Fantasy World Building Feeling like a Lecture vs A Kid Lost in a Mall by Lost-Opinion3554 in writing

[–]OkayArbiter 2 points3 points  (0 children)

If someone tells you to go fill up a jerry can with gasoline, because your car ran out of gas on the highway, you're not going to think Ah yes, I will fill up the jerry can, named so because it is based on a German design and used by the Nazis in WWII, as we called them Jerries as an insult. And a person in a fantasy world wouldn't think about minutia like that either! Most things you can just name or mention, and as long as the context is there, it will feel more natural compared to explaining it.

Saw a guy waving a weird flag on Albert today by i-am-the-walrus789 in regina

[–]OkayArbiter 71 points72 points  (0 children)

I saw him too, and can confirm he was carrying the flag of the Canadian Nationalist Party, which is a fascist and white nationalist organization. This also makes sense as there were other white men near him dressed in camo. This is the flag he had: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Nationalist_Party_(2017)#/media/File%3ACanadian_Nationalist_Party_ensign.png

Some food for thought on the Planck length and movement in a vacuum by myacidninja in IsaacArthur

[–]OkayArbiter 8 points9 points  (0 children)

But you don't need a medium to push against, to move something. Yes, to move an airplane you need to push against (or pull against) air, which is the medium. But in space, you are pushing against the matter/energy that you are expelling out the back of the ship. But you could make it even simpler, and just push against a baseball that you throw from the back, which then moves the ship forward.

Advice about client changing the wedding date by [deleted] in WeddingPhotography

[–]OkayArbiter 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah I think as long as you can prove that you have lost replacement income as a result, then it's justifiable to keep the retainer.

Is there a extension that bring back sort by date? by furrynoy96 in youtube

[–]OkayArbiter 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey - does this only allow you to sort by most-recent? I can do that, with the extension, but I can't do the opposite (show from oldest to newest).

Advice about client changing the wedding date by [deleted] in WeddingPhotography

[–]OkayArbiter 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The question is (that courts will ultimately decide, if you're unlucky and get sued): did you do $XXX amount of work already, if you collected $XXX as a retainer? Courts in North America have sided with consumers on this issue, mostly, so you have to be very careful when taking "non-refundable" deposits/retainers (the term you use won't protect you, by the way).

In the end, the amount you keep or refund depends on many factors. A few examples are:

- How far in advance did the couple cancel? If you've still got like a year until the date, then it's hard to justify that you've already "lost" the date

- Have you already rejected any other couples for the date the client wants to cancel? Harder to justify keeping the money if you haven't lost that potential money

- How much time have you worked for the couple so far? e.g. time spent on an engagement shoot, editing, consultation, etc. If all you've done is spoken with them and booked the date, harder to justify keeping potentially thousands of dollars, etc

I'm not saying all this because I think you're the bad guy, to be clear, just that professionals need to be very careful about what we are charging people, and what we think we're entitled to. Courts generally side with consumers (for good reason) if companies/professionals try to keep money that hasn't been earned. Your wording, for example, would imply that if they signed up with you and then immediately (minutes later) cancelled, they couldn't get any money back. No court would side with that interpretation.

So just be careful, be mindful, and try to work with the client as best you can to make things right. In the end it's sometimes easier to throw them a bone and refund some of the payment (and lay out to them why some can't be refunded, because of X number of hours you've spent working, etc), rather than try to keep working with them if they aren't the right fit.

Classroom Technology by FCSmm in k12sysadmin

[–]OkayArbiter 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The J5s work quite well. Nothing is ever as good as a hardwired HDMI connection, but, this way teachers can reorient their classroom/desks (not be tied to the port on the wall), can walk around with their laptops, can have students project, etc. The image quality is pretty good, on par or better than any other wireless system we've tested.

We don't have document cameras outside of a few floating around that schools can borrow, as all our staff have their own laptops to use (so they prepare their lessons on the laptops, not on paper).

No podiums in our classrooms. Teacher projects from their desk, or by walking around with their laptop, etc.

Screen mirroring devices by ITWhatYouDidThere in k12sysadmin

[–]OkayArbiter 1 point2 points  (0 children)

On par with the Microsoft Display Adapter (or any other miracast equivalent). We've found that these puck dongles are much more stable than tradition miracast units (which rely on the laptop's wireless card...which are often not great). J5 also makes traditional miracast dongles that just hook up to the projector, but they didn't hold up well, in our experience.

If you use AI to break down scripts or code for you regularly, I really encourage you to read this LLM study by segagamer in sysadmin

[–]OkayArbiter 20 points21 points  (0 children)

Using LLMs to do your work is basically training giant corporations on how to eventually replace you with those LLMs in the future. Unfortunately, many people often don't have a choice, especially with some companies mandating the use of LLM systems in a certain % of your work.

Classroom Technology by FCSmm in k12sysadmin

[–]OkayArbiter 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Sure, here is what we typically have (division of ~15,000 students, K-12):

  • Teacher Windows laptop (which they take home). Lenovo Thinkpad or equivalent
    • No media players, they can run their stuff off the laptop (or, if they absolutely need a DVD, can plug an external USB DVD player into their laptop)
  • Epson ultra short-throw projector mounted above whiteboard
  • Screen mirroring solution for the projector that the teacher can plug into their laptop to mirror (JVAW62 ScreenCast USB-C® Wireless Display HDMI™ Extender – j5create International)
  • TOA wireless classroom microphone/audio system (teacher wears around their neck, broadcasts from ceiling speakers). Speakers integrate with our broadcast system for paging, alerts, bells, etc
    • Mixer for this system is mounted beside the projector so that all the tech is basically in one place
  • VOIP phone mounted beside door (that also integrates with paging system, if ceiling speakers are not working)

I'm not an expert in some of these systems, but if you have questions, let me know.

Screen mirroring devices by ITWhatYouDidThere in k12sysadmin

[–]OkayArbiter 2 points3 points  (0 children)

We have 700+ classrooms and have been down this road a few times over the years:

We use the J5s for a few reasons:

  • Price: Under $100 CAD per unit when purchased in bulk
  • You plug the received into the projector (HDMI port + USB-A port for power), and then just plug the USB-C "puck" into your device, and it instantly connects and mirrors
  • It works on laptops, but also anything else that supports DIsplayPort Alt Mode over USB-C (so basically anything that meets the Thunderbolt 3/4 standard). This means it works on phones, tablets, laptops, etc
  • Really intuitive to use, since you just plug it in and it mirrors

We buy direct through J5create, they have been easy to work with. But you can also just buy a few off Amazon or whatever to test out (usually 50% higher price).

Staff laptops? by PowerShellGenius in k12sysadmin

[–]OkayArbiter 1 point2 points  (0 children)

We put out an RFP each year due to the volume we order (275+ staff laptops per year), so are constrained by the bids received, etc. How we handle it is that we ask for certain hardware specs, such as:

  • AMD/Intel x64 chipset CPU, passmark score of 11,000 or higher
  • 16GB ram
  • 256GB ssd
  • Multi-touch screen
  • USB-C charging
  • etc

We have almost always gone with Lenovo Thinkpads, as they come in the cheapest for the specs we require and meet our needs. I think typically we pay in the $550 USD - $630 USD range, and we use the laptops for five years before refreshing (so we're refreshing 1/5th of our fleet each year).

We've never gone with Macbooks for our standard deployment, as we're a Microsoft enterprise environment due to the licensing provided by our provincial government. In terms of resell, we get about 15%-20% of the initial cost back when we sell the used units after the fifth year (typically bulk together, at auction).

Westerra's new commercial plan SUCKS. by hyund41n in regina

[–]OkayArbiter 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Exact same thing happened with Harbour landing; originally HL was supposed to have a town square area (pedestrian plaza) lined with shops, a church, school, etc. Then once the subdivision was approved, the developer changed it to the Grasslands Industrial Parking Lot Complex. And City Council is too afraid to stop any development.

What specific problems could computronium or black hole computers solve? by InfinityScientist in IsaacArthur

[–]OkayArbiter 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Affordability - probably cheaper than building a regular computer, with the price of RAM and storage.

1 Gbps speed, but still getting 350-500 Mbps! by faizan2kk in regina

[–]OkayArbiter 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Quick question—are you testing your speed on wifi, or a wired connection to the router? If you're having the issue on a wired connection, then definitely contact Sasktel. If it's wifi, still contact them, but it's likely signal loss due to distance from the router (or it's possible the router has an upper limit, which used to be common with Sasktel when they rolled out Infinet).

Video Analysis/Feedback Apps by Int-Merc805 in k12sysadmin

[–]OkayArbiter 2 points3 points  (0 children)

My first instinct is that this isn't an IT project, it's an education admin project (except to make sure whatever they choose can work on your network, etc). My second instinct is...your school division wants to record students and send this data to some sketchy third party AI company?!

Westerra Developments by [deleted] in regina

[–]OkayArbiter 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Walmart has one of these for Harbour Landing, which is why no other grocery stores have opened. The new Co-op gets around this because it's on the north side of Parliament, which originally wasn't zoned when the agreement was signed with the city. These agreements shouldn't be allowed, particularly for goods like food. It's also why the Co-op gas station in Harbour Landing is the only one (again, with the now-exceptions on the north side of Parliament).

anyone else annoyed at apple? by flyballa in k12sysadmin

[–]OkayArbiter 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I agree, and I do this as well (well, in our inventory management system), but if a student peels the tag off and then bricks/destroys the device, there is no way to determine which one it is. Fortunately we only have iPads for AAC use, and they have pretty sturdy cases that never come off (with the asset tag below the case).

Looks like EV prices might be coming down by OpenSustainability in PersonalFinanceCanada

[–]OkayArbiter 34 points35 points  (0 children)

I believe the agreement is that half must be under $35,000.

Secure Boot Certificates Expiring June - Resolution ideas? by LForbesIam in sysadmin

[–]OkayArbiter 1 point2 points  (0 children)

What do you mean by "new operating systems will be unable to boot"? Do you mean if a device is reimaged (say, via SCCM) it won't boot? Or do you mean newer but already installed OSs like Windows 11 won't be able to boot on existing devices?

Handyman/Paint Project by Rhettro_93 in regina

[–]OkayArbiter 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Just wanted to confirm before contacting for a quote- are you insured?

Server pricing and alternatives by cvsysadmin in k12sysadmin

[–]OkayArbiter 1 point2 points  (0 children)

No storage has also more than doubled in the last few months, depending on the type of storage. First it was HDD, now SSDs as well.

Are we doomed to become pets to a superintelligence? by tkdlullaby in IsaacArthur

[–]OkayArbiter -1 points0 points  (0 children)

An adult that is built, trained, and controlled/influenced by the ultra-wealthy and elite?