#rockbox

[gillespiejr]

Girls will ask "is anyone going to sneak my ridiculously niche hobby into my fic?" and not wait for an answer

Ray silenced the unknown number and tossed his phone onto the bed, all but forgotten as he spun back around and continued fiddling with the iPod he had been trying to resuscitate for the better part of that Saturday morning.  The Nigerian Prince, or the mortgage collectors for the house he didn’t own, or the IRS, or Microsoft Tech Support could wait.  Right now, the only thing deserving of his attention was that bitch of a hard drive that kept crashing when he tried to boot back into the new OS.   Maybe it was time for more drastic measures. Ray had the whole afternoon ahead of him, new tools itching to be used, and ample time for electronic surgery.  If he really wanted to have some fun, this was the perfect project to to break out the old soldering–  A soft ping broke his train of thought.  The caller had left a voicemail.  What the hell, thought Ray, and swiveled back towards his bed to fish his phone out from the pile of covers and last night’s pajamas.

[rabidrodent]

installed Rockbox to my old Sansa Clip Zip so now I can finally play Doom like God intended.

[khnuvr]

A small dream come true

[jasmine-whimsy]

currently using rockbox to make my ipod fancy, im not smart enough for this

[basicgeology]

Hiiii I'm very new at geology and I wanted to know if there are any (not too expensive) books you would recommend for beginners?

Okay I've gotten this question before but I feel like I finally answer it properly.

I am personally building a gdrive full of free resources. It's very empty right now but you can find it in my pinned post.

"Introducing Geology: a guide to the world of rocks" by Graham Park is currently on my TBR list. I have not personally read it but it has been recommended to me as a book for beginners + I have read a book in the same series called "Introducing Geomorphology" and found it very well written and easy to understand, so I'm positive that this one might be just as good. Either way it's pretty cheap, I don't know where you live but for me both books are in the 12-15€ range so you should be able to get your hands on a copy fairly easily.

I'm going to say though, even though I have not read it, I have to assume that a basic knowledge of chemistry and maybe physics is required to understand that book simply because geology is very much based in the fundamentals of chemistry. If you do purchase it and some concepts are unclear to you, feel free to come back here and send some asks about it!

[turquoisewaves07]

Slightly stressed about my iPod classic because since I installed Rockbox it seems a bittt unstable. But I need to wash this little bag I found for it, sort out album covers, and actually start using it on the regular.

[aspensmonster]

i wish i still had an ipod. i miss having Music Unit. i mean i do still have two ipods that technically work, except theres no way to update them so theyre time capsules

[narwhix]

my ipod

heres my ipod, i put 256gb in it and a battery big enough that it will last weeks :)

[19v97]

one day I'm gonna build an iPod Classic with a custom clear plastic front and back with USB-C, haptic feedback, and bluetooth

[luciality]

spotify users shut upppppppp listen to physical media like a person or at least use an mp3 player

[mrs-bingley]

You can also mod an old iPod if that's more affordable for you or maybe have an old one around! There's a big modding community around iPods and they add literally everything to them: USC-B, bluetooth, 1T hard drives, and if you install RockBox (which is free and open source firmware replacement for the iPod) you can play FLAC on them if music quality is important for you. You can take a look at this guide about what you can mod for every iPod version and if you browse YT you'll find several guides on how to do stuff for yourself (which sounds scary, but it's better than it sounds I swear!! though opening it is a pain!!)

I hate when I say things like "oh I want an ipod classic but with bluetooth so I can use wireless headphones" and some peanut comes in and replies with "so a smartphone with spotify?" No. I want a 160GB+ rectangular monstrosity where I can download every version of every song I want to it and it does nothing except play music and I don't need a data connection and don't have to pay a subscription to not have ads and don't have popups suggesting terrible AI playlists all over the menus.

Gimme the clicky wheel and song titles like "My Chemical Romance- The Black Parade- Blood (Bonus Track)- secret track- album rip- high quality"

[cowboylightbearer]

i rly should go ahead and rockbox my ipod one of these days so i dont have keep 2 copies of all my music files </3 its eating all my storage space

[udurghsigil]

im gonna b really annoying abt my new music player for sure bc ive fallen in love with it instantly. even with my fiio i was getting tired of how annoying it was to use after a day n just begrudgingly kept going w it but my beloved surfans f20... she is perfect :'^)

[basicgeology]

Hi! I just found your blog and I LOVE it! Yay rocks!

One question, if it's not too personal, what university do you study at? Just curious :)

Yay! Oh that makes me glad :)))

Not a problem, I don't mind disclosing it. I study at Sapienza University in Rome, Italy!

[sufferingincorporatedtm]

i've used apple stuff my whole life (for mobile tech anyway, ipad mini, 2 iphones, ipad normal). my beloved ipad mini 2 from 2013 finally died this year (it was great) and the ipad normal from 201X was just way too heavy and huge.

so for my new 'couch device' i pulled my sister's Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (7.0") from 2012 out of the cable drawer. and i love this thing. it is still compatible with modern apps because it's Android could be upgraded from 4.2 to a community made 7.2 (thats called lineageOS), which firefox still supports. so it can go to modern websites, with adblock (+other extensions). it can manage 480p video using a youtube downloader, totally acceptable resolution on a 7 inch screen. it can stream audio from bandcamp and podcast sites, the bluetooth works across my house (i like BT headphones in the home because i can launch my device across a room when i need to do something with both hands). theres this F-Droid app library of open-source apps, no google necessary, all without ads or payments. honestly the fact that the official youtube app/site is too much for it is ok, encourages me to listen to audio while doing hobbies instead. also when you listen to stuff it puts the album art on the lock screen with a visualiser which is so cool.

it has a headphone jack, a micro sd slot, a normal (near pc style) file manager. it's super light, it's a great form factor. the battery still lasts a couple days, and could be replaced relatively easily. and it is over 12 YEARS OLD, that is ancient for a modern mobile device and it's still kicking. i can't believe i put up with how limiting apple stuff is all that time. once my current iphone breaks i am swapping to android forever (unless linux phones take off). as i understand it modern samsung stuff also sucks (no headphone jack) but there are some good ones from other companies.

android users can literally use a tablet for a decade and i had no idea because my dad is an apple fanboy and got me my phone when i was a child.

I just got my first ever iPhone and my god it is terrible, how did they get so popular this thing is a nightmare

[subjectsix]

KIP'S BIG POST OF THINGS TO MAKE THE INTERNET & TECHNOLOGY SUCK A LITTLE LESS

Post last updated November 23, 2024. Will continue to update!

Here are my favorite things to use to navigate technology my own way:

A refurbished iPod loaded with Rockbox OS (Rockbox is free, iPods range in price. I linked the site I got mine from. Note that iPods get finicky about syncing and the kind of cord it has— it may still charge but might not recognize the device to sync. Getting an original Apple cord sometimes helps). Rockbox has ports for other MP3 players as well.

This Windows debloater program (there are viable alternatives out there, this one works for me). It has a powershell script that give you a little UI and buttons to press, which I appreciate, as I'm still a bit shy with tech.

Firefox with the following extensions: - Consent-O-Matic (set your responses to ALL privacy/cookie pop-ups in the extension, and it will answer all pop-ups for you. I can see reasons to not use it, but I appreciate it) - Facebook Container ("contains" Meta on Facebook and Instagram pages to keep it from tracking you or getting third party cookies, since Meta is fairly egregious about it) - Redirect Amp to HTML (AMP is designed for mobile phones, this forces pages to go to their HTML version) - A WebP/AVIF image converter - uBlock Origin and uBlacklist, with the AI blacklist loaded in to kill any generative AI results from appearing in search engines or anywhere.

Handbrake for ripping DVDs— I haven’t used this in awhile as I haven’t been making video edits. I used this back when I had a Mac OS

VLC Media Player (ol’ reliable)

Unsplash & Pexels for free-to-use images

A password manager (these often are paid. I use Dashlane. There are many options, feel free to search around and ask for recs!). There is a lot that goes into cybersecurity— find the option you feel is best for you.

Things I suggest:

Understanding Royalty Free and the Creative Commons licenses

Familiarity with boolean operators for searching

Investing in a backup drive and external drive

A few good USBs, including one that has a backup of your OS on it

Adapter cables

Avoiding Fandom “wikias” (as in the brand “Fandom”) and supporting other, fan-run or supported wikis. Consider contributing if its something you find yourself passionate or joyful about.

Finding Forums for the things you like, or creating your own*

Create an email specifically for ads/shopping— use it to receive all promotional emails to keep your inbox clean. Upkeep it.

Stop putting so much of your personal information online— be willing to separate your personal online identity from your “online identity”. You don’t owe people your name, location, pronouns, diagnoses, or any of that. It’s your choice, but be discerning in what you give and why. I recommend avoiding providing your phone number to sites as much as possible.

Be intentional

Ask questions

Talk to people

Remember that you can lurk all you want

Things that are fun to check out:

BBSes-- here's a portal to access them.

Neocities

*Forums-- find some to join, or maybe host your own? The system I was most familiar with was vbulletin.

MMM.page

Things that have worked well for me but might work for you, YMMV:

Limit your app usage time on your smartphone if you’re prone to going back to them— this is a tangible way to “practice mindfulness”, a term I find frustratingly vague ansjdbdj

Things I’m looking into:

The “Pi Hole”— a raspberry pi set up to block all ads on a specific internet connection

VPNs-- this is one that was recommended to me.

How to use computers (I mean it): Resources on how to understand your machine and what you’re doing, even if your skill and knowledge level is currently 0:

This section I'll come back an add to. I know that messing with computers can be intimidating, especially if you feel out of your depth. HTML and regedits and especially things like dualbooting or linux feel impossible. So I want to put things here that explain exactly how the internet and your computer functions, and how you can learn and work with that. Yippee!