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tvb12 commented on 1M Downloads of Zorin OS 18   blog.zorin.com/2025/11/18... · Posted by u/m463
constantcrying · a month ago
Exactly, you do that by installing Debian with KDE. Not by creating a new distro, which you do not have the resources to properly maintain, which is then perpetually broken in weird ways, which no user can figure out since the base distribution does not have the problems the completely understaffed maintainers introduced.

What all of these distros want to be is a basic configuration script. What they are is a nightmare for every user, since the user is now in the hands of a few people, who as a hobby are maintaining his OS and occasionally will break it.

It is so bizarre that so many people want to make distros, when they are completely unequipped up do so.

tvb12 · a month ago
It would be a really huge advantage if there were a really clean way to browse, apply, and (extremely importantly) reverse and remove such a configuration script. I've tried using KDE's customization options to tweak my desktop, and what I found is that I'm very capable of creating the worst desktop I've ever used.
tvb12 commented on The last-ever penny will be minted today in Philadelphia   cnn.com/2025/11/12/busine... · Posted by u/andrewl
techblueberry · a month ago
I think we should issue a new dollar that’s 10x the value of the current dollar, and / 10 the value of everything. I mean it wouldn’t make a substantive difference, but psychologically, I think it would feel better if the mean value of the house in the US was 52k instead of 522k, and I could start carrying cash again and have 100 bucks not go by in like 2 fast food orders.
tvb12 · a month ago
Would it feel better to see your bank account and pay checks shrink by 90%?
tvb12 commented on Adios Chicos, 25 Years of KDE   jriddell.org/2025/09/14/a... · Posted by u/thangqt
jpetso · 3 months ago
No. Jonathan was co-maintaining KDE neon, which now has one developer left and is about to be joined by KDE Linux, another take on a Plasma-based distro. He also handled release manager duties, which have been transferred and running smoothly for a few months now.

He may have contributed in other ways that I'm not aware of, but overall KDE is in a very good spot with many more developers working on stuff.

tvb12 · 3 months ago
For others who might not know, KDE Neon is a distribution. I was initially confused because I thought it might have been an alternative desktop environment to KDE Plasma.

This is probably the greatest curse and blessing of modern Linux: there are an impractical number of distributions. I guess you could probably say the same thing for desktop environments, various services, bootloaders, etc.

tvb12 commented on How to become a pure mathematician or statistician (2008)   hbpms.blogspot.com/... · Posted by u/ipnon
up2isomorphism · 3 months ago
You can mix mathematician with statistician, especially if you put pure in front of it.
tvb12 · 3 months ago
Pure mathemistician
tvb12 commented on Building the mouse Logitech won't make   samwilkinson.io/posts/202... · Posted by u/sammycdubs
jcuenod · 4 months ago
I would _love_ to see more DIY mouse options. I feel like the mechanical keyboard crowd has so many options.

I've been dreaming of a set of lego-style bits of a mouse that can be assembled together... want another button? here you go. Want it on the side? Modify the 3D print file. Want bluetooth? Use this board... Want USB-C? Use that board... Want both? We've got you covered... Want a hyper-scroll wheel? Well, Logitech has a patent on that one, but here's the closest thing you can get on a DIY mouse. Now click these buttons in the configurator and hit "upload", and the firmware is installed to use your new mouse on any machine.

tvb12 · 4 months ago
On the subject of adding more buttons, I think there needs to be a rethinking of mouse button events at the OS level. Gaming mice with 12-20+ buttons have to resort to creating keyboard events with weird key combinations because there aren't actually that many mouse events, which is insane. There are currently only 12 valid integers (12 types of "click") sent from the raw mouse events. Those need special handling because the numbers are chosen very strangely, but why can't we agree that for any number within some range, the odd number is a key-press and the even number is the key-release, or something like that? You don't have to create named events for all of them, but the raw integers should be valid even if you have to use the lower level events.

If I want to build a mouse with 32,000 buttons, the limit should not be the operating system's mouse event.

tvb12 commented on How to speed up US passenger rail, without bullet trains   bloomberg.com/news/articl... · Posted by u/petethomas
Lammy · 8 months ago
> The Momentum framework calls on Amtrak and commuter rail agencies to […] shift their focus from increasing the geographic coverage and capacity of their rail services

> When making changes to rail infrastructure or services, state and local railroad agencies often must negotiate with the freight railroad companies that own most of America’s track network. These companies [are] reluctant to allow more frequent passenger service that could reduce the amount of time their freight trains have access to track.

This article completely fails to mention the actual cause of our modern situation. Before focusing on increasing geographical coverage we would first need to focus on not decreasing geographic coverage. Check out the Abandoned & Out-of-Service Rail map of North America and you can see the result of massive corporate consolidation where newly-combined railroads abandon parts of each constituent company's former network to end up with the most track they can run for the least money. There is zero redundancy left: https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=10akDabya8L6nWIJi-4...

tvb12 · 8 months ago
Dang, there's a track on there, within a bike ride from me, that goes all the way to the biggest city in my state and passes within a few hundred feet of the university I attended. That could have made things easier.
tvb12 commented on Trump's Tariff Formula Makes No Economic Sense. It's Also Based on an Error   aei.org/economics/preside... · Posted by u/Leary
tvb12 · 9 months ago
I'm still reading the paper, but Stephen Miran must regret writing this...

A sudden shock to tariff rates of the size proposed can result in financial market volatility. ... A second Trump Administration is likely therefore take steps to ensure large structural changes to the international tax code occur in ways that are minimally disruptive to markets and the economy

tvb12 · 9 months ago
I'm beginning to suspect that I've read more of this paper than anyone in the current administration has.

While President Trump has proposed a 10% tariff on the world as a whole, such a tariff is unlikely to be uniform across countries.

Oof.

Once tariffs begin increasing beyond 20% (on a broad, effective basis), they become welfare-reducing

Uh...

How can the U.S. get trading and security partners to agree to such a deal? First, there is the stick of tariffs. Second, there is the carrot of the defense umbrella and the risk of losing it.

Ukraine, Greenland, Canada... They've created so much doubt over the defense umbrella that they've really hurt their position here.

tvb12 commented on Trump's Tariff Formula Makes No Economic Sense. It's Also Based on an Error   aei.org/economics/preside... · Posted by u/Leary
walterbell · 9 months ago
> The formula for the tariffs, originally credited to the Council of Economic Advisers and published by the Office of the United States Trade Representative, does not make economic sense.

There is a 2024 paper (40 pages) by Stephen Miran, chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43589350

  The root of the economic imbalances lies in persistent dollar overvaluation that prevents the balancing of international trade, and this overvaluation is driven by inelastic demand for reserve assets. As global GDP grows, it becomes increasingly burdensome for the United States to finance the provision of reserve assets and the defense umbrella, as the manufacturing and tradeable sectors bear the brunt of the costs... Tariffs provide revenue, and if offset by currency adjustments, present minimal inflationary or otherwise adverse side effects.
https://financialpost.com/news/stephen-miran-economist-trump...

> Miran.. points to Trump’s application of tariffs on China in 2018-2019, which he argues “passed with little discernible macroeconomic consequence.” He adds that during that time the U.S. dollar rose to offset the macroeconomic impact of the tariffs and resulted in significant revenue for the U.S. Treasury.. “The effective tariff rate on Chinese imports increased by 17.9 percentage points from the start of the trade war in 2018 to the maximum tariff rate in 2019,” the report said. “As the financial markets digested the news, the Chinese renminbi depreciated against the dollar over this period by 13.7 per cent, so that the after-tariff USD import price rose by 4.1 per cent.”

tvb12 · 9 months ago
I'm still reading the paper, but Stephen Miran must regret writing this...

A sudden shock to tariff rates of the size proposed can result in financial market volatility. ... A second Trump Administration is likely therefore take steps to ensure large structural changes to the international tax code occur in ways that are minimally disruptive to markets and the economy

tvb12 commented on Mozilla launching “Thundermail” email service to take on Gmail, Microsoft 365   techradar.com/pro/mozilla... · Posted by u/bentobean
Kirby64 · 9 months ago
I had to disable uBlock Origin for that to show up.
tvb12 · 9 months ago
I can see it. Firefox 137.0 (desktop) with uBlock Origin enabled.
tvb12 commented on Repairable Flatpack Toaster   kaseyhou.com/#/repairable... · Posted by u/t-3
tvb12 · 10 months ago
I've always wanted toasters to have a lid to keep dust out. That's one thing I would add to their design.

u/tvb12

KarmaCake day156January 30, 2020View Original