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Cake day: June 10th, 2023

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  • jdnewmil@lemmy.catoLinux@lemmy.mlRTFM
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    2 days ago

    From the beginning of computing there has been a problem with bootstrapping knowledge… the person creating a tool gives it a name, and describes it, but knowing that someone solved the problem you have and what the name of that tool was always a challenge.

    But that is nothing new… you posted in English but if you were to learn a different language you would have a very similar problem, and one of the most universal strategies for making that transition is to drill on vocabulary. Once you have built a small vocabulary then you can expand it using a dictionary.

    The real message behind someone saying RTFM is that there are so many educational and search resources now that asking some rando on the Internet to rewrite a Howto on the fly is lazy. Simply typing the exact same question into Google will bring up a kickstarter set of vocabulary and resources. If you actually do this your question will often answer itself, and if it doesn’t and you start by pointing out why your efforts failed to help you with your specific problem and use the vocabulary (at least briefly) that your research turned up to guide the reader toward where your problem is, you should get less RTFM responses.





  • If you are invested in Windows software… don’t run Linux. Being able to run Windows software is like a “patch” to get you by until you find a Linux equivalent. Pretending you can have your cake and eat it too will just leave you disappointed.

    Linux has amazing software… but in most cases it feels very different from Windows. If you learn why it is different then you may start to appreciate Linux for what it gives you rather than what it takes from you.






  • Batteries have both electron capacity (cumulative) and current capacity (rate) ratings. The chemistry and size determine how many electrons (aka Amperes times hours) can be stored, and the conductor sizes (including within the cells) determine how quickly it can be charged or discharged in sustained operation (without permanent damage).

    A car battery can be shorted with a screwdriver and discharged at a high current, but only for a short time without damage to the cells. A 100Ah car battery can supply rated current for roughly twice as long as a 50Ah battery.

    Sometimes people call these ratings energy and power ratings by multiplying each by rated voltage, but the voltage does vary with charge state and rate of current flow so those “ratings” are rather approximate.


  • “power is only related to voltage” is nonsense. Current and voltage contribute equally to power (P=IVpf, but I am not going to discuss power factor here).

    The reason current is less frequently mentioned is that our electric power system supplies power (current and voltage) to many users and the wiring for giving power to many locations is simpler and more reliable when we try to keep voltage relatively constant and let the power using devices demand just as much current as they need to extract the power they need. This means current values can vary wildly between circuits, so it is not very informative to talk about current unless you know a lot about what is hooked up and consuming power nearby. The circuit that supplies the lights uses much less current than the one that supplies the air conditioner (when it is on) but there are often many lights on a single circuit so the current is quite different in different segments of wire even while the voltage only varies a but in each circuit.

    You could devise a wiring system that held current constant by running the current in a loop through all the consuming devices, but like Christmas tree lights if any load disconnected then all the loads would stop receiving power, which would make it very unreliable.






  • For those not in the know… PDF is a particular set of conventions for delivering peograms written in a programming language called “Postscript”, and like all programs they can be hijacked to trigger unexpected results, including the delivery of software viruses. And yes, while those programs run in “sandboxes” that are supposed to prevent propagation of harm, such environments can fall in that purpose due to creative triggering of imperfections in the sandbox code by the “contained” Postscript code.

    Hence, quotes are used to convey lack of trust in the claim of safety.


  • Boss has different people for different functions within the company. A monoculture is more susceptible to systematic flaws, but it is also less expensive to maintain. It is not OPs place to decide how the company manages is computing facilities, so if WSL or Cygwin are not accepable compromises (OP and company have to both agree) then OP has to decide whether they are willing to go along with Windows or find another job.

    Something to talk about during the exit interview anyway.