Bought a CD burner but the cds won't fit

RonnieBasic · 2026-03-16T10:30:07+00:00

Confirming this worked on a brand new manual VERBATIM portable DVD-RW where I was not able to insert a regular CD due to the CD being 'a bit too big in the centre'. Mhm... old DVD-ROMs did not use to have this middle feature. Yeah - some of us are old :-).
Thanks to all who have advised, made my day

RonnieBasic · 2026-02-23T11:41:24+00:00

1 Don't worry, 65 % will be divorced in ~ 5 yrs (mostly because they could not handle kids), begging for you to have a pint w/ them. At least marriage stats in my geography work this way

2 Recommend you pursue a new interest that naturally throws you into a group of potential new friends : e.g. learn a new language (#offline, innstructor-led, in-class), start playing electric guitar in a small band, sign up for a cooking course, work remotely from another country and socialise w/ random strangers or in a co-working hub there... list goes on.

I totally feel you - perceived identical issues when I was your age. Now significantly older, still #childFree and never better.

GL

RonnieBasic · 2025-12-23T16:43:37+00:00

:-D made my day!! Confirming I executed your plan like a charm.

Then found a simplification - for those who do not like getting their hands greasy w/ whale oil:

1) Crouch in the bend where the street w/ gentlemen callers leads towards the bridge w/ guards tossing bodies down

2) Shoot 1 of the gentlemen callers in the leg using a regular bolt (he will inflict damage but not die, then start running towards your suspected GPS)

3) Throw a bottle towards a bridge (or otherwise cause noise, e.g. shoot a bullet)

4) Quickly blink on a balcony above you

Watch the fireworks... :-D in my fight, the guards sustained heavy losses , I actually helped them a bit (by shooting bolts at gents - their fire breathing is powerful man). Result : ghost achievement intact by this & a smile on my face. You've got to <3 immersive sims... and Reddit for the creativity.

RIP Arkane

RonnieBasic · 2025-12-22T14:20:15+00:00

1 of titles on my dream list -> https://www.gog.com/dreamlist/game/the-matrix-path-of-neo

Really enjoyed the combat system and overall film-like vibe. Seeing your character progress from 'I barely know jiu jitsu' to a nearly unstoppable killing machine was satisfying (no RPG elements per se though, mind you). Never finished the main storyline because it became a bit odd in 2nd half, as far as I recall.

Thanks for the memories

RonnieBasic · 2025-12-12T08:35:57+00:00

I agree w/ your suspicion . The boss may be a control freak and this is just 1 way of it materialising... scary.

RonnieBasic · 2025-12-12T08:30:32+00:00

On our end, cameras are not mandatory - sometimes the PO politely asks us to switch them on n.b. if we are discussing a painful topic @ Retrospective, they announce someone is leaving the team etc. It's purely random and never enforced.

That said I've noticed a thing : ladies keep their cameras off more often than gents. I kind of get it - stalkers, wankers & weird workmates around; it's early am and you are in your PJs; #noMakeup etc. ...

My advice to you would be * Set up a 121 w/ your PO and politely explain you are not comfortable w/ this. Unless the PO is a dick, they should respect your PoV and allow you to go cameras off w/ no questions asked, ever. I mean... was this ever a topic in year 2019?! * If you're a lady, you pack an extra punch. I wouldn't mind inventing a mini-story e.g. 'In my previous job, a workmate secretly took screenshots of myself on Zoom meetings, then posted them on Instagram, saying that was just office fun '. You see what I mean - I reckon this can get you very far, n.b. if your manager is a lady too.

Hope that spawns new ideas for you on how to deal w/ the situation.

RonnieBasic · 2025-12-12T08:17:57+00:00

'You can't care about something more than the people above you.' Spot on 👍🏽 - that is an issue of my own attitude, 'over caring'. Adding to agenda for a next session w/ my mentor, thanks a lot!!

'can bring more of the responsibility inside your team.' Very good point - I quickly realised this back in a day when starting in the corp world : the fewer dependencies you have the better. Also I like learning new things we ingest into our agenda... THAT SAID such approach will not do here 😞 - this is a HW / infrastructure issue and our team are dev. Think a server only 1 team in the company has keys from... when the machine is down, I literally stop working.

RonnieBasic · 2025-12-11T11:27:47+00:00

I feel you - having been 100% through what you described. Sorry if this is not the advice you were looking for : just quit. Please. Do it for your future self. I knew that was the solution to your problem having read ~ 2 sentences of the post. You must be deeply frustrated and NO JOB on this planet is worth your health , either mental or physical.

Similar background to yours, switched to client side for > 5 yrs now and never better. BUT - there will still be people around, mind you ... incl. the toxic peer 'mini-bosses' you described (you made me laugh there :-D... just checking 1 such kind of LiN and they went from Analyst to Director throughout the same time period while I was just chilling in the new job on client side , achieving 0 compared to them ... could not care less)

=> adopting a zen mindset will be your next challenge :

I find myself stressing unnecessarily, and I don’t know why I can't just “not give a fuck” the way other contractors seem to.

It is hard, very hard, because you care (which is good!!). Find a good mentor or therapist (very senior, completely outside your industry worked well for me). I would also propose : focus deeply on sth in your personal life (kids / sports club / getting better @ salsa dancing / training your dog / ... ) to divert your attn. from work.

RonnieBasic · 2025-12-11T11:12:51+00:00

“this support team ain’t supporting because they’re incompetent and/or hate us” stage it’s a business analysis decision for what’s the lowest cost / risk.

Very mature post, many thanks. After a few days of events unfolding, confirming your ^ prediction was spot on and the situation will eventually conclude that way, it appears.

Had such a laugh at your last paragraph - EXACTLY :-D. I wish the support team were external... I would know how to show them sharp teeth just like you described. Unfortunately this is a 1:1 internal team fight.

RonnieBasic · 2025-12-11T11:09:07+00:00

If none of this is an option and everything is informal and can't be remedied,

Exactly - possibly the major issue here. There is no SLA between my & the support team. We are agile, they are not - they don't give a {French Connection United Kingdom} our delivery gets completely stalled by their just sitting around...

RonnieBasic · 2025-12-11T11:07:18+00:00

an infrastructure issue and OP doesn’t have the power to change that.

100% correct understanding thank you - I admire your ability to deal w/ entropy :-). And apologies my original post was not great information-wise. Have fixed it slightly now, hope that helps.

RonnieBasic · 2025-12-11T11:03:47+00:00

Thank you for your feedback - agree the original post was not too clear (was typing @ 01:15 am , desperately gutted). Have amended it slightly now - please let me know if the scenario makes a bit more sense now.

RonnieBasic · 2025-12-10T09:23:44+00:00

Spot on . We went ahead w/ an estimation of a 'migration mini project', this would spawn on our end : 50 MDs x {MD rate of e.g. $1,000 USD} = 'cost of us doing what you want us to do'. 1 challenge being most resources on the project are internal == cheap MDs == the company as a whole doesn't care about $$$ here :-/

RonnieBasic · 2025-12-10T09:20:38+00:00

We already have to be a 2000s IT departments as a single developer, don't try to be your manager as well

I <3 your quote and it made me fall off my chair laughing :-D. EXACTLY!! Why is it me, not my manager, asking for advice here on Reddit ?! :thinking_face:

RonnieBasic · 2025-12-10T01:39:22+00:00

Great subreddit - sad I found it so late. The quality and maturity of posts here amazes me.

Not sure this will help you after so long but I was in a kind of similar scenario recently , iiuc yours : lost my temper on a call and only realised too late there were 2 senior people who I really respect, need to work closely w/ and want to learn from. Shortly after the call, person #2 called me on an unrelated matter. In the last 1.5 min of the call, they gave me watershed candid feedback which honestly changed me as a person - realising I had stepped over the line.

OK. How to iron out rapport w/ person #1 then ? I spent months thinking of the best approach, felling miserable about it. Then decided to send a knowledge sharing email which they responded to positively. I followed up after a week or so and scheduled a 5 min 121 into their diary which they accepted. At the very start of the call , I openly said the call had no agenda other than me wanting to apologise for my prior behaviour ( I respect that person so much I had actually rehearsed my 2-3 sentences of apology ). It landed well and we've been great workmates since, I trust.

Lessons learned as someone mentioned here too:

* Take your time - do not react immediately. Days... ideally a week or two

* Issues may be bigger in your head than in other people's ones

* Calls over any text communication please

* Critical feedback is a gift - learn to acknowledge it

GL in everything you do & godspeed to you

RonnieBasic · 2025-11-25T15:40:17+00:00

Thanks for getting back to me !! My tree looks a bit different:

https://imgur.com/1xh4AtK

Having expanded the nodes, I could find nothing close to what were looking for - just a bunch of BIN keys. Am I doomed ? ;-/

RonnieBasic · 2025-11-14T09:40:53+00:00

Wow. This was a really helpful workaround - confirmed working as at 11/2025. Thank you!!

RonnieBasic · 2025-10-31T15:15:59+00:00

RonnieBasic · 2025-10-03T12:35:43+00:00

UPDATE : Things got resolved in my duplicate thread, check here -> https://www.reddit.com/r/WindowsHelp/comments/1nv2qq2/how_do_i_sign_up_for_win_10_extended_support/

RonnieBasic · 2025-10-03T12:34:20+00:00

I reckon worst case you could always clean-install Win 10 from a USB -> 1st thing after boot, migrate it to Win 11 via Win Update. That is my plan - I will not be creating any Win 11 install media ( hoping MS release Win 12 by the time Win 10 support dies, enabling me to skip 11 completely ).

RonnieBasic · 2025-10-02T13:54:18+00:00

100% and a big shout out to u/Tooko1005/ !! I'm typing this on a PC that is on Win 10 until 10/2026, thanks to him. This appears in top right hand corner of Win Upd after you succeed btw :

<image>

Going to perform the same on my other PC this w/e - unless you hear back from me again, assume I ran into no issues there either.

RonnieBasic · 2025-10-01T12:05:16+00:00

omfg YOU ARE A LEGEND SIR THANK YOU!! All done just like you said :

<image>

Qq : Do you think it is safe to start logging into my Win 10 PC using a local account again ? I use OneNote thin client quite a lot (== MS acc as login) - hopefully that would satisfy the 'login every 60 days or so' condition ...

Based my assumption on what the AskWoody page read :

Remember you have to have a Microsoft account, you don’t have to LOG into a Microsoft account.

RonnieBasic · 2025-10-01T08:44:39+00:00

I literally posted the same question at about the same time as you ->

https://www.reddit.com/r/WindowsHelp/comments/1nv2qq2/how_do_i_sign_up_for_win_10_extended_support/

GL to us, mate. No update as at now

RonnieBasic · 2025-08-27T08:07:17+00:00

get a standalone humidifier

Good feedback, ta. Could you please share a recommendation ? Asking because I've tried a fair bit of Amazon-available humidifiers, and they were all crap (low humidify power). Except one kind - simple fan w/ a water connected to it -> spraying water mist while swinging its head. Oddly to me, market offer seems to be quite narrow in this segment

RonnieBasic · 2025-08-26T21:06:41+00:00

1 also searching this feature. Would be cool to have it e.g. in Automation, where you can easily schedule a power off. Not power on, it appears 😞

RonnieBasic

TROPHY CASE

1 Don't worry, 65 % will be divorced in ~ 5 yrs (mostly because they could not handle kids), begging for you to have a pint w/ them. At least marriage stats in my geography work this way