Darxus

Moved to dreamwidth

2018-03-03T00:37:13Z

https://darxus.dreamwidth.org/

I hand wrote my main web page with a fountain pen

2016-02-22T17:34:02Z

http://www.chaosreigns.com/

In previous versions, I blew out the paper, so the transition to a white background would be seamless. Now that I have ink that isn't black, I didn't blow out the paper, in an attempt to retain more detail.

I created the imagemap (clickable links) with a filter included in gimp (open source software along the lines of photoshop).

It's entirely usable in text only browsers (links, lynx, w3m), via alt attributes in the imagemap area elements.

[geek] initializing DST: openssl failure / upgrading ubuntu from lucid to precise broke DNS

2015-02-03T21:09:34Z

I upgraded my linode server from ubuntu distro lucid to precise today. I didn't have any specific needs, but lucid is getting EOLed in a couple months.

It broke my DNS server. This is what ended up fixing it:
mkdir -p /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/openssl-1.0.0/engines
cp -a /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/openssl-1.0.0/engines /var/lib/named/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/openssl-1.0.0/
Where /var/lib/named was where I had bind chrooted to.

I noticed DNS didn't seem to be working. I ran:

# /etc/init.d/bind9 start
* Starting domain name service... bind9
...fail!

Then I checked /var/log/daemon.log, and noticed:
Feb 3 13:35:36 panic named[23991]: initializing DST: openssl failure
Feb 3 13:35:36 panic named[23991]: exiting (due to fatal error)

The useful way to find out what the problem was from there was:
strace -o named -ff named -u bind -t /var/lib/named

The "strace" command tells you, among other things, what files a program tries to read. "-o named" says to write to file "named", and "-ff named" handles forking into multiple threads, creating a file for each. "-u bind -t /var/lib/named" came from my /etc/default/bind9 :
OPTIONS="-u bind -t /var/lib/named"

"-u bind" means to run as user bind, and "-t /var/lib/named" means to run via chroot in /var/lib/named.

panic:~/tmp# grep -i ssl *
named.23906:open("/usr/lib/ssl/openssl.cnf", O_RDONLY|O_LARGEFILE) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
named.23906:open("/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/openssl-1.0.0/engines/libgost.so", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)

So there were some ssl related files it was trying to load and not finding. openssl.cnf was apparently not required.

I tried doing this via mount -bind in /etc/fstab, but it turns out you can't do that readonly. I added this to /etc/fstab:

/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/openssl-1.0.0/engines /var/lib/named/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/openssl-1.0.0/engines none bind,ro

But that commented that it got mounted writeable. Because... bind mounting doesn't have a way to do readonly.

And so I copied it. And will, apparently, need to forever maintain that manually. There's probably a better way. Haven't figured that out yet.

I also had some linode specific problems (login prompts went away), which were fixed by enabling "xenify distro".

darxus @ 2014-09-28T13:04:00

2014-09-28T17:04:32Z

Me on diaspora: https://diasp.org/u/darxus

It's another social media thing, whose goals I like the most. It's decentralized and open source.

I created an ello account

2014-09-09T17:33:04Z

https://ello.co/darxus

New social media site. I guess it's supposed to be less evil?

The "discover" friend finding feature is useless. I've been clicking on friends names, and then "following" to get a list of their friends, to dig for my friends.

My followers who joined before me have an average of 14.6 followers.

Eight years later, I'm still wondering what I could do for nchanter

2014-07-16T18:34:43Z

The last, best advice I got, years ago, was to never speak to her again. So I continue to do that.

People who were close to us when we were together have said we were both abusive to each other. I expect I will always have difficulty wrapping my head around any part of that.

I wasn't a very compassionate person back then. I regret that I didn't treat her better. I've learned quite a lot since then.

Two years ago, I had four hours of BARCC training (active bystander, and first responder). In relation to that, I was one of the people who wore an advocate laminate the last two fireflies. I would say I was meaningfully involved in two men whose behavior was particularly problematic toward women (missing stairs) in the Boston burner community becoming far less involved in that community. I'm very happy to see people becoming more aware of these things, and trying to do something about it.

I'm interested in suggestions. You're welcome to speak freely.

I just finished Couch to 5k

2013-11-18T20:36:44Z

By time, not by distance. It is by far the most commonly recommended beginner running program:
http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/2/2_3/181.shtml
http://www.reddit.com/r/c25k
http://tombenninger.com/c25k/

Why: Getting your body to adapt to regularly expending significant energy results in you having more energy. Which makes the rest of life easier and more pleasant. (And there are fine uses for extra cardiovascular stamina.) And I seem to be a lot happier when I have run recently.

A couple tips:

1) Slow down. A lot of beginner runners seem to be very discouraged by a counter-productive belief that running needs to be fast. Shuffling along is just fine if that's what gets your heart rate up. Getting out of breath means you're doing anaerobic exercise, which you can't do for as long, and does not have any more aerobic benefit than aerobic exercise (for a beginner).

2) Running (over-use) injuries are common, and usually easily avoidable, by paying attention to your body and taking a few days off when necessary. Know what the seven most common running injuries look like. I worry that rigidly sticking to training schedules and signing up for races causes people to avoid taking the days off they need, resulting in them ending up being forced to take months off.

Also, I feel like Couch to 5k (c25k) isn't great for seriously overweight people, who I suspect would often be better starting off walking.

I don't think running had anything to do with my weight loss. Exercise causes hunger, so you still have to do the calorie restriction. Counting calories works great for me.

Now I'm planning to work up to Bridge to 10k. Then probably one of Hal Higdon's marathon plans. Or maybe something more triathlon related. Sprint (shortest) triathlons sound kind of fun: swim 0.8 km (0.5 mi) + bike 20 km (12.5 mi) + run 5 km (3.1 mi).

C25k is a 9 week program that took me 25 weeks. I... don't really care.

I just did my first ever round trip commute by bicycle!

2013-10-29T19:56:44Z

4.8 miles each way, Cambridge (work) to Malden (cathijosephine). 25 minutes there, 28 minutes back. Very happy with how it went.

I have magical shoes that attach to my pedals, so I can pedal up and down at the same time. This is horribly called "clipless". I've seen a suggestion to call them "clip-in". I went with mountain bike / two bolt style to get shoes I can actually walk in.

Also, the very end of my trip was the first time I fell due to having my shoes attached to my pedals. Trying to get through the gate into the garage by work. I knew I was pushing my ability. Fell over at 0mph. I wish I had a video to figure out why it managed to not hurt at all. Happy to have that experience.

It's fun to feel slightly less dependent on things like cars and subways

And this has me kind of thinking about moving back to greater Boston, from New Hampshire, so I can do more bicycle commuting.

[geek] ssh "authentication accepted.... Access denied."

2013-10-29T19:55:13Z

Didn't find any web search hits, so I thought I'd document it:

$ ssh -v <host>
...
debug1: Trying RSA authentication via agent with '<key>'
debug1: Received RSA challenge from server.
debug1: Sending response to RSA challenge.
debug1: Remote: RSA authentication accepted.
Received disconnect from <ip>: Access denied.

I had installed linux on a new machine, and then copied over a bunch of stuff to attempt to mimic an existing machine. I copied over /home (including the ~/.ssh/authorized_keys authenticated against here), /etc/passwd, and /etc/group. The problem was that I had not copied over /etc/shadow.

Feeling a little more arcane than usual.

I seem to have gotten my rear derailer straightened out.

2013-09-12T03:01:47Z

I went into it thinking I totally knew what I was doing, since I was pretty comfortable with the front derailer by the time I went to bed last night. But it wasn't cooperating. I was only messing with the cable tension knob. And... it was not very responsive.

Then I watched a couple videos on the rear derailer, and realized there's a cable tension knob right on the derailer. Which, for obvious reasons (friction), is *much* more responsive.

Then I sat on my floor for half an hour, with my bike upside down, running back and forth through the rear gears, fiddling with the tension, to balance out the smoothness of up-shifts and down-shifts as much as possible. Not because that amount of time was remotely appropriate, but because it was fun.

I still don't understand how people cope with the lack of lock nuts on these things.

I fixed my bike!

2013-09-11T03:12:12Z

The one I bought yesterday, that shouldn't need fixing.

I mentioned to the salesman that the front derailer seemed off. It was making noise when in both top gears, and it felt hesitant to shift into the top front gear. Then I test rode another bike, and it didn't get fixed. The guy said these things always need adjustment after break in. And I had seen a couple videos on how to adjust them, it seemed easy, and I really wanted to get my hands dirty.

There are two adjustment screws for the front derailer position. One for low gear, one for high gear. You turn it, it moves. Simple, right? But it wasn't moving. Except when in low gear, which was fine. After a bit of poking, I decided the attached cable must need more tension. On similar cables on my sv650, there are knobs by the levers to do this. There wasn't an obvious knob by the lever. I looked along the cable, and right at the top of the down tube, there *are* knobs on the derailer cables. I twisted one, and it adjusted the tension!

From there, all went as planned. Although I was surprised I didn't have to re-adjust the front low gear position (I guess that makes sense, if the problem was the cable slacking during break in). I went on a brief test ride, and the front derailer seems nicely sorted. Rear derailer still needs some work though. Gears 6 and 7 (of 8) are hesitant to engage. Maybe tomorrow.

That test ride on the roads around my house, empty at night, was fun. Was tough to not just wander off.

I finally have a road bike

2013-09-09T17:48:10Z

Ten years ago I bought Specialized Rockhopper mountain bike, because I wanted a bike that could withstand anything. Then I mostly used it on the street, and hated how inefficient it felt.

So I finally fixed that problem.

2013 Specialized Allez Compact

Kryptonite evolution 4 mini-9 lock

Cat Eye EL-135 headlight and TL-LD130R tail light set.

Open-source OS and software for android hardware (phones)

2013-08-09T02:50:33Z

"Replicant is a fully free Android distribution running on several devices."

- http://replicant.us/about/

"The F-Droid Repository is an easily-installable catalogue of FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) applications for the Android platform."

- https://f-droid.org/

Since I really don't trust google anymore, I'm very happy to see these things.

Charging modern phones is complicated

2013-07-26T01:42:32Z

USB standard power is 0.5 amps x 5 volts = 2.5 watts. That's what you get when you plug into any computer, or an old car USB power adapter.

With that much power, trying to use my phone for GPS navigation results in draining the battery.

The wall plug that came with my Samsung Galaxy S 4 says 2 amps x 5 volts = 10 watts. To signal a device can pull this much power, Apple uses some non-standard set of resistors, and everybody else shorts the data pins together (which is apparently pretty easy with a soldering iron, or by modifying a USB cable). If a phone doesn't notice this sort of indicator, it assumes it's plugged into a computer which would be damaged if it pulled more than 0.5 amps, so it only pulls 0.5 amps.

So basically, you can't just plug a phone into a computer anymore and expect useful charging. I hope they manage to sort this out soon.

I ordered one of these for my car, for $8, after reading lots of reviews (particularly by K. Crawford):
http://www.amazon.com/PowerGen-3-1Amps-charger-Designed-Android/dp/B0088U6OZY
It has one jack for Apple, and one for everything else. Using the wrong jack will still get you at least 0.5 amps.

Samsung sells one, with a single USB jack, for $35.

Nobody makes one with more than one high amp non-Apple jack.

My latest phone choice

2013-07-23T16:50:15Z

For a lot of people, right now this is going to come down to HTC One vs. Samsung Galaxy S 4 (GS4), so I'll start with that.

In most ways, I prefer the HTC One (love the case). But I don't see how the un-replacable battery is forgivable. I saw one guy say by the time his battery isn't holding a solid charge, there will be ample info for a handy person to replace their own battery. And I did replace an un-replaceable battery in a heart rate monitor. But that person clearly didn't read the ifixit teardown for the HTC One. Just beginning to open it requires horribly mangling that beautiful case.

My reasons for continuing to use Sprint are going to be less common. I have a grandfathered SERO account, which means it costs me less ($50/mo + taxes for unlimited data), and I live in Southeast New Hampshire, where fewer providers have decent signal. And going with Sprint means I'm looking at CDMA phones, while a lot of providers use GSM phones which have some different options.

I don't trust google. I'd rather have nothing to do with them. That's a big part of why I haven't had a terribly modern phone in years. At the moment, I think the advantages outweigh my distrust. Hopefully in two years I will somehow be able to get something like a Sailfish phone. Something more open.

I long for the days when it was common for people to go multiple days without needing to charge their phone. I appreciate the efforts to shrink phones and make them more powerful, but I wish they'd just triple the size of the damn battery. And I really wish somebody would provide some solid stats on actual battery life.

There is an Active version of the GS4 that's water resistant and comes in a pretty blue color, but it doesn't sound like it'll be available for CDMA. The same person recommends waiting until September / October for new phones, but I don't want a brand new phone, I want one that's been tested a bit, so now seems like a great time in the cycle for me.

More than just the replaceable battery issue, the GS4 has a much higher repairability rating (8/10) than the HTC One (1/10).

I definitely prefer the HTC One's camera over the GS4, entirely on lowlight capability. Something I've wished all cameras would focus more on, for years. Ease off the megapixels, let me take photos in the dark.

The GS4 has better (more durable) glass (Gorrilla Glass 3 vs. 2) than the HTC One, and the ability to display two apps at once sounds very nice.

So yeah, I'm enthusiastically going with the crappy plastic case over the sexy as hell, milled from a solid block of aluminum case.

I'm hoping to pick it up tomorrow.

Things I'd like:

Replaceable battery
High repairability
Substantially longer battery life (happy to have a bigger phone for it)
Water resistance
Lowlight camera sensitivity (don't care so much about megapixels)
Physical keyboard
Sexy milled case

Edit (2014-04-17): Another feature I'd like is more powerful vibration. After you notice it sucks, you can find lots of people complaining about the weak vibration of the GS4. But no reviewers commented on it? And how much better are the HTC One's speakers?

[geek] Root on software raid with Debian and Ubuntu, part 2

2013-04-30T16:46:22Z

I just did the second machine of the pair. Decided to start out with ext4, and both root and /boot on the software raid, with the ubuntu server installer (ubuntu-12.04.2-server-amd64.iso). Worked beautifully.

[geek] Root on software raid with Debian and Ubuntu

2013-04-23T21:02:03Z

Didn't work with Debian, or with Ubuntu's Desktop image. I did get it to work with Ubuntu's Server image.

I guess a few years ago (August 2009?) I installed a couple machines with everything but /boot on a single software raid0. Identical machines, so I got my redundancy elsewhere, and I need the disk I/O throughput.

I just tried repeating that. With debian-live-6.0.7-amd64-gnome-desktop.iso, booting the live option and running the gui installer, it failed with: "GRUB installation failed
The 'grub-pc' package failed to install into /target/. Without the GRUB boot loader, the installed system will not boot."

With the text install, grub installed, but when I rebooted, it said /dev/md0 (the software raid) didn't exist.

So I used Ubuntu. ubuntu-12.04.2-desktop-amd64.iso said my previously created raid partitions ("physical volume for RAID") were "unknown", and wouldn't let me create that type of partition. So I tried ubuntu-12.04.2-server-amd64.iso, which finally worked.

I had 8 drives, 300gb each. On each drive, I created the first partition at the end of the drive with 299gb, as a RAID partition, and the second partition at the beginning of the drive. First drive's small partition was /boot, the rest were swap. Then I selected the option to configure software raid, created one, and added the 8 partitions. Then I created a partition on that raid designated to be mounted as root.

This seems to cover it well: https://help.ubuntu.com/12.04/serverguide/advanced-installation.html

One variable I didn't try was ext3 vs. ext4. All my failures were with ext4, and my success was with ext3. But I suspect that's unrelated.

I'm told root and /boot on lvm on software raid should work with more recent versions of grub than I was working with. Fancy.

Edit: /boot on software raid on Arch: http://travishegner.com/2012/02/boot-arch-linux-from-an-mdadm-array/

Edit: Part 2.

darxus @ 2013-04-15T15:58:00

2013-04-15T19:58:34Z

Sounding off.

Google being evil

2013-02-28T15:28:33Z

"Help us keep your account secure

Just enter your mobile phone number, and we'll let you know if we notice unusual activity in your account. Learn more about how a phone number can help secure your account"

- Google, when I tried to check my calender.

This information is incredibly valuable to them, for selling the data they've collected on you to people advertising on mobile browsers. Implying that it's for your own good is evil.

"I get to run today!"

2013-01-30T19:54:46Z

It sure is weird to feel like that.

I'm running 10 minutes, three times a week. Planning to increase time 10% per week until... I don't know.

I'm kind of worried about marathon training making it impossible to put on muscle. But maybe if I do one marathon a year, training for ~16 weeks, I can put on muscle the rest of the year and only run 30 minutes three times a week?

Today was my first run in my Zem 360 minimal running shoes, which I got to avoid running barefoot on frozen and heavily salted sidewalks. I'm happy with them. Conditions seemed fine for running barefoot today, but I decided to try my new toy and take it a little easier on my body. Not wearing my cushy running shoes still is a lot more work for my calves.

I ran!

2013-01-24T20:09:18Z

My favorite part of Arisia is the Saturday night club dance. It was five hours. I was in a lot of pain by the end of it. Discussing this with danceboy, I said I needed to get in the shape he's in. He asked if I'd like him to drag me out running. I decided to try to get back into running.

Last time I was running, I had the Minuteman trail in my back yard. In the several years since, I've used the lack of sidewalks in my neighborhood as an excuse not to run. And occasionally considered running at work. So, my first day back to work, two days ago, I was tempted to put off running until I got new running shoes and a GPS watch, so I took off my shoes and went outside and ran. 22.3°F, heavily salted sidewalks, barefoot. That lasted four minutes, due to fear of seriously damaging my feet.

I dug out my old running shoes (Brooks Addiction 7), was reminded of how obscenely comfortable they are, ordered ZEMGear 360s ("barefoot" running shoes), waited two days, and went running in my old shoes, for nine minutes. Didn't even use the fact that I forgot my merino buff and gloves as an excuse not to. "16.5°F, feels like 6°F". I feel great.

My main goal is to take it easy and not hurt myself. I think it would be fun to work toward doing a marathon over the next couple years. I'm planning to wear the zems when necessary, and run barefoot when I can.

I'm learning to play the flute and fife

2012-12-16T01:31:34Z

In third grade I had a battery of psychological tests to figure out what was wrong with me that was causing me to get such random grades. The results were something like "You're bored. And, by the way, you should try playing a musical instrument."

I guess I did some brief recorder lessons, which I can hardly remember.

Then fifth through seventh grade I did violin lessons at my public school. Because I thought playing the fiddle would be awesome. I guess I quit due to utter lack fo joy. The violin is an amazing instrument, how can you fail to make that fun for a kid? I still deeply need to play the fiddle some day, but I got myself one a number of years ago, and that thing is hard.

I've since made fairly brief attempts at the electronic keyboard / piano, and electric guitar. Both of which I wasn't a huge fan of at least in part because I was expected to play multiple notes at once.

Two weeks ago I had this conversation regarding rock climbing in a beautiful spot:

Him: I'd hire two people to make this a complete set - one old man smoking a pipe, and one other person to play a fife as I danced along the holds.
Me: I could totally talk friends into doing this.
Him: You have very good friends.
Me: Yes.

And then I developed an overwhelming urge to play the fife. Problem was, I couldn't figure out which key I wanted. Since they're generally six hole instruments pretty bad at playing keys they aren't specifically designed for.

And then (December third?) Zeph mentioned she had a very nice (western concert) flute she wasn't planning to use anymore, that she was willing to let me borrow. Which seemed perfect - capable of all keys (=fully chromatic?), and should translate well to any fife I ended up picking.

Yesterday I received my Yamaha "fife". I say "fife" because some people argue it's more of an open holed piccolo, because it has eight holes (not six), and is fully chromatic(?). Not exactly what I was looking for, but apparently a bizarre combination of a very good instrument, very durable, and $7! Also, way more portable than a flute. It was designed for kids planning to eventually play the flute. Fingering is identical in C major. I also ordered The Fife Book by Liz Goodwin, designed specifically for this instrument.

Today I played it in the shower. Some of the holes were prone to getting clogged with water. Last night, I played it in bed as I was going to sleep. I hope to eventually jam on a mountain top with some similar instruments and small drums. I need to make a belt sheath for it, possibly out of the pouch it came with.

It apparently has a problematic F sharp.

I think I'd like to eventually get a fife in the key of D (Possibly making one, or this), because that's apparently good for playing with guitars, banjos, and fiddles. And for Irish folk music.

For now, I'm tearing through The Fife Book.

I need to figure out how to learn some music theory.

Randomness on the street

2012-12-02T15:04:19Z

Last night I was walking from Boston Decompression (a Burning Man thing), without a coat, with only a t-shirt (to avoid having to deal with a coat), on Boylston St. in Boston, I had this conversation with a random attractive woman:

Her: You are so cold!
Me: Yes!
Her: And you know it!
Me: Yes!
Her: Okay!

Climbed, should lunge less

2012-11-18T03:42:34Z

The guy I ended up climbing with through the white board today did at least one 5.12. He pointed out I was skipping holds, making my climbs harder - I guess I haven't been paying as much attention to that problem lately.

He also pointed out how much I'm lunging from hold to hold, dropping a bunch of weight on the handholds. And that it would be less work to move more smoothly.

Elbow seems to be significantly better. Still can't bench press heavy. But no tweaks at all while climbing, even though I put some weight on it in a chimney like situation. I think I'm going back up to climbing twice a week. Maybe three again soon.

Climbed, got shoes, elbow is improving

2012-11-15T04:56:00Z

Climbed on 2012-10-30. Ordered shoes at the shoe demo on 2012-11-06 (but didn't climb. Climbed today.

I ordered La Sportiva Tarantulace size 44, for $68. The shoe demo seemed like a great way to buy climbing shoes. They had them when I went in today. It's great to finally have all my own gear for indoor climbing. My feet are definitely going to take some getting used to these shoes without socks.

My left elbow definitely seems to have some mild triceps tendonosis, which is why I haven't climbed as much lately. This article on eccentric exercises for tendonosis seems useful. It basically suggests doing negative reps. So I've been randomly doing a couple of those just providing resistance with my other hand as I've thought of it, trying to smooth out the tendon. Today I did some more bench pressing, starting out with 5 pound dumbbells, as I did a week ago. That went much better. Increased a bit. Talked to another guy in the weight room who suggested French presses. That sounded good, particularly since I had heard that bench presses aren't particularly healthy, so I did some of those. My elbow is still far from great, but I'm really excited about the improvement.

I'm starting to think cathijosephine must be right, that I must have caused the tendonosis while climbing, even though it's not a muscle you use a lot while climbing.