Its not about memory size its about the asymmetric sticks. It was a classic problem with OS memory management in the past. Modern OS are better at dealing with it but it is not the optimal set up.

You’re running windows game which use proton/wine that manage memory for the game and use linux for access to RAM. The asymmetry could conceivably cause issues you wouldn’t notice with native apps.

I’d try removing the 16gb stick (or the two 8gb sticks and keeo the 16gb stick; all that matters is whatever ram isnleft is the uniform) and see what happens with the games you’ve been trying. It might not he the issue but the only way to know is to test it, rather than dismiss it because its not what you expected.

The common denominator in your issues would be your PC. If games are working according to protonDB and you’re unable to get them to work on multiple distros that suggests its your PC.

There are two candidates in your specs - your RAM and your Graphics card.

As others have said, asymmetric RAM is unusual and it certainly was warned against in the past as it caused system issues. While OSs may be much better at managing RAM now, that doesn’t mean all scenarios can tolerate it. Given what Proton is doing is complex (running Wine, which is essentially a windows layer) I would not be surprised if the memory configuration is just a step too far - you have windows software using a windows compatibility layer for memory asking a linuxn system for memory access.

An obvious way to test this is to remove the 16gb stick from your machine and see what happens.

The other side is your graphics card - are you using the latest nvidia drivers?

Disc and disk are varient spellings of the same word that pre-exist computing. Disc is more common in British English, Disk more common in American English. But yeah since computing came along disk has also been used more for magnetic media (hard disk) while disc has been used more for optical media (compact disc). I wouldn’t be surprised if this only happened because of how the CD was marketed and branded as a “compact disc” as a trademark while hard disks and floppy disks etc were more generic terms.

The US healthcare system is built around money and profit. A cheaper procedure which does not require general anaesthetic costs less, and reduces profit. That can be beneficial to the providers but bloat is incentivised in the US healthcare system as providers battle with insurance companies for money. Crudely healthcare providers don’t care about saving you money; they want to take as much money as they can get.

Meanwhile, countries with tax funded health care opt for the most cost effective procedures, investigations and treatments. The incentive is to reduce costs and offer the most effective things to the most people possible. That can also sometimes have negative side effects if not carefully regulated but in such systems generally Doctors advocate for the best procedure and best medical practice, as they themselves do not directly benefit financially from which procedure is pushed. The downside is you do get the opposite side of things where patients are dissuaded from things as they’re not deemed cost effective by those who control the spending.

Might be even simpler - the elderly can decline very quickly mentally and also physically, and that may he what we’re seeing with here.

Fossify Phone is better. Simple Mobile Tools was sold to ZipoApps which has a history of bloating apps with advertising, telemetry, and charges etc. Fortunately Simple tools were open source and Fossify is the free and open source fork of all the apps in the suite, some even maintained by original makers from Simple Mobile Tools.

Good news but also shameful - Asbestos was banned in the UK in 1999 for example, and even that was regarded as late after initial partial bans in 1985.

Why has it taken so long for the US to completely ban asbestos?

Zuckerberg thinks Facebook should self regulate and that means in this case be free to allow posts of anti-vax propaganda and covid conspiracy theories that literally cost lives.

This is just a great example of why social media needs external regulation.

Trump has cognitively declined since 2016 and is increasingly incoherent and nasty. I think the Dems are gambling that many voters aren’t watching his stump appearances so this is a good way to expose him to voters.

I think its too big a gamble and mute him. I think he will expose himself enough on his own turns to speak.

You can add games to Steam to use proton so where they came from doesn’t matter. You can also use Proton forks and bypass steam altogether - much of the underlying tech is Wine; proton is a patched and optimised version of Wine not a stand alone Valve product. Its great what they’ve done but it is still a collaborative open source effort.

As for which store, I go on price and sometimes go with GOG even if more expensive because of DRM, and sometimes Steam because of the convenience of the workshop.

I don’t think it needs to be any more complex than that - these are company’s taking your money for the same product. Its kinda pointless being “loyal” to a retailer - its more important to focus on value for money and quality of service for each purchase.

Isn’t it too late to change VP candidate? I saw speculation on this before and the issues were around the need to reconvene delegates for the RNC to approve the change and also to be on the ballot? Early voting starts in September so October is also too late?

“Yacht maker who makes yachts for billionaires scrambles to blame the crew so he can save more yachts and not be sued”

That’s the story here. He’s trying to set the narrative as entirely human error rather than a design flaw. For example one concern is how quickly an intact vessel sank - 30 seconds is being claimed in some areas - and the yacht may have an overlong aluminium mast which contributed to it capsizing .

People saying they don’t care about billionaires dying are missing the point. The yachts maker is trying to pin it on the crew before its even been properly investigated.

The pollster is kind of right - on paper the economy should be an issue in Trumps favour. We’ve just come out of a period of high inflation and people are feeling the cost of living. Immigration is also supposedly an issue that should be favouring Trump.

That’s not to say that Trump has the answers - he does not - but in a conventional election cycle he would be in the stronger position as the “outsider” attacking the incumbents.

Yet instead the entire news cycle is dominated by Harris and Walz at the moment. Republicans are desperate for Trump to get back “on message” but instead he’s flailing around as his ego can’t take the Dems attack lines, biden dropping out and Harris apparent popularity.

So although the pollster is obviously biased as a Republican, I think he’s right in the sense this not playing out like a conventional election.

Also, I have to say as an outside observer from the UK, the excitement around Harris reminds me of Obama’s first election. Obama came from no where in the primaries and huge momentum built behind him as the hope candidate. Harris has emerged much later in the election cycle, and oddly she feels like the exciting unknown candidate even though she is Vice President. Yet it does feel like the momentum is with her and she drawing in people who have been otherwise alienated by the republican / democrat arguments over the last 4 years.

I have no idea if it’ll carry on to election day. But I must say on a personal note, the more I see of Harris, the more I warm to her. I suspect a lot of voters will feel the same. Her humour, and warmth are in stark contrast to Trumps meanness and petty nastiness. I’m beginning to think Trump is not capable of beating Harris.

I think you’re absolutely right.

The announcement of dropping SMS at the time gave those vibes. They were basically saying to users “we know what’s good for ypu better than you do”.

It was a huge strategic misstep. SMS was the perfect route to get people to use Signal - you’d start with SMS conversations and then as people joined signal conversations could switch to secure chat. Now its very hard to persuade people to switch to Signal.

Now google has used the same trick to push its own messaging standard RCS.

Yes absolutely - looking at electoral college prediction sites based on the polls, if the Dems won Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania alongside the leaning and safe states, they would get 270 electoral college votes and win. Obviously they need to work tirelessly to go way beyond that and it’s a long way to November, but it shows how the switch to Harris has completely upended the election and reinvigorated the Dems electoral chances.

It’s crazy to think only a few weeks ago Trump was on a massive high - Biden on the ropes from a disastrous debate, Trump survived an assassination attempt, had a triumphant conference, and had multiple unexpected legal successes. And overnight by Biden stepping down and Harris stepping up unopposed the Dems have changed the entire narrative and are dominating the coverage.

Probably Obama’s endorsement which finally shut down the prospects of a contested primary.

The Dems got into the mess with Biden because they wouldn’t test him with an actual open primary process. Not having a contest for Harris may be pragmatic but it may dog the party in the future. If she loses then there will be recriminations. And if she wins they will have to think about what they do in 2028 - does she get a free pass again or does the party get a say? Do all those ambitious contenders step aside again?

Problems for another day. I think the dems are doing the right thing in coronating Harris now as they have been left with no choice. But they really need to think about what happens with sitting presidents and the primaries - waving Biden through was disasterous, and him dragging his feet on steeping down shut down all other options. I have very little respect left for Biden - he did the right thing but took far too long to do it, risking everything.

Nah I think this is just another example of Elon Musk being impulsive and not thinking through the consequences of his statements.

He can’t actually afford $45m a month. His wealth is in Tesla shares (which are difficult to draw done further both while he continues to try to fleece the company with an absurd pay package and also can’t risk destabilising the share price - its something of a house of cards with its value largely based on the future possibility of a flawed self drive tech) and Twitter (which took $20bn of his actual liquid assets and then debt and which he is running into the ground).

Also he may be realising the PR mistake of backing trump when he runs an electric car company that is losing market share and valued speculatively rather than actual financials.

His focus is really gettingnas much out of Tesla as hebcan before the markets turn on it.

Not going to happen though. While the left came first they still are not a majority. They hold 180 seats, which is less than 1/3 of the 577. No one really won the election.

Its really deadlock and all 3 groups will struggle to work together as none want the blame for the mess that will be split gjvernment, and all want to position themselves as the solution, win the presidency and/or next set of legislative elections.

So there is no way the centre or right will vote in a 90% tax on the rich. It’ll be a struggle to even get a basic budget passed.

Geuninely I am concerned the Biden campaign limited the time for the interview to hide any gaffes. Its already emerged he’s had multiple “episodes” over the last 6 months, and today its been revealed he’s seen a Parkinson’s expert neurologist 8 times in the past year. Yet the biden campaign have aggressively and condescendingly dismissed all concerns over Biden over the same period.

Also in my country, the UK, political interviews are often substantial - 1 hour is not uncommon (often edited down) and even during our election we had full full unedited 30 min live interviews for each of the main party leaders.

Maybe 22mins is just because American TV is so dysfunctional? But given how the biden campaign have been so dismissive of concerns and then the debate has revealed them in a cold hard light, then yes I’m suspicious. There is little trust left after what we saw in the debates. The white house has been telling bare faced lies when directly asked about Bidens health on multiple occasions.

Biden has been a good president, but he is not a good candidate for this election. This issue is so damaging that he’s behind Trump in the polls despite trump being a convicted felon. And worse, no one is holding Trump to account because biden is a distraction. Trump said a lot of crazy things in the debate but all people remember is Biden’s performance.

Some people are doubling down as the narrative that criticising biden was akin to supporting trump which was being spouted a lot before the debate.

It seems a lot of people seem unable to get away from the idea that “biden is too mentally infirm” is a republican talking point and therefore cannot be true. It is a republican talking point but it also is worryingly true.