Since we’re on Lemmy, USB jump drive so they can reinstall a new distro of Linux every ~3 months
I’ve got like 5 of these. Only one of them has a Linux distro.
I’ve been telling myself to stop distrohopping for 7 years.
I’m addicted to optimizing my OS
Do it with Ventoy https://www.ventoy.net/en/index.html
I use ventoy all the time! But not all ISOs are compatible with it, I’ve found. Fedora, for example, and OpenSuse are not compatible with ventoy.
Wdym? Fedora 38 server and workstation worked fine for me. Might be your drive?
I tried Silbertblue, and it failed. It could be the drive, though. I wouldn’t be surprised.
Ventoy is great. I have a bunch of useful Windows ISOs like win 10 and 11. I also have a bunch of useless ones like Win XP and 7.
I have many useful Linux ISOs and I also have an Android ISO for some reason.
A great tool 🔥
WinXP isn’t compatible with ventoy. At least, it always BSODed for me. Did you have any luck?
I haven’t actually tried, I honestly mostly use it as ISO storage for VMs.
Where in the process does it BSOD? If it’s before you reformat your storage I could try it on my computer, otherwise I won’t.
XP installer loads, welcomes me, then dies. For me, at least, it was before I even had an opportunity to enter any information for the installation.
Get a multi port USB charger. I have some from Anker that have 2 usb-c ports and 2 usb-a ports. Can charge everything from my laptop to all my gadgets.
You can’t have enough usb chargers.
I just bit the bullet and got some from Anker. Gonna have so many fast charging stations, I’ll finally stop dragging the one good charger around behind me everywhere I go.
One of my best purchases is the Anker 543 charger:
- 2x USB-C and 2x USB-A ports delivering up to 45W.
- Plugs into socket with an AC cable instead of built-in prongs. Lets you plug it into tight areas where a wall wart won’t fit.
- AC cable is a removable figure 8 attachment, so if it breaks you can replace it cheaply without buying a new charger. You can also buy an extra long AC cable to get power further away.
- Power supply is compatible with 240v and 110v AC. If you’re traveling, just buy that country’s AC cord for $5 instead of all those shitty attachments that travel adapters come with.
I once bought a couple of 6 or 8 foot charging cables from Anker. My gf and I could both zone out on our phones on the couch then. Before that one of us could hunch down at a time if we needed to look at something on the phone.
It was just interesting how nice it was to be able to be on the phone while it was charging, and that we had two of them.
For maybe $15 apiece or $20 for the pair, it was a lot of value for the money.
Steering wheel
I second this, as I have spent far too much on mine, so be warned, your wallet will not be pleased.
sir I request you post this in the nearest simracing Lemmy just so we can get some conversation going
Which one? I’m subscribed to a few, but they’re all dead!
!simracing@lemmy.ml has been the biggest so far
We’re pretty dead over there right now unfortunately, but with as small of a community as it is there’s always struggles for content
WTF is right!
👀
Nice!
A mouse with programmable keys on the side. It’s so convenient combining control keys with mouse movements in one hand.
I have a mouse with 6 buttons on the side and it’s great for gaming. When I used to play fortnite I had all the building mapped there so I could do all my building with my right thumb and it wouldnt distract my left hand from movement controls
Get the Logitech G600 and have essentially 24 buttons on the side (12 + a “shift” button to give each of those 12 a different command).
To be fair, I only use about 6 of those buttons, haha.
If the software allows it you can have a button that changes between mouse modes with different button mappings. Infinite buttons
I guess you’d have a mode for entering the name of a mode then. Like vim. A whole mode that’s just navigating your collection of modes.
Ngl I’ve thought of doing that if it ever gets to >4 modes.
It’s certainly great for gaming. I didn’t expect it would make things so much easier on everyday use as well.
MMO mouses for programming
I’ve had Shift+W programmed to my thumb button. Way more relaxed way to sprint in most games.
Are they useful outside of gaming ?
They have come in handy while using design software
can you give some examples where it would come handy?
Yeah sure.
Whenever I’m working on a big photoshop file and I find myself using a tool very often, I bind the side buttons to that tool. At minimum I always keep the redo, undo buttons binded to the mouse.
Whenever I’m browsing the web I have forwards and backwards binded so I don’t have to move my mouse across the screen to go back a page.
It’s all trivial stuff but it makes my workflow slightly more fluid. I initially bought the mouse for gaming, but it has been super useful for me outside of gaming
A good mouse and keyboard are probably a good start.
Upgraded my setup to logitech MX Keys and MX Master 3 and oooooh boy, it’s so much nicer than the cheap rubbish I used before
Headphones. I don’t wanna listen to your tik toks on a bus.
I would add that a pair of good ones is a world of difference for everything you might use them for - music, gaming, movies. Now good != expensive, good headphones can be had for under 50 bucks, great headphones for around 100-200, anything beyond that you are venturing into audiophile waters with very diminishing returns.
What’s your recommendation ?
For the cheaper end, Koss is a great point to jump on, KSC 75, Porta Pro (these are my go to for moving around, including running in the rain) and Kph 30i are all great options. Worth noting that these will not provide much in the way of isolation, they are relatively open.
There are also pretty good cheap in-ear options (IEM), but i will not comment on these as I absolutely despise this form factor, personally.
For a potential endgame, with a price bump, you can look to something like Sennheiser HD560s. These are what I use at home, they are a great all-rounder, by reproducing the sound spatially very well, which is amazing for gaming, but also immersive for music and movies. For music (well, sound in general, of course) they are what is known as neutral, so they do not excentuate particularly any part of the frequency curve, they reproduce music roughly as-mixed, with great resolution of individual instruments, in my experience they really make the vocals pop.
So open back, right?
Aren’t those for studio work though ? Rather than for daily usage?
They’re really great sound quality, but usually pretty bulky. I was joking because they let sound out very easily, so it wouldn’t be much better for other people than phone speakers.
Not necessarily! they are great for at home, especially if you have a kid or grandparent you have to be able to hear. Not so much for the bus though
Are there any good(less bulky and good sound quality) open back headphones for using on the bus (or commute) ?
Personally, I wouldn’t recommend open back for commute as you can hear everybody else and everyone else can also hear you. They are very much moreso for at home use.
I wish you a merry diarrhea 😊
Appropriate game controllers for what you play. Gamepads, arcade sticks, racing wheels and flight sticks all have their uses. Mouse and keyboard isn’t always the best control scheme and it’s annoying to see steam reviews where people complain about that.
As somebody that doesn’t play a lot of racing games or flight sims or anything, a basic gamepad will go a long way. A lot of games that feel bad on keyboard were simply made primarily for console. Dark Souls was an infamous example of this, but this can apply to a surprising amount of things - I find it’s hard to reach for numbers in MMOs, and macro keyboards/mice are too busy, but FFXIV actually handles incredibly well on a controller because it was designed with the PS4 in mind. Even with recent games, Armored Core 6, Resident Evil remakes, Elden Ring, Jedi Survivor, I’m sure these all play fine on keyboard and mouse but they’re much more comfortable on a gamepad.
A good gamepad is a great catchall if you aren’t seriously into any of the genres that utilize specialized controls and are absolutely indispensable for any pc gamer.
Man, I hate gamepads. If a game is clearly meant to be played with a pad and thw kb+m is a garbage afterthought I immediately uninstall. Can’t stand them.
Nas systems like Synology, u can store photos, files, or anything without public cloud services.
dedicated nas systems are pretty overpriced imo, often costing as much or more than the drives you put in them. much cheaper to build your own. depending on your needs, this can be as simple as a raspberry pi plus an external hard drive.
not that expensive, i got a secondhand synology ds218+ which is based on intel x86 architecture, it costs about 100 usd. campared to raspberry pi, it provides docker support. i deploys teslamate, homeassistant, and openwrt.
They are overpriced based on a system you can build yourself, but the target audience for a NAS is someone who doesn’t want to spend days googling guides when a hard drive craps the bed or the os glitches. When I think of how much my NAS was, what I have stored on it and how much I use it, it is probably the best value for money thing I own.
I have a usb ssd attached to my router.
Refrigerator
Anything you interact with on a daily basis. Keyboard, mouse, desk, monitor… If you’re going to be spending a couple hours a day at it why not treat yourself?
A small screen (3-4") phone
Best way to kick the habit of spending every free minute looking at the screen, but still perfectly functional for a wide variety of tasks, unlike a dumbphone.what are some modern examples of these? most phones that are still updated are phablets
Unihertz Jelly Star
They have a pretty interesting lineup I’ll say. Definitely eyeballing the atom models
I’m currently using the Atom. I love it, but it really takes the “small screen” idea to the extreme.
Texting is possible with swipe typing, but for more than a sentence, I use voice recognition, and I don’t even try to write e-mails on it unless it’s urgent.
Typing passwords is an exercise in frustration, so I use Bitwarden with a PIN.
Sometimes I have to turn the phone sideways to even show a button that needs clicking.
I’ve uninstalled the browser, cause it was pointless.
And you better have good eyesight.That being said, for my use case it’s perfect. What I wanted was a “dumbphone+” that can also use messenging apps and e-mail, act as 2FA, sync with my Nextcloud and has a camera for scanning QR codes.
Especially, what are some modern examples of these, but from known brands. Not some shady off-brand “brand”?
If you want a good performance phone for using loads of apps and games, you’re missing the point.
Just use Universal Android Debloater to get rid of crapware and use it for messaging and phone calls.
Personally, I can vouch for Unihertz. Their phones use Mediatek chips (like Samsung, Nokia, Oneplus), are pre-financed via Kickstarter and have great build quality.
The asus zenfone 10 looks cool
External hard drive big enough to hold more than the entire memory of the computer. Keep everything you find valuable at least, or better yet back up the entire computer on there and update it regularly. Leave it unplugged from the computer between updates.
In other words, an offline backup of everything on your main computer.
Follow the 3-2-1 rule: 3 copies, 2 different mediums (second HDD + thumb drive, DVD-R, tape if you’re nerdy, etc) and 1 offsite (cloud, VPN tunnel to someone else’s NAS, etc)
deleted by creator
What are you all backing up? My SSD is just my OS, some programs and Steam, a fresh install without a backup has me back up and running in about 2 hours.
Some people have families and like to keep pictures and videos of said family around. Also, legal documents, academic papers, career and work related documents. Other deranged individuals have collections of rare stuff like music, games and movies that aren’t available on digital platforms anymore. Wild concept, I know.
It was a genuine question tbh. I mean, I have a family with kids and I am a few years out of higher education (technically still in uni, as residency in my country is still university), I still feel no need to keep a physical backup, maybe backing up the photos would be an idea.
I gather you leave all your digital presence to cloud services? If it ain’t in your computer, you don’t own it. I’ve seen people deal with all sorts of problems because they only had one copy of whatever digital file. Computers aren’t eternal, if anything they are actually more fickle than some physical mediums. Don’t trust mega corporations to keep your data safe, some will sneeze, fuck you over and won’t care because either you weren’t a paying customer or your problems just aren’t profitable enough for even a real human to look at your pleads for assistance.
I just have my photos, that are on the cloud, yes, as they are all taken by phone. I hadnt considered needing a backup for those, and I am not sure I will, but it is an idea. I mostly take them to share with people, I am not really the type of person to go back and look at photos. Nothing else that feel worth backing up.
I used to hoard various files like work stuff, uni materials etc, but time and time again I find I never go back to them, so I don’t really keep stuff like that anymore.
Yeah I don’t know why they came at you with so much snark.
I have 16 TBs of photos/books/comics/movies/shows/games/etc. That’s not even that much compared to some people.
Its the backing up books / movies / shows / games I do not fully get tbh., to me it feels a bit like digital hoarding.
Like if its a rare item that you struggled to get - I can see it, kind of.
The amount of things I have wanted to ever rewatch / reread is absurdly small. I can think of a singular book, maybe a few movies and a couple shows (and those really for a lack of alternatives that I have not seen).
Its the backing up books / movies / shows / games I do not fully get tbh., to me it feels a bit like digital hoarding.
I mean, yea you’re not wrong but it’s not like I have piles off shit all through my house I have to build trails to get through. It’s a server and external drives sitting in a corner and it lets me have whatever I want to read/watch at my fingertips instead of having to find it on streaming somewhere. There’s probably stuff in there I’ll never look at again but there’s a lot that sometimes I just get in the mood for and it’s right there ready to go or if I can’t decide I can pick something at random.
I can certainly see why some would not want to mess with it and I do have a pretty huge backlog of tech debt where I have to sort things out of my “downloads” folder into my media library but all in all I think it’s worth it. It’s the one thing I allow myself to just go crazy on because it’s so cost efficient. Buying actual objects that will take up space in my house is another story, those things get vetted thoroughly before I pull the trigger on the purchase.
The important things for me to back up include:
- photographs and family videos (literally irreplaceable)
- legal documents and other such paperwork (can be replaced, but it would be a pain)
- various notes on how to accomplish occasional tasks (not too hard to figure out again, but it is convenient to spend 1 minute copying a command out of a text file instead of spending 15 minutes to find all the correct command line arguments)
My backup is the fact I have a general idea of what I’m planning to do and hope I can figure my shit out if I lose all my data
Oh goodness… 60,000+ pictures I’ve taken with my camera, my collection of flac files, movies, shows, photoshopped images, screenshots, and random files that might stop existing on the internet!
When I was younger, heaps of hentai. Many heaps.
I have inherited about that many photos. Old family photos back to 1900. I’d like to know how you manage that many. Scan, sort, search, index, store, etc.
Sheesh, that is a lot of pics. Got any examples of the random files?
I actually used to have a pretty big music collection back in the day, but these days I cba to maintain my own music, so I just let that go with the wind at some point. Really now I am even too lazy to have my own playlists on my Youtube Music, so I mostly opt for the algorithm playlists / radio playlists or just full albums.
It IS a whole lot of pics! Mostly cats and pictures of myself and my partner from the last ten years while we’re young and smexy. Hopefully we’ll have more when we’re old and smexy. But 95% cats.
Random files? Sure! Lotta stuff that I feel might get deleted from YouTube. Some of it has. Every banned Disney cartoon. Lots of North Korean cartoon propaganda! Really weird old stuff. Tons of old VHS tape rips of stuff like Toonami with commercials from the early ‘00s. Loooooots of downloads of full threads from /b/ 2003-2009.
Between me and my partner I have almost 150 000 pictures backed up.
Now that we got 2 kids it’s growing even faster !
I should probably sort them to keep only the important ones but right now my time is more precious than the cost of few 100s Go so I just back up everything.
“if it doesn’t exist in 3 places, it doesn’t exist at all” is an adage I do my best to abide by. I lost a 500mb hard drive in the 90s (oh no…all my funny Sound Recorder clips and funny pics!!) and have been paranoid ever since.
Digital storage is just too cheap nowadays to risk it. Cloud storage, too
My SOs el cheapo PSU went to heavin in a flash around 1999 and took the hard drive And the backup drive with it.
Same here, there are copies everywhere now.
Keyboard. It’s got hotkeys for the most used characters. It’s so much faster than manually drawing each character in Paint.
I haven’t used CJK languages in a long time, but for a while I was running a Japanese version of Windows NT and for text input there was an option to draw the character in a small paint window.
Wow, my MS paint workflow is feeling attacked right now.
You don’t have to use every shortcut you know.
People need to think too, and the less repetitive one’s workflow, the less time one has to think.
Time efficiency gains assume practically infinite cognitive resources. Normal human workflow is think/execute/think/execute. Jobs that are only think/think/think/think are unnatural and fuck up your brain. Especially if you think of reality as a sort of test suite you can run against new neural patterns to weed out the ones built on unreliable patterns.
So you do you bro. You take your time on those precious chars. I do recommend you learn chinese in that case though, or Egyptian heiroglyphics. You get a lot more information out of each bmp file that way.
Large desk mat comfy chair good keyboard wrist rest decent 1440 monitor
A deej mixer
https://www.instructables.com/DEEJ-a-Physical-Volume-Mixer/
This looks awesome