Technology Random Access Thoughts

[kphoger]

Make sure to put ketchup on it.

I don't really care for ketchup at all.  But, when I grill hot dogs, I first smoosh them around in a dish with ketchup and Worcestershire sauce, so they get all coated in that mixture.  Then I grill them but leave the leftover ketchup and W-sauce in the dish.  After they're done on the grill, I smoosh them around against in that little bit of leftover sauce, it becomes a sort of glaze.  Good stuff!

[Rothman]

Make sure to put ketchup on it.

I don't really care for ketchup at all.  But, when I grill hot dogs, I first smoosh them around in a dish with ketchup and Worcestershire sauce, so they get all coated in that mixture.  Then I grill them but leave the leftover ketchup and W-sauce in the dish.  After they're done on the grill, I smoosh them around against in that little bit of leftover sauce, it becomes a sort of glaze.  Good stuff!

Smooshed hot dogs sound yucky.

[kkt]

Why does paper come in 500 sheet ream, but the printer trays hold only 250 sheets?

Why are there 12 eggs in a carton? Ever try to eat that many eggs in one meal?

I can't even eat that many eggs in six months.  I wish they'd sell half dozens or even just 2-3 at a time so most of them don't go bad.

[GaryV]

Hot dogs are even fairly tasty in a tortilla (with mayo and grilled onions or whatever your jam is).  You can even go all out and put cheese in there and grill or pan-fry the whole thing.

Strawberry-rhubarb?

[kphoger]

Smooshed hot dogs sound yucky.

Yeah, I couldn't think of the right word.  Swirl?

I wish they'd sell half dozens

They do.

[ZLoth]

From WCCFTech:

Samsung and Kingston Hike SSD Prices By 10% Again, Pushing 1TB Drives Past $330 As NAND Shortage Deepens
FULL ARTICLE HERE

Pain woes as it was about a year ago that a 1TB was under $100. Thankfully, my storage needs are all met for quite a while.

[kkt]

Smooshed hot dogs sound yucky.

Yeah, I couldn't think of the right word.  Swirl?

I wish they'd sell half dozens

They do.

Not around here.  I've been to about a dozen stores.
Only dozens.

[kphoger]

Not around here.  I've been to about a dozen stores.
Only dozens.

That's so weird to me.  I see them all the time here.

Keep your eyes open at gas stations with a small grocery section.  They might sell half-dozens there.

[Scott5114]

I've been to about a dozen stores.

Well, there's your problem. You need to go to half-dozen stores.

[formulanone]

I've been to about a dozen stores.

Well, there's your problem. You need to go to half-dozen stores.

Are those like Ending In 99 Cents Stores?

[ZLoth]

Just for fun, I checked to see what faster Internet speeds were available at my home. I was surprised at not only the speeds, but the prices as well. Plus, I prefer my own mesh WiFi routers, and I would have to upgrade those in order to take advantage of those speeds. No thanks. My existing gigabit services is more than adequate, plus I'm usually sleeping while I upload my backups to a offsite cloud storage.



It should be noted that when I first started on the Internet in the early 1990s, we would joke about getting our own T1 lines which has speeds of 1.544 Mbps (megabits per second) when we won the lottery. Granted, it was around the time that pre-dated the web browser, so most of it was text-based. The obvious benefit was the faster downloads, as I remember that OS/2 update that was spread across multiple 3½ inch discs. Today, that T1 line is considered slow and our dependence on the various Internet applications for video streaming, online collaboration, and helping to bring people together. At least, that's my positive view of it.

[ClassicHasClass]

I actually had a T1 line until not too many years ago. It was expensive as hell, but tariffed, had an SLA and boasted exceptionally low latency. It was the only line I could get when I first moved into the house. I didn't, and still don't, do a lot of streaming or video, so it was fine. Plus, I was never down more than 24 hours, or they'd have to pay me money.

However, my wife does do a lot of streaming and video, so we now have cable Internet, and the T1 provider got out of that business a few years ago anyway. The NID/smartjack is still on the wall near the electrical panel, but it's just a museum piece now.

[kphoger]

However, my wife does do a lot of streaming and video, so we now have cable Internet, and the T1 provider got out of that business a few years ago anyway. The NID/smartjack is still on the wall near the electrical panel, but it's just a museum piece now.

Here in Wichita, telephone service finally went all digital maybe... five... ? ... years ago?  I still see NIU serial numbers on accounts every so often, although they're no longer provisioned for phone service.  I'm not sure if there are any Cox markets left with active analog phone service via NIU.  The only other markets I've dealt with that used to are Omaha and Oklahoma City, but my company hasn't done business in those markets in several years.

[noelbotevera]

I can never remember on how to install and run a Python environment on VS Code.

*I type the command python3 -m .venv ~/venv/(whatever library) in the VS terminal to set up my virtual environment and install a new library.*

"Excuse me sir, but I do believe this is a Python environment?"

"Doesn't look familiar to me."

"What? I just saw you install it. Here. *points to the Python file directory*"

"Nope, I don't recognize that directory."

"It is a Python directory. I am trying to be a good person and set up a virtual environment in it."

"Virtual environment in where?"



"Isn't this a virtual environment?" "Yep."
"And it is a Python virtual environment?" "Yep."
"I found this Python virtual environment in this file. And if that's the case, isn't Python also in this file?" "Makes sense to me."

"Then run the command." "This isn't a Python virtual environment."

[Scott5114]

Python's package management and versioning is so grotesque it puts me off using the language at all. If you have to provide virtual environments as a means to manage library version conflicts then you are failing as a language. pip makes the mess worse, not better.

It's even worse on Linux because the system has its own package management system that it expects everything to funnel through. Besides all the non-development and system software, it manages C and C++ libraries just fine, and it does an adequate job with Perl (every once in a while you have to break out cpan but most of the time the system repo has a perfectly cromulent version available to install). But because Python devs can't resist the urge to make breaking changes every three days, every script you download from somewhere has a different set of version requirements, so you have to deal with pip and venv and God knows what else.

[noelbotevera]

Every time I've used Python, it's never been by choice. Either a job or an assignment required it. It's a great learning language, it's great at data manipulation (mostly thanks to pandas), but I will not defend the less than stellar user experience.

Getting Python to play nice with IDEs like Spyder, Anaconda, IDLE -- all IDEs designed with Python in mind -- is trivial. In fact, it makes me almost want to use Python as a daily driver given how convenient using those IDEs are.

But the moment I export a program to another IDE like Visual Studio, which was not designed with Python in mind, I bring a whole bunch of unnecessary gaff just to make the file play nice in the new IDE. It's portable, because I'm sure a Python file could run on Mac or whatever, but it's not an easy process.

Compare this to C++ where #include directives only add what's necessary with less overhead.*

*(Okay, it's not that simple because object binaries are also involved and C++ likes generating way too many of those. But those files tend to be smaller and can be modified or deleted without wrecking the entire program.)

[Scott5114]

And on Linux you are expected to not use an IDE—the OS is the IDE. That is, the prevailing belief is that so much work has gone into the editors and various OS utilities like grep that it's kind of silly to use a purpose-built program just for writing and compiling only one language. (I started counting the number of syntax-highlighting options my preferred editor supports and got tired of counting at 130 with the scroll bar about a quarter of the way down. And that editor is considered kind of a Johnny-come-lately slouch compared with the venerable vi and emacs.)

[ZLoth]

Okay, what are the folks at Plex smoking?

From Plex Blog:

New Lifetime Plex Pass Pricing

Today we're announcing an important pricing update. Starting July 1, 2026, the price of a new Lifetime Plex Pass will increase to $749.99 USD*.

When Plex first started, we were movie and TV fans who wanted to make something great for people like us. We chose to offer a Lifetime subscription early on because we knew many of our customers would rather pay a higher one-time fee for software that they can depend on every day.

We've considered eliminating the Lifetime Plex Pass in the past, given that recurring subscriptions help us sustain long-term development, but we know it's still a valuable option for many in our community. So instead of retiring it, we're keeping it available at a price that reflects the real, ongoing value of the software we're committed to building and maintaining for years to come.

FULL ARTICLE HERE

I am so glad that I picked up a Lifetime Plex Pass in 2016 for $120. However, the part about "eliminating the Lifetime Plex Pass" is giving me pause. Maybe I'll try Jellyfin or Emby again....

[ZLoth]

In case anyone asks why we love self-hosting our media... From September 1st, 2026, Playstation will be removing all Studio Canal because of content licensing agreements. Sources:

• https://www.avclub.com/playstation-delete-purchased-studio-canal-movies-from-customers-accounts
• https://kotaku.com/playstation-store-movies-digital-studio-canal-terminator-2000711013
• https://www.ign.com/articles/sony-to-delete-movies-owned-by-playstation-users-list-includes-more-than-550-digital-titles
• https://www.eurogamer.net/playstation-to-remove-studio-canal-movies-from-libraries

Among the list of titles to be removed:

• American Gods | Season 1
• Apocalypse Now: The Final Cut
• April and the Extraordinary World
• Bridget Jones' Diary
• Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason
• Bridget Jones's Baby
• Cliffhanger
• Don't Be Afraid of the Dark
• Evil Dead
• Evil Dead 2
• In the Valley of Elah
• Leon - The Director's Cut
• Pan's Labyrinth
• Rambo 3
• Rambo First Blood
• Rambo First Blood Part 2
• Terminator 2: Judgement Day (Remastered)
• Terminator 2: Judgment Day
• This Is Spinal Tap
• Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
• Total Recall
• Train to Busan
• Train to Busan Presents: Peninsula

[ZLoth]

From Headphonesty:

Top Tech YouTuber Blows the Whistle on an Audiophile PC Solution Scam: A Controversy Recap

Many of us want the best listening experience possible, so we turn to gadgets that promise to make sound better. So, when a brand told us that there are 'power filters' that can get rid of electrical noise and make audio clearer, a lot of us got curious.

But not everything a manufacturer claims is always true.

FULL ARTICLE HERE

Quite frankly, some of these items sold are going into areas where there is no sound, thus they are junk. In 2018, after years of dealing with cheap speakers, electric interference, and audio distortion at loud volumes, I ended up purchasing some Edifier R2000DB Powered Bookshelf Speakers for $250 (now $300) and hooking them up to my computer using the optical connectors. Needless to say, the audio quality is AWESOME!

[ZLoth]

From NPR:

Taliban declares war on smartphones

Taliban authorities in Afghanistan have ordered government employees, judges, police and members of the military to stop using smartphones under a directive that took effect June 16. The order threatens violators with confiscation, destruction of their devices and punishment (which are not specified).

The use of what are known as feature phones — with calling and texting options but no touch screen and no photo or recording capabilities — is permitted.

The ban does not yet apply to private phone ownership by ordinary Afghan civilians. But in some provinces, restrictions have already moved beyond government offices and into hospitals, schools and universities, raising fears that the policy could become an early test for broader limits on public smartphone use.

FULL ARTICLE HERE

[ZLoth]

From SlashGear:

What Does Sabbath Mode Mean On A Refrigerator?

The evolution of fridges has seen the appliance elevated from something that kept food cool to a complex smart device. While smart fridge quality and functions can vary by manufacturer, many modern refrigerators can automatically fill your glass to the right level, add humidity to keep vegetables fresh for longer, and send users alerts to warn about temperature issues or problems with filters. However, one mode available with certain refrigerators might seem a little puzzling — Sabbath Mode.

FULL ARTICLE HERE

[vdeane]

From NPR:

Taliban declares war on smartphones

Taliban authorities in Afghanistan have ordered government employees, judges, police and members of the military to stop using smartphones under a directive that took effect June 16. The order threatens violators with confiscation, destruction of their devices and punishment (which are not specified).

The use of what are known as feature phones — with calling and texting options but no touch screen and no photo or recording capabilities — is permitted.

The ban does not yet apply to private phone ownership by ordinary Afghan civilians. But in some provinces, restrictions have already moved beyond government offices and into hospitals, schools and universities, raising fears that the policy could become an early test for broader limits on public smartphone use.

FULL ARTICLE HERE

Do phones without cameras even exist?  Cameras in phones predate smartphones by a fair amount - even flip phones have them.

From SlashGear:

What Does Sabbath Mode Mean On A Refrigerator?

The evolution of fridges has seen the appliance elevated from something that kept food cool to a complex smart device. While smart fridge quality and functions can vary by manufacturer, many modern refrigerators can automatically fill your glass to the right level, add humidity to keep vegetables fresh for longer, and send users alerts to warn about temperature issues or problems with filters. However, one mode available with certain refrigerators might seem a little puzzling — Sabbath Mode.

FULL ARTICLE HERE

I've long wondered about these really strict and lawyeristic interpretations of the sabbath.  Isn't the idea of the sabbath supposed to be to have a day of the week where you rest?  All this rules lawyering and getting rid of modern conveniences because they're "work" strikes me as a lot less restful than just having a day off while not observing the sabbath.  By eliminating work according to religious law, they're creating work by any secular definition of the word.

[Scott5114]

I've long wondered about these really strict and lawyeristic interpretations of the sabbath.  Isn't the idea of the sabbath supposed to be to have a day of the week where you rest?  All this rules lawyering and getting rid of modern conveniences because they're "work" strikes me as a lot less restful than just having a day off while not observing the sabbath.  By eliminating work according to religious law, they're creating work by any secular definition of the word.

I don't know a whole lot about Judaism (never lived anywhere with a lot of Jews), but from what I understand, rules-lawyering religious laws is a time-honored tradition that a lot of practitioners find extremely fun.

[1995hoo]

I know discussion about religion is generally against the forum rules, so I want to be careful how I phrase this. vdeane's comment prompts me to have a thought that has often occurred to me from time to time over the years—specifically, that some of what you might reasonably call the more "legalistic" aspects of Judaism make me think that in some ways it's a very "American" religion because the US can be such a legalistic country. Look at our type of football, for example, and consider how rules-based it is and how specific some of the definitions are. (Watching the World Cup this month has made me think about how our football reflects how our Congress works, with all the fussing about how much time each person has and "I yield the balance of my time to the gentleman from Arizona" or whatever, compared to how soccer just lets the clock run and is sort of more like the British House of Commons where they all yell over each other.)

I think there are aspects of other faiths that reflect the same thing, of course. The US Conference of Catholic Bishops released a statement about abstaining from meat on Friday during Lent in which they noted that the point is to make a sacrifice. It was intended as a response to people who adhered to the "letter of the law" but missed its intent, and the statement said something to the effect that "engaging in the lavish buffet at your favorite seafood restaurant sort of misses the point." Certainly there are people who might go to the Palm and have caviar and Champagne to start, a three-pound lobster with a nice Chablis and a vegetable on the side, and then a nice dessert with a single-malt Scotch, and say, "I didn't eat meat on Friday."

As someone who is not Jewish but who does work in the legal profession, I find some of their debates interesting. For example, many New Yorkers are familiar with "Sabbath elevators" that automatically go up and down stopping on every floor. Some rabbis and Jewish scholars say those elevators nevertheless violate the prohibition on working on the Sabbath because the rider's weight causes the motor to adjust the amount of work needed to raise or lower the car at the correct speed. On the other hand, there's certainly a school of thought that it's impractical to live in a lot of buildings in New York if you're going to have to use the stairs every Saturday. I don't have a dog in that fight, but I find those sorts of arguments interesting.