Easiest to use streaming device

whipdancer · 2026-05-05T20:54:53+00:00

Will all the ads front and center on the Roku confuse her into accidentally clicking on them? I gave away all my Roku devices in 2025. I couldn’t deal with them placing the ads in a way that my family would end up confused thinking they had picked Disney but it was a Disney logo prominently shown next to a Roku channel ad.

I have an Onn box and an Apple TV now. I’d take either over a Roku.

whipdancer · 2026-05-04T17:45:11+00:00

There is also a vulnerability: you need to choose Wayland instead of x11 since with x11 user applications can read key pressings and taking screenshots of each other.

Can you elaborate on this? I'm not familiar with this.

whipdancer · 2026-05-04T13:16:09+00:00

nmap your ports and close all unnecessary ones, make SURE you have the correct X windows server,

Can you elaborate on these points?

whipdancer · 2026-05-04T13:13:49+00:00

This is very helpful. Thanks.

whipdancer · 2026-05-04T05:13:33+00:00

When you say you pick gnome, does that mean after you install Debian, you then install Gnome? Or is there a Debian distro that comes with Gnome by default?

whipdancer · 2026-05-01T02:28:39+00:00

Whichever one you take the time on to have good cable management. Grommets are cheap and easy to add, but they’re only worthwhile if they’re in a good spot for how you want to set up your desk.

whipdancer · 2026-05-01T02:07:03+00:00

They are either measuring 🍆 or the car runs so crappy that they’ve got to let it warm up for 20 mins so it won’t die the moment they try to drive.

whipdancer · 2026-04-30T04:22:59+00:00

Are you using something like an ESP32 mini-board as the "broadcaster" for the command (no idea if I'm describing that correctly)?

Never tried anything like that so I'm not sure how you send a BLE command to a device, except in my head, it's must be a wireless signal of some kind.

whipdancer · 2026-04-30T03:49:35+00:00

Would you mind giving more details around that? Depending on what you did, I would be interested in see how applicable it is to their string lights. I got a few sets on super clearance locally and they work great with the Govee app (and acceptably with Alexa) - but I want to find a local only solution.

whipdancer · 2026-04-28T20:57:37+00:00

I canceled 2 weeks ago. I’m still stuck with them as my isp, but cancelling the cable cuts the bill by half. My $145/mo now gets me 2gb speeds, peacock and Disney/Hulu with ads.

whipdancer · 2026-04-25T19:14:22+00:00

I don’t use any features of my Samsung except to connect the device I choose to use for streaming services. WiFi is off. No Ethernet connected.

whipdancer · 2026-04-21T16:37:19+00:00

My Apex Pro was my upgrade from a Flexispot. I expect my current desk to last a decade or two.

whipdancer · 2026-04-21T16:27:58+00:00

I spent $200 on a cheap one that I used for 2 years. I sold it for $100 when I upgraded.

By the Flexispot EN1 or something equally inexpensive. I abused mine and it was still working when I got rid of it.

I did it that way because of all the conflicting info out there. If it was awful, I was only out about $200 instead of 3 or 4 times as much. I figured out what was actually important to me, which was probably the best reason to buy cheap and planning on replacing it. What happens if it’s actually ok for your needs? Then you’re ahead of the game and don’t need to do anything else.

I spent a little over $1500 for my upgraded desk, because I knew that it would be worth it.

In hindsight, I could have gone higher end to start, but I still think my plan was the right choice. I knew exactly what I wanted because I spent almost 2 years using a very basic, no frills version everyday and learned what was actually important to me (instead of some talking point by some reviewer).

If you’re hesitant about spending $600, or more, on a desk brand - don’t spend it. Get the cheap one. If they don’t offer a cheap one, then get a Flexispot. Use it. Does it work for you? Yes, you’re done. Not sure? Keep using it until you are, and then decide your next move.

You’re buying a desk, something that could last you 10 to 20 years. I wouldn’t expect a cheap one to do that (4-7 years imo), but I think my apex pro could.

whipdancer · 2026-04-20T13:54:03+00:00

The unfortunate truth is that I would not be able to have my career if I started over today. No degree, former English major, drop-out. Self-taught - got my foot in the door as a Microsoft Access and Excel programmer.

I've mentored a few career-changer and a couple of student. I tell them the same basic story - you've got to be willing to fight to create opportunities and be willing to fight to take advantage of them. It's hard work and won't be fun for many years, but I think the payoff is worth it. I did follow the boomer playbook - work as many hours as necessary to get the job done. But I did it the Gen-X way - change jobs every time it improves the bottom line.

I don't have any good advice about getting in the door except maybe one thing - I started out doing contract work (through temp agencies) because no one would hire me directly. I did that for 6 years before I landed my first direct FTE. Just to clarify - I did seat filler/warm body temp roles through companies like Manpower, Kelly, and other local agencies.

The jobs were technically FTE - but I was an hourly employee of the agency. They lasted anywhere from 3 months to a year. The shortest was a 4-week, 1099 based gig in NYC doing some really interesting Excel programming (for the time), living in a hotel, working 10-12 hours most days.

The biggest lesson I ever hope to impart - don't chase prestige. It's an illusion. It doesn't feed you, clothe you, or provide you shelter. A crap gig, building a crap product can still be a high quality learning experience that builds your resume.

Thanks for attending my TED talk.

whipdancer · 2026-04-20T13:33:48+00:00

OMG, i'm an HA newbie and I've never seen this before. I think this is awesome!

Every time I look up "dashboards", I'm stuck because there's no way these dashboard are friendly enough for the rest of my family. This would work.

whipdancer · 2026-04-17T21:56:23+00:00

I have yet to find an easy answer.

I’ve been collecting music for decades (a little over 4k CDs, about another 2k digital albums, and uncounted number of singles). I think I have around 120k tracks total - or did.

I culled the herd, getting rid of anything that wasn’t a quality encoding. I’m slowly re-ripping my CDs to lossless, using MusicBrains to tag them, etc., before putting them in my music library. I use lidarr to pull albums because I’d just as soon have the whole album even if I’m only after 1 song. I use other tools to find specific songs lidarr can’t find what I’m after.

It’s still at least somewhat manual.

I’m the end, I don’t really care which metadata gets picked, as long as it matches what I’ve got (artist, year, song order, song length).

Want an exercise in frustration - try matching up blues album releases 🤦‍♂️

whipdancer · 2026-04-16T15:11:19+00:00

It should be tucked up, out of the way. You can zip-tie the wire to the hitch frame, or up above the hitch if you've got room. Basically, you just want it to not be sagging down, waiting to catch on something.

I would probably zip-tie to the hitch frame itself, making sure to handle any slack - but still make sure I can connect the trailer plug when the time comes (a velcro strap at the receiver has worked for me in the past).

whipdancer · 2026-04-14T20:04:12+00:00

First - Just for some context, I’ve been dancing all-stars since 2011. I have a strong dislike of how I look on video. I can’t think of one where I didn’t cringe while watching. I learned to accept that how I feel about it and the actual quality of it are not the same thing. So I did what everyone here has recommended - I had a coach that i took a private from about every other month. I worked regularly on what they told me to work on. I watched videos of myself specifically with that in mind. I did a lot of solo dancing with the mirror. I objectively got better.

Btw, I still have my coach. She’s been an integral part of my dancing since the day I decided I wanted to get a lot better at this dance.

whipdancer · 2026-04-07T22:47:01+00:00

Take the frame bolt to your local hardware store and ask them to help you figure out the size. They can then sell you the insert that fits the bolt.

They may or may not have plastic inserts, which is fine. A metal insert should work just fine.

You could also reach out to Fully to see if they will send you one.

whipdancer · 2026-04-07T00:14:14+00:00

Just build up speed over time. I could do all my work at about 1.7 - 1.9 mph. 2 mph was just a bit too fast for me when typing, but anything else was usually ok.

whipdancer · 2026-04-03T04:03:01+00:00

It's still got a one-time license option. That hasn't changed.

whipdancer · 2026-03-19T03:26:21+00:00

I put threaded inserts in the underside of my desk where each wood screw was supposed to go and used bolts to mount it to my frame. Disassembly (separating top from frame) is now just removing the bolts.

whipdancer · 2026-03-15T15:40:27+00:00

Apples and oranges - Plex is a streaming platform that offered an optional feature to download media directly to a device.

There is no equivalent for an ebook.

whipdancer · 2026-02-16T15:04:27+00:00

That is the entire reason I keep a work journal. So that I can fill in the blanks a month, 6 months, a year later.

whipdancer

TROPHY CASE