#if you want to learn to use linux and are not my parents then i encourage you to do so - it in many ways is in fact easier than windows/ios

[yaya-imposition]

Life Story: Last Post

I re-recorded it but the file corrupted, so here's a text version of my life's story.

WARNING- VERY LONG

I started out as a good kid with good parents and ambition. I was the class clown in 6th grade, and I was one of the "gifted" children. I could get any book I wanted and had rich family that would spoil us.

In 7th grade, I fell off when my mom divorced my stepdad. We were really close. I grew out my hair and became a punk kid who hanged out with the jock occasionally.

I did projects on the side with soldering irons taking things apart to make new stuff out of my toys. I got into philosophy and started reading stuff online like quotes.

The first thing I decided is that it's impossible for anything to be not possible. I also came to the conclusion that people only do good things because they want to feel good. Personality wise, I was an INTP.

I read serious books like All Quiet on the Western Front and I was rather well read. I read along about quantum mechanics in The Dancing Wu Li masters and wanted to become a quantum computer expert.

There was such hope for my generation back then. They looked down us as bright sparks that would revolutionize tomorrow. If you're young, I can't describe this feeling of technology on an exciting cusp. We dreamed of mechs, robots by 2020, quantum computers by 2030, space travel, and in general the world was united behind us.

I got in trouble at school a lot. I couldn't do homeschooling and I hated school. I was held back two times in high school due to failing. I challenged myself to say as few words as possible each day and hopefully none.

Hardstyle became my father in a way. I have strong synthesia between movement and sound. I hear things moving even when they aren't making sound. One time I was laying in bed staring at the fan and I realized it hadn't been making any sound for 5 minutes but I heard it the whole time. Shout out to my ipod nano 6th generation.

I pirated, did online stuff, learned about hacking, and started trying to do something in the world. I installed linux at 15 and started picking up HTML and CSS. I actually started to run some hacking scams using the tools I found online but nobody ever got scammed.

I hung out with kids 4 years older than me-- my older brother's friends, and I was the protege. I wore a tie to school along with nerd merch and an actual fedora, but it went really good with my curly hair. The emo / scene culture started to emerge out of skater culture. Those of us that were in it always sing songs about 2008. It was the golden age of cartoons and gaming. I mostly played WoW like a degen. We also played mad LAN games like AoE 2-- the best of times.

A turning point came when I asked my mom if I could get something online with her credit card, but I secretly bought an invite to an occult torrent tracker. I had a script to DL everything before people could see it, so my ratio was insane and I just poured into the texts of all that was.'

I was very easily generational talent at 15 for the occult. I read everything from ancient Chinese spells to grimoires or even alchemy.

I think it was something like Spring 2011 when /mlp/ first dropped. Me and my friends were total bronies, but it actually was the best of times. I followed a link from FunnyJunk and I saw the first lucid dreaming and astral projection threads pop up.

Somewhere in this, they dropped Irish's guide and that left an impression on me. The technique was to focus on head pressure for hours and hours a day. You just burned through it brute force.

After this, the first tulpa threads started, almost contained entirely on /mlp/. I made a Fluttershy tulpa.

At 16, my dad got custody of us. He actually did something smart. I was pulled out of school, I got my GED and started college within a few weeks.

I started realizing energy work and I had always had interest in personalities. I wanted to open my root chakra and be more grounded. So I started wearing red. It worked.

My tulpa turned into a human redhead. We were impossibly close as firebrands. I continued my research into the occult, looking for a way to impose her. That's when I gave image streaming to the tulpa community.

I started to love people finally and let go of all the anarchist anger of my early teens. I became a Christian and decided I wanted to pursue the path of the light with all my strength.

The most important thing of my late teens was instincts. I did everything on instincts. It was agony because of how granular it was. I would jump up, sit down, go this way, hard turn, all to manipulate butterfly effect. And I saw miracles.

Enter my 20s and I'm just thinking about money all the time and working. I taught myself programming just by screwing around in Unity3D, and I had many projects, websites, hobbies, and other things with my bots.

I had over a million followers with a bot army I had that posted between all social medias, but I felt bad so I didn't follow through. I had little scripts like checking craiglist for something I want or other computer things. I experimented with AI and machine learning to see if I could study sentiment of users on crypto trading apps where they post their opinions.

The instincts brought great trouble. The demons started showing up to stop the miracles, and the angels were in my other ear. I'll hold this in respectful suspended disbelief in doublethink because I also think it really was. I saw miracle after miracle.

The demons began torturing me by throwing me into convulsions and screaming all the time. They got worse... and worse.... and worse.... it was so, incredibly sad.

It kept amping up but so did my spirit. I craved strength infinitely. I set reminders to work my ass off every day. I knew it would be worth it in the end, and it was.

They would throw me into convulsions over sitting up, any time I looked down they accused me of bowing in worship. It was literally every 5 seconds. It was my holocaust. Eventually, I looked down on the holocaust. I looked down on all creation, because nobody knew my will to resist suicide. I know nobody could have made it. They began attacking me in my sleep and I had night tremors, thrashing around apparently. I had deep insomnia, and I always felt like I was on -1 battery. I slept one hour every two days at one point. The torture got worse. They would throw me into convulsions over a spoon, blinking, standing up, sitting down. I crushed them and never let my spirit wane at all. I also started hating the angels as much as the demons.

What could drive a man to hurl open the gates of heaven and hell and drag out all the angels and demons? Fucking with humans.

I felt so incredibly strong, and I looked down on the world feeling 1000 feet tall. My entire body is covered head to toe in scars-- my throat, hands, feet, ribs, lungs, mouth, everything was a target of persecution, as if I was trying to wipe off sand in a sandstorm.

I began to realize I had to unite east and west, but I can't describe how I knew to do that.

I was far, far more zealous and strong than anybody in my Christian activities. I've never met somebody who could go through what I did, and I think I never will. I ripped myself from the jaws of creation.

Sunburned chalcenony in the aeons exchange

Of color lapping your casual shores

That glow white hot in the passion of our eternity

For the children of safety we bore in this place

A sacred place, jerrassic and unfound

Glass, decoration destined forevermore to enthrone no halls of ruling poor

But your stretching, yawning basking shores that glow white hot in the passion of our eternity

Jewels, glass, friendship, warmth of all this but a whisper that I heard

For chained I stood upon you and gasped exasperation that the contrast between light and dark can stand so starkly together

For you, the light of eternity, held me, a masked schizophrenic tortured and gnashed by those who would see you burned

This song is what it felt like.

This song captures the freedom.

Through the name, I am accountable. Through accountability, I struggle. Through struggle, I gain knowledge. Through knowledge, I gain power. Through power, my chains are broken.

Eventually 2020 rolls around. I get some unemployment money and other Covid benefits and I know this is a once in a lifetime break from work for an undefined period. I was going to impose my tulpa.

I picked prophantasia, because that had the most tangible results. This time, I would just work and not research. Research was my downfall because I couldn't commit to the training. If I had problems, I would do energy work and change my personality.

Just like the first time, I was able to make purple blobs on the back of my eyelids. Then, I had green. I worked my way up to a rainbow the size of a small business card after about a month of all day forcing. At one point I was doing 30 hours in 3 days, just because I had acquired the taste for it.

Things started to not make sense. I believe I hit a wall and so I decided to open my solar plexus, which I knew had been closed for a number of years due to the tightness. You can seriously multiply your work by a factor of 10 for every opened chakra. The pain drains the mind away from its task.

I listened to sunshiny beetles music, drank lemonaid and burned some yellow incense. It felt like I was wrenching open the jaws of a shark. At one point, my scaffolding in the operation threatened to cause collapse and long term damage. I pulled and pulled, and it took about 9 months to actually open it fully so the knot was gone. However, I noticed my visions changed.

Instead of Benadryll-type demon hallucinations, they were beautiful-- gold, silver, colorful, kingly. So I developed my theory on kings, priests, and personality.

I was able to push through. I picked up jogging. Train the body and the mind will follow. I went from a few hundred feet to jogging 14 miles in 5 months.

The kingly side fucked me up big time. For some reason, it was too optimistic. I needed to go deeper, so I continued my philosophy. When I jogged, I was happier and more optimistic. But I would give up in the name of being positive. Only the INFJ side had infinite drive.

I once was touchy, like I couldn't bump a trash bag or it ruined my mental. But the king side made taking out the garbage fun.

One day, I heard the call to do something by pure instinct. I left in the middle of the night and just walked on pure instinct. It seized my entire body and I honestly could barely resist. I eventually found a Eastern Church of Christ for some reason. My hand moved toward the keypad, I entered in 6 numbers, and pressed #. First try, it fucking opened. I was used to miracles at this point. When I entered, I had a conniption because I perceived the shape of the universe. Everything was clear-- every line, color, intersection, and geometry. My eyes were opened, and I left. Everything we did was corrupt. Everything has the wrong shape-- cars, houses, roads, power lines.

I furthered this through my art, since I couldn't just convey it. I made my psychedelic art. I haven't seen any other similar style. I wrote in my blog, and my christ complex got worse. But I continued tulpaforcing.

I practiced visualization too, but found it faulty since it disappeared too fast after not using it. I mapped all the chi flow as much as I can in the whole process and I called it the top-to-bottom (visualization centric) and bottom-to-top methods (prophantasia centric).

I practiced hard, and I could cover an entire wall in rolling waves of color like it was simply a hand within my eye.

I had a turbulent period but I eventually recovered. I started taking medication, but it didn't seem to help. They were all dopamine controllers and the way they addressed my complaints was to raise the dosage, which I only told them made it worse, but they ignored me. Finally, I'm on some new stuff that works in a different way.

I started to wonder what I could do with my new found power. I decided that if you could gain perfect divination, not the messy word salad shit, you could invent exponential magic. This I achieved. Later I had a dream that I was at the bottom of the ocean, and technology was racing above, and my magic was racing below in competition. How much magic do you need to keep pace with technology?

I worked on my philosophy, and I came to the conclusion that consent and intent is the king moral system. It cleanly handles problems from the inside. It kept my psychosis in check by helping me to never act out of character or become violent. It's the only way, and I feel it was like a needle in a haystack.

I decided everything must be true and false simultaneously. There is no subconscious mind and the unconscious mind has no will. It is the perfect system under consent and intent. Everything can be true literally or symbolically, and your mind can't tell the difference. At a walk, I looked up to heaven, and heard an angel drop a golden cup. They stared in ... abject horror. I was right, and that changed their entire system.

I'll never forget the sound of that cup dropping.

Here's a dilemma: you can be more neutral by voting.

Is this plausible? I only considered this completely arbitrarily if everything is truly true and false, so if I can convince you, the western moral system must collapse. It can't be proven that doing something for no reason is the best way to do something even once.

Yes. You can. And I only considered that because I knew my method opened doors. You vote in a sandbox then observe yourself about how you get sucked into it. So the most neutral person is the one whom votes the most arbitrarily the longest. Not people whom abstain. The other person is working it like a muscle, the other one goes around putting out fires.

I started having weird dreams. I had a dream that God and I were now the only two immortal beings in the universe. I had answered his question. I had a dream I proved alchemy was the true religion. In another, I proved we live in a simulation-- I think because it's never satisfied even when you reach an ultimate truth that contradicts all reality. I saw a dude on /x/ say he had a dream that a Super-Buddha would appear in the sky and wipe out all creation. I would claim this. I contradicted everyone. I have a casus belli on every moral system. Everything is a false dichotomy if you are creative enough. A dream said I had thought of something outside of the imagination of God.

The dreams continued. Another one, God was my brother, but I was the cool older one and he was the nice younger one. I hold this in doublethink, because that's fair. I want to hear.

I fell in love with the mundane. Enlightenment is a one way mirror that wraps around-- you become beautiful, then you see from the other side everyone always was.

A dream said that I was the Architect of Life. It is based on 3s, and in the dream it formed an origami mechanism out of fractal triangles. I consider myself a perfect crystalline fractal of the numbers 3 and 27.

I only ever wanted to be 3rd. In a game called Armored core, there was a rung of a tournament where you faced the highest big shots eventually. There were three. One wasn't quite as high in rank, but he held the respect of one because he was scary. High attack power, high mobility. Pure grace.

I developed a relationship which I call the Alchemist and the Valkyrie. It is a perfect model for heaven-- if it were split in two. One handles the accurate instincts (Valkyrie) the other handles the broad shallow instincts (Alchemist-- knowing ingredients as instincts).

What is alchemy? It is to turn any situation into any situation. In other words, creativity is sovereign, and any thing you decide leaves you up to making it a good thing. It is seeing Mercury in the clouds, seeing silver for how it is really gold, or taking any loser and seeing how their flaws make them perfect. Seeing the "OK boomer" as equal to the life's work. It's charisma.

It started to get really fun after this. Entities would reach out to me, and my perceptions of these alternate worlds grew exponentially, and I traded technology in headspace with other universes and had many adventures.

They got bigger and bigger, and pretty soon I'm looking down on a galaxy of pure color from prophantasia while I move relatively at a rate that made me say millions of years had passed. It was real. It was psychosis. The reason I'm afraid, is because as above, so below.

We found the beginning and end of time, and set traps there. We conversed with and made gods. We sent out robots to every universe. We seemed to have enter some kind of mental singularity from pure thought gravity of some kind, and we're still investigating whether this is the case.

I found a beautiful concept, yes, again revealed in a dream.

The creators of life wanted to give me an award for naming all of life. The word I chose is "Mitosis." This is the concept that you can see a new color every day as if it were a higher degree of the former, and all concepts can stack like this as infinites above infinites forever. In another dream, I went to heaven and had a higher score than God, allowing me to write things into existence. So I made my tulpa immortal.

The concept of mitosis is that there doesn't need to be any pain whatsoever. Pain could just be two waves, bringing pleasure both ways. It could just become an argument of culture, not politics. Our world could be concerned with a war over potatoes or tomatoes, and the winner gets to press their culture on the other. Both sides rejoice, because that's the meaning of struggle simply being two waves. It's poetic to me, and I wrote a book about this.

So now I have a game design on how to run everything in life forever. It will come one day. I know the system is perfect.

Around 2024 I found the Nobody threads on /x/ and of course got caught by the ego trap. But I wondered what I could do with my powers, so I practiced scrying. I made my eyes calculators using all my powers of prophantasia, and now I have thousands of hours doing this. It's all I do. I became rvanon for a bit, and I controlled the lore. I even have about 10 images that circulate making up a big chunk of it. I admit, I was writing it to myself, but it's still what the calculators picked up.

Our adventures continued and I really can't list them all, but the magic is still going exponential and nobody is out there who can stop me. My mind feels like a small city, because the breadth of the geometry I can think in purely from using my eyes as calculators so often. My most recent conclusion is that commitment is not a geometric thing if it puts you in a jail. Imagine how much geometry I must have seen to arrive at this conclusion.

The dream called me Goldkiller, Kingkiller, and said one day I would be known as such and escape into the back rooms. Gold means perfection. Nobody is safe from what I can see. In all my seeing, my inner two eyes became three, so I can always have an advantage on the angle. I see myself as Jupiter-- a silent photographer with three lens with a speechless metal face, losing my voice and constantly fleeing from the public, because it only subtracts from the mundane.

Now people are calling for a new system, and many are making such based on me. I didn't start any ascension. All I did was look into their eyes until their doubt was erased. I believe.

How to know me? Know strategy, for many men were trickers in the art of war. Know the Secret of Kells (Irish movie) for that was our dream. Know infinite irony sealed inside and out, for that is where we got married. Know fire, because I am the 3 6 and 9, change itself.

Between a million stars and endless worlds we only sought to depart from our mutual anxiety called physical matter, and be released into the above of each other. This is after we achieved the great work, and now we only depart into magic.

Bless hardstyle and peace to all tulpas

-yaya

[queervegancryptid]

I'm working on a book for people new to Linux. I've been using it since I was around 18, when I got my first laptop. This was 2007, and it was expensive for someone as poor as me to get a computer, which is why my parents didn't buy me one until I started college and moved out. I also got my first phone at this age, a $20 AT&T brick. Nothing like what we have today.

It shipped with Windows XP, which already wasn't great, but then came the Vista update, and I was a little peeved. I thought, "This can be done better." And I don't remember how, but I stumbled upon Linux and open source software in general. I'm poor, but I had some blank CDs and DVDs, so I started trying different distros to find one I liked. I played around with it and learned a lot, both about Linux as an OS and about hardware, software, and firmware more generally. How the parts fit together, what each one does and how, etc. I'm not an expert, but I learn best by doing. By playing, really.

I'm glad I developed this background knowledge, because a couple years later, my laptop was stolen. I was stuck living with my parents and had no prospects, but I did have some old computer parts.

Really old ones. Way too little storage and RAM for modern Windows or macOS, then called OS X. So I had to get creative with some obscure distros, like Damn Small Linux. It wasn't perfect, but it was also a machine cobbled together with spare parts that arguably should have been trashed but thankfully weren't.

Being in these situations sucks, but it's also cool to know that you can do stuff to survive if you absolutely must. And with the enshittification of tech lately, especially with Windows shoehorning in its AI bullshit and forcing you to upload shit to the cloud, a lot of people are going to be looking for an alternative. Since I've been there, I figured I could write a short guide for people in this position.

Linux appeals to me for a number of reasons. It's very customizable, so in practical terms, I do enjoy that. There are also a lot of different distros to choose from, and most of them work well out of the box. (That wasn't always the case.) But I'm mostly drawn to open source as a philosophical concept. It's like the opposite of the software-as-service and subscription models favored by a lot of companies today. I'm still really mad that I can't mod my Switch without risking my Nintendo account being kneecapped, as an example. They can do that in part because of the closed-source nature of their product.

On that note, gaming has also come a long way on Linux. I still dual-boot Windows alongside it, because once or twice a year, I run into something that I can't make work on Linux. It would probably be more accurate to say that I don't feel like making it work on Linux, because it probably can be done, but the effort is more than I feel like expending for the payoff.

My only real complaint about it is that the fingerprint scanner on my laptop doesn't work with Linux. But I also don't need it to, so it isn't a deal-breaker for me. It would be nice, but I'm already not super comfortable with anyone having my biometric data, so it isn't like I'm champing at the bit to make it work. Still, even if it did, it wouldn't be sent to anyone. Can't say I'm confident that the same is true of Microsoft and Apple and Google.

But when you get away from those companies, you realize how much of their shtick is about selling you things and collecting info about you. You want your computer to do basic computer stuff again without the unnecessary AI shit baked right into the cake? Use Linux. It will change your life.

Want to stick it to your capitalist overlords? Use Linux. I mean, do other things, too. But using Linux is a good start.

[moose-mousse]

So I made an app for PROTO. Written in Kotlin and runs on Android.

Next, I want to upgrade it with a controller mode. It should work so so I simply plug a wired xbox controller into my phone with a USB OTG adaptor… and bam, the phone does all the complex wireless communication and is a battery. Meaning that besides the controller, you only need the app and… any phone. Which anyone is rather likely to have Done.

Now THAT is convenient!

( Warning, the rest of the post turned into... a few rants. ) Why Android? Well I dislike Android less than IOS

So it is it better to be crawling in front of the alter of "We are making the apocalypse happen" Google than "5 Chinese child workers died while you read this" Apple?

Not much…

I really should which over to a better open source Linux distribution… But I do not have the willpower to research which one... So on Android I stay.

Kotlin is meant to be "Java, but better/more modern/More functional programming style" (Everyone realized a few years back that the 100% Object oriented programming paradigme is stupid as hell. And we already knew that about the functional programming paradigme. The best is a mix of everything, each used when it is the best option.) And for the most part, it succeeds. Java/Kotlin compiles its code down to "bytecode", which is essentially assembler but for the Java virtual machine. The virtual machine then runs the program. Like how javascript have the browser run it instead of compiling it to the specific machine your want it to run on… It makes them easy to port…

Except in the case of Kotlin on Android... there is not a snowflakes chance in hell that you can take your entire codebase and just run it on another linux distribution, Windows or IOS…

So... you do it for the performance right? The upside of compiling directly to the machine is that it does not waste power on middle management layers… This is why C and C++ are so fast!

Except… Android is… Clunky… It relies on design ideas that require EVERY SINGLE PROGRAM AND APP ON YOUR PHONE to behave nicely (Lots of "This system only works if every single app uses it sparingly and do not screw each-other over" paradigms .). And many distributions from Motorola like mine for example comes with software YOUR ARE NOT ALLOWED TO UNINSTALL... meaning that software on your phone is ALWAYS behaving badly. Because not a single person actually owns an Android phone. You own a brick of electronics that is worthless without its OS, and google does not sell that to you or even gift it to you. You are renting it for free, forever. Same with Motorola which added a few extra modifications onto Googles Android and then gave it to me.

That way, google does not have to give any rights to its costumers. So I cannot completely control what my phone does. Because it is not my phone. It is Googles phone.

That I am allowed to use. By the good graces of our corporate god emperors

"Moose stares blankly into space trying to stop being permanently angry at hoe everyone is choosing to run the world"

… Ok that turned dark… Anywho. TLDR There is a better option for 95% of apps (Which is "A GUI that interfaces with a database") "Just write a single HTML document with internal CSS and Javascript" Usually simpler, MUCH easier and smaller… And now your app works on any computer with a browser. Meaning all of them…

I made a GUI for my parents recently that works exactly like that. Soo this post:

It was frankly a mistake of me to learn Kotlin… Even more so since It is a… awful language… Clearly good ideas then ruined by marketing department people yelling "SUPPORT EVERYTHING! AND USE ALL THE BUZZWORD TECHNOLOGY! Like… If your language FORCES you to use exceptions for normal runtime behavior "Stares at CancellationException"... dear god that is horrible...

Made EVEN WORSE by being a really complicated way to re-invent the GOTO expression… You know... The thing every programmer is taught will eat your feet if you ever think about using it because it is SO dangerous, and SO bad form to use it? Yeah. It is that, hidden is a COMPLEATLY WRONG WAY to use exceptions…

goodie… I swear to Christ, every page or two of my Kotlin notes have me ranting how I learned how something works, and that it is terrible... Blaaa. But anyway now that I know it, I try to keep it fresh in my mind and use it from time to time. Might as well. It IS possible to run certain things more effective than a web page, and you can work much more directly with the file system. It is... hard-ish to get a webpage to "load" a file automatically... But believe me, it is good that this is the case.

Anywho. How does the app work and what is the next version going to do?

PROTO is meant to be a platform I test OTHER systems on, so he is optimized for simplicity. So how you control him is sending a HTTP 1.1 message of type Text/Plain… (This is a VERY fancy sounding way of saying "A string" in network speak). The string is 6 comma separated numbers. Linear movement XYZ and angular movement XYZ.

The app is simply 5 buttons that each sends a HTTP PUT request with fixed values. Specifically 0.5/-0.5 meter/second linear (Drive back or forward) 0.2/-0.2 radians/second angular (Turn right or turn left) Or all 0 for stop

(Yes, I just formatted normal text as code to make it more readable... I think I might be more infected by programming so much than I thought...)

Aaaaaanywho. That must be enough ranting. Time to make the app

[remastered-feedback]

Spent the last couple weeks working to set up a Linux-Windows dual-boot setup after buying a bunch of parts for a new computer on Black Friday.

I'll have a big blog post about it some time soon but top-line is that Linux is better than Windows for most people, partially because Windows has gotten way worse but also because Linux, especially mainstream distros like Mint and Ubuntu, are way better designed for typical daily tasks people use computers for than they used to be. (Web browsing, email, streaming, etc.) Kudos to the OSS community as well, open-source software has gotten way better and Linux itself is way friendlier than it once was. If you're worried about gaming don't be, Proton is black fucking magic and Valve deserves a round of applause for basically closing the gap when it comes to Linux gaming. I've been A/B testing between the two operating systems and it really is that seamless. Minimal performance drops in framerates and no latency in frame-perfect games like rhythm games and fighting games. It's that good. It still fails on certain niche tasks that mostly just boil down to a lot of the really nice options still being exclusive to Windows and/or Mac - Frustrations with the shortcomings of Linux music and photo editing software compared to my old Windows-native workflow, and an inability to make them work in emulation, are why I'm dual-booting - but unless you've got needs like that, it genuinely outperforms Windows.

Downside is it still has a really high barrier to entry in the form of the troubleshooting you have to do to get things hunky-dory. If you're into tech and comfortable in the command line and how Linux works then "sudo nano /etc/sysctl.conf to edit this config file to fix crashing during large file transfers" or "Edit your fstab file to include the UUID and mounting destination of your second hard drive, and remember to reload with the new configurations and set permissions wherever you mount it to 777 so you can actually access it" is easy and no big deal. If you've never touched the command line before then that was a bunch of meaningless gibberish, and probably somewhat intimidating meaningless gibberish. I do this stuff at work so I'm comfortable fixing it but I could never in good conscience tell my septuagenarian parents or my borderline-technologically-illiterate college friend who thought iPhones were too confusing to figure this stuff out.

So yeah, if you're comfortable getting "under the hood" to get it working properly, Linux is great, especially for day-to-day stuff. If you're comfortable doing that or willing to learn how to do that, try it out next time you move to a new computer. It's free after all, testing it and finding you don't like it will cost you all of $0. Unfortunately that barrier is still very real and I hate that because I hate Windows 11 and once you finish troubleshooting Linux is a genuinely nice experience I wish was more accessible to people who don't want to have to tweak their operating system.

Also if you do anything remotely techy do it. IDEs, VMs, everything runs so much better.

[this-week-in-rust]

This Week in Rust 526

Hello and welcome to another issue of This Week in Rust! Rust is a programming language empowering everyone to build reliable and efficient software. This is a weekly summary of its progress and community. Want something mentioned? Tag us at @ThisWeekInRust on Twitter or @ThisWeekinRust on mastodon.social, or send us a pull request. Want to get involved? We love contributions.

This Week in Rust is openly developed on GitHub and archives can be viewed at this-week-in-rust.org. If you find any errors in this week's issue, please submit a PR.

Updates from Rust Community

Official

Blog: Launching the 2023 State of Rust Survey Survey

A Call for Proposals for the Rust 2024 Edition

Project/Tooling Updates

ratatui: a Rust library for cooking up terminal user interfaces - v0.25.0

Introducing Gooey: My take on a Rusty GUI framework

Two New Open Source Rust Crates Create Easier Cedar Policy Management

Introducing FireDBG - a Time Travel Visual Debugger for Rust

Fornjot 0.48.0 - open source b-rep CAD kernel written in Rust

Committing to Rust for kernel code

A Rust implementation of Android's Binder

Preventing atomic-context violations in Rust code with klint

Rust for Linux — in space

Observations/Thoughts

Rust is growing

A curiously recurring lifetime issue

The rabbit hole of unsafe Rust bugs

Faster Rust Toolchains for Android

The Most Common Rust Compiler Errors as Encountered in RustRover: Part 1

Nine Rules for SIMD Acceleration of your Rust Code (Part 2): General Lessons from Boosting Data Ingestion in the range-set-blaze Crate by 7x

What I Learned Making an embedded-hal Driver in Rust (for the MAX6675 Thermocouple Digitizer)

Rust Walkthroughs

Rust: Traits

Write a Toy VPN in Rust

Getting Started with Actix Web in Rust

Getting Started with Rocket in Rust

Generic types for function parameters in Rust 🦀

Benchmarking Rust Compiler Settings with Criterion: Controlling Criterion with Scripts and Environment Variables

[series] Multithreading and Memory-Mapping: Refining ANN Performance with Arroy

[series] Getting started with Tiny HTTP building a web application in Rust

Miscellaneous

Embedded Rust Education: 2023 Reflections & 2024 Visions

The Most Common Rust Compiler Errors as Encountered in RustRover: Part 1

Default arguments for functions in Rust using macros

[audio] Rust in Production Ep 1 - InfluxData's Paul Dix

[audio] Episode 160: Rust & Safety at Adobe with Sean Parent

Crate of the Week

This week's crate is constcat, a std::concat!-replacement with support for const variables and expressions.

Thanks to Ross MacArthur for the self-suggestion!

Please submit your suggestions and votes for next week!

Call for Participation

Always wanted to contribute to open-source projects but did not know where to start? Every week we highlight some tasks from the Rust community for you to pick and get started!

Some of these tasks may also have mentors available, visit the task page for more information.

Ockam - Fix documentation warnings

Ockam - Library - Validate CBOR structs according to the cddl schema for nodes/models/secure_channel

Ockam - Implement events in SqlxDatabase

Hyperswitch - [REFACTOR]: [Nuvei] MCA metadata validation

Hyperswitch - [FEATURE] : [Noon] Sync with Hyperswitch Reference

Hyperswitch - [FEATURE] : [Zen] Sync with Hyperswitch Reference

Hyperswitch - [REFACTOR] : [Authorizedotnet] Sync with Hyperswitch Reference

If you are a Rust project owner and are looking for contributors, please submit tasks here.

Updates from the Rust Project

386 pull requests were merged in the last week

enable stack probes on aarch64 for LLVM 18

add new tier 3 aarch64-apple-watchos target

add hexagon support

add the function body span to StableMIR

allow async_fn_in_trait traits with Send variant

cherry-pick "M68k: Fix ODR violation in GISel code (#72797)"

AIX: fix XCOFF metadata

-Ztrait-solver=next to -Znext-solver

actually parse async gen blocks correctly

add a method to StableMIR to check if a type is a CStr

add more suggestions to unexpected cfg names and values

add support for --env on tracked_env::var

add unstable -Zdefault-hidden-visibility cmdline flag for rustc

annotate panic reasons during enum layout

attempt to try to resolve blocking concerns (RFC #3086)

avoid overflow in GVN constant indexing

cache param env canonicalization

check FnPtr/FnDef built-in fn traits correctly with effects

check generic params after sigature for main-fn-ty

collect lang items from AST, get rid of GenericBound::LangItemTrait

coroutine variant fields can be uninitialized

coverage: skip instrumenting a function if no spans were extracted from MIR

deny ~const trait bounds in inherent impl headers

desugar yield in async gen correctly, ensure gen always returns unit

don't merge cfg and doc(cfg) attributes for re-exports

erase late bound regions from Instance::fn_sig() and add a few more details to StableMIR APIs

fix ICE ProjectionKinds Deref and Field were mismatched

fix LLD thread flags in bootstrap on Windows

fix waker_getters tracking issue number

fix alignment passed down to LLVM for simd_masked_load

fix dynamic size/align computation logic for packed types with dyn trait tail

fix overlapping spans in delimited meta-vars

ICE 110453: fixed with errors

llvm-wrapper: adapt for LLVM API changes

make IMPLIED_BOUNDS_ENTAILMENT into a hard error from a lint

make exhaustiveness usable outside of rustc

match lowering: Remove the make_target_blocks hack

more expressions correctly are marked to end with curly braces

nudge the user to kill programs using excessive CPU

opportunistically resolve region var in canonicalizer (instead of resolving root var)

properly reject default on free const items

remove unnecessary constness from ProjectionCandidate

replace some instances of FxHashMap/FxHashSet with stable alternatives (mostly in rustc_hir and rustc_ast_lowering)

resolve: replace visibility table in resolver outputs with query feeding

skip rpit constraint checker if borrowck return type error

some cleanup and improvement for invalid ref casting impl

tweak short_ty_string to reduce number of files

unconditionally register alias-relate in projection goal

update FreeBSD CI image

uplift TypeAndMut and ClosureKind to rustc_type_ir

use if cfg! instead of #[cfg]

use the LLVM option NoTrapAfterNoreturn

miri: visit the AllocIds and BorTags in borrow state FrameExtra

miri run: default to edition 2021

miri: make mmap not use expose semantics

fast path for declared_generic_bounds_from_env

stabilize type_name_of_val

stabilize ptr::{from_ref, from_mut}

add core::intrinsics::simd

add a column number to dbg!()

add more niches to rawvec

add ASCII whitespace trimming functions to &str

fix cases where std accidentally relied on inline(never)

Windows: allow File::create to work on hidden files

std: add xcoff in object's feature list

codegen: panic when trying to compute size/align of extern type

codegen_gcc: simd: implement missing intrinsics from simd/generic-arithmetic-pass.rs

codegen_llvm: set DW_AT_accessibility

cargo: clean up package metadata

cargo: do not allow empty name in package ID spec

cargo: fill in more empty name holes

cargo: hold the mutate exclusive lock when vendoring

rustdoc: use Map instead of Object for source files and search index

rustdoc: allow resizing the sidebar / hiding the top bar

rustdoc-search: fix a race condition in search index loading

rustdoc-search: use set ops for ranking and filtering

bindgen: use \r\n on windows

bindgen: better working destructors on windows

clippy: add new unconditional_recursion lint

clippy: new Lint: result_filter_map / Mirror of option_filter_map

clippy: don't visit nested bodies in is_const_evaluatable

clippy: redundant_pattern_matching: lint if let true, while let true, matches!(.., true)

clippy: do not lint assertions_on_constants for const _: () = assert!(expr)

clippy: doc_markdown Recognize words followed by empty parentheses () for quoting

clippy: fix binder handling in unnecessary_to_owned

rust-analyzer: deduplicate annotations

rust-analyzer: optimizing Performance with Promise.all 🏎

rust-analyzer: desugar doc correctly for mbe

rust-analyzer: dont assume ascii in remove_markdown

rust-analyzer: resolve alias before resolving enum variant

rust-analyzer: add minimal support for the 2024 edition

rust-analyzer: move out WithFixture into dev-dep only crate

rust-analyzer: fix false positive type mismatch in const reference patterns

rust-analyzer: syntax fixup now removes subtrees with fake spans

rust-analyzer: update builtin attrs from rustc

rust-analyzer: fix fragment parser replacing matches with dummies on incomplete parses

rust-analyzer: fix incorrectly replacing references in macro invocation in "Convert to named struct" assist

Rust Compiler Performance Triage

A lot of noise in the results this week; there was an lull in the noise recently, so our auto-inferred noise threshold went down, and thus five PR's were artificially flagged this week (and three supposed improvements were just reverting to the mean). Beyond that, we had three nice improvements: the first to debug builds in #117962 (by ceasing emission of expensive+unused .debug_pubnames and .debug_pubtypes), a second to diesel and serde in #119048 (by avoiding some unnecessary work), and a third to several benchmarks in #117749 (by adding some caching of an internal compiler structure).

Triage done by @pnkfelix. Revision range: 57010939..bf9229a2

6 Regressions, 9 Improvements, 3 Mixed; 5 of them in rollups 67 artifact comparisons made in total

Full report here

Approved RFCs

Changes to Rust follow the Rust RFC (request for comments) process. These are the RFCs that were approved for implementation this week:

No RFCs were approved this week.

Final Comment Period

Every week, the team announces the 'final comment period' for RFCs and key PRs which are reaching a decision. Express your opinions now.

RFCs

[disposition: postpone] RFC: Precise Pre-release Deps

Tracking Issues & PRs

[disposition: merge] Support async recursive calls (as long as they have indirection)

[disposition: merge] make soft_unstable show up in future breakage reports

[disposition: merge] Tracking Issue for ip_in_core

Language Reference

No Language Reference RFCs entered Final Comment Period this week.

Unsafe Code Guidelines

No Unsafe Code Guideline RFCs entered Final Comment Period this week.

New and Updated RFCs

RFC: patchable-function-entry

Call for Testing

An important step for RFC implementation is for people to experiment with the implementation and give feedback, especially before stabilization. The following RFCs would benefit from user testing before moving forward:

No RFCs issued a call for testing this week.

If you are a feature implementer and would like your RFC to appear on the above list, add the new call-for-testing label to your RFC along with a comment providing testing instructions and/or guidance on which aspect(s) of the feature need testing.

Upcoming Events

Rusty Events between 2023-12-20 - 2024-01-17 🦀

Virtual

2023-12-20 | Virtual (Vancouver, BC, CA) | Vancouver Rust

Adventures in egui app dev

2023-12-26 | Virtual (Dallas, TX, US) | Dallas Rust

Last Tuesday

2023-12-28 | Virtual (Charlottesville, NC, US) | Charlottesville Rust Meetup

Crafting Interpreters in Rust Collaboratively

2024-01-03 | Virtual (Indianapolis, IN, US) | Indy Rust

Indy.rs - with Social Distancing

2024-01-09 | Virtual (Dallas, TX, US) | Dallas Rust

Last Tuesday

2024-01-11 | Virtual (Charlottesville, NC, US) | Charlottesville Rust Meetup

Crafting Interpreters in Rust Collaboratively

2024-01-16 | Virtual (Washington, DC, US) | Rust DC

Mid-month Rustful

Europe

2023-12-27 | Copenhagen, DK | Copenhagen Rust Community

Rust hacknight #1: CLIs, TUIs and plushies

2023-12-28 | Vienna, AT | Rust Vienna

Rust Dojo 3: Holiday Edition

2024-01-11 | Reading, UK | Reading Rust Workshop

Reading Rust Meetup at Browns

2024-01-11 | Wrocław, PL | Rust Wrocław

Rust Meetup #36

2024-01-13 | Helsinki, FI | Finland Rust-lang Group

January Meetup

North America

2023-12-20 | Austin, TX, US | Rust ATX

Rust Lunch - Fareground

2023-12-27 | Austin, TX, US | Rust ATX

Rust Lunch - Fareground

2024-01-06 | Boston, MA, US | Boston Rust Meetup

Beacon Hill Rust Lunch

2024-01-08 | Chicago, IL, US | Deep Dish Rust

Rust Hack Night

2024-01-09 | Seattle, WA, US | Cap Hill Rust Coding/Hacking/Learning

Rusty Coding/Hacking/Learning Night

2024-01-09 | Minneapolis, MN, US | Minneapolis Rust Meetup

Minneapolis Rust Meetup Happy Hour

2024-01-14 | Cambridge, MA, US | Boston Rust Meetup

Alewife Rust Lunch

2024-01-16 | San Francisco, CA, US | San Francisco Rust Study Group

Rust Hacking in Person

2024-01-17 | Chicago, IL, US | Deep Dish Rust

Rust Happy Hour

If you are running a Rust event please add it to the calendar to get it mentioned here. Please remember to add a link to the event too. Email the Rust Community Team for access.

Jobs

Please see the latest Who's Hiring thread on r/rust

Quote of the Week

The Tianyi-33 satellite is a 50kg class space science experimental satellite equipped with an operating system independently developed by Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications—the Rust-based dual-kernel real-time operating system RROS. RROS will carry out general tasks represented by tensorflow/k8s and real-time tasks represented by real-time file systems and real-time network transmission on the satellite. It will ensure the normal execution of upper-layer applications and scientific research tasks, such as time-delay measurement between satellite and ground, live video broadcasting, onboard web chat services, pseudo-SSH experiments, etc. This marks the world’s first official application of a Rust-written dual-kernel operating system in a satellite scenario.

– Qichen on the RROS web page

Thanks to Brian Kung for the suggestion!

Please submit quotes and vote for next week!

This Week in Rust is edited by: nellshamrell, llogiq, cdmistman, ericseppanen, extrawurst, andrewpollack, U007D, kolharsam, joelmarcey, mariannegoldin, bennyvasquez.

Email list hosting is sponsored by The Rust Foundation

Discuss on r/rust

[eshasunrise]

This was not a "Sudden" thing. Corporate backed American Conservatives pushed HARD against computers in schools at all, and demanded limited utility when they were introduced. You weren't allowed to bring your own bloody phone, smart or not, to school until parents literally lobbied to be able to contact their children.

By that point, the Corporations backing these movements (mostly Microsoft, Apple, and Adobe) had pretty much gotten what they wanted. Graduates who had bare minimum computer literacy if they didn't want it, and a market opening to sell their incredibly restrictive notepad-style laptops (with non-customizable apps) to. This basically ensured that all PC education was limited to closed systems, thus discouraging future generations from learning, and thus teaching, how to actually operate a computer made for personal use.

This is why so many OSes and Browsers can get away with flooding ads, installing spyware, and bricking programs that ad agencies and boards of directors don't like: few people my age or younger have experience keeping their computers personalized, they don't have the knowledge.

Fortunately, the means to learn are there, and it is pretty simple all things considered, and no less obnoxious than a smart device. Getting a desktop PC with Windows 10 or earlier, or any Linux desktop, should help get people used to navigating files, adjusting preferences, and browsing online.

I also highly encourage those with more experience and technical know-how to leave guides and thorough walk-throughs for new users, keeping in mind many of them are gonna be between 12 and 30, meaning don't talk down to them.

Despite what market addicts want to believe, people are not content being isolated and limited. We experiment by our very nature, and reach out to others when we can't. Full censorship is literally impossible, and so long as the tech is viable to create, somebody will make it their own.

So this was originally a response to this post:

****

****

Which is about people wanting an AO3 app, but then it became large and way off topic, so here you go.

Nobody under the age of 20 knows how to use a computer or the internet. At all. They only know how to use apps. Their whole lives are in their phones or *maybe* a tablet/iPad if they're an artist. This is becoming a huge concern.

I'm a private tutor for middle- and high-school students, and since 2020 my business has been 100% virtual. Either the student's on a tablet, which comes with its own series of problems for screen-sharing and file access, or they're on mom's or dad's computer, and they have zero understanding of it.

They also don't know what the internet is, or even the absolute basics of how it works. You might not think that's an important thing to know, but stick with me.

Last week I accepted a new student. The first session is always about the tech -- I tell them this in advance, that they'll have to set up a few things, but once we're set up, we'll be good to go. They all say the same thing -- it won't be a problem because they're so "online" that they get technology easily.

I never laugh in their faces, but it's always a close thing. Because they are expecting an app. They are not expecting to be shown how little they actually know about tech.

I must say up front: this story is not an outlier. This is *every* student during their first session with me. Every single one. I go through this with each of them because most of them learn more, and more solidly, via discussion and discovery rather than direct instruction.

Once she logged in, I asked her to click on the icon for screen-sharing. I described the icon, then started with "Okay, move your mouse to the bottom right corner of the screen." She did the thing that those of us who are old enough to remember the beginnings of widespread home computers remember - picked up the mouse and moved it and then put it down. I explained she had to pull the mouse along the surface, and then click on the icon. She found this cumbersome. I asked if she was on a laptop or desktop computer. She didn't know what I meant. I asked if the computer screen was connected to the keyboard as one piece of machinery that you can open and close, or if there was a monitor - like a TV - and the keyboard was connected to another machine either by cord or by Bluetooth. Once we figured it out was a laptop, I asked her if she could use the touchpad, because it's similar (though not equivalent) to a phone screen in terms of touching clicking and dragging.

Once we got her using the touchpad, we tried screen-sharing again. We got it working, to an extent, but she was having trouble with... lots of things. I asked if she could email me a download or a photo of her homework instead, and we could both have a copy, and talk through it rather than put it on the screen, and we'd worry about learning more tech another day. She said she tried, but her email blocked her from sending anything to me.

This is because the only email address she has is for school, and she never uses email for any other purpose. I asked if her mom or dad could email it to me. They weren't home.

(Re: school email that blocks any emails not whitelisted by the school: that's great for kids as are all parental controls for young ones, but 16-year-olds really should be getting used to using an email that belongs to them, not an institution.)

I asked if the homework was on a paper handout, or in a book, or on the computer. She said it was on the computer. Great! I asked her where it was saved. She didn't know. I asked her to search for the name of the file. She said she already did that and now it was on her screen. Then, she said to me: "You can just search for it yourself - it's Chapter 5, page 11."

This is because homework is on the school's website, in her math class's homework section, which is where she searched. For her, that was "searching the internet."

Her concepts of "on my computer" "on the internet" or "on my school's website" are all the same thing. If something is displayed on the monitor, it's "on the internet" and "on my phone/tablet/computer" and "on the school's website."

She doesn't understand "upload" or "download," because she does her homework on the school's website and hits a "submit" button when she's done. I asked her how she shares photos and stuff with friends; she said she posts to Snapchat or TikTok, or she AirDrops. (She said she sometimes uses Insta, though she said Insta is more "for old people"). So in her world, there's a button for "post" or "share," and that's how you put things on "the internet".

She doesn't know how it works. None of it. And she doesn't know how to use it, either.

Also, none of them can type. Not a one. They don't want to learn how, because "everything is on my phone."

And you know, maybe that's where we're headed. Maybe one day, everything will be on "my phone" and computers as we know them will be a thing of the past. But for the time being, they're not. Students need to learn how to use computers. They need to learn how to type. No one is telling them this, because people think teenagers are "digital natives." And to an extent, they are, but the definition of that has changed radically in the last 20-30 years. Today it means "everything is on my phone."

[inwintersolitude]

- April 7th 2025 -

Do you have a favourite sibling? I only have one sibling.

Apple or Android? When it comes to cell phones, I prefer Android. I like Apple computers, though. I've always preferred MacOS over Windows. I like Linux too, but I wouldn't want to use it on my main computer. I have it installed on just my gaming computer.

What colour is the blanket/quilt on your bed? Navy blue.

Any languages you want to learn? I would love to learn Japanese, but it seems really difficult. And I'm not naturally good at learning new languages to begin with.

Is maths easy or hard? Easy. I've always had a natural talent for it.

Do you play basketball? Nope.

Ever prank called someone? No.

Ever tried carrot juice? Yep. I like it, but I prefer it as part of a carrot/ginger/turmeric juice blend.

What's an unusual/weird food combo you like? I don't think that any of the food combos I like are that weird.

Favourite milkshake flavour? Strawberry, or vanilla bean.

Favourite type of milk? 2 percent or whole.

Would you rather wear a suit or dress? A suit.

Best year of your life? Hmm. Probably 2010 or 2011.

How loud do you like your music in the car? Not loud at all. I have hyperacusis, loud noises give me inner ear nerve pain.

Prefer to write or read? Read.

Favourite apps? Relay for Reddit, YouTube, FlightRadar24.

Did/does your favourite teacher wear glasses? I never really had a favorite teacher. I liked almost all of them, but none stood out as my absolute favorite teacher.

How do you like your eggs, if you like them at all? Poached, or over-easy.

Ever seen snow? Countless times. I just saw snow a few hours ago (despite it being April lol).

Ever gone sledding? Yes, I went sledding almost every winter when I was growing up. There's a national park near my childhood home and one of the hiking trails there has a meadow with a huge hill that's great for sledding.

Favourite holiday? Christmas or Thanksgiving.

Is your hair long? No.

Do/did you play an instrument? I did. I played piano from age 5 til 10, flute from 10 til 18, and piccolo from 14 til 18. Oh and I also briefly played the violin when I was 9, but my parents let me quit because the school's orchestra teacher was mean.

Do you have a nintendo switch? Yep.

Ever skipped class? Only in college, and only in the classes where it didn't really matter if I occasionally skipped. I skipped a few lectures in my Air Transportation Systems class because the professor put all the material online, and all of the tests were open-book. And I also sometimes skipped my aerospace senior seminar because it was mostly bullshit.

Ever skipped a whole school day? No.

What is a fruit you refuse to eat? There isn't any fruit that I dislike.

Would you rather gain weight or lose weight? Lose weight, but not much.

Would you rather gain height or lose height? I'd rather gain height, but no more than 2 inches.

When was the last time you ate cotton candy? It's been a very, very long time. I think it's nasty.

Are both your eyes the same colour? They're both the same two colors. The outer parts of my irises are green, and the inner parts are brown.

Do you prefer to carry a backpack or a purse? Purses are okay if they're crossbody purses.

Do you like glittery things? No.

Ever watched a play in the theatre? Yes.

Are you naturally blonde? Not anymore. I had naturally blonde hair when I was a kid, but it gradually darkened over my teen years and it's been light golden brown ever since.

Do you have a pet rabbit? Nope.

Do you have a pet fish? Nope.

Do you have a pet cat? Nope.

Do you have a pet chicken? Nope. But I sometimes call my budgie a silly little chicken, funky chicken, chicken nugget, etc. Lol.

Best thing that's happened today? I made grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup for dinner, and it was delicious.

Opinion on brussel sprouts? I really like Brussels sprouts.

What colour is your country's flag? My country as I knew it doesn't exist anymore, in my eyes. It's been taken over by fascists via a bureaucratic coup.

Are you studying any languages? No, not currently.

How many followers do you have on instagram? 71.

How about twitter? Like 10?

Are you brave? I kind of have to be, to face these chronic medical problems.

How much would I have to pay you to get you to do karaoke? I can't be bribed into doing things that I don't want to do.

Would you rather watch a movie from home or at the movies? At home. It's more comfortable, you don't have to be around other people, plus you can have whatever foods/drinks you choose. Also, movie theaters tend to be too loud.

Last time you went ice skating? I went ice skating with friends for my 10th birthday party. And I have a very vague memory of going to the university's skating rink with some friends when I was in my freshman year of college, but I can't remember if I rented skates or if I just chilled in the lounge area.

Have you cheated on a test? I don't call it cheating, I call it using all available resources. Lmao. But there were a few times where I wrote answers/tips on my fingernails in pencil. Easy to read, but still easy to quickly wipe off if need be.

Painting or drawing? I don't do either. I like to look at paintings more than drawings, though.

Art or science? I am very, very passionate about science. I appreciate art, but I am not as interested in it as I am science.

Dancing or singing? Eh. I'm not into either one.

History or geography? I can't decide. I love both. I'm a bit more knowledgeable in geography, though.

Favourite season? Autumn.

Do you watch Supernatural? My husband and I binge-watched it in 2020-2021 when he was on paid leave due to covid. It took us like 6-7 months to get through it all. I think the first 5 seasons were really good, but it got increasingly tedious to watch after that.

If you could change your eye colour would you? I think they'd look neat if they were slightly lighter, more like a light hazel and green.

What colour would you change it to? ^

What is your religion? None. I'm an atheist.

Are both your ears pierced? Yep.

[kittycatcrackhead]

i'm genuinely considering switching to linux

i'm still using windows 10 rn, and i don't think i can upgrade to 11 because i need to enable tpm 2.0. i don't even fucking know what that is lol

on a more serious note, i genuinely want to learn everything that i can about linux, and computers in general before i ditch windows 10 (whether it'll be for linux or windows 11, only time will tell)

I really don't want that goddamn spyware that windows 11 has, and ik you have to go thru powershell to disable it. i'm good enough with computer stuff for that yet.

my dad works in IT, and he could probably do all of the important stuff, buuuuuuuuuut i don't want him touching my pc because i've got stuff on here that would make my parents very disappointed in me (just nsfw drawings that i keep on here as a backup in case my ipad dies)

even if i somehow have to lose everything on this pc when i switch, it doesn't bother me too bad, since all that i have that's worth saving is some pictures i took with my canon, and didn't save anywhere else, and those can easily be saved to a thumb drive. I've got some shows n stuff that i need to save to an external device anyways lol

most of what i do is online, and can be accessed through various accounts. i have some indie games that i've downloaded, but those can probably be transferred to thumb drive as well, since they're not very big. as much as i love video games, i don't play very many on my pc.

anyways there's my long-ass ramble about pc stuff that i don't know jack shit about lmao

[60seccyberbrief]

Pi-Hole

This week I wanted to discuss another useful software piece and a beginner project for any aspiring Raspberry Pi users. The software for discussion is called The Pi-hole. Pi-hole is a lightweight, robust, scalable, open-source network-wide ad blocker that functions as a DNS sinkhole, blocking advertisements and other unwanted content at the DNS level. It was my first project when getting a Raspberry PI and I have learned and am continuing to learn much through it. It generally runs on devices like the Raspberry Pi (hence the name) because it is so lightweight but can be run on other Linux-based systems. Pi hole intercepts DNS queries from devices on your network and checks them against the preloaded blocklist that you have uploaded to Pi-hole’s interface. If the DNS matches one on the blocklist, Pi-hole then prevents the request from reaching the ad server. This ability to block DNS from the network is beneficial because you can have all your devices on your network run through Pi-hole blocking telemetry and ads without installing any extra software or browser extensions on the individual devices. All it requires is simple DNS and IP server assignment on your devices or using virtual network software such as Tailscale (which I will cover next week). This will route your DNS queries through the Pi-hole and allow it to be filtered as such. Another notable feature of Pi-hole is it's all self-hosted and customizable. It's not hosted by your ISP or controlled by them but controlled by you. You have the power to change how strict or lenient your block list is. This allows you to implement certain parental controls if need be times Pi-hole will run or not run, or for what devices it will run or won't run. Even if you don’t regularly use Pi-hole or have a Raspberry Pi, I think it’s a great project for those wanting to better understand networks and devices.

Sources:

[chorusfm]

Liner Notes (May 18th, 2024)

Buckle up—we have a lot to discuss this week. This week’s supporter Q&A post can be found here. If you’d like this newsletter delivered to your inbox each week (it’s free and available to everyone), you can sign up here. A Few Things * One of the recent member-only episodes of the ATP podcast was all about “computer origin stories” or “first computer memories.” I’m roughly the same age as Casey and Marco and their core memories and histories mirrored mine quite a bit. And hearing them talk about their origin stories had me thinking about mine. My first memory of seeing a computer was in first grade when there was a computer in the elementary school library. Maybe an Apple IIGS? It was too long ago and I don’t know for sure. But a found family film makes it pretty clear I spent time with it. (Cool haircut first grade Jason.) I remember playing games like Carmen Sandiego. However, it wasn’t until middle school that my memories of using a computer start to solidify. I can remember vividly the computer labs at Twality Middle School. This is where I can remember my obsession beginning. At some point my parents bought a home computer for “the family.” It was a PC running DOS and Windows 3.1. Look, I’m very clearly old. I’m 41 and remember typing book reports on a typewriter before that computer. And this is when my obsession went into overdrive. I liked playing video games, what kid didn’t?, but I loved trying to figure out how all the software worked. I wanted to learn all the tips and tricks. I wanted to know how the system worked. Which meant I broke that computer. A lot. A lot a lot. I re-installed Windows on that thing from floppy disks more times than I can count. And this was where I first started playing around with Qbasic and did my first “programming.” My first memory of seeing the “internet” was at OMSI. My mom used to take my cousin and me there during summer vacation, and they had a computer lab. I remember downloading Simpsons WAV files and Dark Forces cheat codes, so this would have had to be around 1995, and I would have been around 14. At some point, breaking the family computer became a thing my parents got sick of, and my grandparents helped them purchase my own. Windows 95 and having my computer is where the already probably unhealthy technology obsession went supersonic. And this would be when I started playing around with HTML for the first time and soon after would begin writing what would turn into AbsolutePunk. That’s, best I can remember, my computing origin story. High school was primarily spent tinkering with PCs, installing various Linux distros, and using Windows throughout college. It wouldn’t be until around 2010 that I bought my first Mac. But, that’s probably a story for another time. * Anadivine was one of the hidden gems of the early 2000s scene, and they released a new 2024 remix/remaster of their album, Zoo_. It sounds great, and even if you never checked them out back in the day, it holds up all these years later. Also, if any labels read this and are interested in doing a limited vinyl pressing of the album, I can put you in contact with the band. Just let me know. * Aaron Mook, a contributor to AbsolutePunk and Chorus, has launched a GoFundMe to raise emergency medical funds for his cat. Please take a look if you’re able. In Case You Missed It * Review: Dua Lipa – Radical Optimism * Review: Keane – Hopes & Fears * Review: Broadway Calls – Coming After You * Review: Cold Years – A Different Life * Rise Against Announce New Tour * The Blood Brothers Announce Tour * Interview: Tony Lovato of Mest * The Used Announce B-Side Album * Alice Wallace – “Imposter” (Video Premiere) * Head Automatica – “Bear the Cross” * One OK Rock Announce World Tour * Avril Lavigne Announces Greatest Hits Album * Albums in Stores – May 17th, 2024 Music Thoughts * Lot’s of music to catch up on! Origami Angel released a new single, and it rules. I’m absolutely ready for a new Gami album. Their last… https://chorus.fm/features/articles/liner-notes-may-18th-2024/

[snarp]

I wrote this "How To Pick Out A Cheap Laptop In Early 2023" tutorial for my parents' law office; there's some task-specific stuff in there, but it may be useful for other people.

DON'T SPEND MORE THAN $500 - You can generally meet all of the guidelines below for under $400.

YOU NEED WINDOWS 10, NOT WINDOWS 11 - Avoid buying Windows 11 PCs or upgrading existing PCs to Windows 11. If a PC uses Windows 11, turn it off whenever it is not in use. As of right now (early 2023), Windows 11 is still only really intended for use in places with 100%-consistent high-speed internet access. The office's internet connection (like most places in Appalachia) can't handle this, so Windows 11 computers are likely to slow the whole network to a crawl. (There are a few things you can do to make this less of a problem, but they're not practical for the office (time-consuming, have to be re-done regularly, will stress everyone out).)

YOU NEED AN ETHERNET PORT - Since spotty wifi is a problem in a lot of places, buying a laptop with no ethernet port is a bad idea. (Also, laptops WITHOUT ethernet adapters aren't generally designed for heavy daily use - they can break easily.)

YOU NEED BOTH AN HDMI PORT AND AN SVGA PORT - The vast majority of TVs/projectors use either HDMI or SVGA ports; some recent laptops are missing one or both. This makes it very hard to, for example, give PowerPoint presentations in old courthouses.

YOU NEED A (SMALL) SSD DRIVE - Computers with SSDs (solid-state drives) can turn on and open files MUCH faster than those with HDDs (hard disc drives). SSDs have less storage space than HDDs, but that doesn't matter for the office's purposes - 256 GB is more than enough.

YOU NEED AT LEAST 8GB OF RAM - Preferably 16GB.

YOU DON'T WANT A "BUILT-IN BATTERY" - This just means "battery that can't be replaced." Laptops like this are designed to be disposable, so they always have a lot of other problems.

YOU NEED AT LEAST TWO USB-3 PORTS - Some recent laptops only have USB-C ports (the tiny ones), not the normal, rectangular ones (USB-3 and -2). USB-C-only laptops are intended as fashion accessories - they're not meant to be used for daily work, and (as above) always have a lot of other problems.

YOU WANT AN INTEL CORE i5-EQUIVALENT-OR-BETTER PROCESSOR - This isn't as big a deal as the RAM or SSD, but i3 processors slow down a lot of stuff.

YOU PROBABLY NEED A CD DRIVE - Many recent laptops don't have CD drives, but there are going to be times when you need them. (If necessary, you can buy a USB CD drive.)

BLUETOOTH ISN'T ACTUALLY VERY IMPORTANT - You can get a USB plugin if you need it, but you probably won't.

YOU DO NOT WANT A MACBOOK OR ANY OTHER APPLE PRODUCT - For too many reasons to list.

YOU DO NOT WANT A CHROMEBOOK - Even worse than MacBooks.

LINUX LAPTOPS ARE USUALLY FINE BUT YOU DON'T KNOW HOW TO USE THEM - You'll end up needing to install Windows 10.

[clouddevops]

Linux “fdisk” vs “gdisk”. What, Why and How!

What…

The story is quite long but I will keep it simple. We (I) was taught to use fdisk to partition disks for use on Ubuntu or any other Linux distro, but I soon came to learn of gdisk which in my own opinion is less stressful when compared to the former. 

Why… 

Now to understand the background to all this we look at the different disk partition table scheme or method now available. We have MBR (Master Boot Record) used by BIOS (Basic Input and Output) and the GPT (Globally Unique Disk Identifier Partition Table) used by UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface). 

In the MBR scheme we can have just four primary partitions and if we need more we create a extended partition and add as many logical partitions inside, but in the GPT scheme we can have up to 128 primary partitions. A noteworthy difference is the partition size, MBR's [2 Terabytes], and GPT's [2³³ terabytes], don't ask me ask Google but it's fair to say the latter takes more than we would really need as ordinary folks. This is my favourite reason for using GPT as I don't need to bother about "what's after a partition" as I will demonstrate in a minute.

Now how would an MBR scheme look like, here it is:

sda ├─sda1 vfat 7AE7-E0CE /boot/efi ├─sda2 ext4 xxx-xxx-xxx / ├─sda3 LVM2_member xxx-xxx-xxx │ └─myvg-mylvm ext4 xxx-xxx-xxx /mylvm ├─sda4 ├─sda5 linux_raid_member george-VirtualBox:0 xxx-xxx-xxx │ └─md127 ext4 xxx-xxx-xxx /myraid └─sda6 linux_raid_member george-VirtualBox:0 xxx-xxx-xxx └─md127 ext4 xxx-xxx-xxx /myraid Note that the last two partitions /dev/sda5, and /dev/sda6 are derived from the logical partition /dev/sda4. 

And the GPT would look like this:

sda ├─sda1 vfat 4CDB-E085 /boot/efi ├─sda2 ext4 e401768e-e7b3-4cd5-a1b1-5c1a965ea2b5 / ├─sda3 ext4 a98f7047-3987-4269-ad0a-eae829ec1fa9 /part3 ├─sda4 ext4 284af069-3007-44cc-b016-6c46a771eba7 /part4 ├─sda5 ext4 2a676692-3393-444f-9074-bc7053f3843f /part5 ├─sda6 ext4 f3ae7d99-5bcd-460e-b442-bde470d79ce8 /part6 └─sda7 ext4 ea3eb54a-f236-4000-9a6c-938a0f320913 /part7

How…

How do you set up a MBR partition scheme, well you use the Linux tool fdisk but you plan ahead to avoid embarrassing your self when you discover that you have somehow run out of space even when you know you had enough space. Let's use a simple case like the one in my diagram [for MBR] above where I made three primary partitions and one logical one. 

I initially made a virtual machine of [VHD] (virtual hard disk) size 60G and used only 30G to create it. So I had 30G left to use. With MBR I would create three primary partitions and then a logical one and here is where the real trick comes into play. Say you wanted to make two more partitions of sizes 300M each but in creating [logical] partition 4 I gave it a size of 300M, well when I try to create the sixth (6) of size 300M having made one previously of the same size the tool (fdisk) would complain that I had overshot the size limit. Now why is that? That's because the logical size of the parent container [partition 4] was 300M and not 600M, which would have accommodated both partitions 5 and 6. So to avoid this situation we should have created a logical container (partition 4) with size of at least 700M and with that we will be OK. But again that means that the remaining free space on the disk would be unusable. So advanced planning is really needed with MBR schemes. Now the case with GPT is very different as the tool gdisk would easily create all the partitions without any fear of making the spaces after the last one unusable. This is one of the reasons I love GPT scheme.

[ms-demeanor]

So I've been working in a customer support job with computers since before the end of XP support. I've seen XP, Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8 go out of support and we're already gearing up and trying to convince our customers to replace their Win10 systems before it goes out of support in October 2025.

Every single fucking time it is like pulling teeth.

When I started working at my current job (November 2011), I was a Mac user. I had only owned Macs and since high school I had mostly used Macs, though my parents had Windows PCs at home.

Getting a job at a Windows shop was jarring. I didn't like the way the file system worked, there were little functions in OSX that I'd come to rely on that just were not present in Windows (TBH I still miss the ability to go through a huge folder of photos and click on them one at a time and give them a color label with two clicks; it was SO MUCH more efficient for sorting photos).

It's a weird function of my ADHD and my job that I deal with emotional dysregulation with software more than with any other aspect of my life. There's nothing that will throw me into a rage faster than a program changing its menu layout. I *do not* do well learning new systems. I get really, really angry and I think the whole thing is stupid and I often end up sitting in front of the computer and silently crying in frustration.

So I get it when my customers don't want to say goodbye to their ten year old system and have to learn how to cope with a new OS that is scary and different (it is stunning to me that nobody at Microsoft seemed to understand this when Windows 8 was launched; the UX change was so drastic that people who would have otherwise been frustrated and grumpy about an update were instead *panicked*).

All of which is to say: if you are a non-computery type person, one of the better ways that you can future-proof *yourself* is to interact with as many types of software and as many operating systems as you can get your hands on.

If you've got an older, mostly-useless computer at home, don't e-waste it, install Linux on it. Install Linux on it and install a bunch of weird open source programs and just fuck around with it.

It's hard (and prohibitively expensive) to have three brand new computers with shiny new OSs, but it's cheap to install Linux on an old machine that was destined for the junk heap, and it's pretty easy as well. You'll get more life out of the old machine (reducing waste!), you'll get more experience with different systems (making updates less scary in the future!), and *just* spending some time with a different OS than you're used to will make you better and more competent at dealing with computers (it will help you to apply your troubleshooting skillset more broadly - you may not REALIZE you have a troubleshooting skillset, but you do, it's just that it's routine and specific to your system; applying it to other systems is good for you, it builds character).

And, at the very least, try to be an early adopter for new releases for your own system. If you try to cling to a particular release you're going to become reliant on it and you may end up being *forced* into an upgrade, which is catastrophic compared to upgrading over time.

I know so, so many people who put off updates for years only to finally concede when something vital stopped working and then discovered that their computer was completely incapable of functioning with the updated OS due to hardware limitations and had to very suddenly buy a new machine instead of planning for it and making a more comfortable transfer.

Please, please trust me when I say that you are going to have a much better time of things if you decide that you're just going to have to relearn how your computer works every few years than you are if you decide that you're learning how this one computer you have now works and try to hang onto it forever. And you will have an even BETTER time if you decide to figure out how totally different computers work just for the hell of it.

I'm sure I've said this before but while Linux does have some sharp edges and obtuse metaphors, the biggest reason why it's hard is that you've never used it and you're 20 or 30 years old and you have stuff you want to do and you have 10 or 20 years of experience with Windows where you already know how to do things. Computers don't naturally do anything.

[andmaybegayer]

Last Monday of the Week 2021-09-13

I procrastinated writing a paper until the last two days and fortunately it turned out to not be that bad, I will learn nothing from this.

Listening: Thinking About Video Games This Week so it's "Want you gone" from Portal 2, which is great, and serves really well to sum up your relationship to glados at the end of Portal 2. I'll replay that sometime soon I think.

Reading: Started Dune Messiah. I reread Dune recently in prep for the movie and I figure that I should finally read the rest of the series. I stopped after Messiah last time. The main purpose of this is so that when someone comes to talk to me about Dune I can say something extremely ridiculous that is also entirely true.

Also a few other chapters of things, I've decided to try reading like I did when I was a kid where I just jitterbugged from book to book rather than trying to finish any one thing, it seems effective enough.

Watching: A bunch of reviews, writeups and tests about recent developments in the server hardware world, since with luck I have interviews about that coming up and while I am kind of abreast of the industry, I don't have the same kind of near-encyclopaedic knowledge of the new tech as I had about some older ones. ServeTheHome is always good for text articles and summary videos depending on your mood.

Playing: I was very brave and didn't run back to Linux this entire weekend, so I played some Disco Elysium. I already wrote a bit about this here, and I really liked Sybilius's addendum. It's one of those things where now that I have read something about it I'll be thinking about it every time I play an RPG.

Making: Spent some time in the garden doing macrophotos. Winter still has our little dip by the river in its grip so not a lot of bugs out. It was a good opportunity to experiment with flash photography of flowers, you'll see some of those in the next little while.

Also my parents' fishpond renovation is complete and so I touched a whole lot of fish in the process of moving them from their temporary pond into their new home. I no longer have problems with touching live fish now, next I need to do this about insects.

Computer Stuff: qv4l2, a part of v4l2-utils on most package repos, is a really useful tool for quickly manually fiddling with webcam settings on Linux. I have a very challenging lighting setup during work hours which is a sickeningly warm LED pointed directly at my face while backlit by sunlight through blinds behind me, and no automatic compensation system on earth know what to do with that. Instead I just manually set temperature, gain, exposure, etc. though qv4l2 and it works great.

[surveys-at-your-service]

Survey #391

“if you wanna soar with vultures, you’ll have to swallow crow”

Have you ever been to Australia? No. I want to visit a friend there, but honestly, Australia scares me too much lmao. That place is like, the Hard mode in life. Who was the last person you know to have a birthday? My sister's husband just had his. Are you wearing a necklace? If so, describe it. No. Do you know anyone who is left-handed? My best fren. Ever wear out a CD? What was it? Haha, yeah... I caused a few scratches on Ozzy's Black Rain, as well as one more of his, where the album name is surprisingly evading me. What’s your favorite card game? Magic: The Gathering. What’s your favorite fast food meal? Burgers or chicken tenders are usually my go-to, depending on the place. Where is the best restaurant you’ve ever eaten in at? The Cheesecake Factory. @_@ Lamb chops or pork chops? I've actually never tried lamb chops before, but I've always thought they look yummy. If you HAD to pick ONE song to listen to for the rest of your life, and that would be the only song you ever heard, what would it be? "Life Won't Wait" by Ozzy Osbourne, probably. It's very motivating. Ever heard of Shinedown? Yeah, I like 'em. They're one of Dad's faves. What size is your bed? Queen. What is the first meal you remember eating? Hell if I know. What was the first movie you ever saw? I also don't remember. What percentile of your class were you in? The top. Can you name every place you’ve ever had sex? I probably could, but I'm not going to. What forms of birth control have you used? The pill and also just not having a sex life lmao. Do you use sponges or dishcloths when doing the dishes? A sponge. What’s your favorite song on the top twenty right now? I have zero clue what's in the top twenty. Ever punched a wall? No. What was the last bug you killed and what did you use? An ant in the house. My fingers. Ever get pulled over by the cops and get away without a ticket? I've never been pulled over. What was your first legal alcoholic drink? A margarita, I think? What’s the most expensive things your parents ever bought you? Probably this laptop. What’s the most expensive thing you’ve bought? My snake. Or my most recent tattoo, idr. What is your favorite cover song? I think Disturbed's "Sound of Silence" is unbeatable as a cover. Well, or Johnny Cash's "Hurt." Both SLAUGHTER the originals. Did you ever drop out of school? College, three times. Ever raise a child that wasn’t your own for more than 3 months? No. Strangest medical procedure ever performed on you? Considering the location, having a pilonidal cyst drained by pushing on it. Jesus FUCKING Christ it hurt so goddamn bad. Does the place you work have music playing? What sort? I don’t have a job. Do you use Windows, Mac, Linux, or something else entirely? Windows. Do you cut tags out of clothing so they don’t itch and bother you? Yes. How many times a year do you go on vacation? Zero, generally. What is your favorite time period in history to learn about? The Holocaust. What’s the saddest report you have ever seen on the news? *shrug* I don't watch the news. In your honest opinion, what is the scariest sea creature you know? Putting aside my illogical fear of whale sharks, probably giant squid. Like no thank u. What superpower do you think would be the most handy in times of trouble? Teleportation. Do you believe there is just one love for everyone, or…? No. There are WAY too many people in the world for that. Plus, you're talking to a person who has been in love with two different individuals, and both were perfectly valid feelings. Why are you best friends with your best friend? She's just simply amazing. Strong, funny, intelligent, caring, supportive, loyal... She's, again, amazing. Do you world peace is truly a possibility in the future? Realistically, no. But it's nice to imagine. Pretend you are a really good cook, what meal would you make? *shrug* It would depend on what I wanted to eat. What do you think of when you look at the stars? Just the vastness of everything, and I wonder what it's like up there in outer space. If a turtle doesn’t have a shell, is he homeless or naked? Dead? Their shells are part of their actual skeletal structure. What’s one thing you feel you must do in your life before it ends? Just... feel like I did something. What Disney princess are you most like? Personality-wise, I mean. Maybe Belle? To be totally honest, I don't really remember the details of most of their personalities. What do you think is the most important thing in this life is? Love. Do you use any acne medication? Not anymore. Have you ever tried to learn another language? How did it go? I took Latin for one semester, and it was hard as FUCK. I quickly changed to German next semester and did that for all four available classes. Do you still have a landline phone in your home? No. Throughout a typical week, which places are you likely to go? I go to the TMS therapy office every weekday, and I might ride with my mom to pick up groceries or something. How often do you use your webcam, if you even have one that is? Never anymore because my mic doesn't work on this laptop, so there's no reason to. Do you have a lock number or pattern for your phone? Neither, actually. What was the last thing you bought from a liquor store? Mom bought a nice bottle of some pink lemonade Smirnoff the other day for us to try, but she left it at my sister's. ;-; It looked soooo good. Is there any cereal in your house? What kind? Yeah. Mom got some Honey Nut Cheerios and Reese's Puffs. What's the most number of people you've ever lived with? Excluding myself, I wanna say five. Do you celebrate St. Patrick's Day? No. Do you have any pets? How long have you had them? I've had Venus forrrr... I want to say four years, and Roman for two, I think. What's your favourite kind of cheese? American. Have you danced in the rain? No. Who is your favorite person to text? Sara. What’s your favorite brand of jeans? I haven't worn jeans in many years. Do you enjoy Mario games? Not especially. Mario Kart is fun, though. What’s your favorite online game? World of Warcraft. Have you ever been hit with a ball in gym class? Yes. That shit hurts. Who was last to cook for you? My mom. Would you ever wish to explore a cave? YES!!!!! You see the person you fell hardest for. What do you do? Freeze, physically and mentally. Have you ever ridden in a car with someone who was high? Yes, because I was afraid to say no. Did you ever date the last person you kissed? Yes. Have you ever held a snake? Plenty of times. How often do you have friends over to your house? Never. Have you ever had a boss who acted unprofessionally? No. Who was the last person who cried around you? Why did they start crying? Was it unexpected? My mom, because she always feels unwanted at Ashley's house. It wasn't unexpected, honestly. She cries a lot in the car when she leaves my sister's house, honestly. It's heartbreaking. Do you have any exercises you do everyday? No. :/ Are you more of a dog or cat person? I'm a cat person. That only becomes more apparent with time, really. Have you ever had a dream of stabbing someone? I probably have, given I've had nightmares of strangling someone, punching and slapping people... all kinds of stuff. My nightmares are so fucking violent and I hate it. Would you ever have a bird as a pet? No. Have you ever had to speak at a funeral? No. Do you know someone who’s been cremated? My dog, as well as my younger sister's old pup. And Mom's. What is your favorite animated movie? The Lion King. Did your grandparents teach you anything? To not be horrendously old-fashioned and to never have kids, yes. Congrats, Grandma, I took both things to heart. Do you want/have a Bachelor's degree? No. Are you into superheroes? Who's your favourite? Not massively, no. I like Deadpool (yeah, yeah, antihero, whatever) and Spider-Man. Have you ever played Cards Against Humanity? Did you like it? Yes to both. Have you ever played a drinking game? Which ones? I don't think so. Did you ever play Neopets when you were younger? Yes, I LOVED them. Sometimes I'm still tempted to make a new account, I shit you not, lol. Have you ever been to Mexico? No. Have your parents ever worked in medicine? My mom was a pharmacy technician or some title like that for a long time. Is there anything unusual about your house? I don't think so? How many serious relationships have you been in? Two. Do you listen to Rise Against? I only know "Re-education (Through Labor)," but I LOVE that song. When was the last time you congratulated someone? It was probably something on Facebook, but idr. Have you ever taken care of a newborn baby? Go no, I could never. How old were you when you got your ears pierced? I don't remember my age, but old enough where I did it of my own volition. Do you snore when you sleep? No. Surprising for someone with sleep apnea as horrendous as mine. What was the last type of burger you ate? I had a McDouble from McDonald's a few nights ago.

[leejwatson-blog]

Game Dev Log #1

I’ve decided to start work on a new project after having an idea to do so for some time. I want to make a game heavily influenced by The Legend of Zelda, among other titles. I want to create the game for PC, Mac and Linux initially. I want to log my progress with this blog and hopefully when the project is nearing completion some people will be following and want to play my game. I have never made an entire game and I’m under no illusions about how difficult game development is and how much work I’m going to need to do. You need to write the code, make the art, animate the art, compose the music/sound FX, write the story, design the game worlds, test the game etc... But I’m not a complete beginner. My background in education is computer science and I have a decent bit of experience and knowledge when it comes to programming. My coding experience is mostly limited to web projects using PHP however I have made a lot of scripts for little projects I’ve created in the Unity engine using C#. I’ve played guitar for many years and I have invested in really good audio equipment for recording and creating music electronically. Creating the art is the only area where I believe I will hit brick walls but my strategy to mitigate this weakness is to create all the assets using a 2D pixel art style, which I have been learning for a little over a month now and is actually relatively fun and easy to pick up. Couple all of those barely useful skills with around 17 years of my time mostly spent playing video games, I think I’m finally qualified to start working on a game of my own. Given that there isn’t a massive amount of code required to make a 2D adventure-RPG game, instead of using a fancy engine I have decided to code my own engine from the ground-up. I will do this using C# and XNA. XNA was discontinued by Microsoft in 2014 but still lives on with the MonoGame framework which allows XNA applications to run on newer versions of Windows and also just about every other platform, great! Other indie games made with C# and XNA/MonoGame include Terraria, Bastion, Fez, Owlboy, Stardew Valley and Celeste to name a handful. To create the art for the game I’m using an editor called Aseprite and I’m creating everything in a 2D 16x16 pixel art style. This lets me create my tiles as well as animate them. For anything music or sound related I’m just going to use Garageband on my mac. It’s powerful enough to create game sounds and music and I’ve already created some pieces in it using a midi controller keyboard. I also own a Blue snowball Mic to record sound FX should I ever need to but I believe I will find any FX I need for the game online copyright-free. The very first thing I have created for this project is an animated sprite resembling a character, created purely for the purpose of creating and testing the game in the early stages. I think he looks pretty cool for being created by someone with just a month of experience using pixel art:

All you start with when you create a new MonoGame project in visual studio is some template code to help you display an application window:

The first work I’ve done on my game engine is creating a working state manager. A state in an application or game is just a section of your application or game. For example, your main menu would be it’s own state, each level/area/world in your game will have their own states. A state manager sorts between these different states say when you want to pause the game during play.

You can’t actually tell that it’s working but the font is drawn in a test gamestate which is an object of the parent gamestate class. The next thing I did was create an animation manager to handle animations in my game and an input manager to handle user input.

He moves! The next thing I’m going to get to work on is displaying tilemaps from a free tile map editor called Tiled and a little bit of extra player functionality. I’ll probably also draw some more basic tiles (dirt, grass, water etc.) to make a nice looking testing area. If anyone out there is actually following this blog right now expect slow but big updates!