I left them years ago, but their VPN software has (had?) a critical bug - the killswitch treats “connecting” the same as “connected”.

Meaning that if the connection drops for any reason and is not immediately reestablished, you not only lose all protection, but you have a false sense of security.

Christians are the only ones that believe in Satan.

No, satanists do not believe in Satan.

Depending on your location and situation, you may have access to a nurse line or fast telemedicine (basically a zoom call with a random doctor). They can diagnose many ailments remotely, and at least tell you what the next steps should be.

This will also be used to restrict their voting rights.

In some places, yes, probably. It would most likely fall under anti-SLAPP protections.

IANAL though, so it could be more complicated.

Of course they didn’t. It was only a submarine sandwich.

If it had been a ham sandwich, OTOH, things would be different.

Are you able to physically replace the HDD (preferably with an SSD)? If so, you can use the (Win10) Media Creation Tool to create a USB installer.

When it prompts for a key, just skip it. If you have an OEM mass activation laptop (i.e. anything from a major brand), it’ll activate automatically after. If, for whatever reason it still doesn’t activate, you’ll have a nag screen telling you to activate. It won’t significantly limit what you do.

It’s nearly certain. OEM activation has been stored on the motherboard since XP. XP-7 required a matching OEM cert (easily found online), while 8+ have a unique license in the BIOS. For these, you just reinstall the OS, skip the key during setup, and let it connect afterwards for all of the updates and whatnot.

Now, licenses to other apps, such as Word, are not so simple.

I need to clarify that you are talking about Lenovo’s consumer-grade lines, like the Ideapad. Their enterprise line (Thinkpad) is completely different.

Without exception, every single time someone is looking for “free speech”, this applies:

https://m.xkcd.com/1357/

EDIT: autocorrect

There was a report that gas stoves were linked to health issues. Then the culture war bullshit crowds pretended that meant “the nanny state is taking our gas stoves!!!”

It was a handy distraction from everything else that everyone should’ve been focused on.

This may be harder than it sounds. Often, the vent hood (such as in the microwave) doesn’t vent outside and just recirculates it in the kitchen.

Kind of. They will be multiples of 4. Let’s say you got a gigantic 8i8e card, albeit unlikely. That would (probably) have 2 internal and 2 external SAS connectors. Your standard breakout cables will split each one into 4 SATA cables (up to 16 SATA ports if you used all 4 SAS ports and breakout cables), each running at full (SAS) speed.

But what if you were running an enterprise file server with a hundred drives, as many of these once were? You can’t cram dozens of these cards into a server, there aren’t enough PCIe slots/lanes. Well, there are SAS expansion cards, which basically act as a splitter. They will share those 4 lanes, potentially creating a bottleneck. But this is where SAS and SATA speeds differ- these are SAS lanes, which are (probably) double what SATA can do. So with expanders, you could attach 8 SATA drives to every 4 SAS lanes and still run at full speed. And if you need capacity more than speed, expanders allow you to split those 4 lanes to 24 drives. These are typically built into the drive backplane/DAS.

As for the fan, just about anything will do. The chip/heatsink gets hot, but is limited to the ~75 watts provided by the PCIe bus. I just have an old 80 or 90mm fan pointing at it.

The one I had would frequently drop the drives, wreaking havoc on my (software) RAID5. I later found out that it was splitting 2 ports into 4 in a way that completely broke spec.

First, this approach is going to fail at some point. Depending on how far away it is, that could be a major issue. It also makes some very bold assumptions about connection speed and latency that are probably not true.

Second, IP doesn’t reliably show location. My cable ISP is typically geolocated to Chicago, despite it being 2 states away. Same for T Mobile connections.

Third, it’s incredibly unlikely that the employer is going to be looking at IP addresses to determine location. Even if they wanted to use tech for this purpose, they would use location services/GPS/etc. Which a VPN won’t conceal.

Fourth, changing the physical mailing address on file would be a bigger flag. But presumably he’ll list that family’s address, which could create other implications.

Always remember- If you see someone stealing food, no you didn’t.

I don’t want to speak to your specific use case, as it’s outside of my wheelhouse. My main point was that SATA cards are a problem.

As for LSi SAS cards, there’s a lot of details that probably don’t (but could) matter to you. PCIe generation, connectors, lanes, etc. There are threads on various other homelab forums, truenas, unraid, etc. Some models (like the 9212-4i4e, meaning it has 4 internal and 4 external lanes) have native SATA ports that are convenient, but most will have a SAS connector or two. You’d need a matching (forward) breakout cable to connect to SATA. Note that there are several common connectors, with internal and external versions of each.

You can use the external connectors (e.g. SFF-8088) as long as you have a matching (e.g. SFF-8088 SAS-SATA) breakout cable, and are willing to route the cable accordingly. Internal connectors are simpler, but might be in lower supply.

If you just need a simple controller card to handle a few drives without major speed concerns, and it will not be the boot drive, here are the things you need to watch for:

• MUST be LSi, but it can be rebranded LSi. This includes certain cards from Dell and IBM, but not all.
• Must support Initiator Target (IT) mode. The alternative is Initiator RAID (IR) mode. This is nearly all, since most can be flashed to IT mode regardless
• Watch for counterfeits! There are a bunch of these out there. My best advice is to find IT recyclers on eBay. These cards are a dime a dozen in old, decommissioned servers. They’re eager to sell them to whomever wants them.

Also, make sure you can point a fan at it. They’re designed for rackmount server chassis, so desktop-style cases don’t usually have the airflow needed.

To anyone reading, do NOT get a PCIe SATA card. Everything on the market is absolute crap that will make your life miserable.

Instead, get a used PCIe SAS card, preferably based on LSi. These should run about $50, and you may (depending on the model) need a $20 cable to connect it to SATA devices.

For anyone wondering the obvious:

Rushing in the dark with a roller-bag suitcase to catch a train to meet her, Bue fell near a parking lot on a Rutgers University campus in New Brunswick, New Jersey, injuring his head and neck. After three days on life support and surrounded by his family, he was pronounced dead on March 28.

He died because of an incidental fall, not anything meaningful to do with the chat bot.

Solomon Peña was sentenced to 960 months in prison for orchestrating a politically motivated shooting spree and plotting to murder witnesses to obstruct justice.

[…]

Peña recruited Jose Trujillo and Demetrio Trujillo to carry out a series of shootings at the homes of several public officials. Peña provided cash, instructions, and addresses, and personally participated in one of the attacks. One of the shootings involved a fully automatic machine gun. Multiple rounds struck areas of the homes where children had recently been or were sleeping.

Following his arrest, Peña attempted to have Jose and Demetrio Trujillo murdered to prevent them from testifying, offering fellow inmates money and a vehicle in exchange for their deaths.

On March 23, 2025, a federal jury found Peña guilty of all counts of the indictment, including conspiracy, being a felon in possession of a firearm, four counts of intimidation and interference with federally protected activities, four counts of using or carrying a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence, and three counts of solicitation to commit a crime of violence.

Source

80 years seems pretty reasonable for everything. I would argue there should’ve been charges for terrorism, but I know that’s more complicated than it should be.