Same, though its been two years since my last trip to europe (Spain specifically), it didn’t feel much different than when I went as far back as 20 years ago.

About the only real difference was the EU passports, and how much easier that was for people. Wish I could get one! Would also be a great backup plan for a return of insanity here in the US, but I don’t think I can qualify for any of them. Missed by one generation for citizenship by descent…

Anyway. Seems it was Japan in this case, Europe and South America (though its been maybe a decade or so since I went) dont seem any different to me. The middle east trips used to be kind of wonk, and I bet still are, but I’m not going to that area again anytime soon.

I think you’re missing what I’m driving at, but that’s ok, you do you.

Not the person you replied to, and I’m not calling it spyware, but the moment I saw crypto integration I immediately lost all interest in Brave as an option. I personally don’t think any individual/group/org/whatever integrating crypto into their software is someone trustworthy (as mentioned my opinion), so I can understand others not trusting Brave either. Whether it does anything bad today or not.

There are a ton of remote controls with USB out there. Including ones that are remote control sized with a mini keyboard, presenter style air mouse built in, or even using remote controls on your phone (KDE connect is awesome for this).

@Tinnitus@lemmy.world, this is the answer.

The important part is that its giving clean power to your hardware, and it only needs to last long enough to shut down nicely. Batteries in these units are usually just car or wheelchair batteries, so you can get them cheaper just as a regular battery too.

You can also grab an older UPS with a crapped out battery for cheap and swap the battery. Last time I did that I got the UPS for $10 (local pickup) and put a new battery in for $20 from Lowes. Battery is still solid, its been about 5 years for that one.

Worth taking a look at the battery - especially an old one on a repurposed device - before considering it safe. Spicy pillows happen.

US power sucks plenty!

Texas is an extreme example, but outages happen everywhere. It was only a bit over 10 years ago when Sandy basically hit half the US and took power out in the tristate area for weeks. With climate change making things worse…

But even when things are running well, not including the random downed line or busted transformers, its still better to give your hardware clean power and avoid the small spikes.

If I can, I buy direct downloads.

If I can’t do that, I’ll buy the CD (as long as its direct or a small label).

If I can’t, or its one of the big labels, I’ll find it elsewhere. I’d rather buy merch to support the artist directly than buy anything that goes through the big labels.