KDE Plasma 6.7 Beta arrives with Plasma Bigscreen, new Union theme system gamingonlinux.com

Another big exciting addition is Plasma Bigscreen, which is KDE's attempt to make Plasma look good on bigger TVs, HTPCs and set-top boxes. Something that might even be a lot better when docking the Steam Deck and for the Steam Machine / Steam Frame when they release too.

I've been wondering if somehow using one of my Gaming PCs connected to my TV would make for a great entertainment box, too. Right now, I primarily use an Apple TV to watch YouTube and access my Plex server. But the YouTube experience on the Apple TV is utter crap compared to, well, anything else. Maybe this Bigscreen thing is one step toward making that kind of setup actually work.

In case you were wondering if I like the new season of Diablo IV, this is my current character:

I am following this guide.

It is the first time since release that I touched the game, and back then I didn't even get through the story. Now, you can see by the amount of hours I played on this character how much I enjoy the game. It is also the first time ever in the history of a Diablo game that I am playing a seasonal character. I never really understood the point, but now I do. Somehow this game scratches all the correct itches: big number go big, loot go drop! It might be my new forever game, as in, I will play the upcoming seasons, too.

Although, I cannot not get insta-killed by the Echo of Mephisto. Eff that guy with his one-shot attacks.

Excuse me, what?! I absolutely loved Star Fox 64 back in the good old days. I used to spend a lot of time with my grandparents, where I had a Nintendo 64. I played countless hours of this and Ocarina of Time. Many good memories!

Damn, I am hyped!

I have a fairly beefy PC. I still need to update the /uses page, but in essence, I rock a water-cooled 9800X3D, an RTX 4090 FE, 7 TB in NVMe SSDs, and 32 GB of memory (which I don't think I need more of for gaming), all in a Define case.

Until now, I thought I seriously did not need anything else or an upgrade anytime soon. And then I stumbled across Thor Zone cases. I mean, just look at them.

The NANOQ S is the more traditional small form factor option and starts at €319. The TETRA S is the console-style one and starts at €259.

They are stupidly expensive, especially once you add shipping realities, taxes, a new PSU, a new motherboard, and probably a new cooler. But they are absolutely gorgeous. And they both fit a 4090, so I guess that means I am saving money since I could reuse the GPU?

That's how this works, right? Or maybe I need to build a living room PC, because I doubt the Steam Machine is for me.

Someone please hide my wallet.

Your PS5 can now transform into a Linux PC theverge.com

A developer has created a method to get Linux running on some versions of Sony’s PlayStation 5 console. [...]

This is a soft mod, so it won’t persist between power downs or restarts, but the Linux installation will let you play PC games once it’s up and running. So far we’ve seen GTA V running with enhanced ray tracing at 60fps in Ubuntu on a PS5, as well as Spider-Man running at 1440p resolution and 60fps.

I do have the Phat PS5 necessary to do this, but my firmware version is too new (there are apparently ways to downgrade). But since I am currently installing Linux on all my gaming devices, it would just be fitting to try this, too. Although, this may be one device that doesn't really need Linux.

If you want to give this a try, check out the official GitHub repo.

dbrand made a better Joy Con holder dbrand.com

I unfortunately deal with hand numbness when playing handhelds. Whenever I play while lying on the couch, my pinkie and ring fingers on both hands start to go numb after a while. The only way I’ve found to avoid this is by using very ergonomic grips.

And like I said in some blog posts last week, my second favorite platform to play games on right now is the Switch 2. Since the Switch 2 is basically a slab of plastic and glass, my fingers start going numb in about 30 minutes.

This is why I love dbrand’s Joy-Con grips. It’s kind of ridiculous how big they are, but they help a lot.

Now dbrand basically stole an idea from its community and turned it into a real product: the Joy-Lock Controller Holder. People on r/dbrand had already been modding Nintendo’s official Joy-Con controller holder to fit their Killswitch grips, and dbrand’s version builds on that with proper grip compatibility and an articulating ratchet hinge so you can change the angle.

While I am personally a big fan of the first-party Switch 2 Pro Controller, this is still a clever solution. It’s $19.95, and dbrand is knocking $5 off if you bundle it with the Grip handles or if you already bought an NS2 Killswitch.

I might grab one, especially because I plan to mod my Joy-Cons (more soon).

Thanks to Karl, I learned that there is, in fact, a way to install Rocknix on the internal storage of compatible devices like the AYN Odin 2 Mini.

All you have to do is connect via SSH and type the command installtointernal. Next, you only need to follow the terminal prompts and you're done. During the install process, Rocknix will resize the Android install and nuke the data, so be aware of that.

After that, all you need to know is that the location where you need to put files might change, depending on what you choose. I now need to put games into /games-external/roms. And because, as you can see in the screenshot above, I decided to move a copy of /storage over, I have a bit of double data now on the internal storage. I think this needs some more attention when you try to do the same.

Seeing that Steam now also exists for Rocknix, I might just start nuking Android from all my handhelds.

Privacy Setup for Android 16 with GrapheneOS (マリウス.com)

This is in my opinion the most important mental model to internalize before starting down this path. The goal isn’t “one device that does it all, perfectly private”, as that device doesn’t exist and chasing it will only give you a false sense of privacy. The goal is to make sure that the device which lives in your pocket, the one that knows where you drive, where you sleep and who you talk to, is running a minimal, trustworthy and hardened stack. Everything that brings known spyware into the mix, like corporate communication suites, banking apps, rideshare apps, airline loyalty clients, food delivery apps, all the usual suspects, belongs on a separate, deliberately untrusted device. That device can happily be a stock iPhone or a stock Pixel. Don’t fight that reality, use it in the most minimal way possible.

This is quite an interesting mental model. Though, I don't really know how viable this is on a day-to-day basis (especially with the current pricing situation out there), and I am not quite sure if this isn't a level too paranoid even for my liking.

While I find GrapheneOS very enticing, I need to use Google Wallet on a near-daily basis, and I already travel with too many devices anyway. I am not about to carry a second phone.