How weird! I ran two Windows VMs with USB and GPU passthrough as my work and gaming daily drivers for about six years. Now I run Mint and Bazzite with the same setup. I’m not going to lie and say I didn’t have issues, both Windows and VM related, but I never saw one even vaguely like that.
I had never heard about temp tracks, but this makes so much sense. That’s a powerful homogenizing force.
But what does it say?
I can tell you, I’m a real molecular/microbiologist!
Tl;Dr: It’s mostly bunk.
Most of these services don’t analyze your entire genome*, but instead just regions of genes, looking for something called SNPs: single nucleotide polymorphisms. DNA is composed of four nucleobases, commonly represented by their initials: T and A, C and G. A SNP is a spot on a gene where there’s some variability in these, e.g., a C or A or even a T instead of a common G.
Through whole genome sequencing and statistical analysis, these companies were able to identify frequency trends in SNPs according to where the person lives and their self-reported ancestry. Now they use a cheaper, less comprehensive (but still fairly accurate) process to look for the SNPs that data suggests are most strongly correlated with different regions/ancestries and dole out your supposed ancestry.
There are problems.
Conclusions are only as good as your data, and the data are often based strongly on self-reporting, which in science terms is often referred to as “super fucking inaccurate”.
SNPs aren’t static - every child has some, about 20 to 60, that their parents don’t have. Many detrimental SNPs can lead to death, so most that persist have no effect, though some are weakly detrimental or, even more rarely, beneficial. That means there’s a limited pool of viable options, so your kid might have spontaneously developed a few strongly associated with a region they’re not at all connected to. You have a few too, as does your coparent and all of your parents. Through a couple of generations of new SNPs, a person’s ancestry results can shift. Through random chance and no new SNPs, one might inherit a combination of SNPs commonly seen in other regions, simply through the right combination of ancestors not at all from that area.
Some SNPs are better than others. Those on what are called “highly conserved” genes, i.e., fuck this gene up at all and you die, tend to be less common and more stable. If a defined group has an unusual SNP or SNPs on these regions, it’s a far better indicator of relatedness than a SNP on a gene for something like vitamin C synthesis, which we have but the process is broken so it doesn’t matter if we break it more.
In summary, these services are built on data of varying quality (shitty data) and moving targets of variable utility (shitty targets).
Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.
*If you can swing it, genome sequencing and analysis can be really interesting and useful for healthcare decisions. You can learn a lot about how you, specifically, work, and we’re learning more all the time.
Just be sure to get sufficient sequencing coverage, at least 30x if you want “good enough”, 100x or more if it’s medically vital and/or you’re looking for rare genes. 1x is fairly worthless, paying for it is a waste of money.
I also find it maddening, not only because it’s silly, but because the analysis is largely crap anyhow.
My mother’s family touted their “Irish heritage for three generations”, then quickly shut up when their genome analysis “proved” they were instead largely English. I’ve had to point out Ireland and England’s relative positions and ask them if they thought anyone in our ancestry might have ever moved from island to island. Maybe consider that they were from somewhere else in Europe even earlier? Now they’re “Irish” again.
Point entirely missed, JFC. They were Irish, their ancestors were maybe English, and way back, their ancestors were definitely African, but I don’t see them getting into African cultural heritage. Thankfully.
You’re United Statesians. I get the draw: they’re looking for genuine but effort-free connection, identity, and belonging in a country whose dominant culture is homogenization, commoditization, and exploitation, but their search for culture through tenuous connections to long-dead ancestors instead of family, friends, and neighbors is just as hollow and unfulfilling.
Don’t obsess about great³-Grandpa Pádraig’s life harvesting peat from the bogs; he’s long dead and probably would have hated you. Embrace what and where you are and utilize and improve what you actually have.
Oh hell yes. I take Jornay, so I take it before bed. If I take it with food, it kicks in later and doesn’t seem as strong, so I take it on an empty stomach at 21:00 now.
I also notice differences between days, mostly based on if I’ve gotten enough sleep or not and if I’ve been eating well and staying hydrated. Doing both makes my ADHD symptoms noticeably better.
Linux is so much better now! My only gripe is inconsistent/buggy dock support, but resetting Cinnamon every 15-20 minutes is a small price to pay for freedom.
We’re going to need a Butlerian jihad at the rate this is going.
I really dig that they often "show their receipts"and I’ll always take someone with citations more seriously than those without. I think it’s prudent to be even more sceptical of those replies, though, as it’s far more likely they have an agenda. That agenda might be as benign as educating others (it’s often why I cite), but it’s still best to think critically about the context, text, and subtext of their narrative.
Hoooooly shit you weren’t kidding!
I too am looking forward to 90% good info with 10% really questionable shit. Actual tankies (not the “leftist I don’t like” variety) remind me of the type of movies where the grandkids find their amazing, sweet grandparents are actually secret cannibals or clowns. Maybe both.
I’m totally on board, then the authoritarian, murdery shit comes out.
Ugh, I so get this. I have three writing styles: too concise, too verbose, and romance novel. I really need a fourth between concise and verbose, but I’m garbage at it for topics more complex than this comment.
Uh oh. I’m starting it tonight.
Tell me you have a recipe. I need it. NEED.
Yes! This exactly. I’m learning Italian and having a dictionary open on one side would be awesome.
Same, it’s great. Battery life is extended, the fan isn’t screaming, and I have great process continuity between devices since I’m usually connecting to a central point.
Great article! I’ve been trying to explain VPNs to my family members for years and it just doesn’t stick. I’ll send this their way next time.
As far as I understand, a certain level of data hygiene will do wonders for even a basic setup.
For example, on our server, we have a container that maintains a kill-switched connection to a subscription VPN. Several other containers, including one with a browser, can only route their traffic through that container, and we don’t use any of them for anything personal or outside their intended purpose. We basically act as if there are completely different people on that connection, like we have a secret second family. Remote activity is done through a self-hosted VPN to the home network, then VNC to the containers.
If we want to use the subscription VPN on other devices, we connect to a different location and possibly use Tor browser for extra anonymity. No activity or information overlap, ever.
Same, I have a 55" OLED and I game in 1080p. 4K looks a bit crisper, but my video card doesn’t like me when we do that.