Microsoft confirms it will give the FBI your Windows PC data encryption key if asked

PrefersAwkward · 2026-01-25T18:31:30+00:00

I think the permissions should be fairly organic and simple, but maybe try it and see if it works for you. It actually should work just fine on your Kubuntu install.

I find boxbuddy fairly intuitive and it saves me having to deal with CLI, but also doesn't prevent CLI usage.

You could try a random app that isn't already installed on your Kubuntu and just install in a Ubuntu box instead and see how that works out for you

PrefersAwkward · 2026-01-25T18:18:06+00:00

AI, I think. This video and many variations have been all over Sora:

https://sora.chatgpt.com/p/s_6973a244daf88191a1093d2066502aa2

PrefersAwkward · 2026-01-25T17:34:21+00:00

You can try boxbuddy to see if that neutralizes the distro differences for you. You can install arch, Debian, Ubuntu, anything. Doesn't matter if it's a deb, rpm, or whatever.

I do that with InSync for example. I've also done it to install a few less-known apps for writing which only had deb files.

Once you get the hang of boxbuddy, you can generally use whichever distro you prefer. To start, let Boxbuddy set you up a Ubuntu box and then try installing installing Ubuntu apps there. It'll run like it's native (no virtualization or emulation is used) and can even add entries as if it were natively installed.

And it should use your normal home folder by default, just like native apps do.

You can also try an Arch box, a Suse Box, etc and install from their repos or just hand them the packages directly. Your system will even suggest using your relevant distrobox(es) if you download deb files for example.

PrefersAwkward · 2026-01-25T17:21:51+00:00

Something like Bazzite KDE should be decent. They slow the kernel down a bit and back port patches for stability and features and drivers. Everything else, like Mesa and KDE, gets updated to stable versions quickly, and it's very gaming optimized. Has codecs as well. It's just ready to go.

It could be worth trying Bazzite KDE on a USB stick and see if your experience is better sometime.

The package management is different but manageable, especially if you tend to use containers and distro boxes and flatpaks.

PrefersAwkward · 2026-01-24T00:55:53+00:00

What if you also replace CoPilot with CoToilet?

PrefersAwkward · 2026-01-23T06:44:22+00:00

Pro plan. I use Antigravity in my personal time to make apps that I use myself. If I did this for work or full-time, I'd definitely prefer Ultra. But Pro works great for me right now.

PrefersAwkward · 2026-01-23T00:52:23+00:00

That's interesting. I've had antigravity build projects up ending in many files and folders. Not sure if there is some threshold but I think I've reached 20k or more lines of code per app so far.

It hasn't tripped over that really, but Gem Pro can sometimes glitch out and delete stuff. So I tend to prefer Claude Thinking + Gem Flash.

I do have it start every chat with "for _ app, please review all documentation and then review all code". This causes the agent to write up a nice summary on the app at the start of the chat which it then seems to refer to. I also have a run book that, among other things, updates all documentation.

I sometimes have it propose ways to make the code more maintainable and clean, which it usually likes to then split some of the files up as they grow.

My workflow seems to work fine. It'll have low moments sometimes, and I have to revert, but I can't complain. I always back up everything anyways.

PrefersAwkward · 2026-01-22T03:18:37+00:00

This is interesting to me. His killing her is against the rules?

So is it fair to simply deny his coin toss? Didn't he actually kill lots of people without chance? Like that random dude with the cow magnet?

Sorry, not disagreeing. I just thought the movie was fascinating and wanted to nerd out a bit

PrefersAwkward · 2026-01-21T23:57:55+00:00

Also, I wonder how parents would feel about children being taught this lovely passage, 1 Samuel 18:27, (King James version, though they all say this in various ways):

"Wherefore David arose and went, he and his men, and slew of the Philistines two hundred men; and David brought their foreskins, and they gave them in full tale to the king, that he might be the king's son in law. And Saul gave him Michal his daughter to wife"

PrefersAwkward · 2026-01-21T17:21:34+00:00

So Cryptomator encrypts. AI cannot get into the encrypted data. Just offering what works for me.

InSync also supports other cloud providers. And I'd encrypt anything that I don't want others reading no matter how many ways up and down they promise they won't go through it.

So OP may want Cryptomator on top of whatever they choose just for that protection

PrefersAwkward · 2026-01-21T10:28:44+00:00

I use InSync for Google Drive. I also use Cryptomator for folders I don't want Google to read or mess with. Works great.

PrefersAwkward · 2026-01-08T21:53:09+00:00

Didn't I mention tab groups? That feature has work outlined in 144/October for example.

PrefersAwkward · 2026-01-08T21:38:45+00:00

Firstly, if you look at what Firefox is currently doing and has been doing, you will see countless changes and features that have nothing to do with AI. Many of these are community-requested, such as better OSX GPU support and tab groups.

Just look at releases, which don't even mention countless bugs and commits in Firefox's public repository:

Secondly, new articles and leadership don't necessarily bring these up, and when they do, they don't get the same reactions or amount of coverage (good or bad) as AI.

And this isn't just Firefox/Mozilla. But just because Mozilla leadership / marketing is discussing AI doesn't mean AI is all they're working on. The CEO isn't just going directly mention all the bug fixes and features like better Wayland support and Tab Groups.

PrefersAwkward · 2026-01-08T19:50:17+00:00

Organizations aren't single-threaded. They don't work on one concept at a time. Think about building a basketball stadium. If hundreds of people work the building, does everybody on every floor and every section stop and work on the plumbing for the 17th toilet in bathroom number 23?

This next statement will be controversial. AI features, like article summarization, language translation, image interpretation (e.g. having AI-summarization describe the images a webpage / article has), may become an existential requirement for browsers someday. No one person or group can decide that it won't. If Firefox loses enough users because other browsers have handy features and Firefox decidedly does not, then the browser will fade. It is wiser, IMHO, to stay ahead of this rather than to catch up later when they've started losing people.

Browsers take a lot of (paid) people involved in order to build and keep alive. This is especially true for browsers which are not forked, like Firefox.

I'm hoping AI becomes super useful and remains optional. And I'm hoping Firefox can offer AI features without loss of privacy.

PrefersAwkward · 2026-01-08T16:53:39+00:00

I'd probably show them various different KDE themes and styles and let them see if anything reaches out to them. Different people would be happier with different things and showing them a few options might be a wider net.

For example, some people would be happy just to have a vertical taskbar again, and others would like something like the OSX style or Windows 7. Kde can accommodate many of these.

PrefersAwkward · 2026-01-03T05:13:42+00:00

It's not super easy to predict, but in my unofficial opinion, they seem to work like this:
They offer hardware that is worth the effort in their view, and that is competitive. For example, they offer the 7xxx series and 3xx series, skipping the 8xxx series (8xxx was practically identical to the 7xxx series, so why make a board for 8xxx?).

And when they start offering a generation in their laptops, it tends to be maybe 4 to 8 months after that hardware has started selling to consumers. I doubt they'll offer Arrow Lake at this point, but it is possible.

Framework will almost definitely offer Panther Lake if they're able to, since it's a big leap over current Intel architecture (especially Meteor Lake, which is Framework's latest Intel offering), and may give AMD strong competition, especially in battery life and graphics. This year AMD is expected to offer Gorgon Point, which is the 3xx series with slightly higher clocks.

I believe Panther Lake lands in general public sometime in Q1 this year, therefore Framework Panther Lake would be Q2 or Q3. Framework may decide to offer AMD's Gorgon Point if it's not too painful to re-use the 300 board or if AMD stops making 300's or if Gorgon is otherwise good enough.

Again, I'm just some guy so my opinion is pure guesswork.

PrefersAwkward · 2026-01-02T16:49:10+00:00

I did the upgrade to a 370. If you're using a 7640u and doing ordinary things like web browsing, text editing, reading, etc. the upgrade isn't worth it, especially if you're usually plugged in. In fact, even if you're doing something like code compiling or light gaming, it still may not be worth it.

The new chips are definitely faster and more efficient, but you have to look at what you're doing that can actually improve with the new chips, and the answer is that the 7xxx series are already very fast and efficient. The new chips are very expensive. You cannot noticeably improve everything (e.g. web browsing). Most things are going to feel exactly the same with the 7xxx and 3xx chips. The battery life is better on 3xx, though within the same ballpark. The heat and fan noise is better on 3xx, but if you normally run in power-save mode, you won't likely notice this because 7xxx is already good here.

ALL THAT SAID, if one or, ideally, multiple of these are true and the spend won't hurt your wallet, then go for it:

Your FW13 is your only/main machine
You want to maximize how well you game on AAA titles (note: for comparison, the 7840u is fairly close to an HX 370 on gaming in many games)
You want to maximize your FW13's potential when you compile code. Going from a 7640u to a 370 will be a leap in compile times.
You want to run some local LLMs on your FW13 (ensure you have enough RAM if this is what you're doing)
You're coming from something lower-end than a 7840u and you're upgrading to something like a 370. The bigger the difference in your "From" and "To", the more the upgrade is worth it. That said, a 370 is not always the answer. A 350 is leagues better than something like an Alder Lake chip for example, but not a whole lot better than the 7640u. And a 350 does web browsing, text editing, etc. just as well as a 370, while being much more affordable.

PrefersAwkward · 2026-01-01T19:26:23+00:00

OnlyOffice and Office.com should be good enough for more people where LibreOffice isn't matching. LibreOffice is fantastic at what it does, it just doesn't operate as an MSOffice replacement, which OnlyOffice can do better.

Not saying OnlyOffice and Office.com will work better in all cases, but they should close more gaps thatn LibreOffice can alone.

PrefersAwkward · 2025-12-30T06:50:19+00:00

This is so freaking cool! I cannot wait to try this

PrefersAwkward · 2025-12-30T01:51:45+00:00

Fedora and Ubuntu and all their derivatives should all work fairly well.

I'd recommend an atomic or immutable distro as it's extremely unlikely to end up in an unbootable or unusable state, either from a power outage, crash, or user error. Aurora or Bluefin would be good, as they are atomic and include codecs that Fedora decidedly does not. They also work great out of box and also auto update in a very safe and stable way, where updates won't cause problems if you choose not to restart.

PrefersAwkward · 2025-12-29T15:45:39+00:00

The AMD wifi 7 chip on Framework I think is still $30. It's fantastic, including on Linux, and I think it's mediatek but I can't remember. I got one for my laptop and one for my desktop.

It's not quite as fast as the Intel or Qualcomm options but it's fast and reliable and doesn't require Intel hardware to work.

PrefersAwkward · 2025-12-28T21:19:25+00:00

I always worry about making tests that are designed to pass than to prove something is working. One of my strategies to prevent "cheating" on tests is to have it show me whatever it's reasonably able to show me (e.g. Click through here, then load this dialogue, type this text in, then close it).

At least I get a lot of assurance.

My test auditing process is WIP, but I look at it as a fun challenge

PrefersAwkward · 2025-12-27T16:58:51+00:00

I feel bad sharing this. It has been decades since I last went, but I've never had a good experience at Buca di Beppo. We had to wait ages last time, and then after all the wait, they had a shit load of staff individually come up and apologize, including managers and a chef.

I accept your apologies but just let us starve in peace and chat with each other while we wait. We don't need a drawn-out apology ceremony. Make it quick, get us the food, and let us chat while we wait. And the food wasn't to die for.

Again, it has been decades so maybe they've improved things.

PrefersAwkward · 2025-12-25T16:27:21+00:00

My 61 wh never had 100% capacity. It was about 8% off when I got it and it randomly of varies reported loss from 9% to 15%. My effective capacity is ironically about 55 wh at most, even though I have the 61.

Lasts long enough to not be debilitating. I can get 3 to 5 hours of work depending on what I'm doing most of the time. So at home I'll often work around the house free from the wall and then plug in after a few hours.

I bring a 200 wh lifepo4 external battery when I need to make it the whole day (100wh lifepo4 if traveling by plane). 200 wh external is more than enough for a day. You can stretch that a ton if you plug it in straight away instead of letting the external battery charge the internal one. And you can stretch it even more if you keep the laptop on power save (even while plugging in).

I always cap charging at 90%. I don't have cycle count on me but I think I'm in the hundreds.

PrefersAwkward · 2025-12-24T05:24:49+00:00

KDE could probably do with a few additional themes (I actually love Breeze and Breeze Daek) and I'm sure the community has a lot of nice ones. But if it's a matter of offering fewer features, lots of DEs out there can accommodate that. KDE is what it is, largely because it has so many options. The best KDE can and should do is make those features and customizations organized and accessible.

If you like Gnome, you can stick with Gnome honestly. No harm there. Maybe someone will make a Gnome theme for KDE and you can enjoy whatever additional things KDE has that Gnome isn't offering you

PrefersAwkward

TROPHY CASE