That’s pretty much the problem. You know how to work around the issue. I know how to work around the issue. Institutional knowledge doesn’t and just opens the application just like they’ve always done. I resolved this one by associating .csv files with Notepad++ company wide. Now this is a mandated change so they’ll grumble and get on track.

The real issue I have with all this is changing data without consent. It’s like the new Notepad is malware all by itself, doesn’t even need remote exploits.

And hello fellow Linux user :)

As I’m in no position to demand company wide switch to a sane operating system I’m constantly in awe of new and innovative ways Microsoft has managed to make my day suck. One such thing is that they have decided that Win 11 Notepad will convert everything it touches to UTF-16. That’s kind of a problem when an external system expects ISO-8859-15 and users have decades of experience in editing said config files with Notepad.

+1 to this one. I cut my teeth writing boring in house business software, some 15 years of that. Time went on and the company started to automate, so as the in house software guy I ended up messing with various pieces of industrial automation. It has been interesting, I’ve learned a lot and coming from outside sometimes I can think non conventional approach to a problem.

Oh, and find a laptop with real RS-232 -port. Protect it with your life.

If this comes to pass I’ll just revert to ways of my youth. I’ll spend more times with books and there is no such thing as online communication or SMS or anything.

I do what I can to not have that future.

It’s really not that hard. I’m the IT department for a medium sized bakery operation. Around 200 employees. This just means that I’m available when it really is necessary. I’m in situ or on call when orders come in and when shipments go out.

In the end I’m cheaper than outsourcing all the in house software and hardware. And I’m available at 3am when the bakers do their thing.

And yeah, I do have somebody somewhat trained in every bakery. When they’re at end of their wit I’m the person they call.

In the end, I’m around 1% of the payroll. IT is not that special.

Find something middle sized. I work in a bakery, around 200 employees. I do some industrial automation, in house IT support and I ended up writing ERP for the joint. I think I could get 20 to 30 percent more at a larger company but here I do what I want and not what I’m told to.