Happy Saturday #lazyweb, I was wondering if you could offer me some advice?

I've been trying to teach myself programming for years. I get to a certain level of understanding through tutorials, and then run out of steam.

How do I get past tutorial hell? Is the answer to just put down the tuts and start building stuff? I suspect that is the answer, but if that is the case, where's the best place to start figuring out what to build?

I feel like once I have enough experience under my belt, I can start implementing some of the stuff that I want to create. But as it stands now, I am stuck going from language to language until I learn enough to be dangerous, and then never go any further. There are a couple of languages where I feel like I know a little, and nothing that I feel I actually know well.

Ultimately, I want to do low level stuff like building a compiler in C. But how do you get from, "I understand a little about this language" to being able to build something meaningful?

Somehow I missed what’s going on with X11. Can someone link me to a non-video explainer?

#Lazyweb, when my system spec says "NVME M.2 SSD (support up to two M.2 SSD) / PCIe NVMe, PCIe 3.0 x 4", will a (seemingly) newer Crucial P3 Plus SSD 1TB M.2 NVMe PCIe Gen4 PCIe 4.0 work? Are they backwards compatible or do I need to stick to the PCIe 3.0 stuff?

UPDATE: According to the Crucial specs this should work, they claim backward compatibility with PCIe 3.0. We will see tomorrow, when it arrives :)

dear #lazyweb and #storage nerds and #datahoarders

i have a couple of of m.2 drives, a 2.5 inch ssd, a couple 2.5 inch hdds, and a pile of 3.5 inch hdds. i kind of want to jam all the 2.5 inch drives and m.2 drives together in a weird array for science.

i saw some external usb raid/jbod enclosures on scamazon that would hold 3.5" drives *and* m.2 drives but nothing for 2.5" and m.2. does such an oddity exist?

boosts appreciated.

I started looking at Lisp seriously tonight and I am excited! Reading about how quickly people can get up and coding is something that has been frustrating in my programming journey so far. I feel like I've been reading for months and still haven't made anything useful. I get the feeling Lisp isn't like that. It also seems to be more fun than other programming languages, and I really want to have some fun!

Now I feel like I have a different problem. There are so many different versions, which is the right one to learn? I feel like Common Lisp is probably a safe bet, but I really have no clue.

I would love any suggestions!

LazyWeb (sorry): learning python resources suitable for a first year electrical engineer student with a Raspberry Pi?

I'm helping out my nephew, who lives elsewhere. He wants to learn Python, but I'm drawing a blank on good resources. Dive into Python is more for experienced programmers. Learn Python the Hard Way costs money now (dammit). Raspberry Pi Foundation materials are a little below him. What else is out there, pls?

Dear #lazyweb: is there a more effective way to get cupro-nickel for casting than melting down a bag of 5c pieces? (Or hitting the thrift shops for ugly teapots?). It seems buying raw material retail costs like 3x more. #AskFedi

What is a safe URL shortner to use?

Weird question, #lazyweb. If you (or your organisation) has some MRTD readers lying around that you don't need anymore, I would like to get them for one of my projects. MRTD readers are simple OCR devices that read the MRZ (Machine Readable Zone) from passports and identity cards. Devices like RTE 6700/6710 or the OCR315(E). Most have been decommissioned, so there should be plenty lying around :)

What's the *cheapest* Android 15 device with GMS (Google Play).

For boring reasons, I need an unmodified modern Android device. Doesn't need to be good. Doesn't need to be fast. Doesn't even need to be a phone.

What would you suggest, oh-wise-ones?

A couple weeks ago, I added some stuff to my #Nginx config to multiplex SSH and TLS on port 443. Turns out, this FUBARs the downstream TLS logging pretty badly.

Anybody have a working config for this use case? #lazyWeb

EDIT: Please only respond if you have experience with a service that actually provides group management of a shared file collection. I am not looking for hosted backups, but live file collaboration and sharing.

Dear #LazyWeb, I have a question about online storage services.

I'm part of a volunteer organisation that has a lot of people of extremely wide and varied technical abilities. A couple decades ago, one of the dearly departed members set up a #DropBox account for the group, and it has served them reasonably well over the years. But right now they're starting to feel like maybe it's a bit long in the tooth, and they aren't sure about paying for more storage if there are better choices.

Two of us are absolutely GenX Linux nerds, who will mount whatever it is via `rclone` and move on, but some members are in their 30s and some in their 80s and we need something that works for everyone. Bonus if we can use a company that doesn't kill people or forests or oceans to make their service work, although I realise that's often a vain hope these days.

Does anyone have good suggestions for a resilient file hosting/sharing service in 2025?

Ok Masto, there was an image of Homer in Legos sliding in and out of a hedge. I can’t find it. Anyone know what I’m looking for? #LazyWeb #LazyMasto #Lego

Is there a discord client/mod that shows list of servers on the left as text (or text with icons) instead of just icons?

I'm too old/tired/whatever to remember all the icons

Does anyone know of a free/libre solitaire collection which allows two people to compete, and which either runs in the browser on works on Linux? Asking for an older family member who so far isn't impressed with KPatience and its lack of a competitive element.

Anyone got a link to an early phonograph powered by ethanol rather than electricity or windup? I think it's a Hispano-Suiza but my Search-Fu is failing
#lazyweb

#LazyWeb
Daughter's coming back from Japan with 100s of photos & is looking for portable photo printer. I've been out of the printing biz for ~20+ years so I'm reaching out here for recs.

From her:
"I'm mainly looking for scrapbooking reasons, so small prints I can print multiple images onto one print(like 2-3 images on a 6"x4")".

Looking for something that could handle sticky-back & possibly archival stock.

Difficulty: No HP #printers if possible

A #lazyweb #AppleMusic question: What do the bullets that appear next to some tracks signify?