I don’t disagree.

There is one forum I still participate in:

https://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum/

It’s mostly tech-focussed and Australia-centric, but it does have other topics like sport, TV etc…

I wish there were more like this.

I hate that the bulk of online discussion is now owned/monopolised by a couple of huge corporations.

A decent percentage of Gen X and early millennials grew up familiar with computers. You kind of had to be, to some extent. Stuff didn’t always work smoothly or easily, so some tinkering and understanding of how things work beneath the surface was required.

We’re moving towards a future where a computer becomes just like an appliance, like a TV. Both the hardware and software will be locked down and set up to work. You just tap and press buttons to get it to do its thing.

Eventually, we may even get to the point where computers are required to be locked down “for our safety”.

If we get that far, then I can imagine those who want to build their own and have full freedom to install and customise it any way they want could be considered the very fringe/fanatical elements of society.

“Hey, you want an illegal unauthorised computer, why on earth would you need that, are you a terrorist or criminal or something?”

I hope things don’t go quite that far. But I don’t think it’s out of the question.

Summary:

HACS 2.0: A Major Update to the Home Assistant Community Store

• HACS 2.0, the latest version of the Home Assistant Community Store, brings significant improvements, including an easier installation method, faster updates, a revamped user interface, and improved notifications for Home Assistant updates and repairs.

• HACS serves as a platform for users to discover, install, and update community-created integrations and user interface elements, enhancing the functionality and customization of Home Assistant.

• The new version introduces a user interface that closely resembles the native look and functionality of Home Assistant, providing a consistent and intuitive experience.

• To enhance performance, HACS now utilizes a remote dataset stored in Cloudflare R2 buckets, reducing the number of API calls to GitHub and resulting in significantly faster updates.

• System and add-on updates are now displayed in the same format as native Home Assistant updates, eliminating the need to visit the HACS page for updates.

• HACS 2.0 introduces Template management, leveraging the new template type to improve Jinja templates.

• While HACS offers a wide range of community-made integrations, cards, themes, and more, it is important to note that these are not officially supported by Home Assistant and may affect system stability.

https://www.home-assistant.io/blog/2024/08/21/hacs-the-best-way-to-share-community-made-projects/

It’s a good point/observation.

Makes me wonder how different things might be if the mainstream media were more neutral and less prone to sensationalising everything and stirring outrage.

Social media just adds another layer on top of this.

This would be a win for Facebook and Twitter/X.

Damn, haven’t thought about that book for many years.

The concept behind the story seems a lot less fictional/unlikely than it used to 20yrs ago!

“Analyzing several high-profile accidents involving complex and automated socio-technical systems and the media coverage that surrounded them, I introduce the concept of a moral crumple zone to describe how responsibility for an action may be misattributed to a human actor who had limited control over the behavior of an automated or autonomous system. Just as the crumple zone in a car is designed to absorb the force of impact in a crash, the human in a highly complex and automated system may become simply a component—accidentally or intentionally—that bears the brunt of the moral and legal responsibilities when the overall system malfunctions. While the crumple zone in a car is meant to protect the human driver, the moral crumple zone protects the integrity of the technological system, at the expense of the nearest human operator.”<

Great. Humans taking the fall for technology.

Thanks for sharing.

All too often the free and open alternatives (or these days even just the non-subscription alternatives!) involve compromising some features or convenience.

But not always.

Same as Australian carriers. Mine is $A10 /day (about $7 USD). If you’re travelling for a long time the cost can eventually add up and it’s possible to get some cheaper travel sims. But it’s just so much easier to not do anything and use your phone as normal.

Big improvement from the old days of roaming.

For me, I think adding Projectivity Launcher over the top of it took it from a good device to a great one.

It’s let me customise the thing just how I want it.

As for voice, I find it handy rather than typing text with the remote when searching in YouTube etc.

It’s long, but well worth the read.

Sounds like you don’t want to do this, but I am loving my Nvidia Shield TV Pro.

I’ve installed Projectivity Launcher on it and all the apps I want. It’s such a smooth, clean experience.

Whether it’s Netflix, Tivimate, Kodi or Plex, it all runs super smoothly, no stutters, no ads. Highly recommend.

The backlit, voice capable remote is really nice too.