#One Touch SSD

[ms-demeanor]

So You Need To Buy A Computer But You Don't Know What Specs Are Good These Days

Hi.

This is literally my job.

Lots of people are buying computers for school right now or are replacing computers as their five-year-old college laptop craps out so here's the standard specs you should be looking for in a (windows) computer purchase in August 2023.

PROCESSOR

Intel i5 (no older than 10th Gen)

Ryzen 7

You can get away with a Ryzen 5 but an intel i3 should be an absolute last resort. You want at least an intel i5 or a Ryzen 7 processor. The current generation of intel processors is 13, but anything 10 or newer is perfectly fine. DO NOT get a higher performance line with an older generation; a 13th gen i5 is better than an 8th gen i7. (Unfortunately I don't know enough about ryzens to tell you which generation is the earliest you should get, but staying within 3 generations is a good rule of thumb)

RAM

8GB absolute minimum

If you don't have at least 8GB RAM on a modern computer it's going to be very, very slow. Ideally you want a computer with at least 16GB, and it's a good idea to get a computer that will let you add or swap RAM down the line (nearly all desktops will let you do this, for laptops you need to check the specs for Memory and see how many slots there are and how many slots are available; laptops with soldered RAM cannot have the memory upgraded - this is common in very slim laptops)

STORAGE

256GB SSD

Computers mostly come with SSDs these days; SSDs are faster than HDDs but typically have lower storage for the same price. That being said: SSDs are coming down in price and if you're installing your own drive you can easily upgrade the size for a low cost. Unfortunately that doesn't do anything for you for the initial purchase.

A lot of cheaper laptops will have a 128GB SSD and, because a lot of stuff is stored in the cloud these days, that can be functional. I still recommend getting a bit more storage than that because it's nice if you can store your music and documents and photos on your device instead of on the cloud. You want to be able to access your files even if you don't have internet access.

But don't get a computer with a big HDD instead of getting a computer with a small SSD. The difference in speed is noticeable.

SCREEN (laptop specific)

Personally I find that touchscreens have a negative impact on battery life and are easier to fuck up than standard screens. They are also harder to replace if they get broken. I do not recommend getting a touch screen unless you absolutely have to.

A lot of college students especially tend to look for the biggest laptop screen possible; don't do that. It's a pain in the ass to carry a 17" laptop around campus and with the way that everything is so thin these days it's easier to damage a 17" screen than a 14" screen.

On the other end of that: laptops with 13" screens tend to be very slim devices that are glued shut and impossible to work on or upgrade.

Your best bet (for both functionality and price) is either a 14" or a 15.6" screen. If you absolutely positively need to have a 10-key keyboard on your laptop, get the 15.6". If you need something portable more than you need 10-key, get a 14"

FORM FACTOR (desktop specific)

If you purchase an all-in-one desktop computer I will begin manifesting in your house physically. All-in-ones take away every advantage desktops have in terms of upgradeability and maintenance; they are expensive and difficult to repair and usually not worth the cost of disassembling to upgrade.

There are about four standard sizes of desktop PC: All-in-One (the size of a monitor with no other footprint), Tower (Big! probably at least two feet long in two directions), Small Form Factor Tower (Very moderate - about the size of a large shoebox), and Mini/Micro/Tiny (Small! about the size of a small hardcover book).

If you are concerned about space you are much better off getting a MicroPC and a bracket to put it on your monitor than you are getting an all-in-one. This will be about a million percent easier to work on than an all-in-one and this way if your monitor dies your computer is still functional.

Small form factor towers and towers are the easiest to work on and upgrade; if you need a burly graphics card you need to get a full size tower, but for everything else a small form factor tower will be fine. Most of our business sales are SFF towers and MicroPCs, the only time we get something larger is if we have to put a $700 graphics card in it. SFF towers will accept small graphics cards and can handle upgrades to the power supply; MicroPCs can only have the RAM and SSD upgraded and don't have room for any other components or their own internal power supply.

WARRANTY

Most desktops come with either a 1 or 3 year warranty; either of these is fine and if you want to upgrade a 1 year to a 3 year that is also fine. I've generally found that if something is going to do a warranty failure on desktop it's going to do it the first year, so you don't get a hell of a lot of added mileage out of an extended warranty but it doesn't hurt and sometimes pays off to do a 3-year.

Laptops are a different story. Laptops mostly come with a 1-year warranty and what I recommend everyone does for every laptop that will allow it is to upgrade that to the longest warranty you can get with added drop/damage protection. The most common question our customers have about laptops is if we can replace a screen and the answer is usually "yes, but it's going to be expensive." If you're purchasing a low-end laptop, the parts and labor for replacing a screen can easily cost more than half the price of a new laptop. HOWEVER, the way that most screens get broken is by getting dropped. So if you have a warranty with drop protection, you just send that sucker back to the factory and they fix it for you.

So, if it is at all possible, check if the manufacturer of a laptop you're looking at has a warranty option with drop protection. Then, within 30 days (though ideally on the first day you get it) of owning your laptop, go to the manufacturer site, register your serial number, and upgrade the warranty. If you can't afford a 3-year upgrade at once set a reminder for yourself to annually renew. But get that drop protection, especially if you are a college student or if you've got kids.

And never, ever put pens or pencils on your laptop keyboard. I've seen people ruin thousand dollar, brand-new laptops that they can't afford to fix because they closed the screen on a ten cent pencil. Keep liquids away from them too.

LIFESPAN

There's a reasonable chance that any computer you buy today will still be able to turn on and run a program or two in ten years. That does not mean that it is "functional."

At my office we estimate that the functional lifespan of desktops is 5-7 years and the functional lifespan of laptops is 3-5 years. Laptops get more wear and tear than desktops and desktops are easier to upgrade to keep them running. At 5 years for desktops and 3 years for laptops you should look at upgrading the RAM in the device and possibly consider replacing the SSD with a new (possibly larger) model, because SSDs and HDDs don't last forever.

COST

This means that you should think of your computers as an annual investment rather than as a one-time purchase. It is more worthwhile to pay $700 for a laptop that will work well for five years than it is to pay $300 for a laptop that will be outdated and slow in one year (which is what will happen if you get an 8th gen i3 with 8GB RAM). If you are going to get a $300 laptop try to get specs as close as possible to the minimums I've laid out here.

If you have to compromise on these specs, the one that is least fixable is the processor. If you get a laptop with an i3 processor you aren't going to be able to upgrade it even if you can add more RAM or a bigger SSD. If you have to get lower specs in order to afford the device put your money into the processor and make sure that the computer has available slots for upgrade and that neither the RAM nor the SSD is soldered to the motherboard. (one easy way to check this is to search "[computer model] RAM upgrade" on youtube and see if anyone has made a video showing what the inside of the laptop looks like and how much effort it takes to replace parts)

Computers are expensive right now. This is frustrating, because historically consumer computer prices have been on a downward trend but since 2020 that trend has been all over the place. Desktop computers are quite expensive at the moment (August 2023) and decent laptops are extremely variably priced.

If you are looking for a decent, upgradeable laptop that will last you a few years, here are a couple of options that you can purchase in August 2023 that have good prices for their specs:

14" Lenovo - $670 - 11th-gen i5, 16GB RAM, and 512GB SSD

15.6" HP - $540 - 11th-gen i5, 16GB RAM, and 256GB SSD

14" Dell - $710 - 12th-gen i5, 16GB RAM, and 256GB SSD

If you are looking for a decent, affordable desktop that will last you a few years, here are a couple of options that you can purchase in August 2023 that have good prices for their specs:

SFF HP - $620 - 10th-gen i5, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD

SFF Lenovo - $560 - Ryzen 7 5000 series, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD

Dell Tower - $800 - 10th-gen i7, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD

If I were going to buy any of these I'd probably get the HP laptop or the Dell Tower. The HP Laptop is actually a really good price for what it is.

Anyway happy computering.

[pralinesims]

i want to give you an excuse to show more Aaron. show the very first screenshot of him that you have, and the very last one. let's see how he changed :)

Thank you sm for the spontaneous ask, this is so sweet of you ♡ (also having a legit reason to post even more Aaron is amazing lol, ty for that too!!)

Okay, let's see...

Pic 1 is from 2016 or 2017, not the first, idk exactly when I took this screenshot, but it's the oldest I have of him on my SSD. Aaron himself as a sim exists since 2016! // Screenshot número dos is from roughly 2? hours ago (wanted to have a fitting avi for october)

Besides the obvious switch to maxis-mix, all over I didn't touch a single slider on his face ever since I've made him. Like, the only things that I changed was stuff like skin deets, though I'm very picky with those as I have a hard time to adjust with all face-based changes when it comes to him. It wasn't too long ago that I was finally satisfied with another pair of eyes other than his original ones, it legit felt like a huge success lol.

#i could talk all day about my fav little sad bastard hipster dude #ty again! I love asks sm #oc facts #my sims #aaron

[tamelee]

I love your artwork, it's so cool! I'm an amateur in art, do you have any tips? Thank you!

Thank you so much! 💕 And sure! (Have you seen my other posts as well?) It’s a bit easier when it’s more specific >< But I’ll try my best; 

- Keep notes about the things you want to learn as you draw! Someone gave me a tip to have an art-goal so you know what to work on and then improve these particular things as you go, but for some reason I found it really hard to set these goals? (Am I the only one?) I kept thinking I just wanted to ‘improve’ everything, but that’s not very tangible and I can’t effectively measure whether I’ve succeeded… (it’s also not always easy to see your own improvements… at least I rarely can ><) 

But when you draw and you come across these little things that make you go “hm, I wish this was easier” or “I really love this sketch I made, but I’m not sure how to go about coloring it”, anything like that— then your desires regarding your art or your process become a lot more specific, right? Write these down! What specifically would you like to improve on?

I’ve noticed for myself and many others talked about it as well that once a piece is done, it’s like you forget a lot about the process and your mind is set on a new project. (Also, yay! You were in the zone~) You can either use your current project as practice (all of them are in a sense, really) or start a new one later, research what you need (on YouTube, books, or perhaps a course from an artist you really like if you can afford it) and work on your goal! 

- Also keep notes for any ideas you may have. We always think we’ll remember something and then we don’t. These sudden, often spontaneous glimpses you receive seemingly out of nowhere can be some of your best and it’s a shame if they fade back into the void. This also applies to anything that inspires you.. it can really be anything. I think I’ve said this before, but if you do this, try and organize a bit. Otherwise you’ll end up with a bunch of notes that’s more overwhelming than anything else. 

You can use folders to keep images, notes, a dedicated Notion page perhaps or if you can afford it, keep an extra external SSD for this. 

- Well, this also applies to research or video’s you’d like to watch. If you end up with too many tutorials or books, or they aren’t goal-oriented specific to your art desire, it may get really hard to get you started on something. If you’re like me and it’s hard to focus, I’d highly recommend taking some time to sit back, think about the thing you really want, organize and structure a way towards it and go. That way you don’t have to make all these decisions along the way— you know what to do already, it’s written right there!

- And that also applies to tools and brushes xD I know it’s really fun to download all of it because many are free and what if there’s ever a time you may need this specific texture on a brush? What if you can’t get this style that inspired you with the brushes you already have? But truth is, you don’t need them all and if you do, you’ll notice there are many you won’t even touch. And well… as you can see in my art as well, apart from the pencil ones, it doesn’t necessarily encourage consistency if that’s what you strive for. If you want to practice, most often the basic round brush will do, the less opacity or blend, the more you can practice shapes and clarity. In that case I’d stay away from the airbrush whenever possible. 

- Depending on the program you use (CSP has their own), you can use these to help you with facial angles, or this if you rather prefer a basic skull. You can use the site if you can’t get the angles quite right for many things. 

- For coloring I highly recommend James Gurney’s articles or book ‘color and light a guide for the realistic painter’, even if you’re not a realistic painter, it still contains most (all?) of what you need to know about color.

- A great way to experiment is to just… open a blank document and do whatever. I know it often feels like you have to draw something (preferably something good), but you can actually learn a lot by just scrabbling away. Here’s also often where you find the things you feel like you need to improve. Certain angles are especially hard for me, but I hadn't known that if I didn't try >< Oh, I also found this site by accident and I haven't read it all, but it covers many subjects! Hope these are helpful! 🌷

#asktamelee #art talk #art tips

[retphienix]

Gathered 2000 mutagen samples in a night putting me at 4300~ of the 5k.

I effectively doubled what took me 5 years to gather in one night. The addition of Deimos is a godsend, but nowhere near an excuse for this.

Unless I end up playing some other game tomorrow, I should be done with the Hema then and there, what a ridiculous grind.

It really is crazy to me that this grind is so shit lol.

What I just did proves that it's "Able to be done at a reasonable pace" now, but you have no idea how many asterisks are involved.

I spent 80p for both boosters.

I'm playing Nekros on steel path on a node that didn't exist in this form (with uncommon samples) until 2020.

I made use of an entire resource system that didn't exist until 2020 as well, blessings.

I'm using a build capable of 120+ kpm on a PS4 pro with an SSD- which would be slightly easier on a decent PC, but no matter what any weird elitists might say this really isn't too far off from the standard spawn rates expected on PC (I have played enough PC host to know, but it IS less, no ifs ands or buts, and I count myself lucky for being SSD pro and not base or switch).

IDK, just feels like having to stack 4 separate sources of resource boost (double booster / blessing / nekros) on a node that didn't exist until just recently, with not just a 'fine' build but a 'meta comparable DPS build' in STEEL PATH (call that a FIFTH booster) is a touch, stupid. lol

Anyways, this has been a good way to enjoy the infinite 12x glaive bug while it lasts. I've never been a fan of glaives, but when you can toss it out for millions- or in some cases billions- of damage for free, it's a touch fun, not gonna lie. Could convince me to actually use my glaive prime for once lol

#warframe #RetPlays

[andrevasims]

Apparently the SanDisk portable SSD is/was a hot Black Friday deal, but they've been so prone to failing that a class-action lawsuit was filed over it.

I also saw people recommended Western Digital as an alternative to SanDisk, but... Western Digital owns SanDisk. The class-action lawsuit for the failing SanDisk drives is directed at Western Digital.

Specifically, they single out the following devices: SanDisk Extreme Pro, SanDisk Extreme, and Western Digital My Passport SSD in the sizes 500GB, 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB.

Some of them, like the 4TB Extreme Pro Portable, had discounts up to $200, which is a pretty solid deal considering they've knowingly been facing widespread hardware failures for over 6 months.

I never bought one, but I did have a Western Digital Elements external HD that my dad got me as a gift. It would randomly disconnect itself without being touched, and when I tried to unplug then replug it in, I had to do it 3 or 4 times in a row before it would get recognized again. We bought a new connecting cable since that seemed to be the problem, but it continued doing that with the new cable. Also, idk if it came this way or if it happened over time, but sectors on the external HD became corrupted to the point where my computer would get a Blue Screen of Death every time I tried copying files onto it. I got around that by using the 3rd party program TeraCopy instead of the built-in Windows copying program, but like...

My dad got me that external HD specifically because I've had 2 unrecoverable hard drive failures happen to me several years apart when I was a kid. Losing writing, drawings, photos, conversation logs with friends, stuff that just no longer exists at all. So I became pretty paranoid about backup storage. And having my backup storage randomly disconnect by itself and crash my computer when I try to use it... Obviously not ideal.

Anyway, the new external HD I got to replace that one is SeaGate. I don't know if that's "better," there's a 100% chance people have stories about SeaGate's products that are exactly like mine with Western Digital. So I'm just hoping for the best lol ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

#I still bought Western Digital despite this bc I wanted an internal SSD as well #and trying to find the size/price I wanted while making sure it'd fit my motherboard narrowed it down to WD #soooo 2nd time's a charm I guess? #nonsims #not sims

[kaiowut99]

Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters GX Episode 1 Subbed (Finalized Re-Release)

(Original Finalized Release Post)

(Check out my Subbed!GX Stream Masterpost!)

TURN-1: Yugi's Successor

On his way to the Entrance Exams for the Duel Academia High School, Judai Yuki meets the legendary duelist Yugi Mutou and receives a card from him. Running late, Judai arrives at the venue and requests to take his exam, but Instructor Chronos sees Judai's exam as pointless given his lackluster score on the written exam. A duel begins between Judai and Chronos, and Chronos's rare Antique Gear Golem card uses its powerful 3000 ATK to damage Judai. His back against the wall, Judai hears the voice of a Monster--which turns out to belong to the card he received from Yugi, Winged Kuriboh...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

...I first posted the original finalized version of this episode almost 10 years ago??? Time is an illusion...

Fresh off the presses, it's a re-finalized version of my episode 1 subs! Well, probably re-re-re-re-finalized given my penchant for consistency and quality after previous revisions in the past 2-3 years, between fixing a handful of animation errors and terminology revisions... But this one merited a new post not so much for any updated translations, but because after casually skimming through this episode a while back, I noticed more animation errors, all card-related, that I'm now able to fix as I have for episodes since. You know the deal with this one, I'm sure; new kid on the block bumps into the Game King himself as he runs late for his Academia exam and manages to hit one of the school's best with his skills--literally. Fun opening episode to a fun series.

With this, I'm hoping to officially call this episode finalized for good, mainly because the kind of annoying thing about doing further revisions now is that, thanks to my solid-state drive (SSD) failing in October of 2022, I lost my personal copies of the episode scripts with the ATK/DEF counters I stylize and all, so it means I have to cut/stitch together different parts of the episode between the fixes I applied and the previous hardsub to account for the stat-counter subs or the eyecatch subs I started doing--since the softsub MKVs I release don't have those specific subs, they're easier to update. So I hopefully shouldn't be touching anything before episode 84 (the first one I finalized after getting a new drive) again and those can ideally be considered finalized for good. I'm hoping I can also give that title to 84-109 (where I currently am), but I'd like to think I didn't miss anything, lol.

Anyway, as mentioned, this revision applies several card-related fixes to the episode, some of which replicate fixes 4Kids did for the dub that I took a cue from. The fixes were added to the last DVDRip I released, subsequently made into a new softsub MKV, both of which will be up on NAC soon with the updated hardsub. List below the cut below as always, for the interested~ (Nice thing with some of these is that the frame rate was usually consistent, which meant that editing most panning shots and the occasional zoom shots were usually more of a breeze than later on, haha.)

Enjoy, folks; with this out of the way, since it's been about two weeks since 108 and 109 were finished up, I'll start setting up stuff for finalizing 110 while doing a little more TFSP work here/there before I fully start on 110 sometime next week. Stay tuned!

Fixes & Edits!

*The bolded edits below were applied back in 2021 and were added into the original release post; adding them here for completeness.

Applied a card back to an orange rectangle that was a face-down card during the panning shot of the Exam Duels going on over the episode’s opening narration as it fades to Chronos watching, repeating the edit as it pans back around again before fading to Manjoume and Ryou/Asuka watching.

As Misawa's exam proctor says that he stands no chance against his Super Defense Deck, the blank-art cards on his Disk for Big Shield Guardna and Gear Golem the Moving Fortress are reversed (the wider side for the effect box should be on the right). Fixed by applying proxies on them for a frame in AfterEffects, masking in the card outlines for blending, before taking that frame into Sony Vegas and zooming it out for the zoom shot here.

As Misawa's Ring of Destruction destroys Vorse Raider, we see the smoke rush onto the proctor's side of the field--and as we do, we can quickly see the blank-art Big Shield Guardna and Gear Golem cards on his Disk are again reversed before the smoke covers them. Fixed first in AfterEffects by slapping the proxies on for a frame, then in Vegas by taking that frame into and keyframing it to the rapid panning shot for most of its 17 frames. (Incidentally, throughout this scene, a different error happens in the dub, where aside from keeping the cards' orientation on the proctor's Disk incorrect, they also shuffle between Gear Golem and Big Shield Gardna being Normal or Effect Monsters--bit of an identity crisis!)

Fixed the error with Misawa’s LP dropping to zero after he uses Ring of Destruction to finish his Exam Duel; should have dropped to 1300.

After the proctor's LP drop to zero, he congratulates Misawa on his win, but the Gear Golem card on his Disk is reversed. Fixed first in AfterEffects by applying my proxy for a few frames, then taking one of those frames into Vegas to lightly keyframe as the shot pans left. (As a fun editing aside, I could tell 4Kids likely edited this in a similar way to how I did because as the cards fade out, you can briefly see some residue of Manjoume's hair outline on Big Shield Gardna's card which they didn't cover up; I definitely made sure I went the extra mile with redrawing the arena floor to cover that haha.)

After Misawa thanks the proctor, we zoom out to Manjoume in the stands as the Solid Vision fades out, but the cards under Big Shield Guardna and Gear Golem are--you guessed it--reversed. Fixed in a few ways, with the goal being to redo Big Shield Guardna and Gear Golem fading out--first, in Vegas, I took the first frame after they're gone and zoomed it into place at the start of the zoom, which let me cover up Gear Golem and most of Big Shield Guardna, but because Manjoume's hair moves upward as the shot zooms out, doing this means I couldn't fully cover it. So, I then took this first post-fadeout frame into Photoshop, where I used the Clone Tool to duplicate the arena floor and cover up the rest of Big Shield Guardna, reinserting it into Vegas and applying the zoom keyframes I did to the earlier frames to it--this lets my edited frame properly zoom out with the shot. Once done, I went into AfterEffects and applied the Big Shield and Gear Golem proxies onto the shot's first frame, masking them above the cards, then took that frame into Vegas to zoom out with the shot (rather easily, luckily, thanks to the frame rate note I mentioned up top), masked out Big Shield and Gear Golem and made them fade out into the edited frame in the layer below. With that set, all I had left was to go back and mask Manjoume's hair back above the edits for the duration of the fade, which was pretty easy, and boom goes the dynamite.

After Judai's duel with Chronos starts, he summons out Elemental Hero Featherman, but the card gets placed reversed on his Disk. Fixed in AfterEffects by applying a proxy first to one frame during the initial light zoom-out in the shot, taking the fixed frame into Vegas to re-zoom and hold once the zoom was over.

Chronos reacts to Featherman's summon, and as Featherman lands in front of Judai, his card on his Disk is reversed again, but also as the screen pans right, for a few frames as Judai moves to then place a card face-down, the shadow under his left leg goes from being more gray to black, turning back to gray once he stops moving. Fixed in AfterEffects first by placing a correctly facing proxy on his Disk for a frame, which I then took into Vegas and re-panned into the shot; while in Vegas, I then masked in the gray leg shadow over the black, masking in part of Featherman's ATK/DEF counter over the edit to blend it in.

In the next shot, as Judai ends his turn and their LP counters pop up, the Featherman card under him on the field is reversed; fixed in AfterEffects by slapping in a proxy, masking Featherman back in above it.

[cont below]

(10) After Chronos uses Confiscation, as he sends Judai's Revival of the Dead/Monster Reborn to his Cemetery, a few things happen: 1) the Featherman card on his field under him on the field is facing Chronos in Attack Mode, and 2) it's in the wrong Zone on Judai's Disk, as it should be in Monster Zone 3. I fixed this a few ways, first fixing the Featherman-on-field aspect in AfterEffects, applying a Defense-Mode proxy under Featherman and masking him and Judai back over it; I then took a cue from 4Kids and took the frame immediately after his Cemetery stops being lit up (but before Judai starts to move) and the frames as Judai moves into Photoshop, where I copied the empty Zone 1 into place over Zone 2, blending it in with some minor editing, and combined it with the AfterEffects edit I then did by applying a Featherman proxy in Defense Mode to Zone 3. After throwing everything into Vegas, I then applied some masking to a solid-white color layer to replicate the lights coming from Judai's Cemetery slot (helped by the fact that, luckily, the lights don't move). (The dub, for their part, only handled the Disk aspect, applying a weird light to cover up their Zone 2 edit while the Graveyard was lit up, leaving the Featherman card on the field as it originally was, OCG format and all lol.)

(11) Chronos activating Heavy Storm causes a huge storm of wind on the field, and as it gets to Judai's field, we see that the Defense-Mode Featherman card on the field under Featherman is reversed. Fixed first in AfterEffects, applying a proxy in a frame where most of the card was visible and masking Featherman back above it, then taking that frame into Vegas where I first redid the panning that happens, then I created a solid-color layer colored like the wind and applied some masking to replicate the gusts of wind that blow over the card.

(12) After Chronos summons his Wicked Lord Tokens and the crowd reacts, the smoke on the field from their summon simmers down, but the Featherman card under Featherman is reversed again. Fixed in AfterEffects by applying a correctly facing proxy and then masking Featherman back on top.

(13) After the commercial break, fixed the error with a Ra Yellow student’s miscolored jacket as he and the others watch Antique Gear Golem being summoned, thanks to thepalebride’s help.

(14) After crowd reaction to Antique Gear Golem being summoned, Asuka looks out onto the field and says she unfortunately heard the sound of the Academia's gates closing shut for Judai--as she does, we see that the blank-art card under Featherman is reversed. Fixed first in AfterEffects by applying a proxy under him in the first frame of the shot and masking him back on top, then taking that frame into Vegas where I re-panned it as the shot pans upward.

(15) After a brief blush, Judai summons out Winged Kuriboh, but he places it reversed on his Disk--and in the very next shot, it's correctly facing such that its name box is to our left. Fixed in AfterEffects by applying a proxy as he places it on his Disk, masking his fingers over it.

(16) After Antique Gear Golem destroys Winged Kuriboh and Judai tells Chronos that it reduces his damage to zero--to Asuka's shock--Judai takes Winged Kuriboh off his Disk and places it in his Cemetery slot in a quick shot, but the card is reversed again. Also fixed by 4Kids, I fixed this in AfterEffects by applying a proxy facing correctly in the frames in which Judai moves it.

(17) After summoning Flame Wingman, and after some taunting from Chronos, Judai activates an arena as heroic as he is in Skyscraper, but as he does so, Flame Wingman is missing from his Disk, as it should be in Zone 3. Fixed first in AfterEffects by applying a proxy (after finding the best-quality screenshot of Wingman's anime art and touching it up using an AI tool [I think I settled on Waifu]), fading it in as the scene fades from the Judai closeup to Judai about to swing his Disk around, and adding it as he does so, then applying a brightening and dimming as the Solid Vision lights go on around him. Once I did that, I went into Vegas and applied some masking on the little flickers that pop up over that zone to blend the edit in. (Side-Note: while dubifying the Skyscraper card in Judai's hand, 4Kids forgot to mask in his thumb over it, begging the question... how is Jaden holding that?)

(18) Fixed the blank Normal Monster card that should be Flame Wingman, both as Antique Gear Golem crashes onto Chronos and as the duel fades to an end.

#GX #yugioh #ygo #ygo gx #yugioh gx #yu-gi-oh gx #yu-gi-oh! gx #my subs #Judai Yuki #Chronos de Medici #ahh humble GX beginnings #[hopefully i'm not only just finalizing episode 180 in 2034...] #[Reblogs for visibility are always appreciated 🙂]

[murumokirby360]

My first Samsung non-genuine item (w/ my Paper Dolls) [Nov 30th, 2023]

DeviantART Version → [CLICK ME!].

Hello. It is time to share my first experience encountering fake memory storage, particularly "Samsung". I've already tackled a "non-genuine Samsung 870 EVO Solid State Drive", from October 2023. ☝️😮 Now, let's tackle the micro-size memory format of the "non-genuine Samsung EVO Plus SDXC TF Card", and find out what are the details between their "Genuine" and "Fake" Samsung Micro SD Cards, like the SSD before. 🙂

BTW: If you haven't seen my aforementioned "fake Samsung SSD", then please click here. ↓ • My FAKE Samsung 870 EVO Solid State Drive Review [feat. my Paper Dolls] (Recorded: Oct 13th 2013)

So, without further ado, let's get started:

1st Image: ↑

• Alright so, on your left was my genuine Samsung EVO 64GB Micro SD card 👈, which is still functional after 8 years inactive. And this is actually my expandable storage for my old Samsung Galaxy S4 phone [GT-I9505] 📱, which went blacked out the touch screen, in August of 2020. Man, I missed that phone, so much. Then again, my phone was already ancient, as all smartphone brands of this 2020-ish have improved their specs, memory, features, and more than before. And on your right was my first non-genuine Samsung brand of Micro SD Card; the 👉 EVO Plus 128GB, old version. This thing was ordered on Jun 27th, 2020 (from Lazada PH 🇵🇭🛒🌐) for ₱ 378.50 [CLICK ME!], and you can see why there are some red flags on this old EVO PLUS wannabe. 🟥 Also, as of 2023, it was already out of stock, permanently when the new looked Samsung flash memory cards was out on store shelves, both physical and digital. Not to mentioned, new security features was added to prevent counterfeit ones. So, let's bring down the details between these two Micro SD Cards, shall we?

• First: the letters. They're both identical to "Samsung" brand 🔠, but don't mind their colors and their quantity of memory sizes, as well as others. Since I don't have the original 128 GB of an old EVO Plus, I'm settle in with my owned 64 GB EVO. 🟩👍 The new EVO Plus, BTW, and other Micro SD cards have already improved their appearance, since 2021. However, that's where their identical end because on the fonts of "128 EVO" we're bold over the genuine counterpart's thin fonts. 🟥👎 Also, the "Samsung" brand on the fake one was slightly different from the genuine one. 🟥👎

2nd Image: ↑

• Second: the materials. Genuine Samsung micro SD cards had a distinct while line, both old and new appearances. Making it their signature unique look 🟩👍 compared to the rest of the memory brands and counterfeit ones on the same format size. And speaking of, this counterfeit Samsung Micro SD card didn't have that unique appearance, as you could see a solid black line was spot on right through our eyes. 🟥👎 As for their materials, they're both identical albeit the fake one was used as a cheap generic one 🟥👎 instead of Samsung's genuine material circuitry process.

3rd Image: ↑

• Third: the numbers/codes. Another Genuine Samsung micro SD card was the numbers codes facing different approaches (rotating upward) compared to the counterfeit ones. 🟩👍 And for the latter was using generic number codes, that already existed by numerous copycat micro SD card clones. Or something... 🟥👎 I mean, c'mon. Take a look at your right side. We've already seen it, many times, if you're a memory SD card enthusiast (of course). Unlike the Samsung memory brands they create and generate different unique number codes per memory card, and even serial numbers to prevent fake versions of their memory brands. And uhh... Did I mention, that Samsung's flash memory cards are "Made in Philippines"? 🇵🇭🟩👍 Heck yeah! #PusoPinoy, baby! 😁❤️💙💛 If you see that via the microscopic device, you know that your purchased Samsung EVO micro SD cards are 100% Genuine! Though, sometimes they're "Made in Korea" 🇰🇷 (more specifically "South Korea"), so that counts, too. 🙂🟩👍

1st & 2nd Screenshots: ↑

• And Finally: Transfer read/write speed test & Experience used. A genuine flash memory card brand from the likes of Samsung, Sandisk, Lexar, and many more can deliver a fairly high speed/write rate. From a standard 100 MB/s to a massive 200 MB/s, the latter was for 1TB (to sometimes 2/4TB) SDXC cards (which are very expensive price tags). No matter what you choose, that depends on your budget. But at least, the quality of the flash memory brand could satisfy your experience, and their lifetime could last long. But, what about the fake ones? Could they have the same quality treatment? Well, as you can see, using the trusty "Crystal Disk Mark" software and my trusty UGREEN USB Card Reader plugging through the USB 3.0 port 🪟 🖥️, the counterfeit Samsung EVO Plus (128GB) didn't pass the potential transfer speed. 🟥👎 Only a "Genuine" EVO Plus of Micro SD cards should deliver "Up to 100MB/s Read and 60MB/s Write speed with Class 10 and U3 compatibility". And speaking of, my Genuine EVO 64GB passed the quality speed test, and according to their official website, it delivers "Up to 100MB/s Transfer speed with Class 10 and U1 compatibility". Sure, it may not deliver the 100 MB/s given that my old EVO marks 8 years of functionality, but it's good enough for me to transfer my precious files onto my EVO SDXC card without a single corrupt file (as of 2023). 🟩👍 On the other hand, the fake one had already suffered corrupted files in any format, since October of 2023. 🟥👎 My mom was using it, and she was devastated by lost snapshots. So, she decided to buy a different brand with an equal standard quality as my old Samsung EVO.

4th Image: ↑

• So, you two. Did you see who is the legit Samsung memory card brand? And their saying "Yes, it is the orange card one!" Indeed it is. 😁

Overall:

• After we've seen some differences and a short speed test, it concludes, that this Samsung 128 GB EVO Plus Micro SD Card was a wannabe memory card brand, or as I said a "non-genuine" one. So, the question was, did I refund my E-Cash after showing off some red flags on that fake Micro SD Card? 🤔 Well, yes! It was a success 🙂, and I decided to buy a different decent brand called "Strontium". As of today, I'm still using the 256 GB on my Honor 8C phone [CLICK ME!], and my 64 GB now acting as a thumb drive with my trusty card reader! (UGREEN) Without hiccups or a single malfunction on these two, whatsoever. 😊 So, as I said before and I could say it for counterfeit items, "Never judge an item by its seller". ☝️😯

Well, that's the end of my topic. The last topic will be something to save. Coming this December of 2023. 😊

Tagged: @lordromulus90, @bryan360, @carmenramcat, @leapant, @paektu, @rafacaz4lisam2k4, @alexander1301

#My Photos #MyPhotos #My Photo #MyPhoto #Photos #Photo #My Screenshots #My Screenshot #MyScreenshots #MyScreenshot #Chowder #Panini #Chowder Panini #Paper Dolls #Samsung #Samsung EVO Micro SD #Samsung EVO Plus Micro SD #Micro SD Card #Micro SD #SDXC #Fake #Real #Genuine #Counterfeit #Photography

[vampyrsutton]

SSD Day 5~From the Sky~Scales

Summary:

Half-Dragon!Dabi recognizes a familiar face from his time as Touya and decides to see if the spark's still there.

Ao3 Tags:

Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Riding, Dragon Dabi | Todoroki Touya, Harpy Takami Keigo | Hawks, Mile High Club, Rimming, Dragon biology, Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, Dabi | Todoroki Touya Has a Big Dick, Dabi | Todoroki Touya Has Scales Instead of Scars, Possessive Behavior, Mating Bites, Takami Keigo | Hawks is a Little Shit, Takami Keigo | Hawks Acts Like a Bird, Flying Sex, Background Relationships, Oral Sex, Multiple Orgasms

Notes:

Loosely based on this TikTok I did.

‘Still a poser, huh, bird brain?’ Dabi thinks to himself from where he sits with his crew across the bar, watching some Royal Knights ham it up. 

Among those Knights, sits a face he hasn’t seen since his hair was white and his skin smooth, and has his dragon rearing to the surface in a mixture of rage and the still lingering interest. 

Keigo Takami.

Or Hawks now apparently.

Fucking Council drone. 

“What do you think, air fryer?” Shigaraki’s rasp breaks through his bitter train of thought to bring him back to the present and whatever conversation the fools were having.

“Huh? What’d you say, crusty?” Dabi hums around his drink, having to be careful not to spill it on himself while also keeping his scales hidden. 

“The bird Knight.” Shigaraki huffs, ignoring the shot. “Rumor has it he’s a complete playboy. Think any of us have a chance?”

Dabi hums in thought, eyes focusing on Hawks once more and taking in all the little tells that the Commission probably didn't notice enough to beat out of him. Even having the bartender flirt with him had him looking ready to crawl out of his skin. Birdie was still a hopelessly awkward virgin. 

Dabi briefly wonders if he can change that.

“None of you, no.” Dabi finally answers, watching a secondary feather harden in discomfort when the bartender touches his arm playfully. “But...” Dabi downs his drink. “If he wasn’t a Council snake, I might know a way.” 

“Oh, yeah?” Shigaraki sneers, leaning in to get a better look at Dabi’s half-hidden face. “And what would that be?”

Dabi thinks back to all the longing looks and harpy courting behaviors Hawks had sent his way when they were still Keigo and Touya back in Knight training that he had pretended to be oblivious to, and wonders if any of that is still there. His half-dragon heritage had started to flare up at that point and he hadn’t wanted to drag Kei down with him but said dragon also never forgot the one it wanted to claim as his mate.

What would happen if he tried?

‘Shut up, you stupid lizard.’ Dabi growls to his dragon. ‘He’s a Knight. The Council’s probably broken him beyond repair. Kei’s probably as dead as Touya.’

‘ But how do we know ?’

Dabi stews with that for another moment before stealing Shigaraki’s drink to down as well and throwing them a devilish smirk. “Watch and learn, Dusty. Maybe you and your own lizard will finally stop dancing around each other.”

He snickers to himself as the sounds of Shigaraki and Spinner sputtering excuses follow him to the bar under the guise of getting another drink. 

“Excuse me.” He mutters as he raises his body temperature so the other Knights blocking the bar will move until he’s standing next to the half-harpy. 

“Behind you, pretty bird.” He hums in a low rumble that has feathers puffing just as they used to when his voice first started doing that. “Another ale please.” He asks the bartender with a sly smirk.

“Tou-no it can’t be...” Dabi hears Hawks whisper so quietly that he wouldn’t have heard him if it weren’t for his dragon hearing.

He makes some low whistling-chirping sound that Keigo had taught him years ago and hears the Knight gasp before he curses as he’s suddenly rushed out of the tavern and pinned against an alley wall by furious talons.

“You were alive, asshole?!” Hawks growls, trying to seem intimidating despite how his wings tremble behind him in hurt. 

“Hello to you, too, pretty bird.” Dabi smirks, pulling his talons back with his own claws. “See you’re doing well for yourself.”

Pupils pin at the show of strength, but Hawks still bares his fangs at the half-dragon. “Yeah, doing great. Number 2 actually, but we were supposed to be up here together . What the fuck happened to you?” 

Dabi raises an eyebrow before letting his pupils slit, eyes turn feral, and showing off fangs and forked tongue which, in turn, moves his cloak down enough to show off his scales. He growls when Hawks steps away in shock and the sound is anything but human.

“In case the claws didn’t give it away, I became a freak. Seriously think the Council would let me anywhere near a ranking chart?” Dabi huffs, letting the draconic features that he could control return to human. “My own father wouldn’t let me back in the house. I’m half-shifted to stay alive because he burned and mauled me in his attempt to get rid of the abomination he created.” 

Hawks makes a series of enraged bird noises before his eyes widen in horror. “He said you ran away...I comforted that fucking fool!”

Dabi sneers, the growl starting back up. “The only thing I ran away from was him, and I didn’t even do it. He left me for dead woods and some wizard and his alchemist pet snatched up my dying corpse. So sorry I didn’t want anything to do with the Knights after that though.”

There’s more enraged trilling before Hawks is in his face again with a feral look in his eyes. “You’ll be perfect for my case then.”

It’s Dabi’s turn to step back in shock now. “What are you talking about, birdie.”

“Wanted the rest of the story out of you, Hot Stuff.” Hawks smirks. “You really thought they could fool a harpy’s senses with such shitty lies and half-truths? Their heartbeats alone gave them away, but the scent of you burning that clung to him for weeks after almost got me put down.” He admits with a threatening chitter. 

Dabi’s eyes widen and he suddenly decides Hawks doesn’t need to know this was supposed to be a quick fuck to prove a point as his dragon rumbles happily at how strong his mate has become. “Have you been plotting chaos, pretty bird?” He smirks.

“Enough to make you proud even from the other side, Touya.” Hawks grins proudly. 

“Mmm, yeah no, Dabi now. That name died with me.” Dabi mutters with a sneer. “Glad I get a front-row seat then. What planning to dethrone the speciest piece of shit holding number one first?” 

Hawks snorts. “Cremation? Really? Fine, Dabi then.” He snickers before smirking. “I plan to expose him. I already have three very angry dragons on my side, and once he’s been destroyed socially, I’ll destroy the Council that let him get away with it and their precious rankings so he can sit in the fact that he destroyed himself and his family for absolutely nothing and can stew in that as he rots in a jail cell where he belongs.”

Dabi’s pupils are back to slits as he rumbles in delight and pulls the half-harpy in for an absolutely filthy kiss that he should have given into almost a decade ago. He kisses the birdie like he plans to steal the breath from his lungs, but he has one more question to ask when they come up for air. 

“Why?”

Hawks clicks as though insulted as his own talons dig into surprisingly soft black hair and grab one of the horns he’s surprised to find hiding there to pull him into another equally filthy kiss. “Mine.” He chitters, pupils completely lost in a sea of fierce gold that pin feral turquoise in place. “My bird claimed you first and the rest agreed that even if you had never returned our affections, I would stay by your side and fight for you forever. You were never getting rid of me if I had known you were alive.”

A low growl builds in Dabi’s chest before, suddenly, leathery wings burst from his back and they’re taking off into the air and devouring each other with a decade’s worth of buried emotions that are finally getting to come to the surface and have a claim to stake.

“Fuck, pretty bird,” Dabi growls as deadly fangs nip at Hawks’ lower lip. “Should’ve accepted your courting back then. Could’ve added you to my hoard and draped you in all the pretty riches I could find as you deserve. Gold chains inlaid with rubies and a pretty leather collar with an aquamarine, so you remember who you belong to when you go flying. You’d look so pretty draped across my furs.” He rambles, long forked tongue dominating the harpy’s mouth between promises. “So perfect.”

Hawks chitters and trills in delight as he does his best to return the kiss, but ultimately lets Dabi do as he pleases while he works on the half-dragon's gods forsaken three belts to get in his pants and bats his own wings to get them a little further from the town, even if they are fairly high up. “As long as I get to cover you in just as much shiny shit, you can do whatever you want.” He pants when given a moment to breathe.

The image encourages Dabi to start kissing, biting, and sucking his way down Hawks’s neck to stake his claim as he makes quick work of the birdie’s own belt and pants, smirking at the annoyed huff his ease gets out of his little hopeful mate. “Relax, birdie. You learn how to use your claws when you don’t have the money to pay for new pants.” He teases.

He can’t help but laugh at how the birdie’s wings puff up in annoyance even as he does his best to make his own marks in the dragon’s tough skin. 

A glance down shows them to be far enough away from the town to not be charged with indecent exposure so Dabi smirks before ripping a squawk out of Hawks when he hoists him up for easy access to his leaking dick and a forked tongue darts out to lick his lips. “Hold the horn if you need to.” He warns before wrapping his tongue around Hawks’ dick completely and taking him down his throat with a rumple that makes Hawks squawk at the vibrations. 

“Fu-Dabi! Shit! More! Shit, please!” Hawks trills, wings fluttering behind him as he holds onto Dabi’s horns for dear life. 

Dabi smirks around the length in his mouth as he carefully inches the harpy’s pants down further and retracts his claws. He pulls back enough to uncoil his tongue from around Hawks’ cock before taking it down his throat again and letting the tongue sneak out to prod at the harpy’s hole to make him chirp again.

“Da-bi!” Hawks moans, squirming and chirping at the stimulation. “How?” 

Dabi just looks up at him, the smirk obvious in his eyes as a suddenly claw-free hand takes advantage of the spit now slicking Hawks’ hole to slip a finger in to join the tongue and get more pretty bird song from the trembling Knight. 

“Fuuu-“ Hawks shudders. “You're gonna ki-kill me- shit!” 

Dabi rolls draconic eyes at the dramatics before going back to his self-assigned task of getting the birdie needy and open to take his cock. Completely impractical this high in the air, but his dragon demands it and for once he’s not gonna argue. 

“Cl-close! Shit, Dabi, I’m close!” Hawks whines and coos and he shakes in the dragon’s strong grip. 

Dabi just raises an eyebrow, his only response being to swallow around the head when it hits the back of his throat and nudges a bundle of nerves with three fingers that he's managed to work inside the harpy’s hole. 

Hawks lets out a pretty little chirping, trilling noise, and his wings sharpen as he cums hard down the dragon’s throat, his hold on purplish black horns probably being the only thing keeping him upright. 

Dabi smirks as he pulls his head back with a pop, mischief-filled turquoise looking up into hazy gold. “Think I can get another one out of you?” 

Hawks blinks, panting heavily for a moment before he nods and whines as Dabi pulls his fingers out. 

“Trust me enough to reach into my pocket for oil?” Dabi asks.

Hawks flushes a pretty pink as a feather chooses that moment to catch up with them and deposit a vial of oil onto Dabi’s chest. “About that…”

Dabi lets out a pleased rumble as he situates Hawks lower on his body for balance so he can uncork the vial and pour some on his fingers to make sure Hawks is open enough before reaching behind Hawks further to pour a generous amount on his own cock. 

“I’ll take you apart plenty later, but I’m afraid our current positions means you’ll have to do most of the work unless you want to take a tumble through the air.” Dabi hums, at least helping Hawks scoot himself back to line up. 

“Don’t care.” Hawks chirps, talons digging into scales for support as he gets himself lined up. “Thought I’d never get to do this. You could have bent me over a dumpster for all I care.” Gold eyes narrow at the dragon’s snort. “Do not fuck me over a dumpster.” 

Dabi can’t help but laugh at the birdie’s sudden seriousness even as he smirks up at fierce eyes. “Wouldn’t dream of it, birdie. You’re at least worth the royal dumpster.” He teases, laughing more when he gets whacked. 

“How did you become even more of an a-AH-ass! Fuuuck!” Hawks moans when he’s suddenly pulled down on Dabi’s cock and warbles with how full he suddenly feels with it only halfway in. 

“Trauma does shit to people.” Dabi shrugs, loosening his grip now so Hawks can set the pace. “Now I believe you had a claim to stake?” 

Gold eyes pin once more and rake over unclaimed skin as though trying to calculate how to change that without breaking a tooth on scales before deciding to figure that out when they get there. With this decision in mind, Hawks braces his hands on Dabi’s stomach to give himself leverage as he attempts to sink down further with a chirp. 

By the time he has it all in him, his arms are shaking and his wings are trembling as he lets out a constant stream of overwhelmed chirps that have Dabi rumbling deep in his chest in arousal. 

“Too much, pretty bird?” Dabi growls, reaching a once again clawed hand to caress Hawks’ straining cock and lightly press down on the slight bulge of the harpy’s stomach where his cock is stuffing him nice and full.

“Full.” Hawks chirps quietly with a wobbly smile. “Guess the dragon genes really took over, huh?” 

“Oh, you have no idea.” Dabi chuckles lowly. “Wait ‘til I cum, pretty bird. You’ll probably have to go home after this with how much will be leaking out of you. Filling you completely and letting anyone with a nose knows just who you belong to.” A smirk. “And you’re in for a real trip come winter.”

Hawks flushes beneath his shirt at the implications, wings fluttering in their effort to help get him moving. “Fuck, Dabi.”

“That is the plan, yes,” Dabi smirks, chuckling when a wing whacks him. “Need some help, pretty bird?”

“Yes. Please. Fuck, there’s so much.” Hawks whines, moaning when Dabi’s grip tightens to pull him up slowly, cursing at how tight the harpy is before pulling him back down and making both moan loudly.

It takes them a few times, but eventually, Hawks gets his bearings enough to start trying to help. By now, though, Dabi has already realized that he can definitely fuck up into the birdie in this position and it isn’t long before Hawks is once again boneless, chirping and moaning as he lets himself be used.

“Fuck, birdie.” Dabi growls from where his mouth is hovering close to Hawks’ shoulder, ready to claim. “So fucking tight. You’re going to drive me insane. Such a perfect little mate, aren’t you?”

Hawks moans, wings puffing up at the praise as he finally finds a spot he thinks should be soft enough to mark. “Big. Good mate. Filling me up.” He chirps.

Dabi’s rumbling picks up as his speed does and it isn’t long until Hawks is babbling about being close again. “Right behind you, pretty bird.” He growls. “Cum whenever you want, I’m right behind you.”

Hawks lets out a warbling moan as he cums a second time, talons digging into the half-dragon's human skin as he bites into the soft spot he found and his wings puff out. The chirps turn into a content almost purring noise as he lets Dabi continue, sated himself and now just wanting his new mate to cum.

Dabi groans loudly as Hawks tightens around him with his orgasm and makes his hips stutter as it drags him over the edge. He muffles a roar by leaving his own bite on the harpy’s shoulder as he starts filling him with rope after rope of cum that has him squirming with how full it leaves him. 

“Da-…bi…” Hawks eventually whines. “Too much.” 

Dabi just runs his claws down Hawks' back in what he hopes is a calming gesture as he licks the new bite and waits to stop cumming. 

“Dabiiii!” Hawks pouts instead. 

“I warned you. Now it’s either in you or on some poor traveler’s head.” Dabi chuckles as he basks in the post-orgasm brain fog. “It’ll stop soon.”

“You are so lucky I don’t have any eggs.” Hawks huffs even as he relents to laying on Dabi’s still-clothed chest as the half-dragon starts taking them to the alley. He wraps his feathered wings around them for modesty's sake. 

Dabi crowds Hawks against a wall once they’re on the ground for support so he can pull out and his pupils slit when his cum starts leaking out of Hawks’ utterly abused hole. 

“Fuck, birdie. Think a feather can hold that in or do I need to eat you out a second time?” Dabi growls, tilting his head predatorily. 

Hawks hisses in sensitivity when his cock tries to twitch at the thought. “Feather should get me home.” He decides before giving a little smirk. “I might need some help from there though.”

Dabi rumbles deep in his chest once more as he plucks a loose feather. “Let me say my goodbyes real quick, and I’ll be more than happy to take you apart properly.”

Dabi makes quick work of refastening his pants and belts before hurrying inside and slamming the feather down in front of Shigaraki with a wicked smirk that his disheveled appearance backs up. “Let me know if you need date night recommendations. Got some good connections now for you two to get your shit together.” He chuckles before throwing a wave over his shoulder. “See you tomorrow, losers!”

His friends just stare at the feather in disbelief.

“How in the fuck?” Is the general consensus that night.

#dabihawks #hotwings #hotwingz #bnha dabi #bnha hawks #todoroki touya #takami keigo #bnha #dabi #hawks #mha smut #dragon!dabi #harpy!hawks #twitter event #spookyscarydabiweek

[blazehedgehog]

If you thought replacing/upgrading a PS4 HDD was easy, you'd be wrong.

After hours of fighting with it, I am depressed and defeated.

As I mention in the video, a few weeks ago the PS4 was acting a bit funny, and I've noticed some corruption in its video recordings from time to time, so I figure the HDD is on its way out. I bought a Crucial MX500 to replace it with. Came highly rated, there are guides out there about how amazing and easy it is to swap out the old platter HDD for this new SSD. Even Sony's official guide is pretty straight forward: back up your current data, take old HDD out, put new HDD in, reinstall the system OS, restore personal data.

I fought with it for hours, got it to work one time, and when I went to restore my backup saves/account data, it crashed and seemingly bricked the HDD because it refuses to work a second time.

Is the HDD bad? It's not impossible they just sent me a defective unit.

Is the SD card containing the OS bad? It's only 1-2 years old and has only ever been used maybe twice. It is, however, exFAT, and Sony's install guide says you should be using FAT32. The fact that it seems to work when prompted leads me to believe it's fine, it's just getting to that prompt.

Is it the PS4's fault? I think there might be a short in one of the USB ports because when I first got it, I was testing out the media player by watching a video from a flash drive. In the middle of playback, the PS4 dumped me back to the dashboard and from that point onwards refused to see the flash drive. Pulling the drive out, it was almost too hot to touch. From that day onwards, that specific USB port refused to accept any flash drives (though it still works with controllers, and once the flash drive cooled off it has remained functional).

That being said, the PS4 has three USB ports. Surely I could just use one of the other ones, right? Sure, if I could reliably get the damn thing to boot into Safe Mode. I don't know why, 9 times out of 10, it won't. And even when I get it to boot into Safe Mode, another 9 times out of 10 it won't read the install file on the USB.

I'm at a loss. I have no ideas on what's wrong or where the problem can be solved.

#playstation #sony #PS4 #HDD #crucial #help #tech support #repair #Youtube

[starstruckpurpledragon]

Hey, this is a longshot—but d’you have a link to that “how to remove bloatware on Windows/what bloatware to remove” post?

I’m asking because a friend sent me a link to that one about pc specs you reblogged a while back, and I could’ve sworn I saw the bloatware one in the recommended posts for that one, but I forgot to like the post and now I can’t find it. I finally picked up a windows laptop and need to know what to disable.

So it sounds like you're referring to a post I reblogged from @ms-demeanor but I cannot seem to find it. But tumblr search and even the option of using duckduckgo to search tumblr for me is letting me down. Though the PC Specs post might be this one? https://ms-demeanor.tumblr.com/post/726025900027789312/so-the-counter-to-this-is-that-ssds-are-static

I may poke around a bit more later to see if I can find the post but for now... I can list off some of what I did based on my own recent experiences of setting up a new laptop after my old one decided to start blue screening if I moved it five inches in any direction. (That old laptop is now doing perfectly fine when left completely stationary, so I've been using it to experiment with creating a local file sync for back ups using some old hard drives i had lying around.)

Bloatware Social Media/Video Media Apps:

These are probably pretty obvious bloatware since this is a computer and all these services are therefor going to a.) work on the browser and b.) work better on the browser than the app anyway. Also there are a few cases like Facebook where there's a c.) why would I touch <insert application> with a ten foot pole anyway? reason for removing the App

Instagram

Facebook

Netflix

Prime Video

News - Microsoft news aggregation App (there are better options out there than this for news aggregation)

TikTok

Spotify - depends on your spotify usage tbh, but I don't use it since I just dumped all my music onto my local plex server and use that to play music all over the house

Twitter - Or X, whatever

Additionally:

Any preloaded game you don't find interesting. Depending on the vendor there could be a lot of games or no games.

X-Box gaming apps - while there are some reasons to keep the x-box gaming stuff, most people are gonna find it useless

WildTangent Games

Omen gaming - if you've got an HP laptop specifically, you will probably want to give Omen related game apps the boot too

Vendor specific applications - YMMV, I do keep some of these for diagnostic purposes, but you definitely want to at least give any HP this or Dell that or whatever type programs a harder look. Any program starting with the name of the vendor that created your laptop? At the very least look it up to see how important it really is/isn't

Adobe programs - there are free versions of everything adobe does that do it better than adobe does

3D Viewer - it's a 3D modeling program, but odds are you won't need/want this

Microsoft 365/Office/etc - Unless you need these programs specifically for professional reasons, LibreOffice is free and reliable and has multiple UI modes for the toolbars depending on your preferences

Microsoft Teams

Microsoft ToDo

Microsoft Family

Microsoft Maps

Mixed Reality Portal - Unless you're doing VR dev/VR gaming using this computer, there's no real reason to keep this one

Microsoft Whiteboard

Microsoft People

Sound Recorder - YMMV, this is useful for recording lectures and the like, but I prefer freeware like Audacity which is more reliable/just works better

Sticky Notes

Weather

Cortana

Amazon Alexa

I'll usually keep Edge around as a backup browser, but Firefox is definitely the best browser out there right now.

[majjiktricks]

i briefly took apart my laptop to make sure i had a second slot for an ssd and i do. great. thatll be an easy install once i figure out how to clean the thermal pad off. then i was gonna try to clean my fans out because one is a little dusty but the tutorial i was watching about taking it apart says i would have to take out the heatsink to get to the fans 😢

i was scared enough holding the unplugged battery in my hands without a static bracelet on bc theres nowhere on my laptop to attach the clip, and yall want me to remove the ENTIRE HEATSINK? touch my cpu AND gpu? thats too much hassle. i dont feel like redoing the thermal paste 😭

#if i ever have a problem w/ the fans. THEN ill deep clean the whole thing and only hopefully have to do it once every few years... #jazz noises

[ms-demeanor]

Since some people might want a Mac, I'll offer a Mac equivalent of your laptop guide from the perspective of a Mac/Linux person.

Even the cheapest Macs cost more than Windows laptops, but part of that is Apple not making anything for the low end of the tech spectrum. There is no equivalent Mac to an Intel i3 with 4 gigabytes of RAM. This makes it a lot easier to find the laptop you need.

That said, it is possible to buy the wrong Mac for you, and the wrong Mac for you is the 13-inch MacBook Pro with the Touch Bar. Get literally anything else. If it has an M2 chip in it, it's the most recent model and will serve you well for several years. Any new MacBook Air is a good pick.

(You could wait for new Macs with M3, but I wouldn't bother. If you are reading these guides the M3 isn't going to do anything you need done that a M2 couldn't.)

Macs now have integrated storage and memory, so you should be aware that whatever internal storage and RAM you get, you'll be stuck with. But if you would be willing to get a 256 gig SSD in a Windows laptop, the Mac laptop with 256 gigs of storage will be just as good, and if you'd be willing to get 8 gigs of RAM in a Windows laptop the Mac will perform slightly better with the same amount of memory.

Buy a small external hard drive and hook it up so Time Machine can make daily backups of your laptop. Turn on iCloud Drive so your documents are available anywhere you can use a web browser. And get AppleCare because it will almost certainly be a waste of money but wooooooow will you be glad it's there if you need it.

I get that you are trying to help and I am not trying to be mean to you specifically, but people shouldn't buy apple computers. That's why I didn't provide specs for them. Apple is a company that is absolutely terrible to its customers and its customers deserve better than what apple is willing to offer.

Apple charges $800 to upgrade the onboard storage from a 256GB SSD to a 2TB SSD.

A 2TB SSD costs between $75-100.

I maintain that any company that would charge you more than half the cost of a new device to install a $100 part on day one is a company making the wrong computer for you.

The point of being willing to tolerate a 256GB SSD or 8GB RAM in a Windows laptop is that you're deferring some of the cost to save money at the time of purchase so that you can spend a little bit in three years instead of having to replace the entire computer. Because, you see, many people cannot afford to pay $1000 for a computer and need to buy a computer that costs $650 and will add $200 worth of hardware at a later date.

My minimum specs recommendations for a mac would be to configure one with the max possible RAM and SSD, look at the cost, and choose to go buy three i7 windows laptops with the same storage and RAM for less than the sticker price of the macs.

So let's say you want to get a 14" Macbook pro with the lowest-level processor. That's $2000. Now let's bump that from 16GB RAM and a 512GB SSD to 32GB and 2TB. That gets you to $3000. (The SSD is $200 less than on the lower model, and they'll let you put in an 8TB SSD for $1800 on this model; that's not available on the 13" because apple's product development team is entirely staffed by assholes who think you deserve a shitty computer if you can't afford to pay the cost of two 1991 Jeep Cherokee Laredos for a single laptop).

For $3000 you can get 3 Lenovo Workstation laptops with i7 processors, 32GB RAM, and a 2TB SSD.

And look, for just $200 more I could go up to 48GB RAM and get a 4TB SSD - it costs $600 to upgrade the 14" mac from a 2TB SSD to a 4TB SSD so you could still get three laptops with more ram and the same amount of storage for the cost of one macbook.

I get that some people need to use Final Cut and Logic Pro, but hoo boy they sure are charging you through the nose to use products that have become industry standard. The words "capture" and "monopoly" come to mind even though they don't quite apply here.

"Hostile" does, though, especially since Mac users end up locked into the ecosystem through software and cloud services and become uncertain how to leave it behind if they ever decide that a computer should cost less than a month's rent on a shitty studio apartment in LA.

There's a very good reason I didn't give mac advice and that's because my mac advice is "DON'T."

#sorry i swear i know you're being nice #i am incapable of being nice when talking about apple #i was a total apple fangirl until the unibody #which is the domino that started all the other companies pulling shit like soldered RAM #they said 'fuck you - users shouldn't service their own computers' and I say 'fuck apple - users shouldn't use macs' #and that has been my stance on the matter since 2012 #which was the last time i bought a macbook because i knew i'd never buy a computer that would fight me to change my own battery

[tinystepsforward]

so my dad is the kinda guy who has Linux Distro Opinions and i grew up getting razzed for, idk, using ubuntu and not red hat. i wasn't really paying attention to anything other than that if i used linux he couldn't as effectively block me from seeing literally anything he didn't like ⁠— i've always been very practical about my tech choices, lol.

but i just passed him my old macbook which i bought off work bc he wants to get into developing for ios, and it's his first apple product (it was mine, too). and my god he's messaging me through the entire setup process. "why no nz english". "what is the keychain for". "should i encrypt my drive". and i'm realizing rapidly that in some ways i did overtake him in the last fifteen years.

he can't touch-type. he has no idea how to set up a password manager. he has two dozen m.2 ssds with various linux installations on them but the older i get the more it seems clear to me that he made it part of his personality without knowing much about everything around it.

and, well: he hasn't kept up to date. he still knows more about a lot of things than i do, but i've got much more strongly held opinions and a hell of a lot more curiosity, especially as he's gone from reading local right-wing mags to breitbart and full on conspiracy far-right shit. i work much more closely with foss on a daily basis than he does. i trust the government less than he does, which is a feat, and am far more comfortable navigating information security than he is. i can't code like he can, but i'm the one with the nanopi cron job pet project. my experience with tech is piecemeal as heck and i don't have the right vocab to sound like i know what i'm doing. but i'm not an asshole so my networks are wider. my experience is wider, bc i did most of papa's tech for some time. bc i like to go to infosec cons and talk to people. bc i work with websites and he's a telco guy.

idk. it's weird! he Works In Tech in a way that i don't. all my life i've seen him as an opinionated, educated guy, and in a lot of ways he's corncobbing himself before my eyes. not that he hadn't already done that given the conspiracy shit but, you know, this is the one arena where i still ask him for advice, and here we are. it's me. i've successfully become my own dad, and he needs me more than i need him.

#tony muses #i remembered that this kinda post is what a personal tumblr is for so here we are ig #hello friends.

[sonicenvy]

more reflections on new computer (MSI Delta 15)

The speakers are not particularly powerful. My macbook air from 2013 with only one functioning speaker has better sound. I think if this were my only computer, this might be more annoying, but since this is one of 6 functioning computers that I own, I can let that go. Like they're not .... bad. They're just not super great either. Then again, this seems to be a continual theme with every windows PC I've ever owned lol (this is my 7th windows pc since 2005) Somehow all my PCs seem to die after 5-6 years (excepting my last one which made it 9.5 years whooo!) and my macs are still chugging along after 10+ years (oldest mac turned 14 this year and I finally had to replace the battery. Daily driver mac turned 11)

This computer is stupid fast and that's really nice. You know having a really fast computer is something that you give up on when you live in old computer land. So like, y'all my macbook pro 2012 is not much slower than this one (owing to the SSD and the 16GB of ram that I gave it) but it still has a longer boot time than this thing. This is making me wonder if they sell NVMe to SATA adapters so I could install a 1TB NVMe in the macbook (I have a 1tb SATA SSD on board right now). The boot time on this new PC is like 10 whole seconds which slaps.

So much less heat out of this computer compared to my last one. The reviewers of this computer complaining about the heat literally did not have my 9.5 year old PC y'all. They haven't played video games on a 14 year old mac and lived to tell the tale. The heat on the bottom of the 2009 macbook is scorching to the touch after 25 minutes in on civ v, as is the heat out of the charger. The charger on this computer is still room temp 2.5 hours into a video game. That's nice.

Also, holy shit y'all just found out that I can pick WHATEVER color I want for the backlight in the keyboard. This is a pointless but very fun feature that I LOVE.

The colors are decent in the general system and good in game. They're no adobe colorspace in PS -- my mac definitely has brighter coloring in adobe software.

once again so glad that explorer patcher exists because it has made the windows explorer/start menu experience tolerable in windows 11 which the native system does not offer. if you have windows 11 and hate the windows 11 start menu explorer patcher is for you. google it and download it. (note that there is currently a bug in it where if you have it use the windows 10 taskbar that the task viewer/gestures in the system break. Still you are able to use the start menu fix, which in my mind is the best most useful feature of the patch.

#margaret babbles #the new computer saga

[themarydragon]

The Story So Far

A few days ago, I was tagged in a WIP game, which prompted me to go, you know, LOOK at my WIP folders. I found (an original!) world I’d written a story in, and it was way better than I remembered. I remembered it being straight cringe, but as I read through it I realized (a) it wasn’t bad at all, and (b) I knew how to fix it. I vaguely remembered how it ended.... but the file I had was only the first half! What the hell? Thus begins my descent into madness.

The file was noted as v1 which implies a second version, at the very least. Given what I remembered about the story, my assumption was that I’d merely chosen to import the wrong file when I’d changed computers. Before my current laptop, I’d been using a Surface Pro, so I went digging for it.

Found it AND the charger. Plugged it in. Let it get some juice. Turned it on.

The file was the same - v1 - so I must have imported it from the first-gen Surface (NT) I’d been using in nursing school. I hadn’t wanted anything I could game on and distract myself from school, so the tablet I had was bare bones AF. Also I hadn’t touched it since I’d upgraded in 2014.

I FOUND IT. I did not find the charger. My mom had used a slightly newer version NT with the same charger, so I asked if she still had hers.

We moved in August, so our random tech boxes are not in fantastic shape, but she pulled out all the random-ass cords and chargers she had. The old-version Surface charger was not amongst them.

SO, to the internet. I found a compatible charger and ordered it. I moved to the middle of nowhere, in the woods on the side of a damn mountain, so there is no such thing as next-day shipping out here. The best anybody could do was 5 days, so I waited.

In the meantime, I searched. Old google drives, google docs, flash drives, email archives. The document did not exist. Why would it? I thought it was bad. (Keep all your stuff, kiddos, that’s the lesson here; you never know when you’ll get the flash of inspiration to redeem your old bullshit).

TODAY, the charger was delivered!

IT WORKED. My old tablet took a charge! It was booting into “Automatic Repair” and not successfully repairing, so it took a LOT of convincing, but eventually I got a login screen AND remembered my 10-year-old login AND got in! IT WORKED.

In addition to TWO other worlds I had forgotten about, one with all the outlines I need to actually flesh out another original setting (and the other the most brutal DA:I concept I’ve ever attempted to write, holy shit its evil) I found three copies of the file I was actually looking for!

They were all the same! They were all v1 and they were all imported rather than created! Which means I moved them to that Surface from my ANCIENT laptop.

So where is my 15-year-old HP crapbox? My husband, over a year ago, had taken it upon himself (in preparation of our move) to remove all the hard drives from all our old PCs and laptops and clone them to a SSD he had. I watched him do it. I talked to him about which of my files to keep. 

Where is that SSD now? Who the hell knows. But it’s SOMEWHERE and I will find it. 

#The saga of Devin and Myra #I will find their world #the notes have to be somewhere #it has to be SOMEWHERE #me #irl

[okay-computer]

i've got two inquiries. i'm looking for a colour accurate & bright display, 13 inches, doesnt have to be a powerhouse but i want to run krita/clip studio. i have a desktop for more powerful things like triple a games & video editing. below is what i'm considering for myself. 400 nits, 100%srgb (adobe is better but srgb is good enough) medium-sized ssd, windows 10 pro. my budget's $1000 & i need a windows machine.

HP Premium Envy 13 Laptop | 13.3" FHD IPS 100% sRGB Display | 11th Gen Intel 4-Core i5-1135G7 (> i7-1065G7) | 8GB DDR4 512GB SSD | Backlit Fingerprint B&O USB-C Win10 Pro Silver + 32GB Micro SD Card https://a.co/d/efuaE8m

what kind of gaming laptop would run easier tasks like minecraft, roblox, etc. as my friend wants to buy one for her brother. under $500 is ideal, new or used. i know that's a difficult ask. i'm thinking a used/refurb acer nitro? he needs it for high school courses as well. thanks!

in addition to my double question post. just going to add a few more laptops that would support my needs. forgot to mention i need it for notes in college, so fan noise, battery life, durability, and portability are important. around 400 nits of brightness or above. lit keyboard isn't necessary but is nice. i appreciate it!

Acer Swift 3 Thin & Light Laptop | 14" Full HD IPS 100% sRGB Display | AMD Ryzen 7 5700U Octa-Core Processor | 8GB LPDDR4X | 512GB NVMe SSD | WiFi 6 | Backlit KB | FPR | Amazon Alexa | SF314-43-R2YY https://a.co/d/26z6SFN

So it looks like you've got some pretty specific needs and pretty specific ideas about what you want, I'm not sure how much I can help you there. I can say that of the three computers I'm seeing linked, I'd be a bit concerned about spending that much on a 5-year-old laptop (the one with the 8th gen i5) considering that the other specs aren't all that impressive. Other than that, those all seem to be fine machines for the money.

Displays are going to display different colors; what you can do regardless is to calibrate your display. Not to be a million years old, but back in my day that's how we did it to get our designs from our PowerPC iMacs to our printer for the weekly edition of the newspaper. Here are a few ways you can try to calibrate any display (which is a good idea for everyone, tbh): https://www.makeuseof.com/how-to-calibrate-monitor-colors/

I don't know anything about gaming computers or gaming requirements, the MSI I recced earlier today might be a decent option for some basic games, but i think you're stuck with onboard graphics for that one. That may be okay for roblox, it may not; I don't know.

As to noise and battery life, you're going to have to check the reviews. Most ultra-slim computers will have low fan noise simply because their fans are going to be tiny; the issue is that if the fan gets loud because something goes wrong, it's going to be hard to replace. Honestly if you're planning on using one computer for graphics and for being a lightweight study machine, I would say "don't." Get the cheapest, smallest chromebook you can for notes in class and carrying around campus, and invest as much as possible into something with a huge screen and a ton of RAM and a newer processor for your graphics. The refurbished 17" I recced earlier might work, but that is a fucking cafeteria tray sized computer, you don't want to haul it around campus, it won't fit on most of the desks.

But, uh, yeah, as someone who spent a literal decade doing page layout on 13.3" screens, get yourself something that is big enough to have an actual visible workspace for art and design.

#asks answered