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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 7th, 2023

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  • Via uses chromium for the WebUSB api which firefox didnt implement because its a security nightmare. Vial is not as polished but is an open source standalone software

    Red/brown/etc originate from Cherry MX switches (the style of keyswitch) and each color is a different kind of swotch with different tactile feel and sound. Red are linear. Imagine a mushy rubber button with no feedback. Brown has a tactile bump that is more typical of a keyboard where theres a bit of force before it actually actuates. I settled on holy pandas for now which were similar to browns but a stronger tactile feel.

    I’m not 100% sure how good it is but as long as you read reviews to understand what the shortcomings and strengths of the board are, most keyboards should be fine. From what I’ve seen in a quick google search, this particular keyboard is probably ok, but some people have reported this company’s keyboards randomly dying and little to no support. Reputable brands will obviously guarantee no funny business but with the tradeoff of cost. I would recommend joining some communities (e.g. the discord communities like MechGroupBuys) and asking around for more peoples experience with budget keyboards if the cost is a concern.




  • What I did was buy a keyboard with the features I wanted, (100%, volume knob, rgb, hotswappable switches), then got a set of switches and keycaps to swap in.

    If the board has soldered switches you probably will never be changing those.

    Red switches are terrible. Feel super gross. Brown switches are ok, but I found them to have too weak of a tactile bump. Holy pandas have a stronger tactile bump and are what I’m using right now bc I found the browns a but disappointing

    Keycaps have standardized profiles/shapes; I have “OEM” keycaps. Each row has a slightly different height/shape which makes it a bit more ergonomic. There are others with identical row shapes.

    It should act like a standard USB keyboard if its running QMK / ZMK and will work ootb with linux. Only thing is that any QMK keyboard is going to be a bit annoying to configure (change layout or rebind keys) on linux (e.g. with VIA or Vial). You have to be using a chromium based browser that is not sandboxed (snap or flatpak may interfere) and you might have to add some udev rules but its not a huge problem.


  • Linux wont take off until the friction for new users is low enough that the layman can resolve issues without resorting to techniques outside of their understanding and patience. Even as someone who uses linux, there are a ton of things that should have a GUI / just be a context menu entry. If you can get the same amount of work done with a button click rather than typing out a complicated command line string, you might as well use the GUI, right click menu, etc. and make it easier for the typical person. People these days can barely use tablets, and those already dumb things down to icons you tap. Unfortunately, making it accessible to the lowest common denominator is what makes things popular a major factor in making things popular


  • Coal plant burns coal to heat water, makes steam, and the steam powers a turbine to produce electricity. A nuclear power plant uses nuclear fuel to heat water and produce steam similar to a coal plant. It may do this indirectly (e.g. second loop between the nuclear fuel and water loop to prevent the water becoming radioactive). This means that to build a nuclear plant you essentially need to build a coal plant, and then also the nuclear reactor and safety stuff, which makes them more expensive. Since coal plants are being turned off anyways, it might be more cost effective to just retrofit old coal plants so the only cost is the nuclear reactor side of things (plus any necessary maintenance and upgrades)


  • Also if you want a domain but dont care about the actual address, a .xyz domain composed entirely of numbers with less than 10 digits is $1-2 + same as renewal fee per year. $1.22 for me on porkbun

    Just be sure to redact the whois information bc you will get a call from scammers trying to get you to register your domain on some “internet map” for a small fee acting as if its some step in your setup process you havent done yet