vk6flab, 20 days ago

I love the (currently one) down vote on your post. Clearly not a connoisseur of René’s work.

Your shower thought on the other hand is on point!

Nicely done.

vk6flab, 21 days ago

For those wondering why. vim is the name of a popular text editor.

vk6flab, 21 days ago

Interesting that the ARRL appears to be playing down the situation, calling it a disruption and essentially only public data being stored.

ARRL Systems Service Disruption

05/17/2024

Updated 5/17/2024

Some members have asked whether their personal information has been compromised in some way. ARRL does not store credit card information anywhere on our systems, and we do not collect social security numbers. Our member database only contains publicly available information like name, address, and call sign along with ARRL specific data like email preferences and membership dates.

Original story below: 5/16/2024

We are in the process of responding to a serious incident involving access to our network and headquarters-based systems. Several services, such as Logbook of The World® and the ARRL Learning Center, are affected. Please know that restoring access is our highest priority, and we are expeditiously working with outside industry experts to address the issue. We appreciate your patience.

This story will be updated with new developments.

Source: www.arrl.org/…/arrl-systems-service-disruption

vk6flab, 21 days ago

Much more significant is the wider impact.

What I want to know, as a former user of LotW, were my details part of this hack and if so, why did they not notify me.

If not, how do they know that?

This is not a PR exercise, even if the ARRL appears to be downplaying the whole thing. This goes to the heart of how our global community hangs together.

To make matters worse, their website now returns a proxy error.

vk6flab, 20 days ago

Update: Their website now appears to be loading again. I have contacted their media team for comment in relation to the data for global LotW users.

vk6flab, 21 days ago

… cue surprised Pikachu face in November when the GOP candidate wins …

vk6flab, 24 days ago

Spare ribs.

vk6flab, 24 days ago

The Romans used bread and games to entertain the masses. Looks to me that this has been fine tuned for the past 2,000 years, only now we call it takeaway and surfing the net.

vk6flab, 25 days ago

Why?

vk6flab, 24 days ago

Okay. I’ll bite.

Why does it need to be implemented by Proton, why specifically on Ubuntu Touch, why a VPN?

I realise that the last question might seem odd, but then so does this research: “Novel attack against virtually all VPN apps neuters their entire purpose”

arstechnica.com/…/novel-attack-against-virtually-…

I might add that this affects most VPN implications since 2002, so, 22 years of oops…

So, I’ll ask again, Why?

vk6flab, 25 days ago

AFAIK Google is the biggest advertising platform on the planet and the idea that anyone could delete all their content from that platform is not one that I’d consider likely.

I’m happy to be proven wrong, in fact I’d be delighted to be wrong.

vk6flab, 25 days ago

Give us a link instead. That said, read on.

In general, antennas are not like a “normal” circuit where things need to connect to each other to work.

Most antennas are made of two halves or poles, hence the name, dipole.

A Yagi antenna is a dipole with separate elements to focus and reflect the radio waves. These elements are normally not connected to each other.

In a typical Yagi only one pair, the dipole, is the driven element. The many (shorter) elements are directors, the one (or two) behind the driven element is the reflector.

A coaxial cable has two conductive elements, the core (the middle bit of metal) and the shield (the outer braid). These should normally not connect to each other.

You connect each coax conductor to its own dipole element. It generally doesn’t matter which coax conductor connects to which dipole element.

Source: I’m a licensed radio amateur.

vk6flab, 25 days ago

I don’t know what your specific antenna looks like.

Generally you connect close to the centre of the antenna, where the two elements are closest together, again without touching each other.

That said, there are antenna designs where this is not true.

vk6flab, 25 days ago

In trying to understand “the rules”, you are attempting to understand human nature. In the fediverse there are no “rules”, there isn’t a governing body, instance owners and moderators essentially have “root” permissions.

Some use those for the greater good, some don’t. Some react in ways that are unexpected and unfamiliar.

In other words, be kind to your community and find a place where you can enjoy yourself. Don’t fret about the things that you cannot control.

If you absolutely need an answer, set up your own instance and be your own boss.

In the meantime, have fun.

vk6flab, 25 days ago

Q: How do you eat an elephant?

A: One bite at a time.

Whilst you are faced with a multitude of issues, don’t get lost in the weeds by details when you are trying to untangle the past to move it forward.

A simple spreadsheet to track hardware, licenses and other details like location, specs and primary contact is a perfectly reasonable starting point.

I say that because you don’t know what you don’t know yet. You might for example discover that some shops are doing their own thing, regardless of company policy.

Creating a ticketing system is useful to track stuff for everyone. I settled on trax with web access to people who need it, but the computer literacy levels might prevent some from using this.

Burnout is a very distinct possibility in an environment like this, so make sure that you set aside time for you to think. Call it a meeting, call it an on-site visit, whatever you do, take time to think.

Also, remember to backup your work. It’s not unheard of for it to vanish unexpectedly if you are perceived as a threat.

Source, I’ve been working in this profession for 40 years.

vk6flab, 25 days ago

I see this everyday.

The ticket system is for the IT department, allowing it to track activities, keep abreast of open tickets, build a knowledge base and share information with colleagues.

Users benefit from this indirectly.

Of course, some managers use ticket systems to manage performance metrics. That doesn’t work, but they’ll never learn.

vk6flab, 25 days ago

Manufacturer warranty?

vk6flab, 26 days ago

Yeah. I can just picture it. Survivalists doing an appendectomy in their barn using a pocket knife and some whisky…

Seriously, if the shit properly hits the fan, there’s no “survival” scenario, it’s extinction and homo-erectus goes the way of the dinosaurs.

Anything less than that means the rich get richer and the poor die.

vk6flab, 25 days ago

That’s understandable, perhaps even desirable, but OP didn’t include that in their requirements.