I think that manufacturers of tech products test their products only with a few standard configurations - but in reality there are too many possible combinations of different configurations:

Take a bluetooth mouse for example. Generally, it connects to a computer and it works. Now imagine that you have a different configuration - a logicboard in your laptop that has not been tested by the manucacturer of the mouse or an obscure model of the bluetooth reciever, that also hasn’t been tested to work with that mouse. Your mouse works well in the beginning, but disconnects at random times. You can’t pinpoint the issue, and when you are looking for help online, nobody seems to have the same problems with that mouse.

In this case, said mouse sucks, because it doesn’t function reliably. A different person with a different configuration of their computer (different logicboard, different model of the bluetooth unit) might have no problems at all with the same mouse.

I wonder why they just couldn’t re-use the Hollywood set from the moon landing in '69. /s

Wait, we actually have to do something? /s

Change has to come from both sides, from companies as well as from consumers. Yes, Your actions don’t really matter when you try to reduce waste, but the oil tanker spills millions of liters into the ocean, or when you use electricity from renewable sources while there is coal extracted and burned to fulfill the need of energy.

But as a consumer you can change the perspective about it by observing it from the personal economic side. This way, doing something in favour of reducing waste or doing something to lessen the effect of the climate catastrophe is merely a side effect of your actions:

• I don’t have children, because I don’t want to take responisbility for them. Also, I don’t like children. This saves me a lot of money, which I don’t have.
• I am relying on a car. But instead of driving a truck-like 5l-gas guzzler, I drive a small economic car. 90% of the time I drive alone anyway. A small car means less fuel consumption, less tax, cheaper repairs. Also, there are more parking spots availiable for me in the city, since the car is shorter than other vehicles (at least for parallel parking).
• When running errands, I combine them with using the car. For instance, I do my grocery shopping on the way back from work, and I can make use of my car’s storage capabilities. This saves me precious time, since I’m on the road anyway.
• When buying clothes, I don’t buy the cheapest clothes availiable. Mid-price ranged clothes are more durable, and they can be worn longer and are cheaper in the long run. Also, I don’t use fabric softener. Not only does it contribute to polluting the enviroment - fabric softener reduces the capability for towels to dry things (which defeats the purpose of a towel), because it hinders the fabrics’ capillar effect for storing water in the fibers. Additional to that, I don’t use an electric dryer. I hang my clothes to dry. This measurement extends your clothes lifetime, which is saving money.
• Although I am a meat eater, I am open-minded to vegan food - in the last decade it came a long way and there are good substitutes. Some of them are trial and error though (some taste like a stack of hay smells), but the alternatives are out there. It doesn’t have to taste exactly like meat. The worst thing that can happen is, that you expand the list of things you can eat.
• And the most important thing of all: DON’T BUY USELESS CRAP! Sure, the cloud-based app-operated thing is appealing, but what happens, when the company that produces it goes bankrupt? The cloud service gets shut down! You have a paper weight now. I don’t buy such things, because I don’t want my home cluttered with stuff I don’t need eventually. When I buy new stuff (mostly to replace broken stuff that I can’t repair) I do research first and evaluate what features of the desired thing really benefit my needs. I rather buy expensive stuff that is more durable an has a longer lifetime over all. In the long run it turns out to be less expensive.

In my opinion it makes more sense to analyse your actions with the affect of personal economic impact in mind than to view it in the sense of reducing the impact of the climate catastrophe. Because since your neighbor isn’t, you can easily feel helpless and de-motivated.

This happens with your returned packages (article is in German, half of it is translated below):

Amazon shreds its returns 08.06.2018June 8, 2018

The “Destroy” shipping method is bringing Amazon into disrepute - is the online retailer really destroying tons of functioning products? The German government is already talking about a “huge scandal” Germany, Pforzheim: Symbolic image of Amazon logistics center The “Destroy shipping method” can also be booked with the logistics service provider

Tons of returns and products in mint condition, including fridges, cell phones, mattresses and furniture, are said to have been destroyed by online retailer Amazon. This was reported by the ZDF magazine Frontal 21 and Wirtschaftswoche. Both media outlets refer to internal product lists, photos and statements from employees. According to these, goods of all kinds are disposed of “on a large scale” in the mail order company’s German logistics warehouses.

Amazon not only destroys unusable products, but also functional and sometimes new items, according to statements from employees. One employee reported that she destroyed goods worth tens of thousands of euros every day.

Clip from 2022, German. Signature quote: “It is not only an occasional [Euro]Palette of Items, it is whole truckloads - in all fulfilment centers, almost day by day.”

Oh yes, Hermes is one of the worst. I try to avoid them and rather pay an additional fee for a DHL delivery.

However, Hermes is good for deilveries from foreign countries. I once ordered a DVD and some clothes from Great Britain. Since they are not an EU member anymore (the order was around the time Brexit was executed), the delivery usually has to go through customs. With Hermes you can avoid that, because legally they are considered not to be a “classic” postal delivery entity (I don’t now the exact term anymore), which exempts them of going through customs.

Recieving the parcel was an emotional rollercoaster, because I was not able to track its’ whereabouts at some point. It was “lost” (ate least not traceable) for four weeks in France.

How is this considered as delivered? It looks to me that the parcels are thrown onto the sidewalk, accompanied by a random stray dog.

Where I live, parcels are delivered in the same manner (thrown near the door), however, without a photo as proof of delivery. I’m waiting for the day I ask about the whereabouts of a parcel and the delivery company tells me that it has been “delivered”. Fortunately tho, Amazon has a pretty lean policy regarding lost deliveries - they just send you another one free of charge (at least where I live, given, its’ content was not too expensive).

Besonders nett finde ich es, wenn ich als Autofahrer an einem Zebrastreifen halte und die Fußgänger sich dann bedanken, dass ich sie über die Straße lasse. Es ist deren Recht! Als Autofahrer habe ich an einem Zebrastreifen zu warten, wenn dort Leute rüber wollen.

Dort, wo ich arbeite, ist es eher dörflich/ländlich, und demzufolge ist das Auto als Verkehrsmittel dominant. Die Leute dort haben sich komplett dem PKW untergeordnet und nehmen ihre Rechte als Fußgänger gar nicht wahr. Dem Auto wird fast immer Vorfahrt gewährt. Das führt öfter zu unangehmen Situationen, wie z.B.: Ich möchte rechts abbiegen. Ich halte, um einen Fußgänger, der geradeaus weiter will, passieren zu lassen. Der Fußgänger erteilt mir durch Gesten die Vorfahrt, obwohl dieser das Vorrecht hat. Das Auto hinter mir hupt darauf hin, weil ich nicht abbiege.

Auch habe ich festgestellt, dass Kinder scheinbar überhaupt keine Regeln im Straßenverkehr beigebracht bekommen, da diese ja ihren Schulweg nicht selber bestreiten - sie werden individuell von den Eltern zur Schule gebracht. Die Straße vor der Schule sieht jeden Morgen so aus, wie früher der Parkplatz bei Aldi, als es dort Computer zu kaufen gab.

We are fucked.

Pizza Hut over Dominos.

In my area Dominos is more common, but they are really bad. All of them. We had them delivered on several occasions (over the time of a couple of years) and at least twice the food wasn’t cooked properly. It was warm but the inside was still raw. When complaining, all you recieve is a voucher so you are bound to them as a customer.

Also, in order to cut preparing times short (a fast order and delivery is advertised) they prepare their pizzas in advance: at our local shop they have a prepared pizzas with the tomato sauce already applied to. They literally have a stack of them handy (at least 30 of these stacked up). They just need to put the toppings onto it, depending on the pizza that will be ordered.

When ordered, you recieve the pizza rather quickly, as promised, but the tomato sauce is more stale than their competitors’ pizza, because the sauce was not freshly applied when the pizza was made). Also, they skimp on the toppings. With a little luck your pizza arrives warm and done (read: not raw on the inside).

Dominos pizza is not worth the money - more precisely, it is a waste of ingredients! I refuse to pay for anything from Dominos - my friends know that and therefore I get invited sometimes when they decide on Dominos. This way, at least I don’t waste my money on them.

Pizza Hut on the other hand is always top notch. There are not many of them where I live, but when there is an occasion to have a pizza at them it’s always worth the money. As far as I know they don’t do deliveries - they are more a restaurant than a fast food place here.

und Glücksrad oder Der Preis ist heiß im Vorabendprogramm. Danach wurde bei meiner Oma der gesamte Tagesablauf ausgerichtet.

Hundertpro schrauben dort uigurische Zwangsarbeiter die Autos zusammen. Ein soches Feature, Arbeiter nicht bezahlen zu müssen und somit den eignene Gewinn zu erhöhen, lässt VW sich doch nicht entgehen. Xinjiang ist weit weg von hier. VW hat sich ja auch schon in der Vergangenheit eine gewisse Expertise in Sachen Menschenrechtsverletzungen angeeignet.

Tja

I was living with two other roommates and we were moving into another city to live there together as well. Me and one roommate were planning ahead and got moving boxes, slowly sorting out stuff that can be thrown out, and started packing things way ahead of the moving date.

The other roommate couldn’t be bothered by all of this. The day we were moving he started packing his things. We had rented a moving truck for that day and were able to move my and the prepared roommates’ stuff to the new appartment first. Then we drove back to help lazy roommate. If all had been planned accordingly we wouldn’t have had to drive back to pick up a second batch of household items - only for returning the moving truck, and then to travel back to the new place by train.

Unfortunately he had not anticipated that he would have needed moving boxes and it was way too late to organize some. We were moving all of his stuff with garbage bags. They are not sufficient to move things at all.

Moving lazy roommates’ stuff turned out to last several more hours than anticipated. We almost exceeded the deadline for returning the moving truck to the rental place, which would have resulted in having to be charged for another day.

0/10 for moving with garbage bags instead of moving boxes.

Die Schwierigkeiten von VW müsse man sehr ernst nehmen

Nein, das muss man nicht! Gerade VW hat sich doch auf den Erfolgen der vergangenen Jahrzehnte ausgeruht. Der Abgasskandal konnte dem Unternehmen hier auch nicht viel anhaben, der bräsigen Kundschaft sei Dank. VW-Verbrenner werden noch immer sehr gut verkauft, zumindest in der Gegend, in der ich lebe. Und das nicht nur als Privat-Fahrzeug, sondern auch als Flottenfahrzeuge.

Der Grund, warum VW nur noch große, überteuerte (Elektro)fahrzeuge im Sortiment hat, liegt doch darin, dass diese Fahrzeuge im Rahmen der 1%-Regelung (bzw. neuedings sogar nur 0,25% für vollelektrische) im Sinne eines geldwerten Vorteils als Firmenwagen unter die Leute gebracht werden.

VW hat gar kein Interesse daran, auch nur irgendwas zu verändern. Es gilt: The squeaky wheel gets the grease. Wer am lautesten schreit, der bekommt auch eher Zuwendungen. Dreistigkeit zahlt sich dabei aus.

I had a similar problem while I was using macOS High Sierra (so that is a couple of years ago), albeit I was not using the snap-to-grid setting. After almost every reboot the operating system seems to have “forgotten” the icon arrangement. What helped was a third-party-app that remembered the icon positions. When the icons were displaced again after a reboot, you could restore their original position with one click.

Unfortunately I don’t remember the name of said app (It’s been a while, and later versions of macOs didn’t have this issue). It’s something along “keep icon positions” or “icon arrangement manager”.

I hope this helped.

Eben! Das ist so ähnlich wie bei vielen anderen auch: Man lässt sich von den Wettbewerbern überholen und wundert sich dann. Dann ist der blöde Kunde auf einmal Schuld. War doch bei Quelle und Otto genauso. Vor Jahrzehnten haben die den Markt dominiert, weil sie einen außergewöhnlichen Vertriebsweg (Bestellung per Postkarte und Telefon) hatten und so auch Preisvorteile (keine Ladengeschäfte, die betrieben werden müssen) an die Kunden weitergeben konnten.

Ein paar Jahre später hat man dann verpennt, das ganze ins Internet zu verlagern (und sich gewundert, warum der blöde Kunde nicht mehr per Telefon bestellt). Otto hat ja die Kurve noch gekriegt, aber sowohl Quelle als auch Otto hätten schon vor Jahren das deutsche Amazon sein können.

Das sollte die Funkion nicht beeinträchtigen, da dies nur eine Streuscheibe ist. Ich habe vor einiger Zeit mal ein Video von Technology Connections gesehen, in dem es um Bewegungsmelder geht. Darin wird die Funktionsweise erklärt.

Passive infrared motion sensors: a two-bit camera powered by crystals

stellten zunehmend das Geschäftsmodell in Frage. Dazu kam nach Angaben des Unternehmens zuletzt auch eine “Anti-Plastik-Stimmung” unter den Verbrauchern.

Das Vertriebsmodell, also, dass die Produkte lange Zeit nicht im Handel erhältlich waren, war schon immer eine sehr große Hürde. Das haben andere Anbieter, wie z.B. IKEA, schon früh erkannt und Frischaltedosen in ihr Sortiment genommen. Gerade diejenigen, die sich nicht mehr mit der traditionellen Rolle der Hausfrau/ des Hausmannes an Herd identifizieren, veranstalten doch keine Tupperperty, wenn eine neue Frischhaltedose gebraucht wird. Vom Preis mal abgesehen. Solche Veranstaltungen kenne ich nur von Älteren (eher die Generation meiner Eltern (Boomer), und das auch schon seit eingen Jahren nicht mehr).

Ich selbst habe euch einigen Tupperdosen. Diese sind entweder von anderen vergessen worden, oder den eigenen Eltern nie zurückgegeben worden. Qualitativ sind die Dosen schon. Sie halten auch dicht. Ich hatte auch mal einen Salzstreuer ven Tupper - der war aber nichts. Gekauft habe ich soetwas nie.

Das Unternehmen gibt also an, es läge unter anderem an einer “Anti-Plastik-Stimmung” der Verbraucher. Ich kann mir nur schwer vorstellen, dass das Unternehmen das erst letzte Woche herausgefunden hat. Plastik steht doch schon seit einigen Jahren in der Kritik. Das Unternehmen hätte ja auch auf andere Materialien umschwenken können (Glas, Metall, weniger Plastik). Ich glaube eher, man hat es sich zu bequem gemacht und ist einfach nicht auf den schon seit Jahren in so ziemlich allen Bereichen vorkommenden “Nachhaltigkeits-Trend” eingegangen.

You might be lucky: there is a gui availiable for yt-dlp on GitHub. I just looked it up. The descripition reads:

Graphical interface for the command line tool yt-dlp, which allows users to download videos from various websites, including YouTube. It is designed to be more user-friendly and accessible for those who are not comfortable using the command line.

Link: https://github.com/dsymbol/yt-dlp-gui

Edit/addition:

There are online services availiable (for instance https://yt5s.com/en173) that basically do the same as Cobalt.tools. I assume that they don’t put any emphasis on privacy tho.

With progressing age one has to look up urban dictionary more and more often.