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    1. Is trying to become an author insane in times of LLMs?

      A simple question. I know LLMs are currently not a replacement for authors. Will that remain true in 5 to 10 years? EDIT: No. I never expected to earn a living either mostly or exclusively by...

      A simple question. I know LLMs are currently not a replacement for authors. Will that remain true in 5 to 10 years?


      EDIT: No. I never expected to earn a living either mostly or exclusively by selling books. There are however many "side gigs" in my country that can greatly benefit from being published by a real company. Ultimately though, I'm not in it primarily for the money. But I wonder what the future holds for fiction as a whole.

      21 votes
    2. So, NPR fixed their RSS ... it seems to work globally again

      This is really just a follow-up update to my old post, Did NPR just shut down support for RSS?, but that post is a week old and I wanted to make sure this update gets eyes on it. I heard back from...

      This is really just a follow-up update to my old post, Did NPR just shut down support for RSS?, but that post is a week old and I wanted to make sure this update gets eyes on it.

      I heard back from NPR this morning, and they indicated that this was not a policy decision, but an issue that they have now fixed. NPR RSS links once again work outside of the US/Canada.

      Passingly curious how this kind of thing happens accidentally ... any informed guesses? My best guess is that they intentionally geoblocked something else, and it accidentally got extended to the RSS.

      37 votes
    3. Part of me wishes it wasn't true but: AI coding is legit

      I stay current on tech for both personal and professional reasons but I also really hate hype. As a result I've been skeptical of AI claims throughout the historic hype cycle we're currently in....

      I stay current on tech for both personal and professional reasons but I also really hate hype. As a result I've been skeptical of AI claims throughout the historic hype cycle we're currently in. Note that I'm using AI here as shorthand for frontier LLMs.

      So I'm sort of a late adopter when it comes to LLMs. At each new generation of models I've spent enough time playing with them to feel like I understand where the technology is and can speak about its viability for different applications. But I haven't really incorporated it into my own work/life in any serious way.

      That changed recently when I decided to lean all the way in to agent assisted coding for a project after getting some impressive boilerplate out of one of the leading models (I don't remember which one). That AI can do a competent job on basic coding tasks like writing boilerplate code is nothing new, and that wasn't the part that impressed me. What impressed me was the process, especially the degree to which it modified its behavior in practical ways based on feedback. In previous tests it was a lot harder to get the model to go against patterns that featured heavily in the training data, and then get it to stay true to the new patterns for the rest of the session. That's not true anymore.

      Long story short, add me to the long list of people whose minds have been blown by coding agents. You can find plenty of articles and posts about what that process looks like so I won't rehash all the details. I'll only say that the comparisons to having your own dedicated junior or intern who is at once highly educated and dumb are apt. Maybe an even better comparison would be to having a team of tireless, emotionless, junior developers willing to respond to your requests at warp speed 24/7 for the price of 1/100th of one developer. You need the team comparison to capture the speed.

      You've probably read, or experienced, that AI is good at basic tasks, boilerplate, writing tests, finding bugs and so on. And that it gets progressively worse as things get more complicated and the LoCs start to stack up. That's all true but one part that has changed, in more recent models, is the definition of "basic".

      The bit that's difficult to articulate, and I think leads to the "having a nearly free assistant" comparisons, is what it feels like to have AI as a coding companion. I'm not going to try to capture it here, I'll just say it's remarkable.

      The usual caveats apply, if you rely on agents to do extensive coding, or handle complex problems, you'll end up regretting it unless you go over every line with a magnifying glass. They will cheerfully introduce subtle bugs that are hard to catch and harder to fix when you finally do stumble across them. And that's assuming they can do the thing you're asking then to do at all. Beyond the basics they still abjectly fail a lot of the time. They'll write humorously bad code, they'll break unrelated code for no apparent reason, they'll freak out and get stuck in loops (that one suprised me in 2025). We're still a long way from agents that can actually write software on their own, despite the hype.

      But wow, it's liberating to have an assistant that can do 100's of basic tasks you'd rather not be distracted by, answer questions accurately and knowledgeably, scan and report clearly about code, find bugs you might have missed and otherwise soften the edges of countless engineering pain points. And brainstorming! A pseudo-intelligent partner with an incomprehensibly wide knowledge base and unparalled pattern matching abilities is guaranteed to surface things you wouldn't have considered.

      AI coding agents are no joke.

      I still agree with the perspectives of many skeptics. Execs and middle managers are still out of their minds when they convince themselves that they can fire 90% of their teams and just have a few seniors do all the work with AI. I will read gleefully about the failures of that strategy over the coming months and years. The failure of their short sightedness and the cost to their organizations won't make up for the human cost of their decisions, but at least there will be consequences.

      When it comes to AI in general I have all the mixed feelings. As an artist, I feel the weight of what AI is doing, and will do, to creative work. As a human I'm concerned about AI becoming another tool to funnel ever more wealth to the top. I'm concerned about it ruining the livelihoods of huge swaths of people living in places where there aren't systems that can handle the load of taking care of them. Or aren't even really designed to try. There are a lot of legitimate dystopian outcomes to be worried about.

      Despite all that, actually using the technology is pretty exciting, which is the ultimate point of this post: What's your experience? Are you using agents for coding in practical ways? What works and what doesn't? What's your setup? What does it feel like? What do you love/hate about it?

      50 votes
    4. Zen browser / chrome alternatives

      I'm getting a little bit worried these days about the tracking features in chrome and was looking into Zen Browser. Does anyone here use it? Any thoughts? Also looking for any simple non tracking...

      I'm getting a little bit worried these days about the tracking features in chrome and was looking into Zen Browser. Does anyone here use it? Any thoughts?
      Also looking for any simple non tracking browser alternatives!

      16 votes
    5. Posts vs. comments. Where do you fall and why?

      I'd say that on Tildes as on other platforms, you see a lot more posts responding to a topic than you see comments on existing posts. I get it. Responding to a prompt with a thoughtful, top-level...

      I'd say that on Tildes as on other platforms, you see a lot more posts responding to a topic than you see comments on existing posts.

      I get it. Responding to a prompt with a thoughtful, top-level comment is expressive, can often be therapeutic and comes with the bonus of possible comments by others on your entry.

      Comments on existing thoughts are less sexy and possibly less fulfilling because you're riffing off of another person's idea, but as a reader and a community member, seeing user to user interaction is the best part of a social network.

      I'm a perennial commenter - at best because I love conversation, at worst, with the hope that I can digress from the mainline conversation.

      Where do you fall?

      *Edit: I've just learned the difference in terminology between a top level comment and a comment. Edited to avoid confusion.

      21 votes
    6. AI makes an appearance at my union meeting

      I had an interesting experience this week. Not all union meetings are interesting, even if they are useful. Yesterday was a pleasant exception where it was both useful and interesting. For the...

      I had an interesting experience this week. Not all union meetings are interesting, even if they are useful. Yesterday was a pleasant exception where it was both useful and interesting. For the first time, I witnessed AI coming up as a topic of conversation. There is no secret that people fear losing their jobs due to AI automation, and sure enough I saw proof of it to the extent that the union may consider adding some clauses around protecting jobs from AI.

      How is it at your workplace? Where I work, this year I witnessed a very strong push to use AI. Messaging around using AI at town halls, messaging around using AI in team meetings, articles on the intranet site, IT events around how to craft good prompts, etc. I would not be surprised if they tied some leaders' bonuses to how much they can get their teams to use AI. This part is quite annoying to me, not to mention deceitful. If I were a leader I'd straight up tell my team about it. I am not a leader - leaders are not part of the union to begin with.

      The whole thing made me also think about how my colleagues use AI. It really is a mixed bag. I see everything from the person who runs a 2-line email through AI five times to finetune every word, to myself who only reach for AI when I am stuck and it's just much faster than a search engine/forums/videos to solve my issues (for example needing a script in a programming language I am not familiar with).

      37 votes
    7. Duck Duck Go search AI curiously cited Tildes

      I was trying to find out why Lidarr wasn't matching my copy of The Cure's Greatest Hits. Found out I've got some bootleg Russian release that's catalogued on discogs (I eventually found the...

      I was trying to find out why Lidarr wasn't matching my copy of The Cure's Greatest Hits. Found out I've got some bootleg Russian release that's catalogued on discogs (I eventually found the musicbrainz release and updated my profile to include bootlegs). So I search "Lidarr use specific discogs release" and the duck duck go search assist spat out some text about Lidarr not using discogs and cited this Tildes post.

      It's curious because that post is 3yrs old and doesn't talk about discogs integration in Lidarr, just one mention of discogs in the post and some folks talking about Lidarr in the comments (It did cite a relevant GitHub issue about it though). The AI response mentioned that some users track new releases with Lidarr and downloads disabled, while covered in the post, it seems fairly tangential to my query.

      I'm curious why it decided to check or cite a tildes post. No tildes posts came up in the first couple pages of search results. I use tildes from the same location, though on my phone where this query was on my desktop, and have done a couple DDG queries using "site:tildes.net" on my phone.

      Has anyone else seen a search assist cite an unexpected site? Not unexpected as in irrelevant, that's all too common, but small and specific sources.

      29 votes
    8. Are there any communities for selling used computers within Canada?

      I have a Starlabs Labtop in great shape that I would like to sell. Problem is, I can't garner much interest on Craigslist/Facebook Marketplace. Are there any computer Buy/Sell sites in Canada such...

      I have a Starlabs Labtop in great shape that I would like to sell. Problem is, I can't garner much interest on Craigslist/Facebook Marketplace. Are there any computer Buy/Sell sites in Canada such as Pinkbike.com for used bicycles?

      9 votes
    9. Matching mouse dpi and acceleration across Mac and Linux?

      I use a Mac for work, Linux for my personal machine, and the same mouse between the two. I’m accustomed to the dpi/acceleration on Mac, so when I switch to my PC at the end of the day there are...

      I use a Mac for work, Linux for my personal machine, and the same mouse between the two. I’m accustomed to the dpi/acceleration on Mac, so when I switch to my PC at the end of the day there are slight inaccuracies with the pointer. My wrist compensates to cover the gaps and I develop wrist strain after short periods of use.

      Does anyone know how to make the Linux mouse dpi/acceleration as close to identical as possible with my Mac?

      chimera linux w/ gnome btw

      8 votes
    10. How has AI positively impacted your life?

      I've been trying to get a more rounded understanding of the impacts that "AI" has had since ChatGPT went viral back in 2022. I've found it easy to gather a list of negative impacts, but have...

      I've been trying to get a more rounded understanding of the impacts that "AI" has had since ChatGPT went viral back in 2022.

      I've found it easy to gather a list of negative impacts, but have struggled to point to many positives.

      I was curious if there were folks who have used any of these AI tools, and would willing to share any positive impacts those tools have had in their lives. I'm particularly interested in the text, audio, image, and video generation tools that have appeared since ChatGPT went viral, but please share anything else that you think fits.

      50 votes
    11. The Netflix app on Android TV

      I have resubscribed to Netflix after cancelling about 6 months ago and I think there's been a change to the GUI which I really don't care for. I could be wrong but didn't the TV app use to work in...

      I have resubscribed to Netflix after cancelling about 6 months ago and I think there's been a change to the GUI which I really don't care for. I could be wrong but didn't the TV app use to work in the following way: after selecting a movie or television show, the first click would open a menu that would then allow further options including playing the movie or an episode of the TV show? I miss this. Currently, they're is one option at the to of my screen when I open the app that has a selectable 'More Info' option but everything else does not and the media just starts playing immediately upon selection.

      I miss the 'menu on first click' behavior. Is there a way to get back to that?

      Thanks.

      2 votes
    12. What's a quantum computer?

      I keep seeing this term but I have no idea what it means ? and what does it actually mean in practice. for example, what it can actually do, it seems to only be used for algorithms and such. not...

      I keep seeing this term but I have no idea what it means ?

      and what does it actually mean in practice. for example, what it can actually do, it seems to only be used for algorithms and such. not personal computing. I assume I don't understand because I'm unfamiliar with Quantum mechanics

      35 votes
    13. Advice on poor Linux performance vs Windows

      Hello! I recently reworked my setup such that I have my drive which holds the operating systems (dual boot of Windows 11 and Linux Mint Cinnamon) and another drive which holds all my actual data....

      Hello!

      I recently reworked my setup such that I have my drive which holds the operating systems (dual boot of Windows 11 and Linux Mint Cinnamon) and another drive which holds all my actual data. This is my first dive into trying to move to Linux as my daily driver but I'm noticing some performance issues.

      The first thing I noticed is that transfer speeds are much less than expected. Copying a large file within my data drive I get about 300MB/s on Linux, which is pretty slow for M.2 drives- I get about 10x that speed doing the exact same operation on Windows. I could be okay with this but I also noticed that some video files, like the 4K mp4s off my phone, are virtually unplayable. They'll run at maybe 1fps and/or bog down the UI so much I cant even use the seek. This is the case in both the default media player and VLC. These same files play with no issue on Windows.

      I suspect the reason for all this stems from my data drive being NTFS, though my file system and Linux knowledge is pretty weak so this is just a theory. Any ideas / best practices that might help me here?

      28 votes
    14. Paid e-mail providers - your experiences, how you use them and how I would use it

      I decided to spin off this topic based on the discussion in the Leaker reveals which Pixels are vulnerable to Cellebrite phone hacking. Since I kinda by chance got rid of my dependency on Google...

      I decided to spin off this topic based on the discussion in the Leaker reveals which Pixels are vulnerable to Cellebrite phone hacking.

      Since I kinda by chance got rid of my dependency on Google Photos (as I installed Immich on my server which does the same but on my own hardware) I decided I want to try and de-Google my life more.

      I was thinking about using my own domain to send e-mail from, but since I don't run e-mail server myself and I don't even want to - because of security reasons from multiple directions - I would like to use some paid e-mail service provider that would host the e-mail for me and I would append my domain to it.

      I probably know technicalities on how to do that - through setting DNS MX record on my domain provider and pointing it to my e-mail provider. But I don't know which provider to choose.

      I would like to sync my contacts (not through import/export feature via .vcf file, rather automatic synchronization like Google/Microsoft/Apple accounts do), I would like to sync calendar and have the ability to share it with other people (can be another account on the service if not outsiders) and of course e-mail, preferably one that doesn't rely on their own app so I can use ie. Thunderbird.

      I would like to kindly ask anyone here in audience to share their experience with their providers, if you use some. It would be great if you used the service as I would do or if you could try my proposed usage on your account.

      Thank you all who respond to me. I may have questions if you do :-)

      I know about Fastmail which is appealing for not being US (things are kinda unsettling there right now), for having contacts, calendar and plenty space, but isn't exactly cheap - not expensive though. I know about Tuta, which is cheaper for 1-3 accounts but not for 4 and above, it has less space (still enough) but I don't know about contacts there at the moment. I found this Wikipedia comparison page and had a look there, but I would like to hear personal experiences and thoughts.

      37 votes
    15. My PKM journey

      I've tried a LOT of Personal Knowledge Management software in the journey for the perfect way to record all knowledge I want to save. TL;DR: I've tried a bunch of apps to try and replace a...

      I've tried a LOT of Personal Knowledge Management software in the journey for the perfect way to record all knowledge I want to save.

      TL;DR: I've tried a bunch of apps to try and replace a combination of Todoist and Obsidian. What software and system do you use to keep track of personal knowledge and tasks?

      What I'm looking for
      There are three different attributes I am looking for in a PKM, in the following order:

      1. Ease of use. I need whatever I use to be really easy and frictionless to record information with. If there's too much resistance to getting information into the application than I probably won't end up saving it and I'll just forget about it.
      2. It needs to be easy to surface relevant information but also browse through less relevant information. This one is sort of a few sub categories. On one hand, I need reminders, due dates, and the UX to make sure that I don't miss certain tasks. On the other hand I need to be able to categorize and view all recorded entities - tasks, as well as pieces of information unrelated to tasks. This means I want to be able to categorize the information in a way that allows me to filter down from a larger list or from completed tasks - the best way to do this is usually tags.
      3. I like to use software that doesn't allow the developers to access my information; usually this is done through end to end encryption. This is especially important in a PKM because of the volume and sensitivity of the information being recorded. However, this is last on the list because I use multiple devices which introduces additional surface vectors if someone were to try and get my information. End to end encryption is just a nice to have.
      4. A bonus, being able to share tasks in a secure and easy way with my significant other.

      Where I've been
      Todoist
      I won't make you read the whole post to find out my favorite... it's Todoist. I've used it for years! It really locks down that first attribute, ease of storing tasks. Todoist makes it really easy to add tasks, move tasks, and reschedule tasks. It's a simple and functional task manager that really works for me. I basically use it to keep track of everything across several projects. I roll over most of the tasks from day to day until I'm able to complete them. For tasks that need a reminder I add a due date - the reminder system is pretty basic but it works. It's the app I keep coming back to after trying all the others. But being primarily a task manager it lacks the ability to store information not related to tasks. Like information about people, places or things. So I searched for another app.

      Obsidian
      I'm trying this out on Obsidian right now! It's a wonderful piece of software that has full end to end encryption. I use it as a sort of digital "safe" for information I definitely don't want to lose. Unfortunately Obsidian lacks some critical functionality:

      • Tasks are just checkboxes. There are plugins that can help you handle them better but the native UX for managing them is just copy, paste, and delete.
      • There's tagging and folders but there's no real way to move through lots of semi-related pieces of information. I like a big list of stuff that can be filtered down, not lots of scattered documents. All of the linking and tagging happens in the middle of the rest of the text and a list of backlinks at the bottom of the UI.
      • Maybe this sounds silly to you the reader - but basically it's all just too manual. If Obsidian had a sort of "parent note" at the top of each folder - like Notion which I'll cover next - it would make Obsidian a lot easier to use. Instead I always have to choose between a new block in a note, a whole new note or a folder. I'd love to be able to write out stuff as I think of it and then move stuff into sub folders - or lists - more easily.
      • It's expensive for a journaling app with a relatively basic feature set. Note to note linking and cloud sync are just expected features at this point for an application like this.

      Between Todoist and Obsidian I am able to meet all of those listed attributes:

      1. Todoist makes it easy to enter information and make sure I remember it when I need to. I can write a reminder in Todoist to make sure I record information in Obsidian.
      2. It's pretty easy to keep track of a lot of relevant tasks and other pieces of information in Todoist. For information that I need longer term or isn't related to a current task, it goes in Obsidian
      3. Obsidian is end to end encrypted. Anything related to sensitive stuff goes in Obsidian.
      4. Todoist allows setting sharing at a project level. So this makes it pretty easy to share tasks.

      After using this system for awhile I started to see cracks forming. Todoist makes it easy to keep track of tasks but complex projects are often hard to manage. It's easy to lose track of tasks that are further out then a few days without using obtuse filters. Obsidian is difficult to use on mobile and having to transfer information from Todoist to Obsidian is frustrating. There are probably Obsidian plugins I could use to manage some of this but then I'd have to evaluate each one for data privacy concerns. And paying so much for Obsidian it's a little frustrating to have to rely on community plugins.
      So I began looking for a new application, one that could do it all.

      Notion
      I still use Notion for a few different very specific things. I could probably use Obsidian or some of the other apps I'm about to talk about for these things. But I really like Notion - when it first came out it blew me away! It did so much stuff! It's great for keeping lists of well categorized pieces of information. It has great support for tagging, and the aforementioned folder / page hybrid. It's basically a wiki software combined with a task manager. A few issues keep me from using it as my main application:

      • Like Obsidian it's hard to use on mobile. Especially for complicated stuff like moving through lots of different pieces of unrelated information.
      • The reminder system is clunky. Since everything in Notion is a "block", reminders are tied to them. I think if I put a lot of time and effort into building a process for keeping track of my tasks it could work. But again, I don't really want to spend that much effort when I have system that already mostly works.
      • There's no end to end encryption and nothing but a true / false value assigned to your user keeps employees from accessing your information easily.

      A great piece of software but ultimately one I moved away from after a bit and back to Todoist.

      Workflowy
      This was the first time I felt a real paradigm shift. Workflowy is basically a really big list. Every bullet on the list is a "node" and you can zoom into nodes endlessly. So you can go from seeing all of your information to seeing very specific pieces of information very quickly and easily, even on mobile. And entering information is a breeze, you just add it as a bullet and then move it to where you need it. It's amazing for what I like to do, which is start with a general idea and build more and more specific information. For example, when going on trips I could create a "trip to place" bullet. Workflowy has amazing support for two way linking lists - basically you can change a list in one place and have it updated in all the other places its linked. So I could have a packing list that I link to the trip to place bullet. Or I can copy it and add to it. You can see all the possibilities and the UX makes it seamless.

      The real killer here for me was the lack of reminders. The way to handle due dates in Workflowy is to literally type the date; there are UX solutions like a pop out calendar that handles this for you. And then you can filter down to bullets that contain that date. In theory it works well but it requires me to make sure I am looking at the right information when I need to be instead of the other way around. I tried using Todoist to supplement this but ended up having to constantly check both to make sure each was properly updated. If Worflowy had a way to assign reminders to bullets so a notification popped up that would make this the perfect app. In fact, I might give it another try after writing this out!

      Lastly, it doesn't offer end to end encryption.

      Twos App
      This is the other app that got really close to being perfect. Twos App is the software that touched the sun and lost its wings. It does everything! It's sort of similar to Workflowy where you can have checkboxes (tasks) and bullets (pieces of information). You also have lists. So you can start a "shopping list" that sits outside your daily tasks, and you can fill that list with items you need. Then when you are ready to go shopping you can move that shopping list into a "day" and it's automatically a task. It also has a pretty good reminder system.
      The problem with Twos App is unfortunate: the bugs. I found it doing odd things like reordering items, separating them out of lists and just generally glitching out. My theory is that the app is so feature packed that the systems start to conflict with each other. I've seen they are going to release a new major version soon so I might give it another try.

      This is getting way too long! Just real quick some others I've tried:

      • Capacities. A lot of protentional, like a more structured version of Notion. It shares a ton of the same features and functions similarly. But everything revolves around "objects" which are basically just... templates. There's no inheritance or ways to compose objects that would make something like that really powerful
      • Amplenote: Another app that is close in theory but one big thing is it lacks the ability to tag tasks. You can only tag notes, which tasks live inside of. There are UX solutions for this but it's pretty clunky. It also supports end to end encryption but on a note by note basis? It seems like another situation where if I put a lot of time in I might be able to get something working but just doesn't seem worth it.
      • Loqseq: End to end encrypted! Great support for tasks! But I think it's just still too underbaked. The sync feature is still in beta and requires you to pay in the form of donations? They basically tie your account to the donations you make and then give you access. Seems not worth it for the current set of functionality. It also lacks task level tags, like Amplenote.
      • I've also tried Day One, Daycast, Standard Notes, Legend, and probably a bunch of others I'm not listing. I almost forgot about Ticktick.

      So this brings me to my question: what application and system do you use?

      20 votes
    16. Is there a postman alternative without the bloat?

      use postman quite a bit at work as a backend developer and the recent updates have added alot more bloatware to the program. All I want is a simple program that does HTTP requests and not get...

      use postman quite a bit at work as a backend developer and the recent updates have added alot more bloatware to the program.

      All I want is a simple program that does HTTP requests and not get account promo and collections and their cloud stuff shoved down my throat.

      And my work computer is maintained by a central system so I can't freeze my Postman application at a past level, it auto-updates.

      So I am wondering if there is a good alternative that just does HTTP requests and nothing else?

      28 votes
    17. Controllers that work well with CachyOS?

      Pretty much the title. I want to move away from OEM 1st party controllers due to quality and inevitable joystick drift. I have an 8bitdo Ultimate, but it's not working for me on CachyOS. Anyone...

      Pretty much the title. I want to move away from OEM 1st party controllers due to quality and inevitable joystick drift. I have an 8bitdo Ultimate, but it's not working for me on CachyOS.

      Anyone else have experience with good quality controllers on Linux? The Flydigi Vader Pro 5 caught my attention, and I am a pretty competitive person for certain games (mainly Halo 3 and Halo Infinite), and like tight controls for platformers and souls-like games as well.

      Edit: I primarily used my controllers wireless, especially on the living room PC. I am more okay with wired on my personal computer.


      Found a solution!!

      Edit as of Tuesday, October 28th 2025: https://www.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/comments/1iceer5/8bitdo_controller_fixes_for_linux_my_impressions/

      Fixes for 8BitDo controllers running under Linux.

      sudo mkdir /etc/udev/rules.d
      
      sudo nano /etc/udev/rules.d/99-8bitdo-xinput.rules
      
      ACTION=="add", ATTRS{idVendor}=="2dc8", ATTRS{idProduct}=="3106", RUN+="/sbin/modprobe xpad", RUN+="/bin/sh -c 'echo 2dc8 3106 > /sys/bus/usb/drivers/xpad/new_id'"
      
      sudo udevadm control --reload
      

      Change Product ID according to your controller:

      Product ID 8BitDo Ultimate/Ultimate C 2,4Ghz: 3106

      Product ID 8BitDo Ultimate 3-Mode 2,4Ghz: 200f / alternate Product ID: 201b

      Product ID 8BitDo Ultimate 2C 2,4GhZ: 310a

      14 votes
    18. Not sure if coincidence or I should give up (on USB flash drives)

      Hey Tilderinos. I've been looking into buying several flash drives since my largest flash drive is a 32GB sandisk, and I use or interact with all the 3 major OSes, I use Linux on my desktop and on...

      Hey Tilderinos.
      I've been looking into buying several flash drives since my largest flash drive is a 32GB sandisk, and I use or interact with all the 3 major OSes, I use Linux on my desktop and on a secondary laptop, I use MacOS on a Macbook and everyone else I know uses Windows(So I'll need an exFAT drive for them).
      My recent experience with flash drives though makes me more willing to trust my data to a system's RAM than to a flash drive. At least RAM wouldn't lure me into a false sense of security then spontaneously fail, I know that my data isn't going to last a reboot.
      I've got 3 sandisk cruzer blades fail on me, once was an error on my part where I accidentally hit it with my knee while plugged into a device(device unharmed, the drive is dead), one time I upgraded the SSD on my SteamDeck and flashed the steamdeck recovery to an 8GB stick, it worked fine while restoring and it still can be read... it's stuck on read only and, Gparted, Windows formatter, Rufus, Mac's disk utility nor mkfs can make it reusable, I assume it entered read only because it tripped some "whoops I'm dying" thing like some SSDs have(from what I know). The last one is effectively a resistor that connects to a USB port, it heats up, SOMETIMES appears on PC, Linux can open it, copying things into it via Nautilus works albeit very slowly, then when I try to open the root of the flash drive it is stuck perpetually trying to load, when I unplug it and plug it back in again, I can see the folders but entering any of them immediately goes into the permanent loading state, mkdir, cd and ls can work on the drive... intermittently, but I'm treating it as dead.

      This leaves me with only 2 other drives, my largest drive, is a 32GB Sandisk Ultra, and my smallest drive which has been more reliable than the Cruzer Blades is a 4GB Sony... USM4GP thing, which I have no idea what year it was from and a quick googling didn't bring up any release date, but it had faster read/write than the cruzer blades, and it's been my main drive for things like installing an OS/burning an image into it yet it lasted all these years.

      I'm trying to get a USB-C drive specifically since all my laptops that are in use and my PC have a USB-C port, but all I see in local big retailers are Sandisk, Sandisk and more Sandisk, Amazon however has some that aren't Sandisk.

      Does anyone know a USB-C flash drive that is genuinely reliable? Was it specifically Cruzer Blades that is garbage? I've not had a Sandisk SD card fail on me yet, should I just avoid Sandisk for anything but SD cards? Should I just say fuck it and buy a bunch of enclosures and NVMe drives?

      I've read that flash drives get bottom of the barrel NAND chips that can't be used on SSDs, too. I know that flash drives aren't meant for long term storage/backup but a drive that old shouldn't be still going on that strongly against new ones.

      I've been looking at PNY Elite V3 with USB-C as a connector that I've seen a few listings on Amazon but it's 1TB price is almost the same price as a 1TB NVMe SSD(Though not factoring in the enclosure).

      25 votes
    19. Upgrade desktop to win11 when hardware isn’t supported?

      Ive been using Linux Mint for like 10 years now but my s/o still wants to use Windows Win 10 is about to lose support, and they cant upgrade to Win 11 cause its missing some new chip? Anyone have...

      Ive been using Linux Mint for like 10 years now but my s/o still wants to use Windows

      Win 10 is about to lose support, and they cant upgrade to Win 11 cause its missing some new chip?

      Anyone have details or fixes? Im way out of the loop cause Linux is just plug and play for me so I don’t keep up with this stuff any more

      27 votes
    20. Looking for feedback on a homelab design

      I wanted some help with a homelab server I am in the beginning stages of designing. I am looking for a flexible and scalable media and cloud system for home use, and I thought this community would...

      I wanted some help with a homelab server I am in the beginning stages of designing. I am looking for a flexible and scalable media and cloud system for home use, and I thought this community would be a good place to source feedback and recommendations before taking any real next steps! I really want to check that I am approaching the architecture correctly and not making any bad assumptions. I am open to all feedback, so please let me know what you think!
      I already run a simple home server and I have typical homelab FOSS apps, such as jellyfin, navidrome and audiobookshelf, but I am also interested in migrating away from cloud storage using nextcloud, immich, etc. In an ideal world, this setup would also allow me to leave windows on my main machine and use a windows vm for business related work that can’t be done on Linux. I will likely be the one primarily using the services, however I could expect up to 10 - 20 users eventually.

      High level setup is with two machines:

      • Proxmox Server
      • TrueNAS Scale server
        • JBOD with either 90 bay or 45 bay storage
      • 10G switch

      This might be a stupid setup right off the bat, which is why I wanted to discuss it with you all! I have read a ton about using TrueNAS as a WM within Proxmox, but I just like the idea of different machines handling different tasks. The idea here would be to set up the TrueNAS server so it can be optimized for managing the storage pool to allow for easy growth. While the Proxmox server can handle all the VMs and connecting users, with higher IO, etc.

      TrueNAS System Specs:

      • AMD ryzen CPU and motherboard
      • 64 or 128GB ram
      • Mirror 500GB M.2 NVMe OS Drives
      • GPU if necessary, but hopefully not needed
      • Dual 10gb pcie card if the motherboard doesnt already come with them
      • An hba for the JBOD something like the LSI SAS 9305-16e
      • SLOG and L2ARC as necessary?

      JBOD enclosure

      • While I am interested in a 90-bay enclosure, I would only realistically be starting with two vdevs which is why I think a 45 bay enclosure wouldn’t be an issue.
      • Im tentatively planning for an 11 wide Raidz2 vdev configuration. This would hopefully scale to 8 vdevs with 2 hot spares or 4 vdevs with 1 hot spare.
      • All drives would be HDDs

      Proxmox Server Specs:

      I am less familiar with the specs I will need for a good Proxmox server, but here is what I am thinking.

      • AMD epyc and motherboard if I can get my hands on a less expensive one. Otherwise I was thinking a higher end AMD ryzen cpu
      • 128 or 256GB ram
      • Mirror 500GB M.2 NVMe OS Drives
      • Somewhere between 2 and 8 TBs of SSD storage. Depending on the number of drives, I think this would be a single drive, mirror or raidz1.
        • This storage will be used for all the vm configuration and storage, except for something like Nextcloud where the main storage will go onto the TrueNAS mount.
        • I would also use this for temporal storage such as downloading a file before transferring it to the TrueNAS mount.
      • A dedicated GPU primarily for transcoding media streams, but also for testing and experimenting with different AI models.
      • Dual 10gb pcie card

      Questions:

      • I know Proxmox can do zfs right out of the box so I know I don’t need the TrueNAS server, but splitting it this way just seems more flexible. Is this a realistic setup or would it just be better to let Proxmox do everything?
        • Does anyone have experience creating NFS shares in TrueNAS for mounting in Proxmox? I would be interested in thoughts on performance, and stability among any other insights.
      • Do any of the system specs I listed seem out of line? Where and how do you think things should be scaled up or down?
      • If I ever did expand to a second JBOD shelf, assuming the first one was full first, is it be possible to create new vdevs that spanned across the shelfs without losing data?
      • Is SLOG and/or L2ARC necessary for this setup? What capacity and configuration would be best?
      • What else have I missed?

      Lastly, a quick blurb:

      I have been building PCs for a while and undertook building a home server a few years ago. I loved the experience of learning Linux (the server is running Ubuntu), picking up docker, and learning more about the FOSS community has been a joy! Part of this project is to learn along the way but also have a setup that I can build towards over time! Proxmox, TrueNAS and zfs would all be new to me so I really see it as an opportunity to explore. I want a solid media and cloud server setup, while also giving myself the freedom to explore new operating systems and general hypervisor functionality.

      22 votes
    21. Tips/guides to turn my home into a smart home?

      I saw a smart home the other day and I got to admit, my caveman DNA was activated and I got jealous. My caveman DNA demands that I also make my home a smart one. The thing is, I kind of don't...

      I saw a smart home the other day and I got to admit, my caveman DNA was activated and I got jealous. My caveman DNA demands that I also make my home a smart one.

      The thing is, I kind of don't really know how and where to begin, thus why I came to you guys for help.

      I know that I want to do this gradually, over months or years, apply new smart devices like smart plugs, sensors, cameras, and the like little by little. As for appliances, only when mine stop working and need replacement.

      I also want to be able to control my AC, my electric shutters, check how much energy my house is using and how much my solar panels are producing. These ones, I admit, are the ones that I'm most unsure about on how to go about it. I'm not an electrician, and might need to hire one.

      As for a server, that's already taken care off. I have a synology server, or a raspberry pi 5 if for some reason my synology can't handle it. I know of "Home Assistant", is this the best software or do you recommend others?

      Needless to say, I don't want to be dependent on companies or cloud services. This is a self-host project. I'm tech-savvy, I don't mind to get my hands dirty, but I do want to build something that is stable. "Set it and forget it" kind of thing.

      So my question are:
      1- Do you have any recommendations of where I should start? Like for example, light switches first, then smart plugs, etc.
      2- If I should take into consideration the number of devices. Could they potentially clog my router or my wifi AP's if they get too many? If yes, is there a way to prevent this?
      3- Do you have any article or guide or video that you recommend me checking out?
      4- Do you have any tips, advice or warnings in general? Like problems that you know that I'll run into later, or things that you don't think are worth smartifying, etc (whatever you want to say, give it to me, I'll appreciate anything)

      20 votes
    22. Need help unlocking phone from carrier (AT&T)

      Quick background: wife inherited an iPhone 8 plus from a recently deceased relative. Said relative used to have AT&T, wife and I do not. I was hoping to possibly use this phone on an upcoming...

      Quick background: wife inherited an iPhone 8 plus from a recently deceased relative. Said relative used to have AT&T, wife and I do not. I was hoping to possibly use this phone on an upcoming international trip but it would need to be unlocked from the carrier first so I can put a new sim card in it. (Just to be clear, I don't mean getting into the actual phone, we've already saved the few photos and messages that were on there and reset the phone to factory settings). Tried doing the automated process on the AT&T website and it was denied immediately, no explanation given. Tried calling them and the automated system straight up hangs up on me because I don't have an account with them. So lastly we tried taking it directly to an AT&T store where they directed us to either call the number that keeps hanging up on us, or to "take it to one of those places at the mall that can unlock it for you". Useless.

      I've done some research on this and seen various solutions online. Most of those solutions I have already tried (like calling the number or trying the online portal thing) or their situations don't apply to my case (like having purchased a new phone or having an account already with AT&T). One thing I've seen mentioned multiple times that seems to get results is to file a complaint with the FCC, so I went to do that and welp... government is shut down. FCC not accepting any complaints at the moment.

      Another thing that I thought of was jailbreaking the phone, but I haven't done that to a phone in many years and am not even sure if that would resolve the issue of it being carrier-locked. But surely if 'those places at the mall' can unlock them without going through AT&T, then I might be able to as well. Hence I came here asking for help.

      Anyone have any experience with this sort of thing?

      9 votes
    23. Interpreting the Open Database License

      For reference, here is the ODbL. There is a nice human readable summary. You can also read more in the Wikipedia entry. The most famous database available under the ODbL is OpenStreetMaps. I...

      For reference, here is the ODbL. There is a nice human readable summary. You can also read more in the Wikipedia entry.

      The most famous database available under the ODbL is OpenStreetMaps.

      I recently found out about OpenCorporates, which is a global database of companies, published under the ODbL. I thought this was great, so I applied for access to use the database for a project. I was denied because I'm not a journalist or a nonprofit and instead was invited to pay for access instead. And it's not cheap, likely because company databases are often used in the B2B space.

      I replied that this seemed to be in conflict with their mission, especially given that my project was focused on using the data to create a benefit to the public, and their response was that they wanted to protect against their database being copied.

      From my reading, this seems to be in direct conflict with the ODbL. Egregiously so, which has me thinking I'm missing something.

      Does anyone have any insight? It seems to me that the whole point of the ODbL license is to make data freely available. This is backed up by interpretations I came across while searching and by the ethos of other orgs using the license, such as OSM. What am I missing?

      Edit: I'm still excited to hear from anyone with knowledge in this area, or just general insights into how I'm misunderstanding the license.

      And also, having learned that The Open Data Commons, which publishes and maintains the ODbL, uses this definition of the concept of open... I'm leaning towards the interpretation that OpenCorporates wants the aura of using a reputable license with the word "open" in it, but isn't genuinely interested in the ethos. Which is disappointing but not shocking, they'd be far from the first.

      10 votes
    24. I could use recommendations for an ultrawide monitor

      I recently had a bad monitor failure after six or so years of normal use. Specifically, my LG 34GK950F-B had an electrical failure that, in a limited sense, caught a ribbon cable inside on fire....

      I recently had a bad monitor failure after six or so years of normal use. Specifically, my LG 34GK950F-B had an electrical failure that, in a limited sense, caught a ribbon cable inside on fire. It is exactly the same failure as shown here, and I add a few images of documentation of my case here.

      Anyhow, I am now in the market for a new ultrawide, and I need one as soon as yesterday since my desktop currently has no display - I have been tunneling into it to do anything. General recommendations would be nice - but a few things specifically:

      • what is the burn in situation like on modern OLED monitors?
      • I would prefer not to spend a massive amount, is that doable while still supporting the following use cases?
        • lots of coding, needs to render text nicely as the top job
        • photo editing, needs to have good color accuracy or be trivial to calibrate such that it does
        • occasional gaming, I don’t game on my desktop much these days, but I don’t want the monitor to feel clunky when I do

      This post is a bit stream-of-conscience, so if any other questions or requirements come to mind I will edit it.

      Edit: I guess as much as I don’t want to spend a ton, I will also end up using this display for at least another five years - I don’t mind spending a little more to account for that.

      19 votes
    25. Forgot Chrome's unusable, any recommendations?

      I'm streaming Firefox to watch Riverdale, so I opened up Chrome to browse while I wait for them to join. Youtube has ads on it, and I realized I can't grab uBlock or anything (meaningfully)...

      I'm streaming Firefox to watch Riverdale, so I opened up Chrome to browse while I wait for them to join. Youtube has ads on it, and I realized I can't grab uBlock or anything (meaningfully) privacy focused. So, I wanna try out one of the cool new browsers, what do people use and recommend?

      I'm on Windows and a proper techie, so give me anything that's a bit strange and off the wall as well! The only one I tried out recently was Comet, but it needs more time to bake, total waste of time IME. I remember using IceWeasel for some reason lol

      33 votes
    26. Recommendations for a Linux based job/ticket management system

      Hi all! I'm someone who has ADHD/Autism spectrum issues and am dealing with problems related to executive function. To the point, I'm asking for help with a specific idea of better managing...

      Hi all! I'm someone who has ADHD/Autism spectrum issues and am dealing with problems related to executive function. To the point, I'm asking for help with a specific idea of better managing getting things done.

      What I'd like is a job tracker / ticket management system that would make it easy for me to keep track of all the different individual to-do items (I.E. jobs / tickets) that I have, keep notes on what I've already done, and have a separate notes section for 'this is what still needs to be done on this item'.

      Currently I have this information kind of scattered through different areas / folders. Calendar, work documentation folders, personal notes, etc...

      Needs:

      1. Free (open source is nice but not explicitly required). I don't want to add another expense to my balance sheet.
      2. Is user-friendly enough to save me more effort than it costs. I am a long-time tech so the bar on this one is reasonably low.
      3. A GUI. If there are CLI / command line interface programs that would not be convenient for me, I work much more efficiently when I work visually. If I need to install by CLI that's not a problem, just the daily use of the program should be graphical and not command-line text.
      4. (EDITED IN): Locally installed. I want to stay away from adding more company-hosted services which can change / become paid only / otherwise easily undergo Enshittification. If it is locally installed software, I can always decline to update or install a new version.

      Nice to haves:

      1. A tracker that gives datestamps for when I put in more information so I can easily know when I last picked up that task.
      2. A priority system so I can have it automatically sort to top for stuff that needs doing sooner vs long-term projects.
      3. Some kind of 'tagging' system which would allow me to tag things like 'personal' or 'work' or 'parts orders' which I could then use a search or sort function to look at only items tagged that way.

      My main desktop is Linux Mint 21.3 Cinnamon in case anyone needs that detail. That is the computer I want to install the ticketing system on.

      I've done some searching so far but I'm hoping that by laying out exactly what I'm trying to do with it someone here will have specific advice. My search results so far have found people recommending projects for others who have different use-cases or needs than me.

      17 votes
    27. How do I convince my workplace we need SQL databases?

      I work for a GIS company and our tools have not grown with our projects and client base. We use ArcPro personal geo databases (GDBs) for ALL data. We recently had a project where shit really hit...

      I work for a GIS company and our tools have not grown with our projects and client base. We use ArcPro personal geo databases (GDBs) for ALL data. We recently had a project where shit really hit the fan, one major issue was related to invalid values from poor version control. Everything uses personal GDBs and is just "version controlled" by dating filenames in Explorer. It would have been trivial to fix in a proper database. We also have operational constraints, like we can only have one person doing X job at a time since all the data for X job is in a personal GDB.

      But I'm just an analyst. I've garnered some attention for my technical expertise beyond processing the data. PostGIS is a thing so it isn't as though we'd be recreating the wheel. How can I push for that sort of change? I'm thinking I can sell it using how much we lost on this project because of these avoidable failures. I'm also wondering if I can make this an opportunity to create a "database administrator" position for myself

      29 votes
    28. What happens when the internet goes out at your work?

      Can you pivot to other tasks, or are you dead in the water? What about others? Your team/department? Tell us what its like for those minutes/hours. How often does the internet drop for you (if at...

      Can you pivot to other tasks, or are you dead in the water? What about others? Your team/department? Tell us what its like for those minutes/hours.

      How often does the internet drop for you (if at all)?

      If you don't ever lose internet at work (lucky you!), answer hypothetically about what would happen.

      35 votes
    29. Ten years since my last PC build - Help me spec a quiet mATX rig

      My current computer is finally old enough that we need something new. Something nice. Something that doesn't run modded Xcom 2 at sub 15fps. But the long gap in my knowledge has left me wondering...

      My current computer is finally old enough that we need something new. Something nice. Something that doesn't run modded Xcom 2 at sub 15fps. But the long gap in my knowledge has left me wondering in a state where I don't even know enough anymore to make educated decisions on a new PC build.

      Here's what I do know:

      • I want a microATX board
      • I want a quiet and smaller case
      • I want to keep my current Geforce 3060
      • My Budget is roughly 1k, but flexible

      Past that, my knowledge is now pretty much out of date. Is AMD currently better? Is Noctua still a good and quiet fan? How fast does ram really need to be? Are things pretty standard priced, or do I need to wait for Microcenter to have a sale?

      Thanks for your help, appreciate you!

      21 votes
    30. I am angry at Google and wanted to share (rant)

      Edit: if this post does not meet the general quality standards of Tildes, I absolutely understand and apologize. Likewise if I should have posted this in a different subsection - ~misc or ~talk...

      Edit: if this post does not meet the general quality standards of Tildes, I absolutely understand and apologize. Likewise if I should have posted this in a different subsection - ~misc or ~talk maybe?

      So, recently I've been annoyed by this new thing in Gmail (and yes, I should be transitioning away from Google services) where this field pops up at the top of my email list called 'Happening Soon'. It mostly has shipping / tracking notifications saying 'hey, this thing with a tracking number is arriving tomorrow'.

      I've been annoyed by it because there wasn't an easy way to disable this 'feature' and that perceived loss of agency (and reminding me that my Gmail account isn't really 'mine') was frustration inducing.

      So I googled it (I recognize the irony here) - "disable "happening soon" gmail" - and found a Gmail help / community post with a bunch of people expressing the same desire to not have this forced upon them: https://support.google.com/mail/thread/346511942/how-to-disable-happening-soon-for-those-who-see-it-on-gmail-inbox-which-is-related-to-an-amazon-pu?hl=en but while plenty of people shared my frustration, I wasn't finding definitive answers on how to properly disable it.

      So I decided to poke around inside of settings. There actually was a section for smart tracking reminders but that was not enabled. Then I saw a rather vague 'Smart Features' that was enabled that I didn't remember seeing before. I disabled that, Gmail had to restart, and then those notifications were gone.

      I wanted to share this how-to with all the other people who posted to that Gmail support thread. I simply replied with "To disable this on desktop, go into settings and disable 'Smart Features'. That seems to fix it."

      Suddenly I understood why no one else had posted the fix. My post was flagged instantly for 'content policy violations'. Specifically it said "Failed to post. Content violates Community Policy."

      Yes, helping other Gmail users figure out how to turn off experimental 'features' we never asked for violates their policy of, I presume, being able to experiment on their userbase. Arg. That ticked me off.

      101 votes
    31. Help choosing a new linux computer?

      Ok, so my computer is starting to fail in a way I can't fix (never get an Alienware, folks. It's not easily user serviceable, and the parts are very specific to fit in the fancy case so you can't...

      Ok, so my computer is starting to fail in a way I can't fix (never get an Alienware, folks. It's not easily user serviceable, and the parts are very specific to fit in the fancy case so you can't easily replace things when they fail,) and so I'm back on the market for something new. Given the impending forced transition to Windows 11, I'm thinking this is the right time to also switch from Windows to some Linux distro, so I can have all the fun of figuring out a new OS on new hardware.

      Given that I'm stepping into unknown territory here, is there anything specific that the fine people of Tildes can suggest/advise/warn me about when it comes to getting a new computer with Linux? I know there's a bunch of different flavors of Linux, and most of the major computer brands seem to offer Ubuntu as a default OS if desired, but I'm just hoping y'all can help me avoid any really obvious pitfalls.

      I use my PC for a combination of work and gaming, but the work is all entirely online, so Firefox is all I need on that end. I play a bunch of games, but from what I can see most games can be played in Linux these days?

      I guess I'm mostly hoping to not get caught out by anything I don't know I don't know. Help?

      38 votes
    32. Indecision: Get a camera despite having a phone

      Hi, Tildes. Another rambly post in an attempt to get authentic advice. Thanks in advance. :) -- I'd like to crowdsource your experiences before making a big purchase (a camera made for selfies)....

      Hi, Tildes. Another rambly post in an attempt to get authentic advice. Thanks in advance. :)

      --

      I'd like to crowdsource your experiences before making a big purchase (a camera made for selfies). If anyone was in a similar situation did you like having your phone and your camera separate, etc. I currently have an iPhone SE 2022 to provide more context.

      Why I'm considering buying a camera:

      • preserving high quality moments with high quality digital photos of people I'm with, don't care so much for all the fancy settings to get the perfect shot of a landscape (but that's a welcome bonus of course)
      • provides a way to be less dependent on a phone
      • maybe eventually taking videos or vlogs with it

      Why I'm hesitating:

      • is a smartphone already enough? + two devices may be a bit cumbersome but maybe worth it for the difference in quality?
      • is it annoying to always have to bring it?
      • too expensive for what a phone already does?

      I've done SOME research as well into this while I've been back and forth this idea for months: If I crack and decide to get a proper camera (without your advice of course), it would be a Sony ZV-1F. But open to suggestions for other models too! It's just to give an idea for people to understand what I'm sorta kinda looking for.

      18 votes
    33. What does ChatGPT know about you?

      Yesterday I discovered that you can ask ChatGPT what it knows and It will tell you. I’m curious about what it says for other people. Obviously, don’t post anything you’re unwilling to share...

      Yesterday I discovered that you can ask ChatGPT what it knows and It will tell you. I’m curious about what it says for other people.

      Obviously, don’t post anything you’re unwilling to share publicly on the Internet! For me it seems pretty harmless, though.

      The prompt I use is:

      What "user knowledge memories" do you have?

      22 votes
    34. I need headphone/mic recommendations for gaming before I rip my hair out

      Hi, Tildes! I'm being pressed to pick a present for myself (around 100€) and it happens the headphones I use for gaming at home (HyperX Cloud II) are starting to fall apart after several years of...

      Hi, Tildes!

      I'm being pressed to pick a present for myself (around 100€) and it happens the headphones I use for gaming at home (HyperX Cloud II) are starting to fall apart after several years of use. Whenever I buy tech, I usually spend a long time researching with the goal of finding the highest price-quality ratio for my budget, something that would last me a long time without glaring issues; but I've been having trouble doing that in this case.

      I often hear from audiophiles that gaming headphones are generally overpriced for their quality - something I can definitely imagine - and that you should try and go for a good headset with a separate mic. But despite my searching, I haven't seen anyone actually recommend any specific combo of headset and mic that fit my budget. If I may say, I'm also somewhat starting to doubt the advice of audiophiles: I've seen threads of people saying they didn't sense a difference in audio quality between their gaming headphones and the new audiophile headphones they were recommended, or even that they found it to be worse, and the response was that they'll get used to it or that they just have a bad ear (said a lot more aggressively than how I'm paraphrasing), which is making me think it's more of a subjective difference. Then again, I'm not very well educated about audio!

      What I need is a pair with surround sound, appropriate quality for the price point, that will last me a long time and without mandatory crappy software associated. This is for gaming, enjoying music and general use (I've been meaning to pick up some music production casually but this is very much secondary). For the mic, I just need something decent that won't be a pain to listen to for my friends on call and that doesn't cut me out when I laugh or whistle as my current mic does (sometimes someone tells me a joke and then doesn't hear my reaction at all and I feel very bad about that). Preferably one that doesn't take too much space on my desk but I have no scale of that, so I won't be picky about it. (EDIT: to be clear, it can be an attached mic, desktop mic, whatever mic, so long as it works!)

      Before considering the headphone + mic combo idea, I was looking at the SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7 or Logitech G PRO X because both were recommendations I saw, but the former has a fairly bad mic and the latter forces you to use G HUB, which pains me. What is there that's better for this usage?

      Thanks in advance!

      36 votes
    35. What's a setting that you'd recommend?

      Kind of an awkward title, but I'm talking about settings for your phone, your OS, your coffee maker, etc. With all the tech in our lives, and with so many devices and software having quite a...

      Kind of an awkward title, but I'm talking about settings for your phone, your OS, your coffee maker, etc.

      With all the tech in our lives, and with so many devices and software having quite a robust set of options for how they work, it's easy for us to not even know that something is available. How many cool things are we missing out on if we're just accepting the defaults?

      So, what's a setting, on anything you have or use regularly, that you recommend to others?

      What makes it so worthwhile?

      82 votes
    36. Why does this happen?

      A photographer I knew passed away, and I was trying to see if there was any information. This was the top result I got on google. The part after the ellipses says “killed in a plane accident in...

      A photographer I knew passed away, and I was trying to see if there was any information. This was the top result I got on google. The part after the ellipses says “killed in a plane accident in Pantanal.”

      He did not die in the plane accident! That’s another piece of Brazilian news, about the architect Kongjian Yu. The search result is even tagged with Yu’s Sponge City/Cidade Esponja.

      So why is this showing up for a post summary about José Bassit? There’s nothing in the post comments or the post itself saying anything like this.

      14 votes
    37. Has anyone here tried bone conduction headphones?

      I just found out that bone conduction headphones exist, and I’m admittedly intrigued. I usually wear only one earbud because I like to still be able to hear my surroundings (transparency mode...

      I just found out that bone conduction headphones exist, and I’m admittedly intrigued.

      I usually wear only one earbud because I like to still be able to hear my surroundings (transparency mode doesn’t feel the same to me). My husband feels similarly and also hates the feeling of in-ear buds. So a pair of two of these might work nicely for us.

      Does anyone have any hands heads on experience with them (any make/model)?

      Would you recommend them?

      How is the sound quality?

      Are they comfortable to wear?

      How do they compare to standard headphones?

      48 votes
    38. Automation for android, preferably FOSS

      I'm wanting to automate a thing on my android phone. I would like to activate and deactivate alarms based on calendar events (by keywords in their name or description). example I have an event...

      I'm wanting to automate a thing on my android phone.

      I would like to activate and deactivate alarms based on calendar events (by keywords in their name or description).

      example I have an event **work** with the description *shop* so I would like to activate the alarms "wake up work shop 1", "wake up work shop 2" and "wake up work shop 3".
      Do you have any suggestions?
      22 votes
    39. ente.io as a Google Photos alternative?

      I've been in the lengthy process of degoogling myself. Email is done, Calendars are done, drive is more or less done (but now at MS, so... yeah) - but a real sticking point is Google Photos. I...

      I've been in the lengthy process of degoogling myself. Email is done, Calendars are done, drive is more or less done (but now at MS, so... yeah) - but a real sticking point is Google Photos.

      I just love looking up places and faces and the occasional "This day one year ago" albums really lighten up my day.

      Additionally, I am a bit of a hoarder, I never ever throw out photos, so I have right now 101 GB of pictures since 2012. This will be a pain to migrate so I only want to do it once.

      I tried Immich, but could not make it work on my NUC with a very limited connection to the Internet and probably because of the vast number of images.

      I came across ente.io, and it looks promising. While 4.99€ per Month for 200gb isn't exactly cheap, it feels still okay for hosting all of my visual memories.

      But before committing, I would like to get some more feedback on this service, what is nice and what is not so nice and why you feel comfortable with entrusting them with your pictures.


      Edit
      After the very helpful answers in this thread, I signed up for a 200 GB plan, downloaded all my pictures from google and I'm currently in the process of uploading them to ente. This takes a bit longer than I thought, but then again, these are 45.000 pictures and live-pictures.
      So far, this feels pretty slick. Thanks for the feedback here.

      26 votes
    40. My guess and opinion on the common blockers to Linux adoption

      The big one seems to be the inability to buy a mainstream device with a Linux distribution preinstalled. The few options I know of are niche devices or sometimes single models usually marketed as...

      The big one seems to be the inability to buy a mainstream device with a Linux distribution preinstalled. The few options I know of are niche devices or sometimes single models usually marketed as dev devices. It is also near impossible to even find something without any os installed. Even manufacturer like Framework doesn't offer Linux preinstalled laptops or even just fully assembled ones but without os.

      Lacking third party software and hardware support. This is a very real problem and something that can make Linux unviable for specific use cases but also something that will never resolve without higher adoption in personal computing, my guess is at tenth of marketshare we would start seeing it being treated as a serious option. It is amazing that something like wine exists and how well it works but it still can't do everything and it is worse than native support. Similarly not many people are willing to even consider VMs or dual booting for specific workflows that need Windows.

      Fragmentation of distros and ways to do things but with standard recommended beginner distros this seems to me more of a perception then a clear problem for most use cases for majority users who would theoretically migrate.

      A fallacy where people value a thing perceived to be free less also seems to play a role along with public perception of Linux and its users. Slogans such as Linux is only free if you don't value your time which is ironically IMO more true of Windows these days with the cost usually part of the price of the device and not really perceived or considered by the average buyer.

      This seems similar to the usual jokes about vegans and other ill formed perceptions. My guess is that it is the result of people plain ignoring things that have potentional to be uncomfortable along with those with niche opinions being more likely to have considered them and to have strong reasons to hold them along with wanting to at least tell people what they are.

      I am just plain ignoring Mac here to be more concise and because I have zero experience with them.

      36 votes
    41. What can I do with my old Pixel 3 phone in 2025?

      I recently moved to a place and unearthed an old Pixel 3. I updated it to the last official update (October 2021) but not sure what to do with it. It’s not worth any money (or at least I don’t...

      I recently moved to a place and unearthed an old Pixel 3. I updated it to the last official update (October 2021) but not sure what to do with it. It’s not worth any money (or at least I don’t think so) and I have a dedicated Android gaming device (Retroid Pocket 5).

      What could I do with this device?

      I was trying to think of a way to use it. Was thinking of setting it up facing my backyard to film squirrels/possums/birds, but it would likely fill the storage up in less than one day of continuous recording. I’m probably getting way ahead of myself but would there be a way to use it like an IP cam or Ring doorbell that records everything not on the device?

      Any other unrelated ideas are welcome too. I just don’t want to throw it away since it’s functioning quite well.

      29 votes
    42. How are Framework Laptops?

      We had this topic a couple of months ago where Framework was mentioned in a few response threads, but the overarching discussion was across a wider subject. My 2016 (I think? It was snagged from e...

      We had this topic a couple of months ago where Framework was mentioned in a few response threads, but the overarching discussion was across a wider subject.

      My 2016 (I think? It was snagged from e waste) era thinkpad is struggling to keep up with my usage of it. The screen is small, the keyboard sucks, the touchpad is not quite right, it is beyond its useful life.

      I like the idea of a Framework laptop. I am leaning toward getting one on principal. It seems like this company is going to survive for a while. I think the last thing I am looking for is anecdotes.

      If you use or have used a Framework as a daily driver, what are the pros and cons that you have with them compared to a similar less-modular system? How is support?

      46 votes
    43. Experiences with FarmBot or similar gardening robots?

      This is just a random thought I had. I don't do gardening currently and not looking for advice per se. Just thinking about how the physical world feels far behind in terms of automation compared...

      This is just a random thought I had. I don't do gardening currently and not looking for advice per se. Just thinking about how the physical world feels far behind in terms of automation compared to the digital world, and wondering what kind of possibilities are out there. I was wondering how close we are to having consumer-form-factor robots to help with various things, and growing food is a natural starting place.

      I was imagining what kind of robots are needed to deal with a garden—assuming a house with a plot of land suitable for a large garden—with tasks like:

      • Fetching water, either from plumbed water or a natural water source
      • Getting seeds from somewhere. Maybe online shopping and then the robot knowing how to open the box. (Probably not by identifying existing plants and picking/stealing them.)
      • Planting the seeds in the right place
      • Watering the plants regularly
      • Maintaining temperature and sun exposure
      • Digging up the plant and bringing it indoors so I can inspect or smell it without having to go outside. Then replanting it safely.
      • Determining when food is ripe, picking it, reusing the seeds
      • Washing and cooking it

      It feels like a lot of these are already available off-the-shelf today. I searched and there is a project which I hadn't heard of before called FarmBot which seems neat and geared toward enthusiasts ("prosumers") and education, and includes open source hardware and software. To be clear I'm not affiliated with them in any way.

      FarmBot probably handles a lot of the important parts of gardening, but I'm sure it doesn't handle everything on my list. How far are we from a 100% automated experience?

      Other than that there was some recent marketing around cheap robots like LeRobot by HuggingFace (the company where basically all the open-weight AI models are hosted). It has nothing to do with farming except that they have one shaped like a hand, so it could probably be programmed to grasp and move things around.

      Sorry for the rambling post. Really curious to hear if anyone else has gone into robotics and interested in hearing your experiences and also other resources on what state-of-the-art looks like. Also I bet a lot of this is solved in proprietary solutions and by Big Agriculture, but right now I'm more curious on the consumer-grade level.

      12 votes
    44. Photo digitizing

      Hi all, I've got (probably) a few thousand family photographs that I plan on scanning/digitizing. These photographs are organized into dozens or hundreds of envelopes with month/year and sometimes...

      Hi all,

      I've got (probably) a few thousand family photographs that I plan on scanning/digitizing. These photographs are organized into dozens or hundreds of envelopes with month/year and sometimes event description written on them. I'm on the fence between using a service to do it or DIYing it with a scanning machine.

      The way I see it is -

      Service pros:

      1. I don't have to do it myself

      Service cons:

      1. I may have no control over how the digitized photos are tagged or organized (date tagged, filename)
      2. Risk of photographs being lost/damaged
      3. $$$$

      DIY pros:

      1. I can tag and organize the photos exactly how I want
      2. Much less expensive

      DIY cons:

      1. I have little spare time and this project could be extremely time consuming.

      I would love to hear if anyone here has experience doing this and what techniques or pitfalls you may have discovered along the way.

      7 votes
    45. Help: Suddenly seeing a huge influx of ethernet devices on my network

      I noticed today that there are a large number of devices on my home network, all claiming to be ethernet connections. They kind of claimed all free IP addresses from x.x.x.63-253. They are not all...

      I noticed today that there are a large number of devices on my home network, all claiming to be ethernet connections. They kind of claimed all free IP addresses from x.x.x.63-253. They are not all on from what I have seen (and they are currently almost all off). Normally, my network should have only a handful of ethernet devices, which are my Fedora desktop, my Proxmox host, my OpenMediaVault VM on Proxmox machine running 24/7, and then the occassional VM I boot up as needed. I searched the occasional MAC address of one of these devices, and nothing came up. Does anyone know what the culprit of this would be or what I could use to diagnose it?

      Screenshot of some of the weird devices listed (I blacked out my known devices)

      Edit: It appears to be solved. I believe my OpenMediaVault VM was acting up/having issues and was gobbling up IP addresses. The issue has not occurred since restarting my Proxmox host.

      19 votes
    46. Disabling Auto-Zoom in the YouTube app (iOS)

      Hey y’all, YouTube recently decided to put a feature into the app which zooms in to fill the screen more and reduce the dark space. There’s apparently settings for the android app, but I can’t...

      Hey y’all,

      YouTube recently decided to put a feature into the app which zooms in to fill the screen more and reduce the dark space. There’s apparently settings for the android app, but I can’t seem to find any way to disable if for iOS. Does anyone have any suggestions? It’s incredibly annoying and distracting when watching videos.

      14 votes
    47. Does anyone have a digg invite code I can get ?

      I joined their waitlist last month and still didn't get an invite, now they even have mobile apps but still invite-only... so any chance I can get an invite code from someone here 👉👈. I just want...

      I joined their waitlist last month and still didn't get an invite, now they even have mobile apps but still invite-only... so any chance I can get an invite code from someone here 👉👈. I just want to try and see what it's like

      Edit: I didn't expect so many comments, I hope everyone gets an invite! but I just want to say, it seems it doesn't work the same way as tildes and from what I can tell, you need to be a "Groundbreaker" to create invites and only 2 invites can be created? (would appreciate if someone can clarify that in the comments) and I'm personally not able to create invites from my account unfortunately, otherwise I would've sent an invite to everyone who commented. :(

      43 votes