LooseMarmoset

exactly. “ we have altered the deal. Pray that we don’t alter it further.”

“as long as it stays local”

i think we both know how that will go.

first, Microsoft will exfiltrate data for the purposes of performance and analytics, in scare quotes.

Next, they’ll do it in order to train copilot, in an unannounced update, and tell us this is a wonderful new feature.

Finally, they’ll bundle this data that they said would always remain local, and offer it for sale as training data, which government users will then buy, for obvious reasons. this will be done in the name of safety, and for the children.

Who, exactly, is clamoring for Recall in the first place?

And who is to say that Microsoft will honor the toggle, “for analytic and performance metric” purposes?

EDIT: the rant above shouldn’t cast aspersions on Brave, good on them for trying.

This is literally not true by scripture; Abraham was very rich, and is considered righteous because of his faith. He did not withhold even his own son from God. Money did not own Abraham's faith.

Job refused to curse or condemn God even when he lost most of his family and all of his holdings - his friends tried to tell him that because he lost his riches, he had obviously sinned, but he refused this. He gained back the things he lost, because of his faith in God.

Job 1:20-22

20 Then Job stood up, tore his robe, shaved his head, fell to the ground, bowed very low, 21 and exclaimed:

“I left my mother’s womb naked, and I will return to God naked. The Lord has given, and the Lord has taken. May the name of the Lord be blessed.”

22 Job neither sinned nor charged God with wrongdoing in all of this.

In those times, rich people were considered blessed by God, poor people or those afflicted with disease were considered cursed by God. People afflicted from birth were said to have been "born in sin" due to the sins of their parents.

The Pharisees and Sadducees were wealthly, influential people who preached exactly this. The Sadducees in particular didn't believe in an afterlife, and so were focused on only the "here and now" and material things of this world. Jesus specifically called them out to let them know their wealth wouldn't get them into heaven, and their success was not a sign of righteousness.

Jesus distinctly preached that money could not buy salvation, and that those whose focus was on money could not focus on God, and would therefore be condemned. He explicitly called out Zaccheus, a tax collector, when Zaccheus promised to repay any money he'd taken in bad faith four times over and to give away half of what he owned to the poor:

Luke 19:9-10: 9 Jesus said to him,"Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost."

Zaccheus probably had a lot of money left even when he was done, but the point is that money was no longer the priority in his life.

God may choose to bless people with prosperity, but your wallet doesn't make you righteous. It doesn't make you unrighteous either - your actions and your faith, or lack thereof condemn you. The whole of the Law is:

Matthew 22:34-40

34 When the Pharisees learned that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, 35 and, to test him, one of them, a lawyer, asked this question, 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

37 Jesus said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the greatest and the first commandment. 39 The second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 Everything in the Law and the Prophets depends on these two commandments.”

As a knife-maker, may I request 80CRV, 1084, and 1075? They're very commonly-used steel grades in knives.

Also, 440 has a number of grades.

Cool tool!

EDIT: It might also be interesting to point out the manganese levels, and whether the steel is a deep- or shallow-hardening steel. Those factors help indicate whether the steel will form a hamon or not.

allocated == money handed out

in accounting rules, it's spent money. the notes say that 61 ports have been built from that allocated money.

like I said, I would love to see the cost breakdown. is all that allocated money spent? are some projects still being constructed? three years seems like a long time to get 61 ports when you allocated $2B.

Yes, that is a neat trick.

> As of July 2024, eight states had opened their first NEVI-funded stations, totaling 61 ports, and powered thousands of charging sessions.

As of FY 2024, $2.385 billion had been allocated from the funding. For 61 ports across 4 (four) charging locations. $39M PER PORT.

This, per NEVI's own numbers: https://driveelectric.gov/files/nevi-annual-report-2023-2024...

I would sure like to see a breakdown in how that 2.3B was spent.

Everything you're describing here is literally true of Windows.

How many desktop PCs aren't certified to run Windows 11? Can you hack it and make it run with esoteric commands and dubious registry edits? Sure, but then you're in the same spot Linux users are.

How much hardware do people throw away because manufacturers don't write updated drivers anymore? Right, you're back in the just about everything works but situation again, except in Windows.

The only real difference between Linux and Windows is that new hardware is better-supported in Windows, and comes with a shelf life, and older hardware is better-supported in Linux with a shelf life that Microsoft can't touch.

When you add in and then Windows includes telemetry and data mining that Microsoft won't allow you to turn off and won't tell you what is included I can't see why anyone would want Windows.

> These are specific scenarios with specific hardware optimized for each use case. Desktop Linux encompasses the sheer amount of available PCs and laptops that one might install it on, and there is a miles long list of “just about everything works except $x thing” articles.

> This is and has been the thorn in Desktop Linux's side for the last ~20 years.

The Steam Deck literally does not have these problems. It's the the Linux Desktop, perfected!

The Steam Deck literally has a desktop mode, and you can connect a keyboard, mouse, and monitor to it, and play games that way. Both my son and I play games using this method. The Steam dock was designed to allow users to take advantage of this mode, among other things.

You can install regular Linux applications in Desktop mode, including Libreoffice and Firefox.

It's probably fair to say the majority of users don't do this, but it's a completely accessible, usable, and supported Linux desktop. So, yes, the Steam deck is a Linux desktop.

Even gaming mode is a usable "Desktop" environment, usable with a virtual or actual keyboard, touchpad or regular mouse.

You can even install SteamOS on a regular PC! You might have to tweak it a bit to get your particular hardware supported, but you'll end up with...a Steam Linux desktop.

1: I just don't see who these articles are written for. Linux is on the desktop, it's called Steam Deck, and millions are are using it. So, the author is wrong here in the spirit of the question, and the truth of the question.

2: The statement "Linux developers spend very little to no time checking that their code changes don't cause regressions or breakages" cannot be applied to all or possibly most developers. What packages is TFA talking about here? Maybe TFA means "Denuvo developers spend very little time checking that their code changes don't cause rootkits or kernel exploits - in Windows."

3: "Lack of general software" - TFA seems to be arguing that because software is not specifically compiled for Linux, it is therefore not "available", which is laughably false. My entire Steam library works just fine on the Steam Deck and in Debian. In fact, many of those games run on Steam/Proton when they could not be made to run on modern versions of Windows.

4: "Poor file and folder sharing" - I don't think TFA has ever tried Samba in an all-Linux environment, but I will grant that permissions across machines can be tricky. You know, like sharing folders between Windows XP, 7, 10, and 11.

5: "Lack of funding on the desktop" - Listen, I don't think IBM/RedHat are underfunded. I don't prefer Gnome Desktop, but it's perfectly functional, and funding doesn't seem to be an issue there. Maybe we should ask Canonical if they've ever funded desktop work.

6: "Hardware support and compatibility" - Listen, I'm using an HP 1012 laser printer. Microsoft stopped writing drivers for this perfectly usable printer in Windows 8. I'm using a modern GPU (Radeon 6700XT) that has drivers built right into the kernel. I'm using a scanner that was new when Windows 2000 was new, and I can tell you, it won't work in Windows anymore but it will for sure work in Linux. Once again, TFA does not give examples.

7: Ok, I'll give him this one. You can pay for commercial support for Linux if you want it, though! Canonical and Redhat would love to have your money.

Summing up, it seems like this guy is just complaining that Linux isn't a commercially-supported O/S, except it is, if you pay for it. Maybe he means "Linux isn't Windows." So, his entire premise is wrong, and trolly. And speaking of trolls, you'll see TFA's name in the ars forum if you search, and I'll give you two guesses what his posts there look like.

You know, I am way past the submit date on this, but I just discovered KDE Connect today. I'm using it to share stuff between iOS and my non-KDE desktop, and I had to plug it. It's wonderful!

That is all!

The Linux desktop is pretty great, for the most part.

I would say that in addition to a usable desktop, Linux distributions generally also provide a more stable Windows environment than Windows itself does. I have quite a suite of games in Steam and GoG, and I find that many older games that simply cannot be coaxed into running on Windows can be made to run happily on one version of Wine/Proton or another.

There are still some weak areas in desktop Linux if you're running a desktop that isn't Gnome or Plasma - wifi configuration comes to mind immediately, as does sound configuration. Bluetooth can be picky if you don't know to get all the non-free firmware.

But really, we're living in a dream era of Linux desktops, if you happen to have lived through the early days of `startx` and XFree86. Hands up if you ever smoked a monitor coil with a bad X config file...

You can see the landing arms adjusting in the video as well.

His choice of stainless steel is panning out well here - I doubt if aluminum or composite body structure would hold up as well to the "grab" forces from even minor misalignment. A composite structure would likely be entirely compromised by a big scrape.

It would be interesting to see a test where the landing speeds were deliberately too high - how much deceleration can the arms handle safely?

I think the chopstick mechanism is probably the best possible catch mechanism for such a tall object. The booster will be suspended from the top, which means the booster isn't subject to tipover as it would be if landing legs were involved. We've already seen this many times in the Falcon 9 booster series.

I can't see chopsticks ever working from a droneship, though - too much induced rotation for chopsticks to compensate.

As an alternative to chopsticks, a catch 'sleeve' might be possible, though it would magnify alignment errors considerably.

“but its just an init system, you don’t have to use these pieces!“

/s

Here’s a vote for Devuan - you don’t have to accept systemD if you don’t want to. I didn’t.

it's a fair question - I tried using all three sets of tips. I settled on the smallest size, but even they won't stay in. I find myself wishing they were a little longer.

got a link?

I have a set of the Pro 2s. The noise cancellation and adaptive listening is really great, but the damn things will not stay in my ears no matter what tip I use or how I orient the things in my ear.

Talking, chewing gum, and even just leaning my head back is enough to make the things fall out.

I really wanted to like these things as I have terrible hearing, and the assistive hearing on these is already pretty nice, but they don't do me any good if they won't stay in my ears.

I haven't had this issue with any other earbud I've ever owned.

Do yourself a favor and try a pair out first before you buy, if you can.

EDIT: I am very open to specific recommendations on 3rd-party eartips for these things.

So many good sites gone, or unrecognizable due to clickbait or outrage news. In particular:

Anandtech Tech Report HardOCP Ars Technica (Eric Berger is the lone holdout here) Slashdot

the list goes on. I'm glad at least that Anand went out as he went in. Thanks for all the years, Anand!

it honestly astounds me that people did not recognize Biden’s cognitive decline in the 2020 debates. it was obvious then, and it was obvious a month ago when all the news outlets were boldly proclaiming that Biden was fully fit for duty.

I discovered this when I was playing around with i3wm a few years ago. It's a really nice piece of software that does what you need it to do, and it stays out of your way otherwise. I mostly use it for screenshots, but it can edit and annotate, and pin images.

I have always assumed that /tmp means "temporary". I mean, it's right there in the name. So, a move to tmpfs means "automatic cleanup" to me, which seems just fine, and worth doing for that.

If we're doing because the systemd maintainers say "we have to do it because systemd", though, well...

How long till the systemd guys make package dependencies and installation as a service? You know, sponsored by the IBM/Redhat team, and signed by Microsoft?

signed,

a Devuan devotee

so, installing random software from random repositories equals fragility? that doesn't seem specific to apt at all. however the article is written Fedora-specific, so maybe people don't like to point out that dnf/yum is susceptible to the same problem. In fact, the article doesn't even try to call out apt, or fragility.

There is a use case for immutable distributions, just as there is one for those distributions which are not immutable.

It is dishonest to attribute fragility as a basic flaw in apt, when system fragility is a consequence of ignorance.

Can you explain what you mean by:

"the fragility that can happen when the default way to use software in Linux is `sudo apt-get install`"

I'm not running Wayland, so I can't answer questions on that. Also, you have the 7900, and I imagine the drivers for that are pretty new. You'll want a fairly recent kernel (6.1+) You might want to look for updated AMD firmware on kernel.org - do a "grep -i firmware /var/log/messages" or syslog or whatever Fedora is using now. The output of "dmesg" probably also contains some clues. feel free to post back here if you find stuff.

a limited anecdote for you:

I played a lot of War Thunder on Devuan (Debian minus systemd) through Steam.

Up till last year, I owned an nVidia 1080Ti. Performance in Linux was quite good, but I had crash after crash in War Thunder - Gaijin blamed nVidia for the bug, nVidia blamed Gaijin. End result was it remains crashy. Closed-source, so nobody who really cares can look. The crashes were so frustrating I decided to go AMD. nVidia driver updates are sometimes a crapshoot, most times it works fine, but every now and again the update results in a broken Xorg which is a PITA to fix, heaven help you if you get a mix of the nouveau and the official drivers.

Last year, I bought an AMD 6700XT as the prices dropped. I chose the 6700XT as it seemed like the best performance at the lowest power/cooling requirement.

Gaming has been flawless with just the in-kernel drivers using RADV. No addon software stack required, "it just works". I play a lot of games using Proton/Steam, so if issues were going to pop up, it would be there. I had some initial confusion as I thought I'd need to download the drivers from AMD, but as it turns out everything works great in kernel 6.x automatically provided you have the non-free firmware packages installed.

I can tell you that I was diagnosed with low vitamin D, and was prescribed high doses to bring up my levels.

This resulted in multiple bouts of kidney stones, which I can wholeheartedly not recommend.

I don't take vitamin D supplements anymore.

To my knowledge, this is not trivial (maybe not even possible now). there are simply too many packages that now define systemd as a requirement, like udev, dbus, etc.

If you want a systemd-free Debian, then Devuan is your go-to.

Glad I could help! Proton is awesome.

For non-Steam games, I do the same thing, either with Steam (by adding a non-steam game installer, and using proton to install it), or by using Lutris (https://lutris.net/). I generally use Lutris with my GoG library.

I used to feel like this, but then ran into games like S.H.O.G.O:MAD and Terminus, and The Bard's Tale - those have native Linux ports, and they're pretty much un-playable these days. Using Proton, I can run even problematic old games like Dark Messiah of Might and Magic (that won't even run on Windows anymore!).

I feel like insisting on Linux native ports is letting perfect be the enemy of the good, and that native ports don't necessarily guarantee anything at all.

I certainly do appreciate developers who can provide native ports, though. In the end, I just want to relax and shoot alien space nazis in the face, and not think about how to get the alien space nazis to run on my machine.

If you go into a game's properties in Steam (the little gear icon), and and then choose "Compatibility" from the resulting window, you can choose a version of Proton to run the game, usually the latest stable is good, sometimes you have to play around to find a good version.

Once you've chosen a Proton version, the option to "Install" will be available in your game menu.

I gave up on Windows a couple years ago, and most Steam games run in Linux using Proton through Steam. Some modern titles with fancy DRM don't work, but I generally don't buy those anyway (Denuvo, certain anticheats, etc).