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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: October 17th, 2023

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  • IT guy here, if there is one thing I wish for, there are many days where I wish I was just a cleaner, to actually be able to complete a task that is visible for a change and not just stare me blind at a half functioning JIRA board, a broken active directory and list of 365 teams almost as long as the list of employees.

    Not to mention having to deal with systems I have no idea about and should have zero access to but somehow have global admin and am incharge of access controls which are half documented, yet the system is the most important in the company.

    We are working on improving it, it goes slowly…

    If it paid the same, I think being a street view driver seems interesting/fun…



  • Dell Ultrasharp 27” 1440p 2024

    Using that as a product name will introduce more risk of errors, and for the main consumer, businesses, it makes more sense to use a short product code.

    Imagine an IT manager ordering new monitors, they can just call their supplier up and say:

    Hey, I need some new monitors, can I order 8 new U2724D monitors and 8 new U2724DE?

    Instead of saying

    Hey, I need some new monitors, can I order 8 new Dell Ultrasharp 27” 1440p 2024 monitors, and 8 new Dell Ultrasharp 27” 1440p 2024 monitors with the built in dock with networking?

    The first one is far easier to parse and make sure you get the stuff you want, the other is far more prone to errors.

    This is not even getting into the issues with product databases and inventory management.


  • Ok there are often resons for the madness.

    Lets look at the naming standard of Dell monitors:

    I have a Dell U2724D as my main monitor.

    The syntax is [Series][Diagonal Size][Year][Ratio/Resolution][Features]

    In my case the code for the Series is “U”

    Since about 2010 their standard series has been:

    E: Essential - Normally a TN anti glare panel, internal power, simple stand, 3 year warranty.

    P: Professional - Normally an IPS anti glare panel, internal power, height/rotate adjustable stand, 3-year warranty.

    S: Small Office/Home - Can be IPS, TN or VA panel, usually external power supply, slim stand, 1-year warranty.

    U: Ultrasharp - IPS anti glare panel, internal power, height/rotate adjustable base, 3 year warranty.

    UP: Ultrasharp with PrimerColor - additional color gamut.

    AW: Alienware - High-end gaming

    C: Commercial displays - Large format (50"+), for conference rooms and classrooms.


    Ok so looking at my monitor, U2724D, we can see that it is from the Ultrasharp series.


    The next section is the diagonal size, Dell uses two digits to represent the size, in my case it is 27, so I have a 27" monitor.


    Then we come to the year section, this tells us the year the monitor was released, in my case it says 24, so my monitor was released in 2024.


    Then we come to the resolution part:

    S: standard ratio - 4:3 or 5:4.

    no letter: computer widescreen - 16:10

    H: HD widescreen - 16:9

    W: Ultrawide - 21:9

    D: QHD - 1440p

    Q: 4K - 2160p

    K: 8K - 4320p


    In my case, the resolution letter is D, meaning my monitor is a QHD/1440p monitor.


    Finally we have come to the Features section:

    C: USB-C input - can accept DisplayPort over USB-C.

    X: HDMI cable included, instead of standard DsiplayPort cable.

    T: Touchscreen

    G: nVidia G-sync

    F: AMD Freesync

    J: Wireless charging stand

    Z: Videoconference camera

    A: Monitor arm included, no stand

    E: Ethernet networking, works like a proper dock.

    S: Built in speakers.


    My monitor does not have any extra features, but my dad has the U2721DE monitor which has a built in dock and networking.


    The reason for the annoying names is to differentiate features, series, year releases and more.






  • There are several governments in Europe and abroad that have ordered DNS lookups for specific domains to be blocked.

    They probably mean that we can’t trust the government to keep information free and need a way to restrict governments from blocking DNS lookups.

    Unfortunately, you can’t really do DNS in a decentralized manner as the concept is based on a hirarchy.

    Example:

    If you want to go to www.coolsite.org your computer would make the following requests:

    • Hey root server, who handles requests for .org?
    • Hey .org DNS server, who handles requests for .coolsite.org?
    • Hey .coolsite.org DNS server, who is www.coolsite.org?

    I don’t really know how to decentralize this…




  • Nokia E7 had it for a year or so until it was stolen.

    Bloody brilliant phone!

    Loved the keyboard, made you look like a hacker when using Putty Touch to SSH into a shell server and run screen irssi to get on IRC.

    After it got stolen I got a Nokia Asha 300 as my main phone and a Nokia E72 as a device to access internet radio (SLAYradio still slays!), and yt (at 140p) as it used a mobile broadband SIM with unlimited data but no phone service.

    A year or so later I cancelled my mobile broadband and switched to the E72 full time, and a few years later when I got a new job and my E72 died completely I bought myself my first iPhone…