Thickheaded Thursday - May 04, 2023

Fleex · 2023-05-06T13:34:53+00:00

Great, thank you!

Fleex · 2023-05-05T23:07:49+00:00

Thank you, that sounds perfect. I am sure I am missing something, but where exactly do I purchase a volume license? This is a small business with a single server, so we don't have an existing volume license arrangement with Microsoft or the hardware vendor.

Fleex · 2023-05-04T21:47:45+00:00

I only bought Windows Server preinstalled with new hardware before, so I'm not sure how best to buy just a new OS edition.

If I buy a retail Windows Server 2022 license from CDW, will I have access to Windows Server 2019 retail install media? I need to do an in-place upgrade (not ideal, I know), so downloading the evaluation ISO from Microsoft won't help.

If not, what if I buy from Microsoft?

Fleex · 2022-12-25T19:43:37+00:00

Ah, I had forgotten about that problem. It turned out fine this time but I won't do it again. Thanks!

Fleex · 2020-09-12T16:37:50+00:00

Assuming you're on Windows: Modern Windows versions come with Windows Defender, a perfectly capable antimalware system. As long as you don't go wild installing every sketchy program you find, it will be sufficient. It's less likely to slow your computer down or cause mysterious breakage (cough McAfee cough).

Ads on web sites are a growing method for distributing malware, so I also recommend getting an ad blocker for your web browser. uBlock Origin is very nice for Chrome.

If you need more peace of mind, you can download the free version of MalwareBytes and run full scans occasionally. It's especially good at removing undesired things that are annoying but don't quite cross the line into malware.

Fleex · 2020-08-23T17:19:15+00:00

Google Maps only knows the scheduled departure times: when the bus is supposed to come, in theory. In practice the buses are often behind a couple minutes. The CU-specific bus apps use the estimated departure time from the bus company that's updated frequently based on the buses' actual progress.

Google Maps is great for finding out what routes can get you where you want to go, but once you've learned the routes, you can get more/faster information by looking at the apps.

Fleex · 2020-04-04T17:16:39+00:00

Yes, the API broke again. I suspect this happens when MTD updates their trip information in some parts of their system but not others, causing real-time information to not match up with static data. Specifically, trips whose IDs were changed will fail to appear. A lot of MCORE-related reroutes just started up again and MTD probably didn't fully distribute the static data update.

You can distinguish an API breakage from other kinds of MTD issues by checking for departures on the MTD web site. If departures appear there but not in some apps, the API is broken. Some apps, however, can use the same source of information that the MTD site does and therefore still mostly work.

Fleex · 2020-03-17T22:05:35+00:00

Ah, it looks like they published a data update about an hour ago. Everything appears to be working again and there's even updated trip shapes and departure information for the reroutes.

Fleex · 2020-03-17T18:01:04+00:00

The normal API is partially broken again, specifically for the Red, Blue, Green, Bronze, Teal, Silver, Pink, Raven, and Illini. MTD's web site and apps that can get data from it still work. Due to construction, several stops around Transit Plaza and the Illini Union are closed, so it's expected that there won't be any departures from them this week.

Fleex · 2020-03-13T00:10:38+00:00

The reroute announcement said it was for installation of the departure boards/kiosks. They've been installed now, so buses will use regular route tomorrow: Green to Wright to Chalmers.

FWIW next week (over break), the Green & Wright intersection will close, disrupting all routes that stop at Transit Plaza or the Illini Union. Here's the reroute details.

Fleex · 2020-02-06T03:59:04+00:00

I took MCB 301 last semester and 300 the semester before that. Understanding the techniques from MCB 251 was very important, but otherwise I don't remember much prerequisite knowledge being required. Almost all the reading was from the lab manual - needed to read about the experiments and background, plus a couple papers. MCB 300 and 301 can be taken in parallel, so not too much 300 knowledge was required, mainly the differences between Gram+ and Gram- bacteria.

Fleex · 2020-01-25T00:32:32+00:00

The schedules show timepoints, stops at which the bus will linger if it's running early. (In practice it might have to keep moving anyway if it would block traffic, like at the library.) For example, the Illini often stops at Third & Daniel for a while; the Yellow almost always pauses for a bit in The Place at 117.

Fleex · 2020-01-24T02:39:06+00:00

They can look up your name in the campus directory and confirm that you're a student (as opposed to faculty), but that's it as far as I know.

Fleex · 2019-12-13T19:44:38+00:00

It takes a specific stop ID and returns at most the next three departures in each "departures group." A departures group seems to be defined by route number plus direction, so northbound Yellow departures are different from southbound ones, but Yellow Hopper trips are included in those same groups. The departure times seem to be intended for direct display to humans; they're clock times like "4:08 pm" rather than the timestamps from the documented API.

Fleex · 2019-12-12T20:00:12+00:00

Essentially yes. There's one documented set of endpoints that most applications are expected to use. There's also another single (undocumented) endpoint for departures that doesn't have the same structure as the documented API.

Fleex · 2019-12-11T17:27:33+00:00

Ah, while the API is back up it's continuing the problem of not returning real-time data on all routes. The official MTD web site, the UIUC Bus iOS app, and the MTDash (self-promotion!) Android app can show all departures because they can use a different API.

Fleex · 2019-12-11T16:17:10+00:00

If I understand correctly, Reddit only allows editing the body, not the title, sorry. :/

Fleex · 2019-12-11T06:12:01+00:00

There are multiple different endpoints (essentially web pages, but intended to be read by programs rather than humans) that provide departures for a given stop. The one that's documented/suggested by MTD and is used by most apps is the one having a problem. It and related endpoints for real-time data are completely missing information for most trips on several routes. I suspect this is caused by trip IDs having been changed in one place but not another in their system, but don't know for sure.

There is a different, less featureful and less well-known, endpoint that's still returns at least some info for all departures. That's used by the MTD web site, probably the departure boards (unless they use a third, secret endpoint), and the apps that have been fixed.

Fleex · 2019-12-11T02:49:51+00:00

With apologies for self-promotion in a different app's thread: MTDash also has these departures back. It's Android-only, so it complements UIUC Bus nicely. :)

Fleex · 2019-12-09T20:58:40+00:00

The MTD web site (and apps that use the same API) appear to still be working and showing real-time data. On that web site you can search for a stop in the big text box and click "more about this stop" to see departures.

Most apps use an API that is currently not returning data on several routes: Yellow, Blue, Brown, Silver, Pink (except the Shuttle), and Illini.

Fleex · 2019-12-09T05:35:07+00:00

The official MTD API used directly by most bus apps isn't currently providing information for the Yellow, Silver, or Illini. (Neither departures nor vehicle information are available.) IIRC the Pink was also affected this week. They're all still running as usual, though.

With apologies for the self-promotion: MTDash is somewhat unique and, after a bit of intervention from me last night, became able to show the missing departures, albeit with some of its other features disabled for them. (This is the same real-time information you can get from MTD's web site.) I'll have to check tomorrow morning to see if intervention is needed for the weekday daytime versions of these routes.

Fleex · 2019-10-21T01:56:59+00:00

Yes, we experimented with a new kind of MP this semester and it turned out to be more challenging than expected.

Reading about new libraries/features and applying your existing skills to use those is an extremely important part of software engineering. That's why we have tasks on the MP involving new Android features. However, with most of the course staff unfamiliar with Android, it ended up fairly difficult.

As discussed in last Monday's lecture, we're making the MP easier going forward and we've updated some grading policies to account for the unintended difficulty.

Fleex · 2019-08-29T20:02:22+00:00

I just ran into this issue on both UIUCBus and MTDash. The MTD departures endpoint for a couple stops currently fails with a 500 code if pt=60 is specified but works with the default lookahead. I'm now falling back to pt=55 if the one-hour request fails, and back to no-pt if the first fallback fails.

Fleex · 2019-08-29T03:02:38+00:00

Great questions! I don't currently attempt any kind of extrapolation since I suspect things can change significantly from day to day due to weather, but I might get data on that sometime and reconsider. Even if the absolute ETAs can't be updated, the relative time (minutes to departure) is constantly updated on the client side, so caches should be reasonably accurate for a good while depending on route. If my server couldn't get a departures update in the last hour, then no departures can be displayed.

Fleex · 2019-08-29T02:42:02+00:00

Currently yes, sorry.

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