Posts by Robert Moore 779 publicly visible posts • joined 14 Aug 2007
When my better half wanted to upgrade the (Crap) wifi in her HP laptop, and we found out that you couldn't replace the internal card with any card no approved by HP. If you tried the laptop would just halt at a screen telling you your wifi card wasn't approved. With no option to continue. We had no choice but to put the original WiFi card back in. I tried another HP laptop and got the same result. Looked online, and discovered this is very common to a lot of HP laptops.
She replaced her laptop a few months later.
I am far from a Linux noob. I installed my first Linux in the late 90's Slackware. I admin a large number of Linux servers and Mint is my go to desktop Linux. I have been working in IT for long enough that the last thing I need it to make things harder for myself. Mint works really well and painlessly for most desktops and laptops. Instructions written for Ubuntu almost always work unchanged for Mint.
My gaming PC runs Mint, my new laptop runs Mint, I have one work laptop that runs Mint. My GF dumped Windows the day she got her new laptop and installed Mint on it (By herself.)
The servers I admin, are mostly a mix of Ubuntu server, and Centos (And whatever the replacement for centos is.)
Any business who wants my phone number in exchange for a discount, gets my landline phone number from 40 years ago. If they want an email address they get president@whitehouse.gov
The employee behind the counter does not care what you provide and will enter it, usually without comment. If they ask, tell them the truth. I have never had anyone refuse to enter my email address.
I moved my extremely non-technical mother over to Linux. After about 2 weeks of "What do I click to go to Google?" type questions, her support calls dropped of to almost nothing. She used it happily for the last couple of years before her death.
My lovely Fiancee got frustrated with Windows on her old laptop, (Very old) and I offered Linux, she tried it, and really liked it. When her old laptop had a hardware failure a year later, she asked me what laptop to buy that was Linux compatible. I did make her go through the initial setup of Win 10 on the off chance she ever wants it in the future. She even installed it (Mint) herself.
Give me a private office and I'll go in.
Add a meeting room down the hall so I can work with my team when I need to, and work in my office when I need to get actual work done. Forget this open plan stupidity, because it doesn't work, and is universally hated by everyone who has to work in it.
You are wrong on a few points.
Build quality is decent. Most of the Macs I see are still useable after 3-5 years. PC laptops are about 3 years tops. (Yes Mac repairability sucks.)
Most Macs are retired because Apple releases a new OS version that make it too slow.
Those overpriced fanboy machines. They actually sell for those prices. (At least local to me they do.)
Apple does offer a buy-back plan, but I seriously doubt anyone uses it. They really don't pay well for the hardware.
Personally I am done with Apple. No RAM upgrades is a total dealbreaker for me.
My new Linux'ed up Thinkpad is pretty sweet. But I accept it lacks any style.
I have thought this myself. It would solve the problem, and would be easy.
Impact would not be felt for a few years until people with out of date networking gear start being unable to reach certain addresses.
Best of all I won't have to try to hold an IPv6 address in my head, which is clearly impossible.
> And B should pay you for your home office, heating, electricity etc.
Grow up!
Working from home saves me about $500 per month. Between the train and an occasional lunch out. Not to mention the 2.5 hours a day I would spend on the train, the $1-2 a month on electricity is a massive win for me. Heat is about the same as I don't shut it off. (The dog gets cold) and I already have an office space at home.
Quick fix for the stupid skinny scroll bars.
Open a terminal.
echo ".scrollbar.vertical slider," >> ~/.config/gtk-3.0/gtk.css
echo "scrollbar.vertical slider {" >> ~/.config/gtk-3.0/gtk.css
echo "min-width: 13px;" >> ~/.config/gtk-3.0/gtk.css
echo "}" >> ~/.config/gtk-3.0/gtk.css
You don't even have to reboot, every new window opened has reasonable sized scroll bars.
> never name a server something-temp
This is possibly the most important lesson I ever learned.
Also if there is any chance that you might in future need a second system doing the same job. be sure to name the machine something-1 put the number in right from the start, there are few thing more annoying than:
something-server
something-server-2
You could also start numbering with 0 if you like, but I find it confuses management.
Or maybe that is just me.
> I can only imagine those who choose not to get the jab would chafe under your over-bearing employment practices, so they're far better off working somewhere less opinionated.
Too bad for them. It is a good job, my one employee is very happy with it. She is also vaccinated. If she were to choose to leave, I would have people lined up around the block wanting to take her place.
I have always said stupid should hurt. Looks like it finally will.
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