[Drezha]

256GB thumdrives at MyMemory are fairly cheap – about £20 when I checked recently. I’ve got one at the minute as a cold store backup that when I plug it in, the drive gets mounted, copied to and then dismounted.

Last 3.5″ enclosure I bought was on the pricey side in comparison to the others above… Qnap TR-002. Currently running two 3TB drives in RAID 0 and holds my game collection.

"Everything looks interesting until you do it. Then you find it’s just another job" - Terry Pratchett

[Drezha]

Just checking the page, Beat Saber doesn’t support hand tracking. Waltz of the Wizard is supports it, but it’s not a title I own.

"Everything looks interesting until you do it. Then you find it’s just another job" - Terry Pratchett

[Drezha]

Using the Oculus controllers. Wasn’t sure if I can do hand tracking for Beat Saber.

"Everything looks interesting until you do it. Then you find it’s just another job" - Terry Pratchett

[Drezha]

Had my first play on Beat Saber today – I was never any good at Guitar Hero and this comes across in this I think!

"Everything looks interesting until you do it. Then you find it’s just another job" - Terry Pratchett

[Drezha]

Sorry to hear the terminal diagnosis. Thanks for all the messages on here.

"Everything looks interesting until you do it. Then you find it’s just another job" - Terry Pratchett

[Drezha]

My understanding of it is that it’s because you’re moving in game, and it’s tricking the brain, as you might not physically be moving (i.e. I was moving by using the joystick on the device and turning by turning myself).

The 1060 works, but the refresh rate of the Quest 2 is 90Hz, and I don’t think in some latest games I can hit 90fps at the screen res of the Quest. I’ve read that it does effect the experience more on VR than on a standard game screen.

It’s dropped now to the reasonable price of entry I think – considering you don’t need a PC for this one, £300 is reasonable.

"Everything looks interesting until you do it. Then you find it’s just another job" - Terry Pratchett

[Drezha]

I can see how the motion sickness can come in to it. I played some Warhammer 40K: Battle Sister last night (as I enjoy Grim Dark!) and that was the first game I’d played where you move (without moving yourself) and that caused a slight degree of motion sickness after 15 minutes or so. I’d read that it was best not to push through it, so I stopped that one.

However, I’d hooked it up to the PC at the weekend and play some Star Wars Squadrons – was blown away at how good that was (though shows that I need a better card than a 1060GTX if I want to get the most from the PC for it!) Only issue there is I’ll have to play it more to make sure I remember the buttons on the joystick, as you obviously can’t see it with the headset on!

"Everything looks interesting until you do it. Then you find it’s just another job" - Terry Pratchett

[Drezha]

Yeah, it’s a possibility. I know that Resilio Sync doesn’t work behind the firewall and annoyingly, I can access SFTP on my Synology via SSH, only if I use Port 22 – any other port out is blocked.

Hey ho!

"Everything looks interesting until you do it. Then you find it’s just another job" - Terry Pratchett

[Drezha]

At the minute, only played the Oculus specific games that you download on to the headset, I’ll be trialling PC linked VR tomorrow after my cable arrived today (it needs a good quality USB cable – it’s recommended to use a 5m Anker cable, rather than pay the £80 Oculus want for the branded one, so that arrived today so I can try tomorrow or later tonight).

I’m also aware of motion sickness from VR, so I’m trying not to got to OTT to start with!

I’ve a couple of VR ready games on Steam, Star Wars squadrons is one of them. I think the others are mainly space and flying based as well. I fancy Fallout 4 VR, but it’s full price, so I’ll wait for a sale on that one. :good:

"Everything looks interesting until you do it. Then you find it’s just another job" - Terry Pratchett

[Drezha]

I’m happy not to use any other SMTP server other than theirs (I access personal email via Roundcube, so that’s not an issue), I just hadn’t expected it for the Universities own email, but I suppose it makes sense. Just odd that Mail and Outlook don’t need to, but I guess that’s perhaps due to the authentication method, as both support OAuth IIRC (to add my Exchange account to macOS and when logging in to Outlook, I was directed to the organisation sign on page).

"Everything looks interesting until you do it. Then you find it’s just another job" - Terry Pratchett

[Drezha]

First impressions are good. I tried the Oculus getting started app that’s built in and that was pretty amazing – I managed to drop a controller (thankfully had the lanyards on!) trying to put it down on a table!

The bought Pirate trainer and that was good fun – battery stopped me from carrying on.

My first experience with VR and I’m blown away in fairness!

"Everything looks interesting until you do it. Then you find it’s just another job" - Terry Pratchett

[Drezha]

This is Eduroam, so University wide network across all Unis. However, some do things differently – as at Nottingham I can’t use Steam but I could when at Loughborough (fair play, I was looking at using the JANET network to download my library quickly!)

I just find it a little odd as both Outlook and Apple Mail worked but Postbox didn’t. There is a clause in the T+C’s about not using different mail servers on campus – and in searching that to link here, I think I’ve found the issue.

Following the guide here for Thunderbird shows that I shouldn’t be using the O365 server, but the Nottingham Exchange server. ಠ_ಠ Stupidly, I was aware of the page but hadn’t checked it for Thunderbird!

Must be campus only though as the O365 server works while I’m at home. I’ll change my home settings and see if that works, as then I won’t have to mess about.

"Everything looks interesting until you do it. Then you find it’s just another job" - Terry Pratchett

[Drezha]

I played this and yeah, I’ve enjoyed it (to a point).

I ended up getting fed up when visiting Zeffo again for the second or third time and haven’t yet gone back to it. Like you, I dropped the difficulty down to story, just to get it playable. However, I got fed up at a specific section where it seemed to rely on split second reflexes to get past. Maybe I’ll go back to it for a bit now, but at the time it drove me mad.

I did use a controller for it, as I found that to be a more comfortable way to play, but overall, it’s been a good game and I generally enjoyed it (until I didn’t!). It was the first game actually where I thought I’d try and find a streamer to watch playing it, so I could get the full story and not have to play it myself!

"Everything looks interesting until you do it. Then you find it’s just another job" - Terry Pratchett

[Drezha]

Just seen this posted in a Mac forum I frequent – perhaps one to keep in mind if you have a pacemaker (and your shirt pocket storage!)

https://www.heartrhythmjournal.com/article/S1547-5271(20)31227-3/fulltext

That is one perk of the iPhones is that they last a while. The 6S here is still perfectly capable, other than the battery and is on the latest iOS! That’s a 5 year old phone, with the most recent software! I’m not sure an Android from 5 years ago would get that.

"Everything looks interesting until you do it. Then you find it’s just another job" - Terry Pratchett

[Drezha]

Mid range, I’d probably go for the SE (2020) rather than the iPhone 12 Mini and save £300.

Apple suggests that the 12 Mini is better screen wise. I haven’t really had issues with the 11 I have (or the Apple Watch, which is also a screen…) The Pixel is reasonable, but I haven’t taken it out in the sun for a while now.

From a benchmark POV, the iPhone trumps the Pixel. And that’s iPhone 11 and Pixel 4a. However, the Pixel is still a cracking phone. Whilst I’m firmly in the Apple ecosystem (cemented over Christmas with the purchase of a Homepod), there are aspects on Android I like, and the Pixel 4a was money well spent (it’s currently being used as my work phone until the replacement iPhone arrives). If I wasn’t in the Apple ecosystem, I’d be happy with the Pixel.

"Everything looks interesting until you do it. Then you find it’s just another job" - Terry Pratchett

[Drezha]

Missed your comment on the 4a as well – I’ve got one alongside my iPhone and it performs reasonably well. I have Locus Maps on there, with maps purchased from Thorn Maps.

"Everything looks interesting until you do it. Then you find it’s just another job" - Terry Pratchett

[Drezha]

Ed P wrote:

I use offline OpenStreet maps as these are usually much better than Google for this purpose. Although I know that Apple used OpenStreet at one time, but a search on this in the Apple Store reveals zilch. My question to Drezha and others is whether Apple has offline maps that cover both terrain and footpaths. ( terrain, as sometimes the sight of a darned great hill is a bit off-putting to us and instead we divert a couple of miles!).

Hum…

I use a mix of Ordnance Survey (as that does offline and I have a subscription for cadets) and oddly, a geocaching app, Cachly.

Cachly is a one off paid for app, and then I seem to recall a one off additional cost for the premium open street map with terrain. However, it’s open street map theme and detail is perhaps one of the best I’ve used.

Open Street Maps say that Viewranger and Maps.me use open street maps. Maps.me appears to show terrain as well. I’m sure I used in the past when I visited Berlin many years ago when mobile data wasn’t free in the EU.

"Everything looks interesting until you do it. Then you find it’s just another job" - Terry Pratchett

[Drezha]

Does the iPhone SE 2020 fit the bill? The battery life of that is decent – I’ve one arriving for work this week I believe to replace an old 6S that is in the same boat as your Wileyfox with the battery dying. And my wife has one and the battery can do two days without issue.

"Everything looks interesting until you do it. Then you find it’s just another job" - Terry Pratchett

[Drezha]

I’m only using Windows Defender. I don’t think I’ve installed an anti virus software in years. Chances are that it is that mind, as it’s an open source project so doesn’t have the certificates that MS need/use.

I didn’t find the Kingston one when I looked on their website last night – I put it down to a late night!

"Everything looks interesting until you do it. Then you find it’s just another job" - Terry Pratchett

[Drezha]

So with a bit of playing, I’ve found another file go missing – this time, an .exe is missing, and as this isn’t a file that’s synced, I can have a good guess at the system.

Tried to open QOwnnotes on my gaming PC today to make some notes this evening and the exe is missing. It’s a portable app, so I browsed to the folder and lo, the .exe is missing. Unless it was a bad update, I haven’t deleted this file, so I can only assume the system SSD is on it’s way out. It’s a Kingston A400 SSD that is now over three years old.

Is there a method of checking the remaining life or health of an SSD?

"Everything looks interesting until you do it. Then you find it’s just another job" - Terry Pratchett

[Author]

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