I like this logic, lets all become shareholders.

Power, Domain Name (if using a standard paid one instead of the cheaper route), VPN are the 3 that I pay for that I feel are the bare minimum.

I pay for a domain that’s $12, but you could easily get the $1 ones for the same purposes. I pay for a static and service VPN with Windscribe, which comes out to be like $35+$89 respectively. So that’s already $136 a year excluding the cost of power. I could cut that cost easily, but I use them for more than just my selfhosting so I feel like it’s a fair price for what I get out of it.

I’m not sure if iGPU’s are typically used for transcoding, which may be part of why you’re having difficulty finding solutions.

As for re-encoding H264 into H265, increased file size is common. Encoding from source for the first time into H265 will lower file sizes, but if you’re re-encoding something you’re almost always going to lose data while increasing file size, especially on hardware encoders due to the methods and time it takes.

Basically, try your hand at Very Slow software encoding. Wait a day. This H265 file will likely be smaller than the Hardware Encodes of the same thing.

Hm so it is, I could have sworn that Temu was around before 2022

I think Temu has been around a bit longer, Wish just got more popular during Covid

With Ublock Origin, click on the extension and at the bottom there is “element zapper” and “element picker”. I usually select one of these, then use it to select the unwanted pop-ups.

Just be careful, sometimes the popups are designed to blank out the whole page you’re trying to view. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t

Are you not able to use the element zapper to block the pop-up from appearing?

Full frame or part frame?

The former is 1bil^6 pages and the latter is 30 pages

Diabolical?

Drink when R2 appears.

If you think that’s not enough for all 9 movies than add C-3PO.

That should have you well paced for all of them without killing you or being too slow.

doesn’t change the fact a lot of stuff is still made in mainland China.

Which doesn’t change the fact that you can do your due diligence to avoid purchasing things made there? That is their point, afterall…

I use lib-redirect for everything if I really need to get to a reddit link. It’s rare, but there are certain types of communities where I’d like to get a “average laymans” perspective and unfortunately just due to the size here on the fediverse there is rarely wide-spread availability. As you mentioned, specific games. Lots of hobbies. Even the opportunity for consumer tech talk, if I’m interested in replacing something that’s 8+ years old there’s just not a lot of existing content to search through here and that leaves blog posts and… Reddit.

I’ve had plenty of time recognizing what astroturfing looks like, so I rarely feel like I’m left out of options to search. All that said, I’ve been doing this a lot less since the whole shift happened. Maybe an endeavor every few months, rather than few days/weeks.

I’ve been having issue with it the last couple days, but I also tend to just have issue with it overall lol

Search the credits on linkedin and the like, I’m sure you’d be able to find some

I think there’s a wide spread. I’d say that there’s westerns like Brokeback Mountain and Dances With Wolves, where the suspense is more from the dire circumstances and grit that they have to work through in order to survive – few times are their lives gravely endangered. Similarly, there’s the Clint Eastwood westerns where you don’t really expect anything to be happening to that main character, yet they’re still well received. The “True Grit” style Western – someone to protect while you rough it through the hard life.

And then there’s the westerns you’re talking about, The Good The Bad and The Ugly, nearly Magnificent Seven style western where the characters present an archetype and have a fatal flaw that leads to their downfall.

The Mandalorian is more like a Western of the Week TV show where you have the drama of the grit, an undercurrent of hope that’s played off the main characters hardships.

Idk. Din being invincible in the show is seemingly irrelevant to me, and not even supported in the content of the show. The first two seasons definitely have space Western episodes though, even if they might not be the more typical main character on the verge of death style ones.

Eh. I think characters dying as the only stakes is weak writing anyway. If I were using that as a judgement, all of Star Wars is terrible, especially the Clone Wars. Obviously, that’s not the case. Besides, clearly the armor rating is meaningless given the events of the S2 finale – clearly the armor isn’t protecting him from impacts what with his head injury.

We if look to Ming Na Wen’s character I’d even argue that being hit by blasters in New Star Wars is just an opportunity to visit the medic anyway, so Din wearing beskar doesn’t really remove any of the suspense for me.

Maybe he was worried that Luke would go down the same path his father would, so he kept things vague. That was always my take on Old Ben – he wasn’t really guiding Luke to do anything, it was the Force. “Luke, your father was actually a dangerous madman who slew younglings. In fact, is the right hand man, that academy you were joining? It’s Space Fascism, so definitely don’t go and join it to be with your father.” lol

On the topic of the other two – Personally, I liked Kenobi. It has some sillier bits, but nothing IMO that isn’t easily explained (as an example, there’s a scene where young Leia is chased by mercenaries and she kinda dunks on them. People hate it. I think it was a clear example of her Force Sensitivity, so I don’t mind it at all.) Its main shortcoming for me was the villains could have been better and Reva was a bit predictable. I didn’t think she was as bad as the Internet did.

Ahsoka… I wanted to like. It had a lot of potential, most of my issues were that it seemed like they were filming a video game, but since we’re not playing Ahsoka we end up just watching her interact with things we have no meaning for. Other than that, it was decent save for what they did to Sabine, which was just a disgrace to her character. Sabine was disappointing, over and over again. Overall, I think it has been my least favorite of the Star Wars shows as it has had the most visible quirks and awkward shots.

As a continuation of that story it’s pretty decent and I’m excited for S2. But as a continuation of that story, the characters were not as strong as I felt they could have been. Time passed and people change, that’s fine. This wasn’t quite that though.

The mystery is part of the character. He also gets plenty of plot, it’s just not shoved in our faces from the get go. The Mandalorian is one of the best space westerns we’ve gotten in a long time.

Sorry

Man, this is gut wrenching :(