A couple of days ago, all the activity lights on my Network Attached Storage box were flashing nonstop, and had been for hours, despite me not accessing it. I let it run for six hours after I turned off the computer, but didn't want the lights flashing all night while I tried to go to sleep, so I ended up unplugging the NAS, since the power button wouldn't turn it off.

Two days later I plugged it back in, and again, the lights for the four drives keep flashing nonstop. I can access the drive fine, both via NFS and SMB, and what files I've checked seem okay. But when I try logging into the Synology box via its address in my browser, my username and password aren't recognized.

As is not my wont, I left the NAS powered on overnight (putting a flap of black electrical tape over das #blinkenlights as I have on the modem), and lo, after some thirty-one hours, the lights have calmed. I presume something was wrong and it was doing some parity work, and has finished.

I don't know what it was doing because while I have data access to the drives, I have no information access. I can't log in via browser, and when I downloaded the Flatpak version of Synology Assistant and installed it on my Linux Mint system, it can't find the #NAS.

So my faith in my three-quarters-full eight-terabyte NAS is down, but I lack the drive space elsewhere to move stuff off it. Such is life.

#MQTT Explorer is the new #blinkenlights. Mesmerizing. #mqttexplorer

https://mqtt-explorer.com/

Added some more ANSI ideas for the #GPG ANSI injector, including #Blinkenlights building, a rocket, a chip and something to make people nervous for a moment :)

Screenshots available here:

https://github.com/fuxx/GPG-ANSI-Art-Injector/blob/main/DEMOS.md