I work with IBM i/AS400 servers and those are not exactly the quickest thing to “reboot” (technically an IPL). Especially the old ones. I have access to the HMC/console but even this sometimes takes several minutes (if not dozens) just to show what’s going on.

It’s always a bit stressful to see the codes passing one after the other and then it stops on one and seems to get stuck there for a while before continuing the IPL process. Maybe it’s applying PTFs (updates) or something, and you just have to wait while even the console is blank.

I’ve been monitoring those servers for years and I’m still sometimes wondering if it hanged during the IPL or if it’s just doing its thing, because this part, even with codes, is not very verbose.

Fortunately it’s also very stable so it pretty much always comes back a few minutes after you start wondering why the hell it’s taking so long.

My landlord is a multimillion dollar faceless company that sends me offers for a reduction on rent if I refer someone else. They have partnerships with other giant businesses and send me coupons for other companies. They push tenants towards a particular ISP. They amass personal data and seem to share it.

They want to make it seem like added value, but as a tenant, it feels like you’re just another consumer to be sold something. They send me so much spam…

Of course there is a detailed list of all the chairs that have appeared in Star Trek. I never thought I’d say this about chairs but… interesting.

Also true for Minbari.

Addiction can be psychological.

Cars. They are everywhere and are like cigarettes. Addictive, bad for our environment and bad for ourselves.

And we even try to keep using them as long as possible by switching to an electric version, just like cigarettes. “But it’s electric, it can’t be that bad!”

Humanity is not running to its doom, it’s taking a car.

I work in the tech support field and Microsoft is making me want to quit and find a work that doesn’t involve using Teams. I’ve never liked them very much and been a Linux user for over 20 years, but I still have to deal with them for work. However they’re becoming increasingly difficult to tolerate.

They really really want Windows users to have a Microsoft account. I avoid that and prefer local accounts. But Microsoft likes to link my local account with my Microsoft account anyway, because I need to give it to them to play Minecraft on Windows. So now even if I didn’t want to, my Windows account is showing the picture of my Microsoft/Windows Gaming account profile because I must have passed over a box to uncheck somewhere while logging into Windows Gaming to play Minecraft… mildly infuriating Microsoft.

I used a personal laptop for work a few times and accidentally connected my OneDrive to my corporate account. Again, I must have misunderstood the configuration and login process because it synced (more like moved) all my personal files on my work’s OneDrive. Mildly infuriating Microsoft.

Same personal laptop used for work sometimes. I use Edge specifically to separate work from personal browsing and somehow, again, I logged in somewhere with my work account and it synced all my personal browsing history and saved passwords from a different browser, into my “Edge for business” online thigny. So when I was using Edge at work, on my work computer, it was suggesting me logins and passwords from my personal browser that I use on different computers. Mildly infuriating Microsoft.

Teams, OneDrive, Edge for business, their subscription model, forcing Microsoft accounts… individually they are mildly infuriating but combined together, let’s say it’s a powerful generator of rolling eyes.

FRANK like it saucy

Israeli generals hold themselves responsible for the failure to protect Israelis from a slaughter like the one inflicted by Hamas on 7 October. The security establishment feels it has to redeem itself in the eyes of the nation.

By slaughtering innocent people “animals”. They will redeem themselves, obviously.

The article doesn’t mention the supposed alternative but by the tone of the interview and what’s said, I’m surprised they just don’t flat out say that their alternative to invasion is just bombing it all to rubble. They really seem keen on killing more people and finishing up the genocide they started 60 years ago.

Sure, free until you have to feed it and pay vet bills.

We’ve heard much about the good work you’ve been doing here.

As a pedantic French speaker I’ll point out that “je l’aime” is neutral and doesn’t specify a gender. It could also be “I love him” depending on the context.

It’s Garak’s sentence so he can decide what it means, but knowing it could mean either her or him is an additional layer of subtlety.

I’m a tech and not a serious programmer but I really like scripting with bash. It’s an easy way to automate and program tasks while also manipulating data.

For example, I’ve automated reports for my work and made lots of screen scraping scripts.

It’s my go to for anything. I’ve recently started to learn python but often catch myself thinking it would be easier to accomplish most of what I want with a bash script.

And my least favorite has to be Tcl. It’s one of the first serious languages I “learned”, because eggdrops in the 90ies, and I still don’t like it.

Or when you both have a few series and movies in common but not everything. A friend and I can make TNG and Voyager references but he doesn’t like DS9 or Enterprise so it’s a bit restrictive.

He tried and saw a few episodes of DS9 but apparently it’s not as insidious as root beer.

It is good to have friends, is it not, Mr. Garibaldi? Even if maybe only for a little while?

Yes. That’s exactly what the world needs, more stuff. If we all buy something green like an electric car that spends energy moving those 2 tons everywhere we go, I’m sure we will save the planet. We just have to buy more ecological stuff. Buy more green stuff! I’m sure we can all buy our way out of this. No need to change anything as long as we buy green to save the planet, and the economy too.