Better Call Saul. I find it so amazing how they were able to take an existing (brilliant in its own right) story, and extend it in both past and the future. It fits in so nicely. There are very few (if any) plot holes, and the story is enjoyable in its own right. Add to that the superb acting of almost everyone, and the elite cinematography. I don’t think there’s a single aspect of this show that I don’t like.

Never have I ever failed an exam.

Right in front of me is a guy editing a >10 page LaTeX file in Overleaf on a 13 inch laptop. The sidebar takes like 1/3rd of the screen. The editor in around 3 inches in width, and he needs to zoom into the PDF preview to read it.

My point in, some people simply don’t care about anything.

I prefer Office 365 online.

Getting a job won’t make things easier. Most people need human friends to live a fulfilling life. I think you might be imagining that people dislike you, as we socially awkward people often do. Just try talking to people, and you’ll surely make a few friends. I’m socially awkward, but make it a point to attend some social gatherings outside of classes/job so that I’m basically forced to talk to people, no matter how hard it is. If you’re just starting university, it’ll be easier as everyone is trying to make friends, and there’ll be many open events. For later years, it might be a bit harder, but try joining some clubs. I’ve found astronomy clubs to be pretty chill and welcoming to new members.

Just make it a point to attend some social events. There will definitely be people who will appreciate your personality, just give them the chance to get to know you.

(All of this is assuming you don’t have some underlying mental condition. If you find it hard to follow this advice, maybe seek help from a professional.)

I also used to use Telegram for these, but have recently switched to ntfy.sh Would highly recommend.

I don’t get scared easily, but Kothanodi had me watching through my fingers. It has four vaguely connected stories, and two of them are very fucked up. There’s a decent amount of infanticide and other atrocities inflicted on minors, so be warned if you have any childhood trauma.

Also by the same director, the movie Aamis is about cannibalism acting as a replacement for sex. It’s pretty fucked up as well.

Try to get some prescription painkillers, ideally opioids. None of the over-the-counter stuff even comes close. Tramadol helped me manage pain after my surgery.

I’ve heard about Typst, never really tried it. I don’t think I’ll completely be able to switch anytime soon since no journal accepts it afaik. But maybe I can try it out for personal stuff.

I understand using it for collaboration. But I see people write their homework in it. They’re not collaborating with anyone.

Also, these people use it all the time. I understand using Overleaf if you only use LaTeX rarely, since you don’t need to set anything up.

I personally edit offline, and copy to Overleaf if I need to collaborate.

I’m surprised by how many people use Overleaf for writing LaTeX instead of installing something locally. It’s not that hard, guys. And the experience can be infinitely better as you can actually customize it however you want.

I do use Ventoy, but a more “traditional” alternative that I like is Popsicle. Super lightweight, and works very well. Some cases do require a dedicated USB, where Ventoy won’t work, at least not without trickery (e.g. anything with persistent storage).

I’ve been using Gallery for PhotoPrism for a while now and it’s pretty solid.

It’s a choice. We know that it’s riskier to use stuff from AUR. Which is why it’s highly recommended to read the PKGBUILD before installing the package. The basic Arch install doesn’t even include an AUR helper. That said, AUR is typically very reliable for packages with a decent userbase. It’s mostly due to the community aspect. Bad actors are caught relatively easily as the PKGBUILD is available to look at.

I dislike both. But since Google Docs is free, it’s easier to use everywhere and with all kinds of groups.

No, it’s powered by Tensorflow, not an LLM. It’s the useful side of AI, basically, also it’s locally hosted. In case you don’t like it, you can disable it. It’s still a great app.

I’ve been using exclusively Linux since high school, and now I’m doing a PhD in math. It’s always been pretty smooth. I used to have a separate Windows rig for gaming, but don’t really need it anymore, now that Proton works very well with most games. (I don’t really play AAA games, so that helps.)

Coming to the point, for academic stuff, I mostly needed to use a PDF reader (Zathura and qPdfView), LaTeX, and some computation and graphing software (mostly SageMath). I sometimes needed to use DOCX files, but LibreOffice works well for that. Most other software I need from time to time are usually Linux native.

Also, many universities provide access to O365. I’ve used it in some rare cases where I needed to provide input in some collaborative document. But in most cases, I was able to convince my friends/colleagues to use Google Docs instead.

Unless you do CAD, or some creative work, Linux should be perfect for your usecase.

There’s also PhotoPrism.

Individual philanthropy is never a solution. Most of the breakthroughs happen by public funding. Tax the rich, and fund the research. Don’t let the MFs claim they’re helping anyone out by donating 1% of their stolen wealth.

Lol. Hope you found something else to enjoy with the tea.