Google+, it's you're time to shine

I've left Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. I refuse to join TikTok. The feeds full of random news and algorithmically targeted nonsense is driving people insane.

I have a FOSStodon (Mastodon) account for keeping up with tech content and people, but to be honest the federated nature of it is great, but something seems to be wide off the mark for me. Maybe it's that people can be in more than one Mastodon instance, and so finding the right person in the right place is tricky.

The one place I loved above all others to communicate with family and circles if friends was Google+. This was an amazing platform, with posts ordered chronologically, and only from people, circles, and communities you were a part of. Todd is exactly what the world is crying out for now, so I implore you, Google. Please bring this back to the world!

Oh my God, I'll never drink (that combination) again...

It's been a few years since I was out on a proper drinking session. Friday 25th Jan was a colleagues leaving do and we went out into town to send him off on a high. 

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, and I'm not sure that Tapas was the best dinner choice for soaking up the alcohol, but I believe the choice of drinks was likely my downfall.

I had Whisky Sours with dinner, and then afterwards out for Singapore Slings. Both delicious. But the hangover I've just had has been the worst in a long time, resulting in many rounds of sickness, and a total inability to eat anything.

I've had no sympathy from my good lady wife, and frankly I deserve none, it was a very silly thing to do, and I will definitely not be drinking (that combination) ever again.

WTF is up with Windows Networking?!

Today, in my role as an IT consultant, I was faced with a strange issue at a customer site. The issue manifested as poor internet performance, unresponsive web sites, and MS Outlook failing to connect properly. The fault was eventually traced to a fibre module in their core switch which was causing massive CRC errors on the link.

In order to troubleshoot and finally verify internet performance, we were using a well known online speed test tool to check performance. During the incident, download speeds varied from 50Mbps to 200Mbps on a 1Gbps circuit across all devices, not great. After the fix was applied, we had stable download speeds of ~500-600Mbps on most equipment.

I started getting suspicious that something was amiss when one PC was achieving ~900Mbps download, whilst my customers Surface Book with a docking station was only achieving ~250Mbps, and my Surface Pro 7 was only achieving ~80Mbps with the USB network adapter.

I focussed on my Surface Pro to dig a little deeper, and found that when not connected to the mains power, the Surface running Windows 11 would only achieve 50Mbps over WiFi5, and 80Mbps over Ethernet. When the mains is plugged in, this went to ~180Mbps over WiFi5, and ~500Mbps over Ethernet.

Whilst the power profiles seem to be in play here and adjusting performance based on whether it has mains power I thought I'd try something out. I unplgged the mains and manually set the performance profile to "Best Performance", expecting this to return the performance levels to those seen with the mains connected, however it didn't, we went back to the same levels as before (50Mbps over WiFi5, and 80Mbps over Ethernet).

The final tool in my kit was to boot my Surface using a Linux live USB. I booted up, and connected to WiFi and had download speeds of ~200Mbps, which was an improvement. The biggest shock was when I plugged in the USB Ethernet connection and then had consistent ~900Mbps downloads. The same cable, the same switch, the same hardware.

So, WTF is up with Windows Networking?! Why is there such a discrepency between Windows and Linux? Why does the network speed reduce so much when the power isn't connected?

Clearly there are no answers here, this is more of a rant. I'll keep digging to see if I can find anything else. I fully suspect that not even Microsoft could answer this to a suitable level.

Migraine Pain

My wife has suffered from migraines all her adult life, and it's become easy to spot the pattern of life which brings them on. Stress piles up to the point of breaking, the release through sharing or from tears will ease the stress, and next day she will likely get a migraine. 

I, on the other hand, have only had four migraines in my life. I've yet to figure out a pattern, but this too will likely be stress related. Yesterday marked my fourth migraine and whilst not feeling especially stressed (compared to some work days), I suspect this migraine was the culmination of weeks of stressful, full on, varied workloads, and my poor brain had had enough. 

I've been considering ways to reduce my stress, and generally take better care of my body and mind, and have decided that perhaps Yoga would be a good way to keep both active and relaxed. There are plenty of good articles on the various types of yoga, and there seem to be a myriad choices of sites and apps to access this content.

The issue I'm contending with now is one of time. When would be a good time of day to conduct this exercise? Would my body appreciate doing yoga within a routine? How can I make time with busy workloads, and a customer base which can take me across half the country?

Please leave comments below, is be grateful for any suggestions.

Riverlite

16th January 2022 marks my five years at Riverlite Ltd.

I've worked at a few companies big and small through my career, from little one man bands to big multinational corporations, across different verticals, and in both private and public sectors. Not one of my previous employers has come this close to perfection.

My role as Senior Consultant at Riverlite offers me daily challenges, projects of varying scope and difficulty, a team of truly talented and professional individuals, and a work/life balance which seems to have actually found an equilibrium. Not to mention the support they have offered during times of personal struggle.

I have found a happiness in my team, and my work that I have not had for a long time, and I wanted to take a few minutes to say thank you. Thank you to my team, thank you to my manager, and thank you to the MD.

That's all for now.

Dave