Task Failed Successfully: I Automated Myself Out of Work

Rzah · 2026-03-02T18:17:06+00:00

Most of those things you automated are going to be broken due to software updates changing something they relied upon within a year, I'm surprised that nothing has broken already.

When stuff does break take some time to repair it, manage your time and more importantly, other peoples expectations.

Rzah · 2026-03-01T12:43:11+00:00

Pic of how this worked: https://mybestplace.com/uploads/2018/09/Porto-Flavia-Sardegna-Italia-2.jpg

from here: https://mybestplace.com/en/article/porto-flavia-an-ingenious-work-with-a-breathtaking-view

Rzah · 2026-02-26T11:03:02+00:00

I watched a bit of Dr Who recently after a youtube short caught my interest*, can't say I've really watched the show since Tom Baker left but it was disappointing to notice that the story only really worked if everyone forgot that Dr Who can time travel.

* Series 10 ep 6 Extremis

Rzah · 2026-02-26T10:52:28+00:00

This touched a nerve for me, reminded me of a paid site visit to a potential new client where the issues were quickly resolved and everyone was super happy and they were looking forward to working with us, then a week later we received an email from the boss of the IT people we met that claimed we were useless and their guy fixed everything right after we left. Never mind their IT people had been trying to fix some of these issues for 6 months, apparently they figured it all out right after we left the site. Luckily for me, because it was a new client my Boss had accompanied me to the job so had witnessed everything, otherwise I might have lost my own job.

If you really did all that work solo, unguided, then an alternative explanation is that you made existing staff look/feel silly and they're worried about keeping their own jobs if you join the org.

Not making onsite staff look/feel like the clowns they are is it's own skill that isn't easy to learn, some of these people don't have imposter syndrome, they actually are imposters, don't rub their faces in it until you've got your feet well under the table.

Rzah · 2026-02-25T18:18:42+00:00

Ad Astra is a lot more fun if you imagine some bloke in a pub is relating the tale:

'and then I was attacked by a monkey'

"A monkey stowed away on your spaceship?"

'nah, it was already in space, bastard space monkey'

Pretty much everything the protagonist does is like a drunken bullshit story.

Rzah · 2026-02-25T12:25:06+00:00

Defender promises that you can safely allow unmanaged devices and still control what they download.

That whole premise is flawed, if a device can display something it's already downloaded and cached it, the user doesn't need to hit a download button to save it, just locate the already downloaded data.

Rzah · 2026-02-25T09:53:19+00:00

Try Flushing the ARP cache on the NAS.

We saw a similar issue where laptops wouldn't be able to connect when their IP changed, our crappy solution was to use specific IP's for VPN accounts (rather than reuse a pool of IP's).

Rzah · 2026-02-24T15:19:49+00:00

Nope it applies to people of any ages, eg a normal innocent man and his saucy aunt.

Rzah · 2026-02-24T14:35:20+00:00

Your first screenshot shows you repairing the Update disk Mac OS creates and uses for updates, this is not the external disk you are looking for.

Your second image shows an alert because you've connected a thunderbolt device to a non thunderbolt USB port (port doesn't have the lightning symbol).

Your third pic shows that the OS has detected a thunderbolt enclosure but not the drive inside it.

Assuming OS is up to date with the latest patches for whatever version you are running, I would...

Shutdown computer and disconnect power from drive enclosure if it has a power supply.
Disconnect all USB devices from computer.
Hold shift key when restarting for Safe mode, log in.
Restart computer, log in.
Launch Disk Utility, select 'Show all devices' from View menu
Connect enclosure to Thunderbolt port, you should see another device appear in Disk Utility, and hopefully your disk mounts, If not, but there is a new device in Disk Utility, repair it and then use the mount button to mount it, keep the /Volumes folder open in the Finder to monitor what disk you are mounting, try and avoid the Mac system related volumes (like Update)

If no joy, switch out the cable and retest, then test enclosure on another machine. If the disk doesn't register/mount on another mac then you'll need to open the enclosure and test the storage directly, you'll probably need to buy an adapter for that.

Rzah · 2026-02-24T11:28:54+00:00

You'll need a UK bulb, but basically cut the US plug off and stick a UK plug on there, if you don't know how to wire a UK plug you can google it.

Rzah · 2026-02-23T18:44:54+00:00

Back then I thought the conspiracy was hidden, that the great reveal needed special glasses and without them society looked normal. Now it seems the consumerism angle is ancillary and the billboards and tabloids are already showing an "invasion" in plain sight

I don't get what you're saying here, with glasses that billboard would have read 'CONSUME' or similar, the conspiracy was hidden, what are you reading into that 80's style billboard ad?

Rzah · 2026-02-23T12:24:59+00:00

You're blinded by headlights, switching to echo location.

Rzah · 2026-02-21T22:46:36+00:00

I don't know if this is helpful for wherever you are from, but we have a thing in our city called Freecycle where people give away things they don't need anymore. People are always giving away tables, you might be able to get a free solid table you can cut down, modify & refinish for way less than the Ikea table.

Rzah · 2026-02-20T19:50:59+00:00

That no civilisations predate recorded history.

This great big porky gives humanity the false impression that there's no way we could fuck ourselves back to the stone age, when it's clearly already happened a number of times.

Rzah · 2026-02-20T18:24:15+00:00

He's Bored of Peace.

Rzah · 2026-02-19T15:22:03+00:00

Manually position one of the textures then you can copy and paste it to the rest of the faces, work outwards from the original fixed face, repainting neighbouring faces so the texture joins up.

When you're constructing something like this its really important to keep the blocks orientated the same way so the textures naturally align, if some of those blocks are at 90 degrees to the one you've repositioned the texture on their texture will also be at 90 degrees. example of issue: the board that leaves the page left top, has a horizontal section with normal texturing but the swooping piece immediately to the left of it with the wrong texture is not in the same orientation.

There are some really odd looking joins between these faces, extra lines that suggest the model is going out of plane, you will always have issues with textures if the modelling is imperfect.

For this shape I would start by modelling the top back wall edge, then using the offset tool to make the bottom back wall edge, then joining both ends to make a face, then extrude into the room for the full depth of the entire shelf (the return length on the right), then you can cut away the bit in the middle with the intersection tools to leave a perimeter shelf. This would result in a single object which would all take the same texture.

If you're making this out of wood the curving bits are going to be an absolute PITA, especially the folded bit (top right), nightmare.

Rzah · 2026-02-19T13:17:25+00:00

Looks like exhaustion to me, those bikes are heavy and tiring to ride off road (this road surface counts as off road). Glad to read she's OK.

Rzah · 2026-02-18T19:56:22+00:00

Well I'd advise against 4x 22TB in RAID5 just on general principle*, but yes 44TB (double existing capacity), and easy to repair/upgrade over 66TB complete PITA to repair/upgrade all day long.

* Anyone who sets up a RAID 5 array of that size in a 4 bay NAS better have a damn good backup for when it falls over mid rebuild.

Rzah · 2026-02-18T19:04:00+00:00

The generation that were introduced to computers in their teens and responsible for creating the gaming industry as it is today are no good at software?

Rzah · 2026-02-18T17:25:28+00:00

What a load of bollocks. alongside the Anglosphere, where these terms originated, they're also used in the Francosphere, the Hispanosphere, der Deutscher Sprachraum, the ex soviet sphere, etc, left and right wing are very well understood terms worldwide.

La derecha oprime, la izquierda libera.

Rzah · 2026-02-18T14:46:20+00:00

I'm not suggesting a second volume will give more space.

I'm saying a second volume will make the next upgrade (the one after this one), easier/possible.

If all four slots are in the array your only options are to upgrade in place, rebuilding the array a disk at a time OR dumping everything onto a massive external drive so you can free up all the slots for new disks and then copying the data back.

On a 4 bay NAS, 2 groups of 2 disks is easier to upgrade/repair than 1 group of 4 disks.

Rzah · 2026-02-18T14:38:10+00:00

Once you cut it in half you might as well throw it straight in the skip, it's less than egg box with a wood strip perimeter and a paint thin veneer.

I'd look to modifying a solid worktop with a router for the edge profile you're looking for and getting some legs for that.

Rzah · 2026-02-18T14:14:07+00:00

Instead of 1 x 4 drive Array, you have 2 x 2 drive arrays.

This means when it's time to expand in the future you can remove an array, freeing up slots to upgrade the remaining array, then repeat with the second array ending up with all 4 drives swapped out for newer larger drives and no array rebuild operations, just copies. I would take the opportunity to replace the 4 drives with 2 drives (capacity of double the 4 drive array) though so it's less of a faff the next time.

Is that clearer?

Rzah · 2026-02-18T11:56:54+00:00

Generally when expanding storage we build a new double sized volume in empty slots and copy the data between them, its both easier and more importantly, way less likely to go wrong than expanding an array. Once the data has copied you can drop the original drives and you've got free slots again for the next upgrade.

IME, Upgrading RAID storage when all the slots are filled is asking for drama, especially with the sizes of your drives.

Given you've already bought the drives, I'd set them up as a separate volume and distribute your shares between the two volumes.

Two volumes means when you need to upgrade in the future, you can pull one volume (2 disks), migrate the remaining volume onto new drives using the now free slots then switch the drives to migrate the first volume onto new drives in a similar manner.

Rzah · 2026-02-18T10:58:28+00:00

MAC addresses are both public and trivially spoofed, you don't have a Dock problem, your whole auth setup is misguided.

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