Random Thoughts

[FlyingClayDisk]

Yep. They tried to push that shit on me but I got them. They told me that I was under a two year contract but I never was so I could cancel at any time without penalty. So I did. They told me no need to send any equipment back so I kept it and 90 days later they billed be $100 for not returning the equipment back.   

So I wrote an email to the FTC and FTC forced them to give me directions as to how to return the equipment. I took equipment to UPS, they boxed it and I took pictures of what was returned. I got my money back. F them as they are sleaze balls

Oh they also pulled other stunts

Oh the stories I could tell you about dealing with cable and satellite providers!  We had DTV for a while and they couldn't keep their shit working, so I told them to come get it.  Well, that was a big fight (which I won).  They never did come pick up their junk.  I wound up tossing it in our dumpster.  Then we got Dish.  They wanted to hook up to our phone line.  Nope!  Another big fight (I won again).  Dish's problem was, they couldn't keep their hands out of my wallet.  Throughout all of this we were using Hughesnet for internet service.  The Hughesnet stuff worked okkay, but there was a lot of latency which was a major problem if we were working on a remote host.  I could type almost a whole sentence before it would show up.

Decided to take a gamble on Starlink and was pleasantly surprised to find it blows Hughesnet completely away (speed, bandwidth, cost, etc.).  It's pretty trippy dealing with the Starlink people though.  In fact, I'm not sure if there even are ANY people.  It's like dealing with a black hole.  I knew this going in, so no surprise, but it was still pretty crazy.  You send them a gob of money, and they send you this anonymous box of stuff.  No instructions, and no number to call.   You have to figure everything out yourself.  Fortunately, we'd kept our Hughesnet account open so we found some sources online to explain stuff (but ironically NOT from Starlink, but rather U-toob and Reddit). 

Then Dish pushed the wrong button in my personal "launch" sequence.  Told Dish to come get their shit.  Big fight.  Big win.  (I don't play nice)  Dish wouldn't come get their stuff either.  Cancelled Hughesnet too.  So, now I had a pile of satellite dishes in my yard.  Dish asked (nicely) if I'd send their LNB back, so because they asked nicely I went out an unbolted it off the dish and sent it to them.  They didn't want any of the rest of their stuff (i.e. the dish itself, (2) indoor boxes and about (7) remotes).  I thought about using them to make a massive space laser or something, but opted for the dumpster instead. 

No more cable!  YAY!!

After my wife successfully completed her total mental nervous breakdown over not having TV (she's an addict), I showed her how to stream stuff for free (huge mistake).  Haven't seen her since.  One day I snuck into the living room and lifted the 65" TV off the wall and was about ready to launch it out into the middle of the front yard when I heard this booming, godlike, voice say..."STOP!!...........OR DIE!!"

It was good to know my wife was still around.  But I was Sooooooooo close!!  Oh well.

So, that's some of my more recent stories about cable and satellite.  I've got a whole collection of them from various places around the globe.  I think I could probably write a book about them.

[l0st]

Oh the stories I could tell you about dealing with cable and satellite providers!  We had DTV for a while and they couldn't keep their shit working, so I told them to come get it.  Well, that was a big fight (which I won).  They never did come pick up their junk.  I wound up tossing it in our dumpster.  Then we got Dish.  They wanted to hook up to our phone line.  Nope!  Another big fight (I won again).  Dish's problem was, they couldn't keep their hands out of my wallet.  Throughout all of this we were using Hughesnet for internet service.  The Hughesnet stuff worked okkay, but there was a lot of latency which was a major problem if we were working on a remote host.  I could type almost a whole sentence before it would show up.

I've had Dish before as well. Not bad for the price, but picture quality not nearly as good as DirecTV.

I believe Hughes is operated on the same 6Mhz TV transponders that were used for Analog C-Band. That's UHF broadcast to space and back, so 500ms RTT is expected. If you think that's bad, try working with someone on a private polar orbit satellite with 6Mbps total bandwidth that only comes up for a few hours when the bird is over the horizon. It was a mad dash for all things download when the link came up!

[CCoburn]

I'm not really following the war, but I'm still getting the impression that Russia is fighting more than just Ukraine. Like US and NATO funneling through Ukraine and using it as some sort of smokescreen. This could be a very dangerous situation. They really do need to end this war.

[Maxmars]

I'm not really following the war, but I'm still getting the impression that Russia is fighting more than just Ukraine. Like US and NATO funneling through Ukraine and using it as some sort of smokescreen. This could be a very dangerous situation. They really do need to end this war.

I think the current state of affairs was an inevitable congealing of antagonists.  NATO is distinctly a creature of "war" and all its' actions are geared towards "war."  The diplomatic and political shenanigans were always bound to be overt... What we casually call "Russia" has always been territorial.  Clash guaranteed.  The truth is this 'war' is a marketing construct, misrepresented from the onset.  It is as regional in nature as the Israel/Palestine war.  I only grieve for the innocents, rendered grist for someone else's mill.  As for the others... this is the game they insist on playing (it's ironic that "they" never actually "pay.")

Russia (those forced to fight) are fighting anyone who can muster 'virtue' from the show, not moral virtue... but instead 'political' virtue... a far less "virtuous" virtue (if at all.)

People shouldn't have to be bombed to signal virtue... I think the mill is broken.

[CCoburn]

The highlight of the morning is going on YouTube, usually just to update my watch later list for the big screen, and having my eyes raped with more of Putins' nuclear threats to the west. It does create a little anxiety, and I think I'd rather just not know about it – you know what they say about "ignorance being bliss".

[Maxmars]

The highlight of the morning is going on YouTube, usually just to update my watch later list for the big screen, and having my eyes raped with more of Putins' nuclear threats to the west. It does create a little anxiety, and I think I'd rather just not know about it – you know what they say about "ignorance being bliss".

I think your YouTube algorithms are showing...

Don't forget that they control what you see "by default"... it's one thing if you are actively searching those stories... it's another to get anxious over what they "feed" your account. [just try checking out YouTube in an anonymous browser or tab... it's a completely different animal.]

[UltraBudgie]

youtube can be annoying so if you use a computer brower not a phone here is a little trick to avoid there algo and visual spammy.

first you install a rss reader plugin in your browser i use firefox and the pplugin "RSSPreview"

then make a folder of bookmarks one for each channel you like with the bookmarks looking like this https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml...aDmEaPNmIA which is how you get youtube to make a rss feed for a partocular channel

change the channel id in each link to point to the actual channel you like oh but how to get the channel id, well you can use this tool for that https://www.streamweasels.com/tools/yout...convertor/

then you will have a folder of bookmarks that you can middlemouse click on and it will open a tab for each channel that you can see if theres anything new there an dyou dont have to subscribe or have a youtube account or wade through their video homes page for the channel and such

i made chili yesterday

[CCoburn]

I think your YouTube algorithms are showing...

Sometimes I just do the mouseover on the thumbnails and roll some of the content that way because I think maybe I can avoid detection if I do it that way, but I'm still not sure whether or not the algorithm will detect that and do anything with it.

[Maxmars]

Sometimes I just do the mouseover on the thumbnails and roll some of the content that way because I think maybe I can avoid detection if I do it that way, but I'm still not sure whether or not the algorithm will detect that and do anything with it.

I'm no expert, but I have heard that "mouse loiter time/location" is very much a data set in at least "some" suggestion models; if not just 'usage statistics.'
It kind of counters any warm and fuzzy feelings about the 'convenience' of the whole "viewing suggestions" ideal.

I don't like feeding paranoia... but then, paranoia often has real roots... that's what makes it persistent.

Regardless, simple awareness can always be very useful...

[UltraBudgie]

yes best just to assume its all hoovered up and stored so what i dont think thats paranoid just realistic although it probabbly would have sounded paranoid ten years ago but not today haha, and as the algos evolve to ai trained models guess what all that data is going to go into training set individualized for you yes you, personalized models that know just how to push your buttons, think of it like a digital conman surfing over your shoulder at all times tempting ya, they say 'agi' is 'artifical general intelligence' but i think the agi we're going is 'artifical gaslighting intelligence', figuring out how to exactly sculpt the version of digital reality, news feeds, highlighted comments, video suggestions, etc., so that you have 'aligned' views. scary yes but seems inevitable so just have fun with it haha also maybe we'll all get a better appreciation for actual real offline life time to go camping!