I have a arm64 machine that runs Linux native. I can build locally. 

Many have little SBCs like a raspberry pi..  they can too so its not just Apple... 

Sat Feb 21 2026 04:08:58 UTC from LoanShark Subject: Re: learning by doing/breaking/banging head

Yeah.  There's no excuse anymore.  If you aren't daily driving
Linux at this point it's because you don't want to.

"I daily-drive MacOS because it's the only system where I can build and run Linux aarch64 binaries *locally*"

I hate Linux - I hate the commands. I hate that I still forget how to really use GREP with pipes to search so efficiently it makes all other search routines in other OSes look... just lame... 

But I've never got how people really struggle with vi. It is my goto editor in Linux - and I find that Pico and other more "modern" editors cause me issues that I never encounter on vi. I remember hating vi when I first got into Debian WAY back when (and I started with Slackware - which was a nightmare, and Redhat, which was a nightmare - package management in Debian was a game changer - and is why Ubuntu is so popular... and really, Debian style apt-get package management with dependency resolution has kind of become the defacto standard on most modern *nix distros... but anyhow...) 

Vi is... weird, I guess - in the way it approaches text file editing - and the commands are their own little *nix style OS on their own, I guess... and I bet at some point in prehistory it was just what was practical and available and that is why it works the weird way it does - which - you can say the same about the entire *nix ecosystem. Once you learn either - I get that they're incredibly powerful - the learning curve though, is not just intimidating - it is BEYOND most people. If you know Linux and you're good at it... I mean - really know Linux - where you've say, custom compiled your own kernel with WiFi modules and sound modules and whatever you used to have to do... down to installing the right modules to control fans and power features - not installing a modern distro like Ubuntu Desktop where you NEVER have to get to the CLI and custom configure a text based config file - if you've really had to use Vi because there was no other solution - then you're in the top 20% not just of computer users/admins - but - the top 20% of intellects. *Nix is not for average people - not using it at THAT level. They've made huge strides at making it accessible to people or more average intellect - but for most of its history - you had to be damn smart and very dedicated to really make it work. 

At this stage of the game, you don't need to know anything about the underlying structure. Click and drool mode has been available for some time now.

Sun Feb 22 2026 06:05:34 UTC from ParanoidDelusions

I hate Linux - I hate the commands. 

Do you still use the Rpi I sent you? I hope so. If you want more - let me know. They're just getting bit rot with me. PM me your address again. I'll send them to you. 

Someone should use them. 

Wed Feb 25 2026 23:14:55 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar Subject: Re: learning by doing/breaking/banging head

Many have little SBCs like a raspberry pi..  they can too so

I have two of them :)

Would you like more, Ig? I assume at least one of those came from me. I can increase that number. I don't use mine. If you will, I'd rather have it getting used. 

Depends on how many and what vintage.  A few more 4's or maybe 3's could become a build cluster.

I have at least one more - I'm not using - I haven't since I sent you the last one. I don't know - probably a 3. If you'll get more mileage out of it than I will - and that seems certain, it would be better in your house than in mine - just tasking up space and waiting for something to fail. I've got a 4... but imma hang onto that for a while. 

Thu Mar 05 2026 17:42:58 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar

Depends on how many and what vintage.  A few more 4's or maybe 3's could become a build cluster.

Well, it is still sitting there collecting dust and taking up floor space in my command center - so, why don't you send me an email and we'll arrange it. 

Wed Mar 11 2026 21:41:48 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar

Well, a 3 isn't quite zoomy enough for my build cluster, but it would free up my 4 to stop being a media gateway and join the build cluster. So the benefit would be indirect. Choice is yours.

Not a slam on 'alt people' as we all know how i feel about them.  But, here of late its really getting hard to tell the difference in general. Especially when you email co-workers. 

In the old days names were pretty clear, unless they might be from middle/far east or something as I have never figured out their naming pattern.  Then that started slowly changing even here with 'fuzzy names' ( like Chris for example ) , but we had pictures to fall back on ( if you had access to that at work, i always did have access to HR data ). Now, even in person its hard to tell sometimes.  

And if you call someone the wrong 'thing' you offend them.  Even some, if you use a generic term, it offends them "im a she dammit!!"  

"alt" aside, it seems like we as a 'animal' are slowly moving to the middle in appearance, and to an extent 'actions'.. I wonder if that is just natural selection or something else..  Glad this is about over for me.

I get it that Stephen Taylor and Nanci Pelosi look like twin grandmothers - and that Stephen Colbert and a Ben Stiller look like old lesbians now...  and that a lot of other celebrities are all turning into some hybrid of Kaitlyn Jenner and an aging Brooke Shields - like they're all getting their work done by the same guy... 

But this is honestly a "your side" issue. It is clearly along a political line of affiliation that one side is absolutely losing its gender identity. The other side DGAF and isn't really interested in entertaining fantasies about how "gender identity" doesn't align with biological gender as anything other than a psychological disorder - and though we may be forced to keep this opinion quiet professionally - that doesn't prevent us from holding this opinion as absolute in private. 

But it is interesting from this side of the aisle to watch the other side starting to lose its patience and "eat its own" on this issue... with the LGB part of the Alphabet Army increasingly distancing itself from the T part and outright calling it a disorder... with the T side attacking Feminists and calling them TERFs - with an internal war among the woke over dozens of issues of this nature. 

We're over here feeling the same way we have since the beginning - if you can go to the bathroom and pass and no one knows - that is fine. If you're getting called out - if you're not passing - then you really should be taking a piss in the head that matches your biological identity. 

We're likely never going to agree on this. From my perspective - this difficulty you've experienced - you've encouraged, you've fostered and empowered to where what you originally felt were reasonable requests to be "treated with dignity," are increasingly feeling like demands that you sacrifice YOUR reality and perception and apologize and contritely beg forgiveness for making mistakes you can't possibly avoid. 
It didn't bother you so much when you felt that insensitive, homophobic, transphobic mouth-breathers were being outed for their intolerance. Now, your own tolerance isn't enough to satisfy the ever changing expectations of those you are trying to be inclusive of. 

I've got no problem with the LGB, or even the T - in a live and let live sense of the word. Some 240 pound "woman" with a beard and tattoos with a miniskirt wrapped around musclebound legs as thick as tree stumps aggressively threatening me because I won't call them "her" - that infringes on *my* agency. Allowing that person into a bathroom with children for the sake of "tolerance and inclusivity," in insanity in my mind. We'll probably never bridge that gap. I understand the other side's perspective on this issue - and why they think my side's perspective is intolerant. I disagree, and I don't care that this offends them. Their perspective offends me, too. But we can certainly be respectful in our disagreement. What I find is that those who are NOT respectful in their disagreement, are so absolute they inevitably end up fighting among their own side. They can't be appeased. 

Just my thoughts. 

Tue May 12 2026 07:11:38 EDT from Nurb432

Not a slam on 'alt people' as we all know how i feel about them.  But, here of late its really getting hard to tell the difference in general. Especially when you email co-workers. 

In the old days names were pretty clear, unless they might be from middle/far east or something as I have never figured out their naming pattern.  Then that started slowly changing even here with 'fuzzy names' ( like Chris for example ) , but we had pictures to fall back on ( if you had access to that at work, i always did have access to HR data ). Now, even in person its hard to tell sometimes.  

And if you call someone the wrong 'thing' you offend them.  Even some, if you use a generic term, it offends them "im a she dammit!!"  

"alt" aside, it seems like we as a 'animal' are slowly moving to the middle in appearance, and to an extent 'actions'.. I wonder if that is just natural selection or something else..  Glad this is about over for me.

Additionally - on our side we do not generally have trouble telling the men from the women nor the men who think they are women and the women who think they are men from one another - and we generally dismiss gender labels and preferred pronouns as virtual telegraphing of political affiliation. It is far easier to navigate. 

I was meaning more about appearance than 'identify'.   

Sun May 17 2026 19:11:04 EDT from ParanoidDelusions

But this is honestly a "your side" issue. It is clearly along a political line of affiliation that one side is absolutely losing its gender identity. 

I feel like same/same. 

I was once in Vegas on a tech training with a naive young guy from podunk Ohio. We were walking down the strip when a gorgeous 6' blonde in high heels came strolling by and my buddy couldn't pick his jaw up off the floor. I was coughing, "aagghssmsapl" at him... if you can imagine that. Over and over... and he kept going, "WHAT?!?" and as "she" passed by she said to him, "He is telling you to look at my Adam's apple, sweety..." in a husky, smokey, gravely voice. No animosity, no anger... this was back when it was still OK to call them "transvestites". She knew I had clocked her, and that she had passed with my friend. 

For whatever it is worth - I feel things were better back then for everyone. I think she got a chuckle out of it, I got a chuckle out of it, and my young naïve friend got a life lesson. 

Mon May 18 2026 07:39:13 EDT from Nurb432

I was meaning more about appearance than 'identify'.   

 

Sun May 17 2026 19:11:04 EDT from ParanoidDelusions

But this is honestly a "your side" issue. It is clearly along a political line of affiliation that one side is absolutely losing its gender identity.