Technology

EU clinches world first deal on single mobile charging port | Technology News | Al Jazeera

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EU clinches world first deal on single mobile charging port | Technology News | Al Jazeera

European Union member states and legislators have agreed to mandate a single mobile charging port for mobile phones, tablets and cameras in a blow to technology giant Apple.

Tuesday’s agreement, a world first, means that from late 2024 most portable devices will be required to have a USB Type-C charging port. It will not apply to products released before the new rules come into force.

I really don’t like the news media gloating over mass-shootings

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I really don’t like the news media gloating over mass-shootings. 👺

While I get there is a lot of profit to be made by the media by covering sad looking victims, juxtaposed against strong military men dressed up as police officers in armor, the truth is such coverage is terribly unhealthy for society. Enhanced corporate profits and creation of additional patronage jobs in local police departments is not a public good, instead it’s harmful. While the television stations may love all the automobiles and laundry soap the are selling on backs of victims, and police departments love being flush with cash to buy fun-looking toys and weapons – along with the ability to hire their high-school drop out uncle  billy to their force – it’s so incredibly harmful to society.

What’s the alternative? I don’t know, I always worry about the government getting too much into the censorship business. If government tells newspapers and televisions that they can’t glorify murder and violence on their airwaves, the next step is the politicians cracking down on negative reporting about themselves. A ban of glorifying violence could easily be used to prosecute those who report on corruption or publicly support positions other then the official state party line. Likewise, restrictions on police and authorities talking to the media could foster corruption, as any law that limits disclosure by the police allows government corruption to flourish.

I don’t know what the answer is. Maybe more disclosure and easier opt-outs could be a partial solution. For example, many television sets have the ability to block violent content if so rated. Certain news stories could be blocked out unless people requested such content. Likewise, parental controls could be added to web browsers to provide a similar form of blocking. Such blocking could be seamless – rather then blanking out screens, alternative content also able to sell advertising could be part of the answer. Likewise, disclaimer requirements could be imposed on the media – for example if they are going to promote mass-shootings on airwaves, they’d be required to provide information on mental health hotlines, and actively encourage people who are thinking of engaging in violent activities to seek help. Local police departments, who are flush with cash from existing the excessive taxation placed on individuals and businesses, could fund such mental health programs, so they are free to those interested in participating.

The wilderness I choose to live in.

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The wilderness I choose to live in…

Many people where I work think it’s odd that I take public transit to work🚌, which it can be a pain on the late nights at work when I have wait for the next bus to come. I just hate driving in the city and with my big jacked up truck I’d never fit in the garage. I’d rather just play on the phone when the driver takes me to work.

I don’t have air conditioning at home, preferring to go down to the park with a book 📚 and sit out back until late in the evening. I guess not having air conditioning is different in the modern era.

But then again I also refuse to have internet at home because💻 its an unnecessary expense and I can either walk down to the park or the library and use my laptop to get on the internet for free. I guess that is a bit odd in the modern era.

I’ve also never owned a television, although for a short while I had a cheap HDTV tuner that worked until it broke. 📺But I never really used it much and only watched non commercial programming like the PBS Newshour – which I ended up watching less and less when their primary cause became pushing gun control. Most television is a stupid waste of time and advertising is so obnoxious.

I don’t really follow contemporary culture and politics. 🔌For my job I do read my clients newspapers but I rarely read the local news. I couldn’t tell you ninty percent of what is happening in the local news. I guess I don’t really care at this point as most things are beyond my control. Sometimes I listen to NPR but less and less when every story seems to be about attacking the president or pushing a left wing agenda. 📻 I guess I do check NPR.org a few times a week and listen to podcasts so I’m not totally disconnected.

Music wise I don’t really follow what is contemporary, probably the average date of music on my phone is 1968 or about a half century old. 🎤 The music my parents listened to college. I do listen to country music but rarely on the radio, and while my share of Jason Aldean records on my phone, I do also listen to a lot of Merle Haggard and Dave Dudley.

I’m just not really into contemporary culture or what is popular today. I think it’s too loud and commercial, it’s too offensive and explicit.📢 I’m perfectly happy to live in the wilderness⛺ that I choose to live in.

How I Watch Youtube Videos without Having Internet at Home

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How I Watch Youtube Videos without Having Internet at Home

People ask how I can watch Youtube videos at home while riding the exercise bike, without having the Internet at home. I use the youtube-dl python script which can download Youtube videos from the internet while at the library or another public wi-fi, along with some custom scripts I built and posted below.

Then I browse the Youtube pages of the channels I follow and other suggested videos. From there, I right click on the video, and put the link to the video into the clipboard. From there, I click on an icon in my toolbar that executes a script that “saves” the video URL. Here is the script:

#!/bin/sh

xclip -o >> ~/vd1.txt
VIDEO1="$(xclip -o)"
echo "\n" >> ~/vd1.txt

TITLE=$(youtube-dl -e ${VIDEO1})
notify-send -i "/usr/share/icons/gnome/32x32/mimetypes/video-x-generic.png" 'Youtube Added ...' "${TITLE}"

xclip -i /dev/null

Once I’ve made my list up to download the youtube-videos, and are ready to consume oodles of bandwidth on the free public wifi at the library or other locations, I run my script that downloads the videos.

#!/bin/bash

mkdir -p /home/andy/Videos/Home.Watching/
mkdir -p /home/andy/Videos/Home.Listening/

FILE=/home/andy/vd${1}.txt

if [ -f $FILE ]; then		
	for WORD in `cat $FILE`; do
		if [ ${#WORD} -gt 5 ]; then 
		   TITLE=$(youtube-dl -e ${WORD}) 
		   notify-send -i "/usr/share/icons/gnome/32x32/mimetypes/video-x-generic.png" -t 25000 -u normal  'Started Download' "${TITLE}"
		   cd /home/andy/Videos/Home.Watching/
		   youtube-dl --mark-watched $WORD
		   convert-home-watching-to-listening & # script shown below
		   notify-send -i "/usr/share/icons/gnome/32x32/mimetypes/video-x-generic.png" -t 10000 -u normal  'Downloaded' "${TITLE}"
		fi
	done
	
	NEWFILE=$(basename $FILE).done.txt
	mv $FILE /home/andy/$NEWFILE
        
done

ls -t /home/andy/Videos/Home.Watching/*/*|xargs -d '\n' vlc &

Nice, but there is one more part. I like to be able to listen to videos on my phone while at camp, hiking, or walking, so I also have a script to convert them over to MP3 format using ffmpeg. I also automatically delete any MP3 files that don’t match videos on my system, as I figure if I deleted the videos, I probably don’t need them.

#!/bin/bash

MOVIES=/home/andy/Videos/Home.Watching
LISTEN=/home/andy/Videos/Home.Listening

# first delete any MP3s
# that don't have a matching
# movie file
for f in $LISTEN/*
do
	FILE=${f##*/}
	BASE=${FILE%%.*}
	
	if ! ls $MOVIES/"$BASE"* 1> /dev/null 2>&1 
	then
		rm "$f"
	fi
done

touch $LISTEN/.nomedia # so these files don't appear with my music files

# then do the conversion of 
# the Movies to MP3s
for f in $MOVIES/*
do
	FILE=${f##*/}
	BASE=${FILE%%.*}
	#echo $BASE
	
	if [[ ! -f $LISTEN/"$BASE".mp3 ]]
	then
		ffmpeg -i "$f" $LISTEN/"$BASE".mp3
	fi
done

Lastly, I use jmtpfs and rsync to sync the files over to my phone. The ten second delay, if the folder is not mounted, is so I see that things weren’t mounted, because the phone is unplugged.

#!/bin/bash

jmtpfs -l
mkdir -p ~/phone/
jmtpfs ~/phone/
if [ -d "/home/andy/phone/SD card/Home.Listening" ]
then
	rsync -v --progress /home/andy/Videos/Home.Listening/* "/home/andy/phone/SD card/Home.Listening"
	cd
	fusermount -u ~/phone/
else 
	sleep 10
fi

I keep seeing ads that say that Wi-Fi is essential 💻

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I keep seeing ads that say that Wi-Fi is essential 💻

The thing is since the pandemic has come and gone, and my smartphone plan now offers unlimited data aka 60 GB a month, plus a 5 GB hotspot, I find that harder to believe. It’s hard to use that much data on a phone. The thing is the modern, basic smartphone can do nearly as much as laptop can do, at least as far as social media, web browsing, Youtube and email. 4G seems plenty fast to me.

I don’t particularly enjoy sitting at a desk — especially after a day at work doing that, and would rather have my phone where I can take it wherever is comfortable. My phone uses a lot less power then my laptop, easier to lug around, and works wherever I have cell service. And not having WI-FI on my laptop means when I’m using it, I don’t have distractions of social media or email pings, or the ability to wander off into the vast space of the inter-webs.