• 5 Posts
  • 186 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: October 17th, 2023

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  • IT guy here, if there is one thing I wish for, there are many days where I wish I was just a cleaner, to actually be able to complete a task that is visible for a change and not just stare me blind at a half functioning JIRA board, a broken active directory and list of 365 teams almost as long as the list of employees.

    Not to mention having to deal with systems I have no idea about and should have zero access to but somehow have global admin and am incharge of access controls which are half documented, yet the system is the most important in the company.

    We are working on improving it, it goes slowly…

    If it paid the same, I think being a street view driver seems interesting/fun…



  • Dell Ultrasharp 27” 1440p 2024

    Using that as a product name will introduce more risk of errors, and for the main consumer, businesses, it makes more sense to use a short product code.

    Imagine an IT manager ordering new monitors, they can just call their supplier up and say:

    Hey, I need some new monitors, can I order 8 new U2724D monitors and 8 new U2724DE?

    Instead of saying

    Hey, I need some new monitors, can I order 8 new Dell Ultrasharp 27” 1440p 2024 monitors, and 8 new Dell Ultrasharp 27” 1440p 2024 monitors with the built in dock with networking?

    The first one is far easier to parse and make sure you get the stuff you want, the other is far more prone to errors.

    This is not even getting into the issues with product databases and inventory management.


  • Ok there are often resons for the madness.

    Lets look at the naming standard of Dell monitors:

    I have a Dell U2724D as my main monitor.

    The syntax is [Series][Diagonal Size][Year][Ratio/Resolution][Features]

    In my case the code for the Series is “U”

    Since about 2010 their standard series has been:

    E: Essential - Normally a TN anti glare panel, internal power, simple stand, 3 year warranty.

    P: Professional - Normally an IPS anti glare panel, internal power, height/rotate adjustable stand, 3-year warranty.

    S: Small Office/Home - Can be IPS, TN or VA panel, usually external power supply, slim stand, 1-year warranty.

    U: Ultrasharp - IPS anti glare panel, internal power, height/rotate adjustable base, 3 year warranty.

    UP: Ultrasharp with PrimerColor - additional color gamut.

    AW: Alienware - High-end gaming

    C: Commercial displays - Large format (50"+), for conference rooms and classrooms.


    Ok so looking at my monitor, U2724D, we can see that it is from the Ultrasharp series.


    The next section is the diagonal size, Dell uses two digits to represent the size, in my case it is 27, so I have a 27" monitor.


    Then we come to the year section, this tells us the year the monitor was released, in my case it says 24, so my monitor was released in 2024.


    Then we come to the resolution part:

    S: standard ratio - 4:3 or 5:4.

    no letter: computer widescreen - 16:10

    H: HD widescreen - 16:9

    W: Ultrawide - 21:9

    D: QHD - 1440p

    Q: 4K - 2160p

    K: 8K - 4320p


    In my case, the resolution letter is D, meaning my monitor is a QHD/1440p monitor.


    Finally we have come to the Features section:

    C: USB-C input - can accept DisplayPort over USB-C.

    X: HDMI cable included, instead of standard DsiplayPort cable.

    T: Touchscreen

    G: nVidia G-sync

    F: AMD Freesync

    J: Wireless charging stand

    Z: Videoconference camera

    A: Monitor arm included, no stand

    E: Ethernet networking, works like a proper dock.

    S: Built in speakers.


    My monitor does not have any extra features, but my dad has the U2721DE monitor which has a built in dock and networking.


    The reason for the annoying names is to differentiate features, series, year releases and more.




  • I have no explicit source for this scenario, but I am a 365 admin and extrapolated from my knowledge of Intune.

    The way I see it, there is nothing actually preventing Microsoft from blocking computers from using personal 365.

    Just look at the autopilot service in intune, you add a machine to it using either a machine ID or a serial number, then it is locked to that tenant and can’t be used outside of that with windows.

    There is no checking of actual ownership of the device, and once a device is added to autopilot, it will prompt for a tenant logon even after a complete reinstall.

    This means that MS will check any computer that checks in with their servers for their ID and s/n, and against a blocklist.









  • Something that is very easy to forget is that stock value is only very loosely tied to actual company value.

    Stock value is based on what people are prepared to pay for the stock, not what the company is worth.

    Say that I create a company that makes newspaper hats for tanks in Ukraine, something utterly worthless, I am the only employee and my inventory is just yesterday’s newspapers that I found in the gutter.

    My company has zero actual value, but I decide to create 50000 shares of my company, sell one to my friend for €2, and suddenly my company’s market value would look like €100000.