mftrhu's recent activity
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Comment on Low-end Linux tablet recommendations in ~tech
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Comment on What's something that makes you feel like we're living in the future? in ~talk
mftrhu LinkI purchased a cheap smart ring for €12. It is as large as a few other rings I own, but inside? It has a microprocessor, a battery which lasts multiple days, an antenna for Bluetooth transmission,...I purchased a cheap smart ring for €12. It is as large as a few other rings I own, but inside? It has a microprocessor, a battery which lasts multiple days, an antenna for Bluetooth transmission, an accelerometer, heart rate sensor, and SpO2 sensor.
I take most of these things for granted nowadays, but when I stop to think about it? I still remember the late nineties. I remember how basically every single function someone managed to pack into this thing was fulfilled by a separate device, and how difficult it was to connect them (if it even was possible in the first place). I remember how bad alkalines were, and the fiddleness of NiCads.
Smartphones, modern computers don't really wow me, since they still do most of what they did thirty years ago - if less efficiently and with a shinier interface - but this thing? This thing is a marvel, and it's nearly the cheapest, bottom-of-the-barrel device of its type you can find.
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Comment on How often do you replace your phone? in ~tech
mftrhu LinkMy main phone - and the last I bought new - is a Poco X3 NFC, which I purchased back in December 2020. I had its battery replaced twice since, and I have made no plans to replace it yet. I did...My main phone - and the last I bought new - is a Poco X3 NFC, which I purchased back in December 2020. I had its battery replaced twice since, and I have made no plans to replace it yet.
I did purchase another two phones since then, though: a used Poco F1, which I got to experiment with PostmarketOS - and which is tentatively being phased in as my secondary phone - and a refurbished Redmi 5 Plus, which I keep on hand as a backup phone with stock OS.
I don't care about camera quality, since I rarely take photos. I am not much of a brand loyalist, despite being all-in on Xiaomi stuff right now, but I look for inexpensive devices with a bootloader I can unlock and which are supported by LineageOS at the very least (on top of the usual µSD slot + 3.5 mm audio jack), and Xiaomi has been pretty good for that.
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Comment on <deleted topic> in ~books
mftrhu LinkDiscworld: accept no substitutes. Whether it's the antics of Nanny Ogg, Dᴇᴀᴛʜ passionately arguing in defense of life, or the only cop who isn't (completely) a barstud, it has something for every...Discworld: accept no substitutes. Whether it's the antics of Nanny Ogg, Dᴇᴀᴛʜ passionately arguing in defense of life, or the only cop who isn't (completely) a barstud, it has something for every mood.
GNU STP
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Comment on Webcomics recommendations in ~comics
mftrhu LinkFreefall has been getting three updates a week since 1998, following the antics of an unlikely starship captain, his robot friend slash sidekick, and an uplifted wolf engineer who plays the...Freefall has been getting three updates a week since 1998, following the antics of an unlikely starship captain, his robot friend slash sidekick, and an uplifted wolf engineer who plays the straight (wo)man to the other two.
Girl Genius has been going on since 2002, following a cast of Sparks - mad scientists - in a steampunk-ish alternate universe, with Agatha Heterodyne being the main character and the eponymous Girl Genius.
The Order of the Sticks started one year later, in 2003, albeit without a set schedule for upgrades. It follows the shenanigans of group of adventurers in a world which follows the rules of D&D 3.5, and who don't really believe in things like a fourth wall.
Gunnerkrigg Court started in 2005 and has been seeing three gorgeous updates a week ever since (yes, the art gets much better). It starts out in a school, which sees magic and high technology intersect and sometimes collide, following the story of Antimony Carver.
Kill Six Billion Demons has not been updated nearly as regularly, but it's something which needs to be experienced. It follows Allison, a sorority girl who is given a key of kings, and thus thrust between the most powerful people of the universe.
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Comment on Is Emacs or VIM worth learning in today's day and age? in ~comp
mftrhu LinkYes. Most of the comments in this thread seem to be focusing on Vi/Vim, saying things like "it's not the editor, it's the keybindings" - and yes, most editors can emulate the Vi keybindings, but...Yes.
Most of the comments in this thread seem to be focusing on Vi/Vim, saying things like "it's not the editor, it's the keybindings" - and yes, most editors can emulate the Vi keybindings, but this doesn't apply to Emacs.
It's default keybindings are less than optimal. You can get used to them, but the real beauty of Emacs is the fact you can modify pretty much everything: it's not an editor, as much as a LISP environment which happens to include an editor, which you can reprogram on the fly to do pretty much anything you can imagine.
Even if you don't like LISP - there's no accounting for taste - it still has a pretty decent amount of third-party packages which you can use to e.g. read the news, browse gopher and Gemini, chat on Telegram, and poke around OpenStreetMap. You can bookmark and link to the resources exposed by these packages, which means you hardly ever need to leave Emacs.
It's not for everyone, but give it a whirl - if it clicks, you'll understand what I meant by "beauty of Emacs".
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Comment on Hilary Cass' NHS report is rife with debunked theories and falsehoods in ~lgbt
mftrhu LinkYou don't even have to dig particularly deep to find data being used to mislead: at page 24, they present a graph of the sex ratio of adolescents being referred to GIDS between 2009 and 2016,...You don't even have to dig particularly deep to find data being used to mislead: at page 24, they present a graph of the sex ratio of adolescents being referred to GIDS between 2009 and 2016, where they took care to point out the "exponential rise" starting in 2014.
While I am sure they had good reasons for stopping at 2016 - maybe no-one of them could figure out how to make a graph of their own, and they just had to recycle the one they found in de Graaf et al's 2018 paper - the GIDS website's data goes up to 2022 - or, at least, it used to before it was shuttered - and their curve doesn't look like much of an exponential after 2016.
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Comment on What was your first computer game? (Soundcheck question 2023) in ~games
mftrhu LinkThe first game I can remember playing was Pacman, on a monochrome Olivetti M20 belonging to my parents. I moved to MUDs in the early 2000s, but aside from that, the game I played the most was...The first game I can remember playing was Pacman, on a monochrome Olivetti M20 belonging to my parents. I moved to MUDs in the early 2000s, but aside from that, the game I played the most was probably Stronghold Crusader, which I received as a gift around the same time.
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Comment on How do you journal? in ~talk
mftrhu LinkI live in Emacs, and use org-mode for most of my notes, which include my journal. I create a new file every day under ~/doc/journal/YYYY/MM/YYYY-MM-DD with a function I bound to C-z j, and write...I live in Emacs, and use org-mode for most of my notes, which include my journal. I create a new file every day under
~/doc/journal/YYYY/MM/YYYY-MM-DDwith a function I bound to C-z j, and write anything I think I might want to keep a note of during the day, adding a new header with a timestamp every time I bring it up.I usually start with jotting down how I feel after waking up, if my sleep was OK, and if I remember any dreams. I use my journal to brainstorm what to do during the rest of the day, to note what I did and when I did it, the people I spoke with and what was said during our conversation, the minutes of any meetings I participate to, things I learned, what problems I encountered and what steps I took to fix them - together with their rationale - and often embed code snippets and execute them straight from org.
I pretty much always have my laptop on hand, so I throw everything in there throughout the day. Some of it gets pulled out to its own file - I maintain a personal wiki which tries to be better organized, and have more than a few agenda files I scrupulously maintain - but I usually rely on searching to find old notes.
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Comment on Did you feel ready to have kids? in ~talk
mftrhu Link ParentOn the other hand, the only reasons I see for people to have kids - to bring new life into existence, betting that the suffering they will experience won't outweigh the good - revolve around...To be honest, most of the reasons I see for people not to have kids revolve around selfishness and I get that - it's NOT an easy decision to make.
On the other hand, the only reasons I see for people to have kids - to bring new life into existence, betting that the suffering they will experience won't outweigh the good - revolve around selfishness, whether it is to propagate their genes, to have someone that can care for them in their old age, or to create a mini-me so they can "experience the joy of parenthood".
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Comment on Ten things kids don’t know how to do (and five things they know how to do better) in ~life
mftrhu Link ParentBlocked from accessing system settings on shared machines, yes. Being actively told to not mess around in menus, definitely not where I can see it. Menus keep on getting replaced with simplified...Blocked from accessing system settings on shared machines, yes. Being actively told to not mess around in menus, definitely not where I can see it.
Menus keep on getting replaced with simplified user interfaces, too, which is part of the problem.
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Comment on Ten things kids don’t know how to do (and five things they know how to do better) in ~life
mftrhu Link ParentQuite. I teach programming and networks in high school, to people aged 15 to 19, and - for the vast majority of them - "using technology" boils down to searching for and installing apps/extensions...Quite. I teach programming and networks in high school, to people aged 15 to 19, and - for the vast majority of them - "using technology" boils down to searching for and installing apps/extensions from a store. As soon as any kind of error message pops up, their brain seems to shut down - they don't even try to read what it says.
Hell, a lot of them struggle with the concept of file, and we explicitly teach it.
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Comment on Bruce Lee feared the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times. What would be your one kick? in ~talk
mftrhu Link ParentI keep on busting them out when there's editing to do at work, and people look at me like I'm a witch. Also take a (second, third, nth) look at awk, find, xargs, xml2, and the coreutils...I keep on busting them out when there's editing to do at work, and people look at me like I'm a witch.
Also take a (second, third, nth) look at awk, find, xargs, xml2, and the coreutils documentation - they can be ridiculously effective when used together, and xml2/html2 - almost disappeared from the web, but still in Debian's repos - enable you to do web scraping right from the shell.
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Comment on Bruce Lee feared the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times. What would be your one kick? in ~talk
mftrhu LinkI know regular expressions. I could shove a person into a pipe and get only their pancreas out of the other end.I know regular expressions. I could shove a person into a pipe and get only their pancreas out of the other end.
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Comment on Turning my Framework laptop into a tiny desktop was fun. Now it needs a job. in ~tech
mftrhu Link ParentRefurbishing batteries is called re-celling - only a few of the cells usually go bad inside a laptop battery, and you can replace them if they use a standard size - but I don't think a lot of...Refurbishing batteries is called re-celling - only a few of the cells usually go bad inside a laptop battery, and you can replace them if they use a standard size - but I don't think a lot of people would be willing to shoulder the liability of doing that.
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Comment on Favorite "chow" meal? in ~food
mftrhu LinkWhen I want to achieve that, I usually just scramble an egg into instant ramen. If I'm feeling fancy, I'll poach another egg to the side."I want a cooked meal, but I don't want to spend any time on it."
When I want to achieve that, I usually just scramble an egg into instant ramen. If I'm feeling fancy, I'll poach another egg to the side.
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Comment on Starter tool set for someone starting out in ~life.home_improvement
mftrhu LinkDon't get just any random flashlight. The cheap ones you usually find in stores run on AA/AAA batteries and have the most awful LEDs, producing harsh, almost blue light for not very long at all....small flashlight
Don't get just any random flashlight. The cheap ones you usually find in stores run on AA/AAA batteries and have the most awful LEDs, producing harsh, almost blue light for not very long at all.
Look for something with a decent LED that takes rechargeable batteries in a standard size (e.g., 14500, 18650, 21700*), better if with an integrated charging circuit: they will put out much more light, of better quality†, for far longer than any number of AAs.
The usual suggestion would be to get a Wurkkos FC11 @ 5000K, which should cost around $20 with an 18650 battery. It isn't the best - a headlamp/right-angle light might be better here - but it'll certainly do the job.
* LiIon cylindrical cells usually are identified by a string of five digits: the first two refer to the diameter of the cell, in mm, while the last three refer to its length in tenths of mm. A 14500 will thus be 14 mm wide by 50 mm long, and be as big as a normal AA battery.
† The main thing here is CRI, the Color Rendering Index, which measures how accurately colours will be rendered relative to a black body source at the same color temperature. Incandescent lights have a CRI of 100; fluorescent lights sit in the 50-85 range, and LEDs start about at 85. Anything with a 90+ CRI at 5000K - the color temperature of sunlight in the afternoon - is OK for most uses. -
Comment on What consumeristic and somewhat pointless hobby do you have? in ~hobbies
mftrhu Link ParentIt depends on how fancy you want it to be, because the prices can go as high as you want them to be. If you don't want a torch which was forged out of star metal by the moonlight, though - if you...It depends on how fancy you want it to be, because the prices can go as high as you want them to be.
If you don't want a torch which was forged out of star metal by the moonlight, though - if you don't care about hand-machined pieces - you can get most of them in the $15-$50 range, depending on which kind of battery they take, on whether they come as a kit with the battery, on their LEDs, driver, and the material they are made out of.
The Wurkkos FC11 is a pretty solid light, putting out 1300 lumen, and coming in at $26 for a light + 18650 battery kit. The Wurkkos TS10 comes in brass, costs about the same, and can put out as much light - for a much shorter period of time - with a 14500 battery and a smaller footprint, while the Convoy T2 is a bit bigger, much less fancier, and ~$15.
On the other end of things, you got things like the Convoy L7 or the Sofirn Q8 Pro, which come in at $100, or even the Acebeam X50, which goes for nearly $400.
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Comment on Any ThinkPad enthusiasts here? in ~tech
mftrhu LinkUnfortunately, yes. I have way too many of those things around. Right now, I'm daily driving an X230 with an i5-3380M, maxed out RAM - 16 GB - and a 2 TB SATA SSD. I want to flash Libreboot to it...Unfortunately, yes. I have way too many of those things around.
Right now, I'm daily driving an X230 with an i5-3380M, maxed out RAM - 16 GB - and a 2 TB SATA SSD. I want to flash Libreboot to it and swap in an X220 keyboard, but it'd be almost cheaper to get a whole new X220 - which would also give me the palmrest and a few other spare parts - and I am somewhat reluctant to add yet another laptop to my collection.
I also have an X201 which I'm thinking of ditching. The machine itself works perfectly well, but I can't seem to be able to find a battery that would work with it. Two out of the two Greencell batteries I tried died as soon as I looked away: I don't know if it's due to the cells' self-discharge - even the third-party replacements must be getting long in the tooth now - or if there is something wrong with the laptop itself, but I don't think I want to spend another €30-40 to figure it out.
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Comment on What are the summer activities you are looking forward to? in ~health
mftrhu LinkCounting down 'till the winter solstice, as I lie wide-awake in bed, soaking in sweat, staring balefully at the first rays of sunlight making their way into my bedroom at five in the morning,...Counting down 'till the winter solstice, as I lie wide-awake in bed, soaking in sweat, staring balefully at the first rays of sunlight making their way into my bedroom at five in the morning, while thinking that - all things considered - the White Witch had a point.
I might deign to give scratchies to the kittens, when provided with ample shadow and a brisk breeze, but otherwise? Summer is too hot for me to get active, and too bright for me to consider doing so outdoors.
I got a used Microsoft Surface Go 2 for the same reason last year, and I haven't regretted it: 10" is IMO the perfect size for a tablet, the keyboard is, if not on par with that of my usual Thinkpad, at least usable, the m3-8100Y is dated but perfectly serviceable, and battery life on my unit should reach at least eight hours.
Debian works out of the box on it, and everything I cared to check on is supported, without even having to fuss with surface-linux.