This is one of the many reasons I haven't owned a TV for the last 5 years. I just watch stuff on the computer, or not at all. It's actually nice not having it looming over me.

I love my friend’s house that has no TV and that’s exactly what they do. The room aesthetically looks so nice without the screen in it.

However, the laptop solution tends to only work if you’re single or have no family. The TV is unfortunately a very useful device.

Projectors are still valid, and often superior, alternatives to TVs.

They’re definitely more work to get right though

Welp... I bought recently a projector.

It wouldn't start in a dumb mode without first establishing internet connection and a Google account.

How is projector superior? More often than not, with the same amount of money spent, projector produces worse image quality, consumes more power, and don't last as long.

Interesting idea I never thought of, though for my purposes my room gets way too much natural light for a projector to be viable.

There are ambient light rejection (ALR) screens available now that make projectors viable even under bright lights. Problem is, the decent ones are quite pricey, sometimes costing almost as much as the projector themselves. You could easily buy two OLED TVs for the price of a decent short throw laser projector + ALR.

The other issue issue is that most, if not all, modern projectors are also "smart", so you may run into the same privacy issues as TVs...

Maybe the best option is to just buy a PC monitor and pair it up with decent speakers, the only issue being you can't get larger screens like TVs.

Yeah the projector doesn’t quite save on room aesthetics if I need whole screen setup, unless I spend even more to make it super hidden and seamless in the room.

I’ve just found that disabling network connectivity and going with an external streaming box is the best compromise of the moment.

On LG it’s important to never agree to the terms and conditions. I’m not sure if they still allow you to do that on new TV sets. It’s very disturbing to find out that the TV is queueing up data to send home even while offline.

The Apple TV streaming box seems to be the least privacy-invasive, mostly ad-free, mainstream easy to use option on the market, but it’s certainly not perfect in that regard.

blackout shades go a long way, but if you’ve got huge bay windows that’s probably too much.

If it’s close to good, and you need a little more brightness, there are newer screens that reflect much more light. more reflective = pricier, but there’s a decent value/sweet spot.

Huge floor to ceiling windows is exactly what I have. Of course I also don’t want to make my room pitch black just to watch TV.

It’s good to know that there are solutions designed for high-light situations, though.

LG recently was in the news for loading Microsoft's utility/driver update mechanism with crapware that auto installs (by default) when you hitch one of their monitors to a Windows PC. I fear they just haven't gotten around to fully abusing monitor users yet.

Communism? Have you ever been to a (former) communist/socialist country and seen the huge amount of art everywhere? I expect not. Great example https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haus_des_Lehrers

What we are seeing is Americanism which is reduction of everything into value extraction. And that means getting rid of art.

Haven't you heard? Capitalism is now communism.

They'd be copying the greats! I have seen a distinct pattern of artists and photographers doing self portraits while rolling around in shit or mud.

All of those things are: you don’t.

If it’s a problem, unplug it.

If it’s a problem, don’t buy it.

Works for everything!

I always train who or what is assigned to replace me. Badly. Really badly.

I’d probably sample it randomly yes.

Crap jokes aside, I mostly use Statistics In A Nutshell. It’s pretty ok. I say that as a member of the RSS for 30 odd years.

I’d rather be embarrassed by my writing than embarrassed by an LLM speaking for me.

Same here.

I remember the first time my email client made an unsolicited suggestion about how to compose a thank you note to my grandmother. After seeing what it had autocompleted I thought, "oh, wow that's a lot better than I could do" for a split second before realizing, "wait, what the hell is wrong with me getting a computer to write a thank you note to my grandmother!"

I've never even tried to use AI to write since. I'd be so embarrassed.

This reminds me how fragile the internet is and how we need other channels of communication.

Not all problems are best served with technical solutions. This is a political problem.

I’m not suggesting technical solutions to be clear.

Real life is a channel of communication.

the internet is real life

Exactly my point.

Maybe LoRa? Doesn't get more sovereign than that. As long you have people to connect with, that is.

There's already TOR, the problem you run in to is you need connectivity and visibility with the rest of the world on the clearnet. lora is even worse here.

LoRa is very short range and extremely bandwidth limited.

...and trivially jammable

Is it related to reticulum?

Reticulum can use it as one of several transport layers. LoRa is just layer 1 only

Currently reprogramming myself on this. I’ve started doing more stuff on paper and using single-use devices as there’s not an immediate attention demand from something else then.

I got a Kindle a while back and I found myself when i first bought it swiping the screen as if I was trying to open the web browser on a smartphone.

I didn't even do it on purpose, it was a force of habit. I programmed myself to interrupt myself with mindless distractions, not even diversions, distractions.

So yeah, I always carry a small notebook and a kindle (and a fanny pack) and I have no social media apps on my phone which is a start.

Same. I am also trying to unfuck my brain using pen and paper each day. Got a nice Lamy fountain pen and a notebook I like and I try to write as much as I can each day. Even if most of it is trivial, I still think it’s beneficial because it stops me from consuming content on the internet and it turns me from a consumer into a creator. I think it also improves my focus and does some mental health work too. But it is an uphill battle. After hours of overstimulation, just being by myself feels unbearable, like I can’t stand to be alone in my head without any noises to distract or amuse me.