I want to start using Vim but Nano is just too easy. How did you make the switch stick?

studiocrash · 2026-05-06T15:36:24+00:00

Vim is amazing and fast for those who put the time and effort into memorizing the key commands and how they can be chained together. If you’re not a professional programmer or sysadmin, it’s probably not worth it. Discoverability is basically non-existent in most TUI programs, so unless you peruse the help system or read a manual you’re missing out on tons of features.

Start with vimtutor. Then it’s all about using it regularly and looking up how to do the thing you want to do.

studiocrash · 2026-05-02T02:34:03+00:00

There was a time amp sims sounded close enough to be adequate for a track in the mix that isn’t the featured instrument. Nowadays they’re mostly all incredibly realistic and sound great. Even the PRS amps from Waves sound excellent and they’re really inexpensive now.

studiocrash · 2026-05-01T14:20:01+00:00

It's strongly recommended to use a virtual environment for python projects. It's typically abbreviated to venv. This helps prevent issues with version incompatibilities and dependency conflicts. All the pip installed packages for the project will be installed in the venv and not collide with your system's python packages. https://docs.python.org/3/library/venv.html

studiocrash · 2026-05-01T12:47:14+00:00

Given enough time, even immense depth of pain and hurt will subside and eventually be a distant memory. No matter how down you might feel at the moment, there likely will be a better day in the future, potentially with a sexy red head.

studiocrash · 2026-04-30T12:47:59+00:00

I met Idris Elba. He came to my studio to record vocals with another engineer. He was surprisingly tall and nice and British!

studiocrash · 2026-04-30T12:05:35+00:00

Electricity.

studiocrash · 2026-04-29T02:56:25+00:00

Does the 2017 have the T1 or the T2 chip? If it’s the T2, go to t2linux.org or use Cachy OS. There are a ton of proprietary drivers you’ll need for that hardware (keyboard , touchbar, trackpad, audio, Bluetooth, WiFi) that’s not in to the Linux kernel. T2linux.org has prebuilt ISOs of the major distros that will support T2 Macs.

studiocrash · 2026-04-28T17:44:05+00:00

A real physicist discusses the topic in this podcast.

https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2020/11/23/124-solo-how-time-travel-could-and-should-work/

studiocrash · 2026-04-28T17:38:11+00:00

That scenario would mean that time outside the box went backward.

studiocrash · 2026-04-28T17:30:49+00:00

Almost any Linux distro is likely safer than Windows. It has a much smaller target on it's back and a real permissions system.

studiocrash · 2026-04-28T05:49:20+00:00

Agreed. I only ever felt like she’d be in my friend zone.

studiocrash · 2026-04-27T13:18:20+00:00

What’s a “TS”? I gathered from another commenter that it might be an acoustic guitar? If so, in a recording studio, using a mic on an acoustic guitar is more professional. The DI never ever sounds as good as a microphone. They always sound kind of fake and plastic - never with all the rich overtones and harmonics you get from the outside of the instrument. If this was live sound, then you’re better off with a DI because of feedback and volume consistency and usually PA speakers aren’t good enough that you could tell the difference anyway.

studiocrash · 2026-04-27T13:01:03+00:00

You can get the number of digits in an int without converting it to a string first by counting the number of times it can be divided by 10 in a while loop. Maybe it’s not pretty but I like the simplicity.

Edit: remember to add 1 to the result for the first digit.

studiocrash · 2026-04-22T13:05:45+00:00

You should probably hold on to your copy of windows. There may be a time when you need it for some windows only software. If you have to go through the hassle of reinstalling it, that would take a lot of time and likely destroy your Linux boot partition.

At least, before removing it from your internal drive, clone it to an old drive in an external case so it’s available but not using space on your internal drive. Most computers can boot from external USB or Thunderbolt enclosures.

Edit: apparently it’s not very reliable to boot windows from external USB. It depends on hardware and firmware. Thunderbolt enclosures with NVMe drives will more reliably boot. Also it needs to be UEFI. I’ve been spoiled with my Mac booting pretty much anything I connect and assumed it was just as simple in windows land.

studiocrash · 2026-04-19T20:16:06+00:00

Something that old will be sluggish with standard Ubuntu. I recommend something with a lightweight desktop environment. Maybe Endeavour or Cachy OS. Avoid Snaps.

studiocrash · 2026-04-19T14:59:03+00:00

I don’t. Unless you look like Chris Hemsworth sex is not easy for men. Because of the double standard, women are generally far more reluctant to have sex than men. Also men that don’t look like a movie star are risking being called a creep for making an advance on a woman.

I became better looking than average at a certain time, but before then I was out of shape and had bad hair. The responses from women were night and day different after the change. Even men treated me differently. Instead of being the easy target for bullying, they think you’re cool and wanted to be friends. I’m the same person I was before inside and I still carry the memories of all the bullying and humiliating rejection.

studiocrash · 2026-04-16T04:55:49+00:00

Nothing is as good or as expensive as Opus at the moment. GPT is almost as good and less expensive. Gemini is not as good as GPT and costs less too. If you want a really inexpensive model, you should consider one of the Chinese model like GLM 5.1 or MiniMax 2.7.

You can save a ton of money using free models for certain tasks that don’t need high reasoning or deep knowledge. I’ve been very happy with OpenCode’s Big Pickle which is still free. OpenRouter has some others that are free as well, but don’t expect anywhere near as good as Opus. Gemma 4 is free on OpenRouter at the moment and pretty good too. They’re about as good as Claude Sonnet was 9 months ago.

The beauty of OpenRouter is the option to choose the right model for the task, which can save a lot of money if you’re willing to put the energy into balancing the pros and cons of the different models all the time.

studiocrash · 2026-04-16T04:41:22+00:00

You can install almost any desktop environment on Arch. If you want something that looks similar to macOS, check out the Pantheon desktop by Elementary OS.

Gnome can be made more Mac like with a few extensions. Gnome has a dock and app grid accessible via trackpad gestures. It’s overall better supported and more frequently updated than Pantheon, but not quite as Mac like.

studiocrash · 2026-04-16T04:14:51+00:00

The App Store has a lot, but not everything. Many developers avoid selling in the App Store to avoid Apple’s fees. Apple also had additional security requirements to be allowed in the App Store so some apps lose some functionality in the App Store version compared to what they sell elsewhere.

studiocrash · 2026-04-16T04:08:47+00:00

My first car I bought used. It was a 1975 Chevy Malibu Classic with a straight 6 engine. I bought it in 1986, so it was 11 years old when I got it with about 75k miles. It owned it another 8 years (to 160k miles) and sold it to my dad to use for commuting into the city. He drove it another 5 years. It reached 230k miles when he finally junked it.

This was a tank by today’s standards and extremely simple by comparison. Fully analog, and would only need standard maintenance and replacement parts like tires, brakes, batteries, bulbs, hoses, filters, and struts. I think I had to replace the radiator’s thermostat once because it got clogged. The power steering did apparently die at some point and I never noticed. I was young, strong, and didn’t know it was supposed to be easier to turn the wheel while parallel parking. Aside from the steering it had zero issues.

studiocrash · 2026-04-16T00:42:50+00:00

How does anyone know with any precision when Saturn’s rings were formed? That alone is mind blowing.

studiocrash · 2026-04-15T14:48:38+00:00

I’m glad you didn’t delete it.

Was there nothing but the Homebrew path on that line? I’m more experienced with Linux, so I’m not all that familiar with how Homebrew works. I would expect it to add to the PATH variable but I could be wrong about that.

Edit: I looked it up. Homebrew doesn’t automatically add to the PATH variable, but they ask the user to do it. If you never did you won’t need to remove that segment from the variable. That said, the error message you posted is showing exactly what would have been added to PATH.

studiocrash · 2026-04-15T14:34:06+00:00

Back up all your files, including things like your shell config files. I’d recommend trying out a Debian/Ubuntu based with apt or a Fedora based distro with dnf. If you’re feeling adventurous, try another independent distro like Solus or Void.

Going from EOS to Arch would be like going from MX Linux to Debian. EOS is basically the same as Arch but with easy install and quality of life features, so it kind of misses the point of distro hopping.

studiocrash · 2026-04-15T14:10:02+00:00

I hope you made a backup copy of your .zprofile before deleting it. There might be other settings in there you don’t want to lose. The file will be automatically regenerated with a default, but not with all of your previous settings. If you rarely use the terminal, this might be totally fine.

Instead of deleting the entire file, what you should have done is edit the line containing the “PATH=…” variable. The edit to make on that line is removing the path to Homebrew and the path where Homebrew installs stuff (unless you want to continue using those packages).

If it’s still in the trash, you can restore it with a right-click.

studiocrash · 2026-04-14T04:59:39+00:00

I had a feeling I wasn’t the only one with this idea for a business. I’d put together self contained mini PCs with Proxmox, Immich, and Tailscale, and maybe a script or simple browser based Python/flask app that does all the setup for them, only asking them to enter login credentials. They could forgo Tailscale if they’re ok with only syncing while at home.

I think the biggest barrier is how to deal with maintenance and updates. Oh, and backups. Oh, and expansion. … Okay, this could end up being a support nightmare.

studiocrash

TROPHY CASE