This post is related and in some part a repetition of my other topic on how to buy a laptop for Linux.

Because I'm in Brazil, many brands and stores that do not ship to my country are out of the question, and even the ones that ship usually cost more than I can pay due to currency exchange rate and shipping costs themselves. What are some universal stores, brands and models that I can probably find on my location, that won't give me much trouble running Linux?

I don't require playing games or top performance (8GB RAM and i5 processor would be the minimum requirements). And SSD would be nice, but, for my budget, it's a plus.

I just need something that is durable and works reliably under Linux, especially when it comes to audio and HDMI output, video graphics adapter support, booting from USB, hibernating, sleeping and power management.

Thanks!

I just moved, and my new apartment is set up a little weird - gotta love old construction. As a result, the router has to be in the other end of the home from my PS4 which is my primary internet consumption device. The way I see it I have four options:

• Hot spot from my cell phone - not ideal because I pay per gig of data and it's not fast enough for gaming

• Run a really long Ethernet cord - possible but would be a little bit of a project. I looked into it a little and I'm curious if there is any appreciable difference between Cat 5, 6, 7, or 8 from a home user perspective. Also, what's a good resource for buying one, since Amazon is not really trustworthy anymore?

• Use a WiFi booster - I don't really have any experience with these. Would it be as fast as using the router, and if I used an Ethernet cable to connect my PS4 to it would it still be limited to wifi speeds?

• Get a stronger router - considering I technically rent my router from Verizon this is probably the most cost effective way to go in the long term, any suggestions for brands?

What are some of your must have browser extensions?

I recently made an effort to switch to Firefox, and now I'm looking for some good browser extensions to make my web browsing experience better. Here are the ones I currently use:

• HTTPS Everywhere
• Privacy Badger
• uBlock Origin
• Vimium

I just picked up a Nokia 3.1 for $120 in a bit of an emergency and I really like it. It's very light, Android One, very nice styling and again it's $120!

I was shocked by this experience at this price point. This thing is excellent for my use case, as a pre-paid EU phone as my lovely iPhone 6s Plus has only one Sim slot. Are there any other great budget phones out there?

After being skeptic of password managers for a long time, I've decided to take the plunge and get one installed. The burden of remembering dozens of passwords is simply getting a bit too much. So, I was wondering if anyone here has any recommendations of password managers? Maybe one you or a trusted friend use? Or maybe you think password managers are rubbish, and want to share you opinion?

Any suggestions are welcome, in the interest of fostering discussion/having the thread be useful to other people too. But in my specific use case, I want to be able to sync between devices. I'd prefer something open source, but it's not a requirement.

A really long time ago I was introduced to the Evoluent Vertical Mouse. Even though I was only in my early twenties I already had wrist issues and I thought this thing was god send. It was clunky but totally worth it.

These days there are a ton of vertical mice available. Is anyone else into these? I am looking to get a new one now that I'm on the mouse/keyboard a lot again. Do you have a preferred model?

note: If you have wrist issues and are curious, I highly recommend trying one out. One caveat is that the cheap one I got off of amazon recently is a bit too small for a decent sized guy like myself. Filling out your palm seems really important for maximum relief.

My laptop is showing sings of death, and I know I will need a new one soon. Also, I am planning to get a tablet and ditch my smartphone, and to stop using the laptop for browsing content: I'll do most of that to the phone/tablet, and use the laptop as an authoring tool: writing and coding.

So I am looking for a laptop that is cheap, light, and can keep running for at least 3-5hrs under mild Debian+Emacs load. Ideally around 11"-13".

I'm having some problems with a notebook I want to set up for a friend. And its the first time in a long time I'm not able to solve it just by myself. So I tried asking at #manjaro and #archlinux-newbies but I got no answer at all. It just seems that IRC changed a lot in the last 15 years. Or maybe my IRC manners are not up to date?
Anyway, do you know a place where there is a nice Linux-crowd? What are your favourite Places to get help? (besides the archwiki) ;-) I'm out of the loop for 10-15 years now because most places got pretty toxic.

I'm a pretty regular YouTube watcher but if I accidentally glance down at the comments section, I know my night is going to be ruined.

I wondered if there is any kind of YouTube app or service that lets you watch and search for videos (even access my subscribed channels) but with less of the crap, ie. the comments and related videos, which just take you down a YouTube rabbit hole that you won't get out of for hours.

Cheers!

I'm interested in what applications people use, maybe I can discover some better alternatives.

Music: Spotify for streaming, Dopamine for local music.

Cloud: OneDrive. As a student, I get 1 TB of space for free.

Email: Mailspring, though I'm eyeing eM Client as an alternative right now.

Text Processors: Mostly VS Code with LaTeX, but I do sometimes use good old MS Office.

Code: VS Code again, and also IntelliJ IDEA and CLion for the respective languages. VS Code for anything that isn't C or Java related. I'm also watching the development of Oni Vim 2.

PDF: On my laptop with a touch display, I use Drawboard. On my PC at home I use Nitro PDF.

Browser: Firefox, ever since the quantum update it's nice and snappy. Though maybe I'd switch to Vivaldi when they add Sync at some point.

I have discovered hackmd.io a few months ago and started digitalizing my massive mess of handwritten nodes together with all the terrible notepad/word mixed notes into one big personal "wiki" of knowledge. But I ran into a problem. HackMd can only handle ~50k characters before starting to lag and 100k characters is the limit per note, this doesn't even fit my one summary/tips note on one programming language. Do you know any alternatives? I really like markdown, since all of the notes look clean and organized, I can insert pictures and link to websites easily, but also love to work with them online, since I have to switch between 3 computers between university, home and my laptop.

Heya!

The question is rather straightforward. Even though I said smaller, size doesn't really matter for this - the focus is more on the community aspect rather than it being small. Here's my non-exhaustive list (in no particular order):

1. Tildes - This is unsurprising. It's definitely large for a "small" community, but it's managed to preserve it's culture very well, which is rather impressive. It's cozy and has high quality discussion.
2. Various Discord servers and IRC channels. This one is harder to pinpoint, to be honest. As far as IRC channels/Discord servers goes, some of the more niche gaming ones are probably some of the nicest environments. IRC-wise, I really haven't managed to find any particularly active ones, outside of the ones for the next list member...
3. tilde.town and probably the larger tildeverse. Not affiliated with Tildes, but generally just... a nice place to be. It's rather quiet a lot of the time, but their main IRC channel is, frankly, quite great. When it's active.
4. A lot of Mastodon instances, although of course not all. The fediverse is generally a nice place to be, although politics on there is kind of mushy and one sided. Genuine interactions on there, however, are extremely common and sorting by the global timeline is quite nice (most of the time.)
5. rateyourmusic is a nice community of those who are passionate about music. It's quite nice overall, though.

There's definitely a lot I've missed out, mainly because I probably don't know about them.

So, what are some of the smaller (or not) communities that you enjoy?

So I kind of want to try the Nokia 8110, it's a feature phone with an app store that contains it's own version of Google Maps and Assistant. I use my phone an awful lot, and I'm thinking that a less capable phone would be helpful in using my phone less for browsing the internet, news, and discourse and using it more for what I would want to do with it, calls, texts, navigation, music and podcasts.

Unfortunately, the Nokia 8110 is only available on AT&T in the States, and they stink, so I was wondering if anyone had any picks for devices that would scratch that itch, specialized apps, or other tools that could be used. I like the idea of another device that I could use as a daily driver so I can put some physical distance between myself and my current phone, but if you have an app or a system that you swear by, I'm down for it.

Also kind of interested in maybe combining the ZeroPhone Raspberry Pi with support for Alexa or Google Assistant, but that seems like a time waster and a half.

I thought I've been looking for a good password manager, but I'm not sure that's what I really need.

Here's my use case:

• I currently have a Google Sheet in my Google Drive that contains all my ID/passwords for everything
• In addition I have personal info in there like SSNs and Credit Cards #s
• I want to be able to have instant access to all of the info from my ancient iPhone and my laptop

Things I've tried:

• I messed around with Last Pass a bit and found it couldn't actually fill in the passwords in the apps I was using so I'd have to manually type them, which is a deal breaker for me.
• I've been using FireFox's LockBox and it's a bit better on that front but doesn't actually remember what the password goes to the app so I have to look it up each time, but it does populate them in the appropriate fields.
• Password-protecting a Google Sheet is apparently impossible but was a solution I was after for some time (Excel and Libre can do this..so +1 for software)

Other info:

• I am currently using an iPhone 5 but I plan to "upgrade" to a Samsung Galaxy S7 sometime in the near future. Perhaps that's why the functionality of these password managers seem so inconvenient for me? Would they work better on a modern phone?

What I'm after is perhaps two solutions:

• A password manager that crosses the bridge from desktop FireFox to the apps on my phone, and fills in the password for me automatically. That would allow me to feel like I could move to more random passwords for things.

• Some encrypted, password-protected site/app that could store plain text notes for sensitive things like SSNs and Credit Card #s that would stay in sync between a laptop and a smartphone.

Go ahead and mock me for my terrible security and ancient phone. I deserve it! But when you're done, I'd appreciate some guidance.

EDIT: Sounds like first priority should be to update my phone. Then there appear to be plenty of options to try. Thanks everyone so much!

I'm gonna have to buy a new smartphone soon, but I want to be able to keep that as long as possible. From my viewpoint, there are mainly three aspects to that: performance, software and battery lifespan/replaceability.
Do you have any recommendations (what I was originally hoping for - but didn't find - is a mid to high range phone with a maintained lineageos build and a replaceable battery)? And what are your ways to handle the problem of the user experience on smartphones degrading so quickly?

I'd like your input for an article I'm writing.

Let’s say you’re starting a new IT project. It could be custom software; perhaps it’s a migration to cloud services; maybe it’s a shiny new IoT project.

The point is that you're here to build something great. You’re in charge of the design (or an important part of it), and making sure that the resulting system makes everybody happy.

How do you make sure that you are interviewing the right people to find out what “make them happy” looks like? What do you do to get input from the people who matter for the project’s success… without inviting so many suggestions that it’s impossible to deliver everything?

Case in point: Ten years ago I was in charge of an online tech community. The company I worked for hired custom developers to build the software platform, but the developers never talked to me. They interviewed the boss, two levels above me (who just so happened to be the person who signed the checks) even though she had never used this online community or any other. Needless to say, the community software they delivered was horrible, missing basic-to-me features.

Formally this process would be called “identifying the project stakeholders” or “master the requirements-gathering process” but that seems too corporate-speak. I’m looking for real-world examples of what works and what doesn’t, so I can write a genuinely useful article with practical guidelines.

Note that this is NOT about the questions to ask those stakeholders; that’s another discussion. Here I am writing merely (merely!) about making sure you are speaking to the people whose input you need.

My questions:
• How do you decide which people to ask for input? In what way do you find those people? How do you know when you have everyone you should?
• How do you decide whom NOT to invite? Where do you draw the line?
• Tell me about the manner in which you learned that lesson. (The hard way. Anecdotes are good.)
• If you want to be quoted (it's good for business!) tell me (via PM) how to refer to you in the article: Name, title, company name, short company description, URL.

Win10's issues and walled-in options are driving me nuts lately. I have a variety of software like Illustrator, Photoshop, Blender, Tidal the Office Suite and Solidworks that I use very frequently. I really can't not use those. I'd also like to play Steam games.

However, I'd like to use a non-bloated and stupid end user-only OS since win10's shenanigans are driving me mad, but I'm not super tech-savy either(though I'm learning).

Is it feasible to switch over to another OS that offers more freedom in the things I want, but still can run the above programs? If so, which? If not, how should I cope with win10?

edit: Problem solved, davidb informed me about the vulnerability in version 3.0.4, and that it is fixed in the new version 3.0.6. Somehow Spyhunter thinks i still use 3.0.4, which in turn is the actual problem i had with Spyhunter, not VLC.

Spyhunter 5 has been bothering me about potential data leaks from vlc media player. The vulnerability is generally based on publicly available information.
It would be a shame if i have to switch, been using vlc for as long as i remember. It is probably the best media player out there, but i hate sharing my personal data in any way or form.

Spyhunter msg:

• Severity: Medium, VLC media player (Version 3.0.4)
  • The CAF demuxer in modules/demux/cad.c in VideoLan media player 3.0.4 may read memory from an uninitialized pointer when processing magic cookies in Caf files, because a ReadKukiChunk() cast converts a return value to an unsigned int, even if that value is negative. This could result in a denial of service and/or potential infoleak.

Is this even anything to care about? I have updated VLC including removing cashe and still get the alert. Is a rollback another option perhaps?

Youtube has a giant lead in the online video streaming market and in spite of many controversies (demonetization, click bait being promoted to peoples' front pages, etc.) there doesn't seem to be any indication that this is going to change. What do you think about the future of this industry? Which (if any) providers have a chance to become viable competitors to YouTube?

Tildes' guiding principles are laid out in its announcement post:

• Non-profit, no investors
• No advertising, user-supported
• Open, honest, and open-source
• Minimal user-tracking, better privacy
• High-quality content and discussions
• Limited tolerance, especially for assholes

I'm interested in other projects that line up with some or all of these principles. It doesn't have to be a site with the same function as Tildes, just the same feel. What else is out there that we should know about?

At the risk of sounding like an audiophile I noticed that on some bluetooth devices audio quality comes out absolutely terrible (Like radio recorded with a phone microphone). I was using a pair of Bose QC 35 headphones and on my phone they sound just fine but on my desktop which has a cheap $2 bluetooth usb the sound quality is terrible. Ok for $2 what can you expect but now I have a distrust for all bluetooth devices. How can I know if my bluetooth usb is killing the quality of audio when thats not even a listed spec on these devices. I looked in to this a little bit ago and there seem to be a few proprietary extensions to bluetooth that allow lossless streaming but they aren't well supported because they are proprietary. I understand that high quality lossy compression is pretty much the same quality as lossless but how do I find a product that uses high quality lossy compression when it seems some of them use absolutely horrible compression?

I am replacing my mouse, and I have giant hands. Pretty much every mouse I've ever used has been too small for me, so I would like to finally buy something that fits.

I don't need anything fancy beyond two buttons and a scroll-wheel. It doesn't have to have extra buttons or switchable DPI or anything like that (though I'm not opposed to those either). It'll be used on Linux, and will be my everyday driver. Wired and ergonomic are preferred but not mandatory.

Anyone have any good recommendations?

For the past few years, I've grown more and more uneasy with Amazon's business practices. I think it's time to move on. Not to mention the declining quality in products since international shippers were added (as discussed in the podcast Reply All).

I'm addicted to the convenience of 2 day shipping, even though we use Amazon less and less, I like knowing I have that option.

I've been considering a Costco membership instead - how does their online shopping and shipping times/prices compare?

I've also considered using Jet more but I don't know much about their ethics, does anyone?

Open to other alternatives and discussion about business ethics here.

Hey all. My old computer is fine, but the Oculus software has recently pushed an update where it no longer starts up, attempting to repair the software uninstalled it, and the install errors out despite clearing out the install cache and existing files while running it in network capable Safe mode with Defender off as recommended.

Eventually I narrowed it down to this error. https://forums.oculusvr.com/community/discussion/71083/cant-install-software-exiting-with-code-18 and since I'm using an old HP xw8400 build with two Xeon 5355 processors, it does kind of check out that this latest update finally became incompatible with my processor and it may be time to upgrade anyway. To my knowledge, there isn't really a way to get a more modern processor onto the motherboard, and I'm not going to rage at Oculus for not supporting hardware they were never supporting in the first place. (Auto Update and being unable to downgrade is meh, but I'm not going to win that fight.)

So what would you guys recommended for a new processor/ram/motherboard combination? My Graphics Card (RX480) and hard drive is still fine, and I'd like to keep it on the cheap for as much as we can do with VR.

I am generally dissatisfied with my phone options today. I want a phone that meets these requirements:

• microSD card slot
• 3.5mm headphone jack
• Unlockable bootloader without having to ask the manufacturer (i.e. fastboot oem unlock)
• Either LineageOS support or Android 8+
• Screen smaller than 6" (preferably smaller than 5.5")

I'd also prefer not to have a notch but it's not a dealbreaker. I don't really care much about having the thinnest phone, or the biggest screen, etc. I'd much prefer having more control over my device and the way I use it.

Does such a phone exist, or do I have my standards too high? I haven't seen a phone like this that came out 2017 or later.

I currently have a Nexus 6P whose battery dies at 35% and unfortunately nowadays with unreplaceable batteries, that means I have to replace the phone (sigh).

For my next phone, I'm seriously considering a CAT S61.

CATs (caterpillars) are a line of smartphones made for heavy-duty blue collar work. They're built to withstand shocks, drops, accidents and various intense situations. The S61 is a high end hybrid which pulls in USB-C, NFC and various other modernities. This makes it very tempting. The big pros for me are shock/drop resistance+waterproof and a headphone jack, microSD slot, no stupid notch, and a superb battery.

Where the CAT loses is on display resolution, camera quality and probably CPU/graphics card but having never owned one, I don't know how bad these are. It's also much thicker but that I really don't care about. It also doesn't seem to be compatible with lineageOS (and even if it were, I don't know that there's drivers for the various custom hardware bits such as the thermal imaging camera).

Before I drop $1k on one of these, anyone here got any hands-on experience with the CAT line?

I've been trying to find a small capacity (64GB or less) flash drive with decent read and write speeds, but haven't been able to find anything. I'm looking for something in the 200-300 MB/s read/write range, but I can't seem to find anything that reliably breaks the 100 MB/s mark even in larger capacities. The SanDisk Extreme Pro 128GB seems to have adequate performance, but at $65 is a bit out of my price range since I'd like to purchase a handful of drives.

Does anyone know of any other smaller flash drives with SSD-level performance?

Hi there everyone. I gave up on smart watches after Pebble sold out to fitbit and my OG Pebble started having screen issues (again). I never watched to spend hundreds on a smart watch or switch to the iOS ecosystem to use an Apple watch.

I was wondering if anyone here has had success with any other watches after having to give up their Pebble, something with a great battery life and good notification features without resorting to terrible china-watches.

Hope you have a great day!

Hi all,

In light of our recent conversations re quality, I'm sorry that this is more of a "nothing" post. But I trust you all and I think you could give me some good advice. I've tried Googling, but it's hard to find anything I feel is trustworthy.

I'm searching for a few tablets on which I can have employees view training videos and or SCORM training content. I believe all of this will be sourced from web-based companies with mobile platforms built-in. I know very little about tech stuff, so I don't know if a basic tablet would do, or if I need any certain specs.

I believe our wi-fi is good enough to support this. We'll be purchasing 2-8 of these for intermittent trainings.

Needs:

• Cheap-ish
• Durable (We will be buying industrial Otter-box type cases as well)
• Good volume/accessibility (Avg employee age is 52)
• Standard video playback (don't need super hi-def anything)

I posted in ~talk rather than ~tech or ~comp because I didn't think it would fit there. Thank you!

So I've nearly finished my exams and am going to have a bunch of free time soon. I want to try and learn to do some electronics stuff. I already have an Arduino and Pi and have done the basic flashing lights projects, but want to try something a bit more interesting (but not too expensive either)