Recent content by ssokolow

  1. ssokolow

    Are you a Linux user or Windows user? Or maybe a macOS user?

    For the record, here's the state of things: ARM-based Windows devices are forbidden from allowing non-Windows things to run x86-based Windows devices are required to allow Secure Boot to be disabled, but that feature is sometimes buggy The Microsoft signing key used to sign Linux bootloaders is...
  2. ssokolow

    Are you a Linux user or Windows user? Or maybe a macOS user?

    Oh, yeah. This thread was about what we're running. I've been 100% Linux (except for my airgapped retro-nostalgia PCs and BSD-based routers) since 2002, when I got fed up with Windows XP and switched to Mandrakelinux 10.0 mid-way through a game of Dungeon Siege. About a year later, I switched...
  3. ssokolow

    Are you a Linux user or Windows user? Or maybe a macOS user?

    Yeah, because it's a hard problem. Case-folding requires massive Unicode tables and it differs from locale to locale. I think I remember reading that NTFS bakes in a copy of the Unicode case-folding table as the OS knew it at the time and in the locale the drive was formatted. (And it's an...
  4. ssokolow

    Are you a Linux user or Windows user? Or maybe a macOS user?

    That's not quite accurate. (The idea being "If they didn't care about compatibility with legacy hardware, they'd have bought Windows NT".) Speaking of which, the mixed opinions on Windows ME are down to a similar compatibility hack that didn't go as well. Windows ME supports two different...
  5. ssokolow

    Back from Greece.

    It apparently happens on its own with time, as it does not limit itself to the regions you grip in devices that are coated in such grip coatings all over and retro-enthusiast youtubers encounter it on devices that flopped so hard that the units they're covering got almost no use.
  6. ssokolow

    Huge spike in GitLab imports after Microsoft reportedly acquires GitHub

    Oh, I'm well aware of that. Half of them were on a big programming resources site that lost interest in their old catalogue... but it's far more common for a self-hoster to lose interest or not care about keeping their old URL schemes resolving than for a big hoster to close up shop. (And, when...
  7. ssokolow

    Huge spike in GitLab imports after Microsoft reportedly acquires GitHub

    Even if The Wayback Machine does pick a git repository up, I haven't heard of any way to work around the link indirection they use to inject their history-browsing header to avoid having to manually download each individual file in the repository in order to reconstitute something the git client...
  8. ssokolow

    Huge spike in GitLab imports after Microsoft reportedly acquires GitHub

    Ahh. One interesting tip I read was to create your own non-abrasive cleaning disk by taking advantage of the manufacturing standards within the floppies themselves. Cut open a floppy you don't need, remove the data surface, and rotate the felt sleeve so that the gap no longer lines up with the...
  9. ssokolow

    Huge spike in GitLab imports after Microsoft reportedly acquires GitHub

    Oh, I've certainly had two floppies that experienced binder failure. (Squeaking sound and, when the disk was pulled out ASAP, it revealed a transparent ring where the drive heads had wiped the magnetic oxide off the surface) Thankfully, neither of those were important. (A home-made DOS 4 boot...
  10. ssokolow

    Huge spike in GitLab imports after Microsoft reportedly acquires GitHub

    Also, on the topic of dying media, one piece of advice: EA Kids apparently used garbage stock for their floppies, because my Scooter's Magic Castle and Peter Pan: A Story Painting Adventure floppies are in far worse shape than anything else in my collection. If you have EA Kids floppies you...
  11. ssokolow

    Huge spike in GitLab imports after Microsoft reportedly acquires GitHub

    I'm lucky in that I've never had a professionally-made CD go unreadable on me and all of my CD-Rs got migrated to DVD+R pretty early on. (Plus, I've always been pretty good about researching media before I bought it, aside from my earliest purchases being DVD-R because I didn't know it was...
  12. ssokolow

    Huge spike in GitLab imports after Microsoft reportedly acquires GitHub

    Sorry to respond over three weeks later, but I have two relevant things nobody even touched on: First, the reason I'm researching bi-directional sync between GitHub and GitLab is that Microsoft already locked me out of one of my previous accounts. Specifically, I can't access my old Hotmail...
  13. ssokolow

    Keep cool!

    Apparently it's for hot-plugging and dynamically remappings things (like bluetooth headsets) when you refuse to use JACK.
  14. ssokolow

    Money makes the world go round.

    Possibly. I read what it was years ago, but I don't have time to track that fact down today. The stickers I run into tend to either peel off cleanly or tear too easily, so I use the crystal clear version of the dollar store's competitor to Scotch/Sellotape for that instead. My main use for my...
  15. ssokolow

    Money makes the world go round.

    That does actually remind me of one idea for improvement, taken from the world of keyboard manufacturers. Mould them with a frosted/matte surface and make them out of PBT rather than ABS so they'll be more resistant to "taking a shine". (PBT is what IBM Model M keyboards and Unicomp's...
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