rubén

98% turnip; only bad opinions; internet surfer; learning how to code; 68k is 68ok.

🌍: https://r.bdr.sh
🎵: https://open.audio/channels/benbeltran
📸: https://friendship.quest/minoltacos
💻: https://git.sr.ht/~rbdr

Public Key

npub1tff4hdt6y96xe4jmz7px9w89qv0tz5ku36f3huxjp6x94vr2tp2sd3wkhq

NIP-05 Address

ruben_at_friendship.quest@momostr.pink

Profile Code

nprofile1qqs9556mk4azzarv6ed30qnzhrjsx8432twgaycm7rfqarz6kp49s4gpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0dswfnpgz

Publishing to

relay.damus.io

nos.lol

Author Public Key

npub1tff4hdt6y96xe4jmz7px9w89qv0tz5ku36f3huxjp6x94vr2tp2sd3wkhq

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Last Notes

2026-10-28 23:28:38 UTC

I understand people have different reasons to pursue a hobby, but I just don’t understand folks that write slop for retro computing platforms.
What I find the most rewarding about using a vintage Mac has been that it offers an alternative to the current generic, rent seeking world of software. It’s an era of constraints, different values, and more hackable internals. It’s also whatever the opposite of e-waste is.
I’m constantly amazed by the human effort required to keep these computers alive: indie hardware designers, archivists, software developers working within incredible constraints. It’s an act of care, attention, and conservation.
Every day there’s a new slop project, and they don’t have the charm of the old software: they often don’t work, they look boring, and just don’t appeal to me. They seem to embody the exact opposite values!
Of course they’re easy to ignore and not install, in reality it’s not affecting me in any way, but every time I see one of these pop up, I’m just confused. At a very fundamental level, I just don’t understand the type of person that finds that appealing.
#retrocomputing #slop #vintagemac #classicmac

2026-10-06 19:46:47 UTC

gnossienneto gnolosienneto

2026-10-06 18:58:56 UTC

If the mass production of goods from the industrial revolution gave us an age of consumerism
the the large language models are giving us an age of producerism.
gasset’s “señorito satisfecho” is becoming a type of homo-dunning-krugerus.
I don’t know what values will replace the current hustle-,doer- centric system as making becomes increasingly pointless, annoying even.
For me there’s a lot of conditioning to undo to not feel strange not building something, but i’m much happier returning to my hands and what-ifs i might not realize.

2026-10-05 20:52:07 UTC

got dmitri long shostacovid

2026-10-05 18:53:09 UTC

si federico chopin no era mexa, ¿por qué hizo tantas mazorcas?
#freddychops #fedechopi

2026-10-05 15:07:36 UTC

fooyin has a learning curve, but i've decided it's the best music player
it's designed for sickos
#linux #fooyin

2026-10-04 19:46:32 UTC

(wake me up) i’m all out of faith
(i can’t wake up) this is how i feel
(save me) i’m cold, and i am shamed, lying naked on the floor

2026-10-03 15:11:59 UTC

the only tool on linux that can manage an iPod classic turned out to be very vibe coded and corrupted the database. :(
i'd install rockbox, but it has a crash when you lock the device lol

2026-10-02 13:17:37 UTC

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I am constantly amazed at how in-depth people tag their music, and the only reason I don't adopt it is because I'm too lazy to apply the same level of effort to my library.

2026-10-02 13:16:44 UTC

me browsing soulseek:
*their tags are more specific than mine*: obsessive, sicko
*their tags are less specific than mine*: lazy, rube

2026-09-25 20:29:45 UTC

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it took exactly 30s of using c++ for me to miss sum types and pattern matching

2026-09-25 19:52:08 UTC

It’s time to dive into c++ to develop a plugin for fooyin. haven’t worked with it since roughly 2010, how much could it have changed?
#cpp #fooyin #qt

2026-09-25 15:13:26 UTC

Alright, finally sat down to try to build a noctalia plugin, starting with something I know: A port of my swiftbar sourcehut builds script.
It's pretty easy to get started! Took me longer to get the luau lsp working with my editor.
#linux #noctalia
https://friendship.quest/ruben/s/post-aede0660bdecb76af20238d71204d6df.png

2026-09-24 15:49:51 UTC

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I have artist / album, with compilations organized by album under compilations. This has worked for me, but i believe players like Swinsian on mac or strawberry on Linux can re-organize of your music is tagged!

2026-09-24 14:22:14 UTC

started using fooyin, and that's a good music player!
it doesn't support sending files to iPod as far as I know, but it /does/ support plugins. So maybe this is a good excercise in contributing.
(Also, strong anti-ai policy)
#linux

2026-09-21 10:03:07 UTC

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Yeah. I agree the conversation needs nuance. But I also think those aren’t contradictions!
It’s not just worker protection, plenty of ills:
⁃ No human is reading my resume, I actively need to make it worse for humans so it passes that filter
⁃ Bad bosses (not an llm problem) are using them to further antagonize workers and pretend it’s “hard data”
⁃ They’re eroding the open web that created the conditions for them to exist (both in corpus and skilled individuals)
⁃ I believe they’re eroding communities by reinforcing individualism and a disdain of other disciplines through dunning-kruger.
I worry about those things because they’re
Problems now and feel they’re more urgent than the productivity boost. They’re not new problems but they’re supercharged, and why I’d rather put a harder line on “maybe we shouldn’t go there” rather than wait for it to play out.

2026-09-21 09:51:47 UTC

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Some of the contradictions could well be “a social effect of llms” vs “the technical capability of the llm”.
Eg. Jobs being taken away = a social effect due to hype. But the output being terrible = a technical one.

2026-09-19 21:20:04 UTC

The iPhone 17 pro is such a powerful machine but somehow it takes it a full minute to run a basic automation, and is incapable of changing wallpapers more often than every 10 or so minutes.
Locking down compute like this is such a waste.

2026-09-18 07:32:52 UTC

the www.fermi.biz paradox
if there’s so much life on the internet. Where are all the personal websites?
One theory, the dark forest theory, posits that websites are hiding themselves like creatures in a forest full of predators, for as soon as they become notable they get hammered by LLM crawlers and DDoS’d.

2026-09-12 21:49:28 UTC

llms are the peak manifestation of the current individualistic, extractive economic system.
We will absorb the commons, not to give back, but to give individuals a mild convenience, no matter the cost.
Meanwhile: the open web is closing down to protect itself from bots, knowledge is being destroyed to turn it into proprietary training dara, open source is getting saturated with slop and bad faith license-evading replication, communities are being replaced with individuals looking for praise, trust in others to be experts is being replaced with “I can do this job with ai”, the environment is getting fucked through the explosion in compute, access to personal computing is getting extremely expensive, relationships replaced with sycophantic text generators.
I haven’t seen a single upside that makes it worth all that. I can’t imagine any upside being worth all that.

2026-09-12 14:37:09 UTC

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Oh no! Who was it this time? I can’t seem to find it

2026-09-12 07:34:21 UTC

Starting Sloterdijk’s you must change your life. From the opening statements, I don’t think I agree with his depictions of these contrasting verticals as the main aspect of scenes.
Anyone who’s ever been part of a hobby or community knows people have wildly different reasons to be there, and different values. The scene is a collection of overlapping interests, a much more complex shape than an elevator

2026-09-10 21:27:20 UTC

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also since then I sold my digital camera and got an rb67 instead, so the next few will mostly be 35mm and 120 film posts

2026-09-10 21:26:34 UTC

it's done! My pixelfed account is no more, now all my pictures are where they belong, having a snac
https://friendship.quest/minoltacos
it's still older content as I just finished reposting my pixelfed posts, but I have a big backlog of negatives to scan and upload!
#snac #photography

2026-09-10 14:34:28 UTC

I made the mistake of trying to update an event using merkuro calendar, which proceeded to nuke all the events.
Somehow, KOrgainzer has been the most reliable calendar app out of all the linux ones I've tried.
#linux

2026-09-09 21:13:52 UTC

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time for pareto’s guillotine!

2026-09-08 21:02:21 UTC

hmm
https://friendship.quest/ruben/s/post-63bd72f7763713070e7870644c659470.jpeg
https://friendship.quest/ruben/s/post-4d9ccce221ab6d3249db6d4544715742.png

2026-09-08 20:57:00 UTC

https://friendship.quest/ruben/s/post-c7b9a6686455046c674808a5a17952bd.png

2026-09-08 20:10:13 UTC

Oh boy, I missed that Flore Laurentienne had a new album out! Volume ii is one of my all time favorites, and so far volume iii is sounding real good
https://florelaurentienne.bandcamp.com/album/volume-iii-2
#music #classical

2026-09-08 11:54:32 UTC

we advise engineers on how to build prototypes to avoid the “take this prototype to production” trap.
in my experience, often, llms lead to a constant barrage of this type of mentality / trap.
maturity is often not about “what should we build”, but “what shouldn’t we build”
The second question is endangered because some people think it was raised due to lack of time, capacity or skill when often it’s a matter of focus, strategy and intention

2026-09-08 06:47:23 UTC

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He’s as likable as he is clever. He enjoyed losing so much that he’s going to double down for federal elections.

2026-09-07 21:51:16 UTC

The migration from pixelfed continues. 116 posts to go!
99 pictures migrated to @npub1jnu…zesw so far!
... then I can start posting new photos.

2026-09-07 12:12:32 UTC

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Meanwhile one of the best performing economies in Europe is doing a mass amnesty for migrants.

2026-09-07 12:10:47 UTC

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I tried tagging andy burnham, but he was too busy rdeporting immigrants or something

2026-09-07 11:27:11 UTC

Will this catastrophic loss teach the CDU and SPD that you can’t beat the AfD by moving further to the right and following their talking points?
My guess is no.
“What we’re doing isn’t working! Keep doing it harder!”

2026-09-07 08:15:58 UTC

Anybody self hosting email? What has your experience been like?
#askfedi

2026-09-06 20:58:54 UTC

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(yes)
(ever)
(yet)
(over and over)
forgot to add

2026-09-06 20:57:57 UTC

do you have a problem?
don't ask an llm
in fact, don't even read a book
observe, get a notebook, get a pal, and talk about what you see

2026-09-06 15:59:26 UTC

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Most other domains I have went up, so it’s time to consolidate and find where the boring registrars are.
Can we get rid of domain names already?

2026-09-06 15:58:40 UTC

lol the domain I used for my freelancing stuff has now been declared “premium” and costs 200 EUR more than it did when I bought it.
I guess I need a new domain.

2026-09-05 18:53:23 UTC

the first ogg file I encountered was a rip of one winged angel. It brought my dad’s work thinkpad to its knees so I could only listen to ten seconds between buffers.
coolest shit ever

2026-09-05 17:16:00 UTC

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Same! My work laptop is a Mac. Though I do do some freelancing and I manage all of that with Linux.

2026-09-05 13:08:38 UTC

I switched my daily os from mac to linux four months ago, and honestly after the initial “shock” of adapting to new apps, it’s been a great experience!
#linux

2026-09-04 22:37:02 UTC

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I went with a shared group, setgid bit on chmod and an acl. It seems to work, but I guess we’ll find out.
#linux

2026-09-04 20:43:07 UTC

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Yeah it looks pretty good! Also for some reason I had missed that they’re now part of muse group, and had a similar thought “is this project ok? Are muse trustworthy?”
Maybe it’s the ultimate guitar connection that makes me skeptical lol

2026-09-04 19:44:19 UTC

my tv updated and killed the ability to add custom launchers AND nerfed the quick settings menu. But sure, enshittification isn’t real.

2026-09-04 18:38:06 UTC

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apparently bindfs might be good for the shared folder.

2026-09-04 17:43:38 UTC

Is anybody running a multi-user computer setup? If so, what does your partition setup look like?
I'm trying to figure out what works best, because I want an area with shared files (not a network share), while keeping the encrypted disk at boot.
We already have an encrypted disk with keys for each of us, and I'm installing a new drive to expand storage.
#asklinux #askfedi #linux

2026-09-02 12:36:20 UTC

I’m surprised at the acceptance of quack medicine that exists in Germany.
I’ve had actual doctors recommend homeopathy and chiropractors, and just got referred to this osteopath that lmao how is this guy practicing.

2026-09-01 15:24:59 UTC

Scribus-unstable definitely makes scribus a more bearable beast.
On 1.6 the icons were extremely tiny, and for whatever reason it started with zero panes active. <-- Once I figured out how to set some panes and not have to F2/F3 all the time, life got easier.
Luckily it seems like 1.7 has much better defaults and a nicer UI
#scribus #linux

2026-08-31 18:46:50 UTC

current status:
⁃ Niri
⁃ Noctalia
⁃ Frutiger
⁃ Haiku Icons
⁃ Light mode
⁃ Qt apps
This is a computer I enjoy using.
#linux #niri #noctalia #qt

2026-08-31 17:34:29 UTC

I've been using the MacOS 9 icons on linux, but just found the haiku icons are also available and this looks great!

2026-08-31 08:41:30 UTC

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deez datas

2026-08-27 12:23:50 UTC

after the new antenna, and some experimentation with positions in the house, I’m finally getting consistent responses!
I’m still not sure how rooms work out if they’re public, but that will be my next step.
#meshcore #lora

2026-08-25 15:16:50 UTC

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also lol I misread your message. This is also true! Shit like Kai power tools, or the skins on old media players. You had some real cool ui design that wasn’t square and boring.

2026-08-25 15:08:43 UTC

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I’ve been using a mac SE/30 that has a resolution of 512 × 342, and i get more real estate than I do on modern Mac.
Not being hyperbolic, this is why I started documenting the minimum window sizes on apps. https://r.bdr.sh/min_sizes.html
I need to do the same on Linux.

2026-08-25 13:22:01 UTC

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the UIs are bigger than ever, and the click areas are smaller than ever. Worst of both worlds.
If you’re going to make me struggle to click, at least give me my screen back.

2026-08-25 11:05:34 UTC

For a few years I’ve been authoring my website in gemtext, which has been helpful in terms of keeping constraints on the text.
When I started, my page was mostly lists of things so it worked pretty well, but now I’ve been adding a lot more text, so I’m not sure if it’s the right tool for it.
I’m considering whether authoring in neorg syntax would be a good fit, then it would already match my notes.
On the other hand, this might be the familiar friction of hitting a constraint and I should instead learn to work with it.
#web #gemtex #neorg

2026-08-24 11:42:06 UTC

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I think about this a lot. I’d love it if all my menus did a little pop or blip or bloop when I hover, click and release. I’d like a bit of the menu bar to fly away.
So much processing power wasted on electron when it could go to this.

2026-08-24 09:59:07 UTC

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better not give them ideas, or we might get airposittories

2026-08-23 20:20:39 UTC

I’ve listened to pet sounds a few times and never quite felt it lived up to the hype.
god only knows why I had god only knows stuck in my head so I gave it another go.
what a difference mood makes, but it really is a beautiful album

2026-08-22 09:52:54 UTC

a thankful man in portugal can be obrigado
but the very same man in a winter in mexico may well be abrigado

2026-08-22 09:19:10 UTC

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oh god, what was it like using it on a phone? I’m lucky I only experienced it on a tv

2026-08-22 08:42:58 UTC

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it’s a cursed system that samsung keeps alive to torture its customers

2026-08-22 07:50:19 UTC

my old tv broke a few weeks ago and the new one comes with Google TV. Just like the tizen ui, ads everywhere, even in apps only mode.
Today I learned about projectivity launcher, and this is nice! No ads, customizable, and reasonably good looking.

2026-08-21 19:51:04 UTC

“Sorry you got upset that we now support the nazi site. Either way we don’t care”
Great values from mac stories

2026-08-21 19:16:15 UTC

We’re sorry you got upset that we support the nazi website. But also, we don’t care.
Great values @npub1p3t…jet5 https://mastodon.macstories.net/users/viticci/statuses/117134048567780192

2026-08-21 09:22:53 UTC

watched the beach bum, wasn’t that into it.
The movie itself was fine and funny. Maybe it’s more a reflection of where I am than the movie itself, but I just couldn’t get excited by a rich guy using his money to cosplay diogenes

2026-08-20 17:47:03 UTC

@npub1amy…qnrw just tried ableton-linux, and wow! thank you so much for this, it works flawlessly and is so easy to set up ❤️

2026-08-19 21:09:42 UTC

lol me enteré de la reducción de la jornada laboral en México gracias a un correo spam.
Muy bien, 40 mejor que 48. Tal vez algún día 32

2026-08-19 07:45:54 UTC

Watched cop car, very good film!
It’s great how they use the contrast of kid logic vs the very serious things happening around them.
Kevin bacon helping lower those bacon numbers for the new generation!

2026-08-18 17:41:29 UTC

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Honestly that company has been pushing and pushing how much they can squeeze the developers that made their platforms successful, and they let them because so many app developers consider themselves embarrassed Steve Jobses.
Meanwhile, the desktop that built a reputation for strong human computer interaction, descends into an ad billboard

2026-08-18 13:03:59 UTC

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I’ll need to try it though, from what I can read MenuBar does render as a native bar, at least on Mac. But does it expose the menu for global menu panels? Unclear.

2026-08-18 12:55:30 UTC

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It does feel like that!

2026-08-18 10:22:19 UTC

Ah, disappointed to learn that KDE is also going the path of hamburger menus vs actual menu bars, so anything kirigami does not export an actual global menu.
Kirigami apps have the same "mobile inspired" desktop approach that I think sucks on desktop and is the GNOME approach, and increasingly the macOS approach as well.
#linux #kde #kirigami

2026-08-18 06:59:50 UTC

Just watched Tucker & Dale vs evil.
It’s a great comedy horror film, with all of the slasher film tropes and two lovable protagonists.
A fun watch end to end, with pretty good pacing and lots of gruesome moments

2026-08-17 22:12:56 UTC

here's to the next decade.
For context: Spanish wikipedia has a policy that they ban you if you don't identify yourself or ask a question, so you can't just join to read the conversations or observe (unlike english wikipedia)
When they banned me the first time, their IRC page said you were welcome to join, but now it does say that "failure to identify yourself is a cause for a ban unless you have a question"
This keeps happening to me because I had #wikipedia-es on my autojoin list, and I've kept it since. Anyway, I didn't identify myself :(. Same mod too!
https://friendship.quest/ruben/s/post-a2a1d11d51abdab779aaf8039a1243cf.png

2026-08-17 19:36:25 UTC

After ten years, it seems like I'm finally unblocked from the wikipedia spanish channels. But I might get banned again, based on the questions I'm getting.
(I swear I'm not misbehaving!)

2026-08-17 18:03:29 UTC

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Qt apps are the most reliable providers of menus, but there’s some gaps (eg. Tokodon)

2026-08-17 18:02:14 UTC

I’m impressed how many apps actually expose the menu via dbus or at-spi! Basically only gtk4 and custom renderers don’t (including everything iced).
Firefox and Betterbird do! And with some app choices, most of the apps I use support global menu.
#linux

2026-08-17 14:25:21 UTC

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this is pretty handy! Also a couple libraries I didn’t know

2026-08-17 11:27:28 UTC

linux is closer to classic mac OS in spirit than modern macOS is
#linux #macos

2026-08-17 10:55:00 UTC

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that’s the one! Yeah, I do think we’ve come a long way since then. It’s sometimes not as easy to see until you compare artifacts f from the era directly

2026-08-17 09:07:19 UTC

I continue to replace apps with Qt/KDE alternatives!
The latest change is RSS Guard which has a more "old school" layout compared to Newsflash, but I actually like this three pane e-mail layout a lot more, PLUS I do get the global menu.

2026-08-17 09:01:20 UTC

Just saw wizards, and it’s not great. There’s some really nice animation sequences but other than that it seems very hamfisted in its story and allegory. It just wasn’t an entertaining watch.

2026-08-16 20:10:12 UTC

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Neat! I need to browse d-bus objects more, I feel I’m missing out on interesting scripting opportunities.
I’m also curious how far qt vs gtk apps will be in this regard.

2026-08-16 19:04:10 UTC

xdg and d-bus are great and the way to integration and consistency in linux.
I had already played with MPRIS when writing lyricli, which magically gives you compatibility with most music players, but having explored more of it, I’m convinced it’s essential for any app developer to support.
I wonder if apps support d-bus scripting in the same way Mac apps support AppleScript.
#linux

2026-08-16 18:55:53 UTC

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The plugin I found for the global menu uses AT-SPI for the global menu, which I thought gtk apps might support. Will need to dig deeper

2026-08-16 18:53:15 UTC

Ok noctalia is pretty nice! And with qt apps + the global menu, it really matches what I’m used to.
It doesn’t seem like there’s a working MPD plugin, but that can probably be rectified, I’ll have a look.
Noctalia + niri + kde apps styles with macos 9 icons is one of my favorite desktops so far
#linux

2026-08-16 07:38:47 UTC

just watched rear window, and it holds up really well after over 70 years. The movie doesn’t miss a beat!
The glimpses into the different people’s private lives, the piecing together of the mystery based on the small details. This movie may have preempted social media.
Also lol they’re so into investigating the murder that they just ignore the lady committing suicide with sleeping pills.

2026-08-15 20:09:13 UTC

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I’m not sure I understand what that means, I don’t see any settings for that in my companion app but I’ll look it up.
Thanks for the tip!

2026-08-15 19:41:02 UTC

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Moving it definitely helped some! I’ll keep experimenting while the new antenna comes

2026-08-15 19:40:31 UTC

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From what I see in the map there’s a ton of repeaters around me. Comparing with a friend, my device is really good at getting messages but not at sending them.
I’m trying different positions, but will buy a new antenna.

2026-08-15 17:39:58 UTC

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That’s a shame. I went with meshcore because I thought it would work better in a city. I might reflash my radio to give meshtastic a try.
I got the recommendation to get a better antenna, so I’m trying that first!

2026-08-15 16:47:25 UTC

awww yeah first dms with MeshCore successfully exchanged. Super finicky though… it seems I can see people but can’t transmit that well
#lora #meshcore

2026-08-15 07:35:50 UTC

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I tried noctalia after your post. It’s pretty slick! I might trial it as a replacement for my way at config, though I’m very fond of it lol

2026-08-14 21:00:35 UTC

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niri is my main window manager, it’s fantastic! I used to pair it with gnome apps, but have switched mostly to kde apps.
I’ve tried the other DEs as well as this is a multi user computer, and I’m the only technical one so I’m on the hook for keeping this computer usable 😬

2026-08-14 12:33:28 UTC

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I didn’t know about this! Thank you for sharing.

2026-08-14 12:16:05 UTC

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I’m glad the gnome ecosystem alone fills your needs! In my case it hasn’t been enough.

2026-08-14 12:13:31 UTC

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I think there’s certainly a baseline for the three. I’m not talking about aesthetics. Im talking about expectations: eg. How do you access preferences, where is the menu, what shortcuts does each app use, what order are buttons presented in, etc.
Design requires a lot of thought!