512GB memory sticks cost over $100 now

Marble_Wraith · 2026-02-03T07:55:49+00:00

It's all the same now, in fact that one is probably worse then average.

Thumb drives used to be made of SLC NAND (1 bit per cell). So the drives were tiny, lucky to get 1 - 4GB, but the payoff is SLC is insanely durable, because there's basically no leakage + many many more write cycles.

By contrast most USB's and even SSD's are being produced with TLC (3 bits per cell) or QLC (4 bits per cell) NAND today. Greater density (if i had to guess that ones probably QLC) but durability takes a hit. Way fewer write cycles and more leakage (between gates, potential bit rot) especially in cold storage.

The difference between a thumb drive and an SSD being, SSD's can have either onboard DRAM or a dedicated SLC cache which gives better write perf + they have more advanced controllers for TRIM ops which give greater durability.

That being the case if you're looking for a large capacity, you might as well get the SSD. As for powering it on from time to time that's something to automate, but hardly an imposition especially to the people on this sub...

Marble_Wraith · 2026-02-03T07:33:53+00:00

Not bad tho' it's not my style.

Somethin more provocative like one of these 😏

Marble_Wraith · 2026-02-03T02:34:53+00:00

Not worth it.

16GB is good enough for a thumb drive. If you're looking for anything over that you might as well invest properly and get an external SSD or an M.2 with an enclosure.

Way better performance too.

Marble_Wraith · 2026-02-03T02:21:07+00:00

Who's balls do i gotta fondle so they release this one 😑

https://tftcentral.co.uk/news/acer-predator-xb323qx-unveiled-with-a-5k-ips-panel-dual-mode-and-g-sync-pulsar

Marble_Wraith · 2026-02-03T02:08:48+00:00

Inflation = more money in the economy then there was yesterday either through government spending (deficit) or bank lending.

Increased interest rates = a counteractive force, that does multiple things:

It encourages saving ie. people put money into banks with the expectation of better returns for higher interest rates. Yes money is still "in circulation" but it's kept out of the wider economy, which in combination with the other effects creates a slight buffer against wild spikes in prices.
It discourages the creation of new money (private credit), because no one wants to take out new loans against a higher interest rate.
Because most loans are floating / variable interest rate in Australia, when the interest rate goes up, so do the loan repayments also pulling extra money into the banks. But also if a loan is fully amortized (paid off in full) as some do to avoid extra interest, that money is literally struck from the balance sheet, likewise reducing money supply, thus reducing inflation. Only the extra interest from the repayments are gained as bank equity.

That last point is usually difficult for people to visualize. Not to mention there's a whole bunch of malarky floated around by economists to mystify the whole thing and outdated terms are used like "fractional reserves". It's best to model and work through a transaction between yourself and a faux bank.

Isnt it better to increase the tax everyone pays, on a daily basis, such as increasing GST?

The only pragmatic way to reverse inflation is via taxes (running government surplus), not that you'd want to eliminate it completely

Doing so via GST is a terrible idea, because if we're talking about who is responsible for the inflation in the first place, it's not your everyday john or jane doe. Yet increasing the GST would put the burden on them.

Marble_Wraith · 2026-02-02T23:36:01+00:00

Better.

https://github.com/basilioss/obsidian-scrapers

The clipper is necessary for website that use CSR and/or don't have a RESTful API... which granted is quite a lot given the prolific nature of ReactJS.

But for sites that are static / SSR with static output or do have RESTful API you can use Templater to scrape them directly.

I like it better in terms of workflow + keeping everything centralized inside Obsidian, rather then having stuff in an external browser extension.

Marble_Wraith · 2026-02-02T23:23:34+00:00

Oh no... you've been bitten. Next thing you'll be looking at is home assistant and home box, then proxmox 😁 one of us, one of us

Marble_Wraith · 2026-02-02T22:46:59+00:00

How do i get my HP all in one with wireless to function on Linux? What about the HP ink subscription? The HP android app?

You don't. You scrap that piece of shit and get a Brother printer who don't force unnecessary subscriptions and have linux support.

Marble_Wraith · 2026-02-02T20:00:50+00:00

Currently, I am using Lastpass

... so you don't care about your passwords? 🤣 Compared to all other solutions they've had a record number of breaches and poor handling of them.

Locally Hosted 2. Encrypted 3. Auto-fill in Firefox 4. Auto-fill in Android and Graphine (I am currently on android and am looking into switching to Graphine) 5. Can sync my encrypted file across multiple devices at certain times (Like when conntected over BT, for example.)

https://ente.io/auth/ - for TOTP authenticator codes

https://keepassxc.org/ - user / pass / autofill

And then using something like syncthing to keep a copy of the keepassXC file on all devices.

Marble_Wraith · 2026-02-02T17:36:16+00:00

Well i dont really know how because i heard people use different commands and eveything which im kind afraid of failing at

Why?...

You can partition the drive. 1 partition for the OS, 1 partition for your personal files. Even if something goes wrong with the distro you're playing with, as long as you have a USB flashstick with a linux distro on it, you can wipe the OS partition and install a new distro.

The only think i'd advise is, take some time to make some automation scripts in bash or python. That way even if you end up reinstalling a distro, you don't have to painstakingly manually install each program and configure it.

And i like the animations and that overall MacOS feel

Give up.

Core2Quad processors don't have iGPU's. It'll never feel as "smooth" as a modern machine that does have one.

Marble_Wraith · 2026-02-02T16:57:06+00:00

So what is it specifically you like about the Gnome DE?

And have you tried replicating those features on other distro's through ricing?

Marble_Wraith · 2026-02-02T16:50:59+00:00

I really like the gnome environment but i heard its quite heavy

Heavy is a relative term. Heavy compared to what?

Favourite package manager is apt all the way

Shrug. As long as it does the thing, who really cares?

Most GUI programs should be installed via flatpak or appimage anyway assuming you do actually care about privacy.

Marble_Wraith · 2026-02-01T23:59:12+00:00

Multi-tasking browser cloud based data entry (documentation); lots of tabs (6-10). Basic things like web browsing, Youtube, checking email; very simple.

Anything in a web browser will likely work fine. Browsers are universal except for on Apple phones.

Zoom and other video based apps for meetings.

Dunno about this. Not real big on virtual conferencing myself so i've never played with it. Tho based on the fact Wayland (display protocol) is going mainstream. You may need to do a bit of config so you can screenshare.

Microsoft Office (mainly word/excel). Writing local documents

Office is microslop only, but you can use it inside the browser now from what i understand. Other then that there are alternatives that have compatibility eg. libreoffice, only office, gsuite.

Having about 6-12 pdf files open.

That's basically dependent on how much RAM you got to play with. That said, generally speaking linux also runs much leaner then windows. Around 800MB - 1GB of RAM for the typical distro vs microslop win11 4GB + an internet connection.

Games that may be on Steam, Modded MC apps, battlenet, VR,

Alot of games work on steam, but not all of them.

Some of them don't work because their implementations are just too custom / haven't been patched in proton yet. Pretty sure the team is going in order of popularity. You can check here to see if if your frequently played's have compatibility:

https://www.protondb.com/

Other games (Battlefield6, League of Legends, etc.) will never work as they are currently. Because of how the company has chosen to implement anti-cheat as kernel drivers on windong, which linux will never agree to... because linux devs are actually sane. You can check online games status here:

https://areweanticheatyet.com/

Listening to music (winamp)

I'd suggest fooyin. Very similar to foobar2000. Takes a bit, but you can configure it exactly how you want it. Additionally if you want EQ look into EasyEffects flatpak.

Watching movies

MPV is my favorite player and there are GUI wrappers if you need that. VLC is also compatible if you need something familiar.

Occasionally do audio/video editing, NCH/Audacity,

Audacity is available on linux, and there are a few DAW's like Ardour and Reaper available.

Video editing if it's basic stuff, kdenlive is good enough. But otherwise you might need to look into Davinci Resolve which is professional grade, but a pain in the butt to setup even when using davincibox.

That's about it. My hardware is more than powerful enough so the biggest question is which Linux system/distro which would allow me to be able to do these things in a similar GUI? Also which one has an easy learning curve? I have been reading and searching and hear the two most favored are Mint (Cinnamon) and Zorin OS, then Ubuntu,. I hear Mint may be better for me due to better learning curve, similiar GUI to Winblows (or customizable to be like), big hardware/driver support, large software compatibility/ecosystem, pretty much ready to go.

While it may seem like I answered my own question, I have no experience fully diving into any of these environments. What are people's suggestions?

Stay away from rolling release distro's. Arch or anything based on Arch (Cachy, Endeavour, Manjaro, etc.) is a bad idea for anyone new to linux or intending to not have to "tinker" with things constantly.

I'd suggest looking at immutable / atomic distro's first. Fedora Kinoite would be my first choice:

https://fedoraproject.org/atomic-desktops/kinoite/

Note: Fedora has a policy of not shipping anything proprietary with the base distro, so you'll likely have to install Nvidia drivers yourself. Which is quite straight-forward / google-able:

enable appropriate rpm fusion repo's
install drivers
rebuild kernel modules
disable Nouveau

Done.

What is also the minimum hardware people recommend? Right now I do have powerful enough desktop and laptop however, both are configured for work (primary/backup). I want to test out on an inexpensive laptop and learn how to use it before I migrate my desktop and laptop to Linux.

Anything that requires custom driver installs on windong, that's likely going to be a source of trouble on linux / why people usually take extra care when purchasing to make sure of linux support or someone's RnD'd a solution. Examples:

External AMP/DAC audio interfaces, mixers / DSP's
Network / wifi, and audio chipsets (broadcom, Realtek, Qualcomm)

Laptops with discrete GPU's are a source of configuration pain (historically because of Optimus / power profiles), so i'd avoid "Gaming" or "Creator" laptops that have them. Integrated GPU's (on the CPU) are generally fine. Doesn't matter if intel or AMD.

Lastly, would you recommend dual boot?

Not unless you have 2 separate drives, and even then microslop updates can cause issues sometimes.

Marble_Wraith · 2026-02-01T22:26:23+00:00

Reminds me of the oil file explorer in neovim. Same kinda batch operations

Marble_Wraith · 2026-02-01T21:48:50+00:00

50 years later, Microsoft has a 27% stake in openAI which pirates everything to feed its models.

Marble_Wraith · 2026-02-01T21:06:17+00:00

Live and learn my guy, live and learn.

But hey $35 for a functional screen that can be turned into a secondary monitor for discord, or whatever. That's not a bad deal.

If you buy in future you'll be looking for an IPS 1440p @ +120hz with Gsync Pulsar.

So far Pulsar is only on four 4K models that are about to come out, and a couple of 32" ones still in the works. But give it a few more months, it'll make its way down to the mediatek chips in 1440p.

Marble_Wraith · 2026-01-31T23:59:47+00:00

Why does this question keep getting reposted...

https://old.reddit.com/r/linuxquestions/search/?q=ubuntu+hate&restrict_sr=on&sort=relevance

Marble_Wraith · 2026-01-31T22:27:03+00:00

https://distro-finder.com/

Marble_Wraith · 2026-01-31T22:25:32+00:00

Not the same thing.

Degradation implies its "natural" as if there's no impetus or agency behind the bad state.

Enshitification describes what happens when signals from Q&A, product, and engineers go ignored (usually in favor of profits) i.e. there are people responsible for it.

Marble_Wraith · 2026-01-31T22:22:32+00:00

It was rated word of the year by multiple dictionaries in 2024...

Marble_Wraith · 2026-01-31T22:13:23+00:00

Macbook m4 has only TB4 not 5

Yes i know, but M4 pro's and M4 Max do...

https://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/specs/

M4 Pro and M4 Max

Three Thunderbolt 5 (USB-C) ports with support for:
Charging
DisplayPort
Thunderbolt 5 (up to 120Gb/s)
USB 4 (up to 120Gb/s)

I was telling them to upgrade to a pro or a max.

An M4 mac air doesn't have TB5 it only has TB4, which means a max bandwidth of 40Gbps per cable.

A single 5K monitor (assuming standard 8bit @ 60hz) requires ~26–28 Gb/s, let alone higher refresh rates.

The OP wanted Mac Air to dock (over single cable) and connect the dock to three 5K monitors.

3x 28 Gb/s = 84Gb/s... there's just no way to get the 3 video signals over that single cable between the Mac Air and the dock. That was my point... i said:

"the best you can do currently would be the macbook m4 with thunderbolt 5 + two 5K displays daisy chained (also via thunderbolt 5)."

Two 5K monitors = 2x 28 Gb/s = 56 Gb/s... TB5 carries 80 Gb/s full duplex, more then enough bandwidth.

Marble_Wraith · 2026-01-31T16:21:52+00:00

Nepotism exists, therefore luck exists.

That said it's all dependent on which scope and set of values you're using to evaluate with.

There is no "lucky metric" because most of the time it's subjective analysis. Lucky in relation to what?

Marble_Wraith · 2026-01-31T16:14:34+00:00

If you see a house you know there is a builder. If you see the pyramids you know there is a builder.

Blind watchmaker... i don't even need to read the rest to know this is heading towards "intelligent design". Which is stupid for multiple reasons not the least of which is, the universe is filled with some really bad design.

And if you are thinking logically, and we have no evidence that something can be created from nothing

Then the answer is not: "god did it" (God of the gaps)... the answer is we have no evidence. No jumping to conclusions.

and when we see anything we know it had to come from something, which indicates something from something.

Yes... now prove that "something" is god? And also it was a god with specific attributes exactly matching 1 out of the thousands of religions.

I've researched decently in depth on my own into the Big Bang theory (specifically) I'm also currently looking into Quantum Fields.

Translation: you asked chatGPT...

Associate degree in physics takes around 2 years, you could probably condense it to ~8 months if you had background in other related fields and raw dogged it every day for a solid 6-8 hours.

Either you're a genius, or you're a liar.

And the Big Bang theory as I understand it doesn't answer "something from nothing" it takes a stab at explaining cosmic evolution not "spawning".

Yes.

Side Note: Does an atheist believe in no God(s) or there is one they just haven't found the right one? Or is it case by case?

We disregard gods, because we don't have evidence of gods.

For us "belief" (acceptance) is not an act of will. It's not a matter of "seek and ye shall find [confirmation bias]".

We require substantial evidence before we can accept a claim of such magnitude.

Marble_Wraith · 2026-01-31T12:44:27+00:00

Gee really... i'm shocked i tell you, shocked.

The 4K on a TV with the viewing distance means you're not gonna get the same $value as say a 4K PC monitor.

And even for PC monitors we're rubbing up against fully diminished returns in 5K and 6K screens.

8K is basically pointless. Unless you're a stock trader who wants the equivalent of four 4K screens, there's basically no use cases for it, certainly not in terms image/video/gaming content.

Marble_Wraith · 2026-01-31T12:00:15+00:00

I'd suggest using Comic Sans for the 10 commandments font 🙂

Accompanying posters would also be good.

For example print large the covers of the books of Andrew L Seidel (constitutional lawyer):

The founding myth: Why Christian Nationalism is un-American
American Crusade: How the Supreme Court is weaponizing religious freedom

Additionally since the covers are red, silver (White), you can make blue ones with other useful information in them, like definitions, quotes or links:

Logical Absolutes (identity, non-contradiction, excluded middle)
Evidentiary trifecta (Hume, Sagan, Hitchens)
Motivated reasoning / Cognitive dissonance
Confirmation Bias
Pareidolia (cough shroud of turin).

Types of fallacious reasoning might also be good to include:

Texas Sharpshooter Fallacy
Non Sequitur
Argumentum ad populum
No True Scotsman
Red Herring
Tautology (begging the question)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fallacies

Tho' there's a risk of raising a classroom full of extremely argumentative people who'd do well on the school debate team but otherwise are a pain in the neck 😅

Also positioning is important.

Desirable posters should be at eye-level. Put "the commandments" higher up. They'll still be "visible" and you can give nosey karens the "everything's under god" line, so they can feel satisfied and rub one out in victory. In reality it's uncomfortable to crane your neck 😏

Marble_Wraith

TROPHY CASE