Limonene

Limonene , 5 days ago to Technology in Microsoft really wants Local accounts gone after it erases its guide on how to create them

I have three ideas: First, you could switch the desktop environment to one of the ones that has a GUI settings tool to set passwordless automatic sign in. I think Gnome 3 on Ubuntu, and Mate Desktop on Linux Mint have that feature. There are probably others.

Second, you could switch your display manager to "nodm". The display manager is the thing that runs the X server or Wayland, and it starts the greeter (the greeter is the program that shows the login screen). nodm is a special display manager that doesn't use a greeter or ask for a password. It immediately starts the session using the username and desktop environment specified in its configuration file.

I use nodm for my HTPC and it works very well. The only downside is that you have to edit its configuration file, /etc/default/nodm , using a text editor. I'm not aware of any GUI configuration tool for it. However, it's pretty easy to configure.

Third, you could abandon all display managers, and start the session manually, either from a shell script, or over SSH. This is a little more complex. You will probably want to get comfortable with SSH before trying this (SSH is the command-line analog of remote desktop).

Limonene , 7 days ago to Asklemmy in Why in 2024 do people still believe in religion? (serious)

The existence of one or more gods can't be conclusively proven or disproven. So it makes sense to me that some people believe in it and others don't.

Limonene , 13 days ago to politics in White people must take responsibility for dismantling white supremacy in America

Ugh, an article with popups on loss of window focus. That's an immediate Ctrl+W from me.

Limonene , 18 days ago to Traditional Art in Summer Night - by Andrii Frolov

And I thought my ethernet cables were a mess. At least I've never run ethernet cables on stairs.

Limonene , 21 days ago to News in Washington man arrested after fatally shooting teen who had BB gun

What do you expect them to say? That they're proud of this guy? Even though he's clearly a madman?

I know IRL gun nuts, and none of them would identify with this person. Also, none of them subscribe to the fallacy/straw-man of a "good guy with a gun". The ones who carry concealed would remind you that they are carrying for themselves, not for you. If you find an active shooter in a mall, you can count on them... to run away.

Skillful gun nuts know that shooting defensively is never worth the legal hassle unless it saves your life (or a family member's life).

The shooter in this article is nothing like any of the gun nuts I've ever met. This shooter is another Kyle Rittenhouse, someone anxious for a chance to kill a person and get away with it under the excuse of defense.

Limonene , 24 days ago to Political Memes in Force them to work retail, customer service, and/or civil service jobs until they 'earn' their net worth at an hourly rate

If a minimum wage worker started working at age 18, and worked until 67 (the retirement age set by the US Social Security Administration) and worked 40 hours a week every week, they would make less than a million dollars in their life (at the US federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour).

So, a millionaire with $10M would have to spend more than 10 lifetimes making up the overpayment.

A billionaire with $1B would have to spend more than 1000 lifetimes.

A billionaire with $200B would have to spend 269,745 lifetimes.

Limonene , 1 month ago to Daily Maths Challenges in [2024/05/05] Fake power tower

I believe it is:

spoiler

e^W(W(ln(2))

spoiler

x=W(x)*e^(W(x))

x^(x*x^x)=2
x*x^x*ln(x)=ln(2)
x*e^(ln(x)*x)*ln(x)=ln(2)
u=x*ln(x)
u*e^u=ln(2)
u=W(ln(2))
x*ln(x)=W(ln(2))
e^(ln(x)*x)=e^W(ln(2))
x^x=e^W(ln(2))
x = square-super-root(e^W(ln(2)))
wikipedia says this is equivalent to:
x=e^W(ln(e^W(ln(2))))
but I don't know how they arrive at that.
x=e^W(W(ln(2))

working backwards to verify:
x=e^W(W(ln(2))
ln(x)=W(W(ln(2))
ln(x)*x=W(ln(2))
ln(x)*x*e^(ln(x)*x)=ln(2)
ln(x)*x*x^x=ln(2)
e^(ln(x)*x*x^x)=2
x^(x*x^x)=2

Limonene , 1 month ago to Daily Maths Challenges in [2024/05/05] Fake power tower

The text of this post appears wrong on old.lemmy.world. It says "Solve x for x^x*x^x^ = 2" with no superscripts. It appears correctly on lemmy.world.

I assume we're meant to find an expression of W() and square roots and stuff, which expresses an exact answer. Since finding a decimal approximation somewhere between 1 and 2 using a binary search would be too easy.

Limonene , 1 month ago to Ask Electronics in Building DIY a smart doorbell but would appreciate some help with the power and wiring

Actually, I think that's a really good idea. Just be aware of possible inductance in the long wires from the transformer area going to the camera. Putting a large electrolytic capacitor next to the camera should fix that.

As for your bell, there are dead simple systems that use a battery-powered stick-on button with a transmitter, and a chime/receiver that plugs into a wall. If you want to be fancy, you could find a way to power the transmitter with that 5VDC, in parallel with the camera... or you could just keep it simple and use the battery that comes with the button. They last near forever.

Limonene , 1 month ago to Ask Electronics in Building DIY a smart doorbell but would appreciate some help with the power and wiring

Remember that voltage is measured across a pair of wires, so you can't power the chime with only a single wire. That's part of what makes this difficult -- these doorbell systems only have the bare minimum of wiring in them. Powering the camera and the chime in series with each other is quite difficult. I think a lot of these things just accept the short circuit, and use a battery to power the camera while the button is being held.

Here is what I was proposing, and I think what ch00f was also proposing. Replace "5VDC power supply" in this diagram with "a full bridge rectifier and a bunch of caps" in their description, and also note that your camera probably requires a well regulated 5VDC supply.

https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/9cc9b05a-485a-4f44-805d-cfbaffdb5ad0.png

Limonene , 1 month ago to Ask Electronics in Building DIY a smart doorbell but would appreciate some help with the power and wiring

The easy way: take your existing wiring. Put an 18VAC to 5VDC power supply in parallel with the pushbutton. Then, the output of that power supply goes to the 5V USB input of your camera setup.

The downside is that it will reboot the camera every time someone rings the doorbell, because you are shorting across the camera's power supply.

You can put a resistor in series with the button to fix this. You will need to find a resistance that's low enough to still cause the chime to ring, but high enough not to disrupt the camera's power supply. Maybe start around 20 ohms. If you can't find a working resistor value, you can change the transformer to a 24V or 36V transformer, but make sure to keep that resistor high enough not to burn out the chime, and make sure your 5VDC power supply can handle the increase in input voltage.

Limonene , 2 months ago to politics in ‘Stormy weather’: Biden skewers Trump at White House correspondents’ dinner

The war in Gaza isn't the only thing going on in the world, you know. It's not even the deadliest war going on right now. Take a look at the list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_anthropogenic_disasters_by_death_toll#Wars_and_armed_conflicts

The current era of the Israel-Palestine war (since October) has a death toll of around 30k. Look at how many other current and recent wars have death tolls of at least that much. Notably, the US-Afghanistan war (around 193k deaths) was ended by Biden.

Limonene , 2 months ago to World News in Hamas rejects Israel's ceasefire response, sticks to main demands

Why does the article call the people held by Israel "prisoners", but the people held by Palestine "hostages"?

Limonene , 3 months ago to Political Memes in How dare you!

Tiktok has some serious problems with censorship. It's been absolutely proven that Tiktok censors content that the Chinese government dislikes. Even if Tiktok/Bytedance insists that they aren't owned by the Chinese government, they are owned by Chinese entities, which subjects them to Chinese government censorship, and may require them to deny that censorship.

https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/5e8854b3-74f1-40b2-8e2a-f4a379d67189.png

The study: https://networkcontagion.us/wp-content/uploads/A-Tik-Tok-ing-Timebomb_12.21.23.pdf

Article about the study: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/21/business/tiktok-china.html

Antipaywall link to that article: https://archive.ph/MLATC

I don't disagree that Facebook, Youtube, and Twitter have their own set of things they censor. I don't disagree that Tiktok is being singled out by Congress. I don't disagree that there are big privacy problems with all of the above platforms.

Limonene , 3 months ago to Lemmy.org - Politics in Donald Trump Is a National-Security Risk

The article talks about how presidential candidates (and some other office candidates) get secret security information before they are actually elected. And it says that Donald Trump should not receive that information.

Shouldn't candidates have to apply for a security clearance, if they want this info before they are elected? This could make it a nonpartisan issue, while achieving the same result (since Trump would not be eligible for a security clearance, due to his history of mishandling documents).