=== alan_g_ is now known as alan_g [10:11] allo allo [10:11] gooood mornin' [10:12] cor, already solving client problems and it's not even mid-day [10:22] charge extra for unsocialble hours. you can still taste the toothpaste! :-P\ [10:51] :D [10:51] looks like i'm going to succeed in swinging diddledan some more work though, which is nice! [10:52] the old geeks network :-P [10:53] \o/ [11:11] ok gotta head out, bbl \o [11:12] o/ [11:29] oh yeah I was here for a while - then I forgot [11:29] hi again [11:30] o/ [14:50] \o [14:50] hmm, half way home from one - got a call to walk straight back and go to another :D [14:51] don't have an e-scooter for moving servers? :-P [14:53] haha, nah my clients are usually quite accomodating with my preference for a lack of transport [14:56] a market that hasn't even really started yet ttps://cleanscooter.in/i/6d/e5/28/ed91d86f5f87c469e57d826461.jpg [14:57] :) [14:57] or perhaps if i was feeling fit still - https://cdn.webshopapp.com/shops/212063/files/110249687/johnny-loco-cargo-dutch-delight.jpg [14:58] i'd imagine on narrow island streets that would be a bugger on corners. i see them having trouble here in older parts of dublin [15:04] i'll sooner die on the hills and valleys :D definitely not going to try [15:11] * diddledan wanders in [15:11] * diddledan looks confused [15:11] * diddledan wanders out [15:11] (that's "The Father Dougal" method) [15:12] not so much a method as a calling [15:14] such a shame that Graham Linehan has turned into a bit of a contemptable person lately [15:16] he chose the oddest hill to die on [15:44] yay a wild diddledan appears [15:44] or a dopeydoodah [15:44] diddledan: how are you gonna defeat that pesky contact form then? seems mad it's a requirement o0 [15:45] aye [15:45] I can probably whip something up :-) [15:45] \o/ [15:45] have i given you all you need to get cracking? [15:45] https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/53113 <-- my very important change to WP :-) [15:45] yup, I think so [15:46] there's even a free pic of my cat Mischief in the root xD [15:46] :-o omg *kittycuddle* [15:46] ooh fame with WP [15:47] btw i spotted a teensy tiny typo on your site, top left "...Snap Packger for Linux." [15:47] oops [15:52] yay fixed [15:53] ;-) [15:55] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8exvTjZqrxs [15:56] looking forward to reducing the wordpress instances under my control, seems all too easy for drama to occur if a plugin doesn't like a new release or similar [15:56] wow that looks beefy [15:56] aye, especially as WP seems to be moving to a less backwards-compatible-at-all-costs stance [15:57] hrmm something to help boost revenue? [15:57] donno. it's all being driven by the block editor [15:57] which has far too much churn for my liking [15:58] :D when you mentioned that'd involve learning i was like "NOOO! learning's horrid!" ;) [15:59] as a plugin dev, I like that it allows me to replace a shortcode with a "block" that has guard rails so users don't try to do something that just cannot be done [16:02] that's already talk beyond me! i've seen 'shortcode' mentioned but don't really get what it means [16:03] a shortcode is a specially-formatted bit of text that gets replaced by WP plugins or theme code - my plugin hooks to shortcodes of the format: [a-z-listing configoptions] [16:04] it's completely freeform though, so users can put whatever they want between the begin [ and end ]. [16:04] ah ok so they just call the plugins into being, think i've seen that with the contact form 7 stuff inline on a page [16:04] yup, the cf7 plugin has shortcodes to let you embed a contact form where you want it [16:05] i was gonna repeat my tale of (both of our) other school-era friend's VPS woes of getting turned into a spammer until i noticed, so it'd certainly be nice to lock that down [16:06] i wonder if i should prod him into checking the specific wording because i was really hoping just an obfuscated email address on the contact page was going to cut it [16:07] I'm curious which spec mandates the contact form - it's an interesting requirement [16:07] mmm [16:07] he's a pretty time poor since he's a Doctor in the day, then does all these biz's on the side [16:08] -a [16:08] aah.. probably some medical thing then :-) [16:08] yeah, if you caught me blabbing about all the server setup i was providing and doing stuff with XCP-ng, this is the one :D [16:09] aha. XCP-ng is pretty funky [16:10] ah it was gold last night, saved my bacon in a snap, i attempted to build a newer version of its' management tool and it messed up because the wrong node version was installed... i shutdown that VM, connected to the secondary one on my second host here in Guernsey and one-click restored the Exeter one to a snapshot taken at midnight last night, back in business without a problem :D [16:10] 🎉 [16:11] but now you can use your favourite captchas to filter out bots :-P https://i.imgur.com/GQqZWR4.jpg [16:11] LOL [16:12] that's great [16:12] I've got three proliants running vmware in my home lab.. I keep wondering about whether XCP-ng might be better considering they're almost out of VMware's back-compat supported hardware [16:13] might be! what vintage are they? i snagged myself 12th gen Dell PowerEdge's for peanuts [16:13] I do particularly like VMware's automatic vmotion tho [16:13] they're Gen8's (latest is Gen10) [16:14] ooh i have that client with the ML350p gen 8 still (although it's not been turned on in months now) [16:15] i've been loving it personally, for some reason VMs don't seem to boot as quick as on my home haswell whitebox solution running ESXi, but i don't know if that's down to generational gains in VT and so on [16:15] i talk to the devs over in their channel here though, Olivier's cool [16:15] as cool as the French can be ;) hehe [16:15] they're certainly batting above their weight class :-) [16:16] it's impressive what they've managed to pull together considering Citrix's XenServer wasn't completely OSS [16:16] because of Andy's second biz plans there, i'm hoping we can add at least one host to paid support eventually with the XCP-ng team, $500/yr iirc [16:17] yep - and the features they've got planned are very cool [16:17] minimalist webUI on-host instead of having to run a management VM etc, plus i spotted virtual TPMs being considered [16:19] have you got shared network storage already for all your hosts? [16:19] atm they're running vsan [16:19] ah ok so presumably vendor locked in [16:19] yup [16:20] i'm running RAID10s on SAS HBAs in each of my 2 [16:20] they're really standalone but i put in a site to site VPN and added the other server to each, so i have management redundancy in essence [16:20] I was wondering whether XCP-ng's vsan would be available for laypeople that are playing in their homelab [16:21] hrmm might be worth joining us in #xcp-ng and seeing what the other guys make of things, since they've probably touched the more serious stuff [16:22] there's a Matrix bridge bot i think the platform of choice is, for the team [16:22] *yoink* [16:22] :D [16:23] if I can do away with the vmware £200/yr homelab thingy then that'ld be awesome :-) [16:23] love having 128 GB RAM in both my hosts to play with [16:23] hehe, absolutely [16:23] I've only got 48GB in each of three boxes [16:23] then you can buy that mega switch! [16:23] aww [16:24] that's not half bad though, plenty to muck about with [16:24] yup, more than enough for me to play with.. the only thing I really need (want) to keep available is my plex server [16:24] ... 17TB of video :-o [16:25] :D [16:25] can't recall if you were active the other day when i mentioned a dude come in who ran his entire setup from a single NUC - including his router, with a single 1TB SSD for both XCP-ng boot + all VMs, then it failed [16:26] wow [16:26] and eep [16:26] he came in on his mobile with boot broken xD [16:26] poor person :-( [16:27] naturally he was not a paying customer and was getting a tad heated blaming the product... i eventually extracted a smartctl output, SSD lifespan was at 7% and had oodles of bad sectors and block errors D: [16:27] I feel for them <3 [16:27] i don't, he had no backups xD [16:27] ... [16:27] * diddledan checks notes... oops, nor do I :-p [16:28] I have backups of stuff I can't reproduce tho [16:28] redundant storage though? [16:28] * daftykins spots a tumbleweed [16:28] ;D [16:28] worst comes to the worst if my boxes here die I have to re-rip my blurry discs [16:29] on vmware I've got vsan set up with 1 redundant copy [16:29] doing iti in software rather than via raid [16:29] what's the main pool disk config behind the vmware vsan? [16:30] vsan is similar to zfs in that it likes you to use an HBA rather than a raid card [16:31] ah yeah, so handles disks directly [16:31] so I have three boxes, and 2 copies of all data spanning the three available pools of disks - vsan does a JBOD like thing on each host and then does the redundancy over the network [16:32] ooh-err, hope it does some periodic verification :D [16:32] it still lets you lose a single disk without killing the entire host, tho, so it's as useful as a native raid [16:32] mmm, or as good as RAID5 at least [16:32] you know I'm unsure about whether it reverifies on the regular [16:33] the idea is that you can lose an entire host without losing your data [16:33] may be worth a poke, i set up Andy's Google Workspace SMTP relay from the management VM and pointed the iDRAC emails to it to ensure i get warned about the RAID10's [16:33] (that's how I have it anywho) [16:34] i get weekly notifications about the PERC doing some 'patrol read verify' [16:35] gonna go pop the kettle on, bbs [16:35] ☕ [16:37] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrBw0pbF11s [16:41] o/ [16:49] heya [16:49] hi [16:56] yay Katie [16:56] eh? [16:57] just a Londoner i fancy [17:09] 'tis danger afoot in the big smoke! [17:09] well its COVID and i am unemployed [17:16] :( [17:17] can't be an enjoyable time of late, then? [17:17] nah hard to go see someone irl [17:20] *nod* [17:20] it's weird to think of because it's life as normal down here on the islands [17:20] oh [17:21] aside from travel anywho [17:22] yes but you've eliminated covid in the community and long may that continue [17:31] no fair! [17:31] although I'm getting my second prick tomorrow [17:32] come now, none of us leave the house anyway! :D [17:33] wait, that's a requirement? [17:34] only to truly appreciate the freedom... so i'm told [17:34] well that's shenanigans [17:35] *nod* [17:35] well HelloFRESH have tricked me today, each week you get automatic selections offered [17:35] they sent me the recipe cards of the automatic offers, but the ingredients for what i manually picked [17:36] is this hard mode? [17:36] haha [17:36] "make these tacos from this Thai curry set" [17:36] uuuuuuh [17:36] wait till you get to the final boss [17:36] omw [17:36] can't snapshot and restore ingredients :( [17:39] this is where you type the ingredients into a find a recipe site and it gives you the menu? :-P [17:39] *the recipe? [17:39] maybe next week there'll be a padlock on the box [17:40] i'm not sure i signed up for this D: [17:43] this tweet of mine seems popular https://usercontent.irccloud-cdn.com/file/eFfTgKRN/image.png [17:44] in situ: https://twitter.com/diddledan/status/1387794037017616391 [17:49] :D [20:25] hmm, today's client has this old Panasonic phone system, calls itself an "Advanced Hybrid System" with what the manual says are "proprietary telephones" - what i'm wondering is whether with this in place, it's impossible for an ADSL service to function [20:28] i'm beginning to think "yes" because at the wall socket, all of which are 8P8C - a modtap converts it to a standard BT plug... on popping in a microfilter, nothing functioned behind it :D [20:30] i think it needs rewiring so the router connects to the line first, then i pipe the voice out of that one to this old system [20:32] pretty funny... client goes to telco this morning and says he wants to upgrade from ADSL to VDSL - telco employee says "sir it shows here you have 3 phone lines" [20:32] "oh my, cancel the other 2 please" client says - telco employee ignores that ADSL is on one, so the service disappears from the property entirely, i got called [20:35] should thank them for all the extra business i suppose [20:46] phone companies don't screw up small. they go full sledgehammer on you :-) [20:48] * daftykins pages Peter Gabriel [21:07] is "macOS Big Sir" a euphemism for a thingy? [21:08] 🍆 [21:08] "and this, this is my Big Sir" [21:10] Big Sur! [21:10] suits you, sur [21:10] https://imgur.com/gallery/US2v5Ze [21:11] wtf? [21:12] i'm now picturing that lady from the BBC News that presents the Antique Roadshow, introducing a person having their elderly mother or father get appraised by an expert [21:13] *Antiques [21:14] "I'm afraid this piece is too damaged to be worth anything" [21:17] you know the world has gone completely bonkers when you get: https://usercontent.irccloud-cdn.com/file/navvu8Ct/image.png [21:17] drive-through oxygen from a temple [21:18] and just like here, there's loads of folk saying what a great job the Indian Government is doing and that lockdown isn't needed [21:19] I guess you get lunatics in every country [21:21] in unrelated news, I'm worshipping the moon next week [21:44] oh really? sorry i went to wash up D: [21:45] and yeah arguably India has a lot more! [22:14] solely due to population count of course