Back when I was a streamer I used Kodi with the add-ons (I was in a subreddit where the current good ones got posted now and then) and had a Real Debrid account.

It was really convenient, maybe give it a go with your Pi. There’s an OS you can bang on it (is it openelec? Libre-elec? Something like that) and just plug it into your TV. You’ll have to work out controlling it in a convenient way, I have a little keyboard about the size of a remote with a usb dongle. It’s got a little touchpad for the mouse and cost me fuck all on Amazon.

You do have to pay for Real Debrid but it’s totally worth the price and will get you used to paying for piracy.

So the cycle goes:

Install Kodi and play with the free streams and think it’s pretty great, get frustrated because you can’t watch that one thing, finally bite the bullet and get a month of Real Debrid, tell your friends how ace Real Debrid is.

Just skip that and get Real Debrid once you have your Pi set up.

Plex was easy enough to set up. I use plexamp on my phone but can access the Plex server via a browser, which includes my music

Meh my Usenet provider also partners with a VPN provider. Still costs me £5 a month for the VPN but I may as well use it, I like having a VPN

Douch or turd sandwich?

I had a friend bring up this very topic this weekend and I replied “What would be more creepy and more likely is that the ad giants have algorithms for working out what you’ll buy that are that good that they know what you want before you do and you’re just noticing how good it is”

I had a friend at work who said “People who pirate stuff are just as bad as burglers” to me. I had just been Burgled 2 weeks before Christmas.

I replied “Right so I’m as bad as the smack heads that robbed my kids presents, is that what you’re saying?”

He did that thing folk do when they look like a fish breathing then tried to backtrack, but that’s when he became a “work colleague” again.

I got 2 expensive (over £30) ones and the worst one became my travel cube. My cheap but decent cube is my work cube. Work in a factory so I have to not give a single fuck about it.

Thing is, now it’s just sat in my pocket at work for 6 months it’s actually pretty decent. When I bought it and tried to make it decent I couldn’t. It’s like the grease and silicone has made it a half decent cube

Makes sense since the internet is made of cats https://youtu.be/zi8VTeDHjcM

I’m into home automation and self hosting services and the only time I go to Reddit is when a Google search of something I’m researching takes me there.

I don’t log in (which sometimes fucks me, weed subreddits for example need a sign in for ages verification) so if I have to log in I just nope out, and I will actively try to not use Reddit if I can help it.

Honestly the short answer is practice.

Long answer is also practice, but with information lol.

I spent a long time moving from 2 look to 1 look (oll and pll) using this website https://jperm.net/algs/pll I’ve linked the PLL but there’s OLL there too.

On this page I learned as many of these as I could. You can click on the picture and change the status from unlearned to learning to learned, then go to the trainer and you can select those 3 statuses and it will show only things you’ve selected. You can also click on the alg to get alternatives or even put your own alg in.

So I’ve gone to that page and set an alg as training, then just practiced that one alg until I have it in muscle memory. I aimed at trying to get each type of alg learned, so corners are there, or middles need moving, or headlights are there, or even that there is no pattern.

I was advised to learn PLL first then OLL algorithms, but I kinda picked out the patterns I see most in both, or algs that seemed the simplest first. So I have been learning both together and working from easiest to remember to hardest, and also making my own up for the ones that are most complicated.

This meant that I could practice a few, then go and do solves and when the patterns I knew came up I’d get faster solves for those patterns.

Ok so that’s the big time saving out of the way, takes a lot to learn all the algorithms so it’ll take time. But there’s also taking time to plan your cross. That can save you a good chunk because there’s less head scratching when you start.

Then there’s the look ahead, which I’m only just getting. I did a lot of slow solves to get this in my brain and it’s quite big. This is what I’m practicing to get from my 40second average down to 25

So as you’re solving a corner and edge into the corner, once you have it set up into a 3 move insert, you don’t need to look at it anymore. It’s 3 loves to insert, so instead of looking at it as you put it in, you have to train yourself to look for the next 2 pieces you’re putting together.

While your learning the OLL and PLL and just doing solves (not training algs), when you get one you don’t know, try and alg you do know on it. Sometimes this changes your top pattern to an easier pattern that you can solve. It’s like a stopgap 2 look (pll or oll). Eventually as you learn all the algs you’ll find that you can “wing it” with some of the harder algorithms by just doing a couple of easier ones, which is all the harder ones are anyway, a couple of easier algs with a connecting move in the middle.

Hope all that helps. I’d also advise you have a “travel cube.”

I have an extra cube that lives in the pocket of my leather jacket (yes I’m a metal-head Dad, doesn’t quite fit the stereotype does it?) and it comes in useful when I’m stuck in a queue, or at the Dr waiting room or A and E (or emergency care as it’s called in the US). This allows me to cube instead of whipping my phone out when I have time to kill out of the house.

I have up FaceFuck after Brexit and the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

They brainwashed people into voting against their own interests by “Targeted Advertising” which is basically brain washing.

Of course nothing came of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, and I can’t do anything about that as a Plebian, so I just left.

I left Reddit when they took my favourite app. I used it to Doomscroll and that wasn’t great for my mental health, so it was a no-brainer

So Lemmy and only Lemmy for me. I got over my addiction to social media by taking up the Rubik’s Cube.

I’m currently working on getting an average solve under 30 seconds…

So if you use your social media time to do something productive instead, you can do some crazy shit

It’s Cock Nose

I have a mini PC and Proxmox, a Debian VM with a Portainer stack, and plex

Guybrush Threepwood. Still got the new one to go at

I get “Can I talk like a pirate” from Jake and the Neverland Pirates appear in my mind.

“I’ve been talking this way, since my birthdays began”

Then I artistically move my brain on to something I prefer. Alestorm

Well I guess it’s racist to call them bell ends now then, fucking bell ends

Yeah I’ve tried that search multiple times myself and end up back on Google for driving, it’s just superior

My car has Bluetooth only. I wanted Android Auto because it was awesome on my phone, so I got an Android Auto tablet off Ali Express.

It’s not arrived yet, I’m expecting it after the weekend, but I can’t wait to have that UI back, that ease of use while driving.

It can connect to my Car by Aux or FM radio so can be wireless. I’ll be changing to connecting to it instead of my car over Bluetooth. Then I’ll be able to use the UI or Voice to control my phone while it’s still in my pocket.

I hope it turns out as well as it is in my mind. For £30 it’s worth a go

Even if you manage to stop the WiFi hack he can still get in to your network through the ethernet ports. He could train an army of ants to pull a wire through a small hole in your wall and attach it to your router.

Just in case, fill all your unused ports with yoghurt. This will drown the ants

We just take a tote bag full. If anyone says anything they have just lost our custom. Can’t stop people smuggling snacks when nobody goes