Not surprising. The US is a petro state. It will never want to switch to something else. China and the EU are far more motivated.
Loyalty over competence again it appears. What a surprise.
I like Zim. Used it for years. The big advantages you can have many 1000s of pages and it just uses a folder tree not a database, so you have direct and attachment access if you need it. Zim is a true hierarchical wiki not a simple notes app. There a plugins you can enable for more advanced features.
Zim does get slower with more pages for some operations like searches and some changes. I have one wiki with 4500 pages and do feel it is getting a bit slower sometimes. You can however just create another notebook at any time as long as your content has reasonable dividing lines.
The poor health argument might be valid.
The low income argument on the other hand would suggest continue working and waiting until the SS, pension, and other income sources is enough. Even with poor health you kind of have to still do that to some extent. Don't get their conclusion about all of that regarding how one can retire without enough income. Just bonkers.
The article was not US based so they really do not understand US retirement anyway. What they mean by pension is Social Security. In the US pension means another form of pension like a corporate or government pension separate from social security.
Actually the safest thing is probably to choose a main system and run the other in a VM like with VirtualBox. For you, you could just install VirtualBox on Windows then Linux inside of a VirtualBox VM. Windows does have a builtin Virtualization solution too you may be able to use, but I have personally never done that. Keep in mind too that VMs are not as performant as bare metal. For video probably NO, for images fine, for audio maybe but you'll have to see if you get the real-time timing you need in a VM. Good way to play in any case. 2nd best if you have a workstation, not a laptop, you could put in a hot mount SATA drive enclosure, and just swap in the drive you want and get full bear metal performance. Dual boot takes some tech skill. Be sure to back everything up if you do that. Should do that anyway before fiddling. Also if you use bitlocker and secure boot make sure you have all your recovery keys and know how to work with your bios settings too.
Maybe I am missing something, not sure why you care about NTFS. If this is a separate computer you don't really care about that, just the sharing protocol (SMB for example). If it is on the main box, then you'd probably convert this to Ext4 or something similar. No reason to stick with NTFS with Linux. There are a lot of great FS options on linux plus BTRFS, LVM, or RAID to if you want redundancy.
Regarding apps. The alternativeto site is great. Linux has a bunch of audio and photo software. If your a pro, you may not find any of it sufficient. Especially a lot of people cannot do without Photoshop. The common quoted photo programs are GIMP and Darktable. There are many other photo and image programs. Common audio program is Audacity. Again, there are many others. Looks like some handle vst but I have no personal experience.
Linux only, SSH works fine. Not e2ee. Nextcloud works fine but extra work unless you use a service provider. It can be e2ee but not normally so. Syncthing worth a look too. It is not cloud storage, but direct device transfer. Bitwarden send is useful too if you want to juat send file someone, and thunderbird is working on thunderbird send which might be interesting.
Maybe Synology if you want your own lan NAS?
All email services have vendor lock-in unless your using your own domain.
For what it is worth, I just moved my mail from my ISP to my own domain at a hosting service after 30 years. Took about 5 months to get everything changed but if I can do it anyone can.
Downside, using your own domain is probably less private but kind of depends.
In project management lore there is the tripple constraint: time, money, freatures. But there is another insidious dimension not talked about. That is risk.
The natural progession in a business if there is no push back is that management wants every feature under the sun, now, and for no money. So the project team does the only thing it can do, increase risk.
The memory leak thing is an example of risk. It is also an example of some combination of poor project management including insufficient push back against management insanity and bad business mangement in general which might be an even bigger problem.
My point, this is a common natural path of things but it does not have to always be tolerated.
I get your point but I do not think you should justify releasing crap code because you think it has minimal impack on the customer. A memory leak is a bug and just should not be there.
Iran is working on a bomb. You do not enrich uranium to 60% for anything else. Commercial uses are like 3%. So, the question is what to do. Nothing, they get nuclear weapons which is clearly their intent. Negotiation is just a delaying tactic and got us to here. So what remains to be done?
Simple. It has not been a priority. If it was, you would see the US invoke the defense priduction act and similarly allocate nearly unlimited funds.
That was my reaction. Since I use Cinnamon and Gnome I use gnome-terminal.
The features I like are cut/paste and the open in terminal feature in the file manger. Nice that it looks good in your DE too. What else does one need?
If you want 2D drafting like solution, look at Librecad. It seems quite good. It is 2D only.
Freecad is 3D solid modeling but there is a 2D component.
I went to one of the gatherings in Apr. Local news way under reported turnout.
FreeCAD is the most common solid FOSS modeler. I do not think any solid modeling system is that simple. They tend to need training and continuous use. That was my experience with SolidWorks and NX anyway.
Every system has its own processes. If you want Apple software and services use Apple. If you want Linux use Linux. Do not expect either to be like the other especilly at such a micro level.
As far as Linux and beginner friendly, buy a device with Linux preinstalled just like you do with Apple. As far as user setting and apps. Get a notebook and write them down, and avoid deep customizations. As far as backup get 3 USB drives and backup your home directory with rsync or one of the other solutions. As far as restore, have install media and just reinstall from scratch then layer in your configs and apps and then restore your home directory files. For file sync and app sync functions, Nextcloud is helpful and you can pay for a commercial host, set it up yourself, or use a product like Synology. You frankly could use Dropbox, Proton Drive, or one of the others also. But think carefully what is actually needed. Cloud stuff is heavily promoted by the big providers presumably for lockin reasons and to mine your data but it is not really needed for most things. Get to know your distros builtin emergency startup tools and have a live distro like the live install media available and know how to use them.
Linux is about options but for simple beginner like processes it is best to stick to the basics.
Generally go with someone or better yet a group.
Whatever https://www.privacyguides.org/ recommends. I am not a big VPN user. I care more about using good apps and prefering the web browser over apps and configuring that.
All voting should be by paper ballet that that is scanned so the ballets can be hand counted when needed.
The video explains why the US can never have peace with Putin. This is something that everyone needs to consider. The only thing that remains to decide is if we plan to win or loose, and the current plan seems to be to loose. Rather long video, but well worth it.
Linked video produced by Jake Bro is a nice summary of where we stand in the US after the crazy White House meeting a few days ago.
GrapheneOS is a security and privacy focused mobile OS with Android app compatibility.
Well I just replaced my aging LG G6 with a new Google Pixel 8a running GrapheneOS. The G6 was based on Android 9 which was initially released in August 2018, and my last update was January 2019. The big issue, after 6 years since OS initial release, apps are starting to not support Android 9. Add to that, my USB-C plug was getting questionable in terms of retaining charging cables and my fingerprint reader has not worked for years.
So how to replace the G6? Well I choose a new Google Pixel 8a and GrapheneOS. The Google Pixel is one of the better supported hardware devices in the after market ROM landscape and GrapheneOS seems to be one of the most popular ROMs.
It took me about a week to do the transition. Lot of that was just normal when moving everything to a new phone and not using the vendors automatic tools. The actual initial setup and flashing though was pretty straight forward. It was a bit emotionally difficult to take new $400 hardware and then just simply re-flash it risking say bricking. This turned out to be a non-issue.
Benefits I see from doing this:
- Lack of Cruft. The lack of all the vendor loaded cruft was very nice. My old G6 has about 17 apps that I could never really delete because they were flashed into the ROM. Many of them fairly large Google suite apps.
- Profiles. The new phone can fully use user and work profiles, plus with Android 15 it has the Private Space feature. GrapheneOS also supports up to 31 user profiles, not the 4 supported by most distributions. I actually use the Private Space to contain my Google Play Services and Google Play Apps and otherwise just the owner profile. Might have been better to look at some of the other options, not sure.
- Storage Scopes are really useful. One can restrict App access to only certain folders. I have already used that a few times, probably more in the future.
- Backup. GrapheneOS allows one to do App backups to your own media or cloud storage. For stock systems normally only Google Drive is allowed, which I would never use.
- Sandboxed Google Play. I like the idea of sandboxing Google play. Presumably it should be more compatible then MicroG and some Apps require Google play. Interestingly the number that do seems fairly small. I actually further placed all my Play Services related stuff in a Private Space so I know what apps can actually use it.
- Device Integrity Check. Verified boot and some other device integrity checks are properly supported and so many apps that required them should run, though not all. This is not always the case with third party ROMs.
- Wifi Calling and Messaging seems more stable then my old G6. Maybe just the difference between Android 9 and 15.
- Updates should be supported for a full 7 years from initial device release which as of late 2024 is about another 6.5 years. My original G6 had about 1 year of updates.
- Hardening. Graphene has a bunch of hardening features not in typical distributions. Storage Scopes and really good Profile support are a couple I've mentioned, but there are many others.
One question that took me a while to consider is where to get Apps from. There are pros and cons and a lot of discussions about this. In the end, I used the GrapheneOS App Store, F-Droid, Accrescent, Obtanium, and the Aurora Store in that order for my owner profile, then installed sandboxed Google Play Services and the Google Play app in my Private Space.
As of now my limited experience with GrapheneOS has all been positive. The one App that I have had issues with is the UPS app for some reason. For that I'll just use their website for now. Not sure if the UPS app can be made to run or not. My understanding too is that Google Wallet may not fully function though I have not tried it and have never used it before anyway.
If your interested in GraphneneOS and have any specific questions, feel free to ask. All the best.
I need to change ISPs and need to find a new email provider. This time I want to move to my own domain which I purchased through Namecheap and I do not want to use another ISP's email system nor do I want to use Google, or Microsoft since I am Linux (and Android too) based. I would like this to be US based or at least have a strong US presence so obvious choices like Proton Mail, Mailfence, and Mailbox.org are out. I would prefer it interoperate well with FOSS software too, I use Thunderbird and K-9 Mail for example. Also so want them to be trustworthy, have good security, and have good OpSec with respect to their their servers and service.
After looking I find three I am considering and they are quite different:
- Fastmail. Long history. No PGP support but they do have their own domains one can use also.
- Namecheap Private Email. Uses Ox App Suite, may support PGP, and quite new. I think you have to have your own domain (not sure).
- Forward Email (forwardemail.net). A forwarder with IMAP support. You supply the webmail if you want webmail, but otherwise it should work fine with IMAP and normal clients.
So questions:
- Any thoughts and experience, pros and cons with the above 3.
- Other better ideas.
So thoughts? Thanks.
Well I finished my taxes this year and they are finally accepted. Every year, we look at the market and the issues and decide on what provider to use. So here is a summary of our experience. Happy to hear your experiences too.
Over the years I have used TaxCut/H&R Block, TaxAct, FreeTaxUSA, and now this year OLT. They all have done the job, but they have all had issues too. I left the PC version of TaxCut/H&R Block (often considered the #2 software out there) in 2003 primarily because I wanted to move to the Web and use Linux. It was also a huge cost savings at the time. My last H&R Block return was $61.30, and TaxAct was $17.90 in 2003. We used TaxAct (maybe the #4 tax provider, and #3 provider in the high-end market) for many years, but their price hikes over the years were way beyond simple inflation and sanity. By 2020, our last return cost $134.90. They also had issues with calculating underpayment penalties so we sometimes payed penalties when we did not have to. If they had just followed inflation that $17.90 in today's dollars would be $30.16. So I strongly believe that paying more then $30 regardless of how complex your taxes are is a rippoff. So in 2021 we moved to FreeTaxUSA (FTU) which was $21.98. As far as I know they are the #3 tax provider and the #1 value player. We actually like them quite a lot. The main issue we found was their treatment of MN Exempt income from mutual funds is a bit suspect though it can be worked around. The other issue we had was particular to this year. Turns out that we needed K1 support with certain boxes and codes, and the state part of that which for us is MN KF. FTU just could not do it. So we tried OLT. The cost of OLT was $15.90. What I really appreciate about OLT is support of a wider range of filing situations for a price under $30.00. Also like their lack of games including no price tiers based on your return, and being able to see your whole return before paying. What I am less sure of is thier MN state returns. My experience is that you may have to know what your doing and know to manually enter certain things, and manually override others for MN State returns. I had no particular issues with Federal though. So it seems like OLT is good for more complex returns for people that know what they are doing. Overall I liked OLT because of many added capabilities and I do hopefully know what I am doing.
I'll close with the list of tax providers I personally considered in the order of decreasing market share based on relative web traffic: TurboTax (60%), H&R Block (23%), FreeTaxUSA(7.4%), TaxAct (6.4%), TaxSlayer (2.3%), OLT (0.59%), 1040 dot com (0.48%). I did not seriously consider CashApp Taxes, FileYourTaxes, 1040Now, eFile Express, IRS Free Fillable Forms, or Sprintax for various reasons. I also did not consider TaxHawk or Express1040 or consider them in my web traffic estimates as they are from the same company as FreeTaxUSA which is more well known. I wanted a provider with fairly good support, that had some popularity, had a reasonable reputation, could file taxes of reasonable complexity, was focused on US residents, is web based and can use with Linux and Firefox, and could file my state return. I also wanted a provider for under $30 which left only FreeTaxUSA, OLT, and 1040 dot com on the list.
Anyway, hope someone finds this somewhat interesting or useful. Best to you all.
I have one mutual fund where cash dividends (there were no short gains this year) plus Box 7 (Foreign Tax Paid) is not equal to Box 1a (Ordinary Dividends). I have never seen such a thing before. Talked with the mutual fund company and they say it is correct. They claim in this case it includes and "interest adjustment" as well so that Box 1a = cash dividends and short term gains + foreign taxes + interest adjustment.
What exactly is this interest adjustment. I'd like to know for two reasons. One is an accounting one for my accounting program, and the other is tax and anything I should know about it for tax purposes.
Maybe I am just confused but if it appears as a Ordinary Dividend I would think it would it would either mean I get some value for it be it a pass through tax credit (like Foreign Tax paid), a basis change (like a reinvestment), or maybe something that has accrued (something earned but not yet paid). As it stands, it seems like I am paying tax on something I get no benefit from so it kind of blows my mind.
So I am confused. What is this thing. The fund is T. Rowe Price International Stock.
Thanks.
Any ideas for alternative US tax forums or discussion boards similar to say Reddit Tax? Ideas?
Online Taxes tax preparation service provides simple, fast and secure tax preparation software and online tax help for online filing of your income tax return. Online Taxes offers both Federal income tax forms and State income tax forms for IRS efile.
Wondering if anyone here has used and what their experience has been. They do not appear in the lists of commonly hyped providers most of the time.
Normally I use FreeTaxUSA, but this year after entering most everything I found out it did not handle Estate state pass-through withholding.
So I spent yesterday on OLT entering everything again. They seem to handle more stuff at the cost of more complexity. Anyway got it all in this time. Still waiting for some final source documents but may file with OLT this year.
Anyway, wondering if anyone has done a full prep and filing with them and their experience. Thanks.
A new fundraising tool looks to optimize political giving for Democrats.
Does anyone have thoughts or experience with the fundraising site: https://app.oath.vote .
The article talks about it but I have not tried.
Kraft Heinz is recalling about 83,000 cases of its individually wrapped Kraft Singles American cheese because they might pose a choking hazard.
Anyone having issues with Jerboa on Beehaw today? Mine just opens and crashes. Did the clear cashe and storage thing. No effect. Have not tried reinstall.
I have been noticing that Google Play is overrun with adware, trialware, and freemium kinds of apps. Really hard to find FOSS and truly free apps.
Curious about best strategies to sort though Google Pay. I typically start with F-Droid and AlternativeTo to find apps then try to find them on Play.
Ideas?
I've been looking at options for controlling my Ubuntu Media Center computer from Android. Mainly Mouse, but Keyboard is good too. Looked at a lot of stuff but the most interesting ones were:
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KDE Connect. This is the one I decided on because it is common, readily available and Ubuntu has the GSConnect package to work with Gnome. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.kde.kdeconnect_tp . F-Droid also has a version that I have not tried.
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XMouse (In F-Droid, Not in Play). This actually was a dream to setup and worked well. The downside is that it is not in Play. https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.stripe1.xmouse .
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remote-touchpad. A cool app that is server side only and uses the a browser on the Android side. The biggest issue is it is not that secure. Also only on Ubuntu as a snap and not on Debian.
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Bluetooth Keyboard & Mouse (serverless). Fremium and not FOSS. Should have been good but I could never get it to work. The Linux Bluetooth system sees the packets, and the USB, Input, and XInput subsystems see the keyboard and mouse but no data flow. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=io.appground.blek .
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WiFiMouse. Have not tried this one. It seems like another FOSS app. Just added for reference and if anyone has tried. https://alternativeto.net/software/wifimouse/about/ .
So in short I found KDE Connect was the most obvious but I really liked how XMouse worked in terms of ease of setup and simplicity. Frankly probably would have used it if it was in Play too.
I was thinking that BlueTooth would be better and more universal. The issue I found was FOSS apps seem to be missing and I could never get the one freemium app I found to actually work. This seems to be an area that needs a good FOSS alternative that actually works. Let me know if you have any idea of other options OR why I loose the data stream somewhere between the bluetooth stack and the Linux input subsystem.
Suzi Dougherty’s photograph of 18-year-old Caspar deemed ‘suspicious’ by judges, even though it was taken on her mobile
Always love when self agrandized authorities act like idiots. Feels like the box wine wins wine competition article.
I have a friend that does photo competitions. They say winning is more about knowing the judges than anything else.
We are looking at new electric stoves. Does anyone understand the options?
Specifically wondering the types of surface units (burners). Are there various options or modes: constant current (constant heat flow), or temperature control (on/off cycling, or variable current). The old stoves were mostly constant current surface units. The new flat top stoves seem to cycle somehow (temperature controlled?). I have no idea how inductive works. We have gas now which is constant heat flow of course.
Why I ask is I'm not very interested in this cycling stuff at all, and temperature control only.
Thoughts, recommendations, or experiences?
Thanks.
Quark and Garak have a candid conversation
Have fun!
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