Off-Topic / Dumping Thread

[Gary from OPA]

Time to get pcie 7 working on our ti99

 

https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/pcie-70-is-on-track-for-a-2025-release-which-means-ssds-with-speeds-of-up-to-60gbs-should-be-available-in-the-coming-years/

[RickyDean]

https://apnews.com/article/postal-service-audit-virginia-slow-a515934f1b2f90c1488de3968e757c07

[+OLD CS1]

10 hours ago, Gary from OPA said:

raise prices and sell it off at the same time: https://www.linkedin.com/news/story/paramount-skydance-agree-to-deal-5980124/ -- hopefully, the new owners don't screw up the streaming service too much!

And since Disney's board survived the vote, I expect to see Disney continue to eat complete shit.  I, for one, voted for Peltz and Rasulo.  While I have boycotted Disney since it supported the "broadcast flag" DRM in digital TV, I cannot deny Disney has had, up until recently, an indelible mark upon our culture.  Now, more youngin's recognize Pokemon and Mario than Mickey Mouse and other classic Disney properties.

 

As for streaming, there will be more consolidation.  Disney+ is shopping its content to other providers.  Fine -- Disney+ did not need to exist, anyway, since they already had a large stake in Hulu and its infrastructure.  Of course, Disney and ComCast destroyed Hulu.  Back when Hulu was free it was making a profit.  Then they had to start mucking about with its service tiers and subscriptions.  I had a Hulu account since it was in beta, and I saw the writing on the wall early and cancelled my account.

 

Anyway... Funimation is gone, absorbed into CrunchyRoll with no access to your prior "purchases."  This will continue.

[+OLD CS1]

11 hours ago, Gary from OPA said:

JUST IN: 8 skaters ejected after a massive fight breaks out between the New York Rangers and New Jersey Devils.

This is insane.

Immediately after the game started, all 10 skaters started brawling.

The fight apparently stemmed from an incident earlier in the month when Rangers rookie Matt Rempe hit Devils defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler with an elbow.

As a result, Rempe was ejected and hit with a four-game suspension.

FAFO.

[Gary from OPA]

1 hour ago, OLD CS1 said:

And since Disney's board survived the vote, I expect to see Disney continue to eat complete shit.  I, for one, voted for Peltz and Rasulo.  While I have boycotted Disney since it supported the "broadcast flag" DRM in digital TV, I cannot deny Disney has had, up until recently, an indelible mark upon our culture.  Now, more youngin's recognize Pokemon and Mario than Mickey Mouse and other classic Disney properties.

 

As for streaming, there will be more consolidation.  Disney+ is shopping its content to other providers.  Fine -- Disney+ did not need to exist, anyway, since they already had a large stake in Hulu and its infrastructure.  Of course, Disney and ComCast destroyed Hulu.  Back when Hulu was free it was making a profit.  Then they had to start mucking about with its service tiers and subscriptions.  I had a Hulu account since it was in beta, and I saw the writing on the wall early and cancelled my account.

 

Anyway... Funimation is gone, absorbed into CrunchyRoll with no access to your prior "purchases."  This will continue.

Currently, I only use Paramount+

 

I cancelled my Netflix as the amount of shows they have gone downhill and they always deleting one movies and seasons now.

 

Sadly, in May will have to subscribe to Disney+ as they bought the North America broadcast rights to the new Doctor Who series from BBC.

 

Streaming has become the new version cable, of you want all the shows and movies you need to subscribe to like handful or more of streaming services.

 

And if you recently subscribe to cable tv, like I did when I returned to Canada, it's really just an digital IPTV app now, so they now moving shows that air on it immediately off it and place it behind a paywall if you miss it during the time it airs and providers no longer offer dvr boxes, so if you don't have old tech and subscribed back a decade ago you can't record your TV shows.

[Gary from OPA]

we need to make a ti99 version:

 

 

[+OLD CS1]

1 hour ago, Gary from OPA said:

we need to make a ti99 version:

 

 

I always felt the TI was more metal.

[Gary from OPA]

Crazy raccoons now... The world is ending..

 

https://www.pennlive.com/news/2024/04/raccoon-attacks-hersheypark-guests-in-rollercoaster-line.html

[Gary from OPA]

Roku explores taking over HDMI feeds with ads (on a Roku TV), such as displaying ads on the screen when a video game is paused.

 

Pauses could be identified by grabbing frames of the video feed as well as monitoring the audio feed.

https://www.lowpass.cc/p/roku-hdmi-ad-insertion-patent

 

We need to go back to S-Video and VGA and scrap all this digital shit.

[Tursi]

Don't attach televisions to the internet. They are just going to keep using that connection as a reason to own you.

 

You want Streaming, just buy a $50 PC and drop it behind the TV. Run the OS of your choice - even Windows is less intrusive than TVs are becoming. Use a wireless mouse and keyboard or even a cell phone remote (I like "Unified Remote" on Android). Done, and more flexible to boot. That PC will cover your emulation needs too

 

If a TV wants to display ads on your paused screens in that scenario, I guess they could, but they aren't going to be able to download them.

 

Any TV that refuses to operate without an internet connection should be returned, they won't get the point otherwise.

 

[+OLD CS1]

Just wait until they start capturing your HDMI and doing whatever with it.

[+TheBF]

6 hours ago, Gary from OPA said:

we need to make a ti99 version:

 

 

I am guessing that he is also a button accordion player so the the C64 is an easy transition.

They are more popular in Europe than in N. America.

[+TheBF]

15 minutes ago, Tursi said:

Don't attach televisions to the internet. They are just going to keep using that connection as a reason to own you.

 

You want Streaming, just buy a $50 PC and drop it behind the TV. Run the OS of your choice - even Windows is less intrusive than TVs are becoming. Use a wireless mouse and keyboard or even a cell phone remote (I like "Unified Remote" on Android). Done, and more flexible to boot. That PC will cover your emulation needs too

 

If a TV wants to display ads on your paused screens in that scenario, I guess they could, but they aren't going to be able to download them.

 

Any TV that refuses to operate without an internet connection should be returned, they won't get the point otherwise.

 

Also if you still "need" to watch commercial TV it's being broadcast in High-definition and can be watched for free with your "offline" TV with a $50.00 Antenna.

I have encountered a lot of people who don't know that broadcasting TV still exists. (not sure for how much longer however)

 

[HOME AUTOMATION]

Haven't watched live TV in years. When we had an android TV box, and I got an android pad, I discovered that I could use "Unified Remote" to switch the set to CAST SCREEN ...then switch to CAM. ...Best show in town!📺

 

When I look at the TELEVISION I wanna see me staring right back at me.

[+OLD CS1]

1 hour ago, Tursi said:

Don't attach televisions to the internet. They are just going to keep using that connection as a reason to own you.

Unless you get one that requires an Internet connection.  Back when LG integrated WebOS into its TVs, my customer made a last-minute purchase of three LGs for his conference room.  There was no wireless in there and the damned TV required an Internet connection in order to complete the setup!  Think about it: how many one-player games require a full-time connection for no reason?  What is to stop TVs from requiring it?

 

1 hour ago, TheBF said:

I have encountered a lot of people who don't know that broadcasting TV still exists. (not sure for how much longer however)

Which is a good point.  "They" are pushing ATSC 3.0, which integrates more DRM, such as encryption, with the promise of 4k video!  WHOOOOO!!!  Except that there is not much 4k out there, most network feeds for OTA are at best 1080i, with 720p being preferred for quality.  Which means most network 4k video will be up-sampled, which will make it look like garbage.  Not only are networks pushing for ATSC 3.0 NextGen, but the feds have announced ATSC 1 will be dead by 2027.

 

A station in Oregon started broadcasting a mix of eight 720p, two 1080p, and four 2160p (4K) channels in the same 6 MHz (19.3 Mb/s) channel.  They do this by taking advantage of the AVC (h.264) BluRay quality CODEC which has been included in the ATSC 1 standard, as well as HEVC (h.265) which is in UHD TVs, while most channels still use MPEG2 (DVD quality.)  Proving that we do not need ATSC 3.0.

[Kchula-Rrit]

2 hours ago, OLD CS1 said:

...  Not only are networks pushing for ATSC 3.0 NextGen, but the feds have announced ATSC 1 will be dead by 2027.

...

I'm not "hep" on the alphabet soup anymore.  Is "ATSC 1" what they broadcast now?  And the Feds are mandating that it die in three years?  Not wanting to get political, but I think the Feds have more more important things to do than making us throw away still more perfectly functional equipment.

 

K-R.

[Gary from OPA]

someone getting fired, leaking pictures of the Starbucks drink training manuals.

[+OLD CS1]

1 hour ago, Kchula-Rrit said:

I'm not "hep" on the alphabet soup anymore.  Is "ATSC 1" what they broadcast now?  And the Feds are mandating that it die in three years?  Not wanting to get political, but I think the Feds have more more important things to do than making us throw away still more perfectly functional equipment.

ATSC (American Television Standards Committee) 1.0 is the name for the digital standard which replaced analogue OTA (over-the-air) TV broadcasts.  It is what is broadcast now, and was ratified in the 80s, with some deployment in the 90s, with a final cut-over in 2009.  It has gone through several technical changes, such as in 2008 when it was expanded to support the h.264/AVC CODEC.

 

The ATSC made the standards and the FCC adopted and enforces them^*.  And, no, its does not have more important things to do than to force us to throw away perfectly functional equipment.  Its concern on that matter seems to vacillate: we were graced at least once with an extension on the analogue cut-off date.  I am surprised they have not mandated digital radio.  The sub-channels (sub-carriers) defined for FM broadcasts (and in, as I recently discovered, AM) saved us, I think.

 

* For completeness, the mandatory switch-over was initiated by Congress.

[+FALCOR4]

Does anyone here actually program x86-32/64 in assembly?  Reading the Hackaday article regarding real mode and the Wiki on the instruction set, its mind boggling that the human mind can work with 3600 some odd instructions and juggle memory management! There must be some pretty good toolsets out there or something.

[JasonACT]

1 hour ago, FALCOR4 said:

Does anyone here actually program x86-32/64 in assembly?

I did quite a lot in 8086/88 and didn't really have any issues going to x86-32.  Everything was a bit backwards to my first assembler - TMS9900.  But there was very little I didn't do with a '386 than I hadn't already done with my TI.  Math instructions, mostly.  I wrote an assembler video driver for my Atari Portfolio to get better than 8x40 on the LCD screen for example.  But I've also done a lot with IBM mainframes in assembler - esa370 & esa390.  There's not a big leap to 64 bits, you don't have to use all the new instructions, just know how the wider registers are referenced.

[Gary from OPA]

Long Island into New York right now. People think the world is ending. 🤦🏻‍♂️One tiny 5.5 earthquake and everyone is worried!

 

Mother nature timing is off we needed the earthquake to occur during April 8th when everyone was watching the sun disappearing.

[Tursi]

20 hours ago, OLD CS1 said:

Unless you get one that requires an Internet connection.  Back when LG integrated WebOS into its TVs, my customer made a last-minute purchase of three LGs for his conference room.  There was no wireless in there and the damned TV required an Internet connection in order to complete the setup!  Think about it: how many one-player games require a full-time connection for no reason?  What is to stop TVs from requiring it?

Oh, I know. My main computer monitor is one of those TVs. Could not even adjust picture settings (brightness, contrast, etc) without the internet. I set it up and then blocked it at the wifi access point. A couple years later I updated it out of curiosity and they made it locally adjustable. I should have returned it but I got it uber cheap.  It still broadcasts a Wifi access point signal that I'm waiting for people to hijack.

[+OLD CS1]

3 minutes ago, Tursi said:

It still broadcasts a Wifi access point signal that I'm waiting for people to hijack.

That is probably for screen casting.  You should be able to turn that off.  Should.

[Gary from OPA]

Krispy Kreme dropped a Solar Eclipse themed doughnut

[+Ksarul]

On 4/4/2024 at 9:57 PM, OLD CS1 said:

Unless you get one that requires an Internet connection.  Back when LG integrated WebOS into its TVs, my customer made a last-minute purchase of three LGs for his conference room.  There was no wireless in there and the damned TV required an Internet connection in order to complete the setup!  Think about it: how many one-player games require a full-time connection for no reason?  What is to stop TVs from requiring it?

I have a Samsung that required this particular stupidity. I connected it to my router, finished setup, and promptly changed the router password to prevent it from connecting. That worked fine until the older of my spawn decided he "really" needed to add Netflix to that TV and reconnected it. That lasted until his interest in Netflix waned and I reset the password again. . .