Hi, I'm sbird! I like programming and am interested in Astrophysics and all things space. I also have a hobby of photography.
Kind of insane that a relatively small manufacturer like Framework is able to produce a laptop that has similar battery life, performance (Panther Lake chips are competitive with the base M5), build quality (CNC chassis), and QoL features as the Macbook Pros while also offering fully modular parts, upgradeable RAM and storage, customisable IO, a matte anti-reflective touchscreen (for one of those bits you need to pay an extra $200 to Apple for!), and the ability to install a freer OS (Asahi Linux currently does not support the M5 series well)
And by selecting the different options, it looks like an Intel X7 chip FW13 Pro with 16GB/1TB storage is more expensive than the Macbook Pro with the base M5 and the same memory config, but when you go to 32GB RAM and 2TB of storage, the Macbook is more expensive! Remember that you can upgrade the memory yourself on the FW, or reuse an M.2 from your old laptop/computer, saving even more cost! (FYI: this is UK pricing without tax or shipping, I'd imagine that would be a bit higher for Framework)
Doesn't "archangel" just mean the head/authority of the angels (usually depicted as friendly and helpful)? Like how archbishops is to bishops.
Wait, what does this mean for Arch Linux?
Ubuntu is owned by Canonical, and they have been making some decisions that a lot of people in the community don't like, most notably, the enforcement of snaps (in a nutshell, the repos are proprietary and centralised), but they have been involved in various other corpo shenanigans as well
But I don't think "X distro is bad, don't use it" is very useful unless it is dangerous or harmful to the user.
Ubuntu (or the various other buntus) work for some people, and without them, far fewer people would use Linux. The benefit of Linux is the amount of choice you get and being able to easily switch between distros (you can even dual boot if you want!)
So if you like Mint, stick with that. If somebody prefers the buntus, it's great as long as they are respectful to others!
Distro wars are stupid
- That's simply wrong, the most reliable (consumer) machine is probably the Prusa Core One, and the best print quality would depend on what you are printing (resin printing is nicer than most FDM but has its own set of challenges, Prusa XL can have six toolheads, single toolhead printers, etc.)
And of course, enterprises grade machines are probably much more reliable than any consumer grade hardware
- This is focusing on the budget segment, which the H2 series is far outside of anyways (as is the Prusa machines). The Centauri Carbon by Elegoo is better than the A1 Mini in most metrics (larger volume, enclosed, CoreXY, more open ecosystem, etc.) for around the same price point, and the Sovol machines are quite good there as well.
The Elegoo Centauri Carbon is really good for the price: enclosed, CoreXY, etc. Arguably better than Bambu's offerings even by feature set alone.
Qidi's Q series is also quite good if you want to print more engineering type filaments, but might be considered "midrange tier" given that it's ~$500 ish.
Sovol makes some good machines too, a lot of people have already suggested them.
This one is not so lovely (also by PDF)
One thing of note, since Pixelfed is part of the Fediverse, posts made on Pixelfed instances can be seen by users of Mastodon and other platforms that use the same protocol! It's really neat!
their results seem mostly identical to ddg/bing too though it's occasionally better than them for some reason
I believe Ecosia uses either Google or Bing search indexes depending on the region, but they are working on an independent index with Qwant that will hopefully be a good alternative! If you live in France, it's already bring trialled!
But yeah, Ecosia is like any search engine and there is bit of greenwashing with LLMs and all. However, they are a non-profit with transparent earnings reports, and that makes them better than Google, Bing, DDG, etc. for me.
they geoblock certain countries including mine since 2023 or so
Dang, that sucks.
That's fair enough (unfortunately, this is the case for most search engines aside from SearXNG instances I think)! Thankfully they do let you disable it, which is nice. I mostly like that they are quite transparent about how they operate! The planting trees thing is a nice bonus, but they certainly aren't saints to the environment, no search engine is
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I think that makes sense, water is absorbed into the bloodstream, right? And then the kidneys filter the blood and the bad bits + excess water is peed out. Which is why your pee looks saturated yellow if you are dehydrated and almost clear (but don't drink it!) when you have drank a lot of water.
Any remaining water in your digestive tract that isn't absorbed would be in your poos! If you have diarrhoea and your poos are all liquidy, that means water is not being absorbed properly (bad!)
I didn't do Biology, I'm a Physics+Chem student, so this could be completely wrong!
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As for birds being dinosaurs, you also have a lot of physical similarities too! The feet of non-avian dinosaurs are similar to those of modern birds with hollow bones, and I think the skulls were similar in shape too. Recently, we have also found evidence of some dinosaurs being feathered. There is also evidence of bird-like behaviours in some dinosaurs, like brooding (e.g. a hen sitting on some eggs) and herding (grouping together)
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Too bad, now you, me, and everyone is a fish. All the tetrapods were originally descended from fish (technically, the ancestor to the modern kind of fish), meaning we are closer to bony fish than sharks are!
Mammals (including us humans!), reptiles, dinosaurs (and by extension birds), and amphibians are all FISH!
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our robot overlords will pamper us as much as I pamper my chickens
Unfortunately for us humans, the majority of chickens live in horrible conditions in large corporate farms. Should the robots ever start to take over, I hope by that time we will be treating other species better, else they learn from us!
searxng also doesn't really seem to work these days..
Of note, this depends on the instance. I occasionally hop between public instances whenever one is no longer reliable. Google and friends are blocking requests from SearXNG instances because it is in their business interests to kill competition
As for alternatives, I would avoid DDG since they seem to be going a similar route as Google with a front page filled with ads and the emphasis towards their chatbot is not to my taste. Plus, DDG is hosted in the U.S., so privacy-wise it's not as good. Startpage was purchased by an American advertising company some time ago, which isn't great. Brave Search is also one, but they are doing some shady things on their browser with crypto and whatnot, so I don't particularly trust them. Plus, they are an American for-profit.
Qwant and Ecosia are solid options, the former is a French for-profit and the latter a German non-profit, and they are working towards an independent European search index that is being trialled in France! Both are quite good, Qwant is shinier and magical blue, while Ecosia is simpler and earthy green.
Ecosia also uses a portion of their revenue for planting trees, which is really neat, and they are super transparent about where their earnings go!
I personally use a mix of SearXNG and Ecosia, and I sometimes use Qwant too for certain queries.
And once you do have a 3D printer, you can mess around with Voron kits and build your own printer! 3D printing a 3D printer!
Yes, you are correct in avoiding Bambu. They have been pretty awful to their community, the open source community, and the media.
Prusa will be one of the most solid and reliable options you can get, reportedly amazing customer service and their machines are very repairable. However, if you have a tight budget, it won't be as good "value" (at least purely based on performance), where Prusa is surpassed by printers like the Elegoo Centauri Carbon, Qidi Q2 (both CoreXY), and Sovol SV06 Ace (bedslinger). If you want multiple toolheads, Snapmaker's U1 is neat and a lot cheaper than the equivalent Prusa XL.
Prusa has lots of great machines, but the "big dog" is definitely the Core One, which will later have the INDX tool changer upgrade path which is nest! If you're okay with bedslingers, you have their MK4S as well as the Mini (which has a smaller build volume than most, check what kind of models you want to print first!)
TLDR: Elegoo, Qidi, Sovol, and Prusa all have great printers (many of which are far better value than Bambu machines to be honest, plus they will be more open too with better compatibility with third-party software), though Prusa is the most reliable and trustworthy. I believe Elegoo, Qidi, and Prusa all have their own versions of a multi material system, and Snapmaker (and later Prusa with the INDX) offer tool changers if that's your jam.
pricing progression right now is sort of like this in my opinion:
- used market (e.g. older Prusa models)
- Sovol SV06 Ace (note: bedslinger!)
- Elegoo Centauri (no enclosure, CoreXY)
- Elegoo Centauri Carbon (enclosure, CoreXY)
- Qidi Q1 Pro or Q2 (CoreXY)
- Prusa MK4S (note: bedslinger!)
- Prusa Core One (CoreXY)
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squawk
no DRM Platform, but yes