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Joined 9 months ago
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Cake day: September 13th, 2024

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  • We speak Mandarin at home and microwave in Mandarin is 微波 “way bo” (literally means “micro wave”). To “microwave” as a verb usually gets shortened to the first character in colloquial speak. We 微 “way” our leftovers.

    微波 means microwave as in that particular frequency range on the electromagnetic spectrum. When referring to the kitchen appliance as a noun, we specifically say 微波炉 “way bo lu” which means “microwave stove.”

    Additional fun fact: If you think it sounds like Weibo the website, you’re right. It has almost the same pronounciation but has a tonal difference on the second character. Weibo means “micro blog,” same first character but the second character is 博 which is a loan word for blog.


  • Wouldn’t that also mean that when the file gets overwritten, i.e the next time the system hibernates, you can potentially run a data recovery program on the C filesystem to leak its previous contents since modern filesystems don’t necessarily immediately overwrite the underlying data anymore, but usually just change the regions on the drive the file points to? So you could have ghost memory dumps hiding out in your free space just waiting for malware to access. You can definitely recover data from the free space of a Bitlocker volume because the encryption is transparent to the filesystem.

    This is also why I don’t like swap files and always disable them (or use an OS like Fedora that doesn’t have them by default), because it kind of defeats the point of only storing some data in RAM for security.

    I could just be ignorant of how memory files in storage are managed though.







  • TBH all the claims you commonly hear about Macs are either outright false or outdated:

    • Macs don’t get malware? Yes they do.

    • Macs are more private? More than Windows maybe, but that’s like saying you should go to the restaurant that gives you explosive diarrhea instead of the one that gives you botulism. The one that serves normal non-infected food is not an option I guess. Apple being “not as bad” as the worst offender is not praiseworthy and still means they’re in no way private.

    • Macs “just work?” Unless Apple decides it shouldn’t. They can prevent you from installing paid apps you already own because the latest version arbitrarily doesn’t support your older device anymore. Want to install an older version? Fuck you, stop being poor and buy a new Mac. Oh you installed a genuine Apple replacement part with the wrong serial number? Fuck you, your device is banned.

    • Macs have better support than Windows computers? Yeah maybe when the Apple logo was still rainbow coloured and they had CRTs built in. Now a battery replacement costs nearly as much as a new device and they go out of their way to make sure you can’t do it yourself.

    • Macs don’t come with bloatware? Then what do you call that bullshit AI they’re pushing to compete with Copilot? What do you call Safari? What do you call Photo Booth? Has anyone ever opened Photo Booth once the novelty of their first time using a Mac wears off?

    • Macs are intuitive? Look, maybe I’m just a tech illiterate idiot, but I had more problems figuring out how to drag and drop on my friend’s Macbook than I had tinkering with the Linux kernel and systemd.

    • Macs are good for developers? Yeah they’re so good they’ve recently had to cave and introduce a WSL-like system so you can run Linux containers.

    • Macs are innovative? Yeah they’re so innovative they don’t even support snapping windows to half or a quarter of the screen when Linux desktop environments and even Windows have had it for ages. Gotta either leave all the windows floating, or full screen them all and swipe between them, or manually resize the windows to the layout you want. (They have this now.)

    • Macs are convenient? Yeah I just love carrying HDMI (some newer Macbooks have HDMI again) and USB A to C adapters forever because they couldn’t be bothered to install those ports on a laptop sized device that can clearly fit them. Also fuck Apple for giving other laptop companies the idea that everyone wants only USB-C on their devices. No, we want ports we can use today, not in 10 years when all the peripherals switch to USB-C and all the computers bought today will already be obsolete regardless of what ports they have. I’ll buy a computer with only USB-C when everything else I own actually uses USB-C.

    • Macs are more secure? How do you know? Do you control the disk encryption keys? No, Apple does. Can you encrypt the drive yourself with a key you control like you can on Linux? No, fuck you for even thinking about that.

    • Macs are elegant and their design is well thought out? Because gluing the battery to the chassis with double sided tape is the elegant way to do it and not redneck engineering. And with glue so strong that you risk puncturing the battery and burning your house down if you try to remove it yourself. Another great attention to detail is soldering the SSD to the motherboard, thoughtfully ensuring you lose data when the motherboard fails. But hey, I’m sure the Genius bar will be happy to recover your data for you since they made sure you can’t do it yourself, and for only $999.99! Your wedding photos and your PHD thesis are each worth more than that right? So it’s a bargain!

    Linux beats Mac in every one of those categories (other than the hardware ones) and you can install Linux on every device. Even ancient ones, and you get to decide if it’s too old to be usable or not, not the company who’s incentivized to obsolete devices as fast as possible so you’re forced to buy a new one. How many years before a brand new Mac stops getting OS updates?