Morgan Makes

As far as the computer itself goes, I had originally planned to use a Linux distro specifically made for media centers or smart TVs. Over time, though (because the idea for this project came up way before I ever posted about it and it took me a long time to get started), I realized that many Linux distros are so damn customizable, it doesn't matter all that much which one I start out with. So I installed Linux Mint because I already have it on a flash drive and I already have experience with it. The other two laptops I've installed Mint on were generally pretty fast before they broke (at least fast enough for my standards--a middle class tech bro might disagree), and their main problem before replacing the OS was inconsistent ability to run. Both had frequent blue screens, and one would take forever for the screen to turn on. This laptop was different though: as far as I'm aware, it wasn't actually broken, they just stopped using it because it's so slow . When I dec...

Imagine, if you will, going to the relatively new household of someone you know. Some people want to watch TV, so your friend or relative pulls out a couple remotes. With one, they turn on an old TV and ensure its input is on a specific HDMI option. With the second remote, which is wider than you would expect it to be but still looks like a remote, they control what's going on on the screen, navigating to a file system or streaming service. But they have to search for a specific file or show or something. You recall this as the most frustrating part of watching something on TV: pressing the arrow buttons or something to follow whatever on-screen keyboard the service uses. To your surprise, though, this isn't what the person does. Instead, they simply flip over their weird remote, unfold it into a keyboard, and start typing. Perhaps later you want to watch something advertised in their shelf of watchable media. You select what looks to be a DVD case, only to find a couple SD car...