Ejecting an unreadable disc (rant)


Sorry, this is going to come across as a newbie rant... mostly because I just switched a few months ago. I'm not completely unfamiliar with Linux. I had to use Unix in college for some projects. I've dual-booted with Windows before. I use a Mac at work. I'm reasonably comfortable in the console, though I'm certainly no expert. I feel like what I'm about to talk about shouldn't be so confusing/unintuitive.

I'm running Kubuntu on an older laptop. I have a burnable DVD disc that may or may not be blank. The disc is old, scratched, and unlabeled, but I would like to see if anything is on it.

I press the eject button on my laptop's disc drive. The tray comes out. I insert the disc and close the tray. The system gets busy trying to read the disc, but eventually stops spinning. Nothing pops up. Dolphin doesn't show my disc drive in the "Devices" panel, or that there's anything in the drive. VLC says it can't read the disc.

Ok, fine. The disc is probably either empty, or it's too scratched to read and needs to be trashed, so I would like to remove it from my system. I push the eject button again, and... nothing happens. It's the same button I used to open the tray to insert the disc, but now it's unresponsive. I open Dolphin and confirm that it doesn't show that I even have a disc drive in the "Devices" panel (presumably because nothing's in it). I open the "Discs and Devices" section in the Notification tray, and the most I can get it to show is my hard drive. It's like my computer doesn't believe the DVD drive exists.

So, what do I have to do? I can open MakeMKV, and it has an Eject button that opens the tray. I'm sure plenty of other software has similar functionality. I can also open the terminal and type "eject", and the tray pops right open. Clearly, my system knows that there's a DVD drive, and it has the ability to open the tray.

Why doesn't the eject button work? Why doesn't Dolphin just always show the DVD drive? Why do I have to google "How to eject a dvd kubuntu"? What am I missing?

System:

Ubuntu 25.04

Drive: BD-RE BU40N (Firmware: 2024-04-23 13:47)

CPU: Intel Core i7-5500U CPU @ 2.40GHz

Memory: 16GB (2x 8GB SODIMM DDR3 Synchronous 1600 MHz)

This entry was edited (6 days ago)
in reply to spizzat2

Most drives have an emergency eject function built in, totally independent of the operating system. Some work differently than others, but try something along these lines..

  • Hold the eject button for 5 to 10 seconds
  • Then tap the eject button multiple times

Usually works for me.

Edit: Most drives also have an emergency eject hole near the eject button, just push a straightened paperclip in when the drive is powered off and it should eject.

This entry was edited (6 days ago)

Spicy food never affects my gut and everyone thinks it's really weird. How unusual is this and what could be happening to explain why spicy food doesn't affect me?


I absolutely love spicy food, and it's never affected my gut. I was actually confused when I read about people getting the shits after a curry and wondered if it was a joke. I've had curries so hot it caused people to recoil into a coughing and sweating fit after they dipped their finger in and had a taste and I have one every other day. I feel the burning in my mouth, my face turns red, my forehead sweats, my esophagus feels weird, but (tmi I know lol) when I go to the toilet I'm completely fine. no gut pains either.

A game you "didn't know it was bad 'til people told you so"?


I'm talking about games that you still like but you had no idea were criticized so much.

The perfect example for me is Sonic Unleashed.

I admit that the game has its bad things, but I would have never imagined that it was so hated at the time... Although, that could be extended to the entire Sonic franchise, since for many years I was not aware at all of that "Sonic was never good", "Sonic had a rough transition to 3D" nonsense.

in reply to NONE

Mine was final fantasy 12. I played that game so hard, really enjoyed it and if was released in the time of trophies I would have platinumed it. Even did the grinding for Gilgamesh to spawn for a sword or something. But I was hated at the time.

Now everyone is saying it was one of the best and I was proved right all along.

Sure the story was star wars and the main character wasn't, but the combat system was really fun, way better than 13.

Matrix is cooked


Truth is, to get right to the point, the fact that Matrix was accompanied by a for-profit entity, funded by venture capital was the biggest mistake that Matrix as a project has ever made.

Americans don't see Supreme Court as politically neutral, Reuters/Ipsos poll finds


Americans are divided on major issues that the U.S. Supreme Court is due to rule on in the coming weeks, but most agree on one thing - neither Republicans nor Democrats see the nation's top judicial body as politically neutral, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll.

Just 20% of respondents to the poll agreed that the Supreme Court is politically neutral while 58% disagreed and the rest either said they did not know or did not respond. Among people who described themselves as Democrats, only 10% agreed it was politically neutral and 74% disagreed, while among Republicans 29% agreed and 54% disagreed.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/americans-dont-see-supreme-court-politically-neutral-reutersipsos-poll-finds-2025-06-15/

in reply to popjam

As someone now living in Europe, I find the US protests mild and small. When Europeans protest, they protest. I mean, my native Greece saw a massive protest in Feb, well over a million went out, in a country of ~9 million. This is how you do it:
This entry was edited (6 days ago)

You have been blocked from The New York Times because we suspect that you're a robot.


Does anybody else get this message when trying to access articles?

I've updated bypass paywall and it's made no difference. I've also disabled my vpn and emptied my cache to little avail.

How do we get around this new problem please?

thanks

Raser jetzt zu Fuß unterwegs


Beamte der Polizeiinspektion Brannenburg führten gestern erneut Geschwindigkeitskontrollen am Sudelfeld durch. Trotz der häufigen Geschwindigkeitsmessungen am Sudelfeld mussten erneut mehrere Fahrzeugführer beanstandet werden. Tagesschnellster war ein 30-jähriger Porschefahrer aus München, der bei erlaubten 60 km/h mit 114 km/h gemessen wurde. Den Fahrer erwartet nun ein Bußgeld in Höhe von über 300 Euro, zwei Punkte in Flensburg sowie ein einmonatiges Fahrverbot.

Just wanted to show off the lowest end hardware I ever ran Linux on


Single core, 32 bit CPU, can't even do video playback on VLC. But it kinda works for some offline work, like text editing, and even emulation through zsnes! It's crazy how Linux keeps old hardware like this running.

Thankfully though, this laptop CPU is upgradable, and so is the ram, so I'm planning on revitalizing and bringing this old Itautec to the 21st century 😄

What GNU + Linux software could enable deep integration of backup, sync, and transfer; just as convenient and beginner-friendly (edit: and efficient) as what Apple provides?


For example, iOS has these features:
- iCloud backup restore or peer-to-peer transfer, very early in the device setup process
- Two ways for things to be stored in iCloud, each with a corresponding list of per-app (not per-folder) toggle switches in iCloud Settings
- "Saved to iCloud" normal syncing
- Requires apps to use the right APIs and to handle conflicting changes
- Allows same data to be read and modified by multiple devices
- iCloud backup
- Available for all apps
- Separate backup per device
- Only downloaded when setting up a new device
- In app sandboxes, only excludes tmp (Flatpak equivalent is somewhere in /run) and Library/Caches (equivalent to cache directory in Flatpak sandbox) by default
- Allows apps to set isExcludedFromBackup attribute for specific files (useful for things that are easy to recreate via download but are expected by the user to not be automatically deleted)
- Includes system configuration such as home screen layout
- Backs up a list of installed apps without backing up their executables and assets
- Synced list of previously installed apps, not separate per-device
This entry was edited (6 days ago)
in reply to JillyB

If screeching puritans are going to get mad about some people liking to look at pretty ladies saving humanity from monsters (but who is the monster, really), maybe reconsider playing into the reactionary gameplan so enthusiastically.

It's hardly a patriarchal work. Eve is a badass respected for her skills working on behalf of The Mother Sphere... And who only wears stripper gear if that's what the player wants. The difference between this and Bayonetta, for example, is that you've decided to react exactly the way the conservatives want you to.

Now, if you want to talk about how they very clearly edited out some serious homophobia for the English release that's another thing but Korea gonna Korea

This entry was edited (1 week ago)
in reply to DragonTypeWyvern

The vid I linked to basically said that the game is ok but derivative and not that great. The main point he was making is to point out how the "controversy" around the game doesn't actually exist. It's a bunch of made up crap by grifters to make idiots foam at the mouth. And it worked. And now these idiots think Stellar Blade is the next coming of Christ and the bullwark against the woke mind virus games blah blah blah...

Disabled tower block residents "threatened" for posting about broken lifts on Reddit


in reply to sv1sjp

Oh, I see that RHEL has officially dropped docker support. You can try installing from binaries, but you are definitely striking out on your own here.

I don't mean to rake you over the coals here, but what is the reasoning for sticking with RHEL for this project? If you are attempting to use it in an paid enterprise situation, you are better off sticking with items on the compatibility list. If you run into issues with other supported services, the first piece of advice will be to remove docker. Since your are not getting support for docker, I would advise running it from a supported OS.

Bad Freienwalde: Vermummte greifen Kundgebung gegen rechts in Brandenburg an


in reply to vovo

Die Polizei sei zur Zeit des Angriffs noch nicht vor Ort gewesen


Das wundert mich. Damit war doch durchaus zu rechnen (>40% AfD)? Journalisten waren scheinbar da und haben das sogar fotografiert.

tagesschau.de/inland/regional/…

This entry was edited (1 week ago)

Tunic is awesome and I wish more people talked about it


I recently finished the game Tunic, which is sort of like A Link to the Past + Fez + Dark Souls... And it's amazing!

Tunic screenshot

I actually owned the game soon after release but bounced off of it due to being busy with work, picked it back up the past few weeks and finally sat down and enjoyed it. Despite looking like a straightforward and cute adventure game, it gets REALLY deep the further you go in. There's so much to discover and the game gives you just enough hints on what to do and where to go.

Tunic ticks all the boxes for me. The graphics are gorgeous, the combat is fun, the world is fun to explore and rich with secrets, and progression was very satisfying.

The most unique part of the game is that you slowly find pages of an instruction manual containing maps of areas and secrets, explanation of mechanics, and guides on how to play... except it's all written in an alien language, so you have to figure out what it's telling you by paying attention to all the pictures and context clues.

Picture of the manual

Understanding the manual is a bit rough at first but lead to so many "A-ha!" moments when you try something and it actually works. It even foreshadows future bosses and things you'll encounter before they happen which is brilliant. My best advice to someone just trying the game: Pay attention to the manual, seriously!


I won't spoil any more than that, but I really wish more people talked about this game. It's not for everybody, the game is intentionally vague and needs some critical thinking if you're not following a guide, but I think it's absolutely brilliant if you're into exploration and discovery. One of the most unique games I've played in ages.

Search sucks! Yeah, it does, and here's why.


You might've heard that search sucks on software X... maybe software Y... definitely on software Z. The default one kind of sucks on NodeBB too, admittedly. But why? It's because search is really frickin' hard to get right, and expensive to get good at.

You might've heard that search sucks on software X... maybe software Y... definitely on software Z. The default one kind of sucks on NodeBB too, admittedly.

But why? It's because search is really frickin' hard to get right, and expensive to get good at.

Remember that Google started as a search company, and they became king because they got really good at it, and it was their only product (at the time, anyway!)

The easiest type of search is "full text" search. It matches words exactly based on what you type in. For example if you search lemmy it would match posts that include the word lemmy but depending on how the content was indexed, might not match lemmy.world, lemmy.ca, lemmyverse, etc.

From there you start adding complexity like supporting AND and OR. You support partial matches (lem returns posts containing lemmy and lemmings).

Add more logic to remove stop words and articles like a, the, etc.

Put in some sorting logic to rank stuff higher (what's your algo? Recency? Votes? etc.)

That's just the tip of the iceberg... this problem domain is so vast that entire companies have been built around just providing searching as a service (e.g. Algolia), and it isn't cheap!

in reply to julian

Search also sucks because people suck.

If I post a picture of a flower with the caption "Look what grew in my garden!", that's a terrible post from a search point of view.

Later on someone will search for "flower" but I didn't use the word "flower" so now search sucks.

Of course a much more common post is someone posting a picture of text, from Twitter, Tumblr, etc. with, once again, a vague caption. You remember the picture, but not what the poster actually said.

Searching comments will sometimes help, but that depends on the comments being related.

List all existing program paths from your Bash's history. (Bash One Liner)


It only works with the first command in the recorded history, not with any sub shells or chained commands.
\#!/usr/bin/env bash

# 1. history and $HISTFILE do not work in scripts. Therefore cat with a direct
#    path is needed.
# 2. awk gets the first part of the command name.
# 3. List is then sorted and duplicate entries are removed.
# 4. type -P will expand command names to paths, similar to which. But it will
#    also expand aliases and functions.
# 5. Final output is then sorted again.

type -P $(cat ~/.bash_history | awk '{print $1}' | sort | uniq) | sort

After reading a blog post, I had this script in mind to see if its possible. This is just for fun and I don't have an actual use for it. Maybe some parts of it might inspire you to do something too. So have fun.

why didnt Enlightenment desktop recieve much adoption


Hi lemmy
So i was curious why Enlightenment didn't recieve much adoption in the Linux Desktop. (especially for a fully featured lightweight wayland DE)
Ik Bodhi Linux uses Enlightenment, but it's more of Moksha rather then using Enlightenment

Cause
- Lighter then LXQT
- Somewhat customizable

But I can see people not liking it cause.

  • the ui(especially for windows users)
  • Hard to find themes due to it using its own toolkit
This entry was edited (1 week ago)

Jellyfin/YT/Twitch TV box (Raspberry pi 4)


I had a Rapsberri Pi 4 (4GB) laying around and installed kodi/libreelec to use it with my TV.

I need it to do 3, maybe 4 things, but the experience was rather underwhelming.

  1. Jellyfin client
    I run a jellyfin server on my NAS. The jellyfin add-on needs several seconds or even a minute plus to load the content of big folders.

Jellycon has a different approach, but doesn't let me browse folders, which is a must for me (I use pinchflat to download some videos from YouTube channels. They are organized in folders)

  1. YouTube
    Ideally I would love a freetube client for watching one off videos or finding a video on a certain topic. The YouTube add-on requires API access, sadly.
  2. Twitch
    The add-on works great.
  3. Remote
    I have a IR Mini Keyboard that works great with Kodi/libreelec

I was considering installing a lightweight Linux distro and installing freetube and a browser for twitch and jellyfin.

Does anyone use similar hardware? Is there a better solution for my use case?

(If there is a better affordable hardware solution, I'm interested as well)

This entry was edited (1 week ago)

Introducing premium accounts to fund the matrix.org homeserver


We have been communicating on the lack of funds in the Foundation for a while now, the latest being here. And whilst we’ve been working hard to gather new members and are happy to see the number of logos increasing (thank you all for seeing the need for Matrix to stay independent and safe, and the value in supporting it!), none of the big players in the ecosystem have actually committed to one of the higher membership tiers, so we need to find other ways towards sustainability.

Tumblr is actively protecting fake TERF accounts


My account, “the angry man” was abruptly terminated. I have done nothing that violates tumblrs terms of service.

The only pattern I see is that I have been routinely calling out TERFs, who have falsely been claiming to be detransitioners, have graduate degrees etc.

It appears that tumblr is actively hostile to people calling out transphobes. The site has decided to take a stand, and that stand is with Russian trolls.

Why are people gurgling the switch 2 so hard?


Note beforehand. When one is a available, I will buy one.

Okay so recently on of course social media (tiktok, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram etc) people have been spewing boner misinformation about this console.
Before you down vote me to oblivion l hear me out. Yes. The console has a 120hz refresh rate... But people are saying this console is outputting 4k resolution at 120fps docked...... 120fps isn't even an option docked (tested on LTT) and not only that, only a very very small amount of games will be 120fps.
Cyberpunk runs at 30fps, or 40 on performance. But people are saying it runs 60fps at 4k!? Why? Why would people just blatantly lie about this information when you can get it actually tested?

Game prices? I understand the Nintendo cult is always stiff. But for the last 10 years these people bitched about $70 games. And now they are just throwing excuse after excuse defending $80 games now. But the lie I've been hearing is "Sony has been selling $80 games since the PS5 came out"
No... No it hasn't. There is not one base PS5 game for $80 ever made.

So.. why are people saying this stuff? It's weird.

Anyways. I can tell this console will be a monster in 1-2 years before the $600 OLED model drops. I'm bummed Nintendo kind of fucked the market for consumers. Now every dev will start games at $80 and no one will blame Nintendo for it in the future. (Like if Ubisoft release the division 3 for $80 people will just blame Ubisoft). Don't forget who started the price hikes (not inflation)

What is an example of the JC Penny's effect ?


So the JC Penny's effect is a phenomenon in consumer psychology where consumers react negatively to something even though it is better to them but it doesn't feel better.

It is named after the store JC Penny's who got rid of sales and instead lower prices to what they would be on sale all the time. This was better for the consumer but consumers liked sales so they hated it.

How can we combine two audio recording inputs (mics) into one audio input source in Manjaro?


My partner and I are running Manjaro and very new to it. Trying to switch as much as possible over to daily use with Manjaro.
We have pipewire, not pulseaudio

We record multiple times a week on OBS, and my partner and I are in the same room. We have two mics side by side both inputs going into my PC. Linux, and therefore OBS, are recognizing the two mic inputs separately as you might expect.

OBS can set up both of these separate inputs, but the issue is we're having significant problems with echo and the noise suppression/noise gates are not sufficient.

This was not an issue on windows, where we used Voicemeeter to combine our inputs into one mic for OBS. I am looking to emulate that on Linux to see if it solves our problems.

We have tried a mic merge sink, but it creates an OUTPUT device, not an input device.

SOLUTION:
QPWGraph was the answer (or something like it, Helvum was also recommended) While it looks intimidating at first you just need to understand it's a series of outputs and inputs and you play mix and match. This allowed us to take the outputs of the mics and connect them directly to a single OBS mic source. This 100% did all that Voicemeeter was doing for us, and the results were also the same.

We do not experience echo, overlap, feedback, or any of the issues we were having by adding the two mics separately in OBS. Our issue was NOT the setup, as some people focused on here. As soon as we got the mics going into that same input, all was good and we successfully ran a recording session 100% in Manjaro.

In the end, this did everything we wanted from Voicemeeter + MORE, as I can now isolate different outputs as well. So for instance in recordings I can manage the volume of discord and the background music separately. So this was an amazing solution and the result was exactly what was needed, and ultimately was much easier than Voicemeeter.

Thank you to those here that recommended it, and the people at the Manjaro forums.

This entry was edited (5 days ago)
in reply to Pro

Not trying to be a dick but the Executive Director can take a fucking pay cut.

I found a reddit thread from 4 months ago where he said his salary was $170k/year. I'm not saying he is making obscene money, but if that's nearly 15% of all operating costs he can shave that down to $80k-$100k and still live comfortably if he's willing to accept a more austere standard of living.

I'm not saying he doesn't deserve to be paid well, but he's getting a damn sight better pay than moderators and community managers who seem to make up 50% of the budget for multiple people: the trust and safety team as well as the other employees at the foundation.

This entry was edited (1 week ago)

PC Gaming’s Mascot Squad—who makes the cut?


Who are the mascots of PC gaming?

I recently read a thread elsewhere that says one big reason for Nintendo's enduring popularity is their use of mascots: Mario, Link, Kirby, and Samus. But I have to say, PC gaming has its own mascots too. And if you grew up on PC gaming, you know exactly who I’m talking about. To me, these are the most obvious PC gaming mascots:

Sir Graham

Sierra’s signature character. He’s the protagonist of King's Quest, the game that pretty much "made" PC gaming. If you’ve ever typed "look at tree" only to die instantly, you know this guy.

Guybrush Threepwood

For a good long time, the Monkey Island series was the jewel of PC adventure games, and Guybrush was the poster child. For an entire generation of smart-alecks, Guybrush was what made pointing and clicking actually cool.

Commander Keen

PC’s answer to Mario, but with a football helmet and a pogo stick. If you played Keen, you knew that saving the galaxy could happen in between spelling homework and dinner. The alien menace never stood a chance.

Duke Nukem

Duke started out as just another run-and-gun guy, but Duke Nukem 3-D turned him into a legend. Those one-liners were the soundtrack of every ‘90s gaming session. If your parents ever walked in at the wrong time, you know exactly which line I mean.

B.J. Blazkowicz

Possibly the oldest mascot here, since Wolfenstein dates back to 1981. But it was Wolfenstein 3-D where B.J. got a face and a vendetta. He’s been fighting Nazis since before most of us knew what a floppy disk was.

Jill of the Jungle

Jill is the game that put Epic on the map. She was Epic’s answer to Commander Keen, and while the graphics weren’t exactly cutting edge, the level design made up for it. Plus, Jill could turn into a bird. That never gets old.

Doomguy

Probably the most recognizable of the bunch. When people think of PC gaming, Doomguy’s battered face at the bottom of the screen is what flashes in their mind. Doom is forever, and so is the guy with the shotgun.

Gordon Freeman

For a whole generation, Half-Life is PC gaming. Gordon Freeman in that orange hazard suit, holding his crowbar, is basically the Valve logo in human form. He never says a word and still manages to be iconic.

Vault Boy

You don’t actually play as Vault Boy, but he’s everywhere in Fallout. His little thumbs-up and cheesy grin follow you from the vault to the wasteland. With the TV series, he’s basically mainstream now. No mascot is more cheerful about the end of the world.

Kerrigan

The Zerg Queen of Blades herself. If you’re into Starcraft—and millions are—Kerrigan is the face you remember. Blizzard made her the ultimate badass, and she wears it well.

Geralt of Rivia

Geralt first found fame on PC. The original Witcher didn’t even get a console port, so for a while Geralt was our little secret. Now he’s everywhere, but if you played those early games, he still feels like a PC icon.

Chell

Portal’s silent protagonist. You only ever see her in reflections or through portals, but somehow she sticks in your memory anyway. If there’s ever a Hall of Fame for "quietly iconic," Chell gets a spot.

Faith Connors

Maybe not as famous as some others here, but Faith deserves her place. Mirror’s Edge is the best first-person parkour you’ll ever play, and Faith’s red glove and city-leaping acrobatics are instantly memorable.

Madeline

Celeste is one of the greatest indie platformers ever made, and Madeline is what makes it work. She’s determined, stubborn, and endlessly relatable. I’ve never wanted to climb a mountain so much in my life.

Goose

The newest mascot, but maybe the most beloved. Untitled Goose Game turned one honking bird into the hero none of us expected but all of us needed. An awkward bird never looked so adorable.


So there you have it: the PC gaming mascot hall of fame. They may not have a theme park, but let’s be honest, nobody’s ever wanted to watch Mario lock eyes with Doomguy at the breakfast table. The world just isn’t ready for that much star power in one room.

This entry was edited (1 week ago)

Cities Skylines Launcher problems on Hyprland


Hey everyone, I hope this is the right place.

I have just installed Hyprland (love it to bits so far) but I have run into my first problem. When I try to start Cities Skylines on Hyprland, it doesn't start. It says it's running on Steam but the Launcher Window is nowhere to be seen.

Any idea how to remedy this? Anyone else have the same issue? Thanks,

If we ask 100 random ppl to describe their ideal society, which real/fictional countries would the answers resemble the most?


This is... A bit of a dumb question, but I am really curious

100 random people because I think due to personal beliefs/political orientation the answer would differ, maybe someone would really like the Nordic countries, some would like China/Japan for good infrastructure, some would like the US due to extreme wealth...

Also I don't mean what their favorite country is, but whether what their favorite country "should be" given their beliefs

NYC Mayor Adams orders removal of protected bike lane along stretch of Bedford Avenue


Two weeks ago, Adams held a town hall in Williamsburg where numerous members of the neighborhood’s Hasidic community criticized the bike lane. They cited a viral video where a person riding an e-bike crashed into a young child who dashed into the bike lane from a double parked car.

An online petition against the redesigned bike lane titled “DOT: Please Stop the Murder of our Children” has more than 3,000 signatures.

Meta could track your browser sessions even in incognito and link them with your real identity


Meta devised an ingenious system (“localhost tracking”) that bypassed Android’s sandbox protections to identify you while browsing on your mobile phone — even if you used a VPN, the browser’s incognito mode, and refused or deleted cookies in every session.

This is the process through which Meta (Facebook/Instagram) managed to link what you do in your browser (for example, visiting a news site or an online store) with your real identity (your Facebook or Instagram account), even if you never logged into your account through the browser or anything like that.

Meta accomplishes this through two invisible channels that exchange information:

(i) The Facebook or Instagram app running in the background on your phone, even when you’re not using it.

(ii) Meta’s tracking scripts (the now-pulled illegal brainchild uncovered last week), which operate inside your mobile web browser.

xAI Data Center Emits Plumes of Pollution, New Video Shows


A massive data center at xAI’s controversial site in Memphis, Tennessee is emitting huge plumes of pollution, according to footage recorded by an environmental watchdog group.

Is Google about to destroy the web?


Google says a new AI tool on its search engine will rejuvenate the internet. Others predict an apocalypse for websites. One thing is clear: the current chapter of online history is careening towards its end. Welcome to the "machine web".

The web is built on a simple bargain – websites let search engines like Google slurp up their content, free of charge, and Google Search sends people to websites in exchange, where they buy things and look at adverts. That's how most sites make money.

An estimated 68% of internet activity starts on search engines and about 90% of searches happen on Google. If the internet is a garden, Google is the Sun that lets the flowers grow.

This arrangement held strong for decades, but a seemingly minor change has some convinced that the system is crumbling. You'll soon see a new AI tool on Google Search. You may find it very useful. But if critics' predictions come true, it will also have seismic consequences for the internet. They paint a picture where quality information could grow scarcer online and large numbers of people might lose their jobs. Optimists say instead this could improve the web's business model and expand opportunities to find great content. But, for better or worse, your digital experiences may never be the same again.

On 20 May 2025, Google's chief executive Sundar Pichai walked on stage at the company's annual developer conference. It's been a year since the launch of AI Overviews, the AI-generated responses you've probably seen at the top of Google Search results. Now, Pichai said, Google is going further. "For those who want an end-to-end AI Search experience, we are introducing an all-new AI Mode," he said. "It's a total reimagining of Search."

You might be sceptical after years of AI hype, but this, for once, is the real deal.

This entry was edited (1 week ago)
in reply to Lokoschade

I think Youtube Anti Translate only works on video titles and descriptions? There's Youtube No Translate which does the same and also keeps the audio track in the original language so you don't get a shitty AI dub

Kool-Aid Man (1983) for the Atari 2600


Ah yes, Kool-Aid Man. On the intro screen, he bursts through a brick wall—and if you're going to make a game about Kool-Aid Man, that's mandatory.

If Kool-Aid Man doesn't crash through something at the start, is it even a Kool-Aid Man game? (No. It’s not.)

Now the goal here is simple: protect the precious Kool-Aid from what I can only describe as sentient bombs with straws. They’re called Thirsties, which sounds like the name of a failed emo band, but whatever. These little creeps try to slurp up all your Kool-Aid—which is weird, because I thought drinking the Kool-Aid was the entire point of Kool-Aid.

Anyway, you’ve got to wait until they actually start drinking before you slam into them. Do it too early and nothing happens. Wait too long and they tap you first, sending you careening across the screen like a sentient bowling ball. Bonus tip: don’t touch the walls either, because apparently the Kool-Aid Man is so full of juice that the slightest touch make him bounce.

People like to blame games like this for the Great Video Game Crash. But I say no way. This game has charm. It's got bounce (literally). It's got bright colors. It’s got Kool-Aid Man yelling "OH YEAH!" like he just snorted a line of Pixy Stix. Okay, he doesn't literally do this, but in my head canon, he does.

Sure, this is advertising. But so was Cool Spot for the SEGA Genesis, and most people agree that game was pretty darn good too. So cut Kool-Aid Man some slack. He may be a glass-bodied corporate shill, but by god, he’s our glass-bodied corporate shill.

Oddly, this was made by Mattel Electronics for their M Network imprint, which they used for systems that weren't published for Intellivision. In this case, Kool-Aid Man was an Atari 2600. And I don't understand why this game wasn't available for Mattel's own console. Was Kool-Aid Man too cool for those dweebs who played Intellivision?

We may never know. But one thing’s for sure: Kool-Aid Man definitely belonged on the Atari.

What is your most useful Linux app which others might not know about (please don't just give the name but a link and why it is good for you) ?


Why software do you use in your day-to-day computing which might not be well-known?

For me, there are ~~two~~ three things for personal information management:

  • for shopping receipts, notes and such, I write them down using vim on a small Gemini PDA with a keyboard. I transfer them via scp to a Raspberry Pi home server on from there to my main PC. Because it runs on SailFish OS, it also runs calendar (via CalDav) and mail nicely - and without any FAANG server.
  • for things like manuals and stuff that is needed every few months ("what was just the number of our gas meter?" "what is the process to clean the dishwasher?") , I have a Gollum Wikirunning on Laptop and home server. This is a very simple web wiki which supports several markup languages (like Markdown, MediaWiki, reStructuredText, and Creole), and stores them via git. For me, it is perfect to organize personal information around the home.
  • for work, I use Zim wiki. It is very nice for collecting and organizing snippets of information.
  • oh, and I love Inkscape(a powerful vector drawing program), Xournal (a program you can write with a tablet on and annotate PDFs), and Shotwell (a simple photo manager). The great thing about Shotwell is that it supports nicely to filter your photos by quality - and doing that persistently makes you a better photographer.
This entry was edited (1 week ago)
in reply to HaraldvonBlauzahn

actualbudget.org/

github.com/actualbudget/actual

It's software for budgeting. You can run it entirely local, or set it up as a server. It stores everything in an SQLite dB, let's you import and export CSV files, and it gives you great options for querying and seeing reports on your financial records.

I've got a handful of accounts, so I set up a small python utility to parse the CSVs my banks give me to something actually sensible and readable for Actual. I do that once a month, add a reconciliation entry here and there, and it's all kept on sync very well.

I have one morbid report titled "money pissed down the landlord drain", and it's far higher than I'd like to be. But it's got close to every penny I've ever spent on that bullshit in one place.

This entry was edited (6 days ago)

Stop Trusting VPN Companies. Host Your Own (WireGuard getting started guide) 37:29


You sure you trust VPN providers? Would it not be better to make your own VPN?


::: spoiler Chapters
- 0:00- Quick overview of WireGuard
- 01:41- WireGuard VPN setup // Choosing a Linode Plan
- 02:49- SSH to the Linode server
- 03:46- Updating and upgrading server
- 04:25- Installing WireGuard
- 05:05- Hiding your WireGuard private key
- 07:03- Adding a new WireGuard interface
- 10:14- Setting up WireGuard on a Client computer
- 15:08- Disabling IPv6
- 18:35- Setting up NAT
- 21:28- WireGuard installation summary
- 22:24- Setting up persistence for WireGuard
- 26:33- Create another SSH user
- 30:11- Remove root SSH access
- 34:00- Reasons to use WireGuard
- 36:30- Conclusion
:::

in reply to RBWells

I want to make a White Russian tonight. But along with the vodka and Kahlúa, I want to add some Baileys. I usually use vanilla soy, instead of milk, because I like the taste and texture.

I started adding Baileys during the cold, dark winter months, which was a lovely evening drink. During summers, I usually go for a Tequila Sunrise, but today I'm in the mood for that softer, non-acidic feel.

EDIT: Just saw your description text, OP. Never heard of a Pas de Loupe before, but that sounds interesting. Is that Mezcal, Cynar, ancho, honey syrup and lemon juice?

Also, happy cake day!

What should I expect from someone who has just been released from prison?


My older brother is being released on parole at the end of this month after serving 11 years and 3 months of a 15-year sentence. I’m 19 now, so I was very young when he went to prison and don’t have many memories of him. He’ll be living with our parents and me after his release, and to be honest, I’m feeling a bit anxious about it.
in reply to idyllic

I know others will mention some of the personal things, so I'll instead focus on ways to help him try to reintegrate with everyday life and society socially.

You could start to try to help with some things he will interact with daily. The chances of him knowing about basically anything electronic you use now on a daily basis are slim. This is one of the biggest daily interactions that many former inmates have trouble with and betting up to speed on in modern society.

For some perspective, 11 years ago was 2014, and the launch of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. All the advancements since then will be new. LTE actually being widespread and usable, 5G even being a thing at all.

An offshoot of those are things like TikTok, YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, etc. which are massive social media hubs now, but didn't exist then. Heck, Vine was technically still around for a couple years after he went in. Educating about changes to media consumption and social media use can help with integration back into society, and suggesting some recent things to catch up on can provide recent and relevant topics of conversation for daily life.

This entry was edited (1 week ago)

Cyclocross gravel, or road?


I am a road cyclist, and I intend on getting a new bike soon. I'd like to use it to zoom around town for fun like I already do on my road bike, but I also want to be able to commute with it. As such, I'd like it to be able to handle light grass and dirt when I need to (no mud, gravel, excessive drops, etc). I've been thinking about a gravel or cross bike, but they're just not quite "zoomy" enough for me; I like more aggressive geometry and a nice, aero frame. Additionally, there has been a growing trend for thicker tires on road bikes, so a modern road bike should be able to fit cross tires. Should I just get a new road bike and throw some 33mm cross tires on it? Or should I suck it up and get a cross/gravel bike that's actually designed for dirt? On one hand I want to zoom and won't be on dirt/grass all that much, but on the other I don't want to ruin an expensive bike by taking it off-road when I shouldn't. Help a brother out.
in reply to sbf

"gravel bike" has been a widening category over the last few years. Some are basically road bikes with extra clearance (further confused by road bikes going that route too) all the way to essentially drop-bar hardtail mtbs. I'm pretty sure you would find a bike with the "gravel" label that's pretty aggressive while still being somewhat off-road capable. If you keep a second wheel set around, you can even convert it to a quasi road bike pretty easily.

How Do I Prepare My Phone for a Protest?


Shared here for public benefit.

Before going to a protest, demonstrators or observers should note that their cellphones may subject them to surveillance tactics by law enforcement. If your cellphone is on and unsecured, your location can be tracked and your unencrypted communications, such as SMS, may be intercepted. Additionally, police may retrieve your messages and the content of your phone if they take custody of your phone, or later by warrant or subpoena.
This entry was edited (1 week ago)
in reply to spaghettiwestern

>Be me
>Build new PC
>"Maybe I'll try out Linux. "
>Fairly popular 2 year old Motherboard
>Integrated WiFi Module no drivers available
>Integrated Bluetooth Module no drivers available
>No support for $170 Sound Card
>4 hours of troubleshooting later
>Linux more bloated with dependencies and packages from troubleshooting than your grandmas browser extensions
>"Fuck this"
>Nuke Partition
>Install Windows
>Shit instantly just works
>Use Linux partition drive for backups
This entry was edited (1 week ago)
in reply to spaghettiwestern

bought one of the new snapdragon x elite laptops refurbished recently. obviously it came with windows 11 and i had to briefly use it to shrink the boot partition and disable bitlocker so i could install the ubuntu concept image on it.

The amount of advertising i was subjected to in that time was infuriating. not to mention the frankly arduous setup wizard.

Even with the slight bugginess of a "concept image" OS, the user experience is SOOOO much better than shitty horrible windows.

Sent from my HP OmniBook running NOT windows

This entry was edited (1 week ago)

[Nobara] Help fixing boot situation


So I have a weird situation that I'm not sure how to fix, and it's going to require some background.

I have 4 drives in my machine:
1. A ~15 year old 128GB SATA SSD (windows, ntfs)
2. An ~8 year old 512GB SATA SSD (libraries, ntfs)
3. A ~5 year old 1TB NVMe SSD (nobara, btrfs)
4. A ~1 year old 2TB NVMe SSD (games, ntfs)

I've gone a month now without booting into windows so I figure it's time to clean up my windows install and reclaim/retire those drives, but my boot situation is kinda weird. #1 is my current default boot drive in bios, and it has both the boot loader for windows and for a previous ubuntu install I also had on the current-nobara install, and then #3 has another one (but won't boot when I select it in bios for whatever reason), so what I really need to do is clean up all these extraneous boot-loaders and set one up on drive #3 to be my main boot from now on. But I'm very nervous about messing with that sort of thing and rendering my system unbootable (I know, I still have the install USB I could use, but still.) I've tried reading guides and such on how to do bootloader stuff in general, but I am not confident in my ability to not fuck it up.

Although now that I think about it if I don't care about the windows boot drive I can just pull it, I just need to make sure I can boot off drive #3 before I do do that and I have no idea how to go about setting that up with my current situation.

NixOS printing problems


A friend and I are trying to get a machine set up to work as my school's library's printing computer instead of Windows ones. It is running NixOS. We got it bound to active directory, applications installed, etc., but the issue is that we can't get it to print. It'll say that it's printing but the print job never reaches the print server. To access the print server you're supposed to authenticate, but it doesn't ever give a prompt to. I tried turning off the firewall temporarily to see if that was the issue but it made no difference.

In configuration.nix, services.printing.enable=true and services.printing.drivers = [ pkgs.cups pkgs.hplip ]; (it is an HP printer that we're currently testing on).

I'm thinking that either SAMBA is configured incorrectly and/or the syntax that I put into CUPS for the printer is incorrect.

Current SAMBA config:

services.samba = {
enable = true;
openfirewall = true;
settings = {
public = {
path = "/srv/public";
browseable = true;
writable = true;
"guest ok" = true;

In CUPS it shows the syntax for a Windows printer via SAMBA as follows: smb://[workgroup/]server[:port}/printer

The issue is that I don't know what it means by that. I know the print queue, domain, IP, and port (although I'm under the impression that I don't need the port for this case), but I don't know how it would fit into this. I tried looking around on the CUPS wiki but it was vague and confusing to me. Any help with this is much appreciated.

[SOLVED] Recover deleted partition table - Guys, i need help!


My disk was dos labelled (MBR). So I 'fdisk'-ed my disk and entered 'o' to convert it to GPT and wrote it to the disk. Now all the partitions are gone. I want those back. I care about the data rather than the partitions

Edit 0:

Solution:
- install testdisk
- run testdisk
- choose "Create" log
- choose target disk. Eg: /dev/sda
- Choose appropriate partition type. Mine was MBR and I chose "Intel" and select "analyze"
- Now you'll see deleted partitions. Giveem appropriate flags like "*" for boot (efi partition) and "P" any other using space or arrow keys and press enter
- choose "write" and press y on the prompt to write those found partitions to the disk.

Thanks guys for the help

This entry was edited (1 week ago)
in reply to RedWizard [he/him, comrade/them]

This article is terrible.

In less than three months' time, almost no civil servant, police officer or judge in Schleswig-Holstein will be using any of Microsoft's ubiquitous programs at work.

Instead, the northern state will turn to [an unnamed, gaping information hole] open-source software to "take back control" over data storage and ensure "digital sovereignty", its digitalisation minister, Dirk Schroedter, told AFP.

"We're done with Teams!" he said, referring to Microsoft's messaging and collaboration tool and speaking on a video call -- via an [unnamed, gaping information hole] open-source German program, of course.


What will they use instead? Who the fuck knows! The article omits this crucial piece of information.

And don't say it's TBD; they're not going to say they're "done with Teams" without knowing what they're switching to. Or, even if they haven't put the final nail in the decision, they have a short list.

This entry was edited (1 week ago)
in reply to Deceptichum

"So what you had was that the world's two major propaganda agencies, for their own quite different reasons were claiming that this destruction of socialism is socialism. And it's very hard to break out of the control of the world's two major propaganda agencies when they agree, and they agreed for different reasons, but they agreed, and then that becomes doctrine and dogma."

How do you handle image hosting?


I would like to start using floorplans/maps with various device actions on them. This means I need locally stored images, that can be seen over the network.
I managed to upload images to HA, but as they need to be accessed with a token, I either need to refresh the token every day (no), or have an image with a long-lived token (also not a good idea).

How have other people done things?
Is it worth spinning up an http image host?
Or maybe throwing files into an nginx folder inside HA?

Thoughts on a postcard 😀

What can I use for an offline, selfhosted LLM client, pref with images,charts, python code execution


I was looking back at some old lemmee posts and came across GPT4All. Didn't get much sleep last night as it's awesome, even on my old (10yo) laptop with a Compute 5.0 NVidia card.

Still, I'm after more, I'd like to be able to get image creation and view it in the conversation, if it generates python code, to be able to run it (I'm using Debian, and have a default python env set up). Local file analysis also useful. CUDA Compute 5.0 / vulkan compatibility needed too with the option to use some of the smaller models (1-3B for example)

Is there anything that can tick the boxes? Even if I have to scoot across models for some of the features? I'd prefer more of a desktop client application than a docker container running in the background.

This entry was edited (1 week ago)

I am new to Lemmy after trying to use reddit and being scared away, since most of you are former reddit users can you explain why reddit is run the way it is ?


Ok I know the title is weirdly said but I will explain more here. I tried using reddit but all of the subs and topics I wanted to speak on were gated by Karma, so I searched reddit for no karma sub so I just posted on ask reddit,nostupid questions and I made one post on r/advice which I cross posted to relationship advice after which my account glitched. Turned out I had been shadow banned and I have no clue how. My theory is I posted to much and copy and pasting a post tripped the alarm but the post was a bit different on relationship advice and I did it once, I saw reddit from like youtube videos and tiktok and people cross post to subs all the time why is that an issue ?

But to get to the main ponint of this, why is reddit run the way it is ? In the sense why do they ask so much of their users hurting both the user expirience and the site's ability to grow.
The Karma system forces you into a position where to get to the content you want you have to interact with and post content you don't care about.So you have a ton of disengaged user's just punching their time card to get to what they actually care about.
Imagine if other social media sites did this, imagine if you wanted to listen to sabrina carpenter on spotify but to do that you had to listen to 100 hours of Conway Twitty, what sense does that make ?

Reddit's karma and age gate systems resemble a mobile game and while annoying when it's done there you understand why it's designed to get you to pay to skip it, but reddit doesn't let you pay to skip it at east not directly.

Every other social media site wants to get users the content they want as easy as possible. TikTok is the best example the reason it's popular is because it's the best at getting you what you want with as little work required on your part as possible. The for you page fetches you videos your interested in, if your a creator the format of the app increases your chance of being seen and going viral.

Reddit on the other hand leaves so much of the user experience up to weather or not your post on ask reddt go gets upvotes or if you happen to know if a good sub with a karma limit since subs do not disclose their karma limit

Again for the last time, why ? Even from a selfish business standpoint this seemingly makes no sense so what am I missing