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| Greg's diary |
| January 2025 |
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| Wednesday, 1 January 2025 | Dereel | Images for 1 January 2025 |
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A quarter of a century!
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Topic: history, opinion | Link here |
It seems like only yesterday (alright, a couple of months ago) that I sat in my office and
watched the “angel of death” (the Y2K bug) pass from Christmas Kiritimati via New Zealand to us and on.
That was the turn of the century. 25 years ago! The new century is a quarter over,
already.
And somehow that divides my life into 3 parts. On 1 January 1950 I was living with my parents in Nunawading (I think; it's possible that the house there was not finished yet, but I have no recollection). On 1 January 1975 I was in Hamm celebrating Christmas with my fiancée Doris Pischke and her family. And now it's 50 years later!
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New Year's letter
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Topic: history, technology, opinion | Link here |
For 12 years now we have been sending out annual newsletters, originally at Christmas, but now as close to on the dot of New Year (UTC) as I can manage. And it's a pain.
First, the good news: this year's letter is out, and I managed to attach a PDF version. But it took several hours, and there are still big mail systems that refuse mail from me.
The big difference from last year is that SPF records have become an absolute requirement. Even last year's workaround of sending the messages via Aussie Broadband no longer work:
<groggyhimself@gmail.com>: host mail.aussiebroadband.com.au[121.200.0.25] said: 550
5.7.23 <groggyhimself@gmail.com>: Recipient address rejected: Message rejected
due to: no SPF record. Please see
https://www.aussiebroadband.com.au/help-centre/internet/changes-to-spf-and-how-it-affects-you/
(in reply to RCPT TO command)
OK, I have an SPF record. In fact, I have three, for mail.lemis.com, lax.lemis.com and www.lemis.com. None of them seem to work. The pages I found telling me how to set up an SPF record had one thing in common: they didn't specify the host name. The ones that tested confirmed that my SPF record was correct, but that didn't help. OK, set up a fourth one for lemis.com:
=== grog@lax (/dev/pts/1) ~ 26 -> nslookup -q=txt lemis.com
Server: 45.32.70.18
Address: 45.32.70.18#53
lemis.com text = "v=spf1 a:www.lemis.com ip4:192.109.197.0/24 ip4:45.32.70.18 ip4:121.200.0.0/24 ip4:96.47.72.0/24 ip6:2403:5800:3:25::/36 ~all"
lemis.com text = "google-site-verification=AxIZbg-VfVkVCvz6FLBCQfhCt9JWf_6GLQdQTYc_I8c"
And after that, lots of things worked. Gmail now accepts my mail, though it took a few minutes and a number of rejections before it checked the record again. Bigpond seems to have been happy. Only two sites were left over, I think: first outlook.com:
<Edna.Scott@creativebydesign.com.au>: host
creativebydesign-com-au.mail.protection.outlook.com[52.101.149.1] said: 550
5.4.1 Recipient address rejected: Access denied.
[SY3PEPF0000A725.ausprd01.prod.outlook.com 2025-01-01T00:58:05.766Z
08DD28BBCA590057] (in reply to RCPT TO command)
What does that mean? Is the email valid, and outlook is too secure to talk to me, or is it something else, in which case what? It rejected nearly all my messages, though
Date: Wed, 1 Jan 2025 11:07:32 +0000
From: postmaster@outlook.com
Subject: Delivered: Happy New Year from the Leheys
Your message has been delivered to the following recipients:
nickhola@hotmail.com<mailto:nickhola@hotmail.com>
...
Received: from lax.lemis.com (45.32.70.18) by
DB1PEPF000509E9.mail.protection.outlook.com (10.167.242.59) with Microsoft
SMTP Server id 15.20.8314.11 via Frontend Transport; Wed, 1 Jan 2025 01:41:56
+0000
It's not clear whether this is because it was hotmail.com and not outlook.com, but what is clear is that the confirmation came well over 9 hours after outlook received it.
And then there's this one:
<axp@bnc.net>: host mail-in.bnc.de[194.39.192.116] said: 575 groggyhimself@lemis.com
sender requires a secure TLS connection (in reply to MAIL FROM command)
Why?
It's on days like today that I wonder if it's worth running my own mail server. But why give up after over 30 years?
And what sting does the SPF record have in its tail? I first set up a record over 20 years ago, and I've had lots of trouble as a result. From recollection it caused messages to be rejected that had been sent to mailing lists, and I removed it in August 2020, though I didn't mention it here.
So what will happen with the mailing lists? Good question. What happens if I send with a different sender address (groggyhimself@FreeBSD.org comes to mind)?
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Paella portions
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Topic: food and drink, opinion | Link here |
We at left-over paella valenciana for dinner tonight. It was clear that we wouldn't finish it:
But how much do we really eat? Today I guessed at portions:
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That's for “eats like a bird” Yvonne (225 g) and and me (535 g). Admittedly, that was without the additional seafood. As it came to the table, it looked like this:
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And Yvonne couldn't finish it!
We had 720 g left over, enough for a double portion in the deep freeze.
| Thursday, 2 January 2025 | Dereel → Ballarat → Dereel | Images for 2 January 2025 |
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Letting Mona outside
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Topic: animals, opinion | Link here |
We've been letting Bruno outside the house for three weeks now, and things seem to be working. The dogs have decided that they want to play with him, by chasing him, something he doesn't find so amusing. So he stays in the part of the garden (NW) where the dogs can't get in.
And Mona? She really wants to go outside too. OK, we let her out this morning for about quarter of an hour:
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Yes, things worked, but we wanted to keep our eyes on her, and we didn't have time.
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More wildflowers
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Topic: gardening | Link here |
I've seen these tiny flowers before, but for some reason there are a surprising number of them at the moment:
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New glasses again
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Topic: health | Link here |
It's a New Year, time for new glasses.
Why? My insurance covers most of the cost of a new set of glasses every year. After my cataract operation I had two new glasses made, one for computer work and a general purpose multifocal one. But now that I can see so much more sharply, the limited field of view for the multifocals proved irritating. So: a single focus pair with an offset of 0.25 dioptres to match the 4 m distance to the TV.
All went well, but Tamara wanted to give me a 0.5 dioptre offset. Why? And at some point she thought that it would be better to have no offset.
All that proved to be irrelevant: Laura, the salesperson (or whatever her job title is) who handled details of frames and lenses, really wanted to sell me a pair. Together they would cost me $13 out of pocket. OK, at that price, let's take 2, and the second one could be a no-offset one.
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A bad day for Google Maps
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Topic: technology, general, opinion | Link here |
When I go into town, I get Google Maps to plan the way for me. But today I couldn't send the route to my phone:
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Huh? Why don't I have the latest version? Why, don't I have the latest version? How do I find out? The info page shows me:
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But how do I know if an update is available? No idea. Let's ask Gemini. Ah, I'm looking in the wrong place:
To update Google Maps on your Xiaomi Android phone, you can follow these steps:
Isn't that simple and obvious? And that told me that the app was up to date. Left hand, right hand syndrome?
Things didn't stop there. When I left for Ballarat, navigation stopped after about 1 km, and I couldn't get it started again. When I was at the optometrists, I tried setting the next route, and I got
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It started working again some time later, and when I got home I found that it had recorded the entire journey during which I hadn't had any guidance:
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A bad day for shopping
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Topic: general, food and drink, opinion | Link here |
After the optometrists, I went to Coles to look for some bread. All the packages look the same! But Yvonne had warned me: there's a much smaller label on the back that tells you what kind it is. To find what you're looking for, you need to turn over every package until you find one that matches. And in my case, there was none.
Apart from that, finding your way around is difficult. There are no signs, and the only entrance to the supermarket itself was at the other end, which again I had to find by a process of elimination. Somehow Coles is not my kind of supermarket. A good thing, probably, that I had nothing to do with their self-service checkout.
Then on to the Fruit Shack, where things were even worse: they're shut for the Christmas break, and they won't be back until Monday. What a waste of time!
| Friday, 3 January 2025 | Dereel | Images for 3 January 2025 |
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Fixing leaks
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Topic: general | Link here |
Woke up in the middle of the night to hear our water pump cut in and out about every 2 minutes. That sounds like a leak, but where? An obvious culprit could be one of the cats which accidentally pushed against a tap lever. We don't want to waste water, so got up and took a look. No, the cats were innocent. Nothing in the bathroom. What about outside? I have a double protection there: below the tap I have a timer, just in case I forget to turn off the tap and the hose leaks. And yes, the tap was on. Turned it off and the pump cycling stopped.
But the timer should have prevented any leaks. When I got up, out to take a look:
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Some protection that is! I only bought it some time after the last disaster.
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Chasing down the Christmas letter stragglers
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Topic: technology, opinion | Link here |
I still have 6 recipients for the Christmas message to whom I haven't been able to deliver the message. I've already established that one is too secure to talk to me, but there are a lot of other bounces, notably from outlook.com, that I need to interpret. There are so many different ones! Spent some time today chasing them up.
<Richard_Tunbridge@ghd.com.au>: host
ghd-com-au.mail.protection.outlook.com[52.101.149.2] said: 550 5.4.1
Recipient address rejected: Access denied.
With the help of Google Gemini, was able to establish:
The email error code 550 5.4.1 indicates that the email was rejected because the recipient's email address was not found on the recipient's server.
So why don't they say so?
Then there's this one:
<gincy@together.net>: host mx04.earthlink-vadesecure.net[147.135.98.120] said:
550 5.5.1 Recipient rejected - ELNK001_403 -
https://postmaster-earthlink.vadesecure.com/inbound_error_codes/#_403 (in
reply to RCPT TO command)
What does that mean? Take your pick. This page tells me
The email error code 550 5.5.1 indicates that the sending server didn't follow the protocol, and the MailPlus Server rejected the SMTP connection. This could be due to a number of reasons, including:
The sending server is considered untrustworthy
The email is likely a phishing or spam attempt
But at least the rejection message provides a link to https://postmaster-earthlink.vadesecure.com/inbound_error_codes/#_403 , which tells me
This mailbox does not exist here.
That makes sense: Yvonne tells me that Gincy died last year, though it's not a foregone conclusion that that would cause a bounce. I had two other people who have been dead for round 10 years who received my mail with no trouble. The interesting one was Jürgen Lock, who died on 8 August 2015. His DSN message said:
<nox@jelal.kn-bremen.de>: delivery via uucp: delivered via uucp service
That's doubly interesting. I think that's the last time I've seen UUCP used in earnest in this millennium.
There was also a 550 5.1.1 which seems to mean the same thing. But why this obfuscation? How can end users cope with that?
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Google Maps: How did you like...
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Topic: technology, general, opinion | Link here |
I use Google Maps a lot for various reasons, including navigation. I enter corrections which are occasionally applied, though in some cases (Harrisons Road for example) they're particularly reticent. And for some reason they don't have the Exeter Guildhall, the oldest continually operating municipal building in England, but I can't find a way to submit the entry without hundreds of details (opening times, phone number) that I don't know. That doesn't stop them from asking me how I liked the Guildhall car park (which they do have on their list). This morning I got another one:
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You'd think they'd know enough to realize that this is a theatre, and that I haven't been
within 10,000 km of there in the last 30 years. But somehow there's a failure to
distinguish between different uses, even when they're done on
different computersdevices.
| Saturday, 4 January 2025 | Dereel | Images for 4 January 2025 |
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Heat wave
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Topic: general, gardening, opinion | Link here |
Today was supposed to be the second day of a heat wave, a term that I had associated with multiple days over 40°. The forecast was for “only” 38°, and in fact it hardly got any hotter than that. But some of the plants suffered. This Abutilon seems to have suffered doubly. First, its leaves are drooping, something that will presumably go away when it gets cooler. But there are also some branches that are clearly dead, and I can't see why:
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The branches with the dead leaves are connected normally to the rest of the bush.
Also, one of the spikes of this Phormium (if that's what it is) has bent and is about 1.2 m above the ground, at least giving me a chance to get a better photo of it:
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Superb fairy wren
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Topic: animals, photography, opinion | Link here |
Seen in this panorama of the south of the house:
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That's a Superb fairywren. It's in the Buddleja in the middle of the photo. Yes, of course it's not very sharp, but I find it amazing that it's visible at all at that distance. The field of view corresponds to a 300 mm lens (600 mm “full frame”), not bad for a fisheye lens.
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Another fisheye?
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Topic: photography, opinion | Link here |
I carry the old Olympus E-PM2 with me in my handbag, along with a couple of lenses: the Leica DG Summilux 15 mm f/1.7 ASPH. and the Panasonic Lumix G 20 mm f/1.7. That's mainly because they're small and have wide apertures. I'd like something wider, but how wide? And how small? The LEICA DG Summilux 9 mm f/1.7 ASPH. might be a contender, but it's both too big and too expensive.
If I'm going to go wider, why not really wide? There are a number of circular fisheye lenses with focal lengths in the 4 mm range, and they're all relatively small and affordable. Is that an alternative for when the normal lenses aren't up to it? They have a maximum aperture of f/2.8 (corresponding to a real aperture of 1.4 mm), but that should be acceptable.
| Sunday, 5 January 2025 | Dereel | |
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Mobile phone power consumption
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Topic: technology, general, opinion | Link here |
albo.lemis.com, my “new” mobile phone, has significantly higher power consumption than hirse, its predecessor. It really needs charging at least every other day, and every day if I use it for navigation.
But in the past couple of days its power consumption has increased significantly. I charge overnight, and at the end of the first day the charge level is typically round 60% to 70%. If it's lower, I charge. If not, it's typically round 25% by the second evening.
But in the last couple of days the charge level has been round 35% on the first evening. That's more than double the power consumption that I typically see. What's causing it? The battery tabs in the phone settings don't seem to help, but I suspect certain flaky apps. But what the settings page shows me includes apps that aren't running, and maybe some running apps are missing from the list. In addition I don't trust the claims it makes about individual apps, so I'll have to make my own observations. At the moment I suspect Vic Emergency, so I'll keep an eye on that.
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Fisheye lens: a good idea?
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Topic: photography, technology, opinion | Link here |
Watching more video presentations about fisheye lenses today. It's becoming clear that my intended use is anything but typical, and my attempts to “defish” images with DxO PhotoLab were catastrophically bad, apparently a problem with DxO. Maybe I'm stretching things too far.
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