A FOSS alternative would likely be missing or have meh performance from many of the streamers. All the big ones use proprietary codecs that are expensive annual licenses. And even then the streamer controls what various access methods are allowed to see and at what quality. I think netflix still limits web browsers to 720p, for example. And straight web access isn’t great, you want an interface that can ideally be controlled with about 6 - 8 buttons (4 directions, OK, and Back are the minimum) which might require API access to these services, which introduces more access control. Netflix (and maybe others) even have hardware installed at the ISP level that give them a lot of control over individual access as well.

Basically for a full featured FOSS service you’d need to start with getting grants to buy to codec licenses, and then you’d need to hire people just to maintain your relationship with the streaming services to stay in their good graces while they know you’re working against their bottom line.

Not when your ISP is a jerky company.

In one of the podcasts Alex said they had been trying to get him in (and he wanted to do it) since the early seasons, but it just never worked out.

Did folks see that Ayoade is on the next series of Taskmaster?

Like most Shakespeare villains, Ted Cruz has a single redeeming quality. And it’s that he both understands and vehemently supports free speech.

Actual metric time was a fiasco I’ve always been fascinated by

If we’re really committed to not going by solar time, everything should be UTC.

cite its sources

Just so you know, an LLM isn’t capable of actually citing its sources properly, that’s not how vector engines work. When you ask it to do so, one (or more thread) spits out what ever the algebra says is the best answer, then another thread tries to best fit that output to some article in its database. If the first thread was fully committing plagiarism, then the link is accurate. If it “reasoned” anything then it may not be.

Connections is one of my all time favorite shows. I missed that there was a 4th series released. Four series in 47 years.

Conservative governments have spent 3 generations, the world over, convincing everyone that deregulation is always a good thing.

I’ve been thinking about putting a nice poster or painting on my ceiling, so when I die at my desk if I happen to slump backward at least a nice poster will be the last thing I see.

Pssh! Lefties always getting special treatment and righties always getting a handout, while us middles always miss out.

What kind of monster doesn’t wear black shorts and a tuxedo tee to a wedding?

What do you do when courts start to decide that you actively and willingly give children PTSD to make them psychologically addicted to a your trauma feed? Hire Momfluencers, of course.

I degoogled as a Covid project. Mostly it just made me feel a little bit better… and then GenAI hit. Hopefully I’ll go my whole life without ever having used Gemini. And hopefully, if they ingested any of my pre-pandemic emails, photos, docs, etc to train with, pulling it out of cold storage will at least have cost them extra time and money.

How could anyone limit themselves to 50 posts on apartheid-fan-boi.facist?

Olive Oyl

I’ve spent 20 something years ostensibly working 9 - 5. But most of those years I’ve also on call for server downtime, and crunch-time is sometimes a thing.

Are they going to remake that 1 mobile billboard that’s been doing laps of the LV Strip for at least 30 years, with the same 3 bikini-clad women?

We should encourage kids to smoke to deal with their stress.