I attach a computer to a TV and open streaming Web sites in a browser. There aren’t much benefits of the streaming devices compared to that unless you’re using surround sound. The Netflix desktop program has surround sound, but that’s the only service I know of.
What happens in California and Texas isn’t the problem so obviously one wouldn’t start there. They’d start with swing states.
As above, those things don’t matter. You say “simply get rid of the electoral college” as if that is the easier solution, but having a handful of states change laws fully under their control is far, far simpler than having numerous states agree to a change to the constitution, but the two things have the same effect. Do you want to stop having an unpopular president elected in the next 20 years, or the next 80 years?
It is a common misconception that disproportionate power of states is what has resulted in the winner of the popular vote losing the electoral college. That isn’t what has caused it in the past, despite the possibility. What has caused it is the fact that nearly all states allocate 100% of their electors to the simple majority winner. If three candidates get 49%, 48% and 3% of the vote, the top candidate gets 100% of the delegates. That swings the electoral count out of alignment, and if that happens in enough big states, then the popular vote winner can get fewer delegates.
That historically has been what happened. If you were to imagine elections where all the states had equal power but still allocated their delegates that way, as far as I know, not a single election result would change.
If however you were to imagine states allocating delegates in proportion to the votes they received, that would have changed election results. There are different ways to do that, but the details are not that important. It’s the solution. Is unequal power among states fair? Not really. But it hasn’t had any impact in the past, so let’s focus on something we know has unfairly altered multiple outcomes.
States should be doing this. Currently only two do: Maine and Nebraska I think. It wouldn’t take a lot of states for this to fundamentally change elections. Five key states are all that’s necessary. There’s no reason to allocate all delgates to the simple majority, and no one likes it. It’s unfair to the minority in locked down states, and it’s stressful in battleground states. It results in candidate pandering to battleground states and ignoring everyone else. This is something people should be aware of and talk about more.
They have chosen as thier candidate the least popular president in recorded history. He had a decent shot when he was running against the second-least popular president. But now …
They should have gone with Haley. She’d be a powerhouse at this point.
It’s easy enough to record using Zoom. Start a meeting with only yourself. I’ve used OBS too and it’s fine, but not necessary if you’re just looking to record something simple.
You’ll almost certainly want something to edit the videos. Rather than trying for a perfect take, if i flubbed something I would start over from a convenient place and edit out the bad part. I hated Adobe Premiere. Reaper isn’t really ideal for this stuff, but at least it isn’t Premiere. I dont remember if OBS had anything. LightWorks was OK.
You’ll want a good mic. Although lapel mics are ideal for your use, Bluetooth tends to suck. This webcam has an OK mic. https://www.logitech.com/en-us/products/webcams/c920s-pro-hd-webcam.960-001257.html
For unrelated reasons, I had an audio interface (Scarlett 4i4) and a cardiod mic (MXL 770). The Scarlett is very nice. I don’t love the 770, but it’s better tham a webcam. These are not critical but if you plan to do this a lot, these would make it sound noticably better, and maybe someone has a better mic recommendation, and again lapel would be perfect for lectures. Somewhere I got a baffle like this for $20 to $30. https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1116780-REG/primacoustic_p300_0101_voxguard_vu_vocal.html
It makes a difference and for a low price it’s nice to have if you aren’t using a lapel mic. I wouldn’t pay $100 for one.
You might need to update. Occasionally Google changes how YouTube works which requires NewPipe to change. You can get the latest version faster by adding the newpipe repository to fdroid. https://newpipe.net/FAQ/tutorials/install-add-fdroid-repo/
It sounds neat. Offline maps. If Google hadn’t banned it I would have never heard of it. It’s on F-droid too for those who don’t want to download and install an apk.
On my phone this can be set by going to settings, default apps, opening links, wait unusually long for the list to load, scroll to NewPipe, choose the links you want it to handle.
Whenever I have issues with YouTube refusing to do things it used to do, I stop using it for a while and eventually they put it back. If you’re not willing to do that, I find that the NewPipe app is better than the native YouTube app. But be warned that occasionally Google makes changes that break New Pipe and you need to wait a couple days for the devs to catch up to the change.
I just bought a new laptop for a family member. It wasn’t very expensive, but hardware now is generally amazing. It has Windows 11. My 12 year old laptop running Windows 7 is faster for most tasks, despite far inferior hardware. Plus search actually works in 7, it’s better organized, it doesn’t come with a ton of junk you need to disable or remove (good god the default start menu on 10 is a mess), and it doesn’t look like they designed the UI over the weekend. I kept waiting for the typical MS move of fixing the dumb crap they added, but with 11 it’s clear that they’re doubling down.
I don’t know that it’s technically harmonization, but sometimes when wolves howl at the same time, they will each choose a different pitch. Presumably it’s so the group sounds like it has as many individuals as possible.
There is something called the Power Delivery protocol for use with USB C. If your charger and device both support USB C PD, then everything is fine. The wattage of the charger will limit how fast it can charge, but the PD protocol sorts out the correct voltage. Most laptops, tablets and phones support PD now. You can also buy adapters to go from USB C PD to whatever connector your old laptops use (although watch out for current limits so you don’t fry the adapter). I use this charger for everything. https://nekteck.com/products/nekteck-65w-usb-c-charger-gan-ii-pd-3-0pps-fast-charger
On my PD laptop, it complains that it’s a “slow charger” because it wants 100 W or something absurd, but 65 is fine. On my old Lenovo, I have an adapter and the adapter itself doesn’t support high current, so I can’t reasonably use the laptop while charging, but I can charge it while it’s off or asleep. I usually use the OEM chargers for those, but for travel it’s nice to bring less. For everything else it’s perfect.
For those that don’t know, you can download the latest APK directly. It takes a while for new versions to make it to repositories and this lets you get it as soon as it’s ready.
Edit: someone pointed out that NewPipe hosts their own F-droid repository, so you can add that to F-droid to get faster updates more conveniently.
I used a Logitech Master MX for years, and when that finally broke I got a Master MX 3S. I don’t know anything about gaming mice, but I know this isn’t one. I only use it for office work, and for that I think it’s good. It’s comfortable for me. It charges by USB C, and the battery lasts a long time - I’d guess at least a month of daily use. It can use a USB radio transmitter or Bluetooth. I avoid Bluetooth whenever possible, so I don’t use that mode, but I assume it works as well as an other Bluetooth device. I like the continuous scrolling mode on the wheel, but you can change it to click.
There’s no shortage of well meaning dog owners who don’t know any better.
Of course taking out the trash isn’t necessary, but no one wants to live in filth.
It sounds like they’re using IP bans for exactly what they’re meant to do.
Wow, two of them.
I haven’t used this in a bit so I thought I’d check it. They somewhat recently updated the desktop program and nothing works at all now. It appears to be just Edge pretending to be another program. It’s literally just a browser, so surround sound doesn’t work now.
It’s a weird thing for them to do. Why would anyone download a copy of edge that can only watch Netflix? You’d just use a browser.