Sadge :(

Remember, a local backup isn’t a real backup. I have setup a storage system with my brother. He stores his stuff on my server and I store my stuff on his. All encrypted and synced daily, plus we do periodic verify to prevent bit rot. When we need expansion we pool our money and both expand our servers the same amount.

You are right in how wasteful it is, especially since it turned out a lot of those satellites don’t even make it to 4 years.

However there is zero risk of space trash with Starlink. They orbit so low, it’s basically within the atmosphere still. They need to constantly boost themselves, otherwise they fall down and burn up. So these satellites are coming down within years all on their own, even without any controlled disposal.

It’s insanely wasteful, but it keeps SpaceX in business launching every week, which is kind of the point. But at least there isn’t a Kessler syndrome waiting to happen.

Oops that was a typo, that should have been can’t

Who fucking cares at this point? Trump has done so much worse things by now. He can’t legally be president for a third term, so it’s not like it’s gonna impact his re-election. Most of the world already hates the man and think he is vile and disgusting. What is one pee tape going to change.

The pee tape could release today and be barely in the current news cycle. One camp will say “This just confirmed what we already knew”, the other camp will say “Fake news”. And tomorrow it will be forgotten.

No, it has to be something way worse than a simple pee video.

Thanks for the suggestion. It’s my laptop from work, I have zero say in what software it runs, I don’t even have admin rights on it. None of my personal stuff runs Windows. But it might help other people on their own machines.

Please let them also remove all the XBox nonsense. The other day my laptop from work that runs Windows 11 Pro gave a big ass prompt if I didn’t want to try XBox Game Pass with the new Doom game. It’s basically an ad for games on a Pro machine, ridiculous.

I assume it’s to handle DDOS attacks? If somebody has beef with your instance, it would be very easy to bring it down for an extended period of time without some kind of protection in front.

It’s kind of like a fire extinguisher, everything is fine without it, right up to the point it isn’t.

Ah you are from the US? No then it probably won’t be available. The US is very slow to make changes in retail. You only recently got those digital price tags that update constantly, we’ve had those for 10 years or so. In Europe the hand scanner or app self scan thing is very common.

Yup, that’s the one.

I think where I live it’s a company that offers the whole thing white label to supermarket and other shops. The systems are very similar across a bunch of different stores, but the branding is specific to the store. So their logo, their colors. Not just on all the UIs (both the scanner and the checkout), but also the physical hardware colors.

The hand scanners all run Android, the other day I got one that said Google Play Services had crashed. The scanner itself is probably made by Zebra and then customized by the company providing the scan and checkout solution.

It has become super common around here, to the point where I’m annoyed when it isn’t an option and I have to use the self-checkout where you need to scan at the checkout.

No, the hand scanners aren’t connected to the kiosks. They are at the entrance, you pick them up, scan all you want to buy. Then at checkout you place the scanner into a kiosk, it knows what you bought and you can checkout as usual. Every once in a while a store employee takes the scanners and puts them into the holders in the entrance. Depending on the size of the store there can be up to a hundred of these scanners available.

Other stores do the same, except your phone is the scanner with an app you can download. It works basically the same way. Most stores that offer the app also offer the hand scanners, which I prefer.

For me personally, the self checkout is just a way better solution to the problem. It’s for me much faster and more efficient. It’s also easier for the store itself. The best kind of self checkout for me is where you can scan everything with a hand scanner or app whilst shopping. Then just pay at the self checkout and walk out. That way I just put the stuff in my bag directly, instead of from the shelf into the basket or cart. Then from the cart to the checkout and then from the checkout into my bag. It also spreads out the action of scanning the products, which means avoiding a slow and repetitive task scanning it all in 1 go. I’m also not blocking a checkout whilst scanning. I hate it when stores that offer the hand scanner have people scanning a whole cart full of stuff at the checkout. And then bagging it of course, which blocks a checkout for ages. Just go to the regular checkout if you want to do that, the cashier is faster than you are and you can focus on bagging exclusively.

However the lack of human contact is an issue. I’ve seen a lot of stores that offer self checkout recently make one or two lines available for chatting. It’s just the regular oldskool cashier, but they are relaxed about it and chat with the customer. This means people in a hurry or that don’t need contact right then can go fast through the self checkout. And people who like to chat can use the chatty checkout with a good old human being.

This for me is the best way to apply new tech, all of the benefits for all parties involved and hopefully none of the downsides.

In trouble shooting it always important to answer at least these questions when asking for help:

• What are you trying to achieve, eg what is the end result you are hoping for.
• What is the expected behavior, or how do you think it should work?
• What is the experience behavior, so what actually happens and how does that differ from what you expected.
• What steps have you taken in trouble shooting. Are there things you’ve checked or ruled out? How so? What did you try?
• Any background you think is relevant, so which software, hardware, versions, urls etc.

This will help other people help you quickly and efficiently. This will greatly improve your chance of other people being able to help you, or you being able to help yourself.