ahnlak

ahnlak, 1 year ago to random

Another question for techie followers:

Given our slowly-dying DECT phones, and the imminently-dying copper line provision it would seem reasonable to look harder into VOIP.

So, is there a decent (but not "business" priced) VOIP/DECT type solution, where just like now I have a single station and a handful of handsets that talk to it?

VOIP right now seems to either be "hardwired desk phones" or "astronomically expensive", although I may be searching badly...

ahnlak, 11 months ago to random

So, having found I'm sitting in a puddle of oil, today I have learned two things.

First, that buying the plastic carpet protector (mainly just to make my chair roll more smoothly) was a really good idea.

Second, that I need a new office chair. Any recommendations for comfortable, long-lasting office chairs for a tall, not-exactly-skinny-any-more gentlemen who doesn't have a grand to spend on a chair?

ahnlak, 1 year ago to linux

So how nightmarish are Ubuntu version upgrades these days?

It would be nice to drag my desktop from 20.04 to 22.04, but many years ago I attempted an in-situ Debian upgrade (probably something like 2->3) and I ended up having to nuke the machine and start again.

Presumably it's... painless and reliable now?

#linux #tech

ahnlak, 2 months ago to random

Ok Fediverse; it's time to admit that my otherwise excellent Ikea office chair has now leaked enough oil that it slowly lowers me to the stoppers over the course of the day, so I need a new office chair.

I tend to tuck under the desk, so I either need no arm rests or at least removable ones. I'm not actually a millionaire so I'm probably not looking to spend four figures on a chair, no matter how amazing it is.

Any recommendations?

ahnlak, 3 months ago to random

Microwave manufacturers - I will pay a considerable premium for the addition of a button that says "please add however many seconds are required for you to rotate my mug back to it's starting location".

My current solution of "making everything a multiple of ~11.5 seconds" is tedious.

ahnlak, 11 months ago to random

The biggest difference between our previous life in London and life now in semirural Wales is that I now spend more of my time on the phone to companies, trying to persuade them to send me a tanker to either fill (LPG) or empty (sewerage) the big tank(s) in the garden.

(at least the latter is less stressful if they're a few days later than expected!)

ahnlak, 10 months ago to random

I mean, the good part of rural life is that when you wake up to a garden full of cows, you can literally phone the first local farm that Google throws up and even if they're not his cows (they weren't), he'll know who does own them, and they'll be round in 10 minutes to shoo them back home.

ahnlak, 4 months ago to random

Holy fuckballs, when did home insurance quadruple in price?!

ahnlak, 1 month ago to random

I know it's supposed to be helpful, but sometimes couriers just sound ... sinister.

I keep expecting them to follow up with a demand for bitcoin.

ahnlak, 1 year ago to random

So did anyone on 3 get an emergency alert? Or are we on the sacrificial network?

ahnlak, 15 days ago to random

@aaisp possibly a stupid question, but are your eSIMs moveable?

For example, if I went on holiday and wanted an alternate eSIM for roaming, would I be able to put your old eSIM back on after?

I only ask because whenever I've been roaming they've been very focused on the whole "it's a one time thing, once you take it off your phone it's gone forever".

(hmm, this also assumes my phone can only have one eSIM, which I ... am not sure about)

ahnlak, 2 months ago to random

Hmm, is there a way to get my @firebrick to track /graph what porportion of traffic is running over IPv4 vs. IPv6?

As it's my network gateway it feels the logical place for it, but I can't wrap my head around if it's possible...

ahnlak, 9 months ago to random

Now that The Other Place has been re-named to "X", can we please go back to referring to things on microblogging sites as "tweets", "re-tweets" and "tweeting", rather than the god-awful assortment of verb-and-noun-ification that's going on?

Let's Hoover-ise Tweeting.

ahnlak, 1 year ago (edited 1 year ago) to opensource

#FOSS folk:

Given an open source project on GitHub (let's skip the debate about whether it should be) - should it mirror? And if so, where?

ahnlak, 10 months ago to random

I'm used to @aaisp's line monitor pinging me when my ADSL drops, but last night's "Port Preempted" message as a new one.

It also seemed to think the line came back 3 seconds before it went down, so there's some sort of subspace anomaly somewhere in the Matrix.

ahnlak, 1 month ago to random

There is a very special circle of hell reserved for people who allow you to whitelist IP addresses to access their API, but don't allow you to provide a subnet.

Which is all find and dandy until your system cycles it's IPv6 address on a regular basis for ... some really good technical reason I haven't managed to disable yet.

I'm looking at you Farcebook (although they're probably already destined for hell for a number of other reasons...)

ahnlak, 3 days ago to random

After years of saying "that roof is perfect for solar panels", our roof is now covered with solar panels.

I mean, they're not wired into anything yet, but they look very pretty.

ahnlak, 3 months ago to random

Things I learned today: it's a really good idea to check that you're developing on the right versions of things.

Otherwise you try to deploy something new and shiny to an ageing production server only to find out it only handles PHP 7.3 and the fancy library you've been using ... doesn't.

Bugger.

ahnlak, 5 months ago to random

Commissioning a headless Pi ZeroW, and after checking the DHCP server I can ping it but not ssh into it.

After trying many things, I rummage through the logfiles on the SD card and notice the IP address isn't what I thought.

Turns out, I can still ping the "new" IP address even with the ZeroW not plugged in, so somewhere on my network is something calling itself a ZeroW.

I do not remember this device. I cannot see this device. Obviously, I can't log onto it. So what is it?!

ahnlak, 4 months ago to random

Hmm. Finally got around to upgrading my instance, and... all my notifications have vanished?

ahnlak, 2 days ago to random

Hmm. Ok my excitement over solar has been slightly tempered by our inverter shutting down because (I think) it doesn't like the fact that Western Power are shoving 255v down our throats.

This is going to be a tedious fix isn't it?

ahnlak, 2 months ago to random

"You are receiving this email because you opted in via our website."

Sir, I've never heard of you or your website, and I sure as fuck never opted into your shitty sales crap.

Can I sue them for fraud or something?

ahnlak, 1 month ago to random

Using a quiet morning at home to play "what switches do what" on our consumer unit.

Leaving aside the "why does this one bathroom have a circuit all to itself", I'm now at the point of turning three different breakers off that don't seem to do anything, and waiting to see what now doesn't work.

And that's not counting the one that I'm pretty sure runs power to an entirely different building.

I'm starting to wonder who did the wiring in this house, and how drunk they were at the time.

ahnlak, 3 months ago to random

Given how many different ways Mastodon is screaming at me to update, I can only assume the security fix in 4.2.5 is for something BIG

ahnlak, 4 months ago to random

Hmm, the NTP stuff on my Galactic Unicorn clock seems to have broken. Which is odd, because I haven't touched it for almost a year.

(well, or I've somehow blocked NTP in my local network, I suppose. not sure how I'd manage that by accident though!)