Shdwdrgn

@Shdwdrgn@mander.xyz

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How to easily add a backup internet connection to your home office - and why you should, A failover internet connection is a good idea if you work from home - and it's not complicated to set up.⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  So ldirectord is kind of a front-end for ipvsadm. The tools allow you to set up load-balancing between internal servers. I run each service in a VM, and I have at least two copies of each (on separate physical servers). Ldirectord lets me configure how frequently to verify each machine is up, a list of primary servers, and an optional backup when the others go down. Overall it works pretty smooth.

  Shorewall is similarly a front end for iptables, allowing a more structured set of configuration files. I’ve been trying to start using Webmin for the first time because it has some nice management of shorewall, maybe I’ll be able to clean up some of my config, but I’d also like to get traffic shaping configured.

  I have a dedicated firewall (just moved to a poweredge R620 last night), a NAS, and two VM systems to run services on… all run from home. I enjoy setting things up to play with, so this has all been built up starting from old desktop machines and expanded over time.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How to easily add a backup internet connection to your home office - and why you should, A failover internet connection is a good idea if you work from home - and it's not complicated to set up.⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  I tried playing around with opensense awhile back. Wasn’t impressed and kept running into things I couldn’t get it to do for me, so I stuck with my existing setup. I use ldirectord for load balancing between servers and shorewall lets me generally balance the traffic between WAN connections. It works pretty well but there’s a lot of moving parts.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How to easily add a backup internet connection to your home office - and why you should, A failover internet connection is a good idea if you work from home - and it's not complicated to set up.⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Does anyone else use a Linux firewall to manage dual connections? I run Shorewall here, but I haven’t really had much luck with traffic shaping to keep the majority of traffic on my primary connection while allowing low-speed info like email to split up between connections.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How do I fit a network card with a physical x4 slot into an x1 slot?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  If your card has an x4 pinout, then it probably needs the additional bandwidth. Plugging it into an x1 slot (if it was possible) would slow down the network traffic. Get a better motherboard with an x4 slot on it so you can use the hardware you want. or find something else that will fit your computer.

  Honestly even the 1Gb quad port card I have requires an x4 slot, although I saw some dual-port 2.5Gb x1 cards on ebay. Maybe you could just use two of those?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨openscad is pretty great⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Even the older versions work pretty well, depending on the features you need. I use it for all my 3D modeling, I could never get the hang of other CAD software but this one just “makes sense” to me. I even used it last year to create a model of a trailer I wanted to build, worked out the finer details of how everything would fit together and some options like adding ramps, and once we got to the point of building the trailer it was just a matter of copying the dimensions and cutting out all the steel.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The Return of Digg, a Star of Web 2.0 (Gift Article)⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I see they’ve deleted old user accounts. Oh well, I was briefly curious but that’s gone now.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Decentralized Search Engine⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  But is it decentralized? Do the results from multiple spiders get added to give everyone the same quality searches or do I need to scan the whole internet myself?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why can't we go back to small phones?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Right? I mean I’m still lamenting the loss of slider keyboards, typing on a screen is so damn unreliable that I was forced to turn on the auto-correction, which itself is highly unreliable and constantly changing real words while failing to fix the words where I hit a number instead of a letter (the word “9f” gets typed a LOT!). I use my phone for phone calls and sending texts, with a secondary usage as a GPS in my truck. If it can’t perform one of three basic tasks then what good is it?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Decentralized Search Engine⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I just did a quick dive into this and have some concerns. SearX appears to no longer be maintained and was last updated three years ago. SearXNG was forked to use more recent libraries but there were concerns that those are not always stable or fully vetted. There were also concerns that SearXNG did not follow the same concerns for user privacy. It’s a shame that SearX shut down, that one actually sounds like a project I would have jumped on.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why can't we go back to small phones?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I upgraded to a Sony Xperia XZ2 compact last year. It has a 5" screen and decent capabilities, the only down side is it doesn’t support 5G. For a phone that’s over 5 years old, it’s probably the most recent usable phone available which actually fits in my pocket.

  Seriously, don’t show me a damn tablet computer and try to sell it to me as a mobile phone. If you can’t make a compact phone then you’re not really advancing the technology, are you?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨OpenEvidence Sounds Promising, but is it Reliable?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  It could be “3D” 2.0 as well.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Just Finished Lower Decks⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Man what are the odds??? I just finished the last episode today too! I’ve been dragging along on this last season because, ya know, last season and all, but it did certainly end with quite a bang.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Miniature Hard Drives⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Haha yeah storage capacity just keeps going up fast. Now that you mention it, I do recall the performance on these drives was supposed to be just absolute crap, but it was a massive innovation before chip storage came out. And some day the next big thing will be released and we’ll wonder how we put up with SSD drives.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The Cybertruck Appears to Be More Deadly Than the Infamous Ford Pinto, According to a New Analysis⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Yeah I’ve seen some bits about that, they were looking into how Musk was interfering with the Ukraine war I think?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Miniature Hard Drives⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  I have one of the original IBM Microdrives, the 340MB version, sitting here on my desk. Hmm I wonder if I can find anything with a PCMCIA slot to test if this still works?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The Cybertruck Appears to Be More Deadly Than the Infamous Ford Pinto, According to a New Analysis⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Let me simplify it for you… Musk has been targeting agencies that stood in the way of SpaceX. Did you hear he started targeting OSHA this week because of the spotlight on Musk’s intentional dismissal of safety regulations? Or that he is also targeting the consumer protection agency? Everything that protects regular citizens is being shut down as “wasteful”, and his only criteria is anything that costs him money or prevents him from exploiting workers.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The Commodore Amiga was perfect⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Ah I miss the days when my Amiga was the height of technology. I actually still have my A1000 in the attic, along with the C64 and Sinclair ZX81 (hooray for 1K of ram!).

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The real reason OS/2 flopped shaped modern software⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I had so much hope for this, at the time it seemed to be so much better than Windows, but for me the lack of software was the real killer. I actually still have the install CD sitting here by my monitors. Eventually I switched over to linux because Windows continued failing to impress me after all those years.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Many smaller drivers or fewer larger drives?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  More drives also equals larger power consumption so you would need a larger battery backup.

  It also means more components prone to failure which increases your chance of losing data. More drives means more moving parts and electrical connections including data and power cables, backplanes, and generated heat that you need to cool down.

  I’d be more concerned over how many failures you’re seeing that makes you think smaller drives would be the better option? I have historically used old drives from ebay or manufacturer refurbs, and even the worst of those have been reliable enough to only have to replace drives once every year or two. With RAID6 or raidz2 you should be plenty secure during a rebuild to prevent data loss. I wouldn’t consider using a lot of little drives unless it’s the only option I had or if someone gave them away for free.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨USB-C cable CT scan reveals sinister active electronics — O.MG cable contains a hidden antenna and another die embedded in the microcontroller⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Same here, I was wondering what was going on.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨"Your body, my choice:" Hate and harassment towards women spreads online⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Hard to say for sure. He’s on Facebook so I don’t have a way to see what he posts, but my wife still has an account there and said he’s in some of the same groups as her. She’s pretty aware of what he’s posting and they’ve actually had conversations in person about the whole immigration thing. The rest… yeah I just don’t know.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨"Your body, my choice:" Hate and harassment towards women spreads online⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  This started on Wednesday, almost immediately after Trump’s victory was announced. By Friday it was already being reported in grade schools because asshole parents enjoy raising asshole sons, and Trump tells people that it’s ok to be the absolute worst human being they can be.

  I have a friend who is a hard Republican. We generally don’t talk politics, but after this started last week he was posting things online being offensive towards women and POC (and the whole “illegals took my job and healthcare”) so I finally had to call him out. His response was basically that he wasn’t aware of any increased discrimination happening against women, therefore he didn’t believe it was happening. I’ve known the guy for 40 years but this may be the thing that breaks our friendship. He claims to be an advocate for people’s rights yet he is painfully unaware of the world around him.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The Magic Keyboard and Mouse now use USB-C!⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Are you sure this is new? I’d swear all the M-series iMacs I’ve ordered for work over the last few years recharged the keyboard and mouse through USB-C

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Wikipedia article blocked worldwide by Delhi high court.⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Seems like a good opportunity to remind folks about the Kiwix project, which allows you to download local private copies of select information such as Wikipedia. It was originally created to provide offline access to content for countries that were otherwise blocked, but events like this have sparked some recent discussion about archiving older files to preserve history.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨T-Mobile, AT&T oppose unlocking rule, claim locked phones are good for users⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  That’s a shame to hear, but yeah they’ve certainly changed since I signed on. Not that I expect any other to be better at this point.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨T-Mobile, AT&T oppose unlocking rule, claim locked phones are good for users⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  It’s weird to see T-mobile taking this stance. I switched to them years ago because they were one of the few that supported unlocked phones, and even offered them for sale. Their policies might have changed on this, but I just bought an unlocked phone off Ebay this Summer and all I needed to do was pop my sim card into the new device. Hell I had to specifically install the visual voicemail app because there wasn’t any bloatware on the phone when I got it. So I guess I’m not following what their complaint is about?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Internet Archive breached again through stolen access tokens⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Most of us can’t afford the sort of disk capacity they use, but it would be really cool if there were a project to give volunteers pieces of the archive so that information was spread out. Then volunteers could specify if they want to contribute a few gigabytes to multiple terabytes of drive space towards the project and the software could send out packets any time the content changes. Hmm this description sounds familiar but I can’t think of what else might be doing something similar – anyone know of anything like that that could be applied to the archive?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Internet Archive breached again through stolen access tokens⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Discrediting someone usually has a goal of pushing customers to another source though. There is no other source of this information, so what would be the point?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I'm a reasonably well educated human living on Earth. What's to stop me from replicating starship parts until I can make my own Starfleet?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  OK cool, now if only you had a ship to go get the asteroid so you could make a ship. My last point still stands though, if it were really that easy…

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I'm a reasonably well educated human living on Earth. What's to stop me from replicating starship parts until I can make my own Starfleet?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Raw material, I would imagine. I don’t remember exactly how replicators work in the Star Trek universe, but they either rely on energy, a raw base material, or both. You can’t create something out of nothing so you would need a significant supply chain to produce your fleet.

  If it were that easy, every rogue organization in the galaxy would have already done it before you.