ProtonMail, Nebula, Backblaze, Parcel, BigNews, Glass, my local paper, local coffee delivery.

I pay for Apple iCloud too but I’m trying to figure out how to get away from it.

https://www.grammarly.com/blog/commonly-confused-words/all-of-a-sudden/

Interesting question. You can filter by decade and genre and album critic rating but not by popularity of a song. However, if just go to an artist page, it will show you the top / most popular songs by that artist. So, it would seem the data (however accurate) exists somewhere. You could add a Track Rating filter which is something you would have to manually add for each song. That would add the work of having to go into each artist and rank their top songs - dumb.

I’m seeing an option under Settings > Agents > Albums > Last.FM that says “Download popular track information”. Not sure what that does.

I would post this over on the plex.tv forum and see if the devs can give you feedback or put it on their request channel. https://forums.plex.tv/c/general-discussions/plex-features/

I’ve done something similar to what you’re doing but I’ve invested countless hours doing it. I’ve used Spotify to start and to refresh my memory about what was popular. I then used SongShift to export that playlist to a CSV that I could work from on my desktop. Once I have a few songs in the playlist, I’ll use Plexmp’s “Related” option to review other songs that might be relevant. Lots of work but it’s a 12 hour playlist that doesn’t quit.

Similarly, I’ve posted on the forum about how crappy the playlist intelligence is. I did not get a satisfying response https://forums.plex.tv/t/why-doesn-t-stations-guest-dj-ever-make-sense-and-is-there-anything-i-can-do-to-make-it-better/849228

I use both. I’m a member of a local instance on Mastodon. On Bluesky, I follow more mainstream outlets.

I’m not on board with having one account to interact with the fediverse. I like the compartmentalization of using one account for some things and another for other things. I also see value in diversification in case something goes wrong or takes too long to be improved or repaired. However, I also see substantial value in all social networks communicating with each other so you can choose a platform that aligns more with your wants and needs while still getting the information that’s relevant to you.

I just wish more “mainstream” outlets would get on board with the fediverse - either Mastodon or Bluesky. I really think towns and cities should invest in Mastodon instances where local government and other agencies could engage with the community (who may be members of other instances).

The “mainstream” outlets I follow on Bluesky are: Media Matters, The Conversation, Washington Post, BBC (unofficial), MacRumors, AP, Al Jazeera, Bloomberg, etc.

The local outlets I follow on Mastodon are mostly twitter bots via bird.makeup: the local police department, the mayor, the newspaper, sports reporters, etc. I wish more bars / restaurants, music venues, local blogs and reporters were on the fediverse (looking forward to cross-posting from Threads).

I’m actually using RSS a lot more than either Mastodon or Bluesky because so few outlets are accessible on the fediverse.

I’ve been in the home automation business for over 25 years. Can confirm that smart lighting is the absolute best investment.

I’ve installed and programmed lighting systems for over $100k but have personally spent less than $250 for Ikea devices for my apartment. Just the ability to dim and set the color of the lights at certain times of day is key for me.

Controlled Lighting isn’t only about convenience, it’s about setting a mood. You can set a warm dim scene to be more calming or a bright white scene for cooking or cleaning.

Is it truly because you’re not face to face or is it really because at your core that’s the real you.

Yes.

You’re the real you when not face to face.

For football fans, the answer is Monday.

Not sure why you think this.

You just reiterated what I said.

If you were to rip a Bluray to your computer, you’re legally not permitted to watch that movie if you’re no longer in possession of the disc.

=

You can legally rip a Bluray for backup purposes. If you sell or give away the Bluray, you have to delete the backed up copy.

Technically, if the FBI were to ask you to prove ownership of a digital copy and you had lost the disc, it would be illegal to retain that digital copy.

Bypassing DRM is illegal because the DMCA explicitly prohibits the circumvention…

Yes. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act is a law that covers copyright protections.

Everyone should generally assume that unless you have something tangibly in your hand, you either do not own it or you may very easily and/or suddenly lose access to it. You could test this by trying to access the content without having to sign in to something.

All these streaming and subscription services should be considered ease of access conveniences. In other industries, you pay a premium for something to be prepared for you to consume. In the subscription industry, you’re paying less because you’re not paying for the content but for a license to temporarily consume the content (and probably because your info is being sold to advertisers).

Fun Fact: If you were to rip a Bluray to your computer, you’re legally not permitted to watch that movie if you’re no longer in possession of the disc. This is because you’re not purchasing the content of the disc but the license to view the content. Decrypting DRM is illegal not based on whether you own the content but because the DRM encryption itself is separately copyright protected.

MacGyver
The Secret City
Mr. Wizard

Great question. I could list dozens of shows that were favorites, or have special meaning to me, or that I watched the most, or ones that had a more longterm impact on who I am. But, specifically about impacting my world as a young person, I’ll say these three.

Honorable mentions: Looney Tunes, Cheers, MASH, Family Ties, The Young Ones, Doctor Who, You Can’t Do That on Television, Ren and Stimpy.

How do you decide on which news sources to read?

If a news outlet has indicated to me that they care more about ad revenue than reporting news, I avoid them.
If the only way an outlet feels they can get readership is with use of clickbait headlines, I avoid them.
If the headline is something like “you’ll never guess why ___ hates this” or “the reason you can’t blahblahblah” or some other salacious bullshit or they have a super cringe thumbnail on their YT video, I avoid them.
If a writer misconstrues the words of a celebrity or political leader for their own narrative, I avoid them.
If their bias prevents them from reporting the facts of an event, I avoid them.
“Avoid” does not mean never visit. It means I try not to and if I do I proceed with caution and skepticism with the intent to get another source.

If I’m searching for a news story, it’s probably because I came across it on social media (Lemmy) or a blog and want to get credible information. Or because someone here is quoting a story and I have a hunch they’re misinformed. I use DuckDuckGo and generally get decent reputable results at the top. At its face, I will never trust Google for fact checking. If I end up at a wiki page, I often check their sources.

I have an extensive list of reputable and/or diverse outlets in my RSS reader. The only “mainstream” American sources are NYT, AP, NPR, and Reuters. I’ve been using BigNews as my RSS reader for a year or so now. I really like its simple interface and ability to subscribe to newsletters. Newsletters are sometimes the best way to get a blurb off the news without subscribing to something like NYT. If I’m compelled enough, I’ll run a paywalled article through archive.is.

I don’t feel that people publishing on substack or medium, etc are reputable outlets for general news. That’s great for specific topics, opinions, and focused reporting.

The only news I pay for is my local newspaper. In addition to local reporting, they curate AP articles.

While I do have Ground News installed on my iPad, I only use it as a widget to let me know what’s going on. The sources it uses are generally not that great. Either the site is severely biased or the site is riddled with ads and pop ups. Basically every time I go to read an article it’s full of shit. I’ll give it credit as a substantial aggregator but it’s still pulling from sources that use click bait headlines. It’s not any better than social media.

Thank you.

I’d like to know seven years after when.

Thanks.

I’m just here thinking, someone is asking a small group of people what they believe to be the definition of a word rather than use the vast wealth of knowledge published by experts in their field on these here internets.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/articles-heterodoxy/202208/inside-the-minds-the-incels

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12144-024-06236-6

https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2023/10/new-paper-explores-the-rise-of-incels/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9780135/

Wiki: A portmanteau of “involuntary celibate”. A term associated with an online subculture of people (mostly white, male, and heterosexual who define themselves as unable to find a romantic or sexual partner despite desiring one, and blame, objectify and denigrate women and girls as a result. The movement is strongly linked to misogyny. Originally coined as “invcel” around 1997 by a queer Canadian female student known as Alana, the spelling had shifted to “incel” by 1999, and the term later rose to prominence in the 2010s, following the influence of misogynistic terrorists Elliot Rodger and Alek Minassian.

Thank you for the most thoughtful and direct answer.

I’d be curious to know how some of your friends and family responded to the shot taken at Trump’s ear.

I see.
Iraq - the country, had nothing to do with 9/11 - the attack.
Not, Iraq - the invasion of, was disassociated with 9/11 - the attack or national moment.

I mean, 9/11 and Iraq are indeed magically linked, thanks to Bush. “Magically” is actually a great word to define the link between the two. Look - Cheney just pulled a Saddam out of a Bush!

If it’s your understanding that Bush’s invasion of Iraq in 2002 “had nothing to do with 9/11”, you are grossly mistaken.

https://www.congress.gov/107/plaws/publ243/PLAW-107publ243.pdf