MystikIncarnate
@MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca
Some IT guy, IDK.
- Comment on Balatro yet again subject to mods’ poor understanding of “gambling” 2 weeks ago:
Dunno why it’s even rated M. Seems high for what it is
- Comment on 6* months away now. If you're on 10, do you plan to upgrade? Make the jump to Linux? 2 weeks ago:
… But why?
I would pivot to W10 LTSC to avoid Windows 11… So why would I move to the LTSC version of the OS I’m trying to avoid?
Makes zero sense.
- Comment on 6* months away now. If you're on 10, do you plan to upgrade? Make the jump to Linux? 2 weeks ago:
While I get why they want to do all online accounts, no. Just no.
Ironically, for business users, online accounts are basically the way the industry is moving. Some integration with Azure active directory (now known as “Entra ID” - a useless rebranding of the exact same product), you can connect systems using someone’s email, and it can tightly integrate with your work email account on Microsoft 365, and everything just kind of fits together.
This prevents admins from having to go and do prep/setup on each system and/or maintain a library of system images with all the standard settings for the organization, since connecting with AAD/Entra can also enroll the device into Intune and those policies are just as powerful, if not more powerful than what you can do with images and prep; just now is entirely automatic.
For home users, it’s less about the convenience of system management and more data harvesting of their clients. The irony is that a lot of the business versions still have an option to bypass the online account (usually by selecting an option that you will be joining a classic domain).
So business has the option and largely, business is moving away from it, and home users don’t, but that’s something that a large number of home users want.
The only thought I have on it is that: bitlocker is enabled by default on many newer versions of Windows, by signing in with your M$ account to the PC, those bitlocker keys are backed up. If you don’t use an online account, it’s up to you to back then up, and users either don’t do that, or do it in such a way that it’s ineffective, like saving the recovery key to the very drive that needs that key to unlock it in the event of a problem.
I’ve seen more than one person fall victim to their own lack of knowledge and understanding when bitlocker is enabled, and Windows update screws their boot sequence to the point where they need to do a recovery, which requires the recovery key, which they do not have. It basically makes all of their data inaccessible, and gigabytes of data, just from the people I’ve known affected by this, has already been lost as a result.
- Comment on 6* months away now. If you're on 10, do you plan to upgrade? Make the jump to Linux? 2 weeks ago:
I hear what you’re saying, but, there have been some pretty significant improvements to Windows, generation after generation.
Windows 10 finally seemed like they were on the right (and hopefully final) track with the direction of the operating system. Probably the last big improvement was to bring basically everyone to 64 bit.
XP moved us from the 9x kernel to the NT kernel that’s used in Windows today. Vista introduced security features and driver updates that help to keep systems free from many common root kits. 7 brought in a very standard UI, that would be the basis for things going forward, 8/8.1 existed… Then 10 basically uplifted everyone to 64 bit as a default.
Of course this is far from a complete list.
What did W11 add that we didn’t have before? A TPM requirement? Ads? AI slop/shovelware/spyware?
- Comment on 6* months away now. If you're on 10, do you plan to upgrade? Make the jump to Linux? 2 weeks ago:
I won’t be doing pretty much anything about it. I have 10 pro, I don’t really give a shit about what Microsoft thinks I should do. My computer is behind a firewall, and bluntly, it’ll be a while before the security issues become such a problem that I need to go and upgrade.
However. I already did the legwork. I went out and upgraded the hardware TPM 1.2 in my system to TPM 2.0, and I picked up some (relatively cheap) Windows 11 pro product keys. I can upgrade if I want.
I also have access to W10 LTSC, so I can always pivot to that if I need to.
I get the security and other concerns with Windows 10. I do, but the windows 11 changes, to me seem like they’re changes for the sake of things being changed. Windows 10’s user experience was already quite good, apart from the fact that every feature release seemed to have the settings moved to a different location (see above about making changes for the sake of making changes). IMO, as a professional sysadmin and IT support, the interface and UX changes have made Windows, as a product, worse; it is by far the worst part of the upgrade process and I don’t know why they thought any of it was a good idea. I also hate what M$ has done with printers, but I won’t get started on that right now.
For all the nitpicking I could do, Windows was, for all intents and purposes, exactly what it needed to be, between Windows 7 and 10. There hasn’t been any meaningful progress in the OS that’s mattered since x86-64 support was added. Windows 10 32 bit was extremely rare, I don’t think I ever saw it (where W7 was a mixed bag of 32/64 bit). Having almost everyone standardized on 64 bit, and Windows 10, gave a predictability that is needed in most businesses. The professional products should not follow the same trends as the home products. If they want to put AI shovelware and ads into the home products, fine. Revamp the vast majority of the control panel into the settings menu, sure. But leave the business products as-is. By far the most problems that people have with Windows 11 that I hear about, relate to how everything changes/looks different, and/or having problems navigating the “new look” or whatever the fuck.
Microsoft: you had a good thing with Windows 10, and you pissed it all away when you put out the crap that is Windows 11.
Stop moving shit around, making controls less useful, and stop making it look like the UX was designed by a 10 year old. Fuck off.
- Comment on shrimp colour drama 2 weeks ago:
I also would not know about that.
- Comment on Note: before tariffs 2 weeks ago:
With the switch 2 coverage, this is something that bugs me quite a bit… Not the meme, Nintendo games, by comparison, are worth more than the slop that Ubisoft craps out. No matter how good a Ubisoft game could be, Nintendo has them beat in terms of quality.
Back to my point. The cost of games is insane. The price point for most video game systems is around $500 USD. Whether PS5, Xbox, switch, whatever, they’re all either at or near, $500.
You buy 6 games, and you’ve spent more in games than you did on your console. The fuck is this? We might as well go back to the days when you would buy a whole ass console that could only play a single (or small selection) of games like the Coleco Telstar.
I think they figured out that you make money from selling the add-ons, so they dipped the price of the console and jacked up the cost of all of the games so they could increase profits and shareholder value.
Oh wait.
- Comment on shrimp colour drama 2 weeks ago:
Clearly, it’s light-ish red.
- Comment on shrimp colour drama 2 weeks ago:
This person colors
- Comment on shrimp colour drama 2 weeks ago:
Can’t fix what you don’t know is wrong.
- Comment on shrimp colour drama 2 weeks ago:
I’m pretty sure if it worked on any frequency in the charged electromagnetic spectrum, they would get completely screwed long before they made it to earth.
As a qualified amateur operator, the radio spectrum is noisy.
- Comment on shrimp colour drama 2 weeks ago:
I’m not a fan, but that’s neither here nor there. I’m weird.
I’m just not sure that flavor can be considered a positive character trait?
Maybe I’m stupid. Who knows? Clearly not me.
- Comment on At least Quark had some integrity. 2 weeks ago:
More or Less. I would think of it more as a third person direct versus indirect. Third person direct being: referring to a specific set of people, eg, they’re in the room with you, where calling them females would be rude… Third person indirect, where you’re mentioning the concept of that group of people while not citing a specific or present subset of that group, would be rude.
You’ve made some good examples. Overall I think you understand the concept I was trying to get across.
- Comment on At least Quark had some integrity. 3 weeks ago:
Female is still an acceptable term in some context: eg, when referring to the social group on a societal level, female can be fine, also for identifying someone’s genetic/biological sex as “female” for medical/official contexts, that’s still okay in most cases.
Where it’s not okay is to use it on an individual level or to refer to a small group of ladies. The term is seem as cold, clinical, and in some cases, dehumanizing. It comes off as boiling down a person to their function in reproduction and nothing more. “You are the female and you carry children.” Kind of thing. Like women are some kind of bakery for your crotch goblins, and not people worthy of respect.
But something like “the female population of the country” is fairly okay, since you’re referring to the entirely of the people who identify as female, not an individual or small group of individuals.
At least, that’s my take. I’m just some guy. If any women want to correct me, I defer to your judgement and opinion, and happily retract any contradictory statements I may have made. I am always happy to be corrected.
- Comment on Win win 4 weeks ago:
This is the only good use of a Tesla now, IMO. Get it fully insured, then go park it in a dark alley near a popular area. It’ll get torched before too long. No fraud involved with setting your own car on fire…
Then use the money to buy something that’s not made by a Nazi.
- Comment on All things have a right to grow. The blossom is brother to the weed. 5 weeks ago:
To be fair, the spider will likely be responsible for the deaths of many other insects, but honestly, I’m ok with that. They can live in my house rent free if they keep the other bugs from making my home their home… And they don’t crawl on me. That’s just begging to be killed…
Spiders are bros.
- Comment on Musk shares post that Hitler didn’t kill millions, public workers did. Union rages 5 weeks ago:
As much as “I was just following orders” is not enough to excuse someone of their responsibility in atrocities, “I was just issuing orders” will not excuse anyone either.
Anyone who thinks that just because someone didn’t pull the trigger, that means they’re not guilty, you can get your ass back in line to lick elons boots.
This is in the same vein as “Hitler did some good things” kind of cognitive dissonance. While the statement may not be wholly false, the fact that anyone could overlook everything he did that was bad, to find some small piece of something he did that can be construed as “good” is simply trying to put an objectively evil person into a better light, when they do not deserve it.
There are plenty of misunderstood people in history that did very good things, and were killed/maimed/murdered/imprisoned/tarred/feathered/whatever, because they did something that the wrong people saw as bad.
Nobody should ever try to find a shining light of good deep down in the black abyss of Hitler’s life.
- Comment on Inching closer to the grave every day 1 month ago:
Holy hell, the last movie was released in 2011.
I remember how much anticipation and agony people were complaining about waiting for it, that it couldn’t come soon enough.
I recently picked up a new game: RoboCop: rogue city… It hits all of the nostalgia about the original movie so far. Marching through an office building blowing off people’s hands and ripping machine guns off turrets and mowing down rooms full of enemies in all the gory, bloody detail… It gives me all the warm and fuzzy feelings.
The sound track is on point too.
Hard to believe it’s source material is from 1987. The game almost looks as good as the movie did. It’s not as polished as big name titles. People will talk and their mouth won’t move, some of the idle animations for NPCs is very repetitive and robotic… But the visuals… MMM. If you liked the original, and want to partake in some thug killing mayhem as Murphey himself, I’d recommend it.
- Comment on Science has not gone far enough 1 month ago:
This is what I do. 10/10 would recommend.
- Comment on You guys have to end it 1 month ago:
shock
YOU WANT YOUR FAMILY TO END!??!
I jest. (:
I have a lot of thoughts and sometimes they spill out in the form of a rambling, book-like post on some platform. I try to stick to a blog… Since, you know, nobody really reads blogs, they’re just kind of there.
- Comment on You guys have to end it 1 month ago:
ICE cars are absolutely changing designs all the time. There are plenty of ICE car designs that I don’t like too.
The difference is that generally there will be a couple of EV designs, but there will be a dozen ICE designs. There’s simply more to pick from on the ICE side. So if I want something that fits a design aesthetic, I have a much better chance to find it as an ICE car than an EV.
I widely considered the model S to be a great EV design for a really long time, though I swore I wouldn’t buy one. Before the whole Elon Musk drama recently, my main reasons were about how they treated after market/used/rebuilt vehicles, owners, and anyone with the gall to dare try to fix their own vehicle… And also the “walled garden” of Tesla. Making it difficult or impossible to get something like a third party charger for home, among a long list of other complaints.
I’ve been aware of the writing on the wall with Tesla for a while, and I reserved judgement for the most part, only committing to not placing myself in that situation, and thinking that anyone who can accept what I will not, does so at their own risk. It brings me no joy to see that I was right on most fronts. They still have some wonderful designs.
Largely, the S stands out… Especially early S models. More recent models started to trend into basically being larger model 3 vehicles; I don’t like a few of the key design features of the model 3. Specifically, I don’t like that you have a barren dashboard. There’s nothing in front of you. The S had a driver information screen that showed all the usual things, like your speed, energy remaining, trip, odometer, etc. All the things that you would expect from an instrument cluster. I wasn’t a HUGE fan of the middle screen for infotainment, but as long as it was limited to noncritical features and infotainment, I’m mostly okay with it (mainly that it has no physical buttons) provided that the critical driving components, features and controls were separate.
I acknowledge that this is entirely a personal preference.
Bluntly, if Tesla as a company wasn’t as exclusionary to other EVs and manufacturers, and treated DIY/used/repair markets fairly, I might already be driving one. Obviously, even if they completely change all of their policies and evict the guy at the top, I’m not going for a Tesla… Even then, I’m pretty on the fence given that they’re burned at this point (aka cancelled).
I’m keeping an eye out for something, I’ll probably stick with the vehicle I have four now unless I can get a great deal on a used PHEV like the Honda clarity (which is now discontinued, RIP). There’s a few oddities about the clarity I don’t like, but on the whole it looks like a solid car. The rear tires being partially covered is odd IMO.
In any case, I can’t really afford to get a new car at this point, maybe late this year things will change on that front, but given the state of the economy, inflation and average earnings, things might get worse too. Financially I have two major events happening around October that might make it possible to buy a new car: we will be able to update our mortgage (hopefully with a lower cost), and I’m on track to pay off a major debt I have. If I have my finances under control and in a good place when both of those happen, then I may start looking around for a vehicle again, provided the economy doesn’t go down the toilet by then.
I don’t have confidence that the economy will be good by then because since I’m in Canada, the United States and their insane commander and chief, can absolutely put our economy into a downward trend.
I’m not putting my money on it being fine. I’m going to get myself into a better position before I reassess.
Regardless, if you’ve read my ramblings this far down, you have my respect. I hope you have a wonderful day, and I look forward to talking with you again in the future on here. Be well.
- Comment on You guys have to end it 1 month ago:
Unfortunately Peugeot and Citroen are not names I’ve ever seen for cars sold here.
I have, of course, heard of both mentioned at some point, but here in Canada, neither seem to be brands we can buy. I’m not sure why that is, I have never felt the need to look into it.
Our major players are GM, Ford, Honda, Hyundai, Toyota, Nissan, Mazda, BMW, Mercedes, VW, Kia, and all their subsidiaries (off the top of my head). Not sure if I missed any major ones there… There is of course some more niche companies but they’re not really on my radar, so to speak… I’ve also omitted Tesla on purpose for obvious reasons.
Hyundai only has hybrid sedans, some plug in hybrid, which is better than most, beyond that we’re stuck with mostly SUVs and light trucks as EVs, or whatever designer-looking monstrosity someone wants to release… The story seems to be the same across all major players, to the point where I just kind of gave up the search a few years back, for the most part. Anything I’ve looked up or looked at since seems to follow the same trends.
- Comment on You guys have to end it 1 month ago:
My only real personal problems with EVs, have nothing to do with them being electric.
Early EVs all looked like science experiments… I’ll give some examples. The Nissan leaf. The BMW i3. And a more recent example is the VW ID.Buzz mini bus thing.
I want a car, not a statement piece, and until recently, Tesla seemed to be the only ones selling EVs that didn’t look dramatically different than other cars on the road. I just want a car. I want it to use volts instead of gasoline.
The second issue I have has more to do with the automobile market than EVs… Everyone seems to have a sport crossover or SUV converted to EV, but very few have just plain sedans, and those that do, a nontrivial number of them violate the first complaint.
I like EVs, I want to drive an EV, but I don’t want it to look like it’s straight out of someone’s LSD trip. That’s just not groovy man … I’m not a fan of SUVs, I just want a small sedan or coupe that’s normal except it uses batteries instead of Jurassic remains.
- Comment on Owing your home today is nearly impossible, but even if you did the ever increasing property taxes will bury you 1 month ago:
I was not provided details as to what he did to argue it, or who he spoke to.
… That being said, I don’t think it was the latter example you gave
- Comment on Owing your home today is nearly impossible, but even if you did the ever increasing property taxes will bury you 1 month ago:
I had no idea that was a thing… Mainly because it’s never been relevant to me… At least, until recently.
Thanks for the info.
- Comment on Do tell!!! 1 month ago:
It is and you can buy them, but you pay a significant premium for them.
IIRC Cavendish is supposed to be more resilient to the fungi than Gros Michael is, but it’s not immune. The fungi mostly exists underground so it’s difficult, if not impossible to remove from the land once it’s “infected”… And it takes decades to clear naturally once the trees are removed.
The good thing here is that we already have Gros Michael and AFAIK, Cavendish seeds in the global seed vault, so we’re not at risk of losing the ability to bring the trees back at some point in the future. We still haven’t lost them, as you mentioned, there’s still small batches being grown.
IMO, it’s all a bit sad, since apparently Gros Michael is so much tastier, and there’s a shrinking number of people alive who are old enough to remember what they tasted like at all… So without investing in buying some from one of the small batch plantations still growing them, very soon, all but those that specifically went out of their way to try them, will have no idea what they taste like.
I’m not old enough to remember what they taste like (if they even existed as an option in the grocery when I was born at all, which I’m not sure about). I’ll probably never know.
- Comment on You guys have to end it 1 month ago:
… Which is probably why I had no idea they exist.
- Comment on Owing your home today is nearly impossible, but even if you did the ever increasing property taxes will bury you 1 month ago:
My dad literally went to the city and argued against them raising the book value of his home, which would cause him to have to pay more in property tax.
He won too.
That loon.
- Comment on Do tell!!! 1 month ago:
We switched to Cavendish because all the gros Michael trees were dying from the fungi.
- Comment on Do tell!!! 1 month ago:
Clearly you’re unqualified, you know about stuff, they’re looking for someone with experience in anything and knowledge of something. Your knowledge of stuff isn’t needed here.