Betty's Pub 20.1
Main Menu => Old inactive posts. => Topic started by: andyg0404 on May 07, 2015, 06:00:48 PM
-
Hi,
Betty, our message board has a different look today, any reason in particular?
As to a little of this and that, it's a few things I found browsing the web today.
Andy G.
Quirky
http://www.stylemequirky.com/dressing-service/transgender-dressing-service/
http://stylemequirkygallery.com/StyleMeQuirkyGenderRebel/Quirkover/Lila-Sissy-Special-Gallery/21734099_CbtJxm#!i=1732792424&k=QXxFTrd
Becoming Darcelle: Walter Cole on bullies, beatniks, bath houses, and happiness
http://www.pqmonthly.com/becoming-darcelle-walter-cole-on-bullies-beatniks-bath-houses-and-happiness/8731
Joseph Gordon-Levitt
http://www.nolanfans.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=11287&start=570
A Guy (High School) that Looks like Kim Tae He, He is VERY CUTE!! Prettier than Kim Tae Hee
http://www.crunchyroll.com/forumtopic-264180/a-guy-high-school-that-looks-like-kim-tae-he-he-is-very-cute-prettier-than-kim-tae-hee
G-Dragon dressed as a girl
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KtHkhAgzOc
Teenage boys sent home from school for dressing as Nicki Minaj and Miss America
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2797980/washington-teen-boys-sent-home-high-school-spirit-week-dressed-favorite-female-celebrities.html
Sakurai Sho
http://ladybirdmauve.blogspot.com/2010/11/arashi-no-shukudai-kun-52.html
http://lancee-ism.livejournal.com/18046.html
-
After doing some serious upgrades, tweaks, & modernization a couple weeks ago, I was planning on upgrading the style & interface of the sites next. The interface & styles we were using wasn't 100% compatible & efficient with the new upgrades, so would have to be altered & tweaked. Halfway through the upgrades I got a nasty case of food poisoning, & everything got set back a week.
The appearance & interface here has been the same except for some changes since the days we were on the 5dot3 domain. The story board uses a style we used for some our phpbb boards since the turn of the century. I used the style for stories since Starblvd services closed because it's easy to read long stories, simple to use, navigate, & efficient under heavy traffic loads.
So I think at this point, we were all tired of looking at the sites looking the same way for years.
It would have been just as easy to install, modify, & tweak a new style & interface, as it would be to upgrade the old interfaces to be more compatible with the servers & board core's upgrades, so it was a good opportunity to install & try some new layouts.
But what started as a well planned task that I've done before, turned into a disaster halfway through the day. As I was uploading a few of the new interfaces for testing at Stories, we got hit by a massive spam attack faster than the servers & security could handle it. I had to stop what I was doing & manually deal with it all for a couple hours. When things calmed down & I started working on the new interface again, we get hit by another wave of spammers. The server was already working hard as I was loading & working on the software, so couldn't handle another attack at the same time.
I gave up & decided to actually shut down stories for a couple hours so I could finish the job. After getting several different interfaces uploaded & tweaked enough to run there, I put stories back online & alternately tested them to see which looked & worked best. One of the versions needed additional software to run stories. So I get it, upload it to the server, & the server starts installing the new software. Then stories gets hit by a couple assholes spidering/copying the site, hitting stories & parts dozens of times a minute. Normally the server could handle it, or the security would eventually notice & lock them out. But the server was busy processing & installing a big chunk of new software. So the server crashed!
When you're installing new software on a computer or server, & you pull the plug or cut it off in the middle of it, there's a good chance everything is wrecked, with most or all the data lost, or corrupted.
I couldn't even connect to the server to try to fix it. I had to call the server company to get it online. After explaining what happened, they warned me that if they get it back up, there's a good chance all the data (stories) is lost. I got a backup of stories from just the day before at home, so not problem, right? Wrong!
After they got my server up, there wasn't much left in it, & most of what was left was corrupted. So I start the long process of uploading the entire stories site back up to the server. But every time stories got 40-65% uploaded it would interrupt the upload, & my FTP transfer would have to re-connect. Very bad! From my experience uploading or downloading large files, data, & backups, if the connection or loading stops for any reason & then resumes, the interruption will have corrupted the data. You need it to load un-interrupted, & install un-interrupted or you'll have lots of problems.
After trying many times for hours, but having the connection stop halfway through, I decided to manually upload thousands of stories folders & files just a few at a time. To save time, I checked which folders were uploaded to the server last before the last interruption. Everything except the last few folders uploaded to the server should be intact, so I shouldn't have to upload those again.
OMG, I notice the folder & link to the server-side backups is back in their separate partition where they were supposed to be after it installed the folders I already uploaded. I guess they always there, but I just couldn't see or access them until I had some of the system re-installed. I check them, & the database, & have them analyzed. They were all intact (7 backups)!
I click on the backup from the day before, & 3 minutes later stories was back online. No stories were lost. I got the new layout working good enough for now, & got ready for bed. I looked out the window, it was almost dawn.
I don't like to depend on backups right on the server. From my experience, if the server crashed or got corrupted, most of the time the backups are corrupted or gone too. So every few days I download a backup stores at home separately.
But I like the idea of lots backups right on the server. When they function, one could fix almost anything in minutes without even knowing what the original problem was. They sure saved my ass from a lot more time & work last night.
-
Well Betty, it is good you are a genius with computers or all your hard work would be gone. It sure seems like loads of work to keep your wonderful site available to us and we do appreciate it very much.
-
Back in the mid 90s, everyone online had to know half that stuff or their computer would crash, get a virus, & many of the visited websites wouldn't function properly. If you didn't, most people online would tease you, & ask that you stay offline until you learn.
Even back in the days of the beginning of the usenet in the early 1980s, if I got online to ask just a simple computer or tech question, by the next day I'd have hundreds to thousands of replies just flaming my question demanding I stay offline until I learn rather than just answer the freakin question.
Actually, it was that poor attitude of many on the usenet, & early internet, that motivated me to rename my usenet group & move it to the internet in 1994 as "Betty's".
Most of the interactive groups & boards on the internet then, seemed to be countless very long threads of people flaming each other & fighting rather than any fun, just like many usenet newsgroups of the time. They were the most pointless arguments too. A misplaced period, comma, misspelled word, or grammar error at any of these sites would trigger massively long threads of flaming & insults.
It seems the most prolific members & posters determined they should be the English, & grammar police for the whole internet. They completely forgot that the internet was international, so English may not be everyone's primary language, & that USA English may not be exactly the same as UK or Australia English. Then they also forgot that in 1994 most people weren't used to using a keyboard, & did not have a reliable or accurate spell-check.
It was funny, because the ones flaming everyone else had plenty of their own typos & errors too, which... you guessed it, would trigger more flames! It was like an atomic chain reaction. The flamers would make a typo, & more people would join in to flame them.
So just like our usenet group, I decided we would not allow that nonsense, even if I had to ban all English & grammar teachers. We had better things to talk about than where you placed a period or how you spelled a word. As a ham radio operator at the time, I was used to international polite conversations with everyone in the world. I already understood that not everyone talks or sounds exactly the same.
I'm electronics expert anyway, not an English expert. So my English, like most of my friends, will not be perfect vocally or in type either. Just because somebody isn't a word & grammar wizard, does not mean they're stupid, or they should be insulted & ridiculed for it. Should the mechanic, policeman, chef, or tech be insulted online because they're not a secretary, school teacher, or typing wizard? Of course not!
When we all started moving from the usenet (before the internet we had the usenet since 1980, & it still exists) to the internet, the first thing I did was buy a 350 page book on HTML... the code & language of the internet. I studied it thoroughly, & kept it nearby to refer back to for a couple years.
When they started using javascript more (java & javascript are two entirely different things), fortunately the book had a couple chapters on that too. When PHP-based interactive sites started to become popular, I learned PHP. Now HTML5 is all the rage, so I learned that.
Computers are just electronics wired a certain way to do a certain job. Although the chips, & other components have gotten smaller, faster, & more efficient, they still all follow the same basic principles, & basically run the same way they have since the 1960s when we used transistors & chips instead of vacuum tubes & relays in computers.
In the late 1960s we already had chips, & LEDs. In my early teens (1968-69?) I was already experimenting & building circuits using switching, digital, & programmable chips. I even made simple digital & programmable light chasers, synthesizers, & a digital (tapeless) voice recorder with chips. By 1973 I had made a digital light controller/chaser from scratch for a disco, & for a band (hand-built all the lights, installed & wired them too). The chips I used for them were mostly designed for the telephone industry.
So we weren't exactly in the stone age back then. I remember buying my first LCD pocket calculator for around $9.95 around then. By the time "Pong" became available for home use, I already had it with a couple other games on a homemade circuit board, because they were already around for a couple years in arcades & bars.
Wasn't much of a game or arcade freak though. So didn't bother with Atari stuff until I could just buy one cheap used. By that time it was 1981 & was already on the usenet with a computer connected to a TV.
Operating systems cores are pretty much similar & unchanged for years too. Windows is just a user-friendly interface & features built upon a DOS core operating system. DOS is basically a rip-off of UNIX, with just a few minor changes. Mac, Linux, are just a user-friendly interface & features built upon a UNIX core operating system. Android, most set-top boxes, DVRs, & most other computerized home electronics run on Linux. Most web servers & ISPs run on Linux or UNIX.
All Betty's servers run on Linux.
-
Hi Betty,
On my screen, all the text is center justified. Is that just me or is that something you've done?
Came across this today.
Tightrope walker
https://retrobookshelf.wordpress.com/tag/boy-scouts/
Andy G.
-
I decided on a more poetic look rather than a mechanical appearance, so all pix & text are centered.
I'm getting a few messages that the text is too small or being too big. I have no control over individuals personal screen resolution settings, their OS's personal DPI font settings (some set it at 80%, 100%, or 125%), or their browsers zoom settings.
I set up everything at the sites to look just about the right size if their OS & browsers are set in their default or factory settings with the most common resolution visitors use here... a 756 pixel high screen. Using those default settings, testing the sites with most OS's & browsers the text is about the same size on all of them. Testing most popular phones, & tablets virtually, text & pix seem to be a comfortable size.
-
Hey Betty,
in the early 90's I had to go to night school to learn the Unix system for work. The teacher was not much good and I learned more from people I worked with but I did pass the course and get my "Diploma" such as it was. We were starting to buy German A/C equipment like Bosch with electronic components to study for our new designs, but as we started building new models our company was closed and the business moved south to the U.S. Some of the models we were seeing for the Hotel/Motel business had electronic controls in their through-the-wall units and I recommended we take that route also as we had a large part of that market to fit our custom made wall sleeves and we would always be able to sell replacement units as the old models died. Well I was not alone in my views and after the closure some engineers bought the rights to produce those types of units in Canada and started a factory that is still going today. I went on to work with a commercial division of the old company that stayed in Canada and then retired after 42 years on the job. I never perfected my computer skills to your level Betty as there was no real need for work and I had little time at home to use the computer as I was working overtime quite a bit. Funny though just a year or so before I retired we started to use digital components more and more in our products after the competition was doing it.
-
I'm a bit of an old-timer myself. My career path took me through several proprietary mini-computer operating systems to mainframes, then to DOS, to Unix (I even did a stint as a Unix sysadm) and Windows. When I was introduced to Unix, the first thing my instructor told us was "UAYKWYD," Unix Assumes You Know What You're Doing" -- no "are you sure?" / "are you really sure" / "are you really REALLY sure" garbage like Windows.
That was one thing I came to love about Unix -- although it could get you into real trouble. One sysadm I knew (fortunately not me) wanted to get rid of an ID's "hidden" files, the ones that starts with a ".", so, as root he changed directory into the account and issued the command "rm -r .*" Only afterward did he realize that the current directory (".") and its parent ("..") started with "." -- and he wiped all user accounts and a bunch more off the machine. It took a couple of days to get things back working again....
-
Although I had made digital controller & audio circuits, & poked with a very old huge Univac punch-card computer at school (1960s), I didn't play with real home computers until Commodores, TRS-80s, & T-44As running BASIC (1979-80). Then I got a UNIX box similar to a Linux box designed by the people who later built WEBTV. Never was very good with UNIX. Back when WEBTV started out, it was a Linux box, & not associated with Microsoft in any way. Microsoft bought out & took over WEBTV around 1997 0r 98 I believe.
I was unimpressed with the windows version of it, but their WEBTV-Plus version had a nice TV & cable interface, which basically controlled your cable box & VCRs essentially turning it into a TVO where you can just click around an on-screen TV schedule for a whole week, to tell it what to record or set the channel to. It also had the ability to upload pix from cameras, VCRs, TV, & other sources & post them on the internet. Plus it played MPG, WMV video & WMA, & midi audio from the internet. So it was my first regular experience with windows.
They had a windows 95 computer at work that I played with. It was a pretty OS for it's day, but considered it too unreliable & fussy. By that time I already had a Linux machine at home. With it, & WEBTV-PLUS I was happy with what I had, & didn't really pay much attention to windows computers until windows 98 was around for a while.
I also got hooked on WEBTV's wireless keyboards. Surfing the internet on a large TV from a comfy chair, sofa, or bed rather than leaning over a small screen squinting at a desk seemed so right. A computing habit I carried on to this day. Long wire keyboard & trackball mouse with a larger screen that I can comfortably sit or lay 3-8 feet from.
I later got a used broken computer for almost nothing. I put in a new hard drive, more RAM, & installed windows 98SE (second edition) on it. It had all the best features of W98 & W2000, was more reliable than 98.
By the time XP SP1 came out, I bought an experimental barebones "no OS" computer, added graphics & more RAM, & installed XP on it. It had dual 1.8ghz AMD processors in it (not dual cores). Before dual core chips were common, these experimental units were built for tinkerers to test & run the dual core concept. Still got it, & got it running after the fire. But I haven't used it in years. My duo 3.466ghz 2005 intel computer replaced it. The older XP machine used to be a backup machine or something to run or do stuff on when the intel machine was busy doing other stuff.
But since COPD, I don't travel well, so my old single core AMD 1.8ghz ACER 2005 laptop is my backup machine. It consumes a lot less electricity too.
I was very happy running XP & linux on them. But when they stopped supporting XP, I put Windows 7 on them. I had to force some drivers to install to run W7 on the machines. I had to do some streamlining to W7 & add more RAM to laptop to run W7 smoothly though. I tested W8 & W8.1 on both of them without having to buy a license right away (don't ask). Although I got them to run smooth, 8 & 8.1 still suck.
I still keep some form of Linux on the machines too. Mostly as a backup OS in case of windows failure. One can actually access all your files in Linux, even windows files to repair or rescue them. But so far, I've had zero windows failures & countless Linux failures... usually right after a Linux update.
Lesson learned: Once you get a version of Linux you like & get it running just the way you want it, don't ever let it update itself unless it's no longer compatible with the software or any security you have.
Linux ain't what it used to be. Most of the best Linux developers have moved on to developing android, severs, browsers, or just retired. It's been left in the hands of ordinary tinkers & kids who are more into changing things around just because they can than produce anything useful & user friendly.
They send out updates for your Linux that almost always disable your graphics, audio, ethernet, wireless, or DVD drives. Then they leave it up to the end user to spend weeks of researching & writing or editing codes to get everything running again.
Sorry Linux, I can't spend weeks fixing my computer every time it gets an update, only to discover I may have to reinstall the old original LInux OS & wipe out all my tweaks & customization to fix it.
Macs never offered me much. I've seen inside them. They're just ordinary cheap parts that don't justify them costing 2-4 times as much. They say they're more reliable. That hasn't held true since 1998. Every mac owner I know has to take their mac to the apple shop for repairs at least every couple of years. Most PC owners I know never had to take their PC to the shop. I had a chance to open up an old 2005 apple ibook recently to fix & rebuild it. It was all late 1990s cheap Chinese technology inside! Meanwhile, my laptop also built in 2005 has never had to be opened up or repaired except to add more RAM, & it performs better than that ibook. And it only cost 1/3 as much new.
That ibook was in & out of the shop at least a half dozen times over the past 10 years. The last time they said it was too old, & can't be fixed anymore. That's how I got it, & fixed it.
They say macs are better for photo, & image processing. That also hasn't held true since 1998. How your computer processes images depends on the software you use, not the OS. Most of the image software programming for macs or from adobe was actually stolen from free software for Linux.
They say macs are more safe & secure. There is nothing in their software or hardware that make it more secure than a PC. Because macs are in a small minority of all the computers out there, people who write viruses & other malware don't bother making much for macs or try to attack them as much. But that's slowly changing as they gain more of the market share thanks to the failure of windows 8 & 8.1.
And when you drop your mac in the shop, they'll always say it was a drive, hardware, or software failure, because they will not, & not allowed to tell you that you caught a virus! They lie! They have to tell you that you can't get a virus or other malware on a mac to justify charging 3 times more for one. Get it to a private shop, & they'll tell you it was full of malware.
Oh, that ibook dropped off for me to look at? It had over 200 something pieces of spyware on it. Everyone in her email accounts would get spammed to death, her mail accounts were constantly being hacked & hijacked. She always blamed the mail servers or her ISP, not realizing it was her own infected mac's fault.