I use VPNs only a few times per year, hence why I'm not subscribed to any of them. But I had possibly the worst luck ever trying to use them, and at this point I’d rather just spend my time trying to not go through this nonsense.

I wanted to access a piece of content with a VPN. I won’t go into detail because that’s unimportant here. This is all the nonsense I went through before giving up.

1. Windows laptop, Proton VPN. I’d used this before successfully months ago, so I tried again. It. Just. Could. Not. Connect. I was left hanging for minutes on end.

2. Okay, let’s try on my Android phone. Still Proton VPN, same account. Was able to connect, but even though the server was nearby and at 54% load, NOTHING would load, not even an innocuous DDG search. I tried switching from WiFi to mobile data, and that did not help.

3. I have a backup VPN for cases like this, Tunnelbear. I know this isn’t the highest quality VPN but it’s served me well several years ago when Proton was overloaded. It also just could not connect, saying that my private DNS settings were bad. I switched from WiFi to mobile data, and still got the same error.

4. Now exasperated, I tried using the Mozilla VPN on my Linux desktop. After setting up a new account and going through the motions, I tried to connect and just got an error, with it slyly suggesting to try in a few minutes.

5. Tried Proton VPN on my phone one last time, and now it could not connect at all.

I then proceeded to give up and use a credit-card free trial to access the content. The entire process including cancelling the subscription took about 30 seconds. Trying – and failing – to troubleshoot the VPNs took more like 30 minutes.

Am I experiencing this trouble because I am trying to avoid paying for VPNs, or is it always this bad?

Edit: It turned out that the content wasn't what I actually needed and the paid site didn't have it. I ultimately caved and paid for a month of Mullvad VPN to get the singular piece of content, and it just worked. Maybe you can give me some ideas on what to do with my newfound power while it lasts.

A few years ago I made a city in Cities Skylines inspired by Linux distributions. There is the main, free island with (mostly) desktop Linux distributions and the smaller, crowded, and restrictive Android island with various Android ROMs. I've probably put over 200 hours into this city in the game. This is a long post, so buckle up.

There are ~90-95 districts in the city, each representing a distro or at least a specific desktop environment. Each district has a 2-digit code, with the first digit having a theme:

• 0x, 1x: Ubuntu and its direct derivatives
• 2x: Ubuntu derivatives, but with some "distance" from Canonical (Linux Mint, ElementaryOS), plus some miscellaneous distros
• 3x: Debian and its non-Ubuntu derivatives
• 4x: Fedora and its derivatives
• 5x: Arch and its derivatives (including SteamOS)
• 6x: Miscellaneous and lightweight distros (Slackware, OpenSUSE, Tiny Core, etc.)
• 7x: "Googled" Android ROMs
• 8x: Degoogled Android ROMs (half of them are probably dead, due to laws from the other parts of the island)
• 9x: "Advanced" Linux distros (ex. Kali, Alpine, NixOS, Gentoo, etc.)

Exceptions to the my first digit rule:

• 27: ChromeOS
• 69: Hannah Montana Linux
• 76: PopOS

There are some other general rules for districts in the city:

• Any major money-making distro corresponds to an industrial district (ex. RHEL, Ubuntu IoT, etc.)
• Districts near the coast correspond to more noob-friendly distros, and districts in the inner mountain regions correspond to more advanced distros.
• Dense districts correspond to distros used by many people, and this pattern continues to exurban or even rural districts.
• In general, the better the distro is, the more "desirable" its corresponding distict is to live in.

Yes, I purposely designed the Ubuntu district to be shaped like the Ubuntu logo and I think it's beautiful.

How to get around the city? There is lots of public transit, and highways for cars.

Let's start with the roads, because I named most of them. Small roads will be bullet-pointed, while large roads will have a picture with the name.

• North-South streets are numbered, from 1st Street (by the GeForce RTX Cliffs Park) to 95th Street (in SteamOS and on Atomic Island). This holds true on Android island.
• East-West roads are named based on the North-South position relative to the center of Ubuntu:
• South of the center of Ubuntu, they are named after the first word of the Ubuntu releases (from Edgy Eft to Noble Numbat)
• North of the center of Ubuntu on Linux island, they are named after the second word of the Ubuntu releases (from Edgy Eft to Kinetic Kudu).
• East-West roads on Android island are named after the Android desserts (from the made up Apple (lol) Street, to Tiramisu Street).
• There are some exceptions, especially in the center of larger districts. Send a reply if you have any questions about a particular road!

Here are pictures of each part of the city:

Ubuntu vicinity:

NE Linux Island:

SE Linux Island:

SW Linux Island:

NW Linux Island:

Android Island:

View from "Ubuntu Overlook":

Arch btw Park:

(I'm not even an Arch user but I think this is funny)

The backbone of the public transit are the train lines, named after the Big 4 motorcycle manufacturers (I'm into motorcycles lol) arranged similar topographically to a peace sign:

• Honda loop: Ubuntu, Debian, Raspbian, Linux Mint, PopOS
• Suzuki loop: Ubuntu, Debian, OpenSUSE, Fedora/Nobara, Manjaro, SteamOS
• Kawasaki loop: PopOS, Linux Mint, Raspbian, OpenSUSE, Fedora/Nobara, Manjaro, SteamOS, Stock Android, Airport
• Yamaha line (not loop): Debian, Ubuntu, Airport, Stock Android

Additionally, there are many bus lines, with the long-range ones named after Sheet Music Boss's RUSH songs. Note that the districts I mention are not the only stops, but just give a rundown of where the lines go.

• RUSH A: Ubuntu-AntiX-Arch-Manjaro-Bazzite
• RUSH B: KDE Neon-Kubuntu-Ubuntu-PopOS-Zorin-Linux Mint-ElementaryOS
• RUSH C: Airport-Ubuntu Kylin-Ubuntu-Xubuntu-Linux Mint-ElementaryOS
• RUSH C#: Ubuntu-Ubuntu Budgie-Deepin-MX Linux-Raspbian
• RUSH D: ChromeOS-Slackware-Lubuntu-Debian-Raspbian
• RUSH Eb: SteamOS-EndeavorOS-Arco-Arch-OpenSUSE-Kali
• RUSH E: SteamOS-Manjaro-Bazzite-Silverblue-Fedora
• RUSH F: Linux Mint-Debian-OpenSUSE-Rocky-CentOS-Fedora-Silverblue
• RUSH G: Airport-KDE Neon-Slackware-ChromeOS-Parabola-Northern and central SteamOS
• RUSH PIGGIES: Ubuntu-Ubuntu MATE-Debian-Raspbian-Kali-OpenSUSE-RHEL-Fedora
• RUSH ASTRONOMIA: Hannah Montana-Kubuntu-Lubuntu-Peppermint-Solus-Linux Mint-ElementaryOS
• RUSH ANKHA: ChromeOS-Slackware-Ubuntu-Xubuntu-Linux Lite-Linux Mint
• RUSH SKELETONS: ChromeOS-Gentoo-Puppy-Void-Arch-CentOS-Nobara-Fedora
• RUSH AREA 51: Slax-Slackware-ChromeOS-Garuda-EndeavorOS-Nobara-Fedora

Please note that some parts, especially on the west side, are still undeveloped as I have to wait for more residential demand.

Ironically, this city was fully made in Windows.

I've always been dreaming of riding my motorcycle on a race track, free of speed limits and idiots in cars. And recently, I did so, thanks to the Total Control Advanced Rider Course.

They had us do various classroom exercises between the 6 20-minute track sessions. We learned about trail braking, proper body position, proper line selection, and suspension setup, among other things.

While on the track, the 1st session was about line selection, the 2nd session was about trail braking, the 3rd session was about body position, the 4th session was about practicing weaknesses, and for the last two sessions we could try to go as fast as we could.

We were split into 7 groups during the sessions, with group 1 being the fastest and group 7 being the slowest (many cruisers in that group). I started out in group 5 but I was more similarly paced to group 4. Some of my riding buddies came along and some were about the same speed or a little slower than me, but a couple were far faster and ended up lapping me while dragging knee. (I'm not at that point yet)

I've done my fair share of spirited street riding but the speed and adrenaline is dwarfed by that on the track. I had a couple sketchy moments, once where I rode over the painted line for track entry from the pit and the rear slipped quite a bit, and another where I was trying to make a pass then my line was blocked and I went wide and panic braked, entering into the grass at 35mph. I stayed calm and I did not go down, but gosh that was scary.

Overall, I had a lot of fun, learned and leaned a lot, and can't wait for my next track day. I'm just hoping it didn't ruin street riding forever. RIP my wallet.

I was just doing random stuff on my phone and went to click a button near the top right of the screen, and was mildly horrified to see "1%", so I immediately put it into the charger, where the phone promptly started showing "0%" for the next ~30 seconds. The phone never died.

Has this happened to any of you?