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Cake day: June 16th, 2023

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  • The native Android client just can’t do two way sync. Just put a text file or something into any folder (from the web or desktop). Now sync that folder to Android. Now edit it on the web/desktop, and look for the changes on Android (without actively telling it to “sync”). Then change the file on Android, these 2nd changes are never sent back to the server unless you explicitly tell it to “sync” again, manually. That’s what I mean with 2 way sync.

    There are quite a few files where you just need that to work to use them properly, like the database of a password manager as a prime example. Mine can talk to Nextcloud natively, so I don’t need the client for that, but I was incredibly close to just switching to syncthing, if I didn’t have active users that use the web office integration of Nextcloud.





  • You clearly misunderstood my post. Never said it was apples to apples, quite the opposite. I said the change from 7 to 10 was much bigger (and yes, we’re ignoring Win 8 completely).

    And of course will there be an uptick in Linux usage, he says it would be a “big” one, to which I objected to. Linux desktop has been trending up for a while, and while there might be a slight additional bump, I highly doubt it will be far beyond the margin of error for that general positive trend.

    I also said it “barely” moved (it being the market share), which implies it did move, just not a lot.

    More to the expected magnitude of the 10 EoL date pushing people to Linux, it won’t be anywhere near what valve accomplished with the steam deck. Why? Because people buy a gaming console, they can play games on. Most don’t care that it’s Linux, it’s just a tool/toy. It happens to be Linux underneath. On their PC they actively have to change it themselves. If people bought a PC that had Linux on it, they probably wouldn’t overly notice or care either, but they just can’t. Overwhelmingly they just come with windows, it you want it or not (usually there is no option to not buy that license).

    Edit: what is harder to predict (or guess) is the indirect influence of valves accomplishment. Now that gaming on Linux it’s actually viable, this might actually open the door for more people to give it a go. But as per usual with these things, it’s probably less people who actually do it than one would intuitively expect or hope.

    Edit 2: changed Vista to Win8



  • They have some shady (or at least questionable) enough actions in their past, some even covered by mainstream media, that made me dismiss them as an option. I went with the German hosted mailbox.org instead. Swiss law (where proton is hosted) is actually quite a bit less protective of privacy than EU/German law, or maybe just protected in other ways. The international reputation of privacy protecting character of Swiss law seems to be outdated?

    Just to be clear, I can’t remember exactly what the specific events were that caused me to reconsider back when I switched years ago. When I just did some quick (!) searches just now, I found statements that they would only record ip addresses in “extreme criminal cases”, but examples include cases of trespassing and property damage. Not exactly child molesters and serial killers (example source). I also understand that the (Swiss) laws relevant to them probably forced them to, but at the very least that seems dishonest or misleading advertising.


  • While unfortunate, as a consumer it’s the only recourse we have. We don’t buy unity, we buy games. I won’t buy a game that might just suddenly disappear from a store where I bought it, cause the developer can’t or won’t carry install fees that may or may not come at any point.

    Yes, it hurts developers. Yes, he shouldn’t have to suddenly have to pay that fee, but that is out of my control. But I’m still not taking the risk with my money. Unity clearly wants to do this, eventually they probably will.

    Let’s stop buying games with unity so they have no customers left that can slam with install fees after-the-fact. All we can do.


  • Having the sun shine through a large window is an issue, but is also an issue for a good picture on normal TVs. Picture quality with protectors is better when the room is darker (increases contrast), but a normally lit room is just fine. It also depends on how and what you’re watching. I generally do darken the room when I’m actively watching a movie, but no need for that when putting something on you’re just half watching. You can still tell just fine what’s going on even in a bright room, it just looks a bit washed out.

    It also depends on the brightness/class of the projector of course, and on the screen. Don’t underestimate the visual difference a screen makes. Both having any screen over just projecting onto a white wall, and a great screen over a cheap ransom one.

    The core issue is that a projector uses throwing light as bright, and not throwing light as dark. If your surface (screen or wall) is rather white and illuminated without the projector actually projecting light into it, that is as dark as a black part of the picture could possibly be. There are screens that are reflective, but more gray than white, those help with that, too.

    I would say a normally lit room (with artificial light in the evening for example) is fine to use a projector. “Well lit workspace” really depends on you’re definition. For my definition of “well lit” it wouldn’t be ideal, but I’ve just installed like 49000 lumens of illumination into my 3.5 x 3.5 meter workshop, cause I like to see what I’m doing and life is too short for bad lighting.




  • Of course. The point isn’t too “get stuff”, it’s too support someone. You see someone doing something you like and you want to motivate them to keep doing that thing, join the Patreon. Like a YouTuber far too small to justify dedicating time to making more videos. Think of it as a donation-subscription. Chucking like a coffee worth of money at a YouTuber isn’t a large difference individually, but adds up, and it’s more than I could generate for them by watching ads.

    There are many creators out there that simply couldn’t do their thing without Patreon, or would have to cut back on the amount of “stuff” they create. At a certain size it allows people to go “full time”, which is very very far away from the number of followers/subscribers a site like YouTube requires for this. It’s also more stable compared to ad revenue or changes in “the algorithm”. Note that the percentage taken by Patreon is tiny compared to a twitch sub, YouTube ‘join’ or similar things(essentially a processing fee, not like 50% as it is on twitch).

    I support a number of people, mostly cause I love their stuff and want them to continue, or cause I think it’s just an important cause. The fact that you might get an occasional goodie or whatever is besides the point.

    That’s also where the term Patreon comes from: think Renaissance era rich people or just royalty essentially funding artists, so they can focus on their art. Without this in the olden days, we would have a lot less art from those times these days.



  • The oceans are vast. The problem we have is that the area essentially shipping lanes (large traffic), regions where there’s some traffic, but massive areas are neither. Nobody is gonna nick your done in antarctic waters. It’s hard to get even basic measurements from there, because nobody goes past to even drop a buoy, let alone map the ocean floor.

    During the current Ocean Race (massive sailboats, partially riding on hydrofoils) that circles the globe, at least one team was dropping buoys along the way, cause the scientists can’t afford to send a ship to do just that. Or find one that just goes there, for any reason. The route goes from Europe past Africa, past Australia, then past south America and back up the Atlantic. The shortest route for that would go through the ice, but there’s an exclusion zone to prevent danger from ice. This area is where they dropped them.

    There is often nobody within thousands of natural miles. Let alone anyone remotely close enough to even spot a droneship.