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    1. Thoughts on the Proton app suite on Apple products?

      I am curious to see what other peoples experience has been with all of their apps? I made the decision to switch to proton for mail, drive, calendar and vpn 7 months ago. I wanted to get away from...

      I am curious to see what other peoples experience has been with all of their apps?

      I made the decision to switch to proton for mail, drive, calendar and vpn 7 months ago. I wanted to get away from having all my stuff tied to apple/google/microsoft. While it has been pretty solid for the most part, especially with android. The same cannot be said for their iOS/iPadOS apps at all. This will be my personal observation from my experience with iOS/iPadOS apps.

      Mail - Pretty solid all around experience, timely notifications on incoming mail. I have 4 email addresses setup based on the type of account I used for them. I only get bothered by the emails that I would need to see and the rest get checked around once a day. Recently the whole app on both iPad and iPhone has just slowed down so much. Opening the app is frustratingly slow, while everything loads in. I will get a new email and click on the notification and the app will sometimes load the last email I viewed and not the one from the notification. I have cleared the cache and signed out and then back in and it still has this behavior.

      Drive - This one is the biggest pain point for me. On iPhone the app crashes when you try to watch a video in landscape mode. This is a pretty basic feature in 2023 if you ask me. I did report the bug, to which they said they are aware and have no timeline for when it will be fixed. The next biggest issue with drive on iOS/iPadOS is that you can only upload 1 file at a time. If you do multiple files if not all, almost all of them will fail to upload. You have to do it 1 file at a time. Reported this and was told the same thing I was about the landscape mode. Seems odd to not want to fix a core function of a cloud storage app as soon as possible.

      VPN - I really enjoy this vpn and have paid for just the vpn in past. Now it constantly disconnects or gets stuck in connecting. I can’t use quick connect unless I manually pick a country connect then disconnect. After that I can use quick connect with out any issues. This happens without having secure core toggle on. This is happening on both my iPad and iPhone. Waiting on them to actually help trouble shoot this after sending them a bug report.

      Calendar - Is the most useless app they have every put out. I was so excited to finally dial this calendar app in when I got my iPad. Only to find out that they don’t have an iPad version of their calendar. Which makes no sense because that is an app that can really shine on an iPad when do well. This whole app just feels like an after thought and they only have it just to say we have a calendar app too.

      I feel that compared to when I started using all of their apps back in December. The quality and stability of the apps has really taken a hit. I understand that they probably have a focus on building their brand with an app suite based on privacy. I feel like the quality is really taking a hit especially with iOS/iPadOS versions of the apps. The obvious answer is to just switch back to android and save myself the headache of apple. The reason for apple is a whole post in its own and I want to keep this one on topic.

      For clarification, I have been using the iOS versions since December. I was switching between pixel 7 pro and 14 pro max every few weeks. Having an eco system of apps not based on either platform was also why I chose proton everything.

      11 votes
    2. Purchase a Chromebook or "regular" laptop?

      I'm looking to buy a new device and have started to look at chromebooks to see if it would be a suitable option. My use cases are pretty mundane: Online banking and other similar services Emailing...

      I'm looking to buy a new device and have started to look at chromebooks to see if it would be a suitable option. My use cases are pretty mundane:

      • Online banking and other similar services
      • Emailing
      • As a tool for GMing RPG campaigns (probably managed through some online service)
      • Stream video while traveling (eg Netflix, YouTube)
      • Note taking & drawing (possibly with a stylus)
      • Occasionally ssh to remote machines

      Arguably the heaviest of these would be streaming, but I guess most devices can handle that decently. Since I won't be doing any gaming or heavy dev work (on the actual machine) I figured I don't really have very high hardware requirements. As such perhaps a chromebook would be a good option. There are some downsides, mainly for me that it is heavily tied to the Google ecosystem. Can chromebooks be easily jailbroken and run a lightweight window manager on Linux? If so does the device retain its battery life okish? Could I still use a stylus with the device? Would I be better off buying a cheap laptop and install linux on that?

      Finally I've read that Google cancled their Pixelbook 2 last year. Has there been any updates or rumors of it coming back (I tend to like Google's hardware)?

      24 votes
    3. VR headsets, what do I need to know?

      I had last year my first and only experience with VR, at home with a friend. I dont even remember what the product was, but the experience was just amazing. Ever since I wanted to get a Headset...

      I had last year my first and only experience with VR, at home with a friend. I dont even remember what the product was, but the experience was just amazing. Ever since I wanted to get a Headset myself, but now I don't even where to start.
      What do I need to know to make a good decision, as these products are quite expensive?
      What should I look for? What are important details?

      I want mainly to play some games. That one day we just played beat saber and superhot.
      What other experiences are worth exploring?
      I have an ok linux (gaming) pc, it was beefy once, but it got quite some years now :-)
      I saw there are standalone products as well?

      32 votes
    4. iPhone support -- SMS verification codes not appearing as autofill. Help?

      My phone used to autofill the 2-factor SMS verification codes used when logging into a site. I can't remember when or why, but suddenly it doesn't appear, and I have to... (gasp) type in the SMS...

      My phone used to autofill the 2-factor SMS verification codes used when logging into a site. I can't remember when or why, but suddenly it doesn't appear, and I have to... (gasp) type in the SMS code manually.

      SOLVED:

      Autofill SMS codes only work with Safari.

      8 votes
    5. What apps/plug-ins/extensions etc do you use to improve Youtube on desktop?

      My experience with the extensions below is solely from Firefox. For livestream chat, I use Hyperchat mostly for the cpu usage reduction. Youtube-shorts block (Firefox,Chrome) forces shorts to play...

      My experience with the extensions below is solely from Firefox.

      For livestream chat, I use Hyperchat mostly for the cpu usage reduction.

      Youtube-shorts block (Firefox,Chrome) forces shorts to play in the regular video player, avoiding the horrid shorts UI.

      32 votes
    6. What, in your opinion, are the best true wireless earbuds for the price?

      My Soundcore earbuds recently kicked the bucket a bit too quickly for my taste, so I'm looking to spend more than $40 on my next pair. However, I'm not enough of an audiophile to get top of the...

      My Soundcore earbuds recently kicked the bucket a bit too quickly for my taste, so I'm looking to spend more than $40 on my next pair. However, I'm not enough of an audiophile to get top of the line Bose/Sony ones. What is the best mix of good price and quality you've found out there?

      41 votes
    7. How do you like your smart home setup?

      Just interested in how people's smart homes are set up and how they enjoy things or what they may dislike/wish was changed. Alexa? HomeKit? Google? A mix? Other? Glitches? Any complex or otherwise...

      Just interested in how people's smart homes are set up and how they enjoy things or what they may dislike/wish was changed.

      Alexa? HomeKit? Google? A mix? Other?
      Glitches?
      Any complex or otherwise unique use cases you've set up?

      40 votes
    8. What's the first thing you do when you get a new computer?

      Just got a new laptop. Downloaded firefox plus a few extensions, found a thing that fixes Windows 11's weird task bar, deleted the bundled McAfee, installed steam, GOG, and Epic and switched...

      Just got a new laptop. Downloaded firefox plus a few extensions, found a thing that fixes Windows 11's weird task bar, deleted the bundled McAfee, installed steam, GOG, and Epic and switched everything to dark mode. I feel like I'm forgetting a ton of things, but I'm not sure what.

      What do you include as part of the standard setup anyone should do with a new computer?

      61 votes
    9. Low/no latency wireless headphones for PC - Recommendations

      I need to replace my Logitech G935s, the plastic on the top broke on me. Ideally I would replace with something with: more battery life better sound stage well built/premium feel It's very hard to...

      I need to replace my Logitech G935s, the plastic on the top broke on me. Ideally I would replace with something with:

      • more battery life
      • better sound stage
      • well built/premium feel

      It's very hard to tell what is good out there - with so many options, and my concern is if I just buy any bluetooth enabled headset it will introduce audio latency which isn't something I can live with in games. But I cannot stand having a cord attached that gets all twisted up.

      I'm not tied to it having an attached mic, as I can buy one separately but its a plus.

      Anyone out there have any good recommendations? What does everyone else use?

      19 votes
    10. High quality USB-C in-ear monitors or good aux-to-USB-C adapters?

      I recently upgraded my phone and to my dismay everyone followed apples moronic choice to remove aux ports. I want to keep using my KZ in ears, and while they have bluetooth adapters I rarely like...

      I recently upgraded my phone and to my dismay everyone followed apples moronic choice to remove aux ports.

      I want to keep using my KZ in ears, and while they have bluetooth adapters I rarely like how bluetooth sounds and also don't want to worry about having to charge them either.

      Both adapters I've bought either buzz like crazy or my phone is convinced is constantly disconnecting and pausing my music. Anyone know of anything in the budget range thats as good as KZ or good adapters?

      14 votes
    11. Anyone daily driving a jailbroken iPhone?

      I know the scene is in a rut right now with iOS 16 having pretty much no hope (and with iOS 17 right around the corner), but I wanted to see if anyone else is using a jailbroken iPhone (or any...

      I know the scene is in a rut right now with iOS 16 having pretty much no hope (and with iOS 17 right around the corner), but I wanted to see if anyone else is using a jailbroken iPhone (or any other device) on a day to day.
      If you are, drop your device, version and tweak list, I wanna add some new tweaks to my collection! My favs at the moment are Jellyfish (LS clock replacer), Saw (removes space at the bottom of the screen) and Ampere (iOS 16 style battery)

      18 votes
    12. Tasker issues with volume sync on new Pixel

      Hi all, first post so hope I do it right. I just read the Tasker post and thought I'd post a question/request here about it. On my old Samsung S21 I wrote a simple Tasker script that detected a...

      Hi all, first post so hope I do it right.

      I just read the Tasker post and thought I'd post a question/request here about it.

      On my old Samsung S21 I wrote a simple Tasker script that detected a change in volume on one of the sliders, eg Media, and then adjusted the others, IE System, Notification and Call, to match with a little check, ie %VOLM neq %VOLR.

      It worked fine in my Samsung but goes all over the place on my new Pixel!

      Has anyone else seen this or can post something that works on Pixels? Or maybe my scripts need some work!

      The trigger is variable set, IE VOLM, and the actions are to set the other 3 volumes to VOLM if they are not already set to that. And I have 4 of those, one for each variable.

      And advice appreciated!

      5 votes
    13. Redditors of Tildes, which subreddits are you missing the most during the blackout?

      I am really struggling without r/selfhosted. I truly believe it is, by far, the best community for self-hosters that I have come across. What I am missing most of all is, whenever I search for...

      I am really struggling without r/selfhosted. I truly believe it is, by far, the best community for self-hosters that I have come across. What I am missing most of all is, whenever I search for questions to self-hosting problems - especially for smaller projects - the answers are nearly always found within posts on that sub.

      At least with things like programming, there is stackoverflow and a bunch of other small communities.

      I'm going to end up going to Discord to find my solutions, which is the next big community. But it means having to go on there and ask the question (that has probably been asked hundreds of times before), rather than just searching the issue.

      198 votes
    14. Pay-per-use VPS recommendations

      I'm currently stuck in a hospital waiting room for probably the rest of the day, so brought my tablet along in the hopes of still being able to get a bit of work done. Plan was to use Termux to...

      I'm currently stuck in a hospital waiting room for probably the rest of the day, so brought my tablet along in the hopes of still being able to get a bit of work done. Plan was to use Termux to ssh into my home computer, but realized too late that this tablet's ssh key hasn't been authorized yet (it's pretty new), so that's a no-go.

      Does anyone have recommendations for a good VPS host that charges only for the time you're using it? The day could still be salvaged if I could get into a fresh linux box that can run docker. The only pay-as-you-go VPS I've ever used is Amazon EC2, which is fine, but I'm hoping there are better options that are a little less cumbersome to spin up and tear down.

      5 votes
    15. Any Tasker users around?

      I just recently joined Tildes (absolutely loving it so far, by the way) and also recently left Reddit. r/Tasker will probably be the hardest for me to let go of since I'm an avid Tasker fan/user,...

      I just recently joined Tildes (absolutely loving it so far, by the way) and also recently left Reddit.

      r/Tasker will probably be the hardest for me to let go of since I'm an avid Tasker fan/user, so I'm just trying to gauge the audience for that type of discussion and topics here on Tildes.

      I'm not as big of a power user in phone automation as I would like to become but I'm fairly savvy and am learning more all the time.

      15 votes
    16. What was your favorite older social media site/app? What did you like or dislike?

      +1 for slashdot, mainly because of intelligent topics and conversations about science, technology, scifi, games and all that fun stuff. Community participation and quality discourse made it...

      +1 for slashdot, mainly because of intelligent topics and conversations about science, technology, scifi, games and all that fun stuff. Community participation and quality discourse made it interesting.

      Everything on popular social media "out there" now is about click bait and sound bites, even comments and replies. Posts (and communities) are reduced to nothing more than grabbing a few seconds of attention.

      69 votes
    17. Upgrading power bank with modifications?

      Hello ~tech, I have a Mi Power Bank 2C (PLM06ZM) and wish to upgrade it to able to charge or be charged with a 65W USB C port, with minimal damage, harm and according to USB C PD standards. My...

      Hello ~tech,

      I have a Mi Power Bank 2C (PLM06ZM) and wish to upgrade it to able to charge or be charged with a 65W USB C port, with minimal damage, harm and according to USB C PD standards.

      My chargers use 9V, 12V, 15V and 20V, the last one which my ThinkPad X280 uses.

      Online searches for a 65W power bank enclosure without the batteries yield no suitable results, so I might need to use a PD Decoy board.

      Are there any advice, links to guides and resources I could use to accomplish my objective?

      Thank you.

      7 votes
    18. Are any AI virtual assistants actually useful?

      AI Virtual Assistants are on the rise, and logically it seems like I could use one to support productivity, small business, neurodivergent accomodations, etc., BUT, when reviewing what's out there...

      AI Virtual Assistants are on the rise, and logically it seems like I could use one to support productivity, small business, neurodivergent accomodations, etc., BUT, when reviewing what's out there they don't seem super useful.

      Otter seems the most useful because it can attend web meetings and record, contextualize screenshares, and sift the transcripts into action items, but it cant go to all webinar services and I'm not sure I can log into this in a corporate platform. Others seem to be able to check a calendar or make a reminder, but nothing I would pay for.

      Some use cases might be gathering basic info from clients, scheduling meetings (calendly can handle this), blocking time for my task lists, writing basic email drafts, adding up expenses each month, sending reminders for customers, etc.

      All of this could happen with various tools, but seem like good territory for an AI Virtual Assistant.

      So, have you found any AI VAs that would be worth paying for? Anything that saves time or makes life easier?

      23 votes
    19. What Obsidian plug-ins do you use?

      It seems that Obsidian is a very popular note-taking software within the community here, so I would like to know what plugins you use for your daily workflow in Obsidian. I will start: Advanced...

      It seems that Obsidian is a very popular note-taking software within the community here, so I would like to know what plugins you use for your daily workflow in Obsidian. I will start:

      • Advanced Tables: Very useful for adding and managing markdown tables using simple intuitive keyboard strokes.

      • Callout Manager: I tend to abuse the callout function (in my academic vault, I organize any kind of information inside a callout with the source of the info as the title), so it is good to have control of the colors for different kinds of callouts.

      • Minimal Theme Settings: Nothing much to talk about. Just some eye candy to make my notes easier on the eyes. Plus, the focus mode is very good for study sessions.

      • Obsidian Matrix: Allows me to organize some mathematical LaTeX code properly.

      • Reading Time: Useful to grasp the length of a longer note at a quick glance.

      • Recent Files: Helps me set myself around my files.

      • Style Settings: Complement of "Minimal Theme Settings" to achieve maximum eye candy.

      • List Callouts: I use it only in my personal projects vault. It helps me give particular emphasis to specific topics within my lists.

      • Table of Contents: Useful for longer, heavily-structured notes.

      Aside from that, I also have four CSS snippets:

      1. Align: Aligns my linked figures to the center of the page.
      2. Callout: Specifies the size of callouts (useful, as I mainly structure my notes inside callouts).
      3. Hide: Hides my "resources" folder from the Obsidian explorer (this folder contains files such as figures and PDFs that I link into my notes).
      4. Justify: Justifies all the text in read-mode.
      18 votes
    20. Why are we often hesitant to spend money on digital services?

      This is sort of a "does anyone else?" type question, but I think it can create some interesting discussion. We have become accustomed to having many things for free online. Search, social media,...

      This is sort of a "does anyone else?" type question, but I think it can create some interesting discussion.

      We have become accustomed to having many things for free online. Search, social media, news, videos, games etc. The price of course is ads and our personal data. But spending money on these kinds of services that exists for free sometimes feels like a hurdle to overcome. I recently gave the paid search engine Kagi a try, and I spent way too much time pondering whether it was worth the $5. Yet I can spend ten times as much on random physical purchases or a round drinks with only a few seconds of decision making.

      Even though we have lived with digital products for decades now, having something tangible and physical between your fingers still feels better. With some exceptions, because most people are paying for streaming services but renting movies in the video store have always cost money, so we are used to that - unlike stuff like search and email which many of us have gotten used to being available for free.

      Can this ever change outside very tech-minded people? Because services that rely on subscriptions rather than dataharvesting and ads do exist, but with the exceptions of maybe the big streaming services, few get wider appeal and the masses flock to the so-called free services instead. I find it almost depressing that we have all these brilliant and innovative tech companies around the world doing amazing things, but a good deal of it all ends up with the goal of showing more ads. It is hard to compete with free, but is it possible to challenge the current most successful business model of "paying" with ads and data?

      36 votes
    21. Redditors of Tildes .. what is the thing you can live without?

      Akin to this: https://tildes.net/~tech/1670/redditors_of_tildes_which_subreddits_are_you_missing_the_most_during_the_blackout What can we leave behind? What should we leave behind? For me, the one...

      Akin to this: https://tildes.net/~tech/1670/redditors_of_tildes_which_subreddits_are_you_missing_the_most_during_the_blackout

      What can we leave behind?
      What should we leave behind?

      For me, the one BIG thing is the stupid puns.
      Threads full and full and full of puns, one after the other.

      Case in point:
      https://tildes.net/~movies/16bf/chasing_horse_faces_sex_assault_charges

      I can so live without that side of reddit.

      edit: Yeah, that "thread" is two comments long, but I just got reddit flashbacks just seeing those.

      100 votes
    22. What's the most unexpected thing you've stumbled upon on the internet?

      Mine is a Facebook group called ALDI Aisle of Shame. I don't know if it's okay to link to it, so I'll just let you all google it if you want to check it out! Not too long ago on...

      Mine is a Facebook group called ALDI Aisle of Shame. I don't know if it's okay to link to it, so I'll just let you all google it if you want to check it out!

      Not too long ago on /r/femalefashionadvice, someone mentioned a product in a comment section and I went to look for it online. This lead me to said group and the place was so unexpectedly incredibly wholesome..! It is the silliest thing. There are more than one and a half million members all praising the quality of ALDI products, and posting pictures of their hauls.

      Recently, a trend was to post pictures of your dog and even a pony in hats gotten from ALDI and it is just so much fun! Even women doing the Spiderman meme in real life as they spot each other with the same outfit from ALDI.

      PS: I am aware Tildes is text-focused so please let me know if this many images in a post is against the spirit of Tildes! Wasn't sure if it's ok to include images in a text post like this.

      54 votes
    23. Google drive+ drive pool+ Cloud drive read only mode possible?

      I currently have a setup using Google Workspace, StableBit DrivePool, and Cloud Drive. I recently received notification from Google stating that I will no longer be permitted to exceed their...

      I currently have a setup using Google Workspace, StableBit DrivePool, and Cloud Drive.

      I recently received notification from Google stating that I will no longer be permitted to exceed their allotted storage limit of 5TB. However, I am currently utilizing over 50TB of storage.

      In just one month, my service with Google will be transitioned to read-only mode. Considering my familiarity with DrivePool, I am concerned about the potential for drive corruption if I continue using the service until I find a suitable alternative.

      I need help to determine if my drive would be at risk of getting corrupted during this transitional period?

      4 votes
    24. Reutilizing old computers for modern use

      I really like tinkering with older PC's, trying to make them work for modern usecases which is mostly using web browser. Anyone else do this here? Or interested in it? I have old 10" netbook from...

      I really like tinkering with older PC's, trying to make them work for modern usecases which is mostly using web browser.

      Anyone else do this here? Or interested in it?

      I have old 10" netbook from 2007 or so, it has 1gb RAM and Intel Atom 32bit that barely can handle things. However, I switched it's old SATA hard drive to an SSD, and it is a bit faster at booting now! I also ordered 2gb RAM stick, so maybe that will help it a bit too. It's also running OpenSUSE Tumbleweed 32 bit, but i dont recommend this for linux newcomers since it's a bit different distro.

      If you have an old laptop or PC lying around, try breathing life into it by installing a Linux distro like Debian 12. Change a spinning hard drive to an SSD. For even older retro hardware there are even SD card adapters and such, that can work in place of old hard drives.

      My goal is to make this tiny netbook good for light web browsing and maybe even scripting on things and having a Matrix chat window open. It's perfect tablet size, but very underpowered, even during it's release, so it's a challenge. But that's what makes this kinda fun! Also it helps tone down e-waste if one can use an old device for modern things.

      44 votes
    25. Learning Swift - Best suggestions

      Hey everyone, I’ve been messing with complex nested if/then statements in Excel for many, many years, and recently dabbled in VBA. I’ve decided it’s time to learn Swift for Apple. Mainly for...

      Hey everyone,
      I’ve been messing with complex nested if/then statements in Excel for many, many years, and recently dabbled in VBA. I’ve decided it’s time to learn Swift for Apple. Mainly for kicks, but also the fun of creating an app if I find a need.

      For those of you that know these things, what’s your biggest suggestion for learning? Most useful tips? Things to watch out for? Etc.

      Thanks!

      8 votes
    26. Good, quality YouTube channels?

      Hey everyone, It’s my first post here so my apologies if I mess something up. Recently I’ve been refreshing my YouTube homepage constantly because I feel like it’s either: A.) Suggesting me things...

      Hey everyone,

      It’s my first post here so my apologies if I mess something up.

      Recently I’ve been refreshing my YouTube homepage constantly because I feel like it’s either:
      A.) Suggesting me things I’ve already seen before
      B.) Suggesting me things I have no interest in

      So I’m going to go straight to the source and find some good YouTuber Channels I may have not heard of.

      I primarily enjoy gaming critiques, history topics & natural disaster docs (kind of random I know), videos detailing scammers (SBF, Elizabeth Holmes, etc) but I don’t limit myself to these, I’m pretty much open to anything as long as it’s entertaining and/or informative… preferably both.

      YouTubers I currently watch:

      • NeverKnowsBest
      • LiamTriforce
      • Knowing Better
      • Internet Historian
      • Ordinary Things
      • RennsReviews
      • Scott The Woz
      • SAWS
      • ADoseOfBuckley
      • DAngelo Wallace

      Any recommendations are seriously appreciated. I don’t limit myself to a specific genre, but longer form content is definitely preferable.

      120 votes
    27. The social web is in a transition period

      Have you been visiting just too many different social media platforms lately, checking them out to see what the deal is? Well, same here. It feels like I've been a guest every night in different...

      Have you been visiting just too many different social media platforms lately, checking them out to see what the deal is? Well, same here. It feels like I've been a guest every night in different houses for the past month and I must say: I am exhausted.

      But it's not over, far from it.

      And I'm here to give you a heads up: we've witnessed platforms dying in the past, I'm guessing most of us have been a part of some sort of digital exodus before but I have a feeling that this one is going to be more painful.

      Mainly because we've created so much data over the years and the majority of it got collected by centralised platforms. There are very few ways to take it with us and move elsewhere, it's all locked in.

      Backing up your data now would also be a good idea, before some CEO comes with up the plan that it should be a paid feature.

      I just want to say that this is all to be expected because the social web is in a transition period, and that golden bookmark doesn't exist yet. However, I think there are some contenders for it. What I want to ask is: where will you go next?

      I've got some ideas, feel free to add your preference if I'm missing anything.

      • Threads: Meta's Twitter clone that will be out some time this summer. It will be a federated (ActivityPub-enabled) platform.
      • Bluesky: Jack Dorsey-backed Twitter clone. This one is also federated but it uses AT Protocol.
      • Mastodon: The Twitter clone. It's got a fairly large userbase now, with lots of instances to choose from.
      • Blog: Maybe it's not a bad idea to set up shop on a platform like Micro.blog (which is ActivityPub-enabled and has got community features built-in) and lead a quiet digital life.
      • Threadiverse: Reddit-alikes.
      39 votes
    28. What operating system do you run your home servers on?

      I'm going to set up my first home server with an Intel NUC, but I can't decide what OS to use. Ubuntu seems popular but I like Pop!_OS and am not sure if that would be a good option. Then there's...

      I'm going to set up my first home server with an Intel NUC, but I can't decide what OS to use. Ubuntu seems popular but I like Pop!_OS and am not sure if that would be a good option. Then there's TrueNas and Unraid, but as a newbie, what's the best choice?

      I'm also just curious what everyone else is using :)

      Edit: Thank you for your great responses!

      49 votes
    29. Anyone know of research using GPTs for non-language tasks

      I've been a computer scientist in the field of AI for almost 15 years. Much of my time has been devoted to classical AI; things like planning, reasoning, clustering, induction, logic, etc. This...

      I've been a computer scientist in the field of AI for almost 15 years. Much of my time has been devoted to classical AI; things like planning, reasoning, clustering, induction, logic, etc. This has included (but had rarely been my focus) machine learning tasks (lots of Case-Based Reasoning). For whatever reason though, the deep learning trend never really interested me until recently. It really just felt like they were claiming huge AI advancements when all they really found was an impressive way to store learned data (I know this is an understatement).

      Over time my opinion on that has changed slightly, and I have been blown away with the boom that is happening with transformers (GPTs specifically) and large language models. Open source projects are creating models comparable to OpenAIs behemoths with far less training and parameters which is making me take another look into GPTs.

      What I find surprising though is that they seem to have only experimented with language. As far as I understand the inputs/outputs, the language is tokenized into bytes before prediction anyway. Why does it seem like (or rather the community act like) the technology can only be used for LLMs?

      For example, what about a planning domain? You can specify actions in a domain in such a manner that tokenization would be trivial, and have far fewer tokens then raw text. Similarly you could generate a near infinite amount of training data if you wanted via other planning algorithms or simulations. Is there some obvious flaw I'm not seeing? Other examples might include behavior and/or state prediction.

      I'm not saying that out of the box a standard GPT architecture is a guaranteed success for plan learning/planning... But it seems like it should be viable and no one is trying?

      9 votes
    30. Headphone/earbud recommendation - Is there one product that fits all my needs?

      For the past week, I have been researching headphones/earbuds, buying them, and then cancelling the order immediately because I realized I was making a compromise on what I am wanting. Not a crazy...

      For the past week, I have been researching headphones/earbuds, buying them, and then cancelling the order immediately because I realized I was making a compromise on what I am wanting. Not a crazy amount of cancelled purchases, just maybe...three.

      Anyways, I am in the market for the holy grail of headphones or earbuds that fits my needs but I am thinking I might have to buy multiple for the different scenarios that I am looking for. Which are:

      • Preferably earbuds so I can take one out if I need to have an ear free for something.
      • Great mic quality - I want to be able to use these for work call and when I go outside to walk. Really need something that handles wind and background noise pretty well that doesn't leave the other person on the phone annoyed talking to me. I don't want to walk around with a boom mic in front of face though.
      • No preference on wired or wireless. If wired, I would like direct USB-C so I don't have to think about dongles or anything. I also read that mic quality degrades with Bluetooth? Not sure how accurate that is but the consensus I have read was that wired earbuds have better mics than Bluetooth. Wireless would be amazing if I knew that everything else worked well. I would take a short battery life to have top notch everything else.
      • Decent sound quality for music. I already have a pair of aftershokz that I use for working out so I'm not stranger to compromised sound quality. But when I go out on walks I want to listen to language podcasts so I can hear clearly.
      • Active noise cancelling - longshot but this would just be nice to have since I have gotten a taste for these with my Sony headphones.

      I would be interested to hear your product recommendations or solutions to my wants. I have a feeling that the perfect product doesn't exist but at the bare minimum I would take something that sounds decent and has a good mic that handles outdoor sounds well. ANC and wireless are optional but would be very amazing to have.

      I would be using these with a Samsung S22.

      9 votes
    31. Why does it seem that FOSS users don't value user-friendliness very much?

      The vast majority of free and open source software available is well known for being clunky, having very unintuitive UI/UX and being very inaccessible to non-nerds. We can see this in Linux...

      The vast majority of free and open source software available is well known for being clunky, having very unintuitive UI/UX and being very inaccessible to non-nerds.

      We can see this in Linux distros, tools, programs and even fediverse sites.

      I understand that a lot of it is because "it's free", but I also feel like a lot of people who make and use FOSS don't actually value user-friendliness at all. I feel like some of it is in order to gatekeep the less tech savvy out, and some of it is "it's good enough for me".

      What are the best theories for why this is the case?

      EDIT: A lot of replies I've been getting are focusing on the developers. I'm asking more why the users seem okay with it, rather than why the developers make it that way.

      67 votes
    32. Experience with and opinion on ProtonMail and co.?

      Hi, I saw that Proton now has a Family Plan that includes all of their services including mail, calendar, drive, etc. I've been looking to detach my and my family's life a bit from the big corps...

      Hi,

      I saw that Proton now has a Family Plan that includes all of their services including mail, calendar, drive, etc.

      I've been looking to detach my and my family's life a bit from the big corps like Google, Microsoft, Apple, and Proton sounds interesting.

      At the same time I am wondering if they're really to be trusted any more than any other company. I found some critique of the E2E encryption being basically snake oil and not properly implemented etc. I am of course aware that there're always tradeoffs and while privacy is definitely nice, I don't need to go to an extreme degree of "no logs whatsoever, never even turning anything over to the police", I think I am just mostly looking to make me and my family less of a product of advertising, possibly AI/ML and so on, so some compromise is definitely possible.

      I am curious, does anyone here have any experience with or opinions on the company and their products?

      44 votes
    33. Wanted $100 Android tablet for sheet music and Google Drive

      I am looking for a wi-fi tablet for singing from pdf sheet music on a shared Google Drive. The phone is too small of a screen. In the past, tablets at this price are often junk, already...

      I am looking for a wi-fi tablet for singing from pdf sheet music on a shared Google Drive. The phone is too small of a screen.

      In the past, tablets at this price are often junk, already end-of-life, and run so badly they are unusable (balky when simply scrolling). So, I am still using paper for now, afraid to buy yet another disappointing piece of junk despite not needing anything high end.

      Any suggestions?

      7 votes
    34. What gaps for content, news, or community currently exist for you?

      I, clearly along with many others, recently left Reddit and have personally decided not to return unless it sees drastic, lasting change. However, this has made it clear just how reliant I was on...

      I, clearly along with many others, recently left Reddit and have personally decided not to return unless it sees drastic, lasting change. However, this has made it clear just how reliant I was on the site for multiple aspects of my life, ranging from local and world news, to hobby related announcements, to perspective, advice, and memes directly from marginalized communities. In Tildes I've already found some of what I've been missing, and I'm sure I'll find more as the community continues to grow, but Tildes doesn't have the same setup to allow for finding the same niche communities that I once had (nor should Tildes ever need to have that).

      With all of that said, what gaps are you currently experiencing? Have you found any good sites or resources that have helped you or might help others in the thread?

      56 votes
    35. What is the best way to be involved in a forum discussion

      I signed onto Reddit six years ago because that was where I could discuss stuff I liked intelligently. Due to social awkwardness and poor conversational skills, I feel like I contribute nothing to...

      I signed onto Reddit six years ago because that was where I could discuss stuff I liked intelligently. Due to social awkwardness and poor conversational skills, I feel like I contribute nothing to the conversation anywhere, on forums or IRL. I even signed up for Stack Exchange, Hacker News, and Ars Techinca for discussion, but they all look like you need a Ph.D. to contribute anything meaningful?

      Am I alone on this? How can I be a productive part of the conversation?

      23 votes
    36. People who have visited Reddit over the past few days, what's it like over there right now?

      What's it like over there right now? IIRC the blackout was supposed to finish today. I've decided to quit reddit unless something changes, so I want to do my best not to visit the site, but I am...

      What's it like over there right now? IIRC the blackout was supposed to finish today. I've decided to quit reddit unless something changes, so I want to do my best not to visit the site, but I am very curious about what the website and culture has been like for the past few days. And now that the initial blackout is 'over', how many subreddits have started to emerge again? Are people coming back now and acting like they've won? Has reddit responded to the blackout at all?

      45 votes
    37. Can someone explain the Fediverse?

      As the title says, could someone explain the Fediverse or this whole concept of federated instances? I looked at Mastodon a few months back and recently at Lemmy and read a few articles and I...

      As the title says, could someone explain the Fediverse or this whole concept of federated instances?

      I looked at Mastodon a few months back and recently at Lemmy and read a few articles and I still don't quite get it. I joined a Lemmy instance but didn't see any content from other instances. (God this makes me feel old)

      To me, a non techie (who is reasonably computer literate), the problem with all these federation based platforms is that they don't seem immediately intuitive to laypeople.

      It also seems to have the problem of individual instances being quite parochial in that there seem to be a lot of niche instances but few that are necessarily generic for an international audience, or conversely instances that are too vague ('this is an instance for humans') whereas with something like Reddit you just sign up and post in subs just like vbulletin based forums and subforums back in the day. Tildes is essentially similar in principle.

      Please feel free to tell me, if I'm an old man yelling at the Cloud.

      77 votes
    38. Interesting Matrix spaces?

      To be clear, Matrix as in the communication protocol. Curious if anyone has any recommendations for communities there. Personally I am mostly in the NixOS space, since that is the official chat...

      To be clear, Matrix as in the communication protocol. Curious if anyone has any recommendations for communities there. Personally I am mostly in the NixOS space, since that is the official chat for issues and questions.

      11 votes
    39. I kind of feel bad for spez.. what would you do if you were in that position?

      I have never been a leader at a big company (or anywhere...), and honestly I am pretty ignorant when it comes to money and business, so maybe that's why I feel this way but... isn't this what...

      I have never been a leader at a big company (or anywhere...), and honestly I am pretty ignorant when it comes to money and business, so maybe that's why I feel this way but... isn't this what for-profit companies ultimately are supposed to do? (make money?)

      Reddit is blowing up today over his internal memo, and that's when I kind of started to feel bad for him. Wouldn't an internal memo be expected at a time right now? Wouldn't it say that kind of stuff? I'm just curious but for others, if you were in his position, what would you do right now? Is there a better move to be made? What should he have said in that memo? I kind of feel bad for him. At the end of the day he helped create reddit, and it must kind of suck to watch your own project devolve and people come to hate you.

      The thing about this API decision that got to me is how abrupt it was - 30 days or thereabout. That doesn't seem like very long. But aren't these decisions usually made by multiple people? (not just a CEO?) I also think it sucks that reddit app hasn't been made accessible to vision impaired folks. So maybe he sucks as a leader, but is that a reason to hate him?

      I'd love to better understand.

      51 votes
    40. Is it even worthwhile to turn off ad personalization or location tracking for services/apps?

      So, I’m moving to a new phone and revisiting a lot of accounts, apps, and settings. When it comes to things like location history or ad personalization or whatever, is it even worthwhile to turn...

      So, I’m moving to a new phone and revisiting a lot of accounts, apps, and settings.

      When it comes to things like location history or ad personalization or whatever, is it even worthwhile to turn it off? Am I really supposed to believe that because I have some toggle off that Google suddenly doesn’t track where I drive on Maps? Like if they are going to be tracking me, which I assume they are, I might as well be able to see it to rather than have it exist in the aether somewhere where the info is attributed to me but not viewable in the UI.

      Even with ads, I know shadow profiles are a thing, and that they definitely have data beyond what they show in the UI, so might as well opt in there too right? Plus, the non-targeted ads I get are basically porn-tier ads or stuff for gay men.

      What should I do here? Move into the woods? Feels like I can’t win.

      22 votes
    41. Let's talk Local LLMs - So many questions

      Hello there (oh god, I am opening my first thread here - so exciting) I'd love to ask the people here about local LLMs. To be honest, I got interested in this topic, but am leaving reddit, where a...

      Hello there
      (oh god, I am opening my first thread here - so exciting)

      I'd love to ask the people here about local LLMs.
      To be honest, I got interested in this topic, but am leaving reddit, where a sub r/locallama exists.
      I don't want to interact with that site anymore, so I am taking this here.

      My questions, to start us off:

      • Models are available on huggingface (among other places), but where do I get the underlying software? I read "oogabooga" somewhere, but honestly, I am lost.
      • If I only want to USE a local model, what are the requirements, and how do I judge if I can use something from the values of "4bit / 8 bit" and "30B, 7B"??
      • If I get crazy and want to TRAIN a LorA ... what then?
      • Good resources / wiki pages, tutorials, etc?
      21 votes
    42. Are you using the latest Apple betas as your daily driver? How's it going?

      I immediately installed iPadOS 17 Beta 1. Apart from quirks with saving images from the browser, it's been about as solid as the latest 16.x.x. Anyone running the other betas as your daily...

      I immediately installed iPadOS 17 Beta 1. Apart from quirks with saving images from the browser, it's been about as solid as the latest 16.x.x.

      Anyone running the other betas as your daily drivers?

      I'm also eager to hear from Sonora users. Considering updating my i7 Mac Mini.

      9 votes
    43. Among the three major operating systems, which one cares the most about their user's privacy?

      Here are my views on this: Windows: The Windows attitude towards privacy isn't good with their telemetry and other data collection increasing gradually from 8 to 10 to 11. In fact, most geeks...

      Here are my views on this:

      • Windows: The Windows attitude towards privacy isn't good with their telemetry and other data collection increasing gradually from 8 to 10 to 11. In fact, most geeks across the support forums think that 7 is probably the safest and most privacy friendly Windows version but MS is doing everything it can to ensure that newer software doesn't support 7 and it just goes into obsolescence.

        The "default" state in which a W10/11 laptop comes today is so privacy unfriendly that it sends all kinds of data like contacts, location, etc. to Microsoft and their "trusted partners". You can't turn off this data unless you've visited power user forums and know exactly where to find those settings, and basic telemetry still won't be disabled of course.

        As ironic and unintuitive as it sounds, Microsoft Windows was probably much better in privacy department during the bad old days of Gates and Ballmer compared to the good "open source and geek friendly" days of Satya Nadella!

      • Mac: Apple systems should ideally be privacy friendly considering the amount of premium they charge to their products and services. But how well does that work in practice? I've never used an Apple product but those who use them seem to have the impression that they're no good in this department compared to others.
        Logic tells me that a more capitalist devil should be no different than the less capitalist one, they're probably all the same when it comes to throwing user's privacy in the bin!

      • Linux: Linux used to be the holy grail of users who cared about privacy many years ago but does that still hold good today? Ubuntu was also in some data collection controversy or other many times in past, but how are the state of things today? And what about the derivative distros, are they good too?

      13 votes
    44. What's your go-to mono font?

      Let's share our favourite mono fonts and maybe we can find some new favourites. I used to use whatever was inbuilt with Visual Studio and JetBrains' IDEs, but since JetBrains released their...

      Let's share our favourite mono fonts and maybe we can find some new favourites. I used to use whatever was inbuilt with Visual Studio and JetBrains' IDEs, but since JetBrains released their JetBrains Mono, I've started using it everywhere. I override the monospace font on every website with it. Never was a huge fan of Fira Code, Consolas, or the other popular ones. Personal taste. But somethings about JB Mono just speaks to me!

      Are you a ligatures person? Personally, I love them :)

      40 votes