Didn’t bother going through the hoops and installed EndeavourOS which is arch-based with some additional default applications.

For me, the best thing of Arch isn’t the distribution but the Arch wiki. An impressive piece of documentation.

No. Takes two seconds to open or close the tap. However, I do sometimes spend time daydreaming under running water so I guess it evens out!

I had issues with Manjaro and WiFi disconnecting. Also, Manjaro dropped hardware acceleration for video codecs. Eventually got too annoyed to deal with the Manjaro direction and moved to EOS. Everything is working fine barring a script to get the headphones volume to work (recognised as bass speaker in alsa paths). So far, EOS has been the set and forget type of OS for me.

That doesn’t seem to be an insignificant GME long view…

Windows runs my laptop harder, uses more battery and the fans are spinning a lot of times whist it runs almost silent in Linux. I’ve settled on EndeavourOS which has given me a headache-free experience for my hardware (lenovo yoga pro 7 7840hs). Only keep widows for BIOS updates otherwise I’d have nuked that hodge podge of software melange.

If you’re really set on windows you could try tiny11 to remove most of the bloat.

Well, hello there Don Draper

The efforts should be placed on the aspects that have greater impact on health. Focusing on cigarettes when alcohol has a much larger impact seems an odd prioritisation.

Also, banning something doesn’t mean that the problem is solved. Drugs aren’t allowed but it’s easier and cheaper to pop a few happy pills on a night out than it is to drink until oblivion.

This seems more a chest pumping measure to score cheap political points. There’s no political will to tackle the bigger and more important problem as it requires additional skill and likely to be less popular.

I’m all for reducing smoking but this is unlikely to achieve any meaningful change. Happy to be proven wrong though.

EDIT: https://feddit.uk/post/10757641

The intention is meritable. As usual, Tories misunderstand how to achieve the stated objective. They’ll be creating a secondary market whereby those born before 2009 will supply cigarettes to those born after 2009… for a fee of course. Party of business and entrepreneurialship.

Also, drinking yourself into a stupor seems to be socially acceptable in the UK whilst the cost is much larger.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/may/24/tories-failure-to-tackle-alcohol-harm-is-causing-public-health-crisis-say-mps

Cigarettes were already heavily taxed in the UK anyway. The relative share of smokers is much lower compared to places like France.

https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/smoking-rates-by-country

If the goal is to improve everyone’s well-being, is this the best way to achieve it?

The AI centipede era has begun

Yeah, completely agree. YouTube commodified a certain style, people tend to copy it even when they’re not great communicators, and the whole excitement akin to a Labrador salivating is quite undignified.

What about images sent from Japan? Aren’t they all pixelated by default? /s

Bought a Yoga Pro 7 7840HS 32GB 1TB. Everything works fine in Linux. Battery does 8-10h on full charge, good build quality, no issues with any parts. Running EndeavourOS after had some minor issues with Manjaro, WiFi connecting 1 minute after booting and some weird disconnects after a while. No such thing in EndeavourOS.

Running idle with minimum brightness, Bluetooth off, WiFi connected and keyboard backlight turned off consumes minimum 3.6W. Got it less than $900 around 4 months ago.

Add some bacon and marshmallows and your 5 a day is complete.

Friend, you seem to be going through a tough time. Maybe you should seek professional help. Best of luck

Given the diversity of 50+ states, find me one that values human life of fellow state members with centrally provided healthcare so they’re not left to choose between bankruptcy or life, views education as a public good and access to it has a low barrier to access it, doesn’t have for-profit prisons or has a network of public transport infrastructure that relies on a system of trains or trams?

My country had wars with it’s neighbours from single digit centuries. Comparing differences in Europe to the US states is like comparing McDonald’s differences with local cuisine refined over centuries.

With so many differences where can I find social values that are comfortable with pederasty as in ancient Greece?

Knowledge is almost free nowadays. Reading history of countries offers a fascinating perspective of how we got here. For better or worse, the US is pretty homogenous in its value system, religious beliefs, political beliefs and language.

Thanks for explaining. It’s interesting and outside metadata there could be a case for data being secure. However, this is the same company that lied and got fined in the EU when they asserted that they wouldn’t be able to link WhatsApp and Facebook identities. This allowed the merger to happen. Security and privacy being something that the average Joe doesn’t care that much, it wouldn’t be too much of a negative impact when they already have so much bad press on other matters. Finally, from an ethical perspective, I’ll give this corp a miss. Values don’t really align with my personal ones even if privacy and security were beyond reproach.

Thanks. Haven’t used them in like a decade so things seem to have changed. At the time, new phone meant your messages transferred automatically.

At the same time, even if Facebook requires a backup for the messages to show up, as the app is close sourced, how would one know for sure whether the app doesn’t harvest the private key anyway?

Thanks. I stand corrected. I was one of those that paid $1 for life when WhatsApp was a new kid on there block but haven’t used it since news broke that Facebook acquired them like a decade ago. At the time, you had a new phone, your messages would transfer. Dunno how it is today after all those years but seems to be similar to Signal.

Based on the stories coming up on Facebook and their lack of moral / humane boundaries I still won’t trust them not to have access to a private key when their app is so invasive. Their whole model is based on behind the curtain trafficking.

WhatsApp is end-to-end encrypted. How does all the data magically show up when you change phone which doesn’t have the same private key as the old phone? It’s like having a lock on your front door and giving the keys to a random neighbour. Most folks trade convenience for privacy or security. That trade is looking less and less appealing by the day.

Two main benefits/“public goods” from having your lives in a societal arrangement:

1. Having an educated population allows overall advancements that wouldn’t be possible where education standards are low. If the protestant dogma of “work hard and you’ll get salvation” was still prevalent in all groups we’d still be chiseling stones as that is real manly work. Intellectuality is still mostly frowned upon in the US. The whole purpose is to work less and enjoy living as the benefit of having basic needs solved for. Access to free education has plenty of positive externalities that we aren’t even able to quantify. Would the US still be engrossed in its culture wars or other wars?
2. Having a healthy population allows a sense of group and care for a country. Belonging to a country should mean that your fellow countrymen have your back in time of need. Father time comes for us all. How unpatriotic it is that people proudly wave their flags whilst letting their own fellow countrymen die from preventable causes or having to face choices such as living longer and getting bankrupt or let sickness fester until perishing. Not having free healthcare from an outside perspective is as unpatriotic as you could get.

The US seems a prime example of too much emphasis on GDP and limited focus on quality of life. I’d rather be homeless in Cuba than in the US albeit all wealth and quality of life indicators are better in the US.