Coconut Monkey Cornerclub

[Pifanjr]

Anyone able to give more insight on this. Guy is pretty much talking Greek to me, but security risk and spying seem to be the in thing here.

Is it time to switch to Linux?

View: https://youtu.be/t1eX_vvAlUc?si=rWHulDeosg8nU7sp

I didn't watch the video, but as far as I'm aware the TPM chip is just a separate storage for keys used for encryption. for example those used by Bitlocker. It just makes it harder for that encryption to be cracked/circumvented.

From what I understand however is that this chip can also be used for Remote Attestation, which is basically a way to prove to another piece of software you're connecting to that your PC hasn't been tampered with. However, what is considered as "tampered" is subjective. One example is that some apps no longer work on GrapheneOS, a modified version of Android, because it isn't seen as "safe". There are plenty of reasons one might not want to use products developed by Google, but if those are the only ones considered "safe" by, for example, your bank or your government you might not have a choice.

 

[Charagma]

I didn't watch the video, but as far as I'm aware the TPM chip is just a separate storage for keys used for encryption. for example those used by Bitlocker. It just makes it harder for that encryption to be cracked/circumvented.

From what I understand however is that this chip can also be used for Remote Attestation, which is basically a way to prove to another piece of software you're connecting to that your PC hasn't been tampered with. However, what is considered as "tampered" is subjective. One example is that some apps no longer work on GrapheneOS, a modified version of Android, because it isn't seen as "safe". There are plenty of reasons one might not want to use products developed by Google, but if those are the only ones considered "safe" by, for example, your bank or your government you might not have a choice.

Long tedious video but yes, he mentions BitLocker and AI and several other things in there. Pretty much said that due to TPM Microsoft decides what is allowed to work on your pc. In specific said that Win11 deleted his Ubuntu installations (twice) because of tpm that was not registered or something like that.

 

[Charagma]

I've never heard of Optimist

LMAO, only reason I know about it is because I own one, else would also have said I never heard of it.

, but I just got an email from BikeInn of Mark Cavendish with a new model of cycling glasses by Oakley that has a small camera just above the nose bridge. It's said to be AI driven (isn't just about everything that's high tech anymore?)

I am very interested in the iGPSPORT BSC300. In specific for the GPS function.

Pretty much nothing I want to video while I am riding. In my case if it has an audio function all you will hear is me blowing like a steam train and granny gearing up anything that looks remotely uphill.

As far as Windows OSes go, Microsoft ever since Windows became used as a widespread OS decades ago, worked with agencies like the NSA to build code into their OSes that can be used to filter trigger words used by terrorists. It's never been about randomly spying on civilians. Anything you hear otherwise is strictly tin foil hat conspiracy theorist ramblings. Nothing to worry about.

Yeah, had a look at Linux (Bazzite) and they pretty much said I need a better GPU to run it. So, MS will have to look if they want to, nothing I can do anyway. LMAO

 

[Colif]

Two weeks ago I complained that the National Weather website in my country sux now, they went from a website that you could just sit on and it would refresh the weather every 15 minutes by redrawing the page, to one that does not refresh manually and if you reset it to get a new page, forgets your local location and you have to let it look every time... this got tiring after about 2 times.

The new map is a replica of the phone app but the phone app refreshes? Why doesn't this one? Its not exactly the same function wise either, the phone app shows last 45 minutes and then guesses what it might do for next 90, whereas the PC one just shows last 45... and who wants/needs to know the weather from 45 minutes to now?

Anyway, I always seem to spot problems that only later do others see. As now everyone is complaining about the site, and the Govt has responded but so far only change made doesn't resolve this issue. Going back to old site would make more sense. It should go back into beta, it only recently left... what did they test? Who did they ask to use it? Seems the pool size was too small. Sounds like they didn't know who their user base was.

 

[Frindis]

@Colif Every country should have a (not the storm, but the person)

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFlK03-tSdk

 

[Colif]

Watched video of Ball X Pit and they classified Breakout as just some mobile game.... it might be now but 40 years ago we were impressed by much less and didn't need prettier graphics to sell it.

 

[Charagma]

Actually, specifically directed at Neogun (LMAO tried for 10 minutes to pin him here)

Because of me sucking piles at drums, I decided to get the full Groove Agent (Vs 5) with all the bells and whistles. Yeah, big number (Money wise) and HUGE download (Just over 150 Gb).

Since most of everything I do everywhere (Except talk here) is Student wise orientated, one of my students entered me personally (Charagma) (Aka not a school/study project) into a SoundCloud competition. The song being No Doubt's Don't Speak and to make it more ummmm DOOF DOOF, aka EDM/Dance/D&B.

I started splitting stems and got a fairly OK....Ish intro and first few bars, but then everything goes downhill from there. My bass does not fit the lyrics and my beat sounds "Offbeat"

Doing a "scan" on the original song I get 53.279 as the tempo, but adding drums to that odd number is like trying to put a nail into a concrete wall without tools. Manual scanning the beat (Tapping) gives me 77BPM. Again, same problem. Lyrics vs tempo just does not match.

Any suggestions as to how to get even just a kick drum into a project like this without sounding "offbeat"?

BTW, eventually switched to FL studios, the add-ons compared to Cubase is better. I have no Idea why but getting the feeling Steinberg is not pushing that hard into Cubase anymore.

I can send you the intro and you can have a listen to it (If you need to hear it for clarity), but how to you get D&B on something with a peculiar tempo? (Can do it via one of the admins if it gets to that or we can ask one of the admins extremely nicely to exchange email addresses between us). But pretty much need help on this one. There is no "Classical" in it and My name is already on the "Must do it" list.

 

[Charagma]

Actually, specifically directed at Neogun (LMAO tried for 10 minutes to pin him here)

Because of me sucking piles at drums, I decided to get the full Groove Agent (Vs 5) with all the bells and whistles. Yeah, big number (Money wise) and HUGE download (Just over 150 Gb).

Since most of everything I do everywhere (Except talk here) is Student wise orientated, one of my students entered me personally (Charagma) (Aka not a school/study project) into a SoundCloud competition. The song being No Doubt's Don't Speak and to make it more ummmm DOOF DOOF, aka EDM/Dance/D&B.

I started splitting stems and got a fairly OK....Ish intro and first few bars, but then everything goes downhill from there. My bass does not fit the lyrics and my beat sounds "Offbeat"

Doing a "scan" on the original song I get 53.279 as the tempo, but adding drums to that odd number is like trying to put a nail into a concrete wall without tools. Manual scanning the beat (Tapping) gives me 77BPM. Again, same problem. Lyrics vs tempo just does not match.

Any suggestions as to how to get even just a kick drum into a project like this without sounding "offbeat"?

BTW, eventually switched to FL studios, the add-ons compared to Cubase is better. I have no Idea why but getting the feeling Steinberg is not pushing that hard into Cubase anymore.

I can send you the intro and you can have a listen to it (If you need to hear it for clarity), but how to you get D&B on something with a peculiar tempo? (Can do it via one of the admins if it gets to that or we can ask one of the admins extremely nicely to exchange email addresses between us). But pretty much need help on this one. There is no "Classical" in it and My name is already on the "Must do it" list.

Time to RANT and RAVE....blow off some steam and what better place to do it.

Eventually remade everything from scratch in my own tempo. Rewrote the music and then just stretched the audio pieces into the audio tracks to fit the tempo.

I sent in the 20 Second Demo in, and they were happy (As per their email) and asked me to transfer the $350 entry fee into their account.......

SAY WHAT!?

I can understand asking an entry Fee. They need to get their prize money from somewhere, which is $1000 (first place), $500 (Second) and $100 (Third). They state that there is already 429 Contestants and here is where my Maths fail me. 429 @ $350 is way more than the prizes. Are they trying to get rich out of the artists now?

Anyway..........

Just thought I'll mention that I removed myself from the competition.

 

[BeardyHat]

Actually, specifically directed at Neogun (LMAO tried for 10 minutes to pin him here)

You can @ people, so for example @Charagma and it'll auto populate usernames as you get closer to who you want.

Struggled for a week on some of these prints (you can see some copies in the background, all of which are flawed in some way. I printed probably about 8 or 9 of the same mech that kept failing.), but finally got there. This will be my team for an upcoming Battletech Campaign (it remains to be seen if it actually happens, as while I'm invited to the campaign channel, I don't know the people involved, so I'm not sure of their follow through).

Finally figured out a couple of things regarding these prints:

1. Switch to a different program from my the default one for my printer. Alternative programs do a much better job at auto supports for prints.

2. I don't need to do .01mm layers, .05 is just fine, the details pretty much look identical. But .01 layers make a print take 15 hours vs 3 hours for .05

3. I need some heat! My prints started failing a lot less when I put a heater in my printing room and brought the temp up to 70*F from the pretty damn cold it was in there.

Anyway, hope this campaign happens. I'm excited about my team so far and even came up with some lore for why they exist in the time period we're supposed to be playing.

Units as follows from rear left to right:

Flea FLE-17
Javelin JAV-10P
Commando COM-7Z

In the front:

Bandit Hovercraft G
Inner Sphere Standard Battle Armor with Flamer
Inner Sphere Standard Battle Armor with Flamer

I'm hoping it'll all hold up to some Clan players we have involved in the Campaign and will allow me to salvage some bigger Mechs as the campaign progresses.

 

[Frag Maniac]

I've a different type of steam blowing to vent, it had my steam whistle going off yesterday, a metaphor I'll use here for the cussing it had me doing.

I've been going through Gears 5 again on Insane mode, and will hopefully be able to make a decent attempt at Inconceivable mode. I feel I've already gotten through all the hardest parts of the game mostly, so I was feeling good despite the game still really grinding my gears whenever a checkpoint I load makes a weapon I had temporarily swapped for one I use for a boss disappear.

I'm currently at a place in Act IV Chapter 1 Homefront called the Tomb of the Unknowns. It's got a lot of emergence holes with waves of grunts and elites, as well as a few Scions and a Warden. It's daunting enough without extraneous problems like bad bugs, but I'd forgotten this is a common spot I get the infamous GoW can't shoot bug.

I was almost ready to load the prior checkpoint, which probably would have taken me back to the start of Act IV, but then I managed to get clearing and rebinding LMB to fix it, or did I? It can take several attempts to get through this section. One time I got down to just two Scions, the Warden and maybe one or two lesser enemies left, but I died to the Warden's lunge slam attack, which has huge splash damage on Insane. Every other time I got the can't shoot bug reappearing!

I'm beginning to think the reason the hardest mode of this game is called Inconceivable, is because Microsoft was too cheap to give Coalition the funding needed to properly fix the bugs! In fact the worst enemies this game has are the invisible bugs!

Honestly, it's kind of embarrassing that Microsoft are one of the biggest founding members of the PC Gaming Alliance when they let huge game breaking bugs like this exist in some of their biggest titles. They are also far overshadowed by Sony at bringing console ports to PC, and quality ones at that. And of course Sony has no huge tie to PC like Windows. What is your excuse for this MS?

 

[Charagma]

I've a different type of steam blowing to vent, it had my steam whistle going off yesterday, a metaphor I'll use here for the cussing it had me doing.

I've been going through Gears 5 again on Insane mode, and will hopefully be able to make a decent attempt at Inconceivable mode. I feel I've already gotten through all the hardest parts of the game mostly, so I was feeling good despite the game still really grinding my gears whenever a checkpoint I load makes a weapon I had temporarily swapped for one I use for a boss disappear.

I'm currently at a place in Act IV Chapter 1 Homefront called the Tomb of the Unknowns. It's got a lot of emergence holes with waves of grunts and elites, as well as a few Scions and a Warden. It's daunting enough without extraneous problems like bad bugs, but I'd forgotten this is a common spot I get the infamous GoW can't shoot bug.

I was almost ready to load the prior checkpoint, which probably would have taken me back to the start of Act IV, but then I managed to get clearing and rebinding LMB to fix it, or did I? It can take several attempts to get through this section. One time I got down to just two Scions, the Warden and maybe one or two lesser enemies left, but I died to the Warden's lunge slam attack, which has huge splash damage on Insane. Every other time I got the can't shoot bug reappearing!

I'm beginning to think the reason the hardest mode of this game is called Inconceivable, is because Microsoft was too cheap to give Coalition the funding needed to properly fix the bugs! In fact the worst enemies this game has are the invisible bugs!

Honestly, it's kind of embarrassing that Microsoft are one of the biggest founding members of the PC Gaming Alliance when they let huge game breaking bugs like this exist in some of their biggest titles. They are also far overshadowed by Sony at bringing console ports to PC, and quality ones at that. And of course Sony has no huge tie to PC like Windows. What is your excuse for this MS?

Can imagine your frustration. Any possibility of there being a CP on nexus to fix the game issues?

 

[Frag Maniac]

Can imagine your frustration. Any possibility of there being a CP on nexus to fix the game issues?

Highly unlikely, as complaints of these bugs abound, with no such talk of a fix, even by the fanbase. Mostly what Nexus has is nothing like a hotfix, but rather graphics or gameplay mods. It's funny, because speaking of mods, MS totally funded some whacky stuff, including adding skins and even voices of people like Dave Batista that are optional in this game now. Yet this game breaking bug still flies like it's never on their radar!

I was actually wondering if using the Batista skin might bring me luck to avoid this bug though. I've read the Batista skin was due to talk of him possibly playing Marcus Phoenix in the upcoming Netflix Gears of War film. So apparently Microsoft are more into advertising a spin off movie than fixing their game! I guess they never learned after trying to model Vista after MAC OSes!

 

[Charagma]

Highly unlikely, as complaints of these bugs abound, with no such talk of a fix, even by the fanbase. Mostly what Nexus has is nothing like a hotfix, but rather graphics or gameplay mods. It's funny, because speaking of mods, MS totally funded some whacky stuff, including adding skins and even voices of people like Dave Batista that are optional in this game now. Yet this game breaking bug still flies like it's never on their radar!

I was actually wondering if using the Batista skin might bring me luck to avoid this bug though. I've read the Batista skin was due to talk of him possibly playing Marcus Phoenix in the upcoming Netflix Gears of War film. So apparently Microsoft are more into advertising a spin off movie than fixing their game! I guess they never learned after trying to model Vista after MAC OSes!

Sound like pretty much the same as Bethesda. Watched a YT where "old dev's" say that Elder Scroll 6 will be a failure because Bethesda is not learning from their mistakes. Unfortunately, the YT was very un-informative since they did not say which mistakes it was just that ES6 must be able to be playable for at least 10 years. This would ultimately be the reason for me to buy a new PC....LMAO

If I see a CP for your game anywhere during my web surfing, I will drop you the link.

 

[dxchase]

Those are some awesome armies you got there @BeardyHat . I am terrible at keeping my hand still enough to get into all those grooves, i used to envy kids back in the day that painted them lol.

 

[Frag Maniac]

Sound like pretty much the same as Bethesda. Watched a YT where "old dev's" say that Elder Scroll 6 will be a failure because Bethesda is not learning from their mistakes. Unfortunately, the YT was very un-informative since they did not say which mistakes it was just that ES6 must be able to be playable for at least 10 years. This would ultimately be the reason for me to buy a new PC....LMAO

If I see a CP for your game anywhere during my web surfing, I will drop you the link.

Thanks, for now I'm considering resorting to dropping comments on some YT vids of this Act/Chapter asking if those making such vids had this bug in that spot and how they got past it. It's a stab in the dark though really as most of these vids are years old when the game came out, so the questions may just go unanswered. YTers tend to focus on current content instead to get more views.

 

[BeardyHat]

Those are some awesome armies you got there @BeardyHat . I am terrible at keeping my hand still enough to get into all those grooves, i used to envy kids back in the day that painted them lol.

It's easier than you think with some practice! Part of it is building up the muscle for that, but there's also tons of tricks you can do so you don't need to necessarily get into small places.

On these particular mechs, I've primed them black and then I'll drybrush them with a grey to brighten them up. That way all those little cracks and slots will stay dark recesses and the rest will stand out more and it'll look like I've put in more effort painting than I actually have.

 

[Frag Maniac]

It's easier than you think with some practice! Part of it is building up the muscle for that, but there's also tons of tricks you can do so you don't need to necessarily get into small places.

On these particular mechs, I've primed them black and then I'll drybrush them with a grey to brighten them up. That way all those little cracks and slots will stay dark recesses and the rest will stand out more and it'll look like I've put in more effort painting than I actually have.

I used to think anyone good enough to paint miniatures well surely must not have shaky hands, until I saw this video. It's pretty eye opening, and informative. The guy's work looks seriously good too. I also love what he calls his favorite painting position.

The down side, it's got me worried my doctors and/or their staff might have shaky hand issues too. Just last Wednesday I was at the Dr for my annual wellness visit. It involved getting blood drawn for a blood test. The lab tech swabs the spot he wanted to draw from, then took longer than usual setting up the needle. I feel an awkward and abrupt jab, then he says "Whoops, I made a mistake and will have to do it over". I answered, "You definitely don't want to hear 'whoops' with this kind of thing." It left a sizeable mark that still hasn't completely disappeared. It's the worst blood draw I've ever had. He was shaky for some reason or needs retraining.

 

[JCgames]

Hah, you're right, whoops is never something you want to hear in any situation. Its never anything good.

Though your story did make me laugh, so at least one good yhing came from your troubles

 

[BeardyHat]

I used to think anyone good enough to paint miniatures well surely must not have shaky hands, until I saw this video. It's pretty eye opening, and informative. The guy's work looks seriously good too. I also love what he calls his favorite painting position.

Interesting! This is one I just sent to my buddy who struggles with the shakes and hasn't painted anything for quite awhile because of it.

It also reminds me that I need to try a painting handle. In my almost 6-years painting, I've never tried one more than a simple cork like he has. I'll have to dig around and see what I have and failing that, maybe print one.

Also reminds me I need to head to the art supply store and get a new 0 brush. The bristles on mine got messed up when it traveled with it last time, so it needs replacement.

The down side, it's got me worried my doctors and/or their staff might have shaky hand issues too. Just last Wednesday I was at the Dr for my annual wellness visit. It involved getting blood drawn for a blood test. The lab tech swabs the spot he wanted to draw from, then took longer than usual setting up the needle. I feel an awkward and abrupt jab, then he says "Whoops, I made a mistake and will have to do it over". I answered, "You definitely don't want to hear 'whoops' with this kind of thing." It left a sizeable mark that still hasn't completely disappeared. It's the worst blood draw I've ever had. He was shaky for some reason or needs retraining.

That's just luck of the draw with those phlebotomists. My wife got her phlebotomy training like...man, 10+ years ago? She definitely had people in her class who practiced on her that were the "whoopsie" type and she still sees it these days when she gets her blood drawn.

 

[BeardyHat]

I used ChatGPT yesterday to help me diagnose my charging issue with my van. Based on the behavior I've seen out of it when I've driven it (which I haven't for several weeks now), I think it must be the alternator. I did some cheaper fixes just to rule it out (cleaning the grounds), which didn't help.

So I asked ChatGPT to tell me if it thinks it was the alternator, bad pulley or a grounding issue. It gave me a couple of things to check, one of which were voltages at different parts of the charging system. I had bought a multimeter a few weeks ago when I installed my new cooktop and didn't really understand how to use it aside from doing a couple of basic things with it. So it was really neat to have AI walk me through how to test for certain things (such as 5v ripple) using it.

It was super cool to be able to get a diagnostic methodology, do that and then relay to something the results I was seeing, so it could point me in the right direction. After a few different things and going back and forth with the AI for a little while, it confirmed my suspicion that it was the alternator. So I set about removing it, which is kind of a pain on this particular car.

At any rate, soon as I got it off, I spotted what I'm pretty sure is the source of the issue:

This is where the positive end of the battery cable connects to the alternator and it's just so badly worn for only being 3-years old. So my assumption here is that the nut just simply couldn't hold the thing in place and thus why I'd see different readings at different times. Sometimes starting the van up, things would be great and then after it heated it up and things moved and shifted around, it would read low because the connection here moved and wasn't making full contact anymore. I'm going to go pick-up my new alternator soon here and get it installed today...

Unfortunately, this reveals a larger problem. My suspicion for why this stud is so badly worn is because my motor mounts are toast. I've known they have been for quite awhile and at 245k miles, it's not at all surprising, but I think that as the engine moves, it's pulling and torquing the cables, which is causing them to rub and wear on this component. 3 out of 4 of those motor mounts are super easy to do, unfortunately, that all makes-up for the 4th, which is on top of the engine in the back near the passenger compartment and it's apparently an enormous pain in the ass.

Guess that'll be a future BeardyHat job and he can curse Present/Past BeardyHat for it at that time.

 

[Charagma]

I am extremely disappointed.

Saw today that Expedition 33 was not even nominated. Watched a few YT's and I come to the same consensus. The awards are rigged.

In short you cannot play with the "big boys" because they grease paws to get what they want.

 

[Frag Maniac]

Interesting! This is one I just sent to my buddy who struggles with the shakes and hasn't painted anything for quite awhile because of it.

It also reminds me that I need to try a painting handle. In my almost 6-years painting, I've never tried one more than a simple cork like he has. I'll have to dig around and see what I have and failing that, maybe print one.

Also reminds me I need to head to the art supply store and get a new 0 brush. The bristles on mine got messed up when it traveled with it last time, so it needs replacement.



That's just luck of the draw with those phlebotomists. My wife got her phlebotomy training like...man, 10+ years ago? She definitely had people in her class who practiced on her that were the "whoopsie" type and she still sees it these days when she gets her blood drawn.

Yeah he made a good point why corks aren't so good. Too light and IMO too small to use as a comfortable grip either. The one he had with the rubber grip that fit his hand well that also had a swivel mount looks like it would be the ideal thing. I was a bit surprised at how he steadies his painting hand though. I was assuming before watching the vid he would pull out some type of rest or bridge like painters use, but that "otter" position looked comfortable and effective.

I actually didn't know blood drawing was referred to as Phlebotomy. Good thing they don't take it from your forehead, or I might have wound up with a lobotomy.