A Few Good Things – Vol. 15

Cheap Apple TV Remote

I love my Apple TV. It’s a fantastic device and I equally love the controller. It’s hefty, feels good in the hand, and works well. What I don’t like is the size of the controller and the fact that my wife tends to lose it on a daily basis! It’s been a running joke for years between us, I’ll open up the Remote Finder and it’s always in her recliner, tucked in some blanket, or just somewhere it’s not supposed to be.

I like to leave my iPhone upstairs sometimes, so I cannot tell you how frustrating it is to plop down in my recliner, have a kitty jump in my lap, and then realize I have absolutely no way to control the TV. So, I purchased a $9 Apple TV remote on Amazon and it’s been absolutely wonderful!

Sure, it’s light as a feather, doesn’t have any voice features, and you can’t use the touch pad to fast-forward easily, but just being able to work the TV is totally worth it. This remote stays on my side-table and my wife isn’t allowed to use it. 🤣

PDP Victrix

I really like my PS5, but a couple of years ago I began having thumb pain due to the very un-ergonomic placement of the main joystick. This pain became so unbearable, I eventually bought an Xbox Series X, so I could continue to play video games.

Since then, several pro controllers have been released that have an Xbox style layout, where the joystick is in proper place. I’ve debated about buying one, but the $150-$200 is just too crazy for me. I mean, I’ve always hated third-party controllers, and I really don’t want to spend that type of money on something I hope is decent.

Well, this year, I ran across the PDP Victrix on eBay for $68. It was being sold because the “rumble” was broken. Well… I’m guessing the seller didn’t do their research, but the Victrix doesn’t have rumble. 😂 It’s rare for me to click on any “broken” tech, but I’m so glad I did. I receive my controller three days later in Like New condition. Some of the plastic hadn’t even been taken off the additional pieces.

I’ve had a hard time getting the Companion App to sync up to my controller (I only want it so I can remap the back trigger buttons) but so far the controller works great. The only issue… and this sort of blew my mind was, it feels so much like a nice Xbox controller, that when I started navigating the Playstation menus I kept hitting the wrong button. I’d press the buttons for select/back on Xbox, and not Playstation. At first I thought someone had remapped the buttons, but I booted up a Dual Sense and realized it was my brain that was automatically pressing certain buttons based on the shape/feel of the controller. That’s some wild stuff!

Is the controller worth $200? Ugh… I don’t know about that, but I’m very happy with my $68 purchase and it should make playing Kingdom Come 2 that much more enjoyable.

ChatGPT Restored Images

I never knew my grandfather. He was one of those guys at Bikini Atoll, who came back messed up. From the descriptions I heard, he was the most amazing, kind person when he was sober, but the moment alcohol touched his lips he became a vicious monster.

I spoke to him once, as a child. He called looking for my father and I was just five years old. He didn’t know about me, nor my cousin, the family wanted to keep him away from us as much as possible.

Because of that phone call, I always wondered about him. I spent years trying to learn more about this man who’d never be part of my life. He died not long after I picked up that call, but folks still feared him and didn’t want to open up.

My grandmother had some photos, and some of them were pretty bad off. I mean, one was cut out from a printed brochure. The other night, I decided to ask ChatGPT to fix it up and the results were… well… amazing.

In a strange way, it brought him to life in a way I’d never seen… in color. It was by far, the most amazing thing I’ve seen ChatGPT do thus far.