Some people don’t attach value or sentimentality to $5 valentine’s day cards and would rather just spend time with their partner and spending time picking out a good card for each other can be fun. I personally like the funny ones so it can be fun to pick those out, show them to your partner, have a laugh together, and then put them back. The card brings the same amount of joy, but you don’t have to spend money or throw it away later.

Maybe the smart TV’s are being subsidized by the money they make selling the data they collect from you?

Disregarding acting ability, I don’t think Pattinson had the physicality for it; he didn’t look big enough to me to be believable. You could really tell the Batman costume had a lot of padding when you saw him as Bruce Wayne. I think he’s just too lithe, for the lack of a better descriptor, for the character, you know?

I’m surprised that you have had bad experiences.

Evil corporation and all that and I am uncomfortable defending it, but I have had a drastically different experience.

I frequently get stuff next day or within 2 days and always get refunds without having to jump through hoops or anything and there are multiple places to choose from for dropping off a return. Also, the price is almost always cheaper or within a dollar of where I can find it elsewhere.

I’ve had some things take longer to arrive but they are clear about them not being prime and are up front about the delayed arrival time before I submit the order so I know what I’m getting into and if it’s something that I need quicker I just pick a different similar product that is prime eligible. There’s almost always an alternative that is a similar price with faster shipping. I’ve never had an order not show up either. In fact, I’ve never had to even call them or contact support at all.

It’s too consistent to be good luck. Hell, it’s so convenient that I feel guilty for buying stuff that I could get locally for a comparable price but would require me to fight traffic and stand in line to pay.

Maybe the difference is regional? Or maybe a rural area vs city thing? I don’t know. I guess the bright side for you is that you’re spreading your money around? Regardless, it sucks that you’ve had so many issues!

Sure. When I go to “opensubtitles.org” I get redirected to the login page. Here’s the screenshot: https://imgur.com/a/bhGTeC1

Edit: After I login, it works as you described, by the way. It’s not really a big deal; I was just surprised that it started happening since I hadn’t seen any mention of that change anywhere. I’m even more surprised that it isn’t happening to everyone.

…okay? I was just making an observation.

Really? Every time I visit, it asks me to sign in. Maybe it’s by region or something?

You used to be able to download without signing up.

Edit: Apparently not everyone is being asked to login like me now. I’m not sure if it’s a regional thing or maybe my VPN is triggering something?

The search service on my computer crashes from time to time and the troubleshooter gets it working again without having to reboot (I hate rebooting).

What kind of idiot uses that on their luggage?

I apologize if I put words in your mouth.

Fortunately, it’s actually pretty easy to download a copy of Wikipedia and it’s not even that big. For YT, it would be a pretty massive undertaking. I suppose a good way to start would be to download all the content from channels that you found interesting; I’m pretty sure there are tools that facilitate that. Then, ignoring licensing and copyright issues, hosting the content would depend on how big the data is. Maybe something like Plex or Jellyfin? I kinda want to try it now with a smaller channel just to see.

I don’t think the centralization of information is necessarily a good thing. Besides, having information on different sites is why search engines exist. When I need to learn how to replace, let’s say a toilet shut off valve, I start with a search engine, so it doesn’t matter to me if I find a video on YouTube, Vimeo, or some other service, as long as I don’t have to sign up to view it.

The convenience that YouTube offers is a centralized place for entertainment, like Netflix used to be, and like we’ve had to do with streaming, we’ll adapt if we must.

YouTube was an amazing idea that changed the world, but now it’s being squeezed for every penny that Google can get, a company that found “Don’t be evil” too restrictive. It’s just another example of what happens when a company has to be more profitable every year in order to be considered successful.

We had a recreational marijuana referendum in my state and the opposition signs said, “Save the Children.” From what? I have no idea. Unsurprisingly, the vote failed.

Of course, it really helped that the state legislature sued to halt the referendum on grounds of improper procedure which caused the referendum to be put on the ballot as a special election instead of the mid-terms ballot. The judge dismissed the lawsuit, by the way.

The shit some people will do to stop other people from having a good time.

RoKKiT KiT

He’s a laid back Aussie dude that does mostly ocean-based solo beach camping catch and cooks.

I’m on the other side of the world, half a days travel from the ocean, so his channel provides me an interesting and often beautiful perspective of a life very different than my own.

With the amount of trash in the ocean, I wouldn’t be surprised if even an uncontacted tribe is running around in mismatched sandals and drinking out of old plastic bottles.

A guy I watch on YT has done a couple of short shipwreck survival challenges on some of the little islands off the coast of Australia. He starts barefoot and with no supplies and within an hour of scavenging the beach he has a pair of sandals, a half dozen bottles, both plastic and glass, and usually some fishing line or rope.

Or they missed the /s after the bit about it being a great opportunity.

Good to know, but can you elaborate, please?

After watching Jan 6th, I don’t think a civil war is on the horizon. Most people are too soft and comfortable. Hell, there was one lady that stormed the capitol, got maced, and then complained about it to a reporter. When she was asked why she stormed the capitol she said, “It’s a revolution, man!”

Also, you can’t really divide the country up geographically by left or right (more people in California voted for Trump than in almost every other state, for example). So, no, I’m not worried about a civil war.

That being said, I don’t see the far-right disappearing anytime soon. There are powerful people that benefit too much by having our society divided, and it’s not just in the US where this is happening.

These are built from the open source version of Android and do not have Google stuff:

• LineageOS
• GrapheneOS (can be installed on Pixels)

These are based on various flavors of Linux (Android is technically a flavor of Linux too):

• PureOS (Librem 5 line by Purism)
• Ubuntu Touch (support for lots of devices, but typically not the flagships)
• Manjaro OS (on PinePhone by PINE64, an open source hardware community, which is the best way I can describe it)

Sounds like a good reason to stop using Google services and products. Some examples (note, I haven’t used some of these yet):

Search - DuckDuckGo

Email - ProtonMail

Drive - Dropbox

Sheets/Docs - Zoho

Some of these examples may not the best for everyone, but my point is that we do not have to let Google continue to push us around.