• 1 Post
  • 21 Comments
Joined 2 years ago
Cake day: June 1st, 2023
  • octobob@lemmy.mltoAsklemmy@lemmy.ml•How cheap is the cheapest home for sale in your city/region?
    2·
    11 months ago

    Hyup. I was born and raised here, and love the city to death.

    Wilkinsburg is a bit of a strange part of town. It’s one of a few neighborhoods that have resisted annexation for a century plus. Just look at a map of Pittsburgh and you’ll see big empty holes (literally mount Oliver is completely surrounded by the city). This results in some weird circumstances, wilkinsburg has really high taxes, shit schools, and is one of the rougher parts of town.

    On the other hand, I love where I’m at in the city, I got a beautiful 1800 sq ft 4BR home built in 1890 along the river. I can see the water from my front stoop. $160k, and I have a few roommates. Currently slowly renovating the place.

    It is a bit ironic opening Instagram or something and seeing posts like “omg! Pittsburgh is so affordable, my rent is under $2k!!!” For those shitty “luxury” apartments going in all over the country. Meanwhile, my mortgage is $830 because I bought during covid.

    I feel the creep and know the city isn’t gonna be affordable forever. Wages are still a bit shit around here.

  • octobob@lemmy.mltoAsklemmy@lemmy.ml•How cheap is the cheapest home for sale in your city/region?
    1·
    11 months ago

    The OP said “house”. Interpret that however you’d like I guess. If you bought this place for $10k in cash, I don’t know who exactly would stop you from clearing out a room and living in it while working on it.

    You can get a loan for just about anything from the bank. You don’t even have to be very specific about what you’re using it for. All they care about is credit history, what interest rates they’re giving you, length of loan, blahblahblah

  • octobob@lemmy.mltoAsklemmy@lemmy.ml•What are some things you can/should cheap out on?
    72·
    1 year ago

    What a load of crap. My phone is 5 years old and the only security risk is me blindly installing questionable APKs off the Internet or clicking pop-up ads or something. It’s not like I’m walking around with a time bomb or anything when all I do is browse a few apps and text and call.

    Also the new pixel 8 supposedly is supposed to come with 7 years of updates. It’s entirely possible Google abandons that plan though, given their track record.

  • octobob@lemmy.mltoAsklemmy@lemmy.ml•What seemed like a small or inconsequential decision at the time, but actually ended up having a big impact later on?
    57·
    1 year ago

    I ended up drinking down by the river spot with some friends one sunny summer afternoon. Completely randomly, I remembered I had the number of a boy. He had long blonde hair, was skinny as a rail, and was very into heavy metal, I wasn’t as much. He was also adorable, but I wasn’t even thinking about that. I was unsure of my own feelings at the time of whether I was gay or not, I was only like 21 and he was 19.

    I honestly have no idea why it dawned on me to text him. I just thought he was a cool guy and maybe fun to hang out with. We didn’t exactly run in the same social circles, we had a few of the same friends but had actually really never interacted much irl. A few times on last.fm and tumblr.

    My friends started leaving and splitting off, and before it got dark, we had drank most of the bottle of fireball he brought and we were kissing and holding each other in the weird pallet / tree house thing above the river.

    What’s extra crazy is he was sort of floating between living at a few places and was currently crashing at a mansion of all places, but it was like 20 miles north of the city and he didn’t have a car. He just happened to be in town on that one day, at the right time, that when I texted him, he was able to walk over.

    That was 10 years ago. We’re planning on getting married after I finish some home renovations in the next year or so on our beautiful 1890s home (which coincidentally is by that same river).

  • octobob@lemmy.mltoLinux Gaming@lemmy.ml•Steam/play from computer to TV
    4·
    1 year ago

    I actually just answered this question on another post in this forum. I’ve been using a KVM to use my living room TV as another screen that I can play games / stream video / generally use my PC which is in my bedroom.

    It works great in a max resolution of 4K/60hz and zero latency as far as I can tell on the USB ports for gaming controllers and mouse & keyboard. I use KDE big screen to easily navigate & open programs, emulators, steam, whatever with a controller so I don’t have to try to read tiny 4K text from the couch. I generally find disabling my monitors and enabling my TV works best.

    Basically how it works is:

    PC (HDMI & USB) -> transmitter -> Ethernet (CAT 6 or better) -> receiver -> TV (HDMI & USB)

    The Ethernet wire only connects from the transmitter to the receiver. It does not connect to your network at all.

    This is the particular one I got:

    Basicolor HDMI KVM USB Extender 4K@60Hz KVM Extender Over Cat5e/Cat6 Up to 60m (196Ft), 4 Ports USB,Lossless or Zero Latency, Plug&Play(Point to Point KVM Extender) https://a.co/d/8Ki2lzw

    Other option, if everything is in the same room you could just run some long HDMI or displayport and USB cables.

  • octobob@lemmy.mltoLinux Gaming@lemmy.ml•Today I played control on my new linux daily driver - through steam link on my TV!
    7·
    1 year ago

    FWIW, I have an old steam link. I can’t remember what video settings I was getting. But I know they weren’t 4K/60hz. I ran one additional cat 6A Ethernet wire to a dedicated KVM from my desktop to my living room OLED TV. I’ve been very impressed by the result. I’ve mostly played a lot of my old favorites on various emulators. It’s been very nice playing through the metal gear solid series in upscaled 4K and avoiding that crap collection that was just released by Konami.

    The steam link is cool and I’m glad to see Valve still supporting it all these years later. But the flexibility of a KVM is really nice. I watched a Steelers stream today just using my TV as another monitor basically. And KDE big screen is very nice for navigating things with a controller and not trying to read tiny text in 4K resolution lol

  • octobob@lemmy.mltoHome Improvement@lemmy.world•It would be nice to have curtains that absorb street noise.
    1·
    1 year ago

    I live next to a bridge with heavy traffic, a river, and train tracks on either side of said river. Thankfully the train only comes by once or twice a day on our side, but constantly over on the other one.

    I got used to the noise relatively quickly after moving in, like maybe a month or two. I’m used to city noise though.

    That being said, my eventual plan is to get some heavy wooden window shutters. I figure I can close them up in the colder months, and it should block some noise out. I do keep the windows open in the summer though, no A/C here.

  • octobob@lemmy.mltoAsklemmy@lemmy.ml•What temperature do you keep your thermostat at?
    3·
    1 year ago

    In the summer? I have no AC at my house but it doesn’t usually go above 77 - 80 on it’s own. It’s in a unique part of the city where we’re surrounded by the woods and trees which provide a lot of shade and cool the air. Also the house is built into the side of a mountain and surrounded by massive retaining walls, so the first floor is basically a story underground. Our bedroom is also on the first floor, so I don’t really go upstairs except to do laundry.

    In the winter, usually about 64 - 67. It goes down to 60 during the day on a schedule or whatever.