Nicholas Toone

Nicholas Toone

  • Oh, Fuck YOU, Microsoft

    I know I’ve said it a million times before but, fuck you, Microsoft. Fuck you, fuck you, FUCK YOU!

    Now that we’ve moved a huge chunk of our lives away from Big Tech, I’m in the process of cancelling our Family MS365 account. One of the people who has a shared account still needs access to a subscription so I worked to set them up with a Personal account.

    When you subscribe to a new MS365 account you have two options.

    1. Microsoft 365 Family: $145/year.
    2. Microsoft 365 Personal: $115/year

    That’s it. So you choose one. In this case, Personal.

    Apparently all accounts include Copilot bullshit but, whatever. Sure. Won’t use it and it sucks to have to pay for it but…

    I discovered that if you then go into your account, right after paying1, and click Cancel Subscription, you are then given the option to change to a Microsoft 365 Personal Classic (basically normal account with no Copilot AI garbage) account that’s only $79/year BUT the $79 only happens when the subscription renews next year. There is no option to turn off AI and be refunded the $36.

    So you’re stuck with Copilot with the AI garbage for a year. Then, next year, they will they charge you less and remove the garbage you don’t want2.

    How the actual fuck is this type of shit allowed?

    If an account without AI is offered as a reason to keep subscribers, then is should be an option from the start. Period. Full stop. The Microsoft Plans page should look like this:

    1. Microsoft 365 Family: $145/year
    2. Microsoft 365 Family Classic: $115/year.
    3. Microsoft 365 Personal: $115/year
    4. Microsoft 365 Personal Classic: $79/year

    But no. Microsoft would rather force you to pay for Copilot so they can say brag about the number of people signing up for Copilot rather than allow people to choose because I’m pretty sure MS knows that most people would choose to pay a little less to not have some stupid AI garbage stinking up their apps.

    If I ever had to remind anyone again why I’m moving away from Big Tech, this is a perfect example. All of these companies are fucking shady, horrible, terrible, grifting fucking monsters.

    1. I knew dropping to a Classic account was a thing if you tried to cancel, but thought it was only for anyone who has subscriptions before MS added Copilot and increased the price – so like, people who had accounts before January 2025. I’m honestly shocked that this is a hidden thing for brand new accounts. ↩︎
    2. Maybe. They could very well change this by this time next year. I’m usually not a betting man, but I got $36 that says I’ll get an email from Microsoft sometime in early 2026 saying they’re deprecating the Classic option and raising their subscription pricing. ↩︎

  • Elbows Up!

    I’s taken me over a week nearly three weeks almost a month a long fucking time to write this post. I’d type hundreds of words only to delete them and start over again.

    I finally decided to edit this down to a few short paragraphs so it may appear a little disjointed.

    It’s difficult to speak clearly when you’re emotional.

    You’ve probably noticed my very quick pivot towards untangling myself and my family from the web of Big Tech. You may have also noticed this started in February.

    I figure anyone and who reads my blog1 and is aware of what’s been happening in the world right now, namely when it comes to the United States2, has probably already added the proverbial twos.

    Very simply, I do not want to be involved with, or beholden to any entity that is involved in, beholden to, and/or supports the current US Administration and its ilk.

    For those who don’t know, the current Administration3 of the Untied States a Clown Show Chaos Machine™ hell bent on destroying Western democracy which includes threatening peaceful neighbors and longtime allies.

    Like most every one else up here in Canada, I’m angry. And I don’t think the US as a whole understands. I mean, sure, some do. I have friends and colleagues in the States who completely understand why the anti-US sentiment to the north of them has reached a steady simmer.

    While it’s difficult to completely move away4 I can say that, like everyone else up here, I’m doing my best. I will continue to support the independents, the open source, the hippies, the anarchists, the pirates, and those who resist, but I won’t be afraid to drop them at the first sign of capitulation. There are alternatives.

    There are always alternatives.

    As I mentioned earlier, this has been hard to write because it’s so very emotional. In the past, any bluster coming from our Southern Neighbour could be waved off with a shrug and a chuckle but not anymore. The fifty-first state thing started like that crusty relative who says shitty/insulting things to you as a “joke”. But like crusty relatives do, they keep at it until you snap and fight back and then Uncle Asshole is shocked and appalled at your “unreasonable outburst” because it was just a “just a joke”.

    We’re past the point of this being a “joke” and Uncle Asshole just isn’t stopping. We can’t keep up with the chaos and the flip flopping and the lies. Oh, the lies.

    I had written some pretty hefty paragraphs about parallels and history including the US Civil War, WW2, Nixon, and Reagan but I ended up shitcanning it all because don’t think I have to explain the parallels between what the US Administration is doing and what “strongmen” in other parts of the world have already done. I also don’t need to start a history lesson. Like the kids say: “If you know, you know”.

    And a lot of us up here know.

    We’re tired. We’re stressed. We’re worried. But more than anything, we’re fucking angry.

    While I’m sure I’ll have more to say about all of this in the coming months, like everyone else, I don’t know how this will play out or how it will end.

    What I do know is that, no matter what happens, I will stand with my country.

    Elbows Up, Canada!

    1. There are a few of you. Hi! ↩︎
    2. If there is anyone out there over the age of 12 who doesn’t know then damn, I envy you. ↩︎
    3. I’m not saying his name. Unless you live under a rock, you know who I’m talking about. ↩︎
    4. For example: A hosting company may be Canadian, but they use AWS or Azure. GrapheneOS is Canadian but the underlying code is Google and it’s only supported on Pixel devices, etc. Just keep at it, investigate all possible alternatives, sweat the small details. ↩︎

  • Pause

    Things have been busy and crazy and I’ve been dealing with a bummer of a head cold for well over a week. I haven’t really had the time, nor have I been in the mood to write anything here. So while I work on a post about what’s really on my mind, here’s something quick for now.

    TureNAS Scale is running and Plex is plexing and that is good.

    The old laptop was wiped and Linux Mint was installed. Gave it a run, found it a little too, uh, I dunno. It just didn’t jive with me. So I wiped it again and installed Ubuntu Studio.

    You know what was nice? Two operating system installs (Mint & Studio) and each was just:

    • Pick a language/keyboard layout
    • Pick your internet (if you want, don’t need to, can do it later)
    • Choose a disc
    • Give your computer a name, create a computer user/password
    • Install.

    That’s it.

    No having to login with an online account.

    No having to pay close attention to, and opting out of, a laundry list of “privacy” settings.

    No answering questions of what you’ll be using your computer for.

    No “Let’s customize your experience by checking more boxes!”

    No nags to use the trial of Office 365.1

    No Join Game Pass for $1 options (maybe later because you’re not allowed to just say No).

    No LinkedIn, no Instagram, no Photoshop Express, no whatever other paid promotions are littered in the Start menu.

    None of having to go through this absolute bullshit.

    Holy hell, I really don’t think we realize how much these giant tech companies take from us.

    1: Now officially called “Microsoft 365 Copilot app”. I just can’t with this AI shit.

  • Project: Friction – Update 3. This Mess Is A Place

    Getting there. It’s a slog, but I’m getting there. Just so you’re on the level, here’s what we’re working with:

    • An old WD Elements “bookshelf”, 4TB platter drive that we got in sometime in, I think, 2012. It has old family computer backups as well as a massive folder of photos.
    • Tiny computer with 256GB main SSD and a 1TB SSD storage drive (both M.2 2280). Going to be a NAS.
    • Old Dell Latitude with 1TB 2.5″ SSD. Old kids computer that had been turned into a temporary Plex server.
    • USB enclosure with a 500GB, 2.5″ SSD. My backup. Had music shit on it that has since been organized and moved over to my main desktop.

    The WD is the one that was taking a shit last week and while I wasn’t overly worried about the computer backups, I was very worried about the photos. There are pictures in there from as far back as 2009.

    This is how I manged to work things:

    I wrote about the the bullshit with TrueNAS Core, and while I’m still somewhat pissed about them killing plugins, at least what’s setup now is functioning as a NAS. I’d also written about how the WD drive was freezing my main desktop when I was copying files. I plugged the WD into the Old Dell Latitude, let Windows 10 do whatever repairs it wanted, and then copied the Photos directory over to the laptop a bit at a time. Then connected the laptop to the NAS and copied the files over to that. Then connected my main desktop to the NAS and copied the files here. Then I did this with the rest of the backup folders on the WD. One good thing that came out of this was I took time and went through my ridiculously massive backup folder, organized it and shitcanned so much useless crap (like full Time Machine backups from 2010 though 2016ish). Once I culled that folder, the entirety of our family archive took on a more reasonable size.

    Last thing that’s being coped over is the Plex library which should be done in (looks over at laptop) about half an hour. Then another hour or so to copy it from the NAS to my computer (or Ms. Tucker’s – we’ll see how mine is doing for space) is now copying over to my desktop.

    Then the real fun will begin! Stay with me now…

    • Remove the 1TB drive from the laptop, put it in my USB enclosure
      • This will be plugged into the TinyPC for extra storage purposes.
    • Wipe the Tiny PC and install TrueNAS Scale.
      • Copy backup and media files over to the NAS
      • Install and configure Plex server.
    • Put the 500GB drive from the enclosure into the laptop.
      • I’m going to install Linux on this for two reasons:
        • Writing
        • Steam (only for JackBox. It’s the only game that will run on the laptop and it’s a fave when we have people over. We plug the laptop into the TV, fire up JackBox and enjoy the shenanigans).
      • Gonna give Linux Mint a spin, I think.

    Slow and steady wins the race and all of that shit. We’re getting there :)

  • Project: Friction – Update 2. Backup And Bullshit.

    Data backup has been, well, something. While working on the NAS, I’ve been figuring out how much data we have to backup and where to put it. It was in the middle of this where I found out that the freezing I’ve been experiencing on my PC was most likely due to one of two things:

    • A whacked out file somewhere in the large mess of directories and files or
    • the backup drive I was trying to copy file over to/from

    I zeroed in on the drive and started using Konsole to copy but holy hell, even rsync froze the computer. Jesus, wtf?

    I did some research and found that freezing while copying large amounts of files can be attributed to a bad disk – and for some reason I’d ignored the fact that this large USB backup drive is well over ten years old. Guess I needed to check it for errors and, well, smartctl wouldn’t pick up anything about this old drive at all, so eeeek. At this point I don’t even know how it was managing to spin its platters. All I knew was Linux wanted all but nothing to do with it.

    I plugged the damn thing into the old Windows 10 laptop we have that’s doing nothing but being an interim Plex server (until I get a NAS up and running, which is a story on its own) to see if I could find out anything and Windows complained that “This disk has errors, please fix”. I let it do its thing and everything worked out enough for me to move data off that old drive onto the SSD on the laptop – which is now being copied over to the secondary drive on my desktop (by way of the temporary TrueNAS Core machine). Convoluted? Sure. But, as they say, it is what it is for now.

    Speaking of Windows. The aforementioned laptop is an old Dell, i5 that I put a new SSD drive in. It runs Windows 10 which has been fine. Yesterday I turned it on and it took its time updating, like Windows does, and it eventually landed here:

    What the absolute shit is this? A few more services, eh? I really, really dislike this “oh! they must have all the things connected all the time!” mindset.

    I clicked Remind me in 3 days (because of course they won’t make a button that’s labeled: “No, never. Absolutely not ever in a million years do I want to connect to more of your services, even if it’s just a few”. That would take up the whole bottom of that screen and it would look yukky design wise) and it put me at the login screen. I logged in…

    .. And there was a Copilot button next the the Start menu.

    I just can’t with this AI shit. At least I could uninstall it. No matter. Once all the file copying and NAS setup is done, this old laptop is going to be introduced to Linux.

    Goddamned Phone

    GrapheneOS update: I got one of my work apps sending notifications. I really wish I could move to this full time, but I just can’t at the moment.

  • Project: Friction – Update 1. “Oh, Come ON!”

    Project: Friction is ongoing. Working to setup a NAS has been… friction-y.

    It took a few attempts to install TrueNAS Core on the refurbished desktop but I got it. Once I got going, took about maybe ten minutes from starting the install to loading the interface up and logging in. Maybe another five minutes to create a pool and a share and a user and opening a file explorer and moving some test files around.

    I’m impressed.

    Moved on to getting a Plex Server up and running because the Internet says this be super easy on TrueNAS Core (and why I chose it in the first place). Started the process and…

    Well, there’s an error, so there is a web page out there that will tell me what the actual shit this error is. I’m sure it’s a config issue of some sort or I need to manually add a … wait, what? They have a new version called TrueNAS Scale and have just completely shitcanned their plugins in Core?

    Maybe I should have read more about TrueNAS Core before I dove in and got this far, but come on! I’d have been happy with “This plugin is unsupported: it blows up, you’re on your own.”

    This is some bullshit, lemme tell you what. Guess I’ll be checking out Scale.

  • Really?

    Moving my online accounts away from my Microsoft email. Decided to click the Summary button again for shits and giggles.

    Can someone please tell me, with a straight face, how the fuck this makes life better? This Summary is the literal content of the email Parts Select sent me minus a few words and small images. As with the last time, it took me the same amount of time to read the actual email.

    I can’t help but think I caused a brownout in some podunk town when I clicked that Summary By Copilot button just to get that output.

    AI is so stupid. Every single time I try it, I’m reminded how utterly stupid it is.

  • ToneLib-GFX: libgl1-mesa-glx

    On Ubuntu Studio I ran into an issue installing ToneLib-GFX. It was telling me that the libgl1-mesa-glx dependency was missing on my system.

    Here’s my notes on the two ways I could get this solved. Note: ToneLib-GFX-amd64.deb file is in my Downloads directory.

    Download/Command Line

    Download the package. I got it at pkgs.org but I’m sure you can find it all over the place.

    This will, of course, put it in your Downloads folder

    cd to Downloads, then:

    $ sudo dpkg -i libgl1-mesa-glx_22.3.6-1+deb12u1_amd64.deb

    Once this runs, then install ToneLib:

    $ sudo dpkg -i ToneLib-GFX-amd64.deb

    Command Line Only

    Update apt

    $ sudo apt update

    Install the package

    sudo apt -y install libgl1-mesa-glx

    Once that’s complete, install ToneLib

    $ sudo dpkg -i ToneLib-GFX-amd64.deb

  • 2/24/2025 – Randoms Go Boom!

    Oh, FFS. Really. FFS.

    Weirdness abounds all of a sudden. First up, Plasma Discover is acting strange. I get this when I launch it:

    Dunno why. Researching online shows that I may have (re)configured repositories when installing my shit. Or not. Who knows really.

    I do know that when I uncheck all of these:

    The error goes away, but then I have problems installing shit. Windscribe was a particular pain to get on here even though I’ve never had issues installing it in the past. I did find a fix for this (the missing dependencies bit), however it included rechecking all of those Other Software options. So now the error is back in Discover… until I pulled the nuclear option and ran sudo rm -r sources.list.d (after I backed it up, of course). That removed all of those entries on that list and I probably have to build the repositories again… we’ll see I guess.

    Another thing to note is that my computer is randomly freezing. No rhyme or reason. Just in the middle of something, anything, and boom! Frozen. Hasn’t happened since early this morning, so maybe that nuke I dropped on the repository sources fixed up something else that fixed the freezing? I’ll never know.

    I’m kind of kicking myself since the Ubuntu Studio install I had prior to the complete wipe and reinstall was humming along just fine. Or was it? everything but my gamez was ok. Now my gamez are ok.

    Make of it what you will.

    I’m not adverse to wiping and starting all over again, but I’d much rather not.

  • Installing deb Packages

    Ok, Right Click > Open With > Discover is fine, but I found this to be the better.

    Open a command line (Konsole). cd to where your app installer is. Then run this:

    $ sudo dpkg -i your_app.deb

    And that should do the trick. Note: pay attention to prompts. Sometimes you have to do a Y/N thing or just hit enter if it says something like “This will take up 800k of space or whatever.

    If you see a message about missing dependencies: something like this:

    dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of your_app:your_app depends on this_thing; however:
     Package this_thing is not installed.

    This command should do the trick.

    $ sudo apt-get install -f

    Want to uninstall?

    $ sudo dpkg -r your_app

    And voila.