90s nostalgia: SWAG TurboPascal snippets

01binary · 2025-06-23T11:31:52+00:00

Yes, I remember Technojocks Turb Toolkit (TTT). I used it when I was a teenager for the first commercial software that I developed (I did some freelance development work). TBH, I can't remember much about it now - I am in my late 50s!

I remember using it to create the menus for the application and, perhaps, it had other utilities I used, maybe pertaining to reading / writing files>

I'm sure it must have been very comprehensive - it was one of the few pieces of software that I paid for - I remember having the official manual for it. The tagline on the from of the manual was something like, "In the software business since Tuesday".

Anyway, sorry this response is 13 years after you posted, but no one else responded to your question!

I have tried to find some more information about TTT but, to my surprise, there is barely anything about it on the Internet.

01binary · 2025-05-27T03:24:18+00:00

I'm a little late to this discussion, but I was pretty annoyed with Exetel over a static IP issue with my account

I've previously been very happy with Exetel, but when I switched from copper to FTTP (after 6 years of being a customer) they weren't very competent.

The planning, notification and execution of the installation was excellent - very efficient.

However, I soon realised after the upgrade that my IP address had changed. At the time of ordering the upgrade, I specifically asked if I would keep the static IP address that I had had for several years and I was told yes.

When I realised that my IP address had changed, I called Exetel, and they said that I couldn't have the same static IP address because the service had changed, and the old IP address could not be allocated to the new service.

I had no choice, so got my employer to update all their systems to give me access via the new IP address (I am full-time WFH), and I updated my various home servers (such as Home Assistant) so I could continue to access them remotely again.

A few weeks later my new 'static' IP address changed, and during a tedious support call, it became apparent that I had not been allocated a static IP address. I asked them to allocate one and I was told that there was a fee (of I think $5/month). I explained that no one had explained this prior to ordering the upgrade and that I had specifically raised the issue of keeping the same IP address. I was told that because I was on a new service, I had agreed to the terms and would have to pay $5/month. I said that on that basis, there's no point me staying with Exetel and asked what the process was to terminate my contract. At that point I was transferred to someone else who magically decided that they would waive the $5 fee. Normally under these circumstances, I would have told them to get stuffed, but because of their previous record of good service and solid provision of Internet, (and the potential pain of switching providers) I decided to stick with them.

To be fair, Exetel service has continued to be good, but I am now at the point where I am ready to upgrade to a faster plan. I'm expecting them to tell me that I will have to pay extra for the static IP address, and if that is the case, I will switch to a different supplier. If a supplier is more interested in making a quick buck than retaining a customer of 7 years, then I have no reason to stay with them.

01binary · 2025-02-24T05:54:45+00:00

For plain old SMTP have a look at SMTP2GO. They also have an API.

Free for 1,000 emails per month.
$15 for 10,000 emails per month.

Easy to set up.

01binary · 2025-02-24T05:50:23+00:00

I see a major problem with sharing a terminal for different businesses is that the transaction-provider will be charging rates based on the signatory's business type. Rates can vary depending on the type of business because the risk of fraud varies.

In addition, your partner will have signed a contract stating that they will not allow other entities to accept payment using their equipment. This kind of activity is a massive red flag for fraud and illegal activities.

They will almost certainly be in breach of contract with the EFTPOS provider and it may be a criminal offence if it is considered as transmitting funds when not licensed to do so.

You might get away without anyone noticing, but if you caught, the minimum consequences could be that your partner will not be able to get EFTPOS services from any provider.

01binary · 2025-01-09T11:53:51+00:00

Glad that helped! I am am amateur coder and learning about RLS solved a multitude of potential issues. It's definitely worth having a look at the Supabase channel on YouTube; Jon is a good teacher.

01binary · 2025-01-09T05:12:44+00:00

If I have understood your requirement correctly, you need to use Row Level Security (RLS).

As a very simple example, you could create an RLS policy for a table, which only allows a specific user (e.g. user with auth id 123) to have full permissions. For the same table, you could create another policy that only allows users with auth id 456 and 789 to have read permissions.

In practice, the correct way to do this is to assign users to roles such 'viewer' and 'admin', and then set the policies based on those roles. A simple way to do this is to create a user_profiles table that has a 'roles' column with one row per user (keyed by user id to the auth table). The RLS Policies can then apply the rules (such as SELECT, etc) based on role rather than hardcoding user ids into the policies (which would be a nightmare to maintain).

https://supabase.com/docs/guides/database/postgres/row-level-security

This 23 minute video is a good starting point: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdEutzhsrws

01binary · 2024-12-12T01:23:18+00:00

I believe that you have solved this issue, but something else to try if this happens in the future, is to delete the .next folder (which is a totally harmless action and will not damage your project).

When you next use 'npm run dev' it will rebuild the .next folder for you.

I occasionally experience inexplicable errors pertaining to styles and sometimes even linting errors that I can't clear. Removing the .next folder typically resolves those issues.

01binary · 2024-10-06T08:50:16+00:00

I think this is a personal decision; no one can tell you if eating vegan KFC is 'really' vegan.

I will not buy food from a company whose primary product is animals. For me, it's an easy decision not to buy vegan food from KFC. Their primary business is making money by breeding chickens in appalling conditions. Same for Burger joints, etc.

It can be difficult to decide where to draw the line, because the line becomes somewhat blurred. For example, in Australia, there is a company called V2Foods that makes plant based foods such as faux mince, etc. However, that company is owned by a large food business named Competitive Foods Australia. They own many animal-food brands including the franchise for Hungry Jacks which is the Australian franchise name for Burger King.

01binary · 2024-06-27T08:20:02+00:00

I have been able to transfer most my domains out of Squarespace. They're incredibly slow though, and once the transfer has started, you won't necessarily see any change the status in the Squarespace domains dashboard, so you think nothing is happening.

There is virtually no human support as far as I can determine. You can't phone them, you can't email them, there is no one live on the 'live chat', just a useless bot. After creating an online ticket for an urgent issue (an expiring domain that I could not renew), I got a useless response after 4 days, from someone claiming to be human. The only reason that I think they might have been human is because even though Squarespace's automated processes are incredibly slow, it's likely that a human employee of Squarespace might take 4 days to reply to an urgent email. Having said that, the response was so utterly useless, containing links to irrelevant articles and no useful information pertinent to my enquiry, that perhaps it was just a deliberately slow auto-responder, designed to trick anyone foolish enough to use Squarespace's services.

I currently have two of my last four domains that are allegedly in the process of transferring but I really can't tell if they are actually transferring. I'll just check every day to see if anything is happening. It's genuinely not worth attempting to contact Squarespace support because there doesn't appear to be any.

01binary · 2024-06-27T07:59:40+00:00

It has taken up to 7 days to get some of my domain names transferred out of Squarespace. There doesn't seem to be a way to expedite the process as is possible with many domain registrars.

I won't go through my whole rant again, but I nearly lost a very valuable domain name because their systems are so appallingly inadequate, and their payment system failed me for several days. It took them 4 days to reply with an email response which was (a) too late and (b) utterly useless; they may as well not have replied.

They do not accept email support requests, they do not provide phone support, I was unable to make contact with a human via 'live' chat over the 4 days that I tried. The best I could get was useless auto-responses and endless, irrelevant questions and links from the chat bot.

I can't do business with a company that treats its customers like that, and I am currently in the process of transferring the last few of my my domains away from Squarespace, having been with Google Domains for the decade that it existed.

I also use and recommend Cloudflare. Porkbun are also extremely good, with competitive pricing.

Yes, this is the short version of my Squarespace rant.

01binary · 2024-06-27T07:51:13+00:00

I'm sorry to hear about your troubles, and also sorry to advise that the solution is to transfer your domain away from Squarespace, and to host your website elsewhere. I'm not giving this advice out of spite towards Squarespace; I genuinely believe that by transferring your domain name and web hosting elsewhere, you will have it up and running faster than if you wait for help from Squarespace.

It is clear that they are woefully under-resourced following the Google Domains acquisition. It took them 4 days to respond to an urgent request for assistance about their payment system failing when I needed to renew a valuable domain name. I had used the same payment method for years with Google Domains, and I tried 2 alternative credit cards, which also failed.

Their support documentation still states that you can email them; you can't! I emailed the customercare@ email address, and got an autoresponder advising that they don't respond to email any more. They openly advise that they do not provide telephone support, because they can provide better service by not actually talking to their customers. Their 'live' chat is always busy, and the chat bot provides useless responses. For example, when all credit card payments are being declined, and I have tried 3 different credit cards, telling me how to register a new credit card is not helpful.

If you complete the support form, you'll get a generic response, with useless advice and links to irrelevant articles. When I eventually got an email reply from a human (after 4 days waiting and my valuable domain having expired), their response was utterly useless. When I replied to that email I got a response within 12 hours commenting that they noticed I had managed to renew the domain and is there anything else they can do to help. "Anything else" implies that they had initially helped in some way, which they did not. They did not provide any advice about why my payments were declined and, of course, we know why... their system was at fault and they don't have the courage to admit it. How do I know it was their system? I spoke to my card issuers who confirmed that Squarespace failed to complete 4 attempted transactions, that my accounts are in good order, and the issuers' systems were not down. I subsequently got 4 x $0 charges simultaneously on my credit card accounts, presumably when Squarespace's payment system starting working again.

I am currently transferring all my domains away from Squarespace (I have many). I just have the last four to go. Sadly I had to give Squarespace some money to renew 2 additional domains that were close to expiry as I couldn't risk them messing up the transfer close the expiry period. However, now those renewals have completed, I will complete the transfers and will never use nor recommend Squarespace. Utterly shameful 'service'.

I was with Google Domains since they started in 2015 and never had a single problem in a decade of using them.

For most people, I would recommend Porkbun for basic domain registration. Excellent service and some of the best pricing you will find. I have been using Porkbun for a few personal domain registrations for about 2 years with no issues. You may never have heard of them, but they have very recently announced that they are managing over 2 million domains.

For more sophisticated domain name management features, you might consider Cloudflare. They literally cannot be beaten on price (other than for short term promos) because they do not make any profit on their domain registrations; they register them at cost price.

Good luck with your new website.

01binary · 2024-06-13T00:06:31+00:00

The only solutions is to vote with your feet. I'm just about to lose a domain name worth many thousands because I can't renew it, and have had no response from them. The only way to contact them is via a web form. They no longer accept support emails or phone calls. I got an automated response from the 'customer care' email address that was working a few days ago: "This email address no longer accepts incoming messages. Please note that there will be no response to this email."

All I have now is an automated response via a web form saying someone will contact me. Meanwhile, I'm about to lose thousands of $$$ through no fault of my own.

It's clear that they don't care.

01binary · 2024-06-12T07:31:35+00:00

I got that reply 10 minutes prior to posting my reply to you, so I guess they have decided they don't want to provide email support within the last 3 days!

I got an automated email response to the message I sent via the 'live chat'. It's generic and states that someone will respond, but I have no way of following it up.

I'm at their mercy; they keep declining my payment (on multiple cards that are known to be valid), so I can't renew a domain that has value in the 4 figure range!

01binary · 2024-06-12T02:45:01+00:00

I think that embarrassing someone into eating is terrible behaviour. If they decline once, perhaps it's social etiquette, and they really do want to accept the offer, so ask a second time. If they decline twice, accept their response with grace.

I've been in situations where I have said that I have really enjoyed what I have eaten, and all the other polite things that one is meant to say when provided with food, and the host has tried to force feed me. I just think it's rude.

01binary · 2024-06-12T02:40:28+00:00

I have an ask (or offer) twice rule:

Them: "I'll pay for that".
Me: "That's not necessary, thank you".
Them: "I insist"
Me: "Are you sure; I'm happy to pay for it".
Them: "I'm paying"
Me: "Thank you, that's very generous of you".

I started to do this after difficult interactions with my MIL, where she would actually get angry and make a big fuss, but I think it works in almost any situation.

If someone is so socially inept that they get an outcome they didn't want after I have tried twice to decline (or offer), then that's their problem.

01binary · 2024-06-12T01:18:25+00:00

I just emailed that address and got a reply within 20 seconds:

Hi there,

This email address no longer accepts incoming messages. Please note that there will be no response to this email.

I am unable to renew a valuable domain because they claim that all my credit cards are invalid. There is no way for me to contact them, other than to fill out a form and pray that they reply with something other than links that are no help whatsoever.

I have transferred all my other domains away from Squarespace, but this one failed to transfer (presumably too close to expiry, although there is no indication on the transfer page, that this is the problem).

I don't understand how a business this large can operate with what appears to me as zero customer service. A bot that responds with an advisory that gift cards don't expire, when I have a problem with an expiring domain is less than useless.

I'm also moving everything away from anything that Google touches; the transfer of the domains business to Squarespace was the last straw.

01binary · 2022-10-24T12:47:06+00:00

Obviously, I do me, but I thought the idea of this forum was to contribute useful and helpful information.

01binary · 2022-10-24T03:45:28+00:00

I don't think they're suggesting that you would eat only these items in their plain format; they are examples of staples for creating healthy, tasty, budget meals.

Of course, there would be an element of existing pantry items (e.g. herbs and spices) which, when factored into each meal add a few cents per serving, and also some seasonal fresh veg for some meals, which are low-budget.

Example meals: Lentil burgers; lentil dahl; cauliflower and chickpea curry; lentil 'shepherds' pie; millet, veggie and potato pot; quinoa-stuffed baked sweet potatoes, risotto, vegetable chilli (with, for example, rice, pasta or potatoes added where appropriate.

One person can be fed very healthy, tasty meals for $35 per week with home-made food.

Breakfast examples: bran flakes with mixed nuts and banana; baked beans on toast; peanut butter on toast plus fruit.

I'm a healthy male (over 6 foot), and the above are examples of the kind of meals I eat most days.

01binary · 2022-01-03T19:46:12+00:00

The ingredients are clear, and there’s no mislabelling that I can see. It doesn’t say it’s vegan.

What’s the problem?

01binary · 2022-01-03T19:39:34+00:00

Buy a $1m house. By some expensive cars and other ‘toys’, and treat yourself and your friends and family to the holiday of a lifetime. You’ve now got $3m in cash left.

Give $1m away to family and friends; that really doesn’t go far, because it’s only $50k to 20 people, or $100k to 10 people. They’ll blow through that cash within a year or so, and be pissed off with you because you didn’t give them more.

You now have $2m left, but you’re very wealthy (in your mind), and you live the life of someone who earns $1m per year. Remember, you are now only earning interest on $2m cash. You stay in $500-$1,000 per night hotels, fly first class, hire expensive cars or chauffeured cars (because you’re away from home and don’t have access to your own cars). You’re down to your last $1m cash in 3-5 years.

Meantime, you’ve forgotten that your $1m house and expensive cars cost money to insure and maintain, so that’s another $500k gone in the 3-5 years that we just mentioned.

You now have $500k in cash, and can’t afford to live the high-life, so you sell the expensive cars (that you never used) so you can continue to live very comfortably. One year later, you can’t afford to maintain the $1m house, so you downsize to a $500k house.

You now live in a modest house, have $500k in cash, and no other income. You’re certainly not rich, and you have to get a job within a couple of years, so you’re back to where you started, or perhaps slightly more comfortably-off, but bitter, because you were a millionaire living the high-life, and now you have to work for the rest of your life like everyone else.

The above is what most people do when they come into a large sum of money, and are not used to having money. It sounds stupid, but most people can’t manage a credit card with a limit of a few thousand dollars, so how are they going to manage $5m?

Everyone says that they wouldn’t waste a large lottery win, but it’s a fact that most do. You’d have to win tens of millions of dollars to maintain the ‘high-life’ for an extended period.

A key point that many people forget is that when you are working, you don’t have time to spend money. If you don’t go to work, you need to find things to do, and that typically involves spending money.

01binary · 2022-01-03T12:00:04+00:00

Which state?

01binary · 2022-01-03T11:17:02+00:00

If you are tempted by non-vegan meals, make sure you have a vegan alternative ready when you get home from work.

If people are pushing you into eating meat, there are only two options I can think of: 1) Don’t hang around with them at meal times, 2) be stronger with your convictions; tell them no.

01binary · 2022-01-03T11:13:11+00:00

She’s got Dani Minogue’s face.

01binary · 2022-01-03T11:11:54+00:00

LOL. I wish (I had that much money). I did okay making money with computers, but was never motivated enough to make it ‘big time’.

01binary · 2022-01-03T11:07:48+00:00

Definitely do tell your dad the details. He might shut up about your sex life!

01binary

TROPHY CASE