• 9 Posts
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Joined 3 years ago
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Cake day: June 16th, 2023

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  • It’s definitely a waste of time that he should have stopped after the first one or two where they obviously weren’t working.

    I still think it’s an important demonstration of where things could (and should) be made clearer to the end user.

    Like a lot of technical stuff, there’s kind of an absurd expectation that caveats can be completely omitted and it’s on the end user to figure out. I make tons of documentation at my job as a sysadmin. I get that you can’t possibly catalog every edge case and caveat, but from what I can tell, this issue with the Bazzite images was known and happens often enough that the cause is well known. It’s a failing by the maintainers that they don’t have a basic warning mechanism built in for this scenario.

    A warning on the download page. A warning in the updater. Better controls in the release tools so the nVidia release can stay on the last supported version until the new drivers work.

    Anything besides just expecting the end user to magically know that the thing labelled as working for their situation does not in fact work at the moment.



  • Yeah, there’s something about the physicality of a record player and records that changes the experience. At least for me it encourages more focus on the listening. Even if you just put something on while you do something else, you’re going to be interacting with again before super long.

    The record, the part you interact with, has size and weight. It’s definitively a “thing”. And choosing a record is a choice. You can’t just press some buttons on a remote and change to whatever else (unless it’s a full music system setup).

    Plus the beautiful art on the sleeves, and the time it takes to get the record out forces you to spend at least a little time with that art.

    With a CRT TV, you’re using a remote and there’s a lot more abstraction and layers between the physical object holding the content and your actual consumption of it.

    VHS tapes are physical, but the moving parts that make it all work are hidden away in the VCR and the magnetic tape isn’t really touchable. Playing one on most TVs required another device plugged into the TV and pressing some buttons on one or two remotes that could just as easily bring you other content without ever leaving your seat.

    There is art on the VHS case, but it’s not like it takes time to get the tape in and out, so you’re not as likely to look at it for long.


    Most importantly, people are still making new record players and records. There was a long while where it was a very niche thing, and there weren’t a lot of new records coming out, but there were still new players coming out. And the technology is simple enough that the average person could at least keep a player in working order or fix the most common issues themselves. Enthusiasts could even “fix” an old machine with modern parts that are readily available, as long as they function the same. It’s not like people are going to stop making electric motors anytime in the next century.

    CRTs simply aren’t manufactured anymore. Depending on the issue they aren’t end user servicable for the average person, or even most enthusiasts. Maintenance is potentially dangerous to the person doing the work. The parts have limited lifespans with no replacements available for the main bits. If the electron guns start to go, you can potentially rejuvanate them with special equipment, or you can end up breaking a damaged one entirely (see 10:32 of this video about restoring an old arcade cabinet).

    It’s the same (sans danger to the person doing the repair) for VCRs. No new stock, specialized parts that can’t be swapped for more readily availble modern components, you get the picture.

    And that’s also not considering the fucking weight of a good size CRT compared to a record player.


    Don’t get me wrong. I love CRTs. Pretty sure I still have my childhood one in my basement, complete with some discoloration from when my 8 year old self had some fun with magnets.

    I was legitimately distraught when my wife talked me into only keeping one of the three CRT TVs we had gathering dust, and I think I still have one or two CRT monitors stashed away somewhere.

    I spent multiple weekends years ago looking up and configuring the best CRT shader for emulators so it looked like an idealized version of that childhood TV.

    But I entirely get why records and record players are such strong and well thought of “nostalgia bait” and CRTs and VHS tapes are not.










  • Yeah, the video’s length is absurd. I enjoy his content, but an hour of watching clips of the same damn benchmarks isn’t particularly interesting. Definitely should have been cut down further, imo.


    Anyway.

    I think as people with technical background, we need to understand that for Linux to eventually overtake Windows it needs to work for the average knuckledragger.

    Wade didn’t have to google how to install the driver on Windows in advance (as far as we know, that’s some important clarification that’s needed).

    Bazzite is supposed to be the distro for minimum hassle gaming, and they even have specific distro releases for these old nVidia cards, which he used.

    What is the point of having a specific release for that hardware if it doesn’t work? If users have to take extra steps after the install, there should be something that pops up on first boot to direct them to it, or a warning about this when you download the iso.

    It shouldn’t be on the user to have an issue first, then guess at what they need to search to get useful info.

    I get that Linux maintainers are loathe to turn the experience into “Windows Lite” where it reminds you to wipe your own ass with their proprietary paper, but at some point I think we need to accept a bare minimum level of hand holding can be useful for user experience.

    How hard would it be for a message box to pop up: You’re using NVM/llvmpipe and you may not be getting the full support for your GPU. Click here for more info. Click here to never show this again.







  • What are you talking about? It wasn’t mandatory for any console. They packaged it in with some, so you’d get it in the same box, but you never had to plug it in.

    And all the voice functionality worked with headsets as well. Definitely watched old roommates do Skyrim shouts that way for around 10 minutes until the novelty wore off.