flacebo

ChatGPT to the rescue

https://imgur.com/SzbwCEb

I wish the graph was sorted by release date.

Google also can’t:

Offer developers money or perks to launch their apps on the Play Store exclusively or first

That's exactly what Epic did trying to make their store happen. They're not the good guys, they just want part of the profit.

Other than that, I see this as a win for other developers and consumers.

Although I don't think this is over, Google will do everything to fight this.

Just because Apple promises? There is actually zero evidence that apple is any better for privacy. Your absolute best option is something like a raspberry pi with an open source OS.

Just don't connect it to your network and you're probably fine. Use a smart box for streaming services.

Sure, it's practical, that's why most people don't have a separate smart box. That's why I called it a curse, because most people are being nagged with ads and being tracked on a level the article talks about.

Smart boxes can communicate with the TV (HDMI-CEC), and you don't have to ever use the TV's remote. If the box turns on, it turns on the TV and switches the source. Same with turn off. If you cast a youtube video to the box, the TV also turns on, etc. So it works completely seamless (at least in my case).

Oh wait, I just remembered regular TV channels exist, I guess you will still need the TV's remote for that.

With smart boxes you have much more options. I'm thinking a stipped down android TV box doesn't make screenshots and track you like most smart TVs do, they also don't serve random ads on the home page.

Smart TVs are a curse (from a consumer perspective). A separate smart device makes much more sense.

People usually replaced their TVs when they broke, which could be 6-8+ years. Nowadays as their already slow hardware becomes even more obsolete, streaming apps are no longer updated and start to break, new ones are not released, etc. they go ahead and buy a new one.

You also have to accept all kinds of crappy agreements, so you can be spied on and get served ADS (?!?!).

Not to mention even the most expensive TVs come with baffingly slow hardware and software. $2k devices can take 10+ seconds to load the menu with 4 options, where you can modify picture settings. Incredible.

A TV should be a display with inputs and nothing more IMO.

Smart boxes are cheap and much faster than even the most expensive TVs, and they can be replaced inexpensively when eventually they become obsolete.

For a long time I pulled the network cable from my TV after I got tired of getting bombarded with changed ToS agreements, firmware updates and home screen ads. Now I have it on the network again just because I wanted to control the source from my PC, but it's still blocked from the internet on the firewall. Go ahead and make snapshots you stupid little TV.

I wouldn't consider that an alternative to a solar radio watch.

Yes, on all my keyboards. No double presses so far. On the keyboard I use for gaming, I actually use 1000Hz polling just to get that sweet placebo effect.

The default debounce algorithm in QMK also introduces a minimum of 5ms delay, and the default usb polling rate another 10ms.

To mitigate the debounce algorithm delay, you can put "DEBOUNCE_TYPE = asym_eager_defer_pk" in your rules.mk file.

What this does:

asym: use different debounce algorithm for key-down and key-up events.

eager: the key-down is registered instantly at the first signal, instead of waiting 5ms for debounce

defer: registering key-up will wait for the debounce delay, this will make sure you won't get multiple key-downs registered before a proper key-up

pk: per key debounce timer, uses the most resource but you have plenty on your rp2040. although I don't completely understand how this works, this is supposed to be the fastest.

To increase the polling rate, this can be defined in config.h:

#define USB_POLLING_INTERVAL_MS 2

It's in ms, so 2 is 500hz, 1 is 1000hz, IMO the latter is overkill.

Together, you save a minimum of 6ms, maximum of 14ms of delay, which is orders of magnitude more than you save by not scanning the matrix.

Little bit off topic, sorry.

Windows 10 support ending in 2025 is really scary. Literally billions of computers are not eligible to install Windows 11 because of artificial limitations, all of these are supposed to be trashed? That would be an enormous amount of e-waste.

Realistically one or a combination of the following will happen:

  - Microsoft extends the deadline
  - There will be a paid long term support update channel, and hopefully a registry edit will enable this (happened a couple of times before)
  - Most people will continue to use it without security updates (most likely)

Of course, these CO2 levels are smaller by at least one order of magnitude than what could cause suffocation. I overdramatized the fact that the air quality was really, really bad.

Based on every article I found, above 1000 ppm clearly affects sleep quality, cognitive performance, it causes headaches, etc. so 3600ppm is generally considered really bad.

Even if CO2 would be harmless in itself, it is a good indicator for bad ventillation.

I got a DIY basic kit, and was pretty surprised when I saw that after 8 hours of sleep the CO2 level was 3600 ppm in the bedroom. My wife still jokes about the way I woke her up. I immediately said "We're basically suffocating". Maybe it was a little bit too dramatic sure, but kind of true.

The levels go above 1000 ppm in less than an hour with both of us in there.

Opening the windows to ventillate doesn't really solve this, as you'd need to keep opening and closing them every hour. I'm thinking about installing a HRV system, but struggling to find a model that could be integrated into Home Assistant. (ERV not necessary as I live in a european country with temperate climate, the humidity is mostly OK)

In the meantime I have two windows tilted open permanently in another room with the doors open. This keeps CO2 under 1000 ppm, but pretty bad for energy efficiency.

Overall pretty happy with the product, definitely made me much more aware of the air quality. I want to build a portable one with a display and logging to check out the car, the office, maybe the hotel rooms on a trip, the plane, etc.

I hear you, that's the #1 issue people have with ueli. Even though it's electron based, I feel like at least it's properly made performance wise. Bringing it up and the listing is both instant. I also really like that it does fuzzy search, and a ton of plugins by default (windows 10 settings, currency converter, etc).

I went like this: Launchy -> KeyPirinha -> PowerToys (got too slow) -> UELI

It works really well for me, I've been using it for two years now.

https://github.com/oliverschwendener/ueli

I was really surprised how futuristic the shopping experience in Decathlon is. Every item has a unique rfid (or something) tag, and all you have to do is put them in a box at checkout, and it scans them automatically.

Most of their items has this tag inside the regular tags, I guess this would be much harder to implement in a regular store.

When the company I work for was buying a brand new swiss grinding machine (which enables the manufacturing of some extremely precise parts), I had to fill and sign a very strange statement about:

- the exact kind of goods that we will use the machine for

- certify that we will not use it in any nuclear explosive activity, or unsafeguarded nuclear fuel-cycle activity, or the use of nuclear, chemical or biological weapons

- that we won't transfer the manufactured goods or the machine outside of specific countries without the consent of some kind of swiss economic affairs office.

I got the same kind of vibes.

I stopped using windows search a while ago.

It is unreasonably slow. Everything (the app) indexes every file on all of your drives in seconds, then filters the list instantly as you type.

When I start typing an application name that has a shortcut in the start menu, it shouldn't take seconds to find, period. There is no excuse. I'm shocked how bad windows search is every time I have to use it on another machine.

After trying multiple application launchers, I've settled with UELI. It does a lot of things (much more than windows search), instantly.

I think you highly underestimate the compatibility problems it would cause.

You'd have to replace the global networking infrastructure. Starting from every wall plug to the switches and backbone devices. The new connector would have to be easily crimpable, and hopefully as cheap as RJ45, I don't think you could go much slimmer.

All of this just so your end device can be a little bit slimmer. Definitely not worth it.

Using both at the same time so you could leave the backbone alone might work, but this already exists in the form of a usb type-c network adapter.

I don't disagree with your point, but for the longest time I took deathbed wisdom as some ultimate truth.

However, one time it occured to me that maybe a dying person's regrets are not the way you should live your life. They didn't get infinite wisdom just because they're dying, and also the point of life is not that to be happy about your life and choices in your last couple of hours/days.

I'm not saying you should dismiss everything they say, but to take it for what it is: the thoughts of a mind heavily influenced by dying.

I can highly relate to this. There's also the tax of having too many tasks in queue. Maybe that's just me, but if I have to get done 10 different things in the next couple of weeks, my productivity drops to like 40% as my mind keeps switching between all of them.

Having only one project without interruptions, a closed office door, headphones on with music without vocals and my productivity can even surprise me.

I had this realization in the last couple of weeks slowly, starting from a discussion about who thinks in which language in my friend group. I've tried to convince them how thoughts aren't in any language, but nobody agreed, which made me think. I found these threads later when trying to research it.

For me, thinking in words and sentences sounds like thoughs being weighed and slowed down. Seems very unnecessary. On the other hand, I did and always had the the issue of putting my thoughts into words properly. Like the translator is pretty bad and I always struggle and feel like most of the information is lost.

I think there might be some correlation between this and being introverted, socializing is exhausting for me because the translator is not well trained as I don't use it while thinking, and it has to run at 100%. I've talked with my better half about this and she said it's easy for her because the sentences are already there and it takes zero effort to say them, which aligns with my theory.

I do have a terrible "mind chatter" though, I'd rather describe it as white noise. Way too many thoughts going through at once, which makes it very hard to concentrate on anything. So even though not everyone is thinking in words and sentences, this issue can effect all of us.

Haven’t figured out PC audio to my receiver though. I’ve basically given up.

While most motherboards do not have s/pdif connectors, most of them has pins on the board itself. Check out the manual of your mobo. If it has, you can use an s/pdif backplate, or a makeshift coax cable to hook it up to the receiver.

This is usually the best and cheapest way to get clear digital sound signal out of the PC case, and you can even pass through DTS and the likes.

I'm using a 2.1 system so this shouldn't affect me, but sadly it does. Lately, even very expensive TV's lack DTS codecs, so playing movies from a DLNA server is not viable anymore, unless you re-encode every audio track. I understand the reasoning, they do not have to care about playing ripped movies on their devices, but I think the $2000 price tag could probably include the DTS license.

The "people also searched for" box is not just useless, but also very much messing with usability for me. Every time I click on a link, go back, then trying to click on the next link, this box shows up and I accidentally click on that (because it shows up with a little delay and an animation).

This filter takes care of that box completely:

  www.google.com##.exp-outline
  www.google.com##[style="display: block; opacity: 1;"]
  www.google.com##[data-hveid]>div:style(height: auto !important)

I really like this version, especially that it makes sure you lose if you guess, you can't get lucky. It definitely makes me rethink wether I have to guess or not every time, and it makes me so happy to see a number when I do instead of a mine.

This arrangement made it crash though: https://imgur.com/a/TDj7afQ

Nothing happens if you click on any of the white squares. "Uncaught Error: what"