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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 16th, 2023

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  • Hey, thanks for responding. I say “like this” specifically because that’s the piece I’m looking to buy, one of these two:

    I’m not worried about adhesion to the press board, yeah, that’s no problem. Any glue should work for that, I’ve got wood glue, liquid nails, and cyanoacrylate. Heck, even a glue gun and sticks. If I were using actual plank, wood glue would be no brainer. But the floor panels are wood laminate with a rubberized backing. I’d be gluing to the rubberized part and I’m not sure what the material is. It’s for waterproofing, they’re click-lock pieces.

    I have wood laminate floating floor, I’m probably gonna have to sacrifice a spare piece to test, but was hoping someone would know for sure…










  • Reading the “Ender’s Shadow” series after finishing Ender’s Game.

    Card is… something else. I’m on Shadow Puppets now, and while the previous books were good, his Mormonism is seriously showing in this one, with Petra being all baby crazy despite the fact they’re literally young teenagers.

    It was weird to me finding out about Card’s anti-gay and Mormon views considering there were some rather homoerotic undertones to portions of Ender’s Game (or maybe I’m reading too much into it). Plus all the IVF and genetic manipulation stuff in the Shadow series. Though admittedly, the later Ender books (Children of the Mind, Xenocide) are utterly batshit, like he was having a mental wank.

    I grew up in a boarding school and Ender’s Game really resonated with me when I was younger. Shame the author is an asshole. “Never meet your heroes” and all that.


  • Redout is a weird one. It got a lot of comparisons to F-Zero because of the speed but it plays a lot more like Wipeout, or like an F-Zero/Wipeout hybrid. It’s very fast, and the steering mechanics are interesting as it requires using both joysticks to steer through a lot of turns. I like it, but find it pretty difficult. The ships tend to be a bit floaty and the main thing is controlling well to not hit walls as they utterly kill your momentum.

    With BallisticNG, it does ape on Wipeout a lot (by design) but it’s an absolute love letter to the series and is extremely polished. It also has workshop support for all kinds of custom tracks and ships.

    There are things BallisticNG does though that are really interesting, like solo races where your goal is to go as far as possible without exploding from damage. You can’t use the brakes and it gets faster every few sections. Those are probably my favorite races.




  • I’ve got games ranging from PS2/PS3 going all the way back to the NES and Atari 7800 on my NAS. The PS3 stuff is hit or miss, but everything PS2 and down is great to play today via emulation.

    Heck, I even still own a modded 3DS and a DSi XL with a flashcart. Those ones are able to be emulated fine, but it’s just not the same.

    For modern digital games, it’s a toss up. Some have DRM, some don’t. There are games you can buy digitally on Steam, install, and just copy out the folder somewhere else, zip it, and move it to another system to play, it won’t care. Others, DRM prevents it. GOG is good for the DRM free stuff.

    Funny enough, I have Madden 08 for PC. Bought it on Amazon many years back, this was way back before EA decided to introduce launcher hell. Installed updates, patched the exe, and it’s good to go. It’s zipped on my NAS and completely portable. Last year I even installed it on my Steam Deck, works perfectly, just extract to a folder and launch the game. And it’s still way better than the modern Madden games.




  • I have a Bells of Steel Blitz Airbike and it indicates effort in watts generated. I’m able to generate 700-800 Wh… for about a minute, before feeling like I’ll die.

    So technically possible in bursts. I can sustain about 200 Wh of effort for several minutes. Whatever you’re powering would need battery storage. No way you’re putting in that physical effort and using the device at the same time (plus the airbike uses arms and legs).

    This would be feasible for low power devices, but probably not long term power for a full fledged PC, outside of something like a 25w mini PC.

    I’d love to be able to use pedal power to charge things like my small handhelds and eReaders though. That’d be pretty cool.




  • It’s really just that only Amazon uses AZW3 and KFX. MOBI is deprecated, and nobody really uses it anymore, not even Amazon. KFX is DRMed to hell, and I’m not sure about it, but most AZW3 files are just DRM wrappers for EPUB anyway. This is why the KindleUnpack plugin for Calibre can strip out EPUBs from most AZW3 files and retain formatting without needing conversion.

    Basically, AZW3 and KFX are for Kindle, and only for Kindle. EPUB is an open standard that literally every device that’s not a Kindle uses.

    I already own a non-Amazon reader that’s my main reader, and I want to move away from Amazon’s ecosystem.