I have a sony as well, and you can use it as dumb TV, by not agreeing to their privacy policy. If you want to connect it to wifi afterwards, it points you to the privacy policy again, so it seems like the TV follows that. But I’ve also purchased it 4 years ago, so not sure what the status is now.

So far, I’ve seen no ads. I mostly use it mostly via HDMI and sometimes for watching freely available TV via antenna.

Oh brother, where art thou?

Man of constant sorrow. Nuff said

I mean, you already have 12 phalanges on one hand (3 each, from 4 fingers) and you can use your thumb as an indicator.

I think the full phrase is De gustibus non disputandum in contradictorium (declinations might be off somewhere)

Surprised it’s not Nessie

I’ve no idea on the relockable bootloader support with self signed keys. Though I do remember reading at some point from some lad ranting about why it’s a bad idea to relock, and seemed to make sense, so I didn’t look further into the matter. The post was on the… ehm… other website.

Aye, they have unlockable bootloaders and sony also provides instructions and firmware needed to build your own AOSP if that’s your pleasure. I just went the lineageOS way.

That’s a damn shame. I really liked their phones, their only downside, I think, was the crap support - they only give 2 years of updates. But with lineage that is no longer an issue.

In the southeast of Ireland I’ve heard it ‘bodder’, almost like the Danish soft d instead of the th, but it was just a couple of guys so maybe the sample size is a bit off.

Have you looked at what sony has to offer? They latest xperia had a headphone jack, sd card and I believe lineageOS support.

i installed lineageOS on an xperia 5 ii, so older model, and seems to be going strong. got latest update 1 week ago.

Ha. Today I learned. I read it in a Scottish tone, seemed to fit

I’m also a fan of the Scottish way.

A close second is the ‘no bodder’ from Ireland.

regarding your edit there, I guess most people stopped reading at ‘essential oils’ without knowing where this was going.

this is one (the only?) actual medical use for these things - their main thing is that they smell in a certain way that is consistent, so you use them to retrain your sense of smell. that’s it. no taking internally or applying to skin or whatever. just take the stopper off the wee bottle, sniff and repeat for as many bottles as you can be arsed.

when I had covid-19, I didn’t have so well defined scents on hand, but I did have several colognes I could sniff, and I knew fairly well how they were supposed to smell and could use those to gauge my senses. fun times, they were…

Right back at you, fellow hobby and eldricht horror appreciator!

Aside from the Shub-Niggurath worship (I’m more of an Azathoth person, myself), I agree with most things here. I’d just add to the list, group B I guess:

• aquatic animal husbandry and aquascaping (freshwater preferably, saltwater if you are really masochistic and have money to burn on corals and expensive equipment)
• model railroading

I feel these are more ‘apex’ hobbies, wherein you need a bit of everything (chemistry, electronics, an artistic sense, lots of patience) and they will occupy most of your time. You’d think electronics and aquaria are not the closest things, but just you wait until you feel the need to build an LED lamp with simulated day/night cycles and moonlight, controlled by an arduino.

The barrier to entry is fairly low - there are starter sets available and I’ve found that hobby shops of this sort are usually staffed by very knowledgeable people, eager to help newcomers. And, you can go as deep as you want and still have fun. You will also learn an absolute fuckton of things about what you choose to model with your hobby.

An honorable mention for homebrewing, which I don’t even regard as a hobby at this point, but more of a necessity, like cooking.

Manowar had that one song titled ‘Pleasure slave’, if memory serves. No idea if it was a serious song or not. Those were some weird times for music.

you’re fighting a losing battle. ‘having kids is a good thing’ is the only piece of propaganda that is distributed to probably every human. and probably the oldest one, too. it’s also a base instinct, sort of hard to override by reasoning, as anyone who’s ever been horny or hungry can probably attest. this is probably the best example on here related to the posted question.

for what it’s worth, I do think you are correct

it certainly has some ‘war is peace, freedom is slavery’ (and all that) vibes

Sounds to me like an advancement on what Black & White started many years ago. Or what Spore should have been like at the end stage.

It can also lead to priapism if you somehow (through great pain, I’d imagine) manage to retract it and the tight part becomes stuck during an erection. If not treated in time the lack of circulation leads to necrosis.