All Linux Things

Dark themes are restful as you dont get all the accumulated bright light from the screen all at once. Only the things you need to see are accented and easier to read. Thats why the dark high contrast themes are so popular particularly among older adults.

I get what the science says. I just know when I look at the dark screens, my eyes hurt. When I look at bright screen, my eyes hurt. When I look at mid-colors that have good contrast, my eyes don't hurt.

Its not so much science as its just easier for us old folk.

On the new 5485 today. Hasn't failed to boot today, which is nice. It runs REALLY nice, as to be expected from a modern quad-core 15-watt design w/ 32GB ram and a 1TB high performance NVMe SSD. I'm definitely impressed with the fact that they really reduced the size of these from the last Inspiron 14" 2-in-1 I had, which was only a couple generations ago. Overall probably my favorite laptop as far as the look, although the Latitude 7400 is even smaller and lighter (not a 2-in-1), and the CPU in that (8365U) still manages to beat the 3500u in every performance metric (efficiency, single core, multi-core). But I did pay less for this than I did the 7400 (~$600 vs. ~$800)

Thats way to expensive for me but glad youre having fun. Im still playing with older hardware and did some work on a Dell D830 for a friend recently.

Due to not buying gas, I'm saving about $100 a week during lockdown (yes, I spend about $100 a week on gas due to requiring 91+ octane with how much I'd normally drive), so I've already saved $300 of that price in gas. When a surprisingly LARGE part of your monthly budget is gas, and suddenly you don't spend that money, it's kinds shocking how quickly you can afford things. Once lockdowns over, my spending will be, too.

Im still working but I prefer to buy older high end laptops, usually business class for under $100 and refurbish them if needed.

Other than my Latitude 3500, I generally just like stuff that has REALLY nice LCD's. High end, low end, doesn't really matter as long as it can have >8GB ram, and has a nice lcd. I'll take a low end celeron processor, what I do generally is fine with that. The 3500 isn't that it's a BAD LCD, but it's definitely not on par with my normal purchase. It is 1080P, but is 15", and a TN, so it's rather dull colors, lousy viewing angles, and low contrast (well, comparitive to what I'd normally buy). However, the simple fact is that when I bought it, it was still in production (still for sale now, but not sure if still in production), and I picked it up for LESS than 50% what they sold for for the specs I got it with. So...was worth it. And it's a nice laptop, and the one big thing is when I'm getting ready for bed, I can actually use this one without THAT much problem due to the size of the screen making everything large enough that I can read without my contacts or glasses without getting overly close. Course, using it in bed leaves marks across my chest as it's BY FAR the heaviest laptop I own.

Got a new fight stick for my pc's for my emulators. Been going through and playing all the Street Fighter Alpha's on the Saturn (I found a rom of Street Fighter Zero 3, but can't find Street Fighter Alpha 3). My god they're just as hard as I remember. I also played a few super classics, like the original Street Fighter II Championship Fighting...on the TurboGrafx 16. Also did Street Fighter Alpha 3 on the Dreamcast sine I couldn't find it for Saturn (it was released!!). I dislike how you have to change the button configuration on retroarch. Takes a LONG time to figure out which controller button maps to which game button. Luckily they allow you to export it, so once you figure it out, you never need do it again for that controller. That makes it tolerable.
Probably going to work on getting the controller to function well for Mortal Kombat games tomorrow. Totally different layout wanted for max comfort.

I was more of a shooter type during that era and really didnt play fight games much at all. Even in the arcades it was shooter games, Galaga one of my favorites Who did you get your fight stick from? I still play older consoles so really dont use emulators much at all.