We’re paving over open space as fast as possible

Today in bug news, 456,854 more deaths on America’s roads

You mean sliding out unless you have some weird shits

If you like X+Y but don’t like just Y then you must like X only

The posting essentially says there is no risk than tosses out mercury and lead vapors which don’t exist in a HDD. Then it talks about the lead in solder. You’d have to vigorously rub and handle the solder on circuit boards to get any amount on your skin worth worrying about and then you just wash your hands. That risk is true of all boards that don’t use low or lead free solder. The whole comment is very hypothetical.

If your hard drive has dust it would’ve failed a long time ago. They are designed to be extremely clean. The head is like a 747 flying an inch above the ground. It sounds like an urban myth to scare people.

I used to collect AOL cds. I had a stack a few feet high. I was going to make some sort of artwork out of them.

Sorry if the data disagrees with you.

And I thought the MAGA people hated facts…

I lived in a 3 decker built in the 1940s outside of Boston and the thing had barely functioning steam heat that had constant water hammer and it was so drafty that in the winter I could actually feel a breeze coming through cracks in the walls.

Homes were much smaller then and homeownership rates were lower.

Avg Size of homes: 1920: 1,048 square feet 1930: 1,129 1940: 1,177 1950: 983 1960: 1,289 1970: 1,500 1980: 1,740 1990: 2,080 2000: 2,266 2010: 2,392 2014: 2,657

Historical Homeownership Rate in the United States: 1940: 43.6% 2023: 66%

Chasing lower prices? How about higher incomes?

NYT: “Per capita income in 1938; Average Figure Was $5l5, Compared With $679 in Boom Year and $376 in 1933 NEW YORK STATE HIGHEST Yearly Earnings Show a Mean of $822, With Mississippi Lowest With $205”

Put a button saying accept all or make you go into a 2nd screen where you have to pick what you want. Guess what most people do to get it out of the way?

I know people who don’t use a password manager so every time they have to type in a pw they have to go through the reset process.

“My computer hates me” I’ve heard that one

I have to constantly explain to my wife that if she can’t reach a website it is likely on their end and there is nothing I can do until they fix it. I explain there is a chain of connections involved and me sitting and staring at her laptop for an hour isn’t going to fix it.

The majority of people are genuinely thankful for your help. Sometimes they put off asking for help until they are very frustrated and you catch some of that heat but they calm down quickly. They also really like it if you have to sit down and work on their computer because it means they have an excuse to not work and have some coffee. There always seems to be that one person though that you dread helping because they are always pissy and sarcastic and blame you for everything.

I had this with a person who said their screen stayed blank no matter what they did. I came down, saw the power light on the monitor was off, saw the plug was not plugged in, and fixed it. She was very embarrassed.

I hope they installed the waterproof version

Googling problems with Windows I find the majority of the results are MS support telling them to reset the OS. No attempt to debug the issue just nuke it and see if that fixes it. Then you read the next comments and inevitably they say “Nope, didn’t fix it”. I really dislike scripted responses like this.

I’ve been on both sides of it. One of my favorite IT moments was changing to a new phone. I couldn’t access my email until I did a two factor auth process. Of course they emailed me my code to access my account to unlock my email. Good thing I also had a pc at home with access to my email.

Then I was supporting a lab. One woman was clearly aggravated when she called. She said no matter what she did her screen was blank. I head right over and just look at it for a few secs. I check the lowest hanging fruit solution first and see the power light on her monitor isn’t on. I see it is unplugged, plug her monitor in and problem solved. I’ve never seen a more embarrassed person than her. lol

Networking has to be the most thankless job in IT. You are invisible when the system is working, which is 99% of the time. It stays up like that because they are monitoring it and maintaining it behind the scenes. When it fails though the failure can be catastrophic for everyone, we literally cannot do any work without it. Then everyone’s eyes, and criticism, is on them.