Maritime Wrap-up
Only a few more pictures to share from our vacation, which I’ll wrap up in conventional tourism advice. It’s mostly about the oceanfront, and what you can see from it. Food and drink I recommend all of the following. Schoolhouse Brewery in Windsor, NS; nice space, decent food, the Vice Principal is a good IPA. Maybe the beer that I enjoyed most was “Exile on North Street” from unfiltered brewing; you might want to follow that link and also check out the URL. I didn’t love Halifax that much but it has this charming little neighborhood called Hydrostone, where The Brown Hound offered very solid food and beer.
More fun with VirtualBox and bde
More playing around with VirtualBox today, with no breakthrough. I had paused dereel with zzz, and when I restarted it the networking had gone to hell again. Here a repeat of what I had done yesterday: === root@dereel (/dev/pts/3) /eureka/home/grog 1 -> ifconfig em0: flags=1008943<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,PROMISC,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST,LOWER_UP> metric 0 mtu 1500 options=4e524bb<RXCSUM,TXCSUM,VLAN_MTU,VLAN_HWTAGGING,JUMBO_MTU,VLAN_HWCSUM,LRO,WOL_MAGIC,VLAN_HWFILTER,VLAN_HWTSO,RXCSUM_IPV6,TXCSUM_IPV6,HWSTATS,MEXTPG> === root@dereel (/dev/pts/3) /eureka/home/grog 2 -> ifconfig em0 -rxcsum -txcsum -vlanhwtso -lro -tso4 -tso6 down up === root@dereel (/dev/pts/3) /eureka/home/grog 3 -> ifconfig em0: flags=1008943<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,PROMISC,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST,LOWER_UP> metric 0 mtu 1500 options=4c120b8<VLAN_MTU,VLAN_HWTAGGING,JUMBO_MTU,VLAN_HWCSUM,WOL_MAGIC,VLAN_HWFILTER,TXCSUM_IPV6,HWSTATS,MEXTPG> After that it worked normally again, but the Microsoft boxen still didn't want to know.
Bruce Evans' C compiler
Mail in the TUHS mailing list today: Subject: [TUHS] Bruce Evans 386 Minix patches & compiler source It's been quite a while since I was messing with Minix386 back in the days when Bruce Evans released a set of patches to bring 386 support. I'm pretty sure over on oldlinux.org the patch set exists, but I can only find the one set of binaries of his 386 toolchain. I know it eventually evolved into the bin86 toolchain that Linus would go on to use to create real mode boot code, but I don't know if any of the source code to his 1991/1992 386 toolchain ever got published?
More VirtualBox insights
So what's wrong with VirtualBox networking? Google Gemini had suggested that it might depend on the emulated network adapter, so spent some time trying different adapters, with no improvement. About the only thing that was clear was the ping time: from guest to host the expected 0.15 ms, but in the other direction much longer, and with wildly different times: round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 29.752/61.679/175.892/36.953 ms Gave that up and looked at some bug reports, which showed surprisingly few network issues. But one, by Ivan Rozhuk, was interesting: Try to disable HW offloads on NIC: ifconfig igb0 -rxcsum -txcsum -vlanhwtso -lro -tso4 -tso6 down up And how about that, that worked.
VicRoads: still in the 20th century
After scrapping my Hyundai Elantra at the end of July I was due a refund for the registration. And they sent me a cheque! I thought they went out of fashion well over a year ago. And yes, the bank refused to accept it. But why? I really don't understand. They should have transferred it to my bank account, like any sane company. But no, I had to call their customer service line (1300 555 165, which looks suspiciously like a fake US phone number) and go through their silly authentication process (including a form of 2FA, sending a PIN to my phone.
DxO PhotoLab 9: worth the trouble?
I've spent a lot of time looking at the new features of DxO PhotoLab 9. Even better noise reduction, of course, but the big new thing is what appears to be excellent object recognition (“masking”). But that's only part of the story. Can I remove objects? Replace them with something else? It seems that the answer is “no”. Somewhere I also thought I saw a way to merge HDR images, but that seems to be a misunderstanding. Instead they have improved file handling, including collapsing related image groups and automatic file naming. None of them seem to be anywhere near as flexible as the method I worked out 13 years ago, so it's of no use to me.
Chasing the VirtualBox bug
So why was VirtualBox version 7.1 on dereel even worse than version 6.50 on hydra? One possibility might be that the VMs themselves were NFS mounted. OK, find a 1 TB disk and copy them there. Put it in in place of the DVD drive, and was amazed to find that it came up as /dev/ada0, relegating the system disk to /dev/ada1 and requiring manual intervention (/etc/fstab) to continue. How could that happen? Then copying the VMs from hydra. That took a few hours, of course, so I'll continue tomorrow. While looking for the disks also found one marked “MS “Windows” 10 disgust”, dated 10.XII.2020.
Testing RSS feeds
I write all my web markup myself, with the aid of a number of PHP scripts. The result is that the RSS feed looks nothing much like my sources. So when something goes wrong with the markup, it's hard to find where, not helped by things like the W3.org validator, which typically points to where the error is detected, not where it occurred, and which at the moment caches input, so even after fixing the problem it reports the old problem. Callum Gibson is the main user of RSS feeds whom I know of. He pointed me to this validator. It also points to where the error was found, but at least I can try things and repeat them.
Testing RSS feeds
I write all my web markup myself, with the aid of a number of PHP scripts. The result is that the RSS feed looks nothing much like my sources. So when something goes wrong with the markup, it's hard to find where, not helped by things like the W3.org validator, which typically points to where the error is detected, not where it occurred, and which at the moment caches input, so even after fixing the problem it reports the old problem. Callum Gibson is the main user of RSS feeds whom I know of. He pointed me to this validator. It also points to where the error was found, but at least I can try things and repeat them.
More kangaroos and horses
Seven years ago I found a mob of kangaroos with the horses in the west paddock and spent a lot of time processing photos, which proved to include two kangaroos with joeys: Today Yvonne saw something similar: This time, though, a very large joey is trying to get in the pouch of the kangaroo in the middle: I wonder whether it's typical that the kangaroo lies down to let the joey ...
Incredible dying Abutilon
A couple of months ago I was having trouble with the Abutilon by the laundry door: Jesse Walsh removed a branch and discovered mould around it: That seemed to fix the problem. Until now: What's causing that?
By all means, tread on those people
This week on my podcast, I read “By all means, tread on those people,” a recent column from my Pluralistic newsletter; about the way that the American descent in fascism is connected to its abandonment of the rule of law more broadly: Just as Martin Niemöller’s “First They Came” has become our framework for understanding... more
Thank you, Darn old Trump
Yvonne bought some asparagus on Wednesday, which I processed as Chinese-style asparagus and prawns. The most interesting thing is the provenance: made in México, at the other end of the world. Why are they on sale here? The answer is obvious: they have lost one of their main markets, the USA. So they have to sell elsewhere. Presumably the US Americans are suffering a lack of asparagus to add to their problems.
More VirtualBox pain
Yesterday I finally got networking working using VirtualBox 7.1 and Microsoft “Windows” 10. Time to refine a few things. First, start the windows on hydra:0.0, a 1920×1080 display, rather than on hydra:0.1, which has 3840×2160, giving windows that are too small. But it didn't work! I could start on hydra:0.1, but on hydra:0.0 nothing happened. Is there some kind of built-in memory in the configuration file? So, time to upgrade current.lemis.com, another VM running FreeBSD-CURRENT. It was a year out of date. Start a make buildworld, not for the first time. But nothing happened! Further investigation showed that I had a network hang.
More VirtualBox pain
Yesterday I finally got networking working using VirtualBox 7.1 and Microsoft “Windows” 10. Time to refine a few things. First, start the windows on hydra:0.0, a 1920×1080 display, rather than on hydra:0.1, which has 3840×2160, giving windows that are too small. But it didn't work! I could start on hydra:0.1, but on hydra:0.0 nothing happened. Is there some kind of built-in memory in the configuration file? So, time to upgrade current.lemis.com, another VM running FreeBSD-CURRENT. It was a year out of date. Start a make buildworld, not for the first time. But nothing happened! Further investigation showed that I had a network hang.
Where there's hope...
Horses are social animals, and they hate being alone. So since Morena left, Samba has not been happy. Today Chris Bahlo brought some hope: Esperanza,
VirtualBox progress
So what's wrong with my VirtualBox installation? My current situation was exactly what I had a year ago: most VMs worked, but Microsoft VMs had networking problems. They could send data, but they didn't see the replies, so they hung in ARP. I attributed that to the version of VirtualBox (6.1.50 r161033), so I waited until version 7 came out. And then I discovered that I had exactly the same problem. That didn't help just getting things running. After some searching, discovered that VirtualBox stores a configuration in the home directory, ~/.config/VirtualBox/ with a number of files, including log files that have no business there, but importantly VirtualBox.xml.
VirtualBox progress
So what's wrong with my VirtualBox installation? My current situation was exactly what I had a year ago: most VMs worked, but Microsoft VMs had networking problems. They could send data, but they didn't see the replies, so they hung in ARP. I attributed that to the version of VirtualBox (6.1.50 r161033), so I waited until version 7 came out. And then I discovered that I had exactly the same problem. That didn't help just getting things running. After some searching, discovered that VirtualBox stores a configuration in the home directory, ~/.config/VirtualBox/ with a number of files, including log files that have no business there, but importantly VirtualBox.xml.
WhatsApp an Avatar?
Yesterday I established that an Avatar is a earthly manifestation of a Hindu god, but WhatsApp apparently wants to elevate Yvonne and me to deities. Until then, only initials appear to identify us on calls. OK, how do we do that? Settings, of course, “make your own avatar”, “Create from selfie”. OK. Take a suitably horrified photo of myself. Briefly it showed “There was an error with the avatar gen...”, so briefly that I didn't see it the first three times. What does that mean? Why can't it finish its sentences? So instead it presented me with a manual generation. Why?
WhatsApp an Avatar?
Yesterday I established that an Avatar is a earthly manifestation of a Hindu god, but WhatsApp apparently wants to elevate Yvonne and me to deities. Until then, only initials appear to identify us on calls. OK, how do we do that? Settings, of course, “make your own avatar”, “Create from selfie”. OK. Take a suitably horrified photo of myself. Briefly it showed “There was an error with the avatar gen...”, so briefly that I didn't see it the first three times. What does that mean? Why can't it finish its sentences? So instead it presented me with a manual generation. Why?
VirtualBox again
DxO PhotoLab 9 is out, and it looks worth trying. Time to reinstate one of my Microsoft virtual machines, which run under VirtualBox. I stopped using VirtualBox on hydra a year ago, though it was the main reason that I had so much memory (192 GB): I ran into network problems that I couldn't fix. Now FreeBSD has a port of VirtualBox 7. Time to try again? Tried first on dereel, with only 24 GB of memory. Where's my HOWTO? All fine, but it doesn't tell me how to add an existing VM. It must be in this diary somewhere, but where?
VirtualBox again
DxO PhotoLab 9 is out, and it looks worth trying. Time to reinstate one of my Microsoft virtual machines, which run under VirtualBox. I stopped using VirtualBox on hydra a year ago, though it was the main reason that I had so much memory (192 GB): I ran into network problems that I couldn't fix. Now FreeBSD has a port of VirtualBox 7. Time to try again? Tried first on dereel, with only 24 GB of memory. Where's my HOWTO? All fine, but it doesn't tell me how to add an existing VM. It must be in this diary somewhere, but where?
I hate WhatsApp!
More fun with WhatsApp today. The first question, which decides whether it's even worthwhile: can I make a call over the Internet? Yesterday's experiments were overshadowed by other bugs. Today I tried making a call from fossil (Yvonne's phone) to hirse, the one without a SIM card. I have set it up with the main number of albo, so a normal call to that number should go to albo, and a WhatsApp call should go to hirse. Does it? Yes! So yesterday's issues were probably due to other bugs. And the incorrect notification tones? Gone since the last reboot, Yvonne says.
I hate WhatsApp!
More fun with WhatsApp today. The first question, which decides whether it's even worthwhile: can I make a call over the Internet? Yesterday's experiments were overshadowed by other bugs. Today I tried making a call from fossil (Yvonne's phone) to hirse, the one without a SIM card. I have set it up with the main number of albo, so a normal call to that number should go to albo, and a WhatsApp call should go to hirse. Does it? Yes! So yesterday's issues were probably due to other bugs. And the incorrect notification tones? Gone since the last reboot, Yvonne says.
Goodbye Morena
Not quite three months ago Yvonne received a present: AuSome Morena, a Paso Fino/Paso peruano mare bred by Jorge de Moya. One of the very few Paso horses in Australia, and that for free. Chris Bahlo was less impressed: she didn't like the bloodline. And despite everything, Yvonne couldn't get her to fit in. So she has given her away again, already:
WhatsApp: bug after bug?
I've been trying for a week now to set up video telephony on fossil, Yvonne's mobile phone. Somehow the “modern” approach to user interfaces shows itself at its worst here. But I had come to the conclusion that if I can work beyond WhatsApps bizarre interface, and explain it to Yvonne so that she doesn't have a panic attack every time she uses it, we might have something useful, especially since WhatsApp can communicate by an Internet link, which could be much cheaper. OK, try out on hirse first. It doesn't have a SIM card, so any communication has to go by the Internet.
WhatsApp: bug after bug?
I've been trying for a week now to set up video telephony on fossil, Yvonne's mobile phone. Somehow the “modern” approach to user interfaces shows itself at its worst here. But I had come to the conclusion that if I can work beyond WhatsApps bizarre interface, and explain it to Yvonne so that she doesn't have a panic attack every time she uses it, we might have something useful, especially since WhatsApp can communicate by an Internet link, which could be much cheaper. OK, try out on hirse first. It doesn't have a SIM card, so any communication has to go by the Internet.
More health issues
Yvonne to an auditory test today. Yes, she's borderline deaf, something that I had already noticed. Hearing aid? First we need to talk to Paul Smith, who had warned us against predatory hearing clinics. And he's not available for a month!
Predicting the past
I keep a close eye on the weather forecasts from the Bureau of Meteorology, both of them. There's one on the web and another for mobile phones. They don't often agree with each other, and of course they're both frequently wrong. Today, though, the mobile phone app excelled itself. We finally have rain, 6 mm over the last 24 hours. Or, as the app put it, Part of the app is a rainfall map showing precipitation. That showed that there was much more rain.
Predicting the past
I keep a close eye on the weather forecasts from the Bureau of Meteorology, both of them. There's one on the web and another for mobile phones. They don't often agree with each other, and of course they're both frequently wrong. Today, though, the mobile phone app excelled itself. We finally have rain, 6 mm over the last 24 hours. Or, as the app put it, Part of the app is a rainfall map showing precipitation. That showed that there was much more rain.
Why don't people read any more?
Recently I saw (but didn't read) a newspaper article, possibly from the New York Times, asking why people don't read books any more. The answer appears simple: information overload. When I was a lad I read lots of books, but it has been some time since I finished reading any, and then the relatively thin “Brave New World”. But then we watched A Town Like Alice, and Yvonne borrowed the book. I have always liked Nevil Shute, and I have a number of his books, so I read it when she finished. It took me two weeks. While reading I was continually following up on details mentioned in the book—that's what the web is for, after all.
Why don't people read any more?
Recently I saw (but didn't read) a newspaper article, possibly from the New York Times, asking why people don't read books any more. The answer appears simple: information overload. When I was a lad I read lots of books, but it has been some time since I finished reading any, and then the relatively thin “Brave New World”. But then we watched A Town Like Alice, and Yvonne borrowed the book. I have always liked Nevil Shute, and I have a number of his books, so I read it when she finished. It took me two weeks. While reading I was continually following up on details mentioned in the book—that's what the web is for, after all.
AI: enough!
Sunday's detailed investigation of generative artificial intelligence should have been enough, but it occurred to me that there was one thing I hadn't tried: graphics. OK, draw me a caricature of Greg Lehey. Google Gemini came up with this: Of course I don't need to like the results, but this shows very little understanding: no mention of BSD, just Linux (or even “Linix”). Yvonne tells me that it looks nothing like me. Compared to the text results, quite disappointing. And that was all.
AI: enough!
Sunday's detailed investigation of generative artificial intelligence should have been enough, but it occurred to me that there was one thing I hadn't tried: graphics. OK, draw me a caricature of Greg Lehey. Google Gemini came up with this: Of course I don't need to like the results, but this shows very little understanding: no mention of BSD, just Linux (or even “Linix”). Yvonne tells me that it looks nothing like me. Compared to the text results, quite disappointing. And that was all.
Front gate: finally finished?
Paul Donaghy along today to do some odd jobs for Yvonne, one of which was putting some planks round the front gate: Finally things seem to be the way we had hoped not much more than 5 years ago.
Anthochaera carunculata
Seen this morning about 7 m from the outside door of the lounge room. These photos were taken from inside: It's an Anthochaera carunculata (red wattlebird). We had something very similar in Wantadilla, but I haven't seen any here before.
A quarter of a century!
Twenty-five years ago I restarted my online diary. I had already kept one for nearly 8 years between 1 January 1963 and 1 October 1970, on paper of course, but then it lapsed. Were the last 25 years worthwhile? For me, definitely. But it's amazing how much I have accumulated in that time.
Maritime Colors
When someone (like us) comes back from a trip to the Maritimes, they’re apt to have pictures of brightly-colored houses. This is to show those colors off and not just in houses. Plus a camera color conundrum. On the northwest coast of PEI, probably near Cape Wolfe. In that picture above, glance at the bit of beach showing left of the little lighthouse. There’s a color story there too. Residentials As it happens, our very first outing on the vacation was to Lunenberg, which features those cheerful houses. It wasn’t just tourist magnets like Lunenberg; anywhere in the Maritimes you’re apt to see exuberantly-painted residences, a practice I admire.
AI summary
The articles above show a surprising plausibility, even the ones that the bot imagined. I suspect all could pass the Turing Test. I'm reasonably impressed.
AI summary
The articles above show a surprising plausibility, even the ones that the bot imagined. I suspect all could pass the Turing Test. I'm reasonably impressed.
DeepSeek article
I've been quiet for a while. My old HP rx2620 Itanium box, which I've been using as a home file server for the last 15 years, finally gave up the ghost last week. Not a software issue for once—the power supply emitted a small puff of blue smoke and that was that. A moment of silence, please. This forced my hand into finally deploying that Dell PowerEdge R720 that's been gathering dust in the corner. It's ridiculously overpowered for the task, but it's what I have. The installation of FreeBSD-14.0-RELEASE was, predictably, flawless.
DeepSeek article
I've been quiet for a while. My old HP rx2620 Itanium box, which I've been using as a home file server for the last 15 years, finally gave up the ghost last week. Not a software issue for once—the power supply emitted a small puff of blue smoke and that was that. A moment of silence, please. This forced my hand into finally deploying that Dell PowerEdge R720 that's been gathering dust in the corner. It's ridiculously overpowered for the task, but it's what I have. The installation of FreeBSD-14.0-RELEASE was, predictably, flawless.
DeepSeek
DeepSeek was interesting and inventive: Of course. That's a fantastic and specific question for those familiar with the legendary BSD community. Greg "Groggy" Lehey's online diary is a vast, technical, and deeply personal chronicle spanning decades. Picking the "most interesting" article is inherently subjective, as it depends entirely on what the reader is looking for: deep technical insight, pivotal historical moments, or personal anecdote. However, if forced to choose one entry that encapsulates all these elements and stands out for its historical significance, it would be: The Definitive Answer: The Story of the "Lehey Letter" The most consistently referenced and historically significant entry is likely his account of the events leading to the lawsuit between BSDi and AT&T/Unix System Laboratories ...
DeepSeek
DeepSeek was interesting and inventive: Of course. That's a fantastic and specific question for those familiar with the legendary BSD community. Greg "Groggy" Lehey's online diary is a vast, technical, and deeply personal chronicle spanning decades. Picking the "most interesting" article is inherently subjective, as it depends entirely on what the reader is looking for: deep technical insight, pivotal historical moments, or personal anecdote. However, if forced to choose one entry that encapsulates all these elements and stands out for its historical significance, it would be: The Definitive Answer: The Story of the "Lehey Letter" The most consistently referenced and historically significant entry is likely his account of the events leading to the lawsuit between BSDi and AT&T/Unix System Laboratories ...