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crazygringoyesterday at 4:23 PM13 repliesview on HN

I don't think they know what Ctrl+Alt+Delete means.

They want to restart it? They want to go to the screen where you can switch users or sign out?

Do they think it's just a fancier way of saying delete?


Replies

jasonjayryesterday at 4:25 PM

The folks at adafruit probably do know, but it does make sense if you expand the words: "Control, Alter, and Delete"

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dylan604yesterday at 4:32 PM

I was going to post a similar comment, and then decided against it. I realized I haven't used Windows as a daily driver in decades and thought maybe there was a new use for it that I was not familiar. Glad to see I wasn't the only one confused by it. Closest I could come was they were going to lock out the user, but that was Windows-L or something wasn't it?

rdiddlyyesterday at 4:33 PM

Reminds me of people who think penultimate is just super-duper-ultimate.

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viccisyesterday at 5:59 PM

It has been used as an idiom to mean stopping or restarting something (the former in this case) for decades: https://wordspy.com/words/ctrl-alt-delete/

I think it's because most people associate Ctrl-Alt-Del with the process of terminating a process, so they use the key sequence itself to refer to the act of terminating something.

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sdsdyesterday at 8:25 PM

Open process manager to force an unresponsive program to close. This has been part of popular lexicon for decades. Eg from the song Death to Los Campesinos, "I'll be ctrl-alt-deleting your face with no reservations"

nine_kyesterday at 4:27 PM

Alter the control, and delete!

In modern Windows, the three-key salute is a way to lock your session securely. Maybe that's what they mean: locking it up?

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ameliusyesterday at 4:29 PM

Maybe we should just install this keypad on our printers and be done with it:

https://www.vectorstock.com/royalty-free-vector/ctrl-alt-del...

saltmateyesterday at 4:39 PM

Does it really matter what "they know"? It seems like the entire post is written by an LLM.

bombcaryesterday at 4:53 PM

Hey, it's similar to Weird Al's song:

Play me online? Well, you know that I'll beat you

If I ever meet you I'll control-alt-delete you

zootboyyesterday at 4:43 PM

Perhaps they were using Ctrl-Alt-Del to get to the Task Manager so that they can kill an unruly process?

RajT88yesterday at 4:27 PM

This is more like installing anti-virus on your 3d printer.

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analog31yesterday at 4:53 PM

It's the same as control open-apple reset.

dfxm12yesterday at 4:42 PM

I don't think there's a reading that suggests it's a good thing for 3D printers. The rest of the page confirms that.