I assume the envisioned discussion was supposed to be

Q: Thoughts on the Orphan Crushing Machine?

A: The CDC says crushing orphans is bad for our health.

A: The government in Orphania is expanding the definitions of orphans to all seniors, allowing a cascading orphan-crushing effect.

where we all experience the same negative emotion in a fuller, mildly variable way.

But yeah, it’s kind of… predictable, isn’t it?

_{<thread> FOSS, big bad powerfuls, companies, governments, Stallman </thread>}

When it comes to installing stuff, I’m very trigger-happy. So, from experience…

Installing stuff on Windows (safely)

• Hope it’s on Chocolatey (choco install)
• If not, search for the website online
• Scroll past the AI slop and suspicious Softonic downloads
• Click the website
• Find the correct download button
• Download
• Scan with MalwareBytes (don’t want an STI)
• Run setup.exe
• Verify PATH and wanted feature set
• I do not want to bundle Candy Crush or McAfee
• skim the Privacy Policy to see if they’ll grind my bones to dust
• Install Microsoft C++ Redistributable 2014-2018 (wtf? I already have 4 of these)
• Wait
• Sort the installation shortcuts into my folders

Installing stuff on Linux (safely)

• paru some_software
• If on AUR, skim PKGBUILD
• If not packaged at all (rare), git clone it and either skim the install.sh or Makefile
• Done

Sometimes friends, in their curiosity, come up to me and ask me, Jordan Belfort-style, “Sell me this pen Linux.” Why do I like it so much, they wonder?

And I always tell them:

"Linux is like… the vegan OS. (bear with me) Mac and Windows people don’t really care about OSes. People who switch to Linux either find they couldn’t be assed to deal with it, or they love it, and those who love it love it. Then they always tell people lol.

A good thing though: because everyone’s such an opinionated nerd, the lateral set of problems you run into won’t be ‘solved’ by random Microsoft Forums /sfc scannows or arcane regedits, but by a nut who debugged the entire thing 30 minutes after the bug came to exist to find a workaround. True story.

Buuuut Linux is more of a lateral movement in terms of problems, it’s just a tool after all. You solve Microsoft Recall and start menu ads but run into new but tiny annoyances. I find Linux problems easier to fix than Windows ones because of the nerd army thing but if your Windows setup works for you, it works and that’s really all that’s important. If you do start Linuxing though you’ll learn a lot just by osmosis."

And they usually laugh and decide to keep their routines in place. Don’t hate me vegans.

I use Firefox everywhere else, but for my Android I’m on Brave.

Sure, adblock and tab grouping is a plus but my main reason I use it (i.e. over Firefox) is because of memory. When I have six FF tabs open, my Samsung model shoots at least three down the moment I enter another activity or open a new tab. They survive on Brave.

I’d still use Brave on iOS devices too – as another commenter said, it’s a webkit reskin but at least it’s got good Adblock.

Oh.

yeah that’s more likely

In a similar way, I’d learnt an eeny bit about visual composition at one point, and it’s helped me understand how something pretty can be uninteresting and something ugly can be interesting. (Maybe it was more obvious to everyone else, especially with the whole image gen sitch (ー﹏一))

Oddly it’s made me respect internet-ugly MS Paint stuff more. Like this ancient shitpost.

And nature too of course. The way a red sky refracts in cirrus clouds. Ladybugs on leaves. Elk.

All stuff I normally wouldn’t have noticed :p

trawl your boss

Weaving up the wire thingies on chain link fences? What’d you need that for – did your property fence get a huge hole from a burglar or something?

Wow, that’s definitely a few. Didn’t expect an entire set of chainmail to show up in these comments!

And I seem to notice something:

…the armor. But because I want to be done in less than a year (will be part of my wedding outfit)

“Hey, what if I not only learn to play the [Hurdy (Nerdy?) Gurdy, but also learn to play it for my wedding”

Someone’s wedding is going to be very interesting.

I went to Yalemacs for my Comparative Text Editors PhD

Yeah it just feels super different. Somehow it tastes different too.

It’s like drinking water out of a red plastic/solid cup vs. a nice clear glass. Or eating sushi using chopsticks instead of by spoon or fork or something.

I wouldn’t eat sushi without em :^)

HOA docs didn’t even cross my mind, that’s resourceful.

Has the AI been particularly accurate, and does it cite where it found your information? With more technical stuff it’s always confidently wrong

ty for the response btw

Nice, AI with half of the suspicion removed.

Does it save you a lot of time, what do you use it for? I have a somewhat old GPU but have been considering something like this to comb manuals. Does it have a file size constraint?

edit: I realize the below sounds kinda ranty. sorry lol

I’m mildly fortunate but ever since I was a kid I saw the rank race as insufferable as well. Since the start of high school I felt that way. Every step of college apps, standardized tests made me physically grimace.

Kids in my hs class obsessed over ranks. “You let this guy beat you? Chump.” “I’m taking all AP classes, I’m a workaholic!” “Did you know so-and-so got into Princeton? She’s so smart!” Superficial as fuck. Talk about something more interesting than numbering people, I beg of you.

The SAT depressed me. I did good, but only because I read at an unholy speed, I wasn’t super smart or anything. And I saw lots of kids get average SATs because of home trouble or not being a test killer or being unable to afford time or money for SAT training or not being able to take the SAT 5 times. Instant sieve.

Even in my undergrad people were ranky af. “Oh, yeah, I got waitlisted for Cornell, I got rejected from MIT, I got deferred from Carnegie-Mellon…” Shut up, please shut up. Whether it’s innocent or not, it helps no one and does nothing.

About your brief digression with Trump. My undergrad was heavy on DEI, and I think a lot of people disliked it but kept their mouth shut. I felt neutral either way but I’d hear conversations like

“Why didn’t I get into this program? What did the others do that I didn’t have?”

“Oh, he’s gay.”

“Fuck, I shoulda been gay! Maybe I should apply for random scholarships and pretend I’m 1% Irish or whatever.”

even though they’d switch and say

“DEI is important for disadvantaged groups…”

during the orientation meeting. So I can see where a lot of modern hostility comes from, even though the effects of said hostilities have put America worse off.

cheap sailboat and live off the grid

Dreamy. Make sure you stay safe :P

Cool! I’ll probably try climbing some day, since sportsball never motivated me to stick on. (And bc of the functional muscle vs. gym muscle stereotype.)

As for infinite Indiana Jones… I’m trying my best to keep the songs I whistle different haha

Yeah the market has definitely toughened regarding college degrees, since the 80s. (Maybe bc they’re more common now? If that’s a good thing or not.)

Funny enough, Reddit likes to say

• cs bachelor’s degree and 2yr experience is better than master’s and none (I’ve always doubted whether that’s a real widespread thing)
• trades make bank ezpz (I hear that relies on a good apprenticeship which can be hard to get)

Also: would you say the choice of undergrad matters in UK tech?

slop creator

lmao

Nice. kdenlive or something else?

Also – upscale video? Don’t you run it through some real esrgan thing and wait for forever? I’m working on trying to upscale a video right now but my GPU is ancient

What’d you learn it for (I personally don’t see it often so you likely live near a Cyrillic-heavier region) and how? Also

I can take a pen apart…

Did you have a lot of prior handy experience or did you follow a video? This is a bit vague on the how
( ’ ﹋ ’ ; )