Four Nifty Tech Things

A Friday Hodgepodge

1. How many times have you said or heard, I'd pay for [whatever]? Conversely, have you ever wished you knew what other people would pay for that you might be able to create?

Someone out there thinks people would pay for that and created the site willpayforthis.com to collect and distribute such information to paying customers.

2. Fellow Linux geeks around my age might enjoy reading this fairly detailed history of S.u.S.E. Linux.

Freshly divorced and in the middle of grad school years ago, I wanted a way to rehabilitate my already-obsolete 486 (!) PC, which ran Windows 3.1 (! again!) and a bunch of crippleware.

Inspired after reading Neal Stephenson's "In the Beginning Was the Command Line," I went to Fry's and bought a boxed set of S.u.S.E. CDs, a larger hard drive, a Zip drive, and a Matlab license with the money I saved. (I had to compile my own kernel to get the Zip drive to work.). At the end, I had my own workstation at home that I could use to get real work done.

That brought back good memories from a difficult, but good time in my life.

3. This device isn't quite my cup of tea, but it might interest anyone wanting a distraction-free writing device.

A commenter at Hacker News aptly describes it as "kind of like if an Apple IIc and a computer from Brazil had a baby -- in a good way."

It reminds me a little of a TRS-80.

4. If you're stuck using Microsoft Teams for some reason, and want to avoid being distracted by any particular meeting attendee, there is now a solution:

I have solved that problem by sticking a post-it over the distracting person's little rectangle before. Not an optimal solution, but needs must.

I dislike Teams (for other reasons) so much that I've taken short drives to nearby meetings to attend them personally.

It's good to know about this all the same.

-- CAV