monovergent

Considering the aforementioned options for my next phone, but I've heard mixed reports on their compatibility with carriers in the US. Has anyone here gotten either to work reliably in the US and how good is the signal if it's missing some cellular bands? I'm currently on a T-Mobile MVNO, but am open to switching to whichever carrier that might work best.

Recently tried an Impossible burger and nuggets and thought that if nobody told me it wasn't meat, I'd have thought the patty was made out of a weird kind of meat, rather than make a connection with the taste and texture of plants. Honestly, I might not complain if that was the only kind of "meat" I could have for the rest of my life.

Well, maybe I'd miss bacon.

I've yet to find the opportunity to try lab-grown meat, but I for sure would like to try it out and don't see much wrong with it as long as it's sustainable, reasonably priced, and doesn't have anything you wouldn't expect in a normal piece of meat.

Also, with imitation and lab-grown options, I'd no longer have to deal with the disgust factor of handling raw meat (esp. the juices) or biting into gristle. I'll happily devour a hot dog, but something about an unexpected bit of cartilage gives me a lingering sense of revulsion.

Looking to try installing a GSI to a device without any third-party ROMs ported to it yet. Want to back up the stock ROM in case something goes wrong. Manufacturer doesn't offer the stock ROM for download and the only copy online is from a website that looks pretty shady. Can unlock the bootloader, but no reports of anyone rooting or installing a custom recovery environment for it. Every tutorial says to just look for a ROM on the internet, but how do people extract them in the first place?

Most AI-generated images with photorealistic and 3D elements have obvious defects, but I'm curious if anyone's done some analysis on the flat cartoon-style AI images. Cartoons, comics, and 2D artwork usually aren't meant to be photorealistic, but I can tell something is off at a glance. What exactly is it?

I've been mindful of the ways companies can track my spending habits, and so have been increasingly keen on using cash and avoiding mobile banking/payment apps like the plague. I realize that this varies by country and might be a bit far out, but the thought does linger in the back of my mind. If current trends continue, how much longer until they take cash and browser-based banking from us? Or will there be a reason those options should continue to exist (and be easily usable) far into the future? And perhaps:

• What else can I, as an individual, do about this?
• Is there a tendency for larger banks or smaller credit unions to push towards mobile-only online banking?
• What does it look like in countries where cashless and mobile payments are the norm?

When visiting some sites on Cromite, Fennec, or IronFox on my Android devices, the Anubis challenge fails with the error "invalid response". I don't recall if there were any other error messages that came up. This only affects a seemingly random portion of sites using Anubis and does not clear up after refreshing, both immediately and after waiting several hours. It's never affected Firefox and Librewolf on desktop, however.

Anyone know why it happens, how to avoid it, or what logs I could collect for an issue report on Github?

This is from a sampling of aftermarket batteries for the "old body style" ThinkPads (T510, X230, etc.). This may or may not apply to newer ThinkPads using flat Li-Polymer cells.

In general, the performance of an aftermarket battery correlates with its cost. The cheapest aftermarket cells provide half the battery life of more expensive ones and degrade sooner.

Brand-agnostic observations

• Some batteries don't play well with charge thresholds. If not allowed to reach 100%, they lose track of the actual charge over the course of a few cycles. This usually manifests as suddenly dropping to nearly empty from 30% to 50%.
• If it advertises support for the **30 series, the battery will probably pass the boot-up verification on those models.
• Aftermarket labels make liberal use of Arial instead of Helvetica. Maybe I have an eye for typefaces, but this should be a dead giveaway that tends to slip under the radar.
• Good aftermarket batteries tend to be considerably heavier than low-quality ones.
• Low-quality aftermarket batteries tend to fit poorly in the slot.
• Boxes for aftermarket batteries, compared to originals, are missing the large sticker on the box with Lenovo part numbers, barcodes, and regulatory markings.

Kingsener

• Reasonable cost
• Genuine capacity, matches that of the original
• Heavy in the hand, slightly looser fit than original
• May sporadically register 0% on a Corebooted X230, but immediately returns to normal without shutting down
• Gradually loses track of charge with thresholds

Dr. Battery

• Most expensive
• Genuine capacity, matches that of the original
• Heavy in the hand and fits well
• Gradually loses track of charge with thresholds

DTK

• Relatively lower cost
• Genuine capacity, but less than that of the original
• Feels lighter than the original, but fits well
• Rubber feet fell off after less than a month
• Did not test charge thresholds for this brand

"Lenovo" with fake recycle symbol

• Reasonable cost
• The RECYCLE symbol uses a wider font and there is a typo in the text: "Use of enother battery may present a fire or explosion"
• However, capacity is genuine and matches that of the original
• Heavy in the hand and fits well
• Comes in a plain, unmarked cardboard box
• Works well with charge thresholds
• Rubber feet fell off after less than a month
• Can vary by actual manufacturer

Unbranded

• About half the price for half the battery life and a third the lifespan compared to a higher-quality battery
• Advertised 57 Wh, actual 48 Wh, compare to 63 Wh of genuine Lenovo
• Lighter and worse fit than original
• Rubber feet fell off within two weeks
• Loses track of charge within a few cycles if thresholds used
• Works fine for a few months, but capacity thereafter decreases noticeably beyond about 150 cycles
• May use scavenged cells: serial numbers on the cells inside are far apart, which would be uncharacteristic of a factory receiving and using fresh cells from a reputable manufacturer
• Can sporadically cause laptop to get stuck in suspend, requiring a hard restart
• Can vary by manufacturer

My use cases for these bottom-of-the-barrel batteries is getting beater ThinkPads up and running with some degree of mobility and getting rid of the void otherwise left if the battery is absent. Also fine for BIOS updates that demand a charged battery.

Most times when I hear an alarm (presumably for fire) go off in the office or a public place, it goes as such:

1. Observe for any signs of actual emergency: smoke, smell, flame, first responders, or panicking crowds
2. If nothing unusual seen and nobody is getting up, assume it's a false alarm and continue with task at hand
3. (Most of the time) Alarm was false and goes away within a few minutes
4. (<1% of the time) There is indeed a fire somewhere in the building and people take their time gathering belongings before leisurely walking to the nearest door

Same goes in the house:

1. Wake up groggy, assume false alarm again
2. Put on pants, check out the source of the noise
3. (4 times in current residence) Find no indication of fire, hush alarm
4. Alarm shuts up with a dose of compressed air. If not, sledgehammer time and buy a new one the next day.

That can't be how most of us are supposed to go about it, right?

Is it for a lack of better smoke detection technology? A consequence of buying low-quality detectors? While we're at it, can anyone recommend a smoke detector that does its job with a minimum of false alarms?

When using XFCE in conjunction with light-locker (the default lock screen utility), it normally takes some seconds to resume from suspend as it loads up the light-locker prompt. However, I've found that if I let the prompt load up, but then close the lid without entering the password and let it enter suspend again, light-locker is almost instantly ready the next time I resume. Is there any way to do this automate this behavior when I close the lid of my laptop?

Have never used cryptocurrency before, all I know is that Bitcoin transactions can be tracked, Monero is the most widely accepted untraceable cryptocurrency, and many exchanges enforce KYC. I do not presently have the hardware to mine for myself at an appreciable rate. What do I need to know and use in order to set up a wallet, acquire crypto, exchange, and spend it as anonymously as I practically can?

Leaning heavily towards the Lattepanda Mu with Intel N100, but also considering the Raspberry Pi 5 compute module as an alternative. Main reason for the preference is performance. But does that still hold up if passively cooled? I've read that the N100 doesn't really reach its full potential at its 6 W TDP, instead often drawing around 15 W during benchmarks. All of the benchmarks I've come across are for an actively-cooled setup.

I'm planning on a heatsink that will be open to ambient air and not much larger than the compute module itself, maybe 6x12x1 cm. How much do those extra watts beyond the TDP matter to the performance of an Intel CPU?

Family is asking me if I can help them acquire and set up a Windows tablet to replace their old one. I've got the software part down, but I'm not too familiar with tablet PC hardware. As far as I know, the use case is:

• MS Office, web browsing, streaming, video calls, syncing MP3s onto an iPod via iTunes
• Media player when travelling, they like the tablet form factor for this
• But most of the time, it'll just stay around the house, so battery life isn't too important

And yes, most of this could all be doable with an Android or even Linux tablet, but I know they'll just keep on using the old tablet if the new one doesn't have Windows 🤷.

• 500 USD budget
• New, open box, or like new condition
• True tablet with detachable keyboard
• Pen not necessary
• Performant enough to comfortably browse the web for the next several years
• Battery not too prone to swelling
• SD card slot and some level of repairability would be nice-to-have

So far, every tablet within the budget I've come across has its own share of quirks and flaws, so I'd be interested to hear if anyone had a particularly good experience or found a hidden gem among tablet PCs.