Dual booting is definitely a good way to start. If you lack hard drive space or want to test out distros before picking one to settle on for a while, many are capable of booting off a live CD or flash drive without installation. You might not be able to settle in quite as well without installing, but for quick tests and comparisons, it can be handy, and it makes no change at all to your PC until you commit to installing it properly.

What open source reader are you using? I'd love an open source device to replace my Kobo, but the only option I ever found when I looked was basically to use an Android app, and that's not really what I hoped for.

I'd just prefer something genuinely open. I can and did put KOReader on my Kobo, but it still runs its own proprietary firmware or OS or whatever. That's probably based on or built on top of something open like a Linux kernel, but a proprietary layer still sits on top

I've been considering getting... I think it's the Pine Note? It's from Pine64 and is supposed to be a tablet with an e-ink display, but last I checked on it a year or two ago, software and driver support was still not quite there. It's all open hardware, though, so it's just a matter of the community getting it up to speed. Probably about time I look back into it, but my Kobo isn't that old, so I kinda hate to spend so much replacing it.

Nah, you don't need to be all that smart. You just gotta be willing to spend time learning. It's not even all that difficult as long as you don't get too hung up on the old Windows or Mac way of doing things. There are some great beginner friendly distros these days, and they tend to work pretty well without too many issues for most people. If you do have issues, there are chats, typically on IRC, where you can ask for help, and google can go a long way if you're decent with it.

Sometimes, constant sounds can be easier to tune out, so I kinda get it. Not saying it's justified, but I get it.

Not using the power doesn't remove it from his grasp. The really rich owner class are oligarchs, even if some of them act benevolently or at least not like the trash they could be.

Except it's not their fault. At least, not entirely. Every single fucking centralized social platform tweaks its content algorithm to drive engagement, and they found that the best way was to piss you off. They shove it in your face until you can't help but say something to fight the unending flow of utter bullshit.

Aren't there currently more empty homes than homeless in the US? Like, by a decent margin, too? I think that statistic is getting a bit dated, but I also don't expect it to have improved. What we really need is to treat homes as homes, as essentials for life, instead of as investments. But, of course, that'd cost rich people money instead of giving them a way to make even more money, so we can't do that. I'm sure some towns and cities could benefit from more homes, but the core of the problem is societal, not material.

Yeah, unfortunately, this isn't a new thing, just upholding the old standard. I explicitly avoid fingerprint and face recognition features because of this. Your fingerprint and your face are legally considered what you are, so things like 5th amendment right to avoid self incrimination don't apply, but passwords and PINs are legally considered what you know, so you can't be forced to divulge.

Even if legally yes, good fucking luck living through it. If you're gonna do it, even legally, you better get them all and fucking disappear. At bare minimum, you're getting an unholy beating by any cop that gets their hands on you. Probably find an excuse to just shoot you.

More like an intense study of how best to exploit human nature for financial gain.

To be fair, he's not saying that's how he learned to understand it. He's using it as a way to help other people understand it. And the type of people who need the help probably understand the analogy.

The P in PEMDAS just means resolve what's inside the parentheses first. After that, it's just simple multiplication with adjacent terms, and multiplication and division happen together left to right.

6÷2(1+2)

6÷2(3)

3(3)

9

...how high are you setting the pressure on that thing?

Lmao good fucking luck enforcing this on Linux. There's no central authority to handle age verification, and even if there was, it'd take less than a week for someone to make a patched version of whatever tool they use that just... Autoreports that you're an adult no matter what.

They're not right because they numbers didn't go up from conversion. They went up because people could admit who they are without fear of violence. The true number didn't change, we just became capable of getting a more accurate count.

I mean I'm sure they'd like to just ship safe code in the first place. But if that's not their expertise and they demonstrate that repeatedly, we gotta take steps ourselves. Secure is obviously best, but I'd rather have insecure Jellyfin behind a VPN than no Jellyfin at all.

Sure, I'm helping usher in the end of democracy in America and pushing for the same elsewhere, but what am I supposed to do, move out of this specific city?

Bruh dems voted for it. They did what they could with the votes they had at the time. REPUBLICANS stone walled it because it's party over country for them. They probably hoped that almost getting lynched by an angry fucking mob the sitting president refused to call in the National Guard on would get at least enough to flip to convict, but nope, republicans will apparently literally die before they vote for country over party.

Fuck Nintendo. I haven't bought anything from them or for their systems in nearly a decade now, and a large part of it is their greedy assholery. Their bullshit has probably cost them a grand from me alone, and I'm thankful for the savings.