Coconut Monkey Cornerclub

[ZedClampet]

My poor, long-suffering computer. I'm installing a video driver, running a file integrity check on The Crew Motorfest, installing LMMS and posting on here all at the same time. Do most people do one thing at a time?

 

[Pifanjr]

My poor, long-suffering computer. I'm installing a video driver, running a file integrity check on The Crew Motorfest, installing LMMS and posting on here all at the same time. Do most people do one thing at a time?

I do think most people only do one thing at a time on their computer, though their computer might be doing a lot of stuff because they don't realise how many processes they keep open and how many start automatically when their computer starts.

 

[ZedClampet]

I do think most people only do one thing at a time on their computer, though their computer might be doing a lot of stuff because they don't realise how many processes they keep open and how many start automatically when their computer starts.

For the record, I don't recommend doing anything else while installing a video driver. I'm just being impatient today.

 

[Brian Boru]

"I was amazed to learn that one of his patients, who had lost power in their right limbs, was able to forge new neural connections by playing simulated computer games. This helped them to regain lost motor skills."

How I rewired my brain in six weeks

There is growing evidence that simple, everyday changes to our lives can alter our brains and change how they work. Melissa Hogenboom put her own brain in the scanner to find out.

www.bbc.com

 

[Brian Boru]

Do most people do one thing at a time?

Mostly

I'll do other stuff if there's sth long going on, like installing / launching a big game or running the monthly disk image, but generally I use one full-screen app at a time.

I'll often have another app open on second monitor—mostly OneNote or a text editor—and flit back and forth, but that's about it.

As @Pifanjr says, there will be plenty of background invisible stuff going on—and occasionally-visible stuff too waiting to activate, like my reminder app or MalwareBytes daily scan.

I don't recommend doing anything else while installing a video driver

Seconded, for any driver. When possible, I leave all installs alone to run.

 

[ZedClampet]

I'm signing up to GameTree to see if I can find a new co-op partner or two.

 

[Pifanjr]

Yesterday our dishwasher stopped working. After mucking around for a bit, I managed to find a piece of string that got stuck in the drain pump. However, even after removing it the pump still didn't properly drain. So I manually turned it with my hands a bit and drained the hose manually and got it to work again.

However, it wouldn't stop any more. There's a little cap inside that turns the pump on when you pull on it (it floats on water so it activates the pump to prevent the dishwasher from overflowing), so my first thought was that it somehow got stuck, but mucking around with that for a bit didn't solve anything.

So I looked up a video on how to fix that cap and discovered that there is a second similar system for when water flows underneath the dishwasher. So I dragged the entire thing out and there was a bunch of water underneath. I unscrewed the left side panel, which was a pain because it uses screws with a star shape and while I did have a little screwdriver bit in that shape, I somehow didn't have anything to put it into, so I had to turn it with a wrench. Turns out my dishwasher doesn't really let you access the machinery from the left side, so I unscrewed the right side. Turns out the right side doesn't allow much better access either. So I took out the little panel on the front at the bottom, but there wasn't anything useful behind that either.

During all this, a bunch more water had leaked out from underneath the dishwasher, so I figured I just tilt it over and hope it would drain enough water from wherever it had accumulated to stop tripping the pump. Which worked! Turns out jostling it around some more was all I needed to do.

Sadly it seems the same isn't true any more for my PC, as I just got about 4 blue screens in a row, with the first one while I was playing Rimworld, so its condition seems to be worsening. I've updated some drivers and am now running sfc /scannow in case that turns up something, but I doubt it'll fix it.

 

[Brian Boru]

Yesterday our dishwasher stopped working

Same here, isn't that a coincidence!

same isn't true any more for my PC

Why not post the details in Hardware forum, you never know what one of our experts might spot.

PS happy to report GF glared at me, so dishwasher started working again pronto

 

[ZedClampet]

Good news! My dishwasher is fine.

So what's for dinner?

Yesterday we ordered food from a restaurant we'd never tried before called "Penne for you thoughts". All the food on the menu was named just as poorly, but my pasta was really good. It could have had more Italian sausage, a lot more, but it was still very good, and I would get it again.

So, since I'm on a diet, I'm eating the rest of that for dinner tonight, so I'm getting an extra meal out of it. My diet, now, is just to eat less, not to restrict myself from eating anything in particular. I've found that works best for me. I'm almost done with it, but intend to continue eating with more restraint than before

 

[Brian Boru]

We were just chatting about junk mail. We reckon 90% of ours is junk, is it that high for y'all?

 

[ZedClampet]

We were just chatting about junk mail. We reckon 90% of ours is junk, is it that high for y'all?

We do all our bills and get all our statements paperless, so I'm guessing at least 90 percent. We get orders from Amazon, and I bought my wife a couple of those serial letter stories. Other than that I can't think of any non-junk mail that we get except from people who might still be required to send out mail, like our insurance company (even though we can use the app for verification) or the DMV. I also get a statement from my health insurance every time I visit the doctor.

I'm not sure how to classify all the correspondence from charities I've given to through the years. Around Christmas time we must get two dozen calendars, free packs of Christmas cards, etc. Basically they try to guilt me into sending more money, but since I've worked with them before, I don't really consider it junk.

 

[Pifanjr]

We were just chatting about junk mail. We reckon 90% of ours is junk, is it that high for y'all?

It heavily depends on whether to consider the local paper junk, as it probably makes up about 60% of all the mail we get. I never read it, but it's useful to put on the table when my kid is painting, for example.

Ignoring the local paper altogether I think I get maybe 50% junk mail. It helps that we have a system here where you can tell the mailman you don't want any mail that isn't specifically addressed to you, which filters out most useless junk. So the only stuff we get is from services we've used before asking us to return.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

We dont even get mail everyday, bank accounts and phone bills are paperless. Leaflets come with the newspapers and if you mark your door with 'No Advertisements' they dont put them through. If the car is due a service then we get a few from local garages at that time, but other than official stuff or other bills we dont get much mail.

 

[ZedClampet]

Today I've decided to take the day off from dieting and have some of Gus's World Famous Fried Chicken. GQ rated it one of the top ten restaurants in America and named it "worth flying for". I'm not flying anywhere for fried chicken, but it's darn good.

 

[Zloth]

We dont even get mail everyday, bank accounts and phone bills are paperless.

Me either. And, if none is coming in, the mailman typically won't check the mailbox. When I first moved into my house, I sent a check to the handyman. Three days later, he calls up asking if I didn't like the work or something. I checked the mailbox and, sure enough, the letter with the check was still sitting there, waiting to be picked up! If I'm anywhere close to some sort of due date, or even if it looks like it's going to rain a lot over the next few days, I take my mail to the post office to make sure it really goes out.

 

[ZedClampet]

Okay, I have yet another new goal in life: to learn Spanish. Tennessee is now doing a Spanish play-by-play of the football games, and the guy sounds awesome, much better than the English speaking version.

This was the first play of the game. The first play he ever called:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1705943399134630215

View: https://twitter.com/CarlosOnTheGo12/status/1705943399134630215?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1705943399134630215%7Ctwgr%5E464e41a26abfb71bf7388c1c6ac24d567818c2b8%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fvolswire.usatoday.com%2Flists%2Fsocial-media-reaction-to-carlos-lopez-fuad-reveiz-calling-tennessee-volunteers-utsa-roadrunners-football-game%2F

His name is Carlos Lopez. The guy doing color commentary is Fuad Reveiz, a former UT player who was in the NFL for a long time.

 

[neogunhero]

I'm signing up to GameTree to see if I can find a new co-op partner or two.

I wish something like this was implemented directly into Steam. On my Xbox, if I wanted to find players on a specific game, I can make a LFG post where I can set how many players I need, when we are going to start, and who is all in the lobby with me. I think Steam implementing a similar system would be really great. My idea would work like this:

• In your library, when selecting a game, around the area where you can see friends who play that game, there will be an LFG section.
• You can easily browse recent LFG posts, open the games’ LFG hub to see all posts made, or create your own.
• Steam LFG would use Steam’s chat system, automatically putting you into a group chat where you can join the voice channel if wanted.
• Creating your own will give you options such as max amount of players, set start time, post title/description, use pre-made tags like on Xbox. You can tag your post with things like “beginner-friendly”, “mics only”, “casual play style”, “competitive”, things like that that will describe what kind of players you’re looking for.
• When everyone is in a lobby and ready, the host can close the LFG post and invite everyone to the game. This is where it may be hard and potentially the reason they haven’t done this because not every game on Steam uses Steamworks multiplayer services. Games that do can send game invites directly to Steam friends, games that don’t you have to use their party systems, so it can complicate things if you then need to add this new lobby of people to your Battlenet, Epic Games, etc. friends lists.

I’ve had this idea for so long ever since I had to primarily use my Xbox for gaming for a year a couple years back. It’s cool to see there is a whole dedicated system for it, but that requires additional software and accounts to be made. If it were implemented directly to Steam, it would be way more accessible.

 

[Brian Boru]

Spanish play-by-play of the football games, and the guy sounds awesome, much better than the English speaking version

Aren't they fabulous?

Goalllll

learn Spanish

Flirted with that a bit when it looked like we'd be moving south ~a decade ago. Not as easy as I thought, they never miss a chance to use 10 words when one will do

I dropped it when we changed our mind. I had good schooling, but one big suck was having to learn 2 dead languages—what a freakin' waste when it could've been French & Spanish

 

[Zloth]

TWO dead languages? Latin and... Pascal??

I learned French and German. From French I remember "je ne sais pas" (I don't know) and "ne moi pas" (not me). From German, all I remember is "ich bin tot" (I am dead). I didn't do very well in my foreign language classes. The German bit was surprisingly useful when playing Dungeons & Dragons as I was a Wizard in the 1st edition rules.

 

[ZedClampet]

Aren't they fabulous?

Goalllll


Flirted with that a bit when it looked like we'd be moving south ~a decade ago. Not as easy as I thought, they never miss a chance to use 10 words when one will do

I dropped it when we changed our mind. I had good schooling, but one big suck was having to learn 2 dead languages—what a freakin' waste when it could've been French & Spanish

I took Latin for some reason in high school. In college they made it easy on you if you really didn't want to do it, which I didn't. I took two accelerated Spanish classes over the summer that got me 2 years of credits, and all I can remember how to do is order a beer, which is even less useful than it sounds since I'm allergic to alcohol.

 

[Brian Boru]

Latin and... Pascal??

Not bad, 1 of 2—Latin & Irish. Did German too, plus in college, plus worked a summer in Munich, and worked for a German company for a decade—so my Deutsch is/was pretty gut.… yeah, that would be was, it's been 38 years since daily use.

I guess DOS counts as nearly dead by now too?

I didn't do very well in my foreign language classes

Language seems to be an aptitude, it either clicks or doesn't.

I'm allergic to alcohol

Damn, you must've really pissed off the Goddess in a previous life!

Latin

Didn't like the lingo much, but enjoyed the Roman History which came along with it.

 

[ZedClampet]

Damn, you must've really pissed off the Goddess in a previous life!



Didn't like the lingo much, but enjoyed the Roman History which came along with it.

I was a highly sought after designated driver in my younger days.

There were a few times--not while the DD--that I decided to drink regardless of the allergy (I just break out in hives; It's not like I can't breath and need an EpiPen) and drinking is not something I would do even if I weren't allergic, so I never bothered trying to get rid of the allergy as I did with my dog allergy.

Stuff like pet allergies and other allergies that can be highly controlled can be diminished, or gotten rid of entirely, by exposing yourself to a small dose of the allergens once or twice a week. I did it with my pet allergies, which were pretty severe, and I suspect I could do it with alcohol if I were so inclined.

As to the Roman history, can't say we really did that in my high school Latin class. Or maybe we did, and I just don't remember because I had a mind-consuming crush on the girl in front of me. I couldn't ask her out because her older brother was one of my best friends, and I had known the family for years and thought it would make things uncomfortable.

 

[neogunhero]

I'm allergic to alcohol.

My mom is half Japanese and I got the “Asian flush” gene from her. My siblings can drink like it’s water, but for me after one beer I turn redder than a tomato.

I am also allergic to cats, which was easy to take care of. I got some stuff on Amazon called AllerPet and it’s a spray you rub into cats fur that is supposed to kill the allergen causing dander. I’ve used it for a year and it works great. In fact I’ve only had to use it three times in the past year. The first two about 2 weeks apart, third one a month since the last, and it has been great ever since. I still can’t cuddle my cat up to my face, not that she wants to anyways, without sneezing uncontrollably. She always wants to step on my keyboard while gaming though so I guess she likes me.

 

[Brian Boru]

She always wants to step on my keyboard while gaming though so I guess she likes me

Geez, some humans just can't take a hint—she wants to play split-screen co-op!

drinking is not something I would do even if I weren't allergic

Strange thing with me is I started drinking late teens, enjoyed it just fine, but I haven't had a drop in over a decade. Never gave it up consciously, just stopped…

 

[ZedClampet]

I'm eating cheddar cheese that was packed in salt and aged in an English cave just outside the village Cheddar. You would think all that would have cost more than $3.29. It's basically the same price as Kraft, which may or may not be cheese, was made in a partially radioactive facility in Illinois and is only aged because the delivery truck takes a day to get here (just kidding about the radioactivity, hopefully, but I'm not sure why all their cheese is bright orange).