Fiio is excellent, 100% agree. Everything I’ve ever owned from them has had superb build quality. I don’t like their headphones or desk amps much, but all their portable stuff is, in my opinion, the best available.

Gesaffelstein is hardly a pop culture figure, though; I don’t think many gen-z kids know him. But he’s an absolute icon of the 2010s dark techno scene.

The Conspiracy singles were legendary. My Conspiracy Pt. 1 record has a More Cowbell joke on it, which I love. Weird record though, it’s 33 1/3 on one side and 45 on the other. And it doesn’t say that anywhere on the record, so it took me years before realizing I was listening to a slowed down Hatred. I kinda love the slowed down version, funny how that happens :P

https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/epic-games-ceo-tim-sweeney-argues-banning-twitter-over-its-ability-to-ai-generate-pornographic-images-of-minors-is-just-gatekeepers-attempting-to-censor-all-of-their-political-opponents/

Oh shoot, thanks for the correction. Dyslexia strikes again!

I may have been caught red handed… 😬

Everything my dad taught me – and his father him, and so on – would go to waste if I didn’t do that! I couldn’t disrespect him that way… And besides, it’s good for you, to get some fresh air!

I was wondering why he was glaring at me…

Yeah, I think my highschool kinda fucked me over. It was one of those stupid “international” highschools where we did the IGCSE before the IB — and the IGCSEs suuuuuuck. I literally didn’t study at all and got an A in Math. I think it did jack shit to prepare me. You may be able to tell I still have quite a bit of festered up anger towards the IGCSE… 😬

Apparently college computer science classes are now doing paper exams… I can’t even imagine learning the standard library of the language the prof chose (nowadays probably C++ which I despise and has a crazy standard library) so well I could write code on paper without completion and LSP. And without editing! Writing code outside of neovim already seems like torture.

And it’s all AI’s fault. I swear to god, AI has ruined programming.

I did what you describe until I had to do the IB in 11th and 12th grade… the IB was crazy. I think my first two years of college were literally easier than IB.

Plus one on Pro-Ject. Excellent record players.

The cheapest “audiophile” record player they have is probably the Debut Carbon Evo, but even the cheaper ones, especially with an elliptical stylus, are are excellent. You can get their cheapest turntable, the E1, with a 60€ Ortofon OM 5E cartridge (elliptical stylus) for only 230€ in Europe. I’ve tested it and it punches well above its weight. The only thing missing is tracking force control and anti-scating control, so you’re a little limited, but who can complain at that price.

The one thing I’d note for people considering adopting the hobby is the importance of a good phono preamp. Most cheaper or built-in ones are wildly inaccurate and will intensely misrepresent your records. Always make sure to look up the frequency response and how well it matches RIAA from a third party’s measurements! A good phono will do wonders for audio quality compared to one of lesser quality.

That little difference becomes very important in road cycling… I personally always recommend used road bikes. New, you have to spend many thousands. But I’ve seen superb used options (e.g. carbonfiber, ultegra or nowadays even 105, decent wheels and handlebars) for under 1000€.

One will have to spend a little extra to replace a couple parts, but it’s still a fraction of the new cost. My first good road bike was third hand and I was cycling competitively.

A bike just for weight loss or something similar can be cheaper, of coarse. But serious road cycling is often trickier, you’ll want carbon fiber at least. YMMV though

Touche, I see your point. Ultimately, I think his claim about etiquette is still nonsense, though, especially given your latter point. But I won’t hold this against him, you’ve convinced me that his may be an authentic perspective.

It’s a quote post, not really a reply. That is very normal for popular accounts on bluesky/twitter. One is sharing something with one’s own, likely smaller audience while adding context, not necessarily really replying to the famous OP (viz. Jennings), as one can’t expect an answer. It’s an easy way to interact with and share posts from larger accounts on micro-blogging sites.

Jennings is on a micro-blogging platform, he should know to expect this (ironically, know the etiquette). Idk, him then going to such an extreme extent of publicly humiliating the other user (though the username is not visible; at least he does that), especially given his large fan-base, feels unnecessarily harsh.

Not to mention that it’s a quote post, not a direct reply. Quote posts on twitter or bluesky are not really intended as replies, but rather someone adding context to something they want to show their own following. Jennings is on a micro-blogging platform; he should know the etiquette. His post feels like an immature attempt at revenge and makes him seem very unpleasant and rather self-centered.

That has to be it somehow! But it happens with all books now… and a different book I tested was 1,200 hours when I started it.

But at least I know aliens aren’t trying to send me messages now :P thanks

Is this a crazy coincidence or are you psychic?!? The picture in the post is from the Sorcerer’s Stone! I got sick and nostalgic, and started listening to it.

I think it’s a little shorter in reality though, compared to what audible claims here…

You’re 100% right about Rowling, she’s gone off the deep end in a bad way.

I’ve tried everything and I really really really can’t use Google. It just never gets me what I want. DDG works ok, and is usually my default because it’s fast and simple.

Recently (1 or 2 years) I’ve found Brave search to be fantastic though. You may want to disable the AI search summary (it’s better than Google’s or DDG’s ai stuff, but still ultimately ai). Now, I find myself reaching for brave search when I’m doing more serious searching. I have both DDG and Brave saved as search short cuts in librewolf. Highly recommend.

Good for you! And happy new year!!!

I am a small indie artist. I earn nearly no money from streaming services, but I do from Bandcamp, SoundCloud (though fuck Soundcloud, they also suck), actual LPs and CDs sold, etc.

If someone decides to listen to my music over Spotify, or really any streaming service, they are also “stealing” my music. Because I get no money from that, and listening to my music over those platforms strengthens their monopoly (this mostly applies to Spotify).

I need to publish my music on Spotify et al (fuck you discogs) for discoverability, because they have an evil fucking global monopoly, but the moment anyone finds my music there, I would ask them to listen to it elsewhere.

It will literally benefit me, and indie artist, more, if you bootleg my music instead of listening via streaming services, as this weakens their monopoly. Seriously.

I have a different job, I don’t need to live from my music right now, so the stakes are fairly low for me. But it still sucks to see streaming services ruin independent music like this. I would ask everyone to bootleg music, and then support artists like me through Bandcamp (especially CDs and LPs) and donations (or merch, though I don’t have any), if you appreciate the art.

I don’t expect anyone to immediately buy niche music they don’t know, so bootlegging until you become a fan seems reasonable to me. I’ve discovered many of my favorite albums like that, eventually buying LPs online and donating to the artist; that is far more beneficial to those artists than listening over any streaming service (including the slightly better tidal and Amazon music).

/rant over