#on linux i had to google ‘how do i make linux do this’ from time to time

[square-enix]

i hate you windows 11 i hate you default microsoft teams on startup i hate you desktop window manager with a memory leak on intel systems for 2 years straight i hate you microsoft clipchamp i hate you copilot i hate you cortana i hate you bad accessibility options i hate you microsoft account i hate you bloatware i hate you bad UI

[kingshovelbug]

im sorry but i need to geek out somewhere and screaming into the void on tumblr is less likely to get me flayed than on twitter, especially if i get terms wrong. plus i can do a read more and yall can click into the tech talk if you want to verse it bombarding your twitter timelines

so idk if i only liked it or if i actually put it in my queue but i saw a post that talked about a few pieces of tech that focus on user repairs and being sustainable (fairphone and frameworks laptop) and after doing some more research into what they have to offer i actually really excited that these products are finely hitting the us market and that people are moving away from the belief that super smooth streamlined glassy = the future. being able to reliably repair and keep what you have alive verse throwing the whole thing away when maybe all you needed to do is add more ram to your current laptop (something that i would do with my laptop to keep using it for a few more years if it wasnt glued shut and i was at risk of cracking the screen) or swap out a fuse.

i know big corporations dont like it but i truly do believe with how much tech we use on a daily basis that the way that we are going to be more environmentally friendly is to move back to tech that we can hang onto for as long as we can and to recycle and then reuse what we cant. like with the frameworks laptop. i saw that they just partnered with coolermaster to create a case specifically so that you can reuse you motherboard, cpu, etc and make a portable workstation. you could dual wield with the laptop you just upgraded if you want to dedicate specific tasks to one or the other. they also specifically mentioned that you could screw it into the back of a monitor and create your own all in one. guys thats cool as shit??? if you had a 3d printer and some time you could even create that yourself

on top of the actual hardware part moving to open source programs when your able. when i update my desktop i plan on running linux. it might have a learning curve compared to windows but in terms of performance??? ive heard that it runs smoother even on older machines, that its more efficient because isnt running stuff in the background that tracks your data and shit. now i understand that not everyone can do that because there are some programs that dont play nice with linux but for my needs at least it does everything i would need it to. and maybe a couple years down the road we do figure out how to run these programs on certain flavors of linux since its open source and people fiddle with it so much. (still looking for alternatives to like word and excel though, i use google docs since its free but i want to move away from them as much as i can too since they laid of their youtube music team (i believe?? it might of been a different branch) for trying to unionize)

if anyone knows of any other smaller companies that actually focus on sustainability and user repairability please let me know. theres certain pieces of tech that i think are now unfortunately behind a software repair paywall, things that used to be just machines and are gaining more bells and whistles like cars and refrigerators if that makes sense. but the more we push for these things to be repairable by us the consumers id hope that would change, or there would at least be options that dont need specific companies to repair them or else they blow up

[maypop-the-dragon]

PSA: Free Software

Reading this may really save your time, privacy, and money! Reblog or share to spread awareness!

Folks often use software that’s expensive and sometimes even inferior because they don’t know there are alternatives. So to those unfamiliar: basically, free and open-source (FOSS) or "libre" software is free to use and anyone can access the original code to make their own version or work on fixing problems.

That does not mean anyone can randomly add a virus and give it to everyone—any respectable libre project has checks in place to make sure changes to the official version are good! Libre software is typically developed by communities who really care about the quality of the software as a goal in itself.

There are libre alternatives to many well-known programs that do everything an average user needs (find out more under the cut!) for free with no DRM, license keys, or subscriptions.

Using libre software when possible is an easy way to fight against and free yourself from corporate greed while actually being more convenient in many cases! If you need an app to do something, perhaps try searching online for things like:

foss [whatever it is]

libre [whatever it is]

open source [whatever it is]

Feel free to recommend more libre software in the tags, replies, comments, or whatever you freaks like to do!

Some Libre Software I Personally Enjoy…

LibreOffice

LibreOffice is an office suite, much like Microsoft Office. It includes equivalents for apps like Word, Excel, and Powerpoint, which can view and edit files created for those apps.

I can't say I've used it much myself yet. I do not personally like using office software except when I have to for school.

OpenShot

OpenShot Video Editor is, as the name suggests, a video editing program. It has industry-standard features like splicing, layering, transitions, and greenscreen.

I've only made one video with it so far, but I'm already very happy with it. I had already paid for a video editor (Cyberlink PowerDirector Pro), but I needed to reinstall it and I didn't remember how. Out of desperation, I searched up "FOSS video editor" and I'm so glad I did. There's no launcher, there's no promotion of other apps and asset packs—it's just a video editor with a normal installer.

GIMP

GNU Image Manipulation Program is an image editor, much like Photoshop. Originally created for Linux but also available for Windows and MacOS, it provides plenty of functionality for editing images. It is a bit unintuitive to learn at first, though.

I've used it to create and modify images for years, including logos, really bad traceover art, and Minecraft textures. It doesn't have certain advanced tech like AI paint-in, but it has served my purposes well and it might just work for yours!

(Be sure to go to Windows > Dockable Dialogs > Colors. I have no idea why that's not enabled by default.)

Audacity

Audacity is an audio editing program. It can record, load, splice, and layer audio files and apply effects to them.

Audacity is another program I've used for a long time. It is not designed to compose music, but it is great for podcasts, simple edits, and loading legacy MS Paint to hear cool noises.

7-Zip

7-Zip is a file manager and archive tool. It supports many archive types including ZIP, RAR, TAR, and its own format, 7Z. It can view and modify the contents of archives, encrypt and decrypt archives, and all that good stuff.

Personally, I use 7-Zip to look inside JAR files for Minecraft reasons. I must admit that its UI is ugly.

Firefox

Firefox is an internet browser, much like Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, or Safari. While browsers are free, many of them include tracking or other anti-consumer practices. For example, Google plans to release an update to Chromium (the base that most browsers are built from these days) that makes ad blockers less effective by removing the APIs they currently rely on.

Aside from fighting monopolies, benefits include: support for animated themes (the one in the picture is Purple Night Theme), good ad blockers forever, an (albeit hidden) compact UI option (available on about:config), and a cute fox icon.

uBlock Origin

As far as I know, uBlock Origin is one of the best ad blockers there is.

I was on a sketchy website with my brother, and he was using Opera GX's ad blocker. Much of the time when he clicked on anything, it would take us to a random sponsored page. I suggested that he try uBlock Origin, and with uBlock Origin, that didn't happen anymore.

Linux

Linux is a kernel, but the term is often used to refer to operating systems (much like Windows or MacOS) built on it. There are many different Linux-based operating systems (or "distros") to choose from, but apps made for Linux usually work on most popular distros. You can also use many normally Windows-only apps on Linux through compatibility layers like WINE.

I don't have all four of these, so the images are from Wikipedia. I tried to show a variety of Linux distros made for different kinds of users.

If you want to replace your operating system, I recommend being very careful because you can end up breaking things. Many computer manufacturers don't care about supporting Linux, meaning that things may not work (Nvidia graphic cards notoriously have issues on Linux, for example).

Personally, I tried installing Pop!_OS on a laptop, and the sound output mysteriously doesn't work. I may try switching to Arch Linux, since it is extremely customizable and I might be able to experiment until I find a configuration where the audio works.

Many Linux distros offer "Live USB" functionality, which works as both a demo and an installer. You should thoroughly test your distro on a Live USB session before you actually install it to be absolutely sure that everything works. Even if it seems fine, you should probably look into dual-booting with your existing operating system, just in case you need it for some reason.

Happy computering!

[ofduskanddreams]

How I download fics and give them covers before sending them to my Kindle.

Hi all, I've been considering making a post about this for a while and now seems as good a time as any. I'm not an expert, and there is more than one way you can do this; I'm just going to show you my process using "Call It What You Want To" by @separatist-apologist as an example. [This will only work on computers FYI.]

Part One — Getting Started

Download Calibre (it's free.) Calibre for PC. Calibre for Mac. They also have it for Linux but idk if that's still relevant.

Follow the program's setup instructions, and then those for wirelessly connecting Calibre with your Kindle account. Alternatively, you can connect your Kindle/e-reader to your computer with a cable and transfer files manually or download the file to your hard drive and share it another way. I highly recommend taking a few extra minutes to set up the wireless sharing as I think it's far more convenient.

Create a folder in which to store fanfiction downloads so that you can be an organized human.

Part Two — The Fanfiction

Find the fic you want to download on ao3 and click it so that you're on the fic's first page.

Above the box of metadata (ratings, warning, tags, etc.) on the far right click the "download" option. When prompted to select a file type, choose "MOBI."

Note: Though ao3 has an "EPUB" option I've noticed a bug that removes the chapter navigation from the fic when downloading the EPUB directly from ao3. If you enjoy the "x minutes left in this chapter/book" feature on your e-reader, you will want to download "MOBI" and we will be converting it later in Calibre.

Save the file to the folder you created.

Launch Calibre if it isn't already running.

In Calibre, click "add books" on the toolbar at the top of the screen.

Navigate to the folder you saved the fic in, select the fic, then click "open." Calibre will import the MOBI file to your library.

Now as you can see, "Call It What You Want To" already has a cover when we imported it to the library. That is because the cover image is embedded in the fic on the archive. Some fics will already have covers embedded such as this one.

Calibre is not a genius. If there are multiple images in the fic it will usually take the first one and default it to the cover. In the next section, I will go over how to add/change the cover of a fic in Calibre and how I like to create them.

Note: Even if the fic doesn't have embedded images, covers may have been made by readers and linked to the fic either in the notes or related works sections so it's worth checking if a cover already exists. If a fic is popular enough, a Google search of the fic's title + "cover" or "cover art" will show you if there have been covers already created for it.

Part Three — Making The Cover (I use Canva)

On the Canva homepage click "create a design" then select the "custom size" option. Canva does have a book cover template but I've found that it's awkwardly tall compared to the default size for Kindle books so I make my own.

I set the dimensions of the design to be 1024 pixels wide, and 1600 pixels tall, then click "create new design."

This is where you can get creative, make whatever you want. These basic steps are shown in a gif at the bottom of the section:

One: Choose a background image (you'll want to make sure it's a high enough quality that it won't be pixelated.) I used an image I had already uploaded into Canva, but you can use whatever you would like.

Two: On the sidebar, select "elements" and then "rectangle."

Three: Make sure the rectangle covers the whole design, then change the color. I like using the colors from the photo that Canva suggests and then making them a darker shade. Once you have the color that you want, reduce the transparency of the rectangle to anywhere between 40-50%. (This step ensures that the text we put on top of the image is easily legible, play around with it a bit.)

Four: On the sidebar, select "text" and then "add a text box." Then type in the author's username and change the font, the color, and the size until you like it. Repeat the same steps for the fic's title. I like to center the title on the page and put the author toward the bottom but that's just my preference.

Once your cover looks the way you want it to, click "share" at the top right and follow the steps to download the file as a PNG. I usually just save the image to my desktop so I can grab it easily once I'm in Calibre.

Part Four — Adding the Cover in Calibre

In your Calibre library, hover over the fic and right-click. Then hover over "edit metadata" and click "edit metadata individually."

On the "edit metadata" screen, find the section that says "change cover" and click "browse."

When the file upload dialog box appears, navigate to the PNG you just saved from Canva, select it, and click "open." This will add your cover to the fic. You can use these same steps to add any cover image that you've saved to your computer.

Make sure to click "ok" at the bottom of the screen to save your new cover and navigate back to the library page.

Part Five — Converting to EPUB

In your Calibre library, select the fic and then click "convert books" on the toolbar. At the top right of the converting screen, set the "output format" to "EPUB."

Now, the following steps are unnecessary little things I do to make my reading experience more seamless.

Click "Look & Feel" on the left sidebar. Under the "fonts" tab, I embed the "Georgia" font family. I do this because I prefer reading in Georgia which is not a default option on my PaperWhite*. I have my Calibre conversion settings in place to do this automatically. You can embed any font that you have on your computer.

*It might just be me, but when opening a downloaded fic (following the methods in this post) for the first time on my Kindle the font is always weird. The trick to fix it is to go and change the font from whatever is selected (Baskerville in my case) to "publisher's font" and then I've found that switching it back to "Baskerville" on the font selection screen activates the embedded Georgia... even though it will say that it's Baskerville? Idk why this is, I just wanted to let you know how I fix it.

Calibre defaults to a justified text alignment unless you change the default settings. This appears as "original" in the alignment options. The random too-large spaces between words of a justified alignment give me the ick so to make everything left aligned, I stay on the "look & feel" page but move to the "text" tab where I can change the alignment.

Staying on "look & feel," move to the "layout" tab. To ensure even paragraph spacing regardless of how it appeared on the archive, I select both the "remove spaces between paragraphs" and "insert blank line between paragraphs" options.

On this page, you can also change the indent size of the first line of every paragraph (highlighted pink,) and the size of the blank lines Calibre will insert between paragraphs upon conversion (highlighted green.) I set the indent to 0.0 and leave the line size 0.5 which is the default.

The last thing I do is go to "EPUB output" on the left sidebar and check the box labeled "insert inline table of contents." This just means that Calibre will add a table of contents to the beginning of the EPUB. (By default it puts the TOC at the end which I don't like.)

When everything is set as you'd like it, click "ok" on the bottom right and Calibre will convert the MOBI file you downloaded from ao3 to an EPUB containing the settings we just changed. Both file types will appear in your library when you click on the fic and scroll within the right-side window. I usually delete the MOBI format after I have the EPUB because I don't need it any longer.

And you've done it! Now all you have to do is either right-click and share it to your Kindle, or you can "save to disk" and download the EPUB file to transfer to your e-reader by a method of your choosing.

I hope someone finds this marginally helpful. In truth, I was just bored so I made this post but in light of the recent DDoS attacks against ao3, I think everyone should look into downloading their favorites so that you're never left out in the cold again.

Happy fanfic downloading <3

[dragonmarquise]

Everyone keeps talking Abt all the crews and stuff, but like, I never see any content for futurism! Sure there wasn't a lot of stuff for them since they were like, a really small part of the plot, but it would still be awesome to see content for them!!!! So I come bearing a question, do you have hcs for futurism?

Ooo, I have a few for FUTURISM! Not as extensive as my stuff for Devil Theory and DOT EXE, but still. :>

(I know some people kinda debate writing it as FUTURISM vs. Futurism, I'm gonna personally keep all caps but I also understand most people probably don't care either way lol)

Also feel free to send in asks about the other crews/characters too! I might not have a lot for each character though. I also have a general list of LGBT+ headcanons for all the BRC characters, if that interests you! Granted, it's probably not as extensive as some other people's lists.

Anyways, gonna put this under a Read More, it won't get nearly as long as the other two headcanon sets, but it'll be long enough that I'll feel bad about posting this without one. ^^;

I like giving all the crew members themed names, and for FUTURISM I went with computer-related terms! Some of them more obscure than others. So for the members (besides DJ Cyber of course):

Jazz (Related to the Chorus/Jazz version of JavaOS)

Quantum (i.e. quantum computing)

Veronica (an old search engine)

Nyx (The name of a prototype Amiga chipset, though also Greek personification of the night!)

I have a personal idea that after the events of the game, one member from each of the major crews end up joining BRC, basically representing the unlockable characters in the post game. In this case, Nyx is the one who joins BRC (and in my mind she's the default Spring palette in the game), so let's start with her!

Bi, currently dating one of the Eclipse ladies (inspired by this very good fan art btw :D )

All of the FUTURISM gals have amazing skills both with computers and as writers. Nyx ends up being one of two Designated IT Person for BRC, the other being Cueball.

Her and Cueball get into little prank wars, mostly instigated by Cueball for the hell of it. Her opinion of him ranges from genuine respect for his own computer skills to Chump Lord Supreme. Depends on her mood (and how much Cueball has recently pissed her off before asking her about it, lol)

As for the rest of BRC: "Well, they're still kinda chumps, but I guess they're my chumps now, y'know?"

Not afraid to be snarky, even to authority figures (DJ Cyber included)

Now for Jazz (Summer palette):

Is actually a guy who crossdresses! Does drag shows on the weekends too. :D

She is personally not very picky about pronouns, but most people default to referring to Jazz with she/her while in her writer outfit or as her drag persona (she goes by Jazz for both anyways), and he/him when he's not dressed up. But again, not very picky either way.

"I'm just saying, when the cops try to chase me down, they're gonna be looking for a blonde woman, not a guy with dark hair and stubble. Literally, one time I ran around a corner and managed to take off my wig and mask, then just covered up my top with a hoodie I had. Same pants and shoes, but they didn't even notice!"

Truthfully the crossdressing thing was genuinely just for fun, not to mention pretty comfortable while going around doing writer stuff. It wasn't until a while later that she realized it would make for a great disguise as a writer. :P

Nyx and Jazz are basically Besties and will be more than happy to smacktalk about their respective crews behind everyone's backs, lol

Now Quantum (Winter palette):

Runs an underground (kinda literally) server farm for local web hosting, chat sites, and forums. Anyone remember forums? Man, the good ol' days...

Has a hand in a lot of open source freeware projects. Hates companies like Adobe, Apple, Google, and Microsoft with a passion. Big Linux nerd btw, she will talk you ear off about the pros and cons of different distros if you let her.

Actually on that note, if you're not talking to her while she's out and about as a writer, or otherwise talking to her about computer stuff, she's fairly introverted! Especially if you try to talk to her in person instead of via text/chat/email/etc, she's basically more talkative online.

Also very good at sneaking around. Though not really as like spying or anything like that, she just prefers to not get in people's way or annoy them. Unfortunately she has scared DJ Cyber more than once by sneaking up on him by accident, lol

Wears contacts as a writer, but otherwise wears glasses normally. Has been considering getting prescription heavy-duty goggles for her writer activities, so that she doesn't have to bother with the contacts anymore.

And finally Veronica (Autumn palette):

She is genuinely a jerk. Nyx can be snarky sometimes, but not in an overly mean way. Veronica will be more than happy to be nasty to someone if she thinks they deserve it, even if they really don't.

Always looks down on pretty much any other writer outside of FUTURISM. She's still convinced Felix cheated to get his reputation, especially the whole "did it with no boostpack" thing.

Most people would probably consider her a stereotypical Karen ngl :u

So yeah, she's basically That One Teammate Nobody Likes. Veronica is only still in the crew because her skills are second only to DJ Cyber himself. Hell, he really doesn't like her attitude, but can't find a replacement for her in terms of skills. (He's begged Vinyl to formally join FUTURISM in the past, but she always declined, preferring to keep being a freelance writer. And now that she's part of BRC, she's definitely not an option for replacing Veronica, lmao)

She had a crush on Faux, but these days refuses to admit it was ever a thing.

That's about all I got I think! Hope you enjoy these. :>

Small bonus, specific track from the game that I associate with FUTURISM the most: Funk Express!

[a-girl-called-bob]

I don't want to reply to this on the post it's on, because it'd be getting pretty far away from the original point (that being that chromebooks have actively eroded the technological literacy of large proportions of young people, especially in the US), but I felt enough of a need to respond to these points to make my own post.

Point 1 is... pretty much correct in the context that it's replying to; the Google Problem in this case being the societal impact of Google as a company and how their corporate decisions have shaped the current technological landscape (again, especially in the US). I'd argue it's less like saying Firefox is a good alternative for your dishwasher and more like saying Firefox is a solution for climate change, but whatever, the point's the same. You can't personal choices your way out of systemic issues.

Point 2 is only correct in the most pedantic way; we both know that 'running on a Linux kernel' isn't what we mean when we talk about Linux systems. It's one true definition, but not a functional or useful one. Android and ChromeOS (and to a lesser extent, MacOS, and to an even greater extent, the fucking NES Mini) all share a particular set of characteristics that run counter to the vast majority of FOSS and even Enterprise Linux distributions. Particularly, they're a.) bundled with their hardware, b.) range from mildly annoying to damn near impossible (as well as TOS-breaking) to modify or remove from said hardware, and c.) contain built-in access restrictions that prevent the user from running arbitrary Linux programs. I would consider these systems to all be Linux-derived, but their design philosophies and end goals are fundamentally different from what we usually mean when we talk about 'a Linux system'. Conflating the two is rhetorically counterproductive when you fucking know what we mean.

Point 3 is a significant pet peeve of mine, and the primary reason why I feel the need to actually respond to this even if only on my own blog. "Linux is not a consumer operating system" is such a common refrain, it's practically a meme; yet, I've never seen someone explain why they think that in a way that wasn't based on a 30-year-old conception of what Linux is and does. If you pick up Linux Mint or Ubuntu or, I don't know, KDE Plasma or something, the learning curve for the vast majority of things the average user needs to do is nearly identical to what it would be on Windows. Office software is the same. Media players is the same. Files and folders is the same. Web browsers is the same. GIMP's a little finicky compared to Photoshop but it also didn't cost you anything and there are further alternatives if you look for them. There are a few differences in terms of interface, but if you're choosing between either one to learn for the first time you're using a computer, the difference isn't that large. Granted, you can also do a bunch of stuff with the command line - you could say the same of Powershell, though, and you don't have to use either for most things. Hell, in some respects Windows has been playing catch-up - the Windows Store post-dates graphical software browsers on Linux by at least a decade, maybe more. Finding and installing programs has, quite literally, never been harder on Linux than on Windows - and only recently has Windows caught up. I used Linux as my daily driver for five years before I ever regularly had to open up the terminal (and even then it was only because I started learning Python). I was also seven when I started. If the average teenager these days has worse computer literacy than little seven year old Cam Cade (who had, let me think, just about none to start with), I think we have bigger issues to worry about.

In my opinion, Linux users saying Linux 'isn't for consumers' is an elitist, condescending attitude that's not reflective of the actual experience of using a Linux system. To say so also devalues and trivializes the work put in to projects like Mint and Ubuntu, which are explicitly intended to be seamlessly usable for the vast majority of day-to-day computer tasks.

[picardsims]

get to know me tag

I was tagged by @salemssimblr (thanks Salem <3) this is my first ever ask game I've been tagged in 😳😳

I'll put it under a readmore in case someone's not here for this

show your wallpaper and the last song you listened to.

this is my wallpaper on my laptop (art by me). When I needed to use Linux for university stuff this was my setup:

the last song I've listened to is Hozier's Unknown/Nth (youtube link) I am obsessed with the bridge.

currently reading?

Dennett's From Bacteria to Bach and Back, although I'm very good at *not* reading it and having it on my table. I swear I'll finish it this summer.

last movie?

I'm not a big movie person, so probably one of the things I've forced a friend to watch with me. Last film I've seen at the cinema was Everything Everywhere All at Once (for the second time).

last show?

Finishing season 6 of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. It's such a good show.

craving?

Chocolate. There's probably some in my fridge.

what are you wearing right now?

Patterned flowy pants, a black tanktop full of cat hair and socks (not matching but they're the same color and have no holes as far as I know. a success)

how tall are you?

an exact 170 cm (that's almost exactly 5'7, I've had to google that so many times)

piercings?

Nope, not even my ears.

tattoos?

None, but maybe at some point I won't feel like I'd immediately get bored of whatever I got... I'd like some.

glasses or contacts?

glasses. I had one (very failed) attempt at learning how to put in contacts and decided it's not for me.

last thing you ate?

spinach pierogi <3 courtesy of visiting my parents

favorite color?

fun fact: i've never had a favorite color so I just steal the favorite color of people I care about. That way seeing my favorite color makes me happy cause I'm thinking about them :> Currently it's red. I do have a favorite number though, it's always been 8.

current obsession?

I'm kind of in between obsessions right now, but I've been itching to get back to blender for a while since my laptop was broken (a friend fixed it and now it's back :>)

any pets?

here's a portrait of not technically my (she belongs to my partner) cat. She's fat and grey and her favorite hobby is drinking water from a glass or a cup and chewing on plastic packaging.

favorite fictional character?

the entire cast of DS9 has my heart forever. But also (as you might've guessed already) Captain Picard from TNG.

last place you traveled?

across the country with my parents visiting family :>

I'm tagging @angelgnomesims, @buttertrait and anyone who would like to do it too (tag me if you do, I love getting to know people!)

[gravemushrooms]

Tag ppl you wanna know betteeer

Tagged by: @missmassacre

Last song: not songs per se but: Ryuji Takeuchi / Essential Memories EP Part III / Sonoran District; Orbital / In Sides / Dŵr Budr (this has some singing but it's nonsense backwards words); Polygon Window / Surfing on Sine Waves / Polygon Window (it's Aphex Twin, also featured on Warp Records Artificial Intelligence)

Favorite color: i end up back at pink-purple but you'd never know from looking at me

Currently watching:

antiquities/religion MythVision Podcast (mostly critical studies of ancient christianity or related topics) Crecganford (a lot of proto-indo-european th.) Religion for Breakfast Gnostic Informant ESOTERICA (Dr. Justin Sledge) James Tabor Ancient Architects History for GRANITE World of Antiquity Archaeology Now Antiquity for All Crowhag Ancient Americas Jackson Crawford (Old Norse) Lady of the Library Let's Talk Religion toldinstone Simon Roper (English language over time + other topics) Sally Pointer (neolithic fibers + textiles)

experimental archaeology Primitive Technology (with subtitles) Roland Warzecha scholagladiatoria (Matt Easton) Tod's Workshop Malcolm P.L.

urbanism Not Just Bikes Stewart Hicks CityNerd Kirsten Dirksen (not really urbanism but houses, permaculture, DIY)

technology Asianometry

skepticism potholer54 (climate) Mick West AronRa (anti-creationism)

crank bigfoot Bob Gymlan i like to watch a lot of weird crank stuff but this is maybe the only one i think other people could find entertaining

self-actualization (?) Bitsii in Inaka

video game industry Timothy Cain

half a-press memes pannenkoek2012

Last movie: director's cut of The Little Shop of Horrors that has the apocalyptic ending. apparently i haven't really watched a movie since 2019

Currently reading: @eyeofpsyche recommended some books about Jung (Jung - The Key Ideas by Ruth Snowden and The Essential Jung by John Beebe but lately i've been swamped with work + school. earlier this year i was reading Big Dead Place because Antarctica is strange and miserable and Malleus Maleficarum to better understand a Euro-medieval/early modern notion of the supernatural. i skimmed through a bunch of Ekirch's At Day's Close - Night in Times Past for a course over the summer

Sweet/spicy/savory: food isn't really a thing for me. ask me when i have more money

Relationship status: the person i talk to the most online is someone that i don't even use words with

Current obsessions: i had a week where i was looking at weird things to do with Windows 3 and trying out linux distros in a virtual machine

Last googled: i was trying to find a magazine cover from the early/mid 90s that depicted a man wearing unusual shoes in a photo-realistic style and it was intended to illustrate how developments in digital image manipulation had made the notion of "the camera never lies" obsolete

Currently working on: lab report busywork for a microbio course, or i spent nearly all day setting up a biochemistry lab which involved making a lot of 1% solutions of a variety of amino acids

anyone that follows me that wants to do this feel free to have a go at it

[wunthyll]

Also, Google is coming out with something called Manifest V3 for its extension framework that will prevent all extensions from running “remote code” which sounds good from a security standpoint and in a world without disingenuous business practices, that would be amazing.

However what this provision does is make it so that an extension can’t update say, a list of advertiser urls, without updating the whole extension and getting approval from Google.

The main point of this update is to block ad blocking extensions that actually work.

Now you might be thinking, I don’t need an ad blocker, I don’t mind getting the ads. Consider the following:

Do you ever wonder why despite getting faster and faster internet connections, your web pages sit at a blank screen for a while before loading anything? That is the web page running an auction on the ad spots. Every time you load the page. Not only does this slow down your browser, but it’s also using your data if you’re on a phone or other metered connection. Using an ad blocker speed up your experience and reduces data usage by a noticeable amount.

Have you ever been talking to a friend about some new set of pens they found on Amazon, and then suddenly you get an ad for those pens? That’s not them listening in on the mics of your phone. They paired your tracking ID to theirs via the WiFi you were probably on. They figure since you’re using the same IP, and it’s not one that shows up for a ton of people, you two must be related somehow, and must share interest. So they change your profile to reflect that and start showing you stuff they like. If you have an ad blocker on, they can’t generate a tracker for you, so your friends can’t figure out what you’re planning on getting them after you visit by looking for new ads.

Then there’s the article below. It’s been partially debunked, as target already had a system in place to more discreetly distribute baby products, but they still were able to guess based on a few purchases that she might need baby products. That is way more than anyone needs to know about you. Ad blockers help prevent that kind of data accumulation.

Firefox is pretty much the last browser out there that you can get on pretty much any device that isn’t chrome. Brave, Opera, and Edge are all just chrome with a coat of paint and some crypto or ai bs tacked on.

If you want to try and maintain any semblance of privacy or control over your experience on the web, use Firefox. If you’re too scared to switch and you have a Mac, at least use Safari. It is actually the fastest web browser and on the Mac you can get some good ad blockers for it. Otherwise if you’re on Windows, android, or Linux, SWITCH TO FIREFOX.

The most popular browsers in different countries in 2012 and 2022.

by @theworldmaps_

[dearmomimissyou]

Why do I keep putting myself in situations to get hurt. I know I'm gunna end up hurt from it and I still fucking do it. Probably need to talk to my therapist about this honestly.

Yesterday before work I was really struggling to get myself to get up and eat anything. I naively thought that if I called Manuel he wouldn't answer and that would somehow give me the energy to get up and eat something, or he would and I could ask him to pick me up to get food somewhere. Unfortunately when he answered I immediately started crying and he kinda got upset cause we take about not being emotional or whatever til he was ready so I hung up. After like twenty minutes of crying I texted him sorry and he immediately called me back and asked me how to set up a dual boot Linux on Windows and I stupidly googled it for him. Then he asked me to read him something so he could fall asleep and I fucking did that too. I kept reading til I finished the story even though he was already snoring. I should have hung up way sooner. But I even stayed on the line for a bit hoping he would wake up or some shit. Somehow it worked I guess cause I got dressed for work and walked to McDonald's to get a $1 10 piece nuggets. But as soon as I took a bite I started fucking crying. I texted Nemo and they immediately called me and we talked while I sat in McDonald's crying and shoving nuggets down my throat. They kept telling me how proud they are of me and all the work I've been doing but it doesn't feel like I've done anything ya know.

We talked so long before my shift that I had stopped crying by then and nobody said anything if I still looked like I had been crying so that was kinda nice I guess. For the most part the day was busy enough that I didn't think too much but when I was washing dishes or there was down time if start thinking about Manuel.

I skipped work today cause I was feeling shitty as fuck. I kept not getting up with my alarms til an hour before I had work and my head was pounding so I texted Orlando about it and he said that I could text jayden and see if he would pick my my shift from 5 to 9 but he didn't get back in time. I told Orlando that if he doesn't get back to me by 1 I'd go into work anyways and he said not to worry about it that they should be fine tonight with the crew they have. I ended up falling asleep again and waking up around 430 and just cuddled with Poe for a while before I got up and showered. I cried in the shower thinking about Manuel cause I sent Nemo a really long text right before about yesterday:

I think the reason I was crying yesterday BTW was because of Manuel. I stupidly thought since I don't feel the pull to talk to him every second of the day anymore that we could still be friends. We hung out on Monday and he told me that he quit his job because he was dating a coworker and they had a bad breakup and I think right before the breakup he had switched from coke to crack cause coke wasn't getting him high anymore and then we drove down Magna and memories of mom came up in addition to all that shit. Then Tuesday after the results I didn't wanna be alone so I asked him to hang out again and we laid some boundaries down after they were violated or whatever and ever since I've been feeling like fucking shit. Like he called me high on shrooms Wednesday night and I shoulda hung up cause that was one of the boundaries but I think I started slipping back into the same pattern. Now I'm thinking about him more and more and struggling to not cry again. It's not nearly as bad as it was at its peak but it's still not healthy

Then after the shower and thinking about it I sent them this as well:

And now part of me wants to reach out one last time and explain this shit all to him in the hopes that it makes him open up? But that's not fucking fair to either of us cause I know it's not gunna help me and it will just piss him off

They haven't responded because they're probably sleeping for work so I dumbly decided to call him and just ask why he wants to be friends with me like that was gunna fucking help anything. He said that he has fun hanging out with me or something to that effect I don't really remember because I was fucking crying again. Maybe that's why my head hurt so much this morning. It was the crying. He said he couldn't really talk cause he was hanging out with a friend and we hung up and I texted him that he could come over tonight if he wanted. No answer.

I need to just stop talking to him like I did before. He doesn't need an explanation unless he asks for one. This isn't fucking healthy for either of us. I don't know what I even fucking expect to get out of this. Like part of me wonders if I am in love with him, but it doesn't feel that way. I think it's just the bpd being obsessed with him for some reason. I wish I could fucking talk to him like an adult without fucking crying.

I've reached out to a few lesbians online so maybe I can get a partner and my mind with focus on them and not Manuel. I know that's probably not the healthy way to do it but I'm fucking desperate at this point. I'm scared it's going to become as intense as it was in September. I don't want to ever go back to that. Ever.

Maybe I should have my therapist read through these posts to better understand my thinking and shit. Idk.

Love you always.

[fahrni]

Saturday Morning Coffee

Good morning from Charlottesville, Virginia! ☕️

I still get a bit lost in my new gig — at WillowTree — as a React Native/TypeScript dev. The syntax is making more sense and getting easier to follow, but, I do have a difficult time understanding the errors produced by yarn ts:check. It’s the same each time I learn a new language.

I’m also developing an interest in Rust. That’ll have to be a part time interest for a long time I suppose. I have more important business to attend to. 😃

Onward!

Filipe Espósito • 9to5Mac

Shareshot is an iOS app that transforms how you share iPhone and iPad screenshots

A friend of mine, Marc Palmer, is part of the duo who created Shareshot! It is, as always, absolutely beautiful, full featured, and stable.

If I’m not too lazy moving forward I should use it to make screenshots for Stream blog posts and the like.

Congratulations, Marc! 🥳

Andrew Carter • WillowTree Blog

Mobile app interactivity, multimodal voice technology, and AI are all converging with Apple Intelligence — Apple’s new artificial intelligence feature set announced at this year’s WWDC, coming soon with iOS 18 (maybe in October). And the secret sauce powering those awesome interactions is something called App Intents.

Andrew is pretty legendary in the halls of WillowTree. So damned smart and witty, and he plays a mean fiddle and banjo.

Anywho, go give his piece on App Intents a gander, you might learn a thing or two.

Kelly Crandall • Racer

Austin Dillon has been stripped of the NASCAR Cup Series playoff eligibility that came with his victory at Richmond Raceway.

Austin Dillion looked great all night. I don’t recall how many laps he lead but it was a lot. He was two laps short of victory when a late caution came out.

On the restart he was beat off the line by Joey Lagano and fell into second place.

I wanted to see Mr. Dillion win so badly. He hasn’t had a win in a couple years and Richard Childress Racing needed one but the way he did it was not great.

He kept the win but was stripped of his points and playoff berth. They should’ve disqualified him and given the win to Legano, if I’m being honest about my feelings.

Scharon Harding • Ars Technica

Sonos is laying off about 100 people, the company confirmed on Wednesday. The news comes as Sonos is expecting to spend $20 to $30 million in the short term to repair the damage from its poorly received app update.

It’s incredible how much an app redesign can make or break an application or company.

Another critically acclaimed podcasting app called Overcast was also redesigned and released recently. It too has had a very difficult time with its subscribers. Lots of one star reviews and hate.

Rewrites can kill companies. Don’t do it. Evolve your code over time. Think of it as a Ship of Theseus.

Tasha Robinson • Polygon

Ryan Reynolds had very specific tech (and humor) requirements for Wolverine’s corpse

I still haven’t see the new Deadpool but I really want to. Deadpool’s obsession with Wolverine is funny as heck and I’m here for it. Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman are hysterical.

Juan José López Jaimez and Meador Inge • Google Bug Hunters

In a throwback to the past, this blog post takes us on a journey back to a time when eBPF was a focal point in the realm of kernel security research. In this update, we recount the discovery of CVE-2023-2163, a vulnerability within the eBPF verifier, what our root-cause analysis process looked like, and what we did to fix the issue.

Fresh off the heels of the Crowdstrike fiasco we get a story of how Google engineers found vulnerabilities in a Linux technology that allows for similar extensions to the OS. Similar in desired outcome, not in implementation.

Matthias Endler

Quite a few websites are unusable by now because they got “optimized for Chrome.” Microsoft Teams, for example, and the list is long. These websites fail for no good reason.

Chrome has definitely become the new Internet Explorer in a way. Devs have become lazy and don’t code for the open web, they’re coding against a specific browser. Not good. 🤦🏻‍♂️

Stan Alcorn • Rest of World

How Spotify started — and killed — Latin America’s podcast boom

What Spotify has done is not podcasting if it doesn’t allow any podcast player to subscribe to a feed. That’s part of what makes a podcast a podcast. What they’ve done is something that needs a new name.

Lately I’ve heard some podcasts announce ad free versions available on Apple Podcasts, which is also just as bad as Spotify’s locked up audio thing.

Please, don’t do this, keep your podcast a podcast and find a better way to create subscriptions. Others have done it. You can too.

Patreon

Apple is requiring that Patreon switch to their iOS in-app purchase system starting this November, or risk being removed from the App Store. Here’s what’s coming, and what you can do about it.

My opinion on this is simple.

If they really believe in creators Patreon should abandon their iOS App in favor of a really great mobile experience on their website.

Liam Proven • The Register

Before WordPerfect, the most popular work processor was WordStar. Now, the last ever DOS version has been bundled and set free by one of its biggest fans.

It’s not surprising how many fans of WordStar exist. Many of them are novelists and columnists. The best of the best writers in the world. Of course they’re most likely of a certain ventage, if you know what I mean? 😂

I started as a BASIC programmer and used WordStar as my editor until I discovered Brief. True story.

David Edwards • Raw Story

Judge Chutkan faces call to seize Trump’s passport after threat to flee to Venezuela

Can Judge Chutkan do the opposite and encourage Trump to move to Venezuela, now? That would solve a lot of problems with the upcoming election and help preserve democracy.

It would be a great service to the country. 🇺🇸

Rex Huppke • USA TODAY

Trump rambles, slurs his way through Elon Musk interview. It was an unmitigated disaster.

I listened to it for a few minutes and the Orange Man sounded like Sylvester the cat!

Sufferin’ Suckatash! 😋

[netscapenavigator-official]

I FEEL you so hard. Have had my iphone XR since 2019 and it works ok (battery life is still ok and it doesn’t crash ALL the time) but i can’t wait until it’s practically a brick so i can switch to an android without guilt. The faceID kills me and I’m practically never using it (got a thin scratch in the glass above the selfie camera 2 years ago, so i have to make sure no light is randomly bouncing on the scratch when I unlock my phone, or the halo blocks everything) and it’s like having a babysitter version of a phone. I’m not allowed to use any applications not vetoed by Apple Inc. and almost all features are so much less customisable… sure, and iphone is great in some regards (5S and XR have been surprisingly good models in my experience) but for the past 3 years I’ve felt soo limited by Apple’s philosophy

Well, good news (or bad depending on how long you want to keep that phone), the iPhone XR is most likely next on Apple's chopping block of support. The iPhone 8, 8 Plus, and X were all dropped with the release of iOS 17, last September. If Apple keeps on their linear path, this September, with the release of iOS 18, the iPhone XR, XS, and XS Max will all be dropped. Apple usually gives phones two years of security patches after they're dropped, however, so it depends on what you consider a "brick." I, unfortunately, have an iPhone 12-series phone, so I've got at least two more years of updates left, four if I wanna push my goal to the security update deadline.

Also, for the Face ID issue, idk if you've tried this, but try doing a rescan. Go to Settings > Face ID & Passcode, and click "Set Up an Alternate Appearance." I don't know if all iPhones have this. I think they may have added it for the iPhone 12-series and newer, but if you have it, give it a try and see if it helps smooth over Face ID. By teaching it what you look like with the scratch interfering, it may be able to better compensate for it. If you're phone doesn't have that, you could always try tapping "Reset Face ID," too, to force it to re-scan. Although, with damaged glass, I don't know if it'll let you.

The App Store is another point of contention for me, too. I have a 2011 MacBook Pro that's been "obsolete" since 2017, when macOS High Sierra stopped getting updates. I wiped the drive clean and put Linux (Zorin OS) on it, and it's actually been really great. It runs like it's native. The problem, though, is that using Linux has opened my eyes to just how few free & open-source apps support iOS because of Apple's bullshit App Store requirements and $99/year developer fee. A lot of the apps I use on this computer are great, and they support Android, but they don't support iOS. It's a real bummer, and I'm just tired, in general, of not being able to do the things I want with my phone, so unless Apple decides to get really cool, really fast, this will certainly be my last iPhone. (Especially with iOS 18 coming with RCS Message support, almost entirely eliminating the difference between iMessage and Android to iPhone messaging.)

And I'm not trying to shit on Apple too much because Google is worse in plenty of ways. I have plenty of Apple devices from an iPhone, to an M1 iMac, to an Apple TV, etc. Apple makes really good hardware (with the exception of its repairability). Their problem is that they hold themselves back with their own greed. We've seen it with plenty of devices. The Apple Vision Pro is a great example. Apple thought they could use their brand image to make the device successful, but they recently had to cut production in half because demand fell off so steeply. If VisionOS was open and easy to develop for, then I'm sure it could've been a success, but Apple's desire to control everything has gotten in its way. I mean, who wants to develop for a $3,500 headset where you have to pay $99/year for a developer account, and then $400 for an Apple Vision Proprietary Port to USB-C adapter?

The Mac is honestly in the same boat. I saw a YouTube Short of a developer explaining why they dropped Mac Support, and it makes sense. To make an app on each platform you have to:

Windows

Have a PC

Code the app in any application of your preference.

Compile for Windows

Linux

Have the same PC

Code the app in any application of your preference.

Start a Virtual Machine and open the project inside it.

Compile for Linux

macOS

Buy Mac hardware ($600 for the base model Mac mini)

Pay Apple $99/year for a developer account

Code the app in Apple's Xcode

Acquire and add a Code Signature to the app so that macOS doesn't throw a fake error when attempting to open it.

Compile for macOS

If you want to upload your app to the Mac App Store, get Apple's blessing that it follows their guidelines.

Wait at least 24-hours before updates are published so Apple can approve them.

Give Apple a 15-30% cut of any money made from the App.

I used to thing that macOS had shit app support because developers just didn't want to support a niche market, but now I know it's the opposite that is true. Even if Linux has an even smaller market, it's as easy as clicking another button or booting up a free Virtual Machine and then clicking said button. You can use all the same hardware and programs. It's literally free to compile for Linux, and it expands your user base.

Meanwhile, for macOS, you have to spend a minimum of $700 just to make the app. Then, if you're not an A-List developer, you have to give a portion of your proceeds to Apple so you can put your app on their App Store for the exposure. Who the fuck would wanna do that?

Apple's death grip on their products worked for the iPhone and Apple Watch because they were both relatively new products to their respective category, but in a market where technology is starting to plateau, I'm simply no longer interested in supporting this behavior, mostly because I want to be able to use my favorite FOSS on all my devices, not just the non-Apple ones.

[audacityinblack]

Also: Get familiar with your system's restore utility. In Windows this is called System Restore, and on Mac OS it's called Time Machine. Linux has a variety of tools, but if you're using Linux I figure I don't have to tell you this. iPhone will let you back your settings up to iCloud, and Google will do the same. Android phones also often have a manufacturer system backup tool.

Before you change anything on a system level, make a fresh backup of your system as-is. That way, if you do fuck something up, you can just restore the backup and have it go back to the way things were. Optionally, you can schedule it, but be careful - backups do take up disk space. You may want to get a separate drive to put your system backup images on.

If you want to remember favorite settings, take screenshots of your settings before you change anything. If you can't screenshot them, write them down.

On that note: Document your shit. Any time you install a program, change a setting, or do any other major system changes, write down the steps you took and the changes you made. I can't tell you how many times I've had to set up a system from scratch because I don't know what got fucked up or how. On the other side of that, you may also want to have things set up a specific way, and it saves time to have quick references.

I don't know who needs to hear this but please please please please please explore the settings. Of your phone, computer, of every app you use. Investigate the UI, toggle some things around and see what happens. You won't break anything irreperably without a confirmation box asking you if you really mean to do that thing. And you can just look up what a setting will do before touching it if you're really worried ok?

Worst case scenario you just have to change the settings back if you don't like what happened but it is so so so important to explore the tools available to you and gain a better understanding for how the stuff you use works.

Even if you already know. Even if you're comfortable with how you use it now. You don't just have to accept whtever experience has been handed to you by default and it's good for you to at least know what's available to you.

[beesandwasps]

Urgh, Text Editors

This is a bit of a rant, and most people won’t be interested at all, so I’m hiding it below a “keep reading”.

If you have never done any programming or web design, or have only dabbled in them, then you may not be aware of Text Editors as a Thing. TextEdit on the Mac, or Notepad on Windows, are the very low-end, featureless bottom of the heap for this sort of thing — you can edit code files with those programs, but they don’t have any specialized tools to do common stuff.

I’ve been using BBEdit for this purpose since sometime in the (very) late 1990s. BBEdit has been a good tool for this purpose — it has all the usual features of IDEs like syntax coloring and autocompletion, it does GREP-based find and replace (and before Mac OS X, GREP-based find and replace on the Mac was a rarity!), it can link up to revision control systems like git and subversion, it can either run files directly in their own windows (if they are of a type where this makes sense, like Python scripts) or send them to the Terminal to run on a “real” command line, it has file comparison and multi-file searching built in, it can open and save files from servers using various protocols so you can do touchups of web design remotely, it is one of the few programs which still have full AppleScript support (so you can not merely write macros but interactive macros with GUI access), and of course it has a massive toolkit for HTML editing. Also, it is actually written for the Mac, not a port of something written for Windows or Linux. (If you’re a Windows user, and you have used QuickTime Player for Windows, then you know the feeling you get when you use a program which is noticeably “expecting” a different OS. Most open-source programs feel like that on the Mac for at least the first 3 major releases or so. Some — like VNC — never really get over it.)

In the last couple of years, I’ve just been using the last version I paid for, which was version 12, on my very old Intel-based Mac. But I had to get a new machine for various reasons, and so I’m now on an M2 CPU instead of Intel (which, incidentally, is mostly great — to get this kind of performance from an Intel CPU you’d have to buy one of their top-of-the-line models with massive cooling requirements and a huge price tag, and this is running in a laptop and hasn’t even reached the point of needing to turn on the fan yet no matter what I have thrown at it). That means I have very little choice about upgrading to the new version, which is 14, and… they have changed to a subscription-based license. (You can use the program for free without a license, but most of the features which make it worth using will stop working.) Now, in all fairness, I probably wouldn’t be spending more this way than I have been. They’re asking $40 per year. Adjusted for inflation, I’ve been spending about that much over time, what with occasional upgrades.

(And I have no problem with the idea of paying for software. If you want good software, stuff which is easy to use with responsive tech support and timely upgrades, paid software beats open source every day of the week — and you don’t have to worry about big tech companies like Google and IBM perverting the course of the project as you do with, say, Linux.)

But although I understand the motivation of switching to a subscription model — it evens out their revenue stream so they have a better idea of how much money they will have in future years as compared with selling one-time licenses — the switch does mean that if Bare Bones Software, the company writing the program, goes under, then under the subscription model the program will stop working a year after the last renewal, even if you stop installing OS upgrades and leave the machine exactly as-is. They might do a final release which fixes that problem in such a scenario but then again they might not — even if they are totally benign, it’s possible that they might go out of business so abruptly that nobody has time to authorize, recode, and release such a thing. (Or they might have the old BeOS graphics layer problem, where the one person who actually understands the code dies unexpectedly.) Bleah!

So I’ve been looking into alternatives. There are several.

Sublime Text looks like it’s basically meant to be a BBEdit equivalent; they’re asking $100 for it, which is a bit hefty depending on how long that lasts. (How often do they intend to charge for upgrades, and will there be discounts for upgrades or do you have to re-purchase the whole thing?) I’m doing some evaluations now.

Apparently you can get the Microsoft Visual Basic IDE for Mac OS X which… I’ve heard way too many complaints about it, from people who were actually running it on Windows; it is probably unfathomably bad on Mac. Reviewers seem to like it, but I don’t trust reviewers these days. Not with all the content-spamming review blogs which just parrot marketing materials — and as I say, actual Windows users complain about it a lot. (Plus: if I wanted to fire up a whole IDE every time I was going to edit a text file, I would use Apple’s XCode, which I’ve been avoiding on purpose except when I actually want to compile a program.)

There’s something called Atom, which even the positive reviewers note is slow and resource-intensive, and a lot of its supposed positives either don’t apply to me or are actually things I consider negatives. (“Cross-platform”? Oh, you mean it will have an awkward interface that reinvents a bunch of GUI wheels instead of using the built-in system controls.) But it’s free. Oh, it’s also been discontinued. Well, never mind, then.

UltraEdit appears to be very similar to BBEdit, except that it’s cross-platform (and I have confirmed: the Mac GUI is awful) and some of the tools built into BBEdit are farmed out to other programs which you potentially have to buy separately. Oh, and I just checked and they are also on a subscription basis, except that they charge twice as much as BBEdit. Wow, what a dead end of a program.

Oh, and also there are apparently GUI-packaged versions of a couple of the really awful old CLI text editors, vi and Emacs. I have tried both in the past and would rather repeatedly slam my hand (or, shall we say, any other portion of my anatomy) in a desk drawer than use either one, thanks.

Looks like I’m either going with Sublime Text or signing on for a BBEdit subscription. Ugh.

[futuretrain]

I started writing all of this in the tags, but then I got so many of them it just hit me it should be a whole post, so, here: i used linux (arch-based specifically) as my daily driver OS for 2 years and i loved it and it's great but it's not the solution

in fact the leap from ''i don't know how to move files between folders'' to linux is going to be too advanced for most people and make them more likely to give up. especially if a program they use and like doesn't have a native linux package.

like in my own experience i couldn't find a music player that could rival foobar for me on features so i just kept using foobar. and that meant that one of the first things i installed on a fresh linux install was wine. and some distros deal don't give you an easy way to do that. some do not even give you easy ways to install anything at all. and nobody who is not already comfortable with doing "advanced" user things on their preferred system is going to be suddenly more confident about using the linux terminal package installation process.

sometimes features that you don't even have to worry about on windows/native OS don't get automatically carried on linux distro installations. for example, my laptop's wifi card's drivers! it's not an old or obscure laptop - it's a lenovo legion. you know, a fairly popular laptop model! i had to urgently look for my ethernet cable and spent 3 days googling in my free time to figure out what driver i needed to install for my specific card and then way too much time fighting pamac over it because there were 3 different packages that had the name of my card but only one of them worked. or the fact that i searched for 2 years and still couldn't find a way to lower my screen's refresh rate, which was stuck at the max 165hz. so, you know, don't take your laptop off charging because you can't put it in a lower battery refresh rate, and just deal with the judder on movies because that's not going away. i lived with all of those issues and the inconvenience because to me, they weren't ~that~ big of a deal and at least some of them i could bypass or fix with a little bit of time. most people are not going to be fine with the inconvenience, especially if they remember using an OS where those same issues never even came up.

one thing i DO recommend people to do with linux is to keep a usb stick with a flashed linux distro that has a live mode, because you can use it without installing the OS. so if your main OS gets corrupted because of an update or anything else happens to it, you can just plug your linux usb into the usb port and boot into the live usb and have access to your files and go online if you want. on some distros you can even install programs on top of the base live distro, they are probably going to be gone next time you log in though. you'll need to learn how to access your bios menu, but it's significantly more user-friendly now than it was even a decade ago. if you, like me, have a fear of accidentally messing up your windows/etc OS and corrupting files in such a way that your computer just bricks itself basically, having that back-up linux live usb can do a lot for that anxiety. it definitely does mine!

bottom line don't offer people with no computer literacy linux as a user-friendly alternative. they WILL get confused by it and never want to try again in the future. offer them ways to learn their preferred system instead. in fact, chromeOS which powers chromebooks is a linux system. linux is not a catch all solution to computer literacy and never was

We need to lay more blame for "Kids don't know how computers work" at the feet of the people responsible: Google.

Google set out about a decade ago to push their (relatively unpopular) chromebooks by supplying them below-cost to schools for students, explicitly marketing them as being easy to restrict to certain activities, and in the offing, kids have now grown up in walled gardens, on glorified tablets that are designed to monetize and restrict every movement to maximize profit for one of the biggest companies in the world.

Tech literacy didn't mysteriously vanish, it was fucking murdered for profit.

[dankwebofficial]

Want to play old flash games and animations? Here are a few ways.

Note: links are underlined, all links are to webpages except for the two purple links where noted. These link to directly to file downloads. This isn't an install guide, just a list of resources and the occasional tip. Please use caution. I cannot stress this enough. Flash was killed as it had a lot of security issues and a lot of work to fix. Some of these solutions are still just as dangerous as ever.

TLDR Quick Links: Red links are not secure. Use caution.

Ruffle // Flashplayer Executable (needed to run most of the red or orange things) // Waterfox Classic // Pale Moon // Basilisk* // Danknet Explorer // Standalone Player // Newgrounds Player // Puffin Browser // Windows 7 ISO (for flash security, see below, but also be careful. ISO's are dangerous) // BlueMaxima's Flashpoint (actually has a player which I missed. See my reblog.)

Ruffle

Ruffle is a flash emulator that seeks to run flash with higher security than old flash player. This is much safer than the other ways listed below but for now it doesn't have an amazing range. Basically nothing developed in 2010s is certain to run and much of it doesn't work. But it's a cool project so if you can consider donating to them as that can seriously help speed the development along. This is the only Linux solution.

Classic Browsers

There are a few browsers that still support the flash plugin. Since these use the original flash program, they are far less secure than before so please know the risks. Flash was a poorly-sandboxed monstrosity and that has not changed in the slightest.

First, you'll need to download and install flash player: (note: these links will start downloading immediately) Win Mac

(courtesy of Gaia Online. I'm sure they're also archived somewhere.)

Waterfox Classic

Waterfox is a really good browser that I use on some of my computers. It has a really clean UI. Classic, however is similar to the two below. It is also the only apple friendly option (y'all have gotta stop buying apple products I swear to god you're killing indie devs). Do not try to update Waterfox classic as that will remove flash support.

Pale Moon / Basilisk

These two are more or less the same and are developed by the same team(Basilisk is now developed by a different team). They are forked from an old Firefox repository and are built up to work with modern systems. There are differences between them but those aren't really relevant. Both have flash support. In cases where Waterfox classic hasn't worked, these browsers have worked (like for me).

Update: Pale Moon, as I have recently discovered, has a flash sandboxing tool that you can install that was apparently integrated into the browser. You can still use the tool, but they state it isn't necessary. This means that flash should be a lot more secure than it used to be! Pale Moon is perhaps the best option, though note that it still depends on the original flash application meaning that while running flash in Pale Moon is secure other applications could still take advantage of the flash software.

*basilisk is no longer being developed so no idea how long it will last.Basilisk is now being maintained by a different team but as I understand no major features have been added.

Danknet Explorer

Those of you who follow me have heard me bring this up a few times now. I'm working on a clone of the Pale Moon browser that revives old IE6/7 aesthetic and features. Of course, as a result of being a Pale Moon clone, using their exact code base, DNE runs flash also! So, really, this is the best browser to play flash on >.> I'm want the browser to bolster the indie web community so if you are a webmaster or a frequenter of the indie web, suggest a feature through this google form or do so as an issue on the github repository and I'll try to make it happen!

Honorable Mention: Puffin Browser

Puffin is a really safe solution to flash. As far as I understand it they basically play the flash animation/game on their servers and return the results to you. This makes it safer for you as none of the flash stuff is ever handled on your computer. So why did I only give this an honorable mention? I haven't used it myself so I can't confirm anything about it really and I've heard that this is only available through a subscription service. There may also be other limitations. I don't know what's true but I wanted to give it a mention. I just don't know enough about it so you will have to look into that yourself. It felt wrong to not include it though.

Standalone Players

Flash Standalone Player

Flash had a standalone player mostly for debugging. If you download the SWF file of a game you can open it with the standalone player. I think you need the flash program installed so see above. Keep in mind this is also original flash player so it is just as unsafe as with the classic Browsers. Use at your own risk.

Newgrounds Player

Another standalone player, this one is a little nicer. Probably recommend it more than the official flash one. No certainty on how sandboxed it is.

Final Note

For future proofing, consider downloading and setting up a Windows 7 virtual box and running through that. Action/timing flash games will suffer a lot but at least many games will be playable via the above methods. If you want to get around action/timing game issues consider dual booting an old system or getting an garbage laptop that runs an old windows version. Here's a Windows 7 iso from internet archive.

Windows 7 also has security issues since it's past end of life so use cautiously. Safest bet is just to have it on a completely different system.

All you have to do now is find things to play

Feel free to reblog with anything I've missed