Author: davidg

Microsoft is not good at software

“No shit, Sherlock”

All I’m going to complain about at the moment is Task Scheduler, and how I can run a PowerShell script if the script is on the local C: drive, but if the script is on my H: drive (which is on the network) then it’s no longer PowerShell, it must be ImpotentShell and should thus fail.

Apparently networks scare Microsoft?

Task Scheduler will attempt to launch it, with the target being powershell -File H:\blah\foo.ps1

But that run of the task will fail with the result code 0xFFFD0000

The only change I made to the Task Scheduler was to change the target path from -File H:\blah\foo.ps1 to C:\blah\foo.ps1. Now the script runs, where it failed before.

I find the whole attitude of “well, the network is so fragile that we are going to fail when we to try” moronic. The freaking machine this script on is a VM (a file) loading across the network you dolts.

But no…. We can’t have a PowerShell script on a network share. Network shares were invented 39 years ago – there’s no way that Windows can rely on tech that bleeding edge and unstable. So now I have to build stupid shit file synchronizing routines to keep changes made in the official repository up to date with the stupid copy on the stupid C: drive.

Please, Microsoft, keep working on Windows 11. Moving the start menu to the center of the screen is so important.

Also: why on the Lord’s Green Earth is the Task Scheduler All Running Tasks dialog box a fixed width? Wasn’t Windows 3 like, twenty years ago?

Man, I wish I could retire from this job.

More Factorio notes

I tried one belt each, of what I need to get to purple science. But I goofed, and didn’t extend the Stone belt where the Stone Bricks belt went, so I had to squeeze it in. D’oh!

So, at this stage of the game, I have (from left to right):

  • Low Density Structures
  • Blue Circuits
  • Batteries
  • Sulfur
  • Iron Plates (this belt should probably be four belts wide)
  • Copper Plates (this belt should probably be four belts wide, or perhaps two)
  • Green Circuits
  • Steel Plates (this belt should probably be two belts wide)
  • Stone Bricks
  • Stone Ore
  • Coal
  • Plastic
  • Red Circuits

So, in order of appearance, they went like this:

I should note that as I laid down my template of which resources would be in which belt lane, (when the research let let) I created Constant Combinators with the item to go on the belt. Factorio did not display which item, until I went to Settings –> Interface –> Show Combinator Settings in alt-mode

  1. Iron Plates
    1. Feeds green circuits
    2. Feeds red and green science
  2. Copper Plates
    1. Feeds green circuits
    2. Feeds red and green science
  3. Green Circuits
    1. Feeds red and green science
  4. Steel Plates
    1. Feeds Big Mall by SwaggoFlamingo – although I think I would like a more complete mall
  5. Coal
    1. Turns out Big Mall by SwaggoFlamingo needs stone bricks, so I built a smelter nearby, which needed coal
    2. Next up was black science, which needed coal and stone bricks, too
    3. Later, Plastic will need coal
  6. Stone Bricks
    1. Feeds black science
  7. Plastic
    1. Feeds red circuits
  8. Red Circuits
    1. Feeds blue science
  9. Sulfur
    1. Feeds sulfuric acid, which is needed for batteries
  10. Batteries
    1. Feeds yellow science
  11. Blue Circuits
    1. Feeds yellow science
  12. Low Density Structures
    1. Feeds yellow science
  13. Stone Ore
    1. Feeds purple science

Build order

  1. starter Iron mining and smelting
  2. starter Copper mining and smelting
  3. starter Stone drilling
  4. Starter base with red science, yellow belts and green circuits
  5. Electricity generation
    1. Boiler
    2. Offshore pump
    3. Steam engines
    4. Burner inserter
    5. Wooden box to store coal in, until a belt of coal can be delivered
    6. Small electric poles
  6. Iron mining (electric miners)
  7. Copper mining (electric miners)
  8. Coal mining (electric miners)
  9. Iron smelting
  10. Copper smelting
  11. Steel smelting
  12. Lay out main bus
  13. Green circuits
  14. Red and Green science
    1. Research Electric Energy distribution 1 to get steel towers
    2. Science labs
  15. Bolster electric mining and attach output to main bus
  16. Black Science
  17. Do not us Mike’s Mall – Yellow – I started with this, only to find that the factory that builds Medium Electric Pole and Big Electric Pole was missing the iron stick ingredient, and there was not a good space to add a factory which reached the iron plates belt line.
    1. Now I’m going to try Kitch’s Totally Practical Strip Mall – 3.0 (0.17 Update)

The other thing I did was combine the Unload 4 red train station by Nilaus with a medium buffer by Shaderon (which I doubled to do four lanes). The blueprint is here:

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

Man, Imprivata sucks

I need the administration manual for Imprivata (they do hardware based single-sign on). If I search for Imprivata onesign administrator guide I get a document on the Imprivata web site which is a marketing fluff piece.

Really, Imprivata? This is how you want to “help” me?

Turns out to get the actual administration manual, I have to go to manualzz.com

That doesn’t look sketchy at all.

Seriously Imprivata: how can you be that stupid?

And, by the way, the documentation my co-worker wrote says that their administration web sites don’t work with anything other than IE (Microsoft Internet Explorer, which is in hospice care, and has been since last summer).

I get it, software is hard, and upgrades can be tricky. It takes time to not break things.

But hiding your user and administrator manuals is downright customer hostile.

Sigh. Everything would be fine if only Imprivata would do as I say. (But seriously, I wouldn’t be the only person helped if they didn’t try to make it difficult for me to figure out how it broke this time).

Everything would be fine if you would just do everything I say

This is, in essence, a form of bullying.

Lately, I see it everywhere.

I don’t know if it’s always been this way; but I think not. I think that as legacy media is in it’s death throes, they have amped up the noise something terrible. Or maybe they are just in servitude to their masters, who want to bully the planet into greater servitude.

Anyway, people feel a need to push their idea of nirvana onto other people. They wouldn’t call themselves bullies, but if you don’t want to be called a bully, you need to not be a bullly.

Latest bully: Mozilla Firefox, with a push of a fucking tab that starts with “Why am I seeing this adorable red panda?”

You assholes. Stop it! I don’t care and am completely annoyed that you idiots think my time and attention are your playthings. Fuck you and the horse you rode in on.

Actually, I kind of feel bad for the horse, because the poor horse didn’t ask for you to ride in on it.

If you’d asked the horse, it would have said “I don’t want to be ridden by bullies.”

BitWarden is inconsistent

I moved from LastPass to Bitwarden a few months ago. I have configured BitWarden to use my Yubikey second factor authentication key. I have about five different machines that I use, and on each of them I install Firefox and then add the BitWarden Firefox extension.

Only on one of the machines does BitWarden consistently prompt me to put in the Yubikey when I log in to the BitWarden Firefox extension. At least under LastPass, it consistently made me add the Yubikey no matter which machine I was logging in from.

Just now, I added the BitWarden Firefox extension to a Raspberry Pi I’m playing with, and this time, BitWarden prompted me to insert the Yubikey.

That it is inconsistent really bothers me. I want a second factor 100% of the time, not 🤷

Factorio to-do list (WIP)

On my next game, I think I am going to try these as my next set of blueprints, in order:

  1. Factorio Master Class (by Nilaus) (MSTR) – Jump Start 0.18 – Initial Assemblers
    1. This gets me red science, which lets me research:
      1. Automation
      2. Logistics
      3. Steel Processing
      4. Electronics
      5. Fast Inserter
      6. Green Science
      7. Military
      8. Gun Turret
  2. Early coal mining rig
  3. Early game smelting
    1. Well, this time I used the (MSTR) – Early Game Smelting – Copper and Iron blueprint, one each.
      1. Should have done three (or six)
  4. NRC’s Mining
  5. (MSTR) – Early Game Smelting – One more small one, but smelting Iron plates to Steel this time
  6. (MSTR) – Green/Red/Blue Circuits – Green [1]
    1. This task has a bootstrap problem; the blueprint calls for Medium Electric Poles, but those come from Electric Energy Distribution 1 below. 120 green science needed
      1. Medium Electric Poles require Steel ….
  7. (MSTR) – Science 1.5 – Automation
    1. This gets me green science, which lets me research:
      1. Electric Energy Distribution 1
        1. Steel power poles; which are needed for the 0.17 Big Mall below
      1. Automation 2
      2. Engine
      3. Advanced Material Processing
      4. Fluid Handling
      5. Oil Processing
      6. Plastics
      7. Sulfur Processing
      8. Battery
      9. Advanced Electronics
      10. Blue Science
  8. 0.17 Big Mall by SwaggoFlamingo
  9. (MSTR) – Science 1.5 – Military Science
    1. Not because I want it, but I’m probably going to need it.
  10. Now it gets a little difficult. The number one goal is to get to robots. That requires all of (MSTR) – Science 1.5 – Chemical Science – but Chemical Science has prerequisites. Namely:
    1. Oil (pre-req to plastic)
      1. I’m using Oil Processing which says This blueprint is part of the “Base-in-a-Book” Tutorial series by Nilaus
    2. Plastic (pre-req to red circuits)
      1. (MSTR) – Chemicals – Plastic with red belts
    3. Red Circuits
      1. (MSTR) – Green/Red/Blue Circuit Designs – Red Circuits 1
    4. (Although I did Blue Science first, I probably should have done Sulfur production first).
  11. The other thing blocking me from my number 1 goal (robots) is that I am running out of resources.
    1. To that end, I had to build rail, a station, a locomotive, ore cars, and I used Autotorio to build a smelting setup for an iron patch.
    2. Now I’m running out of coal.
  12. Nilaus suggests that I should have built Utility Science (Yellow) before building Chemical Science (Blue)
  13. (MSTR) – Science 1.5 – Chemical Science
    1. This gets me blue science, which lets me research:
      1. Advanced Oil Processing
      2. Advanced Electronics 2
      3. Lubricant
      4. Electric Engine
      5. Low Density Structure
      6. Robotics
      7. Logistic Robotics
      8. Yellow Science
  14. (MSTR) – Science 1.5 – Utility Science
    1. A prerequisite is Blue Circuits
    1. This gets me yellow science, which lets me research:
      1. Logistic System
  15. I really like Autotorio, but that means researching Brick Walls is high priority.

Factorio blueprints

Don’t you just hate getting run over by a train and respawning without your blueprints?

Four belts for a 4 lane bus:

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Underground belts spaced across, to tunnel under a 4 lane bus:

[copy tag=”button” content=”0eNqVkOsKwjAMhd/l/K7D1d3sq4jILmEUtnR0rTjG3t1uAxFE0F8hITnfyZlRdZ4Gq9lBzdC14RHqMmPULZfdOnPTQFDQjnoIcNmvneeGbGtNqIeKOodFQIfZAypergLETjtNu9bWTDf2fUU2LHxXERjMGA4Nr+QglhZRKjBBSRlHaYA02lK9L0jx8saDXy18oOQfqOz0C8p4t7HCj1si6i1AgTvZcT8o4iQ/yzzJzjI7FsvyBCLhdsg=”]Click to copy[/copy]

Split off the left most lane (let’s call it Lane 1) to the right:

[copy tag=”button” content=”0eNqllNtqwzAMht9F116JnTinVxljJK0phtQ2tjIWQt59TjNKaZbOca+MD/p+6ZfRCG3XC2OlQqhHkEetHNTvIzh5Vk03n+FgBNQgUVyAgGou8w5to5zRFt9a0SFMBKQ6iW+o6UT+De79U3u22q+P4Wz6ICAUSpRiSeS6GT5Vf2mF9fwbxZlOIvozAkY7H6DVrOgheUJg8CyaHrhHn6QVx+U6m7N7ILKtolZcXh34L5mFkNPtitc50ydscvNRmX62ayWV7ZFKXpLie6TYS1J5TGt4SGuKGHIWQi7jms637dE9bvhTxXU9SosmwZbdSa0sY3+haTia7kSzuN8aZ1EaXgd7VoefgdeJWd9NZwJfwrrlQUmzomJFllcsT8pp+gGHkeK2″]Click to copy[/copy]

Split off Lane 2 to the right:

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Split off Lane 3 to the right:

TDB

Split off Lane 4 to the right:

TDB

The Factorio community is amazing, and the guys at Wube should be applauded for an amazing job. One of the particularly insightful things they did was to build an import/export function into the game (not surprising) but then make that available to the community. Perhaps that comes from it’s Minecraft beginnings. Either way, it was a fundamentally wise choice. In the spirit of open source, the community can share their ideas with each other.

Which lead to Factorio Prints (later re-written and hosted at Factorio School). And then someone came up with FBE: Factorio Blueprint Editor.

Particularly, I like Square Mall (see it here: FBE Square Mall) and Early Game Smelting (FBE: Early Game Smelting)

LibreOffice is working better now (somewhat), and I don’t know why

Okay, so I had a theme that wasn’t installed correctly, which made automatic updates for all of OpenSUSE complain they wouldn’t work. I did a re-install of everything KDE, and the missing theme dependency no longer prevents automatic updating from working seamlessly. Cool.

But, I saw the full re-install of KDE “upgraded” LibreOffice. Sure enough, I’m back to running version 7.1

Well, at least I have version 6.4 on disk, and could pretty easily downgrade if needed. Might as well try it out and see.

At first blush, I didn’t appear to have the problem. But, I’d seen that before. I moved the window to the secondary monitor, and the problem returned. Not cool.

But this time, if I move the LibreOffice window back to my primary monitor, the problem vanishes; the window returns to normal. That used to never happen: once the window layout was corrupted, no matter where I placed it, it remained corrupted.

So I can use the current version LibreOffice – I just need to use it on my secondary monitor. I’m okay with that. If that’s the worst thing I have to put up with this month, I’m a lucky guy.

Actually, I just started doing some SharePoint work. Already, I have way worse going on, and it has nothing to do with LibreOffice or KDE or OpenSUSE. 😉

Apple is smarter than I am so I’m buying an Amazon Echo alarm clock

It’s been a week, and apparently that was Apple Music’s reset timer for re-enabling all the songs I told it I hate.

Okay then. Time to take it to the next level: delete every song in iTunes. THAT will keep the stupid app from offending me.

Problem is, I used some of the songs in the iTunes library as my alarm clock songs. I loved that feature. But this is the dilemma: keep iTunes and wake up to inspirational music, but, also have Apple Music assault me in my car when I don’t pre-launch some other audio app. I can have one, but would have to accept the other too. That feels like a violation I shouldn’t have to put up with.

The Apple Clock app does play ringtones even with the music library empty – because I didn’t empty the ringtones library. This would have been a nice work-around, but the songs I listen to are 3 – 4 minutes long, and ring tones are limited to 30 seconds.

How about a third option? Instead of using my iPhone as an alarm clock, I can buy a stand-alone alarm clock that knows how to access my Amazon Music library. That would be Echo Dot (4th Gen) Smart speaker with clock.

This still leaves me in a bind when I’m traveling. Normally, every day or so I go through all the open apps in my iPhone and “swipe up” to get rid of them – all of them. If I need an app I can launch it again. The Apple Clock app doesn’t have that choice, so it is always running (which is a good thing). My alarms in the morning were set it once and forget it which was pretty nice. But now, none of those alarms are going to work*.

This means that when I am traveling, I’m going to have to 1) remember to be running the Alexa app on my iPhone when I go to sleep, and 2) set alarms to launch in the Alexa app “on this device” which is the iPhone. This is definitely worse than when I was able to rely on the Apple Clock app.

It sure would have been better if Apple would give me an option of which app to launch when some Bluetooth device (my car) announces it is ready to play.

Still, if this is the worst thing to happen to me in a week, I’m living a pretty charmed life.

*It would more accurate to say they will launch, but no sound is going to come out of them, because the Apple Music Library has been emptied.