I’m not aware of an alternative TV App for android tv. On my android TV live tv is also wrapped within the android interface but other sources like HDMI inputs are not.

If you can switch to HDMI sources outside the android apps then maybe the best thing to do is get a separate basic satellite tuner device?

It seems shitty that google are effectively hiding your inbuilt tv tuner behind an app with all their advertising and other crap.

The Bird flu pandemic is coming; withdrawing from WHO is not going to be good for the US and now Argentinian responses.

The lack of effective controls on the spread of bird flu in the American agricultural industry (even pre trump, due to strong vested financial interests in american farming overriding public health concerns) make the US a very strong contender for being where the disease finally moves in to humans.

Trump Flu? Pandemics seem to he a feature of his presidencies.

For your second question, a window manager is the specific system that controls the placement of windows on an X11 desktop.

On a X11 based system, X11 is the windowing system (interacting with the video card) and a window manager is a system sitting on top of that laying out the windows and interacting with the user and other programmes. It is a separate programme on top of the X11 system, and communicates with X11, and X11 is the programme that communicates with the graphics card.

On Wayland, instead of 2 separate systems there can be 1 combined windowing systen that is both the window manager but also directly communicates with the hardware in a standardised way using the Wayland protocols. This is called a Wayland compositor.

Meanwhile a desktop environment is the whole desktop - that includes a window manager or compositor but also lots of other tools and software that together make a full desktop experience.

An example is KDE - KDE is a full desktop environment. It uses its own x11 window manger called kwin (and also able to be a wayland compositor), but it also uses a whole range of other tools alongside that to give you panels, widgets, desktop icons, a clock, menus, settings etc collectively forming Plasma desktop. And then on top of Plasma there is a whole range of bespoke programmes that form the full deskop experience - like Dolphin (file manager), Kate (text editor) and so on. All that software is designed to work seamlessly with the KDE family of tools and systems. The window manager, the desktop tools and the other programmes together form the whole desktop environment. But other desktop environments software will also work - for example Gnome based software can also run with KDE without issue and vice versa.

Gnome has its own window manager/compositor, and it’s own widgets and tools to make a desktop, and it’s own bespoke software to make a whole desktop environment.

And there are many others.

So in summary:

• Window Manager - the specific system that controls the placment and look of the individual windows talking to X11 which then talks to the hardware

• Wayland Compositor - the system that controls the placement and look of windows, using wayland protocols to speak to the hardware

• Desktop Environment - the whole desktop including the Window manager but also lots of other programmes and tools that form the basic desktop (such as a panel, menus, desktop icons) and the whole environment (other software like a file manager, text editor, calculator etc). KDE and Gnome are examples of popular desktop environments

Plasma Wayland or Plasma X11?

Nvidia and Wayland still has issues, even though KDE is defaulting to Wayland. Personally I don’t think Wayland is fit for purpose at present so I use X11. I have an Nvidia GPU (3070) and no issues with games including older games in X11.

The problem for the BBC is that not all stories have equally valid opposing views but they are forced to treat both sides equally at all times… So as the world drifts further and further to insanity, their reporting makes crazy positions seem legitimate as they have to be aired alongside more mainstream views.

It worked OK when the world was fairly stable and political positions were close together. It doesn’t work when political positions are so polarised and extreme.

Case in point: Brexit. The BBC really struggled in challenging extreme positions and outright lies during the brexit campaign.

Unfortunately though I’m not sure there is much alternative. Its fat from perfect but provably the best a public service broadcaster can try to do. At least it tries to provide the facts so people can make up their own minds - that in itself remains laudable.

Being “nice” is not a policy for the UK to follow. It might be lucky to avoid some of the tariffs targetting the EU but when he wants something from the UK he will use the tariff threat.

The UK is far better off trying to improve relations with the EU and liberalise trade as much as can be achieved without reigniting the brexit debate. That might not be much.

Genuinely not had a problem with mods, and I’ve been PC gaming for decades. Of course sometimes mods don’t work but thats life. Just be patient, you’ll get it done.

Decent mods have a readme file - follow the steps strictly - no skipping thinking you know better - and they should work.

Also look on YouTube or search online for guides - people often provide step by step guides to mod games purely out of a love for gaming.

Keep going - mods can be great, and its one of the many benefits of PC gaming. You’ll get there!

Stop showing off your immense wealth.

So Tidal pays royalties at about 4x the rate of Spotify, not 10. That is still only US$ 0.013 per stream, compared to spotifys US$ 0.003.

However that is not the whole picture - the big 3 music companies (All American) control the market and get the lions share of revenues from all platforms. They actually get more of the pot and all the other labels and independent get less.

So the choice between Tidal and Spotify for artists is not as significant as you think.

Meanwhile Tidal has been bought by an American conglomerate owned by Jack Dorsey (the founder of Twitter), a lot of staff have been laid off (Dorsey laid of a large number of staff in 2024 and said the company needs to be “more like a statrup”), and they removed the subscription direct-share with artists in 2022. It is very likely artists will be squeezed more and more to save money.

Tidal is just another tech-bro owned company. Even if we park all the Trump/Canada stuff for a moment there are plenty of reasons to dump it. At least Spotify is a publicly listed independent European company for all it’s many flaws. The rest of the market is sewn up by American tech companies: Apple Music, Amazon Music, Google YouTube Music.

Maybe your money is better spent outside the big US tech companies.

Yeah but if you had to search for it you’d have a trouble spelling it. Flowmarked would be how English speakers would hear that I think.

It probably needs an English brand name for outside the germano-sphere - fedimarket?

Didn’t he sell out to fitbit and all the pebble employees lost their jobs?

This is hugely important. This is Christian fascism at play and an attack on science is an attack on everyone.

Can’t be swearing on the Internet! I think you mean f***. Possibly even **** or even better fudge. Would hate to upset the Americans! They might impose tariffs.

No source, its satire

True, although the nature of the fediverse means something akin to the old forums is possible. People can more easily choose to sit in a small garden in the fediverse rather than only having the choice of a huge plaza with 100s of thousands of voices shouting for attention.

Thats a fundamental difference, even if a large popular part of the fediverse probably will likely go the way of every other big social media platforms and all the toxicity that comes with it.

Bird Flu is coming - Trump is the president of pandemics, and whose betting he will handle this one any better than covid?

I wouldn’t worry, with Trump we’ll all soon be infected with bird flu instead. Trump Flu, alongside Trump Inflation and a Trump Drought in California.

Add to that trumps tarrifs on goods from mexico and Canada, and the price is about to go up even further.

And will be have Trump Flu this year? Hes going to be busy.

The drought in summer 2025 will be Trumps Drought.

Alongside Trumps Inflation.

There is nothing other countries can really do about this except impose tariffs in kind. When american inflation goes up I hope Americans put stickers on gas pumps and more eating “Trump did this”