fein (u/fein) - Readit News

fein commented on Samsung is paying $350M for audio brands B&W, Denon, Marantz and Polk engadget.com/audio/samsun... · Posted by u/thibautg

trentnix · 4 months ago

Now there are more avenues for Samsung to shove bloatware down our throats. I have a modestly high-end home theater and it is utterly maddening waiting for devices to “boot” and “handshake”. And after the wait, I’m presented with another “User Agreement” to sign that insists on shoveling ads down my throat and harvesting data.

How much do you have to pay for a quick boot, no ads, and a private movie or music experience? Just like every retailer has embraced usury with their credit card programs, every technology company has decided they are in the data harvesting business. I’m so over it.

fein · 4 months ago

For my stereo setup, around $4000 for everything. It's also used for game emulators, kids to watch movies and cartoons, wife to watch whatever she feels like, etc.

Projector (Optoma laser) - $1200

110" powered retractable projector screen - $100

Mid tier PC - $600

DAC (Schiit modi 2) - $180

Amp (Behringer A500) - $100

SVS prime towers - $1000

SVS Sub - $750

All of my music is running off Jellyfin. I have a turntable that barely gets used but that's because I don't have enough space for it to keep it out of the reach/ damage radius of my kids.

You can of course do this for much less if you don't spend 2 grand on the audio part.

fein commented on Firefox removes "do not track" feature support windowsreport.com/mozilla... · Posted by u/mossTechnician

Jleagle · 9 months ago

As a web developer i don't think i have ever supported this feature, but only because i never remembered to. It's a pretty easy feature to add, but unless browsers can force it, you're better off with uBLock.

fein · 9 months ago

No one (corporate) supports it unless it comes enabled by default with whatever compliance service/ plugin used on their sites. The best combo I've found so far is Waterfox + uBO. I'm sure there are others, but this works well if you don't want to use a chromium based browser.

fein commented on 3600 MHz Raspberry Pi 5 with Liquid Nitrogen skatterbencher.com/2024/1... · Posted by u/jonatron

tonetegeatinst · 10 months ago

Can't wait for someone like kingpin or gamers nexus to try helium over clocking....

Iv been trying to keep an eye out for used LN2 tanks and dewars on different used places so I can grab one for cheap.

Always wanted to try making dip and dots at home, and going for insane PR's over clocking.

fein · 10 months ago

> dip and dots

Just replying for others because this confused the hell out of me until I said it out loud - Dippin' Dots, the ice cream treat you find at amusement parks.

fein commented on Timeshare owner? The Mexican drug cartels want you krebsonsecurity.com/2024/... · Posted by u/todsacerdoti

fein · a year ago

Seniors had the fortunate, and unfortunate now, opportunity to grow up in a considerably more high trust society than we currently live in. I've seen multiple elderly fall for this same style of scam - in some cases it is due to aging and not having all of the mental faculties that were once available, but in many other cases it's because these people lived most of their lives when you weren't conditioned to assume everyone is lying to you until proven otherwise.

In some ways I envy them for living in a time period where immediate distrust wasn't the status quo.

fein commented on Air Con: $1697 for an on/off switch blog.hopefullyuseful.com/... · Posted by u/ranebo

kelnos · a year ago

> Probably would have been at least $200 from an appliance repair company just for the labor

How many hours did you spend taking it apart diagnosing the problem, though? I'm guessing at least 2? $100/hr for that seems pretty reasonable to me.

(Granted, I agree with you in that I'd prefer to figure it out and repair it myself, even if it would take me 5x as long as someone trained to do it.)

fein · a year ago

Had I been able to work on it for an entire day, it probably would have been around 3-4 hours, but took longer because I had about 30-45 mins a night and then had to clean up so the kids didn't get into the mess. The oven was down for about a week as a result, but you can make do with an air fryer and a toaster oven for quite a bit.

For an experienced tech I assumed at least $50 for the house call and then a few hours for the disassembly and reassembly.

fein commented on Air Con: $1697 for an on/off switch blog.hopefullyuseful.com/... · Posted by u/ranebo

fein · a year ago

> Forcing customers to replace an entire system just because the cheapest component failed might be really profitable

Just had to deal with this recently. My gas oven control panel died and one would think to replace the control panel ($300 ish part), but I had my doubts. Pulled everything apart and hooked up a meter to what should be the power coming from the cord, no continuity. Took apart everything on the top two levels of the stovetop to find a thermal switch buried under there that had failed. That thermal switch is forever OOS (was $35 at least for a replacement if you could find one), so I hopped on amazon and bought a 5 pack of microwave thermal safety switches with the same cutoff temps for $6 that fit the push connectors. 10 year old higher end gas oven was fixed for about $1 in parts.

Probably would have been at least $200 from an appliance repair company just for the labor of having to take apart the entire stovetop to get there. Not sure how many people would even bother although it was about $2k new.

fein commented on 80% of AI Projects Crash and Burn, Billions Wasted Says Rand Report salesforcedevops.net/inde... · Posted by u/nickwritesit

jimmaswell · a year ago

If 90% of new drugs fail to reach market, is drug research a waste of time?

fein · a year ago

If they're all placebo, then yes.

fein commented on 80% of AI Projects Crash and Burn, Billions Wasted Says Rand Report salesforcedevops.net/inde... · Posted by u/nickwritesit

AnotherGoodName · a year ago

Is anyone else finding their company is asking teams to “insert ai everywhere any way you can”?

That’s a sign of a problem imho. The hype is so high the directives are to use ai everywhere regardless of fit. I’m a believer of ai but shoehorning it into everything as that currently boosts stock prices seems insane.

fein · a year ago

Yes. No one learned any lessons the last time around with "put everything on the blockchain". Or maybe they did learn you can make a profit off of hype alone, but it's not making the end user or anyone else's life better as a result. Who cares - line goes up, people get promotions.

fein commented on Tea Punch Was the First Cocktail atlasobscura.com/articles... · Posted by u/pepys

crazygringo · a year ago

I've never thought about this before, but I think there's a good argument that tea technically falls in the category of bitters.

After all, bitters are just an infusion of plant material. What is tea but an infusion of plant material?

On the other hand, bitters generally include many different plants and seems to be quite concentrated, while tea is just one plant and isn't as concentrated.

I guess asking whether tea is bitters is kind of like asking if hot dogs or tacos are sandwiches...

fein · a year ago

I assume that bitters must have a base of alcohol, but only because I'm not aware of any bitters that don't use alcohol as the solvent to create the extract.

fein commented on Tea Punch Was the First Cocktail atlasobscura.com/articles... · Posted by u/pepys

fein · a year ago

Perhaps I'm being particular here, but that wouldn't be a cocktail - it would be a mixed drink (and is called such in the article) based on the definition of a cocktail at the time:

"a stimulating liquor comprised of spirits of any kind, with sugar, water, and bitters included"