I have a similar generic receiver, with some "not genuine" hardware ID.
I just force select & install the signed microsoft drivers. The trick works in all versions of windows that I tried.
Ive been using Openwith on firefox and chrome, and it works flawlessly
It needs a launcher (aka native host client) to start the 3rd party app, in this case mpv with the correct arguments.
The launcher is technically only started (then immediatly terminates) when you trigger the openwith action, so no memory/cpu overhead.
The official openwith solution is a python script (requires python), for windows there is a native and lightweight launcher: owclauncher
With this setup, you can launch any action with a simple right click: play in mpv, play in low resolution in mpv, download video/audio with youtube-dl, play in 2nd screen ...
I thought you could sideload self-built apps onto an iPhone these days. I mean, it has some restrictions, but at least it doesn't require forking over $99.
I've tried using linux desktop for daily use multiple times.
Xfce was usually my choice for its simplicity and snappiness.
But, there was this 1 simple thing that made me lose faith in the linux desktop:
For xfce's default folder viewer: Thunar, there was no possibility to adjust a per-folder view settings.
At first I did not beleive it, but there were multiple discussion complaining about the same issue, including a 12-years old bug report(https://bugzilla.xfce.org/show_bug.cgi?id=3521 )
For a desktop manager endorsed by major distrubitions, I find this to be mind blowing and enraging.
It gave me the feeling that linux desktop is an un-finisehd, unpolished, hacky piece of software
So you used a somewhat obscure window manager, found a missing feature in the folder viewer you were using and jumped to the conclusion that Linux has a broken desktop experience?
Isn't that always what Linux people say? No matter what is broken, there are hundreds of other applications that aren't broken in that specific way, so there's nothing wrong with the Linux desktop.
I used the default window manager that comes with xfce.
I tried setting up other window managers in xfce, and come to the conclusion it is not straightfoward, and the integration with the rest of the system is not perfect.
Also it was a feeling of imperfection that pushed me back (I am sure you can setup the linux desktop for your liking if you tried enough)
I would not recommend Xfce to a newcomer, though I know some people who started using Linux with it and kept it.
I think I would recommend Cinnamon (I don't like it personally but people seem to like it) or Unity (especially since they came back to Gnome. This desktop looks nice and easy to use).
I like Plasma 5, I find it's the best general purpose desktop environment across all the major OSes, but somehow non-technical people don't seem to like it so much.
All these observations are anecdotal and should be taken with a grain of salt. I didn't conduct a study and the number of people is low.
There is a ongoing effort in the KDE community to improve usability and usability and they are doing a great job. I recommend reading https://pointieststick.com/
You started with unconventional software, though. Why didn't you try to use gnome? It's far more broadly used and supported. It's not perfect, but the criticism you have against it would make more sense in terms of ditching Linux in your desktop computer.
I actually tested gnome and didnt like it.(I cant recall the exact reasons)
I also spent considerable time with other DMs (kde5, lxde and unity), and ended up liking xfce
I think its a shame that the linux desktop software is so fragmented.
Sometime, I fantasize about a parallel world, with a parallel linux trovalds working solely and maintaining THE linux desktop manager
I don't think the fragmentation is really a problem. It's not like if there was a single option, then everyone who's currently involved in working with other desktop environments would automatically join in.
That said, gnome has the largest chunk of the market share. Sort of like the chrome of Linux desktop. It has all features I've ever used in any desktop environment (to be fair, after Windows 98 I only used Linux and Mac os) But each person will enjoy a different UI, I guess.
There are actually many areas in linux desktop that are hacky and unfinished, but this is not one of them. It would be helpful to have that feature, yes, but I never missed it, mostly because of shortcuts in thunar
But that is a matter of perspective. I felt enraged and could not believe that you cannot change the windows 10 file explorer to a dark theme. Maybe you can now, they advertised this amazing feature as soon to come, but I don't know as I do not have to use that anymore.
So I prefer thunar over windows file manager, or worse, the filemanager on my chromebook any day. So it is very polished software for my use case, even though not perfect.
There is much direct and easier way to pass a link or the current page's URL to an external program using "open with" browser addon + owclauncher
(https ://github.com/mbooga/owclauncher)
I've been using a combination of firefox/chrome with youtube-dl/mpv+youtube-dl for a while
This comes very handy for playing high quality youtube videos on low end machines or downloading audio+/-video directly from youtube.
On the pre-webextension era of firefox/chrome , "open with" addon was the perfect fit.
Now, a special native messaging app needs to be installed to launch mpv/youtube-dl
"Open with" addon solved this by a python script (that obviously required installing python, and few other steps)
I decided to create a new tool to make this step easier and faster on windows: owclauncher[1]
Basically a lightweight native messaging host for "open with" addon: it is not running on the background, and only started (and immediatly terminated) by the browser when passing a command to any other program
You can check and compile the source code or the .bat windows installer/uninstaller
I used to think so. I think part of it is getting "used to the situation" and the other part is dramatization of the Venezuela crisis by the media.
Our roads are worse, the streets are much dirtier, and unless you are living around lamarsa/lac, then food shortages are real. If you can afford them in the first place. I live in a "wealthy" neighborhood and yesterday there was a water cut.
Yesterday I was at the airport. Looking at Venezuela/Caracas airport and comparing, the one here is much more degraded. What do you think is Venezuela situation? No electricity? It might as well be a reality here if the government doesn't get its shit together very soon.
I can't speak personally to Tunisia's situation. However the people of Venezuela are starving to death. They're no more than two or three years from genocide by starvation at this point (or otherwise requiring desperate, massive food aid from the UN, Russia, China, or whichever countries they would allow to deliver it).
Tunisia ranks 51 out of 113. Venezuela ranks 78 out of 113. That's a lagging ranking, things have gotten much worse in Venezuela over the last six months and year.
A year ago, when things weren't as bad as they are now, the situation was:
"Venezuelans reported losing on average 11 kilograms (24 lbs) in body weight last year [in 2017] and almost 90 percent now live in poverty, according to a new university study on the impact of a devastating economic crisis and food shortages. "
On a monetary, economic front, their inflation rate is so high as to be entirely pointless to track. They're formally a failed state with no functioning currency or central bank system.
Their economy has collapsed by 80% to 90%, in the last five years:
Tunisia's GDP per capita has declined in the last several years, back to about where it was in 2006/2007. They've seen a ~18% decline approximately, from the peak. A lot of that is dollar conversion decline however, only a small portion of it is real domestic economic contraction. Venezuela's collapse is a severe domestic contraction, a near total obliteration of all business and private enterprise, including basic stores (now entirely empty everywhere). Very little of Venezuela's decline is an issue of currency conversion against the jump in the US dollar: it's a flat out, straight down collapse.
When the US dollar took off on its historic run five years ago, it hit a lot of developing economies, including Tunisia. Tunisia's GDP per capita peaked in 2014, and began to decline, exactly in line with the USD taking off. Developing countries as diverse as Brazil, Russia, Pakistan, Turkey and Indonesia were hit by the same effect at the same time. The USD spike is also what pushed Venezuela under water, as it hammered the price of oil downward.
On a basic health front, diseases like malaria, diarrhea, typhoid fever and hepatitis A have skyrocketed in cases. Malaria has gone from relatively rare (15k-30k cases), to common (half a million annual cases), in Venezuela. At this point there is no functioning healthcare system in Venezuela, and essentially no medicine available to 99% of the population.
In terms of consumer goods, nearly all basic consumer goods were gone 18 to 24 months ago. They increasingly lack nearly all basic consumer staples, from diapers to toilet paper.
When it comes to access to safe drinking water, that too has essentially entirely disappeared. Water security is now a daily battle for nearly all the people of Venezuela:
"The water scarcity has driven people out of their homes and into the streets in search of any source, potable or not. ... Caracas, a city of 2 million, sits in a valley some 3,000 feet above sea level. The public water system relies on a succession of pumps that require massive amounts of energy. Without electricity, the water doesn’t flow."
Venezuela is seeing a severe flight of population, whereas Tunisia's population is solidly expanding year after year. Venezuela has seen maybe as many as three to four million people flee the country during the crisis. These people fleeing Venezuela are often living in imminent fear of starving to death, or the fear that that is what's to come next.
I think part of it is getting used to the situation. There is an ongoing battle between the military and armed-islamic groups. It is not a heavy conflict but this (https://thedefensepost.com/2019/04/27/tunisia-soldier-killed...) happened very recently and it is not a unique case.
There has also been several civilians either kidnapped or killed by armed terrorists. It has become common now and people stopped talking about it.
Also Tunisia has got a significant forgotten population. Think people with no access to water, electricity, roads, education... most Tunisians you'll see in the nicer neighborhoods do not relate to those and probably don't remember them except for some brief Facebook posts.
Tunisia rural population is around 30%. That's a third of the population. Compare that to 10% in Venezuela.
To answer your questions:
1- It is more likely we don't reach a consensus on how bad Tunisia is. You should take into account that probably neither of us went to Venezuela in the first place.
Being an old RAC then vWorker freelancer, I totally share weland's view.
Lately, I restarted on freelancer.com, and the amount of WTF moments that I faced are quite substantial. Let me give you a summary (and why I decided to move to elance):
-- The worker being constantly extorted in every corner of the site:
-Pay $5 in order to take a test.
-Pay more $ to get your bid in the first row/highlighted
-Pay some $ to unlock more BidsPerMonth and Skills
-Pay upfront 10% of every job you are awarded, even if the employer is determined to scam you and never pay
-What about a constant Ad to remind you that you can always choose to pay more.
...
-- Milestone payment is not defaulted, if the employer didnt made a milestone payment, we couldn't care less, we wont give you back the initial 10% fee (even if both agree to cancel), and you'll have a permanent "Work in Progress" job in your profile (until you decide to constantly harass the support team and wait few weeks)
--The website is a hassle:
- Everything is dynamically processed, slow loading, excessively simplified, and most pages cant be bookmarked
- Using game mechanism to motivate workers is interesting(levels, badges, XP points ...), but most of it is actually useless/funny (Exp: 78000 credit point to have a 20min call with the CEO)
I'm sure this is not the perfect answer since hotspotshield redirect somehow google search pages and force ads on every page.
But you can get the ads away with a simple rule in .hosts file.
Privoxy can add another layer of ad protection.
