absentbird

Windows in particular I think gets overlooked as 'good enough', it's only when you get into Linux that you really understand how far it has strayed from the light.

You don't need to spend hours and hours to start, you can dip your toes in with WSL, maybe use a Linux VM for a few tasks that make your life easier at work. It's not an all-or-nothing affair, but having proficiency in more than one operating system is great professional development regardless of your personal computing preferences.

I've found that many people will go to great lengths to avoid learning anything new.

They want to be able to ignore their computers as much as possible, even considering the prospect of alternative software is taxing and upsetting for them.

I think that's basically how Microsoft and Adobe are so successful, they bought and cheated their way into the default position, and now they can do whatever they want with no real repercussions.

The user wants to click on the same icons with the same names as before, sometimes it's as simple as wanting the same name; if it's not called 'outlook' they don't want it, doesn't matter how well it works.

Don't pretend like Mearsheimer is some sort of objective observer, he's a fountain of wacky convictions. It's also wild to use 'get mad' as a euphemism for military conquest and genocide.

Can we at least agree to call a spade a spade? Russia annexing Ukraine by force is military expansion. If we can put that to bed then the only issue in contention is determining if it was unprovoked or not. If we can't agree on such a plainly obvious fact then I have misgivings we can come to an understanding at all.

You're making excuses for a genocide, do you really not understand why that could make people upset?

Hopefully your powers of comprehension are more suited to discussions of history, let's get into it:

Ukraine split from Russia in the 90s with a referendum, over 90% voted for independence. Russia has wanted to regain control over Ukraine ever since. In 2014 Russia invaded and annexed Ukraine's sovereign territory. In 2022 it escalated into full scale war, with Russia attempting to take the entire country.

Ukraine is a distinct nation with its own language and culture. The people have the right to self determination, they are a sovereign nation. Fostering closer ties to the EU is their perogative as a free people, to call it provocation is to deny their essential freedom. Expanding borders through conquest is military expansion, plain and simple.

You might want to fuck all the way off. They invaded their neighbor, stole their land, slaughtered families, and stole their children.

Ukraine did nothing that could justify such atrocities. There is no excuse. It is a genocide.

True! A fully loaded train is about the most efficient way to move humans from one place to another, and has been for over a hundred years.

Lithium is limited, but you can make 150 e-bikes with a single electric car battery. If we could figure out some sort of solid state sodium battery chemistry it wouldn't even be an issue.

Usually using electricity in something like an electric car requires more emissions to generate the power than would be emitted from the food and respiration required to walk the same distance.

Bicycles are interesting because they improve efficiency so much that it offsets the emissions needed to make the bike, and e-bikes are able to leverage that high efficiency to get 80+ km of travel per KWh (compared to ~6 from something like a Tesla)

Same for the PNW, but I don't mind keeping a low profile.

Which is a little funny, because the Appalachian mountain range is part of the same mountains as the Scottish Highlands: https://youtube.com/shorts/c_JWEipGwgs

E-bikes sit in a weird spot where the amount of human effort saved is substantially higher than the carbon footprint of the components.

Which implies the optimal transportation mix would be electric trains+trams with e-bikes to go the last few miles.

Oh shut up. I don't hate AI, my recent comments show that. I just think it's interesting how you can get a sense for AI art even without spotting obvious tells like extra fingers.

The squiggly border is a bit uncanny too.