Tech in the Trenches

Be a problem solver

On March 16, 2023

It drives me nuts when people at work, who should know better, report problems without an ounce of troubleshooting, or even basic questioning.

What did you try? Anything at all?

Is the server down? Likely not… did you make an attempt to ping it?

You have access to The Cloud.

I’m not asking you to pour over log files but if you’re not able to access the domain name and you can login to the cloud where this server lives… can you connect to it through the console on the web page?

What about error messages? Do you see anything that might lead you to a solution?

“EC2 can’t…” is a pretty good starting point. I don’t need you to understand what it can’t do or why it can’t do it. But some times the answer is in the error message.

If your error message says “Server cant do Thing because of Reason then ask then report that and let the people who can make the Server do the Thing work on it. Because they may be aware of the Reason.

But reporting an error and then floundering is unacceptable for someone in a technical role.

Using Twitter after all the good apps were killed off

By Carl

On January 18, 2023

In Observations

What are you using Twitter for these days, and how has your experience changed on here changed over the last six weeks?
— Anne Helen Petersen (@annehelen) January 18, 2023

I only post to Twitter now using Tweetdeck on a computer. Killing Tweetbot means I no longer look at it on any mobile device (phone/iPad). I took the Twitter Lists I already follow and added them to Readwise’s Reader and read them like I would any other RSS feed.

The value of Twitter (for me) has been the ability to create lists of people for interests I have (Destiny 2 video game, Capitals Hockey, local news accounts). I have a timeline of some accounts but in some ways those aren’t the most important people I follow.

I’ve never used apps that show timelines out of order. I’ve long said that would be the end of Twitter for me if I had to suffer through ads and recommended junk. Twitter is skating very close to that sun. But I’ve been here since 2006 and that’s a weird point of pride.

Tweetdeck, despite being owned by Twitter, has largely been forgotten. It never got the algorithmic timelines, ads, polling, or really any new features in years. Each time I was prompted to reload it because a new version was available I held my breath to see if this was the end of my enjoyment of it. But it’s allowed me to largely ignore everything that drove me from other platforms.

If I have to fight with the timeline to see what Twitter wants me to see, I’m gone.

If my timeline becomes riddled with ads, and ads for absolute garbage, as I’ve seen others share, I’m gone.

Killing off third party Twitter apps, not for the first time, stopped my Twitter usage from mobile devices in a single day. I won’t use the official apps because it forces a non-chronological timeline and tries to recommend people or tweets to follow to drive engagement.

I am as engaged as I want to be and pulling a Facebook and trying to drive outrage will drive me completely off the platform. Twitter is not anything I need in life. But it’s something I’ve grown fond of, despite all of its issues. But when Twitter starts actively being a pain to use, it gets relegated to RSS since the communities I follow are still largely on Twitter because that’s where everyone is.

Maintain your systems or become front page news

By Carl

On January 13, 2023

In Links and Quotes, Observations

The outage on Wednesday morning affected the agency’s antiquated Notice to Air Missions system, known as NOTAM. The 30-year-old system provides advance warnings to pilots and flight crews about hazards such as inclement weather and runway closures.
A Contractor With A Corrupt Software File Brought U.S. Air Travel To A Halt, Per Reports

“The outage on Wednesday morning affected the agency’s antiquated…”

Maintaining IT systems isn’t sexy. It’s not exciting work that’s going to get you promoted or a huge raise. It’s thankless work to keep your business moving.

To make sure that everyday the systems you rely on continue to function. It’s rarely a job you will get noticed for…

Until something goes wrong. Then it’s all your fault.

Systems need to be updated. They need to be modernized and brought into the present. This is going to continue happening. Southwest. FFA. Who will be the next to fall because of decades of neglected maintenance to core systems?

Mulled Media

By Carl

On January 4, 2023

In Tech Tinkering

I’ve spun up a second Proxmox instance on an old Dell and have been moving my existing containers over from my current Proxmox Box in order to rebuild it entirely.

However, Plex and my other containers using the Multimedia NFS share kept failing to load even though they should be identical between instances.

I couldn’t figure out what I was doing wrong and spent a lot of time on it.

Turns out…
When you mount the NFS share Mulltimedia ≠ Multimedia

Can you spot the difference?

I cannot tell you how many forums I searched through and how much time I’ve spent trying to understand why my two identical proxmox installations are causing such issues when accessing my NFS.

Never underestimate the power of a single typo.