Yep. Parks and Recreation was an amazing show, but I almost gave up on it during season one. So glad I powered through.

Dell Dimension 2400 or a descendant of that?

https://www.dell.com/support/product-details/en-us/product/dimension-2400/resources/manuals

That was THE computer to have in college when I went.

Yeah, I never got that. I mean, I got what they were going for, but the realist in me always sees what goes into a “digital afterlife” as being a copy with no continuity of consciousness. The copy could still miss her husband, though, and I wasn’t even thinking about that TBH.

I guess the way I saw it was that “If there is an afterlife, that wouldn’t have been ‘her’ in the machine and she’d have been able to have both.”.

The elderly are still being shoved away in a simulation of their golden years, because I guess that is easier than trying to make room for them in the real world

Yorkie kind of had it bad in the real world her whole life. I can sympathize (though mercifully not directly relate). And I’d much rather San Junipero myself than live out my days in a nursing home. YMMV, obviously.

afterlife" still places everyone’s continued existence at the mercy of real-world infrastructure that could decide to just turn them off at any time.

In a lot of ways, Upload is something of a sequel to San Junipero lol

I’m an American, and I agree. It’s not so much the American cast, but the tone shift that came along with the move to Netflix.

Brooker via https://movieweb.com/charlie-brooker-responds-to-black-mirror-criticism-netflix/ :

“Arguably the happiest [episode] I’ve ever written was San Junipero and I just did that off my own back. I was aware we’re going on a global platform now, so we’ve got to make these stories a bit more international. And I wanted to mix it up a bit, as in not just keep doing bleak-a-thons.”

That said, “San Junipero” is one of my favorite episodes. Probably because, at the time, it was the rare happy ending.

But at the end of the day, it’s still a great show that wonderfully extrapolates current tech trends into varying “10 minutes into the future” dystopian scenarios. Sometimes we need to think everything will work out. :shrug:

Season 13 aired in 2009, so it’s been 16 years IRL, but I don’t think that matters for the time jump.

Bobby was what, 12, 13 when the first run finished? Also, did they say how long they were in Saudi Arabia? If Bobby’s 21, and they were there 10 years, they’d have had to have left when he was 11 which doesn’t check out.

But I did wonder about the aging. Boomhaur looks like shit but he also tans a lot, so that makes sense. Dale looks almost exactly the same, but he’s kind of a basement-dweller/opposite of Boomhaur, so I guess that makes sense.

There’s no way Bill dropped his shut-in weight that fast, but I’ll let it slide. He should definitely be graying though.

Peggy, Kahn, Minh, and Nancy, and the Wassanasongs all look about right, IMO.

Hank, though, doesn’t look like he aged a day.

Very good. I’ve seen too many random Google Forms going around just harvesting emails / info to plug my details into any that I don’t click into from a legit/verified site. Not that I’m accusing OP of that, just that I don’t know where they got that form link.

Is that an official Google form and/or who am I providing my (required) email address to?

Is there an official Google page that links to this? Sorry but anyone can share a Google form.

I like how I was courageous enough to not fix the actual typos/failed commands in the actual history lol.

Pretty much, yeah.

Rather than jot down in a text file the various ffmpeg commands I use frequently…

Raktajino@laptop:~/Downloads$ history | grep ffmpeg
   12  sudo apt install audacity gimp ffmpeg mplayer
  184  history | grep ffmpeg
  215  ffmpeg -i source.mkv -ss 629 -t 7 out.mkv
  217  ffmpeg -i out.mkv -s 0.5 -vf scale=1280:720 out.mp4
  218  ffmpeg -i out.mkv -ss 0.5 -vf scale=1280:720 out.mp4
  231  ffmpeg -i out.mp4 -vf "subtitles=out.srt" final.mp4
  503  ffmpeg -i toofat.wav toofat.mp3
  ...
  682  history | grep ffmpeg
  684  ffmpeg -i 1.gif -i 2.gif -filter_complex "[1:0] [2:0] concat=n=2" out.gif
  685  ffmpeg -i 1.gif -i 2.gif -filter_complex "[1:0] [2:0] concat=n=2:v=1" out.gif
  686  ffmpeg -i 1.gif -i 2.gif -filter_complex "[1:0] [2:0] concat=n=2:v=1" -map '[v]' out.gif
  687  history | grep ffmpeg
  688  ffmpeg -i 1.gif -i 2.gif -filter_complex "[0:0] 12:0] concat=n=2:v=1" -map '[v]' out.gif
  689  ffmpeg -i 1.gif -i 2.gif -filter_complex "[0:0] 1:0] concat=n=2:v=1" -map '[v]' out.gif
  690  ffmpeg -i 1.gif -i 2.gif -filter_complex "[0:0] [1:0] concat=n=2:v=1" -map '[v]' out.gif
  691  ffmpeg -i 1.gif -i 2.gif -filter_complex "[0:0] [1:0] concat=n=2"  out.gif
  694  history | grep ffmpeg

NuTrek does not seem to like the curmudgeon characters, does it? lol

(Me, turning off my morals and writing that down)

I’d be curious to see how adding a few plants affects that.

I keep my IoT stuff to a minimum and only run ones that can operate locally (mostly Tasmota-based smart bulbs and outlets) , but they still get a dedicated virtual AP/SSID with station isolation enabled. That SSID is tied to a locked down VLAN with no outside access or DNS.

The only thing that they can reach from that VLAN is the MQTT server which links them to HomeAssistant.

YMMV, but I’ve never had a microwave interfere with my 2.4 GHz wireless.

Microwave ovens are literally Faraday cages tuned to contain/block signals in the 2.4 GHz range. If any are escaping while it’s in operation, then there’s probably a problem with the shielding (either damage or poor design).

One way to test is to enable wifi on your phone, put it in the microwave (obviously do not turn the microwave on lol), close the door, and the wifi signal should disappear (assuming it doesn’t fall back to 5 GHz).

Yep. My “TV” upstairs is just a giant LED computer monitor with two HDMI inputs and my “TV” downstairs is a projector – both connected to old laptops.

I’ve read digital signage is the way to go for bigger screens, though I haven’t looked into any recently.

I would have assumed that, but all these smart devices do not seem like they were designed by smart people lol.

Still, I think I’ll stick with my “dumb” programmable thermostat.

The worst is when some devices require network access to function, as the only way to interact with them properly is via smart phone - robot vacuums come to mind.

I try to do research ahead of time, but if that kind of “feature” slips past my due diligence, I just return it.

so it just wouldn’t run if nobody was home,

I hate the “goes brrrr” thing, but “Frozen pipes in the winter go brrrrrr”