Other What currently makes your life awesome?

It sounds like that's the most important metric here, I think

 

And actually - I may have been premature with my complaint about responsiveness - I did the initial setup with the included IR remote but now its on IP it feels much snappier.

There's still a loading delay when launching apps but navigation feels way better, definitely liveable.

 

HOWEVER - whilst that complaint has been rescinded, I do have two more:

1) Rear-facing ports on TVs. Where they're positioned such that they're effectively impossible to use whilst wall mounting unless you have a 90deg adaptor, include the 90deg adaptor. Or better, recess the ports sufficiently, or even betterer, no more rear facing ports at all.

2) Optical ports that shear off the board when it transpires that the installed optical cable has no clearance to the wall, see complaint (1)

I was troubleshooting no sound for some time before I thought to check that the cable was still plugged in. It was, however the plug was no longer attached to the TV. Fortunately optical ports on TVs are not exaclty precision things, just a plastic fitting that holds the cable in the general vicinity of the LED, so was able to perform reattachment surgery, find a 90deg adaptor, and all's well.

Still, plenty of faff I could have done without.

And for the theme of the thread. JB Weld is awesome.

 

Started new job today, and with new job comes new laptop: Macbook Pro 14" with M2 Pro CPU. Shame it's not a spanking new M3 Pro, but it still makes a very nice change from the hulking great Dell behemoth I was lugging around until last week.

There really is no substitute for that trackpad - I've never used any other laptop that even comes close. Keyboard is a bit... OK... I was already used to the super-short travel "almost typing on glass" experience from my own Macbook a couple of years ago, but the Mac layout is going to break my brain for a while.

And holy balls, the battery life on these things....! Charged it up to full this morning and it's been off power since around 1130. Used in the office constantly for the next 5hrs and for about an hour at home this evening while I paired peripherals and upgraded MacOS. In all that time it's only dropped to ~70%. Damn.

Yes, rearward-facing ports on TVs really do need to be a thing of the past. It was ok when we all had hulking great CRTs which needed bags of depth, but that was 15-20 years ago now.

Back in't days of yore, a buddy and I realised we could bodge together a super low-cost optical output from a CDROM drive using the "digital out" port on the back of the drive. That "digital out" is actually SPDIF... So... Plop a red LED across the pins, liberally gaffer tape it to the end of an optical cable, and hey presto: instant optical output for perfect CD-to-MiniDisc transfers.

Sounds trite, but when you're 17/18, earning part-time money, don't have access to a CD player with an optical SPDIF output, and have a portable MiniDisc player/recorder... it was a game-changer. Prior to that we had to make do with analogue recordings, and that was just... painful, in more ways than one.

 

My new motherboard has actually shipped* from NewEgg in California, and DHL say I'll have it on Thursday!

* - I'd seen several horror stories about how NewEgg would treat "printing a shipping label" as putting a product they didn't actually have in stock onto a delivery truck.

 

I've been doing a thing for a little while now...

 

Getting somewhere with voice training soooooooooo yay! Resonance is off but my voice therapist is digging into that next Monday

Also... Twelve days until surgical consultation. Brainworms being brainworms

 

Guess what else I just found?! When you scroll across the titles in your games library, the plinking sound follows across the speakers as your cursor moves from left to right!

Nice touch, that.

 

Sumimasen, watashitashi no seki kyuban a to b des! That's the sum total of what I remember. Useful only in very specific circumstances.

Nice work though! That's an immense amount of XP. Fluent yet?

 

Nah.
My process is one new lesson and a bunch of recaps twice a day, during the 15mins of double points.

 

You set up mail forwarding with Royal mail? That has been a godsend when we have moved.

 

After a mere 6 days, the new motherboard I ordered from the USA* has arrived and it's gorgeous!,

* see purchases thread.

EDIT - Also, potentially the first one in the UK. It's not even a pre-order at the usual UK places!

 

It was things like life insurance or pension statements that I caught using it. They are easy to forget.

 

Saw this yesterday. Thought you may like it lol.

 

Shipping notification from LG.

 

A few things, but at this particular time it's actually Aliexpress that makes my life awesome haha

Also, uBlock Origin makes life awesome in the sense that I don't have to put up with Youtube's invasive BS preventing me from viewing free content. I'd be more than happy with a reasonable number of skippable ads, but having 30-second segments rammed down my throat before I can even watch a video... Foxtrot Oscar.