What's he already got? Access to his own HDMI TV? Spare keyboard and mouse lying around? Someone to write Micro SD cards?

>>27642
I think all his parents have for him is a very basic laptop for doing homework.

I might suggest a Micro:bit (v2 if you can) or two, instead of a pi?
The hassle of VNC and it stopping working in a million ways make a pi a bit annoying in that setup. Or, if you do go the pi route, make sure you also get him a micro-SD card write so he can get back to a useful system when things stop working.
Micro:bit gets all the 'fun' of programming, with easy to see and comprehend IO devices, and no chance of bricking it. Getting him two lets him play radio games - remote control fart machines etc. (if V2) Who wouldn't like that?
Of course, if he's already deep into it, a pi makes more sense. But I reckon Micro:bit is a far better bet if he's starting form scratch.

>>25181
As someone at the very tail end of that, it was frustrating. The year after I finished my A-Levels they started doing computingat both GCSE and A-Level at my school - meanwhile, I'd done IT GCSE/A-Levels. The A-Level was little more than business with a technical skew.

Then again, a poor teacher can completely ruin your interest in a subject, and realistically may cause kids to get out of programming rather than into it. Thankfully I got taught programming properly and in a way that suited me at uni (assembly up), but the way it was taught was very... autistic. Normal people really didn't get it, and I effectively became a programming teacher for a good number of my course mates as it simply wasn't clicking for them that to understand programming you have to think like a computer. Of course, to the uni lecturers, they already did and so it wasn't really something they even thought of. I honestly think that many of the people I went to uni with who would, if taught well, be very competent programmers have sworn off it as the teaching must have been so confusing to them.

I also notice a lot of people want to "learn coding", but realistically unless you have some goal you want to accomplish then it's like learning how to paint but not actually wanting to paint.

>>27644
Thanks, lad. I'll see if I can get the new one when it's out next month.

>>27635
Looks like it'll be this one you need, actually:
https://developers.google.com/youtube/v3/docs/playlistItems/insert?apix=true

>>27634
I'd never used mine until very recently - and in the end only for exactly the purpose you describe; finding things I want to watch, and then watching them later on the Apple TV. They get us all in the end.

>>27635
>>27636
That looks complicated, but I don't mind trying new stuff if it will work. I just don't want to pay for it.

>>27637
You would think that they would make it easier for people like us.


I remember, years ago, you could play around with the web address to create an untitled playlist, but that doesn't work any more.

Anyone got any ideas?

>>27638
As far as I'm aware, you have three options:

1. Use the API (reliable, easier than option 2, may cost you);
2. Write a bot which directly interfaces with YouTube as if it were you clicking the mouse using something like Selenium for Python (unreliable, will take a lot of time, hard);
3. Manually make the playlist


For more info on Option 2:
https://towardsdatascience.com/controlling-the-web-with-python-6fceb22c5f08

>>27638

For downloading youtube videos I use youtube-dl which is a command line tool, you pass it the ID at the end of the URL, like in pic - guide here:

There is a switch in documentation (-x, --extract-audio) to extract the audio only and you can specify the format (--audio-format mp3) for example, perhaps this may be of use. I assume you can just use a batch file to do a whole bunch of them in one go.

>>27618
How long did you spend doing that?

>>27618

An ACTUAL PROFESSOR has done studies on the caloric expenditure of popular VR games.

https://vrhealth.institute/vr-ratings/

>>27619
About 1 hour on drums and 30 mins of Beat Saber.

>>27621
Well, I'm glad it was more fun than an hour of walking.

GTA V VR mod works surprisingly well. It's very fun to explore the world map in full VRw.

However, the mod renders the left and right eye alternately, so each eye is always one frame offset from the other, though this can be disabled at the cost of losing stereoscopic effects (which doesn't affect the game all that much, imo). What it does mean though is that now I've come out of about an hour of playing it, the real world feels very strange indeed.

The game is fully playable though, although the Menyoo's laser sights option is a good one to turn on.

None of my extensions will turn back on now either. What the fuck?

>>27625
It's easier to build discipline when you can free yourself from constant distraction and can occupy yourself with fulfilling hobbies.

>>27627
>>27628
Werks on my machine m8. I just turn it on for 15 hours every morning. Are you using Linux or summat?

>>27629
Something went wrong when it tried to install its extension for firefox and it just fucked the whole thing up.

I really barely use the Internet any more. I browse this place on my lunch break, I make a few controversial posts on lefty Rudgwick subs, and I'll stick youtube on when I'm eating. But the whole thing has really rather lost its appeal. I think I've already read all there is about the subjects I used to get lost in deep wiki walks and so on for.

So much of the Internet is just vapid shite now,, and it's harder to find the stuff that isn't because Google massages its results to put shopping and entertainment sites above anything else.

>>27631
Google may massage your results to do that.

I often search up technical standards documents, etc, and often find that using Google to get to the IEEExplore page is easier than its integrated search.

>>27575
See >>/emo/29163

>>27576

Oh, I remember now. I'm still developing the circumcision ring.

>>27577

Surely just use a cigar cutter?

>>27577>>27578

Is this some sort of reference to me not being married?

>>27579
That sketch is forever seared into my mind.

>>27468

Catch is these sub-networks always have shit coverage, as if they don't utilise the full network or something. I've no idea but there must be a cost saving somewhere. I'm with O2, my missus is on plusnet, who supposedly us O2. She always has poor signal or limited Internet, where I'm having no trouble.

>>27469
I thought maybe that, but the Vodafone logo is displayed on the VOXI website, though granted only at the footer. Then again, I remember when they launched, they had a stand in my uni's SU, which as I recall had the "BY VODAFONE" fairly prominently displayed.

Whatever, I'll probably go with them as my vodafone coverage where I am is fairly good, and if it's shit I'm not on contract.

>>27471

Three operate a similar sub-brand called SMARTY. It allows them to compete on price with the likes of GiffGaff without directly competing with themselves. You don't get some of the perks available on the main brand, but the core service is exactly the same.

>>27470

Plusnet uses the EE network, not O2.

>>27468

Finally got round to giving Vodafone a ring to cancel, and they offered me a discount to £12 on the same plan, so not all too different to VOXI.

What they didn't say until I asked before agreeing to the new contract, was that it was for 24 months instead of the 12 I've been on for the past few years. I don't like that at all.

>>27485
Stuff happened, and I didn't get round to trying to switch to VOXI until today.

Trying being the operative word. Their chatbot comes up with an option to chat to an advisor, but when you click the button it simply disappears, and anything you type is automatically answered by the chatbot in an endless loop.

Their Facebook chat will never let you speak to a real person, and they'll only answer the phone on their complaints line if you're already with VOXI.

So, fuck that and fuck them. Guess I'll shop around elsewhere.

>>27539
As someone with comically small ears this is interesting for me. Do you know which version you bought? I've been looking at the TaoTronic SoundLiberty 79 model but now I'm paranoid one will fall out.

>>27542

I have the SoundLiberty 77's and the 53's. The 77's do work for me with the smallest ear bits (they come with three sizes, I think), but if I don't get them in exactly right, they don't form a proper seal in one ear which is incredibly annoying, though I doubt it'd ever fully fall out.

I reckon you should just go for it. The 77's are fancier than the 53s, the touch controls work better and they last longer, charge wise, so I assume the updated 79's are even better. If they don't work out, you can still return them - I assume you're buying from amazon, anyway.

If you don't care too much about sound quality and you're willing to buy from Aliexpress, you can get Xiaomi wireless earbuds for around a tenner.

Anyone had a problem where the bluetooth between the two headphones will go out of sync so you get an echo effect? It seems to do it both on my phone and laptop but only after a few minutes of listening.

Would be a shame if they're fucked and I have to mess about sending them back.

>>27568
Update: I emailed TaoTronic directly. They sent me a replacement pair and I didn't have to return the ones that don't work properly.

Seems a bit of a shame to chuck the old ones but I can't think of a use for them.

I use a gel wrist rest to keep my wrist from resting on the hard edge of my desk. Works like a charm.

>>27563
They keyboard ones can be very good too.

I have a combined Fellowes wrist-pad-mousemat as well as an ergonomic keyboard and a vertical "Anker"* mouse. I don't know if any of them, or the combination, are more to thank for ending my RSI than simply getting bored of Minecraft did, but the weird mouse and keyboard layout are fantastic at putting people off wanting to borrow my machine.


*Just to pre-empt any "wanker" jokes, it's extremely difficult to use it left-handed.

>>27562

My desk has drawers in it that prevent you from sitting at ideal ergonomic height. It's alllmost there, but it always feels as if you're sat just an inch or two too low unless you put up with squeezing your legs against the bottom of them. Whoever was designed it must have had an extremely long torso, or very stumpy upper arms.

>>27566

(forgot half the bloody post, mods, fix deletion already)

Because of this, I find using a wrist wrest actually increases the sensation of strain on my tendons. It's nice having a bit of padding to stop that protruding bit of your wrist getting sore, but overall increases discomfort. Which is a shame, because my fancy mechanical keyboard came with a very nice leather one.

TL;DR Sort out your desk/chair height first m8. Your elbows should form a right angle and your forearm be horizontal, and your spine should be snugly pushed in by the chair.

If you truly have to read a lot of PDFs on a portable device, get a tablet mate. While it's possible to make resizable/reflowable PDFs nobody ever does so there's always margin and paging annoyances on an e-reader. Kindle does an alright job for occasional use but I crack out the MS surface for longer periods, using reference books etc.
E-readers for standard literature which is always available in a more appropriate format.

If it's a purely textual PDF or a textual PDF with embedded images then you're probably best off converting it to mobi or epub. If it's a PDF with specific tabling / formatting then that'll probably be lost in conversion and you'll be best off reading it on a tablet like otherlad said.

>>27545
I read all mine on the Kindle - most of them are old O'Reilly books that I was able to buy in PDF form, back in the day. Never found any PDF that doesn't render; your milage will obviously vary if you're downloading a lot of PDFs from other sources.

I like the Kindle because it's so cheap, its practically disposable, and almost indestructible - I particularly like that fact its a one-task device, when reading on a phone/table/laptop, I find the temptation to switch task and start doom-scrolling websites too high.

Sageru, because most people don't like Kindle.

>>27550
I love my kindle, but...

Amazon intentionally gimp the basic models to push people to the more overpriced models up the range. The basic model now has a grainy low resolution screen, and it's only recently that they've started putting a light on it.

I'm sure the battery life on mine has plummeted over the 2 or 3 years since I bought it too, and it might just be tinfoil hat time but I wouldn't be surprised if that's intentional.

>>27559
I have to disagree on the last point. Internally Amazon track the battery life of every single Kindle (they have a graph that shows the internal battery charge of all Kindles out there right now, and the average battery life of each model). Their business model involves giving the Kindles away - if you have one and it breaks, even slightly, they'll replace it free-of-charge without too much effort on your part (just be nice to the customer service rep).

Hyperoptic symmetric 1Gbps is nice if you can get it. They do use CGNAT in a way that stops you running services but you can request a static v4 for £5/mo if that's a concern. Support was responsive and technically knowlegable the one time I've needed them. Had one outage of a couple of hours in the last year, otherwise flawless.

If you've got Hyperoptic service at your address, don't hesitate to get it - short of a leased line, they offer the absolute fastest service in the UK at a very fair price. BT are starting to offer FTTP, but availability is very limited right now. Three are offering reasonably-priced 5G home broadband, but it's only available in a few major cities and the peak-time speeds can be quite unreliable.

If you need a new load-balancing router, I'd recommend Mikrotik.

What you need is BT's guaranteed fuck-all service.
I'm actually pretty happy with my EE 4G service out here in th emiddle of nowhere. No fixed IP, though, and NATed to hell, but the actual bandwidth is tolerable at 20-30M, and 500gigs cap for £50 a month. Presents on an RJ45 as well as wifi.
It'll not do you as a main line, but as a fallback it has charm, and you can idle it when you're not using it, fire it back up in a day or two.

I really cannot abide the fact that utilities contracts are getting longer.

My current place does not have Virgin or hyperoptic service, and as a result I had to take an 18 month contract for my broadband as unless I wanted to pay absolutely extortionate amounts, I had to take an 18 or 24 month contract. I am only living here for 9 months.

Likewise, vodafone tried to renew my mobile contract and conveniently forgot to tell me it was going to be for 24 months, when all my previous contracts were 12.

Give it a few years and we'll be swearing fielty for life.

>>27537 EE are happy to sell you a month's worth of 4g data.
I'll agree, long contracts are a cunt's trick, and should be breakable for a token fee. It feels like one of the few really onerous contracts out there.
<rummage>
https://www.directsavetelecom.co.uk/no-contract-fibre.php
seem to offer a rolling one month with a not too bad installation fee.

>>27481
Funnily enough this popped up on my timeline this morning. Took 2 seconds to check and see that the page was only created yesterday.

Is it just to grab a list of active (and gullible) FB accounts to sell to a spammer?

If I had to guess, it's a great way to find accounts with lots of data to harvest - some of these people still have their mobile number and email set to public. On top of that, someone believing they can win a car by sharing a post is much, much more likely to follow through on your phishing link or whatever other scam you happen to be running.

>>27486

Also, compare and contrast to the chain posts that get people to share their mothers maiden name, their date of birth, etc etc.

https://facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=109761897476446&id=109753614143941

>>27483

Small charity lotteries are explicitly permitted under the regulations.

https://www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/for-gambling-businesses/Compliance/Sector-specific-compliance/Lotteries/Society-lotteries.aspx

>>27512
Showing the middle aged people at my old work that they can just use Ctrl+D to copy the cell above, I swear they were about to dip me in the paint wash tank to check if I was a witch.

>>27521

How did they react to selecting a range and then using control+enter to enter that formula in to every cell in one go?

>>27519
Good Excel/VBA people can easily get 400 quid per day contracting.

I'd just like to say that as someone who spent two years of his miserable life staring at Excel through the lens of IDA Pro it's quite amusing to see a thread full of people who know how to use things like pivot tables to do the things they're actually intended to do rather than to cause an invalid memory access. Carry on.

>>27523

I've done that before for that number, it was really more VBA work than anything, with pure excel people usually know enough to think they are using excel well, but don't know enough to know that their current models are crap, and when people do know enough to know their models are crap they usually fix it themselves, so it is harder market to work in than you would think.