Go on go on go on go on go on

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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 13th, 2023

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  • I’ve never learned about servers - never worked in IT, just a simple old hobbyist. Also never used a Raspberry Pi. But thank you! I might get around to reading up on the topic of servers over the winter. My computer has two drives, the original “spinning rust” and an SSD I installed (so quick! so quiet!). My thought is to keep Windows on a partition until I’m sure I like the distro I’ve chosen.

    I have multiple backup drives, from a wee 4Tb Toshiba to a SparQ drive with 1Gb cartridges (a whole gigabyte, how will I ever fill it?). I’m pretty sure I’ve got everything saved, but I’m equally sure there’ll be something I’ve missed.









  • I had a big heavy electric bike I used for my work commute, and once I retired it gradually morphed into a coat rack. I put it on Gumtree, a UK Craigslist equivalent, priced at £50 more than I actually wanted for it, which was well under half the price I’d paid. A full 27 SECONDS after I listed it, I had a buyer, and less than half an hour after that he was at my door. As expected, he offered £50 less than the listed price, and was delighted when I accepted. Bargain!

    I noticed he’d come in a car, and wondered out loud if it had room for a big heavy bike. “No problem, it can fit loads!” As he wheeled the bike out the door, he realised just how heavy this big heavy bike was. But he forged on, managed to heave it into the car, and drove off a happy man.

    Questions he didn’t ask: How old is this bike? (Seven years or so.) What’s the projected lifespan of the battery? (About another year.) How well is it holding a charge? (Not well at all.) How much is a replacement battery? (£200.)

    I fully expected to hear back from him complaining about the big heavy lemon he’d just bought, but no. I guess he’s enjoying his new coat rack.



  • “Normal”, hmmm. I remember being confused at school when we had to analyse literature and “motherly love” was given as an example of a universal theme. Really? Not in my experience. According to my own dear mama, my younger sister and I were both mistakes. She made it very clear always what a heinous burden we were.

    In retrospect, she was a terrible person for saying such things. We were not awful kids, and grew up to be pretty good people. Yes, we’ve both struggled a bit with depression and self doubt, but on the whole, not bad.

    So I would say your mother’s cruelty isn’t what’s generally considered “normal”, but it’s not that uncommon. Some people shouldn’t have children, in my view. There’s a lot of societal pressure to procreate in the first place, and then barriers to choosing not to. And it must be horrendous to find yourself not enjoying motherhood at all when it’s supposed to be your peak experience. Still no excuse for such meanness though.

    Carry on living, young adult! It’s too easy to get dragged down by shit like this. Life is fleeting in the grand sweep of the universe, keep your heart open to possibilities and options and chances. And remind your mother that you’ll be choosing her care home one day.


  • I grew up in New Zealand in the 50s-60s. We got most info on current events from the radio. Later on there was TV, but it was mainly radio. Our radio had long-wave and if atmospheric conditions were right you could pick up foreign broadcasts.

    Other knowledge came from school, obviously, and from libraries. I absolutely haunted my local library, and read voraciously. I still have a fund of info in my head from back then that comes in handy in pub quizzes. When I wasn’t reading I was out with my friends on our bicycles. We rode for miles at a time - I don’t remember ever telling an adult where we were going.

    (About libraries - I don’t know if you’re aware, but the tycoon Andrew Carnegie funded libraries around the world, including the one in the city near my home town.) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnegie_library

    Having said all that and making it sound idyllic, it wasn’t. Society back then was repressive in major ways and people’s viewpoints were generally narrow. History books weren’t always telling the truth. It wasn’t terrible compared with say apartheid South Africa, but not great. There was a counter-culture bubbling away - beatniks and then hippies - so it was possible to get an alternative view, just about.

    I love the technology that gives me access to not just information, but the lived experience of people round the world. I love reading posts here about mad trivial stuff like what you all are having for breakfast. I love taking a Street View tour of places I’ll likely never visit. I’m reading a novel set in Iceland at the moment, and can “drive” along the route a character is taking. I can video chat with my sister, who lives 10,000 miles away. It’s a miracle!