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Cake day: June 16th, 2023

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  • Yeah this looks right. The program is launching other tools, in this case when it gets to CEF (chromium embedded framework) it is looking in the default path it’s picked up when the .desktop file is launching it. So it’s essentially looking directly under /home/werecat/ instead of where the /Greyjay programme is running from.

    So if you specify the path in the .desktop file it should fix the problem.

    An alternative route of that doesn’t fix it might be to edit any config files (if it has them) to ensure they explicitly point to the correct Grayjay directory.



  • This opinion remains largely correct - the Internet as a network is very difficult to take down.

    However things have happened that have undermined the Internet in favour of commercial priorities.

    Net Neutrality was a major principle of the Internet but that is under attack, particularly in the US, where infrastructure providers want to maximise profit by linking their income to each Gb used rather than just paid as a utility. Their costs are largely fixed in infrastructure but they push the lie that they need to be paid for how busy that infrastructure is. A network router doesn’t care whether it’s transferring 1gb or 10gb, it only matters if you hit capacity and the network needs to be expanded. The Internet providers instead want profit profit profit so are pushing for a way to maximise it.

    The other major issue has been consolidation and that’s thanks to monopolies being allowed to form and dictate how the Internet works. Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon and Apple - they’ve all used their services to try to manipulate customers into their walled gardens and prevent competition.

    So the Internet as many people think of it is very vulnerable - big centralised services can have outages that affect everyone because people don’t have much choice.

    But the reality is the underlying protocols and infrastructure remains robust. Google might have an outage, but the Web itself is still functional. Email protocols and file transfer protocols still work. The problem is people who are sitting in Googles walled garden of services are locked out of everything. And with Googles huge monopoly on search and advertising it means lots of other major services are out too.

    So the Internet itself is fine. It’s the services and monopolies built on it thay are the problem.


  • Yeah, I see the antivax movement as largely a failure of politics and a symptom of the corrosive effects of social media.

    People have lost faith in politicians after lies and corruption on mnah topics, and that is undermining all elements of democracy and trust in state intervention…

    At the same time, Social Media allows idiots to connect with one another and organise there stupidity into movements. Social Media is largely driven by a desire to keep people on their apps to make money so the whole thing is designed to only show people the content they want and makes them happy, not anything that challenges their world view. They are largely not forums for free speech, instead they are commercial tools to manipulate people in to wasting time by feeding them what they want (including playing to their biases) to maximise advertising revenues.

    Social media is the horrific consequence of unfetted capitalism - where all that matters is maximum profits, and the harm done to people and society as a whole is irrelevant.



  • The hard drive may be 256gb but a big chunk of that is taken up by Windows and also there will be a hidden recovery partition. So 170gb sounds about right. You can’t reduce how much space windows takes, and the recovery partition is worth keeping in case you get in to trouble.

    There may be programs HP have installed that you can remove in add/remove software to make a bit more space. HP is notorious for bliatware - installing things to try and sell you stuff. Probably a good few gb may be that crap.

    If you download a big game, then it’s not a big deal if you’re using that game. 80gb is still plenty. And you can delete the game when you’re done and use that 90gb for something else.

    256gb isn’t much but it’s enough unless you want multiple big games installed or have a big library of data such as movies or pictures.

    Also it may be possible to upgrade the hard drive - depends on the model and how accessible the hard drive is. If you can access the hard drive to replace it then you could get a 1tb drive for example. There are guides online but basically you’d need to copy the existing drive to the new drive (would need a USB adaptor to mount the new drive first) and then swap the drives round. It very much depends on the laptop though.

    Another option is an external hard drive connected via USB - it’s not good for gaming or running big programmes but it is fine for storing movies and pictures.

    If the priority is to have multiple different big games installed at the same time, then upgrade the hard drive. Most HP models it’s generally doable without much fuss. More difficult with the ultra slim devices though. Search for your model online and see what people have done.


  • BananaTrifleViolin@lemmy.worldtoLinux@lemmy.mlRecommend me a distro?
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    8 days ago

    I’m using OpenSuSE Tumbleweed and can recommend that. It’s user friendly, especially with the powerful Yast tools for configuring a lot of things. I’m using KDE but it does have a good Gnome spin.

    All of the tools you’re using will work without issue, and I have an Nvidia 3070 which I’ve set up without issue with the official Nvidia drivers. I game a fair bit with steam and everything works well.

    If you’re not a fan of rolling release then OpenSuSE Leap is the same but point release.

    OpenSuSE has good official repos and large variety of community repos, plus Flatpak if you need it. The only difficulties I’ve had are with Python which is installed in a weird way to allow multiple versions to be installed for devs - it can be fiddly installing python software dependencies into the right places, especially if they want you using pip.

    Also you said you use VirtualBox - I used to use it but have switched to KVM and strongly recommend it. Guest systems - particularly Linux guests - work better in KVM. Worth exploring in your next system - in OpenSuSE it’s been a doddle to set up but should be in most systems.

    I see people recommending immutable desktops - I’d be cautious about switching your desktop to that if you don’t have experience of that kind of system. They have strengths but definite drawbacks too. I’d try another distro not too disimilar to Ubuntu before exploring the world of immutable distros.

    Maybe try an immutable system in a Virutal machine. I’ve played a bit with them and they’ve not been for me - too locked down and if you like to tinker or try niche things you’ll find yourself fighting the OS. Also Flatpak is convenient but it’s not the ideal or most secure way to be running all your software, and lots of software isn’t available as Flatpak.

    And for Nix, it is very good but can be used on many distros. You can get another traditional distro and try it out - if you like it by all means switch to NixOS but you don’t have to use NixOS to use Nix. Again it seems too big of a leap to go all in to that on your main desktop. I’d make a smaller change unless you’re open to reinstalling your main desktop a few times trialling bigger shifts.


  • I would say it is unlikely - storage is so cheap that some form of local storage is likely to stay.

    A terminal device still needs some form of storage to run the software to access the cloud. That might end up being some small storage on a chip but the difference is not between none and something, but some and more.

    I also think there are enough people who want storage they own and control that it’ll persist as a concept. Also having devices that work when networks are down is a benefit in itself - attempts to make devices dumb terminals get exposed as a productivity nightmare when networks do go out.

    I think big business will certainly try hard to lock people in to their ecosystems. Remote storage, remote computing/graphics processing are all ways they will try. But conversely there are vibrant communities pushing independent & private alternatives that I don’t see dying - whether thats Linux on PCs, or Graphene OS to take control of your android device etc.




  • Moderation is broken because there is no longer a consensus on what is “right” or “wrong”. The very term implies that there is a moderate position that is allowed, and you cull the extremes.

    That consensus in moderating used to be simple in most adult spaces - no aggression/abuse/fighting, no porn. Everything else was fine.

    Now things have drifted - you have corporate censorship in social media to respond to some perceived need not to “endorse” views. But you also have users deciding some topics are not allowed to be discussed and certain view points are censored just because some people disagree with them. There seems to be a notion that you have to “protect” people from being offended or that certain ideas are just dangerous or wrong.

    I’ve even seen a moderator on Lemmy describe “freedom of speech” as nothing more than a right wing wolf whistle and banning someone.

    This whole CEO murder is just highlighting how a complex and multifaceted nuanced case cannot be reduced into a simple good vs evil narrative. The old mainstream media consensus that everyone shows “sympathy for victim, condemnation for the bad guy” is just restricting debate and discussion on something that raises complex and fundamental questions about our society.

    The “consensus” on what viewpoints are allowed is breaking down and people are mistaking them personally being offended as a barometer of what is right or wrong.


  • As stable as that dime is, it’s utterly useless for all practical purposes.

    What Google is talking about it making a stable qbit - the basic unit of a quantum computer. It’s extremely difficult to make a qbit stable - and as it underpins how a quantum computer would work instability introduces noise and errors into the calculations a quantum computer would make.

    Stabilising a qbit in the way Google’s researchers have done shows that in principle if you scale up a quantum computer it will get more stable and accurate. It’s been a major aim in the development of quantum computing for some time.

    Current quantum computers are small and error prone. The researchers have added another stepping stone on the way to useful quantum computers in the real world.



  • While this is true, if your pc is secure and you don’t install crap then this is not going to be a major issue for the vast majority of people. Both desktops have their own security flaws but always the number one flaw is the user.

    Keep systems up to date, do not side load software from outside well managed official package systems, use strong passwords, use encryption etc. This counts for far more than the various security flaws and fixes that constantly come and go with any system. If you don’t give bad actors a route into your system to exploit flaws then you are generally OK.

    Like the screen copy flaw would need someone installing software that would exploit that - possible but unlikely in a well managed environment with a good robust distro.

    And it’s worth saying that generally Linux remains less targeted than Windows and Mac for malware. That does not mean people should then be lax in their behaviour but it’s a better starting point for being secure if you look after your Linux install properly.


  • You can install both but it can get a but messy in menus with 2 settings apps and 2 versions of lots basic apps all over the place. It can be cleaned up but it can be a bit frustrating to do.

    You may be better trying them both out with live images on USB sticks or a virtual environment like virtualbox. Both are relatively easy to set up without making any major change to your current pc.


  • BananaTrifleViolin@lemmy.worldtoLinux@lemmy.mlDo you use Gnome or KDE Plasma?
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    15 days ago

    I use KDE. It’s very powerful and flexible. While it can be windows like, you an also craft pretty much any GUI you like with it with relative ease. It can be Mac like or something unique, or even Gnome like if you really want that.

    It’s also intuitive and user friendly, with well made apps and a comprehensive settings menu.

    I’ve found KDE to be reliable and stable, as well as attractive and customisable.

    There are a lot of apps made for it - the only downside is software bloat if you install all of them. I’d start with the basics KDE desktop and add apps one by one rather than install the whole KDE app suite. Although the apps are usually excellent lots of the apps may not be useful to you personally . For example I don’t like installing the PIM suite (email, contacts etc) as I don’t use it - all that is online for me so I don’t need the native apps.

    I’m personally not a fan of Gnome. It’s got a single rigid GUI philosophy which you can now expand with extensions but I find they can be hit and miss on whether they work or are stable, and time consuming to set up how you want.

    So for gnome you either like it as is or you don’t, and if you dont like it then honestly I’d say don’t bother trying to make it be what you want - just use something more flexible.

    But regardless of what desktop you use, Apps will work on either or any of the others available.


  • Yes of course he needs to be prosecuted.

    I get that people hate insurance companies but at the end of the day this was a brutal and cold blooded murder.

    As unhappy as we may be at the state of the world, the last thing anyone should want is for things to be determined by who has the gun and is willing to shoot.

    Having said that though, maybe things are getting beyond the point of no return. Democracy in the US seems to be a joke, and the billionaire class have unfettered power. I worry we’re on trajectory towards violent revolution.

    The ambivelence and even open celebration of a shocking violent murder is a warning sign of how bad things are right now. Across the democratic world countries are devided and in flux because the political class is not listening to voters and in hoc to the billionaires.

    Trump in the US will be a mess. But France and Germany are also in political flux. What we are lacking globally at the moment is an outlet for this mess or a solution. People seem to be divided and unable to coalesce around a solution to the problems. I worry that means more chaos and ultimately violemce to come.