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Category: Life

  • Virtually fun! (Or virtual insanity!)

    Virtually fun! (Or virtual insanity!)

    It was a good idea… I thought!


    (Feature image downloaded from Pixabay (Edgar Oliver), not my own image, so credit to the author for providing a royalty free image for me to use as I don’t have any server images that are suitable!)

    So I paused 3D modelling, well sort of, to work on a computer as I wanted to put my stuff in the cloud. First problem was finding a cloud provider cheap enough, I didn’t care what it was, it just had to be something. So, did a Google search and got in contact with a company called “IONOS” and a quick chat to say that I wanted something to mess around with online (basically to replace my home lab, I’ll talk about this in a bit) to run Blender mostly and for personal use.

    Server Control Panel IONOS

    Recommended a 6 vCore, 8GB vRAM server, ok, not bad for the price, but the question was “Do you have any experience in Linux?” and the answer was “Yes, Debian and Arch”. I prefer Arch as AUR is the most useful tool ever for Linux. The problem with Linux is a lot of programs you want don’t come “precompiled” to install. You have to build it yourself, which means, if you have any issues, you have to find all the dependencies yourself. AUR can help, but my god, can you end up going down that rabbit hole of finding all the dependencies. On a download page on this site, I came up with a script for that problem, Proton VPN (which has a free tier to use). So I can use Proton VPN on the train without worrying about my data. VPNs have become more important for me as I adapted my network for my uses. Before, I just connected to a desktop via RDP and that was it, exposed to the net, for about 15 years when I really got into it, on the default port, left on 24/7.

    I knew about VPNs, but I felt they were way more complex to setup, so I generally tended to avoid them. Then I went into Train Planning, used a VPN solution, then thought “actually, I can use this at home, the benefits are fantastic!”, now learning also I can do far more with a VPN, then that allowed me to access my NAS from the outside. That allowed me to download files from the outside. Now I’m going all online with offline too, part of that plan was a long standing one, hence the vServer. Well, I am learning new skills for potentially my next job, its selling myself to my next employer- well, I already have a reputation at my workplace. Its a case of selling myself when I don’t have much experience in a corporate environment. I just been super interested in VDI, except my network isn’t large enough.

    So, I started playing with Virtual Machines more recently – I always did using VirtualBox so I can run my windows software on Linux and Mac OSX, this came from Virtual PC when I had a proper Power PC mac – which wasn’t particularly good for Max, yes I tried it.
    So, I decided to start playing with more and more VMs, I created a development environment for a program that never happened. Why? Because if I am to hand over the source code, I would want to use a VM with everything set up and avoid the problem of “well, it worked on my computer” scenario. So lets go onto more recent ideas.

    I became a councillor and I thought initially “so, lets repurpose my VPN server which had Windows 10 on it that’s now out of support for something else”. (Yes, I ran a Debian VPN in a virtual machine for security reasons and backed it up). So I turned that into a Linux then windows server, then used KVM initially which I started having problems, then used Hyper-V. Loaded it up with VMs and let the problems begin.

    Now my personal work is in a Windows VM and my council stuff is in a Linux VM which is behind a VPN. What was the point? Well, I am a lover of thin clients, as I write this, I am using one right now. A Dell Wyse 3470 Mobile thin client, the data stays in one location and with the power of remote desktop, you can go from location to location, room to room and you don’t have to shut your PC down. Great! Performance however? Is something else. In corporate environments, this sort of thing is used to the max! Think of a couple of big servers, running Windows Server, in a large chain containing several Hyper-V Virtual Machines for a number of employees, in some cases, just to run ONE program. Yes, one program, with a remote connection. I’ve used remote desktop but not remote app. That is something for future me to get interested in and gets a bit complicated to set up. Now that means you can have a laptop or a desktop, that goes from several hours to set up, to a matter of minutes, as long as you got a good internet connection!

    So you hear me rambling on about my skills and thinking “well, whats the point?”, Trainz. That’s what, more specifically, one point to develop my work, to store my work, to use my work and it doesn’t matter what device I use. Thin Clients are useful for this as it means you can do all 3 in one go. 2 things I am worried about that I am trying to mitigate.

    1) Data loss
    2) Theft


    This is where VMs come in, does both, but putting it online, also means that you swap one for another, likely to get hacked. That I am going through and finding a solution for.


    And what would I say to someone thinking that they want to learn some new skills? JFDI! I mean, guess what my server that runs all my virtual machines? You’ll love it! (Its below the 3Com Switch)


    A 2014 Lenovo small form factor desktop, M73 from memory. 4th gen Core i5 4570-T, 12GB ram, 256GB SATA SSD. Yes, really, that is it! Does it do the job? Yes! Is it slow at times? Yes! Can I run more virtual machines? Yes and I’ve run upto 5 at once. Will it die? Sure, but I got a back up of it online for when it does eventually kick the bucket. All I have to do is then get a new machine, install the OS and then restore the backup. Everything is saved.

    I guess that gives you an insight of my environment I love to mess with and give some of you some ideas of how you can use your skills for a long drawn out project. Oh and I now use Linux more than ever before, I am looking at replacing Windows with Linux and I have tried to.



    Oh yeah, does the vServer run Trainz? Yes! Not very well which I think is down to the Bochs graphics drivers, but it does it via Debian, it has an AMD EYPC CPU in it, along with other machines and it seems to be OK. I’ve not tried the Lenovo M73 which I should replace. (Anyone want to help me?)




    Final thought, you do realise that what I am doing now is the future of computing? Microsoft is already trying with Windows 365, having your data in the cloud on a virtual machine with all your programs. Its a good thing as you have a high performance computer which is replaced when you migrate off that server onto another, so you don’t get much performance degradation as it is anyway. Its also more efficient, a thin client doesn’t have to do much, just repeat frames from another computer of some sort. So you go from a computer that is like 60W to one that is less than 5W. My desktop probably pulls 200W then the screen ontop. Which sucks a lot of juice – for something that basically idles most of the time anyway. Yeah, computers do idle a lot, the more you share the resource, the more efficient it is, bearing in mind, a lot of office applications actually don’t consume much processing power, in fact, if someone asked me what computer they should buy for their budget and shops won’t like me for this, but buy what you need, don’t buy unnecessary power because its a waste. Do you need a nVidia or AMD graphics card for Office documents? No way! Save your money, get something like an Intel Celeron N100 or Core i3, or a low end machine. Even an AMD Althorn 3000 is enough. Most of these sorts of CPUs may not last as long but long enough to consider replacement in 4 to 5 years when Microsoft changes the system requirements again. Although by this point, you can just go down the thin client route. (And a virtual machine is more than viable for that sort of thing).



    EDIT:
    If anyone wants me to, I’ll try and produce a detailed explanation of how everything worked. Including a previous server build that failed miserably and some tips I’ve learnt as the default server packages that IONOS provides have some features missing that would be useful as a general purpose system. Other things, online storage is a must and Windows Server which is what is often packaged with these virtual servers is far more expensive – bear that in mind. Nothing says you can’t slap Windows in a VM though, I did that.

  • Right or Wrong?

    Interesting scenario to think about, you are station staff in a mess room near the end of your shift. You hear shouting from one platform so you investigate. You see that all your colleagues are already talking to the person, but at the same time, a passenger distracts you telling you that there is a knife on another platform under a bench which you categorise as a sharp object, but you remember how you are trained in dealing with sharp objects (not to touch it with anything other than litter pickers) and the law. You had 2 options:

    Option 1:

    Investigate the sharp, take the equipment over (litter picker and sharp box) and another member of staff in case it gets ugly, make an assessment on the sharp and decide because its under 3in and nothing is suspicious about it, no one talks to you about it on the platform, so you put it in the box (which it fits in) and think no more.

    Option 2:

    Don’t take the equipment, borrows someone else’s radio (which is probably clogged with radio traffic because of another incident and you are told off too many times for ‘overusing the radio’), call for the supervisor to meet you on the platform its on while using 2 members of staff to some how seal off this area and await for them to arrive and make an assessment.

    Option 3:

    It ain’t your problem, so direct the customer complaint to the member of staff that has a radio and a way of communicating.

    I ask this, because its happened to me recently. Now what is interesting is that option 1 is what 2 people I specifically asked would of done, but I got told off because I didn’t do option 2, this is where I am ultimately confused. You got 2 emergency incidents at the same time, with 2 different outcomes (option 2 has a greater risk of being stabbed in my humble opinion, depending how long it takes for staff to deal with the other incident.), so 6 of one, half a dozen of the other? On the other hand, I’m thinking in future, option 3 because quite simply, what else would they want you to do? You got told off for it, you can use that as your defence and if anything goes wrong and there is an investigation, you can say “This is my report from the previous incident, I got told off for it and it upset me quite a bit, so I felt that taking my own initiative to deal with an item like this wasn’t required so I gave it to someone else to deal with for that reason and more importantly, to protect myself from these sorts of backlashes.” By that time, the supervisors are always moaning they got too much work to do anyway.

  • Oh how I missed cycling.

    Here is one for you, last time I cycled (properly!) was something like 3 years ago. I used to cycle a lot, then I learnt to drive, then I actually drove (and had to endure the Chichester to Portsmouth daily commute by train which has got worse over time and no longer a train at the moment – its a bus some of the time!), then I used my bike and car together, then someone as mentioned earlier somehow broke my bike! Then brought another car, then another car, then another… it goes on until I ended up with more cars than I could think what to do with.

    13901462_10153616340277352_3778878860613529992_n

    Today I had no real choice, Mr Charles Horton’s company, GoVia Thameslink Railway or (New) Southern Railway for us that don’t live on the Thameslink patch have absolutely positively and utterly no service. I know the parties to blame but I’m not going to publicly say in this blog! I orignally feared for the worse as I dragged out the white rusty monster and looked for the lock, detached everything that wasn’t necessary and started making my way, with nerves… oh fuck it, shall I just take the sodding car? I resisted and resisted, even called my dad to see if he thought it was going to rain, he confirmed not. So I mounted the saddle and pedalled into traffic then lost control of my rear brakes!

     

    After about 10 yards, my nerves were gone and thought, “lets see how my 30 and a bit legs can propell me” as I headed up towards “New Fishbourne AHB” level crossing. Seems like I still can go quite fast, in fact keeping up with traffic even though I was on a race bike, if the computer was right and the bikes computer calibrated correctly, I managed in my unfit state to attain 23.28mph. BUT with a problem, now I stunk of sweat and visiting my local Tescos only attained a lot of odd looks and embarrassment of sweat. At least its a way of loosing weight. Today’s cycle was only 2.2 miles, but 2.2 miles is better than zero. I think I got a new years resolution next year, keep track of my bike mileage and attain 600+ miles plus throughout the entire year. It sounds a lot, but it isn’t if you work it out by the day. About a mile and 3/4 by quick maths. Here to Chichester is nearly 2 depending on the route and this at least should help me loose a lot of weight and reduce my car dependency.

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