I bought a lifetime license for makemkv like 15 years ago. It was the single best software purchase I’ve ever made. It just works on all platforms and for all disks. The hardest I’ve ever had to work at it is to “manually” open all the tracks and play a little guessing game for what track is the real one - but it’s ripped every CD and blu ray I’ve ever thrown at it.

My latest config is fedora workstation 42 with a portable blue ray burner drive. Works like a champ.

Not asked for but honorable mention goes to EAC for ripping CDs. I run that in bottles just fine.

It’s super easy on the steam deck. You don’t need to know Linux. You boot into desktop mode, open Firefox, install emudeck by clicking on a link. Then you configure in there a bit and download roms - all pretty straightforward and easy. A noob can do it in a couple of hours.

Now that said - the steam deck is hit or miss emulating switch games. Most games work awesome. But not every game. It’s not clear to me if the hardware is a little too slow for emulation overhead, or if it’s more an issue between the emulator and the game. My take is it’s a bit of both.

Someone else will have to comment on modding the switch as I haven’t done that, but I bet once modded, it plays every game 100% fine.

Assuming my prior paragraph is true: if the ONLY thing you want to do is switch games - then I’d skip the steam deck. If you want to do OTHER things as well (snes, nes, all other older consoles, actual pc games that play on steam deck) then ya, steam deck all the way. Make sense?

Tying fishing flies

Looks really hard. Not terribly hard to make some respectable flies with a little bit of instruction.

That’s the neat part - it doesn’t flip either. It’s your mind playing tricks on you.

Left and right, and the act of turning around are so common to you - that when you look at your reflection in the mirror, your brain expects that image to have turned around 180 degrees either left or right. Since that didn’t happen you think it’s “flipped”. But it’s not - your EXPECTATION is that it should be flipped.

Here’s another way to think about it. If it was common for us as humans to turn around by doing a handstand to look backwards - then you’d be complaining “why do mirrors flip up and down but not left and right?” But because that’s ridiculous and we don’t do that - you have no expectations that your mirror image should be standing on its head.

Trippy right? :)

Moved across country for a job. Super high market to one less crazy. Had to do stupid things to buy into the first market, recouped that money and reinvested it back into my retirement (where it belonged) when we moved back. Decided to have some fun as well. “Leftover” in terms of housing money is where that term slipped out from.

It was insane $ for me ;) But it was something I wanted for almost 30 years and couldn’t afford. It’s insane what you can spend on stereo equipment. My wife and I both drove cars until they broke, 14 and 15 years, both over 350k miles. Some people buy sports cars - we chose a stereo ;)

• Emotiva 5x200w modular amp
• Marantz pre pro
• Ascend acoustics towersx2 up front, sierra2’sx2 rears, horizonx1 center
• Pair of Rhythmik sealed 15’s, with integrated amps 600W each
• Misc. stuff - blue ray player and whatnot.

I really like the ascend stuff. Most of my audiophile friends can’t believe the bang for the buck. Tough purchase though - internet only. No easy way to demo unless you find someone in their forums willing to invite you over (which I’ve done).

I also really like the Rythmik subs, but only as a pair.

I hate my marantz. That’ll get replaced soon. I’ve got my eye on Anthem’s gear.

Amp is fine.

My most irresponsible purchase was definitely a high end stereo system. I got into it in college after hearing some amazing rigs. It’s the irresponsible thing I’ve always wanted but really couldn’t afford (starting life, marriage, kids, school bills, etc.). Eventually we had saved enough where we had some $ leftover after getting lucky timing things in the housing market.

I begged my wife like a kid begs his mom in a toy store (I’m not proud). She didn’t get it, but was all “do it if you want it that bad.” It. Is. Awesome. It has gotten used everyday for like 7 years now. My wife has even become a big fan - she “gets it now, this is awesome”

I have to pry her music away from it to play mine! :) My kid’s friends like to come over our house and hang out watching movies and listening to music on it. Totally frivolous and way too much money - but no single thing has brought people together quite like awesome music.

100% would do it again.

I’m literally arguing in another thread now about how weird corporations are about this. And here’s a prime example. The company shares their content on the internet freely. A medium where its inherent design is to consume the bits and pieces of the giant mass of data that you are interested in (and ignore the rest).

But because we choose to not watch the ads, and only the interesting parts (that they published freely) - THAT’S a reason to go after BPC with govt. action? Give me a break. If your content is so good, grow some balls, put it behind a hard paywall, ask me to pay for it, and stop leaving it laying around on the ground for all to view.

Ya I mean it’s hard to meet people if they aren’t around. I don’t know what “the middle of nowhere means”. Some people really do live where there just aren’t people around. But lots of people use that phrase when places of gathering are half an hour or maybe an hour away. I’d suggest it’s still worth the drive if you can figure that out.

I was suggesting targeting type things, not necessarily just guns - because they tend to have low barriers of entry. Pool, bowling, archery, darts, etc. They also tend to have social components as well (happens in a bar for example, or there’s a club house/place where people meet). Leads to other things. Sports are also great - even if you’re not athletic and bad at sports. Especially the “weird” sports - you may find something non traditional that you’re good at, and usually people are super happy just to have anyone who wants to participate.

Just things to think about - that’s all. Find out what people near you do. There’s gotta be something. Then go try it even if it doesn’t sound like your thing. You may like it, you may not. Keep doing that and sooner or later you will find something to be passionate about.

Meeting people - romantic or otherwise - is a result of you engaging with people and enjoying the thing/hobby/whatever you’re doing together. People who share common things gravitate toward each other personally. That’s just the way it works - embrace it my friend! Go have some fun! ;)

I agree. If you’re not looking for hobbies (plural) that are fun just for the sake of fun (not meeting people) - then you’re short changing yourself in many levels. When you’re passionate about a hobby, it’s almost impossible not to make friends. When you make friends, you’ll meet their friends, and with all those people - your chances of finding something more than friends increases.

Video games can be very social IRL, but it’s not the norm in my experience. Some suggestions: Go to a gun range, archery range, axe throwing, anything target based and show up for a public shooting day. Those people (myself included) LOVE people who are new to the sport and they’ll let you use all their equipment and show you how to do it. Pick up a pool cue and start practicing by yourself at a pool hall. You’ll become a regular and again people love to show you the ropes with that sport. Join a fishing club - it’s not just old men who do that (although there’s plenty of them) but before you know it you’re going on other people’s boats and whatnot. Mountain biking - requires more cash to get going as you need a bike - but those people are animals and are always looking for people to go on a ride with. Get involved with your local library and book clubs if you like to read. Again more expensive- but golf. Lots of people who love to golf - if you go alone, you’ll usually get paired up with and find others to golf with. You get the idea, pick up an instrument, rc cars or planes, habitat for humanity - there are endless things to do and you’ll soon be looking forward to your alone time ;)

Right! I use the flatpak myself - works great.

There’s a native Linux version! No need for wine :)

I use makemkv. Works every time. Once in a while you have to open the disk “manually” and select the right track but ya, makemkv does it all.

Free if you want to update the beta trial key every few months. After years of use I bought a lifetime license for like $20. Probably the best value I’ve ever gotten.

Yes but only if it’s NY style and no sauce.

White pizza.

Also acceptable, spinach instead of broccoli

Neat! Thanks for the name/info.

I’m the only person I’ve ever met who can do this. It’s apparently somewhat more common than I thought.

I’m an old man, but I still do it specifically to my sister because she cannot stand it. /sibling rivalry lives on

I don’t know because I can’t see a thing when I do it ;)

Edit: I suppose I should make a video of myself - just never have. Sounds like I’ve got plans for the evening :)

I can twitch my eyeballs left and right really fast, and not just a little bit - but most of the way.

Completely grosses people out when I do it.

Edit: I can even do circles, but not as fast as left and right.

1,2,&4 yes.

#3 not at all for me. I miss the old days of the internet where there were discussion forums on usenet / then replaced by somewhere forums. Many of my favorite forums are dead. I’m hoping Lemmy takes off that way and brings back a bit of the niche underground internet.

/shrug

Social media. Both personal (instatwitface) and business (LinkedIn). Lemmy is as close as I get, and to me this is just a modern forum.

In my opinion social media has done nothing but make people stupider, and I want nothing to do with it. (It’s probably just a sign I’m old now - “get off my lawn!”)

;)

It’s hard when you’re starting out, but think about it this way:

1. you have to live somewhere-that means rent or a mortgage.
2. rent goes to “the man”. So does most of your mortgage payment but you DO pay some of that to yourself. So when comparing the two you have to subtract that out.
3. you get a tax break on mortgage interest - so you have to take that out
4. the house is likely to appreciate in value - so any equity you build has to be taken out
5. this means that a substantially larger monthly mortgage payment might actually be equal to or even less than paying monthly rent.
6. rent goes up, nobody talks about this. Mortgages are fixed.
7. renting is forever. Eventually (if you’re not stupid with refinances) you’ll own your home and have zero payments.
8. in favor of renting - if something breaks in a house, you have to fix it. Renters just yell at their landlord.
9. even if you have a crappy interest rate now, you can always refinance in the future if and when rates come down.

Paying for your first mortgage can be daunting when just starting out, but it’s often cheaper than renting when considering the above points, the one exception being how much money you sink into repairs. (Don’t buy a money trap of a house, stay away from major fixer uppers). Eventually your salary will go up and your mortgage payment will be less and less of a burden.

Being in debt sucks, but I’ve felt paying rent sucks even more. So a mortgage ain’t so bad. That’s the way I see things - ymmv