Notices by Paul (pwaring@social.xk7.net)

Who is good for selling laptops that run Linux in the UK nowadays? I like my x220 but it's getting a bit long in the tooth, plus it's quite heavy. I used to use Tier 1 but I've no idea if they're still good.

Basically I want something like a MacBook Neo form factor but running Linux. I don't want to faff around with something that's difficult to get running - whilst I'm capable of tinkering, on this occasion I want something that Just Works.

#Linux #Laptop #AskFedi

Just had a private Covid vaccination. If anyone in England (and possibly the rest of the UK) is looking to get one, Tesco are cheaper than Boots (£90 vs £98.25), have more pharmacies offering it, and seem to be using Pfizer or Moderna (I've had both in the past from them). You might have to speak to a specific person at the pharmacy as only one knew how bookings worked and only one was qualified to give the vaccine.

I am currently reading the 5th edition of Charles Petzold's Programming Windows, which covers up to NT 5.0 (it was written before Windows 2000 was named). It is very nostalgic and takes me back to a day when things were much simpler, but you also had to have a deeper understanding of the architecture.

Part of the reason for reading it is to possibly write / support legacy C apps for old versions of Windows.

All editions are freely and legally available:

https://www.charlespetzold.com/books/

Has anyone done a systematic, wide-ranging evaluation of making public transport free to everyone? There would be a loss of fare revenue but I can think of lots of upsides:

1. Shorter dwell times = lower fuel costs

2. Fewer road accidents = saving to NHS and economy

3. Faster journeys due to reduced congestion

4. Lower air pollution = saves the NHS money on respiratory conditions

5. More people using = can charge advertisers higher rates

Would these offset the loss of fare revenue?

Hah, I have defeated the Windows 11 requirement to use a Microsoft account by pressing shift+F10 to get a command prompt and then running:

start ms-cxh:localonly

I did this later in the process with no requirement to disconnect from the network.

You can't use the bypass account (no@thankyou.com) and you can't make up an email address because the installer sends a code to it.

#Microsoft #Windows11

@jpmens Netsurf! Even works on RISC OS (and had the tiniest of contributions from me, but don't hold that against it).

I sometimes wish that people who didn't enjoy a book were more vocal about it.

Often I'll read a book and nearly everyone will be saying how amazing it is, whilst I can't see what they're getting at and think it's boring, badly written etc. (e.g. This Is How You Lose the Time War, All Systems Red). Particularly on GoodReads, most people seem to be positive about books.

I guess it's easier to write a review about a book you liked than one you hated?

#bookstodon

Fellow single user instance customers of @mastohost - how much media storage space are you using? I only follow about 325 accounts and I'm already using more than 11GB of my 20GB storage. I can upgrade if needed but it just seems to be going up and up (there is an automatic purge in place I think after 7 days).

#Mastodon