In Spain when you want to travel by high-speed train, you need to though security check, just like at an airport. Do the security checks make sense? No. But nobody wants to be the politician that removes the security checks, and then something bad happens. So the security checks stay.
I also use DeepSeek R1 as a daily driver. Combined with Qwen3 when I need better tool usage.
Now that both Google and Claude are out, I expect to see DeepSeek R2 released very soon. It would be funny to watch an actual open source model getting close to the commercial competition.
A nice thing about Deepseek is that it is so cheap to run. It's nice being able to explore conversational trees without getting a $12 bill at the end of it.
Do they use MS Office for work, or just simple hobby stuff? If it's work stuff - leave them alone. For hobby stuff LibreOffice is a good replacement that you can trial on Windows. As far as distros go, I don't like some of the decisions that Canonical has made with Ubuntu, but it's hard to argue with how simple, reliable, and complete it is. I don't want to run it for myself, but it's great for some people.
Throughout most of human history, most people were slaves and workers. They weren't there to think, they were there to push stone from place A to place B. The society at large isn't going to collapse if we return to the state where most of humanity does mindless jobs and have mindless lives, while the ruling class of people with self-control pull the strings.
I guess societal collapse was a bit melodramatic of me. I guess I just wanted to vent a bit. It's just sad that we live with such a hijacking force in our pockets and that seems to be having an adverse effect on the way people handle their jobs and lives.
I honestly believe that intelligence and self-awareness of average person is very limited. This is frustrating to observe from the point of view of someone who was promised golden age of human creativity and whatnot. But it is what it is. My take is, if you want the humanity to move forward, have kids and teach them to read scientific books instead of scrolling TikTok. Alternatively, exploit the human stupidity to put yourself in a comfortable social position, and then stop giving a fuck.
Every day I make a list of things I need to do. Once that list is completely, I shamelessly scroll whatever I want. This allows me to keep productivity on the level that I want, without sacrificing the pleasure of scrolling.
The Iberian Peninsula functioned like an island in many contexts. Yes, it is attached to the rest of Europe, but in order to get there, you need to cross high mountains. Note how few roads and railways cross between Spain and France.
I find it such a weird argument. Ok, your furniture from 1900 is still doing great, fantastic. The problems are:
1. Your great-grandfather had a different sense of esthetics, so shit just didn't fit your modern apartment.
2. You moved to a different country, and shipping fees of the furniture were ten times the cost of brand-new chipwood furniture (literally).
3. The furniture was designed with usage in mind that simply doesn't exist in modern world.
4. It was made specifically to fill a certain room. Your new place has a different layout. Deal with it.
These arguments are even more true in the context of technology. "Look, my grandma's black-and-white TV is still working!"... great? I'd rather have a modern 4k OLED, but I guess that's just personal preference. Not to mention how having expensive things makes you a prisoner of these things. If your cat ruins Ikea cabinet, you'll be angry for a day. If your cat ruins your family heirloom, you'll be pissed.
We're not talking of centuries here. Laminated chipwood looks like shit in a matter of years. I can replace my phone every year but for a kitchen table or a bathroom door it's ridiculous, way too much hassle.
The best interiors feel lived in but not stuffy. A few old pieces of furniture can help achieve that. Part of the skill of interior design is making these pieces work together in new ways.
You don’t want your home to feel like an ikea catalog surely!?
If it were up to me I'd be stuck at the local optimum of standing desks with workstations randomly distributed through the apartment and a mattress in some corner.
Not sure why the fixation with Ikea, they provide decent value at given price point (as in better than competition, but still within their cost band).
Anyway one prime example I can see - we have rather bigger kitchen, and storage is its prime function. Anything below waist needs to have pullout drawers, its supremely more practical and simply more efficient for storage. You don't need to go on your knees every time you need something deeper in bottom one. For older folks this is an absolute must. Good luck finding any older kitchen that has that. Same for any drawers ie for clothing.
And there are much better modern tricks than just this very basic one.
That is the reason for the fixation on IKEA: the "decent" part. If their peers are Target, Walmart, then to be sure IKEA are decent.
Even during assembly though I've had joints fail such that the finished piece of furniture is, say, 90% structurally sound. But then trying to disassemble the piece so I can move ... I'm lucky if I am able to disassemble it without additional component failure. And then the re-assembly after the move also takes its toll.
Sadly I've come to see IKEA furniture as disposable (I sure don't see it in the local Goodwill). And that is the problem with IKEA (and Target, and Walmart) furniture: it goes direct-to-landfill with a move.
Disassembly is the mistake. If you need to move Ikea furniture, you do it as constructed. If it breaks, c’est la vie. I have successfully moved several Ikea pieces without issue.
one thing to realize with Ikea is that they have different tiers of items. their hardboard furniture is somewhat disposable (and not disassemblable). their metal and plastic items, otoh are pretty indistructable.
Not a universal view. I don't have a modern apartment (I've lived in them and don't enjoy the æsthetic of a straight, unornamented beige and glass box full of postmodern slab furniture). I have a stone cottage from the 1600s. If anything, my 19th-century solid wood furniture is too modern!
In the UK. I know a couple who bought a really old house then spend 3 million on renovating it "period correct", even down to the paint to use plant-based materials only as that was how it was done in the 17th century.
Hum, that's fair points but don't contradicts OP's arguments:
1. OP finds it "much more pleasant to use" which I believe includes the aesthetic side. "your modern appartement" is your take, but is it? and how old modern? There's an universe of different styles that have been implemented in the past, in a multi dimensional sense: it may be influenced by the state of the art of that time (available tools, wood...), the vogue (not necessarily correlated with state of the art) and the context (unique fancy piece for someone wealthy that paid for, unique simple piece for your family, small series by a semi industrial workshop).
2. True, however your old chipwood furniture may not be newish enough for the next householder so A. he/you needs to ditch it B. buy a new one. With a quality furniture you often can re-sell it at almost the same price you bought it, there's no devaluation but only a seller commission if you don't want to bother.
3. I have in front of me a drawer that was build by the gran-gran-gran-pa (yes!) of my wife and... drawers are drawers. Same for stools, bed or tables. I understand your point as there's usages that are lost like furniture-like-clock but some others weird stuff still come back every time because they actually are clever [0]
4. I'm not sure what you're talking about: integrated kitchen (and so) are made to fill a certain room, not the wooden furniture I'm familiar with that you can literally place where you want. New place and not enough space ? Sell it (the the new owner or someone else) and buy another one that fits better. You hardly sell a cheapwood furniture. Moreover, moving to new places have other drawbacks to deal with that you take into account when making the decision. I'm not arguing you sloudn't move, but it's a process that isn't always trivial. For exemple many US residents won't be able to bring their tank-car aboard for legal and/or practical reasons. Or their digged swimming pool. Or whatever if they move to inner Tokyo.
TV => The image quality is wined by the news devices image, however ss you mention "expensive things" I'd like to point out a B&W tv is probably way cheaper and robust that and the 4K OLED one. But there's room for choices in-between, and I a agree the argumentation works better with furniture than electronics.
CAT scratch => That's the beauty of the made-to-last furniture: Wood ? sand it, a bit of varnish and you're done. Fabric ? tear off the piece and nail a new one. They're not museum pieces but day-to-day home helpers.
> I'd like to point out a B&W tv is probably way cheaper and robust that and the 4K OLED one
Where would you even find such a thing other than as a curated, carefully expensively maintained antique? Sure you can buy them second hand on Ebay, but the shipping costs of CRT TVs are pretty big. Everyone has a "flatscreen" TV because that's the default cheapest solution.
Shipping and handling costs are a big factor in the death of large, heavy traditional items.
I agree, the rarity makes it more expensive today. The only cheap option would to "keep" one of yours/you family but that's not an option for the most, not speaking of the connectors nightmare. The electronics sector evolved way faster than furnitures, making a giant leap in a few decades.
The linked article on Unicode is far more interesting actually. I never really cared to think before how Unicode works, but reading the submission letter of beet emoji was the most interesting thing I've read this month so far.
I can imagine a group of excited guys coming up with that idea as something cool, and then the whole thing slowly evolving into a yet another branding tool.
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