• QNAP Progress

    Posted on by beno Comment

    We have had a few days off work (Thanksgiving), so have had some time to really dig into the QNAP and try and figure out what is going on.
    Its a case of everything is right, but it does not work…. Well, actually, sometimes it does, but sometimes it does not. Some files are the correct size, some of them are zero bytes.
    The interesting thing is that it is only when done over the cloud. When I am at home, I have not had a single zero byte incident.

    Ignorance is bliss, so I have signed Krysta and Terry up to use their phones to backup share their photos via the cloud… so far, so good.
    I will be testing things on Monday at work and see how I go using the Opto software via my cloud. I am hopeful, but not confident.

    One thing that was critical in getting it ‘working’ was my SSL certificate, so a huge thanks to Gary for getting that setup for me.
    Who knew that the QNAP using its self signed certificate was stopping it from working at all….. Sure was frustrating getting that one sorted! (A vague mention at the bottom of an out of date manual about how the SSL certificate had to match the URL of the cloud).

    Lastly, it seems we have a backup running from the cloud to a local USB drive plugged into the QNAP, every night at 1am it copies any files that are new or changed.
    Small moves Ellie, small moves….


    📂This entry was posted in Computers

  • No Plink Plink

    Posted on by beno Comment

    Freddy and I drove to Palm Springs the other day (last Sunday).
    It was about 120 miles (193 kms) round trip. We did a big circle, went the scenic route there and the freeway grind back.
    That’s only just over 1/2 the range BB can knock out, so we took the electric. Enjoyed every minute of the drive. Very quiet, very smooth.

    What struck me however was in the garage straight after the drive, I had a moment to be in there looking for my tape measure and it struck me that normally after a long run (or any run that has fully warmed the car up) you hear a soft plink plink sound as the metal engine and exhaust cools and contracts…. Not so with BB. She gets warm, of course, but not that warm and it’s a totally different setup with a lot of aluminum housings rather than metal stuff.
    Anyway, I just found it interesting.


    📂This entry was posted in BoltEV

  • Dropbox replacement

    Posted on by beno 1 Comment

    Because reasons I had to get off my free Dropbox account. (Sad Face)
    Dropbox, evil or not, is just so convenient. It is a software cloud of your files. You map it to a drive letter (usually c:) and it syncs your files in the background.
    What it meant for me was that I could keep my Opto Software the same across the 4-6 computers that I use almost daily to do my job.
    Anyway, not to be… so, my quest then, unexpectedly and suddenly became ‘find a self hosted replacement’.

    I did what any good geek does and phoned a friends…. Gary and Dan.
    Both had the same idea, Gary suggested QNAP, Dan suggested NextCloud.
    Thinking I did not really have the time to spend with NextCloud, I hoped I could buy my way out of the mess with a QNAP hardware device…. but, sad face, it was going to cost 750 bucks for one of the better models. Ouch.

    Terry wants in on the self hosted cloud as well, he needs to store stuff that he can get global access to, and Dan and I thought about backing up to each others cloud, and I could also offer space for my Dad as an offsite backup for his files as well, so the time invested would be well worthwhile with many people benefiting, but still, $750 cleans out my savings…. So after talking with Terry, we figured the cost of trying Nextcloud is 50 bucks for a Raspberry Pi. Much better.

    Yeah, well, I will save you from the tail of woe, but enough to say, it worked pretty good at home, but over the network, just hopeless. It kept losing its style sheet, so the site would break and I could not keep it connected or copy files from a mapped drive.
    About 5 hours in I called it DOA. (Dead On Arrival). People clearly get it going, but I am just not skilled enough… The last straw was when I, after a lot of digging into my issues, found that the native setup it comes with is not robust enough for more than 1 user and a few files, in order to make it strong, the install/setup was above my pay grade. (yet another sad face)

    QNAP, It is basically a computer with custom software and some hard drives, in other words, a NAS, Network Attached Storage with a cloud component.
    I looked on Craigslist of all places and there was 1 for sale. Just the one and it was a good price, 300 bucks for about the level of the 600 dollar unit. Half price. Sure, a bit of a risk getting it used, but worth it in my mind.
    3 hours grind through traffic and it was all mine!

    So, here I am, about 5 hours in and its not working.
    The NAS part is working fine, but do you think I can get the cloud working. Nup. As soon as I leave the house, I just can not get the cloud sync working.
    At the moment, it creates the files, but they are all zero bytes. Not very helpful… and I have no idea how to fix it such that it actually writes the data after creating the file.

    Now, the frustrating part of all this is that Dropbox is 100 bucks a year, so I am now in the pocket for 3.5 years of dropbox, which ‘just works’ and I have nothing….. and this does not count my time, at roughly 10 hours, it’s lucky I work for free.

    The joys of being not just a baldgeek but thebaldgeek.


    📂This entry was posted in Computers 📎and tagged

  • Big drones downunder

    Posted on by beno Comment

    Sounds like the Australians are stepping up their drone game;

    https://dronedj.com/2018/11/15/american-drones-australian-military/

    “Defense Minister Christopher Pyne said Australia would buy 12 to 16 MQ-9B Reaper drones from Poway, Calif.-based General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc., becoming the first Asia-Pacific country to acquire the armed unmanned aircraft used by the U.S. military in the Middle East and Afghanistan.”

    “Mr. Pyne said Canberra was in talks with Papua New Guinea about basing warships at the country’s main naval port on Manus Island, on the southern approaches to the disputed South China Sea. Manus Island is a “very important strategic island for the southwest Pacific,” Mr. Pyne said. Australia this month said it would redevelop and expand the Lombrum Naval Base on the island, shutting out a rival offer from Beijing. The U.S. Navy said it may also use the base.”


    📂This entry was posted in drone