I’m not stuck in time. I’ve embraced dependability.
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Wow, I actually have the exact same radio alarm clock as the one pictured in the top right.
I’m a big fan of all those things.
I don’t run Debian, but I don’t mind it at all either.
I’m in this picture and quite frankly it’s a great place to be. Everything either just works, I know how to fix it, or I at least know what is broken and not worth fixing.
Though that is a terrible style of air pressure gauge. Get a good dial one with the tube.
The future is fuckin weird.
I feel at home in this photo. My beard has turned 1% more gray this blessed night.
The key differences I have come from the fact that I am drawn to the “chief engineer turned goose farmer” future even more than the “greybeard recluse inventor” one. I
get to use a Debian machine at work all day anyway, plus of course the home PC runs it. With KDE there is nothing that feels old about it unless I check when the kernel was released.
My car isn’t THAT old but it’s on its way. I drive an almost 15 year old mazda3, which we have owned for all of those years. I just did my biggest-yet DIY maintenance/repair when I had to replace some disintegrated-yet-seized brake hoses in addition to pads and rotors and flushing the fluid. In my driveway, no garage. I got a bunch of new wrenches and vise grips!
The mazda is an automatic since we originally bought it for my wife. But it was right after the company debuted the Skyactiv stuff. Among other things like great fuel efficiency, that means the transmission locks up the torque converter as often as possible. And it has manual shift mode. So when you’re in gear holding some mid-range RPM, you do still feel that direct powertrain connection between engine and wheels.
Part of me is casually keeping tabs on the “fun” new car models out there that still offer a manual transmission or DCT. But another part of me is constantly noting to self how I already have a nearly perfect old familiar car that is fun and practical for the whole family. It has low mileage for the age and a good maintenance history. And it is $FREE versus $30,000+.
Aside from the car difference, I have cast off a bunch of little devices and accessories thanks to my conscious efforts to be less connected and more about experiencing life at my natural pace. I no longer wear a watch, ever, even though I definitely have the chunky leather wallet. Also no glowing visible clocks in the bedroom or family room. And no big stereo because 95% of my music listening is via headphones at work or working outside in my yard.
My man.
Most of my listening is also done over headphones, and I admit that my library is all in mp3 format. As much as I love optical media, it’s because I can rip my discs to my machine in whatever quality and format I want, then never have to handle them again unless all my copies are deleted. This preserves the discs.
I have a portable CD player from, and I use the term portalble liberally because while it can accept six AA batteries for a power source, it also has no anti-skip because it was made in 1991.
But what I love about this thing is how much of an occasion it makes the listening experience. Handling the discs carefully so as not to smudge or scratch them. Waiting for it to spin up and start playing. And just sitting there and intentionally listening to it. It’s kind of magical. Even more so with a decent set of cans and a dark room.
Mazda3 is an excellent car to have. My brother used to have an '08 Mazda3 hatch until it was totaled by a drunk driver. He wasn’t in the car. It was parked on the side of the road. Really cool car, and the 2.3 is probably one of the most underrated engines out there. They really pack a punch.
I don’t necessarily have a thing against automatics. My beef is more with the fact that manuals aren’t really an option anymore. I said in another comment that my real cars are a '97 Honda Prelude and a '12 Civic. I did daily the Prelude for six months when the starter died in my Civic, but the Prelude is really only a weekend car because it does maybe 25 mpg and takes premium fuel. My Civic does 40 without trying and E10 costs about $1.40 less per gallon where I am. My Civic is an auto, and I’m fine with it. Automatic just feels boring to me. I really enjoy having something to do with all four limbs at once.
If I ever feel like dropping money on a newer car, I’ve always loved the idea of a manual midsize sedan. I know the Accord could be had with a six speed manual all the way until like 2021, which is bonkers to me since Toyota stopped making the manual Camry in 2006. I think my only other option in this very specific segment is a BMW 3-series, and I just can’t picture myself in a Bimmer.
Anything brakes is always so stressful. If anything else fails, you can probably still get the 3,000 pound metal death box to stop. But if your BRAKES fail? Yeah, just pull the hand brake and try not to cry too much. I basically rebuilt the rear brakes on my Civic last month. It has 147,000 miles on it and was running on original brake shoes. And because I’d waited until they started grinding, the drums couldn’t be resurfaced, either. So I went all in and got new hardware and cylinders, too. I’d so much rather do disc brakes than drum brakes. Those springs are such a pain, and Honda made them really weird. Not to mention my hammer was entirely too small for the job of literally beating the brakes off the thing lol 2012 was the last year the Civic LX had drum brakes of any kind. I’m fine with drums. They really do last forever if you’re not a monster on the brake pedal. I’m just glad I won’t be doing brake shoes again for at least another 7-10 years.
My wife points out every new gray hair in my beard. One day, there will be so many new ones at once that she’ll have to stop counting. For now, it’s really cute. I love it.
I went from cutting edge tech excited nerd to literally this picture, and life is better.
Me too, friend. Generational leaps were so cool when I was a kid. Now that I’m in my thirties, I just see it all as a rent-a-spy.
At this point, even my printer is suspect. It stays unplugged until it’s needed.
But the phone? It’s a shame the telephone is always listening.
The
mint | opensuse | fedora | arch | gentoo | freebsd | openbsd | void | devuan | debianpipeline is real.Maybe nix will pull me from depths of stability soon before I get overconfident, try LFS, and promptly switch to pen & paper.
(Or try bedrock linux and spend rest eternity in the purgatory equivalent of distro-hopping)
I went straight from Ubuntu to Debian. It still took me a little bit to go from GNOME to KDE. I would not recommend new Linux users go straight to Debian from their first distro, but I’d been using Ubuntu on and off again since 2012 so when I decided to leave Windows in 2024, I also decided to leave Ubuntu for good and went straight to Debian. The idea that I set it and forget it and never have to worry about it was (and is) so appealing to me.
I’ve considered running Slack on my laptop, though.
I used to have basically that thermostat. Slightly different model. I “upgraded” because the “smart” ones were supposed to save money. Saw my bills go up right away. Regretted the Nest Thermostat almost immediately.
And that wallet is in better condition than mine right now. Fuck it, I’ll take everything in that photo, but swap out the manual for an automatic.
I don’t mind at all if people think I’m old, I kind of am.
Thing is, fancy new containerised packages have really changed the dynamic here.
I don’t care if gnome is 5 years old. Everything I actually use is up to date.
The Debian Stable lifestyle is appealing to me more and more every day now
Where’s your 25 year old leather belt that has wear marks near every hole? Documenting your progression into middle age like tree rings.
Wait. Are you my Dad?
That’s the point: stable
Name something I can’t do with Debian stable.
Get laid?
I’m sure it could run VRchat lol
Well… use certbot’s new dns persistence mode. That may be a few years before it gets in. May be in backports, haven’t checked.
Run my camera driver. ISP4 is in kernel 7.2 I think. ;_;
Oh well, it’s a matter of time.
I drive an older model manual transmission acura and use a 1980s style programmable thermostat with no smart features or connectivity. Use Debian stable with KDE. Checks out
I use arch linux and drive a 2001 sebring i found abandoned. My internet is a hotspot and i have 3 powerstrips hooked into a single outlet
Sir, please step away from the everything.
