a.k.a. Little L

I recently found my 11” MacBook Air. I was impressed at how thin it was. It was fun to have a Mac in such a small package, but, after working with my Anker 7-in-1 USB dock/hub/dongle with my iPad mini, I’m not sure I would go back.

I have my favorite keyboard, which requires being connected via USB-C. I have power plugged into the USB-C PD port on the Anker (but my iPad says “not charging.”).

Most of the time, I use my iPad as a small tablet/reader. The mini size is perfect for me. Easy to carry. Most of time, I don’t need a keyboard. It’s either short texts that I type out on the on-screen keyboard or I use dictation.

I’ve been using the Keyboardio Atreus with my Macs, for the past few years. I really, really like them. They feel good to type on and my wrists are happier.

Most of the time I work on a Mac, but I do have a PC that I need to use. Usually, I’ll use it remotely, via Microsoft’s RDP app. But, sometimes, I’m over at my PC workstation and I really miss having that same key layout. So, I’ve purchased another Atreus from Keyboardio and set it up on my work PC.

The website claims that, out of the box, it works on Mac, Windows and Linux. Which it did, except one thing. I could not login. I was pressing the Control and the Alt and the Backspace key. Nothing happened. I opened up Chrysalis, the GUI configuration tool, and checked the key assignments. All looked good. Eventually, I figured it out.

I’m posting this as a reminder to myself, and in case anyone else runs into this same issue.

To send the Control-Alt-Delete command at login, you have to ALSO hold down the FUN key. The Fun key changes the Backspace key from "Backspace" to "Delete”. Subtle.

As I’ve mentioned before, our network at NAYA is busy. Dealing with network issues is one of our biggest headaches.

The students are doing their quarterly standards-testing. And once again, network traffic looks like it might be an issue.

This article, UNIX network performance analysis, came over Twitter as I was scarfing some gumbo between troubleshooting sessions.

Some good, basic tips for analyzing your network.

I also found a podcast, The Root Cause, which talks about system admin issues. I’m loading it up on my iPod shuffle. I’ll let you know how it goes.