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jeffchien

477 karma · joined March 2, 2016

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jeffchien··on Collapse OS
Now I want a scavengers' guide to identify machines that might have a compatible microprocessor within them, because I haven't seen a Commodore or Apple II in a long time. Arcades with older cabinets obviously have them, but if most post-apocalyptic media are prophetic, they'll probably be occupied by a gang of young ne'er-do-wells. I suppose, thanks to the College Board, Ti-83s (Z80) are still quite common in the US. Are there toys, medical equipment, or vending machines that still use these chips?

I wonder if ESP32s and Arduinos might be more commonly found, though I could see the argument that places with those newfangled chips may be more likely to become radioactive craters in some scenarios.

jeffchien··on The curious surge of productivity in U.S. restaurants
It's a little frustrating to me that the paper breaks out major chains as the big contributing factors, but doesn't analyze the remaining bucket. If possible I'd like to see the restaurants sliced by $/visit to see the effects on mid- or high-end restaurants.
jeffchien··on Show HN: I got laid off from Meta and created a minor hit on Steam
Congratulations, that is a roaring success I daydream about all the time!

I think you've already answered a lot about your development journey, so I want to ask about the post-release experience.

- How were the weeks immediately after release? Hectically shipping out patches 3 times a day?

- Now that we're months out after release, what are you doing now? Are you still spending a lot of time on this game (ports, updates), or are you thinking of another game or returning to office work?

Frankly I bought it on release but couldn't get into it because the meta progression (unlocking triggers that dilute the trigger pool for little perceivable gain) didn't feel as good as Luck be a Landlord or Balatro. I hope later updates address that.

jeffchien··on Station of despair: What to do if you get stuck at end of Tokyo Chuo Rapid Line
If you get stuck there between ~10PM (the last train back to Hachioji that could connect to Shinjuku) and 11PM (or midnight if you can spare the change for the limited express), you can also consider going west to Yamanashi and Kofu. Let's just say that I was almost in this exact scenario from a long day in Kawaguchiko, but I ended up making it back to central Tokyo.
jeffchien··on Gorhill pulls uBlock Origin Lite from Firefox store
The reproducible build requirement seems to be a major blocker for many addons, including one I use for Twitch: https://github.com/FrankerFaceZ/FrankerFaceZ/issues/1495#iss...
jeffchien··on Anime is eating the world
Anime has had no shortage of adaptations disrespectful of the original. Most of the time it's due to not having enough source material like HBO GoT, which somehow sent Fullmetal Alchemist to 1920s Germany in the first adaptation's movie. But sometimes you get people like Bokurano's director who straight up said he hated the manga.
jeffchien··on What's inside the QR code menu at this cafe?
That's still a lot more predictable than my human cashier experience. I wish I didn't have to dread being held up by the only cashier in store holding a riveting conversation with 4 groups in front of me. Will the other groups hold up the line too? I guess we'll see!
jeffchien··on What's inside the QR code menu at this cafe?
I will gladly do the work myself if it means not being stuck behind people chatting up the cashier or doing complicated coupon/return/exchange/gift card transactions. The value is in the consistency and predictability of time spent for someone who just wants a single bag of onions or a single T-shirt. If stores had no-BS lanes (more than just "X items or less" lanes) operated by human cashiers I would use that too, but I suppose we as a society consider it as impolite or bad service, so machine checkout it is.
jeffchien··on Show HN: Wealthfolio: Private, open-source investment tracker
I wish this and Ghostfolio supported stock splits.
jeffchien··on America’s Transit Exceptionalism
You can have surface or elevated heavy rail too. I never understood this fascination with modern light rail.
jeffchien··on CrowdStrike Update: Windows Bluescreen and Boot Loops
Phenomenal timing: https://old.reddit.com/r/wallstreetbets/comments/1e6ms9z/cro...
jeffchien··on Archipelago: Multiworld Multi-Game Randomizer
That's definitely a concern. Players call getting stuck by others' checks "BK'd" because a player once went out to get Burger King and returned before they got unwalled. But I think sharing the challenge/frustration and randomness with other players is the fun part, and that's what makes this such an interesting way to play games.

The organizer can also kick inactive players out and release their checks. You could play solo with one or multiple games.

jeffchien··on Archipelago: Multiworld Multi-Game Randomizer
TLDR context: a randomizer shuffles around game items/skills and even game areas such that the game is completed in a different order. Archipelago shuffles those things among different playthroughs. For example, I might pick up an item in my Pokemon playthrough that unlocks a gun in your Doom playthrough, and when you pick up a keycard it might unlock Ground Pound for a Mario player, and so on. It's like a giant collaborative puzzle game.

Here's an example with 114 playthroughs (includes some game spoilers in the latter half): https://youtu.be/YwUIfxF3ujo

jeffchien··on Review of Linux on Minisforum V3 AMD Ryzen Tablet
It's too bad that the portable display mode doesn't support touch. That was what stopped me from getting one.
jeffchien··on USB disk as /dev/sda on a not-rooted smartphone using Termux, QEMU, Alpine Linux
I think this stuff (Termux, Winlator, etc.) is a lot more developed and popular than you think. There's GPU acceleration through VirGL so some older games seem to work alright.

I've used Termux to run utilities like ffmpeg and imagemagick on the go. I think one of the limitations for graphical usage might be the limited memory space that it's sharing with Android. It's intriguing that this usbredirect setup allows swap space allocation without root.

jeffchien··on Apple apologizes for iPad 'Crush' ad that 'missed the mark'
Apple isn't reading the room at a time when many older creatives (their customer base) feel threatened by generative AI.
jeffchien··on Work begins on a $12B high-speed rail line between Las Vegas and Los Angeles
They're using the I-15 median which can be a little curvy and hilly, so they're probably considering passenger comfort: https://www.flattestroute.com/Las-Vegas-to-Los-Angeles
jeffchien··on Apple's risky bet on CarPlay
You don't have to download a new podcast app because you could just play it through Bluetooth. CarPlay and AA probably wouldn't even exist if it weren't for car vent phone holders and 2.5mm/Bluetooth upending automakers' grip on navigation and entertainment.
jeffchien··on Influencers: Japan's secret weapon to promote niche tourism spots
I wonder if they have stats that indicates repeat travelers (who are more likely to stop by those small villages) are less likely to purchase JR Pass, even when it was cheaper. Anecdotally, my friends and I stopped bothering, especially after most of us started flying to HND to save time, or switched to riding airport buses or the Keisei Skyliner, thus don't benefit from using JRP on the Narita Express. These remote villages may also be more accessible on non-JR modes; for the first destination mentioned (Ama Hut in Shima, Mie), Kintetsu seems to be faster than JR.

Also, Asian tourists like the Korean and Chinese influencers named in the article can fly directly KIX, NGO, FUK, CTS, etc. or ferry from Busan, so JRP might be an even worse deal for repeats from those countries.

jeffchien··on 6.2 GHz Intel Core I9-14900KS Review
Yep, the venerable de8auer channel has confirmed this does allow the P-cores to run 6GHz continuously at ~75C:

* DE: https://youtu.be/S_d74JB2ECY * EN: https://youtu.be/5AA2AsK2ewE

jeffchien··on European crash tester says carmakers must bring back physical controls
I just wish Android Auto had an option to disable activity boundaries for spinning so I can spin from Maps to media, and use the joystick control for directional selection (i.e. it tries to find the next button in that direction). I was excited for Coolwalk but then never got used to switching between Maps and media with the joystick. In the end I just reverted to pressing the Nav and media buttons then spinning.
jeffchien··on The Ramen Lord
His Book of Ramen: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qLPoLxek3WLQJDtU6i3300_0...

I can't wait to visit his shop.

jeffchien··on Rue de l'Avenir
Hazards to pets and sandals/Crocs wearers, perhaps.
jeffchien··on Mozilla expands extension support for Firefox for Android
You can also directly sideload .xpi by tapping the Nightly logo in the About page a few times. I'm not sure when they added this back.
jeffchien··on GPT-4-turbo produces shorter completions when it "thinks" its December vs. May
If this is true, then that would imply some geographic skew towards >30°N (as opposed to the tropics or >30°S), which I suppose isn't too surprising.
jeffchien··on Fukuoka court rules ban on dual nationality is constitutional
The incident happened in 2017 and automated gates were installed in major Japanese airports in 2018.

(Funnily enough the last exit stamp I got was from Gare du Nord in early 2020, as PARAFE eGates wasn't extended to US passports back then)

jeffchien··on Why is a second equal to the duration of 9,192,631,770 of radiations? (2016)
Not to mention the dissolved solids as well, so it's not as simple as using tap water.

IMHO Celsius is the SI unit least deserving of praise. It's just bolted onto the system through the Boltzmann constant and isn't intricately linked like other SI/CGS units. It's also a little too coarse for modern use. Sure, I could use decicelsius myself, but that doesn't stop every other weather station, AC/thermostat manufacturer, etc. from still using whole degrees. You can buy $2000 Italian espresso machines with elaborate PID controllers that can only be tuned to whole degrees, which ironically means that using Fahrenheit is more precise!

jeffchien··on Caltrans exec who protested a freeway expansion gets demoted
StreetsBlog has a better article: https://cal.streetsblog.org/2023/09/19/caltrans-shakeup-is-a...

It sounds like she was caught in the crossfire between Friedman and CalTrans. If it's like her fight against CA HSR, Friedman might just want the funds to go to Metrolink improvements in Burbank than any alternatives for Davis and Sacramento: https://cal.streetsblog.org/2022/05/05/letter-to-speaker-ren...

jeffchien··on Unity's oldest community announces dissolution
I don't think this is true. Unless I'm misreading their S1, they have been operating at a loss: https://www.meritechcapital.com/blog/unity-software-ipo-s-1-...
jeffchien··on Is air conditioning making cities hotter?
With regards to temperature, there are more levers to pull, like the aspect ratio of the street (narrower = cooler). Architects in Taiwan and southern China have been studying arcaded streets (qilou/騎樓), which seem to be as good as trees for shielding pedestrians [1], except in situations where the sun might shine through the sides or ends.

Of course, trees are great for many other reasons like air quality, but for temperature fundamentally they're just big evaporative coolers. I wish cities in more water-stressed areas would consider arcades + rooftop solar.

[2] https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/5/1355/htm

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