@Brian Boru Now that is going straight to the top of my watchlist. I didn't even know there was a TV show about Crow and it is a good one too. Wow! I noticed it is also free to watch on Internet Archive, which is a plus.
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Just recently bought my girlfriend a Nintendo Switch Lite. It was on sale for $160 which I thought was quite reasonable. It came with Animal Crossing already which was the only game she wanted really. I started looking at some Mario and Zelda games and man, I hate how Nintendo keeps their games full price. They make their own games, publish their own games, and put them only on consoles they make, so it’s understandable they can do whatever they want.
However I believe most publishers understand that when a game is 7 years old, all the people who wanted to play it desperately would have already bought it by now, the only people who are buying them when it’s that old are people catching up from games they missed when they were at their peak popularity. Most publishers know to throw those purchasers a bone by permanently reducing the price and doing deep discounts on their older games.
Not Nintendo. Oh, you want to play the nearly 8 year old Zelda Breath of the Wild? Does $60 sound good? NO!!!
However I believe most publishers understand that when a game is 7 years old, all the people who wanted to play it desperately would have already bought it by now, the only people who are buying them when it’s that old are people catching up from games they missed when they were at their peak popularity. Most publishers know to throw those purchasers a bone by permanently reducing the price and doing deep discounts on their older games.
Not Nintendo. Oh, you want to play the nearly 8 year old Zelda Breath of the Wild? Does $60 sound good? NO!!!
@Brian Boru Patient Gamer Tip #???: Never become a Nintendo gamer, you will wait for over a decade before Nintendo games become heavily discounted. No one has that much patience.
Play the old Nintendo stuff instead. Very easy to find as needed and no reason to support Big N's crummy attitude when it comes to both their older stuff and newer stuff.
Also BotW emulates very well on Steam Deck via Wii U....just wanted to point that out.
Bleeerg.
That's how I feel.
My primary car an old minivan with 235k miles on it has been smelling of gasoline lately when we shut it off and this is probably due to a crack in the fuel pump, a common issue on this year, make and model. So I have the thing in my garage, up on a jackstand and ready to be worked on, but I just don't want to do it.
Realistically, it won't be the hardest job I've ever done, but I just don't relish the thought of smelling of gasoline for the next couple of days. Thankfully I have a slight reprieve while I wait for the proper pliers to come in the mail so I can disconnect the fuel lines without breaking stuff. But damn I really don't want to do it.
I also need to change a caliper, which again, I don't feel like doing.
Not sure what's been up with me lately, but I haven't felt like doing much of anything besides playing games. Don't particularly feel like painting or building, don't feel like working on the car. I think I'm in a depressive episode, which happens from time to time.
Anyway, just wanted to complain.
That's how I feel.
My primary car an old minivan with 235k miles on it has been smelling of gasoline lately when we shut it off and this is probably due to a crack in the fuel pump, a common issue on this year, make and model. So I have the thing in my garage, up on a jackstand and ready to be worked on, but I just don't want to do it.
Realistically, it won't be the hardest job I've ever done, but I just don't relish the thought of smelling of gasoline for the next couple of days. Thankfully I have a slight reprieve while I wait for the proper pliers to come in the mail so I can disconnect the fuel lines without breaking stuff. But damn I really don't want to do it.
I also need to change a caliper, which again, I don't feel like doing.
Not sure what's been up with me lately, but I haven't felt like doing much of anything besides playing games. Don't particularly feel like painting or building, don't feel like working on the car. I think I'm in a depressive episode, which happens from time to time.
Anyway, just wanted to complain.
And considering most of their games are just the same old franchises they keep rehashing through, it's even harder to take.
I hope you'll feel better soon.
This is why I hardly ever used the Wii I bought as a kid. I could buy 7 PC games from the bargain bin instead of a single Nintendo game, it just wasn't worth it.
The only reason I played a decent amount on my GameCube is because I knew multiple people I could borrow games from.
Nintendo really are some greedy bastards. I’ve got a decent collection of older Nintendo games in my emulator library. Haven’t tried anything newer beyond GC games though.
This is where I have to give it to Nintendo though, although they reuse the same old franchises for decades in a row, a lot of times they find new ways to keep the games fun and fresh. I beat Mario Odyssey on my brothers Switch a while back, I remember being surprised how much fun the game was even though it looked identical to Mario Sunshine and Mario Galaxy, my two favorite Mario games. But still, it would be nice to see a brand new first party IP from them to keep things interesting. They can only put Link through so many dungeons before he becomes a villain himself.
Back in those days I would borrow games from my friends that my parents wouldn’t buy me. I borrowed Mortal Kombat 4 for N64 from a friend, and that game over screen where your character falls through a pit then gets impaled by spikes is permanently seared into my brain. Probably the most gruesome thing I saw in a video game as a child, funny how we’re all so desensitized to stuff like that now
Never was, prob never will
Been gaming since 70s if you include arcades, 80s on PC, and never had a console apart from an obscure one called Spectravideo.
Since I had my own PC for work from home, there was never a reason to buy a console since there were and are so many more games available on PC—why pay more to get a lot less?
Oh yes they do
If you can wait 1 month, you can wait 2; 1 year, then 2; 6 years, then 10—I waited 6 years for Civ 6
You did a fine job, I'm impressed—that make you feel better?
Oh yeah, I remember first time I got one of those—if I recall correctly, it was the original Prince of Persia. *shudder*
Zloth
Community Contributor
Lots of colds and such going around. Pick out a good one that will get your nose stuffed up for the next week, and you're all set!
Yeah no matter how many times they manage to keep things fresh, it's still the same old characters, and pretty much the same premise.
Success was had, though at what cost? My back and my knees are killing me and it was a big pain due to connectors, but I got my gas tank out.
I'm also surprised at how much gas qualifies as 1/8th of a tank, which is when my fuel light kicks on. It seems to be between 4 or 5 gallons.
At any rate, I found the source of my issue, which is a cracked fuel pump. I had to stop for today and won't be able to finish it up until Saturday, but hopefully everything will go back together much easier than it came apart.
It'll be nice when EVs are ubiquitous because I won't have to do stupid stuff like this. It'll be other, also stupid stuff. But at least I won't smell like gasoline.
I'm also surprised at how much gas qualifies as 1/8th of a tank, which is when my fuel light kicks on. It seems to be between 4 or 5 gallons.
At any rate, I found the source of my issue, which is a cracked fuel pump. I had to stop for today and won't be able to finish it up until Saturday, but hopefully everything will go back together much easier than it came apart.
It'll be nice when EVs are ubiquitous because I won't have to do stupid stuff like this. It'll be other, also stupid stuff. But at least I won't smell like gasoline.
Wow, that's a very contoured gas tank. I've been enjoying unlimited free car washes (a 3 mo promo for doing biz with a partner of theirs that replaces windshields). I got a 2008 Ford Escape Hybrid that's white with black trim and dark tinted windows that get increasingly black toward the rear of the vehicle, which fits the color scheme nicely. I've got to pull one of the screws that hold the roof rack rails down and match it up with hopefully an identical stainless equivalent, as they're all pretty rusty and I don't want one to snap when I take it out, or start leaking.
I call this new rig "Blondie". I've always had a thing for tall blondes, and she's tall enough where I have to open the rear doors and stand on their thresholds with the rear floor mats over them just to wax her every so often. I may continue with the unlimited car wash membership after the 3 mo is up. Even if I continue the membership, it only ends up being a little over $3 a wash as often as I go. It's a local chain that has 28 locations in my state. It's also the best of their locations I've been to, great facilities, and great staff. I was skeptical whether their tunnel system would get the tree sap off her. I don't have tenant parking yet at my new apt, and there's a lot of big leaf trees on the street out front where I usually park.
I may eventually get a sturdy fold up step stool so I don't have to stand on the door thresholds, but none are tall enough for the street side, and the ones that are are big work platforms that are much longer than I need and very expensive. They're also heavier and take up more space in the vehicle, so I'd probably be storing it in my apt for mt bike trips, especially if carpooling. I spent a whole day or two scouring the net for these things, and anything less than a work platform is too small.
The first time I went to the car wash I pulled into a shady corner of their lot and sprayed a 50/50 mix of vinegar and water over the whole rig. When I talked to one of their staff about it as he came out to put my membership RFID stickers on, he said the pre-spray was appreciated, but not necessary. He was so right too, as I've been not pre-spraying since, and no problems. They also have an incredible setup for pre-spraying bird poop spots, that's a bottle of something that dissolves it quickly without scrubbing, and has a drill attached to it, which makes it spray 5-6'. Only once in the numerous times I've been there (I go twice a week), they had to pre-spray a second time after I circled around to go through the tunnel again (nasty seagull poo).
I've also been running around my block every other day, but since we have a small lake behind us. it ends up being at least a 1.3 mile run. It's also not flat, the 7 blocks worth of street on either side of the lake are uphill grades if you run it clockwise like I do, and the crossover street at the north end of the loop is steeper. I alternate between the1.3 mile route and a 1.5 mile route that crosses over one block farther north, which is less steep. I was steadily increasing my time from 10:45 per mile the first run, to 8:35 per mile the 6th or 7th. Today however my left leg felt stiff and sore from an old track injury. It was also my day for the1.5 mile run, so I planned to do it more for stamina than speed. The time was by far the worst yet. but I survived it non stop. Next time on the 1.3 mile route I'm going to try it clockwise.
I'm also getting my mt bike ready to ride and should have it running soon. I finally got a cell phone, with a great, cheap service called Tello I highly recommend. I also have the Trailforks app on it, and a nice on-bike cell phone holder by Lamicall (also highly recommended). This way I can always see where I am on the trail system. I've also been looking at a lot of the current gen mt bikes, which have drastically changed since the days of triple gear cranks like my bike has. They instead have one gear on the crank, and 12 in the back. As a result the widest axle spacing now is called SuperBoost, and is a whopping 21mm wider than mine! It's so wide they have to curve the chainstays inward so you don't hit your feet on them when pedaling!
Ideally I want to eventually get a bike that is about 130mm travel up front, and120mm in back (mine is 100mm front, about 92mm rear). There's a local bike manufacturer up just north of me called Evil Bikes, that makes one just like that I want to demo, and they have some of the best trails in the state a couple miles away. They use SuperBoost spacing too, which makes frames and wheels wider and stiffer in the rear. This bike, unlike most nowadays, also has RockShox vs Fox fork and rear shock. Many say the latest RockShox suspension is now the best for comfort and control. The many videos I've seen tend to prove that it is more bump sensitive, and stays planted to the ground better. However some say there's less of a firm pedaling platform with the rear shock. It all depends on the kinematics of the rear frame linkage, but I DO know that many have complained about the bikes that have ultra firm pedaling platforms (deliver instant torque to the rear wheel with little if any wasted energy), which tend to often lose traction and slip while climbing.
Lastly, my health insurance also allows me a free membership at LA Fitness, which is within walking distance of me. Their pools are also saline vs chlorine, so very user friendly to those with bad sinuses and esophagitis like me.
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Zloth
Community Contributor
Got an EV. I don't drive around much now that I work from home, so it works out great. Keep it plugged into a normal wall jack for a couple of days and I've got enough charge to last a couple of weeks.
And yeah, VERY low maintenance. No oil to change. No transmission to go bad. No fuel pumps. No spark plugs. I feel bad getting free air pumps from Jiffy Lube and the like because I know I'll never use their paid services.
Really? How does the energy get converted into force for wheels?
[I know nothing about EVs]
Some EVs can have them, but the ones I've seen that do are Jeeps. Though I think they're more Transfer Cases than Transmissions and actually, you can see some examples of this in RC Rock Crawlers, which I am 100% going to buy when I need another time, space and money intensive hobby...
But most EVs just have their motors attached directly to their wheels. Since electric motors can spin at a wide variety of RPMs and supply the same amount of power at any of them (unlike a internal combustion engine), they don't need gears to put the motor in the correct power band like an ICE.
Most EVs use an electronic controller instead of transmission. It's a very vital (and expensive) part and even something Tesla had to do a lot of replacements and refinements on when they were starting out. The batteries can also cost several thousand dollars. If you keep them charged as mentioned though, less of a worry.
Hybrids like mine are different in that you have to drive them to charge them, preferably at speed on the freeway. I have a loop I drive every 3 days, and as long as I leave no later than 10 AM, I can usually hit 65-70 MPH for a long enough distance to easily charge the Hybrid battery.
You know a Hybrid battery is charged when the tach drops down to the green zone at the bottom, meaning the engine has shut off. My vehicle only goes into battery mode at speeds under 40 MPH, and flat terrain, and only if you don't accelerate hard. It often kicks into assist mode though to aid the gas engine. It also does all this very seamlessly and quietly.
This vehicle is a mid sized 4 door SUV, and has just a 2.3 Liter 4 cylinder engine. I won't ever be driving with a total of 4 people in it, and it accelerates fairly slowly on a grade from a dead stop, but between the hybrid battery assist, and the engine being 16 valve, it holds its own once speed picks up. Gas mileage wise though it won't handle long freeway grades and headwinds at over 40 MPH nearly as well as it does lower speeds and flat terrain.
This is the first time I've ever owned a vehicle that actually gets better mileage in the city than the highway. It takes some getting used to, but as much grid locked, stop and go driving we have here, it is quite often beneficial when you least expect it, even on the freeway at times. This all reminds me, I need to pull the rear seat bottoms out to get another 6" or so of space when the seats are folded down to fit a bike or two in the back. The weight savings should also benefit daily gas mileage a bit.
Hybrids like mine are different in that you have to drive them to charge them, preferably at speed on the freeway. I have a loop I drive every 3 days, and as long as I leave no later than 10 AM, I can usually hit 65-70 MPH for a long enough distance to easily charge the Hybrid battery.
You know a Hybrid battery is charged when the tach drops down to the green zone at the bottom, meaning the engine has shut off. My vehicle only goes into battery mode at speeds under 40 MPH, and flat terrain, and only if you don't accelerate hard. It often kicks into assist mode though to aid the gas engine. It also does all this very seamlessly and quietly.
This vehicle is a mid sized 4 door SUV, and has just a 2.3 Liter 4 cylinder engine. I won't ever be driving with a total of 4 people in it, and it accelerates fairly slowly on a grade from a dead stop, but between the hybrid battery assist, and the engine being 16 valve, it holds its own once speed picks up. Gas mileage wise though it won't handle long freeway grades and headwinds at over 40 MPH nearly as well as it does lower speeds and flat terrain.
This is the first time I've ever owned a vehicle that actually gets better mileage in the city than the highway. It takes some getting used to, but as much grid locked, stop and go driving we have here, it is quite often beneficial when you least expect it, even on the freeway at times. This all reminds me, I need to pull the rear seat bottoms out to get another 6" or so of space when the seats are folded down to fit a bike or two in the back. The weight savings should also benefit daily gas mileage a bit.
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RIP AnandTech, one of the most influential tech journalism sites. Shutting down due to market shifts in tech journalism; not many people reading tech articles since it seems most people prefer tech videos over articles. AnandTech unfortunately didn’t get a strong footing in video content.
What websites do you guys read regularly? Besides PCG of course, I’m a daily browser of RockPaperShotgun, EuroGamer, The Verge and ArsTechnica. For music I used to like Pitchfork but they’ve changed for the worse over these past few years, now I use RateYourMusic and read user reviews to find music I would like, just as I would with Steam reviews.
Well heck… Rest In Pixels, sister site.
It and Tom's were the 2 sites I used for my first PC build in '99, and others in 00s and early 10s. Heck of a site, in-depth content there as good for a layman as PC Mag or any other source—Ars, Slashdot etc were a bit too advanced for me.
I guess Anand Lal Shimpi saw it coming in 2011:
"Something I call the cable-TV-ification of the internet. For the past several years it seems as if there has been a trend away from ultimate understanding in content online and towards the tenets of modern mainstream media (sensationalism and the general silliness you see on US cable TV news)."
BBC daily for news;
Wikipedia for sources on any topic;
MakeUseOf for light-medium general techie stuff;
AlternativeTo for software research;
WeatherUnderground for guess what.
Had to drop my expensive sub to The Economist, one of the very best for analysis and commentary on world affairs.
RIP AnandTech, one of the most influential tech journalism sites. Shutting down due to market shifts in tech journalism; not many people reading tech articles since it seems most people prefer tech videos over articles. AnandTech unfortunately didn’t get a strong footing in video content.
What websites do you guys read regularly? Besides PCG of course, I’m a daily browser of RockPaperShotgun, EuroGamer, The Verge and ArsTechnica. For music I used to like Pitchfork but they’ve changed for the worse over these past few years, now I use RateYourMusic and read user reviews to find music I would like, just as I would with Steam reviews.
I used to post on their forums here and there back in the early 2000s. Too bad to see them go.
I read PCG here and there, but mostly just stuff that pops up on my Google News feed. Atlantic, BBC, local news, The Autopian, random hobby and music websites.
Zloth
Community Contributor
That REALLY surprised me! I'm used to gas engines having to take at least a second or two to start, and sometimes a lot more if the engine is cold. (And sometimes taking a while to stop, too!) Now, it's instant on.
I would absolutely love to have a Toyota Sienna with hybrid. Getting 40MPG on a van would be utterly amazing.
Unfortunately, you can't remove the second row seats in it, which is the killer feature of a minivan to me. Being able to have a 7ish foot bed is a feature my wife and I use all the time in our current van. Eventually, if my van ever dies, we'll probably look at a Honda Odyssey, just because it has that ability.
Got my project all tied up this afternoon. Thankfully the fuel tank went back in without any issues; probably took half an hour at most to get it up in there and have everything connected, versus the couple of hours it took me to get it out in the first place. Was a little worried at first because my van just kept cranking and not starting, but I just needed to put even more fuel in to actually get it going; I had been reticent to put more than a couple of gallons in, just in case I did something wrong and had to pull the tank back out. But adding about 5-gallons got it started up and I drove it over to the gas station and filled it up.
Glad to have it back on the road, but the next project will be a caliper that needs doing.
My own projects are at least done for now, but tomorrow my wife will be ripping a hole in the side of the house to begin her project of bringing our useless linai into the house. She's going to try and get it done quick, hopefully in a week. I don't relish having a hole in the house for that long, but it'll be nice when it's all done.
Congrats on your fuel fix! Wow, your wife sounds more gung ho for remodeling than most hubbies!
Got my rear seat bottoms and headrests out, to my surprise they weigh only about 20 lbs total. The next projects are installing a power seat switch I ordered on Amazon, which comes tomorrow. The seat works all directions but forward. The fuse and under seat wiring look OK, so it's most likely the switch.
I'm also going to pull one of the 12 rusty screws out that hold my roof rack rails on and try to match it up at the hardware store with a stainless steel equivalent. I want to replace all those before winter. I'm also going to try to match up the 3 bolts that hold the plastic trim on the left side of the driver's seat where the power switch is. Ford uses Torx fasteners there, which I don't mind, but the fittings are shallow and semi stripped. I may use Allen cap screws instead, or just Philips.
What year Sienna are you talking about btw? I did a quick search and found some vids on how to remove back seats.
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You remind me of an engineer friend who had a BMW which he lovingly lavished with tons of TLC. His wife had the second car, a little run-around banger.
Her car was on the road almost all the time. His was being worked on probably half the time
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