Category Archives: Administrative

New Software Problem

When I rebooted my computer into Fedora this morning, it’s not talking to my right monitor. I don’t think it’s a hardware issue, because the BIOS sees both monitors, but when it boots, the monitor says it’s not getting a signal. When I go into settings to look at the display(s), the OS thinks that it only has one monitor. Any ideas?

[Afternoon update]

Apparently it was due to a kernel update. I backed up to the previous kernel and it seems to be working now.

On The Road Again

We’re driving up to Utah today, and then up to Idaho Falls tomorrow, to take care of business in Jackson, and do a little tour of Yellowstone and Grand Teton. I’ll have the laptop with me, but don’t know how much blogging I’ll be doing. It’s the closest thing we’ve had to a vacation this year (not counting the visit to Florida last month, which was more family).

[Tuesday-morning update]

Spent the night in Richfield, UT. We occasionally stop here on our way to/from Denver from LA, because it’s a motel we like, and it’s a good halfway point. Heading up to Idaho Falls, ID today, to spend three days.

Weird New Spam

I’m getting messages like this, addressed to no one I’ve ever heard of, from someone I’ve never heard of, subject: “Out of Office”

"Thank you for your email!

Please note that I will be out of the office (without access to phone or email) until August 26, 2024, and will respond to your email as soon as possible following my return.

If you have a question regarding the CAP, CAPS or Clergy Care programs, or if you would like to complete an intake, please call our office at 905-528-0353. 

If you are in crisis and need to talk to someone, please consider reaching out to COAST at 905-972-8338, or calling 911. Thank you.

Take care,

Tom

I (and likely many others) must be on BCC. Any ideas what this is about?

[Update a while later]

I just got a reply to it from some other annoyed person asking to be removed from the distribution list. I haven’t done so, because I’m afraid it’s a phishing expedition to see if my email is real.

Linux Problem

I changed my hostname. Upon reboot, neither Brave or Chrome will open. There is no obvious change to my /home directory. Any ideas?

[Update a while later]

After browsing on my laptop, I found the problem (that others have had). After deleting the lockfile in my .config directory that was pointing to the old hostname, they fired right up (Brave uses the Chrome codebase).

My Current Travails

I missed my 7AM flight to LA from Vegas this morning, because I’m a dumbass, and went to the wrong concourse, and by the time I figured it out, it was too late to get to the right one (Note to self: in the future, look at your boarding pass). They put me on standby for the next flight that was scheduled for 1130 (and all flights are 100% full, because they’re still trying to recover from the CRWD update that had the same effect as a cyberattack). At 10, they rescheduled the flight for 1936. So I’ve now been here for ten hours, with a couple to go before I board. If I board. If not, I’ll go back to the hotel I’ve been staying and try for the 7AM flight tomorrow that I missed today.

So how’s your day going? Besides Biden ending his campaign. Or someone writing a letter ostensibly from him saying that he’s ending his campaign, without really explaining why. I wonder if he knows that he’s ending his campaign? Anyway, as Joe would say, anyway.

Thoughts from Mark Steyn.

[Monday-evening update]

Sorry for the lack of update. Yes, I caught a (slightly) earlier flight and got home last night.

[Bumped]

Fdisk Problem

I want to back up to an older SSD, but when I open it to look at it with fdisk, I get the message: “fdisk: cannot open /dev/sdb: Invalid argument”

Any ideas?

[Update Monday morning]

I gave up on the drive, and went out and bought a new one at Best Buy.

[July 17th update]

So, I copied my Linux OS to the new drive using dd. But it won’t boot. It acts like its starting to boot, but the Fedora thing just spins ad infinitum. It won’t boot in the same desktop that I copied the OS from, or from the laptop. Any ideas?

[Bumped]