Modern Vespa

I've turned on CloudFront logging to see what I can capture.

So not something like your AWS/Apache* reaching some simultaneous connection limit or something like that?

* iirc that's what you run on?

It's a possibility, though I haven't actually seen anything to indicate that we might be hitting a connection limit. The apache/php interface we're using (FPM) is fairly robust at dealing with heavy loads, and expands the number of workers as necessary. We regularly get hit with high-speed scrapers and it does a remarkably good job at dealing with the onslaught of requests.

The bottleneck is more often the database (which is a separate instance). As long as the session management code avoids hitting the database during an onslaught of scraping (and it generally does) then the attacks are usually repelled. At least, AFAICT. I'm not watching the logs 24/7, but when I am sitting at my desk working on the code, I am generally SSH'd into the server tailing the log in real time.

But when the database goes down (or is overwhelmed) you'll usually see very slow page loads, rather than a 502 error.

You didn't mention if there was a delay before you got the 502? Or was the error immediate?

I've been googling a bit for intermittent 502 gateway errors in CloudFront, and haven't come up with anything interesting yet.

umm ... don't remember any delay. def not like a 30sec timeout. maybe was a couple of secs or maybe immediate. the more I think the more I feel it was immediate but don't quote me on that

Got home from work early last night, and moved an abandoned bicycle from my driveway to the side yard. When I turned around while closing the gate, I saw a very happy dog trotting up to me. I also heard my neighbor's dog barking at us through the window. I saw that the dog had a collar, but no tag, and figured it was my neighbor's, so I called him. He wasn't home, but based on the description, it was his. She didn't answer to her name when I called her, but figured it was probably due to my voice being different than my neighbor's. I had to follow her around the neighborhood for a bit before finally being able to get her into my garage while we waited on my neighbor to get home.

Twenty minutes later he arrived and told me that it wasn't his dog. Turns out this dog has similar colors to his, and the same color collar, but his is half the size of the one I found.

I texted my other neighbor to see if he knew any of the other neighborhood dogs.

While waiting for his response, I called the city animal control, but was 2 minutes too late for them to answer the phone, even though they were open for another hour. I then called the police non-emergency number and they said they could email animal control to have them contact me.

Just as I ended the call, my neighbor responded. He said there's an Akita that lives at his backyard neighbor's that gets loose a lot, and that the neighbors are neglectful and suck as dog owners. I asked if he had contact info for them, and he said no, that he'd just walked her over to their house and rang the bell. I said I'd do the same. He told me to make them come get her.

I thought about it and decided that, since they seem to suck as much as my neighbor says they do, and since she has no tags I can't be absolutely certain that she's their dog, I'd take her to the city animal shelter.

At this point, I had 45 minutes to try to get her loaded in my truck and drive across town during rush hour before they close. It took me 15 minutes to coax her into the bed of the truck. (Before you jump on me, there's no way I was going to put a rambunctuous large dog into the back seat of my truck with no way of securing her to keep her from tearing up my interior or climbing into the front seat. I put a blanket down in the bed of the truck and closed the hard tonneau cover, so she was safe. I also drove as smoothly as possible.) It took another 15 minutes to drive to the shelter, but I made it there.

They had me fill out a found dog form, and then had me bring her in. They scanned her for a chip, and found that she had one. Turns out her name is Zoe, and that she'd been adopted a year earlier from their adoption center, so the adoption side would have the owner's information. They said they'd have her on a 3-day stray dog hold while they tried to contact the owners. If the owners don't respond, they'll either transfer her to a rescue, put her up for adoption, or possibly put her on the euthenasia list. I don't think she'll end up on that list. She's very friendly, and if the owners don't claim her, I'm sure someone will want to adopt her.

So neglectful dog owners are pissing me off.

You went way above and beyond with the wandering dog. Good on you.

OFG

what a pretty looking pooch

Just looked over the surrender contract for Zoe.

She's just over 1 year old, and weighs about 60 lbs.

If I knew for a fact that she was OK with cats, and if she wasn't so energetic, and if her previous owners weren't across the back fence from me, I'd have considered adopting her after she clears waivers. But I just know she'd be a ton of work with the amount of energy she has.

So I purchased a new Honda CR-V hybrid a couple of weeks back, drove it locally a bit, (mostly my wife), but did a 150 mile round trip for a weekend out of town last week. Watching the fuel efficiency gauge, it was logging 25.6 mpg, which, IMO kinda sucks. As time went on, it actually climbed about 1 mpg, which, unfortunately is ballpark where both our Subaru Outback and Ford Escape have been at...sans hybrid.

So, decided to call my salesman and voice my concerns. Thought maybe there was some good explanation such as engine break-in or whatever. He agreed the numbers were a bit concerning and offered to check things out for me. Next day he relates that supposedly the electric part isn't operational while the heat is running on high, which would explain the drop in expected fuel efficiency.

I haven't done any deep dives into hybrids, but my first thought is to call bullshit. We don't run our car like a sauna first off, so if that's the case, in order to benefit from the hybrid feature we'd have to a) drive around cold most of the winter, or b) just suck up mediocre mileage for a third of the year. Somehow our older cars look so much nicer at the moment.

If I don't put my foot into it, my 2002 Suburban will get 17mpg and it's 4WD. That's with the AC or heater going. Your milage is very upsetting. If you don't use the heater, will you get closer to 50 mpg?

That 25.6 mpg was for highway miles on your 150 mile trip, right? What kind of mileage do you get in town, or short trips?

I get an average 53 miles per USG out of my Honda hybrid but it's only a 1.5 litre. I don't think you have the Jazz over there?

Anyway, during the winter when I'm using the seat heater and Aircon temp set at 22c (72f) it only drops by 2mpg?

Our 2020 Honda Fit gets a consistent 33 - 34 mpg in town and that is with heat or AC. 25.6 for a hybrid not real good.

OFG

My non-hybrid Honda Accord gets 30 mpg or better in town and up to 46 on the highway. I think those figures might be reversed for hybrids but I don't know. That's why I asked about in-town driving.

Something to keep in mind is that hybrid technology offers almost zero benefit on the freeway, at least as far as MPG goes. Depending on the car (and the conditions) it can use the electric motor to augment the available power of the gas engine -- I don't know if the Honda CRV hybrid does this or not.

To make matters worse, while you're on the freeway, you're hauling around the extra weight of the hybrid, so your mileage might actually be worse than a non-hybrid.

The whole point of hybrid cars is to improve MPG in the city, where you are stopping and starting frequently.

^^ this.

was tempted to write it myself but was feeling lazy

Ha! Filled my quota of learning something new everyday with that one (says the silly ICE guy). Cheers for that.

It's they hybrid that screws up in winter. City should be around 34 (take a bit of a hit on AWD...

Understood, and fair point. I was thinking numbers were combined with my wife's in-town driving before we left town. And weirdly the MPG climbed after added highway miles.

I expect that most of the miles will be "going to town" with occasional highway trips. It's hard to get a vehicle that does it all....besides fitting my height into a vehicle is a significant limiter for us.

I don't have warm weather to compare it to, but we'll have to see. 2 mpg seems reasonable.....

Yeah, it pretty much flip-flops.

I'm a bit envious of sedan mileage, but damn, getting out of the low ones is like crawling out of a tent. Need muh dignity, man!

Final demands from fedex for a parcel delivery last year. They can't seem to understand "Hey, what is this for?". I have an inkling of what it might be and who should be paying but can't get them to confirm any details.

Bruno went for a ride in a FedEx van once to the other side of the suburb

Anticyclonic gloom!

I can't remember what the sun looks like 😑

Our dog arrived to us accidentally. I'd never had a dog and she was a staffordshire bull terrier wth a not so good start in life when we got her at 18months old. I didnt know what to expect but it was an amazing journey. We said goodbye to her at 13 years old last year but I'd do it all over again in a heartbeat.

The Hyundai's EML light come back on after driving 450 miles into Germany.

Love this car

Switched out my autopay for my cell phone via website just before it was going to take the montly payment. Set up a virtual card, next day get a notice that my card was declined. Check it out, everything seems in order. Next day, another notice, so I go in to get things sorted, decide just to use my real card numbers, which then gets declined too....this time it's the fraud detection where I have let them know it's legit, but then of course I have to go through the same hoops once again to pay.

For some reason, the website gives me the amount sans taxes, if I pay that amount, it only pays that amount, if I go back and add taxes, it adds tax automatically so I overpay. Oh, the joy.

A five minute task takes 30. I need a nap.

Fleece, this Hyundai i10 average on the Autobahn was 54 mpg.

1000cc's 67 HP 3 cylinders and a low compression turbo charger.

It doesn't need a Hybrid. However it does need fixing

Fledermaus, The MPG on the Hybrid will increase when the engine has had time to loosen up.

This can take up to 5000 miles but my suggestion is to take in on a few more highway trips without loading the engine.

What's happening is that there's a lot of frictional loss when the engine is tight and this will mostly be released as heat, so give it time and all the bits that rub together will bed in a little more then your MPG will improve.

Fledermaus
I am also the new owner of a CRV Hybrid Touring yadda yadda you get the point. I got mine on Black Friday here and was devastated with the first tank. I've logged them all:
1. 23.
2. 32/33 (mostly highway)
3. 27
4. 28.
5. 29.5

I let the tank get to about 300+ miles before I fill up on gas again. I do run my heat because there's nothing I hate MORE than being cold. That said, I keep it on Econ, and the mpgs are steadily improving. I'm at about almost 2K miles and I expect things will get better. But I've had a lot of the same groaning pains as you. If you switch your view from gas/fuel range to the one that shows you the batter any where the power's going (on the infotainment screen), that will show you what you're actually getting on the tank. I have my A tank to reset everytime I fill up. My mpgs per drive are much higher (I got 40+ the other day, driving more gingerly on purpose), than the average tank MPGS. Reset it after a few tanks if you want, see if that changes.

Also looking to see what it looks like when it's not freezing here and the car has more than 5K miles on it. My $.02.

I've been driving hybrids for the last 14 years, admittedly smaller models than the CRV (Toyota Prius, Auris and Honda Jazz) and have gained somewhat of a reputation for my Miss Daisy driving style!

Fact of the matter is, I always run on Eco setting, take care when pulling away and ease back on the gas when I can to get the leccy to kick in.

As a consequence my license has been clean of speeding tickets for the last 14 years and I get on average 50 miles per US gallon (60mpg imperial).

It has changed the way I drive and I have benefitted from that. It's not for everyone though.

Just my two penn'orth 🙂


can I just add, apart from driving carefully I'm a proper Sex Drugs & Rock n Roll kinda guy

Thanks all for your hybrid input!

Bill Dog, That exact thought has been swirling in my brain, and makes sense. Weird the dealer didn't bring that up, if nothing but to get me off their tail.

Karlsbadd, thanks for your commisuration and data. I got hopeful watching my mpgs creep up as I went through my second tank...we're still new at this!

And Fleece, appreciate the point about driving modes. They failed to mention anything about that at the dealers, only discovered when I dove into the manual to see what all the buttons are for. Kind of missing the simple days of '60s cars when you could know exactly where everything was in 5 minutes. Worse, I'll be looking for that damned spare tire for the next 10 years!

Now that my wife is home I need to switch the driving mode to Walter Mitty. Yeah, my car vs. scooter personal don't exactly match.

Allahdammit.

Airbox bubble removal after less than 1000km. There was extended periods of very high speed running

How much is that on the dipstick?

I don't know how much goes into the airbox vs how much gets burnt. But over the same period the dipstick went from full down to one third.

OK, thanks!

I got two emails from the Apple Store this morning. The first confirming my order of a $10 Apple Gift Card, the second confirming that it had been sent.

Except I hadn't purchased an Apple Gift Card.

One of the various Dan Bates in the world did. This Dan is located in Illinois. The last two digits of the CC used (according to the email) did not match any of my cards. And the email address it was sent to was mine, but without the "." that I use (Gmail ignores any .'s prior to the @).

I called Apple Support and they confirmed that my account was fine. I suspect the other Dan Bates CC has been compromised, and the $10 card purchase was a test to see if the CC has been reported yet. The Support agent agreed, but said that the other Dan Bates would need to contact them to initiate anything regarding that.

After the call ended I figured I'd look this other Dan Bates up to see about letting him know he should check his card.

Turns out he's a Registered Sex Offender. He's been on the list since 2000, and is required to be on it for life. His offense was Predatory Criminal Sexual Assault - Child Pornography/Film/Photos. He was 46 and his victim was 17.

After learning that, my opinion changed from "let's help a fellow Dan Bates keep his credit safe" to "fuck him."

We'll never see The Jam reunion

RIP Rick Buckler

Fleece, Where do you stand on the phenomena of some gentleman getting Paul Weller haircuts and then believing that they can draw on the spirit of Paul Weller, even though they are clearly nothing like Paul Weller ?