• 15 Posts
  • 11 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: October 16th, 2023

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  • Ah, that’s interesting… that’s what I was missing. So indeed if it directly controls the tuner and maintains a schedule, that sounds like a direct replacement of mythTV.

    I just checked the official Debian repositories and there is no pkg for “Plex”. This means it’s either non-free, or it hasn’t become mainstream or mature enough for Debian to take notice. I’ll have to look into more and see why it’s not in Debian. I may be forced because it appears mythTV is dropped in recent Debian versions.



  • I never heard of Plex but from my quick gander it seems like a different beast for a different purpose. Correct me if I’m wrong but Plex looks like a Netflix alternative service that needs a media player comparable to Roku, AppleTV, Amazon’s Fire<stick? or something> and an unlimited high-speed internet connection.

    MythTV is open source PVR software enabling offline people to anonymously browse a database of broadcast TV schedules and record shows/programs using a tuner. AFAIK, MythTV is the only open source game in town for scheduling recordings. It’s somewhat indispensable to people on capped/limited/shitty internet connections. The recording can indeed be stored on LAN-attached NAS storage and some media boxes can then then play the content.

    I could really use a MythRadio of sorts as well because streaming radio is also a non-starter for measured rate internet customers. But it seems nothing exists. There was a DAB radio with a record feature but for whatever reason that thing was discontinued early on.







  • Is boycotting mars going to make even the slightest difference? Not in a million years.

    Claiming boycotts don’t work is as good as claiming voting doesn’t work. It works in numbers.

    Not only does mars probably own more companies than you even realise, including many of the alternatives you’re buying thinking you’re avoiding them,

    Have a look at this infographic:

    I have been boycotting everything in that graphic except “Associated British Foods plc” for the past 15 years because I pay attention and I have collected copious dirt on those companies. They are rotten to the core. I could probably find dirt on ABF if I searched for it specifically, but they are likely the lesser of evils and patronizing the lesser of evils is what ethical consumers do.

    but even the products you do buy that are coming from a different company altogether, suffer from the exact same background problems (exploitation, oppression, unsustainability, lobbying).

    This is the classic “they’re all evil” excuse for not doing your duty as an ethical consumer in favor of putting price and value above ethics in the interest of № 1. Corpations are not equals in the slightest. If you do a bit of research, you find that the smaller companies are much less frequently involved in wrongdoing. I keep a list of the scandals of these companies and it’s clear which ones do the lion’s share of harm.

    There is good reason for the saying “no ethical consumption under capitalism”,

    From that article:

    “It is now 2018. People have “gone green”, eaten vegan, shopped “fair-trade”, and recycled for years now. Yet the atrocities that spurned the ethical consumption movement continue unabated. ”

    Yikes. That author does not know what was abated because he only looks around at what he sees now. So because there are still problems, Olive Pape concludes “boycotting doesn’t work”, instead of realizing that boycotting works in numbers.

    I boycott the worst of the worst with no expectation that my drop in the ocean makes a significant difference (just like my drop in the ocean vote makes no significant difference in an election). I do it to ensure that I am not part of the problem.

    Stop being a part of the problem and favor the lesser of evils in the marketplace instead of taking the best deal that benefits you personally.

    it’s to abolish capitalism because it requires and encourages all of the unethical practices you’re looking to avoid, in order to exist.

    That kind of unhinged stance may be accurate, but we don’t live in an abolished capitalism world. Abolition of capitalism is a separate action entirely that’s not mutually exclusive to ethical consumption. You can dream about anarchy all you want but those dreams are actually not “going to make even the slightest difference… Not in a million years.” So in the meantime, please consume ethically.





  • It’s the other way around – childishly selfish to partake in reckless consumerism, buying goods needlessly with total disregard for ethics of the supply chains and ethics of excessive production and consequential waste. Naïve to then advocate for products that are actually anti-consumer. And disgusting to see someone encouraging others to behave like children in the same way while at the same time calling adults in the room “childish”. Shame on you.


  • Cost might be negligible… probably $/€ 1-5 for the card and probably $/€ 1 for the cable if i find one. I’m happy with the 15 y.o. laptop. I think I’ll get at least another 5-10 years out of it. I’m not gaming or anything heavy, so I believe I will never again have to buy a PC or laptop. I keep finding functional PCs in the trash that are faster than what I need. I expect that pattern to continue as long as MS continues to bloat out Windows and leverage designed obsolescence against a majority of the population. Even LCDs and scanners I pull from the trash have no issues. I’ve accumulated HDDs from the trash that are useful for temporary operations, like having an extra backup or two while migrating to a new Debian release.

    I just love the fact that I do not need to support bad players in the marketplace. I have never had to buy a post-2008 intel cpu or a post-2013 AMD CPU (which means I have never had to contribute to chip makers who produce anti-noncorp-consumer management engines). IIUC, the only modern spy-free chip is the ibm power11. If I ever see the day that I need to buy new gear it would have to be that. Not sure if they put the power11 in laptops yet, or if there will be a mobile variant.