Category: Thoughts

BitMiner – failed (Updated)

Saw people using these, figured I’d try one.

Took over a month to arrive, had it put together and working fairly quickly. But it didn’t last. After about a week, I arrived in my office to see it at 80%. Assume it started an update. Let it sit there for a few hours, didn’t move. Rebooted, Bricked.

Tried for hours to look for bin files or software to reflash. None worked. So chalk this up to lesson learned. Will try to turn it into a media player or hacking tool. Will keep you updated.

UPDATE: During a quiet weekend, I was able to sit down and learn more about these bit miners. Unknown to me when I attempt to reflashed the device, I erased my license. A new license costs $3, so it wasn’t a big deal, however it would have been easy to recover license before flashing had a known. SO BEWARE!

Also depending on which unit you purchase, these can be daisy chained, which would be nice if you had more than one (thinking about getting another to up my odds LOL).

The stand/case it comes with isn’t the best, it falls over easily. So I am printing stands now. LOVE the 3d Printers!

OH and 80% means it wasn’t reaching the BitCoin Pool server, seems they changed/rearranged them. Once I learned that it was an easy fix, one that could have be avoided.

R40S PRO Retro Gaming Console

Saw this on Amazon and had to give it a try.

Handheld computer of sorts.

It was difficult to get the hang of navigation, but after a few web searches and YouTube Videos it works (pretty much).

Was never a gamer, but I wanted to give the DosBox in my hand a try. It was simple to Enable Remote Services to copy files over to device. You’ll needed a USB WiFi adapter. Go my wifi adapter off Amazon, $7.

As you can see the programs work great, WordPerfect, DBase, plus a few others.

Keyboard, and navigation is a problem, but mouse works. Still playing.

Device operates floating on the battery. You must fully charge battery before you start playing, otherwise you’ll be frustrated.

After you get the WiFi working do all the updates it brings in more features.

When you remote in, you’ll see lots of folders. I just copied my DOS Application folder from my Windows DosBox folder to the Dos folder, and it worked. I thought I was going to have to jump through a bunch of hoops, nope, it just worked.

It APPEARS to have Bluetooth but haven’t been able to test it yet. Figure this could be made into a little hacking tool, or tricorder for cosplay. Lots of possibilities.

ALFS.Com and GoDaddy Drama

Learning that is you don’t need to, don’t use GoDaddy to purchase and manage your domains. Their tech support is over seas, and is the worst. Been trying to resolve and issue with a disappearing domain for over a week. I’ve had ALFS.COM for over a decade, and one day I looked at my dashboard and it was gone. Checked my emails (I keep all of them) found I renewed back in Sept of this year (less than 5 months ago). So I contacted their support like always, using the chat feature (since I find, I can’t understand their english). Evening their text grammar and “cue card replies” very annoying.. After HOURS on the phone I thought we had it resolved. Get an email the next day saying I didn’t reply using the email address associated with the account.. And if you know anything about the history of Apple, they changed their email addresses over the years… from .mac, .icloud, to .me, etc.. Things like this have been going on for over 4 days now, back and forth… Basically GoDaddy stole a domain and resold it, and isn’t compensating me for it… Big Rip Off!

I’ll post updates.

Domain Information – found this.. I’ve owned since 1998.. Still shows hosted on my server..

Namealfs.comRegistry Domain ID1643101_DOMAIN_COM-VRSNRegistered On1998-07-22T23:00:00ZExpires On2026-07-21T23:00:00ZUpdated On2024-12-05T11:14:20ZDomain Status

clientTransferProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientTransferProhibited

clientUpdateProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientUpdateProhibited

clientRenewProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientRenewProhibited

clientDeleteProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientDeleteProhibited

Name Servers

It appears that when GoDaddy started the transfer they stuck the “funds” in a AfterNic account they created. Of course not telling me the log in, or that it was done. After finding it and creating new passwords I was able to log in.. However the funds are in limbo. It appears they do automatic transfer on some unknown cycle. So have to wait. See if transfers… But at least, AT LAST I found the funds. With NO help from Tech Support.

CrowdStrike Nightmare

Overnight Microsoft’s subcontractor readied their servers to push updates. However one update was added to list that wasn’t ready for primetime, and it caused issues world wide when computers couldn’t startup.

The fix was to remove the problem file and rebooting, easy. Unless your computer had BitLocker enable. Thus making it very difficult to gain access to the files that needed to be removed. Hopefully you have a copy of your BitLocker key, to unlock your drive. People that enabled BitLocker and didn’t keep a copy of their key, maybe locked out of their drive.

After you have the BitLocker key:

C: (return)
cd \Windows\System32 (return)
cd drivers\crowdstrike (return)
del C-00000291.sys (return) dir C-00000291.sys (return)
exit (return)

WD My Cloud – Don’t Buy

My brother-in-law was given a last gen version of the My Cloud, so I figured I’d give one a try. Ended up purchased a Refurbish one directly from WD. 2TB for $89, not that bad. And I played with it for a few days.

Don’t let its external USB port fool you, it is basically useless. Basically WD’s idea was if you plug a external drive in, it would just move everything off of it, in to the drive. That didn’t even work.

You can create local user accounts, I was able to make 1. Which I can use to access the drive over my network. Much like Apple’s Time Capsule, but much more limited. Basically useless.

HOWEVER, it will let you backup photos and files from your phone. But, since WD was hacked user data was lost, why would you want to do this!?

Unless you have NO computer skills, and no where else to backup your phone, I would NOT recommend this device.

UPDATE: Had attempted to share an attached external drive, the idea being to use the My Cloud to host Plex server (it has an app for it). But it appears to be blind to attached external drives, HOWEVER, it sees thumb drives.. It basically just copies the thumb drives contents to itself. Which can be handy since I don’t trust thumb drives beyond a few months of use. … I have it coping files right now, lets see if I can manage what is copied to the drive once it is complete.

UPDATE: The coping and sharing of data from thumb drives appears to work fine. But it is a very limiting use of this device. It should be able to do so much more. And it appears to time out often when attempting to access remotely (I have 1 gb internet, over fiber and I test often. So it isn’t my internet access. And it is plugged directly into my router.)

MQTT Data Flowing

Finally got MQTT data flowing in and out, over the internet, not just on my local network. Router isn’t the easiest thing to figure out. Had to turn off DMZ and forward ports manually to each server. Now web site traffic and data flowing to correct boxes.

Do NOT Recommend Using These!

For those looking for another network jack, do NOT buy a Ethernet splitter. Buy a mini switch for just a few dollars more. The splitters have nice drawings that show how they work! But they don’t! The only case they would work is if the existing jack is wired for such purpose, in the case of older networks where it could work, it would make the whole network slower.

Had a good laugh yesterday when customer requested a splitter, even sending an Amazon photo. All the network people huddled and asked what would happen. Because all our networks are all Poe, it would be dangerous! Very likely causing damage to anything plugged into it..

Also there are mini hubs and mini switches. Hubs are slower basically acting like an old scanner moving data from one port, then the next. Would recommend a Switch any day!

Just passing on info.

Another Weekend of Mac Fustrations

Gave up on trying to revive old project and programs on the Mac, decided to work with micro controllers, Arduino and Raspberry Pi. Will say, once again, Apple is showing its true colors.

Using an Intel iMac 27″, 500 gb hard drive. Problem is drive is filling, and because iCloud put my home folder in the cloud, Arduino IDE doesn’t work. It appears since the libraries are really stored in the cloud and the Arduino IDE doesn’t like that. Tried to change permissions and security settings, but still no luck.. HOWEVER, everything works fine on OLD Windows 10 machines.

Sorry, this is just getting silly.

macOS Apple’s downfall

Having been a big Apple supporter since the early 90’s, I am quickly loosing all love I had for the system. They basically made their machines into a pretty short term, but expensive machine, with many equally expensive and pretty add-ons. But the computer is becoming useless for anyone that does really anything with a computer.

Its lost PHP, Server features (even as a add-on), upgradeability, parts swapping for repairs. And the list goes on.

Starting to think the PHP and server functions were cast off due to its relationship with one of it major shareholders, Microsoft. And I assume with Apple’s need to have something to show its customers every year, new faster than anything out there processors. There are customers that can really use those functions, but nowhere near the numbers that will keep Apple alive.

The bad thing about killing off features, like PHP, is they go out of their way to kill it. Even third party groups that TRY to breath live into ageing machines are getting fustrated.

Personally I won’t be buy any NEW Apples ever again. Maybe second hand have a fraction of their original price (Mac Pro Trashcan, orginally $3k, purchased for $300).

Apple Watch exploded, nothing dramic like bursting into flames, just popped the case apart. Making it worthly. Just months after the warranty expired.

I have Xserves, Flower Pot G4s, Cubes, all still work, but no way to upgrade the OS beyond what they currently have. So no browser updates, no security updates. My friends say “install Linux on them”. Which is possible, but then that causes all sorts of other interconnection issues.

Apple is after the money and short term customer satisfaction. Personally I got into computers because they were fun.

Days Gone Bye!

Started tinkering with a few of my old computers (think I have other posts here). Happy to see an Old Apple IIe and Atari 800Xl working again. The biggest issues I’ve had with them, are the amount of space the displays take. The Apple needed a composite display, I’ve been using their Green Screen and the Atari needs a TV using the old Analog signals on channels 2 or 3. Fun thing is not many displays come with both those options anymore. HOWEVER, gotta love ebay.

Found a new in the box Brooksonic 19″ 1080i HD LCD Television Model CCVG-1935 NEW u-7A. Cost with shipping $81. A deal for the amount of bench space it is saving, connects to both computers and it has a VESA mount option (next project).

OH And it came with a remote!