It’s a song that’s been played so many times the record is starting to get worn out.
Big manufacturer buys software company.
Big manufacturer does not understand software business, software company, or software company’s customers.
Big manufacturer makes a bunch of cost reductions based on incorrect assumptions.
Big shot at big corp customer calls peon (like me) at budget time to ask why we spend so much money on this “VMWare”.
Peon explains that "VMWare is very important software which used to be “Best in Class” but has become “Overpriced, second rate, yada yada…” And suggests we switch to Hyper-V.
Big shot asks (a little suspiciously) if we would save money without any negative impact to operations.
Peon says, “Yes.”
Big shot writes big check to Microsoft.
Other big shot at big manufacturer is stuck trying to figure out where all the customers went; not realizing that big manufacturer pissed all over the peons who actually have to use their [now] shitty software.
Big manufacturer decides the acquisition was a failure, learns nothing from it, and sells the shell of the once popular software company for a fraction of what they paid for it.
I have to preface by saying that this isn’t really related to Home Assistant. I can’t find a more generic home automation community on Lemmy and I figured someone here might have some experience with this so I hope is post is allowed....
“Look human! I bring you prize. Is Copperhead. It was slithering across lawn like ‘Ha ha! I am Copperhead. I am king of world! You will not mess with me because I will bite you and you will die!’ Stupid Copperhead does not know that I am cat and I mess with anything that moves just for funsies. So, I kill it and bring to you so you may bask in awe of my skill as hunter of dangerous prey. You are impressed, yes? Yes. Of course you are.” – My Cat (the Russian Mobster of Animals), Probably
“Oh no, no no no no! Why did you bring that up here!? Arggghhhhh!!!” --My Wife, Definitely
I worked for an industrial tool manufacturer for a couple years. It’s well known brand but not one you can just go to Home Depot and buy. Their tools are very specialized and very expensive.
Anyway, the last project I was on before I left was one where they tried to create smart tools. It wasn’t a completely bad idea. Those things have specific maintenance requirements. Reminding the user that it’s time for maintenance based on a cycle count, hour count, or severity of conditions was actually a good idea.
But, management wanted two things: Wireless charging, and the ability to feed data from the tool back to a dashboard that the user could log into. Then, they would charge a premium for the “smart tool” and get the customer to pay for access to the dashboard. At least that was the idea. The problem was that customers didn’t give a shit about either of those “features.” They just wanted their tools to work reliably. The division president refused to listen. I don’t know how it worked out. For unrelated reasons, I didn’t hang around long enough to find out.
Adding [unnecessary] electronics to tools and appliances is cheap. There’s some engineering costs involved but once that’s done, the components usually amount to a small fraction of the overall build cost. And the markup is insane, which is one reason why they add those “features”.
I suspect that there’s plenty of engineering teams out there questioning why a stove needs WiFi and then getting overridden by some SVP who has literally never used a stove in his entire life.
“It’s a single pane window. A single pane of glass. It symbolizes the synergy between man and machine. Window 12 offers an enhanced user experience with greater simplicity and clarity. Also, we’ve revamped our mobile and iOT OS lines which we’re calling ‘Porthole 12’ and ‘Peephole 12’ respectively.” -Microsoft, Probably
Hey there, I have a (very) small Ubuntu server and I was dabbling on the idea to do system backups (entire system, meaning, if the disk of the said pc fries, I can get another one, put the info from the backup on the new disk, works immediately afterwards). I have a couple of Linux mint machines and a windows one. I searched a...
I use Veeam Backup & Recovery Community Edition. If you’re runing VM’s you have to be on VMWare or Hyper-V. You can also use agents on the individual VM/Server. It also requires a pretty hefty Windows host, at least if you want your backups to complete fairly quickly.
Those are understandably downsides for some people. But, Veeam is in a class by itself. It has no serious competitors and as far as ease of use and reliability, it’s top tier.
I’m lazy. I don’t want to spend a bunch of time configuring finicky backups only to find out I needed one and it failed. I honestly wish there were a comparable open source backup system. I have yet to find anything that works as well.
There were substantial conflicts between rich and poor Romans well before the end of the Republic. It was not uncommon for a lower class Roman to go off and fight with the army only to come home and find some rich fuck effectively squatting on his land.
This was turning into something of a large scale crisis 60+ years before Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon. At the same time, politics was dominated by the wealthy and/or those who were successful military leaders.
The Republic didn’t really have “checks and balsnces” in some cases so much as “social conventions”. More a common understanding that something is just not done. They were actually rather Ill equipped to deal with individuals who had a thirst for power. Tiberius Gracchus, who served as Tribune, gave away lots of state owned land to some of the poorer Romans. He did so without consulting the Senate which raised a lot of eyebrows. When he attempted to stand for a second term as Tribune in 133 B.C. – which was just “not done” – the Senate responded by murdering him.
Tiberius’ brother, was elected as Tribune. He went further than Tiberius and sponsored a whole bunch of legislation which would have benefited poorer Romans. The Senate responded by murdering him as well. Over the next few decades, there were a handful of successful military leaders who clamored for more and more power. At the same time, the public was growing increasingly dissatisfied with the Republican government.
Julius Caesar was smart enough to recognize that the Republic was becoming frail and ballsy enough to give it a good shove down the stairs. In 82 B.C. he marched his legion into Rome – a clear act of treason – and effectively declared himself dictator. He was met with little resistance. He was viewed as a champion of the poor in some ways and, based on the way the Republic treated poor Romans, they were probably looking for a champion.
There were others who wanted to wrest Caesar’s newly acquired power from him. Pompey, another successful Roman general, went to war with Caesar. Pompey had the support of the wealthy Aristocrats. Pompey lost.
The Senate murdered Caesar in 44 B.C. Caesar’s supporters responded by killing his assassins. Then they turned on each other. That marked the beginning of another civil war from which Octavian, Julius’ nephew and adopted son, ultimately emerged victorious. By then, the Republic was effectively dead.
To make a long story short, Julius Caesar didn’t break the system. It was already broken. He managed to exploit it further than than anyone else had up until then but there were glaring cracks in the foundation of the Republic that directly contributed to it’s demise. The imbalance of power between the elite and the poor was definitely a big “crack”.
Different phases of life, different priorities, and different perspectives. Someone in their 20’s is still trying to figure out what they want to do with their life. I’ve abandoned the search and am now stuck somewhere between raising my kids and trying to buy myself some free time before I die.
I also think you have to be friends with your spouse to have a successful marriage. Lucky for me, my wife is my best friend. It’s pretty difficult to build any sort of meaningful relationship with someone you have very little in common with.
I don’t get as much into automating for the sake of automating. Personally, I prefer technology that makes my life easier. Anything “smart” in our house has to be manually overrideable.
That said, one thing I’m working on automating is the HVAC. Eventually I’ll have the Central heat, central humidifier, and whole house fan controls all integrated with HA. My goal is to maximize both comfort and energy efficiency. Being able to maintain the comfort level by automatically switching between A/C or fresh air (via the whole house fan) would be pretty cool (figuratively and literally).
Good old Craftsman. Their power tools have been on the lower end of the quality scale for years. The acquisition by S - B&D pretty well cemented that. But you can pry my 1991 10" Belt Drive table saw from my cold, dead hands.
Pipe Organ. The only instrument with the versatility of an orchestra at your fingertips. It can make the room shake or fill it with quiet whispers.
Sadly, Churches are one of the few places, in the US at least, where you can hear the organ regularly. Ones that can afford to maintain such a large instrument and pay an organist.
At this point I’m just doing my own thing and if a relationship happens, I’ll roll with it but until then I’m happy being single.
This is important though. If you’re happy with the way things are then that’s totally fine.
I never expected to get into a relationship so soon after getting divorced. I didn’t feel like I was ready. I just thought this lady at one of the other offices of the company I worked for was cute and decided to chat her up.
She caught me off guard when she asked me out. I had to be straight with her so I told her that I had recently gotten divorced and I wasn’t looking for anything serious but if she wanted to hang out, I would like that. She was actually ok with it. That was six years (married four), and two kids ago. She is an awesome lady and I am one very lucky guy.
I would have rather remained single for the rest of my life than have to live through a bad marriage again. It’s better to be alone than to wish you were alone. At that point in my life, I was happy being single. But I like where I am now too and I’m happy things worked out the way they did.
Sentient vacuum cleaners? (lemmus.org)
Haircut Practice by Adam Koford for January 22, 2024
Cargo [SMBC Comics] (www.smbc-comics.com)
Source: www.smbc-comics.com/comic/cargo
Infinite Loop (programming.dev)
This Week in Self-Hosted (19 January 2024) (selfh.st)
Again, not my newsletter, just a good community share. Author is on mastadon: fosstodon.org/
Variable Position Damper Control
I have to preface by saying that this isn’t really related to Home Assistant. I can’t find a more generic home automation community on Lemmy and I figured someone here might have some experience with this so I hope is post is allowed....
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entire system backups onto the server - how?
Hey there, I have a (very) small Ubuntu server and I was dabbling on the idea to do system backups (entire system, meaning, if the disk of the said pc fries, I can get another one, put the info from the backup on the new disk, works immediately afterwards). I have a couple of Linux mint machines and a windows one. I searched a...
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