Getting a cool Linux desktop

Nørderier / Nerd Stuff
I'm not a big fan of Windows, I particularly find the O/S weird and incomprehensible, while the desktop actually is quite nice.  Throughout most of my career, I've been mastering all sorts of UNIX like O/S's, although mostly as servers, so I am doing a lot of command line stuff.  I grew up with "vi" in my fingers, and despite having tried, I never really got the hang of any other editor.  So for the work I am paid for, it's very little more than lots of terminal windows, shell commands, and all that jazz. But for the desktop, I've kept Windows, and I e.g. find that Microsoft Office does the job it is supposed to do very well.  I tried switching to Linux several times, but despite it being…
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The “exchange rate circle”

Nørderier / Nerd Stuff
When travelling abroad, you often try to use some quick calculations for currency conversions, such that you can quickly in your head find what a certain price is in your own currency.  From € to my local currency, kr, I e.g. do "multiply by 7 and add a bit" or from € to £ "take somewhat more than 10% off".  These calculations in your head often get imprecise, so it might be useful to have something better, maybe in your purse.  For my local currency to €, having a printed copy of this: does exactly that.  Lookup € on the outside and convert to kr. on the inside.  If something costs €29, I see there is a marker for 2.8 on the outside, then a somewhat larger marker and the…
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