This is likely not going to be a welcome comment on Lemmy, but here goes anyway: I would not have been able to stick with Linux without AI and I would recommend you use that.

It's really difficult going through tech support steps with people online (all commenters are looking for more information and would have to guide you through multiple steps). AI has the patience to put up with absolute beginner questions.

Now it's important to know how to use AI and not think it knows correct answers to your short questions. Claude had worked best in my experience. Primarily you should use it in this way: feed it a detailed description of your problem. Give it all the context of what hardware and software you have and exactly what you're trying to do and what's not working. Then it will give you an answer with some idea of where the problem might be. Then you should go and do an internet search of that identified problem to find a solution (not just take in the solutions AI gives you, although you could try initial simple solutions, but you may break things if you just go pasting commands into console without understanding). This is what AI is most useful for, pointing you in the direction of the cause problems.... Not being a know all oracle. Paste in a detailed log output and it will interpret and tell you where the problem is, then you must go looking for solutions from a reputable source.

There's a lot that sucks about AI, but I wouldn't have been able to adopt Linux or set up my self hosted services on my home server without it; and I'm grateful for that.

As much as I would like to ditch it, there really isn't a good equivalent. Peertube and Nebula don't have the amount of content I'm intetested in.

On any social media platform, subjecting yourself to their algorithm is a really bad idea anyway. I treat YouTube like Imgur, I don't browse the site unless some interesting content link sends me there. Suggestions and auto play are off in my Newpipe with Sponsorblock. I stick to handpicked videos or my curated subscriptions only.

I really hope Peertube becomes more popular amongst content creators.

That's not how a webcomic should be laid out

Fantastic episode

Have I been?

I have a scanner.

Phone camera works well enough for a hobbyist like me, but if you want it to be good quality to publish then you should use a scanner (they're stupidly cheap secondhand).

If you're a complete beginner with drawing then DrawABox lessons helped me a lot and I would highly recommend these.

On the right camping trip, you could get all of these at the same time.

Do you realise that cats consider themselves to be god? That's their religion. Cats are the diety.

Don't hate me for asking a question. I don't endorse loot boxes and do think they suck. But help me understand:

Isn't this better than loot boxes?

You get to see what you're paying for before you pay. You pay more for rarer items that clearly have very high monetary value and you're allowed to sell on items for real money of you want.

Valve also still sticks with a cosmetics only model and no gameplay affecting transactions. Selling cosmetics only is probably the best way to monetise.

Rage comic

The British Medical Journal has a Christmas issue in which they publish lighthearted, amusing "evidence". That really fucks with AI.

Kids were made to ride buses with bare balls exposed on the seats? WTF