I see. The word lie is strong, and it’s entirely within the realm of possibility that you never had any issues arise with your install. I see your point, and apologize for perhaps a bit of grandstanding on my behalf. I was more focused on the pros/cons of different types of distros, and missed the reason why you were acting defensively.

I feel this kind of conversation still isn’t super helpful though (for either of you). I mean it clearly can be true that one person (or one chunk of the community) has no issues, while another person (and maybe another good chunk of the community) does have issues. Though perhaps in getting involved, I haven’t really helped either.

I’ve had my own issues with two different laptops over the years, and in that time I’ve seen multiple packaging/dependency issues hit a majority of Arch users. My own issues are often caused by bugs on the bleeding edge that users on a non-rolling distro dodge altogether. For me these have mostly been easy to resolve, but it’s a much different experience compared with “stable” distros, where similar changes that require manual intervention (ideally) happen at a predictable cadence, and are well-documented in release notes.

I still strongly prefer Arch, as I’ve hit showstoppers and annoyances with “stable” distros as well. I guess I’m saying I don’t really understand your responses, and why you seem so critical of user anecdotes in this space, when your original comment was a (perfectly fine) anecdote about how everything’s working for you. That’s great! But we can also point to many examples caused directly by bugs or dependency issues that only crop up in a rolling release. Taking all these data together, good and bad, pros and cons, working and not working, can help us learn and form a more complete picture of reality.

What you’ve said is true, though it’s a bit of a trade-off – over the years I’ve wasted so many hours with those “user friendly” distros because I need a newer version of a dependency, or I need to install something that isn’t in the repos. Worst case I have to figure out how to compile it myself.

It’s very rare to find something that isn’t in the Arch official repos or the AUR. Personally I’ve found that being on the bleeding edge tends to save me time in the long run, as there’s almost no barriers to getting the packages that I need.

Right, but if you want a digital video library that hasn’t been compressed to hell by some streaming company then your only option is using Blu-ray as a source.

Something like a v60 or an aeropress saves a lot of money in the short term. But you lose out in the long term by increasing your standards for coffee and basically falling down a coffee rabbit hole.

I bought an aeropress 10 years ago to save money…

Signed, someone currently in the market for a 4 figure espresso machine.

I had the same surgery for $7600 a year ago.

My glasses prescription was really strong, and my corneas are really thin, so LASIK wasn’t an option for me.

Anyone considering this surgery should research the side effects and risks (there are some meta-papers in medical journals that go over these items).

I experienced all of the visual artifacts below in the days/weeks after my surgery. At first they were very bad/noticeable.

After a couple of weeks, the only major issue was still getting halos. (Occasionally I also get the ghosting like in the Netflix image especially if my eyes are very tired).

Those have gradually diminished over the last year, and 99.9% of the time, I don’t even notice that I have the lenses in.

Night driving is a bit more annoying because I still get a lot of halos there, but it’s manageable, and my brain is better at filtering them out.

Overall getting this surgery was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. I see better than 20/20, and no longer have to wear glasses/contacts. But I’m saying (to anyone reading this and considering it), go into it with the expectation of some risk (e.g. could cause early cataracts), and give your body time to recover from the surgery and your brain time to adapt & filter out the halos.

I really hope they do…

I love my Nvidia Shield, but it’s definitely aging, and sometimes getting it to actually play 2160p Blu Ray remuxes without stuttering is a chore. Plus Dolby Vision does not even display properly due to “red push” issue, and Nvidia has no plans to fix (they have abandoned the device and the entire market segment).

Currently the only method to get a streaming box to actually display Dolby Vision properly (profile 7 FEL) involves installing Linux (CoreELEC), and I believe the only device with all the proper support (licensing, hardware, etc) is the Ugoos Am6b+.

I much prefer the Jellyfin android client to Kodi, so I’ve been sticking with the Shield for now. I’d love another Linux based competitor, and hopefully a more polished streaming box from Valve could spur some development of better clients and tools.

I am a bit nervous about Valve actually being able to get all the licensing in place to pull this off.

When I think about how many hours of my life I’ve wasted and how much room in my brain is dedicated to all these stupid modern formats…my hope is that a player like Valve entering the market could do some good work. We are in a very sorry state when it comes to compatibility.

Though again… While I don’t have a deep understanding of the issues, it seems like a large chunk of it revolves around licensing, and I don’t know how much of a dent Valve can make in that.

I am actually in favor of tariffs in a couple of limited situations:

1. Foreign goods are cheap due to non-existent labor laws

2. Foreign goods are cheap, but produce more emissions than domestic manufacturing

#2 is also called a carbon border adjustment mechanism, or CBAM, and the EU voted to implement one last year that goes into effect in 2026. The USA desperately needs one IMHO. I’m involved in a nonprofit that’s been lobbying Congress to implement our own CBAM.

It’s silly though to think that a tariff is anything but a tax. It’s not any different than any other way that we use our tax laws to try to regulate “pure” capitalism by encouraging certain behavior and discouraging other behavior.

I thought Republicans were the anti-tax party?

Seems like people have been doing this enough that companies have started to disable the functionality. Comcast will just hang up on you nowadays if you spam zero.

My trick lately to speed things up with Comcast is just go straight to cancellations. I always immediately get a human on the phone. I them tell them what I’m actually calling about, and they will then transfer me to the correct department.

I do this at work whenever I ssh into a server.

Streams flac. Good supplement to piracy. I might switch to Qobuz sometime, but it works well for now.

https://youtu.be/Fow7iUaKrq4

Please just don’t let the Cart Narc have a scandal. His work is too important.

For me digital wallet is a bit more convenient than using my real wallet, but not essential. I have one credit card that I use all the time, but it seems my bank hasn’t bothered to make it work with NFC payments yet for some reason, but it works with Google Wallet so that’s nice.

I also always keep my wallet with credit cards and a little bit of cash as a backup. One time I was out at a bar and there was a power outage. They were still serving drinks, but instantly all transactions switched to cash only. I think it makes a lot of sense to have backup options.

The opposite can be good too – your phone as a backup just in case you forget your wallet.

It’s probably not entirely been worth the effort to stay up to date with changes whenever Google breaks things. At some point I may stop. I guess one immediate value has been that watching things unfold has hastened the souring of my view on Google. I am now frequently looking for ways to avoid their ecosystem, and avoid big companies / non open source in general. I’m far from ready to leave the ecosystem on every front. But at the very least, I would never recommend a Google product in my professional life at this point, at least not without careful planning of an exit strategy.

I remember watching this when I was 9 years old and feeling vaguely traumatized.

Could be they want to hit a certain category (groceries) on the card. Maybe they are also trying to meet minimum spend on a new card.

For those who shop a lot on Amazon, the Chase Amazon Visa is probably worth it since it always gets 5-6%, but if you don’t have that card, using gift cards to hit a grocery category seems reasonable. Slightly more hassle, but at least you can split purchases on Amazon.

I really enjoyed all 4 seasons.

It’s very character driven, which I know isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. I enjoyed seeing characters grow and change through the seasons and loved the way the show moved through different eras of technology.

I really like the way Katharine Hayhoe communicates this…

She explains how normal temperature fluctuations in the climate system are actually pretty similar, scaled down, to temperature fluctuations in your body throughout the day. You don’t typically worry if your body gets slightly warmer than average, but if it’s a a couple of degrees, suddenly you’re wanting to see the doctor, wondering who coughed on you, staying home from work, etc

Thanks a ton, all of what you wrote is super helpful!

I think I’m doing pretty similar things, but you’ve definitely given me some food for thought.

I estimated my TDEE (energy expenditure) around 2800cal, and I’ve been aiming for 2000cal. Like you it’s a little aggressive, but also gives me wiggle room in case I’m not estimating calories correctly.

I actually really like counting calories along with intermittent fasting (I only eat between noon and 8pm every day. I also don’t really like “fad” diets or even worrying too much about macronutrients, though I’m making an effort to get more protein, and stuff like cucumbers helps a ton with satiation like you’re saying. Your way of meal planning simplifies things a lot, but I don’t know if I could really do that because I like a wide variety of food.

I’ve been doing strength training (3-4x per week), but you’re giving me motivation to add some cardio. I hate cardio but deep down I know I need to train because the outdoor activities I like the most (hiking, skiing) require it.

I’ve been following my plan for a little over a week so far. Not a lot of time, but seems like I’m down about 0.25kg. Scales are pretty inaccurate though, and my weight does fluctuate over 1kg in a single day.

My motivation is perhaps a bit different… I’ve done strength training before and am trying to get back into it, but at this point in my life I’m at about 24% body fat (according to U.S. Navy calculation) which is right on the verge of obesity, so I’m thinking to drop down 10% before seriously trying to put on more muscle. I’ve read it’s slightly easier to put on muscle at low BF%, but more importantly I think I will just look better, since I don’t think I look great at 24% BF.

Whenever I get blood tests done though, I’m usually just barely in the “healthy” range when it comes to cholesterol and stuff, so that’s definitely a secondary motivation. Plus lots of people in my family have diabetes, so it’s better for me to take steps now to prevent it.

Thanks again for your reply, it gives me validation that I’m on the right track, and definitely gives me some food for thought.