kewrkewm53

There's a healthy used market for iPhones because they indeed do last long, and Apple provides many more years of software support than cheap Android manufacturers do.

IMO when it comes to electronics with little to no moving parts it's almost always better to buy used quality than cheap new crap. An iPhone that has lasted two years without failing will probably last 5 more without anything else than battery needing replacement. Mid-range Android phones often aren't bad either except for lack of long-term updates.

Thankfully EU is also working on legislation that mandates more years of software support. Hopefully days of only 2-3 years of support will be soon gone for good, it's just plain wrong.

Right now I find ChatGTP excellent for certain technical topics I'm familiar with, but can't recall the details. It saves me the time of looking for an example from stackoverflow/tutorial blogs/official documentation, and gives me just the piece I want - things like syntax, which libraries/modules to use etc.

I've been running Linux Mint for years on both laptops (Thinkpads) and desktop, it hasn't been any more trouble than MacOS or Windows. Things just work out of the box for the needs of a basic home-office user & programmer.

I think it's just important to pick the right distro. RHEL which I use at work is giving me way more trouble.

I agree. Here in Finland the public healthcare organization in capital region and surrounding areas chose Epic as supplier of their new system. It has been a disaster, massive complaints from doctors about how unproductive it is to use, and also some issues that endanger patient safety. Apparently it's also programmed with MUMPS, which doesn't exactly sound a great idea in 21th century.

I'm not sure whether this choice was a case of incompetence or corruption, but the end result is clearly a giant waste of money. Maybe it generates a lot of data, but efficiency would be way more important for an organization like this which is chronically underfunded and staffed.

It seems like modern wokeism was designed to make it easier for rich elites to exploit their privilege. Stuff like this makes it easier for lazy kids with rich and connected parents to get into best colleges/universities. All the talk about race and gender also conveniently turns attention away form real solutions that could help the underprivileged, like progressive taxation, which the rich elites oppose.

At least Marx was smart enough to understand that ultimately who has the money/assets is the key, unlike modern progressives and their obsession with other less relevant qualities. We should tax the rich and fund the poor regardless of their ethnicity or identity.

I still use a T520 from 2011 for hobby projects, picked it for 100 euros a while ago. Just gotta love the keyboard travel, I don't think anything available new today comes close. The 1080p screen is perfectly fine for programming, no complains about performance either with i7, SSD and 16GB of RAM as I don't do anything super intensive. Only thing that really sucks is the aftermarket battery.

I wonder how much of the fast increasing prevalence of gut-related diseases like IBS can be explained by the changes in gut microbes, and how much is just about lack of exercise and changes in diet.

Whenever I go work at relative's farm my stomach seems to work way better, even though I do plenty of exercise in my home city as well. Perhaps the type of manual labor is better for stomach than gym/running, but I wouldn't rule out the impact of microbes either.

Yep, autopilot is a good helper but a bad master. In the air there's a lot more space and fewer objects to avoid than on the roads, yet nobody has managed to build a perfect autopilot that could really replace pilots in every situation. I remain skeptical that we'll ever see one in any dimension, let it be air, sea or land.

I've been using Linux Mint Cinnamon for years, doing mostly programming, and honestly I've encountered way less issues than with Windows. Maybe it's because I'm using old hardware. I'm very satisfied with the experience as it is by default, not much need for customization or tinkering in my case.

" Also the treadmill of computer progress means that keeping devices for multiple years has significant costs in performance compared to replacing it regularly."

The interval of replacement due to performance is getting longer through. A 10-year old high-end laptop is still pretty good for average user today, especially with an SSD. Most people need just something that can run web-apps and stream HD videos via browser. Buying a new laptop solely for performance is getting harder and harder to justify. I guess that's why Macbooks are attractive, they offer more than just performance.

It definitely has, mainly because I lack motivation for my work (very underpaid, boring tasks, temp contract). At the office there was more social pressure to do something other than reading the news, and I got some enjoyment from random discussion with co-workers. Now all that's left is endless boredom and apathy. I also struggle to separate work from my personal life due to living in a small apartment, I definitely could use a separate room to use as home office.

I believe WFH would work great if my job was motivating and I could afford a proper house with clear physical boundaries between work and leisure. Small apartments are absolutely depressing if you have to spend nearly all of your waking hours in them.

There should be more discussion about these forgotten forms of slave trade. People tend to think about just the transatlantic slavery when they hear the word, but reality the transatlantic slavers just scaled up and spread an existing way of doing business.

Interestingly enough, Crimea used to be a major center of slave trade all the way into 1700s. Christians were sold to Islamic world and vice versa.

https://mikedashhistory.com/2015/01/15/blonde-cargoes-finnis...

Even the least promoted pilot shouldn't be this incompetent in an airline like Emirates. I could perhaps understand it from some small airline in developing country where the pilots got their licences through bribery.

The error we're talking about here is something that shouldn't happen even to a rookie straight out of flight school. Hell, even a kid flying flight simulator knows that something is wrong if you're still on the ground at 200kts on a 777.

Anything that helps avoiding a climate catastrophe short-term is a good idea since it buys us time to switch to truly sustainable sources.

Sweden's lower rate can be explained by snus. Too bad that the rest of Europe bans sales of this product, which unlike cigarette smoke does not cause harm to anyone else but the user.

Unfortunately for many people increasing the expense will simply leave them without any alternatives, which isn't a good thing either.

Think of a low-paid European worker who commutes to work inthe countryside where public transport does not work. Increase cost of commute enough, and it will make more sense for that person to live off welfare than go to work, especially if the salary isn't sufficient to afford same quality of housing closer to workplace. Not good for the economy.

A future without cars works only if we either heavily subsidize public transport in rural areas, or force everyone to live in tightly-built cities full of tiny apartments where quality of life is always going to be inferior.

Cars and private car ownership are not a problem. Cars using fossil fuels, and unnecessary private car traffic in large cities are. Electric vehicles solve the first problem, better public transport the second.

For the vast majority of people living in the countryside car ownership is a necessity, at least as long as city dwellers aren't willing to pay for government public transport to rural areas.

Thus, being anti-car is idiotic since cons of cars outweigh the pros only in certain contexts.

At least here in Finland public transportation absolutely does not work in most of the countryside. Maybe you count us as Eastern Europe, but I can tell that the situation is no different in Sweden for example.

The truth is that replacing private car ownership for people living in countryside in many countries would require large government spending to operate lines that are not commercially viable.

Yeah, history shows that revolutions which consist killing or expelling all the educated, well-off citizen typically end up having pretty bad results for everybody. Even if you successfully capture their wealth, the future will be poor when there's nobody competent enough left to manage administration, education, farms, industry, infrastructure and so on. And once things go downhill like that, it's not easy to turn things around.

I also think there's a cultural factor at play. In addition to wealth and education, more well-off families may also have cultural capital which encourages things like entrepreneurship, long-term thinking and higher self-esteem. Even if these are secondary to wealth, they may still have an impact. I think the impact of culture in general is underestimated as it very much influences human behaviour and outcomes, not just politics, geography etc.

Pi is nice, but also used hardware would do the job. At least in Western countries old Core2 Duo business desktops are basically worthless by now, and such laptops don't exactly cost much either. Why not export more of those and get some more years out of them before recycling? They are perfectly adequate for learning to program.

At least in European context, many migrants who cross the border illegally lack sufficient education to do well in modern labour market, and end up having a very low employment rate & high dependency on welfare. Even those who do find employment are likely to have low salary that doesn't bring much tax income.

Thus uncontrolled migration can never be a solution to our population issues. Instead effort should be put into attracting more skilled workforce that is in demand, and they should come in legally.

Funnily enough Macbooks were way more repairable when Jobs was still alive. Apple seems to be getting only worse each passing year.

Same thing here in Finland, in early months of the epidemics health officials said wearing masks has no benefit.

That's only assuming that being able to buy cheap stuff actually makes people happier. I don't think it does.

Many people also want to live in large houses or apartments, which is extremely expensive anywhere with high population density.

This. The most climate-friendly way to handle forests is to actually cut parts of them down regularly (in a sustainable pace, leaving enough unaffected areas for wildlife), and use the wood for building houses and other elements which stay intact long-term.

More buildings should be constructed from wood, less from concrete, which itself causes major co2 emissions.

Same here. Solving completely artificial problems is boring.

There's just something inherently satisfying about farming, growing your own food and taking care of land. Obviously it's hard work and difficult if you actually need to make a decent living out of it, but as a hobby it has been most refreshing for someone who spends his days staring at display.

I hope eventually I can raise my family in a farm-environment while working remotely, and get some extra income on top of that by growing stuff in small scale.