Around 2000, when #PuTTY first started to become popular, it brought me more and more email. At some point it became hard to answer it all, and my inbox started to grow.

Young and optimistic, I came up with a plan to fix this. I drew a line in my inbox (by sending myself an email with subject "---------"), and told myself that I'd keep the region below the line clear, and every few days, deal with a few messages from above the line, until eventually the line was at the top again.

Of course, it didn't work at all. Soon enough there was a huge backlog even below the line, and the stuff above the line was all still there. The line became part of the problem, not the solution.

It took a historian friend of mine to point out the fallacy. To answer more mail, you must spend more time answering mail. No amount of classifying, rearranging, or reorganising it makes there be less of it. You must either answer the mail or decide not to. (And once there's too much of it, only one of *those* is possible.)

This is a post about management methods that respond to any problem by spending more rather than less time moving issues around the bug tracker or kanban board or what have you.

Putting together a bat-file with an ssh command that uses an identity file, as an alternative to putty can't be that hard right? Riiiight?

#windows #ssh #putty

1960s Silly Putty: Iconic Egg of Endless Fun Unveiled!

The ad's focus on the packaging highlights the product's unique presentation, making it a memorable symbol of childhood play and creativity.

#sillyputty #classictoys #vintagetoys #retrotoys #kidstoys #1960s #60sads #childhoodmemories #nostalgiatoys #putty #elastictoy #bouncingputty #binneyandsmith #crayola #playtime #iconictoy #eggcontainer #classiccommercials #vintagetvads #retrocommercials

There are 3 USB-C ports labelled as being USB-PD compatible, plus 2 type A ports labelled QC 3.0. Then there is a power/load indicator which looks like 4 bars/LEDs.

I cut the welded seam at the plug end, and the end just pulls off, leaving the #PCB inside. It uses that style of connection where the back end of the mains contacts just insert into some springy metal receptors on the PCB, so it's easier to assemble and doesn't require soldering.

Then the circuit board just pulls out.

That odd weight at one end? The plug end had a huge wad of grey, suspiciously dense putty stuffed into it. I think it's a metal-loaded #putty. It serves no purpose other than giving the thing some heft, so it doesn't feel as cheap. Scam products used to generally come with a lump of pig iron for this purpose, so they're moving up in the world, I guess?

The circuit board weighs approximately nothing in comparison. And you will be Not Shocked that this thing is so very, very fake. There is a tiny, tiny transformer that looks like it's wound on the same form that they use for those tiny little 1:1 600 ฮฉ audio isolation transformers. I wouldn't trust it to handle a 10 W load, much less 240 W.

The output reservoir capacitor is shared across all 5 outputs, and is rated 10 volts ๐Ÿ˜† . So this thing definitely doesn't produce the higher voltages that USB-PD requires (up to 20 V).

It gets better.

2/x

#PigIron #MetalPutty

@[email protected] damn that Serif fonts really took me back when I was using #PuTTY in Windows when I first learn to use Linux in virtual machines!๐Ÿ˜‚
Made a couple of prints celebrating one of my fave #Amiga games. I loved the character animations of Putty so much (and the sfx of course). #retrogaming #3dprinting #putty