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Joined 3 months ago
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Cake day: August 3rd, 2025

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  • I don’t think that’s a guide… it’s a hands on class. Maybe even a good idea to pitch to your local community college, community center, or adult edu department.

    It’ll shock you how low the average person’s technical literacy is. And since you’re talking about a guide for a lot of things that update independently, the guide will begin to be outdated before you even publish it. It’s exceptionally hard to keep technical documentation in sync with software and hardware that you don’t control, and when the users of your guide hit those spots where the doc doesn’t match, they bail quickly.

    What key concepts to cover probably depends on what you’re trying to teach. If it’s just how to use a web browser, the mainstream distros all do that pretty well out of the box once they’re installed (although installation can still a bit of a challenge from one laptop to the next). Maybe the greatest communal benefit would be to teach foundational concepts of online security.





  • but there’s still reasoning to have Windows

    For sure. There’s a lot of software that’s built for Windows only. I have some Garmin aviation software that only works on Windows or Mac. It’s pretty shit software, but I have to use it, and since I can do windows in a VM, that’s what I use. Similarly, there’s another bit of software I use all the time that’s only built for iPad. So I have an iPad for that app. There’s not always a choice.


  • I would help if asked, but I’m not out there trying to convince people. This isn’t the first Windows version to be EOLd, and Apple and Android have all but convinced people that a 2-3 year hardware replacement cycle is normal. I just don’t think this is a significant consumer event at all.

    Or are you just observing and enjoy your peace of mind because you switched already to Linux before?

    Yeah, but I wouldn’t say “switched” is the right word for me. I’ve been using a variety of OSes for personal and work for a long time. I worked in embedded software, and we had to support a variety of build toolchains for different host OSes and different target OSes. So the idea of using a different OS on my own computer is not a big deal. Over the years it’s been Solaris, BSDos, Mac, Windows, and more flavors of Linux than I can recall.

    Not the question you asked, but it was gratifying when Raspberry Pi really started to take off because it was the first time that developing for a different hardware arch and OS target was going mainstream. I would enthusiastically help people with that sort of thing. But even fewer ask. lol






  • There’s also a fuckload of people seeking misdiagnoses for financial gain. You see it in mundane ways like people faking depression or PTSD to get an emotional support animal to get around their apartment’s no pets policy. You also see nearly universal advice to soldiers separating from the military to claim some mental issue to get a partial disability rating.

    Not saying that there aren’t genuine occurrences of mental illness, but the amount of fraud is pretty massive.




  • Private jet aircraft. They are very expensive to buy (say from US$ 5 to 70 million), but also shockingly expensive to operate. It’s hard to put an exact number to operation costs since it’s a mix of fixed and variable costs, but a fancy jet like a G650 is likely gonna be a few million a year in op costs (fuel, maintenance, management, crew salaries. training, hangar fees, facility fees, and so on. Also, few people actually buy aircraft directly. Rather they pay a management company to set up an ownership entity that owns and manages the aircraft for you.

    It’s tempting to think of a jet as a vehicle, but really it’s more like paying people to do all the work and waiting for you so that the time you spend waiting is as minimal as possible. When most people fly, you buy a ticket, you book a ride to the airport, you go through security, customs, immigration, ticketing, baggage handling, and so on. Then you wait to board, wait for everyone else to board, wait for other planes to take off, maybe fly to a hub location enroute to your destination, and so on. If you’re in a plane like a G650, you pay other people to do all of this for you so that you can show up to a plane that’s fueled and ready to go, with the cabin AC at the temp you like, and your cocktail already poured sitting at the table by your seat. You get in, they start the roll.

    It’s lavish, opulent, and wasteful in the extreme, but still a damn nice way to travel.


  • Software wise, ProTools is what nearly everyone in the industry uses. Its been around forever. It enjoys a massive monopoly share of the market. But I don’t think it works on Linux. Mac n PC only.

    For a cheaper Linux friendly option, consider Fairlight (the audio component of Black magic Resolve).

    The name “Fairlight” has also been around forever, but was defunct for a while, and a handful of years ago the fine folks at Blackmagic Design bought the brand and IP integrated into their Resolve software. While Resolve has a free tier that includes Fairlight, some might require the Studio version which is a one time fee of ~US$300 and includes all future updates. I’ve heard some Pros speak highly of the new Fairlight. Can’t vouch for it myself but the mantra of the Blackmagic CEO is “we build the tools we wanted when we were working creatives.”




  • Even if you never went online, heaps of data about you is collected and sold.

    • ALPRs collect and sell your car’s movement and location data.
    • Stores you shop at collect identity data and share your purchases and consumer behaviors, even when you pay cash.
    • Banks and financial institutions share information about your assets, financial holdings, purchases, and electronic transactions.
    • Governments mandate that all sorts of information about you is public.

    And if you are online, the “be as anonymous as you can and don’t share your personal data over the internet.” statement makes it sound easy, which is far from true. It’s a constant game of whack-a-mole where one needs incredibly disciplined to compartmentalize and segregate login sessions across browsers and devices. If one isn’t technically skilled and constantly vigilant, it’s a losing battle. That’s why awareness and campaigns that support privacy focused regulation are important.


  • Yeah. I’ve heard good things about Ente. For me, I was at a storage tier where i was over 100gb of docs & photos, and between 1 & 2TB when you include video. Most hosted services get kinda pricey at those storage tiers.

    I didn’t really set out to self host, but since in needed to solve for docs, photos, and videos, I just went with self hosting. I’m happy with it, just acknowledging that it’s not for everyone