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snap rant
snapcraft.io Snapcraft - Snaps are universal Linux packages

Snaps are containerised software packages that are simple to create and install. They auto-update and are safe to run. And because they bundle their dependencies, they work on all major Linux systems without modification.

Snapcraft - Snaps are universal Linux packages

Is it just me, or are most snap packages broken?

A lot of problems have to do with developers using some command to start or run a process, for example:

  • dropbox “Launch Dropbox Website” fails badly for Firefox as a snap
  • gimp as a snap, preferences-folders-<select one>-Show file location in the file manager, doesn’t work

Another type of problem is the location for local files, e.g.:

  • a snap zoom upgrade uses the same location for recordings as the prior version, which doesn’t work because the old snap version directory is inaccessible

Another type of problem is the integration with Ubuntu (ostensibly the owner of the snap format), for example:

  • superkey (Windows logo) search for a snap and click or double-click on the icon just shows a wait cursor and finally times out (you have to right click and choose New Window)
  • update fails to update snaps - you need to manually sudo snap refresh, and even then the Software Updater thinks it need to update something until you reboot
  • snap-store has no search function - but if you start typing it will search (what kind of sadistic user experience designer thought that one up?)
  • snap-store Updates - Update All can fail and display a failure message from weeks ago
  • don’t even get me on about disk usage, like /var/lib/snapd/snaps or your ~/snap directory, that likely have more gigabytes than you’ve needed in a long time

Should I just give up on snaps and use Flatpack or Appimage?

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Do you think/feel that you are living well? Happily? Embodying your values and dreams? If so, how did this happen?
  • Yes, living well. Happy mostly. Embodying values and dreams - as much as possible since some dreams would have needed to be started years ago to be realized - like my vineyard and my orchard. Mostly it was reinventing myself every five or seven years to follow the lucre (in software development world look for the bright and shiny new thing).

    I was self employed for most of the time, and I can recommend that for those who have a pretty good work ethic. Having a goal in high school was also a key factor, since it led to a useful degree. I was also doing constant internal evaluation - like the feeling where you're going over your desired job description for a job interview - via a journal or a self help program like "The Red Bucket Strategy". So, in answer to how did this happen question: it was pretty methodical in using the steering gear you have to make course corrections all the time.

  • Chinese schools testing 10,000 locally made RISC-V-ish PCs
  • There's this back story about the "LoongArch instruction system, a RISC ISA that blends ideas from MIPS and RISC-V". The article says it is MIPS-compatible and even runs the same Linux code [Loongson's] old MIPS-based CPUs did. Why not just use RISC-V? MIPS is licensed from the USA. I guess they have a lot of legacy people at Loongson.

  • Now that you have settled here on Lemmy. What is your impression of it?
  • TL;DR; Three points:

    • my selected communities seem to provide adequate interesting topics - there's always one or two rabbit holes to go down
    • I have a voice - commenting here is transparent and not censored as much as Reddit
    • I think the average age of contributors here is greater than the sex and shit joke fixated twelve year olds on Reddit which is a good thing
  • 'Cliff-Like' Collapse of Critical Current System More Likely Than Thought: Study
  • Is it just me, or does anyone else who sees temperatures in degrees Fahrenheit (without a Celsius conversion) in a summary of a scientific report like this just automatically consider it an American fluff piece and click-bait to be ignored?

    You should read the actual report https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adk1189.

    It might be my naive reading, but it seems that flooding the ocean with 4-5% of the gulf stream flow with fresh water from glacier melt (I think that's a lot) will cause a shut down in the year 3700 or so. Even I, as a climate change believer, think that's a little too far out there to be considered germane.

  • I've recently turned 20. What highly specific advice you, lemmy users, would offer me?
  • Make note of your friends phone numbers, emails and addresses (not just via social media), especially the ones from earlier years, and keep track of them with regular calls, notes or visits. Forty or fifty years from now, after the cycles of graduations, weddings, babies, moves, etc. you'll have some golden relationships.

  • Looking for Notes App for Android &amp; Linux
  • Joplin with a WebDAV server (for me it's Infomaniak's kDrive) provides syncing across multiple devices and is pretty much transparent. You should just force synchronize when leaving one of the apps to be sure (kind of like the save button in most programs).

  • Raspberry Pi is 4.5 times faster than the Cray 1 was in 1978

    From an evaluation by Roy Longbottom, this interesting observation:

    In 1978, the Cray 1 supercomputer cost $7 Million, weighed 10,500 pounds and had a 115 kilowatt power supply. It was, by far, the fastest computer in the world. The Raspberry Pi costs around $70 (CPU board, case, power supply, SD card), weighs a few ounces, uses a 5 watt power supply and is more than 4.5 times faster than the Cray 1.

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    How come there isn't more torrent based technology
  • In my mind, Veilid (https://veilid.com/) is trying to solve this exact problem.

    It's only been public since the last DefCon, so it's a little raw at the moment. That said, it is also only a framework - specific applications need to be built.

    See also their Discord: https://discord.com/channels/1077244355439509565/ and GitLab: https://gitlab.com/veilid/

  • Sinopec says gasoline demand will peak this year
    www.bloomberg.com China Reaches Peak Gasoline in Milestone for Electric Vehicles

    Sinopec, the country’s top oil refiner, brought its forecast forward by two years in a development that didn’t get its due.

    China Reaches Peak Gasoline in Milestone for Electric Vehicles

    BNEF journalist Colin McKerracher summarizes trends in China predicting a peak in fossil transport fuel: electric vehicle car sales, two and three wheeled electric kilometers traveled, electric trucks reaching the tipping point and ride hailing legislation.

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    InitialsDiceBearhttps://github.com/dicebear/dicebearhttps://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/„Initials” (https://github.com/dicebear/dicebear) by „DiceBear”, licensed under „CC0 1.0” (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)DE
    Derrick @sh.itjust.works
    Posts 4
    Comments 15