Commodore BBS Sysop here, I wrote and ran The Dragon's Lair in Corpus Christi, and later Houston when I moved here for college. It originally ran on my VIC-20. I migrated my software to the C= 64 and C= 128 when I acquired those computers. We had PETSCII movies such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

I also wrote MusicTerm, a custom terminal program that added features like 3-voice music, font control, sprite control, ability to play online games using your joystick, etc. If you're interested to learn more I blogged about it here, which includes a video of what a caller might experience.

A friend ran a BBS on his Atari so I added ATASCII support to my terminal program so I could call his BBS. The Atari BBS had ATASCII movies, such as Bruce Lee, which were similar to PETSCII movies just without color.

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.

as the backlash if they don't respect the setting would be huge.

The backlash from me would be to use the Go Off-Grid option during the emergency, after which I'd switch to a different electricity provider.

I participate in Tesla Electric's Virtual Power Plant in Texas. It's similar to this pilot program in Massachusetts, it just uses my Powerwall instead of my Model 3's battery to help out the grid in periods of high demand.

In Tesla app there is a slider for the Powerwall called Backup Reserve. It controls how much of the Powerwall is reserved for home backup, the remainder can be used for the Virtual Power Plant. It defaults to 20%, I bumped mine up to 30%.

I would expect to see a similar option for EV to Grid.

They're trying to make DRM part of the transition to ATSC 3.0. I've been using SiliconDust HDHomeRun network tuners since 2013 and now have a couple of their 4K units that support ATSC 3.0 Here in Houston the 3.0 broadcasts for KHOU (CBS) and KTMD (Telemundo) now have DRM. This is what I see if I attempt to watch those broadcasts.

This has also been causing problems with TVs with build in 3.0 tuners, so it's not just a problem with networked tuners like the HDHomeRun - ATSC 3.0 TV Sets Won’t Decode DRM Encrypted Channels

When introduced:

Betamax - 250 lines of horizontal resolution, 1 hour per tape

VHS - 240 lines of horizontal resolution, 2 hours per tape

For most the significantly longer recording time of VHS, over the slightly better picture quality of Betamax, was the deciding feature. Later updates to both formats increased recording time at the expensive of picture quality, though it wasn't soon enough for Betamax.

Maybe, but based on the responses seen here on Slashdot, ABC's coverage is fanning a political conflict despite the US fairing significantly better than our immediate neighbors during the current global outbreak of measles.

From Ten countries in the Americas report measles outbreaks in 2025 we can see that Mexico and Canada already had more cases back in August than the US does now at the end of the year despite them having much smaller populations than the US.

Countries with the highest case numbers include Canada (4,548 cases), Mexico (3,911 cases), and the United States (1,356 cases).

I find it interesting that ABC chose not to mention this pertinent information, makes me wonder what other news they're suppressing.

When I got my first Model 3 in 2018 charging at Hotels was free. That's changed over the past few years. I don't mind as long as it's reasonable, such as I've charged at this Fairfield Inn in Corpus Christi for $0.25/kWh. Superchargers are about 30% more expensive.

I noticed a couple years ago that Apartments.com added a filter for EV Charging. Right now for Houston there are 54,474 units available of which 8,407 have EV charging.

So 15.4% of them have EV charging, which exceeds the 6% market share that EVs have in Texas.

I consolidated ERCOT's Fuel Mix Reports for 2007 thru 2024 to see what's happening with our power grid in Texas.

What I noticed was power generation via Fossil Fuels is fairly steady, though Natural Gas has been replacing Coal, while Renewables (Wind & Solar, not much hydro here) have expanded to meet the growth in demand.

Can see my graph in this tweet.

Can access my spreadsheet here on iCloud, enter anything for name (such as nada) when prompted.

I'm also starting to see storage in action, as seen in the screenshot here it's helping supply power twice a day. Our wind power peaks overnight when demand is low, so in the morning the batteries supply stored wind power to help with the increase in demand when people get up. And in the evenings the batteries supply stored solar power to help with the increase in demand that occurs as people get home.

The above screenshot's from ERCOT's Dashboards page. Can also use the direct link to just the Fuel Mix dashboard. If you mouse-over the color labels at the bottom, such as the Maroon dot and Power Storage text, the other colors in the graph will fade out to make it easier to see the fuel source you're interested in.

We've been investing in our grid as well: $7 Billion Wind Power Project Nears Finish

By the end of December[2013], developers expect to flip the switch on the final electrical transmission projects built under the state’s Competitive Renewable Energy Zone, or CREZ, initiative — the years long effort to connect windy, largely secluded West Texas to growing cities that demand more power.

Once finished, the build-out will stretch nearly 3,600 miles and will be able to send 18,500 megawatts of wind power across the state....

...Texans will eventually shell out $6.8 billion to finance the entire build-out, according to a project update released this week by the PUC ...

The new fees, Hadley said, will likely add several dollars to a residential customer’s monthly bill.

Haven't seen anything about jet engines, though I know last year we built out solar & storage: New report shows Texas led nation in solar and battery growth in 2024. A couple weeks ago I noticed storage was supporting our grid twice a day, previously I'd only see it helping in the evenings.

We've likewise deployed smart meters, I think mine was installed in 2013. CenterPoint Energy Reaches Significant Milestone in Smart Meter Deployment

CenterPoint Energy Houston Electric's five-year smart meter deployment began in March 2009. By the end of the year, 145,000 smart meters will be installed along with the necessary communications infrastructure and computing systems. 2.4 million meters are expected to be installed system-wide by the project's completion in 2014.

And I live in Texas where solar + wind provided 34% of our electricity last year (ERCOT Fuel Mix report for 2024), which is higher than the US average of 21.4% for renewables(Electricity generation, capacity, and sales in the United States). Despite that, our prices in Texas are lower than the US average.

This suggests its not the renewables themselves that are causing the prices to go up, but something else. By looking at other US states that generate large amounts of wind and/or solar power that something else appears to be political.

I agree its a good investment - I installed solar + PowerWall in 2019. To date it's generated 86% of my electricity, which includes charging my Model 3 (I got my first one in 2018, and my second one in 2024).

Where wind power is harnessed shows that the top 5 states for wind power are: Texas, Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Illinois.

Where solar is found and used shows the top states for solar power are: California, Texas, Florida, and North Carolina (the 4 dark orange states in utility scale map).

Per here the average electric rate in the US is 15.83 cents/kWh.

The 6 Republican states have a rate lower than that: Florida 13.44, Iowa 14.45, Kansas 13.36, North Carolina 12.30, Oklahoma 12.15, Texas 12.27.

The 2 Democratic states have a rate higher than that: California 30.45, Illinois 16.02

This suggests politics may be a bigger factor for high electrical rates than renewables.