Coconut Monkey Cornerclub

[Frindis]

Just bought a syrup-salted cured leg of lamb (called fenalår here in Norway). I can't wait to dig into it!

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[Frindis]

For anyone interested, some of the best WoW players are going against each other, and with the final today:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3sS34EmQAE

 

[ZedClampet]

Never heard of it.

Was started in Nashville and has spread to Knoxville. I wasn't sure whether it was going everywhere like Buffalo chicken or not. Personally, I think it's overrated, but people absolutely love it.

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It's the first time we've been home on Halloween night since the kids were born, and we haven't had a single trick-or-treater.

Everyone goes to my dad's old neighborhood. It's completely flat and the houses are close together. Cars are parked all over the place as thousands of kids wander around gathering candy. I would have thought we'd have gotten a few people, though. I love interacting with spooky kids. Maybe next year we'll go to the other neighborhood and just set up a booth on the side of the road. Other people do that.

 

[ZedClampet]

Just bought a syrup-salted cured leg of lamb (called fenalår here in Norway). I can't wait to dig into it!

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Can't get lamb where I live. You are supposed to use it in my fried spaghetti recipe, but it's nowhere to be found in Knoxville.

 

[Brian Boru]

for a web browser? To be able to dock an application in a tab

You mean eg to have Notepad in a Chrome tab?

Or, alternatively, a

The suspense is killing me…

Stick it in the Software thread, people who might know may scan that one.

a thread where anyone who wants to highlight a particularly good deal can point it out

Surely your monthly thread is the place—where the obsolescence issue takes care of itself But yeah, only a few standouts, not dozen a day.

we haven't had a single trick-or-treater

Well ya trained 'em for the last ~20 years that there's no one home

 

[ZedClampet]

You mean eg to have Notepad in a Chrome tab?

Yes, exactly, but I didn't actually mean to post that, which is why the thought was left half thought. I got distracted by rediscovering Google Docs, which worked fine.

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I should have had a 3rd kid to cover all three stooges. Jethro and Elly May locked themselves of their apartment tonight in 35 degree weather. I called a locksmith, who should be arriving at any moment.

 

[Zloth]

just because this has been driving me crazy all day, the opposite of natural is synthetic, meaning something made by man that doesn't occur in nature. Sorry to be pedantic. My brain just wouldn't let this go.

Hmmmm, so a peanut is natural (aside from a few centuries of breeding). However, if one were to boil a peanut, it would then become synthesized, having undergone a human manufacturing process that does not happen in nature, given that no peanuts grow near active geysers.

But then, what they always say is that the item has natural INGREDIENTS. Peanuts are natural and the only ingredient, hence boiled peanuts are natural.

Except now that you are down to the ingredient level, how far down to you get to go? All those preservatives and whatnot have to be made from rocks, plants, and critters that are cooked, separated, mixed, frozen, and/or zapped. Eventually, they've got to be made from natural ingredients, too!

Does Nashville Hot Chicken exist wherever you live?

Some places have them as special sales. I saw it advertised just a week or so ago, but I'm not sure where it was now.

 

[ZedClampet]

Hmmmm, so a peanut is natural (aside from a few centuries of breeding). However, if one were to boil a peanut, it would then become synthesized, having undergone a human manufacturing process that does not happen in nature, given that no peanuts grow near active geysers.

But then, what they always say is that the item has natural INGREDIENTS. Peanuts are natural and the only ingredient, hence boiled peanuts are natural.

Except now that you are down to the ingredient level, how far down to you get to go? All those preservatives and whatnot have to be made from rocks, plants, and critters that are cooked, separated, mixed, frozen, and/or zapped. Eventually, they've got to be made from natural ingredients, too!


Some places have them as special sales. I saw it advertised just a week or so ago, but I'm not sure where it was now.

When two or more atoms or molecules are merged together through various processes in a lab, often using reagents, they can create a compound. This is called a synthesis reaction and the original "ingredients" no longer exist. This is the whole basis of chemistry and this is where synthetics come from and what separates them from "natural" substances.

Synthetics are created in a lab by breaking molecular bonds and creating new ones in order to create a completely new substance not found in nature. Synthetics can now also be created with nuclear reactions, colliders, etc. Nothing about these substances is natural.

Sometimes you can change a single chemical into something else. As an example, Tetrachloroethylene can be made by passing chloroform vapor through hot tubes.

Anyway, yes, most synthetics (but not all--see atom smashers) start from a natural ingredient, but that hardly means they are natural. Just saying everything originated in stars and is "natural" kind of misses the point.

 

[BeardyHat]

It's the first time we've been home on Halloween night since the kids were born, and we haven't had a single trick-or-treater.

My kids got screwed out of it tonight. We're all sick, so we don't even get the pleasure of handing out candy, but we did put a bowl out.

Tried to at least make tonight fun for ours, had pizza and watched a movie (Hocus Pocus, of course), then let them pick out of our candy bowl and have hot chocolate, so hopefully didn't suck too much for them.

 

[ZedClampet]

My kids got screwed out of it tonight. We're all sick, so we don't even get the pleasure of handing out candy, but we did put a bowl out.

Tried to at least make tonight fun for ours, had pizza and watched a movie (Hocus Pocus, of course), then let them pick out of our candy bowl and have hot chocolate, so hopefully didn't suck too much for them.

That stinks. Sounds like you made the best of it.

And, hey, now I have two bags of Reece's Cups, so there's a silver lining for having no one show up.

 

[Zloth]

Synthetics are created in a lab by breaking molecular bonds and creating new ones in order to create a completely new substance not found in nature.

But doesn't that happen when you cook?

Synthetics can now also be created with nuclear reactions, colliders, etc. Nothing about these substances is natural.

Not a whole lot of things to buy that use those processes! (Though not none!)

 

[ZedClampet]

But doesn't that happen when you cook?

Yes, but your over-simplification of believing that since every substance has its origin in the Big Bang and therefore is natural is nonsensical. What would you do if you were the first human on Mars and you found an alien spacecraft? Would you call it natural since all the materials originated in some form from stars?

It was obviously made by some intelligence, as are synthetic compounds. If you don't call the alien spacecraft natural, then you can't call synthetics natural.

*drops mic*

 

[D10S]

Saw that.

Only problems with having a discount thread is that there are always hundreds of games on sale and most of the thread will be out of date after a few days, but it wouldn't be a bad idea to have a thread where anyone who wants to highlight a particularly good deal can point it out.

No reason we can't give it a try. Nothing wrong with that. Do you want to start it?

Yeah, the bundle that cost 99pln yesterday is 136 now. still, that's 51% off. Glad I bought them at 65% off tho.

 

[Pifanjr]

Trick or treating here is next Saturday, but my wife made an attempt to cook some spooky food and we watched Hotel Transylvania with our kid.

 

[ZedClampet]

@Brian Boru @Frindis (I think it was you two who I was talking to about this)

Something perhaps interesting happened between me and Google. So I told you they had given me warnings that they were turning off my videos if I didn't unblock the ads, so I switched to Edge.

Well, yesterday (so small sample size) out of habit, I opened up Chrome and went to YouTube and started watching videos with my adblock on and got no messages at all. My theory is that since I use my Google account in Edge that Google realized I had switched browsers and reset, at the least, my warnings in Chrome or possibly removed them altogether.

Only time will tell, of course. I could start getting warnings again at any moment, but I thought it was worth noting what happened. Not that I'm overly attached to Chrome and want to use it at all cost. I'm okay with Edge, but am also thinking about trying out some other browsers. The major thing that prevents me from doing that is the Google password functionality, which I may be able to transfer to the new browser.

I'm going to try out Brave and give that Opera browser designed for gamers again. There's nothing wrong with Edge, I'm just looking around since I'm changing.

 

[Frindis]

@ZedClampet I have been using Chrome but with an alt account. Somehow, I get zero adds and I am not sure as to what. My only guess is that perhaps having a long-living account with tons of subscribed channels is more interesting for Google to be aggressive against, than a new channel with only a few subs if you look at it money-wise.

 

[Brian Boru]

since I use my Google account in Edge that Google realized I had switched browsers and reset, at the least, my warnings in Chrome

Hmm yeah, interesting

I'm still getting ads and let them play while I open other videos from my subs in other tabs. Then go back and replay video from start—so in practice I only see an occasional ad embedded in the body of a video. With those, I watch not the ad but the Skip Ad button countdown

Seems clear they're messing around with different ideas at the moment. I've never used Chrome with my Google accounts—YT and Gmail webmail—altho they keep nudging me.

that Opera browser designed for gamers

I dropped Opera GX a while back, I may have mentioned why in the Software thread. I also dropped Opera—in both cases if I recall correctly, it was functionality issues like glitches or slowness or sth…

Edge is my default, but there's stuff in it I don't like—eg search, image handling—so I spend more time in my remaining browser, Vivaldi, which is top notch. There are a few sites V won't open tho, or work properly in, which Edge handles like a champ, so I suspect Edge is very solid under the hood.

SO has been using Firefox for quite a while without problems, so I'll try that next if I need another—unlikely, unless E or V make a mess.

 

[Frindis]

Speaking of ads, our beloved Amazon Video is introducing ads in 2024, so you'll have to pay a fee to not get ads. You know what I did? I canceled my subscription. I'm not interested in hearing their pathetic sob story about why they need more money for the 1% narcissists.

 

[Pifanjr]

So far my adblocker is still working on YouTube videos, though I did notice the video got paused after ~3 seconds each time as it removed the adblocker warning.

 

[ZedClampet]

So far my adblocker is still working on YouTube videos, though I did notice the video got paused after ~3 seconds each time as it removed the adblocker warning.

If it's removing an adblocker warning, it isn't really working. It would have to stop the warning from ever showing up to begin with.

After thinking about it some more, I realized that when YouTube was blocking me, I was using a VPN. It didn't know who I was and thought I was from Singapore. But I'm not even getting the adblock warning anymore since I used Edge for a few days and turned off my VPN.

If you want to see if your adblocker works, probably try using a VPN.

 

[ZedClampet]

Remember a week ago when I complained about being exhausted and sleeping for a couple of days and blamed it on the shingles vaccine? It's looking possible that I actually had Covid. My wife feels terrible, is running a fever, is exhausted and is getting ready to take a home test.

 

[neogunhero]

Remember a week ago when I complained about being exhausted and sleeping for a couple of days and blamed it on the shingles vaccine? It's looking possible that I actually had Covid. My wife feels terrible, is running a fever, is exhausted and is getting ready to take a home test.

Hope you guys start to feel better soon. That’s some nasty stuff. Take care Zed and family!

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I know I’ve talked about upgrading my CPU for at least 6 months now but this Black Friday/Cyber Monday (what’s even the difference anymore?) I’m going to pull the trigger on hopefully a Ryzen 5800X. Should blow my old 1600X out of the water, he’ll even a 5600X or 5700X would, but looking at pricing history, seems the 5800X goes down pretty low during sales.

 

[Brian Boru]

Amazon Video is introducing ads in 2024, so you'll have to pay a fee to not get ads

Why some streaming companies are leaning into adverts and raising prices

Consumers ditched cable so they didn't have to see commercials. Now, the adverts they hoped to escape are returning to streaming media. How did we get here?

www.bbc.com

"in September, about 6% of all streaming subscribers in the US cancelled their services, the highest churn rate ever recorded"

"For a long time, several streaming companies have not been able to illustrate their capacity to turn a profit, and investors are now looking for those returns"

 

[D10S]

@ZedClampet I have been using Chrome but with an alt account. Somehow, I get zero adds and I am not sure as to what. My only guess is that perhaps having a long-living account with tons of subscribed channels is more interesting for Google to be aggressive against, than a new channel with only a few subs if you look at it money-wise.

I get adblock warning on opera dekstop but literally none on opera mobile, same account with dozens of subscriptions.

 

[Zloth]

I don't have adblock at all and spent, oh, maybe 15 seconds dealing with advertisements over roughly 30 minutes of watching. And lived to tell about it!