wuphysics87

As an American, the US participation in the Ukrainian conflict as well as the Palestinian genocide are beyond reproach. Many describe them as proxy wars, but I'm not there yet.

During the Cold War, there was the Afghanistan, Vietnam, South America, Cuba, etc. These were proxy wars because there was a clear adversary on the other side. The Soviet Union.

Now, who is that? Russia? China? Who is "our enemy"? I see it was war is good for business and projection of power.

Am I wrong?

Obviously, a bit of clickbait. Sorry.

I just got to work and plugged my surface pro into my external monitor. It didn't switch inputs immediately, and I thought "Linux would have done that". But would it?

I find myself far more patient using Linux and De-googled Android than I do with windows or anything else. After all, Linux is mine. I care for it. Grow it like a garden.

And that's a good thing; I get less frustrated with my tech, and I have something that is important to me outside its technical utility. Unlike windows, which I'm perpetually pissed at. (Very often with good reason)

But that aside, do we give Linux too much benefit of the doubt relative to the "things that just work". Often they do "just work", and well, with a broad feature set by default.

Most of us are willing to forgo that for the privacy and shear customizability of Linux, but do we assume too much of the tech we use and the tech we don't?

Thoughts?

FOSS or otherwise

My understanding of google analytics is that it is a 'free' tool which gives site operators bird's eye information on site traffic like the old fashion visitor counters all the way down to very granular information like what buttons users click on.

I have no idea what google tag service does. Based on a prior conversations I've had, I believe it has something to do with SEO.

If you don't know what I'm talking about, use the developer tools in Firefox to view the HTML of the page you are on. In the header you'll see javascript blocks. You'll see google analytics and tag service on just about every site, often meta or amazon, and some with completely unidentifiable names. I imagine the latter are the non big tech third parties we accept with cookies, but I'm not sure about that either.

My upstairs neighbors seem to like clog dancing at 2am. What would you do?

I spend a lot of time fixing things, for myself and others. (Computers, electrical, plumbing, etc). While I learn a lot, I wonder sometimes if it would be better to pay a professional and do something else for which I am more 'valuable'. Do you do the same, and do you find it worthwhile?

When you connect a new device to a 'smart' tv, you must pay homage to the manufacturer with a ritualistic dance. Plugging and unplugging the device. Turning them on and off in the correct sequence like entering a konami code.

Every time you want to switch devices, the tv must scan for them. And god forbid you lose power, or unplug something. You are granted the delight experience of doing it all over again.

I have fond memories of the days of just plugging something in, and pressing the input button. Instant gratification. It was a simpler time.

What is some other tech that used to be better?

I gave my students a take home exam over spring break. (This is normal where I teach) One of the questions was particulary difficult. It came down to a factor of three in the solution. That factor inexplicably appeared with no justification on many of their exams. I intend to have the students I suspect of cheating come to my office to solve the problem on the board. What would you do?

Edit: I gave them the Tuesday before spring break until the Thursday after. I didn't want it to be right before or right after.

When I say normal I mean giving take home exams.

I have a 2010 Toyota Corolla. She's been my trusty steed for the last 14 years and is in good working order. I recognize she won't last forever, and if, god forbid (mostly for her) I get in an accident, I will need to get a new car. So what dumb cars do you drive, and what would you replace them with?