I think the defaults are extreme and also use LW as a no telemetry/ads FF replacement, but I understand the vision. I’m fine with LW having the defaults it has, they can be easily turned off and I’d rather start with extreme privacy and just change what I need than the other way around where I could be leaving privacy options on the table.

APIs can be complex too. Look at how much stuff the Win32 API provides from all the kernel calls, defined data structures/types, libraries, etc. I would venture a guess that if you documented the Win32 API including all the needed system libraries to make something like Wine, it would also be 850 pages long. The fact remains that a documented prototype for a software implementation is free to reimplement but a documented prototype for a hardware implementation requires a license. This makes no sense from a fairness perspective. I’m fine with ARM not giving away their fully developed IP cores which are actual implementations of the ARM instruction set, but locking third parties from making their own compatible designs without a license is horribly anticompetitive. I wish standards organizations still had power. Letting corporations own de-facto “standards” is awful for everyone.

In the mobile Linux scene, Qualcomm chips are some of the best supported ones. I don’t love everything Qualcomm does, but the Snapdragon 845 makes for a great Linux phone and has open source drivers for most of the stack (little thanks to Qualcomm themselves).

RISC V is just an open standard set of instructions and their encodings. It is not expected nor required for implementations of RISC V to be open sourced, but if they do make a RISC V chip they don’t have to pay anyone to have that privilege and the chip will be compatible with other RISC V chips because it is an open and standardized instruction set. That’s the point. Qualcomm pays ARM to make their own chip designs that implement the ARM instruction set, they aren’t paying for off the shelf ARM designs like most ARM chip companies do.

Hopefully Qualcomm takes the hint and takes this opportunity to develop a high performance RISC V core. Don’t just give the extortionists more money, break free and use an open standard. Instruction sets shouldn’t even require licensing to begin with if APIs aren’t copyrightable. Why is it OK to make your own implentation of any software API (see Oracle vs. Google on the Java API, Wine implementing the Windows API, etc) but not OK to do the same thing with an instruction set (which is just a hardware API). Why is writing an ARM or x86 emulator fine but not making your own chip? Why are FPGA emulator systems legal if instruction sets are protected? It makes no sense.

The other acceptable outcome here is a Qualcomm vs. ARM lawsuit that sets a precedence that instruction sets are not protected. If they want to copyright their own cores and sell the core design fine, but Qualcomm is making their own in house designs here.

It’s just a matter of flashing the CorsairLightingProtocol firmware (instructions on the project’s GitHub page) and then soldering the data pin of your LED strip to the appropriate Arduino pin. You can provide 5V power to the LEDs from a Molex or SATA power cable which allows as much power as your PSU can handle. You can draw 5V from the Arduino directly to run the LEDs but I would only run 30 LEDs or fewer with this power source. If you want more LEDs then connect them straight to your PSU.

Corsair Lighting Node is another good option. The real Corsair one works well but if you’re willing to DIY you can use CorsairLightingProtocol on an Arduino Pro Micro and have 2 channels of ARGB with direct mode support for like $6, and you can use multiple. I have one in my case for case lighting as I used up my motherboard headers on fans and I used this as the controller for my OpenRGB desk fan project as well.

The name Unity just needs to be avoided. I get the well intentioned meaning behind the word, but it has been the name of three major controversial/disastrous products in semi-recent history - Ubuntu Unity Desktop, Assassin’s Creed: Unity, and the Unity Engine.

Leave it on, but turn off the monitor. I have it set up as a GitLab runner for some projects and also want to be able to SSH/SFTP in to access files, run updates, etc.

Too bad they added shitty anticheat that broke GTA Online. I can’t trust Rockstar anymore and I won’t be buying these. RDR on PC was something I really wanted, but not after Rockstar betrayed us by basically revoking our access to GTA Online after almost a decade.

If it doesn’t have an official control app then we most likely cannot add it. Usually button-controlled RGB means that the device just uses the USB cable for power, not data, so there is no control protocol we can send to the device to control it. We use the official applications to reverse engineer the control commands.

I’m guessing the packet we send for this device is either supposed to contain the custom mouse settings or puts it into a mode where it overrides not just the RGB but the other settings as well. I’m not personally familiar with this mouse or the controller it uses so I’m not really sure. Did you have your buttons customized from their defaults in iCue or another program that remaps the buttons?

Mozilla sold out a long time ago, they are nothing like they used to be. Everyone should be ditching Firefox for forks if possible. Yes, Firefox is still miles ahead of anything Chromium-based but we can’t trust Mozilla to not screw over their users anymore (and it’s been apparent for YEARS…Pocket, “Sponsored” shortcuts and links, Mozilla VPN popup ads, this behavior is hardly new). What can we trust? Firefox forks with the bullshit stripped out, mostly. I’ve been using LibreWolf for several years on my Linux, Windows, and MacOS systems now. I originally switched because of the Mozilla VPN popups but at the time, complaining about those popups was met with a bunch of Mozilla apologists going “it’s not that bad” “they’re a big company and they need their precious monies”…no. That was ADVERTISING front and center, and it was in Firefox years ago. So was Pocket. So was having Amazon links auto-filled on the new tab shortcuts. Go to something that isn’t run by money. Go to a community-maintained and sanitized fork.

I recently printed the Fractal Design North Pi case which turned out quite nicely.

If you read the article, it is indeed full Linux because the 4004 is running a MIPS emulator that provides the necessary memory management features. Pretty much all of the “run Linux on some old chip incapable of running Linux” projects achieve it via emulating a more featured architecture that Linux supports, not by somehow compiling Linux to natively run on a 4 bit, MMU-less architecture.

Change for the sake of change is so dumb. I’m tired of pointless UI changes every so many years because some middle manager and their designers need to wow some dumb exec to get a promotion and they do so just by rearranging all the existing functionality because the product itself is already a complete solution that doesn’t actually need a new version. Sadly, this mentality even creeps into FOSS spaces. Canonical and Ubuntu wanting to reinvent the wheel with Unity, Mir, Snap, etc. GNOME radically changing their UI all the time.

This was my early high school days. My friend and I would play Mario 64 DS wirelessly across the hall because we were in different classes but close enough for a WiFi connection. Great times. Also, the Metroid demo included with the console was a fun multiplayer experience.

Concord

I got ab RG35XX Plus when it came out. Very nice little Game Boy style handheld. I played a bunch of GBA, GB, and Genesis games on it but it’s capable of a lot more.

I got a NexiGo portable gaming monitor that I’m pretty happy with. It is a 16 inch 2560x1600 display, 144Hz, and supports FreeSync. I got a bidirectional DisplayPort to USB C cable so that I could use it with my desktop for LAN parties and it’s great. It has a built in flip-out kickstand, a folding magnetic cover, OK built in speakers (good enough to game with anyways), and can be powered via a second USB C port with an A to C cable. On a device that supports USB C video output like a laptop or Steam Deck it can run off a single cable but I mostly wanted it for my desktop.