In the 00s there were these special walkie-talkies that would set up an independent mesh network to communicate without cell service or internet connectivity. That was more peer to peer than federation, I guess, but it’s a pretty cool invention that was only used to send messages between Barbie coloured pieces of plastic.

Meshtastic is trying to do something similar right now, I’m not sure how much Barbie colored plastic is involved though. I wonder what kind of tech those were using, I’ve never heard of it before and Google isn’t being helpful.

… Wait, are you taking about Cybiko? I wanted one of those when I was a kid even though I didn’t know anyone who had one and didn’t live somewhere with the density to really use the tech.

There’s not, it’s too new. There’s some stuff Fire toolkit could do but it’s severely limited on newer Fire tablets.

I’ve got a 2021 Kindle Fire HD 10 tablet and I’m sick of Amazon’s crap. I mostly use it for watching YouTube, any recommendations for a ~$150 (non-Samsung) tablet the same size or bigger with a headphone jack? Willing to buy used.

Yes*

*Either you go with the Android build or you take one more step towards joining the cult of Linux.

I wonder how they managed that, I’ve been here about a year and a half and I use Linux now, lol.

I grew up in Florida. I remember Jeb Bush as governor. When the GOP rolled out their clown car of candidates that year, I hoped they picked Jeb.

That is amazing

Might be helpful if the guy lost his phone at a party or something.

For the monument to your hubris, maybe make it a space elevator too? Also satellites can totally get around your enormous shining dong, it won’t successfully clear LEO like you hope.

They did though. It was shit but I can confirm it existed for reasons that I don’t think I’m still under NDA for but I’d rather not risk it… did you know that there’s a conspiracy theory about a Nazi base in Antarctica?

My roommate mentioned it a few days ago, and I found out this evening that her and her girlfriend are both using it. While it may have started off as an astroturf, it’s legit now.

Which stadium does his current subscriber count fill now?

It’d be incredible for deaf people being able to read captions for spoken conversations and to have the other person’s glasses translate from ASL to English.

Honestly I’d be a bit shocked if the AI ASL -> English doesn’t exist already, there’s so much training data available, the Deaf community loves video for obvious reasons.

There’s actually an iPho restaurant in the Twin Cities. No clue if it’s any good, but the name is fun.

Just going to be the one to say it…

Ew, HP.

I thought it went into early access a few years ago?

Yeah, it’s got a steam release date of 2021 and it’s still in early access. That said, I also bought it early this year or late last year and have played a lot of it too.

(IDK where I’m going with this other than to say that anyone with even a passing interest in the genre should get Timberborn, it’s fantastic and just getting better.)

Yes, but now I regret not going for the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy reference.

A teapot in orbit around the sun somewhere between Earth and Mars.

Ooh, I’m a brain dead idiot, are your clients hiring?

Sure, but 10 was worse than 7, especially current 10. Six months ago or so, I booted up an e-waste laptop I had that was still running a very old version of 10 and seeing it running next to current Windows 10… it’s gotten so bad. I’ve never actually used 11, 10 got so bad I jumped ship early.