Online courses: the pain
So Yvonne has her TRT Method course. Came into her office for something unrelated and found her cursing at her computer. They wanted her to log in, but it wasn't working. Not her fault. It's broke: But surely they would have found that out very quickly. Much searching. It works with Microsoft! So it's a server issue?as the error display stated?and not a network issue. After much more grumbling, came to the conclusion that this was trtmethod's inimitable way of saying ?Your browser is out of date?.
?Wise? transfers: the pain
Yvonne has found a new horse training course, TRT Method. They want money for it, ?197 (or, as they put it, 90% off ?2142). Another scam? No, Jane Ashcroft and Shelly Cooper have both bought it and found it excellent. OK, so I have to pay for it. More fun with this horrible Wise web site. I need to stock up my funds, involving transferring money from my bank. In the past that was so complicated that I created a (local, clearly) page with details of the hoops I had to jump through and the account to which I should transfer the money.
Power fail!
Grid power failure this morning, the first in over four months. But the inverter cut out for at least 15 seconds, possibly closer to a minute: I had time to walk into the garage and confirm the situation before it powered on again. Why? The only explanation I can think of is that the inverter was overloaded. Looking at the inverter logs, this doesn't seem to be the case: The power (purple trace in the middle) was out from 10:37 to 11:03, but the highest power registered before the dropout was round 2.5 kW, tending less.
Trusting digital devices
My normal weight over the last few years has been between 87 and 88 kg. But a little over a year ago I was concerned that I was losing weight: it had dropped to 84.7 kg, enough of an anomaly that I talked to my doctor about it. He wasn't concerned, and over the next few weeks it returned to normal But now, for some reason, I'm putting on weight. Nothing to be alarmed about, but between 88 and 89 kg. Until this morning, where my scales told me that I suddenly weighed 90.1 kg, the highest I have ever measured.
Which photo software?
Understanding the problems that I have been having with ExifTool isn't easy. Phil Harvey is working on a fix, he says, but where does the real blame lie? So far we have established that the problem only occurs with OM Workspace and DxO PhotoLab, and in each case with different results. What about others? And what about using up-to-date versions of the software? With OM Workspace that was simple: after lots of pain accessing the update server, it came back and told me that the software is up to date. I know DxO isn't: it's release 5, and the current release is 8.
Banking ?security?
I have a fair amount of money invested at Macquarie Bank. Today I received a message from my accountants: We?re reaching out to let you know about some changes Macquarie is making to how we manage bulk payments through your Macquarie Cash Management Account (CMA). These updates are designed to enhance security, reduce fraud risk, and modernise digital processes. As part of these updates, Macquarie is removing the general withdrawal authority effective 1st August 2025.
Fixing exiftool
Finally I have got round to posting a message about my issues with the OM System OM-1 Mark II on the exiftool forum. Response from Phil Harvey, the author: ?It seems that you mean "Any plans for better OM Workspace support?"?. Well, no. But at least he'll look at the issue. Am I the only person to run into this problem?
Who is responsible for scams?
Interesting article in the news today: Ian Williams, a man in Bendigo, was defrauded of $1,338 a few years back. Two items were paid for via Google Pay on his mobile phone. The bank (National Australia Bank) refused to refund the money: he had identified himself with a fingerprint, so he must have been there. Williams wasn't happy with that, and he sued NAB. The case is ongoing, but his evidence is convincing. He's asking for $379 million in payout, using rather implausible reasoning, and I'm sure he's not expecting to get more than a fraction of that. But somehow he's barking up the wrong tree.
Another catchup day
Another day spent catching up (reducing my mail inbox size), with only moderate success. I still have messages months old (over 2 years in one case) that I really need to answer. Instead I made an equally half-hearted attempt to complete the installation of the new lagoon.lemis.com for Yvonne. The next step was X, particularly the Nvidia driver. lagoon has an ancient GeForce GT 710 card, but it does the job for Yvonne. How do I set up a second machine with the same card? Simple, as it turns out: I have a second one, though it has a sticker on the fan housing saying ?noisy?.
CAPTCHAs spare Microsoft
I've investigated this irritating increase in CAPTCHAs. It happens on FreeBSD with either firefox or chromium, but not on distress (Microsoft) with firefox. Are they maybe tracking browsers that haven't been updated recently?
Where do the CAPTCHAs come from?
I'm getting more and more CAPTCHAs. Why? Are they trying to make me walk crossly? Or are they targeting specific browsers?
OM-1 repair, day 3
Still no response from CCCWarehouse. Try a ?chat? again? Yes, almost immediate response from Michael L, who appears to be the only person in the department, unless it's a generic name for anybody there. He was also the name who gave me the information I got on 22 November 2024. It quickly became clear that he hadn't read the message I sent. Once again the suggestion that I try pixel remapping. And then he stated that he couldn't find the order number, which I had not sent him. So clearly he hadn't followed up at all. In the evening, he did: Based on the existing information, we can not accept your claim because our warranty policy does not transfer to new owner when the product is re-sold.
Finding the configuration information
So where did I put the information needed to update my local systems? I had some recollection that I had a set of Makefiles to do the work. Off searching, and after only half an hour I found them: in /src/Sysconfig/Install. /src/Sysconfig is a remnant of an attempt I made decades ago to automate my updates, so it's not completely inappropriate, but I was trying to get rid of the system. Still, I can't see any alternative. Off to try out the things that I had in there, in the process finding additional symlinks that I needed to make, and also some missing in the list.
Memory in Saskatchewan
I just came back from Canada?s only rectangular province. I was there to help out my 95-year-old mother while her main caregiver took vacation. It?s an unhappiness that my family has splashed itself across Canada in such a way that we have to get on an airplane (or take drives measured in days) to see each other, but that?s where we are. I came back with pictures and stories. Let me set the stage with a couple of photos. Everyone knows that Saskatchewan is flat and brown and empty, right?
Buying wine on the web
Mclaren Vale Cellars have a special Sauvignon Blanc at the moment, with a whopping 43% discount for regular customers. OK, check it out. How do I log in? There's a wobbling button saying LOGIN TO SAVE, but clicking on it does nothing interesting. But checking ?My account? shows my previous orders, so clearly I'm already logged in. But the price stubbornly refuses to change. Tried all sorts of things, to no avail. Finally clicked on ?Chat?. And how about that, I got a response from a Real Person, whose name turns out to be Tom (Curtis? He didn't say). And he was interested enough to call me up and discuss the matter in some detail.
Still more system installation
Where did I put those notes that I made a while back the last time that I tried to formalize system installation? Spent some time searching my file systems and my diary, but I drew a blank. Gradually I had a recollection of a series of configuration files and Makefiles, but I couldn't find anything to match. Mañana. I did, however, build a new world, and after that tried more speed tests on the SSD: === root@lagune (/dev/pts/0) /usr/src 28 -> dd if=/dev/nda0 of=/dev/null count=10000 bs=128k 10000+0 records in 10000+0 records out 1310720000 bytes transferred in 1.487479 secs (881168964 bytes/sec) === root@lagune (/dev/pts/0) /usr/src 29 -> dd if=/dev/nda0 of=/dev/null count=10000 bs=128k iseek=10000 10000+0 records in 10000+0 records out 1310720000 bytes transferred in 1.143293 secs (1146443065 bytes/sec) The speed difference was repeatable.
A new lagoon
Yvonne's machine, lagoon.lemis.com, is seriously down-rev: === grog@lagoon (/dev/pts/9) ~ 2 -> uname -a FreeBSD lagoon.lemis.com 12.1-STABLE FreeBSD 12.1-STABLE r355358 GENERIC amd64 === grog@lagoon (/dev/pts/9) ~ 3 -> l /boot/kernel/kernel -r-xr-xr-x 1 root wheel 31,364,536 12 Dec 2020 /boot/kernel/kernel I had started to upgrade it over two years ago, but somehow didn't finish. But now I have a new machine, the one I bought for running Microsoft Windows 11 a few months back, but which proved to be only marginally faster than distress. So I ordered a new SSD, found I had the wrong kind, returned it and finally got a functional one.
QRS: Epsilon Wrangling
I haven?t shipped any new features for Quamina in many months, partly due to a flow of real-life distractions, but also I?m up against tough performance problems in implementing Regular Expressions at massive scale. I?m still looking for a breakthrough, but have learned things about building and executing finite automata that I think are worth sharing. This piece has to do with epsilons; anyone who has studied finite automata will know about them already, but I?ll offer background for those people to skip. I?ve written about this before in Epsilon Love.
Building with purpose: Stories from the Now Go Build CTO Fellows
This new five-part mini-series follows technology leaders from social impact organizations solving humanity's hardest problems - from crisis zones to community centers. Watch how they use drones to map disaster zones, AI/ML to predict food shortages, and open data to save lives.
The Real GenAI Issue
Last week I published a featherweight narrative about applying GenAI in a real-world context, to a tiny programming problem. Now I?m regretting that piece because I totally ignored the two central issues with AI: What it?s meant to do, and how much it really costs. What genAI is for The most important fact about genAI in the real world is that there?ve been literally hundreds of billions of dollars invested in it; that link is just startups, and ignores a comparable torrent of cash pouring out of Big Tech.
Hat trick
As if all that wasn't enough, while processing my house photos I got this message on stopping Hugin: Crash Annotation GraphicsCriticalError: |[0][GFX1-]: Detect DeviceReset DeviceResetReason::NVIDIA_VIDEO DeviceResetDetectPlace::WR_POST_UPDATE in Parent process (t=314.609) |[1][GFX1-]: Detect DeviceReset DeviceResetReason::NVIDIA_VIDEO DeviceResetDetectPlace::WR_POST_UPDATE in Parent process (t=512.092) |[2][GFX1-]: Detect DeviceReset DeviceResetReason::NVIDIA_VIDEO DeviceResetDetectPlace::WR_POST_UPDATE in Parent process (t=1200) |[3][GFX1-]: Detect DeviceReset DeviceResetReason::NVIDIA_VIDEO DeviceResetDetectPlace::WR_POST_UPDATE in Parent process (t=1561.49) |[4][GFX1-]: Detect DeviceReset DeviceResetReason::NVIDIA_VIDEO DeviceResetDetectPlace::WR_POST_UPDATE in Parent process (t=2263.19) |[5][GFX1-]: Detect DeviceReset DeviceResetReason::NVIDIA_VIDEO DeviceResetDetectPlace::WR_POST_UPDATE in Parent process (t=81123.4) |[6][GFX1-]: Detect DeviceReset DeviceResetReason::NVIDIA_VIDEO DeviceResetDetectPlace::WR_POST_UPDATE in Parent process (t=81163.4) [GFX1-]: Detect DeviceReset DeviceResetReason::NVIDIA_VIDEO DeviceResetDetectPlace::WR_POST_UPDATE in Parent process What a mess!
Still more ExifTool pain
Today I spent an inordinate amount of time trying to document my success in copying Exif data to images from my OM System OM-1 Mark II, with little success. Every time I think I have got a workaround, I find they don't work or are not repeatable. Today I tried geotagging: === grog@hydra (/dev/pts/18) ~/Photos/20250703 872 -> exifx orig/A7032091_DxO.jpg File orig/A7032091_DxO.jpg Date taken: Thursday, 3 July 2025, 11:23:58 Exposure: 1/1600 sec, f/6.3 (EV 16.0), 800/30 ISO Camera: OM Digital Solutions OM-1 Lens: LEICA DG 100-400mm f/4.0-6.3 Focal length: 400.0 mm Meter mode: Multi-segment Aperture-priority AE Comp: +1.3 EV Size: 5184 x 3888 pixels (20.16 megapixels) === grog@hydra (/dev/pts/18) ~/Photos/20250703 873 -> geotag orig/A7032091_DxO.jpg GPSLOG ...
OM-1 problems?
One of the nice things about the OM System OM-1 Mark II is that I can charge the battery from USB. After downloading files from the camera, I simply turn it off and leave it to charge. As a result, I have never used the two spare batteries that I bought along with the camera. But today I came into my office to find the ?battery empty? indicator flashing. It was still connected to the USB cable. Disconnect. No change. Turn on and off. No change. Finally I got it to stop by removing and replacing the battery, after which it showed 100% charge.
LG ThinQ?
Our new LG XD5B14PS dishwasher comes with advertising for LG ThinQ. What's that? Buzzwords galore, a way to increase the pain of your smart phone by communicating with the dishwasher? About the only thing I could establish is that you can select custom wash cycles, though it's not clear what. Downloaded the app from the toyshop and started it. Please log in! Create an account! Dammit, LG, will I need an account to use your appliances next? And why do you subject me to the pain of entering text on a mobile phone? Ah, you can sign up with a Real Computer too.
More photo insights
I hadn't planned to do much photo stuff today, since there's clearly a lot to do to process yesterday's photos. But one was easy, the Skyhawk: That's in dire need of cropping. How hard can it be? With various excursions, it took me several hours. The simple thing is just to crop it: But that's messy, with lots of artefacts. How about cropping it in DxO PhotoLab and then put it through ?Perfectly Clear??
Understanding Microsoft networking
I had 380 photos to process today. DxO PhotoLab is slow at the best of times, but today it took several minutes to even display the initial screen. Looking at local network traffic, I saw a lot of 15:46:03.538507 IP eureka.lemis.com.microsoft-ds > distress.lemis.com.52560: Flags [.] , seq 366736144:366737604, ack 63457, win 12575, length 1460SMB-over-TCP packet:(raw data or continuation?) 15:46:03.538625 IP distress.lemis.com.52560 > eureka.lemis.com.microsoft-ds: Flags [.] , ack 366346324, win 65534, length 0 15:46:03.538631 IP bad-len 0 15:46:03.538748 IP distress.lemis.com.52560 > eureka.lemis.com.microsoft-ds: Flags [.] , ack 366355084, win 65534, length 0 15:46:03.538753 IP bad-len 0 What does that mean?
Glorious photos
How do you restore old photos? Both Affinity and ACDSee offer functionality to do it. But there are no tutorials to back it up, and my attempts have been less than successful. Ask Google Gemini? Yes, what you need is PhotoGlory. Oh. I had never heard of it. Out to take a look, and yes, it seems to offer just what I want. Download the trial version, which at least allowed me to rotate images and change their exposure. But to use the features for which it's intended, I have to buy the product! OK, it's only (US) $39.20 for a lifetime license for the PRO version.
Living with SMS
Another pain is SMS. It should no longer exist. It grew up in the early days of digital phones, where phones and Internet had nothing to do with each other, and to enter text you had to use the numeric (only) keypad with multiple presses per letter. Now every phone has Internet standard email, but not only do people not use it, there seems to be an insurmountable barrier between the two. Of course, neither SMS nor email are appropriate when you want to contact somebody quickly and be sure that they get the message. There phone calls are more appropriate, as would have been this morning when Brett contacted me.
Modern security
Security is important of course, especially on the Internet where so few people really understand what's going on. But current methods are just plain ridiculous. I hate CAPTCHAs with a vengeance, and I suspect that my refusal to fill one out confused The Good Guys' computer system, and maybe that's why I haven't received a single email from them during the entire fiasco. But is it necessary? Yesterday I went in to the Ballarat shop and had to pick up an invoice that they could more easily have sent to me by email. And the only identification they wanted was a phone number.
My First GenAI Code
At the moment, we have no idea what the impact of genAI on software development is going to be. The impact of anything on coding is hard to measure systematically, so we rely on anecdata and the community?s eventual consensus. So, here?s my anecdata. Tl;dr: The AI was not useless. The problem My current work on Quamina involves dealing with collections of finite-automata states, which, in the Go programming language, are represented as slices of pointers to state instances: []*faState The problem I was facing was deduping them, so that there would be only one instance corresponding to any particular collection.
Dishwasher, day 6
Reading my news this morning, discovered this SMS message, sent yesterday at 9:20: Hi Greg, Unfortunately, there was a technical glitch with your Web Order: 162882951, your order has since been cancelled and a refund is in progress. Please allow up to 3-5 business days for the funds to reflect back into your original payment method. We apologise for the inconvenience this may cause. What's wrong with this? This was the first time I had seen the order number.