On Thu, Mar 26, 2026 at 16:41 (-0700), William Morder via tde-users wrote:
On Thursday 26 March 2026 14:59:35 Jim via tde-users wrote:
<snipping away ...>
<more snipping>
There was another incident that is almost beyond belief, and has nothing to do with any of my neighbors. That was when I lost my old desktop, which was nearly brand-new at the time. It had been in storage for over a year, and I got it out and brought it here.
Then there was, I thought, another fuse blown or something. I went out into the hall, and all the lights were off. I thought, Oh no, not again. But it gets worse.
It turned out, it was not only on this floor, or this wing of the building, but the whole neighborhood, something like a square mile. I forget now what happened, exactly, but the power went out everywhere for about 8 hours, just in this part of the city. This was back about 2014-2015 or so, maybe?
That killed my original desktop.
Your luck with things dying from electrical glitches is appalling. I've never heard of anyone having problems like this. By any chance, were your parents cursed by an angry witch before you were born?
I have my trusty Belkin surge protector which otherwise has served me reliably for years. But the problem seems to have been caused by the fact that I was transferring files at the time the power went out.
That is curious. Did you have anyone who is really skilled with those things look at the SSDs?
No, and I do still have both SSDs, but I just don't have time or money to deal with them now.
Well, maybe you know someone who will look at them for free. And given the price of them these days, maybe you can find someone who will look for a reasonable amount. Or, if there is nothing confidential on them, maybe there's an 8 year old whiz kid in your building.
Otherwise, I have three 3.0 USB ports on my laptop,
Are you sure? The specs I saw said two were 3.x and the other was a 2.0.
Well, it may be that mine is some slightly different model.
Maybe it is. And maybe the on-line specs I read are wrong.
When I got it, it said three 3.0 USB ports, an HDMI port, and a slot for SD card. You might be right, but I don't know how to check that.
Here is one way, that may require a little plugging and unplugging of flash drives. On my system, with nothing plugged in to any of the *external* USB ports, lsusb -v | grep -E "^Bus|bcdUSB" outputs Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub bcdUSB 3.10 Bus 003 Device 002: ID 8087:0029 Intel Corp. AX200 Bluetooth bcdUSB 2.01 Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub bcdUSB 2.00 Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub bcdUSB 3.10 Bus 001 Device 005: ID 04f2:b6b6 Chicony Electronics Co., Ltd HP Wide Vision HD Camera bcdUSB 2.01 Bus 001 Device 002: ID 04f3:0c4c Elan Microelectronics Corp. ELAN:ARM-M4 bcdUSB 2.00 Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub bcdUSB 2.00
(Apparently on my laptop the bluetooth and touchscreen interfaces and webcam are all connected via USB, so that complicates the output.)
Now when I plug in a USB 3.0 flash drive (using a USB 3.0 is needed to tell whether the port is 2.0 or 3.0) I get
Bus 004 Device 002: ID 0781:5581 SanDisk Corp. Ultra bcdUSB 3.20 Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub bcdUSB 3.10 Bus 003 Device 002: ID 8087:0029 Intel Corp. AX200 Bluetooth bcdUSB 2.01 Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub bcdUSB 2.00 Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub bcdUSB 3.10 Bus 001 Device 005: ID 04f2:b6b6 Chicony Electronics Co., Ltd HP Wide Vision HD Camera bcdUSB 2.01 Bus 001 Device 002: ID 04f3:0c4c Elan Microelectronics Corp. ELAN:ARM-M4 bcdUSB 2.00 Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub bcdUSB 2.00
At the very top you see "SanDisk Corp. Ultra", which is the type of flash drive I used. And you see the line below it says 3.20, meaning this is a USB 3 port.
If I plug it in the other USB-A port on my laptop, I now see these two lines which weren't in the first output:
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 0781:5581 SanDisk Corp. Ultra bcdUSB 3.20
So it would appear on my laptop both my USB-A ports are USB 3. Who knew?
If I plug in a flash drive that only does USB 2 speeds, the above outputs are similar but say 2.00. For example
Bus 001 Device 006: ID 154b:00d4 PNY USB 2.0 FD bcdUSB 2.00
I guess I could use hdparm to test how fast it can actually read from these two flash drives. I'd expect a much higher read rate with the USB3 flash drive.
All seem to work about the same, and I could use them interchangeably without any noticeable difference in performance.
If your hub only does USB 2.0 speeds, or you use a USB2 flash drive, you wouldn't notice a difference anyway. But you should notice a difference with an external SSD or a USB3 flash drive. If you have a "hard drive" then depending on things, it might not be fast enough for you to see a difference.
I only tend to choose to use them in the same way due to logistics; which is to say, space available on my desk, and what I can fit in, and where and how.
Available space is an issue.
For example, I plug my operating system flash drive into the middle port, so that it stands less chance of getting jiggled. When that happens, then my system really does freeze up, but it's because the hardware got disturbed. But that has only happened twice in a couple years, then I got wise. Now the middle port is "protected" (so to speak) by the USB cords that are plugged into the ports on either side of it.
Are you familiar with the hdparm command? For giggles you might do some performance testing. Running sudo hdparm -t /dev/<whatever> will run for a few seconds and give you an indication of what speed you can read from the device at. For example, on my laptop I do sudo hdparm -t /dev/nvme0n1 and it responds with /dev/nvme0n1: Timing buffered disk reads: 6330 MB in 3.00 seconds = 2109.97 MB/sec
The original disk in my wife's venerable 2009 laptop had this results sudo hdparm -t /dev/sda /dev/sda: Timing buffered disk reads: 234 MB in 3.00 seconds = 77.96 MB/sec with its original disk, and after replacing with an SSD at some point, it went to /dev/sda: Timing buffered disk reads: 818 MB in 3.01 seconds = 272.01 MB/sec
The SATA bus in that computer maxed out at 280 MB/sec (or something around there) and so we didn't get the full benefit of the SSD's speed, but it gave the laptop a new lease on life. The increase in speed of the laptop was very dramatic.
########## Here are my results.
running sudo hdparm -t
SanDisk flash drive 256 gb USB 3.0 root directory /dev/sda1: Timing buffered disk reads: 286 MB in 3.00 seconds = 95.25 MB/sec
swap /dev/sda2: Timing buffered disk reads: 412 MB in 3.00 seconds = 137.22 MB/sec
home directory /dev/sda3: Timing buffered disk reads: 344 MB in 3.01 seconds = 114.35 MB/sec
These numbers always move around a bit, but I am surprised by the variance you saw there. Unless your laptop got busy with something when you were doing sda1.
My USB3 flash drive got this in 4 more or less consecutive runs. Timing buffered disk reads: 444 MB in 3.00 seconds = 147.94 MB/sec Timing buffered disk reads: 442 MB in 3.01 seconds = 146.97 MB/sec Timing buffered disk reads: 442 MB in 3.01 seconds = 146.95 MB/sec Timing buffered disk reads: 442 MB in 3.01 seconds = 146.94 MB/sec
In any case, that Sandisk flash drive seems to be in a USB 3 port. And lsusb -v | grep SanDisk outputs Bus 002 Device 003: ID 0781:5581 SanDisk Corp. Ultra idVendor 0x0781 SanDisk Corp. iProduct 2 SanDisk 3.2Gen1 and you can see the claim "3.2Gen1". I'm guessing yours would say something similar, if not identical.
########## external drives
Unknown brand, found in garbage, has a big letter G on it. It may be some kind of Googlish thing, or it may indicate a conspiracy of Free-Masons. It connects with a USB-C to my 3.0 port. 1 tb hard drive (the films, tv, music, etc.) /dev/sdb1: Timing buffered disk reads: 122 MB in 3.05 seconds = 40.05 MB/sec
That's slow, but maybe that is why it was in the garbage. Still, one shouldn't turn one's nose up at a free 1 TB disk.
Another SanDisk flash drive 256 gb USB 3.0 /dev/sdc1: Timing buffered disk reads: 92 MB in 3.04 seconds = 30.30 MB/sec
That is only 1/2 USB 2 (theoretical) speed. So either (a) something weird is going on, (b) someone sold you a counterfeit flash drive, and it is really only USB2, or (c) the USB port is only running at 2.0 speeds.
If you are still curious and don't mind wading through some more output, there is the command "lsusb -t" output for my system:
/: Bus 04.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci_hcd/2p, 10000M /: Bus 03.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci_hcd/4p, 480M |__ Port 1: Dev 2, If 0, Class=Wireless, Driver=btusb, 12M |__ Port 1: Dev 2, If 1, Class=Wireless, Driver=btusb, 12M /: Bus 02.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci_hcd/2p, 10000M |__ Port 2: Dev 3, If 0, Class=Mass Storage, Driver=usb-storage, 5000M /: Bus 01.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci_hcd/4p, 480M |__ Port 3: Dev 2, If 0, Class=Vendor Specific Class, Driver=, 12M |__ Port 4: Dev 5, If 1, Class=Video, Driver=uvcvideo, 480M |__ Port 4: Dev 5, If 0, Class=Video, Driver=uvcvideo, 480M
You can see I have some USB 3 (10000M), USB 2 (480M), and some sticky old USB 1 (12M). I assume the USB 1 is for the touchpad and keyboard. Maybe the touchscreen, I dunno.
The guy wasn't working on some military-grade electromagnetic pulse weapon by any chance?
He was just a few years older than myself, but not at all technically-inclined, and was suspicious of my running Linux and talking about free software.
Did he call you a commie pinko? ;-)
Maybe not being technically-inclined was just a cover story.
He did not believe that there was such a thing as free software. He had a lot of appliances that required high voltage.
See, that is intriguing. Maybe a particle accelerator? Ultra centrifuge for separating U235 from U238?
It is strange that he was not more adept at the new technology, as he was some kind of engineer and/or architect before he retired. He used to hang his degrees on the wall, from Harvard and elsewhere, sit alone and drink martinis and listen to opera music.
Sounds like a possibly interesting character. Maybe interesting in a way you didn't want to know.
If I were to speak ill of him, I think it is the opera music that I really hated.
All of it? I'm not an opera fan, but I have heard the odd piece that I thought was good. How can anyone not like "Largo al factotum" from The Marriage of Figaro? What would Bugs Bunny think?
And yes, the power in this building is very dodgy. It amazes me that the building inspectors have not shut this place down. Back in September just last year, I went through a period where I got flooded three times within a week. Fortunately, I had already moved out practically everything, and what was left just happened to be (by luck, not planning) above the water. So there was nothing important that got damaged, just stuff that I would probably have discarded, anyway. I had about six inches of water in my place each time. The sewer had backed up, and overflowed into people's apartments.
Yuk. I'm surprised you aren't moving faster, given (IIRC) you said you have another place.
Then there was the day that the floor beneath my bathroom came crashing down, and I had a big gaping hole, looking into the lobby downstairs. I lived for four months without a toilet here, from mid-September until mid-January, and used to have rats, the size of dachshunds, coming in to visit me. I covered up the hole to keep out the rats, but I still lived for four months like that. Other times, I had to deal with repairs people going in and out of my place for days on end. About all I could do here was sleep and eat.
I repeat my statement above!
Before you ask, many people here have tried to sue for these matters, and we keep getting told that this company is too big to sue, and also that "they have no money"; which seems to me is beside the point, as well as a contradiction.
David doesn't always beat Goliath.
Anyway, these experiences will give me more to write about. (This is not the long-term project to which I referred elsewhere. That is more of a scholarly historical work, for lack of a better description.) Also, my tales of misadventures in California's dark underbelly ought to make for some pretty good reading, and I am more likely to make money from that than from my other work.
Onward!
Also I am thinking of getting a Jackery power station. <...> I don't know about brands, but so far the Jackery sounds like the top of the line.
I have an Ecoflow. If you talk to any of the Ecoflow fan-bois, they will tell you that Ecoflows are the cat's meow. I don't have any real opinion myself (when I went to buy an Ecoflow, the reviews were as positive as any of the other brands, and I could buy one locally, so...). My experience with my Ecoflow (Delta 2 model + extra battery) is that it will give you something like 80% of the rated power. So I have (nominally) 2 kWh, which should run one 250-watt device for 8 hours. But I suspect I probably end up with about 6.5 hours (or so) of power. YMMV.
I will check out Ecoflow. Always good to shop around and do some research, before I go and blow my money on such a big purchase.
There is quite a price range of those things. I like the idea of the one which can power a house for a week or two, but the price tag on that model is a bit eye watering. :-)
I had also heard of Rockpals, but was more impressed by the Jackery models. Ecoflow looks interesting, and the prices are too bad for the size I want.
Besides using it for my own household needs, I want something that is both portable, and big enough, to power several instruments and other equipment for a band. I have some people that I play with, and we are thinking of taking it on the road in a very modest way, just to have some fun. But sometimes available power is a problem, so I had already thought of a power station as a solution, because I saw some other musicians doing it. And they were using a small-medium Jackery unit.
Unless you are trying to get your sound out to hundreds or thousands of people, I would imagine a relative affordable unit would keep you jamming for a reasonable time.
Jim