Tali'Thread vas Clan Zorah nar BSN 6.0

[Vol]

Any chance of getting a few bags of ice from a gas station?

[Ragabul]

Currently the temp is just a few degrees above freezing and it's out in the garage so I think if I just don't open it, it should be fine for a while.

[Mobius_118]

Currently the temp is just a few degrees above freezing and it's out in the garage so I think if I just don't open it, it should be fine for a while.

I was gonna ask if you guys wanted any advice on surviving the cold, but I think your other half would object to any life saving advice I have regardless of my experience living in both the hottest and coldest state in the Union.

You're about due for another round of frozen hell, so get comfortable. Wool blankets and poncho liners are your friends.

[Ragabul]

I've been through ice storms before including ones where the power was out for about a week. It actually does snow in north Texas where I am from. It is novel because this is Houston. It's not about desperation.

[Mobius_118]

I've been through ice storms before including ones where the power was out for about a week. It actually does snow in north Texas where I am from. It is novel because this is Houston. It's not about desperation.

Didn't know that.

Well, carry on then. Up here apparently the wolves are getting bolder, pushing more into farm territory and it has the local "hunters" on alert.

Gotta love climate change.

[Ragabul]

Well, we had power for about 4 hours but it went off again. There's also now low water pressure across most of the SE part of the state so there is either no water or a boil water notice everywhere. Gas stations are also pretty much all out of gas. Fun times. It really is like a freaking hurricane.

I got permission to drive a work vehicle home so the no gas thing isn't an issue for now and the place I work still has water so I was able to fill a bunch of jugs up there to take home.

Apparently the issue is that ERCOT (the guys who run the Texas grid) have not directed private operators to winterize their shit so every time they get some capacity back up, something else goes down due to freezing conditions. And it's on ongoing clusterfuck. We get a big chunk of our power from wind but a bunch of turbines iced up early on. We also get a bunch of power from natural gas but there was an unprecedented run on supplies so there is now a natural gas shortage. Also, the southern part of the state is thawing out but the northern part is still freezing so every time local utilities get power restored here, the state grid keeps telling them to dump capacity because Dallas and Austin can't keep their shit thawed out so they keep losing capacity and putting strain on the whole state grid.

On top of that, water storage here is mostly in cisterns and not in towers so when 6 million or so people in Houston are dripping their faucets to prevent frozen pipes it means the whole system gets really low water pressure. And that on top of whatever probably hundreds of leaks have sprung up all over from breaks.

There are some places reporting their coldest temperatures since the late 1800s.

[magnuskn]

The board is kinda fucked up at the moment. At home it is not displaying videos, the color format is another than normal. Here there are warning messages at the bottom of the page and at the top.

[Alienmorph]

Same here, hope everything's fine.

[NCLanceman]

As far as Vol and I can tell, an automatic update was pushed that broke a bunch of things. This was as functional as we could get the site as of late last night. We're planning on working to fix it when I get off work today. Last I checked there was something weird going on with logins as well, and Vol himself was having problems accessing the site.

On dthe bright side, if and when we figure this out, we can call ourselves real webmasters!

[Someone With Mass]

Oof. Yeah, everything is shouting at me about how it's not supported anymore.

[Dragaros]

It seems to be slowly getting better as time goes by, at least on my end. Today I can post again, images and videos are displaying correctly, and the funky text errors all over the screen are gone.

[Vol]

Alright, I _think_ I fixed it.

Near as I can tell, it was a cascade of automatic changes on the hosting side I was not informed of. First, I had configured the site for daily automatic backups. This was disabled at some point. I had configured it for _no_ automatic software updates, as I'm a jealous man and want permission before any updates are pushed through. This too was changed at some point. I'm a bit annoyed there was no courtesy message about this.

So what appears to have happened is that the newest version of the board software was pushed out, the host tried to install it automatically, it updated the file system, but failed on the database, so we were running 2 different versions of software on the same site. This would throw a lot of the errors. But then, the new version also uses a new version of PHP, which the old was incompatible with. Even though the update failed, it still automatically turned on the new version of PHP, thus the total failure of functionality.

_This is why I don't like automated updates, folks_.

So after spending all of the late evening with Lance doing restores and fiddling with the FTP, then an awful night's sleep, I went into the host panel, reverted the PHP to a previous version, and now everything looks normal. I need to fiddle around and make sure everything works still, as I don't know what was pushed through in the restore point we're running on, but if posting and log in works, that's enough for now.

[Dragaros]

Alright, I _think_ I fixed it.

Near as I can tell, it was a cascade of automatic changes on the hosting side I was not informed of. First, I had configured the site for daily automatic backups. This was disabled at some point. I had configured it for _no_ automatic software updates, as I'm a jealous man and want permission before any updates are pushed through. This too was changed at some point. I'm a bit annoyed there was no courtesy message about this.

So what appears to have happened is that the newest version of the board software was pushed out, the host tried to install it automatically, it updated the file system, but failed on the database, so we were running 2 different versions of software on the same site. This would throw a lot of the errors. But then, the new version also uses a new version of PHP, which the old was incompatible with. Even though the update failed, it still automatically turned on the new version of PHP, thus the total failure of functionality.

_This is why I don't like automated updates, folks_.

So after spending all of the late evening with Lance doing restores and fiddling with the FTP, then an awful night's sleep, I went into the host panel, reverted the PHP to a previous version, and now everything looks normal. I need to fiddle around and make sure everything works still, as I don't know what was pushed through in the restore point we're running on, but if posting and log in works, that's enough for now.

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUYDXVDLmns

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aucAzFWpvMc

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjzfW6UB7zc

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X27t1VEU4d0

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdgdxaIkU5g

[Mazder]

Alright, I _think_ I fixed it.

Near as I can tell, it was a cascade of automatic changes on the hosting side I was not informed of. First, I had configured the site for daily automatic backups. This was disabled at some point. I had configured it for _no_ automatic software updates, as I'm a jealous man and want permission before any updates are pushed through. This too was changed at some point. I'm a bit annoyed there was no courtesy message about this.

So what appears to have happened is that the newest version of the board software was pushed out, the host tried to install it automatically, it updated the file system, but failed on the database, so we were running 2 different versions of software on the same site. This would throw a lot of the errors. But then, the new version also uses a new version of PHP, which the old was incompatible with. Even though the update failed, it still automatically turned on the new version of PHP, thus the total failure of functionality.

_This is why I don't like automated updates, folks_.

So after spending all of the late evening with Lance doing restores and fiddling with the FTP, then an awful night's sleep, I went into the host panel, reverted the PHP to a previous version, and now everything looks normal. I need to fiddle around and make sure everything works still, as I don't know what was pushed through in the restore point we're running on, but if posting and log in works, that's enough for now.

On the side of site-things...fuck.
Thank you Lance and Vol for pulling us through that one!
Things are still a little slow in places on my end but I am sure that'll smooth out.
Maybe the idea of having a Discord as a back-up, even if it's just to give messages of site background issues) might be a more appealing thought?

Just an idea.

But in terms of some good news, I just got my covid vaccination offer. Called my doctors to book it, 21 in call queue.
Oof, might try doing it early tomorrow then.
Either way, vaccination. So I won't have to potentially be at risk of death. Good.
I just don't like the idea of being in the "early" category as I just don't feel deserving of that, lol.

[TTTX]

Alright, I _think_ I fixed it.

Near as I can tell, it was a cascade of automatic changes on the hosting side I was not informed of. First, I had configured the site for daily automatic backups. This was disabled at some point. I had configured it for _no_ automatic software updates, as I'm a jealous man and want permission before any updates are pushed through. This too was changed at some point. I'm a bit annoyed there was no courtesy message about this.

So what appears to have happened is that the newest version of the board software was pushed out, the host tried to install it automatically, it updated the file system, but failed on the database, so we were running 2 different versions of software on the same site. This would throw a lot of the errors. But then, the new version also uses a new version of PHP, which the old was incompatible with. Even though the update failed, it still automatically turned on the new version of PHP, thus the total failure of functionality.

_This is why I don't like automated updates, folks_.

So after spending all of the late evening with Lance doing restores and fiddling with the FTP, then an awful night's sleep, I went into the host panel, reverted the PHP to a previous version, and now everything looks normal. I need to fiddle around and make sure everything works still, as I don't know what was pushed through in the restore point we're running on, but if posting and log in works, that's enough for now.

Good on you two to fix it, thank you.

[magnuskn]

Alright, I _think_ I fixed it.

Near as I can tell, it was a cascade of automatic changes on the hosting side I was not informed of. First, I had configured the site for daily automatic backups. This was disabled at some point. I had configured it for _no_ automatic software updates, as I'm a jealous man and want permission before any updates are pushed through. This too was changed at some point. I'm a bit annoyed there was no courtesy message about this.

So what appears to have happened is that the newest version of the board software was pushed out, the host tried to install it automatically, it updated the file system, but failed on the database, so we were running 2 different versions of software on the same site. This would throw a lot of the errors. But then, the new version also uses a new version of PHP, which the old was incompatible with. Even though the update failed, it still automatically turned on the new version of PHP, thus the total failure of functionality.

_This is why I don't like automated updates, folks_.

So after spending all of the late evening with Lance doing restores and fiddling with the FTP, then an awful night's sleep, I went into the host panel, reverted the PHP to a previous version, and now everything looks normal. I need to fiddle around and make sure everything works still, as I don't know what was pushed through in the restore point we're running on, but if posting and log in works, that's enough for now.

Seconded! Chapeau!

[Someone With Mass]

Yeah, shit like that is why I pushed off upgrading to Windows 10 as long as I could because I heard of all the mandatory updates. Makes me think that there's just some poor code monkey somewhere that has to justify their existence by shipping half-assed updates that haven't been thoroughly checked for bugs and such.

[Vol]

You're welcome, lads. That's my self-appointed job after all! The day when it does need to be upgraded will be, I hope, a bit smoother.

@Maz: Excellent! Get that vaccine in you, and get some piece of mind out of it. My grandmother managed to get her first dose, via one of my aunts knowing people to make it happen, which was a big relief for us all.

And yeah, I only had 1 person ask me about the downtime, so I assume you guys had faith this'd be sorted out quickly enough. But I'd endorse a backup just in case something thornier happens.

Yeah, shit like that is why I pushed off upgrading to Windows 10 as long as I could because I heard of all the mandatory updates. Makes me think that there's just some poor code monkey somewhere that has to justify their existence by shipping half-assed updates that haven't been thoroughly checked for bugs and such.

I've heard plenty of stories of half-assed W10 updates fucking up vital software, so yeah. Not looking forward to installing it on my new computer, whenever I can get a GPU.

[Deano]

You're welcome, lads. That's my self-appointed job after all! The day when it does need to be upgraded will be, I hope, a bit smoother.

Nice job pal!

On another topic, can someone tell me why people's houses are falling apart in Texas because of the freeze? It it to with the pipes not being made for it?

[Mazder]

@Maz: Excellent! Get that vaccine in you, and get some piece of mind out of it. My grandmother managed to get her first dose, via one of my aunts knowing people to make it happen, which was a big relief for us all.

And yeah, I only had 1 person ask me about the downtime, so I assume you guys had faith this'd be sorted out quickly enough. But I'd endorse a backup just in case something thornier happens.

Thanks.

Also you technically had 2 because I was the one who told him to do it!

Well, okay, something to consider then.

On another topic, can someone tell me why people's houses are falling apart in Texas because of the freeze? It it to with the pipes not being made for it?

It's basically why we in the UK boil in the summer, but inverse.
Literally not built for that temperature.

[TTTX]

On another topic, can someone tell me why people's houses are falling apart in Texas because of the freeze? It it to with the pipes not being made for it?

probably because Texas generally is "warm" all year round, so their infrastruktur isn't build for the freezing temperatures of like say the UK or Scandinavia.

[Dragaros]

https://blog.playstation.com/2021/02/16 ... g-grounds/







https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtpH5wj6rZk

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAr-fvEPgA8

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWeIPA0KpKw

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A22vZN_yOrs

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEx2_jSqbRo

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Muv6DA8_gL4

"Bokeh Game Studio, the new studio founded by Silent Hill, SIREN, and Gravity Rush creator Keiichiro Toyama, has published a nine-minute “Focus” video introducing the CEO and creative director, as well as teasing the studio’s first game."

[Alienmorph]

Yay, everything works again, cheers!

[Ragabul]

On another topic, can someone tell me why people's houses are falling apart in Texas because of the freeze? It it to with the pipes not being made for it?

It's many compounded things. The pipes themselves are fine (made from the same stuff as up north - PVC, copper, whatever, depends on age mostly) but most houses here do not insulate pipes or build them in interior walls the way they do up north because hard freezes that last for days and days outside of the Panhandle are rare. In Houston they are so rare that some years it never even gets below freezing at all. I have pipes that go through my attic which has no insulation.

On top of that, many of our power plants and gas extraction facilities aren't winterized so instrumentation and machinery freezes up which shuts down power generation *and* extraction. That coupled with a huge uptick in the demand for natural gas for heating means we suddenly have a natural gas shortage. A large number of power plants are actually taken completely offline during winter for maintenance because they are more needed in summer. Even the nuclear plant in South Texas went down for a while due to frozen instrumentation. This is just capitalism being capitalism. Everybody could pay to winterize everything for a once in 50 years freeze, but nobody wants to pay for all that.

We also have our own grid where the rest of the country is on either the Eastern or Western grids. This means that we can't easily just get extra power from Oklahoma or Louisiana or whatever. We can get it from Mexico but they were having a lot of the same problems so had none to spare.

The water problem is because so many people were dripping pipes to try to prevent pipe freezing that it created low water pressure for many municipal water supplies. If the pressure gets below 20 psi, it means bacteria can get in and the water has to be boiled to be safe to drink. On top of this many places in the Southern part of the state use underground storage with pumps instead of water towers to maintain pressure. So if the power goes out, the pumps can't pump water out of the cisterns.

Cities also don't warehouse salt or have snowplows and most of our freeways are elevated because we are very flood prone. This means they freeze easily and are hard to defrost which in turn means repair trucks and gas shipments and all that gets slowed way, way down adding to all the above problems.

It *does* freeze in Texas and it does snow, but this is truly unprecedented. I mentioned that we had had ice storms where I am from in North Texas (in the far NE corner by the Louisiana border), but for point of reference my dad has told me he has 3 foot snow drifts in the yard up there. He says it's the most snow he has ever seen there and he has lived there his whole life. He will be 77 in March. I live in Houston and like I said many years it doesn't even freeze here. Yet it got down to 10 degrees in some parts of the county and stayed below freezing for nearly 3 straight days.

*Edit*

For maybe some point of reference on the difference between the climate here and northern Europe, if you draw a line across the Atlantic Ocean from Houston, it would end in Southern Morocco.

[Deano]

So infrastructure basically. That really blows but what can you do?

One of the only benefits to living in the UK is that we don't really have extreme weather, apart from the occasional flooding.

[Mazder]

So infrastructure basically. That really blows but what can you do?

One of the only benefits to living in the UK is that we don't really have extreme weather, apart from the occasional flooding.

That and having a complete lack of cohesion of what do do with ourselves, lol.


Also Raga I am sorry, but also not sorry!

[Ragabul]

We get everything but earthquakes and volcanoes. Wildfire? Check. Hurricanes? Check. Blizzards? Check. Epic floods? Check. Tornadoes? Check. Drought? Check. Sandstorms? Check. We even got plague off the list this last year! I'm now waiting for the locusts.

[Vol]

Knock on wood.

[Mazder]

We get everything but earthquakes and volcanoes. Wildfire? Check. Hurricanes? Check. Blizzards? Check. Epic floods? Check. Tornadoes? Check. Drought? Check. Sandstorms? Check. We even got plague off the list this last year! I'm now waiting for the locusts.

Ah, but you don't have Bri'ish people going on holiday there like they do in Spain, lol.
That's a REAL plague!

[SciFlyBoy]

Good work getting everything back up. Had to dust off the ol' password sticky note to log back in. Glad everything worked out.

Yeah, shit like that is why I pushed off upgrading to Windows 10 as long as I could because I heard of all the mandatory updates. Makes me think that there's just some poor code monkey somewhere that has to justify their existence by shipping half-assed updates that haven't been thoroughly checked for bugs and such.

I heard that there's so much legacy software out there that use old Windows platforms that the demand of keeping both Windows up to date/current AND keeping all the 20+ year stuff working is just the biggest hassle in the world. That any update coming out will screw up with something for someone is a given.

Does anyone know if Windows is planning to split it's platform in two, one side of the 'window' for all the legacy users and the other side for users who want to stream all their programs and have Windows deal with the crashes and updates on their end? Like how they maintain the Xbox?

[Mobius_118]

The south is never ready.

[SciFlyBoy]

Yay! Another Mars rover successfully lands!



https://mars.nasa.gov/news/8865/touchdo ... ed-planet/

[Vol]

@Sci: So normal use log in + avatar change works, seems like everything that wasn't already broken is working again. If the host had fucked up the setting that made automatic backups of the entire site before attempting an update, this would've been a very bad time.

There's vital infrastructure that stills run on COBOL, one of the earliest languages. It makes for a decent living for the greybeards who do nothing but maintain it, but obviously, limited field. Some things are so important and complicated that making upgrades isn't seen as worth it. Or incompetence from people in charge. Remember when Windows 7 came out and they released a report on worldwide usage, there was still a decent chunk of people running '98 at the time.

Wait, how exactly is the robot supposed to return the samples?

[Dragaros]

[Dragaros]

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5EHU3Oqkno

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gm0b_ijaYMQ

[SciFlyBoy]

Wait, how exactly is the robot supposed to return the samples?

I'll read up so you have a real answer, but my fake answer is that the robot shoots it up into the atmosphere and it then orbits the planet until it escapes then makes it's way to Earth's orbit where it decays and falls into our atmosphere. But like I said, I'll read up on it and get back to you.

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqqaW8DCc-I

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AG8UPSjf9Ko