Stop using search engines and start using ai. Especially ai that links to sources is much better than weeding out the heavily influenced search results. Using ai is like opening 10 search results finding the relevant sources and comparing them all to bother the information down to a digestible nugget.

It’s a really good game. Highly recommended if you have a partner or friend who likes couch coop games.

The repubs complain about the border, a border bill comes up. Republicans refuse to pass it.

Wow. Secret menu? Didn’t even think to look for that. What does it slow you to do?

Humm. How long has it been disconnected? I wouldn’t reconnect just in case it starts a timer back over or something.

You have to disconnect the internet for a while. Think a month or two.

Don’t over complicate it. 3 copies: backup, main, and offsite; 2 different media: hdd and data center; 1 offsite. I like blackblaze but anything from google to Amazon will work.

Not true at all. Yes you do have to do an initial setup connected to the internet (and making a roku account), but after that you can disconnect it from the internet completely. It even looses its initial ad after a certain time.

I really dig my tcl roku tv. Ultra cheap and has plex/jellyfin. Has 1 ad on the main screen that can be easily blocked but can also be setup to insta launch an app on boot. These tvs also have decent latency in game mode too (my most important requirement).

Totally agree. At this point my phone is more of an appliance than a computer. I just need it to do what it is supposed to do and that’s it. I don’t even put games on the phone anymore and am really cognizant of the apps I use.

Heck I even remover Uber and lift apps if I’m not going to be using them for a while.

Not at all. But also just wasn’t my experience. My last phone was the lg g9 and had horrid battery. I’ve seen the poco phone before. If I remember doesn’t it have a massive 5000mah battery?

Was gifted an iPhone 13, been a lifelong android user. Hate to admit how much I love my iPhone. Hate not having my 512gb microSD card full of music but the multi day battery life makes up for it.

I was able to adapt my ups to use lithium ion batteries. I bought 2 giant ones that are used for rv solar systems. I tried using the other batteries and even when sitting by idle they loose their effectiveness.

That’s not a server that’s a gaming pc. Seriously what do you want to run? I use a raspberry pi for a server and it works just fine.

This is what you want to get surround sound to work in windows again.

https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/aaf-optimus-dch-audio-modded-driver-for-windows-10-11-for-all-hdaudio-enumerator-chips.292621/

This driver will work with both hdmi and toslink (optical) and possibly other connections.

Evidently Microsoft used to include a Dolby digital driver back in the day but has removed it due to licensing.

Oh and this will also enable surround sound in games too.

Htpc for YouTube and gaming and native tv app plex streaming content from my plex/nas media server (pi4). Works great. Power is crazy high in California right now at over 49c /kwh so I need to boot up the htpc as little as possible.

Please don’t give kids smartphones period. A smart watch is far less addictive and just as valuable to parents and kids (parents can track location, kids can still make phone calls and txt.) other suggestions are a dumb phone (think t9 txting), or just let them go phoneless.

And the beginning being the ending…chef’s kiss.

Before getting all crazy and changing the setup why don’t you try Wi-Fi. Yes Wi-Fi. Your cable might only be 100mbit and your WiFi may be faster.

Wi-Fi 5 can theoretically transmit data at speeds of up to 3.5 Gbps. And obviously WiFi 6 and 7 are even faster.

I now realize you are trying to buy a laptop on a budget. I’d definitely go for the X1 gen 7 or 8, 16gb of ram minimum. The 1080p screen will give you better battery life but the 4k screen has Dolby vision and will make watching movies a better experience.