test's recent activity
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Comment on There is no “Linux” platform in ~tech
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Comment on <deleted topic> in ~tech
test Link ParentIs there a way to filter out articles with a certain tag? I couldn't figure it out after trying for a couple of minutes, but that seems like it would be an effective way to solve the problem....Is there a way to filter out articles with a certain tag? I couldn't figure it out after trying for a couple of minutes, but that seems like it would be an effective way to solve the problem. Complaining about the people complaining about paywalled articles every time one is posted doesn't add anything of value either, nor does it seem to be a particularly effective policy.
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Comment on Is a meat-free diet really as healthy as vegetarians claim? in ~health
test Link ParentThat's... an odd policy. I certainly agree with posting the original work, but while you might not be required to post a version everyone can access, all 5 (6, now) comments in some way reference...That's... an odd policy. I certainly agree with posting the original work, but while you might not be required to post a version everyone can access, all 5 (6, now) comments in some way reference the inability to easily read the article, and only one of them actually respond to the content itself. What should have been a discussion about the merits of a meat-free diet is now, but didn't have to be, more a meta-discussion about Tildes and the accessibility of its content.
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Comment on Is a meat-free diet really as healthy as vegetarians claim? in ~health
test Link ParentClick the "Register" button below the article and enter an email and password. You don't need to verify the email to read the article; I used an address from 10minutemail. Not that a paywall being...Click the "Register" button below the article and enter an email and password. You don't need to verify the email to read the article; I used an address from 10minutemail.
Not that a paywall being easily bypassed is an excuse for posting an article with one, however. I don't have a problem with paywalled articles being posted; as I commented in this thread about a similar issue, I support a creator's ability to monetize their work. However, I think that an indication in the title that an article is paywalled or a non-paywalled version in the comments would be a reasonable expectation.
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Comment on Do you have a personal website/blog? in ~comp
test Link ParentA VPS is definitely the way to go if you want to host email along with your website. You could use something like GSuite, but that costs more than a VPS capable of hosting that and a website, and...A VPS is definitely the way to go if you want to host email along with your website. You could use something like GSuite, but that costs more than a VPS capable of hosting that and a website, and I'd be wary of anything that markets itself as a free solution for that sort of thing. I also strongly recommend getting your own domain, since it'll appear more professional, although if your blog is purely personal that doesn't matter as much.
Spammers find addresses by crawling the web for strings that look like an email address. My personal email is listed only once online, and it's in the format "john at doe dot com" (as opposed to "john@doe.com"). Spamassassin takes care of whatever manages to recognize that format.
There are a bunch of little things you need to do to make sure everyone knows your server is secure. I used mail-tester.com to check for issues when I set up mine. If you get a 10/10 on that, rejection won't be a problem for you.
If you can't get a VPS though, you don't need to concern yourself with spam and rejection because whatever provider you use will take care of that for you. I'd be interested in knowing what actually prevents you from getting one, because the reason probably affects the other options available to you.
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Comment on Do you have a personal website/blog? in ~comp
test LinkI own mysurname.com and use it to host all of my personal projects and a brief writeup of each of them, so kind of a blog. I also run my email on the same server with postfix so I can avoid at...I own mysurname.com and use it to host all of my personal projects and a brief writeup of each of them, so kind of a blog. I also run my email on the same server with postfix so I can avoid at least some of the surveillance associated with popular hosting sites (e.g. GMail). Just having a server online has also come in handy a number of times, so I'd definitely recommend it, although your use case is somewhat different from mine.
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Comment on [Suggestion] let's collectively use outline.com to avoid Medium's nuisances in ~tildes
test LinkI'm opposed to submitting links to rehosted content both because it strips the original creator of their right to monetize their work (which Medium does have, even if it's irritating) and because,...I'm opposed to submitting links to rehosted content both because it strips the original creator of their right to monetize their work (which Medium does have, even if it's irritating) and because, as you mentioned, a rehosted link may leave content inaccessible in the future. If a Medium article goes down, it's easy enough to plug the URL into the Wayback Machine, but Outline probably can't be (and almost certainly isn't) crawled by Archive. Worse yet, Outline's URLs are completely nondescript. Compare "https://gen.medium.com/my-9-months-on-the-road-with-fan-bingbing-chinas-biggest-movie-star-df6b7a8463b3" to "https://outline.com/S2bwAY". I could find an article about the same content on a different site by searching for terms in Medium's URL. The same is not true for the condensed version provided by Outline.
Why not just use Firefox's reading mode? -
Comment on Why CAPTCHAs have gotten so difficult in ~tech
test Link ParentSimilarly, I block all external JavaScript by default, and I find myself increasingly subject to manual Captchas and being randomly locked out of services for suspicious activity. While total...Similarly, I block all external JavaScript by default, and I find myself increasingly subject to manual Captchas and being randomly locked out of services for suspicious activity. While total surveillance [by Google] might be an effective approach, it has the potential to banish from the web anyone who disagrees with the practice. For an extreme example, try using Tor as your default browser for a while. You'll find that the modern web simply doesn't work: Google rarely allows users to even attempt a Captcha, so you'll be locked out of anything that uses Google to verify its users. I find it very likely that, in the near future, casual anonymity while browsing the clearnet will no longer be possible.
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Comment on Does anyone, or everyone, else suffer from second screen syndrome? in ~talk
test Link ParentThat's probably something worth talking to her about. If she doesn't know it annoys you, she doesn't have a reason to stop doing it. I generally don't have a problem with people using their phones...That's probably something worth talking to her about. If she doesn't know it annoys you, she doesn't have a reason to stop doing it. I generally don't have a problem with people using their phones while watching a movie with me, but given that she has to ask you about what she's missed, I can definitely see how your situation would be frustrating.
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Comment on Does anyone, or everyone, else suffer from second screen syndrome? in ~talk
test LinkI think everyone should consume their entertainment media the way they enjoy it most - that's the point, after all. It's each individual's job to determine whether doing two things at once is...I think everyone should consume their entertainment media the way they enjoy it most - that's the point, after all. It's each individual's job to determine whether doing two things at once is better or worse than concentrating entirely on one. I personally prefer to focus on one thing at a time, but that's just me. If using your phone while you watch a movie maximizes the happiness you gain, then that's absolutely what you should do. It's not a problem unless, say, you're trying to work while watching a show or whatever and the quality of the work suffers for it.
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Comment on Anyone interested in 3D printing? in ~hobbies
test Link ParentIf you don't need the 3D printer for work or a business (i.e. you want to do it as a hobby), I highly recommend building it from a kit. 3D printers are fickle machines, and more or less no matter...If you don't need the 3D printer for work or a business (i.e. you want to do it as a hobby), I highly recommend building it from a kit. 3D printers are fickle machines, and more or less no matter which one you get you'll run into problems eventually. The knowledge you gain from assembling the machine you're working on from scratch is an immeasurably useful asset for the inevitable maintenance you'll have to do. Plus they're usually cheaper.
Nice way to reduce anyone who disagrees with what you wrote to a whiny fanboy.
Isn’t it? If a (presumably) technologically inept person can make an operating system work for them without complaint, I’d call that a success. That they need someone more technologically literate to install the OS is irrelevant because that type of person wouldn’t be installing Windows or MacOS on their own either.
Can you give an example? Ubuntu’s (using it as the example here since it’s pretty much the de facto “easy Linux”) DE is straightforward enough for a beginner to navigate. Considering Windows 10’s UI (referring specifically to the systems settings menus) is a cobbled mess of new menus and reskinned inherited menus from 7 I don’t think a perfectly clean UI is even necessary for wide scale adoption. People learn to use whatever’s placed in front of them. That happens to be largely Windows. If Ubuntu came preinstalled on computers, people would use that too, despite its imperfections (which do exist – I certainly don't mean to imply the desktop Linux experience is perfect).
Not sure which distro you’re cherry-picking here, but Firefox comes pre-installed on Ubuntu. You can be surfing the web with literally a single click after the OS is installed.
Agreed, particularly the “vicious cycle” part. It’s important to note, though, that the community of Linux users is great at finding workarounds to make products work on Linux even when hardware and software companies don’t natively support them (see Wine, nouveau, CUPS). Those workarounds generally require a higher degree of technical literacy to use than would be possessed by a standard user, though, which probably contributes to the perception that Linux can only be used by tech enthusiasts. You say you see excuses that “ultimately argue that this isn't Linux' job or any specific distro's job”, but that’s not quite correct: it’s not that it’s not Linux’s responsibility to fix those issues; rather, that it’s not something Linux can do at all. For example, consider TiLP, software written to communicate with Texas Instruments graphing calculators. It replaces the TI link software available for Windows and MacOS. TiLP is honestly pretty bad at managing files on the TI-Nspire line of calculators. It can’t display nested folders in the filesystem (so files can only be transferred to/from the root directory) and it’s also somewhat slower than the official software. The TiLP developers have no way of fixing those issues, though, because the protocol through which the calculator communicates with the computer is proprietary and undocumented. TI could easily fix the issues by releasing either the protocol documentation or the official link software for Linux, but they do neither, because… well, who knows? They just don’t.
On the more positive end of things, Brother releases Linux drivers for their printers which could hardly be easier for users to install, so it’s clearly possible for manufacturers to make their products work for users without forcing people to write obtuse technical workarounds. It’s in consumers’ best interests for manufacturers to use open protocols in their products (even consumers who don’t use Linux), so the solution is really to start holding manufacturers to higher standards.