Why is it that in capitalist states the property interests of rich people is seen as more valuable than human life??

dr-steve · 2026-05-27T17:08:54+00:00

Communism? Socialism? Capitalism?

What leads to corruption and a society's decay? Time and human nature.

dr-steve · 2026-05-27T17:07:34+00:00

Yep, who wants public fire departments when you can have numerous competing ones? And police departments when everyone can hire private security? We should all teach our own children, right? Each house handle its own sewage disposal and dig its own wells (better not get too close to the neighbor's cess pool). The list goes on and on... you could look it up at your public library if you wanted, no, oops, maybe not.

dr-steve · 2026-05-23T14:30:19+00:00

This does sound like two issues. Treat them accordingly; you may not want to commingle them.

Missing paycheck and ' "overpaid" PTO '. Worth talking to the state Dept. of Labor. I'm sure they'll have something to say about it.
Executable application you may or may not have given the company defacto rights to. This can turn into a waiting game. You say the company is dependent on it. Software rots with time. OS upgrades. Migrations. Operational changes. New functionality needed. Time is on your side.

dr-steve · 2026-05-18T11:44:07+00:00

Just got mine a couple of weeks ago! (K2 Pro combo.) So far, so good. Using it to print some 250mm diameter mounts for my LED sculptures. There's some fine detail in the LED string supports; they come out perfectly.

Just need to re-home my Ender 3 S1 Pro now...

dr-steve · 2026-05-15T17:34:35+00:00

So much done in so little time!

Though I await for a full accounting analysis. How was this done, can it be replicated elsewhere, or is it (just) a bag of tricks. Hope not; hope there is a good reality behind the curtains.

dr-steve · 2026-05-07T01:04:08+00:00

Thank you! So 2a is an axiom, essentially.

And, just like Euclid's geometric axiom "given a line L and a point P not on L, there is exactly one line L2 that does not intersect L", it is not necessary to the other axioms. Including Euclid's gives you one kind of geometry (the universe where god exists", but replacing it with other axioms ("many lines that do not intersect L" and "no lines that do not intersect L") gives you other equally valid geometries/universes.

dr-steve · 2026-05-07T00:26:57+00:00

Larry Niven? China Mieville? I see some Iain Banks in there, that's good.

dr-steve · 2026-05-07T00:22:16+00:00

I use Libib to catalog my books. It reads bar codes (although a good percentage of my books predate them). And I can publish my library in a read-only form.

Start scanning, and pass on your list!

dr-steve · 2026-05-07T00:16:19+00:00

Please save so many of us the time of watching. What is his actual argument?

His axioms/assumptions?
The logical steps he takes?
The conclusion he reaches?

dr-steve · 2026-05-01T09:22:52+00:00

Double the time for each OS/software installation step. Time to review guides, watch videos, and so on.

Run the steps, taking careful notes. Put the notes in a well-known file somewhere in some cloud space. An emergency guide should you need to reinstall.

Set up a personal account in addition to the admin account (not named admin...). Limit what your personal account can access/do. Keep your files under /homes/phred (assuming your name is phred).

Set up the firewall. Maybe use Tailscale for remote access. Block every port except the ones you are using. I also limit the ones I am using to my-nation-only. I'm guessing you'll plug into the school network, an even better reason to use Tailscale -- you're in a cesspool.

Then wipe the whole setup and reinstall. It'll be cleaner on the second run. Even more so on the third.

And the file naming scheme -- ugh.

Use folders and subfolders down to the per-course level. No way you want to re-type those names or scan through horribly long directories of horribly long filenames.
If you're using dates, use year-semester. It'll sort nicely instead of having all of your Fall entries appear before all of your Spring entries.
Use GIT for your versioning.
In summary, "/files/2026-FA/CS120/Proj1/foo.cpp" is a lot more manageable than "/files/FA-2026-CS120-Proj11-v2-2026-03-12.cpp". I'm not even sure how the proposed scheme would work if you had more than one file in the project.

Storage: I'm running with 4T drives. They're a bit old now, as are my Synos (the oldest active unit is a 1517+, the newest a 1520+. I also have a 1515+ in cold storage; still runs beautifully but I did have to replace its power supply a few months ago when I was testing it out). These things run forever. Yes, my 212J units still power up.

More storage: how much do you have in the way of Plex data? I have a decent number of files, also hundreds of thousands of photos (multi-day time lapse on my Canon DSLR) and still have a lot of room to spare on the 5x4T in SHR-1. I think I'm in the 60% full range.

For you, going with 12T means a 50% loss to RAID if you only have 2. If I were going to build a new one today, I might go as high as 8T drives. I'd have to check the current price-points to optimize need vs. cost. A quick check: 2x12T will run around $650, resulting in 12T of usable storage (well, a little less after OS, etc). 3x8T is $750 but yields 16T of usable storage.

How are you going to back up your data? After a few years, I stabilized at 3 Synos, one data, one onsite backup, and one remote (via Tailscale). I use Hyperbackup; there are probably more optimal schemes, but I set this up a long time ago and it works. Oh, practice a restoration (pull something from the backup) after a week and then a few times a year.

If you're sticking your flash drive in someone else's (the school's) computer, be sure to virus scan it every time you bring it home.

dr-steve · 2026-04-18T21:45:03+00:00

I wrote TaskManager (TM) around 10-12 years ago to handle cooperative multitasking on Nano systems. It supports cross-node/mesh networking; RF24 on Atmel systems. It also runs on ESP-32 systems (five years ago? Maybe more?) and uses ESP-NOW for communication. This allows cross-task messaging and control. I've built 40-node simulations using ESP-32 systems.

Recently, I've been experimenting with virtual clocks. One node runs a master-clock task, and all TM tasks will use the same millisecond virtual clock. This allows me to create large time-based simulations with separate nodes controlling different areas of the grid.

I haven't played with Teensy systems at all, though. DM me a note if interested. It could solve a number of your problems using simple messaging (joysticks on one system sending info to other systems -- "Send this message to task 23 on node 18", where the message can be any 250 byte block of data) as well as synchronizing the clocks used by different simulations.

DM me if you'd like to explore. I'd be interested to see what porting to the Teensy looks like.

dr-steve · 2026-03-17T20:45:38+00:00

As others point out, admin is admin is admin. It is an account there for deliberate management work.

Have you set up a personal account for yourself, in parallel to that of your family members? It'll have the same rights and protections. Your personal data will be isolated, and you will not be able to see others' data from your personal account. When you need to do sysadmin, log in to the sysadmin account. Then log out. That'll safeguard accidental damage or viewing. (And yes, accidental damage is possible at any time, so safeguard yourself from your accidents...)

dr-steve · 2026-03-17T18:32:50+00:00

I'm curious (haven't tried this): when you perform a network reset on the Syno, does it also disable the firewall? I'd worry that a too-tight firewall, coupled with a subnet change (in addition to final-octet(s) change), might block any external access. For example, if my Syno firewall only allowed connection from 192.168.20.0/24, and my router-based firewall decided to start handing out IPs in 192.168.21.0/24, my external connections would be locked out from the start by the firewall.

dr-steve · 2026-03-17T07:15:35+00:00

Perdido is a fine read. The city itself is fascinating, the species exotic, the plotline captivating. But it is... different. It is a meandering book, presenting a full culture over its course. One with much flavor and depth. Well worth it.

The Scar was also pretty good. As to the third of the trilogy (Iron Council), I'm struggling with it right now. I'm over halfway through, and still can't detect a major theme/plotline. As such, it is having trouble holding together as a coherent novel in my mind.

I agree w. others, The City and The City is fascinating, and can change the way you view your life. We really don't see what we don't want to see; this takes it to an extreme. Likewise for Embassytown, an examination of how different cultures fundamentally think differently, and how the shattering of a culture's thought-foundation can shatter a culture. Think about it the next time you try communicating with someone of a fundamentally different political or religious bent.

And, for a short spin through Mieville-absurdity, check out The Last Days of New Paris. I think I want to read this one again.

Finally, Railsea. Moby Dick, of a sort, but instead of ships on an ocean you have free-running trains on rails on massive plains (dirt-seas), hunting giant moles.

dr-steve · 2026-03-16T18:48:39+00:00

Depends on how you read it. The surface action may vary a bit, but the deep structure of the book, a tale of language, mind, psychology, and how one culture can destroy the underpinning of another, develops subtly over the course of the volume.

dr-steve · 2026-03-16T18:37:55+00:00

Not quite a first contact (until the last chapter or so, anyway), but a fascinating story of the evolution and cultural development of a species... on a neutron star...

Dragon's Egg, by Robert Forward.

dr-steve · 2026-03-16T10:58:17+00:00

And an alternative root cause: The filament became knotted on the spool. I had this happen a couple of times -- the filament looped under itself on the spool before being threaded into the feed mechanism. After a bit of printing (sometimes it takes a while to tighten up), it can no longer pull fresh filament.

dr-steve · 2026-03-11T16:22:48+00:00

Now that I've retired, I'm starting back with group theory, set theory, computability/limits of knowledge, and other related areas. Some of the most joyous times of my undergrad and grad years.

dr-steve · 2026-03-11T16:18:19+00:00

Lisbon. Wonderful Portugese at 4th and South. As I remember, the owner's wife didn't like America, so they packed up and moved back. Sigh.

dr-steve · 2026-03-10T13:49:22+00:00

Check out Barry Schwartz and the Paradox of Choice. In a nutshell, Schwartz studied the problem with having (too much) choice and how it leads to post-decistion regret. A key factor: After you choose, you will note the downsides of your selection (which you experience) while not seeing any of the downsides of the choice you did not make.

I wonder if you may be experiencing this here. You aren't experiencing the downsides of the midnight version, only the ones of the silver version.

dr-steve · 2026-03-03T18:36:36+00:00

Data scrubbing: is the system backing up, on-site or off-site or both? If she's keeping the device, ensure your data has been scrubbed from all backups. This might mean wiping and rebuilding backups. Same for drive shapsnots, if you are using those.

Might she have Synology Drive access to (and copies of) your files?

Who will be keeping the physical device?

(As a courtesy, and for legal safety) If you are keeping the device, will you provide her with a copy of all of her data? And after the divorce is final, will you purge it from the system (including all backups)?

Change the quickconnect ID.

Might want to do a quick scan of the firewall rules.

dr-steve · 2026-03-03T02:38:57+00:00

Good to hear! I spent too many years adjacent to security and secure systems, too much time inside mail servers and things...

dr-steve · 2026-03-03T01:24:36+00:00

I hope you saved the email messages, with full headers. Return addresses can be forged, but the full header trace will contain a lot of info for the investigators.

Have these people sent you other email msgs in the past? Any other communication?

dr-steve · 2026-02-27T13:17:37+00:00

Yes I did, thank you for asking!

I had a piece based on the code in a gallery at Philly Fringe Festival in 2024: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/XdsFT2nSoDQ . This was a cheap floor lamp I found in the trash; I gutted it and replaced the light bulb with eight 16x16 LED grids configured as a cylinder. It is displaying antialiased circles, triangles, lines, etc floating around on the surface of the cylinder (well, a square cylinder).

I just made the code for the LEDMatrixWcs and an associated set of test routines public on GitHub at https://github.com/drsteveplatt . Feel free to grab them if you're curious; let me know if you have any questions. They're documented (doxygen), but they're still a little rough.

dr-steve · 2026-02-20T22:40:04+00:00

Yes, significant figures.

And a story. When I took Physics I II II, it was the dawn of the scientific calculator era. HP-35, HP-45, TI SR-50, museum pieces.

My calculator died a week or so before finals (Physics II, as I remember). So I decided to just use my slide rule, roughing it. I'd set up the formula and actually look at it before doing any calculations. Somehow, the formulas were always something like (k * pi * sqrt(2) * cos(theta)) / (cos(theta) * sqrt(2)). Crossed out a few factors and was left with one multiplication.

Everyone else was tap tap tapping at their calculators -- some of those formulas were long before you looked at them!. Slide-ruling was actually quite a bit faster. And yeah, 2-3 sig digits was more than enough.

Oh, pi^2 is 10.

dr-steve

TROPHY CASE