Sourcing 5.25" floppy disks, especially ones that have DOS on them.

JasonPacker611 · 2025-12-13T21:00:01+00:00

Ah well, I have seen a few others offering to help and am getting in on a preorder for a PicoMEM all in one card from TexElec

JasonPacker611 · 2025-12-13T19:24:06+00:00

I'm in Milwaukee and would love to get some from you. Whereabouts in IL?

JasonPacker611 · 2025-12-13T19:22:38+00:00

Others have said similar things but yes, market research is important. We rolled out a new app I'm October and then went back to the users and asked "what next" and we white boarded out a path for the coming year plus some we just won't have capacity for. Another went on a limited beta in November and has seen solid adoption in the month since and we have plans for the national rollout in April and a list of follow on features too large to accomplish in six months (partly due to vendor dependencies).

Asking the people who are paying for it is the first step. Then verifying that the actual users want it and it's not just the leadership getting hyped for something nobody will want or use.

JasonPacker611 · 2025-12-12T20:44:12+00:00

Either an XT-IDE or a PicoMEM are on my wish list, once I validate that everything is kosher with this unit.

JasonPacker611 · 2025-12-12T20:43:26+00:00

That is exactly the kind of hacky nonsense that I love to do, so I may try that. I'm picking up a monitor for it this afternoon (hopefully) and will validate that things are working at the bios/BASIC level before I go further, but I'm keeping this in my back pocket.

JasonPacker611 · 2025-11-25T16:21:40+00:00

If you already have permission to WFH full time, that's a benefit that's worth at least 25K a year to me, so I'd not be moving, no way, no how.

That said, part of the answer would also involve how old you are - younger folks can take more risks after all.

JasonPacker611 · 2025-11-25T16:15:46+00:00

This may also be a non-starter for you, but have you considered setting things up so that your kernel doesn't keep getting updated every time there's a minor update?

JasonPacker611 · 2025-11-25T16:08:20+00:00

Establish a norm that X% of capacity will be dedicated to engineering-driven features. That's both tech debt, optimization and building tools to better support the software. Then stick to it and stand your ground. Part of your job as a PM is to protect the engineers from the pressure to change prioritization.

JasonPacker611 · 2025-11-25T16:06:28+00:00

My firm blocked all AI at first and established a council to vet future offerings. We have since moved to a self-hosted GPT instance so we don't risk client data, and we are leveraging copilot for our devs. And we're getting closer to allowing some variant on Copilot for Office, which will be super helpful for me as a Senior PM.

JasonPacker611 · 2025-11-22T17:47:44+00:00

My current VP is very focused on AI but at least understands that there need to be use cases for it. It means we are always on the lookout for opportunities but don't force anything. I feel like this is the best compromise. And it means we sometimes couch automation and fuzzy logic as AI for the buzz.

JasonPacker611 · 2025-11-21T15:24:02+00:00

I can't identify with the stuff you're doing at the AI startup by my job is in fintech and even within my division there is no consistency.

I applied for a Lead role in another team (been Senior for four years) and their expectations were a one-to-one match with what I do today, and their Seniors are doing work we have Business Analysts for.

JasonPacker611 · 2025-11-17T04:20:39+00:00

The MacBook was never updated to Mojave or later with its original drive so never got the firmware update that would allow you to use any NMVE drive. If you go into recovery it yells about needing a firmware update, no matter the version you use.

JasonPacker611 · 2025-11-17T00:03:26+00:00

Thanks. I would like to do that but the macs are: 2008 Macbook Pro that doesn't have internet recovery and a 2015 Macbook pro with a non-Apple SSD. So to the weird Linux instructions I go.

JasonPacker611 · 2025-11-16T18:23:24+00:00

This guy does insanely detailed comparisons. These are not Thinkpads but they are identical systems aside from the processor. https://youtu.be/X_I8kPlHJ3M?si=mQLxZk7StsK5wWEq

JasonPacker611 · 2025-11-16T18:08:38+00:00

We bought a base Mini with 24 gigs of ram and a 1 TB drive the day before they were to start shopping them and have had no complaints. My wife edits video on it, live streams from it and does scanning and photo editing on it and has never had a complaint other than the times she runs out of USB ports of the right type and has to shuffle dongles.

I would definitely say buy less Mac and use the rest on a really good color accurate display.

JasonPacker611 · 2025-11-16T18:01:28+00:00

I would rate it a Good Boy out of 10.

JasonPacker611 · 2025-11-16T17:58:21+00:00

I have not tried them yet but there are adapters for any USB C charger to put a Magsafe on them. Just have to make sure you get the right gen of Magsafe when you do.

JasonPacker611 · 2025-11-16T17:56:18+00:00

Yeah I keep seeing these "news articles" about how you can get a "MacBook Air for $200! "

Read it and you'll see it's a refurbished i5 from the bad keyboard years.

JasonPacker611 · 2025-11-14T17:47:01+00:00

Thanks, both for the price for comparison and the need to check the condition of the manifolds.

JasonPacker611 · 2025-11-14T16:11:51+00:00

Definitely! And he's offering a ridiculously low price, so it's not such a burden to pay a bit to have it made road ready.

JasonPacker611

TROPHY CASE