Edit 2: to everyone suggesting an SDD: i know. Look, if this guy had enough $$$ for an SSD, he could buy a used lappy less than half the age of this one that has an ssd and 2-3x the memory....
Agreed (although bumping the memory to 4 or 8GB would arguably boost performance similarly, given that it’s only got 2.77GB (?) somehow. With such teeny-weeny amounts of memory, more RAM would be almost equally useful to an SSD, although both would be ideal.
Problem is: my old buddy has $0. If he even had $50, he could have bought himself a much newer laptop than this one, lol! So, we’re working with what we’ve got.
Also: he will never do more with it than browsing the web. He’s an old boi, and his needs are minimal. He’s thrilled that he has an option for using “the internet” (Gmail, Facebook, and some tart he’s chatting with on Wire— who I believe may be scamming him, but that’s another convo) other than his tiny phone screen.
In this particular instance, due to the microscopic amount of memory in the machine (even for the day, when 4GB was considered “minimum”, this lappy has… 2.77GB?), more memory would probably impact performance just as much as an SSD.
But, yeah, and SSD would increase app launch performance and other HDD-centric tasks a great deal. But more memory would allow more apps to cache in active memory and quick-launch after first-launch. This might be a better and more cost-effective “first upgrade” before going SSD.
Also, this dude is in no position to spend money on this machine, so I’m doing what I can to make the most of what he has.
You’re not wrong, but it’s a matter of priorities: the memory is the biggest problem with this machine and it can’t be made up for with any other resource, except, sometimes, swap/paging. But more memory is the answer to that issue, not an SSD, and more memory would solve a lot of other performance issues that only more memory can solve.
But, of course, an SSD would bring many of its own benefits (including, yes, faster paging/swap). These, however, are far less likely to benefit this particular user, especially considering that they’re more expensive.
XFCE is so ugly and clunky, I wouldn’t ever suggest that a Linux novice ever use it. It’s fucking horrific. It’s a user interface you choose when you have no other choice and are just that desperate. Suffice to say, I wasn’t that desperate.
It was important that this user have an interface that he could navigate easily, an XFCE was not that interface, nor will it ever be.
Edit. I should note that this may be colored with some personal bias I have against XFCE. I just don’t like it and only use it when forced to. So, ya know, keep that in mind…
He apologized profusely for putting me out so much for all the work I put into it. I just told him: some guys like to work on old cars as a hobby to unwind. And some people like to work on old computers.
The benefit is that, with old computers, I can take your old computer into my garage, fix it up, and then hand it back to you without feeling any obligation about doing it for free.
So, does it just have really advanced error checking? How does it handle the mismatches? I believe you, it’s just that the phrase “not that big of a deal” is doing a lot of heavy lifting here.
The German government and establishment are stepping up the repression of pro-Palestine Jews including Israelis, but it's all about anti-Arab/Muslim racism by proxy, says Udi Raz, a Jewish activist who spoke to The New Arab in Berlin....
Please read post for full context; any help or input is appreciated! I disclosed sensitive info to a close female coworker (let's say Ann), who is best friends with the male coworker mentioned (Ned). I'm sure she told him, but then they both seemed to want me to still tell him directly. I did because I believe in doing the right...
Ukrainian counterintelligence investigators have foiled a Russian plot to assassinate President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other top military and political figures, Ukraine’s state security service said Tuesday....
Ukraine is very good at 2 things: 1) building combat drones out of spare parts and trash and 2) catching Russian assassins. Also, pissing off Russia, which makes #1 and 2 very valuable.
Edit: also a third: attracting Putin trolls 😂
(Thx to the mods for keeping things tidy)
I hate this headline so much, I just had to come here and say that. It is such self-contradictory nonsense. I have no idea what the story is about, but this headline is terrible.
The last time something like that happened in the United States, we passed federal hate crime legislation for the first time. His name was Matthew Shepard.
Well, technically, the law is named after two victims of two incidents that took place that year, one of an anti-LGBTQ hate-crime, and one of a racist hate-crime. The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, sadly, took eleven years to pass, finally signed by President Obama in 2009 as one of his first pieces of legislation.
Yeah, well, they couldn’t “shut it down” before E2E encryption, either, so, obviously, the problem isn’t necessarily the encryption, but that the cops suck at their jobs.
“We couldn’t really catch them before, but now we can’t real their text messages! Merde!”
You could just say ‘assassin’. “Hitperson” makes it sound like some HR-designated position, awkwardly titled in some neutral, milquetoast way as not to offend anyone.
It’s just a single shot of Bill Murray driving a car on a highway. He’s filmed from the passenger seat, and he’s telling a story of his dad, who worked as an engineer designing jet engines. And he’s all proud and going on and on.
And as he keeps talking, and as he keeps driving, you keep seeing shots of highway signs showing that you’re driving through rural Maryland on your way to Washington DC. You keep driving and he keeps telling a story about his father and how proud he was and eventually comes out that he worked for Boeing.
And you keep driving and he keeps telling a story and eventually you pull up in front of the building in Washington DC, and he gets out and the camera keeps pointing at the driver seat, but he walks out of frame and he walks into the building and you can hear some screaming in a couple gunshots and then cut to the credits.
Stack Overflow bans users en masse for rebelling against OpenAI partnership — users banned for deleting answers to prevent them being used to train ChatGPT ( www.tomshardware.com )
I just finished setting up Linux Mint for an old buddy of mine on his old dog of a laptop, rendering it useful once again! ( i.imgur.com )
Edit 2: to everyone suggesting an SDD: i know. Look, if this guy had enough $$$ for an SSD, he could buy a used lappy less than half the age of this one that has an ssd and 2-3x the memory....
iFixit hails replaceable LPCAMM2 laptop memory as a 'big deal' ( www.theregister.com )
Udi Raz: Berlin stepping up repression of pro-Palestine Jews ( www.newarab.com )
The German government and establishment are stepping up the repression of pro-Palestine Jews including Israelis, but it's all about anti-Arab/Muslim racism by proxy, says Udi Raz, a Jewish activist who spoke to The New Arab in Berlin....
When you get a call from a middle-aged male coworker who had tried to coerce you (younger female) into letting him drop you off at home on a Saturday night: do you call back, text, email, or ignore?
Please read post for full context; any help or input is appreciated! I disclosed sensitive info to a close female coworker (let's say Ann), who is best friends with the male coworker mentioned (Ned). I'm sure she told him, but then they both seemed to want me to still tell him directly. I did because I believe in doing the right...
Amazon Customer Service has become awful ( www.dedoimedo.com )
Why are 80% of the elements metallic? I get that they ARE, but WHY?
Ukraine says it foiled a Russian spy agency plot to assassinate President Zelenskyy ( apnews.com )
Ukrainian counterintelligence investigators have foiled a Russian plot to assassinate President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other top military and political figures, Ukraine’s state security service said Tuesday....
Republicans are pulling out all the stops to reverse EV adoption ( www.theverge.com )
Israeli airstrikes on Rafah begin despite mounting ceasefire pressure ( www.theguardian.com )
cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/31296101...
Israeli airstrikes on Rafah begin despite mounting ceasefire pressure ( www.theguardian.com )
cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/31296101...
Hamas accepts cease-fire proposal for Gaza after Israel orders Rafah evacuation ahead of attack ( apnews.com )
In China, Ruled by Men, Women Quietly Find a Powerful Voice ( www.nytimes.com )
Cobra Kai // Kung Fu Fighting ( www.youtube.com )
Bushmills: Man nailed to fence in 'sinister attack' ( www.bbc.com )
The man in his 20s was found nailed to a fence, with a nail through each hand, shortly after midnight....
End-to-end encryption may be the bane of cops, but they can't close that Pandora's Box ( www.theregister.com )
Why is my Sunday task list not done? ( vegantheoryclub.org )
New German research shows EVs break down at less than half the rate of combustion engine cars. ( www.adac.de )
Was music really better "back in the days"?
Tell me all the trash music/artists you know from around the 50s to 70s.
Is Boeing in big trouble? World's largest aerospace firm faces 10 more whistleblowers after sudden death of two ( www.hindustantimes.com )
Multi-million dollar Cheyenne supercomputer auction ends with $480,085 bid — buyer walked away with 8,064 Intel Xeon Broadwell CPUs, 313TB DDR4-2400 ECC RAM, and some water leaks ( www.tomshardware.com )
Judge mulls sanctions over Google’s “shocking” destruction of internal chats ( arstechnica.com )
Video of sun’s surface shows solar rain, eruptions and coronal moss ( www.theguardian.com )
Today I went to the museum ( feddit.uk )
Deep Blue Something - Breakfast At Tiffany's [1995] ( www.youtube.com )
Trump Is Now Raging at His Own Lawyer—and Wrecking a Big MAGA Fantasy ( newrepublic.com )
I greatly enjoyed this part:...