Avatar Issues

[Kellemora]

All I know about using that code is it clears only the CPU cache.
This is evident by the CPU monitor running in my top panel.
Right now it shows 18% used by programs, 42% used by cache.
OK, I just cleared it and it still shows 18% used by programs, 5% used by cache.
Where the CPU stores its cache is beyond me, but I know when you buy a CPU it tells how much cache it has.
So perhaps the cache storage is part of the CPU?

[yogi]

So perhaps the cache storage is part of the CPU?

L1 and L2 cache is indeed part of the processor. It's one of the specs you would be interested in if you had any idea what the hell is being stored in cache. LOL Actually they do a lot of prefetching of instructions and keep them in cache until the processor needs them. The more cache you have the more you can store instructions inside the processor where they can be fetched lickety-split. I don't know what cache you are monitoring but that Linux resource monitor doesn't have the SMART technology to look inside any of the components. I'm guessing it's RAM, but who knows for sure?

[Kellemora]

There are several Monitors, I only keep three of the windows open all the time in the panel.
The first window shows CPU History for all four cores, using a different color for each core.
This shows only the CPU % of usage.
The second window shows in a graph, RAM memory usage, and Swap File usage, which is always zero.
But in the graphical image, it shows CPU L1 memory usage, and CPU L2 memory usage.
If you hold your mouse on the window without clicking, it will pop-up and show how much CPU memory is used by programs, and how much is used by Cache and giving you a combined number for L1 and L2 as a percentage.
I have a third window that shows network traffic and on one machine with a small HD I have a window showing HD usage.
Right now, I'm using 24% RAM, 19% CPU programs, and 31% CPU Cache, I can clear what is in cache and it will read about 4% CPU Cache until I load another program.

I don't know what it is called, but I've seen a device about the size of an Echo Show or Schmartz-Fone size display that connects between your modem and router, and it shows network traffic in and out.
Now although I have Network traffic shown on each computer, it doesn't show all the traffic from the other computers.
Even though it has its own display, I think you can look at it through your LAN and see which computers are sending and receiving the most, and perhaps even set limits for them or control their speeds too.
I can't look it up without knowing what it is called. Couldn't find anything under Network Monitor other than references to Linux one in the panel.
I did find several companies selling software to monitor network activity, but unless they can read it from the cable I can't see how it would work. Did see one you could subscribe to for 15 bucks a month, but since me and the frau are the only ones using our computers, that type of service I don't need, hi hi.
But it would be nice to be able to see which of our devices, like the TV, Phone, Echo devices, and whatever else is using our WiFi. Hmm, I think I can look that up by looking at my Router already, hi hi.

[yogi]

You might want to get yourself a copy of Kali Linux. It's actually designed for penetration testing but there are a ton of network analysis programs built into the distro. A lot of that analysis and monitoring could be done with network CLI commands if you know what they are and how to use them. That's fundamentally how the Kali utilities work with an added front end in some cases. While I have looked into Kali and some of the tools they have, I can't say that I understand much of it. LOL You might also do some searching for network sniffers which typically are hardware devices but can be software. You can look at individual packets and read the source and destinations, if you know how; which I don't. All the traffic that you are interested in does indeed go through your router, but the best place to sniff is at the modem. Most routers I've seen can give a summary report of what device is doing what on the network, but unless you break into the firmware you can't get much detail.

[Kellemora]

With my old router, I had a logging program that once set up properly, showed every connection in or out of my computers.
It was quite detailed, showed the IP of the computer, the IP of the destination, and often with the name. It also showed any inbound connection I may not have initiated.
At first this logging program was a nightmare, adding thousands of connects per minute, hi hi.
But that was because I had not turned off LOCAL connections, so it showed every time the computers refreshed with the router or elsewhere on my LAN or on-line to like the weather service every 5 minutes.
But once it was set up right, I could spot if a program chose to connect to a website to send data that I was unaware of.
It allowed me to white list, and black list certain sites. Such as the AVAST virus detector on my wife's computer. It sends data out every time you do something, and a whole lot when you are not doing anything. Lots of data too, so they got blocked on my black list from sending out data, hi hi. Now she doesn't use Avast anymore!

My new router may have something similar to this, but I've not had any unusual activity that I know of since I installed the new router.

[yogi]

The trend I've seen in routers is to do away with user adjustments and make things as automated as possible. The router I'm using now denies me access to the firmware level of settings and only shows me various GUI's to look at the obvious. I can see anybody logged into my router, for example, and can block that MAC address. I cannot see all the pings coming from Russia or China or Iran however. I've read that there is open source firmware to replace what comes standard with most routers. That might be nice if I were more familiar with networks and how they work. For the time being I'll stick with the likes of Kali.

[Kellemora]

I just bought a new WiFi router to use as an access point in my office.
But it can be changed to be a normal router, a repeater, and a few other things.
I would have to get the book out again to see all it can do.
I was really surprised with all its features, since it was a cheap one.
Better ones are up in the 100 to 300 dollar range and this one was under 50 bucks.
Maybe it will have a short life span, hi hi.
I didn't check to see if this new one has logging capabilities or not.
But it does show who is connected and how much data they are using.

[yogi]

The routers approaching the $300 mark have features I suspect are not available in the cheaper offerings. MIMO technology, for example, allows multiple inputs and multiple outputs simultaneously instead of a single stream. This feature's value is only seen when several people on your LAN are streaming all at the same time. Dual bands are also high end options in addition to multiple Ethernet ports. All those usage features and filtering are actually firmware controlled and don't require any extra hardware. Most people don't understand routers well enough to appreciate what they can do or how to adjust the settings. I'm thinking router firmware is something like BIOS. It's the heart of what makes it all work but no two are the same and there is no way to evaluate them in advance.

[Kellemora]

I don't think there is a company out there that tells you what you really need to know to make an informed decision on buying their products. Even if they supply a spec sheet, so many details are missing.
This is why we got burned on the Win10 computer I bought for the frau.
They carefully use wording in a such a way you are not really getting what you think you are getting.
They claim expansion slots, but don't tell you they are already using them.
Same with Sata outlets, they claim two, but don't tell you both are in use, etc.

Ever notice car commercials tell you absolutely nothing about the car, hi hi.

[yogi]

Advertising in general is misleading. I won't go so far as to say they tell outright lies, because that would be illegal for them to do, but they do expect you to know more than what they are telling you. Computers in particular are very complex and not many regular consumers understand what is involved. Given that lack of understanding the marketing people say what they say because they don't want to confuse their potential customers with technical information. Thus, in a way, the marketers are telling their audience what they want to hear.

Automobiles are the classic example. Few people understand what they are buying, but they do know about monthly payments. So a car sells for so much a month instead of a (bogus) MSRP.

The secret so success is that you need to ask the right questions before you buy a product. The secret to success selling products is that nobody knows what to ask.

[Kellemora]

So true Yogi, so true!

Even back in the 70s and 80s we had to make vendors PUT IT IN WRITING when I asked about their product.
That way if it didn't come in exactly as described to us IN WRITING, we had a leg to stand on to refuse the order.

I actually learned to be leery of specifics when I got burned bad by Paper Mate company.
To make a long story short as possible: I developed a pen for those who do crossword puzzles.
I had made several for myself and used them for a couple of years until I had them perfected.
I had them made and put them on the market. Sold them for about 3 years before the FTC said I couldn't sell them anymore. They determined my eradicator part of the pen was toxic and children put things in their mouths. So I shut down, but didn't quit.
I designed a new ink that could be easily erased, even on newspaper type paper.
My design used a certain existing pen barrel made by Paper Mate but with some modifications.
I was actually stupid and didn't really know what I had invented.
I only wanted a pen that could be erased. Paper Mate said they would make AND SELL the pens for me.
They drew up a fancy contract that my lawyer looked over and said it was a great deal, based on the number of this type of pen they would probably sell.
When I was at the signing table, their lawyer said they would like to change ONE WORD in the contract, the reason being is they also sell refill cartridges and the way the contract reads, I would only be paid for the Pens Sold, but not for any refill cartridges for those or existing pens. They wanted to change the word PEN to UNIT, which at the time sounded OK to me, as I would still be paid per UNIT whether it was a pen or a refill.
Well, this was great for about three months, they paid like they should. BUT THEN they pulled a quick one. They transferred my contract from the Pen Division over to the Ink Division, and everything changed, suddenly I was not getting any money, only a few pennies a month.
My attorney talked to their attorney who said, I agreed to be paid by UNIT, not per pen.
However, a UNIT to the Ink Division is a 30 gallon carboy of Ink. A gazillion pens could be made from a 30 gallon carboy if ink. So basically I was left out in the cold over a single word.

HOWEVER: All was not lost. Paper Mate sold the contract to Bic Pen, and were charging Bic Pen PER PEN but based on my contract. I got wind of this, well actually my attorney did, and called Bic Pen and told them what Paper Mate did to me. Bic Pen was elated to learn of this! So Bic Pen did the same thing to Paper Mate, only paid them based on a Unit of Ink which was also a 30 gallon carboy. They saved a bundle, and as a reward, they send a check to my atty for 30 thousand dollars, of which he gave me 26 thousand out of it.

OK, here is the STUPID PART. My ink formula, at a different ratio, became the base for Whiteboard Markers, of which I got absolutely nothing for. Bummer!

And such is how my life has always gone, hi hi.

[yogi]

I agree that you got screwed by the pen companies, but there is a bright side. If you worked for Paper Mate you would have got nothing instead of the several thousands that you did get. As you know, when you invent something on company time, that invention belongs to them. I probably used your invention when I was more into crosswords that were printed in book format. I bought several of those erasable ink pens just for the purpose you made them.

While your story is unfortunate, I've heard it more than a few times. I've even heard of similar cases that were won over a misplaced or missing comma.

[Kellemora]

I didn't tell the whole long drawn out story, mainly because it is boring as all get out, hi hi.

Just like when I was trying to invent a plastic rod that worked like Red Line Glass, and everyone told me it was impossible.
It took me a couple of years to find the right plastic that might work, polysulfone is the plastic I used.
But I needed a plastic extrusion company who would allow their machine to run continuously in a meaningless loop, meaning the plastic would be extruded into a pipe that only went back into the plastic hopper and leave it running for six hours straight, before extruding it into long rods for me.
Needless to say, this made the price very high, since I tied up their machine all day.
After some experimentation I found I could get what I needed after the machine kept recycling the same material over for four hours. This did bring the cost down just a tad. But they didn't want to to it again for me. I found another guy with the same machine, and since I already had the attachments and he didn't have a lot of customers yet, he made my next batch of rods for me, about 6 months worth as we were starting Wonder Plants and sales were booming. He had moved by the time I needed the next batch, and he took my molds for my pots and liners with him, and for the rods. Tracked him down and had him run thousand of pots and liners, but he was busy now and couldn't do the rods, but knew someone who could. They were glad to get my huge order for rods, and did them exactly like I wanted them done and they all turned out perfect. I guess the reason is they let the machine run overnight so the plastic was going probably for well over 6 hours.
I couldn't afford to patent both the rods and my light/water meter, and I didn't really want to disclose how we made those rods either. But we did allow the guy who made them for me to make and sell them for other purposes. Which is actually where he made the most money from them. He sold them for large vats and storage tanks, in a larger diameter too.
The next time we needed rods made, he didn't charge us except for the plastic itself, not the labor or time on the machine.

[yogi]

The only place I can recall seeing red line glass is in those old time mercury filled oral thermometers. I'm sure there are many other uses for it, but I've not been exposed to them. Now that I think about it, I h ave seen such things in aquariums too. There's probably a bigger market for this stuff than I would expect, but why go to plastic if it's so darn expensive to manufacturer? You have some very specialized interests that lead to your inventions. I should not be surprised at your creativity because that's what inventors are made of.

[Kellemora]

Ooops wait, there is more than one meaning for Red Line Glass, hi hi.
I just did a quick Google search for Red Line Glass and yes the term normally refers to Pyrex Glass tubing.

When referring to Optical usage, Red Line Glass means the grain of the glass is oriented lengthwise to give it clear optical properties, such as use in Fiber Optics.
If you stack up several layers of glass, you will see that it become green and eventually opaque.
If the glass is pulled into a long strand, it would do the same thing, become green and opaque, which means it could not be used for Fiber Optics either.

OK, there are two types of boiler tubes, both called Red Line Glass.
The first type is a hollow tube and is used to see the water level inside the boiler, because it is outside the boiler and is fed top and bottom from ports into the boiler forming a continuous loop.
The second type is a Solid Glass Tube that is fitted in the top of the boiler. The bottom of the rod is cut into a cone and the top of the rod is flat. Ambient light in the room will travel down the optical glass to the cone shaped bottom. If this cone is down in the water, no light will reflect back, but if the water is below the bottom of the rod, light will reflect back and make the top appear light instead of black.
Only Red Line Glass can be used to make this type of optical tube, because it is clear throughout the length of the rod, not greenish and doesn't become opaque on longer rods.

The cost of Red Line solid glass optical rods is very expensive, and I NEEDED such for my LIght/Water meter with no moving parts to get clogged or jammed up with root fines.
I could never sell my hydroculture planting system with a plant for 12 bucks if I was paying 50 bucks for the glass rods to make the meter, hi hi.

Most hydroculture units use a Float style water level indicator.
It consists of a hollow tube, a hollow ball with a rod affixed to the ball, and a smaller clear top over the hollow tube where you can view the rod above the pot.
Because the ball and rod have weight, it will show a pot as empty, when there is still about a half-inch of water in the bottom of the pot. For this reason, they design their inner pots to rest 1/4 to 1/2 inch off the bottom of the outer pot.
This meter only tells you if the plant needs water or not, it doesn't tell you if the plant is getting enough light for where you placed the plant.

My light/water meter unit had no moving parts, and the rods were sized for the type of plants we were selling. So if you could not see the top rod lit up the plant was not getting enough light.
Two other rods told you when the nutrient level was full or below optimum.

In order to make such a meter affordable, I had to invent a way to make them with plastic.

[yogi]

The red line glass I looked up made sense to be labeled as such and I had no reason to think there was an alternative. I didn't know your application and had no reason to question the term. There must be something I don't know about the glass you needed in order for the name red line to be appropriate. You also mentioned that the plastic version of your tubes was very expensive to produce. Apparently not more expensive than the glass version. The green tint in glass is due to iron oxide impurities. You are correct to say it would never do for fiber optic applications but there are other considerations besides clarity when we talk about transmission cables.

The idea behind your light/water meter was a stroke of genius. I have never thought about it but apparently the light gets deflected away from the glass tube when the tube is submerged.

[Kellemora]

Not bragging, but I was always able to think outside the box. Find products used in another industry and apply them to cure a problem in the industry I was working in.
There are a few low cost items on the market today that most people don't bother to buy and should have on hand.
In fact, a few of them should be built into cars, it would save calling Triple A for a few things.
Especially with today's technology and miniaturized high-power items.
For example: My wife and I carry in our cars a super-modern jumper for if the battery goes dead.
We've had the old larger heavy ones, that always seem to be dead when you need them, and also the batteries in them go bad too, and usually do, so are often a waste of money.
But the devices they have today are small, about the size of two cigarette packs side by side.
I can jump at least six cars with dead batteries before I have to charge up the unit, and it stays fully charged for at least six months before it drops down only one bar.
Another thing would be something similar to what motorcycles have always had, a reserve.
In the case of motorcycles, it is only a valve you keep closed, so the gas tank cannot be drained all the way. If you run out of gas you can flip the switch and get going again with a couple of pints of fuel in the reserve.
You can ruin today's cars by letting them run out of gas. And the dash indicator that says LOW or the readout that estimates how many miles you have left is rarely accurate. But they are trying.
One of the tractor-trailers I drove, although most have dual fuel tanks, also had dual fuel filter systems.
If a fuel filter clogged up, we could reach under the dash and turn a valve, and the fuel would go to the second fuel filter instead. I had to use that feature only once, but it saved my butt from freezing to death.

I think I mentioned the belt and pulley system used to carry paperwork from the shop up to the office without having to go outside or up and down stairs before. It was a super simple device OSHA would scream at hi hi.

[yogi]

I didn't realize those emergency battery packs came down in size to the extent you describe. Turning over that starter motor takes a hella lot of amps, but for a short duration of time. Two packs of cigarettes worth of battery might do it if the car starts immediately. But six times I am duly impressed. That would be a handy thing to keep in the car's tool kit but in my case it would hardly ever be used. I can only think of two times that the battery in the car would not start the motor because it had outlived its useful life. Fortunately, both times it was in the garage of my house.

The first incident had to be in excess of forty years ago. I used our second car to go buy a battery charger. This charger could charge 6 or 12 volt car batteries. I don't even recall having a 6 volt battery in a car, but apparently it was standard at some time. I used that charger to get the car over to the battery store and can't say I used it much since; not that I remember anyway. The second incident was a couple months ago when the weather was cold and snowy here in Missouri. Wife's Toyota would not crank. Instead of jumpering her car with the Saturn parked right next to it, I dug out that old battery charger, which was still set to 6 volt charging. LOL I flipped it to 12 volts and let it sit on her battery for a few hours. The damned thing worked beautifully. Her battery came back to life and the engine started. I could hardly believe that old charger still worked, but it did. Unfortunately her battery could no longer hold a charge so that we had to buy a replacement.

I don't have an emergency tool kit in the Saturn. I guess I'm tempting Fate, but the only thing I worry about is that donut they call a spare tire. Like the battery charger it rarely needs to be used and when you need it the air pressure has gone down to make it unusable anyway. I've replaced tires often enough but never have that donut checked. The last and only time I had to use it on the Saturn we were up in Iowa stranded. The tow truck that came by had to fill the tire to 50 psi so that we could drive 50 miles on it. Apparently 50 miles is it's designed life expectancy, assuming you are driving under 50 mph. I must have use up half of that in that emergency and probably would do well to have it replaced. If I do go through that trouble, I'm thinking I will get a full sized tire in it's place.

[Kellemora]

I only buy two year batteries now, because they seem to last for 1-1/2 years and are then replaced under warranty for free, hi hi. The Blazer I bought new in 1997 that I wrecked, had a short in the computer that prevented it from shutting down something while the car was parked, so it was draining my battery fast. I had a kill switch installed to the computer which helped.
I have the exact same make and model Blazer I bought used to replace mine. Took a year to find one too, but I prevailed! I only use my car about once a week, if that often, so since it has an automatic start feature, on Saturday mornings when I go up to the office, I hit the remote starter and let it fire up. These sudden cold snaps and it wouldn't start. So I got in the habit of starting it on Wednesday and Saturday, hi hi. That worked for awhile. But then a couple of weeks ago, I decided to go buy a new battery. Naturally it didn't have one of their batteries in it, so I had to buy a new one. However, when they went to ring me out, they saw how much I spent there and decided to knock 25 bucks off the price of the battery. That was a good deal, especially considering how much they have gone up.

I've had all kinds of battery jumper units, some even with emergency lights and radio, hi hi.
But as I said, they never held up for very long. I do have a few battery chargers too, some of them quite old.
My wife is who bought the first of these tiny little car starters, and I thought to myself, more money wasted, hi hi.
The first time I used it was to start my lawn mower last spring. Fired right up!
It just sat in the garage, not plugged up nearly all summer. I happen to see it and took it out of the carrying case and it showed it was only down one bar after nearly six months of sitting.
The frau's bro-in-law called me to go give him a jump, he was at the doctors office and left the lights on in his car. He had jumper cables. I grabbed that little box and though, this would be a good test for it. By now it was two bars down. I hooked it up and his truck fired right up, no sweat, it was still down only two bars after the jump.
I did plug it up and let it get charged back up again, then put it back in the case. Afterward we put it in the frau's car, after all it was her device, hi hi.
Come winter and I had to use it a few times myself to get my car going after it sat for weeks not being started.
Worked perfectly. Also had a call from a neighbor, another one from bro-in-law, and one of the frau's aunts boys, all on the same morning when we dipped down to 20 degrees the other day. We took the frau's car to go to each and give them a jump using that little thing, and all three fired right up.
When we got home, the frau got on-line and ordered one so I would have one in my car.
Let me go out and get the name of it for you, it is great!
The name is Halo AC/DC BOLT, let me see if it is online.
Here ya go, but don't buy it from QVC at that price. They only cost 50 bucks for this size. Walmart sells one for 40 bucks but it is only 55000 mAh. Ours are like 58830 mAh. I've seen them sold for 150 bucks also, crazy!

I have seen a lot of bad review regarding it. But as many times as we have used it to jump cars between charges, I think it is great. What is not so great is the 120 volt outlet, its limit is 65 watts is all, and only lasts about a half hour on a 60 watt bulb, we tested it to see. Now on a LED bulb it will last a few hours. It does charge cell phones and other things using a USB port, so is handy that way too. But as far as car starting power, we are more than pleased with it.

One other thing, just so I never have to change a tire for a simple flat. I carry a tire plugging kit in my car too, along with a fix-a-flat and a battery powered air pump. I prefer not to use the fix-a-flat except as last resort.

[Kellemora]

Ooops forgot the link to QVC above. But don't buy from there, grossly overpriced!

https://www.qvc.com/qvc.product.E232944 ... U4QAvD_BwE