Wednesday, December 02

Geek

Daily News Stuff 2 December 2020

Washer Dryer Edition

Tech News

  • Getting a new combination washer/dryer on Friday.  The old one was starting to get rather fussy, sometimes complaining that it couldn't drain the water when it didn't have any water, and the dryer function stopped working at all. 

    And then one day recently I loaded it up and set it to work and it made an unpleasant noise followed by the rattle of bits coming off some mechanism inside and now it won't talk to me at all.

    It's over ten years old and way out of warranty, so time for a new one.


  • The recommended way to install LXC on a system not running ZFS is to create a nice big file on whatever filesystem you are using - ext4 probably - and turn that into a ZFS volume.

    That's not a good idea when you're running directly on hardware, because it prevents ZFS detecting and managing hardware problems, and adds extra CPU load to every I/O.

    But on a VPS you're not supposed to be seeing I/O errors in the first place, and if you are you're kind of hosed.  And since I'm getting acceptable performance with two cores and 4GB of RAM - until I run low on memory - a 12 core server with 48GB of RAM should be quite able to absorb that extra load.


  • New Aoi is now called Mikan, at least as far as it is concerned.  The management portal at SSDNodes doesn't let you change the name of your servers, so there it will remain Aoi forever.


  • The RTX 3060 Ti competes pretty evenly with the old 2080 Super.  (Tom's Hardware)

    So far it's not even listed anywhere as out of stock, so good luck getting one.


  • When the SSD you get is not quite the SSD you bought.  (Tom's Hardware)

    This article focuses on the Adata XPG SX8200 Pro, which has been sold in three different versions (different controllers and flash chips) without any notification or change to the model number, but Adata isn't the only company to have done this.

    And to be clear, the newer models of the Adata drive don't suck; they didn't drop from TLC to QLC flash or anything egregious like that.  But at least change the model number, guys.  Make it the SX8200 Pro S if you change from Micron to Samsung flash, or something.


  • Salesforce is buying Slack for some ridiculous amount of money.  (Tech Crunch)

    Just install GitLab.  Contains everything you need, including developer chat.  Does need at least 4GB of RAM these days, though.


  • A new experimental drug reverses age-related cognitive decline.  (Neuroscience News)

    In mice.

    Good news for Algernon, I suppose.


  • Deploying your own dedicated hardware for serverless apps.  (Cortex.dev)

    I mean, I guess.


  • AWS has announced Habana Gaudi instances.  (Serve the Home)

    These are apparently AI training engines - high-end hardware used to construct AI models that you can then deploy to cheaper systems, because learning is harder than doing.


  • HPE - Hewlett Packard's enterprise division since the Gallification - is moving from San Jose to Houston.  (CNBC)

    That's one way to solve the Bay Area housing crisis.


Not At All Tech News

  • Burn it to the ground and sow the ground with salt.

Disclaimer: Clunk thud rattle rattle rattle poing that will be a thousand dollars thanks.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 08:11 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
Post contains 559 words, total size 5 kb.

1 "Getting a new combination washer/dryer on Friday."

I looked into that a couple of years ago before eventually buying separate washer and dryer.  Everyone I talked to said the combo units were more expensive and less reliable, although it seems like they're more common outside the US.  (Or did you mean one of those single-piece dryer-over-washer ones?)

Posted by: Rick C at Thursday, December 03 2020 01:35 AM (eqaFC)

2 They do things a bit dif'rently down in Austr(al)ia...   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SWnLeXatrw

Posted by: normal at Thursday, December 03 2020 03:25 AM (LADmw)

3 Well, no wonder it's making that weird noise.

Posted by: Rick C at Thursday, December 03 2020 03:57 AM (eqaFC)

4 Mine lasted more than ten years as a washer.  Less time as a dryer, but I've had a dryer give up the ghost after just a few years so I don't know if it's actually less reliable.  They are a little more expensive than basic separate units.  More significantly they're slower if you have a lot of clothes to wash because you can't dry one load while the next load is washing.

I just love the convenience - dirty clothes go in, clean dry clothes come out.  There's no hot damp air because the dryer is a condensing type.  And no cleaning - the lint goes down the drain and the drum cleans itself.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Thursday, December 03 2020 09:10 AM (PiXy!)

5 Huh.  Combo washer/dryers have long intrigued me.  However, I've used the condenser dryers in Japan, and in my experience they were soggy clothes tumblers rather than dryers. Their word of mouth rep in the states is pretty dismal.  In fact, Yours is the first good review of a combo set by someone whose actually used them that I've heard. 
Do you have a brand and model #?

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Thursday, December 03 2020 10:02 AM (5iiQK)

6 The new one an LG WVC5-1409W.  It's not the cheapest, but the cheaper models all had reviews saying "washes fine but the clothes come out soggy after the drying cycle".

Condensing dryers run cooler and take a lot longer than regular tumble dryers - at least twice as long.  That's fine for me because I can just throw the clothes in there and come back whenever they're done, but would be a problem for a family with lots of laundry to do.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Thursday, December 03 2020 12:13 PM (PiXy!)

7 When I got my first house, my parents gave me a housewarming gift of money for a Washer, Dryer, and Fridge. I went to Sears, and got all Kenmore appliances. I STILL have all three, and they've never needed repairs (Although the washer smells a bit.).

That was in 1996, by the way.

Posted by: Mauser at Thursday, December 03 2020 12:54 PM (Ix1l6)

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Apple pies are delicious. But never mind apple pies. What colour is a green orange?




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