The Next

In all seriousness, you’d probably be better off running a cable if it’s only 50-60 feet away. Much more reliable and less of a headache to set up and manage. The only downside would be that you’d probably want to put it in a conduit between the buildings. You can find 100’ pre-made cables for under $20.

Do you share an iTunes/iCloud account with someone? Depending on settings, if someone installs an app it will install on all the others.

I noticed a trend recently on different social media platforms on reels, shorts, or just regular posts where generally harmless, or at least non-curse words were being censored or changed. After a bit of Googling, I discovered it’s an actual thing; Algospeak. And no, it's not these middle school slang terms that come and go every year like skibidi, rizz, gyat, and bet.

Social media platforms have recently moved to content moderation "bots" to identify content that goes against their community standards, moving away from human moderators that are subject to personal bias. Much like when emojis became popular and were often used as euphemisms to conceal the actual meaning (eggplant, peach, etc.), Algospeak is the attempt to trick the bots to ensure a post doesn't get removed or the user banned. Unfortunately, these bots are utilizing algorithms that accommodate the least common denominator and today’s ultra-woke society has created an environment where the goal is such that no one gets offended or triggered.

Some examples of Algospeak are are understandable (i.e.- s3x, f#ck, etc.) and have generally been used to censor curse words in the past and mostly applies to either text or closed captions on videos. Now, you can’t even have words such as kill, kidnap, or assault without possibly getting flagged or even banned. You have to censor them and use k*ll, k*dnap, and as*ault in their place. Other replacements are also commonplace. One that is particularly annoying to me is “unalive” in place of any death-related word.

Just a few more examples that make me shake my head:

Seggs = sex
Leg booty :wtf: = lgbtq+ community member
Opposite of love = hate
Pew pew = gun

What I find most concerning is that it also uses common words to disguise otherwise negative context.

Accountant = sex worker/prostitute
Corn = porn
Cheese Pizza = child porn
Grape = rape

Content moderation bots have also recently begun to utilize Ai to analyze audio on posts. As a result, content creators have become wise to this and began using the same substitutions in their speech as well. As this practice expands, and as more consumers of content are influenced by it, this alternate language (and by extension, the meaning behind it) is making its way into real life. Recently, Julia Fox (an actress in Uncut Gems) made a Tik Tok post using “mascara” in a benign context, and people lost their ever-loving minds. Turns out, mascara is now code word for sexual assault.

We can’t go camping anymore because that means we are getting an abortion. We can’t say we are going to a dance party because that means we are part of an anti-vax group. Now we have to say Panda Express because people get triggered talking about the pandemic.



What happens when words lose all meaning? We lose the ability to communicate effectively.



Thank you, Chicken :bow:, for providing a platform with reasonable content moderation where we are free to share ideas and call people idiots without fear of retribution.

It's not just a victory. It's a freaking CHAMPIONSHIP!!!

I wouldn't say you HAVE to replace your ST Hub. Samsung is a stable company but the Smart Home industry can be fickle. There's always the possibility of Samsung just pulling the plug on everything without warning.

If you are looking at anything else, your 2 main options are Hubitat and Home Assistant. I personally have been running Home Assistant for over 6 years now and it has been rock solid. I don't know much about Hubitat but it appears to be a solid choice as well. HA is open source with an absolutely huge developer and support community. That means faster implementation of new integrations but it also has a bit of a learning curve. Hubitat, while not open source, looks to be very user friendly and is preferred for anyone wanting simple automations.

Some of the more useful automations I've built (with a high wife-approval-factor):

- All family members have geo-location enabled through the HA app.
---- When no one is home, it turns off any lights left on, arms the alarm if it was forgotten, and sets the thermostat into "unoccupied" mode
---- When anyone arrives home, it opens the garage door automatically (this is great for the kids being brough home by anyone else)
- If the garage is opened and the alarm is armed "Away", and if it is after sunset, all the lights turn on so we don't walk into a dark home
- The garage door and lights are on a timer to automatically close/turn off after 10 minutes. A "hold" option is available in the app to keep them open/on if needed.
- Alarm automatically arms "home" in the evening at bedtime
- Morning routines turn all the lights on, turn tv's on, begin playing music in kids rooms to wake them up, and disarm alarm (wireless button on my bedside table to activate)
- Cameras with AI object detection
----- At night, if the front yard camera recognizes a dog or cat, it will turn on the front flood lights (stops pooping pets and ignores people and cars)
----- Again at night, if the front door detects a person, it will turn on the porch lights
----- All cameras alert my phone if a person is detected anywhere other than the front yard if we are not home
- Thermostat (not a "smart" thermostat like a Nest) has better scheduling in HA and automatically switches between Cool and Heat based on inside temp and outside temp
- Washer and Dryer audibly alert our Echo devices when they are finished.
- motion detectors turn on lights on dim at night and turn off on a timer


My next projects are to set up fully local voice control to get rid of my Echos and set up room-by-room presence detection.

The actual town of Broken Bow isn’t much so I assume you mean the reservoir and Hochatown area. Lots of fun stuff to do around there. It’s a hidden gem if you ask me. Nice quiet area but people are starting to find out about it. Lots of flies.

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Tookie Johnson

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Solid coach but not really what I would call top-tier to take over a 5A school. At least not as of now. I think he’s not used to having so many kids wanting to play. Each team had nearly 30 kids last year when he was having to beg for kids just to field a team at Runnels. That just takes away valuable reps from the players that need it most. He finally gave in and made some deep cuts for next year.

They still don’t have the dudes yet to compete with the big boys but they will have a senior-laden team next year that should make some noise come playoff time. They have some legit players coming over the next few seasons so don’t be surprised to see some hardware being added to the trophy case soon.

Think of him more as a “slow burn” than a “win now” type of coach.

The market for old premise-based PBXs has taken a sharp downturn since Covid. It was already dying but WFH was the death knell when companies moved to cloud-based in droves. Larger companies that would fit in an Option11 have since moved to Teams or another alternative. Even companies that specialize in reselling refurb premise equipment have stopped looking for most equipment and are trying to unload their inventory.

You can try eBay but a cursory glance shows the cards going for $20-$30 each and controllers and cabinets around $100-$125. Wouldn't be worth the trouble to me but you may get some decent beer money. You'd still probably get left with a good bit of hardware.

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We need a men's CSAA league. Let the youngins have their fun but give me a St. Aloysius vs St. George game with a bunch of white fellas in their 40's.

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Baton Rouge's Ortho doctors and PT's.