Subj : Re: What to do with a gia To : Barry Martin From : Ky Moffet Date : Sat Oct 17 2020 19:56:00 BARRY MARTIN wrote: > Hi Ky! > Here I also don't get too concerned about LAN machine passwords either. > Out into the real world am more cautious, but a lot of times what I > consider a simple/easy password the password integrity bots indicate are > rather secure. Conventional wisdom is that to be secure, you need passwords with upper and lower case letters, numbers, and symbols. Well, turns out when this was actually challenged... such passwords are no more difficult to crack than if they're, say, all lowercase letters. The most difficult were nonsense phrases like "Barryisameanie" or "mybanksucksdeadfish". > KM> When your street looks like a parking lot, you're really in > KM> trouble... now that every new car has wifi, it's amusing to turn > KM> on the unloved cellphone's wifi and watch the endless parade of > KM> unsecured wireless going by on the highway. (Also amazing that it > KM> has enough range to see them at all.) > > Well that's one way of being entertained! Haven't thought of that, plus > generally drive so don't want to be looking at that cell phone app when I'm about 150 feet from the road... wouldn't want to be driving! > should be paying attention to the road. ...There is someone around here > (the neighbourhood) with an odd SSID: "I can haz internet toos". Yup, > spaces and all! ...Not on currently so can't find their signal > strength. LOL! Must be all cat videos. I see sillies like that once in a while. One that went by was something like "John's Ugly Printer" (for a car?? musta been a laptop or some such) > > KM> what do you mean, I'm running the copy in D:\storage instead of > KM> the one in C:\Utility ?? Or worse... what do you mean, you're > KM> running the copy from over on \\Bullet\F:\Utility?? > > Yup: BTDT. Have made a work directory and for trying to make it easy > have simply copied so the work directories and file names are the same > as the original. ...Oops! How'd I get to working in the original area > when I should be in the work area?! Backups are a good thing to have!! And then forget that you've been moving all the work to D: and discover somewhat late you're still working on the file in C: .... > > KM> Especially with Win7 and Aero active -- it lets you move stuff > KM> around on disk and Aero keeps track. (If you disable Aero, this > KM> does not work.) Pretty soon you don't know where any of your > KM> shortcuts point, even tho they still point at the right program!! > > I got to where I wanted to go! I have no idea how I got there, but I'm > there! Well, I'm somewhere, anyway... > KM> It's the one feature that endeared Aero to me (otherwise I can't > KM> stand it, because I can't get eye-restful colors) because it > KM> tolerated my dragging stuff around without troubling to > KM> reinstall, AND without editing the wandering program's shortcut. > > Probably creates some sort of a virtual drive and when you want to use a > programme the programme is working on its original home, you just think > you're working elsewehere. Being relly virtual! Nope, the shortcut actually gets changed to point to wherever it went. > KM> Oh yeah, now I have textfiles in the root of every drive, so I > KM> can see where I am even if it's non-obvious (or I'm oblivious). > KM> No content, just need the filename to tell me where I am. Eg. > KM> Silver_C_WD500.txt > > Yup. 0 bytes is fine as long as it tells me where I am. And with NTFS, files under about 1k are stored in the file allocation table, so they don't waste clusters. I'm not sure how this works if the table gets munged, but it does auto-backups, so... > > For a while I was running three MythTV Backends. All three (or maybe > just the first two) Desktops were the same (because running the same > Ubuntu version), so that didn't help. Could have changed the picture > but a lot of times whatever I was doing was covering most of the Desktop > so that wouldn't have helped. Finally created a Desktop icon; didn't go > anywhere but did show whare I was. That's a good idea. My desktops used to look different enough that I'd always know at least which PC I was on (when they share a monitor) but then I started using my custom PCLOS install and of course it already looks as desired... so now I have to check where I am again. Fortunately the confusion is among laptops, not everyday systems. Well, unless Silver II or Fireball has PCLOS up... > > To semi-further complicate things I use one monitor off an HDMI switch. > Had different keyboards amd mice and those were identified -- how come > my mouse isn't working? Oh - wrong video input! Oh yeah, I do that with Bullet all the time... forget that it has its own keyboard and then wonder why input doesn't work. It should be obvious because one keyboard is wireless and the other is both wired and quite heavy, but apparently I do not always notice the difference. > > > Linux just knows. > KM> I'd like to know how it just knows! > The Shadow Knows!! But I don't have a PC named Shadow... > > >> Possible incomplete/incorrect programming. > > KM> Bingo. This is the hazard of having unfinished features, which > > KM> was like as not the root of the problem. > > I C:/ > KM> Time to upgrade your compiler. > > Time to upgrade my brain so I understand the complier! Wait, I could get a brain upgrade?? > > > Yes, have run into a few of those. And have sometimes seen where > > there's an exchange between a user and the author where the author > > states he's just not interested enough in that feature/option to do > > it, or admits it's beyond his capabilities. > KM> Too bad more of these don't get picked up by better/more > KM> interested programmers. > > They're creating their own! Their own bugs, more like!! > My old laptop doesn't have that issue (fortunately!!). Back to the > notebook, not sure if the problem is something with the built-in WiFi as > even after booting it will randomly disconnect (which is why I got the > dongle in the first place). > Um... is it using the linux Broadcom driver? last I paid attention, it was notoriously unstable. Or why linux and laptop wifi used to be such an adventure. > I'll have to eventually check that. Initially I was thinking of > replacing the WiFi module with one that will do both bands but then was > reminded the antenna would probably be wrong as designed for the 2.4 GHz > band only. Seems like there was another problem. Anyway, plugging in > the dual-band dongle was the safer option, though I did forget about the > driver having to be loaded for it to work. (Driver loads and works > fine, just need to load the kernel first and the kernel needs to > connect....) Ah, the goofiness is almost certainly an issue with the driver for the internal wifi chip. So... dongle. (I have several; they work fine, even the $3 ones. Actually, I wish I had some more of the $3 ones.) > Some things are very easy doodled on paper and get very difficult with > attempting the actual implementation. I've seen posts in StackOverflow > where the desired result seems fairly simple: should be able to add a > grep here and a &2> there to get the desired output. Thirty lines of > code later.... Oh yeah... I think the actual solution is "head explodes". > Yup: sometimes one is forced to 'go with the flow' even though it's > wrong. You and I might be able to get by using old/antiquated software > but companies can't, partially/mostly because of support. Probably a > good example is when they don't "keep up": pretty soon they're left > behind, forced to use a 286 because their software won't run on anything > newer. NASA used to run around collecting 486s because they were so totally a known system -- since you can't send the repair guy out to Jupiter. And I knew someone who in the late 1990s was still scrounging XT boards for a cloth-cutting machine that needed it to interface... 10 cents worth of computer and ten grand worth of cutter. > > KM> If only thinking could instantly install the OS of our > KM> choice, with all the desired features... I know! I'll call it > KM> Telepathy. > > Let's float that idea to the flagpole and see who salutes! > > Insert 'saaaaalute!' from the old Hee-Haw show. :) Hee-hee-heee-heee-he-haw-haw-haw! > > KM> Wait, why is DOS up on the flagpole?? > > It rose above the others? It boots faster!! >> > I have a bad habit of sometimes playing 'Stack'..... > KM> Mine are more like "randomly piled". > > What I usually wanted was on the bottom and I was getting tired > (pronounced 'annoyed') with taking off the ones on top to get to the one > I wanted. Well, of course! how else would you stack it? > KM> Not even that, but that should it change its mind about > KM> resolution while I'm doing something, I could wind up with > KM> unfortunate clicks. This is why I turn off ALL the sliding and > KM> fading everything on linux, because it can and DOES capture the > KM> wrong click (Windows tends to have a more definite time boundary > KM> for click vs menu, but I've still seen the problem there). > > I tend to not like the 'fancy stuff' so the pretty graphic effects are > turned off fairly quickly. OK, I will admit they are interesting for a > little while, just because it's new. After that, let's get to work! The goofy effects annoyed me even before I discovered this, uh, tripping hazard. So normally I turn them off, but once in a while I miss one, or haven't got to it yet. > KM> If it's actually a 6-core (never heard of 5-core!) then you might > KM> be able to enable 'em (I gather there are BIOS hacks to do this > KM> for some CPUs). I don't know why you'd want to disable one, tho. > > No longer working properly? IOW failed. Sort of like using a battery That's such a corner case it's triangular! > adapter to make an AAA fit because out of AA's. > Basically a tube the size of the larger battery the smaller battery fits > in to. Good idea, if the voltage is the same. I have a clock that's supposed to take a C battery, but those are both pricey and would have required a trek to Walmart, whereas I buy AA bulk from Costco so always have 'em on hand. Upon noting that AA are the same voltage and length as the dead C, I stuffed an AA in the spot, and it works fine! probably won't last as long, but it's been in there for several months now, so... ....actually, probably a good use for batteries that the camera or mouse have rejected (don't like 'em weak), but aren't actually dead yet. > KM> But hyperthreading is still not cores. Paladin's old single-core > KM> P4 gets displayed by Windows as 2 cores, but it's not -- it's > KM> just got hyperthreading. > > Right: essentially make one do the work of two. Well, sort of... the software has to know to use it too. Same with multiple cores. Most software outside of databases and some newer games has no clue. > Lots of storage space is good! Junk fills the space allotted! > KM> Also, I like to have the swapfile on its own partition, along > KM> with any browser cache or other wastes of space, to confine > KM> fragmentation. > > I was trying to find where my swap file is. System Monitor says it's 32 > GiB but I didn't see anything around that size. ...Ah! I put it on the > hard drive (I was looking at the the SSD): the old rule was not to have > something that constantly changed on a solid state drive so I put it on > the rusted one. Egads, no, don't let it be that big, it's a total waste and does nothing but slow down Windows startup (when it decides it needs to rewrite the whole 32GB). Since that system has 32GB RAM, it only needs a token swapfile, and only for stupid programs that insist. So... set it to permanent and a max of 2GB. > > KM> I make images of small drives and store them on a big drive. > > And then an image of the big drive on an even bigger drive! I don't > KM> YES! > > And then -- even bigger?! Well, of course!! It's like fleas, except the other direction. "So, naturalists observe, a flea has smaller fleas that on him prey; and these have smaller still to bite ’em; and so proceed ad infinitum." - Jonathan Swift > > play around with operating systems like you do so no real need to do > > the imaging. For you it makes sense. > KM> Oh, this is not so much for the OS as for the complex tangle of > KM> software that eventually inhabits the OS. Egads!! > > I get confused enough with this one OS! I look at my rather long list of network locations, and wonder how I keep track. > KM> I spent six months rebuilding 14,000 image files for a friend > KM> who'd had his data on a RAID system (some species of linux), > KM> since the best that professional data recovery could do was still > KM> a mess. Me, I ain't NEVER doing any kind of striped, > KM> cobbled-together, or other fragmented-among-the-hardware file > KM> storage. I am not a busy commercial server that needs the > KM> performance boost, and for me it is not worth the risk. > > I have made DVD and external hard drive backups of portions of the NAS. They thought they had backups too. Ooops. I decided right then and there... my data will never live on RAID, or any species of conglombed or striped disks. > >> KM> I dunno VNC... but now I know who to ask. Wikipedia?! > > KM> Some bloke on a BBS. > > :) ...So did I provide a usuable introductory explanation in an > > earlier message? > KM> Uh, somewhere... kinda cross between remote desktop and Mouse > KM> Without Borders... or so I gather... > > BTW, VNC will not support audio, or at least the 'VNC Server' I'm using > here has that 'error' message. Not really an error message as the icon > of the speaker has a line through it and when hover that message comes > up. Maybe there is a higher level version that includes audio. Oh. Normally I don't want audio to migrate with the desktop in use, tho, because half the idea is one system can be busy making noise while another is busy doing actual work. > > Some times they just need the rest! > KM> That was the old method for fixing CDROM drives -- power 'em down > KM> overnight and sometimes they'd get unconfused and work again. > > Wonder if the 'unconfusion' was simply a discharge of capacitors? Probably so. Resets the single brain cell to zero. > .. Older people are just younger people later in their lives. Explains the second childhood! ....or maybe I discharged all my capacitors... þ RNET 2.10U: ILink: Techware BBS þ Hollywood, Ca þ www.techware2k.com --- QScan/PCB v1.20a / 01-0462 * Origin: ILink: CFBBS | cfbbs.no-ip.com | 856-933-7096 (454:1/1) .