We didn't get hit too bad by last week's winter storm, but my electric co. left me without power for 5 nights They restored the power to my neighborhood less than 48 hours after the storm, except for my street. The automated reporting system kept insisting my power was on. I reported it being out after it sent a text saying it had been restored, and a few hours later it sent me a text saying it was restored again. Even their online outage map showed my street without power FFS. There was no way to get an actual human on their customer service number. I just had to keep reporting it out over and over on the automated system.

Finally a truck showed up Monday afternoon, stopped down the street by a utility pole. A guy climbed into the bucket lift, then it looked like he poked a transformer a stick and the electricity came on. I'm pretty damn pissed about it. I think when they restored the power to the neighborhood, they didn't verify that all the transformers were back on before leaving. I think they noticed the mistake Sunday afternoon and waited another day to come fix it. I was sitting outside that day because it was warmer outside than inside The insulation was doing a fine job of keeping the cold in. While sitting outside, two different trucks came by at different times in the day. They would stop at each utility pole and a guy would get out and look up at the transformer. The one that they eventually poked, when they got to it, the guy stayed there looking at it longer than the rest before leaving.

After 5 nights of having to stay bundled up in the bed to stay warm, I eventually couldn't sleep anymore, I didn't sleep at all Sunday night and only got up after 12 hours because I was hungry. Even now that the power is back on, I get tired, but I dread going to bed and put it off until I just can't stay awake any longer. I'm pretty much just writing this to avoid going to bed even though I've been up almost 24 hours.

Zotac is the bottom of the barrel when it comes to PC gaming brands. Let the miners have those.

The Flying Penguin wrote on Feb 17, 2021, 13:07:
I've been using StickyPassword for two years. It has an option to disable cloud sync, which appeals to me, because I don't trust anyone to store my passwords. I use the local sync option which only syncs between devices connected to my LAN. Been happy with it so far, with the caveat that I don't trust it, or anyone, with really important passwords like banking, investment accounts, etc. Those are all stored in an AES256 encrypted Zip file with a very strong password.

I used to recommend LastPass to my clients, but not since LogMeIn bought them out.

I recommend Password Safe. It's open source, no cloud sync, everything is local (you can use a network drive to store the safe), and was created by Bruce Schneier. Storing a text file in an encrypted zip file is not secure if someone steals your PC/HD. When you open that text file from the zip, it's extracted to a temp directory, so all the thief has to do is run a simple tool to recover deleted files and they have your passwords.

BIGtrouble77 wrote on Feb 17, 2021, 13:13:
Browser-based password managers are such a problem for me, I have to disable them all. Last thing I want is to reduce all of my browsing to Chrome so Google can track absolutely everything I do.

I use Firefox on all my devices. It can sync bookmarks, settings and passwords, ets. across devices. I don't store sensitive password on it like bank accounts though, for that, see above.

Cutter wrote on Feb 16, 2021, 23:18:
Imagine how much more it would have increased if they had actual video cards for sale.

They do (did), they just don't care if scalpers or consumers are buying them, as long as they sell.

Lobbyists for Epic Games and other members of the Coalition for App Fairness drafted legislation that...

seeks to prevent big digital storefronts like Apple’s App Store and Google Play from forcing developers to distribute apps exclusively through their storefronts, or exclusively use their payment systems.

Mr. Tact wrote on Feb 12, 2021, 12:56:
Sounds like the name of a game, "Big Huge Breach"...

I got my hopes up that it was the sequel to Into the Breach.

Tipsy McStagger wrote on Feb 10, 2021, 13:20:
and i've yet to play a single one.... don't ask me why because I'm not entirely sure...

Me either, and I have a bunch of them I picked up for free on uplay or whatever they're calling it now.

I guess China will be the good guys in ArmA 4.

The Flying Penguin wrote on Feb 8, 2021, 13:37:
I was originally going to hold out for the 3080Ti, but when my chance at a 3080 came up in EVGA's notification queue, I grabbed it, and I'm totally happy with it.

How long were you in the queue? I've been on it since November and haven't heard anything from them.

ECisMe wrote on Feb 8, 2021, 13:16:
Everyone should play Snowrunner at some point. Absolutely magical off-road trucking simulator. It's like Death Stranding but with wheels and no story.

I loved Spintires and Mudrunner and was looking forward to Snowrunner, but there were a few things that put me off buying it. One was the Epic exclusive. Another was the floating icons everywhere. No review I found mentioned if it's possible to turn them off or not. A third was the DLC/MTX. A few reviews, although still positive, warned that the game was a bit of a grind without buying some kind of vehicle starter pack. Review copies were given this vehicle pack that made things easier, so I didn't find many mentioning it. It looks like they're trying to be like Paradox with their DLC, so I've put it on my "wait till it's done" list.

I built a couple of PCs with windows and lighting, then got tired of it. They start out looking nice, but after opening them up a few times to install/upgrade new components, I'd get tired of messing with cables to make them look nice. I've gone back to windowless cases so I don't have to spend time making shit look nice since I won't have to look at it. I just do enough so the cables are not blocking air flow, slap the side panel on and don't have to look at it.

RedEye9 wrote on Feb 3, 2021, 16:13:

The Half Elf wrote on Feb 3, 2021, 16:03:
Doesn't EVGA have a waiting list?

Yes they do. And it's super easy to do.

I've been on it since early December and haven't gotten anything from them yet.

I saw some reviews of it before it was taken down. Most of what I read wasn't good. One describe the writing as childish, and another described it as Call of Fallout or something like that, saying it was more like Call of Duty than Fallout with linear shooting sections.

Ozmodan wrote on Feb 1, 2021, 14:34:
Oh and his excuse about the graphics card, I have been in Microcenter at least 4 times in the past month and they have had graphics cards of all makes for list price every time. You just have to look further than you nose.

Not everyone lives near a Micro Center. And What Micro Center have you been in? The nearest one to me is a 6 hour drive, and I have a sister that lives there. I was checking their stock daily. They seemed to get stock in every Thursday at that Micro Center, but they would sell out before she could go there on her lunch break. They won't let you purchase online and pick it up either. I heard people were camping out and started lining up early to get in when it opens.

After 2 months, I finally get an RTX 3070 from a Best Buy an hour away. I was checking them daily too, and when they did get stock, you had to order online and pick it up in person. Best Buy only seems to get stock of new cards once a month. The way it worked, on checkout it would search stores up to 250 miles from you and you had chose where to pick up, if one was available. It doesn't reserve the card when you add it to cart either, so the first time I tried they didn't have any in stores near me or were sold out before I could check out. I was lucky and got one the second time.

Mr. Tact wrote on Jan 31, 2021, 17:05:
I have no idea what would be considered average. However I can tell you I live alone and in the last year (my bill shows the previous 12 months of usage) my lowest monthly electricity usage was 403 kWh. And I have a gas furnace and a gas water heater. In the summer with the air conditioning running, I topped out with 1150 kWh in July.

That's pretty similar to my usage. My bill also has the previous 12 month's usage. My lowest usage is Oct. and Nov. at right around 400kWh each, and the highest at 1125kWh in Aug. I also live alone, and I also have a gas furnace but an electric water heater.

I thought there already was one.

Rock Paper Shotgun notes that there have also been complaints about the mod itself containing "fetishised characters" and a quest line "through which the player could enslave a teenage girl."

Umm, Fallout 3 let you enslave lots of people, kids too.

No love for GOG? https://www.gog.com/game/cyber_shadow

Futa Fix Dick Dine and Dash

RedEye9 wrote on Jan 22, 2021, 23:07:
In 72 to 96 hours you should know if the firmware fixed it. I'm excited.

I did that BIOS update for the card on day 2 or 3, it didn't help.

Quinn wrote on Jan 23, 2021, 07:04:
TL;DR --> Turn off "fast startup" under Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Power Options\System Settings if you're still having issues. Might help!

Fast startup has always been off on my system.

I manually installed chipset drivers from Intel. I checked the versions before and after, and the only one that updated was the SATA driver. I don't know for sure if that fixed it, but so far I haven't had a BSOD in 2 days.