Petint's Blog

Balthy

So, I recently found a cool webcomic by SuitedWolf on furaffinity.net.
It's about this Fox maid called Balthy. He works for a Wolf guy named uuh.. "K"?

The webcomic starts out with just jokes, but then the author started doing bigger stories.
It's really short now, but I hope there will be more pages soon.
Also the Bat guy looks really cool.

2026-06-12

More computers??

So, I picked up two more computers. Because surely, having more computers in my life is such a great idea. /s
Both machines originally had 80 GB hard drives, but I wasn't allowed to have them (yet), because of the data that was on them.
So I installed 250 GB hard drives in both, because I just so happened to have some of those.
I also upgraded the Dell with 8 GBs from 2 GBs of DDR2, but I didn't touch the RAM in the IBM machine, because that takes DDR3, and I don't... well, I actually do have a lot of DDR3, but that's all server RAM, so useless for this.
(ik, its Lenovo now, just roll with it, okay?)
They both have Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 CPUs
I repasted the Dell, but not the IBM, because that one looked fine. (also I ran out of thermal compound, so I couldn't have done it ether way)
I ended up installing OpenBSD on the IBM, because I just felt like doing that, but I haven't done much with the Dell yet.
Oh, also the Dell has an ATI Radeon HD 2400 PRO GPU (low profile ofc.)
Maybe I'll try to put UT99, UT2004 or some other games on it.
The IBM machine is basically in perfect shape. Clean outside, (mostly) dust-free inside, thermal paste that isn't rock hard and such.
The Dell Optiplex 760's paint job is a little damaged, but is otherwise fine.

Now I have Windows 10 pro on the Dell for... whatever reason. (it runs so bed on there lol)

2026-06-12

Things are happened

So, I keep forgetting to post here again, which may look like nothing has happened, but that's just wrong.
For example, I have two more computers now. 2026-06-12b
I found a really cool webcomic (again) 2026-06-12c
Some.. things have changed,
But most importantly, I can't help but feel a certain way about something.
OH, ALSO IT'S PRIDE MONTH NOW, SO HAPPY PRIDE That's kinda important.
Can't help but feel tied up about not posting

2026-06-12

...on the edge of the universe

Sometime at night, I like to watch the sky, see the stars and maybe even other things. (I even saw a meteor shooting star once,)

At these times I often wonder, how the night sky may have looked before artificial lighting became common. Human created light pollution is.. almost everywhere, which makes observing the skies rather difficult for many, including me.
I admit, its not that bad at my place. Looking at the ground it all looks pretty dark, but the skies are illuminated by distant lights. Seeing which is also really interesting, however they are usually covered up by foliage.

But there's something else up there, often even visible during daytime.
An object which reflects the sun's light back at earth. Earth's very own moon, AKA
The Moon
The moon is just beautiful at all times. No wonder why the ancients as gods and deities in it.

2026-06-01

F*CK HP!!!!

On the other hand, these HP servers suck!
I want to boot into the intelligent provisioning to update the system firmware, so I inserted the iso using the iLO 4 virtual media feature, but it just doesn't work on one of them. why? it works just fine on the other server. Literally the same type, same iLO fw. rev. (2.81)
I tried burning the HPIP to a USB key, but it just refuses to boot, even if I press F10. on startup.
And now even iLO federation is broken. One of them can see both systems, but the data isn't up to date, and the other one simply can't see ████!
Now I power cycled both systems, and I'll see if I can get at least iLO to work.
I've had enough of this bs for today. I am really mad.
I hate it when they try to netboot, when I tell them to boot from USB, it's almost as if they just can't see the device, but that's simply not true!
At this point I feel like I've tried everything, but it just refuses to work.
Then there's proxmox.
It turns out that proxmox can't see my NICs, but they work just fine in other distros...
Also, takes ages to boot on this thing when I boot it from virtual media.
Well, at least iLo Federation is working again..
Don't use iLO 4 virtual media with Proxmox.
The "can't see NICs and takes ages to boot" issue was caused by that.

2026-05-17

Making the worst mistake of my life... again.

So, uuuh how do I bring this to you?
Some years ago, I decided, that I would never do it, but then I did it. After that, I decided, that I wouldn't do it ever again.
Turns out, I was wrong.
I have bought a second server. Also a HPE Proliant DL260p gen8.
This one was cheaper though and came with 2 Xeon E5-2667v2's, but less RAM (24 GB) and no drive sleds. It also came with a rack kit!
The seller told me, all about how the iLO 4 was "broken", because it "doesn't get an IP via DHCP"
But in reality, it works just as well as the other one, so that's nice!
It was originally liscenced only for iLO 4 Standard, but I was able to upgrade it to Advanced, thanks to emperorshadowlight's help on Discord!
So, now I can do iLO federation things now!
What's next? Getting a rack with iPDU and Location service? x3
Plans?
I have a RAM upgrade on the way, I'll get some drives for them, set up a RAID5 on both, 3 disks each. (I have 6 drive sleds)
Then I'll install PVE on both, and finally, I'll use them to replace those laptops that I currently use as my servers.

2026-05-16

Leaving things behind and moving on

I had recently come to a realization. I realized, that I might be about to give up on something... big, and really important.
Thinking about this topic, I remembered, how there are related topics, about which I've been meaning to write, but I just haven't worked up the will to actually do it. (See 2026-03-02)
So today, I decided to address some of them.

There are of course, some... things, that cannot be written down. Not yet. It just wouldn't be right.
My time is running out, but there are still many things left to say or do.
After that, my life as I currently know it will be over. A new day will dawn, and I'll have no choice, but to move on to newer and greater things.
And if I don't do the right things now, I'll have no choice, but to live in regret.
There's just one problem. I'm afraid to say it, and do those things.

2026-05-12

████████████████████

Oh ████ I forgot to post again, haven't I...
Well, let's just say that I've been busy lately.
Exams, rearranging my room, being bad about bad everything is and Linux shenanigans.
I also worked on some other parts of my website.
Messed about with IP cameras, X11 window redirection, ZILO/SYS...
Also listened to a lot of music. What can I say? I really like music.
Oh, and I also finally gave my server a useful (ish) role, by running a modded minecraft server on it.
The modpack is "The Ferret Business" 0.2.6, and I'm running it on Arch (btw), with the latest Linux kernel, which was 7.0.3 when I installed that system, but 7.0.5 is out now apparently.

Maybe I should do a "week in review" thing every Sunday?

2026-05-10

New desk

I rearranged my room today. I've been planning to do this for a while now.

First of all, I finally removed the bed that I wasn't even using, so now I can fully open my window again. The newly created space was willed with a spare desk, which I can now use for HAM radio purposes.
I also have lots of free space now, just in general.

Where's the bed now?
In peaces. I uhmm... "embedded" my bed in my bed's frame. The remaining parts went where the desk was originally.

At first I was planning to use a smaller desk, then I realized that things would work out much better if I did it this way.

(The graduation article is for later)
(Also I upgraded the Blog writer. V1.4.4 processes line breaks correctly..)

2026-05-01

It's too early to cry.

I... I... uh, I just want to stop for a sec, and thank everyone for everything.
I've had a great time with you all, however it will soon come to an end. I'll miss y'all very much.

2026-04-28

Thinkpad 760EL update

So the battery died... again, so I decided to recell the pack for the second time.
But let's just say that id didn't turn out quite as well as as last time. For starters, my efforts had an actual effect on the first rebuild, and I was able to run the laptop off it's own battery once more. Which was a really interesting experience for me. But I haven't given up just yet. I'm currently charging the cells in the pack with an external charger. The cell voltage has already reached about 4 V on one of the groups, but I'm planning to give this treatment to the the rest of the pack as well before trying it in the laptop.
At this point I'd like to thank Discord user Neoa_56 :3, who also has some similar thinkpads for helping me with the project. I might even be getting some replacement parts from them next month. owo
I've also been experiencing severe difficulties with it later. It's been struggling to post, and I also need to get the powers sorted, as I STILL DON'T HAVE A REAL CHARGER FOR IT somehow. If I do even as much as move the laptop, my jankcore af charger will just disconnect, causing the laptop to turn off instantly, due to the lack of a battery. I'm also having trouble on the software side.
Windows is missing some files, because I installed the TCP/PI stack wrong, as I didn't have contents of the windows 98 install disc on the laptop at the time.
I really want to reinstall the os, but I don't have a good way of getting any data on it. I would also like to preserve the original software, at least partially because there are some really useful programs on it. To this end I shall acquire a usb to IDE converter.

That's about it for now. I've already dragged this on for too long.

2026-04-26

1 year of blogging!

It turns out that I've been doing this for a year now lol
I'm not plannning to stop any time soon

2026-04-25

Twokinds :3

Well, it appears that a day which I have long dreaded has finally arrived.
I've been trying to delay it as long as I could, but it's done now.
I'm now officially up to date with Twokinds.

IVe been reading the webcomic since last August, and I've been reading it on and off, taking larger breaks and savoring pages and chapters for a later date, but as I've already made myself clear I've finally ran out.
Thusly it's time to head back to the TK gallery for some "entirely sfw" official and fan art. Following Trace's journey throughout the comic has been a pleasant way to spend my spare time, and I can only endorse this activity for anyone out there. I can't wait to see what will happen next. I would love to go into the deetz, however I wish not to spoil any major story elements. Also Keith and Natani make a really great couple. uwu

What's next?
Other webcomics of course, such as The No-One Special Club, Bloodline, or any of RafVicAlv's ongoing webcomics (of which I've already read most of).
Then there's still Sabrina Online, which is still an ongoing concern. (Although I've alreadyí finished the first run and the new comics ages ago.)
I never really made an update for that, so uh there you go :3

2026-04-20

Splashdown day!

I have been following the Artemis II mission, watching the launch and the fly around the moon. Integrity will soon return to Earth! Artemis II has gone well so far. I've seen the pictures and they are all very cool.

2026-04-11

Connection secure

Website update:

• I have an SSL certificate now so your browser will be happy now
• Line breaks (br tags) are automatically inserted in the blog writer
• I can make multiple posts a day now, if I chose thanks to the new sub-id system (it just puts extra stuff after the date, like "2026-04-04a, 2026-04-04b, etc.)
• New sections on the website: Projects; and Computers

2026-04-05

Artemis II happening!

Artemis II finally made it to space for real. There are people on the way to the moon, which I think is really cool!

2026-04-03

I AM JOINING MATRIX

But not yet. I'm not not going to leave Discord behind of course, but it's always god to have alternatives.
It's called redundancy.

I'm still looking for a cool homeserver and a client.
(No, I don't want to host my own homeserver, I want to join one run by someone who knows server stuff better then I do.)

(Also daily posts are back I guess)
Also my formatter is broken. It didn't insert enough line breaks.

2026-03-30

Well, that's not very optimal.

It appears that I've lost a couple of screws which to to my laptop.
I also can't find the cable for my external hard drive, so I can't backup my website, or access any of the data I have on it.

2026-03-29

The greatest accomplisment of my whole life?

So I won the competition, yes. But now to be a bit more serious about it.
I never really considered myself to be a competitive person, but seeing my peers do well in competitions always made me a bit jealous tbh. However, I usually just ignored this feeling and felt happy for them, seeing that they've done well.

I tried competing too in various disciplines, but I never got the desired outcome... until now that is.
This victory really means a lot to me, because I personally have never done anything even close to this. At first, I had doubts about this competition, that I wouldn't make it. But then I did. I finally feel accomplised.

2026-03-28

I WOOOON!!!!!

Yup, that's right. I won. I'm number 1. Is this cool, or what?
I am very nerd, yes. That's all btw.

2026-03-28

Unforseen consequences

It there's one universal truth about reality, it would be this:
Everything you do effects... well, not everything, but uuuuhm.... something I guess.
And you really cannot predict what it is. Like, everything you say, everything you do.

I actually think of this a lot. Especially recently. idk why, I... just uhm...

2026-03-25

Also one more thing

The one entry per day limit has basically always been arbitrary anyway
This is partially to test having multiple posts in a single day

But I also want to add something to the previous post. Well guess what? It turns out that embedding HTML elements into my RSS feed will be more difficult then I first thought.
I can't just have "<" ">" in the XML at random. I need to convert them to HTML formatting tags for the RSS version. That's why the formatting is broken in 2026-03-24 But the HTML version still needs the tags in plain text format.

note taken

2026-03-24

Shortposting

So I was just reading someone else's blog, and I realized that they mostly short posts, so I'm just gonna do a short post lol.
Oh, also it turns out that I can just use HTML tags in the RSS description field.
This is actually just to test that-.
I can even do links now.

2026-03-24

The server (π-day special)

First off ally, I'd like to mention that I was really tired while writing yesterdays post, so it may not be wholly accurate. I just wanted to get it done as soon as I can. This is why I didn't get into the details with the server. That's why I decided to write a separate article/entry for the server.

I've been meaning to buy a server ever since when I found about the cool features they have, but I've always been put off by their high prices. (We're talking about used ones of course. New ones are even more expensive and overpowered for my needs.) But the price hasn't even been my biggest problem with servers. My main issue with them has always been those silly little fans they have in them, which can get quite lout at times.

So what did I get?
I got an HPE ProLiant DL360p; with an Intel Xeon E5-2667 processor and 64 Gigs of ECC DDR3 ram and a pair of 10K rpm 300 GB SAS disks.

I'm planning to replace my current main server with it, but I'm not entirely sure how I will achieve that.
The server came with ESXi 7 installed. It looks like a decent hypervisor, bit I might just switch to Proxmox. I don't know how to use ether of them anyhow. I would like to use a hypervisor on it, because I think that's how I could use it best. I tried provisioning some VMs from .OVA files, but it always failed due to storage related issues.
I obviously can't have it where the current server is, because it's simply too big, and I'd hate to have to listen to it all the time, so before I can properly utilize it I will need to make a space for servers in the basement, and pull ethernet cables to it, because it's pretty much useless to me if I can't access it over the network. I would also like to upgrade it's storage first, but that would mean losing the ESXi install, and having to use 300 GB hard drives. I also can't replace the current hard drives, because I have no other use for SAS drives. So it's currently in the same boat as the big machine I built some years back for the same purpose.
I'm also thinking of upgrading my server with a second CPU and extra RAM. I don't really need it, but it would be coool. I really shouldn't do it, but I want to do it so bad.
The server is fully functional, but it had some slight mechanical damage that I could easily repair. Overall I'm quite happy with my server so far.
Although, I've had some problems with it it didn't recognize one of the hard drives once and I'm having problems with the iLO being unresponsive, and remote console not forwarding my keyboard to the server.

2026-03-15

Lucky #13

I had a great, eventful day. Everything turned out just as I planned, or better.
So what did happen today? Let me tell you.

I had a really unusual morning today. I got up earlier then usual, so I had some downtime to think and get mentally ready for the day. I took my usual route to the train station, but I got on a different train then the one I usually take, because today was a special day, because the the final round of the OSZTV took place today. We were given 2 hours to complete our tasks, so I was expecting that they would be difficult, but then all the tasks were really easy. I almost asked at one point something like: "Are there gonna be more tasks, or is that all?" The tasks in question were something like this: How to prepare optical fiber for splicing, how to splice fiber; now actually go do it and write down how they turned out and write down why arc tests are important. I also needed to make a short coax cable. I finished the tasks first btw, so I also had some downtime.

After this I made some arrangements for the second half of the day.
When the contest was over we were checked out their ham radio setup. It was rather interesting. They had some really interesting objects, including an old decommissioned VHF TV transmitter, which used to serve at Széchenyi hill TX sight. Seeing their satellite setup was rather interesting too. We finished up at noon, packed our thing up and went home.

Well not just yet, because I had other things in mind. I went to my school, met up with some friends of mine, and we went to pick up the server. (more about that tomorrow) I actually had no plan for what would come after, like on how they would get home, but in the end it all turned out just fine.

And this is where the unplanned third half of today comes it.
So my friends and I show up at my place, and one asked if I mind showing them my place, so I said "yeah, sure. come in" So I showed them around, and stuff idk it all went pretty well tbh.

I'd like to thank my friends for tagging along with me, I really couldn't have done it with you you, thank you very much.
Thank you Almafa64 for suggesting that I should invite Forkow to the trip, and thank you Forkow for driving us around.
(sorry for that one missdirection i gave you lol)

2026-03-14

Missing entries

If you follow my blog, you may have noticed that I haven't been active lately.
Today I have come here to address this issue... You see, I've been working on different entries lately, but I couldn't post any of them due to various reasons.
I want to address... certain topics, but I can't decide in what order I want to do them, they wouldn't make much sense on their own and I don't want to write a single very long entry where I address all of them.

2026-03-02

At crossroads...

It is January 21. 2026, and a deadline is closer than ever. Soon I will have to make a very important chioce, which will inpact the rest of my life.
I've been thinking about this question for at lest 5 years now, and I've been putting it off, but the deadline is coming up, so the time to chose has come... The question being: "What university should I go to?"
First thing, I would like to tell you, I'm affraid to go to uni. What if it's too much for me? I have no idea how any of it works, but what other choice DO I have? Get a job? Start a life on my own, or even move out? To which I must answer: "Not yet."
And so, as an attempt to delay this predicament; I have no chioce, but to take higher edutaion.
So here's my options:

• University A: The most popular choice aming my peers, the least desruptive option, which should allow me to keep at least some of my current lifestyle.
• University B: The famous big one, huge risk, huge reward easy commute and a really good radio club.
• University C: The "yeah, nah" option. Really far away, I would need to give up my whole life, irl contact with my friends move out, and get some autonomy in my life.

2026-01-21

Remember 2025?

Remember 2025? Cause I sure don't it was soo long ago. So like 2026 is here (and has been here for a bit but it's not like I can do anything about it so I can release this earlier)
So I figured that now would be as good time as any to write the first post of the year. I've been meaning to write about some stuff, but first, I'd like to summarize last year.
2025 was a really interesting year for me with many exciting events. I started a blog, moved my Minecraft SMP to England, set up an Observium server on one of my old thinkpads, I aquired a 1990's thinkpad got into vinyl records, got into GregTech and visited Vienna like 3 times.
Also ÖBB infra finished building the Koralmbahn, which I haven't yet had a chance to check out, but I will eventually.
I got to see the World Tramdriver Championship in Vianna, and the Jean-Michell Jarre concert in Budapest. I got to meet some really cool and interesting people, and I accidentally ate some raw chicken once. I don't really have a good way to and this, but do I ever?
Oh, yeah I also had my first job this year, I just forgot to mention.

2026-01-16

Long-playing vinylite microgroove records

I've always been fascinated by vinyl records. We've always had a record player since I recall, but I was never allowed to use it. This record player was a part of a SANYO midi system IIRC, so it used special connectors thus would only work with the previously mentioned midi system which I've stopped using years ago, which I've stopped using years ago, because it wasn't up to my needs. Also it was missing it's cartridge, so I would have needed to get a new one.

But back to the records. A couple of months ago I received a "Much Better" turntable as a gift, alongside with a couple of records. I didn't recognize most of them, but I listened to a couple anyways. My dad says that we have more records somewhere, but I don't know where those are. I even picked up a brand new copy of Black Sabbath Paranoid for my 21. birthday in August.

So why do I like vinyl records so much? idk. I just think they are neat. There's also just something about watching the disc spin, and the large covers with the high quality album art. I love listening to my records, because it just feels special. However, I don't listen to my records that often and this is because of two reasons: Cleanliness, or rather the lack of it and static electricity. Vinyl records can get a static charge, which will make the disc really attractive to dust, and other debris like cat hair, which is a problem, because I have a cat. Dust on the record is a really big problem, because it degrades the audio quality and probably increases wear on the disc and the stylus. To fix these problems I will need to buy an anti-static device and a cleaning brush to keep my discs clean and free of static.

2025-11-11

The heat is on

I really don't understand what's happening with the boiler. I understand that it had a leaky pressure release valve, so we replaced that like a week ago. But there's more to this, because there are rusty streaks on one of the side panels and this could only mean that there has been water flowing down it at least semi-regularly. I've also been told that one of the pumps is broken, but like it's working just fine atm, so I really don't get it.

2025-11-09

The end of daily blogging?

At this point you may have noticed, that I didn't write a post yesterday. This is due to a number of factors: Nothing of interest happened with me, so I didn't have much to write about. I was planning to write about how we have heating again, because my dad fixed the boiler, but one of the pumps broke down in the boiler, so yeah, it's still pretty cold in here. about 17°C currently. My fingers are freezing off, and this makes typing a bit difficult for me. I also started going to bed earlier because of the cold. I also finally got around to installing the switch. The new fans did make a difference, but not as large as I was hoping to get.

2025-11-08

Upgrading my switch for real now

A couple of months ago I decided to get myself a much better switch for my network. One that supports things like SNMP, VLANs, has an actual UI (web, telnet, ssh, serial console), SFP modules and many other advanced features. I found a D-Link DGS-1510-52 at a pretty good price, so I decided to go with it. This switch has all the features I could ever ask for, except for PoE, but I only have a handful of devices that even support PoE and most of them take passive. This switch comes with 48 standard 1GbeE interfaces , two 1 GbE capable SFP ports, and two more 10 GbE capable SFP+ ports, presumably for stacking purposes. Rumours have it that there's a DGS-1510-52+ version which is equipped with 4 SFP+ ports. So why am I not using it? Well to put it simply, it's equipped with a pair of fans, which can be quite loud at times. Back when I got it this was no big deal, but after a couple of weeks this constant fan noise got a bit too annoying, so I decided that I no longer want to use this switch and to go back to the previous one, which is a TP-Link TL-GS1024 that I got brand new in like 2016-17.

But am I going back to the D-Link unit? Well, it's a much better device all around. I got it out a couple of days ago, and I found a really interesting cable testing feature that can measure the length of the cable on a per pair basis, detect the presence of extreme termination (short or open circuit) and even for interference in some cases. Also I just wanted my SNMP network statistics again.

So I decided to replace the fans with much quieter ones from Noctua, because that's the meme thing to do. (Also it was also the only brand that are actually thin enough to fit inside the switch.) The switch takes 40x40x10mm 12v fans with a 3 pin header by the way. And yes, it DOES need a 3 pin head, because the switch detects the fan state via the PWM signal that fans provide, and a little red LED lights up on it's front if this signal is not present. This status also shows up on SNMP interface. As for the exact model, I decided to go with an NF-A4x10 FLX, variants of which are also apparently quite popular in the SBM modding and 3D printing communities.
Note: My fans haven't arrived yet as of writing this. I wanted to get this out this Monday, but I pushed it back because GLS sucks.

Installing the fan took a bit of effort on my part, but it wasn't that difficult. However, I needed to swap the +12V and GND wires inside the the connector on the fan, because that's how it was laid out on the original. The new fans use less power, create more flow and pressure and are quieter then the originals even without the low noise adapter, which I may install later if the switch proves to be still to noisy.

2025-11-06

Reliable system design

I still can't pick up my package, so the project is delayed once more.
The UCP's produced by the company have a high level of redundancy. First, the UCP gets supplied from at least two independent power sources. Each of the power sources get connected to separate power rails, which power multiple supplies.
The wiring inside the PDP is protected by circuit breakers, all of which are also connected to a "Cumulative circuit breaker fault" line, i.e. the controller can detect if any of the circuit breakers have tripped.
Next up, the power supplies, which themselves are monitored and controlled by the housekeeping controller.
Next up, the various PSU's are connected to redundancy modules, which also monitor for voltage differences between the two separate PSU's. The power rail voltages are also closely monitored. After this one may find multiple fully separate power rails, will definitely withstand a single component of failure. The power rails are protected from overloading by fuses. Critical equipment may get power from multiple rails.

Here's a concrete example: Two 230V 50Hz AC lines (A & B) go into two separate groups of circuit breakers, which both power two PSU's (so we have four PSU's in tolal) which are connected together in pairs (one powered from A, the other from B) with redundancy modules to form the two separate redundant 24V DC power rails. And this is just for the power!

The UCP's are also equipped with environmental controls, including door switches for controlling the in-panel lighting (also intrusion detection), fans for cooling and heaters for reducing humidity. (Warmer air can hold more moisture, therefore heating it reduces the RH value.) The housekeeping controller even checks the fan's status via an air flow sensor. This is kind of overkill if you ask me, since these UCP's are typically located in air conditioned spaces. This really shows how these UCP's are made for a "price no object" market. Because nobody wants to accidentally behead one of their employees with a turbine blade trough a reinforced concrete wall, right?
Anyways, I need to stop writing about this stuff before I accidentally leak some proprietary information.

2025-11-05

Day 2 I guess

This isn't quite what I wanted to write about today, but I'm still missing some parts that I need to finish that project so here's my day instead.
Today want pretty much like yesterday, expect I got on the earlier train, ant the bus wasn't late. First we learned about terminating wires, then after lunch went over a range of various devices, which are used in the company's products.
Then we started building a circuit based on the knowledge we've acquired during the day. We also got to see some documentation for an actual project. We examined how they are laid out and their contents.

I'd like to make some corrections about yesterday's post:
The panels are more like 2 meters tall, not 3 as stated yesterday.
The finished product is known as a UCP, or Unit Control Panel.
The UCP is constructed from various sub-panels, like PDP's (Power Distribution Paled), MP's (Marshaling Panel) and many others that I don't remember.
Today we learned about the functions of the PDP. Not to be confused with the Programmed Data Processor from Digital Equipment Corporation.
The MP is where the UCP interacts with cabling from the outside plant.
Sometimes this may me done by an external RIO (Remote IO) panel.

2025-11-04

Day one

I have a job now. Today started off pretty well. I got up at 6 am, got to the bus and then the train station. This is when things got a little sideways. They announced at the station that the train would be 15 minutes late, which would have been an unacceptable level of delay, because I was supposed to have about 5-7 minutes at the point when I needed to get on the company bus. (Which only comes once a day by the way.) So I got really worried if I make it, so I decided to take a faster route then the one I was planning to use. At the end I made it there in time, not that it mattered, because the company bus ended up being about 30 minutes late due to a really bad traffic accident., so yay for me??
We started our day by picking up our staff ID cards that also function as keycards. They also gave us a little pack of goodies, which included: a cup, a pen, a pack of sticky notes and a t-shirt. After this we were shown the place where we should gather in the morning, and the place where most of our activities will take place, the training center.

After a quick briefing in the training center we went on a factory tour. We got to see all the stations where these huge control panels are made. I even got to see some familiar faces on the factory floor, because some of my former classmates ended up getting a job here. After this we went to the testing facility, where the control cabinets undergo a series of electrical tests after a series of visual inspections. Reliability is key in this industry, and unexpected errors aren't allowed. This process is also repeated with the presence of the customer. After this we had lunch at the canteen. The meal wasn't anything special, but at least it was pretty inexpensive. Expect for the soup, because they don't give you decent portions, so I won't be getting soup anymore. The rest of the day was pretty uneventful.

This factory assembles and tests control systems built for various gas turbines. These turbines are equipped with hundreds of various sensors, require dozens of control signals and guarantee a 100% uptime, so critical system design is taken really seriously here. Every component has redundancy in this system. For example, the turbine control system has two control units, both connected to the two Ethernet switches, and all IO modules are connected to both switches. Every signal that enters or leaves the cabinet has to be isolated and conditioned for safety, the cabling which carries signals intended for spark-free areas is all labeled really clearly, and is well separated from the rest of the system. These cabinets are REALLY MASSIVE! They are constructed from a number of sections, each with different duties. These sections make 19" rack mount gear look small and there's like 10 of them in one of these control panels. These panels are probably about 3 meters tall, and weigh several tons! I genuinely can't express how large these are. You need to see these to understand just how large these machines are, and this is just the control panel, so just imagine the rest of the machine. It must be really massive.
Oh, I forgot to mention the packaging. These control panels are packaged really well, as they might end up going to any imaginable place on earth. They are packaged with the presence of the customer, who gathers picture evidence of these events. Then it gets covered in plastic, vacuum sealed, boxed up with various woods, and they even get shock and tilt indicators, and they undergo even more testing in Italy. All in all I had a really interesting day, and I can't wait to find out more.

2025-11-03

I used to speedrun Minecraft

Today is the 11th. anniversary of the day when I first played Minecraft. For this occasion I'd like to reflect on my early experiences with the game. The year is 2014. You're 10 years old, and all of your friends are talking about a video game. This video game was Minecraft.
However, at first I didn't have the full version of Minecraft so I could only play on the demo, which gives the player about 100 minutes (or 5 in-game days) to do as they please. After a couple rounds of starting a new world, making some progress, running out of time and starting all over again I started picking up some knowledge. Knowledge about the basics of the game, but I also got to know the world well, since it was always the same. I've learned that there's a long cavern under the starting area, that there's some iron ore in that sandy hill to the right, where certain biomes and POI's were located. After a while I started having goals, like: make a cake, an anvil, an Iron golem, other various items or just get as many achievements as I can.

After a couple of months I discovered something. I realized that I can open my save to lan, enable commands and change my game mode, and that my abilities wore less restricted in creative mode even after when the time ran out. However, I still couldn't do as I pleased indefinitely, but this would soon change.
I already knew about the modding scene and popular modpacks like Tekkit, but ad the I didn't know how modding the game worked, but soon I found out about Forge.
So I installed forge and a couple of mods, and when I started the game something was different. I was no longer playing the Minecraft demo, but the full version of the game. I started building my own modpacks, because I couldn't log in to the official launcher without having a copy of the game. So I mostly played modded Minecraft from then on, eventually switching to cracked versions of various launchers. But this isn't the only way I got the true Minecraft experience. There was another thing I did to play the game, which was joining a popular minecraft server community. The one that popular youtubers played on and still heavily promote, the server community started getting involved with community events and still is to my knowledge. You probably already know which one I'm talking about and it you don't then too bad, because I've chosen to not name them. I later left this server community behind and I mostly played cracked modded minecraft.

The only thing I didn't have access to was multiplayer, but I didn't mind. By the time I could buy minecraft I felt like there was no point to it, because I've already played the game so much and it wouldn't really give me anything that I didn't already have. But last December someone I used to follow on the internet decided to run a minecraft server. So at last, I decided to bite the bullet and buy minecraft anyways to play on this server and so I could just have minecraft already. I never got access to that minecraft server, so I decided to just run my own from my old ThinkPad running Debian 12, since I already knew how to do so. In the end buying Minecraft had turned out to be a good call.
It's also a friend's birthday today, so happy birthday Forkow!

2025-11-02

Just a quick one today.

Livemarks is a great RSS extension for Mozilla Firefox, it does exactly I want an RSS browser extension to do. It works just like the ones browsers used to have built in.
Download here fi this sounds like somethinh that you would enjoy.
Watch out for tomorrow's post, because it's going to be a special day!
Fun fact: Noctua is an Austrian company, based in Vienna. I literally didn't know this until this Thursday. Also they give you 60 months of warranty! That's like 5 years! I really should update my feed generator to use a UUID instead of the current date, I thought that one post per day would be enough, and it rely has been so far. But I've really upped my output in the last few days. Today is Friday by the way.

2025-11-01

Crank the Heat Up!!

A couple of weeks ago our boiler started leaking, however this isn't our only plumbing problem, So I'd like to start with our oldest one, and progress to the newest. Our house is equipped with a hot water recirculation system, which allows the people to get instant hot water whenever it's needed. This system relies on a pump in the domestic hot water system that takes some of the water from the end of the pipe, and pumps it back to the tank to be reheated. This system never really worked well for us, because our pump was put on a time switch, so it only ever operated during certain parts of the day. Then the valve under the pump started leaking, and it hasn't worked ever since. However, the second problem will make the firs one look like a good thing, because the "long lasting" ceramic valves in the bathroom faucet had worn out, so it leaks and makes a horrible buzzing sound when under pressure. But only the cold side of the faucet does this, so I came up with a simple "solution" i like to call: "Just turn it off lmao". So we only have hot water at the faucet, which gets really hot if you use it for too long. (This is the part that makes the first problem look like an advantage, because if the pump was operating, then I could use the faucet for much less time.) But problem 3 makes all of this irrelevant, because as I've foretold in the beginning of this post, our boiler started leaking water recently. This boiler is responsible both for DHV production, AND keeping the house warm, so I'm stuck without heating, in October, plus I have no access to hot water. At least I can finally use the bathroom faucet as much as I like, right? Also, less then half of our roof has thermal insulation, so all the heat quickly leaves the house at this part of the year, and comes right in in the Summer months, so that's fun. It's currently about 18°C in here, my fingers are freezing off and it's not gonna be much warmer any time soon, and nobody's going to do anything about it. I guess it's time to get a high performance server or something. Why jump to that conclusion? Why not call a plumber? I won't do it, because it's not my responsibility. My dad won't do it, because he's a diy-er, and he wants to fix it himself. Yeah, like that's ever gonna happen. (See previously mentioned problems.) If he keeps this up, I guess I'll have no choice but to ask my brother if I can move into his apartment. Life sucks.

2025-10-31

The zoo

So we visited the Budapest Zoo yesterday. We like saw the animals and stuff. Also there were a bunch of fancy lanterns everywhere as part of some seasonal thing.
Also they have sharks now, so we also checked them out. When I went to check out the tigers one of the them decided to lay down on a raised platform in front of the window and looked right at me. The other large felines weren't as cooperative though, but like what does one expect from a cat? The Madagascar house was also really interesting. We also checked out the snakes. I had a great time at the zoo, hanging out with my brother, however I was really exhausted by the end of the day.
But that's all for now. They don't all have to be very long, right? riiiiiight??

2025-10-30

The Visit

I got visited by my radio club's president today. He's been planning to to so for a couple of months now, but he never came because I never answered the phone or called him back when he called me about it because I don't like talking on the phone.

So today started off just fine. I even got up earlier then usual, because I already knew that today would be a special day. I know I haven't mentioned it here yet, but I need to do a month of my studies at an external firm. It turns out, that I had made a typo when I first applied for the job, so I needed to restart the application process from the beginning. So I spent most of my day with filling out electronic forms, reading and writing e-mails to various people, then out of the blue someone called me. Someone familiar, a man who I've known for years at this point, and you probably already know who I'm talking about. Yup, it was him. Alex, the club president, the whole reason why I started writing this. He called me on the phone, that he got off work early and that he's able to come to my place, as it wouldn't be a detour for him.

So I said yes. He told me that he would arrive in about an hour. So I started getting ready for the visit, and he came just as promised. I took him out back, showed him around and at the end we've both arrived to the same solution: We need to install a 5-6 meter high pole at the end of the garden to fasten my future HF antenna to. We're also planning to install a VHF/UHF antenna at the other end of the house, where my current VHF antenna is located, so he also inspected that. Then we went inside the house, to find a place and a way to get the cable inside the building. We settled on using RG58 cabling and a pair of holes on the windows frame. After this, we had a brief discussion on our plans, then he left. After this I ""finished"" cleaning the house, and taking steps towards getting that job at The company. So I've had a rather eventful day today.

Wow! three posts in a row. This has literally never happened before.

2025-10-29

Running minecraft servers

I've been trying to run various Minecraft servers since 2015 I think. I might have been able to run Minecraft server software on my PC, but I could never connect to them from outside my local network. It took me until like 2019 to figure out just how port forwarding worked on my home router, and that's also the first time when I was running the server on a dedicated computer 24/7, so that's when my journey really begun. The year is 2019, and... Due to... uh, "Certain world events that would go on until late 2021 and never really stopped happening" I decided to run a Minecraft server that I called "KaranTekkit" to play minecraft with my classmates. I decided to run a Modded minecraft server, because I really love playing modded minecraft. I chose Tekkit server's modpack, because I like tekkit. I told my classmates and a couple of my friends to come join, I posted on Facebook about it, I ran the server 24/7 for months, I even made a Discord server about it, but nobody came to join. Well, that's a bit of an overstatement, because I could get my siblings to join on a couple of occasions, but that doesn't count as a stable player base. After a while I kinda gave up on the project. Also some "things" had changed, and the server wasn't needed anymore. Then +Things+ were !changing! again, so I decided to do it again. But I didn't want to end up like last time, So I made a Facebook post about it. In this post I wrote that I will run a Minecraft server if this post gets 10 likes, but not too surprisingly the post didn't get 10 likes, so just like that, KaranTekkit Season 2 was cancelled. Then a couple of months later I decided to restart the server, but I didn't tell anyone about it. I didn't forward any ports, and I didn't get a domain for it. KT 3S was just for me, so I can play on my old world again. I think I've even deleted the Discord server (that nobody ever joined) by this time. So after this I gave up on the idea of running a Minecraft server for a while. But then last December something happened that I've already written about, but just haven't posted yet, but that server hasn't done well ether. The Discord server I posted it in has like 300+ people, and I could only get 14 people to ever join. The peak stable player base was like 3, and the most players I ever had on was about 6-8. bUt hey, at least it's not running on my hardware, because one of the moderators allowed me to run it on his server. "Well, what sounds like a successful server to me, what are you talking about?" One might ask. Well, there haven't been any activity in the recent months. I haven't been on the server for a while, because nothing ever happens there. I haven't even updated the server, because I just don't care anymore.

2025-10-28

Computering

This August I decided to test my socket 478 processors. My goal was to check if they even work and to upgrade one of my P4 builds with the fastest one.
However, when I put this build together I was just using parts that I had laying around the house so I ended up using a cooler which had it's holder and connector missing. So I ended up mounting the cooler in a very cursed way just with some zip ties and I SOLDERED THE FAN'S WIRES TO THE CONNECTOR ON THE MOTHERBOARD. Yeah, that was really stupid of me, but it's what I decided to do at the time the old motherboard was kinda weird anyways. It had this huge header on the right edge that was used for selecting the memory type and no CPU power connector. (I later found out that people on the internet say that it has power problems.)
So this build was kinda cursed. So while I was testing the CPU's I accidentally broke the fan wires off the motherboard and the project was halted. I tried to clean or replace the connector on the motherboard, so I could use a good CPU cooler, but my efforts had ultimately failed so I decided to replace the motherboard. I decided to go with an ASUS P4PE-X TE, because it's the first socket 478 motherboard that I found. After a couple of weeks of procrastintation and a couple hours of messing about I ended up choosing a netburst celeron 2.60GHz from 2003 that I found on the ground at an abandoned train station in Kőbánya.
This CPU is missing pins and has rust on it and was hard to insert into the socket, but it works... somehow.
I went with this processor, because this was my fastest CPU with 400MHz FSB, because I couldn't get any of my faster processors to work in my setup, not even with my fancy 460MHz Gamer ram, which is quite a shame, because I have some 2.8GHz Penitum 4's. It's written in the motherboard's manual that it supporst 400MHz/533MHz/800MHz FSB speeds, but I could only get it to work with 400MHz chips. I also wanted to have 1536 MiB's of RAM, but it turns out, that I can only use two DDR DIMM's when using DS modules, so I ended up with 1024 MiB's of RAM.
I also changed the video card while I was here. I went from an NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 (Inno3D FX5200-8X) to a ATI Radeon 9550 (Gigabyte GV-R955128D), because I wanted to use DVI. I also insatlled an Adaptec AIC-7850 SCSI Controller, because I already had it and I wasn't using it. On the software side I ended up going with Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise Edition SP2, because I already had it on there.

2025-10-27

GregTech Parte Deux: The why

So Why did I start playing with GregTech if I hate the mods so much? It's simple really. A friend of mine invited me top play on his Minecraft server, which has GregTech on it alongside many other mods, like AE2 and Create and a bunch of other stuff. I've been playing on this server for just over a month now, and it's been a pleasant experience for the most part. The server is alamfa64, who I've already mentioned on here some time ago. He runs the server from his home from one of those tiny ThinkCertere PC's. (Sine note: They make special monitors for those that you can just slide them into, creating a quasi all-in-one.) The server has a player base of about 10 people. When I first joined the server they were mostly strangers to me, but I was able get to know them pretty quick, since we would also hang out IRL sometimes.

Now to wrap things up with a quick in-game GregTech status update: I'm doing quite well, I already have EV tear tech, I recently expanded my base and opened a shop in the oldest part of my base.

2025-10-19

No opportunities missed

I was recently tasked to go to a place where I've never been before, and things definitely could have gone better.
At first things started out just fine. I got on the right train, made my way across the city all the way to the bus. After this things started getting interesting. You see, I've never been there before, and I forgot to check the place on a map so I didn't know how many stops to take, or which way to go when I did get there.
So at one point I was entirely convinced, that I've already missed my stop so I decided to get off the bus. At first I was confused, but after asking a local man for directions I've realized that I got off early, and that I should have stayed on the bus until the next stop. The bus only comes once an hour, and I've already waited for the previous bus to show up, so I decided that I would walk to my destination. Then I took a wrong turn, and went to the left where I should have gone to the right. I went down a dirt path, fully believing that I was going the right way. At this point I thought that I was almost there, so I started looking for the building among the dessert of identical concrete buildings, however this was in vain so I decided to just wonder around aimlessly before acknowledging that I jots got lost. After this I decided to call for help on the phone, since I didn't have any kind of map on me. At this point I found out that I was going in the wrong way, so I turned back, then crossed the road and I was there. Everything went well at the place, but after that I did have to wait a really, really long time for the bus to show up, and let me tell you that I had everything but a good time.
In conclusion, check out the place where you're going at least on the day before, take notes and if you're in trouble, or not sure of something you can always ask the people around you for help.

2025-10-15

GregTech

I've been cutting my teeth on GregTech for over half a Decade now and I feel like writing about it.
I've been messing about with GregTech for some years now. I think it all started with an InfiTech playtrouhg, that never really finished the modpack.
Later I also watched some InfiTech 2 serieses on the same channel, but they never got past MV. (Or at least I don't recall them going past MV tech)

But why am I writing this now? Well, a couple of weeks ago I found this one Youtube video titled "Beating Minecraft's Hardest Modpack With Nothing" from a channel named Neurotic Goose. At this time I had no intention to play with GregTech. At this time I felt anger and haterd towards the idea of playing with GregTech and I still do to this day. And yet I'm actively playing with the mod, because it feels challenging. Every bit of progress I make with the mod feels rewarding in a very addictive way. At one point I started making Stainless steel just for fun, then I decided to automate HV tear circuits just because I could, and then I realized that I've entered the HV era, and the same also goes for titanium.

The loop: The gameplay loop of GregTech is all about making stuff to make better stuff to make more better stuff, until you reach the best stuff.
As you go along with this insane death spiral of exponentially increasing complexity, your sanity will most likely plummet rapidly. You will find yourself playing long hours, late into the night just to craft a single item.
But it this worth it? What prizes may one receive for the small cost of one's sanity? Well, better tools and armor of course! Neutronium tools are basically unbreakable, and really op if you can actually get to make them before the heat death of the universe or going insane. You kind of have to be insane to even begin playing with GregTech, because the learning curve is really steep, and the difficulty is just as high. But as you unlock more better tech you also gain the ability to make basic technology faster, cheaper and more efficiently.
For example, at the start of the game you can only make plates by using a hammer in a crafting table. This process requires two ingots per plate, but using those early plates you can create a forge hammer, which makes two plates from three ingots and by you can go to a ont-to-one ratio by using a Bender.

In GregTech many crafting recipes require various types of a programmed circuit. This item isn't used up in the recipe, however it determines what items your machine will make from the materials you've provided. Don't get me wrong, I really like this system, because it's simple and intuitive (as long as you pay attention to what kind of circuit you've placed into which machine, or otherwise your crafting will stop for apparently no reason because you've made the wrong item just nothing.)
For example most metals that are made in the Electric Blast Furnace have two versions: One with no Nitrogen, and one that needs Nitrogen. The version with Nitrogen is usually about twice as fast as the Nitrogen free version.
However this feature of the mod makes auto crafting setups more convoluted. You ether build a system that uses the right circuit for the right recipe, but why do that when you can also JUST automate the production of the machines and make one machine for each kind of circuit. This uses more resources, but GregTech is a very resource intensive mod anyhow, so you'll care more about the TROUGHPUT of your machines and you'll need to have to craft many different items in one kind of machine, so you might as well make as many as you want. The only limitation is power generation, but you can also just make MORE power to run the sprawling madness that you call your factory.

Bit I think I've already gone on for long enough about GregTech, so I'll just cut it short here. And still this is my longest post on here yet.

2025-10-13

Stuff and Things

So school is back, which means a couple of things for me, like having a decent meal every weekday and access to tools and resources that I don't have at home. However, there are also backside to this.
For example, I really don't like most of my class. Well, aynwasy I also changed the way I'm managing my projects this year. I've decided to only have one project going at once and to log all of my projects this year.

Usually before the beginning of the year I'll try to give myself unreasonable goals, but This time is different. I have no overly ambitious plans for this year. I just want to continue what I was doing last year.

Also, Sabrina Online just got updated.
Just felt like pointing that out.

2025-09-08

American Power Converters my beloved 💚

My UPS decided ti just die on me in a recent thunderstorm, so I had to move all my computer activities.
I could have just plugged all my stuff in with regular IEC power cables, but for some reason I didn't realize this at the time.

So I'm stuck with a weird computer setup without a single normal 16:9 monitor. Instead I have a 4:3 main and a 9:16 aux monitor, which is actually better then the main 4:3 monitor. (hehe wizard cat :3)

But there's a thing: I didn't move my main computer from it's place, and yet I'm still using it! Well, let me tell you all about RDP. Actually, no never mind. Okay, just one little thing: The audio latency SUUUUCCCKSSS!!! And it doesn't support(?) having multiple displays on the remote machine, so I'm basically using two computers at the same time, and each of them get one screen.

Here's the rest of the problems I've been having: Gaming over RDP is a no-go, the copy/paste macros on my mouse aren't working and I GET DOUBLE DISCORD PINGS EVERY SINGLE TIIIMEEE!!!!

But it's by far not the worst thing anyone is currently experiencing on this planet...

2025-08-01

Blog update: Blog writer and RSS feed

So far I've been using my IDE to write these posts, but I recently had the idea to make a simple... uh.. program? or website? or a web app? to make it much easier. almafa64 also suggested, that I should make an RSS feed for the blog, so I did. I've been wanting to add an RSS feed to my website, I just never had a reason to do so before. I also gave the blog posts IDs, so I can easily reference them. I', planning to add some more features, like rich text support, links and copy buttons for the generated code but I think this is good enough for a first version. This is the first post I made using the new blog writer.
Big shout out to almafa64, who helped me with some of the code.
(I've literally never used JS before this.)

2025-06-20

Sabrina Online *

I recently started reading the Sabrina Online webcomic written by Eric W. Schwartz. Here are my thoughts so far:
The comic strip is about the life of a skunk called Sabrina, and her friends. It also contains a lot of Amiga-related humor, and just tech in general. I've really enjoyed it's meta humor, with it's 4th. wall breaking and comments on real-live events such as the Y2K bug. I also find the passage of time fascinating. Sometimes the strips directly continue the action in a previous one, and other times months go by between two strips. For example, Sabrina just finishes collage off-screen. There's a bunch of adultery in it, but it's an EWS comic, what were you excepting?
In conclusion, It's a great comic and you should go read it.

2025-06-04

New setup

I recently got this HP monitor from a friend of mine. I didn't know what I was going to use it for, I just picked it up because he didn't need it anymore, and it's also way better than most of my monitors. My first plan was to use it in a retro computer workshop setup, but before I got to that I decided to connect it to my laptop with a USB type-c port adaptor. Then I got a new shelf for my main desk from stretched Lidl (aka Ikea), but it turned out that it doesn't fit my main setup, so I moved it to my sib's old desk and I used it to organize their stuff. So now it's Kind of a communal computer area for the entire family, which isn't really what I was going for, but I think it's still a nice setup.

2025-05-31

Graduation

Graduation took place at Pataky. But it wasn't my graduation.

...But it could have been. Today, my old class graduated, including acquaintances, former good friends, and the like.
This graduation was different from the others, because this time it wasn't strangers or relatives I barely knew who were graduating. This time, it was real friends.

I'm afraid I'll never see them again and I hope I'm wrong.

2025-04-30

I'm starting a blog.

Recently I've been thinking of starting a blog on my website.
So I did.
This is my first post.

2025-04-25