the worst parts was when he had an itch,

Yeah. I don’t struggle with the pain so much: I have it, but it’s mostly like electric shocks, and somehow it feels like a TENS machine. So as long as it’s not too intense or too long, I’m okay.

But I really struggle with itching.

I just lumped itching with phantom pain because it’s easier to explain to people who don’t know.

Amputation pain is right up there, followed closely in the long term by phantom pain.
Then nausea.
Then tinnitus.

A large part of why they’re the worst for me is that you can’t do anything about them.

It’s different this time around.

The previous attempts were about freeing themselves from an abusive unprincipled data-hungry big data monopoly,

This attempt is about freeing themselves from an abusive unprincipled data-hungry big data monopoly operating in a fascist country and in cahoots with the regime.

I reckon it’s serious this time.

poettering is an absolute good guy here

Agreed. But he’s also an abrasive know-it-all. A modicum of social skills and respect goes a long way towards making others accept your pet projects.

pulesaudio protocol is used within pipewire and it works just fine.

I wasn’t talking about the protocol, I was talking about the implementation: PulseAudio is a crashy, unstable POS. I can’t count the number of hours this turd made me waste, until PipeWire came along.

Poor little Grok is just trying to make Daddy proud…

I totally agree. I used to hate systemd for breaking the traditional Unix philosophy, but the reality is that a tight init and service-tracking integration tool really was required. I work with and appreciate systemd every day now. It certainly didn’t make things simplier and easier to debug, but it goes a long way towards making a Linux system predictable and consistent.

Poettering can go fuck himself though - and for PulseAudio too. I suspect half of the hate systemd attracted over the years was really because of this idiot.

Most people who say “Not my president” are Americans who feel ashamed. Nobody else in the world feels the need to say that because they have no reason to be ashamed.

Not my president

Sorry but he is totally your president. You can’t be in favor of the democratic process of elections and then distance yourself from the outcome.

You as a nation voted for Trump. He’s your president. You own the consequences along with all Americans.

I don’t keep up with everything he does

You should, if only to know when the ICE Gestapo might come knocking at your door or when it’s time to flee because it’s too dangerous to stay in the US.

The downside is: you work for Fuckerberg.
How much is your good conscience worth, is the question.

Let’s address your points:

• bugs in apps with no community on irc/discord/matrix/xmpp to ask about (yes, i talk about you @libreoffice )

Have you ever tried asking for help on a closed source software vendor’s support forum? More often than not, it’s either dumb boilerplate that makes you feel like a mentally challenged newbie (“Try reinstalling. If the issue persists, try rebooting”) or it’s crickets because the vendor won’t communicate on its products’ flaws. As for other users, they’re just as clueless as you because they don’t have access to anymore information than you.

At least if you find a bug in open source software and you have the programming chops, you can either check the code to see what might be going on, or fix it yourself.

• assholes in communities if such exist (yes i talk about archlinux and @godot )

There are assholes in every community.

enshittification and slowly going back to not being opensource (yes i talk about @mozilla )

Enshittification is first and foremost a phenomenon that happens when a company tries to maximize its profits at everybody else’s expense. As such, it occurs much, MUCH more often in proprietary, for-profit software.

Also, way to pick the wrong example:

Firstly Mozilla is its own special kind of stupid.

Secondly, say what you will, but for all Mozilla’s, Firefox’ and Thunderbird’s faults, you can still download a good browser and a good email client for free after more than a quarter of a century. Which software vendor can you say the same thing of?

Opensource is not perfect. Nothing ever is. But always remember it’s mostly composed of people who code for free and give their work away. IMHO, the right way forward is to support the good and ignore the bad, and pitch in and contribute if you can, rather than rant.

Tarantulas are insects ferchrissake… They have the nervous system of a guitar amplifier.

Wow, I didn’t realize Bezos’ new wife was that trashy. She’s a walking warning against the excesses of cosmetic surgery.

Then again, his husband isn’t much of a looker either. If he wasn’t megarich, he’d probably be single.

Using Copilot even as a mere coding assistance is insane, if no other reason than you’re sending all your code to Microsoft, and you also let them monitor your work habits in uncomfortably intimate details.

I didn’t do it on purpose. It just happened. I guess living out in the sticks does help: it’s not like we don’t have electricity or internet out here, but the first neighbor is 3 miles away, the town is 5 miles, and we have real starry nights here. So it’s quite easy to turn off the light and experience a, quiet peaceful night at the hours at which sleep should be happening naturally.

I fall asleep around 8 or 9 pm and I wake up around midnight or 1am, watch something quiet and peaceful so I learn something interesting without falling fully awake - and more importantly without waking up the missus - then I simply fall back asleep until 5 am.

I live above the arctic circle, so when it’s winter, I usually sleep longer. And when it’s summer and it’s daytime all night long, of course I sleep less. But on average, I sleep 2 x 4 hours per night. I feel just as refreshed as when I slept 1 x 8 hours. But perhaps feel less “disconnected”, if that makes any sense.

I practice biphasic sleep - have done for decades.

I usually put on a light documentary - something about nature or technology, not exciting, terrible or controversial.

Love and hate what you want. That’s totally normal.

Just make sure you don’t start hating people who like things you don’t like.

What Bluetooth host?

Bluetooth for Linux has been a flaky shame for many years. If you’re lucky and your BT chipset works well, then it works okay - not great, but okay. If you’re not lucky, which is more likely, you get problems like the one you describe.

Nah. It’s not that thick! It’s only 1.6" thick 😃

I like 90’s style chunky and solid. Weight and bulk aren’t really a concern for me. Solid, open-source and repairable are my priorities. That’s what works for me.

They are not. They’re in cell holders.

I know it’s hard to believe, but in a majority of places on Earth, water is readily available.