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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: July 22nd, 2023

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  • The 3B was like peak RPi though. Nowadays unless you need the GPIO or the low power or form factor, it’s not worth it at all. You can get low-spec 3-5 year old off-lease office desktops for roughly the same price point as a top end RPi now, and they are commonplace and easily found in the secondary market.

    Hell I just bought a really clean Ryzen 5 3500 laptop for $200. Only had 8GB mem and a paltry NVMe but these are cheap upgrades if needed.


  • jasondj@ttrpg.networktoMicroblog Memes@lemmy.worldParkable cities
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    1 year ago

    Dude I’m traveling to Texas in a few months and I didn’t realize how close Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston, and Austin are. It’s like a triangle, 2.5 to 3.5 hours between either city. Waco and San Antonio sit on the line between Austin and DFW.

    These cities are linked by a rather nice highway system from what I remember last time I was in TX, but to the best of my knowledge, there’s no high-speed rail, only rail that’s slower than driving most the time.

    Why? Texas should be embarrassed. Especially with Houston being so close to Galveston, which is a pretty damn good port.


  • Well, the flip side is that the disposable vapes do get people on nicotine that would otherwise be casual smokers. On its own that’s a net neutral, but the jump from “buying disposable vape” to “buying a pack of cigarettes” is easier than the jump from “buying a disposable vape” to “buying a refillable and rechargeable system”.

    So I guess disposable vapes are a bit of a double-edge sword. I’d rather the occasional/social smoker pick up a disposable vape than a pack of cigarettes. But I also know that most of the major disposable vape brands are owned by the classic big tobacco names. However, at least they are taking the Gillette model, with a rechargeable battery and disposable cartridges. But these are also the ones sold at gas stations. If people don’t have their disposable vape available, I’d think they’d be more likely to purchase cigarettes than a whole new system, and I see that as another negative.


  • There certainly are casual smokers, who might buy a pack of cigarettes on Friday and be done with it by Sunday (usually after giving out several along the way) to repeat the next week.

    These people don’t see themselves as addicts, and they for all intents and purposes aren’t, otherwise they’d be jonesing all week and buying a pack on Monday.

    Making the leap from “having a finite amount of smoke” to “owning reusable paraphernalia” is a big jump for a casual smoker. And more than likely would enable them to justify smoking during the week.

    It’s the same thing as the guy who buys an eight of weed, brings it to the party, smokes a flew blunts, and then doesn’t smoke the whole week. This guy has no need for a glass bong in his house, and he wouldn’t be able to justify its purpose, but its existence would likely mold his occasional use into something more frequent.







  • It’s not really about the cost of the jack, moreso about the aesthetic and the ability for water to get in, because the 3.5mm barrel jack was never really intended to be on something you’d worry about getting wet. At least not at a time when waterproof ratings were a thing.

    You’re talking 163mm^3 of void space inside the phone just for the barrel plug itself, plus the enclosure around it, spring load mechanisms, and housing to sit on the board. A board that also has to change position or shape to accommodate the deep round plug where it can’t exist.

    Honestly I’m really surprised phones moved to 3.5mm and didn’t try to team up with laptops to keep 2.5mm the norm on those platforms, or some other plug. Had they stuck with it it probably would’ve won and also made its way to game controllers.

    But there’s really no need to when Bluetooth exists and is good enough for the vast majority of consumers, and that’s all that really matters.



  • I’m sorry what? The 3.5mm is better because it’s rotational symmetrical?

    Thats a minor win. You rarely really need that rotation capability, and what little you need can be made up with thinner cables (which is easier with a digital signal and DACs in the headphone, which can’t be done compatibly with 3.5mm and people are dumb) The you also have to sacrifice connection friction to gain rotation, and that has tradeoffs, especially when that friction is caused by a spring-loaded conductor (which also means more friction likely means fewer insertion cycles before friction starts dropping off).

    It also really sucks at strain relief without massive dookie springs or rubber butts…and the bigger the strain relief, the more subjective it is to perpendicular force, which is really easy to do on a 3.5mm gold-plated iron/tin alloy.

    Other cool thing about what could be done with USB-C headphones. A lot of companies put lead weights full-sized headphones for balance or comfort (more weight makes it feel more secure). Good Modern drivers don’t need to be as heavy as they used to be. How bout instead of weights, they use lipos? Now your headphones can charge your phone (when in wired mode, hell, I’m talking about fictional mid/high-end cans, they could have Bluetooth and ANC while we’re at it since they have power), and your charger port point is essentially moot.




  • jasondj@ttrpg.networktointernet funeral@lemmy.worldCan it be done?
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    1 year ago

    I use a 4k television as a monitor for my daily driver. 43” LG UQ8000. So it has 4:4:4 and 60fps at 4k so long as the host supports it over HDMI 2.0. And it’s barely usable at 4k if they don’t, between the lag and the sub pixels, it’s honestly a better experience at 1080p or 1440p cropped.

    With 4k, 444, and 60fps, though, It’s not that bad, even without font scaling, except for certain regions due to the contrast ratio/glare (which isn’t that bad, and I’m not trying to limit the glare, either) or due to viewing angle, being so close.

    It’s not the highest quality, but it’s a serviceable way for me to have an 8.3 megapixel desktop, and it was like $300 so I’m happy.

    Granted it’s also on a standing desk, so I’m pretty close and can get back a little while still being comfortable too.