Prebuilts have become about the only way to get a deal for a while now.

I’m almost positive outlook can be set up to do it on its own, I was just too lazy to Google how to set it up

It’s called a dead man’s switch and there’s not really anything complicated about it.

The thing is, it’s so so simple I doubt anyone has made a full on app to do it.

Like, the people who do that stuff aren’t the type to require an app to do everything for them.

What’s actually bad about it?

Like, this is something you opt into and is only relevant if you’re watching their ad supported stuff, which I don’t know anyone who watches that over their own media on Plex.

And honestly, every “bad” thing I’ve ever heard about Plex has been the same thing, something that sounds horrible until you understand it

If you’re watching their “free” content and agree to that box…

The title made it seem waaaaay worse than what the screenshot actually says

People constantly told OP that, but they just won’t stop making posts about it

Lots of places play loosely with the terminology, but in general:

Refurbished: they wipes the dust off

Recertified: had an issue, was sent back to manufacturer who fixed it and checked everything else.

Past advice was always buy new, but drives last much longer than they used to. And lots of business replace to be safe when a drive could last another decade just fine.

And zero moderation!

It’s basically 4chan and OP keeps begging people to join it

Out of curiosity, how old was that drive?

Direct from Seagate wouldn’t be bad, check their store first to see if you can cut out Amazon.

I was talking about random reseller stores. “Manufacturer refurbished” for things you can’t see is almost always a good idea. The manufacturer has their brand name on the line and usually go over common fail points and replace if it looks worn.

Stores/Amazon doing “renewed” means they tried to cover up superficial damage and is completely different. It might look ok on the outside and be complete junk on the inside.

Think of “renewed” as “open box returns” except it might have taken the last user 5 years to return. It’s a much worse gamble.

Depends.

If it’s “buy from Amazon” then you can return it with no issue if shits bad.

If Amazon is just the middleman, than the seller could be scamming and will either fight returns or just close up shop. I wouldn’t buy any used electronic over $200 from a middle man because of that, so this is kind of on the line.

But modern HDDs hold up a lot better than they used to. I tend to “ship of Theseus” PC builds and I’ve got some HDDs probably 15 years old that are still going strong.

I can’t remember the last time I’ve heard anyone say a HDD failed. Just people remembering what it was like 25 years ago. We don’t think of innovation with old tech like HDDs, but there’s been a lot of improvements to the parts that used to fail regularly.

Exos x18 are enterprise drives that came out last than 5 years ago, I can’t imagine they were replaced because they’re all bad, just companies upgrading to newer tech. So should be fine and last you well over a decade.

Yeah, dude tried to open his own personal Netflix and is surprised it got taken down.

From post history he managed to keep it up for less than a month.

I’m betting by “friends” he meant either online friends he’s never met, or people he wanted to impress.

So they gave zero fucks and handed it out to more people. Like, just the idea that you’re giving it to so many people that you actually buy a domain?

There’s a reason everyone isn’t already doing it already.

The entire existence of computers outside the last five years…

Yeah, that’s crazy.

I guess all those $100 deals were used too.

So I guess at least used prices went down?

But I remember years ago a shuckable 12tb for like $120-140 on sale wasnt unusual on buildapcsales.

considering they’re used server parts.

That really should be in the title…

I dunno, I’m one of those people who never stops using a drive until it breaks, and they never really break anymore. Oldest in my current PC is probably 20 year old HDD.

So yeah, these probably are fine and will still last a long time. But for like $20 more you don’t have to worry about losing the data on it.

Edit:

Apparently prices just haven’t changed in half a decade or longer? I knew prices went up for COVID, assumed they went back down at some point.

I mean, the guy who made vlc hasn’t charged for like 15 years now.

For most people the only time they open VLC is to view a file locally. I’m surprised they’re not also trying to become more like plex/jellyfin then pivot to ad supported streaming

With old reddit you can block ads on the side and ads that pretend to be posts have a blueish hue, so it’s easy to scroll past without paying attention.

“New” reddit the images/videos are already open so I’m sure eventually they’ll look at the decrease in ad impressions and make up an excuse to get rid of it.

Assuming none of that has changed in the couple months since I left.

I didn’t know anyone uses those…

But aren’t they widgets? I don’t even know if you can change it, you might have to use a different widget

It might be a myth, but it would probably be the best search engine.

Bing is too good, they’re trying to capture market share and likely operating it at a loss. But if people leave Google, it’s most likely because they dont want tracked. And Microsoft is probably at best just as bad as Google.

A go between that anonimizes the results would be exactly what people want.