Technology Random Access Thoughts

[ZLoth]

What has me scratching my head is this from my TrueNAS Scale server:



Okay, eno1 and eno2 (hey, what happened to 0) are my server motherboard's ethernet ports, but both are limited to 1 Gigabit which is what was available in my price range in mid-2016. enp1s0 is a 2.5 gigabit network card which I installed as part of a home network upgrade, as I replaced the switch with a 2.5 gigabit switch, while all three of the computers on the network support 2.5 gigabit LAN connections. I'm still scratching my head on the naming. enoX is short for ethernnet onboard. I'm guessing that enp1s0 is short for Ethernet Port 1 PCI Slot 0.

[ZLoth]

I just decommissioned my mother's old laptop after it was replaced with a mini-PC a few months ago and ensuring that there was no further need. (A backup is on my server "just in case"). A few years ago, I replaced the hard drive with a Samsung 500GB 840 EVO SSD drive. Just for fun, I decided to check online for the price, and was shocked. Amazon lists the SSD drive for $160 while NewEgg lists the drive for $198.

The funny part is that you can get a more modern drive for much cheaper. Amazon lists the 870 EVO 500GB for $75. NewEgg lists multiple 500GB SSDs (various specs) from $40 to $90.

Shrug. Into the "recycled for future use" box it goes. On the other hand, that box also had a 1 TB 2½" HDD that I pulled a year ago from my old laptop. I have no idea why I was saving it since, beyond my TrueNAS file server, I've banished hard drives from my life. I previously removed the partitions, and am performing a secure wipe now before it goes into the recycle bin.

[ZLoth]

From Smithsonian Magazine:

Cleaning Crew Discovers One of the World's Oldest Surviving Desktop Computers
The 1972 Q1 microcomputer could fetch $60,000 at auction

Last December, employees at Just Clear, a London-based house clearance company, were emptying a property when they stumbled across two decades-old computers.

At first, the workers were unsure what they had uncovered. They didn't recognize the items and couldn't find any relevant information online, Just Clear's founder, Brendan O'Shea, tells Live Science's Keumars Afifi-Sabet. After speaking with an expert, however, O'Shea learned that his team had found rare pieces of technology history: a 1972 Q1 desktop microcomputer with an internal printer and a 1976 Q1 Lite with an external companion printer.

FULL ARTICLE HERE

[ZLoth]

From Engadget:

Spotify's Car Thing will soon transform into Spotify's Car Brick
The company said it will stop working on December 9.

Spotify's Car Thing, a limited hardware "test" the company began shipping only three years ago, is about to bite the dust. The company wrote on Thursday that the device, which brought Spotify to automobiles without Apple CarPlay or Android Auto, will "no longer be operational" as of December 9.

Car Thing was aimed at drivers who want to listen to Spotify in their cars but don't have modern systems with built-in streaming apps. The $90 device let you control the service with voice recognition and preset buttons, and it had a four-inch color touchscreen. However, Spotify had already discontinued it by mid-2022.

FULL ARTICLE HERE

[kkt]

(when I got to the end of K&R, I was like...wait, that's it? that's the whole language?)

When I was in college, that book was (only half) jokingly referred to as "the Bible".  I still have it after all these years, even though at this point the odds of me doing anything in C are slim to none.  The C language does have a certain elegance that many other languages lack.

I've still got my copy of K&R, which Kernighan and Ritchie were nice enough to sign for me.

C is very much like an assembly language with more modern syntax and control structures added. 

[Scott5114]

I've still got my copy of K&R, which Kernighan and Ritchie were nice enough to sign for me.

That's probably worth some bucks.

[Scott5114]

Has anyone here been getting the ridiculous "AI Overviews" at the top of their Google search results pages? I haven't, but I've seen some screenshots of some real doozies, including some where the primary source appears to be The Onion.

[ZLoth]

Has anyone here been getting the ridiculous "AI Overviews" at the top of their Google search results pages? I haven't, but I've seen some screenshots of some real doozies, including some where the primary source appears to be The Onion.

On occasion, yes.

[kkt]

I've still got my copy of K&R, which Kernighan and Ritchie were nice enough to sign for me.

That's probably worth some bucks.

Perhaps, there probably weren't that many fans who got them signed.  However, my copy is not a pristine condition or anything.  I'm not selling anyway, anyone who wants it will have to negotiate with my heir.

[Dirt Roads]

(when I got to the end of K&R, I was like...wait, that's it? that's the whole language?)

When I was in college, that book was (only half) jokingly referred to as "the Bible".  I still have it after all these years, even though at this point the odds of me doing anything in C are slim to none.  The C language does have a certain elegance that many other languages lack.

I've still got my copy of K&R, which Kernighan and Ritchie were nice enough to sign for me.

C is very much like an assembly language with more modern syntax and control structures added.

I've still got my old copy of K&R also.  I had one project group class where the focus was an EMAIL prototype.  My part of the assignment looked pretty intense, but turned out to be only 91 lines of code when using C.  The professor loved it, and I couldn't get any additional assignments.  So that is the entirety of my experience with what was the defacto programming language used in my world of data communications (railroading and rail transit).  Fortunately, decent skills in FORTRAN [somehow] ended up saving me in this career.

[ZLoth]

From How-To Geek:

After 60 Years the 4-Pin Molex Connector Is Finally (Almost) Dead

For the entirety of my PC building career, the 4-pin Molex power connector has been there. At one point it felt like everything on my computer used it, but my love-hate relationship with this common connector is almost at an end, it seems. So it's time to prepare the eulogy.

FULL ARTICLE HERE

Thank goodness. Lord knows how many times I got frustrated because the pins were very loose in the connector.

[mgk920]

From How-To Geek:

After 60 Years the 4-Pin Molex Connector Is Finally (Almost) Dead

For the entirety of my PC building career, the 4-pin Molex power connector has been there. At one point it felt like everything on my computer used it, but my love-hate relationship with this common connector is almost at an end, it seems. So it's time to prepare the eulogy.

FULL ARTICLE HERE

Thank goodness. Lord knows how many times I got frustrated because the pins were very loose in the connector.

Now, for for someone to come up with a reliable and easy to use 12v power outlet plug connector for the car.   

Mike

[ZLoth]

Now, for for someone to come up with a reliable and easy to use 12v power outlet plug connector for the car.

Like... uh.... USB?

[mgk920]

Now, for for someone to come up with a reliable and easy to use 12v power outlet plug connector for the car.

Like... uh.... USB?

A*five volt* USB plug won't have the energy capacity to feed a 65 watt 120 VAC power inverter.

Mike

[mgk920]

An über-annoying tech thought (such as in this and other forvms) - getting ready to click on an icon to see a deeper discussion page of interest and as you start pressing the button, an ad loads causing the icon to 'jump', resulting in a sometimes unknowable page opeming.   

Mike

[formulanone]

From How-To Geek:

After 60 Years the 4-Pin Molex Connector Is Finally (Almost) Dead

For the entirety of my PC building career, the 4-pin Molex power connector has been there. At one point it felt like everything on my computer used it, but my love-hate relationship with this common connector is almost at an end, it seems. So it's time to prepare the eulogy.

FULL ARTICLE HERE

Thank goodness. Lord knows how many times I got frustrated because the pins were very loose in the connector.

Now, for for someone to come up with a reliable and easy to use 12v power outlet plug connector for the car.   

Mike

https://www.google.com/search?q=12v+to+110v+inverter+for+car

Avoid going over 300-400 watts in most cars and light trucks unless your alternator and battery can spare it (medium-duty vehicle applications).

I use a small 150W one for my car and a larger 400W inverter for long trips with the kids. No problems over 10-15 of use, though they're not used every day, either.

[Scott5114]

I love Linux, and I am never ever going back to Windows as a daily driver for any reason. It doesn't try to steal my data, there's no AI shit, and it is designed according to what theoretically benefits the user instead of what makes some shithead CEO more money. But the tradeoff means that every once in a while I have to deal with a hideous bug of some kind.

With the most recent Inkscape update, it will fail to start if a drawing tablet is connected. Like, just straight up instant crash and barf out a stack trace on startup. It's choking when trying to query the input devices, I guess. So the obvious thing to do is just disconnect the tablet when I need to start Inkscape. This would be mildly annoying with my old tablet, which just had a simple USB plug. But my new tablet pairs to the computer through Bluetooth. But I can't bypass the bug just by turning the tablet off, oh no. To get Inkscape to start, I have to completely unpair and purge the tablet from the system. Then it will start. And after that, I can re-pair the tablet and use it, even in Inkscape, just fine. Inkscape just can't be allowed to know while starting up that there is a drawing tablet, of any kind, anywhere in the Las Vegas Valley.

Of course, since unpairing/forgetting a device is probably a thing most people do once over the course of the device's lifetime, if that, the interface for this is kind of clunky and annoying to get to. So I'm trying to keep an empty Inkscape window open at all times, just so that any time I try to get some work done I don't have to play Bluetooth hokey pokey. But of course, periodically Inkscape will crash for other, unrelated reasons, so then I still get to take my tablet out, and put my tablet in, and shake it all about.

[ZLoth]

With the most recent Inkscape update, it will fail to start if a drawing tablet is connected. Like, just straight up instant crash and barf out a stack trace on startup. It's choking when trying to query the input devices, I guess.

Have you checked the Inkscape forums to see if it is a known issue?

[Scott5114]

With the most recent Inkscape update, it will fail to start if a drawing tablet is connected. Like, just straight up instant crash and barf out a stack trace on startup. It's choking when trying to query the input devices, I guess.

Have you checked the Inkscape forums to see if it is a known issue?

Yes, that's how I found out that it was the tablet doing it. (The nice thing about having a stack trace is you can usually just paste it into Google and, if your issue is known, it will be the first thing that comes up.)

https://gitlab.com/inkscape/inkscape/-/issues/4649

Fixed in the development version (apparently it was an upstream issue that was fixed when they migrated library versions). But they haven't released a version with the fix included yet; it looks like the devs were waffling on whether they want to do an unplanned bugfix release to 1.3 or just wait for 1.4, which is in beta now. Given that the last comment here was about a week before the beta was released, I'm guessing they're just waiting for 1.4. Which, fair enough, but that does mean I basically have to wait in line while all of the 1.4 bugs are fixed.

At least there's all this transparency with open-source software, so I at least know the devs care about the problem and a fix is coming. If this happened with Adobe Illustrator, not only would I be giving Adobe all my money and data constantly, but I'd have no way of knowing if the company intended on actually fixing its product or not.

[ZLoth]

From Ars Technica:

Retired engineer discovers 55-year-old bug in Lunar Lander computer game code
A physics simulation flaw in text-based 1969 computer game went unnoticed until today.

On Friday, a retired software engineer named Martin C. Martin announced that he recently discovered a bug in the original Lunar Lander computer game's physics code while tinkering with the software. Created by a 17-year-old high school student named Jim Storer in 1969, this primordial game rendered the action only as text status updates on a teletype, but it set the stage for future versions to come.

The legendary game—which Storer developed on a PDP-8 minicomputer in a programming language called FOCAL just months after Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin made their historic moonwalks—allows players to control a lunar module's descent onto the Moon's surface. Players must carefully manage their fuel usage to achieve a gentle landing, making critical decisions every ten seconds to burn the right amount of fuel.

FULL ARTICLE HERE