The only thing that I think is a little complicated these days is make sure that you’re not reliant on a particular Windows-only app. For the vast majority of common apps, you’re going to be fine, and it’s sounding more and more like even gaming on Linux is not only fine, but getting to the point of being the best way to do it. If you do have a particular app you rely on, I’d look into the various ways that you can get Windows apps running on Linux (which can be a little tricky, but usually not too bad.) But even like 10 years ago, I built a machine for an elderly family member, put probably some flavor of ubuntu on it, and I never had to troubleshoot that machine.

$150 for “gigabit” which in practice means I usually get around 450mb.

I get this every time someone says “both sides are the same!” Like, I’ve watched who’s started basically every major military conflict in my life, who keeps cutting taxes for the rich and who keeps gutting social programs that would benefit the poor, who keeps trying to remove rights and prevent others from getting the rights they’re owed, who’s tanked the deficit and brought this country to near financial collapse multiple times, etc.

It’s like accelerated around politics in general though. People will still foam at the mouth about how all of the accusations against Trump are just a psyop to bring down their one true god. Meanwhile, he’s standing there holding a selfie cam like “what’s up my true believers, I totally did every single thing they said and I’d do it again twice with your mother and Jesus himself watching.” People out there still saying Trump isn’t a rapist after not only a court of law found him to be one, and -literally everyone has heard a tape of him telling you exactly how to do sex crimes.- But it’s like that for everything. Republicans are just straight up saying shit right into the microphone, and then 30 seconds later pretending like it’s never happened.

This “truth” hasn’t caught on because it’s complete bullshit. What set of liberties does left want to take?

This is what I use as well.

a few random things:

• $5.99 magnetic measuring spoons. They stick together and nest.
• $18.99 MagSafe phone car mount. I use iPhone and my car supports Android Auto/Carplay, but there isn’t really a good place to stick your phone. This thing is basically a big magnet, I plug my phone in, throw it on this thing, and we good. Worth noting, even if you have CarPlay (guessing Android Auto as well) even though you don’t need to use your phone, some apps have some functions when you’re using them in this manner. EG: maps displays the next few turn by turn directions on the phone screen, and the overview of the map on the carplay screen.
• decent/good chef’s knife. I think the one I’m using now is about $30, but you can get the ol’ reliable Victorinox for around that price or a little cheaper.
• cabinet lighting pucks. I think Walmart has them for like $12 for two, but they are basically stick somewhere, motion activated lights that are battery powered. Paired with rechargeable batteries, I can now see the food that we push to the back of the cabinet to die.
• new streaming stick thingy. Though I greatly prefer Apple TV, it’s hard to justify the price of those compared to Roku/Fire TV. That said, if you’re hanging on to an older version of the Fire TV/Roku, upgrading helps the annoyance factor because it’s just far less slow. We just added a $24.99 4k Fire TV stick, much nicer.
• Wireless chargers for phones. You can get them for like under $10. Buy 5, put them where you generally set your phone down. Or more simply, right next to the bedside. I generally only charge at night, so much nicer to be able to just drop it on a pad/magnet, etc.
• $9 dimmer switch. Our master bath is weird. The toilet/shower area has a door. The sink area connects directly to the bedroom with no door. The sink area has large mirrors and massive amounts of lighting. Fucking sucks if you’re just getting up to pee and you now have the light of the sun on you and your partner at 3am.

more niche, bunch of smart home shit:

• just think about how $10-$20 and a little bit of thought can improve your life. I have a switch connected to my espresso maker, now I can yell in the shower to turn it on to pre-heat. If I had a regular schedule, I could automate this further just on time. I have it set so that once I tell it to turn on, it turns off after 20 minutes.
• motion sensor lights. though technically you don’t need a smart home for this, there are some lights in my house that I only want to turn on when someone is there. I have a hallway, for example, that is more or less a cave tunnel. Any time I’m in that hallway (or anyone else) I want to have some light. So I have a motion sensor that turns the light on, and based on the status of the sun, it dims accordingly. When I walk into my garage, there are a few lights that turn on in sequence and it feels like you’re walking into the bat cave.
• buttons! You can buy many different remotes for < $20. Pretty much anything you automate via voice you also need a button for. Pro-tip, use in-wall switches where you can, but in my case I didn’t have a neutral wire because it’s an older house, and my options were pretty limited/expensive.
• last example: my entryway lights. I have a door sensor ($10-15) so if I open it I can perform an action. My entry light has a smart bulb ($9.) I also have a floor standing lamp adjacent to this that has a smart bulb. What this allows me to do is check when I’ve recently arrived, and if it’s after sunset and the bigger light isn’t already on, turn on this entry light. If my TV is playing a movie, the light goes on in the dimmest setting so arriving people don’t disturb.

Ah yes. As an “essential worker” it was nice that for about 3.5 minutes it was acknowledged that all of us “unskilled” workers were required for society to function and then get nothing for it except more work and exposure to to a deadly disease.

That’s the problem, they’re not roughly half of all voters, but as previously stated have outside power. As for contending with them, the only thing to do is vote dem and start changing policies. Republicans, especially with a majority control of basically anything, are a policy failure on multiple levels.

It’s not that they’re a particularly large portion of the country, it’s that they have outsized power thanks to the electoral college and it’s easier to disenfranchise dem voters. I’m not wailing about them, so much as stating fact. If 4 years of the chaos of Trump, cozying up to dictators, the million+ dead from COVID that didn’t need to happen, the complete tanking of the economy and causing rampant inflation, an attempted coup/insurrection, many of his own staff saying he’s not fit, Fox News turning against him (privately, but those texts all got released, thanks Dominion), a rape conviction, a fraud conviction, him spilling military secrets on tape, him stealing and attempting to hide classified docs, and now the likelihood that he’s going to likely be jailed or under house arrest while trying to campaign for president, if all of that isn’t enough to convince someone to not vote for Trump, what will?

The point of the comment was essentially don’t bother with these people, the only answer is to vote dem in '24, and get as many people as you can to do the same. Things are stacked towards Republicans by nature of the system, you can ignore trying to change these people’s minds because idk anything will at this point, but you can’t sit it out or not vote dem this time around.

Sounds hilarious.

More seriously, these people are lost. There is little purpose in trying to convert them, anyone hanging onto Trump now is either so incredibly ignorant we should just try to stem their paint-chip eating habit, so stupid they shouldn’t be allowed to order appetizers unsupervised, or basically just fantastically bad, as in “I don’t care if the world burns as long as I make a tidy sum before we collectively have to close up shop.”

I don’t think that any character got shittier writing than her, with the exception of maybe Yar’s death, and even then I think you still have to give it to Troi because she’s got many more episodes. But her episodes are the ones that are the most consistently bad. Data’s are mostly great, Worf’s also pretty solid, Geordi has some stinkers mostly because the only thing they could figure out to do with him is have him lust after an unavailable woman, Crusher only has a few that are hers and honorable mention for one of my bottom five TNG eps of all time, Sub Rosa, but Troi’s are pretty much all stinkers. The only one that I can think of off of the top of my head that I like is the one where she decides to take the command test.

Hi, Overton window? Can you hear me? You’re moving too fast!