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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: May 22nd, 2023

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  • It’s not that far-fetched, PDFs in my opinion are closer to vector graphics than to document formats like odt and docx. They have no understanding of format if not using advanced features, like a table in a PDF is just spaced text with lines between them, and text is just independently placed letters. In fact the space symbol doesn’t exist in most PDFs, it’s just that two letters were spaced further apart. So they basically are multiple canvases that are being painted on with letters, lines, fill areas and even bitmap graphics.

    Modern PDF actually does further in the direction of a document format by providing the content in a structured way, mostly for accessibility, but also for making the format suitable for automatic processing the contained data.













  • The reason 60Hz was so prominent has to do with the power line frequency. Screens originated as cathode ray tube (CRT) TVs that were only able to use a single frequency, which was the one chosen by TV networks. They chose a the power line frequency because this minimizes flicker when recording light powered with the same frequency as the one you record with, and you want to play back in the same frequency for normal content.

    This however isn’t as important for modern monitors. You have other image sources than video content produced for TV which benefit from higher rates but don’t need to match a multiple of 60. So nowadays manufacturers go as high as their panels allow, my guess is 144 exists because that’s 6*24Hz (the latter being the “cinematic” frequency). My monitor for example is 75 Hz which is 1.5*50Hz, which is the European power line frequency, but the refresh rate is variable anyways, making it can match full multiples of content frequency dynamically if desired.


    1. It doesn’t really explain how it works and what you need on the receiving side. I use a Linux PC and reading the instructions always seemed somewhat convoluted, which makes sense - a proper way to enable your phone as a webcam would need functionality that requires root privileges in my opinion.
    2. The android app is closed source, which I try to avoid. Not a big problem but I’d prefer something open.

    So no big points, but I’d prefer a native solution, as in plug in your phone on PC and have a full webcam available as a source in every program.




  • yEnc isn’t a cipher, but rather an encoding for mapping binary to text, similar to base64 (but much more effective). So this denotes yEncc encoding.

    The files you’re seeing are PAR2 files, which are used for repairing. They’re useless without the base file. The file in your example contains 32 recovery blocks. That means if your base file has 32 or less damaged blocks, this parity file can repair it.

    Usually, you’d download all files belonging together in a single download and let your downloader do the rest. This is normally done by loading an NZB file that you either get from a Usenet search engine or an indexer.


  • I don’t even understand why they make that distinction. I recently bought a used notebook with Windows 10 preinstalled that can’t be upgraded. But if you just boot up the Windows 11 ISO it works fine without issues from there.

    Granted I don’t know why someone would want this; I was genuinely surprised when I noticed installation without a Microsoft account isn’t supposed to be possible. Then you get that system that just feels sketchy to use, Teams in autostart, online services in your menus and all that. And that’s just the stuff you can see. It’s a total disaster in my opinion. But it went downhill ever after Windows 7 as far as I can tell.


  • On the other hand, I don’t really have a fundamental problem with it. I don’t use Chrome and am not going to use this. My approach to websites using it will be the same as programs not running on my operating system: I’ll simply ignore them, same as I already ignore websites today that don’t serve me because of GDPR.

    I also do see a problem in adblocking. It’s just that it’s the lesser of two evils for me and as such, I opt into it. Google, being on the other side of the situation, for good reasons comes to a different assessment.

    All in all I don’t think this is a good development, but OTOH, if someone doesn’t want me to visit their site, that’s ok.


  • > Resurrected was pretty good but I really dislike the always online BS.

    It’s not always online, the single player can be played offline, just start the binary directly I think.

    What it lacks compared to the original is a way for private realms (not that these were ever officially supported in the original game). Still got the game on offer for $20 and think it’s been a great remaster, I had a blast. If you still l want to play D2 in 2023 is a different question though. It was great in its day but a lot of the concepts show their age.