I was using E16 years ago and liked it but eventually switched to Gnome (2, I think), after waiting for E17 for too long.

What made me quit was the wait. All the other DEs at the time were releasing new versions frequently but Enlightenment took forever.

I was working as a level 1 tech for a consulting company. I had to take calls and monitor the systems.

We had a ticketing system in place where we received alerts and various alarms in there. But because some of my coworkers didn't do anything with these and some systems (and clients) suffered from this, people in management thought it would be a marvelous idea to have those alerts and alarms make a notification in Teams.

So when some random location lost internet for a few minutes, we sometimes had hundreds of Teams notifications.

I quit last month. I couldn't take it any longer.

I'm always a bit amazed of how things have progressed and on what Linux can still run.

This is an extreme example, but it's also possible to run a modern Linux OS on SBCs like a Raspberry Pi Zero, and still have something somewhat usable depending on your needs.

To have a computer half the size of a credit card with more RAM than my full tower rig from 2001 is amazing. And it can even run software from that era with dosbox or wine.

My 15 years old laptop is still supported and can still read 1080p on YouTube, using Linux.

Linux devs just recently decided to drop support for 486 CPUs and some early Pentiums.

There's just no competition.

Ironically, saying thank you to machines is wasting energy and costing millions.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2025/04/22/please-thank-you-chatgpt-openai-energy-costs/83207447007/

Hey, that's me. More or less.

I have been living paycheck to paycheck for about two decades but things changed during the pandemic. I got a substantial raise, stopped smoking, and kept the same micro apartment in a high rise for years. I also live alone, refuse to pay for a car, and don't have any children.

So I was able to put some money aside in the last years and now, I take extended vacations (I took 8 weeks this year), I travel, and treat myself with what I want.

My sister wonders how I can afford to take that much time off work to go to different countries and think that I just recently found interest in traveling but really, it's just because I can afford it now.

Back in the middle of the 90ies, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were a big thing and my mother thought it would be a good idea to gift my sister and I, a pair of red-eared sliders. I kept mine for years and eventually my sister gave hers to me. So I kept two turtles for decades. I have been known as "the guy with turtles" since I'm a teenager now.

One of them just passed away this spring, after more than 27 years, and she was not that old for her species, in captivity. The other one is still alive behind me, basking under the UV light, and it could be alive for another decade. And I like Mittens (his name) but he's taking a lot of space in my apartment. It's obvious both of them would have had a better life outside, in nature, rather than in my sometimes depressive care.

Don't gift animals.

I know. I'm in my early 40ies and have been trying all my life to convince people around me and do what I could. But with time, I learned about the fraud that is plastic recycling and how capitalism is really not interested at all into solving the issue. My city is fining people for putting recyclables in the trash, but the recycling centres are full and they themselves trash the recycling. What matters is short term profits and virtue signalling. What matters is to look green. Just buy electric cars and everything will be good, apparently. Buy green! But don't stop buying!

Then a pandemic happened and people disappointed me en masse. We could see the changes in the environment and in ways we could live, but most people were "EaGeR To GeT BaCk To ThEiR RoUtInE", even if it meant commuting 5 days a week to the office, just to "resume" the economy. What mattered was not other people, it was the economy. Even when they forced us to stay inside with curfews, people couldn't go out to run/walk in the evening, they barred unvaccinated people from stores (I'm vaccinated 4 times but it's still not okay), it was all for the economy and to save the system, not the people. And if you had a minor disagreement with this, you were a grandma killer for wanting to go cycling at night. Then we went back to our routines and nothing will ever change. People are whining because of paper straws and want the plastic back. And all this straw stupidity is not even important on the grand scheme of things. Most people don't want to change anything. Most people will not vote for change. The system does not have any incentive to change.

I never owned a car and everyone around me is telling me how great they are and how I should definitely buy one because it's useful and practical. I would have total absolution! Some people here are vociferously fighting against active and public transit, and the government is actually cutting public transit funding. People are yelling at me when I trash some plastic instead of putting it in the recycle bin, then they drive away in their car that generates literal tons of toxic fumes and greenhouse gases in the air, accusing me of not caring.

I gave up a few years ago. We will deserve most of it.

Don't worry, the rich will eat well and survive, with their private security forces willing to kill others, while the poor will starve and die. We'll have rations and curfews but it will all be for the good of the ~~people~~ economy. Just like in the pandemic, It will be an effort of the poor, to save the rich. That's what we want. You just have to become rich before it happens.

I work in IT and I have coworkers that use caps lock to capitalize single letters, like the beginning of a sentence. It hurts a bit every time I see it.

Alternatively,

I'm an old millennial that downloads and keep what I like. It took so long to download anything on dial-up that the habit was to keep everything for later.

And then because I go camping and cycling in places without network coverage, I took the habit of copying a few hundred of MP3s and a few dozen episodes of cartoons on my phone. That way I have some entertainment even when I'm in a forest without network coverage.

I still can't understand people streaming music on their phones, music that they probably are going to listen and download again and again and again instead of only once. Why not keep it instead of constantly using bandwidth for the same thing over and over?

Same with watching stuff. Your favorite paid streaming service may eventually decide to remove a series you like, or miss a few seasons. That's if it's not on another streaming service. Like, I know I'll watch and rewatch again episodes of the Simpsons, so I download them. It only consumes bandwidth once and can watch it on repeat whenever I want, even without internet.

You can still pay for stuff, but don't use the DRM ridden streams that can disappear or can't be accessed without internet... pay for it if you wish but then, pirate and download a version you can keep.

Or I'm just old and living through "bandwidth scarcity" and really owning stuff left its mark on me.

It was warned that cables that have been manufactured without following HDMI standards and guidelines might not provide a good or consistent signals and might be poorly made. They might also have the potential to cause electrical fires.

So the cables are working and are not really "fake", but more like counterfeit. It's just that they didn't pay for the stupid license, ~~just like USB-C,~~ and thus those cables are IlLeGaL.

Poor quality cables can be official too, as paying for the license may take money away from quality. The concerns can be understandable but it sounds more like FUD to make sure people keep buying the "official" and "legal' cables.

All in all it's just a question of laws and money for a stupid connector.

EDIT: See replies to my comment. USB-C is not licensed. It just costs more than micro.

It is good to have friends, is it not, Mr. Garibaldi? Even if maybe only for a little while?