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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 10th, 2023

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  • I refused to give up my headphone jack, so for my latest phone I switched to the Moto 5g Stylus

    It’s an OK phone. It often has performance issues, but the battery life is massive and I expanded to storage to nearly 500Gb. The phone is long though - they increased the screen size and avoided increasing the width, so it’s just comically tall. That’s good for scenarios when you want to see more of the screen while keeping the keyboard out and for split screen apps and games, but mostly it’s a burden because you can’t effectively use the phone one handed. For its price, I’d say it’s probably worth at least a year or two of service, but I find myself wanting more power again like the Pixel 3a (my last phone).

    I’m interested in a couple of the phones they listed in the article, but definitely will have to double check performance in the future. It’s the most annoying part of this phone

    Oh one pro tip for the 5g stylus - the camera is good, but only when using their “Ultra-rez” mode instead of the default mode, and the preview looks a lot worse than the actual picture. The picture will preview as blurry and pixelated while you’re taking it, but once processed it will look great




  • We do somewhere between 72 and 76. But at night in the peak of summer we’ll bump it down to 70. Our bedroom is on the top floor and can often be several degrees hotter than the lower floor where the thermostat is, so for a few weeks in the summer we have to really crank it.

    I’m told we should look into a vent fan to help distribute the air better but I haven’t taken the time to put in the effort yet, I’m sad to say



  • Everyone outside of the U.S. almost assuredly still has SMS capabilities, it’s just not common utilized because everyone is already on WhatsApp or Telegram. It’s where their friends are, locking them into the ecosystem, which is exactly what I just said. And I would be willing to wager the only reason WhatsApp really got huge was because SMS hasn’t always been free to use and may still not be free in some countries and with some plans.

    Telegram, Signal and WhatsApp are fine, as for privacy how exactly are SMS better?

    I wasn’t speaking to privacy specifically, but where all your friends are.

    If you want privacy, then you shouldn’t be using Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp anyway, considering both are owned by Meta and their privacy track record is shaky at best.

    Signal is a great choice, but we get back to the main point where not everyone is on Signal, and once you are on Signal you’re locked in to using Signal and must have their app to participate in the conversation.

    My point wasn’t that SMS is better, but it’s simpler and more widely available and doesn’t require a standalone application to use.

    Ideally we would use an open standard like the Matrix standard to communicate, that way you can download whatever application you want and have all the privacy you could ever desire, but not have to download some random messaging application just to catch up from Gary from primary school



  • It sounds like a too good to be true situation. Definitely an interesting concept though. Sounds like they use remote servers to connect to the third-party apps using your credentials and then transcribe the messages using the Matrix protocol to the app. Source here and snippet below

    Beeper consists of two main components:

    • A client app that runs on your devices.
    • A web service run by Beeper.

    … Beeper’s web service consists of a Matrix homeserver and infrastructure to run open source bridges that connect to 15 different chat networks.

    Currently free but also will be a Plus version eventually rolling out, according to the FAQ

    For now, everyone has access to all the features of Beeper Plus for free. At some point in 2023, we will begin charging $5-10 per month for Beeper Plus.

    Also, no humor is lost on the fact that it is dangerously close to Wuph from The Office…







  • There’s a scene from the OT that kills me. When they’re on Endor in the evening and Leia and Han are being “romantic” and it is some of the most soap opera dialogue in the whole series.

    Its arguably not terrible when you read it, but watching it I was rolling my eyes. People love to hate on the Padme+Anakin romance but the Han+Luke+Leia love triangle is equally as hard to watch, in my opinion. If we’re going to give one a hard time we can’t ignore the other. Lucas just isn’t the best at dialogue

    https://youtu.be/MDYX_PgorRY

    Leia holds back her tears as Luke slowly lets her go and moves away. He disappears onto the walkway that leads out of the village. Leia, bathed in moonlight, watches him go as Han comes out of the Chief’s hut and comes over to her. Leia is crying, her body trembling. He realizes only now that she is crying.

    HAN Hey, what’s goin’ on?

    Leia attempts to stifle her sobs and wipes her eyes.

    LEIA Nothing. I - just want to be alone for a little while.

    HAN (angry) Nothing? Come on, tell me. What’s goin’ on?

    She looks up at him, struggling to control herself.

    LEIA I…I can’t tell you.

    HAN (loses his temper) Did you tell Luke? Is that who you could tell?

    LEIA I…

    HAN Ahhh…

    He starts to walk away, exasperated, then stops and walks back to her.

    HAN I’m sorry.

    LEIA Hold me.

    Han gathers her tightly in his protective embrace.