I’ve been on this train for a long time, but this election is really making me question that position. Personally, I think both the major party’s candidates are dismal at best so it feels terrible to consider voting for either - I don’t want to tell either party, “hey, I like your guy and your platform.” For literally decades, I’ve been of the option that is a party wants my vote then they need to present me with a platform and candidate that I agree with - regardless of what party that actually is.

The problem is, if I vote 3rd party this time around then my greatest hope would be to contribute towards some party finally reaching 5% of the vote in order to receive federal funding for the next presidential election - in 4 years. There’s zero hope that my 3rd-party vote is going to somehow result in a shocking 3rd party presidential election victory though, which means the winner is still going to be one of the two major party’s candidates. I don’t care about voting for the “winning team” or whatever, but I do get the distinct impression that one of the two major party’s candidates has a much higher disregard towards our form of government and could pose a more significant threat to our daily lives as a nation. Thus, for the first time ever I feel myself gravitating towards voting for the “lesser of two evils.” Don’t get me wrong, I think there’s a lot of things the Democrats get right on various party positions (and I think there might be a couple Republicans do, too?) so the “lesser of two evils” phrase isn’t meant to suggest both options are depraved - just that I don’t personally particularly align with either. I am definitely feeling like I have to choose a side though, lest a “greater evil” pull off a win and jeopardize our entire democracy.

Given what this week is, that’s remarkably appropriate timing to bring that up!

Not to mention it needs a security update. Gotta figure out a way to encrypt those pigeons!

You just need 9 more PCs with the same motherboard on em!

From BNL,

I have a tendency to wear my mind on my sleeve

I have a history of taking off my shirt

I collected Marvel cards back in the 90s and I’m pretty sure I have at least a few that are official “collectors items” now. I’ve never looked into it very thoroughly since I just kept them in baseball card pages with no other particular protection from the climate, etc, but who knows?

Not who you’re replying to but yes, Synology will let you automate backups to a cloud/service (and you definitely should!)

I am the terror that flaps in the night…

Not OP, but pretty sure JP = Justice of the Peace

I feel like it’s pretty clear:

1. eat pickles
2. whistle

I’m in my early 40s in the US. I learned to drive a manual when I got my license ~25 years ago but haven’t driven one since that day. I rode a motorcycle for a few years as well, so I’m pretty sure I could manage if I absolutely had to.

Yep!

On top of what’s already been said, to your question specifically of what the devs are doing - a lot of the time it’s nothing out of the ordinary as the Ops teams are the ones conducting the maintenance. There will likely be a dev or devs on call, but that’s routine anyway so it’s ultimately just another day for them. Sure, when big patches are pushed they’re typically more attentive to the process - but even then, they’re essentially informed observers.

I lost my grandmother and dad to Alzheimer’s. I feel like it’s probably in my future, as well. It’s a miserable disease that makes me question a lot of end-care practices and my wife & I are absolutely going to have some strategies in place, but to answer your question we already have 3 beautiful children that I can’t imagine life without (pretty sure there’s an Alzheimer’s joke in there, somewhere). I certainly don’t want to put them through what I saw with my Dad, but I also wouldn’t want to have missed out on all the wonderful experiences I’ve had/will have with them on account of a “what if”.

Ultimately, the choice is yours to make but you’re clearly putting a lot of worthwhile thought into it and I’m sure whatever you decide will be the best choice for you. I’m sorry about your dad & sister, and if you ever need someone to talk to I’m here.

Pretty sure I’ve RMA’d a few pieces of hardware where they did just that

Do the tools that re-write your comments still work after the API changes?

Kind of a roundabout answer to your question, but I got into tech bc of my love for gaming and specifically LAN parties. My buddies and I would get together and knew that hubs were needed (this was ~20 years ago) but didn’t know much else, so I ended up figuring out your to build super basic networks. That led to being a quasi TA to the IT teacher in high school and then to a very basic tech support call center job out of HS.

I’ve been in the industry for over 20 years now, and while not every job has been great there’s always more to learn and ways to grow, and I still love what I do. I even came full-circle and for a while got to work for the game developer of one of the games my buddies and I used to play at those LAN parties back in the day!

Is that even possible?