Yep! The most expensive equipment they might need is a magic smoke compressor, if that.

The Democrats really suck. Our FPTP 2-party system is really some bullshit. However, it is really difficult for me to buy into the validity of the slippery slope you are describing when the people around me keep voting for the option that is #1 worst by a whole fucking lot.

And the further that #1 worst keeps surging and lapping #2 on the evil-dex, the further their psycho supporters seem to like it! We’ll see if the pedo shit can finally reverse that.

This would be a different conversation if we’d elected democrats over and over to avoid republicans and somehow still got dragged to the right. At the end of the Obama administration, for instance, there was the concern of the bait and switch.

But no. He gets impeached a couple times for betraying the US in different ways after being openly terrible for years, and dozens of millions of people still turn out to vote for him. He tries some light coup and all the daily otherwise career ending craziness, and they turn out to vote for him AGAIN in HIGHER numbers.

The fact that the democrats are the good cop capitalists to the republicans’ bad cop capitalists is definitely a problem, yes. Any of us who get to vote in the US should be keenly aware of that. And there are multiple things we can try to fix in parallel. But sometimes you have to fix things sequentially too.

I can imagine a future device with an e-ink page that’s so thin and flexible that it looks and feels like a paper book with magic changing text. I don’t know how many consumers would pay a premium for that, but I would definitely buy my wife one.

I’m just here to point out that the fact you genuinely care about your carbon footprint probably puts you ahead of 80% of the population, and the fact that it has materially affected your device choices probably puts you ahead of 80% of the remainder.

There’s definitely a unique satisfaction that comes from filling tech needs with hardware that already exists, and which does a great job at it too.

That goes across hobbies and mediums too. I just finished a big outdoor carpentry project where I was able to find perfect long-term uses for pieces of wood from The Initial Build in the construction of The New Hotness.

I think it’s pretty heavily implied that people are talking about a given tech giant’s entire ecosystem when they say de-google, delete Facebook, Fuck Nestle- I mean, fuck Apple, etc. lol

Ah, my mistake. Thanks!

He’s already in 3rd grade and they haven’t even covered ESD precautions yet!!

Like I’m gonna let those grubby mitts touch an actual stick of ram or GPU in the year 2025, lol.

Nope I don’t have experience installing older distros. I used some Unix systems in the late 90s (Sun Solaris) and really liked them even though I wasn’t yet the Linux/FOSS enthusiast I am now.

Your comment does not surprise me at all, though. For any rough edges Linux has had over the years, at least the motivations of the developers creating it have been in the right place all along. That is, making software for themselves and users, as opposed to the innumerable forces of enshittification within tech giants like Microsoft.

I got caught up on that too.

I don’t do anything with yarn, but will sometimes use fabric to make puppets and other toys with my kid.

Even buying the cheapest fabric from the lowest priced outlets (cheaper than even the random alphabet soup brands on amazon) in bulk, it adds up so fast when you’re actually creating things!

I’d say spending SOME money and time on your most fulfilling hobbies is damn near a necessity for a healthy existence.

And yeah sure, plenty of people don’t do that, and plenty of people literally cannot afford to do that here in my dear old US of A.

But you know what else I see a lot of people doing in the US? Fighting mental illness and talking ever more openly about the need for revolution and violence.

You could fit so many more birdies into a medium format sensor!

I’m not doing much photography now but I was way into it a decade ago. I did it professionally on the side, which helped justify some of my nice full-frame gear. It’s nice when taking photos at a dimly lit wedding reception.

Your mention of Gear Aquisition Syndrome followed by a picture of a motherfucking peregine falcon in flight still took my breath away for a second there!

I barely spent any money on my hobbies this year. I’m not some kind of sucker!

I merely spent thousands of dollars on materials and tools to build the supporting infrastructure for them!

I also have some very expensive computer parts waiting to be assembled. But they aren’t for any hobby of mine! They’re for the kid so we can play stuff without him using a computer twice as old as he is. 😉

I don’t think I ever messed with the Windows 3.1 OS on my family’s 486, but from Windows 95 and onwards I’ve done multiple installs of all the consumer versions of windows and was an avid user of win2k at the time. And for Windows 11 I have only ever installed it in a VM on a Linux machine to test Windows tools that are part of our builds at work.

I’ve also installed the last couple versions of Linux Mint a few times on some newer and older PCs. And some other distros in VMs for various reasons.

ALL of my recent Linux installs have gone far more smoothly and quickly than ANY Windows installs I remember.

Old windows? Better.

New Linux? Best!

IIRC from various board schematics at a previous job, typically you have the battery connected into the relevant voltage supply with a diode. So when that Vcc line for your memory module or real time clock is powered externally, the battery just sits idle since there’s no voltage drop across the diode to get current flowing from the battery.

It works well because it’s analog and fast and solid state. And yeah as long as you don’t bump other parts or break something, if you swapped the battery on a powered system it should be fine.

I think that’s still a valid argument since perfection will probably never happen.

For me it’s more like, remember when the expectation was that Tesla would ever produce a version that didn’t suck ass?

I have multiple relatives who only seem to be able communicate ideas to other people in the form of complaints and gossip.

There’s a very strong correlation between that and being more negative, more conservative/Trumpy, more bigoted, and definitely more miserable to be around.

I grew up in that kind of environment, and I swear there are pathways buried deep in my brain that still try to generate the “look at that stupid asshole doing a thing I wouldn’t choose to do, or that I’m jealous over” emotion. However, it only strengthens my resolve to not carry that bullshit forward into the next generation.

Getting laid off during COVID was like a preview of retirement, on top of other benefits like showing how little of my personal identity was tied to my job and how little I actually care about it. “Career line go up forever” was one of many things I was SUPPOSED to care about, but did not ACTUALLY care about. And that helped me fast-forward figuring out what does matter to me.

It was amazing.

The “I’ll work forever” badge of honor garbage is just one of the many ways people get conditioned to go against their own best interests to help out the rich/political people that really matter. (/s and barf)

Yeah, there’s some real truth to that, not gonna argue at all. With my ADHD and weak appetite I’ll just forget to eat, or not want to eat in the first place.

But even with whatever I enjoy in moderation whether it’s due to the excellent food or the environment (thinking holiday family dinners this time of year) or both, I don’t look at it like an escape. It’s just a nice enhancement to your day that engages your senses. In that way I think of the occasional amazing meal the same way I think of the occasional spirited drive home on a twisty road in beautiful weather with all the windows down.

However, I do want to acknowledge that we are all different and have to figure out what works for our particular brain given our experiences and environment. Food might just never be a contributor for you. And it’s not a huge one for me either, but over the past few years I’ve learned to value and hold on to any little incremental positive life improvements I run into.

Yeah, LLMs are interesting tech products to play with and find some niche uses for.

But for the love of god they are not “prop up the entire stock market and numerous multi-trillion-dollar companies indefinitely” good!