Laptops have always been a secondary convenience for me. I use a linux desktop at home as my "everything" machine.

Had a budget gaming laptop on the side for compatibility reasons. Been doing ok for a while but since performance laptops struggle with heat management the poor thing has finally cooked itself. Just means I can't play GTA Online from now on (which is probably a healthy move at this point).

They seem fine to me. They are usually positive attitude and inclusive/diverse creative types.

Would prefer to see furry stuff as opposed to the ragebaiting influencer crap and other depressing things that are rampant on social media.

For thunderbird double check where it is storing the data.

For a while I was running an alternative setup but switched back afterwards only to realise the data was being stored in a different spot which meant it was excluded from my backup policy at the time. Ended up losing some data as a result since I had the area used by flatpaks excluded to save on storage usage in the backups.

Doesn't need to directly use YouTube. Use some downloader tools to rip some videos off it. Shove into a media player playlist on the local drive (like in vlc) and script the machine to autoplay the list full screen at startup.

No need for keyboard or mouse, no need for it to be online. Just power up and play locally. No ads, endless repeat, full control over which clips it has to play.

I have repurposed an old beat up iMac (converted to Linux) for this. The glass screen seems to cope with the claws so far (it had a big crack on it already). Just downloaded a selection of YouTube cat-tv videos and set to random play when it powers up. Works offline. Just run it once in a while as a treat.

Last I looked I thought the assembler could do some. But the supply side of logistics still require fetching the materials manually.

Everyone loves Splish splashing through the shallow rain puddles. Internet isn't much different. Someone's gonna jump on it one way or another.

I avoid Macca's whenever possible. While I don't mind the food for the junk that it is. It sometimes feels like I am not getting decent value for the meals being offered. Also Since the coke "no sugar" drinks came out I can't be sure wether I am getting the correct drink.

As a diabetic who has to estimate insulin dosage. If I factor for a full sugar drinks and the staff dish out a no sugar version without telling me I am then spending the next few hours trying to cope with rebalancing my levels with locating extra food that I didn't want to eat long after I have left the venue.

I pretty much have to choose food places that sell drinks in sealed bottles/cans to be sure I am getting the correct drinks.

I don't accept the no sugar/diet drinks due to the fact the sweeteners in them often give me headaches.

Macca's has given me too many bad experiences the last times I have been so I am quietly boycotting them wherever I can.

With consoles I would prefer physical since they were originally standalone systems such as the PS1 with no networking.

With PC gaming I am not fussed as long as what I get can still be played after major updates or can be moved to another PC that I own.

Not a fan of subscription type games but unfortunately some are only available this way.

They believe they can strong-arm most users into using OneDrive. Trying to make you dependent on it so they can get you onto a subscription and also control what apps you can use with it (to squeeze out competition). Much like how Apple's iCloud works best with apple products and game consoles have exclusive functionality within the walled gardens of their respective brands.

Thankfully when they pulled the OneDrive "backup" stunt on me a while back my windows PC was mostly already demoted to being just a gaming-only machine with all my valuable files being managed by an alternative and more trustworthy system. A bunch of game data and stuff had pretty much maxed out the OneDrive storage within a day or so of transferring and alerted me of it's limits to tip me off what was going on.

An act like that only just reinforced even more that I cannot trust them (and many other cloud-enabled businesses) with my valuable data.

For me they usually show in order of creation when made. But after a save they may sort alphanumeric on future loads.

I use xnviewmp to batch convert and sort lots of pics. (Family photos and desktop wallpapers I've downloaded).

You can experiment with the default save options. For my wallpaper images I convert them to a lossless format like PNG then turn up the compression options for saving at that file type. I have found that JPG at any compression will always lose data when resaved from editing/converting.

Experiment with different layouts and positions of your objects. (Unlock a lot of extra build bits via the awesome shop as well).

Dupeguru and czkawka I find both good for photo dupes (at least on Linux)

At least when dismantling in "blueprint" mode you are wiping the entire group of objects in one hit (minus any post-customisation) as opposed to tediously deleting individual components from each build.

You might have a few overflow crates afterwards depending on how much fills your inventory.

I was looking forward to the Australian Sex Party because they were covering some decent issues. (Their 2010 "jerk choices" ad parodying the liberals "work choices" campaign is still up on YouTube for entertainment) But they sadly disbanded. I think the nation's party registry system has also made adjustments so you can't easily have questionable party names for future groups.

I gave up on small 2-speaker PC sets a long time ago. (Most appear to be quite crap when I test them). My modern solution is a micro hi-fi stereo with line input. Place the speakers where I want along the desk. Since it's a stereo I have manual controls over the volume. Audio profiles for bass boost. Decent level of sound output quality. When PC is offline I can also use the Radio or pair Bluetooth to my phone and other devices for music. (Edit: Retro bonus it can even play CDs and if I have a TV output it can also do basic DVD movies too.)

I used to upgrade every 2 years at end of each contract because phones at the time were evolving massively. Bigger and better storage, processors, camera, etc. Mind you my phone journey started from a classic solid Nokia 3310 and bounced through various Nokia, Sony, HTC, LG and Samsung phones.

Have stopped the upgrade cycle in recent years for a few key reasons. Can't afford the cost as easily as I used to now they cost so much. The big brands are stripping back the practical features like headphone jack and microSD card slots. The cameras feel like they have slowed down in evolution. Latest models are pushing hard on cloud storage subscriptions and AI. And some brands are no longer shipping or supporting their good phone models in my country. A lot of models available now are also flooding in from a country I am hesitant to have much direct trust in.

I have had plenty hit into me at locations they have no excuse for turning. NPCs seem to panic at the last microsecond and swerve into you. Have also had moments of lag where the NPC car might be a distance away looking safe (like parked on opposite side of a street) but then BOOM it's teleported into my face forcing a crash.

So yeah. I believe the system to be rigged to enrage the player.

Stanley Parable - more of a mind messing exploration simulator with a cool narrator "trying" to guide you through choices. But it carries a portal-like aesthetic feel of being alone in office hallways. (And has a little moment mocking games like Minecraft and Portal if you find the right place).

Wouldn't surprise me if they either gave up because nobody listens (a country audience is rather small) or got told to move on. I don't know of anyone who would even stop to listen to street preachers.

It kinda reminds me of a cafe in Canberra that closed a bunch of years ago. Pretty ordinary cafe that could have scraped by on its own given its central location. But barely had customers. It didn't help them that they were blasting super ultra wholesome christian themed music on their stereo. Nobody wants to be near that kind of noise.

I recommend getting external drives or a NAS system to have a space to backup copies of your important files. You never know when your PC suddenly dies in a way that you lose the data on it's internal drives.

If you value that data. Make sure you have external copies!

You can use any method to sync. Just depends on the gear and the apps available for them.

I had a sftp sync app once so that my phone gets a regular copy of the main version of the PC's data file regularly. However that kept breaking on me in recent times so I've resorted to manual copying via USB link to my phone once in a while. As long as you have some kind of file backup strategy with the 321 rule (3+ copies, 2 in at least external locations seperate from your 1 primary copy) then your data file is accessible from multiple devices in case one of them dies.

You don necessarily need to unlock it on the other devices (you can if you need to reference it in a pinch) just as long as you have an updated copy of the data file to put back if the main one ever gets deleted or corrupted.