The Spam Thread!

[huckleberrypie]

I'd imagine that YTP+ is going to be a fad that will eventually fade away because of what you are predicting. Sure, automated YTP is fun now, but eventually, people will get tired of this and will probably see it as works of amateurs. Though through my testing, it's producing some rather good results. No real crashes or bugs yet, but the program is in early beta and the site states you should expect bugs and other things. As YTP+ is open source, I plan on editing the built in source clips it uses for randomness (basically short meme videos and common YTP transition stuff).

Yeah, it might as well be for time. Which reminds me... I could more or less liken this to those auto-level generators like Slige for DOOM which has gained something of a dubious reputation for taking the fun out of level design, and the stage generator in DiRT 4. Sure, they used procedural generation as a selling point, but such technologies would be of little point if used as it is without something to break the monotony or blandness.

[cpd2009]

While preparing to do benchmarks on my new tablet, I ran the free Malwarebytes. It detected the infamous Adups in the "Firmware Upgrade" app. I have a hunch that at present, it's non functional since trying to use the firmware update app results in a network connection error. I'll have to install a network monitor to see if this is true.

[huckleberrypie]

While preparing to do benchmarks on my new tablet, I ran the free Malwarebytes. It detected the infamous Adups in the "Firmware Upgrade" app. I have a hunch that at present, it's non functional since trying to use the firmware update app results in a network connection error. I'll have to install a network monitor to see if this is true.

It's a similar case with the Cloudfone handset I bought some three years ago. Everything checks out fine apart from the firmware update utility being marked as malicious by Malwarebytes. You can try freezing it via ADB if you want, as it doesn't destructively alter the ROM in any way and you don't need to root it either.

[cpd2009]

Well, Apple finally announced a new Mac Pro, and it's a cheese grater deluxe! It will set you back $6,000 for the base model.

What's even more insane is that Apple revealed a new monitor, the Pro Display XDR. It starts at $5,000, but that's just the display alone. The stand sells separately for $999. Yes, $999 for a monitor stand. Nearly every non-Apple display, even models geared towards pros, come with stands included in box. They also cost far less to boot.

Once again, Apple proves that they only care about profits. I'd imagine you can build an equivalent PC from scratch for only about a fraction of what Apple wants for it's new cheese grater.

https://www.instagram.com/p/ByVZ1GEnbkS/
I normally don't post Instagram links, but one of my favorite illustrators posts there, and he's still using a early 2009 Mac Pro with Snow Leopard. I notice through LowEndMac that a lot of vintage Mac owners really love Snow Leopard even though it's no longer receiving security updates or even web browser updates. macOS El Capitan is the last officially supported OS for the early 2009 Mac Pro, but with unofficial hacks, you can run Sierra or higher. Perhaps if I'd ever switch to Mac, this early 2009 model would be a good starting point? It's way cheaper than the new grater and a quad-core Xeon could possibly be on par with Pearl if it can run Windows 10.

And yes, that is me commenting on his photo.

[huckleberrypie]

inb4 people doing an equivalent Hackintosh with a similar if not the same processor and GPU combo and spending only a fraction of what Apple charges.

And if you ask me I prefer the mid-to-late-2000s Mac Pro cases back when they were still transitioning to x86. Some even went so far as to modding them to accommodate a commodity motherboard and whatnot.

[cpd2009]

Making slow progress on my Azpen G1058B tablet review. Battery life seems very decent. It can sleep for a few days without much battery being used. I still have to run a proper benchmark and play some games for an hour or so to gauge performance and battery life. I have tested both the front and rear cameras, and they are underwhelming. Image quality is okay, but the colors are a bit muted. I may have to play around with the ISO and exposure settings. I tested a Skype call with family the other day, and while the camera feed was good enough, it did not work well in low light at all. I had to move close to my apartment window to get decent lighting on my face.

Tried Ubuntu 19.04 via a USB thumb drive earlier today too. Looks good with default applications, but it still won't detect my Vidbox. The thing about Linux is hardware, especially video capture devices. Getting them to work can be a PITA... if they will even work at all.

[cpd2009]

Microsoft's Visual C++ redistributable is awful.

No, C++ itself isn't awful. It's a widely known and versatile programming language that has laid the base for many well known programs. It's because installing multiple versions of this MS Visual C++ package can cause other Visual C++ apps to break. They tend to come with a lot of programs these days and my Magix Movie Edit suite is one of them.

I run into this in the past with the ancient DivX codec. If I installed DivX after installing my old Adobe suite, some Adobe programs would no longer function unless I completely uninstalled and reinstalled Adobe. I ran into this again last night while attempting to run Magix Movie Edit 2015. It started, but some of the effects didn't load due to a "missing" mfc120.dll error. This happened following the installation of other programs that come with MS Visual C++ redistributable. I had to deactivate, uninstall/reinstall, and reactivate. There was no repair option.

Perhaps I could go back to Premiere Pro 2.0. There is a trick to getting MP4 files loaded in that, and it involves renaming MP4 to MOV. It sometimes works, but sometimes doesn't.

[cpd2009]

Also getting benchmarks done on the Azpen G1058B. I will use Geekbench 4 and compare it with my LG Rebel 3 Tracfone. Geekbench 4 crashes on the Azpen halfway through the compute test, but the CPU test ran fine.

I may also run Passmark as well.

[huckleberrypie]

I presume you have photos of the unit in question, yes?

[cpd2009]

I presume you have photos of the unit in question, yes?

Yep. I also got screenshots of both sets of tests on the LG Rebel 3 and Azpen tablet. The tests were a bit surprising to say the least.

I also tested out the 3G/4G capability of the Azpen today while at a baseball game. The tablet came pre-packaged with a SIM from a US pay-as-you-go provider called FreedomPop. Their main attraction is free 500mb data per month. But that is where FreedomPop gets you. 500mb is a truly anemic amount of data, good only for very basic web browsing or email use. And FreedomPop will do whatever it takes to get you to pay for a more lucrative plan, even if it means abusing dark patterns on their website.

See, when I activated the SIM, FP presented me with a very good sounding offer. 2GB of premium 4G LTE data and a whole bunch of perks for $7.99 a month with the first month free. The catch? The plan isn't billed monthly. It's an annual plan. Once the free trial runs out and you forget to cancel, your credit/debit card will get charged around $95 for a year of service. That's just plain sketchy, and you only find this out if you read the fine print. Most people don't. They also bombard you with additional offers if you just want the free 500mb, and every link to decline the offer is tucked away in a corner in small print, easy to miss by untrained eyes.

There is also one final catch. FP offers this thing called "Automatic Top-Up" which charges your credit/debit card $15 for additional data if you are within 100mb of exceeding your paltry free data plan. Want to turn it off? Sure... but you have to sign up for some "safety net" feature that kind of does the same thing, yet costs $6.99 a month!

Yeah.. FP is very hard on the upselling of premium data plans. I will keep it active for a few more days, then I will end up closing the account. I'll probably be bombarded with even more offers to stay on board, but I'd rather get a data-only plan through Tracfone. Tracfone isn't nearly as sketchy as FP, and you can easily change SIM cards in the Azpen tablet.