Vakkotaur

Am alive, really

Mon, 04 Mar 2024 10:23:31 GMT

Just not so active here, nowadays. The idiocy of 2020 didn't get me. Alright, I was hit by a significant amount of 2020's idiocy. What did NOT get me was "Covid 19." I likely had it. Likely a few times over, but I was never symptomatic. As I work nights in a northern climate and get little sunlight, I supplement with vitamin D (D3) as a matter of course. Zinc was a common thing for me in Winter anyway. A few other things were added to my regimen... and I've not had a viral infection (at least that I noticed) since at least 2019. Bacterial, yeah. A case or two of "shouldn't have eaten that."

Meanwhile I've just kinda been carrying on, and trying to deal with the world going mad(der).

I picked up a new addiction. No, not that kind. I now have a number of kerosene lamps and lanterns, as well as a couple butane and propane lights (and cookers, and heaters). I don't see myself as a "prepper" so much as being able to be a bit less uncomfortable should a storm mess things up for a few days.

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Well that was new and irksome

Wed, 11 Nov 2020 03:07:21 GMT

Winter-ish storm. Snow, sleet, ice, wind. Yes, those can be annoying as a matter of course and scraping car windows is not considered fun. But it was the power hit, the almost capable UPS, and the too-rapid shutdown of the main computer... and again as it attempted to boot.

Thus I have now seen "BIOS corrupted. Restoring from backup" (at least the thing HAD that and could do it). And then booting up worked... except most of the USB system. No keyboard. No trackball. Well, THAT complicates things some. Fortunately a couple ports did still work and there was a spare keyboard and trackball fairly handy. That let me at least get things to where I wasn't truly "dead in the water."

Looking at the BIOS (since restore was from a factory version how many years old? Turns out... about seven.) I thought I'd have to add the old "iommu=soft" to the boot parameters... except I've not needed to do that anymore. Hrmm. Oh, the ancient BIOS defaults the IOMMU to DISABLED? Switch that to ENABLED and things work right again.

I still have work to do. I am fairly sure there is an update I need to do. But now I can use the computer to get to it.

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10 Years?

Wed, 01 May 2019 16:32:02 GMT

I see there is a post that Dreamwidth is now 10 years old. It sure feels like it's been around longer. Then, I started looking at alternatives to LiveJournal before there WAS Dreamwidth. And I initially rejected Dreamwidth as it required continuing subscription to get the same things I could get (for a one-time fee, if rarely offered) on LJ - or the speculation of early investment in a time when LiveJournal alternatives were failing with alarming regularity. Obviously, I eventually decided to put up with the limitations of Dreamwidth (I am still open to a ONE-TIME fee, but I will NOT be bled forever to get a few icons, etc.) and made the jump - though it took not just the astonishing incompetence of the LJ staff, but the truly evil anti-liberty of Russian law - which simply show the horrible truth of the "joke": Russian history in five words: And then things got worse.

And I still 'simulcast' on InsaneJournal. One basket is too few.

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It's (Not) Radio Weather

Fri, 13 Apr 2018 06:19:30 GMT

It's Spring or at least threatening to be. And I'm getting just a bit antsy to do some antenna work and get properly on the air again, at least 2m and 70cm. HF would be nice, too, but one or two things at a time.

Of course, Jay wants to get his convertible out of storage as well, and that requires dry weather as the area around the storage site is quite muddy when wet. Between those two things, the forecast rain, snow, and worst of all freezing rain & ice are sadly predictable.

Allegedly in a week or two we'll have "normal" weather. We'll see.

And yes, I am fully aware of the quip that any antenna put up in good weather will never work right. I can do antenna work at subzero temperatures, though I'd prefer not to. I do draw the line at working in rain (esp. of the freezing variety) and blizzards.

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Not EBS

Fri, 22 Sep 2017 07:42:52 GMT

But this is "Only a test." Or "Hello world" if you prefer.

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