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#21
Wood gasification / Re: General gasifier discussio...
Last post by zero - May 03, 2019, 01:54:22 AMDamn! Look at you go!
Boys and girls, I knew him when....
And you're right. I do need to look at something else. Xubuntu 18.04 is nothing but problems. Just discovered tonight the nVidia driver does not work at all with the Ion graphics chip on my 1215n laptop! 16.04 still works without a hitch. Not happy.
Boys and girls, I knew him when....
And you're right. I do need to look at something else. Xubuntu 18.04 is nothing but problems. Just discovered tonight the nVidia driver does not work at all with the Ion graphics chip on my 1215n laptop! 16.04 still works without a hitch. Not happy.
#22
Wood gasification / Re: General gasifier discussio...
Last post by Thrive - April 23, 2019, 11:18:06 PMWell, well, well; turns out I am still alive. lol
So yeah 2019 Flex Power Station is out and I will be working on new development here soon. I will be working on bringing to market a universal auto gen start system for off grid battery systems. Prototype has been up and running for 6 months. The new version will have a cell phone app that gives you full battery status including power usage. Plus you set your trigger points from the app as well. This can handle 12-60 volt systems all in one device as well. Its pretty cool.
Once I have this first power station complete I will move on to next development that will feature a very advanced hybrid system. This will start as a down draft wood gasifier with an up draft charcoal unit. No char yield with this. This will then evolve into hydrogen plasma type reactor system later on. This will eliminate the Nox input and should result in a much greater gas energy density. That being said the machines will shrink in size.
The machines now feature very advanced automation systems and will be able to run autonomously.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05MO8aQVQ_I&t=10s
Z you should check out Linux Mint
So yeah 2019 Flex Power Station is out and I will be working on new development here soon. I will be working on bringing to market a universal auto gen start system for off grid battery systems. Prototype has been up and running for 6 months. The new version will have a cell phone app that gives you full battery status including power usage. Plus you set your trigger points from the app as well. This can handle 12-60 volt systems all in one device as well. Its pretty cool.
Once I have this first power station complete I will move on to next development that will feature a very advanced hybrid system. This will start as a down draft wood gasifier with an up draft charcoal unit. No char yield with this. This will then evolve into hydrogen plasma type reactor system later on. This will eliminate the Nox input and should result in a much greater gas energy density. That being said the machines will shrink in size.
The machines now feature very advanced automation systems and will be able to run autonomously.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05MO8aQVQ_I&t=10s
Z you should check out Linux Mint
#23
General Discussion / Xubuntu 18.04 LTS review - Ini...
Last post by zero - March 23, 2019, 01:24:13 PMSo, per my usual routine, I finally started playing around with the latest LTS release one full year after initial release. I can sum it up in one word. {YAWN}.
First the good:
The bad (aka: Stupid things they broke that still are not fixed even after a full year):
Or better yet, take a look at Linux Mint 18.x. I am! It's officially supported for 5 years (2 years longer than Xubuntu). It's layered on top of Ubuntu so the look, feel and versatility is almost identical. But even the Mint developers have had issues with their 19.x releases because it's layered on top of Ubuntu 18.04. Mint 18.x releases are still layered on Ubuntu 16.04 and still fully supported for two more years. So for all but the adventurous, stick with Mint 18.3 in it's various desktop environment flavors (Cinnamon, MATE or XFCE). Generally I still prefer XFCE for its very low system resource overhead without sacrifice of basic functionality but there are still problems with it on my "problem child" Asus 1215n notebook. Linux Mint 18.3 MATE 64bit worked flawlessly. I did play around with Cinnamon. It also works BUT, while it may not give a performance hit to running applications, all that eye candy does come at the cost of sluggish desktop behavior. That's something I can do without. MATE edition remains my top pick for Linux Mint.
First the good:
- The Ubuntu Software Center application does not move like it has a ball and chain attached. It's actually a useful alternative to Synaptic package manager now.
- Some things are a bit easier to edit in the start menu. For instance right click to rename.
The bad (aka: Stupid things they broke that still are not fixed even after a full year):
- Desktop switcher does not operate with mouse scroll wheel as it should. I've searched everywhere and cannot find mention of it anywhere.
- Power manager completely broken for laptop batteries. Doesn't switch between charge/discharge. Grossly inaccurate capacity. Always indicates 100% charge. The list goes on. They broke it good.
- gksu depreciated and removed. Programs can no longer be run with super user privileges by preceding with gksu. "Replaced by" pkexec but that only works for programs which have specific entries for them in the policy kit config. Fortunately, Xubuntu does have a default set of programs preconfigured to work with pkexec. UNFORTUNATELY, gdebi (my preferred .deb package installer) is not one of them. So, even though it will install from Synaptic and creates a start menu entry to launch it, it will not work. It must be launched from a terminal window with sudo. As time goes on I expect to find more admin type programs that will also fall into this category.
- I can find no policy kit editor that might make it easier to add new programs to enable pkexec to work with them.
- (edit 5/2) The nVidia driver does not work at all with the Ion graphics chip on my 1215n laptop! As soon as Lightdm launches it's lights out. 16.04, no problem. It is very likely this bug affects ALL nVidia Ion graphics with Xubuntu 18.04.
- I am also reading of people still having trouble with Samba and Wine.
- Another user I gave a computer to preloaded with 18.04 inexplicably lost all desktop icons and menus and had great difficulty launching any programs.
Or better yet, take a look at Linux Mint 18.x. I am! It's officially supported for 5 years (2 years longer than Xubuntu). It's layered on top of Ubuntu so the look, feel and versatility is almost identical. But even the Mint developers have had issues with their 19.x releases because it's layered on top of Ubuntu 18.04. Mint 18.x releases are still layered on Ubuntu 16.04 and still fully supported for two more years. So for all but the adventurous, stick with Mint 18.3 in it's various desktop environment flavors (Cinnamon, MATE or XFCE). Generally I still prefer XFCE for its very low system resource overhead without sacrifice of basic functionality but there are still problems with it on my "problem child" Asus 1215n notebook. Linux Mint 18.3 MATE 64bit worked flawlessly. I did play around with Cinnamon. It also works BUT, while it may not give a performance hit to running applications, all that eye candy does come at the cost of sluggish desktop behavior. That's something I can do without. MATE edition remains my top pick for Linux Mint.
#25
Forum News / Re: SMF Upgrades
Last post by zero - January 02, 2018, 12:23:48 PMIt's been a while since I upgraded the forum. Needed some php upgrades to the web server behind the scenes first but we're now up to the latest and greatest, 2.0.15.
#26
General Discussion / Re: I NEED TO VENT ABOUT GMAIL...
Last post by zero - January 02, 2018, 12:10:16 PMHar har har. The hoops are only when you join to keep out spammers and bots.
#27
General Discussion / Re: I NEED TO VENT ABOUT GMAIL...
Last post by Ortorea - December 18, 2017, 03:46:16 AMI Guess they don't like folk to travel they would have us become turtles 
But I get the same BS when ever I use a different PC to login to FB, but I don't use Gmail thankfully just local Broadband service Email.
Have to go through hoops to reply here too
Ort
But I get the same BS when ever I use a different PC to login to FB, but I don't use Gmail thankfully just local Broadband service Email.Have to go through hoops to reply here too
Ort
#28
General Discussion / Intel Management Engine securi...
Last post by zero - December 11, 2017, 06:09:05 PMThis weekend I was searching for a BIOS update for my home computer with Intel DQ57TM mobo. This led me to the Intel web site and discovered a security bulletin regarding the Intel Management Engine released May of this year. Basically, it's the mother of all back doors, the sort of stuff that only movies dreamed of, complete remote access to every aspect of your computer, built right into the hardware. It basically reaffirmed for every security conscious IT pro that the name Intel is more than just a coincidence. It's what they gather and help others gather from us every single day, a secret little inside joke played on us all. And P.S.: It's been in place since 2010. This rabbit hole is very, very deep.
In May, under intense pressure, Intel finally admitted to it and released a firmware update that is supposed to close their back doors. We are asked to believe their benevolence with this update and trust that it really does what they claim it will. Sure gives me a warm fuzzy. How about you?
On some machines the Intel ME is a firmware update, independent of the BIOS. They call it an "OS Independent" update, despite the fact that it will only run from a winblows booted environment. I have yet to get it to install on my home Linux machine even though booted from multiple flavors of WinPE on boot disk. Forum threads are filled with complaints from Linux users blasting Intel for their obvious indifference toward the open source community and unwillingness to publish an update tool for Linux. They do publish a Linux vulnerability detection tool which I used to confirm the security flaw. But when it comes to actually patching it, seems I'm SOL. Still searching for a workaround.
On other machines like my work E5440 laptop and many Optiplex models, the Intel ME is integrated with the BIOS. I ran the SA-00086 vulnerability detection tool published by Intel and it reported my computer is already patched. I'm not sure I believe it since the Intel web site indicates a BIOS update with the patch for the E5440 is not due from Dell until 1/2/2018! Translation: "Yeah, we know. We'll get around to it, when we're damn good and ready."
Regardless, I strongly encourage everyone to run this detection tool on their computer, especially on servers.
Bottom line: I think Intel SUCKS! I think they're in bed with the Deep State. I think they cannot be trusted. I think I will start migrating all of my personal computers to AMD based processors!
In May, under intense pressure, Intel finally admitted to it and released a firmware update that is supposed to close their back doors. We are asked to believe their benevolence with this update and trust that it really does what they claim it will. Sure gives me a warm fuzzy. How about you?
On some machines the Intel ME is a firmware update, independent of the BIOS. They call it an "OS Independent" update, despite the fact that it will only run from a winblows booted environment. I have yet to get it to install on my home Linux machine even though booted from multiple flavors of WinPE on boot disk. Forum threads are filled with complaints from Linux users blasting Intel for their obvious indifference toward the open source community and unwillingness to publish an update tool for Linux. They do publish a Linux vulnerability detection tool which I used to confirm the security flaw. But when it comes to actually patching it, seems I'm SOL. Still searching for a workaround.
On other machines like my work E5440 laptop and many Optiplex models, the Intel ME is integrated with the BIOS. I ran the SA-00086 vulnerability detection tool published by Intel and it reported my computer is already patched. I'm not sure I believe it since the Intel web site indicates a BIOS update with the patch for the E5440 is not due from Dell until 1/2/2018! Translation: "Yeah, we know. We'll get around to it, when we're damn good and ready."
Regardless, I strongly encourage everyone to run this detection tool on their computer, especially on servers.
Bottom line: I think Intel SUCKS! I think they're in bed with the Deep State. I think they cannot be trusted. I think I will start migrating all of my personal computers to AMD based processors!
#29
General Discussion / I NEED TO VENT ABOUT GMAIL!
Last post by zero - December 06, 2017, 01:08:30 AMIs anyone else in this boat?
I travel. Frequently. And every time I do, any time I try to get my gmail I am thwarted with blocked sign in attempts, security alerts and warnings that basically say "OMG!!! SOMEONE HAS YOUR ParseWORD!!! TIME TO PANIC!!!!!!!!!!"
WTF??? I mean SERIOUSLY??? I have relaxed every possible security setting I can find and STILL I am faced with roadblocks and hoops to jump through just to get my friging email!!!!!!! I AM SO PISSED OFF RIGHT NOW I COULD STRANGLE SOMEONE AT GOOGLE TO DEATH!!!!!
I travel. Frequently. And every time I do, any time I try to get my gmail I am thwarted with blocked sign in attempts, security alerts and warnings that basically say "OMG!!! SOMEONE HAS YOUR ParseWORD!!! TIME TO PANIC!!!!!!!!!!"
WTF??? I mean SERIOUSLY??? I have relaxed every possible security setting I can find and STILL I am faced with roadblocks and hoops to jump through just to get my friging email!!!!!!! I AM SO PISSED OFF RIGHT NOW I COULD STRANGLE SOMEONE AT GOOGLE TO DEATH!!!!!
#30
Wind / Re: Personal
Last post by zero - December 01, 2017, 03:04:50 AMIt's all good. However, there are consequences for hurling nasty insults at the forum owner. Planet Earth is expelled.