The worms are back again. Gotta dig out out Microsoft's parasites with a screw driver.

They were there from the beginning, check the template it's been untouched since first upload. The only edit I made to the image since was better cropping. I intended for those white strips to be coke lines. Its a small detail but if you zoom in you can see some extra white on the nose lol. Why I added it to the character. Definitely smoking a joint still with that bud

"decent speed" depends on your subjective opinion and what you want it to do. I think its fair to say if it can generate text around your slowest tolerable reading speed thats a bare minimum for real time conversational things. If you want a task done and don't mind stepping away to get a coffee it can be much slower.

I was pleasantly suprised to get anything at all working on an old laptop. When thinking of AI my mind imagines super computers and thousand dollar rigs and data centers. I don't think mobile computers like my thinkpad. But sure enough the technology is there and your old POS can adopt a powerful new tool if you have realistic expectations on matching model capacity with specs.

Tiny llama will work on a smartphone but its dumb. llama3.1 8B is very good and will work on modest hardware but you may have to be patient with it if especially if your laptop wasn't top of the line when it was made 10 years ago. Then theres all the models in between.

The i7 6600U duo core 2.6ghz CPU in my laptop trying to run 8B was jusst barely enough to be passing grade for real time talking needs at 1.2-1.7 T/s it could say a short word or half of a complex one per second. When it needed to process something or recalculate context it took a hot minute or two.

That got kind of annoying if you were getting into what its saying. Bumping the PC up to a AMD ryzen 5 2600 6 core CPU was a night and day difference. It spits out a sentence very quick faster than my average reading speed at 5-6 t/s. Im still working on getting the 4GB RX 580 GPU used for offloading so those numbers are just with the CPU bump. RAM also matters DDR6 will beat DDR4 speed wise.

Heres a tip, most software has the models default context size set at 512, 2048, or 4092. Part of what makes llama 3.1 so special is that it was trained with 128k context so bump that up to 131072 in the settings so it isnt recalculating context every few minutes..

Thanks randint glad you liked it!

tinyllama 1.1b would probably run reasonably fast. Dumb as a rock for sure. But hey its a start! My 2015 t460 thinkpad laptop with an i7 6600U 2.6GhZ duo core was able to do llama 3.1 8B at 1.2T-1.7T/s which while definitely slow at about a word per second. Still, was also just fast enough to have fun in real time with conversation.

Heres the template if anyone wants it

How to play IPTV using iptv-org playlist and VLC

More directions at iptv-orgs github

1. open up VLC (and most other media players)
2. select the media tab in top left, navigate to 'open network stream'
3. paste this URL: https://iptv-org.github.io/iptv/index.m3u to import the global playlist of all iptv-org streams
4. Open vlc's playlist viewer with ctrl+L or right click > view > playlist

You should see a bunch of IPTV streams to choose from. Go to search bar located top right to search playlist for the stream you want. You can look for a more specific iptv-org playlist for your language and stuff. when commercial breaks happen it just shows a still frame. If nothing is playing right away try waiting a few minutes.

I hope all this has helped you out, Lumisal. I updated the formatting on my comments to closer resemble a guide in case you decide to link them in the future. Enjoy your open and energy efficient computing!

have you tried VLC? It works with IPTV if I am remembering right.

When you 'stream a video' from firefox it just downloads the video in small chunks at a time instead of the whole thing at once. These chunks of downloaded video are saved to temporary memory called a 'cache' and deleted after you are done the video.

Yes yt-dlp is most often used to download the entire video as a digital file onto permanent memory; however it doesn't have to be used that way. Other applications like smplayer and mpv can work with yt-dlp. Using it as a component to do the heavy lifting of talking to youtubes servers and streaming video in the same exact way firefox does.

Doing a quick search, there are some projects to implement mpv with sponsorblock. Im not the most technical person and prefer not to get my hands dirty with complex hacked together scripts that require compilation or whatever. Thats not to discourage you if you want to follow up on those things know people are working on it but if you aren't a power user it may be a hard time to get that kind of thing working.

Theres better ways to play YouTube on SBC

The issue is trying to run a video in Firefox. Modern web browsers consume a lot of resources. Also they don't use your hardware efficiently for video playing. You need to take some time to set up a native video player application to play YouTube videos. This better uses the SBC hardware acceleration without wasting precious resources.

How to play YouTube through SMPlayer

Use your operating systems software installer to Install the latest versions of smplayer, smtube, and mpv. Use smtube to select a YouTube video. This sends the network stream URL to smplayer which detects its a YouTube video and downloads the latest yt-dlp to help stream it. If everything is up to date, it plays great.

Not all OS keep their software up to date. Some prefer older stable packages. So its important to use a OS that keeps this software updated. I know for sure MX Linux works with its default software repos out of the box. Its available for Pis, though I have not personally installed on a PI.

Configure SMTube To Use Invidious

Once you get YouTube videos playing, go into settings of smtube to change the web page from tonvid to a custom invidious instance. Pick one thats ideally from your country and that lets you register an account. That way you can import subscriptions and personalize stuff.

Hiccups when using smtube to load an invidious site: the default language will be some foreign language. Make sure you know how to go to settings in invidious and change to english. To load the video click on small youtube icon bottom right of video.

Old Hardware Given New Life

I have revived lots of old PCs over the years. Giving them a new lease on life with up to date linux operating systems for friends and family. I have a 15 year old laptop that was finally having a hard time running latest linux mint xfce. This week I got to work reviving it.

I gave mx linux a shot as I liked ExplainingComputers review of the OS and thought it good fit for my use case. Installing these programs right from MX's software repositiories was a breeze. Youtube played effortlessly! MX is pretty minimal and im sure most pis can run it okay, so give it a shot if you want a OS with up to date repos for these packages if youtube is one of your main concerns.

Me and my buddy were hiking up a trail one day kinda high and as we get up the mountain we hear multiple gunshots right near us enough to be legit scared that some crazy asshole is going 'most dangerous game' on our sorry stoner asses and FUCKING BOOK IT down the mountain. My fat ass learned how fast a body pumped full of adrenelane can really move that day.

As it turns out there was a gun range nearby. So ultimately a nothingburger but a fun story to remember.

Thank you very much this advice helps a lot.

I have programmed PLCs with ladder logic before specifically allan-bradley SLC 500 and still have my certs for it. In industrial work we would keep a cleanly programmed plc on hand and reflash the program onto a malfunctioning PLC as needed. Sometimes I would pay attention to the input-output lights and look at the ladder logic schematics to troubleshoot a faulty sensor. Is it a big deal to know how to work with PLCs? Should I market that skill a little more in my resume?

I know enough about smart technology to know the best lock is the old school analog ones. A hacker can break into many RF based locks with a toy turned garage door opener master key.

The cloud based always connected to the internet ones are even spookier and I dont trust my network security enough for that shit and honestly neither should you

Look I understand the temptation of smart technology connecting to your phone but were not talking about a fridge with a camera and mic that connects to the internet here. If there's one thing I dont want hackers potentially getting into its the literal locks and bolts to my home and car. Get something analog.

A little late to this one but Librewolf is a pretty solid privacy based fork of Firefox that comes prepackedwith UBO and hardened security settings on by default

Thanks, havent heard of nobara before but it being made by the dude who maintains protob GE is interesting and I will check it out.

Linux mint is my favorite os been running it many years now no issues with running games. Its a bulletproof OS esecially with timeshift snapshots SteamOS is specifically a gaming os developed by valve for the steam deck but you can installed it on any system . The key is proton which is a windows emulator comparability layer fine tuned by valves Dev team to get most games running on Linux.

I grew up and found better uses of my time as well as my taste in entrertainment changing. Anime tends to be geared towards teenagers and young adults especially the shounen and school life stuff. When I was 14 I thought dudes with big swords and shooting fantasy magic out your asshole in big impressive sakuga battles was cool and interesting and didn't give a shit if the characters were one dimensional pieces of cardboard. Now it's still is cool but less so, and I notice the poorly thought out YA novel tier narrative much more. Turns out being a good manga artist and being a good narrative author are two different skill sets.

Headon blood rites, you would think the big titty orc girl protagonist FPS would be enough to overcome any gameplay issues but no as it turns out I just really HATE hexen inspired games that make you run around in circles constantly searching for hard to find keys and shit to progress the map. I could just barely tolerate that stuff in the OG DOOM games but the hexen likes take the sisyphisus's maze bullshit and make a whole genre out of it. No thanks, I prefer games that respect my time with proper signposting and much fewer bullshit key hunts.

Overload, some of the old FPS fans talk about a game called 'Decent' and how it was actually this underrated gem of a series that offered a novel 6 degrees of movement. So the devs who made that game came back a decade later and put the 6 degrees of freedom in a modern fps game. I gave it about 5 minutes before I was motion sick and ready to go back to my safe and familiar 4 degrees of movement.

Sometimes you gotta pay to figure out what you dont like.

So here's some things to think about that may help you out.

The biggest thing you can do to help yourself financially is to cut down on expenses and work your way out of any debts you have.

Take a look at your bank account activity and just write down how much percentage of your monthly income is going where. If you have monthly entertainment subscriptions like Netflix or patreons multiply that sub cost by twelve and ask yourself if its worth paying $ each year. Cut down on your spending as much as possible dont buy anything unless you really need it.

What I'm going to say next is going to be controversial especially among the lemmy crowd, but its a way to financial freedom you might not have considered.

Your biggest expense is almost certainly rent to your appartment. Take a look at how much money your paying to your landlord each month, and ask yourself how your financial life would look if you instead poketed that money and paid yourself the "rent". If you were your own landlord.

The secret is, your car can be a home that you own. Yes you heard me right, I'm suggesting that you move out of your apartment into your car while still working and pay yourself all that rent money, use it towards working off any debts you may have and pay off the car loan. After all your debts are paid and you own your car you build up a emergency fund nest egg of 3-6k and set it aside. After that you are financially free compared to most people living paycheck to paycheck in their appartments and the world is your oyster. You can upgrade your car to something a little more spacious and or travel your country sight seeing, working seasonal jobs , doing a little soul searching.

The sad reality is that many people every day especially the elderly living on meager SS are forced to choose between paying rent or not starving to death that month. Inevitably they choose the latter and are forcibly lead down that path of living in their car with no choice in the matter and little time to physically or psychologically prepare after the eviction.

Yet they manage to find the mental strength to endure, adapt, and thrive. I invite you to check out the YouTube channel cheaprvliving hosted by Bob wells. He does interviews with vandwellers who are more often than not older people fallen on hard times and shares their stories and builds. As well as practical guides to everything you want to know like how to take baths, use the bathroom, keep yourself warm, generate power for basic appliances and AC. Some of his older videos that share his personal story are very inspirational I like his quote videos too.

Of course this option has its own cost. One for sure is comfort, especially starting out. Its such a radical change in lifestyle that requires adaptation and an open mind.

If you have a family or even a partner that makes it a lot tougher than if its just you.

How much would you sacrifice for financial freedom, to not live paycheck to paycheck, to have money no longer be such a huge master of your life? do you think convinence and luxury are a price you could pay for that kind of freedom?

My final suggestion is this: an attitude change. Reading your post I get a serious "cant, won't, dont know how" self pitying vibe. Its never too late to learn something new, or to go back to school, or develop a trade skill. The barrier to those things is usually a lack of motivation and purpose in life. If you dont know what your living for or why your doing it, that's the core problem. All that other stuff is symptoms. And there is no silver bullet cure all suggestion to finding your own meaning in life that's something you have to reflect on and think about. Anyways hope this gave you some food for thought.