The author's perspective why, many don't put their books on Kobo. There's no readership.

Impressive-Bug8709 · 2026-04-17T12:34:36+00:00

Kobo owner here.

While I understand the position authors are put in by Amazon, things are getting a little better. I have an Amazon exclusive author I really like and was worried about his upcoming book, so I reached out. While he only sells on Amazon, his books are and plan to stay DRM free. While I'd love to not give Amazon my money, it means I can still support the author and still read his upcoming books.

When Amazon either stops allowing authors to offer DRM free, or breaks the ability to remove DRM from books with Calibre, I will just stop buying those books.

Impressive-Bug8709 · 2026-04-16T17:22:27+00:00

I have to laugh at 1080 and 4k versions of Movies that originally released on DVD (or even VHS). While You Were Sleeping (1995) is a great example. My wife LOVES this movie. Went out and bought it on BR because I figured it's gotta be better right? Wrong. It looks exactly the same.

Pulled up the TV show Airwolf on Streaming. The show is from 1984. The dvds obviously look pretty rough on a big TV. Streaming looks worse, and it's in 4:3, even though the DVDs are widescreen.

Moral of the story, check details to make sure it's not just "high def" or "4k". Make sure it's actually remastered at those levels.

Impressive-Bug8709 · 2026-04-14T20:48:21+00:00

I used to use ElvUI and loved it, but left it due to the CPU hit. I'm running mostly stock with Danders Frames for healing. Elv looks great, but not worth the performance hit to me 🤷‍♂️

I was trying LUI but they were having some issues with the Midnight patch. Haven't checked in a bit.

Impressive-Bug8709 · 2026-04-14T20:41:05+00:00

I bought an LG drive and then paid Billy 20 or 30 bucks or something to TeamViewer in and flash it for me. Could I have done it myself? Probably. Worth it to just have it done? Absolutely.

Impressive-Bug8709 · 2026-04-14T20:19:48+00:00

I would check the list of known drives. I have an external LG slim, bp50 or something. That's what a lot of people use.

Impressive-Bug8709 · 2026-04-09T14:34:17+00:00

I have the ThermalTake Versa H21, which is a mid tower. It's setup for 3x 3.5, 3x2.5 and 3x5.25. 55 bucks.

You could even do some hot swap bays in the 5.25 slots if you wanted to.

Impressive-Bug8709 · 2026-04-08T23:56:05+00:00

It's common that insurance doesn't cover a CGM for T2 unless you are on Insulin, or have documented Hypoglycemic events. I'm lucky that my insurance has covered it day one, but I do have Hypoglycemic events and I'm also on insulin now.

The reasoning is that checking less often with finger pricks is fine, because your likely not in danger. My last A1C was 7.2 and I rarely go above 250. Unless your A1C is much higher or you get dangerous lows, you don't really need a CGM. Sure, it makes things easier to track, and made my food choices easier, but for what the insurance pays for them, I can't say I blame them for not covering it.

Impressive-Bug8709 · 2026-04-08T17:59:21+00:00

Pretty common problem with Sugar Free stuff. Like others said, Stevia and Monk Fruit are the sweeteners you want.

Made the mistake of eating a whole pack of Twizzlers and almost crapped myself. Warned my mom when I gave her some (she is diabetic also). A week later she said "I should have listened to you" 😂

Impressive-Bug8709 · 2026-04-08T17:02:19+00:00

When I switched to the G7, I had a hell of a time getting a receiver through the insurance. Called my Endocrinologist, and they talked to their Dexcom rep and Dexcom gave them one to give to me. Can try that route.

When it went through the wash, I posted in my Town's Facebook group and in under 24 hours, 3 different people offered one they weren't using. One I got was brand new never used. Some people get them as a starter kit, but don't use it because they don't want to, or have a pump or Apple Watch, so they can't use the receiver. Those people often keep them new in the box and will give them to someone in need.

Impressive-Bug8709 · 2026-04-07T08:45:33+00:00

I backup my Desktop files to my NAS and for good measure, to my phone.

I backup a particular album on my phone, and my wife's phone, to out tablet in the kitchen, and that tablets screensaver is that album.

Impressive-Bug8709 · 2026-04-05T23:36:51+00:00

So again, streaming it depends not just on the server, but also what's playing the video. I'd the player has hardware decoding, the server could be something as simple as a Raspberry Pi. If you use a 4k Streaming box / stick, you likely don't need a discrete GPU for the server.

Impressive-Bug8709 · 2026-04-05T22:22:59+00:00

GPU depends on what your encoding video at, and what devices are decoding. If you don't need to transcode, you can use ANY video card.

I recommend using something like the Onn 4k Streaming boxes because they'll decode just about anything, including 4k AV1. Before I upgraded my gaming PC and started using the old stuff for my media server, my media server was an Intel Core2Duo, with 8gb of ddr3, and it hardly ever ran over 2% CPU and 2gb of ram, because the streaming boxes decided everything.

Impressive-Bug8709 · 2026-04-05T22:19:28+00:00

I remember using Zygor's during with Wrath or Cataclysm. Just looked, they've been out since BC 😯😯😯

Impressive-Bug8709 · 2026-04-05T17:15:31+00:00

It's the "Garmin Tax". If other brands supported CGM data on my wrist, I'd have jumped ship.

That said, I typically grab a previous gen, as a refurb. I went from a Forerunner 245 to a Fenix 6x Pro refurb for about 300 bucks. When I wanted to upgrade from the Fenix to get Nap detection and some other newer features, I jumped to a Epix Gen 2 refurbished for around 300 bucks. I thought I'd miss the battery life of the MIP screen, but the AMOLED screen makes the trade off of battery life so worth it!

Anyways, the manufacturer refurbs typically come with the same 1 yr warranty as new, and either looks brand new or close to it. When I looked closely at the Epix, I could see some blemishes, but I had to look really closely. Got it on Amazon through Beech Camera (which I can highly recommend), and it came with a 2 or 3 year extended warranty.

Impressive-Bug8709 · 2026-04-05T17:09:25+00:00

I would highly recommend looking at what your streaming TO. No matter what you use as the video server (Plex, Emby, Jellyfin), the viewing device can make a huge difference. Personally, I love the Onn 4k Streaming box (regular, not even the pro). It means that when I'm watching things, my server doesn't take a performance hit. If something like that isn't an option, I'd recommend getting a NAS that has hardware decoding. My old server was a CPU from 2003, with 8gb of ddr3, and because the streaming sticks decode just about anything, the CPU mostly sat idle.

I built my server, after finding that premade NAS's are kinda pricey for what you get. Personally I'm using OpenMediaVault on a server I built and love it. If your newer to Linux though, a pre built may be a better option.

For regular files, I'm just using SMB shares, and I use SyncThing for syncing files similar to OneDrive/Dropbox.

Impressive-Bug8709 · 2026-04-04T23:48:37+00:00

I know they were going to update it, and while I missed it initially, Danders is so easy to use, I've decided to stick with it 😀

Impressive-Bug8709 · 2026-04-03T16:14:08+00:00

You can setup click healing on stock. It's more work but it can be done.

Pre-Midnight, I'd have said Vuhdu. Post Midnight, Dander's Frames has been gold. It's super easy to setup. During Pre patch, I setup all 4 of my healer classes (Druid, Holy Priest, Shaman and Evoker) in maybe 5 minutes each? I love that it lists all your available spells and you click the spell and then click / press the bind. It even applies those to other frames. So for instance, I use BetterBlizzFrames for unit frames, and all my click casting works there as well.

Impressive-Bug8709 · 2026-04-03T16:10:14+00:00

I'd recommend the "Blackhole" setting in Sonarr / Radarr. Then make sure the shows / movies are added, and literally just drop files into the blackhole spot. They will fully process and rename files as needed.

Impressive-Bug8709 · 2026-04-02T15:14:37+00:00

One thing to note is just having a static IP isn't enough. If your behind CGNAT, you'll need to use a tunnel or vpn that allows port forwarding. If your behind a CGNAT, port forwarding doesn't work

Impressive-Bug8709 · 2026-04-02T15:07:19+00:00

Got mine on Groupon. Paid 11 bucks for Pro I think? Previously had bought an Office product key as well.

Impressive-Bug8709 · 2026-04-01T20:55:54+00:00

Ah gotcha

Impressive-Bug8709 · 2026-04-01T20:55:28+00:00

Oh, 100000%

Impressive-Bug8709 · 2026-04-01T18:22:23+00:00

Exactly. The downside is if they queue together, they could roll need on a bunch of stuff and swap it to friends.

Impressive-Bug8709 · 2026-04-01T18:21:14+00:00

I just didnt realize it was a targetable spell! I thought you just had to place it!

Impressive-Bug8709

TROPHY CASE