Questions you want answered.

FridgeGremlin wrote:
Rykin wrote:

Why isn't The Stand available on any streaming services?!?!?! I made a Captain Trips reference last night and my GF didn't get it. She is just a couple of years younger than me and usually gets my 80s/90s reference as long as they aren't too geeky. I need to show her this series but it looks like my best option is to buy a DVD.

Minus the fact that the premise mirrors real life a little too closely at the moment, is The Stand worth a read? I've always been interested in King's stuff but never knew where to start.

Misery is my favorite book to start people off with who are new to King. It's excellent, and a great showcase for what he does so well.

FridgeGremlin wrote:
Rykin wrote:

Why isn't The Stand available on any streaming services?!?!?! I made a Captain Trips reference last night and my GF didn't get it. She is just a couple of years younger than me and usually gets my 80s/90s reference as long as they aren't too geeky. I need to show her this series but it looks like my best option is to buy a DVD.

Minus the fact that the premise mirrors real life a little too closely at the moment, is The Stand worth a read? I've always been interested in King's stuff but never knew where to start.

Yeah, I read the original and uncut and both are good. Get the uncut version though. Also it is a major dark tower tie in book if that is your jam but if it was you would have probably known that already. The virus is the hammer but the book changes focus pretty quickly to good vs evil. So the real life similarities wont freak you out for long.

FYI: The Stand is $5 on VUDU.

Originally broadcast on ABC (US), do they have an app?

BadKen wrote:

FYI: The Stand is $5 on VUDU.

Originally broadcast on ABC (US), do they have an app?

Aren't they part of movies anywhere, so you can use that app to watch it.

Baron Of Hell wrote:
BadKen wrote:

FYI: The Stand is $5 on VUDU.

Originally broadcast on ABC (US), do they have an app?

Aren't they part of movies anywhere, so you can use that app to watch it.

They are. Stuff you buy on Vudu will show up in the library for other places too if you've linked your accounts. I rarely watch things I've bought on Vudu through their app or site. I usually watch them through Amazon.

fangblackbone wrote:

Wow, that is crazy but not unbelievable that Arthurian legend is somewhere near one quarter based on Muslim philosophy: courtly love, ennobled love, etc. (with a French twist)

One of Camelot's prominent knights (Sir Palamedes) was Muslim, though eventually converted to Christianity in many of the stories.

Stengah wrote:
Baron Of Hell wrote:
BadKen wrote:

FYI: The Stand is $5 on VUDU.

Originally broadcast on ABC (US), do they have an app?

Aren't they part of movies anywhere, so you can use that app to watch it.

They are. Stuff you buy on Vudu will show up in the library for other places too if you've linked your accounts. I rarely watch things I've bought on Vudu through their app or site. I usually watch them through Amazon.

Right, I was just wondering if ABC had an app where maybe you could watch it free or with commercials. VUDU has a lot of stuff free-with-commercials.

BadKen wrote:
Stengah wrote:
Baron Of Hell wrote:
BadKen wrote:

FYI: The Stand is $5 on VUDU.

Originally broadcast on ABC (US), do they have an app?

Aren't they part of movies anywhere, so you can use that app to watch it.

They are. Stuff you buy on Vudu will show up in the library for other places too if you've linked your accounts. I rarely watch things I've bought on Vudu through their app or site. I usually watch them through Amazon.

Right, I was just wondering if ABC had an app where maybe you could watch it free or with commercials. VUDU has a lot of stuff free-with-commercials.

ABC is Hulu I think (Disney owns controlling interest in both now). JustWatch didn't list The Stand being available anywhere yesterday, but now it lists it as being on Vudu.

Not for nothing, but the whole thing is in poor quality on youtube.

It's poor quality regardless of platform.

Grenn wrote:

Not for nothing, but the whole thing is in poor quality on youtube.

It's always going to be poor quality.

edit: Godammit.

If you are wondering why your "Recent content" box up and to the right is still red even though your "My recent content" tab shows no new activity, there may have been a thread-wide action, like a thread being locked down. Click on the thread and your "Recent content" box will no longer be red.

Okay word nerds, here's one for you:

What is the etymology of the suffixes in demonyms for US states? And why are people from Indiana called Hoosiers?

I got curious when reading some Greek mythology and seeing that someone from Argos was Argive. Then I saw this image today:

IMAGE(https://i.redd.it/zdhhp1bfxbn41.png)

Word nerd, reporting in! Hoosier is one of those big etymological unknowns, like "the whole nine yards". There are dozens of supposed explanations, and basically not a shred of evidence supporting any of them.

For the more general case, I read a big article about demonyms a few years ago (triggered by an urban legend making the rounds on twitter that there was some racist reason why the "-ese" suffix is used for lots of Asian countries but not so many western ones). The basic gist was: demonyms are determined partly by influence from other languages (e.g. words that entered English via French tend to use "-ese"), partly by what sounds good, and anything non-standard tends to be a random joke or fad usage that stuck for whatever random reason.

Famous example of the latter being "Liverpuddlian", which as far as anyone can tell is just a pun. But "Michigander" also fits the bill - it's believed to have been coined by Abe Lincoln, who used it to humorously compare a certain Michigan politician to a goose.

I don’t know if this has anything to do with its origins, but when I lived in St. Louis for a few years, I learned that they use “Hoosier” to mean, essentially, “hick.” And that they don’t only apply it to people from Indiana. It was super weird.

Is there a video streaming device that allows me to use a VPN and a browser? I've been watching a lot of foreign channels recently and that forces me to use my PC or phone. I want to be able to use something like a Roku on any TV. I know it's possible to cast a Chrome tab to a Roku but I've never been able to get it to work.

Any suggestions?

EverythingsTentative wrote:

Is there a video streaming device that allows me to use a VPN and a browser? I've been watching a lot of foreign channels recently and that forces me to use my PC or phone. I want to be able to use something like a Roku on any TV. I know it's possible to cast a Chrome tab to a Roku but I've never been able to get it to work.

Any suggestions?

My first thought is to simply run an HDMI cable from a laptop to your TV, but something tells me that you’ve already considered that.

It is very simple to cast a Chrome tab or your whole desktop to a TV using a ChromeCast. I don't know the details of how it works, so I can't say for certain that your VPN set up will work. A basic ChromeCast is pretty cheap, though (even compared to a long HDMI cable), so it's not very high risk to find out.

EverythingsTentative wrote:

Is there a video streaming device that allows me to use a VPN and a browser? I've been watching a lot of foreign channels recently and that forces me to use my PC or phone. I want to be able to use something like a Roku on any TV. I know it's possible to cast a Chrome tab to a Roku but I've never been able to get it to work.

Any suggestions?

What you want is your Roku's traffic passing through the VPN. You can accomplish that either with a router that has the ability to connect to a VPN and tunnel everything through it, or possibly by setting up your PC to act as a wireless hotspot, have the Roku connect to it (instead of directly through the router), and have your PC tunneling all of its Internet activity through the VPN (and, by extension, the Roku's traffic)

I've had a laptop connected but I want something I can always leave connected. I may see if I can get the Roku to go through the VPN but does Roku have a browser?

Isn’t there a plug & play raspberry pi VPN solution?

Maybe I’m thinking of Pi-hole (dns filter).

Can someone use a water gun as a bidet? My friend Agina Imry wants to know. She is always asking me weird stuff.

Baron Of Hell wrote:

Can someone use a water gun as a bidet? My friend Agina Imry wants to know. She is always asking me weird stuff.

I guess so, but whoever is holding the water gun would have to be a very good friend indeed.

Coldstream wrote:
Baron Of Hell wrote:

Can someone use a water gun as a bidet? My friend Agina Imry wants to know. She is always asking me weird stuff.

I guess so, but whoever is holding the water gun would have to be a very good friend indeed.

Or a bad friend with great aim and a powerful super soaker

Coldstream wrote:
Baron Of Hell wrote:

Can someone use a water gun as a bidet? My friend Agina Imry wants to know. She is always asking me weird stuff.

I guess so, but whoever is holding the water gun would have to be a very good friend indeed.

IMAGE(https://thumbs.gfycat.com/SeparateLonelyBorderterrier-mobile.jpg)

Agina Imry. I love her already.

They still make Waterpiks, just sayin'.

Why do I hate the taste of sparkling water?
It's such a popular thing it seems weird that to me it tasts like drinking nasty bitter static.

strangederby wrote:

Why do I hate the taste of sparkling water?
It's such a popular thing it seems weird that to me it tasts like drinking nasty bitter static.

You’re a supertaster!

Some flavours must go.