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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 13th, 2023

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  • This happened to me once and I completely overthought it.

    In my case, I removed the PCB from the drive and took a close look and saw a single scorched IC that I figured was the problem. I think it was a voltage regulator or something like that.

    So I bought a scrap drive and tried to transplant the PCB onto my dead drive, but of course that wouldn’t be able to read my old data.

    So took it into a local electronics repair shop and asked if he’d be able to make it work.

    He took one look at the damaged PCB, pushed the scrap one back at me and said “yeah I’ll just replace this part.”

    40 bucks later I had a working drive again and was able to rescue the data.


  • You should be able to play a video that’s at 100% even if the torrent isn’t complete.

    It could be a codec issue? If you’re using windows there’s a tool called MediaInfo you can install that’ll analyze a video file and tell you if it’s corrupt and what codecs it uses. You might just need to install a codec pack like K-Lite if your system doesn’t already have the codec you need. Or, like an other commenter said, try opening it in VLC which has killer codec support built in.







  • Pretty much. It’s a tired analogy, but the “unawakened” people in The Matrix come to mind. They’re not helping the cause, but it’s not right to declare that they’re evil or deserve hate like OP was suggesting.

    They don’t know any better but that doesn’t mean they deserve ire. They’re reasonably reacting based on the information they have.





  • That is absolutely false.

    Corporations can only donate on your behalf, so they get no tax benefits whatsoever. They cannot claim the money you donated as income nor can they donate it under their own name. The only thing they can do is use it for PR and tell the public “they helped raise $x for this cause”.

    That said, if you donate a non trivial amount to charity, you should do it directly with the charity so you can get a tax receipt and write it off on your personal taxes.




  • I think I’m at my wit’s end with “smart” things.

    Roomba? It takes less time to just vacuum the place than it does for the fucking vacuum to realize it’s been humping the same chair leg for most of its battery charge.

    Assistants?

    “Hey Google, open the bedroom blinds”

    “Sorry, that device hasn’t been configured yet”

    “Hey Google, open the bedroom blinds”

    “Sure, turning 2 lights on”

    “Hey Google, open the bedroom blinds”

    “Sure, opening the blinds”



  • I hung around on Reddit for like 15 years before I left, and I saw a progression from earnest debate to sarcasm becoming dominant in a lot of subs, particularly the busy ones. I imagine this holds true for any popular, long-term forums.

    This is what I see:

    Person A comes in and gives an opinion that is opposed to the general consensus in the community (“hive mind”).

    Person B responds with a detailed explanation of why that opinion has been soundly rejected and how it maps to “the consensus”. This is the kind of quality post that made Reddit shine. It gets upvotes like crazy not because it’s “right”, but because it clearly explains how you get from opinion A to opinion B in a way anybody can follow.

    Five years passes.

    Person ZZZZ comes in and gives the SAME opinion as Person A.

    Person B, inexplicably still a member of the community, responds with a short blast of sarcasm that makes it clear they disagree with that opinion, but long gone are the days where they bother to thoughtfully contrast the opposing views. It’s basically a snappy “you’re dumb and wrong; get fucked” comment. It gets upvoted like crazy this time not because it explains anything, but because it echoes the tired sentiment of the community.

    I don’t even know if that’s a Reddit thing or just a general human experience thing. If someone were to approach you alone IRL and say they have concerns about trans athletes, you might have enough energy (and recent context) to be willing to explore the issues and explain your take on several facets of the arguments people commonly make.

    If someone came up to you and said they aren’t sure about “this women voting thing”, I can’t imagine you’re going to be nearly as patient or willing to engage. Women’s suffrage has SAILED. The time for debate ended when your great grandmother died.

    I saw a similar thing with the current wars. Early on there were interesting points raised. Now if someone comes in with a “unique” opinion on Ukraine or Gaza, they get buried in downvotes or told to fuck off. The time for debate has passed.

    Maybe it’s an issue of people joining a debate late and wanting to understand the issues become indistinguishable from bots and trolls with a paid agenda. Volunteers can’t be arsed to waste time educating them.