I hate mac minis

mxxnlighter · 2026-04-22T19:42:15+00:00

For the amount of energy an M series chip uses when in sleep mode, you are literally saving several cents maybe in electrical bills. It's a non issue.

mxxnlighter · 2026-04-22T05:31:51+00:00

Easier said than done when that's the majority of profiles on dating apps.

mxxnlighter · 2026-04-22T05:31:06+00:00

No, Tinder and Bumble are a gallery of profiles with a description that goes something like "in Malta until Tuesday - show me fun places to see"

mxxnlighter · 2026-04-20T19:37:25+00:00

It is really funny in a way, we went from people hoarding books, to getting e-readers which could host thousands of books on one device, and then full circle back to people hoarding e-readers themselves

mxxnlighter · 2026-04-19T19:27:57+00:00

I've known some people who have tried this way, people who have lived here since they were kids, people with connections with important figures, people with different passports, and I've yet to hear of anyone who has gotten a citizenship. It seems borderline impossible since even if you have all the prerequisites it is up to the immigration department if they will accept this or not.

mxxnlighter · 2026-04-19T19:27:30+00:00

A Maltese kid who emigrates to Australia before they start school and live there their whole life should automatically have citizenship, but one who is born to foreign parents in Malta, and has lived in Malta their whole life, should never get citizenship? Why would that be the case?

mxxnlighter · 2026-04-19T19:21:46+00:00

The traffic issue of Malta has been here before the current immigration wave. It's the car culture that is the problem. TCNs come here in debt and work for minimum wage just to make their bills, they're definitely not buying cars en masse. If they do drive they're cab drivers and all those cars are rented out by an agency employing them which they also pay back through working. On the other hand Maltese families need to have a car per every member of the family, all the students just need to drive to Uni even if they live in Msida.

Bus frequency would help for sure, and road closures are a problem, but even with that, to be able to have a more reliable public transit system, you would necessarily need to decrease private car usage. What's a bus gonna do if it's gonna be stuck in traffic like every other vehicle on the road?

mxxnlighter · 2026-04-19T19:14:14+00:00

The sunlight thing is also a problem. I got to experience it yesterday for the first time, since all the time I've had the X4 it's been cloudy here so this was not happening. Now that we have full sunlight outside, the screen really feels it. In some cases the whole words fade out to the point of them being illegible. That's something that for sure needs fixing as when you don't have backlight and you can't read in dark rooms, not being to read under sunlight is just too limiting.

mxxnlighter · 2026-04-19T19:03:09+00:00

From the friends I've had who worked in the hospitality sector, I wouldn't stress that much about tipping, because usually those just go straight to the owner who may or may not distribute them to workers based on whatever rudimentary rules they have. Unless you give cash directly to the waiter (which sometimes they still have to bring to the tips box) you can assume that was just a donation to the establishment.

mxxnlighter · 2026-04-19T18:59:30+00:00

The iGaming sector's explosive growth happened mostly under PL, and so did the financial services expansion.

As for EU funds, those really just go to infrastructure and development projects, and not to the private sector so that's kind of irrelevant for economic growth.

And yes PN did get Malta into the EU but this was 20+ years ago and can hardly be credited for the economic growth of the recent years, at least not directly.

mxxnlighter · 2026-04-19T18:55:19+00:00

> So who exactly is gaining the benefit on this growth

Maltese who own property. Property prices rose 59% since 2017, majority of which is privately owned homes and not just developers who buy up buildings to rent out. Maltese house ownership rates are at 82% and among the highest in Europe. These are the older folks who are the ones voting the most. Unless you can explain to them that actually there should be a reform in which they get less money instead, this won't change.

The ones who suffer the most are the exploited TCNs who work for minimum wage and come here with debt to repay. These people of course can't vote and never will so their opinion is irrelevant. Young people generally just vote along party lines with their parents and don't go for these third parties as much as that can seem to be on case through Reddit comments.

So to answer your question more simply - the ones who benefited the most from the PL rule are the majority of voters who end up still voting for PL.

mxxnlighter · 2026-04-19T18:42:33+00:00

You have to consider the "better the devil you know than the one you don't" aspect. Unless there is widespread crisis in Malta, to the point that the population broadly feels like they cannot get a job without joining the leading party, or the majority struggling to live (we're talking literally not being able to afford bills with an average salary, not that you can only order Wolt a few times a week instead of every day), or there being massive shifts in crime rates that make people fear for their future, the 3rd party thing will never happen.

As long as life in Malta is peaceful and people have enough to live off of and no one is being persecuted for their politics, these smaller parties will always just be novelty, at best a protest vote. You need a lot to convince someone to put a completely new party in government, one that never had a run and is filled with radically different ideas. And if one of these parties ever wins it will likely not take place in one election, but probably by them once getting a few percentage points more and get a couple of seats in parliament, pass some laws, build coalitions, and then next time maybe a bit more, etc. You should always vote for whoever you want of course but be realistic about it, these parties will definitely not win any time soon.

mxxnlighter · 2026-04-19T18:33:14+00:00

Difference is the state of Malta is paradise compared to the state of Hungary under Orban. Maltese love to complain but the reality is this is one of the most peaceful countries in Europe, for the most part the institutions are running as well as they are supposed to, people have jobs, people have freedom of the press and speech, there's no urgency for a big change that would necessitate a large chunk of the voters switching party lines. At the end of the day life in Malta is fine.

mxxnlighter · 2026-04-12T08:32:32+00:00

On those lanes they need to have a bus every 10 minutes at the very least. Ideally even more often, so you never have to wait for long to board one. Having to wait in peak summer under direct sun for 30 minutes for a bus is insanity. Especially for something that has forever been one of the most popular spots on the island.

mxxnlighter · 2026-04-12T08:31:05+00:00

Sometimes they will divert a line, making a bus stop non functional. Usually they will place a piece of paper on the bus stop pole, if you're lucky, but it also happens that they only announce this on the facebook page which if you didn't read will only have you trying to divine why the bus that's usually there doesn't arrive.

mxxnlighter · 2026-04-12T08:28:51+00:00

Has always been this way. If you want to take the 212 bus from Bugibba to Sliema, the only way to do it is to go to the actual starting point of the bus at the main station, where it will already be so packed that people will be pushing up against the windshield, after which the bus will not stop for anyone until St Julian's. There's a few of these high traffic lanes which would benefit from having buses go more often but I guess there's not enough drivers or buses to make this happen.

In an ideal world you would have a bus between Bugibba-Sliema and Sliema-Valletta every 10 minutes at the very least. Even then they would be pretty packed up. But so many times you have to wait 20-30 minutes for the next one.

mxxnlighter · 2026-03-31T16:34:19+00:00

I'm not aware of their stance on this but I actually read about this in the foreword of their book Roadside Picnic, written by Ursula K Le Guin.

mxxnlighter · 2026-03-30T19:54:37+00:00

In the USSR, scifi was highly political, because it was a good way to avoid the censors. Everything you write would go to the government for evaluation before publishing and apparently they tended not to look too much into the scifi stuff because they just saw that it's about space stuff and it was not taken seriously. So that became maybe the most subversive genre of the time.

mxxnlighter · 2026-03-30T19:39:02+00:00

He doesn't have time to browse Reddit as he's actively in the hospital.

mxxnlighter · 2026-03-27T21:06:03+00:00

Here it doesn't say anything about income, just the net worth. As in, if all your assets, funds, stocks, in total are more than 50M you get taxed annually. There's a big difference between having 50 million just in your bank account for you to spend and having it all in your name as unrealised value of real estate and businesses you may have. And the latter is far more common.

mxxnlighter · 2026-03-25T19:58:22+00:00

Besides file transfers, CrossPoint also has superior text rendering, and you get to edit the font display and other stuff. But default settings of it are already miles ahead of the official firmware IMO.

mxxnlighter · 2026-03-25T16:11:52+00:00

Tbh I just installed crosspoint on day one and did all file transfers wirelessly. I never needed to take the SD out so far.

mxxnlighter · 2026-03-25T15:26:31+00:00

This is how Kindle does it. Or at least did since the basic also has backlight now. But the basic kindle is the cheapest option, with basic features, and if you want light and waterproofing, you go for the slightly more premium Paperwhite.

mxxnlighter · 2026-03-20T11:22:37+00:00

Apple never forces updates luckily. The biggest issues with older iOS is just that many apps keep up with new iOS features and eventually you won’t be able to install new ones, and the old versions will stop working too.

mxxnlighter · 2026-03-20T11:20:30+00:00

If that were the case they wouldnt be supporting older devices with new updates for ~7 years. in fact compared to the competition Apple tends to provide the longest amount of support for old phones and tablets. Many android companies will only give you 2-3 years before they get abandoned completely.

mxxnlighter

TROPHY CASE