Ultraman from the 1972 TV series...
Atlassian Stash/Bitbucket guy...
...or maybe I'm the only one who sees it.
Monday, October 15, 2018
Anyone else think the Stash/Bitbucket ASCII-Art looks like Ultraman?
Atlassian Stash/Bitbucket guy...
...or maybe I'm the only one who sees it.
Tuesday, May 22, 2018
Samsung GS5 Android system_server
After several years, my Samsung GS5 suddenly started running the battery dead in a few hours. Just days before, the battery was lasting all day before it needed a re-charge. Coincidentally, I had just purchased a new phone that was on the way from T-Mobile with a new, unactivated sim-card. I have no way to prove that anything was pushed to the GS5 to make it start acting badly, but the timing was extremely suspect.
So, I still had plenty to do on the old phone to transfer on-phone data to the new device, so I still needed it to be working. I was wondering what was causing the excessive battery drain, so I opened up the "#top" app to see if there was a process sucking up lots of CPU time. This is where I noticed that a process named "system_server" was constantly running at 30%+ CPU. Searching for answers about what "system_server" does was a fruitless pursuit. There was some noise about turning off bluetooth, or making a call to voicemail to reset something, but all of the internet voodoo related to the system_server high cpu issues changed nothing.
A few days later, I started the process of clearing off apps from the old phone one-by-one, in hopes that one of them would reveal itself as the guilty party. Nothing seemed to relieve whatever was going on within system_server though. Then I uninstalled some app I had installed ages ago, and I couldn't even say which one it was because the next thing that happened was SOOOOOO infuriating and distracting. The phone suddenly started displaying the following message, over and over and over. "Unfortunately the process android.process.acore has stopped." I would tap the OK button and the message would pop right back up. I had about enough time between each pop-up to tap one other thing. Restarting the phone didn't make that go away either.
More internet searching gave me a suggestion to open the settings, switch to the "Applications Manager", find the "Contacts Storage" app (which only appeared in the "all" applications, and the "all" category wasn't even on the screen at first, but I digress...). I then cleared the cache for the "Contacts Storage" app, but that didn't make the messages stop. I then tapped the "Turn off" and "Force stop" buttons and the message finally stopped popping up. Just to be sure it wasn't a coincidence, I tapped "Turn on" and the messages started popping up again immediately. So I turned it off and force-stopped it again to end the insanity until I could find the real cause.
The interesting thing about all this is that after I stopped the "Contacts Storage" app, the original issue with the system_server process burning up the CPU was gone. system_server was now running at only about 1% CPU and the battery was back to its normal discharge rate.
There was so little information to be found that would have linked these issues together, I decided to write this in case it helps connect the dots for someone else who is dealing with this torment. Hope it helps.
This helped me: https://www.quora.com/How-do-I-fix-the-process-android-process-acore-has-stopped-error
So, I still had plenty to do on the old phone to transfer on-phone data to the new device, so I still needed it to be working. I was wondering what was causing the excessive battery drain, so I opened up the "#top" app to see if there was a process sucking up lots of CPU time. This is where I noticed that a process named "system_server" was constantly running at 30%+ CPU. Searching for answers about what "system_server" does was a fruitless pursuit. There was some noise about turning off bluetooth, or making a call to voicemail to reset something, but all of the internet voodoo related to the system_server high cpu issues changed nothing.
A few days later, I started the process of clearing off apps from the old phone one-by-one, in hopes that one of them would reveal itself as the guilty party. Nothing seemed to relieve whatever was going on within system_server though. Then I uninstalled some app I had installed ages ago, and I couldn't even say which one it was because the next thing that happened was SOOOOOO infuriating and distracting. The phone suddenly started displaying the following message, over and over and over. "Unfortunately the process android.process.acore has stopped." I would tap the OK button and the message would pop right back up. I had about enough time between each pop-up to tap one other thing. Restarting the phone didn't make that go away either.
More internet searching gave me a suggestion to open the settings, switch to the "Applications Manager", find the "Contacts Storage" app (which only appeared in the "all" applications, and the "all" category wasn't even on the screen at first, but I digress...). I then cleared the cache for the "Contacts Storage" app, but that didn't make the messages stop. I then tapped the "Turn off" and "Force stop" buttons and the message finally stopped popping up. Just to be sure it wasn't a coincidence, I tapped "Turn on" and the messages started popping up again immediately. So I turned it off and force-stopped it again to end the insanity until I could find the real cause.
The interesting thing about all this is that after I stopped the "Contacts Storage" app, the original issue with the system_server process burning up the CPU was gone. system_server was now running at only about 1% CPU and the battery was back to its normal discharge rate.
There was so little information to be found that would have linked these issues together, I decided to write this in case it helps connect the dots for someone else who is dealing with this torment. Hope it helps.
This helped me: https://www.quora.com/How-do-I-fix-the-process-android-process-acore-has-stopped-error
Monday, March 5, 2018
Do You Trust Amazon Reviews?
More specifically, do you trust overly positive product reviews on Amazon.com?
I recently purchased a lamp on Amazon. My confidence to trust that it was a well made, reliable product came primarily from the MANY 5-star reviews.
Then, when I received the lamp, the product-box (not the Amazon box) included the following bribe for a 5-star review.
My first thought was, hey, free money to spend on more stuff at Amazon...
My second thought was, hey, this pretty much means the reviews on this product were bought for about half of what the product costs.
My third thought was, hey, if they can cover that and still make money, the margin on this thing has to be around 75%. Hope it's not complete junk.
Bottom line is that I now have yet one more reason to suspect the genuineness of Amazon reviews. Negative reviews are probably still useful for finding out if a product's flaws are acceptable (because there's lots of whining going on in reviews too), but if a product has overwhelmingly positive reviews, that may not mean very much.
I recently purchased a lamp on Amazon. My confidence to trust that it was a well made, reliable product came primarily from the MANY 5-star reviews.
Then, when I received the lamp, the product-box (not the Amazon box) included the following bribe for a 5-star review.
My first thought was, hey, free money to spend on more stuff at Amazon...
My second thought was, hey, this pretty much means the reviews on this product were bought for about half of what the product costs.
My third thought was, hey, if they can cover that and still make money, the margin on this thing has to be around 75%. Hope it's not complete junk.
Bottom line is that I now have yet one more reason to suspect the genuineness of Amazon reviews. Negative reviews are probably still useful for finding out if a product's flaws are acceptable (because there's lots of whining going on in reviews too), but if a product has overwhelmingly positive reviews, that may not mean very much.
Tuesday, January 30, 2018
Benjamin Airbow - Missing Accessory
Last spring, I got one of the most fascinating "toys" (which is not really a toy at all, but I still can't think of a better word.) I'm talking about the Benjamin (Crosman) Pioneer Airbow. If you found this post by an internet search, you probably already know what the Airbow is, and what it does, and I don't really have anything to add to the product info on the Crosman web site. https://www.crosman.com/airbow
One of the very first things I noticed when I unboxed my Airbow was that the arrow tube is "floated" and sticks out in the front about 4.5" with nothing to protect it from getting bent, dented, scratched, covered in dirt, or any number of other things that would make the Airbow perform poorly or not at all. Another thing that doesn't seem ideal, is that Benjamin put the air gauge right up on the front of the Airbow. Besides the fact that you have to aim the Airbow at or near your face to _see_ the pressure reading, the gauge's bezel is only slightly protected on the lower side, but otherwise exposed to anything the front of the Airbow might hit.
At first I didn't worry too much about it, but one of the first few times I tossed the Airbow into the back of my car to take it over to the local archery range, on the way over, someone pulled out in front of me, and I had to stomp the brakes to keep from hitting them. The Airbow was in the Benjamin soft case (shown in the pictures) but the whole thing went sliding and stopped against the back of my seat. Luckily it was oriented such that the stock end hit the seat, but if it had been the other way, I'm almost sure the arrow tube, the gauge, or both would have been damaged.
That's when I decided to put my CAD skills and my 3D printer to work and make something to guard the front of the Airbow without having to buy an expensive and bulky hard case for it. After I made it, I started thinking that it would also be much better protection for the sensitive, exposed parts of the Airbow while it was being hoisted up into a tree-stand or just carried through brush to a hunting spot. Transporting a bow or rifle into the field in one of those bulky, heavy hard-cases is not my idea of fun.
By the way, hunting with the Airbow isn't really an option where I live because the Airbow isn't approved for hunting any kind of game in my state, but I'm still hoping that will change. Or, I may travel to a neighboring state where they have approved the Airbow for hunting.
Most of the time, I wouldn't even share an idea like this, because I would assume I'm the only one who thinks the problem really needed solving. However, I suspected that I might not be the only one who had these concerns about the Airbow, so I posted a short video clip on YouTube to show what I had done to "fix" it. As it turns out, several people who have Airbows, and have found my video, actually did have the same worries about the arrow tube and the air-pressure gauge.
Some of those people have requested that I make an Airbow Guard/Cover for them. So, I did some digging to find out how much it costs, for comparison purposes, to have a 3D printing service make the parts. I checked on https://www.treatstock.com/ and found several companies that, based on reviews, probably have some level of competence. Many of them charged close to $80, which I thought was a little too much. Shipping one of these things within the contiguous U.S., via UPS, is around $15. With that as a basis, and considering the time and material costs, I decided that it would be worthwhile to make one for $50, so with shipping (to the "lower 48") that would total of around $65 (unless you're in a UPS "Extended Area" which costs a little more, so maybe up to $70 total). I could also ship one elsewhere (Europe, Australia) if the requester was ok paying about $25 for shipping (USPS First Class Package) and whatever the currency exchange fee is (approx $5) - total of around $80.
I can tell there's some interest based on the YouTube video, so I'm posting this "blog" as another way Airbow owners might be able to learn about the Airbow cover I made. I also wanted to tell a little more of the story behind it (hope I didn't rattle on too long). I'm not really set up to mass produce these things, but I can make one or two a week. If you are interested in having one of these, just send me a message at airbowcover @ liveintellect . org (remove the spaces) and we can work out the details.
Here's the YouTube video, if you're interested...
One of the very first things I noticed when I unboxed my Airbow was that the arrow tube is "floated" and sticks out in the front about 4.5" with nothing to protect it from getting bent, dented, scratched, covered in dirt, or any number of other things that would make the Airbow perform poorly or not at all. Another thing that doesn't seem ideal, is that Benjamin put the air gauge right up on the front of the Airbow. Besides the fact that you have to aim the Airbow at or near your face to _see_ the pressure reading, the gauge's bezel is only slightly protected on the lower side, but otherwise exposed to anything the front of the Airbow might hit.At first I didn't worry too much about it, but one of the first few times I tossed the Airbow into the back of my car to take it over to the local archery range, on the way over, someone pulled out in front of me, and I had to stomp the brakes to keep from hitting them. The Airbow was in the Benjamin soft case (shown in the pictures) but the whole thing went sliding and stopped against the back of my seat. Luckily it was oriented such that the stock end hit the seat, but if it had been the other way, I'm almost sure the arrow tube, the gauge, or both would have been damaged.
That's when I decided to put my CAD skills and my 3D printer to work and make something to guard the front of the Airbow without having to buy an expensive and bulky hard case for it. After I made it, I started thinking that it would also be much better protection for the sensitive, exposed parts of the Airbow while it was being hoisted up into a tree-stand or just carried through brush to a hunting spot. Transporting a bow or rifle into the field in one of those bulky, heavy hard-cases is not my idea of fun.By the way, hunting with the Airbow isn't really an option where I live because the Airbow isn't approved for hunting any kind of game in my state, but I'm still hoping that will change. Or, I may travel to a neighboring state where they have approved the Airbow for hunting.
I can tell there's some interest based on the YouTube video, so I'm posting this "blog" as another way Airbow owners might be able to learn about the Airbow cover I made. I also wanted to tell a little more of the story behind it (hope I didn't rattle on too long). I'm not really set up to mass produce these things, but I can make one or two a week. If you are interested in having one of these, just send me a message at airbowcover @ liveintellect . org (remove the spaces) and we can work out the details.
Here's the YouTube video, if you're interested...
ALERT: This is NOT meant to remain in place while shooting. It is only meant to protect the arrow tube and gauge while the Airbow is in storage or while it is being transported. It must be removed before loading and firing an arrow.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)