Functional ones. Like this case for an RSP1 clone that used to be sold on AliExpress: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5507066
Might be good idea to tape it over with aluminum tape for shielding.

Or this for a Ulefone uSmart adapter to make it into a USB-C: https://www.printables.com/model/493211-ulefone-usmart-usb-c-adaptor
This connector is basically just pins from USB-C, but in a way that can only be used with their own accessories. Honestly this should be sold by them. I’d be willing to buy it even if it was like €15 (just better quality than a 3D print, of course).

I use a laptop, so I iust put it to sleep. I only restart it when I do updates or when the system crashes. I also turn it off (when I remember to do so…) if I leave it unattended in untrustworthy environment due to encryption.

I also have a mini PC, but I only turn it on when needed, which isn’t often since I haven’t really figured out what to use it for. It’s running Linux Mint headless, because Mint fits my laziness. I can use it via Tailscale, but I don’t really know what to do with it. So far it’s been mostly useful with OpenWebRX, SDR++ server which also offers compression unlike RTL_TCP as well as being able to use any SDR++ supported SDR, and I also intended to use Navidrome on it as well. My intention was to just download full albums on there, rather than picking out individual songs, but I still have the urge to put all of it on my phone.

Well, probably my mistake calling it a plan, but it seems all of them are subscriptions at least. Even “pay as you go” cards I found have monthly payments.
It seems the cheapest was T-Mobile PayGo, but that got sold to Ultra Mobile. I don’t know what they offer though because there’s an infinite captcha on their website for me. But from Google preview it seems they still offer the $3/month PayGo.

Well, I did. And I am in one. Most teachers don’t care about it. Technically the current principal banned them, but only one teacher told us, and it was a pretty sarcastic “I am supposed to tell you that you aren’t allowed to use phones during classes anymore.”

Anyway, they got partially integrated. There’s an online school system we are supposed to use, and teachers often send us study materials there, including during classes. At one point we even took online exams (physically at school) and most used phones for that too (I prefer a desktop if I can use that).
Basically it became an expectation. “Look this up, take a picture of this, open what I sent you, send me this, confirm that,…”

But yeah, anyway, most exams are probably AI-written nowadays. This is known, and not particularly discouraged. Well, one teacher even told us we’ll be given computers with internet access on (part of the) graduation exams, and shown us how we can just copy-paste it to and from ChatGPT. And that was true.
But hey, we also often have classes of absolutely nothing that you just have to wait out.
The level of Slovakian education is setting the bar so low it clipped through the ground.

Already included.

1. SMS and classic calls are dying. Things moved to Discord, Instagram, Snapchat, or whatever else for the most part
2. Burner SIM, or better yet, burner eSIM. Maybe VoIP would suffice.

And the original SIM could still be used in some cheap older phone.

Although it seems everything in the US is a plan, meaning monthly payments. But perhaps I haven’t looked far enough.

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I transferred some files that would have taken windows about 5min, it only took 20sec.

If we’re talking about storage devices, this may just be lots of caching, which in my opinion sucks for slow removable devices, because the transfer stays in background and you still can’t unplug the damn USB.
Though there can also be some difference with filesystems. I can get pretty fast and stable RW with F2FS compared to exFAT on these devices.

pay bills

I don’t trust the phone browser anymore after I had it crash during a payment. The money was sent, but the token wasn’t sent back to the website.
Thankfully we now have instant bank transfers, so the state of the browser doesn’t matter.

Anyway, I still prefer to take out the laptop for serious stuff like payments.

That’s the neat part, no one.
But hey, you’re not alone being alone. (Sorry, I kinda like that sentence)

Lemmy is a federated platform, not a single website, nor a single community.

I have a MiBand which for me is primarily a regular watch with notifications.

I haven’t used audio notifications or ringing on my phone for years. I can also just allow the most important apps, while the less important notifications I’ll see just on my phone when I unlock it, unless I blocked those notifications too.

Currently this means I get SMS notifications (mostly useful for verification codes / package pick-up codes), Lemmy reply notifications (and few other e-mails), bank notifications (like payments), phone battery charged (80%) notification, and notifications of upcoming space rocket launches with webcast available (within 10 minutes).

My phone doesn’t make a sound, it doesn’t light up the screen, it doesn’t show notifications on lockscreen, it doesn’t vibrate, it doesn’t use notification LED. The smartband is a replacement.

saying something like this indicates to me that you don’t understand the complexities of masculinity, femininity or sexuality

Yup. Look at gay “bears” and heterosexual femboys or drag queens.

What is a charity?
I mean, like most people I just think of organizations that help the homeless, poor families, starving children, etc…

For me the scam risk is too high, and anyway, that’s where most people donate money, both because it engages a lot of emotion.

But I do donate elsewhere, mostly FOSS projects like KDE and individual developers like for example Deluan Quintao (developer of Navidrome server).
Though I also donate to some local more standard-like places. Those are ochranma hotline - portal in INHOPE network for reporting illegal online content including CSAM; IPcko - crisis intervention helpline (psychological help) with physical offices as well (unpaid of course) and a mobile crisis team, as far as I know they’re underpaid (a quick search shows they had to fire 17 psychologists in 2024); and lastly Municia pre Ukrajinu - money for purchase of ammunition for Ukraine in collaboration with Czech Republic, as the Slovakian government refused to aid them

Anyway, all of it is just little bits, I can’t afford to donate any meaningful amount.
Full list:
Linux Mint -
TeamSeas -
Manjaro -
OpenCollective tips -
Tor Project -
Internet Archive (archive.org) -
The Document Foundation (LibreOffice) -
Arch Linux -
KDE -
Mozilla -
F-Droid -
Termux -
db0 Lemmy instance (lemmy.dbzer0.com) -
Arne Schwabe (dev of Android OVPN client) -
Deluan Quintao (dev of Navidrome server) -
Arty Bishop (dev of Look4Sat) -
sc07 (Fediverse Canvas creator) -
IPcko -
Markus Fisch (dev of Binary Eye) -
VideoLAN -
ochranma.sk -
Meshtastic -
Kiwix -
Municia pre Ukrajinu -
FFmpeg -
IzzyOnDroid -
Lemmy -
Catbox.moe -

I don’t want to make a separate comment since I am also not from US, but damn, this sounds overblown to me. Especially for someone who’s just related to your friend.
And especially from a student, since students are generally quite poor.

Infinity times infinity percent!

I don’t use it, but Slovak QWERTZ is the standard in my country. But using it feels like a pain in the ass (for me). Some characters need ctrl+alt rather than just shift, others may only be written with alt codes, at least on Windows…

Part of my graduation exam was literally to just type \ % @ & on a computer. Thankfully for me, settings wasn’t blocked, so I just added US layout.

If I need some slovak characters I do either one of the following:

1. Say “fuck it” and write it without diacritics (“like SMS”)
2. If needed in forms, use KCharSelect
3. Smartphone virtual keyboard
4. Like 1 but printed on paper with diacritics added using a pen
5. Write it in English even if I am not supposed to and wait for the outcome
6. Write it in English, pipe it to Google Translate (I find writing in English mostly easier anyway - doesn’t mean I am good at it)
7. Write it in English, (attempt to) translate it myself
8. Good ol’ pen 'n paper all the way (I mean, I’ve got a fountain pen too)

Where did you hear that?
So far I’ve only heard about teaching kids how to use it as a tool rather than trusting everything it says, or even replacing a human. And I’d agree on that. Too many people (by far not just kids) take what ChatGPT, Gemini and chatbots alike say for granted.

Nah. The voting is anonymous. I mean, the envelope including its contents has no unique information. If someone wanted to figure out who it belonged to, they’d probably have to resort to fingerprints.

Although, if you do scribble on something else, someone who’s counting the votes may take a picture of the ballot:

“I choose (vote) you, Pikachu!”

Hey, I’ll add another one: being forced to by your family

I’ve had my parents strongly tell me who to not vote. Bullshit like “We aren’t telling you who to vote. You’re an adult, and I believe you can make the decision yourself. I am only telling you not to vote Korčok, because that would be stupid. But I believe you aren’t that stupid.”

But hey, my father was also annoyed for me going there on my own, rather than with my mother at once (he didn’t vote), because we’re a family and must go everywhere together.
Sigh

If there’s any Slovakian reading this, yeah, I voted for Korčok.