qupada

Money. Money is where it comes from.

“I am rich, therefore my opinion is valid and you should listen to me”

EXTREMELY LOUD ‘INCORRECT’ BUZZER

I keep trying, but the clock only displays 4:29.

What do?

At work we use the NexDock for that purpose (for anything that doesn’t have proper Ethernet remote management, at least). It’s relatively convenient that it’s self-powered and self-contained, basically a laptop minus the computer part.

(Conveniently, I see this is also a new model that replaces the awkward mini-HDMI port with a proper full-size one)

If you need VGA, you will have to buy an active VGA-to-HDMI dongle. They’re cheap (down to about $10-15 these days) and seem to work just fine.

Should the preference be to use a laptop you already own, you’ve got a few options. Either an IP KVM like the JetKVM, GL.iNet Comet, NanoKVM, etc, or a USB one such as the Openterface.

(Note that a couple of those links are pre-orders or otherwise not immediately available, make sure you do your research)

All of these things are fairly comprehensively reviewed by tech-focused Youtube channels, just gotta pick your favourite form factor.

A great thought on the thumbnails, but the behavior exhibits even when using command-line tools.

Indexing is off for the entire drive, I can’t even begin to imagine what kind of mess that would make if it was on.

“Fun” fact: if you think it’s slow normally (and to be fair, it is), NTFS seems to have a pathological performance regression when a directory contains more than 10,000 children, any operations on files in that directory slow down by around 95%.

I discovered this on our CCTV system at work (that runs on Windows Server 2022), which creates an inordinate number of small files (each containing at most a few seconds of video). It was causing some of its periodic maintenance tasks to fail, as they’d take longer to run than than the configured interval between them.

Windows also really doesn’t like dealing with half-petabyte filesystems, just like… at all.

It was the 3TB ST3000DM001 that was the really terrible one.

(so bad it has its own Wikipedia page)

And don’t even get me started on getting back from the Mun, when if you do survive the landing.

Sorry Jebediah, that was a one-way trip.

Old-timey doctors had a word for that procedure… “lobotomy”. Cleaned your mind right out.

Would you also like some heroin or cocaine?

I’ve always heard this as

“the two hardest problems in computer science are naming variables, cache invalidation, and off-by-one errors”

Yours is a nice subtle variant, I like it.

If their case is too solid, try eating more fibre.

This is grotesque.

That is fair. I guess my statement was ambiguous but of all the things I’m least bothered by its inclusion. At this point in my life I’m not actually sure I still own anything that could plug into a 3.5mm jack though.

Also to keep the computer symmetrical you actually need a third hole to match the location of the Kensington lock slot on the other side :D

I might be in the minority here, but I’m perfectly happy with the USB-C only setup. My work laptop is a Dell, but has the same design as that top Mac with just two Thunderbolt ports on each side of the chassis.

Headphones? Bluetooth. My machine actually has a headphone jack, which I have not used once since receiving it.

RS-232? That’s also Bluetooth, not as if USB-C to RJ45 serial console cables aren’t widely available though.

Ethernet? Well in the rare event I need one of those it’s more often going to be a Thunderbolt SFP+ adapter because most of my work is with fibre. In the rare event it is copper I’m quite often needing to use two at once, so would need at least one dongle even if the machine did have a port built in.

HDMI? Well you can buy a tiny adapter (about the size of a book of matches) that has a USB-C socket on one side and a HDMI plug on the other (about $13 on Amazon: https://i.imgur.com/iwmsa4L.jpeg). I already have to have a USB-C to USB-C cable in the bag for charging, it can do double-duty as a video cable.

The trick is to be smart about the dongles you do carry. The predominant style with a short cable terminating in a bulky body with whatever socket on it is almost always the worst style, sitting right next to your laptop getting in the way of whatever you’re trying to do.

The biggest advantage though is having USB-C ports on BOTH sides of the machine, so the charger can plug in on either side. I think people have forgotten how much it sucked not being able to do that. You’d be surprised how many machines that have a 50-50 collection of USB-C and other ports put all the USB-C ports on one side so they’re never in the location you need them to be.

Fully aware this isn’t going to work for everyone, but people really need to stop pretending like it only has downsides because that absolutely isn’t the case.

I’m considering a similar one.

Our kitchen ceiling lights now have a Shelly relay in their circuit. I’m considering a smart bulb in the rangehood - unusually, it fits a full-size A60/B22 bulb, so basically any standard smart lighting is an option - so it can be synced with the rest of the kitchen lights.

Also who wouldn’t want to be able to have green light while cooking?

Using the phone as a touchpad has come in handy on a few occasions for me. Also just niceties like having your music on the PC pause automatically if you receive a call.

It should further be pointed out that it’s not even required that one end is a phone. You can connect your laptop to your desktop and share content between them just as easily.

Random might not be the right word, can we settle on “anonymous”?

It sounds a bit sinister, sure, but underscores the whole don’t-ask-don’t-tell nature of the contents of charcuterie nicely.

If this is something you do often, you might consider Firefox with the multi-account containers extension: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/containers

It allows unique/isolated profiles on a per-tab basis.

I’ve found it great for work, for the many things that require me to be logged into both the me@example.com and me@example.onmicrosoft.com accounts simultanously, to manage MS 365 things. But restricting social media to an isolated profile, multiple Google/Microsoft/whatever accounts, these are all possible.

I have a plastic desk toy of this dumpster.

https://100soft.shop/products/dumpster-fire-vinyl-figure

Truly an object worthy to represent these troubled times.

For everyone saying “I’ve seen this before”; yes, yes you have. It was released commercially back when optical disks were… relevant.

Released 23 years ago, discontinued 15 years ago: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DiscT@2

Pretty sure Technology Connections has a video that mentions it.

In the woods, or???