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).

I used to think that way too. I hated having all the apps on the main screen and the lack of widgets. Nowadays iOS is better and has lets you customize the main screen a lot more. Most iOS users still have all this apps on the main screen but it’s not a necessity like it used to be.

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.

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.

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.

What are the apps that you will be using? I’m really excited by these new Qualcomm laptops coming out. LTT is doing an experiment and having 3 of its employees switch full time to see if they are viable. If you can wait another week I’d see what their conclusions are.

Remember that solar just doesn’t stop working at some random day. The efficiency drops to where it makes sense to replace then people like me come in and buy the panels for pennies on the dollar because a 18% efficient panel will work just fine.

I think it’s kind of the same. Once you get technique down a master can see with the cheep-o machine and get amazing results.

I say go get yourself a used machine and just play around with it. I made Halloween costumes out of stuffed animals and old clothes for my first project and it turned out really good.

Why don’t you just emulate it. I can run ps2 games on a potato.

Yeah this was such a bait and switch tactic on Sonys part. I remember a few years after they stopped producing backwards compatible models getting in arguments with people who still thought the ps3 could play ps2 games. Yes the first model (and maybe more) could but then they took the chips out to do it in order to save money. Really lame Sony. I had a friend even buy one without realizing this till he was trying to play his old games

Haha. I’ve got one of those too.

Hey, that’s ex-redditor to you.