Category Archives: Technology and Society

Administrative, Business, Technology and Society

More Computer Fun

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So I finally got most of the data off the failing drive, and I backed it up to a second new drive. But when I attempt to fix the filesystem I get this:

[root@localhost-live home]

# e2fsck /dev/sdd
e2fsck 1.45.6 (20-Mar-2020)
ext2fs_open2: Bad magic number in super-block
e2fsck: Superblock invalid, trying backup blocks…
e2fsck: Bad magic number in super-block while trying to open /dev/sdd

The superblock could not be read or does not describe a valid ext2/ext3/ext4
filesystem. If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2/ext3/ext4
filesystem (and not swap or ufs or something else), then the superblock
is corrupt, and you might try running e2fsck with an alternate superblock:
e2fsck -b 8193
or
e2fsck -b 32768

Found a dos partition table in /dev/sdd

**********************************************

Are those the actual superblocks it wants me to try, or just potential examples?

[Update a while later]

OK, when I run it on the partition, instead of the drive, it says the file system is clean.

New problem: When I mount it to /home (where it normally lives on my system), I see nothing in it except lost+found. That’s not encouraging.

[Tuesday-morning update]

For anyone curious, who wants to go through the entrails, I’ve posted the entire session in comments. It remains a mystery to me why none of the drives seem to have data, or how I could have done anything to my source drive that I was trying to rescue.

[Update a few minutes later]

Yes, I clearly screwed the pooch. I accidentally formatted the drive I was trying to rescue.

Administrative, Technology and Society

Strange Computer Problem

57 Comments

When I started using the machine this morning, it seemed to be running like molasses in January. I tried rebooting, and it took forever to boot, and then wouldn’t let me log in. I fired up a clean Fedora from a stick, and fscked my drives. The /home hard drive had a lot of errors on it, that got fixed, but there was no problem with the SSD where my OS resides. Then I rebooted. It took a long time, but finally came up. Everything continues to load and run slow. Nothing seems to be bogging down the CPU, and there is plenty of free memory. Any ideas what the problem could be?

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Business, Humor, Popular Culture, Satire, Space, Technology and Society

Acme To Take Over As SLS Prime Contractor

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March 1st, 2021

WASHINGTON (Routers) In a move that most of the aerospace industry found shocking, the Biden administration today announced that the Boeing Corporation was to be removed from its role as Prime Contractor for the troubled Space Launch System (SLS) contract and replaced in that position by the Acme Corporation, a diversified manufacturing company based in the southwestern United States.  The move came as a shock, given that Acme has no aerospace experience per se, although it does have a vast catalog, including a Rocket Motor Division based in Albuquerque, NM, which makes small solid-rocket motors used in various Acme products, such as rocket-powered sleds and roller skates.

Acme will now assume the overall management of the program, although it is expected to rebadge a large percentage of Boeing technical employees, and will begin negotiations with Boeing for them to remain as subcontractors on substantial portions of the program.  

Anticipating critical comment, White House spokesmen pointed out that Acme had a long history of use of solid-fuel rockets for crewed applications, “without loss of human life or serious injury” despite some less-than-fatal mishaps.  Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Alabama) vigorously denounced the decision, pointing to Acme’s long history of damaging consumer litigation concerning injuries sustained by users of Acme’s rocket products. “Just Google the term ‘Acme v. Coyote‘ and you will see that the pleadings in the litigation over this company’s mistakes have become a classic of the legal profession.” 

An Acme spokesperson responded that there was only one such litigant on record, and he seemed to be a classic vexatious one.  “The litigant, Mr. Coyote, is well known as an endurance athlete who pushes the envelope and takes chances most runners would consider unacceptable. He has also been injured numerous times in instances in which no Acme product was involved. And despite what were undoubtedly uncomfortable incidents, we note that he has never suffered permanent disability as a result of any of them, and in fact continues to perform as a long-distance runner at a high level. In fact, despite his age, he continues to hold the title of second-fastest runner in the southwest United States.”

The spokesperson also added, “It should be noted that Acme’s products have never killed anybody. Unfortunately the same can’t be said for Boeing.”

[Post by James Bennett, so I don’t get the blame]