misc updates

[mellowtigger]

Minnesota hospitals are basically at capacity already, due to covid19.  And the cold weather hasn't arrived yet, which will drive more people inside for their socializing amidst a highly contagious pandemic.  Ever since the delta variant showed up here, I have consistently wiped down all of my groceries before putting them away.  Walk in the door, wash hands, clean and put away stock, wash hands again.  As I keep saying repeatedly, don't get covid.

The laundromat was unusually busy today.  About 20 people arrived in total, with over a dozen inside at any one time.  I was the only one in a proper mask.  One black man nearly my age had a mask on his head, but it was worn as a chin strap, therefore useless.  If I get a new job that keeps me in this house, then I'll immediately treat myself to a tiny 24-inch-wide washer for my basement.  That's the only size that will fit down my very old and very narrow stairs, unfortunately.

I worked about 1.5 hours yesterday, on my day off.  It was a Mac issue, which I am not at all skilled at supporting.  I don't even have one to practice on.  Luckily, another tech joined us on the call, and he is a Mac user.  That expertise definitely helped.  There was a good chance that I would need to work today too (another day off), but I'm being naughty and not checking email today.  It only means extra work for me next week during regular work hours, and I already filled in my timesheet for this week, so I'm not feeling too distraught about it.

Two games released big changes yesterday.  No Man's Sky has a big new update called "Frontiers".  It looks interesting, but it broke some stuff too.  I'm waiting for fixes to come out before continuing.  Pathfinder: Wrath Of The Righteous also officially released.  I played a lot of the beta testing program.  It looks like it will be a fun game where I spend a lot of hours.  It also has new bugs that weren't there during beta, but I'm sure fixes will arrive soon.

Locast.org has officially shut down.  I paid them for broadcast television service by webpage.  Yes, I have an antenna for my television.  No, broadcasters don't actually broadcast well.  About half of the channels don't even register on my tv (ABC and NBC), others I can pick up with distortions (CBS and Fox).  The only two rock-solid channels are PBS and CW.  Yay for the underdogs.  Seriously, it's broadcast television, what's the big deal with services like this since you can't track viewership without them anyway?  The Electronic Frontier Foundation may help with an appeal, but I'm not holding my breath.  We just can't have nice things.

And I'm not even starting on climate change, or Texas, or Democrat ineptitude (different from Republican corruption), or... all of the other more important stuff than today's post.

Comments

[threemeninaboat]

How do you feel about No Man's Sky?

[mellowtigger]

I skipped it when it first released, because it was so bad at the time and far from what was promised. I didn't give them any of my money for their awful bait-and-switch.

I bought it a year ago on sale, though, and it's definitely a different game now. I like games that offer exploration, and this is definitely it. I like building my own cities, and this game lets me do that too. My bases lack animation because I'm the only resident in them, but it's still fun to build. The main storyline is also good, although I finished that part quite a while ago.

[bitterlawngnome]

I wonder if you might have a recommendation ... I used to play Diablo, can you think of anything that sort of fills that brain-niche that isn't made by a bunch of rapey frat boy techbros and is functional on a Mac? I don't care how new/old it is, as long as its functional.

[mellowtigger]

Yeah, I am very torn on the Diablo II remake. I very much want it, and I very much want not to give them a single penny. I'll probably manage to avoid it for a year or two, but I can't promise I won't buy it at a big discount later. :(

Grim Dawn is sort of similar, but apparently only for Windows.
Path of Exile 2 is in development. I'm not sure of its release date or platforms. I liked POE1, but not as much as Diablo 2.
I thought somebody was working on a game similar to Titan Quest, but I'm not finding anything about it now, so maybe that project died. :(

[foeclan]

Torchlight II works on the Mac, and is very Diablo-ish.

[bitterlawngnome]

oh that looks good ... thanks!

[mellowtigger]

Oh! Yes, Torchlight is a good game. I'm glad it's available for Mac.

I'm starting to feel sorry for Mac users. Is it true that MacOS doesn't support Vulkan? (I read it on the internet here, so it must be true?) It's a shame that Proton won't work there. I've grown so accustomed to just playing Windows games on Linux now that I don't think of it often any more.

I did find Titan Quest 2 in the works finally. I only have this google translation from German, but they say it's on the way... by 2024. Not very convenient for goofing away some hours this weekend. :)

[darkoshi]

I'm surprised your over-the-air TV reception is that bad, even though you live in a big metro area. Have you tried rescanning the channels?

I saw a notification on my TV today about a couple new channels, so I rescanned and ended up with 11 more than I had before! Now I've got 53 channels programmed. It picked up channels from further away today than in the past, and some which gave only a black screen before are playing fine tonight. I'm not sure if my reception is just spectacularly good tonight or if some of the stations have boosted their transmission power.