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Computing how do you use technology in everyday life?

alasdairm

alasdairm

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i've been thinking about this a bit recently.

i've worked in tech for my entire career so i suppose i have a techier than average household. i have home internet through a local cable provider - i pay for 400mbps but typically get just over 500 which is plenty fast for most of what i do.

i have a wifi 6 router with a bunch of connected devices:
  • 2 desktop pcs running windows 11 (one is my main machine for personal stuff, the second i use to test apps and hardware, etc.)
  • 2 macbook pros (mostly use my main macbook pro when travelling. the other for backup)
  • xbox one s (mostly used for media - youtube tv, youtube and plex. i also game a little)
  • nas (a pretty low-end wd mycloud ex with 12tb. it runs my plex server)
  • brother printer and scanner (it's a cheap mfc-l2710dw which i have had for about 9 years and it's been rock solid)
everything is connected to the network and the pcs and macbooks all have file sharing set up for moving stuff between machines.

i'm currently job hunting and i have a bunch of sites i use to find opportunities. i track all my tuned resumes, cover letters, application answers, etc. in a folder on my desktop. i track progress in a google sheet. when i find an opportunity to apply for, i run a simple windows script to create a new folder to keep the relevant docs and copy over templates ready to use. it's just this:

d:
cd \Libraries\Documents\jobhunt
md %1

cd \Libraries\Documents\jobhunt\resume
copy "Alasdair Manson resume (template).docx" \Libraries\Documents\jobhunt\%1
copy "Alasdair Manson resume (template).pdf" \Libraries\Documents\jobhunt\%1
copy "Alasdair Manson cover letter (template).docx" \Libraries\Documents\jobhunt\%1

cd \Libraries\Documents\jobhunt\%1
ren "Alasdair Manson resume (template).docx" "Alasdair Manson resume.docx"
ren "Alasdair Manson resume (template).pdf" "Alasdair Manson resume.pdf"

so i run that for each job and then i'm ready to tune the resume and write a cover letter.

i have another script that opens up gmail and google drive ready for tracking. i use 2 different accounts (don't ask :) ) so i run this in PowerShell to open the correct gmail inbox and tracking sheet:

$chromePath = "C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe"
$sheetURL = "[url of my tracking sheet]"
$folderPath = "D:\Libraries\Documents\jobhunt"
Start-Process $chromePath "--new-window `"$sheetURL`""
Start-Sleep -Seconds 2
Start-Process $chromePath "--new-window `"https://mail.google.com/mail/u/1/`""
Start-Process explorer.exe $folderPath

when i first started job hunting, and i was creating my process, copying templates, and opening tracking pages, etc. took me a couple of minutes. now it's about 10 seconds :)

finally, i use claude to tune my resume (based on my template) and draft a cover letter based on the job description. the prompt has evolved quite a bit - here it is:

Context: I’ve attached a Job Description and my Resume.

Task: Please "tune" my resume for ATS optimization and write a short, compelling cover letter (<200 words) for this role.

The Strategy:
1. Tone: Professional but familiar. Write as if I’m speaking to a friend of a friend who works there. Authentic, confident, and warm. Avoid stiff corporate-speak and banned AI buzzwords/phrases (e.g., "passionate," "delighted," "dynamic," "testament to," "seasoned professional," "proven track record").

2. Resume Focus (ATS & Impact):
- Update the Professional Summary (<200 words) to seamlessly integrate the core hard skills and keywords from the job description without sacrificing a natural, human voice.
- Tune the [company B] and [company V] roles (max 6 bullets each), ensuring, if possible, every bullet focuses on a quantifiable impact, problem solved, or metric achieved rather than just listing tasks. Use the Action + Problem + Result formula where possible.
- Mandatory Line: In the Professional Summary, include as the final line of the section: "Remote work is second nature to me - I've been doing it successfully for over a decade across different time zones and company cultures."

3. Cover Letter Framework (The Fix for "Flatness"):
Do not just summarize my resume. Instead, use this three-part micro-narrative:
- The Hook: Start with a strong, unconventional first sentence that connects my background directly to a major challenge this specific role solves. Avoid generic openings like "I am writing to express my interest." Instead, start directly with an observation about the industry, the role's primary challenge, or a core professional philosophy.
- The Proof: Highlight one specific "win" or approach from my [company B] or [company V] experience that proves I can handle their specific environment.
- The Close: A brief, high-energy wrap-up expressing genuine interest in how they operate.
- Mandatory lines: End the cover letter exactly with these two lines:
"I would love the opportunity to discuss further.
Thank you for the consideration."

4. The "No-Repeat" Rule: Do not reuse phrases or exact descriptors between the Summary, the job bullets, or the cover letter. Each section must use unique phrasing.

Output: Just provide the formatted text. Do not include any conversational intro or outro text (e.g., "Sure, here is your tuned resume"). Start directly with the updated Resume text.

From now on, when I say "do the usual," please apply these exact constraints to the files I provide.
Click to expand...

what technology are you using day to day to make things better, easier, etc.?

alasdair
 
Much as I hate Amazon as a company, I must admit the Firesticks we have on both our ancient 720p bedroom TV and our (I think) 1080p (much, much sharper than the other one) flatscreen in the living room has been a game changer for viewing matter.

We basically only use it for YouTube and Netflix (and (very) occasionally) Prime or Disney (both only available cos our daughter wants (and pays for) them). Having a remote for YouTube was life changing though. Stupid as that sounds.

Other than that, a very, very old desktop running Windows 10 that is barely used but soon to be updated to a much more viable PC setup that will be primarily mine so will (obviously) be running Linux. Probably Mint as a daily driver but I do like to play around with virtual machines running all sorts of distros just for funsies.

Inherited iPhone 11 for day-to-day use.

I enjoy learning the ins and outs of Linux stuff on a nerdy, but deeply amateur, level and look forward to getting back into that.
 
Is Kodi something worth investing in or this something obsolete now and I’m just really behind lol

I use to get into messing with tech. I know the police station sends all their old tech to our town thrift store so I use to get all kinds of cool tech from there that you don’t see that available to the public.

I’ve also got boxes of routers, switches, modems and motherboards. I just play with the stuff. I had a desktop that I was able to double boot into Linux. I had kali set up but didn’t get to fool with it much. I love android cause you can jailbreak them easy and get access to the system resources to remove all the bloatware. Apple is a little harder. I got cydia on an old iPad but it no longer updates so it’s pretty useless.

I wanna be the admin of my entire home network. And I wanna manage my own devices without a Gmail, iCloud or outlook account. We are literally being managed by our devices. Sometimes I feel Iike I’m the target audience of an ad campaign that’s trying to brand me themselves. I don’t like that shit
 
I'm kind of a Johnny come lately guy. I was born in 1954, we had records and record players, then came 8tracks, followed by cassettes, then cd's and now streaming platforms. My mother inspired me to use a computer in 2008 after an OD which led to psychosis, which led to hospitalization, which led to revamping meds, which led to recovery. By this time I'm in my mid-fifties and decided to return to work after a very long mental vacation. Then I decided to go to community college, AAS Chemical Dependency, then Bachelors in Human Services.

I love technology, first laptop I bought for college was a heavy weighted blue dell Inspiron. I lugged that thing everywhere I went. Then I went with a MacBook Pro, replaced that with another MacBook Pro in 2019 which I am using now. I also have an iPhone and 10th Generation iPad.

In the past I used Macports for software installation, then, home-brew and GitHub. I tied Dockers but didn't have the patience to learn. I use Emby server from MacBook to Samsung smart tv, for downloaded movies. I used to subscribe Netflix, Paramount, Hulu, Disney, HBO etc, however they increased the cost so I settled for Amazon Prime and a premier subscription to YouTube to avoid commercials.

I love listening to the music I grew up with, same goes for old movies and tv shows as well.
 
Out of all my devices, I use my phone for a lot of remote downloading and work stuff related. It's easier than if I was to bring my other shit. Then I can access the GUI of my other devices this way.

I strangely own a OnePlus 13R which I gave it as a birthday present to one of my cousins because mf had a broken phone anyway and I couldn't use it for work. Seems that starting from android 14 they made the terminal a bit more restrictive and in other non-samsung devices, quite useless given be. Idk exactly why but I know for sure, I can't do other things that I would had done with my s24. It's a main reason why I even bought a 2nd one. Not new like this one, refurbished but only from a speaker point, they say. Something happend with the speaker of the phone and had to be fixed in order to be sold
 
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Kellsee said:
Is Kodi something worth investing in or this something obsolete now and I’m just really behind lol
Click to expand...

kodi is great but it looks outdated to me and it seems it may be moribund - abandoned add-ons, broken repos, etc.

i'd look at an alternative like stremio, plex or jellyfin (jellyfin is fully open source).

i use plex. the server runs on my nas and the client runs on all my devices but i use it on my xbox mostly.

alasdair
 
alasdairm said:
kodi is great but it looks outdated to me and it seems it may be moribund - abandoned add-ons, broken repos, etc.

i'd look at an alternative like stremio, plex or jellyfin (jellyfin is fully open source).

i use plex. the server runs on my nas and the client runs on all my devices but i use it on my xbox mostly.

alasdair
Click to expand...
Ok ty!! I’ve wondered about plex. Right now I just use Roku thru my WiFi. But going forward I’m trying to be more about privacy. Idk if there’s any point in that at this point or not tho lol
 
I use my phone for the oddest things :

Compass
Leveling Tool (bubble)
O-scope
Sound Level meter
Earthquake, weather, solar and lunar tracking

-------------
I have little 1 chip computers on each engine and many of my rolling stock of my HO model railroad so I can control them independently from rail supply. They could actually be controlled by my phone but I haven't gone that far yet.
 
Yeah, there are a lot of great little uses for my phone. Great magnifying glass: take a photo and blow it up. I also like the topographic GPS maps for hiking on apps like AllTrails and others, but I still rely first on a paper trail map. Likewise Google Maps et al for driving ( or taking a bus or walking) is very convenient.
Nevertheless, I keep using paper maps because they keep me in better touch with the real world. Relying on direction apps causes ones natural internal sense of direction to atrophy. In the back of my mind I always try to keep a sense of my relationship to north and south, east and west.
I don't want to seem too anti-tech because I'm not. It has a lot of uses. But I just believe it can go too far. I'm not ready to lose my connections to my animal roots
 
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I don't use more than the average American probably.

But my home screen is an organized dump of information. I have all of my apps in groups, a transparent background notepad, a stock market widget, transparent weather widget, and calander. So I have 24 apps (you can see the icon for 4 per group), notepad, market, calendar, weather, all visible just by unlocking my phone, and still have about 20% of the screen uncovered on the most attractive part of my background picture
 
thujone said:
bloody hell, i've just been looking out the window for this stuff
Click to expand...
So, you can track earthquakes, not locally but globally including measurement?
Also you can measure solar winds, sunspots and geomagnetic storm information?

That sure would be nice, wouldn't it

🤔
 
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