WWW Code For Sale as NFT

The is the core forum of BFC. It's all about informal and random talk on any topic.
Forum rules
Post a new topic to begin a chat.
Any topic is acceptable, and topic drift is permissible.
User avatar
Kellemora
Guardian Angel
Guardian Angel
Posts: 7494
Joined: 16 Feb 2015, 17:54

Re: WWW Code For Sale as NFT

Post by Kellemora »

I have a few large SD cards, and they are fast, much faster than a Sata Drive.
I always thought things put on a CD would last forever, until I had many CDs begin to rot on me.
While my old 5-1/4 floppies still worked great. Never liked 3-1/2 floppies. They lost way to much data way to quick.
Copying my old 5-1/4 floppies over to CDs turned out not to be such a good idea since the CDs started to rot.

The NTFS file system is the only one I know of that needs defragged because of the way it works.
It works like a daisy chain, and each change to a file gets appended to the open end of the drives files, not the end of the actual file it belongs with. Not a very smart way of storing data if you ask me.
Since I knew it worked this way, I normally saved file changes as a new file so it stayed together. After I had a few of them, I would go back and delete the older ones. That space was then reused, so when I did run defrag it ran super fast.

I think wireless storage for important files could be disastrous. Any wifi computer could connect to it, including hackers, hi hi.

Eons ago when I was doing photograph restorations for folks, I used really large files to keep them sharp.
Sometimes only one would fit on a CD, or it could take 7 to 10 floppies to hold a single image. One would have to install all those floppies onto a HD in order to see the image.
Besides the HiRes image I used for doing the work, I also provided the customer with a few other resolutions. One for use on the web, one for printing, and one moderately HiRes for themselves. Unless they wanted the super HiRes I used to do the actual repairing work on.
There were some repairs where I actually had to work on them a pixel at a time because the provided image resolution was so low. I also made several favicons by hand working with only 16x16 pixels. So happy when they came out with better tools, hi hi.
User avatar
yogi
Posts: 9978
Joined: 14 Feb 2015, 21:49

Re: WWW Code For Sale as NFT

Post by yogi »

Like us old timers, a computer's memory deteriorates over time. I'd venture to guess that is true of all storage media, but some take longer to deteriorate than others. I know what you are saying about CD disks. When they first came out the new technology looked like it should be amenable to permanent storage. I think perhaps that is true, but the material upon which the data is stored is not permanent. The latest trend seems to be solid state storage, but there are warnings all over the place about it's mean time between failures and exactly how long the medium will retain it's storage capacity. The problem there is that several different techniques are used and some devices will last 3 hours while others will last 3 years, all of them being USB flash memory. I don't know that there is a safe storage media. I thought my NAS with it's specially designed hard drive would outlast every other device I use. I was getting warnings about bad sectors being excessive after only a few years. I had to replace the hard drive and moving all that data from a dying device to a brand new one was more challenging than I expected. Thus, the best approach is to re-store your archives onto fresh media.every few years. I wonder if that's how Google does it.
User avatar
Kellemora
Guardian Angel
Guardian Angel
Posts: 7494
Joined: 16 Feb 2015, 17:54

Re: WWW Code For Sale as NFT

Post by Kellemora »

Some of the very first CDs I had, had a layer of plastic over the metal foil.
Then they stopped doing that for some reason.
I know I ruined some CDs by writing on them with a permanent marker, a REAL permanent marker like the old push tip Sanfords.
If I went back over my writing to make it darker, it made the metal foil melt and come off, thus destroying the disk.
After I saw that happen, I only bought CDs that had either a painted on coating, or a printable paper coating on them.
The humidity in my office is sometimes up to 65% and I think that is what did in many of my CDs I had stored on the shelves, in plastic boxes for 5-1/4 floppies I still use, hi hi.

I've been carrying the very first SD Stick I ever bought in my pocket now for years, on my keychain.
It still works and reads everything on it with no errors.
I often use it when I scan a document on the scanner/printer to move the image to my computer.
I think it was only like 4gb. I had four 8gb sticks I used for a few years at my desks, 2 were on the accounting desk, and 2 on this desk. It was faster to copy a large file to the SD stick to move it to another computer, than to do it over the LAN.
I then used 2 of those from my desk to send things to my son via mail. And the 2 on the computer desk just stopped working.
They were the least used, so I don't know what happened to them. I forget what error messages I was getting, but it was like not formatted, or not readable. I decided to reformat them, and I must have not done it properly and ruined them.
I bought a single 16gb stick to replace them. Then later I bought four 32gb sticks that are basically unused at all.
The reason I bought them was to store images to pass on to my son, but four of them were not enough to hold all the images in my files. So I just deleted all the files from them and put them back in the box. Thinking later I would make smaller files for him and just never got A Round TUIT!

I think my wife got ripped off when she bought one for cheap claimed to have 250gb storage. She only put like 40 gigs on it and it showed full. I looked at it and it has 250gb on it with the other printing.
I think you mentioned something about this farce a year or two ago.
User avatar
Kellemora
Guardian Angel
Guardian Angel
Posts: 7494
Joined: 16 Feb 2015, 17:54

Re: WWW Code For Sale as NFT

Post by Kellemora »

Boy am I glad I hit Ctrl-A Ctrl-C before I tried to send that. After I hit Submit, Send Timed Out.
Strange things going on today Yogi!
User avatar
yogi
Posts: 9978
Joined: 14 Feb 2015, 21:49

Re: WWW Code For Sale as NFT

Post by yogi »

I too am glad you did not lose your post. I've not noticed anything particularly slow or odd about this website today and I can't imagine why things would time out. Then, too, we are on a shared server. Those other folks slow things down for us once in a while and sometimes that kind of interruption is very short lived.

It just so happens I have the very first flash memory stick I bought too. It's from Sony and sitting here on my desk. It has a 4 GB capacity and a blue LED that flashes when data is being transferred. The reason I bought it, probably a dozen or more years ago, was that a lot of people were calling me to fix their computer problems. I put every diagnostic program I could find on that stick and took it with me when I made house calls. I guess it turned out to be my own version of Knoppix, but for Windows computers. LOL I also kept the current version of several popular programs on that stick, such as browsers and Libre Office. I can still read from it today. Probably can write to it as well but I have no need to test it out at the moment.

The transistors used for flash memory sticks are not like your typical silicon transistors. They are what is called a floating gate MOSFET. That means the gate of the FET's is not connected to the conducting channel; it's floating. The electrons thus tunnel their way through the gate. The best analogy I can make is the flow of water by osmosis verse flow though a hose. Osmosis uses a membrane to filter the water and that membrane has a finite lifetime of usefulness. So it is with floating gate MOSFET's. Once that barrier membrane gets used up (or breaks down) the transistor no longer holds its charge and cannot be used as a memory cell. That membrane deteriorates regardless of whether the transistor is being actively used or not. Using it by changing it's state is the most common way to accelerate the breakdown of the barrier which is why they say only so many r/w operations can be made on a given device. When you format the memory (or attempt to defrag the data on it) that puts a huge strain on those floating gates, and as you noted that can destroy the stick altogether.

TMI, I know. But it's been a while since I gave a technical lecture. :mrgreen:
User avatar
Kellemora
Guardian Angel
Guardian Angel
Posts: 7494
Joined: 16 Feb 2015, 17:54

Re: WWW Code For Sale as NFT

Post by Kellemora »

A time out usually doesn't cause lost data, because you get back to your send screen again. So that's good.
And as a safety, I had saved a copy before hitting the submit button. I did this because I noticed a lag as I was typing also.

Only the newest 32 gig sticks I bought have an LED in them.
Can't really tell it on the black one though since they are inside the case.

Those SD cards used in telephones must have a super long life.
I say that because my wife has upgraded to new Schmartz-Fonz several times now and they always have her take the card out of her old phone to put into her new phone. Same with my little Flip-Fone, except I had to get a new chip when we changed providers. My old Flip-Fone didn't have a removable SD card.

I probably still have my multi-size SD card reader around here somewhere.
It came with plastic holders you could put smaller size SD cards in too.
Or in the case of the super tiny ones, they slipped into the end of larger plastic holder that had it's own contacts inside and outside for the slots in the device.

You do an excellent job of explaining how some things work, and in a way I easily understand the concepts.
User avatar
yogi
Posts: 9978
Joined: 14 Feb 2015, 21:49

Re: WWW Code For Sale as NFT

Post by yogi »

Thank you for your compliment. One of the things I miss most about working for a living is the social interaction. Most of the time I was in the lab making something that other people would be using to test radios. Those "other" people were about as diverse as you can imagine. Some were not familiar with English and those that were didn't always have a good education or understanding of what they were doing. I can't describe the joy I got from seeing light bulbs suddenly glow above the heads of those factory people after I explained what they had to do and more or less why. In addition to that being part of my job I also had to be capable of understanding very complex equipment and fixing it when it didn't function properly. My brain really got a good workout when I worked for Motorola. It's been many years since I did all that explaining, and in my retirement nobody I knew would understand what I'm going on about anyway. You are one of the few virtual friends I have, and one who actually has the ability to understand my ramblings. I'm actually grateful for the opportunity to share my knowledge. And, of course, you must know by now that all I say may not be pure science, logical, or factual. But, apparently, it sounds good or reads well. :grin:

The only timeout messages I've seen on this website have to do with the inability to connect to the server. Almost every time it's the server hesitating and not my computer. You say you got the timeout message, but also that the post was made. Those two are mutually exclusive so that I don't know how it all happened.

I've read more than a few times that flash memory these days meet or exceed the life expectancy of mechanical hard drives. I know that's true in the case of the SSD from which I run Windows 7. It was born in the Silver Yogi and is still going strong in this black box tower. Crystal Disk Info tells me there is at least 85% life left after I don't recall how many terabytes of data movement. Apparently those memory sticks are not made the same way as are the hard drive versions of such.
User avatar
Kellemora
Guardian Angel
Guardian Angel
Posts: 7494
Joined: 16 Feb 2015, 17:54

Re: WWW Code For Sale as NFT

Post by Kellemora »

Well your informative ramblings are most appreciated at this end of the wire!

I know what you mean. about 85% of our employees in the greenhouses when I was young were all of German descent.
Many of them just barely knew English. Most of them had menial jobs like placing cuttings into clay pots, and/or toting filled flats and setting them out in the flower benches. We would take our most active employees who excelled and gave them more challenging jobs, many actually got into the developmental areas of our greenhouses where we did hybridization of plants.
We did a lot of grafting work to develop rose bushes to sell. And many could not grasp that the graft had to line up perfectly in order to take. One fellow who didn't speak a lick of English, and normally got his instructions from a supervisor, was doing poorly on making grafts that took. He did a good job of making a tight graft, but almost always had the wrong size graft into the base.
I brought my microscope to work to show him what had to line up perfectly in the graft.
But first I started with a jar and several lids that didn't fit the jars, the kind that used the rubber ring as a seal.
He picked up on what I was showing him real quick, and then I pulled out the microscope and let him look at graft cut he made into the root base stock trunk to see the little white line, then I had him look at the new graft he just trimmed.
Then I took a jar lid and half of the rubber ring and held it over the lip of the jar lid.
Once I did all of that, every single one of his grafts were done perfectly, and the failure rate was less than any other experienced employee.

Sometimes when I make a post, and get the time out message, when it clears it jumps me to the full editor.
My text is still there and when I try to hit submit, it says I cannot post again so quickly.
So I save the text and reopen the page, and I will see my text is either still there or already sent and appears as sent.
At least when that happens it usually gives me a chance to save my work to the clipboard.

When they replaced the cash registers where Debi works, they also replaced the server that runs them, and the new server is all solid state, no moving parts. I've never seen it myself, but I'm sure it uses SSD drives or they couldn't claim all solid state.
User avatar
yogi
Posts: 9978
Joined: 14 Feb 2015, 21:49

Re: WWW Code For Sale as NFT

Post by yogi »

Now that you gave me a little more detail, I too have seen timeout messages that allow me to save my posting text. The connection obviously drops while you are editing your post, which is possible because that is just a form that is cached in the browser and not on the server. In my case I save it to a text editor before I try to submit it again. There have been times when the connection fails for 15-20 minutes. Having that text file copy is a life saver in those instances. I have to guess at why some posts take and your editor does not clear. There must be a fraction of a second when the connection to the server is made and the pending [submit} instruction is accepted. That brief connection window is when the post is made but it is too brief for your browser to get the acknowledgement from the server. It makes sense, but I am just guessing.

The only grafting I ever did was with ficus elastica. I read somewhere how to do it to propagate the plant. It involved putting a slit in the stalk and inserting the graft into that slit along with some rooting compound. Then it all had to be wrapped with Sphagnum peat and covered with plastic wrap. I grafted five onto a healthy plant my very first attempt. They all took to my amazement. I ended up potting the rooted grafts and selling them at a garage sale. LOL That's the entire extent of my experience with plant grafts.

And, I would not doubt that mechanical drives are being deprecated. However servers still have moving parts, i.e., the cooling fans. Even though they are solid state, those little buggers still get hot.
User avatar
ocelotl
Posts: 268
Joined: 18 Feb 2015, 04:49

Re: WWW Code For Sale as NFT

Post by ocelotl »

Either cooling fans or huge heat dissipators mounted. Typically in computers they don't use huge heat dissipators, they take a lot of space and still accumulate dust. Haven't tried grafting so don't really know... Maybe the timeout message you get depends on the connection route to the board server. It may depend on the location where the server is housed. I've never got a timeout message while answering, and I'm almost certain that I'm farther away from the server location than either of you and connecting through a different path.
User avatar
yogi
Posts: 9978
Joined: 14 Feb 2015, 21:49

Re: WWW Code For Sale as NFT

Post by yogi »

I think the server caches incoming requests. People who execute DDoS attacks try to take advantage of that cache and overflow it. Our actual HTTP server software may not be able to accept client requests because it is busy doing other things for people on our shared machine. Those "other" tasks may or may not consume 100% of the server time and any gaps in service would allow pending requests to come through. That doesn't mean they would be processed correctly while under heavy load. Juan too makes a good point about routing. Your browser's request may take one path to the server but the return data might come down some other path. And, yes, it is possible that Gary's request in Knoxville might make a side trip to Mexico City, then to Seattle, then to Chicago, and finally to New York where our server is located, all the while Juan's request goes directly to Atlanta and is forwarded to New York. The timing of those reroutes is in the millisecond range and normally not noticeable to us average folks. That's why I am highly suspicious of the server itself.
User avatar
Kellemora
Guardian Angel
Guardian Angel
Posts: 7494
Joined: 16 Feb 2015, 17:54

Re: WWW Code For Sale as NFT

Post by Kellemora »

Well, I'm in East Podunk, TN, on Comcast who has not upgraded their equipment yet from Commodore-64s and Trash-80s, hi hi.

Remember back in the days of Net Lag? Well, they are keeping such nostalgia alive and well down here!
Even our TVs, if on Comcast Cable, you will often have a show stop or freeze up and see the spinning wheel as it tries to load more into the buffer. Very annoying! My wife just switched the TV service back to Comcast from DirecTV, and now she remembers why she left Comcast TV for DirecTV, hi hi.

A number of years ago, I had a program that showed all the hops my signal made from my computer to the destination.
It was mind boggling how many different paths it would take, even during the same session.
I wonder if they still have a program like that?
User avatar
yogi
Posts: 9978
Joined: 14 Feb 2015, 21:49

Re: WWW Code For Sale as NFT

Post by yogi »

The program to see all the hops is part of the Linux (any just about every other) OS.
From the Linux command line (Bash) simply enter the command traceroute <domain name> OR <IP address>
it will keep executing until you hit ctrl+C
The following is what it took to get here from one of my virtual boxes:

Code: Select all

dennis@VB-dennis:~$ traceroute brainformation.com
traceroute to brainformation.com (216.85.168.253), 64 hops max
  1   [my IP address]  0.314ms  0.248ms  0.241ms 
  2   *  *  * 
  3   96.34.53.12  8.944ms  9.077ms  9.407ms 
  4   96.34.76.158  10.929ms  9.566ms  9.456ms 
  5   96.34.2.164  10.131ms  9.661ms  9.377ms 
  6   96.34.0.12  18.997ms  15.976ms  15.723ms 
  7   96.34.3.11  15.460ms  14.997ms  15.849ms 
  8   4.68.127.133  16.413ms  16.239ms  15.659ms 
  9   *  *  * 
 10   *  *  * 
 11   35.248.3.242  21.436ms  21.838ms  21.914ms 
 12   207.235.73.38  24.082ms  24.998ms  24.882ms 
 13   *  *  * 
 14   *  *  * 
 15   *  *  * 
^C
dennis@VB-dennis:~$ ^C
dennis@VB-dennis:~$ 
 
If you really want to explore the possibilities, here's a link for how to use some of the traceroute options
https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/tracerout ... -examples/
User avatar
ocelotl
Posts: 268
Joined: 18 Feb 2015, 04:49

Re: WWW Code For Sale as NFT

Post by ocelotl »

My link shows like this under Win 10 Power Shell:

Code: Select all

PS C:\Users\JJGB> tracert brainformation.com

Traza a la dirección brainformation.com (Brainformation server)
sobre un máximo de 30 saltos:

  1     1 ms     1 ms     1 ms  (my ip)
  2     7 ms     8 ms     2 ms  dsl-servicio-l200.uninet.net.mx [200.38.193.226]
  3    51 ms    51 ms    51 ms  bb-la-onewilshire-16-be4.uninet.net.mx [201.125.72.46]
  4    48 ms    44 ms    44 ms  las-b24-link.ip.twelve99.net [213.155.141.10]
  5     *        *        *     Tiempo de espera agotado para esta solicitud.
  6     *        *        *     Tiempo de espera agotado para esta solicitud.
  7   111 ms    98 ms   102 ms  det1-ar1-ae20-0.us.twtelecom.net [35.248.3.242]
  8   102 ms   102 ms   102 ms  207-235-73-38.static.ctl.one [207.235.73.38]
  9   102 ms   102 ms   102 ms  web21.3essentials.com (Brainformation server)
  
Traza completa.
I'm realizing that yours have a lot more jump to get to the trunk line in Los Ángeles (35.248.3.242). It may be that since yours is considered a "local" link, and mine an "international" one, the relay route was taken differently, being one a billiard hop among trunk servers within the US and the other first loaded to an international trunk and then delivered to a US based main hub before routed to the server... By the way, it seems that the server IP is linked to a suspicious geographical location, Dennis, not to the physical location of the server, that's why I hid it.
User avatar
yogi
Posts: 9978
Joined: 14 Feb 2015, 21:49

Re: WWW Code For Sale as NFT

Post by yogi »

By the way, it seems that the server IP is linked to a suspicious geographical location, Dennis, not to the physical location of the server, that's why I hid it.
In my example I stated our server was located in New York. It is in North Carolina, not New York. I apologize for the confusion there.

I'd be happy to look over any suspicious data you happen to have. I was using a Linux virtual machine for the traceroute query. I'm not sure the trace completed entirely so that something may be missing from the printout. I did a tracert in the Windows terminal and got pretty much the same result that you show. The trace completed successfully there.

I also got a third party's opinion. I don't see anything out of the ordinary in the Netcraft report, but I could be missing something.
https://sitereport.netcraft.com/?url=ht ... #ssl_table
User avatar
ocelotl
Posts: 268
Joined: 18 Feb 2015, 04:49

Re: WWW Code For Sale as NFT

Post by ocelotl »

Domain info free and ipinfo.io showed me a couple of different locations, but anyway, you must know best where's your data...
User avatar
yogi
Posts: 9978
Joined: 14 Feb 2015, 21:49

Re: WWW Code For Sale as NFT

Post by yogi »

As far as I know the information from Netcraft is accurate. I would be very concerned if the traced route indicated a diversion to a suspicious IP address prior to reaching the hosting service. At least from this desk I found no such red flags.
User avatar
Kellemora
Guardian Angel
Guardian Angel
Posts: 7494
Joined: 16 Feb 2015, 17:54

Re: WWW Code For Sale as NFT

Post by Kellemora »

gary@SilverYogi10:~$ traceroute brainformation.com
traceroute to brainformation.com (216.85.168.253), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
1 _gateway (192.168.1.1) 0.674 ms 1.003 ms 1.313 ms
2 172.27.35.1 (172.27.35.1) 5.917 ms 6.069 ms 6.193 ms
3 96.120.108.61 (96.120.108.61) 17.379 ms 17.673 ms 17.808 ms
4 96.110.189.61 (96.110.189.61) 18.860 ms 19.036 ms 19.152 ms
5 68.85.171.93 (68.85.171.93) 18.211 ms 18.525 ms 19.409 ms
6 162.151.94.93 (162.151.94.93) 45.273 ms 21.358 ms 17.821 ms
7 4.68.72.73 (4.68.72.73) 18.820 ms 24.996 ms 24.669 ms
8 * * *
9 * * *
10 det1-ar1-ae20-0.us.twtelecom.net (35.248.3.242) 44.264 ms 44.077 ms 43.728 ms
11 207-235-73-38.static.ctl.one (207.235.73.38) 45.928 ms 40.765 ms 40.444 ms
12 * * *
13 * * *

I forgot about using that in terminal, hi hi.
User avatar
yogi
Posts: 9978
Joined: 14 Feb 2015, 21:49

Re: WWW Code For Sale as NFT

Post by yogi »

Looks like we al lend up in the same place but take much different routes to get there.
Pretty normal I'd say.
User avatar
Kellemora
Guardian Angel
Guardian Angel
Posts: 7494
Joined: 16 Feb 2015, 17:54

Re: WWW Code For Sale as NFT

Post by Kellemora »

If I checked it again, I'll bet the route is a different one.
I remember back when I was playing with a similar program, the path changed with nearly every message I sent to the same person.
Post Reply