“What, do you think it’s coincidence that ‘sauté’ rhymes with ‘all day’? Because I do.”

Words to live by.

#justiceforpimblokto

No, it’s nothing sinister. Most user-facing business workstations run Windows and have a Windows COA or, more recently, have the Windows product key baked into firmware, so it’s easy-peasy for the seller to install a fresh, working copy of Windows. The Dell WYSE PCs are Thin Clients, which are used to access Windows (or another OS) running on another PC or a server somewhere so the Thin Client doesn’t have or need a license; this means it’s not easy for the seller to install a hassle-free version of Windows since it will immediately start pestering the user for a license and for novices they’ll assume the computer is broken and return it. The lightweight Thin Client OS they use is neither use nor ornament outside an enterprise settings so they don’t bother reinstalling that. Obviously the seller could install Linux but the majority of people who are okay with Linux would probably sneer and say “ugh, Distro X? I only use Distro Y” and reinstall anyway, so it’s easier just to sell it without an OS. Ask me how I know all this.

Edit to add: some thin clients do have strange architectures and use weird OSes but that’s not a concern here. Aside from size and specs, the only material difference between the WYSE 5070 and a “normal” PC is that the EFI will have limited configuration options, but unless you’re planning on installing Windows XP that’s probably not an issue.

Edit to add to edit to add: I just found this https://www.parkytowers.me.uk/thin/wyse/5070/. It’s a detailed breakdown of the device and mentions that it could be speced with an onboard SPF NIC? That’s crazy. It also shows someone modding a second NVMe drive into it.

Yeah, that’s pretty good. The only things I’d be wary of with that particular listing are that it doesn’t come with a power supply (these normally take laptop-style PSUs) and 64GB of storage might not be enough once you start to get to grips with it though you could easily upgrade the NVMe SSD (or hook up an external USB drive).

But aside from that it’s a smart little system and will handle a the setup I described with no issues. The J4105 can be sluggish with multitasking in a desktop environment but for ‘headless’ setups it’s excellent and uses very little power.

No.

Unless there’s something about the RPi that you really want - GPIO, say - it’s not a good choice, especially not the 1GB model you mentioned. Virtually any used desktop or laptop PC from the last fifteen years will be more useful; if you’ve not done so already, search EBay for “USFF”. Those are desktop PCs the size of paperback books. Businesses love them and have them in fleets which means they tend to get cycled out naturally after a few years; the marketplace is full of them and can be had for €30 and up. Unlike a RPi 3, they usually come with storage included (and a proper SSD/HD rather than an SD card), a good quality power supply, plenty of I/O and, if course, a nice solid protective case.

Example: https://ebay.us/m/TxL4yR

Slap PROXMOX on that and you’ll have the seed of a solid home lab. With 8GB RAM you’ll have enough to run VMs for OpenWRT, Home Assistant, Yuno Host, and still have enough resources left over for your Debian tinkering box. Plus, by using PROXMOX you do away with the need for a KVM since you can either SSH into the VM or use PROXMOX’s web UI to access the console and use a GUI if that’s more your speed.

Wasn’t that actually on the cards at one point?

I have a lot of time for Eaton kit. As others have said, not cheap but seems to work well. I’ve not used APC in a while but they used to make good hardware, even if their software was dogshit.

Yeah, me too. Two VPSs (one Helsinki, the other Nuremberg) each with a couple of IPs. Been running perfectly for years aside from when I fuck them up.

EU (and UK) car licenses cover a maximum fully-laden weight of 3.5T, which these trucks vastly exceed - some of them weigh well over 2.5T before you even put fuel in. Since US regulations are not currently being considered, it’s up to the importer to declare the maximum weight so they just pinky-swear that the MLW is 3,499.9999kg or whatever. It’s arresting to think that if these were judged fairly, most EU drivers couldn’t drive one of these but could drive a LWB Sprinter.

It’s also worth remembering that even in the US, trucks are commercial vehicles distinct from cars and it’s only because of terminal car-brain that they’re subject to exclusions and subsidies that makes it possible to use one just for commuting.

Because I read the actual announcement, and I remember something that all authors of sensationalist nonsense about EU laws want their readers to forget: any new law or agreement exists alongside all the existing ones. The actual agreement here is that vehicles can be imported from the US - in fact, it arguably makes it easier - but they will be categorised, regulated and taxed as if they were first registered in the EU rather than given special exemptions. That means they’ll need to meet EU laws on pedestrian safety, emissions, efficiency , and so on. Even ignoring that, these cannot be driven in the EU on a car license because according to the EU they are not cars. So the EU has not opened a floodgate, they’ve closed a loophole.

As I posted in another community this was crossposted to: This article is bullshit.

With the exception of what’s happening in the author’s imagination, nothing that’s is happening will make it easier to import or drive these in the EU. In fact, the EU, by respecting categorisations made in the US, will be mandating that these be treated as the dangerous, polluting industrial vehicles they are. They won’t be able to drive through town centres, in low emissions zones, park in car parks, be driven on car licenses, or be taxed and insured like a Fiat Punto any more. So instead of there being tens of thousands of incorrectly regulated one-off exceptions like we have now, there will be vehicles held to the same standards as all the others.

TIL that NextCloud can use an external database.

It’s cloud all the way down.

Put this on your desk with a spigot on the side, and the humidifier on the other side of the room. Congratulations: pipeless pipe.

at least since digital video

Right. Even back in the eighties UK broadcasters were “upscaling” American NTSC 480i60 shows to 576i50. The results were varied. High-ticket shows like Friends and Fraiser looked great, albeit a bit soft and oversaturated, while live news feeds looked terrible. If you’ve never seen it, The Day Today has a perfect example of what a lot of US programmes lookd like converted to PAL.

I think about this kind of thing too often. Take “chlamydia” and “genocide”. Two words with horrible meanings, but they’re really nice words. Flowery and regal. They sound like Victorian girls’s names. “Cousin Peter arrived, with his lovely daughters, Chlamydia and Genocide”.

The more competitive networks tend to include EU roaming as standard. The ones that charge a lot - like the £2/day mentioned - tend to be the ones with captive customers like Sky, for example, where most of their customers also have TV and broadband from them so they’re stuck.

I wish they’d delete my WhatsApp account. I got rid of WhatsApp years ago, when I got rid of everything Facebook-related, but they still tell people that I have WhatsApp. Every so often I get an SMS from them telling me that I’m missing out, and the people who use WhatsApp to contact me are basically being told that I’m ignoring them.

And, yes, I have closed my account and even emailed them asking for this to be sorted, even emailed them demanding my data under GDPR but they didn’t even answer. Why respect my autonomy as a human when they could emotionally blackmail me into compliance?

I have a rule: I never preorder anything. I broke that rule recently. https://www.repebble.com/

I’m having a pretty good time with Qobuz. Their curated collections are actually really good and I’ve found a lot of new stuff in there; it’s not the “here’s what the record label is shoveling this week” like on Spotify. Also, the high bitrate stuff… I hate to admit it, but it really does sound better.

And here’s your daily reminder that the OSA was introduced, championed and passed by the Tories in 2023 despite outcry. Sunak even said at the time it was a problem for the “next Parliament” to deal with. Now they’re trying to blame Labour.