Marcus

@gerowen

Privacy, open source software, cybersecurity, self-hosting/homelab and tech enthusiast Father, husband, occasional gamer Website: Mastodon:

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Marcus@gerowen· 11d

Ever wanted to see a Regiment from #DragonAge Origins up close? Here you go. #Gaming

Marcus@gerowen· 12d

Laying the smack down on an ogre in #DragonAgeOrigins. #Gaming #DragonAge

My character sits atop an ogre that has been knocked down, sword in hand and ready to strike.

Marcus@gerowen· Apr 26

I really like the #LifeIsStrange games, but man there's a part of me that gets overwhelmed by choice paralysis, lol. And you can't really "save scum" in this game beyond one previous checkpoint, you just have to live with your choices. Screenshot link: steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/... #Gaming

A screenshot of Max from "Life is Strange: Double Exposure" sitting on a bench reflecting.

Marcus@gerowen· Apr 7

Just set a brand spanking new #Windows 11 VM and installed the March update (KB5086672), and now powershell is broken. Literally all I've done is install Windows, Firefox, the virtio drivers and some Windows updates. Everything was fine until I installed the March update. #Microsoft

$A screenshot of the Windows "terminal" app with the following output that appeared immediately upon trying to open it: [error 3489660986 (0xd000003a) when launching `%SystemRoot%\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe']$

Marcus@gerowen· Apr 6

Hmmm. An IP address from #Israel trying to use my home server as a gateway to an IP owned by #SaudiArabia. #CyberSecurity

A screenshot of some log messages from my server showing the following:

Connection attempts using mod_proxy:
141.226.93.211 -> 104.243.35.138:25: 1 Time(s)
141.226.93.211 -> 104.243.35.138:80: 1 Time(s)

Marcus@gerowen· Mar 28

Omfg, fuck Argath. I should have let him die when I found him. #FinalFantasyTactics #Gaming #FinalFantasy

Marcus@gerowen· Mar 18

The land octopus is susceptible to sleep. #Gaming #EldenRing

Marcus@gerowen· Mar 18

"Give me a good smack from behind with something nice and big." -- Iron Fist Alexander #Gaming #EldenRing

Marcus@gerowen· Mar 16

Maybe I'm weird, but this bothers me. It insults our intelligence and removes any sense of accomplishment from discovering things on our own. We're not learning or discovering things, we're just following directions... The #ResidentEvil 4 remake did it too, 😞 steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/...

A screenshot of Resident Evil 4 where a path for Ashley to climb behind a door has a rag with yellow paint splotched on it hanging out so you don't have to work too hard to look for it.

A screenshot of Resident Evil 4 where the one railing you're allowed to jump over is the one and only thing in the entire field of view that is randomly covered in yellow paint.

Marcus@gerowen· Mar 16

Trying out #FinalFantasy 7 Rebirth earlier on my #SteamDeck since it ran great on my desktop, and it actually looks and runs quite well on Deck. But it has adopted the modern #gaming trope of painting the intended path in random ass yellow paint...

A screenshot of Rebirth running on my Steam Deck. The performance overlay is on top of the image because I wanted to see how it did. I'm climbing down a wall where all of the valid handholds are painted yellow.

Marcus@gerowen· Mar 13

#Valve may be about to release some of their new hardware. There's a new developer option in #SteamOS to update firmware on the new #Steam controller, with its own dedicated graphic of the new controller. And earlier today this update arrived for the Steam mobile app on my phone. #Gaming #PCGaming

The only patch note for this update to the Steam app for Android says:

Fixed issues with Bluetooth login for Steam Frame.

Marcus@gerowen· Mar 13

Welp, even if you don't have a #Facebook account, if you have a #Meta account, for example, to use an Oculus headset, you now have to provide your birthday. Just got this email.

Hi Marcus,

Please tell us your birthday to continue using the account set up with REDACTED.

You can tell us your birthday by going to meta.com/enterbirthday or opening the Meta Horizon app.

Thanks,
The Meta Quest Team

Marcus@gerowen· Mar 10

I was getting ready for the next fight. Apparently the host only wanted help with the mini boss right before this and didn't feel like using the finger severer. #EldenRing #Gaming

Marcus@gerowen· Mar 10

Got held back by the fog wall until the boss spawned, host was dead before I landed. #Gaming #EldenRing

Marcus@gerowen· Mar 10

Mimic tear, taking one for the team, lol. #Gaming #EldenRing

Marcus@gerowen· Mar 9

Since we've had it a couple weeks and had no issues even during extended #gaming sessions, I decided to do a thorough RAM test on the new gaming PC with memtest while parts are still in warranty just to make certain everything is working properly. #PCGaming

A photo of my television with a gaming PC underneath. On the screen is a running instance of memtest with the giant word "PASS".

Marcus@gerowen· Mar 9

My driveway a few minutes ago. #Nature #Photography

Two frogs sitting in a puddle of water in my gravel driveway.

Marcus@gerowen· Mar 6

Come on #Steam spring sale, I got things I want to play without paying full price, 😛 #Gaming #PCGaming

A partial screenshot of my Steam wishlist. The visible items are:

- Horizon Forbidden West Complete Edition
- Resident Evil Requiem
- Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
- Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
- Final Fantasy Tactics - The Ivalice Chronicles
- Little Nightmares III

Marcus@gerowen· Mar 4

Hmmm, it appears #Gitlab is down. Have tried it with a VPN and Tor too to make sure it wasn't something specific to me. But their status page is up and says everything is working.

An error page on gitlab.com that has an image of "502", where the 0 is a clock. Below that is the message:

HTTP 502: Waiting for GitLab to boot
It can take up to a few minutes for GitLab to boot completely.
This page will automatically reload every 5 seconds.

The GitLab status page with the text:

All Systems Operational

Marcus@gerowen· Feb 26

I was researching GPU comparisons just out of curiosity on userbenchmark/.com and at the bottom of a results page is a whole anti #AMD diatribe. Any time you research an AMD card this rant appears in the conclusion block at the bottom of the page. Just seems weirdly inappropriate. #Gaming #PCGaming

If you are considering an AMD 9000 series GPU because you have been influenced by Reddit, Twitter or a wealthy tech YouTuber, it’s worth understanding AMD’s track record. While their GPUs are often great at beating cherry-picked benchmarks, they normally fall short in real-world gaming performance. Every year, an army of influencers target first-time buyers declaring AMD a godsend for PC gamers. Every year a small percentage of users get duped. Since almost all PC gamers use Steam, the February 2025 Steam statistics are relevant: AMD’s combined market share for discrete 5000/6000/7000 series GPUs is 3%. Meanwhile, Nvidia’s 4060 alone has 9% market share. This reality starkly contrasts with influencer hype. The reason is simple: influencers rarely play games and gamers rarely buy AMD GPUs. Experienced gamers know all too well that high average fps are worthless when they are accompanied with stutters, random crashes, black screens, excessive noise and a limited feature set. It’s notable that AMD’s GPUs have not historically had these problems in consoles because, unlike PCs, consoles operate in a closed environment which is less dependent on robust drivers. Using influencers for hardware performance data is less effective than using foxes to babysit chickens.

Marcus@gerowen· Feb 26

I use mobile #Firefox for web apps on my phone because it supports extensions like uBlock Origin. Just noticed #Mozilla has redesigned the menu on mobile and ya know what? I like it. More visually pleasing and no more scrolling to find the "Quit" button.

Marcus@gerowen· Feb 26

Observation. Although it wasn't the case with older versions of #Debian, or perhaps older versions of #XZ, creating archives with xz on Debian now uses all CPU cores instead of just one like before. Just noticed this after doing a fresh install of Debian 13 a while back on my desktop PC. #Linux

A screenshot of two terminals. The one on the right shows me using the xz command to compress a large ISO file. The one on the left shows htop running with all 16 CPU threads being fully utilized.

Marcus@gerowen· Feb 25

Got a little too close to the edge and this pig tried to murder me. #EldenRing #Gaming

Marcus@gerowen· Feb 22

So even though it won't wake via Bluetooth, if you use a USB dongle you can still wake from sleep with a wireless controller. This is via the official Xbox 2.4 Ghz wireless dongle.

Marcus@gerowen· Feb 22

Built my own #SteamMachine with #ChimeraOS today. Expensive, but #Microcenter had bundles with the 7800X3D, motherboard and 32GB of RAM for like $500. I may have to move it or do some modifications to our entertainment center, depends on how thermals act under a gaming load. #PCGaming #Gaming

Miscellaneous extra parts and tools strewn about a table.

The Steam downloads page is downloading some games. The PC is in the bottom of our entertainment center.

Marcus@gerowen· Feb 19

Just got this email from #YouTube promoting their new #AI tools for generating shorts. They made a video about it here: www.youtube.com/shorts/ZNf6u...

A screenshot of the email I got. It reads:

Add magic to your Shorts with new gen AI tools
You now have access to a bundle of new generative AI tools that make creating Shorts easier and more fun.

These features will be available in English to start, and we’re adding more languages soon!
Welcome to your creative tools corner
Explore AI playground in Shorts for the newest gen AI tools.

Get inspired in AI playground ✨
AI playground is your home for gen AI creation. Inside, you’ll find our latest creation tools, a gallery of inspirational examples, and pre-filled prompts to help you instantly generate videos, images, and more. Simply open the Shorts camera and tap the sparkle icon in the top right corner.
A GIF shows how to use text prompts in Shorts to create video clips, thanks to Veo.

Dream it, prompt it, create it (now with photos!) 💭
We’ve partnered with Google DeepMind to bring a custom version of their latest video generation model Veo on Shorts. This model will work seamlessly in YouTube Shorts, at no cost. Now you can easily personalize video clips by adding up to 3 reference images alongside a text prompt.

Marcus@gerowen· Feb 13

It looks like the #AI induced #RAMPocalypse has claimed the #SteamDeck. #Gaming

A screenshot of the Steam Deck store page. All models are currently out of stock.

Marcus@gerowen· Feb 8

#EldenRing has quickly become one of my favorite and most played games ever on Steam, that's including childhood favorites like Final Fantasy X. Link to Steam profile: steamcommunity.com/id/gerowen/ #Gaming

A screenshot of my most played games.

1) Elder Scrolls Online - 297.7 hours
2) Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain - 212 hours
3) Elden Ring - 192.9 hours
4) The Elder Scrolls V: Special Edition - 191.8 hours
5) Rust - 149.2 hours

Marcus@gerowen· Feb 7

Maybe I was over leveled, but I thought this was actually one of the easier demigod fights, if not the easiest yet. #Gaming #EldenRing

Marcus@gerowen· Feb 6

Even though in the vast majority of fights I prefer my "Bloodhound's Fang", I do also keep a "Lordsworn's Straight Sword" that I've fully upgraded and enchanted with holy on standby for the occasional undead. #Gaming #EldenRing