dRLY

dRLY , 2 hours ago

I tend to notice the drop in quality in more slow scenes since there is more time to notice it. Though very action heavy scenes do suffer if the encode is bad. It would be really nice if we did see more shit in 60fps though. I understand what lots of “but 24fps is more ‘cinematic’” mean for some kinds of shots/movies. But after being so adjusted to 60fps and higher (even if shit is interpolated due to having had a “120Hrz” TV since like 09), shit is much much cleaner. The “soap opera effect” is a real thing, but it kind of just stops being an issue after you get used to it and see the benefits of clarity and smoothness. And it is much more like how seeing shit in real life.

I have been having a real hard time going back to watch movies and especially animated media. Like a panning shot in an anime just looks so damn jittery. It completely takes me out of the thing I am watching as it can make me feel a weird kind of nauseous. Lots of regular movies and shows also do this. Some of it might be due to some stuff that was shot in early digital making it worse. But it does happen with stuff shot on film too.

Just really sucks that the industries seem to go out of their way to make it hard for studios/film makers to try weird shit now that we have it. Like I would love to have the 44fps version of The Hobbit since I missed being able to see it in theatres. But the home releases are all set to traditional speeds. It isn’t a limitation of the Blu-rays themselves from what I understand. But the players tend to only allow 24/30fps for playback. Though I would love to be wrong about that. But still just artificial shit stopping potential advancements (or at least fun efforts to try shit). Those Spiderverse movies being done in layers of different fps rates is an example of trying some weird shit that was dope.

dRLY , 1 hour ago

It really depends on the media and my level of interest in it. I was only bothering to try and get 1080p copies of stuff I liked due to only having a 1080p TV for so long. But I did make efforts to get 1080 where possible (and based on my drives at the time) even before I had a HD TV and the only thing I had to actually watch that resolution on was my laptop. And that was because I wanted to make sure I had (at the time) the best copies of torrented encodes of stuff I really loved and would want to look good later. But I got a 4K HDR TV a few months ago as my 13yo 1080p TV started just giving black screens on all inputs. And while a lot of things are fine, the limitations of the encodes are showing much more.

If I am just checking out something that I have heard about or was told to check out by a friend. I might just grab a 1080 or even 720 copy since they are often the top seeded results. Then go back and find 4k copies if I really get into it. Though my main issue today is similar to back when I was using my laptop. Storage space. I started ripping my Blu-rays and I am the worst about dealing with compression stuff. So I really really need to get on making that media server I have been “meaning to build” for years. Get some 18TB or 20TB drives and RAID the shit out of them for redundancy. lol.

dRLY , 2 hours ago

You aren’t wrong, I mean just looking at how it is making just getting a home while those homes are treated like Wall Street stocks. But the longer that the shit gets pushed out, the more it will cost anyway. Especially as private corps are literally buying up everything. So the corps should be just forced out without pay period. And the only people that should get paid anything are actual people and not the fake persons that we allow corps to be legally seen as. Only other exception would be if land is native land, and plans for shit should be forced to not go through it.

Are the ideas above legal? Hell no, but fucking corps aren’t people and they already get their money from fucking over people and from getting all the tax cuts and exemptions for everything anyway. We have already been letting corps own the current rail lines and is a shining example as to why they should be purged for the benefit of the people.

dRLY , 6 days ago

doing the evanescence routine on older hardware

That was one of the best deep-cut comments I have read in a while! The helpful advise to OP was also nice. lol

dRLY , 12 days ago

At least it should still work with the hard coded sponsor spots that are actually part of the videos (like the “brought to you by Manscaped” or whatever).

dRLY , 14 days ago

When I got my first Raspberry Pi (4B), I was kind of shocked at how hot even my passive Argon case would get. Though I am guessing a more powerful and efficient ARM or RISC-V CPU would not spike to 100% so fast. But when I got my Pi 5 I made sure to get the official case that came with a fan while I waited for the more powerful active cooling fan to release. So much better at running stuff like YouTube or other media without hitting thermal issues (got the active cooling Argon One for my 4B with similar results too).

Having more powerful ARM/RISC-V CPUs that can actually handle stuff I expect a full on laptop or especially a desktop will be awesome. But while we are in the “still not as good” period of these CPUs both matching x86_64 and programs for them being full versions. The inefficiencies of either needing emulation or just very un-optimized code as devs are getting the hang of ARM/RISC-V coming from x86 mean those temps are easy to hit.

dRLY , 17 days ago

Not surprised, I think a lot of sites tend to start removing things as they are posting about being made to do so. As I imagine that having them still up after posting about the removals would likely cause a surge in downloads. Not sure what kinds of things the sites might have to (or be compelled to if formally sued) provide to lawyers/courts. Would (at least to my non-understanding of processes) be that many more “infractions” to add to a “damages” total. Even if none of my assumptions are an issue. It is just like any other data issue. The worst time to try and get copies for a backup is after shit happens/fails. Though I imagine that at least for 8-bit and 16-bit games, there are plenty of copies on plenty of sites and torrents.

dRLY , 19 days ago

They did mostly. It is still possible (but can be extremely frustrating if your timing is off by fractions of a second) to disconnect a LAN cable or USB-LAN adapter (DON’T sign into a wifi network) at the right moment and cause it to ask for a name for the user account. I have taken to calling this the “AA Pullout Method.” My co-workers and myself are crass de-gens and sometimes have to trade off trying to get it to work and made it a game to see who can get it to work in the least amount of tries. Get the “title” of “pullout king.” Did you need to know this? No, but it is no less dumb than the steps below and attempts needed to just make a fucking local user on Windows 10/11 (though 10 seems to be much easier to get around).

You have to first fail at signing into a MS account. Which you can just type the letter “a” instead of an actual email address (seriously don’t have to type anything else, not even adding “@email.whatever” is needed) as if you are just using a preexisting account and not pick the “create a MS account.” It will then ask for your MS account password and just again type the letter “a.” It will then give a “Oops something went wrong” message. This is where the unplugging the cable is needed. The timing is that you need to pull the cable basically right as you let go of your left-click on the “Retry” button. So like if you are using a regular mouse it won’t register that you clicked the button until the moment you have lifted your finger. But if you fail to time it just right, it will either just cycle back to the “Sign into existing MS account” screen where you used the first “a” instead of an email. Or it will give a different message about not being online and take you back to the “Let’s get you online” network screen with your LAN adapter and wifi networks. However if you time it correctly, it will just ask for the name of the user and password.

If you forget to plug the LAN cable back in after getting the “name of user” screen, it will give the screen about not being online. If you are able to get the local user name screen, just plug your LAN back in and it will just ask the rest of the setup questions like normal. And you now have a local user account. But again, shit is super touchy about the timing. So it could take quite a number of retries to get it to work. If you have ever used the PSP/PS3/PS Vita “Hen” non-permanent “custom firmwares,” then you might know the struggle (as the hack may fail to launch until entirely too many attempts if you haven’t used them).

dRLY , 20 days ago

For indi-devs having a “donate” option on their page might be good for both people that maybe pirated but liked it enough to send some amount (even if not the full price). And could be a random source of money to off-set some of the pirated copies from people that just decide they wanted to show additional support for the efforts of the devs.

Lots of fans are willing to leave donations especially if the devs are at risk of shutting down or some other hardships. So long as the donation options only go to the devs/creators or their specific studio/company and not to some larger entity/publisher. Store fronts like itch.io allowing devs to have both an official front to allow safe free copies along with the normal price and “pay what you want” stuff is also nice.

dRLY , 22 days ago

It is because so many people see a Russian security company and just go on and on about “Russian company? they can’t be trusted!” While they act like US companies/government is somehow trustworthy by default (or at least by the omission of only dunking on the “always evil” vibes of anything Russian). Russia is very up front about their laws and their opinions of how they do or want to do. While US companies and the US gov love to also push that narrative hard and loud all the time.

They go on and on about “privacy” being like the most crucial thing ever. But they are also the very same fucks that have and actively at this moment find every way to just vacuum up all of our information, chats, searches, etc… And even when we get proof beyond proof that the US gov and private companies are doing this on their own or colluding. It is somehow the Russian companies (or insert whichever country) that are somehow more “evil” for doing shit.

Hell, the US is constantly spying on and inside our own allies. I really don’t see why our allies would freak out about shit like Chinese cell technology. But they are tripping over themselves to willingly build complete infrastructure with shit that the US gov most certainly has backdoors to backdoors inside. It isn’t about Russian companies being more or less trustworthy. But it is dumb as fuck to act like they are somehow worse than US companies with gov contracts. I am honestly more worried about what my own gov is doing to me than shit other nations companies might be doing. Do I want other nations companies having access to my shit? Fuck no, but acting like they are actively more a threat to spying on me as a US citizen than the profit chasing companies Enshittifying everything with adware/spyware. AND knowing that my own tax dollars are also being paid to them to give my gov access to it and me is stupid.

dRLY , 23 days ago

I flip US flags because fuck imperialism.

They flip US flags because they are babies that bootlick.

We are not the same.

dRLY , 22 days ago

THIS all fucking day for new and even experienced users. Setting up a dual boot is fairly easy. But the moment you decide that you just need Windows (mostly new/non-tech users) and delete the Linux partition. Shit will break booting and lead to so much panic and/or frustration just getting Windows booting again. And that ignores the additional fuck-ups that can happen with just making a small mistake doing anything with partitions no matter the OS. It is much less frustrating to just disconnect the second drive in a desktop (or just format the drive and have as a data drive). Or to just swap one drive for another in a laptop with one drive bay/slot. Opening a laptop might be annoying depending on the model.

But at least your data and OS won’t be lost. Lots of people can understand using a screwdriver and spudgers while watching a video and some care. But lots of video and written guides for complex software can be worse. Lots of my frustrations with Linux guides over the years has to do with some steps being just left out due to the person(s) showing or writing it just assume certain steps as being super “obvious” or “common sense.” Though some folks are at least good at pre-facing stuff as assuming certain levels of knowledge. So it is easier to know that I might need to also research whatever they mentioned.

And if someone is experienced, it is still good to keep your OSes on physically different drives. Reduce the amount of problems that can come from a drive going bad and taking both (or however many) OSes down together. Of course backups are to be made for reasons that include a drive failing. But shit happens, and minimizing impact and the work needed to get everything working again is always a good idea. It is also nice to know that if you get the itch to distro-hop, you can just nuke the one drive without worry as much as you want. Keep your “I need to know this won’t be impacted” drive safe, and your play drive liquid.

dRLY , 23 days ago

Stuff like YouTube’s system (and will keep getting much worse as every company trips over themselves with AI in everything) is so fucking rigged with major companies getting shit auto-claimed. And then relies on more auto-rejecting the channel’s disputes. And they get to claim that shit must work because most creators can’t afford to risk fighting further. The only times shit gets really reviewed by people is when shit happens to a mega channel. Since those channels/companies have both special tools that 99% of creators don’t have (or maybe know about), AND more crucially they have connections at YT.

I really want to move as much of the stuff I watch to other sites (made sure to add extensions to let me know if a channel/vid is also on Odysee/Lbry). If more services are able to get apps onto devices like Roku/consoles and/or the other boxes/TV OSes then it would be easier. I personally watch most YT stuff on my TV and not my phone or PC. Normies of course default to YT since it has been around so long and because it has apps on everything. Would be dope if services with P2P shared delivery to help reduce server loads (like PeerTube and Lbry) could work on stuff like Roku/consoles but would be more or less impossible due to lack of space and the locked-down nature.

Aside from options like PeerTube being much more complicated given both making accounts and learning curve in how federated instances work. The alts to YT also seem to fall victim to so much of the main page content (currently) being far-right and crypto scam/hype channels. If the services get the label of being “for” that stuff, then it is hard to get more mainstream users/creators. But we really really need something that isn’t YT. The class divide of strikes and bans is beyond fucked.

dRLY , 28 days ago

Would be kind of funny to see the different stats that would change if a family was able to pass on the full account. Like maybe one child didn’t give a fuck about games (outside of just signing in here and there to keep it alive and update stuff like email and security) and no other activity. But then their kid goes hard into games and see the gaps of time. There would be lots of accounts that may have super awkward stuff like hentai visual novels. lol. But seeing some stupid high amounts of achievements and total hours of play time would be neat.

But not exactly shocking that these digital accounts would not have the ability to go much past your death. Unless we see the very deep change of all companies allowing people to remove a game and basically “gift” it. Which I can’t see happening. Even physically having discs/carts hits a limit after so long. Normal wear of use and the material rotting does mean it is likely those would also not survive past a couple of generations. And that ignores the same issues afflicting the consoles needed to play the media.

So basically the real solution to both the digital and physical passing games (or music/movies) is to rip DRM-less copies and keep the needed tools to either use the game without having the disc or needing to register to a server that is likely gone. Might be a good idea to leave ReadMe instructions along with the iso/rom and copies of the official and community patches that help with new OSes. After that it is basically just down to needing virtual machines or some other PC emulators to run old emulators.

dRLY , 1 month ago

Close enough lol

dRLY , 1 month ago

Glad to see someone mention OO. I was going to, and saw your comment. I will always be down for LibreOffice, but OnlyOffice might be the “best” option for lots of people that are easily intimidated with change (or more specifically how something looks different). Even if it is lacking on some features, it just matters how the person it is recommended to uses MS Office. Being fair using MS Office or any of the similar suites is overkill for what they do. If smaller programs like Wordpad (RIP) or opensource Rich Text Format editors could handle so many general purpose documents.

dRLY , 2 months ago

Maybe next year will be the year of React OS?? lol

dRLY , 2 months ago

It is much easier to lose the remote since you only use it when using the TV (or other devices that have remotes). Where as you are much much more likely to be doing stuff on your phone actively. Also you can use various methods for locating your phone. Most remotes on the other hand don’t come with the same features for finding them. I am only personally aware of Roku’s remotes having the option to press a physical button on the main box, or via the Roku phone app (which can also be used as a remote).

I loved having the IR blaster on my Galaxy S6, and thought it was lame that it wasn’t around when I upgraded to my S8+. Though I will say that the pre-installed third-party app got on the enshittification train at some point. As I started getting random ads on my lock screen and found that this app cause. So that would be one thing that kind of made losing the IR blaster suck less. Still it sucks to lose features that were able to exist on my smaller phones now that I started getting the + and Ultra size models. Most certainly could fit the aux port at minimum.

dRLY , 2 months ago

Obvious troll is obvious. If the overwhelming number of Cuban people really and truly didn’t support socialism. Then they would have taken over in a new revolution as they did getting rid of the US puppet state the last time. They have stood firm despite the literal attempts of US lead colour revolutions and refuse to be forced to bow to the self-appointed global police state that is the US. They aren’t the ones that should change to serve the rich fucks that steal from nations across the world. It is those rich fucks that should be put in the dirt so that peoples across the world could live their lives without fear.

dRLY , 3 months ago

I only ever used the lite version of FB Messenger. Shit was much better than the full version, especially without all the bloated “features” that I didn’t use at best and being annoying/battery drains at worst. Was noticeably snappier on both my old and new phones. Fortunately most of my friends started using Discord and/or Signal with better features (and one less Meta app to have running).

I think that the idea of having smaller and less demanding versions of lots of apps is a good idea. As so many apps are just not optimized and bloated. Just being coded to rely on higher specs to make up for said lack of effort in cleaning up stuff. The ads on ads on ads being part of the issue as well. Which is only getting worse with the close buttons not loading unless shit has been however many seconds. Seems that the “hit box” for the close buttons is getting smaller and smaller to guaranty the ads are clicked on and then open another app or a browser. Though optimizations and better coding won’t fix dirty underhanded grifts.

dRLY , 3 months ago

The US is constantly and historically the ones propping up dictators all over the world. AND we have done it while people of those nations have either legitimately voted for the opposite, and/or were fighting for their freedom from colonial powers/dictators. We actively fund and create false narratives inside nations that we don’t like to start color revolutions. We force other nations into backing brutal sanctions if they don’t want us to go after them and to be allowed to trade with us. Our military is literally installed all over the globe, but we claim nations like China are somehow being “aggressive” for even patrolling their own areas. We create and groom evil and gaslight the world that we are somehow just allowed to police the globe. Fuck yourself.

dRLY , 4 months ago

Even the Ukrainians have been cheering his death. He wasn’t pro-Ukraine, and they weren’t pro-him.

dRLY , 4 months ago

The headspace of “anyone is better than Putin” also means that people that are worse are praised. Someone that openly calls Muslims “cockroaches” and extreme nationalism isn’t exactly “better” than Putin’s similar stances on the LGBTQIA+ communities. So it is very possible for Navalny to be worse if given the powers Putin currently has. The real point is that it isn’t a good thing to blindly praise/support everyone that openly attacks Putin as some “hero of freedom” or something like that.

dRLY , 4 months ago

Too bad he was vocally pro-Israel and anti-Palestinian liberation up until now. Ready to blindly believe the lies about the 40 babies, and somehow that Israel is allowed continued support every year with our money. Dude has lost all my support ever since bowing to Dems both times and not fighting. He allowed Dems to get what they wanted and all of us are assholes for not fucking around about withholding votes. Bernie got people excited about real change, and then allowed the very establishment we need removed to bring it to a hard stop (like always). Fuck him and his masters that enabled Israel’s decades and decades of planned genocide started with the colonization of Palestine by Zionists! He is just doing what all the Dems do, good quotes/speeches and nothing changed.

dRLY , 4 months ago

Facts! If Netanyahu is removed, it will just be like the US where the next guy is still evil but just lesser.

dRLY , 4 months ago

He alone wouldn’t have been able to do much. As instead of just having conservatives/Republicans against him, the Democratic party’s members in Congress and in other fed and state level spots would also be against him. Until we get third parties in there to break up the eternal gridlock of never moving forward for real people. We just keep being pulled to the right and the centrists only care about not making the rich happy. Burn them and all of it to the ground.

dRLY , 4 months ago

I don’t think that anywhere near as many people that thought Trump was “compromised” would believe Biden has been. If anything Biden constantly demanding more and more money and arms stockpiles from the US to go to Ukraine is kind of a win for Russia. As it means less money and arms are being kept by the US. It weakens us in money and supplies. The constant cheerleading about standing with Ukraine until the end and all territories are returned, kind of makes it hard to save face and cut off the supply line. Trump being much more prone to impulses and thrives on attention is much more likely to change directions even if people scream at him about it. Just as long as he can be the centre of attention and not really care about the situation.

That being said, Putin is definitely fucking with everyone. It helps create chaos for both parties to constantly be too focused on accusing each other of being “compromised.” And the best part is that he doesn’t even have to actually do anything other than exist for this to happen.

dRLY , 4 months ago

Very hard to convince people to buy things “legitimately” and have any trust in any of the “legit” options when they just go away so fucking easily. Stuff like anime has been a real weird example of both how horrible the corps on the Japanese side just squeeze every single fraction of a penny from stuff (fucking like two eps of a show on a modern DVD or even Blu-ray). But also feel zero reason to expand options in the first place. They were so fucking slow to get digital or streaming options. Same goes for the foreign outlets that get rights outside of J-land, but I am sure they were more likely to want to combat piracy via stuff like streaming. Funny thing about anime piracy is that it is literally the reason so many shows and movies were even seen and is the main reason so many people got into all of it. Back in the early 00’s when I made friends with people that had cable internet and ready to burn as many eps as they could fit on a CD-R and later DVD-/+R.

It was just so amazing to see all these shows that weren’t just completely altered by lazy US companies or ever likely to be translated. No US companies thought that Americans would ever understand or get into this weird Japanese stuff and not put money into it. But they sure started caring when torrents got going and the numbers were growing. One thing that has really pissed me off with legal digital copies of anime comes down to how it is still behind on basic shit. We have had multi-audio/subtitles on pirate copies and even on legitimate physical discs. But the legal versions of digital copies still have to be either bought in sub or dub. It is a slap in the face of fans to have to buy two different copies just to have multi-audio in Japanese and English. I thought that shit would have been left behind with VHS.

All of these companies demand our money and often charge prices that are just too high for their target audiences (especially teens that don’t have jobs like so many of us have lived through). And yet they seem to do everything possible to make the options for purchase so much less usable compared to pirate versions. I would take a fansub that might be a bit off but has actual passion for community and accessibility over legit copies every single time. But I am also more than happy to pay for things if I don’t keep being treated like I already stole it and should be grateful for being “allowed” to pay for it. I would love to pay for these things and know that the actual workers are able to live, and not just so overworked and not able to afford rent. But the entire media industry treats both the workers and the customers so fucking bad. They are making things worse for themselves by showing how we can’t trust our purchases to even be around from one day to another. So why shouldn’t we just take it and know that we will have it?

Given how lots of smaller shows and other things will never get re-prints or re-masters on modern media. It is also our jobs to preserve these things that the companies feel aren’t worth the money to do so if they aren’t. If I ever have kids, I would like to be able to know I can show them my favorites. Looks like I will also need to show them how to sail the digital seas and that “legit” options should always be treated as liars that steal your money AND take away what you paid for.

🏴‍☠️

dRLY , 4 months ago

Gintama has some of the funnier versions of those notes. Can be annoying if you don’t care as they take it to 11 covering most of the screen to explain a reference to a bank scandal in the 90s or other very specific stuff. Cracks me up with the level of care about making sure you are aware of something used in a quick joke that might not really matter. Such a nice way to see and know random info on Japanese slang words and phrases in the context of a moment.

dRLY , 4 months ago

They really went hard on VCRs before all of that for the same reasons. Fortunately the time shifting argument was able to be backed by the courts. Otherwise TiVo and so many other formats would’ve basically been banned from the general public being able to have anything nice. Was especially important rulings for forcing most content providers and/or studios into using new ideas and technologies. They are the ones that hold back on everything that could actually make it easier to legally enjoy content.

They make things require so many hoops to go through and like a punishment for wanting to enjoy anything legally. While also making it cost more on their end overall. If these companies were to embrace stuff like torrenting tech, then it would mean less overall costs needed to always be running. We have so many ways of getting stuff from here to there and making sure media is not lost. Copyrights should at best last like 10 years imo. These companies still can’t even be bothered to allow me to buy movies and shows digitally that maybe got a DVD release. So if they won’t give options, then they forfeit the right to claim any “damages” or “lost sales.”

dRLY , 5 months ago

I haven’t ran into a situation where any of the digital copies of things I bought have been pulled. So I can’t speak to what happened with your friends. But I will say that if you have any purchased digital copies of movies, you should at least setup Movies Anywhere and link all accounts you have. It isn’t like how Steam will still allow you to download a pulled game. But it does give you copies of things on multiple sources once linked. So if you got something on Amazon, it would also be linked as “purchased” on other services like Vudu, YouTube/Play Movies, Apple, etc… It won’t apply to everything you have got but would likely cover most big name items.

It used to be marked with the old “Ultraviolet” branding, but when that was shutdown the basic underlying service was transferred to Movies Anywhere. Most of the time you can see which things would count because they have the MA logo. Not great for smaller releases and most shows won’t be part of it (atm at least). Though some shows might also show up, as I have seen things from HBO and some other ones.

All that being said. You are very much correct about “buying isn’t owning” these days. And even when there is something like MA, there are still thousands of movies and shows that will only ever get a digital “release” from torrents/P2P. Sad that some cool shit will never get a real HD re-master for Blu-ray (let alone streaming). I very much feel that studios should have at best a 10 year window to make whatever sales before the masters should be copied to public archives. If the studios won’t do it, then there are more than plenty of people out there that would do the job for the love of keeping old media preserved and accessible. Also bullshit when I try to go the “legal” route and find a show on one service in HD but only in SD on others. It is pretty infuriating to see that in some cases I can only get like season 2 of something on say Vudu for example, but season 1 is seemingly exclusive to Amazon. And one is in HD and the other is only SD.

dRLY , 4 months ago

I did fail to mention it is US only (my bad in that). Though it could get expanded if it is popular enough and it can be pointed to as “reducing piracy.” But international laws being complicated from nation to nation is also an issue, or at least something they might say. I haven’t been out of the country since setting it up, so I am curious if I would need a VPN to access my licensed stuff. Maybe would work for folks that have made accounts in the past with VPN? Idk.

It does work with some very limited sets of shows. But like I said, they aren’t really about that and the shows tend to be from studios like HBO. But not helpful for most anything other than movies.

It is a unified interface, but if I buy a MA labeled movie from say Vudu. It will also show-up in my iTunes, Microsoft, YouTube/Google Movies, Amazon, and of course MA. They have some additional connected services via Direct TV and Verizon, but I don’t use those. But the point is that if I get it on one of the services I connected, they become available on all of them. Even when the UltraViolet service went down, I didn’t lose the things I had bought. Though I think that Disney must have bought their connections and the UV stuff was migrated. Though I am not sure of those details. Either way it didn’t lead to me losing anything.

It also does require that you periodically sign back into their site to re-connect each provider similar to how you have to sign back into other sites. But again, I at no point have lost access to what was in my account if I haven’t signed in to re-verify. It isn’t as cut and dry as having the physical discs or a torrented copy on a NAS. But it is still worth knowing about if you have “legit” copies. I really wish that there were a way to link my Plex account and be able to watch them in the same front-end as my local stuff though. But no way that is going to happen unless Plex completely stops supporting the Plex Server and works out deals to use APIs of stuff like Vudu, Amazon, iTunes, etc…

dRLY , 5 months ago

Seeing how history repeating itself is doing so from multiple centuries at one time. If you are a leftist, then you NEED to be arming yourself and making efforts to join orgs/groups of comrades. The far-right and the constantly enabling centrists are doing the same song and dance done before the Civil War and all of the Red Scares. They don’t wish to fight the rich elites/capitalists that profit from the constant repeating of history and gaslighting the masses. They are going to welcome fascism as their methods of keeping power. It is the centrists/moderates that allowed Nazi Germany to happen. It is the centrists/moderates that allowed slavery and segregation to stay around. They are what allowed child labour and complete disregard for workers’ safety and health to continue. They want you to just ignore it all and tune-out (unless it serves them to call attention for their political theatre). We keep us safe!

dRLY , 5 months ago

It is also crucial that leftists be where the masses are in order to make whatever pushes that can be made. There can’t be class awakening if leftist aren’t there to speak-up, otherwise it is all just reactionaries and bootlickers spreading their lies.

dRLY , 5 months ago

SponsorBlock is really good for dealing with the “this video was brought to you by” ads. There are also some other extensions that will either auto-press the “Skip Ad” button when possible, and others that will treat it like a podcast app and just change the playback speed for the ads to some really really fast speeds. So the ads are still present, but are over in seconds.

dRLY , 5 months ago

I am really going to miss the old settings when they finally remove what is left of Control Panel. So far they have removed things or moved shit to force the Settings app. But they keep failing to make the new things have anywhere near the level of control. The power settings from Control Panel still matter way more than Settings and seem to actually stick when applied. And I just really have no idea how they have made stuff like resetting networking/connection issues worse over time. Fucking right-clicking on the networking icon on the taskbar and picking “repair” would actually get shit working again 8 times out of 10. But just seems to be a placebo at this point. There are still so many times that using different resets in Internet Options fixes more stuff I see regularly than the resets in Settings->Networking.

And the newer Troubleshooting options never fix any of the Windows Update issues I come across. Just a glorified verification of the failures I already know are happening. I never thought I would so badly miss being able to tell Windows Update to ignore updates if they were bugging out (not to avoid them all together but at least stop the OS from just constantly going through the motions of installing and failing during each reboot/shutdown). So many of the updates that used to give me issues were really either down to them trying to install out of order or due to a fuck-up on MS’s end that pushed bad updates.

The push to so deeply embed these AI models into everything so fast is really pissing me off. Shit is known to have issues with just outright making shit up. Which is IMO reason enough to not be adding them to end-products (especially since the end-products are also still not finished with removing old versions of things). One thing that really worries me in my job with fixing people’s PCs is the AI and search that pushes web content (and the now inescapable placement of ads) above local resources/programs/settings/etc. The main issues people have aren’t actual viruses like in the past. It is the massive levels of scams and fake alerts followed by fake “repair techs.” If the average person is so easy to trick when it is people scamming them. AI is going to blow shit up waaaaaaaay worse and will be able to do it so much faster and completely. Average people are still under the impression that these AI chats are giving completely real and accurate information (reminds me of how people used to believe that if something was said on TV that it was real).

Shit is fucked and going to get much worse at a dramatically faster rate due to rushing things in order to make as much money as fast as possible. Even Microsoft used to ship things in a more complete state. But gaming has made shipping broken products completely normal. So no reason to care about keeping any level of quality.

dRLY , 5 months ago

Facts! It isn’t just anarchists and black movements either. Communists, socialists, and socdems (so basically most flavors of anti-capitalism) are arming-up or at least learning how to shoot or breakdown a weapon to make inert (Socialist Rifle Association/John Brown Gun Clubs/Redneck Revolt). Also seeing more pro-2A orgs/groups for various minorities (two examples being Latino Rifle Association and Pink Pistols) getting more members. Now is the best time to support and/or join whichever ones that are active in the areas that folks are.

It is also a smart idea to get at least one or more guns and learn to use them. Also in the event that the libs somehow start banning things again, as the fascists and conservative bootlickers most certainly have plenty on their side already. Not about to let them have an easy time if any of them start pulling anything thinking the left is defenseless (as they still think real leftists are the same as the centrist libs). Even then, there are more liberals also starting to get guns too.

dRLY , 5 months ago

I think that given how frequently this argument is brought up (and it is of course true about it not being completely there yet) so this is just my opinion on the situation (and I am not a dev so I am fine with being wrong and corrected). It is kind of needed for more projects/distros to start actively using it. As a lot of the stuff kind of needs the band-aid ripped off to start forcing it to get there faster at this point. Otherwise it just keeps being held back as people on the coding end of things will keep focusing on X11 issues instead of getting things ready for Wayland.

Kind of like the conundrum of mobile OSes that aren’t Android or iOS. It is hard to get people/companies to even try the new OS because the lack of apps (specifically the most common ones used by the most people). But app devs don’t want to spend time re-building or starting new apps for an OS that isn’t being used (or on devices people are buying). So at a certain point it needs both sides to interact and make progress. The OS needs the apps more at this point, and getting feedback and data from those devs makes it known where things are and aren’t working. But it is also true the devs for the apps might end up finding out the OS is actually easier to work with compared to what they have been doing/dealing with on Android/iOS.

Getting a replacement for X11 has been needed for a long time as the OSes and features keep needing something new to better work for how computers have advanced. And it isn’t something that many devs would want to take on given how easy it is to just use what is already known. Since Wayland has finally gotten to the point it is now, it is time for more devs to start learning/moving to the new thing to get attention to the stuff that they need. The hardest part is this in between period for users as it can and will cause random issues (like the ones you have seen). Stability is important, but Linux is great because there will always be distros and projects that keeping the old thing running well is the main objective. So we are in some great times for the new to be pushed hard so it can become the stable future needed.

dRLY , 6 months ago

I think the only reactions from the west will sadly be just endless propaganda about how they are “actually just using it as cover for making enough nuclear weapons for there to be one for every person in the US”. Or some other BS that just serves the military industrial complex and contractors that stand to make even more mad profits from this new cold war we are groomed into more and more daily. Just look at how freaked out the federal government that won’t shut the fuck up about how fucking perfect our “free market capitalism” is, has made damn sure to tell companies they can’t sell lots of shit to any Chinese company.

Doesn’t matter if those companies can pay. Just matters that they are artificially kept from having the most current tech at all costs. Also how our government also legally blocks certain Chinese products over here for additional BS reasons and even shown to not be issues by our own allies (before those allies also had to ban them because we said so).

Fortunately for China, they have said “fuck you, we will just do it then” and are closing the gap pretty fast. So all the sanctions/bans will just mean that China has the most to gain from being able to offer cheaper but similarly working (or close enough) tech to more places. But it will all just be used to bring back the “good old days” of history that really doesn’t need to be re-lived.

dRLY , 6 months ago

True, it is really up to the instance to decide if they want to stay small and turn off registrations or big and keep them turned on. So long as the instances of all sizes stick to the official standards of the Lemmy codebase and respect the specs of the various other federated systems. It is not really an issue that the average user should have to worry about (for most issues at least).

dRLY , 6 months ago

Even Google was giving people full refunds for all games that were bought on Stadia when they gave up on that. I can’t imagine that the total refunds would even be that bad for Sony given the increases they made for PSN prices. Would at least come across as at least pretending to “do right” to keep some level of trust from the people that have been buying non-game media from them. It would all be just a PR thing with some loss of current money for future money. Maybe even just offer a free amount of credit for getting some shows/movies from the Sony owned studios.

But since Sony is currently the number one, they will keep on their fuck shit until Microsoft or Nintendo are able to pull some big push. Playstation really only does kind of cool shit for customers when they aren’t in the lead.

dRLY , 6 months ago

TamperMonkey is one of the “recommended” add-ons when I look at the list on my Android version of FF and I am not on a beta or dev build.

dRLY , 6 months ago

Key word is “proposal”, which will be used for the election. But will not be actually fought for, or if somehow makes it through will likely be gutted to give corps money and just retain the name. I am thinking it would be stopped just like all the bullshit was on technicalities that we never hear of except when shit that would help people is brought forward (the shit involving that stupid-ass parliamentarian a few years ago being a great example). And the mass public of liberals or otherwise the “um I really don’t care about politics” folks will just remember it was mentioned at some point and assume it was done. Just another failure of our larger problem of mass amnesia. Similar to how so many idiots voted for Biden over Bernie because they thought they both were for Medicare for All, since Biden had stated multiple times that “healthcare is a right”. Fuck him, his party, the Republicans, corpo media, and especially the capitalist ruling class that owns both parties!

dRLY , 7 months ago

Just going to just preface this with a heads-up that it is all just a rant about how much I hate that the “reopen everything” box is defaultly checked.

Also it being the default setting for Mac OS means that people just never actually quit out of programs (though being fair most normie Mac users don’t even seem to know that just closing a window doesn’t quit the program). Which leads to just massive slowdowns and weird errors that they just turn around and pay way too much money to “fix”.

I have had so much success with just immediately restarting them and just making sure to uncheck that stupid box so most shit finally is fully closed out when it powers back on. Which I also make it a point to tell everyone I help to actually reboot their shit even just a couple times a week (since most users also seem to never use either the shutdown or reboot and just always close the lid) to keep things more or less okay. I also educate them on how to actually quit out of programs.

I shit you not that I once just did the whole “uncheck the box and reboot” shit and completely fixed a weird webcam not being detected problem within less than 2mins total. Made my boss happy that I was able to help that fast, but was very frustrated to hear that the person had actually been to the Apple Store before coming to us. They (the Apple Store) ran some super quick diagnostic and it came back as not seeing the webcam. To which they had quoted the person like $500~$600 to for the parts and labour.

Coming to us was just a last attempt to make sure and the MacBook Air had been at least turned off and not just put to sleep before coming over. But the main factor was that stupid box being defaultly checked, and just everyone ignoring it and just keeping the problem around. The average person I can understand either just not really noticing or just being scared to uncheck it for fear of somehow messing something up. As they just assume that it wouldn’t be already checked if it was “correct”.

So at least I was able to fix an issue that really wasn’t an issue, and the person walked away not having to spend a dime. And they learned to only check the box if they need it and will just uncheck it the rest of the time. Which also makes me happy to have helped and have taught them something they didn’t ever think to question.

dRLY , 7 months ago

There is a pretty similar looking and function called Revolt that could be useful for getting people that are used to Discord to switch. I think they also have a long goal of being able to send and receive messages and calls with Discord. Obviously they don’t have that atm, but it is open-source and nice to at least know about in the event a quick exodus of Discord is needed.

dRLY , 8 months ago

It doesn’t definitively prove openAI didn’t pay for the works.

But since they are a business/org and has all of those works and using them for profit. Then it kind of would be provable if openAI did or didn’t pay the correct licenses as they and/or the publisher/Stephen King (if he directly were to handle those agreements) would have a receipt/license document of some kind to show it. I don’t agree with how copyrights are done and agree that things should be public domain much sooner. But a for-profit thing like openAI shouldn’t be just allowed to have all these exceptions that avoids needing any level of permission and paying for ones that ask for it to use it. At least not while us regular people that aren’t using these sources for profits/business also aren’t allowed to just use whatever we want.

The only way that (I at least) see such an open use of everything at the level of all the data/information being fine is in a socialist/communist system of some kind. As the main concern for generally keeping stuff like entertainment/information/art/etc at a creator level is to have money to live in modern society where basic and crucial needs (food/housing/healthcare/etc) costs money. So for the average author/writer/artist/inventor a for-profit company just being able to take their shit and much more directly impact their ability to live.

It is a highly predatory level of capitalism and should not have exceptions. It is just setting up a different version of the shit that needs to also be stopped in the entertainment/technology industries. Where the actual creators/performers/etc are fucked by the studios/labs/corps by not being paid anywhere near the value being brought in and may not have control over it. So all of the companies and the capitalist system are why a private entity/business/org shouldn’t just be allowed to pull this shit.

dRLY , 8 months ago

It might be a good idea to get a good VPN for any of those sites (even the streaming ones). No hate if you ran into an issue with FF. Every now and then I do see some PCs act weird with FF DNS options. Never able to figure out what causes them to not work correctly while most other PCs are working fine on the same local network. Opera and Opera GX “feel” too “busy” for me personally with just all the random things on the UI and features. I support people using anything that isn’t official Chrome at this point.

If you don’t already have a VPN, here is a list article with more than a few options and give some basic info on stuff like if they keep logs of IPs and for how long. Some of them also have additional DNS options for removing ads. https://torrentfreak.com/best-vpn-anonymous-no-logging/

dRLY , 8 months ago

ME