@arroz@mastodon.social
@arroz@mastodon.social avatar

arroz

@arroz@mastodon.social

Indie Mac developer. Former Apple and survs.com. I program my home computer, beam myself into the future. Living in 🇨🇦, missing 🇵🇹.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

cocoaphony, to random
@cocoaphony@mastodon.social avatar

We have four cats and always debate which is the goofiest. You think humans are weird, but it turns out all mammals are probably pretty messed up. This one is in in his nightly “you must pet me, but don’t touch me. I don’t like people and you scare me, but also I require a very lot of skritches, ideally at the very edge of your reach so you can’t be grabbing me or whatever you people always are doing”

He’s a very cool, totally black panther of a cat. And a bizarre goofball all the time.

arroz,
@arroz@mastodon.social avatar

@cocoaphony Best thing about living with multiple cats is seeing how the personality of each one is different, just like humans.

vga256, to VHS
@vga256@dialup.cafe avatar

so for the past month i've been leaving old vhs movies on in the background while i work

i noticed that several tapes had faded audio that got worse over the course of the film, with a lot of humming in the background, to the point of being inaudible after a while. a few web searches suggested either a worn out vhs tape (which I feared), or a poorly tracked vcr (I adjusted the tracking, which didn't improve anything)

i did notice that my older JVC vcr never had the "stereo" light on when playing back movies, and had a suspicion:

so holy crap, til: most VHS tapes past a certain age have two audio tracks: an analog mono track, and a stereo hi-fi track

when the vcr can't track the stereo hi-fi track properly, it switches to the analog mono track on the edge of the tape.

my vcr was always downgrading to the analog track, which on several (ex-rental) tapes had degraded due to mishandling and abuse (being at the edge of the tape path)

i picked up a Sony SLV-778HF today for $20 just to see if switching VCRs would make a difference.

holy COW is this a huge improvement over my old 80s JVC vcr! not only did it pick up the stereo hi-fi track on all of the "bad" tapes perfectly, but it improved the video so much that it looks like a dvd.

arroz,
@arroz@mastodon.social avatar

@vga256 Sony was awesome! I had a SLV-715, and one cool thing it allowed was recording only the mono audio track, or the video+stereo track. That way, audio commentary could be added by replacing the mono audio. I can't remember if it allowed to play both simultaneously or just switch between them, but either way it was really cool.

After it broke down, I replaced it with a Grundig, and even after many years of tech development, it wasn't quite the same thing. Sony was really special.

simonbs, to random
@simonbs@mastodon.social avatar

When I posted this, I did not expect all these replies reporting similar issues. The number of people saying they occasionally/often have to restart Safari to make it work properly is flabbergasting to me. I probably restart Safari at least once a day, and that’s mildly frustrating.
https://mastodon.social/@simonbs/112274840951637693

arroz,
@arroz@mastodon.social avatar

@simonbs That and many variants happen to me daily. It's usually triggered by stuff like hitting the back button, typing the return key on a URL field or closing a tab when the timing is just right.

Symptoms include nothing loading, messed up back/fwd stack, audio of videos on closed tabs still playing in the background, and on the iPad sometimes even the URL field disappears from the toolbar.

Video thing is scary since it means a web view may remain alive doing things without any visible UI.

drahardja, to random
@drahardja@sfba.social avatar

Welp, I’m glad I didn’t buy a AI Pin.

“Humane AI Pin review: not even close”

https://www.theverge.com/24126502/humane-ai-pin-review

arroz,
@arroz@mastodon.social avatar

@drahardja @breadbin Even if it worked perfectly, not only I don’t want to be speaking to my devices in public for many obvious reasons, but there’s also a strong “designed in a place where people can use a T-shirt indoors and outdoors during 10 months of the year” aspect in this product. I don’t see people having the patience to detach and reattach the device every time they dress or undress a coat or sweater. Or the device being attachable at all to thick winter dawn jackets rated for -20C.

tonyarnold, to random
@tonyarnold@mastodon.social avatar

My surgeon has said they'd like to send me home from the hospital tomorrow (after 24 days), and I know I'm going to be even more exhausted once I'm home, but I am looking forward to it so very much.

arroz,
@arroz@mastodon.social avatar

@tonyarnold Glad everything went ok and you’re leaving the hospital! Can’t even imagine how it feels after so long. Enjoy home sweet home and being with your family. 😊 And hoping for a swift recovery! 💪

jamesthomson, to random
@jamesthomson@mastodon.social avatar

I'm looking forward to an official Apple definition of the word “retro”.

arroz,
@arroz@mastodon.social avatar

@jamesthomson Technically, Pippin was a console and ran MacOS… looking forward to play Bolo, Dark Castle and Shufflepuck on my iPad!

arroz, to vancouver
@arroz@mastodon.social avatar

I can confirm this actually exists! 😁

The bricks are rubber, though, in case anyone had good ideas.

arroz,
@arroz@mastodon.social avatar

@Pagan_Animist That was mildly disappointing.

arroz,
@arroz@mastodon.social avatar

@urig This is a humorous response to the red flags police departments install on some crosswalks for people to carry from one side to the other to be “visible”. The point is precisely showing this is dangerous and a joke disguised as security theatre.

It was meant to last a single day in a well known location that should have no cars at all, but looks like it was moved to a different place and left there “permanently” (or until the foam bricks are stolen or damaged). https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/bricks-vancouver-crosswalk-pedestrian-safety

paulrickards, to retrocomputing
@paulrickards@mastodon.social avatar

Spicy pillow

arroz,
@arroz@mastodon.social avatar

@paulrickards What’s the device? Can’t recognize is from the photo.

arroz, to random
@arroz@mastodon.social avatar

Among the many details in the category of “People who design Bosch dishwashers never used Bosch dishwashers”, comes the soap dispenser.

Bosch soap dispensers like these (sliding door) leak water in while the door is closed. When using powder detergent, it forms a sticky goo. So sticky it actually prevents the door from opening during wash, resulting in improperly washed dishes.

This isn’t a defect on mine, I’ve asked another person with a similar model to test it and they all leak.

arroz,
@arroz@mastodon.social avatar

I believe this tends to happen more when the water is too cold (sadly my dishwasher isn’t connected to the hot water pipe). I’ve tried two different detergent brands, and the result is similar. However it tends to happen only when the water is colder (cold seasons, middle of the day when more people in the building are using cold water).

This written while running the dishwasher a second time on yesterday’s stuff since I didn’t notice the loud bang of the door opening didn’t happen. 😡

arroz,
@arroz@mastodon.social avatar

Aside from fridges I don’t understand why Bosch is regarded as a quality brand. Except for American made hot garbage like GE, this is the shittiest dishwasher I’ve ever used. Some tools I bought in the past were also disappointing. Fridges seem to be the only good, quiet and highly durable things they know how to build.

If you’re on the market for a dishwasher, try another brand.

arroz, to random
@arroz@mastodon.social avatar

Borrowed from @notjustbikes. This is the lovely work of our incompetent, deeply corrupt elected leaders that insist fighting climate change comes down to individual action.

schwa, to random
@schwa@mastodon.social avatar

deleted_by_author

    •
    arroz,
    @arroz@mastodon.social avatar

    @schwa The more episodes I watched, the less I liked it. Episode 5 is ridiculous.

    paul, to random
    @paul@tapbots.social avatar

    Why, just why… 🤮
    https://www.amazon.com/MAIWO-40Gbps-NVME-M-2-Thurderbolt4-0/dp/B0CKTFLXXF

    arroz,
    @arroz@mastodon.social avatar

    @paul I was trying to figure out how the fan was powered. If it’s like this one, it needs an additional cable 😂. https://pt.aliexpress.com/item/1005006316602119.html

    icanzilb, to random
    @icanzilb@mastodon.social avatar

    The world is full of totally random, amusing matrix bugs: there is a gigantic Mercedes logo at the geographical center of Austria. 🇦🇹 🚙 🏔️ 🤷🏽‍♂️

    arroz,
    @arroz@mastodon.social avatar

    @icanzilb Reminds me when they threw in the 1972 Renault logo randomly into a supposed circuit board of a nasty robot in an episode of Space 1999. https://youtu.be/VUhZsxrInDo?feature=shared&t=2705

    schwa, to random
    @schwa@mastodon.social avatar

    deleted_by_author

    •
    arroz,
    @arroz@mastodon.social avatar

    @Migueldeicaza @schwa @Gte Background daemons are a technicality.

    The real value an App Store could bring would be, for example, protecting against fake trading apps like the ones mentioned here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLPpl2ISKTg

    Guaranteeing a financial app is legit should be a goal, and it fails at that. Having a store that presents itself as vetted, curated and trustworthy, but isn't, is even more dangerous than side-loading since users lower their guard and trust the apps implicitly.

    twostraws, to random
    @twostraws@mastodon.social avatar

    A first for me!

    arroz,
    @arroz@mastodon.social avatar

    @twostraws … did it happen? How bad was it?

    tonyarnold, to random
    @tonyarnold@mastodon.social avatar

    Well, things haven’t gone quite according to plan: I’ll be in hospital until the weekend are a minimum. I’ve now got a PICC line into my heart, and a constant pressurised drain from my stomach back out through my nose - it’s super uncomfortable, but it has resolved the crippling pain.

    If all goes well, I can just stay like this for a couple of days, and my body will heal. If not, surgery time.

    I’m in good spirits, but I’d murder someone for a cold drink right now.

    arroz,
    @arroz@mastodon.social avatar

    @tonyarnold Oh man, what the heck… hope it all goes well and you're out of there soon!

    tonyarnold, to random
    @tonyarnold@mastodon.social avatar

    Well, this is a new one: double obstructions, directly after one another. I’ll be in hospital where they have extremely good pain medication if anyone needs me.

    ✨😓✨

    arroz,
    @arroz@mastodon.social avatar

    @tonyarnold Get better soon!

    collin, to random
    @collin@ruby.social avatar

    This isn’t me picking on my European friends, just an actual question: how much did you learn about European colonialism in school?

    I’d say we definitely did not learn about some of the worst things the USA has done, but seeing people talk online, thinking American expansionism is equivalent to the scale of 400 years of classic European colonialism, makes me think maybe they don’t learn much about it?

    arroz,
    @arroz@mastodon.social avatar

    @collin (Portugal) A lot from a nationalistic perspective (as in we “discovered” half the world), very little of the actual consequences and methods. I only really learned about that after moving here. Most people in Portugal minimize the death and destruction we caused, are very proud of our ancestors and think colonization is something that was over and done long ago and don’t realize it’s still happening in many ways (like there are living survivors and perpetrators of residential schools).

    arroz,
    @arroz@mastodon.social avatar

    @collin YMMV though, I have friends in Portugal who say they learned a whole lot about it, so it possibly depended on the school and teacher.

    That being said, Portugal re-opened the Empire Square in 2023 after renovations, a garden with symbols (some of them explicitly racists) of everything we did in Africa which is, ironically, in one of the most tourist-visited areas of Lisbon.

    I honestly gave up debating these issues with people there. It’s useless.

    arroz, to random
    @arroz@mastodon.social avatar

    Two things I didn’t remember: how hard it was to transfer files between Macs that (ironically) weren’t connected via AppleTalk, and how hard was to just open a simple image file. Netscape insists on downloading a PICT as text!

    Migueldeicaza, to random
    @Migueldeicaza@mastodon.social avatar

    This Xcode warning was lovely, it found a real bug in my code:

    arroz,
    @arroz@mastodon.social avatar

    @Migueldeicaza I love all the purple warnings. 100% of them are bugs in my code so far.

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • megavids
  • rosin
  • thenastyranch
  • GTA5RPClips
  • tester
  • InstantRegret
  • DreamBathrooms
  • ngwrru68w68
  • magazineikmin
  • everett
  • Youngstown
  • mdbf
  • slotface
  • kavyap
  • JUstTest
  • cisconetworking
  • khanakhh
  • normalnudes
  • osvaldo12
  • cubers
  • tacticalgear
  • Durango
  • ethstaker
  • modclub
  • anitta
  • provamag3
  • Leos
  • lostlight
  • All magazines
    •