I was talking to my boss. We both share and annoyance with Microsoft, Apple and Android. It’s the usual reasons:
- Privacy is suspect on all three. Especially if you go Android you might as well turn yourself in at the FBI.
- Moving to subscription models, you can suck it (YCSI). If I want to use my word processor or a spreadsheet, I don’t want my PC having to connect to the internet and verify my license.
- General fan boy dislike of 2 or more of the three companies, just because. This is quite common. My boss and wife hated Apple, until they actually used one. Quite honestly I don’t know anyone who truly likes Microsoft. But someone somewhere is a fan boy for everything.
My boss challenged me to come up with a computer that would dump all three – no Android, no Apple, no Microsoft. What would that be like?
Last year finished building out a RetroPie box with a Raspberry Pi4. “Build” was probably on overstatement. I stuck it in a box and paid for a pre-set up SD card. Before the SD card came in the mail I played with the base Rasbian system that comes with the Raspberry Pi. And it was – pretty nice actually. It missed on a number of functionalities, it was a little hard to load software on, but it DID have LibreOffice, which lets you have word processing, spreadsheets, presentations and databases. It even had Python. When I took out the original SD card and put in the RetroPie system I felt like I killed something nice.
So, when my boss challenged me to build out a system I decided I’d use a Raspberry Pi and see what I could do with it. You could re-purpose and old laptop to run Linux just as easily. But that is still IBM style architecture set up for Microsoft products. I wanted to chuck the whole lot of established hokum.
Shown: New case, bought two months after initial purchase in May. It’s the tiny cube with blinky lights under the monitor. I am a sucker for blinky lights.
I started watching eBay for used Raspberry Pi systems. As it was now May of 2022 and the world had a supply crises, the Raspberry Pi boards were getting scarce. When you could find them getting one with a case, power supply, etc… was getting upwards of $250. You can kiss my ass (KMA)! I wanted to do this cheap! By the end of May I got a great deal at $117 for a fully assembled and used Pi4B with 4G of memory, a nice cooling fan and aluminum case and all necessary cables and power plugs. It even had a 128G SD card! Done!
Note: As of August 2022, you can also just buy the Pi400, which is a keyboard with a Raspberry Pi4 computer in it and bypass the above step. It’s just as good for basic processing. Prices are starting to come down. That was expensive in May when I bought my used Pi4.
Once I got the Pi in the mail, I went to the Ubuntu site. I knew Ubuntu was an excellent Linux operating system that seemed to be the preferred alternative to the native Raspbian system. I wanted to see how much better that was than Raspian. I used my old Mac to burn an SD card with Ubuntu. After that I just put the SD card in the Raspberry Pi, and that’s it!
Note: I could have also just used the Raspberry Pi to burn the SD card, but due to my lack of easy familiarity I used the Mac.
The pleasant surprises:
- Ubuntu is a big step up from Raspbian. If your intent is an everyday PC, you should load Ubuntu. You can add LibreOffice, it immediately found my wifi printer and connected, and it came with FireFox with was plenty adequate for my needs.
- You can still get to any cloud app through FireFox. So I can get out to iCloud for my photos for posts, store documents, etc…
- I had maybe an hour of fumbling to check everything out and set it up. I had an old mouse with a wireless USB keyboard I could use. Bob’s Your Uncle (BYU).
- I didn’t have to lower my expectations for a daily use PC. It met my requirements for having an office suite, access to a printer (It automatically found my wireless printer), Zoom and a web browser to run movie post nights (Yes, it runs TUBI and Pluto just fine). I hooked it to a pre-smart era TV and the graphics are fine for my bifocaled eyes.
- Speed: It’s about as fast as a basic ChromeBook. If you were going to do this yourself, step up to the 8GB Pi 4 if you can to get more responsiveness from opening web browsers, etc… You can sip a cup of coffee in between opening programs, and FireFox is a little slow. Nothing horrible though for daily use.
- The power plug is a USB C and runs normal 5V out. So I could run this in a car, on a battery, etc… An additional portable feature is everything is ON THE PC. I don’t have to get my license checked to run the word processor. I can boot up in a tent in the wilderness and start writing. No internet or cloud necessary, just like God intended.
So what is a pain in the ass with this?
The Raspberry Pi comes with 4 USB ports, Ethernet, Bluetooth, WiFi, and two HDMI ports. Seen in the background with the red light – the annoying lamp switch to turn it on and off. Greasy fingerprint costs extra.
- Dislike the hinkey physical click switch on the power supply cable. Is this a computer or a 1970’s table lamp? This can eventually be corrected with some software and a button. So overall that is a minor complaint.
- The ARM64 architecture is not supported by every piece of software I would like. Yes, this is a first world problem. Brave, in particular, does not directly support this setup in Linux. I still have Firefox and Chromium, which is an open source version of Chrome. Firefox came with it and runs well enough. God knows Opera is available too. Firefox is slow, as mentioned previously. Workable, but slow.
- Zoom has to be supported via web browser and not an app, which is a minor inconvenience. There was a Firefox download for it so that is what I’ll use. I will stick a camera on this thing and be ready to get drunk and flop around on Zoom nights. Again, this is a first world problem.
- YouTube looks like crap. It’s the only site that defaults to a bad resolution. Don’t really care, I wish to get away from YouTube as well.
- What about other programs beside basic office and such? Well, it starts to be a pain. Use this for a basic PC and be happy. Either that, or become a hobbyist and jump in the deep waters of Raspberry PI and Linux.
- Some settings have to be adjusted in a terminal window (think DOS). For instance, it always defaults to headphones instead of the TV speaker. If I want to fix that it’s coding in a terminal window. Boo!
I am going to continue to use explore with this thing – but overall I am pleased with the basic computer functionality. Beats a Chromebook, 10X cheaper than a new Mac or decent Windows PC and I don’t feel like my entire world is uploaded every night to an FBI database. I would recommend even for a main PC, as long as you don’t go outside what you would expect a Chromebook to do. As of this August I got a few game emulators on it and can play older games. Sadly, RetroPie does not support this setup as of yet.
Have a Pi400 sitting on my workbench. Reminds me I need to actually do something with it.
I *hate* blinky lights. I look at some of the ridiculous “gaming rigs” out there and want to plotz.
Same. The whole “pay extra for RGB!” craze drives me nuts. I’m not going to look at the damned thing, I certainly don’t want something to flash in the room and drive my wife (and the cats) crazy in the middle of the night… no need for any of that crap.
Yes my my video card is currently on in a closed case.
Useful only when working on the PC while on as it helps illuminate the board. I think you can have it display temps which could be useful, but after I built it and debugged it never had any overheating issues.
That craze has gone into IT equipment vendors too. Woo hoo! Blinkenlights for boards inside opaque cases!
I have a conundrum there – I bought a “Razer” mouse which has all that distracting crap but it was easy to turn off. It’s a nice mouse and it was a fair price.
Now I want to buy one of their keyboards to go with it but it’s the same story only more expensive. I want it for the customizability not the blinky. Their software for customization is pretty neat.
I actually like an illuminated keyboard for legibility in low light.
I run white (only color available) at the lowest setting.
https://www.daskeyboard.com/p/prime13-mechanical-keyboard/
I have a Mac-flavored Das attached to my work laptop. The flipped Win and Alt keys still mess me up many times a day but it’s what I have.
The Razer keyboard I’m looking at is clicky too.
DISCO! DISCO DISCO!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mnkntLDNXCs
untz untz untz untz
Let the blinky lights take control! Give in to the light/dark/light and the dark again side!
😵🥴
Sorry — my requirement for a work computer is running at least 7 virtual machines with at least 4 cores and 16Gb of RAM each… a Pi is a nice little system…. but I’ll stick with my x64 workstation all the same.
And Fedora over Ubuntu. I can’t freaking stand Gnome. (Yeah yeah… Fedora has a main Gnome spin now, but you can still get KDE, Cinammon and the like. Ubuntu isn’t fond of you changing window managers).
Look at Mr Threadripper.
Ha! Probably the next one — this one’s actually a Xeon. Easier to find in the Outlet/Markdown sections of manufacturers. (I build my own systems — but getting workstation parts is decidedly dicey, especially a good case / thermal design with hot swap bays. This one had two hot swap m.2 bays, which is really hard to find….). And outside of buying direct from Lenovo, I haven’t seen an actual in-stock Threadripper Pro for well over a year, so c’est la vie.
I remember farting around with a bunch of distros about two decades ago. Ubuntu didn’t exist then. I think Suse was my choice at the time. But man, desktops were really clunky back then.
It’s gotten way better since then but… still not practical for me.
confirm. I need a bit more oomph to my computer. Pi is neat and a great way to learn OS and hardware architecture if you want start building boards and the like. I like messing around, but not quite that much.
I always build from components so you can mix and match parts, spending more where you want to, less where you don’t. Also a Fedora ‘fan-boi’ – not really, they annoy the hell out of me from time to time too. But Ubuntu is just too much hidden under the hood. I hate gnome3; usually use cinnamon or mate. With wine, I can actually play the witcher 3, halo mc, skyrim without booting into windows. There are some other games that I haven’t gotten to work – Days Gone for one, and anything that requires very low latency sound; that doesn’t work to great through an emulator. For RJ’s comment about hardware – you can run linux on mac hardware as well if you want. But I don’t know why you would want to…
And I would object the ‘Android turn over the FBI’ – non-google android is, I think, probably your best privacy to functionality ratio for a mobile OS.
Ditto on wanting more horsepower for day to day use.
I’m with you on Gnome. Just feels very alien. KDE (what I currently use) and Cinnamon are more familiar to me.
Ended up on Arch 3 years ago for reasons it would take too long to get into. Now I can’t imagine using anything that isn’t a rolling release.
I really like Raspberry Pi SBCs, but I could never use one as a desktop.
They are of course perfect project computers.
My favorite use I’ve done so far is a car media player.
Zero-W with a huge SD card with about 70 kid movies on it. Set it to start a hotspot and a DLNA server on boot, and booted as Read Only so when the power is cut there is no risk of file corruption.
My kids have their own cheap $30 Fire tablets that connect to the hotspot and this lets them watch the movie of their choice on long car rides.
With Pi prices the way they are right now, Intel Celeron boxes running the Unix of your choice make sense as well. Not as energy efficient, but more powerful.
I had one for a while, but I tired of keeping the OS up to date and didn’t use it much.
When Pi prices decline I’d look into one again as there are lots of things I’d like to try with it. For example I run a Pi as a print server to my 3D printer, but it is set as a dedicated box.
I miss the $85 bucks computer in the palm of your hand days of 2 years ago.
A chicken for every pot….and two cars in every garage!
Sounds pretty well suited for what I do (not much, aside from spending entirely too much time here). I should be preparing for the day this laptop croaks.
I’ll put it on the “one of these days” list, right under the speeduino.
Heh true.
I’ve been mostly on Mac for ~15 years, sometimes off. Sometimes flipping back and forth multiple times in a week.
Was in semi-dire* need of a new machine for months and finally made my choice. A new PC arrives this week.
I will miss my Mac – I still think macOS is a better OS but Windoze is more practical.
*I can’t play many recent games FFS.
I don’t do gaming, so Linux Mint on an external hard drive suits my modest needs.
I don’t do “hard core” gaming, but I do enough that Windows is kind of essential in that area. Mac is shit for gaming of any kind* and Linux more so.
*So tired of the “well it worked a few years ago but the developer can’t be bothered to support it and Macs don’t do backward-compatibility” dance
You can do *a lot* gaming wise with wine under linux. Obviously not ideal, but I guess I’m old enough that if the game doesn’t work under linux or wine+linux, I can probably do without playing it. On a completely unrelated note, Might and Magic VIII anyone?
M&M VIII!
Whelp, I can’t say what I wanted to.
Thanks, WP.
Proton is getting better all the time.
My gaming fix (Path of Exiles) basically didn’t work 3 years ago.
Now it actually works quite well in Linux with no tweaks of any kind (aside from enabling experimental compatibility mode in Steam)
It works well enough I no longer use a Win10 VM and GPU passthrough (this is a PITA to set up but gets you almost bare-metal game performance)
The only thing I boot into Windows for anymore is Rocksmith. I can run it under linux but haven’t been able to fix the audio lag. At work, need windows from time to time so I have windows 7 and 10 VMs. I doubt I’ll live long enough to see a Windows-free world – and frankly it’s not a big deal to me, so long as I can mostly avoid it – but it’s easier and easier to avoid.
Definitely easier and easier to avoid these days.
Good to know about Rocksmith, though not surprising.
I suppose I may end up re-doing the Win10VM with passthrough for that.
Dual boot has always been a non-starter for me. Every time I tried I ended up staying in Windows all the time because rebooting is a pain.
Were it not work work I’d be windows free here.
Alas work is windows and will remain windows – kinda have to in order to use VS and SSMS. Its not my computer though so I guess it doesn’t really count even if it is in my house. I suppose I can’t complain too much – knowledge of MS products pays well.
I like my old macbook pro, the 13” model. Would get one again if this one croaks. It’s about 6 years old now.
I have been running Elementary linux on this Acer laptop for years. I like it fine. It just works.
I have a Rpi3 I think. For normal fart8ng around the internet, coding practice and basic email, it is great. Also you can run a KodiTV build to uh…make it a media center and most certainly pirate TV shows.
As of August 2022, you can also just buy the Pi400, which is a keyboard with a Raspberry Pi4 computer in it
Hmmm…
I climb smokestacks and measure the stuff that comes out. That Pi box looks like an FTIR.
I’m pretty sure internet is something that just pours out of everyone’s wall. Like electricity.
So, a cyberdeck. Just need the cable to plug it into your brain.
As for distro, I prefer Linux Mint.
I hate the Ubuntu graphical interface.
Today in first things first.
Gov. Accident has her finger on the pulse of America.
Well now that we finally have that settled, the Republic should stand strong again.
Change them back to maintenance holes again. 🙄
I can feel all those businesses coming back from Florida.
Would seem to be a slam dunk 1A violation. Also, is ‘governor’ a gendered term, since ‘governess’ is an option?
OT: To pull from the afternoon links about ‘wuss rockers in the covid era’. Just saw that Opeth’s long time drummer is no longer with the band due to “conflicts of interest” – that’s sort of new one. No-one directly involved is saying anything, but the rumor is that he refused to get vaccinated. As that would interfere with their touring – and they just started back with that – that would sort of fit into the ‘conflict of interest’ instead of ‘artistic differences’. His ‘interest’ is in his bodily autonomy and their ‘interest’ is getting back to the road. Who knows, obvious rumor to be started in the current day, might have nothing to do with it. But if it turns out to be true, it’s a shame I won’t be able to go to another Opeth show or buy any new albums.
I have the same opinion about Apple that I do about Honda: overrated POS. I have owned both, and I have also taken shits that were better.
I have worked on cars most of my life, and I have a huge hatred for disposable junk ie Honda’s. The carbs are seals ie you can rebuild them. Wiring system? Have to replace the whole harness to keep it in warranty. And so on. Macs are no different. If you aren’t a computer person, and I am not one, they are impossible to work on when, not if, they go down. Totally unintuitive.
I have owned both, and never again.
(that was a reaction to being told I would love them if I ever had one)
*Zwak proudly holds up a cardboard box that says “Computer” on it and is decorated with glitter.
That’s VooDoo Porn Box to you, pal!
If you aren’t a computer person, and I am not one, they are impossible to work on
I disagree strongly with this characterization. Being a computer person doesn’t help at all! A ‘computer person’ would like to replace the hard drive – what do you mean I need a special tool and $100 kit to reseal it after I’m done? Visit the ‘geniuses’. Fuck you iMac. A computer person would like to be able to upgrade RAM after market for $200 instead of the $1000 apple wants. What do you mean I can’t get to the RAM? Oh, and it’s soldered to the board too. What, you want me to pay through the nose for a pastel nightgown on top of BSD? Over-rated indeed. But it seems to work for some people. Shrug.
As my friend that has a t-shirt that states:
Not the target demographic
This guy gets it!
The BSD variants have become Linux (and therefore SVR4) like in look and feel. Sad.
Pre 2000 Hondas are ok by me. They were engineered as a disposable good and priced accordingly. Essentially everything wears out at roughly the same time and it makes no sense to fix.
New ones I’m not a fan.
Kind of the opposite would be a MB W123. And in the 2000s MB cost cut and to me have never been the same. The most disposable rich douche lease car they make now would have to be EQS.
https://www.mbusa.com/en/vehicles/class/eqs/sedan
Tesla, Audi, Porsche EVs would all be preferable to me over that tech for tech’s sake monstrosity. It will be obsolete in 5 years.
When young Zwak had an Accord and needed to rebuild the carb (very pre2K) and was told he would have to buy a new carb, he was very sad, as greenback don’t grow on trees. Disposable, indeed.
Totally agree with you about MBZ. W114/115 for the win. Though the W108 is no slouch. In fact, I love all of them up till ’75.
Chrysler really sapped Merc’s resources in the 2000s. It was sad. That said, Chrysler milked Merc for all they were worth platform-wise and I have an excellent SRT8 Magnum that owes a debt of gratitude to Mercedes for it’s existence.
My 2009 Honda runs like a champ. It won’t go 200K miles, but for the price? I’ll take 100K and get another.
🙁 The S2000 was the most fun of the neo-roadster era.
Totally unintuitive.
The only intuitive interface is the nipple. Everything else is learned behavior.
*peeve off*
I can’t dispute it.
/been sucking nipples for 51 years, I like to think I’m pretty good at it now.
Alright, alright, alright
*Zwak proudly holds up a cardboard box that says “Computer” on it and is decorated with glitter.
Needs some Star Trek control panel blinky lights .
the newly-signed Senate Bill 536 declares that all uses of gender-specific language in the workplace be replaced with “gender-neutral” terminology, such as replacing “salesman” with “salesperson,” as well as replacing “he/him” and “she/her” pronouns with “their.”
Caligula’s Horse for President!
The law seems like a huge 1A violation. How can the state demand that businesses and people change their use of standard English? I know- FYTW- but I can’t see the Nazgul letting this stand. I imagine an 8-1 vote to toss it.
Unfortunately, I only see lawfare being waged against the state as protecting as many people as possible from getting crushed and not an overall solution to the problem. I’m glad liberty minded legal organizations are fighting the battle. However, the govt, by definition, decides what the law is and it will ultimately do what it wants.
The article is not clear on who it applies to – could just be The State.
But it seems to work for some people. Shrug.
Most people just want an appliance. It took me a long time to figure that out.
To borrow a line from JWZ, I don’t want to sysadmin my desktop. I have thousands of other machines to worry about.
That said, i could probably deal with a Linux laptop these days – it’s way better than when I was wrestling with Wi-Fi drivers on a thinkpad at the turn of the century.
He’s also correct about the development model of Linux GUIs.
https://www.jwz.org/doc/cadt.html
Heh, all true.
And so much this.
https://archive.ph/tnh3w/8b87d3a66e296350815bd53bcb8cbe56ef5f100f.webp
NSFW.
https://archive.ph/7UBGW/810bc3b86e96fd52ad9ed56c560296290e2c1cc8.webp
NSFW.
https://archive.ph/5dPwQ/a1d8c6bf58c61a1d0fd21869881531221caacbb0.webp
NSFW.
https://archive.ph/HeCgT/c8589b9953f20ce5a22678ccd17d0abae996c009.webp
NSFW.
All four are better than a computer.
I see that Warty linked to the car bombing of Dugina earlier. The Guardian’s take on the story:
If the accusation against Ukraine is true, it would mark a significant embarrassment for Russia’s security and counterintelligence apparatus, which failed to prevent the attack in an elite Moscow postcode and then let the suspects slip away.
It’s an embarrassment for Russia and yet Ukraine is denying responsibility.
The spin doesn’t need to be coherent.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/aug/22/russian-security-service-accuses-ukraine-over-darya-dugina-killing
Well, I’m going to the US Open. I’ve just bought tickets for the Labor weekend. A bit creepy to go to NYC but whatevs.
Imagine living there.
Interested in visiting it yourself? I only have groundpasses for Sunday and Monday afternoons, I think it’s the best value for these days. If you’re interested, let me know, would be great to see you.
No idea, I’ve never thought of visiting it but I’ll give it some thought.
I’ve never been to a major. But I went to the masters in Cincinnati a year ago and the to the masters in Miami this March. It was quite entertaining. Shoot me an email to my handle at protonmail . com. I could give more details.
Everybody just acts like this isn’t insane.
https://mobile.twitter.com/natfukue/status/1561687361100034049
They are good, they are wearing masks.
I remember when masking was an East Asian thing (here in NYC) and no one else.
We rolled our eyes but otherwise nobody gave a shit.
Now it’s an East Asian and Karen thing.
The Japanese public thinks they work. I ask them how long will they continue wearing them given we are never getting rid of these new versions of corona. You gonna wear these fucking masks forever?
I had that very thought today, looking at my Taiwanese neighbors wearing their masks.
“What’s the plan? Going to wear those forever?”
The usual answer is: “I’ll wear them as long as the cases are spiking.” So, according to their logic, they’ll take them off when it goes down which in turn will lead to another spike (cuz masks work!) and then they’ll put them back on. But, they didn’t take them off even when cases were down. It’s just become mindless habit at this point.
Just like wearing other articles of clothing.
I’m sure, like here, they wore them long before the ‘rona and will wear them long after.
I knew it was a cultural thing long before that fucking prick Fauci lied the country into believing it was a medical thing.
I had to go into a physical therapists office today as they needed some forms filled out. I wasn’t wearing a mask (’cause fuck that shit) the whole time I was talking to the receptionist. As soon as I go to fill out the paperwork, she points to the little, unmarked box of masks and says “The reception area is still a medical area”
Fuck you, the staff has them pulled under their noses when they think no one is looking, you have a god damn dog sitting next to you. And you are going to lecture me about masks? JHTFC.
“Nice bitch you got there.”
“Pardon me?!?!”
“I was taking to the dog.”
Gov Shitstain’s continuing order. Obey.
Tin foil hat: Kishida’s positive test comes just as the government’s poll number drop precipitously.
To boldly First where no man has Firsted before, and to score with hot alien chicks. Those are my goals in life.
Call me when you nail a hot green chick.
Went in the kitchen and frog jumped out. I lost track of him after he went under the table. Now it’s a guessing game where he is. I’m to tired for a snipe hunt, so I guess I have a new roommate.
LOL and I jump at the too frequent cockroaches. I’d almost rather have a frog infestation.
This summer has been bug city, fuck.
Definitely rather have frogs than roaches.
It varies wildly ever year. This year is like peak bug. I hate it.
Maybe the frogs would eat the roaches?
In the Midwest?
I had a frog here in FL that was less than an inch long, but could jump 6 inches (seriously). Impressive, even if it was annoying trying to get him outside.
Geckos are a constant nuisance. Had one in my sink for a while, now I have one in my air vents. It doesn’t like when the A/C is on.
Just now finally trapped him under some tupperware and escorted him out the door.
Awww. Why not a new pet?
I like Microsoft.
/goes back to read the rest of the article
*puts Mike on The List*
First the music and then this. SMDH.
Here’s some music for you.
Correction; I like Windows, not MS.
I used to be into gaming and for around 30 years now I’ve been using CAD programs. Mac has never been friendly to either of those. Or at least it took them long enough to get friendly that I wrote them off long ago. Even though we had Apples and Macs in high school and I really liked them. I also don’t like Apple prices, proprietary plugs, and the whole cult following.
As for the other options, like was said above, I don’t have the time or desire to be a sysadmin for my fucking desktop. It just needs to work.
Mac gaming peaked for a few years after they switched to Intel. (Late aughts.)
Ever since it’s been a long slide into complete neglect.
That seems about the same time as Apple embraced appification.
Yeah, the iPhone came out the same year I bought my first Mac. Can’t blame them for focusing on their cash cow, I guess.
I like Windows XP and 7. I’m on Windows 8.1 right now, because my CAD program refuses to work on it.
When I comment from home, I’m usually using a Dell D630 running Debian and Brave browser. This really is my preferred OS/browser setup – it just won’t run Fusion 360. 🙁
I don’t like Windows, but I really don’t like the other choices either. Windows runs my games programs I need, sometimes.
*games and programs
Youtube usually is awful on Linux/RaspberryPi because default installations don’t usually do HW decoding of VP8/9 video at all. Takes some special voodoo magic to make it work on a regular desktop system. I’m not sure any Raspberry Pi can decode VP8/9 anyways.
For whatever reason I’ve never been able to get HW decoding of VP8/9 to work on my desktop so my fallback is this.
Look on your browser’s app store for an extension that will force Youtube to default to h264 video.
Chromium based browsers there is an extension called h264ify
Sure there is a similar for Firefox.
If that doesn’t help then you might also look for a way to have YT videos play in the MPV video player which should have HW decoding capability even if your browser does not.
I used PCs and Macs interchangeably for years before I left school and went into the workaday world and there wasn’t a Mac to be found. I needed a Mac for iTunes Producer, so my husband built me a Hackintosh (which he did as a little vanity project). It is cumbersome to use. Then I got an old MacBook from a client to do a task for him, and I am, shall I say, unimpressed. I have an iPad, too, also for work.
Way back in, say, 1999–2001 timeframe, I toyed with building myself a Linux box but never got around to it. Raspberry Pi intrigued me too, but again, never got around to it.
Watching first episode of House Of The Dragon. If you didn’t know before, they are going to lay it on thick with the gender politics in this one. Even more so than in Game Of Thrones.
You couldn’t pay me to watch that shit.
Three months I have been waiting for my Bennies. The payroll officer went on maternity leave. No one told me. My Record of Employment is also fucked. She didn’t send it in. Nobody told me. I had to call them and wait for an hour. This is the second time. I’ve physically visited the office thrice. Thinking about Killdozer.
Perhaps I’ll just stroke out and leave the rest of it easier to divide for my spawn, such as they are. Half a house and a truck.
Remember the Glib mantra…Squat moar!…wait, wrong one…Would!…also wrong…You know who else?….shit still not right…Calm your tits…I think that might be the right one…or maybe, at least we still have Lou Reed?…One of those must apply, I’m sure of it.
Sounds about right.
Don’t give in Fest. Keep fighting.
*Looks around for BeOS cd*
I know I have one somewhere…
Ok, keep that up and I’ll dig up my OS/2 Warp CDs and rant about how it was better than Windows 95.
Mornin peeps.
Do the marshmellow birdies ever answer?
Nope.
I am located right near their home base though.
https://www.justborn.com
https://www.thebiglead.com/posts/yankees-fan-drinks-beer-hot-dog-straw-best-tweets-01gb44mm8n3b
Wut?
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/More-than-half-of-Michiganders-with-E-coli-ate-17389873.php
Avoid Wendy’s.
https://www.cbsnews.com/philadelphia/news/north-philadelphia-block-party-permit-denied/
All of Philly is a problem. Get over yourselves.
They hate you but don’t want you dead?
That’s a couple of miles from my MIL.
Of course, a couple of miles in Philly can be like going from a Brazilian favela to a DC suburb
https://www.nj.com/news/2022/08/cop-hid-his-gang-ties-conspired-with-latin-kings-member-prosecutors-say.html
It’s like a badly written tv show.
La Cosa Nostra pays off cops, the Latin Kings apparently skip that nonsense and just get associates hired onto the force. Congratulations on the inventiveness I guess?
https://nationaltoday.com/find-your-inner-nerd-day/
Enjoy, you nerds. 🤓
I gave it up when filthy normals began appropriating my culture. there’s nothing more cringeworthy than hearing normies blather on about something they’d have scoffed at years ago and act like they invented it when the references are older than I am.
I’m still just who I am. Labels are for collectivists.
Every human mind collectivizes, infers patterns, and applies them. There are simply too many others to do otherwise.
Like it or not, you are a collectivist, because your brain is wired that way.
You’re not my neurochemistry’s supervisor! 😉
The green police, they live inside of my head…
https://nationalfile.com/green-police-will-be-needed-to-tackle-climate-change-french-minister-argues/
Seems like know nothing power hungry technocrats are a worldwide problem.
WEF.
*pulls out roll of tin foil*
Peruse their website for a bit:
https://www.weforum.org/
No tin foil needed.
How do you say “mass hysteria” in French?
Reign of Terror
awwwwwwww…..
I gotta go into work. And later on I gotta do a stupid presentation.
I’m not even going to be able to sit around on glibs, plus they plan to have the garbage meeting run past the end of my normal workday, putting me solidly in rush hour traffic to get home.
Later, glibs.
*waves*
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zhw0eBCVXR4
https://www.9news.com/video/news/ace-hardware-store-cat-missing-after-being-catnapped/73-625715a8-09ce-42b6-b27e-e44f69ced103
Catnapped!
“Jerk From Home: Pandemic Has Fueled A Rise In UK Porn Addicts”
https://www.zerohedge.com/medical/jerk-home-pandemic-has-fueled-rise-uk-porn-addicts
Up to 14 hours a day? Seems like there’d be problems with chafing.
https://www.amazon.com/Passion-Lubes-Natural-Water-Based-Lubricant/dp/B005MR3IVO
Good morning, Stinky, Sean, SDF-7, U (wherever you are,) and rhy!
Got yesterday’s Everybody’s-Gotta-Sign-This form sent out yesterday and already got a bunch of them back. Our Professional Employer Org (PEO) did NOT screw up this phase of open enrollment by including the med, dental, vision & HSA stuff that doesn’t come until later, so….so far so good. Today I gotta tackle another name change. Third last name this chick has had since she started…not very long ago.
Morning, GT — maybe she should just keep appending until she gets one of those British Royalty full names going. Be simpler.
Good idea! And so far they’re all polysyllabic for greater cumbersomeness! Neadz moar hyphens!
Just put her in as [Firsname] the Hyphenated.
I like it! Prince Chuck should use that if he ever ascends to the British throne (no rush, please!) He should restore the full glory of the House of Hanover-Saxe-Coburg-Gotha-Windsor-Mountbatten. (Exact order subject to change)
I strongly suspect QueenE is still around because she’s trying to outlive him.
::crosses fingers, squeezes eyes tight shut:: Oh, yes, pleaseohpleaseohpleaseohplease!
If its one thing that the Crown series has suggested is it that none of them are significant people.
Has Elizabeth been a failure?
And how much worse can it get?
Daily Quordle 211
6️⃣3️⃣
5️⃣7️⃣
quordle.com
after warming up with
Daily Duotrigordle #174
Guesses: 36/37
Time: 08:31.03
3️⃣6️⃣ 2️⃣2️⃣ 2️⃣3️⃣ 2️⃣4️⃣
0️⃣3️⃣ 2️⃣5️⃣ 2️⃣6️⃣ 2️⃣7️⃣
2️⃣8️⃣ 1️⃣6️⃣ 1️⃣7️⃣ 3️⃣5️⃣
1️⃣8️⃣ 1️⃣9️⃣ 2️⃣0️⃣ 2️⃣1️⃣
1️⃣1️⃣ 0️⃣9️⃣ 1️⃣2️⃣ 1️⃣3️⃣
1️⃣4️⃣ 2️⃣9️⃣ 1️⃣5️⃣ 3️⃣0️⃣
3️⃣1️⃣ 3️⃣2️⃣ 0️⃣8️⃣ 0️⃣6️⃣
0️⃣7️⃣ 3️⃣3️⃣ 0️⃣5️⃣ 3️⃣4️⃣
https://duotrigordle.com/
Daily Quordle 211
5️⃣3️⃣
4️⃣8️⃣
quordle.com
Daily Duotrigordle #174
Guesses: 36/37
Time: 06:55.31
I want to say something about Adventures with Purpose finding that girl and her car in the lake after 30 minutes.
First, they are not amateurs. This is not something they do on the weekends, this is all they do and have been doing so for 3 years.
Secondly, they probably have better equipment and far more experience than the cops do.
Just check out their YouTube channel.
At a glance, their methods certainly would seem to be more effective than that outfit that comes in to join land searches riding their horses. (What’s their name??)
Mornin’, reprobates!
Ask your Doctor if Creantix is right for you.
warning, side effects may include carpal tunnel, sore throat, ossification of the liver, hair loss, skin loss, weight gain, and sudden death.
I am trying to get through today without percocet. Saturday’s tooth extraction was not fun.
Ooof, I’d imagine not.
Good morning, ‘patzie! Howz yer mouf?
Mornin’, GT! Still swollen and a bit sore. On the plus side, the stupidity at my job is providing ample distraction from mere physical discomfort.
Sir Osis of Liver
So today is Find Your Inner Nerd Day?
Mrs.Patzer: Do you know what today is?
Me: *sticks out chest* Why, it’s Find Your Inner Nerd Day! What do I win?
Mrs. Patzer: *fires volley of rusty tin can lids* IT’S MY BIRTHDAY YOU DOLT!!!
Thanks, Sean.
Happy birthday to her. I know I met her in Alfred. Does she come around the site?
Thanks, U – I will relay the message. Mrs.Patzer is the Margaret Dumont to my Groucho, so this is not really the place for her 🙂
🙂
LOL.
Happy Birthday, Mrs. ‘Patzie! 😃🎂
Is LibreOffice still complete garbage? I haven’t used it in years but I remember it being extremely frustrating.
I use it for work. I don’t dislike it, and I generally hate paperwork.