Reinstalled Mint on a NVMe.
Already done on another machine. It's hot but it flies...
My inner child screaming savagely at the slow as a snail Conner is happy 😀

pentiumspeed wrote on 2023-08-21, 23:41:

Buy a HP Elitedesk 8300 tower with i5 or i7. These have COA key burnt into the motherboard for windows 7 and 10 using win7 ke […]
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creepingnet wrote on 2023-08-21, 16:25:

Yesterday I decided to continue to dump all commercial Operating Systems on my at home machines. For the last year I have run O […]
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Yesterday I decided to continue to dump all commercial Operating Systems on my at home machines. For the last year I have run OS X, Windows 10, and LInux Mint on a triple boot iMac late 2015 21.5" computer, and found that LInux Mint was the one I was happiest with.

Windows still pisses me off with having to dedicate cloud space to my product keys, and then losing them, constant advertising, constant huranging to give up Firefox for Edge, constant settings being changed back after updates, turning off automatic updates, turning ON automatic updates, and updates that behave like an unruly teenager - they do what they want, when they want, unless I constantly discipline it to do what I want. They also want you to buy O365 and engage in their cloud based Ecosystem via the "Windows Store" of "Approved Apps"....not much unlike....

OS X has massive shortcomings as well. It won't run 32-bit software, which is most of my games, and solutions to get around this 3/4ths of the time involve installing ANOTHER Operating System either on a VM or via Bootcamp (which does not always work), or forking out more $$$ for Parallels. It also takes 4x the time it takes to Install Windows and 10x the time to install Linux, and it's boot time pales compared to windows 10. Updates are about as irritating leading to the system hanging and popping up the "Force Quit" Menu after a time. Also, as much as this is a*nix OS, you don't really have as much control over it (without convoluted, long attempts to reverse what Apple did to keep computer illiterates illiterate), so I get irriated. The screensavers look nice though, and before you start altering things it does run okay though.

Linux Mint won out because I can run most Windows and DOS apps on it, it does not hurang me with advertising, or constantly tell me to sign up for some bloody "cloud" somewhere. My only problems with LInux Mint is the irritating USB filters in VirtualBox (I need to figure that one out, I Use Win2K in Virtualbox to manage my vintage PC Hard Disks), and it not wanting to read certain hard disks due to their DDOs, or having a FAT-16 partition scheme, plus a few audio guffaws. But I've decided, with as open as it is to user modification - it's better for the technical stuff I like to do, plus I always use 5-10 year old PCs anyway, including old intel-based Macs like the iMac. and best of all, it's FREE.

Buy a HP Elitedesk 8300 tower with i5 or i7. These have COA key burnt into the motherboard for windows 7 and 10 using win7 key COA. It can also can take XP due to XP drivers online at HP's but need COA for this.
It takes long video card if it has 1 6 pin plug. If you need use a GPU eg: GTX 285 for example, you have to go to Z220 using i7 ivy bridge due to dual 6 pin power connectors and yes, it will work with XP due to drivers too.

Not to mention these HP towers are inexpensive.

Cheers,

Thanks for the suggestion but Nah.....had quite a success yesterday with the iMAC, got a BUNCH of my software running new and old on it....

- Got the original Sims running on a Windows 2000 VIrtual Machine scaled up so I can shoot YouTube videos of me playing it
- Ditto Diablo, Sim City/2000, and a bunch of other Windows stuff
- Managed to install GTA Vice City natively
- EVERYTHING on Steam works, even that cantankerous Monster Truck Destruction Game, via Proton

Those were the main offenders, Windows via Bootcamp was a pain, and so was OS X alone (no 32-bit support). Linux just lets me run everything when I want to, as long as I put in the work for the compatiblity layers at least.

creepingnet wrote on 2023-08-21, 16:25:

Windows still pisses me off with having to dedicate cloud space to my product keys, and then losing them, constant advertising, constant huranging to give up Firefox for Edge, constant settings being changed back after updates, turning off automatic updates, turning ON automatic updates, and updates that behave like an unruly teenager - they do what they want, when they want, unless I constantly discipline it to do what I want. They also want you to buy O365 and engage in their cloud based Ecosystem via the "Windows Store" of "Approved Apps"

I'm really tired of Windows, too. I didn't know that turning off automatic updates was common, but I did see a computer once that had automatic updates disabled through the registry. The user of that computer is against manual registry editing, so he wouldn't have done it himself (especially since it was Windows 10 Pro, so group policies can be used). I have noticed that security features randomly disable themselves. Then there's the upcoming e-waste disaster once Windows 10 support ends two years from now.

I'm going to try out LibreOffice before switching to Linux, though. I had some problems with it many years back when I was in school, but Microsoft Office is getting slower, the interface is getting more annoying (like the totally insane save dialog - start with only showing a few random folders, then switch to a full-window thing that isn't any more helpful, then switch to the old-style save dialog box that actually lets you choose where you want to save), and PowerPoint is trying to help out too much with the built-in templates (nagging me to not use the corporate template at work) and automatic picture cropping. On the other hand, I never bought subscription versions of Office, so I only have the annoying save dialog to deal with in Office 2016.

My last modern activity was trying to clean up my backups since I'm now backing up to multiple drives (two 4TB external drives - one SSD and one HDD). I might upgrade the internal storage in my desktop at some point, but I still have enough space for now.

Made an .XM from some Chinese song I heard on Bilibili. Next I want to make one from a K-pop...

Modern activity...
I've had my evil cell phone for 2 years. Throughout that time, I've had intermittent waves of "2-factor" security text messages, most of them from Wells Fargo, meant for the old owner of my phone number.
I also get random phone calls, I almost never answer the phone because it's never for me. I'm not sure why I pay for phone service, the practical use I get from it is near zero. But the world says I have to have a phone number, so I'm stuck with it.

For the floods of 2FA text messages, I tried doing the "STOP" thing, and then a more verbose variation that was given on the Wells Fargo site, but it doesn't stick. "Somebody" keeps resetting it.
Finally I blocked all messages from Wells Fargo using some deeper cryptic BS on the phone/Android/whatever. The messages stopped.

.. Today I got a "TEST MESSAGE For Ricardo" which appeared as a "Notification" - it's not in the text message app. I don't know who sent that, Google themselves or the phone company or something.
Ricardo is a moron.
Wake up! 2 YEARS!! It's not working! You don't have that phone number anymore. Put your phone away, go to the damn bank, show them your photo ID in person and fix your crap.

I know it's petty, they're just text messages from computers. It doesn't affect me much but it blows my mind how anybody can be this stubborn.

I also can't register a Venmo account because Ricardo already made one with this phone number and of course never changed it. Why would he, he clearly still thinks this is his phone number.
To resolve that, Venmo wanted me to provide a phone bill from within the past month, but my phone bill is yearly.

Just picked up a little mixer for my desk, a Shure SMC262. It's annoying having to constantly unplug the cables leading to my speakers each time I want to use them with a different computer. I also recently picked up a Roland MT300S, so I can now mix the output from it with the sound coming from my computer.

shamino wrote on 2023-08-25, 22:14:

Modern activity... I've had my evil cell phone for 2 years. Throughout that time, I've had intermittent waves of "2-factor" sec […]
Show full quote

Modern activity...
I've had my evil cell phone for 2 years. Throughout that time, I've had intermittent waves of "2-factor" security text messages, most of them from Wells Fargo, meant for the old owner of my phone number.
I also get random phone calls, I almost never answer the phone because it's never for me. I'm not sure why I pay for phone service, the practical use I get from it is near zero. But the world says I have to have a phone number, so I'm stuck with it.

For the floods of 2FA text messages, I tried doing the "STOP" thing, and then a more verbose variation that was given on the Wells Fargo site, but it doesn't stick. "Somebody" keeps resetting it.
Finally I blocked all messages from Wells Fargo using some deeper cryptic BS on the phone/Android/whatever. The messages stopped.

.. Today I got a "TEST MESSAGE For Ricardo" which appeared as a "Notification" - it's not in the text message app. I don't know who sent that, Google themselves or the phone company or something.
Ricardo is a moron.
Wake up! 2 YEARS!! It's not working! You don't have that phone number anymore. Put your phone away, go to the damn bank, show them your photo ID in person and fix your crap.

I know it's petty, they're just text messages from computers. It doesn't affect me much but it blows my mind how anybody can be this stubborn.

I also can't register a Venmo account because Ricardo already made one with this phone number and of course never changed it. Why would he, he clearly still thinks this is his phone number.
To resolve that, Venmo wanted me to provide a phone bill from within the past month, but my phone bill is yearly.

I'm also spammed with these too with my cell and these messages is called phishing attacks trying to get your money. Delete them.

Cheers,

pentiumspeed wrote on 2023-08-27, 16:24:

shamino wrote on 2023-08-25, 22:14:

Modern activity... I've had my evil cell phone for 2 years. Throughout that time, I've had intermittent waves of "2-factor" sec […]
Show full quote

Modern activity...
I've had my evil cell phone for 2 years. Throughout that time, I've had intermittent waves of "2-factor" security text messages, most of them from Wells Fargo, meant for the old owner of my phone number.
I also get random phone calls, I almost never answer the phone because it's never for me. I'm not sure why I pay for phone service, the practical use I get from it is near zero. But the world says I have to have a phone number, so I'm stuck with it.

For the floods of 2FA text messages, I tried doing the "STOP" thing, and then a more verbose variation that was given on the Wells Fargo site, but it doesn't stick. "Somebody" keeps resetting it.
Finally I blocked all messages from Wells Fargo using some deeper cryptic BS on the phone/Android/whatever. The messages stopped.

.. Today I got a "TEST MESSAGE For Ricardo" which appeared as a "Notification" - it's not in the text message app. I don't know who sent that, Google themselves or the phone company or something.
Ricardo is a moron.
Wake up! 2 YEARS!! It's not working! You don't have that phone number anymore. Put your phone away, go to the damn bank, show them your photo ID in person and fix your crap.

I know it's petty, they're just text messages from computers. It doesn't affect me much but it blows my mind how anybody can be this stubborn.

I also can't register a Venmo account because Ricardo already made one with this phone number and of course never changed it. Why would he, he clearly still thinks this is his phone number.
To resolve that, Venmo wanted me to provide a phone bill from within the past month, but my phone bill is yearly.

I'm also spammed with these too with my cell and these messages is called phishing attacks trying to get your money. Delete them.

Cheers,

I don't think it's phishing - I looked into the phone number sending a lot of the 2FA messages/phone calls and it's legitimately Wells Fargo. They aren't sending a URL and nothing is asking me for information, it's just 2FA code numbers that "Ricardo" keeps generating because he thinks if he does it enough times, magically one of them will arrive on his phone instead of mine. After 2 years he still doesn't get it.
I was hoping that if I blocked Wells Fargo, maybe they will contact the guy and a light bulb will go off. That "Test Message for Ricardo" is a new one - I hope it's a sign that somebody is helping him figure out what his phone number is.

shamino wrote on 2023-08-27, 21:20:

I don't think it's phishing - I looked into the phone number sending a lot of the 2FA messages/phone calls and it's legitimately Wells Fargo. They aren't sending a URL and nothing is asking me for information, it's just 2FA code numbers that "Ricardo" keeps generating because he thinks if he does it enough times, magically one of them will arrive on his phone instead of mine. After 2 years he still doesn't get it.
I was hoping that if I blocked Wells Fargo, maybe they will contact the guy and a light bulb will go off. That "Test Message for Ricardo" is a new one - I hope it's a sign that somebody is helping him figure out what his phone number is.

I've been going through a similar thing with some braindead idiot who registers to all kinds of services using my GMail address. Well, not exactly my address but something very similar with a period '.' within the name, which GMail ignores so all those mails end up in my inbox. But to many services these are different addresses, so for example he was able to setup an Uber account with that e-mail even though I already have one. Worst of all, Uber is so poorly designed that it doesn't even require you to validate your e-mail address, just your phone is enough. So every time the guy took a ride I got the mail notifications.

I've gotten all kinds of stuff addressed to this guy, from bank account statements, airline ticket reservations, PlayStation account, Activision/Call of Duty bullshit, etc. I started to become seriously aggravated so I took action: for example, I raised a case on PlayStation support, told them that someone was using my e-mail in their account, they validated that was the case and got his account deleted. Then, I tackled the Uber situation. Even though Uber sends a 2FA code to your phone in order to login, I selected the "I recently changed my mobile number" option, which sent a temporary code to the registered e-mail address, which was mine. Now, you still cannot change the phone number this way but you can temporarily access the account, and I wasn't trying to take over that account either. So what I did was change the e-mail address to a throwaway one which I promptly deleted.

After a few of these all these unwanted mails seem to have stopped, seems like he got the message. I don't think this guy was just entering his address incorrectly by mistake, no one is so stupid to do it that many times, but since there were no suspicious reports in the GMail access logs I don't think he was a hacker either. My speculation is that he just entered what he thought was a bullshit e-mail account (which turned to be mine, since our names are similar) to avoid dealing with the spam and notifications. Either way, good riddance.

Heh, I've got a doorknob like that that can't spell his own gmail and keeps getting stuff sent to mine. He's a right Charlie... for real, apparently his name is Charles

I'm looking into RTX Remix, a software package from Nvidia that allows one to "remaster" old DirectX games by replacing the renderer with a new one, as well as giving the ability to adjust/replace assets for "new look" functionality.

Here's a video showing what it can do with Elder Scrolls 3.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vg52-HZhrFc

That "Test Message for Ricardo" notification is a goof from Motorola themselves, showing on the Device Help app. (So... someone was testing in production...) Oddly enough, I have a Motorola smartphone but I never received that notification myself. Read about it during the August 25 power outage (which delayed the server maintenance here, btw). Power outage - Context.

--

Finally, I have upgraded the storage on the CW Cyrix site web server; data is being migrated to the setup now. It is no longer on a single 2TB Western Digital hard drive. This was sorely needed because the server was slowly running out of disk space primarily because of the FTP archives. There is now a total of 6TB disk space from the previous 2TB.

After this, a proper site backup will finally be done rather than the large 1TB file currently stored on the NAS.

Today I retired my Ryzen 5 3600 and Radeon RX 5700 XT I've had since I built this PC in 2019. Replaced the CPU with a Ryzen 7 5800X3D and the GPU with a GeForce RTX 4070 and kept the X570 motherboard, 32GB of DDR4-3600 RAM, 1TB NVMe SSD, 4TB HDD and 850W power supply from the original build. I was an early adopter of the X570 platform and I have to say I'm pleased with how it turned out beyond some dodgy early BIOSes. It's been a while since I was able to update only CPU/GPU and get a noticeable increase in performance, it reminds me of the old days. I was so used to having to also replace motherboard and RAM that I was pleasantly surprised by the longevity of the X570.

I cannot say the same about the Radeon card though. Even though it was a really good performer when it came out, I've had lots of problems, especially with the AMD drivers: from having to undervolt/underclock the card because the factory defaults were too aggressive, to driver update lottery where certain versions would just crash randomly to a black screen (also resetting my tuning profile), forcing me to do a clean install (or even having to revert to a more stable version).

And what can I say about the multi-monitor hell I went through: I have my main monitor for regular use and a 55in 4K Sony TV for watching movies and playing certain games... but the TV would randomly lose the signal causing the drivers to crash or it simply "disappeared" requiring me to unplug and plug it again to be detected again by the PC (even though I am using an HDMI 2.1 certified cable and all other devices connected to it work fine). What a mess, and in the last few days something changed (probably a driver update) that I needed to have either both displays turned on or unplug the one I'm not using, otherwise turning off one of them would cause the other to lose signal.

To make matters worse, in parallel with that I started experiencing random hard crashes with looping sound and the PC becoming totally unresponsive, which made me lose progress in the games I was played. At that point I decided to upgrade since I was tired of troubleshooting this damn card.

It's safe to say I'm not going back to Radeon GPUs for a while until AMD sorts their stuff out with the drivers, a shame because I hate nVidia's way of doing things as a company.

Guys, My HP z440 computers are Rock Solid stable and reliable and Perform Great for $100 computers from eBay..

My Build link:
Re: What modern activity did you get up to today?

I just checked up on what's going on with the new Windows MIDI 2.0 development project on github and there's nothing but technical back-and-forth development going on, at this time. At one point, there was a MIDI user survey, but it was almost a year ago and we didn't even know about the project back then, so I can't say anything about what was collected through that or what directions are being considered, just that everything being done right now is tech-tech-tech-tech work. I recommend that anyone who is interested, follow/take-part-in the Discord channel or github discussions, to keep an eye on what's going on and give input.

I just installed Linux on an HP T620 thin client. I first tried Debian because that's what some other people have installed on it, but it gave me a bunch of errors during the install. I then tried Lubuntu, which installed without any problems.

I have a little server setup that uses a Raspberry Pi. I use it to host a NAS and to download podcasts. It really was a hassle to administer it from a Windows computer because X forwarding doesn't work by default using the Linux subsystem. Having a little thin client running Linux is really convenient because I don't have to reboot into Linux anytime I need to run an app with a GUI from my server.

Yesterday I flew my solo 150 NM (~300km) cross country flight. It's one of the required flights before the test. Still have a lot to practice but I'm happy to have this step done.

Today after I came home I got some weird internet issue. Both my phone and PC said it has no internet connection on my home network. At first I thought it's an ISP issue. Rebooted the modem, then my router, nothing changed. checked my Pi-hole, updated it, as well as the OS. That fixed the connection for the phone, but my PC just refused to send DNS requests to the Pi-hole. Tried disconnecting the reconnecting, rebooting, everything that came to my mind, then added my router as a primary DNS provider, which also resolves through Pi-hole and then the PC started to send requests to not the router, but directly to the Pi-hole. I have absolutely no idea why.

AmiSapphire wrote on 2023-08-30, 01:47:

That "Test Message for Ricardo" notification is a goof from Motorola themselves, showing on the Device Help app. (So... someone was testing in production...) Oddly enough, I have a Motorola smartphone but I never received that notification myself. Read about it during the August 25 power outage (which delayed the server maintenance here, btw). Power outage - Context.

That's a weird bug, it just popped up the one time after I've had the number for over 2 years (2 phones during that time because the first one died, and I really don't like the replacement model as much but oh well).

======

Today I reassembled a drive into one of those Imation Superdisk USB LS120 enclosures. Windows 7 didn't recognize it and some internet posts suggested this is a compatibility issue, but it was actually an error with the drive jumper.
A disassembly video on youtube shows that these drives were jumpered as "Master" from factory. I had it set to Cable Select - that does not work. After changing it to Master, it's working now.

My old 2TB Seagate "Firecuda" SSHD drive has started acting up. It was the fastest version of those drives they made (7200rpm 2TB drive with an 8GB Flash memory cache). It's a good fit for a late WinXP gaming PC - especially for this motherboard which can't seem to do TRIM commands. When I finally retire this machine back to WinXP, I might use that drive again. But it has had 2 events of "disappearing" from the system so I don't want to use that drive for general daily computing anymore.
I'm in the process of cloning it over to a WD "Red" drive. The sizes are exactly identical, which is a surprising coincidence since they aren't even from the same manufacturer.
So I'll now be using 2 WD "Red" drives on this desktop. They aren't really supposed to be desktop drives, they only run at 5400rpm, but they're too small to be in my file server anymore - and too big to be necessary in my desktop. But they're both still good and reliable so I'm gonna use them here for now.

Currently writing some performance analysis software for my University high-performance-computer service; extracting trend data of more than 14M jobs submitted over a 5 year period to determine what the average workload profile is.

Why? So we can spec the replacement system with what is needed, rather than what a few loud voices say is needed!

Current system is 5400 processors, but no GPU. Likely to implement new system with a reasonable number of GPUs, if Nvidia ever stop artificially manipulating the market to only offer their highest priced parts....