@rhys@rhys.wtf
@rhys@rhys.wtf avatar

rhys

@rhys@rhys.wtf

My profile on my own Mastodon instance!

I'm most likely to be posting about #StreetPhotography, #UKPolitics, #gaming, #science, #infosec, #cyber, #linux, and wider #technology. Probably a fair bit about #cardiff and #wales too.

There will likely be many selfies.

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

rhys, to mechanicalkeyboards
@rhys@rhys.wtf avatar

About a year since I got this to try to help alleviate my periodic hand and wrist pain. It didn't alleviate the pain; it eliminated the pain, and this has been a joy to write with every single day since I started using it.

rhys, to reddit
@rhys@rhys.wtf avatar

Jimmy Wales of Wikipedia fame has been working on a reddit alternative called TrustCafe for a few years.

Strong focus on trust and accuracy rather than engagement and likes, with plans to support ActivityPub in the future.

My level of trust in non-fedi or -selfhosted solutions now is through the floor, but Jimmy Wales and the Wikimedia Foundation could appeal to me.

https://twitter.com/jimmy_wales/status/1668266400723488769

catsalad, to random

All aboard! 🚂🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃

rhys,
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@catsalad It's not stupid if it works.

ben, to random
@ben@werd.social avatar

One thing I've learned again and again: if you haven't had anywhere near enough sleep, don't try and write code. You'll look at it the next day and wonder what the hell you were thinking.

rhys,
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@ben The same goes for writing words of any import.

noelreports, to random Dutch
@noelreports@mstdn.social avatar

The Russian command is being forced to consider redeploying reinforcements from its priority area near Zaporizhzhia to the left bank of the Dnipro river as Ukrainian defenders step up their fight to control newly taken positions on this territory, UK Defence Intelligence reports.

rhys,
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@noelreports Excellent. Forcing lateral reinforcement across a large and critical front is a strong indicator that a breakthrough can be found and exploited sooner or later.

gamingonlinux, to random
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What is an actually controversial Linux opinion you hold?

rhys,
@rhys@rhys.wtf avatar

@gamingonlinux I understand all the many benefits of containerisation, but I absolutely loathe apps being distributed as docker containers and find the experience of maintaining systems with traditional package management and configuration vastly more comfortable.

I can't defend this position at all. Containers make much more sense and are more beneficial in virtually every way. I just hate using them.

gamingonlinux, to random
@gamingonlinux@mastodon.social avatar

I'm allowed to take an entire week off from everything right?

rhys,
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@gamingonlinux Booked the week off. I'm going to enjoy the shit out of this.

rhys,
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@cinaed666 @twotone I also have the Forerunner 55.

Something to note is that Garmin watches are Linux-friendly and can be used without signing up to their cloud services. You can access the watch as a USB storage device and manually grab the .FIT files on it, which you can then import into tools of your choice (or convert to .GPX for wider compatibility).

GossiTheDog, to random
@GossiTheDog@cyberplace.social avatar

deleted_by_author

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    rhys,
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    @GossiTheDog I've booked the entire subsequent week off.

    Baldur's Gate 2 is the best game of all time and Larian is a studio that can absolutely be trusted. Plus Ive played the early access to death.

    I'm going to love every minute of this game.

    rhys,
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    @Ilovethebomb @cis2butene I dunno, the Muscovites have had some success holding off sea drones elsewhere with netting and booms and the like, and the bridge is a far stretch for even Ukraine's longest range missiles.

    This is why we should gift them the Type 23s and the HMS Triumph.

    davidallengreen, to random
    @davidallengreen@mastodon.green avatar

    Yesterday I asked followers to to "like" a post so that could gauge how many are seeing/reading my Mastodon posts.

    This was because, although nominally I have 41k followers on here, I thought the figure artificially inflated because of how many came over last November and then went away again.

    The result was 1.2k likes (and 83 boosts).

    The boosts may have led to likes from non-followers.

    So: in a 20-hour period, a post had an engagement rate of about 3%.

    A data point, if not an anecdote.

    rhys,
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    @davidallengreen Just to note how stark this problem can be for those on small instances, I missed your post yesterday and looking now showed zero likes (quickly amended to one) versus the actual 1.4k.

    This is a case where small instances do worse than big ones. Another pertains to replies — until federation catches up, others' posts often appear to have zero replies when there are actually many.

    The Fediverse is wonderful but does have some significant UX issues.

    A screenshot showing DATG's post on his own instance's web interface, showing 1.4k likes.

    rhys,
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    @MonkCanatella Oh, this looks good!

    My current solution is VSCode with Dendron and Excalidraw self-hosted using coder.com's code-server. It's not perfect, but fits well enough for me as a knowledge management system.

    If someone repackages AnyType as a web app I can self-host in a similar way, I'll be over the moon.

    rhys, to random
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    If you haven't heard about this already, it's quite possibly the worst idea anyone has ever had. It threatens the very nature of the web and promises to make every bit of corporate dominance on the internet vastly worse for everyone.

    Things like this shouldn't be possible on the web, but are due solely to the massive dominance big tech has due to the size of their userbases.

    I can only encourage folks to avoid using big tech services — Chrome in particular.

    https://github.com/RupertBenWiser/Web-Environment-Integrity/blob/main/explainer.md

    rhys,
    @rhys@rhys.wtf avatar

    @TheColonel @TimTheEnchanter 17 years ago is pretty much exactly when reddit became accessible. You were there from the very beginning.

    I've been there for 14 years, and this kerfuffle has killed all enthusiasm I had for staying. I've switched to using reddit's RSS feeds for the few subs I can't give up yet (mainly those related to the Ukraine war) but I expect I'll stop using it altogether in short order.

    On the plus side, it's furthered my deep distrust of big tech companies.

    rhys,
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    @rainpoint @RealAccountNameHere Their venture investment has dried up after they used their last round of ~$250m to more than double their workforce in less than two years in a drive to capitalise on crypto shit. Now they've had their valuation roughly halved and are left in a really tricky position, desperately needing to monetise to survive.

    Spez was chasing an IPO in all the ways you'd expect of a modern techbro, completely misreading the NFT craze and the impact of enshittification.

    rhys,
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    @PugJesus I do not know with what weapons the third world war will be fought, but the fourth will be fought with sea urchins, hedgehogs, and porcupines.

    rhys,
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    @spiritedaway @Bondrewd It depends on what you mean by 'modified non standard' and 'stock Android', but banking apps will generally work on a number of custom Android distributions providing they aren't rooted.

    All of my (UK-based) banking apps work on Calyx, for example.

    rhys,
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    @spiritedaway Yep — if you want it to. On initial install you choose the level of integration you want microG to support, as detailed here: https://calyxos.org/docs/guide/microg/

    rhys,
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    @MrShelbySan @wildbus8979 You pretty much always want to be using KVM. QEmu, VMM, VirtualBox, Gnome Boxes, and some other apps all support it. The rest is just down to what app/tools you prefer.

    Why is the cutscene/FMV problem in Linux gaming so difficult to fix?

    I see it a lot in visual novels, older PC games and PC ports of older non-PC games. It sounds so trivial on paper, like… just play the video? But I know it’s not. Why though? Can we ever expect the problem to be fully solved? Right now it kinda seems like an uphill struggle, like by fixing cutscene playback in one game...

    rhys,
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    @HoukaiAmplifier99 I might have made this up, but I think I recall reading that Valve routinely licences old and weird codecs so that they can build support in Proton for some of these fringe cases.

    The only time I can remember seeing it recently was in an old game off GOG called Conquest: Frontier Wars. Like others, it just showed a coloured pattern, but with that game it couldn't recover from not being able to play and would crash after.

    rhys,
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    @HoukaiAmplifier99 I don't remember my source, and I can't find anything searching around. I either made it up or it was an unsubstantiated reddit comment that stuck in my brain :)

    For real instances of this problem though, look at Glorious Eggroll if you haven't already. Contains a number of additional video codecs Valve can't yet support directly.

    rhys,
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    @Lojcs Microsoft does exactly that. They licence a number of proprietary codecs for inclusion in Windows for the convenience of users.

    Running under Wine, some alternative decoders can be used, but many proprietary codecs don't have freely-available decoders available. Under Proton, many free decoders can be used like Wine, but some prohibit commercial use or otherwise can't be implemented in Proton via Valve. GE-Proton manages the best of both worlds.

    rhys,
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    @HoukaiAmplifier99 I see it rarely nowadays, but yes, proprietary or old/rare codecs are the heart of it.

    rhys, to random
    @rhys@rhys.wtf avatar

    My fourth time.

    GTA screenshot with subtitles reading, "Ah shit, here we go again."

    miona, to random

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    rhys,
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    @miona That's probably not efficient but it probably works well. The first rule of quality of service is to increase capacity. No need to do anything more complicated if you can just add more tracks 🙂

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