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Good for you. You are also an outlier. It seems that there are a lot of people here who don't care as long as they are well off.
We also own a house, but I hate it that many people can't afford one. The system is broken.
FWIW, in some countries it's very normal for both parents to work part-time. E.g. both work 32 hours, so that one of the parents can be at home during the afternoon four days a week. Then the grandparents fill the remaining days. From 8:30-14:00, the kids go to daycare (or later school), good for socialization with other kids.
It's hard to say how common that is though. We can't really extrapolate from one example.
I hope that person finds more confidence and especially starts having fun, because that's what dating can be.
I'm taking off nights and weekends for the first time in a decade, solely because of the speed up of LLMs
Research has repeatedly shown that people can only be productive a certain number of hours in a week. People who work more then a healthy number of hours are probably doing busywork.
I have always taken off nights and weekends and I have built a lot of things I am proud of. I am also very happy with my career so far.
I'm in my forties now with a teenage kid and I often realize how fast life flies by and we only get one shot at it. So I'm very happy I chose to work part-time some years, so that I could spend the afternoons with our kid.
I must be living in a different universe. Where I am, people under 40 cannot afford to buy a house. This was certainly very different in the 80ies of 90ies.
It is the overuse of such tells. Please, let's not ban uses of not X, but Y completely. It's a rhetoric technique that is completely fine, with moderation. But real human will use them with moderation.
Also, there is the issue of human language taking some 'tells' because they are exposed to LLM output a lot.
I'm still grumpy that LLMs made it nearly impossible to use the words 'delve' or em-dashes without getting called out as an LLM.
Oneplus is owned/backed by Oppo. Their other phone brands like Oppo, Realme, etc. are really popular worldwide. They removed Oneplus from some regions (e.g. EU) where some of their other brands are more popular.
I'm not sure if you are from the US, but if you are, it really gives you a distorted image of what the worldwide smarphone market is like.
E.g. in many European countries, it is 1/3 iPhone, 1/3 Samsung, 1/3 others (which are mostly Chinese brands).
I wish my 7 Solar had battery times like that. It's possibly because I frequently use mapping on longer bikes.
So, where is the enriched uranium then? For now it's only a setback and it will make Iran only more determined to make a nuke.
Isn't it more that they started changing objectives because their original objectives turned out to be unattainable?
I also think that for Putin it is pretty existential. Otherwise, they would have negotiated a temporary deal, took the pretty large amount of land that they had taken at the end of 2022. Work on another 'project' like Georgia for a few years, do a lot of disinformation campaigns in Europe in the meanwhile and then revisit Ukraine later. That would have a lot of benefits, like no reaming of Europe, no development of Ukraine's capabilities (resulting in a drastic drop in refinement capabilities), etc.
But he couldn't. It would make him look weak and would make him vulnerable to a coup. Continuing is the only way for him.
But today a whole lot of mechanism is spun up when the kernel realises something new was added. A netlink socket talks to a udev daemon, in userspace and that daemon, being ordinary userspace software can do whatever it wants including of course run a bunch of arbitrary shell scripts, which can in turn do whatever they want. So yes of course they could download arbitrary software, or delete all your files with a Z in their name.
I know how udev works (old enough to have used Linux without hotplugging and the old hotplug scripts pre-udev).
You still haven't told me which distribution has a mechanism for udev that downloads arbitrary executable code from a vendor. It's a programmable system, so of course it is possible to implement this. My point is, I don't think any mainstream distribution does this.
My Fenix 8 only gets two weeks at most with pulse ox off. Yes, it's the AMOLED version, but I have the screen off by default (which should be similar to MIP). I got similar runtimes on my 7 Pro Solar without pulse ox.
I think the only sports watch company that has an app that is worse than Garmin's is Polar. I have used Garmin devices since 2010, but their UX is (as you say) pretty quirky. They changed the UI/UX of the gpsmap H1 to look more like a smartphone, but it is still weird. Another issue is that their software has been very buggy the last few years, with software only stabilizing 1-2 years after the release. One the largest external source for Garmin information (gpsrchive) has actively recommended against purchasing the H1 because it has been so buggy. Similarly, earlier firmware releases of the Fenix 8 had a lot of issues. Also a lot of functionality of older units hasn't been implemented yet. These are often not small bugs, but of the type, "oopsie, your device froze or rebooted while you were navigating". They basically released an alpha version as a final product.
I don't know about UX, but I've had my Coros watch for a few weeks now and I didn't find it hard to understand. I think it's much easier than when I first learned to use a Fenix watch. It misses some Garmin features though that I'd really like to see like off-course rerouting. But like I said above, they have been adding features at a good pace and a drastically undercutting Garmin on price (most watches less than half the price of the closest Garmin watch).
Yep, also, they had gpsr units way before their gpsunits for cars became popular. They started making GPS receivers in (I think) 1993:
It's mostly because Garmin wants to maximize profits by sticking to old CPUs. The Coros watches (from what I've heard, the same applies to Suunto and Polar) are fast.
This has been an issue across the whole Garmin product line. E.g. the Garmin eTrex 32x from 2019 still used the same CPU as the eTrex 30 from 2011. 8 years without a CPU update. And the eTrex was already had miserably slow map rendering in 2011 with maps from that year.
The Coros watches are less than half the price, have 22 days of battery life in smartwatch mode (in the Nomad) and render maps extremely fast. If they added solar, they could probably also last a month (the Coros Apex 4 does 24 days, also without solar).
The funniest thing is that earlier versions of the Coros even used the Garmin map format (though as many small files and not a single/small number of .img). Though they have switched to the open PMTiles format in later versions.
BTW, I had a Fenix 7x solar (before a Fenix 8 AMOLED) and it would usually 'only' last about two weeks. I think you can only reach Garmin's stated time if you disable a lot of functionality.
I just got a Garmin Instinct 3 Solar. It does mapping, and cost me about $300 US.
As a sibling commenter said, the Instinct 3 Solar only does breadcrumb navigation, it doesn't do topographic maps on the watch (there are some Connect IQ apps that can add mapping, but you don't get good integration with workouts).
I use them all the time when cycling. I often plan a route, but when some different direction looks more interesting, I can spot check whether it leads to bike paths that will eventually merge back into my grand plan, erm, route. Or sometimes even for following the route, you want to look ahead by quickly zooming out or get a lot of detail at some complex intersection, where having a full map gives you much better orientation.
Well, except on a Garmin, my Fenix 8 is often so slow that I had to pause cycling to zoom in/out (even more complicated by not being able to do gradual zooming because it does not have a crown).
Yes, I know I can also use a bike GPS or a more generic GPSr with a large screen. I have used their gpsmap line since 2010 or so and even have the gpsmap H1. But having to always carry it around when you have a break somewhere is a drag and I always have a watch on me anyway. So I primarily use the gpsmap for geocaching and switched to using a watch for other activities.
but because they have something sipping tiny amounts of power so that I can get a battery life of several weeks
Coros watches have several weeks of battery life and fast maps. It is laziness (or margin maximization), because they could reach the same power budget by moving to a processor that is on a smaller node.
Did they still have children wearing diapers? If so, that's your answer.
I’ve owned a lot of Gopro cameras, having done video capture for a variety of motorsports, and they just got too expensive for what you get.
Sounds very similar to another US company - Garmin. They are still popular, but have been raising prices a lot every generation, because for a long time there was no real competition [1]. At this point, Garmin watches that have mapping support have an introduction price of >600 Euro. Even at that price point, zooming or panning maps is excruciatingly slow (sometimes taking up to 10 seconds to re-render) because they have used the same CPU/MCU for multiple generations while increasing screen resolution. They also haven't really innovated a lot as of recently and are moving some new functionality behind a subscription.
This has opened a large gap for Chinese competition. Now you can get a Coros Nomad that goes head-to-head with models like the Garmin Enduro for 350 Euro. They don't have full feature parity yet, but they are so rapidly adding features that they will at some point. Also, in contrast to Garmin, they seem to be using modern microcontrollers, so panning or zooming a map is insanely fast in comparison, while still having ~20 days of battery for daily use.
[1] Of the traditional competitors, Apple Watch Ultra and Galaxy Watch Ultra have gotten closer, but are nowhere near the battery life, robustness, mapping support, mapping + workout support, etc.
I have absolutely no clue what you are talking about. There is no mechanism in standard Linux distributions to automatically download software from a vendor when you plug a device (apart from firmware updates through fwupd, but those are curated).
So perhaps you could elaborate?
But in general you are correct, Linux and bsd users are less affected by such shenanigans.
Mac users too (at least for now).
No, open sourcing it had been the plan from the start. I was there, I was at the internal meetings where these plans were announced to employees.
Thank you for correcting me! Very interesting to hear.
I hate building IKEA furniture, my wife loves building IKEA furniture. Problem solved :).
Same with shopping at IKEA. I know all the shortcuts in our local IKEA so that I can exit the store as quickly as possible.
Was one of the first laptops I could find that didn't have the Windows tax.
In the early/mid 2000s, we used to buy computers, install Linux and then ask Dell etc. to refund the Windows license, which often worked.
My girlfriend at the time got a Dell desktop really cheap that way. IIRC it cost something like 400 or 500 Euro and Dell refunded ~100 Euro for not using the Windows license. I never really understood the economics, because installing Windows was probably profitable for them due to the adware shipped with Windows.
Probably it was easier/better for them to just give a refund to noisy Linux users than to admit that they were making big bucks on all the crap shipped with the Windows installation.
As an aside, at the time a lot of HP laptops could be purchased with FreeDOS and I think Lenovo was similar.
Android was even an acquisition. However, it was open sourced after the iPhone. The iPhone was announced in January 2007 and released in June 2007. The first AOSP announcement/source drop was in November 2007.
I think it is very likely that Google open sourced Android to undercut iPhone. Android was initially developed for phones with a keyboard (similar to Blackberry). The introduction of the iPhone made it clear that touch was going to be the future, so Android was quite far behind before it was even released. Besides that, my recollection is that the first Android releases were pretty bad compared to iPhone OS. I know a lot of people (not necessarily Apple fans) who looked down on Android.
Open sourcing Android was a great move to rally manufacturers around Android and gather a large group of early enthusiasts.
I think the issue is more the prices that Google charge for what is largely a mid-range phone (except maybe cameras). I don't think people would object as much if Google priced them as Pixels in the old days.
Prices usually get ok halfway the cycle, though this year not as much due to the RAM/SSD squeeze.
I buy Pixel for GrapheneOS, but the hardware is terrible for the price. They charge flagship prices for what are mid-range SoCs. They are very heavy for the size (e.g. the 10/10 Pro are around 205g) and the weight distribution makes them feel like a brick. Battery life is very mediocre, even with almost no apps or other crap installed. They have also had a lot of hardware/software issues in recent years - spicy pillows, display issues, camera bars that fall off, software updates that resulted in boot loops for many people, etc. In (most of?) Europe, they farmed out repairs to another company and often reject warranty claims if there is as much as a scratch on the case.
I would only recommend Pixel if you want to run GrapheneOS. GrapheneOS is stellar and until next year, getting a Pixel is the only way to run it. Also, wait until midway the cycle of a model to get a large discount.
If you do not want to run GrapheneOS, do yourself a favor and either:
1.) Get a Samsung S series (or maybe A5x). It's the only phone besides Pixel that does reliable monthly updates, QPR2 and rolls out major updates fairly quickly. They have a separate secure enclave (Knox Vault). Also, after a few months the pricing is really good (e.g. an S26 with 256GB storage costs 620 Euro here now). You can pretty much remove all of the bloat, including Gemini, Google hot words, Bixby, etc. with UAD. The SoC, battery life, etc. will blow Pixels out of the water.
2.) Get an iPhone. The most secure phone after GrapheneOS and the hardware is well worth the price. Their support is stellar, easy to reach a human by phone, generally easy to get repairs.
Nothing(TM) looks like it could be a decent choice, but they're generally weak hardware compared to a 9 Pro XL class device, and I'm not a fan of Samsung any more as a company, though it seems a S2X Ultra might be the only real option.
Even the Nothing Phone (4a) Pro is getting close to the price of an S26 here and the S26 will absolutely blow it out of the water when it comes to pretty much every facet of the hardware.
Pixel 9/10 Pro XL is a midrange SoC sold at flagship prices. Even the A57, which is a midrange Samsung model that will soon hit 350 Euro is faster single core than the Pixel 9 Pro and on par multi-core. Also has better battery life and despite only being 0.1" smaller weighs 42g less and is much thinner. Gets supported for 6 years and also gets monthly updates. Also doesn't die frequently with spicy pillows, camera bars that drop off, etc.
I still buy Pixels because it has an unlockable bootloader and can run GrapheneOS, but Google's pricing is insane and I wish that they would go back to the old price points. The 10a is the only Pixel with somewhat reasonable pricing for what it provides, but unfortunately they made the hardware differences larger than in the past (e.g. be not upgrading to the latest Tensor SoC).
plus has memory compression.
FYI, Android has had zRAM support since KitKat, which is from (checking notes) 2013. Same year as iOS.
iOS uses way less ram than android
Common measurements I have seen is around 40%, I wouldn't say way less, but it is definitely less. Still, 3x more for a model in the same year is impressive (and more than needed to be competitive with iOS) and we should give OnePlus credit for it.
Sadly a lot of low-ish to midrange phones are going back or sticking to 6-8GB today, thanks to the RAM squeeze and the efficiency of iOS is certainly helping Apple here. Certainly nobody is going to complain about the performance of the iPhone 17, despite only having 8GB RAM.
In Android, Samsung doesn't seem to suffer as much. You can pick up an S26 here with 12GB RAM and 256GB storage for 623 Euro, which is a nice midrange price. I guess there are benefits if you can produce your own memory.
For vaccinations like the flu shot [1], I call them or send them an e-mail and then I can usually come by any morning I like without an appointment (they'll just administer the shot between appointments, since it does not take much time).
When we lived in Germany, we got TBE shots (area with a lot of ticks that carried it). IIRC we could also get an appointment in a few days.
(Though I think with vaccinations it's similar in the US.)
[1] Not eligible yet, so I pay 25 Euro to get one every year. Worth it for not getting the flu.