Posts by Trygve Henriksen 778 publicly visible posts • joined 4 Jul 2007
I put my phone on silent if I'm in a meeting. Anyone who NEEDS to contact me then can email me, Skype me(text only or I'll force reboot their PC) or even use Teams chat.
My portable(no serious manufacturer calls them laptop anymore because they're afraid of being sued when someone burn their wedding tackle) is a DELL 2-in-1 hybrid. Takes less space than a block of A4 paper, and easy to grab with me if I have to go outside.
If I write something, I usually do it because I want someone to read it. and right-to-left writing tends to confuse people.
I prefer felt-tip because when you write left-to-right with your left hand, you're pushing against the paper with the pen, and that really fucks up the ball of ball-points.
I'm in Norway, and so far I've checked the pre-filled form online, and will probably just sign off on that.
If I don't bother to check or sign it one year, the system will automatically accept it on the last day.
And yes, I get a bit of money back most years.
Definitely a whippersnapper.
The 40 floppies sounds like 3.0.
1.3 and 2.0 were just a handful of floppies.
(I have a folder with OS/2 1.3, MS LAN Server 2.2, MS SQL Server and Ungemann Bass Network monitoring SW... somewhere in the attic... I need to tidy up soon. Dump that SQL Server crap)
That brings me back...
To sitting crosslegged in front of assorted networking gear with my Psion S3a connected with the soap-on-a-rope serial adapter and a null-modem cable, to do configs.
I've later aquired a few of the IIs, a CM, a LZ64, and a POS350(an XP model with a whopping 96KB RAM)
They're fun to mess around with. Added the sensor from an old bicycle speedo and some logic chips, and suddenly I had a bike speedo that not just gave me the usual speed and distance, but average speed and average speed last minute(there's some long uphills... very long... )
One day I'll remake that with Low-power chips so that the PP3 battery lasts more than 15 minutes...
I'm just starting out with home automation, but I'm taking it slowly, and with a finger in the ground.
My first automation was a fan. It's connected to the kitchen, the bathroom and the closet(the closet is a 'wet' room with the hot water tank, and fittings for a waher and dryer. ) I know the fan is important, but... I CAN HEAR IT. Particularly late at night when I can't sleep... So now it shuts down at 11pm, and starts back up at 7am. In the unlikely scenario that I would want to take a shower before 7am, I plan to add a wireless button outside the bath and mark it with 'shower' which will start the fan back up again. (I'd still have to stumble into the kitchen to kick the fan into high, but... )
Next is m garage door opener.
Yes I have a remote for it. Two actually. And I can't count the number of times I've managed to 'pocket dial' tthe remote and left the garage open...
Soon I will not only be able to see the status of it, and close it with my phone, but if someone comes by with a delivery of say, car parts for my dilapidated car, I can remotely open the garage for them to place the package there, the nclose it again.
Oh, and windowblinds...
I'm going to toss out the old IKEA wood slats, and install roller blinds. That goes down automatically if the system detects sunshine... Or later, only does it if I'm home to be bothered by it...
Door lock?
No, I don't think that will be 'upgraded' soon.
Voice activated Stupid gear? Not happening.
(It's 'stupid' because the processing happens outside the box, often in Google's server farms)
I'm slowly smartening up my home, too, but yeah, I'm using 433MHz and Z-wave kit mostly.
And I'm using HomeSeer, not the manufacturer's cloudy solutions, or ITTT.
I should probably label some of the cabling in my 'network closet', though. And now you can get heat-shrink TZe tapes...
The host of the Salvage Hunters show on Discovery.
I don't know how much the lift of his car can handle, but he do know how to secure fragile cargo.
He probably have to take two trips, but if he can take a stop or two along the way to buy some old industrial light fittings, he'll probably jump at the opportunity.
No, an Avid DOS user would understand what a PATH was and that some programs would require files to be in specific locations.
What you were thinking of was a DOS Monkey. Probably even had a hand-written list of 'useful commands' taped on the wall, too. (Monkey see, monkey do. No concept of when something is appropriate or not)
This is bollocks.
By those companies, not what you wrote.
In many countries, you don't own your official ID papers. They're defined as Government Property. And you need government approval to hand them over like that. (Check your country's law on this, you may be surprised)
If any company or organisation demands to hold my ID, they can kiss my big, fat arse goodbye because I will turn around and march out of there.
To hold a passport, they must generally have a 'relevant use' reason, such as Visa approval work.
(The Russian Embassy may hold your passport for up to 4 weeks just for a one day Visa. )
Of course, many countries allow you to have a 'spare' passport for situations like that.
(In Norway, that passport has a validity of only 2 years. Also handy if you plan to visit both Iran and Israel... )
There's generally no 'relevant use' for holding a normal ID card or a Driver's License.
And some picture IDs I wouldn't let anyone hold, ever.
(My VISA doubles as picture ID. Yup, mugshot on the back of the card )
I wouldn't know about motorbikes, but one of the reason I stopped driving mopeds was that everyone drove past as if they never saw me. And I made certain that all the lights worked, added lots of freflex tags, and wor a bright orange vest with reflective stripes.
Hypotethically...
It's a rainy evening and you're heading home after slaving for minutes in the server room... And spening 10 hours writing the change logs...
There's no streetlights because it's out in the boondocks somewhere, and you see a solitary red light up ahead, possibly with a orange light blinking to the left of it(Brits: imagine that it's to the right instead)
Probably a motorbike about to turn off up ahead...
You can't really se it because of reflections and of course the lights from oncoming traffic. So you position yourself to the right(or the left if you're a Brit), closer to the edge of the road to give him a decent margin as you slip past...
And SMACK straight into the rightand back corner of the expensive blackpainted car with a broken taillight...
I'm not kidding about this situation. I was so very close to do that once, and that car wasn't even covered in Vantablack, just regular black.
Yeah. Amigas are way too common, and not all that often used in these kind of systems.
I know that C64 was used in some Teletext systems, though. And because of the relatively simple HW and the 6502 instruction set it would have been easy to use it as the controller in a large HVAC system.
They even had a chained serial port with addressable nodes.
A PC,(Original, or XT) with a custom ISA card that may even have some sort of custom chip or programmable logic, where the documentation is... lacking... can be almost impossible to upgrade to a modern system.
This is actually a real issue. Many buildings have ancient controllers that only still works because of regular blood sacrifices, and they can't upgrade the HVAC systems because there's no way to update the controller to support new components. Because the original manufacturer no longer exists or will not touch it because it's so old that they no longer have documentation or anyone old enough to even remember it.
Except that the passengers only have the regular fold-out table with a circular depression where they're supposed to place a cup, a waterglass or possibly a soda can, while the pilots have proper cup holders. Why not give them proper thermos mugs, with a button on the lid for open and close?
One package I've been waiting for has now been travelling between Oslo and Bodø(central and northern Norway) for nearly 3 weeks.
What a pity that I live almost smack dab in the middle, then...
Support expect that it'll be returned to China 'soon' as it has been so long since it should have been delivered...
Until then it will continue to zip back and forth between two large, automated sorting centers, never arriving at my local post office because of what may be a slightly smudged address label... (most probably, a 6 is being misread as an 8 )
Caller ID just means someone needs to walk into an empty office and place the call from the phone there...
There's also usually a doorsign giving him the victim's name, and if you're lucky, IT haven't stopped Windows from showing the signature of the last person to log in...
I've heard of people bringing several phones with them when they're visiting other countries. The phones belongs to friends who also play the game, and they've sent them off so that he can catch pokemon with them using their accounts. It's not enough for some to trade for pokemon that can't be found locally.
I put the label on top of the server/router/whatever.
Just print the text double, with a long leader, then fold the tape between the names, and use the 'leader' part to fasten it to the top.
If the server or whatever it is has a removable lid(as in 'can be removed while server is still racked'), I remove the lid and find a place inside to stick the leader, so that the label ends up in the gap.
But I NEVER switch off a server in the rack by using the button if I can avoid it. That's what Shutdown commands or ILO/iDrac is for.
No, burning a flag can be considered a declaration of war if done by an official of a forreign country. A soldier(even a Private) as long as he's wearing a uniform will do nicely.
If it's done by a citizen of the country the flag is from it's considered at best as thoughtless, and at worst, Treason.
Pick apart the seams and burn the colours individually instead. Then you're not burning a flag, only pieces of coloured cloth.
I've seen tourists in Norway try to navigate using ancient maps(in the case of the German tourists, I fully expect to see a Wehrmacht logo on it... ).
It's no good using a map from the 70s when all the roads were renumbered in the 90s. Quite a few ferries have had the docks moved or the route replaced by long bridges or undersea tunnels, and so on.
I still use maps, because they give me a much better overview. And I take notes and draw on them with a pen, too.
It's possible that a CatWeasel drive controller could have helped you read the floppies.
(It's the type of use it was made for, really)
It's possible that the drive was out of alignment. Then it's pretty difficult to even detect any data on the media when reading it on a different drive.
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