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Daily Tech News 23 January 2022

Top Story

  • Far-right hate group the Patriot Front was hacked and 500GB of data has leaked onto the internet.



    In this video where they accidentally leave the camera running, several members of the Front remove their masks and out themselves, leading them to being tracked down by the Twitter mob and losing their jobs, homes, bank accounts, pet wombats, and so on.

    Not.

    Because they very carefully keep their masks in place while they swear allegiance to Hydra and then pretend to fumble with their glasses. They supposedly believe the camera is off but strangely you never get a good look at any of them.

    It's not so much that they're feds, as that they are incompetent feds. They trust in the fact that the mainstream media is even more incompetent and corrupt than they are, and for the most part, they're right.


Questions and Answers

  • From Peter the Not-so-Great:
    I have an older Apple Mac Mini (bought in 2015, IIRC) with an Intel Core I5 1.4 GHz processor, 4 GB of 1600 MHz DDR3 Ram, and an Intel HD Graphics 5000 graphics processor. The Mac is still running the OS it came with from the factory (OS X El Capitan v10.11.6). I use it almost exclusively for Web surfing, and I'm finding the browser (Safari v11.1.2) is starting to hiccup from time to time, especially if I have lots of tabs open with Youtube videos or other resource hogs (e.g. tabs closing on their own, prolonged freezes with the Spinning Beach-Ball of Doom).

    What can I do to upgrade/fix the OS and browser so that things run more reliably? In particular, what are the latest versions of OS X and Safari I can install that (a) are still available, (b) will run on my Mac, and (c) have as few of Apple's more Orwellian innovations as possible? Would you recommend a different browser? Or, to turn an old phrase on it's head, should I just buy a PC?
    I have an iMac from 2015 running 10.14 and it mostly copes fine with web browsing. I also have a dual-core Windows laptop from that year with a similar CPU to that Mac Mini. What I suspect is happening is you're running out of RAM thanks to years of web page bloat, which means that nothing you do to the OS or browser is likely to help much.

    Unfortunately, the model you have probably has the RAM soldered in place, so yeah, time to just buy a PC.


  • From Fred Z:
    Where did the code formatting "rule" for brace bracket indentation come from? I hate it and wont use it.
    Ah, stories from the Indentation Wars.

    My advice is use Python.


  • From gourmand du jour:
    I have a number of external HD devices, they have a lot of audio, pictures, etc.

    While the devices still work my older computer, they don't work with my newer one (MacBook Air with the M1 chip running Monterey OS). The manufacturer of the external device (Western Digital) says they no longer make drivers to support older devices (which are about a decade old).

    Is there any work-around?
    I'd heard of Western Digital abandoning their older low-end NAS devices, but that just means you don't get updates, they should continue working without new drivers as long as they're already configured. Same goes for USB hard drives.

    Rafal Gan Ganowicz suggests they may be formatted with the (very) old HFS, which is possible and would explain why they won't work with a new Mac.


  • From Zho Bai-den:
    I'm looking for a laptop that doesn't have an oversensitive touchpad; I've bought a couple that seem to open links with the slightest, unintentional touch. I have adjusted all software settings.The Apple Mac works for me, but I won't have one. Is there a brand or model line that has the "right touch"?
    That's a good question, but I stay as far away from the touchpad as I can - partly for exactly that reason.

    The newer Dell Inspiron models seem to be decent on this, but I mostly use mine via a wireless keyboard and mouse and an external monitor, so I'm not the best person to ask.


  • From Wingnutt:
    since retiring a number of years ago, my computer skills have atrophied. Have a Thinkpad that's still operating fine on Win10 ... but never gets used unless my Surface bites the dust. Thinking of converting the Thinkpad to linux. a) workable for a laptop? b) best distro to use? and c) wipe the hd and start from scratch, or go with dual boot?
    Linux generally works well on laptops these days as long as you don't have brand new hardware that hasn't received a Linux driver yet. For a Thinkpad a few years old you should be fine.

    I'd suggest giving Ubuntu a try. Mint is also popular for desktop/laptop use for normal humans.


  • From Rafal Gan Ganowicz:
    What is a great external SSD for a boot drive? Thunderbolt 3 is available, and from what I hear if you get a Thunderbolt SSD your speeds are about double of what a USB-C drive can offer.
    Basically there's three ways to go here: Samsung has a pretty nice range of USB-C SSDs which are really tiny and reasonably fast. OWC makes their own Thunderbolt SSDs including models that let you install up to four of your own M.2 drives and run up to 3x faster than the Samsung drives. Or you can get a USB-C drive case off Amazon and make your own.

    A good Thunderbolt case with a good drive inside it will be up to twice as fast as a USB-C drive. USB 4 is as fast as Thunderbolt but I haven't seen any devices supporting its full speed yet - and in any case it doesn't help you because if you found a USB 4 device it would fall back to USB 3 speeds when plugged into Thunderbolt.


  • From Braenyard:
    Pine Phone, you did a review on the Pine Phone and its cousins and provided links. I didn't save the address to that post.

    Do you have an updated opinion?
    Can you provide a link to that old post?
    This is my most recent mention of the PinePhone.

    I haven't used one, but the specs on the current model are at least functional. It's around 50% faster than the little Lenovo tablet I just got and that runs fine most of the time.

    It's expensive for the hardware specs, but if you want to break free from the Google / Apple diarchy, there aren't many other options.


  • From Fox2!:
    Do you have any idea when Apple is going to release a 27 inch iMac with the A series chip? The 27 is still being offered with an Intel chipset, which means immediate obsolescence when they finally release the A chip version.
    I've seen the usual rumours but nothing more than that. When it does finally show up remember that it won't be upgradeable at all - everything will be soldered in place.

    I would be surprised if they don't announce something this year, but my guess would be later rather than sooner.


  • From WillowViney:
    You say that Node and npm suck. I don't disagree with that opinion, so what do you consider to be the best alternative to Node for new web projects? Deno? Something else?
    Python. Ruby if you prefer it. Nim or Crystal if your development cycle allows for compile times. Or Go, or Java.

    JavaScript has no place on servers.


  • From Nimrod:
    There are several problematic issues with modern consumer tech (more or less related), and everyone would weight them differently. What would your hw/sw/service recommendations to minimize concerns for each of these:
    1) concerned about surveillance capitalism
    2) concerned that China is asshoe
    3) concerned about hostility to conservative/traditional/non-elitist worldviews
    That's not a small question!

    1. Don't use cloud components. Software as a service can work. Cloud servers - bare instances of Linux running in a huge datacenter somewhere - can work. Cloud databases, cloud message queues, cloud search engines - those are anathema to any sort of freedom.

    2. For the most part China doesn't seem to go asshoe on consumer devices, probably because they know it could cost them a trillion dollars a year. Huawei was banned for putting backdoors into 5G mobile networks, not into their phones. The biggest story I've seen was Bloomberg's coverage of a hardware hack put into Supermicro servers at the Chinese factory - and that story was bullshit.

    3. If you go with cloud servers and back up to an entirely separate cloud, and avoid anything that locks you into one provider (cloud databases are particularly bad) then you can pick up and move anytime. For years this blog was hosted with a Texas company that was solid on free speech issues, but they got bought up by a larger corporation.

    Main thing is don't lock yourself in.


  • From buddhaha:
    Is there an 8" tablet (or thereabouts - smaller can't read, bigger gets awkward), that runs a privacy oriented os, ie: something non-apple other than android.
    Not that I know of. You could try updating a Lenovo or Samsung tablet with something like LineageOS, but support for tablets is patchy at best.


  • From Aetius451AD:
    I was going to ask whether anyone had seen anything about new rare earth mines being opened in addition to the chip manufacturing plants. Then I thought: do they just dig rare earth material out of the ground and send it straight to the chip plant? It would have to be refined at some level, right? Are there separate refineries or are they done at the mining end (or the chip end?)
    One thing to note is that rare earth elements aren't actually rare; several countries including Russia, Canada, the US, Australia, and Brazil each have proven reserves sufficient to provide the entire planet. On a recent discovery in Brazil:
    The price of neodymium is now U.S. $300,000 a tonne, and we have 28 million tons* of it.
    The problem with rare earth elements is that refining them is an environmental nightmare and everyone is perfectly happy to leave China to poison their own countryside.

    Also, rare earths aren't used much in chip production; it's mostly very very pure silicon and very very nasty solvents.

    * I think that's actually 28 million kilograms. 28 million tons of neodymium would be a lot.


  • From Bitblt:
    I'd been thinking of trying to acquire a new desktop after the new year to replace my aging i7-950 / currently GTX 970 build. (Not liking change, I like to buy sweet-spot high-end and then ride it for a very long time with occasional upgrades.) Originally I was thinking of trying for an AMD 5950x / RTX 3080 system. But the AMD 7950x announcement and rumors of RTX 4000 later this year have me wondering if I should wait. Especially with the new mobo chipset with updated PCI and RAM support, and the sweet IPC bump on the CPU arch. Thoughts?
    Zen 4 looks like it will be a really great upgrade. It's a shame it's taking so long to arrive - two whole years, how dreadful - but it brings a new core plus PCIe 5 and DDR5.

    Intel already has all that and their platform is honestly not bad if you avoid the highest-end chips that use 50kw of power at idle. The problem biting Intel is that DDR5 right now is very expensive without actually being any faster than DDR4 in most applications. That might be resolved in nine months or so when AMD's new chips and motherboards appear.

    AMD has also announced that the new Socket AM5 will be a long-lived design just like the current AM4, which first appeared in 2016. Intel sockets generally change every couple of years.


  • From Bitblt again:
    You keep mentioning and linking this Hololive and related stuff. I'm out of the loop. What is that, and what's the background on it?
    Some background from my personal perspective might help. I spend long hours alone at home at my desk, sometimes late at night, and I find that having something playing on the second monitor can help prevent me from getting even more distracted and wasting time on Twitter or wherever.

    For a few years I was a dedicated listener to a long list of podcasts, including networks like This Week in Tech and The Incomparable. But as we moved into 2020 a lot of the stuff I was listening to on ostensibly tech or geek culture topics was becoming unpleasantly political, and by "unpleasantly political" I mean batshit crazy communism. The same stuff that had wrecked Twitter by 2018.

    But around that time, this surfaced in my recommendations on YouTube, the only time Google has gotten anything right since about 2013.



    It's only a 20 second clip but it was enough to make me say What the heck? and take a closer look. And then I found there's no escaping the rabbit hole.

    This is Hololive:



    Yes, there's a lot of them. (That's seven videos edited together by a fan, which explains why some of the transitions aren't perfect.)

    Basically Hololive is a 24/7 international all-girl improv comedy channel. Unwoke, unpolitically correct, irreverent and chaotic. They even have their own Bugs Bunny character - you see her for a couple of seconds in that video, her name is Usada Pekora and she has 1.8 million YouTube subscribers.

    They sing, they dance - they have live concerts using full motion tracking and 3D models, they draw - at least two are successful commercial artists, they play an awful lot of Minecraft, and they don't take any shit from anyone.



    Hololive's own background is also interesting. Parent company Cover Corp was working on a new AR device, that replaced expensive motion tracking with a regular iPhone and clever software, but they weren't having a lot of success breaking into the market.

    Then in 2017 two Japanese girls fresh out of high school approached them and said what they needed was their own virtual spokeswoman. One of them is now Tokino Sora with 900,000 subscribers, and the other is referred to as A-chan, and is a senior manager overseeing activity across the entire company.



    The pivot was spectacularly successful, and Hololive is basically a money factory. Their smallest channel - and they have dozens - has close to 300,000 subscribers, and the largest is approaching 4 million.

    I think a lot of people are sick of hypocritical woke crap and are looking for entertainers who will simply tell it like it is. The 2D characters they use and the stage names (and a very strict corporate policy protecting their privacy) give them enough distance that they don't need to maintain a pretense in their opinions.

    They don't get explicitly political but in this benighted age that itself is a profound political statement.

    And beyond the official content - and there's so much of that that it's impossible to watch it all - there's an absolute avalanche of fan content, from cute video clips:



    To entire virtual worlds:



    So forget Hollywood, forget Netflix, forget podcasts, I really don't care anymore. I'll be over here in the corner juggling hedgehogs.

    Also, Hololive is the main reason I bothered to get back on Twitter. They post their stream announcements there.

    This is Gawr Gura of Hololive EN, the most successful virtual YouTuber of all time:



    Okay, yeah, she's a bit of a ditz on some things. But she can maintain both sides of a conversation for four hours at a time, every day, without ever repeating herself, and for the most part while doing three other things at the same time, and that's a rare talent.


Tech News

  • Australia's Secretary for Home Affairs has made comments on the surveillance state that are almost sensible. (ZDNet)
    Pezzullo wants "everyday Australians" to have the confidnce that it would be "highly unusual for any of their data, any of their devices, or indeeed any of their engagement through their devices with data, to be the subject of surveillance or interception".
    ...

    "I think the more immediate pressing problem for the citizenry is to actually understand what companies are doing with that personal and sometimes intimate data," he said.
    Yes.
    "Everything that government will do will always be purposely designed by the parliament to be much more restricted than that."
    Forgive me if I don't trust you fuckers the width of a single electron.


  • If you want an 8k resin-based 3D printer the Phrozen Sonic Mini is one. (Tom's Hardware)

    I don't know that much about resin-based 3D printing, but the models this turns out looks pretty nice. You do need specially formulated resin to get that 8k detail but if you use that the results are impressive.


  • Everything has two prices. (Raptitude)

    The first in dollars, the second in time.

    Since I got two pay increases last year I'm pretty much at saturation point on the second price. I was planning to use my holiday time over Christmas and New Year to rebuild my home office, but then the blockchain we use blew up and I ended up working an 80 hour week instead of a zero hour one.


  • Why are skyscrapers so short? (Works in Progress)

    Short answer: Elevators.

    Long answer: Still elevators.


  • 90 WordPress themes and plugins had backdoors added to them in a supply chain attack. (Bleeping Computer)

    This is novel in that the plugins didn't already contain backdoors.


  • McAfee Enterprise Agent on the other hand, did. (Bleeping Computer)

    Installing the security software had the neat effect of making systems dramatically less secure.

    It's now been fixed.



Party Like It's 1980-ish Video of the Day



It's Australia Day week here so yes, you're going to get 7 days straight of the best 1981 Australia has to offer.

Yes, 1982 was better - stellar year for Aussie music - but we're not up to 1982 yet.

And in case you're wondering, once again yes, it's about Errol Flynn.



Disclaimer: I'm Elvis Presley!

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM




Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 hiya

Posted by: JT at January 23, 2022 04:01 AM (arJlL)

2 Hey JT!

Posted by: Pixy Misa at January 23, 2022 04:03 AM (MqQvv)

3 Oh man, content.
What a way to start the day.
Thanks

Posted by: Braenyard saying, here's your new Cold War, zippers at January 23, 2022 04:05 AM (Mg8KB)

4 Hiya Pixy !

Posted by: JT at January 23, 2022 04:07 AM (arJlL)

5 The women in The Australia Crawl vid have too many clothes on and are contributing to global warming.

Posted by: JT at January 23, 2022 04:09 AM (arJlL)

6 The Feds know the media knows the score.

We are trying as a nation to outlaw patriotism while stumbling towards ww3, BRILLIANT!

Posted by: Sven at January 23, 2022 04:14 AM (L8cCS)

7 Pine phone. Trash. Yew is where it's at.

Posted by: Druids at January 23, 2022 04:20 AM (KFhLj)

8 Pine phone. Trash. Yew is where it's at.
Posted by: Druids

Me ?

Posted by: JT at January 23, 2022 04:22 AM (arJlL)

9 Psaki Psircles back an oopsie:

https://twitter.com/PapiTrumpo/status/1484643682229919744

Posted by: Biden's Dog at January 23, 2022 04:25 AM (lfJEy)

10 Awesome, thanks for the answers, Pixy!

(And much appreciation in general for the night owl thread here. I'm usually way too late to post in the other threads, but this one coincides nicely with my winding down time.)

Posted by: Bitblt at January 23, 2022 04:29 AM (8n5xO)

11 Pixy, do you write all your posts? Come clean, sometimes its farmed out to an intern. Who may or may not be a wallaby. Yes?

Posted by: bear with asymmetrical balls at January 23, 2022 04:37 AM (KFhLj)

12 >>>They don't get explicitly political but in this benighted age that itself is a profound political statement.

This is a great observation.

Posted by: m at January 23, 2022 04:39 AM (YbTYS)

13 funny typo blooper:

But she can maintain both sides of a conservation

Posted by: m at January 23, 2022 04:42 AM (YbTYS)

14 m - was tempted to leave that as is, but fixed.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at January 23, 2022 04:46 AM (MqQvv)

15 We need to go all out in condemning these far right groups. Everything Pixy said, we should demand. We should demand it of Ray Epps.

Accountability for this racism, and accountability for those who encourage violence and crime.

There are protests coming up. If someone calls for violence or other illegal acts, video, upload, call police.

We are not racist, we don't condone illegal acts. We aren't the FBI after all.

Posted by: David Prince at January 23, 2022 04:49 AM (dSbXx)

16 Braenyard asked the PinePhone question on my behalf. The new PinePhone Pro sounds like too much horsepower for me. I have no need, and certainly no desire, to use my damned phone as a desktop computer.

My fantasy Linux phone? Flips open like a book; screen on one side, physical keyboard on the other, with the 4 Essential Keys, and a numeric keypad, too. Small screen and dialing keypad on outer face when closed. Powerful audio amp, and speaker with a decent range; also speakerphone capability. Shoot for the audio quality of a Western Electric desk set. Or better. A hardware volume control. Hardware switches for all the privacy concern functions. Magnetic compass, accelerometers, GPS, of course. World-wide phone connectivity. Ports for headset, charging, standard USB ports, slot for memory cards. Ships with dedicated wireless mouse, but touch screen can substitute, if need be. User-replaceable battery, of course. Good front camera, no selfie camera. No games. Few native apps, mostly maps, weather, GPS. Ability to block MMS messages. Ability to transmit death ray to scammers and phone solicitors.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at January 23, 2022 04:55 AM (P3gRi)

17 @politicalmath is all over the fedfar right:

The next GOP president should run on investigating Patriot Front and unmasking every single member and publishing their names and employers, regardless of any government affiliations.

"My opponent says I cater to the worst aspects of the right. I say we need to know exactly who these people are and I will spare no expense hiring private investigators to hunt down each one of these total non-feds."

"Wait, so you think they are feds?"

"No, I *don't* think they are feds. In fact I so much do not think they are feds that I will make it a top priority for the FBI to tell us exactly how many people they have embedded in this group."

Posted by: m at January 23, 2022 04:56 AM (YbTYS)

18 A taste of Australia is a great thing.

Posted by: Skip at January 23, 2022 04:58 AM (2JoB8)

19 A taste of Australia is a great thing.

Vegemite?

Posted by: bear with asymmetrical balls at January 23, 2022 05:00 AM (KFhLj)

20 19 A taste of Australia is a great thing.

Vegemite?
Posted by: bear with asymmetrical balls at January 23, 2022 05:00 AM (KFhLj)

You're gonna "roo" the day you said that!

Posted by: m at January 23, 2022 05:08 AM (YbTYS)

21 Better get moving and make coffee

Posted by: Skip at January 23, 2022 05:15 AM (2JoB8)

22 I haven't looked into that "Patriot Front video," except for watching that clip, but it looks to me like normal people (like us) role-playing feds-roleplaying-Patriot-Front-people.

Posted by: m at January 23, 2022 05:18 AM (YbTYS)

23 You don't want to believe the feds are that bad at their jobs, but then you look around and it's pretty clear that they is.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at January 23, 2022 05:22 AM (MqQvv)

24 A taste of Australia is a great thing.

Sou vide 'roo !

Posted by: JT at January 23, 2022 05:22 AM (arJlL)

25 Good morning morons

The Junta can put on any face it wants

Posted by: San Franpsycho at January 23, 2022 05:25 AM (EZebt)

26 RE: privacy mobile

Any thought about the Teracube just versus attempting a Pixel , Moto Ubuntu conversion?

Posted by: weft cut-loop at January 23, 2022 05:26 AM (zWpOF)

27 Law enforcement largely succeeds because (a) most criminals are not very bright: and (b) as an institution, it has tremendous resources.

Posted by: bear with asymmetrical balls at January 23, 2022 05:27 AM (KFhLj)

28 We have vegemite in the cupboard. That's where it will stay.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at January 23, 2022 05:30 AM (EZebt)

29 So does the FBI counterpart in Australia emulate the American FBI?

We are not sure how bad we can be. Let's do what the yanks do.

Posted by: Humphreyrobot at January 23, 2022 05:30 AM (pwQsd)

30 I've had Simple Minds "Don't You (Forget About Me)" running in my mind ever since it was featured here a few days ago. Not a bad background soundtrack for life.

Posted by: m at January 23, 2022 05:35 AM (YbTYS)

31 We have vegemite in the cupboard. That's where it will stay.
Posted by: San Franpsycho


Ya got any of this ?

https://tinyurl.com/unmh4zec

Posted by: JT at January 23, 2022 05:38 AM (arJlL)

32
g'mornin', 'rons

Posted by: AltonJackson at January 23, 2022 05:41 AM (DUIap)

33 Just poured first cup, coffee takes awhile here.

Posted by: Skip at January 23, 2022 05:47 AM (2JoB8)

34 Those guys aren't even feds. They're too young.

Posted by: yep at January 23, 2022 05:50 AM (4XlIB)

35 I mean, among these options:

1) that's Patriot Front people
2) that's feds
3) any other option

it's absolutely NOT Patriot Front people.

Posted by: m at January 23, 2022 05:50 AM (YbTYS)

36 How's Mrs. Skip doin' ?

Posted by: JT at January 23, 2022 05:52 AM (arJlL)

37 Seig is fucking Heil now? These feds have really taken it up a notch.

Posted by: Coquettish Haberdasher at January 23, 2022 05:53 AM (buTO7)

38 Was up a bit, but back in bed, way better that Thursday and Friday

Posted by: Skip at January 23, 2022 05:54 AM (2JoB8)

39 zero degrees out there, shoveled enough snow to accommodate the dog (when she decides it's worth getting up), coffee is required at this point in time.

yeah, the Pinephone Pro looks good, but pricey; odd how no megacorp will underwrite some of the costs for me ....

patriot front, lol, yeah, uhuh ... pull the other one, it's got bells on ...

Posted by: sock_rat_eez (9CuDT) at January 23, 2022 05:54 AM (9CuDT)

40 So Patriot Front-who seem to be everywhere- which we thought was a troll, is a troll.

Imagine that.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at January 23, 2022 05:54 AM (dNqv+)

41 So, they think they are antifa? I could buy that.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at January 23, 2022 05:56 AM (dNqv+)

42 https://tinyurl.com/unmh4zec

I take mine every day.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at January 23, 2022 05:57 AM (EZebt)

43 22 I haven't looked into that "Patriot Front video," except for watching that clip, but it looks to me like normal people (like us) role-playing feds-roleplaying-Patriot-Front-people.
Posted by: m at January 23, 2022 05:18 AM (YbTYS)

Wait, are you trying to say it is a false-false-flag?

To what end? If it was a fed operation, it would be used to discredit any opposition to the commies, what possible benefit would be making a false video as non-racists to make the right look like racists as part of a fed operation? To make the right hate the feds more?

Posted by: Aetius451AD at January 23, 2022 06:00 AM (dNqv+)

44 That it's a false flag proof is the media who is out looking for white supremacists under every rock couldn't care there is a white supremacists looking organization staring them in the face.

Posted by: Skip at January 23, 2022 06:04 AM (2JoB8)

45 Ok, that seemed confusing, so let's try this:

1) Normal Rightee
2) Fed posing as a Nazi/Rightee
3) Normal Rightees Posing as Feds Posing as Nazi/Rightees <==== ?

Posted by: Aetius451AD at January 23, 2022 06:05 AM (dNqv+)

46 Actual white supremacists don't look like that. The are-you-fucking-kidding-me factor here is stratospheric. It's like a high-school theater version of Aryan Nation.

Posted by: bear with asymmetrical balls at January 23, 2022 06:06 AM (KFhLj)

47 44 That it's a false flag proof is the media who is out looking for white supremacists under every rock couldn't care there is a white supremacists looking organization staring them in the face.
Posted by: Skip at January 23, 2022 06:04 AM (2JoB

That says more to me that it is either antifa cosplay or a fed operation than it is genuine. Which is what you are saying, but I am not sure we are all on the same thought and that's mine.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at January 23, 2022 06:06 AM (dNqv+)

48 The president is bumbling, stumbling old fool.

There's no fool like an old fool.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at January 23, 2022 06:06 AM (EZebt)

49 Evidently I managed to format blank part of 45. Yay.

Posted by: Aetius451AD at January 23, 2022 06:08 AM (dNqv+)

50 Exactly! I think...wait...yeah! Those assholes!

Posted by: yep at January 23, 2022 06:08 AM (4XlIB)

51 50 Exactly! I think...wait...yeah! Those assholes!
Posted by: yep at January 23, 2022 06:08 AM (4XlIB)

Thanks! Stands out in a crowd, huh?

Posted by: Josh Brolin at January 23, 2022 06:11 AM (dNqv+)

52 >Python. Ruby if you prefer it.

Ugh. Both Python and Ruby have the same problem that Node does, which is a batshit insane package ecosystem. Ruby still doesn't have a language spec or static typing.

Every time people talk about Node.js I flash back to Zed Shaw's _Rails is a Ghetto_ essay. Nothing's changed.

The problem with Crystal and Nim is that they're niche languages without a large ecosystem and their web frameworks are not really up to enterprise quality. If you're just doing personal projects that doesn't matter.

Posted by: Daniel Ream at January 23, 2022 06:11 AM (ArYuy)

53 52 >Python. Ruby if you prefer it.

Ugh. Both Python and Ruby have the same problem that Node does, which is a batshit insane package ecosystem. Ruby still doesn't have a language spec or static typing.


Node is an order of magnitude worse because JavaScript doesn't have a standard library. So everything becomes part of the batshit insane package ecosystem. And Python and Ruby don't have the same destructive ethos of putting out thousands of tiny garbage packages for imaginary internet points.

While all the alternatives have their own issues, they are all orders of magnitude better than Node.

Swift might be an option now; I should take a look. The JSON handling in early versions was such a nightmare that I stopped thinking about it entirely.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at January 23, 2022 06:22 AM (MqQvv)

54 43 22 I haven't looked into that "Patriot Front video," except for watching that clip, but it looks to me like normal people (like us) role-playing feds-roleplaying-Patriot-Front-people.
Posted by: m at January 23, 2022 05:18 AM (YbTYS)

Wait, are you trying to say it is a false-false-flag?

To what end? If it was a fed operation, it would be used to discredit any opposition to the commies, what possible benefit would be making a false video as non-racists to make the right look like racists as part of a fed operation? To make the right hate the feds more?
Posted by: Aetius451AD at January 23, 2022 06:00 AM (dNqv+)

To what end: Mocking the Feds.

Posted by: m at January 23, 2022 06:43 AM (YbTYS)

55 42 https://tinyurl.com/unmh4zec

I take mine every day.
Posted by: San Franpsycho at January 23, 2022 05:57 AM (EZebt)

heh

Posted by: m at January 23, 2022 06:58 AM (YbTYS)

56 Pixy, thanks for the Hololive explanation! You just outdid Wikipedia. Last weekend I read their entry on it and was just as confused as before. Not any more.

Question for next week. Can I use my 1660 TI to mine etherium? Should i? How? Is it just a program that I download and let it run? Or some other crypto like Chia? I have a spare TB HDD, but is it just a simple download, install, and run?

Posted by: Taqiyyologist, Rickrolled by Jesus at January 23, 2022 07:27 AM (OssQ4)

57 I think this Patriot Front thing is a troll of a moby.

Someone dissing someone who's trying to incite trouble to blame on someone else.

And someone decided to troll them as that other group.

It's really messed up and makes you wonder who the heck has the money or the time for this stuff?

They will be gone before the arson season.

Posted by: jakee308 at January 23, 2022 07:45 AM (ZHNfk)

58 I would advise the guy with the touch device sensitivity to use a glove or a stylus or buy an external and plus in as a pointing device as that would allow greater sensitivity (maybe)

Posted by: jakee308 at January 23, 2022 07:49 AM (eYV9L)

59 >>>It's not so much that they're feds, as that they are incompetent feds. They trust in the fact that the mainstream media is even more incompetent and corrupt than they are, and for the most part, they're right.


lo effin' l. They claimed pepe was a racist cartoon frog and that the OK hand gesture was secret white supremacy finger oppression. They are incompetent feds, but they know their audience.

Posted by: Martin Bashir at January 23, 2022 08:14 AM (SH2Zi)

60 And nice work on the bumper crop of tech stuff, Pixy. I read this thread and, most of the time, the comments every day.

Posted by: Martin Bashir at January 23, 2022 08:15 AM (SH2Zi)

61 >>>I'd suggest giving Ubuntu a try. Mint is also popular for desktop/laptop use for normal humans.

Linux Lite, based on Mint (which is based on Ubuntu), is very good, also. Install is easy, and you can try before you "buy," by installing it on a USB thumb drive and testing it out. IMO, linux support for laptop hardware is very good, these days, especially for relatively mainstream hardware such as what a Thinkpad should have. Linux Lite is spec'd for lower end or older hardware, and I am very fond of the XFCE desktop, which is fast and it very Windows-like in appearance.

Posted by: Martin Bashir at January 23, 2022 08:35 AM (SH2Zi)

62 My mother in-law can talk non-stop on the phone 10 hours a day in a constant, uninterrupted drone and could probably compete with that virtual youtuber Gawr Gura.

Posted by: SamIam at January 23, 2022 09:30 AM (oasF3)

63 That the Patriot Front are Nazis doesn't mean they aren't controlled by the Feds.

Posted by: WarEagle82 at January 23, 2022 10:42 AM (+Kpte)

64 Thanks for introducing us to Hololive. I'm hooked on Gura and Ina. And I refuse to watch the others out of self-defense, since the based on the small clips I've seen I'd get hooked on most of them too.

Posted by: Davie at January 23, 2022 10:42 AM (AT+sI)

65 When the Patriot Front account showed up on Gab and started following people, I was immediately suspicious. "Front" is exclusively used by Left-wing, collectivist, totalitarian groups.

They use red, white, and blue, but then evoke fascist symbolism. They post mainly pics of their "grafitti, tagging the pics with names of major cities to give the impression of a large/prolific group, but you can tell the walls have been painted over before being "tagged".

There's a Freinds of Patriot Front group now, and it's all self-proclaimed NatSocs, those are either barely functional subliterates or likely feds. I knew the moment I saw your post they wouldn't actually reveal their identities in the video. That's performance art for Stalinists.

Posted by: insurgens ad opus at January 23, 2022 11:22 AM (MofO9)

66 Thought I'd throw this out there, the last week I've noticed that on Brave 1.34.81 after right clicking for the save box it's taking 11-12 seconds to appear. I'm guessing it a problem with the latest upgrade but the Brave help page is less than ... well, helpful.
Any tweaks in setup or just wait for this to get fixed in a future release?

Posted by: John the River at January 23, 2022 11:56 AM (/3goP)

67 Patriot Front = FBI agile pod

Posted by: Bang-a-gong at January 23, 2022 11:59 AM (O0e/C)

68 I took a look at their website. It was written by a fed or a contractor as a simulacrum for a training exercise to give the feds granularity in their scenario for countering "right-wing" anti-government groups. The information in the web-site is carefully written to avoid certain controversies that an actual group of this type would not shy away from.

I used to write scenarios for military and civilian government exercises. The most obvious elements had to often be finessed and the exercise would ignore the elephant in the room and replace it with a marsupial.

The hardest part of designing the civilian exercises was making sure that it didn't incur overtime.

This has fed-stink all over it.

Posted by: Minuteman at January 23, 2022 12:34 PM (LaNzR)

69 The "hack" is part of the false flag.

This LARP has layers of nonsense.

Posted by: Minuteman at January 23, 2022 12:35 PM (LaNzR)

70 Linux should work fine on most any system out of the box; the thing to understand about it is that most paid-for software like games is very slow to adopt Linux so your selection will be limited without the use of things like Wine and VMs that I don't recommend to a non-techie. If your computer use is defined by web, email, and MS Office type tasks then Linux is fine. If you're a a gamer or do something that's only supported by one really old application from back in the day, it's not so great.

Re: resin printing, the tl,dr is that the visual quality is excellent but the part strength is not as good as other technologies like FDM/FFF, and cleaning the parts and maintaining the printer is messy.

Posted by: CppThis at January 23, 2022 01:34 PM (UewuT)

71 to steal a comment from another site- That's an "outtake" like how Pixar has "outtakes" at the end of their movies.

Posted by: JoshO at January 23, 2022 01:35 PM (Z9wz+)

72 You know, one of these days I should write up 3D Printing For Morons and send it off to the cobs; an insider's overview of all the various technologies, the major companies behind them, and which applications they're good and bad at. I don't have a lot of personal time right now, but...maybe eventually I'll get to it.

Posted by: CppThis at January 23, 2022 01:48 PM (UewuT)

73 There was a tactical MMO I used to play. One of the ground units could be either set up as ICBM launchers, or anti-aircraft. Everyone inevitably set theirs up as ICBM launchers because Big Damage! and relied on friendly air cover to keep from getting wiped out.

Me, I enjoyed setting up mine for anti-aircraft, and asking for air cover in the wrong team's chat...

Posted by: Voyager at January 23, 2022 02:25 PM (u5PZm)

74 Checking hash

Posted by: hash check at January 23, 2022 02:44 PM (lD3vL)

75 19 A taste of Australia is a great thing.

Vegemite?
----
Pretty good but I prefer Marmite, the South Arican one is best. Bovril too but a bit pricey.

Posted by: Ciampino at January 23, 2022 03:03 PM (qfLjt)

76 Hololive saved me from all the gloom of the past year and a half. Miko and Pekora got me in the rabbit hole. Coco's graduation was a gutpunch, but I've recovered (mostly, except for Haachama's tribute a few weeks ago that punched me again.) When I feel down, Miko singing the ditty brings me back up.


Yagoo is truly the Best Girl.

Posted by: cheshirecat at January 23, 2022 05:12 PM (TwA+r)

77 Everyone I disagree with is a fed.

Posted by: nope at January 23, 2022 05:35 PM (2XvbO)

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