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Cake day: December 20th, 2023

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  • Allero@lemmy.todaytoMicroblog Memes@lemmy.worldTelevision
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    5 days ago

    If you really need a smart TV in 2025, go get a dumb one, and then hook it up to a used nettop or a single-board computer like Raspberry Pi. You can use a cheap USB infrared receiver to control it via regular remote.

    Install something like Plasma Bigscreen, and you’ll be golden.





  • The expenses are mostly upfront though. I’ve spent like $400 on a relatively fancy NAS and two 3TB WD Red CMR drives five years ago, and since then, there was that.

    Of course, depending on your use case, there could be extra expenses as well, some of them recurring:

    • Bigger drives
    • Backup storage (I already had a place I could back up to)
    • Domain name and DNS records (if you expose it to the public Web with a URL; you can otherwise just use a VPN tunnel to access NAS from outside the home network, which is free unless you do anything fancy)
    • Some kind of paid software (if you don’t enjoy the perfectly good collection of open-source apps)
    • Etc.

    Now, for the streaming alternative:

    • Netflix Standard: $18/mo
    • Spotify: $12/mo
    • Total: $30/mo, or $360/yr. Just these two services alone.

    Your NAS system will pay off in a little over a year (maybe two years if you go all in with huge drives, fancy NAS configs, extra expenses here and there), and it’s smooth sailing from there.

    My unit works for 5 years already with no maintenance, is still fully supported by the manufacturer, and I don’t expect to replace it in a few more years.









  • all existing Nvidia systems suddenly disappeared because Linus said something somewhere

    Sure, if I would buy/upgrade my PC now, I would go AMD for the graphics - it’s just less hassle this way, and open drivers are nice to have.

    But it just so happened that I purchased my PC 5 years before I switched to Linux. It’s a perfectly functional machine I don’t feel the need to replace, and with many people coming over from Windows right now amid Windows 10 support termination, many more find themselves in a similar situation.

    Building a new PC just for Linux is expensive, stupid, and not ecologically conscious. As Linux shows itself as a more democratic and old hardware-friendly option, supporting Nvidia GPUs, old or new, is a must, even if Nvidia itself gets hostile at times.




  • I played both official and private (pirate) servers, and from all I have experienced, Firestorm offered the best private server experience. It’s actually very smooth on the newest expansions, although some of them (like Mists of Pandaria) sure need some love.

    I share your concerns about dungeon finder etc., and I believe it could be fun to have some kind of private server with newest content, but also some features removed specifically to make people experience more real human connection, like in the Classic era. I wasn’t there back then in the 00’s, but even just World of Warcraft Classic and WoW Classic TBC definitely made me experience the game differently. There’s just…no rush, and more human element. I like it.

    Questing element is still there, and it can be fun, but something about game’s pace makes you skip it over rather quickly. Many folks just try to level up real quick and go through dungeons to see the numbers go up - but it’s not that every player has to do so.

    But, on the other end, the game just became more of everything, and a lot that has changed about it has rather changed about the player base. Nothing stops you from walking out to the Elwynn Forest with your friends and go to the Deadmines, like you always did. On the other end, nothing stops you from racing dragons, either. The content is still there, the core mechanics unaltered, and with the right people wishing exactly the same kind of playthrough you can get all of the old joys yet again.

    Maybe more people started playing the game a certain (arguably killjoy) way. But you don’t have to, and the game as you know it is still there, waiting.