I've been using Podcast Addict for years and still like it. Has a lot of features.
Many times you can compact that stuff down with minimal effort. Just use the bag or whatever you're throwing away so that you aren't touching the other garbage with your hand.
Yes. Was at a holiday party having an engaging and funny conversation with some of my coworkers and an asshole manager just had to walk up and take photos of us "having fun at the office party". Completely killed the nice vibe we had going.
I'm the War on Christmas guy, and I'm getting my ass handed to me every single year.
"Oh great, another fucking pizza party. You can bet your ass I'm turning soda into wine."
I know lemmy hates Google (for good reasons)...but Google Drive has been the GOAT for me for many years. I have never used OneDrive, in spite of it constantly annoying TF out of me to "just try me, bro!"
For decades I've wanted an action RPG Diablo-style game set in the Starcraft universe.
I hated it in the early days because I wanted to own physical media for my games, etc., and I just didn't trust an online games library that could vanish in a business deal or bankruptcy. Little did I know that CDs and DVDs have a shelf life. I learned to love Steam over the years.
Now I hate subscriptions-for-everything and love Steam even more for only charging me once to buy a game.
At my office people tend to go way overboard with the number of CCs. I understand the need for communication and coordination on some things. But so much of it is just unnecessary-reflexive CYA and dilution of responsibility.
The 12 year old video below explains the root cause of economic misery. Technology is a tool that can be used for good or evil. But the ruling class wants ALL the money. So technology is often used for more efficient oppression.
Meanwhile, we working class folks are too busy working and/or distracted (often fighting with each other) to mount any real resistance.
Fortunately I work in a small shop and am a domain admin. Using a combo of Powershell and ShutUp10, I cut out as much of the stupid bloat and spyware as I can. The OS still sucks, but it's much more tolerable with that crap turned off.
One of these days I'm going to get off my lazy butt and create a custom Windows 11 installation ISO with the nonsense pre-removed.
(And yes, I also use Linux, and prefer it.)
That's an interesting way of framing it. But I think it's more correct to say that our shared understanding of language and definitions of words means we are mostly translating the writer's thoughts and intentions as best we can from their mind into our minds.
It's true that no two people will be 100% in sync with their understandings and internal definitions of things, but the overlap will be quite large. So hopefully, actual communication is possible from person A to person B.
However, it's also possible for people to "talk past each other" as we often see in political discourse. So it's highly imperfect. But I would not say it's just a person talking to themselves when they read what another person has posted.
I use BCC semi-frequently at work because it prevents all kinds of (mostly unintentional) annoyances from my coworkers. Mostly with automated emails related to reports and/or our case management system. BCC is your best friend when used selectively.
The authorities will try to notify someone in the immediate family (often the spouse). After that, if you are in their estate, the trustee should make a good faith effort to contact you. Beyond that, it's normally just friends and family contacting each other.
Back in the days when printed newspapers were common, some folks would check the obituaries regularly.
You could create a Google alert. If the stupid thing actually works, you should get an email when their obituary gets posted somewhere.
Because I know that Andre Rush is a passionate chef. He's well-known. Look him up!
YSK About NAPS2 - the free and open source document scanning software
NAPS2 is free scanner software made easy. Scan to PDF, edit your documents, and use advanced features like OCR. Available on Windows, Mac, and Linux.
NAPS2 (Not Another PDF Scanner.) Free versions for Linux, Windows, and Mac are available for download. Simple interface but fully featured, NAPS2 is much better than the overly bloated proprietary software that comes with most document scanners. Compatible with many devices.
YSK: Removable drives/thumb drives are potentially dangerous in Windows 11
If you plug a USB drive into Microsoft Windows, in many cases it will try to do things "for you" with the drive. Not a great idea. There could be malware lurking on that USB drive.
There are a couple of things you can do to help mitigate the issue. These tips assume Windows 11.
Turn off Autoplay
- Open Settings. Press Windows + I to open the Settings app.
- Go to Bluetooth & devices. In the left sidebar, click on "Bluetooth & devices."
- Select Autoplay. Scroll down and click on "Autoplay."
- Turn Off Autoplay. You'll see a toggle switch labeled "Use Autoplay for all media and devices." Turn this off.
This will turn it off completely. You can, if you want, make individual settings for different types of devices.
Deny Execute Access (Pro or Enterprise versions of Windows 11)
- Open Group Policy Editor. Press Windows + R, type gpedit.msc, and press Enter.
- Navigate to the Removable Storage Access Policies. Go to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > Removable Storage Access.
- Modify Policies. You can enable the policy "Removable Disks: Deny execute access" to prevent execution from removable drives.
- Apply and Reboot.
Note, there are some cases where you may want to execute scripts or programs from a removable drive. If that's the case, you may not want to do this, or make a note of it so you can re-enable if needed.
YSK: You don't own your Kindle e-books.
This is not an anti-Kindle rant. I have purchased (rented?) several Kindle titles myself.
However, YSK that you are only licensing access to the book from Amazon, you don't own it like a physical book.
There have been cases where Amazon deletes a title from all devices. (Ironically, one version of "1984" was one such title).
https://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/technology/companies/18amazon.html
There have also been cases where a customer violated Amazon's terms of service and lost access to all of their Kindle e-books. Amazon has all the power in this relationship. They can and do change the rules on us lowly peasants from time to time.
Here are the terms of use:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201014950
Note, there are indeed ways to download your books and import them into something like Calibre (and remove the DRM from the books). If you do some web searches (and/or search YouTube) you can probably figure it out.
TIL about hair traps
I feel like an idiot for not knowing about these.
Every 2-3 months I have to snake out our shower drain with a 25' snake. Giant PITA.
After some web searches, I stumbled across these hair trap devices. They come in both external and internal configurations. Many different types to choose from.
I purchased an internal one, installed it, and am going to give it a try. In theory I can just pop it out and clean it instead of snaking the pipes. Folks tell me they work well. If this one doesn't work I'll try another type. They are fairly inexpensive.
I want an AI TV that blocks all forms of advertising.
We mostly watch news and sports in my house. So unfortunately, live TV. Occasionally we watch other things. I mute the commercials and browse my phone when they're on.
But I would love a TV that is smart enough to auto hide & mute every kind of ad. Even little logos on the athletes' uniforms. Hide the ads on the pitcher's mound. Hide the billboards and signs in the stadium. Show some cool little generic animation, music video, or slide show during commercial breaks. Hide the damned popup window ads and scrolling ads that some channels do. Remove product placements from movies and shows. Basically make all ads completely vanish.
Is a detection-proof ad blocker theoretically possible?
Not asking for tech support here, just wondering if in theory it would be possible to create a plug-in or even a complete browser that blocks ads in a way that's impossible to detect. One model that comes to mind is a quarantined / containerized non-blocking virtual browser which queries the web server directly, then the UX filters the content from that container and presents it to the user ad-free. As far as the web server can tell, the containerized browser is just vanilla Chromium.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) - multiple MFAs with root?
At Amazon Web Services (AWS), security is our top priority, and configuring multi-factor authentication (MFA) on accounts is an important step in securing your organization. Now, you can add multiple MFA devices to AWS account root users and AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) users in your AWS...
Has anybody gotten this to work? If I set up multiple MFA devices with my IAM accounts, they all work flawlessly. But if I set up multiple MFA devices with my root account, only the original MFA device works. No matter how carefully I set up and synch a secondary device, it simply will not work with root. As the linked article says, this should be possible with either root or IAM (though in the past this was not the case). Thanks.