• Stuff

    From Spectre@21:3/101 to Anybody on Wed Jan 27 07:38:00 2021
    Looks like I'm due for a new round of hardware failures. :P So with Sabretooth retired, and brightmatter upgraded, and using 1/4 of the power of the FX990+F8150 combo, it was time to move the old brightmatter to daily drive...

    Landed the monster case on the bench, hit the switch and it flickered and died... initially thought it was the PS, but during the case swap and PS exchange, the original of which was a 650W with a dead fan and signs of heat stress.... the mobo turns out to have leaking electrolytics on it too...been there in the past... random startup problems, that turn into no start, and intermittant failure as well.

    Leaves me down two systems, one power hungry but functional, and one now faulty that would normally chew a lot less juice. Leaving me with a standby NUC to press into service. Always something eh.

    TLP still has some strange issues, one I've fixed before but for the life of me can't recall what I did to fix it. The Reader is refusing to update its last read pointers making reading busy areas interesting, and a little beyond me. Thsats about the worst though, and I seem to be getting back on top of it slowly.

    On the plus side, I've had concentrated gorefest, of Ash vs Evil Dead. Its not new, but its been entertaining. I acquired 2 seasons from somewhere, watching the third season on dailymotion. It peters out at the end of season 3..

    Spec


    --- SuperBBS v1.17-3 (Eval)
    * Origin: (21:3/101)
  • From Spectre@21:3/101 to Anybody on Thu Apr 22 11:28:00 2021
    After a 4-6 week hiatus from streaming. I've been under domestic pressure to get out of the unit more. Which is fine but its a little tricky when she's got the car... and working weird hours doing aged and disability care at two different locations.

    Anyway I've been sucked back into the vortex that is streaming at the church. Did lay down a few rules, and probably stupidly shot myself in the foot by running with Sundays which means I have to listen to this over the top band in a confined space. Stilll its not going to kill me, I s'pose. And only wandering in to work on "stuff" on Mondays.

    They run a food bank out of the church also... which is a bit hit and miss, they seem to end up with a lot of "Fruit n Veg" which goes to waste. Its probably pretty marginal on arrival, and doesn't last more than a couple of days sitting in the "storage room". So I ended up taking home about 20kg of plums... turned them into a semi lifetime supply of jam. Oddly they had a single bunch of rhubarb come on through too...interestingly enough, although it feeds the possums mostly, I have rhubarb in a planter out front of the unit. Also got cuttings of a few herbs out there, from fairly tired looking smaples from foodbank as well.

    Spec


    *** THE READER V4.50 [freeware]
    --- SuperBBS v1.17-3 (Eval)
    * Origin: Scrawled in haste at The Lower Planes (21:3/101)
  • From Jeff@21:1/180 to Spectre on Thu Apr 22 18:24:11 2021
    On 22 Apr 2021, Spectre said the following...
    After a 4-6 week hiatus from streaming. I've been under domestic
    pressure to get out of the unit more. Which is fine but its a little tricky when she's got the car... and working weird hours doing aged and disability care at two different locations.

    Interesting. We're a bunch of introverts here and nobody's pressuring anybody to get out of the house. My daughter wants to, but is respecting our wishes that she not. My fiancee and I are dreading the day we get called back into
    the office. And my mother-in-law-to-be doesn't seem to have anywhere she
    wants to go.

    Anyway I've been sucked back into the vortex that is streaming at the church. Did lay down a few rules, and probably stupidly shot myself in
    the foot by running with Sundays which means I have to listen to this
    over the top band in a confined space. Stilll its not going to kill me,
    I s'pose. And only wandering in to work on "stuff" on Mondays.

    I'm in a band at church, and we haven't returned to the church yet. We
    exchange recordings in a dropbox account and it gets mixed into a backing track, which the primary singer is video-recorded singing along to. This then gets inserted into the live-stream.

    On a good note, pre-COVID I became a volunteer for a local charity that
    offers music lessons to foster children, and it looks like that is picking up again. As I'm sure you can guess, COVID decimated in-person music lessons. I tried virtual lessons, but trying to tune a guitar over ZOOM can be...
    trying. But now that I've had my 2nd Pfizer shot, according to the CDC, I can go into homes with a single household present without fear. I will probably still wear a mask, though.

    Jeff.

    "For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong." -- H. L. Mencken, who indeed was a racist thereby proving himself right.

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/08/26 (Raspberry Pi/32)
    * Origin: Cold War Computing BBS (21:1/180)
  • From Spectre@21:3/101 to Jeff on Fri Apr 23 19:05:00 2021
    I'm in a band at church, and we haven't returned to the church yet.
    We exchange recordings in a dropbox account and it gets mixed into a backing track, which the primary singer is video-recorded
    singing along to. This then gets inserted into the live-stream.

    Now that is some theory... I don't think the Vortex could get organised enough to do that. On the other hand, we have Tai, running a 32 channel desk to mix the live audio. Generally he does a good job, but does have some issue with individual musicians confusing volume with quality. So this one goes out warts and all.

    After a 4-6 week hiatus from streaming. I've been under domestic
    pressure to get out of the unit more.

    Interesting. We're a bunch of introverts here and nobody's pressuring anybody to get out of the house.

    Well I'd be quite happy sitting around the unit too, in truth I know I spend to much time in the "pooty" chair, and time alone is good for anyone, so occasionally she can be home by herself relaxing and watching 500hrs of Korean series on nitflux. So getting out is actually a good thing for me to do.

    Spec


    --- SuperBBS v1.17-3 (Eval)
    * Origin: (21:3/101)
  • From Vk3jed@21:1/109 to Jeff on Sun Apr 25 06:50:00 2021
    On 04-22-21 19:24, Jeff wrote to Spectre <=-

    Interesting. We're a bunch of introverts here and nobody's pressuring anybody to get out of the house. My daughter wants to, but is
    respecting our wishes that she not. My fiancee and I are dreading the
    day we get called back into the office. And my mother-in-law-to-be
    doesn't seem to have anywhere she wants to go.

    I'm more an ambivert - I both seek out people and solitude as well - they give me different energies, and I need both. As a result, I'm always out doing stuff (like this weekend at the Victorian Masters Athletics Championships, though right now, enjoying a little solitude, before getting the day underway).
    My husband, OTOH, is a total introvert, and is happy staying home reading.

    On a good note, pre-COVID I became a volunteer for a local charity that offers music lessons to foster children, and it looks like that is
    picking up again. As I'm sure you can guess, COVID decimated in-person music lessons. I tried virtual lessons, but trying to tune a guitar
    over ZOOM can be... trying. But now that I've had my 2nd Pfizer shot, according to the CDC, I can go into homes with a single household
    present without fear. I will probably still wear a mask, though.

    Volunteering is good. I'm a volunteer firefighter myself. That's also helped bump me up the priority order for the COVID vaccine. Got my first doze coming on Tuesday.


    ... Being seven points behind gives you a definite psychological advantage.
    === MultiMail/Win v0.52
    --- SBBSecho 3.10-Linux
    * Origin: Freeway BBS Bendigo,Australia freeway.apana.org.au (21:1/109)
  • From Spectre@21:3/101 to Anyone on Fri Aug 20 13:56:00 2021
    Here in 'Straya we have the NBN, frequently known for "no bloody network", but nominally the National Broadband network. It arrives over copper, and to the supplied connection device it looks remarkably like an ADSL/DSL connection although its not. In fairness though, I've never managed to exceed its capabilities and in my area at least it does provide a pretty good service.

    Now I get to the problem section, I can't get my head round why if it drops connection for whatever reason, usually power failure, that it then takes anywhere from one hour to ~twenty four hours to re-establish a link.

    This has been exacerbated by a bounce in the power I caused with the fridge tripping the RCD while I was moving it. Followed the next day by an unknown failure during the night. Leaving me netless for the better part of two days.

    Grumble over,
    Spec


    *** THE READER V4.50 [freeware]
    --- SuperBBS v1.17-3 (Eval)
    * Origin: We know where you live, we're coming round to get you (21:3/101)
  • From Spectre@21:3/101 to Vorlon on Sat Aug 21 13:17:00 2021
    VDSL2 works the same way that ADSL2+ doe, and should only take a few minutes to sync.

    Shrug, I'm assured its normal. The NBN terminal box/PAD or whatever it is has a reputation for being "brittle" though with failures common, and its that end of things that takes six months to sort itself out.

    Spec


    *** THE READER V4.50 [freeware]
    --- SuperBBS v1.17-3 (Eval)
    * Origin: We know where you live, we're coming round to get you (21:3/101)
  • From Spectre@21:3/101 to Anyone on Fri Jul 29 20:40:00 2022
    May you live in interesting times,

    I'm finding having to deal with aged care for my mother is... interesting... upon moving in she had a raft of things she wanted to get in place... nothing crazy, fridge, bookcase, tallboy/chest of drawers...

    Of course nothing is easy... she wanted a larger fridge than she had previously, and like previously wanted it sat on top of a table so it was
    easy for her to get into without having to bend to much.. she's got arthritis in the spine and two knee replacements so bending and kneeling are difficult
    to say the least. The facility don't want a fridge on top of a table.. so in trying to work around that I found a fridge with a similar footprint ~50cmSq about 20"Sq in the old money.. but 1.2M, bout 4' tall don't like that its to big... sigh... going to have a flea in the ear of OHS about accessability to said fridge..

    Bookcase turned out not to be easy either... this one made more sense though, it stands some 5'6" or so... not huge.. worried about it tipping forward
    should someone lose balance and lean on it to pull themselves up. To whit
    they want to screw it to the wall, but of course while this shouldn't take
    long they don't seem to have found a round-tuit for it yet.. about a week later.

    The rest of the list for the moment is on hold. She did get the new DVD
    player though, the old one didn't survive transport for some reason. Loaded
    one disc and died.

    Looking for a new rental is also proving interesting.. the unit was cheep
    when I got it, and in this day and age its exceedingly budget. But need
    extra bedrooms for extraneous family, and the granddaughter. A 3 bedroom
    house has shot through the roof used to be low $300s previously, lucky to
    find something in the mid to high 300s now with most starting to push the low $400s. Where I previously looked like a safe bet, disabillity pension, nominally single male with 2 sons... all of a sudden it requires to much of
    my pension to cover the rent at a level the agents feel is unsustainable. So the slow search goes on.. on a timetable for October school hols though... unless something comes my way soon things are going to end up on a tight time schedule.

    Spec


    *** THE READER V4.50 [freeware]
    --- SuperBBS v1.17-3 (Eval)
    * Origin: There is no cloud, just someone elses computer! (21:3/101)
  • From Spectre@21:3/101 to Anybody on Thu Apr 22 12:28:00 2021
    After a 4-6 week hiatus from streaming. I've been under domestic pressure to get out of the unit more. Which is fine but its a little tricky when she's got the car... and working weird hours doing aged and disability care at two different locations.

    Anyway I've been sucked back into the vortex that is streaming at the church. Did lay down a few rules, and probably stupidly shot myself in the foot by running with Sundays which means I have to listen to this over the top band in a confined space. Stilll its not going to kill me, I s'pose. And only wandering in to work on "stuff" on Mondays.

    They run a food bank out of the church also... which is a bit hit and miss, they seem to end up with a lot of "Fruit n Veg" which goes to waste. Its probably pretty marginal on arrival, and doesn't last more than a couple of days sitting in the "storage room". So I ended up taking home about 20kg of plums... turned them into a semi lifetime supply of jam. Oddly they had a single bunch of rhubarb come on through too...interestingly enough, although it feeds the possums mostly, I have rhubarb in a planter out front of the unit. Also got cuttings of a few herbs out there, from fairly tired looking smaples from foodbank as well.

    Spec


    *** THE READER V4.50 [freeware]
    --- SuperBBS v1.17-3 (Eval)
    * Origin: Scrawled in haste at The Lower Planes (21:3/101)
  • From Jeff@21:1/180 to Spectre on Thu Apr 22 19:24:10 2021
    On 22 Apr 2021, Spectre said the following...
    After a 4-6 week hiatus from streaming. I've been under domestic
    pressure to get out of the unit more. Which is fine but its a little tricky when she's got the car... and working weird hours doing aged and disability care at two different locations.

    Interesting. We're a bunch of introverts here and nobody's pressuring anybody to get out of the house. My daughter wants to, but is respecting our wishes that she not. My fiancee and I are dreading the day we get called back into
    the office. And my mother-in-law-to-be doesn't seem to have anywhere she
    wants to go.

    Anyway I've been sucked back into the vortex that is streaming at the church. Did lay down a few rules, and probably stupidly shot myself in
    the foot by running with Sundays which means I have to listen to this
    over the top band in a confined space. Stilll its not going to kill me,
    I s'pose. And only wandering in to work on "stuff" on Mondays.

    I'm in a band at church, and we haven't returned to the church yet. We
    exchange recordings in a dropbox account and it gets mixed into a backing track, which the primary singer is video-recorded singing along to. This then gets inserted into the live-stream.

    On a good note, pre-COVID I became a volunteer for a local charity that
    offers music lessons to foster children, and it looks like that is picking up again. As I'm sure you can guess, COVID decimated in-person music lessons. I tried virtual lessons, but trying to tune a guitar over ZOOM can be...
    trying. But now that I've had my 2nd Pfizer shot, according to the CDC, I can go into homes with a single household present without fear. I will probably still wear a mask, though.

    Jeff.

    "For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong." -- H. L. Mencken, who indeed was a racist thereby proving himself right.

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/08/26 (Raspberry Pi/32)
    * Origin: Cold War Computing BBS (21:1/180)
  • From Spectre@21:3/101 to Jeff on Fri Apr 23 20:05:00 2021
    I'm in a band at church, and we haven't returned to the church yet.
    We exchange recordings in a dropbox account and it gets mixed into a backing track, which the primary singer is video-recorded
    singing along to. This then gets inserted into the live-stream.

    Now that is some theory... I don't think the Vortex could get organised enough to do that. On the other hand, we have Tai, running a 32 channel desk to mix the live audio. Generally he does a good job, but does have some issue with individual musicians confusing volume with quality. So this one goes out warts and all.

    After a 4-6 week hiatus from streaming. I've been under domestic
    pressure to get out of the unit more.

    Interesting. We're a bunch of introverts here and nobody's pressuring anybody to get out of the house.

    Well I'd be quite happy sitting around the unit too, in truth I know I spend to much time in the "pooty" chair, and time alone is good for anyone, so occasionally she can be home by herself relaxing and watching 500hrs of Korean series on nitflux. So getting out is actually a good thing for me to do.

    Spec


    --- SuperBBS v1.17-3 (Eval)
    * Origin: (21:3/101)
  • From Vk3jed@21:1/109 to Jeff on Sun Apr 25 07:50:00 2021
    On 04-22-21 19:24, Jeff wrote to Spectre <=-

    Interesting. We're a bunch of introverts here and nobody's pressuring anybody to get out of the house. My daughter wants to, but is
    respecting our wishes that she not. My fiancee and I are dreading the
    day we get called back into the office. And my mother-in-law-to-be
    doesn't seem to have anywhere she wants to go.

    I'm more an ambivert - I both seek out people and solitude as well - they give me different energies, and I need both. As a result, I'm always out doing stuff (like this weekend at the Victorian Masters Athletics Championships, though right now, enjoying a little solitude, before getting the day underway).
    My husband, OTOH, is a total introvert, and is happy staying home reading.

    On a good note, pre-COVID I became a volunteer for a local charity that offers music lessons to foster children, and it looks like that is
    picking up again. As I'm sure you can guess, COVID decimated in-person music lessons. I tried virtual lessons, but trying to tune a guitar
    over ZOOM can be... trying. But now that I've had my 2nd Pfizer shot, according to the CDC, I can go into homes with a single household
    present without fear. I will probably still wear a mask, though.

    Volunteering is good. I'm a volunteer firefighter myself. That's also helped bump me up the priority order for the COVID vaccine. Got my first doze coming on Tuesday.


    ... Being seven points behind gives you a definite psychological advantage.
    === MultiMail/Win v0.52
    --- SBBSecho 3.10-Linux
    * Origin: Freeway BBS Bendigo,Australia freeway.apana.org.au (21:1/109)
  • From Spectre@21:3/101 to Anyone on Fri Aug 20 14:56:00 2021
    Here in 'Straya we have the NBN, frequently known for "no bloody network", but nominally the National Broadband network. It arrives over copper, and to the supplied connection device it looks remarkably like an ADSL/DSL connection although its not. In fairness though, I've never managed to exceed its capabilities and in my area at least it does provide a pretty good service.

    Now I get to the problem section, I can't get my head round why if it drops connection for whatever reason, usually power failure, that it then takes anywhere from one hour to ~twenty four hours to re-establish a link.

    This has been exacerbated by a bounce in the power I caused with the fridge tripping the RCD while I was moving it. Followed the next day by an unknown failure during the night. Leaving me netless for the better part of two days.

    Grumble over,
    Spec


    *** THE READER V4.50 [freeware]
    --- SuperBBS v1.17-3 (Eval)
    * Origin: We know where you live, we're coming round to get you (21:3/101)
  • From Vorlon@21:1/195 to Spectre on Fri Aug 20 16:14:32 2021

    Hello Spectre!

    20 Aug 21 14:56, you wrote to Anyone:

    Now I get to the problem section, I can't get my head round why if it drops onnection for whatever reason, usually power failure, that it
    then takes anywhere from one hour to twenty four hours to
    re-establish a link.

    VDSL2 works the same way that ADSL2+ doe, and should only take a few minutes to sync.

    You have either a line issue, or a faulty router.



    Vorlon


    --- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20180707
    * Origin: Dragon's Lair BBS, Telnet: dragon.vk3heg.net (21:1/195)
  • From Spectre@21:3/101 to Vorlon on Sat Aug 21 14:17:00 2021
    VDSL2 works the same way that ADSL2+ doe, and should only take a few minutes to sync.

    Shrug, I'm assured its normal. The NBN terminal box/PAD or whatever it is has a reputation for being "brittle" though with failures common, and its that end of things that takes six months to sort itself out.

    Spec


    *** THE READER V4.50 [freeware]
    --- SuperBBS v1.17-3 (Eval)
    * Origin: We know where you live, we're coming round to get you (21:3/101)
  • From Spectre@21:3/101 to Anybody on Tue Jan 26 23:38:00 2021
    Looks like I'm due for a new round of hardware failures. :P So with Sabretooth retired, and brightmatter upgraded, and using 1/4 of the power of the FX990+F8150 combo, it was time to move the old brightmatter to daily drive...

    Landed the monster case on the bench, hit the switch and it flickered and died... initially thought it was the PS, but during the case swap and PS exchange, the original of which was a 650W with a dead fan and signs of heat stress.... the mobo turns out to have leaking electrolytics on it too...been there in the past... random startup problems, that turn into no start, and intermittant failure as well.

    Leaves me down two systems, one power hungry but functional, and one now faulty that would normally chew a lot less juice. Leaving me with a standby NUC to press into service. Always something eh.

    TLP still has some strange issues, one I've fixed before but for the life of me can't recall what I did to fix it. The Reader is refusing to update its last read pointers making reading busy areas interesting, and a little beyond me. Thsats about the worst though, and I seem to be getting back on top of it slowly.

    On the plus side, I've had concentrated gorefest, of Ash vs Evil Dead. Its not new, but its been entertaining. I acquired 2 seasons from somewhere, watching the third season on dailymotion. It peters out at the end of season 3..

    Spec


    --- SuperBBS v1.17-3 (Eval)
    * Origin: (21:3/101)