Subj : What to do with a gia To : Ky Moffet From : Barry Martin Date : Sun Oct 18 2020 11:31:00 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. KM> Conventional wisdom is that to be secure, you need passwords with KM> upper and lower case letters, numbers, and symbols. Well, turns KM> out when this was actually challenged... such passwords are no KM> more difficult to crack than if they're, say, all lowercase KM> letters. The most difficult were nonsense phrases like KM> "Barryisameanie" or "mybanksucksdeadfish". What tends to go against conventional wisdom as those are 'dictionary attacks'. Would seem adding a number or punctuation would make it much more difficult ==> "Barryisameanie12x" -- seems the randomness of the '12x' would complicate things. I'll admit to being to some degree lax in the complicated password department, though based on what you say here (and I've read elsewhere) my not overly complicated to a human passwords seem to be confusing to computers. > 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 KM> I'm about 150 feet from the road... wouldn't want to be driving! That was the depth of the lot my parents' house was on when I was growing up! > 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. KM> LOL! Must be all cat videos. I see sillies like that once in KM> a while. One that went by was something like "John's Ugly KM> Printer" (for a car?? musta been a laptop or some such) I saw another "weird" SSID yesterday when I was trying to figure out if I had a WiFi problem (referencing the reply I gave in the *NIX conference just now) but didn't take time to jot it down as trying to get my little problem figured out). > 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!! KM> And then forget that you've been moving all the work to D: and KM> discover somewhat late you're still working on the file in C: KM> .... You got it!! Sometimes just safer to work on a separate computer, but it's not as comfortable 'cause.... > 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! KM> Well, I'm somewhere, anyway... According to GPS..... > 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 really virtual! KM> Nope, the shortcut actually gets changed to point to wherever it KM> went. I suppose that's good sometimes. Thinking there are times when I don't want things permanently changed and other times I do. Or want to be able to go back to how it was as a backup. > 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. KM> And with NTFS, files under about 1k are stored in the file KM> allocation table, so they don't waste clusters. I'm not sure how KM> this works if the table gets munged, but it does auto-backups, KM> so... Love those mysterious Black Boxes! I kind of figure as long as I have plenty of room on the drive I'm not going to be concerned if a file takes one or a hundred or 2047 bytes. (Can you tell I'm thinking old stuff?!) > 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. KM> That's a good idea. My desktops used to look different enough KM> that I'd always know at least which PC I was on (when they share KM> a monitor) but then I started using my custom PCLOS install and KM> of course it already looks as desired... so now I have to check KM> where I am again. Fortunately the confusion is among laptops, KM> not everyday systems. Well, unless Silver II or Fireball has KM> PCLOS up... Part of my thinking was also visually matching other systems around here: the Bionic Beaver desktop means the system is running Ubuntu 18.04. OTOH when running MythTV I don't see that background and should for some reason the system decide to drop to it's default image I could be thinking I'm on a different system from what I actually am. At one time when I was working with BE1 and BE2 on the same monitor I did have a piece of paper with "BE1" on one side and "BE2" on the other -- was folded to fit over the top of the monitor and even used different colour marker to further emphasize. > 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! KM> Oh yeah, I do that with Bullet all the time... forget that it has KM> its own keyboard and then wonder why input doesn't work. It KM> should be obvious because one keyboard is wireless and the other KM> is both wired and quite heavy, but apparently I do not always KM> notice the difference. They're all black! > > Linux just knows. > KM> I'd like to know how it just knows! > The Shadow Knows!! KM> But I don't have a PC named Shadow... Could be the name of one in a black case! > >> 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! KM> Wait, I could get a brain upgrade?? Sure! Limited time offer, expires October 31! > > 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! KM> Their own bugs, more like!! It worked at their place, how come not here?! > 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). KM> Um... is it using the linux Broadcom driver? last I paid KM> attention, it was notoriously unstable. Or why linux and laptop KM> wifi used to be such an adventure. OTTOMH that laptop doesn't use Broadcom. ...Added (another) note in it -- keep this up and I won't be able to close the cover! > 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....) KM> Ah, the goofiness is almost certainly an issue with the driver KM> for the internal wifi chip. So... dongle. (I have several; they KM> work fine, even the $3 ones. Actually, I wish I had some more of KM> the $3 ones.) So maybe eventually and update/correction. At this point it is a back- burner project (sure is getting crowded back there!): it would be handy to have that notebook working as far as portability is concerned -- much lighter in weight than my Lenovo laptop, though that wasn't the reason I purchased it. > 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.... KM> Oh yeah... I think the actual solution is "head explodes". Definitely needing a new brain then! > 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. KM> NASA used to run around collecting 486s because they were so KM> totally a known system -- since you can't send the repair guy out KM> to Jupiter. And I knew someone who in the late 1990s was KM> still scrounging XT boards for a cloth-cutting machine that KM> needed it to interface... 10 cents worth of computer and ten KM> grand worth of cutter. Yup: I remember reading that some time back. Made sense: need something known to be stable when out in space -- even relatively close by like the ISS. > KM> Wait, why is DOS up on the flagpole?? > It rose above the others? KM> It boots faster!! Hmm: wonder how fast MS-DOS 2.11 would boot on a SSD?? Pointing to that one as that was the first OS I used on my personal computer (DEC Rainbow 100). ...Ah, the grinding sounds the floppy drives would make! >> > 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. KM> Well, of course! how else would you stack it? I was sort of hoping so what I wanted would be handy -- a robot fetching for me would be a nice touch! > 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! KM> The goofy effects annoyed me even before I discovered this, uh, KM> tripping hazard. So normally I turn them off, but once in a while KM> I miss one, or haven't got to it yet. "Hah-ha! I'm hiding over here!" > 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 KM> That's such a corner case it's triangular! A right angle? BTW, do you know why corners are warm? They're 90ø! > 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. KM> Good idea, if the voltage is the same. Voltage is the same between AAA, AA, C and D, just the current capabilities are different (which I think is part of the reasoning for the variance in size). All four at 1.5v (originally, when fresh); do have to watch as the NiCad versions are usually 1.25 volts. KM> I have a clock that's KM> supposed to take a C battery, but those are both pricey and would KM> have required a trek to Walmart, whereas I buy AA bulk from KM> Costco so always have 'em on hand. Upon noting that AA are the KM> same voltage and length as the dead C, I stuffed an AA in the KM> spot, and it works fine! probably won't last as long, but it's KM> been in there for several months now, so... Ta-daaa! As I was rading that was thinking C's and AA's a close to the same length so should work -- big problem would be the AA isn't held securely in the battery compartment so could loosen and fallout. Generally not too much movement for a clock so no problem -- something like a remote control though.... (Haven't seen a remote use a C battery!) KM> ...actually, probably a good use for batteries that the camera or KM> mouse have rejected (don't like 'em weak), but aren't actually KM> dead yet. I haven't but some people have moved batteries from one device to another as 'die'. The mechanism for an analog clock would probably draw more current and so become too weak but moving that battery to a remote control could work ==> no constant draw like in a clock, plus some batteries regenerate a little when given a rest, so a 'dead' battery from a clock could work in a remote. > 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. KM> Well, sort of... the software has to know to use it too. Same KM> with multiple cores. Most software outside of databases and some KM> newer games has no clue. Makes sense. I've sort of watched the lines of System Monitor and sometimes only one core is doing any work at a time. Then seems like the foirst core gets 'tired' and hands off the job to another core. And not literally one core working and the others goofing off, but seems like two or four cores could share the load more evenly than what is displayed. > Lots of storage space is good! KM> Junk fills the space allotted! Junk food is good, therefore junk data is also good! > 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. KM> Egads, no, don't let it be that big, it's a total waste and does KM> nothing but slow down Windows startup (when it decides it needs KM> to rewrite the whole 32GB). Since that system has 32GB RAM, it KM> only needs a token swapfile, and only for stupid programs that KM> insist. So... set it to permanent and a max of 2GB. I didn't set the swapfile size: the system did it to itself when it created itself. (So blame the programmers!) Not too worried about what Windows would do to it as the only Windows on this system is the virtual one (from Oracle's VM). > > 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?! KM> Well, of course!! It's like fleas, except the other direction. I feel weird I have bugs in my beard! KM> "So, naturalists observe, a flea has smaller fleas that on him KM> prey; and these have smaller still to bite ’em; and so proceed KM> ad infinitum." - Jonathan Swift Humans have bacteria on their skin and in their gut.... > > 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! KM> I look at my rather long list of network locations, and wonder KM> how I keep track. "Hmmm.. it's either this one or this one..... It was the other one!" > 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. KM> They thought they had backups too. Ooops. But it said "backup completed"! KM> I decided right then and there... my data will never live on KM> RAID, or any species of conglombed or striped disks. Yes: my NAS originally had one 2 TB hard drive, then I decided to add the second and got a 3 TB drive (maximum capacity per slot). So a total of 5 TB sounded good, especially as multiple backups of a 2 TB system or whatever I had back then. So far no issues but if one of the backup drives goes it takes the other one with it. Not sure what it's called but there is a RAID option that duplicates itself, so if one drive fails the data is on the other. > >> 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. KM> Oh. Normally I don't want audio to migrate with the desktop in KM> use, tho, because half the idea is one system can be busy making KM> noise while another is busy doing actual work. So one system humming to itself without the one one trying to join in! I was sort of thinking along the lines of someone trying to use VNC as a video conferencing utility. Not sure if could -- never tried. Suppose if the remote system was displaying a camera and that part had audio.... > > 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? KM> Probably so. Resets the single brain cell to zero. There are times it would be helpful! > .. Older people are just younger people later in their lives. KM> Explains the second childhood! Finally realize the 'adult stuffiness' isn't quite worth it. KM> ...or maybe I discharged all my capacitors... TMI! TMI!! Sounds like a porn site for electronic geeks!! ¯ BarryMartin3@ ® ¯ @MyMetronet.NET ® .... You do not undress your eyes; it's an Introspective Pornographic Moment. --- MultiMail/Win32 v0.47 þ wcECHO 4.2 ÷ ILink: The Safe BBS þ Bettendorf, IA --- QScan/PCB v1.20a / 01-0462 * Origin: ILink: CFBBS | cfbbs.no-ip.com | 856-933-7096 (454:1/1) .