Topic: The Chit-Chat Thread

I think I'm gonna play the Ape Escape games.
What do you guys think is the best version of 1? The PSX original or On the Loose for PSP?

@Vinny
I think better the PSP version.

@ThanosReXXX Thanks for the heads up! I thought I was going to miss out on it since i don't have my Switch on me, but thankfully found the web based redemption tool just moments before rjejr posted it

@ThanosReXXX Thanks! I'll give it a look later but I'm sure im already late to the party.

And you DEFINITELY don't want to touch those, if you don't necessarily have to...

@NEStalgia You're welcome, man.

@NintendoByNature Do it, do it now! Get to the chopper!
You don't need to be on the Switch, after all. You can just redeem a code on your PC or smart device, and then download later, when you're home.

@Heavyarms55 Because capacitive touch switch are "futuristic trendy/stylish" with the iWorld, and because, more importantly, they are cheaper. They just need a surface pad printed to a PCB, wired to the surface whereas mechanical buttons and micro switches need to be attached and tend to involve springs or springsteels. $.001 x 10 million units sold = $10,000 on the quarterlies, after all!

Your students don't mind it because to their tiny hands, the panels seem huge and easy to hit. If the panel was 4x it's current size you could probably hit it fine too. That, and because they don't have the responsibility of mission-critical needs of accurate, repeatable, no-fail button presses. Hitting it 5 times to get it to work is fine when you're seven. Add all the failed presses up over 20 years and you're ready to start killing people. I had one of the earliest pioneers of the category, the touch lamp, when I was a kid. I was infuriated by the time I was 14. Plus "to turn the lights on, smear your finger grease all over the polished brass" wasn't really a smart plan.

@ThanosReXXX Most kitchen sinks have the lever type knob here. Heck even the 80's sink I had had it. You just bump it with the back of your wrist or something. That said, next time around I might actually go back to the two knobs. With my freezing plumbing problems on the exterior wall I have to leave water dripping continuously during the colder parts of winter, and with the lever there's no real way to get both hot and cold dripping just slightly as with two knobs. I've had frozen pipes on one side or the other more times than I'd like to recall - not to mention the cold pipe part extends TO the outside to the hose, so part of it is physically sitting outdoors, conducting all that sub-zero temps into the rest of the pipe. Knobs are a lot easier to control the flow on both sides.

@NEStalgia Don't you use any kind of insulation on those pipes? I can understand that the outdoor tap is exposed, but indoors should always be insulated. It is a standard requirement over here. Same as walls and windows.

@ThanosReXXX @1UP_MARIO Thanks I was able to get it.

@ThanosReXXX No idea how current construction is done, but pipes were rarely insulated here unless it's done specially, later, and while in the cabinet I tacked a little on, you'd have to remove the drywall and all to insulate anywhere else. Maybe new stuff is different. Though I watched them building an entire 300+ unit $3k/mo ultra-luxury apartment building out of wood with a faux brick veneer...so....

I actually took the insulation I'd put on, off, in the cabinet since that makes the cold water worse since you're insulating a copper tube from the CABINET's ambient air (which may or may not also be below freezing if it's sufficiently cold but could have some heat in it), while the end is sticking out outdoors, conducting the cold into the INSIDE of the insulation through the copper and water.

70's architecture. Get some 2x4's, slap some drywall inside, sheetrock and metal or plastic siding on the outside, and throw some thin fiberglass cotton candy in it, and call it a day. Cut a 1.5" hole in the wall for a 1" pipe to hang out, and just put some caulking in the hole. Only on the exterior. Heck the phone company installed the fiber a few years ago, cut the hole, and left it like that. No insulation, no nothing, just an open hole, though it wasn't a big deal to fill in myself.

I've heard of worse. 1930's/40's houses where you have to remove the entire furnace to get to the water heater, with just a little flap cut in the wall to access a pilot light on it.

I think the idea when they build this stuff was that labor was really cheap and materials were scarce, so you don't need to worry about it. Of course the problem is, even if you "improve it" now, it only hurts people like me stuck with the old stuff. Now to make any fixes you have even MORE expense and nightmare to go through than you did before. The solution was not to do it stupidly to begin with not to force people to fix it that can't afford to, later after the value of the work has been inflated massively. Once it's done broken, just let us leave it broken. It's what we've got.

They fixed freezing outdoor faucets by requiring "frost free" valves. Stupid things have plastic handles, always leak, and protrude 8" or so into the wall. You used to just shut the water off in the basement for the winter. I don't even use the one outdoor faucet anymore, it leaks if I use it, but I can't change it because they'll require the new type.....the pipe is in front of the wall of the closet....just a simple 90deg bend in the exterior wall. The frost free would require jutting out into the closet, and then building some sort of wood/drywall box around it half a foot into the closet to contain the back of it, moving the pipe back to come up inside the closet. No thanks. I wish I could just get the same valve and replace it...it's a 15 minute job. But no, we've improved the standards so a simple $4 15 minute replacement is now an $800 plumbing, carpentry, and drywall job that strips me of part of the tiny closet forever. So I just leave it permanently off. Technically the "real" solution is just tear the place down and rebuild it "modern." If I ever have a spare $200k+ sitting around I suppose that's an option....there's always Vegas?

@Heavyarms55 Hey, I was starting to wonder where you disappeared off to. Glad you had a great vacation! Once I build up more personal time at my current job, I'll likely take about a week off at some point just to game and do a few things that need done around the house.

@ThanosReXXX Thanks for the link; I'll try to watch it when I'm off work later. As for breakable weapons; that's something I don't dislike in games per se, but I prefer if when they don't break at all. TBH I know Skyward Sword kind of sent the series I the crafting direction, and I didn't really mind it there. I do know BotW runs off a lot more with that idea.

And thanks for also bringing that thread to my attention, but it seems that I'm too late to the party this time around. XD Which is fine as I think the second hinted game distribution, going off the provided trailer, is more my speed anyway.

@NEStalgia Maybe you should inquire with those fancy-shmansy neighbors of yours, how they've protected their piping...

As for Vegas: you'd be rid of the snow and frost, but you'd get other problems in exchange for those.
And nobody likes sand and dirt in their bath tub water...

@Tyranexx Well, at least you're now aware of them, so there's that.

@ThanosReXXX Actually the fancy-shmansy neighbors have the same problems in much, much newer houses. Plumber once told me (after I had a big burst from the problem) he'd just been over in one of those neighborhoods and a lot of people were having the problems too.

"Starting in the low $780,000's" indeed!

Of course those people no doubt just got a whole wall/attic/basement/exterior redo-job to the tune of $90,000 or so so it won't happen again. Just some pocket change and a small loan. No problem lasts long when you can just buy your way out of it.

Fixed the pickup. Got the new starter installed in under 15 minutes; the late afternoon sun was at a perfect ‘flashlight’ position. Now it cranks quicker than new cars. Still gotta replace that valve cover gasket and oil pan gasket. But whatevs.

@NintendoByNature I’m now sucked into Witcher 3. I’ve gone full Mass Effect and Fallout mode, looting and reading every single thing. Even village animals aren’t safe from my Igni.

@NEStalgia Same problems, huh? I can just imagine you having a big old smirk on your face, once you found out that they did, thinking "serves them right", or something along those lines...

@ThanosReXXX Yuup.

@HobbitGamer yep it's pretty easy to get fully engulfed. In a way, it feels alot like botw, but I dont think it's quite as fluid at botw is. I love geralt but it just isn't the same feeling I get from a zelda game. I use igni on dang near EVERYTHING!!!! As the great Danny Devito once said as the penguin, BURN BABY BURN!!!

@Tyranexx I indeed still exist! And with all the terrifying news going on right now with Iran and America, I am really, really glad I live in Japan right now!

@NEStalgia Very good points! My students are a tad older than that but I think the idea still stands. They are young enough that they've probably used it all or most of their life too. There is a Japanese saying that goes something like "the frog in the well knows nothing of the outside world" If you've only experienced the one thing, you don't realize if it is good or bad.

México and Canada are like the two guys that just kinda stare at each other silently, while that one guy sitting in between them hurls insults at someone on the other side of the room.

@Eel It was insults, more recently it's been more like chairs and rocks. Eventually the guy on the other side of the room is gonna throw something real nasty back. I hope at least Mexico and Canada aren't caught in the middle.

Mexico is probably looking at memes on his phone, desperately trying to ignore the situation.