Oh I have a very specific one for you buckle up haha. So one thing in macOS that gets progressively better and worse over time is actual multi-monitor support. It’s fine but I swear either no one at Apple uses multiple monitors or everyone actually has only cinema displays arranged in a horizontal line haha. I have used OSX/macOS for a long time and it was much worse for a long time but had gotten pretty workable then BAM around Tahoe or so arrangement is buried in some menu now and I’m not sure the function of the row of displays actually is now? Anyway, it’s mostly great, this is the one thing that apparently turns into a rant haha! Okay two things, bring back eGPUs on Apple Silicon :D

I am in the same boat, long time infrastructure automation engineer as well. Sometimes it’s faster to explain how terraform or whatever needs to act and then fix the issues rather than having to sift through the docs for every provider.

I also do a similar thing to you with code, I also have to read a lot of other people’s code in languages I don’t know to help troubleshoot things and while I can usually follow the logic it is such a time saver to have AI to read the docs for the libraries and languages for me to at least find the part of the docs I need to read faster than searching myself.

Overall, I also agree with the sentiment on AI most of the time and all of its criticisms are definitely valid but I think too many people try to use AI to do their work for them instead of using it more like a rubber duck you can program with normal language.

This was a great episode, this is one of my favorite podcasts so I was able sign up for a forkiverse account in time hah! It actually went pretty well and it was cool to watch it get more active!

Here is the episode page: https://www.searchengine.show/the-fediverse-experiment/

Their episodes are always interesting! Definitely worth a listen! If you like that type of podcast definitely check out Hyperfixed and Heavyweight.

Lots of good advice here and I am not THAT old but here are a few things I wish I had realized sooner in life (in no particular order or theme):

• No one really knows what they are doing, more experienced people usually have just made the mistakes already.
• There is a difference between being correct and getting someone to agree you are correct, the former is the most important and the latter is not always possible or desired and when to argue and when to let someone be wrong is a skill that takes practice.
• The less time spent worrying about what other people think of you the happier you will be and the easier life will feel. In almost all situations you spend more time thinking about whatever it is than the other person does.
• Always strive to be a good and like-able person but always remember that it’s impossible to be liked by everyone, sometimes people just won’t like you and that is okay.
• One friend you can count on is more valuable than 100 acquaintances, guard and nurture your valued friendships like your life depends on it because it might some day.

The biggest thing though, there isn’t one correct way to live your life and anyone telling you differently is probably selling you something. Always try to learn something from every situation and you will be fine, mistakes are a part of life. Anyway, hope at least some of that is helpful!

In case you are into it, this is actually one of the plot lines in The Expanse (spoilers).

https://youtu.be/jVhlJNJopOQ

I just wanted to add this video to your comment because e-ink is so cool and this guy has a bunch of macro shots of the displays that are awesome and you can see the particles in the screen changing colors.

https://youtu.be/1qIHCUWAgh4

So cool!

This guy’s channel is so awesome, glad to see it posted here. He has all kinds of cool tools that he built in his lab like a scanning electron microscope. His videos on atomic force microscopes and laser lithography are really fascinating as well, he is really great at explaining the concepts too, definitely recommend!

Hah now this is a great shower thought, if you want some existential dread you should watch this video from Kurzgezagt video about it called You Are Not Where You Think You Are about this idea, it’s great!

Well 5ghz requires more power, has less range, and needs its own antenna so for microcontrollers this makes it pretty pointless for devices that need range and low bandwidth for sending sensor updates, especially those that are battery powered. 5ghz can also have its own issues in cities if you have a lot of use of the DFS bands as well as being worse at traversing reinforced concrete.

Also, a 2.4ghz radio can also sometimes support other things like zigbee, BT, and BLE which can be used for other functions.

For what it’s worth, I have probably 50 WiFi devices and the majority of them are 2.4ghz sensors or switches and other low bandwidth tasks and I don’t have any issues, even when living in an apartment complex. If you are having issues you might need different hardware or more access points or something.

Anyway, all that to say that 2.4ghz definitely still has a lot of utility today.

Oh man RDREs are so cool! the other commenter explained it better than I ever could but also here are some great videos about it for further fun!

• Real Engineering
• Scott Manley
• Integza

ETA: I forgot the coolest one! NASA’s own test video

Yeah I’m with you, I read most of it but I just don’t know where the disdain comes from. At most scales of infrastructure anymore you can use them interchangeably because the difference is immaterial in practical applications.

Like if I am going to provision 2TB I don’t really care if it’s 2000 or 2048GB, I’ll be resizing it when it gets to 1800 either way, and if I needed to actually store 2TB I would create a 3TB volume, storage is cheap and my time calculating the difference is not.

Wait until you learn about how different fields use different precision levels of pi.

I assume you are talking about the Plex client or the server too? Client wise, the shield is still excellent as other folks have mentioned but I have been using Apple TVs lately, the client is snappy and works well. I have one of the first gen 4k ones and it plays everything I have tried to play. I got tired of the adds on the android devices and the Rokus have even gotten annoying lately so that’s what prompted me to switch.

ETA: in case someone is wondering, I also use the Home Assistant integration with my Apple TVs and it is superb.

I live near a Microcenter so I buy all kinds of stuff there related to computers and 3d printing. The last 4 or 5 computers I have built have been with mostly parts sourced there as well.

Hah yeah that was not very clear. What I mean is that google search results have gotten worse over the years and I knew that but since it was a slow change slow I guess I had not really realized the totality of how bad it had gotten until I compared the search results for the same search terms between Google and Kagi.

It’s crazy, what I’m searching for is back in the first couple of links and I don’t have to scroll past “sponsored” results like it should be. I never thought I would pay for a search engine but it is definitely worth it, I’m not sure I could go back to Google.

I recently switched to Kagi and the difference is astounding. I knew it was bad but it’s just crazy, especially on mobile. The ability to personally change a domains ranking in your search results is a game changer too, now my results aren’t polluted with Amazon results as an example.

I don’t know anyone using it personally but I have seen lots of folks here and Reddit that use LXC through Proxmox, I had the same thought though.

HAH I just upgraded my gaming machine not too long ago, CitiesSkylines finally pushed it over the edge.

You are absolutely right on that, both of those had 32GB of memory and I would call that my minimum these days as well, should have mentioned that too. I had to give the 14” back when I left a job and I still miss it haha. It’s worth the wait for the memory, it’s really annoying that they require a special build for that but I suppose they want people to spring for the Max.

Also, I have an M2 MBA with 16GB of memory currently as a personal/family machine because I didn’t want to wait for a custom build with 24 and I really should have, 16 just isn’t enough anymore for me anymore but it was useful to prove that to myself again (I guess, haha).

This might be a hot take but I have used both a 16” M1 Max and a 14” with a M2 Pro with very similar use cases to you and I would just get a 14 with a M2 Pro if it was me. You won’t need the Max and you will get better battery life with the Pro, I didn’t even notice the missing cores because apple silicon just feels so much faster overall. I didn’t notice any heat throttling on the 14” either, the fans barely ran at all.

For my money, the 14” MBP with an M2 Pro might be my favorite computer Apple has ever created that I have used (have used almost every generation of MBP since the titanium one). Just my 2c but hope it helps!