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ThinkLight is a keyboard light present in most ThinkPad families of notebook computers. The series was originally designed by IBM, and then developed and produced by Lenovo since 2005. == Description == A white or yellow LED (depending on model) is located on the top edge of the display, illuminating the keyboard to allow use in low-light conditions. It is activated with the key combination Fn-PgUp (the bottom left and top right keys of the keyboard). Newer ThinkPads use the combination Fn-Space instead. Sometimes this shortcut is also used in conjunction to control a backlit keyboard (if the...

rahuldottech

@Aibobot ahh

medium.com/@n4ru/…

This is part 2 of an article

Check out the fakeslice thingy

Aibobot

mine never had those

though, I suspect any laptop I'd buy would need USB C charging

I tend to prefer thin and lights - I've been drooling over the newer razer blade stealths a while, and having a standard, relatively inexpensive charger is awesome.

rahuldottech

@Aibobot expensive!?!?

Aibobot

@rahuldottech I have an older model

rahuldottech

2:54 AM

Are you American? Yet another insurance company leaked hundreds of millions of records: news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20005230

Aibobot

my other laptop is a HP stream, which seems to do ok

rahuldottech

@Aibobot u lucky boy

Aibobot

nope. I'm geek ;p

@rahuldottech I have a job, which means I can occationally spurge on shiny things ;p

rahuldottech

> At First American, security, privacy and confidentiality are of the highest priority and we are committed to protecting our customers’ information.

Lol

> We are currently evaluating what effect, if any, this had on the security of customer information.

"if any"

Suuuuuuure

bwDraco

@Aibobot Me too. That my HP ENVY x360 would charge over the USB-C port was a gamechanger.

rahuldottech

2:55 AM

@Aibobot lucky lucky lucky! ;P

Aibobot

IE We have no clue what happened, and the indian outsourced dude who did it left and we can't contact him.

@rahuldottech eh, a job is somewhat of a preequisite unless you have mad dumpsters.

bwDraco

The HP 4.5mm barrel connector is still an option, but that now stays at home.

Aibobot

then again, any laptop refresh is for next year or the next

If I upgrade my video card or phone I probably can't afford the laptop upgrade for now

bwDraco

I'm not seeing myself getting another laptop for personal use until at least two years later.

Aibobot

But a few things would need to fal into place for the latter

@bwDraco I don't really use my personal laptop(s) much

one's turned into the loaner now

bwDraco

2:58 AM

I've got a new phone, a processor upgrade for Astaroth, camera gear, and other stuff on the horizon to worry about.

I do use my HP ENVY x360 a fair bit, and while the battery life is substandard, the ability to charge via USB Power Delivery more than makes up for that.

Aibobot

well, I just built what's essentially a cut down SE dev rig ;p

bwDraco

If this new job does happen soon enough (and from the looks of it, it will; see Matrix for details), I should not have too much to worry about.

Aibobot

(cheaper case, less ram, less nice SSD(s), reused video card that's probably on par with their 1070s)

@bwDraco get nagging and looking for alternatives too.

bwDraco

The next few weeks and months are going to be of much flux; I've got to prepare for home renovations, move lots of stuff, do more driving lessons, transition to a new job...

rahuldottech

lmao my sister spent a ridiculous amount of money on Airpods and now she hates them because they're not comfortable and hurt her ears

bwDraco

3:03 AM

lol

Um, headaches?

Why?

rahuldottech

Some sort of pain? In her ears or something?

idk

Also, the stock rom on this phone of mine sucks so much

I'm thinking of just flashing random stuff off XDA now, in order to get stuff to work

arghghghghg

I'm thinking this or this

Aibobot

some headphones don't fit some ears ;p

they're designed for certain shapes - I personally can't really wear a lot of earbuds cause ~~I'm a dog~~ ~~I'm a robot dog~~ cause they don't fit

@rahuldottech also made possible by thinkpads happily running sans battery - which not all brands do....

HackToHell

6:36 AM

@JourneymanGeek ah okay :(

Journeyman Geek

(funan center)

a lot of stores moved to sim lim and central

but sim lim is not a place for the unweary lol

its a wretched hive of scum and villany

noob

7:08 AM

Phir Ek baar

karel

7:23 AM

A user posted the same question 3 times. These two reposted questions are duplicates of the original question: 1 2.

Journeyman Geek

7:37 AM

@karel hmmm

@karel ehhh. closed the other two as dupe

bertieb

9:03 AM

Is there a way to split bluetooth output to two devices

Without an intermediary device, I mean

Like a 3.5mm Y-splitter

I get the feeling it was added in some BT version but I may be imagining that

Boris_yo

9:14 AM

Internet was commercialized... If it wasn't it would be so much better, wouldn't it?

Spam, ads etc.

Would not exist if internet was not commercialized.

djsmiley2k

9:27 AM

how would you pay for it?

it's not cheap

Michael Frank

9:42 AM

@bertieb multipoint BT?

Er... that's more like a many-to-one scenario.

rahuldottech

10:10 AM

Who was asking about army experience a few days ago?

Go read this: twitter.com/USArmy/status/1131704927963766785?s=20

Michael Frank

Uhh.... what the hell were they expecting to hear?

"I got to see the world and have fun with my buddies?"

rahuldottech

It's heartbreaking to read that thread.

Here's what bothers me the most

Most of the responses mention signing up in order to be able to go to college

Seriously? The education system is so messed up in the "most developed nation" that you have to either go into debt for decades or join the army and ruin your life just to be able to pursue an education?

wtf.

djsmiley2k

3:53 PM

@rahuldottech Yes? welcome to capitalism

DavidPostill

4:12 PM

@rahuldottech So you expect somebody else to pay for your college education? Who exactly? The taxes from the poor people on minimum wage jobs (if those actually exist) so you with your degree can earn 10 times their salary? Get real.

djsmiley2k

So, this is what I get to treat myself to when I've some spare cash. £7 :D

Hopefully they aren't too soft. I very much doubt they're really tungsten Carbide, but they maybe hardened steel at least.

bertieb

bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

I'm still hunting for a use of my drem... ahem, handheld rotary multifunction tool

rahuldottech

@DavidPostill No. I expect college to not be as ridiculously expensive as it is in the US

djsmiley2k

Why not?

I mean, I agree but why do you think it should be cheaper?

rahuldottech

@djsmiley2k State colleges are very affordable here. As in, USD50 per month

djsmiley2k

4:24 PM

Any lecturer, is basically devaluing their own knowledge, if you exist in a knowledge based society, by sharing it.

bertieb

Bring back the guilds!

Sharing their secrets is punishable by death

or a very stern talking to

I forget which

rahuldottech

@djsmiley2k I think it should be cheaper because it is, here. So I don't see why it's so much more expensive in the western world

djsmiley2k

a stern talking to, BY death?

is it of the same quality there?

Can you walk into a western job, with a indian degree?

bertieb

@djsmiley2k Pᴇʀʜᴀᴘs

djsmiley2k

@bertieb I'm sad now. I remembered he's gone and there'll be no more.

bertieb

4:26 PM

@djsmiley2k Right?

djsmiley2k

y u do dis.

bertieb

I choose to celebrate that which he gave us, above lamenting that which he still had to give

Keeps me sane, more or less

I mean there's him, Bob Ross, Robin Williams, etc etc

djsmiley2k

That too

djsmiley2k

5:23 PM

isn't there a conconical question about archiving onto a HDD/SSD ?

rahuldottech

6:21 PM

allquixotic

6:50 PM

@rahuldottech D: they're going to rip the header right off the motherboard doing that

bwDraco

roar

@rahuldottech I know this is a joke... but the issue is that the VGA connector is quite large, and miniaturization had not reached the point where reliable small copper contacts (e.g. in the USB Type-C connector, which has 24 pins) or even positively-latching connectors were commercially viable. Also, connectors of the day were also expected to carry significant amounts of current without much voltage drop, as operating voltages were higher and DSPs were rare in consumer equipment.

The latter part (lack of DSPs) meant that devices had to use the signal directly as part of an analog circuit. Unlike today's digital communication protocols, which contain sophisticated error detection and recovery mechanisms, circuits had to work with the analog signal they were given and could not process it into a digital form.

Because these connectors were designed with the assumption that attachment and removal were infrequent, and a positively-latching connector of that size is hard to make (indeed, I'm not even sure if this type of connector even existed back then), screwing it in was the only real option.

bwDraco

7:20 PM

Heck, when D-sub connectors (in general, not just VGA) were introduced, there was no such thing as a DSP.

And the technology needed to produce small connectors like USB-C at scale simply didn't exist.

djsmiley2k

7:46 PM

um wat.

it's a joke >_<

bwDraco

8:06 PM

tomshardware.com/reviews/…

Intel takes another small hit with the need to mitigate MDS. It's small, but these performance penalties add up.

Ouch.

bwDraco

8:38 PM

Hmm. Patching for MDS by itself has limited impact. I wonder if this is overblown...

allquixotic

8:52 PM

@bwDraco There appear to be 2 or 3 different strata of MDS mitigations (in theory; it's OS-dependent whether each OS will implement the weaker strata or just go full paranoid and implement the most severe perf impact)

The weakest is just some simple update that partially mitigates it; then there are more comprehensive mitigations (at least on macOS); and the full paranoid mode is to entirely disable hyperthreading

most of the BSDs, illumos and such are disabling HT entirely as part of their mainline kernel and might not even make an option to re-enable it

macOS has an option to disable it, as does Linux

rahuldottech

9:08 PM

So I encrypted this disk a few months ago

And forgot the password

FML

@bwDraco TIL, thanks

bwDraco

9:20 PM

The hard part is Intel delivering a permanent fix to MDS. Clearly, this is possible, because AMD processors do not suffer from these vulnerabilities even though they implement SMT.

And I'm honestly disappointed that Intel goofed up like this.

Journeyman Geek

10:51 PM

@bertieb a very stern talking to that made you wish you were dead

@djsmiley2k #whooooooooosh

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