Messages

1

Living Room / Re: want to get a new 3d printer in 2025

« on: January 02, 2025, 11:39 PM »

I don't know how they compare with others, but I know some people who got a Bambu A1 Mini a few months ago, and a group of us have been going to town making a bunch of prints using it. It seems great. It comes pretty much fully assembled, almost no configuration and no tinkering required to get decent prints out of it. But of course tinkering and configuration options are all there if you need/want to mess with them for more advanced prints.

So if the Bambu P1S is anything like the A1 Mini, then I'd say it's a safe choice to make.

2

DC Gamer Club / Re: Valve Announces Steam Deck: A Handheld PC

« on: January 01, 2025, 04:32 AM »

So I spent for about 8 full price games, but ended up with 200+ games. The 'money spent' counter on your stats, I would indeed take with a (very big) grain of salt. 

-Shades (December 29, 2024, 07:34 PM)

Yeah, I discovered that Fanatical frequently has "build-your-own" bundles where you can get games for $1 each if you buy at least 2 or 3 games. At that price many games become impulse buys for me and if they look even slightly interesting I often end up buying some.

Many games have a "value" of $15-25 but I get them for $1-2.50. Almost all the new games added to my library this year were discounted by around 90% if they weren't free giveaways.

3

Living Room / Re: happy new year 2025

« on: January 01, 2025, 04:23 AM »

Happy New Year! I hope this year is better than the last, whatever that means for everyone out there.

4

DC Gamer Club / Re: Latest Game Giveaway

« on: January 01, 2025, 04:22 AM »

Vambrace: Cold Soul is free on GOG for the next ~2 days.

https://www.gog.com/...e/vambrace_cold_soul

5

DC Gamer Club / Re: Valve Announces Steam Deck: A Handheld PC

« on: December 29, 2024, 02:09 PM »

The pattern repeats itself. Once again I started playing a game a week or so into December so most of the playtime isn't included in my Steam Replay 2024.


https://store.steamp...561198000983922/2024


I don't know if the "Deckap" (CheckMyDeck recap) is recalculated dynamically as new data comes in or what, but it seems to include data that is up to date as of today.
https://checkmydeck....00983922/recaps/2024

Also, holy carp! Did my library really increase by ~100 games this year?



Yes, it did. I counted. But I definitely didn't spend ~$1,500 on games this year. Either way, I really need to stop buying bundles, even if I am only paying a fraction of the price for the games.

6

DC Gamer Club / Re: Latest Game Giveaway

« on: December 27, 2024, 01:21 PM »

The Dark Eye: Chains of Satinov is free on GOG for the next ~2 days:
https://www.gog.com/...ye_chains_of_satinav

7

DC Gamer Club / Re: Latest Game Giveaway

« on: December 20, 2024, 01:38 PM »

ScourgeBringer is free on Fanatical (redeems on Steam) for the next day (or while supplies last).

https://www.fanatica...game/scourge-bringer

But I'm getting conflicting information on the keys. The page says that the key expires today and also that the keys expire on the 28th.



Maybe each individual key expires shortly after being revealed to prevent reselling, while the keys in general have a week to be revealed and then redeemed.

8

DC Gamer Club / Re: Latest Game Giveaway

« on: December 19, 2024, 02:51 PM »

The Epic Games Store is doing their annual daily giveaway leading up to Christmas. As per usual, I probably won't be mentioning every game from Epic here, so be sure to check it out every day for the duration of the event, which usually lasts a week or two.

Today's giveaway is Vampire Survivors. It's a game that looks pretty terrible in screenshots and maybe even videos, but is surprisingly fun to play. There are few games in my Steam library that I've played for more hours than I have played Vampire Survivors. In other words, even if you think it's not for you (as I did when I first heard of it) I recommend checking it out and giving it a try since it's free.

9

DC Gamer Club / Re: Latest Game Giveaway

« on: December 19, 2024, 02:44 PM »

Chicken Assassin: Reloaded is free on GOG for the next ~2 days.

https://www.gog.com/...en_assassin_reloaded

10

N.A.N.Y. 2025 / Re: NANY 2025

« on: December 15, 2024, 10:50 PM »

Are you saying that all entries in NANY have to be completely free? [mouser] Do you agree with this judgement?

-relipse (December 15, 2024, 08:00 PM)

I believe mouser has spoken on this subject in the past. Unfortunately it was quite a few years ago and I can't remember all the details specifically and I can't find the post(s) where he explained his position. I think he said that in some instances there was room to charge money for software posted by members on this site, but perhaps with the caveat that NANY entries specifically should be made free to members of DonationCoder?

I'm really not sure on the details, but I am pretty sure mouser isn't an absolutist that all software posted here by anybody must be free/donationware. After all, we have a forum section specifically for people to announce their product/software as long as they make their affiliations clear.

In my opinion we should wait to hear from mouser to clarify his position on the subject before any decisions are made to withdraw NANY entries.

I'm positive that mouser has actually written (some of) the FAQ I linked above.

-Tuxman (December 15, 2024, 08:56 PM)

I believe the FAQ, or at least the specific Q&A you linked to, is specifically about mouser's software, and doesn't necessarily apply to software posted by other members of the site. After all, mouser's software is the only software on this site that I'm aware of where "we... require that non-donators sign up at our forum and download License Keys that are used to extend the use of the program..."

11

DC Gamer Club / Re: Latest Game Giveaway

« on: December 12, 2024, 12:11 PM »

The Whispered World: Special Edition is free on GOG for the next ~3 days.

https://www.gog.com/...orld_special_edition

12

N.A.N.Y. 2025 / Re: NANY 2025

« on: December 12, 2024, 01:35 AM »

Hey everyone, I noticed that there's now an entire forum section dedicated to NANY 2025, so you can start your own dedicated threads for your submissions instead of adding them all as replies to this one.

https://www.donation...ndex.php?board=339.0

13

DC Gamer Club / Re: Latest Game Giveaway

« on: December 05, 2024, 11:10 PM »

Pankapu is free on Steam for about 2 weeks:

https://store.steamp.../app/418670/Pankapu/

14

DC Gamer Club / Re: Latest Game Giveaway

« on: December 04, 2024, 02:57 AM »

By the way, I don't usually mention it here because it's basically a weekly thing, but for those who don't know, there's a new set of games pretty much every week on Amazon which you can claim for free if you have Amazon Prime. Some redeem on GOG, some redeem on Epic, and some redeem on other things. And the redemption period is pretty generous. Each giveaway seems to last about 4-6 weeks, so if you forget to check a week or two, there's a good chance you won't miss out.

https://gaming.amazon.com/home

If I counted correctly there are 65 games being given away right now, including 32 games that can be redeemed on GOG, 16 on Epic, 16 on Amazon Gaming, and 1 on Legacy Games.

Not all are worth claiming, IMO, but there's probably something for just about everyone in the selection.

15

DC Gamer Club / Re: Latest Game Giveaway

« on: November 30, 2024, 03:59 AM »

Thanks for mentioning it, Shades. 

I don't need or want thanks/praise every time I post here, as that would just clutter this thread. But it is nice to have feedback every so often so I know it's worth my time to keep going and I'm not just posting to the void. 😅

There have been a few times I've considered stopping posting to this thread because I wasn't sure my posts were useful to anyone.

This is a perfect example of where being able to add "reactions" or likes to posts would be a useful forum feature. That way people could signal appreciation without triggering email notifications to others who are subscribed to this thread for new posts about game giveaways.

16

DC Gamer Club / Re: Latest Game Giveaway

« on: November 29, 2024, 01:39 PM »

Oaken is free on GOG for the next couple of days:

https://www.gog.com/en/game/oaken

17

Community Giveaways / Re: Bundle Leftovers: Humble Bundle 2K Megahits

« on: November 16, 2024, 05:07 PM »

I'm locking this thread now that all keys have been claimed.

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Community Giveaways / Re: Bundle Leftovers: Humble Bundle 2K Megahits

« on: November 16, 2024, 03:26 AM »

PM sent with details.

19

DC Gamer Club / Re: Latest Game Giveaway

« on: November 15, 2024, 06:10 PM »

In celebration of the 20th anniversary of the release of Half-Life 2, it's free (to keep) on Steam if you claim it in the next few days.

https://store.steamp.../app/220/HalfLife_2/

It has been updated to include various quality of life improvements, and also the two sequels Episode One and Episode Two are now included with the game and accessible from the main menu.

More details about the update can be found on the Half Life website.



And also other games in the series are on sale.

https://store.steamp.../franchise_half-life

20

DC Gamer Club / Re: Latest Game Giveaway

« on: November 11, 2024, 03:07 PM »

Spirit of the North is free on Fanatical (as a Steam key) for the next few days.

https://www.fanatica.../spirit-of-the-north

21

DC Gamer Club / Re: Latest Game Giveaway

« on: October 31, 2024, 11:47 AM »

Return of the Phantom is free on GOG for the next 3 days.

22

Living Room / Re: AI Coding Assistants (Who uses them and which)

« on: October 27, 2024, 03:32 PM »

What model did you use for this?

-KynloStephen66515 (October 27, 2024, 08:20 AM)

When I created my account it asked me what I was interested in and I selected the option that appeared to be more about coding and development. It then suggested (and I accepted) a bunch of "assistants" which I assumed it would query all of or pick the best one for me based on my question. So I just started typing away (in the "Just Chat" section).

Looking more into it, it seems to have created a variety of "assistants" for me on various topics but they are all set to use gpt-4o-mini, except for one which is set to use gpt-3.5-turbo-16k.

I'll try adjusting or creating one using Claude and see if that gives better results, but judging on your answer, it still gives you incorrect information. As far as I can tell the onboard LED of the Pico W does not actually support (hardware) PWM, because it's controlled by the WiFi module instead of the RP2040. But there's a big enough knowledge gap for me that I may be wrong about that. Maybe the fact that I'm using Arduino IDE (which I think is just C or C++) rather than MicroPython makes a difference in what hardware features the libraries I'm including use.

23

Living Room / Re: AI Coding Assistants (Who uses them and which)

« on: October 26, 2024, 05:55 PM »

Thanks Kynlo. While I was adding these to my bookmarks, I decided to try out LobeChat's hosted version. It went something like this (highly paraphrased):


Q: Does the onboard LED of the Raspberry Pi Pico W support PWM to adjust its brightness?

A: Yes, it does.

Q: Can you show me some example code that will fade the LED?

A: This code will do that for you.

[ 15 minutes trying to get the code to work ]

Q: The code isn't working. What might be wrong?

A: Try these troubleshooting steps.

[ 15 minutes trying all the troubleshooting steps ]

Q: Are you absolutely sure the onboard LED supports PWM?

A: My apologies. The onboard LED does not support PWM.

Q: Can you show me example code to simulate PWM to adjust the LED's brightness in software rather than hardware?

A: This code will do that for you.

[ It works! ]

Pretty helpful when it doesn't lead you on a wild goose chase with wrong information.


I'm surprised there hasn't been a movie made yet about a group of people with a robot/AI companion who all end up stuck in a cavern and they ask the robot/AI
to help them find a way out and it unintentionally states incorrect information as fact and based on that information (and future queries to the robot/AI that don't challenge the initial assumption) the humans travel through a treacherous path where many people are injured or die until finally someone asks "Are you sure this is the best course of action?" and then the robot/AI says "My apologies. We can just take the ladder near where we started."

24

Living Room / Re: AI Coding Assistants (Who uses them and which)

« on: October 24, 2024, 11:55 AM »

I forgot to thank you once again for being so helpful.

So thanks! I had no idea about most of those. I'll check them out.

25

Living Room / Re: AI Coding Assistants (Who uses them and which)

« on: October 21, 2024, 03:21 AM »

I don't really have the budget for upgrading my PC. Maybe I should get a $15 microcontroller and play around with TinyML.

But that's not really an LLM, so I guess I'm better off just accessing some free tier of ChatGPT.