kayohtie

I've seen multiple emulator devs frustrated with how demanding the project itself is, but moreso toxic behavior from the lead developer towards emulator devs and users alike. Can't handle any kind of even constructive criticism worth a damn and when people understandably are frustrated by him lashing out he then turns it back around to say they're out to get him.

Agreed really, but less about the RetroArch part and more just in general with the way this person in particular is. In my mind, if you're not ready to be able to turn the project over to the community to maintain instead of yourself because you're as much of a controlling prick as this guy, then you should never make it even source-available and should just keep it private source.

I'm getting the same vibes as when I spike taxes in Sim City for Palm OS just before the year rolls over and then drop it back after.

In his defense, a LOT of emulator maintainers have this sentiment about RetroArch, so I can't fault him too much for that one in particular.

I do get the sense this is more common with emulators in general.

Weird how the chart just prioritizes other corporations and only shows true open-source or self-hosted solutions when there are no non-US options realistically. Hmm.

It does! I have my bedroom one controlled through it and even showing up as a play target for Spotify Connect. I've got my speakers I was plugging into my phone to play music before, or into a Raspi briefly, plugged into the 3.5mm jack on that one.

My kitchen one I just leave as-is. I DID modify the ESPHome firmware on each, extending to add an OLED (I think) clock display that also shows remaining time for timers in numbers. I do really like the LED ring animation for timers built-in though, it's pretty slick!

I ended up picking up two of the Home Assistant Voice PE devices and I've been fairly happy with them. I even extended their firmware so I have a clock display on each with one being my bedroom alarm clock even. But even out of the box functionality, as long as you can either run faster-whisper on Home Assistant (or another box), or don't mind their lighter device-control-only route, is totally solid.

Plus music streaming to them (with an external speaker attached via the 3.5mm jack) is pretty good!

I imagine more as in using them for local voice. Without that, it's still dependent on connecting HA to Google Home. And outside of a fairly expensive hardware replacement module it ends up being cheaper to go other routes.

There's a mode for voice control that is even friendly to a Raspi 4 or 5, but it's very simplistic in control, basically a super lightweight speech to text trained only on device names and aliases. Think the speech to text in late 2000s through early 2010s non-smart phones.

Small models for faster-whisper will run on even my little Dell Micro i5-6500T that I have Home Assistant running on, it's just a little bit slow, but it absolutely works and is usable speed! I run a larger model currently offloaded to my server, which has an RTX 2070 Super in it, but that's to make it perform more like how Google used to a long time ago, and it's unused power most of the time.

They're trying to make it as accessible as possible for sure. There's even options to use cloud STT and TTS (they even include it in the Home Assistant Cloud optional feature), but it's definitely cool as hell to be able to talk to an open-source-design speaker and get a reply and control any switches or lights or even my thermostat and robo vacuum without needing the Internet to work. As long as my Wi-Fi and HA box are up, I've got options!

Cookies I can 1000% attest to. The dough gets made quick, sure, but letting it age in the refrigerator for 3-4 days before baking makes a truly excellent cookie.

Varies on the type of course but chocolate chip nearly always wins here. That and with brown butter, also a "take it slow" process.

I figured and I know it's shorthand, it's my own frustration that said shorthand has partly enabled the anthropomorphism that it's enjoyed.

Leave the anthropomorphism to pets, plants, and furries, basically. And cars. It's okay to call cars like that. They know what they did.

I've cried at my psychologist place multiple times but each time was not because of her. It was welling up of deep, un-addressed feelings, or a sense of relief of some kind, or sometimes pure catharsis.

Sessions were often exhausting but because of being emotionally engaging and being about things that were deeply emotional to me. I apologized several times for becoming overwhelmed, feeling weird as a chubby grown man breaking down, but she always reassured in a way that made me feel safe, un-judged.

Her goal was always to help me work through last traumas and keep improving living on my own. And she helped tremendously.

There's definitely some crap therapists out there, and some who are great at some things but terrible with others. Then there's some who have studied thoroughly and keep up-to-date to help people, because even if it's taxing for them, their passion is in helping people.

Don't dismiss horror stories or the fear; dismissal isn't helpful. Guiding instead with positives, with some good to help ease the fears, is far more helpful.