<p>Don't get the impression here that I love Nintendo or anything. I'vehadbothoftheseconsolesforyears,sincebackwhenweknewtheywerelitigiousbuttheyweren't like, sending paramilitary death squads after the Yuzu devs or whatever they'reuptonowofdays.</p>
<imgsrc="images/switchfront.jpg"alt="Front view of a Nintendo Switch with clear plastic shells on the joycons"/>
<imgsrc="images/switchback.jpg"alt="Back view of a Nintendo Switch with clear plastic shells on the joycons and console"/>
<h2>OtherHardware</h2>
<h3>PrusaMINI+</h3>
<p>IboughtaPrusabecausetheirprintershaveareputationforquality,whichthisunithascertainlylivedupto.It's been quite reliable, and when it fails, it'susuallymyfaultinareallyobviousway.ItautomatesalotoffeaturesthatIsuspectwouldhavebeenpainpointsonacheaperprinter,uptoandincludinguploadinggcodetoitdirectlyoverthenetwork.Thisthing'seasiertousethanaregular2Dprinter!</p>
<p>IrunminewithPrusa's satin textured bed plate for easier removal of PETG parts (I managed to damage the included smooth plate printing big stuff in PETG) and a hardened steel E3D Nozzle X™ for printing with filaments with abrasive additives. I'dliketoupgradethehotendtoaRevooneatsomepointifIcanfindthemoney.</p>
<p>Ipulleditoffforrealin2021,whenItookacombinationofupsettingnewsabouttheupcomingWindows11andanSSDupgradetomy<ahref="#pavilion">laptop</a>asanopportunitytoswapoutmyoperatingsystemaswell.Itwentprettywell,alltold;Iwasn't using much Windows-exclusive software other than Paint.NET and some games, the latter of which now run great on Linux anyway thanks to Valve'seffortswithProton.ShameIcan'tplayallmyEpicGamesStorefreebiesanymore,though.</p>
<p>My<ahref="#phone">phone</a>runsGrapheneOS,ahardened,de-googledforkoftheAndroidOpenSourceProject.IboughtaPixelspecificallytorunthisandI'm glad I did. It'sverynice.I'mespeciallyafanoftheimprovedcontroloverapppermissions.</p>
<p>IquitelikeFirefox.It's extremely customizable, especially if you know where to look, the devtools are better, and there'sawealthofprivacytoolsavailablethatjustkindofdon'texistinChrome(including<ahref="https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/05/google-starts-deprecating-older-more-capable-chrome-extensions-next-week/">adblockers</a>asoflate).ItcanalsoeditPDFsnow!</p>
<p>Ontopofbeinggenerallysuperior,IalsouseFirefoxonprinciple.It's currently the only major browser outside of the Apple-exclusive Safari that isn'tbuiltatopGoogle's <a href="https://chrome.bathynomus.xyz">Chromium</a>, and I don'tliketheideaofGooglehavingtotalmonopolisticcontroloverallwebbrowsers.</p>
<p>FirefoxisoneoftheonlypiecesofsoftwareI'll actively advocate switching to, so go do it. Do it now. It, like essentially all other browsers, can <a href="https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/import-bookmarks-google-chrome">import your data</a> from its competition, and I'dalsorecommendusingthis<ahref="https://ffprofile.com/">profilegenerator</a>tofortifyitformaximumprivacywhileyou'reatit.</p>
<p>Allthatsaid,MozillaisunderquestionablemanagementatthemomentandkindofinGoogle's pocket anyway, so maybe we shouldn'tberelyingcompletelyonthemtochampionthefreeweb.Maybethrowsomemoneyinthegeneraldirectionofthe<ahref="https://servo.org/">Servo</a>project.</p>
<p>It's not so much that I <em>like</em> Nextcloud'sRSSreader,it's more that it'sthebestoneI've found that syncs my feeds between devices and updates them regularly in the background. If I could find a nicer, more polished one, I'dprobablyswitchtothat.Letmeknowifyoufindone.</p>
<p>Microsoft's Visual Studio Code is, loathe though I may be to admit it, my favourite IDE I'veeverused,whichiswhyIuseVSCodium,anopen-sourcebuildofVSCodewithallthetelemetryandshitstrippedout.</p>
<p>Honestly,whatwereyouexpecting?IfyouwanttoeditrastergraphicsonLinux,GIMPismoreorlessthebe-all-end-all,unlessyouwanttodoeverythingintheterminalwithImageMagick.I'd prefer to use Paint.NET or even my Legally Obtained DRM-free copy of Photoshop CS6, but somehow photo editors are one of the only things that are consistently incompatible with WINE. I'vebeenmeaningtogive<ahref="https://www.photopea.com/">Photopea</a>ashot.</p>
<p>MyprimarymotivationforchoosingREAPERisthatit's available for Linux. My secondary motivation is that it has a lot less of the bizarre idiosyncracies and feature omissions that I found limiting when I was using LMMS. It'salsocheaperforaperpetuallicensethaneventheshittiestmostartificially-limitedversionsofmostoftheothermajorDAWs,althoughit'snotlikeIcanrunanyofthemanyway.</p>
<p>ThisistheprogramIusetodownloadmy,uh,LinuxISOs.AndlocalcopiesofWikipedia.Atleastoneofthoseisactuallytrue.I've got it configured to only work through my VPN. I don'tknowifmyISPwouldactuallygetonmycaseifItorrentedanything...unscrupulouswithoutit,butI'drathernotriskit.</p>
<p>IswitchedtozshlargelyduetoambientpeerpressurefromthewiderLinuxcommunity,andIdoubtI'm taking full advantage of its many advanced features, whatever those are, but I do quite like how conducive it is to customization with such programs as <a href="https://ohmyz.sh/">Oh My Zsh</a> and <a href="https://github.com/romkatv/powerlevel10k">Powerlevel10k</a>, and I miss its improved tab completion and command history functionality whenever I'mssh'dintooneofmyservers.</p>