privacy hardly matters in the real world anyway

Agree with all of the above and especially this. It’s counterintuitive for me - I’ve spent a lot of time and money to set up privacy conscious services for myself and my family over the years. But practically speaking, our lives wouldn’t be any different if I hadn’t.

I still do it and invest in it because I think privacy is a fundamentally important human right, but I have to recognize that it’s my own passion and not someone else’s.

From what I’ve read choice of distro doesn’t make a huge difference, particularly on AMD. If you’re happy with Arch why not stay there?

I honestly love this, it could be a great “desktop” underneath all of your windows with some small tweaks. Widgets to show import system stats, shortcuts, and an always available tabbed terminal.

Hardware acceleration has worked fine on Linux for me but I had to enable it. There are several options for HA of various components in the settings in the new Steam UI.

You wouldn’t use fasteners in the joint itself, and you’re exactly right that they would pull right out. The screws are used to fasten through the face of the wedi board to wooden studs behind it to provide strength, and then the penetrations and joints are all sealed with the wedi sealant. The board itself is waterproof, you’re only sealing the joints/penetrations. I believe that small shower niches with 1/2” board are sturdy enough that they don’t even need wooden framing and just rely on the board+sealant, but am not sure on that.

I’m not sure if this is the latest version, but this technical document has a ton of information: https://www.masterwholesale.com/media/wedi_Technical_Handbook_January_2021_Digital.pdf

I actually have used Wedi in a couple projects. I am not an expert or professional but will share what I know.

The stuff is essentially sturdy foamboard and can be cut with a razor knife, no power tools needed. It is critical that the entire system be fully sealed and waterproofed, with all joints sealed with the provided wedi sealant. (I used the stuff provided in caulk tubes) While you could cut a V and bend the board, I would not trust it to be waterproof and you would need to seal it with the sealant anyway , so it would probably be stronger to just do a butt joint with sealant.

While I would generally never recommend on planning on anything being accessed from inside the wet area, wedi sealant might work to your advantage because you could probably cut out the box along a sealant joint, replace the part, and then re-seal the box to the location with new sealant.

I’d check the wedi documentation for the correct joint details. I’m not sure exactly where your box will be and if it will have standing water against it, but if so the details might be different or even not at all recommended.

Hope that’s helpful.

I agree. We need to be careful about what news/media we consume, and I think we can do this without being uninformed. I have several family members (on opposite ends of the political spectrum) who are having significant mental health problems in part because they are not considering what they are consuming (especially online). It’s dramatically impacting their health and families. It can happen to all sorts of people, whether they’re getting overwhelmed with anxiety on the state of things or getting sucked into an angry political group.

You can stay informed without clicking on/listening to/watching everything that sparks your fear, anxiety or rage. Curate your news sources, pay attention to their motivations, and listen to your own emotional reaction. It takes a little work but is well worth it when you can be a kind, functioning, and informed neighbor to everyone around you.

You’re right! Edited.

Friendly plug for Pop!_OS, a great Ubuntu-like distro with flatpacks