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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 12th, 2023

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  • MinuteCast from AccuWeather does exactly this. It looks at your location, looks at radar data for storm systems approaching your location, and estimates when precipitation will start at your location and how intense it will be. It’s generally pretty accurate, with some limitations. It seems to be pretty good for consistent rainstorms but it can get tripped up by pop-up thunderstorms, where the radar track can go suddenly from no rain to downpour. It doesn’t make predictions more then 2-3 hours out because past that timeframe it’s not easy to predict if weather will continue on its current track or change direction. Even with the limitations, I use it all the time. Mostly to tell if I should take the dogs out right away, or if I should wait an hour or two.











  • There are some viruses that have targeted Linux, but they’re rare compared to other platforms and their ability to spread is relatively low. One of the main reasons is just down to how software tends to be installed on each platform. Viruses have an easier time spreading on Windows or OSX where users are more accustomed to downloading an executable and running it. Once there’s a malicious running process, it has a comparatively high chance to spread because it can attempt to escalate its privileges either by exploiting a bug or socially engineering the user to click through a privilege escalation prompt. That entire workflow is practically nonexistent on Linux, users just don’t tend to download and execute random binaries. Instead most Linux software gets delivered in one of these ways, each of which has impediments that reduce the chance a virus could spread:

    • through an OS repo; it would be difficult for a malicious actor to get a virus through the release process and into a trusted repo
    • through a public source like Github; again it would be difficult for a malicious actor to get a virus into public source code without someone noticing
    • through a container image from an image library like DockerHub; I believe a malicious container would be sandboxed, making it hard if not impossible for that container to take over the host system
    • through an application image like a snap, flatpak or appimage; again, I believe these run in their own sandbox from which they would have difficulty breaking out

    There are some exceptions, for example some companies like Hashicorp will distribute their stuff as precompiled binaries. Even in that case you’re probably fine as long as you don’t run the downloaded binary as root. Users in the habit of downloading strange binaries from sketchy places and running them as root just aren’t very common among the Linux userbase. I’m sure there are some (and they should really stop doing that), but there aren’t enough of them to allow a virus to spread unchecked.


  • I don’t think dedicated antivirus software is really required anymore. I haven’t run third-party AV software on any of my systems in the last decade.

    On Windows, the built-in Windows Defender is good enough for most use cases. When it first launched Defender had a pretty bad track record at stopping viruses, but now it routinely ranks at the top.

    On Linux, antivirus software has never really been required. One major exception I can think of would be if you’re running a file server or mail server that talks to OSX or Windows systems. Even then the AV software isn’t really there to protect the server, it’s there to make sure you don’t pass malware or viruses to those non-Linux clients.







  • People here seem partial to Jellyfin

    I recently switched to Jellyfin and I’ve been pretty impressed with it. Previously I was using some DLNA server software (not Plex) with my TV’s built-in DLNA client. That worked well for several years but I started having problems with new media items not appearing on the TV, so I decided to try some alternatives. Jellyfin was the first one I tried, and it’s working so well that I haven’t felt compelled to search any further.

    the internet seems to feel it doesn’t work smoothly with xbox (buggy app/integration).

    Why not try it and see how it works for you? Jellyfin is free and open source, so all it would cost you is a little time.

    I have a TCL tv with (with google smart TV software)

    Can you install apps from Google Play on this TV? If so, there’s a Jellyfin app for Google TVs. I can’t say how well the Google TV Jellyfin app works as I have an LG TV myself, so currently I’m using the Jellyfin LG TV app.

    If you can’t install apps on that TV, does it have a DLNA client built in? Many TVs do, and that’s how I streamed media to my TV for years. On my LG TV the DLNA server shows up as another source when I press the button to bring up the list of inputs. The custom app is definitely a lot more feature-rich, but a DLNA client can be quite functional and Jellyfin can be configured to work as a DLNA server.


  • First off, good job on quitting! Keep up the good work.

    Alcohol withdrawal can apparently cause high blood pressure. Withdrawal typically peaks in the first 1-3 days, which would match up with your observation that your BP was even higher at the 72-hour mark: Alcohol withdrawl timeline

    In the most severe cases, alcohol withdrawal should be supervised by a medical professional because it’s actually possible to die from it. If you’d gone through full-blown worst-case alcohol withdrawal, you’d probably know it (and high BP would probably not be your most pressing concern). Maybe it’s possible to get a milder case of alcohol withdrawal from a lesser level of alcohol use? That’s pure speculation on my part, I can’t find any source one way or the other as most are devoted to withdrawal from heavy alcohol abuse. If I were in your shoes I’d monitor my BP for the next couple weeks and talk to a doctor if BP measurements aren’t trending downward over that time.