Tesla's done test drives for years, even here in Texas where they're not allowed to do direct sales. Due to state law they call the storefronts "galleries" where you can check out (and sit in) the different models and take them for test drives, though they're not allowed to discuss price or help you order the car.

In 2020 I tweeted about my folks' test drive of the Model Y as they were deciding between getting a Model 3 like mine or the larger Model Y. They ended up buying a Y.

You can schedule test drives ahead of time, or do so while you're checking out the cars at their storefront. In 2023 we checked out the Cybertruck and ended up taking a test drive of a Model X that we hadn't originally planned to do.

Long story short, have you tried the VLC app on your Apple TV for media on your local network?

I bought a Vizio PX75-G1 back in 2019 and originally used a Mac mini to drive it. I have HDHomeRun tuners and used the mini for OTA content - live TV and DVR functionality. The mini was also my media server with my content stored on a Drobo 8D and organized in iTunes.

After Drobo went under I ended up getting a Synology NAS that replaces both 8D as well as the Drobo 5D I used on my Mac Pro. I then learned the Synology could run the DVR software, as well as serve up media, so use the Synology for that now instead of the mini. I migrated the DVR software and setup Plex (I have a Lifetime Plex Pass from before they started to make all the changes). I was still using the mini for playback.

My physical media includes a lot of content from Europe - there's a major benefit of importing older European shows as PAL content is 576i whereas NTSC content is 480i, so a 20% increase in picture resolution which is quite noticeable on modern TVs.

I picked up an Apple TV 4K after learning it could play back 50 Hz content at 50 Hz provided the TV supported it, which the Vizio does. This eliminates the normal judder seen when watching 50 Hz content played back at 60 Hz - this judder is quite noticeable during scenes that pan the camera.

While I don't use it often, I have used the aforementioned VLC app on my Apple TV to play back content that wasn't in Plex. While not as nice as the Plex interface, VLC can drill down thru the Synology's filesystem to find and play content.

No audio option ? I have completely given up on visual captchas.

Are you kidding ? Killing products is rather shitty, and they have done tons of that.

For something they haven't killed, Maps seems to always give priority to paid placement. So, when i want to Home depot, the first choice is 40 miles away. I wish i was kidding. But this is a pattern.

Netgate also sells pfSense+, which has some closed source enhancements. It was free for a short time, during which i grabbed a license. I have been running it for years.

License is unfortunately tied to the NIC and other hardware properties. I have been wanting to switch it to a VM. I would have to downgrade to pfSense minus. I might do so.

I tried Opnsense, but it had many of problems on my hardware, and I ended up giving up.

For simple bugs, it's often able to do that. But you have to find those bugs first, and be able to express and report them.

They won't fix subtle bugs by themselves, for sure. But I have found the agentic AI to be a great assist during device reverse engineering sessions. It's fun to work on an open source project with many bits marked "unknown", and then have the AI figure out the meaning based on packet captures from known various device states. It does all the data analysis, finds the bit patterns, etc. And, yes, writes the code to use the findings. It still requires a very significant amount of human testing, and understanding of the code. But this is a task I just would not have undertaken by myself without the tool. I also don't need to know the exact intricacies of the project's language, like being forced to check for != 0 value in Go, which is not needed in C. It is readable, though, just not writable by me, because I didn't spend enough time writing Go by hand.

TLDR, the LLMs are greatly helpful tools.

Nevertheless, it is a good poiint. The farther you are from a grocery store, the more useful the drone is. And usuay, the density of population is inversely correlated with proximity to businesses.

I happen to live in San Jose proper, near the county line. Nearest Costco is 5 miles which is 20 min drive one way, at off peak hours. Walmart is also 5 miles, but 25 mins. Those times can be a lot longer at peak hours. I also can't drive when it's dark anymore. So, I welcome our drone overlords.

Unfortunately, Wing shows that my address is excluded from the service area. Same as Waymo. The free market at work, once again.

There are certainly laws in California if you get charged a higher price than the sticker. I have used it many times. Helps only if you remember the sticker prices, though. If it happens a lot, the state will go after the company and fine them.

Not to mention resizing it. A taskbar sith a max of 6 tasks is not very helpful. Fortunately, there is Retrobar.

Even if it's not a resounding success. Trust them ! Pinky swear

Or not. And buy from a manufacturer that promises 5-7 years of security updates, with a track record of doing so. Don't buy the Fire phone and let it become ewaste due to lack of updates.

Yes. About, what, 3 GPUs at current prices ?

It is now called "drinking your own champagne". Keep up with the times.

I also have questions for the engineer who designed that "secure development environment".

And whether the engineer who used it understood the threat model.

This is a company that posts things like "done is better than perfect" or "move fast and break things" on large signs in their lobby.

So, I'll go with "working as designed".