Google, you’re trippin’

I suddenly started getting warnings from Google about an increase in 404 errors crawling this site. The last time this happened it was due to memory exhaustion and the Linux kernel impolitely terminating mysqld to rescue the system’s stability.

image

This time, I’m at a loss to explain it. Google somehow indexed a ton of pages from gallery.kg4cyx.net as being on kg4cyx.net or in kg4cyx.net/gallery. In short, it saw right through my vhosts and it just doesn’t work that way.

image

The heck happened?!

What in the anaerobic hell?!

How. How does this even manage to happen??

image
Guess you can even mess up an ancient, time tested method of food preservation.

Also, ever noticed just how rapidly Walgreens abandoned efforts to become a wannabe grocery store chain? I guess the reality sank in really quickly that this is the best they could manage in terms of perishable product quality with their oddball supply chain, and they pulled out the refrigerator cases as quickly as they’d thrown them in.

Nope.

The strange tale of the broken Easy Card.

Oh hi. What nonsense is this?

image

This is what my easy card looks like on a Tri-Rail ticket machine right now. On a Miami-Dade Transit machine, it looks the same but also shows “day pass… Pending” in the bottom pass list.

No matter what kind of pass I load to this card, it will fail to be activated on first use, and will lead to a negative cash balance for the amount of the regular fare for whatever I rode. The display on the bus fare box or rail station gate reads “Transfer 12:00 AM” when this happens.

The card also won’t let me add to its nonsense negative cash value, so it’s now useless.

I’ve spent $17.05 today so far on the day pass that got stuck in limbo, individual fares on each bus (the card won’t work for bus transfers in this state!), Metrorail parking, and a new Easy Card with one Metrorail fare on it that will replace this broken piece of 💩 that keeps eating my passes.

What is going on here?! I’ve never heard of this happening to anyone else’s Easy Card, so I’m guessing I have a unique and beautiful corrupted snowflake here. The customer service staff don’t understand it either.

I wonder what to do with this card. Send it to MDT so maybe they can work with Cubic Corporation to identify the fault and roll out a software fix*? Microwave it? Will It Blend?

What even is this card?! That’s like asking, “what are birds?” … We don’t even know.

And maybe $17.05 was still worth not having to drive through the boat show traffic.

* this is about as likely to happen as one of the buses running on schedule, or the Prog Stom Assy still working properly on a train. Also, MDT will likely not respond to this post, as their response to me asking for information or reporting issues via social media was to block me, so far on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. MDT blocks: Gotta Catch Em All.
Ⓜ🚂🚃🔩💩🌀🚃🚧⚠💫

Bonus silliness:
This is what the Train Tracker has to say. No clue.

image

But at least it’s bullet resistant. TAX DOLLARS GO WHERE ??

image

HF antenna fail.

Before using any conductive objects, LOOK UP. If there are power lines nearby OR within range such that the object could fall and hit them on the way down, STOP!!!

Otherwise the whole world will laugh at you after you EXPLODE your radio and knock out power to a fairly large area…

Image by WU2F, link to Reddit thread.

Fail
Oh sure the antenna’s DC grounded, it’ll be fine

 

The ham responsible all but vaporized a nice Flex Radio HF transceiver, power supply, and the electrical wiring in his camper. LUCKILY, nobody was injured, but it could VERY VERY EASILY have been much worse. You don’t get a second chance with contacting power lines.

For extra lulz, let’s see if he tries to sell this radio for what it’s ‘wurf’ on eBay in the future. 😉

Surplus market blues

image
Well they seemed like a good idea at the time

These relays contain a diode in series with the 12 volt DC coil.

No, not in parallel (used to stop back emf from shooting out transistors driving the relay coil) — series.

Connect the coil up backwards and nothing happens.

I have never seen this configuration before and no, of course I didn’t notice it *after* wiring four of them backwards then wondering why all four appeared bad.

If the issue had been parallel diodes, my current limited bench supply would have just gone into constant current foldback at like .6 volt and 200mA and thus alerted me to the problem… But it couldn’t be that easy now could it?

Are we the next Flint?

It won’t be quite that bad… But we may be facing a serious water supply issue here in South Florida before long.

Currently, the water level in Lake Okeechobee has been raised artificially one inch by backpumping heavily polluted farm runoff into it. This has caused algal and bacterial blooms, and residents living near flood gates where the water churns through and gets thrown into droplets are getting sick from the fumes. The South Florida Water Management District is getting ready to release this water at high velocity down canals to protect the heavily degraded Herbert Hoover Dike around the lake.

Oops.

So, anyone else remember a few years back when a severe drought left water intakes in the lake exposed and sucking air, and those intakes were revealed to be the water source for some urban areas in Palm Beach County?

Also, anyone else remember the fact that there is a big unexplained cancer cluster in The Acreage, in western Palm Beach County?

Gee. I wonder.

While we aren’t exactly going to be seeing residents outright acutely poisoned by their water, we’re not in great shape.

The blame can be very squarely placed upon the sugar farming industry and the Florida state government for prioritizing their sweet, sweet sugar money over the safety and well-being of the state’s residents.

What a mess. Don’t forget to flush.

toilet

RF safety? What’s that? WMBM-AM’s tower.

No no of course not, you can’t burn things with RF unless they’re inside the microwave.

Presenting WMBM-AM, Miami Beach, Florida.

The tower stands in a courtyard behind Radio Bar. The courtyard is fully enclosed. Except…….. The bar uses it as an entrance and exit and storage area and leaves it open to the public.

Sorry for blur in these images, I was unable to stop laughing.

image

Pretty hallway.

image

To the right just inside.

image

To the left just inside.

Note that this tower is not on insulators. It is [barely – see below] grounded. The transmitter output goes to a three wire skirt that starts well up out of reach and is fed by, uh, let’s visit that later

image

Kinda sorta ground. One small wire, about 6 gauge.

image

See that red square? That’s the transmitter output. Right there. It’s like seven feet up in that corner. You can see the two pipes in the photo above. Only a chain and defaced warning sign (not even a standard RF exposure warning sign) separate bar guests and that.

image

Possibly remains of an older feed to the tower…. even more exposed.

image

image

No, the tower lights don’t work.

image

Dafuq?!

image

This has apparently been how it’s stood for years.

On a side note, here’s an at&t installation. The old vault is on a berm above ground to protect it from storm surge. The VRAD, used to supply PooVerse I mean UVerse television, internet, and kind of sort of phone, not so much.

image

You’re, uh, welcome.

Behringer – More like MEEEHHHringer amirite?

Due to the fact that this thing is colossal shit and I feel bad for even recommending its purchase, I am going to classify this as 100% PURE SHITPOST. I feel genuinely bad. The thing does actually work…. SOMEHOW… though the VU meters don’t. Only the first four lights will illuminate. Gee I wonder why? (The fake STMicro chips are the drivers.)

I’d been warned many times that Behringer products are of quite subpar quality, and this had always been my impression as well, but I’d never actually opened one up and seen the horror within. This is FRESH FROM THE FACTORY and it’s got blobs of corroded crap inside. ARGH!! At least… whatever was splodged on the board and initiated said corrosion rinsed away with CRC QD Electronics Cleaner…

Philips, You just went full Funai. You never go full Funai.

Public service announcement:
Do not buy any new “Philips” brand consumer electronics products. Philips has just exited the consumer electronics business, and what you’ll be getting is Funai corporation garbage with the Philips brand name on it. See also: Brand name necrophilia. Sorry, this means even less good options in the nearly completed race to the bottom that is the light bulb market. I’d stick with Cree LED bulbs for now.

Via Wall Street Journal. 

As an added bonus, here’s a Funai TV on fire. It’s supposed to be flame retardant, but the only thing that finally stopped it was a blast from the garden hose. Yeah I’m sure it met the specifications it got UL listed under….. if it ever actually was and didn’t just have a UL logo stamped on it in utter fraud. 😉