Tootfinder

Well, shit. Guess I picked a bad day to re-case my PC and upgrade the GPU. Everything went well until I tried to update the OS, which failed while tossing a Mesa dependency error. Did some checking, and it seems to just be a Mesa issue I can't really do anything about ATM. So I'm stuck in 4K/basic graphics driver mode, with screen tearing a-plenty, till tomorrow? Hopefully? lol.
The new case looks nice at least.

I packed for #POTA before heading out to do the weekly grocery shopping, even though it was only 40°F / 4.5°C with low clouds. I decided it was too cold to sit in the helinox chair without insulation, so I drove past US-3867 and went to US-2755 Umstead State Park instead, where I could sit at a picnic table. I took a floor mat out of my car to sit on. As it was, it was cold enough that I co…

Two screenshots of the lock screen on my iPhone 17 Pro whose difference confounds me. In one the contrast is good and I can read the numbers on the pad, but the time and battery status are hidden. In the other, the key pad is pretty much invisible but I can see the time and battery. I have no idea how to trigger the contrastier one; it just sometimes does this.
Is this phenomenon known? Explicable? It's as if the new UI is sometimes ashamed to show how unreadable it is and compensates before hiding again.
Somebody made this happen. Any idea why?

Because I constantly hear myths about the good old compact cassette here's a longer post dispelling them:
1. They can sound as good as CDs
2. They don't wear out
3. You can't use a pencil to wind them
4. You can go to specific tracks automatically
5. You don't need to carry around extra batteries
I will elaborate below:
1. Sound Quality
Many higher-end decks can record cassettes on metal tape with various Dolby noise reduction settings; especially the combination of metal tape and Dolby S will make tapes that are pretty much indistinguishable from listening to a CD.
Even normal or chrome tape with Dolby B (around since the 1970s) will give great results; likely indistinguishable from a CD when played in a car or while out and about with a personal player.
Some extremely high-end tape decks produce better than CD results in some regards (for example some Nakamichi models go to 26KHz with frequency response, while CD are inherently limited to top out at 22KHz).
It's true that the dynamic range of CDs is much better than either vinyl records or tapes. However, unless you're super into classical music there's likely not much music for which this truly matters, as 99% is mastered to use much less dynamic range than provided by any audio media format. (If you're super into classical music you probably want SACD or other high-res lossless sources anyway, not CDs.)
2. Yes, it will wear out mechanically but you will wear out mechanically before it does. Please watch VWestlife's video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dgJ4hRHBiw
3. European and American pencils are too thin to engage the cassette reel cogs. (You'd need to get a Japanese pencil. People mostly used BIC pens for this purpose which have the right thickness.)
4. Most (nice) decks and personal players from the early-to-mid nineties onwards have track skip features (e.g. Sony has AMS, Automatic Music Sensor), which allow precise winding to a specific track.
Some decks even did this in the early 80s!
5. My late-90s Walkman has seventy-eight (78) hours of playback on one (1) single AA battery.
Anyway, the main reason why I like them is they're fun to use and recording them is very deliberate instead of algorithms selecting music for me. :)

"No group in America has fallen further, faster than young men. When I began talking about this several years ago, that was a controversial statement, especially on the left, where many pathologize masculinity.
While the right has suggested the solution is to take women and non-white people back to the 1950s, the left’s view is that young men don’t have problems, they are the problem.
Neither attitude helps."

The Cult of Therapy | No Mercy / No Malice
“Don’t read the comments,” I tell people, just before I have a drink and … read the comments. I knew my book Notes on Being a Man would spark controversy, as you get the most flak when you’re over the target, and some of the criticism (likely) misses the mark. The comment that hits home: […]

Bandcamp I love you but damn you make it difficult. I added stuff to my cart, but went to another device to check out and... I can't find the cart on the mobile app. Where is it!?
Went to a computer and got to the cart and... it's empty. None of the stuff I added is there. Re-add it all and check out.
I've tried multiple times to check out, the all fail. I mean, maybe so many of you are making purchases the system is overloaded? Argh.

Trump Mobile execs showcase the T1 Phone's new design and specs, and say the phones go through "final assembly" in Miami and full assembly in the US is a "goal" (Dominic Preston/The Verge)
https://www.theverge.com/gadgets/875190/tr

This is the Trump Phone
I spoke to Trump Mobile executives Don Hendrickson and Eric Thomas for an exclusive first look at what they say is the T1 Phone.

Different Corners VII ▶️
不同的角落 VII ▶️
📷 Nikon F4E
🎞️ Fujifilm NEOPAN SS, expired 1993
#filmphotography #Photography #blackandwhite

Over the past couple weeks, I've been designing a spool with some particular features in #FreeCAD, encompassing 6 parts to 3d-print. I've been manually re-orienting them when I print them.
Now that it's working, I realized that I could use the FreeCAD Assembly workbench to create a good packing of the parts in the right orientation for printing, saving anyone else who wants to prin…

Leaked memos: Meta delays the release of its MR glasses codenamed "Phoenix" from H2 2026 to H1 2027 to give Meta "more breathing room to get the details right" (Jyoti Mann/Business Insider)
https://www.businessinsider.com/meta-delay

Meta delays release of new mixed reality glasses code-named 'Phoenix' in order to 'get the details right'
Meta plans to release a new wearable device codenamed "Malibu 2" in 2026, according to an internal memo viewed by Business Insider.