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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 10th, 2023

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  • I use exclamations in Windows (“!!first” will be sorted above “!second” for example)

    and “I’m curious what’s the need for the folder to be sorted first that something like folder pinning or tagging”

    Not sure what “tagging” would be in a windows perspective, does it have that? and “pinning” could be using the Quick Access bar I guess which I do for folders I want access to GLOBALLY, but if I have many sub-folders, and in the context of THAT FOLDER I am interested in several more than the rest, but outside that folder I don’t care less about them, I’ll use exclamations so I can find them easier

    (Example, I have a TTRPG folder of art assets for maps from dozens of different sources, each with own naming conventions, and two folders !!Sorted and !Working, as I slowly go though the list to find, name, sort, discard and otherwise clean up the list so I can find what I want. If it was called “Sorted” it would be in the middle of the folder structure and a pain to find when I need it, but I also NEVER NEED that sub-folder unless I am working on cleaning up/sorting that data)



  • I case anyone is interested, I have Plex up and running now and wife is happy, some feedback on how it went

    Why it went:

    • I needed to install Plex specifically, because all the set-top boxes we use support plex but are fairly locked down. Wife likes their interface and remote control and doesn’t want to change (they are simple to use< Australia Telstra boxes, all free)
    • I choose Mint, I thought I’d prefer a GUI to make the install easier and also wanted to see what Linux desktops were like these days

    How it went

    • Install was trivial when I chose “simple” - I tried advanced to format the two drives I had (which were messy with many partitions I wanted blown away), but when I tried one method it told me I had a Boot drive but no NIF or NEF drive (or something) in order to boot - when I told it to install that type (Found it in the list) it told me I had no boot drive now (Online help for Mint install on Mint web site was out of date and the GUI didn’t match what I saw - a common theme - so made it harder) - Gave up, choose SIMPLE. No idea what it installed but it worked
    • Lot more raw command line that you’d expect from a GUI, In fact not sure the GUI does anything at all. I used the command line commands for almost the entire install
    • The Networking failed and was as bad as Windows off the bat. HOWEVER fixing any networking issues was much easier than windows (I still have network issues in my windows machines from 5 years ago, never could fix them) but the two issues I had with Mint, (1) plex could not be seen (answer: ufw opened one port) and (2) Windows could not see and share a Mint drive (answer: Samba installed with one line and permission set on a folder) were fixed in a few minutes
    • Man you can trash your OS with one command! Reinstalled once because I did a chown on the wrong folder and gave plex the sole ownership of the entire drive whereupon nothing ran anymore!
    • Much faster, better software generally, the trans-coding for videos seems better, the speed of the desktop “server” is faster and Plex is madly playing everything nice and clearly with great response time.
    • Stuff changes a LOT between versions apparently- many suggestions online failed for me because the suggested folders or files no longer existed or had been moved or changed. Likewise Mints own sites screen shots doesn’t match reality.
    • People are confused a lot - One of the common issues is Plex cannot see the folders where your videos are, as Plex runs under its own user - The number of different methods people have used to get around this is outstanding! And every one is thumbed up as “the answer that solved my problems!” From changing the user Plex uses to root or other users that already have permissions, to adding plex ownership of folders or even changing permissions of the folders to either something safe, or just ROOT ROOT ROOT. It is hard to know what you should be doing (Even changing permissions there were apparently at many programs to use, not sure which was the right method… chown, setfacl, chmod (I know they are different, I glanced at the docs but with so much to learn it becomes a bit overwhelming and you just take the first suggestion and stick with it)

    Edit: at any rate, works fine now ty all for suggestions. Now I am getting annoyed I don’t have ALL the services running on the server and am starting to see what else I can run and how… all without interrupting my wifes streaming of course!




  • Thanks, I decided to see what happened with a Mint Install (Before I saw your reply) so as a Toe-in-water thing to learn more about the OS and see what stuff was like. I only Kitty into a Linux server for work and do some basic tasks on it occasionally so was interested.

    An … interesting experience… trivial install, easy enough to understand the UI, entirely failed to get a Plex server working though… Nothing on the network can see it (Local works fine) which doesn’t make much difference because Plex has nothing to server since it can’t see the folder with movies on it due to, I believe, ownership issues (The files are on a portable USB drive)

    Still fiddling but most help documents descend into arcane command line arguments very quickly and are generally “wrong” in that they suggest editing files that don’t exist in folders that aren’t there.

    Still… a learning experience :) (Easy enough to kill it and tried Debian if I can’t work out chown!




  • I can never watch this whole video, gives me ptsd every time.

    Used to work with one of those project manager types, and when we got out of the meeting afterward, and I’d tell him what we just promised was impossible.

    He’d just tell me to just “draw 2 red lines” which was all they really wanted and they’d never notice the rest of the stuff wasn’t there.
    He was usually right, but it was still stressful, the wilfully ignorance




  • I use a technique where I play a scene out in my head. Always the same scene, always the same outcomes and the same process.

    For example “Walking down a beach, see a small shell, pick it up, turn it over and notice the interesting pattern, put in pocket, go to the sea shell stored a few feet down the beach waving at a people, sell the shell, take the money and buy a small rock statue, take the statue home and place it on the window sill… etc”

    The trick is make it memorable and not specifically related to your own life so you can’t get side tracked subconsciously (“Oh no! I forgot to buy sea shells!!”). I find a narrative works well, and the whole thing tells a story.

    The way to get started is when you are EXHAUSTED and ready to fall asleep anyway, and to repeat the same scene/steps every night from that point on. Eventually the series of images and events will tie to “sleep” in your mind and I rarely get past the first few parts of the sequence.

    Essentially counting sheep! same idea really. After a while you may get bored of one story and make up another. I’ve gone though a half dozen over the years I guess.