PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S

PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S, 10 months ago

Print it out and shit on it

PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S, 10 months ago

Yes, but from a slightly different viewpoint. Namely, people are so disenfranchised from their society on average that the idea of a social “contract” makes no sense. People are not at all represented by “their” governments, and in their righteous anger they conflate the oppression by governments with that of their people.

If you put on a crown and shout that you’re better than me, I’m not going to respect your authority by default. You need to give a reason to do so, such as protections, rights, privileges, opportunities, camaraderie, etc.—or the implied or explicit threat of violence against those who disobey the law, as is the current setup. Right now, the only thing that my government does for me is wage wars in foreign lands, building ill will and corpse piles on my behalf. For many people, their government harasses them or just wants them straight-up dead.

I think that many people confuse the ill-will of governments with the avarice of their ordinary citizens [1]. It is, at best, tied to the apathy of their citizens, whom have themselves been relentlessly beaten into understandable submission.

The point I’m making is this: if people are already out to destroy you, what good is the social contract to you? Fuck them. This is the attitude that drives people not to care for others.

Now this lack of care for others is not my viewpoint! I do separate the actions of the state from the people they “represent” as much as is possible [2]. However, I’m in a position of relative comfort and privilege. I have the energy to take a fraction of a second and cool off when I start to see myself blaming humanity for things. Most people don’t.

Lastly, in regards to situational awareness and common courtesy specifically…I really had to learn that, and I’m not the only one. “Do unto others as you would want done unto you” doesn’t really work for me because I generally want different things than others. I have difficulties reading social cues. Even as an adult, I have to go far beyond “Do unto others…” to suss out what the right course of action is, because I typically would want something else or nothing to happen. Situational awareness and common courtesy are not inherently obvious or intuitive, and I think we do a disservice to ourselves by pretending that we don’t generally learn courtesy from others.

[1] In areas where street justice is a thing, it is not at all uncommon for the public to side with non-state bullies in conducting oppression, although usually still with tacit state support.

[2] Patriots and ultranationalists do exist unfortunately. Non-state ultranationalists need to be taken to task along with their state-sponsored brethren.

PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S, 10 months ago

Tl;Dr: you shouldn’t trust anyone or anything blindly or unconditionally. However, open source software and its community offer compelling reasons to trust it over proprietary software.

Technically, if you do not read all of the source code of an application and all its dependencies, you can never be 100% sure that it isn’t doing nefarious things. For things that require a connection to the internet, you could monitor all connections to and from the application and its dependencies and see if it is making objectionable connections.

However, in my view, open-source software is in general safer than closed-source software. Open-source software can be audited by any who knows the languages the program is coded in, whereas closed-source software can only be audited by the developer or the few parties they might authorize to see it. Closed-source apps can easily hide spyware because the source code is completely unavailable. Spyware could possibly be missed by the community, but it’s still a whole hell of a lot less likely to occur with so many eyes on the program.

And practically, whenever an open-source software gets even close to including nefarious stuff, the community generates a huge hoopla about it.

Also, Google Play Store is not open source! A better example would be F-Droid, which is an app store that is open-source. While I am not aware of F-Droid delivering spyware ala Google, it is still theoretically possible that they could screw up or be corrupted in the distant future. Therefore, we must stay vigilant, even with groups and people we trust. Practically, this just means… check their work once in a while. It wouldn’t kill you to learn a programming language; try Python for quick results. What I do is whenever an open-source software is written in a language I understand, I’ll pick a few files that look the most important and skim them to see that the program “does what it says on the tin”. Otherwise, I’ll check through the issues on GitHub for any weirdness.

I haven’t even mentioned free and open-source software (free as in speech). I genuinely do not know how to convince people who are disinterested in their own freedom to consider FOSS options, or to do very nearly anything at all. For everyone else…FOSS software respects your freedom to compute as you please. We can quibble about different licenses and if and how effective they are at safeguarding user freedom, but at the end of the day, FOSS licenses are at least intended to give users back your freedom. In my view, it is mightily refreshing to finally take some freedom back!

PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S, 10 months ago

Cool to see another Debian user here. I’m using KDE Plasma. So far, I’ve really liked all the included apps from KDE.

PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S, 10 months ago

Tl;Dr: it’s complicated, and I like complicated.

I tried GNOME in highschool (so about ten years ago), and again when I installed Ubuntu onto my sister’s computer. I just didn’t like it. It didn’t click with me, and it looked a lot better than it functioned. She liked it because she found it to be a simpler experience.

The next time I used Linux was on the Raspberry Pi. For that I just used the default, a modified LXDE if Wikipedia is correct. I tried installing SparkyLinux (a lightweight Debian derivative) onto a really shitty old laptop that has been slow since the day I got it. Didn’t go well. It’s using Xfce. Not the fault of the OS or Xfce; it’s truly a disaster of a laptop. Xfce didn’t stand out too much, but I’d keep it in mind for an older PC, possibly mine for more intensive tasks.

However, when I came to install a Linux on my home PC over the summer, I chose KDE because I hadn’t tried it and I was told it’s more customizable. Literally the second KDE booted up on the live image, I fell in love. It just immediately seemed easy to use. I tried the live image for a few days and I just kinda went about my day like nothing changed. It felt like Windows 10 but with all the things I was told I wasn’t allowed to do on Windows, and without the enshittified corporate detritus.

For me, a Windows-like desktop is a plus. I’ve had about two decades of experience with Windows, so I’d like some of it to be useful in the future. However, there are a lot of changes I can make to KDE Plasma that would move it away from the Windows experience if I were so interested.

I took a look at the website and documentation for GNOME, Xfce, LXDE, and LxQt. I picked KDE for the live image based on its documentation and a few articles comparing desktop environments. Crucially, it looks like GNOME continued with their “less-is-more” direction. Not my cup of tea.

Also, KDE and their apps are really well-documented. For the first time in my life, I have not felt a need to replace any of the stock applications. Typically, you can download KDE apps and use them with any environment. Some people consider their apps bloatware, but I disagree. I have not felt the need to replace any of them. There’s a whole bunch of features in all their apps. I love features, but they’re not for everyone. Especially cool is KDE Connect, which allows all KDE computers (or anything with KDE Connect installed) to communicate, transfer files, control each other, and a bunch of other useful stuff.

Lastly, I’ve had zero trouble with drivers. I know this is probably more “Debian” than “KDE”, but I was amazed that there was exactly zero configuration to use a network printer.

If you do decide to install Plasma, you might get something called KDE Wallet. It’s a password service that has nothing to do with cryptocurrency. It just threw me for a loop when I saw it. It can be disabled in KDE System Settings, although I have it on.

I think it’s worth trying Plasma if you have the space, but apparently people find GNOME simpler. I think that if you were previously an OS X users, GNOME would be more familiar. KDE and GNOME apps can generally be installed on both (practically any) desktop environments.

I guess the key with KDE is that you get to make it work for you, whereas GNOME encourages the user to adapt to their workflow. Practically m, GNOME is kinda limited out of the box. Which is fine. Nothing against GNOME, but it doesn’t work for me.

PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S, 10 months ago

That’s cool! Might have to give it a spin in a VM.

PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S, 10 months ago

Oh thank goodness, I could hardly think of a worse name than Calckey for a social media service.

In all seriousness, glad to see them growing. Hope to see them succeed!

PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S, 10 months ago

Final Breath by Pelican and Společně, Pt. II: Laying Down in the Rain by Černá immediately came to my mind. They’re slow bangers.

That being said, not every slow and good song is really a banger. For example, Take Me Somewhere Nice by Mogwai is slow and has a similar driving beat, but it’s nowhere near as saturated or acoustically imposing. It’s more of a “hold your head in your hands and cry”-type of song.

PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S, 10 months ago

Waves Audio Ltd

Not like I needed another reason not to use their plugins but thank you for providing me one anyways 😂.

PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S, 10 months ago

POV: you’re a neural network and you just figured out how to classify “seat”.

PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S, 10 months ago

I don’t think the Hallmark Channel runs only Christmas movies all year round.

PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S, 10 months ago

My grandmother does.

PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S, 10 months ago (edited 10 months ago)

Well I’d argue that’s not quite true either. I checked Hallmark’s programming into the near future and it looks like this is a “Christmas-in-July” thing. There are Christmas movies in August, but they’re more sparsely spread out throughout the week.

Unfortunately, I’m really speaking from experience. My grandmother watches it all day, so I vaguely know what kind of programming they have.

Also, even if there was a fully Christmas channel, its existence wouldn’t really be indicative that the majority of Americans are Christmas-obsessed, just enough to have a cable TV channel. There’s also a science fiction channel, but I wouldn’t use its existence to argue anything more than that there exist enough people with enough interest to warrant a sci-fi channel.

I guess my point is… I’m inclined to agree that it’s strange that many Americans are so interested in Christmas. I’m also inclined to agree that Americans are obsessed with religion and ramming “traditional” values down everyone’s throats. But I disagree that your image is necessarily an indicator of that obsessiveness. The plethora of Evangelical Christian channels would probably be a better example.

PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S, 10 months ago

wonder if you work for them?

No lol, I hardly think they have any use for an engineer 😂

PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S, 10 months ago

So I have some old music projects that are basically stuck on Windows. Even if I moved over all the files and ran the plugins through WINE, I would have to go through the entire project and fill in the blanks with the WINE-bridged plugins and redo all the automation I have. Running the program through WINE isn’t really an option because my projects were just below the performance limit on native Windows. I know some programs run on WINE better than Windows, but I need real-time audio with a specific audio interface that doesn’t support Linux. I could use WINEASIO, but I would still be losing a lot of performance compared to native Windows, where again I am regularly reaching the performance limit of my setup.

Also, I’m holding off for a few months on installing Debian onto my Windows work laptop because all my technical programs are ready on Windows immediately. I’m waiting until I get more storage and until I know if the programs I need for my future job are compatible with WINE.

I love WINE as much as the next Linux user, but it can’t solve everything. I acknowledge that it is Windows rather than WINE or Linux that is making things difficult for us. Unfortunately, I need to have a native Windows partition for the foreseeable future, although I’m doing almost everything else on Debian on my home PC.

PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S, 10 months ago

I tried running FNV on my home PC through Proton and it was basically a PowerPoint presentation. My Windows partition can run FNV just fine, even with a game-breaking number of mods. I’m sure I’m doing something wrong, as I’ve heard that FNV works well in WINE. I’m on Debian in case anyone wants to dunk on my shit help me out.

PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S, 10 months ago

I’m aware of Yabridge. The problem with Yabridge (or any other plugin bridges, like Carla) is that any plugin used with it will be treated by the DAW as an instance of Yabridge rather than an instance of whatever plugin it is. This changes what parameters the DAW looks for.

If I remember correctly, the DAW is aware of parameter names in the VST3 standard. Most of my existing plugins are VST3 (compiled for Windows). In a typical situation, this is exposed to the DAW by the plugin when it is instantiated, and the automation and knob settings of those parameters are written to the project file under those names. However, when the project is moved over to Linux (or anywhere else other than Windows with all the same plugins), the DAW will scan the list of plugins that it is aware of, not including the Windows ones because it doesn’t know how to parse them. The DAW will simply give me a couple hundred “plugin not found” warnings. If I remember correctly, my DAW gives me the option to find and link these plugins by hand.

So I could theoretically go through the whole project and remap all the plugin automation by hand, but there wouldn’t be any technical benefit. It’s just simpler to keep a Windows partition.

Also, I have switched to Linux (Debian Bookworm w/ KDE) on my home PC for everything else. I’m loving it so far, especially KDE Plasma and KDEConnect. I don’t know how I lived without it. I might end up producing new tracks on Debian, but I have to install more software before I make that commitment. Really, it needs to “feel right”, which is admittedly not well-defined.

PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S, 10 months ago

I’ll get in my skin

And I’ll only breathe for you

Like you want me to

Don’t get in my skin

I feel you in my view

Baby black and blue

—In My Skin by Thornhill

I don’t think it’s precisely about this, but it really describes how (autistic) masking feels to me.

PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S, 10 months ago

Virtual assistants, e.g. Alexa, Cortana, Siri

I don’t want to interact with the companies they represent basically at all, let alone give them nearly unfettered access to my electronics and their data.

PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S, 10 months ago

Does anyone else think there might be a market for open-hardware, “not-enshittified” printers?

PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S, 10 months ago

The problem there is likely to be funding: you’re going to have a hard time finding an investor to dump money into creating something that already exists, and it’s difficult to spin “open hardware” as a selling point to businessmen.

I think it would be really cool if someone came up with an open source full design. An example where this actually happened is those cheap transistor testers you can find all over eBay and Amazon. I’d be willing to be that “someone” someday, but my current focus is on getting my first job so I can’t do it right now.

PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S, 10 months ago

Replace CS -> EE and you got me.

PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S, 10 months ago

Legit thought that my screen broke for a couple seconds.

PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S, 10 months ago

Tbh that’s probably a better keyboard, but I really was not kidding about the “not getting out of bed” part. I ended up getting this because I can literally lie down in bed and cradle it like a video game controller.

PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S, 10 months ago

So apparently I’m an absolute disaster of a human because I just went to try setting up again and I got it to work. I forgot that I always have my VPN turned on in my phone, and I have it set to block any connections not through the VPN. When I shut off the VPN, it worked perfectly.

I’m probably not going to shut off the VPN killswitch for regular use because I have already forgotten to re-enable the VPN several times.