The "I Just Bought" thread

A screwdriver Torx set. We see them more and more often, and while it's sometimes possible to use an hex (hey, that's a bit witchy), it's not great for the screw's health. And since I have to repair a device and remove the little buggers, it was time to buy another little toolbox.

Apparently the company who invented them released the Torx Plus once their patent was about to expire, and yet other similar forms. As if it wasn't already complicated enough. Anyway, that's from Wikipedia so for what it's worth.

I had to replace my old monitor and went from a comfortable 16:10 ratio to a more common 16:9 because there is more choice on the market, so going from 1920:1200 down to 1920:1080. I'll miss those pixels. I'll have fewer problems with games though.

I don't understand the motivation to widen monitors except pure marketing - greater diagonal for a smaller actual surface. Or does it tell that people are mainly using computers to watch movies and play games?

At work I resisted the trend to get 21:9 screens (default setup is 2 screens), which seems ridiculous: they were wider and thus making it more difficult to spot items, but smaller in height which makes it more annoying to edit any code or text.

I've got a 34" (21:9/3440x1440) as my main monitor for both gaming and work, and a 27" for the background stuff. And the ultra-wide is fantastic overall. In gaming, it's great having the little extra width, but it's a pain in the ass as some games don't support it. So you have to search for unofficial fixes. But so far, I don't think I've found any game I really wanted to play that didn't support it, either officially or through a community hack.

And for work it's even better. For coding you get to have more real-estate and can have either two coding windows open, or one coding and one pdf when going over books. I have two 27" monitors at work, and I prefer one big one than two. Somehow I feel I move my head a lot more with two as main instead of one as main.

Originally Posted by Redglyph
I had to replace my old monitor and went from a comfortable 16:10 ratio to a more common 16:9 because there is more choice on the market, so going from 1920:1200 down to 1920:1080. I'll miss those pixels. I'll have fewer problems with games though.

I had a 16:10 one too. Still have around somewhere. It's probably 20 years old and still works, but at some point I upgraded. 1920:1080 is a definite downgrade though and I can feel your pain. I'd have gone for 2560:1440. It's 16:9 but has more real estate than your old one. For me 1440 vertical hits a sweet spot. It's mostly fine for gaming, too. 4k resolutions are too much IMO, for anything. At work I have a 3440x1440 curved monitor that I find perfect for office stuff. Tried it for gaming but most games I like better at 16:9.

I've been using a 16:10 monitor for about 8 years now and have never had any issues with games. 99% of modern games support that aspect ratio, and the few that don't are just slightly letterboxed which is no big deal to me.

It was only a very few titles. Recently I had misplaced elements in Vagrus and Expeditions: Rome, for example, but they're aware of that.

I would have stuck with 16:10 or taken a larger one with higher resolution if I could find the right monitor, but I'm hard to please and I didn't want to wait for too long. I'm also using a few old apps that don't scale too well to higher resolutions.

I've no idea what kind of monitor I'm using, it's served me for about a dozen years with no issues, and that's all I ask. And yeah, I see no reason to go up to a bigger one, I believe this one is twenty-seven inches, which is plenty enough for me.

One of my favorite tv series of all time. It's really grown on me across the years, and I think I've seen it at least 10+ times, in various ways. Sometimes even just leaving it in the background while doing something else, and just giggling to myself.

Anyway, I really wanted to also have it on bluray for safe keeping.

Originally Posted by danutz_plusplus
One of my favorite tv series of all time. It's really grown on me across the years, and I think I've seen it at least 10+ times, in various ways. Sometimes even just leaving it in the background while doing something else, and just giggling to myself.

Anyway, I really wanted to also have it on bluray for safe keeping.

Have fun

I've meant to watch it for years, but it's still on my to-do list.
Yeah, nothing like a physical disk or file you own.

Originally Posted by Redglyph
Yeah, nothing like a physical disk or file you own.

I would be endlessly more assured if I knew for sure whether I could legally make a backup copy of the contents of the disks.

I've watched the British version of that show, yet haven't checked out the US take on it, as of yet. I do enjoy physical media yet the sheer convenience of the online platforms is hard to deny.

Originally Posted by danutz_plusplus
I would be endlessly more assured if I knew for sure whether I could legally make a backup copy of the contents of the disks.

It should be but it's not my domain so I'm not 100% sure either.

I made a few local images of software or movies that were on CD/DVD, to make the access easier. Those DVDs are sometimes very noisy, and I don't even have a drive on my last PC so I can't easily read a CD. I doubt I'll ever be in trouble for that.

The problem is when you share them, which includes downloading from torrents since it uploads at the same time.

Last time I checked in my country, downloading was not illegal no matter what it is, but uploading was. And since there are people setting up fake torrents just to log illegal operations, I rarely use torrents except when I'm sure it's safe (mainly for Linux installation images).

Originally Posted by Redglyph
It should be but it's not my domain so I'm not 100% sure either.

I made a few local images of software or movies that were on CD/DVD, to make the access easier. Those DVDs are sometimes very noisy, and I don't even have a drive on my last PC so I can't easily read a CD. I doubt I'll ever be in trouble for that.

The problem is when you share them, which includes downloading from torrents since it uploads at the same time.

Last time I checked in my country, downloading was not illegal no matter what it is, but uploading was. And since there are people setting up fake torrents just to log illegal operations, I rarely use torrents except when I'm sure it's safe (mainly for Linux installation images).

Yeah, it is a pain in the ass, and I wish things were clearer legally as to what you can and can't do. And of course, those laws can always change (even affecting things in the past).

The only reason I want physical media is for stuff that's hard to stream (true 4K media) and for my personal assurance that I don't lose it whenever whatever service I'm using drops that content. And of course, only for the stuff that I label as must watch. That's the only stuff I also want copies of.

Originally Posted by Carnifex
I've watched the British version of that show, yet haven't checked out the US take on it, as of yet. I do enjoy physical media yet the sheer convenience of the online platforms is hard to deny.

I also watched the UK version, and it's a very different style. It's much more cynical and realistic. The US version really goes into cartoon logic sometimes and the characters are much more exagerated. And in the end it's a very different style. I like the UK version as well, it's very solid. But I doubt I could watch it on repeat multiple times, since I'd just get depressed.

Originally Posted by danutz_plusplus
I would be endlessly more assured if I knew for sure whether I could legally make a backup copy of the contents of the disks.

Eh? Just make a copy if you want. It's not like you're going to be distributing it.

I'm pretty sure the god of media DRM isn't going to descend from the heavens to smite you.

I think I'd prefer the cynical version versus some cartoon-y adaptation, so I'll stick with what I like. Different strokes for us all tends to leave everyone satisfied. -)

Originally Posted by Carnifex
I think I'd prefer the cynical version versus some cartoon-y adaptation, so I'll stick with what I like. Different strokes for us all tends to leave everyone satisfied. -)

I said some cartoony exagerations. There's also plenty of smart commentary here and there. Don't let me deter you if you're curious about it. But it might take some episodes before it grows on you.

Even so, the US version is also hilarious as hell.

I wanted to pick up Doom again, and was having real trouble with my current work mouse (A logitech MX 3) which is fantastic for work, since it's large and very precise. But it's very heavy and slow for a fast fps like Doom.

So after some scrambling about what to get purely for fast-paced stuff, I decided on a Razer Viper Ultimate. It's a pretty large mouse, but it's very light. Almost half the weight of the MX. And I can more comfortably claw it, which was something I couldn't do with the MX. And I tested it on Nightmare difficulty in Doom and am pretty pleased.

This is going to be a wild shot in the dark, but if anyone recognizes what this is, and knows where to find other people online who also knows what this is, and talk about these kinds of things shoot me a message, please?

I've been saving my pennies and trying to track down some wayward novels of the Wild Card series. I once owned them all, up to the twenty-first book, yet lost some of my boxes when I moved back from Canada and have been looking to replace them in physical form ever since. I got lucky yesterday and saw three of them for sale, which I snatched up immediately! So now I have the first twelve again, or rather I will once these three get shipped my way.

A new cell phone.

For some reason, for which I accept no responsibility, the front glass of the old one has startde to fragment. Pieces got torn apart at the egdes, fine lines of discontinuity appeared all over, with potential for skin leasons when operating the device.

Admittedly the deteroritation wasn't debilitatiing (yet), but bad enough to get the necessary WAF for new one.

I ended up with an Fairphone 4



The main thing with this phone is that almost every part of it is easily replacable and they guarantee software support for a longer time than normal. This is a phone built to last. And they also have very strict rules for production, including production of the materials: using recycled materials as much as possible, and good working conditions. This is important to me.

I paid 640 EUR for it. Quite expensive (but remember these are Norwegian prices, prices are significantly higher here (so are wages)). I could definitely get a phone with better performance/functionality for that price and less. But the phone does what I need and I don't miss anything. And as said the other aspects are very important. I gladly pay what those things cost. Besides, I'm pretty sure that it's
better than my old Samsung.

And I got rid of Bizby!!!!"!

BTW: Seems like they're not marketing it in the US.

pibbuR who is now having fun (honest!!!!") transfering data (currently the 140Gb music collection) and configuring the thing. Yay!

PS. A review: https://www.theverge.com/22716194/fairphone-4-review . DS.