I run apt update && apt upgrade every few days at slowest, or whenever i want to install or remove something with apt. That’s Debian.

I’m pretty sure the only programs on my computer that automatically update are those by Mozilla, since i don’t know how to stop them.

Debian is known for being very stable so i trust that when it tells me to do a system update i should, and so far nothing has broken except what i break.

Usually i only don’t use the latest version of something if either the latest version is worse than an older version (KiCAD seems to get less usable over time, from what i know) or the latest version isn’t available to me for some reason (PolyGlot has unsatisfyable dependencies so i use an old version).

I’ve been using Linux for so long i’d almost forgotten Windows does that. Just calling it “Documents” and not having to worry about a space in the file path breaking things is so much easier.

MyFucking Hearing Aids™

I don’t always like the smell. I work as a line cook and sometimes have to handle hard boiled eggs that come pre-cooked in bags. They always smell strongly of sulphur when i open a bag and it’s put me off eggs a bit, especially boiled eggs.

Fried eggs are fine. If they have a smell i can’t tell over the spices and butter i cook them in. They don’t taste especially good to me but they’re easy protein that i can cook in the morning for breakfast. They don’t taste bad either, but i only very rarely eat eggs on their own with no other foods.

You can try to not use a search engnie at all, but the Web relies a lot on them. If that’s really what you want, you’re limited to surfing. Go to a site, follow links, and hope you get where you need to go. Surfing is great for finding things you didn’t know you were looking for, and not so great for finding particular things you need information on. For that, either try whatever libraries you have access to or cave and use a search engine.

There are plenty of search engines that aren’t Google. Some don’t use the same search index (big list of web pages that it shows you when you search stuff). I currently use Qwant as my primary engine, and before that i used Startpage. I’m also fond of Marginalia when a big, normal engine isn’t giving me helpful results.

Or you can ask people, like you said. Forums, chatrooms, whatever Lemmy is, maybe email somebody if you think they know stuff about whatever field you’re interested in. Or you could sit down in a coffee shop with a sign that says “Tell me about electrical engineering” or whatever it is you want to know, and see how that goes.

Wikipedia is good, if you don’t mind that it has a search bar with an index consisting of its own pages. You shouldn’t trust everything you read there, but every good article (and most bad ones) cites sources, and you can follow those citations.

Things were mostly broken (i couldn’t get fluxbox to start) until i used tasksel to install Cinnamon so i could use a browser to look some stuff up (i only have one computer). I removed Cinnamon but whatever it left behind fixed my system enough that i’m now typing this in LibreWolf with not too many weird graphical issues. Some stuff doesn’t work at all yet, like my laptop’s function keys for things like brightness and volume.

So all in all, better than i thought this might go.

Thank you for that last bit. “Just do it” out to be the advice i needed.

The former redirects to the latter. Any reason that’s better than DuckDuckGo lite? The main difference i see is that the lite version relies less on CSS so i can use it in basically any browser.

A few things.

A laptop with 2-way HDMI, so i can plug it into a game console and use it as a small TV. Note that i’m aware that HDMI might not work like this.

A wearable soundboard with speakers and batteries hidden in my pockets, and controlled by chorded buttons in my shoes. Use cases include crickets, canned laughter, the Seinfeld theme, and audible air guitar riffs.

A handheld computer that:

• Has physical buttons instead of a touchscreen
• E-ink display for all the benefits of that – Physical light switch for a backlight for the screen (my phone is e-ink but i have the backlight turned off by default, a side effect is i can’t see the screen to turn the backlight on when i need it) – Button to refresh the screen, instead of relying on automatic refreshes (Light Phone II) or updating what’s on screen to get it to refresh (Sony PRS 505) – Solar panel, if the OS is light enough to permit it. Ereaders are totally low-power enough that if one had a small solar panel like a calculator you’d almost never need to charge it. A full handheld computer could probably also benefit from this.

A music player / DAC that:

• Has physical buttons, non-touch screen, & light switch for screen backlight like the above wish.
• Lets you mark some files as audiobooks/podcasts, so it remembers your place in those
• Isn’t just an Android phone that can’t make calls
• Has a reflective or transflective display, so you can use it outdoors without fighting the sun
• Can listen to the radio, if you unfold or plug in an antenna
• Has a headphone jack There’s more to this one because i’m planning to actually make it someday, simply because i don’t expect anyone else to make one that does what i want it to.

Somewhat ergonomic keyboards in laptops. I know split keyboards are hard because the screen has to be about as wide as the keyboard, but i’m sure there’s a way and i intend to someday prove it. I know we can do better than typewriter shaped keyboards with QWERTY by default, even ortholinear boards would be an improvement because layouts can be done in software.

An electric notebook with a touchscreen that instead of using OCR to turn handwriting into text, stores handwriting as vector graphics as a middle ground between OCR and images with huge file sizes. Probably with a slider for how much to simplify lines, and an option to select areas of a page to convert to text via OCR so you can still have diagrams and doodles alongside plain text that’s easy to export and edit.

A device like a generation I pokedex, but for real world animals and plants. This one probably won’t happen because stuff like this is only done as smartphone apps anymore, not as standalone toys.

HUD goggles that are the display of a full portable computer.

• Keyboard input could be done through a split keyboard that hooks onto your belt, with half on each thigh
• Mouse input could be done with a trackpoint / trackball on the keyboard (simple option) or with a bracelet that emits IR light from multiple points so it can be tracked by sensors on the goggles (if you don’t understand what i mean, kind of like a Wiimote and sensor bar), with a ring that goes around your middle finger attached by a wire to the bracelet. When you tug the ring down by bending your wrist or fingers down, that’s a mouse click. (complicated option)
• Two or more hot-swappable batteries, so you can change one out without the device having to lose power
• Transparent LCD over one eye, so the background of the image is just what’s actually in front of you
• Gyroscope somewhere on the head part, so you can turn your head to access different windows like it’s a VR headset. Imagine there’s a bubble around your head with program windows projected onto different parts of it. Large windows look curved around the surface of the bubble. You can drag them around with the mouse, or turn your head to move them relative to your eyes. Probably also makes this good for AR stuff.
• Headphone jack and bluetooth for audio, but not necessarily built in speakers This one might never happen, apparently making any kind of HUD is very hard and expensive and this one is asking for a lot. But it would be so cool. It would finally be a portable computer with a good input system (keyboard) and a display at the same time.

And there’s more stuff i want to exist that doesn’t fit the question. Software (why hasn’t anyone mad a 3+ D spreadsheet program?) and non-technical products.

A lot of dumbphones have pretty small screens. My Light Phone II is about half the size of my old Something-Or-Other brand smartphone.

But if you want a small pocket supercomputer that can make calls, someone else already linked to https://www.unihertz.com/

Hard to say, i’ve never used reWASD. There’s another program called Input Remapper that i haven’t used for games but which is supposed to be like AntiMicroX but for keyboard, mouse, and gamepad inputs and outputs going both ways. So i can make my keyboard an Xbox controller, my Wii U controller a keyboard, my mouse a pair of DK Bongos probably, and so on. But i don’t know how to make it work without sudo access (apparently some programs need that and some don’t to mess with inputs) so i don’t like using it.

Some people don’t like Steam running in the background. My last computer was so weak it couldn’t run light weight games through Steam because of the extra resource usage.

AntiMicroX for converting gamepad inputs to keyboard inputs. I pretty much only use it for Super Smash Flash 2.

From scratch. I’m close to being done and i’m very excited. As i write this i’m deciding if i want clicky and tactile switches or just tactile, and which keys would be clicky if i include those.

I got my PCBs for my custom board yesterday. I’m waiting on a switch sampler set so i can figure out what switches i want.

No mention of M&M Kart or Super Bombad Racing⸮

I have a good idea of where the trackpoint should go and i put a hole in the PCB for the stem to go through, but that’s the only change i’ve made for it.

Sure enough, i could just fit the Pico on the middle pad if i move some diodes. I still think putting it under the PCB and hand wiring it will be neater and make the trackpoint easier to wire, but thanks for pointing out that possibility.