Quick Hits
OK, what programming genius thought it would be a good idea to feature the Donner Party on Thanksgiving weekend? I wonder who got cast as ‘the turkey’?
Has anyone informed the governors of states who say they won’t accept Syrian refugees, that they don’t have the power to accept or reject refugees. Making silly statements like this should have stopped when they made it high school, assuming they actually did make it to high school.
Steve Bates noted that Donald Trump thinks that the government can shut down mosques if it wants to. Maybe people should be required to pass the standard citizenship test on the Constitution before running for Federal office … oh, I’m sorry, that would be just as unconstitutional as closing houses of worship.
34 comments
Long pig. It’s what’s for Thanksgiving dinner. Thanks, Weather Channel!
I’m sure the anglophone Muslim equivalent is “mosque rat” … <grin_duck_run />
Re: Trump… I can’t help being reminded constantly that the signature presidential reply to any objections by judges or congressmen on constitutional grounds to any president’s actions from about Nixon to the present day (most certainly including Obama, and Dog help us if Trump takes the job) has been, “Who’s gonna stop me?” The original concept of three branches with a balance of powers is very nearly defunct in our times. Sigh!
Oh, and Bryan… thanks for reading! I didn’t know I actually still had any visitors. I still don’t, apart from you and Shirt, and once in a while ‘tux…
… and ellroon, of course. And the mysterious ‘c’. And even more rarely, neighbor Barbara posting under her husband George’s name. Sorry!
OK, Badtux, that’s why I saw it. I do check the Weather Channel if things look nasty. When I heard the announcement I couldn’t believe it.
Steve, I have to remember to say your things aloud . 🙂
I may not comment often, Steve, but I check your site at least once a day.
Every time I think people will come to their senses about Trump and Carson, Repub voters refuse to give up on them.
Well… good to see some things haven’t changed in my absence! 😉 LOL
Thought it might be time for a bit of an update.
Been spending money like I’m wealthy (and no… I am not!) I decided that the best thing to do was to take out some of my Super (Superannuation) as I am eligible to do so if I am *officially* retired. According to our super rules, I qualify as such. Most of what I spent it on qualify as “things I needed”, but I decided that I deserved a little bit of “things I want!” 😀 In the latter, I got a good espresso/cappuccino/latte coffee machine (though I’m not insane so I only got one that would do what I wanted at a reasonable price). Sunbeam have a new one that’s quite nice (used it 4 times since I got it a couple days ago.) Very impressed given the price! How often can one say that these day’s?! LOL It’s called EM5000 Café Barista
The other item, that really was an indulgence, is: Glenmorangie Extremely Rare 18 Years Old Single Malt Scotch. I have to say… It’s heaven in a bottle! Haven’t tasted it in many years (mainly because of Med’s, but also price)! I have a double on the rocks with a dash of mineral water before bed. I sleep much better lately. 😀 The quack’s can shove their sleeping pill’s (that don’t work on me)! Thankfully, the med that prohibited alcohol intake the most, I am no longer taking! Yayy. 😉 😀
One of the things I ‘needed’, was a new refrigerator. I decided on the Samsung SRL458ELS for several reasons. 10 yr warranty, bottom mount freezer, full control over fridge/freezer temp’s, high energy efficiency, PRICE! Retails around AU$1,300 but I paid AU$1,120 + bonus 12 bottle’s of Taltarni wine (valued at $416). they are a very nice local vineyard in the Pyrenees wine region. Can’t remember when I last got a decent freebie! 😀
Ordered all the parts for new PC. Waiting for a couple parts. Also ordered Internet. Should be ready in a couple weeks. If anyone is interested, i’ll list what I decided on for my new build. 🙂
I received an offer today for 1 year free hosting with Arvixe (plus 15% discount on renewals) + 1 free year of SitePoint Premium. I decided to take it up to get my blog up ASAP. The offer included a free domain, so I got kryten42.org – I just finished doing the basic WP setup, but won’t do much, if any, more until I get my PC & Internet. So, not much to see there yet. 🙂
The main reason for that was because It would be some time before I finish setting up my cloud server with Prometeus, that is primarily for commercial use anyway. Eventually I will move my blog over of course (probably as the first “client” of my hosting biz). 😉 😀
That’s it. things are quite hectic right now, and probably will be for the foreseeable future. I REALLY NEED to get my biz up & running so I can tell CentreLink to drop dead! Under the new fundi Liberal Party regime, they have become even more insane! Why can’t the terrorists do us a favor and blow up Canberra??! Oh… right! Because the politicians in Canberra are doing a better job screwing us than they can! Bah!!
If people are pissed off by their government, they are more amenable to the whackoes. People who are satisfied with their lives don’t tend to blow things up. For some reason conservatives don’t seem to understand that.
It is impossible to do good work in the absence of good coffee. 🙂 It helps to treat yourself on occasion and you definitely need good tools to be efficient. Speaking of which, I’m interested in your build, in general terms if you don’t want to take time on all of the details.
Start ups always require a lot of work at the beginning that is unnoticed and uncompensated until the business takes off. You have to do it, but new businesses aren’t for sissies.
Let me know when you are ready for prime time with your blog.
*sigh* Sadly, your first statement is quite accurate. What a World! *shrug*
Yep! Anyone in IT KNOWS that good coffee is essential to productivity! I’ve long been a strict believer in this, and have threatened assorted mayhem on any doctor foolish enough to even consider telling me to stop drinking it! 😀
This start up is harder than my previous companies simply because this time I am truly on my own and severely under resourced and funded. So, I’ve had to do it bit by bit over the past 4 years (previous 3 years really, as I’ve not been able to do anything the past year). Still, now that I have taken part of my Super out and will have a decent work environment. I bought good office furniture, including a very comfy exec chair that cost $600 with a 10yr warranty and heavy-duty 24/7 rating, and a large solid desk, 1800 mm x 900 mm & has a large hutch at the back (380 mm deep) with the bottom 1/3 a good pin board & top 2/3 are cupboards. Also a good work computer, I should be able to move forward. I’ll have to take a few steps back since I will have to reacquaint myself with the target markets. A lot changes online in a year. 🙂 I am also keeping a few $k in a new business/investment account that my bank helped me set up to help smooth the process during the next year. I decided that as I have found that *free* advice from most *experts* is worth what one pay’s for it (nada), I’ve taken professional, paid, advice from the Bank’s senior financial adviser in the hope that the bank will at least feel they are somewhat accountable for the advice given! Part of the payment was also to set up accounts and help with some marketing strategies. 🙂 Wish me luck with this theory! 😉 😆
So, spec’s are:
1 Intel Core i7 6700K 6th Gen Unlocked CPU
1 Gigabyte Z170X Gaming 7 Motherboard
1 Gigabyte Radeon R9 390X G1 Gaming 8GB DDR5 Graphics Card
1 Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4-3000 RAM
2 Samsung 950 Pro V-NAND 512GB M.2 NVMe SSD
4 Sandisk Ultra II 960GB SATA3 SSD (in RAID 0)
1 LG BH16HS40 16x Blu-ray writer
1 LG GH24NS90 Super MultiDVDBurner w/ M-Disc
1 Cooler Master COS-5000-KKN1 COSMOS SE Side-Mesh Case
1 Corsair AX-1200i 1200W i 80+ Platinum PSU
1 Corsair Hydro H110i GT 280mm Closed-Loop CPU Liquid Cooler
1 Gigabyte OSMIUM Mechnical KB w/ Cherry Red Switches
1 Gigabyte GM-M8600 V2 Aivia High-performance Laser Mouse
1 Logitech Z623 2.1 200W RMS THX Certified Speakers
1 ASUS DSL-AC68U AC1900 WiFi & 4x G’bit Router w/ADSL2+ & NBN compatible modem
1 Acer XG270HU 27″ WQHD (2560 x 1440) 144Hz, 1ms GtG, TN FreeSync LED Display
1 Samsung U28E850R 28″ UHD (3840×2160) TN FreeSync Widescreen Display
1 Epson WF-3640 Professional AiO Printer/Scanner/Copier/Fax
I got a pretty good deal on all parts, but especially the Sandisk 960GB SSD’s for about $390 each. Even the Samsung 950 was $453 (which given it’s extreme performance is good). 🙂 All up was around AU$7k. One of the good things about the new DDR4 RAM is that they have 16GB modules. So, if go mad with the graphics/video design and more than a couple virtual machines (I plan to have 1 or two for mow), I can have up to 64GB RAM.
Oh! I managed to get a legit W7 Pro key for $20 which i can u/g to W10 Pro for free! Means I can keep my existing W7 Ultimate key and have both on the cheap! 😀
The overwhelming consensus of studies have concluded that coffee and dark chocolate are good for people. If it is good coffee, people savor it, rather than quaffing it.
Good ergonomics are vital for good results. A comfortable chair positioned in front of a high quality display and input devices are critical for productivity.
That sounds like an excellent development and/or gaming box. It should definitely tide you over for years to come.
I’m thinking of shifting to 10 on my main box while leaving the laptop at 7, or getting another disk for the main box and putting 10 on it.
It sounds like you are addressing your capital requirements, which is always large concern for start-ups. You have the tools, now you have to polish the product and find your market. Good luck.
Thanks Bryan. 🙂
My maternal Grandfather always said “All things in moderation. Excess kills.” Actually, that’s a shortened version of his life philosophy, but you get the gist. 😀 My diabetes educator said that coffee from beans (not instant) & real dark chocolate (not what companies like Cadbury call chocolate which is mostly sugar) or pure Cacao (which I sometimes have a teaspoon full with a strong coffee & cream) help’s manage diabetes. Also, full-cream milk is better than the *low-fat* milks. 🙂
I knew it would be difficult when I started, but I had no real options. I’ve had to learn the hard way that when one hit’s bottom, the only person I can truly rely on, is myself. Curious isn’t it that people are willing to help when you are on top and don’t really need it. *shrug* Simply the way the World is these day’s. There are exceptions of course, but sadly the few people who would like to help, often are not in a position to do so. 🙂
I found that when you take advantage of the fee upgrade to W10 offer, M$ disables the W7 key. So if you plan to keep W7 & W10, you’ll need a 2nd W7 key. That’s why I bought a W7 key for US$20. Though, it may be different for you in the USA, you may want to check first. 🙂
You are quite right about good ergonomics. 🙂 Given the hours I’ll be working on the computer, It is very important to me. I found that 3M have a nice Mouse Pad (they call a “Precise Mousing Surface”) with comfy gel-filled wrist rest (P/N: MW309LE). They also have one for a KB, but the KB I’m getting has a wrist-rest built in. 🙂 If the 3M mouse pad doesn’t work out, I’ll get the more expensive Razer Vespula – Dual-Sided Mouse Pad (speed / control) w/ gel wrist rest.
I’ve had comments from people about my building a *Gaming rig*, and indeed, it would be a good one, and many of the components have the word *gaming* in them; however there is little difference in requirements between a high-end gaming system and a good graphics/multimedia design system. 🙂 I will of course play some games for downtime (and I do own quite a few)… 😉 “All work and no play…” 😆
Fact is, the graphics card is barely acceptable, but the price was right (about AU$550). I didn’t want to spend more than about $500 and was going to get the card below that one, but for the extra $50 I decided to grab it. The AMD Radeon R9 Fury X is not at all ready and should not be available in my opinion. it’s around AU$1,100 and has some issues reported in reviews. The R9 3xx series is only a small speed bump over the previous R9 2xx series. Basically just hand picked & overclocked GPU’s. *shrug* I was considering the nVidia GeForce GTX TITAN X Graphics Card, but it’s currently around AU$1,500 and has some issues (mainly in the firmware), which is often the case with new card’s from AMD & nVidia. They usually release them before they are really ready. Both AMD & nVidia will be releasing new and better cards later next year, so I’ll wait. You know the rule: “Never buy the first release of anything in IT!” I did break that rule with the new 6th Gen LGA 1151 CPU & Z170X MoBo, but I read many reviews and was reasonably confident that the minor issues reported would not be an issue for me and would be fixed with a future BIOS update (and may already be). Sometimes, one does have to take an *acceptable* risk. 🙂
“It takes money to make money.” I learned long ago that you cannot effectively run a business if you cannot pay the bill’s! “Cash-flow is King!” 😉 😀
Thanks again. I truly hope all is well with you. You’ve had a tough year yourself. All the best my friend.
The requirements for a gaming box are generally high speed and high quality graphics. If you are going to develop graphics based software, you need the same things. The real difference is the choice of input devices. Development machines need more and faster storage than game boxes, as well as better back-up options.
I switched to memory foam from gel for my wrist rests, and like it more, especially during hot weather. While it is better for me, I make no claim for others. These things are personal, as are input devices and screens.
Oh, yes, dot anything zero will always end in tears. Hell, I’m probably one of the few people on the planet who ever used Windows 2.0. It was a store version for a large chain of computer stores and was so bad it wasn’t really released to the public. Windows 3.0 was a generally debugged version of 2.0. Debugging was slightly better in the old days because the Internet was not as widely available for patches.
I have been incredibly lucky for a very long time, so I can’t complain when I have to deal with a few problems now.
Take it easy, Kryten. Enjoy your coffee machine.
Hmmm. I hadn’t even thought of memory foam for mouse wrist rest… I don’t think I’ve seen one here. I’ll have to look that up! Thanks m8. 😀 I use memory foam pillows, and wouldn’t think of using ordinary ones again. 😀
LOL @ Win 2.0! I was doing some part time editing & reviews for ComputerWorld magazine around that time. I do remember not giving a very impressed review! But then, I was rather biased toward DR’s Gem. I still say it was much better. Of course, M$ knew this and did everything possible to ensure Gen died. *shrug* I didn’t much like Windoze until WfW 3.11 really. And not until I created my own hybrid of W98 SE + ME did I have a Windoze that satisfied me (Both had annoying bugs that I was able to trace to specific flaws in various DLL’s with help from a large & frustrated online community!
I remember a review of Word 95! It was a disaster! One example is that if you hit the “F1” key for HELP without have a document open (either new or one already created), it would crash! Gee… nobody would want help on creating or opening a document would they? *sigh* I quit CW because the senior editor asked me to *tone down* my rather acerbic (but warranted) review because M$ was an advertiser! Bah!
I understand. 🙂 I’ve been lucky for the most part over the years. But I also had support if I needed it then, which I guess helped me stay sane. 🙂 Now it’s pretty much just me. In a curiously strange way, my old Military SERE (Survive, Evade, Resist, Escape) training is helping me the most these day’s! 😆
I am very much enjoying my coffee machine thank you! I wish I could send you some! 😉 Well, maybe one day! Science is working on teleporters! Who knows… 😀
The store said all my parts bar one (the keyboard) are ready. I’ll pick them up on Sat (tomorrow). I can wait for the KB. 🙂 I admit to being somewhat excited, and a little apprehensive… I’m not comfortable being an early adopter! However, my reasons for doing so were compelling. Maybe I’ll get lucky! 😀
Speaking of backup, whilst I’ve not had a problem with my Buffalo NAS, I am considering a 2nd NAS as a backup. Mainly because I was offered a really good deal on a Synology NAS system. Synology DS1815+ DiskStation 8-Bay Scalable NAS + 8 Seagate NAS 3TB drives for AU$2,340. Just the DS1815+ is usually AU$1,250 +AU$1,400 for the 8 HDD’s. I’ll think about it. 🙂 I would get a 2nd Buffalo, but I’ve been hearing good things about the new Synology systems and I’m think of doing a comparison & review on my blog. 🙂
/RANT
I am supposed to be taking it easy, since I have torn a calf muscle and have an old (8 moths) green-stick fracture of my forearm (the radius I think it was) which still hurts now and then, I’m about to get another X-Ray to see what’s happening. But Doctors have a strange sense-of humor! On the one hand I am told to rest, then I am sent hither and yon almost daily for assorted tests, scan’s and now a crutch! Also a medical certificate for CentreLink to keep them off my back for a month. The Doc is concerned that the fracture hasn’t healed completely, and it’s the 2nd time I have torn or severely strained my calf muscle this year (it’s the calf that took an AK round in the 80’s, and I’ve had trouble with it since, though nothing quite this severe). I’m on a high dose of oxycodone, which I don’t like at all! It does relieve the pain well, but messes with my head in way’s I’m not happy with. I seriously do not know why we have this stupid attitude against morphene (or codeine) here! It does a better job against pain, and doesn’t mess with my head as much. It’s also less addictive than oxycodone! The Army had no problem handing out morphine like candy in the field (or penicillin for that matter)! I blame the retarded politicians, of course! Meah…
RANT/
Hmm! According to the Target website, the 3M mouse mat uses memory foam for the wrist rest. I’ve emailed 3M to clarify. Thanks for the idea. 😀
I can understand how SERE training helps, although it does raise my blood pressure when people say the techniques used on people in the SERE courses don’t qualify as torture when they are used against POWs or ‘insurgents’. They are torture; they were designed as torture; they were used as torture. Torture by any other name is still torture and illegal.
Re drugs: every combat first aid kit had a morphine ‘wasp’ and I never went anywhere in SEA without at least 100 penicillin tablets. Oxy is a major problem in Florida resulting in a lot of over dose deaths.
M$ ‘borrowed’ other people’s software, and drove operating system competitors out of business by contracts with OEMs. Yes, Gem was a nice GUI. DR wrote a lot of good software.
You could tell when the magazine reviews were being messed with by watching the advertising. It got really bad after a while, as many magazine filled a majority of pages with ads, and you spent more time looking for stories than reading them.
If all that was missing was the keyboard, I would definitely pick it up. Set up isn’t going to involve a lot of typing, but it will take time load the software. I know you have a spare keyboard you can use.
If you feel the need for more backup capacity, it makes sense to try something new for a comparison. ‘Compare and contrast’ has been a literary test forever.
Yeah, I have a memory foam pillow and mattress pad, as well as a couple of chair pads. The big thing about the wrist rests is that they had a fabric cover over the foam. My gel rests were plastic coated.
On the Windows 10 front, I’ve been using it on the $259 Toshiba laptop and it works great. It’s snappy, it’s memory efficient, indeed the only real limitation of using it on that low power laptop was the slow hard drive but that wasn’t Windows’ fault. I replaced it with an SSD that I had in my parts bin and it’s now quite acceptable.
The only real gotcha is that bloody “smart pane” Start menu. It’s impossible to find anything in it. I gave up and installed Classic Shell in Windows 7 emulation mode to give me the Windows 7 style Start menu. Problem solved. Other than that, I had to do no mods to Windows 10 to make it usable.
Regarding backup, my backup is to a Linux NAS running Centos 7 and ZFS On Linux, with a port of the FreeBSD zfs-periodic package. I then use rsync to rsync my files to this NAS if they’ve changed and zfs-periodic handles making daily, weekly, and montly snapshots. There’s a couple of compelling reasons to do this:
1) I can time travel. That is, if I manage to delete a file, or it gets corrupted, or if I just want to see how it has changed over time, I can go into the ZFS snapshots directory and look at it at some point in the past.
2) I can replicate off-site using the built-in ZFS filesystem-level replication, which is also capable of doing snapshot-relative replication. That is, if you already have a replica off-site, it will replicate *only the things changed relative to the base snapshot* rather than the entire thing, *and* will replicate the entire snapshot history at the same time. And you can carry this replication bundle with you on a USB keyfob if you don’t have sufficient bandwidth to send it via Internet.
The only downside of ZFS on Linux is that it’s slow as a slug on rotating media, it really wants a specialist enterprise SSD for at least its journal. So I don’t use it as my main filesystem anywhere. But for backup, it works great.
Glad to hear a positive revue of Win 10. At least to the extent that it doesn’t seem worse than Win 7.
The only real gotcha is that bloody “smart pane” Start menu. It’s impossible to find anything in it. I gave up and installed Classic Shell in Windows 7 emulation mode to give me the Windows 7 style Start menu. Problem solved.
oh, great. my parents have been asking me to upgrade their computer to win10, and all I have to do in that case is put in win10 and then turn it back into win7.
Win 10 seems to be sort of usable on a touch screen, but sucks when you are using a mouse or can’t figure out which icons do what.
That all seems to be true about Win 10. 🙂 I pick up all my parts tomorrow, with the exception of the case! They won’t have the one I want until Tues. *sigh* I do have a couple cases, but not one that will fit a 280mm radiator for the water cooler, and the CPU will fry without it. 🙂 However, the supplier has offered me the option of a Thermaltake Supressor F51 case at no extra charge, which they do have in stock. It’s normally $28 more expensive. It’s a nice case, with some advantages over the Cosmos SE. Much better WC radiator support (up to 420mm), is soundproofed, is fully modular (I can move the drive bays around), and it has very good dust filters. I need to think about that as some reviews have stated that they felt the build quality was not as good as it could be, and 2 said the power button was iffy. However, they were reviews published about 6 months ago, so maybe the problems have been rectified. I’ll have a hard look at one today and decide. 🙂
My plan for my new system was to install Win 10 on one of the 950 Pro SSD’s, and CentOS 7 on the other. I wanted to see if the W7 emulator was good enough, or if W10 would run on of my VM products (particularly VMware). I know I can run a VM Win7 on CentOS, but I’d rather not. 🙂
Hi Badtux. 🙂 Yeah, I’m using Centos 7 and ZFS on the Prometeus Cloud servers I’m setting up (or was setting up until I lost Internet). 🙂 And you are correct about needing a good SSD for the journal (at least). We are using the HUS 150, so it’s not really a problem. Once I have my Internet (Dec 15 I’m told), I can set up my VPN and backup to my Prometeus system for redundancy. I also have a MediaFire Pro acc’t with 2 TB storage (expandable) and currently 164 TB of bandwidth available (also expandable). Given that it only costs me $50/yr (was $25 for the past 2 years, but I expanded storage from 1TB and doubled the annual bandwidth), it’s cheap and I can access it via my VPN.
The main reason I wanted to get the Synology DS1815+ is that I want local redundancy & it’s a good deal, I am also really interested in reviewing it. 🙂 I did get a pair of Seagate 8TB Archive drives. I plan to do a full archive on one & stick in a safety deposit box I’m renting at my Bank. 🙂 I’ll do another full archive every month and rotate them.
RE: SERE Bryan, I can categorically state that, particularly that advanced SERE course, some of the training definitely qualifies as torture by pretty well all definitions! We had to go through it all, mental and physical. It’s done because we have to know what to expect, and to find and extend our limit’s. It’s not at all pleasant, but it is necessary (and you may be surprised to hear me say that, but in certain situations I sometimes found myself in the field, I was *glad* I’d been through it. If nothing else, it gives one a definite incentive not to get captured!) 😉 😀
Re SERE: Oh, yes, knowing what was waiting if you were captured, was definitely an incentive to do your best to avoid it if at all possible. It should also have been a hint that honorable people don’t do those sorts of things.
Redundant back-up systems is old school, but it does give you peace of mind.
Do they have that case on display? I tend to prefer to buy cases, keyboards, and monitors at actual stores, so I can try them and see them.
LOL I think that depends on the definition of *honourable* (many do not have the same definition as you and I as I am sure you know!) I supposedly live in an ‘honourable Nation’ (as you are supposed to), and yet, my fellow team mates and I (and many other servicemen) were tortured, at times rather enthusiastically!
I went to pick up the parts, and I made some last minute changes. The manager and I had a lengthy chat about the system, and I agreed with some of his points. 🙂 I changed the RAM from the Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB (2 x 16GB) to 2 pair’s of Corsair Dominator Platinum 2 x 8GB (32 GB total) DDR4-3000. It was a good deal ($AU520) and the Dominator Platinum series is Corsair’s flagship range. 🙂 Also, they couldn’t get 4 of the Sandisk Ultra II 960GB SSD’s (they only had 2 and would be up to 2 weeks for the other pair), I decided on 3 x Seagate 4TB HDD’s in RAID-0 as my ‘system work/data drive’ for now, as I have a NAS and will get another. It was a lot cheaper, and I may be able to use my 120 GB SSD as a cache for the RAID. It’s a bit unclear as the Intel Rapid Storage system & Windows seem to only support that configuration if the RAID is the boot drive with Win installed. Of course, the boot drives will be the 2 M.2 950 Pro SSD’s. *shrug* Guess I’ll find out! 😉 😀
I saw the Thermaltake case and liked it! It’s well built and is easy to work with. I don’t understand the criticism’s frankly. It has a front 200mm fan which is useless. It’s speed is too slow to really move much air through the 2 front filters and through the populated drive cages! But I can replace it with 3 x 120mm or 2 x 140mm fans. So I got 3 good 140mm fans, Phanteks PH-F140X (one for the back as the one supplied isn’t great either!) 😀
Still waiting for the mouse however. 🙁
And… I did a VERY stupid thing and destroyed the Motherboard!! (The CPU socket anyway.) :'( Seriously… I CANNOT believe I did it! It was a boneheaded mistake I wouldn’t have made as a teen, and one I’ve never made before. Thankfully, the manager was understanding and offered to have it repaired for $70. I thought I would have to buy a new Motherboard. I still don’t really understand what happened… Since I’ve been on the oxy the past couple of weeks, I’ve done a few *WTF* things. *SIGH* Not even 1 day old… Maybe it’s a sign I should get out of this biz. 🙁
Kryten, you aren’t alone on screwing up builds. When they changed the design of my favorite motherboard I blew up two of them before I figured out there was a change. I built boxes on auto-pilot because the basic requirements for most of my clients was the same. After the first 100 builds we really don’t pay attention the way we did in the early days.
You and I had to convince ourselves that we were doing right, most of the people in charge these days just don’t give a damn.
Hmmm… Yeah, I guess you are right. But I always read the manuals and check online for gotchas (there are always gotchas) because I spend a lot of time building systems I’ve not built before. Oh well… I guess 1 boneheaded mistake every decade or so isn’t too bad. There goes my spotless record… ahem! You believe me, right? 😉 😀
I’m doing this on my new mobile. Just got my new mobile acc’t with ACN. 6 GB data & unlimited calls & text. 🙂
Correct, of course, about those in charge not giving a damn. Main reason I didn’t reup. They tried very hard to convince me, but I refused. They repid me by forcing me to forgoe all benefits & signing a 35 yr severe NDA. At the time, I thought it would be worth the trouble.
Home unlimited Internet should be connected Tuesday. Yayyyy… Except, I dunno if I’ll have a working PC by then. Oh well…
Well, poop! Just received email from ISP that my internet is active and ready to use! But my shiny new PC is in bit’s waiting for the motherboard! Isn’t that just typical! Grrrrrr…
Once a decade is pretty good … pretty much the same as perfect, right? 😉
I left when they started talking about changing the retirement rules – 20 years I could do, but not 30.
It’s the code of the telecoms – if the customer is ready, stall the service; if the customer isn’t ready, tell them the service has started 😈
You’re enjoying this, aren’t you m8? 😛 Can’t say I blame you! LOL
I’currently waiting on the line to ISP support. I plugged in my old landline phone &… Nada! Not even noise. Typical. And yes, you may laugh at that! Irony is good for the soul after all. 😉 😀
PS. I have been waiting just over 20 min’s. And the message said I was first in the queue! 😛
Ha!! I knew it was Telstra’s fault! The ISP had the PPP & all their back end ready to go, just had to wait for Telstra to configure the DSLAM & connect the line. Which, of course, didn’t happen! Incompetent morons. The ISP said it would be done tonight. We’ll see! Hmmph!
Mine is the grim amusement of years of experience with vendors who over promise and/or under deliver. The ISP should have known better – the fact that you finished your job doesn’t mean a large vendor has even started their part of the project. The larger the corporation, the bigger the lies.
Roger that.
The continuing saga of the poor old sod trying to get on the ‘net! I’m using mobile phone, but only 5GB/mth on 4G net. Anyway… Waiting for a tech to contact & make app’t. I think the old phone line in the old unit is kaput! Probably need a new line.
Just finished pathology tests. Had to get bus to travel to 2 places. Been fasting over 15 hours! Just had lunch at a great pub near the 2nd pathology place. Had a very nice Satay Chicken & naan bread for $12! Was really good. Amazing price. 😀 Was worth the trouble! Had an ice cold Apple Cider too (hot & humid day).
Depending on how the carrier calculates the 5Gigs, blowing through it won’t take long. You are almost certainly correct about the line being bad. The only problem I had with my DSL line was the copper wire from that was buried. I never had a problem after the line was changed.
The fasting before visits is really annoying , so it is handy if you can find a decent place to eat close by.
Ah, yes, you are heading into summer, while it is supposed to getting colder up here.
LOL Yes… Technically, Summer starts Dec. In reality, it started Oct! We had no spring really.
I’ve used almost 1.9 GB since last Fri. Luckily, my contract anniversary date is this Fri. 🙂
Got a msg from ISP that technician will arrive tomorrow “sometime before 7 PM”! Seriously??! Good thing I have no plans to go anywhere for a few days. Today really exhausted me.
I must say, I really like this router/modem so far! 😀 It uses a nodded version of the OpenSource DD-WRT s/w. One of the reasons I decided to buy it. ASUS did a good job. But the real test will be when I can use DSL. I wasn’t really sure it would be worth spending almost $250 on it, but so far, it seems worth it. 🙂 It’s the ASUS DSL-68U & retails around $320.
Well m8, you stay warm & I’ll try to stay cool (I must say, the A/C unit is awesome! It’s a Mitsubishi reverse cycle split system type. Has 3 modes: heat, chill & dehumidify (which they call “dry” mode, uses much mess power than chill). Has 4.8 kW cooling, 5.8 kW heating. Given this is a small 2 bedroom unit, it’s overkill! LOL The manual say that in “dry mode, the room may be cooled slightly.” I’ve never had to use the cool mode! It was 33C & humid when I got home. 15 min’s on “dry” & it was 24C inside. Now it’s 20C & I have it on the lowest setting. 😀 Nice! It was one reason I chose this unit.
Well, well… The tech was here. Seem’s the problem is in the exchange. He said he thinks the DSLAM is faulty because there have been other complaints from my area. That could take awhile if they don’ have a replacement handy. And so it goes.
It is supposed to be winter, but one of my rose bushes is in bloom and the pear trees across the street still haven’t turned red before falling. I would say that it was weird, but there hasn’t been a real normal here for more than a decade.
Welcome to US-style customer service. Good service is when they tell you 7AM to Noon or Noon to 7PM.
It sounds like a great modem, I hope you get to use it soon. 🙂
Yes, that is about one-third wasted. A 3 Kw cooling unit should be more than enough, and more efficient.