A couple of things happened for me. One was switching to a specific instance that wasn’t my own and finding that posts just disappeared. I then forced the app to stop in settings and went back in. Nothing doing, no posts loaded. Then I signed out and signed back in. No luck, same result. I had to uninstall and reinstall to get the app to show content again. Then there’s the random replies that go missing or don’t show up in the inbox but are there when I go back to the post and magically after I see them in post they show up.

A lot of the time I will look at a post and it doesn’t log it as being read. Or it’ll log all posts and being read and then I end up not being able to load more posts (despite my settings not having scroll to read enabled). I’ve gotten the no comments on posts with comments. I’ve gotten the ghost comments with no text. There’s been other stuff too.

I never know what glitch I’m going to encounter.

I was confused because I use a TTRPG platform called foundry to run D&D games. But still a good read.

Listen. SYNC for Lemmy is so broken atm that I have switched first to Boost (also randomly broken in some ways), and then to voyager.

I love sync, don’t get me wrong. And I was a sync for reddit user before I switched to relay. But I’m not the type to stick around and try to troubleshoot an app the developer doesn’t prioritize. I appreciate what LJ did for those of us who bailed on reddit. I appreciate that the app gave me the functionality I wanted for Lemmy. But on the other hand, we had prior notice that the update of the Lemmy platform would break things for those of us using third party apps that weren’t being updated and that means he had to have known.

When he has time and he gets around to taking a look at the state of the app, I guess I’ll circle back. But I am not going to spend valuable time on this if he isn’t.

No problem. I’m mostly trying to steer people away from using overpriced units when cheaper alternatives with the same features are available. That’s most of the reason I didn’t suggest a newer chromecast from Google. I’d also stay away from Roku (because recently they have been injecting ads and forced arbitration clauses that probably aren’t legal or enforceable in the EU and UK).

https://www.aftvnews.com/onn-4k-pro-with-google-tv-will-be-sold-in-europe-under-a-different-brand-and-name/ It looks like the Onn box is sold in the UK under a different name but I’d check it out and see what reviews it has to make sure.

I believe this is also available on the UK Amazon site so you may be able to find it there.

I just searched for “Onn Android TV alternative” and “Chromecast alternative” to see what was out there and started clicking on reviews.

Social media sites thrive on the engagement that comes from those people doom scrolling so this whole premise is antithetical to the purpose of social media sites and the only reason they aren’t doing the same to children is because the law prevents them from doing so wholesale (but they will try to edge around the law every chance they get).

If all you need is basic Chromecast functionality for streaming there’s the Onn box from Walmart that will do the trick and comes with a remote. They’re about $20 in the US. I have seen people speak very highly of them (even though I don’t personally use one ATM). If you’re looking to do a lot more than just casting shows, I would recommend an Nvidia shield pro (not the tube). It will allow you to do all the Chromecast things, gets pretty sufficient security and QoL updates and even though these devices are older and a lot more expensive, mine hasn’t had a hiccough yet.

The shield pro will allow you to do Chromecast and use services like GeForce now to do game streaming, and it can be used for media management of local files. So I suppose it all depends on what you want to use the new device for. There are options between these two at various price points, that offer different features including Google’s newer.chromecasts.

But yes I would recommend upgrading because IoT devices that are constantly connected to the internet are a weak link in the security chain of your home network and the original Chromecast is more so because it has not been receiving security updates.

Yeah. My entire windows machine is locked down specifically to combat the copilot ms365 plague. I’m also using Bazzite and generally loving it. But I have a work machine for work things and some of my programs require windows to work.

It’s only playing dead. Its eyes are open.

If it’s a Google Chromecast you can try downloading the Google home app from your devices app store and then connecting it to the same wifi as the Chromecast uses. If there is an update you should be able to select the Chromecast and then select the gear icon at the top left of the screen. An update will show up on the page it takes you to.

Please note that Google stopped supporting the original Chromecast. Because there is no support some things just may not work at all and there may be no updates for that device as a result.

https://www.pcmag.com/news/time-to-upgrade-google-ends-support-for-first-gen-chromecast

https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-update-chromecast-4628168

I’m just going to point out some things.

-1: The comparison comes from price point and the fact that both systems are handheld play anywhere systems with docking capability for couch play.

-2: There are already arguably better spec’s handhelds in this category that would outperform both these systems, but the cost of them is largely a deciding factor and it comes with some tradeoffs that include OS (since these are windows only handhelds with the exception of the Legion Go S, meaning that if you don’t want windows you have to go to the added trouble of installing something like Bazzite).

-3: We know that just about every handheld on the market has some tradeoffs. The Legion Go has a beautiful screen and joycon-like detachable controllers. But it’s also heavier than the switch, and the steam deck and arguably less comfortable to hold for some. We know the the original ROG Ally had a bunch of problems including the fact that it would destroy its own SF card slot and potentially any SD card installed in it. It’s newest iteration is great (lots of fixes, better GPU/CPU, larger SDD, better battery life, better ergonomics, fixed SD card slot etc), however it’s also close to $1000. The Legion Go S had a different storage capacities depending on which OS you chose at launch. Even now there’s different variants that give different performance at different price points (Z1 extreme vs Z2 Go). The Switch OG lacks emulation for a lot of newer games (Wii and DS games specifically). Those games are coming probably but they are available on other handhelds with just a little bit of extra work.

-4: Ease of play and ease of emulation are things people who aren’t buying these devices to tinker want. So the Switch 2 wins there. Just buy the subscription and you can emulate quite a lot of their gaming library with more to come.

-5: Expecting a publication largely catering to the fans of Nintendo to offer up its competition as the better bargain for the money is just… Silly. It doesn’t make sense.

The switch 2 doesn’t add enough things to the table to make me want to spend $450+ to buy it. It’s launch titles are not particularly compelling for me, and when you add their anti-emulation litigation to the pile and DCMA abuse, I just don’t feel like it’s something I’m currently willing to buy. On top of that there’s lots of accessibility improvements I would love to see including joycon styles for 2D platformers that I clude a real D pad, GameCube style Joycons, or even just Joycons that would allow those with partial impairment or disability. There’s a lot of unexplored territory for the design and execution of this product that doesn’t include better graphics or being able to play cyberpunk 2077 and I think people forget that. Can you get such things on a steam deck? Yeah. Probably. But not natively docked to the system in handheld mode.

I for one will not be putting any gibberish into Google’s AI for any reason. I don’t find it fun. I find it annoying and have taken steps to avoid it completely on purpose. I don’t understand these articles that want to throw shade at AI LLM’s by suggesting their viewers go use the LLM’s which only helps the companies that own the LLM’s.

Like. Yes. We have established that LLM’s will give misinformation and create slop because all their data sets are tainted. Do we need to continue to further this nonsense?

I also do this. I was having CCleaner clear all temp files as well when I close a browser but I set up windows to just delete them so that’s no longer a problem.

I’m gonna do this tomorrow. I gotta dig out the googly eyes.

Long term/ extended stay hotels exist that will provide these things. But the vast majority of people don’t even consider those. They rely on what they can search up on Google for the area and algorithms don’t take into account that you need to bring your dog, want a separate set of bedrooms in the same suite, or that you’re looking for a kitchen.

I see this every time AirBnB is mentioned and every time I wonder if people even know extended stay hotels exist.

I believe at least one of the anti-trust lawsuits Google lost was brought by the previous Trump Administration.

This is largely the problem with most social media, and generative AI has made this problem worse just like it has made other pretty terrible facets of human interactions worse.

Anyone who was paying attention on reddit the last couple years (even pre-pandemic) could see that bots were taking over. The main difference (love mods or hate them) was that mods who’s subreddits didn’t rely on bot content to stay active were moderating the bot problem as best they could.

Now, most of those mods aren’t mods anymore and the vast majority only really want the engagement anyway so of course they’ll let bots basically take over.

Reddit the corp never cared about keeping bots off the platform and they care even less now. Bot engagement counts. Bot views of ads count. Removing bots actively hurts their bottom line in the short term so of course they aren’t going to do anything with that.

The actual human users on Reddit don’t care because they’re there to consume. It doesn’t matter to them if the posts they engage with are made by bots or not.

So two things. They mention repeatedly that they used the Joycons on a desk. I think that’s the first problem with ergonomics. We know that the switch gets played pretty often in couch mode where you don’t have a table to lean on as you play. So you’d more likely use them on your thighs which makes a bit more sense ergonomically.

The second thing is there’s likely to be a whole cohort of extra peripheral upgrades to improve the ergonomics or the Joycons themselves (just like there were previously).

I have a hunch the reason the Joycons weren’t made more ergonomic in general is because this console is still targeting kids with smaller hands despite it’s larger footprint in the second iteration.

The market is still flooded with grips and cases to make the original switch/OLED models more ergonomic for longer play times. I doubt this will be any different.

I’d also wager that Nintendo will put out more mouse adjacent peripherals or hori and the like will do so.

That’s honestly hilarious though. They made Marvin and don’t see the problem with that.

Buy things up in the fallout. The power vacuum the collapse will create will be ripe for anyone who comes out financially ahead in such a situation.