Generally all correct, here is a resource with a lot of in-depth information and additional links:

https://batteryuniversity.com/article/bu-808-how-to-prolong-lithium-based-batteries

It’s not true that precision measurements are impossible with low value resistors, a lot of measurement equipment works exactly like that - it might just be more expensive than what the manufacturer is willing to budget for.

Tuxedo also offers products with an aluminum body, and while they do import the hardware from China, you get the local service and warranty guarantees any company in the EU must provide, so that’s fine by me.

Also, honest question: what do you think a unique laptop is, in particular when buying from a mass consumer brand like Lenovo? I really can’t figure out what that’s supposed to mean.

Offer a free option for certification to indigenous midwifes?

lspci will read the vendor and device id via PCI and use that to determine what the device is. You might want to make the output a bit more digestable / useful via lspci -s 03:00.0 -k -nn, but I’d assume the ids that match an 2070 will show up.

Could you please take the card out and provide us with a few pictures from different angles, maybe getting a good look at the actual chips?

I’d like to rule that out before chasing rabbits here.

Also, you could always run nvidia-settings, which will show information about an NVIDIA card using a different access method.

I’d still like to see the pictures of the card though ;)

Oh, that makes everything a lot easier. The majority of the relevant settings will be in your home folder then, i. e. in the ${HOME}./.config folder, while some might also be in ${HOME}/.local/share etc.

You probably want to backup the whole home folder anyway, so that would pickup most of your settings. In order to make that work on a different system, you would have to install all applications you were using on the tablet as well. Luckily, software installation in Linux is pretty easy, so you can export a list of installed applications from the Surface and then re-install them on your target system before migrating your home folder. The software list should become part of your backup. See e. g. https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/82880/how-to-replicate-installed-package-selection-from-one-fedora-instance-to-another for an idea of how to perform this.

I have used this approach in the past and it will get you 95% there. There might be some global system settings that you’d like to also transfer to your new system, but you can add those as you discover you miss them on the target system.

In general, no, this won’t work. In your case, you’re lucky since at least the Surface Go is using an x86 CPU, so it’s not completely out of the question, but transferring the image as-is to a completely different device typically does not work without modification.

Simple example: your target device might not refer to existing hardware (let’s say a storage medium) in the same manner as your old device, so the existing references in your cloned image won’t work. There are other issues of course, e. g. missing drivers for different hardware present on the target device.

It’s possible to modify the image so it would boot, but given the Surface runs Windows, that’s going to be a chore. I’d consider this an interesting project if bored on a slow weekend, but I’d most likely just do a filesystem backup of relevant data and call it a day.

Honestly, that just seems like you’re treating dd as some kind of arcanum. dd works just fine and I’ve been doing 1:1, full system backups for decades with it, no issues. Honorary mention for ddrescue / dd_rescue for recovery options, i. e. re-trying bad sector reads etc.

In fact, when Clonezilla doesn’t know your filesystem, it will simply employ dd to copy the data sector by sector.

I’d argue that Clonezilla (due to its use of partclone) is actually a less complete form of backup, since it will only copy used blocks, you don’t really end up with a clone of your devices, just a copy of what partclone believes to be your data. Don’t get me wrong, that is fine in most use cases, but there are some cases where this doesn’t cut it, e. g. wanting to backup / restore a storage device from a PLC where the vendor had the glorious idea to store licensing data in unused sectors, or when you want to create a forensic disk image, might want it look into d3dd then, although it absolutely works using regular old dd as well, d3dd just adds some amenities.

All I want to say is: dd is an absolutely reliable tool and can be a one stop solution for device backups. Also, I have absolutely no quarrels with Clonezilla, if it fits what you’re trying to do and it works, great.

This year, on some random holiday, I had to take 20ft of piping out of the walls and remove one solid block of hardened grease that had accumulated there, blocking the pipes, causing dirt water to flow back into the kitchen and into appliances. What a joy that was… the stench alone.

Don’t flush grease down the drain.

That is perfectly fine, you do you.

However, if your mind is already set that way and you don’t want to expand your knowledge on the topic, there is nothing to be gained by simply expressing your disagreement and inability to understand another viewpoint - none of that benefits our discussion, and people may feel offended by the stubborn and quick dismissal of their stance.

That being said, spirituality is not a faith. Etymologically, we could argue that spirituality is closely related to religion, to Christianity even, and the desire to bridge the gap between man and god. That’s not how the term is typically used nowadays and would in fact confuse many people who are not aware of its original meaning.

It is absolutely possible to still interpret spirituality in a religious context, but it is no longer necessary to do so. Many people consider themselves to be non-religious or atheist and still express confidence and trust in spirituality. What spirituality means for these people should be defined on a case by case basis, but it can simply be about becoming a better person, finding ways to be content (or even happy) in life, or to find a greater, existential meaning. None of these things are necessarily connected to faith or any idea of a pantheon, salvation etc.

I do not know where you get your ideas about spirituality, about psychedelics etc., but I must say I find those views somewhat antiquated and maybe a bit hostile - they remind me a bit of the criticism the Hippie movement faced, and they’re certainly not overly nuanced. I can only implore you to try and find something positive in those things, something that speaks to you and that you can accept - you don’t have to agree with the conclusion, the lifestyle, or any individual aspect of it, but any time someone dismisses an entire field / movement / idea etc., it’s probably time to step back a bit and reconsider. I feel that should also be true for both psychedelics and spirituality.

I assume you don’t have a lot of experience with psychedelics, based on the fact that you believe these substances help you avoiding reality. Part of the recently re-discovered, therapeutical properties of psychedelics are due to the fact that they make you face your realities (and their general effect on the default mode network, of course).

Also, A. muscaria has been used for thousands of years, e. g. very likely as part of the Vedic Soma, or as ingredient in Haoma in Iran. The use of the mushroom has also been documented in Siberia, where, if your beliefs align with Alice Beck Kehoe, the only “real” shamans are located.

This is not a new development.

That being said, the effects of A. muscaria are probably not what people would think of when they think about psychedelics. As such, I don’t believe the majority of users would believe they are “connecting with the cosmos” in the first place.

Edit: Marketing the product as psychedelic alternative under the guise of allowing consumers to “connect with the cosmos” is a completely different (and despicable) beast, sure.

We’ll get along just fine. But I will remember the kid’s face if they’re cool.

You’ll be even more disappointed when you find out that “Aloe Vera Microfiber” is indeed coated polyester, with a few percent of Aloe Vera extract:

https://www.comatex.cz/en/fabrics/aloe-vera-microfiber-fabric/

http://www.azyhometextile.com/sale-polyester-peach-skin-aloe-vera-microfiber-fabrics-57485532.html

Honestl, I’m equally disappointed - I was keen to learn about a previously unknown fiber.

See, that’s what I wanted to say. I had no idea such a thing existed - you learn something new every day. From what I just read now it’s a synthetic gel core with a polyester case that has somehow been coated with Aloe Vera extract?

Is that what you are referring to? If so, I’d definitely like to try the gel core, but I’m not at all convinced as far as the case is concerned - the coating would wash out anyway, and I hate Polyester with a passion.

Taking out the gel core and replacing the case with cotton or linen is something that would I try though.

Really all of them? Camel fur? Natural latex? Lyocell? Sheep wool? Pinus cembra shreds? Horse hair? Kapok?

All I want to say is: there is a whole world of relatively unknown pillow stuffings available. This is mostly useful for people with very particular requirements or allergies.

I tried all the regular ones (cotton, different grains, down feathers) plus camel fur, latex and Kapok. Latex was great, durability was mediocre compared to the price though. Kapok became flat pretty fast.

I arrived at the same conclusions as you did: shredded foam. I’d go with natural latex, which has about the same properties and can be manufactured in an eco-friendly, sustainable fashion, but that led to me spending $120 on a pillow that didn’t last a third as long as a foam pillow for $22.

Edit: I’m also biased because I want my pillow to be washable. That helps with all kinds of allergies, plus the dirt you see coming out of the pillow… Jesus.

The best way would in fact be testing it with an electronic load that applies a precise and well known load to the battery and integrates capacity until a matching shutoff condition is reached.

However, the majority of people do not happen to have access to such an instrument, so I’d say your suggestion is a close approximation of the best way, which could be augmented by adding simple measurements, which can be done by most people at home for a reasonable, quantifiable judgment.

Just for the sake of completeness:

https://github.com/BurntSushi/ripgrep

https://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher

It’s useful to be able to do this without additional tools (and there are more applications for the general command setup discussed in the video), but in practice, ease of use and performance often make a difference.

I am aware of what you are saying, however, I do not agree with your conclusions. Just for the sake of providing context for our discussion, I wrote plenty of code in statically typed languages, starting in a professional capacity some 33 years ago when switching from pure TASM to AT&T C++ 2, so there is no need to convince me of the benefits :)

That being said, I think we’re talking about different use cases here. When I’m talking configuration, I’m talking runtime settings provided by a customer, or service tech in the field - that hardly maps to a compiler error as you mentioned. It’s also better (more flexible / higher abstraction) than simply checking a JSON schema, and I’m personally encountering multiple new, custom JSON documents every week where it has proven to be a real timesaver.

I also do not believe that all data validation can be boiled down to simple type checking - libraries like pydantic handle complex validation cases with interdependencies between attributes, initialization order, and fields that need to be checked by a finite automaton, regex or even custom code. Sure, you can graft that on after the fact, but what the library does is provide a standardized way of handling these cases with (IMHO) minimal clutter. I know you basically made that point, but the example you gave is oversimplified - at least in what I do, I rarely encounter data that can be properly validated by simple type checking. If business logic and domain knowledge has to be part of the validation, I can save a ton of boilerplate code by writing my validations using pydantic.

Type annotations are a completely orthogonal case and I’ll be the first to admit that Python’s type situation is not ideal.

I’m not talking about type checking, I’m talking about data validation using pydantic. I just consider mypy / pyright etc. another linting step, that’s not even remotely interesting.

In an environment where a lot of data is being exchanged by various sources, it really has become quite valuable. Give it a try if you haven’t.

I wholeheartedly agree. The ability to describe (in code) and validate all data, from config files to each and every message being exchanged is invaluable.

I’m actively looking for alternatives in other languages now.