nvidia shield

Debloating My NVIDIA Shields Freed Up RAM and Got the Ads Off the Home Screen

Four Shields across three hardware generations, 148 system packages disabled, every one reversible. The stock launcher was the largest process on all four, and replacing it cut that between 61% and 80%. Getting to that number took three wrong measurements first. The other win came from somewhere I wasn't looking: a TV tuner running 2016 firmware.

I stopped leaving the TV on for an empty house

My leaving-the-house automation used to only lock the door and arm the alarm, so anything playing kept playing to an empty room. Now it powers off the TVs, pauses the speakers, and offers a one-tap resume when I get back. Getting Plex to come back where I left off is where most of the wrong turns were.