this post was submitted on 07 Jan 2025
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Technology

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Reposting this from here from 2023, after I stumbled across it tonight and it hits hard.

The text in the image:

I love my smart TV. I love the way it takes a long time to boot up because it’s trying to refresh the advertisements on the home screen. I delight in the way it randomly restarts because it’s downloaded an update without asking me, each of which makes the TV slower and slower with every subsequent install. I adore the way it buries the apps that I want to use, and that I use without fail every single time, below the apps that it’s being paid to promote and which I have never touched in my life and would never use without the cold metal of a glock pressed hard against my sweating temple. I am infinitely thrilled by the way the interface lags constantly, due to the need to have one thousand unnecessary animations rendered on hardware ripped wholesale from a ten year old phone. I feel myself borne aloft on wings of pure joy when I am notified that my data will be collected and analysed to determine my usage patterns. Even now I am writing this from a field of beautiful flowers and soft luscious grass as I lie and look up happily at the bright blue sky, smiling happily to know that this is the future of technology

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[–] [email protected] 115 points 3 months ago (6 children)

I remember the ancient times when you could buy something, turn it on, then have it do what you want it to do. Setting the clock was the difficult part. Other than that, it just worked.

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[–] [email protected] 48 points 3 months ago (5 children)

Last I looked, we could still buy commercial displays. They're dumb TVs. They cost more, of course.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 months ago (6 children)

99.9% of all these "problems" can be solved by using an ablocker DNS and a couple of adb commands (on Android).

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 months ago (4 children)

i haven't even turned on my tv in over a year because of that bullshit. i've just been using a monitor + laptop + 2.1 pc speakers.

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[–] [email protected] 30 points 3 months ago (7 children)

I honestly wonder how hard it would be to do a full lobotomy on a smart TV and if there would be a big enough market for that kind of service.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 3 months ago (11 children)

best thing is to never hook 'em up to the internet. provided the manufacturers don't all start requiring internet to 'set up' a tv.

next best thing would be a revert of firmware or a full 'reset' of settings; if possible. to return it to an 'out of box' state--then above, never connect it to the internet.

replacing a cheap streaming device is a hell of a lot cheaper than replacing the tv once the software gets obsoleted for whatever reason.


my coworker (and boss, technically) just casually mentioned that her inlaws 'updated' their tvs when they were visting over the holidays. i cringed so fucking hard because i have the same model, just smaller--so i know what happens.

they had just recently hooked-up wireline internet and could actually stream stuff now.. so i had just given them a new streaming stick to use instead of connecting their now 3 year old tv to the wifi.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 months ago (1 children)

You'd still have the TVs default OS running on a potato. I'm thinking more along the lines of replacing that with a bare bones old school OS that was responsive.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago (6 children)

My 2017 Shield pro is starting to die and I'm dreading getting another TV box. Anyone have good experience with LibreElec or a similar distro? I am thinking of getting some sub $100 USFF from eBay

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago

Another Shield Pro?

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago (1 children)

For me the icing on the cake on that image is the "Translate" link which makes me wonder how you might translate this into say Klingon or CEO talk or ELI 5.

Other than that, it's a sad state of affairs that we've allowed this to happen unchecked and wholesale across the planet.

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