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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 16th, 2023

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  • MX Linux is simple and just works. The XFCE version is pretty light and snappy and the utilities, which it shares with AntiX, just work.

    I’m a newbie at Linux, because my personal, very old 2012 computer just can’t work Windows 7…Windows was eating up all resources. I got MX Linux in a USB (2.0) and it just runs in that old hardware.

    Ended up switching to AntiX, because it manages memory even better (runs with as little as 256 MB of RAM) and it recognized everything. AntiX is like installing Debian with a bit of utilities loaded. If you add the FT10/Tint2 bar, it feels as if you have a Desktop Manager, instead of a Windows Manager.

    My 4GB RAM, old AMD64, Radeon computer, with an old rotational Hard Drive, just goes. Starts faster than my Laptop computer with 32GB RAM, Intel I7 with an SDD and it just has a good feeling about it.

    MX Linux on a USB and persistence is working on any other computer I have. And you can focus on the important stuff: using your computer, instead of messing around with the setup constantly.



  • I don’t think people buy happy meals for the toys. You know what you’re getting to eat, which is the purpose of the chain. It is a food service company, not a toy manufacturing company and the toys are only tokens of appreciation for the customer.

    EA is a video game company and your experience and ability to play the game basically depends on these loot boxes. In fact, you play or pay to increase the chances to get a good deck, but nothing is guaranteed. It is random or perhaps even more perverse, it is programmed to deny or condition good players on your decks to keep you playing for the next loot box.

    The only way this is not gambling, is that you don’t win money at the end of the day. Just satisfaction.



  • Actually, inflation by itself is a natural phenomenon,
    associated to the growth of the population. Deflationary trends are actually symptoms of something far worse happening.

    In order for inflation not to exist, growth and access to natural resources should match the growth of populations.

    In a Utopian society, a la Engels, the growth and access to those natural resources would be controlled to match the growth and access needs of the population, thus helping humanity not to experience inflation. But of course, that also denies humanity, and humanity’s ambitious nature.

    In reality, the growth and access to those resources is controlled for many reasons, which in many cases, have nothing to do with ambition. For example the geographical access to certain commodities can be used to barter for resources or commodities inaccessible in that community.

    And of course, there’s ambition and the discovery that owning a resource gives us the power to demand more for it, and not only have a better live, but have access to anything we want.

    When there’s a disruption in one resource, as far as accessibility to it, it has a chain reaction that affects everything else.

    Take the war in Ukraine and it’s repercussions across the world. The two resources that have been disputed right now is wheat and oil. Two of the major suppliers of indispensable commodities in the world are at war and their commodities are inaccessible or hard to obtain. Just the shortage of wheat has significant implications in the food that is processed for consumption around the world, because it’s not only used to feed humans, but other sources of meat for humans.

    But what happens in a deflationary trend? One would think we just produced more of something and we have to sell it at a lower price, until we get back to an equilibrium of supply and demand. But it’s not that simple. Causes of deflation could be:

    A) Lower numbers of population. While access to the natural resource is there.

    B) Overproduction of a certain good.

    The first one, indicates that either people are dying, leaving or not reproducing. And the demand is lowering constantly.

    Now, think about why would people leave a community. A quick example: crime. Two examples: People leaving their towns in rural Central America for the US, or in Africa for Europe because their home towns are overrun by warlords, gangs and drug cartels. Likewise, communities in the US that are run by drugs and crime is rampant. You have a choice to flee or die.

    The second one speaks about the over production of something. By default, companies don’t try to over produce, because the costs associated to storage and maintaining an inventory could eat up on their earnings. But there are times when overproduction happens because of a bubble. The easiest example for this, is the Tulip crises of the 1400s. Tulips became a sought after commodity that the prices started going up. Suddenly Tulios went from a nice flower to an investment. A bubble was created. People decided that it was a better investment to buy and sell tulips, than plant wheat, or sell meat, which drove the prices of food up; some people even mortgaged their home or land to invest the money in Tulips. For a time, that created wealth and people spent it in luxury. And then, Tulips were over produced and came out of style. Demand disappeared almost instantly. And then people didn’t have money to pay their debts, to buy food, live in a safe place. Famine and plagues started…and prices went down because there was no demand for anything.

    So…that’s why you don’t want to see a lot of either, inflation or deflation, but it’s also why you see more inflation than deflation.


  • Not illegal but dumb if it’s a power trip. If the shift is covered, then the business doesn’t suffer, but there may be other things at play. For example, the day and time of the shift. If it’s during a super busy day sad you may need extra coverage.

    Now, there may be other things going on, like employees constantly changing shifts at will. When I owned a restaurant, I spent an awful amount of hours figuring out shifts that were equitable. As a manager if I want to have some certainty, the constant changes by employees whom only informed me they had negotiated behind the scenes, would feel disrespectful of my time and of the time of others.

    This probably has nothing to do with your wife, but everything to do with that other dude. If I had known that he had a softball game coming up, or is in a league on Saturdays, I’d have been happy to work with him to figure out a shift change. Shit like that happens. But if this guy keeps bothering other employees to get them to cover for him constantly, that would also be disrespectful of their time. Even if they agree to do it.

    In other words: If that guy thinks that his softball game is more valuable than your wife’s time with you or your family, then he should look for a job that suits his lifestyle.

    If your wife, on the other hand, would come t me and tell me she needed the hours, I could work with her on that.

    In the long run, I agree. A personal softball game by itself, is not reason enough to miss your shift. Just like shit happens, work also happens.

    And just a no without an explanation is also not valid. A good manager lets people understand their decisions.