Honestly even most Excel users would be fine transitioning to LibreOffice Calc. I was very impressed with how most of my spreadsheets just worked on recent Calc versions. Formulas and charts were mostly all fine. Even pivot tables worked. I had one formula that had to be changed (it was specific to Excel, but there was an equivalent option in Calc), and one external data pull that I had to figure out. That was across 4 pretty involved spreadsheets.

The main problem will be users who are so ingrained with the specifics of navigation that they can’t easily adapt to a new menu system. The same happened when Microsoft changed from the old toolbars to the ribbon. And that will be an issue across all the apps.

today we are all buttholes

I start every day with oysters and champagne just to make that sadsack spin in his grave. Well, that and to awaken the sexual appetite.

I’m not a potatologist, but it seems like it should be fine to let it grow in there for a couple more weeks. It’s happy there, and that’s the main thing.

Then transplant it to a big bin/pot/raised bed or the ground outside. If it’s root bound just cut down on the sides of the root tangle and detangle them a bit before planting. Put a big clear plastic tub/tote over it at night if it will be frosty.

If you have trouble with the soaking, black beans do very well with a “quick soak”.

1. Cover them with water about twice the depth of the beans. Add about 1 teaspoon (~5 ml or 5-7 g) salt.

2. Bring to a boil and keep it boiling for 2 minutes. Then cover and turn off the burner/hob. Let soak for 1-2 hours.

3. Add any extra seasonings now (but nothing acidic). Then bring back to a boil and then simmer until soft. Adjust seasoning and you’re done.

They should take much less time than cooking from dry. How long will depend on the beans. Older beans can take much longer, but most should be soft in 1 hour or so.

It’s bread, too. Try a bacon sandwich sometime. Delicious!

Not when you change residency, but if you relinquish your citizenship: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expatriation_tax#United_States or your residency has been revoked.

So if you remain a US citizen you owe normal annual tax (minus a credit for foreign taxes paid).

Does this media server need to be accessible when you are away from home? Will you store personal data on it?

Out of band management: this is a server feature that lets you access and manage the server even if the OS is down. That’s important if you may be away from home and need to fix a boot problem.

You can simulate some of this with PiKVM (remote console access) and PDU solutions (remote power control).

Redundant power: servers often have redundant power supplies, so that if one fails it can still function.

You can simulate this, with short downtime, by having a replacement ready. Mini PCs make this easy by using relatively inexpensive laptop style external power bricks. But also think about the power circuit - is the server on the same breaker/fuse with something that could potentially take the circuit down while you are away?

ECC RAM: this is about data integrity. If there is a failure in non-ECC then a bit flip could cause data corruption.

You can’t really get this without ECC. Using a file system that has anti-corruption features can help reduce some of the risk. You probably trust your data to consumer PC hardware, so this would be no different really. It’s about risk mitigation.

And that’s the main thing here, deciding on the use cases and prioritizing/budgeting how you mitigate risks to each.

Apron is a fun one. The Latin word for cloth, banner, tablecloth is mappa. It’s the same word used in “mappa mundi” meaning map of the world (we contract that to just map now). French often changed Latin m to n, so mappa became nappe, then nape.

English borrowed nape directly for cloth and added it’s native diminutive suffix -kin to refer to a small cloth, a napkin.

But there was also a similar diminutive in French - naperon. A cloth to keep your front clean. English borrowed that too, as napron. Then, sometime around the 15th century, “a napron” got mistaken for “an apron” since they sound identical. And that’s what we have today. (Source etymonline and others)

It would be nice to get rid of the batteries, but there seem to be downsides to each of the alternatives currently.

Solar scales like the one from MUJI seem to update measurements slowly. I haven’t seen one that looks like it is responsive and likely to work for a lot of weighing tasks. Seems like this may be the best option for a manufacturer to innovate - bigger solar array, and a super capacitor to hold a good charge.

Mechanical are pretty classic and durable, but you choose either capacity or precision. I haven’t seen even a 2kg model that has 1g precision. More like 20g. So not very useful for home baking. Perhaps fine for general portion control. If you go this route you will probably need one small precision scale for fine resolution and a larger one that can accommodate 5kg.

Kinetic scales from CASO seem like a good option. The main criticism seems to be a short usable time after charging. It would stink to be 5 ingredients into a baking recipe and lose power midway through the next ingredient. It would also be annoying to keep stopping to charg it. They also seem to have slow updates when the weight changes like solar models. This is probably to reduce power usage. I think these are fine for occasional use, but not if you’re using a scale 3-5 times per week.

My personal solution has been to use a commercial scale that has a rechargeable battery built in, as well as a power adapter. I keep it plugged in, on our kitchen counter, and I use it nearly every day. After 10 years now the battery doesn’t hold a charge, but it works fine while plugged in. I could replace the battery, but don’t need it.

If you really want BIFL then it’s probably best to check out restaurant supply stores to see what they’re selling. At least in the US the scales from Edlund are well built and reliable, and for digital you can get a good one priced under $100. Taylor are lower quality and not as reliable, at least for the affordable models.

For mechanical i would expect to pay $100+ for a good small one with 10g precision. To get more precision the dials need to be pretty large, so this would be a trade-off.

My favorite French borrowings are gentle, genteel and jaunty. All borrowed from gentil (kind, pleasant, nice), but at different times (13th century, late 16th, and 17th, respectively).

The French word is from Latin gentilis, meaning “of the Roman clan.” English borrowed that from Latin as gentile.

So we have 4 English words, all from the same Latin origin. Of them, genteel is probably closest to the Old French pronunciation (but the vowels are still a little bit different).

put the phone to my ear

Clearly you would look more normal if you blast it on the speaker while holding the phone in front of you, like everyone else. /s

It’s funny that there are two unambiguous alternatives to bimonthly, but they both mean 2x/month: fortnightly and semimonthly.

Both German and Dutch distinguish their equivalent words with clear prefixes meaning half- and two-. The English word was unclear after 1066 since the French word bimensuel would have been used by the new bosses. And that means 2x/month. English used bimensual for a while before developing a new, worse word with the Latin origin bi- and the Germanic origin -monthly. And it seems to have been ambiguous from the start. So this has probably been messed up for almost 1050 years.

Maybe we should resurrect the Old English prefix twi- to make a new(old) 1x/2months word twimonthly or more intuitively, twomonthly that we can use in opposition with halfmonthly.

501 is the style

0126 is the color

32x34 is the size in inches waist x inseam

Levi’s still sell non-stretch 501, and they should fit pretty much the same (although there is a lot more variation from one batch to the next than there used to be). If you can order from Levi’s online you should be able to get similar ones. Or check any shops for 501 32x34 in 100% cotton.

Another option would be to get the original 501 shrink-to-fit (color 000). It’s a process to break them in (not as much as heavier denim), but they should last longer since they’re not stonewashed or otherwise treated to make them soft. Just read up on sizing first.

I will gladly die on this hill.

Obviously! Well done. Your definition is delusional and at odds with science and common language use, yet you won’t back down. That takes commitment. It also has me questioning whether you believe in light outside human perception (since it’s also measured as a wave). You are the embodiment of this fun thread! And I genuinely enjoy thinking about both positions.

But I think I’ll stick with the Wikipedia and dictionary editors, and the likes of Britannica which states:

Sound, a mechanical disturbance from a state of equilibrium that propagates through an elastic material medium. A purely subjective definition of sound is also possible, as that which is perceived by the ear, but such a definition is not particularly illuminating and is unduly restrictive, for it is useful to speak of sounds that cannot be heard by the human ear, such as those that are produced by dog whistles or by sonar equipment.

I appreciate your hill. But several sources disagree with you.

Wikipedia: “In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid.”

Oxford: “1. vibrations that travel through the air or another medium and can be heard when they reach a person’s or animal’s ear.”

Webster: “1.c: mechanical radiant energy that is transmitted by longitudinal pressure waves in a material medium (such as air) and is the objective cause of hearing”

Cambridge: “something that you can hear or that can be heard”

These don’t seem to require the ear for the vibrations to be sounds in and of themselves. Only that it would be detectable by an ear if an ear were present.

Upon what do you base your assertion that it is the hearing of the thing that is the most essential requirement? (And given the thread I think it’s perfectly reasonably for the answer to be something like “because it’s my hill dammit!”)

Neat. It has a wikipedia article as well.

It makes sense. But as a US speaker it just makes me want to stick to my guns and generalize our second syllable stress on these units. I’m team kilogram now. And centimeter.

Found a new hill!

It’s amazing that they can measure the speed of sound at all given this. They must need to line up a bunch of eardrums.

That’s my take too. Short for “this requires you to follow a steep learning curve, even if it is not easy to do so.”