Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[Saskia]

I fucking hate W10.

If I want a decent OS I look towards FreeBSD.

Anyway, don't bother with snaps.

[bd139]

Yes FreeBSD is about the peak of everything so far. Unfortunately useless for me as it won't run all my workloads. Perhaps when I retire.

[Joe M]

On the bench tonight: Back-to-school presents for the boy.



The Elegoo (yes, really  ) electro-bits kit was ~$15; it comes with a breadboard, PSU PCB for the breadboard, jumper kits and pretty much all the components needed for the first few chapters of the book. One of the first projects involves abusing a pot and deliberately toasting a LED... I like the way this guy thinks. 

mnem
Start 'em young. 

Lesson 1: No breadboard EVER looks that neat when you've finished wiring the circuit!

McBryce.

When I was an undergrad, lab assitants used to throw your bread board in the trash can unless it looked like that.

[mansaxel]

For updating my Ubuntu machines I'm running once a day under root:

apt-get update; apt-get -y dist-upgrade; apt-get -y autoremove

No "Klicki-Bunti" stuff

Given that Ubuntu mostly is known as "Debian/broken" around here, I would like to congratulate you for your bravery.

[med6753]

Snaps are a fucking pile of shit.

Seriously windows 10 plus all the linux stuff in VMs is about as close to sanity as I can get.

I don't think I have to worry about this snap stuff. All she'll need is Firefox browser and her printer configured and she'll be happy.

What ever Ubuntu installs initially is all that will be on the machine.

[bd139]

For updating my Ubuntu machines I'm running once a day under root:

apt-get update; apt-get -y dist-upgrade; apt-get -y autoremove

No "Klicki-Bunti" stuff

Given that Ubuntu mostly is known as "Debian/broken" around here, I would like to congratulate you for your bravery.

I like that designation. Perfect. My VM stack at the moment currently nails it. Some sanity at the bottom



Ubuntu user at work:

[BU508A]

For updating my Ubuntu machines I'm running once a day under root:

apt-get update; apt-get -y dist-upgrade; apt-get -y autoremove

No "Klicki-Bunti" stuff

Given that Ubuntu mostly is known as "Debian/broken" around here, I would like to congratulate you for your bravery.

Works for me since years without any issues. I'm running on my PC at home kubuntu 16.04 LTS and on my Lenovo Laptop kubuntu 18.04 LTS.

[bd139]

Wait until you hit 20.04 

I still remember the broken ass MySQL in 10.04 which they refused to fix that debian had fixed upstream.

[Saskia]

16.04 and 18.04 somewhat work in a way that 20.04 does not.

If I had to choose between 20.04 and chlamydia I'd probably go for Chlamydia.

[McBryce]

I use SuSE 15 with KDE. It has it's issues too, but overall I'm pretty happy with it.


Bryce.

[nfmax]

Yes FreeBSD is about the peak of everything so far. Unfortunately useless for me as it won't run all my workloads. Perhaps when I retire.

FreeBSD runs floozies then?! 

[bd139]

Only quality ones 

[Saskia]

Yes FreeBSD is about the peak of everything so far. Unfortunately useless for me as it won't run all my workloads. Perhaps when I retire.

FreeBSD runs floozies then?! 

That's yodaesque.

360€/h. Leather optional.

[Zucca]

Yes FreeBSD is about the peak of everything so far. Unfortunately useless for me as it won't run all my workloads. Perhaps when I retire.

which reminds me I have a stupid spare laptop I want to use as Octopi, see here.

Should be fun.

My allergy to rapsberry and other SBC is still bothering me...

Any suggestion for good small/mini PC? Something like this one
I bought this for my pfSense and it is work stable since months, 24/7 always on, only joy never a problem.

Why I have to buy a SMC when for double the money I can get something 10^x more reliable?

[capt bullshot]

Any suggestion for good small/mini PC? Something like this one
I bought this for my pfSense and it is work stable since months, 24/7 always on, only joy never a problem.

Usually I go for these USFF (ultra small form factor) professional Lenovo / Dell / HP computers from the bay or one of the (here in Germany) well-known refurbished resellers (e.g.
https://www.esm-computer.de/  https://www.itsco.de/  https://www.harlander.com/ )

[Saskia]

I am using RockPis because they are reasonably fast hexacores that don't threaten my environment in terms of viruses. If hubby manages to load a virus onto it, the card is formatted and he is back online in about 20 minutes.

I learned that lesson when I gave him my notebook to do his stuff and he returned it with 14 viruses and trojans.
Reinstallation of these SBCs is fast and relatively painless.

If they break, well, just grab a new one. No install hassles, no virus hassles, no activation hassles or similar nastinesses.

I also use the STM32F427 dev kit as embedded driver for LED displays in pinball machines. Works like a charm.

At 15€ - 35€ for an entry level Rapsbi or compatible I do see some legitimate use.

@Zucca if you cannot find one for that kind of money, you can get one when you come visit me.I still have a couple of spares in my rapsbi bin.

[bd139]

Yes FreeBSD is about the peak of everything so far. Unfortunately useless for me as it won't run all my workloads. Perhaps when I retire.

which reminds me I have a stupid spare laptop I want to use as Octopi, see here.

Should be fun.

My allergy to rapsberry and other SBC is still bothering me...

Any suggestion for good small/mini PC? Something like this one
I bought this for my pfSense and it is work stable since months, 24/7 always on, only joy never a problem.

Why I have to buy a SMC when for double the money I can get something 10^x more reliable?

Lenovo M Tiny series are excellent little machines for 24/7 work.

Edit: woohoo my favourite kebab shop is open again and hasn't shut down! 

[Specmaster]

So the Lady Copper's 11 year old Dell tower joined the great gig in the sky. Obviously it's my job to fix that. The only thing she ever uses a computer is to browse the internet. Or occasionally print something, from the internet. For that type of user Winblows seems like overkill. Decided that Linux would be the best solution for her. I have a Dell tower here with Mint on it but I'm not happy with that distro. It sucks. Slow to boot and overall just clunky. Also have a Toshiba laptop with Ubuntu 19. It boots fast and seems overall snappy. But it seems every time you boot it wants to load updates. But at least it's a pain free update process.

So....gonna take the Dell tower and wipe Mint and load Ubuntu. Show her how to use it and be a hero. 
 

What ya gonna do if Lady Cop says she prefers windows and want windows 

[BU508A]

Then install a KDE windows look alike theme 

[mnementh]

Ply her with toasted bagels and commodious amounts of alcohol. Maybe a foot rub if that fails... 

mnem
 

[mnementh]

On the bench tonight: Back-to-school presents for the boy.



The Elegoo (yes, really  ) electro-bits kit was ~$15; it comes with a breadboard, PSU PCB for the breadboard, jumper kits and pretty much all the components needed for the first few chapters of the book. One of the first projects involves abusing a pot and deliberately toasting a LED... I like the way this guy thinks. 

mnem
Start 'em young. 

Lesson 1: No breadboard EVER looks that neat when you've finished wiring the circuit!

McBryce.

When I was an undergrad, lab assitants used to throw your bread board in the trash can unless it looked like that.

*stabbity-stabbity undergrad hand with cold soldering iron*

*turn soldering iron on*

"Safety's off; hands off. Do I make myself clear?"

mnem
"MY bench. Don't fuck with it. I will break my foot off in your ass."

[psykok]

Any suggestion for good small/mini PC? Something like this one
I bought this for my pfSense and it is work stable since months, 24/7 always on, only joy never a problem.

Usually I go for these USFF (ultra small form factor) professional Lenovo / Dell / HP computers from the bay or one of the (here in Germany) well-known refurbished resellers (e.g.
https://www.esm-computer.de/  https://www.itsco.de/  https://www.harlander.com/ )

I have the HP version at home hosting my small vm environment.
These boxes are not too expensive, quite and reliable

BTW the last HP USFF can have a Thunderbolt  port or second NIC as option.

[mnementh]

On the bench tonight: Back-to-school presents for the boy.   

The Elegoo (yes, really  ) electro-bits kit was ~$15; it comes with a breadboard, PSU PCB for the breadboard, jumper kits and pretty much all the components needed for the first few chapters of the book. One of the first projects involves abusing a pot and deliberately toasting a LED... I like the way this guy thinks. 

mnem
Start 'em young. 

That looks so interesting, I hope he likes electronics, lucky boy.

Yeah, me too... that fuckin' book cost 40 bux.

That’s a win. It’s the modern equivalent of the radio shack 160-in-1 I got that started all this 

I have those for the boi too... a father/son set. They're locked away in the fukkin' trailer.     Plus a collection of Forrest Mims Engineer Mini-Notebooks.   

But I'm with Specmaster where you're concerned... Radio Shonk has a lot to answer for. 

mnem
tzzzt.

[mnementh]

Urrrggghhh. Late starting the kids on their first day of school due to configurating my new WiFi/VPN router.
My balls already ache...   



mnem
And now it wants to do a FW update...   

[mnementh]

One thing... this router runs FAST. Like 20-30 seconds for a reboot. Gotta love that 3-core CPU; I wonder if there's a 4th core that can be unlocked... 

*remembering many afternoons spent at a console waiting for CISCOs to reboot 5-8 minutes at a time*

mnem
*shudder*