@cerebralhawks@lemmy.dbzer0.com

CerebralHawks

member since 18 Aug 2025 12:56

posts

c/selfhosted@lemmy.world ·

cerebralhawks@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 4d ago

Where to start with setting up my own server?

preview

Good news selfhosted crowd! I pitched the idea of setting up a server, and she is down with the idea!

I want to run Linux and host things like Jellyfin, Audiobookshelf, Navidrome, maybe Plex (I currently host it off my Mac desktop but would move it to a dedicated server).

I know you can host Plex et al on something like a Raspberry Pi, but I want a bit more power. I want something that can push at least 2-3 4K streams.

I’m considering targeting 12th gen i5 with 16GB DDR4. Maybe 32GB if I can swing it. Is that overkill? I know you want 8th gen Intel for hardware transcoding of either x265/HEVC or AV1 (probably the former as the latter is newer).

There are other projects I’d like to run. I’d like to be able to host my own LLM/AI but I’m not trying to go performance overkill here. This would be my first server.

I am somewhat comfortable using the command line, and I would be remoting into the server via my Macs (I have a desktop and a MacBook). However, Linux can run Windows games via Proton and that’s something I’m interested in for some older titles that aren’t on Xbox (like Deus Ex, which came out in 2000 and should run on integrated graphics). I’m not inexperienced with Linux and have been using it off and on (mostly off unfortunately) for over 30 years. My go-to would be Ubuntu, but I’ve heard great things about KDE lately and I know the Internet is in love with Mint these days. Would the distro really matter all that much as long as I have the required services?

comments

This — but, I’m sure at some point, AI could develop a cure for various cancers. If it’s a straight-up race between humans and AI, the AI will win. It doesn’t need to rest and it can do more, faster. I do not see this as being up for debate. If the human finds one cure first, it will be luck or it will be some dumb thing that the AI overlooked. Something like that.

But yes, if the companies paying for AI get the cure, they will not share it with the world, they will sell it at a very high price.

Most rich people aren’t stupid. Some were given their money, like the US president, but a lot of them are also educated. They realise the Earth’s population is not sustainable. They will happily let poor people die to create a better world for themselves. The cure will go to the rich and powerful, and they’ll let the working poor fight over the scraps.

Altruistic researchers should be the ones to discover the cures, but they probably won’t be. And even if they discover one or two, it doesn’t change much. Cancer isn’t one disease, it’s a family of diseases and a cure for lung cancer won’t magically cure brain cancer or breast cancer, unless we cure the root of all cancers — and this is where my education and experience fall short of someone who actually knows what they’re talking about here — which I believe is its uncontrollable reproduction. So I think if we could stop cancer cells from multiplying, that would go a long way toward treatment, but I would have to defer to the actual scientists and doctors here.

on Big tech says AI can find a cure for cancer. So where is it? in c/technology@lemmy.world · 1d ago
Fair. But, in your/their world, how does one seek the information? If they aren’t allowed to ask, should they then just ask AI, or read an article otherwise written from Reddit/forum posts?

To ask it another way: How do you justify a person being curious and asking in good faith if an AI could just farm the post later? I think, but I’m not sure, that Lemmy has some kinds of safeguards against that? I know with Reddit it was wide open. I used it for the better part of a decade, wrote long-winded posts full of information; I know AI was trained in part based on my posts (among millions of others).

on Where to start with setting up my own server? in c/selfhosted@lemmy.world · 2d ago
They finally released a Mac version. Still doesn’t support m4a out of the box. Dragged it to the bin so fast.

on Winamp will be reborn in 2027 to take on streaming in c/technology@lemmy.world · 2d ago
Thanks. The more I see, the more I realise I should just leave the AI stuff out. AI and gaming were outlier possibilities anyway, though I’m way more interested in gaming than AI. Right there with you on AI ethics. I don’t like seeing them steal art and rip off artists, but they can be good at tracking down solutions on various forums. At least, they do it faster. But it sounds like running one might be outside my budget, so I’m more interested in running services, and light/classic gaming, since I have an Xbox (Series X).

on Where to start with setting up my own server? in c/selfhosted@lemmy.world · 3d ago
If I was looking for content for a blog or a video, would it be such a bad thing? Getting a lot of good information. Not sure what’s wrong with that.

on Where to start with setting up my own server? in c/selfhosted@lemmy.world · 3d ago
Thanks. I took note the first time I read that, but I appreciate the emphasis.

on Where to start with setting up my own server? in c/selfhosted@lemmy.world · 3d ago
Heard good things about proxmox. What do you mean it’s Debian? It’s an OS? I thought it was some kind of VPN thing that gets your services out onto the web so you can access them remotely or something like that.

I’m inclined to agree I don’t need a DE (desktop environment, though I suppose I’m the only one who had to think about that for a second as the new guy) but I was also interested in checking out some Steam games. Would that be something I could spin up separately (Steam via Proton) or would that be better as its own project with its own goals?

14th gen is kind of a price jump, but if I’m only targeting 16GB RAM (per another reply), it might be doable. Having my Mac just convert the AV1 to HEVC (or just avoiding AV1 entirely) sounds like it would make more sense. I’m seeing a lot of refurb deals on 11th gen i5s and that’s what I was thinking.

What are LXCs?

on Where to start with setting up my own server? in c/selfhosted@lemmy.world · 3d ago
I vaguely understand what docker is. I’ve tried to set it up on my Mac and had no luck getting it going. My understanding is that if you want to move your jellyfin install to another machine, it’s easy to just grab the whole container rather than hunting down jellyfin’s settings spread throughout the disk. I’ve moved a Plex installation and it’s not fun. It’s not hard but it’s not fun. So yes, it would be beneficial to be able to just move a container from machine to machine if need be.

I’m not new, but I shouldn’t consider myself any more advanced than a new/beginner level user. I remember liking Red Hat back when that was a home user distro. I didn’t much like Fedora. I have used Mint and I like it well enough. I also like Ubuntu. Heard good things about one called Cachy.

on Where to start with setting up my own server? in c/selfhosted@lemmy.world · 3d ago
I’ve been trying to convince people for the last 10-15 years that Google is no friend to the open source community. It’s been difficult and sounds self-serving as I do it from Apple devices and make no attempt to hide or conceal that.

AOSP and chromium are open source projects. What Google actually puts out — Android and Chrome — are not. They take the open source foundations, and they build upon them with closed-source components. They’ve always done this. AOSP does not have any Google apps either (sometimes called GApps) as those are not open source. Browser and Mail are not Chrome and Gmail, though the former may be a chromium-based browser and the latter may be capable of retrieving and sending through Gmail (much like Apple’s mail app can).

Android is not an open source ally, and macOS is kinda, sorta, not really based on UNIX. But we could flip the script and say that Apple is a friend to open source because macOS is basically UNIX (via OS X and NextStep), while Android isn’t open source at all. I can already see the pitchforks being sharpened. Both positives are technically true from a certain point of view (like Vader having killed Anakin Skywalker, to use Obi-Wan’s example for this turn of a phrase), but the negatives of both are more accurate. Because to really be a friend to the world of open source (and FOSS, and the more preferred licenses), you can’t just half-ass it, you gotta go all the way. Apple isn’t there and neither is Google.

F-Droid is what the Android Market (I’m that old, and older) should have become, with Google offering a repository you can add to F-Droid. Google Play Store is trash and pretty much always has been, and I say that as someone who deals with the App Store (which is also trash) every day.

Of course I also root for GrapheneOS, up until they say you can only use their OS with a Pixel phone. If I want iPhone 11 performance, I’m not spending iPhone 18 Pro money on a Pixel 11, I’m gonna either get iPhone 18 Pro performance, or, if I want Android, I’m looking at the Galaxy S line. I’m not even looking at Pixel and its sorry ass, seven generations behind Tensor line. Bad enough Snapdragon struggles to keep up with Apple silicon. Does Tensor even try?

But nah, I wanna see GrapheneOS do what Andy Rubin did. Make Linux run on phones. But make it run on any phone. I guess I don’t mean “including the iPhone.” That would be nice, but Apple isn’t unlocking that bootloader. But we should expect a free, open source alternative to Android to run on any hardware, not just the one run by the one causing the problems. (So what standards do I aspire my iPhone to? I want it to be more like the Mac, with a terminal and ability to install apps from anywhere.)

on GrapheneOS Isn't Happy With Google Over Pixel's Widening Head Start in c/opensource@lemmy.ml · 4d ago
I think the ideal would be if we could italicise titles, but we can’t.

on Castlevania: Belmont's Curse Hands-On Preview: What a Wonderful Night to Have a Curse in c/games@lemmy.world · 4d ago
Articles and game titles both use title casing though, so it’s grammatically correct. They could have at least put the game title in quotes to make it clearer, though.

The game is called Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse.

on Castlevania: Belmont's Curse Hands-On Preview: What a Wonderful Night to Have a Curse in c/games@lemmy.world · 4d ago
Eh, as long as Soulslikes remain popular and win awards, I’m fine with this.

I don’t mind a little challenge as long as I can learn the game and master a skill. I don’t like QTEs at all, and that includes dodge/parry mechanics. It’s like playing Guitar Hero on Expert with a controller, but you can’t see the notes. If you’re doing what the game wants but you’re a second or so off and that napes you lose, that’s a game I won’t complete… or shed a single tear if anyone pirates it or the studio closes. Games that punish gamers shouldn’t exist. If gamers want the challenge they can have it, but it should be optional and not required to complete the story. I’m fine with achievements being disabled for lowering the difficulty, just make the game accessible to differently abled gamers.

on DSP clears Wolverine's motorcycle section without player input in c/games@lemmy.world · 5d ago
Reverse? Gotta be Ouran High School Host Club. Regular? Sword Art Online because real ones know it isn’t one at all. Kirito is just a ladies man. There’s his fiancé, her best friend, his sister, his friend who he sees as a sister and an equal, and his AI daughter. Then there’s his best friend, and his boyfriend.

on [Discussion] What harem (regular or reverse) anime do you like best? in c/anime@ani.social · 5d ago
Are we talking the OPs or like, the score?

For the former, Bungo Stray Dogs and Sword Art Online are easy picks, though they both only used a couple/few artists. Fullmetal Alchemist (both of them) had more variety and a good range. My Hero Academia, too.

on [Discussion] What anime has the best overall soundtrack? in c/anime@ani.social · 6d ago
Teacher likely doesn’t have the power to change the system and is just another user, so you’d just be tilting at a windmill. At best, preaching to the choir.

It would be like me telling you why I don’t like Gmail since you don’t seem to like it, either.

on I am asked for Gmail in c/privacy@lemmy.ml · 12 Sep 2026
Clarification: Most Android users don’t use custom firmware (“ROM”). OEM means the company that makes your phone. All the major ones use Google Play Services. Nothing and OnePlus might be exceptions as those are known for using custom firmware that is more private. Also, Pixel phones running GrapheneOS ostensibly do not include Google Play Services. But Pixel phones don’t ship with GrapheneOS. You have to add that yourself by unlocking the bootloader (available deep in the settings, wipes the phone), and manually flashing the custom firmware (CFW or “ROM”) to the phone.

on LG smart TVs caught logging audio with screen off and snooping on local devices in c/technology@lemmy.world · 7 Sep 2026
No.

That said, the whole reason Android exists today is because Google was getting a lot of personal data from Gmail, but when they saw Andy Rubin’s invention, they realised they could get a lot more personal data with a phone, so they bought Android from him.

Android collects a lot of data (as that is its primary purpose for Google), but it doesn’t upload everything you say. It — or, more accurately, Google Play Services (and possibly other services) do other underhanded things to exfiltrate your data from the device back to Google. Like if you try to use an ad blocker, it will use DNS filtering to tunnel around the ad blocker for its own uses.

The wildest thing is, Google successfully ran an ad campaign convincing people their way was the right way and that Apple’s way of doing things was wrong. That’s a big part of why Apple is trying to be more like Google. They’re certainly not hurting for money, but they see people willingly accepting this sort of thing, so they’re realising more and more how much money they’re leaving on the table. Imagine if it had gone the other way, if more people rejected Google and its data collecting practices. We’d probably be paying more for some things since we’re not (also) the product, but more companies would be putting privacy first. Because that’s what the consumers would be demanding. But no, we have people out there, a metric fuck ton of them, saying privacy is negotiable. So, companies are negotiating with privacy — mostly against it.

on LG smart TVs caught logging audio with screen off and snooping on local devices in c/technology@lemmy.world · 7 Sep 2026
People also use Facebook, WhatsApp, Windows, and Android.

I think it’s a choice. Let people make it.

on People Are Telling Their Darkest Thoughts to AI Without Realizing They Can Easily Become Public: a full third of all AI users admit to having told their chatbots a secret. in c/technology@lemmy.world · 6 Sep 2026
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

on John Ternus Era at Apple Kicks Off With the Changing of Lake Ontario to 'Lake America' in c/technology@lemmy.world · 2 Sep 2026
It’s been a decade since I switched to iPhone for my daily driver. I still have an Android phone as backup. I had an HTC last, and a Samsung before that, so yeah, my Motorola was before that. My wife had one more recently. Actually, she had the same one I did, then used two more for some reason (habit?). They were all pretty shit phones. All before the acquisition.

I know a guy who worked for Lenovo. Said they treated him good. As for Motorola, they kinda stopped doing phones after so many shit ones. I’m kinda glad they’re back, but I wouldn’t trust them, myself. As an iPhone guy who still likes Android, I’d mainly be looking at Samsung (it’s what I have now, it’s an old S10 that still rocks), though the Nothing 6+ or 6S or whatever it’s called, in green, is VERY tempting — if I needed a phone now, it’s what I would get. Even over another iPhone.

on GrapheneOS project: pixel 11 no longer supports hardware memory tagging (MTE); GrapheneOS might skip the the whole pixel 11 series in c/technology@lemmy.world · 31 Aug 2026
It certainly fits. I’ve only heard the term, never heard it used in practice.

on Terminology in c/programmer_humor@programming.dev · 30 Aug 2026
Look who coined the terms. Like the Silicon Valley stoners/hippies who came up with bit, byte, and nibble.

on Terminology in c/programmer_humor@programming.dev · 30 Aug 2026
Motorola CFW support was spotty in the past, when they were an American company. Now they are part of Lenovo (? Not sure if they still are) so maybe they do things differently now. They always had decent hardware, and their Android forks were very minimal later on (in their independent time; before they were further from AOSP) and ran pretty good for the most part. But they did not like to update their phones. Motorola phones often shipped with the Android version they would EOL on. Motorola used to be a piss-poor choice for modding back then.

I expect better from them now, but I don’t predict it.

Also, I realise the issue is with Pixel, not Graphene. Still, I would be upset if I bought a Pixel 11 planning to de-Google it.

on GrapheneOS project: pixel 11 no longer supports hardware memory tagging (MTE); GrapheneOS might skip the the whole pixel 11 series in c/technology@lemmy.world · 30 Aug 2026
This was the problem I had with custom firmware back when I modded Android phones — you never knew if the custom firmware developers/packagers were even going to support your phone until after you bought it.

One phone was widely supported? So you buy the next one and no one wants to support it for whatever reason. One developer says “if you buy me one I will develop for it” thinking no one actually will, and when the community actually does so, he flips it on Swappa and you never hear from him again. Shit like that.

But if you’ll pay iPhone 17 Pro prices for an iPhone 11 powered phone that comes with personal data collection out the wazoo, you’ll probably pony up for the more expensive Motorola phone coming out that they’ve (tentatively?) committed to.

on GrapheneOS project: pixel 11 no longer supports hardware memory tagging (MTE); GrapheneOS might skip the the whole pixel 11 series in c/technology@lemmy.world · 30 Aug 2026
No, I get it! My favourite band is ONE OK ROCK, and they’re Japanese. They write their name sometimes as 10969 because 1-0 is pronounced “One-Oh” in English, and 9-6-9 is pronounced “ku-roh-ku” in Japanese — which is why I immediately knew what you were going for when you said what 3 was. So it reads “One-Oh-Ku-Roh-Ku,” so if you know how Japanese drops vowels, and that they sing in both English and Japanese, the pun works.

I don’t know Japanese, but I know enough to annoy my coworkers. So I’ll walk into work and tell one person ohayo gozaimasu and the next person guten morgen (Japanese and German for “good morning,” respectively. Someone tried to tell me “sayonara” (pronouncing it poorly) and I had to explain to them that “sayonara” is more of a “farewell” and is not appropriate to say to someone you’re going to see again soon and that the Japanese just borrow our “goodbye” (I hear “buh-bye” when they say it). Just another loan word, like how we say ramen, sake, sushi, and other Japanese words like we know something.

So yeah, love it.

on it's almost Miku day! in c/hatsunemiku@lemmy.world · 29 Aug 2026
Not a huge fan per se, but where did 3/9 come from? The only number I ever associated with her was 01 from the tattoo on her shoulder.

I’d like to know because my wife doesn’t like Miku at all (says she’s not a real anime character because she represents software, not a real anime… I don’t care, I just like the character design) and I’d like to have something to talk about. ;)

on it's almost Miku day! in c/hatsunemiku@lemmy.world · 29 Aug 2026
The originals were okay. Modern Warfare and Modern Warfare II were legendary FPS games with their own fictional story, but not really a whole lotta bullshit outside of that. Was it propaganda for/against certain countries? Sure. But if you can think for yourself (i.e. you’re not swayed by a fictional story), they were pretty good games. Even Black Ops was a lot of fun.

I had GamePass for a little while and decided to try the newest Call of Duty. I forget which one. The installation was confusing AF even on Xbox. Then when I went in, I could not find the actual game beyond the multiplayer and the ads. I actually had to search the Internet for how to start the game. I’d ask “how is this not obvious?” but the ads and the monetisation had become the whole point of the game. The game was not free, but it was effectively competing with Fortnite, so it was up to the same bullshit. At least with Fortnite, I have no problem getting into the standard Battle Royale match. (I know everybody loves to hate on Fortnite, but I’m an old school Unreal Tournament player, and Fortnite moves the same, due to it being the same engine… so, naturally, I am very good at it, and it’s fun to school the new generation from time to time.)

When I finally got into the game, I thought it was okay at first. We did a prison break and that was fun. Like what I remember from back in the day, it was like an interactive movie. Then I switched to a female character (awesome! representation!), but after a while, I couldn’t figure out where to go. The instructions were unclear, it wasn’t obvious, and the Internet was no help. It was like nobody really cares about the single player experience, it’s all about online now.

With the old ones, it was always very clear what they wanted you to do, and if you had the patience (think All Ghillied Up from Modern Warfare, where you have to crawl on your hands and knees between the marching soldiers and tanks, super slow, to not get caught), you were gonna get through it. Might take a try or two, but you can take all the tries you need. There was no “just run around this big open map until you figure it out”. The gameplay was tighter back then, and, honestly, for a guy who started with Pong/2600, Xbox 360 era games still look good to me. I don’t mind XB1/Series graphics (I’m sitting on my The Witcher 3 playthrough until the remaster comes out, since it’s a free update), but 360 was perfectly fine. It’s not “warts and all” to me; I genuinely think 360/PS3 era games looked great. And, with the RAMmageddon going on, remember that the Xbox 360 had no system RAM whatsoever — the system shared the 512MB of graphics memory from the GPU. (It was also a tri-core IBM PowerPC, so, basically a Mac from back then.) And the PS3 was a bit weaker in some regards and more powerful in others (IIRC it had a bunch of speciality chips that were hard to code for, but once mastered, made it the superior console to an experienced developer). Anyway, my Mac from 2022-2023 can basically play all PS3 games nearly flawlessly, and so can, I imagine, most decent (not even gaming) PCs, so… maybe we should take a closer look at that generation for our gaming.

on Is Old or New Call of Duty better? in c/games@lemmy.world · 29 Aug 2026
I mean, the best laptops don’t come with Windows, but you already mentioned the MacBook as an exception.

With desktops, I kinda get it if you’re a gamer, but for a laptop… why??

on Get your Windows license refund now! in c/technology@lemmy.world · 29 Aug 2026
They have the wallpaper locked at work somehow. Thanks for the reminder I need to stylise my cursor again. Black with green border.

At home, I’ve been Windows free for a few years now.

on Skip today's Windows 11 update: it breaks cursor styling, resets wallpaper, and more in c/technology@lemmy.world · 28 Aug 2026
Sounds like the US organisations used the same competency for their IT that they use for their leaders.

Also if it really happened they would have released the unredacted Epstein files.

on US: Chinese hackers broke into NASA, DOE, DOJ, NIH, HHS, Federal Reserve, and the U.S. Senate; DOJ and FBI seize 2 platforms used by China to target USA critical infrastructure in c/technology@lemmy.world · 28 Aug 2026
In Cyberpunk, they used Cherami Leigh for V, who was probably best known for voicing Asuna Yuuki (female lead) in Sword Art Online. I think that series is “why” she’s V in the same way The Matrix is “why” Keanu Reeves was Johnny (a role written for David Bowie). But, other than The Dark Tower, I can’t really fit Idris Elba into that analogy, and that movie sucked (I liked it, but as a reader of the books… it was shit). The Matrix needs no introduction, but Sword Art Online also dealt with themes of being trapped in another world, much like Johnny was in the “soul prison”. Especially in the third and fourth seasons, where they got into time dilation (perhaps more popularly explored in Black Mirror and Interstellar). A roundabout way of saying, her resume made her appropriate for the cast.

The guy — I forget his name — sounds like he’s from New York. He’s actually a good voice actor, I don’t have a single problem with his performance, or at least I wouldn’t if Night City was New York City… instead of (near) Los Angeles. I think Cherami Leigh is from, or lives in, California, but her V voice is nothing like her Asuna voice. You can kinda hear it sometimes (like that awesome Corpo V line when checking into Konpeki Plaza (“did I ask you to think?” … “next time, just do as you’re told”)) but mostly, she’s speaking more lowly, more sultry. For a person whose personal motto is “love and light,” it doesn’t seem like a good role for her… but she killed it. (She also narrates the audiobook of the novel, which isn’t about the Johnny story, but rather is just set in the same world. No something. Escape? Excuse? Something like that. It’s a good story. At least as good as the Edgerunners anime.

As for Witcher 3… Wandering in the Dark? Tried to find the quest you meant. I’ve done that one. I didn’t mean the witch you can hook up with, I meant the witch in the swamp. But, I’ve done both. I recall it being annoying and I hear you on “where a lot of playthroughs go to die,” but it’s not why I took a break.

on The Witcher III: Wild Hunt Remastered - Reveal Trailer | gamescom 2026 in c/games@lemmy.world · 27 Aug 2026
My strategy in The Witcher 3 is to always do the lowest-leveled quest, so I never end up too strong for any of them. However, through the course of Velen, I’ve gone from “the lowest leveled quest is 1-2 levels above Geralt, guess I’ll do my best” to “the lowest leveled quest is 1-2 levels below Geralt, might as well just get it out of the way.”

I also, as a guy, play girls in games, but mostly because it makes sense. Fallout 3 got me on that, where there was a perk (Black Widow or Lady Killer depending on your gender) that would grant you a buy/sell bonus against merchants of the opposite sex, and a damage buff against them as well. So I’d play a girl because most of the villains were male. The best early vendor is a woman, but she also gives a ton of quests, so I’m never really hurting for money by selling her stuff I find along the way. As soon as I got to Rivet City (the aircraft carrier in the south), I’d start focusing on the male vendors, at least until I had a decent amount of money. In games like Mass Effect and Cyberpunk 2077, it just seems like a poor choice to play the guy. Like, they hired a male voice actor to record the lines for guys who couldn’t stomach playing a woman, guys who could never play Tomb Raider for example, but I feel like they went out of their way to get a really good voice actor for the female version. Saints Row is actually an outlier here since the guy can be voiced by Troy Baker, but Laura Bailey’s almost equally good, so it’s not like the female Boss is a bad choice or even a lesser one.

on The Witcher III: Wild Hunt Remastered - Reveal Trailer | gamescom 2026 in c/games@lemmy.world · 27 Aug 2026
So Velen is the second area? That’s where I am. It feels like mostly side quests strung together. I started with the butcher/baron dude, did his quests, and now I’m following Ciri’s trail. Also dealt with a witch and a village of kids.

I’m with you on the story games. I need to try RDR2 again. I did the intro and not much else, back when it was new. Borrowed it, and had to return it. I also like Mass Effect (all of them, including 4/Andromeda), and Cyberpunk 2077. I’ll also add Fallout 3 and New Vegas, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, and the first three Deus Ex games. I generally prefer the ones where you make it your story (Bethesda games and Cyberpunk). The difference with The Witcher and, I suspect, Red Dead, is, it’s not YOUR story, it’s HIS. In The Witcher 3, you play Geralt, and you can act out of character, but it’s still his story, and you know you’re acting out of character. For example, I set a monster free because I think the alternative was some kids would die? I’m pretty sure Geralt himself would have gone the other way, but the choice was mine and I chose the kids. I like how the game doesn’t give you easy choices. They’re both wrong to a degree, it’s just you pick the one you can live with. So I definitely like that.

on The Witcher III: Wild Hunt Remastered - Reveal Trailer | gamescom 2026 in c/games@lemmy.world · 26 Aug 2026
White Orchard was fine. I dreaded the boss fight because my brother-in-law had a hard time with it. (I later learned he was playing on the highest difficulty.) So I did everything else I could. I may have missed things — everyone knows the Witcher games are full of details people tend to miss. Only thing I didn’t do that I know I could was kill cows to summon the secret boss. Not messing with that.

I’m in the next area. It let me choose the area. I chose the one with the lowest level. I’ve done what I think is a main quest (with the butcher/baron?) and I’ve moved on from that. I think I’m following his next lead on Ciri. It’s led me to a city they said I needed a pass to enter via the bridge. I swam across, zero consequences. Later got a pass by doing a side quest.

on The Witcher III: Wild Hunt Remastered - Reveal Trailer | gamescom 2026 in c/games@lemmy.world · 26 Aug 2026
I’m not far into it, but it seems like a pretty long game. I’m hopeful it gets better.

on The Witcher III: Wild Hunt Remastered - Reveal Trailer | gamescom 2026 in c/games@lemmy.world · 26 Aug 2026
This is awesome. I’m in my first playthrough and I’m enjoying it. It’s kind of a boring game so far vs what I normally play, so I do a couple quests, and then play another game. Not because I don’t like TW3, but because it’s not very exciting. I find it well written, just not very well paced. Visuals won’t help with that, but maybe some fine tuning will make it go a little smoother? I dunno. I don’t hate it or anything.

on The Witcher III: Wild Hunt Remastered - Reveal Trailer | gamescom 2026 in c/games@lemmy.world · 25 Aug 2026
Does this affect people on modern platforms (Mac/Linux) or just Windows? This is the kind of thing that is making Windows get left behind.

on Ads and tracking infiltrated TVs. Now they're coming for monitors. in c/technology@beehaw.org · 25 Aug 2026
The same could be said for TVs. “Why does the TV need apps if I’m just gonna connect an Apple TV box to it?”

on Ads and tracking infiltrated TVs. Now they're coming for monitors. in c/technology@beehaw.org · 25 Aug 2026
It only showed a thumbnail of that image. I saw what the other person linked — I wasn’t ignoring them, I just wasn’t on 11 hours ago when they posted it.

on Physical Video Game Software Dollar Sales Plunged to an All-Time July Low of Just $85 Million in the US — the Worst Total Since Tracking Began in 1995 in c/games@lemmy.world · 24 Aug 2026
Yeah, I really should.

on Day 768 of posting a Daily Screenshot from the games I've been playing in c/games@lemmy.world · 24 Aug 2026
Huh. Well, at less than one-inch squared, I was pretty sure that’s what I was seeing. I didn’t think to reverse image search it. I just figured they were being silly.

I’m leaving it. It’s good info.

on Physical Video Game Software Dollar Sales Plunged to an All-Time July Low of Just $85 Million in the US — the Worst Total Since Tracking Began in 1995 in c/games@lemmy.world · 24 Aug 2026
Huh. The AI slop image shown on the post doesn’t appear at the link. Weird. I wanted to see more detail. From here it looks like a giant Wii that takes Laserdisc. The implication is obvious: games are getting too big for optical discs, so let’s use a bigger disc. Only Laserdiscs didn’t hold more than CDs or DVDs despite being the size of vinyl records.

While LaserDisc carried analogue signals (and held around 60 minutes per side — so, naturally, most which had movies were double-sided), the later LV-ROM data format held 3.28GB, way less than the 4.7GB advertised for DVD, which the Wii took (however, the Wii famously could not play DVD movies due to not including the video codec).

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LaserDisc

Of course, the issue is density, not disc size. CD and DVD are the same size, and hold 700MB and 4.7GB, respectively. Blu-ray is also the same size, and holds 25GB per layer, and holds up to 4 layers (however, only one side of a Blu-ray can be used, while DVDs can be flipped and the other side can be used).

So if you took BD-ROM tech and made it on a bigger disc, you’d naturally have more space. But then you run into another issue. With Blu-ray, you’re jumping between layers, and from the inner ring to the outer ring. This makes data retrieval slow. If you make the disc bigger, you’re doubling to tripling the capacity, but load times would go way, way up, as accessing stuff on the bottom layer on the inner ring would be nearly as fast, but accessing stuff on the farthest outer ring would take much longer.

No one’s really proposing LD-sized Blu-rays for gaming. The image is AI slop. AFAIK there weren’t even any vertically loading LaserDisc players.

…getting on topic, I only buy digital when it’s cheap. Usually you can get the physical game for much less secondhand.

on Physical Video Game Software Dollar Sales Plunged to an All-Time July Low of Just $85 Million in the US — the Worst Total Since Tracking Began in 1995 in c/games@lemmy.world · 24 Aug 2026
How did I know this was Control? I just looked at it, and my thought process went, “that’s weird, maybe it’s Control”.

I’m really beginning to regret giving up on it. I didn’t get very far, either. And now I can’t remember where I started or how far in I got. Steam says I own Control Ultimate Edition and that I have 1.5 hours on record. So, not very far at all, I think.

What’s funny is, I don’t have a PC anymore. I have Macs. And Control is Mac compatible. So I really don’t have any excuse to not install it. I think I’d rather play it on Xbox (I have a Series X), but I don’t own it up there. Like Cyberpunk 2077 is Mac compatible, but it looks and plays like ass on my Mac (M2 Pro, 16GB RAM). I think my computer is roughly equivalent to an 11th or 12th-gen i5, but the Apple GPU is a bit better than the onboard one on an Intel chip. But it’s no replacement for a dedicated GPU, like a Radeon or GeForce card.

I’m installing it now, but I won’t have time to play it right away. I need to see if it’s playable on my computer. There’s also the issue of Apple removing Rosetta (their translation layer for the previous generation of Macs) next year, so if Control isn’t built for Apple Silicon (i.e. if it’s built for Intel Macs), it won’t be playable in macOS 28. So I may have some stacked reasons to seek it out on Xbox.

As a side note, Noita is a pixel simulator (so very CPU intensive!) and it runs perfectly on my Mac via Heroic, which is emulating it via WINE, or something like that. It ran on my last PC, which was a 4th gen Xeon with 16GB of RAM and a 3GB Radeon 280. It’s not for everyone. It’s a roguelike, and it’s very hard to master, and I honestly don’t think it’s been beaten yet. There are multiple win conditions (and I’ve achieved the easiest one, lots of people have), I just don’t think they’ve all been found. Look it up — if it’s your kind of game, you might do well with it. If you like to look up games from streamers, FuryForged is one I watch on YouTube who covers the game, mostly focusing on the mysteries surrounding it.

on Day 768 of posting a Daily Screenshot from the games I've been playing in c/games@lemmy.world · 24 Aug 2026
I always wondered what GKIDS stands for. Apparently it’s, according to Wikipedia, Guerrilla — it stands for Guerrilla Kids International Distribution Syndicate.

That’s weird AF. I also hate the implication that anime is for kids. It’s not, even if GKIDS sticks to PG material (I’m not sure they do, but I’m also not sure they don’t).

Then again, a lot of names don’t really mean much. I mean, I’m not a hawk, let alone a plural of hawks, so do I have any room to speak?

on GKIDS Acquires North American Rights to "VAMPIRE HUNTER D: BLOODLUST" - Theatrical Release This Fall in c/anime@ani.social · 23 Aug 2026
I’d say Your Lie in April qualifies. Yes, they telegraph the ending from very early on. You know it’s gonna happen. They swerve a couple times. You think maybe it won’t. Then it does. “Ah, that sucks, but I called it from the very beginning,” you say. Then the story keeps going, and just when you think “oh yeah what’s with the title? It never made any sense,” they explain the title.

Angel Beats! is another good one. It’s about a purgatory school. They tell you the girl called “Angel” is trying to get people to move on. She kind of is, and eventually those opposing her realise that’s the right move, but there’s a lot more to it than that. Ask yourself why she’s trying to help others when everyone else is just out for themselves.

Then there’s Sword Art Online II (the second season). The first part, with the gun game, kind of has a twist — how a guy in a video game that should be harmless is killing people IRL by shooting them in a video game. It’s pretty lame, though. The second part, the last seven episodes, if it were a standalone anime, it would be my favourite anime. The adaptation of book 7, Mother’s Rosary. The secret behind the undefeated duelist.

on [Discussion] What are some anime with unpredictable twists? in c/anime@ani.social · 21 Aug 2026
Not boycotting it per se, I’m just not getting it at launch. I think I’ll play Saints Row 3 again. Those games are so good.

You see what GTA 5 goes on sale for. You got me fucked up if you think I’m dropping $100 on GTA 6.

on Fired Rockstar devs don’t want you to boycott GTA 6 but ask for support - Dexerto in c/games@lemmy.world · 19 Aug 2026
At what point do we stop glazing tech companies and draw the line in the sand and say this crap won’t be tolerated anymore?

Unfortunately I think the glazing is led by influencers who aren’t affected by the price increases. And they figure — likely, correctly — that if they don’t give the company good coverage, they’ll be scooped, and forgotten. But, that’s where you start. With the fanboys. The loudest supporters.

The alternative is, these things just keep going up until the line is drawn and enough people hold it. And sure, it’s fine if you bought at the lower price… until you need a new one.

on Repairing the Steam Deck LCD Gets Much More Expensive as Official Battery Reaches $180 in c/technology@lemmy.world · 18 Aug 2026
When did I say FLAC isn’t lossless? I said I know how to make the second best thing after lossless. Lossless is WAV, FLAC, ALAC, it really doesn’t matter which one it is. I’m actually encoding to low-complexity m4a (aac) at the highest bitrate. To my boomer (Gen X actually but they always forget us and I’m closer to boomer than Millennial) ears, my m4a files sound pretty close to lossless at about a third the size. It’s my sweet spot of quality to file size.

on The best Spotify alternatives to ease your conscience in c/technology@lemmy.world · 15 Aug 2026
I would tell you you’re preaching to the choir. I’m not gaming on my phone.

Still, if I’m paying iPhone 17 Pro prices, I better be getting iPhone 17 Pro performance. I’m looking at the Pixel 10/11 Pro and I’m looking over at my Galaxy S10 and thinking “what’s the difference”?

If you couldn’t care less about the performance, save a few hundred bucks and get a mid-ranger. Or just throw more money at Google. Your money, not mine. I didn’t earn it. I’m just saying “make it make sense.” Which they can’t.

on would you wait for the Grapheneos-Motorola phone or buy a new pixel now? in c/privacy@lemmy.ml · 15 Aug 2026
I used to have Spotify Premium, on the family plan. My wife almost never used it, but she had it. I put it on her phone, made her an account, added her to the family plan. So she had access. She just didn’t use it.

I left because, at the time, Spotify was not engaging with the Japanese market. About 10-15 years ago, the big western record labels in the US, UK, et al stopped signing new rock bands, stopped promoting rock music, and rock radio was quickly dying. Meanwhile, Japan was taking rock music and running with it, and a lot of the popular acts were singing in English, or mixed Japanese and English. And Spotify was not biting. You could get a couple Japanese bands on Spotify, if they were huge, but most of them? Not up there. I wanted rock music. Culturally, rock music moved east, and Spotify mostly refused to follow.

Apple Music had a six month free trial (this was… 2018?) and we dropped Spotify to Free and went with that. Worst case scenario, I figured, I’d just get six months of free music and go back. Now for background, I’m an iPhone guy, my wife uses Android. Even with an iPhone, I was using Spotify, because, at the time, it was just what you did. No one cared about Apple Music, it was a cash grab, it wasn’t taken seriously. But I checked it out, I imported all my playlists, it had everything I wanted… and it had all the Japanese stuff I was looking for. We never paid for Spotify again.

Best of all, my wife actually uses Apple Music. Apple Music is fine on an Android phone. She got a new Android phone at one point and was told her old one wasn’t worth anything. I took it, wiped it, and put a few apps on it. Of course I have Apple Music on it. Even on a 2019 Galaxy S10, it still runs. I’ve also got a 256GB SD card in it with a backup of all my music, so it has the streaming, and it has offline playback (via an app called Poweramp, but any offline music player would work).

I wouldn’t mess with Amazon or YouTube for music streaming. If I had to choose an alternative to Apple Music, I’d only consider one where their primary business was music, like Qobuz is a new one that looks promising, or maybe Tidal. Ironically, last I heard, Napster pays artists the most per stream, but it’s not the filesharing Napster. That app died almost 20 years ago. A streaming service (Rhapsody, I believe) just bought the name and logo.

I’m one of those guys who doesn’t need to pay for music streaming. I have a massive collection and I have room to expand it. I know how to take a CD and get the second best digital copy (the best being lossless) from it. My computers don’t have optical drives, but I have a USB-powered one that, with an adapter (USB A to USB C) works just fine on my laptop. Haven’t plugged it into the desktop yet. Ports are all in the back, it’s a pain in the knob, I’ll just use it on the laptop. I pay for music because I love music. More than movies, more than TV shows, more than books, and more than video games. I don’t see paying for streaming as a bad thing. Pay for what you love, if you can. A lot of people pay for services they don’t use. My wife insists on paying for Netflix. I never use Netflix. I think she uses it sometimes. I think it’s a waste of money. She doesn’t. So she pays for it. I pay for Crunchyroll because we both love anime, and I do it through Apple TV so everyone on our family plan can access it. I would not pay for streaming of dumbed down TV shows, but that’s just me. I pay for what I love.

on The best Spotify alternatives to ease your conscience in c/technology@lemmy.world · 15 Aug 2026