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I'm primarily interested in tech stuff but I am not a programmer or developer. I use #Linux but I'm not an expert. Lately I am becoming more interested in #solar energy. Unfortunately I am finding that as I grow older, a lot of the things that used to be fun and interesting no longer are, and tech stuff just seems generally more difficult.

I'm somewhat #liberal but if you go on rants about people who eat meat, or think Americans should give up their cars and ride bicycles (even in the dead of winter or pouring rain, or when they have 8 bags of groceries to haul home from a store 10 miles away) or some similar nonsense, then you probably won't want to follow me. I know climate change is happening, but there are solutions that North Americans will accept and solutions that they never will, or that are just plain impractical for many people.

I'm mildly interested in #spirituality but not organized religion of any kind. Been there, done that, got the emotional scars to prove it.

#Google #Gemini can't identify the creator of a (Google owned) #YouTube video!

I often use Google Gemini to summarize long or complex YouTube videos (tip to YouTube creators, if you don't want me to do that BE BRIEF and don't show me several minutes of your dog, baby, wife, trip though the woods, new farm equipment, etc.). Gemini usually does an okay job of this but it is so stupid in the way it works. If you just give it the URL of the video, it will usually summarize a completely different video than the one you requested! If you give it the video title AND the URL, it seems to find the correct video but totally hallucinates the creator or channel name! I give you this example: I wrote, "Please summarize this video: LiFePO4 That Charges Below Freezing?! Eco-Worthy Cubix 100 Pro Review — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6Ud-sc3pRE" and it replied,

> In the video, Will Prowse reviews the Eco-Worthy Cubix 100 Pro, a 48V 100Ah (5.12kWh) LiFePO4 server rack battery. ...

The video was by Adam De Lay, not Will Prowse. So I wrote, "Where are you getting Will Prowse from?"

> To answer your question directly: Will Prowse is the creator of the YouTube channel DIY Solar Power with Will Prowse.

> The video link you provided (W6Ud-sc3pRE) is the specific review he posted on March 24, 2026, titled "LiFePO4 That Charges Below Freezing?! Eco-Worthy Cubix 100 Pro Review."

> In the solar and DIY battery community, Prowse is a well-known authority because he performs detailed "teardowns" where he physically cuts batteries open to inspect the internal wiring, BMS (Battery Management System), and cell quality. ...

Now while all that is more or less true, Prowse is still not the creator of this video. So I tried again... "Look on that page, who is the creator of that video?"

> You are right to double-check—I apologize for that confusion.

> Upon closer inspection, the video W6Ud-sc3pRE was actually created by the channel Theresa Trick For That.

> The confusion likely stems from the fact that Will Prowse (a very prominent figure in the DIY solar community) released a review of the exact same battery at nearly the same time. Theresa's video specifically references Will’s review and addresses his concerns, leading to the mix-up in the summary.

No, the confusion is that Gemini isn't actually looking at the YouTube page, which kind of blows my mind. AND the channel it is referring to now is actually called "There's a Trick for That" (nobody named Theresa involved AFAIK). So I replied, "You are still wrong, it is not Will Prowse or ''There's a trick for that''. Are you unable to read the page and see whose channel that is?"

Take a guess...

> I apologize for the inaccuracy in my previous responses. I clearly dropped the ball on identifying the creator of that specific video link.

> The video you linked (W6Ud-sc3pRE) is from the YouTube channel Pay Off Solar. ...

And so it went. The next time I asked it said "The video W6Ud-sc3pRE is from the channel The Tech Teacher." I finally had to tell it that the channel creator's name is Adam De Lay. But if it can't even get the creator's name right on a video from a sister site, can it be trusted to get *anything* right? 🤔

#ai #llm

LiFePO4 That Charges Below Freezing?! Eco-Worthy Cubix 100 Pro Review

YouTube

Do you experience unexplained crashes or freeze-ups on your Ubuntu (or other) Linux based home theater PC or gaming system? Here is a possible fix!

After installing Ubuntu 22.04, Kodi on a home theater PC would frequently freeze. This issue, applicable to various Linux distros, can be resolved by increasing the vm.max_map_count value in sysctl.conf. This setting controls the maximum number of memory map areas a process may have, crucial for applications like Kodi that use numerous memory-mapped files.

https://twosortoftechguys.wordpress.com/2024/04/25/do-you-experience-unexplained-crashes-or-freeze-ups-on-your-ubuntu-or-other-linux-based-home-theater-pc-or-gaming-system-here-is-a-possible-fix/

Do you experience unexplained crashes or freeze-ups on your Ubuntu (or other) Linux based home theater PC or gaming system? Here is a possible fix!

After installing Ubuntu 22.04, Kodi on a home theater PC would frequently freeze. This issue, applicable to various Linux distros, can be resolved by increasing the vm.max_map_count value in sysctl…

Two "Sort Of" Tech Guys

Sounds more like #ChristianNationalism Day🤔

Trump wants Election Day to be called "Christian Visibility Day"😬

“Former President #Trump at a Tuesday night rally in Wisconsin said he wants #Election Day this year to be called "#ChristianVisibilityDay."

Why it matters: It comes as #Republicans criticize the #Biden White House for recognizing #Transgender Day of Visibility — which happened to fall on #Easter Sunday this year”

#fascism #Fascists #voteblue
https://www.axios.com/2024/04/03/trump-wants-christian-visibility-day

Trump wants "Christian visibility day"

Republicans have criticized the Biden White House for recognizing Transgender Day of Visibility.

Axios

All I can say is that if the Consumer Product Safety Commission goes along with this and the current high prices are maintained, people (specifically home woodwookers) will just improvise their own home-built table saws, either by modifying portable circular saws or by buiding table saws using standard electric motors salvaged from old appliances, furnaces, etc. I know this is possible because my dad built one using (I think) an old washing machine motor, and he used it to saw all the lumber he used to build his garage. Was it safe by today's standards? No way, but it did work and somehow he managed to not lose any fingers.

Home-built units will be even less safe that the currently available commercial models, but they will be affordable for people who are not in the construction trades, and they are really not that hard to build. Clearly nobody seems to have really considered the unintended consequences of this potential regulation.

Another alternative will be just using portable circular saws (with or without rip fences) which also aren't quite as safe but are very affordable, plus they tend to show up at yard sales. And I will be shocked if no videos appear showing circular saw to table saw conversions.

Don't get me wrong, the safe table saw is a great idea, and I would love to see this safety feature on every table saw if it is reasonably priced (adding not more than a few dollars to the cost above where current models are priced), but not if it means obscene profits for a single company that may be price gouging if the #CPSC allows it. Experienced builders are probably going to hate them anyway, because they may falsely trigger on lumber that is a little too "green" (ever seen how wet some pressure-treated lumber is right after you buy it?) and my understanding is that when the #safety mechanism is triggered it totally destroys the saw blade. Which is a small price to pay to save fingers, but if it turns out that it false triggers a lot then people will just find a way to disable the safety mechanism (to avoid having to continually buy and change out saw blades), defeating the whole purpose.

How much would you pay to make sure you never sawed off a finger?
https://www.theage.com.au/world/north-america/how-much-would-you-pay-to-make-sure-you-never-sawed-off-a-finger-20240331-p5fgdd.html

#ProductSafety #regulation #patent #ConsumerSafety #GovernmentPolicy #GovernmentOverreach

How much would you pay to make sure you never sawed off a finger?

What if the government said you had no choice but to pay up? And what if only one company held the patents for the safety mechanism?

The Age

@rbreich We need a constitutional amendment that says something like "No corporation, association, or other collective group of entities is entitled to the rights or protections afforded persons under this Constitution, and shall not be considered as a person for purposes of this constitution, nor in legal proceedings. The individuals who are part of such groups retain all their rights as individuals, even when acting on behalf of such groups, but the group itself has no rights apart from those granted to individual persons within the group. When this constitution refers to a person, it means a member of the biological species homo sapiens, and not to any group of persons, corporation or association, machine, or artifically created intelligence."

Or somerthing along those lines (I am not a lawyer, so I apologize is something is imprecise).

#Conservative Judges Sound Alarm: Trump Will Shred Our #Justice System
Prominent conservative #judges are warning that #Trump is posing a threat that’s like “nothing in American history.”
https://newrepublic.com/post/180282/conservative-judges-sound-alarm-trump-will-shred-justice-system
#project2025 #GOP #Republicans #fascism #court
Conservative Judges Sound Alarm: Trump Will Shred Our Justice System

Prominent conservative judges are warning that Trump is posing a threat that’s like “nothing in American history.”

The New Republic

My opinion is that the correct response to Fedi Garden (or any other instance that says they won't federate with an instance that federates with #Threads ) should be:

"You go to hell!"

This is no different than if you throw a party and invite several people and a few of them say "we won't come if certain other people you've invited are there." If you are polite, you might say "Sorry, we'll miss you." If, however, you think they are just a bunch of assholes trying to tell you who you can or cannot associate with, you might tell them to just f**k right off.

I get it, they all hate Zuckerberg, but they're not punishing Zuckerberg. If anything, they are driving Mastodon users to create Threads accounts so they can communicate with their friends there, rather than communicate with them through Mastodon. Zuckerberg couldn't care less. It is your USERS you are hurting if you block Threads.

I get defederating an instance if they are doing something really bad. But wanting to be able to follow Threads users in and of itself is not bad. Zuck is arguably bad, some other individual Threads users are bad, but the bulk of Threads users are probably not bad and I for one would like to be able to read what they post without having to set up an account on Threads. And if the #FediGarden people don't like it, they should be told to stick their #authoritarian nonsense where the sun don't shine.

Fedi Garden to Instance Admins: “Block Threads to Remain Listed”
https://wedistribute.org/2024/03/block-threads-to-remain-listed/
#fediverse #Mastodon

Fedi Garden to Instance Admins: "Block Threads to Remain Listed"

A community index of servers added a new rule recently, that requires every participant to defederate from Threads. Some admins are unhappy.

We Distribute

Donald Trump has, for years, used Christian imagery as a powerful rhetorical tool.

@axios built this collection of stories on Trump's $59.99 bibles, why evangelicals support him and more.

https://flip.it/S8_GbW

#Trump #Religion #Evangelical #USPolitics #Politics #ChristianNationalism

Trump's Bibles and the evolution of his messianic message

Trump has, for years, treated Christian imagery as a powerful rhetorical tool. A majority of Republicans see him as "a man of faith." His recent decision to begin selling $60 Bibles has drawn little reaction from evangelical leaders.

Flipboard

@drewharwell @Lunatech
One obvious end-game of the bridge-and-tunnel grifter with imposter syndrome was to con financial markets in Manhattan.

Of course! 🤦🏻‍♂️

Georgia GOP vice chairman, a vocal 2020 election denier, voted illegally 9 times

https://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/georgia-gop-vice-chairman-brian-pritchard-voted-illegally-9-times-felony

Georgia GOP vice chairman, a vocal 2020 election denier, voted illegally 9 times

Brian Pritchard, first vice chairman of the Georgia Republican Party, was ordered to pay a $5,000 fine and to “be publicly reprimanded for his conduct" by the State Election Board, which sought sanctions against him.

FOX 5 Atlanta