Random thoughts thread

malmon Made me almost completely lose interest in programming.

Yup I get that, you become more of a product manager/kindergarten employee when using AI, I'm glad I left the field before it happened. For personal projects it's so cool because you get to experiment a lot for basically free since otherwise I couldn't sink enough time for that.
But for the joy of programming... it's gone.

malmon Would be even cooler if ya managed to make your own UMD!

I read that it was not possible since UMD were built specifically for Sony and production stopped. Would have been cool though. Got it running with OFW so there's that.

malmon And the track day was good

Glad to hear that! Thanks for the diagram, very helpful. Torque is always a scary thing, too loose or too tight and you risk failures. Couldn't find the part in a car junkyard?
The way you write about it I can already see the adrenaline and anxiety spike up wondering whether you'd make it on time or not.

Even though it was just an experience, car being unsuited and all it's still cool to bring an E36 to track and as you said it was still a fun time. And you got to meet your fellow enthusiasts.

Car does look very clean, congrats!

You should have no problem getting it to track speed if you want to, in Europe lot's of people still run E36 and a lot of them prepare them.

Dontmindme I read that it was not possible since UMD were built specifically for Sony and production stopped. Would have been cool though. Got it running with OFW so there's that.

Hmm, according to Wikipedia, some publishers released JAVs on UMD, which Sony didn't approve of, so there must've been some way to produce UMDs that was out of Sony's control. Though I was hoping that they were just mini DVDs in a case, but it seems not.

Dontmindme Couldn't find the part in a car junkyard?

I don't think junkyards are as much of a thing here as they are elsewhere. There is one sorta nearby, but they didn't have any E36s. Plenty of E30s and E46s though ^^'

Dontmindme You should have no problem getting it to track speed if you want to, in Europe lot's of people still run E36 and a lot of them prepare them.

True, but then it would become less enjoyable to drive on the UK's terrible roads. Adjustable suspension is a thing, of course, but I imagine the baseline with those is still significantly stiffer than the stock suspension.

Do you drive?

put some changes through to the lewd backend. shouldn't be a lot thats noticeable but there is a few new features :>

malmon I believe there are softwares to write over an existing UMD but not sure how they work. The case breaks if you open it to avoid temper, maybe someone made a 3d print mold since then ?

Ah, that makes sense. Here for such parts you can even get them online scrapyards will compete on prices and some ship veryyyy fast. Or you just go to the local one.

Fair point about daily driving. I have a shitbox, considered tuning it a little but it’s basically illegal on the road then

I'm hungwy

Dontmindme Write over an existing UMD?? I assumed they were ROMs! But yeah, 3D printing has made a lot more of this sort of thing possible. As much as I shit on AI, if someone managed to reverse-engineer the UMD format, then it would be theoretically possible to make your own UMDs with DVD-Rs, and AI could probably help a lot with that.

Also, shitboxes are the best cars~

Can you really not tune stuff?

malmon They truly are !

You can do aesthetics pimps if you follow the rules, so besides stickers not much. For real tuning exhaust mod is illegal in France (pollution, noise), intake is illegal I believe, maybe some that "don’t affect the structure of the car and its handling" are allowed but then insurance is mandatory and few will allow mods. Or against a hefty monthly payment. TBH even cars with more horses were unavailable to me when I started driving, insurance companies either flat out refused or wanted to gouge me. Even today you still pay more. Maybe if you’re rich and follow the rules.

Re UMDs : you are right they are ROM, I misunderstood what UMDgen did. So no way to print UMD today I guess. Apparently all the data is there you just need an optical-disc plant

Dontmindme Damn, that's kinda lame. In the UK you can do just about anything you want, as long as you can get it insured, it doesn't have misleading lights, doesn't make it fail emissions, and doesn't remove the DPF/PPF. How does it work regarding motorsport in France, then? Here for most typical things like track days, the car usually has to be road legal, and even more serious stuff like stage rallying requires the teams to drive their car on public roads between stages.

Are UMDs not just DVDs in an enclosure?

malmon Are UMDs not just DVDs in an enclosure?

Kinda but they are not standard DVDs so you still need to custom make them. The processes are known, just probably no one interested to make them for a batch of copies.

malmon How does it work regarding motorsport in France, then?

I don’t know exactly, I live near a track and you often see the cars on the road but most are like group B cars, factory road legal track ready. For mods during track days maybe the police is more lenient. Someone (Sylvain Lyve) built a 1000tipla (French play on words for a fiat multipla but with « Mille » meaning a thousand ) with 1294hp on bench. He got it temporarily road legal it it was a hassle and involved getting immatriculation in another European country and a legal gray area.

In France, heavily modified cars are difficult to legalize because any significant change to the engine, power output, suspension or structure may require individual approval (RTI), which is expensive and not guaranteed. Insurance can also refuse coverage or challenge a claim if modifications are undeclared or the vehicle is not road-legal. Compared to the UK, the system is much more restrictive.

Dontmindme Kinda but they are not standard DVDs so you still need to custom make them. The processes are known, just probably no one interested to make them for a batch of copies.

But I'm thinking, if we know what data is supposed to go on the disc, could one reverse engineer the firmware on a standard DVD writer to make it write UMDs?

Dontmindme In France, heavily modified cars are difficult to legalize because any significant change to the engine, power output, suspension or structure may require individual approval (RTI), which is expensive and not guaranteed.

Man, what's even the reason for such laws? In the UK, you could literally put a plane engine into a car and it'd still be road-legal assuming it passes emissions for the spec of its era. Also looked up Poland, and it seems like all you need to do the regarding power changes is to notify whichever government body so that they can update the registration.

Dontmindme you've probably heard about the vibe-coded android port to 3ds. I first saw it on gbatemp a few days ago, i was like "damn, homebrew sure is evolving." Developing for old consoles is a pretty opaque concept to me, it's sort of cool to see the crazy software revolution extend into consoles. but yeah it does kind of take away some of the joy as both you and malmon have said

mauhs Perhaps it's a matter of reframing where the joy comes from. Like, is it really the programming that was the interesting part, or seeing your vision come to life? There's definitely a bit of both for me, but I did find that if I had something that I was programming that was taking significantly longer than I had envisioned, I would start to lose interest.

Maybe that's just the never-finishing-a-project-er in me, or maybe programming wasn't actually that fun in the first place ^^' The issue I guess is that I find it difficult to say that I made something, when the AI did most of the work.

malmon yeah I've made a few shitty apps in my time (without ai) and I think the joy there really came from the struggle and effort put in. with AI you can get things done but the reward isn't there unless I can be proud of having put in the work to make it exist. And I definitely agree with you on the last thing, projects need to have clout potential for me to be enthusiastic about them lol

I have so much energy

COUPLED Would a roast duck do the job? I'm cooking one up right now ^_^

malmon yes it would...

COUPLED Well there's plenty still left in the fridge~ Not sure how well it would keep in the post though.

malmon well even the size format was proprietary don’t think you could find something to read that other than a psp and same for writing.

Safety supposedly, France is just a no fun allowed country.

mauhs have for a couple but not many. I’m kinda in my own bubble. Very intrigued by PocketJS though

Re: joy. I got to build a location sharing native mobile app I feel comfortable sharing location with at all time for me and my gf. Process brings less joy but results do and you get results more easily. That’s where I’m at currently at least

Cool to see this community still going strong!

Dontmindme malmon My girlfriend has a kind-of-shitty-but-lovely Fiat 500 with a modded exhaust. The combination of the tiny Fiat 500 and the sports car sounds always gets her cheers and thumbs up from random strangers on the street. Her dad got it used from some Fiat 500 collector and its a "Giannini" look-alike (not a real Giannini sadly).