Slack is my modern go-to, but I still also use IRC. Slack has great support for technical chat, doesn’t slow my i7 with 32GB RAM to a crawl, has great multiple account support and even voice chat if you are into that. I prefer zoom for video when I need it, but slack’s isn’t nearly as shit as teams.

Maybe businesses will stop forcing “free” Teams on their workforces now. What a pile of shit.

Resistance in wire creates a voltage drop, just like hair in a water pipe creates a drop in available pressure.

Acshually, a solvent. 🙃

My new (2023) Philips Roku TV has an antenna input and receives OTA digital channels just fine.

I thought hyperloop literally sucked vehicles through the airtight tunnels. :-)

Or just write the damn thing yourself and save a bunch of headaches and wondering if you got the tests right it if there’s some screwy corner case lurking because of its implementation.

How do you use a phone to detect a laptop in a car? If it’s on, sure I get it but if the laptop is asleep or off I can’t see how a phone will detect it?

I’ve had the Nextel beep as my SMS tone for almost 20 years now. Phone is usually on vibrate but the tone is there.

… I also have the “science is fun” song from Portal as my ringtone because it starts out with a noise that I can hear above the din and quickly gets really loud if I didn’t hear it. I had it as the Turret “hello?” sequence for a bit but that was super creepy.

This is my main point of conflict with shopping strictly on price. I do try to support local when possible. I’m price conscious of course, but community support is also important. Not all (or even many it seems) local businesses do support their communities but when I see it I make a note that they’re one of the local B&Ms I will buy from.

I comparison shop almost religiously. Vendor sites are oftentimes more expensive and add shipping on top of that. BB, Walmart, etc. have similar prices but most times it’s actually third party marketplace bullshit using these big name sites as a shittier Amazon.

Prime doesn’t matter so much for me, but 5% on all of my purchases with the Amazon credit card is definitely worth it.

And if you go to Best Buy, staples, Walmart, target… what is different? I’m actually close to a microcenter and they’re also no different.

Where do you go for a desk mounted USB hub?

You are conflating abandoning a product (such as iPhone) with abandoning a model (such as iPhone 13). These are not the same thing.

Yay I’m part of something! :-)

I updated to the latest mini iPhone after rumours it would be the last. I hope not, but the trend seems to be bigger and more ridiculous “phone” form factors.

You can create another Apple ID in the country you need. I am a Canadian in the US and couldn’t change the country of my Apple ID because I have active subscriptions (another idiotic limitation) I created a second ID with a US address and CC. Downloaded US-only apps just fine and didn’t lose my Canada-only ones either.

I know I’m an outlier, but I prefer text mode IRC, then slack, and then all the other shit (telegram, signal, discord, teams, etc) fall way behind. “Everything is a walled-off app” is a horrible way to communicate. I get why these companies do it, and I also even understand the headache over maintaining useful open APIs, but honestly, they drop that ASAP because it doesn’t make them money.

This. Trying to find anything in a brick and mortar store in the last decade has been such a godawful experience that I don’t feel the least bit sorry for them. Groceries are largely delivered (not using Instacart, but the store’s own delivery or pickup service), tech stuff is all aliexpress or amazon, clothing I still largely go in to buy, but don’t buy very often. Appliances? Research the shit out of it online and usually order online from a local retailer with a decent website. Heck, even hardware is online through Home Depot and auto stuff is either rockauto or similar.