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Cake day: December 9th, 2023

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  • Side note for anyone reading, if you have an android please get f-droid, the google play store is an apocalyptic shithole and is 100% untrustable for finding safe functional apps, even very simple ones like a flashlight app or basic image gallery browser.

    It is honestly apalling and I don’t know how any google employees working on android get home from work at the end of the day and feel ok about the impact on the world of the thing they are working on.

    The play store is an atrocious, embarassing failure that actively makes the life of anybody who interacts with it worse.


  • In the US and other post industrialized nations where land is more valuable for other uses than agriculture, sure.

    However the deforestation in the amazon probably eats most of that up.

    Cutting trees down for wood isn’t the worst of it though, the first half of the 21st century will be categorized by climate change scientists as the period where earth’s boreal forests burned away.

    The amount of boreal foresl acreage burned in the last two decades is staggering and is accelerating to put it mildly.




  • I use Square Home and for my icons I use the Shimu Icon Pack. I jack up the icon size to fill the square home squares, turn off text and leave it at that. Simple square shapes (why does everyone lovvvveee rounded???) with clean and colorful pastel colors, just the way I like it!

    I don’t know, I was originally a big windows phone fan because I loved how minimal and clean the UI is. I still still think the entire phone market has been going the wrong way ever since with 3d backgrounds, super high resolution wallpapers, lots of fiddly animations and text heavy interfaces which makes no sense, after the 1000th time looking at your home screen you are literally never reading any of the icon text?? You aren’t consciously perceiving a highly detailed background. So why have it? Do people really think that the way the human brain works is after the 1000th time looking at a familiar scene the brain’s visual perception literally reads the same damn tiny text over and over again? That would be an exhaustingly inefficient way for the brain to process the world.

    Ughh I hate how android is either an apple cargo cult or somehow even worse.

    Welp, at least I can set my launcher to whatever I want!

    (High resolution cool backgrounds are cool, not trying to hate on other people liking them).


  • I don’t think you’re talking about the Outlook I am talking about because I’m talking about the Outlook Mail and Calendar apps, not the Office ones. And that’s fine and dandy about proprietary software and all but frankly I haven’t really seen any non-proprietary mail apps that look aesthetically pleasing. But that’s besides the point, it’s a matter of personal preference when it comes to visuals after all.

    … I am not just talking about little details and preferences here? Windows products are increasingly broken and dysfunctional at every level. Features don’t work, features are randomly changed and broken, nothing is consistent, core features of the computer are made opaque, any given Linux package manager is about 1000000 times more trustable than the ad ridden, sketchy, bloatware filled Windows store where you have to hunt for actually useful and trustable tools. One of my old bosses had his work windows computer update to a new windows OS without really asking him (technically it did, but then it just kept scheduling an OS upgrade until he missed it). It didn’t break his computer, but he had thousands and thousands of hours of cad drafting work on that computer and Windows could have EASILY fucked up in the update process, or the old software we were using could have EASILY not been compatible. Windows basically flipped a coin for whether they were going to utterly grind my bosses business to a halt and cause utter panic or just have the computer update. This is not “user friendly” software design, this is not “easy to use software made by an extremely competent software company”.

    I’d also like to add, nowhere did I ever mention using laptops. All my experiences are with desktops that I had a hand in building from scratch. So I’m not sure what you’re even getting at with those assumptions.

    …because for 99% of people who are going to be using a computer for light email, research and text editing work they are going to be using a laptop? I don’t really understand what about my argument doesn’t apply to windows prebuilts that have good driver support for linux…?

    It’s somewhat concerning that you have such a strong obsession over the topic that you would go and whether intentionally or unintentionally offend people and I hope that you are a much more pleasant person to converse with outside of this topic or even this site.

    I think it is completely reasonable to be upset when someone is condescendingly foreclosing the possibility that something can happen when the evidence they are using for it is outdated and they refuse to update it in their heads. The only response at that point when someone refuses to re-evaluate their position and continues to “speak for the group” when they really don’t represent the group anymore is to make it even clearer that they don’t speak for a group, and I am sorry if my method offended here, I believe your heart is in the right place but please stop trying to tell us about how stupid and unwilling people are to learn new things. Please please please just keep your mouth closed, it doesn’t help anyone, period. Even if you were right, there would be nothing to change in our actions as it would just be hopeless to even try?

    This isn’t 2015, a good Linux distribution is as polished, easy to use, and easy to explain to a newbie computer user as Windows is. If you aren’t ready to accept that shrugs I mean fine but don’t push your outmoded narrative into conversations that might actually convince someone who doesn’t know about Linux that it isn’t worth checking out as a serious alternative. You are actively doing damage to the future of this software movement by dismissing it offhand like this.


  • Outlook is atrocious what on earth are you talking about? Just trying to use it at work it is so frustrating and the UI is horrendous for everything. Truly even basic things like trying to read when a meeting actually starts just from looking at the calendar is a headache, and because all of this is proprietary unlike with Linux, tough luck, that is how things are and you can’t do shit to change it. Neither can an experienced computer user trying to help you.

    I am sorry you really don’t have an accurate handle on the state of things anymore, I think you are stuck in your ways and stressed out by life and you don’t realize that emotion and lack of mental plasticity is leading to you assume everyone else is as stuck in their ways as you (including your future self when you are able to feel less overworked and stressed).

    Windows is atrocious at this point, search doesn’t work and purposefully confuses new computer users about where is being searched and what is being searched. Ads pop up everywhere in the UI and will continue to spread like a terminal cancer in the UI.

    Search on windows also just sucks and takes ages with the default settings (an inexperienced computer user will be using).

    The file manager on windows in most marquee windows programs like word, excel etc… all open up an entirely different file manager half way through the process of saving a file in perhaps the most insane UI pattern to keep from the mess that was Windows 8 (even though I actually really liked the core idea at first).

    Windows is buggy AND windows is constantly playing head games with its user by trying to force them to use the edge browser. It is very very confusing to a new computer user what the hell is even going on.

    I mean, Windows illegally changed the entire operating system countless people had without getting consent because it would look good for their numbers.

    Seriously you are WAYYY out of your league if you are going to claim a nice Linux distribution on good hardware with good driver support (such as some dells or thinkpads) is categorically wayyy worse than trying to use a windows laptop in 2024….

    …please get your head out of the sand :)

    I mean do you want to get into the massive security vulnerability at a tactical and strategic level that Microsoft’s co-pilot represents? This is endgame for business security, Windows is in a worse spot than it has been in probably a decade at least and they deserve it. IT people and corporations have to seriously wonder if Windows even cares about following the law, which makes trusting Windows for the software relied upon by their company a complex question indeed……

    It used to be that Linux was better ideologically because it gave you agency over your computer, but now things have gotten so much worse that the reason is practical and no longer ideological.



  • Can y’all IT people please stop with the condescending “you don’t know how stupid people are about computers”, it seems like there is always one of you showing up in a comment thread to tell us that we can’t have the future literally all of us want including you all as well… because WE are too stupid and lazy about computers.

    I helped a grown ass human who was my age at 40yo how to install a Firefox extension.

    Were you as condescending to them in person as you are being in referencing them right now? Why is not knowing how to install a Firefox extension some indicator of foreclosure on the possibility of that person becoming computer literate along whatever metrics you define? There are plenty of smart people out there who can learn how to use a computer for very complex tasks who have just simply never learned about extensions for Firefox. This is a very feasible and normal reality.

    Do you know how to change the oil on your car yourself? Do simple plumbing jobs? Could you run a classroom of middle schoolers and keep them all focused while keeping your eye on the shy sad kid in the back who tends to disappear if you don’t engage them? What about basic healthcare changes or cooking? What about outdoor work or basic small engine maintenance? Do you even know shit about the most basic species of trees in your backyard? Do you know the species of songbirds you often hear outside your window? Do you even pay attention to that? Do you know how to drive a dirt bike extremely fast on a rough dirt road? Do you know how to adjust for the violent explosive power of turbo lag in a car with a turbocharger so that torque oversteer doesn’t launch you off the road? Do you know how to sew and repair basic garments? To weave? Can you even fish? Like could you literally even just catch a fish to save your life right now if I handed you a fishing rod unassembled with no instructions?

    My point is, don’t go looking for confirmation of how stupid or lazy people are or how limited their capacity is to evolve and grow by casting the shapes of their ignorance onto the floor and trying to read some magic language from that.

    Maybe they don’t know because they are hopelesssly stupid, but maybe not? If they are intelligent and they don’t know computers then those are the perfect people to teach linux. Then it is their first language instead of windows, many linux distro are perfectly fine for this at this point.

    See here is the bottom line, legions of IT people show up online always arguing they think they know that the average person is too dumb, lazy and uninterested in computers for Linux adoption to seriously take off in the personal computer market and challenge Microsoft, but y’all don’t know shit about humans. You are experts in computers who think that makes you experts in human potential.

    Go take some theater classes (or get an degree in education) and get educated before you start drawing conclusions about people when you really haven’t spent time closely studying how people engage with their potential and what situations facilitate that in basic human interaction and framing of conversations (both literal and abstract).

    I’m sorry if I snapped at you but I think it is existentially important to recognize here that we don’t know what people are capable of, you can’t know the essential capacity of people to change, don’t try to predict it. Focus on creating the material opportunity for change and the rest may follow depending on what people desire, no matter to us, we desire to create that positive opportunity for change because it is the right thing to do, not because we like the future growth charts of the things we believe are important and vital.



  • In terms of twin stick games, Voidigo is currently giving Enter The Gungeon a run for its money.

    https://www.fanatical.com/en/pick-and-mix/build-your-own-revival-bundle

    i recommend this bundle, donut dodo, round guard, indie guards in that bundle,

    Also Hyperparasite in this one https://www.fanatical.com/en/pick-and-mix/platinum-collection-build-your-own-bundle

    Spelunky 2

    Chronicon

    Caveblazers

    Heroes Of Hammerwatch

    Helldivers 1

    Barony

    Terraria (of course)

    Broforce

    Duck Game

    Don’t Starve Together

    Nuclear Throne (of course!!!)

    Streets Of Rogue!! (keep your eye out for Streets Of Rogue 2!!!)

    Wobbly Life

    PlateUp

    Glitchbusters

    Ember Knights

    Bones Cafe

    Shovel Knight

    Rainworld Downpour

    Petal Crash

    Definitely Sneaky But Not Sneaky

    Sigma Impact

    Cassette Beasts

    Spirits Abyss

    Cosmos Quickstop

    DIG

    Farm Together

    Death Road To Canada !!! <-----

    Knight Squad 2

    One Step From Eden

    Mutant Football League

    Rampage Knights

    Maniac (who cares it isn’t co-op it is hilarious as a pass and play)

    X Morph Defense

    Monaco

    Tricky Towers

    Himno the silent melody

    Dungeon Of The Endless

    Adventures Of Shuggy

    Renegade Ops

    Omega Strikers (online team based)

    Cryptark

    Ms Splosion Man

    Full Metal Furies

    Battleblock Theater

    Colt Canyon

    Cook Serve Delicious series


  • Windows Phone was never given a chance to pan out. There wasn’t space for Windows Phone to force its way on the scene when it finally began to fire on all cylinders as a smartphone OS but they were building a critical mass of loyal users that would have set up Microsoft longterm to successfully exploit the opportunity to when it came.

    It is wild to me that upper management at Microsoft was too dumb to understand that and just killed their perfectly good apparatus for gaining a foothold on the mobile market. Simply put a tech company that large should always be thinking seriously about maintaining a practical entrance to an industry as important to their bottom line as this.

    They are fools and they ultimately threw mud in the face of the small amount of windows phone fans (of which there definitely were loyal fans especially for the great Nokia cameras and extremely focused UI) who could have delivered that initial burst of energy and excitement/growth when the opportunity eventually did come. Thus they have actually sealed and barricaded the door to Microsoft ever EVER being in the mobile space since they betrayed ALL of the early adopter nerds who would have stuck around for the rough beginning.



  • If MS is overinvesting to ride the AI hype as a middle man, while letting their core business capabilities (Windows and Office) decline, they will be in trouble in the long term.

    They aren’t just overinesting in AI, they are foreclosing the future of programming and software design as a prestigious, respectable and valuable career.

    It doesn’t matter if the AI works or not, it just matters that programmers sat there and took it because they thought they were special and the ruling class would never betray their trade.

    Well here we are kids if you want a realistic career that will pay the bills dont follow your heart and go into programming and computers, that is a passionate hobby you shouldnt expect to be highly paid for it. Go into the trades, anywhere else, programming as a career is fucked (and again it has nothing to do with whether AI works or not).



  • First problem, that URL link goes to a dead website for me, which is a major issue given the name of Paint.Net is it’s URL…

    But yeah I mean sure Paint.Net is good in terms of functionality!

    I wouldn’t recommend it over Gimp though, sure Gimp is annoying but Paint.Net is a shovel where as Gimp is a fully featured construction crew with excavators and equipment. Different uses and design goals but the important bit is you can easily ask a construction crew to dig a random hole for you whereas it is much harder to ask a shovel to clear a building site and dig out a pit for a foundation for you… so I tend to recommend familiarizing yourself with Gimp and just skip Paint.Net unless you have a specific need where it fits better.

    Learn Gimp once and use it the rest of your life, shrugs it is the nature of successful Open Source projects like this that after they reach a critical mass of functionality from two decades of development or so there just isn’t a great reason to go with anything else in my opinion (unless you want to drop money on a paid image editor from a company less shitty than Adobe).

    Gimp will be around, being developed and used all over the world long after you are dead. Paint.Net mightttt be if it continues to grow.