Just did Ancestry DNA. The surprised at the regional focus. My genetic background is less diffuse than others close to me. Nearly half Swedish and Norwegian. The percentage of German is actually lower than I anticipated.
I have had the diagnosis of ADD (ADHD now) for almost 30 years. I no longer take meds nor do I attend any type of therapy. Instead, I’m protective, and I have the luxury of surrounding myself and working in places with people where I do not have to explain or defend myself.
Oof. I just spent hours answering questions for a survey about ADHD. Go [@catieosaurus]!(https://www.instagram.com/reel/C7ia8GKMYr2/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==) It made me feel things and remember things, but also helped me to feel proud of everything I have managed to accomplish despite this. Please share. If you have the diagnosis or are seeking it, I see you.
Three Technical Support Truths:
- All hardware sucks
- All operating systems suck
- All applications suck
Many other truths and corollaries can be derived from support experience, but these are ones I’m willing to state out loud.
To be fair (sung in three-part harmony), all operating systems suck. This is one of my three simple truths, to be embraced as a professional who supports such things.
Windows still prefers to be stationary. It doesn’t know when this external display needs different settings than that external display. The assumptions the OS makes are not the assumptions that people make. This makes individuals angry and is a support nightmare.
I’m deeply annoyed by the metadata now supplied from Apple when you go to convert a CD. Either an album is now put into the Various Artists ghetto, or the same album is listed in parts because of partnered artists even when the album itself and the liner notes make no such distinction.
TIL: kegling is a sport.
But it isn’t about your pelvic floor.
Please stop saying anyone tweeted anything. Twitter is dead. It’s dead, Jim.
People post. On social media. Post. Post is as easy to say as tweet. Wrote, also easy to say, with a long history of accepted usage. They post what they wrote.
Also? Twitter is dead.
I think Elon is only upset that it’s ChatGPT and not xAI.
So, I’m Gen X, and therefore potentially grumpy and old. But Teams (or name your favorite tool, my company uses the M$ stack) calls aren’t something I’m necessarily prepared to take at a moment’s notice. Could you give me a heads up? Unlike a phone I can pick up, with PC-based communications I have to turn on a headset and make it connect before I can answer the call.
I sit in a cube farm and I prefer to keep my business away from teammates who are generally good at keeping their business from me.
Not knowing what is happening at the other end is the reason I hate making phone calls or any calls without first sending a text message to establish availability to chat, before I’ll broach availability for a voice or video call.
And then I have these requests. You know the camera on your laptop is shit. You also know that everyone is looking up your nostrils, or for you multi-monitor folks, the camera is pointed at your profile or your head is only visible in the bottom 25% of the frame.
We are in the 21st century. Pay attention to your camera quality. Pay attention to what your camera sees. Make sure we can see you with a little bit of light. And for the love of all that’s holy, put yourself into the majority of the frame and at least try to give the appearance you’re not doing other work on the call. Actually look at your camera from time to time.
Easy remedies that cost nothing:
- Temporarily, move to a place with more light. Face the light.
- Adjust your laptop lid (and therefore your laptop’s camera) to put yourself in frame, even if it means the display isn’t at the perfect angle for seeing what is on your screen during a call. Having the camera at the same height as your own eyes is great.
- Keep your screen/lens clear of fingerprints and debris.
- Treat the camera lens as the eye contact appropriate to the conversation and your attention.
In a purpose-built room?
- Sit close to the camera, not opposite.
- Move chairbacks out of frame so remote participants feel included rather than mere observers.
- Actually look at the camera in the same way and as much as as you would look at any in-room participant.
Discovered Sungazer (and Sungazer Plus) via TikTok last night. Played a video which represents about the last minute and a half of this video for Thicc, from the apology onward. Let it loop and loop.
Didn’t know I was into electro jazz fusion, but there it is.
One song shy of a complete rip, a CD shattered in the drive. Have never experienced such a thing. I bought my first CDs and CD player in 1987. The CD that shattered was from 2002.
When the sun rises and the caffeine hits
It looks like I started using 1Password after I stopped using ICQ and AIM and all of the others. Out of nostalgia I looked to see if I had any login info recorded. I was fond of Trillium and Pidgin and it seems like there were some Adobe AIR applications in there somewhere, too.
The enhanced 75th anniversary version of The Hobbit is on sale, today, on the Kindle store for $1.99.
Starting the day with the surprise delivery of Flat Whites
“…a towel has immense psychological value”
Amazing how things change. I saw an article about Atari finally winning the original n war with their purchase of Intellivision. I had an Intellivision, but all my friends had Atari. Then Colecovision had way better home versions of arcade games (in those days). Atari always had greater mindshare.
Changed a display panel for my “home theater” system for a bigger one. Suddenly the HDMI cable from the receiver to the display was an issue. The one that had worked wonderfully for years needed to be replaced. Now, for the first time evar, the AppleTV realizes it’s connected to a receiver. What?
I am amused when things are described as MacBook killers, or iPhone killers. If they aren’t running MacOS or iOS, how are they pretending to compete? I’ve used Windows computers since 1995, Macs since 2005. They are not made for the same audiences. Most minds are made up.
At the Expo with the Oddities
ugh. 7 gig download to restore an iPad with a Home button.
Aurora in Minnesota
Looking up toward Arcturus
