Hello!
So I just upgraded from an RTX 3060 to an RX 6800 XT. I was playing on 1440p before, and just used DLSS or turned down the graphics. But now that I upgraded, and changed brands, I cranked up the settings to max and I no longer have DLSS. The first game I tested was Fortnite. Yes, I play Fortnite. I tested it first because I knew it would be the easiest game to notice any performance changes in. I maxed out the graphics and the first thing I noticed was screen flickering. It went away after a few seconds. Once I loaded into the game my performance was less than ideal. I was hitting a consistent 120 fps but it didn't feel smooth. There was a lot of stuttering. That never happened on my 3060, and I hit higher fps too. It lasted the whole game like that. I don't know if I did something wrong, or if my new card is defective, but it was super disappointing performance. Any ideas?
A few other side notes: I was using display port. I plugged in my second monitor via hdmi, which I did not use on my old card. I have the latest driver versions. I have a 12700k and 32gb of ddr4.
Thanks!

So my VW Tiguan Rline at 215K km needs a new clockspring (for the third time). This is the electronic connection between the steering wheel and the car. So no big deal if I don't have an airbag right?
Got my regular mechanic to put it in this morning. However many of the functions on the steering wheel do not work. Turns out that the correct part does not actually work unless you take it to the VW dealer to 'program' it.
Now wasting my afternoon whilst they program it. This may take two hours and cost $360. I would have thought that they would plug in the computer and the make and model would then automatically be able to generate the correct mapping of the electronics to update the part. In this day and age I would have thought that this was an automatic function.
I think it is complete bullshit that someone has to manually carry out this function. Or possibly it is automatically done and they just want to squeeze as much cash out of me as they can. This is exactly why I don't use the dealer to service. Oh yeah and the first time that the clockspring needed replacing, they tried to intimidate me into letting them do the next service as "the timing belts need to be changed". I may be female but I do know that my car has chains and not belts and they need to be checked and left the f alone if there is no issue.
SO THANKS VW / VW TRARALGON in Victoria Australia.
Also need to replace the DSG but that is another story.

So I got my 2.5NA Cx50 PFP last fall and it has been an absolutely amazing car. Its got AWD, great safety features, good fuel economy, and looks absolutely insane too. And yeah I do wish that it was faster, had a slightly better towing capacity, and more width in the rear seat and trunk. But those are very minor issues when you remember you’re in the first model of the car.
I have scoured the internet for information about modifying CX50s and honestly it seems like no one wants to do it. So I have taken it upon myself to learn and customize my car with no prior knowledge or general mechanical know how. I tinted my rear windows to 5% and my front windows to 15% with <5% sun strip on windshield. I have also installed a 12” SKAR subwoofer and amplifier. The process went beautifully and it now sounds better than the PPPs sound system that I test drove.
Now I think it is time for some actual performance upgrades. I plan on installing a corksport short ram intake along with a new exhaust system(which no one has done yet I don’t think). I also would like to upgrade the basics like spark plugs/wires, brake lines, tires, etc… If I get really ballsy I might try tuning it myself but shit can hit the fan real quick when tuning so I might wait on that Dr.Tuned OTS kit to come out.
I will be posting as I build the car so if you have any questions please feel free to ask. If you want me to test something on my car before you do I have PayPal for that 😂😂

So I just bought a used car. I had to replace the sparkplugs.
When I first went to do it I couldn't get any bite on one of the sparkplugs. Turned out the ceramic top had shattered and some it was jammed between the nut (hexagonal) portion of the spark plug preventing my socket from getting around it. I fished out all I could 4-5 hours of poking with scissors, wooden scewers, and an unfolded wire coat hanger. Eventually I had to smash one piece that was wedged too well. This worked and I got the grip I needed to pull the spark plug out.
There was still a lot of shards on the lip around where the spark plug screws in. Most I was able to suck out (paper towel stretched over a straw with me sucking). But on pea sized piece fell into the hole.
I haven't started the car yet as I also had to replace the valve cover gasket which requires gasket maker which takes 24 hours to cure.
I want to try and get the piece out, but don't want to make things worse. How bad is this and/or does anyone have ideas on how to retrieve the piece
2006 Dodge stratus 4 cylinder

I have a 2013 Chevy Silverado LT with about 160k miles. Check engine light came on, and I used my obd2 scanner to find p0172 and p0175 codes (system too rich). I viewed live data at idle and while it was being driven and the long term fuel trim from both banks was -30% at idle and while coasting, but went up to single digits when accelerating or at highway speed. Short term fuel trim for both banks was single digits (normal). I changed the air filter and checked for air intake blockages and that didn’t change anything. Spark plugs were all replaced about 6 months ago. O2 sensors are reading at normal voltages according to my scanner. MAF sensor was taken out and blown off with some canned air.
Not sure what’s causing this. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Standing and moving still brought the Arbiter a lot of pain. But the Law’s grim enforcer couldn’t let anyone see that weakness. Especially not with the pirate before them and the very same assassin who had nearly killed them weeks before beneath that pirate’s foot.
The Arbiter had only just been cleared for light duty and decided to spend that time with the Officers in charge of watching the pirates Demon ship. They weren’t ADCU since those officers couldn’t be wasted on a simple stakeout. The Arbiter however had been assured the Officers in charge there were the best they had. But not two minutes within the stakeout tent the Arbiter had learned that the pirate Captain had slipped past the officers assigned to tail her. And more disturbingly that every pirate who left the Astaroth had slipped their tails with disdainful ease.

The utter lack of concern had further stoked their fury. According to the officer on duty every pirate that left eventually made a mess of something and stirred up a minor disturbance. And that only a few that left were unaccounted for. 

The complete lack of awareness for how shady and suspicious all that should have sounded baffled the Arbiter’s mind. They knew crime and violence didn’t come so naturally to other species as it did for the Arbiter’s human mind. But the failure to make such a basic connection that the pirates were creating distractions so that other pirates could do their work covertly, screamed at incompetence.
That led to the Arbiter learning that all the officers in charge of the overwatch operation were actually low level beat cops and file clerks. Looking into the system used to select these officers the Arbiter learned that they weren’t just incompetent, but so incompetent that the staggering number of negative reports had confused the filing system and had placed them into the highest bracket of trusted officers. The system was made to calculate negative values but couldn’t properly place such incompetent people into their proper bracket because there wasn’t a bracket appropriately low enough to place them into. So instead it simply went past the lowest level and placed them into the highest level.
And of course such poor officers couldn’t simply be fired because the officers workers union would make a fuss. Which meant the SS couldn’t replace these idiots with any slightly more intelligent sapients.
The bureaucratic idiocy was so infuriating that the Arbiter had lashed out at a nearby pole before they could think better of it. The pole snapped at the impact, fell over, and collapsed half the tent with it.
After that little outburst the Arbiter decided to take a walk and calm down. Only to stumble upon the missing pirate captain locked in a life-or-death battle with the very same assassin who had ambushed them just weeks before.
The Arbiter hadn’t been there for the start of the fight, but simple deduction was enough to reason that the assassin had likely initiated the conflict. They had mentioned Astarte’s name on the night of the attack. And the Pirate had no reason to seek out and attack the assassin.
During that fight The Arbiter had barely survived their encounter with the assassin. The assassin’s prosthetic modifications presented a gap in power that the Arbiter just couldn’t bridge. But despite fighting what should have been a one sided battle, the pirate was doing surprisingly well. In fact if the Arbiter was any judge, Astarte seemed to have a slight advantage.
Not in speed, power, or endurance. The assassin’s mechanical body was simply too powerful for a human to matchup. But in skill Astarte out matched the mechanical assassin.
Astarte dodged and weaved without effortless ease, getting past the assassin’s guard to strike at their, or her, mechanical body. If the assassin hadn’t been a machine then Astarte would have won by now, even with the gap in power.
Rachel felt slightly ashamed at her own poor showing against the assassin when compared to Astarte’s fight. The shame then quickly burned into anger as the Arbiter gripped the rifle at their side and pulled it out to try and shoot the assassin. Unlike the Arbiter had been that night, Astarte was wearing that ridiculous dark red armor and had a sword like she was some sort of space samurai. The Arbiter had done well that night, and their lack of superior weaponry had been their only flaw. One that had been amended with the addition of a more powerful pulse rifle.
They tried to line up a shot on the assassin that wouldn’t hit Astarte, when Astarte began to speak. “You wanna know the funny part. Greyson didn’t even care that you were gone.”
Wait, did these two share a past. The Arbiter guessed that old saying about birds of a feather was true. Who was Greyson? Some sort of man they had both known?
“Didn’t even question me about. Just said ‘Zera’s gone, now you will guard my back’” the pirate continued. “Then not even a week later I was second in command and got to sleep in his comfy bed.” The pirate gave her attacker a sloppy lascivious grin.
“And then you killed him like the deceptive whore you are!” the assassin spat, her attacks becoming sloppier with more openings.
Where these two quarreling over a man? The Arbiter felt bile rise into their throat. Two of the deadliest human women they had ever seen fighting over some man they had known. Pathetic. No man was worth that. Especially not whoever this Greyson bastard was given how quickly he had let the pirate into his bed after his first girlfriend disappeared.
Wait, Greyson, pirate, dead. Were they talking about the infamous human pirate, Byron Greyson? The one who had been a menace to the Femeri system, who was responsible for the disappearance of over thirty thousand humans and the deaths of many more? The one whose headless body had turned up one day aboard the drifting remains of the Black Saint? It couldn’t be, right?
But the rise of the Astaroth and Astarte had happened shortly before Greyson’s mysterious death. It seemed too coincidental.
“Of course I did, I refused to be the latest women he ruined and dumped into the gutter. Face it, your days were numbered. If it wasn’t me it would have been him.” The pirate said with a derisive sneer.
A bit callous and mercenary, but if they were discussing Greyson then likely not inaccurate.
The assassin however didn’t see that logic. “LIAR!” she screamed as she flew into a rage.
Then the Arbiter saw the reasoning behind Astarte’s taunts. This assassin was dangerously unhinged, and Astarte was using that to bait her into a trap.
The next sequence of attacks was too fast for the Arbiter to follow. A sword hilt to the face, followed by something launching out of the assassin’s arm. Then somehow Astarte had her other arm in her grip and flipped the assassin over a shoulder. With the assassin on the ground, Astarte quickly pressed one leg to their back, and with the arm in hand began to pull. The assassins sudden ultrasonic scream made the Arbiter vison darken at the edges, and maybe caused their ears to bleed a little.
Then the arm came out with a pop and the screaming stopped.
The pirate looked at the arm for a second, before lifting it above her head and swinging it down into the assassin’s head. The loud conk of metal on metal was enough to startle the Arbiter out of her awe and terror.
The barrel of their pulse cannon lifted up with Astarte centered in its sight “FREEZE!” the Arbiter roared with all their might.
Astarte paused mid swing, looked towards the Arbiter, and then raised both of her hands above her head. As well as the assassins severed arm. “It was self defense.” The pirate said quickly.
The Arbiter could have sworn they saw a flash of red. But it happened so fast that they weren’t sure if it was really there. And if it was then why would the pirates eye flash red?
The eye crossed by a gruesome scar. Did the pirate have a glass color changing eye?
No, her eyes were both clearly moving around and focusing on things like they should. Could it be cybernetic? Those were supposed to be impossible, too complicated to properly miniaturize with current technology.
It was something to investigate.
The Arbiter had been so focused on Astarte that they hadn’t been watching the assassin close enough. In a movement the Arbiter hadn’t seen the assassin threw Astarte off her back before popping up to her feet. Astarte went down onto the ground and the assassin lurched forward to attack her downed foe. But before she could reach the pirate three quick blasts from the Arbiters rifle stopped her in her tracks.
One had winged her side, another went wide. But the third had caught her right where a liver should have been. The assassin stuttered, but wasn’t dead. They dodged the next shot by ducking and then the second by somehow leaping ten meters into the air and onto a window seal. The assassin looked down on the two women and was clearly judging their chances at victory. But with an, admittable impressive, one-handed springlike flip Astarte was back on her feet, sword ready for another round.
The assassin’s strange mechanical face scowled before another impossible jump sent her over a nearby building and out of sight.
The Arbiter relaxed once the assassin was gone, but Astarte didn’t. The pirate turned, grabbed the Arbiters gloved hand, and pulled her into a jog down the open alleyway. “Come on, there’s an open lot nearby. Can’t jump us from there.” She said without looking back as she dragged the Arbiter along.
For a stunned few seconds Rachel stared at the strong hand grasping her own smaller one. But then the Arbiter saw the logic in Astarte’s worry and forced their hand to release the pirate and ran alongside her.
A few times the Arbiter had noticed a thin humanoid shadow leap between the buildings above them, but a quick turn down an alley from Astarte had them moving away from the incoming ambush from the assassin chasing them via roof tops. In no time at all they made it to an open loading dock for a nearby warehouse. Astarte ran into its center and scanned the roof tops, the Arbiter followed suit.
The Arbiter and the Pirate stood back to back, each searching for any signs of the mutual foe.
“There!” Astarte shouted while pointing her finger at a roof top.
The Arbiter stared up, but couldn’t see anything. But following the pirate’s direction they raised their rifle and shot at the edge of the building Astarte had pointed at. The blasts landed and then the crouched figure of the assassin rose up and backed away.
How had the pirate seen her? The Arbiter spared her a glance and saw a second flash of red before the pirate shifted her head.
“You should call for backup.” The pirate stated while still scanning the roof tops.
“To arrest the assassin?” the Arbiter asked before they could think better of it.
Astarte snorted. “Wouldn’t trust any SS to arrest a dead log, let alone Zera. But more witnesses might scare her off.”
Two things stood out in that statement, the assassin’s apparent name, and “SS, is that supposed to be short for station security?”
“Schutzstaffel actually, its just a strange coincidence they line up” the Pirate joked wryly.
The Arbiter scowled “You think the Station security are like the Nazi’s?” The Arbiter’s lessons about the various evil factions during Earths history had left her with nightmares for years. Crucifixion, death by a thousand cuts, blood eagles, and the like had disturbed their six-year-old mind. Their lessons had spent weeks on all the evils humanity inflicted upon each other, all the way until First contact.
“If the kinky boot fits.” Astarte said while examining the Arbiter’s own black boots.
The Arbiter swished their cloak to hide their boots, and the pirates gaze snapped back up to the rooftops. The Arbiter made the call, and the idiots in charge of the tent said they would need a few minutes to ‘locate’ their rifles and arm shields. Why they had to be located in the first place confused the Arbiter? They couldn’t be so incompetent as to not know where their weapons were, right?”
Tense minutes past before Astarte let out a sigh of relief. “I think she gave up.” she then shot the Arbiter an accusing glare “I almost had the bitch. If you hadn’t interfered we wouldn’t have to worry about her coming back.”
"You expect me to stand by while you committed murder?” The Arbiter growled, now stepping back from the pirate and reaching for a set of cuffs.
The pirate frowned, then glanced up as if recalling a distant memory. “I… ugh felt my life was in imminent danger, and feared for my life while facing down a clearly aggressive and violent deathworlder with a weapon. I used whatever objects I could find at the time…I carry no weapons and was forced to use ceremonial objects in crude, and ugh…unusual ways for self defense. I did not think retreat was possible so I acted to end the threat” she said in a bland staccato rhythm of everyone reciting words from memory. Her words obviously citing several different laws pertaining to self-defense.
The Arbiter felt an eye twitch. “The law pertaining to Deathworlder assailants was not intended to include Deathworlder victims.” The Arbiter said slowly.
Astarte shrugged “Union vs. Trevor Philips established that the enforcement of the law was done by the letter of the law, not the spirit. By that ruling and precedent I acted reasonably and was within my rights for self-defense. Any attempt to detain me would result in punitive measures from my legal representation.”
In all their time on the ADCU the Arbiter had never encountered a criminal so well versed in the intricacies of Union law. Some loop holes were well known, and easy for Officers to circumvent in order to attain an arrest. But the Arbiter hadn’t encountered something like this before.
The Arbiter looked down and noticed the sword she still held, red blood from the pirate running down its blade. “So that sword isn’t a weapon?” The Arbiter asked pointedly.
The feline smile that covered Astarte’s face sent shivers up their spine. “My dear officer, as you can notice I am of half Japanese heritage, a hafu if you will. I am dressing in the traditional fashions of my people. The armor, the katana, and the wakizashi are all hallmarks of the samurai I am descended from. None of these are worn for anything beyond cultural heritage. And for that matter, my crew wear the same to honor my ancestry.”
The Arbiter sighed. Astarte’s defense, though blatantly false, was airtight. Arresting her now would only give her ammunition to legally strike back. And with the recent backlash of the Deathworlder crack down the Arbiter could doom Judge’s career. It had been a celebrated move of the last chief, but the knock-on effects of it had resulted in several months of rioting, looting, and political discourse in the heart of the Union. The last chief was forced to step down and Judge took his place and was still trying to reverse the damages. Which was hard with all the precincts fighting him on it. Those officers had too many friends torn apart by Terran criminals to ever let that grudge go.
“Then you may leave the arm behind and be one your way.” The Arbiter ordered.
Astarte blinked, “the arm?”
The Arbiter pointed to the severed arm still within the pirate’s grasp “That is evidence in an on going investigation. LEAVE. IT. BEHIND” The Arbiter explained, growling out the last words slowly. Just because Astarte had likely saved the Arbiter’s life with some quick thinking didn’t erase the fact that she was a person of interest/suspect in the same case.
Astarte glanced down at the severed arm and blinked as if surprised she was still holding it. Then tossed it carelessly onto the ground. “All yours, make sure to check for bugs before plugging it in.”
“Bugs?”
“Computer viruses hidden in its OS. Thing could have all sorts of things hidden within.”
“And how do you know?”
“I don’t. It’s just the sort of thing I would do myself. Try loading it onto a separate server. Oh, and check for small explosives.”
“Danm Deathworlders” the Arbiter growled as they now considered the severed arm on the ground next to a small splatter of Astarte’s blood. She was right, Deathworlders were known for their tricks and traps. Humans especially. During one investigation a load of seized morphine from an illegal clinic had been stored next to an unstable chemical that reacted poorly to the jostling of the transport and destroyed the evidence in a fiery explosion.
Astarte chuckled “Glass stones Arbiter.”
“What?”
“Glass stones, it’s a human malaphor of sorts. I’ll leave the details for you to figure out. Good luck with tracking down Zera, I’d recommend starting with the prison records on Union Station Parox.” She said as she turned aways and strode off. Walking in the opposite direction of the arriving officers, half of which were missing their weapons or shields.
The Arbiter let out a sigh as she observed the most incompetent idoits she had ever seen strut onto the lot without a care in the universe.
“You called us Sir.” The lead Voral said.
The Arbiter took in a deep breath “Yes I did. Ten minutes ago.”
“It was a long walk.” The officer said defensively, no care for the Arbiters growing anger.
“Its only a few hundred standard meters. But that doesn’t matter I encountered an assassin in the midst of their crime. That’s their arm.”
The Voral looked panicked and began to look from side to side.
The Arbiter felt an involuntary eye twitch and clenched her fist. “The assassin is gone.”
The Voral relaxed “So you want us to secure the evidence?” he asked.
That had been the Arbiters plan, but now seeing them mill about aimlessly they changed their mind. “No, secure the area and stay out of CSI’s way. Understood?”
The officer looked offended. “Sir, its just an arm. We don’t need to wait around for CSI, one of my men can bag it right now.”
Patience wearing thin the Arbiter marched right into the Voral’s face. The fact the Officer loomed over her by two meters did little to diminish the Arbiter’s menacing aura. “AM. I. UNDERSTOOD?”
“Yes Sir.” The cowed Voral officer answered with a nervous buzz of his wings.
“Then go.”
Ten minutes later six medium shuttles from the CSI unit, and two small shuttles from the ADCU were on the scene of the lot and in the alley where the Arbiter had stumbled upon Astarte. Edict and Prosecutor began to jump along the rooftops, recreating the assassin’s movements and collecting more evidence.
The assassin’s arm, and the dried sample of Astarte’s blood was collected. As well as fragments of what looked to be a broken glass eye with a micro camera.
They lost the assassin’s trail after they ducked into the inner hull of the station and escaped across the pipes, wires, and support structure of Unity.
Thirty minutes after that they departed for the central precinct. The Arbiter within the darkened confines of the ADCU shuttle felt safe enough to take off the hood. Caleb and Bartolv did the same. They noticed her pensive mood and didn’t disturb her.
It wasn’t lost on her that Astarte knew exactly who this assassin was. And if she hadn’t left those pretty blatant clues about how to identify her then then Rachel would be trying to acquire a warrant to bring her in for questioning. But that still left her with a lot of questions.
And despite the answers she might get, she had the sinking feeling it wouldn’t be enough to see the whole picture. How big was this whole thing?
Previous/Patreon/Next

Long story short, something fried my max 6. Bought a replacement and it instantly fried that one too. I sent it into hobbywing and they inspected it and said this: • MOSFETs are confirmed overloaded. • PCB was overheated • The Overheat sensor was activated multiple times They were nice enough to send me a replacement and strongly advised that I figure out the issue before plugging this one in. So I’ve got a couple questions hoping someone has some ideas. I’m running the max 6 and 4985 hobbywing motor on a sledge. It has worked perfectly for a couple months now. I don’t have another way to test the motor except for resistance with a voltmeter. But that tests fine. I run hoovoo 6s single batteries and I have two of them that are both in good shape and only a few months old. I hooked my servo to my rustler and it works fine and didn’t fry that one so I don’t think it’s the servo. So here’s my questions. 1. Is there a way to test the battery to see if it could possibly cause an issue? My charger shows the cell data but that’s about it I believe. 2. Can anyone think of what would instantly fry an esc? No smoke, no sparks, never even got the new one turned on. It died as soon as I hit the power button. Thanks!

We will be shutting down /OttawaSenators June 12-14 in solidarity with a rather large group of other subreddits.
The mod team here relies on 3rd party apps to keep this place relatively clean and friendly, and a lot of you use them too.
Apologies in advance that you will not get to discuss who Neko Sparks is adding to their bid this weekend, and why DeBrincat doesn't want to play in .
(On a personal note: I suggest using this time away to spend time with your loved ones and reaching out to old friends.)
Read more about why this is happening here, with juicy details: https://www.reddit.com/apolloapp/comments/144f6xm/apollo_will_close_down_on_june_30th_reddits/
Or here's a quick version:

What's going on?

A recent Reddit policy change threatens to kill many beloved third-party mobile apps, making a great many quality-of-life features not seen in the official mobile app permanently inaccessible to users.
On May 31, 2023, Reddit announced they were raising the price to make calls to their API from being free to a level that will kill every third party app on Reddit, from Apollo to Reddit is Fun to Narwhal to BaconReader.
Even if you're not a mobile user and don't use any of those apps, this is a step toward killing other ways of customizing Reddit, such as Reddit Enhancement Suite or the use of the old.reddit.com desktop interface .
This isn't only a problem on the user level: many subreddit moderators depend on tools only available outside the official app to keep their communities on-topic and spam-free.

What's the plan?

On June 12th, many subreddits will be going dark to protest this policy. Some will return after 48 hours: others will go away permanently unless the issue is adequately addressed, since many moderators aren't able to put in the work they do with the poor tools available through the official app. This isn't something any of us do lightly: we do what we do because we love Reddit, and we truly believe this change will make it impossible to keep doing what we love.
The two-day blackout isn't the goal, and it isn't the end. Should things reach the 14th with no sign of Reddit choosing to fix what they've broken, we'll use the community and buzz we've built between then and now as a tool for further action.

The Battle You Can Never Win
Years ago, aboard a poorly maintained ship, in a dimly lit cargo hold with stained mats haphazardly thrown on the ground, a young girl glared at the old man before her. Her breath came in ragged heaves, her clothes were stained with sweat, and her exposed skin was covered in welts from the older mans bamboo blade. She was on the ground while the man was standing up straight, his breathing only slightly faster than normal but otherwise gave no hint that only moments before he had been swinging his practice sword like a demented blender.
The girl tried to stand but instead fell back down. “Why, the fuck are you making me do all this.” She growled at the man. Earning her a quick smack to the side for her foul mouth and impertinence. “Fuck!” she cursed, earning another strike in the process.
She continued to glare at the old bastard, most people usually flinched under her hateful glare. Especially the weak prey-like Xenos, they always coward at her wrath. But the old bastard didn’t. He just watched her with a calm and patient gaze.
The man was silent for a while before he sighed and looked to the pipes and looses wires along the ceiling. “You ask why I make you train? Why I push you unlike all the others? The better question is why you resist my teaching?” he looked down at her again. “You are taller than most men, you are naturally stronger than a girl has any right to be, and your fire is enough to melt iron. And yet you resist my attempts to polish those advantages. By all rights you should seek every chance to better yourself. And yet you don’t.”
“What’s the fuckin point? Like you said, I’m strong, and being already human makes me faster and tougher than everything out there. So what’s the point in training with stupid swords?”
He frowned, but didn’t strike her again for her foul mouth. “You are stronger than most creatures in this galaxy. But not all. The Kaydic are as strong as a grizzly, and if they get a good charge going they can pass through brick walls like they were wet paper. The Balikstro are faster on four legs than we can ever be on two. Any Uplifted Mammaloid could easily disembowel you with a careless swipe. And that isn’t mentioning the true monsters out there like the Aunviry.”
“Okay, yeah they’re all better. So what’s the point in training if they’re always going to be better than me? I’m only human.” She whined as she felt the growing bruise on her side.
“Because you don’t train for the battle that you can win, but for the battle that you’ll always lose. Because on those days the only thing that will keep you alive is training, good reflexes, and hardened combat experience. They are how you will win the battle you can never win.”
“That doesn’t make sense old man.” The girl snarked.
The air cracked, a brown sword blurred, and the girl let out a yelp as her ass was struck by a Shinai.
The old man who decided to be her mentor continued. “And the only way you get there is by training every day until your hands bleed and your legs give out.”
The girl glared at the old man, but she saw the sense in the words. Even if she hated the old man and his stupid sword. “Fine, but can we call it here. I have a cargo shift tomorrow.”
He looked down at her hands a tilted his head. “Your hands aren’t bleeding yet.” He said blandly as if remarking on the weather.
Daisey groaned, but got up anyways.
The old bastard Mizuno really did make her work until her hands began to bleed before letting her crawl off to her hammock in the sweltering space above the engine bay. She only got a few hours of sleep before the ship docked with the pirate capital and she had to spend the next ten hours moving cargo off the Black Saint.
And after that, when she had finally gotten to sit for a few minutes Mizuno found her and dragged her back to his ‘dojo’ for another round.
She had hated it at the time. Hated him. Hated the shitty rusty ship. Hated almost everyone one onboard. And hated those stupid bamboo swords.
But in time the pain paid off, and those skills that had been beaten into her the hard way saved her life when Greyson’s crazy bitch of a lieutenant tried to kill Daisey in some back alley on Parox. And later those same skills allowed her to best the men she had eventually called Sensei instead of Bastard.
~~~*~~~
It was strange to feel nostalgic for a time where everything sucked, and you hated everyone around you. But fighting Zera again brought back those bittersweet memories. She had hated Mizuno so much back then, but the man who had decided to mentor her eventually became one of the most influential figures in her life. Aster may hate her father and everything about him, but she couldn’t ever hate the heritage he had unwittingly tied her too. Because it was the same culture Mizuno had loved with all his heart. Warts and all.
Zera fought like a deranged beast. Slashing and stabbing with wild abandon. But while she had received some training to polish out her blind aggression, she never took Mizuno’s philosophy to heart. Greyson had ordered Mizuno to share his teaching with Zera just like he did with Daisey. But where Daisey, now Astarte, had accepted his ideas of training for the battle you’ll always lose top heart.
Zera hadn’t.
Zera learned how to cut better and how to save her strength. But once she had learned that she used her strength and youth to overpower Mizuno-sensei in sparring matches. While Daisey had restrained her own strength where she could so as to better learn Mizuno’s skill and techniques.
Even when after she had fought off Zera and took her spot as Greyson’s right hand she still trained until her hands bled. Even when she left the Terran Pirates and drifted around with her mother she trained. And when she met Karega and got a ship of her own she continued to train for the battle she would never win.
It was that mindset that let her finally surpass her old mentor during their final battle on the central Temple of Temple city. The very same mindset that let her match blows with a vile abomination like Kazlum and his brood. A literal battle she had no right ever winning. And it was the same teachings that she would use to beat this cyborg blast from the past.
Zera’s metal exterior was too tough for Astarte to cut. And it was highly unlikely that Astarte would ever exhaust her. But while she failed to land any actual wounds on her opponent, Zera the Butcher couldn’t land any on Astarte.
Zera aimed her mantis like blades at the kinks in Aster’s armor, but Aster’s reflexes and agility was enough to dodge and deflect Zera’s attacks.
But time was not on her side in this fight. Human endurance was legendary and superior to anything any other biological species could replicate. But no amount of sweat or anaerobic exertion would ever match the ceaseless movements of a machine.
Zera also had plenty of tricks hidden within her robotic limbs. The extra power in her legs had nearly bowled Astarte over when she triggered it as their blades were crossed. A third use had allowed her to dart to Astarte’s and strike at her thigh. Zera had found a kink in her armor, but a single step back had spared Astarte from any real damage.
Her leg felt warm and sticky as blood trailed down. But it was only a flesh wound and nothing that would hinder her mobility.
That attack had finally allowed Astarte to see exactly how Zera kept leaping forward. Somehow she was building up energy in her leg which could be released. A joint opened around where a bulging calf should have been and allowed her to double the length of her leg and gave her explosive forward momentum when used right. In the heat of battle Astarte couldn’t make heads or tails of the mechanism, she saw wires, tubes, and what looked like a hydraulic valve thing. She didn’t need to understand it at the moment though, right now knowing there was a way past the tough metal shell and into some more vulnerable internals was all that mattered.
The assassins’ arms also had a similar ability. But instead of explosively doubling the length of her arm Zera could have curved blade on her forearm launch forward in a powerful stabbing motion. Astarte dodged one of those attacks and saw the blade punch through the concrete of a nearby building. Zera had been stuck in the wall for only a second as she used the leg extension to pull her out and launch her back into melee with Astarte.
Zera also had a wider range of motion than Astarte was used to seeing in a human shoulder joint. When Astarte had rolled under a swing and came up for a slash at her exposed back the other arm was capable of swinging a full 180° backwards and deflecting her blow.
The way the arm had rotated in the joint had unnerved Astarte. She would have shivered in horror if had been given a moment to do so.
Those tricks had surprised Astarte the first time she saw them. And only quick thinking kept her alive. But once she saw them, she was capable of accounting for them and making her plans around them. She had fought enough alien opponents to know how to compensate for strange physiologies. The Aunviry for example had been far stranger to deal with than this borged-out human woman.
Sparks rang from their clashes and Astarte began to look for any more surprises. But as the fight stretched on Astarte began to suspect that Zera had already played her hand. And if she was reserving something then it was probably something she could only do once. With the factors accounted for, Astarte began to plan her actual counterattack, no more probing.
She couldn’t do much about the powerful arm attacks besides dodge, and couldn’t hope her armor could take the hit. The legs presented a weak point, but not one easy to get at. She would have to bait Zera into a launching attack and then sidestep fast enough to stab into her leg. A risky maneuver.
She thought about the full rotational ability in the arm joint. She didn’t know much about engineering, but she remembered some of Alwen’s lectures on the shoulder joint area after the Battle for the Confederacy. Alwen had to reset several bones in that region and she had taken the time to explain everything instead of just doing it. It was a complicated joint, and already prone to coming out of its socket. Did enhancing that range of motion come with any added structural weakness?
It was an idea.
As the fight drew on Astarte began to feel Zera speed up as her strikes became more and more sure. Astarte realized there was another blatant weakness that Zera had carried with her from the days she was fully human. Her mind.
Zera had a mercurial temper, plenty of triggers, and was highly unstable. And Astarte knew how to use all that to her advantage.
“You wanna know the funny part.” Astarte said in between blows. “Greyson didn’t even care that you were gone.” She taunted in between breaths. There was a reason most real combat didn’t have witty banter or heart felt speeches between foes. Every breath counted and wasting it on speaking was stupid. But she judged it to be worth the effort.
“Didn’t even question me about. Just said ‘Zera’s gone, now you will guard my back’” Astarte teased. “Then not even a week later I was second in command and got to sleep in his comfy bed.” She gave Zera a sloppy self-satisfied grin.
In reality Daisey hadn’t wanted to be Greyson’s guard, nor sleep in the same bed as a forty something man with the reputation for fucking anything with a hole and a heart beat. But she had little choice in the matter if she wanted to stay alive and keep working with the Terran Pirates.
The assassin’s eyes flared “And then you killed him like the deceptive whore you are!” she roared with another predicable jab.
“Of course I did, I refused to be the latest women he ruined and dumped into the gutter.” Astarte countered as she side stepped the blow. She was really glad Mizuno-sensei drilled her foot work so often, it was paying dividends at the moment. “Face it, your days were numbered. If it wasn’t me it would have been him.”
“LIAR!” Zera roared as she overextended again.
It didn’t offer Astarte the opening she looking for, so instead she went for a different sort of weak point. No matter how much her body changed there was one place that had to stay mostly organic.
No one fucked with the brain, not the Toy man, not the Union, and not the people who rebuilt Zera. It was too delicate to touch and far too complex. Just wiring in an advanced cybernetic eyeball to the optic nerve had caused a knock-on effect in Astarte’s head. And that was just a peripheral change.
The hilt of Tenken rammed into Zera’s face, smacking the same place she had dented earlier. There was a thud, like the sound of a dropped metal can, and then the sound of shattering glass. Zera stumbled back and put a hand up to her face where Astarte’s strike had warped the metal enough to loosen up her left eye out of its artificial eye socket. The eye had fallen and shattered at Astarte’s feet, and it now leaked a white fluid.
Zera looked up and Astarte saw the strange deformed metal plate of her face all scrunched up on one side. Half her lip was pulled up in a permanent smile while the more mobile part of her face scowled. She charged right back at Astarte and her right arm splint down the middle, Astarte saw the prongs of a stun weapon race towards her just as the other arm came up for a slash at her face. Astarte stood her ground, took the prongs, and lifted arm to intercept the blade.
The electricity didn’t feel like waves of fire like she had expected, but instead like all her muscles just got pulled at once. She felt her knees go weak as they wanted to buckle. But she gritted her teeth, remained on her feet, and took the pain. This was nothing compared to when she caught in that Egh’ahd sneak attack, nor when she fought Kazlum and had been bitch slapped across a whole room. This was a pain she could handle.
And compared to the electricity coursing through he the Mantis blade in her arm was nothing.
With one arm occupied in tasing her, and the other wedged into the bone of her forearm Astarte knew she wouldn’t get another chance like this. She grabbed the bladed arm with her other hand and with a twist of her hips, threw the Cyborg over her shoulder.
The assassin hit the ground with a thud and Astarte moved foot on her back.
The blade in her arm cut back upwards, got caught in the plates of her arm guard, and snapped off by the hinge. The pain in the arm grew too much to bear so she let that arm fall limp as her other arm held onto the assassin now beneath her feet and pulled. Zera let out a scream that hit the far range of human vocal cords and dipped into a sound only possible in dogs, dolphins, and machines. It even began to stutter like a corrupted audio file.
Even her voice was fake.
Then there was a pop and rip, and the arm came clean off.
Astarte stood there holding the still clothed arm in her hands as white fluids leaked out of the cyborgs open joint. Astarte glanced to the fake arm in her hands then down to the struggling cyborg, and with little hesitation lifted the arm and proceeded to beat the womans head in with her own arm.
Or she would have if a heavily distorted voice hadn’t interrupted her bludgeoning.
“FREEZE!”
Astarte turned to stare at the cloaked black figure of the Arbiter aiming a pulse rifle right at her.
Astarte then raised her hands above her head, still holding the prosthetic arm. “It was self defense” Astarte said to the unwavering gaze of the Arbiter. A flicker of her eye into the Ultraviolet showed the scowling face of a much-recovered Rachel glaring at both of them.
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Cross posting from c4corvette for better visibility
1987 Corvette 5.7L L98 engine SBC-based with HEI distributor
Hi everyone, I know this post is long but I'm pretty much at wit's end right now and semi-desperate here. This car is a daily driver for me. Need to get some second (or third, fourth, fifth...) opinions about my situation.
I bought a new set of spark plug wires for my '87 L98 and they arrived today. Of course, me being the overconfident DIY mechanic that I am, I thought that it would be a simple wire swap (in theory it should be). Long story short, I ended up taking the distributor out to get the old wires out as the stock wires were routed under it and had clips holding them together.
Come time to put the distributor back in, and I didn't take note of where the rotor was pointed. I can't get the thing to start now.
My question is - True or false: the distributor will only seat two ways - in time, or 180 degrees out of time, due to the design of the notch in the oil pump gear and the corresponding tooth on the bottom of the distributor shaft.
My assumption was that due to the fact that there's a notch on the engine that the distributor had to sit in, it can only go one of two ways. But I tried both and still cat get it to start.
The first way I had it I could hear some backfiring. 180 degrees from that seems even worse. Is it possible I had it right the first time and it was just slightly off timing due to the distributor rotation?
Thanks for any input...
I have confirmed the plug wires are correct and that all wiring to the distributor is secure but at this point I can't rule out a bad wire or connector.

The 1080p Monitor is pretty old but I'm not sure if thats the case.
I can connect it to a 4k TV with no issues, but when I connect it to my monitor it wont work unless I go on the 4k TV first, change the resolution to 1080p, and then plug it into the monitor.
Is this an issue with a monitor or is it some setting I have to change on the PC boot?

Hi everyone, I know this post is long but I'm pretty much at wit's end right now and semi-desperate here. This car is a daily driver for me. Need to get some second (or third, fourth, fifth...) opinions about my situation.
I bought a new set of spark plug wires for my '87 L98 and they arrived today. Of course, me being the overconfident DIY mechanic that I am, I thought that it would be a simple wire swap (in theory it should be). Long story short, I ended up taking the distributor out to get the old wires out as the stock wires were routed under it and had clips holding them together.
Come time to put the distributor back in, and I didn't take note of where the rotor was pointed. I can't get the thing to start now.
My question is.... True or false: the distributor will only seat two ways - in time, or 180 degrees out of time, due to the design of the notch in the oil pump gear and the corresponding tooth on the bottom of the distributor shaft.
My assumption was that due to the fact that there's a notch on the engine that the distributor had to sit in, it can only go one of two ways. But I tried both and still cat get it to start.
The first way I had it I could hear some backfiring. 180 degrees from that seems even worse. Is it possible I had it right the first time and it was just slightly off timing due to the distributor rotation?
Thanks for any input...

She is not a manipulative genius like people think. She's great as gaslighting, but she's not as good at sunny at interpersonal deception and treachery.
A few days ago I made a long post on Neph and sunny's relationship, but let me clarify the biggest point I had.
When Nephis told sunny he would ultimately be hers in the end no matter what, she simply meant it. There was no plan. There is no reason she had to say that. She didn't know about antartica and didn't want him going if she knew. She knew he wasn't going to join valor anyway so she wasn't pushing her away. Originally she didn't even mean to mention it, only doing so when sunny brought it up. She said it because she was angry sunny didn't accept his role as her follower, so she threw a tantrum and basically said, "I don't need to enslave you, you'll be mine anyway". People theorized over and over that she was trying to trick him into being safe, but my problem is, well, that's stupid. The most likely thing for him to do after hearing that is immediately go try and get stronger even if it means taking a huge risk, and she knows that. When we see her last we see she clearly doesn't want him to go and risk his life to get stronger, she also is being kept out of the complete loop by cassie, so she doesn't really have much more information than sunny. In conclusion, all the people praising her for being "smart" here, are just delusional. Even if she did do this because she wanted to make him stay away from her and valor, it still makes her stupid, because sunny was going to do that anyway. And by far the most likely scenario, is that she simply meant it.
For two years sunny was her guiding light, he gave her hope and a reason to live other than pure revenge and "conviction", which wouldn't have been enough on it's own. People joke about her being yandere for sunny and while it's obviously not that bad(yet), it's still true to an extent. Sunny is "hers". The only person she trusts to have her back in a fight. But she does not consider him an equal, and wants him to accept his role as a follower. She even admits the only reason she doesn't use the shadowbond, isn't because she values his free will, but because she wants to have his willing affection, and enslaving him isn't good enough for her. When she explains her actions to sunny, she admits enslaving him to leave was completely selfish, but shows no regret and even says she deserved to be a little selfish after suffering the guilt of sacrificing 1000 people(she's so entitled she doesn't realize sacrificing 1000 people to pursue a personal goal is selfish). People saying sunny is being childish for not trusting her or wanting to become stronger than her, or wanting to catch up to her are simply wrong. She is being entitled for thinking her friend is destined to become her favorite lap-dog and that she is entitled to his absolute loyalty no matter what.
It is basically impossible for sunny to show her any further trust and goodwill then he already has. She enslaved him, forced him to leave for her own sake. He ultimately decided not to hate her, helped her wake up when she came back, comforted her and helped her get used to her powers and adapt back to life on earth. Let her live in his home and meet his younger sister, as well as showing her where his family is buried. There's nothing more for him to do for her than swear loyalty as a dog, which he is not going to do. He personally has no desire to destroy the spell, at least without knowing the whole story, and he certainly doesn't want to nuke the dreamworld, which was also something Nemphys said. He knows she's crazy, that she's trying first to take over humanity essentially by sparking a massive civil war, and that her next goal is to wipe out the entire dreamworld and spell because she sees it all as evil and simply doesn't like it, and that she is willing to sacrifice every human on earth if it fulfills her goal. She has morals she doesn't want to cross, but they're twisted to begin with, and she even admits she doesn't use shadowbond simply because she takes it for granted he'll be hers anyway. If she finds out that's not true, and that his goals are not her own, and that she needs him to fulfill said goals, or worse, he ultimately opposes her dream seeing it as misguided. Then all bets are off, she'll use it if she can't have sunny without it, and she'll absolutely use it if he gets in her way, unless he has a counter. He cannot trust her as she is unless she changes, matures, and expands her way of thinking. If they went to relationship therapy, the only thing he could say is, "it's not me, it's you.".
Their are two ways this can end. Either she realizes that sunny is more than just her favorite follower and apologizes to him on her own, maybe even signing a magical contract not to use shadowbond. And starts telling him her plans ahead of time and treating him as an equal, as well as maybe even considering that the whole situation regarding the spell and dreamworld isn't as black and white as she thinks. Or, as I predict, the two's differing goals and independent will shall cause them to separate and likely oppose eachother for large portions of the novel, with sunny and nephis becoming rivals. The second is more likely in my opinion as it's simply more interesting and more the author's style than having the two just build up a romance. Now I both think and even support an endgame romance between them, but only in the very end, or perhaps they start dating, then become unwilling enemies, then get togethor in the end.
All in all, the main reason I made this post was to have a simple debate, did nemphys give that speech to sunny to manipulate him or simply out of pure emotion, and either way, how much did she mean it? I think she said it in the moment and completely meant it.

Bored of sst but can't find any reason to change out of the build. I love chasing high DPS numbers and so far in my mind sst is the build that has the highest DPS in the league aside from traps and totem. I would love to be wrong of course, so give me a few build ideas. Have around 10 mirror budget.
Requirements 1. Minimum 2.5bil DPS 2. No pob warrior stuff. Just don't put stuff that you can't get in the config like max shock without way to shock or plug in berserk without actual rage regen and no rage on hit implicit on gloves is not a actual way to regen rage. As long as you can proc it a in a Uber fight you can put it in 3. can't be literally glass cannon. at least 2 defence layers with spell suppress. For example evasion with max block or armour with decent phy taken as ele. 4. Must be existing items, don't use something like a megalomaniac that's not on the market

Strong disclaimer, I have rudimentary knowledge of computer software and how this whole thing works. Not a complete dunce, but savvy enough to know that I’m a complete dunce in the grand scheme. (i.e. barely escaping Dunning-Kreuger)
Most information will be obscured or generalized going forward for the sake of privacy but let me know if there’s something that needs to be given in order to answer the question.
Anyway, I moved from my home country to my new home country some time ago. Both civilized, first world countries. Upon coming here I needed a VPN learned of Mullvad, liked the idea, matched my needs yadda yadda I signed up for a month.
Got my settings all calibrated to my liking and gave it a good test run, everything went great. Renewed many times. I often use server locations from my old country in order to access what I need there, and when I’m done I usually put myself somewhere back in my new country without straying too much. I use different ones every time. Killswitch alway on.
Suddenly about a week ago my laptop started to drop considerably in time taken to access webpages. Then I notice later that I’m getting incessantly bombarded by notifications “connected to XXXX-101” I’m talking several per minute. I came back to my desk with 46 notifications in a row one time. Now I’m lucky if I can access the internet at all while connected, and if it does then it takes ages. Worth mentioning that my mobile connection is completely unaffected and its sole connection is the very same router that my laptop is plugged into. I turn off the vpn and everything returns to expected speeds.
When I open the log my eyes glaze over as that’s beyond me, but I do know the words “timed out” and “error” and I see them plastered all over the place.
-Mullvad up to date -OS not changed nor updated and is up to date -ISP has not changed and I’m fairly certain that they are not doing anything differently -Account is paid for, lol
Sorry for the wall I just want to be thorough and I really don’t want to have to go to a new service. Is there something I’m overlooking? Is my laptop just dying? Killswitch issues on Mullvad’s end? Thanks in advance

I just build a new system and bought a used Zotac GAMING Trinity OC GeForce RTX 3090. Here are my full specs:
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D 4.2 GHz 8-Core Processor
CPU Cooler: ID-COOLING DASHFLOW 240 BASIC 82.5 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler
Motherboard: Gigabyte B650 GAMING X AX ATX AM5 Motherboard
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 64 GB (2 x 32 GB) DDR5-6400 CL32 Memory
Storage: Samsung 980 Pro 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive
Video Card: Zotac GAMING Trinity OC GeForce RTX 3090 24 GB Video Card
Case: NZXT H9 Flow ATX Mid Tower Case
Power Supply: Corsair RM850 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply
OS: Windows 11 Pro
The problem is that, when my display is plugged into my GPU, the system occasionally will just stop displaying anything and the numlock key on my keyboard turns off. If I hit the power button shortly after it happens, nothing changes, but if I leave it alone for a while the GPU starts running its fans at full speed and the system will turn off completely when I hit the power button.
The system will do this at any time. It doesn't seem to be related to load at all.
The strange thing is, if I plug my display instead into the motherboard's HDMI port the system will be much more stable. I've only had it randomly stop once when using the motherboard HDMI port. Otherwise I can leave it on overnight, work on it, even run AI processes (which I'm assuming are using the 3090), and the system is really stable.
No idea how to even start to figure this out. Is the card just bad? Is there a way to still use the 3090 for gaming even if it's not being used for my display? What steps can I take to start troubleshooting this?