ChiaraStellata

It's perfect digital quality end-to-end, no noise or hiss or ground loops, volume level is perfectly matched, and latency is near zero. Plus no software changes and cross-OS. Using this to mix audio between my work and personal laptops to hear both at the same time. Very happy with this result.

Finally found the ideal way to mix audio between two PCs.
I construct a USB-to-TOSLINK-to-USB audio cable using a Cubilux USB A to TOSLINK converter, standard TOSLINK optical audio cable, and Hifime UR23 SPDIF Optical to USB Converter, then on the receiving computer I enable "Listen to this device".

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Microwave your food at 50% power for twice as long. It'll cook more evenly.

People say the "dark side" of the moon is a misnomer, because usually the sun is striking both hemispheres. But there is a sense in which it is truly darker: the far side of the moon is never lit by Earthshine (reflected light from the Earth) whereas the near side almost always is.

Woo another stream with all four Seraphim!! :D Exciting!

Photo of a bedroom ceiling with stuffed animals on the bottom and right part of the frame on shelves. Filtered light from blinds creates a shape that resembles a whale with its tail lifted up and curving above it.

On my bedroom ceiling this morning I saw this whale made of light 🐋

Bowl shaped white stone sitting on an instruction manual written in Japanese.

Same scene viewed from above, showing the document magnified by 2x as viewed through the circular optical fiber taper.

Just got this awesome optical fiber taper, it's like a rock that magnifies things! Using it to help read small kanji! 😊

Tu y arriveras, ça ne prendra que quelques jours !

You know you're the biggest bitch of all :P

There is a difference between a song I respect and a song I love. Some songs I consider highly influential masterpieces but don't enjoy listening to them personally. Some songs are guilty pleasures that I love listening to while fully acknowledging they are completely banal manufactured trash.

Today finally got one of the new 27-inch 4K OLED monitors (AW2725Q), and it is even more beautiful than I dreamed. Incredible contrast and vivid colors, really responsive running at 240 Hz, super detailed. Everything from text to games to high-res art looks amazing on it. Cannot stop staring.

This is awesome and a huge deal, not just for the disabled but also ESL speakers and just people watching on mute. I'm really happy that this will be added and I hope it becomes standard one day!

Telephone pole with birds flying at high altitude in a disrupted V formation above it

Just saw these migrating birds! They were at incredibly high altitude, barely specks in the sky. Their formation was briefly disrupted by a passing plane.

*It was not, in fact, a great day.

Layoffs without warning, where people don't even get to say goodbye their coworkers, are standard practice, but they are hurtful and wrong. Security risk can be managed. Tearing people apart and destroying thousand of relationships overnight does incalculable damage.

Tomorrow will be better. ❤️ You got this.

You did amazing. You pushed yourself hard and you deserve a rest now. ❤️

Rogue planet: Sun? I have no sun.

Another fun fact: once you get within 1.6 light years of Alpha Centauri, you'd be able to resolve the two stars of the binary system with the naked eye as separate stars. Once you get up to ~0.6 light years away from Centauri, you'd be able to see Alpha Proxima with the naked eye. It's tiny.

I like to imagine a science exhibit where you have a long, totally dark hallway, and at each end a calibrated light bulb representing the Sun and Alpha Centauri. By walking down that hallway, you'd see their brightnesses change exactly like the real thing would on that 4.4 light year journey.

I plotted Sirius's magnitude as constant here but in reality it does shift a little as you travel along the route. It may get as much as 0.2 dimmer by the time you reach Alpha Centauri.

Chart reading "Apparent Brightness of the Sun vs. Alpha Centauri and Sirius Along the Route". The y axis on left reads "Apparent Magnitude (lower=brighter)" and is labelled from 0 up to -10. The x axis on bottom reads "Distance from Sun (light-years)" and is labelled from 0 up to 4.4, the distance to Alpha Centauri. A yellow curve representing the Sun begins at -10 and descends to +0.4. A red curve representing the Alpha Centauri binary system begins at -0.27 and ascends to 12. A dotted purple line representing Sirius remains constant at -1.46. All three appear to intersect at a central point, 1.75 light years from Earth, where the Sun and Alpha Centauri both have magnitude -1.52, and Sirius still has magnitude -1.46.

Fun fact: if you travel 1.75 light years along the route from here toward Alpha Centauri, at that point the Sun and Alpha Centauri system will appear equal in brightness, and BOTH of them will be slightly brighter than Sirius, which is otherwise the brightest star in the sky.

My ability to tolerate bad customer service is directly proportional to how good their hold music is.

Picture of the Moon and Mercury and Mercury, side-by-side against a field of stars. Both are dark gray with many small craters, with Mercury having a 40% larger diameter. The Moon has some more noticeable large dark areas (maria).

I learned today to my shock that the Moon and Mercury actually look really similar. They both have dark gray surfaces full of craters, and little to no atmosphere. Mercury is just a bit bigger, and internally has a larger iron core, but otherwise, they look just like siblings!

Steam review. Thumbs up, recommended. 26.3 hours last two weeks, 35.3 hrs on record. This is one of the most impactful games I've ever played in my life. I don't often connect in a deep emotional way with games, but the themes of this game, which revolve around a lot of adult themes like family and anxiety and trying to construct identity, really resonated with me. Every reaction that Siffrin went through, the highs and the lows, feeling cold or sick or shocked, feeling hopeful or loved, I had a direct physical reaction to it in my body, and I was moved to tears many times - I even considered stopping playing because the weight of it became unbearable sometimes. The dialog is natural and subtle, the rapport between the main characters is heartwarming, and every single character design is unique and interesting, even the minor side characters. And the nonbinary and ace representation was also very thoughtful and welcome. The use of animations / sfx / music, text formatting, and character portraits to communicate emotions was also very well done. I was genuinely shocked by every plot twist, and I recommend playing blind if you can. I have a feeling this game will stick with me for a long time. I will note that this is a story-driven game, the RPG mechanics are minimal and mostly there to support the story. There are character stats, equipment, spells with cooldown, a literal rock-paper-scissors type system, and (fixed) classes, but most of this game you will not be struggling to win fights, nor is there any grinding. It's not the point. And although the worldbuilding is intriguing, the setting is also in many ways a conventional fantasy setting - the focus is really on the characters. If that's what you're here for, play this game.

I just finished playing "In Stars and Time" which is a 2023 indie RPG and it's one of the most impactful games I've played in my life. I recommend it to everyone. This is my Steam review:

YouTube video by Anly Official YouTube Channel 【LIVE】『Do Do Do』from "Loop Around The World"

Recently discovered the artist Anly from Okinawa and she's amazingly talented, not only for drawing on all kinds of genres from blues to Celtic, but also for her live shows where she does her own accompaniment and background vocals using only a guitar and loop pedal! www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZUN...

Manazashi - Acoustic Live HACHI · Birthday Acoustic Live · Song · 2024

Discovered the virtual singer HACHI recently, she has a spectacular voice, I think it comes through clearest in her live acoustic performances. My favorite track by her so far is this acoustic version of Manazashi (まなざし). open.spotify.com/track/6LlUlK...

I'm not saying thorium reactors don't produce any weapons-grade materials, but historically part of the reason uranium reactors were preferred was because they produced plutonium-239 which was useful in weapons. And if such weapons didn't exist I wonder if that would have changed the outcome.

Here's a crazy thought: if nuclear weapons hadn't been developed, then we might have preferred thorium reactors to uranium reactors, which are much safer, and the anti-nuclear energy movement might not have existed, and if nuclear energy proliferated, climate change might not have ever happened.