Unpopular opinions thread

[Polecat]

but now we need four digits zeroes for it to be meaningful: 1999/ 04 / 01.

Fixed that for you.

Absolutely correct, thank you!

[depletedvespene]

but now we need four digits zeroes for it to be meaningful: 1999/ 04 / 01.

Fixed that for you.

Well, we COULD adopt hexadecimal numbers for the date and then months would be represented with exactly one digit (with space to spare, reserved for months like Checkuary and Nonexistember) and day numbers would never reach 20...

AND we could cut corners, by using three digits for the year, as well. Instead of 20190817, we could simply write7E3811 (ok, ok, 7E3-8-11).

[mr_a500]

Also, I hate any date format that doesn't use a 4-digit year!

Amateur. You'll suffer, SUFFER, when Y10K arrives.

Although I'll still be alive 7980 years from now, my shrivelled disembodied brain enclosed in a cybernetic spider-droid exoskeleton, the warranty for mechanical maintenance of the exoskeleton ends after the year 9999. And since I don't want to pay for $299 extra for the extended warranty (what a ripoff!), I've set a self-destruct for the last day of that year. So you see, I won't have to worry about Y10K.

[depletedvespene]

Don't you worry. I've spared a couple cents here and put them on a low-interest account in your name. When year 9999 comes, it'll have about $350, which will be applied for the extended warranty (plus one more year of coverage, for just 49.99!).

Now SUFFER.

Ok, now DREAD the upcoming SUFFERING.

[Muirium]

Can’t we just all agree on short shorts?

[depletedvespene]

Can’t we just all agree on short shorts?

'course not. They're uncomfortable to wear if less than a certain length — especially those made out of thicker fabrics, like denim or corduroy.

[Muirium]

This is the devious kind of unpopular which goes the extra mile to drive a wedge between the first and third person, as well as more literally…

[vometia]

Modern games are all just generic boring slog fests designed to get money out of you after you already paid for the game.

Some of them are, particularly the tactic of paring away bits of content to sell as day one DLC and eleventy billion rehashes of the same game. But in general terms I'm still a fan of modern games over yesteryear's: I thought Pong sucked at the time; I loved early '80s games and often regretted having a Dragon rather than a VIC-20 or Speccy or console as they all had better graphics, sound and controllers. Late '80s lost interest because I discovered The Internet, '90s had a resurgence of interest with Wolfenstein and then Doom's "photo-realistic" graphics (if only I could beg, borrow or steal the components needed to make a decent gaming rig: I was skint), lost interest again in the late '90s, what many people describe as gaming's "golden age" because stuff got too samey and the graphics gave me migraines. And then for me the "modern era" kicked off by Doom 3 and Half-Life 2, which looked and played much better, and heralded my rather tardy introduction to RPGs, which only 30 years after playing my first video game had me in my natural comfort zone.

So maybe that's why I prefer modern games. But I'll take modern offerings like Witcher 3, Elder Scrolls etc over any of the previous stuff regardless; even the deliberately retro stuff like the newer Divinity games with their rather obvious pandering-to-the-archaic elements like turn-based isometric comprise the stuff I love, though some do retro better than others: at least Divinity Original Sin (and earlier examples of a similar approach such as Sacred 2) can be zoomed and twirled about so you feel like you're there, whereas Tyranny was I think a bit too static-feeling, as much as I enjoyed it.

I guess my most unpopular gaming opinions are that Half Life 2 is (much) better than the original, Mass Effect was the best of the series, followed by Andromeda, then 2, and I'd rather forget 3 (well that last one maybe isn't so controversial); that Oblivion is Morrowind's peer and both are better than Skyrim; that Dragon Age 2 is actually a decent game (complained about it at the time, replayed it recently and it was much better than I remembered), Fallout 3 and 4 are at least the equal of New Vegas (didn't play 1 or 2 and feel little inclination) and more opinions along those lines.

Not sure where things are headed, though. There's been no real blockbuster games for a while now, all the big publishers being obsessed with MMOs, loot crates and so on, and some retro features that should have died a death are starting to become way to established like the reappearance of the checkpoint-only save, my main bugbear with my favourite of the Bioshock series, Infinite (more controversy, I guess: I also think Bioshock 2 is better than the original) but which is now irritatingly familiar, even marring the otherwise oddly charming A Plague Tale and, in tandem with that other frequent "most hated" contender the timed mission made The Occupation feel very unwelcoming. Currently playing Kingdoms of Amalur, and it's curious how its deliberately Fable-esque cartoony graphics look less dated than the contemporary Skyrim which tried too hard to go for the gritty grimdark look, but it's also nice being able to play something where I can quicksave (almost) anywhere I feel like, come and go as I please without artificial restriction (well, there are some invisible walls, but y'know) and where the gameplay is just fluid rather than contrived.

[vometia]

"Best" in what sense, exactly? In American English it's customary to say, for example, "April first, nineteen ninety nine." So I would write "April 1, 1999, or 4/1/99" when writing it informally to be read as text. In a more formal context, especially for an audience that includes folks from other backgrounds, I would probably write 1 April 1999.

I'm reminded of explaining to someone that I tend to express dates as "the 18th of August" and some American chap said that he'd literally never heard of anyone ever say a date like that. I just concluded that he must be the one American who's never heard of the 4th of July.

I tend to vary though, sometimes it'll be that, other times it'll be "August the 18th". Usually I'll forget what month it is anyway and nearly wrote April there. Same with the time: 10am, 10, ten o'clock, "ten in the morning"; quarter past eight vs. 8:15. Just whatever comes to mind, as I seem to have no particular consistency or preference. But M/D/YY confuses the hell out of me.

[mr_a500]

Can’t we just all agree on short shorts?

I wear short shorts. I think long shorts makes one look like a stunted gorilla.

I guess my most unpopular gaming opinions are that Half Life 2 is (much) better than the original

I thought that was a popular opinion. Everybody seems to like Half-Life 2 more. I thought Half-Life was great, but found Half-Life 2 very annoying and limiting. You can't kill your own guys?? Why the hell not? Even more annoying were the artificial barriers and a feeling like you have to follow one set path. I spent forever stacking objects to jump over a fence, climbed on top, went to jump and couldn't for some unknown reason. I don't need that kind of crap in my life.

[vometia]

I thought that was a popular opinion. Everybody seems to like Half-Life 2 more. I thought Half-Life was great, but found Half-Life 2 very annoying and limiting. You can't kill your own guys?? Why the hell not? Even more annoying were the artificial barriers and a feeling like you have to follow one set path. I spent forever stacking objects to jump over a fence, climbed on top, went to jump and couldn't for some unknown reason. I don't need that kind of crap in my life.

I suppose I'm surprised to hear that: I mean about people admitting to preferring HL2 more! Maybe it depends which circles you moved in at the time, or something, but I recall a lot of disdain.

I'm not saying HL2 was perfect by any means and actually I think it was really something as subjective as the overall atmosphere that did it for me. But yeah, I know your pain because I spent way too long trying to do exactly the same thing before eventually concluding it was impossible. That was before I'd started doing games modding so I didn't even know invisible walls were a thing.

[mr_a500]

Unfortunately, most of the games modding tricks are Windows-only - and I hate Windows and refuse to ever use it again.

[vometia]

Unfortunately, most of the games modding tricks are Windows-only - and I hate Windows and refuse to ever use it again.

Yeah. I can't really argue with that and I do object to paying the "Microsoft Tax" to game on something I can mod. But on the other hand I have such a love of generally interfering, meddling and tampering with things that I'm still prepared to endure Windows so that Fallout 4 can have better shoes.

Cygwin makes it marginally less painful. But only a bit.

[tigpha]

Amazing. No one has yet castigated the existENCE OF CAPS LOCK! Or that the Control Key *must* be to the left of the A key in the middle row, where God intended!

[depletedvespene]

You do have to remember that the Control key being located between Shift and Tab was a change from the previous "God intended so!" thing, which was the Shift Lock key. So, in a way, Caps Lock being placed back there was, in a sense, a return to form of sorts. (not that I have my very own wacky ideas, several of them posted in DT, about where to place each of the three Lock keys).

FWIW, given that no Caps Lock + modifier combos are used at all, it makes for a pretty good place to put a few custom things. As it stands now, I have the volume control keys there (Shift-CL: mute; LCtrl-CL: volume down; LAlt-CL: volume up) and I've also mapped the toggle for CONSTANT_NAMES_MODE (RCtrl-CL), which once usede to, is just plain fantastic for a PROGRAMMER_LIKE_ME;

[PlacaFromHell]

I think I have a bomb. THIS CAN BE VERY OFFENSIVE, YOU'RE FOREWARNED.


Brioche bread fucking sucks.

[Findecanor]

Brioche is a pastry, not a bread. (opinion)

[kbdfr]

[…] Brioche bread fucking sucks.

Brioche is a pastry, not a bread. […]

Calling brioche "bread" is a common error.
Simply have a look at the wikipedia entry Qu'ils mangent de la brioche

""Let them eat cake" is the traditional translation of the French phrase "Qu'ils mangent de la brioche", supposedly spoken by "a great princess" upon learning that the peasants had no bread. Since brioche was a luxury bread enriched with butter and eggs, the quotation would reflect the princess's disregard for the peasants, or her poor understanding of their situation"

Brioche is definitely not bread, it is cake. It belongs to the viennoiseries.

[kbdfr]

Another unpopular opinion:
DT members love vintage IBM keyboards not in spite, but because of their poor quality.
After all, everybody can buy a vintage Cherry keyboard which will work for decades,
but it takes experts to bring the average vintage IBM keyboard back to functioning correctly,
as shown by multiple threads either praising own successess or desperately asking for help.

[samuelcable]

Mouse buttons should be quiet
The only reason I use a zowie with clicky buttons is that most silent click mice are garbage on the sensor department . I want to replace the buttons if I ever get an opportunity

[samuelcable]

Another unpopular opinion:
DT members love vintage IBM keyboards not in spite, but because of their poor quality.
After all, everybody can buy a vintage Cherry keyboard which will work for decades,
but it takes experts to bring the average vintage IBM keyboard back to functioning correctly,
as shown by multiple threads either praising own successess or desperately asking for help.

I agree with this , I don’t see anything wrong with looking for a fun project to do in free time but in terms of boards you can buy that just work fine you can get other things like a g80-1000 without having to take it apart and replace the broken disgusting foam with other foam that will also deteriorate eventually or having to make up for the poor design decisions with drilling into the board to insert bolts

[SneakyRobb]

Another unpopular opinion:
DT members love vintage IBM keyboards not in spite, but because of their poor quality.
After all, everybody can buy a vintage Cherry keyboard which will work for decades,
but it takes experts to bring the average vintage IBM keyboard back to functioning correctly,
as shown by multiple threads either praising own successess or desperately asking for help.

You can't restore something to glory if it never had any

[Muirium]

The trouble with said Cherry boards, though, is those damn MX switches. The caps are nice, and the reliability is superb, but the meh is always in there, too.

[samuelcable]

The trouble with said Cherry boards, though, is those damn MX switches. The caps are nice, and the reliability is superb, but the meh is always in there, too.

This is a pointless argument since it goes back and forth on preferences but I do wanna say that I’ve tried pretty much every alps switch (not including green neon or undampened cream) and none of them have impressed me the way mx do, thought this fit into this thread


And on another topic I use svn instead of git

[zrrion]

No one even bothers with any cherries other than MX for a reason, and the only reason anyone still bothers with them is because of their use in POS stuff (a lot of modern customs can still be described that way as it happens)

[kbdfr]

[…] You can't restore something to glory if it never had any

The trouble with said Cherry boards, though, is those damn MX switches. The caps are nice, and the reliability is superb, but the meh is always in there, too.

No one even bothers with any cherries other than MX for a reason, and the only reason anyone still bothers with them is because of their use in POS stuff (a lot of modern customs can still be described that way as it happens)

That was not my point.
My point was that IBMs are prone to self-destruction, and that it’s precisely why DT members love them.
Because they can prove (or exercise, as may be the case) their skills.

Not their keyboard skills, by the way.
That would essentially be… typing.
.
.
.
This really is a nice thread

[samuelcable]

No one even bothers with any cherries other than MX for a reason, and the only reason anyone still bothers with them is because of their use in POS stuff (a lot of modern customs can still be described that way as it happens)

I haven’t seen people care about alps integrated dome or skcc, alps buckling springs so I don’t understand this argument

[SneakyRobb]

Spoiler:

That was not my point.
My point was that IBMs are prone to self-destruction, and that it’s precisely why DT members love them.
Because they can prove (or exercise, as may be the case) their skills.

Not their keyboard skills, by the way.
That would essentially be… typing.
.
.
.
This really is a nice thread

For model F specifically though I don't understand the statement about prone to destruction. You picked quite possibly the single most durable keyboard module ever made. Aside from the plastic case which can break, the rest of the board is very durable. Even if the case is totally trashed, the keyboard usually still works anyway.

What matter is it if the foam gets "disgusting" oh no. Do you shy from changing your car oil as well? God forbid I have to spend 30 minutes cutting a piece of $1 foam from Michaels. The horror, the horror.

It seems like you are psychologizing everyone just a bit. What matter is it what peoples motivations are?
People like to do work to build/restore things and then have a sense of satisfaction about it. This is called being a human. So what if they want to prove their skills. They did a thing that was fun and they can be proud of. That is good.

IBM keyboards are great for this because they are with a few minor tools, a bit of elbow grease, a bit of thinking and some weekend time, are a great object to repair that isn't overly difficult or super easy.


The model M is bad though. Agree.

[zrrion]

I haven’t seen people care about alps integrated dome or skcc, alps buckling springs so I don’t understand this argument

In an IBM vs Cherry argument, there's only one cherry switch type anyone cares about whereas every IBM switch is good enough to have a following. It we're talking alps though, I love SKCC, they're my favourite non-clicky switch. I probably have at least 10 boards with them in it (and one calculator) they're great and the caps they come with are some of my favorite caps of any board.

[Hak Foo]

As much as I like the buckling spring mechanism, the layout choices sort oif make discrete-switch boards more compelling.

The closest to what I want is a 122, but you end up having to stuff keys like escape and print screen *somewhere* and trying to do something about the cross-shaped nav pad. Or you can get a new 103, and bolt on something to the side for macros. But something like an Omnikey Ultra has everything where I want it.