For chat: IRC, Stoat, Fluxer, Root, Zulip, Matrix, Slack, Teams, Guilded.

For voice/video: Mumble, Teamspeak, Jitsi Meet, also several of the above.

Perfect 1:1 drop in hassle free replacement with the exact same feature set? No, there isn’t.

Viable alternatives that aren’t too bad to learn? There are many.

https://github.com/laylavish/uBlockOrigin-HUGE-AI-Blocklist

I found a Pi Hole blocklist that filters out known ai slop websites but even then they’re still clogging up my DDG result. Such a pain.

Also: Phantasy Star is great! Have you played the Sega Ages release? It adds some really cool stuff to make it more playable.

I’m a pretty avid old video game enjoyer and own multiple CRTs. Also had the pleasure of owning and maintaining a 19" Sony PVM until I traded it to a friend for a mountain of GBA games. Still keep a 13" hooked up for the occasional VHS or old game.

That said, I feel like a lot old sentiment toward emulation and modern display tech is rooted in internet opinions from 2010 or prior.

Yes, older and cheaper LCDs with a Bluetooth controller on old emulation tech pales in comparison to a Super Nintendo hooked up to the cheapest CRT ever. But both display tech and emulation tech have come a long way. High quality upscalers, ultra deep blacks, low latency game modes, insane refresh rates, FPGA, Retroarch run-ahead, cycle accurate emulators, and a dozen other breakthroughs have made retro gaming on modern panels extremely enjoyable.

Have you tried any of the various shaders available? I find that a good shader set gets pretty so close to my CRTs that I honestly can’t tell the difference. I have a Retrotink for hardware scaling and it also has very good shader options.

There are options now: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinden_Light_Gun

I use bookmarks for that. All the browsers I use support them.

For those unaware: RSS is still a thing and still works. You don’t need fancy platforms and algorithms to follow sites that post stuff you care about. Just an RSS catcher.

On F-Droid, Capy Reader does a great job and supports full article downloads to circumvent the sites that only put previews on RSS.

I’ve been on and off with Linux for about 15 years and just want to counter some of the people trying to troubleshoot or criticize to say: it can be really tough.

We need our computers to work and we expect things to function correctly.

I’ve used dozens of distros over the years. I was a super early Arch adopter, mained Gentoo for about three years, ran my own BSD server for programming projects, and still maintain several small home Linux servers. And even I sometimes want to pull my hair out trying to get semi-new hardware working right in my distro of choice. I spent three hours today fighting Nvidia and sound drivers and eventually just had to give up on that machine after being told that what I want just flat out isn’t supported in Linux on the hardware I have.

Take a breath, set it aside until you’re ready to take another crack at it, and know that it’s a journey. You’ll get there or the software will catch up and meet you halfway. No shame in being frustrated :)

Not mine, but my sister accidentally kicked a tall floor lamp over in her sleep. It landed right next to the glass aquarium her hamster was in. It had one of those really bright incandescent 100w bulbs.

Poor little guy cooked to death like a Thanksgiving turkey.

IDDQD

Unfortunately options are becoming increasingly limited. My guess is that they’re making more money cramming in ads for people that tolerate it than they are losing money from people who refuse it.

I’ll have to sit down tomorrow to go through these ones, but thanks for listing them all out in such a nice format!

Sounds awesome! On the list.

Well the allure of Rhys Darby might be enough for me to stomach some of it. Time will tell though.

It’s not though! I’ve done 500 episodes of my own podcast and we never charged for a single episode or ran a single ad. Not one single time. We have a Patreon, and it’s optional.

And yes, I’m willing to pay for podcasts if I think they’re worth paying for. I’ve donated to shows I enjoy and paid for others before. I see no issue with people getting paid for their work.

No apology necessary! Many of these are still ending up on lists that may or may not get listened to one day :)

I’m looking to avoid doing that and avoid ad-driven shows in general, hence the original question. I have a few that I tolerate it on, but largely looking to avoid it where possible.

I assume the first one was a typo and you meant Cryptid Factor? Seems like a really cool show, but unfortunately opens straight up with ads. First one was for 1-800-Flowers and then on to one for Rocket Money.