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starkparker

Re:Decompiling Fast Food Tycoon 2: Drawing the World on Wednesday October 28, 2026 @10:52PM (#50284034)
I've had a shocking amount of luck using DeepSeek 4.1 Flash for this. It's not particularly time efficient, but $20 ends up going a very long way on some simple late 80s-early 90s DOS games.
Re:The first wired XR glasses powered by Android XR on Wednesday October 28, 2026 @09:30PM (#50283394)
even the $650 One Pros have most of the QoL features here, like the hardware IPR adjustments and an optional 6DoF camera

the only things that make the Aura tempting are the 70deg FoV (which like you say isn't a feature everyone wants or needs) and the 1000 lumen brightness. neither justifies burning extra money on the useless puck, even if Google is subsidizing it.

if the Aura was available at $700-$800 puckless they'd be a genuine upgrade over the One Pro.

Re:F-Zero X on Nintendo 3DS on Sunday October 25, 2026 @10:48PM (#50238482)
> This was done for peanuts

If you don't have a real dollar cost then can you tell us how much it actually cost in peanuts?

Before I clicked through I assumed this would be about press attempts to get use-of-force records confirmed for a Portland city council candidate who's also a cop: https://www.portlandmercury.com/news/anonymous-police-id-num...

It isn't, so it's just normal Oregon behavior to have multiple news stories about police departments stonewalling transparency laws.

Re:Dolly Parton's Imagination Library on Sunday October 25, 2026 @05:28PM (#50236227)
Someone, typically a parent of guardian, reads them to you while showing you the words. After reading the story, they might go back and walk you through each word, how it's said, and its meaning.

Not only do a lot of kids learn like this, but for instance the little Polish that I know how to speak and read I learned like this as an adult with the help of a native speaker.

Re:What was a Token Ring network? on Friday October 16, 2026 @09:14PM (#50126857)
First college computer lab was coax 10base2. Got introduced to MUDs on that one. And yeah, coax was unwieldy to work with, but we weren't pulling cables out on accident (at least not without taking the whole case with it).
Re:Beauty in DVD Menus on Thursday October 08, 2026 @12:20PM (#50007777)
The Twin Peaks Gold Box DVD menus are one of my favorites for the same reason. The backgrounds are just extended shots of places in Twin Peaks. The first disc, for instance, is almost all long, well-looped clips of saw blades cutting logs at the mill, sound included.
Re:So You Think You Could Be an Electrician? on Sunday October 04, 2026 @01:40AM (#49950998)
> I don’t care what the author says

Fortunately, the author says:

> The trades are more physical than working in an office, and some people find this — and working outdoors, where much trades work is performed — liberating. Some derive great pleasure from achieving a flow-like state of mind from performing specific physical tasks. Some people find it deeply rewarding to physically make things and to see progress and improvement in doing so over time. Some people derive a deep sense of camaraderie from physically toiling with other people. It could be that any of these, especially when combined with a low sensitivity toward financial compensation or status, makes the trades a better fit than white-collar employment.

Re:Chop Up Your Books on Tuesday September 15, 2026 @04:46PM (#49718688)
One of the more unintentional "reject modernity, embrace tradition" posts on this site. In a world where this catches on someone will come up with the bright idea of serialized novels again. It's like a payment plan for a book! More watercooler moments waiting for the next volume! Authors incorporating fan feedback between volumes! Imagine all the Dickensian possibilities.
Re:There's a new "Google Jail" for independent wikis on Tuesday September 08, 2026 @12:35PM (#49612692)
Chrome/Firefox extension that redirects or alerts you when you open a Fandom or Fextralife wiki that has an independent alternative (many of which are migrations off those platforms): https://getindie.wiki/
Re:Decapitating a MacBook on Sunday September 06, 2026 @10:52AM (#49587039)
https://mm-dev.rocks/series/my-working-environment/

Lives in a caravan and avoids using mains power.

Re:The safest job from AI may be writing on Monday August 31, 2026 @08:45PM (#49516596)
Maybe eventually, but not now. Our AI-crazed org is doing everything possible to have us automate our jobs out and has laid off anyone who isn't hitting their targets to do so. Our CEO point-blank said he wants our department cut by end of the FY. Same org just acquihired dozens of senior SWEs.
Re:Starbase, LA on Tuesday August 25, 2026 @05:49PM (#49441172)
The distance from the Mississippi's flow or mouth is irrelevant compared to the sediment that flowed out of it before levees forced it to exit the way it does today.

Erosion from that decision was already an issue 50 years ago; weather events accelerated the pace, but so have upriver dams that cut off sediment supply, and also shipping canals that have carved gaps into it that push surges further inland than they would otherwise, and also the chéniers that diverted floodwaters regardless of cause into more fragile marshes, and also farmland that was in active use as far south as Pecan Island up until Rita salted it, and also 50 years of oil-industry support infrastructure, and also the Deepwater rig explosion that leaked oil that killed off marshes (the settlement of which is how the state ended up capable of awarding this land), and also rampant invasive nutria that negated efforts to use agricultural fresh-water discharge to reverse previous damage.

https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11042/

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/201...

https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/44432/noaa_444...

https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/45895/noaa_458...

https://gulfspillrestoration.noaa.gov/media/document/2018-07...

https://www.usgs.gov/publications/accelerating-elevation-gai...

Re:Building a backyard office, the build and cost breakdown on Tuesday August 25, 2026 @02:11PM (#49438173)
> In Portland, I didn’t need a permit for the building because it was under the size threshold

You still need a structural building permit, beyond any electrical or plumbing permits, if it's both heated and used either as a living space or "for a business".

The city added the "for a business" wrinkle in 2024 and is very squirrely about whether using it as a work-from-home office counts as "for a business". It _does_ include working from it without bringing employees or clients into the buildling, but the way it's written implies that it's for people running a business out of their home address and not working for someone else's business.

It's a gray-enough area that I hope you got some solid legal advice. We ended up getting the permit to cover our bases in case I had to move to freelance/consulting self-employment.

Re:The Lost Treasure of Sid Meier's Pirates on Saturday August 22, 2026 @01:44AM (#49396896)
There've been a lot of pieces written about this, especially about Covert Action,[1][2][3][4] the game that Meier most explicitly called out for being a bunch of minigames that lacked coherence.

Specifically, if the minigames were too engrossing and the overarching layer too complex, you'd go into one of them with an objective that you've forgotten by the time you gotten out of it.[5]

And it's not a new argument, either. XCOM, also published by Microprose as a later contemporary, was very close to the medley model that Meier felt that he struggled with, but its various modes and mechanical levels (base-building, interceptors, budget/time/people management, research and manufacturing, tactical combat) all worked so well that it became the DNA for decades of a franchise.[6]

There's still a point to be made about maintaining an overarching focus, but it's a much muddier, know-it-when-you-see-it (or not-for-everybody) quality to it that makes it hard to turn into an actual rule.

1: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/covert-action-review

2: https://mssv.net/2010/09/19/covert-action-and-pirates/

3: https://scientificgamer.com/in-praise-of-covert-action/

4: https://www.filfre.net/2017/03/whats-the-matter-with-covert-...

5: https://www.gamedeveloper.com/game-platforms/analysis-sid-me...

6: Instead of writing a long comment, I'll link to the last long comment I wrote about it here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36297056

Previously: Fixing a bricked Framework laptop, jp_sc, 1 day ago, 419 points, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49345220

The story in that link is also linked to from this Ars story:

> After the most recent BIOS update, some users reported that Framework support told them they needed a new motherboard, but Framework wouldn’t provide it for free because the customer was past warranty.

> Framework’s statement to Ars says:

> > … in addition to replacing in-warranty Mainboards, we are making exceptions for out-of-warranty replacements where we can confirm a stable-release BIOS update caused the board to become non-bootable.

> Framework is also introducing a “Crisis Recovery Mode” BIOS functionality to enable a path for failed updates to be directly recoverable.

So there are engineers building component CMSs for Markdown to help engineers edit product docs, and there are product people building component CMSs for DITA XML to help product people edit customer docs, and never the twain shall meet because an engineer would rather jump into a burning building than share a repo with DITA XML. Even when there's an interface layer on top of it with features that are fully indistinguishable from this product.

The future is batshit. I hate DITA and I still think this is deeply funny, in the same way as falling into my own grave and realizing they're throwing dirt on me would be funny.

"Gen Z electricians making $240-280k in data centers" was a viral ploy by Mike Rowe on a podcast to promote his trades-training hustle.

> "The electricians that I interviewed and met two months ago in a data center in Plano, Texas, all under 30 years old, all making $240,000 to $280,000 a year, all with as much overtime as they want, none with any debt, all three of whom were poached three times in the prior 18 months," Rowe said ...

Google AI summaries then pick up wealth/finance grifter social media clickbait about it and parrots it as a fact.

There are contract data-center electrical jobs paying $55-65/hr (some with signing bonuses, per-diems, and benefits on top), but they only come close to $200,000 takehome by working 12/7 with generous overtime. And these are 5+ years of experience, OSHA 30, journeyman license, bring-your-own-tools. They're also exceptional; most are still $25-40/hr.

Re:Fixing a Bricked Framework Laptop on Tuesday August 18, 2026 @12:46PM (#49348487)
My last two ThinkPads (a P40 Yoga and a T14 Gen 2) were absolute shit.

The P40 spent more time in the repair depot than in use before I replaced it with something that didn't ship with a fucked M.2 slot, a touchscreen that failed out of the box and then a month after replacement, and a battery that pillowed within a month after that.

The T14 Gen 2 bricked on a BIOS update. The pinhole reset didn't work, so it went to the repair depot, came back two weeks later with the BIOS updated. Next BIOS update bricked it again.

Re:The American Sports Plutocracy Is Bullshit on Friday August 14, 2026 @07:51PM (#49306007)
My preferred modern (and non-American) model is the German Bundesliga 50+1 rule,[1] which unlike the Packers is actively employed and enforced within both the league and regulatory bodies, with external ownership instead being the legacy, rare, and endangered exception.

> The name of the rule refers to the need for members of a club to hold 50 percent, plus one more vote, of voting rights - i.e. a majority. In short, it means that clubs - and, by extension, the fans - have the ultimate say in how they are run, not an outside influence or investor.

> Under German Football League (DFL) rules, football clubs will not be allowed to play in the Bundesliga (or second division) if outside investors have the greatest say.

> In essence, this means that private or commercial investors cannot take over clubs and potentially push through measures that prioritise profit over the wishes of supporters. The ruling simultaneously protects against reckless owners and safeguards the democratic customs of German clubs.

...

> Using the concrete example of Bayern Munich, the shareholders of the men's first team (FC Bayern München AG) are the members' club (FC Bayern München e.V. - 75%), Adidas (8.3%), Allianz (8.3%) and Audi (8.3%).

> Things are organised differently at Dortmund. The members' club (consisting of 168,163 members as of November 2022) actually only controls 4.61% of Borussia Dortmund GmbH & Co. KGaA, which oversees the men's first team, reserves and U19s. Signal Iduna hold 5.98% of shares, Bernd Geske 8.24%, Evonik Industries 8.19% and the remaining 72.27% is floated on the stock market. However, the management company in charge of running the football club, Borussia Dortmund Geschäftsführungs-GmbH, is 100% owned by the members' club, ensuring control of matters and thus compliance with 50+1.

The rule's been challenged or subverted frequently. The most recent ruling on it was two days ago from the German Federal Cartel Office:[2]

> It is intended to stop rich, and often foreign, investors transforming German football in the way the English Premier League has changed while keeping smaller clubs competitive. But the likes of Bayern Munich would like the rule scrapped to boost their own coffers.

> A prerequisite for the 50+1 rule is that it be applied consistently and without differences, a statement from the Federal Cartel Office said following a review.

> The Bundesliga - the new name for the German Football League (DFL) which runs the top two men's divisions - must also ensure fans have a role and there is open access to membership, according to watchdog president Andreas Mundt.

> This could be viewed as a nudge to RB Leipzig - controlled by the Red Bull empire - to open up the club more to members.

1: https://www.bundesliga.com/en/faq/what-are-the-rules-and-reg...

2: https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/german-watchdog-permits-fo...

Re:Why Paris Is Obsessed with a Niche Spirit Made by Monks on Wednesday August 12, 2026 @08:27PM (#49280356)
If you want to use it in a Sazerac, swap it in for the Peychaud's and soak a real sugar cube with it instead of using simple syrup. I don't personally like it, but IMO it's the only good entry point for it in terms of texture.

The other option is a Carthusian, which puts a 1/4 oz. in and swaps the Peychaud's with lemon bitters to offset with acid.

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