Back in the day my college had very strict filtering on the WiFi. I learned how to use SSH tunneling through PuTTY to bypass the firewall to connect to X-Fire. I was so 1337.

I can still hear the ripping jeans sound effect

Also, YouTube typically puts up preroll ads on trailers - you literally have to watch an ad before you’re allowed to watch the ad

I have the PineNote by Pine64. I really like it but there are a lot of caveats to consider, mostly related to the limitations of an e-ink display.

Pine64 states

The first batch of the PineNote will be great to write software for, but not great to write notes on. Wait for a later batch with better preinstalled software if you just want to use the device as an e-reader, e-note, or your everyday computing device.

What’s good?

Open source software and hardware, cool e-ink screen.

What’s not so good?

E-ink screen has many severe limitations. Any animations work terribly on it. Not just video but page scrolling, navigation, and banner ads are all painful. I often use a wireless keyboard and make ample use of various shortcuts. It is best used to look at static images such as text.

It also has phantom battery drain, losing around 15% per day while suspended.

What’s worth mentioning?

The price seems to have gone back to normal. For a bit they were going for over $600 but they should be around $460 with shipping. Speaking of, Pine64’s default shipping from Hong Kong is unbearably slow. You may want to consider express shipping.

The PineNote is not just not for everyone, it’s actually not for almost anyone. It’s a Linux-based (Debian <3 ) tablet with an e-ink display, which has a single-digit refresh rate and is only black-and-white. It uses only FOSS software and you’re expected to know how to customize it yourself.

If you are like me and that sounds amazing, then yes it is great. Just be sure that you know what you’re buying.

Final thought: the actual warranty is listed as only 30 days - that is ridiculously short. It’s hard to recommend the PineNote because it will be terrible for most people, but if you’re a Linux enthusiast who likes to use cutting edge tech which respects your privacy and freedoms then it is really great

Shut it!

In 2008 or so I was in the college bookstore coffee shop and a girl I’d never met asked me to use my laptop to look up this video on YouTube. She stood behind me and watched while I laughed but when the video we over she was gone and I never saw her again

In Soviet Russia, bar keep tabs on YOU!

Wild animals are wild.

I once rescued an injured duckling from our cat and nursed it back to health.

I fed and watered it several times a day while it convalesced. Each time I reached my hand in the box that tiny adorable creature thrashed its wings and bit my fingers.

After about 3 days I had had enough of it biting the hand that feeds. It was barely larger than a marshmallow but it was kicking my ass.

I decided it must be strong enough so I returned it to its mother, who was conveniently still in the nearby pond. It launched itself toward her and literally ran across the water to be reunited.

That part was touching, so I guess it was worth the effort, but I learned a valuable lesson. Imagine if instead of a tiny bird it had been a dangerous predator with fangs and claws

Suuuuper don’t eat that. Heavy weight gear oil is the worst thing I’ve ever tasted and I had only a tiny amount of it

Maybe actual excrement tastes worse, but I wasn’t curious enough to try tasting that

I think the 2009 icon depicts a paper portfolio folder next to an LCD monitor. The computer case is elsewhere under the desk.

The 2026 icon depicts only the LCD monitor

THERE WERE NEVER ANY COOKIES!

I just wanted to say, I enjoy your writing style. You very vividly illustrated your emotions

In addition to others’ answers here, I suggest reading over this document whenever you get frustrated by Debian: Don’t Beak Debian

Debian has a particular philosophy for its design choices. Using non-standard sources.list entries, for instance, can break your system in the future. You’ll have a much better time in the long run if you come to understand why Debian is the way it is

Thanks for answering honestly. You really painted a picture, which is distressingly relatable. I hope you feel better soon. I’m rotting rioting rooting (ha, autocorrect wanted me to be much more metal!) for you

I have said “schfourteen-teen” about once per week for the past 20 years

…I’m not sure anyone has ever gotten the reference

I did that too, but back then it was called Backtrack Linux. I bought a special Atheros chipset WiFi card for my laptop’s PCMCIA slot. The built-in 802.11b WiFi card worked under Linux but only by using the Windows ME driver in NDISWrapper, which didn’t support promiscuous mode.

The Atheros chipsets could be configured (by flashing the firmware with a blob I got from a BBS, if I recall) to capture the traffic from nearby wireless networks. In particular, I wanted to pick up the signal from when a device first connects. There was a bug in Windows XP that could cause the WiFi to drop briefly, then promptly reconnect. By triggering that bug over and over I could capture a lot of reconnect packets in a short time frame.

Then I’d save the data to a big file and pipe it to Aircrack and extract the Wired Equivalent Privacy password.

I was a 1337 H4XX0|2 B-)

I think you might actually have a black hole cat

I had the same bug a while back after an outage on my instance. Simply logging out and back in fixed it for me

In my group if the GM can’t pronounce the name in one try in a way that makes it clear to us how to spell it the players with rename it something more like “Bonertown” or just “Dave”

I believe there’s also a Haversham Hill, which is also a hill hill hill hill

As if popcorn wasn’t bad enough on its own, I’ve heard that stuff can sometimes be made from asbestos too