J. Stro Makes Things

Webspace of J.S.Strosnider. I make neato electronic things, write sci-fi, share political views and whatever.

[jstromakesthings]

My entire career has been a big game of "Telephone". Someone else telling me how to do a thing. That is the only way I would have learned any of it anyway, because I cannot sit through a class, read a book, skim a manpage, or follow a set of documentation to save my life.

Them: "Read this document, linked to another & another & another. Now you're an expert! You know exactly what this 1 sentence deployment instruction means." Me: nope. I read about 20 words into your document, my brain did -static-, then I went upstairs and watched StarTrek.

I'm done. I'm going to become a hermit and live off the land in a cabin somewhere.

[jstromakesthings]

"Easy" deploy in Windows: run app, answer questions, maybe reboot. "Easy" deploy in linux: clone repo until (no more pre-req's){ become expert at pre-req's clone pre-req's } sudo run repo "error on line 29456 in file [no name]: [unknown error]" ADHD sucks when you're into tech.

[jstromakesthings]

You know, AI wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the world ending consumption of resources and ownership of it by like five people who have more money combined than the rest of the world's economy.

[jstromakesthings]

Turns out, I don't have to watch the progress bar. He keeps checking it himself. Either Microsoft Word is this guy's fent, or he has some sort of bet going about when he'll get this proposal done.

[jstromakesthings]

I'm just watching him work, waiting for the MS365 "I'm done!" box to hopefully pop up. Part of me wants him to to try to open a Word document and get an error. I would literally LOL at that.

[jstromakesthings]

I'm remoted in, watching MS365 reinstall. He slides the install window to the side and casually keeps working. I can't see the progress bar. Is it done? I don't know. Hope he doesn't jack it up. Not sure how I would explain that his past impatience caused his future inconvenience.

[jstromakesthings]

Today's client changed a Word setting and "broke" it. Just a simple view setting. He: a) wanted me to restore his entire computer from cloud backup to a point only 15 minutes prior b) wanted it done in less than 5 minutes That's not how that works. I just changed the Word setting back instead.

After that, I had to rip/reinstall MS365 to fix an unrelated printer issue. He asked me "how long is this going to take?" As long as it takes to fix the issue sir. I could, optionally, you know, just not fix it. I didn't even have the chance to set expectations, and they were already sky high.

[jstromakesthings]

Dear friends. The USPS is enshitifying the system -right now-. If you vote by mail, my suggestion is that you either: a) vote early in person if at all possible, or b) mail your ballot at least a week earlier than you usually do.

[jstromakesthings]

What the hell kind of bullshit delay is this? Arrived at warehouse near the destination on July 15. Arrived at next warehouse, farther away from the final destination, on July 25. It just sat in a warehouse for 11 days for.... no reason.

[jstromakesthings]

It's finally happened! I had someone make a purchase on my website who is in the same tiny rural town as me! It only took like 6 years, but you know, goals or something.

[jstromakesthings]

My brain, in two acts. "What did you have for lunch today Joe?" I don't remember. "What does 'ABS' stand for in plastics?" Acrylonitrile/Butadiene/Styrene. They mix the three in different ratios to achieve different characteristics. Softer or harder, chemical or temperature resistance, etc.

[jstromakesthings]

When you can be more financially stable being on government benefits than being employed: that's a problem. But it's not a you problem. That's a societal problem.

[jstromakesthings]

You like 3D Printing, Classic Macs and color matched filament, right? Then check out Polar Filament's next open house where they will unveil Power Grey 100 for classic PowerBooks! Saturday August 1st at their Troy Michigan headquarters.

Polar Grillament Admission - 1 person, Age 18+ (Incl. 1 hotdog, 1 wate

Polar Grillament 2026 - Sat, Aug 1st Southeast Michigan Annual 3D Printing Meetup Whether you've been 3D printing for ten years, just bought your very first printer, or work with additive manufacturing professionally, Polar Grillament is a relaxed community event where everyone is welcome. Meet fellow makers, engineers

[jstromakesthings]

Better yet: I can be in the normal MS365 admin panel for "Tenant A" in one tab, click to go into the Exchange admin from there and it will take me to --"Tenant B's" Exchange admin panel--. Like.... what? Yah yah, clear cookies and all that. But the login/logouts should just handle that.

No, it's not browser or machine dependent. This happens on Edge, Chrome, Brave, Firefox and Waterfox on different machines, on Windows, MacOS and Linux, and it's been happening for literal years. Kinda sucks when you admin over 20 clients' MS365 tenants.

[jstromakesthings]

I sign out of MS365 Exchange admin with the Sign Out button. I bring up the URL to sign in again (as a different tenant). The previous tenant loads up without asking for any credentials. This seems like a security issue to me.

[jstromakesthings]

RE: previous post on a weird circuit, I've redrawn it after finding other connects within it. This is the reset signal driver to a Profile drive from an Apple II card. The Apple III version has none of this nonsense. On that, it's just a LS368 driving /RESET OUT through a resistor.

[jstromakesthings]

User: My mailbox is full. Me: Sure. Just click "Empty" on the deleted items folder. User: I don't have time. Just take care of it. *hangs up* Me: bypass all security & ethical considerations to click "Empty" on the deleted items folder. Sure hope they didn't have anything important in there.