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Topic: Quick [tech] Questions Thread (Read 1207609 times)
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Yegolev
Moderator
Posts: 24440
2/10 WOULD NOT INGEST
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Broken phone screen, how can I get my picture and such off it? My google-fu says I'm out of luck and will need professional help, at best?
I'd take it to one of those repair guys. I got the 48.4" wide TV and realized what I already knew: I don't have any right-angles in my house. So, after some cursing I have it in there but slightly turned to the right. It does help with the glare, though, and I can't see it from the sofa. The thing I'm really having trouble getting used to are BLACK blacks. It all just feels off right now in terms of brightness and contrast. Starting off in Game Mode and will see if I can (or want to) ease into another mode.
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« Last Edit: December 02, 2019, 07:29:42 AM by Yegolev »
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Why am I homeless? Why do all you motherfuckers need homes is the real question. They called it The Prayer, its answer was law Mommy come back 'cause the water's all gone
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Sky
Terracotta Army
Posts: 32117
I love my TV an' hug my TV an' call it 'George'.
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Pushed contrast has been a thing for a while now. I hate it in games, tbh.
The hardest thing about my new set is getting used to how stupidly bright the thing is. I'm running it as low as I can before it starts looking brown, I think it's at 20 backlight, ffs.
Is it a generational thing with people over-exposed to screens? I was thinking this because of not just the inability to get a decent brightness level on the set but also the fact that car manufacturers are making their lights as bright as reflected sunlight.
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Cyrrex
Terracotta Army
Posts: 10603
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Am I wrong that your last set was rear projection? Projector are not bright generally speaking, and rear projection even less so...so modern flatscreens probably seem crazy bright by comparison.
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"...maybe if you cleaned the piss out of the sunny d bottles under your desks and returned em, you could upgrade you vid cards, fucken lusers.." - Grunk
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Sky
Terracotta Army
Posts: 32117
I love my TV an' hug my TV an' call it 'George'.
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Yes, though it had a 185 watt bulb and I used to crank the brightness on it. I miss the DLP set. The new set is beautiful but nowhere near as practical. Weighs too much, fragile af, had to wall mount it so now I can't rearrange my living room seasonally. I'll probably go with a projector next time, and just build two mounts for it into the ceiling to accommodate summer and winter modes.
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Hawkbit
Terracotta Army
Posts: 5531
Like a Klansman in the ghetto.
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Druzil
Terracotta Army
Posts: 550
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I just bought a 55" Q80 about a month ago and it's been great so far. The only reason I went with the Q80 over the Q70 was the wider viewing angle which made sense for the room we were putting it in. Otherwise I'd have bought the Q70.
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Yegolev
Moderator
Posts: 24440
2/10 WOULD NOT INGEST
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My Samsung Q55 is great. Still haven't tweaked the brightness perfectly, but it's about 95% OK so I haven't bothered.
Don't configure the network or you'll end up with tons of uninstallable cruft.
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Why am I homeless? Why do all you motherfuckers need homes is the real question. They called it The Prayer, its answer was law Mommy come back 'cause the water's all gone
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Sky
Terracotta Army
Posts: 32117
I love my TV an' hug my TV an' call it 'George'.
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I'm still digging my 2018 6-tier Samsung QLED. There's a little banding from the backlight on off-angles, but I normally sit pretty far to one side and it's rarely noticeable (only on a full panel white screen). It's likely worse on my set because it's so huge (82" or w/e).
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Hawkbit
Terracotta Army
Posts: 5531
Like a Klansman in the ghetto.
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It's been so long not upgrading I have no idea what is going on. We bought a 65" Q70R on sale for under a grand - it's kinda too big for our room but whatever. Having trouble getting the image to look 'crisp' like the showroom floor.
Example: streaming NHLtv from the PS4 (not-pro) and the image looks kinda blurry. I *think* I have set up the image options correctly, so maybe this is just a lower-quality stream? Or should we switch out to a Roku that supports 4k?
When I look at the PS4 options on the TV it says 1920x1080 60p, which is not 4k - so I'm guessing the stream or PS4 doesn't support that. If anyone has a guide on this stuff without getting too lost in the weeds, I would appreciate it.
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Cyrrex
Terracotta Army
Posts: 10603
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Yeah, your PS4 won't do 4K. On the other hand, that doesn't necessarily mean it should be "blurry". And yeah, you could also have a shitty stream.
Kinda hard to give specific advice. You cannot judge it fairly without a true 4K source of high quality. That said, never expect it to look as good as it does in the store. They crank up the all the brightness and color settings to max, and then run some specific hi res stuff on a loop. Unless you do the same, it won't look the same.
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"...maybe if you cleaned the piss out of the sunny d bottles under your desks and returned em, you could upgrade you vid cards, fucken lusers.." - Grunk
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Hawkbit
Terracotta Army
Posts: 5531
Like a Klansman in the ghetto.
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Thanks - I kinda figured it’s hard to tell through description. After tinkering a bit, games on the PS4 look damn amazing, as does some Netflix content like Altered Carbon. Most tv streaming does not look great, so I’m guessing the content from the stream is the problem. The ps4 is on LAN at around 80MB consistently which should be decent enough for solid streaming.
I’ll just have to work out a better solution for sports if I can.
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Cyrrex
Terracotta Army
Posts: 10603
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Sounds like you have it working like it should, and anything that looks poor is just some combination of a low quality stream being displayed at a lower resolution than the screen's native resolution. Would be my guess.
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"...maybe if you cleaned the piss out of the sunny d bottles under your desks and returned em, you could upgrade you vid cards, fucken lusers.." - Grunk
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Hawkbit
Terracotta Army
Posts: 5531
Like a Klansman in the ghetto.
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Doing a basic tech review of our household needs. For Password Managers, is 1Password still decent? I need something simple for the family - KeePass won't cut it there, too archaic for them to grasp.
What about email services? I'm trying to get away from Gmail, into something like ProtonMail or something less invasive. I'm ok with paying a bit for email.
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Trippy
Administrator
Posts: 23627
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Yes 1Password is still good though they've changed their model to subscription-based.
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SurfD
Terracotta Army
Posts: 4035
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Somewhat random question: Any Idea why my computer would suddenly just stop being able to play video in web browsers?
Like, I have had several times where I will be browsing video clips on Facebook or Imgur or checking out Youtube videos, and everything has been playing fine: Videos play or auto play as you scroll through them and then suddenly, with out any rhyme or reason videos stop playing. Like, completely unable to start a video, no matter what web broswer I switch to. I usually use Firefox, but as soon as the issue starts it appears to affect any web-browser I use. Firefox, IE, Chrome, video refuses to play on any of them: First frame of the video will load, it might cache the first few seconds, but the video NEVER plays, no matter what I do. Closing and re-starting browsers has no effect. Opening new browsers has no effect. Note: This ONLY affects web based video streaming. Any video content played through a dedicated player such as downloaded TV episodes or digital movies play without issue.
So far, the only way I have managed to fix it once it starts happening is by rebooting my PC. Any thoughts on what could be causing this phenomenon?
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« Last Edit: July 06, 2020, 11:17:16 PM by SurfD »
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Darwinism is the Gateway Science.
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tar
Terracotta Army
Posts: 257
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When in doubt, blame anti-virus. Which one do you use? Any appetite for changing it?
Also, does this affect any other devices or just the one PC? If it's just this one device that points to someting system local and a/v is probably the most likely culprit. Good place to start if nothing else.
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SurfD
Terracotta Army
Posts: 4035
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I use Panda AV as my free AV. Not sure if it would be causing the issue, but I can always try turning it off next time the problem crops up and see if that helps.
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Darwinism is the Gateway Science.
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Father mike
Terracotta Army
Posts: 533
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So, with the COVID quarantine ramping back up, We're trying to figure out a way to do video conference for Thanksgiving and Christmas. The problem is that my in-laws don't even have wi-fi set up in their house. We bought them a router a few years back, but my father-in-law unhooked it because he was worried about a neighbor "hacking" him. Now, I can't travel across 3 states just to hook it back up.
Does anyone have a recommendation for a nationally franchised tech service? Is there anything better than Geek Squad I can use to get in-home tech support for something this simple?
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I would like to thank Vladimir Putin for ensuring that every member of the NPR news staff has had to say "Pussy Riot" on the air multiple times.
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Chimpy
Terracotta Army
Posts: 10619
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Geek Squad is probably your best bet for that kind of thing.
That or see if there is a local shop with good ratings and call them for advice.
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'Reality' is the only word in the language that should always be used in quotes.
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Father mike
Terracotta Army
Posts: 533
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Thanks! I suspected as much, but it's good to have it confirmed.
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I would like to thank Vladimir Putin for ensuring that every member of the NPR news staff has had to say "Pussy Riot" on the air multiple times.
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Trippy
Administrator
Posts: 23627
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So, with the COVID quarantine ramping back up, We're trying to figure out a way to do video conference for Thanksgiving and Christmas. The problem is that my in-laws don't even have wi-fi set up in their house. We bought them a router a few years back, but my father-in-law unhooked it because he was worried about a neighbor "hacking" him. Now, I can't travel across 3 states just to hook it back up.
Do they not have a cellular phone with data service? Does anyone have a recommendation for a nationally franchised tech service? Is there anything better than Geek Squad I can use to get in-home tech support for something this simple?
If your father-in-law is paranoid about people spying on him Geed Squad is a horrible choice since they have spied on customers for the FBI and if he happens to Google that he's probably going to be pissed if you send them over to their place. A couple of other options: * See if the Internet service provider (Comcast, AT&T, etc.) will do installations for 3rd-party routers * Dell has a home installation service though I have no idea how good or expensive they are and if they'll just hook up a router to a non-Dell PC
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Father mike
Terracotta Army
Posts: 533
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Do they not have a cellular phone with data service?
No, they have an old Nokia-style phone. Texts are frightening occurrences. If your father-in-law is paranoid about people spying on him Geed Squad is a horrible choice since they have spied on customers for the FBI and if he happens to Google that he's probably going to be pissed if you send them over to their place.
A couple of other options:
* See if the Internet service provider (Comcast, AT&T, etc.) will do installations for 3rd-party routers
* Dell has a home installation service though I have no idea how good or expensive they are and if they'll just hook up a router to a non-Dell PC
Didn't know about GS snooping like that. Good to know. Their internet is AT&T, and my wife just confirmed it's DSL, so this whole thing may be a bust due to connection speeds. But I appreciate the suggestions.
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I would like to thank Vladimir Putin for ensuring that every member of the NPR news staff has had to say "Pussy Riot" on the air multiple times.
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Sky
Terracotta Army
Posts: 32117
I love my TV an' hug my TV an' call it 'George'.
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Going out on a limb here, but someone with a nokia phone who can be just fine with no wifi is probably ok not dealing with technobullshit for the holidays.
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Father mike
Terracotta Army
Posts: 533
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Nope. It's going to be a nightmare. But my wife has decided that holiday video conferences are happening, so I'm just strapping in for the ride.
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I would like to thank Vladimir Putin for ensuring that every member of the NPR news staff has had to say "Pussy Riot" on the air multiple times.
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Chimpy
Terracotta Army
Posts: 10619
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Buy them a cheap smart phone with a pre-paid SIM, install zoom on it, and have them use that.
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'Reality' is the only word in the language that should always be used in quotes.
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Cyrrex
Terracotta Army
Posts: 10603
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Nope. It's going to be a nightmare. But my wife has decided that holiday video conferences are happening, so I'm just strapping in for the ride.
Seems the most entertaining way to do it would be to do nothing other than recommending the Geek Squad and standing back to watch the lulz unfold.
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"...maybe if you cleaned the piss out of the sunny d bottles under your desks and returned em, you could upgrade you vid cards, fucken lusers.." - Grunk
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Draegan
Terracotta Army
Posts: 10043
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Buy them a cheap smart phone with a pre-paid SIM, install zoom on it, and have them use that.
This is your best bet. Especially for someone not tech savvy. You can easily make sure they just know how to turn it on and plug it in.
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SurfD
Terracotta Army
Posts: 4035
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Lookng for some input re: Media Servers for streaming to PS4.
I have never used my PS4 as a streaming media platform for streaming from my PC before, but currently find myself taking an extended vacation with my folks at home due to the pandemic, and due to space constraints, plopping my PC in the room with the TV isn't really viable, so I decided I would setup my PS4 so I could stream stuff to it.
Any vets here have any input on Media Server options? I considered just going with the basic Media Server that comes with Windows 10, but figured there must be at least a few decent freeware Media Server apps out there that would likely do the job better. A cursory google search seems to give pretty good reviews for something called the Universal Media Serve, which has been maintained and improved since the days of the PS3, but I thought I might canvass the gang here for recommendations and input.
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Darwinism is the Gateway Science.
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Trippy
Administrator
Posts: 23627
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Why not just try the Windows 10 DLNA server and see how that goes? Universal Media Server (which I haven't used) may in fact be the greatest thing since sliced bread but their front page and other docs are so out-of-date it's hard to tell if that's truly the case. Like, the PS4 is not even listed on the Supported Devices page (it is mentioned at the bottom of the front page). Projects in that sort of state often require a lot of futzing around to get working properly, though I have no idea if that's the case with UMS.
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SurfD
Terracotta Army
Posts: 4035
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So, the Win 10 media server seems to be fine, but now I have run into a new wrinkle. A large swath of my media library (specifically video content) appears to have audio tracks that the PS4 is unable to play back. I can find the file easy enough, and the video plays fine, but it throws me an error about being unable to process the audio.
Any idea if there is any stream casting type options that would work with the PS4? Like, play content on my PC (so the pc does the Audio / Video processing) and just stream the result through the PS4 onto the TV?
If that isn't an option, it looks like hauling my PC into the living room might be my only option to watch a lot of this stuff.
Well, feel free to disregard this. Turns out the issue is that the basic Win 10 DLNA server setup is basically just shit as a media server, and wasn't doing any kind of background transcoding or mixing of the files. Decided to give the Universal Media Server app a spin for kicks, and it does everything fine. It even properly identified the embedded subtitles in my copy of Kung-fu Hustle, which the Win10 system couldn't find.
Leave it to Microsoft to make something that works, but is functionally useless.......
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« Last Edit: November 21, 2020, 09:53:59 PM by SurfD »
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Darwinism is the Gateway Science.
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SurfD
Terracotta Army
Posts: 4035
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Anyone else having issues with the latest Windows update?
2 days ago, Windows rolled out an update patch that was slightly more "serious" than their usual little tweak patches. Since that update, I have had my computer Blue Screen of Death on me twice (Blue screen, error info collection notice, QR code in bottom left of screen I can scan if I feel like it), something that literally has not happened in several YEARS previous to this update.
Not sure if it is just a coincidence or not, but both times the crash happened, the only thing I was doing was scrolling through my facebook feed in Firefox.
I wrote the first occurrence off as something possibly weird with the actual patch process, as after I rebooted the OS did a small patch / update while rebooting, but this second BSOD how has me wondering.
Whats even stranger is that both reported error messages were different.
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Darwinism is the Gateway Science.
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Chimpy
Terracotta Army
Posts: 10619
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You on Windows Insider or whatever they call it?
Because the last MS windows patch for normal people was released on Feb 9th.
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'Reality' is the only word in the language that should always be used in quotes.
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SurfD
Terracotta Army
Posts: 4035
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Not on insider that I am aware of.
All i know is that I had a windows update occur about 2 days ago (the update specifically warned me that it might take a little longer than normal because it was more than just a basic patch) and in the 2 or 3 days since the update I have had 2 BSOD crashes, which never happened to me before.
System info lists me as:
Edition Windows 10 Pro Version 20H2 Installed on 2/25/2021 OS build 19042.804 Experience Windows Feature Experience Pack 120.2212.551.0
if any of that helps? (assuming that Installed On date has something to do with the tiny patch/update the system processed after the first BSOD, as nothing else makes sense).
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Darwinism is the Gateway Science.
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Trippy
Administrator
Posts: 23627
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SurfD
Terracotta Army
Posts: 4035
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its an Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-6600K CPU @ 3.50GHz.
Would that count as "4th generation or older"?
Judging by the info submitted in that question, it seems like lots of active "panels" (I assume this means active apps or instances of programs) can trigger the BSOD. I confess that I do like to run Firefox with a buttload of tabs open, and both crashes usually occurred when browsing facebook (which might "queue up" several discrete background actions in connection with starting / pausing every video i scroll by), so maybe it's related?
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Darwinism is the Gateway Science.
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