Sure I get that just not sure why cats are the 2nd best Gandalf (with tits).

I feel like the 00s and 10s and 20’s all had pretty distinct aesthetics, music, etc as much as the 1900s decades.

Probably not. Main problem is energy density.

Theoretically we could visit things thousands/millions of light years away within a human lifespan, but the necessary energy to do so is just infeasible. You’d have to spend half the energy slowing down at your destination so you’d need all that energy onboard. Just not happening IMO. As a bonus you’d basically also be inventing a time machine (forward only)

Interstellar travel? Like to the nearest star systems? Maybe. In the far future. But not intergalactic. Andromeda is the closest galaxy and it’s 2.5 MILLION light years away…

I don’t have Gandalf with tits in my photo library but if I did I’m sure my Immich search would bring it up.

Edit: I now have it in my library and it comes right up :) it then only pulls up cat photos after that for some reason

What are your Cloudflare metrics for unique visitors? I’d be very curious how it compares to your billing in Deflect.

I run a small Lemmy instance and I’m showing an insane 5M unique visitors per month. I’m sure that’s mega-inflated by federations or bots though. If Deflect charged me for even a fraction of that I’d be bankrupted.

loss of Internet connection

No. They aren’t controlled via Internet (they can be, but it’s not vital). You have Zigbee switches that control them through radio. Or you control them with your Zigbee controller which is hooked up to your network, but works locally so even if your Internet is down it works on LAN.

voltage drops/brown outs/black outs … They all turn on the full brightness for “safety”

Depends on the brand. Some do this. Most do out of the box but you can go into the settings of your Zigbee controller and disable that. Some don’t let you configure it. I’d read reviews first.

Also Phillips Hue is actually a Zigbee bulb, which can be used with non-Hue Zigbee controllers. If I’m reading right this setting can be configured. https://community.hueessentials.com/t/how-to-set-up-power-on-behaviour-for-my-lights/720

Brand/model isn’t important.

You’ll need a HomeAsstant controller. You can buy one premade or you can look up tutorials and make your own with a raspberry pi or old laptop or PC. Then you’ll need a ZigBee controller, this is a radio that will talk to your smart lights and other accessories.

You then get ZigBee compatible lights. Phillips Hue is the top of the line but so stupidily expensive I’d never recommend it. Innr makes good ones at half the cost. ThirdReality makes decent ones too for even cheaper.

You’ll probably also want some ZigBee switches to have physical controls for your lights instead of just by phone. They make models that replace your actual light switches. Or, if you rent like me and can’t modify that, you can get battery powered ones that stick on the wall. Battery life is like a year or more so not too bad.

That’ll do it. You can also use HomeAssistant now that you’ve got it. It’s a home automation software that’s open source and locally controlled. You can hook up much more than your lights. Smart plugs, your TV, 3D printer, fans, cameras, tons of sensors, your thermostat, robovac, etc. Then make automations that connect them. For example my living room ZigBee switch, one press up toggles the main lights. Double press for the lamp. Hold down and it turns off all lights and the TV. Some lights like my closet light are controlled by a door sensor instead of a switch, so they come on automatically. Some people prefer motion sensors so all lights are automatic. Turn off stuff automatically when you leave, etc.

Imagine having both

ZigBee baybeee. Fully local, offline, forever. Nobody can stop them working.

I love my smart lights for this. I can change them at my whim. By default they’re brighter and whiter during the day, slowly moving dimmer and yellow after sunset. Or I can make them whatever other color but I do that pretty rarely.

It’s also fully offline and no WiFi used. But it seems almost everything you see in the stores are WiFi bulbs you have to get an app for, where one day they might go bankrupt and suddenly your lights dont work. Or the internet goes out. Yuck.

Some drama on their licensing situation:

https://github.com/mattermost/mattermost/issues/8886#issuecomment-3837091846

I mean that’s vague.

I’d say it depends on the content too. On a computer monitor at typical size/distance? Yeah probably. Small text will look much much better.

Depends on the screen size and distance.

And piracy gets them from Bluray.

Now that that’s dying I’m afraid we’re gonna be stuck with streaming bitrates.

There’s barely any actual 4K content you can consume

I feel like that’s not true. But you’ve gotta try. If you’re streaming it, chances are it’s not really any better. 4K Bluray (or rips of them…) though? Yeah it’s good. And since film actually has 8K+ resolution old movies can be rescanned into high resolution if the original film exists.

Supposedly Sony Pictures Core is one streaming service that can push nearly 4K Bluray bitrates… but you’ve gotta have really good internet. Like pulling 50-80GB in the span of a movie.

I feel like on monitors because you’re fairly close getting at least 2k is good. Depending on size even 4k makes sense.

Small text on large 1080p monitors looks… Not great.

For gaming though absolutely

Nah. On larger screens it’s good to have

Yeah. A 1080p Bluray clocks in around 20GB. A 4K bluray is 60-80GB.

If you’re downloading something smaller it’s probably lower quality

-emia, meaning presence in blood.

Funnily enough piefed.social does not seem to block .ml

Usually once whenever I’m on it I’ll pull up a terminal and type “yay”