Something Random

[sedrosken]

Personally, I mostly just use it for window management (handling my tiling with RWin+numkeys) and I'm just much quicker entering in numbers with it than the number row. I don't really do much with spreadsheets, but I'd been thinking about it a little bit for doing a little budgeting.

 

[Chewy509]

I hate moving house.... Last time was just over 11 years ago...

 

[jtr1962]

Last time for me was 42½ years ago. I don't plan to move again.

 

[Chewy509]

And to top it off, yesterdays temp was 36C (97F) and today is looking the same...

 

[time]

Moving closer in or further out?

 

[Chewy509]

Going to be a stone throw from Dreamworld...

 

[Bozo]

 

[Handruin]

Merry Christmas Bozo and everyone else.

 

[Chewy509]

Just like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and hope you enjoy a safe and pleasant holiday period.

For all others who also celebrate other events at this time I also wish a:

• Happy Hanukkah
• Io, Saturnalia!
• Happy and Joyful Kwanzaa
• Happy Constitution Day
• Joyful Feast of Winter Veil
• Happy Malkh-Festival
• Happy Festuvus
• A peaceful Anastasia of Sirmium feast day
• And reasons greeting for those that celebrate Newtonmas

PS. Apologies if I missed a holiday you celebrate.

 

[fb]

Happy Holidays!

 

[Mercutio]

I am glad those who are here are generally well.

 

[fb]

Inteesting, will Netscape 4 usage see an upswing thanks to Brexit?

The Brexit deal calls for DNA profiles to use a 20-year-old email app

Maybe just use Outlook.

www.theverge.com

 

[sedrosken]

Funny, I actually used Netscape 4 on the 486 for a short time before I figured out just how much faster IE 5.5 (6.0 SP1 on 98lite) is on the same machine. Night and day difference -- but Opera 8.50 is the best of all worlds for such a machine, it can render more modern sites than either and has tabs while still running acceptably within 32MB of RAM on a DX4-100. I never bothered with the email component -- I use ProtonMail, and the Bridge application only seems to work for serving to an email client running on localhost. It requires TLS anyway, something I'm pretty sure Communicator 4 has no concept of. If I ever get a VPS and domain like I was wanting, I might see about it then...

 

[Handruin]

You might like this project if you want some homelab TLS. Build your own CA:

Build a Tiny Certificate Authority For Your Homelab

Let's make a tiny, standalone CA! We'll use a Raspberry Pi 4, YubiKey 5 NFC, and Infinite Noise TRNG.

smallstep.com

 

[Chewy509]

Happy New Year to all...

 

[Handruin]

Happy New Year Chewy!

 

[Mercutio]

I understand that air travel isn't a great idea right now, but I've had my recent Covid infection, have a permanent four day work week and I'm two train rides and a 4 block walk from my place to O'Hare. Might as well put those Antibodies to work!

I paid $34 for a round trip flight to Atlanta; a couple weeks ago, I paid not much more to visit Miami. I'm fine with missing a night of sleep and in return, I've had a few to-die-for meals (take-out, naturally), seen cities I've never visited and gotten a nice break from the crappy winters of the upper Midwest. Atlanta isn't as nice as Miami, but I'm glad to be somewhere there isn't any snow. There's plenty of outdoor art here and I'm fixing to walk around and see all of it. I have my camera, a laptop and a couple changes of socks and undies

I wanted to go to New Orleans this weekend but the timing on the flights didn't work out. I'm still kind of tempted to go in February because people are decorating their homes for Mardi Gras, but I think it's a better time in March, which might very well be the most comfortable time to go anyway.

Ironically, the week I was infected with Covid, I was supposed to spend a week in Bryce Canyon, Utah with a friend, a trip we'd planned a full year ahead of time. I decided the plane trip wouldn't be terribly safe, and I wound up having a face to face meeting with a redhat sort who said "It's just my allergies" every time he hacked and coughed into the mask he was only halfway wearing. I only go in to my office maybe twice a month, but one of those days it still got me.

I don't think I'm immune to reinfection, but after 9 months of getting groceries delivered, cooking every meal at home and only seeing other human beings in on Skype or Amazon Drop-ins, I'm glad to see something new in the world, even if it's an empty downtown on a January morning.

 

[Handruin]

That's great you're out and able to travel. I didn't think you liked going out to travel and see the world? I enjoyed Bryce when I got to see it back in 2012. Unfortunately for us at the time the altitude change kind of hit us at that point in our trip along with some other fatigue so we didn't explore Bryce as much as some of the other parks. We kind of just chilled in the car and took in the scene. Zion was more enjoyable for us and maybe you could hit both if you have a car and time. They're about 75 miles apart if you ever get out that way in the future. There is another scenic route if you go a little further west to Brian Head before heading south to Zion. Brian head is near 12,000' elevation which is neat for a short visit.

 

[Mercutio]

My best friend keeps moving to huge cities, which has necessitated an adjustment to my life. When her income was higher, she'd just fly me out to places she was visiting, which cultivated some good travel habits and also proved to me that I can get away with quick trips to hub cities and tourist destinations.

My folks also have a time share with worldwide availability that they never use. I was able to spend an entire month in Vegas in 2019 and I have tentative plans to visit Southeast Asia with my friend as a graduation present if she ever gets around to finishing her last semester and the rest of the world decides our passports are worth worth having.

I started taking 3 day trips in 2018. I don't mind renting a bedroom off airbnb. Usually I hit art museums or sculpture gardens and I'll get one nice meal or take in a comedy show. A weekend like that might cost $200 all in if I'm careful.

 

[Handruin]

Enjoy your travels to see your friend. Glad you're able to get out more.

 

[sedrosken]

Speaking of travel, I'm due to fly down to the Destin/Ft. Walton area on the 3rd to see my Aunt and Uncle down there and scope out the situation down there to plan for a move. Just paid off my student loans from my failed venture in University and they're trying to get me to go back... I'll probably go for it, but maybe not right this second. I have no desire to put myself in yet more debt, especially if I have to have someone co-sign again. That shouldn't be a problem, I have credit of my own now, and pretty damn good credit for someone my age, but I'm still a bit anxious and kinda just want to live a while before I take that on again. I'm scoping out job opportunities (turns out experience in customer service and management actually helps, especially with customers as volatile as truckers!) and places for me and my cousin to live. He's moving out of his mother's place, we're splitting expenses and I'm half-convinced I'm supposed to be keeping him out of trouble too.

As for the trip, I'm packing a backpack with my laptop and a few days worth of clothes (I'll have access to laundry) and I'm gonna carry it on since I don't want to pay to check a bag. I'll have about an hour's layover in Atlanta around noon -- I'm told I'll need that long just to get to the other gate I need to get to, but I have hopes of catching a quick meal too. I plan to be very careful and distance as much as I reasonably can, and of course I'm bringing plenty of masks. I didn't want to drive the whole way down there because I know my car won't make it there, much less make it back. I'm planning to scrap it before the move -- I'm undecided as to whether I'll get another before I go or if I'll get one down there. It'll be a pain in the ass to either tow it or drive it, but the taxes in FL are higher, so I'll definitely pay for the privilege of buying one there...

 

[Mercutio]

I'll be at ATL at noon EST but I'm anticipating a hassle.

sed, look in to Western Governor's University. It's an online-only school that is formed from a partnership of community colleges in 34 states. You can take as many courses as you want in a single semester and your credits freely transfer to in-state community colleges nationwide. They charge ~$3000 per six month term. They offer IT, business, teaching and nursing degrees. If can handle non-structured learning, that's a fantastic deal.

 

[sedrosken]

sed, look in to Western Governor's University. It's an online-only school that is formed from a partnership of community colleges in 34 states. You can take as many courses as you want in a single semester and your credits freely transfer to in-state community colleges nationwide. They charge ~$3000 per six month term. They offer IT, business, teaching and nursing degrees. If can handle non-structured learning, that's a fantastic deal.

I've definitely added it to the list of things, but for now the goal is to just get down there in the first place. In that regard, my trip down was a success -- I'll be rooming with my cousin and his mother to start (they have a spare room) and we're thinking within a couple months we'll go in on a 2br place together closer to the middle of the Destin/FWB/Shalimar area. I've got a job lined up too (albeit not one that's significantly better than where I'm at now -- but for a week I'd say I did pretty good getting one at all) and I'm making tentative plans -- my cousin has a car, and mine won't make it down, so I'm selling mine up here for scrap just before I leave. I'm going to decide what I'm leaving (some stuff I'm not enthused about taking with me my cousins here have expressed interest in), throwing away, and packing, I've put my two-weeks' notice in where I'm at, and make sure my failed project scrap gets taken to recycling before I go. In this regard my relatively simplistic lifestyle has been a boon -- I really only have a mattress (I'll get a more appropriate bedframe for it when I'm down there, I was borrowing a frame from family up here), a chest of drawers, and a desk as furniture and my worldly possessions can pretty much fit in a small u-haul trailer.

Plans right now include getting down there, then getting money together for a deposit/first month's rent on our own place -- we're thinking FWB, it's a more central location and the rent's cheaper anyway, and between my taxes and this next stimulus that's supposed to hit I think I'll just about have it -- and then getting a car once that's squared away since there isn't the driveway space for three vehicles anyway. I'm probably finally going to sit down and let myself get talked into a nice used car, with a down payment and hopefully shorter-term financing, since I don't think I'll have the timeframe for saving up to get it outright. ...Which means being forced into full-coverage insurance, which is a big expense since I'm under 25. I've tentatively discussed being put under someone else's insurance until I hit 25 and just paying the difference, but I wonder about what effect that'll have, whether it'll make them think I had a lapse in coverage for however long, or if it'll somehow otherwise adversely affect my rates. It'll be something to talk with an insurance agent about, I'm sure, but my record is probably a help -- two years on the road and no accidents or claims of any sort, no citations, nothing.

Somewhere in there will be the "getting a better job and/or pursuing education/stuff for a career" stage. Since there are a lot of government contractors in the area, I don't know how wise it is to say my exact plans in that regard, so I'll leave it there.

 

[Mercutio]

One of the things I keep looking at as I travel is to find a different place to live. It's 11F in Northwest Indiana right now and there are about two feet of snow on the ground. I really do wish I could move somewhere snow isn't. I really had high hopes for both Atlanta and Austin, but both those places are gentrifying like mad. I pay just over $500/month for my place and every time I get inspired to look at apartments anywhere besides here, I get really, really sad.

 

[Handruin]

Are you aiming to keep the same employment you have now when you move or are you looking at the salaries local to the region you're aiming for? You might be able to get away with reduced snow or no snow in Arizona or some parts of southern Virginia. If you're still in IT and looking you might find work from home gigs that could support your move to a new location even if rent does go up.

 

[Mercutio]

I've been able to shift everything I do to 100% remote over the last five years. In theory the people I work with shouldn't have a problem with a move, but my skill set still marks me as a generalist, which doesn't look that appealing for corporate work, especially as someone who doesn't have any interest in a management role. I suppose I could start a MSP and do that anywhere. I've basically been doing that anyway, but finding new customers sucks hardcore, especially since you wind up competing with Microsoft, Amazon and Google these days.

 

[Handruin]

I don't see any issue with being a generalist. That has worked for me over the past 20 years and it's been a mix of large and small corporate startup. The devops role is pretty hot these days and fits being a generalist. Many want cloud experience. I wouldn't want to find customers for an MSP startup either. You'd probably need to focus on small business in a local region but with more on-prem work versus remote.

 

[Mercutio]

I've never had any luck with full time permanent corporate jobs. That's one of the reasons I've stayed in the role that I have.

 

[Handruin]

Loads of people make it through the corporate machine at various skill levels if you're willing to play their game. Could offer a more-stable way to gain some income while you look for something more suitable. You obviously know what's best for you and why it doesn't work but using it as a temp means isn't bad either.

 

[sedrosken]

Sold my RX480 for more than I paid for it in this recent round of crypto nonsense. I can wait until my next upgrade -- a friend of mine is sending me his 380, since he's not using it, and I don't have an iGP to use in the meantime since I have a proper Ryzen chip.

 

[Newtun]

Speaking of random, I hope any of y'all in Texas are surviving OK.

 

[Chewy509]

So, Facebook in order to comply with proposed Australian Law, has decided to remove all news articles and links to mainstream media sites, as well as pages for the news media, etc, rather than have to pay a fee to the media outlets... And most of the news papers are crying foul on Facebook?

Facebook will block Australian users and publishers from sharing news links in response to new bill

Facebook is getting out of the Australia news game.

www.theverge.com

Google has decided to negotiate payments to the mainstream media instead. Microsoft are currently unaffected by the proposed law and have backed it? (Note: In Australia, Microsoft Australia operates very closed with News Corp Australia).

IMHO, these new proposed laws are deeply flawed in many aspects, and while some aspects appear to be sound, others simply range from WTF to completely unworkable.

Disclaimer: I do not and have never had a Facebook account.

Another perspective:

Web inventor says Australian law could make internet ‘unworkable’

Warning comes amid rising tensions between Australian law makers, news publishers and tech giants

www.independent.co.uk

PS. I've seen various posts that some US politicians are looking at what is happening here, and are looking at proposing similar laws in the US depending on how it plays out here.

 

[fb]

Well...

Facebook Takes Down All Posts Spreading Misinformation About Fictional Nation Of ‘Australia’

SYDNEY—Citing potentially dangerous messages suggesting the “hoax country” might pass legislation forcing the tech giant to pay for the content its users share, Facebook took down all posts Thursday that spread misinformation about the fictional nation of “Australia” on the social networking...

www.theonion.com