I’ve been trying Peergos lately, and I’m pretty happy with it so far.

Google’s nagging offers for free trials of Gemini made me realize that I was basically handing data over to an AI company 🤦🏻‍♂️ So I’ve been looking for an alternative too

I started to go down that path, but then I heard that there were problems with data corruption

I learned a bit of Esperanto, many years ago. It’s crazy how easy it is to progress in that language, compared to natural languages.

I’ve been learning Portuguese (Brazilian) off and on for a while. I’m mostly okay-ish at reading it, but it’s nearly impossible for me to understand it when spoken.

This might be a weird question, but: Did you have a particular reason to learn Swedish or Norwegian, or is it just for fun?

I’ve been interested in learning Swedish or Danish, but I haven’t been able to find a practical reason to. I hear that almost all of them speak English pretty well, and will prefer speaking English with you if you visit their country. (The curse of being a native English speaker who likes languages.)

I would have had easy access to a native Danish speaker, but sadly, my Mormor (“mother’s mother”) passed away just last night. Her English was perfect as she lived in the US for >70 years, but her beautiful accent is what originally sparked my interest in Scandinavian languages.

I made a custom Linux image to run inside a web browser. No particular distro, just a Linux kernel (compiled with a custom configuration to produce a tiny binary), a shell, and a few small apps.

When reading from the filesystem, it made HTTP requests for each file (+ browser caching), so no need to load a disk image all at once. IIRC, I got the cold boot time down to <1 second (after assets were already cached from a previous load though).

I also got NixOS to run in the browser, but even after stripping out as much as possible, it was still really slow due to systemd. (I’m not a systemd hater, resources are just very limited when running this way.)

I used an x86 emulator called v86. It’s a very cool project 🙂

Doesn’t that apply to pretty much all platforms though?

I mostly browse Lemmy, but I occasionally check Reddit. I never really got into the microblogging types of platforms (Mastodon, X, Bluesky, Threads, etc) for some reason

This kind of tech stuff isn’t really BIFL. However, you can extend the life of it by separating the components. So an OPNsense box for the firewall/gateway (this can last many years with very little maintenance), a separate WiFi access point (AP), and a switch.

Many consumer-grade Wi-Fi routers are all three of these components combined into one (usually) low-quality package. When one part of it dies or becomes obsolete, the whole unit would need to be replaced.

By separating the components, you can get better quality hardware (even if consumer-grade), and replace/upgrade them independently when needed.

I once had a great bond with an eclectus. It took a lot of work, but when I finally earned her trust, we were great friends.

One day, I trimmed her nails, and it destroyed our friendship 😔 If you get one, have someone else trim its nails so it doesn’t hate you. Parrots can really hold a grudge.

I understand why you might think that, but that really doesn’t apply to a parrot and their noise.

Btw, an eclectus can (and probably will, regularly) emit sounds loud enough to make your ears ring. They’re meant to be heard over long distances outside in the open. Inside the walls of a home, it’s crazy loud.

Edit to add: They also make the noises when you’re not even home. It has nothing to do with treats.