I truly hope that Valve is able to release Steam OS for the masses. I'd make that my primary OS and just keep windows for other tasks and just dual boot.

Can I add "everything Samsung is doing" to the list? Everything Samsung does is anti-consumer, so I don't know how I forgot them.

On that subject, I'm looking at new phones to finally replace my Galaxy S7, and I'm worried that the Android automatic backup is keeping a list of installed apps to reinstall on a new phone. Almost every app on my current phone is Samsung bloatware that I didn't ask for, is incredibly invasive, and you are not allowed to uninstall. I don't want Google trying to help me out by reinstalling that shit on my new phone, which will probably be a Motorola Edge. I know that I'm supposed to hate Motorola (and that model doesn't have a headphone jack, which I might need to use), but I don't know of anything else in the sub-$1800 range that's actually an upgrade over the S7 in any way besides simply supporting newer Android versions. Maybe a Google Pixel is an option, but I don't remember which models were problematic now. Reviews are useless.

lti wrote on 2024-05-30, 19:41:

Can I add "everything Samsung is doing" to the list? Everything Samsung does is anti-consumer, so I don't know how I forgot them.

On that subject, I'm looking at new phones to finally replace my Galaxy S7, and I'm worried that the Android automatic backup is keeping a list of installed apps to reinstall on a new phone. Almost every app on my current phone is Samsung bloatware that I didn't ask for, is incredibly invasive, and you are not allowed to uninstall. I don't want Google trying to help me out by reinstalling that shit on my new phone, which will probably be a Motorola Edge. I know that I'm supposed to hate Motorola (and that model doesn't have a headphone jack, which I might need to use), but I don't know of anything else in the sub-$1800 range that's actually an upgrade over the S7 in any way besides simply supporting newer Android versions. Maybe a Google Pixel is an option, but I don't remember which models were problematic now. Reviews are useless.

I'm a big fan of the Motorola G series. My current Moto-G Power came with almost zero preinstalled apps (Android OS upgrades have added a few that Iv been able to uninstall) and the UI is as basic as can be, which I appreciate. Plus Turbo charge, headphone jack, and micro-sd card slot of course. No wireless charging on mine, but I wasn't a fan of the wireless charging on my Galaxy S7 edge anyways.

Testing a stick of 2666MHz DDR4 8GB.
Arrived in a bubbly envelope, no wrapping. Memtest says it's ok after 2 passes.
Will test for 3-4 hours.

Miracle it ain't broken...

Previous weekend was the first time I ever compiled a web browser from source code. Pale Moon on Raspberry Pi 5 specifically. It took little over 58 minutes, the source code was put on an external WD 5 TB HDD, the slower kind using SMR tech.

lti wrote on 2024-05-30, 19:41:

Can I add "everything Samsung is doing" to the list? Everything Samsung does is anti-consumer, so I don't know how I forgot them.

On that subject, I'm looking at new phones to finally replace my Galaxy S7, and I'm worried that the Android automatic backup is keeping a list of installed apps to reinstall on a new phone. Almost every app on my current phone is Samsung bloatware that I didn't ask for, is incredibly invasive, and you are not allowed to uninstall. I don't want Google trying to help me out by reinstalling that shit on my new phone, which will probably be a Motorola Edge. I know that I'm supposed to hate Motorola (and that model doesn't have a headphone jack, which I might need to use), but I don't know of anything else in the sub-$1800 range that's actually an upgrade over the S7 in any way besides simply supporting newer Android versions. Maybe a Google Pixel is an option, but I don't remember which models were problematic now. Reviews are useless.

Yah, Samsung is like if Apple were trying to be Sony these days. I was so pissed when LG quit phones, I've been on them over a decade. Back to the classics I guess, Moto, Nokia, etc.

UCyborg wrote on 2024-06-01, 08:32:

Previous weekend was the first time I ever compiled a web browser from source code. Pale Moon on Raspberry Pi 5 specifically. It took little over 58 minutes, the source code was put on an external WD 5 TB HDD, the slower kind using SMR tech.

Heh. I've tried something similar, but more modest, some 6 years ago. The browser I was using at the time, Basilisk, had dropped Vista support, and I still kinda needed it on Vista. Back then the code base was still mostly compatible, so a minor change in a couple of config files was all it took.

I don't remember how long it took to compile, but the source tree is something like 1.4GB.

That, of course, was only a stop-gap solution, as incompatibilities eventually became insurmountable. I had first dropped Basilisk and Pale Moon, and switched over to Slimjet, and a while later dropped Vista altogether.

roytam1 still publishes updated backports of Pale Moon and Basilisk compatible down to Windows XP under the generic unbranded names New Moon and Serpent, which seems to have become synonyms for his builds for Windows XP. Shame these browsers struggle with many sites, but modern web has become a monstrosity. I still get by with Pale Moon, though admittedly, it's a common occurrence for the browser to hit on one CPU core hard with some sites while others cause memory leaks as objects just linger forever after offending sites are long closed, but they can still be seen on report in about:memory.

I try using other browsers, at least on desktop, to at least stay up-to-date, but I keep coming back to Pale Moon for the nice GUI with ColorfulTabs and font rendering on modern Windows (it follows system ClearType settings, which you'd think every decent application would do) among other things, though I miss few extensions that are only available in web extension form. And to resist Google's influence at least on some level, 🤣!

Also Pale Moon is somewhat lighter on the system, at least until you hit memory leaks badly, but one thing in performance it has going for it, it seems to be the most efficient when it comes to in-browser video playback (I don't do DRMed videos, if it has DRM, I probably don't want to watch it). Firefox on the other hand is so heavy that it even manages to trigger virtual memory exhaustion warning on my system.

Chromium-based? Bleh, you can't even move the stupid extensions' buttons wherever you want, they have to be stuck in that one corner. And I need Chrome Super Font Enhancer extension to avoid eye fatigue on Windows if I use anything that isn't Edge with enhanced text contrast flag enabled. I think Chromium is the worst possible browser you can make, its main binary is over 200 fucking megabytes and they don't have basic shit like that working. Oh, but you have Client Hints and impending Manifest V3.

So hardly any normal web browser out there. Or am I too picky and should just go with the flow?

Since smartphones were brought up, still have Sony Xperia E3 tweaked to my liking, running LineageOS 14.1. Still holding up well after almost 10 years. Not sure what I'd buy if I was in the market for a new one. How many normal smartphones are out there? By normal I mean not too big and rootable. I like dimensions of Xperia E3, I prefer being able to use it with one hand and being able to reach top of the screen with my thumb. Also, I'm considering changing my bank at some point, I HATE my smartphone being the key to the online banking! When I signed up, you just needed a certificate in a web browser or computer's certificate store. My bank's mobile app took some wandering in the dark to get going on this phone. And recently, they replaced both the web version and mobile app with totally retarded variants, bloated horribly and so much padding you can barely see any data. Web version's main script is over 43000 lines of code after unminifying it.

UCyborg wrote on 2024-06-01, 17:20:

Chromium-based? Bleh, you can't even move the stupid extensions' buttons wherever you want, they have to be stuck in that one corner. And I need Chrome Super Font Enhancer extension to avoid eye fatigue on Windows if I use anything that isn't Edge with enhanced text contrast flag enabled. I think Chromium is the worst possible browser you can make, its main binary is over 200 fucking megabytes and they don't have basic shit like that working. Oh, but you have Client Hints and impending Manifest V3.

I used to think UI customizability is important, and that was the thing that first got me hooked on Pale Moon, versus the direction Firefox had undertaken at the time (I believe it was called Australis UI?) Then I realized it's not as important as some crank it up to be, and that the theoretical compatibility with 10 million legacy extensions is not nearly as big of a potential deal-breaker as ongoing maintenance of the few extensions which you actually care about.

I moved to Slimjet and stayed there when I saw that it gave me both improved compatibility (over Pale Moon / Basilisk) and faster speed. However, Vista and XP support has been dropped ages ago, Win7 support some time ago as well. Now, I understand that Supermium provides good compatibility with the web on XP/Vista. I installed it on one of my few remaining XP machines, and it seems to be doing its job, and feels a bit faster than the outdated Firefox 52.9ESR.

I'm not sure what else is even left out there for us Chromium haters. Firefox doesn't count, too much Google's influence. I have Chromium on Android because nothing else works on Android as well, technically, I use Via which uses WebView, the only way to keep resource usage down as it forces it to work in single-process. I considered Apple at some point, but that's whole other can of worms and I'm too lazy to break free from Google entirely.

Chromium updates for Android 7 have stopped last year, good riddance, I don't have to update it anymore, for however long it'll last on modern temporary web.

Luckily, at least on desktop, Pale Moon still manages 99% of sites I visit, if that wasn't the case, who knows...exodus from the internet?

Yeah, extensions can be a pain even if you only care about small subset, had to fix ColorfulTabs myself so it didn't rely on user agent string to properly detect the browser and adjust its UI code. This one I didn't publish anywhere, I did publish uBlock Origin with some smaller easier features backported from upstream. But holy crap, the amount of work it would take to bring it on par with upstream version. And I hate programming, plus I have crappy job to attend to, taking much of valuable time.

Today, I had to to deal with what turned out to be a dead CPU.

I had a Ryzen 7 5700G system suddenly start black screening and crashing. It did it 3 times over 48 hours before finally refusing to boot .

After trying it with a spare motherboard and a spare PSU, I came to the conclusion that the CPU was likely dead .

I bought a Ryzen 7 5700X as a replacement (I currently have a discrete GPU in that system) and it worked right off the bat .

Now, I need to RMA a 5700G . Well not quite now, as it's bed time for this Bo(n)zo.

P.S. AFAICR, this is my first outright defective PSU since I bought a brand new 266MHz Celeron with bad L1 cache in 1998 .

darry wrote on 2024-06-03, 04:57:

Today, I had to to deal with what turned out to be a dead CPU. […]
Show full quote

Today, I had to to deal with what turned out to be a dead CPU.

I had a Ryzen 7 5700G system suddenly start black screening and crashing. It did it 3 times over 48 hours before finally refusing to boot .

After trying it with a spare motherboard and a spare PSU, I came to the conclusion that the CPU was likely dead .

I bought a Ryzen 7 5700X as a replacement (I currently have a discrete GPU in that system) and it worked right off the bat .

Now, I need to RMA a 5700G . Well not quite now, as it's bed time for this Bo(n)zo.

P.S. AFAICR, this is my first outright defective PSU since I bought a brand new 266MHz Celeron with bad L1 cache in 1998 .

i dont think i ever had a cpu problem, rare indeed - suppose it only takes one tint physical change due to heat or some structural failure and it fails

Finally upgraded my daily driver. RAM from 16 to 32 GB, CPU from Ryzen 5 2600 to Ryzen 7 5700. Only the GPU left, the RX480 is definitely getting old.

Lately I are be mostly </Jesse's diets> looking for Z170 boards before the general hoi palloi catch on to the hacks to get better CPU onto them.

Comodo started quarantining my pdfs for no reason. I could find them except with W10 file explorer (or whatever it is called).
It took me 6 hours to figure it out.
Strange thing is that the generated files via the blocked program couldn't be found even with Linux. Like if they had some attribute active.
🙁

---------------------

Tested a 1060 I bought for 60€. Not bad. For what I play a 1030 is already overkill.
Trying to locate a 2060 but asked prices are far from interesting.
Who needs beyond a Virge3D anyway???

No experience with the 2060 but I can confirm that the 2070 is very very capable...

I have an i3 12100f and was getting temperatures well into the 80s when gaming. My "modern" activity was to troubleshoot this. Ended up that the stock cooler wasn't fastened 100% as one of the pushpins clicked into place when I pressed firmly on it. Now my temperatures only go into the 60s.

linux mint 21.3 is pretty good, installed on an am3 system with 8gb ram and onboard graphics and works really well on what is a 2010 system, online and off. i've got v20 on an older 775 too. for me i think its the obvious choice for any PCs 'not ready for windows 11'

Ensign Nemo wrote on 2024-06-10, 03:19:

I have an i3 12100f and was getting temperatures well into the 80s when gaming. My "modern" activity was to troubleshoot this. Ended up that the stock cooler wasn't fastened 100% as one of the pushpins clicked into place when I pressed firmly on it. Now my temperatures only go into the 60s.

I just recently had that with an i5-4570, one corner wasn't pushed in correctly and temps were around 70°C.
Noticed while removing the h/s. Still working though.

gerry wrote on 2024-06-10, 11:07:

linux mint 21.3 is pretty good, installed on an am3 system with 8gb ram and onboard graphics and works really well on what is a 2010 system, online and off. i've got v20 on an older 775 too. for me i think its the obvious choice for any PCs 'not ready for windows 11'

Mint is crazy, I have the same install from 17, upgraded up to 21.3 and it just works.
Wherever I move the SSD it boots. It's almost a portable edition 🤣
Only issue is old Nvidia cards that require specific drivers (my 9000 cards fail to display). AMD works even with HD1000 gen cards IIRC, or HD2000. I didn't test with older.

I'm thinking about running Linux on my main computer again. Maybe I should just go for straight Debian to get a more minimal install. From what I've read, Microsoft has sabotaged dual-booting (updates for Windows 10 and 11 will randomly wipe GRUB and reinstall the Windows bootloader - 7 and older didn't have that problem), so I would need to install a second drive and switch between them using the BIOS boot override.

I didn't know that people still use Etcher. I tried it several years ago when everyone was pushing it, and it was a ridiculously large download for a tool with such a simple task. Then the Windows version contained multiple executables, one of which was an unsigned executable with the same name as a Windows system file. The tutorials acknowledged it and told you to simply accept the UAC prompt without question, so I didn't download a version with malware injected.

For video capture, I might have to buy something to run Windows 7 (preferably with the single-thread performance to get QTGMC deinterlacing done in a decent amount of time unless there's a better deinterlacing algorithm now). Some kind of Skylake or Haswell mini-PC would probably be good.