kite @kite@cybre.space

#introduction post

Hi! I'm Kite (he/him/his). I can't code to save my life, but that won't stop me from trying.

I have two cats, pictures of whom should be a constant on this account, and which I'll tag with #CatPics. The shorthaired tortie is Deedee (or "Imp" / "Squimp" when she's being a rascal); the longhaired pastel tortie is Mia (or "Moo"). Always, always, ALWAYS feel free to ask me to post more pictures of them.

Installing #ArchLinux.

So far, I've run into two or four problems.

First: I'm doing it on a Chromebook without a read/write screw (Lenovo C340-11). This means that in order to disable read-only protection, I have to disconnect the battery. And keep it disconnected. Very unsustainable, especially for what's supposed to be portable.

Second: The disk is already partitioned quite a few times, all into a bunch of 512-MB boxes meant for storing Chrome data. Is there a way to erase those?

(Third: I can't follow the DistroTube tutorial exactly - it wants me to partition the disk a bit; when trying, I get the error that the disk I'm trying to partition is in use. Not sure how much of a problem this is, because Arch wiki doesn't even list that step as a thing I should be doing.)

(Fourth: I don't know how to actually "install" it in a way I can boot from - every time I reboot, I need the USB + need to redo all progress such as wifi. But I'm feeling like that's a later step?)

[ #technology #linux #arch ]

So my kitty cat was chewing at her arms, pulling out her fur, because she was stressed (fear not! we believe we have mitigated the stress as of now: her kitty-roommate was using her toilet, so we've gotten her another one).
It ... interested me, for lack of a better word, that her way of expressing stress was to target her arms, which are, uh, prime real estate for humans who are stressed and take out the stress on themselves.
Cats and people have a lot of the same issues! I've been told I'm a perfect match for my kitty because we're both "neurotic about bathrooms".

kid in robotics went "Can we talk about the *massacre* that happened last night?" and I was fully prepared to hear the worst takes about guns & politics. But no, they were talking about a basketball team taking the biggest L in recent history

i love having a tab in mastodon open for the cats hashtag while i am completely unable to view or post any images approximately half of the time. we're really winning here

i'm thinking that i might just partition my mac's disk again to do arch rather than working with a chromebook
pros: the mac is more powerful than the chromebook, don't have to unlock the chromebook, arch wiki doesn't even have my model of chromebook for a guide thingy
cons: i don't really have that much free space on the disk (500gb, 250 of it is "system", 50 of it is windows, and the rest of it is programs i cannot trim).

...would it be possible to run it from a USB stick? i was able to run ubuntu on a stick but i'm pretty sure it reset every time. resetting is fine for ubuntu but absolutely /not/ arch
also it was kiiinda slow + the stick felt like it was gonna burst into flames. probably not desirable

god i wish my computer had a CD drive

probably gonna get into bitburner sometime soon. learn to code? video game? great!
a bit unfortunate, however, that booting from Mac to Windows to play ss13 all the time makes it kinda impossible to keep open a game meant to be kept open

Genuine question - why do laptop keyboards even have the option for backlights?
My laptop sometimes overheats to the point where touching the keys is painful. Usually, when this happens, I realize I've accidentally pressed the backlight button.
What purpose does it serve? I understand when the keyboard is disconnected from the monitor, but on a laptop usually the keys are bright enough just by reflecting the screen's light.

being a skiier is so funny because I'll be walking and my ankles and soles will hurt but my leg muscles won't even be burning the slightest

my cat smells really strongly of a freshly opened pack of balloons. i'm not entirely sure why, or how

So CrossOver looks super promising and M1 Macs look really great for when my current machine bites it. Two problems.

First is an inability to run other OS without VM. But this doesn't seem like too much of an issue if I use a separate computer for screwing around with Linux - and dropping Windows entirely thanks to CrossOver.

Other problem is I can't find an M1 laptop that has USB-A support. Very big problem.

Laptops in general are becoming too thin these days. One day you'll not be able to find yours because you stored it sideways and it's too thin for your eyes to perceive.

It makes them scarily flimsy to see, even if they're actually quite robust in practice. I wouldn't be able to take any thin Macbook out of my house without worrying, and the portability is what laptops are for!
(Of course cases exist, but they don't solve the USB-A problem.)

For people who don't know what I'm referencing: "what vibe do i give off" posts have three to four categories, each with separate choices.
Each choice is designated a character, and usually these characters are separated by type according to category.
In the one I was referencing, there were:
Five wojaks, labelled A-E
Eight drinks, labelled 1-8
Seven plushies, labelled !-& (symbols from the 1-7 keys on a QWERTY keyboard).

This would be a lot easier if I could post images right now. Sorry!

The post implores you to pick one choice from each category and combine them into a simple code. An example code in this would be A7$. That would symbolize the A wojak, the 7 drink, and the $ plushie.

They're fun only when they meet with your interests. When they don't, you can either try to squish yourself into the categories anyways, ignore them, or make a 2000-character-long rant on them on Mastodon like I do. Choose wisely!

The problem with "what vibe do i give off" image posts is that they're all a small cluster of "vibes" that ultimately only span a narrow area.

For example, the one I saw most recently (that prompted this post) has, for the drinks row: six canned energy drinks, one tube of disinfectant wipes, and one blank square.
What if I drink water or milk? What if I drink orange (but only orange) sports drink?
So that one only encapsulates the "vibes" of people who drink canned energy drinks or bleach, or are dehydrated. Which is, without getting political, a very circular Venn Diagram.

Overall these posts are silly and stupid. Why limit yourself to the limits of someone else's imagination? Make your own coalition of images to represent the "vibes" that you give off!

In fact, why stop there? You should draw your own wojaks and mix your own drinks and whatever else you can think of. If you do anything that was in any way influenced by anyone else you are unoriginal. Thank you for your time.

Congratulations to past me for hiding my own phone on the bottom rack of a bathroom shelf (about two inches from the ground). Why there, specifically? What good was done from having it there?? I'm so confused

they should make temporary storage for your devices. could use for screenshots, podcast episodes (to download rather than stream), etc. and it autodeletes after X amount of time after download
reason? I am lazy

Not a fan of phone apps that have a contacts, call log, and "favourites" (whatever that means) in a hotbar, but for some reason with the dialpad button in a completely different place. What gives?

Sad that they don't make low-sugar Honey Bunches of Oats (Honey Roasted). The first bowl of cereal out of the box is the best, because it has a higher concentration of the less sugary large corn flakes and lower of the sugar-glazed oats and smaller flakes. Unfortunately, the quality goes downhill from there.