@eniko Enormously. If "I have to X" I do it. If "I can choose to X" I will never ever do it.

Edit: I guess I should add that it's literally the opposite if it's something I'm anxious about.

@eniko A lot. As I learn more things that I can-do, things that I have-to have less and less appeal.

The way I frame time limits on my hobbies is without a fixed date: "I'm going to try to call this 'finished' before I get bored of it".

But if it's a deadline at a job I have to detach myself from the concept of finishing entirely to stay sane. I might not finish in time, but I'll be able to sleep.

@eniko Me having deadlines: procrastinate by not doing the task, and also not doing other productive things. 😅 As a kid, I always had trouble complete homeworks (even in subjects I enjoy)

@eniko for me it can be the contrary. Recently I was forcely pushed to release something and it got me out of a creative block I was in for a long time.

@eniko once I feel trapped with a task, it becomes a tiny hell in itself

@eniko very much so, including the classic “I was going to do it anyway but now you've reminded me that I have to, I don't want to anymore”

@eniko deadlines and regular appointments actually *reduce* my mental overhead, because I don't need to convince myself to do something *right now*, I just have no other options. That's the stuff that actually makes me move.

@eniko For me if something has to get done I'm more likely to do it even if it sucks and I wait until last minute.

@eniko i'm a 100% or nothing person. it's very hard to add new things to the schedule, unless it is a one time special, which only needs a week or two of preparation.

even having to do something on the wrong day can be tough. for me the schedule is something i can rely on.

adding a new thing to it is exhausting and nothing that can be done just like that.

@SinclairSpeccy where is the leaky NiCd option?

@SinclairSpeccy ( ) couriers who cause irreparable damage

@SinclairSpeccy The most difficult ones have always been trace repairs (sometimes because of leaky caps or batteries) and the ones where some chip *nearly* works but is just broken enough to cause the system to misbehave in unpredictable ways. And bad contacts in IC sockets that cause random crashes are also a bit of a nightmare sometimes. :D

@SinclairSpeccy I've one dead PSU because of the leaking capacitors inside, so far I've failed to recap it, but I'll keep trying once I can acquire better tools

And I have a laptop where the plastics are extremely brittle, I suspect that nothing can be done here :(

Also, it's really annoying how I've multiple CD drives where the ejection is broken...

@SinclairSpeccy dead batteries in Dallas chips.

@SinclairSpeccy 90's Macs are the worst. The plastic splinters by just looking at it

@SinclairSpeccy Not 'all of the above'?

@SinclairSpeccy

Needs ALL OF THE ABOVE

@SinclairSpeccy I am fortunate that 95% of the time I need to pull out an iron, it is just a dead coin cell battery. I've been replacing those with battery holders, in theory it will be a one-time repair.

@SinclairSpeccy

1, 2, 3, and 5 are my nemesises (nemesi?) I couldn't pick one more prevalent than the next but I deal with all on a regular basis.

@SinclairSpeccy RIFA!

@SinclairSpeccy dead PSU that gave me 240v to the arm when I plugged it in.

I had a new found respect for electricity that day...

@SinclairSpeccy

Battery acid damage on Apple Macintoshes, Acorn Archimedes, Acorn Master and Tandy 100's. These have been the trickiest but most satisfying repairs.

@heyheymomo This is me and my in-laws every Christmas.

@heyheymomo 😂

@heyheymomo cc @Frogsicle

@aeva funny how we saw the same thing on different platforms and I almost wanted to ping you lol

@grickle a different kind of walkie

@grickle Like a snapshot of me in the 90's with a sunbeam and wearing out my Power Windows tape.

But, y'know, as a bear.

@grickle Without opposable thumbs? This may not be real IMHO.

@grickle I appreciate that side A and B here apply to both walkman and cat

@grickle Guardians of the Galaxy cat...

@grickle @trendskater

Rug. Headphones. Just like the Dude.

@grickle Bring back this!!!

The world needs to remember how glorious creating your own mix tapes were.

@grickle

The rug really ties the room together.

@grickle

The Dude both abides and approves. 😎

Side A : Sounds of ten-pin bowling (Venice Beach League Playoffs 1987)

Side B: Bob Dylan

Alt...

Jeff Bridges as The Dude, lying on a rug listening to a Sony Walkman with eyes closed.

@grickle
I, for one, like the way this cat operates, Grickle.

@foone This could have been a laptop with a built-in cassette tape deck.

@foone Christ that is sick though (complimentary). Those people need help (admiring). That's an absurd amount of engineering that will fail in all sorts of fascinating ways (anticipatory).

@foone No one makes cool stuff like this anymore.

@foone is this more unhinged than the ThinkPad 701's sliding keyboard or less unhinged?

@foone That's very cool! One could also be made that doubles as a toaster.

@foone my first idea was, that this video came from @NanoRaptor ...

@foone I think they’re the only one that does it this way until recently for their Let’s Note (Japanese domestic business laptop line) and Toughbook. Here’s the manual for one that was released in 2015 (supports DVD-RAM). https://dl-pc-support.connect.panasonic.com/itn/manual/cfsx4/CF-SX4_Service_Win8_M/#manual/cd_dvd_drive.html%3FTocPath%3D_____10

@foone - I’m inclined to think it was another Panasonic, but I remember seeing a laptop back in the day that had a printer built-in under the keyboard.
Thought that was pretty cool.

@foone

I hate that the current political climate makes it dangerous to call people perverts, because there are so many perverts (positive) and utter degenerates (very positive) out there making computer

@foone

I had one of these! It was a great party trick. Except for the CD-ROM drive being SCSI, so you couldn't boot off of it.

I loved that little brick of a laptop.

@foone woah, this thing could very well win the #NanoraptorChallenge couldn’t it!

This thing looks to me sort-of like an IBM PC Convertible with a CD-ROM drive.

How cool would it have been to have a IBM PC Convertible with a built-in LaserDisc player? (Nudge, nudge, @NanoRaptor )

@eniko I much prefer Mastodon to BS. To a large extent, they are split into 2 domains - here is infosec, tech, games and on BS it's news, history and shit posting. The common thread seems to be cat pictures.

@eniko There are some people I care about is only on there, but I just can't scroll bsky since it lacks "disable retwoot from this person" features. Not good for my mental health

@eniko i would be more generous towards "bsky is the best social" if the Android app wasn't so bad and images didn't stop loading a couple of times per day.

@eniko word.

@etherdiver It's a real bummer to hear that but I totally understand. Maybe take a break and see how you feel about it in a month or two?

@etherdiver
I'm surprised it's not frequented more, although I must admit, I don't always check it out. I always boost because I think it is such a wonderful initiative. I also appreciate that it is an effort and if we aren't checking in, then I understand you questioning your priorities. We all have only so much bandwidth, so totally understand. Do what you need to. If we missed out, that's our fault.

@etherdiver aw fuck man, I hate that I'm part of the problem

I find I’ve had so little time to spend actually sitting down and enjoying/discovering music lately and I’ve let reading them slide lately (among other things)

It's clearly a massive amount of work and a labor of love and it's such a wonderful thing to put into the world, but you 100% shouldn't destroy yourself over it if it's not getting the attention it should.

@etherdiver sad to hear that, but totally understandable. Thanks for having me and thank you for covering us under the radar artists. I will be hoping for just a break or maybe a come back at some time.

@etherdiver It's hard out there, and harder than ever, because things that used to drive traffic have been deliberately nerfed. I've been running a webcomic since 2006 which has never had any readers particularly, and which, at a certain point, I refused to shut down as such but also stopped doing regularly, because it was more chore than fun. The archive is still there and I add new ones as and when I feel like it, and only then. Now it's fun again, and, same, don't care about fame/fortune etc.

@etherdiver

As others have suggested, maybe try taking a break from it. See how you feel about it in like a month.

For intentional breaks like this, I find it useful to put it on my calendar.

But yeah, sorry to hear you feel that way, but it's totally understandable.

it's like:
1. invent or buy thing
2. thing becomes popular
3. oh no, it's popular
4. try to make all these users stop

@foone what about the other way around? I think a looot of companies would be happier if they didn’t use that pile of garbage.

@foone I think they keep getting caught off guard at how popular physical devices are and keep reacting badly to it re: Windows Mobile phones, Surface, Googlebook, etc.

@foone companies filled with people who love building software but think users are the pain point

@foone They don't care if they lose the (~5%-smartest) "technically-literate" customer base, because the size of the market who aren't really super-tech literate (that other ~95%, which would include "power users", but not those willing to think in the abstract, like a Computer Scientist) is so huge that they make virtually all the same money, than if they catered to the discerning tastes of the super-tech-literate *as well*

@foone "Software development would be fun, if it wasn't for the users." - Classic Developer Axiom

😉

@foone I mean, if you're maximizing profit, the best way is to get people to give you money for nothing in return…

@foone @lisamelton There is a saying that once a company reaches a critical size (say 200 people), its internal processes grow so complex that no outside interactions are necessary to keep it running.

Looking at the employee numbers of Google and Microsoft, there are several entities just drifting through time, probably.

@foone I don't think they want to have employees either, so that tracks

@foone A tech analyst of my acquaintance who knew Steve Balmer and Steve Jobs once told me:

Microsoft and Apple each have one target customer.

MSFT's customer is a multinational software company with 87,000 employees. If that corp needs something, MSFT will work out how to make it for them. (The corp in question is MSFT.)

Apple … Apple has one customer, an irascible guy in a black turtleneck called Steve. If Steve likes it, Apple will make it. If not, not.

(Apple today runs Emulation Steve.)

@foone Indeed, I think they want people just to pay (or simply hand over their info to sell) without actually using the stuff.

As for Microsoft, I'm pretty sure their leaders just simply went insane at some point. Like actually insane.

@foone I have a theory that the only Google products they don't kill are the ones they use internally - except advertising.

So Meet, Fi, Gmail, Docs, Sheets and most of GCloud are safe - anything else, however great or profitable, is doomed.

I expect to see Chrome and/or Android on
https://killedbygoogle.com soonish.

@foone EVs have gotta be up there for some people? I live in NYC so no need for a car at all, but my suburban parents seem happy to be moving away from gas

@foone active noise cancelling

@foone that's easy, since I just got it a month ago. The Comma 4 from comma.ai

@foone I bought one of those chinese waterproof android phones with a ham radio and a laser pointer (and an FM radio though I didn't use that much) and I was pretty happy with it. like I personally hate mediatek now because they didn't get android upgrades but the technology as an integration was amazing. huge battery, charm/lanyard slot. wish I could put postmarketOS on there

@foone I was definitely eager to get FTTP (fibre networking all the way to the house) when they'd finally laid the cables down the street.

@foone almost a decade old used 3d printer. You had to pry it out of my dead hands for a couple of months.

@foone homeassistant & paperless-ngx

@foone Steam Deck.

Linux portable gaming PC I can hack as much as I want but also reimage whenever? With integrated controller and good battery life? Sign me up!

Got one, was as awesome as it sounded.

@foone i think maybe either my BusPirate or perhaps my 65W portable soldering pen that i bought a second one of because i ended up liking it so much that one stays at my workbench now lmao

@foone Probably Airpods Pro with noise cancellation? I'd had noise canceling earphones before, I'd had bluetooth earphones before, but somehow Apple hit the sweet spot. In daily use now. (NB: I may not upgrade to the touted camera-infested AI slopware next generation coming this year, though.)

@foone eink writing pads

@foone Does the Steam Deck count? It's a specific product, but it's also the poster child of the "open, PC-based mobile gaming console" category of devices.

@foone Probably battery-electric vehicles? Legit game changer in terms of mobility. While they’re not “new”, they’ve finally hit a price my economic situation can afford. Everything else over the past ten/twenty years feels more incremental than revolutionary.

@foone Probably the Steam Deck? I loved the idea when I first saw it, but was apprehensive about the implementation so I didn't get one right when it came out. It did have some rough edges, but mostly I've been extremely satisfied with it.
On the one hand, it's mostly a repackaging of existing technologies. On the other, though, portability is a game changer (sorry) for PC games.

@foone If strictly paid and hardware, Nuraphones. Shame they're not around anymore, although they live on in Denan. The premise was that they use algorithms derived from audiology research to literally detect how your ear handles given frequency bands, and feed that into an EQ, so that the headphones always sound flat and great, regardless of the difficiencies of the speaker or your ear. I used them for mixing music and could finally hear everything in proper detail, I can't afford studio monitors.

@foone I recently got a "Superstation One". It's a "MiSTER", which is a community-developed platform for FPGA-emulating retro game systems/computers. It's basically a tiny ARM Linux computer integrated with a Cyclone V. But this one is in a nice plastic case so I don't break it by accident.

I previously tried to use an SBC with integrated FPGA and failed. Too much fiddling to get anything working. But THIS one is already set up with USB, and HDMI and analog TV output, and community HOWTOs!

Alt...

Superstation One next to a Sony PVM

@foone probably my pinecil. still blows my mind that we now have extremely good soldering irons that fit in our pockets, run open-source firmware, and are only twice as expensive as the ultra-cheap ones just a little bit before.

once my pebble round 2 arrives next month, i think my answer will change tho

@foone uhhhh probably the New 3DS XL

i was a skeptic at first due to the then-nascent onset of extractive tech designs but i tried it in a store and was like "okay this slaps"

@foone most of valve's product lineup

@foone this Avocado Tool (avocado slicing injuries are a leading cause of ER visits)

Alt...

A photo of an avocado slicing tool. It's one rigid piece of green plastic (with a black rubber grip), about 5 inches long. One end is a blade for slicing open the avocado, the other is a grate for slicing avocado halves, and the middle has a set of three teeth for safely gripping and removing the avocado pit without doing the "hit it with a knife while it's in your hand" thing that many people are wont to do. It is photographed next to a halved avocado on a wooden cutting board.

@foone a battery electric riding mower (Ego)

@foone Traded my phone early to get the Pixel 7 when Guided Frame first rolled out, the ability to not have to guess when taking pictures of my children and myself was absolutely worth it.

@foone bought a projector from a thrift store and a replacement bulb from a warehouse in china. it's now my favorite way to relax and watch woodworking videos before bed

@foone MNT Pocket Reform. Mostly because I love tiny laptops though and they're hard to come by these days, especially if you want something that'll last you a while

Also my electric cargo bike which I use every week for my grocery runs

@foone do microcontrollers count? i love the esp-32 and how i can just write python for them. so much easier than arduinos from back in the day

@foone I reckon electric bikes and/or electric cars. (I have a bike, not a car).

Also used to have electric motorbike.

Once you remove the shell of the car, you lose the same antagonism that comes from separation (like hiding behind a keyboard on the internet).
Cyclists see each other as fellow human beings sharing the same space and it’s wonderful. “Hello”s and “how do you do”s abound.
In cars I get frustrated at someone else who is also simply trying to get home or whatever.

@foone Roomba. The old 500 series, that is, the dumb one that uses "random" and "wall tracking" to find its way, where the two biggest innovations for that series were "a larger bin for dog hair".

I thought I was getting a massively overpriced geek toy, but it's like 15 years later and it still fills the bin with cat hair every day. (with aftermarket li-ion battery and occasional bin replacement)

Yeah, before that was the Rio. ;)

@foone Dashcams, and by extension, the non-smart, non-AI, non-connected camera glasses I use as a dashcam.

I've had at least three incidents that come to mind where dashcam footage saved me from a ticket/insurance claim, including this one (sorry for the language):

@foone I was running for local office and wanted to make better video content since that's what the apps are pushing these days. I bought some little wireless lapel mics and I absolutely love them!
They have optional noise cancelling built in, they clip on using a super strong magnet so you can attach them anywhere that's convenient, they include a wind screen for outdoor recording, and they're about the size of a quarter!

This brand:
https://www.microcenter.com/product/706272/hollyland-lark-m2-wireless-lavalier-microphone-2-mics-1-receiver-black

@foone Most recent in terms of when I've seen it? Bolt action pens. So satisfying.

Most recent in terms of development? Honestly, yeah I think smartphones is pretty much it.

@foone I know this seems like the most banal thing in the world but:

Little vacuum cleaners that have a squeegee on the end so you can suck water off flat surfaces.

Living in a damp country, this is seriously the greatest invention of the past few decades.

@foone the surefeed connect microchip cat feeder. did exactly what I need, works, app is unobtrusive, connects to home assistant.

@foone trans healthcare and 3d printer

@foone ADSL, 500Mbit/s; 1GB RAM. Game changers.

@foone Ring Fit Adventure for the Nintendo Switch, six months ago. :) Before that...oof, good question, Possibly my first SSD? Oh actually, maybe self-centering drill bits?

Hon. Mention: a couple GB of mobile data access for hotspot use when the power goes out or I'm away from home, though that was originally an unused, unintentional side effect of my phone plan.

@foone does electric scooter/bike count? I'm also pretty happy with my (not connected to anything) roomba and my (not smart) videoprojector.

Notably, none of those things are "smart" or "connected".

@foone @JessTheUnstill My rooftop solar array and whole house battery backup.

@foone the new M-series Macs, particularly the original M1 Air. Also it wasn't a day-one buy but I definitely am happy with moving to mesh routers in our house.

@foone Latest to me? Solar panels. Latest technically? 3D printer. (mRNA vaccines as someone commented are a good call, but I wasn't super picky about the platform choice although it is neat technically.)

@foone Very good question. Honestly, it might have been an IoT security camera, of all things. I'm using it as a nature cam.

Alt...

A night vision view of my back yard, showing two sets of glowing raccoon eyes in the mid-right, and a racoon mid-left.

Alt...

A racoon running across my back yard during daylight.

Alt...

More racoons! Night vision, two racoons are sauntering across the bottom of the frame.

@foone I think it's either the Nintendo Switch (the first one) for me, or a big Marshall bluetooth stereo that I saw in a random store and immediately went "I gotta take that home with me."

@foone When my then-boss challenged me to answer this some years ago, my answer was modern audio and video codecs

I got a graphics card to do AV1 encoding and I've been consistently impressed by it, 1080p output at the same bitrate as 720p H.264 feels magic. If film grain synthesis was better supported, that'd go up here because "remove the noise and add it back later" is so funny.

@foone most recently, the Strong lifting app. I paid for it but free version is pretty chill too. I can just save a bunch of lifting templates.

Does what it says. Doesn't require an account. Lets me export my data as a CSV onto my phone or via Airdrop. Has tons of exercises but lets me add my own if needed. Doesn't have any social component.

No "AI."

I saw someone using it and thought "oh wow that's exactly what I want" and ... it is!

@foone A Teensy 4.1. The built-in ADCs have been very helpful.

For consumer electronics, a Steam Deck and a dock for it. I've probably used it more often as a sort of desktop computer than as a gaming console, TBH. (Currently I'm using it as such because my Reform laptop's charging circuit has died and I need to decide whether to try to diagnose and fix it, or pony up the cash for a new motherboard with an improved charging circuit.)

@foone I got a pocket sized eBook reader (XT E-Ink 4). I am delighted with it, daily.

@foone my first e-ink reader in 2016, it was my favourite device for several years

@foone You will laugh at this, but --a foldable wagon to carry our dog agility stuff (folded dog crates, water bottle, camp chairs, etc.) from the car to the arena. Decided we needed one after observing how much quicker & easier setup was for folks near us with wagons.

@foone electric bicycle. Made arriving to work not drenched in sweat a hassle-free option.

@foone Bluetooth remote for my ereader. As soon as I heard about them I had to have it and it has improved my reading experience very much!

@foone Quite possibly my Nokia n900 Linux phone circa 2010. My first personal smartphone, it seemed like an exciting glimpse of the future, but it turned out to be a future that didn't really happen.

mRNA was a good shout, but I'd be lying if I said I was really excited about getting it. I said "I gotta get that" in a very different tone from my first smartphone.

More recently, a solar generator, but that too was "I gotta get that" because I was afraid of electric grid problems.

@foone Probably Apple Silicon Macs & home scale multi-gigabit networking. Neither is revolutionary or truly new, but they represent big, subjectively very noticeable step changes. And bigger improvements than probably any incremental improvements in the 10 years before.
And I'm very conscious that these are changes entirely independent of software. 😐

Not new, but adopted recently due to drop in price: PV+battery. I'm very much enjoying powering parts of my house by shining light on magic rocks.

@foone Car stereo which played mp3 cds