Zonetrooper

joined 2 years ago
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[–] Zonetrooper 68 points 2 days ago (8 children)

Bows are actually incredibly hard to use. When you see a "draw weight" of the bow, this is the force you need to exert to pull it back to its full draw. 40-50lbs is considered normal, I believe, while the English Longbow - famous for its use in the Hundred Years' War - had a draw weigh of at least 80 pounds, with some scholars suggesting even 50% greater numbers than that. Imagine lifting a weight that heavy each time you wanted to loose an arrow!

Bows, then, require extended training to use properly. Not just strength training, although professional archers were jacked, but in how to properly employ the weapon. The dominance of early firearms had much to do with not just their absolute performance - at times, they were actually outperformed by bows in absolute terms - but by that their effective use could be broken down into simple actions which could be easily drilled into new recruits.

If we're talking about modern guns, this effect is much exaggerated. Guns can take some getting use to, sure, and modern bows have added features for ease of use. But guns are, honestly, shockingly easy to use for what they can accomplish.

[–] Zonetrooper 15 points 2 days ago

On the G502, the first button directly beneath the scroll wheel should lock and unlock its free-spinning mode.

[–] Zonetrooper 8 points 2 days ago

Be fair and equitable. There are times when strictness benefits a community, and there are times where laissez fair, laid-back moderation benefits a community. But nothing hollows out a community like moderators being unreliable or unfair.

If you've got a "don't be a dick" rule and someone is making a point you agree with but being a dick about it, you still have to step in. If you're having a bad evening, don't let yourself be extra hard on people because you're angry or rushed. Etc.

[–] Zonetrooper 94 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Not Republican myself, but work with a lot of them. I'm seeing a few different camps right now. I can't really speak for exactly how many fall into each, but can only give estimates based on my subjective experiences:

  • The "Leopard-Facers": The ones who've suddenly woken up to the fact they elected a moron and a bully. These tend to be foreign policy hawks, and may have only voted for Trump reluctantly. Probably the smallest group.

  • The pure Trumpists: A mix of people who thought the US should be isolationist anyhow, just don't like Zelensky in particular, or just are too invested in the vision of messiah-Trump. Obviously they're thrilled. Very vocal, but I think also somewhat fewer. Maybe I just hope they're fewer.

  • The cognitive dissonancers: Probably the greatest number. There's a lot of different views under this umbrella. Some of them were buying into the idea "he's just blustering for a better deal"; some thought the message was on-point but the display was inappropriate; some actually support Ukraine but can't bring themselves express any actual opposition to this shitshow. Broadly speaking, they're all squirming - struggling to reconcile the appeal they feel for his persona or other actions he's taken, with their opposition to his foreign policy and this in particular. Yet not able to accept reality like the Leopard-Facers.

[–] Zonetrooper 4 points 5 days ago

This. I think people are way, way underestimating the integration costs for all of this. It's not as simple as "buy the pieces, plug them into each other, instant sensor system!"

Especially for riding around in a rough environment, a Pixel is sensors, communication, storage, power, all wrapped up in a reasonably robust case and featuring premade software to run the whole mess when you purchase it.

[–] Zonetrooper 17 points 5 days ago

Sounds like a perfectly good reason to check out whether your local library has it. And/or take up a career in sailing.

[–] Zonetrooper 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

With every month that passes, I feel ever more infuriated that so many of the programs I use are essentially hard-locked to Nvidia, with frankly miserable performance on other GPUs. Not the cards' fault, the software devs' fault for - when they even bother at all - doing a piss-poor job of integration with other GPUs.

[–] Zonetrooper 2 points 1 week ago

That's fair, yeah. I am currently running a different PVV kit on an AM5 processor, with the same XMP configuration (6000MHz, 30-40-40-76 timing), but I will concede that it's not a pre-qualified compatible certainty.

[–] Zonetrooper 8 points 1 week ago

I love watching cats get that first taste of actual petting with an actual human hand. Watching them go from "Not sure if want?" to "I need more!" is always heartwarming.

[–] Zonetrooper 3 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Quick thoughts:

  • The Phantom Spirit 120 SE comes with a tube of TF7 thermal paste in it. It's not absolute top-end of paste, but I think for a 7600x you're probably going to be okay and don't need to buy separate paste.
  • B650 PG lightning is a perfectly good board. 168 EUR isn't even that bad a price - I've seen it cheaper, but also for more. May depend on how long you want to wait.
  • The RAM is good. It has a 6000-CL30 XMP profile that works perfectly fine for AM5 processors.
  • Power supply is rated as "speculative position" on the PSU tier list. If you're not familiar with the list, you may want to poke around on it and see if you can find a more established model for roughly the same price.
[–] Zonetrooper 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

TDP has two main leads, one white and one black.

I'm not walled off from Star Wars' controversies, merely pointing out that "every time" isn't accurate.

[–] Zonetrooper 10 points 1 week ago

In case anyone is confused, the camel calf's body is facing the camera head-on; we're looking at its forelegs. Its neck is curved upwards sharply and slightly to the viewer's left, but the fur colors make it blend in (you can see the back of its neck slightly).

 

After nearly a decade of unbelievable service, and with price increases likely on the horizon, it's finally come time to retire my old desktop.

After some analysis, here's what I've settled on:

PCPartPicker Part List

Type Item Price
CPU AMD Ryzen 7 7700X 4.5 GHz 8-Core Processor $250.00
CPU Cooler Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE 66.17 CFM CPU Cooler $39.90 @ Amazon
Motherboard Gigabyte B650 GAMING X AX V2 ATX AM5 Motherboard $179.99 @ Amazon
Memory G.Skill Ripjaws S5 64 GB (2 x 32 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory $189.99 @ Newegg
Storage Samsung 980 Pro 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive $0.00
Storage Western Digital Red Pro 2 TB 3.5" 7200 RPM Internal Hard Drive $0.00
Video Card Gigabyte WINDFORCE OC GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER 16 GB Video Card $799.99 @ Amazon
Case Lian Li LANCOOL 216 ATX Mid Tower Case $94.00 @ Newegg Sellers
Power Supply EVGA SuperNOVA 850 GT 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply $109.99 @ Amazon
Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
Total $1663.86
Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-11-13 19:11 EST-0500

Some quick explanations on decision making:

  • Primary usage is a mix of gaming and CAD / 3D modeling / rendering.

  • After Intel shit the bed one too many times, I'm definitely taking an AMD CPU. I could be convinced to go to the 7600X3D, but there seems to be a noticeable dropoff on non-gaming tasks, such as 3D modeling, and some debate about the viability of a 6-core CPU going forward.

  • The two hard drives are listed as $0 because I already own them, and will be transferring them into this unit.

  • 850W power supply should give me ample room for overclocking, adding future components, while still staying under that 80% load limit.

Open questions / things I'm uncertain on:

  • CPU Cooler: I've heard that Ryzens can run hot, but I'm unsure if I need such a beefy one. For a 7700X, is it too much?

  • RAM: Is 64GB a lot? Yes. RAM shortages plagued me until I brought my current machine up to 48GB. I thought 64 would carry me forward with room to spare. Is this silly?

  • Went with a 4070 Ti Super for the 16GB RAM. Is it too much GPU for the rest of this rig?

Now, here's my big question: Micro Center nearby me is running combo deals for a 7700X or 7600X3D, Gigabyte or Asus motherboard, and 32GB RAM. Looking at what I'm trying to build, does that make sense? Would upgrading to 64GB with 4 sticks later be a problem?

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