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zincOctober's Steamworks & Utilities

this is the utility room! space for everything that goes into keeping this place running.

this is where I keep the detailed update log, a fuller credits section and some more elaboration on the machine I run, and what I run on it.

Updates!!

  • I made an RSS feed! manually! turns out it's not actually that hard and not remotely technical. linked in the sidebar (on pages I actually updated that for), just throw into your tool of choice and now you don't have to constantly stalk my website for actual updates! technically Neocities makes one of these for you innately but that thing fires *every file change* which isn't useful to anyone really lol, this one I update *manually* and only when I've added something I think people would want to see, like major decoration updates or new/rehashed sections.
  • this page came slightly later than the frontpage updates section, so that's all going in one -- layout there's done (for now), it could use a fidget toy but it serves the utility and -- importantly -- *looks* complete. todo on there is the header and sidebar decorations (I have some plans), and then finally same for the content (which will be done differently in different sections and involve funkier css layouts, not looking forward to that). before that though, I'm doing functional passes for the rest of the pages, like the cafe and this page right here! (next up is the library, then the workshop). once all that's done, *then* I get to start making content.

credits <3

  • as per the frontpage, petrapixel's layout generator! absolute lifesaver for getting started when I didn't know how to use flexbox or grid from scratch. their tutorials on those were also *very* useful.
  • other resources I used include W3Schools' html & css stuff, 32bitcafe's resource list, and many small lessons from many other websites by poking around with an inspect tool. try it some time! at least on Librewolf (so Firefox), the inspect tools are *incredibly* thorough and have saved my hide more than once!
  • once again as on the frontpage, Onio and Myrrh! Onio's video put me onto this whole thing, and inspired me to look into it -- Myrrh's website, which I found through said video, forged my passion and helped me find the resources attributed above. ...and also led me to some Really Fucking Funny Websites, which always helps. and also the music on that page is so so so good and vanpage ate an hour of my life at *least* <3
  • all my buddies on and off the indie web who complimented my tomfuckery (hi Vine thanks Vine)
  • neocities (duh) (do I need to explain this) (no) (the answer is no)

hardware! (a mistake)

  • i5-8500 (help me)
  • 16GB I think DDR4 (I'd like to upgrade but uh. Fuck!)
  • the asrock skew intel arc B580 (used to be a 1050ti! my rig is a nightmare.)
  • some old ass model of Gigabyte UD motherboard
  • 1TB of M1 SSD, 500GB of SATA SSD, 1TB of spinning rust, arranged in a nightmare hellscape of fuckass partitions because I made the mistake of ever attempting virtual machining or dual booting.
  • 21x9 1080p 200Hz main monitor, fucked up and evil 1360x768 (85x48???) 60Hz tv-screen-as-a-monitor
  • typewriter-style keyboard I plan to replace because it's falling apart, corsair mouse I plan to replace because it drops drag inputs sometimes
  • fifine microphone and ATH-M50x headphones (latter mooched off my sister because she didn't really have use for an aux headset) (only actually good hardware in this setup)
  • steam deck (okay this one's also good)
  • old motorola I need to upgrade because the usb-c port *isn't* and background processes (like music) crash when I take a photo
  • Lenovo Legion laptop that runs just well enough that I can't justify getting a Framework 12 or 16
  • bluetooth headphones that are falling apart like the other three or four sets I've owned in the past few years
  • MY RIG IS A FUCKING NIGHTMARE I CANNOT *WAIT* TO START GETTING PAID AND REPLACE SOME OF THIS CRAP

Software!

  • Bazzite Linux! works great, although has started refusing to boot with more than one graphics device enabled. prob gunna try CachyOS next time I do a major hardware revision.
  • KDE Plasma -- I really like this one. decorated it with LyraQ things and some other icon set, few other customisations, now it's all really nice to look at and distinct, all without frying my windows-trained brain. couldn't imagine using anything else rn.
  • Librewolf, it's not chromium and it's more secure. I don't really need anything fancy in a browser, I just need it to work and not be bloatware. I run it with Adnauseum, which is ublock but it also clicks all the ads on purpose to screw with advertisers. both have been great.
  • Vesktop -- if you use Linux, and you use discord, it's a must. also transparent window discord is great I can see my video wallpaper through it (:
  • Obsidian, to organise my thoughts. great if you can build habits around it. I have yet to entirely pull this off myself though. really cool software all things considered though, it's (in theory) my calendar, notes, project organisation and task tracker all in one through the power of community plugins, and I'm not worried about losing my documents because it's all in markdown.
  • Kate, because IDEs are bloatware. can be a bit fiddly, but for many languages it's perfect -- LSP support and git tools that don't hate you make this an ideal platform for anyone seeking a lightweight code editor.
  • Blockbench! for those of us who *really* don't wanna learn blender. excellent software for the purpose, strong reccomend.
  • Sober. I wish Roblox Corporation was any less shit, really. but, at least it too works on Linux, presently.

stuff I used to use

  • piskel, replaced by pixelorama for better animation support among other features.
  • 1050ti graphics -- replaced by B580 because it couldn't handle Satisfactory. new card's great btw.