In the US at least, most equipment (unless you get into high-and datacenter stuff) runs on 120V. We also use 240V power, but a 240V connection is actually two 120V phases 180-degrees out of sync. The main feed coming into your home is 240V, so your breaker panel splits the circuits evenly between the two phases. Running dual-phase power to a server rack is as simple as just running two 120V circuits from the panel.

My rack only receives a single 120V circuit, but it’s backed up by a dual-conversion UPS and a generator on a transfer switch. That was enough for me. For redundancy, though, dual phases, each with its own UPS, and dual-PSU servers are hard ro beat.

Is Creative Cloud a requirement for using Adobe products these days? Surely someone can just save data locally instead. Media files (especially raw video) can be enormous.

This seems like a weird and convoluted way to charge for content. Why not just make it a paid DLC?

Microsoft knows that the addition of adds to Windows, Recall, data mining, etc are not suicide. As far as tech news goes, Lemmy really exists in an echo chamber. The vast majority of us at least have some interest in technology. For the majority of the population, though, this isn’t true. The typical person sees a computer as a tool to be used for other things. They’re not reading articles about the latest release of Windows, new CPU technology, the latest GPU, etc. They’re using their computer, and when it’s time for an upgrade, they buy whatever suits their needs.

If I was to ask any of my family, or most of my coworkers, about any of the latest “controversies” surrounding Microsoft, they would have no idea what I was talking about. Microsoft obviously thinks that the added profits gained by monetizing their customers will offset the loss of 1% of their users that switch to Linux. They’re probably right, too.

I like Windows, personally (well, Windows 10 at least). My unofficial rule has always been if it needs a GUI, then it runs Windows, otherwise, it runs Linux as a headless machine. Once Windows 10 is no longer a viable option, my unofficial rule will be “it runs Linux.” Most people will not make this switch.

Outside of obvious ethnic names, which isn’t an issue here, how does the seller even know what a potential buyer looks like?

I never spoke to the previous owner of my home, and I have no idea what they look like. The opposite is also true. I have a name on various forms, but that’s it. Our only correspondence was through various documents sent between our agents. I didn’t even see the seller at closing; we signed the closing documents at different times.

It sounds like her real estate agent is on her side, so unless the agent was trying to sabotage the sale, how does this happen?

People do this because they’re crackheads (or heroin addicts, or methheads, you get the idea). It’s not a poverty issue, it’s a drug issue. The person working a minimum wage job and sharing a studio apartment isn’t going to dispose of their old bicycle in the river. The person who steals a bike and realizes they can’t sell it to get their next fix probably isn’t going to have a problem dumping it in a lake or river. They’re already leaving needles on the playground, shitting on the sidewalk, and assaulting innocent people for not giving them a cigarette. Do you really think they give a damn about the environmental impact of dumping their stolen goods in a waterway?

I will resort to ChatGPT for coding help every so often. I’m a fairly experienced programmer, so my questions usually tend to be somewhat complex. I’ve found that’s it’s extremely useful for those problems that fall into the category of “I could solve this myself in 2 hours, or I could ask AI to solve it for me in seconds.” Usually, I’ll get a working solution, but almost every single time, it’s not a good solution. It provides a great starting-off point to write my own code.

Some of the issues I’ve found (speaking as a C++ developer) are: Variables not declared “const,” extremely inefficient use of data structures, ignoring modern language features, ignoring parallelism, using an improper data type, etc.

ChatGPT is great for generating ideas, but it’s going to be a while before it can actually replace a human developer. Producing code that works isn’t hard; producing code that’s good requires experience.

Or perhaps people are starting to realize that you don’t need a new car as soon as your 5-year loan is paid off.

I do okay financially; if I wanted a new car, I’d buy one. I bought mine brand new off the lot 15 years ago, and I intend to keep driving it until I can no longer repair it. Why would I possibly want to buy a new, 5G-connected, spyware-infected plastic shitbox when what I have works perfectly well and probably has another 100k miles of life with a few minor repairs and maybe an engine swap at 2-300k or so?

This is a good thing, but it’s hardly unique. Any advanced manufacturing facility will have remote access to their equipment in case an operator needs reconfigure it, transfer data, or in this case if they’re invaded by Lesser Taiwan.

C++ is just as “safe” as Rust if you use modern language features (std::unique_ptr, for instance). I would argue that anyone who says Rust provides better memory safety than C++ most likely is not familiar with modern C++ and still sees the language as “C with classes.”

I think you could make an argument that even burning plastic in a firepit vs sending it to a landfill are roughly equal. Climate change and air pollution are both major issues, but so is plastic waste and microplastics working their way into everything. I have no idea of the overall harm of burning plastic is less than throwing it away; they both pollute the environment. I can see the the logic in thinking burning is a viable alternative.

Ideally, though, people would just stop using disposable plastic. Plastic is a fantastic material, but it was never supposed to be for “use once and discard” items. For creating durable objects with a decent lifetime, sure, use plastic. Don’t use it as wrapping over another plastic object.

I really think this depends largely on who you are and what you do with your phone. I have face recognition and fingerprint recognition both enabled on my phone. It’s good enough to prevent a thief from gaining access to my device, and if law enforcement asked, there’s nothing on my phone that could possibly be incriminating. Realistically, I’d have no issue just unlocking my phone and giving it to a police officer, although I do know well enough to always get a lawyer first. Biometrics add an extra layer of convenience; it’s nice to just look at my phone and it unlocks. My concern personally is more about someone stealing my phone and accessing my accounts than self-incrimination.

If I ever was going to put myself in a situation where I’d run afoul of the authorities, I’d leave my phone at home anyway.

One thing to keep in mind if you go with an i5 or i7 is that you won’t have the option to use ECC memory. If you’re running TrueNAS, you’ll need ECC memory for the ZFS cache. A Xeon E5 v2 server is old, but still has a more than enough power for your use case, and they’re not particularly expensive.

If you need something more powerful, you can find some decent Xeon Gold systems on eBay, but they’ll be a bit more pricey. The new Xeon W chips are also an option, but at least for me, they’re prohibitively expensive.

I have ReVanced on my phone, STN on my TVs, and uBlock+SponsorBlock on my PCs. I was looking for an alternative that I could run on a server and would replace the various different apps I’m using. TubeArchivist ended up working perfectly for me; your mileage may vary.

I decided to give up on it. Looking through the docs, they recommend that due to “reasons,” it should be restarted at least daily, preferably hourly. I don’t know if they have a memory leak or some other issue, but that was reason enough for me not to use it.

I installed TubeArchivist, and it suits my needs much better. Not only do I get an archive of my favorite channels, but when a new video is released, it gets automatically downloaded to my NAS and I can play it locally without worrying about buffering on my painfully slow internet connection.

What exactly is the use-case for a laptop or a tablet with ML acceleration? I can see the need in embedded devices; a self-driving car is a good example. Large-scale AI services are going to run in a datacenter. Who exactly is the target consumer for a laptop or tablet with an NPU?

I don’t understand why people are still buying Apple products. The first few iterations of the iPhone were fantastic; I even owned an iPhone 2 or 3. iPhone is still a great device, but you can get an Android phone with similar specs for the same or less of a cost. Android in 2024 is just as user-friendly as iOS; as far as mobile devices go, there’s no advantage to going with Apple. There’s even less justification for buying an Apple computer. A PC with an AMD or Intel chip can be purchased or built with far better specs for much less than what an equivalent Apple computer would cost, and you have more upgrade and expansion options.

Apple produces good hardware, but it isn’t any better than the competition. I truly believe that a large part of Apple’s success is that they have marketed their devices as a status symbol. People buy Apple devices for the same reason that they buy a Rolex instead of a Fossil watch.

I remember when TV channels like TLC used to air educational content (The Learning Channel was actually an appropriate name). It has since morphed into a channel that airs “lets gawk at these people who aren’t like us” content. It’s no longer educational.

I had no idea that’s how an asylum claim worked; I think I always assumed it was a very rare process.

I would be in favor of a system where anyone who wants residency in the USA can apply, and as long as they pass a background check, be immediately granted temporary residency and a work permit; it should be a short process, and it should be free. As long as they can show proof over a period of time (maybe a year or so) that they are gainfully employed and have not committed a crime, give them permanent residency and a path to citizenship. Part of the problem we have with immigration is that it’s so inaccessible and it forces people into an environment where even if they want to contribute to society, they’re not allowed to work. I strongly believe that whether someone jumps the border, claims asylum or overstays a visitors visa, most of them aren’t looking for a handout. They’re looking for what they believe will be a better life than the one they came from.

Despite the problems we have as a country, I have always been patriotic and unashamed to admit it; I love it here. I also recognize that being an American has nothing to do with your ethnic background, political views, nation of origin, or any other demographic. If someone decides that they want to leave everything they know, move to a new country, contribute to our society, and be a part of our culture, let them! Those are exactly the kind of people that built our country, and those are exactly the kind of people we need today. The crusty old policy-makers who have forgotten that are the source of most of the issues we’re dealing with now.

How did they come into the country initially? Is this a case of they came in illegally but were able to apply for residency? I honestly didn’t know that was even a possibility.

I feel like if someone wants to come into the country, work, pay taxes, and generally be a contributing member of society, why make it so hard? That’s already more than half of the people born here are willing to do, and it’s an overall improvement to the American population. Half of the problems we have with immigration are because it’s so damned hard for the average person who just wants to make a better life for themselves. Unless you’re Native American, we are all descended from immigrants.