Probably not. That’s basically a full week of take home pay for me.

I definitely want it. If it’s cheap, I definitely want two.

Actually everything they recently announced looks great. I really want to try to frame.

I gave up on VR after the oculus CV1 got canned. I bought one, got a few decent years out of it in spite of “meta” buying the company and making it shit, but when they stopped selling the connection cables for the CV1, which was the part that broke most frequently, I just backed the hell off and thought to myself, “this shit is cool, but it’s clearly not established enough to be predictable, maybe some day”.

Whelp, I think we’re finally there.

Until now, you had the “option” of either something mainstream like the quest 7 (or whatever number they’re on), or you can pick from either the index, which was on the pricy side for what you were getting, or the bigscreen beyond, which required an iPhone to scan your face so they can make a custom face shield just for you (and to get more you had to scan those people in and get face shields for them at a premium). Anything else was so niche that you probably were not getting support, if the company even existed in a few years to support you.

Now? A first party VR that actually looks good and works natively with steam…

So yeah… Where do I sign up?

I’ve wanted a steam deck for years but I don’t game on the go so I can’t really justify it, but the rig I’m using for couch gaming is getting pretty dated… So this seems like a great time to get back into everything… Though, finding the money I need to get the systems is going to be a challenge…

I hope this name sticks.

fracking clankers.

As a network guy: Ethernet over power lines can be fine, but you basically need to be an electrician, and have a working knowledge of how powerline Ethernet works before you can get there.

Even if you do, or stumble into a working setup by accident, you can absolutely end up with all kinds of bad things happening because power lines are notoriously bad with crosstalk and EMI, both on the wire and emitted from it.

If you absolutely cannot do rj45/Ethernet runs, and WiFi isn’t viable for whatever reason (or even if it is), look into MoCA. Thank me later.

It won’t cost you any more than powerline, and you’ll get a cleaner signal, more consistent performance, and overall a better experience.

In order of preference, I prefer the following connection options:

• fiber
• Ethernet
• MoCA
• Wi-Fi
• powerline

Fiber, not because it’s faster or better (there are many ways it’s actually worse than Ethernet), but because it’s almost impossible to interfere with, unless someone physically disconnects the cable (or breaks/cuts it). As long as the line is protected from damage, it will give the most consistent performance.

Ethernet, more robust than fiber in terms of physical disability, can be faster at propagating data (the time it takes to get from one end of the cable to the other), but only works over relatively short runs (100m or less, by spec), and it’s susceptible to alien interference and crosstalk. However, it is far more rugged than fiber.

MoCA is half duplex but shares a lot of the benefits of Ethernet. The main improvement here is that coax is commonly present in most homes already, while Ethernet is relatively uncommon in homes, so many homes are already wired in a way that works with MoCA.

Wi-Fi is also half duplex, it can go faster than Ethernet under the right conditions (which are almost impossible to achieve in real world conditions). Propagation is as fast as Ethernet but it has more overhead, and it is much more prone to interference from other Wi-Fi networks or other things operating on the same, unlicensed, bands.

Powerline should only be considered if all of the other options are disqualified for some reason.

Also, anyone using wifi extenders (not talking about mesh or anything, just actual Wi-Fi extenders), should probably not be doing that. Wi-Fi extenders are often just retransmitting the packets on the same wifi channel, which dramatically cuts the available bandwidth. You’ll end up with a stronger connection, but a much slower one.

Thank you for coming to my Ted talk.

What about piefediles?

Maybe. But in my experience, the most valuable team members are not the ones with the experience, but the ones that are curious and resourceful.

Lol. I think it’s more likely that I’ll win the lottery than users RTFM enough for me to worry about my job.

It’s just a funny thought that any of them would try.

I work in IT. I’ve read so many manuals that I don’t need to read manuals almost ever.

As soon as you learn the design language for stuff, it usually just makes sense where to find stuff and how to fix it. It’s rare that I have a problem that I can’t solve just by looking at it.

If I ever get stuck, guess what? I RTFM. That’s basically my job. I RTFM because end users can’t be arsed to do it themselves. If everyone read the manual, I’d be out of a job.

The inky blacks of my terminal window match both my apparel and my soul.

Jokes on you. I use Ubuntu with no GUI.

I like that this is both true and false.

The memory management of an OS is almost always entirely dependent on what it’s doing or designed to do. Linux and Windows are able to do similar things, but are rarely tasked with the same workloads.

Windows desktop (aka, XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1, 10, 11) are designed to be more pretty and run desktops that the user will see/interact with, etc. I will say that Microsoft knows their audience and the windows prefetch stuff is quite good, all things considered…

Windows server on the other hand… Until recently, it still shipped with IE11 as the only browser. Of course as soon as you started it, the whole system would complain and tell you to go download edge… Server is a beast unto itself.

Additionally, as an IT support person, I always prefer people have more RAM than they need, rather than less. Getting that figure just right is nigh impossible. And if you have the RAM, you should use it, right? Because otherwise, why would you have it? It becomes a waste of money.

Prefetch and memory caching is a good use of memory, and a big reason why Windows has very little memory actually “free” at any given time… I’ll note, I’m mentioning free memory, not available memory.

It’s a fascinating topic, honestly.

With all that being said, I’m not saying that Windows is actually better in any way. My entire point is that there’s merit to the different methodologies of the different operating systems. They’re built differently and that is a good thing.

I work in IT support, the options for good, and Foss software on the technician side of most RMM tools… Vanishing small, if any.

There’s a lot of platforms that support monitoring and management on the client side, but when it comes to technician side tools, GFL. Most vendors don’t even mention it at all, fewer support anything other than Windows. FOSS isn’t concerned about the IT support folks because almost all FOSS is made by people who can build their own computer and don’t need support.

You say this, but you haven’t met all the programs I have to use for work.

They were mostly threatening. For me the peace of mind of knowing that they can’t really track what’s being downloaded to my ISP/my account/me, is enough.

I don’t know if the MPAA is going to lose its mind like the RIAA did with the whole Napster thing. I don’t want to get caught up in it if they do.

For that peace of mind, I pay for my VPN.

If that’s not valuable to you, then you’ll make different choices. I’m not here to tell anyone what to do, I’m just giving my experience and opinion.

Good luck out there.

And no, I wasn’t charged either for the notice, nor legally charged as the result of a notice.

All I’m going to say is that my ISP used to send me notices from the MPAA about what I was downloading and that I should:

1. Cease and desist
2. Remove the content I downloaded.

Since I setup a VPN, I do not get those notices.

Do I need to say more?

Wayyyyyy more than that is wasted.

There’s always the exceptions, but they’re rare, and getting more rare.

The vast majority of works are owned by a few major corporations, even smaller, more indie games often get published through a major studio, which then retains a good amount of the profit. Almost all media, TV and movies, is owned by one of a handful of companies. Music is largely the same.

It goes the same way for so many other things too. It’s not just games and media.

There are always going to be exceptions but on the whole, it’s vastly more likely/common that the people profiting from something is a large, faceless organization, which only answers to their shareholders.

Yeah, why the fuck not?

Obviously, something made in a specialized vehicle manufacturing plant will be better/more durable/whatever, but given the option between downloading a car vs spending a year’s salary to buy one… I’d rather download one.

Unless my wages get better (which they are not) or cars get cheaper (which they won’t), I’ll continue to have this opinion.

There’s a nontrivial number of cars that cost more than a house did in the 80’s and 90’s. So it’s entirely possible for someone to spend the same dollar value on their home, when purchasing it in the 90’s, as they do 25 years later, buying a house in the 2020’s.

Stupid.

The only damage that exists from piracy is to the copyright holders profits…

Since the copyright holder is usually a corporation that is owned by shareholders, the majority of which are richer than all of us combined, ask me if I give a shit and I will show you my field of shits to give, and you will see that it is barren.

Eat the rich. Or Luigi them… I don’t care.