I'd say it gets a little different with command line utilities
maybe "utility" is the appropriate term here, but I'd call something like grep a program, not an application (again
"utility" also works).
To be sure, grep is extremely powerful, but its scope is limited.
Physics is like sex: sure, it may give some practical results, but that's not why we do it.
Richard P. Feynman
I think the same is true for a lot of folks and self hosting. Sure, having data in our own hands is great, and yes avoiding vendor lock-in is nice. But at the end of the day, it's nice to have computers seem "fun" again.
At least, that's my perspective.
In parts of California you are allowed to ride on the freeway shoulder. AFAIK it's only legal when there is no reasonable alternative.
I've done it a few times
it's not ideal, but it's not horrible, mostly because you don't cross on/off ramps (it's just from one exit to the next). In my case I did it because the multi-use path I was planning on using was temporarily closed.
I have been on a different ride where I crossed on/off ramps (I should have taken a different route!), and that really sucked.
Only tangentially related, but it's often accepted that there is no Nobel prize in economics. There is a Nobel memorial prize in economics (link), but as it was set up after Nobel's death it is in a slightly different category.
Hobby 1: Ballroom dancing
No I'm pretty sure Strictly Ballroom is a completely accurate portrayal of ballroom dancing.
Whatever you decide for your laptop, I'm a proponent of a barebones off-site setup if you're trying for 3-2-1 backup or similar.
I use a raspberry pi 3 with a single HD (ZFS) retaining some number of daily/weekly/monthly snapshots. Daily rsync, everything over WireGuard+VPS (TailScale would work too).
From our experience in the US, the birth is nothing compared to the financial drain of the other expenses. And at this age, childcare dwarfs all the other child-related expenses.
We have great insurance and don't rely on family for childcare though, so the math is very very different for someone with "free" familial childcare and no/lousy insurance...
I don't know how compensation works in academic administration, but if there's any vesting going on then you could "take a pay cut" but end up making more due to previous compensation vesting.
Certainly possible for public companies, but again, unsure if that could be the case for a university president...
Temba, his hand throwing horns 🤘
I think large planes "look" like they can't work because their "relative speed" is really low
that is, their speed relative to their length. We're used to seeing birds cover tens of lengths per second, whereas a large airliner covers ~1ish per second at takeoff.
Or not, but this always seemed like a plausible explanation as to why planes look impossible. (Though given that hovering birds don't look funny, maybe this is a silly observation...).