I was a bit taken aback so I took a moment to make sure I had heard correct, I then uttered out loud "wow, that's really creepy." And Google Home replied AGAIN, saying "I'm sorry about that" or something to that effect.

Anyone else had this happen? To be clear, I did NOT say "Okay Google" or anything to activate Google. I literally was just wiping down some furniture and said out loud "I am out of paper towels."

This is kind of creepy, particularly since this was never a setting I enabled specifically. All I did was opt into the Public Preview of Gemini.

One theory I had was that the silos are actually NOT hundreds of years old, but far newer…and that the memory loss drug—which we know from the latest episodes of the show can be used to not just erase memories but plant new, fake memories—has been used to reset people in such a way that makes them THINK they have been there for a lot longer than they actually have been.

However, two big problems with this:

1. The mines (and all the old stuff they find). That seems to indicate people HAVE been here for a long time.

2. It would be an obvious (and therefore kinda lame) plot reveal. Sort of like a Truman show-type thing "it's been an experiment all along and people are alive and well out there, no one knew you were here!" sorta thing.

Basically just wanting to confirm other people think this theory is pretty weak.

EDIT: Everyone's missing the point. This is NOT asking "why do they check luggage." NOT THE QUESTION. I fully understand they have their little quotas and want to avoid delays, etc. The question is "why do they frame it as a threat ('we're going to check ALL of Groups 8 and 9 unless SOME people do so voluntarily') when the threat is meaningless to all but the couple of rare people who WANT to check their bags for free and wouldn't have paid to do so otherwise?" If you're in Groups 8 or 9 yourself, it's not a threat—your bag will be checked whether you give it to them or you don't—and if you're NOT in Groups 8 or 9, it doesn't impact you.

It would literally make more sense to say "The first 10 lucky people who come up to the front desk get to check their luggage for FREE!" But no, they instead make it sound like a threat: "If enough people don't check their bags, we'll FORCE all of Groups 8-9 to do so."

The logic doesn't make sense to me: "We don't have enough overhead room so we need people to check luggage." Okay, I am tracking so far. "If we don't get [10] volunteers, we will have to check everyone's luggage in Groups 8 and 9."

Here's problem #1: If I'm not in Groups 8 or 9, why would I care? Like, I'm not saying this to be inconsiderate - sometimes I like having my bag checked, so I can't presume that everyone in Groups 8 and 9 would dislike having their bags checked - but why should I care about this?

If they phrased it as "Please help your fellow travelers out by voluntarily checking your bags, so we don't have to force everyone in Groups 8-9 to check theirs," that would be an appeal to compassion—totally makes sense. But that's not how it's framed. There's no attempt whatsoever to guilt trip anyone into feeling bad for another group of passengers.

Here's problem #2: If I AM in Groups 8 or 9, then either I am forced to check my bag if not enough people do so willingly, or I voluntarily check my bag. In either situation, my bag gets checked.

So here's the overarching thing that makes no sense to me: there's zero incentive for anyone in Groups 8 or 9 to voluntarily check their bags because**, for any individual person, the outcome is the same for that person (Bob voluntarily checks his bag, or he does not, and Bob then** involuntarily has his bag checked). AND there's ALSO zero incentive for anyone NOT in Groups 8 or 9 to voluntarily check THEIR bags because the forced checking won't impact them.

Even a simple "the first 10 people to check their bags get a $2 off drinks voucher" would be a huge incentive IF these people (Southwest) actually care about meeting their little voluntary checking quota.

But what do I know…I'm just a passenger.

I've never had this happen before. I tried resetting my wifi router entirely but this is only happening on this computer on Windoze 11 so I am speculating it's a Windoze problem.

EDIT: SOLVED - thanks to u/JelloOverall8542 - deleting my wifi adapter in Device Manager and then rebooting has fixed this issue completely. Did not even need to reinstall the driver--it just booted up and wifi was there, working as it should.

I have had Windows 11 (25H2) on my Mac for a while. Haven't updated in a bit, and haven't used it in a bit but last time I did wifi was working normally. Today I boot up Windows and...Mac is not connecting to wifi. I manually click on the wifi network and get a generic "can't connect" error. I try connecting to my 2.4 GHz network, same error. I toggle wifi on and off. Now NO wifi networks even show up. I try "Disable device" in Device Manager and then "Enable device." Wifi networks show up again (until I toggle Wifi off and on again), but still won't connect. I've rebooted a bunch. Am doing Windows Updates via ethernet. Reinstalled ("Repaired") Boot Camp.

Wifi works on the macOS side so it's not a hardware issue.

Hardware: 2019 16" MacBook Pro natively running Windows 11 Pro (25H2, build 26200.8524); 2.6 GHz i7 / 32 GB RAM config. This has never been an issue before, so the fact that this happens to be a computer sold by Apple should not matter here; this appears to be a Windoze-specific problem since using macOS doesn't have the same issue.

I tried posting in r/WindowsHelp but they auto-removed the post without an explanation.

EDIT: Fixed - typical Windoze shite. I had to delete my entire wifi device (the Broadcom wireless device) in Device Manager (including deleting drivers), then rebooted. Wifi worked perfectly after that - no need to reinstall anything (though if Windows prompts you to download an updated driver it's fine to do so).

I've never had this happen before. I tried resetting my wifi router entirely but this is only happening on this computer on Windoze 11 so I am speculating it's a Windoze problem.

I have had Windows 11 (25H2) on my Mac for a while. Haven't updated in a bit, and haven't used it in a bit but last time I did wifi was working normally. Today I boot up Windows and...Mac is not connecting to wifi. I manually click on the wifi network and get a generic "can't connect" error. I try connecting to my 2.4 GHz network, same error. I toggle wifi on and off. Now NO wifi networks even show up. I try "Disable device" in Device Manager and then "Enable device." Wifi networks show up again (until I toggle Wifi off and on again), but still won't connect. I've rebooted a bunch. Am doing Windows Updates via ethernet. Reinstalled ("Repaired") Boot Camp.

Wifi works on the macOS side so it's not a hardware issue.

There is surprisingly not a ton of detailed information about what the OCLP "Extras" > "Disable CPUFriend" check box does. The OCLP app says it "Disables power management helper for unsupported models," and some Googling revealed that CPUFriend is perhaps some kind of kext (https://dortania.github.io/OpenCore-Post-Install/universal/pm.html) but this wasn't super clear to me how it works or what it actually does, practically.

So I thought, "why not find out?" Thus, I ran some benchmarking tests. Admittedly, this is a very small sample size (I only have 2 types of old Mac available on hand for testing right now), and I have not done power management testing (i.e., battery life). BUT here is what I have found:

Testing devices: a 13" 2012 i5 MacBook Pro (running Sequoia); a 15" 2008 C2D MacBook Pro (running Ventura). Both devices have SSDs, both devices have 8 GB of RAM.

Testing parameters: Tested both laptops twice on each setting (Disable CPUFriend checked, and Disable CPUFriend unchecked). Used Geekbench 6 since that worked on both devices. I then averaged the single core and multi core scores and compared those.

Results: OVERALL, leaving "Disable CPUFriend" UNCHECKED resulted in slightly superior performance. Specifically, on the 13" MBP, there was a 7% increase in single core performance, and a 9% increase in multi core performance, with "Disable CPUFriend" left unchecked (i.e., CPUFriend apparently enabled). On the older 15" MBP, there was a 5% increase in single core performance, and a 5.5% increase in multicore performance, with "Disable CPUFriend" left unchecked.

Raw data is below (single core score / multi core score):

13 MBP - "Disable CPUFriend" unchecked (i.e., CPUFriend left enabled, default setting): Test 1: 505/1037; Test 2: 511/1051

13 MBP - "Disable CPUFriend" checked**:** Test 1: 469/910; Test 2: 481/994

15" MBP - "Disable CPUFriend" unchecked (i.e., CPUFriend left enabled, default setting): Test 1: 316/538; Test 2: 315/536

15" MBP - "Disable CPUFriend" checked**:** Test 1: 295/485, Test 2: 304/529

Conclusions: Default settings seem to give superior performance, at least on these models, but presumably elsewhere too. I am would not suspect that this would impact battery a large amount, particularly because these older Macs don't have great battery life anyways. A 2-hour battery with a 5% (or even a 7%) increase would be less than 10 minutes additional battery, assuming you could equate a 7% decrease in CPU performance to a 7% increase in battery (probably not true).

Either WP 8 or 10. But presumably whatever app this is would need semi-current maps data.

If my WP phone has data, would there be a reliable turn-by-turn GPS navigation app I could use?

For some reason the battery on my Galaxy Watch4 Classic has been really good lately. Usually I'll get to the end of the day and I'm getting the "charge soon" notification. Several days this week I've gotten to the end of the day with like 42-50% left.

Wonder if there's some kind of Google Play Services update that has pushed that happens to be really good (and we'll lose it again next time Google updates something)?

EDIT: I'm still on Wear OS 5; I know Wear OS 6 is bad/laggy on this older watch.

EDIT: I NEED Windows 10 ARM for some very very niche projects. Windows 11 is NOT an option as it can't do what I need. So please don't suggest Windows 11.

EDIT 2: I was eventually able to get the Microsoft Store updated and working, thanks to this guide: https://dabigblob.github.io/ms-store-arm64/

OP: I installed Windows 10 ARM (insider build 21390) successfully on an M1 Pro MacBook Pro using UTM, and most things seem to work, except (a) I can't open the Microsoft Store (it tries 3 times and never opens) and (b) Windows Security fails to open (giving an error message about incompatibility or something).

Any suggestions here? Already tried wsreset.exe to no avail.

I know there are hundreds of posts like this but I am hoping that with the very specific room setup details I'm providing that I can get some more specific recommendations! Any and all tips appreciated, including "nothing in that price range will look good."

For context, I am looking to ditch a 55" "Hisense ULED 4K Premium 55U6H Quantum Dot QLED" TV so that I can put a nice piano where the TV was, but then still use the blank space above the TV on the wall to project movies.

The room and wall space (dimensions):

This is a basement area with no windows, so there's no natural light coming in from anywhere. Glare and such are therefore very minimal, particularly if I turn off all the lights.

The plan is to mount a projector to the ceiling (76" high / 193 cm) which is 120" (305 cm) from the opposite wall, and there is a roughly 50"x30" (127 cm x 76 cm) area on the wall to project onto for the "screen" area.

Tech preferences:

• Laser? I recall from looking into this a while back that laser projectors are best? We don't watch a ton of TV/movies so not terribly worried about a lamp burning out too soon. More concerned with a projector that is very noisy, since the seating situation would have the couch directly beneath the projector (which would be mounted on the ceiling), so if the projector has loud fans that would probably detract from the listening experience.
• Sound options? Are there inexpensive sound systems you can connect to a projector easily (wirelessly or otherwise)? I'm trying to minimize cables but there will have to be at least one cable coming down from the projector behind the couch to plug in to the wall outlet. I assume a projector will not have very good/if any speakers.
• Ports: Need something with at least 2 HDMI ports, maybe a sufficiently powered USB port too. I want to plug in both a Google TV dongle and have a spare HDMI cord for plugging into a laptop occasionally.

If this is not feasible or realistic I may just look into a smaller TV to mount on the wall, but wall mounting options are a bit limited due to older house build/hard-to-find studs in the walls.

EDIT: OKAY I COULD DO $300 MAX

I know there are hundreds of posts like this but I am hoping that with the very specific room setup details I'm providing that I can get some more specific recommendations! Any and all tips appreciated, including "nothing in that price range will look good."

For context, I am looking to ditch a 55" "Hisense ULED 4K Premium 55U6H Quantum Dot QLED" TV so that I can put a nice piano where the TV was, but then still use the blank space above the TV on the wall to project movies.

The room:

This is a basement area with no windows, so there's no natural light coming in from anywhere. Glare and such are therefore very minimal, particularly if I turn off all the lights.

The wall space:

The plan is to mount a projector to the ceiling (76" high / 193 cm) which is 120" (305 cm) from the opposite wall, and there is a roughly 50"x30" (127 cm x 76 cm) area on the wall to project onto for the "screen" area.

Tech preferences:

• Laser? I recall from looking into this a while back that laser projectors are best? We don't watch a ton of TV/movies so not terribly worried about a lamp burning out too soon. More concerned with a projector that is very noisy, since the seating situation would have the couch directly beneath the projector (which would be mounted on the ceiling), so if the projector has loud fans that would probably detract from the listening experience.
• Sound options? Are there inexpensive sound systems you can connect to a projector easily (wirelessly or otherwise)? I'm trying to minimize cables but there will have to be at least one cable coming down from the projector behind the couch to plug in to the wall outlet. I assume a projector will not have very good/if any speakers.
• Ports: Need something with at least 2 HDMI ports, maybe a sufficiently powered USB port too. I want to plug in both a Google TV dongle and have a spare HDMI cord for plugging into a laptop occasionally.

If this is not feasible or realistic I may just look into a smaller TV to mount on the wall, but wall mounting options are a bit limited due to older house build/hard-to-find studs in the walls.

I've used FinderPath (https://bahoom.com/finderpath/) for as long as I can remember, and I absolutely love it. It's intuitive and works well and is simple. Unfortunately, the devs never made an Apple Silicon version, so that means after Golden Gate it won't work anymore. That's a ways off, of course, but I'd like to think ahead a little bit and see if anyone had any recommendations?

I'd prefer something with minimal UI and minimal features. I love FinderPath because you don't even know it's there until you click at the top of any given Finder window and then you have a typeable file path.

https://preview.redd.it/w2qo0hyecoah1.png?width=626&format=png&auto=webp&s=41ea43049f72c58dc5e45da379ec850403ef16fd

I've used FinderPath (https://bahoom.com/finderpath/) for as long as I can remember, and I absolutely love it. It's intuitive and works well and is simple. Unfortunately, the devs never made an Apple Silicon version, so that means after Golden Gate it won't work anymore. That's a ways off, of course, but I'd like to think ahead a little bit and see if anyone had any recommendations?

I'd prefer something with minimal UI and minimal features. I love FinderPath because you don't even know it's there until you click at the top of any given Finder window and then you have a typeable file path.

https://preview.redd.it/w2qo0hyecoah1.png?width=626&format=png&auto=webp&s=41ea43049f72c58dc5e45da379ec850403ef16fd

Google's supposedly good AI can't do one of the most common and basic tasks: read my screen and create a full calendar event.

I'll get an email that'll have a date, time, and event details and I'll activate Gemini using Circle to Search and select it or circle it. And then type to Gemini "create a calendar event for this" or something to that effect.

It NEVER works. Not once. Pretty sure Google Now could have done this kind of thing. How is "advanced" AI this crappy?

Sorry if this is not technically on topic, but it IS related to Windows XP because I am trying to play an old Windows XP-compatible game on a newer OS (Windows 11, bleh) but the game keeps opening in a low resolution mode where only 1/4 of the game is visible on the screen.

This game would play fine on a Windows XP machine, if I had one of those right now, but for now I just need to figure out what kind of shortcut arguments I need to use to force the game to open in such a way that it's not mostly off the screen.

I have already tried:

- Run in 640 x 840 screen resolution

- Disable fullscreen optimizations

- Change high DPI settings > Use this setting to prevent scaling problems

An argument in the Target path after the file path of -screen-width 1920 -screen-height 1080

Any ideas?