I agree, and do regret the harshness of my initial response.

I thought about editing or removing the response, but we did have some follow up in the thread (where I qualified some of my reasons), so I thought it better to leave me being a dick to a stranger untouched in that whole context. It opens up further discussion from others and serves to remind me to take a breath to consider why others post idealistic, well meaning content.

Not everyone’s had their idealism battered out of them by greedy companies and stupid managers yet. 😅

Just realised that I automatically filter out obvious scams, as I genuinely didn’t register the contents of either of those spam boxes…

That arrangement has existed for over 30 years, and it’s now an unconscious scan. 😒

But I think the point remains in the middle of the page, that it will run through the standard bullshit FOMO timer, and then start downloading the expected binary.

And it’s not VLC doing any advertising. They’re just choosing to use a shit download site to host the binary for that OS and download method

First indication of fake I’ve seen so far, based on OP’s detail-light post. I’d assumed the FOMO timer would eventually download the genuine binary.

So, share with the class…

I mean, sure? Fill yer boots.

That’s what the public forum is: a collection of different opinions and perspectives.

I think the state forcing someone to both learn to code and then force them to contribute to a state-approved FOSS project (as that’s how it will be selected) is, IMHO, the opposite of everything right in the world. But I also get that some people find comfort in things or circumstances that horrify me.

To each their own and, again, fill yer boots. 🤷‍♂️

Imagine voluntarily sharing such an objectively stupid idea.

Some people really seem to think the entire world needs to watch their brains fall out.

Gonna need a bit more info than you’ve provided.

What I will note, from the information that you’ve provided, is that you shared an internet exchange screenshot showing a couple of low key ads (with the usual opt out bullshit links), so any ads are not on the VLC site - it’s on their download partner site, a la 1995 - and they’re probably the most tame ads (repeat: not benefiting VLC) that I’ve seen in 30 years.

tl;dr: Late-stage PSTN/POTS dialup configuration of binaries hosted on a third party (pre-CDN) download site -who are free to inject whatever spam they like - (but have been astonishingly restrained here) along with the download link.

You know this is the internet right? Nothing is beyond the realms of possibility if money is involved. Did Jackass teach us nothing?

Awesome. And now…

• Step 2: Tabs or spaces.

Is this “if PornHub monetised and incentivised content creators like YouTube does”?

Also: The pasta - cooked or raw? 🤡

10W? That’s incredibly low - under 100mA wherever in the world you live. About the same as an LED bulb, or a tenth of an average incandescent lightbulb.

For comparison: my NAS and NUC (mix of HDD and M.2 drives; both hosting services) draw 75W combined at idle, measured via Home Assistant and a smart plug, and that’s generally considered low-power self-hosting.

I’d be pleasantly amazed if you could get a laptop to use less, so I look forward to other replies.

I still use all 3, though I’m slowly moving CPU intensive containers to the NUC. The Pi is untouched so far, partly because having edge services there will make it easier of I decide to implement a DMZ.

The NUC+Proxmox is a great combination. Bit of a learning curve (eg. as with Docker, you need to pass devices in Proxmox and then to the container; same with CIFS shares), but there are lots of resources out there. I have no regrets going this route, and it had low power consumption.

On Windows thing, I was specifically referring to the server OS as the NUC came with Win11. Do whatever works for your desktop/gaming setup.

Though I also switched that to Linux (EndeavourOS, though there are other game-friendly options) a couple of years ago, and its worked out great. Guild Wars 2 was my most modded Windows game, and I can run all except one of the Windows-based addons I want for it. Setting it all up the first time is a ball ache (as it was with Windows, but that was done over time 🤷‍♂️). 😊

I was hosting most of my Docker stuff on my Synology DS920+, use Docker in a Pi 4B for AdGuard Home and WireGuard, and found myself wanting to use Home Assistant.

Can’t use Docker for HA if you want HACS (addons) and Synology decided to kill USB drivers some time back, so looked around for options. Considered a Nabu Casa Yellow with a CM5 compute module (for Voice PE) and its price was more than a GMKtek N150 NUC, which has far higher specs and enough headroom for other things. So I got the NUC.

First thing I did was nuke Windows and replaced it with Proxmox, then installed Home Assistant OS (HAOS) as a VM in it. Plenty of headroom left, so now it’s also got a Linux VM, a few LXCs, etc. (The Proxmox Helper Scripts site makes it very easy).

Could easily install AGH or PiHole and a bunch of other things on it. Think it’s the best bang for buck thing I’ve bought in years.

It’s made even worse by some software pretending to be Ubuntu builds but just quietly installing a Snap version instead.

Looking at you, Firefox. 👀

Switched to EndeavourOS a couple of years ago as my main, and its been amazing. No regrets.

Genuinely amazed one (in particular) of my university housemates didn’t come up with this abomination.

He’d be devastated to see this… 😅

That’s fair. 🙂

No need to defend it. It was obviously a comment on the headline; I didn’t care who wrote it - the criticism was directed at whomever vomited it up. Tech publications are as much uncritical PR agencies for tech companies as the latter’s marketroids are.

Amateur marketing speak for “we’re considering bringing it to other hardware”?

Saw a post earlier on Mastodon where someone repurposed an old phone into a Home Assistant display/controller?

They hadn’t used a full dashboard, though. It was just about checking and controlling their cat’s feeding system. 😅

The Green brothers are interesting and thoughtful. They try to be an overall positive influence on the internet, even aside from their vlogbrothers thing.

FTA: The IDs leaked were from people appealing age verification.

That’s different from the age verification process, which goes through a third party provider.

In short, the leaked IDs were from a standard shitty support platform (Zendesk, Salesforce, etc), not the much-advertised “safe and private” age verification system.