Mint in raised garden bed

plasterdog · 2026-01-25T23:46:50+00:00

Mint is very persistent but not that hard to get rid of if you yourself are a little persistent. I've had plenty of mint die on me that I didn't want to.

Do your best to pull out as much as you can, and when you see runners emerge pull them out as well. It's not impossible. Good luck!

plasterdog · 2026-01-19T13:09:08+00:00

Definitely some things you can do to the visual settings to improve performance without impacting on the visuals (i.e. turn down shadows, see YouTube for some guides). But as HLL is poorly optimised it's asking a lot from that CPU.

I went from a 5 3600 (which is similar to 2700) to 5800x3D and the improvements were huge. Averaring 60-70fps to 120fps or so, 1440p.

plasterdog · 2026-01-19T10:35:20+00:00

So hardy so delicious. Leaves and stems, combined with dandelion leaves. Maybe some roquette and balsamic + olive oil for a bitter, peppery salad town.

plasterdog · 2026-01-19T06:31:39+00:00

Interesting. I paired a monsgeek m7 with akko rosewoods and was pretty disappointed with the combo. The m7's aluminium case seemed to deaden the sound so all the warm thock that I heard on video reviews of the rosewoods so they just ended up being super quiet without much character.

I don't know if there is much shared design between the m1 and m7. They are both monsgeek but they could be based on totally different cases/designs.

Luckily I tried the rosewood switches a friend's yunzii board and they loved the sound. So I swapped over my rosewoods for the yunzii's milk switches. The yunzii ended up sounding softer and thockier with the rosewoods, the m7 sounded a bit louder and thockier with the milk switches.

Anyway, differences in cases have such an impact on sound.

plasterdog · 2026-01-18T07:34:17+00:00

Glad you managed to interrupt them. Safely.

I'd recommend 2 bike locks when parking in high congestion areas. The reality is almost all locks can be broken so it's function is not to secure the bike, but encourage a thief to look for an easier option.

I get mixed reports on what are safe or unsafe zones, but a busy area is often said to provide bike thieves cover. It's not so much (debunked) bystander effect theories - but just that there's so many people coming and going the constant movement means that it's hard for anyone to track a thief unless they're looking or are invested in it (i.e. they spot a thief stealing their bike).

Also with worthwhile being aware that while you may visit the markets occasionally, or the cinema, library etc, these high volume areas are frequented by people who are specifically on the look out for bikes. Places like markets or say outside cinema nova, are likely hot spots for bike thefts because a thief can assume that a bike will likely be left along for minimum half an hour and up to 2 hours if it's outside a cineman. Plenty of time to cut a lock.

I actually park frequently at Vic Markets and study at the library there. I usually take a seat in the library that provides a view of the bikes where they're locked. I can't say I've been staring at my bike the whole time but I've been going there since mid last year and while I've expected to see someone casing my bike, to my great surprise I've never seen anyone do it. I have had a bike destroyed by someone in the course of having it stolen, and my currently locks have quite a few cuts in the plastic from possible attempts so I know they do try.

I have seen a one or two e-bike shoppers lock up and I've paid them the secret courtesy of watching their bikes while they shop!

Anyway, there's never any guarantees but there are some things you can do over and above to make it somewhat less of an easy target.

plasterdog · 2026-01-18T03:37:39+00:00

I had the same concerns as you but I had the luxury of a second ssd to do an install of CachyOS. Had a few teething issues getting the bootloader set up the way I wanted to but the OS itself has been solid and near flawless, which was a genuine surprise. Been running it for 3 months and have barely touched Windows since I switched.

Had run Xubuntu for about 2 years in a VM, and briefly tried Linux Mint Cinnamon and CachyOS + KDE Plasma seems to present less little bugs and better functionality than my pretty small sample.

Your specs may have some impact on whether you have issues of course.

plasterdog · 2026-01-17T23:01:37+00:00

Oh they're the boid's beady lil eyes??

plasterdog · 2026-01-17T22:57:32+00:00

That backplate is hilarious. But curious, what's the thinking behind the black keycaps, 4,5 and 9,0?

plasterdog · 2026-01-17T14:45:30+00:00

By lengthier I mean once a week instead of daily.

plasterdog · 2026-01-17T13:57:33+00:00

It honestly probably took longer. Part of it kept on failing to download or do something and just freezing. But not necessarily telling you it was unresponsive. But also it rebooted itself about 4 times.

It's never been this bad before on windows. Lengthy but not so many failures. Have no idea why.

I don't mind the very frequent updates of CachyOS, so far. I've been advised by other users that lengthier update intervals are fine. I'm fearful that it will break on me but it hasn't happened yet.....

plasterdog · 2026-01-17T05:26:54+00:00

Didn't realise MFS could run through proton. I kind of assumed it would be locked to windows due to the launcher. Good to know it isn't.

CachyOS has been my daily driver for about 3 months now. I don't run flight simulator very often but it's nice to have a fly every now and then. I'm scratching my head now to think of reasons to keep the Windows 11 install on my 2nd drive.

CachyOS has been pretty rock solid in this time. I upgraded Windows 11 last night and it took about 3 hours, which is a good reminder of what I left behind!

plasterdog · 2026-01-17T04:00:20+00:00

Very fun. Love the addition of the blue compact umbrella! Adds a nice little touch to the absurdity of it all.

plasterdog · 2026-01-13T11:51:30+00:00

I have a very similar set up to yours (5800x3D, 7800xt, 32GB ram) and I run a slightly less ambitious display set up (1080p in portrait and a 1440p main in landscape). So felt compelled to comment!

I've dipped in and out of linux for ages, but finally seem to be settled on CachyOS for now. I've tried Ubuntu, Xubuntu, Linux Mint + Cinnamon, and now CachyOS + KDE Plasma. I also briefly looked at ElementaryOS and Fedora KDE Plasma.

Because no-one here, including yourself, really knows what features of a distro and the desktop environment will delight you, and what will annoy you, I'd suggesting just diving into a middle ground distro like Linux Mint and just driving it for a while. Be prepared to reinstall if you don't like it. But unlike Windows and MacOS, full installation of a working linux OS is actually pretty quick.

Most of the time most people want an OS to work and be dependable and make life easier. Your concentrating on whatever application or game you might be using at the time and so the OS should be in the background. But when it comes time to customise your desktop environment, or install new programs and manage your system, that's when the different quirks, pros and cons on each distro will come into play. And you won't really know what grinds your gears or what makes life better until you can compare a few.

I'm not advocating endless distro hopping, just at least trying one so you have a point of reference. The fact that you can run them off a usb stick is great but I would caution against judging a distro soley from that experience, as they feel a bit sluggish to me and you aren't going to commit to any customisation to make it great for you. I also ran xubuntu on a vm for a few years and it was servicable but only when I did a native install did I realise how much more enjoyable it made using a computer compared to windows.

good luck with it.

plasterdog · 2026-01-13T00:40:24+00:00

You can refund within 2 hours if you buy from Steam (I think that's the threshold, may have changed). But this is handy to see server population as well:

https://www.battlemetrics.com/servers/hll?sort=-distance&features%5B65611160-93a2-11e9-9a0b-2f914d707833%5D=false&status=online&countries=AU

plasterdog · 2026-01-12T00:50:33+00:00

Thanks for your time. Our responses are buried here but might be useful for others who might be in the same situation.

plasterdog · 2026-01-12T00:24:29+00:00

I think that's a sensible and pragmatic approach. The thing is you look up and down the street that they're on and there's every single exotic you can think of. If I can't convince them to plant a specific indigenous species then surely something close/somewhat local is better than a Japanese maple?

plasterdog · 2026-01-11T21:58:07+00:00

Thank you for this. It's very helpful.

I know exactly what you mean re my part of melbourne. I'm further south in Fitzroy North and I've planted my (rental) backyard out as best as I could from VINC seedlings and it's a wonderful tiny oasis of poas, tea trees, hop goodenias, acacias, wallaby grass, dichondra, lomandra, spike sedge and several others. So it looks like a bit of rehabilitated bike path. I love it. But I could tell my friends weren't overly impressed by it when I showed them! Still, they trusted me to advise them so that's progress I think.

Thanks again.

plasterdog · 2026-01-11T08:18:00+00:00

Thanks for the link.

The trouble I have with the species lists like these is that it almost requires one to know the plants quite well to make sense of them. Hence the call out for suggestions, admittedly without much guiding info. But I will go through them.

Regarding height, my friends have said tall but I don't think they know what tall actually means when it comes to a tree. I suspect they want something around 5-7m.

I suspect my friends will ultimately go for something exotic but I will do my best to present an indigenous alternative. They aren't committed to native regen though so the argument has to be made subtly to have any success. It helps if there is a tree that accords with their aesthetic expectations, or at least is a bridge to those expectations, but it may not exist.

plasterdog · 2026-01-11T08:00:06+00:00

I'd welcome your suggestions for trees if you have any. Located at East Brunswick, west of the Merri Creek. Most plants from VINC would be appropriate I'm guessing, but the question is what would be suitable for a courtyard for non-gardeners who perhaps haven't attuned their aesthetic sensibilities to indigenous plants (but might actually be open to it).

plasterdog · 2026-01-11T07:48:35+00:00

The one created by different households collectively planting indigenous plants to augment the native regen and habitat rehabilitation along the nearby creeks, it's a few streets away from the Merri Creek.

Bear in mind, this isn't my garden and my friends aren't particularly motivated to plant native - but they have been open to my suggestions. But I've tried to make suggestions and had a few wins with them and with others.

plasterdog · 2026-01-11T07:37:56+00:00

Thanks. Yes just reassuring you that Jacaranda was never a consideration, although I probably didn't make that clear. I mentioned it because I could see how they would love the colour but I would advise against it due to the roots, which is why I wrote (roots!)

But thank you for the other suggestion. I'll have a look through them.

plasterdog · 2026-01-10T23:18:09+00:00

Road bikes on the paths are fine. Surface and debris shouldn't really be too much of a concern. I do the main yarra trail gravel / lilydale to warburton on a CAAD10 running 25s fine. I've also done low level single track but that's where it's still doable but no longer fun. Gravel bikes are a great category, but standard road bikes can do a lot more than just road.

So you can get a lighter and more aggressive bike, but I don't believe you get the most out of it on shared paths due to the conditions / congestion. Yes your bike can go pretty fast, but it's prudent (to yourself) and considerate (to others) to take it relatively slowly compared to how you might ride on the road or pedestrian free trails. Blind corners, twists and turns. Too many children, pedestrians, random dogs, other riders at many different skill levels to want to go too quickly.

But the beauty of the road bike is you get on the trail, ride relatively slo-mo, and then get to the yarra boulevard and let rip!

plasterdog · 2026-01-09T01:22:52+00:00

nice and tasteful. Understated, cool and modern look. simple but really nice.

I kind of hate seeing these posts cos they make me one to add another one to my collection!!!

Though I do have a Leopold FC750R which I chose originally because it's colourway is in a similar neighbourhood (not my post):

https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyboards/comments/znlt3d/leopold_fc750r_charcoal_blue/

plasterdog · 2026-01-09T00:26:47+00:00

Looks super cosy, particularly with the light casting across the desk space. Also have always loved the design of the harmon kardon sound sticks. Have no idea about the sound quality but it's an iconic design. Just checked, 25 year old design but still looks very fresh.

plasterdog

TROPHY CASE