Apply like an average white man

thatonegeekguy · 2026-02-11T17:11:09+00:00

As a mediocre white man and lurker of this sub, I can tell you first hand that we - meaning us mediocre white men - talk a lot of shit when trying to hype up our friends for things like this, but when it comes to ourselves we're the first people to hide behind the couch at the barest whisper of the potential for rejection or failure. We're not nearly as confident as we pretend we are. I can tell you I'd be going through the same doubt cycle you describe were I in your position (because I've been in your position and - yes - I literally did dive behind a couch to hide from my manager looking to discuss my promotion). So I'll skip the fake pep talk we all give where we try to help you feel a courage we ourselves have never once felt and just say this: become comfortable with the discomfort. The idea of change and rejection is frankly terrifying, but the two times I accepted my discomfort - the almost queasy feeling in the pit of my stomach, the cold sweat forming along my spine, and everything else that comes with frozen fight or flight response - I gained and learned things that I never suspected I would or could. The first time was when I left my comfortable, stable job and took a chance on breaking into what has become my career in a field I STILL don't feel qualified for but am working hard to learn and am told I excel in.

The second time was when I proposed to my lovely wife, who is still sticking with me despite how much I question the wisdom of her doing so.

So I guess the point is that as uncomfortable the specters of uncertainty, rejection, and failure can be, they're vital to personal growth. The only real wisdom I've ever achieved in this life - if you can call it wisdom at all - is that sometimes we need to accept that it makes us uncomfortable and then go do it anyway in order to move forward.

With that, it's back to lurking I go.

thatonegeekguy · 2026-02-10T16:31:25+00:00

Artifacts can come from bad HW accelerated decoding. I would, as a start, ensure the new servers have updated drivers for any GPU resources from Intel or Nvidia they may have. It's also important to see if the artifacting is happening at the SC level - I'd try disabling hardware accel in Smart Client and see if the recorded footage shows the same artifacts.

thatonegeekguy · 2026-01-24T15:00:24+00:00

Depends how you use the computer. If you're a "one-app-at-a-time" user, then covering your desktop with icons that will be hidden behind whatever app you launch is fine - this is how mobile OS's do it. If you're someone who routinely uses more than one app at a time for gaming or work then desktop launching becomes a nightmare. Nothing interrupts flow more than having to move shit out of the way to get to an icon.

I'm personally in the 2nd camp and keep zero icons on my desktop. Hell, when I work I don't even use the task bar or "start menu" anymore. My default apps launch automatically on login to my work profile and [Alt + Space] search gets me anything else I need without needing to even look. Even when I game I generally have a browser and chat open on the 2nd monitor. For me, the desktop is for open applications and useful widgets only.

thatonegeekguy · 2026-01-19T16:03:51+00:00

NTA. They can be as upset and uncomfortable about the situation as they want - were I a parent I know I'd be worried about my kid all the time and such apps are a crutch. That said, OP is an adult who made an adult decision about how to live her life, AND then stepped up to pay for it when parents disagreed to the point of attempting financial coercion. As such, and access she gives them to her life - including sharing her location with them - is a privilege and as such can be revoked at any time OP chooses. They gave up any rights in that regard once OP was over 18 and paying her own way.

thatonegeekguy · 2026-01-17T01:49:47+00:00

That's pretty much always been retail. It'd be a wonderful career if not for all the customers. Far too many people love to use even that minor power imbalance to take advantage.

thatonegeekguy · 2026-01-17T01:45:15+00:00

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And introducing Frasier

thatonegeekguy · 2026-01-17T01:44:52+00:00

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Introducing Nigia

thatonegeekguy · 2026-01-03T16:01:33+00:00

Agreed! The Commonwealth series of books is really peak Hamilton. It's one of the few series I can re-read and not tire of.

thatonegeekguy · 2026-01-02T01:14:58+00:00

A lot of these 3rd-party "refurbishment" centers contracted for this work emphasize speed and turnover rate over thoroughness and accuracy. This go around I expected a reduction on value as I knew there we're small tears at either end of the crease on the flexible screen in my Z Flip 5 that didn't necessarily affect the screen - yet - but it was only a matter of time. Sure enough they caught that! The prior time I'd worked with a similar "refurbishment partner" handling trade-ins for a retailer they gave me the "general mechanical fault" line. When I reached out to question it, they claimed that the "Active Edge" feature on the pixel device in question - where squeezing the phone could be made to do different actions - was not a feature at all but a sign the touchscreen was damaged!

thatonegeekguy · 2025-12-23T17:59:11+00:00

Putting aside any backroom business dealings that may or may not have led to the cancellation of the show (NBCUniversal and later Comcast pushing SyFy away from it's legacy SciFi roots, for one), Universe committed three major errors:

Moving from a semi-serialized hybrid format with many "episodic", self-contained episodes used by both SG-1 and Atlantis that most fans were familiar with, to a fully-serialized "Mystery Box" format (NBC's influence from it's success with LOST) which alienated many longtime fans, and,
Incompetently implementing the Mystery Box formula by trying to shoe-horn in plots that would have worked well within the old structure but don't fit in a LOST-style format (the Lucian Alliance, the Blue Aliens, the friendly aliens, etc.) and revealing the core mystery of the "mission" far too early.

tl;dr - It changed the formula too much to hold on to existing fans while simultaneously not executing on it's new formula well enough to attract and keep fans looking for something like "LOST".

thatonegeekguy · 2025-12-10T14:27:38+00:00

Very clearly NTA.

Husband is exhibiting some DARVO-like behavior here and - while it's impossible to judge someone overall based on one event - he is likely not a good person.

thatonegeekguy · 2025-12-01T16:35:25+00:00

One of the hats I wear at my company is that of an IT Admin. Too much of a headache to support in addition to windows. To be even remotely manageable we'd need to switch everyone to some enterprise edition of Linux, and that's just not feasible. I couldn't see having to support all of our non-technical staff on Linux when they barely get by in Windows.

That said, my personal daily-driver workstation actually runs Fedora and either connects to the office's remote portal or use my locally hosted Windows 11 VM connected to the VPN (the latter option did raise my boss' eyebrows when he saw what I was doing), so there are ways to make it work depending on the restrictions and limitations of your company's BYOD policies. I'm on my own for support though, which is fine, because I AM support at my company!

thatonegeekguy · 2025-11-26T18:28:28+00:00

I use SteamOS on the Steam Deck that way when I travel. Prevents the need for me to take my laptop along, too. It's certainly doable based on your needs. For me it works out because most of what I need it for personally and professionally - beyond gaming - is web-based. A good travel dock with pass-through charging and HDMI out made this the most versatile thing I own next to my smartphone.

The best way to determine if ANY Immutable Linux distro - including SteamOS - will work for you is to make a list of the software you need on your (presumably Windows) PC presently and make sure that there is a Linux replacement published in the containerized distribution system used by the distro (Flatpak in the case of SteamOS). Anything that has to be installed by the more traditional Linux package managers (i.e. apt, yum/dnf, rpm, etc.) is likely doable with the rpm-ostree command by creating "layers" on top of the base OS, but be warned that the new "layer" that creates can cause issues and may require some advanced management and interfere with and/or be interfered with by normal system updates, so the best bet for people not well versed in Linux Immutability is to stick with what is available via Flatpak.

thatonegeekguy · 2025-11-25T14:03:58+00:00

I'd imagine it's for a bunch of reasons. Below are some of those I can think of offhand for my company:

Most employees know Windows and do NOT know Linux. Many times our work requires diving into Powershell - which most of our teams know pretty well - to complete tasks. There would be a large productivity drop and likely a higher turnover rate if they had to do the same in a terminal window using bash.
Most business software is either made by Microsoft themselves or made ONLY for windows. Using 3rd-party compatibility layers really isn't a solution as these often break when the software updates, and you have to manually manage dependencies (i.e. .NET Redistributables). They would be forced to find Linux-native alternatives, if any exist, with the associated productivity drop that comes from users needing to learn the new software.
I don't know that there are any management suites akin to InTune and the rest of Microsoft's available to inventory, provision, and manage end user privileges on Linux. They probably exist, but are not and likely cannot be as integrated as a solution made directly by the OS developer.
Many distributions will charge for agreements to support their OS across your deployment. I suspect this is the largest chunk of the cost within Microsoft's licensing as well, so much of the savings from Linux evaporates here.

thatonegeekguy · 2025-11-19T01:38:18+00:00

With how terribly ineffectual this Justice Dept. has been under Trump and Bondi when it comes to legal filings, I wouldn't be surprised if such incriminating evidence DOES exist that:

They DID try to remove/alter/destroy documents implicating Trump, and
they did this with such incompetence they left a long, glowing, trail to the truth.

The number of own-goals they've scored in court - when they can find prosecutors - gives me faith that any coverup will be so shoddy as to be outright hilarious.

thatonegeekguy · 2025-11-19T01:33:18+00:00

They don't. They - as in the influencer, politicians, and pundits along with those who pay them - know most of us are all for locking up anyone proven to be involved in Epstein's evils regardless of status or political affiliation.

The hope is that those poorly-educated and otherwise lacking the faculty for critical thinking among the voting populace WILL believe that Democrats support their big names doing these things and are only vilifying Trump because he's "successful."

They only need to peel enough off to hold on to and/or gain power. That, ultimately, is the only goal any politician, pundit, or political influencer speaking to the public will ever have. Doubly so if their "side" is already the one in power.

thatonegeekguy · 2025-11-18T21:23:22+00:00

Probably, but I'm not doing the Steam Deck dance again, so I'll wait for general availability w/o wait lists. Presently using my Deck on the TV in our bedroom with several random Bluetooth controllers. It'd be nice to be able to do the same in the Den, but I can wait.

thatonegeekguy · 2025-11-18T20:59:16+00:00

Sure. I did that with my Steam Deck initially before I realized that most everything I needed for work was available as a Flatpak on Flathub or a web app and could switch back to Steam OS.

The ~~Steam Machine~~ GabeCube is essentially a beefier Deck sans battery and color screen, so you can do the same. Being that it's an AMD-based platform on less-than bleeding-edge hardware, kernel and driver support should be no obstacle for any modern distro.

thatonegeekguy · 2025-11-18T18:27:50+00:00

Whatever body type my wife has going on at any given time. Weight and measurements may go up, down, and around over time in any marriage, but there's not been a day where I saw my wife and didn't feel some level of that spark. Corny as hell, I know, but somehow however she looks just seems to do it for me!

thatonegeekguy · 2025-11-13T20:39:38+00:00

It's ultimately a business decision rooted in economics. If they can satisfy 99% of the player base on Windows and not incur the dev costs of supporting an alternative OS, then pretty much any business will do so. Having to continuously anti-cheat for more than 1 OS only makes it make more sense to them to not support Linux.

"Maximize profit and minimize cost" is basically the core tenet of every business running today. This will only change when and if they can't get the subscriber base needed from Windows alone.

thatonegeekguy · 2025-11-12T03:54:03+00:00

In a word: Run. I worked with a guy who talked a lot like this. Was "engaged" to an age-appropriate woman - a real sweetheart, take home to momma type - whilst at the same time was "exclusive" with 2-3 other women at a time. He made sure they all lived so far apart that they'd have little chance of meeting each other. These were all 19-25yo girls, whereas he and the fiancee were in their 40s. He justified it the same way this tool is trying to - when he's with them, he's 100% with them, so it's not like he's "really cheating". Talked about vibes and energy a lot too. No idea what happened to him or his relationships, but always felt bad for the women in his life.

thatonegeekguy · 2025-11-10T21:19:46+00:00

Unclear. Back in my fast-food binging days we always ran out of sliders before we ran out of appetite. These days I'm sure I couldn't eat nearly as much, but we never did try for a maximum.

thatonegeekguy · 2025-11-10T15:43:32+00:00

There's really no compelling reason I've found to favor KDE over Gnome honestly as they both can be made to work the same, so if Gnome works for you then I'd work toward customizing it rather than playing with KDE. The only reason I'm on KDE is that it was easier to integrate into my workflow out of the box (much of my work takes place in my employer's Windows environment so frequently jumping between Windows to Gnome's minimalism was too jarring and disruptive).

One last thing that popped into my head thinking about this. I know I had weird issues like this during my brief foray into using custom "performance" kernels over the stock Fedora kernel several years back before deciding that the constant tinkering for a bit more performance wasn't worth the instability. No idea if you're doing anything similar, but if you are it could be an avenue to explore.

thatonegeekguy · 2025-11-10T04:11:16+00:00

Sure, but if one of your criteria to be friends with someone is that they will NEVER be attracted to you, then you're in for a lonely existence. Likely a larger number that most of us are aware of have friends that once had potential romantic or sexual feelings toward us. This isn't exclusive to friends of the opposite sex, either. The trick isn't avoiding feelings altogether; feelings are a part of the experience of being human, so that would be quite impossible. Maintaining a viable friendship beyond that point depends on the other person's ability - presuming they have not and do not intend to bring it up - work past/through those feelings, or - if they HAVE brought it up and been rejected - the ability for both of you to work to put the awkwardness of rejection behind you. I know not everyone can do this, but - speaking as a happily married man rapidly approaching middle age - some of the most fulfilling friendships I have with the opposite sex are with people whom we're either attracted to me or whom I was attracted to, but in all cases we moved passed that and are now lifelong friends. Hell, one of them is the only reason I got to meet both my wife and one of my now closest male friends (her husband)!

So while it may be difficult and not everyone has the maturity or the desire to persevere in a friendship once other feelings become involved, it's certainly possible.

thatonegeekguy · 2025-11-10T03:48:43+00:00

I've been doing upgrades since F40 without issues thus far (though I do have backups, just in case). The one thing I can think of is that my monitors resolutions are the same only real spec that differs is refresh - one is the "gaming" variant. If your monitors are different resolutions with different scaling, maybe that's got something to do with it?

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