Thanks for the link, the nightmare that is unexploded ordinance is a real issue land or sea. I have seen some random videos from people that do magnet fishing or similar small salvage cleanups share about finding some scary shit. Not sure of the channel, but one guy found a lot of ordinance in a park of a big USA city from WW2. Apparently fell in the lake/river (can’t remember which) while in route to be sent to Europe. Also seems common for magnet fishers in Europe to find old grenades and stuff. Which would be true of any places war takes place.

True, and I am sure that the issue is low enough depending on locations (if they lay them far outside of normal shipping lanes). But the same holds true for locating wrecks even when looking for them and having vague ideas as to general areas ships sank. At least if looking in areas that don’t already have history for being where a lot of ships went down. Which I imagine the companies laying the cables tend to avoid for the headache of both causing issues for the cables, and dealing with underwater archeologists trying to preserve sites.

That does sound like a nice watch regardless of my question. Always nice to get recommendations for docs!

Thanks for the link! A little surprised that the article didn’t show up when I was searching.

That seems to track with basically all the other comments that agree with turning a blind eye to finding things that would mess with the job. They would obviously want to make sure the geology/environment won’t mess with the cables. But not really want noteworthy impacts from laying the cables to get plastered everywhere.

Thanks for the long-form answer! I am aware of how much developers on land tend to not be about as frustrated as the archeology folks are excited. It would make sense that folks with high pressure jobs at sea would turn a blind eye if they find anything (I’m sure their bosses/clients also lean on them to only be detail oriented with the cables). I dislike history being treated so poorly for money, but I do understand the dilemma. Betting that they try to keep any of the more honest workers on tasks that make sure eyes stay closed.

I have heard about how much more aggressive Windows has became since 10 with how it likes to fuck with partitions for certain updates. If using a desktop (or laptop that has two drive bays/slots) it might be safer to just have a small drive (or large if it is games) for Windows and a large main drive for Linux. Then you can just pick which one to boot at startup via the motherboard’s hot-key. A VM makes more sense for most things, but if a dual boot is needed then two drives is safer.

Even Reddit wasn’t “popular” on the levels that it has been for over a decade. It is more about time and people finding it like they did with early Reddit (and Digg before that). New people will come as long as they see active instances and as more helpful (or even funny) posts/comments show up in search results. Kind of like how a lot of questions in search engines will show basically the same questions being asked on Reddit. Also Lemmy is a little bit confusing to new people that aren’t used to how Fediverse/Lemmyverse sites work. Not very hard, but does feel a bit overwhelming since stuff they are used to are super centralized.

For now most instances kind of feel like BBS/forums back in the 90s/00s, but with a Reddit (or similar sites) kind of layout/interaction style. Which I like since I had a lot of great times on old forums. The subs are still small enough to actually see familiar users show up and have better vibes on them. Though it does mean that new/niche subs have the chance of not getting enough people to get going, and have more people join and post new things.

There’s a stereotype of Chinese brands being “low quality”

That used to be how things marked “made in Japan” were stereotyped. Basically all the major industrialized nations carried that stereotype until they were able to develop. So China will eventually get to the point of the stereotype flipping at the rate they have been moving. They will still have plenty of truly cheap crap due to being so large in volume of factories and being super willing to make really really niche things. Always fun (and cool) to see the wild motherboards/PCs out of e-waste old parts.

The only thing I hope to see is a push to stop outright ripoff stuff like the “2TB USB drives” that are really 32GB (or lower) with firmware that deletes data that is larger than the flash storage. I am fine with knock-off stuff as long as it is able to do the core thing. A knockoff bag that is able to still hold the same amount of things is fine and allows folks that want the look to be close enough. Even if the flash storage on a knockoff USB drive is super slow, it should be the real capacity.

All very valid things, but at least the parts that are people related can be reduced (I personally find that my friends and I are much worse about using phones when at a house). Going in the afternoon on a weekday (and not opening week) means fewer people in general. Also tends to mean older folks are more likely to be there based on my experience working at a cinema (albeit was over a decade ago so maybe boomers are also bad about phones these days). Could even luck-out and be mostly empty and help with the special extra loud candy packaging made for cinemas. Might save a few bucks of course, but doesn’t help with the pre-roll stuff.

I have only really started getting into Freecell, but I do play it in the “Solitaire” app. Found that having Mullvad ad-blocking DNS or a VPN with similar actually causes the ads between games not load.

Solitaire and Minesweeper. Literally the best games for when I just want to play something that doesn’t require a lot of attention (no story lines, long load times, or remembering what I was doing the last time I played). Just enough to focus my attention while waiting around, but able to close out when whatever I was waiting on is ready. Just really calming for the most part.

I guess I lucked out when I bought my BD-R drive before I was aware that MakeMKV needed extra stuff like firmware. But my LG WH16NS60 is one that took the flash (never had to mess with firmware on an optical drive and was worried I would brick it). But the process was pretty easy and getting into ripping BR after so long meant that the easy option was around to handle the steps. Kind of considering getting a back-up drive to have around if/when the one I have dies (especially since big brands are dropping out or may do so in the coming years).

While not as easy as just using torrents or other P2P. I have found it kind of fun to get back into ripping CD/DVD/BD and learn/re-learn how things work these days. Also nice to have all the options I can to be able to have access to media in the event any of them are down. The only super frustrating thing is that so much of modern releases don’t get physical (or even purchasable digital) releases. And in some cases where a physical release is an option, they are DVD and not even a 720p BD. Digital options are even worse in a lot of random cases where a store might have just part of a show (or even episodes in a season not part of it).

Currently the only real issue that I have is that I really really need to build a new main PC and finally turn my current PC into only being for ripping and hosting what I have. And to get large HDDs to replace the 2TB and 4TB SSDs I currently have for it all of course. I really would like to have good copies of 4K stuff without having to worry about going with bad encodes that look worse than many 1080p releases that my TV upscales.

I will check it out, even if they push the subscription it still may be good to know about. Not like it comes up often, but some of my co-workers that are in school for CS might find it useful for extra practice.

Currently I have a Pi that I really only use for messing with Linux stuff and some of the purpose built alt-OSes (like media center stuff). So I have a safe environment that doesn’t matter if I brick the OS. Which might be a good option for lots of folks (even though it still lacks the guided tutorials that we have been talking about). Would be great if the Pi folks could create something on there for active learning Terminal.

Also at the lower end of the spectrum, I feel like maybe there’s a need for sort of a basic tutorial program for the kind of people who are not computer people to learn the absolute basics. I feel like back in the 90s I encountered a few introduction-to-windows sort of programs that would walk you through “this is your start menu,” “here’s what click/double-check/right click/etc” means," “here’s how you turn your computer off” kind of stuff.

I actually agree completely with that. I still remember the “how to use your Mac” intro floppy disks that my uncle still had mixed in with other program disks when I got his old Macintosh SE (dual floppy and no hard drive). It started with stuff like little “games” for how to use the mouse, Trash Bin, and other super basic things for GUI (since the concept was new at that time). My jump into Windows was easier because of that. Though the jump to Windows was its own issue since the family PC we got second-hand was still on 3.11 in 1998 and I was having to use 95 for a keyboarding class in middle school. But it was kind of interesting to have experienced (though not so much at the time as I couldn’t just do things like my friends would talk about on their 95/98 PCs). But even 95 did put effort into a tutorial that was helpful.

Windows these days doesn’t really have a tutorial for things (though Windows 8 did have a pretty okay one). Everything on 10 and 11 just feels like dark patterns in tricking you into shit Microsoft wants, and not a “how to” for even what is going on with the Start Menu. Just get an update and shit is just completely different (mostly with 11’s new jarring layout change).

And I’m slowly piecing some of it together, googling things as I go, and that’s a fine way to learn things, but it is slow and I wish there was a better way to power through learning some of this stuff without needing to go take a whole actual course on it. I think my ideal would be sort of a Duolingo-type app for terminal commands.

I am kind of shocked there isn’t already something like that. Even a lot of web forums these days have a “getting you started” tutorial that walks you through making dummy replies to messages from the bot. And create a dummy post that will be only created virtually while working with the bot. It would be great if the distros that try to be the easiest for new users to have a “introduction to terminal” that can safely show the most likely needed stuff. Like the normal stuff like ls, cp, copy, move, makedir, etc. Along with updating and installing stuff. There are lots of easy search results for these things, but a lot of people learn better hands-on (and especially if they know they won’t be able to just break shit if done wrong).

This is a hardware example (but still applies to the hands-on learning). I personally hate it when I am forced to learn how to fix stuff like iPhone hardware only on actual peoples’ devices. As it makes the pressure so much worse, and know that I might lead to the person not having their phone even longer with so much daily life needing them all the time. Apple does have step-by-step guides and video examples. But actually going through the motions is very different than the “perfect” stuff shown that make it seem easier.

Same can be with the difference in like driving a car in a sim and the class part vs how physical stuff like g-forces and actually feeling a hydroplane. You learn important things in the sim and in the class part of getting your learners permit, but then get a chance to drive with a teacher.

It seems that PC use and basic understanding has regressed dramatically over the past decade due to smart phones/tablets. So the starting point for a shocking amount of users is not good even for Windows (all the new PC gamers coming from only knowing consoles are badly needing to understand how to keep an eye on their drives filling up and to actually use the second drives). So it would be beyond great for Linux adoption efforts to focus on having hands-on “games” that range from basically treating it like the user is back in the early 90s (or the 80s for Apple’s first jump to having a GUI), and for folks that are already aware of the stuff that a complete new to computers folks don’t know.

The first time I watched Voyager, I went into it only knowing that more folks liked TNG and DS9 (at the time I had only ever seen random eps of TNG, TOS, and a few of the TOS movies). So while I went on a random deep watch of all of Trek at the time (Discovery was either about to come out, or had started). I was very happy to find out that Voyager was much better than I expected. Also didn’t take as long to get good (TNG was very weird the first few seasons which I found out quickly).

After watching all the stuff before Discovery, it felt so different and kind of makes it and the other new shows seem strange. Not always bad, just so much modern effects that take attention away from the actors. So far I am in season 3 of Discovery, season 2 of Picard, and only one episode of SNW. Still looking forward to them, just need to be in a “time for Trek” headspace to power through them like I did for everything before.

I personally find Enterprise to be the most weirdly cozy of the pre-Discovery shows (not near being the best taken as a whole like TNG/DS9/Voy). Has a nice mix of the “feel” of the 90s shows, but with some of the “modern” effects for me. Sure they went ham on stuff like “we need some kind of ‘directive’ for handling first contact”, and they killed the show as it was really getting its flow. Really curious what even just one more season could have done as that last ep really felt like a quick end and was so jarring on the characters.

Still pissed that Paramount said they will not do a touch-up remaster for DS9 and Voy like they did for TOS/TNG (and the 1080p remaster for ENT). They say it is because the amount of time and money that TNG alone required, and the sales of the TOS/TNG Blu-rays weren’t high enough. Which sucks since DS9 and Voy are so badly needing something (even a more simple upscale of the non-sfx stuff since the effects would need full re-doing), and the fans of those are really dedicated.

Average Windows advice for basically every “Please help!” posts: “Just run DISM/SFC” marked as “solved”

I work on Windows computers for people, and do run both commands as just general flow. But I was so fucking excited recently to finally run into an issue that those commands actually fixed something (or at least a couple of the noticeable issues). Was so shocked that I had to tell all my direct co-workers.

But basically all other times I have ran them for real problems, I can’t remember any instance where they worked. For all the videos or guides with titles like “How to fix all Windows PCs”, you would think that they are the only solution.

The only frustrating thing with Linux communities/guides I tend to run into (especially when I had zero experience), are steps that get left out. Not out of malice, but because users that are much more experienced leave out things that are assumed to be already understood. Of course I don’t have a specific example off-hand since I already have some understanding at this point. Which kind of shows how easy it is to take certain things as “obvious.” Outside of that, the answers/guides do normally be good and friendly.

My second job was a bagger at a grocery store, which included getting carts. I tend to just collect them if I pass by some just sitting in parking lots on my way into grocery stores and bring them in. On my way back to my car, if I have a cart but notice the corral is just a mess from people just half-ass pushing them in at just whatever angle. I can’t stop from just un-fucking all of them so they are able to be brought back in by workers, or at least so that more will fit correctly. Just really bothers me to see them all tangled up and possibly roll back into the lot to hit cars.

One of my other jobs a while ago was doing lab billing information corrections so we could bill insurance (would take the stuff that was missing random stuff like part of the insurance, diag codes used, and like missing parts of addresses). When I started they said that we would likely see so many insurance numbers/prefixes that we would start seeing prefixes on things like license plates. This was very true (would see the letters at the beginning and be like “UHC” or whatever), and took a long time to not see them.

Though in a personal life going into my professional life (I work on people’s computers). I have an OCD kind of habit to just disable all the easy anti-user stuff in Windows settings and add uBO to browsers. Might not even be why the stuff was brought in, but most users don’t know to ask (or if things can be done) and either just go through using their PCs without all the random shit, or are just so happy that things run much better. I make a point to note that an adblocker was added so they can ask about it, or remind my peers that do the check-ins and outs to mention them and show them how to turn it off if a site doesn’t load something. Also means that I notice when settings get moved around or more anti-user options show up. Which keeps me sharp in both professional and personal life.

I might end up looking at newer stuff, but… how tf am I going to avoid shitty touchscreens, spyware, LED headlights, and all that garbage?

And going to get harder to avoid a lot of that stuff once enough of them eventually get into the much cheaper levels of the used market. Though by then (and even currently in the higher priced used levels) most of the stuff will no longer even be supported to use (even if you for some reason did find a need to use them and be okay paying).

I got a 2015 Rogue SV that stuff like nav or whatever other stuff doesn’t even have access to the apps from Nissan to set them up. And was like one or two years behind Android Auto or even Apple’s stuff. So can’t just have the main screen just cast my phone’s maps. Really only irritates me when I need to go into settings and see stuff for features I can’t use if I wanted to do so. But the backup camera and phone pairing over blutooth for calls and music works, so that is nice to have and useful daily.

I am torn on replacing the head-unit like I did with my much older cars in the past. But those were so much more easy and “normal” to replace. I mostly worry that since it is much more integrated, that beyond just not flowing with the design, that there would be more problematic issues caused with the electrics (especially after seeing how much just replacing headlights with LEDs messed up a lot of cars when they were not a standard part) and the main computer.

Had really randomly bad issues with my last car’s computer towards the last four or five years that I never had with much older cars before. But is also possible that aside from my much more abusive driving while being younger, that I just hadn’t had something with any computer element (just the main one as it wasn’t anything built-in with lots of features.

I think all of these also have Chrome versions, but still better on FF due to being able to install (or side-load if not listed or not whitelisted for mobile) onto the mobile version. The day I learned how to get non-whitelisted ones to install and install from xpi was game over for bothering with other mobile browsers.

• FastStream for downloading videos from YT and a lot of other sites (I daily use it for grabbing stuff on Twitter)
• Bypass Paywalls Clean for the obvious (this one is to the dev’s not github but same kind of site site as it has to be installed via xpi)
• Watch on Odysee for seeing if a YT channel also uploads to Odysee to go watch there if possible and at least give my view there
• SponsorBlock for being able to skip hard-coded ads from the uploads and other sections of YT videos
• DeArrow for being able to view titles for YT videos that are more reflective of content
• Wayback Machine for saving pages to Archive.org along with saving them to my account on there.
• Privacy Possum for more aggressive blocking of tracking (though it does require remembering it is on if a site breaks as it will block things that uBO isn’t the cause of the issue)