The lonely tech post thread.

[UnderOpenSky]

I think our tech lead went waaaaay OTT on the new cluster. But hey, they gave us the money and we spent it all.
View attachment 429902

Must be rich if still on vmware.

 

[Chz]

Must be rich if still on vmware.

Oh we'd just started when the deal went down. No time to throw it out and get something else.
Job One is to decom the old gear and turn it into one Nutanix test cluster and one ProxMox test cluster

 

[two sheds]

Room for expansion, boss

 

[gentlegreen]

I'm still trying to set up GiffGaff on my new(ish) 2nd hand phone.

Got SIM card but no reception in the house so I have to go up a nearby hill. Did that, got GiffGaff signal and tried to sign up but wanted a code so I came back, got the code, went back up nearby hill and tried again. No GiffGaff signal this time, only O2.

Checked on GiffGaff forum and it said you can sign up to GiffGaff on O2. Went up hill and got O2 signal but it just kept searching. Checked on GiffGaff forum and it said I'd need a new SIM card so I've requested that and will try again. This has been a couple of months now since I don't go out all that often

My local GiffGaff service is clearly under strain here - seems to be the O2 part - no 5G and currently showing "H+" ... to test my new phone can actually do 5G I will have to cycle somewhere...
(Just checked and I am literally in a 5G hole of about half an acre )
Last year I was ordering lots of materials for the house and it kept messing up the dual factor authentification ...

Having tried everything short of a factory reset, my current theory is that the SIM they sent with the new phone - I bought it from them - is set up to credit me a fiver if I give it to friends and family ... and perhaps it's even linked to the new phone hardware to stop me profiting ...

I suspect I will have to do a dreaded factory reset...
I've asked them to send me a new SIM and then do a transfer online......

 

[nottsgirl]

Iplayer and terrestrial tv aren’t working on my smart tv. Netflix is working. What could be wrong?

 

[gentlegreen]

Iplayer and terrestrial tv aren’t working on my smart tv. Netflix is working. What could be wrong?

Where does Iplayer get its files from ?

 

[nottsgirl]

Where does Iplayer get its files from ?

The internet?

 

[gentlegreen]

The internet?

sorry - got confused with iTUNES !

 

[gentlegreen]

I would test it here but I have no terrestrial TV - or license for iplayer

 

[gentlegreen]

BBC iPlayer not working? Current problems and outages |

Real-time problems and issues for the BBC iPlayer. Is the iPlayer not working properly? Can't listen to radio or view video? Here you see what is going on.

downdetector.co.uk

 

[two sheds]

I'm not sure I have much faith in those coverage maps. O2 has me down as 'ok outdoors' which is true if you're outdoors at the bottom of the garden holding the phone up in the air, sometimes. New neighbours apparently have a booster in the roof so they get a signal indoors, too. They need it for work I think, not sure I can be bothered really, I quite like having no signal.

 

[gentlegreen]

I'm not sure I have much faith in those coverage maps. O2 has me down as 'ok outdoors' which is true if you're outdoors at the bottom of the garden holding the phone up in the air, sometimes. New neighbours apparently have a booster in the roof so they get a signal indoors, too. They need it for work I think, not sure I can be bothered really, I quite like having no signal.

During my bike ride I made a point of stopping outside the 5G hole to adjust the volume and I saw "D / H+" or something similar - which is new - which gives me hope that my new phone could get 5G if it was available...
O2 seem to be particularly creaky

 

[UnderOpenSky]

Maybe try a 1p mobile SIM?. They're the only reseller that gets the full range of EE 5g, obviously are much lower cost.

 

[gentlegreen]

Having tried everything short of a factory reset or risking paying money to activate a SIM from another operator and finding the phone will only work with the SIM it had for 7 years, I obeyed GiffGaff's instructions and swapped the SIMs over and my new number is definitely live because I called it from my even older phone. And my old phone worked again too...
But I want my old number on my new phone.

They have my IMEI number so I'm guessing they couldn't be arsed to go the extra mile ...

Perhaps the threat of switching my old phone to a different network will have the desired effect - actually thinking about it that could be useful...

 

[gentlegreen]

Meanwhile

Maybe try a 1p mobile SIM?. They're the only reseller that gets the full range of EE 5g, obviously are much lower cost.

I suspect I may try that - apparently I can indeed get 5G at my address though my old phone can't use it - not a major issue though unless I need to tether my PC - which I won't be able to do until I get one with USB that works...

 

[nottsgirl]

My tv is working properly now.

 

[UnderOpenSky]

Meanwhile

I suspect I may try that - apparently I can indeed get 5G at my address though my old phone can't use it - not a major issue though unless I need to tether my PC - which I won't be able to do until I get one with USB that works...

I don't think teathing with USB is much a thing anymore. Instead you turn your phone it a WiFi hotspot.

 

[gentlegreen]

I don't think teathing with USB is much a thing anymore. Instead you turn your phone it a WiFi hotspot.

I need USB so I can use my PC's WIFI dongle !

 

[gentlegreen]

/Audiophile alert.

Not really - I've pretty well had my fill for the time being in choosing my WIFI dongle - though I did discover that Quad make planar headphones - as well as a guy in Ukraine - and there's always the fabled Sennheiser HD600s - but that's years down the line- and I reckon this teeny thing may be all my ears can justify.
I will almost certainly want more than one DAC for indoor systems though and Fiio do a domestic-sized one for half the price.

My poor old Moto G4 was working flat out through the earphone jack even into my little Koss KSC75s and I am now in a position to damage my hearing either with those or my Philips over-ears - I definitely don't need to rewire them to take advantage of the mis-named "balanced" output - not least because I think even activating the circuitry cuts battery life drastically.

Obviously it's very difficult to do meaningful comparisons, but the character of the sound seems much improved - and I was fairly sure I even noticed an improvement going PCM via the USB vs LDAC via Bluetooth - though the changeover is far from seamless.

One thing I noticed today is that the character of my cycling headphones has been so changed - presumably because the sound is no longer being compressed by an inadequate amplifier - they don't seem to let in quite so much outside sound - or there's more music filling the gaps...
I suppose I will get used to it.

 

[gentlegreen]

My tv is working properly now.

curious that iplayer and terrestrial were down simultaneously

 

[Saul Goodman]

I've been teaching myself to draw with Solidworks. It's a nice bit of kit.

I got carried away and designed a little steam engine that I'm going to build.



And while I wasn't watching Doctor Who, I learned how to do animations.

 

[two sheds]

with condensing chamber?

 

[Saul Goodman]

with condensing chamber?

Not yet. I'm trying to keep it as simple as I can, because my tool collection isn't what it used to be, but I haven't settled on a final design yet, so anything is possible.

 

[two sheds]

pre 1776 then I don't hold with this modern rubbish myself

do love steam engines though - loads of old Cornish beam engine ruins round here

and steam turbines such simple operation

impressed as fuck if you can make that with ... tools ... and things

 

[gentlegreen]

GiffGaff are taking the piss now.
I'm definitely warming to the idea of having my spare phone on a different network.
Actually I'm starting to wonder if I want to stay with GiffGaff at all.

Can you please take your SIM "" out of your phone and insert it into a second, different phone?

While having the SIM in another device, keep it there for a couple of hours and try to use it. Once you do that, please reply back with the following:

1. IMEI of the test's (second/different) phone
2. Make and model of the test's (second/different) phone
3. Results of the test

Looking forward to hearing back from you.

I swapped SIMS again. sent and received texts to/from my two other phones ...

thanks for your reply.



This confirms that your SIM and giffgaff number works without any issues.



The problem is related to your original phone and you will need to contact the phone manufacture or place of purchase to repair it/claim warranty.



Kind regards,

Lukasz from the giffgaff team

Did you miss where I said that the old SIM unsurprisingly works perfectly well in my old phone as it has done since 2017 ? Motorola G4 plus IMEI xxx GiffGaff SIM xxx it's in there now.But that is no use to me because I need to keep my old number in the new phone I bought from you.I'm getting close to asking for a refund on my new SIM and see if I can get onto another phone network - and I can now see several - whereas with the new SIM it was all greyed-out.A great shame as I have been a happy GiffGaff customer for 7 years .

 

[two sheds]

Interesting post on reddit this morning - I hadn't realized (thought about) that hashed passwords are the same length irrespective of the length of the actual password. Someone in a company's IT wanted to know how long peoples' actual passwords are to ensure they weren't insecure. They weren't allowed to ask because knowing that someone's password is for example 8 characters long greatly reduces the number of tries a hacker would need.

A question I've often wondered: watching BBC sports transmissions you can click backwards and forwards to view different bits that have happened. With ITV you can't do that - what you see is what you get. Anyone know how much more transmission bandwidth you'd need to do that with BBC? It feels like you'd need a different stream for everyone watching but that can't be right - presumably they have a single stream and just point to the point in the recording, but that would also seem to need different transmission streams for each viewer.

 

[prunus]

Interesting post on reddit this morning - I hadn't realized (thought about) that hashed passwords are the same length irrespective of the length of the actual password. Someone in a company's IT wanted to know how long peoples' actual passwords are to ensure they weren't insecure. They weren't allowed to ask because knowing that someone's password is for example 8 characters long greatly reduces the number of tries a hacker would need.

A question I've often wondered: watching BBC sports transmissions you can click backwards and forwards to view different bits that have happened. With ITV you can't do that - what you see is what you get. Anyone know how much more transmission bandwidth you'd need to do that with BBC? It feels like you'd need a different stream for everyone watching but that can't be right - presumably they have a single stream and just point to the point in the recording, but that would also seem to need different transmission streams for each viewer.

Each viewer has their own stream anyway, the content is cached all over the world (on what are called Content Delivery Networks) and each viewer connects to their nearest one to minimise overall traffic. I don't think there's any reason ITV couldnt do it too, it's probably to do with adverts knowing them.

There's no difference in internet used bandwidth either way, each connected viewer is using one stream's worth regardless of where they're watching in the programme.

At least I think that's right

 

[NoXion]

Received some terrible news at work today. We're all going to have our laptops replaced with Apple Macs

Not looking forward to it as someone who despises Apple's entire design philosophy, including but by no means limited to their anodyne and sexless aesthetics, their whole approach to UI, their walled garden bullshit, and their irritating as fuck California tech hippie attitude. What makes it all the worse is how Apple's success has influenced other designers in the IT space to pull copycat moves chasing that dollar.

When the time comes that I will be forced to use Apple products at work, I will endeavour to make the hardware and software setup as un-Mac-like as I can possibly make it. That could mean using third-party peripherals whenever possible, using more complex UIs and dark themes if at all available, and covering up the Apple logos with stickers because I'm petty like that.

 

[Chz]

Received some terrible news at work today. We're all going to have our laptops replaced with Apple Macs

Not looking forward to it as someone who despises Apple's entire design philosophy, including but by no means limited to their anodyne and sexless aesthetics, their whole approach to UI, their walled garden bullshit, and their irritating as fuck California tech hippie attitude. What makes it all the worse is how Apple's success has influenced other designers in the IT space to pull copycat moves chasing that dollar.

When the time comes that I will be forced to use Apple products at work, I will endeavour to make the hardware and software setup as un-Mac-like as I can possibly make it. That could mean using third-party peripherals whenever possible, using more complex UIs and dark themes if at all available, and covering up the Apple logos with stickers because I'm petty like that.

Google Asahi Linux.
They're nice enough machines, but yeah I'm not that fond of MacOS either.

 

[Saul Goodman]

(((((((NoXion)))))))

At least you'll be able to look like a complete twat in your local coffee shop at lunch.

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