sugar_in_your_tea

@sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works

Mama told me not to come.

She said, that ain’t the way to have fun.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

sugar_in_your_tea, (edited )

I still haven’t tried docking my deck, I’ve stuck mostly to vanilla. I mostly just plug my deck in and go to town, unplugging and re-plugging as needed to change positions. I mostly use my deck in bed, but docking might get me to be a bit more adventurous.

I’ll have to try docking, I hear it’s a pretty good experience.

sugar_in_your_tea, (edited )

A lot of Linux enthusiasts use Arch, but it’s far from the most popular among regular Linux users. So we’re seeing early adopters since Arch users are probably more likely to tinker to get things working than Ubuntu users.

So if we start seeing Ubuntu take over Arch, that means we’re seeing Linux gaming reach the mainstream.

I would also like to see a survey about Linux adoption after using the Deck.

sugar_in_your_tea,

That’s what I recommend, and I’d expect Mint to eventually be #2 or #3 once it hits mainstream.

I use something else though (openSUSE Tumbleweed), but I think Mint has way better community support without a lot of the nonsense that Ubuntu has. Mint Debian is my recommendation 9/10 times.

sugar_in_your_tea, (edited )

Linux gaming is still an “early adopter” thing. Many popular games don’t work, so the people who are willing to give those up care more about running Linux than playing those games, which means tinkerers and stubborn people.

The more Linux is compatible day 1 for popular games, the more attractive Linux gaming will be. At a certain point, mainstream users will move to Linux and they’ll probably use Ubuntu and Mint more than other distros.

But that’s not where we are. Ubuntu is probably the most popular distro for regular users, and those users seem to not play games much on Linux. That means they’re either dual booting Windows, or just not playing games.

they’ll be looking for gaming-oriented distros like Bazzite, Pop, Chimera, and Garuda

Maybe, but none of those are showing up on top of lists.

I think most mainstream users will use Ubuntu because that’s what they already associate with Linux. People are aware of it by word of mouth, so it seems “safer” than using a gaming-specific distro. They’ll likely naïvely think that gaming-specific distros are “gaming only” and want something “general purpose” if they’re going to bail on Windows.

But these new users aren’t going to be using Arch most likely, so seeing that at the top tells me that Linux gaming is at the “early adopter” phase.

That being said, I’ve been a Linux gamer since before Steam came to Linux and I remember signing up for an account back in 2013 or whatever when they did come (I think I was on Arch at the time, go figure). Before that point, I mostly played Factorio, Minecraft, and a handful of games I got from Humble Bundle back when they were new and indie-focused (Humble games mostly worked on Linux back then).

Anyway, that’s my 2¢. I’m on openSUSE now, so I’m not really contributing to any of the top distro stats.

sugar_in_your_tea,

how does that not crash and burn

It does. A lot of people try to get into leveraged investing and end up in bankruptcy. What you’re seeing from finfluencers is selection bias: either they’re one of the few who didn’t crash and burn (largely luck) or they’re lying.

A lot of real estate leverage strategies go after other loan options after banks stop giving them mortgages. That means hard money lending, angel investing, etc, where you’re taking on high loan rates and giving up equity in a business in other to try to generate enough cash flow to outrun the payments. If everything works perfectly, you can stabilize and pay off the higher interest loans. But if you have any issues (higher than expected vacancy rates, needed repairs, etc), you absolutely can crash and burn.

The best option imo is to house hack. Here’s a leveraged strategy with far less risk than those finfluencers, but still quite risky and hinges on you doing a lot of work:

  1. buy a multi-unit property, live in one of the units, and rent the rest - you get primary residence rates, and you can move out in a couple years
  2. repeat step 1 on a new property
  3. sell property 1 after 2-ish years of moving out to get the maximum tax benefits
  4. buy an investment property or two with proceeds from 3
  5. repeat until you’re tired of living in multi-unit properties

Congratulations, you now own multiple multi-unit properties all with mortgages you can actually afford because your risk is diversified across several properties and your loan rates are relatively low.

However, you’ll need decent income to do steps 1&2 to qualify for the mortgages, and you’ll need to spend a lot of time dealing with tenants, so you’ll basically be working two high stress jobs.

This is still incredibly leveraged, but you’re reducing risk a bit by being physically present and thus can react to problems more quickly. It’s not for me, since I much prefer passive investing (stocks) to real estate leveraged strategies, but some people see success with it.

sugar_in_your_tea,

And CEOs should love it since they only go up.

sugar_in_your_tea,

And ends.

sugar_in_your_tea,

You’ll probably have the same issue with any Firefox fork. It works fine for me, but I have pretty low standards I guess.

sugar_in_your_tea,

I hate to be that person, but it’s completely fine for me. Then again, I use Firefox on my old phone (Moto G) and Mull on my new phone (Pixel 8), so maybe it impacts certain models more than others? Both seem totally fine to me, with Mull on the Pixel being more pleasant due to better hardware.

sugar_in_your_tea,

I just tried Fennec and Mull from F-Droid on the wikipedia main page (clicked English), and they’re both about the same. I’m also on GrapheneOS with no Google Play services installed, so maybe you’re seeing something I’m not.

sugar_in_your_tea,

Idk, I think our area is pretty average. My kids go to a charter school 100% funded by taxes (enrollment by lottery), so I guess there’s a little more money to go toward teachers instead of grounds and buses. But even the local public schools have ~25 students per class.

That said, I am in the US, which is a rich country, but we lag a lot of countries in education spending, and my state is on the lower end of the spectrum of spending per student. I think we just pay our teachers less than other areas.

sugar_in_your_tea,

Perception seems fine, every poll I’ve seen going back 10 years has been positive for nuclear power. Everyone seems to want it, they just don’t want it in their backyard.

The Blue Castle project was (is?) a proposal for a nuclear plant in eastern central Utah, which is pretty far from any urban center and buffered by a mountain range. They won a lawsuit regarding water rights more than 5 years ago, but there have been no updates on it for 5-ish years.

There’s a SMR project in S. Idaho that was active recently, Unfortunately, it seems to have missed subscription targets, so it’s unlikely to move forward. I don’t know where those subscriptions are supposed to come from (I’m interested), but I’m guessing it’s cities buying in and many dropped out due to financing not being certain.

A lot of the pushback is from politicians, not residents. The popular support is there, but our legislatures and local governments are pretty conservative and unwilling to take risks.

sugar_in_your_tea,

Yeah, I just saw that news, which apparently happened end of last year. The public wants nuclear (or at least a non-coal base power), but projects keep getting delayed or scrapped due to local lawsuits or local governments pulling financial support.

Geothermal is cool, and apparently there’s an active project. It should produce 400MW, which is pretty significant, but still a pretty small fraction of total capacity (~9.5GW).

If the Blue Castle project ever finishes, it’ll supply ~1.5GW power. That, with geothermal, could take up ~1/4 of the total energy generation, which would be a really good start. I’d also like to see hydrogen production as a “battery” source (produce from solar, burn at night). Looks like that’s under development as well.

Lots of interesting things are happening now, I just wish they started 10+ years ago…

sugar_in_your_tea,

Yes, NuScale wasn’t scrapped due to lawsuits, I was more referring to the delays to Blue Castle, which was delayed for 3-ish years due to lawsuits.

NuScale is a pretty small operation promising something like 300-400MW. Blue Castle is a lot larger promising ~1500MW.

nuclear is expensive

Initially, yes, but amortized over the life of the plant, it’s pretty cheap. It has a high upfront cost and relatively low operating costs. And one of the big operating costs (waste disposal) won’t be an issue here, the larger issue is water access for cooling, and that’s political (farmers don’t want to give up water rights).

My main concern is seismic activity, since if we get an earthquake, it’ll likely be very violent. That increases initial costs, but doesn’t really impact ongoing costs. Utah just doesn’t like throwing large sums of money around, hence the political pushback.

We’re still >50% fossil fuels, so I’ll support anything that replaces that. I like hydrogen (in development), geothermal (in development), solar (expanding), and wind (seems to be slowing), but that’s not going to be enough. Even if all of those were operating today, we’d still be using significant amounts of fossil fuels. I think we will still need nuclear, we have the space and demand for it.

sugar_in_your_tea,

Then don’t use ASUS, pick a brand that’s supported.

sugar_in_your_tea,

Yup, that’s what I use. Mikrotik router and Ubiquiti AP. Ubiquiti APs are kind of a pain, but they work well once configured, and I honestly haven’t had many problems with Mikrotik.

The nice thing about this setup is I can replace one thing without replacing the rest. If I want to upgrade to 10 gigabit ethernet, I don’t need to mess with the wifi, I just need to upgrade the router. Or if the wifi isn’t strong enough, I can just get another AP. If I want to do something fancy, I can probably do it with the software on the router.

sugar_in_your_tea,

I highly doubt that. This was in a relatively low crime part of town, in a city with very low crime (about half the national average), and this particular road would only be used by local residents. It’s somewhat popular because it’s the only thru road for a mile or so in either direction with a school and a park, but there’s also just houses for a mile or so in either direction.

Traffic is relatively low, the street is wide (one lane in either direction, but there’s room for two), pedestrians are rare (everyone drives), etc. So most people seem to go 35 despite it being a 25 zone (there’s a speed check sign at one end).

If they’re looking for drugs or warrants, they’d have better luck elsewhere. We’re a constitutional carry state (no permit needed to conceal carry), so guns are fairly common and totally legal unless you’re a felon or a minor.

This was on the last day of the month, so I think they’re just filling quotas.

sugar_in_your_tea,

A speed trap is a revenue source. If the cops wanted to find drugs or something, they’d go to the poorer part of town. This was in a suburban part of town near a wealthy part of town, so they’re not likely looking for drugs and whatnot, they’re just trying to get some easy speeding fines.

Regardless, it’s unhelpful. I’ve seen multiple people get pulled over there, and they are not driving recklessly at all. I know where the cops tend to hide, so fortunately I haven’t gotten pulled over.

And no, I’m not assuming good faith, I’m just assuming they’re trying to make some quota for the month, or maybe the officer is trying for a promotion or something. Regardless, it’s stupid and I’d much rather they spend their time tracking down stolen bikes or something.

sugar_in_your_tea,

Why do you think gold and inflation are related in any significant way? Nobody buys anything with gold, so I don’t see how it’s relevant.

sugar_in_your_tea,

But not all data is relevant. For some reason you’re comparing gold and inflation, but gold isn’t a currency (anymore) and thus isn’t really related to inflation.

Gold prices largely reflect concern about the direction of the economy, they don’t reflect currency valuations or costs of things. People move to gold when they think stocks are going to collapse, they don’t move to gold when prices for things go up.

In the words of Warren Buffett (from memory, not a direct quote):

Be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful.

The way I read this is:

  • gold is high (people being greedy)
  • stocks are recovering (hit in 2022)
  • bonds are down (rates have been going up)

So I think gold will see a correction in the next 6 months, and those people will likely flock to stocks. But that depends on economic indicators remaining strong, inflation figures dropping, and bond rates staying steady or dropping a little. Depending on the election outcome, we may see stocks correct a bit as well.

But I don’t think we’ll see a “housing meltdown” because inventory is still low in many areas and new construction isn’t keeping up with demand. I think we’ll see housing level off once builders can catch up and real wages recover from the cash injection in 2020.

So in general, I’m bearish on gold, and “wait and see” on stocks until after the election. None of this impacts my investing strategy though, which is the same as it has always been, it only impacts my speculation budget.

sugar_in_your_tea, (edited )

It’s not, bonds (i.e. TIPS) and real estate are. As inflation goes up, so do coupon rates to counter inflation. As inflation goes down, so do rates, meaning older individual bonds can be liquidated for more money to free up cash for other investments.

Gold is a hedge against stocks. People think gold has value, so they buy it if they think there will be a recession. Inflation often goes up when stocks go down because the Fed slashes rates to encourage spending, and more spending (demand) drives up prices. So gold may appear correlated to inflation, but it’s really more inversely correlated to stocks.

So if you want to speculate on stocks going down, gold is a decent option. But if you think inflation will go up, bonds are the way to go.

sugar_in_your_tea,

Just let me use TOTP like my email does.

sugar_in_your_tea,

Yeah, I bought it because it was an interesting form factor, not too expensive, and I could repurpose it if I ended up not liking the Steam experience. I honestly play 99% Steam games, so I’m liking it a lot.

I don’t buy most consoles (except Switch) because they’re not interesting form factors, games are generally a lot more expensive, and it’ll just become ewaste.

If Sony made a good, standalone handheld, I might get it. If Microsoft continued the Kinect, I might get an Xbox (I had the 360 for Kinect in the past). But no, neither is compelling, so I don’t buy them.

sugar_in_your_tea,

Disagree. Vote for Chase Oliver or some other third party/independent who actually believes in ending the conflict in Gaza. That candidate probably won’t win, but voting outside the two-party system shows that neither candidate is acceptable.

Most people don’t live in a swing state, so if that’s the case for you, voting for one of the two major candidates is throwing your vote away. Use your vote to send a message.

sugar_in_your_tea, (edited )

You’ll generally get less from a defined benefit plan vs a defined contribution plan. A defined benefit plan is an insurance product, so the managers are encouraged to be more conservative with investments to limit risk. A defined contribution plan is an investment product, so the managers are encouraged to maximize returns.

Would you rather have a 5% yield guarantee or a very high chance at 10% return? (as in, 10% has been consistent in the past) In almost every scenario, a defined benefit plan will have much lower usable cash and no inheritance vs a defined contribution plan.

The US actually has both. Social Security is a defined benefit plan, and a 401k is defined contribution. Social Security is intended to replace ~40% of pre-retirement income (more for lower income, less for higher income), and the 401k is intended to fill in the gaps.

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • JUstTest
  • mdbf
  • ngwrru68w68
  • tester
  • magazineikmin
  • thenastyranch
  • rosin
  • khanakhh
  • InstantRegret
  • Youngstown
  • slotface
  • Durango
  • kavyap
  • DreamBathrooms
  • megavids
  • tacticalgear
  • osvaldo12
  • normalnudes
  • cubers
  • cisconetworking
  • everett
  • GTA5RPClips
  • ethstaker
  • Leos
  • provamag3
  • anitta
  • modclub
  • lostlight
  • All magazines
    •