Zink

Yeah, you can’t drive like a dangerous asshole on your way to park your full size truck based SUV across two handicap spots if you don’t have a car in the first place!

I remember thinking I was a libertarian for a few years after I realized the conservative world I was raised in was nuts.

What I had essentially done, though, was shed the bigotry first because I cared about people, while keeping the conservative/capitalist economic mindset because accumulation of assets and efficient use of capital are just what good human beings strive for in that world. I’m a Libertarian! I am pure and very intelligent!

But then that pesky thing about respecting the lives of other people never left my head. And my eyes and ears kept working while the last couple decades happened. And I unfortunately value annoyances like high quality evidence, demonstrated expertise, and the scientific method.

It didn’t take long to connect the dots that the policies that are best for short-term capital and those that are best for sentient human beings (never mind all other life) may not always align, and that choosing the former over the latter is kinda… what’s the word… evil.

Not everyone on TV, though.

I find myself using desktop Linux more than my mobile device, even on the couch with the family. Monitors on arms that can swing out of the way ftw. No cute advice for keyboards though. We have wireless ones around but I still use my wired Deck Legend on my lap. It’s an old mechanical keyboard that’s built like a tank, with the PCB literally mounted to a sheet of metal that is mounted inside the housing, lol.

It’s almost a shame, because smart phones are still absolutely amazing to me as far as the amount of scientific and technical advancement that can fit in the palm of your hand. But I look forward to the open options various parties are working on.

Yo dawg I heard you like gatekeeping and purity tests, so I got the algorithm here to Pimp Ur App!

You know that young man Luigi — such a good maker AND such a good taker!

I’ll add in addition to the “not where I live” replies, I live in pretty textbook white suburban america and I believe I have never seen anything delivered to me or a neighbor or relative by a two-wheeled vehicle of any kind, even motorized. Every single time it is a private 4-seat passenger vehicle or larger.

It is different in other areas of course, like when visiting cities and other countries.

But damn are such vast swaths of suburban and rural america designed so specifically around cars. It would take forever to change even with a progressive culture & government. With the culture and government we have now, I will be stunned if I am not driving my own vehicle for the rest of my life, and I will not be surprised at all if it’s mostly ICE vehicles. I drive a well maintained 13 year old Mazda3 that gets 40mpg, so it’s not ideal versus more efficient and environmentally friendly types of transport, but at least it’s a more efficient use of the existing infrastructure than most americans.

Hear, hear!

There is nothing wrong, and in fact there is something good, with FOSS being polished and user friendly out of the box.

Historically that has not been a priority, because FOSS has been by the computer nerds, for the computer nerds. But if that priority shifts to being a bit more “by the computer nerds, for the normies” then that is a good thing as long as the developers don’t prevent the power users from accessing any part of the system they want. Fortunately that completely against the point of the FOSS world.

I first learned Unix in the 90s, I use my Linux desktop more than my phone, I’m an engineer on embedded systems digging through C and C++ code all day, I have terminals open all day, and… I have Linux Mint Cinnamon installed on all my machines and love it. Change My Mind, lol.

Yeah, even from inside the US it seems more and more iffy to trust our tech giants even as a paying customer. I love reading the stories about groups and governments in Europe adopting Linux/FOSS, but I’m also surprised I don’t see it more.

Everything in the news is so insane that I could see journalists ignoring/missing such mundane events as public sector software choices.

I made the full work + home switch last year. I don’t know which experience is more improved over Windows: Installing the OS or Updating the OS.

The funny thing for me is that my job is like 80% webpages in LibreWolf on my Linux machine. But that’s because the company uses M365 and Github.

I use various different programs for different reasons just like anybody, but I bet browser + vscode + terminal covers 95% of my work day.

Yeah…

For the 2024 election I still manually chose the top challenger to every republican (close to a party line blue vote but not quite) and in cases where one person secured both party’s nominations I think I just left it blank out of spite.

But next time and moving forward, I have no idea. It is so, so far away in Trump Time that I could envision anything along the spectrum from excitedly voting for a progressive to being afraid to vote because they’re obviously compiling lists of dissenting voters.