longer useful to me at the present time, but would definitely be of use to someone else.

I am going to sell my Dell gaming rig and a good Dell monitor at the local flea market for some extra income.

Long story short... my current day job is at a local university. Because there is no school for most of the summer, employees are placed on a seasonal furlough. Normally I should be able to qualify for unemployment insurance from my state, but this year, no such luck. I only began my current job in January, and I don't have enough work hours to qualify for unemployment at this time. Since my call back date is in the middle of August, it makes no sense trying to apply for a temporary job only to work a few days or weeks and then being forced to quit. That will not look good on my employment record even if I quit voluntarily.

Good news is, I am not in danger of losing my newly moved-in apartment since rent is income based. Bad news is that there are other bills to pay besides rent and food, plus with some summer festivals coming up, I also need extra funds for those nights as well.

Some other reasons on selling the Dell rig aren't related to my current financial bind. Honestly, I've been thinking of selling it off for the past week or two before my unexpected rejection of my unemployment claim. Ever since I moved on to Mac as my daily driver, the Dell has been seeing decreasing use. The idea to use the Dell as a BluRay/media player didn't pan out, and it won't work at present time since my 55'' HDTV got broken during the move process. I resorted in downgrading to a 32'' Sony 720p LED TV, and despite it's smaller size, it's a much better fit for my new apartment. Said TV only has two HDMI ports, and currently I run a DVD player through component cables. I also don't have much BluRay media anyway, so if I were really needing BluRay, I may as well purchase MacGo BluRay player and use my external BD drive, or go all in and figure out how to use VLC for that purpose. But I digress...

The state of Windows itself hasn't really given me a good vibe, and Linux is still a bit too finicky for daily use. It wouldn't have been so bad if the Linux Radeon drivers weren't so buggy with it's particular RX 580 GPU. And I use so little Windows-based software nowadays that it's now becoming more likely that a Virtual Machine or Boot Camp would be a better substitute for the few Windows apps I still care to use. (A VM is the only option on M1 Macs going forward) Many of the games I did play on Steam are also on the Nintendo Switch. The graphics quality may be a bit lower, but the games are more or less the same content wise.

So the remainder of today, I will be copying my files off the rig, doing a secure wipe of the SSD and HDD, and reinstalling a vanilla copy of Windows 10. I will also remove the original Dell recovery partition since the factory Windows 10 image is bugged with a strange freezing issue and includes bloatware, such as the insecure SupportAssist. I plan on only installing the very basic drivers necessary for proper functionality.

As for my old Gateway laptop, I think it's pointless to sell that off. It has an Intel Pentium B960, which was a fine entry level chip in 2012, but in 2021, it's become very anemic for Windows 10. Windows 11 is out of the question, so I am planning to make this a Linux laptop. I would need a new SSD for it since I used the first 256GB SSD for my spare 2009 White Macbook. I put the old 5400RPM HDD back in the Gateway for the time being, and even Linux runs rather slowly.

[huckleberrypie]

Sad to see your Dell rig go, but I guess you have to make at least some sacrifices for the better.

[cpd2009]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASGSfEDNOwY

I knew Nintendo tries to keep a tight leash on their IPs and preventing hackers from modding their systems, but this... hoo boy.

TW: suicide. The late YouTuber Etika at one time mentioned he was targeted by the "Nintendo Ninjas" over some Nintendo videos he made. At the time, people thought Etika was either making it up or being extremely paranoid. He did suffer from mental illness, which sadly lead to his eventual suicide.

But when the massive Nintendo leak happened a while back, it has given the gaming community new light into how Nintendo goes after modders and hackers, and Etika may have been telling the truth...

[huckleberrypie]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASGSfEDNOwY

I knew Nintendo tries to keep a tight leash on their IPs and preventing hackers from modding their systems, but this... hoo boy.

TW: suicide. The late YouTuber Etika at one time mentioned he was targeted by the "Nintendo Ninjas" over some Nintendo videos he made. At the time, people thought Etika was either making it up or being extremely paranoid. He did suffer from mental illness, which sadly lead to his eventual suicide.

But when the massive Nintendo leak happened a while back, it has given the gaming community new light into how Nintendo goes after modders and hackers, and Etika may have been telling the truth...

Not really a fan of Etika tbh, but this further drove my contempt for Nintendo especially with their immense zealotry.

[huckleberrypie]

So I heard you like Nintendo? 

[cpd2009]

So I heard you like Nintendo? 

First question... is that your voice in the video, or Beef Jerky's? It's a rather great video that boils down the bad deeds Nintendo has been known for. It's hard for a person like me to support them, since they do make really good first party games most of the time. I could emulate the retro games at some point, but I've since returned to retro cart collecting when possible.

As for my long absence from this form, it's stems from lack of motivation to post here, really. I just wish more people would post here to truly make things interesting again. Perhaps I'm getting a bit nostalgic for the early 2010s already when this forum was a bit busier and more engaging. I have been posting most of my art to either Instagram or Facebook as well.

Here is a bit of sad news regarding Windows 11... they learned nothing from the Internet Explorer antitrust fiasco of the late 90s.
https://www.theverge.com/22630319/micros...er-changes

[huckleberrypie]

So I heard you like Nintendo? 

First question... is that your voice in the video, or Beef Jerky's? It's a rather great video that boils down the bad deeds Nintendo has been known for. It's hard for a person like me to support them, since they do make really good first party games most of the time. I could emulate the retro games at some point, but I've since returned to retro cart collecting when possible.

As for my long absence from this form, it's stems from lack of motivation to post here, really. I just wish more people would post here to truly make things interesting again. Perhaps I'm getting a bit nostalgic for the early 2010s already when this forum was a bit busier and more engaging. I have been posting most of my art to either Instagram or Facebook as well.

Here is a bit of sad news regarding Windows 11... they learned nothing from the Internet Explorer antitrust fiasco of the late 90s.
https://www.theverge.com/22630319/micros...er-changes

It was Beef-Jerky who did the voiceover, though I added subtitles as his narration comes off as a little too fast for some to listen properly. It's a little hard to support a company known for their seminal properties yet would bah humbug and even prosecute you for deviating from their strictly Japanese business mindset.

And it's a problem for forums from yore as people have mostly moved on to the likes of Discord, not to mention most of our long-time members have moved on to other ventures anyway. I mostly keep this place as an archive now, though I haven't closed the possibility of trying to attract new members.

As for Windows 11, I hope the EU would take notice of that draconian move of theirs and impose further sanctions. Trying to shove crap up everyone's throats isn't going to win you any friends.