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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 17th, 2023

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  • As much as I like Firefox/Librewolf, Vivaldi still has the upper hand in UI/UX. Workspaces, more feature-rich sidebar, one-click access to recently closed tabs right there in the tab bar, speed dial, tab stacks and other QoL stuff that makes just enough difference for me that I can’t really daily-drive any other browsers. Until FF reaches feature parity (it’s getting close, but still isn’t quite there yet) I don’t see myself migrating anytime soon. Quess I’ll just need to rely more on AdGuard DNS and Vivaldi’s built-in adblocker if uBlock becomes neutered on Chromium…


  • Windows 11 is easier on the eyes and easier to use. We took the best elements of Windows 10 and refined them to create a soothing place to work and play.

    Nah, no, hiding basic stuff behind bazillion clicks in nested menus deeper than hell is not “easier to use”.

    Wake on approach. Lock on leave.

    Windows 11 can automatically wake up when you approach and lock when you leave.

    Why would I want that on a desktop that needs to do work even when I’m AFK? My PC doesn’t even have a password on it—because if a stranger gets access to it, something has already gone horribly wrong and a burglar seeing my furry pics is the least of my problems🤪

    3D spatial sound

    This technology makes it possible for you to perceive the sources of sound in games. 3 It requires compatible headphones and is available on both Windows 10 and 11.

    I don’t use headphones and I already have a bangin’ good surround sound setup with 18" sub and tactile transducers.

    Smart App Control

    Exclusive to Windows 11 is Smart App Control. It provides a layer of security by only permitting apps with good reputations to be installed. Only available on the latest version of Windows 11.

    Why the fuck would I want that? I and only I get to decide what programs have the priviledge of getting installed and what don’t. I bet M$ will deny “good reputation” to harmless code injection mods for games (SKSE/OBSE et al, ENB) because these are basically hacking while allowing data-stealing privacy nightmares like Discord app.




  • DeaDBeeF sort of is similar but doesn’t seem to have the plugins I need to do a proper full-screen 10ft GUI, Facets-like library browsing, surround upmix, DLNA streaming to other rooms etc.

    I have to give Krita another try and see if it can import/export .dds, but my impression from playing with it for a few hours is that it seems to focus more on digital painting instead of photo manipulation (which modding textures essentially boils down to). I also have my GIMP workflow down to muscle memory, it only takes me minutes to do eg a recolor or upscale+fake details via sharpening and noise.


  • At this point there’s just a few pieces of software that keep me on Microshitty’s teat. Foobar2000 being the biggest one—there simply ain’t no good alternative for Linux, and I’ve tried them all. Freesurround, actual dB scale volume control via Jscript, waveform seekbar, precision spectrum analyzers, modtracker player are just some of the essential plugins, as is ASIO (in addition of bypassing all OS audio stack shenanigans it has the accidental benefit of not only auto-muting , but also auto-stopping auto-playing videos on websites that might slip through uBlock).

    Also, Paint.net is so good for converting .dds files. Never got .dds to work properly with Gimp.







  • Precisely. Headsets for simracing, flight sims or any other immersive entertainment—yay! Headset for an everyday task (recipes while cooking, weather display or whatever) that could as well be solved with putting a phone or a tablet on a stand on your table—why? And it gets worse if there are multiple persons who’d want to use that information display.

    Only use case I could imagine is having a huge high res virtual screen for productivity while travelling. But the Apple Vision is way overengineered for just that. For immersive entertainment I’d rather have Varjo for the price.




  • Saying that AptX is lossless since 2016 is blatantly false. And yes, just like with HDMI and USB, AptX standard naming and Qualcomm feature naming schemes are a misleading mess.

    There are 4 flavours of AptX (linked article states this as well), and only the latest supports lossless, but is available only on very few chipsets and devices so I even forget that it exists, because for all practical purposes it doesn’t.

    Denon Perl Pro, Bose earbuds and Cambridge Audio M100 are the only non-chinese earphones that I know of that support AptX lossless and the latter are not even listed by my local importer. Plus, you need a very specific (expensive) phone to use them because AptX Lossless is not available for all chipsets. Basically, Asus ROG 8 or Xiaomi Redmi K70 Pro for ones available to buy for me, and then it’s not available at every retailer, either, and the b2b wholesalers I have access to through work only list ROG Phone 8 (~1200€ retail).

    In conclusion, to make use of lossless AptX you have to jump through many hoops and spend a lot of money—700+€ phone and the 200+€ earphones. The standard is far from being, well, a standard; common and widespread. 99,9% of devices on sale and in use by people only support older AptX standards, mostly AptX HD (which is not lossless!).