Author: chrisa

Trying out the Qubes 4.1 beta on newer Intel and Ryzen devices, and the FrameWork Laptop

Posted on by chrisa

A quick post since I have seen various folks ask online whether their laptop is supported by Qubes OS. I decided to grab the beta of the 4.1 release from July and try it out on some laptops (and my current desktop) where a new release would be most helpful, especially on some Ryzen-based systems where the previous 4.0 release did not work well out of the box. Since I also recently got the wonderfully consumer-friendly FrameWork laptop, I would try it out there as well, since I plan to use it as my daily driver OS.

You can see from the table below that there is some decent support for even relatively recently Ryzen CPUs. In fact at …

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“All Crypto is a pyramid / ponzi scheme”

Posted on by chrisa

I wanted to write up a brief article about this to point people at when they inevitably parrot the uninformed ‘attack’ they heard from someone else on the Internet: “Cryptos are just ponzi schemes”. In my earlier article I tackled the silly notion that “only criminals use crypto”, so I wanted to specifically address the ponzi scheme angle.

Let’s start with the basics, or we have no basis for having a useful discussion. What is a ponzi scheme? According to Investopedia, a ponzi scheme is “a fraudulent investing scam promising high rates of return with little risk to investors. A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investing scam which generates returns for earlier investors with money taken from later investors. …

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Pandemic car buying redux: How CarMax beat Carvana for the best touchless delivery experience in 2021

Posted on by chrisa

My experience of buying from CarMax without ever visiting the dealership, and where they have room to improve

[Some up front disclaimers and info: I am not affiliated with any auto company or dealership, directly or indirectly. My employer probably owns some self driving companies somewhere along the way but I don’t deal with any of them day-to-day. This article is just based on my experience buying a car in summer 2021.]

As you know from my previous post, I had a really great time buying a car in 2020 from Carvana just as the pandemic started. Unfortunately just 1 year later, due either to staff turnover, trying to expand too quickly due to increasing online sales demand, or …

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Carvana’s car buying experience has gone into the toilet in just 12 months

Posted on by chrisa

[Some up front disclaimers and info: I am not affiliated with any auto company or dealership, directly or indirectly. My employer probably owns some self driving companies somewhere along the way but I don’t deal with any of them day-to-day. This article is just based on my experience buying a car in summer 2021.]

Background

Since the pandemic started I’ve actually bought two vehicles. My first experience was with Carvana in Summer 2020 – we wanted a car to someday tow an RV, and I thought I’d also use it to occasionally visit my family out of state. Overall I’d say our first Carvana experience was very good considering the pandemic was raging; some bumps along the way but overall …

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Forget Savings Accounts: Earn double digit interest with $FLAME on Tezos (currently >80%!)

Posted on by chrisa

[pre-disclaimer: I am not affiliated with any of these currencies or exchanges, and am not being compensated in any way for this article. No one is being given copy approval, and all spelling mistakes are my own. No affiliate links are used in this article as I believe strongly in individual privacy when using cryptocurrency, especially my own. I am not a financial advisor; never invest more than you can afford to lose.]

Before we begin, there are of course many ways to earn interest at rates better than even the best bank nowadays using crypto platforms. One of the most common is of course Pancakeswap on the BNB chain. At this point however, per my previous post, I’m …

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Why I’m focusing on Proof of Stake cryptos from now on

Posted on by chrisa

Just a short post that I’m working on articles related to Proof of Stake cryptos, namely Tezos (XTZ) and Cardano (ADA). I wanted to put down my thoughts on why separately in one place that I can link to.

I have said this to anyone who will listen: cryptocurrency is currently treated like Linux was in 1995. Most people don’t know about it, the ones that do are mostly misguided about it, and many think it will only be used for criminal activity. I really need to take a moment here and address this since I see it online all the time, and even in conversations with otherwise quite intelligent people.

“Crypto is only used by criminals”

Now, this …

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