Week 48, 2020

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I seldom dabble in the corporate hell of Windows devices but sometimes I have to “use” a laptop to access some VPN to do my magic job and I have no idea how anyone can work like this.

I’m talking about the full set here starting with BitLocker, Cisco AnyConnect (yuk), virus protection and gods know what else.

Every time I start this I get to wait for 2-4 hours until all the updates are done while I’m getting swamped with pop-ups from all kinds of pre installed software each in their individual fashion and style asking me to click, tap, accept, proceed or acknowledge something I’ve no idea about.

Speaking of I usually even have a hard time reading anything on this excuse of a display. For unknown reasons someone thought it’s a good idea to design a default theme with probably fifty shades of grey (I know about high contrast mode but that makes it worse).

I am only a user on such a device without any admin permissions. Why am I even bothered with all this? And while I wiggle my way through all the pop-ups overlapping each other stealing input focus again and again trying to get anything done… Reboot required. Now. Reboot and… repeat! There are more updates we didn’t know of before!

In between an occasional error pops up about something not being able to install something because of some error. The amount of provided information is killing me.

And it’s slow. So gorram slow. What is this thing doing with an i5 processor all the time? And why do I have to babysit it for updates at all?

Eventually I may be able to use the device only to be prompted to change my password due to reasons. And bite me, every time I have to figure out what new password may be fine because the prompt won’t suggest the password rules or anything.

At the end of the day I’m happy that I can use a system again that, as odd as it may seem, provides a much better user experience [to me]: A Fedora Workstation. It just works.

shovels and rakes and implements of destruction by crystalcrystal (chicky.blog)
Chinese takeout and self-pity are on the Thanksgiving menu today. Like this:Like Loading... This year, I won’t blow smoke up anyone’s ass about how thankful I am for things. Shawshank‘s been gone for 279 days. I’ve had to take care of myself since that morning – and that was even before th...

Rooting for you @crystal. You’ll make it! (And your BossRPh rocks).

November from the Hours of Henry VIII by Lisa Spangenberg (digitalmedievalist.com)
November image from the Hours of Henry VIII shoiwing two men knocking down acorns for the pigs below the trees November image from the Hours of Henry VIII shoiwing two men knocking down acorns for the pigs below the trees Morgan Library MS. H.8 f. 63 November from the Hours of Henry VIII France, Tou...
Happy 3rd Birthday Medieval Realms! (medievalrealms.co.uk)
Medieval Realms is three years old on 3rd December 2020 – that’s next Thursday! There has been an unbelievable amount of work that has gone into making the server what it is today. A lot of stress at times when months of work fall apart when code does not behave the work it was intended. Not to ...
CAPTCHAs don’t prove you’re human – they prove you’re American by @edent@edent (shkspr.mobi)
When I was a small child, I took an IQ test. One of the first questions I stumbled on was “A piece of candy costs 25¢. Jonny has a dime. How many nickels does he need to buy the candy?” My 7-year old brain popped. WTAF is a nickel? Or a dime for that matter? We don’t have those coins in my co...

I never knew what exactly put me off on the most used captcha system out there but now I do. It’s not only the foreign language but the assumption I’d know what the pictures are about at all.

BTW we usually have taxis in RAL 1015 (light ivory) here in Germany but nowadays other colours are possible – just not very common.