I can’t find a picture of that exact model, but to me it looks like it has the silver box HP logo like this one:

Compaq had this square Q logo, and usually the entire word “Compaq” also:

But there could be some confusion because HP acquired Compaq in 2002 and sold computers with Compaq branding until 2013, which covers the Vista period. It’s entirely possible they sold the same desktop shell with both HP and Compaq branding.

And no thats definitely a Zip drive, not a 3.5" floppy:

The little round button on the right and the round inset under the slot give it away.

scrape’em off, Jim!

Heh, so ALSA has kind of been the audio architecture for Linux distros since forever.

Pulse Audio was supposed to modernize audio for Linux and ultimately replace ALSA.

But last time I installed Linux on my desktop, I couldn’t get audio output from my motherboard’s TOSLINK S/PDIF port no matter which settings I changed in the GUI, uninstalled/reinstalled drivers and codecs and whatnot, etc.

Nothing made any difference until I eventually found some forum post which suggested using ALSAmixer to check the settings for various audio channels. ALSAmixer is not typically installed by default and not commonly used anymore, but it was the only tool that could unmute the digital audio output channel that served the TOSLINK port - that functionality was not present anywhere else in any of the configuration options. Pulse appeared to be in control of the system audio hardware, but in reality it was just sitting on top of and still relying on ALSA to handle the back end. Also, whoever set ALSA to mute some audio channels by default on a clean install… wtf dude, that shit just makes people think their hardware isn’t properly supported and they have a driver issue.

The point being, ALSA was supposed to be deprecated years ago and all of the old audio issues resolved and modernized with a new architecture, but… I’ll believe it when I see it, when whatever the new thing is actually proves itself to be an all-singing, all-dancing audio architecture. I’ve seen this rodeo before, and last time I checked it was still a clownshow.

You running Windows Vista on an HP desktop with a Zip drive in 2026?

Your company isn’t taking you or your work seriously, so yeah you shouldn’t either.

off the starboard bow

So… what do you use for audio output on a desktop? Because I feed my monitor with the DisplayPort output from my graphics card, and I’m definitely not running a separate HDMI just for the audio signal. Even with 5.1 channel outputs, the 3.5mm audio on the motherboard is not up to the quality of the optical audio output, and besides that’s 5 copper cables to run instead of one fiber. My soundbar has an optical input. The optical output is the only thing that makes sense.

Uh huh uh huh uh huh… call me when ALSAmixer is no longer needed to unmute the TOSLINK output on a new install because who the fuck knows why it’s muted by default in ALSA and that setting is not surfaced anywhere in the UI.

Silly, everybody knows sexism only goes one way.

First and most important:

In the context of long-term data storage
ALL DRIVES ARE CONSUMABLES

I can’t emphasize this enough. If you only skim the rest of my post, re-read the above line and accept it as fundamental truth. “Long-term” means 1+ years, by the way.

It does not matter what type of drive you buy, how much you spend on it, who manufactured it, etc. The drive will fail at some point, probably when you’re least prepared for it. You need to plan around that. You need to plan for the drive being completely useless and the data on it unrecoverable post-failure. Wasting time and money to acquire the fanciest most bulletproof drives on the market is a pointless resource pit, and has more to do with dick-measuring contests between data-hoarders.

Knife geeks buy $500+ patterned steel chef’s knives with ebony handles and finely ground edges and bla bla bla. Professional kitchens buy the basic Victorinox with the plastic handle. Why? Because they actually use it, not mount it on a wall to look pretty.

The knife is a consumable, not an heirloom. So are your storage drives. We call them “spinning rust” for a reason.

The solution to drive failure is redundancy. Period.

Unfortunately, this reality runs counter to the desire to maximize available storage. Do not follow the path of desire, that way lies data loss and outer darkness. Fault-tolerant is your watchword. Component failure is unpredictable, no matter how much money you spend. A random manufacturing defect will ruin your day when you least expect it.

A minimum safe layout is to have 2 live copies of data (one active, one mirror), hot standby for 1 copy (immediate swap-in when the active or mirror fails), and cold standby on the shelf to replace the hot standby when it enters service.

Note that this does not describe a specific number of disks, but copies of data. The minimum to implement this is 4 disks of identical storage capacity (2 live, 1 hot standby, 1 on the shelf) and a server with slots for 3 disks. If your storage needs expand beyond the capacity of 1 disk, then you need to scale up by the same ratio. A disk is indivisible - having two copies of the same data on a disk does not give you any redundancy value. (I won’t get into striping and mucking about with weird RAID choices in this post because it’s too long already, but basically it’s not worth it - the KISS principle applies, especially in small configurations)

This means you only get to use 25% of the storage capacity that you buy. Them’s the breaks. Anything less and you’re not taking your data longevity seriously, you might as well just get a consumer-grade external drive and call it a day.

Buy 4 disks, it doesn’t matter what they are or how much they cost (though if you’re buying used make sure you get a SMART report from the seller and you understand what it means) but keep in mind that your storage capacity is just 1 of the disks. And buy a server that can keep 3 of them online and automatically swap in the standby when one of the disks fails. Spend more money on the server than the disks, it will last longer.

Remember, long-term is a question of when, not if.

Employers not paying a living wage bad.

He was not in the least bit scared
To be mashed into a pulp.
Or to have his eyes gouged out,
And his elbows broken.
To have his nicaps split
And his body burned away,
And his limbs all hacked and mangled
Brave Sir Robin.

You’re right.

They just shit themselves to death.

Yes, instead we have gangrene, leptospirosis, trepanning, faith healing, no education unless you’re clergy, forced labor for 95% of the population, a life expectancy of 40 if you’re lucky…

Oh, and taxes! still got those. Have to pay for Richard’s crusade, you know. Congratulations on being conscripted as a peasant spearman, now get back up and stand in line with the rest of the fodder.

The genie is out of the bottle

This is a lot more like Pandora’s Box - all the evils have been let loose.

There’s a community for that! https://sh.itjust.works/c/youtubeclassics

That is a very short amount of time to organize a nation.

I’ve got a USB SSD that I can’t use, because I need to “unlock” it in a windows device first. I can’t even re-partition it in linux.

Is this Bitlocker FDE? Have you tried using Dislocker?

If that doesn’t work, I recommend building a gparted live USB. Once you’re up and the SSD is visible, create a new partition table

Complete this step with no other changes. This shouldn’t care if the partitions on the disk or encrypted, it will reset the partition table which will make the disk appear blank, as if it was never formatted. You should then be able to create any new partitions you want in the available space.

! THIS IS DESTRUCTIVE !

But if you couldn’t access the encrypted partition then the data was effectively destroyed already.

One of the major selling features of the Slate is their intention to make the truck as end-user repairable as possible and publish documentation and how-to videos to support that. Whether they actually follow through remains to be seen, but if they do the Slate would be one of the least locked-in proprietary vehicles ever made.

No built-in unreplaceable head unit with bloatware or spyware or un-updatable software, no cell network or WiFi connection, no user tracking and snitching.

The lack of a built-in entertainment system computer is a good thing.

plug for somafm