Thanks for the reminder about VLC. I don't use it much any more, but back in the wild west days of audio/video codecs (some of which were paid), VLC would play everything.

What about running the Flatpak version of Brave? Flatpaks are containerized and should contain compatible libraries.

To add to what @lordnikon said, the program is called Software & Updates and I'm pretty sure it's installed by default in GNOME (don't know about other DEs).

Paper mills smell like hydrogen sulfide - rotten eggs. It's a byproduct of the pulping process. It's bad, but some of the smells described here sound much worse. Source: the town I live in used to have an operating paper mill.

I'm on Fark more than I used to be on Reddit. It's still my go-to for political discussions and kept me sane during the Trump years. Honestly, the community is pretty good there and there's a nice balance between insightful comments and snark. But Reddit was better for hobbyists, niche interests and tech discussions and I'm hoping those communities will develop here on Lemmy.

Same here. I've worn contacts for 50 years (my user name isn't a lie). A few minutes of inconvenience at the beginning and end of the day, and I don't have to think about my vision aids the rest of the time. And I can walk in the rain and still see!

Debian Stable (Bookworm)

I've read Kaiju Preservation Society. It's very entertaining and I'd highly recommend it. I have The Spare Man on my to read list because I liked The Lady Astronaut series by Mary Robinette Kowal. But from the description it sounds more like a murder mystery - IN SPACEEEEEEEEE - than a real sci fi book. The other nominees aren't traditional science fiction books, either, they're more fantasy or fantasy/horror.

Very good point! I don't think the threat from Meta is technological, they also seem to be good citizens on the the open source projects they collaborate on.

I am far more concerned about how Threads is going to change the community. Not the vapid influencer crap, but the toxicity, divisiveness, bigotry and disinformation coming out of Facebook.

This is what people aren't getting. The fediverse, as it is now, is irrelevant to Meta's plans for Threads. Meta views the fediverse as an inducement to get creators to join Threads. Per The Verge:

As Mosseri puts it, this is a move designed to appease creators who have grown increasingly wary of relying on the whims of centralized social media companies. “I think we might be a more compelling platform for creators, particularly for the newer creators who are more and more savvy, if we are a place where you don’t have to feel like you have to trust us forever,” he says.

I'm listening to The Road to Little Dribbling: Adventures of an American in Britain by Bill Bryson. Written by an older, crankier Bryson than I'm used to, but still a decent "read".

Reading The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler. I like the book, but so far I'm finding the world-building and backstories more interesting than the main plot.