Blabberbox:Random blog-like posts from pftq.Share on Twitter

Google Bot Mobile Test Ignores Javascript

November 26th, 2022 | Posted by pftq in Blabberbox | #
Spent the last few hours trying to figure out what Google Bot was complaining about in Webmaster Tools mobile test only to realize the bot takes a snapshot of your webpage sometimes without letting any javascript load first.  Solution then is to have the page by default suitable for mobile first and adjust backwards for desktop users.  Lot of lost time adjusting things that ended up not having no effect on Google's snapshot of the page, so hopefully this note helps someone save time later (or myself if I forget).
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Compiling GooEngine Blender for Windows

November 12th, 2022 | Posted by pftq in Blabberbox | #
Just my own notes for building/compiling @dillongoo's GooEngine version of Blender for Windows, as it's not super straight forward and instructions are kind of scattered all over.  This is for version 3.3 of GooEngine (the latest at the time of this post).

1. Install Git for Windows (note, it's not the same as Github Desktop, which won't work!).  Make sure to check add Git to PATH option during install.
2. Install Visual Studio Community 2019 (2022 not yet compatible with GooEngine 3.3 based on this post).  Make sure to check the C++ desktop option.  I also checked C++ for Unreal just in case and because I use Unreal regularly for gamedev.
3. Install Subversion.
4. Install...[More]
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Artificial Imaginary

November 6th, 2022 | Posted by pftq in Stories | #
"Imaginary friends made real through AI."  

A new AI tech company sells robots for those wanting their imaginary friends made real.  The tech breaks all limits for how human and intelligent it is with no other tech coming close, and no one can understand how it came to be.  All this comes to a halt when one user ends up dead in the most gruesome circumstance.  

The scene starts with an android child befriending a human kid until it turns sociopathic and murders the family.  The android ends up missing and continuing to kill in new murder cases across the city.  

The tech firm...[More]
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Dusk's Flight OST

November 5th, 2022 | Posted by pftq in Stuck in My Head | #
Dusk's Flight OST by Denny Schneidemesser (@FilmComposer87)
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The Anonymous Ones by Amandla Stenberg

October 30th, 2022 | Posted by pftq in Stuck in My Head | #
The Anonymous Ones by Amandla Stenberg
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Where We're Going By Kevin Graham

October 27th, 2022 | Posted by pftq in Stuck in My Head | #
Where We're Going by Kevin Graham
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Redemption by Eternal Eclipse

September 20th, 2022 | Posted by pftq in Stuck in My Head | #
Redemption by Eternal Eclipse
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Kesshi by Artisan

September 3rd, 2022 | Posted by pftq in Stuck in My Head | #
Kesshi by Artisan (@artisan1233)
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GS65 Laptop Speakers Blowing Out Fix

August 25th, 2022 | Posted by pftq in Blabberbox | #
The speakers on my MSI GS65 Laptop suddenly started being extremely loud and blown out after a Windows update.  Nothing fixed it (drivers reset, etc) until I flipped the laptop over and pushed the BIOS reset pinhole with a needle.  Was so close to having to send the laptop in for repair.  Curses Windows Updates! (the one time I forget to disable it on a computer)
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Arkham Knight After The Batman

May 7th, 2022 | Posted by pftq in Blabberbox | #
Hilarious clip - was exactly what my friends and I were making fun of after watching The Batman. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrC9kAzPAmY
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The First Few Waves

April 16th, 2022 | Posted by pftq in Stuck in My Head | #
Oceans by Marcus Warner (@MWarnerMusic)
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Lady of the Light

April 16th, 2022 | Posted by pftq in Stuck in My Head | #
Lady of the Light by Bosa (@JonBabbLiberty)
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The Batman vs Darth Vader Theme

March 28th, 2022 | Posted by pftq in Blabberbox | #
It's not just similar but actually the same theme with just one note missing.
https://youtu.be/AoJ7iG4Mrd4
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White Mask

February 24th, 2022 | Posted by pftq in Stories | #
A man is working late in a museum with a white mask propped up on a table.  He notices the mask has very human-looking eyes, and when he gets closer to look, they suddenly move to look at him.  He quickly realizes this is a person wearing the mask behind the table, but when he shoves the table away, there is no one there, just the mask floating and staring back at him.  It starts to move, and when it turns, it goes invisible as if there is no back side to the face.

------

Another one that was a dream for me.
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History on NATO and Russia

February 19th, 2022 | Posted by pftq in Blabberbox | #
The following reads help give a full picture on the situation with Ukraine / Russia, since the media is omitting a lot of information and context.  
- https://www.vox.com/22900113/nato-ukraine-russia-crisis-clinton-expansion
- https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-europe-russia-vladimir-putin-soviet-union-4619a72d1597673e4112b673a9f6fd9c
- https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/01/19/putin-russia-ukraine-nato-george-robertson/

In short, NATO expanded from 15 countries to 30 in the past 20 years, and now there is Ukraine trying to join, which is right next to Russia.  When a new country joins NATO, the US tends to put its missiles there in the name of defense and common good.  Basically the last 20 years has been slow-creep of getting and closer to Russia and now we're trying to add a country right next to them.  So in this context, it makes a lot more sense how things got here and why Russia wants NATO to commit to not putting more missiles or adding more countries....[More]
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Old Phone Works After Activating Sim on New Phone

February 18th, 2022 | Posted by pftq in Blabberbox | #
This is really infuriating and @FCC or @FTC really needs to look at this. I just bought a new phone because supposedly my old phone no longer works on AT&T after the 3G sunset (despite being a 4G phone), but shortly after activating a new sim card on the new phone, I simply moved the new sim card to my old phone and it worked fine like before - 4G and everything.  What made it worse was right before I bought the phone, customer support insisted the old sim card was still activated and that my phone simply was not up to spec, which was clearly a lie.  They had disabled the old sim card and just needed to turn it back on or give me a new one, which they didn't do until I bought a new phone.  If you do too many switches as a result of this trick, your data may stop working due to a block by AT&T and you'll have to dial 611 to ask them to remove the block on your data service - again something they want you to think is your phone's problem when they literally...[More]
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How Animators and Musicians Make Money From YouTube

February 16th, 2022 | Posted by pftq in Blabberbox | #
     This is something I'm just throwing out there not for creators but more actually for fans to know how to best support their favorite artists.  It's counter-intuitive, but YouTube does not actually pay much, even if the following or view count is largest there.  This is why many creators have links to stores, merch, Patreon, and other platforms.  The ones that manage to make enough from YouTube directly to live on have to upload several videos a week, which is not feasible for animators or composers that take weeks or months just to finish one video.  Just for perspective, some of these animators/musicians I'm referring to have 10M+ views on multiple videos, but they still make almost nothing from YouTube.  For them, YouTube is more just a beacon to get followers but not actually make money - so if you do follow an artist that has links to other platforms, please do make sure to check those out.

     For musicians I know,...[More]
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Tetrachromats Seeing a Fourth Color

January 31st, 2022 | Posted by pftq in Blabberbox | #
Very interesting article on some people who see with a fourth color cone.  It's extra fuel for my God's Flashlight stuff about worlds in other light spectrums that may invisible to us (or us to them).

See: The Woman Who Can See 100 Million Colours

Extra cool is that I was very close in God's Flashlight on the notion that manmade lights in cities are unbearable to those in these other spectrums.  It makes me wonder if all the artificial light we're exposed to is slowly trimming away the extras in what we can see that we might not notice over time.  I did a bit more research and did find hints of that from an older article, specifically mentioning that we've painted our modern world so much in colors we are used to seeing that it may be that people who can see more don't even know it from lack of use.  

It took 20+...[More]
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Old vs New Crash Music

January 31st, 2022 | Posted by pftq in Blabberbox | #
Reminds me of working on Koto Breaker and @WaterflameMusic being unable to stop trying to make the song happy and chill lol
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEylM0mJtlg
(or the quiet part out loud - old vs new Waterflame music bahaha )
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Spam Calls from 916

January 20th, 2022 | Posted by pftq in Blabberbox | #
I've been getting spam calls from different 916 area code numbers almost everyday.  It's the same robo-call message but a different 916 number every time, so my call blacklist just keeps growing.

Any ideas welcome. (and yeah, I got another call while typing this lol)

The call always opens with: "Hello? Hello, this is James..."

Below are...[More]
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