As a lifelong self-learner, I use all sorts of methods to learn new things, and AI is what I’m currently into. Although I’ve been in the game since 2022, my background wasn’t focused on AI. So, like everyone else, I had to do some “AI For Dummies” level study in order to get more involved. Below is a list of learning materials that I find very helpful for myself to get started with and might also be helpful for someone else in the same situation. ...
Days before mini-PC become a thing, there was no NUC, MinisForum or Beelink. It was the time of thin client and SFF (small-form-factor), manufacturers such as Shuttle, Dell and Lenovo were made a lot of these. Back then, the performance of SoC was too weak so that even laptops wouldn’t use them. But my first dedicated home lab machine was an Atom D525, which was called embedded industrial computer. It served as a router rather than server due to its performance and heat. That was also the time when I got into the world of m0n0wall derivatives (pfSense/FreeNAS). ...
Windows Nostalgia A recent video on Windows 7 as daily driver OS by Brodie Robertson was hilarious but also arguable. For me, XP is the best OS ever made by M$. However, it has became not so useful nowadays neither for retro gaming (which 98SE is the king) nor for day-to-day usage, due to both hardware and software incompatibility. The compromise would be Windows 7. I agree there are too much of accumulated unpatched security vulnerabilities, but there are tricks to mitigate most of those either technically or strategically. ...
The End of Timelessness? As a free and open source provocateur, I use Linux on my old and new hardware. But when installing OS for non-tech-savvy people, most of time, Windows is my only option. Nevertheless, I often install and recommend open source tools on Windows platform for them. During Windows 8 to 10 LTSB period, I wasn’t so interested into installing the latest Windows. However, when M$ decide to block hardware in their installer either via TPM or CPU generations, I started installing later version of Windows just for bypassing the restrictions. ...
WSL Installation There are some special use cases where I would like to go through and show the process of setting up WSL. Ubuntu’s official document works well on Windows 11 LTSC for WSL installation, there is also a tutorial from sitepoint with more details. I’m doing this on a double debloated version of Windows 11 from previous post of Tiny 11 WTG, where I downloaded WinGet, extracted DesktopAppInstaller_Dependencies.zip and installed with PowerShell: ...