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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: July 3rd, 2023

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  • We’re buying each other a new bed, I hope. The gift that keeps on giving. (The shit we have now is horrible.) You could go for something that enhances your home life together.

    I used to go into Bed Bad and Beyond when I couldn’t think of anything, and walk out with a bag full of small things she wouldn’t normally go looking for herself. Neck warmers, fuzzy socks, bath bombs, candles, that sort of thing. If your trip is the big gift, you could do a basket (or stocking) of smaller cozy stuff.










  • I was considering a Mazda for my next car. Now I’m not.

    I live in a place that gets fucking cold in the winter. If the normal fob option were always available and you get the option to pay for the convenience using an app, that would be one thing - though $10/month for that is ridiculous. But removing the fob option and locking this basic feature behind a subscription is exactly the sort of game I don’t want my vehicle to play with me.

    Go ahead and sell roadside coverage, parts/repairs, batteries, get royalties from Sirius or whatever for extra cash flow. Make a great app that adds new convenient live-service features and is worth paying for, even. But fuck all these new subscription un-gimping games.






  • The Apple dongle is very good and very cheap. YMMV on Android - it should be fine but I recall seeing some complaints a while back. Don’t remember what the issue was.

    You can see its DAC measurements here: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/review-apple-vs-google-usb-c-headphone-adapters.5541/

    It’s often recommended as an entry-level DAC for audiophiles who want to focus their budget on amps and speakers when starting out. It’s transparent and there’s no need for any reasonable human to ever replace it, as far as sound quality goes. Build quality and connections are its limitations.

    My PC has an Aorus Master x570 MOBO with “high end” (above average) onboard sound, and the $9 plug-and-play Apple dongle was a noticeable improvement. Almost every external DAC will beat onboard PC sound, but this thing is silly. It’s worth a try - return it if there’s any compatibility issue, or keep it handy for other uses, but I imagine any bugs are resolved at this point.