Uraael

Uraael, 1 day ago to random

What the heck has happened to Search this morning? Both Startpage and Ecosia faling to return any results for simple phrases. Startpage can't "find any results" for fellow Search engine, Qwant? And neither engine could find any results for "daemon"???

Uraael, 1 day ago to microsoft

Being cut off from Search today means I'm left to my own devices to come up with a searing nickname for it: #SearchApocalypse is the current front runner. I think we can do better.

During today's #SearchApocalypse I've been mysteriously drawn to plucky British (!) Search Engine, Mojeek. At first glance they're doing a lot that I like:

• They have their own API entirely unaffected by the current crisis.

• They're Privacy focused.

• They're Green focused.

They've also partnered with the Mullvad browser, one of the best choices for default browsing Privacy, as reported in exhaustive detail on Privacytests.org

Of course, the proof is in the usage pudding and results so far have been...unspectacular...but it is early days and I think I'm going to give them a road test for a while and see how I get on.

#Bing #Microsoft #Outage #SearchApocalypse #Mojeek #Mullvad

Uraael, 1 day ago to random

23rd of May 2024; The Day The Search Engines Died

Uraael, 3 days ago to Morrowind

#Morrowind

At this point I have about 100 mods installed (via Vortex, via SteamTinkerLaunch) and some new shaders in OpenMW and this 2002 game is looking mighty sweet, if'n I do say so myself.

I'm a moderate Modder. I don't particularly like vast HD texture overhauls that give everything noisy 'grain' at the expense of the under-stated original look but in some cases they can work wonders, like in the armour you see in the second screenshot I've posted.

I bloody love OpenMW's new Shader capability, though. God-rays suit Morrowind thematically. The enhanced point-source lighting is MWAH. And those Mist/Fog shaders do absolute wonders for the atmosphere of the game. It's so great being on a mountain peak and suddenly a whole area vanishes as the mist thickens...

#OpenMW #Shaders #Modding #Linux #Vortex #SteamTinkerLaunch

Uraael, 3 days ago to Morrowind

Lo-Fi Morrowing is a Vibe, ya'll 🎧

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSf5uIPAZjA

#Morrowind #LoFi #WealthBeyondMeasureOutlander #Gaming #PCGaming #LinuxGaming #Hashtags #Musoc #Music #Nerevarine #OpenMW

Uraael, 3 days ago (edited 3 days ago) to microsoft

Fucking hell, Microsoft. There really is no depth you won't sink to, is there? Distinct whiffs of brimstone now.

I was happy enough to be off the platform myself (Deliriously happy, to be accurate) but I think it might be time to start gently suggesting other folks leave as well: Friends don't let Friends use Windows.

#Microsoft #TheOriginalEvil #Linux #FreeAsInNotInvasiveMonsters

RE: https://mastodon.social/users/nixCraft/statuses/112476175069427958

Uraael, 4 days ago (edited 4 days ago) to linux

Given the importance placed on CLI usage by many in the Linux community it's weird that a terminal isn't open by default on many Distros. Today I remembered that while on Antergos a few years ago I'd installed a terminal that you could call simply by pressing a hotkey.

Enter Yakuake ("Yah-quake")

Yakuake smoothly drops down from the top of your screen in response to the hotkey (the default is F12) and voila!: a ready to use terminal! Add it to Autostart and it'll run whenever you run a session of Linux, forever saving you having to load Konsole (or whatever) every time you want to use it.

And as I'm running KDE the fact it uses Konsole tech means it has that familiar look and feel, but shows Session tabbing by default foregrounding the ability to run separate terminal sessions and putting it within easy reach of GUI users and a mouse-click.

What Terminals do you folks run with?

#Linux #Terminal #Yakuake #KDE #Konsole #LinuxIsAwesome

Uraael, 6 days ago (edited 6 days ago) to DoctorWho

15th Doctor TV Scoreboard!

AIRED
The Church on Ruby Road 5/10
Space Babies 6/10 (+1)
The Devil's Chord 8/10 (-1)
Boom 8/10

UN-AIRED
73 Yards - May 25th
Dot and a Bubble - Jun 1st
Rogue - Jun 8th
The Legend of Ruby Sunday - Jun 15th
Empire of Death - Jun 22nd

CHRISTMAS SPECIAL
Joy to the World - Dec 25th

NB: scores may change as the series progresses.

#DoctorWho #Scoreboard #NcutiGatwa

Uraael, 7 days ago to random

Just messaged my brother: see image. 😁

He's seen three episodes now. Only one more to go, then...😢🥰😢

#XMen97

Uraael, 10 days ago to uk

The NHS is great but it has limits: yesterday was the first time I've ever heard a GP drop their official demeanour to let their anger at a lack-of-resource situation show.

My local area has very limited provision for mental health services related to Autism or ADHD; he got angry that they were failing patients, having to tell them to go private. (Meaning me in this instance, and another two people last week).

#NHS #UK

Uraael, 15 days ago to Morrowind

Morrowind is a genuine treasure. One of the high achievements of human creativity. If it were a painting it'd be in a public Gallery.

I'll be talking about this soon as I'm into my first proper playthrough in a few years. But here's a great primer on exactly what makes this unique creation so very special.

https://www.denofgeek.com/games/why-morrowind-is-still-the-best-fantasy-world-in-gaming/

#Morrowind #PCGaming #ElderScrolls

Uraael, 15 days ago (edited 15 days ago) to random

Head swimming with X-Men 97 thoughts.

Next week, when the last episode of the season airs I think I'm going to have to splurge tens of thousands of words on how incredible and wonderful and impossible this show has been. It's not just the greatest piece of X-media since the comics, it's one of the best shows I've watched in many years, with only Andor coming close in recent memory.

My family, who have not watched this yet, are simply not prepared for it. I defnitely wasn't: it hit me "like a hay-bailer with a jet engine attached" (lol @ rare writing mis-step). It is on another level over and above its forebear. Its timing could not have been better, and that's as much by fate as by design.

But sadly I think we've had our 'Endgame' moment in that this experience will be almost impossible to duplicate. Many of the shocks and surprises we've seen worked (I'll speak for myself here) because they were so unexpected. While the original series played loose with the source comic timeline (With Dark Phoenix in season 4 there should have been many events before we saw The Phalanx Covenant in season 5, for instance), this new series has gone berserk with it, to tremendous effect. It actually led me to ponder if Time itself was being manipulated by someone in-universe but there's been little evidence so far, though Bishop's disappearance being kept visible suggests this might be a simmering plot point for season 2....

Or perhaps it'll completely surprise me again. I'd be delighted to be wrong.

#XMen97

Uraael, 22 days ago (edited 22 days ago) to XMen

It's so weird seeing people pleased to see Charles Xavier back saying his immortal line.

In the comics, just as Magneto has been on the side of the angels for the last twenty plus years, ol' chuck X has been a moderately unrepentant asshole, soundly shunned by his one-time "Son", Scott Summers and even given lessons in morality by Emma Frost, the White Queen! And lately he figured he could save Mutantkind from eternal dominion by shooting child Moira McTaggert in her past. He was prevented from doing so (thank you, Rachel Summers) but only after he pulled the trigger.

The Onslaught storyline in the early 90s was among the first to really take the shine off his character, Onslaught's revelations re: Xavier's secret 'love' of his underage student, Jean Grey, serving to shatter trust and cast him in a much darker light. Subsequent stories, such as revelations he knew all along Scott had another brother, simply pushed him further away from his original portrayal os a moral guiding light for the X-Men, undoubtedly leading to their wholesale departure from him in the Utopia era, Cyclops' ascendance as the mutant driving force ("Cyclops Was Right") and Magneto's welcome into the fold as a more or less permanent state of affairs. There was a fair amount of revisitiation of earlier decisions too; looking at how he talks a very noble game but in practice he oversteps moral boundaries almost as a matter of course, wiping the minds of entire towns to protect the X-Men's identities, leaving people to believe him dead (as he just did in the cartoon...!) and more besides.

He's also a fairly crappy father to his son, David a.k.a Legion. I have one of those so it's less easy to forgive him that. Even in the Krakoan era (Krakoa is for ALL Mutants) where the likes of Apocalypse and Mr Sinister were made members of the governing council, he mistook David's peaceful reconciliatory overtures as David seeking revenge, and -get this- struck back first. Even when he's Winning at Life he's still a jerk (Thank you for that immortal insult, Kitty Pride).

And going purely by the cartoon let's not gloss over his arrogant presumption in calling for "his" X-Men when his Will handed them wholesale to Magneto, and he's subjected them all to the pain and grief of his loss for MONTHS.

Xavier? EX-saviour, more like.

#XMen #Marvel #CharlesXavier #ProfessorX #ProfessorXavierIsAJerk #XMen97

Uraael, 23 days ago (edited 23 days ago) to paganism

Wishing everyone in the Fedi a very happy Beltane! ☺️🔥🔥☺️

Let's give the Summer a proper pagan welcome.

I've been to a Fire Festival in Edinburgh before and it was great fun. 😁

https://beltane.org/about-beltane/

#Beltane #Paganism #Scotland #Edinburgh

Uraael, 25 days ago to random

I am depressed at the Scottish news today, our First Minister quitting before he was pushed out.

The SNP as a generally united force was the only thing holding back the tide of shit coming at us from Westminster, TERFs and other right wng malignancies. Trans Rights blowing up as an issue in the UK (Fuck you, American Christo-fascist dark money) struck a blow that cracked the party along ideological lines, and yet Sturgeon still managed to kept it mostly together, though you could definitely see sharks circling the bloodied waters. With her gone, feeding began in earnest.

Hamza was an average pick being the best of the options presented. But with him gone pretty much all hope of the SNP delivering another referendum or even maintaining the support for progressive policies like Trans Rights is now in serious jeopardy.

Kate Forbes, his hotly tipped replacement, is a christian fundamentalist and TERF sympathetic. If she gets the job all bets are off and I predict within a year we'll be having conversations in Scotland about those pesky abortion rights as well as watching things get worse in Scotland for the Trans community.

#UKPolitics #Scotland #SNP #HamzaYousaf

Uraael, 1 month ago to StarTrek

Star Trek. Saw a comment somewhere else griping (sigh) about the 31st century ships all looking different from each other. Fair enough, you do you.

But that made me think. If it's the "United Federation of Planets", why are Starfleet ships all using that one basic human design template they've been using for hundeds of years? Can they not afford to paint their ships, even? No Vulcan designed ships in Starfleet? Disparate crews (kind of, a LOT of Tokenism going on) but they're built on Mars, at Starfleet headquarters, in Earth orbit etc. That feels...disproportionate.

#StarTrek #Federation #NoShipsButHuman

Uraael, 1 month ago (edited 1 month ago) to random

Today is the One Year Anniversary of the day @MariaTheMartian rocked up in conversation in a way that gave me no doubt there was romantic interest there: I'm enby but a male presenting one: sometimes I need messages written on a brick and hurled at my head. 😄.

We became a Couple that very day, and the L-word appeared very shortly afterwards. We just knew.

That it falls on 4/20 (by her calendar, not mine) is coincidence but a very happy one....man. #️⃣

For my part Maria had pinged my radar the instant she arrived on my Calckey server. I'd begun to notice how sunny things were when she was there joyfully sharing her humour and MFM creativity. When Maria wasn't around it felt like colour was missing from the experience. Yeah, I fall Hard. 🥰 But I'm a Good Citizen, always absolutely respectful of da wimmenz. I didn't initiate anything because, well, to be blunt I'd given up on the entire concept of romantic affiliation - they hadn't ever worked in any lasting sense. I was resigned to being Single Man forevermore. But also, I didn't want to appear like some horny skirt-botherer just after One Thing. Whether because of who she is or just through impatience (lol, jk) Maria took the lead and for that I am forever grateful.

I am in love with Maria far beyond anything I've ever experienced before and this year has been the absolute best one on record. She lives in the US, I'm in the UK, but we have made it work: we have spoken EVERY. SINGLE. DAY since then through instant messaging. 365 days of purest joy.

I've been to the US twice to see her, in September and over Christmas (My first ever trips to the US). She's coming here to Scotland in June over my birthday (her first ever trip to the UK).

I cannot possibly overstate what she means to me. She is my world, my galaxy, my universe. I am now in preparation to try and move over there to spend the rest of my life with her. That's a long and uncertain road but she is more than worth the effort.

I love you so very much, Maria of Mars, my gorgeous Twin Flame. 🔥🔥 Thank you for the best year I have ever had full of Love and Laughter like no other, and I dearly hope this is merely the beginning of our grand adventure together.

xxxx

Your Scotsbear

Uraael, 1 month ago to random

I am begging people who post about contentious figures like Trump or Musk to consider their fellow users and at least use their actual names in the body of their text. A Hashtag, even. Your clever-funny nickname or oblique reference defeats our carefully curated word Mute lists.

Personally I don't get why people who dislike other people or services would constantly obsess over them still when ignoring them actually harms them far more but it's frustrating how often my timelines have images and links to article about these people still show up.

Uraael, 1 month ago to linux

I've had a very enjoyable conversation this morning about Linux, and specifically Linux Gaming. From my perspective this is now absolutely on par with the Windows gaming experience but of course that opinion isn't universal.

I apparently did enough to convince the chap I was talking to to give it a try, prompting me to have an immediate crisis of confidence that someone was actually listening to me on the internet and omg what if I've over-sold it?!? 🤣 I run a Gaming Distro: it's entirely possible I've lucked into this experience with my choice to run it because of things the distro maintainers have set up for me.

But I have faith in Proton. Proton / a.k.a Steam Play is a genuine Miracle for Linux.

When Valve launched Proton in [stresses memory] 2018? 17? it suddenly and gloriously catapulted Linux from an awkward, arcane and painful third place in terms of Personal Computer platform game compatibility all the way up to parity with Windows. ProtonDB now lists 20'000+ previously Windows-only games that at least one person has reported works for them on Linux (Many other games could work that just don't have reports yet). ProtonDb, a volunteer-run website, is also fabulous as it grades compatibility. Platinum for Works out of the Box, Gold for Works with Tweaks/Tinkering, Silver for works but with larger issues, Bronze for Doesn't work.

The Steam Deck (which runs on Steam OS, a Linux distribution) couldn't have launched without proton. The Deck is also having a hugely positive effect on Linux Gaming.

You want proof of how good the situation is? Here's a WINDOWS-FOCUSED website extolling Proton's virtues.

Top Tip: if default Proton doesn't work you have two options in Steam: the Experimental version, basically the upstream beta, or there's the 'Glorious Eggroll' [GE] version, created by a single person, that includes fixes for some games that Valve haven't officially included.

If yon chap has anything near the wonderful time I've had playing games from my Steam and GOG libraries on Linux this last year, I'm sure he'll be fine and I'll have avoided a reputation for being all mouth and no trousers. 🙂

#Linux #Proton #Gaming #Valve #GloriousEggroll

Uraael, 1 month ago to StarTrek

Hey, Star Trek fans.

All good things come to an end. But can we possibly face that without the whining and stamping of feet?

It's totally fine to want more of a thing you enjoy but my god learn to face a cancellation with some dignity, yeah? Personally, I'm gutted Discovery is ending. But I'm not out there bitching about Paramount over it because you know what? It's just a TV show, a horrendously expensive one being made in a much more complicated entertainment landscape than in previous decades. They've always had the right to stop making it, for whatever reason, whether you agree with that or not. It's possible to respond to loss without displays of aggression towards decision makers or armchair Company Leadership. You don't have to boot-lick. Just let's thank whatever you hold dear that we even got your favourite show at all. Or any show. We love the creatives but without the money men creatives wouldn't have achieved any of this.

I mean, I know Star Trek fans are particularly sensitive about cancellation given the fabled letter-writing campaigns of yore, etc, but I'm starting to wonder if Paramount really knew what they were inviting upon themselves cancelling multiple Trek shows within the space of a year or two. I'm starting to worry about you folks.

My advice: celebrate what you love and hold dear what it achieved. And yeah, possibly admit to yourself that the "good old days" of 22 episode seasons times 7 consecutive years was an exceptional thing for such expensive shows, and that other deserving shows suffered a lot, lot less; some commentary I've seen on this score has started to feel more than a little Entitled. Lower Decks across four great years turned Star Trek on its head in a way no-one could ever have predicted, injecting fresh, anarchic energy into an exceedingly stale template. It gave us brilliant characters, a FABULOUS crossover, shocks, laughs and much more. Here's to Boimler, Tendy, Mariner and Rutherford and the rest of the Cerritos crew having a spectacular final (for now....?) season.

TL:DR Chill, yeah?

#StarTrek #Cancellations

Uraael, 1 month ago to StarTrek

I may be the only Star Trek fan in my TL not emotionally compromised tonight about Lower Decks coming to an end at Season 5. 🖖

I don't try to be an Outlier. It just...happens. A LOT. 😄

#StarTrek #LowerDecks #TheVulcanGoodbye #OutsideLookingInAndWaving

Uraael, 1 month ago to random

FUCK OPENREACH. FUCK THEM INTO THE SUN. FUCK THEM FROM THE BEGINNING OF TIME TO THE END AND OVER INTO THE NEXT UNIVERSE AS WELL.

STOP MAKING ME LOOK LIKE AN ARSE IN FRONT OF MY CUSTOMER AND DO YOUR ONE. FUCKING. JOB.

screams frustration and despair into the ether

Uraael, 1 month ago (edited 1 month ago) to linux

Thinking about my Linux installation, Garuda Linux. It's great, I mean really really good, but it's run by the type of Linux Elitists that look down on users like me and I don't feel particularly welcome or keen to become part of that community*. So I'm considering a hop to a new Distro.

I'm used to Arch distros now (RIP Antergos) and I really appreciate Rolling Releases so the first candidate that springs to mind is Manjaro Linux. It even has an unnofficial Gamer Edition "spin" (fork).

What's more, I could use Manjaro to obliterate that Windows partition that still exists on my SSD, preserving all the data in my Garuda Home directory and simply copy it over between the dual Linuxes. Then I delete Garuda and expand Manjaro across the whole 2TB SSD.

Two birds, one stone? 😃 Am suspicious, solutions are rarely this neat...🤔☺️

*Like the Fedi, the political attitudes of certain groups (Distros/Instances) tends to be something you find out after you've joined up. Distrowatch needs a checkbox for Linux Elitism 😁

#Linux #Garuda #Manjaro #Elitism #Gamer #FuckYouForeverWindows #SuspiciouslyNeatSolutions

Uraael, 1 month ago to random

I'm in our company offices today ( I usually WFH) ostensibly to enjoy mixing with other humans - shame there are only two of the quiet ones in instead of the fun gaggle I enjoy - but also to enjoy this place while it lasts. We've been told a cost-cutting office move is coming and it'll likely be centre of Glasgow which is...not ideal. Le sigh.

Today's images are a celebration of the clarty bastards that work[ed] here, and the levels that Office Managers have to sink to keeping things civilised. Enjoy.

NB: despite what rebellious media likes to tell you there ARE good reasons to work in an office, and most particularly if, like me, you live alone.

#OfficeLife #MotivationalPosters

Uraael, 1 month ago (edited 1 month ago) to random

#Sharkey Question:

Have mobile apps caught up with *key forks yet or is PWA / Browser still the best way to experience them?

Bit of an idle question, I'm not an app guy if I can avoid it, but I do know some folks prefer them. Happy with my PWAs, just curious as to the state of the app landscape after a year.