Slaughtahouse

Grabbed a new bag of beans today. Ran into a rep from the roasting company and he walked me through a recommendation for my machine. We also placed an order on Tealish for a variety of black and green teas. I’ll follow up with a photo when it comes in

Does the date represent the start date or the last / latest post? I am assume the latter Also, I like where this was going. I think OP will work well because most people here or on this type of forum understand it means "Original Post" or "Original Poster". Glad you're getting rid of the duplication of "started".

I love this kind of stuff and I hope it becomes more widespread where AI can accelerate research and development. Imagine with the appropriate application of intelligent AI how quickly we can accelerate the discovery of new solutions to mitigate or avoid the symptoms from diseases like Cancer or Alzheimer's. Even if AI could simply help people accelerate the diagnoses of these diseases in the early stages where treatment available today is viable, or significantly reduces the chances of developing fatal or significantly detrimental symptoms, would go a long way. At least, one can hope Those small, meaningful steps could have huge impacts, not only to individuals but also the entire healthcare system.

What about if you don’t show the start date but rather when the thread was created expressed in time past. E.g., 2 days ago instead of January 8th 2024. That might help reduce text whilst still keeping the date referenced so people understand that thread is recent / relevant? Just trying to find a middle ground that helps meet your goals. Quick mockup:

Off topic to Blackwell rumours, remember that Intel is poised to release Battlemage this year as well. Which should make the mid range much more competitive against both AMD and Nvidia. https://videocardz.com/newz/intel-reaffirms-xe2-battlemage-is-coming-hardware-team-already-working-on-celestial

Howdy all. The time has come I will officially transition my efforts and support of "the sheet" to the new 2024 thread. This thread can of course, remain alive and well but I will not be posting updates about new games being released in 2024 in this thread. This thread can continue to be useful to discuss 2023 games but I have no problem if people discuss 2023 games in the 2024 thread and vice versa. I just wont make those large updates here anymore. Some fun facts about 2023: 14,532 games were released on Steam in 2023, making it a record for new number of games on Steam in a single year At least 25 games have hit 90+ Metacritic scores for at least one platform at any given time during 2023. The worst critically reviewed game of the year is Lord of the Rings: Gollum (38% PC, 34% PS5 Metacritic) We have a tie for the best critically reviewed game, Baldur's Gate III and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (96% Metacritic). Cyberpunk 2077 completed it's redemption arc with the release of Phantom Liberty (89% Metacritic score PC) Quake II (Remastered) received arguably one of the best updates at a ultra low price of 10$ or free if you already owned Quake II. Do you like RPGs? Well we got Baldur's Gate III, Starfield, Sea of Stars, Final Fantasy 16 all within one season (summer). Do you like Horror? Well we got Dead Space Remake, RE4 Remake, and Alan Wake 2. Do you like fighters? Well we got Street Fighter VI and Mortal Kombat 1. Oh yea, a remake of System Shock also came out. Seriously, what!? Shinji Mikami's studio, behind The Evil Within Series and former director of Resident Evil 4 (2005) shadow dropped Hi-Fi Rush. A music based action adventure game sitting with an 89% Metacritic score. Oh yea, From Software, the makers of Dark Souls, Elden Ring (GotY from 2022), released Armored Core 6 in between Baldur's Gate III and Starfield. Valve released CS:2, a free, substantial update to CS:GO. Starfield was the most hyped and also fasted dropped (daily active players) Bethesda game of all time. *The trailer for GTA VI dropped and became one of the most watch video game trailers of all time. and the most important fact, a game from 2023 will always be in someones backlog. Seriously, who has time to play all these games. So, with the year wrapped up... what we're your highlights? Any games surprised you? Any games you regret playing (besides Starfield XD)? I don't think I've purchased more new games in any given year before in my life. My personal top 5 from what I played and either completed or almost completed: Resident Evil 4 Remake The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora Super Mario Bros. Wonder Metroid Prime: Remastered Games that are on my backlog from 2023 in order of priority: Alan Wake II Sea of Stars Hi-Fi Rush Dead Space (2023) Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon Remnant II System Shock (2023) Baldur's Gate III Dredge Final Fantasy XVI (when it comes to PC) Aliens: Dark Descent Cities: Skylines II Honorable mentions (games that released in 2023 and I enjoyed but didn't make top 5) Cocoon (easily one of the most unique games I've ever played) Hogwarts Legacy (Hogwarts was excellently realized and made my wife want to play and watch games, which never happens). Pikmin 4 (because it has a dog) Assassins Creed: Mirage (first AC game I beat since AC2) Starfield (Yes, I still enjoyed Starfield... just didn't live up to my expectations) Best games I completed from my backlog (pre-2023): God of War (2018). I managed to 100% it too... Vanquish (2010) Anyway, that's me. I mentioned it before and I'll mention it again, you need to play RE4 remake. Capcom took everything they learned from RE2 remake and tweaked and changed RE4 to somehow make a near perfect game, even better. It's my game of the year and if you like horror, good 3rd person gun play, and cheesy dialog, you won't be disappointed.

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Not to be the Deby-downer but this seems like the 4060 Ti moment again. 128-Bit bus, extra 8gb of VRAM, except it's "only" $80 more expensive vs. $100 that Nvidia charged for the 16GB 4060 Ti. The performance gains are oddly skewed towards AMD sponsored games and compared against a RTX 2060 (non super). I'd be super skeptical of this card...

*Cries in Microsoft Sam* On topic but not really, I had no idea there was a decent emulator for Xbox 360! Thanks for sharing that vid

Well, nice to see Nvidia offer a better 4080 at a lower price. $1,000 doesn’t make me want to sell my 7900 XTX and swap but… if an RTX 4080 was this price in 2022, I’m fairly certain I would of made that choice over AMD. Similarly with the oddly named 4070 Ti Super. $799 pits square against the 7900 XT. At least they adjusted their pricing stack, even if we all agree it’s still too expensive. Small steps are better than no steps. AMD will most certainly respond with price cuts. Blackwell (high end) will likely release at the end of the year but if you need a card now and you have a decent budget, the supers look pretty decent.

I thought at first that was concept art. I’d argue that RDR2 is one of the most beautiful games out there on PC and I’ve barely played it. I recall the first mission very well, trekking through the dense snow and seeing all the events unfold. I have other priorities on my backlog (shorter games) but I need to start a new save in RDR2 and play it all the way through… I booted up RDR (1) on Xbox Series X a couple weeks ago. Still looks fantastic, even if it feels stiff compared to modern games. It scales up to 4K and has autoHDR. Still 30 fps but whatever, it’s fun and John Marston is one of my all time favourite characters with the way he interacts in this wacky but believable world. My favourite moments were the hunting. Going out there and hunting and skinning prey with a bowie knife. Love it. There is also that completely absurd side quest where you meet a sasquatch and it guilt trips the crap out of you, making you feel like the monster. I felt terrible knowing I made his kind extinct. I don’t ever recall a game making me feel that way about a fictional creature. Gosh, I love that game and I can play it over and over again. Sorry for derail, just RDR brings back so many good memories.

You may not enjoy this then, especially on the explorer mode. I feel if you do the default mode, you would end up hating it, like I would with another typical Ubisoft game with map markers and a million side quests. I enjoy narrative linear shooters like Metro Last Light and Metro 2033. Exodus didnt work for me but it really comes down to the specific game and world. This one just clicks with me. I am also a fan of Avatar and I love the tribal / hunter vibes so that’s probably why. The story is super generic and really nothing special. Honestly, the best moments for me have been running through the jungle and coming across the wild life. Watching a herbivore defend itself from some smaller prey… jumping in to hunt and then you hear a Thanator (cougar type beast) growl in the distance. On hard it kills you in one or two hits. Gets the blood flowing.

Nice! I dropped RDR 2, I need to restart and do a full playthrough at some point. RDR (1) is one of my all time favourite games. It's my guilty pleasure of 2023. Plays more like Crysis than Fry Cry but it's definitely in that lane. I don't typically like to use the guns (bow and spear is more satisfying for me) but the weapons all feel and sound very good. I'm about 40 hrs in now and 67% complete. I feel you could beat it faster if you put it on normal and only did the main quests. Maybe 15-20hrs? TBD. Super fun to just explore and get lost in the nature. With the graphics, audio, playing on Hard with Explorer mode (hides HUD, waypoints etc.) it's really amps up the entire package for me. For example, in that first vid, I had a fun time just scoping out the base and taking my time.

Playing around with Youtube / recording. I made two more videos with a higher bitrate. 1st one is 1440p (native), SDR. 2nd one is 4K (Quality upscaling) HDR. It's a shame I couldn't get it to record in HDR (not sure how) but I hope these videos give a better insight how the visuals look in motion in different regions.

Thanks for sharing the additional context about the US market I’ll stop derailing this thread

I always flip. I try to sell before the next gen comes out if possible. If you’re in the upper tiers, besides the initial investment, it’s more cost effective to stay in the game. To recover as much value from the current GPU before jumping into the next gen. So I may go to Blackwell and sell my 7900XTX for approximately 750 USD or so when the time is right.

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora 1440p, Ultra I pushed myself through a couple missions and discovered a few interesting areas in the Upper Plains. Not as bad as I originally thought. Found a unique area which seems to highlight a gorge, with all the stones smoothed off, washed, and rounded edges from a former river or body of moving water. It opens up the main plot again and provides something a bit more unique to the area. That being said, after I completed a couple missions (I'm on 18 out of 31 for the main campaign), I headed back to the main region to do some side quests and freshen up my perspective. Enjoying the game a bit more again. I was playing on my monitor (1440p) the past couple days so screenshots are lower res, but I disabled upscaling (it's native w. TAA). Most of the screenshots below are just "screenshots" by pressing F12, not photomode. I also tried making a couple videos using the built-in video recorder from AMD. I've never done this before so if looks like crap, my bad. I don't think the bitrate was high enough. First video is flying from the planes to hometree (main base in the jungle). Second video is a quest in the jungle where you need to transport a large moth. I failed it because I stressed out the moth too much by taking too much time, exposing it to too much "stress". Explorer mode is enabled so I have really have to find the location, which is part of the fun (for me). P.S. If this is too much Avatar, please tell me to stop P.S.S. I hope you enjoy looking at grass.

Nothing wrong with simpleton. I used to drink preground filter coffee. When I worked it the UK, I was at a small Architectural practice / studio and we always had a kettle of tea and a french press for black coffee. Now axle grease… that’s crossing the line XD. On topic, after the post today, I went to a local shop and grabbed some new beans. Im working through a so-so batch of “espresso blend” I got from my butcher earlier this week but hope to try this batch called Scuro next week. Note to future self: don’t buy beans from the butcher. Tastes like butcher paper.

For sure I tried to use a fair scheme based on general rules of thumb. Not necessarily moores law but that relative performance should improve by 30-50%+ per the same $ spent on the previous gen. It’s just getting out of hand… Rant incoming: Banks are still keeping interest rates high in an effort to drain bank accounts / kill the total amount of jobs available on the market (demand) so at some point, we must hit a breaking point. I just can’t understand how consumers can keep spending this much on GPU hardware. It’s not just the high end SKUs, it’s the entire stack. Here in Canada, everyone who signed a mortgage when the rates bottomed out in 2020/2021 will need to renew their mortgage (max 5 year term) at a new rate. So 2025/2026 should be fun. Either rates come down or people will continue to lose their homes. Something could be said about taking a mortgage higher than you can sustain in that market when rates were stupidly low but banks here are federally controlled and they’re fairly risk averse. Yet some people took a variable rate when rates were good so IDK… Not sure how it exactly works in the US but my understanding is that your rate is locked in for the entire term (25 etc.). So unless you need to sell your house for whatever other external factor (lose a job, having a child, moving closer to another school / employer etc.) you’re locked in. /end rant Anyway, I know that doesn’t justify these prices from Nvidia but when EVERYTHING is getting more expensive, which didn’t happen in the 2008 financial crisis, I just can’t believe this model will be sustainable considering current market conditions. However, it doesn’t help AMD isn’t expected to compete in the high end this year either with RDNA4 so who knows. Nvidia pulling in record revenue and profits because “AI” but I suspect companies will only invest so much into AI before they slow down their spend and impact Nvidia’s bottom line. Maybe that will help the gaming segment but no idea when that bubble will burst or if it even will. Bleak times ahead…

It’s not too complex but I tried to provide more context. In that regard, the post may be too confusing Ultimately, darker bean = more resistance = coarser grind to compensate. Lighter bean = less resistance = finer grind to compensate. Still learning but it’s definitely fun and if you’re into coffee, highly recommend going prosumer. Whilst I don’t drink tea* nearly as often, it’s winter and both my wife and I have been in and out of colds / sicknesses. We’ve been drinking a lot of tea recently. My wife’s family is Polish and tea is fairly popular there. The mother-in-law sent some tea leaves in a parcel a couple months ago. We’re drinking a baked apple black tea and it’s pretty delicious. Honey and lemon for a bit of acid and sweetness and it holds up well. Pieczone = baked, jabiuszka = apple.

Follow up on the ol' coffee journey. Approx. 5 months with the switch from Delonghi Dedica Espresso machine/ Bodum Grinder to Rocket Appartmento espresso machine and Eureka Mignon Facile grinder. 1. Fancier espresso machine simply won't work with a standard grinder. Found out the hard way. Grinds are too coarse and espresso / water will just splash out of the portafilter. I really didn't want to spend more on a grinder and I thought it was the beans or the tamping pressure but no matter how hard I tried with the Bodum grinder, I couldn't get a good cup. I learned that you need to approx. brew coffee for about 25 seconds and when it's too coarse, you'll get too much water and less extraction. Now with a proper grinder (flat burr), you can not only fine tune it and you really need to tune it per every bean type. I'm not a specialist by any means but darker the roast, the more oil or simply resistance there is when pulling, so you generally need to step back the grind and make it coarser. Otherwise, coffee will drip out. Maybe you can wait 3mns for an espresso to pull but I am not sure if it will be good if the grinds are exposed to that heat for so long. Some people weigh their grinds and I believe the reco is 12grams for a single shot and 18g for a double shot. Whilst that is likely true, and I started to weigh grinds at the beginning manually, I've made approx. 3 (2-4) coffees per day X 5 months? So at least 400 coffees and you get a good feel how much grinds need to be in the portafilter for it to pull nicely without weighing it. Some fancier grinders have timers so once you know how long it takes to grind with that bean at said setting, it's consistant. My grinder doesn't have a timer or scale so it's all manual, which is fine For this grinder, it goes from 1 to 6 but between each number there are approx. 10-15 steps? Lower the number, finer the grind. I usually keep it at the edge of 3 and 4 mark but if I change bean roast, I will need to adjust a few steps. I've never reached the number "4" or gone below "3" for context. The TL;DR is you will need a better grinder to operate with a prosumer espresso machine. 2. Beans matter. A lot. I used to prefer light to medium roasts with the Delonghi / bodum combo. I found I got more fruity notes and aromatics vs. dark roasts which usually tasted like just rough, diner coffee. Not necessarily bad but no interesting notes. Complete opposite on the Rocket Appartmento. Maybe due to the lack of oil in the bean, you have to grind a lighter roast super fine to get it to pour nicely and even when you do, you don't get a lot of flavour. I found the cheaper setup just as good, if not better for light roasts. Dark or Medium / Dark are now my favourite roasts by a wide margin. Darker roasts taste smokey, in a good way. Like a peated / islay single malt whiskey. With more oil on the bean, there is a bit more resistance so you need to readjust the grinder to be slightly more coarse. A good pull usually starts out by pulling like oil. The liquid is viscous and sticks together. I usually can tell quickly if the pull will be crap if I see espresso splashing allover the inside of the cup. Example of a good pull: If you let it go too long (after 30 seconds), it starts to get oddly, and not in a good way, sweet. If you don't brew long enough (20 seconds or less) its usually bitter. So 25 seconds is always my target but the grind / tamping / weight determines the flow. 3. Milk frothing is fairly straight forward. Just goes incredibly fast with this machine. In a small milk frothing jug, it takes about 4-5 seconds to get cappuccino consistent milk (micro bubbles only). Where it pours out silky. If you go too long, bubbles get bigger and it will start to boil. I haven't tried making a latte (too much milk for me) but I imagine it would take more milk and more time. I'm not good at making proper latte art but I usually just pour in about half the milk quickly with the cup tilted to intergrade the milk and coffee together, then tilt the coffee cup back to a level state and try to pour and jiggle the jug to get some pattern. I wouldn't say its that difficult, it's just difficult to be consistent. My wife is happy with my "art" at its current level so I'm content. Examples: If you have any questions, shoot

Wow Zork sounds awesome. Btw, I love those axo section cut, drafted view in that last map.

Took some extra days off to extend holidays. I tried to make pork belly for the first time today. The dish, not sure if authentic, is Banh Mi. A Vietnamese style street food sandwich. I follow the recipe here (as I normally do) but subbed out making a fresh bun by grabbing a portuguese style bun from a local bakery and I did a different pickled veg option (only carrots). https://www.brianlagerstrom.com/recipes/bahn-mi-with-crispy-baguette Turned out better than I expected. Highly recommend giving it a go. Pork Belly was about 4 USD a Lb.

I mean… I think their gameplay did the exact opposite… no? Even going into Starfield, I didn’t expect innovative gameplay. I expected a more fleshed out universe, in space, with typical Bethesda gameplay. For better or worse, that’s what we got. Same RPG systems, same movement, same loading screens, same plot / intro tropes. I like Starfield and don’t want to rag on it for the sake of it but winning the most innovative gameplay award for 2023? What!? Was the community smoking crack? In 2023, I played a variety of very high quality games. One of which was Cocoon, a game where the gameplay is unlike any other game. You carry orbs which are both explorable worlds and puzzle pieces. For all its complexity, it does so with only one button / input. Which I thought was the best part. Not even a nomination. Yikes