To me, I don’t understand why someone would proofread their resume but not their cover letter.

Yeah, I hear that…but you’d be surprised at how often I see perfectly-rendered resumes, and then multiple obvious issues in a cover letter.

The cover letter helps you get the interview - after I make the decision (offer or not), I pretty much forget about the cover letter.

I may have posted this before, but…late last year I realized my Debian server with circa 2009 hardware, with 4 gb of RAM and Core 2 Quad processor, was no longer up to the tasks I wanted it to perform; in particular, running a Home Assistant server. Back in 2018 or so, I added a software Linux RAID5 array with 5 active 3 TB drives and one hot spare, along with a “cold spare” that I’ve never actually used.

So, early this year, I bought hardware to upgrade my desktop machine, which was still plenty fast for me, and move the guts to my server. This is how my server usually gets upgraded. Upgrade the desktop machine, give it a few days or weeks to make sure it’s stable, and then upgrade the server.

I installed the hardware without a problem, booted it up, and everything seemed okay, except that I …couldn’t access the RAID. At first it was like, well, I’m sure it’s nothing serious, but then when mdadm could even FIND it, I started to get extremely worried. Fear set in.

Long story short: When I built the RAID, I followed directions that used the entire discs as the RAID, instead of making a partition on the disc and using that partition. The old motherboard didn’t care, but the new one saw the bare discs and was like, “Hey, those are messed up, I’ll fix the partition table for you!” Turns out, building Linux RAIDs by using the full discs like that is a VERY BAD IDEA for exactly this reason - but there are still guides out there showing that method and not mentioning the risks.

I was panicking. I spent days trying to figure out what to do and nothing was working. I was asking for help on the Linux-RAID list (and most of them were as helpful as they could be). Unfortunately my backups were NOT up to par (something I should have checked before starting), and I was at the point where I was like, well, I’ve lost x, y, and z.

I had basically given up and was just recreating the RAID using the “create command” then trying to see if I could mount the drive read-only. With 6 drives, there are quite a few possible combinations that could be the right one. If I remember correctly, I was able to figure out which drive was the spare, so I could limit my searches to the other 5, and knowing all 5 were in use, it was a matter of trying different orders. I think I got close one time and ext4 gave me weird read error, so after that I swapped two drives, and hit the right order.

Eventually … I found it. I found the right combination and could reload it! Everything was there, untouched! As quickly as I could, I copied everything to a 10 TB drive I bought and installed into the desktop system. I saved the command, rebooted, and the same thing happened again - so it was definitely a motherboard problem - but this time I knew how to recreate it, and did so.

Since I now had a backup, I partitioned each drive and rebuilt the array using partitions…and I saved every piece of data I could think of about building the array, outputs of mdadm, outputs of /proc/mdstat, partition IDs, etc. Naturally, having that info likely means I’ll never need it.

I was so relieved when I saw that mount command work without error. I spent close to a week worrying about it, and in that moment it was a huge rush.

New setup handles HA and other duties with aplomb and is very reliable, so in the end it was very worth it.

This is less “silly” and more “horrifying”. Sorry.

Zwiftinsider isn’t run by Zwift - he just reports on them (though he definitely has inside information, and they work with him on various things, like letting him use “bots” to test various functionalities).

That is pretty old. I think there are several approaches now. The one he lists, one using docker (I actually had it running on my desktop Linux machine, but I didn’t actually test it), and I think some people got it working under WINE.

Zwift’s saving grace is that you can connect most hardware via your phone - trainer, cadence, heart rate monitor, etc. - because it’s designed to also run on things like Apple TVs, iPads, and Android phones and tablets, albeit with probably lower graphics settings. So, you don’t need to worry about the hardware end of it (ANT+ dongle), which very much simplifies the issue. Which reminds me, my heart rate monitor is ANT+ only, and I’d need a bluetooth-capable one to do this.

(Also, at worst, I could run it on my tablet and hook that up to a monitor, so even if I can’t get it running on Linux, I still have options.)

Trump leads, and his party follows, on vaccine skepticism

Trump doesn’t rule out banning vaccines if he becomes president: ‘I’ll make a decision’

And he nominated RFK, Jr., a noted anti-vaxxer, for Health and Human Services…

Got that the other day on my gaming computer. Very irritating.

Especially since I bought the computer in 2021 specifically to run the virtual cycling program Zwift. I’m not replacing it just to placate Microsoft. It’s more than powerful enough to run Zwift and will be for years. I’m hoping the options for using Zwift on Linux pan out.

Interesting. I’m a hiring manager, and I’ve seen many cover letters that actually hurt the candidate because they have typographical errors, poor grammar, or are addressed to a different organization entirely. Probably 85% of cover letters I see do no harm; most of the rest hurt the candidate. The way you’re describing a cover letter sounds like it would be beneficial, but I don’t see ones like that very often. I definitely would appreciate that you took the time to tailor it to us.

My advice for everyone is, if you’re going to write a cover letter, proofread it just like the resume. If you’re short on time, focus on the resume and skip the cover letter (if you can - they might be required for some applications). I definitely notice a sloppy cover letter, so not having a cover letter will hurt far, far less than a sloppy one.

I wouldn’t toss someone’s application just because their cover letter had a typographical error in it, especially if the candidate is otherwise well qualified. But, if I’m borderline on whether I want to interview someone, and the cover letter is sloppy, I’m probably going to pass. We’re pretty detail-oriented, and a sloppy cover letter makes me worry about the details.

They had the same situation the first two years of Trump’s first presidency. The blame did no good.

Mostly what saved us before was the incompetence, and that’s already rearing its head again. Stupid thing to rely upon, though.

We kept it gray!

Ha ha, joke’s on them. Our office doesn’t have space for all of us. We downsized to …gasp… save money, which is what the federal government is supposed to do. They’d also have to renegotiate the union contract, something they just finished doing, so it’s not something they really even can address for several years at least.

But Biden isn’t squeaky clean on this either, he mandated some percentage of office space being utilized. Supposedly this was to help local businesses, like the fast food chicken place across the street that has survived without us there for almost 5 years now. (They were renovating our building and had us all move out during the pandemic.)

But there’s something wrong with the formula being used to calculate utilization of the building - and in our case, even if every cube was full every day, we still wouldn’t meet the requirement, because of how it’s calculated. I don’t have details, but it apparently includes space people can’t occupy - like server rooms and the cafeteria - and there’s no way to get an exception.

I’m pretty sure upper management would continue the telework setup if they could (I really think they intended to be primarily remote before the Biden administration put the brakes on it). But higher authorities have said no. Our current telework agreement is that we have to go into the office twice per pay period (two weeks), which isn’t too bad, but I’d still prefer not. My return to office is scheduled for February. We’re bracing for a lot of people to find other jobs or retire, and it has already begun.

I’m hoping to retire in about 7 years. Maybe this next administration will buy me out. I’d be open to a generous severance package.

Remember when he complained about how many days of vacation Obama took, then took more than that in half as many years?

I need to do this with my gaming computer yet. I run Linux on my other machines (and have for many years), but this one is Windows. I bought the computer in 2021, but it doesn’t have the trusted computing module, so I can’t upgrade it to Windows 11 even if I wanted to.

Last night I tried to add an SSD that I had from a laptop that died, figuring I’ll put a fresh install of Linux on the second SSD and not touch the original drive. Unfortunately, the computer didn’t want to boot off the original drive any more - even when I changed the boot priority to the original drive, I still got grub from the new drive. I had to disconnect the new SSD to get the computer to boot Windows on the original drive (I wasn’t ready to do the Linux install and might need Windows in the mean time).

I know it’s a temporary issue at worst, as the installer will likely pick up that Windows installation and make it an option in grub. But it was a setback I wasn’t expecting. I figured I’d put in the drive and have it just idling there until I had time to run the Linux installation.

Eh every vendor goes through security failures, unfortunately.

I mostly have Ubiquiti devices (switch and access points), but I was using the ISP router that had some limitations I didn’t like. I have a slightly unusual setup for a home, in that I have a source of backup internet if our primary goes down (primary is FiOS, backup is Starlink - which we usually use only while traveling). So, I wanted a router with two WAN ports, and the only option from Ubiquiti there for a while was the $400 one.

So, I tried a TP-Link router (EAP-605, I think) and it worked okay. The user interface for controlling it wasn’t as nice as Ubiquiti’s, but it was functional. The router was definitely a lot less expensive than the Ubiquiti one. In the end, Ubiquiti released the UCG Ultra that did what I wanted, and cost far less than $400, so I switched to that and have been happy with it.

I think my wife was mildly amused by it at first (I was playing with X10 automation long before she came into the picture), but quickly started to like it because it meant that we always came home to the lights on, stuff like that.

And there’s one button to shut off the outside lights and “evening” lights in the house when we’re going to bed.

RTLSDR feeding into Home Assistant. That’s the money shot.

Well, suing the insurance company or driver would require knowing who they are. But hopefully he isn’t on the hook for the damages to his bike.

Our club has insurance as well, but I don’t know exactly what it covers.

Who did you think I meant?

I mean, people get injured or killed in car crashes, too, or even just doing things around the house. Life is never completely safe.

On average, you’re extending your life by cycling. Unfortunately, incidents do occur sometimes.

Except his wife, I’m sure. She’s one of the “good ones”.

Laws mean nothing any more. Both houses of Congress are Republican and the Supreme Court has several Trump supporters on it. No one with any power will stop him.

Yeah. Some of them are dumb. But all of them have been fed decades of bullshit “news” and are indoctrinated.