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Open source Duolingo alternative?
  • The US Foreign Services Institute releases their learning materials, so if you're okay with a lack of structure I hear they can be very useful, including both reading and listening.

    It can be accessed on several different sites. Here's one that came up, but you can find a few more with some searching: https://www.livelingua.com/fsi/

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    If incandescent lightbulbs have a vacuum inside, why do they get so hot on the outside?
  • One of my favorite things about Reddit was that any link in a thread about light bulbs, heaters, EVs, or other appliances was almost certainly to a Technology Connections video. I'm glad to see that trend continuing on Lemmy.

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    Plan on getting a Linux laptop: any suggestions?
  • Great. I should add that the solution I mentioned was done on Mint, but it's a kernel parameter so I'd imagine it's not too distro-specific (I'm very new to Linux though so I may be wrong).

    Here is the forum thread if you want to look for yourself. The actual solution should be the third-to-last reply.

    The user added in the last comment that this problem may actually be fixed on a lot of SmartShift laptops, so it may not come up at all if you do get one.

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    Is it possible to safely check for certain characters in a password?
  • Do they always ask for the same characters? I'd imagine they could hash the password as well as saving only the 2nd and 9th characters as plaintext. Still a bit of a security risk but not nearly as bad

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    Plan on getting a Linux laptop: any suggestions?
  • If you're getting a Dell (or other laptops, but I know it's fairly common in Dell laptops) try to avoid anything with AMD SmartShift. This feature is designed only for Windows and will cause problems with Linux.

    I've been told of a pretty simple fix, so it's not the end of the world, but if you can avoid it I would.

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    How to find communities in fediverse without getting spammed with offensive porn?
  • You could try finding an instance that isn't porn-friendly. The one I'm currently using (https://dmv.social) asks users not to subscribe to any NSFW communities, which prevents those communities from showing up in my All feed.

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    Is numlock key actually useful?
  • You should look into Kanata. It lets you remap the whole keyboard, same idea as QMK, except it's running on your computer instead of the keyboard itself.

    It can be a bit tricky to set up if you're not used to that sort of thing, but I managed to figure it out so if you have any questions feel free to ask.

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