Posts

most web sites still don't work from most trains in 2024

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At the risk of bending a term, one wants transactions over the web to be "as atomic as possible".  You know what I mean. Say for something like a payment:  Client and server line everything up, then "wam commit with tiny data", "bam commit worked with tiny data b", and with proper feedback to user at each stage. What actually happens is that devtards create a sprawling, heavy mess with all sorts of back-and-forth.  It pulls in garbage from all directions.  When it's on a perfect internet connection, such as the devtard's dev box, it just about works, most of the time.  That's the level they get it to.  If there is the slightest connection glitch, packet loss, slowness, it just sort of fizzles out in undefined ways.  Maybe the thinger spins round for ever, or something just remains greyed out or doesn't load.  Occasionally some sort of error message will be produced. A payment or other online transaction should work with a 9600 bps connectio

can't subscribe to Arlo cloud service

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Due to repeated dog shit crimes against my property, I am having to set up CCTV in a place without wifi or mains power.  The place does have mobile reception. I've bought several things in parallel.  The product quality in this sector is dire.  Things just don't work. Arlo is a big brand, and some people I know use it.  The camera I bought do wifi, not mobile data, so the solar powered base station is set up separately. I didn't realise when I forked out 400 GBP(2024) for these, that they don't work without a subscription to Arlo's cloud services.  All you can get without is basic alerts and live monitoring if you're on the same network.  You don't get access to any recordings, so it's useless. You can't configure Arlo cams to communicate with your own server(s), so the cloud service is mandatory if you want them to work. Supposedly cameras come with a trial subscription to the cloud service.  This is in your "receipt or email".  I bought f

bluray (and cd, dvd) burning on debian linux: use cdrskin

It used to be cdrecord. This was never updated to handle larger than DVD.  Now it's "cdrskin".  I never remember.   cdrskin -eject ISOFILE

rotating pdfs from command line

pdfjam --landscape --angle 90 input.pdf --outfile outfile.pdf pdfjam --angle 180 input.pdf --outfile outfile.pdf  pdfjam --landscape --angle 270 input.pdf --outfile outfile.pdf  and in debian 12, pdfjam is in package texlive-extra-utils

escaping from virtualbox full screen mode

Press rightctrl-F. richtctrl is the default "host key", and can be changed.  If in "seamless" mode it's rightctrl-L instead.  But that wasn't what I was in.  rightctrl-F worked. other keywords: fullscreen

getting the CGI perl module on Debian 12

The CGI perl module used to just be there.  It's now hidden in the package  libcgi-compile-perl .

States of Guernsey: stop presuming to pick winners, granting monopolies and throwing money at transport operators

The governments of Guernsey and Jersey are currently in the process of tendering a multi-year "contract" to run ferry services around the Channel Islands and to England.  This amounts to selecting a winner, who will then be granted a monopoly, and have millions of pounds thrown at it, in order that it can provide a shit service to islanders. Meanwhile my visitors, coming over for two nights, are now arriving at 15:30 instead of 10:00 because of "tides".  Tides are predictable to the minute, decades in advance.  I have received the tides excuse before, and I spoke to a member of the crew about it, and they mumbled.  Everyone I have spoken to has received the tides excuse, and everyone I have spoken to spotted that it was a silly excuse.  One person I spoke to knew someone in Condor, who said it was a fake excuse. No one seems to question whether the Guernsey government should be throwing vast sums of money at a company in order to severely degrade the quality of tran