Second Hurricane Play Want Bin (PWBE 7 Oct 2024)

[Kendrick Kerwin Chua]

It's a good thing that weather is both predictable and recoverable, in
that we have centuries of reliable data from which to draw scientific
conclusions that all reasonable people can agree on.

Play:
--=--

Resurfacing discs (PSX/PS2) - I should really take before and after
photographs. Useless coasters I've had sitting around for ages and ages
have suddenly become valuable artifacts in my games library. The star
attraction this weekend was Official Playstation Magazine US disc 93,
which has as an installable extra a pair of save files that unlock all
of the secrets in Second Sight and Bloodrayne 2. I need to get more of
these discs, in whatever condition.

Raspberry Pi (RPI) - I've finally deployed the old RasPi3b from six
years ago again, this time as a media player. There are a pile of game
add-ons I could install on the thing, but for ,now I'm running the
Youtube plug-in that stopped working on the Xbox build of Kodi because
that's all I've been using the Series X for lately.

Want:
--=--

Raspberry Pi 5 (RPI) - Oh hey, the RasPi 5 units are back in stock and
look pretty capable. Of melting whatever case they're put in. This seems
like a good time to buy another computing device that I'll forget to use
for another six years.

Altered Space (GB) - Oh hey, this is Heimdall from the Mega CD and other
platforms. Isometric puzzle adventure RPG things were all the rage on
home computers for a time, and I can't believe I missed out on this. I
must have it.

Bin:
-==-

The Xbox Series X (XSX) - I'm not selling it or anything, but I am going
to power it down and disconnect it. My kid now plays primarily on his
handheld and I have a new primary media player, so there's really no
point to having the stupid thing ready to go.

Expenditure:
-----=-----

I'm probably not doing this anymore. It was convenient as a way to track
what I'd bought, but Usenet history being what it is doesn't make it the
historical reference that it might once have been. So here's fair
warning that I may end up dropping the spendy part of the PWB post.

-KKC, who needs more sleep.

[Jaimie Vandenbergh]

On 7 Oct 2024 at 00:22:37 BST, "Kendrick Kerwin Chua"

Post by Kendrick Kerwin Chua
It's a good thing that weather is both predictable and recoverable, in
that we have centuries of reliable data from which to draw scientific
conclusions that all reasonable people can agree on.

"Moar hurricanes" is a direct and expected result of anthropogenic
warming, yep. No matter how often North Carolina passes laws forbidding
science to be applied to planning of new building locations.

Post by Kendrick Kerwin Chua
--=--
Resurfacing discs (PSX/PS2) - I should really take before and after
photographs. Useless coasters I've had sitting around for ages and ages
have suddenly become valuable artifacts in my games library.

Is there a minimum viable depth of the polycarbonate layer for the laser
to successfully focus through?

I've only been playing the new Zelda game. It is a solid 7/10. The game
itself is pretty fun; the controls I'm still getting wrong in that
"shoot a guy in the face instead of saying 'howdy'" manner that Read
Dead 2 was so rich in. The story and almost all the actual writing is
bland but functional. I have passed the second rift now, heading to the
castle next.

Post by Kendrick Kerwin Chua
--=--

I need to get around to trying half an hour or so of each of the
unfamiliar DS games I've collated for my niece to make sure they're not
training grounds for mobile/f2p gacha crap.

Post by Kendrick Kerwin Chua
-==-

Health stuff, as ever.

Cheers - Jaimie

[Kendrick Kerwin Chua]

Post by Jaimie Vandenbergh
On 7 Oct 2024 at 00:22:37 BST, "Kendrick Kerwin Chua"

Post by Kendrick Kerwin Chua
--=--
Resurfacing discs (PSX/PS2) - I should really take before and after
photographs. Useless coasters I've had sitting around for ages and ages
have suddenly become valuable artifacts in my games library.

Is there a minimum viable depth of the polycarbonate layer for the laser
to successfully focus through?

I think that the plastic over the data layer is protective rather than
optical, since the silver bits are meant to reflect. So hypothetically
there could be no polycarbonate at all and the laser would still work.
I've been told that you could take an unscratched CD and run the
sand/buff/polish cycle ten times without doing any damage, so
theoretically you won't bump up against any kind of minimum thickness
problem.

The issue is with Blu-Ray discs, which are super thin and have multiple
data layers and are just fragile all around. My first go-round with a
pile of cheap Bone discs ended up chipping little bits off the edge, or
otherwise making the discs less readable. Blu-Rays you're supposed to
buff only, and not sand or polish at all. They make a different machine
that's supposed to work better for BD discs but it's essentially the
same machine that isn't compatible with all of the other tools.

Post by Jaimie Vandenbergh
--
"the first successful time machine will be used to retrieve
lost Doctor Who episode footage." - KKC, ugvm

Hah. I'm still in your .sig library.

-KKC, who doesn't expect parcel delivery service this week.

[Russell Marks]

scientific conclusions that all reasonable people can agree on

Hey, I remember that.
Yakuza^WMinecraft (Linux) - I spotted a large cavern system and
mineshaft fairly close to my main base, so had a poke about in there.
And obviously, with this being a low-stress environment easier to deal
with than endgame stuff, I managed to die repeatedly. Mineshafts tend
to have fairly mediocre loot (as in this case) and take excessively
long to fully explore, the cavern didn't have many obvious diamonds,
and I lost a few items to the deaths. This helpfully avoided
overburdening my limited inventory slots, which I think is a really
underestimated downside to finding decent loot. Item management
becomes such a pleasurable breeze when it's all worthless tat anyway.
Nothing.

Raspberry Pi 5 (RPI) - Oh hey, the RasPi 5 units are back in stock and
look pretty capable. Of melting whatever case they're put in. This seems
like a good time to buy another computing device that I'll forget to use
for another six years.

It sounds like a Pi 500 is on the way, which makes me wonder if that'd
similarly require active cooling (given that the 400 didn't). Not that
a pseudo-wedge is necessarily going to be everyone's first choice,
unused or otherwise.
Not for the first time, but... creepers in Minecraft. The inevitable
exploding-right-behind-you instadeath seems so cheap, especially if
you're playing the game without sound as I usually do. Though I
suppose this happening a few times did serve as an encouragement to
finally bother getting full diamond armour.

I may end up dropping the spendy part of the PWB post.

I wish I could do the same. Those diamonds don't come cheap, you know.

-Rus.