ThePowerOfGeek

Rocket can be the carbs.

That alternative idea seems like an Occam’s Razor type explanation. I like it.

Imagine how galling this must be for Jeff Bezos. He’s put so much effort into his Bond villain persona. The guy even now looks like Dr Evil. But he’s being out eviled by a pudgy, dorky-looking South African nepo-baby.

Sure. The device I use is an Onn streaming a Android TV box. I think I got the 2023 4k streaming version and it was about $20, from Walmart. You can probably get cheaper models, but I wanted one with an Ethernet port.

Then I installed a couple of alternative launchers from the Play store on device. I also loaded F-Droid as well (though I had to do that directly through an apk). I can’t remember which launcher I went with in the end, but it was either FLauncher or Projectivity. They were both good.

The wrinkle here is that the OS defaults back to the default launcher (which has ads and a lot of clutter on it). But I used a free command line tool called adb to switch the default launcher off.

I’ve been very happy with the new setup. My kids (who use it all the time) occasionally complain that an app will crash while they are watching something, and take them back to the home screen/launcher. But I haven’t run into that, and it’s probably just them accidentally hitting a remote (which I know they accidentally do a lot).

I documented the process and posted them here, in another thread a few months ago.

Additional note: The default YouTube app isn’t very conducive to quick profile switching, which can be annoying. To switch profiles you basically have to go back to the OS level and do it there, then go back into the YouTube app. It’s an Android TV quirk. But I discovered that if you side-load the Amazon Fire version of the YouTube app onto the device, you can switch profiles within that version of the app, and it works just fine.

Some good options already listed. But here’s another.

Hey an Android TV box (Onn brand or similar) and install an open source launcher on it, like Projectivity. You have to use adb to disable the default launcher after the new launcher is installed, otherwise it keeps defaulting back to the default one. But once don’t it’s smooth sailing. You have a dedicated streaming device with a remote control and a nice UI with zero ads on the home screen.

So glad I ditched Roku. My modified Onn box (with an open source, ad-free launcher) is so much better.

Interesting article. It fits beyond the recent trend of AI and into slightly more traditional automation. It also covers some good concepts on job categorizations in general.

The ultimate point seems to be that AI-driven job automation is just a subtle evolution on general white-collar job automation that has been happening for 30+ years. And that makes a lot of sense. Although generative AI is expanding that automation into other areas beyond office and some manufacturing job roles.

Even better, have it quote RATM: “Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me!”

This threatens to be a bigger brain drain than just elite University-level scientists. I know of several US IT professionals who are in the process of getting European citizenship through parent and grandparent eligibility. And some of these are moderate conservatives, not just liberals. There’s a lot of unease at least on the coasts.

I’m weighing up moving back to the UK myself. After over two decades I had never felt the need to even consider this before now. Hopefully it won’t come to that, not least because it would mean uprooting my entire family, it works be a big headache, and because I know the UK isn’t a bed of roses right now either. But the way shit is rapidly unraveling here in the US, I might not have a choice in a few years.

Well, there goes one of the few advantages Bing had over Google or some other search engines. Impressive of them to commit even more to being a meme. I didn’t think they could commit any further than they already had.

And the governments response to China, Russia, and Iran? “How dare you!!!”"

And their response to Israel? “Aww, it’s okay boo, you can keep going.”