Zink

@Zink@programming.dev

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Google is killing privacy sandbox in Chrome.⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩:

  Every once in a while I will try something like degoogled chromium because hey it’s probably a bit faster or works in a few more places.

  But then nope, right back to librewolf. It works on everything I need it to work on, and I use the browser all day. I use Linux at work so all the Microsoft suite like outlook, teams, and onenote are webpages.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What are some FOSS programs that are objectively better than their proprietary counterparts?⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  The performance of Jellyfin is so much better in my experience. That and the FOSS benefits won me over quickly, and I have had a lifetime Plex pass for years.

  The downside is that you have to do a little IT work if you want to share with family in an easy (for them) way and use https. For sure, it’s a thing, but for me as a non web dev it was worth it.

  Now I can give family and friends a URL, login, password, and one or more app suggestions depending on their device and type of media. And all of them seem to have snappy performance while not showing my people ads or hitting them up for paid services.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨China has world’s first operational thorium nuclear reactor thanks to ‘strategic stamina’⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  From what I’ve watched & read, it’s usually depicted as the freeze plug melts and the liquid salt flows into multiple small holding tanks below it. That way the fuel mass will be physically separated, which helps stop fission on top of any other mitigations like lining the containers with neutron absorbers, etc.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Microsoft has now fired the employees who publicly protested the company supplying AI tech to the Israeli military⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Mint is Ubuntu with the icky proprietary Canonical stuff removed and with an extra layer of polish.

  Mint Cinnamon even has a windows-like desktop/taskbar-like setup out of the box. I don’t know of any reason I might recommend somebody replace windows with Ubuntu rather than Mint.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How a false X post about pausing tariffs led to multi-trillion-dollar market swings.⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  They probably care less about whether it is true, and more about whether they can get their buy in before everybody else.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Microsoft fires employee protestor who called AI boss a ‘war profiteer’⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  That’s such a nice thing about Linux and FOSS in general. The issues you run into are different than what you may be used to with Windows, but at least the system and its developers aren’t working against you.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Microsoft fires employee protestor who called AI boss a ‘war profiteer’⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Heck yeah. Once in installed Mint on my PC at home, it was only a matter of weeks before I double checked my backed up files and nuked my windows partition.

  I still have the windows partition at work that I never use, and I have heard some bad stories about machines getting wiped when IT upgrades people to win11, so it might just have a little accident in its sleep.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Microsoft fires employee protestor who called AI boss a ‘war profiteer’⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Yeah, work is where they get you. I’m fortunate to be able to use Linux at work too, but the company is still paying for my M365 account which I use in a browser for meetings and communication.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨BDS calls for boycott of Microsoft and Xbox gaming products over alleged Israeli military connections.⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  This year presents a big opportunity for many of us to get user friendly Linux distros on family members’ PCs that are currently running win10 and not able to upgrade to 11.

  I’m already a Linux Mint fan so that’s right where I’m headed.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The best thing *you* can do for the fediverse is *just be kind*⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  As I get older I have found that making my world smaller and focusing on the things I genuinely care about (and not the things I’m “supposed to” care about as a “good” man/American/worker etc) results in me being happier and more satisfied with life.

  Lemmy is my close little corner of the internet. I hope that the fediverse grows ands takes over for the good of other people, but if it stays in this niche for another decade I’ll be happy because I already love it for what it is.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨6* months away now. If you're on 10, do you plan to upgrade? Make the jump to Linux?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Already done. I dual boot at work (translated: I have a dormant win10 partition just in case, but I’m more likely to use my win10 VM in Linux) and at home I’m Linux only, having wiped my windows partition to reclaim the space within weeks of installing Linux.

  I use Mint Cinnamon in both places. It’s a very polished, all in one, install and go OS. But it’s still Linux so I have the terminal available and I can find out how to fiddle with and change whatever I want.

  For all manner of 2D desktop use, I find it superior to windows. Even being a very full-featured distro, when the software is made to serve the user and not 50 competing corporate priorities, you can tell. It’s so much more responsive and nice to use. (It is not flawless of course)

  For gaming, I don’t play the newest stuff or multiplayer games with crazy anti-cheat, but I have not had any regrets so far. Many games have native Linux versions, probably thanks to valve and the Steam deck, but windows games running in proton have been smooth sailing for me.

  I think I’ve just dealt with enough computer crap in my life that I prefer using not just Linux apps but FOSS software for as much as I can. If some game or some photo editing suite will absolutely not work in Linux or work acceptably in a VM, I am fine with it not existing in my world. I used to not find that acceptable, but now I’m over it. In a chill way though, not an angry anti-Microsoft way.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨First-party Switch 2 games—including re-releases—all run either $70 or $80⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m the dude in that meme looking at the other girl, and she is my icon collections in Steam, GOG, even Epic, etc. Icons with native Linux versions get slight preference.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Investors flee U.S. stocks as markets react sharply to Trump's tariff plan⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  You mean Trump’s massive tax increase that’s crashing the value of assets that other rich people would love to buy up?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Optimal Plex Settings for Privacy-Conscious Users⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Jellyfin was more work on my end so that family could connect with https, but for me to set them up it’s literally just “here is the URL, login, and password.”

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Windows 11 is closing a loophole that let you skip making a Microsoft account⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Mint is ubuntu with the icky stuff removed and given an extra layer of polish. Still loving it here.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨After 50 million miles, Waymos crash a lot less than human drivers⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  No worries. I’m glad I explained it then!

  The first thing that comes to mind for popular media using “no notes” the way I did is probably John Oliver. I spent 10 seconds stacking for a clip or a montage of him saying it but came up empty.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨After 50 million miles, Waymos crash a lot less than human drivers⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  The way I edited the quote, it was just a like joke about braking vs breaking.

  Like I could make a pedantic reply about spelling, but no teslas in fact brake unexpectedly AND break unexpectedly. So, no notes!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨After 50 million miles, Waymos crash a lot less than human drivers⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  And Tesla is infamous … for breaking without reason.

  No notes!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨LibreOffice downloads on the rise as users look to avoid subscription costs | The free open-source Microsoft Office alternative is being downloaded by nearly 1 million users a week⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  And if you’re using a full featured turnkey kind of distro like Mint, LibreOffice is pre-installed and ready to update via the repo.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why I recommend against Brave.⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Does it support ublock origin still, or has it gone the way of Chrome?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨this bad boy can fit.....⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Alternate second frame:

  Car salesman in ambulance headed to the hospital because a giant piece of steel that’s GLUED to the car came loose and sliced him.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Plex is increasing Plex Pass prices and paywalling remote playback for personal media at $1.99/month or $19.99/year.⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  There were some hoops for me to jump through in order to get secure remote access working for sure. Fortunately for my family that connect remotely, it’s transparent for them and doesn’t require any kind of VPN or tunnel. They just need URL, user, and password.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Plex is increasing Plex Pass prices and paywalling remote playback for personal media at $1.99/month or $19.99/year.⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I have a lifetime Plex pass.

  I tried out Jellyfin last month.

  Now Plex is uninstalled.

  Even if we ignore the differences when it comes to matters of FOSS, cost, corporate control, privacy, etc, Jellyfin’s performance is just so much better.

  Setting it up to run over https while fully self-hosted was a learning process for somebody who isn’t a web dev, but holy crap was it worth it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨PC gamers spend 92% of their time on older games, oh and there are apparently 908 million of us now⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  It’s the Baldur’s Gate saga for me right now, and I’m still in the BG1 campaign.

  It is such a great game to play on the couch with a trackball while chilling with the family.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Nearly half of U.S. adults believe LLMs are smarter than they are.⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  You know, that very sequence of words entered my mind while typing that comment!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Nearly half of U.S. adults believe LLMs are smarter than they are.⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  If I think of what causes the average person to consider another to be “smart,” like quickly answering a question about almost any subject, giving lots of detail, and most importantly saying it with confidence and authority, LLMs are great at that shit!

  They might be bad reasons to consider a person or thing “smart,” but I can’t say I’m surprised by the results. People can be tricked by a computer for the same reasons they can be tricked by a human.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨YSK: That nazis Don't Actually Believe in Free Speech⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  It’s important for everybody to not just assume the people on your own team, or the people that look like you, are being truthful and arguing in good faith.

  That goes for everybody, but it seems pretty consistent that you need to me more wary of it as you move towards the conservative end of the scale. And conveniently for those politicians, the citizens on that end of the scale are the worst at cutting through the BS. Arguably that’s what landed them there in the first place!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨In Response to Amazon preventing to download books you bought: Some DRM free bookstores and publishers⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  My wife likes her kindle hardware.

  I love stumbling upon EPUBs and using Amazon’s website to send them to her kindle.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Melbourne start-up launches 'biological computer' made of human brain cells⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  sudo exit simulation please abracadabra # Rumpelstiltskin

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Melbourne start-up launches 'biological computer' made of human brain cells⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  But not beyond the brain-in-a-box’s comprehension!