Übercomplicated

Sorry it took me so long to respond; I had to find my copy of The Elements of Style by Strunk Jr. and E.B. White. Here is a relevant quote from that excellent style guide:

If two or more clauses grammatically complete and not joined by a conjunction are to form a single compound sentence, the proper mark of punctuation is a semicolon.

Mary Shelley’s works are entertaining; they are full of engaging ideas.

[…vs.]

Mary Shelley’s works are entertaining. They are full of engaging ideas.

[…vs.]

Mary Shelley’s works are entertaining, for they are full of engaging ideas.

[…] A comparison of the three forms given above will show clearly the advantage of the first. It is, at least in the examples given, better than the second form because it suggests the close relationship between the two statements in a way that the second does not attempt, and better than the third because it is briefer and therefore more forcible. […]

Note that if the second clause is preceded by an adverb, such as accordingly, besides, then, therefore, or thus, and not by a conjunction, the semicolon is still required.

I had never been in the place before; besides, it was dark as a tomb.

Alright, back to me. A good example of what I’m referring to with “weight” is revealed when discussing how to properly use a semicolon with an ordinary colon. A semicolon is “heavier” than a colon; let me give you an example to illustrate this.

The answer: humanity is doomed; the people are angry.

This is stylisticly bad, because the semicolon separates the clause “the people are angry” from the context (the scope, if you’re a programmer) of the colon: now the clause is equal to the rest of the sentence, “The answer: humanity is doomed,” instead of serving as part of the clause “The answer:” is describing. The correct—that is, the intended—sentence would simply be this:

The answer: humanity is doomed, the people are angry.

One might think that this is illegal, as there is no conjunction, but, indeed, that presumption would be incorrect: “[…] humanity is doomed, the people are angry” is actually a list and the author of the sentence (me, muahahahaha) is using a literary device called asyndeton.

Here’s an example of asyndeton:

The ingredients of despair: hope, yearning, jealousy, conjecture.

The incorrect version would be with a semicolon introducing the last element of the list.

The ingredients of despair: hope, yearning, jealousy; conjecture.

Because the first example has only two elements, it can seem like one has to use a semicolon, but I think that the example given above shows how that is, in reality, quite absurd.

Alright, rant over, I hope this has sufficiently answered your question! Have a good day :)

Mostly pedantic language things like people misusing “empathy” (it’s not a synonym to sympathy god-damn-it) and “disinterested” (not synonymous to uninterested god-damn-it). Misuse of semicolons is especially frustrating to me; there are so many people out there, who do not understand the weight difference a semicolon creates, and then thoughtlessly use it to seem smart (wink, wink).

Man, it feels weird to think of USPCC as a Cartamundi subsidiary, but I guess you’re right — since 2019 (had to look that up) Belgium really has been the playing-card hub of the world! (A little American patriotism just died in me…)

What a superb example of hypocrisy. Bro agrees with you, explains, however, that scientifically speaking your analogy is incorrect, and then you proceed to go against precisely the science you were idolizing earlier.

I am an atheist. My mother is Catholic. She is Catholic, because sometimes she needs mental comfort. Religion can be very therapeutic, a community and someone/-thing to prey to are things that comfort most humans. Note, my mother does not believe what it says in the Bible word-for-word, she believes in metaphors. Don’t be a jack-ass to these people, they have not harmed you. Be a jack-ass to the people who start spouting entitled crap and try to murder people.

Ist das sarkastisch gemeint? Ich kann mir wirklich nicht vorstellen, dass die FDP irgendetwas legitim Progressives gutheißen würde.

Using multiple consecutive hyphens. Some schools used – for em-dash, others — (still used today in latex), and then – for en-dash.

I was literally about to write that, beat me to it.

Edit: write

Lite is barely relevant for Firefox anyway. Gorhill (along with host list maintainers) is one of the saints of modern day open source; if he felt overwhelmed by Mozilla’s actions, and chose to just take Lite down from the extension store, he has every right to. No one should shit on someone who has given so much to the community.

Performance wise they should be identical, what matters is how many lists you have enabled, etc. If anything, performance-focused list management will result in more performance with ordinary uBO. Either way, gothill is a legend

Edit: I’m wrong, apparently Lite can be faster on android after all

I have a host list on my router. That always seemed like plenty (I block gambling and malware)

My thoughts exactly. It may take more time to set up (I, for example, never got my laptop speakers working when I installed it there), and it may not have as much hardware support (a shitty old HP pre-built was giving me ACPI errors and refusing to boot; and yes, I had updated the BIOS), but update-wise, it’s super stable, but also quite up-to-date. It’s not crazy (kernel updates take some time occasionally), but it’s a great experience, and the inclusion of runit is fantastic. Hearty recommendation.

The Bagdad Café. It’s not exciting, or romantic, or tragic, or even that funny. But it’s beautiful. God I love that film. It seriously has some of the best acting, directing, and writing I’ve ever witnessed. Second would probably be Casablanca/Lawrence of Arabia/Pulp Fiction/Eight and a Half/…

Edit: also black cat white cat Edit: Pane e Tulipani Edit: Buster Keaton’s The Cameraman

As a angry, nihilistic teenager: very fucking true. I am literally the only techy guy in my posh bullshit private international school (in Europe so affordable). The only other dude who uses Linux (I’m using that as a bare minimum for “techy”) isn’t into programming or reverse engineering shit even remotely. I’m all alone (apart from all my non-technical friends). I suppose that’s where the nihilism comes from…

I suppose ray-tracing is rather suggestive of games, you’re right. Well, I’ll take it as an accident by the author and rest easy. Thanks for the correction!

The topic is bloatware, not games. Very different. When it comes to gaming, the hardware costs are a given (for the sake of innovation, as you put it); but when it comes to something fundamental to your computer—think of the window manager or even the operating system itself—bloat is like poison in the hardware’s veins. It is not innovation. It is simply a waste of precious resources.

Thank you!

Explain this to a long-time runit user… (Seriously, I’m lost)

Okay, seriously though: the Lunar Launcher is the only one I have found consistently minimalist and yet practical. I can only recommend it.

I LOVE the Lunar Launcher!

My life + espresso. When my life gets too slow: espresso. When I drink espresso and 10 minutes go by: slow life. I clearly need more espresso. Then suddenly, everything seems ok. I my life is at a good speed, I don’t seem to need espresso… but now I want espresso! Goddammit.