[ Our firmfriends.us domain is hosted at inmotionhosting.com ]
My Contact info
Water Hawk Computers
------------------- David Cook -------------------
-------- david.hubert.cook@gmail.com --------
------------------- Software Mechanic -------------------
----------------------- (603) 493-9597 -----------------------
---------------------- ( aka The WEASEL ) ----------------------
-------------------- ( aka SARASOTA SLIM ) --------------------
--------------------------- Manchester, NH ----------------------------
Note: I'm told by others that the most popular part
of this website are the links in the column on the
left side of this page. There you'll find all the free
movies and TV-shows and music-jukeboxes, etc. Enjoy!!!
[ https://weasel.firmfriends.us ]
You could take a picture of this "QR code" with your smart-phone / tablet camera,
to navigate to this website in the future.
[ I created this and put it here just to learn how to create one. ]
Curious? Click HERE to learn the details and theory of such "QR codes".
For just one of the many websites where you could create your own QR code, click HERE
To view and navigate this website's pages, clicking any link will result in opening that link into a NEW browser tab. So when finished reading that link's info, notice whether the browser's back-arrow button is armed and use that if it is. Otherwise, simply delete the current 'browser-tab' and your view will return to the previously-viewed page.
Welcome!
The 'weasel' lives here. This is his new home.
He's a tricky little fellow...e.g. known to play dead when confronted by his enemies.
Actually, I'm just a weasel wannabe...it's the Morley family members who really ARE weasels.
[ I guess I'm also a ferret wannabe too...so I can 'ferret' out the truth. ]
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![[ AngularJS logo ]](AngularJS-small.png)
[ To freeze/pause the built-in auto-scrolling in this Carousel, enter a negative number
(for the scroll-interval value), or hover-on or click-on the left/right nav-arrowheads,
or just hover your mouse in the images-area. ]
Artificial Intelligence : AI chatbots explained
Chatbots are significantly superior to "Google Search's 'AI-mode'"
Note: Before we discuss full-function conversational CHATBOTs, we should give a nod to Google-search's (new in 2025) "AI mode" button. It should NOT be confused with a full-fledged chatbot such as ChatGPT, Gemini or Copilot. "AI mode" is classified as a search feature, not a chatbot product, although you CAN think of it as a "Gemini mini" because it DOES have the 'chat' feature of a back-and-forth conversation. [ So, the shortcoming of using "AI-mode" for your chatting, is that those chats are NOT sticky...i.e. you can't return to that chat, once you've closed that browser tab/window. }
Here is a short-list of the Internet's current top-three favorite Chatbots:
The chatbot named "ChatGPT" was the earliest and was created by the OpenAI Foundation.
The chatbot named "Gemini" was created by the Google corporation.
The chatbot named "Copilot" was created by the "Microsoft" corporation.
For a link to the topic of CHATBOTS in the 'Internet encyclopedia' Click HERE
To setup ChatGPT, simply navigate to "chatgpt.com" and create an account. (Your username will appear at lower-left, if/when you are logged in.)
To setup Gemini, simply navigate to "gemini.google.com" and create an account. (Your username appears at upper-right, if/when you are logged in.)
To setup Copilot, simply navigate to "copilot.microsoft.com" and create an account. (Your username appears at lower-left, if/when you are logged in.)
All 3 products' screen layouts are close to identical. When you have an account and are logged into it, you have settings choices (e.g. for a theme background-coler "THEME of either "Day (White)" or "Night (Black)", etc, etc. ( It's important to recognize/remember that your chat(s) are NOT being saved for you if you are NOT logged in! Having your chats saved allows you to return to that chat at any future time and continue the discussion right where you left off!)
While it might be tempting to believe that one's present search methods: e.g. use of Google-search, or Wikipedia, or Reddit, etc, are working well for you, if you don't experience a 'test-drive' of a full AI-chatbot (e.g..try ChatGPT) you'll miss out in seeing just how revolutionary chatbots are!
One of the most active web-forums for DISCUSSION of ChatGPT usage is one of Reddit's subreddit:
r/ChatGPT
[ It contains a large number of posts by users sharing usage tips, prompts, workflows and asking questions about ChatGPT. ]
Note that all 3 of these chatbots have a FREE edition (even though they hint that you should consider UPGRADING into a paid-for level).
After having used all 3 of these chatbots, it beomes clear that the lowest level (i.e. the free edition) does NOT have any less quality of their answers/explanations/recommendations. For example, the only limitation of the free level of ChatGPT is that after you make some number of queries within a few hours timespan, it will 'pause' your chat-session for a few hours with a message similar to this:
"You have hit the Free plan limit for GPT-5."
"Responses will use another model and apps will be unavailable until your limit resets after 4:01 PM."
If that few hours freeze of ChatGPT DOES happen, no worries, If you really 'need it now', just go and use Copilot or Gemini for the next few hours. But, a word of WARNING! One drawback of switching among two or three of these chatbots: If/when you want to scroll down through your list of previous chats, you're apt to FORGET which chatbot you used for that chat, so you'll need to search thru the list of chats in ALL your chatbots, to find the one you are looking for!
[ Note: If you click on the 'Upgrade' link at the bottom left (next to your username), it shows you its 4 plans, the upper 3 being plans with monthly charges. (Elsewhere, you may also see a button labeled "Get Plus", which is a similar offer, inviting you to upgrade to their 2nd-level / $20-per-month. ]
(I'd strongly recommend that you resist considering ever PAYING for these products...the FREE plans are all that's needed for general use.)
AI : Artificial Intelligence is here and it IS awesome, as claimed!
Chatbot(s) !!! Artificial Intelligence! Wow !
If you aren't using ChatGPT (or Gemini or Copilot, etc) then you've become a very self-handicapped person. (ChatGPT is available here) My recipe: Quit using 'Google-search' and start using ChatGPT instead...do that for the next month or so, and I predict that you'll never consider going back. Yes, it's free!!! Note: It is NOT a down-loadable piece of software nor an 'app'. Rather, it is simply a website URL that you visit via your web-browser. Although you now no longer NEED to create yourself a username/passwprd account, there are good reasons to do so. That will allow to store all your previous ChatGPT-chats (so that you can later resume the chats right where you left them), and to allow you to use a few advanced features that require an account,
One last guideline: Notice that there is a button at the top of the left column labeled "New Chat". Get in the habit of using that button any time that you're finishing the current subject and want to talk about something totally unrelated to your current topic. The system will allow you to NOT use that button and to 'mix' subjects all in the same chat. But then if/when you want to come back to this chat later, the excellent chat-topic names that get created for each chat will be confusing.
Ok, now that you're setup (or at least curious enough try), just navigate to "chatgpt.com" and enter this example first query/conversation-starter:
"Is the brain product Prevagen proven to be effective?"
Enjoy !!!
Watch a skydiver's recent feat. [ Awesome ]
[ I retired from skydiving (after jump #286), so this video has special significance for me. ]
<<< For full-screen display, start then pause
the video, and use the 2-arrows button at lower-right
Go "Luke" !
Watch these 4 skydivers as they jump from 25,000 feet
( For the best experience, start then psuse the video, and use the 'full-screen' arrows at lower-right )
Watch two basejumpers do a "reverse-skydive" [ Unbelievable. ]
[ I never graduated to base-jumping. It resembles skydiving, except for their special "winged"-jumpsuits ]
<<< For full-screen display, start then pause
the video, and use the 2-arrows button at lower-right
Watch THESE 2 guys step off a mountain top
( For the best experience, start then psuse the video, and use the 'full-screen' arrows at lower-right )
Lawrence O'Donnell is RIGHT ON with his position on Abortion (summer of 2024)
[ Left: Nov(2035] [ Right: Good commentary on abortion ]
Bill Maher also did two more "must-hear" commentaries on Trump
[ Two of the most accurate assessments of Trump...the man was/is UNFIT for the office. ]
Obama's 2016 parting comments (about a future 4 years under Donald Trump)
It's my opinion that Obama was a VERY good president...in my view, he was arguably the best president in my lifetime. I say that NOT because of his political party. I don't care whether he was a Democrat or a Republican. (In the past, I've never been a Democrat nor a Republican. My voter-registration has always been as an "Independent.
GOOD NEWS going towards the 2024 election: The Gallup pole in 2021 says: "Overall in 2021, an average of 29% of Americans identified as Democrats, 27% as Republicans and 42% as independents." "Gallup"
One of Obama's best attributes is illustrated in this video...it is how steady, smooth, and articulate he is, when being interviewed and when explaining issues to citizens and communicating with foreign leaders. (Whereas, it is claimed that Trump had a very HARD TIME reading/comprehending his 'daily briefing' writeups).
Do you know a 'flip-phone' is nearly as SMART as a 'smartphone' ???
Tho I'm quite 'tablet-literate' e.g. I love my 5-inch by 8-inch Android-based tablet! I've upgraded to yet another "flip-phone"...(yup, a phone with those 10 physical keys numbered 0 thru 9 and each containing 3 or 4 letters of the alphabet). If you're thinking it must be awkward to compose a TEXT-MSG, you're right. But maybe that's not such a bad thing!!! I've discovered that a minimalist flip-phone is a totally adequate device, It works fine for RECEIVING normal-sized text-msgs (e.g. from your doctor or dentist), yet it neatly discourages you from SENDING text-msgs of any length, beyond a simple "OK" or "Roger, that.". (Long live the EMAIL-system!)
Also note that a modern flip-phone is both wifi and bluetooth capable. So, yes, if your vehicle is modern enough to have bluetooth support in its console (both my Subarus do) your phone's contacts should auto-upload into your car's console. You can make and receive calls 'hands-free', just like you can with a 'normal' smartphone. Which is why I'm here to state that, phone-call-function-wise, a flip-phone is just as 'smart' as the common "touch-screen" smartphone.
Another characteristic of flip-phones is that they're small enough that you can more easily carry them attached to your trouser belt... perfect to wear during an exercise class or while hiking, etc. (My flip-phone's case is only 3" x 4" in size!!!)
Consider: So the only two features MISSING, as compared to a 'normal' smartphone, is (#1) a 'touch screen'. and (#2) a much larger collection of free 'apps' from an app-store. (A well-kept 'secret' is that the modern flip-phones DO support a variety of downloadable apps!) And, flip-phones also typically have a decent built-in CAMERA!
When I test-drove a couple of 'normal' touch-screen smartphones, a BIG negative attribute is that their screen-size was just a bit too small for my taste. (e.g. the tightly-space keys on the virtual keyboard make it very likely that a touch will activate the key ADJACENT to the key you intended.
Lastly, I work out daily (at Planet Fitness). Almost everyone exercising there these days carries around a 'smartphone' and wears a bluetooth headset or bluetooth ear-buds, so that they can listen to music. Well...guess what. A modern flip-phone does that too! It typically has a built-in music app and both bluetooth and wifi connectivity, I routinely play all my favorite tunes into my bluetooth headset! [ The way I'm doing this is to create and download a couple dozen of my favorite songs as .MP3 files, which comprise my 'playlist', use the phone's built-in Media Center app's 'Music Player' tool and a blue-tooth headset. ]
All this said, in 2024, I upgraded to a new flip-phone and soon regretted it! The brand I mistakenly chose was "TCL" and its flaw was the half-baked OS inside...one by the name of "KaiOS". The OS is built in China. The quantity of builtin apps is fine. But a number of apps suffer from subtle bugs! And worse, is the fact that there is no plan to fix them! The OS is NOT expected to ever be updated! My final solution is to use a Kyocera flip-phone.
Ok...I've saved a NEGATIVE of a flip-phone for the end. Its little 1.5 x 2.0-inch screen IS a show-stopper, if you need to use apps like navigation.(Google-maps or Waze). Or to be able to pass your phone around to show off your photo album. But, I'm still loving my third flip-phone and I expect I'll stay with them!
GEEK ALERT: How to capture a video/audio multimedia source, using an HDMI-capture device and an HDMI-cable
Our goal is to capture a movie/TV-show that passes from our TV's set-top box into the back of our TV-set
#1: I usesing (FREE) software named "OBS Studio"
#2: For hardware: (1) an HDMI-cable and (2) any HDMI-to-USB capture device
Note: There are NUMEROUS 'how-to-capture' videos on YouTube. Below are my two favorites. Watch them BOTH (both use the 'OBS Studio' software program, but different EXTERNAL capture devices). These will help you understand the 'big-picture'. The key-concept for your specific hardware setup: Plug the source end (up-stream end) of the HDMI-cable into, say, your set-top box (e.g. the one provided by e.g. Comcast) or your Roku-box, and the plug the down-stream end of the cable into the HDMI-port of the capture device. Plug the output USB port of capture-device into one of your laptop's USB-ports...faster port is better.
''This video shows use of a (black 2-inch long) capture device (aka 'dongle'). "
I strongly disagree with this first guy's insistence that you need an expensive graphics-card and mucho memory and mucho-fast CPU on your laptop! Those factors can limit the highest resolution of graphic input signal that you can smoothly capture...but just do a trial-and-error test with whatever laptop you've got, and I'm betting you'll be satisfied when viewing the output video file captured onto your laptop. (He's a high-end guy...wants/needs that power because he captures video from games, etc.) As to NEEDING an HDMI-splitter and extra HDMI cables that he mentions: granted that those will allow you to simultaneously watch the live content on both your TV and in your capturing software viewer (i.e. VLC or OBS) during your capture-sessions. but, I've been managing just fine, for the last 2 years, without his "HDMI-splitter and 2nd HDMI-cable" setup.
''This second video shows use of a different capture device (aka 'card');
This 2nd video also uses the same free "OBS Studio" software, as I do.
[ Oh, and here is a 3rd video, but does NOT use the free "OBS Studio" software that I'm recommending. And, once again, it's using the little 2-inch black 'dongle' that I have. ]
''This 3rd video also uses the same capture 'dongle' that I do!"''And a 4th guy ALSO recommends this same capture 'dongle' !"
OK, let's go launch our 'OBS Studio' program. Hmm...FIRST I should mention that the "lion's share" of all this 'capturing streams of video/audio' stuff, is about learning the details of using the SOFTWARE-PROGRAM that we've chosen to accomplish this task. I wanted to be using the best 'open-source' (aka 'free') video/audio processing tool available. Tho I haven't tried many of the others (other than 'VLC' which works just fine for the job!), I noticed that recently (in 2020 and beyond) 'OBS Studio' seems to have become more frequently recommended, rather than VLC Player. ( I grabbed/installed a copy of OBS a year or so ago, and it quickly became my new favorite tool-of-choice.)
Overview: Go to about the 4:10 MINUTE-MARK in that second video, and just start watching/listening, when he talks about how to use OBS to record the input from a capture device. Oh, another tip: When recording videos using VLC, the output files default to type ".avi", and in OBS, they default to ".mkv". But, both tools allow you to change those defaults to, say, ".mp4", if that's what you prefer. [ Most serious video-file creators DO want .mp4, with .mkv a close 2nd. Stay away from VLC's .avi choice! It is an OLD uncompressed video format, so the resulting avi-files are MUCH larger than equivalent .mkv and .mp4 files. ]
Ok, here's the one-time (first time) setup sequence that will get you up and running in OBS. (Once you got OBS set up the first time (defining/creating/adding your specific 'source for your capture device, OBS will REMEMBER it all (as does VLC, too). So that the next time you launch the tools, come come right up with the little live-viewer window active...you're already to just hit their respective 'Start Recording' buttons. Here's my first-time setup sequence steps: #1: Click "+" (aka 'add'), then 'Video Capture Device' (near bottom of list), then 'ok' (in the popup). #2: In large popup, it'll initialize to camera-image of use...click the up-down-arrow 'Device' line, and choose 'USB Video', and 'ok' #3: (You should NOW being seeing the live video feed...(you're now 'watching tv' in the top center panel) #4: Cool! Now go click the 'Start Recording' button (in the Controls panel). You're now 'capturing'!!! #5: When you've captured for the duration you want, click that same button (which renamed itself 'Stop Recording') #6: Just as before (with 'VLC' tool), navigate your laptop's file-mgr app to where OBS stores it's output files (which is 'Videos' folder on Windows and 'Movies' folder on MacOS) and retrieve the file! You're done !!! [ It's safe to shutdown OBS...your new 'USB Video' source gets saved. (Click its 'padlock' to reduce chances that you'll mistakenly delete it.) ]
GEEK ALERT: How to 'edit' (snip out) sections of a video (e.g. maybe one you captured earlier)
Note: You'll probably want Windows or MacOS device (not a tablet/smartphone-based browser)
If you are hoping that OBS Studio can help, no it doesn't support 'editing' (sigh). But, I've read that our earlier free tool named VLC Player CAN do this editing job. (I'll leave details of VLC editing for you to search out other author's editing writeups.)
Instead, I'll mention a 'cmd-line' tool that I use to cut (snip) video sections from a file. It is named 'ffmpeg'. (It's more common use is to convert from one video file-type to another.) But, I have also used 'ffmpeg' to cut out a section of a movie, to create my own 'trailer' (e.g. maybe a 4 or 5 minute favorite scene). It's quite straight forward to learn to use it, so I'll let you find details for its use elsewhere.
GEEK ALERT: Explanation of basic torrent-based downloading of video/audio multimedia content
Note: You'll need/want to use a PC-based browser (not a tablet/smartphone-based browser)
The two tools I recommend are both software 'extensions' to Google's Chrome browser. The first is the "JSTorrent" extension, a 'BitTorrent client' which does the actual downloading activity, and the second is a free VPN [Virtual Private Network] extension named "Browsec". NOTE: Rather than using Google's Chrome browser, one can use the "Opera" browser...the advantage being that Opera has a built-in VPN, thus saving the step of acquiring, installing, and configuring the "Browsec" extension. Various places of where you can acquire these two tools, is detailed in an excellent writeup here
Geek-ALERT: Running JSTorrent under Windows OS served me well for many years. But mid-2023, it would no longer work under Windows (due to something Windows OS changed?). But a 'fix' for me was simple. The word on the street suggested using Linux or Chrome OS. Sure enough...JSTorrent works just fine on my ChromeBook, so I do the torrent-downloading on that device.
Final NOTE: It's the understanding of WHAT tools are needed (rather than knowing WHERE to find your desired video-content or HOW to do the detailed steps of using the "JSTorrent" downloader), that is the learning-curve part. The rest is straight-forward...learnable just by doing a few 'google-searches, so I'll leave those to you. Have at it !!!
WEB-SAFETY: How to check reputation/safety of any website/domain:
[ This cool webservice validates via a series of web-safety-provided 'black-lists' and 'white-lists' ]
[ Hint: Normally, you would specify a simple textual-URL such as 'Foobar.com', (rather than a numerical IP-address), for your website of interest ]
Blacklist/Whitelist alerterUnderstanding the blacklist output:
If you see only the normal vertical list of 'OK' s, you're good to go...it's a SAFE/normal website.
Understanding any non-whitelist output:
If you see any text like 'NOT WHITELISTED'.
This indicates a WARNING-alert that the website in question is NOT RECOMMENDED, due to some undesireable restriction.
For example, a site that is accessible/visable/useable ONLY after you've registered/joined it.