Just like not throwing the cap at some helpless plant when going to the supermarket recycling the bottle

I’ve also just given in but I gotta say: what the heck is wrong with people that they can recycle the bottles but somehow throw the caps anywhere in nature? How long do you leave your brain in the microwave each day before that behaviour becomes normal? People suck.

Yep this was Canal Digital in the Netherlands. I sent them an e-mail that they should really stop doing this or I would mention it to the AP (Dutch privacy guard dog).

I mentioned it to the AP regardless.

I don’t watch tv either, I have seen it by downloading it from the world wide web which should be available in any country.

Maybe watch the tv show ‘the Good Place’ and learn something from it

You sound like someone who would enjoy that adblocker that clicks on every ad in the background.

Edit: called adnauseam.io

To me it’s sending me e-mails I have not explicitly signed up for. I have had once or twice, when I had filled out a form to order something and without pressing submit, they had already registered my e-mail address and signed me up for all kinds of spam, starting with ‘weren’t you about to order something’.

Depends, but usually someone between 2300 and midnight.

I work from home and have similar outside interests. Free time can be used to hone a skill, you just need to find something that interests you. For instance, learn a new language, take up reading, writing, some creative outlet like creating music, art etc

Once I’ve recovered from it all and not tired all the time I suppose I’d fix up the house, gardening, designing intricate sandwiches and cocktails and other drinks, write, play video games, hang out with friends, eat, drink, walk, travel… But like 5 days a week I’m gonna hang back, chill, watch tv, play video games (I have a huge backlog even though I game plenty).

If you do home automation you could hook it up to a cable permanently and use it as a Home Assistant dashboard. My brother in law used an old tablet for this.

It’s the same principle, true enough. But this tool I think reaches higher temps which makes it more effective.

I suffer from eczema pretty badly so I always have some sort of cortisol cream nearby. They clear up any bug bites quickly. Luckily, mosquitos prefer my wife’s blood over mine.

Not specifically mine but definitely that of my wife: a company called Beurer in Germany makes this little tool with a small ceramic plate that you can heat. Press the hot thing against a mosquito bite and not only does the itch go away, the actual inflammation is diminished. For 20 euros one of the best impulse buys I ever did.

We’ve also put in an order for an electric bicycle which I think will lead to us leaving the car now often.

I’ve suggested password managers to loads of people who’d rather cling to updating their little pocketbooks where it’s impossible to distinguish between certain characters and password versions. The stubbornness of tech illiterates is stunning.

I wonder if you can just sign in to your Nintendo account and play all your digital Switch games. I wouldn’t mind buying a Switch 2, selling my current Switch and Lite, if I can still play MK8 Deluxe, MP10 and superstars, Zelda etc.

I’m not saying I agree with their policies, I just know about their own way they justify their data hunger

It’s the privacy vs convenience problem. For most people, the convenience is so much more important so when you can just use Google to sign in everywhere, you get rid of your passwords remembering issue (oh my god how many people have blamed me for losing their passwords, I’m an IT guy).

Companies want to maximise profits by ‘knowing’ (ie tracking) their customers so they can tailor their products or services to actual usage. A noble goal? They just want to be more convenient for us.

In the end I guess having an account anywhere and the companies seeing anonimised or aggregated, no personally identifiable records, should not be an issue. But they don’t need to keep track of where I live, what my e-mail adress or phone number is and especially need not now any third party stuff.

It has become a very untrustworthy business just because the companies could do whatever they wanted and now that there is more scrutiny, they just find back alley ways to screw us over.

Read up on Intel QSV. You essentially only need a recent cpu. i3 would do.

I hear good things about the Intel Arc A380. You basically only need it to convert video and the Intel is not too bad at that for not too steep a price