Well … I first got into contact with OpenSource due to Gratis: OpenOffice, Firefox etc. Combining my knowledge of OpenSource with my tendency to break stuff (Reinstalling Boston for the nth time) led me to Linux which I first tinkered with and soon fully adapted.

I had a short hopping phase where I went from Ubuntu (my starter) via Debian (accidentally tried stable) to Arch.

Stuck with arch on my personal machines now run Ubuntu for my work machine and Debian for Servers.

My favourite distro is the right tool for the job (see above) but I’m pretty happy with Arch

Antennapod does offer that by hooking into the gpodder.net API.ive had varying success with gpodder.net but hosting that yourself (I host it as an app on my Nextcloud) is a breeze

I’ve seen the musical a bunch of times and when I finally managed to read it last year it was a revelation. While I still love the musical the book is so much more intriguing and interesting and just manages to much more perfectly capture the main theme.

Night need to re-read this one soon ;)

This. So much.

The Martian was the first and to this date only book that I’ve read and, when I was finished, decided to re-read right away.

Love all Andy Weirs stuff. I’ve read the Martian four to five times now (lost count) I’ve also read Artemis twice and am currently re-reading Project Hail Mary.

Even when you know the ending the way there is still always fun another time.

Also I’ve re-read the Dirk Gently books since I just love Douglas Adams

https://youtube.com/watch?v=lC5lsemxaJo&t=63

Can’t quite speak for the n100 but I got a n305 one of these “China PCs” it’s passively cooled (which was important since it’s running in my bedroom) and seems to have amazing performance for what I need (I put jellyfin on there). I’m quite happy after futzing around with ARM SBCs and external drives this just works so well.

I work in hosting. We mostly use Proxmox for our Hypervisors which is already a step up from “bare” KVM in regards to convenience/ease of use (especially for High availability scenarios and the like) We also run VMWare and while I don’t love the “locked down you gotta do it the VMWare way” nature it’s often so much easier and the HA is mich more convenient. Also it has proper functionality for custom resourcing/access/billing.

What? How broken are we all that you first thought is “Nice then I can work two jobs” The only way this really works if they pay living wages for 3 day work weeks. And I know they aren’t even paying those now for 5-6 days but this is a point we have to insist on and make them do it. Workers have managed to enforce a 8 hour work day a long time ago. We need to remember our strength and fight for better conditions.

I remember the first time I saw ads on YouTube, I had just set up a new computer and wanted to test everything. So I opened Firefox and loaded a YouTube video. I got a preroll and wondered “wait ad’s, on YouTube?” Then I realized I had been using AdBlock for so long I never witnessed the transition from ad free YouTube to YouTube with ads.

These days I use unlock origin, Sponsorblock and revanced. For now it still works but maybe I’ll leave YouTube soon :/

Yeah they’re using the hell out of dark patterns and then switch them up mid process i.e. clicking the big green “Ok” Button will first be the one that gets you to pay more later you need to hit “Ok” to proceed without additional fees.

I recently went through the process with a friend. Both of us reasonably tech savvy and under 35 and we almost went mad. So it’s not just old folks.

I’ve been using signal since forever. Recently when there was a big exodus from Whatsapp because of their changed data policies was the first time I felt an impact with response time in the app etc. I immediately set up a regular donation. A few months later they came out with there cryptocurrency scheme I decided I won’t be funding any cryptocurrency so I cancelled my donations. I trust signal on the technical side implicitly. But they have lost my trust in the business side :/

Seriously. I’m just wating for a 3,5" form factor SSD where most of the chassis is cooling and inside it’s just a 2230m.2

I had heard about it before and gave it a quick Google earlier. But didn’t know the meme so I guess that joke went over my head :)

What? Linux.

I’ve been on 16GB of ram on all of my machines for so long … It’s really the sweet spot for everything I do (gaming etc. ) I don’t do media production or anything like that. All that said I’m currently in the market for a new machine and will probably get 32GB “just to be safe” but since my next laptop will probably be a framework I don’t have to make the decision till I actually need the ram and even then I can still decide to get one stick first the other later and the prices scales pretty linearly.

8GB might still be enough for some web browsing and stuff but apple should not put this little RAM in anything they call professional.

And before anyone says “you only need that much ram in Windows” well … I don’t and won’t be running Windows ;)

Well sync still supports that at least so: Test

I love ThinkPads especially the “good old” ones. Especially for their accessibility of parts and easy repair/upgradability.

My personal laptop has been a Thinkpad since 2013 (Thinkpad Edge E135 > Thinkpad X220 > Thinkpad x260) and at work we are also given ThinkPads (currently running a T14 gen 3).

Most ThinkPads I encountered are also sturdy built and not Gleis together or some crap like that. However I recently had an issue with my x260’s power button no longer working and to get it to work I had to replace the top bezels. Well maybe to put it more bluntly I had to get a replacemt bezel and put my Thinkpad into it since to replace the bezel I had to take out almost everything and then put it back in the reverse order. The mere fact that I managed to do it and there are officiall step by step instructions on how to (hmm) are a big upside of ThinkPads. But like others have said it used to be even better.

Well long story short: I’ve recently preordered a framework 13 amd while I honestly would have preferred a “Thinkpad black” Chassis framework just seems to have the right idea to me.

Yeah. As someone running a NAS/Jellyfin server of a SBC/USB SSD I would love to pick up an x86 sffpc too properly put everything inside but idle power and quiet aren’t easily beat.

Software support olinwouldnt really agree since x86 gives a lot more options than ARM

Smartphones have been “good enough” for a while now. Enough power and battery to do all the things needed for enough time before running out of battery.

IMHO there are 2 reasons we still regularly upgrade.

1. “Obsolescence” wether it would be perceived new hardware features or just new software not being available
2. Use/breakage (I include batteries dying in that) with no reasonable way to replace parts

I’ve had a few phones over the years some of them I “legitimately” just broke (one had a cracked mb after a bike accident) I broke my second to last phone trying to replace the battery (thought I would be able to, broke the screen). The fact that everything is glued down and made to not be replaceable irked me so much that my current phone is a Fairphone. Replacing the battery takes 1 minute and requires no tools. Replacing the screen takes like 5 min and 8 screws. I plan on using this phone for at least 5 years more if possible. But I understand not everybody can shell out 600 dollars for an “OK” phone.

So. I’ve seen the some more news video as well as the Technology Connections one. I have not see the Unlearning Economics one (but it’s going on my docket for tomorrow).

Basically the Some more News video is just a simple overview on the concept of Planned Obsolescence i.e. the idea that some things are designed/engineered in a way so they will break easier/faster than they normally would or made in such a way that a repair is not economically viable so that instead of keeping/repairing a product a customer has to buy a new regularly.

One if the most famous and oldest examples is the lightbulb cartel where lightbulb manufacturer actually had a contract that limited how long a lightbulb would live to 1000h (including penalties if the manufacturers produced longer living bulbs). Iirc Cody mentioned that one in his video as well (I will watch all 3 vida back to back tomorrow just to straighten things out here).

Now this “Phoebus” cartel as it was called is exactly what the Technology Connections video is about. However Alecs point is a different one. He is basically saying that while it was true the cartel limited the Lifetime it also meant they were producing “better” bulbs. Namely ones that would burn brighter while using the same amount of power as ones that would last longer. His second point is that lightbulbs are more or less a “spare part” i.e. they are cheap and easy to replace (usually) so if one breaks you don’t have to throw away your nightlamp or whatever it is attached to you simply replace the bulb with a cheap replacement and you’re good.

So basically the Technology Connections Videos Thesis is the Phoebus Cartell wasn’t actually planned obsolescence but a move to a better lightbulb and a bit more runtime (2.5x in his example) isn’t worth the worse light output.