Picture it...

You just spent $3,500 on a new smart refrigerator. It has a 32-inch touchscreen on it where you can see your calendar, display messages to your family, show your security camera feeds... even display photos and reminders! Not only that, but there's cameras inside so you can see inside your fridge while at the store... and AI watches what you put in and take out so it can remind you when you're running low on something. As if that wasn't enough, the doors open by touch sensor, so there's no having to grab for a handle when you've got your hands full. Smart drawers can be adjusted for different tasks... from keeping frozen foods frozen to keeping vegetables fresh!

Sure it cost you $3,500, but just look at all the features you get! It's everything you never knew you needed in life!

And then...

Samsung decides that they're going to display ads on your refrigerator's screen.

$3,500 for a refrigerator that turns into a billboard.

And this is everything that's wrong with modern companies. They cannot fucking stop selling you shit. They want those sweet ad dollars, and don't care how much you fucking hate them for it. Because money...

It's like Netflix all over again. The entire appeal of Netflix was the fact that you didn't have to sit through ads. But now you have to pay a shit-ton of money to get an ad-free experience. All the other streaming channels are the same. With the exception of AppleTV+, I think, but surely it's just a matter of time?

I find stuff like this Samsung bullshit to be outrageous. If I owned one of these refrigerators and was told that now I'm going to be sold ads ON SOMETHING I FULLY PAID FOR, I would sue. Sue like the wind.

Then I would use all the money I won to go ad-free on my new refrigerator.

More smoky days ahead, but it would seem I can still blog while being trapped indoors... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...

   
• AI is Still Shit: Part 1,683! Dang. Googling my own blog to find something... and seeing their AI summary at the top is scary as hell. "Gemini" is drawing some very good conclusions each time, but missing the point entirely on a lot of things I've posted. Sarcasm and humor are left out of the equation, which means what I was intending to convey is badly misrepresented. Kinda freaking me out that people will see what Google is telling them and think that's what I was saying. But that's AI for you. Anybody who trusts it entirely needs to drastically reevaluate what they're being told.

   
• Unboxed! Marques Brownlee will be reviewing all the new iPhones in short order, but I wanted to reiterate how gutted I am that we finally get a brightly-colored iPhone Pro the minute I decide I'm going to pass on upgrading. Just look at how awesome it looks...

Yeah... the orange color paired with the camera lenses being upgraded (not to mention the sensor) almost makes me want to upgrade. Almost.

   
• Jaws! My current mood...

Cats are fiesty, that's for sure.

   
• NEWSFLASH: Whey to go: Is cheese the new reason to travel? It always has been. Going to the Kaasmuseum (Dutch Cheese Museum in Alkmaar) became a life ambition the moment I found out it existed. That's why you always travel for cheese! Parmesan and mozzarella in Italy. Cheddar in England and Canada. Feta in Greece. Butterkässe in Germany. Pepper cheese in Australia. Camembert in France. Cotija and Queso Fresco, and Oaxaca in Mexico. Manchego in Spain. Queso Tico in Costa Rica. Provoleta in Argentina. Sakura in Japan. I didn't have a specific cheese in Korea that I can remember, but I DO remember their corn cheese! And of course ALL THE CHEESE IN THE NETHERLANDS! I don't eat so much cheese now, but I would still travel for cheese!

   
• Big! This really takes me back. The interesting thing to note here is that projection TV technology was shit back in the day. If you don't view it directly-head-on, you can't see the picture well at all. Viewing from off the side was impossible...

Of course now people are thrilled to have their entire living room taken over by a television. I know I am!

   
• NEWSFLASH: Child dies of horrifying measles complication in Los Angeles. Herd immunity is failing now that anti-vaxers have created the society they’ve been dreaming of. And the death toll is only going to rise. This is horribly sad. Herd immunity is critical for protecting people unable to be vaccinated... like babies. How the fuck did we get here?

   
And now back to our regularly-scheduled wildfire season.

The wildfire smoke may have me cowering in my home, but life goes on... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...

   
• Imperial Forces! Well this is epic...

When I was sent this TikTok, I marveled at the fact that this cat even allows the helmet to be put on his head. My cats would run off the second I even got the helmet near their heads.

   
• Gadget Time! Speaking of 3D printing...

It's enough to make me want to buy a 3D printer, except I know I'd never be this clever. Here's another video by the same guy...

I mean, come on. All of these are genius.

   
• DIYphone! Speaking of 3D printing... this right here is one of the coolest things you'll see all day. Guy made his own phone with clicky keyboard. The patience required to work through all this is mind-boggling...

Brah. The fact that the result is so killer is just icing on the cake. Instant subscribe to Marcin Plaza's YouTube Channel, which is brilliant, clever, and funny. And worth your valuable time.

   
• Pi Times Two! Speaking of 3D printing... and now... this...

Now, I know this is nothing compared to the earliest days of computing where the components of the computers themselves had to be built... but, still... this kind of thing is pretty amazing. 3D printing is making it possible to do all kinds of cool stuff.

   
• Neat! I was given a link to this article: Obscure But Badass Folks You Should Know About, which is exactly what it claims to be. AND THEN... I fell down the very large rabbit hole that is Neatorama. You've been warned.

   
• More Mitchell! A while ago I shared a video of David Mitchell's rants from the brilliant Would I Lie To You. Well, here's more laugh out loud moments...

I swear, the Royal Wedding statement, which I've watched multiple times now... always, always gets me.

   
And now back to being a hermit.

The Dog Days of Summer may be slowly fading, but the Bullets of Summer are still sticking around... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...

   
• Yesterland! This video of Disneyland in 1956 is wild. Everybody dressed up for a day out at Disneyland... from dress shirts with long pants and full on suits... to sundresses or Capri pants... nobody was in jeans and a T-shirt (and where were short pants for the guys?)...

I remember for my first visit 20 years later it was the same. My brother and I were dressed up in matching green suits that my grandmother made. And the reason I remember them so clearly? Because the threads in my suit glowed when we were riding It's a Small World. I remember the suits right down to how the buttons looked (but don't ask me what I had for dinner last night). And, wow, were the attractions very different at the beginning! No E-ticket rides in 1956 because they didn't come until three years later. And of course this were back in the days where not much was politically correct. Something I didn't know is that Disneyland was never segregated. Walt Disney wanted everybody with the means to pay to visit the Happiest Place on Earth. That being said, there are precious few non-white people in this film (except for the "Indian Village" entertainment, of course). Interestingly enough, the boat skippers on The Jungle Cruise fired AT the hippos instead of in the air to "scare" them back in the day. Vicious.

   
• I've Been Framed! Every payday I've been buying picture frames to hang up prints and art and maps and bits and pieces I've been collecting over the past 50 years. Last time, I bought some frames that arrived in a totally a different color than I ordered, so they refunded me 50% of the cost and I just spray-painted them. Score! Today they finally stopped smelling, so I hung them up. They're prints by Bill Mudron as a tribute to Hayao Miyazaki and his Studio Ghibli films (based on prints by Kawase Hasui). I love them. There were actually five I wanted, but two of them were sold out, so I got the these three, which are incredible. They're in the hall as I walk in the front door...

Dang. I wish I could afford glare-free museum glass (to get a closeup glare-free look at them, you can visit the artist's website here). What I really love is that the characters from the films are almost hard to spot in these prints because they're very small. In mine for Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away and My Neighbor Totoro, you have to look a minute...

I really wanted the prints for Kiki's Delivery Service and Ponyo as well...

You can buy reproductions on Mudron's website, but you can't get them at the size of the original prints, dangit. I may buy a few smaller reproductions to hang somewhere else in my home, because they're so frickin' amazing.

   
• The Plot Thickens! If you've never seen Robots Draw, you're missing out. I knew about the account, but I didn't know that the guy behind it did a TedTalk...

Before I could afford a dot matrix printer, I had an Atari 1020 4-color pen plotter, which I'm reminded of every time I see a Robots Draw reel...

The printer was mostly for fun because the paper was only 4.5-inches wide, but it was better than nothing. Even if it took forever to print text because the letters had to be drawn one by one. Wikipedia has a short article on the unit here (which is where I got the photo).

   
• Gooey! I honesty don’t know how in the hell got to be THIS BAD at Apple after Steve Jobs’s died. Granted, I am using a public beta of the latest iOS, and this might be fixed... but... what the fuck does this last button do in Apple Music?

The first is shuffle. The second is repeat. The third is infinity auto-play. But that fourth button provides no feedback as to actually doing anything, so I have no idea. This odd set of buttons could very well be the worst GUI design I’ve ever seen. Coming from a company that used to care about GUI! Fortunately, long-time blogging friend LeSombre managed to remember an article about this very topic and was able to tell me it means "AutoMix" and Apple describes it as "Songs transition at the perfect moment, based on analysis of the key and tempo of the music." So I immediately turned it off, because I wondered why in the hell the end of a song was either sped up or slowed down in weird fucking ways as it faded to the next song via CarPlay. No thank you. And, on that note... APPLE, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, PROVIDE SOME FEEDBACK FOR YOUR FUCKING BUTTONS SO PEOPLE KNOW WHAT THE FUCK THEY ACTUALLY DO!

   
• Only Connect! If you've ever been frustrated by The New York Times puzzle "Connections," you should know that it was inspired (or stolen) from a UK quiz show Only Connect. These puzzles always feel incredibly difficult, and I can't fathom having to solve them within a time limit. It usually takes me forever when I have forever!

In other news... "Father's Day" was invented at a YMCA in Washington State?!??

   
• Atmosphere! Alaska Airlines has rebranded their loyalty program as "Atmos" now that they've merged with Hawaiian Airlines. Which is fine, I guess, if not for the fact that Dolby Atmos home theater sound standard already exists. I'm guessing that there was no trademark danger since they are wildly different industries, but I still wonder why they'd go with this?

"Atmos" isn't a real word. At best it's an abbreviation for "atmosphere" (which is where Dolby got it, I'm sure, because they're creating an atmosphere of sound). Not sure where Alaska's head is at here, but I can't help but think they could have come up with something better.

   
• Winds of Waiting! I am clinging to the idea that the person asking this horrific question has challenges gauging social situations and perhaps didn't know that what they were asking is awful. Anything else just beats down my faith in humanity to new lows. I don't care how impatient you are for the next book, this is inhuman. And I have zero doubt that this question already haunts George RR Martin himself. So... why?

That. Being. Said. While undeserving of... whatever this was... Martin has kinda brought fan frustration on himself. He has been stringing everybody along for thirteen YEARS. All the promises and all the assurances of Winds of Winter being a "priority" falling by the wayside while he finds another TV show or movie or game or book or convention or talk show or whatever to do. Anything but actually getting the work done. Add to that the HBO adaption utterly destroying the ending of the A Game of Thrones adaptation and making fans even more anxious to know how everything "really" ends... and, well, it takes things to new levels. — No, he did not deserve this terrible question. But I have to wonder if George RR Martin wasn't constantly making promises he couldn't keep, would we have an environment where people feel entitled to ask a question like this in the first place? Something to ponder. Also something to ponder? BRANDON SANDERSON COMPLETING A SONG OF FIRE AND ICE?!? Good Lord. I'd rather have no ending than that. These authors in no conceivable way complement each other. Like... at all.

   
Now it's time to go pick tomatoes for my dinner.

Why can't anybody make a browser that doesn't fucking piss me off?

Apple's Safari is hot garbage and has been for years. Can't load Facebook or Instagram pages to save its life. Fails to display content properly all too often. And I'm not talking esoteric, fringe sites... I'm talking about major websites. Which is to say that either Apple doesn't use their own shitty fucking browser. Or they just don't give a crap. Or probably both.

Google's Chrome reminds you that Google Chrome is not your fucking default browser every fucking time you run it. And when you click out of it, then visit a Google service, it feels the need to fucking remind you again. On top of that, there are some sites which refuse to render properly on it or any of its variants.

The Brave browser (also built on Chrome) wants to sell you its VPN, and didn't turn out to be the bastion of privacy it claimed to be.

Microsoft's Edge is better than Chrome. At least was until they killed its code-base and also built it on Chrome. Now it's got their Copilot AI bullshit being built into it, which I have zero desire to be involved with.

And then there's Arc (also built on Chrome) which has some nice ideas, but keeps getting in its own way while trying to use it on top of inheriting Chrome's failings.

Opera is also built on Chrome.

Vivaldi is also built on Chrome.

Maxthon is also built on Chrome.

Mozilla's Firefox is not built on Chrome and was my former browser of choice until it also had problems loading Instagram and some other mainstream sites. Then they came out and said that their top priority for 2025 was AI. And they killed Pocket. I have zero interest investing in their bullshit again.

Tor is built on Firefox but, strangely enough, gave me even more problems with websites that Firefox can actual open properly.

Midori is also built on Firefox.

   
And so...

I mostly use Safari unless it's for Facebook, Instagram, or a handful of other sites which are unusable with it.

And that's pretty much all you can do because Apple and Google own every fucking thing. And since most browsers are actually Google Chrome in disguise, Google can basically do whatever the hell they want to break standards while Apple stubbornly refuses to be compatible with what they choose to break.

At this point I'm contemplating giving up on the web and moving to a cabin in the woods.

So I received an email reply which was "Thanks, David!"

And the Apple "Intelligence" short summary in my mail window was "Gratitude was expressed." I mean, holy shit... THE AI SHORT SUMMARY WAS LONGER THAN THE ORIGINAL MESSAGE!!! How is this AI bullshit in any way helpful? So many times the AI summaries I get out of Apple are stupid as shit. Is anybody testing this crap? Anybody at all?

I am beyond sick of companies just shitting AI on top of everything whether it's made better by it or not.

Because, spoiler alert, most of the time it just makes everything worse.

All these tech demos being unleashed where AI is actually useful and helpful... yet when it comes to actual Raal Life? Not so much.

A couple months ago I bought some smart outlets... power outlets that can turn on and off remotely, without some kind of big dongle plug popped on top of it. All of my lights are controlled with smart switches, but I've never really seen a need for smart outlets. Usually the device plugged into the outlet is "smart" so it's not needed.

But what happens when a smart device stops responding?

Being able to cycle the outlet power off and then back on again to reset it can be quite handy. Especially when I am traveling and am not home to unplug/plug-in the device to get it running again. Then it's handy to do it via my phone.

But anyway...

As I mentioned yesterday, I took my holiday day-off to install the outlets.

The hardest part of installing the outlet isn't the job itself... I can practically do that in my sleep because I have all the right tools... it's getting down on my hands and knees in order to install the outlet (though it's made a lot more difficult because my home was wired in a nonsensical manner and my electrical panel makes no sense).

Time to get my electrical power meter and get these installed. The first one was in my entry closet where I have a Litter-Robot for the cats...

These outlets are deeper than regular outlets, so you have to be pretty aggressive when you pack those wires back into the box, but once installed, it's easy to add them to Apple Home...

And there you have it. First outlet (of six) has been installed...

Here's a photo I took when I first added the odor barrier so my closet. The Litter-Robot itself doesn't allow much of a smell at all, but every once in a while Jake will take a nasty dump before I need to close the door, so I wanted to make sure my jackets didn't absorb that. This is before I bought the stairs to help my cats get in and out...

When company comes over, I can fold up the stairs and hide everything away by closing the closet door...

The remaining five were a bit easier to install because I wasn't stuffed into a closet to do it.

You can read more about the Litter-Robot closet here.

Pre-social-media when blogging was the way that we kept in touch with each other, you could either check the blogs over and over until they updated... or you could subscribe to the blog's feed and have your feed reader let you know when it got updated.

In the beginning there were paid apps and services for feed reading, but then Google decided to enter the fray and give it away for free. This meant all the apps and services could no longer survive, so they started dropping like flies.

Then Google decided they didn't want to do feed reading any more (apparently they couldn't make enough money at it), and shut down Google Reader. Since most of the apps and services that were around were gone, Google ended up fucking things up for everybody.

Eventually apps and services went back into development. I was using NetNewsWire for ages, but eventually switched to Reeder. But as time went on, the only way to get all the latest features... such as feed filtering by keyword... was to switch to a new version which absolutely sucked because they introduced an entirely new way to read your feeds. I hated it, so I stayed with the older version, but missed out on the features I wanted.

Last week I couldn't take it any more and decided to take a look for something new.

I am not exaggerating... I have discovered Inoreader and I am very close to breaking down in tears from happiness.

It is exactly what I want in a feed reader. Instead of trying to reinvent how I read feeds and force some wacky methodology on me to get modern features, it just adds the cool things I've been dying to have on top of a familiar reading experience.

As I mentioned, I've been desperate for keyword filtering... AKA being able to NOT SEE articles that I want to avoid based on keywords. Are you sick to death of reading about Elon Musk and Tesla? No problem! Write a rule. Have them marked as read so they don't show up at all. Done! Prayers answered.

Plus it can create intelligent summaries for long articles that are ACTUALLY USEFUL. Take for example the entry I wrote on Unnecessary Luxuries. Here's an Inoreader summary of the rather long article...

The article "Unnecessary Luxuries" by Dave2 discusses the author's perspective on spending and the concept of luxury in everyday life. Here are the key points:
   
Frugality and Happiness: The author emphasizes a preference for saving money rather than indulging in luxuries, suggesting that having savings is the ultimate luxury.
   
Basic Necessities vs. Luxuries: The article distinguishes between essential needs (health, food, shelter, etc.) and luxuries, arguing that once basic needs are met, most additional items are unnecessary.
   
Top Ten Unnecessary Luxuries: The author lists ten luxuries that, while not essential, significantly enhance comfort and convenience:
   
Central Air: Provides comfort during extreme weather.
   
Washer & Dryer: Saves time and effort compared to laundromats.
   
Garage: Offers protection for vehicles and additional storage space.
   
Lawn Sprinkler System: Automates yard maintenance, saving time and effort.
   
Garage Freezer: Increases food storage capacity, allowing for bulk purchases.
   
Power Tools: Enable DIY repairs and projects, providing both utility and enjoyment.
   
Automated Litter Box: Simplifies pet care and maintenance.
   
Air Fryer Multi-Oven: Combines multiple cooking functions into one appliance.
   
Backup Cam: Enhances safety and convenience while driving.
   
Floor Scrubber: Makes cleaning floors easier and more effective.
   
Honorable Mention: The author mentions the Ninja Creami as a luxury for making small batches of ice cream, reflecting on its practicality and convenience.
   
Shift in Priorities: The author notes a change in personal priorities, indicating that travel, once a luxury, is no longer a focus now that they have experienced it.
   
Technology Frustration: The article concludes with a humorous anecdote about the author's frustrating experience with a voice-controlled smart assistant, highlighting that not all technology is beneficial.
   
Overall, the article presents a light-hearted take on how certain luxuries can enhance life, even if they are not strictly necessary, while advocating for a balanced approach to spending and saving.

It's amazing. And note that there's a one-click button that allowed me to copy this summary OUT of Inoreader... no gatekeeping here!

And you can get push notifications set for topics you're trying to keep on top of.

It's just amazing on top of amazing. After using it less than an hour I decided that I will be buying a pro subscription when my free 14 day trial runs out.

The only missing piece I've found is that there's no app for the Mac and you have to use a browser (there's only apps for iPhone and Android so far). Hopefully one day we'll see one for Mac. But still... worth it. Absolutely worth it. Worth using. Worth paying for. Worth your valuable time to look at. I have been looking for EXACTLY THIS for over a year. And here it is.

Thank you, Inoreader... you're doing God's work.

If you aren't old enough to remember what it was like to exist before smart phones, then you have no idea how utterly bizarre the world was back then. Comparatively speaking.

I, of course, am not only familiar with the world before smart phones, I'm familiar with a world before personal computers! Yes. I am that old. And the weird thing is that I do not think about The Before Times. Like at all. I never call up Google Maps or answer a text on my iPhone and think "Gee... remember what it was life before Steve Jobs blessed humanity with this thing? As far as I'm concerned, smart phones feel like they've always existed.

No, what got me to thinking about The Before Times was this video by Eddy Burback where he gave up his mobile phone. And even then, I didn't really think about it UNTIL he got to the part where he was watching old episodes of Sex and The City at the 15-minute mark. THEN I was like "Holy crap..."

I am not to the point where I want to give up my iPhone.

Not even a little bit.

That being said, I am very, very glad that I got to experience life without smart phones. It was a very different time. And not really in a bad way.

I am a bit more mixed when it comes to personal computers. On one hand, being there at the beginning of it all was a super-exciting time to be alive. But on the other hand, it would have been nice if personal computing was a bit further along when I was younger. Particularly in high school.

Though given the horrific state of cyber-bullying, maybe I should be glad it was still in its infancy.

I likely wouldn't have survived it.

There will be no crying that I don't know where my weekend went... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...

   
• Well Hello Hello! If you want to escape from the horrors of the world, I love the Black Hammer Artisan YouTube channel. The two guys behind it were giving up because nobody found their videos. Then their goodbye video blew up, so now they're back! They make things with medieval blacksmithing methods and it's so zen to watch...

I hope they get a lot of support from YouTube so they can keep going.

   
• Cursives! Things like this bring a smile to my face even as the world burns to the fucking ground...

I am one of those people who thinks that cursive writing is antiquated and unnecessary. Schools need to teach more modern, relevant subjects that will actually get used. Leave cursive to art and history electives. Though this is a highly entertaining use of a dead writing style, so there's that.

   
• Evaporation Blankets! I always keep a heavy blanket in the car in case I have to help somebody or rescue an animal or something. I ordered a new blanket because the one I had was 20 years old or more and was getting a little brittle. The blanket was not cheap because I wanted something heavy enough to insulate from the ground in the cold. I finally got around to opening it and washing it... and what a disaster. The washing machine was filled with fuzz. And now I've run it through the dryer three times in an effort to get all the fuzz stuck to it to come off... and it still needs to be run again. I swear the blanket has lost half of its volume. This is stupid. Why make a blanket that can't stay together through even one washing?

   
• DOON Fumble! Of all the videos dishing on why Dune: Prophecy was a disappointment, this one is right on target...

I too hope that they recover with the second season because I want to love this series. I think they were so hot to make it be Game of Thrones that they forgot to make Dune. That needs to change.

And while we're at it...

If show runners don't want to be "shackled" to an Intellectual Property and feel the need to "do their own thing"... THEN GO DO YOUR OWN FUCKING THING AND STOP FUCKING UP BELOVED IPs!! NETWORKS NEED TO HIRE SHOW RUNNERS WHO **WANT** TO BE "SHACKLED" TO THE IP! THAT'S THE ENTIRE POINT OF CREATING A SHOW BASED ON IP!

   
• Fare Thee Well, Dream! Welp. The Sandman is done at Netflix. I mean, I'm glad that Netflix is giving the show one more season... but it being the "conclusion" of Sandman when there are loads of stories left to adapt is incredibly sad. I really, really, really wanted a Death: The High Cost of Living mini series. But nope. Neil Gaiman had to end up being a piece of shit, so now this is all there is...

Very sad to all the actors who don't deserve to have their work cut short because the creator of the source material ended up being garbage.

   
• Old is New! It's not all bad news out of Netflix. Here's a returning show that I'm really looking forward to...

Oh man do I hope it's as good an adaptation as the first season.

   
• Fresh Young! Emily left Linus Tech Tips and started her own channel... her intro is pretty great...

Young is very good at what she does, and her being trans has absolutely zero effect on her ability to do it. If people just get the fuck over themselves and just let trans persons exist, then she likely wouldn't have needed to even address it. She shouldn't have to address it. But... here we are. So many people clutching pearls over something that has no effect on them whatsoever. I wish her the best of luck.

   
And that's it for another Sunday. Time to prepare myself for a return to Real Life.