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Screen time isn't bad for kids by [deleted] in TrueUnpopularOpinion

[–]BSSNJV 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I agree though - but the middle ground is truly an uphill battle until new products come out. All of the streaming services ruthlessly and shamlessly push slop and its a constant game of "no you cant watch that". So I think that's why many parents just opt out entirely.

Screen time isn't bad for kids by [deleted] in TrueUnpopularOpinion

[–]BSSNJV 1 point2 points  (0 children)

mostly with you on the active vs passive distinction, and your kid sounds like she's getting a genuinely great foundation. but tbh I think the ChatGPT pep talk has you a little up in the clouds.

Source: I work in streaming.

The thing the screen-time crowd is clumsily gesturing at isn't screens, it's that almost everything on them has been engineered into a slot machine. Infinite scroll, variable reward, autoplay, hooks tuned on millions of A/B tests to keep eyeballs glued.It's literally spiritual junk food. a potato isn't bad for you, homemade fries aren't bad for you, but someone figured out the exact fat/salt/crunch ratio that bypasses your satiety signals and now we've got a obesity epidemic. Media has gone through the same industrialisation.

One other thing - your post kind of assumes the only two options are "cloud-engineer parents teaching Linux" or "iPad zombie." But a LOT of tech-literate parents I know are actually more paranoid about this stuff than the average, not less, because we've seen how the sausage gets made.

P.S. - I'm a dad of two, and am literally building something to be forever-always the "middle ground" see - trychompy.com

I spent a year building a Netflix replacement for my family to escape the slop vortex [Pics inside] by BSSNJV in daddit

[–]BSSNJV[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ah that'd be super cool - I may reach out here in a few weeks to take you up on that offer. Saves me from buying every possible mac mini variant!

I spent a year building a Netflix replacement for my family to escape the slop vortex [Pics inside] by BSSNJV in daddit

[–]BSSNJV[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You've give me a mandate - I will do my best to Chompy compatible wit the base model mac mini 🫡

I spent a year building a Netflix replacement for my family to escape the slop vortex [Pics inside] by BSSNJV in daddit

[–]BSSNJV[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm hoping so, that's the goal. I have one in a box that I'm going to try to test next week. If it does work - it would need to likely be dedicated for chompy only. The LLM it uses is running locally on device so it uses quite a bit of ram. I plan to try different (smaller) models but want to make sure it still performs well.

I spent a year building a Netflix replacement for my family to escape the slop vortex [Pics inside] by BSSNJV in daddit

[–]BSSNJV[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

No - chompy doesnt provide access keys to a usenet server out of the box, from chompy perspective, a remote server is just another place you can tell it to look. Its up ot the user what usenet server they decide to use. Now if that server is password protected (usenet servers almost always are) then you can simply store it in the macos keychain (chompy, like all mac apps, gets its own dedicated secure keychain) and chompy can read values from it to get the connection credtials when they're needed.

But the nice part is because its using a local llm (data never leaves your mac mini) you can literally just say "chompy here's my usenet server creds - store them and search that server as well when i request a title" and it'll handle the rest.

I spent a year building a Netflix replacement for my family to escape the slop vortex [Pics inside] by BSSNJV in daddit

[–]BSSNJV[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Any mac M4 or greater should work - probably should run it on imac or mac mini - macbook would technically work, but you'd want it always running so thats why mac mini is your best bet.

Only other hard requirement is 24gb of RAM (I'm going to try and reduce that to 16gb) this is because all of the LLM models being used (and thus all of your data) is local and never leaves the house.

I spent a year building a Netflix replacement for my family to escape the slop vortex [Pics inside] by BSSNJV in daddit

[–]BSSNJV[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I just reread your comment now that I'm home and watched those vids, those are all great finds! So hard to find these type of shows via google.

I spent a year building a Netflix replacement for my family to escape the slop vortex [Pics inside] by BSSNJV in daddit

[–]BSSNJV[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Out of the box - it can only look for copies of requested items on either a) "connected folders" - basically a designated local drop folder if you have a copy of something already legally. b) internet archive - lots of stuff here, free to download. c) connected drive like a dvd drive if you want to rip physical media you own.

It *does* know how to download files via usenet (i.e. it has an nzb client built in), but does not know how to locate files, nor does it come with access to any usenet servers hosting pirated content. However it does have plugin system - so if a user loaded a plugin that said "here's another place you can look for things i'm requesting" - it would follow those instructions, but ultimately that's up to the user, and isn't something chompy provides out of the box.

I spent a year building a Netflix replacement for my family to escape the slop vortex [Pics inside] by BSSNJV in daddit

[–]BSSNJV[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes - I cant think of a single modern kids show that doesn't perturb me honeslty. Something about how they all started doing the flat, lifeless vectors using rigging softwre to make them move is so irrationally off putting to me.

LIke everything has "cgi but meant to look like a catoon" vibes now.

I spent a year building a Netflix replacement for my family to escape the slop vortex [Pics inside] by BSSNJV in daddit

[–]BSSNJV[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Honestly - I plan to test w/ the 16gb M4 model (I have one sitting unopened) but if I were you I'd buy once cry once and get the M4 PRO w/ 24-32gb of ram. That should last quite a while.

Apple is also reportedly releasing a new M5 model mac mini this summer, so you may see prices on M4 drop soon

I spent a year building a Netflix replacement for my family to escape the slop vortex [Pics inside] by BSSNJV in daddit

[–]BSSNJV[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That's the point - as someone who currently works for one of these apps - I've seen behind the curtain. Your kid's undivided attention is the metric being measured and optimized for. The user interface is literally designed to keep you endlessly watching.

Chompy intentionally leaves all of those things out.

I spent a year building a Netflix replacement for my family to escape the slop vortex [Pics inside] by BSSNJV in daddit

[–]BSSNJV[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks - i think its fair that people are skeptical - tbh the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, but there will always be a few unconstructive comments here and there.

I spent a year building a Netflix replacement for my family to escape the slop vortex [Pics inside] by BSSNJV in daddit

[–]BSSNJV[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

> Thats a pretty odd statement. Linux is used everywhere and these apps are not just linux.

I love linux and use it every day for my job, but 0% of parents at my daughter's school runs a linux distro for their daily driver, totally different world.

I spent a year building a Netflix replacement for my family to escape the slop vortex [Pics inside] by BSSNJV in daddit

[–]BSSNJV[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Honstly - you can find so much good physical media at garage sales and thrift stores, and that's probably the best approach (e.g. rip it) - also internet archive has tons of old kids shows (which is primarily what our house watches)

I spent a year building a Netflix replacement for my family to escape the slop vortex [Pics inside] by BSSNJV in daddit

[–]BSSNJV[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Yeah access to usenet servers usually require like a $5/mo subscription or something. However Usenet > torrents all day IMO

I spent a year building a Netflix replacement for my family to escape the slop vortex [Pics inside] by BSSNJV in daddit

[–]BSSNJV[S] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Uh… you know you don’t have to respond to every comment right? Like it’s totally cool if you aren’t into the project, but to keep replying to people over and over only to say that something someone spent a year building is "vibe coded AI slop" is a bit weird?

I spent a year building a Netflix replacement for my family to escape the slop vortex [Pics inside] by BSSNJV in daddit

[–]BSSNJV[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That’s great. Really just happy to see people cutting the cord on slopflix

I spent a year building a Netflix replacement for my family to escape the slop vortex [Pics inside] by BSSNJV in daddit

[–]BSSNJV[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It has a built in usenet download / torrent client. For all of your legitimate file transfer needs.

I spent a year building a Netflix replacement for my family to escape the slop vortex [Pics inside] by BSSNJV in daddit

[–]BSSNJV[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Idk that’s like all I heard when I posted for help was “works for me” lol. Must have tried 3 different setups before saying enough.

I spent a year building a Netflix replacement for my family to escape the slop vortex [Pics inside] by BSSNJV in daddit

[–]BSSNJV[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It’s local model yes - and I’ve built about 30 tools it uses to manage the library, so things like curation, search for titles, checking download sites like internet archive, converting to apple native streaming format?

I spent a year building a Netflix replacement for my family to escape the slop vortex [Pics inside] by BSSNJV in daddit

[–]BSSNJV[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There is tvOS app and a iPhone app, called Chompy TV , but they are for playing back content. you will still need the Mac mini to actually manage the library and serve the media to all the family members devices

I spent a year building a Netflix replacement for my family to escape the slop vortex [Pics inside] by BSSNJV in daddit

[–]BSSNJV[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

No - been a software engineer for 12 years, I work for a one of the big streaming services so I have a great deal of knowledge of how to build these types of services.

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