@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

samueljohnson

@samueljohnson@mstdn.social

Scientist, MBA, ex IT professional, Irish & European
Lived 30+ years on 4 continents, now back in Ireland.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

BrideOfLinux, to random
@BrideOfLinux@mastodon.opencloud.lu avatar

Actually, just the act of using Windows should be enough to woo you away from Windows: These cool KDE Plasma features could woo you from Windows https://www.zdnet.com/article/these-cool-kde-plasma-features-could-woo-you-from-windows/

samueljohnson,
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

@BrideOfLinux Have you ever tried going back to it? I mean just to solve a problem for someone? 7 was the last tolerable version imo. After that 🤦.

Funnily enough, by chance, my main laptop for the last few years belonged to Microsoft's IT manager in Ireland. He did a clean install of Windows 10 and talked it up. He was surprised when I said I'd be wiping it. 😁

samueljohnson,
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

@BrideOfLinux I have a box w a Windows 10 SSD in it that has had one use, approximately annually: updating my Garmin satnav which came with lifetime update of maps of Europe, real-time traffic data news, reading of text messages, hands-free Bluetooth w phone and more.

Haven't used it since Covid and am now trying in-car (EV) navigation in France as an alternative to Android Auto. I think the satnav is about to be redundant & Windows w it. Here (🇪🇺) govts provide online tax forms. 😋

RickiTarr, to random
@RickiTarr@beige.party avatar

Okay, since I'm on laundry today, a little story.

When hubs and I first got married, we were very much enjoying our little Honeymoon Bubble, and we were being lazy as Hell. We didn't do many chores, but the laundry we really let go. We weren't wearing many clothes at home anyway, so why bother. Anyhow, after weeks we finally reached the swimming suit bottoms situation, and decided it was time. It was loads and loads of laundry that needed done, so I had my husband back the trunk of the car up to a window of the house, then he popped the trunk, and I started tossing laundry out of the window into the trunk. We went to the bank, got about $30 bucks in quarters, and found the emptiest laundry mat we could, and did it all in one fell swoop. We folded it all and loaded it back into the car using those wheeled laundry carts. We never let it get that bad again, and decided it was time to be adults, and do regular chores, but it still makes me laugh imagining what the neighbors and the laundry attendant thought.

Feel free to share your own laundry story, if you feel like it, I love hearing people's stories!

samueljohnson,
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

@Holberg @RickiTarr Hah hah. I think I can top this. I put too much soap in a washing machine on first visit to London as a teenager. Machine burst open disgorging bubbles (didn't notice at first, had my back to it, wet noises underfoot alerted me). I dared disturb old lady in the back who didn't want to be interrupted doing her ironing. GET OUT! But...! Come back at 5.

5PM

Place full of gorgeous girls.

"It's him"
"First time away from home love?"

😊

It wasn't, just first washing machine.

samueljohnson,
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

@Holberg @RickiTarr The machine was like something out of Dr Who. The girls were from a nearby model agency. Mortifying doesn't begin to cover it. Lol.

andrewducker, to random
@andrewducker@mastodon.scot avatar

Link Post: What's the difference between the British and Finnish welfare systems? https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1789554549272850452.html

samueljohnson,
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

@andrewducker I highly recommend the recent 3 part series "The State We're In" by Darren McGarvey shown on BBC TV. One of the programmes compared education in UK and Finland.

itsfoss, (edited ) to linux
@itsfoss@mastodon.social avatar

Well, don't hold back! 🐧

samueljohnson,
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

@itsfoss Works for me.

dajb, to random
@dajb@social.coop avatar

More MSc stuff, because why wouldn't you be in a library studying on a lovely sunny day? https://dougbelshaw.com/blog/2024/05/11/tb871-three-purposeful-orientations-and-five-different-systems-approaches/

samueljohnson,
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

@dajb Facilitator's Guide to Participatory Decision Making by Sam Kaner et al. is worthwhile if you can find it. Training in person even better. (I have had some good fortune).

On a rainy day I'm going to look up some of these. 😋

dajb, to random
@dajb@social.coop avatar

A post about my current relative strengths and weaknesses when it comes to #SystemsThinking competencies: https://dougbelshaw.com/blog/2024/05/11/tb871-systems-practice-competencies/

samueljohnson,
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

@dajb Many connections between this and the practice of knowledge management (bringing smart people together and letting them talk is one take - - Larry Prusak, maybe the best storyteller I ever met). So many organisations have no idea what they know. Pausing to assess and to take stock and learn after actions is not the norm. The KM business became a bit of a fad like AI now but has many Arie de Geuss type stories of significant payoffs as result of such iterations.

BrideOfLinux, to random
@BrideOfLinux@mastodon.opencloud.lu avatar

Message to Elon:

samueljohnson,
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

@BrideOfLinux Probably a God fan.

marta, to random
@marta@oslo.town avatar

You speak Norwegian with a Polish accent. Your vowels strained like half-smiles you receive from your neighbors; your consonants rough like a Monday morning workout session at SATS. There’s no escaping from stereotypes your accent invokes.

https://thatmarta.wordpress.com/2024/05/10/on-language-and-boxing-up-a-rant/

samueljohnson,
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

@marta To write this elegantly in any language, let alone a non-mother tongue, is, as they say in this one:👌🔥. 👏

Was reminded of that time I hydroplaned on a tram rail on my scooter and hit my (helmeted) head on the kerb, then had to convince Dutch persons of sufficiently timely answers to questions about the day of the week, who was prime minister etc. That half-step for translation... Ouch. Mars and back.

A lovely piece that will resonate with all exiles, peripatetics & fellow travellers.

dajb, to random
@dajb@social.coop avatar

A post relating to my MSc in which can be safely ignored by anyone coming here for the Friday shitposts

https://dougbelshaw.com/blog/2024/05/10/tb871-four-perspectives-on-systems-thinking/

samueljohnson,
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

@dajb Mike Jackson's ideas were good and still valid but hardly rocket science; more process than systems thinking in the larger scheme of things (systems plural).

Take a look at the history of software version control systems and in particular the story of git and the genius of its author (& ideally the brilliance of the algorithm & it's application) for real (consequential, epic) thinking about systems.

Fred Brooks' Mythical Man Month is an enduring and canonical text of uncommon sense.

samueljohnson,
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

@dajb Mintzberg is very good. My favourite demolition of a lot of purported excellence and genius of people who attribute success to strategy is Fooled by Randomness by Nicholas Nassim Taleb. Highly entertaining, opinionated and right, even if he also has a monstrous ego.

slothrop, to random
@slothrop@chaos.social avatar

I’m setting up a laptop for a non-techie relative, who lives in another city. I couldn’t find a remote admin solution that would work under Debian, at least not one that seemed reliable and trustworthy.

Here’s what I ended up doing:

I created a user for the relative on my instance, and opened a chat session with them titled “Tech assistance”.

The chat session has a URL, which I bookmarked in the Firefox bookmark bar.

samueljohnson,
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

@slothrop @ProfessorGumby Tailscale (no need to worry about about dynamic addresses) and NoMachine would likely give the best performance.

aaron.rupar, to random

Hillary Clinton on Trump: "The world has been here before. People did not take the kind of threats that we saw in the 1930s as seriously as they should, including American journalists ... a determined demagogue unfortunately supported by members of his political party, people who care more about a future tax cut than the sanctity of the Constitution, are falling in line behind him. And I don't think the press has done enough."

samueljohnson,
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

@eribosot @aaron.rupar She didn't give advice on how to beat Trump. She addressed the consequences of not doing so.

davidpnice, to random
@davidpnice@mastodon.online avatar

Trinity College Dublin (still no admission to non-college people) on the evening the protesters agreed to disband, having achieved their objectives: the college will shuck all ties to Israel. How different an outcome to the USA and elsewhere: no police unleashed, peaceful agreement. And tourists who missed seeing the Book of Kells saved their money - way too much to look at two pages - and might have gone to see the archeological treasures at the National Museum instead.

samueljohnson,
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

@davidpnice Way too much to look at two pages? The Book of Kells Experience as I think it's now called includes an audiovisual tour and a visit to the library (currently empty of books for renovations).

samueljohnson,
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

@davidpnice 💯

byteseu, to worldnews
@byteseu@pubeurope.com avatar

Elon Musk’s Bizarre Political Outbursts Have Turned Off Tesla’s Core Buyers, Data Shows https://www.byteseu.com/91055/

samueljohnson,
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

@noplasticshower @byteseu I was but became "Anything but Tesla". No regrets.

sjvn, to random
@sjvn@mastodon.social avatar

The Osborne 1 was my first "portable" computer. If I'd tried swinging it like this, my arm would have come off in five minutes. It weighed almost 25 pounds.

samueljohnson,
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

@sjvn Mine was a born again Osborne aka the Telcon Zorba http://www.zorba.z80.de. In the attic now.

Edent, (edited ) to random
@Edent@mastodon.social avatar

From an artist's point of view, is there any difference between you buying a donated CD from a charity shop and downloading pirated music from a torrent site?

Neither gives the artists, songwriters, producers, publishers, or distributors any money.

Neither reports to a charts authority to show popularity.

Both have the same impact on secondary revenue like gig tickets & merchandise.

Vote now - and please show your workings.

samueljohnson,
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

@Edent No comparison. Pirate download is outright theft. The CD was paid for. Bit of a difference between no money and some money.

That said, what may legally be theft is sometimes justified. If you've paid for something already and are then denied access to it or forced to pay again for a different medium or the terms of sale were altered later without your consent.

samueljohnson, to random
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

Renewable energy pivot point reached. Pity we didn't start 30 years ago.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/may/08/renewable-energy-passes-30-of-worlds-electricity-supply

dajb, to random
@dajb@social.coop avatar

Revision time for my son and so taking the opportunity to introduce him to v3 of my daily planner https://dougbelshaw.com/blog/2020/06/23/not-everything-has-to-be-digital-my-analogue-daily-and-weekly-planners/

samueljohnson,
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

@dajb For analogue I like to use an A5 notebook with pre-punched stationery (both common in Japan) but could never find a suitable A5 punch to make printing my own stationery worthwhile. Memo to self: try AliExpress (haven't looked for one for years).

For digital nothing beats MLO (https://MyLifeOrganized.net). I don't need it as much now but pay for updates bc it's made by Ukrainians under fire. Long since the only Windows app I run (on Linux).

mikarv, to random
@mikarv@someone.elses.computer avatar

absolute chaos on a new unmoderated listserv this week as tens of people used the ‘thumbs up’ feature in outlook, which apparently now sends an email, causing an unstoppable torrent

samueljohnson,
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

@mikarv Reminds me, indirectly, of my favourite Outlook add-on which disappeared off the Internet (as far as I could tell).*

Colleague A: How can I discourage B from putting read receipts on emails?

Me: Try this, it lets you choose how many to send - 1, 10, 100, 1,000

Later: It worked! 😂

More fun than the reply-all storms.

*MS legal action perhaps

threecoloured, to random German
@threecoloured@skeptics.social avatar

Optimist: Das Glas ist 1/2 voll
Pessimist: Das Glas ist 1/2 leer
Excel: Das Glas ist der 1. Februar

samueljohnson,
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

@threecoloured Katastrophist: ein Mensch, der überhaupt kein Glas hat. (a "no glass at all""person)

BrideOfLinux, to random
@BrideOfLinux@mastodon.opencloud.lu avatar

It occurs to me that it might be possible for a civilization to be in decline for decades while its inhabitants think it's soaring to new heights.

samueljohnson,
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

@BrideOfLinux Who among us suffers this conceit? The more usual complaint is that the end is imminent

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/apr/17/everything-must-go-by-dorian-lynskey-review-apocalypse-now

I don't have enough time for this but suspect I might not be able to put it down if I picked it up. I wonder if there's a novel in which it was DNS. 😋

samueljohnson, to random
@samueljohnson@mstdn.social avatar

There's an old greeting card with an egg and a chicken in bed in which the egg, enjoying a cigarette, says "Well, I guess that answers that question."

There's now a book length answer

https://www.theguardian.com/science/article/2024/may/05/which-came-first-chicken-egg-evolution-science-zoology

There is no greater story than the history of life.

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • normalnudes
  • khanakhh
  • magazineikmin
  • thenastyranch
  • hgfsjryuu7
  • Youngstown
  • rosin
  • InstantRegret
  • slotface
  • mdbf
  • PowerRangers
  • tsrsr
  • kavyap
  • DreamBathrooms
  • Leos
  • vwfavf
  • ngwrru68w68
  • ethstaker
  • tacticalgear
  • cubers
  • Durango
  • everett
  • osvaldo12
  • modclub
  • tester
  • cisconetworking
  • GTA5RPClips
  • anitta
  • All magazines
    •