__hetz @ __hetz @sh.itjust.works

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2 yr. ago

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Flashbacks to being a kid in the 90s with unsupervised access to the internet. Was it hackers.com? Hacking.com? Loads of textfiles and information on wardialing and using telnet. Slip over to AstaLaVista for them registration keyz and crackz. Hop on IRC, head to #mp3z and hit up the fservs to spend 15 minutes downloading a 3 minute song as fast as the poor little 56k will allow. Take over your friend's computer with Sub7 or Bo/2k (you remembered to set up ICQ notifications, right? I still remember my ICQ number).

When this upload expires you can almost certainly find it again somewhere on textfiles.com, along with a collection of other texts archived from various Bulletin Board Systems (which pre-date me), hacker scene stuff (2600, Cult of the Dead Cow, l0pht, etc), Church of Subgenius texts, ASCII art/porn, etc. A personal cDc favorite is "Reverie" by Reid Fleming. I might've been 13 when I read it and didn't ever smoke until my late teens but, sometime in my 20s, I had a particularly good baggy that let me press a small piece of hash. So over a decade later I recall a short story I once read, about recollecting and the things that bring it about no less, and knew what to do with it. It's weird the things that stick with you over the years.

Anyway, to the text: If memory serves, there's at least a couple great ways to blow yourself up in there. And if anyone does decide to smoke three or four cigarettes worth of dried banana peel, be sure to report back on your findings.

Now that is an ambition to strive for! Easily one of the most significant communal projects of our time which, despite still remaining almost unheard of to countless people who unknowingly rely upon it, would be such a remarkable honor to take part in.

Same boat except my Arduino and Pi devices are still gathering dust (but I do want to eventually get a general, foundational knowledge of electronics). My own ideas most often devolve into timesinks that leave me questioning how I even convinced myself to start down that road. I like doing dev stuff more if it happens when an update breaks something, like a service or a plugin to some app I host. "Hey, that's a goddamn puzzle! I fucking love puzzles!" And there's the underlying fact that, if I manage to solve it, I might be helping somebody else out. Some psychological compulsion to help others that I can identify but still not deny.

Anyway, I might never end up a "contributor" to anything else but one of my biggest highs was singlehandedly debugging, submitting, and having a fix merged to a Jellyfin plugin I use. From first reporting it and thinking out loud about it in the app's Discord, to poking through the source on GitHub (in a language I've never touched), I worked it out in a few hours and even compiled a replacement .dll for my own use until the merge was accepted. To the reception of some compliments and pats on the back from regulars on the server that, at the risk of over sharing, did more for my emotional well being than my last lay. The problem ended up being a simple order-of-operations issue but the experience was the sort of the thing that makes a guy, who hasn't worked so much as a help desk position, briefly think "Maybe I could hack it."

Conversely, my biggest low was wasting 45 minutes on an Advent of Code problem because I forgot to switch from the sample data to my actual puzzle data in the second half. It was a first-week problem, probably child's play for any pro, but I had a working solution fast enough to have landed on that day's leaderboard. It would've been entirely self serving and good for nothing but bragging rights. Instead I wasted nearly an hour to reach the "duh" moment and subsequent self loathing. I wanted those bragging rights!

The TLDR is Programming turns bipolar disorder into a speed run session too easily for it to be more than an on-again off-again hobby or the occasional necessity for me. I can't fathom how the actual pros, especially those in prestigious and lucrative positions, keep from crashing out or falling into imposter syndrome any time they let themselves get caught up in an off-by-one or some other nonsense.

I don't have the link(s) on hand but there's a Tizen build of Jellyfin for Samsung TVs. It runs rather slow on my old tube so I wouldn't recommend it outside of a last resort. It's actually smoother for me to just open the app on the TV and then remote control it from a browser/app on another device (my Steam Deck is my homelab universal remote). But you can use the Tizen dev tools or a simpler docker container to push it to the TV.

For my folks I got a cheap Walmart brand Android box (Onn 4k Plus). I installed Jellyfin from the app store then black hole'd the thing because I'm wary of cheap Android apps and their history of supply chain attacks. It's much more responsive and also leaves me with the option of installing additional stuff like Smart Tubes, Retro Arch and whatnot.

Sierra's "Red Baron II" (1998) might not be my favorite but it had some of the most memorable music for me. Repetitive military marches with the main theme being rather jaunty. It didn't hurt that it was my first flight sim and the first PC game I'd ever played online. I was around twelve at the time so it's hard not to remember how cool it all was to me.

Who gives a fuck about the Christmas stuff and decorations?

There's already enough ornaments in the current admin.

Ever read Euripides? We should probably go do something other than read Euripides.

Dashcam was a damned good suggestion. I'll add first aid kit, blankets (if you get cold weather), and signal devices like road flares, reflective signage or small traffic cones. Maybe a few bottles of water and calorie-dense snacks. Just remember to consume and replace them periodically.

I keep a bunch of tools on hand because of work but tools are usually one of those things you accumulate over time as they become needed. A good start would be a socket set and a bit driver. Maybe add a breaker bar and a "stubby" driver or 1/4" ratchet for tight places. 1/4" "security bit" sets usually have some flatheads, PH1-3, plus a range of hex and torx bits with the little dimple because "security." A bit driver handled all the fasteners when I replaced my tailgate handle and my interior passenger door handle.

A tow rope and jumper cables are both things that others can use to help you should they not have their own. I know I like it when the person I'm jumping has their own cables ready. My own are usually buried in the compartment under my rear bench, which itself is often buried under toolbags and such. I also keep a couple square-ish off cuts of 2x6 in the bed which make good platforms for a jack/jack stands. You don't usually get to pick where or when you're forced to change a tire and jacks tend to sink and lean in soft earth without any support to spread the weight.

EDIT It's a real late edit but I still don't see it mentioned and it reminded me of something else too.

Thing the first: Fire extinguisher.

Thing the second: Some sort of mounting bracket it for it. Some will attach to a pillar, others might be made to reuse the bolts at the front of your seat mount. Wherever your fire extinguisher goes, it needs to be secured. Same goes for tools and other items which could become projectiles in the event of a collision.

I'm a fucking dolt that dabbles and picks up the gist of things pretty quick, but I'm not authority on anything, so "grain of salt":

You're already familiar with OCR so my naive approach (assuming consistent fields on the documents where you can nab name, case no., form type, blah blah) would be to populate a simple sqlite db with that data and the full paths to the files. But I can write very basic SQL queries, so for your pops you might then need to cobble together some sort of search form. Something for people that don't learn SELECT filepath FROM casedata WHERE name LIKE "%Luigi%"; because they had to manually repair their Jellyfin DB one time when a plugin made a bunch of erroneous entries >:|

Neat, navigable UI. Pulls posters, metadata, etc. Can generate "trickplay" images so you've thumbnails when scrolling the progress bar. You can sync playback across connected clients (I mostly use that feature for multi-room music playback). Restrictions by account and/or tags so the little ones don't end up watching Ichi the Killer, Saló, your complete Cronenberg collection, or that library you created populated by a script routinely checking the e621 API for the latest animation uploads.

Runs in browser and on clients for Windows, Linux, Android, probably iOS too but homie don't Apple. Took every bit of space but I even sideloaded it onto my old Samsung Tizen TV (wouldn't actually recommend, little slow, build an HTPC or just nab an Nvidia Shield).

If you can get by without any/all of that, nothing wrong just browsing directories and playing media with your local player on a single device. In my case I'd need to set up overly complicated network shares and then configure every single device I want to have access. I'd need to change how I organize my libraries, then probably spend a little time writing an ansible playbook (that'd only really be worth it when adding new devices in the future) but... no thanks.

I wish I could care but I haven't had any respect for Blizzard in years. They've become a manifestation of avarice and anti-consumer practices. They clearly hate their fans and love only their customers' wallets. I still remember when it was confirmed SCII would not have LAN and would essentially require a bnet connection for any gameplay. There are threads still up on the SCII forums where customer support was talking people through disabling their goddamned network adapter just to get into their "offline mode." The absurdity. Complete with reminders you must still log in every 30 days to continue playing offline, of course.

One of the funniest things I've seen to date was when battlenet went down during what I'm pretty sure was supposed to be a huge pre-release tournament. They were featuring some well-known pros, trying to drum up more hype for the game, and then bnet just shat the bed. What a fustercluck! Even after the launch battlenet instability continued to impact some major SCII tournaments.

"SC3 in the works?" Whatever, I'm not buying.