Disclaimer: All my written opinions are (un)educated guesses sources from scattered online opinion pieces and news articles I speed-read out of curiosity.

In the event I’m actually right about something, it’s more likely to be coincidental with my internal consistency than grounded in solid knowledge or understanding of the relevant topic(s).

However, I’ll always be able to write mostly convincing arguments à-la-Large Language Model because school trained me for eloquence rather than factual accuracy. Thanks for reading!

Welcome to my new followers after my most popular #Fediverse post ever!

I realize I don't have an #introduction post up, so this is a good opportunity to fill the void. In short, this account is a dump. A mental dump of what I have to blurt out to the world.

Here I'm mainly known for working on #Friendica (#programming ), one of many pieces of software part of the #Fediverse. We strive to be compatible with as many decentralized social media protocols as possible, at the moment we're compatible with #Diaspora, #ActivityPub (think Mastodon) and #OStatus, with optional connectors with #Twitter and others.

I also own a second-hand #LEGO store front where I sell sets and parts: store.bricklink.com/MrPetovan

I have an 8-year old kid (#parenting ), play #VideoGames and often have opinions about them. I also love #BoardGames but I'm missing fellow players around me. I like #Riding (trains, buses, planes, skateboard, snowboard) but it doesn't really define me. I drove a #drift car over a couple days once and it was both exhilarating and frustrating.

Friendica doesn't have a post character limit but I still infrequently post longer pieces on my blog: blog.mrpetovan.com

Last bit you may want to know about me before following me on here: I am not in favor of absolute free speech. Online spaces need to be moderated to counter the real life discriminating power dynamics.

Nice to meet you!

I finally caught it in the act!

I've complained before about my laptop frequently rebooting on its own, usually at night. I initially thought it was for Windows Updates, but the increased frequency has made me doubt this.

This time I caught it rebooting on its own during the day after a blue screen of death too fast for me to see the error code. I went to the Windows Event Log and I saw an error logged after the reboot but nothing specific at the time of the crash itself. It generated a dump I can't open by myself, which is a poor hint at what might be the problem.

The laptop seller offered me to repair the computer at their facility, but for that I first need to save my data on an external storage as I last transferred my data directly from my old computer to the new. I know I had some 2.5" drives stashed somewhere in my house so I ordered an enclosure.

However, I'm not able to find the drives anymore so I'll have to order an actual drive since I now have an empty enclosure, which will delay the troubleshooting process further.

Stay tuned for the next episode of my modern computer woes!

Hypolite Petovan

2024-04-13 20:59:02

New woes since I wrote this:
- Dota 2 randomly crashes back to desktop, sometimes several times in the same evening. At other times it works flawlessly.
- The "FN" key used to illuminate the keys that can be used with it. Now it happens when I press the letter "T"??? Pretty distracting to have the keyboard quickly switch colors whenever I'm typing some text.
- It automatically restarted twice in a couple days, which made me lose work in a software I left open. Interestingly, on the first restart, it was able to rescue the file I was working on. Not on the second time. 😞

I've contacted the seller, I'm not hoping for much but it's the worst computer I've ever own, surely there's a way not to flush $2,500 down the drain?

Dota 2 released yesterday a cool update with a storyline that you can unlock by playing the game. Unfortunately, playing single player against bots like I usually do doesn't count, so I'm renewing my call for casual players in the East Coast who would like to get together.

My Steam id: hypolite_petovan

#VideoGames #Dota2 #Steam #InSearchFor

I have been under the impression that recent full electric cars, including Teslas, are making a sound reminiscent to those older science-fiction movies with hover vehicles.

Now, did the recent vehicles copy those movies or did these movies accurately predict the sounds these vehicle would make, or is this how electric vehicles (that those movies would have used) sound by design, or is it selective memory?

I was recommended by YouTube a video about an “incredible” industrial process to turn discarded plastic bags into lawn chairs.

The video depicted people in sandals operating heavy machinery in a dusty garage probably located in India or Southeast Asia, including handling molten plastic blobs made from heating bunches of plastic bags shoved into a hot grinder and placed into a hydraulic press.

I left the video nauseated, less by the clearly unsafe work conditions and the obvious worker exploitation than by the video title that was only focusing on the “incredible” process of turning plastic junk into more plastic junk. 🤢