There are mitigations possible against allowing unrecognized MAC addresses from getting network connection when plugged into an open port.

Security is meant to have layers. Defense in depth.

SFC is the system file checker, used to check a Windows OS install’s files for any corruption and to replace them with legit working files. DISM (if I remember right) is a tool for turning a Windows install into install media, and has some similar features for ensuring the installed OS has no corrupted file issues.

So pretty much the option to “Verify Integrity of Game Files” for Steam Games, but for the OS. And also by Microsoft, so of questionable usefulness/functionality.

I spent almost 5 years in the trenches of tech support in a Windows environment. I still used those commands as a hail mary when I didn’t have any other ideas and needed some extra time to research. I think I’ve only seen it actually help three times.

When the scientists wanted to get the first computers connected to what would become the internet, they plugged in special parts to let the computer audibly scream at a phone! It was loud and horrible and I miss those old screams.

Some humans were able to memorize those computer screams and could scream them well enough themself to trick the phone into doing all sorts of things.

DISM and SFC fixes everything, right? Right.

You absolutely can and should regardless.

I would love a Tommy Wiseau attempt at Bond. Holy shit it would be amazing.

Beautiful writeup. I miss the days when games shipped with data files in easily user-acessible formats.

This is 15 years old. It’s not about “working”, or making a pun.

It’s about getting someone momentarily interested in a story, even vaguely invested, or just getting an engaging pace going before suddenly and violently transistioning into a recognizable non-sequiteur.

Extra points for getting a cheesy song stuck in people’s heads.

First off, stop going out in person to drop your resume at places. Complete waste of money and time. That shit hardly ever worked even 15 years ago. I highly doubt anyone suggesting that to you has actually had to apply for jobs, especially at entry level, anytime this century.

That also cuts out the money spend on food out.

Your best bet for jobs is going off who you know. If friends or family know of job openings where they are and can put a good word in to help push your application through. After that, just apply online. Most places have online systems. Prepare to submit hundreds of applications for single digit response rates, according to numerous posts on reddit’s dataisbeautiful sub.

If you need to get out of the house for appearances to your parents, you can probably go to the local library or some study space at your school and do applications from there. Pack food if you do.

Second off, if it is possible for you to pass your summer course at this rate, stop fucking around. You’re playing with fire given your Father’s previous threat.

If you are not in danger living with him, and he is not inflicting further hurt upon you that you need to escape, then you should maintain that situation for as long as is possible. Part of that is by passing your courses.

It may not be direct money, but it is linked directly to your ability to have a stable place to stay.

Pass this one and then you can worry about changing paths.

If it is no longer possible for you to pass the course, and you have no intention of completing it, then you abandon it. Drop it if you are still in the window that you can.

And I don’t mean drop it if you don’t think you want to do it. Most courses have sylabus with grade breakdowns that you can use to estimate how much you need to do to pass. You may also be able to email your professor or a class aide.

Your parent’s concerns about gifts from your friends can probably be ignored. You should probably want to do your friends kindness in return when you are truly able to but if they are true friends they are not keeping score, and are giving because they are able. I have friends who span a wide variety of income levels and trades, and we all help out each other how and where we can. Giving hand me down stuff that isn’t useful to you anymore to a friend that can get more out of it is gratifying in its own right with no “payback” expected or wanted.

That said, you say you “do not ask for specifically”. If they are just offering you gifts, you’re cool. If you’re coercing them into giving you things, not cool.

Moving on from that: My advice is based on my experience entering the job market a little over 10 years ago in the US. Caveat emptor.

I started college at a semi-prestigious, but not really prestigious, university. Computer Science Bachelors (4 year) degree. Flunked out partway through my second year due to depression and not being able to envision myself coding eight hours a day four days a week without going postal.

I tried and failed to get back into it for a few semesters, worked some dead end jobs, then eventually transferred the credits I could to a local community college, got an Associates (two year degree) in Computer Information Systems. Took two years even with the transferred creds because I did a light course load while working shitty unrelated jobs.

Got a paid internship on an internal IT help desk at a non-IT company during the summer before my final semester and made a career from that by moving up through tech departments. Thankfully they were able to work with my schedule the last semester.

Anyway.

If you’re struggling in your non-Computer Science classes, it might be worth looking into your University’s credit transfer system and seeing if you could maybe take those courses through a cheaper/easier college and transfer them over. Like if you’re at a Uni, take them at a community college. Save some money, likely have smaller class size, likely have an easier class, and in my experience have more support available from the school.

Ultimately no college really cares if you fail or pass after they have their money, but smaller schools have less wiggle room in their statistics to just let people fail so they tend to try and work with you a little more.

Computer Science as a degree is a vague crapshoot and the actual course contents widely depend on your University and how their Computer Science faculty see themselves.

Technically, Comp Sci is meant to be less about the practical act of programming, and more about the theory and math behind programming. Kind of like how you can get a degree in Materials Science or Materials Engineering. Comp Sci is usually more theory based, which also tends to mean more math courses required.

This depends on your school though. Some will offer separate Software Development degrees with a focus more on what you’d be doing programming as a job. I’ve also seen Computer Information Systems, Management Information Systems, Software Engineering, Cyber Security… point is that there are a lot of twists and flavors available on “I’m good with computers and want to do something with them for a living” and even still a decent variety in “I want to program for a living”. You may be able to transfer your Computer Science credits to a degree that interests you more.

You may also have options for shorter degrees rather than the four year slog.

I would highly reccomend aiming for a two year degree first before trying to tackle a full four year bachelors. It gives you a natural point where you can stop and re-evaluate. And if you can somehow turn that two year degree into a job, it’s a lot easier to go forward from there.

This is all well and good, especially in the far more dire situation of Hong Kong.

I don’t think we’re quite there yet globally, or at least not in the US. Could be there fucking tomorrow, but not quite yet today.

There are times when open criticism is warranted. I don’t agree at all that more tribalism is the true solution to the situation we see at least in the US. We can’t just mass execute the people who voted Trump into office.

I don’t think most people have trouble keeping their mouth shut when appropriate.

So yeah, don’t get in the way of good things happening in imperfect ways. But I swear if I start seeing this shit bandied around as a thought terminating stopper of valid criticism I’m going to blow a gasket.

Not everyone on your side of the political divide is an ally. Not everyone on the other side has to be an enemy. This also applies to the more complex mult-axis political compases.

Would not be the first time, although usually developers then go out of their way to make things more legally distinct.

Off the top of my head, the PS1 game Croc was reportedly originally pitched to Nintendo as a 3D platformer starring Yoshi (it was made by some of the team behind StarFox). They obviously reworked it a ton before it released as what it ended up as.

It’s good enough for corporate (with multiple other lines of defense).

There’s also a decent amount of college and independent stations (not IHeartRadio, etc owned) that broadcast online, so location isn’t an issue.

I know OP is trying to go for single purpose devices, but RadioDroid on F-Droid is great for listening to internet radio and has a built in station list.

You had up until the last text box. Yeah, the world isn’t structured well for success of anyone but those who already have extreme levels of wealth. That’s a big fucking problem. I don’t particularly disagree with your last box, but it’s practically a separate thing from the rest of your build up.

The shit state of the world doesn’t absolve you of responsibility for your own actions, or your own choices to try and do better or to just give up.

It’s tempting to blame all our problems on external sources, but here’s the rub: regardless of cause, you’re in charge of your own reaction to these problems. Life is hard, and you need to be kind to yourself when you fail, but you still need to get back up and try.

If you struggle to see the point of anything when going up against such overwhelming odds against you? To a certain degree… welcome to life. You likely also have depression that you should get checked out and get some help for. Comorbidity with ADHD.

Sure, but I’ve also seen plenty of content that is along the lines of “dog level of intelligence in caked up human body” (see: that slimy fucking “dog girlfriend” comic the one person posts to the comics community about once a week) and content that is “lets leave the anthro aspects on the shelf today” (Let me check my tag blacklist… pretty sure it’s tagged as “feral” on boorus).

Maybe this guy is talking about anthro stuff, or even catgirls, and is just pearl clutching. But there are also some quite concerning subgroups under the furry umbrella (much like many large groups). Just saying.

And you just lost the game

I couldn’t believe how much of a dump the place was honestly. Shit is being held together with duct tape, zip ties, and free veteran labor.

And the DOGE boys will see that and use it as evidence they deserve even less, ratger than seeing that’s what things have been reduced to due to budget cuts.

Spirited Away vibes

Pee is stored in the balls, and… blood is stored in the boobs?

for whatever reasons

Until recently, one man, who ran from the sinking ship of Yahoo search into Google’s marketing/ads group. He bullied the former head of search out when they refused to make search worse in order to boost the ad click through rates. He then became head of search himself until fairly recently.

In depth writeup here, and there’s a link to the same story as a podcast at the top.