If she cares about aesthetics but is fine with the current functions. Maybe there is a way to do some kind of low level mod of the outside that wouldn’t mess with the actual sound? I am not a case modder on really any level. But with all the folks that love making stuff “theirs,” I would bet there are guides about changing the look of basic speakers. Or even audio shops that do custom builds that could allow for her to get the aesthetics (and even mean more) while keeping the functions that you want to keep. Though I also imagine that it would cost more up-front, but I think that we are going to see stuff that isn’t “smart” or requiring accounts tied to apps that will eventually stop working artificially be the most expensive options.
But those “dumb” devices will last many years longer. Just really hate how these current “premium” brands make shit that is both less well made AND constantly sell off our data. Also bullshit that the concept of repairing stuff is being made basically pointless as they make sure it costs around the same or more than buying the new one.
When I got my first Raspberry Pi (4B), I was kind of shocked at how hot even my passive Argon case would get. Though I am guessing a more powerful and efficient ARM or RISC-V CPU would not spike to 100% so fast. But when I got my Pi 5 I made sure to get the official case that came with a fan while I waited for the more powerful active cooling fan to release. So much better at running stuff like YouTube or other media without hitting thermal issues (got the active cooling Argon One for my 4B with similar results too).
Having more powerful ARM/RISC-V CPUs that can actually handle stuff I expect a full on laptop or especially a desktop will be awesome. But while we are in the “still not as good” period of these CPUs both matching x86_64 and programs for them being full versions. The inefficiencies of either needing emulation or just very un-optimized code as devs are getting the hang of ARM/RISC-V coming from x86 mean those temps are easy to hit.
THIS all fucking day for new and even experienced users. Setting up a dual boot is fairly easy. But the moment you decide that you just need Windows (mostly new/non-tech users) and delete the Linux partition. Shit will break booting and lead to so much panic and/or frustration just getting Windows booting again. And that ignores the additional fuck-ups that can happen with just making a small mistake doing anything with partitions no matter the OS. It is much less frustrating to just disconnect the second drive in a desktop (or just format the drive and have as a data drive). Or to just swap one drive for another in a laptop with one drive bay/slot. Opening a laptop might be annoying depending on the model.
But at least your data and OS won’t be lost. Lots of people can understand using a screwdriver and spudgers while watching a video and some care. But lots of video and written guides for complex software can be worse. Lots of my frustrations with Linux guides over the years has to do with some steps being just left out due to the person(s) showing or writing it just assume certain steps as being super “obvious” or “common sense.” Though some folks are at least good at pre-facing stuff as assuming certain levels of knowledge. So it is easier to know that I might need to also research whatever they mentioned.
And if someone is experienced, it is still good to keep your OSes on physically different drives. Reduce the amount of problems that can come from a drive going bad and taking both (or however many) OSes down together. Of course backups are to be made for reasons that include a drive failing. But shit happens, and minimizing impact and the work needed to get everything working again is always a good idea. It is also nice to know that if you get the itch to distro-hop, you can just nuke the one drive without worry as much as you want. Keep your “I need to know this won’t be impacted” drive safe, and your play drive liquid.
It is because so many people see a Russian security company and just go on and on about “Russian company? they can’t be trusted!” While they act like US companies/government is somehow trustworthy by default (or at least by the omission of only dunking on the “always evil” vibes of anything Russian). Russia is very up front about their laws and their opinions of how they do or want to do. While US companies and the US gov love to also push that narrative hard and loud all the time.
They go on and on about “privacy” being like the most crucial thing ever. But they are also the very same fucks that have and actively at this moment find every way to just vacuum up all of our information, chats, searches, etc… And even when we get proof beyond proof that the US gov and private companies are doing this on their own or colluding. It is somehow the Russian companies (or insert whichever country) that are somehow more “evil” for doing shit.
Hell, the US is constantly spying on and inside our own allies. I really don’t see why our allies would freak out about shit like Chinese cell technology. But they are tripping over themselves to willingly build complete infrastructure with shit that the US gov most certainly has backdoors to backdoors inside. It isn’t about Russian companies being more or less trustworthy. But it is dumb as fuck to act like they are somehow worse than US companies with gov contracts. I am honestly more worried about what my own gov is doing to me than shit other nations companies might be doing. Do I want other nations companies having access to my shit? Fuck no, but acting like they are actively more a threat to spying on me as a US citizen than the profit chasing companies Enshittifying everything with adware/spyware. AND knowing that my own tax dollars are also being paid to them to give my gov access to it and me is stupid.
Would be kind of funny to see the different stats that would change if a family was able to pass on the full account. Like maybe one child didn’t give a fuck about games (outside of just signing in here and there to keep it alive and update stuff like email and security) and no other activity. But then their kid goes hard into games and see the gaps of time. There would be lots of accounts that may have super awkward stuff like hentai visual novels. lol. But seeing some stupid high amounts of achievements and total hours of play time would be neat.
But not exactly shocking that these digital accounts would not have the ability to go much past your death. Unless we see the very deep change of all companies allowing people to remove a game and basically “gift” it. Which I can’t see happening. Even physically having discs/carts hits a limit after so long. Normal wear of use and the material rotting does mean it is likely those would also not survive past a couple of generations. And that ignores the same issues afflicting the consoles needed to play the media.
So basically the real solution to both the digital and physical passing games (or music/movies) is to rip DRM-less copies and keep the needed tools to either use the game without having the disc or needing to register to a server that is likely gone. Might be a good idea to leave ReadMe instructions along with the iso/rom and copies of the official and community patches that help with new OSes. After that it is basically just down to needing virtual machines or some other PC emulators to run old emulators.
It isn’t a science vs pseudoscience, it is using an easy to understand set of symbolic numbers and words that are meant to be taken together as a point. The point being that we are assholes if we don’t stop to take a moment to see that we at some point were those same “10,000” and experienced shit for the first time. And that jumping on others for now being those “10,000” instead of sharing their excitement is dumb. Humans tend to like lessons and reminders that are clear to understand. We as a species have learned and taught via parables basically ever since we could speak.
Focusing on complicated but very precise data removes the whole point of the meaning being presented. Now if this were being understood to be a real study or some other situation where the numbers and science were the focus then it would very much matter. It is just a super basic lesson in social interactions presented in a nerdy way.
For real! The only thing that matches this frustration of trying to find out wtf something is and not just “feel good” BS statements about whatever it might be is surveys. Fuck me am I going to snap one day over fucking surveys on big companies. I hate going to support pages for getting like drivers to install for a PC I am working on and knowing that before I can even press “search” I get a box in the middle of the fucking screen already asking “How’d We Do?” or “Got three minutes to let us know how well we helped you today???” I would try to just start filling them out, but I don’t want to have the very fed-posting-ish words I have for them to be tied to a customer’s PC.
Ignore this unless you (the persons reading this) either don’t understand how fucked so many surveys are as a worker. Just thinking about how much I hate them means I needed a therapeutic rant to get it out. And I am not just going to delete it after typing it at this point. lol
And the surveys that all big companies have are rigged to begin with. They all have either numbers or stars and comment boxes. But depending on the company and situation the rating part might be tied to a specific worker that may have even been the only good part of the interaction. So giving a real “rating” only means that worker is raked over the coals and can be written up. Even if the comments part easily shows this to be the case. The big box chain I fix PCs for does this and my co-workers and myself are constantly fucked over by customers that we were told point-blank that we helped them more than anyone else. But since those customers are fuming about all the other stuff (that was completely out of our control), they give whatever the lowest rating is and the comments about us specifically being good are ignored. All because those comments parts don’t really matter to high-er level managers and corporate. Can’t be removed from our metrics as being clearly about something else. So it just becomes about “well it means you will need to get more positive ratings to cancel it out”.
And as a customer, they use the whole “concern about wanting feedback” as 100% go ahead to just spam the ever living shit out of your txts, email, and even start harassing via calls that they force workers to make. FUCK SURVEYS so much from both a worker and customer standpoint! I volunteer to be the executioner of the people that make this shit a policy of a company (and of course the CEO, other C level folks, and every single member of their boards once the revolution comes.
What did you do to freeze your stuff? And how do you thaw it for stuff, and how long does it take? I did go ahead and make my My Social Security account after seeing your comment though!
Mastodon and other federated platforms are still confusing to normies and less ideologically-minded users. Aside from that, unless VLC starts hosting their own instance, it is hard to say if the particular one they decide to use will stick around. They can relocate by taking some extra steps of course. But they would likely care to put that effort into making VLC Player better instead of into social media. For now at least. X has been more or less the same for a long time (even with the past couple of years) for what they use it for. I am sure they would like to be on an open platform over propriety if that were the only difference. And nothing is stopping them from using both at the same time in order to reach as many people as possible.