So does this mean that the open secret that aliens (from space) exist and have probably been to earth is no longer solely the domain of what was once charitably called the tinfoil hat society? Or does everyone still laugh at them? Asking for a friend…

I can touch type most keys, though probably not with proper form. I have to look at some of the less common keys to find them with my fingers.

My schools did have formal typing classes but I wasn’t exactly a star student. I think my typing speed at it’s fastest was around 60 wpm, though I more commonly float around 40 wpm

Not really. There are gps trackers that have a cell modem, used for tracking animals for research, but they are probably very expensive. Both to purchase and operate.

There’s not really an algorithm. Closest is sorting by Scaled or Top. The “algorithm” really just boils down to following communities you like and blocking communities and users you don’t like.

If you go into settings you can unset the “Show Read Posts” setting which will do what it says on the tin.

Try looking for themes. It’s in settings. Just named a bit different as it does more then shift from light to dark.

Nice! I hadn’t thought of that.

It’s kinda an ethos thing that goes way back, and Microsoft keeps giving us examples of why it can be a bad idea. Essentially, it boils down to the idea that YOU should be in control of what your system is doing.

Most distros can (including Raspberry OS), and many of them will check for updates automatically, but none that I can think of will install updates automatically unless you purposefully choose to enable that function.

Raspberry OS is, imho, is not really representative of the desktop Linux experience. It’s a bit like Gentoo or Arch. Great OS’s, for their intended use cases.

While RPis with Raspberry OS can be a decent desktop replacement in a pinch (I’ve done it), it’s more intended for learning and experimentation.

If you’re intending to use it as your primary computer, I’d recommend using Ubuntu or Fedora. And running the OS on an USB3 external solid state drive.

With modern UEFI, it’s controlled by both the OS and the UEFI

I haven’t used Windows in a long while, but there is a setting in KDE that allowed me to disable the power button’s short press function and I think the long press as well.

Came in handy for me when my cat decided to start laying on top of my tower. Every now and then she’d decide to slap her paw down on the power button and abort whatever I was working on.

I was cursing the change away from mechanical toggle, and that button’s position on the top of the case, when she started doing that.

I would think they first would have to actually release the feature.

I’m also on SDF’s Mastodon server. Fairly small and largely general purpose. Seems to have pretty good uptime.

I have almost no physical photos. I have maybe 10 physical photos, total. I was pretty early on the whole digitize everything bandwagon. And have lost most of them before I got the hang of how to protect them from accidental loss.

Every now and then I want to take a look at one of the photos I’ve taken. I’ll wind up spending a few hours going down memory lane.

Photos are a moment sealed in time. Young folks may not value them right now, but eventually they’ll value them more.

I’m an untrusting old curmudgeon, so I store my files locally, for the most part. Folks storing them online? Either they’ll get burned and lose them, or not.

haha. And their current website is improved over the one I opened 20 some years ago! I think it took me a few weeks of poking around in the shell they provided to fully figure out what they were about.

The SDF started back in the late 80’s as a anime dial up BBS. SDF is a reference to the anime Robotech, A show released in the 80’s but that I grew up watching as a kid in the 90’s.

In the early 2000’s, I was trying to figure out this thing called Linux, I found a site that would give me access to a unix machine for free and it had a name and logo that reminded me of the anime I loved as a kid. While poking around I found that they had a fairly active message board, were willing to give me an email address, usenet access (albeit, limited), and would host small personal web site for me if I wanted. They were my primary email address through most of the 00’s before I, regrettably now, switched to gmail like everyone else.

Fast forward to 2022, and I find out that there is this thing called Lemmy and it’s supposed to be like Reddit but better. So I put up my own server… and it crashed and burned. Mainly due to my own stupidity. I failed to make backups and borked an update.

While I was playing with my own server, I found something interesting. Not only was the SDF still kicking, but they had decided to host Lemmy and Mastodon servers as well. So I signed up for both and started donating to the SDF again. Been here ever since. Good place, decent folks. I don’t see myself going anywhere else for a while.

How does one company have that much impact?

Because they are a very good CDN and provide excellent DDos protection. They then expanded to do a whole host of other things, to the point where they do pretty much everything. Basically, they have become the first name most folks think of when they want to put something on the internet. A one stop shop for your web hosting needs. Wouldn’t surprise me to learn they rent servers and VPS’s as well.

Been seeing it in the selfhosting communities and subreddits for a while now. “Oh I want to put this selfhosted service on the internet. I should put it behind Cloudflare!” Most of the time it’s not needed in that context.

Do you think that’s concerning?

Well, they did just take out “half” of the internet today so… In general, if it seems like “everyone” is using a single service, it’s probably a good idea to see if an alternative exists and will suit your needs. Which reminds me, I should probably start looking for a replacement for Tailscale. They’re starting to look a bit like Cloudflare to me, in the sense that “everyone”, including myself tends to recommend them as a VPN.

Avoiding the usual toilet paper and paper towel answers, Bluetooth speakers.

Decent sounding ones can be had dirt cheap, but I’ve found that ones made by power tool brands tend to last longer and be more reliable when abused. I’m more than happy to pay double price if it will last me 4 times as long before it fails on me. I haven’t had my current one very long, but the last one lasted almost 6 years of genuine abuse before it died after falling into a vat of used motor oil. The usual life span for bluetooth speakers is about 6 months (general abuse) to a year or two (battery failure). I’m a bit rough on my kit.

If a bot isn’t declaring itself as a bot, yes. Report it.

I’ve been usingPrivate Email for the last few years. Run by NameCheap, I think. Got the account same time as my domain. No complaints so far. Haven’t heard anything troubling about them either.

It has a web ui if that’s your thing, but I’ve never used it.

I have 2 that I use regularly. PIA to unblock things on the internet (and change how things are logged) and Tailscale to access my home network remotely. I’m happy with both of them.

That is a bit disturbing.