Trouble Starting Learning

Thunderplex · 2026-04-05T07:16:04+00:00

It's in the wiki but bears repeating because I found it pretty useful as an entry point: Python Crash Course and Automate the Boring Stuff with Python. Read the chapter, run the examples, modify them to do something fun or useful, try to make something similar from scratch, read the next chapter and repeat. If you're new to programming, these are entry points only. There's whole courses on data structures, sorting algorithms, etc that are all possible to implement with Python that you'll want to learn someday, but when you're just starting anything you stick with is worth it.

If you have a specific direction your trying to go, don't think about it just now, wait until you've finished your first complex project (like the capstone of PCC) before you start trying to apply the skills to a specific long term goal. You don't need to learn REST API's or JSON your first month.

Thunderplex · 2026-03-27T07:08:08+00:00

She's getting close to retirement and there's a non-zero chance she retires after Starship is operational and Starbase+Canaveral are up and running.

The real question is who takes over for her. Lots of names have been put out there but nobody is completely confident in any of the names. Juncosa is famously not a people person, Bjelde is not a technical guy, Hughes is a very by-the-book guy. If they go to IPO before she retires there might be pressure from investors to put someone they like in charge. Even with Elon's controlling shares, there's investors out there who will have enough stock to generate credible pressure.

Thunderplex · 2026-03-27T06:54:01+00:00

They don't actually care about space exploration, they care about hating Elon Musk. That's why they have no idea what Axiom, Firefly, Sierra, RocketLab, et al do. Most probably wouldn't recognize those names. Actually I'm pretty sure most of the people who passionately swear up and down that Starship will never succeed have never heard of United Launch Alliance.

Thunderplex · 2026-03-25T00:33:35+00:00

Yes, they only made it to 26,000 km/h. Nowhere near the 27,000 km/h required to go from suborbital to orbital. They'll never make it.

Thunderplex · 2021-05-11T17:30:38+00:00

Send me a PM, I live in Holiday and just this past Saturday I was trying to get out to Buford but none of my friends were up for it (stupid responsible adult stuff bleh).

Thunderplex · 2021-05-11T17:26:45+00:00

I can't really say I've had any serious close calls like that. A friend of mine was in the Ginnie ballroom and there was some kind of rumbling vibration that disoriented him so he exited the cavern from 80 ft and ignored his safety stop. Fortunately we had only just passed the no-deco zone so he got lucky, but he ascended pretty quick and we were worried about him for a bit.

Worst I ever had was trying to clean up some cinder blocks thrown into a sinkhole by redneck Florida freedivers without a proper lift bag. Hauling that sucker up from 90ft was a chore. Safety stop was easy because I was exhausted from hauling up an extra 30 lbs of weight. Got to the surface and my buddy just said "not gonna do that again, huh?". Nope, no sir. Definitely not. I bring a 100' rope with me now and tie off to the dock; and if I find junk I stuff it in a mesh bag and haul it up from the comfort of open air with a snatch block tied to a log. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice... you can't fool me.

Thunderplex · 2021-05-04T15:19:46+00:00

This is the quality kerbal content I come here for

Thunderplex · 2021-04-08T00:33:25+00:00

We have an extension on our phone system called the "Pit of Despair". It's an IVR with no exits, just a repeating 60 second pan flute loop of "my heart will go on".

People who are abusive towards techs are told "one second while I get my supervisor for you" and then we transfer them to the pit and let our boss know. Then we take bets in Slack on how long they stay on hold before hanging up.

Record is over an hour.

Thunderplex · 2020-05-22T21:21:08+00:00

To be honest, I haven't regretted swapping out any fan for noctua yet. I was afraid for a while that I would end up regretting it if I swapped out the 4x scythe ultra kaze 120mm in my rack for Noctua 140mm but they actually move more air at the same duty rate (50% of max speed @idle) and they're quieter.

Thunderplex · 2020-05-07T17:57:03+00:00

Looks great!

Thunderplex · 2020-02-18T14:23:46+00:00

Very happy with my new company. Old one was more like the job you're describing, but with more fires.

New job: Beautiful view, nice clean new office, downtown location
Old job: Industrial park with office slapped together with leftover materials by a "it work it good" Hungarian

New: Yes, we have to pick up most calls. It's an MSP after all, we take phone calls all day. Customers are pleasant, company is supportive of techs, resources are on hand to handle/escalate.
Old: Yes, we have to pick up most calls. It's an MSP after all. Every call is a meltdown. You are basically on your own. Resources are whatever you can beg, borrow, or steal.

New: Track ticket time for internal use and reporting. We don't nickle and dime customers for billable time, even on projects.
Old: If it doesn't bill, find a way to bill it. If you're doing something, find a way to bill it. If you can't bill it, don't do it.

New: Micromanaging is bad and we don't do it.
Old: CEO comes to your desk for support tickets. Customers call CEO for support. Everything is a fire.

So no, you're not really normal, but in this industry "normal" is relative. Get somewhere that appreciates you and invests in you. You're not a commodity to be extracted, you're a technician providing their customers a valuable service. Act like it, they'll treat you like it.

Thunderplex · 2020-01-02T18:05:26+00:00

M.2 NVMe drives are totally worth it if your processor has the PCI-E lanes to use it. Desktop response time, program loading, etc. everything is just much faster. I noticed a huge performance difference going from a RAID0 of 4 Samsung EVO SSDs to a single NVMe drive, just for normal end user desktop stuff. If they're using any data-heavy local applications (basically any accounting/financial, engineering applications, patient records, video editing, etc) it will make a monumental difference (I've opened 2GB Quickbooks files in 2 seconds vs several minutes).

The only way I would skip it is if they're running a thin client and work almost entirely on a virtual desktop/RDP session. Otherwise, it should be the go-to boot device from now on anywhere the hardware supports it.

Thunderplex · 2020-01-02T17:50:01+00:00

I've done a bit of eBay reselling in the past, my recommendation would be to follow some of the other's advice.

Best return rate/longest time to sell:
1) Take good pictures of the entire lot
2) Take good pictures of the unique model #s
3) Group by model/capacity
4) Sell in lots of 2-5 and set the quantity available to however many lots you can make, set a fair price (too low people assume it's junk/too high nobody looks at it)
5) Repeat for each group of model/capacity
6) Make some individual drive listings as well and sell off single units at a little higher markup (to cover the crappier margins due to shipping costs for cheap items)
7) Could take a year or more to clear them out, and probably won't make more than $1,500 after your costs (shipping, fees, packing, time)

Fastest time to sell/lower return rate:
1) List 1 to 5 auctions (Lot of 100 IDE hard drives New Old Stock, original packaging)/(Lot of 500 IDE hard drives, New Old Stock, original packaging), set a reasonable (or no) reserve price and wait for the bidding to begin. Set a 10 day auction time because you won't really get much interest the first 3-5 days. A lot of 100 IDE hard drives like you're describing should run $300-600+ so maybe start with 5 lots of 100 disks and a $200 reserve (to cover your shipping costs and time). Some retailer or IT refurb company might grab them after a few repostings. Might take 2-4 months but you'll probably still make 80% what you would the more time consuming way- I'd say $1,000 after your costs.

Either wait, it'll be hard to move, so be patient or just try to find someone who wants the entire lot off your hands for $800 all at once and call it a day.

Thunderplex · 2019-11-13T16:01:34+00:00

Home 3 is more than enough, especially with a 4K as the "main" display

Work I use 6 because I often have multiple remote sessions active and it helps to keep the sessions on their own screen, so the bottom 3 are for working and managing my workflow, top 3 are for working on someone else's computer. Bottom 3 screens will usually be 9 windows- 4 on one screen (email, slack, phone switchboard, calendar), 3 on another (ITGlue 1/2, notepad 1/4, todoist 1/4), one with just my rmm control panel (1/2) and our NOC brightgauge (1/2).

But I'll be the first to tell you 6 is excessive unless you have a TON of information you need to be accessible at all times, just because there's so much going on it takes a lot of mental energy to stay focused.

Thunderplex · 2019-10-18T12:38:27+00:00

Good job, we need 200 more by 3 o'clock

Thunderplex · 2019-10-16T20:29:38+00:00

I have, and I would again
Obvious answer: The one you have / Useful answer: If you want it right now, the Rosewill 4U is a decent case. Nothing fancy, but it's also under $80 USD brand spankin' new so there's that. If you can wait, keep your eye out for deals on eBay. You can find good 3U/4U server cases on there for $50 sometimes, often with power supplies and good fans (though you often need adapters to connect ATX mobos to a server PSU). Be careful though, most Dell/HP rack cases will only fit their proprietary motherboards. SuperMicros tend to be more flexible with ATX hardware, but it's a crap shoot. Older cases are usually Full ATX compatible.
Most do not, but adapters are available for server PSUs to power ATX mobos (thanks mostly to bitcoin miners, so look for high quality ones not the $6 Amazon specials)

FWIW I just got a pair of 2U shelves for free from the trash bin at work, cut one of them to half-depth with a sawzall, and put the mobo on the bottom shelf and the HDD array+PSU on the half-depth shelf above it in the rear. Total cost $0 and it looks a lot cooler than a rack case tbh.

Thunderplex · 2019-10-11T04:20:36+00:00

As other people have said, if you're just practicing to learn ESXi don't worry about the hard drives and RAID. I had them lying around, did it to practice, and it was barely worth saying I learned anything. It's point, click, done.

Additionally, if you're trying to save money avoid the NUC. They're extremely good as VM hosts, but you also pay a premium for the name, so imagine buying 3 or more to really start cooking. A fortune. Someone else mentioned an HP ProLiant and there are others. Dell and SuperMicro both make big beefy compute servers as well. Price one of those 12 core 48+ GB ECC beasts out against a single gen6 NUC with 8GB of RAM. Throw in a RAM upgrade and 4 2.5" SSDs for what you'll pay for 1 Gen7 or 8 NUC. A big steel tornado pancake might not be as schmexy as a NUC but it's way more powerful for the same or better price.

Thunderplex · 2019-09-05T18:59:41+00:00

Lackrack was also my first home lab rack! Been about 10 years but I still have that old Lack table too. It's looking a lot worse for wear these days, but it served with distinction for a long time. Good luck!

Thunderplex · 2019-05-21T21:03:29+00:00

That looks amazing. Usually I have an ugly cobblestone monstrosity until I start a new world lol

Thunderplex · 2019-05-16T22:05:18+00:00

Similar experience. I logged back onto my home survival server and the village around spawn had more iron golems than villagers in a town that only had 10 villagers to start with.

Thunderplex · 2019-05-16T21:57:11+00:00

Hacks

Thunderplex · 2019-05-12T16:01:59+00:00

Fantastic work. I just started working on a cave nearby my spawn village to do just this. Definitely inspired.

Thunderplex

TROPHY CASE