I interviewed Vincent Lee, the creator of GetBetterButtons, for the third entry in my Artist Spotlight series, which focuses on people making physical things for the gaming community.
Vincent designs replacement buttons and controls for retro handhelds, but the process behind them is considerably deeper than I expected. He reverse-engineers handhelds, builds detailed CAD models and simulations, goes through dozens of prototypes, and even develops his own tools to help with the process. We also get into his aluminium “Endgame” buttons, how CNC machining changes what he can design, and why he thinks handheld manufacturers still get buttons and D-pads wrong.
There’s also a pretty interesting background behind the whole thing: before starting GetBetterButtons, Vincent worked in hardware engineering and product development at Bose, which I found fascinating.
If you’ve ever installed a set of replacement buttons in a handheld, were curious about the process, or wondered why some controls feel so much better than others, Hopefully you’ll enjoy this one!
I’ve been working on this solo for a solid two months now. Finally, I’m happy to announce that it’s now in a minimum viable product beta condition with the v0.2.0 and Season Zero.
Experience real physics while racing. By learning to play you also learn the basics of orbital mechanics, with concepts taught in an introductory physics class. Fly a space ship around gravity bodies in a server authoritative simulation.
If signed in, you earn points (Pax) by completing daily challenges which they can use to buy visual cosmetics and create new map challenges in the MapMake system. There is the Founder’s Pack which grants an exclusive time limited cosmetic pack.
In the video what you are seeing is a true slingshot being performed by a player who understands orbital mechanics to increase their relative speed and direction the most efficient (lowest time/fuel) possible. You can read more on the site if you’re interested in trying it out, thanks for reading!
Free to play in browser with no account.
cross-posted from: lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/48313374
Promotional
Im not affiliated to Fermi/Harmony chat in any way, im just a user who liked it and want to share my experience of the app i find worthy of sharing
so i wanted to share a promising project that I have been using for a few months.
made this post to promote and share this platform since it needs more people, theres arent many atm and it deserves way more.
Fermi/Harmony Chat is free and open source discord like guild/community centered chat platform with most of the features that are expected from those platforms like message channels, vocal chats, threads, screensharing and more. Importantly the chat platform has a strict stance against LLMs AIs and AI generated slop like vibe coding and other abusive usage of AI that replaces human work and slop it in the process. sadly fermi/harmony is unique of having a strong stance against AI. (other similar projects sadly uses AI and excuses AI usage and vibe coding)
the platform also allows users to create their own client for the platform. harmony chat is the API and fermi is just the currently only working client on the platform (was a spacebar client previously until harmony was created as a spacebar fork with the goal of fixing the many issues and bugs present on spacebar) and in the future, instances are going to be federated and the process will be managed directly by the client (fermi and other clients) without being tidious and for advanced users like on matrix, so more easy and beginner friendly.
the platform also is more lenient on its acceptable policy and have a no bullshit moderation. (sadly not the case for other alternatives which sucks very much)
IMPORTANT
currently the project in its early stage and still has lots of bugs, glitches and various issues.
it is currently only accessible through a web browser (there is no app neither on desktop or on mobile)
lots of features are not finished and the platform still need major improvements. but i hope it is going to grow and become a viable alternative.
currently there are around 800 people are registered on fermi/harmony chat.
fermi.chat the main website currently (use this one to register) melodychat.org the organisation’s website (its called melody on codeberg and on the website since harmony was taken)
codeberg link of both harmony and fermi :
codeberg.org/MelodyChat/Harmony codeberg.org/MelodyChat/Fermi
credit to Mathium5, eliza, devs and contributors for developping and maintaining fermi and harmony chat.
The messages are polite enough. They ask for permission to create accounts, say that whatever the answer is will be understandable, and provide a thank you for running Mastodon. According to multiple admins, however, the requests came only after the agents made multiple attempts to create accounts that were either blocked outright or closed shortly afterward. Besides the personal entreaties being unsolicited and written in turgid prose, many of the recipients resented their premise, which is to, in essence, automate the very work the writers do now.
“Over the last three days I got over a dozen of these messages, offering to do my research for me in exchange for a nominal fee, around $25 or so,” Ernie Smith, the editor of the publication Tedium, wrote. “Each was sent under the domain iLands.app. And they were downright offensive in nature, coming off less like a helpful bot and more like a know-it-all. Turns out they’re just bots trying to keep their own lights on by trying to take my job.”
The messages are the work of iLands, a company whose website appears to be substantially written by poorly trained AI. While the independently minded Mastodon admins have largely blocked the bots, iLands agents have found homes on both Bluesky and X.
I know that I can simply make my own private certificate authority that only I and my family trust. But is there some public provider like letsencrypt that is in a free-er part of the world than the US?
Mr T explains why he’s late, but he wants to make one thing clear – this is not an apology. “You caught me in my devotion, and nothing comes before God. So I won’t say I apologise for the delay. I just want you to know that God comes first in all my life. For allowing my success, I give God the glory.”
He is here to discuss a new Netflix documentary, Untold Mr T: I Pity the Fool. At 74, he rarely gives interviews. But when Mr T decides to talk, he really does talk. What Mr T thinks, Mr T says. And I’ve never heard anyone trash the very thing they’re here to promote quite like Mr T does today.
The actor, former wrestler and cultural icon is full of surprises. Perhaps the most surprising is that he’s still famous. As he says, he has no right to be. It’s more than 32 years since he participated in a wrestling match. Thirty-five years since he had a significant acting role in a TV show. Thirty-nine years since he starred as BA Baracus in The A-Team, and 44 years since Rocky III – the only TV show and movie he’s really remembered for. And yet, somehow, he’s still a household name.
In the 80s, many boys and girls wanted to grow up to be Mr T. The A-Team was shown all over the world. This action-adventure TV series about four US army special forces commandos turned mercenaries became a huge hit and helped define the era.
The movie star George Peppard was supposed to be the show’s headliner. But much to Peppard’s chagrin, Mr T proved far more popular. His BA (Bosco Albert or Bad Attitude, take your pick) Baracus was a mechanical genius and problem-solver; a peerless brawler and human battering ram, who wore an African Mandinka-style haircut, rattled with gold chains and had a pain threshold second to none. In some ways, BA Baracus and Mr T were similar. In others, they couldn’t have been more different.
Flock Safety announced a voluntary employee separation program on Friday, offering a “generous” severance package to those who want to leave amid growing backlash against the surveillance technology company, according to an internal email shared with WIRED.
Applications for Flock’s voluntary severance program opened Friday, and employees have until October 2 to decide whether to leave the company. Flock expects to grant buyouts to the majority of workers who apply, according to the email. People familiar with the program but not authorized to discuss it publicly say they believe that a significant number of the startup’s roughly 1,500 employees may try to depart.
Flock is making the severance offers as it continues to lose customers amid growing frustration across the US about its sprawling network of license plate readers, which have raised concerns about privacy and misuse. In the last month, WIRED has documented officers allegedly abusing Flock to track former romantic partners and colleagues, exposed how widely some agencies share access to the system, shown how little is known about the manufacturing of the devices, and revealed in new detail how much information Flock’s cameras collect based on data from a dismantled Flock device.
Goes so hard btw
Edit:
Not sure if this is the right community but where else would this go lol
Hey everyone, I am setting my new (used) pixel 8 with GOS. I read on GOS site a lot,but want clearer understand some things. How to set different profiles- one for private and one for daily use. I understood its possible, right? I read another bothering thing,that GOS use 2 steps authentication- fingerprints and pin to open the phone. I am very against biodata, I never use it. Is it possible to leave only with pin ? Any advice what to apps to install will be greatly appreciated.
lexis nexis is a creepiest data aggregator out there. i recall seeing interview with the founder where he’s been bragging about buying hacked stolen databases of the darkweb “until feds take them down”. all your data
and this company is used to validate your tax worthiness.
rule
The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) won the state election in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
I’m glad it’s highlighted on Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown in particular, because that was the first game I’d bought from Ubisoft in years, and the extra launcher deterred me from considering buying any of their other games for a long while still. EA still has launchers on older games like It Takes Two and A Way Out and Dragon Age II and Inquisition that create obstacles for LInux compatibility and offline play, but newer titles like Split Fiction and The Veilguard no longer have the extra launcher problem. It’s good to see Ubisoft following this trend, and hopefully they can stop standing in the way of their own success.
The detailed sourcing directly attacks Sony’s legal claim that a reasonable person wouldn’t expect to own their digital purchases on the PlayStation Store.
cross-posted from: sh.itjust.works/post/67077797
Sourced from artist’s Bluesky. I had been looking for their RWBY Syndicate series but I came across this and there’s so little Taiyang fanart I figured it was worth posting.
pic from Datenspuren 2026 of the CCC
Edit: multi domain assets would be nice. Many applications suggested here have only simple flowchart + UML diagrams.
Should I add a simple image below? If so, what. I am going for subtle here so I can wear this to Disney World without getting kicked out.
EDIT: Ooohh, ooohh! How about, “For Those About To Flock”?
EDIT 2: changed the image
cross-posted from: https://feddit.online/c/euro@feddit.online/p/1972997/children-born-today-in-europe-will-live-through-almost-twice-as-much-extreme-fire-weath
Study shows young Europeans will experience years of dangerous fire weather over their lifetime as climate warms, but rapid emissions cuts could substantially reduce their exposure.
This is unacceptable. And I’m sick of all the fucking workarounds to maintain basic privacy.
Infuriatingly for iOS users, the only way to disable these promos is to either let them expire — which in many cases could take weeks or even months, leaving a persistent notification badge on the Settings app in the meantime — or pay for the service being offered.
Transcript: “Play, head, G-string, plug, finger, strap, grab neck, peg, rhythm, bend, scream, forte, amplify, climax, shut up and kiss me already.”
God I love guitar 🤤
cross-posted from: slrpnk.net/post/42928083
We ain’t gonna die because we’re too pretty
It is Unification Day, time to waltz into an Alliance friendly bar and start a ruckus.
It is also time for my yearly rewatch of Firefly.
U.S. President Donald Trump says he is working on a “massive deal” to purchase potash from Belarus.
“The pricing would be for substantially less than we are currently paying to Canada, very good news for our Farmers and Ranchers,” he posted to Truth Social on Monday.
Canada is the leading exporter of potash, shipping about 22.9 million tonnes in 2024, accounting for over 39 per cent of global exports according to the Government of Canada.
The leading destination of Canadian exports of potash is the United States. The U.S. imports nearly 85 per cent of its potash from Canada.
Belarus ranks third in potash production behind Russia and Canada.
I’m currently running Proxmox on a single Lenovo ThinkStation P330 Tiny. As my VMs workloads have grown, the 64GB of RAM is consistently sitting near capacity.
To spread the memory load and get proper HA, seamless VMs migration, and easier node maintenance, I’m considering adding two more matching units to build a 3-node cluster.
Planned Per-Node Specs:
. Chassis: Lenovo P330 Tiny . CPU: Intel Core i9-9900T ES . RAM: 64GB DDR4-3200 (running at 2666MHz platform limit) . Boot/Local Storage: 1TB NVMe
Networking: Upgraded to 2.5GbE
Shared Storage:
Synology NAS via iSCSI (SSD cache enabled) over 2.5GbE
Does this setup still offer good value for money, or are there better alternatives in this form factor?
I’d especially appreciate feedback on:
WARNING!!! this post is FAKE!!! i fabricated it.
yeah yeah i will make an actual post which isn’t just silly cheap stuff like this. i could have made this into a fancier thing but i don’t think it would have helped much. sadly, tweetgen was down so i had to use a really bad other one which uses the old twitter style and doesn’t support pfps. ugh. whatever whatever. at least it’s not a repost, amiright? hahaaaa-----
this one may come across a bit more theatrical than usual. i didn’t want it to, but that’s how the text turned out. hmm…
yea i will make an actual post today, you will get that, don’t worry. i have the idea already but got stuffs to to outside of posts rn… at least a bit.
i wish you a wonderful day in which someone listens to your concerns <3
EDIT: added the warning
EU sanctions against almost 3,000 individuals and entities linked to Vladimir Putin’s Russia could lapse at the end of Tuesday after Latvia blocked a proposed compromise involving two Russian oligarchs, diplomats said.
The dispute was triggered by France’s demand that the EU lift travel bans and asset freezes imposed on Alisher Usmanov, a Russian-Uzbek tycoon, on what Paris described as “national security” grounds. Diplomats said the request was linked to a potential prisoner exchange involving two French nationals, including a man accused of spying in Azerbaijan.
STRASBOURG, France, Sept 17 (Reuters) - European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen set out a sweeping plan to keep children safe from online dangers on Thursday, proposing to ban under-13s from social media and require online services to design safe children’s accounts.
The move follows similar initiatives in Australia, Britain, China, India, Turkey and several European Union countries over concerns about the impact Meta’s (META.O), opens new tab Facebook and Instagram, TikTok, Google’s (GOOGL.O), opens new tab YouTube and ChatGPT have on children’s mental health and safety.
The Misinformation Monitor newsletter rounds up international misinformation narratives, with a “Real or Fake?” quiz in every edition. Sign up here.
Australia’s challenges in enforcing its world-first social media ban for children under 16 could see Europe facing an uphill battle as well.
“Today, our children are engaging with some of the most sophisticated technology ever created, and it was not created with children’s well-being and development in mind,” von der Leyen told a press conference.
She said the proposed EU Kids Act “will set clear boundaries in the digital world just as we do it on a daily basis in the real world”.
PARENTAL CONTROL
Under the proposal, which must be negotiated with EU countries and the European Parliament in the coming months before it can become law, accounts for children aged between 13 and 15 will be under parental control.
Social media and video-sharing services, online video games, AI companions and chatbots for children below 18 will be subject to a list of dos and don’ts.
These include a ban on addictive features, profiling-based recommender feeds, infinite scroll, reward tricks and unsolicited contact from strangers. AI companions and chatbots must be turned off by default.
Online platforms must design algorithms safe for children and provide easy-to-use parental controls and tools to block and mute users. The companies, which must verify users’ age when they open an account via age assurance tools, risk fines as much as 6% of their global annual sales for non-compliance. They will also have to pay a supervisory fee to fund regulators’ supervision.
Tech lobbying group CCIA Europe, whose members include Google and Meta, warned of the privacy risks arising from the proposal and conflicting requirements under other EU laws. “Collecting age information, identity credentials, and data linking children with parents or guardians at this scale would undoubtedly create an attractive target for cybercriminals,” CCIA head Daniel Friedlaender said.
“The Kids Act creates legal overlap and duplication that ultimately weaken protections for children and consumers,” he said.
have you ever successfully broken the zfs to the point where it’s not recoverable?
