TreeInBuxton (u/TreeInBuxton)

TreeInBuxton commented on Amazon will allow ePub and PDF downloads for DRM-free eBooks kdpcommunity.com/s/articl... · Posted by u/captn3m0

deltaburnt · 2 days ago

Much less money lost, but Amazon is notorious for not providing free game codes that are supposed to be included with GPU purchases. The customer rep at first apologized and offered a small refund (less than the cost of the game). A later rep started implying I was trying to defraud Amazon.

Many people online share similar experiences. Wonder how much money this wide-scale fraud saves them.

TreeInBuxton · 2 days ago

Amazon doing dodgy things with PC parts is why I will no longer purchase them from there - I'll happily take the extra £10-20 hit to buy it from another "proper" retailer (ie, Scan or Overclockers here in the UK), knowing that issues can be resolved more easily

TreeInBuxton commented on Same-day upstream Linux support for Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 qualcomm.com/developer/bl... · Posted by u/mfilion

hypercube33 · 24 days ago

Snapdragon does poorly I think because it's a bet if it works or not. Windows runs things seamlessly other than OpenGL (it can run that too but it's not anything strait forward - needs the gl to dx store app thing) but the other reason is cost. for the premium business laptop most buyers (business) won't budge off Intel even because of the "no one got fired for buying IBM" mentality at the big Enterprises Ive been at.

I will say with my 8 gen 3 snapdragon I'm impressed and also disappointed - stupid thing needs active cooling and I'm pretty sure it's bad enough that it's desoldered or damaged the core or something from heat but also you can't get driver updates for the GPU if you wanted because Qualcomm be the way it do.

TreeInBuxton · 24 days ago

I've used basically every Windows on Arm machine - I actually quite like my X Elite ThinkPad T14s Gen6, compared the the X13s - feels like they got everything right, that the X13s got wrong

TreeInBuxton commented on Retiring Test-Ipv6.com retire.test-ipv6.com/... · Posted by u/birdculture

denysvitali · 3 months ago

Not my ISP (Init7 FTW!), but my router (Mikrotik) is notoriously infamous for being a total crap at IPv6 (see for example https://michael.stapelberg.ch/posts/2021-05-28-configured-an...)

In my particular case there seems to be an odd bug / misconfiguration from my side that makes the router / clients from time to time loose the IPv6 routing. The fallback is... a connection hanging forever. The only fix? Reconnecting to the Wi-Fi to get refresh the DHCP lease.

I debugged it for waay too long, and at this point I'm 80% convinced it's a Mikrotik bug of some sort.

TreeInBuxton · 3 months ago

I've also had no issues with IPv6 on my Mikrotik router (RB5009) - I did have to set the MTU to 1280 because of some poor IPv6 implementations elsewhere for a stable connection, though.

TreeInBuxton commented on Blender is Native on Windows 11 on Arm thurrott.com/music-videos... · Posted by u/thunderbong

bhouston · 4 months ago

Nice! I would expect that it was relatively straight foward given that Blender is native on MacOS ARM and also iOS ARM?

Blender is just so nice to use these days.

TreeInBuxton · 4 months ago

There was a talk on this at Blendercon last year!: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVn8wQ3tKxA

TreeInBuxton commented on Electric cars produce less brake dust pollution than combustion-engine cars modernengineeringmarvels.... · Posted by u/tzs

pjc50 · 5 months ago

I wonder which vehicles that is - is that predominantly the non-pluggable Prius?

TreeInBuxton · 5 months ago

There is a wide variety, MHEV is quite popular here due to lack of home charging, as many people live in terraces, etc

We have a selection of smaller popular hatchbacks with MHEV available (ie, the Hyundai i20) that I believe were not released in some markets

The leasing culture for "luxury" cars is quite prevalent here too, and many new cars from popular brands such as Land Rover are at minimum MHEV from new nowadays, in order to get fleet emissions down

TreeInBuxton commented on UN says scam call centers are epidemic and expanding globally theregister.com/2025/04/2... · Posted by u/jnord

netsharc · 8 months ago

I had (have?) the idea that one could have an off-band signal that "Yes it's actually my number trying to call your number". Anyone who wants to steal it, feel free, but I have a feeling Google/Apple could implement it and eat your lunch.

So before I call the number (say the phone number is 9), my phone app will log into a central server and say "My number is 7, and I'm trying to call 9". The phone 9 will check the server and see that "Oh I'm getting a call from 7" and then ask the server, "Is 7 trying to call me?", and will get a confirmation.

There'll be different warnings if 7 currently doesn't have data connection, or got a new phone and hasn't logged on for a while, or 7 doesn't even have an account on the server. If 7 has recently pinged the server and then tries to call 9 without notifying the server, the server can say "I can't see any sign from 7 that he's trying to call you." then 9's phone can warn her. There'll be different warnings for different situations.

And we can use certificates and do tricks like not needing an account for each phone number, but send a message "Yes this number from Microsoft tech support is actually trying to reach you.", signed with Microsoft's certificate. But then the scammers will get a certificate for "Micro5oft", etc.

Looking forward to a reply moaning about centralized authorities monitoring people's calls. Although as I write this I realize telcos can do this already. Perhaps it can be a P2P solution...

TreeInBuxton · 8 months ago

I believe this is what STIR/SHAKEN was trying to do, however getting global adoption (which is what would be required) is where it fell over

TreeInBuxton commented on Thank HN: The puzzle game I posted here 6 weeks ago got licensed by The Atlantic theatlantic.com/games/bra... · Posted by u/brgross

yungporko · 8 months ago

i'm a native english speaker and even i can't complete most of these because it's so US-centric. this is virtually unplayable for non-americans, which is a shame because it's a really good game.

TreeInBuxton · 8 months ago

Agreed - I went through a few past ones, and unfortunately it just felt like you had to be fairly familiar with US products, landmarks, etc

I loved the concept, just not some of the clues

TreeInBuxton commented on Passport Photos maxsiedentopf.com/passpor... · Posted by u/gaws

rconti · a year ago

It's a lot of "fun" trying to get acceptable photos. Last week I went to my local American Automobile Association (AAA) office to get an International Driver's Permit (IDP). It's just a translation of your license, which is valid for 1 year. I had to take 2 passport-sized photos with me, which I did.

But I was told they wouldn't be accepted because I had long hair and a beard in them, but short hair and no beard now. That's absurd, because it's the same photo used in both of my passports, and there's no requirement that you don't alter your appearance from your passport photo. Somehow border guards can crack the code.

Amusingly, my California driver's license shows short hair and no beard, but the AAA person wasn't even looking at my CA license at the time. What happens if I grow long hair and a beard before I travel? Was he just trying to upsell me on a $9.99 photo?

We had a hell of a time getting the UK passport authorities to accept the photos we sent in for her passport; they recommend getting your photos taken at an "official" UK location where the digital photos are identified by a code you send in. Well, we happened to be traveling through Australia during this timeframe, so we were able to stop at an Australian Post Office, which supposedly had the same "digital" system, but instead of a code to send to the UK authorities, they handed us printed photos and a web link. Thankfully I was able to use the web link to download the photo and upload it to the UK site, where it was approved almost immediately, and the new passport arrived back at our home before we returned from our trip. But there's no user-obvious criteria that was being used to reject the SEVERAL rounds of photos we had sent to the UK earlier.

TreeInBuxton · a year ago

In my recent experience renewing my UK passport, I found I was able to submit the image regardless of the complaining it gave, I just had to write a note as to why I thought the image did in fact meet their criteria.

In my case, whatever detection software they used seemed to think my eyes were closed, which they were not.

I just used a normal picture taken on a phone, against a plain white wall, accepted with no issues.

TreeInBuxton commented on National Park Service Will Cite AWD Drivers for Driving on 4WD-Only Trails jalopnik.com/national-par... · Posted by u/rntn

survirtual · a year ago

I took my Tesla model 3 places that made people's heads spin. The clearance is bad, and I had to replace the bottom coverings a few times (until I installed skid plates), and I scraped more times than I can count, but it always kept going.

The only time I got stuck was on a sand dune. I had been through rivers, up rocky mountains, middle of deserts, icy cliffs, but sand managed to stop me. A huge lifted truck saw me and got me out with a tow strap around my front tire.

No one would believe or understand the places I went with that car, but I know. Electric drive is just superior, end of story.

I will be waiting for someone to make a rugged, utilitarian all-electric truck or jeep-like offroad vehicle. No touch screens, no extras. Just 4 independent motors with adjustable high-low clearance (4 independent hydraulic lifts would be sweet) and at least 500 miles of range -- or more.

As much range as possible. This lets you use the battery for other purposes -- running power tools, running climate control all night, even cooking with electricity.

My dream is a fully electric off/on road vehicle that can go anywhere, with a foldable 10kw+ solar array for silent charging, totally independent of traditional energy infrastructure.

TreeInBuxton · a year ago

I am keeping an eye on the Ineos Fusilier (https://ineosgrenadier.com/en/gb/news/introducing-the-ineos-...) for something along those lines - it will have both a full EV and a range-extended hybrid powertrain

Maybe one day I will replace my Land Rover...

TreeInBuxton commented on The Rise and Fall of the LAN Party aftermath.site/lan-party-... · Posted by u/gaws

TreeInBuxton · 2 years ago

I still manage to attend lots of LAN parties in the UK!

The major one - several thousand - Insomnia (although I volunteer for that), and a host of smaller ones with a much more community feel, such as StratLAN.

Is the feeling slightly different to what I imagine it used to be? Yes, as if the Internet goes down, then many games stop working - but then at the smaller ones (ie Strat), I find I spend more of my time chatting to like-minded people, playing board games, etc. I even have a friend that comes over from NL for it sometimes!

LANs aren't dead quite yet :)