Blog

Upgrading to an HP DL380 G9 seemed like a dream until a GPU install triggered a cascade of issues with Proxmox and LVM. After wrestling with cryptic error messages and system failures, here’s how I got everything back on track—faster and smoother than before. If you’re troubleshooting similar problems, this journey might just save you some time (and sanity)

Struggling with a Proxmox server issue that seemed unsolvable, I spent weeks troubleshooting only to discover the problem was hardware-related all along. If you’re dealing with hard drives that just won’t cooperate, this story might save you some headaches—and a lot of time.

When my Proxmox server failed to boot properly and my /etc/pve/ directory was empty, panic set in. With no backup in sight, I scoured the forums until I found a solution that brought everything back to life. If you’ve ever faced a similar disaster, this guide could save your day—and your VMs!

Discover a practical approach to filing taxes as an Amazon Vine member and avoid hefty tax bills. This guide breaks down the process, dispels common misconceptions, and provides step-by-step instructions for filling out your 1040 C form.

In this open letter, I address sellers using the Amazon Vine program, offering crucial advice on how to effectively navigate the system. By highlighting common mistakes and providing practical tips, I aim to help sellers understand what Vine reviewers look for and how to avoid pitfalls. This article serves as a guide to foster better relationships between sellers and Vine reviewers, ensuring honest and constructive feedback for product improvement.

In this follow-up article, I delve deeper into my experiences with the Amazon Vine program. As a seasoned reviewer, I share my evolving opinions on the program, other Vine users, reviews, and sellers. From the thrill of receiving products to the challenges of managing an influx of items, I explore the highs and lows of being a part of Vine. This article provides a candid look at the reality of the Vine experience, shedding light on the dedication and effort required to participate effectively.

Well, work grinds to a halt. ChatGPT is down. Downdetector.com is starting to glow with the number of reports, so it is starting to cascade. https://downdetector.com/status/openai/ So now what do we do? Work is hardly worth doing, as productivity will be so much lower. Does anyone remember how to write any more? Note that as …

Discover the inside scoop on the Amazon Vine program, where reviewers like me navigate the intriguing world of free products in exchange for honest feedback. It’s not just about scoring freebies; it’s a serious commitment to quality and transparency. Dive into my personal rating system, where I debunk myths and share how Vine reviewers are incentivized not by stars, but by integrity. Whether it’s a ‘Vine Customer Review of Free Product’ or a critical 1-star rating, understand why these reviews deserve your attention.

In today’s media landscape, discerning truth is a complex task. Between far-fetched conspiracy theories and unquestioning acceptance of mainstream narratives lies the truth. The rise of AI and deepfake technologies further blurs these lines. In this age of misinformation, it’s crucial to be proactive in our quest for knowledge. Whether uninformed, misinformed, or striving to be quasi-informed, our choices shape our understanding of the world. Let’s aim for a future where we’re equipped to discern truth from fiction, no matter the challenge.

This article is an attempt to organize my thoughts on the open letter issued by well over a thousand high profile IT pioneers and AI luminaries including Elon Musk, Steve Wozniak, Yoshua Bengio(Founder and Scientific Director at Mila and a Turing Prize winner), Stuart Russell (Berkeley, Professor of Computer Science, director of the Center for …

WONKO’S MICRODOT EXPERIMENTS OK, for some reason I am getting into some of the weirder aspects of this photography stuff. I never could do anything normal. I saw a show where they were imbedding a microdot in a document. Can’t imagine why, but my mind started racing. I began to formulate a plan that depends on my ignorance of the facts to play out. THE PLAN This is where I spell out my insanity. FIRST ATTEMPT Not a complete failure, though it may seem that way. SECOND SHOT Much better results. This can actually be done! Expect to see some more experimentation in this genre in the coming weeks!

So after weeks of working the issues, a half dozen different clean installs of Linux, and hours of troubleshooting, I have come to the conclusion that while the RTL8812AU and RTL8812BU might “work” with Kismet, they in fact don’t. This is after buying 114 or so, from multiple vendors. Here are the problems that I …

I’m writing this as much a reminder to myself as a help for others. DKMS is a great tool. It really makes getting drivers in and out of Linux a much easier process than it previously was. I guarantee if you mess with WiFi hacking, you will be dealing with drivers at some point in …

Wireless AC has turned out to be a real pain. First off, in doing my research, the only adapter that does AC and natively loads in Linux are devices with the MT7612UN MediaTek chipset. These do not seem to be terribly common, and the only seller I found was not particularly honest. This leaves the …

The last couple of years at DefCon, I have been following D4rkM4tter’s build of a WiFi Cactus, and then the WiFi Kraken. These are amazingly capable devices that are able to view ALL the standard WiFi channels and capture the packets for analysis. I have been working on my own version for the last couple …

Around 1983, my dad brought home what was then a modern miracle. A “portable” computer that was IBM compatible. For years this was the machine that ran the family business. Well… at least ran a lot of the numbers. Jump forward to today, and I managed to end up with this leviathan of a luggable …

In 2013 I took my wife and kids, brother and his kids, and my parents on an adventure launching a hydrogen filled balloon. The balloon started at about six feet in diameter, and once it reached its burst height, it was over thirty-five feet in diameter. We were able to get it to over 108,000 …

In 1995 I started a small website on Earthlink.net that was Wonko’s Web Pages. I played with image maps, and tables. I cut my teeth on HTML using notepad, and made a real mess of it. As time progressed, I decided getting my own domain would be of value. I piddled around a bit too …

In this follow-up article, I delve deeper into my experiences with the Amazon Vine program. As a seasoned reviewer, I share my evolving opinions on the program, other Vine users, reviews, and sellers. From the thrill of receiving products to the challenges of managing an influx of items, I explore the highs and lows of being a part of Vine. This article provides a candid look at the reality of the Vine experience, shedding light on the dedication and effort required to participate effectively.

In today’s media landscape, discerning truth is a complex task. Between far-fetched conspiracy theories and unquestioning acceptance of mainstream narratives lies the truth. The rise of AI and deepfake technologies further blurs these lines. In this age of misinformation, it’s crucial to be proactive in our quest for knowledge. Whether uninformed, misinformed, or striving to be quasi-informed, our choices shape our understanding of the world. Let’s aim for a future where we’re equipped to discern truth from fiction, no matter the challenge.

I’ve had the chance to experiment with various AI models, and I’ve conducted some “testing”. I thought I would share my thoughts about the differences and different use cases for each of the listed AIs. These opinions are as of the end of March, 2023. Even a few weeks from now this will probably be …

So after weeks of working the issues, a half dozen different clean installs of Linux, and hours of troubleshooting, I have come to the conclusion that while the RTL8812AU and RTL8812BU might “work” with Kismet, they in fact don’t. This is after buying 114 or so, from multiple vendors. Here are the problems that I …

I’ve had the chance to experiment with various AI models, and I’ve conducted some “testing”. I thought I would share my thoughts about the differences and different use cases for each of the listed AIs. These opinions are as of the end of March, 2023. Even a few weeks from now this will probably be …

This article is an attempt to organize my thoughts on the open letter issued by well over a thousand high profile IT pioneers and AI luminaries including Elon Musk, Steve Wozniak, Yoshua Bengio(Founder and Scientific Director at Mila and a Turing Prize winner), Stuart Russell (Berkeley, Professor of Computer Science, director of the Center for …

I found I need to upload text over multiple entries to get it all into ChatGPT. Guessing how many chunks to break it into based on the number of tokens is not an easy thing to do. I have created this to help simplify the process. Just drop in your text, select the chunk size …