I was skeptical about Sterling when he came in. And he’s not really done much to change my mind. Hopefully he finds his feet and does well with us. But I’m just not seeing it. And unless his form improved significantly, I’d be very relieved if we didn’t turn his into a permanent deal.

It’s getting difficult to find outright dumb TVs now. Although some (including some Sony TVs) give you the choice on setup of choosing either “smart TV” or “basic TV”.

Yes, I might be able to help. I changed my Onn set top box (which uses Android TV) fairly recently to use FLauncher (or Projectivity, I don’t remember which one I chose in the end), but it kept defaulting back to the default launcher. So I jacked it to change what the detail launcher was. After enabling some options ( developer options, USB debugging, verify apps over USB) on my Onn box, I plugged the box into my computer and then used the adb command line tool to change the default launcher (launcherx).

I imagine you could do the same to your Android TV. As long as it has a USB port.

Hope this helps.

ETA: Here are some more detailed instructions I took when I did this:

1. On the ONN tv box installer flauncher and/or projectivity launcher via the Google Play store

2. Make sure developer options is enabled on the ONN tv box (hit okay on Android TV OS build several times)

3. Look up IPv4 address on the ONN TV box under Settings > System > Status

4. Go to the new Developer Options menu item on ONN > settings > system, and make sure: a) Enable developer options is set to on b) USB debugging is set to on c) Verify apps over USB is set to on

5. Download adb platform tools on windows from here: https://developer.android.com/tools/releases/platform-tools8

6. Plug in usb cable between PC and ONN tv box

7. On the ONN tv box go to Settings > System > Developer Options and make sure Select USB Configuration is set to MTP (Media Transfer Protocol)

8. On Windows, open a command line as administrator and go to the adb path

9. In the command line window on windows type: a) adb start-server b) adb connect [ONN ip address] (Note: it might initially say “failed to authenticate to [ip]”, that’s okay, see the next step)

10. On the ONN tv box a pop-up window should appear asking to allow access from windows pc IP address, say OK

11. In the command line window on windows type: adb devices

12. You should see the device as active on the ip you stated and on port 5555

13. Next in the terminal window type the following to disable the default ONN tv default launcher and listener: adb shell pm disable-user --user 0 com.google.android.apps.tv.launcherx

14. Then in the terminal window type: adb shell pm disable-user --user 0 com.google.android.tungsten.setupwraith

15. On the ONN tv box click the home button. It should now either a) go to the additional launcher you installed or b) prompt you for the home app (if you installed multiple additional launchers) so select the one you want (e.g. FLauncher)

16. Now when you hit the home button on the ONN tv box it should always take you to the FLauncher launcher, not the default ONN launcher

Note: If you need to re-enable launcherx, you can use these commands in adb:

adb shell pm enable --user 0 com.google.android.apps.tv.launcherx

adb shell pm enable --user 0 com.google.android.tungsten.setupwraith

My adventures with doing this were based on this post on reddit.

Oh, fair enough then!

ETA: Yes, the lack of mentions of Matrix, etc are a bit disappointing. But I think Matrix is waaay outside their target democratic.

That article may as well be sponsored by WhatsApp. Zero direct mentions of Signal, but tons pushing people to WhatsApp. That’s a bit disappointing.

Edit: I was wrong, it does talk about Signal as well.

Massive boomer energy right there.

The 2038 WC to be hosted by Elon Musk. He will bully and pester MLS into using their biggest stadiums for free, keep exclusive streaming rights for Xitter, force all teams to use cyber trucks, and imprison the media in storage containers in the middle of the Texas wilderness, and constantly moan about how it’s a terrible sport. But because he’ll throw a shit load of money at FIFA, they will gleefully accept all terms.

Great points.

Haha, that figures. Eesh… Lewis-Skelly then? Idk

RB: Nichols

RCD: Saliba

LCD: Kiwior

LB: Tierney

That would be my guess.

Is Nicols ready for a CL match? Maybe. Probably not. But desperate times and all that.

Yes, I think it is. Just give it some time to evolve, and try to be patient with it. It’s got the same issue as other complex sci-fi adaptations (e.g. Foundation), where they need to do some world-building and take a bit of time to clarify and highlight some characters and arcs before they can really go to town. But I have a feeling that starting with the next episode (#5) things will start getting a bit more consistent and interesting.

It has a similar feel to the movies, and a good cast. The dialogue is a bit stilted sometimes, which makes the actors look mediocre. But they are all good actors and are doing their best with the material. And there are some very interesting characters in there (e.g. Desmond Hart and Theodosia), among a number of ‘blah’ characters.

I haven’t read the Sisterhood novel (I read the Prelude trilogy and stopped there since I didn’t like Brian Herbert’s writing style and how much he and Anderson repeated plot exposition). But from what I understand, they’ve made some major changes to the plot arcs in the show. And they seem to be improvements.

Do you reckon the 5 is powerful enough to run a media server with the possibility of transcoding on the fly?

And what will the punishment be? We all know what it will be. They will get to keep all their trophies, face zero point deductions, no transfer limits, and zero financial punishments. They will get the gentlest of slaps on the wrist.

Agreed. While there are a few ranty, hostile, irrational replies here, they are much fewer and farther between than on reddit. Not to mention the raiding and mod witch-hunts here are much milder. That shit got insane on reddit back in the day (I don’t know what it’s like now, since I abandoned reddit about 18 months ago).

Unsubscribe!

So taxpayers dollars will be syphoned away from government programs that can actually help people in trouble, and will instead be spent on some dangerous bullshit orchestrated by Captain Brainworm and his paranoid dipshit lackeys.

Marvelous. 🙄

Good point.

And I agree, I thought it was an excellent episode too. I’ve been reading critic’s complaining about the pacing and how there’s too much dialogue and not enough action. But that’s a very common complaint with shows that have loss of moving parts: the first season is usually slower going. And considering the density of plots and subplots in the Dune universe, it’s basically an inevitability. It’s all about laying down value for future seasons. How do professional critics not get that?!

That ending… I was not expecting that! They laid down some hints about Theodosia being unique in previous episodes. But I didn’t see her panning out to be a face dancer!

I now have a lot of questions. Like: what does she really look like (I assume that amorphous being she briefly became while switching from Griffin to Theodosia?)? How the hell did the BG manage to recruit a face dancer? How is is Theodosia? Is Theodosia actually make (given that the BT women are actually axlotl tanks)? It were women still interactive, sentient entities in BT society at this point?

Also, it was nice to see an Ixian pop up in the story. I’m hoping they touch on more of the Ixian culture in this series.

Florida Man 27: Into The Operating Room

So we have an incoming administration that:

• Is focused on economic and legal revenge above serving the people
• Is hell-bent on gutting the federal government and replacing experienced civil service staff with loyal, clueless lackeys
• Wants to deport millions of illegal immigrants regardless of the economic consequences
• Plans on disenfranchise millions of voters from both parties so it can create a theocratic autocracy
• Doesn’t understand how tariffs work but is determined to use them anyway
• Has a leader who is in the pocket of a foreign enemy
• Will lean heavily into energy strategies that focus on climate change denialism
• Has a history of pissing off our allies and fawning over our enemies

And those are just the points that spring to mind. There’s are plenty of other problematic points.

Yeah, this is all going to go down well, isn’t it. /s