I’ll bite on tariffs. In a vacuum, my default opinion is that tariffs impinge on individual liberties and distort economies—they are a form of government interference and should be avoided. Since we do not live in a vacuum, I imagine two scenarios in which I’m okay with import tariffs:

• Countries who don’t play fair should be treated differently from countries who do. For example, if a country subsidizes their own industries to make them more competitive in the global marketplace, then other countries are justified in imposing proportionate tariffs against that country. Similarly, if a country imposes import tariffs, then other countries are justified in imposing their own proportionate tariffs against that country.
• If an industry is vital to national security, then this changes the calculus significantly. A contemporary example is energy independence from belligerent regimes. *cough* Russia *cough*

Barring these scenarios, I favor allowing the markets to determine the winners through free and fair competition.

I don’t have much substance to contribute to this particular conversation beyond that I think your points are well thought out and articulated. On a separate note, as someone who recently discovered this community, I just want to say that I’ve been longing for a space like this for some time now. Thank you, OP and mods.

Profit

At the Hyundai Motor Group’s new Metaplant just outside of Savannah, Georgia, workers assemble the Ioniq 5 and Ioniq 9 electric crossovers without ear protection because the factory was designed to be so quiet.

This is great advice if you do not value your own life.

For those wishing to learn more about this specific incident, here is some media coverage:

• Federal authorities detain Tufts student in Somerville - The Tufts Daily
• Watch: Masked ICE officials detain Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk | AP News

And here’s the original Tufts Daily article that Ozturk co-authored in March 2024: Op-ed: Try again, President Kumar: Renewing calls for Tufts to adopt March 4 TCU Senate resolutions - The Tufts Daily (Archive.org | Archive.ph)

The comment that you replied to does not imply the phone number can be used to decrypt messages. All they are saying is that because Signal accounts are tied to phone numbers, a potential adversary already has one piece of the puzzle (who is talking to whom). If somehow, some way, the encryption were ever compromised, then the adversary would have both pieces—in other words, they would know not only who is talking to whom but also what they are saying.

whom

who*

Any surprises you wish you knew about beforehand that you’d care to share? Any bullshit around financial stuff, filing taxes while abroad, etc?

Laziest take.

windows… has not had an issue with anything I’ve wanted to do.

Then you should use Windows. It sounds like it works for you.

I offered up a counter-anecdote to your anecdote. I did not mean to invalidate your experience.

That said, I’m triggered by statements like, “Linux isn’t ready,” because they aren’t conducive to productive conversation. A better way to think of it is, “Linux/Windows/<Insert OS here> isn’t for me.” Linux doesn’t have to be for everybody. Likewise for Windows or any other OS. I think it’s great that we have so many choices.

Crazy how different our experiences have been. Over the last decade I’ve hopped from Ubuntu to Mint, Debian, Fedora, Nobara, and currently on Bazzite. Never had an issue connecting to the internet. (shrugs)

Obligatory “you do what’s right for you,” but just sayin’, be very careful with this strategy. I know people who panic sold in 2020 at the beginning of the pandemic out of fear and then missed out on the recovery. Sold low, bought high. Set them back 20 years.

RemindMe! 10 years

Lol, this is the best comment I’ve read all week. Thank you for giving me a good laugh, I needed it!

Thanks for chiming in. I’ve confirmed creating the file in the file browser under “Home > .config > MangoHud” places the file in /var/home/curious_dolphin/.config/MangoHud, so I’m still scratching my head as to why I’m unable to edit the document after the initial save. As a workaround, I’ve placed the config file in my top level home folder (aka /var/home/curious_dolphin) w/ a link to it from /var/home/curious_dolphin/.config/MangoHud where the app expects, and this seems to be working as desired.

Thanks for the tip to create a link to the file that is elsewhere. This works for me. I’m now able to configure MangoHud in a text file without using Goverlay.

Can you create any files in $HOME OR $HOME/.config/ ?

Yes - I can create (and later edit) files under /home/curious_dolphin, even under /home/curious_dolphin/.config, but for some reason once I’ve created a file under /home/curious_dolphin/.config/MangoHud, I cannot edit it even though the file and its parent directory appear to have the same permissions as the other files that I can edit.

In other words, after creating test.txt under /home/curious_dolphin/.config/MangoHud, I cannot edit it:

curious_dolphin@bazzite:~$ ls -la ./.config/MangoHud/
total 20
drwxr-xr-x. 1 curious_dolphin curious_dolphin   42 Feb 20 14:46 .
drwxr-xr-x. 1 curious_dolphin curious_dolphin  552 Feb 20 14:47 ..
-rw-r--r--. 1 curious_dolphin curious_dolphin 9671 Feb 20 12:22 MangoHud.conf
-rw-r--r--. 1 curious_dolphin curious_dolphin    5 Feb 20 14:46 test.txt

However, after creating test.txt under /home/curious_dolphin/.config, I can edit it:

curious_dolphin@bazzite:~$ ls -la ./.config
total 44
drwxr-xr-x. 1 curious_dolphin curious_dolphin  552 Feb 20 14:47 .
drwx------. 1 curious_dolphin curious_dolphin  460 Feb 20 14:41 ..
drwxr-xr-x. 1 curious_dolphin curious_dolphin   42 Feb 20 14:46 MangoHud
-rw-r--r--. 1 curious_dolphin curious_dolphin   10 Feb 20 14:47 test.txt

Gotcha, so in summary, anything that relies on an internet service, such as Signal, Matrix, or Simplex, is vulnerable to government ordered blocks via black list that ISPs are compelled to enforce. Am I thinking of this right?

Out of curiosity, is there anything stopping you from suggesting SimpleX? How does SimpleX compare to XMPP or Matrix?