This is @Sasha and her most valuable project to date:

A book. But a book is not simply a lot of words or a pile of paper. It is memories, emotions, worldviews, and a lot of work to put them all together. Her book is a story that spans over 15 years. But these years are hardly what most people experience on this planet.

She was born in Russia but at age 8 had to move to the United States and deal with a new world. New language, new culture, new people; her mom, her bother, and some pets. Her father went back to Russia, and that affected her a lot.

A mountain of changes to absorb as a kid which led her to a world of drugs and anger.

She details these struggles which at times feel like hard to believe stories - a 17 year old girl selling drugs in New York, crazy mushroom trips and adventurous thefts.

But she managed to pull herself together and change her life for the better. She was not impressed by the imaginary borders humans create and call countries, so she went on flying like a free bird :). From Canada to Mexico, Australia to Europe, Russia to Thailand. 15 years of adventures with almost no money. Because money won't stop Small Sasha :).

A way to discover the world and yourself.

When you get to experience so many cultures and places, you can understand much better what humans are, and what makes them who they are.

The places she saw and the people she met are extraordinarily described in the book, in a way that you feel like you are there. No photos needed. You'll laugh, wonder, or feel uncomfortable reading some of her uncensored experiences.

It is a galaxy of stories that she had to put together using notes from the past, photos, and her own memories stored in the mushy pile of cells we call the brain.

She managed to compile this massive story in a way that it is super fun to follow, but also to get a feeling of how she grew a mind in all of these years.

That mental growth and her experiences, made her realize how fucked up this society is and how much we are destroying this environment and the creatures in it.

She started to volunteer for some organizations over the years, eventually getting closer to the project I made, TROM. And so here we are, a book later, spending our lives together.

I cannot describe how wonderful this book is, how emotional and funny. So much fun, but also a lot of reality check for many people who are going to have their values challenged.

She crafted this book so much, that at times you feel like Carl Sagan, David Attenborough and George Carlin contributed to the book :).

A wonderful read! A massive CONGRATULATIONS to Sasha for the immense work she put into this. I know too well how for the past 4 years she worked so much on this book that it almost put our relationship under a big question mark. I never saw anyone putting so much effort into anything. It was too intense!

But now it is OVER. Finally! I thought I will never see this happen. Wow!

After so many years of work, and almost no money, she is putting the book for free on her website https://www.bigworldsmallsasha.com/ in digital format, despite us not having much money to make a life for ourselves on this planet. But of course, if you want to support her (us) you can buy the physical copy too. Or donate if you can.

I helped design the entire cover and I am quite proud of it :).

Go read it! I know I will read it again. This time the physical copy, in a hammock somewhere in nature.

Sasha you fucking did ti!

PS: The book was made with trade-free software. LibreOffice, Krita, Inkscape.

#nature #traveling #society #capitalism #trade #book #bookrelease #foss

No surprise that Alexei Navalny died....unfortunately the situation in this world is not like a movie, where the bad guys are defeated. It seems to me like we've built a society that encourages villains and give little chances to anyone who wants to do anything in a more just way in this society.

Navalny had a huge following and was able to pierce with his campaign through the thick and foggy blanket of propaganda that the Russian government is so good and persistent at. And Navalny may not have been a saint or may not have changed much in Russia, who knows considering the level of corruption that infected all governments around the world, but for sure he was attacked, silenced, and eventually killed (directly or indirectly through a lot of abuse).

Many journalists have been imprisoned or even killed, and now we can see these publicly and so clearly. It is naive to think that pretty much anyone who challenges Putin drops dead or in prison and this has nothing to do with Putin. But probably these wannabe dictators do not even mind to cover up anything anymore.

We are noticing the modern public beheading of those who challenge the status quo. But these modern dictators do not have yet the courage to admit that they did it. They only make it very obvious that they did.

Russia seems to have become an authoritarian regime, the old school one. And this is increasingly concerning. Silencing the protesters, killing the political opponents, and infecting the media with terrible propaganda.

"make no mistake" (to quote the chief of USA), the other tribes are flavors of the same medicine. USA, EU, and the rest, are abusive in their own way, and have killed, and still killing, many innocent people. Russia is just worse. So don't let the degree of "doing bad things" take away from the fact that the other tribes are also abusive. USA may not kill the political opponents, but it is damn good at giving no chance to any radical change in the good direction of their tribe.

Anyway.... it is a sad and scary world. Humans, what a deplorable species.

I am making the documentary about Navalny freely available on our Peertube https://videos.trom.tf/w/b17jsjV11KhxvvnfMusaEy and will be featured on the homepage. See how obvious it is that the guy was targeted and almost killed not long ago. Terrible.

Are we ever going to be an "intelligent human species", floating in space on a marvelous ball of wonders that we can take care of? Exploring the in and outs of it? Or are we going to continue as tribalistic and primitive creatures, exploiting and killing?....

Tio

2024-02-16 17:08:38

Navalny Documentary

The film tells about the events related to the poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and the subsequent investigation into the poisoning. On 20 August 2020, Navalny was poisoned with a Novichok nerve agent,[6] falling sick during a flight from Tomsk to Moscow, and was hospitalized in serious condition. Navalny was taken to a hospital in Omsk after an emergency landing there, and put in a coma. Two days later, he was evacuated to the Charité hospital in Berlin, Germany. The use of the nerve agent was confirmed by five Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) certified laboratories. Navalny blamed Russian president Vladimir Putin for his poisoning, while the Kremlin has repeatedly denied involvement.

Even I forget that I released a massive documentary some months ago...and that I worked so hard on that. I honestly forget about that quite often and deep down I feel a bit frustrated and sad that I do not do more. But maybe I just forget that I have put so much effort into that and perhaps that drained me of energy. Of course I am crazy busy with the driving license now and am doing other things in the background for TROM, but I need to remind myself that I've done a lot to scream, and I will do more, but I cannot be always like a machine that never stops. So I need some more time to get myself back on track and create new things, scream more and in different ways, and so forth.

I am trying, but the world in which we live is like a bullet-train of nonstop things happening. Most of them are idiotic and ugly. So most people are trapped in this race. Myself included many times. That's why I forget about the documentary.

Wars, disasters, debates, problems, noise. Too much noise. And not much progress into any saner direction.

I ponder sometimes if I should stop trying, and live a quiet and simple life and not give a shit. I don't know...it is hard to imagine that "me". I started my "online activism" back in 2007 or so. That's a scary 17 years ago. And the world has only gotten worse. So why continue I ask myself....

Maybe I just need to recharge myself this year and change my personal life quite a bit. To then have some new energy and motivation to do more, and newer. But also different.

It is also really difficult to try and manage all of these projects and the stuff that I do, with 20% of what I need financially in this trade world...if at least I had enough support to keep me afloat, I could have the confidence of doing more, and doing other things too in this direction.

For now I will be busy with the retarded driving test for the next 1-2 weeks. Then if I manage to pass the exam, it should be easier. I will have to wait a few months for the practical test (driving) but I am quite sure I can take that one. So let's see how I organize myself and the TROM projects for the next months. I will post updates on my Friendica if course.

#romstuff

Video:

In this video Adam Conover argues that people cannot leave Twitter because everyone is there and Mastodon is hard to use. He thinks that the best is to transform Twitter into a nationalized, gov-owned public good platform.

Well...

He may be right that people are not going to leave Twitter, Facebook, Youtube and the like since "everyone is there". Which, let's be honest, is an indirect way of saying that humans are mindless sheep who will go to the popular party regardless if they are fucked in the ass all day. So let's not brush this aside. Humans are mindless idiots, at least most of them. And busy for that matter. That should scare the shit out of us and to make us try to find a solution for that, not a solution for Twitter and the like.

Second, Mastodon is not the fucking "fediverse". The fediverse is a big network made up of many different platforms. It is like calling the mail, GMAIL. As if it is only Gmail. Also, if Mastodon is hard to use, and for that matter other platforms like Friendica and so forth, then humans must be true idiots because it takes you a minute to understand how these work. They are as "complicated" as Twitter, Facebook and the like. The people who think that using Linux or a federated platform is "hard", are those that need any little excuse to not change their habits. When people start to use new platforms like Zoom, TikTok and the like, they put up with whatever new interfaces they have to navigate, just to use them because "these apps are trendy and everyone uses them".

Lastly, a gov owned social network is not like a gov owned educational network like PBS....PBS produces specific content that it controls. A social network is made up of the content that people produce....if the gov would control that, it would be censored like hell. Terrible idea!

The solution is decentralization. Else you have a giant company or gov that decides what we are allowed to post. Therefore, small instances of locally-moderated groups of people, that create a giant network. Welcome to the Fediverse.

Now let's continue to educate people about it rather than dreaming about the gov taking over a multi-billion dollar ad-based company and making it usable and free for all of us.

#tromstuff

I need to divorce myself more from the society/politics/conflicts part of our world. It is insane what it has become. When Russia put hundreds of thousands of troops on Ukraine's border and were accused of preparing an invasion, they said that's entirely false. Then they invaded, then they called the war against Ukraine as a "special military operation".

They bombed hospitals and schools and residential or public spaces, killing so many innocent people...

Day by day, people dying, politicians lying. People were crying...

And now Israel drops thousands of bombs on Gaza, killing again so many innocent people. Creating a total disaster.

Israel says they only kill the bad people, despite the videos and photos showing the contrary. They say they are saints and are fighting against evil, because you see Hamas killed over a thousand innocent Israeli people and that's EVIL, so they must go and kill thousands more innocent people....because that's GOOD!

Then Russia is like: Oh my god, this is genocide! Unbelievable! To drop bombs on hospitals and kill entire families. This is terrible!

And China speaking up against what Israel is doing, more than what Russia is doing. And Iran talking about "human rights"....

And Ukraine not putting any blame on Israel for doing what Russia is doing to them....

Add to the mix the Hamas and other groups that create a lot of misery and terror, and the values of the so called "Arab countries" that are full of shit, and the primitivism of religion overall.

Ukraine is also not an angel, or any other tribe for that matter. Politicians are lying, propaganda is a daily news, and people continue to suffer while at the same time we have problems like cancer killing so many people, tuberculosis that is treatable killing the poor by the millions; diseases, climate change, pollution....

But the thing is, many of these situations are still a result of our trade-based society. The destruction of our environment, enslaving people, making humans into consumers, and so on, are a result of this society.

But even when it comes to wars they are a result of boiling trade-interests on a high flame. Where politicians say all sorts of stupid things, create propaganda through social (ad) networks that also rely on trades, promoting nationalism and patriotism to get more votes, to then have these politicians rule over others, and have luxurious cars, do all sort of businesses, and gain more power.

In other words do you think the "head of states" really care about their tribe when they are almost always caught avoiding taxes, doing shady businesses, and stealing form their tribe?

They care about them and their families, but then they start to promote "patriotism" and "us the tribe" stupidity, to gain votes to be elected as "heads of states". And they use these platforms that care mostly about you paying them to promote your posts. The cycle of vomit.

The thirst for power comes mainly from humans being trained to trade to acquire, because the more you have the more power you have, and vice versa.

And then starting wars is part of the power thirst and the need to get more "support" from the "nationals".

A mix of rich people who lie and have power over others, and the others who are confused patriots, busy workers, and idiotic consumers. Going at war is easy.

And these things are not new at all. For thousands of years these things have existed. From the Roman empire to the Iraq war....

Conclusion.

This is a totally insane society, full of lies and idiots. A horror carnival. And I think the sanest way for me is to force myself to ignore this side of our society. Ignore everything that any politician says (I already do this anyway), ignore these conflicts that I cannot do a thing about and are wrapped in propaganda and misery; ignore this society and focus more on the natural world.

I want to try and do astrophotography to reveal what my eyes can't see. To go more in nature, to grow TROM and its many positive projects, to live a less stressed life, because the society is too retarded and chaotic to even make sense of it, let alone do anything about it.

#Israel #Palestine #ukraine #TradeRuinsEverything #astrophography #war

I rarely change my Notes app because I have a lot of notes and I need to use them. I can't afford to switch often, plus I could never find anything better than Zettlr for the past years. Until now.

AppFlowy!

That's the one I've been looking for.

Supports markdown but has a WYSIWYG so it is very easy to use. Text formatting, links, headings, tables, text colors and highlights, paste images, man it has a lot and yet it is so simple!

I add many code snippets and its code blocks are awesome and simple, with auto recognition for the code type:

And you simply hover a piece of text and have all of the options you need to edit, or add blocks via / or a button.

You can even create kaban-style pages:

WOW! Just WOW. It means that I am replacing not only Zettlr but Vijunka too, in one single app! And it is all local.

And it has a lot more, so give it a try.

They are working to add a search function (a must) and more features!

Yeah they added a ChatGPT integration for those who want to use it and add a API key to it....idk how to feel about that but I proposed to them to at least use GPT4all, the open source and locally run language model.

Anyway, I love this notes app! Give it a try. Trust me, it really is amazing how much you can do with it!

I am quite sure that what prevents me from going into a deep depression is my workaholism. I am always busy with things, some new, some old, some experimental. I always want to do new projects, write, create, enable. The fact that soon after I released TROM II, a 3 years work, I jumped into new adventures, says a lot. Many would fucking retire for a few years after working so much on a project, or drop dead.

I always do stuff. And that keeps me away from thinking about many truths. Some that really piss me off are these wannabe "activists" and "organizations" that bitch about this society and then have pompous motivational vomits about how we should do something, and help, and fight, and all that. Yet none, or almost none, of these motherfuckers that I know have ever helped TROM and the many projects that we have, even with a share or something.

We have so many tools that people can use, so many books, a new documentary, and more. I am always available for any podcasts, debate, presentation, wheteverthefuck. I am here screaming for more than a decade, but if I think how ignored TROM is, especially by these cunts :), then I could go into depression mode quite fast.

That's the truth.

Better to keep myself busy with my TROM work, else I may realize how hypocritical many people are. I will always share whatever is important in regards to TROM, regardless of the source. And we do daily on tromnews.com and such. And I've helped other projects whenever I could.

What just triggered me is this video by TVP . Ok made, but the message of: "We should change the world by getting involved. You can do something even from behind the computer!" Is so hypocritical coming from an organization that will NEVER share anything from anyone else. They will NEVER help those people who are active and fight.

TVP has some online reach so hey go ahead share TROM II, or TROM.tf, or other orgs from our Trade Free Directory! They won't! They never did. I worked with them for years. They just talk. Bullshitters. Many bullshitters out there.

Ok rant done.

Users like visiting websites that are expensive to create and maintain, but they often want or need to do it without paying directly. These websites fund themselves with ads, but the advertisers can only afford to pay for humans to see the ads, rather than robots. This creates a need for human users to prove to websites that they're human, sometimes through tasks like challenges or logins.

I bought a Dell Inspiron 7620 2-in-1 (mouthful) some 6-7 months ago. Took me many months to choose a laptop and this one was the best for me. It is a 16` 16:10 with a powerful CPU and a good GPU. The screen is amazing, the keyboard is very good, and the chassis is aluminum.

In these months I had to fix the touchpad because it was not working anymore, and that was a massive issue, but the worst is that the battery capacity dropped to 83% capacity in only a few months time.

You see, this laptop is really thin.

When I stress the laptop a bit it is so hot you can barely touch it. 80-90C. And I had to render the TROM II documentary on this laptop. Got crazy hot, for many weeks on end.

Therefore, I highly suspect that the battery capacity dropped because of the heat. I cannot see any other reason.

But now is July and I am in Spain. Thus, it is hot as fuck. This is tomorrow:

So I decided to buy a laptop fan. This sort:

After two weeks of use the temperature of the laptop would not go above 80-85C when I'd stress the laptop. So a 5-10C cooler. But I was not happy!

I said let's try something else. Let's order a fucking fan....you know a normal one. But a small one. And cheap as fuck. I spent too much time looking for one, but I eventually bought this one for 7 Euros:

First the way it is designed. You can put this fan in many different ways.

And so it allows me to position it anyway I want. Like directly bellow the laptop:

Best part? It has a rechargeable battery inside so you can use it for 1-3 hours on the battery alone. This is useful because now it is so hot I take it with me when I move with my laptop. Like put it in bed to blow air on the laptop while I hold it on my lap. It has 5 speeds and it is more powerful than you may think :). Plus it has a USB C connector so it is easy to find a replaceable cable when you need one.

Actually I was so impressed that I ordered one more, to blow air on my USB C dongle that is metal and I noticed it got extremely hot. I use one single dongle to connect my laptop to the charger, external monitor, projector, mouse, speakers, LAN, and more. I love it because I can plug/unplug with ease. But because it was getting so hot my LAN connection will drop several times a day.

Now that I got that cool fan, there is no drop anymore :).

Conclusion.

These special laptop fans are bullshit. At least those under 20. I tried several and they were very inefficient. And no, is not because they try to keep them silent and thus less powerful....the small fan that I got is also very quiet....but at least it works! Also, fuck you people who design such thin laptops and do not care much about the heat dispersal. Why the fuck you put a fan inside if it is so inefficient anyway? I guess they have to sell these laptops based on looks....I see....

Anyway, if your laptop gets hot, invest some 20 Euros and buy yourself a metal stand for it plus a mini fan. You can always repurpose that fan. And you can get a nice laptop stand.

I donated my old laptop to a dear friend who also helps with the TROM project. I used this laptop for many years but I needed a more portable one and luckily others helped me buy a better one for myself. I am happy to know that my dear friend the laptop, that helped me make 80% of the TROM II documentary, and trom.tf, and tromcasts, tromjaro, and so many books, and so on, now has a new home :)

I too often see these in the town I live in:

BUT:

• We are incentivized to buy and buy and buy; every day bombarded with such messages. And thus people buy even when they don't have to.
• There is no sharing platform that is useful enough, or some place where you can put these things to then be repaired and shared with others.
• People have no time to take any initiative. If people had the time to get involved they can create all sorts of sharing platforms and places. Like for the place where I live: imagine if some people can have the time to take the stuff people put at the garbage bin, repair and clean, and have a central place in the town where anyone can pick that stuff.

So. Yeah, anyway, I am super happy I could send my laptop to someone who will likely make good use of. I have 1 more laptop and a tablet that I want to give to others. I don't like to have much stuff anyway. I will try to get more and more involved with this physical-stuff sharing in the future, like https://sharebay.org/ that's made by our friend Colin. I will try to share stuff on that website too after TROM II is released.

When I scream about how trade is the origin of most problems, some people think that I am crazy and I exaggerate. Well either read the thousands of pages I wrote so far or watch the tens of hours of videos that I made, or here's another clear example:

I and Sasha. Much love. Love love, you know. We are together for the past 3 or so years. All we want is to stay on this planet somewhere. Can we? The answer is no. It is yes. It is maybe. It is confusing. Is it any answer?

After going through the bullshit of the marriage ritual, and went to lawyers here in Spain and all that, we still didn't figure that out until today.

Ok so listen. If you want to be able to stay in Spain, 2 humans that is, one of you is a resident in Spain and an EU citizen, one an American citizen, here's what you have to do:

• Prove that you are together and you love each other.
• That's it. Now you can live here and we (Spain) will take care of you to make sure you won't end up in the streets, or doing bad things.

See how easy that was!?

Oh wait....that's just my imagination. Hold on. Hmmm....Sorry, actually no one cares if you love each other, can take care of yourself, or you are a good human. Sorry, that was a different planet.

On Earth here's what you need:

• Be "married" (the ritual) with a resident/citizen of Spain.
• The resident/citizen has to prove that they have a job for the past year (so at least a year contract) and make at least 1.000 Euros a month.
• A bunch of other IDs and documents.

OR:

• Does not matter if you are with someone or not, you just have to stay in Spain for 3 consecutive years. Illegally.
• Do not get into any sort of issues with the police.
• Get a criminal record from your country of origin.
• Do a course (at least 40 hours) for the local language, in our case a dialect....
• Get a job offer.
• A bunch of other documents.

Alright Planet Earth, I see you are so kind with your hoomans.

So, a tribe (say Spain) will give 0 fucks about love, relationships, health, being a good human and such. But they will give 100% to TRADE. If you TRADE in their tribe, that's all they need really. If you invest money into a tribe, guess what, they will let you in no problemos - see. How many rich fucks that have been in jail or did so many illegal things are traveling all around the world!? Countless.

Fuck the "morality, ethics", equality, human rights, being a good human, and all of that crap. Or being a Christian, a Muslim, a whateverthefuck. These do not matter in our society. All it matters is that TRADE.

SO. It's all about that trade, 'bout that trade... - sing with me!

My mother has a Samsung Galaxy J5 that she bought several years ago. The phone is in great condition physically. However it only has 16GB of internal storage. Problem is she uses 99% of that space, making the device extremely slow and 0 updates possible or the ability to install any new app.

So, we cannot uninstall/remove anything. Now what can she do? Buy a new phone probably.

And this is how you create a massive amount of waste. On these phones you have no control over your OS, so if your phone is a few years old you can say bye bye to system updates. You cannot remove the bloatware. You cannot change the battery or any other components. And yes probably you can do some of those if you have a ton of time and skills to install a custom Android and have the guts to unglue your phone and change the battery. But most people will never do this.

I tried to make the SD card of her phone part of the system to expand the storage. Worked. But then what for if I cannot move 99% of apps there? I then enabled the developer mode and enabled the "force move the apps to the SD card". That allowed me to move a bit more apps but still 80% cannot be moved.

However when these moved apps update, they are reinstalled on the internal storage again. Basically 'd have to move them to the SD card all the time....sucks. Not sustainable...

I eventually managed to install adbmanager and luckily that allowed me to remove any bloatware I wanted.

After doing all of these she has some 1.7GB of free space. Which is fine for now but still unsustainable. I wonder if the next Android update will add back all of that bloatware....after all when I got some updates years ago Samsung decided to install Facebook and Instagram for me, without the ability to remove them.

So, her laptop uses Linux and not Windows, despite having Windows pre-installed when we bought it. Why not install a sane Android OS on her phone?

With laptops is a ton easier, especially for older models, to install an OS. My mother could do it if I gave her the instructions. With the phones it is a different world. People are already googlefied so you can't just install a new Android without connecting it to their previous account since everything is tied to that. You need to root the phone and hope that it won't brick it. That's something that can make your phone useless. Plus all of these custom Androids that have removed the bloatware only support a tiny fraction of all phones.

LineageOS for example, the one that supports by far the most models - https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/ - does not support that phone.

The rest support mostly the Pixel phones, namely the newer ones. And that's another issue...even these custom OSes will support this or that device for a bit, then bye bye. Therefore you still have to buy newer devices even when you want a custom Android that is bloatware free.

I was considering to compromise on buying a second hand but newer model Pixel and then install one of those bloatfree Androids, but then if you buy such a phone second hand and the battery is crap and you can't replace it....what can you do!?

Linux phones, if anyone wonders, are an experiment at best at this stage. Plus they only support a few models too.

It is such a different world when it comes to computers. This Microsoft tablet is more than 10 years old:

So you can bring to life old computers but not old phones.

That's one major reason why I hate smartphones. They are disposable. They come bloated with a ton of crap. It is hard if not impossible to block ads on phones. Plus they are with you all the time so notifications and all that crap will make your life a hell.

Even a Linux phone would not be something I would use much since I do not want to always be trapped in the digital space.

In this trade based society companies are incentivized to release newer model of phones constantly. They support each model for a few years then bye bye. They pre-install a lot of crap to make more off of you. Trades: attention, data, subscriptions. So we end up with a world full of disposable ad-devices that people call as "smartphones". The irony of using the word "smart" for those devices.

And I get it, these devices if they were Linux based only, and supported indefinitely, could be useful in certain circumstances such as navigation, keeping in touch with close friends, etc.. But the rest seems to me like just a tool for consuming, trading. Your life being sucked away from you by companies and individuals who want your currency, your attention, your data.

UGLY.

I will eventually install a custom Android on my own personal phone, a Galaxy S7, 8 years old. To put some life into it. Just so that I get rid of the pile of shit that the software is on all phones nowadays, even if I only use my phone for GPS, maps, and such purposes.

Yesterday I went to the dentist. I didn't have to go for the past 4 or so years so that's the positive side. I used to go there for 3 or so years almost weekly, not long ago, because I had braces. I had really fucked up teeth and it took 3 years to fix them.

Anyway, I go there and they tell me to wait in the waiting room. I enter and I see a few C's. Some young, some oldish. By C's I mean people. Why C? Because that's how they look to me, like the letter C when they sit down and are bent over their phone screens.

I remember not long ago when I was going to the same dentist, waiting in the same waiting room, that most people were just sitting around. They had some magazines there and some were picking them up and browsing through them.

So I sit down and look around like I normally do. I could see through a big glass door how strongly it is raining outside. It was pouring. My mind shifted to the TROM II documentary, the stuff that I want to do next, my plans for the next months, and so forth. My mind drifted towards the scenery for a bit and I was thinking how weird that this water falls from the sky and how it sounds....those rain droplets falling on the pavement make a lot of sound. And sound is basically energy. The atmosphere, the stuff around, shaking, and the vibrations reach our ears. How cool.

I remember waiting in this waiting room for many hours when I was going for my braces. And had a lot of thoughts. I like to think about stuff.

I then look around me and the C's are still C. I am thinking "Do they think that I am a weirdo...the only one here just sitting like that and not bent as a C? Am I more like an L when I sit down?" - but then I thought.....are these people even thinking about that? Or thinking in general?

Not to be mean, but it seems to me like pretty much everyone nowadays has no more "free time" to think. That time is completely eaten by the phones and the computers and the tv....

Honestly, does anyone nowadays have inner thoughts? Because even when you sit in your bed, before going to sleep, probably most humans are on their phones. They wake up with their phones in their faces too.

I was amusing myself thinking that in the near future people would go to a psychologist and be like...

Patient: I hear voices in my head!
Psychologist: What do they say?
Patient: idk....like words at times...
Psychologist: Do you hear them loud?
Patient: At times yes....
Psychologist: How often and when mostly?
Patient: Not that often, and usually when I do not do anything for some reason...
Psychologist: Ok, you may suffer from ITD.
Patient IDT?
Psychologist: Inner Thoughts Disorder. A lack of outside stimulation of the brain can cause the brain to shoot random thoughts. It is nothing to worry about. Back in the days people managed to deal with that on a daily basis. I recommend you these apps to keep your brain more engaged, and take one of these sleeping pills an hour before you want to go to bed.

That's how I was amusing myself.

You know, I used to spend at least 2-3 hours in bed before going to sleep, thinking about stuff. And it is damn fun. At times I would spend 5-6 hours or more, staying in bed, thinking. Actually this thinking time allowed me to create TROM, the documentary. The many books I wrote and projects I created. Heck yeah, this article was created last night while I was sitting in bed, in darkness, just with my brain. Now I too have reduced the night thinking to say 1-2 hours for some reason, but I still think every single night before I go to bed. :)

These moments of you inside your brain are, I think, essential to get to know yourself and the world around you. To plan ahead, to talk to yourself, understand yourself and your relationships. And the world that is out there. Without it you are like a Rumba cleaning robot. Or other sorts of robots. You observe and are pushed by the stuff you are observing. But have no time for self-reflection. Your brain is a read only software by you, and read and write for the big companies that are keeping you busy.

The same way that humans became physical robots for the past centuries, working 8 to 12 hours a day, same way today their minds are being trading assets. Facebook, Google, Netflix, TikTok and the like, they NEED your mind to trade. Your attention and data are so valuable today. So they do all they can to transform you into a livestock animal, milked daily, because that's all they want.

It is a very ugly society we live in. Driven by the same force of trade.

When the printing press was invented some said that humans won't even think because they will spend time reading other people's thoughts. Wasn't true really. Newspapers and the invention of the TV, others said, will make people dumber by keeping them glued to those media outlets. Not entirely true, but to some degree truer than before. The "smartphone" and the internet era is on a different level tho. They do keep people busy most of the time, because it is run by a cancerous invasion of companies and individuals who want BRAINS. Mindless consuming BRAINS. And you carry that consumption device with you non stop, and rely on it.

I too rely on a phone....to keep in touch with my parents and because they require one when you have a bank account, go to the hospital, the dentist, and so on. But I decided to only use the phone for that. And for the weather at times. Plus GPS. The rest I do not care. Although I spend a ton of time online, I do so only on my laptop. On my phone I rarely even have credit. And on my laptop I do a lot of work for TROM. Besides that I do scroll through reddit at times, but mostly I use our own tools like TROMnews, I watch documentaries and so forth.

But man.....this is a scary world for me. I see most humans as zombies who are not alive, but simply are automatons that are fed and milked non stop for an endless trade society.

And I genuinely wonder if people still have inner thoughts nowadays....what do they dream at night about....what do they think when they are not C's....? Are they L's, I's anymore? idk....

One thing I am 100% sure is that if I did not spend a lot of time with myself, in my head, I would have been lost today. It is what allowed me to get rid of my suicidal and depressive behavior, what allowed me to change, what made me make TROM, write books, make videos, and so forth. Without these, there is no me.

It's been almost a year since the war started. Here are my condensed thoughts.

1. It is only Russia's fault.

A bunch of talking heads say that US pushed Russia to invade, NATO bla bla bla. Does not matter if that's true, it is Russia who invaded Ukraine. They are dropping the bombs, they threw the first punch and keep on throwing more.

2. Russia has no excuses.

Russia is a nuclear weapons collector. They have the most numerous nuclear weapons in the world. Even if Ukraine joined NATO, even if Ukraine hosted some American nuclear weapons, it made 0 difference for Russia. No one is suicidal to ever attack Russia. For fucks-sake no one dares to attack North Korea because they have one and a half nuclear weapons...

So when Russia or others are blabbing about how they had no choices, that it is the Americans' fault for this, then this is pure nonsense of course.

3. The situation is very complicated.

Some say the world should keep on providing arms to Ukraine, some say this is terrible and only prolongs this war so more people will die, some say they should defeat Russia (now is the moment), some say Ukraine should accept some compromises and negotiate some peace talks....

4. The others are also big bullshitters.

On the other hand "the rest" are also complete idiots by thinking that Russia wants to take Ukraine, then the other tribes. Same way that no one dares to directly attack Russia, Russia cannot dare to attack any NATO members. It is pure suicide for both sides.

5. The profiteers.

6. USA and the rest are the opposite of saints.

USA; France, Germany and others, are supplying weapons to all sorts of dictatorial tribes around the world. They have killed, tortured, and destroyed a lot over the past decades. They are charlatans who pretend to care about Ukraine. Some might, but very likely they only follow their own interests. So fuck off with your superheroes attitude. You are not here to defeat the evil, you are here to prioritize only your own interests while sitting on the shoulders of dead and enslaved people.

7. The damaged ones.

8. I don't trust Ukraine.

The image of Ukraine, the heroes, I do not buy. I am sure there is some truth about what is being negatively said about them. Like them being influenced by the US, being engulfed in corruption, abusing in the past the areas that Russia occupied, that a bunch of people from those regions wanted to be part of Russia, especially in Crimea, and so forth.

9. Putin has failed.

If he was scared of Ukraine and how it was becoming a US puppet, and how they were getting new weapons and such, well...now Ukraine is even more a US puppet and has more weapons than they ever had. And they will get more. So, another failure.

If he wanted to push NATO further, then he achieved the opposite. NATO is closer and has more weapons now.

If he wanted to flex his muscles, he showcased that Russia has none.

All he achieved is dead people from both sides, destroyed homes and families, a worldwide hate on Russia; he isolated Russia in all regards, he showcased how badly prepared his army is, and made everyone look good and "come together" in this fakish fashion but one that made USA and Europe produce more arms, and ally against Russia.

10. The future is a constant suffering.

After all I am seeing, this war will drag for a long time. At best they get tired, exhausted, and will seek for a "peace deal" that may last for a bit of time, to then fight over those bordering regions again. Russia would love to destroy Ukraine, USA would love to drag Russia into a prolonged war.

It is an insane game that should not have existed in the first place.

I'll leave you with this image:

We know who we are, from a scientific perspective. But almost no one understands....humans, despite the vast amount of knowledge about the universe and us, are still living like "citizens". Patriots, workers, statuses....Zombies.

I'm sorry, I do not have a specific number of the number of male cats in the world. The number of cats, both male and female, varies greatly depending on the country and region and also it is hard to measure this number accurately.
Cats are popular pets around the world and many are not registered, making it difficult to estimate the total number of cats in the world. Additionally, there are also many stray and feral cats that live in cities and rural areas.
However, it's important to keep in mind that the number of cats, both male and female, is constantly changing due to births, deaths, and adoptions.
It's worth to mention that the number of cats should be controlled and managed to prevent overpopulation and to protect the health and welfare of the cats and the environment.

Trade is not necessarily bad. It allows countries and individuals to exchange goods and services, which can lead to increased economic growth and greater access to a wider variety of products. However, there are some potential downsides to trade, such as the displacement of domestic workers and the potential for exploitation of workers in developing countries. Additionally, trade can also lead to environmental degradation if proper regulations are not in place.

It's important to note that trade policies are complex and have many aspects that can be evaluated differently by different people. For example, some people may be against free trade while others may be in favor of it. It's also worth considering that trade policies can have different impacts on different groups of people, and not all trade policies are created equal.

"it includes several features designed to protect the user's data and online activity, such as the Tor network for anonymous browsing, and support for encryption. "

"It also includes a wide range of pre-installed software that covers most basic needs, including a web browser, email client, and office suite."

TROMjaro Linux is not a widely used distribution and its development status is uncertain, it may not be a good choice for beginners or those who need a more stable and supported system. It is more suitable for advanced users or those who are looking for a more privacy-focused and customizable Linux distribution.

Boots and shoes, oh how they march,
Through rain and snow, and city arch.
From stilettos to work boots,
Each with their own unique roots.

Boots, rugged and tough,
Built to withstand and never huff.
Shoes, sleek and refined,
Always looking sharp, never behind.

Together they take us to new heights,
Through all our daily plights.
Boots and shoes, our trusty feet friends,
Until the very end.

In 2011 after I released the TROM documentary someone who was helping me proofread parts of it suggested that I should run a donation campaign to buy a new computer that I desperately needed in order to redo the documentary with a proofread script and voice overs instead of the text-to-speech I had used.

Seemed like a crazy idea to me to ask for so much money. But I did. And I raised over 1.000 Dollars. I was shocked. I was sleeping in a bunkbed in the same room with my sister. I woke her up to tell her. I was so happy.

After I released the "remastered" version of the documentary I created the TVP Magazine. Monthly issues, digital, well made. I wrote for it, designed, all that. Did it 8 months for free then I had to go for a massive donation campaign to help me work for a full year. By that time I was so broke, yet I was doing a bunch of online projects that thousands enjoyed. I had to survive in this trade bullshit society.

The golden age of donations.

It was a period of time when websites like Indiegogo or Patreon started to emerge. Platforms where people were mainly asking for donations to support their projects. Looked genuine. Honest. Real. Not many were using them, I was one of the first to create an account with Patreon.

So we did an 18.000 Euros Indiegogo donation campaign for TVP Magazine:

It felt like a genuine help. We were doing THIS and to keep on doing THIS we needed THAT. There were no "perks", no bullshit, no special clubs for those donating. That's how donations should be. If you donate because you want a tshirt, or be mentioned on some page, or whatever other crap, then you are not genuine. You are not there to just support a project, you want a handjob too. A scratch on your back, a thank you so that you can feel a bit more special. It is about you, at least a bit. And that's awful.

We got support for some 3 years but in that meantime websites like Indiegogo, Kickstarter or Patreon started to become more and more scammy and full of prostitutes. The notion of "donation" morphed into pay-me-and-you'll-get-to-see-my-tits sort of thing. Plus the so many scams...so many "cool new tech" that will become reality, you just have to chip-in a bit and you'll also get a piece of the pie when we bake that cake. Then these projects disappeared. And people were angry.

But what angered me was the complete and utter rape of the action of donating. How can you call it a "donation" when you get something out of that? If I give you some money and then you'll give me something, but you'll only give me that something if I give you that amount of money, then that's a TRADE my friends. THAT is NOT a DONATION. So Patreon transformed into a marketplace where people were buying access to special clubs, merch, and all sort of "perks". Pretending to "support" the "creators". In fact they were buying shit from merchants.

SciShow, who joined later on than we did with our projects on Patreon, relies on subscriptions rather than support:

Hell yeah, even Mastodon sells shit:

Access to their select club and ads on their joinmastodon website for your "company".

This is a very very sad world.

Of course it does not work for me to rely on donations when I do not engage into these marketing tactics. If it weren't for 3-4 close friends who helped the project/me over the years, I don't know what I would have done. To give you an example I am trying to raise 250 Euros to pay for the backups for some 30 websites: like our Friendica instance, Nextcloud, Peertube, Matrix, SearX, Cryptpad, VideoNeat.com, TROMsite.com, TROMjaro.com and so much more. Currently only 35€ was donated.

In general a small fraction of people donate to the projects that they use. A few years ago when I looked into this, it was like 0,1% of those subscribed to some youtube channels who also donated to these "creators". Even when these "creators" (merchants) sell shit, the support is relatively small. But probably there are more such people supporting you if you also give them shit in return. After all, humans are used to this "I give you but you also give me" mentality. So now that TROM provides nothing but the TROM project, probably it is not as exciting to "support" as the other projects are.

Fuck me The Moneyless Society who are blabbing about how this monetary system is the cancer, has this on their front page:

You see I wanted to walk that talk. If I say this bullshit trade-based society is awful, then I won't play by its rules when it comes to TROM. Never sold anything, never inserted ads, collected data, provided special access to those who provided financial support for the project. That's the real way of doing this sort of work. I prefer that over selling shit. I'd rather see the TROM project dying than transforming into yet another trading practice, marketing nonsense, influencer-on-patreon whore.

TROM is not a popular project, maybe in part because of our content that's at times lenghty and upsetting for some. Maybe in part because we don't play by the marketing rules. I had the dignity to move from facebook, twitter and youtube, to the fediverse entirely, despite "losing followers". I had the courage to write/publish some 40 books and never sold any. I had the guts to provide 20+ services over trom.tf and treat everyone as equal. To me that's priceless, and I am so thankful to a handful of humans who still see that value in what I do, and follow the work, and some support it financially in order to keep this boat afloat.

Humans nowadays trade nonstop. For games, in games purchases, netflix, entertianment, crypto-investments, buying special access from the people they follow, and generally being consumed non-stop. Even if TROM gets more popular, it may not be exciting for these consumers since TROM gives you nothing but TROM. And they may want a handjob or some other stuff like that.

TROM is not a whore and never will be. It will stay honest, decent, humble, and non bullshitter. We are walking the talk until we cannot.

If I do not raise the money for the backups I will pay for them myself. If I cannot sustain some of the TROM.tf project I will discontinue them. As simple as that. To rely on donations, the real ones, is the only way to stay unbiased in this trade-based society. But it sucks that donations have transformed into purchases.

BUT:

I need to remind you that all of these whores and charlatans that I've been talking about, are like that because of the trade based society we live in. We are forced to be like that. At the end of the day I am NOT accusing any of them. Just pointing them out, as they are victims, nothing more.

This is it:

My mission: get a sturdy and powerful laptop that can last me for a decade. Upgradable and fixable in a reasonable manner. Big screen, yet portable. Do it!

After months of searching and thanks to Roma and Guil primarily, who donated 98% of the money for the laptop, I settled for the Dell Inspiron 7620 2-in-1 16 inches. It has a core i7-1260p - 12 cores 16 threads. An Nvidia MX550, 64GB of RAM and 4TB NVME. 4k screen, 16:10 aspect ratio.

I will tell you why I chose this one.

First let me tell you the negative parts of this laptop, since none can be perfect for me I guess. Then I'll tell you why overall it is a great laptop for me.

What I don't quite like.

The keyboard. You see I write a lot and I want a great keyboard. This one is too shallow. I miss the depth of the previous keyboard....but I guess I'll get used to it eventually. The keyboard is also in German....since I bought the laptop from germany, ebay, second hand but unused. Basically brand new.

I also kinda don't like the arrow keys...

To add salt to the injury... this layer:

SO the typing experience is not that great. Not awful, and I will get used to it, but yeah....that's the biggest downside so far.

Another slight discomfort: opening the laptop to upgrade was a scary experience. You have a few screws but once you start unscrewing them the top part of the bottom case starts to violently try to get out, and things are bendy and make noises. Maybe the captive screws on that side should not be fully unscrewed but loosen and then try to open the case little by little.

It can be loud and it is a bit heavy. Having a dedicated GPU the fans will be pretty loud when you do intensive tasks, but probably that's quite normal... Also it is heavy for a "tablet" and quite huge. So this is not really comfortable to use it like that. On the desk is properly fine.

Software-related issues.

Since this laptop is quite new, not even a year old, the hardware is not flawless with Linux. The worst of them all: the speakers will stop working after a few minutes of use. You have to restart pulseaudio for them to work again for a bit. Then they stop again. This seems to be a bug that was reported and should be fixed with newer releases of the kernel. I can easily put up with that since I never use the laptop's speakers - I have external ones - but for most people this would be a reason not to use Linux on this laptop.

The Hibernate mode kills your laptop. I found out the hard way. I had to fix some bad sectors on the drive because it was not booting up anymore. Probably another issue that will be fixed in the near future, but for now no Hibernate mode. Suspend works ok tho.

If I turn the screen brightness down completely, from the keyboard, I cannot bring it up again. I have to shut down the laptop from the power button....that sucks.

The face recognition camera does not have any real support in Linux so that's not usable....this is the case for all laptops as far as I know.

Closing the lid won't respect the XFCE settings I setup for it, so it won't turn off the screen, or lock, or else.

Basically, with Linux, this laptop is not easily portable. You can't use the speakers, you can't hibernate it, you can't even close the lid to have it turn off the screen....

So, you may wonder, why did I keep this laptop if it has these issues?

First of all the software related issues will be fixed and they won't bother me much at all. Pretty much every laptop I had to install Linux on, had some sort of issues like that. It is normal when you create an operating system for ALL laptops out there.

Second, the hardware-related issues are not that bad. I am getting used to the keyboard and I won't have to open up the laptop that often anyway.

So, then, the good parts.

The build quality is great.

It is also super slim and of course bendable 360 degrees:

The touchscreen is also a plus since I can test TROMjaro directly on my own machine.

Speaking of the screen, the screen is AMAZING. The blacks are so black that if I were to select a 16:9 instead of 16:10 resolution I can't even tell since the black borders are as black as the screen's chassis. The colors are vibrant and it looks amazing from all angles.

Also...am I crazy or 3-4k resolution is no different from Full HD!? I tested with this laptop and there is 0 difference in how it looks. That's good since I can use the FullHD resolution and this improves the battery life. From my initial tests it can last some 5-6 hours on wifi doing things. Others have tested this and it can last some 20h if you are not connected to the internet and just watch local media.

When the speakers work they are very loud and sound great, despite only using 2 of them out of 4 in Linux.....when they will all work this laptop will sound amazing am sure.

The touchpad is great. Smooth, HUGE, and looks neat.

Speaking of looking neat, there is only 1 logo on the back.

The port selection is perfect. On the left side you get an HDMI, normal USB, and two USB C / Thunderbolt - meaning they support any sort of connection basically.

For example the way I set it up now that I have to work on TROM II and need a bunch of external stuff, I use a USB-C dock. It connects to the laptop into one of the USB C ports. One cable, mind you. This dock has the following connected to it: 3 HDDs totaling 14TB of data + my headphones + speakers + external microphone + mouse + external display + projector + 1GB Ethernet + power charging so that it also charges the laptop + webcam.

The webcam is also better than your average laptop camera, like for example many times better than Slimbook's. The built-in microphone I've heard is also very good but I have not tested it yet. The webcam also has a physical shutter so you can block it.

THE INSIDES!
I think this is the only laptop-convertible in the world that's 16inches and has a 16:10 aspect ratio, is so slim yet all metal build, but allows you to replace the RAM and has 2 slots for it. This was a must for me. It was advertised as 32GB max, but I easily added 64GB of RAM. DDR4. And I upgraded the NVME M2 to 4TB.

To compare it now with the Slimbook Executive 16, that one costs 1.750 Euros with 16GB of RAM and 512GB SSD. Sure, the CPU is a bit better and the GPU much better (useful only if you play video games which I do not). This laptop, the Inspiron 7620 costed me 1.100 Euros and with 64GB of RAM + 4TB SSD around 1.700 Euros. MUCH MUCH MUCH better in all regards than the Slimbook offer.

Lastly the power button it is also a fingerprint reader:

OVERALL.

For 1.700 Euros I got a great laptop. It has a big and amazing screen, great port selection, fantastic build quality, great touchpad, good webcam and mic, ok upgradability and repairability, great CPU and good GPU. Touchscreen, bendable 360 degrees, consumes less energy than the Slimbook, small power charger (USB C), great price overall. In time I'll get used to the keyboard too and the software related issues will be fixed.

Now I plan to give my old laptop to a dear TROM friend who has helped the project a lot for the past year or two. If I manage to send it to the other side of the globe somehow to not break our pockets. I want to give my older stuff to others who can use it for longer.

I will try to get "laptops" out of my head and in a week or so focus again on TROM II. I spent a lot of time searching for a good laptop and I feel like I have finally found it. It is time to move on :)

tio

2022-12-09 15:36:20

NEW BLOG POST:

My first impressions of the Slimbook Executive 16

Read it on my website (recommended):

https://www.tiotrom.com/2022/12/my-first-impressions-of-the-slimbook-executive-16/

Or read it here:

Quick background: I want to buy a laptop that is really well built, easy to upgrade and repair, and portable. Has at least a 16inch screen and a decent battery, plus a good keyboard.

Some 2 weeks ago, after spending many weeks searching for a good laptop, I finally decided to order the extremely expensive Slimbook Executive 16. I was at first more inclined to buy the twin from Tuxedo because it was black and I could buy it without Nvidia, so much cheaper.

BUT.

The Tuxedo people told me that although on their website it says:These laptops are actually made out of plastic and that magnesium alloy is steamed on the chassis themselves. What!? I made sure I got it right so I asked them to confirm several times. And they did. At best their website is dishonest, at worst they want to trick you. Which one is it? You decide.

Now, because TUxedo and Slimbook provide laptops that are honestly almost, if not entirely, identical (just check all of their models – chassis, hardware, sizes, etc.) I asked the Slimbook people if theirs are also plastic with coated magnesium alloy. They confirmed at least 10 times I think, that this is not true. Theirs are purely metal: aluminium+magnesium alloy, as stated on their website.

I decided. Slimbook.

It arrived:Took a while but it arrived. I live in Spain, they ship from Spain, 5 hours away from where I am. Ok. Anyway.

First impressions were that it does not feel like a sturdy laptop. I have 2 to compare it with. First is my plastic laptop. Slimbook feels sturdier than my laptop. Second is Sasha’s laptop which is a 13inch fully aluminium laptop. Slimbook feels like plastic compared to that one. I can beat you with Sasha’s laptop for sure, and I could even kill you with it, then I am quite sure it will probably still work. But I can’t do that with Slimbook. Yes magnesium alloy is lighter than aluminium, but idk…it feels like a well built plastic laptop to me. Which is not a good thing for me since I want a very s sturdy one.

So, the way it is built, for me, is not what I was looking for. I am inclined to believe this is “a plastic laptop with magnesium alloy steamed onto it”, like the Tuxedo folks were saying. Call me crazy but I won’t be shocked if the Slimbook people willingly or not misinformed me about their build quality.

Funny that they have a sticker that says “Protected by Magnesium”. Protected…hm….I don’t know but if I were to sell laptops that are fully metal built, I would advertise that like “Chassis made out of aluminium and magnesium alloy!”. Again, maybe this is a conspiracy I am creating inside my head but things smell fishy to me.

The keyboard is a bit odd. Some key symbols are not centered yet others are…Not something that bothers me too much, but still an odd thing to see.

The charged is a fat-charger for a slim-book 😀It is massive. That makes this laptop not very portable since the battery form my initial tests, is not great with that Nvidia card. Maybe lasts for 2-3h…maybe a bit more. Maybe it is normal for such a powerful machine.

The worst part: the screen colors are washed out. Look:I do not care about little differences, but this is a massive difference. My old laptop has a more contrasty look, a lot more. Slimbook is super washed out. I tested on Sasha’s laptop and her screen is almost identical with mine. So idk which screen looks more like most screens out there, but for sure I prefer my old laptop screen and Sasha’s screen. If two screens from two different laptops look a lot better than the Slimbook’s one, maybe it is the Slimbook that’s not doing well.

And this is awful because I checked the documentary I just edited the colors for, and on my screen and Sasha’s looks great, on Slimbook looks not that great….what is it happening? Maybe this model has a fucked-up screen!? IDK…but this is the worst thing for me, something that if not fixed I will return the laptop. I can maybe put up with the rest, but not with this for sure.

Speaking of screens. You know I’ve been saying that 2k 3k 4k screens are a BS marketing unless we talk about very large screens and content to match that screen. Well…Slimbook has a 16inch 3k screen. If I switch between 3k and fullhd I can’t really tell any difference. Maybe my eyes are not the best, but I feel like this is just a BS marketing thing.

Now…the screen size is perfect for me. I love the 16:10 aspect ratio. I love how light it is. I like how it looks and I despise those many stickers. The webcam is decent, the speakers are great. I can’t open it to look inside because they added a sticker to one of the screws to stop you from doing that and I am concerned I can’t return it if I open it up. Speaking of that, the bottom part of the chassis feels like pure plastic to me. Quite flimsy even when it is attached to the laptop.

Overall this laptop is a monster in terms of hardware. That’s fantastic. But the build quality, although not bad at all, is not at all a sturdy one in my view. I would feel concerned to carry this laptop around for long. The battery is not great at all and if you leave it on the bed for example, the laptop gets super hot super fast.

I will test it for longer but so far idk what to say….because on one hand I LOVE the screen size and the overall size and weight of the laptop. But at the gigantic price of 1750 Euros….(sure I got it 150 euros cheaper), but at that price you expect a fantastically well built laptop that will last you for a decade. At least that’s how I think.

Maybe that’s how laptops are built nowadays….light, seem fragile….maybe I will keep it eventually. But idk…if not I will return it and search for a new one next year after TROM II is done. I may be inclined to go for a good Thinkpad or older models that were better built.

Let’s see if Slimbook will convince me to keep it….I kinda doubt….

My first impressions of the Slimbook Executive 16

^TIO

I got a refund for the Slimbook Executive 16 that I sent back. Although they refused to pay for the transport which, form what I read online, should have been covered by the refund. It was around 20 euros in total and I didn't want to "debate" over it anyway. They were generally nice over email and I also removed their stickers from the laptop and perhaps I should not have done that. So it is ok.

Am happy that I returned it because I want to test other laptops. Now I am convinced I will order (to test) the Dell Inspirion 7620 2 in 1:

As for the internals, I will go for the i7-1260P CPU and perhaps the MX550 Nvidia GPU combo. Not as powerful as the Slimbook, but a lot more than my current laptop. The advantage is that this combo consumes a lot less power than what Slimbook had under the hood. Which means much better battery life (they say it lasts all day) + a much slimmer and usb-c power adapter that you can buy for like 20 Euros from any tech-store if you need to replace it.

So in a way although the Slimbook is half a kilo lighter, its charger is massive so....this Dell with such a small charger despite being heavier I would like it to be like that.

Another cool thing about this laptop is that it has dual channel RAM slots that you can upgrade. For a 2 in 1 this is quite unique. They say max 32GB in total, but I've heard you can put 64GB and I will try that. As for storage unfortunately it only has 1 m2 slot and they say that it supports up to 2TB, but again I've heard you can add up to 4TB. I will compromise to 2TB of storage if this laptop is as good as I read it is, but 4TB would be perfect for me....will have to try and see.

Actually the entire laptop seems quite easy to fix and upgrade:

Speaking of that, the awesome Framework 13.5inch laptop that is marketed as very repairable (and it is) clocks at around 1.400 Euros with the same CPU and no GPU. This Dell clocks around 1.300 Euros new via ebay and around 1k second hand via the same ebay. So it is much cheaper overall, seems very durable, much larger screen, yet still relatively easy to repair/upgrade.

Oh and I've read that the speakers on this Dell, 4 of which, are one of the best out there. Same goes for the webcam that even has a camera shutter for privacy.

Overall the laptop (in theory from what I read and see) seems quite slim, very robust, very powerful, decently upgradable and repairable, amazing screen, good keyboard, great speakers and good webcam, great battery life. At least in theory, let's see in practice.

I will likely buy it second hand since this laptop is a very new model and so second hand units should be barely used. Getting it much cheaper allows me to buy a 4TB m2 and even some 64GB of RAM, if the laptop can handle all of that.

For now I will continue with the work on TROM II but I plan in February or so to order it and test.

Massive thanks to Roma and the few others who donated for my laptop campaign. Basically Roma made this possible.

The laptop is my sole enabler of everything you see TROM-made. Websites, video editing, TROMjaro and all of that. Therefore it is the most important piece of technology in my life, and thus I want to choose with care. Basically I would love to just have 1 laptop and that's all.

Anyway, I am sharing these in case it helps others too.