✍︎ arscyni.cc: modernity ∝ nature.

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  • 54 Comments
Joined 8 months ago
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Cake day: November 14th, 2024

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  • …weird. I don’t understand why drop-down terminals are a thing? I can bring up Konsole with a hotkey too, only it just opens a window instead fo doing a fancy animation. That’s such a tiny part of its functionality that I can’t imagine how ‘drop-down’ became a descriptor for a terminal instead of just a bullet point on a feature list somewhere, much less a whole-ass category of terminals, lol.

    But, fair enough.

    Totally agree that objectively it’s a tiny part. However, for one, I’𝗆 simply used to it because that how terminals behave in games, and two, because terminals with drop-down as a feature were the only ones that introduced me to a one-button hotkey, just like in a game.




  • AutoKey automation / word expander tool.

    • I reconfigure ALT + i/j/k/l to ↑←↓→ globally, and more similar shortcuts.
    • It expands abbreviations of one’s choice like “gCo” to git commit -m '
    • One can assign scripts to abbreviations and hotkeys. E.g., when I press CTRL + Shift + [ it surrounds the selected text with a tag:
    text_selected = clipboard.get_selection()
    text_input = dialog.input_dialog(title="Wrap with a tag.", message="E.g., type cite to get <cite>x</cite>.", default="")
    keyboard.send_key("<delete>")
    clipboard.fill_clipboard(f"<{text_input[1]}>{text_selected}</{text_input[1]}>")
    keyboard.send_keys("<ctrl>+v")
    

    I’m likely not even harnessing AutoKey’s full capabilities and it’s already absolutely indispensable for being a huge time-saver and annoyance reducer.

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    ✍︎ arscyni.cc: modernity ∝ nature.



  • This is the same problem as saying “an electric car with 100 mile range is totally fine because most journeys are well under 100 miles”.

    Well… isn’t it? If one’s daily or most frequent back-and-forth journeys don’t exceed 100 ㎞, then a 160 ㎞ range is indeed fine.

    Most of the time I’m only using a browser (or VSCode). The annoying thing is the 1% of times when I want to print something, create a shortcut, use bluetooth headphones, configure a static IP, etc.

    If one can figure this out on Windoze one can definitely figure it out on a beginner tailored Linux distro / desktop environment. Gnome is not one of them.

    Use Photopea instead. It’s practically a copy-paste of Photoshop but in the browser, created by one person. Or if one has never used Photoshop before, try GIMP first.

    Saying Photopea or GIMP is “practically a copy-paste of Photoshop” is laughable. Paint.NET, maybe.

    I choose my punctuation marks carefully. I did not say GIMP is practically a copy-paste. However, Photopea, for what many if not most people use it for, is.

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    ✍︎ arscyni.cc: modernity ∝ nature.


  • but I think even after literally decades of development the actual desktop is still far behind Windows XP in many respects. […]

    This argument is incomplete and unnuanced. GnomeLinux. While I use EndeavourOS and Linux Mint’s Cinnamon as a desktop environment, I am completely confident that if computers shipped with Linux Mint*, then 95% of the population would have a far more pleasant experience compared to any other Microsoft Windows, especially the schizophrenic bloatware-laden Windoze 10/11 versions. Why such a high percentage? Because most users simply use the browser and don’t need advanced proprietary software such as AutoCAD, Photoshop (†), nor specific driver software for niche twenty-something-button gaming mice.

    *Linux Mint or any other Linux distribution that uses Cinnamon, KDE Plasma, Budgie, Xfce or similar desktop environments.
    Caveat: Xfce hugely depends on how the distro configured it. Some, like Debian, badly configure the taskbar to have a—to me—unintuitive / unresponsive to shortcuts menu.
    † Use Photopea instead. It’s practically a copy-paste of Photoshop but in the browser, created by one person. Or if one has never used Photoshop before, try GIMP first.


    ✍︎ arscyni.cc: modernity ∝ nature.








  • “Can you use dd to create multiboot USB drives?”

    No. But in my case that’s just a minor inconvenience considering the infrequency of having to use a live USB. And at work I just use separate USBs for wiping drives and OS installs. I much prefer the peace of mind that comes with knowing there’s no Ventoy blob that could potentially infect all its installed operating systems with malware.

    In any case, it seems it is possible to manually make a multiboot USB drive manually. Haven’t tried it yet though.

    “Even the link you shared lists Ventoy as an option.”

    I know. I simply linked that website because it’s where I learned dd from and because for novices it might be less overwhelming than the Arch Wiki.