Funny enough, I had the complete opposite experience. I didn’t necessarily use Samsung then either, but I would get the phone that was normally rated the best or highly reviewed. I think i came from an LG to the first pixel phone. Pixel was the first phone to ever give me issues. Felt it vibrate one day in my pocket and I looked at it a few min later and it was in permanent boot loop. Tried a lot of things, but my one regret was forgetting to turn on developer options with the usb so essentially the phone was bricked. I couldn’t access it or do anything, everytbing was lost and support was no help and told me they couldn’t replace it. Last time I used them. I also wasn’t a fan of how hard they tried copying an iPhone at the time. Since them I’ve mostly used a Samsung either the Note and now the higher end galaxies and love them. Only thing I dislike is their own line of apps for everything that I disable immediately.

I agree, but don’t forget that every year, things get harder because everything is trying to find more ways to take that extra money from you. From schools, companies, and government they are all figuring out ways to come up with new mandatory requirements for stuff that normally ends up being a new fee or payment on top of what you used to need. For example when you are in school, you probably need way more certifications in things which costs more money either by a 1 time fee or sometimes yearly fees and a lot of this never existed 20-30 years ago. I feel like we pay for literally everything, and it all keeps going up as well. It’s hard to get ahead when everyone wants a piece of your pie.

People being ok with their own lives being uprooted for someone who should mean absolutely nothing to them is insane.

If things didn’t get bad, I could absolutely see myself saying the same thing.

We’re gonna need more laws against the homeless soon. About to be a whole lot more to deal with. Can’t tolerate that /s.

Thankfully, nothing like that has happened here, but we have a break glass account that only 2 people know of, and it’s locked in a safe. Also, my place has gotten so good at firing people they know how and when to do it to minimize risk. Like end of day when they are all packed up, and if its a really high up person, top admins are contacted prior and held on standby to disable everything as soon as the word is given. This includes admins. If they are remote, they will normally lock them out of the laptop first and make sure access is gone before letting them know.

My kid accidentally put this video on and honestly we have all really enjoyed it more than we probably should… its catchy!

https://youtu.be/3WfegWZzxek

As a parent of a kid, I actually know what this references!

Also, is that supposed to be a real-life picture of Ice King? Creepy

I keep reminding my wife about the schools. The town we picked is not considered good by any means for schooling, but I always say the worst here is still better than elsewhere! We have had a few years experience now that our kid is in them and outside a few things that were noticeable (my wife is a teacher) they didnt seem as bad as the rating makes them seem.

Yeah, things are weird today. Back in the day getting the meal deal numbers 1 through whatever seemed to get you the best price. Now I cant remember the last time I just picked the number to order. With the apps and other deals they set up, they make us go through hoops to get somewhat decent pricing. App normally offers free fry and they run the pick 2 where 2nd is a dollar and you can choose a double cheeseburger, 6 piece nug, or small fry. So for around $4 you can get a 12 piece or a 6 piece and a double cheese. Not the worst deal for $4. Oh also being flexible about what you want helps, but also sucks.

We all live in NJ, so I can’t agree with your statement, haha. It may not be bad to most states, but from what I see, NC is about 1-3k for property taxes? For us anywhere in the state, the middle class is going to start at around 6k and quickly rise to 14k a year if not more. I say 6k, but I don’t even know anywhere close to my area that doesn’t start at 9-11k. Mine is higher than that and trust me we live in an average, not even updated, middle class place in a town most people don’t want to live because it was the cheapest within an hour drive, which we did not want to deal with going to work everyday.

My cousin moved down there a few years ago, and a lot of my family talk about how they want to because its so cheap. I guess if you enjoy your local government to be non-existent and allow things like this to even take place, then I guess it’s a wonderful place to live! Enjoy your low taxes, you get what you pay for.

Sue!

I think it’s the smaller version, so more like $3.50. Still, why go for the double when you could have done the same for less with a single.

Sadly, it may not be an option for a lot of people, but on the fortinet firewall you can make policies and set up geoblocking.

Synology with Emby (do not use the connect service they offer) running behind my fortinet firewall. DDNS with my own domain name and ssl cert. Open 1 custom port (not 443) for it, and that’s it. Geoblock every country but my own, which basically eliminated all random traffic that was hitting hit. I’ve been running it this way for 5 years now and have no issues to report.

Seems like a lot of tax dollars being wasted, as well as a ton of taxed income no longer coming in either. How anyone thinks any of this is a good idea is beyond crazy.

Yeah, it’s the one I was leaning towards. I liked what I saw, but I want to try it out first before diving in. I like that it offers up the newest updates first. I just had issues with getting it spun up as a vm and all I get is a black screen after it installs. I don’t seem to be the only one with that issue so I’ll have to think of another way to test.

I was already looking around. I work in IT, so I am not completely oblivious to using Linux or how it works. I tested a few out a long time ago, and we have a few systems in production at work. I was going to try out Mint, Elementary, Pop, and KDE Neon before deciding. So far I got Mint spun up as a VM and played around a little. KDE Neon just gave me a black screen after it installed, which stinks because it was the one I was leaning towards the most. I haven’t gotten to the other 2 yet.

Yup, I finally may be trying out some Linux versions soon to find one to switch to… I have always been whatever about what Microsoft does, and it’s always been simple enough to fight back and stop whatever crap I never wanted. This announcement just feels like there’s no way it will stop, and it’s becoming way more frequent. I hate AI, and im tired of it being shoved in my face or running my services.

I find it funny to see all the stuff they try to add or do and really wonder if they came out with windows 12 in 2 flavors, 1 being a continuation of what it is now, and 2nd being a completely stripped down version that offers nothing but the OS with nothing else in the background running or spying and no apps built in which one would sell more. The funny thing is they would probably charge you way more for the stripped-down version, and it would still probably sell more.