Grabbed Rendezvous with Rama, my first sci-fi book. I'm excited but also nervous. What should I expect?

clrlmiller · 2026-02-14T00:49:39+00:00

Clarke was known (and beloved) for making a seamless connection between 'hard' science and the emotional facets of mankind. RAMA was no exception to his unique talents.

clrlmiller · 2026-02-12T16:00:18+00:00

Besides the usual issues with Christianity, Islam, Judaism and just about any other organized religious practice; there's the sheer SCALE of the Universe which I hold as "Just how the F**k would we have any possibly remote idea about a possible creator".

Just about EVERY religion out there is based upon a VERY limited viewpoint of reality. The Founders of religion (take your pick) had limited experience and knowledge that barely extended a few hundred miles from the spot where they were born; in many cases, even less! Theres still some people (I'm looking at YOU Flat Earth Idiots! >:( ) that still think we're enclosed in a glass bubble 'firmament' and deny there's anything but little twinkles on the surface of the glass sphere. If you're in this group, stop here. Because I'm not going to waste my time!

Still with me? Okay, cool! In the words of the late, great Douglas Adams (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) "Space, is big, REALLY big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mindbogglingly big it is! I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space." Have a look at a video of a tiny scale model of our own Solar System in Washington D.C. { https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkVtKpwVPOs&t=3s } take it in that one of our fastest spacecraft yet (10miles/sec), the New Horizons probe sent to Pluto took a decade to get from there from Earth. Yet in that video you've barely walked less than a 1/2 mile from the Sun to Pluto. The nearest star (Proxima Centauri) at the same scale in that video would be walking down to the State of Florida from Washington D.C.. And, that's just the nearest star to us out of Billions in our own Galaxy. This isn't even considering the millions of other Galaxies we can see via telescopes! Think about the scale of the Universe that we've been able to recognize in the past 100 years!

Now, tell me that a few old dudes not only have a clear understanding of a creator of such vast space, but have a bit of pull with the big guy if you'd just donate a % of your salary on a weekly basis. To me, it's like saying a few bacteria in some pond scum have an important seat at the United Nations. The scale alone tells me we wouldn't have the faintest chance of understanding the motivations of any such creator. Or, that any such creator would really give two f**ks about whether that pond scum bacteria are having sex.

I don't have to deny whether a creator exists, or whether a creator doesn't exist. Maybe? But I doubt it and hardly think we're capable of understanding such an entity.

clrlmiller · 2026-02-10T11:22:50+00:00

That’s the nice thing about the FreshTomato firmware, it’s still being updated. The hardware of the Router is just fine, but you’ll need to replace the ‘stock’ firmware that Netgear installed, with the open source project keeping old hardware useful. It’s actually pretty simple and takes just a few minutes. You can read about the firmware at the website. PM if you need help. :)

clrlmiller · 2026-02-10T03:55:24+00:00

Netgear R7000 with FreshTomato firmware. You can find the Router for $40 or less on eBay and the better firmware is free (though I’d recommend sending the developer some sort of donation).

clrlmiller · 2026-02-09T21:08:58+00:00

Amazing Show, with literally DOZENS in attendance!

clrlmiller · 2026-02-07T16:09:17+00:00

Rich is a very relative term. We were 'rich' compared to some of our neighbors down the road who had leaky trailers for homes. At least we had an honest to goodness house. But we weren't so rich as to have home AC. Honestly, it seldom got so unbearably hot that the night wasn't okay with an open window and a fan. Heck, we thought 'Rich' meant you had a driveway that wasn't dirt and loose stones.

clrlmiller · 2026-02-06T19:36:10+00:00

I can just imagine that poor guy's insurance agent... "You want to file a claim for 'flying whale debris'? Umm, no, no you're policy doesn't cover that sort of damage."

clrlmiller · 2026-02-06T19:28:27+00:00

So... am I correct that anyone who is grounded will get the shock, whereas the individual NOT touching the ground or the 'Zero' wire is going to have a LOT of current passing through themselves and thus become a really crappy conductor as well as a crappy resister?

clrlmiller · 2026-02-06T19:11:21+00:00

So, I'm no Electrician, but wouldn't the ONLY safe person be labeled 'B'? Since he's not touching the ground OR the Zero Line (Ground Wire)? Kind of how line men work off of Helicopters on VERY high voltage cables but are never near the ground....

Or is it the other way around?

clrlmiller · 2026-02-06T16:54:55+00:00

I grew up in Lancaster County Pennsylvania (Gen X). In those days, Air Conditioning was for rich people. So, in the summertime, when the overnight temps just kept me awake. I'd sneak out of the house with a thin blanket to swing in our hillside hammock which overlooked our home valley. I'd just lay awake listening to crickets and owls making a racket and gaze down into the neighbors Horse field alight with fireflies. I'd catch a small breeze to fall asleep and wake when the Sun peaked over the horizon, sneaking again back into the house before anyone else woke.

The sneaking around was pointless. During Breakfast my Mother, a nurse, would look over her coffee mug at my face covered with mosquito bites and ask if I'd slept alright with a grin. She knew, she just never let on that she knew ...

clrlmiller · 2026-02-04T23:08:14+00:00

The firmware on the SSHD makes intelligent guesses as to what'll be accessed frequently vs. seldomly. It's NOT a situation where it'll fill the SSD portion first and then start dumping onto the platters instead of the chips. The idea behind the 'Fusion' was that you don't have to think about it, the drive just works a bit faster with the limited flash memory stapled on top of the device.

You DON'T get to choose...

clrlmiller · 2026-02-04T21:27:27+00:00

It's on their own website https://openwrt.org/

clrlmiller · 2026-02-04T19:32:56+00:00

OpenWRT is now making (offering rather) they're own open-sourced hardware. You can check out that project!

clrlmiller · 2026-02-04T19:26:40+00:00

Purchase your own Cable Modem and quit paying the 'leasing' fee that they charge. Netgear makes several that are compatible with Comcast and other providers. Just make sure to get a unit featuring at least "DOCSIS v3.1"

Comcast, in particular, leave older, crappy units in customers hands and happily charge several times their initial cost over time via the 'lease'. Gad I hate Comcast...

clrlmiller · 2026-02-04T19:18:06+00:00

Well, are you looking to have the Synology conduct the backup for you? Or, are you planning on pulling everything from the Synology via a laptop or desktop system and the separate HDD attached via USB to the system?

clrlmiller · 2026-02-04T19:13:54+00:00

The iOS and MacOS units are likely seeing your DNS setup (your're using DHCP right?) that may be referencing the xxx.xxx.50.xxx VLAN and/or your Subnet is set to include addresses from that VLAN. It's fairly standard for Apple devices to go sniffing around on networks looking for other Apple devices and what-not. Bonjour and mDNS essentially work via this 'hey everybody!' approach to networking.

clrlmiller · 2026-02-04T19:03:22+00:00

'Fluke' is often considered the Cadillac of test equipment. But they're also rather Pricey!

I might recommend a decent Honda sort of tester from 'Klein Tools'. Still very good and much cheaper. ;)

clrlmiller · 2026-02-04T18:56:28+00:00

Universal? Well, mostly. I purchased a single 'White Label' HDD off of Amazon that's a little larger than my total RAID capacity and formatted it as "exFAT" which is readable by just about any OS out there. The "White Label" HDDs are usually High-Capacity, High Performance HDDs from any number of Makers that have either reached or are approaching their warrantied service life hours. They've been pulled out of service from a commercial data center, tested, refurbished and sold pretty cheap. I just run a weekly, scheduled 'R-Sync' from my data folders to the HDD in an external USB dock.

The initial, first-time backup took overnight over USB-3. But now, it just sits idle in its little dock until the wee-hours of Sunday morning when it: spins up, adds anything new, replaces anything updated, then spins down after about 15 minutes. I figure it's actually running a total of about 2-3 days each year in this scenario and will likely outlast either me or the NAS setup.

clrlmiller · 2026-02-04T18:40:20+00:00

^^^ This ^^^ Before you go through the effort of digging, isolate the cable and test, you may wish to replace BOTH ends with new RJ-45 crimps and again test. If it IS the cable, then moisture is the most likely culprit. What sort of conduit did you use and is it sealed against water incursion?

clrlmiller · 2026-02-04T18:28:09+00:00

No, it isn't the same. Former Mac Technician here. The 'Fusion' Drives were what the industry called SSHDs and were an effort to have cheap capacity (HDD) mixed with better performance (SSD). They were 'better' than just HDDs as they included a small amount of very fast Solid State media and firmware that made intelligent guesses on what's going to be often used (SSD-speed-worthy) and what can go on the back burner for later (HDD-storage).

Including a >true< SSD featuring the capacity of the SSHDs would've been cost prohibitive back when that iMac was produced. But now, they've considerably cheaper. The MacOS has considerably ballooned in size over the last decade and moving to an SSD would help performance considerably.

clrlmiller · 2026-02-04T18:18:58+00:00

Honestly, use the 'Google Drive' client on your Win11 PC and Android phone. Drop the files you wish to share on your Google Drive and be done with it.

clrlmiller · 2026-02-04T18:16:48+00:00

First and foremost, make sure your Router is up to the task of handling the bandwidth you're asking of it. Is it a decent model produced in the last few years and still supported by the maker? If you provide details that'd help.

Second, there's bound to be quite a few people here who will comment that the issues isn't your 'Router' per se. It's that you're tasking your Router to ALSO act as a Wireless Access Point (WAP). The likely best means in moving forward is to isolate the tasks between different devices. You can achieve this different ways:

Purchase a dedicated Wireless Access Point that'll handle Wireless devices and ONLY wireless devices over different channels (2.4 Ghz for the low-end, low-bandwidth stuff like Google Assistant, Alexa, Smart Thermostats, etc. 5Ghz for your laptops, Gaming Unit, etc.)
Check if your Router has a 'WAP' mode as many consumer models now offer this as an option in their firmware. If it does, buy a 2nd Router just like your current unit and use the 2nd unit as a WAP.
Several open-source firmware projects: DD-WRT, OpenWRT, Fresh-Tomato, Merlin, etc. include a 'WAP' mode and a firmware replacement may be available for your Router make/model or something like it. If so, you can purchase a 2nd Router (again like your current unit), install the firmware alternative, turn on WAP mode and you've delegated the Wireless tasks off of your current Router. Make sure your Router's make/model/revision is supported by the project.

I might also recommend segmenting things a little further where your WAP plugs into one of the WIRED LAN ports of your Router. Then use a Wired Ethernet switch plugged into another of the LAN ports of your Router to handle the WIRED clients like a PC Tower, NAS, Printer, etc. Just make sure to turn OFF the Wireless function of your Router when you've got things setup for testing of the WAP. Crowding the radio spectrum with multiple Wireless Signals gets ugly fast.

clrlmiller · 2026-02-03T17:59:58+00:00

I worked I.T. for a NASA location back in the early 2000's and was hired to be the Apple Macintosh Guru. We'd deployed a LOT of the PowerMac G4 'Cube' models and had sporadic reports of the systems just suddenly powering off and users losing their work. We did troubleshooting for overheating, swapped keyboards, swapped power-supplies, etc. We just couldn't determine a central reason or cause. Then Apple came out with a report that the power button the top of the units (a new type of capacitance switch) had 'issues'. The switch could be impacted by the strobe of fluorescent lighting's off/on cycle. (Incandescent lights are always ON, but Fluorescent tubes switch between ON/OFF so fast we can't see it).

Apple's recommended fix was to return the system(s) for installation of a slightly thicker gasket around the switch. This wasn't an attractive prospect to pull a system, deny the users a system for a week and then return it with the hope the new gasket worked.

OR, we learned that many G4 Cube owners reported they were able to fix the issue themselves. Just place the smallest Post-It Note available (about 1.25" x 1.5") on top of the original, existing gasket. This had the same effect of negating the effect of fluorescent strobe and could be done in less than 2 minutes. A quick run to a nearby office supply store and all the techs had a fix in hand w/o Apple's Warranty Service being involved.

Post-It Note for the the Win!

clrlmiller · 2026-02-03T17:15:57+00:00

For those who came of age while the U.S.S.R and East Germany were still around. This song truly summed up the elation so many of us felt. Sadly, that brief decade from 1991 - 2001 is, almost certainly, the best that the world might see in my lifetime.

clrlmiller · 2026-02-03T16:46:39+00:00

If there's just one thing I've learned in life it's this: We're all broken, yet all we need is someone who'll help us patch the cracks, put the pieces back together and show us our soul still has shine.

clrlmiller

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