• 9 Posts
  • 81 Comments
Joined 2 years ago
cake
Cake day: June 1st, 2023

help-circle

  • I started paying for Google music when it started because I didn’t like Spotify. Now I’ve been paying for so long it doesn’t make sense to move away. When they implementet YT premium, I was hooked. I haven’t seen an ad in years.

    Also, streaming music and video is also way more data intensive, I wouldn’t expect the random good Samaritan to pay the server costs for me. Yeah ads suck, but I don’t see it as such a crazy thing to pay for not to have. Two decades ago you’d pay for cable and still get ads.

    I don’t approve of Google blocking adblockers because I’m sure it doesn’t hurt their bottom line that much, but I also don’t blame them.


  • So let’s say you want to buy a painting for your house. You’ve got a few options. You can go online, look at various items and choose to buy it. You could go to a gallery, look around and decide to buy whichever one suits you.

    But crucially, you get to what you’re buying before you commit to the ownership. You may not own the rights to the paintings (its probably a print), but you know what you’re getting. Why would I pay for a movie if I don’t know whether or not it’s worth it.

    Netflix, Hulu, amazon, etc. Are like galleries. They have an entrance fee and that’s ok. But what most of them don’t have anyway for me to actually buy a copy. Netflix movies require you to pay month over month to maintain access. So you are forever required to go to their gallery.

    Like your friend, I’ll pirate to watch a movie and if I like it, then I’ll buy it. I try to buy physical discs, but they are becoming more and more rare. I pirate because I want ownership. Subscription models work because they are more convenient than physical purchases. But that convience is getting smaller every day.

    There is a few reasons why I want physical copies. License deals expire and thus the content may disappear from the service it’s on. My internet may be out. Yes, I can download, but that requires inconvenient forethought and you’re always limited in the number of downloads and quality of those downloads. Having a large collection of movies in my home means I’m never without option.

    Basically, I pirate because I’m not going to buy something that I don’t know if I want it, and because I’m a doomsday prepper who has no other option 90% of the time.















  • The best beginner guide I’ve found is bcae1. It’s just some dudes blog, but he made it up as a basic electronics lesson plan with a focus on car audio. It’ll help you to get a really good idea of how everything works together. I still regularly use the site as reference.

    On YouTube, there’s a channel called Car Audio Fabrication . He explains alot of stuff very well and will give suggestions on what equipment to buy. He puts a lot of focus on making a build look clean and professional.

    For home stuff, parts express is the defacto DIY audio store. They have a lot of resources on their site from blog posts, how to guides, and even customer projects.

    Crutchfield is easily one of the best sources for both home and car. Excellent customer support, virtually unbeatable. Lots of resources like parts express (maybe more). They do tend to carry more mainstream products. Which is fine. It’s all quality products, but I do find that you’re often paying more for Crutchfield. Both because a lot of their products carry name weight and are more expensive because of that, and because their customer support is good enough to warrant a little extra.

    For car stuff, since I do competition grade builds, I like sounds solutions audio and Down 4 Sound. D4S’ owner is very active on YouTube and Instagram.

    Well, that’s a lot of good places to start. Electricity is magic. Don’t fool yourself into thinking it’s not. Even after you “understand” it, it’s still magic. The last link up give you is for Sparkfun. They’re a retailer like parts express and Crutchfield with excellent guides/resources and community showcases. They’re focus is on low voltage electronics like arduino and raspberry pi.

    Anyway, have fun learning. If you have questions, feel free to DM me. I love talking about this stuff.


  • Nights absolutely. With 2 weeks off, I easily stay up till 5 in the morning without even realizing it’s that late. I’ve always found it hard to sleep at 10pm like other people, and I won’t start get tired until 3am.

    Unfortunately the shift I’m on right now is 12 hour shifts, which means I’m up till 8-10am. Which is a little later than I like, but I still feel better than waking up at 6am. Working 6am-6pm is way rougher on me than 6pm-6am


  • I don’t know if I have the same disorder, but I definitely feel this. It’s so much nicer at night. A lot of people fuck up their sleep schedule on the weekends. I keep the weekends the same as my work week and have no problems being sleepy.

    But I’m considering applying for a new position at my organization which will mean I have to shift back to days. I’m not sure if the promotion is worth the headache of early mornings and the commute.


  • I build loudspeakers, both home and car. But, mostly car subwoofers, amplifiers, head units etc. But also home speakers for home theaters.

    I absolutely love it. Music is a big passion of mine (despite never learning to play an instrument). I love it because every project has so many challenges. I love electrical work and designing a system from scratch and then getting to see it actually work iis awesome. It’s like little engineering challenges all throughout. Very engaging for me.

    There’s also a lot of wood working involved. Making a functional piece of furniture and getting to expirement with different techniques is a lot of fun.