What have you purchased recently?

[Dirty Hipsters]

Bought new sunglasses:



I've never owned gold frame sunglasses before but to my surprise I pull them off quite well, even though my friends told me they make me look like a South American drug lord.

I guess my next purchase will have to be a gold plated AK47, or this monstrosity:

 

[BrawlMan]

guess my next purchase will have to be a gold plated AK47, or this monstrosity:

An actaul gold plated gun, or just model colored like one?

My new Final Fight shirt came in Monday from redubble. I ordrered a Ninja Gaiden shirt, and a AvP Capcom shirt earlier yesterday from teepublic, as their on sale right now.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

I bought myself some Lego, the Himeji Castle set:

Himeji Castle 21060 | Architecture | Buy online at the Official LEGO® Shop US

Recreate instantly recognizable details of one of Japan’s most famous buildings with this spectacular LEGO® Architecture Himeji Castle building kit

www.lego.com

I think all of the sets in Lego's architecture collection are really cool, but of the 3 that I considered getting (Notre-Dame, Great Pyramid of Giza, and Himeji Castle) I've only actually been to Himeji Castle, so it seemed like the choice.

Now that Notre-Dame has been rebuilt I may visit Paris and then buy that set after.

Unfortunately Egypt is kind of a shithole, so while I would love to go and see the historical sites literally everyone I've ever talked to who has visited Egypt has warned me off.

 

[Ezekiel]

I am both disappointed and happy about the Sapphire Nitro 9070 XT. The RE2 remake looks great in 21:9 5K at a nearly constant 120 fps with settings almost maxed but ray tracing off (although I don't actually have the desire to play it again). A test in the game Control went from upscaled 3440x1440 at around 80 fps on the old Sapphire Pulse 6800 to 120 fps after putting in the new card.

But one big reason I wanted a new graphics card is because I needed a second HDMI output, one for the TV and one for the monitor. When I try to use both HDMI outputs at 4K and 5K 120 Hz, the second channel detected is limited to 75 Hz or below with compressed colors, YCbCr 4:2:0. I uninstalled the video driver with DDU in Safe Mode, but the issue persists. Either HDMI can deliver the speed advertised, but not both at once. Which makes me think that the bandwidth is shared between HDMI outputs. Sapphire must have expected my scenario, considering how long monitor makers took to include DisplayPort 2.0 and the fact that TVs only have HDMI, but wanted to save a few pennies. I wonder if Asus does the same thing with their cards that have dual HDMI outputs.

No one tests this in reviews. It's all benchmarks, benchmarks, benchmarks.

I gave up and connected the monitor with DisplayPort 1.4. The AMD control panel now shows 10-bit full RGB 4:4:4 for both displays, but the monitor is achieving that with Display Stream Compression (DSC). Instead of "VRR," the AMD control panel now gives me the option for an alternative called "Adaptive Sync." The colors still look great. I doubt I could tell the difference between DSC and HDMI 2.1. I can't tell yet if some games are taking longer to Alt+Tab or take out of fullscreen, a common complaint with DSC. One movie might have taken a little longer to bring into fullscreen, but I'm not sure.

Inserting the card was so hard. I finally wedged it against the hard drive cage. Next time I will pull out the hard drive rack from the back and bring the card in like a car backing up for parallel parking.

 

[hanselthecaretaker2]

I am both disappointed and happy about the Sapphire Nitro 9070 XT. The RE2 remake looks great in 21:9 5K at a nearly constant 120 fps with settings almost maxed but ray tracing off (although I don't actually have the desire to play it again). A test in the game Control went from upscaled 3440x1440 at around 80 fps on the old Sapphire Pulse 6800 to 120 fps after putting in the new card.

But one big reason I wanted a new graphics card is because I needed a second HDMI output, one for the TV and one for the monitor. When I try to use both HDMI outputs at 4K and 5K 120 Hz, the second channel detected is limited to 75 Hz or below with compressed colors, YCbCr 4:2:0. I uninstalled the video driver with DDU in Safe Mode, but the issue persists. Either HDMI can deliver the speed advertised, but not both at once. Which makes me think that the bandwidth is shared between HDMI outputs. Sapphire must have expected my scenario, considering how long monitor makers took to include DisplayPort 2.0 and the fact that TVs only have HDMI, but wanted to save a few pennies. I wonder if Asus does the same thing with their cards that have dual HDMI outputs.

No one tests this in reviews. It's all benchmarks, benchmarks, benchmarks.

I gave up and connected the monitor with DisplayPort 1.4. The AMD control panel now shows 10-bit full RGB 4:4:4 for both displays, but the monitor is achieving that with Display Stream Compression (DSC). Instead of "VRR," the AMD control panel now gives me the option for an alternative called "Adaptive Sync." The colors still look great. I doubt I could tell the difference between DSC and HDMI 2.1. I can't tell yet if some games are taking longer to Alt+Tab or take out of fullscreen, a common complaint with DSC. One movie might have taken a little longer to bring into fullscreen, but I'm not sure.

Inserting the card was so hard. I finally wedged it against the hard drive cage. Next time I will pull out the hard drive rack from the back and bring the card in like a car backing up for parallel parking.

If

Might want to get a larger tower.

 

[Ezekiel]

Might want to get a larger tower.

It's fine. Just have to pull out the rack before I remove the card. A hundred dollars I could spend on anything else.

 

[Ezekiel]

DisplayPort 1.4 with Display Stream Compression makes my Brave browser freeze up every now and then. I switched back to HDMI a half hour ago and it stopped. The AI-generated answer to my search states,

"Brave Browser has been reported to crash or experience display issues, which may be related to Display Stream Compression (DSC). Some users have experienced crashes or freezing when using Brave, particularly when accessing resource-intensive websites like YouTube."

It's also possible that the VRR method is a factor, since the AMD control panel offered "Adaptive Sync" instead of "VRR" when I used DisplayPort. This is so lame. I'll get an HDMI 2.1 switch with a remote at some point. I'll turn the computer off, toggle the switch and turn it back on when I want to switch to the TV.

 

[Ezekiel]

An Ebay seller has the 50-pair boxes of my brake shoes for only 100 dollars. Other stores sell them for between 180 and 500 dollars. It will take me many years to go through it, because of how late I always am with replacing them. I don't like to make investments for so far in the future, but I was always spending so much money for a set of one or two.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Bought myself a new pair of headphones, the CMF Buds 2 Plus.

CMF Buds 2 Plus | Audio

us.nothing.tech

The headphones I currently use have started having issues with charging, and I wanted a new pair that has active noise canceling. From reviews these seem pretty great for the price, and they happened to be on a flash sale on amazon, which was good timing. Hopefully they'll fit my ears well, which is something that I tend to have issues with.

Also bought myself a copy of The Lord of the Rings Trilogy and The Hobbit as a box set. I've read the books before multiple times but have never actually owned a copy. They'll most likely just sit on my shelf for a while as I still have a bunch of books to get through on my list, but I just liked the idea of having them since they're such a foundational work for modern fantasy.

Finally I also bought myself a demagnetizer. My mechanical watches have started running fast by more than a minute per day, and I'm pretty sure it's because I wear my watch on my left hand and also carry my phone in the left pocket, and the magsafe magnet on the iphone has magnetized the coil springs on my watches. Hopefully I'll be able to fix it with this and won't have to send my watches to get serviced as that costs hundreds of dollars.

 

[Chimpzy]

A new desk fan. It's quieter, and while it doesn't reach as far as my old one at max speed, it does cover a wider area. Tho I doubt it'll last 40 years like the old one. In fact, that actually still runs just and the only reason I'm replacing it is because the plastic fan blades are literally disintegrating from age.

I also got replacement shaving heads for my electric razor, a replacement lens cover for one of my dslr camera's lenses, and a replacement electric nose hair trimmer, the latter of which I hope will last more than a couple months, because I've been through so many of them.

So, yeah, bit of a theme of replacing.

 

[GideonD]

Dash Cam, rubberized floor mats (weathertech or similar quality.), van bump outs to fit a full-size bed without sacrificing storage, air pump you can connect to your cars battery (not cig lighter outlet)

 

[Xprimentyl]

My friend Jessica gifted me a keychain for my birthday; it's a replica of a desert eagle pistol that slides, has a removable clip, and you can pull the trigger for a satisfying *snap* when the hammer lands. It doesn't fire anything, just a cool little "guy" gift. I love this keychain. Well, I travelled from Texas to Ohio this past weekend, took my keys through DFW's security with no problem, but on the return trip last night, Columbus' TSA saw it when my carry-on was x-rayed, so they decided to search it. I was patient, told the agent (young guy in his late 20s, may early 30s) I knew what they probably saw, he asked what did "I" think they saw, and I casually mentioned I had a 2-inch-long keychain that looks like a gun. He took out my keys and inspected it. Another agent (another young guy) came over to look at it; both of them were "ooh-ing" and "aah-ing," playing with it, removing the clip, sliding the barrel, etc. This caught the attention of a THIRD agent (another young dude) who came over to ogle my keychain, before turning to me to proclaim, "yeah, you can't take this onboard." I thought he was joking, but he was "serious" with a shitty grin on his face. He took my keys over to the ostensible head agent who confirmed, it was a "realistic replica of a lethal weapon," and couldn't fly; my choices were to check my bag for $30, have my keychain mailed to my home for $20, or surrender it to them. I argued that while it was realistic, it was a REPLICA, literally a fraction of the size of any real gun, and they themselves could see it was completely harmless, but they gave me a "yeah, but no," and deferred me to the options they'd laid out before me.

I know one of those fucking guys kept my keychain; I doubt it made it to any evidence locker or some other official holding place for confiscated goods; one of those fucking cocksuckers probably pocketed it the moment I walked away.

​

 

[Gordon_4]

View attachment 13567

At the risk of being 'that guy', if the picture there is of the actual gift, that isn't a Desert Eagle. Otherwise yeah that blows.

 

[Xprimentyl]

At the risk of being 'that guy', if the picture there is of the actual gift, that isn't a Desert Eagle. Otherwise yeah that blows.

No, the picture is of the replacement I bought that came today. I couldn't find the exact gun I had before, but this one is still fairly lifelike, and it came with three removable bullets. It doesn't fire them, but you can load/unload the clip for fidgeting purposes.

Either way, it won't be flying with me anywhere now that I know the TSA can just identify cool shit, call it contraband, and take it for themselves for any not willing to pay their ransom.

 

[Gordon_4]

No, the picture is of the replacement I bought that came today. I couldn't find the exact gun I had before, but this one is still fairly lifelike, and it came with three removable bullets. It doesn't fire them, but you can load/unload the clip for fidgeting purposes.

Either way, it won't be flying with me anywhere now that I know the TSA can just identify cool shit, call it contraband, and take it for themselves for any not willing to pay their ransom.

Mate if you think the TSA are being anal, wait until you deal with actual Customs. And replica firearms of any stripe are strictly verboten on aircraft. Its a non-negotiable position.

 

[BrawlMan]

I've been getting a few t shirts on sale from tee public. The final flight shirt is from red bubble. When they had their sale. There's only lasted the one week. Tee public's lasted four about four weeks.

https://www.redbubble.com/i/t-shirt/Final-Fight-West-Side-by-Hockey-Guy/156142390.WFLAH

Sakura Kasugano by poker-star-animal

gamne

www.teepublic.com

sakura by poker-star-animal

game

www.teepublic.com

Alien Vs Predator Choose Your Character by simonbreeze

Fan art inspired by the movie and games of the AvP series.

www.teepublic.com

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance Zandatsu (White) by cooldojobro

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance Zandatsu featuring the cyborg Raiden AKA Jack the Ripper. Known now for the goofy MEME culture it inspired, this spinoff from the Metal Gear Solid franchise was a great looking videogame for the PlayStation 3. I hope to raise awareness of this game again, so that...

www.teepublic.com

Ninja Gaiden Izuna Drop by syanart

Ninja Gaiden Izuna Drop

www.teepublic.com

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Kickstarted a watch.




Am I overpaying for it? Possibly. The mechanism in it isn't exactly super impressive as far as automatics go, and it only has a 40 hour power reserve, but I don't currently own an open heart watch or a red watch, and look how fucking gorgeous that is.

The dials are hand made in Japan using Urushi (traditional Japanese lacquer), sprinkled with gold dust (a traditional embellishment for Japanese lacquer), and reviews online say that the finishing on the dial and case is close in quality to Grand Seiko, which is an impressive claim.

Once the watch is ready to ship I'll need to pick out a couple of straps for it. I really like the Inden straps, both the red and the black, but I'll probably go with the black (it's a more subtle and will blend in better when wearing it as a dress watch with a suit), and then I'm on the fence between whether I want the second strap to be tatami in navy, or the braided silk in brown. Both are really interesting and unique materials.

 

[Worgen]

A fancy monster hunter figure.
Was on pretty good sale so I kinda had to.

 

[Xprimentyl]

Bought some marmite. I don't expect it to change my life for better or worse, but I wholly expect it to put this gnawing curiosity behind me. I can't watch another video of "Americans trying marmite/vegemite" without having first-hand experience. Who knows? Yahtzee turned me onto Branston Pickle, but he always compared that to something good; never once heard him analogize marmite, but it's marketed as "love it or hate it," so I guess tomorrow I'll learn how deep my yearning to be British goes...

 

[BrawlMan]

I found a Japanese Region Free copy of Devil May Cry 4 Special Edition (PS4) using store credit at Disc Replay. I didn't have to pay a single dime. I traded in some DVDs and my old 360 copy of DMC4 to get ti