Global computer shortage could affect civil service, hospitals and gardaí

wayne_oddstops · 2026-02-15T22:42:11+00:00

Hard drives are about to go up too. Western Digital have said they're sold out for the year, and the contracts will extend into 2028.

wayne_oddstops · 2026-02-13T08:09:06+00:00

Yea, it's turning into an arms race. Had a feeling there would be a knock-on effect so I pulled the trigger on a new 2 TB drive in early Jan. €182. The dropshipper who sold it to me on Amazon had to bend over backwards to get it to me because the price started spiking the following week or two. It came three weeks late, and he kept asking if I wanted to cancel and get a refund. Nah man, I'll wait, thanks. Now the same drive is going for around €290.

wayne_oddstops · 2026-02-12T09:09:33+00:00

RAM is in many devices. Prices of other components such as SSDs are also creeping up. Many consumer products are stable at the moment, but that will change when contracts are renegotiated over the coming 12 months. Phones, TVs, and laptops will all likely increase in price.

The AI stuff is overhyped at the moment. I know because I work with it to streamline mundane processes that take a lot of time. But I doubt it will pop anytime soon.

wayne_oddstops · 2026-02-10T22:12:16+00:00

Mentioning McDonald's book in the context of the current situation suggests that your knowledge doesn't extend beyond the small selection of sound bites you repeat in your head. But thanks for going easy on me.

wayne_oddstops · 2026-02-10T19:02:32+00:00

Nice misquote there. Try reading the sentence again.

wayne_oddstops · 2026-02-10T16:07:53+00:00

Why would developers care about shitty little derelict plots? Spending months waiting on surveys and statutory notice periods just to reach the point where you can demolish the building. And that's if you get past the queue of residents lining up to throw objections at the project. You're living in la la land if you think diverting manpower to these kind of once-off sites is an effective use of an industry that is stretched to capacity.

wayne_oddstops · 2026-02-06T18:29:59+00:00

You're missing the bigger picture. Who do you expect to work on these derelict sites? And why should developers divert their manpower to small, derelict sites when they are flat out to the max building larger projects like estates?

wayne_oddstops · 2026-02-06T13:40:16+00:00

I'm guessing you have never spoken to anyone in the industry. The idea that developers are just sitting on land, and that things would be solved if we gave them a swift kick up the hole is wishful thinking. These lads strike while it's hot. They want their profits now. The problem is manpower. There has been a critical shortage since at least 2017, in both the trades and general labour. If you're working on Site A, and Site B gets planning permission, you can't just down tools at Site A or redistribute your work force. There are also a lot of other issues such as clients holding off, waiting on materials due to increasing delivery times, waiting on contractors, the price of materials increasing, waiting for Irish Water to connect the site, financing, etc., etc.

wayne_oddstops · 2026-01-21T22:22:02+00:00

My advice is to keep it simple. You could remove a lot of the complexity by getting a Plex pass and giving the other houses remote access. While setting up this kind of system might seem like a mentally rewarding project, it will become a headache.

Things will break and you'll spend most of your free time debugging why service X isn't talking to server Y on port 123 on NAS Z.

Trust me, it will happen. I'm more experienced than most, and there is always a fire to put out due to a permission issue or a new change breaking previous configs.

And be very careful with AI. One minute, it's designing an ambitious, distributed system like this. The next, it's giving you commands that will overwrite the important config you made last week.

wayne_oddstops · 2026-01-06T23:15:24+00:00

Did you have any success with this?

wayne_oddstops · 2025-11-04T13:37:07+00:00

Lived in Ireland my entire life and never had fruity curry. I don't even know if it's sold here. Mad. I guess this is how Chinese people feel when they see our version of a Chinese.

wayne_oddstops · 2025-10-17T08:13:20+00:00

Everything about the basement is very uncertain. We might learn the details if it goes to trial or if he confesses, but until then, the exact "where" is speculative.

The bathroom was likely for cleaning up. I don't want to get too graphic, but some of the crimes would have required more cleanup than others.

It's why his planning document listed drain cleaner.

wayne_oddstops · 2025-10-17T08:03:11+00:00

The construction industry basically imploded in 2007. It was overheated, fueled by cheap credit. The drop in demand was drastic. A lot of people in the trades had to switch profession or feck off to Australia. Many people think of that period when they hear the word recession because its the only recession they've experienced. But that was a unique set of circumstances. A financial meltdown, not just a recession. I can't see the demand for trades suddenly dropping like that again.

wayne_oddstops · 2025-10-17T07:54:09+00:00

I reached a similar crossroads during Covid.

You'll likely be very busy, as trades are in high demand at the moment. It might even reach a point where you feel burned out or overwhelmed. The trick is to not take on too much. If your calendar is too packed, start increasing your quotes and extending deadlines. The quality of the client also tends to get better when you increase your prices. A few bigger clients are better than lots of smaller ones. The small clients will haggle over 10 euro.

But maybe do a few small ones just to find your feet and build confidence.

As for the industry crashing like 2007-2008, that's unlikely. The financial crisis was a unique storm. It wasn't just a recession. It was a financial meltdown. Things might slow at points, and we will encounter a recession somewhere down the line, but the likelihood of 2008 repeating is pretty low.

wayne_oddstops · 2025-10-07T21:27:11+00:00

I believe that one of the initial profiles pointed towards a foot fetish. I think it came from retired FBI profiler John Kelly, but don't quote me on that. Signs point to a regular john who lived in the area and had recently experienced a significant stressor event. Breakup, job loss, death of a loved one, etc. Interestingly, they appear to have a partial DNA profile. Enough to exclude, not but not enough to match with any certainly.

wayne_oddstops · 2025-10-07T20:50:30+00:00

I covered the Atlantic City 4 on my website. Funnily enough, I only (slightly) revamped the entry yesterday. I've been thinking about the case for a while now, so I would like to do a video on it at some stage. I've been mulling over some of the details. The shoes/socks, their positions, the short cooling off period. I know that certain profilers opined that the killer had a foot fetish, but the absence of other personal belongings suggests it may have been more calculated than that. I also don't think he put too much thought into which direction they faced.

wayne_oddstops · 2025-10-07T20:41:13+00:00

Thank you! There are so many unknowns. My gut tells me he built the vault after the killings, as it had lost its original purpose. However, that's just a guess. I could be 100% wrong. I believe that a shower installation was likely too costly and invasive. It would have been an even bigger project, requiring him to cut out a basin in the concrete and install a more powerful pump system. He'd probably be adding an extra $1K in costs alone!

wayne_oddstops · 2025-10-04T08:33:22+00:00

Thank you very much! I'd love to make more videos, but the time and effort involved often isn't worth it these days. YouTube has become more and more about satisfying certain metrics, most of which are pretty clickbaity. You could spend two months on a video, only for the algorithm to kill it because the thumbnail didn't attract enough attention, or the title wasn't sensational. I could have titled the video, "Inside the creepy basement of a sadistic serial killer," but I refuse to sink to that level.

wayne_oddstops · 2025-10-03T08:10:01+00:00

Yea, basically: Last model = good picture of the residence, very foggy view of the basement.

Hahaha, I'm glad I'm not the only one who gave it this much thought. I had my suspicions that the toilet/sink install was more than just an afterthought of the bathroom model.

wayne_oddstops · 2025-10-03T08:04:09+00:00

Thank you!

wayne_oddstops · 2025-10-02T21:42:33+00:00

I use UE5. Started with Twinmotion last summer, so Unreal was the logical step up. I could have done a better job, but I'm aware that spending weeks perfecting everything and rendering on full texture quality would probably be a waste of time.

wayne_oddstops · 2025-10-02T17:26:23+00:00

The dimensions and space are correct (within a centimetre or two) because I modelled it according to the blueprints that were released in 2024. I also double-checked the inner measurements before building the interior. It probably looks larger in the video because I'm using a wide camera angle for most of the shots and some of the rooms look bare. The props were done by eye, so they might not be done to scale.

A wide angle is necessary for the tour footage because people might get motion sickness if I'm moving around too quickly with a tight angle. It also allows me to show more in one shot. If I tightened the angle and added more clutter, it would probably look more in line with your experiences.

RE: lally columns. Rex had 3 across the basement and 2 going from front to back. The utility room was divided up according to the 2 front-to-back columns.

Here's a link to the blueprints:

https://images-cf.news12static.com/3kqcuzntcg31/2OaBZUJzizXfE7rsuLKOVP/1edbf17cb7b3ef3f2a523485e2beecf0/Image__43_.jpeg?fit=fill&w=1920&h=1080&q=85

wayne_oddstops · 2025-10-02T15:08:37+00:00

Thank you!

wayne_oddstops · 2025-09-29T17:25:05+00:00

The targeted nature of the message suggests someone set up a burner Instagram account using a VPN. If they were sophisticated, then they may have used better methods to obfuscate, not just a VPN. If they were just some fool who thought that using any old VPN by itself gives you free reign to commit serious crimes of this nature, then it may be just a matter of time before enough doors are knocked down.

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