The USB C to 3.5mm dongles out there are plentiful and to be honest you can’t really go wrong with any one. At the end of the day, they all behave pretty similarly as they contain a DAC and an amp built them. At this point, the world of audio has gone far enough that decent audio chips are pretty cheap and it’s not all that likely you’ll actually hear any significant differences between different dongles.

If you are an Android user, be wary of which dongle you get if you’re looking at the Apple ones. Depending on the region the dongle is made for, some users report issues where the dongle chooses not to amplify the signal properly. I ran into this problem with the model MU7E2AM/A and it’s just annoying. Android and external DACs can be kinda hit or miss for some reason, and the dongle only functioned properly using a specific music player app that kinda overrides the system and forces it to use the DAC (the app is USB Audio Player Pro).

You can buy dongles pretty cheap on the cheapo sites like Aliexpress, which isn’t a terrible idea. You could buy a few cheaper ones and be fine for a long while. I’ve had issues with the longevity of certain dongles, daily use can sometimes put physical stress on the USB connector if you’re not careful, which is why I would just keep a few different dongles and chew through em as needed.

That is disgusting. 'nuff said.

This is somewhat outside the box but as tech becomes easier, a lot of people tend to become weaker at certain tech skills. An example of this is directory management. A lot of folks don’t organize their file structures nowadays, relying heavily on the search bar to find everything.

This seems to be some of the most worthwhile advice. I do use a pretty reasonable DNS client (NextDNS) and it allows me to configure some useful filters and such, and when I’m browsing the internet I also use uBlock Origin and manually allow any third party content one by one.

I did configure UFW to block incoming and allow outgoing, and that should be more than enough for me. I think I’m a pretty “standard” user in the sense that I would make a fairly average target for a would-be attacker. It’s not like I own a web server with goodies worth exploiting.

A part of me really wants to learn more because at some point I’ll have my own router that I’ll want to ensure is configured properly because I’ll likely end up making my own server for media stuff.

Thank you for your reply!

Thank you! I’ll adapt to using kden, I appreciate it

Thanks for letting me know, I think that’s the best news I can get so I don’t go on a wild goose chase trying out random drivers with no success lol

It’s just an intel i7, there’s no dedicated GPU, no separate graphics card. The program doesn’t seem to recognize the CPU for an iGPU.

I went to post a comment on this Reddit thread but then my old man saw what I was doing and beat me with jumper cables.

Thank you! :]

Finally bit the bullet and got a Thinkpad and I’m leaning towards putting Fedora on it. I’ve never used Linux before but I’ve done some research and I like the idea of something that updates more often than Debian but isn’t as DIY as Arch. Do y’all think Fedora would make a good starting point? I hear it’s stable enough and offers enough non-free applications through the RPM file management system.

Also, are there any drawbacks in using the immutable Silverblue version? I’m considering it just so I don’t do anything dumb by accident.

For my parents, it meant putting up with me installing viruses as I tried to figure out how to play Minecraft free.

Thank you! :D

That’s awesome! Now how can I add it to Libreoffice?

“Buy once cry once” seems to apply very well to wire cutters. (Link is to a YouTube video about how terrible most wire cutters actually are)

At least in the United States, most schools are not a place of privacy as the schools have a certain right to authority over their pupils. Consider Tinker v. Des Moines and what it meant for freedom of speech in schools. That case won students the right to freedom of expression. It’s important, but in certain cases it becomes limited by Morse v. Frederick, a case that ultimately meant that such expression must not disrupt the learning environment. All of this is to say that students have certain freedoms until expressing those freedoms is disruptive to the learning experience, and I don’t think there’s any solid argument that would not consider vaping disruptive to the learning environment. Considering this as an invasion of privacy is a moot point when you consider that students don’t really have the same rights as adults, especially in public school situations.

Shoutout to Shuji Nakamura for making LED lighting as wev know possible. He invented the first significantly bright blue LEDs, consequently using what he knew to make white LEDs a thing

This is the video that convinced me to get NextDNS and I don’t regret having made that decision

I originally came from Olights, I was a big fan of them. I never understood how people could complain about them until I finally had a flashlight with great CRI and tint. Also, the fact that these things use Anduril is incredible. After learning how to use Anduril 2.0, I hardly want to use any other flashlight!

Needless to say, I’m done with Olight. I’m actually looking to sell them away lol

The expensive one is the white-ish one all the way on the left! That one is made of titanium (with the exception of the copper head). All the other lights are made of aluminum. Also, the cerakote coating is special because it changes color with heat! At rest it’s a dark navy blue, but as it gets warmer it turns into the greyish white you see in the picture :)

The special thing about each of these lights is that they’re almost semi-custom made, you get to pick certain things such as the color and material of the body, the actual length of the battery tube for different types of cells, and most specifically the type of LED that gets put inside. They also use an open-source and insanely complicated user interface called Anduril 2.0.

The fancy colors you see the lights putting out in the image are just auxiliary LEDs that look pretty. You can change what color they’re producing or even have em do a little light show if you set them to do that.

There’s one guy who actually makes them, his name is Hank Wang. You can find his store at intl-outdoor.com. Considering the amount of customization that goes into these lights and the quality of the LEDs themselves, the value of them is actually rather amazing.

In this image you can see how the beams vary in color temperature across these lights.

$95 on a flashlight and then $50 to have it done with custom cerakote. To be fair, it’s a badass flashlight. Consequently, that led to the purchase of a few other flashlights with similar features but much cheaper and without the custom coatings.

See the attached image for more details and feel free to ask me any questions :P