maple

maple , 9 months ago

@JessTheUnstill @burnoutqueen Maybe they don't retire because the Trumpists won't retire when they get too old. When a politician retires, there's a chance their seat might go to someone from the opposing party, so unless maybe a doctor has told them they have only a few weeks to live neither they nor their party want them to retire early, especially if they consistently get voted back into office by their constituents. So your comments about "the fucking Dems" are just as true about the fucking Republicans. Almost all of them have a pathological desire to hold onto power for as long as they can.

And if you tried to set an upper age limit, you'd be accused of ageism, and the AARP and probably a few other organizations would oppose you. And besides all that, some people are "sharp as a tack" well into their 80's or even their 90's, however a lot of people in that age range think they are still sharp when everyone around them can see they are in decline except them.

maple , 9 months ago

@techlore wordpress.com free blogging platform. There are plenty of things you can self-host but don't want to do that, and there are alternatives you have to pay for but I am not about to pay someone so that people can read the occasional tech-related article I might want to post. So even though wordpress.com has become seriously enshittified since I first started using it, at least it is free and the articles you post eventually get indexed by the search engines. And I absolutely refuse to use any platform owned by Google or Meta. So I very rarely post anything anymore; what's the point? I won't self host and I won't pay, so unfortunately wordpress.com seems to be my only option.

maple , 9 months ago

@system76 I would only want a desktop system because after a certain age, it becomes too difficult to read the small screens on laptops. And I would definitely want to try PopOS once the Cosmic desktop is out of beta, because Ubuntu has been a big disappointment, but as a computer user (not a developer or true Linux enthusast) I am not certain what is any better. I don't like Linux Mint because it is too bloated with software I will never use and it looks too much like Windows, so PopOS is definitely on my short list of distros I'd like to try someday.

maple , 9 months ago

@BrodieOnLinux I think it means we should hope post-beta Cosmic is as good as some people think it will be, because both Gnome and KDE kinda suck in their own ways.

maple , 11 months ago

@elementary @distrowatch You're creating a Linux distro, mostly using other people's software. Are you paying for the Linux kernel? Are you paying Canonical for their software that you use? How about all the other open source software authors of packages in your distro? No? Sometimes? Then STFU and be glad you are getting the free publicity. Or don't and continue pissing and moaning about it and maybe DW will stop linking to you or mentioning your distro in any way - it would serve you right. Just my opinion.

maple , 11 months ago

@_elena The image says "Gift Article" but it isn't, the article is behind a paywall.

maple , 11 months ago

@BrodieOnLinux Yes. It's like a portmanteau of the words "floor" and "flop". And flopping around on the floor is not an image you want to associate with your browser!

maple , 11 months ago

@thelinuxEXP You keep saying this but what is the option if you want a browser that looks and works like (past versions of) Firefox and you don't want to have problems accessing sites, and you want to keep using all your Firefox extensions? Don't say LibreWolf because a lot of sites won't work with it (due in part to their overly aggressive privacy measures, that maybe can be disabled but only if you know how). As far as I can tell, every alternative people are suggesting has some drawback - some are major and some just really annoying.

But also, if the issue is Firefox grabbing data of some kind and selling it, isn't there some way to prevent that data from being transmitted to Mozilla, perhaps using something like PiHole or uBlock Origin? All the techie types think just switching browsers is a solution but for many users that's a whole lot easier said than done, and none of the alternatives seem really great.

maple , 1 year ago

@TechCrunch Yeah, no conflict of interest here. None whatsoever.

(And that is about as truthful as anything that comes out of Trump's or Musk's lying mouths).

Elon Musk’s DOGE comes for agency that regulates autonomous vehicles
https://techcrunch.com/2025/02/21/elon-musks-doge-comes-for-agency-that-regulates-autonomous-vehicles/

maple , 1 year ago

@BrodieOnLinux Well they are wrong, the #Gnome desktop is pronounced with the G.

Would it really kill #developers to avoid naming things in such a way that the pronunciation is ambiguous? Prime example: #Ubuntu. I and everyone I know (that knows anything about Linux) calls it "You-bun-too" and since none of us were familiar with the African pronunciation of the word nor what it meant, we just started pronouncing it phonetically (American English) and that seems to be how everyone here still pronounces it, unless maybe they are making a speech or video. This confusion could have all been avoided if they had chosen another name with an unambiguous pronunciation, or maybe if they had printed (what they consider) the correct pronunciation on every CD cover or sleeve they sent out in the early. But almost no one, particularly in English-speaking North America, is really certain exactly how it is supposed to be pronounced, so many of us just keep saying "You-bun-too" !

There are probably a few other example of this in the tech world. But then beyond that there is the matter of developers using too similar names for versions. If I told you "I am running that #Debian version that starts with a B" you would probably have no idea which version I am talking about (Buzz? Bo? Buster? Bullseye? Bookworm?), yet if you are not a Toy Story fan (or don't have kids) you might have a real hard time keeping the versions straight!

maple , 1 year ago

@BrodieOnLinux The problem with #FUSE, at least on #Ubuntu 24.04, is that if you attempt to install it in the normal way (sudo apt install fuse) for some reason it first UNinstalls a bunch of other fairly essential stuff. I don't know if the fault is with FUSE or with the #apt installer but the net result is you cannot run any #AppImage file that depends on FUSE (and it appears that all of them do). I am not sure what genius created this situation but it's probably a good part of the reason why AppImages are not more widely used .

The following additional packages will be installed:
libfuse2t64
The following packages will be REMOVED:
flatpak fuse3 gnome-remote-desktop gnome-shell-extension-desktop-icons-ng gnome-software-plugin-flatpak gnome-sushi gvfs-fuse mintstick nautilus ntfs-3g ubuntu-desktop-minimal ubuntu-session xdg-desktop-portal
xdg-desktop-portal-gnome xdg-desktop-portal-gtk
The following NEW packages will be installed:
fuse libfuse2t64
0 upgraded, 2 newly installed, 15 to remove and 4 not upgraded.

maple , 1 year ago

@itsfoss Cosmic nonbeta released!

maple OP , 1 year ago

@Shabby4582 That was it! Had a theme plugin with a pending update, since I updated it the editor seems to work normally again!

Many thanks!
#Joplin

maple , 1 year ago

@FediTips The thing that is missing from your diagram is that while #Fediverse servers CAN communicate with each other, not all of them DO. This is most noticeable when you follow a #hashtag - If you are on a large, well connected instance you will see many (maybe almost all) posts containing that hashtag. If you are on a small instance, or an instance that is not well connected (for whatever reason) you will see only a small percentage (maybe close to 0%) of the posts made using that hashtag.

In situations like that, from the user's perspective the #Bluesky / AT protocol is superior, because with the centralized server and corporate relays pretty much anything posted using a given hashtag will be seen by all those who follow that hashtag.

I'm not saying we all should move to Bluesky. I'm saying that this is a problem that needs to be solved by whoever writes the software for #Mastodon and similar Fediverse instances. And if there already is a solution but few instances are using it, what is that solution and where can you find a list of instances that are already using it? I understand there will always be some blockages because instance operators don't want traffic from certain types of instances, but I'm not talking about that, I am talking about cases where a post with a hashtag doesn't reach your instance because no one using your instance is specifically following the user that made that post.

maple , 1 year ago

@FediTips @kryptec Right, but as a USER I have no way of knowing if the instance I am using has implemented any of those. How about publishing a list of such servers? And if you have no way of knowing which servers are using any of those various ways, then how is the user supposed to know? A solution that few instances are using and/or where users have no way of knowing if their instance (or any other) is using that solution adds a level of complication and annoyance that you don't have with the big corporate platform.

maple , 1 year ago

@skamu @FediTips That is great and I hope you are able to fix and improve what is not working, but right now this is still a problem and it is something that would cause ordinary users (like me) to consider switching to Bluesky (or to just start with Blueskay in the first place). You have to realize that most users just don't care if they own data (probably better than half don't even seem to care about privacy, which totally blows my mind) so saying that they should use the Fediverse because of some philosophical argument about ownership isn't going to carry much weight, if they can receive most or all of the posts they want to see on another platform.

maple , 1 year ago

@FediTips Well the problem with groups is that you first have to know that a group you are interested in exists, and then chances are if you do find one it's not specific enough. Say I am running some piece of software that is giving me trouble, I can subscribe to a hashtag with the name of that piece of software, which (hopefully) will only show me posts related to that software, although that is not always the case, for example if I want to see posts about Joplin (the note taking application) I could use (hashtag)Joplin and hopefully I would get mostly posts about that software and not Joplin, Missouri or Scott Joplin the composer.

But will there be a group about Joplin? Probably not. And also, as I understand it, groups follow users, not hashtags. And in that case you can get inundated with posts that are not about the topic of interest. I have tried to follow groups a few times and generally speaking I've had to turn them off almost immediately because they flooded my timeline with uninteresting and irrelevant posts.

maple , 1 year ago

@skamu @FediTips I hope you are right, but it will take a lot longer if people think that you shouldn't even try the Fediverse because any posts you make will only be seen by a limited subset of users, even if you include hashtags they are following. People who are frequent posters often desire that what they write will be seen by the highest number of users (or at least users interested enough to follow whatever hashtags they include), so they may not have much interest in platforms that limit their exposure. And factors such as who "owns" the post content may not matter at all to them.

maple , 1 year ago

@FediTips Well there is a chicken/egg issue there, far more people are likely to use a hashtag than a group mention, and that is because they are familiar with hashtags from the dead bird site and other existing social media platforms.

So again taking Joplin (the software) as an example, chances are there is no existing group for it, and yes I could easily create one but chances are all I'm going to get is crickets because other people who post about Joplin will be using the hashtag (with which they are familiar) and not the group identifier.

Basically what I am hearing is "we can't make hashtags work the way they are supposed to in the Fediverse, so here is this substitute that few users have heard of and even fewer will actually use", rather than "we really need to fix the fediverse software so that hashtags work as they are supposed to."

maple , 1 year ago

@FediTips @skamu You're in kind of a unique position because you are very well known, so people follow you directly.

"...if exposure is all they care about, why would they leave Twitter, Facebook, Instagram etc? (Genuine question.)"

Well, I can think of two reasons, one is that they don't want some big corporation (or the evil owner thereof) owning or controlling or censoring their posts, and the other is that they don't want to share a platform with Nazis/fascists/anti-science types. But if they don't fall into either of those categories, I can't think of any reason they would want to leave one of those platforms. And right now, for the most part those things would not apply to Bluesky users (yet) so the case for leaving to come to the Fediverse is even weaker for them.

maple , 1 year ago

@FediTips That is true but they don't have the stink of Musk or Zuckerberg associated with them. People don't always think of big corporations as being necessarily bad, and more to the point, Bluesky doesn't seem to be trying to attract the kind of people that would make you avoid a bar or restaurant if you found it was filled with those kind of people. People are leaving the dead bird site and Meta not necessarily because they are run by big corporations (although that is the reason for some), but because they have become hangouts for the Nazis and the far right and the Christian nationalists and the anti science anti-vax crowd. And because even if they don't really want to leave, their friends and family are shaming them for staying there.

That is simply not the case with Bluesky (yet).

maple , 1 year ago

@itsfoss I prefer whichever is most stable and reliable, and right now that's a fixed release. I like the idea of a rolling release, but I don't want a middle of the night update to render my system unusable.

maple , 1 year ago

@BrodieOnLinux Well you know what they say, if you pluck a white hair from your beard, two more will come to the funeral! 😀

maple , 1 year ago

@itsfoss Updates
(MacOS updates will almost always take 15 minutes (on Apple silicon) to over an hour (on older Intel-based Macs).

maple , 1 year ago

@itsfoss Hate snaps, so Flatpaks. BUT I wish they gave you the option to save Flatpak software to some place on your system so that if a newer version of a package had turned to total sh*t you could easily restore the older version, similar to what you could do if you had a Windows .exe file. I will never understand why Linux developers seem to think there is no possibility that a newer version of a software package will ever suck, and that a user just might want an easy way to go back to an older version.

As for Appimages, they would be fine if they did not require FUSE. In Ubuntu at least, if you try to install FUSE it makes a bunch of changes to your system and can actually break your system, but Appimages won't run without it, so those are a non-starter for me. Get rid of the FUSE dependency and they would maybe be my top preference, if only because you can easily save them for possible reuse if a newer version of the program sucks.

maple , 1 year ago

@itsfoss Switch to a distribution that is not #Ubuntu and that does not use either #Gnome or #KDE (unless the Gnome devs ever decide to give us an actual working screen SAVER, and I do NOT mean a screen LOCKER or a screen BLANKER!!! They need to realize that if you send no signal at all to some TV sets the screen does NOT go blank, but instead displays a big warning that the signal has been lost!). Once the #Cosmic desktop is out of alpha/beta I want to give #PopOS a try, but I have about had it with Ubuntu. Unfortunately I am not conversant enough with Linux to be a frequent "distro hopper" - too afraid I would lose data and software (Linux needs something like the MacOS "Migration Assistant").

Moving to Michigan this winter

Howdy! I am planning to move to the southeast part of Michigan around this new years. I am excited to get out of my state and see what other parts of the USA have to offer. But one thing that really worries me, and that I wanted to reach out about, is the winters in the north. ...

maple , 1 year ago

helloworld55 Regarding sidewalks, some cities or villages expect you to keep them clear, others have sidewalk snow plows (which your taxes pay for), and still others (few) don't seem to care if the sidewalks are kept clear. Also there are a few Michigan cities that have strange winter parking regulations, so if you need to park on the street (something to be avoided if possible) you will want to contact the city and see if they have any winter parking regulations.

If you don't have an all wheel drive vehicle, a front-wheel drive will still give you quite a bit of control as long as you are not an aggressive driver. The worst type of vehicle to have in winter is rear-wheel drive, and especially a rear-wheel drive pickup truck, because when those are unloaded there is very little weight bearing down on the rear wheels, and they are trying to push the much heavier front part of the vehicle, and on ice that's a good way to wind up doing a great figure 8 on the interstate! At least with a front wheel drive car the engine is over the wheels that are transferring motion to the pavement (or ice!) and the rest of the vehicle is being pulled along. It makes a big difference in handling on ice.

Be aware of what is happening around you in winter, a lot of times people coming up to a stop sign or stop light after the first real winter weather will forget they can't stop on a dime and will slide right through a stop sign or stop light, and if your car happens to be in the intersection you can get T-boned. Sometimes if there is enough visibility you can see someone approaching too fast and you can either speed up or slow down to try and avoid a collision. Doesn't always work but you can maybe minimize damage. Some more well-to-do Michigan residents keep a "winter beater" car that they only drive on winter days, the idea being that if it gets wrecked at least it's not their "good" car.

And no, everything in Michigan does not come to a standstill after a little snow. Each community sort of has an idea of what would be considered a heavy snow and they prepare for that. When I lived in the upper peninsula it was very common to get a foot or more of snow overnight but the minute it started falling the plows would be out and if you stuck to the main roads all you would notice was the snow banks on the side of the road was higher than the day before (and yes, the snow plows will plug up the end of your driveway when they go by and YOU get to shovel out their gifts!). But after I moved away from the U.P. I heard they got FIVE feet one night, well they were NOT prepared for THAT, and it took like a week to get things moving again. So in winter, always make sure you have a few days worth of food in the house, just in case (although usually you will get a warning if anything really heavy is moving in).

Finally, if you don't like snow shoveling (and you probably won't), consider getting a snow thrower. Do not get a cheap one with plastic blades; they break! There are gasoline powered ones, and corded or cordless electric ones. The wider the blade/chute area the more show you can blow in one pass. The corded electric ones are the least convenient because of the cord but they will always work as long as you have electric power and are often the least expensive (but again, no plastic blades, unless you like throwing money away!). The gas powered ones are more expensive and more powerful but can fail to start when you need them most, especially if you don't maintain them. The cordless ones use batteries and those can go bad too, but they can be replaced, the only thing with them is depending on how much area you need to clear you may need more than one fully charged battery to finish the job. Or you can hire a show plowing service to keep your driveway clear all winter but they will generally only do your driveway, not your sidewalks. And in some neighborhoods there may be teenagers or adults that will offer to shovel out your driveway after a snowfall, the problem with those people is they generally age out of that business, or maybe injure themselves by falling on ice or something and stop coming around, so you may need to find someone new every year or two.

maple , 1 year ago

@gamingonlinux Absolutely agree. I am not a Discord user and I am not going to sign up for it just to see someone's damn info or changelog. This is the new equivalent of "subscribe to our listserv to keep track of changes", it's just annoying and few people will bother. And WHEN Discord disappears (or is sold to Google or Meta, or heaven forbid, Elon) there's a good chance all that information will either disappear or be made even more difficult to access, possibly even paywalled, and/or maybe used tor train an AI.

maple , 1 year ago

@nixCraft Perl