Solved How realistic are my goals?

[blackbird9]

I heard that there is an art form in japan that works by coloring a thread, part by part, so it will result in a complete picture when it is used to weave a belt for a kimino.

I didn't know that... amazing.

 

[Crivens]

I didn't know that... incredible.

Can't find it now - maybe one of our friends from that area can help out. But from me as a german engineer this warranted a respectful tip of the hat.

 

[blackbird9]

I very much agree with Espionage724. Many times, when I can't figure something out, I create a page on it, and explaining it the imagined reader helps me figure out what I need to do.

Same with me. Another personal favourite is explaining the problem in detail to one or more other people on a whiteboard, I find that works in a similar way. There is something about verbalising it, drawing diagrams, and also the feedback from other people, even if they know nothing about the problem; the act of explaining it to them brings out the solution.

 

[Cedric62]

In any case, my counter-advice for the OP is not to spend their money buying cheap laptops or refurbishing them.

I kind of agree, but on the other hand, I do know of a lot of people who own older laptops running Windows 10, but for whatever reason (usually forgotten password) these machines are no longer functional, and they would probably benefit from having a new OS installed on them. FreeBSD probably wouldn't be a good choice, but maybe Mint or some other distro might be appropriate. On the other hand, once you fix something for someone, then you own any minor mishap that may occur with that machine until the end of time.

 

[Cedric62]

However... setting up a business to buy up laptop disposals from larger companies, refurbish them, and then sell them on at a profit on platforms like ebay might be more realistic.

Something along these lines might not be entirely outside the realms of possibility, but maybe the thing for me to do is to first gain a customer base by helping people who own older laptops still running Windows 10. Something to think about, because in my area I know of a few seniors who have totally given up on laptops because of the end of service thing, but maybe installing Linux on their machines might make them happy.

 

[Cedric62]

While many of the complacent post-war western companies left quality on one side, the Japanese with their long tradition of craftmanship took it to heart and really perfected it.

And not only did the management of Western companies not care about quality, but the rank and file production workers would sometimes deliberately sabotage the products they were manufacturing, because they were angry at the company they were working for. I had a good friend who worked at GM engine plant in Michigan, and he once told me that the workers would sometimes line up all of the gaps in the piston rings, on one particular cylinder, so that particular cylinder would have low compression, and the engine would always run a little bit rough. They deliberately did this for years and years, the cars were shipped to the dealers, but then when the factory eventually closed, no one could understand why. It is no wonder that the Japanese ate our lunch.

 

[blackbird9]

And not only did the management of Western companies not care about quality, but the rank and file production workers would sometimes deliberately sabotage the products they were manufacturing, because they were angry at the company they were working for. I had a good friend who worked at GM engine plant in Michigan, and he once told me that the workers would sometimes line up all of the gaps in the piston rings, on one particular cylinder, so that particular cylinder would have low compression, and the engine would always run a little bit rough. They deliberately did this for years and years, the cars were shipped to the dealers, but then when the factory eventually closed, no one could understand why. It is no wonder that the Japanese ate our lunch.

Another part of Japan's success was absolute job security, "job for life", long-term commitment on both sides; well, you know what we had: LEAN, 6-sigma, stack ranking, "performance related pay", "360-degree input", H1B's, hire-and-fire, train your offshore replacement... etc.

And they had a long-term investment outlook within the business too, not just chasing this quarter's figures, "making the numbers", and the guy who runs the company will only be in the seat for a couple of years until he gets a big payoff and leaves, if it's even that long...

 

[Cedric62]

Note i use "clone" instead of rsync.

Thanks, I will look into it.