Speaking of movies, I watched two this weekend.

The first was True Romance. I somehow made it this far without having seen it. Had I seen it when it came out, I would have thought it was amazing. Now? The cast is amazing, but the movie has a few flaws. The first is that the two main characters are unlikable and the least interesting characters to follow in that story. It's almost criminal that we didn't get a Chris Penn and Tom Sizemore buddy cop movie. The movie feels a bit like a weird adolescent fantasy, which is basically what it is, as Tarantino called it his most autobiographical film. Sure, it isn't like Inglorious Basterds or Kill Bill could be, so maybe that's a low bar, but it feels like what 20 year old Tarantino was in his head as he fell asleep at night, which is kind of sad. Especially with what he did to his dad without remorse. All the same, entertaining, but not great. IB and OUATIH are easily the two best films he's been a part of (both basically perfect.)

The other was The Wild Robot. This one surprised me. Given my love of animation, and how I kept hearing people say it was great and made them cry, I had high hopes. It didn't deliver. My wife commented that it felt like it was made by AI, and I don't disagree. A lot of things just happened. A major character comes and goes with about 3 minutes of screen time. Why not have that character show up earlier, so he feels like some big important deal, rather than a brief participant? Issues like this make so much of what happens feel unearned. The ending is beyond nonsensical. I commented about 20 minutes in that it would be cool if the robots had actually overthrown humanity, and this island was the one place untouched. That ended up not being true, but actually felt like it would have made more sense.

Burrito of Peace wrote on Dec 1, 2024, 20:48:
On a different note, I just wrapped up watching the first episode of Earth Abides. Long story short: global pandemic, most of humanity dead, and a few survivors try to make life work. Exceptionally well trod ground.

I usually love post-apoc media. It's my jam. This...this was boring. Not only boring but weirdly disjointed. Case in point, in the opening scene, he's dicking around in a quarry looking for pyrite in a wooded area. He's bitten by a rattlesnake. Now, he doesn't have a cell phone, he's out in the middle of nowhere, and he doesn't have antivenom. So what does he do? The literal things you are absolutely not supposed to do. He cuts open the bite and tries to suck out the venom. He panics, runs around, and raises his heart rate and then he guzzles a whole ass bottle full of water. For a guy who lives off grid, he absolutely fails at basic venomous snakebite treatment. He doesn't even attempt to seek medical help. No, he decides to go to bed and sleep it off. This is all before he is aware that most people are dead. By all rights, he would probably be dead. But, no, this show is, so far, leaning hard in to the "main character is too stupid to die" trope.

Yet, somehow, it gets worse. Later in the show, the main character is having a mental breakdown while doing 120mph down an empty highway...in a commodity SUV. Yeah, that's not gonna happen. But anyway, he's crying and screaming but suddenly slams on the brakes because there's a dog in the road. Not only does he get this 5000 pound behemoth stopped just in time (natch), the dog just trots on up to him and hops in the SUV. Apparently the fairy fucking dogmother made his breakdown magically disappear because he's suddenly A-OK!

It's just so bloody stupid and awful. Oh, it was done by MGM. That pretty much explains everything.

Sounds like they pressed fast forward on those bits, instead of giving screen time to character growth. I will make a note to avoid this then.

The Flying Penguin wrote on Dec 1, 2024, 13:49:
The trade off is complexity. An air cooler will work forever, unless a fan fails, and they're easily replaced. With an AIO you have to worry about the pump failing, and the coolant decomposing and clogging things.

It all comes down to personal preference, and I'd rather stick with a simple air cooler myself.

I actually had one silently fail cool due to evaporation/clogging after about 8 years if I remember correctly. Turned me off of them permanently.

US travelers lose millions of suitcases every year.

Ha. Saw the trailer for that the other day and was wondering how good or bad it might be, thanks for providing the answer BoP.

On a different note, I just wrapped up watching the first episode of Earth Abides. Long story short: global pandemic, most of humanity dead, and a few survivors try to make life work. Exceptionally well trod ground.

I usually love post-apoc media. It's my jam. This...this was boring. Not only boring but weirdly disjointed. Case in point, in the opening scene, he's dicking around in a quarry looking for pyrite in a wooded area. He's bitten by a rattlesnake. Now, he doesn't have a cell phone, he's out in the middle of nowhere, and he doesn't have antivenom. So what does he do? The literal things you are absolutely not supposed to do. He cuts open the bite and tries to suck out the venom. He panics, runs around, and raises his heart rate and then he guzzles a whole ass bottle full of water. For a guy who lives off grid, he absolutely fails at basic venomous snakebite treatment. He doesn't even attempt to seek medical help. No, he decides to go to bed and sleep it off. This is all before he is aware that most people are dead. By all rights, he would probably be dead. But, no, this show is, so far, leaning hard in to the "main character is too stupid to die" trope.

Yet, somehow, it gets worse. Later in the show, the main character is having a mental breakdown while doing 120mph down an empty highway...in a commodity SUV. Yeah, that's not gonna happen. But anyway, he's crying and screaming but suddenly slams on the brakes because there's a dog in the road. Not only does he get this 5000 pound behemoth stopped just in time (natch), the dog just trots on up to him and hops in the SUV. Apparently the fairy fucking dogmother made his breakdown magically disappear because he's suddenly A-OK!

It's just so bloody stupid and awful. Oh, it was done by MGM. That pretty much explains everything.

phinn wrote on Dec 1, 2024, 14:54:
My Dark Rock 4 has been inaudible under load on my 5800X for 4 years now (running with PBO Auto and CO -15 too), I recommend this kind of cooler design for those that don't want/care about AIOs.

I have the same cooler and it's whisper quiet. My case and all my fans are bequiet! as well and you almost never hear the PC unless it's seriously being taxed. I'd rec that brand to anyone.

The 3 prisoners, 5 hats was pretty simple, even without using BoP's method. I find this prison puzzle much more interesting...

Jim wrote on Dec 1, 2024, 19:05:
it’s a fun little logic exercise if your brain works that way. There’s another one where 30 prisoners are in a line and they can only see ahead of them, and they have to guess the color of their hats. That also works based on parity so it’s pretty cool.

It's "fun" if one's brain doesn't automatically apply Occam's Razor to the problem so you can quickly arrive at the least complex solution. Unless something is explicitly prohibited, it is inherently permitted. Ergo, take the hat off, look at the color of the hat, announce it, and everyone goes home.

Burrito of Peace wrote on Dec 1, 2024, 16:06:
The 3 hats from 5 is such a pointless "puzzle". Reach up, take the hat off, and look at it. Everybody goes home. There was no rule outlined in the setup preventing anyone from doing so.

it’s a fun little logic exercise if your brain works that way. There’s another one where 30 prisoners are in a line and they can only see ahead of them, and they have to guess the color of their hats. That also works based on parity so it’s pretty cool.

Oh sportsball, don't ever change.
shit like this would never happen if they played the star spangled banner at the start of every game and after every timeout

The 3 hats from 5 is such a pointless "puzzle". Reach up, take the hat off, and look at it. Everybody goes home. There was no rule outlined in the setup preventing anyone from doing so.

My Dark Rock 4 has been inaudible under load on my 5800X for 4 years now (running with PBO Auto and CO -15 too), I recommend this kind of cooler design for those that don't want/care about AIOs.

See, I'm not sold on the 'quiet' selling point of AIOs. For modern CPUs you need at least a 2 fan AIO, and 3 is better. Those fans are either on the top or front of the case, and thus you can hear them pretty well. I'll bet my Noctua dual fan air cooler is not much louder, from my chair, than a three fan AIO.

Now what an AIO IS good for (other than looks, if that's your thing), is to overcome a case that has poor air flow, and/or to help the GPU run cooler. An AIO does have the benefit of pulling the heat off the CPU, without dumping it in the case, so yeah, you want to help the GPU run cooler, and keep the mobo's components and RAM cooler, that is a plus.

The trade off is complexity. An air cooler will work forever, unless a fan fails, and they're easily replaced. With an AIO you have to worry about the pump failing, and the coolant decomposing and clogging things.

It all comes down to personal preference, and I'd rather stick with a simple air cooler myself.

From the images and videos I've seen, 'Local Dimming' is an immature "feature."
I'd ask for before/after pictures, but using a phone you always get scan lines.
And since the monitor is controlling it, it wouldn't show up on a screenshot either. Would it??
Glad you fingered it out.
,.,.,.,,..,,,., ,,,..,.,,.,.,.,, ,.,.,
One million pieces of luggage. That's huge.

So they're basically selling stolen goods ( by the airlines ) with marked names on them that could be sent back to their owners if they even bothered just a little bit.

#OnlyInTheUS