The Mystery FTP Clocking Machine Project

During my very first programming job I was given, late in the day, a unit which gathered user data.  It stored this data in CSV plain text and according to the manual you were to FTP into the unit and retrieve the file.

I had an FTP client, I had an FTP implementation (in Dephi) and neither could connect to the device, standard FTP commands didn't work, they just didn't work.

We could confirm it had an IP Address, see the device within the DHCP list and indeed we could ping it, so it was responding to ICMP, but no matter what the FTP client, as described in their manual, would not connect.

A TFTP client similarly could not.

We had no internet, so after going home that evening, on my own initiative I downloaded three more FTP clients and even downloaded an FTP class for the C++ IDE we could use "Borland C++ for Windows".

In the morning I tried all of these, nothing, nada, naught.

I went to get another from the pile of 30 of these we had sat with customers waiting, nada.

I plugged away at this for a week and in the end arranged for an engineer from the vendor to come see us; the chap came, he had a peek and a poke at my code, saw nothing wrong, tried this test routines, they all ran... so we were at an impasse.

Nothing we tried worked except their test routines, so I of course wanted the code to their test routines.

They were very reticent to deliver it but after a lot of prodding and some negotiation over lunch it was agreed that their own engineer could receive the code, look at it on my machine, even copy and paste a few critical parts and get us up and running with connect, disconnect and that would be it, we could then have to do all the other commands, but their engineer would sit there whilst I did at least "list".

No internet, so I took this engineer to my home address (luckily within walking distance of the office) and over my modem (yes, I'm that old) we downloaded this code to a floppy disk (yes, I'm truly that old).

We headed back to the office, set up and opened the code next to my IDE window, their code was in C, so I would have to transliterate it into Delphi later, but whilst he was present we stuck with the C code, he called his programmer and the chap confirmed it should build in Borland C for DOS.  Which I had.

Sure enough their code seemed to compile fine and it ran in debug and connected, did a list and pulled all the files off the device, deleting them after.

Their engineer did this, then he looked at the code, and he smiled, and stared at the code, then smiled at me.  Remember we've wasted my time, his time, like a week in total here.

He consulted their own operators manual, looked at the bottom of the device, smiled again, then picked up the phone.

"Is there another version of this model?"

<squiggly reply on 1998 Motorola Razor>

"Sure, sure, but is there another version?"

<Squiggly voice>

"Right, right, can you send that?"

<Loud squiggly voice>

"Yes"

<Squiggly no>

"Yes"

And he hung up.

"Sorry gentlemen, he was addressing me and my boss, but ah... it would seem you've got the wrong device".

And he arranged for them all to be collected and returned without explaining himself, he personally returned with another unit, which to me looked identical and this worked instantly.

I have never found out quite what the issue was, but the next morning 29 more of these boxes arrived and we could deliver to our downstream clients the next week.

WD Disk DOE & Dust....

I recently ordered a new WD Blue disk, it duly arrived and had the strangest problem I've seen in many a long year, no matter what I did the disk showed as 64MB total and it lost all data upon power cycling.

I puzzled over this briefly, until I pulled the disk back out the caddy and saw it had exactly 64MB of cache, yes, no platter space was being shown, just the cache showing up as disk space.  I have never ever seen this before, cache has always been a transparent intermediary for me in production and so to suddenly have the cache being the only exposed space was odd.

However, dead on arrival hard disk, a quick RMA and a new one winged its way into my hands, they actually gave me a slight upgrade as I got a WD Black by return of post.

Tonight I planned an hour to fit the new disk and add it to my workstation.... This machine has no cable management, and its a nightmare to add drives, there are six built in 3.5" bays but they have a set latch and screw mechanism, which forces you to fit the drives to that the power connectors are actually straining the distant power plugs. (I do plan to buy a pair of SATA power extenders on pay day).

What struck me as a massive problem however, is the amount of dust inside there.  Clearly, since fitting the 1080 GTX I've had something change or fail or open as there are copious amounts of dust in there.

Now my work area is not optimum for a workstation, I have a full tower case, so it has to go under the desk and the floor is carpeted.  Now this had been mitigated by the Coolmaster Cosmos 1000 case having lifting rails, taking the whole thing 1.25" off of the floor level, and two ground level filters, as well as a rear and front filter set.

But clearly things have not gone well, as just dust dust dust.

My original plan for the start of the year was to re-case the server, then re-case this PC as a server as well, retire one of the aging DELL 2950's for this machine itself, and put myself a new workstation together for my 40th.

Trouble is?... I'm skint, like proper skint, so I can't afford the workstation I was planning on...

And now I need to sort out this machine... I smell another re-casing task a head... Hmm, which case?  I'm thinking about the Corsair Obsidian range... Anyone have any other suggestions for a full height tower?... 1 x 5.25" at least 6 x 3.5" internal mount points and at least 2 x 2.5" mount points internally.  Front Panel USB would be a boon.

Dust seems to be my enemy.

Story Time : "Younger Man" with Sleep Apnoea

Not dissimilar to the description J K Rowling gives to the character of Uncle Vernon in the Harry Potter series, I am a "Big Beefy Man" with "not much neck".

As a result last year it became blindingly obvious that my waist was expanding, I also personally noticed a drop in my day-time alertness.  Initially I would like to point out that I have always been a night owl, and it was not uncommon for me to stay up late and get stuff done (especially programming things) and then sleep later.

This fit well with my employment offering flexible start hours too, and so happily for very many years, I got slowly fatter and fatter, sitting down and eating too much, and I slept later and all was merry.

Except, it wasn't... I suddenly noticed I had become extremely moody, irritable, bad tempered, my concentration was dropping and I found it nearly impossible to remember new things.  Initially I bit back my bad temper, and to compensate I started to use a series of physical notebooks and then scheduling apps to help abate my failing memory.

This crooked self-dillusion carried on for about four weeks, the wife later told me I was a nightmare to live with, however at the time I could not explain the reasons for the change, I could think I didn't want to act that way, I didn't want to forget my lunch, or eat junk, or be a bastard.  But I was being, and there was nothing I could seemingly do about it.

So, I took a few days to think about what I was doing, what had changed, I was very tired, I had to admit.  I kept going though... Kept going, caffeine, pushing black coffee down me, and sugar, lots of sugar.  I never felt I was eating well, but I needed the energy, without it I faltered, stumbled and one day I said "no caffeine today, lets see how I get along".

Driving home one moment I was at red lights, a blaze of other tail lights a head of me, the next blink, I was alone... Sat at the lights still, no-one around me... I had fallen asleep at the wheel.

I literally pulled over and slept there and then.

I contacted my GP, and said "I think I have sleep apnoea", this notified the DVLA, I suspended driving and got one with treatment... Unfortunately this took sometime, so my coping mechanism in the meantime was to sit up in bed more, and to fit a black-out blind to the window.

This alleviated symptoms, but I knew I wasn't sleeping deeply, a short time later and a night of sleep monitoring it was confirmed, I have obstructive sleep apnoea.

I thought this was because I was fat, because I was getting older.  But it seems thats not just it, I am large, and all my family are.  However, the tiredness makes you want to eat more, the BBC has recently covered this phenomenon more than once, and I have to admit it was nice to hear.

I was issued with a CPAP machine, was immediately sleeping so much better.  It was like night and day.  And for the last year I have enjoyed this machine immensely.

However, the straps for the masks go slack over time, as they go slack your sleep falters again, as a man if you have too much facial hair air escapes the mask (have a beard but very short trimmed it's not a problem), far more of a problem is how the mask  seal skirt wear and then the straps go slowly slack.

I would have to argue that the company making these (Phillips) could be held somewhat to account for the latter, as it seems to happen at a predictable, almost designed rate, however I have to concede that the material used has certain requirements and the felt like vencro fastening straps with their slight elasticity are pretty good, but the continual re-stressing of the product does result in quite quick deterioration in performance, even before you take into account the biological factor (sweat & skin cells, and having to then wash the straps).

However a year on, I'm not wondering whether the machine is enough for my condition, I've noticed more than just slack straps, more than wearing seal skirts, more than just a bad nights sleep that more days than not I am quite tired of a day.

This is not everyday, but perhaps two days every fortnight or so, there's no obvious reason for this biologically, environmentally there's no changes either.  I have to admit to slightly more stress in my life at present, however pressure or stress have never stopped me sleeping before (a side effect of studying the martial arts - if a bloke bigger than me can hit me, a bit of code not working in the office is nothing to sweat over).

I will have to discuss this with my consultant in early June.

Being an every inquisitive soul I have started to look at other factors into why I might have apnoea whilst my brother (a close body match to me) does not, and as far as I know no-one else in my family - despite our having a string of heavy snorers - doesn't have apnoea.

One thing I mulled over, before doing some reading, is that during my mid to late teens I had orthodontic treatment, I had four healty pre-molar teeth removed and the two following molars behind these pulled forward.

I've just read, in two sources, that these molars play a role in strengthening the stiffening the sides of the soft pallet, and they also provide a framework onto which the throat muscles structure, then of course the net result is that your jaw is shrunk, leaving less room for the tongue.

I have to be completely honest here, if I let my tongue rest in as natural a position as it can, as easy feeling as it can be, it sticks out over the end of my lower front teeth.  But sits slightly behind my upper bite.

I have the distinct feeling that if I had not had this procedure, yes I would have slightly wonky front teeth, and yes there may not have been space for my wisdom teeth to fill in but my tongue would fit inside my teeth.

As a consequence of this poor fit I have to draw my tongue slightly backwards, with a kink mid-way, to let it sit behind my lower teeth, add the very nature of the action of the flesh being slack in my apnoea and this is a recipe for real trouble.

Having made mention of my weight problem, I did grow whilst without my CPAP machine, I went up to 21 stones around July 2016, by December I was 19 stones, and now today at posting, I am 17 stones and 9 pounds, you can go convert that yourself.

I'm still big, but I feel so much better, even with a few crappy days sleep I feel so much better.

Coming up in June, lets see if my consultant agrees with my orthodontic question, and if I need anything corrected or improved with my CPAP machine.