Zink

Just yesterday I wiped the drive and installed Linux on the 3rd old PC for the LAN setup I'm putting together, literally "for the children!"

It's an i7-920 from 2008. It has TRIPLE channel ram, baby. I installed Linux Mint Cinnamon and it was as quick and painless as usual.

I already get the warm fuzzies when I walk into the room and find my 3rd grader playing on my PC instead of their tablet or even the console. Our first LAN party is gonna be sweet.

I have no idea how similar the settings screens are, but in the iOS voyager client there is some kind of option if you go to:

settings

general

other

open links in...

You drive a Hemi? Balls to the wall?

Yeah that controller might just have a hardware problem.

I've had pretty good luck with Xbox controllers from multiple generations, but it sounds like a LOT of people have problems with them. Even the elite controllers! It's a shame because their shape and layout work great for me, and I'm sure the same is true of other people with broken controllers and no spares.

Controllers needing to be updated is dumb in a way, sure. But as somebody who has worked in the design/manufacture/test of embedded electronics & software systems, I know the development of those dumb little accessories was a massive project, and there's so much potential for bugs or security issues down the line. After a quick search it looks like MS claims it was over $100 million in R&D for the xbone controller, and that's 15 years of inflation ago.

Back around the same time It was part of a $10M project at my job and that thing took over most of the damn company!

Oh same here. I'm hopeful that valve brings us a linux phone, not a gaming phone. I've never really gotten into gaming on mobile either.

However, if they DO make a linux phone, I'm sure it will be Steam branded and have all kinds of gaming-specific tweaks.

But again, to me that just sounds like it will have good hardware specs. So not a problem!

I wonder if Valve would ever get into the Linux Phone market.

But for the platform itself to be open, I wonder how much would have to be recreated.

Oh yeah, Woodstock '99 was his peak!

Looking back through my spotty memories, it's like Kid Rock had his rise in the late 90s and then vanished from the face of the earth after I saw him at Woodstock '99.

...well then they resurrected the brand a decade or two later to help elect the worst person on the planet to the most powerful job on the planet.

I think better questions to ask first might be things like "Can I pass the controller USB connection to windows in a VM?" which is probably yes, and "Can I just never update this controller?" which I would normally say is a yes, but it sounds like yours has issues.

I recommend Mint. It's basically ubuntu with the controversial stuff disabled (Canonical's snaps mostly, but I guess also any ads for their pro services) and with an extra layer of polish.

I'm happy with it for both the "I want something that works reliably" reasons and the "I'm an engineer who wants a free system that I can control and modify" reasons.

Patriots love their country and criticize it when its wrong.

This line turned on a light bulb deep in the recesses of my brain that were formed while being raised by rural conservatives.

In my conservative world at least, punching down was pretty much universal, not just a political thing. You don't criticize your parents/betters or honestly even disagree with them many times, but you can expect criticism of your own every move. Generational trauma isn't a single event, after all.

Or, if you're lucky, the parent is the type to sweep everything under the rug and pretend that everything is perfect.

So with those kinds of traits plus the very hierarchical thinking, you can see how you simply do not criticize your people in charge, your religion, etc.

But that's only for YOUR people. If somebody is an OTHER then that means they are nowhere on your hierarchy (the correct one, obvs) and are therefore worth less than the lowest peon on your side.

Soooooo, that was a long way of saying these people probably THINK they love their country because they treat it with the same honor, deference, and "see no evil" that they give their own grandmother.

I was wondering if we'll see the republicans themselves use the 25th at some point if the administration lasts long enough.

Like once he gets bad enough that he won't even realize he's been removed, they'll 25th him so he doesn't have to resign and send him to mar-a-lago on a "special secure mission" where every person on property will say he's the current president every day.

It has to be just plausible enough for MAGA to not immediately go even more civil war crazy than usual. Then JD Vance can publicly kiss Trump's ass for cheap plentiful loyalty points while acting like a great uniter who is going to return us to normalcy and prosperity.

So then in the real world that probably means a bunch of tariffs go away or get cut back, while Project 2025 goes ahead at full speed but with less embarrassing fanfare.

I will keep that in mind. I look forward to taking my time with it. Thank you again!

I ordered the other book too, but Wright's book here has definitely jumped to the front of the line.