monsieur_jean

Same. i3wm first, or XFCE for a “real” DE.

I am currently running a debloated i3wm rig based on EndeavourOS/Arch and I really enjoy the low mental load of a truly minimal desktop. Only luxury I’ve allowed myself is CLI colors. I’m not ready for B&W yet.

Speaking of thwarting piracy, how about Japan stops slaughtering whales and respecting the treaties they have signed first?

But has Tibet reached a comprehensive agreement with China though?

The 90s are calling, they want their UX back.

mindustry. I’ve kinda quit playing games. But still play mindustry on my ipad. :)

It’s quite good actually. Got into one last week in Thailand (during a Grab ride) and I was quite surprised by the quality/finish. It’s on par with all the cheap city cars we have in Europe : Not high-end, basic but not badly made. Enjoyed the USB-C chargers for passengers in the back :P

But unavailable in many countries (especially developping ones).

Windev and Wlanguage (French).

Look up your printer model number on Alibaba. Or better yet, on Taobao (but if you don’t speak Chinese it’s a bit complicated). Your options depending on the printer you have are going to be :

• Print heads conversion kits (a replacement of the complete print heads module with tubes feed from ink bottles attached outside your printer)
• Refillable ink cartridges
• Counterfeited Compatible ink cartridges that cost a fraction of the official ones while having 10 times more ink in them.

Now depending on where you live and the local laws it may or may not be legal to import those. In the country I live in there is no law against it. In most South East Asia the law doesn’t care about that and if it does, law enforcement doesn’t. :)

Since I’ve moved in South East Asia, I have discovered that:

• Almost every single printer that exists has a conversion kit available on Taobao to use big ink bottles
• There’s not a single firmware that hasn’t been hacked, nor a single part that hasn’t been cloned
• Therefore, most printer manufacturers have a specific line of durable products that allows the use of third party ink because if they don’t, other people will bank of their product maintenance and they won’t sell much.

The only reason we in developped country get scammed like we are, is because of IP laws and governments that allow manufacturers to abuse them with no consequences at the expense of the customers (and the planet).

It’s almost 2024 and we still don’t have any significant open source project for cloud storage privacy.

Well not that many, let me think…

• One stainless steel pan
• A grill and/or carbon steel pan
• One large pot for boiling pasta and big stuff
• One medium pot
• One small pot for sauces
• One pressure cooker
• One dutch oven (or two)
• A collection of non-stick pans in various conditions

I mean we’re looking at what, only 8 or 10 cooking vessels, that’s not a lot is it?

Depends on the type of drives and your needs.

If the drive is big enough to be used as storage/back, get it out and in its own USB enclosure.

If the drive is either too small or you have too may already then :

• SSD : smash it to pieces with a hammer
• HDD : if you’re sure it’s not an hybrid (in which case the SSD process applies) then you can just fill it with garbage or use whatever “erasing” software out there. I would go for an open-source one.

That’s a great setup. Until someone breaks in and steal all the hardware, of the house burns down.

I would add regular backups from the NAS to an archiving cloud like Backblaze, Amazon Glacier, Azure Archive… Doesn’t eat too much bandwidth and it cost very little (until you need to recover the data, but hopefully you won’t). :)

You’re a senior CS person and you are asking if you should have a backup system in place? o_O

Sorry if this sounds like a personal attack but it’s something you should have though of a long, long time ago, as a CS person. Even when still using Windows.

Assuming you are serious, then yes there are ways to save your data under Linux, with different levels of complexity and privacy.

The bare minimum is some basic cloud backup. Not ideal for privacy, but at least if your drive dies you won’t lose your files.

Local backup in the form of a NAS or home server is also an option, and allows different systems (Windows, Mac, Linux) to save a copy of their files. Way better from a privacy perspective if setup properly BUT your are one fire or one burglary away from losing everything.

If you want to reconcile privacy AND safe storage then to me there are a few options :

• End to end encrypted cloud storage if you trust the third party (Proton drive, Tresorit, etc)
• End to end encrypted cloud storage that you control (requires very high skills and a lot of work and money. And a lot of maintenance)
• Local network storage (NAS/homeserver) with an encrypted backup regularly sent to the cloud
• Hybrid end-to-end encrypted cloud using a non encrypted cloud solution (like Google Drive) with Cryptomator or equivalent (if you trust them).

So many options, depending on your sensibility to privacy and your technical knowledge. You can also mix. For example most of my personal files are hosted on Microsoft OneCloud because it’s stable and fast enough. I mean almost my entire home folder (excluding configuration) is replicated there. But some of the sensitive files, mostly scans of official documents like tax returns, healthcare receipts, etc, are end to end encrypted using Cryptomator. Also my passwords are saved in an shared encrypted Keepass database. And all my drives are encrypted (with LUKS) including my external drives.

Anybody who has dug that topic long enough knows that total privacy and total security are a myth. It simple doesn’t exist. You need to find the balance between privacy, security and practicality that suits you. If you are paranoid, then getting to a reasonable level of all three is going to be a LOT of work and money. If you are just cautious, and are willing to trust reputable third parties, then it’s quite possible to have a working solution without spending too much time and money. And the very bare minimum is to chose between a backup with little privacy, or more privacy with the acceptance that you may lose everything.

It’s ok, let the Bahamas and the Isle of Man handle this.

Agreed. And that’s exactly why I say I don’t know what the answer is. It’s really a tough subject that goes way further than just sexism. It’s really the eternal question of balancing freedoms amongst individuals with conflicting objectives.

We French have a saying : One’s freedom stops where others’ begin. It’s not absolute, there are limits to it. I wish to see something similar being agreed upon in the Fediverse, instead of the American-style libertarianism that’s pushed in some circles of the Internet. But is this realistic? :)

I’m not saying it’s not the job of admin men to tackle this issue, it very much is. What I’m saying is I don’t feel they’re good at it, and I don’t believe they will bring the most significant contribution at this level.

In my experience of moderator, sexism in online communities is a typical case of oppression dynamics. Small group of diverse people grows, some new people come in with oppressive opinions that are initially tolerated in the name of free speech. Oppressed group initially reacts, then as those opinions turn into hate speech gradually withdraw themselves. Next thing you know, the diversity is gone and you’re left with a toxic community.

Key to keeping a sane community in my opinion is to react swiftly when sexist opinions are voiced, and to scarify some of the freedom of speech to prevent the hate from settling in. And from what I’ve witnessed in many communities I’ve been part of, countless subreddits I’ve been lurking around, men are just not very good at that. I’m not saying all men, I’m not saying this means they shouldn’t do anything. I’ve been there and I’ve tried my best. I’m sure most male admins and moderators are acting in good faith. But I also feel like the general state of the internet shows that’s not enough. Again : the few communities I engage in where sexism is almost non existent are moderated by women.

Am I wrong? Quite possibly, I believe I’ve been on the internet long enough to make an informed opinion, but I’m also not that bright so… :D

I’m a male who has been managing online communities for more than two decades. I’m not sure what the answer to this issue is. But I’m quite sure it can’t come from men… :D

I’d say, we need women admins of fediverse instances, and more female moderators. The only communities I’m part of that see little to no sexism have one thing in common : they are mostly run by women.

Everything you say is what past me would have answered ten years ago, thinking current me is an idiot. Yet here we are. ;)

You are right and make good points. But you are not 99% of computer users. Just considering installing a linux distro puts you in the top 1% most competent.

(Speaking of which, I still have a laptop running EndeavourOS + i3. Three months in my system is half broken because of infrequent updates. I could fix it, I just don’t have the motivation to do so. Or the time. I’ll probably just reinstall Mint.)