Posts by ayay 44 publicly visible posts • joined 19 Jan 2021
Why do some people always have to throw “diversity” into it?
Look, I am one of those “dirty foreigners”. I find myself fighting with management to do things right, to no avail, of course.
And yet, as soon as things done wrong catch up with them, others quickly line up and point at ME for the reason why it wasn’t done properly.
Really?
I am now responsible for ordering servers, laptops and desktops. I grew up seeing Intel general douchebaggery.
All our servers are Intel, all our desktops are Intel, our laptops too. Until now. This year, everything will be AMD. Suppliers who don’t want to deal with AMD are being replaced.
The fact that they are hurting makes it even better in a twisted way. AMD was what I could afford back in the day, and not only Intel pulled all sorts of shady maneuvers to kill them, they forced us all to a decade of mediocrity in the aftermath of it.
That’s nothing. As far as I am concerned, they need to suffer even more. And until AMD stops being the innovative powerhouse they became after rising from their grave, I will enjoy the schadenfreude in all its glory.
I remember the shady deals Intel architected to pull the rug from under AMD, almost killing them for good in the process.
As soon as they noticed AMD was over, complacency set in.
As soon as AMD had Ryzen (pardon the pun), Intel reveals themselves as nothing more than a dead man walking.
Some of you know what they say about Karma...
Part of me hopes they don't manage to get out of that so easily (aka lobbying), and have to face the music: good, old fashioned innovation, just like that competitor they almost buried.
Not necessarily.
I was on a channel for space exploration nerds, and stumbled upon an ad for a razor.
Two oddly specific things, seemingly unrelated. The commonality was that both the channel and the razor manufacturer are Canadian.
I bought the razor. And it is amazing.
I ad block the hell out of everything otherwise. As far as I am concerned, niche ads are the way to go.
Well, OVH is cheap and the scrappy underdog, so of course we'll beat them. Losers!
Now, AWS is too big to fail, so people act like the lap dogs they are, making excuses on their behalf.
Then we wonder why it always seem like the biggest douchebags keep getting ahead. Maybe it's because we can't possibly forgive the underdogs for any mistakes, but are willing to make excuses for the dominant players before they even have to come up with some bullshit.
See also: AMD between Intel's Core and Ryzen, Microsoft, and many others.
I have mentioned this somewhere else here, but I need to repeat it every time I can, because WireGuard is the best.
My mom has a circa-2014 router (TP-Link WDR4300) running OpenWRT. I do need to VPN there every once in a while.
Being OpenWRT, I was able to use OpenVPN. But... it. was. a. dog. Bandwidth was TERRIBLE.
Of course, the damn thing was not state of the art in 2014. I got it on sale, clearance even, so there it is.
Yet, with WireGuard, it's almost like I am there. It flies.
The same goes for my phone, laptop, pretty much all devices that roam around with me, yet are always connected to my network. It is robust... and fast. And secure.
Yes, there's a little fiddling around to get it all set up, as it usually happens with Linux and friends. After that, though, it just goes on and on, and you leave nothing on the table. Resource efficient, secure, simple. Gets your stuff VPN'd in, makes sure that site-to-site VPN you need is iron-clad and speedy. I could go on and on!
Fast, reliable, easy, runs on a toaster. Or almost.
Get any OpenWRT-supportrd router and have it in, performance will be decent at least. Most often, it'll be awesome. Now try OpenVPN. Yes, I know, I've cried too.
People way smarter than I am vouch for its security, so what are - the not-corporatey fellows who are looking for something reliable and secure, not a stamp of approval from the likes of SolarWinds - waiting for?
If that doesn't change, the year of Linux on the desktop may be upon us, brought by the most unlikely chain of events to boot.
Many serviceable machines are 7-10 years old, and many people in first world countries are having trouble to upgrade, let alone the third world. You find TPM 1.2 in some, most won't have anything.
Hell, even new machines won't make it. The machine I bought a couple of months ago - 11th Gen Core i5 - does not have TPM 2.0, thus incompatible. I can get a module, but I assume these are probably overpriced by now, just like everything else.
Funny, I was also waiting for someone to blow that particular horn. It was bound to happen, for reasons that must be clear to you, considering you're the one who did it.
And you can keep your contempt and hints and whatever else makes you sleep well and comfortably smug at night. Yet, a mess such as the one we are witnessing would not be sponsored by any intelligence agency: too noisy, self-defeating as an intrusion mechanism, AND wakes up your enemy. Lose, lose, lose.
I do not follow the mantra of "not attributing to malice...", but it is apt in this case.
Now, if you have a (war) drum to bang, and reason need not apply, do carry on.
That makes no sense.
I assume the Chinese intelligence services would rather not publish their findings if that was the case. Just get the bugs in, and carry on exploiting them later. They would definitely not publish their findings on a journal.
I remember Backblaze was the scrappy newcomer, cheap and effective, using consumer grade hard drivers and running all sorts of data collection to see how cost-effective that was.
Then, they stopped doing the consumer grade stuff. Maybe the enterprise gear is more cost effective? Or are they going full corporatey?
That answers the question. I wonder who's the new scrappy guy that has to prove his worth currently, because Backblaze is one of the boys now.
"As unnatural as it may seem to you, not everyone in the world wants to boot to a command line after a fresh install. Nor do most user wish to have a computer that doesn't connect to the internet."
Then don't.
It is amusing how some people get offended by the fact that others want to do the weirdest things with the time, equipment, and expertise - all the while making the fruits of their efforts available for others who share the same passion, for FREE! How can that be offensive?
And yes, it is also amusing how people compare Windows - pre-installed on most new consumer grade hardware - with any Linux distro, which you will most likely have to go through the effort to get set up and running. Not to mention the leverage Microsoft has on hardware makers, who end up being the ones chasing Windows compatibility, while Linux developers have to toil hard so the same hardware work seamlessly - binary blobs or not. It often does, impressively enough.
And, after all of that, all you have to do is choose. Pick your distro. Each have their focus, strengths (and weaknesses), principles. All for free, and with a community you can be a part of!...
..and yet, that is somehow a problem. Because those free software dorks dare to have an OPINION, amirite? How dare them?
Some see a problem with free software, I see how some people reward selfishness and greed. It is no wonder the corporations who care the less are the most prosperous - many people reward them not only out of convenience, but also out of principle too.
Well, that's what AGPL is for.
All you hear is that it is a licence that just will not work.
And, funnily enough, out of MURICA with all their MOAR-MONEY corporations, seems that Nextcloud (AGPL licensed) is doing just fine... in Europe of course.
But no, I don't know of any major cloud provider offering it. That is awesome as far as I am concerned. Who the hell need those vampires anyway, other than the massive businesses who can afford the AWSs of the world - and not a penny to the guys coding the tools, ironically?
Let them enjoy each other. Stay out of it.
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