Archives for 2024
From AlmaLinux KDE to Ubuntu MATE: the unlikely journey
This is going to look like a post using twisted logic to justify an illogical decision. But humans are not guided exclusively by what we love to call reason; they're…
Porsche and the “Six-Stroke Engine Patent”
I was just watching a YouTube video by Mentour Pilot, when the algorithm suggested me a video by driving 4 answers, an American enthusiast whose explanations on mechanics, engines, and…
Is this the CUPS hell? Maybe not for everyone, methinks
I don't address security issues. I don't fix vulnerabilities. But I am so tired of reading about such things! And believe me, I read about them a lot. For decades…
Dolphin on non-KDE distros with a dark theme: the horror
While being lately into KDE, I always acknowledged that any non-GNOME-based desktop environment is perfectly usable. Two “no-go” elements: it shouldn't use Files, the dumbified version of Nautilus that makes…
RetardGPT stopped working in Firefox ESR 115: what to do
Since yesterday, ChatGPT stopped working in Firefox ESR 115. Yes, I know that ESR has been rebased to 128, but this is not a valid reason to force me to…
Disturbing reads on disturbing facts (II): America
This is a completely different topic, which was originally meant to be included in yesterday’s post; however, due to its excessive length and being completely unrelated, it got its own…
Disturbing reads on disturbing facts (I): Israel
Every morning, I read a bunch of news reports, helped by a couple of news aggregators as Android apps. Global and local news, that is. The quality of the news…
Is this neuroscientist stupid? Now with a language connection!
This is to complement an older post of mine, The Blue That Is Green (And More). Here's what I just read in the Guardian: Do you see blue or green?…
ADHD insights for ADHD people
I happened to learn about the book ADHD : New Science and Strategies for Thriving with Distraction from Childhood through Adulthood, by Edward M. Hallowell and John J. Ratey ,…
Quick weather update
I am waiting to be told how catastrophic floods like the ones currently in force in Europe will disappear if we all just buy electric cars and give up the…
I wish I weren’t born in Europe
This is just a bit of venting, but also a measure of the exasperation I experience: life in Europe is more and more of a dystopia. I wish this nightmare…
Nu, Nicușor Dan nu a rezolvat problema de clasa a patra! Actualizare: ba da!
Am crezut că îmi scot creierii din mucezeală, dar de fapt mă enervai întrucâtva urmărind o așa-zisă provocare a unei profe de mate pe care Prelipceanu i-a prezentat-o lui Nicușor…
It’s time I said something against Ukraine (another long read)
Just because the Ukrainians are victims doesn't make them always right. Just because Zelenskyy has proven to be a surprisingly strong leader doesn't mean he never makes any mistakes. Just…
Pavel Durov: criminal, martyr, or double agent?
The current affair of Telegram’s founder and CEO, Pavel Durov, is stinking big time. This case is absolutely baffling, and I don't trust in the least what the French authorities…
UEFI was already broken, but Microsoft perfected the breakage
I'm fundamentally against UEFI, against Secure Boot, against encrypted partitions and against a number of other modern obsessions. But let's talk a bit about the way Microsoft recently broke GRUB.…
Is it IONOS, is it InnoDB, or is it me?
When I moved my WordPress blog to IONOS end-2022, I was relatively satisfied, despite a bumpy start. The previous hosting was using an older MySQL, the DB was exported as…
Bypass Paywalls will never die
As part of the August 23 edition of the Risky Biz News newsletter, came this news: Bypass Paywalls Clean removed: The News Media Alliance has filed a DMCA takedown notice…
The HARM mobile architecture
The ARM architecture is the future, they say. It's mostly that CISC is inefficient, and RISC lives a new life, especially since Apple’s M1 CPU. Back in the day, at…
Le dernier des grands
C'est la traduction en français du billet que j'ai mis sur Facebook ce matin, en commentaire à l'article du Figaro, Alain Delon, la légende du cinéma, est mort. Les chaînes…
How Webcamoid laid bare the disaster that is the Linux kernel
I noticed this behavior of Webcamoid while I was testing the latest Ubuntu MATE , and I mentioned it here. At the time, I thought that the app was broken.…