Category: Tech

Facebook AFU

Weirdest damn problem. Facebook is working on my Verizon phone over Verizon FiOS Wi-Fi, but Facebook isn’t working from any browser on three different PC’s, connected over the same router. Extremely strange, and it isn’t a browser vs. app issue, because Facebook’s Windows app is likewise blank. And it isn’t a DNS problem.

C:\Windows\System32>nslookup facebook.com
Server: Fios_Quantum_Gateway.fios-router.home
Address: 192.168.1.1

Non-authoritative answer:
Name: facebook.com
Addresses: 2a03:2880:f172:81:face:b00c:0:25de
157.240.245.35

Doesn’t appear to be a routing problem either.

C:\Windows\System32>tracert facebook.com

Tracing route to facebook.com [157.240.245.35]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1     6 ms     5 ms     6 ms  Fios_Quantum_Gateway.fios-router.home [192.168.1.1]
  2     8 ms     7 ms    18 ms  lo0-100.bstnma-vfttp-354.verizon-gni.net [96.237.232.1]
  3    13 ms    57 ms    16 ms  b3354.bstnma-lcr-22.verizon-gni.net [100.41.13.102]
  4     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  5    15 ms    17 ms     9 ms  65.208.14.250
  6    13 ms    16 ms    15 ms  po101.psw02.bos5.tfbnw.net [129.134.32.39]
  7    10 ms    16 ms    15 ms  173.252.67.53
  8    39 ms    17 ms    18 ms  edge-star-mini-shv-01-bos5.facebook.com [157.240.245.35]

Trace complete.

The outage is widespread, apparently on the east coast, and it’s also on MacOS. Facebook on Google Chrome on my phone is also a no-go. I never received a code for 2-factor authentication. It’s as if Facebook is now restricted to their phone apps.

Update: The service is back. All I did was refresh the Facebook page for the umpteenth time. This time it came up. Whatever was wrong was totally on Facebook’s end.

More Unscheduled Downtime

On Halloween, Bluehost played a trick on me.

Unscheduled Downtime

The SSL certificate that was assigned was supposed to be valid through January 29. But when I received an e-mail from Bluehost confirming my certificate renewal, it gave a renewal date of December 8. Which is today and, of course, the site went down. Here is the entire text of my chat today with customer support. Click/tap “Continue reading” and read from the bottom up.

Continue reading More Unscheduled Downtime

Misspent Medical Money

How not to spend healthcare revenue.

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7137470026005045248/

Another example of questionable spending. No wonder Epic doesn’t want its employees working from home.

And this is my questionable spending. It’s questionable because the version with an Intel i5 for a hundred bucks less than the i7 would have been fine for my purposes.

My beloved HP ProBook 11 G2, that I’m using right now, will migrate from the porch to the bedroom. Oh, by the way, as modest as the traffic is for this site, it’s viewed on phones over desktop/laptop computers by a 3:1 margin.

In One Ear, In the Other

Once again, my apology to the hearing-impaired among you.

THESE. SOUND. AMAZING.

TRUTHEAR x Crinacle Zero In-Ear Monitors

Normally only $50, they were a $42 Black Friday impulse purchase. The TRUTHEAR x Crinacle Zero IEM’s can sound bizarre at first, and they did, until finding the right set in the supplied collection of earpieces. For me, the biggest set of the clear silicone pieces does the trick.

The sound follows something called the Harman IEM frequency response target. It’s a bit bright for my taste, and the mid-bass is lacking compared to the incredibly tight, deep bass. But the impact, clarity and overall WOW factor when listening more than make up for those quibbles.

Found in the Mix

This quote from the Wikipedia page about Steely Dan’s Katy Lied aligns with what I remember reading long ago about the album in a hi-fi magazine article. The citation Wikipedia is looking for is undoubtedly in that particular issue.

Band leaders Becker & Fagen said they were dissatisfied with the album’s sound quality because of an equipment malfunction with the then-new dbx noise reduction system. The damage was mostly repaired after consulting with the engineers at dbx, but Becker & Fagen still refused to listen to the completed album.[citation needed]

To refresh my memory of the original sound, I listened to my 70’s vinyl copy of Katy Lied on my living room system with the Thorens TD-166 MKII and Ortofon Super OM 20. I’m now ready to revise my opinion.

It’s brilliant! Ignoring my quibbles about the mix, the way the lacquer master was cut, as described in yesterday’s post, is outstanding. I am especially impressed with the dynamics. Here’s the first minute of “Black Friday”, played on the office turntable, a Pioneer PL-112D with Shure M92.


WOWEE! That is one dynamic cut of vinyl! There’s certainly no loudness compression going on there.

Seeing that graph made me wonder if swapping in my Grado Green cartridge would be up to the challenge of tracking the record. The answer is no, it isn’t. The difference in volume isn’t the issue, it’s the crackling that can be heard when listening with headphones.


So, aside from the noise reduction equalization snafu, resulting in the hasty re-mix, Katy Lied is an impressive technical production. It’s especially noteworthy for its early use of a computerized cutting lathe in the final stage of mastering the record.