s38b35M5

I haven't run windows since 2019. However I need to boot my old drive to grab some data. I really need to make sure this system doesn't update any windows components, but I'll need it to have internet access for a portion of the time.

On a different system, I used to have two reg keys that I would run to disable or enable updates when I found that disabling the services only worked until the watchdog would re enable them. Those resulted in updates saying something was wrong, which is perfect by me.

Now that web searches for stuff like this are all AI-gen'd SEO BS, can anyone tell me or point me to a reliable resource for truly disabling updates on Win 10?

PS - Bonus points if Anyone can link me to the page I used a few years back that had all sorts of privacy enhancing and telemetry disabling option on the left side and would create a reg file for applying those changes on the right. It might have been a purple theme, I forget.

Edit: it may also have been a "services" command that fully disabled services from CLI where the GUI says access denied. I forget.

Edit 2: I got the updates services disabled via registry. Thanks to those who refreshed my old Windows admin memory. I dumped Windows on my personal systems years ago, and haven't had to think about this for a while. It's a shame when the operating system changes to this model of SaaS where they call all the shots. I want security updates, but not bleeding edge drivers, candy crush, "feature enhancements", random unexpected reboots, etc. I miss when the update feature didn't assume nobody in the world could handle manual updates. You know, like sudo apt-get update.

Jong, currently a customer/technical training instructor on Apple's global developer relations/app review team, said that she only became aware of a stark pay disparity by chance.

"One day, I saw a W-2 left on the office printer," Jong said. "It belonged to my male colleague, who has the same job position. I noticed that he was being paid almost $10,000 more than me, even though we performed substantially similar work. This revelation made me feel terrible."

[...]

According to the complaint, several of Apple's policies favoring men have further entrenched the alleged pay gap. That includes Apple's performance evaluation system, which women suing alleged rewarded men in categories such as teamwork and leadership but "penalized" women for excelling in those areas.

Apple also seemingly has "a policy or practice of selecting individuals who have 'talent' and compensating those persons more highly than other employees." But neither Jong nor Salgado—although both have held various leadership roles—were ever designated as "talent" deserving of a pay increase, the lawsuit said. They've alleged that this Apple policy is biased against women, more often rewarding male "talent" while female talent goes unacknowledged.

"More men are identified as having talent," the complaint said.

Separately, Jong has also alleged that Apple subjected her to a hostile work environment after a senior member of her team, Blaine Weilert, sexually harassed her. After she complained, Apple investigated and Weilert reportedly admitted to touching her "in a sexually suggestive manner without her consent," the complaint said. Apple then disciplined Weilert but ultimately would not allow Jong to escape the hostile work environment, requiring that she work with Weilert on different projects. Apple later promoted Weilert.

As a result of Weilert's promotion, the complaint said that Apple placed Weilert in a desk "sitting adjacent" to Jong's in Apple’s offices. Following a request to move her desk, a manager allegedly "questioned" Jong's "willingness to perform her job and collaborate" with Weilert, advising that she be “professional, respectful, and collaborative,” rather than honoring her request for a non-hostile workplace.

As a result of Weilert's promotion, the complaint said that Apple placed Weilert in a desk "sitting adjacent" to Jong's in Apple’s offices. Following a request to move her desk, a manager allegedly "questioned" Jong's "willingness to perform her job and collaborate" with Weilert, advising that she be “professional, respectful, and collaborative,” rather than honoring her request for a non-hostile workplace.

The bankrupt casual restaurant chain didn’t fail because of Endless Shrimp. Its problems date back to monopolist seafood conglomerates and a private equity play.

The company abruptly shuttered roughly 50 of its locations across the country last week without informing employees, who showed up to work only to find signs announcing the closures, which may be a potential labor law violation. According to staff complaints, they only later received notice that they’d be laid off or transferred to the remaining stores, in some cases many miles away.

A good read for anyone who wants the truth about the fail upward brunch lords who play with the lives of their workers for high fives and walk away with billions while the companies they put on their resumes get stacked with debt and crumble under the weight.

When I use yt-dlp -x to grab audio only, the resulting opus files are often troublesome to play back in strawberry, stopping unexpectedly. They also sometimes don't index at all, and metadata including embedded cover art don't seem to stick.

So, since most of my library is already vorbis in OGG files, I have been converting the files, but my inexperience with audio codecs and YouTube audio formats in general is shining through. I use 320kbps, but the resulting files are typically about twice the size afterward. I'm thinking I'm probably wasting space for no reason.

What is a comparable bitrate for the OGG files for a given bitrate opus source file?

EDIT: Here is my conversion script find ./ -iname "*.opus" | parallel --load 0.9 ffmpeg -i {} -c:a libvorbis -b:a 320k "{.}.ogg"

EDIT2: Here is the updated version with a suggestion from @Supermariofan67@programming.dev find ./ -iname "*.opus" | parallel --load 0.9 ffmpeg -i {} -c:a libvorbis -q:a 6 "{.}.ogg" which results in only slightly larger files (5.4MB > 7.2MB).

Received notice of a change to the service in my inbox today. Seems icky to me.

Devices in the network use Bluetooth to scan for nearby items. If other devices detect your items, they’ll securely send the locations where the items were detected to Find My Device. Your Android devices will do the same to help others find their offline items when detected nearby

Your devices’ locations will be encrypted using the PIN, pattern, or password for your Android devices. They can only be seen by you and those you share your devices with in Find My Device. They will not be visible to Google or used for other purposes.

ETA: here's the link to opt out: opt out of the network

Anyone have experience getting an HP EliteBook 840 G2 to boot from M.2? There's only one setting in BIOS to enable it, and it's enabled by default. Latest BIOS update. It's in the boot order. It's even seen when pressing F9 for boot options. I see MX23 but no grub (under legacy) or EFI files found in the ESP partition (under UEFI).

I've tried cloning my functional SSD install with dd and clonezilla with no errors, but both result in no boot disk found. Same with a fresh install to the drive from live USB.

I've moved through full legacy, to hybrid, full UEFI, but none see the device as bootable after install.

Loading GRUB or Syslinux and attempting to boot from HD also fails to boot from the M.2.

TIA

Edit: added clarification what was being cloned

EDIT: After days of fiddling, I made this post and went back to troubleshooting. It just booted with no problems. Scratching my head, but something I did in passing was the trick. Now to make sure I save these exact settings!

EDIT2: It turns out it was always working, and it is just BIOS/UEFI screens that will not display. This kept me from installing my base OS at all until I moved the GPU to the x4 slot. Since I installed the OS with the GPU in the x4 slot, now it boots to the point where I enter my luks encryption key and I'm good, but it still won't show the BIOS screens. Perhaps I need to enable the legacy Option ROM for video?

I wake up at 3am to 4am daily as a neighbor makes noise walking their dog. This cannot be helped. Once I am awake, my mind won't stop going over details about everything from the mundane to the critical. Often, I am able to fall asleep again after three or more hours of wakefulness, but only minutes before I have to wake for the day.

Does anyone have success with quieting the mind without substances so that they can fall back to sleep?

Edit: I want to thank you all for the helpful comments. I'm reading through them now and wioo be internalizing some of the suggestions.

To provide more context for those who asked:

I do have ADHD and OCD and Anxiety.
I sleep with a fan and a white noise track (10hrs of non-repeating noise I d/l'd with newpipe). My apartment building has a fire escape that the neighbor uses as their front door. This path means using a heavy steel door on a power hinge. (Slam!) The door is against the wall that my headboard is on. They have every right to use whichever door they like, and I don't know them well enough yet to ask them to change for me. They are trying to be as quiet as they can, other than using the loudest path possible. They seem very nice, and their dog is quiet and well trained.
I'm in the middle of a long period of unemployment and I am beginning to worry about finances, as my savings are about half gone in a year.

Thanks again for all the suggestions! I'll report back with my results in a few days.

First, a disclaimer: I'm no expert, and I only know what is on these documents I linked. I haven't read in-depth reporting by real investigative journalists, nor any reporting sourced or quoted from YT insiders (When I see articles about the ad-blocking, I knock wood that SmartTube is still working and keep scrolling, keen to avoid getting angry at another trillion-dollar company).

I've been doing some light research into Alphabet's YT ad revenue numbers today on my lunch hour. Here is where you find that info.

My curiousity was piqued by a few posts here and elsewhere regarding YouTube's new push to eliminate ad-blockers that indicate the push is because they've been losing money. Per my plebian understanding of these documents: Rather than a substantial decrease, YT had finally seen a 'leveling off' of ad revenue that had previously been enjoying explosive growth for the available history I can view. The historical (according to the data I have available to me) 32-43% increase in revenue leveling in 2022 to almost -2% is likely responsible for this push to more vigorously monetize users.

It's not easy to relate to earnings when they have to be counted in "thousands of millions" of dollars, but if we reduce it all to simple percentages, I suppose we can agree at least that the data they are working from does show a drop in revenue. I suspect (as many do) that the loss in revenue growth in Q3 2022 could at least motivate them to look for ways to make more growth. Where we may find debate is on the concept that growth must continue into infinity.

#Notes

The links below are for Q3, so we're comparing apples>apples. Earnings are provided in millions ($1,000 = $1B) My percentages after the link include ONLY YouTube Ad revenues, not the rest of YT revenues, which are liumped into "Google Other." Revenue!=Profit, and YT expenses are hard (read:impossible) to discern from this simplified report.

Q3 2020, YT ad revenue up 32.42% from same period in 2019 ($3.80B to $5.03B).

Q3 2021, YT ad revenue up 43.04% from same period in 2020 ($5.03B to $7.20B).

Q3 2022, YT ad revenue down 1.86% from same period in 2021 ($7.20B to $7.07B).

Q3 2023, YT ad revenue up 12.45% from same period in 2022 ($7.07B to $7.95B).

I've enjoyed the discussion on this topic, with good points being made all over, like how we can't lose sight of the value a non-ad-viewing user brings to YT simply by watching and increasing viewer counts, subscribing, donating super chat or otherwise, and linking/sharing videos elsewhere.

Lastly: My lunch break is over; I can't respond to any comments for a while, so this is a post-and-run.

#YouTube #Google #EarningsReport #AdBlocker

EDIT: @db0@lemmy.dbzer0.com if this doesn't fit the sub please let me know or remove.

PDF

ePub

mobi

#copyright

Was working to check some filter exclusions in qB (not possible yet) and noticed this...