Member for

7 years 2 months
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Recent Comments

Date Title Body
Yes, thank you Seth, your…

Yes, thank you Seth, your effort and output has been wonderful. All the best to Brian.

Agreed. I believe many (most…

Agreed. I believe many (most?) of the Mackinaw City / St. Ignace pasty places are tourist traps.

Lehto's Pasties are pretty good though, and moist enough to not require ketchup/gravy (though they come with gravy on the side I think?)

Yep, I run an IT department…

Yep, I run an IT department for a local organization and I've seen the effects of this in the last several months.

First, prices for computers are increased over what we've paid in previous years. I know there was a run on laptops at the beginning of the pandemic, so that plus a chip shortage means we're paying maybe 10-20% over what we have in the past.

Second, some parts for computers are hard or impossible to find. We've been trying to build a new server, but some parts are out of stock so we've had to settle for similar, but not exact, replacements.

Third, arrival time on parts and systems ordered is pretty spotty right now. Some equipment I've ordered just never ships (even though it's "in stock"), so I've had to cancel the orders and find replacements. On the other hand, a batch of systems I ordered was slated for delivery mid-May, but apparently they're coming today, so /shrug

It is what it is, I'm not sure of all the causes, but I imagine the Suez Canal thing and the pandemic have both affected supply. Demand has also been up, at least on laptops and other remote learning/working devices. If my economics is still correct, I believe increased demand and decreased supply is... bad for the (consumer's) wallet.

 

Howdy XM, and sorry to…

Howdy XM, and sorry to threadjack, but I remember a little while ago you were looking for internet at remote locations in northern Michigan. Starlink now has first-come first-serve signups, if you are looking to resolve that issue still: https://www.starlink.com/

Apologies again, I have no other way of contacting you!

Brian,

Thanks for this site…

Brian,

Thanks for this site and all the work your team does.
I think you should write about whatever you want. Your work is best when you care a lot about a subject. I even enjoy the Ann Arbor politics posts.

I'm planning on heading down…

I'm planning on heading down, also after 5 (probably closer to 6), to see if I can get in.

I also use teldar's method,…

I also use teldar's method, it's basically fool-proof and is much better than jar gravy.

To prevent lumps, make sure you mix the flour into a thin paste with some water, and don't pour it into boiling broth; let the broth cool slightly first. Then bring it back up to boiling or simmering to thicken.

Alternatively, you can basically use a white sauce method. Cook some flour in butter or skimmed fat for like 30 seconds, then mix in your broth. I use this method if I am making a gravy with things in it - for example, onions. 

Thanks! Once I get to 100…

Thanks! Once I get to 100 points I'll bang you back.

It's my birthday today, so I…

It's my birthday today, so I'm hoping for some bangs here.

This is really fascinating…

This is really fascinating and insightful.

The PSU/OSU articles especially, which make sense of what seemed to be very bizarre and poor playcalling.

Good deal, having a cold…

Good deal, having a cold backup would be easy then. When it comes to backups, having multiple options for recovery is a good idea. Cloud would probably be the primary backup location, with the cold backup for a disaster scenario.

Hi XM,

I'd recommend a mix…

Hi XM,

I'd recommend a mix of cloud backups and "cold storage" backups - that is, backups that are not connected to the internet. Cold storage would just be weekly, monthly, quarterly, or semi-annual backups (depending on your recovery requirements). If you got a ransomware that affected the cloud backups you would want those cold storage backups for recovery. This may be difficult if you have tens of TB in data. Otherwise standalone hard drives are relatively inexpensive.

You may want to consider something like blu-ray backups as well if you are concerned about damage to electronics while in storage.

I have found that all antivirus/antimalware programs fail at some point. You should deploy at least one; Malwarebytes (premium) is very good. You'll want protection that does real-time scanning (the free Malwarebytes does not, it is mainly used for cleaning).

To be fair...

The Porgs were in there because there were so many puffins on that island. It was apparently easier to change the puffins into another creature rather than remove them completely.

https://kotaku.com/the-last-jedis-porgs-are-just-puffins-which-the-film…

I'm sure they aren't upset about being able to sell a few million Porg stuffed animals though.

That's OK

You can just create the folder again and still check for previous versions. Windows just needs to know the name and location of the folder to check for previous versions.

Check Previous Versions

I think that Windows 10 has the Previous Versions feature on by default. You can try right-clicking on the Windows.old folder and choosing "Restore Previous Versions". If there are any previous versions they will be listed; you can browse the folder without actually restoring anything. I'd recommend restoring to a different location though.

That sucks

If there's some kind of mechanical or storage controller issue you are best sending it to a specialist. I've used Kroll Ontrack before. I think they will diagnose it for free, give you an idea of what they can recover, and then you can decide whether to pay for recovery or not. You won't pay less than $700 or so, if I recall correctly, though.

If there is still access to the drive and Best Buy accidentally deleted stuff you can probably still recover it if you are careful with undelete programs.

If you are in the Ann Arbor area I might be able to help you out.

LTE Routers

Verizon makes this product which is a wireless router/bridge. It's basically designed to do what you want to do; mainly, provide in-home wireless internet and phone over a cellular connection. It even has external antenna connectors.

Of course, you need to be able to get a Verizon signal for it to work. That's where the external antenna connectors come in: mount an antenna outside or somewhere where there is good reception and connect it to the router.

AT&T makes a similar product but with no antenna connectors (i.e. only has an internal antenna).

Cradlepoint makes devices for each carrier that would work too. Here is one that has antenna connectors both for the cellular network and internal WiFi network. These are a little more expensive, but they work well. They are actually designed for remote office locations or mobile offices.

The key is picking up the carrier's cellular signal. In most cases you would probably be able to do it by simply hooking up an omni-directional antenna to the router. If the signal fluctuates or is really bad, you may need a directional antenna. I've worked with Digital Highway Wireless Solutions (dhm2m.com) in the past, and they've let me buy equipment and return for a restocking fee.

A few options

I'm pretty sure crap like this arises from government-backed local monopolies as well as a lack of demand in rural areas. I think only a certain cable carrier has rights to provide service to a city, township, etc.

You can try a few things. First you could ask Charter to overbuild into Comcast territory in order for you to get service. This is not uncommon, but you may not be able to get TV service due to licensing agreements.

If you have neighbors you can all request service from Comcast. Once they get enough interest in a certain area they are more likely to respond. Unfortunately a lot of the time you have to keep calling in until you get someone that is actually willing to help you (isn't that their job anyways?).

You can check for fiber as well. This is less regulated and more companies may offer it in your area than you think. The difficulty is finding which providers offer service. Be prepared to spend a lot of time looking at network maps and calling in to find service. Example: Windstream's network map. Other providers are AT&T, Verizon, Frontier, and pretty much anyone that offers DSL. Even Comcast and Charter offer it, at least through their business departments. Since DSL's last-mile reach is so short, you may run into a situation where fiber is an option where DSL is not (or in your case, slow). Obviously fiber is more expensive... starting at around $400-500 typically for like 50Mb.

Lastly, you can check with your municipality to see if there is an agreement with Charter in place to provide service for residents. If so, perhaps you could raise the issue with the person in charge of such things in government.

That's a tough problem

I've come across this problem with friends and family more than I'd like, and there are not many good solutions. Satellite internet has been discussed; it can be expensive, has data caps, and high latency.

One solution I've found that works well (relatively) is getting a cellular signal amplifier, such as this. Basically you affix a directional antenna to your house (or a tower or outbuilding) and run cabling from it to an amiplifier inside your house. I've seen it go from 0 or 1 bars to 3 or 4. This website will help you identify towers.

Another solution is point-to-point wireless, which involves finding an ISP with antennas on towers that you can point at, as above. Instead of cellular service this would be standard internet, no voice. Parkjam suggested speedconnect. There are tons of these providers and honestly I always have trouble finding them. Point-to-point wireless can have a very long distance, but line-of-sight helps a ton.

Lastly, you can ask the phone company for a T1, which will be expensive and relatively slow, but still faster than dial-up.

From my English friends

Stilton and Branson pickle