Federal food regulators raised their alarm for recalled eggs sold from Costco stores over possible salmonella exposure, reclassifying the targeted product to their highest risk level.David K. Li (NBC News)
🎄 Why I Hate Christmas – and What It Taught Me About B2B Sales 🎄
As a businessman, I value efficiency, discipline, and results. These principles have served me well. Take my clerk, Bob Cratchit: he works hard because I incentivize him with lean pay. My debtors pay on time because they know I hold them accountable. And Christmas? It’s an annual distraction that disrupts productivity, increases frivolous spending, and encourages emotional decisions. Bah, humbug!
But here’s the thing: every interaction in B2B sales is a negotiation of value. By focusing on ROI rather than sentimentality, I’ve built a thriving business that rewards sound judgment over fleeting sentiment.
For example:
🔹 Lean operations ensure maximum profitability.
🔹 Strict terms weed out weak partnerships.
🔹 And while others waste time at holiday parties, I’m closing deals that others overlook.
The lesson? Success isn’t about spreading cheer—it’s about delivering value with unyielding focus. Agree?
(P.S. Merry Christmas, for real.)
Timing is everything. Best wishes to striking Amazon workers and contractors.
Updated 10:51 PM GMT, December 20, 2024Amazon workers affiliated with the Teamsters union continued a strike Friday at seven of the company’s delivery hubs just days before Christmas.
At midnight on Saturday, workers at a prominent unionized warehouse in New York will also join, the Teamsters said. However, the union has not indicated how many employees were participating in any of the walkouts or when it will end.
The workers, who voted to authorize strikes in recent days, first joined picket lines on Thursday after Amazon ignored a Sunday deadline the union had set for contract negotiations. Meanwhile, workers at Starbucks stores said they were going on a five-day strike starting Friday to protest lack of progress in contract negotiations with the coffee company.
The e-commerce giant has a couple hundred employees at each delivery station and thousands at the New York City warehouse, which is known as JFK8 and located in the borough of Staten Island. A spokesperson for the company said Amazon did not expect the strike to impact holiday shipments.
More at https://apnews.com/article/amazon-workers-strike-teamsters-packages-39b86c286d67219e42309566f3975cba#Amazon #shipment #strike #walkout #union #negotiation #Teamsters
What to know as Amazon workers strike at multiple delivery hubs
Amazon workers affiliated with the Teamsters union are on strike for a second day at seven of the company’s delivery hubs just days before Christmas.HALELUYA HADERO (AP News)
Michael Moore: "It’s been three days since Luigi Mangione’s manifesto was discovered in his backpack explaining why he assassinated the CEO of United HealthCare.In Mangione’s manifesto, he said that he was not the “most qualified person to lay out the full argument” against our for-profit healthcare industry. Apparently, to Mangione, one of those qualified people — is me. In his manifesto, he references how I’ve “illuminated the corruption and greed,” implying folks should go to my work to understand the complexity — and the power-hungry abuse — within our current system.
It’s not often that my work gets a killer five-star review from an actual killer. And thus, my phone has been ringing off the hook which is bad news because my phone doesn’t have a hook. Emails are pouring in. Text messages. Requests from many in the media. The messages all sound something like this:
“Luigi mentioned you in his manifesto. That people should listen to you. Will you come on our show, or talk to our reporter and tell them that you condemn murder!?”
Hmmm. Do I condemn murder? That’s an odd question. In Fahrenheit 9/11, I condemned the murder of hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi people and the senseless murder of our own American soldiers at the hands of our American government.
In Bowling for Columbine, I condemned the murder of 50,000 Americans every year at the hands of our gun industry and our politicians who do nothing to stop it.
In my 35 years as a filmmaker, have I said or done anything that has implied I condone murder? As a teenager during the Vietnam War, I was required to register for the draft at the local draft board. There was a box on the form asking me if I had a problem with killing Vietnamese people. Actually, it just asked me to check the box if I was going to file for Conscientious Objector status — meaning, if given the opportunity, would I swear that I would never kill a Vietnamese person. I checked the box. Throughout my adult life, I have repeatedly stated that I’m a pacifist. In fact, I have never struck another human in my life. Not even on the playground. I was taller and bigger than the other boys so they mostly left me alone. Usually I was the one who would try to stop the bullies from picking on the smaller kids. When they’d start swinging at me, I would wrap my arms around them, pinning their arms to their sides in my “human straitjacket” and not letting them go until they stopped.
Here’s a sad statistic for you: In the United States, we have a whopping 1.4 million people employed with the job of DENYING HEALTH CARE, vs only 1 million doctors in the entire country! That’s all you need to know about America. We pay more people to deny care than to give it. 1 million doctors to give care, 1.4 million brutes in cubicles doing their best to stop doctors from giving that care. If the purpose of “health care” is to keep people alive, then what is the purpose of DENYING PEOPLE HEALTH CARE? Other than to kill them? I definitely condemn that kind of murder. And in fact, I already did. In 2007, I made a film – SICKO – about America’s bloodthirsty, profit-driven and murderous health insurance system. It was nominated for an Oscar. It’s the second-largest grossing film of my career (after Fahrenheit 9/11). And over the past 15 years, millions upon millions of people have watched it including, apparently, Luigi Mangione.
After the killing of the CEO of United HealthCare, the largest of these billion dollar insurance companies, there was an immediate OUTPOURING of anger toward the health insurance industry. Some people have stepped forward to condemn this anger.
I am not one of them.
The anger is 1000% justified. It is long overdue for the media to cover it. It is not new. It has been boiling. And I’m not going to tamp it down or ask people to shut up. I want to pour gasoline on that anger.
Because this anger is not about the killing of a CEO. If everyone who was angry was ready to kill the CEOs, the CEOs would already be dead. That is not what this reaction is about. It is about the mass death and misery — the physical pain, the mental abuse, the medical debt, the bankruptcies in the face of denied claims and denied care and bottomless deductibles on top of ballooning premiums — that this “health care” industry has levied against the American people for decades. With no one standing in their way! Just a government — two broken parties — enabling this INDUSTRY’s theft and, yes, murder.
And now the press is calling me to ask, “Why are people angry, Mike? Do you condemn murder, Mike?”
Yes, I condemn murder, and that’s why I condemn America’s broken, vile, rapacious, bloodthirsty, unethical, immoral health care industry and I condemn every one of the CEOs who are in charge of it and I condemn every politician who takes their money and keeps this system going instead of tearing it up, ripping it apart, and throwing it all away. We need to replace this system with something sane, something caring and loving — something that keeps people alive.
This is a moment where we can create that change. "
Continue reading:
A Manifesto Against For-Profit Health Insurance Companies
https://www.filmsforaction.org/articles/a-manifesto-against-forprofit-health-insurance-companies/
Nestled in an industrial estate in the western part of Singapore is an 84-year-old dragon kiln, the oldest and the only operational dragon kiln in the country.Samuel Woo (Channel NewsAsia)
@Thyanel I got my partner a Pilot Metropolitan as her first pen. It's a reasonably decent price point for an entry level pen and it's not overly large.
We also recently got a Kaweko Sport. It's downright tiny if you don't post it.
Found this post on IG and I'm wondering what this community's stance is. With winter now officially here*, I think it's a valid question.
Edit: *where I live
That doesn't make sense, if that were the case it wouldn't be relevant anymore as humans simply walking on the continent would introduce incredible amounts of bacterias and viruses.
Even with the sterile processing of Moon and Mars rovers have observed this. It's impossible to prevent, only reduce.
It’s impossible to prevent, only reduce.
And that's what such efforts aim to do. You can't prevent everything but you can definitely cut down on what is potentially being introduced. This is particularly true when a place is as geographically isolated as Antarctica. For a relevant example I know that if you were to bring a raw stick into Australia it'd be confiscated (or required to be pest treated at your cost) due to biosecurity concerns, and we get literally millions of people visiting per year so that's a significantly harder containment job than Antarctica would present. Even within Australia there are biosecurity controls disallowing movement of stuff like fruit and grape vines between some of our states/regions.
I would be surprised if biosecurity controls for our parts of Antarctica were not even stricter, given that it is a largely untouched landscape and reducing impact on it is considered worthwhile to do these days (not so much in the early days of the Antarctic program, but we try to do better now).
Pretrial judge in case involving murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson married to former Pfizer execKen Klippenstein
you won't be able to find a judge wo a conflict of interest.
most middle class americans have things like their retirement accounts linked as well; so you wouldn't be able to find anyone without some sort of conflict like this.
Personally I don't watch videos on software (except for skimming tutorials) since I prefer to learn about topics with written tutorials or Reddit. Software influencers have been on the rise for the past several years, everything from grifters claiming they can help you start an SWE career, to ones that make tutorials and showcases on software.
I'm more interested in hearing about the later. I came across found this discussion: What can we learn from Neovim’s rise in popularity? : emacs, with comments claiming that Youtubers like ThePrimeagen have helped a lot with making Neovim popular. I crossposted it to r/neovim and many so far many users there said that they found Neovim through ThePrimeagen's videos.
WLR_HEADLESS_OUTPUTS=1 WLR_BACKENDS=headless WLR_LIBINPUT_NO_DEVICES=1 cage -d
hey nerds, I'm getting myself a new personal laptop as a treat, but I very much do not want windows 11 shitting it up. Is there a linux distro with caveman-compatible instructions for installation and use? I want to think about my OS as little as possible while actually using it.
I've got one friend who uses mint, but I've also seen memes dunking on it so who knows. I actually really only know what I've seen from you all shitposting in other communities
Oh, it's not kde, it's gnome
Gnome compositor can have issues with some games, most notable for me was TF2 and TF2 Classic
The process for installation is more or less the same for all of them.
Linux Mint and PopOS are the "go to" suggestions. I really don't like the way either of them look. I'm partial to GNOME for aesthetics and ease of use.
Bazzite comes with most of the stuff you will want pre-loaded, and also the cool Steam Deck Gamescope interface. It's the only one I've used with seamless background updates like you might be accustomed to on Android or iOS. That's my recommendation.
https://docs.bazzite.gg/Installing_and_Managing_Software/rpm-ostree/
I was attempting to install zulujdk 17 and thinkorswim and can not get it functional, which I've done on zorin, Ubuntu, Linux mint, EndevourOS, etc... Just can't get it functional on Bazzite due to the ostree setup for some reason.
rpm-ostree is Fedora's enterprise tool for managing immutable operating system updates.docs.bazzite.gg
I'm partial to GNOME for aesthetics and ease of use.
At that point just get a Mac. Gnome has the same “we know better than you do. If you want to do something outside of our extremely specific use cases, you’re using it wrong and should figure something else out” mentality that Apple does.
At that point just get a Mac.
There are lots and lots of reasons not to do that that I'm sure you already know but are determined to be an asshole regardless.
Gnome has the same “we know better than you do
Never seen it.
Personally I would recommend Fedora, most distros people have recommended here works.
I had less issues installing Fedora on a new laptop than I did with the win11 and win10 attempts, I'm never switching back to windows
I would beg to differ. Maybe things will be different once things have mature more. At the moment, just quickly trying out a most of them, I'd easily see rough edges within first few minutes. Some would have more subtle issues, but it's still far from foolproof.
Simple config stuff that would usually take simple file editting on /etc comes to mind.
Generally I agree with everyone else, Linux Mint is great.
However, if you really want to not worry at all, you could just buy a laptop from e.g. Tuxedo or System76. They come with Linux preinstalled (I think in the case of Tuxedo at least, you even have a choice of which Linux Distro?), and are guaranteed to have no hardware "difficulties" with Linux, i.e. even if you put another distro on it, you won't encounter driver issues.
(Those have become very rare anyways, but do put a damper on the "Firsttime Linux Experience" if you do encounter them...)
https://ultramarine-linux.org/
Linux ultramarine is based on very popular fedora distro.
Let me quote some fedi post:
1) Just like Microsoft Windows, you do not need to configure your firmware, drivers, media codecs, and sources. That is already taken care of for you.
2) Just like Windows, you can have automatic update, update notifications, or choose not to update. By default, update notifications is the default, allowing you to choose when and what to update. And you can update with a click of a button (point and click), just like Microsoft Update.
3) Installing, updating, and removing apps through the app store is point and click easy.
4) Go ahead and download an RPM setup file, and double-click to install, just like you would a Windows setup file. Updating and removing that program, can also be done through the app store, which doubles as the app manager.
5) Point and click settings. No matter if you want to add users, manage a VPN, add a printer, etc.... etc... A simple-to-use control panel is what is offered.
6) Friendly support - Based on Fedora Linux, means you have 20+ years of documentation, live help, support forums, and chat groups, both from Fedora and Ultramarine.
Source: https://kitty.social/notes/a12bji4hf8zb0332
@jon@social.vivaldi.net Ultramarine Linux, KDE Plasma (edition) is perfect for newbies. 1) Just like Microsoft Windows, you do not need to configure your firmware, drivers, media codecs, and sources. That is already taken care of for you.kitty.social
Go ahead with mint. It's the only distro I know with a fully featured setup wizard that holds your hand through the entire process. I am confident anyone who has used computers can use it.
But honestly, most modern distros are about as difficult as picking up an iOS/android phone for the first time. There are different ways of doing things, but they're still phones and can't be too different anyway. Same with mint, it's just a computer, it isn't all that different.
It's the only distro I know with a fully featured setup wizard that holds your hand through the entire process.
Ubuntu, Fedora, Nobara(Fedora fork by GloriousEggroll of proton-ge), Garuda Arch, Pop!OS. Those are just the few I've personally fiddled with.
Highly recommend Garuda, Nobara and Pop!, in that order, for gaming.
No it can't be. I'm using fedora right now and it drops me into the GNOME desktop with nothing. The GNOME tours barely count, they just tell you to login to your dropbox or smth.
Have you seen the mint one? It's actually dummies proof. Full "It's my first day on linux" step-by-step guide. Everything from updating, setting themes, backups, installing nvidia drivers is in there. All relevant choices are meticulously explained.
I'm so certain of its coverage, I recommend mint to internet strangers because I genuinely believe it's sufficient even for the lowest common denominator. I can drop mint on any rando and fully trust that the Mint setup wizard will hold their hands through their first day on Linux.
I last switched distros 3 years ago, and the wizard definitely wasn't on popOS or Ubuntu either.
Umm, I came across this post some time ago, it says some bad things about ventoy😅
https://lemmy.one/post/19193506
Ventoy source code contains some unknown BLOBs, still no word on the issue from the dev after months
I had no idea this issue had been identified. While I find this tool very useful, the project is seeming rather questionable to me now.[issue]: Remove BLOBs from the source tree · Issue #2795 · ventoy/Ventoy
What happened? Due to the recent XZ-Utils drama I checked the code and I'm appalled. There are more BLOBS than source code. https://github.com/ventoy/Ventoy/tree/3f65f0ef03e4aebcd14f233ca808a4f8946...GitHub
Ubuntu. There are mixes of it but out of the box Ubuntu is about as straightforward a dist to install as possible and it is well supported.
That said "new laptop" and Linux are not always a match made in heaven. You might try it from a boot stick and confirm that things like the GPU, touch screen, touchpad, fingerprint reader, USB C / Lightning all work properly.
Ubuntu is horrible these days, including most derivatives that change nothing but the DE. If you want Ubuntu, use Mint instead. There's plenty of other options available, like Fedora, Pop!_OS, etc.
As for testing, most distribution installers allow you to try them without installing first. No need to set up anything separate for that.
If you're running an Nvidia gpu, then Linux Mint is great for not needing to deal with setup issues.
If you're going with an AMD gpu or no gpu at all, then i actually recommend Garuda Linux. It's Arch-based so you may need to keep up with the updates more often. But you'll get access to the AUR, a centralized* repository for just about every program you'll need to install. I personally find it and pacman easier to use than apt.
I've got one friend who uses mint, but I've also seen memes dunking on it so who knows. I actually really only know what I've seen from you all shitposting in other communities
Every distro gets shit on in memes, because each distro does things its own way that some don't agree with. As a new user, most of that doesn't matter much, the biggest changes between distros are how stuff works in the background. What matters more is your choice of Desktop Environment (DE). Essentially "the coat of paint on top". Most distros offer a couple different options when downloading the ISO, or when installing it.
I'd reccomend starting out by trying GNOME and KDE Plasma (if they're easily available for your distro), with GNOME being slightly more macOS-like, and KDE being somewhat similar in feel to Windows. Those are "the big two" DEs, but there's plenty of other options available if you don't like them.
As for distros, whatever works for you is the option you should go with. There's only two distros I recommend against using, Ubuntu (/ close derivatives) and Manjaro. Ubuntu is becoming extremely corporate, going against the "spirit" of a Linux distro. There's "Ubuntu Pro", a subscription for security updates, and "snap", an "alternative to" flatpak that forces you on Ubuntu managed repositories, along with many other issues. Manjaro is often marketed as "an easy Arch-based distro", but is in fact only very loosely derived from Arch. This combined with Manjaro team's inability to maintain the distro properly, causes nothing but issues.
As for every other distro, if it's being updated, and it works for you, then it's a great option. Because that second one is very personal, there is no "single best Linux distro". I would personally suggest to check out Mint and Fedora, those are often great options.
As someone else mentioned, with a "new laptop", hardware compatibility may be an issue. Most distros allow you to try them off the USB before installing, that's probably a good idea.
There's several online sources that compile some of the reasons why Manjaro is objectively a bad distro, here's one as an example: https://manjarno.pages.dev/
You're free to choose whatever you want on your system, I just reccomend against Manjaro (and Ubuntu).
In windows, we get the entire os as a single product, and we don't have a choice in anything. On linux, it's the contrary. The os if formed by several software distributed separately and joined together like lego pieces. Each linux distro is a compilation of software, a particular combination of lego pieces created and maintained by some group.
So, even the system graphical interface is a lego piece like any other, and each distro comes with one by default. Kde and gnome are some of the most popular interfaces. You can also replace almost any lego piece from the system by another of your choice, unlike on windows.
I hope I helped you understand linux a bit better. It all will become much more simple to you with a little more time. Be welcome to the community.
When first coming from Windows, starting with Mint is the safest bet for a good transition because things will work pretty much as you expect them to, and there's a very helpful forum if you have any questions. But I always say to try several distros and Desktop Environments to see how you like them. Everyone is different and it's all a matter of preference.
I suggest that once you've got whatever distro you decided on up and running, install a virtual machine software such as Boxes (very simple) or Virtual Box (a little more complicated but with more options). Then just download various distros and make VMs for them to try them out easily. Have fun!
You got a lot of distro recommendations from across the spectrum and it's honestly hats to go wrong with any of them. It's mostly a matter of preference. As such I'll give you two pieces of advice:
Good luck! IMO getting into Linux for the first time is a fun journey. Enjoy it!
I've done dozens of distros and Linux mint is the most familiar, unexciting, and stable one I have found. Ignore the hate. Real Linux fans don't care how you participate in open source, other than being toxic. Consequently, do whatever you want and install whatever seems like it would be something you'd want to use.
Id highly suggest having a separate hard drive for Linux as it can be easy to break dual boot if you don't know what you are doing. Last thing you want to do is panic and decide you need to reinstall Windows.
These are "desktop environments". They are essentially the graphical elements you interface with the operating system. icons, windows, buttons, those sort of things.
The two most common are KDE and GNOME. KDE has a very Windows-like appearance and functionality. GNOME is the same but for MacOS.
It will be 35 years way too soon. I can't remember the last time I compiled a kernel let alone what exactly I was doing with a computer in the early 90s.
Its weird that most of the world runs on Linux outside of desktop and we still have these discussions. I didn't know what a distro was in the beginning. It was a Linux kernel and gnu user space someone had compiled to get people started. If the disk sets had a name I didn't know or care.
I just set up Nobara.
Shockingly straightforward.
Entire install process was very simple, with a GUI, then a neat little post install app that gives you another very straightforward GUI for running your first batch of system updates.
::: spoiler ... Oh, and I was able to do this on a SteamDeck, without an external mouse or keyboard.
Nobara has a SteamDeck edition now.
The install process has a bit of Deck specific jank, basically i just had to change the screen UI scaling level from 175% to 100%, it defaulted to 175% when booting from the SD card i wrote the ISO to...
And then there's a bit of jank doing initial updates off the 'bare metal' install, because the SteamKeyboard overlay thingy will prompt your admin password for a system access prompt... which will disable most of the SteamDeck inputs for everything other than Steam untill you input your password to allow it to work.
The work around I figured for this is... when that prompt comes up, you push the steam button and hamburger menu button on the physical deck until you get Steam in big picture mode.
Then your controls all work in Steam.
Then you close Steam.
Then your mouse works via trackpad on the desktop, but the X button to bring up the SteamKeyboard does not.
So then you open Steam again.
Now the SteamKeyboard does work, and you can type in your admin pass to the system access prompt.
I had to do this silly process a number of times through the initial set up 0.o
I eventually set Steam to not automatically launch itself, and now that all the updates have gone through, I just have to mouse (trackpad) over to manually open Steam when I am in desktop mode and then give Steam the admin pw for the keyboard to work... just once per desktop session now that its all set up.
Probably I also could have gone back into gaming mode and just bound a button to whatever button combo Nobara/Fedora uses as a shortcut to open the actual Nobara/Fedora virtual keyboard, but I could not figure out what this key combo actually is lol.
:::
But uh if you're just looking for an OS for a standard desktop PC, everything I've outlined in the above spoiler is not gonna be a problem, and you'll likely have a very straightforward install process.
I'm also a fan of Nobara's default UI... kind of a gnomeified KDE?
As well as its default apps, built in DeckyLoader and plugins for the Deck, ProtonPlus for runtime environments, and of course its built in kernel customizations/optimizations for to play vidya gaem.
Oh, and I went with Nobara over the default SteamOS because SteamOS on a Deck is a read only OS by default...
You can install flatpaks, but if you want to actually install new core packages, those will get wiped with a SteamOS update... or you have to use DistroBox... which may also get wiped on an update?
Not sure, but Nobara allowse to use the deck as both a Deck and a more standard desktop linux PC with more customizability... and not having to rely on the AUR, which I find incredibly frustrating.
Universal Blue OSs (Bazzite, Bluefin, and Aurora) are actually way easier than immutable is made out to be.
For one thing, there is no such thing as keeping the system and packages up to date. That all happens automatically as long as you restart your computer every now and then.
It is true that if someone is looking up how to install something online it could be confusing. But anything in Flathub is obviously dead simple.
I think if there were better demos and tutorials, it would seem a lot easier.
For instance, if you can't find something in Flathub, and the only instructions you can find are for installing in Ubuntu, all you have to do is use Boxbuddy/Distrobox and use an Ubuntu container and install it there using the instructions.
It really is the best of almost all worlds. Granted, this setup doesn't work for 100% of software. But it works for the vast majority.
These are all easy to use desktop distros (or variants).
Use them with their respective default desktop environment.
Check screenshots first or try them out in a VM or via live USB before installation, to see whether you like the look&feel.
Been meaning to try CachyOS. It's a gamer friendly Arch based distro. Might be worth looking at. Distro doesn't really matter much at all. Desktop environment does. If you want HDR support KDE and GNOME are your only bet.
Edit: Kubuntu would probably be the easiest to use and setup distro that has HDR support.
I found the main issue with many non-rolling release distributions are the upgrade instructions from one stable release to the next, and not the difficulty of installing them.
I'm myself a Archlinux guy, but that does sometimes require some carefulness and regularly (at least weekly) applying updates and does not have stable automatic updates, so I started installing Fedora atomic desktop distributions (Fedora Silverblue/Kinolite/etc.) for people that just want to use their device for basic stuff.
The reason for that is long term maintainability without an expert at hand.
I had so many bad experiences updating distributions from one stable version to the next, be it Debian and Ubuntu-based, or Fedora-based distributions.
And with those atomic desktop distributions the amount of moving parts is much lower, so hopefully upgrading them to newer releases is much more stable.
So I would suggest giving Fedora Silverblue (Gnome desktop), Kinolite (KDE) or Budgie Edition a try.
Listen to yourself. What's a distrobox? Boxbuddy? I'm already annoyed about someone expecting me to learn about this and I've used Linux exclusively for 25 years. I actually did Linux from Scratch and used that for 6 months for actual stuff. Telling a noob who wants to do normal things that work on a normal Linux distros that because of the (recommended by you) immutable distro they have, they need a container which has an actual normal linux distro inside it to run the thing they want to run, they'll want to run away and probably never speak to you again.
And about flatpak: I had so many bugs that somehow only happen when you get the flatpak. And you can't install command line tools over flatpak, you can't install servers or drivers. Regular users (especially windows power user types) are likely to run into these things and curse you for recommending the one distro where you can't just apt install theclitoolineed
.
Fedora's KDE spin
I really hope more beginner distros switch to kde from GNOME. When I was first getting into linux and did not know about what a DE was, GNOME put me off from fully switching to linux and themeing it was hell with it not playing nice with qt applications, of course as a newbie i did not know what "qt" or "Gtk" was and did not understand at the time why some applications were not following theme.
while kde default is not pretty it can be anything you want it to look like and its easy to customize and plays nice with gtk applications.
GNOME IS very customizable that you might even be able to make it into a usable desktop.
Linux Mint is one of the most common gateway drug for getting into linux.
It's incredibly easy to set up and use. And it has plenty of resources if you ran into any issue.
And you sound like the entrenched Windows user who doesn't realize all of the little things they've internalized to keep their system working the way they want to. I should know, I was one of those Windows users until recently.
Regarding other tools, they really aren't necessary for most users. I don't even use Distrobox. Flathub for UI apps, and Homebrew for CLI apps serves all of my needs.
I believe that Jorge Castro is right about the Linux desktop. It has failed, and it needs to be rebuilt from the ground up. And that's what they're doing. Universal Blue is a completely different mindset from traditional distros, and I think it's the future.
And that's the great thing about Linux. You can continue to use the old methods you're used to and have built up 25 years of muscle memory around.
Note: several of the links used in this article point to resources only available in Surf's app. Surf does not yet have a Web version, nor does it have a desktop app. The app utilizes a custom URI hanSean Tilley (We Distribute)
Giant Malachite Vase :
One of the most attractive pieces of polished stone ever made. Malachite is a mineral, deep green & generally exhibiting parallel bands or circles of different shades. It is relatively soft and takes a beautiful polish.
Russia possesses some of the world's largest high-quality malachite deposits in Ural Mountains. The mines no longer operate, but they did in the 18th century when the Winter Palace was being built in St. Petersburg.
The Hermitage - St. Petersburg, Russia
I've been listening to a ton of classic xmas albums lately, and want some more to add to my xmas playlist.
Thx in advance.
A rarer jazzy one to get us started:
Auf YouTube findest du die angesagtesten Videos und Tracks. Außerdem kannst du eigene Inhalte hochladen und mit Freunden oder gleich der ganzen Welt teilen.www.youtube.com
Rusty chevrolet
Auf YouTube findest du die angesagtesten Videos und Tracks. Außerdem kannst du eigene Inhalte hochladen und mit Freunden oder gleich der ganzen Welt teilen.www.youtube.com
I'll be mainstream and I'll say:
Underneath the tree by Kelly Clarkson
But I'd like to mention:
* Last Christmas by wham
* War is over by John Lennon and yoko Ono
* I'll be home for Christmas sung by Tate McRae. Unfortunately that one seems like an apple music exclusive. I think it's a nice cover though
Chris De Burgh - A Spaceman came travelling
Sloppy Seconds– Hooray For Santa Claus (Theme From "Santa Claus Conquers The Martians")
https://youtube.com/watch?v=5yeipGoVihI
On the excellent Punk Rock Xmas album
https://www.discogs.com/release/1328070-Various-Punk-Rock-Xmas
Auf YouTube findest du die angesagtesten Videos und Tracks. Außerdem kannst du eigene Inhalte hochladen und mit Freunden oder gleich der ganzen Welt teilen.youtube.com
Volume: 11/10
Auf YouTube findest du die angesagtesten Videos und Tracks. Außerdem kannst du eigene Inhalte hochladen und mit Freunden oder gleich der ganzen Welt teilen.www.youtube.com
Carol of the Bells, by Trans Siberian Orchestra... Hands down.
White Christmas.
The melody and chords both more complex than the average poppy Christmas song and yet are still musically perfect to me somehow.
Snowman by sia has been one of my favorites a couple of years
Auf YouTube findest du die angesagtesten Videos und Tracks. Außerdem kannst du eigene Inhalte hochladen und mit Freunden oder gleich der ganzen Welt teilen.www.youtube.com
Christmas Time - The Darkness
Not that I'm deeply into the darkness (or rock, for that matter), but the darkness brings a breath of fresh air to an otherwise repeated to hell list of music, both in style and melody.
Nice ideas for apps.
Also like the different colored glue. Its like sprinkles but liquid!
- To see the larger image of this post could open the image in a new tab perhaps by right clicking to open in a new tab or drag and drop the image into a new tab that way. Alternatively could perhaps for example click on the image icon and click the image or right click the image to open in a new tab or window or drag and drop the image into a tab to perhaps load the image URL. Another idea maybe when loaded in this post can click the title or right click the title to open in a new tab or window or drag and drop the title to a tab that way.
Red lines drawn to perhaps compare the ship floor plan drawing from the image of the ship on secureteam10’s video with this perhaps ship floor plan diagram drawing from David Jacobs presentation video.
The ship drawing on David Jacobs presentation video are perhaps from someone who had done hypnotic regression with David Jacobs who perhaps were abducted into the ship depicted in the drawing. The floor plan drawing of the ship really does seem to look very similar to the picture on secureteam10’s video. So perhaps the person were abducted into the same or similar ship with what’s on secureteam10’s video.
Also, I myself are certain I had seen the exact same or similar ship perhaps when I were abducted while feeling like I were asleep. More information in the text document.
Main text document called "Information about totalitarian and manipulative aliens":
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fmdRfZ5y3pbi1W-CZrOaX3u1sQJtnvRiq7XHvSkzi2g/edit?usp=sharing
Google drive link with the ZIP file that should have the main text document and more information:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ja7nqDa0dlCVnnduwmhHRcqkmmTPj5cT/view?usp=sharing
Google Drive folder that should have same files as the ZIP file so can perhaps look at and download each individual file:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/11y1ttJjEU3hKXGcIP4FZh14EB4uwk_h5?usp=sharing
Archive .org link with the ZIP file:
https://archive.org/details/information-about-totalitarian-and-manipulative-aliens
MEGA .nz link with the ZIP file:
https://mega.nz/folder/VZRG3JZK#V4sWbn-qcUa3a1ybQRDWIQ
Website which should have information just like this post and other information elsewhere:
https://sites.google.com/view/logicandethics/
Link for the photo of the alien ship in secureteam10’s youtube video starting around 1:06, up close of the image at 1:33. More information with text in the video like mentioning location and time at the start of the video and other information near the end of the video starting at 2:33:
Link for the floor plan drawing on David Jacobs presentation video (image starting at and explained at 19:07 of the video) – I've re uploaded this video on my youtube channel:
https://youtu.be/OfQ_P7H7FhQ?t=1147
These aliens exploit people as a genetic resource for use with making human hybrids. They are totalitarian, I’ve heard of psychological manipulation, torture.
I do hope any alien person or anyone for that matter change from being in the wrong, to not be totalitarian and instead be decentralized to ensure each other’s well being.
- To see the larger image of this post could open the image in a new tab perhaps by right clicking to open in a new tab or drag and drop the image into a new tab that way. Alternatively could perhaps for example click on the image icon and click the image or right click the image to open in a new tab or window or drag and drop the image into a tab to perhaps load the image URL. Another idea maybe when loaded in this post can click the title or right click the title to open in a new tab or window or drag and drop the title to a tab that way.
Red lines drawn to perhaps compare the ship floor plan drawing from the image of the ship on secureteam10’s video with this perhaps ship floor plan diagram drawing from David Jacobs presentation video.
The ship drawing on David Jacobs presentation video are perhaps from someone who had done hypnotic regression with David Jacobs who perhaps were abducted into the ship depicted in the drawing. The floor plan drawing of the ship really does seem to look very similar to the picture on secureteam10’s video. So perhaps the person were abducted into the same or similar ship with what’s on secureteam10’s video.
Also, I myself are certain I had seen the exact same or similar ship perhaps when I were abducted while feeling like I were asleep. More information in the text document.
Main text document called "Information about totalitarian and manipulative aliens":
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fmdRfZ5y3pbi1W-CZrOaX3u1sQJtnvRiq7XHvSkzi2g/edit?usp=sharing
Google drive link with the ZIP file that should have the main text document and more information:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ja7nqDa0dlCVnnduwmhHRcqkmmTPj5cT/view?usp=sharing
Google Drive folder that should have same files as the ZIP file so can perhaps look at and download each individual file:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/11y1ttJjEU3hKXGcIP4FZh14EB4uwk_h5?usp=sharing
Archive .org link with the ZIP file:
https://archive.org/details/information-about-totalitarian-and-manipulative-aliens
MEGA .nz link with the ZIP file:
https://mega.nz/folder/VZRG3JZK#V4sWbn-qcUa3a1ybQRDWIQ
Website which should have information just like this post and other information elsewhere:
https://sites.google.com/view/logicandethics/
Link for the photo of the alien ship in secureteam10’s youtube video starting around 1:06, up close of the image at 1:33. More information with text in the video like mentioning location and time at the start of the video and other information near the end of the video starting at 2:33:
Link for the floor plan drawing on David Jacobs presentation video (image starting at and explained at 19:07 of the video) – I've re uploaded this video on my youtube channel:
https://youtu.be/OfQ_P7H7FhQ?t=1147
These aliens exploit people as a genetic resource for use with making human hybrids. They are totalitarian, I’ve heard of psychological manipulation, torture.
I do hope any alien person or anyone for that matter change from being in the wrong, to not be totalitarian and instead be decentralized to ensure each other’s well being.
With using LibreOffice to view this document if for some reason text go across the edge horizontally so cannot read or appear cut off / buried under other text with perhaps missing text or maybe even cannot search for something with “find” (CTRL + F)…Google Docs
puts on little round glasses, does a bump of cocaine, and pulls out therapy notes. Says, in an Austrian accent:
Vell you see. OP vas not ze one touched by der Santa Clauz, no. In die zong, eine voman zings zeductively - offering herzelf to Herr Santa. OP's irrational anger upon merely hearing Santa Baby surely relates to zer own zexual unfufilment. OP is angry because he vas not touched by Herr Santa... or by anyvon.
I feel this so very much lol. Working in retail (or food) and your boss plays the radio? All year, always the same ~50 songs a day... except Nov 1 - Jan 1, when it becomes the same 20 Jesus themed songs on repeat 6x times a day, and not even different versions.
The only one that gets a pass is the Charlie Brown one, it helps that it's instrumental.
Eartha Kitt original? Love it!
literally any cover is a big step down, though
You know who got it in the long run? Eartha Kitt when I nailed her in the airplane bathroom.
What? It came up organically...
I'm with you, christmas songs are already on my shitlist from being force fed them on repeat while working (which I'm pretty sure is against the Geneva Convention), and that one has always been one of the worst.
I hate the cutesy little voice that sings it and it's a weird song, is she going to fuck the mythical creature, or is she going to fuck her parents (the real "Santa")? She clearly wants to fuck one of em I'm just not clear which.
And how damn old is she? You think Leo and his 25yos are bad, what about Nick over here being 1,730ish years older than her?!
is she going to fuck the mythical creature, or is she going to fuck her parents (the real "Santa")?
Neither. She's singing to her boyfriend (not husband - "forgot to mention one little thing a ring") and listing the presents she'd like, plus IMO heavily implying sex as a reward.
Sadly yes. There are people who love the saccharine sweetness of Christmas and what it represents. It is part of the reason why Christmas has taken over American Thanksgiving.
It was the happiest time of the year for a large number of adults when they were children and they keep wanting to go back to that happiness.
If Kylie Minogue is singing it, that's a win!
No, four figures does not get you a numpad.Scharon Harding (Ars Technica)
The keycaps, which Serene sells separately for $415, are “fully aluminum with about 800 micro-perforations that make up the legends," Serene's website says, "allowing the LED light to pass through.”
So the price doesn't even include the keycaps...
Or does it mean I can also buy them separately for a custom built?
There's also a 4,000 mAh battery and “1/4-20” threads for professional accessory mounting, such as Picatinny rails.” One could also use the threads for mounting the keyboard onto monitor arms and hand grips.
Picatinny rails.
I've always wanted to mount a scope to my keyboard lol.
"His face is alive with the fire of a thousand suns. Merry Christmas"
Perfect. No notes.
When Commander Riker is offered command of the starship Aries, his estranged father, Kyle Riker, is sent by Starfleet to brief him on the mission. Meanwhile, Data, La Forge, Dr.Contributors to Memory Alpha (Fandom, Inc.)
what should i know?? will it go faster than xubuntu? because it doesn't use any snap applications?, will it have a modern ui? because, no offense, xubuntu's ui looks very outdated and i know i can change it but i want something straight out of the box, i've seen screenshots of mint xfce and it sorta looks like GNOME!!! amazing woa!!yea linux mint let's go!! what will be the pros be for using linux mint xfce please?? over xubuntu
edit: i've been using linux for 4 years now woa.. a huge trip yep!!!! my distro of choice was xubuntu, smol one wow!!! but now that i know mint has no snap and therefore no slowing down the laptop, i may go with that hey yea! so i'm not a newbie, i know the commands i know how to update wohoo!! and do all that stuff, basic things, thanks you
Use brioche, it holds up better in the custard…
Real maple syrup. Accept no substitutes.
A dash of nutmeg.
will it go faster than xubuntu?
well IME when you reinstall it will usually go faster at first no matter what because you don't have a lot of crap running to slow it down. but idk if it'll go inherently faster.
because it doesn't use any snap applications?
It's been a while since I used xubuntu but are you required to use Snaps? Someone might correct me but it seems like you could just refrain from using them, no? I've never used snaps anywhere.
I believe on both xubuntu and Mint you can install software via Synaptic package manager.
will it have a modern ui?
it has XFCE4 as the desktop environment. Xubuntu also runs XFCE4 (that's what the "x" stands for). They will have essentially the same UI. Any differences will just be in the theming, which you could just change the themes yourself without going to the trouble of reinstalling.
I personally like the retro feel of XFCE4. If you want something more "modern" you might like to try KDE. You can install that with Synaptic package manager on either xubuntu or Mint.
what will be the pros be for using linux mint xfce please?? over xubuntu
From my understanding, Mint is a bit better on the Libre side of things and is less likely to introduce proprietary stuff into your system.
My feeling is that they are substantially the same as each other.
Always make backups before making any major changes. 😀
I wonder if you'd be more interested in one of the other Linux Mint flavors: Cinnamon or MATE. here is screenshots of all 3 to compare: https://www.linuxmint.com/screenshots.php
KDE doesn't come pre-loaded but you can install any DE on any distro. Here are KDE screenshots: https://kde.org/screenshots
Anyway have fun and good luck 😀
Linux Mint XFCE and Xubuntu should be very similar.
That said, I'd go with Mint because of their focus on usability instead of enshittification.
Thought about it, snce it's near New Year's.
In my opinion, exercising/training/stretching atleast once a week would be a good thing for most people.
Not waiting for a day like new years to make a change that helps you.
The best time to do it was probably years ago.
The second best time is today.
Because if you make it about “new years” or some event, then it isn’t about YOU.
Do it for YOU, because you know that you’re worth the same amount of effort and affection as the others in your life.
Would you want this change for your friend? Turn don’t you think you skills care enough about you to give it to yourself?
I quit smoking the day my niece was born.
I quit drinking on April 1st, I've lost track of how many years ago it was, so that's nice.
don't discount the power of a specific date to reinforce a change and don't let the reputation of new years resolutions stop you from setting and crushing them.
Neither of those are New Year’s resolutions.
“The day my niece was born” is actually exactly the type of thing I’m talking about. You didn’t wait until new years, or your birthday, or something else unrelated to your motivations. You picked “now” because that was when you felt the desire.
So yes, special days can matter, but the days that matter to YOU are way more important than a day some guy named “Gregorian” chose 2000 years ago.
Nice backtracking on “some other event,” that’s better than what 90% of the internet would do!
I still think it’s fine to use external dates for self improvement. I’m not very religious, but I love lent specifically because it’s a socially encouraged time to change a habit that lasts nearly the two months it takes to make a new habit or break an old one.
One year it was soda because I drank a few cans a week, since then I very rarely have any in the house. Last year I gave up meat, which is something I would never have pushed myself to do on my own.
It’s just a lot easier to test a change when it’s not permanent. There’s certainly an argument to be made that a full year of change at new years is too long to successfully commit to, but that doesn’t mean the whole thing should be discounted.
You’re assuming it was backtracking rather than a simple clarification.
That’s unnecessarily unpleasant, and it’s cool you want to feel like you won the argument, but if you add in the context of “new years eve” and then read it as “some other event external to the reason you want to make a change” it’s not backtracking.
In fact it’s just context you missed because of your own life experiences and emotions.
Which is cool, but you look like an ass when you try and secure a win by pointing out your own misunderstanding rather than hearing my clarification.
Tell me more about my “faults” and “condescension” and “ad hominem”, then reread your comments. Yep, there’s some condescension from me here, but you’re also once again trying to throw judgement. “Glass houses” and all.
You win, Have a nice day.
You're quite right that there are no winners to internet arguments, but this didn't need to be an argument.
I think things often escalate in online discussions because tone and intent don't come across well. Sometimes we start writing a comment and find ourselves struggling to put words to our point, possibly due to other tasks demanding our attention. Often we don't realise a clarification is needed until after people have already read our message.
Given those factors, if we want to avoid turning discussions into arguments, we need to assume good faith from the people we're talking to. That can seem like an absurd prospect given how many people online are arguing in bad faith, but if you can't reasonably assume a particular person in a conversation is arguing in good faith, are they really worth your time?
For example, I didn't read the person you're replying to as being particularly snarky, and I'm surprised that you read them as such. You've written a decent amount here that seems determined to be having an argument, but I'm not sure what the actual argument at hand is. It seems like you might be feeling the need to defend yourself based on the miscommunication that happened up-thread? Which I can understand, but I don't understand why you feel the need to break things down to the nitty gritty wordy bits. If I were being uncharitable, I would probably consider you to be trying to stir shit up and start arguments where there are none. However, if I am assuming good faith of you (which feels reasonable, to an extent, because you clearly spent time writing this comment, and I also appreciate that you partly apologised), then I still read you as being defensive, but in a way that I'm far more sympathetic to, because I do it sometimes myself.
I think you captured the grim nihilism of most internet arguments well when you said that no-one really wins in an internet argument. Certainly though, there are losers, and sometimes when I find myself arguing for longer than I should be, it's because I feel like I'm trying to "save face" in a way, and avoid being the loser. Sometimes it's when I have fucked up and communicated my original point unclearly, and sometimes it's because I feel like people are unjustly accusing me of something (by implication, usually). However, that mode of discussion sucks for everyone involved, and ultimately, wanting to avoid that shit is a large part of why I'm here on Lemmy, where I find I have more discussions than arguments.
I fear that my comment here will seem overly accusatory or judgemental, but I hope that you'll recognise that I have no stakes in this discussion and wouldn't have spent this time writing this if I was just trying to throw shit. Your parsing of condescension in the above comments is not invalid any more than my reading of those same comments as being patient and reasonable is. Words can be slippery, even for the most skillful of writers. But I think you'll find that assuming good faith of the people you're communicating with can lead to far more productive discussions because people become more inclined to show you more slack in turn, which is nice.
Do you care to elaborate?
I've tried getting into both a few times, to the point of noticing some benefits, but I fall off the wagon bc everything I read about it quickly goes into religious territory.
Since it appears you dislike all religion I’m not sure my main point fits your tastes but I could say many of the various goals of Buddhist meditation such as realization emptiness of self or of phenomena, realization of impermanence, especially dhyana are all absent from whitewashed or medical meditation. I would say these can all be labeled as helpful but not necessarily religious goals but ontological.
To me this does two things, one it presents a false narrative of meditation by displacing it from its thousands of years of tradition. Two, it robs the practitioners of multiple goals and benefits, instead presenting it as simply calming. Which was never its goal, except maybe samatha meditation.
Essentially, I feel western mainstream and medical meditation denies meditations long history, makes up some goals and benefits that are not within the proven one’s, all while acting like they did it themselves.
Reminds me of the Duke University Koru counseling group which gave a talk on how their program came up with walking meditation…
I hope that’s helpful or at least clear. I do prefer traditional what you would call religious Buddhist mediation but even traditional does not have to contain things you dislike. For instance traditional Chan/Zen and vipasana teachers have been quite open to all students while teaching the full meditation
Duly noted and you are very right! I looked up a couple of simple exercises beforehand as I'm really not keen on getting a herniated disk or something.
From what I've seen, as long as it's nothing fancy like advanced calisthenics and power training, the exercises are straightforward and easy to grasp.
Just use a password manager, FFS it makes all of your online interactions safer.
Once setup, it is easier than not using one.
I use keepass XC, and keep it up to date on all my devices using syncthing.
I have considered bitwarden with self hosting, but keepass had always worked well.
I'm seconding Bitwarden. I'll also say that whilst self-hosting (if one can do it securely) may be more secure than using a service, security is always going to be a sliding scale trade off of convenience and security.
I recommend Bitwarden to everyone, but I'm sure there are options that are probably equally good. But most people could probably benefit from a password manager because we have so many different services demanding we make accounts that I reckon it's next to impossible for any reasonable person to avoid reusing passwords across services (that's one of the biggest security risks that hit regular people).
Start up tips: make sure your master password is strong and memorable. I found Bitwarden's password generator for this. A passphrase tends to be more memorable than an equally long password — a good master pass phrase would have at least four words (four is sufficient for most people). Write this down in a physical place, as a backup, ideally not your wallet. it doesn't necessarily need to be locked away, just make sure you'll know where to find it if you forget it (I forgot mine a bunch at first and had to reference my backup a few times).
Password managers and security in general can feel overwhelming because of the instinct to do things properly, which might include things like self hosting a password manager, or only avoiding biometric sign-in on the phone app version rtc. However, the best password manager is one that you use, and if bits of convenience like this help, then it's a good trade off.
It reminds me of the joke about two people who see an angry Grizzly bear in the forest, which starts charging at them. One of the people starts running away, and the other shouts "Where are you going, you'll never outrun the bear". The running person replies "I don't need to outrun the bear, I just need to outrun you". That's a bad paraphrase, but the sentiment is that using a password manager at all puts you way ahead of many people, in terms of security. Obviously, you'd feel more secure if you knew you could outrun the bear, but if we spent too long being anxious about our ability to do that, we definitely will get eaten. (Apologies for such a long comment. I always do this when I'm procrastinating going to bed. I hope you have a nice Christmas, if you're celebrating that wherever you are.)
Read books.
Really anything, philosophy is great but some don't have the patience for it.
If it's graphic novels or "kids" books, it's all good. Spend a bit of time every day reading.
Couldn't agree more.
Secondly, never ask for book recommendations on Lemmy or Reddit. You'll just get a list of pretentious, wanky suggestions that people pretend to like
The best fiction is sometimes just a trashy, edge-of-your-seat thriller
I wouldn't go that far - oftentimes people actually do like those books that get name dropped for clout.
I would say if you take a recommendation and aren't digging the book, drop it with absolutely no guilt. If something like (for example) Infinite Jest just feels like a slog with no payoff, and you just wanna kick back with something trashy, do it and fuck the haters.
But you may find you dig it - you won't know without giving it a shot.
And to add, if reading just doesn’t seem to work, be open towards audio books. They are every bit as good as the books (unabridged, anyway) but can be a better fit for some.
I have adhd and most of my reading has evolved to be listening. It works well so I can get some stimming while doing boring like dishes or whatever, and this way I actually finish books.
Don’t listen to anyone telling you it’s “not reading”. It is. Whatever works for you.
What I'm getting at, is not about finishing books, it's more about the time.
Slow down, take the time, even 10 minutes, to improve your mind. Reading, any type of reading, improves your thinking.
If you are not used to, at first it may be difficult to pay attention to the audio and understand it. Sometimes for me, the audio becomes background noise.
I listen to several podcasts, while it's not the same as an audiobook I started doing it to practice languages until I found some channels I like and it's now part of my daily activities
Yeah, indeed it is. And to make things worse, our brains aren't really native to numbers, our brains are native to meanings and emotional correlations and names. We get to memorize a song or a smell better than we get to memorize the 10 first digits of pi.
I sometimes tinker with math, programming (this one used to be my professional field), ciphers and steganography (scientific, logical approach towards the alphabetical positioning), as well as Gematria and numerology (non-scientific, esoteric/spiritual approach towards the alphabetical positioning). This allowed me to memorize the numerical position for some letters (for example, L=12, H=8, T=20, W=23). I got these letters specifically memorized due to emotional/spiritual/meaningful correlations (e.g. Lilith's name can be represented by the sequence 12 09 12 09 20 08).
When some of the letters are memorized, the other letters become a matter of counting from the nearest letter, until they're also memorized. Then, the reverse conversion (numbers to letters) become a bit easier to do (if I managed to memorize that T is 20, with enough repetition, I get to memorize that 20 is T).
I also memorized that 97 is the ASCII code for lowercase a, while 65 is the uppercase A, so this also allows the conversion between a text and its numerical ASCII representation, although it involves a lot more of math than simply converting numbers to letters within the alphabet or vice-versa.
I'm reminded of Plato's argument against writing, in which his position was roughly that relying on writing will make us become less practiced at remembering. I especially love the line, which goes hard.
"What you have discovered is a recipe not for memory, but for reminder."
Though the entire passage where the quote is from is great; It's thought provoking even if I don't necessarily agree with it.
The brain is like a muscle. it needs to be exercised, otherwise it would become weakened. The more you exercise it, the more it'll be stronger, and the more your thoughts will become clearer. Numbers are especially hard to the brain, because brains aren't naturally designed for numbers, so math is like a gym weight for the brain.
The opposite can be asked: how memory wouldn't improve one's life? I can't see how it wouldn't. The lack of memory skills would surely be problematic, especially when the modern life requires dealing with lots of information. Sure, we can delegate these oceans of information to our little bright rectangular stones which we often carry around with us like they were extension members of our bodies, but we'd be delegating our intelligence to things that can't be intelligent at all (smartphones, which lack the "smart"ness of human brain). To be intelligent is to intellego, to understand, to comprehend. Only living beings can comprehend things. However, in order to comprehend, the brain needs to be used for constant comprehension, the brain needs to be developed through neuroplasticity, which is why improving one's memory is important.
Man, I need to read Schopenhauer. I'm not especially well read in Philosophy, but I heard somewhere that Schopenhauer is one of the ones to read if you want to understand polemical writing, and that intrigues me.
From a pure nerd point of view, I will say I got a hell of a lot smarter when I got better at being dumb. By that, I mean that I allowed myself to feel less anxious about appearing smart and I found it easier to enjoy learning from the cool people I knew when I could say "no, I don't know much about that, but I'd love to learn more". I also got to spend more time with my own thoughts, reflecting on my ideas, rather than focussing on acting a certain way.
Bad linked article. Judging by the amount of sets of three bullets
along with the "in conclusion" prepositions and not-very-useful-but-broad headings, it was written by AI. 🙁
Most online sources about this Schopenhauer suggestion seem to be either AI-generated, mildly superficial (i.e. basically only talks about Schopenhauer's mom calling him an annoying intellectual type), or MBA-manipulator-esque (e.g. Get Rich! 48 Laws of Power! Buy Today!)...
which is a bummer since scaling humility up and down can be a really useful instrument to get things done. Just be agreeably approachable, but be careful if you outshine others, especially if ego gets in the way. Idk, i wish there was a more compelling source for this
Learn to eat healthy, in good portions, not too much, not too little and fast once in a while.
It's a pain when you're younger but gets easier with age because you start losing or degrading your sense of taste (like all your other senses) anyway.
If you get that habit early in life, you'll keep it forever. And if you take care of your system early in life, your older self will thank you for it. Otherwise if you abuse yourself, and you do end up living a long life, you'll be miserable for the last decade or two of your life and probably won't know your name or where you're from.
I’m divided on this.
In one hand, when I haven’t done my habits for awhile it seems like everything goes to chaos.
But many days I dread all the annoying chores I do making everyday feel the same.
when I haven’t done my habits for awhile it seems like everything goes to chaos
Yeah, happens to me too. Sometimes just doing one little thing quickly builds momentum back up again.
But many days I dread all the annoying chores I do making everyday feel the same.
Again, yeah, happens to me too. What helps me is to not do chores but to see how efficiently I can do chores. It's more interesting to come up with processes/procedures/tools that get the job done faster. In the end the chore is done AND the next time it will go even faster because I'm more efficient. HTH
I added above about habit stacking. The idea is to lump a new habit onto an existing habit, which makes it so much easier to stick with. For example, when you brush your teeth in the evening, do your Duo lesson. Or, when you go make a cup of coffee add a new habit in during the three minutes it makes to boil the water.
Here's a random article that explains it: https://health.clevelandclinic.org/habit-stacking
So many people don't care about how their behaviors affect others. They are loud on the public transport, interrupt others when they talk, act like they are better because they got good looks, and a bunch of other things.
I really think people would get along better if all of us were more down to earth and listening and relaxing.
Be the opposite of what you see in reality shows.
Just go for a walk. Calling it exercise scares people into thinking about running, cycling or the gym but for the last month or two i just make it my mission to go for a long-ish walk once a day. Nothing strenuous, some days I walk a couple of kilometres to the nearest big supermarket to pick up some stuff, or i'll get something delivered to a post locker thing or I'll just go for a nice walk around the nearby park and bring my neglected camera with me to take pics of some birdies.
You would be surprised how many calories it adds up to and how much better your well-being can get from some sunlight and fresh air.
I've been trying to motivate myself to go out for walks more. I really enjoy hiking, but especially over the winter, the weather is always an easy excuse not to go out (I'm in the PNW, so winter means rain).
I just bought some nice waterproof hiking shoes that will take away at least one excuse. I'd get wet feet using running shoes, and cleaning mud off was a pain too.
Having the right equipment can make going out way more pleasant. (Also it can be exciting to try out new shoes or whatever it is)
This is very important. It's easier to do regular "exercise" if it's part of your daily routine than having to go out of your way to go to the gym.
The fittest I've been on the last years has been when I could bike to the office
Waking up at the same time every day, no matter if it's a weekend or a weekday and no matter if you stayed up too late and won't be getting full 8 hours of sleep.
As obvious as this might sound, this has really helped me to regulate my sleep schedule, something I've really been struggling with for pretty much my entire life.
I spent all of 2024 tracking my spending and saving. I didn’t “budget”, just had a spreadsheet and wrote everything down week over week.
I would recommend it as a habit people may benefit from just to understand where their money goes.
Yes, track the dollars even if the outflow is greater than the inflow. Then you will at least have an idea of where to start
Also, generally avoid alcohol consumption. It's weird that this drink, when consumed regularly, has the ability to hijack and reprogram your biology so much that stopping can kill you. Just best to avoid it.
I imagine it would be useful as a learning experience, even if that level of tracking didn't go on forever.
I'm thinking of how tracking calories feels analogous; the time I spent dedicatedly tracking the calories of my food consumption was super helpful in recalibrating my intuitive understanding.
The first few months were a lot of effort because I had to do stuff like putting a bowl on a weighing scale and add what I considered to be an appropriate amount of cereal, and working out how many calories were in that, then doing similar for the milk. It was shocking to see how many calories were in some of the typical things I ate, but beginning to be honest about that and logging my reality was necessary to starting making positive changes. Because I tend to slip into disordered eating when I try to lose weight via calorie counting, I've found that I need to take a more freestyle approach and go for more qualitative goals like "eat more veg", "cook more meals", "drink glass of water before snacking" — goals that can be specific and towards being healthier, but don't require too much number crunching. However, I wouldn't have made as much progress without having spent a decent amount of time tracking things, judgement free.
The judgement free part is the hardest part, and I imagine that applies for tracking spending too. Did you ever have instances where you saw how much you were spending on a particular thing and cringed so hard that you found it harder to be truthful in your tracking? I know that I struggle with guilt a lot, and that can make it easier to put my head in the sand.
I did a similar thing with food. It was tedious but interesting at first… then it just became tedious. However, by then I “understood “ enough, I didn’t have to actually do it anymore.
Thanks for sharing!!
This is what I did this year and last one too.
I started tracking my spending to see where my money was going which was very insightful. Patterns emerged I never could have seen if it wasn’t all laid out in one spreadsheet.
For instance, I learned based on a little experimentation that driving 65 instead of 75 on the highway saved me like $50/month. Yeah, I’m that guy and my commute takes another couple minutes but I still do this today. I’ve reframed it in my head as a $50/mo subscription that doesn’t give me much value for the money and only costs an extra few minutes a day. Worth it in this inflation era.
Also realized I was spending money in all these categories that I could be getting some high cash back credit cards for. When you can see your spending averages over time, it’s easy to be confident about getting a strategic 5% card for gas or online shopping that can claw back a decent chunk of the money you already know you’re gonna spend.
It’s definitely useful to track your spending, in more ways than one
Floss daily. Brush your teeth twice daily.
Use a tongue scraper.
Make a list of all the tasks you want to do for the day, every day. This is so important for me if I don't do this I just never get anything done.
Also always plan to do something productive every day even if you just feel like relaxing. You will feel so much better relaxing if you know you've done something your proud of.
I had to avoid alcohol for a while because of a medication I was on and it drove me mad when people would press me after I said "I'm not drinking". I think it makes people feel weird about their own alcohol use? But if they're that self conscious, maybe they need to do some self reflection about whether their alcohol use is a problem.
A phrase I've been seeing more in recent years that's a small thing that feels impactful is stuff that says "alcohol and other drugs". It is a drug and needs to be treated with respect, and ideally caution
Keep a journal. Every day just jot down how you're feeling and what's on your mind, what you plan to do/did. Its amazing how helpful this has been for me.
Don't drink alcohol. It's not good for you in any amount.
Practicing critical thinking.
Many here have already recommended reading and, particularly, reading philosophy. That's a great way to practice critical thinking and to practice thinking outside of our comfortable or familiar ways. I'd add not to skip reading about logical fallacies and cognitive biases.
Many good things come from being a little cautious with apparent knowledge. To keep a reasonable doubt is also to keep our curiosity going, to keep asking questions, to imagine different ways, to discover new things, to avoid stagnant beliefs, etc. Critical thinking makes us not only less gullible but also flexible. This is valuable to understand everything, including one another, and perhaps in doing so, giving us better relationships and better societies.
Seems like a terrible idea to me.
You make one mistake one time and bingo, you cost yourself a few grand to have it sanded, leveled, varnished, and polished.
Hey, it's better than carpet.
Though I do get your point, ceramic tile is probably best, but to each their own 🤷♂️
You make a good point 👍
We happen to have that cheap lick and stick tile stuff. Came with the apartment. 🤷♂️
A good poly and an appropriate hardwood selection can do a lot to protect the floor.
Would I ever do a natural wood floor in a kitchen or full bathroom? Absolutely not because I actually use a kitchen and have a dog that would maul hardwood with zoomies.
Oh yeah, now that you mention it, there were dire humidity warnings all over the flooring I got.
I imagine there might be similar disclaimers on carpets too
To me its the same as the thought about survivorship bias .... you want the best flooring material for the place that will most likely get the most damage.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivorship_bias
You seldom use the bedroom floor because all you really do there is sleep ... basically wake in the morning and walk on at night before bed. And you seldom bring anything serious into the bedroom like liquids, hot / cold food, drinks or cups or containers.
The living room has moderate traffic and again you don't really use it during the day.
A high traffic area is the bathrooms because everyone goes there on a regular basis.
The most high traffic area in any house will always be the kitchen because everyone is constantly working and walking there .... and it is always exposed to liquids, solids, spills, hot stuff, cold stuff, broken stuff, glass, ceramic, metal, pots, pans. And you sometimes have crowds of people there ... all working and basically scrubbing the floor with all those feet.
It's the reason why you should have the best, hardest and most expensive flooring in any house.
If you are going to invest in expensive flooring ... put it in your kitchen because that is where it will be most useful and last for years in your house. If you install cheap floor in your kitchen, you'll be replacing it in less than 10 years or even less if the flooring is really cheap. After you replace flooring two or three times, it would have been the same cost as buying one good layer of expensive flooring anyway.
And you seldom bring anything serious into the bedroom...\
Hah, look at this guy! Amateur, right??
...
...right?
I would go with linoleum but i don’t think i can convince my husband that it’s not the same as vinyl.
"Vinyl is bad because it's made of petroleum, whereas real linoleum is made of plants and is therefore more eco-friendly" isn't sufficient?
(I have to admit, the other advantages of linoleum over vinyl are... not much.)
Hardwood floor sealer exists. It's called vitrification
You'd be nuts to install a hardwood floor and not protect it!
You might look for more competent flooring people.
When I was working with a 3rd generation hardwood master, we would glue in a replacement chip or swap the board if the chip was huge. And stain to match (if appropriate). And refinish.
Always, ALWAYS make the finished product an even, flat floor.
Stained potholes? Wtf ever. Fire that team.
Couldn't agree more.
Our kitchen table was pretty expensive when we got it and is destroyed from a heap of kids use and family meals over about 22 years. It is firmly agreed (by them too) that when my wife and I die it will be the only thing the kids fight over possession of.
Our kitchen is integrated into the living room (open kitchen space) and the whole room has hardwood flooring. Due to the room layout it would be hard to establish a "border" where the flooring could change (e.g. tile floor in the kitchen area). It it easier to have one type of flooring across all the room.
We rent, and unfortunately we were the first ones after the hardwood flooring was put in, which means that every spill and every scratch is on us. We decided not to bother, as every spill leaves a mark (regardless how fast your clean-up effort is), and thus adds character to the floor. It's a living room after all.
We know that a chunk of the security deposit will likely be gone if we move out. It would probably be as much money as to have the floor sanded down by ourselves.
Despite hardwood flooring has some disadvantages regarding spills and scratches, it makes the room much more cozy than any other type of flooring. The most durable type of flooring would be sealed screed flooring you expect in a warehouse. But that wouldn't look cozy.
Every spill leaves a mark?
Hardwoods need finish coats. Sounds like a real half assed job you're living with.
That's like 5x the cost though and you're likely to break anything you drop onto it like dishes or bottles.
Our kitchen has laminate plank flooring and it has held up really well. I believe it's original which means it's made it 22ish years so far with part of that time being a rental full of college kids who apparently stored all their literal garbage in the garage and put a bunch of holes in the walls.
If your one mistake is attacking your floor with sledgehammer or jackhammer, you may have a point.
Hardwoods & bamboo will weather damn near anything.
Even dog claws will take a few years before the floor begs for a refinishing.
Welcome to the 70's-80's when carpeting was de rigueur for bathrooms and kitchens.
Fun story ... my son was a climber so all food was in the highest cupboards. One time I needed a bathroom break, and in under 5 minutes he'd dragged a kitchen chair to the counter, climbed up, took down the flour and dumped it all over his little sister. Honest to gawd all I could see of her was her dark eyes in a cloud of white.
And just to boost his creativeness here, he decided to move the chair to the sink, grabbed a cup of water and they started making flour pies on the carpet.
Gotta love kids!
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