TL;DR of the last post: I'm spoiled by the Chaos events. FOSDEM, in comparison, suffers from bad arrangement, bad venue, bad network, being held during height of the flu season, and terrible audio/video and recording. Everyone would win if there were more volunteers and perhaps a cooperation with the excellent c3voc and their streaming platform media.ccc.de.

I'm not even sure I fit in with some of the fossbros, the 90's style nerds, and the increasing corporate presence. Not my crowd, really? It's likely a cultural thing. But there are a few good talks!

As usual, it was an immense con, with 1079 events in 71 tracks!

https://fosdem.org/2026/schedule/

Had a quick look at the usual suspects, the devrooms for Security, RISC-V, and Go this year… But, nah, not even that interesting.

I did watch some talks. Recordings are not necessarily available yet.

I found the devroom "Building Europe’s Public Digital Infrastructure" interesting, but not very technical.

Some highlights:

• Good enough file system a crash-proof, copy-on-write filesystem based on Bε-trees for Plan 9, already available in 9front and with an ongoing effort to port it to OpenBSD. This might be huge for OpenBSD if upstreamed, since they still suffer with the old FFS, now even without soft updates.
• Audio and music production Plan 9. Started watching this, but then sound stopped working for a while on this and the next talk, but I changed to the next talk, which was sent almost simultaneously.
• Matrix: State of the union. Introduced epochs against dating attacks, faster joining of large rooms, and other projects. I'm still skeptical about Matrix (see for instance Eden's and mrus' criticism), but it seems to be picked up by a lot of agencies across Europe, including in Sweden. They will also host the next Matrix conference in Malmö, Sweden, my home town!

• Engineering XMPP Federation: Building Messaging, Voice & Social Features Across Independent Projects. The talk began before time! I missed the beginning.

  A lot about interesting XMPP projects, including the compliance suites for new software, distributed trusted Multi-user chats and the Multiparty Jingle (muji) signalling for video conferencing, and possibly the future XMPP over QUIC.

  XMPP certainly still has it's problem, not least the MUCs, which are an ugly hack at best, but I'm glad development continues.

• The author of the River Wayland compositor, Isaac Freund, spoke about separating the Wayland compositor and the window manager. River has always had the layout generator as a seperate process. When I started using River, perhaps 3-4 years ago, I wrote my layout generator by copying the example code and adding the missing Monocle mode:

  https://codeberg.org/mchack/mctile

  Now, Isaac has expanded this into doing most of what a traditional X11 window manager would do, including doing server-side decorations. He says it won't affect performance much.

  I still haven't experimented with it myself and I'm not sure what I think about it. It would make it much easier to write a window manager for Wayland, so you can get the exact behaviour you want much easier than before, but what other things comes with it? I don't know.

• Hans "Pengo" Hübner was supposed to do a talk about IBM 3270 terminals, but it disappeared from the schedule! Perhaps he called in sick? But why not just add a note to the schedule? Why remove it?

• Watched two talks about the La direction interministérielle du numérique (DINUM) and their digital cooperation suite La Suite Numerique, (code) which they develop in close cooperation with the German Zentrum für Digitale Souveränität der Öffentlichen Verwaltung (ZenDiS) (openDesk project) and a Dutch counterpart (didn't catch the name).

  The first talk was LaSuite.coop: A Public–Cooperative Model for Digital Commons, which is about an interesting way to support the use of La Suite in other places than government.

  Then I watched Scaling national open-source products across Europe: lessons learned from two years of cross-border state collaboration which was mostly about the cooperation between France, Germany and The Netherlands about developing La Suite, but also hackathons with people from a lot more countries. Most interesting. I really wish Sweden's Myndigheten för digital förvaltning would pick this up!

  If you didn't know about it, the Europan Commision, EU's "government", has their own Open Source Observatory:

  https://interoperable-europe.ec.europa.eu/collection/open-source-observatory-osor

Written by MC on Pungenday, the 38 day of Chaos in the YOLD 3192 (2026-02-07).

If you need to see my CV it's right here on my website:

https://hack.org/~mc/cv.html

This is what I wrote back in November:

I'm terminating my account on LinkedIn next week. This is possibly some kind of career suicide.

I'm very seldom visiting LinkedIn, so I'm probably late to the party, as usual. Perhaps there has already been a large exodus?

If you want to reach out to me outside of LinkedIn I welcome contacts primarily through e-mail at mc@hack.org, but see:

https://hack.org/~mc/contact.html

LinkedIn has been problematic for a long time. Today they started using user content for LLM training. You can opt out, but the default is that you allow it. You might want to look at your settings. Or leave.

The thing that made me take action is that LinkedIn removed "misgendering or deadnaming of transgender individuals" as examples of prohibited conduct. This is unacceptable. I can just apologize that I didn't discover nor take action earlier.

It was removed from:

https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/a1339812/?lang=en-US

The changes are tracked here:

https://github.com/OpenTermsArchive/pga-versions/commit/537447facc3a1922e77cfc7fe90b0fc69414b613#diff-88386d527dff09b9311f1e66713dff8eebbf339a52952a1b2376eb198d34a60fL313

Judging from some comments, I should make it clear that I think what is unacceptable is exactly "misgendering or deadnaming of transgender individuals". Trans rights are human rights!

Written by MC on Prickle-Prickle, the 62 day of The Aftermath in the YOLD 3191 (2025-12-20).

I have a new phone. It's an old iPhone SE 2022. Yes, I know. Evil, evil Apple. Won't someone please think of the privacy issues? Right, well, Apple has at least better reputation about these things than Google does, but we'll come to that.

It feels like I'm betraying the FLOSS cause. I feel horrible, although probably not just because of this.

Let's recap:

• My main phone has been a de-googled (not even microG) Fairphone 4 with CalyxOS. CalyxOS recently almost collapsed when the founder and lead developer left. Even if the project itself left a blog post explaining stuff, at least one of them left behind a short message basically saying "Android is changing. Bye!".

  CalyxOS recommend everyone to install something else, perhaps stock Android, until they get their act together. Until then, no security updates for quite a while.

  Yes, I know Nicholas is now busy with his new project, the phone operator Phreeli. Best of luck with that!

• Extra phone, a Fairphone 3 with stock Android. Used for banking apps, ID apps, reimbursements for work, all that stuff. Almost always turned off and kept at home, except when I need it on travels. Hate, hate, hate.
• Google is fighting back against the alternative Android distros. It's more or less sabotaging the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) by withholding source and specs. My guess is that this will get worse.

• Google recently decided to fight against directly installing (aka what the enemy calls "sideloading") apps in Android. This takes different forms. One of them is only allowing apps signed by a developer registered with Google. Naturally, F-Droid is very worried.

  https://f-droid.org/en/2025/09/29/google-developer-registration-decree.html

  https://f-droid.org/2025/10/28/sideloading.html

• EU's Chatcontrol proposal is still going forward, although in a slightly changed form. This still means that all messaging systems, even E2EE ones, will have to have client-side screening, even if mandated mass screening is now off the table.

• Sweden's national proposal of a new law for lawful intercept is suggested to become law in spring of 2026. It's still in Lagrådet ("Council on legislation"?), but an early version of their reply to the proposal is available (in Swedish).

  There was news recently that this has been postponed, but it's still on the table.

  TL;DR: It's horrible. It means all service "providers" (whatever that means) will have to be able to do lawful intercept, possibly even in advance, regardless of encryption. This means copies of messages and images will be stored in the clear somewhere. Of course, if it's stored in the clear somewhere it's not just the police that will be able to access it. Who knows who might see it?

  It's not clear who is required to provide the intercept. It might mean those who operate servers. It might mean those who wrote the software. It might mean those who distribute the software. They can use "the provider" however they want. Very scary.

  Most likely, though, they will target publically available big services first. Yes, that means Signal, too. Signal has already said they will withdraw from Sweden if this passes, which probably means they won't be available on AppStore or Google Play. If you also consider Google's fight against direct installation, this gets complicated for ordinary people.

  Of course, people like us will always manage to message each other safely somehow, but what about my dad?

Some alternatives:

• Stop using a phone altogether. For many years I didn't use a mobile phone even after mobile phones had become popular. Of course I didn't have a landline phone either. Speaking on the phone is evil.

  I got rid of my dumbphone sometime in the late 1990's and didn't get a new one. It frustrated my family and girlfriends immensely. People were often worried. And well, yes, it was sometimes true that they should be worried. In the end I inherited one of P's phones and started using a mobile again.

  Doesn't seem realistic, if I don't want to upset those close to me.

• Use a dumbphone. Possible, but awkwards since a lot of the evils of modern society more or less demand a smartphone. I notice this a lot more when travelling.

• Use a Linux phone. Options are things like Jolla, Pine Phone or using Ubuntu Touch and postmarketOS on Android hardware. Hardware support is poor, though. For instance, postmarket boots on my FPs, but it doesn't yet support loading the battery.

  I was quite surprised when Jolla just announced a new phone!

• Give up and use stock Android. This means a company which is famous for collecting data about individuals and selling it will see everything I do on the phone. Not acceptable.

• Install some other AOSP distro, like eOS or iodéOS.

  I considered this for a long time. Given that AOSP is possibly being sabotaged by Google and installing apps will only be possible through their control this didn't seem so much better than stock.

• Give up in a different way and use an iPhone. This means Apple, in theory, can see whatever I do on the phone. On the other hand Apple doesn't have quite the evil track record that Google does.

  Combined with the realisation that Signal will most likely will withdraw from Sweden and that I will probably be using iMessage to chat to, for instance, mom, this seems like a good idea.

  Also, since I won't trust it that much, I will probably stop using the phone as much as before, which also seems like a good idea.

Conclusion: Buy an old iPhone. I can't bare to give Apple a lot of money, so I'm not buying a new one, just one new enough that updates are still a thing. I will most likeley keep sensitive communication away from the device, like I probably should have anyway.

Yeah, sensitive communication… About that. Perhaps another blog post, but I'm again investigating alternatives.

Written by MC on Prickle-Prickle, the 62 day of The Aftermath in the YOLD 3191 (2025-12-20).

I have an eye infection and I think I'm down with a cold. Not feeling my happiest. Spending time with you, looking at green text in Emacs, typing on my trusted HHKB, drinking warm beverages, and listening to Bad Religion and Tuba Skinny (nice mix of styles, eh?) might be a way to cure at least the melancholia…

September was time for the Remote Outdoor Off-Grid Phlogging Challenge (ROOPHLOCH) 2025, but I didn't participate. I guess I could have written something for my gemlog on a laptop at Fårö, but instead I'm now at home writing on my ordinary, boring weblog. See this on Gopher for the ROOPHLOCH announcement:

gopher://zaibatsu.circumlunar.space/0/~solderpunk/phlog/announcing-roophloch-2025.txt

I'm just back from a trip to the island of Gotland, P's old neighbourhoods. We spent some time both in Visby and at Fårö.

It takes something like 9 hours from Malmö to Visby, about the same as by train to Hudiksvall, even if that's a much longer trip. I blame the ferry and that we had to change from train to bus a few times. On the way home we spent an extra night on the way in a hotel in Kalmar, since we got there so late.

The reason for the trip was mostly yet another 50th birthday celebration. We've been to several 50th birthday parties recently. You can probably tell our age.

One of the parties was a rather traditional garden party but this one was dedicated to… ABBA and Greece (think Mamma Mia! the musical)! I somehow managed to get The Leather Nun's cover of Gimme, gimme, gimme into the playlist. That was fun. Yes, I promised to dance, and I did, loudly singing "Gimme a man after midnight!" to the crowd.

Pretty happy about the description of me in a leaflet at the party: "The hacker. Into programming, networks, books, and medieval weapons". Haha.

P ran the Helsingborg marathon again this year. I tagged along to Helsingborg. We could have just gone home after the race, but decided to stay. We had a wonderful weekend at hotel Mollberg.

I'm not usually at H&M much, but I forgot to bring a hat and needed something fast to cover my bald head from the sun. I was very surprised by the current men's fashion according to H&M: black cargo pants, black hoodies with retro computers, black t-shirts with vaguely cyberpunk motifs… WTF? I have to change what I wear!

Written by MC on Pungenday, the 54 day of Bureaucracy in the YOLD 3191 (2025-09-30).

I stretched my summer vacation by taking a couple of days off every week instead of taking the full weeks. P says she has read studies about burnout that makes this a better recovery strategy. Maybe it worked?

This was the last week with Mondays and Tuesdays off. This week I managed to keep my hours on Wednesday and Thursday (working 80%, remember?) but, of course, I worked to 23:30 on Friday night. You can't have everything.

This week #3 started upper secondary school! Yet another punk at art school, but this one is mine. As they say. Do they? I find it amusing that Simon Reynolds in Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978–1984 said:

Especially in Britain, art schools have long functioned as a state-subsidized bohemia, where working-class youths too unruly for a life of labor mingle with slumming bourgeois kids too wayward for a middle-management career.

#3 is obviously incredibly creative so this is really the right place, regardless of what music critics used to say. On the other hand, perhaps she'll be in a band before this is over?

My birthday has been and gone. Another year around the deathstar and closer to death. Yay. I had a very small gathering of the bereaved with some cake. This time, the cake wasn't a lie.

Hackers (1995) turns 30 on September 15. I wrote to one of the fancy cinemas close to me about showing it. They replied! They think it's a great idea, but can't promise that it's going to show in September. Looking forward to it. I suggested that they perhaps make a hacker thing about it, showing WarGames, Sneakers, …

Written by MC on Pungenday, the 9 day of Bureaucracy in the YOLD 3191 (2025-08-16).

It was a little ironic, and a little sad, that I was finishing the 37C3 report during 38C3. I didn't manage to get any tickets for me and #3 for 38C3 and had to make do with watching the stream.

The links to the talks go to CCC's own media archive of the filmed talks. It's a wonderful archive with many hours of enjoyment.

— — —

At last! A real, physical C3!!! I don't deny that I'm glad it was possible to listen to remote talks at rC3 (2021) and the Dezentrale Jahresendungveranstaltungen (JEV22, 2022). I even enjoyed arranging the little remote H3 conference, but actually being in the same building as 10,000+ other hackers from around the world is something else entirely.

37C was back to Congress Center Hamburg after having been in Leipzig for a few years. I still miss Berlin, of course, but Hamburg is nice, too.

Not many photos from the inside of CCH because of the C3 photo policy, obviously.

Before I continue I have to mention the elephant in the room: I heard rumours that Jake Applebaum showed up at the CCH, that he was asked to leave, and that he did leave. I'm sure that could have been handled better and I hope that Security and Awareness teams in CCC events are easily available for incidents in the future.

I hope people gives some real thought about any enforcements about things like this. For example I don't think it's good idea to force people to use their real names when buying C3 tickets, making tickets personal, and showing IDs at the entrance so entrance Engels can check against a list of banned people. Showing IDs at C3!? Really? No, thanks. They have to figure out something else.

Back to the C3 travel report…

Me, a friend, and #3 travelled together by train from Malmö to Hamburg via Copenhagen. The trip to Hamburg was mostly uneventful and in first class! It wasn't even expensive. We brought some Newtonmas beers, of course, and some snacks.

Four of us shared a flat in St Pauli, rather close to Reeperbahn. We mostly took the bus to and from CCH but once walked the entire way and once walked from Schanzenviertel after the traditional burritos.

Of course we had burritos at Jim Burrito's as usual! Burritos are traditional whenever visiting Germany now. I even think of Germany every time I eat a burrito, yes, even in the Mission in SF!

It all started when we found Dolores in Berlin during the 25C3 in 2008. Soon we had two burritos a day when we didn't get stuck at the wonderful brunch at Cafe Morgenrot.

I was quite nervous about this being #3's first time at C3. What if they got bored!? We made a thing about spending at least a few hours at CCH each day and then I went back with them to the flat for some quality alone time with their pen, paper, and iPad.

I managed to arrange a playdate at least one of the days and there was some soldering and a lot of investigating of CCH and the many assemblies. That seemed to have been fun and it looks like #3 is willing to tag along next year, too!

My hope was that #3 would have a similar experience I had many years ago when I stumbled on an assembly where a 16-year-old girl was presenting her fully autonomous robots that she had built herself. I thought if #3 found something like this, they would be able to think something "If she can do this, I can, too!" and get even deeper down the rabbit hole.

Personally I thought that the assemblies and the installations were a bit tame this year: no phone-controlled flame throwers, no trapeze artists 10 metres above the dance floor, no autonomous robots fighting each other, and not even any traces of die Seidenstraße (the pneumatic tube system)! Where were everyone?

I heard some rumours about the organisers being far fewer than usual and probably much less experienced than usual. The call for assemblies came late. People were perhaps also not ready for an actual, physical C3 this year. There was also a lack of Engels (volunteers). A few friends volunteered as Engels but to my shame I didn't do it myself.

I bought T-shirts and a zipper hoodie for me and #3. So far no one has asked them about the C3 merch. Not once! And they have many C3 t-shirts, going back years… If someone had wore something like that at my school when I was young I would have been on them at once, being impressed and asking questions.

All the talks from 37C3 are available here:

https://media.ccc.de/c/37c3

Talks that get a special mention, for some reason or another:

• Please identify yourself! Digital identity systems in the EU and around the world

  Since I work with a small open platform (Tillitis TKey) that can be used for authentication (among other things) I thought this would be especially interesting. Unfortunately it was thin on the technical details and I didn't learn much on the technical front.

  What I did learn was mostly on the legal front:

  • replies on the technical implementation for the EU Digital Wallet needs to be in before August, 2024.
  • there is supposed to be a right to be pseudonymous.
  • the proposal is that by 2026 the use of the Digital Wallet will be compulsory.
  • UN's Universal Safeguard for Digital Public Infrastructure.
  • Mozilla's proposal What could an “Open” ID system look like?

  Here are some more, much more interesting stuff about the upcoming European Union Digital Identity:

  • Actual technical reference of the EU DI: "The Architecture and Reference Framework" (ARF).
  • EU's reference implementation of all parts of the software needed can be found in: https://github.com/eu-digital-identity-wallet

• Breaking "DRM" in Polish trains: Reverse engineering a train to analyze a suspicious malfunction

  Extremely interesting and well done research on manufacturers' control over train hardware and their hostile behaviour against customers.

• Synthetic Sentience: Can Artificial Intelligence become conscious?

  Joscha Bach's wonderful series is not your regular AI hype. It's part of another type of cognitive research and just wonderful.

• You’ve just been fucked by psyops: UFOs, magic, mind control, electronic warfare, AI, and the death of the Internet

  Don't be misled by the silly name. It's named after the uniform patch of American psyops (…ending "because physical wounds heal") this marvellous and well-presented talk presents, among other things, the history of psyops and interesting case studies.

Explicitly didn't watch the trainweck about SMTP smuggling because, fuck them… You don't release an exploit on Newtonmas vacation without even telling affected software projects first!

The talk about how to scale end-to-end encryption with Messaging Layer Security (MLS) didn't have many technical details… I would have liked much more, but it's much better to just read RFC 9420 and the recent (April, 2025) companion MLS architecture RFC.

I discovered that the Cyberpunkabendbar Cable Trash was held at the ship MS Stubnitz in a special 37C3 version. Some friends went but I didn't think I should go with #3 alone in the flat. Maybe some day? I really like Hamburg and visit at least a couple of times per year.

I saw this poster about an upcoming conference in a few places:

Rabbit prototyping! Ha! I was so tempted. #3 said something like "It's you!" when they saw the poster. I have one of those posters at home now.

An aquaintance showed me this lovely little working GSM phone:

Lots of prison phone vibes, but so cute. Naturally, it was hooked up to the self-organized local GSM network.

Living very close to Reeperbahn was interesing. #3 commented on the strip clubs but they were apparently not very aware of the other sex workers around us.

We never got accosted by sex workers when #3 was with us. When some of the adult flat members walked back one night some of the sex workers correctly identified who among us had the real money and came with some rather direct suggestions. How!? Was it the expensive jacket? None of them ever spoke with me. I think they thought I was some penniless punk who probably lived in St Pauli or Schanze.

We skipped the last day at C3 and instead checked out of our flat and took the bus to Hauptbahnhof. We ended up in a café and had a second breakfast while waiting for the train, then got some supplies for the trip. #3 and I went back to Malmö via Copenhagen but the rest travelled elsewhere.

Unfortunately our train was cancelled and the replacement train didn't have any seat bookings at all! We ended up on the floor for a while until a nice conductor mentioned that there were free seats up ahead. It wouldn't have been fun spending five hours on the floor of the train between carriages, but in the end it was alright.

We arrived back in Malmö late in the evening on December 30 so we didn't have much time to prepare for New Year's Eve.

We celebrated New Year's Eve at the cottage, as usual. Central Malmö during NYE is not my kind of fun. It's similar to central Berlin. Fireworks everywhere! Horizontally as much as vertically. Gun powder smoke like fog everywhere.

Unfortunately we still had no working electricity in the cottage kitchen. P had prepared some meals for us in Malmö and we could heat one after the other on the portable induction stove.

The first days of the new year came with the snow.

Yes, I know it doesn't look like much, but that's just after a few hours. Since it's so flat around here it piles up in wedges on the highway and cars get stuck.

Over a thousand cars got stuck in a huge queue in the snow on the highway close to the cottage. Some people had been sitting in their cars for 16 hours when they were evacuated by tracked vehicles. The snow kept coming. We were OK, though, with plenty of wood for the wood stove and some food stored.

Happy new year!

Written by MC on Boomtime, the 61 day of Confusion in the YOLD 3191 (2025-07-26).

It's a stupidly simple Go program (wc says 229 lines), more like a hack, really, but I don't need something like Hugo. Most of the real work is done by the goldmark package, of course. This is mostly just a wrapper, deciding if something needs to be rebuilt.

I've been using a Perl script together with cmark (originally Markdown.pl) since forever. And before that the old txt2tags since 2001(?). I used plain Makefiles to regenerate only those files that had changed. This new Go program replaces all of them.

godmdn recursively goes through a series of directories. If a source file ending with .mdu (configurable) is found, it checks the target HTML file and rebuilds it if the source is newer. If the file doesn't end with .mdu and is newer than the target, it is simply copied.

https://codeberg.org/mchack/gomdn

I'm still using org-static-blog for the blog. The few galleries I have are of course made by my venerable Simple Gallery simgal script.

Written by MC on Prickle-Prickle, the 58 day of Confusion in the YOLD 3191 (2025-07-23).

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Written by MC on Boomtime, the 56 day of Confusion in the YOLD 3191 (2025-07-21).

As you might have noticed, the platform repo of the Tillitis TKey has some alpha tags for the next generation, Castor:

https://github.com/tillitis/tillitis-key1/tags

An alpha tag means that all planned features for the platform are in place, but there's not yet a complete audit and a lot of testing is still to be done. There might be changes to the implementation on all levels before a real release.

The changes for the new generation, among other things, include:

• The small bootloader turned into a very small operating system (now taking up all of 8 kByte) with syscalls for accessing a very simple filesystem. The syscalls are done with hardware support for raising and lowering privilege.
• Support for software reset and the ability to chain apps. This means, for instance, that it's possible to combine the TKey's usual measured boot with an optional verified boot stage. A second stage might keep it's key pairs persistent even though the app has been updated, if the keys are generated from something the first (measured) stage presents to it.
• Support for resident device apps.
• The firmware for the USB controller now supports several new USB device classes including FIDO HID and CCID.

If you want to test this you can do it with the TKey Unlocked and the TKey Programmer Board. Note that you need to update the USB controller firmware, too. To do that you'll need Blinkinlabs CH55x Reset Controller.

The Castor version of the Device Handbook is very much a work in progress, but it is already published. Remember that the handbook, like the rest of the project, is also a repo you can contribute to:

https://github.com/tillitis/dev-tillitis

It's been a little crazy at work to finish this. I've just returned from two weeks vacation and I'm taking a couple of days off every week for a while.

Written by MC on Setting Orange, the 49 day of Confusion in the YOLD 3191 (2025-07-14).

For reasons dad's not using this keyboard so when I recently visited I brought it back with me. It's decent enough but in the ISO version some keys on the right side, close to the return key, are half the size! I might get the ANSI version instead if I'm going to use it much.

To get it even slightly usable I mapped the "cmd" keys to left and right "Meta", the left "alt opt" to "Win", the right "alt opt" to "AltGr".

Of course I added my usual shenanigans with AltGr+åäö (shifted ÅÄÖ) becoming "}{|" ("][\"), just like us old Swedish hackers like it. Think about 7 bit terminals and the Swedish version of ASCII (aka SWASCII) and you get it: you pressed a key marked "å" on the keyboard and your screen hopefully showed "}" if the terminal was set to showing standard ASCII.

Some other small changes: shifted "4" is "$" like Goddess intended and the "`" and "@" are where they would have been on an old Facit terminal or a Luxor ABC or, well, even a Swedish standard keyboard in the 1980's. Also, "~", shifted as "^" are no longer dead keys, except if you use AltGr, which is also inspired by old Swedish keyboards and, yes, the only reasonable way if you're a programmer and Unix user.

If you want the regular function keys on this keyboard, press Fn+Esc.

Here's a Swedish XKB à la MC for your .xkb/symbols/satechi file:

// MC's Swedish keymap for use with Satechi X1 Slim ISO
default partial alphanumeric_keys modifier_keys
xkb_symbols "se" {
    include "latin(type2)"
    include "se(se)"

    //key <TLDE> { [ Escape ] }; 
    key <TLDE> { [ less, greater ] }; // Chose between this and the above depending on ISO/ANSI
    key <AE04> { [ 4, dollar ] };
    key <AD11> { [ aring, Aring, braceright, bracketright ] };
    key <AD12> { [ asciitilde, asciicircum, dead_diaeresis, dead_circumflex] };
    key <AC10> { [ odiaeresis, Odiaeresis, bar, backslash ] };
    key <AC11> { [ adiaeresis, Adiaeresis, braceleft, bracketleft ] };

    key <AE12> { [ grave, at, dead_acute, dead_grave ] };

    key <LWIN> { [ Meta_L ] };
    key <LALT> { [ Hyper_L ] };

    key <RWIN> { [ Meta_L ] };
    key <RALT> { [ ISO_Level3_Shift ] };

    replace key <CAPS>	{  [ Control_L, Control_L ] };
    modifier_map  Control { <CAPS>, <LCTL> };

    modifier_map Mod1 { Meta_L, Meta_R };
    modifier_map Mod4 { Hyper_L };
    modifier_map Mod5 { ISO_Level3_Shift };
};

This is the most minimal version I could come up with and not as complete as my HHKB keymap, so most AltGr things are still where they are by default. Maybe I'll revisit it and complete it.

Read more about mapping your keyboard with XKB in X11 and Waylanpd.

Written by MC on Prickle-Prickle, the 61 day of Discord in the YOLD 3191 (2025-05-14).

Then the web server I moved to the new VPS died. Again. I connected to the VNC console and, like before, the Linux kernel couldn't find its root disk. A simple:

# mount /dev/vda2 /sysroot; exit

in the emergency shell solved things, but, damn, do I need to do this every time!?

Yes, I realize that I chose to use the VPS provider's Alpine Linux image. I also realize that it was a kind of a warning that they replied that they don't know anything about Alpine when I was first opened a support ticket about this. Not sure why they even say they support Alpine. My guess is that Debian or something would have been a better choice, but I like Alpine and I was glad that they offered it.

Then, after reboot, the VPS simply lost its IPv6 address. Instead of getting a sensible 2a13:7c81:132::2/64 it got no less than two addresses with a /36 prefix. WTF? And, naturally, even though there was a v6 default route, it couldn't reach anything beyond the router.

So… I looked around for other VPS services.

I thought of the German service Hetzner. Created an account. Was going to start a VPS. Then they flagged my account as suspicious. Don't know why. Didn't even access the service over VPN or Tor or anything like that. They asked for a photo of my passport and a live webcam! What!? No. No way.

Then I thought about the nice service I get at OpenBSD.amsterdam. Very happy with the simple VPS I have there for a DNS server. OK, perhaps that box can also be my web server?

I log in. Damn. I need to upgrade this thing. sysupgrade. And… File system full. Daaaaaaamn! That was… fun.

I eventually managed to spend a few ours experimenting with Maddy and Dovecot, but most of the time I spent with things I'd rather hoped would just work.

Now I need a weekend.

Written by MC on Sweetmorn, the 58 day of Discord in the YOLD 3191 (2025-05-11).

https://foss-north.se/2025/speakers-and-talks.html

My own presentation was "Forking QEMU to emulate and secure the Tillitis TKey". Recording is here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCsP5ti4-9o

I expected that my shared screen would be presented in an overlay in the recording, but unfortunately it's not. If you want to follow along a PDF is here:

https://foss-north.se/2025/slides/mwiderkrantz-qemu-slides.pdf

It's generated from the orginal Org Mode file because, of course, I was presenting with Emacs.

Written by MC on Sweetmorn, the 53 day of Discord in the YOLD 3191 (2025-05-06).

Introduction

The beginning

When I started upper secondary school as a sixteen year-old in 1988 my school had what I think were IBM PC/XT computers, one classroom of 16(?) computers with colour monitors and another classroom set with monochrome monitors.

The school also had a side-room full of quite beautiful Commodore PET-like things. They might have been CBM 710 or CBM 720, the only PET-compatible series that had a real serial port (foreshadowing here) or, perhaps, real old PETs in a fancy shell, the European-only 8096-D or 8296-D. Computers in this room, AFAIU, were only used for typing practise.

Taken from Wikipedia.

Also, look at the 8096 here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/162268510@N04/albums/72157705034210124

Depending if they really were CBM 7x0s or disguised PETs they had either a MOS 6509 @ 2 MHz (a version of 6502 which could handle some extra memory) or 6502 @ 1 MHz, 128 or 256 kiB RAM (96-160 kiB for the PET), a green monochrome monitor and, thankfully, 80 column text. Fanless! Nice!

The PC/XTs (or if they were clones?) were Intel 8088 based. I don't remember how much memory they had. Max was 640 kiB but I doubt they had that much. Probably 256 kiB. The monochrome classroom had amber monochrome screens and, I think, Hercules graphics. I remember some experiments with the graphics. The colour classroom had at most CGA.

They also had hard drives, probably something like 20 MiB, and a floppy drive. They had a noisy fan.

There was also a small room with a character terminal hooked into an RTTY decoder and a radio. I don't know why this was here and we usually didn't have access to it.

For some inexplicable reason there was also a small room filled with original breadbox Commodore 64! It was almost always empty. No one used them, not even for playing games.

The PCs had Turbo Pascal 3.0 which was a really nice, incredibly fast compiler, even on the slow 8088s. The PETs had some form of BASIC in ROM but I don't know if they had any other development tools.

The PCs were not networked but they had some kind of printer sharing going on. There were two matrix printers attached.

Summer surprise!

I came back to school in August, 1989. Coming back after the summer holidays after my first year I was surprised that the school had decided to buy 16 brand new IBM PS/2 computers! They had totally replaced the colour classroom, probably trading the computers there, somehow. I hope they got a good deal! The monochrome classroom and the 64s were left alone. I don't know what happened to the CBMs.

The PS/2s were probably model 30 286 (ISA bus like the rest of the PC market) or model 50 (with MCA, IBM's proprietary new extension bus). The original Model 30 had just a 8086, so that would have been really stupid to buy. I'm pretty sure we had the Model 50 or at least the Model 30 286, since they had both 286 and VGA.

They had an Intel 80286 @ 10 MHz, 1 MiB RAM, 20 MiB hard drive, 640x480 (VGA) colour screens, 16 colours. Their one saving grace was the wonderful Model M incredibly clicky buckling spring keyboard.

The introduction price of the PS/2 Model 50 was $3,595 in the US. This was probably much more in Sweden, especially since there was also a ~23% sales tax.

The school also chose to connect the PS/2s in a 3Com 3+Share network. Can't remember if it was Ethernet or Token Ring. The 3+Share network had a central fileserver, probably the 3Com 3Server, although it might have been just software on yet another PS/2. I never saw it in person.

The 3+ e-mail solution was not used, only the file server and the printer server services.

I think I heard that all of these things had costed about 1.5 million SEK, which would be about ~3.1 million SEK (~300 k EUR) today.

Furious mischief

I was furious. So much money wasted. I had a *nix box at home, a Luxor ABC 1600, which gave me a wonderful taste of multi-tasking and multi-user stuff, although it was a bit slow. It stupidly only had a 68008 and just 1 MiB RAM, but much worse was the small hard drive, 13 MiB!

From Wikipedia.

This was also the time I had started dialling into terminal servers of the Swedish university network (SUNET) and experiencing Real Computers.

SUNET in those days was a friendly place. On many computers when you first connected to them it said "Welcome to XXX! If you don't have an account, login as GUEST." or something very similar. SUNET in -88 was mostly DECNET but had recently also gained TCP/IP.

I was mostly on the DECNET side of things, so I experienced VAXen, a few PDP-11, and when I could get access, the wonderful DEC-20 (PDP-10 with TOPS-20).

Another nice thing at the time was that if you called the minicomputer companies and asked for hardware descriptions some of them would actually send you entire hardware manuals, even if you were a spotty teenager with no computer budget. Thank you, DEC!

I got so mad about the whole thing with the PS/2s that I actually wrote a little program just to mess with them… It was a simple thing. I just modified AUTOEXEC.BAT to start my program the first thing it did. The computer would display "WELCOME TO YOUR NIGHTMARE!" in huge letters in garish colours and starting going "weeee, wooo" with the bad speaker. At the same time it would start ejecting page after page on the network printer.

I heard that once during a class the teacher in panic turned off the printer and then turned in triumph towards the class, only to have the other printer start spewing papers instead. Everyone laughed.

I don't know who ratted on me, but one day the guy in charge of the computers (Hi, Tore!) stood waiting on me as I was about to enter a classroom. He asked the teacher if he "could borrow Michael for a bit" and dragged me away to his small office. When we sat down he said:

– I know you're the brain behind these Nightmare Gangsters!

Wow, there's a good name for a band! I denied everything, of course, but he saw through me and started asking technical questions about computers instead. There were no gangsters, of course. It was just me.

Later, Tore had the genius idea to ask me to write a program for the school library. He wanted it to be possible to dial in to the city library computer to search for books. He wanted a simple terminal program that automatically dialled, logged in and let the student do their thing and then automatically disconnect on inactivity. Would I be up for writing something like that? Hell, yes!

I wrote the program and it was in use many years after I had left. The genius of Tore was to steer me towards a more creative path than messing up his network. I didn't understand it at the time, but this was a brilliant move.

Me and some friends did some experiments with the network anyway. The authentication in a 3+Share network was entirely client-side! Changing a single byte in the client made you admin. We created a new read/write file share called FREE and used it for our own shenanigans. Tore must(?) have seen it but didn't delete it!

The one time Tore said anything remotely about the FREE volume was when I was trying out a multi-user adventure I had written and used the network drive as the IPC mechanism. Every copy of the MUD I started absolutely hammered the FREE volume with reads in a busy loop and everytime any of my friends in front of the computers running the MUD did anything (move, pick something up, say something in a room, anything that changed the world) it wrote it to the database which was immediately picked up by the others. It must have sounded terrible in the room where the file server stood, which was also Tore's office.

Tore came running out of his office, scanned the room for the culprit, locked eyes with me and stormed towards me.

– Michael! Are you doing something on the network!?
– Er… Well, I have written this text adventure program… Would you like to have a look?
– No! No matter.

And he rushed off again. I hurriedly gestured to everyone to kill the MUD programs. He never mentioned it again.

What to do instead?

The main reason for choosing PCs was AutoCAD. I can understand that, but AutoCAD was only used by the students on the Technology programme, AFAIK. I was in the Science programme and we never used it, at least not during class. Most of us would have been fine with just terminals for what we did in the computer classrooms.

But if they just had to buy PCs, why not buy much cheaper PC compatibles? I never got a satisfying answer. "No one has ever been fired for buying IBM"?

So… What would I have done if I had anything to do with it? Some rough requirements:

• Able to do CAD, probably AutoCAD.
• Fileserver.
• At least 16 seats, preferably with fanless equipment.
• At least two networked laser printers.

Server

OK, so we buy 16 PCs of some sort and we need a fileserver. Something much nicer than the 3Com 3Server thing. I would go for a mini, something people could log into and do their stuff if they wanted to, and not just a fileserver.

DEC VAX with Ultrix or VMS

DEC at the time had a product called Pathworks (earlier known as PCSA which it was still called under VMS). Pathworks allowed you to use a VAX as a file and printer server for a bunch of MS-DOS PCs. Pathworks was both some MS-DOS software and VMS or Ultrix software on the server side.

The client software actually made the PC a full member of a DECnet, so it was quite something. With no other software it would mean connections to any other VAX added later would have been dead easy.

I'm biased towards Ultrix, of course, but VMS would have also been acceptable. Even better would have been a BSD, of course, and BSD was actually available even for upper secondary schools/highschools, not just universities. However, considering that we would like to use something to net boot our PCs and act as a fileserver it's likely DEC's own offering was the way to go.

What hardware? One of the MicroVAX II followers, like the MicroVAX 3500, perhaps?

The 3500 was introduced at for a whopping 74,800 USD in 1987 with 16 MiB RAM, the 3600 with 32 MiB 99,980 USD. Hopefully they were all a bit lower in 1989! There were also considerable educational discounts, so perhaps the real price would have been much lower.

Also, I found notes that the really powerful VAX 6000 was >140 kUSD with 32 MiB RAM and a tape drive in 1990. That would have been marvellous, although expensive!

I guess even a 3300 (~25 kUSD), expected to peak at 5 simultaneous users, would have been nice, if most of the users kept to using the CPU of their PCs.

As much memory and disk as the budget would allow. A tape drive for backups. Could we afford a 1.2 GiB drive? Two RA81 (456 MiB each)? Buy more drives later?

Diab DS90 with D-NIX

Another solution would be to go local and use Diab Data's *nix machines. 68k-based, multi-processor machines. They had their own flavour of Unix called D-NIX, later DNIX. It was roughly System V-compatible, but using their own realtime kernel which also had the concept of "handlers" for things like user level filesystems and network stacks.

I had a Diab DS90-20 at home for a while and managed several DS90-3x (several 68030) and a DS90-47 (8 * 68040, lots of memory, one my favourite machines) at work. This was at Bull, the company that bought Diab, and well after the Diab DS90s stopped being sold.

A very funny thing about the DS90s is that the Ethernet card, at least the KOM-KIT II I have some experience with, had a 68020 of its own and several megabytes of memory! The telnet daemon actually lived on the NIC! It DMAd stuff when it needed to, and let the main CPU do other stuff.

Not at all sure about PC integration, though. Was there something even close to DEC's Pathworks? Most of Diab's own communication from the 80s was mostly about integrating with Luxor ABC 80xs and ABC 1600, not PCs with MS-DOS. Ducking around I find some mentions about PC integration, but have yet to find even a product name. Anyone?

Perhaps FTP Software's PC/TCP would have worked? Did they already have NFS support in -89?

Rough prices:

• DS90-30/600S (one or two 68030 + 68881 fp, 600 MiB hard drive, not sure if tape drive is included, "S" might mean it is): 306 kSEK
• -31 (Up to four 68030) 370 kSEK.
• Expansion to 16 MiB RAM: 103 kSEK.
• Built-in tape drive: 32 kSEK.
• NIC: Unknown.
• Total: > 500 kSEK.

An overview brouchure.

A 1990 pricelist.

Others

I know some other secondary schools had Norsk Data minis. Don't know much about them. Prime might have been interesting, too, but again I don't know much.

An interesting idea is, of course, to use one of the commercial Unices for 386 and keep a very beefed up 386 as the file server. That needs further investigation.

PCs

• 16 diskless 286-class PCs with the Pathworks boot ROM (or similar for Diab?) on the network card.
• Refurbished: The old PC/XT boxen with ripped out hard disks and network cards with boot ROM. Not sure if this would be worth it but, hey, this would be another 16 seats for free. Might be useful even if they probably wouldn't be able to do CAD. On the other hand… The fan! Aaaah! Perhaps better replaced by terminals?
• Ethernet NICs for all boxes.

DEC themselves introduced a 286-based diskless and fanless VAXmate in 1985 and later followed up with DECstation 200 and 300 (with fan). There were other diskless and sometimes even fanless options from other companies, including the 3Com 3Station 2/E for use with the 3Share we actually had at my school.

I would have been happy with whatever PC compatible that wasn't IBM, actually, but fanless would have been nice. I had a Commodore PC-20 at home with a 286 and that would probably have sufficed.

There were some quite good terminal programs available for MS-DOS, including Reflection which could both work over LAT and emulate graphics terminals like DEC VT340 and the older Tektronix 4014. Kermit could emulate VT320 and could translate between character sets. Might be preferable compared to the Pathworks terminal, perhaps?

More nice photos of the VAXmate.

Terminals

Like I said, only the students on the Technology programme actually had any requirements for PCs with their use of AutoCAD. All the other students' needs at the time could by served by using just terminals.

In time, I suppose, only character terminals wouldn't suffice anymore, but during my entire time at the school they would have worked just fine for what we were doing. Over time, say 5 years, they might also be replaced with PCs.

• At least 16 terminals, probably replacing the PC/XTs, since there was an entire classroom available. Perhaps more (dedicated for staff?) in the C64 room?
• Terminal server(s). With only 16 (32?) seats we would like more people to be able to work on the server, probably with terminals over LAT or telnet instead of serial cables, especially if far away from the server.

DEC's own VT320 terminals were quite cheap, actually! Lowered to 495 USD soon after introduction in 1987, but maybe 100 USD more for an international version.

VT320 terminals had support for the Latin-1 (ISO 8859-1) character set. Kind of important for Swedes to be able to use Swedish even if many systems still used SWASCII (ISO-646-SE), replacing {}|][\ with national characters, but Latin-1 would have been nice.

I don't know if the Pathworks terminal client supported Latin-1. We would probably have some kind of converter program to convert between PC/Latin-1 (and PETSCII?) available anyway.

Cheap terminals might also mean we could have a special terminal room for employees. I don't think it would be possible to give every employee a terminal, unfortunately.

Silent terminals would have been preferable compared to re-use the noisy PC/XTs for extra seats but could obviously not run CAD nor any other local software.

Perhaps with the LK421 "Unix" keyboard?

Taken from https://deskthority.net/viewtopic.php?t=17981

Both keyboards were rubber domes, sadly, but rather firm.

Local terminal manufacturer Facit had some nice products, too, which might have been preferable. Chief among them were the slightly strange Facit Twist (aka Facit 4440) which could show 72 rows at once in one screen position. You could turn the screen 90 degrees for 72 rows or huge characters in 24 row mode.

Both images by MCbx, CC BY-NC-SA.

The only Twists I've used had black and white screens but there were amber screens, too. I'm told they were much nicer to read on.

The keyboard was very low-profile. The keys switch perhaps even scissor switch?

They also were just VT102 compatible and didn't have Latin-1, but usually had SWASCII support. If you were lucky you got both ASCII and SWASCII in G0 and G1 and could switch among them. I had some Emacs Lisp to do that when showing Latin-1 coded files…

It won the iF Design Award in 1984! Probably introduced in -84? It was certainly for sale as late as 1987.

Bitsaver's copy of the Facit Twist Technical Description with some images.

A Facit Twist would have been double the price of a VT320, though. Price in 1986 was 15 kSEK. Probably less in 1988/89. At any rate they would have been much nicer than the VT320, I think.

On the other hand, perhaps we could re-use the PETs? They had vanilla serial ports, after all, if it was really the CBM 7x0, otherwise we would have had to do something with the extension port. I don't know if this would be a good idea and what terminal programs existed. Worst case we would have had to write our own. That would probably have worked.

On the extreme side, the programmable AT&T 630 MTG terminals (successor of the Bell Labs Blit and the AT&T 5620) introduced in 1987 would have been absolutely marvellous:

You could download programs over the serial cable on them and run locally on their 68 k CPU. You could also use up to seven ordinary terminal windows. They also sold for much less than the PS/2s above, at about 2500 USD. I don't think any commercial CAD was available but, damn, that would have been nice to use.

Of course, you're going to say, X terminals would have been a nice option. Yes, agreed, but compared to a Blit-like thing like the 630 an X terminal like the very similar NCD 16 (1988) would a lot of the effort on the server. I don't think it would have worked.

A fun idea would have been to experiment with the very cheap Atari ST Mega.

The Mega ST was probably about the same price as a Facit Twist terminal, at least as the price was in 1986. Programs like UW made it possible to use it as a graphical windowed terminal, with some multiplex help on the *nix side. Even MGR was ported to MiNT! But MiNT was first launched in 1993, of course.

It would have been very fun to extend UW to do other things and even nicer if one could have done some experiments in writing something that could download and start new programs on the ST side or even experiment with some tiny operating system bringup! But… OK… Let's be realistic.

Communications

• Modems: Perhaps we could afford a few (3-5) and a single number for them for remote access.
• UUCP? A nearby university could perhaps offer dial-up UUCP access, probably for free, which would have meant… Internet e-mail! In 1989! This would have been huge.
• BBS? A KOM? I'm certain the local students would have developed a BBS rather quickly. Perhaps integrating it with the above.

Software

• AutoCAD for technical drawings, obviously.
• Development tools, like a C compiler et cetera, and change the curriculum from Pascal to C, probably.
• Probably just text editors for writing + ditroff (pic! eqn!) for typesetting. Perhaps create our own macro set? Quite a step up, typographically speaking, from what we really had.
• Local text editor on the PC? With the home directory network mounted, perhaps editing locally spares the CPU of the server quite a lot. Epsilon was a quite reasonable Emacs clone on MS-DOS, for instance.
• Develop some kind of preview program for troff usable on the PCs! If you're sitting at one of the VGA PC's you coud preview your document graphically before printing, with all the pic illustrations and eqn equations, too. Someone on a terminal would have to keep to using nroff, I guess.
• elm or something like that as a friendly mail client, at least for local mail? Or just use the BBS, which I'm sure would have been there very soon.

As far as I know the only class which had actual programming in the classrooms where from the Science programme. There might have been something for Technology, too, and possibly the el-tele people but they were, as I said earlier, in another building.

A lot more students did programming, though, but not necessarily as part of class.

During my entire time at the school Turbo Pascal 3 wasn't updated, even though I had Turbo Pascal 4 at home on one of my computers and TP 5 was announced while I was still there. Shifting to C under Unix wouldn't have changed much in the programming classes.

Conclusions

The disk space on the server is a problem. We had ~1500 students at the school. Not all of them even had access to the computer classrooms, though.

The students in the shop classes didn't use computers at all, as far as I know, except one of the electrician programmes (El-teleteknisk linje), especially the one specialising in electronics, but they had their own computer classroom far away from us, for some reason.

The students that did have access, perhaps 300, were expected to keep their work on diskettes. If I had the money I would definitely use it on more disk space and increase the quota for users.

Being able to dial in to the server would be a huge difference. Allowing e-mail or setting up a BBS would have been fantastic, even if it was just local. Access to Internet e-mail would have been… EXTREMELY AWESOME!!11

All in all, all of these suggestions would have been a much better system than the one we had for real.

Written by MC on Boomtime, the 44 day of Discord in the YOLD 3191 (2025-04-27).

The Apache web server, and probably many other web servers, had a simple way of adding personal web pages for local users. This meant that an URL ending with ~mc led directly to a subdirectory of user mc's home directory. Whatever they put in that directory was immediately available on the Intertubes! Neat, huh?

We need to bring this back to the modern net! Many tilde pubnixes has already done so, of course, and hack.org might sort of qualify as a member tilde, although I am, I guess, the BDFL.

See for instance:

https://tildeverse.org/

In some places, like my alma mater, the Lysator computer club at Linköping University, tilde web pages lead to complicated setups with NFS automounting because, of course, the computer running the web server is not necessarily the computer which knows anything about the user's home directory.

In my case this is, instead, done with rsync. We have SSH access to a shellbox. On the shellbox we can create a public_www directory in our home directory, then make it readable by a special user/group and, voila!, a web page turns up at:

https://hack.org/~mc/

The special sync user rsyncs the contents of public_www to the web server automatically every 15 minutes. This has been roughly the same for many years, but now it's more isolated on the web server, and with that change came the re-introduction of the "~".

Similarly, if we create public_gem in our home directories, a Gemini capsule on:

gemini://gem.hack.org/who/mc/

appears.

I recently moved the web server from a jail under FreeBSD to a seperate VPS. I also changed the server software from nginx to Caddy. The magic for doing tilde web pages in Caddy looks like this:

@user_home path_regexp user ^/~([^/]+)(/.*)?$
handle @user_home {
        redir /~{re.user.1} /~{re.user.1}/ permanent

        root * /home/www/hackusers/{re.user.1}
        rewrite * {re.user.2}
        file_server {
                hide .[A-Za-z]*
        }
}

I also added redirection for some users who had a lot of stuff already published, for instance, as you can guess, my own:

redir /mc https://hack.org/~mc/ permanent
redir /mc/ https://hack.org/~mc/ permanent

I'm aware this made for an extra surprise for my blog readers, since all the previous blog posts also suddenly changed their URL. Some blog readers interpreted this as that all the posts were new posts. Sorry about that!

As an extra bonus, Caddy automagically took care of Let's Encrypt certs for all the domains, including https://spunk.org/ which for the first time ever is now reachable with HTTPS. Thanks, Caddy! Now go visit the Spunk Library over TLS for all your encrypted Anarchist needs!

Written by MC on Boomtime, the 44 day of Discord in the YOLD 3191 (2025-04-27).

I lived in the rather expensive, allegedly fancy hotel Le Châtelain in Brussels. It was really not that fancy, but they had a 24/7 reception and perhaps five(?) people there at all times. They also locked the door really early. I think they were afraid of something or someone.

I thought the neighbourhood was fine. Especially Rue de Bailli around the corner was nice. Many restaurants and bars, even though I didn't have the time to visit more than one restaurant on the street.

I spent Friday mostly at the hotel, working in my room, mostly on other things but also preparing my own presentation for the next day. I chose to travel a day early because, well, trains. The trains actually worked out OK, even if a lot of people I met complained about Deutsche Bahn.

Naturally, I was nervous about the food, as I always am when travelling, being vegan and allergic to soy and peanuts. I had researched quite a lot, of course, and I had a stash of Huel bottles and protein bars with me, just in case.

I had lunch that first day at a nice vegan place called Lucifer lives, close to the Palais de justice. It had a punk vibe and a horror theme with horror movie posters everywhere. I liked it a lot. It also had great coffee, much better than the coffee during the hotel breakfast. Btw, 37 euro for breakfast at the hotel! So not worth it.

The statue just next to the Palais de justice gets a special mention: steampunk octopus robot! Yes, please!

My friend A, who lives i Brussels, arranged a dinner for me and a few others at the wonderful East & West restaurant. Meze with something like 18 bowls of different things. Then the dessert came in! I certainly didn't leave hungry.

A then brought me to a party in a pretty nice industrial-looking flat, but I had to leave early(ish) to keep working on my presentation. It was a little adventure to get back to the hotel on Friday night.

The FOSDEM conference was held at the Solbosch campus of the Université libre de Bruxelles, which was about 30 minutes walk from my hotel. I walked there on Saturday.

I was underwhelmed. No fancy signs? No facade lighting? Not even blinkenlights? Just very… worn down buildings and classrooms?

Yes, I suppose I've been spoiled by the Chaos events and especially the Chaos Communication Congress.

OK, I realize they probably didn't have thousands of hackers and artists coming a week early to build, I don't know, things like a castle of neon lights, a huge pneumatic tube systems covering several floors, no less than three different phone networks, Internet-controlled flamethrowers, and setting up things for trapeze artists 10 meters above one of the dance floors (Dance floor? Ha! No such thing.) … and the list goes on.

There were also much less cat ears and alternative clothing, but I was sort of expecting that. I wish I at least had put on some nailpolish. Rabbit ears might have been too much even though #3 would have been delighted.

Most of the actual talks could be summarized with the following sign:

I almost couldn't get in to the Security Devroom when it was time for my own talk! Haha.

I'm afraid my own talk was yet another pretty generic, although updated, presentation about the Tillitis TKey, what it is and what you can use it for. I've prepared more interesting talks but this was the one that was accepted, and I guess people still need to hear about what the TKey is. It's such a simple idea (thanks, Microsoft Research!) but the simple idea and all its implications can be hard to get across.

I was terribly nervous, as usual, and it didn't help that I almost didn't get into the room. I had, perhaps, 20 seconds to plug in my laptop, mic up and be ready to start. Naturally I didn't have any way of testing that my setup would work at all. And… Of course, the Emacs window showing the presentation hid a lot of the bottom of my "slides". Different aspect ratio from my screen. Dammit!

I talked around it and I think it was basically fine. The fuckup naturally made me even more nervous.

I mentioned Morten "Foxboron" Linderud in my talk and his work at one of the Tillitis hackatons bringing up Zig on the TKey. Incidentally, one of my newest colleagues, Mikael Ågren, did the same thing independently around the same time!

After my talk it was Morten's turn! He wasn't even in the room when I held my talk, unfortunately, but I had some time to talk to him before he started. His talk was about "Hardware backed SSH keys: ssh-tpm-agent" and, yes, he mentioned and showed the TKey and the tkey-ssh-agent during his demo! Thanks, Morten!

My almost-colleague Niels Möller from Tillitis' sister company Glasklar Teknik did an introduction to their neat transparency log project Sigsum.

I managed to catch some talks in the devroom for Digital Wallets and Verifiable Credentials, too.

First I saw a lightning talk "Digital identities in disarray" by Amelia Andersdotter and Gregor Bransky about the eIDAS 2.0 proposal and all the confusion around that, but not a lot about the amendment to the original eIDAS (which is now law) and the current efforts to build the European Union Digital Identity.

But the next talk was all about just that! "Challenges for Wallets and Digital Trust Services following EUDI Wallet Architecture Reference Framework & Reference implementation". It was unfortunately cut way before they even had got into the meat of the thing.

Anyway, the gist is that by November 2026 all EU member states will have to start offering at least one Digital Identity Wallet application to all citizens. Scytáles and IIUC partner Netcompany-Intrasoft are working on the technical specs (the Architecture Reference Framework", ARF) and the reference implementation of all parts. It's all awailable… on Github! The ARF source is even in Markdown!

All the repos:

https://github.com/eu-digital-identity-wallet

I had a look through the Wallet apps libraries before just to see what they demand of the actual ID carrier and if, yes, you could use the TKey to carry a private key. And yes, it seems like you could.

While I was waiting in the queue to my own talk I was quite surprised when Isaac Freund, author of the great Wayland compositor River, came up to me and asked if I was MC. Haha. We talked for a while. I really liked that.

I tried to get into Hans "pengo" Hübner's talk about Bildschirmtext, of course, but that room was even fuller than should have been possible. And the hallway outside had the queue from hell.

In total I managed to get in to perhaps three or four talks besides the Security Devroom that I stayed in for a while.

There was some other events in Brussels at about the same time as FOSDEM. First there was the Europen Open Source Awards, which among other things awarded Daniel "bagder" Stenberg a nice price.

There was a lot of other fringe events. Of them I was sort of tempted by OFFDEM, of course. Consider the OFFDEM Manifesto. But this was a sort of work thing, so I stayed at FOSDEM proper.

Considering that FOSDEM is held at the peak time of the seasonal flu season in Europe, some people have apparently more-or-less jokingly called it "flucon" or "fluconf". So… of course, someone started a real FluConf! Naturally, the conference is completely online. Perhaps I'll try to attend next year?

On the way back (Brussels-Cologne-Hamburg-Copenhagen-Malmö) I was hoping to have the time to get to Tünnes und Shäl in Cologne and get a vegan currywurst (yes, really!) and a kölsch, but alas, the train was a little late so I didn't have the time. I did, however, buy some kölsch and took yet another photo of the Kölner dom.

All in all, travelling back to almost exactly 14 hours from leaving the hotel until I entered my front door. Not too bad, with so many train changes.

My experience of Brussels was kind of dark… I saw a lot of unhoused people. My friend A said that the crime rate was bad and things like domestic violence, even murder, was through the roof. Just the week after I came home someone was shooting with fully automatic weapons in central Brussels!

I didn't expect that at all. It was also very expensive. I did expect that.

On the other hand, I found traces of underground culture, in a way I didn't do at all in Paris. That was the good part.

I probably won't be coming back, neither to FOSDEM, nor to Brussels, if I can help it.

Written by MC on Sweetmorn, the 23 day of Discord in the YOLD 3191 (2025-04-06).

— — —

Written by MC on Sweetmorn, the 71 day of Chaos in the YOLD 3191 (2025-03-12).

https://github.com/tillitis/tkey-ssh-ca

SSH certificates, as you my know, is a way of using not just key pairs for user authentication, but also solving the problem of public key distribution to the servers you want to log in to. Instead of holding and trusting the user's public key, the server just trusts the CA's public key. When a user comes along with a certificate signed by that CA, they are allowed in.

An SSH certificate can also, like the X.509 certificates you might already know and hate, include timestamps for when the user is allowed to use it. Luckily the SSH certificate format is much saner than X.509. It can also include things like:

• What user they are allowed to login as.
• What source IP they are allowed to access from.
• What commands they are forced to run.
• … many more things.

You can use the tkey-ssh-ca like this to get a certificate:

$ ssh -p 2222 user@ca-server > cert.pub
$ ssh -i cert.pub user@some-ssh-server

The first commands gets you a certificate and stores it in a file. The second uses the certificate and logs in to the server. That's it.

Kind of neat, huh?

Obviously this small CA isn't very smart. For instance, it just accepts whatever user is in its list of allowed users. It also accepts whatever principal (login name) the user asks for. For a production setup, you would probably want to limit this in some way. I might return to this and add that.

Nota bene: A TKey is (so far) not required to use this program.

Written by MC on Prickle-Prickle, the 29 day of Chaos in the YOLD 3191 (2025-01-29).

During FOSDEM I'll probably mostly be in the Security devroom.

My presentation about the Tillitis TKey is on Saturday at 14:30.

I'm bringing some TKeys, both enduser and unlocked, and a couple of TKey flash programmers if you want to buy something directly from me.

If you want to meet it's OK just to approach me. I should be easily recognized, I think. Image on the talk page is fairly accurate but I might not have glasses.

If you want to schedule something, reach out at the dayjob e-mail mc (at the domain) tillitis.se.

See you in Brussels!

Written by MC on Prickle-Prickle, the 29 day of Chaos in the YOLD 3191 (2025-01-29).

gemini://gem.hack.org/log/collectives.gmi

The text has been edited and I added a few photos.

Posted on the blog on 2024-12-15 02:33 +0100. Later updated with how Area 41 ended.

— — —

I dreamt about Dial House last night. I've never been there, but it was like I belonged, like I was meant to be there.

Last I heard anything about Dial House they were trying to gather enough money to buy the house, but that was perhaps 10 years ago? I had to look it up today to see if it was still there and still functioning as an anarchist open house.

Here are some photos from someone who was there in 2013:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/violentgrind/albums/72157635352182900/

Penny was still there. Still baking bread. I'm glad.

I found a recent interview where he says he still lives in the house:

https://www.psychedelicbabymag.com/2022/03/penny-rimbaud-interview.html

I'm relieved.

Here's a great documentary about Crass if you don't know what I'm talking about.

I used to think that I would create such an anarchist haven with friends some day. An intentional community or an anarchist collective, living and perhaps working together.

My parents had a friend who had been a volunteer in a kibbutz in Israel. I met them as a child and was really impressed. Kibbutzim, and especially the more libertarian socialist ones, seemed like a dream come true. Interestingly, when I was a child we viewed Israel as a more or less a pragmatic socialist country, a beacon of social democracy and social experiments, very much unlike how people view Israel today.

For a while in my late teens my friends and I had our eyes on an old civil defence bunker we had visited, but that turned out to be mostly daydreaming. Living together in a bunker! Sounds great, doesn't it!? There was even a small movie theatre in there which would have been awesome.

No one seems to know what happened to the bunker. Perhaps it's secret again?

I used to spend many weekends in my teens at Stömne verkstäder, a worker-owned cooperative which had a concert venue, Café Svängrum, often with amazing live concerts. They seemed to know a lot of people in the alternative music scene in Sweden.

I remember an amazing alternative midsummer party which was probably the first time I ate burritos. They were made with tortillas I baked myself in the open air. I discussed intentional communities, anarchism and worker-owned business with some of the residents late into the night. I was, perhaps, 18?

I moved away to study at a university a long way from home. I suppose I could have put up an ad somewhere to find someone my age to live with, but instead I rented a room from an elderly couple. The couple thought I was pretty weird and soon wanted me to leave, so I moved to a student dorm for a while. I didn't really fit in there, either, and at least one person in the dorm really disliked me and did strange, hateful acts against me.

A few years later I had married Helena and lived in Stolplyckan, a large cohousing project, with our two kids. There were four large buildings, more than 130 flats, and plenty of common areas: a large gym hall, pottery, wood shop, a school with years 1 to 3, no less than three daycares, et cetera, et cetera.

In the early 90's I learned about the NEXUS movement through the Future Culture mailing list. The NEXUS movement was about combining housing collectives and worker cooperatives to share an Internet connection. You have to remember that getting Internet to a residence in those days was hard and expensive!

The basic idea of NEXUS was that the Internet could be used to form a federation of living/working nexi for commerce and coordination. NEXUS-Gaia was the main mailing list of the movement, all the nexi of Gaia, Mother Earth of the Greek mythology, and, well, the Global Association of Internet Anarchists (GAIA)…

You should definitely read Dwayne "ddraig" Jones-Evans' NEXUS Manifesto!

NEXUS awaits: all you can lose is your isolation.

Indeed.

In the spirit of NEXUS, I was part of a movement in Stolplyckan trying to get an Internet access for the houses or at least some shared computer with an UUCP feed for mail. I ran a BBS at the time (The Hack Machine, later IBKOM) and after a while managed to get a UUCP feed for it (lysator.liu.se!closet). One of my neighbours helped pay the extra phone line for the BBS. That was the closest to Internet connection we got.

We had this idea we could use a box of old short-haul modems we got from a strange dude in Stockholm with Ericsson connections to make people connect to our common computer, but it didn't work out to wire up the place. If we had had a terminal server for every stairwell and a lot of coax we might have had something.

Some friends shared a nearby flat and managed to get an Internet connection in a sneaky way: they got a leased line and just showed up on either end when the technician came to install it. One of the ends happened to be a computer club at the university where they could easily hook up to the real network. The leased line was just dumb wires. They hooked up their own, used equipment at both ends. It was probably something like a Vitalink Ethernet bridge (probably old DEC labelled things) and modems?

It wasn't very speedy, but it worked well for 1997 levels of "well". I'd rather have a reliable and leased-line 14.4(? 19.2?) kbit/s than a lot of packet loss or dial-up.

They offered me to put a terminal in their shared computer room. I put my NCD 16 there and got an account on one of the local computers. Now I didn't have to dial in or bike all the way to uni or work to get Internet! Still had to leave home, though, but it was just a ten minute walk. I didn't get permission from dayjob to work from there, except maybe once or twice, but I spent many evenings there. It was a different age.

When I separated from Helena I moved into this flat for a while. Things went a bit chaotic after that. I wasn't feeling well. At all. I was self-destructive to the point of suicide attempts. It couldn't last.

Eventually, I moved back to Helena. We had some poly on-and-off thing going, almost like before.

A while later, when I came back after a stint at the psych ward, we had the brilliant idea to form a co-living space of our own with a good friend, Roberth. The three musketeers!

We called our new flat Area 41, after Area 51, and our new address, number 41 on the street. Fitting, considering we were all aliens, in a way. First three, but very soon four adults (Dennis was our d'Artagnan), two children, and 18 computers!

I mostly worked from Area 41, even though I also commuted almost weekly to Stockholm during a period. That's a post (series!?) of its own, perhaps.

I was the only one who worked from home full time, but after a few years when we all had laptops we would sometimes sit on the lawn behind our house with our computers, even if we didn't have network access there. At first we didn't even had wifi in the flat!

In the beginning we had just dial up modem access which was as awful as it sounds. Then we got ISDN, even with automatic dial-in when traffic hit one of my static IP addresses(!), then Internet over cable TV coax and, at the end, the wonderful Bonet/Bostream DSL with static IP!

The cable TV thing was pretty unstable. We did some software hacks to make it better, which helped, but wasn't perfect. Perhaps it was an early version of DOCSIS? Bonet was a relief. We had nominally 2 Mbit/768 kbit/s over DSL. Orckit's stuff, not the ATM-based ADSL, thankfully. ISDN was 128 kbit/s at best (2 * 64 kbit/s channels), if dayjob paid, and 64 kbit/s otherwise.

I remember one time during the ISDN era when I suddenly realized we didn't have a phone! I think we were expecting someone to call about fixing something in the flat. I ran out and bought an ISDN phone.

A friend in the networking business gave us some old Symbol 2 Mbit/s wifi PCMCIA cards, later upgraded to the wonderful Lucent Orinocos. We didn't even have an access point at first so someone's laptop would have to work as the router and we connected ad-hoc, but this was clearly the future! It felt revolutionary!

As a comparison, the only wireless built-in to my laptop at the time was infrared! I could connect my Thinkpad x570 to the mobile phone I had, an Ericsson GH688, and use GSM's 9600 b/s over infrared. I couldn't actually afford to do that, of course, but the technology was there.

Sometimes I miss the time in Area 41. A lot of great parties and dinners, of course, but the most important thing was the sense of always having someone around who you could trust and be yourself with. A family, I guess, although perhaps not very traditional. Chosen family is family, too!

Working from the area, at least when the network was working, was also very nice. I could fetch the kids from daycare/school easily and then continue to work for a bit when I came back after the kids had settled down.

My psychiatric problems persisted. Things got a bit chaotic in a few relationships. That's something I don't miss that much. Yes, I realize I'm likely the chaotic culprit here, but that's just another reason not to miss it!

Funny story that perhaps says something about the mood in Area 41: I remember once when I was upstairs working on restoring a Sun Ultra 1 workstation. A party was just getting interesting downstairs. Suddenly an unknown, very cute young woman was standing next to me, looking over my shoulder. She said "I was told to bring this beer to the weirdo upstairs" and handed me a beer, hugged me and left. "That was strange", I thought, but continued working on the Sun. And drank the beer.

After a while a cute young man did the same thing: came up with a beer, said something funny, hugged me (or perhaps even kissed me?), and left.

This repeated a couple of times more until I got the message and went down to the party, by this time starting to become a little inebriated. Mission accomplished!

Area 41 lasted until 2002. I moved in with my girlfriend Petra, later my wife. The area ended with a bang:

Written by MC on Prickle-Prickle, the 57 day of The Aftermath in the YOLD 3190 (2024-12-15).

Not a typical night, since it's at an event in another city, two train stops away, but it gives a taste of what partying in Sweden in, say, 1989(?) was like, at least in my crowd. I was maybe 17 or 18.

Yes, I really usually drank two bottles of wine during a pre-party in those days. Not unusual among the people I was hanging out with, I'm afraid.

— — —

I was finally going to read my slightly romantic-futuristic cyberpunk spoken word on a stage! Not the biggest event and in an even smaller city than I lived in, but hey, it was the first time.

My friends Nisse and Jens had arranged the event. They met me at the Härnösand train station and we went to look at the venue. Good arrangement: stage, large area in front, stairs and then, somewhat surprisingly for an event aimed squarely at teenagers, a full-stocked bar.

The owner was running all over the place, close to hysterics. "Dammit! Fucking bureaucracy. And the police, too!". The police had been there and tried to stop the event. No age limit and serving alcohol! A lot of upset parents had called The Big, Ugly Authority and had opinions about the alleged seduction of youth. The owner solved the entire thing by scribbling "DRUG-FREE" on the posters outside. Drug-free? I don't think so. He still intended to have a bar.

To break the drug-free tradition we went to a preparty. I hardly knew anyone. A lot of people. Maybe even upper class. They seemed to have cozied up in someone's big villa. No parents.

Even the driest desert has its oasis; I met some troskyist girls sitting in a corner, singing old anti-fascist songs. I sat down. Opened one of the wine bottles I brought. And down it went.

We spoke about socialism, a united front, et cetera. In the back of my head: thoughts about Trotsky's Red Army and how they expressed their gratitude to Makhno's anarchists: BANG, BANG, BANG! But these were girls! You have to sacrifice something sometimes.

Two wine bottles inside of me later: We prepared to leave. One of the girls, a tall blonde with blue eyes, sang a piece by The Human League:

"Don't, don't you want me?"

"Of course I do!", I said and watched her with lustful eyes. I imagined I looked like a starving wolf by now.

She met my eyes and asked if we could bike together to the event on her bike. She didn't think she could handle it, as intoxicated as she was. Like I wasn't intoxicated! But I took her on the bike. Of course I did.

We found our way to the event. We lost our way at least twice and giggled a lot. Parked the bike outside and was immediately stopped by a guard at the entrace when we tried to enter the place.

"Who do you think you are? Shouldn't you pay first?"

"Uh… I'm on the stage tonight", I reply completely unprepared for this.

"Oh yeah? What's your name?"

"I'm MC."

"OK, you can go in. What about her?"

"She's with me.", I said and didn't wait any longer. We just went in.

When we were inside she revealed a bottle of vodka that she had hidden somewhere. She signed to me to follow and pouted her lips. Nice girl. Very considerate. Thinks of everything. Then she went in to the ladies' room. The ladies' room!? WTF? How… What… Am I supposed to follow her?

I went in. Some of the women inside were shocked. "What the fuck are you doing here!? Get out!".

"No, he's with me. We won't be disturbing you long.", said my saviour, my angel, my girl.

She gave me the bottle. Asked me to hold on to it for a while, went into one of the stalls and locked the door. I was standing with an illegal bottle of alcohol, at an event for teenagers, as the only male in a ladies' room in Härnösand.

A girl in a uniform jacket came in. I thought it was maybe a Swedish Navy jacket. She looked dominant. Beautiful. Amazing.

"Hello! What are you doing here?", she laughed.

"It's a worn out line by now. I've been here a while. My lady friend owns this bottle, but she's busy in there right now", I said and indicated the stall door. I took a sip and offered her one, too.

She drank and gave the bottle back just as my girl came out from using the toilet. My girl introduced the uniform as M, a libertarian. First trotskyists, now libertarians. Only extremes tonight.

"Can I perhaps suggest a union between the left and the right on this side of the Nolan chart?" I asked M.

"Anarchist", said my girl and indicated me.

"Perhaps even Antichrist", said M and winked.

"Maybe."

Suddenly I'm sitting on the counter in front of the cloakroom. On the other side of the counter I saw friends volunteering for cloak duty. They were really working for their free tickets! Myself, I just sat there on the counter in the lotus position, looking into M's eyes. She sat in front of me in the same position. Our knees were touching.

An exchange had happened. Either it was me who changed girl or it was the girls who changed boy. I had no memory of the event. We just sat there and looked into each others eyes. Then we jumped down from the bench and walked out together.

We sat on a bench outside, in front of a parking lot. We kissed.

"Let's not talk politics. I don't think that would work.", she said.

Who the hell can even think about politics in this situation? I didn't plan on saying a word, just to act. Direct action. That's my motto. Even in politics, but above all when it comes to matters of love. The nature of my love (or lust, I suppose) is spontaneous and direct.

Eventually, we walked back to the venue. Everyone seemed to have forgotten about my poetry reading, even me. We sat down at a table at the bar and ordered beer. Remember, drug-free, right!?

Some of M's friends came over and dragged her away. I waited with a beer. Waited a long time. The beer bottles kept piling up. Did she abondon me? I finished the last beer and went to find the woman I desired.

I looked for a long time but I finally found her. She looked sad but refused to explain why. Then she suddenly, silenty, went out from the venue. I followed like a sad dog.

Outside, she explained that her friends had reminded her of… her boyfriend. And that I was tempting her to be unfaithful. She felt guilty. I felt guilty. She, inexplicably, said "Good luck!" and then went home.

In my misery I sat on the street outside the event. One much desired woman missing. What was I even doing here?

Then, out of nowhere, Desired Woman #1 approached. My girl. The one who I exchanged or, well, who perhaps exchanged me. Against what? She sat down.

"Do you know who Alexander is?"

"No, don't know him".

"Of course, you're not from Härnösand."

"Correct."

Things were just getting worse. What was this about?

"He's so beautiful, so perfect. Blonde, very high cheekbones."

"And?", I ask, and became suddenly very uninterested in hearing much more about this. Where did she want to go with all this?

"He's going home soon."

"Home? Wasn't he living here?"

"Well… He's an exchange student."

This was really going to far. First, M disappeared, which I sort of understand, even if I didn't approve. Then this. I got to my feet and left girl #1 to her love problems and tried to find my way to my lodgings.

Written by MC on Boomtime, the 55 day of The Aftermath in the YOLD 3190 (2024-12-13).

— — —

I attended the security conference sec-t 2024 in Stockholm the other week. I held a presentation during the Community Event, Wednesday September 11: "Verifying the Tillitis TKey".

The TKey uses a novel way of helping guarantee hardware supply chain security to the end-user. During the end-phase of production we at Tillitis run a device app, where the TKey automatically creates a unique identity inspired by TCG DICE and then sign and publish data about this identity. The identity and the signature can be independently verified at any time by a user to help verify that the TKey hasn't been tampered with.

Here's the repo to the tool we use during signing and that users can use for verification:

https://github.com/tillitis/tkey-verification/

As always, it's open source.

A recording of my talk is available on Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWjj-yoz90M

You should also go watch my friend Joel's very nice talk "Demystifying confidential computing":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdj9Pr-6dq8

He very skillfully read up on all these technologies so you won't have to wade through all the marketing bullshit. Thanks, Joel!

Sorry about the Youtube links, but sec-t doesn't provide any other media archive. Can't they use https://media.ccc.de/ like everyone else? I don't know.

Incidentally, it seems I can't watch Youtube from my workstation at home anymore: "Sign in to prove you're not a bot". Ha! Like I would sign in to Youtube!? It's probably good for me not to be able to get stuck in Youtube at the moment anyway.

I was incredibly nervous before and during my talk to the point of stuttering, restarting sentences, and sometimes even mangling words, but did the presentation without script in front of my biggest audience so far. 1250+ tickets sold, but this was during the Community Day which was open to the public. Also livestreamed. Aaaaaah! All in all, it went better than expected. And I think I need this.

My friend Caitlin watched my talk. She said these sweet words:

I like your erudition combined with silliness! Everything in tech doesn't have to be so fucking butch - like a toxic masculitinity parade! I, like you, remember when tech was just so damned weird and fun.

Yes! More weirdness! More fun! More silliness!

In infosec there's a special kind of tech bro who likes to flex association with government agencies. And, oh boy, there were a lot of agencies at sec-t. I hadn't realized just how much. There were booths from the Security Service SÄPO, the Swedish sigint agency FRA, the Swedish military intelligence service MUST, et cetera, et cetera.

I stayed at the rather fancy Hotel Rival. sec-t even paid for it! Not used to that. They had booked me in a Superior room but I was upgraded to a Deluxe Balcony room. Very nice. I now also know what "Turndown Service" means. A strange service. I asked them to please skip my room.

Very nice breakfast at Rival, even for a picky, allergic vegan like me. The bar also made quite nice cocktails.

I attended sec-t's Thursday night party for just a couple of hours. Instead me and two friends brought some Security Service merch to the libertarian Frihetsfronten's monthly pub meeting. Frihetsfronten used to be under surveillance from the Security Service way back when. Got a lot of giggles. They're not my kind of anarchists, really, but usually fun to hang out with. Remember Tritnaha and Docklands? Yeah.

Spoke to some very nice and interesting people both backstage and while milling around at sec-t. The speaker's dinner was a very nice touch.

Of course the train home was slightly late, but that was OK. My boss had it much worse going Stockholm-Gothenburg, what with all the repairs going on on the tracks.

Let's see if I'm welcome back as a speaker at future sec-t conferences.

Written by MC on Boomtime, the 55 day of The Aftermath in the YOLD 3190 (2024-12-13).

Cal suggests a month of digital decluttering, at first cutting off everything that your job and other obligations don't depend on. At the end of the month you evaluate what, if anything, is to be let back inside.

I did a decluttering plan for April. It ended up being an ongoing project when I'm writing this in June.

Written by MC on Setting Orange, the 24 day of Confusion in the YOLD 3190 (2024-06-19).

TL;DR: In which we learn about the EU parliament election, some ruminations about the death of XMPP, MC's flat being without drains for two months, a visit at the Lund Linux Conference, another at the Security Fest conference, fighting against a Supermicro server, and some other recent shenanigans,

Written by MC on Prickle-Prickle, the 13 day of Confusion in the YOLD 3190 (2024-06-08).

I love to see photos of people's setup, like Reddit's /r/battlestations or the incredibly detailed interviews at Maker Stations. Not just pictures of the hardware, of course, but their desks, chairs, and offices. So much to be inspired by!

Just following along on Fedi and in my chat groups also gives me the same ideas, sometimes. Since I'm sort of giving up on "social" "media" this is probably what I will miss the most, but I guess talking with friends about what they use will still keep me in the loop of new developments.

I keep my own version of something like this at Computers I have known and loved, but that page also has an historical aspect, like you probably expect from me.

One part I don't cover in "Computers I have known and loved" is the Dream setup part of Uses This. So here it is…

What would be your dream setup?

TL;DR: I would like to a have completely open source and open hardware, quiet (even fanless?) laptop with great, environmentally friendly, easily replacable batteries, using a capabilities enhanced RISC-V CPU with unconditonal measurement at boot running a modern open source Lisp OS with an Emacs-like feel to the UI, with a great network file system with offline capabilities. An alternative is that the laptop is just a terminal.

I will probably mostly keep the laptop attached to a totally square monitor on a gas arm, a split ortho keyboard, and a fancy low-profile trackball, but it is still important that the laptop is small and light for travel.

OS and environment

Many years ago I used Plan 9 at work. I still miss some of the features, chief of which was the sense that everything was a filesystem, and that all my files where available everywhere. Acme was cool, too, but I did miss Emacs, even if I know it's sacrilegious to say.

As a programmer I also appreciated the incredibly easy interface against systems looking like filesystems, like the window system, even a remote window system, or a remote IMAP server. It all felt integrated, in a way, but still very unixy.

I would probably enjoy a modern version of a Lisp Machine environment like Symbolics' Genera, or maybe a SmallTalk or Oberon OS. Maybe we could combine them with the ease and simplicity of the Plan 9 view of "everything is a file"? These totally integrated environments feel like something we have lost.

Staying in Emacs all day, like I do, comes close, I suppose, but I would like to integrate even more. Combine this with a remote always available filesystem for my home directory, possible with offline caching and we're really set. Or maybe the thing closest to me is just a terminal, like in traditional Plan 9?

Of course, with a modern version of these systems I would also have access to a modern browser and all the necessary tools for the modern Internet.

And, also of course, everything would be open source!

From Prof. Dr. Ralf Möller's Symbolics pages.

From Niklaus Wirth's pages (RIP!).

Input methods

I'm reasonably happy with my HHKBs but I've been glancing over to the world of split keyboards for a while.

I've mostly been drooling over low profile split ortholinear keyboards for a while, like the Corne LP 42 or the ZSA Voyager. Maybe the dream setup should have one of those?

From Boardsource.

I like my old CST L-Tracs but a trackball like that feels a bit high when using a low-profile keyboard. Perhaps I should look into using a flatter trackball like the Kensington Slimblade?

From Kensington.

Monitor

The completely square 26.5" Eizo EV2730Q (1920x1920) looks very nice but doesn't seem to be available anymore. If Eizo would reintroduce something like this, perhaps with a higher resolution, I would probably buy it. There are too few square monitors around!

I'm afraid the LG DualUp almost square monitor might be too high, at least in default position. It might be better twisted 90 degrees.

I like to keep my monitors fastened to a gas arm for the space and easy repositioning. I would probably do the same with this one.

CPU and firmware

I like to move away from x86 on my workstation. Maybe use RISC-V?

Of course, capabilities in hardware, something like CHERI, would be nice, to stop a number of ordinary software bugs by hardware.

Considering what I do at work I would, of course, like my computer to do some simple unconditional measurement before starting anything, just like the Tillitis TKey. This could be used by the OS boot loader or the operating system itself for generating key material, for instance to help unlock the encrypted hard disk, and for other kind of authentication.

It would be awesome if all, or at least most, of this would be open hardware and the firmware open source.

Computer hardware

I've been using terminals for a long time, both character terminals and X terminals. The best thing with them was… silence! I really dislike fan noise. If I have to listen something let me choose it myself, like Hocico or Front Line Assembly, not fan noise. Yes, I'm aware some people close to me consider some of my "music" to be more or less noise, but yeah, I chose it myself.

A noiseless computer is important. If I don't have to manage it much, just like a terminal of old, that would probably be even better.

I like the possibility to just throw my computer in a backpack and compute from everywhere, so either my dream setup is some kind of laptop, or I have a laptop as well, with very easy ways to get hold of my home directory or connect to my Real Machine.

It would be interesting to investigate something really small like the new MNT Pocket Reform, a very small laptop-like computer. I just wish it had much more battery time. It would also be cool if it, like it's big brother the MNT Reform, could use LiFePO4, and be replacable cell by cell.

From the Crowdsupply campaign.

I don't need a powerful CPU, but RAM and storage is another matter, especially if I can't connect to my home directory on some server really easy.

If I can get away with running any necessary virtual machines on a server, I could also lower my requirements on RAM.

If the whole thing closest to me was just a terminal, even a laptop "terminal", that wouldn't require much at all, but would, of course, be dependent on a a very reliable network connection all the time.

What's your dream setup?

Written by MC on Setting Orange, the 37 day of Discord in the YOLD 3190 (2024-04-20).

Slow morning in the cottage. P and #3 left hours ago. I'm alone for the weekend celebrating the goddesses Freyja, Ostara, Vesna, or whomever it is we're off work for. Maybe it's so everyone can watch the stream from Revision?

I've been slowly working through a french press of coffee and reading the morning paper, Dagens Nyheter. This time, however, I didn't just read on the web page. Instead, I'm trying to limit my news intake to just reading the morning paper. Once, in the morning. Not checking for breaking news again and again during the day like I usually do. I'm reading my subscription's PDF of this day's issue! Yes, wow, I didn't even know they had one!

You can probably guess I recently read Cal Newport's "Digital Minimalism". This is the first full book of his I've read. Yes, I know I'm late to the party, as usual. It's really good. Well researched and very eloquently written. Lots of notes and references at the end, but nothing to interrupt your flow of reading.

He suggests a month of digital decluttering, so I've done a decluttering plan for April. After that month I'll revisit the "optional technologies" I have identified and maybe rejoin some things. If I'm not active in a "social" "medium" near you, that's why. I may still be posting announcement about blog posts, but I'm not actually participating. Let's see how it goes.

I have some more books by Cal in my reading queue. I'm also reading Jason Fried's and DHH's "Remote: Office not required". Yes, I know about the internal troubles at Basecamp but I think they might have some good points in this 2013 book. I've been working remote for quite some time already, but perhaps I get some more insights. Perhaps I'll just end up leaving the book at the Gothenburg office?

For Revision I've moved the loudspeakers from the living room and set up a comfy little corner where I usually work while at the cottage. Looking forward to some compos. I'm also looking forward to a video conference party with the original flatmates from the Area 41 days.

At work we released a new version of the FPGA bitstream for the TKey with some interesting updates, chief of which is a new hardware protection and incremental builds of the bitstream. We also published a blog post about a fixed firmware problem that is included in the new release. Beware of optimising compilers!

Spent three days in Gothenburg working on this stuff, then going to the Netnod Meeting (Thanks again for the invite, Siri! Sad to see you leave Netnod.) in Z'ha'dum for two days. Then off to the funeral the week after. Lots of travelling lately. Going back to Gothenburg for a few days soon, then off to Hamburg in late April.

Vernor Vinge is dead, as you probably know. I'm also re-reading "True Names" and some essays about this seminal work. Cyberspace and cyberpunk before cyberpunk! Also thinking a lot about death since both my dad's wife and my aunt's husband just died. What do we leave behind? What do we remember about the dead? Is this what they wanted to be remembered as? What do I leave behind?

Take care, MC

Written by MC on Pungenday, the 15 day of Discord in the YOLD 3190 (2024-03-29).

I went from Malmö on Thursday morning and worked the entire day on trains. I arrived in Ljusdal after close to nine hours. I checked in at the only hotel in town again and, after a quick meal and glass of wine, went over to a very sad dad with a bottle of Macallan. We didn't empty it but we sure tried. I got back to the hotel pretty late. Wasn't able to sleep much.

The day after it was my dad's wife's funeral. Met up at dad's and some relatives gave us a lift to the chapel. Not many people turned up. It's complicated.

I sang along with the hymns but I couldn't make myself say the Lord's prayer or any amens. The very cool organist (Tattoos everywhere! Was that a tattooed futhark on her fingers?) played a nice Amazing grace as the last song. I liked that.

Afterwards almost everyone tagged along for a meal and something to drink. Not the priest nor the organist, sadly. Would have loved to talk to them.

I had already bought a salad for me but was pleasantly surprised that the wine was clearly labeled vegan. Thanks, Kenneth! Talked with some very nice people for a while and then dad and I got a ride home. We had a stiff whisky and opened a bottle of wine I had brought. We talked through the night, which I think maybe gave some comfort.

The day after I left for Hudiksvall to meet mom. We had some lunch and she said something "You look tired. Why don't you take a nap?". And I just crashed. I slept for hours. Then I spent a nice evening with mom and her husband.

Today I'm going home again. The weekend may have been tough but it was tougher for dad.

Remember, friends:

Deyr fé,
deyja frændr,
deyr sjalfr it sama,
ek veit einn,
at aldrei deyr:
dómr um dauðan hvern.

Cattle dies,
kin dies,
you will also die.
I know one
that never dies:
judgement over the dead.

Written by MC on Pungenday, the 10 day of Discord in the YOLD 3190 (2024-03-24).

Sitting in front of the wood stove in my country cottage. It's nice and quiet. Meanwhile it seems NordicFuzzCon is going on in Malmö. 4,000 furries. I had no idea! That seems fun!

On the other hand I just read that at least 10,000 were protesting in Malmö today against the Israel-Palestine conflict. I've seen the much smaller protests in Malmö before but, again, had no idea there was any plans about a huge protest march today.

I feel so disconnected sometimes. I guess that's what not wanting to engage with Facebook does to people… Are there any other places these things are posted? Most of the people I follow on Fedi are not local. I know about Gnistor but apparently that's not enough.

Slightly worried about the floods around the cottage area but nothing really threatening our own house. The floods seem to have resided a little, too, since the road is no longer fully flooded.

Back to work tomorrow after a week off but I'll be working from here at least until noon. As I've often said before we have better Internet here in the woods than in the flat in Malmö! It's so strange.

Hälsingland

Since it's been a school holiday P and I took the week off from work and travelled a little with #3.

We just got back from a tour of Hälsingland in the southern part of Northern Sweden. We went by train to Ljusdal, spent a few days at the only hotel available, then to Hudiksvall by bus and a few more days at another hotel. Then the train back to Malmö.

We went from 9C and spring flowers in Malmö to -16C and snow in just 8 hours on a train. We travelled almost straight north at 200 km/h almost the entire time, so I guess that explains it.

The Stadshotellet Ljusdal hotel doesn't even have HTTPS on their web page and it doesn't look very updated but they're still very much open. The adjoining Janus Bistro & Lounge has the same problem but is also open. And very popular, at least on a Saturday night!

The chefs at Janus very kindly made a special order for me even on a busy Saturday night! It was so nice that we visited again later.

A lot of people were dressed to eleven, especially the ladies, so I guess this is where it happens in Ljusdal. I'm glad I at least changed into a shirt. I stayed around for a while after dinner just people watching while nursing a Lagavulin.

Another day we visited La Banca Deli & Winebar with my dad. They had even better food, but we were kind of late and had to rush the meal quite a lot. They seemed to a have a very well stocked wine cellar. Not the kind of place I would have expected in Ljusdal.

I had to ask about it but the hotel has a sauna and they will turn it on for you if you ask about it. Not very well kept, but it's a sauna!

In Hudiksvall we lived at Quality Hotel Statt, incidentally the same place where I attended my very first ball. I guess that entire event would be nice to write about some other time. The sauna at Statt was much better. They even had a small pool! I don't really get the point of such a small pool, but there it was.

We had a wonderful meal at the new Modisten 4 restaurant in Hudiksvall. Several vegan and soy free items on the menu! I got a very well-made Old Fashioned, too. This place was also full of well dressed women. Men were a tiny minority. Very odd.

Newspaper clippings

While visiting dad's I got to browse a scrapbook of newspaper clippings. I found some surprises, like me at 14 answering questions in a local newspaper about the school holiday we just celebrated (Sportlovet, literally "the sports holiday", which is on different weeks in different parts of the country.):

I say that I don't mind what week the holiday is held. If it's too cold I could always ski at the Easter holiday instead and spend this holiday watching cable TV. What I didn't say is that I was mostly glued to my computer anyway. I guess I didn't want to come across as too much of a nerd in the local paper. Ha! Too late!

The context is the Ericsson factory in Delsbo which closed down in 1985. It made traditional telephone switches but was closed when the computer-controlled AXE switch which was built in another factory took over as the Ericsson switch product.

Here's a desk from an office in the factory:

I know those terminals from my summer jobs at Ericsson Cables in Hudiksvall. They had this terrible function that mechanically locked the keyboard when the mainframe didn't accept your input.

There's an interesting project trying to revive an Alfaskop terminal and connect it to the Hercules IBM mainframe emulator:

https://github.com/MattisLind/alfaskop_emu/

Hudiksvall city library

For nostalgic reasons I visited the Hudiksvall city library. The librarians used to know me well. They were usually friendly and often helped me get interlibrary loans from strange places, like the State telecom company's R&D library or university libraries.

It doesn't seem the computer literature has grown much, if at all, since my days. This is the complete collectiion:

I was quite surprised to find Tord Jöran Hallberg's IT-gryning, a book about the Swedish computer history! I've corresponded with Tord Jöran and a bunch of other old men with technical questions about the Datasaab computers. Sadly he's gone now, as are many of the others I used to keep in touch with.

Dad Computer Project, part II

I installed the router I bought in dad's flat. Luckily the ISP had installed the media converter, so it was just a matter of plugging it in, associate something with the wifi and check that it worked. And it did on the first try!

Spent two days installing apps, transferring stuff from the Android phone and showing and explaining the iPad and the web to dad. He asked interested and good questions, like what the difference between an app and a web site is. Sometimes there isn't really much of a difference (think PWA), so it's a very good question.

The mouse I bought turned out to be very confusing, even to me, so that returned with me.

The Satechi X1 keyboard seemed to work fine, even for dad's old fingers. Even the touch screen worked better than on the old Android! The Android phone wouldn't recognize his fingers at all. Even with the better touch sensors it's still easier with a stylus.

We never figured out how to pair his hearing aid. Of course neither of us knew anything about the model of the hearing aid and there was no manual.

A strange thing was that we tried a audio call with Signal but he couldn't hear me very well. I, on the other hand, could hear myself quite well from two rooms away with closed doors! I guess getting him some headphones might help, but strangely he could hear the voices on a streaming app quite well!

The built-in Tips app and the User Guide in the iPad is decent but could have better navigation and better guidance for something totally new to the iPad and most electronic gadgets.

The home button was big enough but the sleep/on-off button wasn't, so it was a little hard to actually turn on and off the iPad. He's leaving it on most of the time. Let's see what happens to the battery.

I'm still not sure I did the right thing with the Dad Computer turning into an iPad, but what are the realistic options?

Written by MC on Sweetmorn, the 56 day of Chaos in the YOLD 3190 (2024-02-25).

I didn't know what to expect, really. Mats told me I could talk about whatever I wanted, so of course I talked about the Tillitis Tkey, which also meant I could do it on company time.

I thought about how I would explain the TKey to these teenagers but in the end decided that I would try to talk to the 17-year-old version of myself. I was sure he would be somewhere in the audience. Basically I didn't plan to hold back on the technical details and instead rely on the audience asking questions if they didn't understand or needed more explanations.

I'm not sure this was the best idea.

Vellinge is a bit outside Malmö, so I had to go by bus for about half an hour. Thankfully the lecture would be in the afternoon, so I didn't have to go by bus early in the morning. Not looking back with fond memories of early morning bus commutes!

Mats was waiting for me at the entrance to one of the buildings and we had time for a quick tour and some coffee before the lecture. I got to see their computer rooms and it was interesting to compare with my own school in the late 1980s. These days the students all have their own laptops so I didn't even see any desktop computers, just a bunch of monitors. They didn't have any external keyboards, which I found a little strange. I kept wondering what I would have done if I was a student, not least because of…

It seemed the school had made some deal with Microsoft. The students were running Windows on their laptops and used Office365. There were also a Surface Hub in all the classrooms!

Malmö schools, in comparison, is very much on the Chromebook and Google Workspace/Classroom track, at least for younger students.

Not sure what is the worst option here. I keep wondering what all the protohackers do. Yes, there's an SSH client by default on ChromeOS. Are they even allowed to use it? What about on the Windows laptops? Is the SSH option enabled? What about WSL? Are they allowed to turn these options on? Are there any *nix servers somewhere the schools provide access to? I wonder if I can ask anything like this on an open house type event?

Back to Sundsgymnasiet… In the computer room I hooked up my Thinkpad to a Surface Hub and did some experiments. Could I mirror the screen and do my presentation in Emacs, like I had intended, even in this environment? It seemed I could! I had prepared and sent a PDF to Mats and was ready to use his computer just in case, but I'm much more comfortable in Emacs with org-present.

Time for the lecture! About 60-70 students, a couple of teachers, and three peope from IBM. The IBMers would also give a talk. The IBMers started. They spoke about their idea of how to do a project and what kind of studies lead them to where they are today. A completely different level compared to what I was going to talk about! I started to get really nervous and broke out in a cold sweat.

Then it was my turn! When I initially connected my Thinkpad and moved a few windows over to the other screen my green-on-black terminals were visible for a moment. I heard gasps and someone commented quite loud "He's a hacker!". I just said "You bet!" and started the presentation with Emacs which, I guess, just proved the point.

The talk was quite technical. I think a lot of it went over their heads but I saw some interested faces and got some questions at the end. I call that at least some success.

I wanted to get across that a very small team of dedicated individuals using just open source tools can build a small computer with interesting features. I also wanted to to show that they can access everything and start learning and hacking on the thing themselves, right now, even if they can't afford buying a TKey since we have a decent emulator and all source and the tools are freely available.

I'm not sure I succeeded in explaining all this.

Written by MC on Pungenday, the 48 day of Chaos in the YOLD 3190 (2024-02-17).

https://hack.org/mc/writings/xkb.html

I've edited it so the focus is on the layouts if you just want to grab them and don't need any handholding. Also added Thinkpad layouts along with the original HHKB layouts.

It now also includes instructions for use with the River and Sway Wayland compositors as well as X11.

I will probably update it soon with some images of different Thinkpad keyboards.

Written by MC on Sweetmorn, the 46 day of Chaos in the YOLD 3190 (2024-02-15).

Last weekend and for the most of this week I've mainly spent my free time with the Dad Computer Project. It's a bit stressful, but then again, what isn't?

Keyboards and trackballs

My much loved CST L-TracX trackball broke down! It doesn't light up and isn't even visible with lsusb anymore. I havent yet opened it up, so I don't really know what's wrong.

I bought this thing in 2011 (unboxing in Swedish) so even if it's really broken it had a good run…

The L-TracX has been next to my black HHKB since then. Suddenly I was at a loss what to do. I tried with a mouse for a while but that wasn't very nice. Instead I tried to use the new Thinkpad Trackpoint II we usually use with the living room media computer. That was kind of nice but using a trackpoint on a big screen perhaps isn't the optimal solution. It looks good, though:

It also makes me think even more about using a more low-profile keyboard all the time. Perhaps I should also investigate using a low profile trackball? Opinions on the Kensington Slimblade, anyone? Any other options?

Written by MC on Setting Orange, the 45 day of Chaos in the YOLD 3190 (2024-02-14).

Here's my laptop on the stands:

It's printed in PLA and printed in one piece!

Written by MC on Setting Orange, the 30 day of Chaos in the YOLD 3190 (2024-01-30).

I've been doing these status updates on my Gemini log (gemini://gem.hack.org/mc/log/, but I'm increasingly aware of the dropping amounts of traffic, so I'm thinking about doing them on the blog instead, but see below for some thoughts on Gemini.

Status

Intense week this week, but very focused and productive. The first week back at the desk that dayjob rents for me at an Architect's office.

Started taking Magnesium supplements last Friday to help with a health problem. I also started trying to have a more regular sleep pattern, being better at sitting in zazen meditation twice a day, and even tried going to the gym before work! In a total coincidence, I was extremely productive at work! I also felt rather good.

Feeling good is unusual for me. Let's see where this goes. Before this I wasn't in a great mood.

Started the work year, after 37C3 (report coming) and a small vacation, by spending a week in Gothenburg. The name of the city made sense this time:

I felt terribly isolated and alone at the hotel in Gothenburg. It didn't get better when #2 had to cancel our dinner because he had to help a friend who had been robbed! How horrible!

I didn't even think that there might be a sauna to warm up in (There was! Next time!) so I just sat there in the hotel room considering my life choices. Spent quite a lot of time being miserable in hotel rooms last year.

The week after that I went to Z'ha'dum (aka Stockholm) for another conference, SamNet. Report from that visit is coming, too. Yet another hotel room. This time, however, I actually managed to meet friends, both at the conference and off!

My train to Zdm got stuck for five hours. I felt for the workers who had to be outside in the cold working on the rail switches for hours with more trains queuing up all the time. Some pressure! In comparison I had it easy and I had time to watch a few 37C3 talks I had missed.

The SJ train company sent an e-mail congratulating (?) me on having travelled 10,330 km with them during 2023. Sure, I generally like trains, but 10,000+ km? It's less than the 16,000+ km I used to have when I worked at Netnod in Stockholm, but still a lot of time in trains. Note that this was only domestic trains and not all the DSB, Deutsche Bahn, and Amtrak I travelled last year.

A good friend who now insists on living in the US came by recently. He brought these:

Beware Americans bringing gifts! Also nom, nom, nom… With chopsticks, naturally. The book is alright, too. Iain M. Banks' "The culture: The drawings".

Keyboards

I have a couple of HHKB Pro 2 (and some vanilla HHKB from the 90's), as you probably know if you know me or seen my computer page. I'm reasonably happy with them, but I've been looking over the fence for other things for a while.

I'm in so much WANT!!!eleven1 over the ZSA Voyager. I mean, just look at it:

It has nice low-profile Kailh Chocs.

But I have doubts… I mean, 365 USD + shipping + Swedish 25% VAT and maybe customs. It's a lot.

I'm also looking at the MNT Reform Standalone Keyboard:

Also LP Kailh Chocs!

I'm extremely sympathetic to their cause, as you can probably guess, but I'm not sure I like the physical layout. If I would buy one I would have blank keycaps, obviously, but I'm talking about the physical layout. Still tempting! A friend has two of them, but I have yet to test them.

% notmuch count tag:sent and date:2023
236
notmuch count tag:sent and date:2022
309
% notmuch count tag:sent and date:2021
455
% notmuch count tag:sent and date:1999
3053  

Written by MC on Prickle-Prickle, the 29 day of Chaos in the YOLD 3190 (2024-01-29).

I attended the Open Source Firmware Conference (OSFC) on Oct 10-12 in Sunnyvale, spent a long weekend in San Francisco, took a very long train ride to Seattle, spent a week in the Seattle area, and held an intimate talk at Microsoft. Managed to meet friends, drink some nice beverages, and even see a show but came home with a heavy heart. Then tried to relax in the cottage.

Going to the US

"Dress up like a slightly conservative IT management guy! That will make it easier to cross the US border." That was what a friend said. I actually considered it for a while.

But no, I couldn't really bring myself to do that. I mean, I don't have to wear a t-shirt with Chaos Computer Clubs' Rote Armee Fraktion-inspired Sterntastatur on it, but to go so far as to pretend to be something else entirely?

Instead, I went like this:

Later, at SFO:

CBP: What is the purpose of your visit?
MC: Business!
CBP: Welcome to the United States!

That was unexpectedly easy, but I guess CBP at SFO see a lot of slightly gothy nerds?

I couldn't sleep at all on the 11 hours on the plane. Luckily, I wasn't the one driving the rental from SFO to Mountain View. That would have been bad, not just because I don't have a driver's license.

OSFC

We lived in an unnecessarily expensive (650 USD/night!) but not very luxurious hotel in Mountain View. With a little luck on a clear day I could see the top of Hangar 1 at Moffet Field from my hotel window, but mostly I saw a highway. OK, it was probably Highway 101 and that made me think of Sisters' Black Planet, which was good.

We stayed at the hotel for an extra two nights before the conference to figure out our jetlag (didn't work) and to plan and rehearse a little (better).

The actual conference was quite good. Got to meet a lot of interesting people and had interesting conversations. Some good talks as well.

Unfortunately we mostly saw something like this, but that isn't uncommon in cases like this:

The catering wasn't able to arrange food for me all the days. Being vegan with a soy allergy isn't easy. Eris knows I had been worried about it myself. Some nice googlers brought me to a Google employee restaurant for lunch a couple of times (thanks again, Chris and Ana!).

Some notable talks at OSFC 2023:

• "US Cyber Trust Mark", something like the EU CRA, but a consumer marking of products, among other things guarantees about software updates and what this means for firmware developers and manufacturers. I didn't know this was coming in the US. Might be good, at least for consumers.
• "Tamago & Tinygo: working with firmware and kernel written in Go". Good walkthrough on how you can actually use Go at this low level. Even the BBC Microbit 2 with just 128 kB is now supported by TinyGo! Promising for a future attempt at bringup of Go on the TKey. Got to talk to the speaker, Ron Minnich, both before and after his talk.
• "Unplugging the debugger: Live and post-mortem debugging in a remote system". Extremely ambitious handling of remote debugging of the Hubris operating system, both kernel and processes, on the top of rack box in an Oxide rack.
• "When boot security goes wrong". Very brave presentation about how a Chromebook model secure boot perhaps wasn't.

Dayjob boss Sasko held a talk with a short update on the TKey. Fredrik, one of our founders, held a longer talk about authentication of transparent systems, the next level of the System Transparency project. I don't think the room really got that one. Admittely he was kind of all over the place with the talk.

I held a workshop about software development for the TKey, focusing mainly on a code walkthrough on both a client and a device app, the tkey-sign command (before the refactoring I did later) and the corresponding signer. My colleague dehanj was supposed to do it with me but got sick and had to stay at the hotel!

I think the workshop went quite well. Had a very enthusiastic audience of about 15 people who had a lot of good questions. Had some nice discussions afterwards as well.

All the talks should be available on the web site. Unfortunately the workshops weren't recorded.

https://www.osfc.io/archive/2023/

There was also a table with free hardware:

I got an old Thinkpad x230 with Coreboot! I don't know yet if it has patched EC firmware. Might be a problem if it doesn't because then I can't use third party batteries and I probably have no way of patching it without the original BIOS.

Notice anything different with it?

There was also an evening trip to Oxide Computer Company in Emeryville but by that time I was so tired and stressed out that I just noped out and tried to sleep instead. It would have been interesting to visit Oxide but I just couldn't do it.

Didn't see a lot of Mountain View and Sunnyvale. What I saw were mostly business park office buildings. Not that downtown Mountain View, if there even is such a thing, was much better.

San Francisco

After OSFC I needed something completely different, so I spent four days in San Francisco.

I went by double-decker train from Sunnyvale to SF directly after OSFC concluded. That was fine but a little slow. This, it seems, is a trend with US trains.

I took the Muni from the station to the Haight. I sat on the Muni tram re-reading Gibson's Virtual Light when I saw the lights of the Bay Bridge in the dark! I giggled with excitement.

I stayed at the much cheaper Stanyan Park Hotel, right next to Golden Gate Park.

The first thing I did was get a pizza and a beer that I brought to the room:

This being SF there's not just a Gideonite bible by the bed:

I approve!

The hotel TV greeted me with the great but slightly embarassing "The Lost Boys":

But hey, it's Kiefer Sutherland! I felt very welcome.

The hotel was in a really nice neighbourhood and I just loved the huge park, its ravens, the many squirrels, and, surprisingly, parrots!

In the Haight I especially liked the Bound Together anarchist bookstore and, just across the street, the Magnolia brewpub named after the 70's burlesque artist with the wonderful name Magnolia Thunderpussy. Coffee to the People was nice, too, as well as the Science Fiction bookstore Borderlands.

I bought a t-shirt and the latest Cometbus zine at Bound Together. As you can probably guess, Cometbus is really hard to get a hold of in Sweden.

I walked around some in SF, not just Haight and the park. I took the Muni downtown, walked through Chinatown to North Beach, just looking at things.

My goal was really City Lights Books, the original beatnik bookstore and publisher.

I found some nice Gary Snyder at City Lights and then went across Kerouac Street (Yes! Really!) to the equally legendary Vesuvio bar for a beer or two. I sat at a table reading Gary's lovely translation of the amazing buddhist Tang dynasty poet 寒山/Hánshān: "Cold Mountain Poems". I've read them before in different translations but I like Gary's the most.

My old colleague Sean met up one evening and showed me around in the office building he works in. Wonderful view of the Bay bridge. Their cool speakeasy rooms were a nice surprise but I was slightly saddened by their superficial "Zen room".

We went on a pub crawl, starting with Fort Point by the ferry. This was the first time I noticed that kölsch beer (Fort Point's KSA) is a thing in California. I later saw that again in Magnolia's Kali Kolsch. Both quite nice. Of course they pronounced it wrong, but it was good.

We then went on to Zeitgeist, a very alternative biergarten, with the nice Tom Waits-inspired motto "Warm beer. Cold women". I was a little surprised that they checked ID on everyone, even a bald guy with a white beard like me.

Sitting in the garden at Zeitgeist I couldn't help myself looking at the beautiful redhead at the next table. When she noticed she met my gaze and split into a wonderful smile. She left with her friends later and nothing happened, but it was… interesting. Sean said something like "Oh, you liked her alright!" I guess I'm kind of obvious like that.

Then it hit me… I have never experienced so much flirting! Just walking down the street in the Haight… Wow. Standing in a bar. Wherever. Eyes linger, people smile, and some of them come up and talk to you. Was it like this on my visit to Seattle in 2017, too? Did I just forget? Or is this just (alternative) Californian women?

We continued to a few other places, Toronado gets a special mention, and then I walked home to the hotel.

Another night I went to the Hubba Hubba Revue's show "Vampires!" at DNA Lounge. I would have liked to go to Death Guild, but I couldn't be there on the day, but of course I had to experience JWZ's DNA Lounge when in SF, right? And see the phone! Also, hey, a burlesque show!

Dammit! I forgot to bring stickers!

The show was nice and very body positive. I especially liked the finishing act with both a man and a woman. But what's up with the single-serve plastic glasses at DNA?

Again, a lot of beautiful people smiled and let their gaze linger. One brunette in particular did a double take when she saw me and then smiled hugely. Double take? Did she recognize me? Do I have a Californian doppelgänger?

I was standing on the second floor next to the mixing console at DNA. After a while I was surrounded by burlesque performers, most of them still in their outfits, or, well, sometimes almost no outfit. Unexpected, but certainly nice.

The next day I had to work. I stayed in the hotel lobby for most of the afternoon, working on a laptop, got some provisions, and even managed to meet my friend Ian for another pizza before trying to find the bus stop for the next leg of the journey.

I still had a lot to discover in SF, but I was happy with my four days there. I wanted to visit my friend Roberth in PNW as well while I was still in the US.

SF is a really interesting and nice place, except that it's quite obvious that a lot of people there don't get the help they need. Lots of unhoused people and lots of people with drug problems.

Going home & post-travel blues

On Sunday I left for Sweden again, going SEA-ORD-CPH. Four hours to Chicago with about 2 hours there, then about 8 hours more. In a cramped bus-like structure with terrible noise. Ugh… Had a lot of thoughts about taking Queen Mary 2 for the next trip. Not even sure it's more environmentally sound, but at least it's more comfortable.

While changing planes in Chicago I managed to lose my black overcoat. Another sacrifice to Eris. The last one was my hat on the previous trip to the US. Perhaps a sacrifice to the goddess of chaos, confusion, and discord is necessary for having visited the US?

Managed to sleep perhaps just 1:30 hours so I was quite tired when I arrived at home, but it felt good to be home, at first.

The week after was a case of quite serious post-travel blues. I didn't even know this feeling had a name before, but it's not just me, apparently. Not a great week, anyway. Feeling sad, guilty, and restless even to the point of thoughts of self-harm. The self-hatred just grew and grew.

Spent a lot of time in a nostalgic mood, searching for and reading old e-mail messages. Example quote (translated): "the time with you was the worst in my life" reminding me about a very… frustrating relationship. On the other hand I also found a lot of sweet messages.

All the stress and little sleep also took somatic expressions. I had awful neck pain that stayed for a couple of weeks. My old beard ecsema also flared up so I had to shave most of it off.

On the other hand #3 says I look a lot younger now. That's something, I guess.

The cottage kitchen renovation still isn't quite finished but we decided to spend some time at the cottage anyway. Slightly complicated with no working stove but we managed with a small portable induction stove.

I stayed on for a couple of more days when #3 and P went back to the city. The nature around the cottage can be quite soothing and I think I needed that after the journey.

This too shall pass.

Written by MC on Boomtime, the 60 day of The Aftermath in the YOLD 3189 (2023-12-18).

The Tillitis TKey, which I first wrote about in September last year, is now available for sale at the the Tillitis webshop. Note that this is a locked down end-user version! It's not possible to update the FPGA bitstream (or read it, or the Unique Device Secret, out) on this one.

The TKey is a small bare-bones RISC-V computer in a USB stick form factor with no persistent storage that measures the app uploaded to it and derives a deterministic secret every time the same app is started. You can use it, for instance, as a security token to keep your private key and do signing operations. Everything is released under open licenses, including the hardware design, the CPU, the cores, the PCB, software, everything.

There's a very much work in progress Developer's Handbook:

https://dev.tillitis.se/

The last few weeks before the launch were rather stressful, among other things because of chasing some bugs, some late changes, and setting up the in-house provisioning. I almost lived at the HQ in Gothenburg at the end, just going back to the hotel room to crash for a few hours, then back again.

I'm rather pleased how some hardware security features and the firmware turned out. Here's the firmware main source:

https://github.com/tillitis/tillitis-key1/blob/main/hw/application_fpga/fw/tk1/main.c

We lost a lot of history when making the initial public release back in September. In retrospect I think this was a mistake, but there you go.

The applications need some love, though. We spent so much time with the actual TKey stuff that we're a little behind on the apps. First up is preparing a slightly more polished SDK, splitting the Go packages and the device libraries out of the apps repo.

Our SSH agent is quite usable and I use it every day. It's packaged in Homebrew and we have .deb packages that work on Debian and Ubuntu but it's not yet part of any Linux distribution:

https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/tkey-ssh-agent

https://github.com/tillitis/tillitis-key1-apps/releases/tag/v0.0.6

I presented the TKey at the SamNet conference in Stockholm in February. Recording in Swedish here:

https://play.mittdata.se/w/s9V87wkphFe7r1g15zwfrU?start=3h9m18s

It's difficult to hear the questions at the end and I didn't realize that I perhaps should have repeated them, but there you go.

I later presented the TKey at the Netnod Meeting 2023. Recording in English here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7IllDLFKRk

My slides:

https://www.netnod.se/sites/default/files/2023-03/Nr.4_MC%20Widerkrantz.pdf

I was incredibly nervous, especially doing the talk in English, and had to rely on my notes quite a bit, so I apologize for seeming a bit stiff. When the Q&A started I feel I had warmed up a bit, as you can probably tell.

It's very exciting times!

Written by MC on Sweetmorn, the 38 day of Discord in the YOLD 3189 (2023-04-21).

A version of this was posted on Gemini 2023-01-06 but I thought it might also fit here. Go to my gemlog for somewhat more personal takes and see what I publish first. IPv6 only!

gemini://gem.hack.org/mc/log/

As long-time readers know I have participated in the Chaos Communication Congress (C3) in Germany every year since 2008.

Since C3 was cancelled this year I thought I'd arrange a very small conference of my own. I would at least try to gather some friends and acquaintances in chat and video conference and watch the decentralized events (Dezentrale Jahresendungveranstaltungen, JEV22) the community had set up instead of C3.

I didn't know what to expect of JEV22, really, so I thought there wouldn't be that much to watch. I was mostly hoping that at least the conferences Fire Shonks and Hacking in Parallel would give us something interesting.

P thought I would sit around and mope over a Club-mate for the duration… Which would probably be true if it weren't for my friends and some friends of friends.

I decided early on that our own event would be in Swedish and sort of invite-only by word of mouth, friend to friend. I don't think I could have handled it right now if we did it in English or had a totally open policy. I wanted it to be… cosy?

I explained my idea to my boss and since I usually go to C3 on company time he said I could do this on company time, too!

Naming is, as you know, one of the hard things in computer science. I decided to call the mini confrence H3. It has a few meanings in Swedish and English:

• Hacklunchare Hackar Helst (something like "#hacklunch members rather hack")
• Hamburg (was) Humbug (we're still) Hacking.
• Hamburg @ Home Hack.
• Hops & Hacking @ Home.
• Happy Harry Hardon, the hard talking pirate radio operator from "Pump up the Volume".

We gathered on a bridged IRC/XMPP/Matrix chat (hackint.org did all the job, really) and on a Jitsi my friend cos set up. I think we had something like 15 simultaneous users on the Jitsi at most.

We even had some talks of our own! I talked about the Tillitis TKey with a slightly better reprise the next day. kugg talked about "Fantastic anomalies and where to find them" and ln5 talked about how the "Tor Snowflake proxy" works.

When not doing presentations and listening to our own talks some of us kept the Jitsi open and watched JEV talks in another window. It felt almost like being at the congress.

I think this was a success, really. Now I want to do it again! Perhaps this is a start of a tradition?

All in all I watched 10 talks from the JEV22 if we include the two of our own I also watched. The JEV22 stuff will be available on

https://media.ccc.de/c/jev22

Mullvad VPN even got a mention as a VPN provider with sensible PQ crypto (Classic McEliece) from DJB and Tanja in their talk Post-quantum cryptography: Detours, delays, and disasters!

Written by MC on Prickle-Prickle, the 24 day of Chaos in the YOLD 3189 (2023-01-24).

The stick is a small computer that can load and run small programs uploaded to it from a host computer. It always measures every new program and derives a unique secret for every program that can be used as an identifier, for instance by deriving a public/private key pair from the identity and signing messages.

Myself, Daniel "quite" Lublin and Björn Töpel have written the software: the qemu emulator code, the firmware, the uploadable programs, the host software, some of the interfaces to the chip simulator, and some build stuff. Joachim Strömbergson did the hardware design in Verilog. Matt Metts did the PCB designs and the firmware for the MCU and the programmer as well as handling all the production. Fredrik Strömberg came up with the idea, the initial function design, and a lot of whiteboarding.

Written by MC on Sweetmorn, the 47 day of Bureaucracy in the YOLD 3188 (2022-09-23).

One of its uses is to serve gemtext, which is a lightweight Markdown-like markup language, instead of HTML. Gemini browsers don't have support for neither Javascript, nor CSS, nor any of the other new web technologies. It can be beautiful anyway, see for instance Lagrange.

I now run a small Gemini server. My Gemini capsule is on:

gemini://gem.hack.org/mc/

It's on v6 only, demands strict TLS 1.3 and uses a self-signed ed25519 cert. I find it a bit funny to use something so modern(ish) for something so retro.

I have a gemlog (weblog, but not) here:

gemini://gem.hack.org/mc/log/

It's formed in the gmisub style so some Gemini feed readers should be able to use it.

Written by MC on Boomtime, the 59 day of Discord in the YOLD 3188 (2022-05-12).

A few years back I was the team leader for the developers for a while, but I refused to have managerial duties so when Netnod formed an R&D department we got a new manager and I stepped back to some senior role. I managed to go without a title for quite a while. I liked that.

I believe I have made at least some difference through my work at Netnod but there is still a lot of work to do for the people who I leave behind. Good luck, everyone!

On Monday I start a new job as a member of the new(ish) Trustworthy Computing Research team at Mullvad VPN (again, no title!). More research, more computer security, and a bit closer to the hardware. And, hopefully, quite a bit less stress?

I will continue to work from Malmö, Sweden. I will even go to the same office, which I share with some friends.

It's with mixed feelings I leave Netnod. I still believe in Netnod's mission: Interconnections, worldwide DNS service, and very exact time. These are all important things. I like to think that in my new role I will also contribute to some important things, things that might also get used by Netnod.

What will I do at Mullvad? It's not really set in stone yet, but I believe I will help figure out how to trust machines more, even if they're remote. Some interesting projects that might be or become involved:

• System Transparency
• sigsum
• LinuxBoot
• CHERI ISA
• ARM Morello
• Safeboot
• Heads
• coreboot

Written by MC on Sweetmorn, the 29 day of The Aftermath in the YOLD 3187 (2021-11-17).

We have quite strict confidentiality laws within EU even when it comes to electronic communication. Its current basis is the 2002/58/EC "ePrivacy Directive" (PDF) from 2002. On 21 December 2020 the new "European Electronic Communications Code" (PDF) came into affect in local laws (or the countries would face fines) and that directive redefined electronic communication services to also include "number-independent interpersonal communications services", which I think means things like e-mail and IM messages.

When this change of definition came into force in local laws it suddenly made some existing practises illegal. You see, some service providers automatically scan their users' messages for child exploitation. As cryptographer Matthew Green wrote in his insightful article about client-side scanning in 2019:

Facebook, Google, Dropbox and Microsoft, among others, currently perform various forms of automated scanning on images (and sometimes video) that are uploaded to their servers. The goal of these scans is to identify content that contains child sexual abuse imagery

The commission scrambled to make this legal again and suggested a temporary law (PDF) while they figure out what to do about it. Things dragged on for quite a while and not until this summer the temporary law was voted on in the EU parliament.

Here you can see how the MEPs voted on this proposal on July 6:

https://mepwatch.eu/9/vote.html?v=134463

It's interesting to note that Germany and the Netherlands voted against but that Sweden voted for.

Checking in on the Swedish MEPs and how they voted:

https://mepwatch.eu/9/vote.html?v=134463&country=se

I'm really surprised to see only Malin Björk from Vänsterpartiet/Left party voted against! It's also interesting that the German Social Democrats were split on the question (10 for, 6 against) but the Swedish Social Democrats all voted for the proposal.

I can't help wondering if the Swedish MEPs fully understood what they were voting for? Since this hasn't been covered that much in media, especially compared with the recent Apple announcement that they will scan photos, I haven't seen any party representatives speak up about this.

The MEP Patrick Breyer for the German Piratenpartei has a lot more information about this on a campaign site:

https://chatcontrol.eu/

Matthew again:

[T]oday’s CSAI scanning infrastructure represents perhaps the most powerful and ubiquitous surveillance technology ever to be deployed by a democratic society[.]

Consider if this far-reeaching scanning infrastructure will scan for something else? And what about false positives?

Watch out for the December 2021 follow-up proposal from the commission! The already accepted proposal is a temporary law and the real law will be proposed soon and might be consideribly worse, for instance making scanning mandatory.

Written by MC on Sweetmorn, the 27 day of Bureaucracy in the YOLD 3187 (2021-09-03).

The year began with a colleague visiting me from Stockholm for some intense pair programming. In person! Imagine when that was possible!

Then I went with Ludvig and Gabriel to the mountains to ski for a week and then off to visit mom with #3. This was the only time I met my mom this year. I didn't meet my dad at all. P didn't meet her parents at all.

In late February I went to Stockholm for work as I usually do about once a month. Some time later the fever hit. P was also sick. We naturally thought it was the new influenza, but there were no tests at that time so we couldn't be sure.

We isolated ourselves in our cottage and spent a few weeks working there. See Life in the quarantine cottage. School wasn't closed, but we figured #3 should be isolated as well. She had class assignments over the Internet and I rescheduled my day a bit to help her.

Sweden didn't have any real lockdowns last year. Actual curfews and the like are not legal here in peacetime. There has been some movement in parliament about new laws about that but such things move slowly, as it should.

That said we have had a society with much reduced social activities. A lot of restaurants, hotels and similar business have gone under. Gyms and things like that are still nominally open, but with recommendations that we don't visit them, so they're mostly empty.

These "recommendations" are advice from authorities how to follow the law, so not to be taken lightly. There has been a lot of misunderstandings about this. The new laws might make things clearer.

The housing market has seen an upturn for country houses. People are moving from the cities. A lot of people seem to bet on a future friendlier to remote work. Or at least they finally get that country cottage.

Here's hoping for more remote jobs and better living, perhaps even communal living; the future we really wanted all along. See my mention of the NEXUS movement. Does it really take a pandemic to get there?

The schools are open. Secondary schools (16 to 19 year olds) have been remote-only twice last year, I think. It was just announced that 13 to 16 year olds will be having remote education when school starts again later in January after the holidays.

In Malmö remote education means Google Meet and Google Classroom, since this is the municipality's poison of choice. I hope it works out OK for the teenagers.

For younger students, there has been no arranged lectures or any way of participating remotely in ordinary classes, even though at one time 2/3 of the pupils in my daughter's class were at home. They arranged tasks through Google Classroom but it didn't work very well since there were no common introductions to anything and no sanctioned way to talk to a teacher.

I find it a bit strange that they didn't use more of the technology available to them, but then again, remote schooling hasn't even been formally allowed for the younger kids. I guess I can't really blame the teachers for following orders. I hope they will make better use of technology if they're formally allowed to plan for remote schooling.

In other ways the school's technology has helped #3 a lot this year, but that is unrelated to the pandemic and the school-from-home thing.

We didn't get back to Malmö until April. Then we worked mostly from home or the cottage the rest of the year. When things eased up a bit, I travelled to, I think, two meetings but other than that didn't travel at all to meet other people.

I managed to get to longsword practice a few times in the spring. Then, when things started easing up after summer, I managed to get to a few more before classes were cancelled. I continued practising at home with my feder. Luckily we have quite high ceilings in the flat and at least some distance to rather understanding neighbours in the cottage so I can practise on the lawn.

My back has taken a turn to the worse, though, and I haven't been able to use the training I usually do at the gym. Have to do something about that, but not sure exactly what to do yet.

I have continued to bike a lot. I now have two bikes, The Goth Bike, a matte black State 4130 with almost no markings in the city and a more no-name cheap thing in the cottage. Both are minimalist single-speeds, but not yet fixies, if they ever will be.

There's been a few changes at work. One of the most notable ones is that my closest colleague quit. It's now just a consultant and me in the Malmö office. I don't know if we'll keep the office or if it's back to working at home full time again, like before.

Another change is that we now work in product teams. I'm in Team DNS, although I still do some time & frequency work, mostly for fun at IETF hackathons.

I've been quite stressed out. A lot of overtime the first months of the year and at least one less person to help me with work. The product teams made things a bit better, I think.

We did a lot of work within our team to create a rather detailed technical roadmap. I think this makes it possible to pace work in a better way than before.

Other things I can't talk about also made work more stressful than it should have. Let's see what the new year brings.

I'm nominally still on a 6 hour work day. It's been a bit hard to keep myself to that, but I still think it's good idea in the long run for someone like me. For the coming year I'm going to try even more to keep to my hours.

I thought my IBS and dysphagia was worse than usual. Perhaps because of the stress at work and the pandemic. I started a stomach diary in July to see how this goes. It's a simple textfile with some formal formatting that I made up on the spot. It should be easy to plot with a script. It's entirely subjective, of course, but that's kind of the point.

My mood wasn't that stellar either, of course. I'm glad that I'm well medicated. I had some really dark patches that stretched out for weeks at a time that would probably had me hospitalized (or worse) without medication.

The most publicly visible part of my work during last year is now RFC 8915, the Network Time Security extension to the NTP protocol for a more secure way of setting time over the Internet. That said, I spent most of my time dealing with the anycast DNS infrastructure.

Here's a whitepaper about NTS I contributed to:

https://www.netnod.se/time-and-frequency/white-paper-how-does-nts-work-and-why-is-it-important

I inherited a very capable workstation from a colleague. It has an i9 CPU with a bazillion Hz, 64 gig RAM, et cetera, et cetera. I have moved most of my work to this beast, which I keep connected to a 34" widescreen, the HHKB Pro 2 keyboard and the CST L-Trac trackball I already had. Quite a change in pure oomph compared to working on the laptops I've used for years.

The smaller cottage in our country cottage was renovated because of a water leak. #3 liked the new little cottage so much that she claimed it for her own.

This meant we could make the room she usually slept in into an office. We bought some office furniture for the new office and another sit/stand desk to the flat as well. Standing desks FTW!

During #3's summer holidays we leased an electric car and moved to the country house for about two months. We couldn't travel far but we did some day trips with the electric car and took long walks in nice environments.

Someone rather close to me got diagnosed with a serious disease. I don't want to write more about it here right now. Maybe later.

Ludvig finished his university studies in sound design and moved back to us in Malmö. He was later joined by his girlfriend. He found a temporary job after a while but continues to look for sound design jobs and a flat of his own.

Gabriel is still studying computer security in Gothenburg. His school wasn't able to handle the pandemic very well. At first, they had no alternative when most of the students failed to find internships!

#3 grew taller than her mom! Not very hard, I admit.

She spends a lot of her time drawing or painting, mostly on paper, but also with an Apple Pencil in Procreate on the used iPad she got for her birthday. She did her first works in acrylic with her new easel that turned out rather good.

She also cut her hair like Zoe Zanias/Alison Lewis (Zanias/Linea Aspera) after having seen a music video with her. She's mostly dressed in black these days. She wants to go with me to both a wave/goth festival and to the next C3! We'll see if she still wants to when it's possible to travel again. Her English is coming along nicely, so maybe she could handle C3. I guess Gabriel might want to join us to both events, too.

P was supposed to run several marathon races during the year. She travelled to The Netherlands for one race but it was cancelled because of high winds! All the other races were then cancelled because of the pandemic.

A lot of other cancelled events, of course, among them the national HEMA championships my historical fencing club should have organized in May. I was also supposed to have been in the Swedish team in the NATO computer security exercise Locked Shields again. We had an initial meeting but then it was cancelled.

I moved back to Linux for my personal laptop. I have been trying to live in FreeBSD, HardenedBSD, and OpenBSD on the desktop for a couple of years now, but the promise of Wayland and better wifi brought me back. Not even using Xwayland anymore! See No more X11! My old Thinkpad x230 feels like a new computer!

I changed my e-mail client from Gnus to the Emacs frontend of Notmuch mail. This also meant I tried importing all the mail archives in different formats I had lying about since 1995. There are many annoying gaps, though, and sometimes only a few messages in the older archives.

I now have 126,584 mail messages indexed, which is at least something. I really wish I had saved, well, everything! Even from back in the Fidonet days, before 1991. That would have been interesting.

I re-read quite a lot of the e-mail messages that I have written during the years. I'm a bit ashamed, really. A lot of it is rather over the top. Too much information! Oversharing, much, ADHD brain? I would also say I completely misjudged people's level of interest.

During the year I wrote very little e-mail, abouth 10% compared to ten years ago. I think most of my personal written communication has been over Signal instead. I still use IRC quite a lot as well, especially one channel on a private IRC server. Sometimes, even when there's not a global pandemic going on, it feels like most of my social life is on IRC. That's OK. I'm comfortable with that.

The only(?) plus of this pandemic: I've had a number of very nice, and sometimes very long (9 hours!), remote parties with far away friends, usually using video conferencing, sometimes two technologies at once. Really! Audio one way and video another. We have also watched movies together remotely with about half of fedi.

I spent quite some time with the MAME emulator trying to learn more about the peculiar Swedish school computer, the Compis, that I had access to during the mid-1980s. It was a nice Intel 80186-based, fanless thing with up to 768 kiB RAM, the same really nice graphics processor as the Japanese PC98, and a network with diskless boot facilities. Not bad for something designed in 1982!

I read a lot about the procurement process, the actual design and quite a lot of technical documents, and tried my hand at programming 8086 assembly under CP/M-86. I have heaps of notes. This will probably become at least a blog post and maybe a longer article. I now know a lot more about the Compis than I ever did at school. I'm now even more frustrated that our access to them was so limited!

The year finished, as usual, with the German C3 hacker conference. C3 this year was a Remote Chaos Experience, complete with a 2D world to mingle in, were we set up our Temple of the Moby Hack assembly. The usual suspects even had a video meeting running all the time, even when watching talks in another window/screen, just to get a feeling of being there with someone else. It kind of worked, but was a far cry from actually being there with ~17,000 other hackers.

Our Wednesday hacker's lunches have also been remote last year. We have tried almost every form of video conferencing technology there is, I think, but ended up mostly using Mumble.

I guess a lot of people not ordinarily used to video conferencing are now comfortable with it. I'm really interested to see what this does to people's, and especially the bosses, views of remote work!

I started being active on the fediverse last year, hanging out on SDF's Mastodon server: @mc@mastodon.sdf.org.

My Twitter account is still active but I'm not actively using it anymore, besides occassionally posting links to blog posts. Yes, I have more followers on Twitter but I don't feel like I want to contribute to Twitter anymore, especially not reading (or doing) any retweets.

In May I started keeping a journal (Org Mode, of course) of the books I read. I have read 39 fiction books since then, 38 in 2020 and 1 this year. 2020's disappointment was William Gibson's "Agency". I had to re-read his "Mona-Lisa Overdrive" just to make up for it. The best book was probably Erin Morgenstern's wonderful "The Starless Sea", which I truly recommend!

Written by MC on Prickle-Prickle, the 9 day of Chaos in the YOLD 3187 (2021-01-09).

I just shaved my head for the first time in weeks. It got me thinking about my religious practise (or lack thereof), as the wannabe monk that I once was.

My mother once asked me "You're not religious, are you!?" Of course I am. I've been a practising Zen Buddhist since 1988, the year I started secondary school. I was once a co-founder and a very active member of a Buddhist sangha. I started one of the first Internet mailing lists about Zen practise, Universal Zendo, before leaving it to better hands in the mid-90s. I even seriously considered becoming a Zen monk after secondary school.

I still wonder from time to time what would have happened if I had been a monk for a few years instead of immediately attending university. Perhaps, at least, I would have had the maturity to actually study something worthwile?

In my sangha in Hudiksvall we kept in touch with two Zen masters: John Daido Loori rōshi of the Zen Mountain Monastery and Robert Aitken rōshi of the Diamond Sangha. We mostly considered ourselves a part of the Diamond Sangha network, but I was seriously considering spending some time at the Zen Mountain Monastery after leaving school.

I moved away, but practise continues. But what does it mean?

My mother's question, if taken to mean "What do you believe in?"

I believe in the wisdom of the Shakyamuni Buddha. Buddha said that although life is filled with pain and suffering it is possible to transcend this pain. He then went on to suggest a system of therapeutic practises with a focus on altering judgement of the stream of consciusness and to realise, and utterly experience, that our image of the ego is hurting and wrong.

I recently tried to read Owen Flanagan's The Bodhisattva's brain - Buddhism naturalized. I really wanted to like this book, but it's hopeless. I can't stand the way he writes. I couldn't finish reading it. But the basic idea, that Buddhism can be distilled into something without religious overtones, might be right. He seems to miss the importance of zazen and koan practise, though.

Zazen and koan practise, some of the best kinds of religious magic, probably up there with sex magick, is absolutely crucial to get you to actually experience the dharma. It's not a ritual, at least as I understand rituals. It's a practise that does something hard to grasp to you.

I have yet to read Kabat-Zinn's Full catastrophe living but I hear it's good. He's in the same business as Flanagan, but might be more enjoying to read.

My religious faith, for what it's worth, is that this system just might work. Or, to put it another way, here's what dear old Lord Omar had to say:

Before I was a Discordian, I took life much too seriously. When you take life too seriously you start to wonder what the point of it all is. When you wonder what the point is in life, you fall into a trap of thinking there is one. When you think there is a point, you finally realize there is no point. And what point is there in living like that? Nowadays I skip the search for a point and find, instead, the punch lines.

— Lord Omar Khayyam Ravenhurst, Pvt., USMC (Ret.), aka Kerry Thornley, one of the founders of Discordianism and Zenarchy.

Written by MC on Boomtime, the 8 day of Bureaucracy in the YOLD 3186 (2020-08-15).

I've hated these systems with a vengeance. So much wasted possibilities. So much wasted money.

I believe Videotex or Datavision was the first online experience I ever had. Like many times before I had taken the bus with a friend some 60 km to the nearby city of Sundsvall to drool over some home computers. The state-owned phone company Televerket had a shop where they, believe it or not, were selling home computers at the time! I believe they had Spectravideos!

On this particular trip they had a Datavision demo going. It may have been on a specially made terminal hooked to a TV set.

Datavision was launched in Sweden in 1982. I think this Sundsvall trip might have been in 1983. It was already showing its age. It looked like stone age even then. It changed name to Videotex in 1984 and then to TeleGuide in 1991 before mercifully being retired in 1993.

To access the system you couldn't use an ordinary terminal or terminal emulator. You had to use a special Videotex program or specialised Videotex hardware, typically hooked up to your TV set. It had its own character set and didn't use ASCII or a national version, like almost everyone else.

That it couldn't be accessed with a normal terminal was one of my main complaints about the system. If it had had some graphics like its North American cousin NAPLPS or even the amazing PLATO system this might have explained the need for a special program, but no, no such thing.

The system was menu oriented. All pages were arranged in a tree structure and identified by a number. This was another sore point. Fucking menu systems. Still hate them.

Each page view could incur a cost. It was also metered per minute.

There was very little interactivity. Most of the interactivity was menu choices. The text was something like a typical home computer, 40 columns. Very few rows. No graphics. It looked something like this, although this shows the later Videotex start menu:

If you've ever seen Teletext on your TV, it looks very similar.

You usually connected with split speed modems at 1200/75 bit/s. Like most people I type a lot faster than 75 bit/s but that wasn't a problem, of course, because the only thing you ever did on this annoying system was typing in menu options or page numbers.

At the time there were very few services available, so it was even more meaningless. There was not even a phonebook, which is one thing the related French Minitel system did right: they made a digital phonebook the first service and gave away terminals instead of physical phonebooks. Seems like a smart move.

I later borrowed my first modem from a teacher. I had nowhere to call to, so I just called Videotex. I actually managed to find a sort of test account after a few tries and just looked around. Nothing really interesting. And the user experience truly sucked. When I later rented a modem from Televerket in 1986 or -87 I never called back.

Note that this was at a time when the Fidonet network had already started. Even in Sweden some of the first Fidonet BBS's was started in 1985: Sun City Fido and Day Rainbow in Karlstad.

Here's part of a nodelist of Fidonet in Sweden from 1986, the earliest I could find:

https://www.joho.se/2009/10/08/fidonet-nodelist-october-3-1986/

I remember calling Yellow PC in Stockholm in 1986 or 1987. That may have been the first BBS I ever called.

This means that even in the hobbyist world people were having much better service (world-wide e-mail!) and a lot nicer experience than Videotex using simple terminal programs and probably with decent, sharp screens with 80 columns, not fuzzy TV sets.

Then, of course, there was KOM, the grand old man of conference systems, which was open to the public with a lower price if you were a member of a computer club. KOM was like a huge multi-user BBS running on a nice PDP-10. It was expensive, even as a computer club member, but wow, what a service.

I don't know if there were any general timesharing systems open to the public in Sweden at the time. Most universities had PDP-10s running TOPS-10 or TOPS-20 and VAXen and the like, but was there something available to the general public in Sweden?

I found some nice pictures of the Swedish Videotex system behind the scenes at Thom Jaxhagen's web site:

http://jaxhagen.se/videotex.html

He writes that the first generation were Data General Eclipse S/280 systems with S/140s as communication computers. I think most of the pictures are of Data General equipment. I'm a bit surprised it was running on 16 bit minis.

He writes it was later replaced by an IBM system and mentions BTX. Perhaps the same setup as Bundespost's Bildschirmtext? He doesn't mention what kind of IBM hardware but my guess is something from the S/370 line. Does anyone know? I've asked him, but no reply yet.

Imagine using those systems directly instead of having that awful Videotex system between you and the systems? Yes, of course you could have done some menu system or some special shell, but still use ordinary terminals or terminal programs.

Imagine at least a proper e-mail service, perhaps even networked. Imagine forums. Imagine chat rooms! I bet that would have been popular considering how popular Televerkets Heta Linjen, their casual conference call service was. Imagine at least some text games? MUD! Software libraries! Alas, no such thing.

The really crazy part is that Televerket kept at it and relaunched the service in the 1990s by renaming the service "Teleguide" and distributing specially made terminals. They even had some success this time because of some contracts with actually usable services, like a TV guide and a used car part market, among other things, but it was, of course, doomed to fail. Rumour has it that they spent 2 billion SEK on the damned thing.

I remembered reading about a promising alternative to the CEPT standard, NAPLPS, in an early issue of BYTE Magazine. While searching for that article I found that they made a an entire special edition on Videotex (including NAPLPS) in 1983:

https://archive.org/details/byte-magazine-1983-07

but the much more technical article about NAPLPS I remembered is here (Part 1 of 2):

https://archive.org/details/byte-magazine-1983-02/page/n201/mode/2up

NAPLPS sounds much nicer than CEPT given its graphics support and might have actually been interesting to use in the 1980s. USAian friends tell me this was the base for the Prodigy online service! That seems a bit late.

Or imagine a PLATO system open to the public? Now we're talking! Perhaps several PLATO systems networked together?

Alright, the CDC Viking 721 terminals were USD 2,295 in 1982. A little steep, perhaps, but there were PLATO terminal emulators for at least a couple of home computers in the 1980s.

Here are the PLATO terminal protocol specs.

If I understand correctly there were two university PLATO systems in Sweden for a while, one in Umeå and one in Stockholm. Does anyone know anything more about these?

I really liked Brian Dear's book "The friendly orange glow" about PLATO. You can experience a PLATO system yourself at:

https://cyber1.org/

Here's another PLATO system with a focus on retrocomputing with lots of PLATOTERM emulators for different computers:

https://www.irata.online/

Written by MC on Pungenday, the 67 day of Confusion in the YOLD 3186 (2020-08-01).

I am, again, using org-static-blog to render my blog. I have converted all the posts from Markdown to Org Mode. I experimented for a few days with the pre-amble and post-amble when generating HTML and some, but not all, feed readers marked the posts as unread.

The posts' <link>, <pubDate>, and <guid> were unchanged, though, and even the <description> should be unchanged most of the time, because the preamble and postamble should only be used in the static web pages and not the feed.

This was actually a rather interesting problem that led me to this nice summary.

I still don't know what caused this, but I'll stop experimenting on the real feed and use something else to see if I can pin down and hopefully fix the problem.

Written by MC on Boomtime, the 44 day of Discord in the YOLD 3186 (2020-04-27).

We were already kind of isolated in our holiday home so we decided to stay here. Very few neighbours and not much real contact. It's not really that remote so we're close to big hospitals, just in case.

We're all still here and still coughing when I'm writing this on April 10. The symptoms have been mild, though, and we're mostly OK. It's just that we should probably not be in close proximity to anyone else.

We have been careful with contacts with other people. We have lived on stored food and ordered some that we prepaid and just fetched bags at a storefront, several meters from store staff.

Since I haven't been that ill I mostly kept on working. I've been working from here before. It's fairly ergonomical, even though I miss my height-adjustable desk the most.

Not much has changed for me, really. I've been working remotely for years. $DAYJOB is rather mature when it comes to using video conferencing, issue tracking systems and instant messaging. Even though I don't necessarily like all the technical choices I get by, typically by working around them and/or integrating them with, say, Emacs.

Most of my social contacts have been over IRC anyway (yeah, I know…), and we kept on with the weekly hacker's lunches, but now over video. I've also had a couple of video beers with friends, but that's not unusual even when there's not a global pandemic going on.

I have my feder with me so I've been able to get some practice.

It's been hardest for #3. The school is definitely not prepared for remote education. We start each morning together by going through all the school assignments, then select one to start with, check in when it's done and walk through it, then a short break, and repeat throughout the day. I'm a bit surprised the school haven't used chat or video conference at all with more than half of the pupils at home.

My work has been understanding that I have had to shift my work day a bit because of having to help mentoring #3.

Personally, I think it's not all bad. I sleep much better here, for instance. It's so quiet. I also enjoy sitting by the fire and reading in the evening.

I also started being active on my previously dormant Mastodon account. You can find me on @mc@mastodon.sdf.org. I'm enjoying it much more than Twitter. Feel free to follow.

Written by MC on Sweetmorn, the 28 day of Discord in the YOLD 3186 (2020-04-11).

Looking through some old RFCs I came across this in RFC 900 from June 1984:

R 192.005.050.rrr   CTH-CS-NET    Chalmers CSN Local Net [93,UXB]

This is the first mention I have found of IP addresses allocated for something in Sweden.

If we consider "having an IP address" as "being on the Internet" this is probably how Internet came to Sweden.

"Chalmers" is, of course, Chalmers Institute of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden. The IP range still seems to belong to Chalmers. WHOIS says:

inetnum:        192.5.50.0 - 192.5.50.255
netname:        CTH-CS-NET
descr:          Chalmers University of Technology
descr:          Gothenburg, Sweden

and at least the reverse DNS says so too:

tp2:~ % host 192.5.50.1
1.50.5.192.in-addr.arpa domain name pointer cth-192-5-50-gw.chalmers.se.
tp2:~ %

"UXB" mentioned above is:

[UXB]     Ulf Bilting         CHALMERS  bilting@purdue.ARPA

Some kind of gateway is also mentioned:

This section lists the mapping between the Internet Addresses and the
Public Data Network Addresses (X.121).

...

      Internet           Public Data Net    Description       References
      ---------------   -----------------   -----------       ----------

...

      014.000.000.011   2405-015-50300 00   CHALMERS               [UXB]

A reasonable guess is that this was an X.25 gateway for the Chalmers network.

I reached out to Ulf Bilting to find out more about this. He graciously answered a number of questions from me. There's also this interview the Swedish Internet Foundation did with Ulf for their series about the history of the Internet but it's rather shallow on the technical details:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=Fkyvap_RXUc

The actual IP gateway at the Chalmers end was a VAX 11/780 running 4.2BSD. The X.25 connection was made through a small PDP-11 running SNIP (Small Network Interface Processor) developed by a department (Teletrafik & Datorsystem) at KTH, the Royal Institute of Technology, in Stockholm. The SNIP was connected to the VAX through a parallel interface card.

A user process Ulf wrote himself in C was the endpoint on the VAX. This process used a raw socket directly towards the BSD kernel. It used encapsulation according to RFC 877 to send IP packets over X.25 and connected to the SNIP, which dealt with the actual X.25 traffic. The other end of the IP-over-X.25 tunnel was Purdue University, Indiana, USA on the CSNET.

The X.25 network the SNIP was connected to was an early attempt by the Swedish University Network (SUNET) to connect universities in Sweden. As far as I understand this was the Swedish state authority Televerket's X.25 network. At the start of the SUNET project this was mainly used to connect terminal servers, so you could dial in to your local terminal server and access a host elsewhere without having to dial expensive long distance calls.

It's a little unclear which one of Televerket's networks were used. Early on Televerket had a network called Telepak (sometimes Databas 300), which I believe was Tymnet/McDonnel Douglas hardware and had a connection to the US part of Tymnet. The connections from SUNET was probably through this network. Later generations were called Datapak I and II and used different network hardware.

The throughput from Chalmers to the US was rather low, about ~2 kilobits/second, likely because of both tunnelling overhead, the poor fit of TCP over X.25, and the fact that the Tymnet connection to the US was shared with all the other Televerket users.

Jacob Palme keeps some texts available from the early KOM conference system, basically an early multi-user BBS, at:

https://people.dsv.su.se/~jpalme/qzkom/

There's a conference called "Sunet erfarenhetsutbyte" which gives some insights on the early Sunet network. Here's a post by Ulf:

(Text 110099) 83-07-12  08.46  Ulf Bilting CTH info.beh.
Mottagare: SUNET 'Swedish University Network'
 Sändare: Ulf Bilting CTH info.beh. -- Sänt: 83-07-12  08.46
Ärende:  CSNET, goda nyheter.

Vid ett möte igår i Oslo beslutades att upprätta en testförbindelse
mellan Csnet och Sunet. 
Den kommer att installeras i åiGöteborg och kommunicera via x25
till en gateway i Csnet. 
Tjänsten som erbjuds är post (mail som det heter) till samliga
Csnetmedlemmar och samliga noder på Arpanätet.
Vi kommer att tillåtas att upprätta en egen gateway för vidare
distribution inom Sunet.

which talks about an early test connection, initially for just mail, between SUNET and CSNET, probably what turned into the Chalmers site which had real IP connectivity.

It's interesting that the tunnel was between Chalmers in Gothenburg on the Swedish west coast and Indiana, USA, instead of something closer… For instance, NORSAR, the Norwegian Seismic Array, in Kjeller outside of Oslo is much closer to Gothenburg and had ARPANET connectivity since 1973! In fact, the NORSAR satellite uplink was Tanum in Sweden, just to the north of Gothenburg!

The real reason to connect to CSNET instead of using the uplink in Tanum was probably political rather than technical.

Note that the rest of SUNET didn't get access to the Internet just because parts of Chalmers did. As far as I understand an official connection to Internet for the entire SUNET didn't happen until 1988.

Fun fact: Ulf is an early computer musician. He has a number of noise compositions on Youtube.

Ulf Bilting: "Two phrases":

https://youtube.com/watch?v=QWWo_4qwAHY

With Zbigniew Karkowski:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=9x_2ibK48LE

https://youtube.com/watch?v=JAFSbBSfvFo

Written by MC on Prickle-Prickle, the 26 day of Discord in the YOLD 3186 (2020-04-09).

xwayland disable

In January I finally stopped using the X Window System.

I had found native Wayland programs for most of my needs, so I turned off the Xwayland X server in my Sway configuration and removed both the Xwayland and the X.org X server from my personal laptop.

I've been waiting for this moment a long time. I was never very happy with X and for a long time I refused to run what I perceived as a bloated, slow system with a strange design. At first I continued to use the old MGR window system on SunOS (even porting it to Solaris!), then trying to stay in the Linux console and/or the Plan 9 8½ window system, until I gave up like everyone else and even wrote my own X window manager, mcwm.

Acccepting X might have had something to do with the use of a rather nice fanless 1024x1024 NCD 16 X terminal. This terminal also supported the Xremote protocol that was rather usable even over 9600 or 19200 b/s from home. Here's a picture of me in front of the NCD 16 and flat mate Magnus in front of his much more fancy DEC VXT 2000:

The best image I found of my NCD 16 (sorry!):

Of course, I would have preferred the contemporary A&T 630 (the successor of the Blit and 5620)!

Back to Wayland… Sway on my personal Thinkpad x230 feels like a new computer! No tearing! So fast! Yes, of course I used compton when I had X to avoid tearing, but I got a lot of frames dropped when, say, playing video. No more!

Sway uses Pango to draw text. Pango recently lost support for bitmap fonts. This means ordinary bitmap fonts won't work anymore. No more sweet Terminus unless you can find it in or convert it to OTF… A workaround is to use the TTF version.

Here's a neat script to make unfocused windows partly transparent, in case you want to see your background or if you just want to dim unfocused windows:

https://github.com/swaywm/sway/commit/0d5aaf5359c671a51bd319bd7972e0f5e7bcde84

set $lock 'swaylock -f -F -c 000000'

exec swayidle -w \
         timeout 600 $lock \
         timeout 900 'swaymsg "output * dpms off"' \
              resume 'swaymsg "output * dpms on"' \
        before-sleep $lock &

gpu-context=wayland

pinentry-program /usr/bin/pinentry-gnome3

export SSH_ASKPASS=/usr/lib/openssh/gnome-ssh-askpass
export DISPLAY=:0

(setq wl-copy-process nil)

(defun wl-copy (text)
  (setq wl-copy-process (make-process :name "wl-copy"
                                      :buffer nil
                                      :command '("wl-copy" "-f" "-n")
                                      :connection-type 'pipe))
  (process-send-string wl-copy-process text)
  (process-send-eof wl-copy-process))

(defun wl-paste ()
  (if (and wl-copy-process (process-live-p wl-copy-process))
      nil ; should return nil if we're the current paste owner
    (shell-command-to-string "wl-paste -n | tr -d \r")))

(setq interprogram-cut-function 'wl-copy)
(setq interprogram-paste-function 'wl-paste)

input * {
      xkb_layout "thinkpad,hhkb"
      repeat_delay 240
      repeat_rate 40
      xkb_options "grp:alt_space_toggle"
}

Written by MC on Setting Orange, the 22 day of Discord in the YOLD 3186 (2020-04-05).

Locked Shields is an annual blue team computer security exercise organised by NATO's Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence (CCDCOE). Many countries, both NATO and non-NATO, participate in the exercise. This year there were 24 teams.

The narrative during the exercise is that there is some tension between two fictive countries, Berylia and Crimsonia. Berylia might be attacked by Crimsonia at any time, especially in the cybers. The blue team is part of an expert team dropped into Berylia to help them defend themselves.

Through $DAYJOB I was invited to join the Swedish blue team for Locked Shields 2019 in April this year. The Swedish part of the exercise was held at Swedish Defence University in Stockholm.

The actual exercise was just two days but we had three initial training days to familiarize ourselves with the network and the machines, prepare our tools and our own version control systems. There were about 150 machines: some Windows boxes, some Linux boxes, some industrial control systems, different firewalls, routers and switches.

After some initial confusion I ended up in the newly created Apps subteam. We took responsibility of all the Berylian in-house software, the development systems, the continous integration and the Docker swarm. Everything was, of course, rather broken and insecure. I was really impressed by the people who had been setting this up.

The CCDCOE red team started attacking our systems almost immediately. We had our hands full trying to harden the systems, fixing things, reporting cracked systems and coordinating with other subteams.

The Berylian software developers themselves were curiously missing during the entire exercise but their users were present and complaining about systems that didn't work.

Several times other subteams had hardened their part of the network and effectively brought our systems down by, for instance, demanding strong authentication and encrypted connections which the Berylian software didn't support. We had to add features like that on the fly.

At times things were miserable but all in all we learned much and had a lot of fun.

Result: The Swedish team ended up in third place! Congratulations to the French and Czech teams!

Written by MC on Sweetmorn, the 65 day of Confusion in the YOLD 3185 (2019-07-30).

Found this beauty, an LM Ericsson m/50, in a second hand shop. It was made between 1947 and 1962. Initial testing makes me believe it actually still works. I've done some testing with an ATA box as well. It would be very funny to have this as a SIP phone.

Written by MC on Setting Orange, the 64 day of Confusion in the YOLD 3185 (2019-07-29).

Once again $DAYJOB sponsored a mini hackathon in Malmö during the IETF hackathon. Martin "cos" Samuelsson, Daniel "quite" Lublin and I gathered in Netnod's southern office for two days of hacking on Network Time Security (NTS), the authenticated flavour of the Network Time Protocol (NTP).

See my first post about Network Time Security for an introduction to NTS.

The first few hours my daughter graced us with her presence and left a few traces…

Omni also came by for a while and helped us reading specs.

The hackathon sort of dragged on for a couple of days into my summer vacation. We now have a working NTS client written in Go!

options := ntp.QueryOptions{ NTS: true, C2s: c2sKey, S2c: s2cKey }
resp, err := ntp.QueryWithOptions(server, options)

Written by MC on Setting Orange, the 64 day of Confusion in the YOLD 3185 (2019-07-29).

I've had a maxed out ADSL giving me something like 8/2 Mbit/s since we bought the cottage. With ~3 km of old copper cables I couldn't get any higher bandwidth but on the other hand I got customized customer support over IRC! Thanks, Philip! Too bad my old ISP didn't get enough interest for fiber here in the woods. Telia/Skanova is increasingly abandoning the copper network under the euphemism The Network of the Future, often leaving people depending on ADSL with only capped and metered mobile network as the only alternative.

With the new fiber I could have had a full symmetric gigabit/s but it was rather expensive and most of my stuff here can't even get to those speeds over wireless, so I settled for a symmetrical 100 Mbit/s. Plenty of bandwidth for most stuff and especially the upstream (backups, anyone?) is now really nice.

It's kind of strange that I still don't have a fiber connection to my flat in the city but a fiber connection to my weekend cottage. In town we're in a house with Internet over cable TV cables. Granted, it's something like 250/10 Mbit/s, but still not fiber.

On the other hand, the new fiber connection doesn't have IPv6 and not even real v4 adresses since they use CG-NAT. I've asked the ISP about a public v4 address. Rumours has it that they even have a 6rd gateway somewhere, but of course I can't use it behind CG-NAT.

I'm trying to think about my bandwidth history at home. Something like this:

• 1987 300 b/s dial-up.
• 1988 1200/75 b/s dial-up.
• 1989—1995 2400 b/s dial-up.
• 1995—1997 9600 b/s dial-up.
• 1997—1998 19.2(?) kb/s leased line in the T1 collective shared with two others.
• 1999 ISDN (2 * 64 kbit/s) in the area 41 collective, shared with three other adults.
• 2000–2001 Telia cable TV Internet.
• 2002–2004 ADSL, something like 2/1 Mbit/s. Static IP!
• ~2004–2006 - VDSL 10 Mbit/s!
• 2006–2011 Ethernet 10 Mbit/s later upgraded to 100 Mbit/s.
• 2011–now (in town) DOCSIS cable TV 100/10, later increased to 250 Mbit/s downstreams.
• 2015–2019 (cottage) ADSL 8/2 Mbit/s.
• 2019–now (cottage) Ethernet 100 Mbit/s.

What does your Internet connection look like at home?

Written by MC on Mungday in the YOLD 3185 (2019-01-05).

I also spend a lot of time reading news, something I almost always mostly regret but can't seem to stop doing. I read some carefully curated blogs and listen to a few podcasts (Risky Business is amazing!). On the plus side, I have also gone back to reading something like two books every week, both fact and fiction.

When reading news on web sites I find I re-visit the site again and again during the day and lose track of what I have read. It's not very rewarding to reload web pages several times a day in the hope of getting a temporary news fix.

I had an idea for a while that I should go cold turkey and not follow any news media at all, but that turned out to be very hard most of the time. If someone has a traning program or something to wane you off from news feeds, let me know.

Instead, I'm trying to handle reading news by using the Feeder reader on my phone and, of course, the Swiss army chainsaw known as Gnus in Emacs on the laptop for some feeds. I use both the nnrss backend and the wonderful Gwene RSS to NNTP gateway. Of course, I use Gwene's sister server Gmane for reading quite a few mailing lists as if they were good old Usenet.

Even mainstream Swedish newspapers such as Dagens Nyheter and Sydsvenskan and many others still expose RSS feeds! Even if they're not full text feeds it helps a lot in keeping track of what you have read. You can read the lead and decide if you want to read the article proper by following the link to their web site. Then it's automatically marked as read and you don't have to revisit their web sites all the time. Feeder does it for you.

I also use the feed from Colin Percival's Hacker News Daily and the wonderfully bitter Webshit weekly so I don't have to do HN myself. Lobste.rs also still has an RSS feed. Two, even: one for the articles and for the comments.

As usual, if you want to keep your SAN points, avoid the comments on both sites even if they're probably better than most sites with comment threads. Youtube comes to mind… Use Hide Youtube Comments!

Hm… A HN Daily but for my Twitter feed? The 10(?) most retweeted and/or favourited tweets of the day? Sounds like a nice hack!

Speaking of saving SAN, I totally avoid mainstream computer news such as IDG and friends, altough, yes, even IDG has RSS! OK, I do follow VICE Motherboard but they have full text RSS! And, of course, Motherboard has Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai.

For books, I keep an Org mode file with headings for "Read" and "To read". I'm afraid I still haven't taken full inventory of the "To read" list. Books are stacked in several pillars all over my living room, waiting either to be read or to be sorted and inserted into our bookshelves. Oh, and we need at least two new bookshelves to add to our existing twelve.

Some highlights of what I've read since starting my Twitter break:

• Derek Landy's restart of the Skulduggery Pleasant/Valkyrie Kain series: Resurrection and Midnight.
• Niklas Natt och dag's 1793, which has a protagonist called Jean Michael Cardell which I thought was quite funny, although the actual story is very far from being funny. Really hair raising history-noir thriller.
• Rutger Bregman's Utopia for realists, a book about universal basic income, a 15-hour workweek and open borders. He's not much of a leftie and even mentions von Hayek and von Mises as his idols, but that goes to show that basic income is not a left-right thing. He both rants and generalizes, especially when introducing something, but all in all an inspiring read.
• China Miéville's wonderful October, his non-fiction about the Russian revolution. I had only read his surreal fantasy fiction before. This was something else but still with the same magnificent storytelling. Too little mentions of Anarchists, though, but I guess I'll have to go to other sources than a Trotskyite like China for that.
• Tobias Berglund & Niclas Sennerteg: Finska inbördeskriget (The Finnish civil war), a Swedish book about the Finnish civil war 1918, something that is more or less forgotten in Sweden, despite many Swedish volunteers, but still a sore point among some Finnish acquaintances. An incredibly well-researched and important book, not least because of all the victims of the White's camps after the war needs to more well known and because by responding to the Finnish Social democrats radical turn the Swedish Social democratic party found its way.
• Jan-Olof Grahn Om svensk signalspaning: andra världskriget, a book about Swedish signals intelligence during WWII including, of course, the breaking of the Siemens and Halske T52 (the machine known as Sturgeon at Bletchley Park) by Arne Beurling. Very well researched and not as anecdotal as Beckman's classic Svenska kryptobedrifter. An interesting note is that the FRA's listening station in a villa in Malmö still stands.
• Re-read both Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and some of the Transmetropolitan albums. I am, again, surprised how well Warren Ellis and Darek Robertson foretold our current world, at least politically.

Written by MC on Setting Orange, the 1 day of Bureaucracy in the YOLD 3184 (2018-08-08).

The Internets this morning are talking about the SCP foundation, a collaborative writing project. It made me think about an idea spreading around in the early 1990s about writing stories in a science fiction setting about yourself and your friends as you wanted the future to turn out. Then you were supposed to act in a way to make the stories come true.

In my mind this idea is connected to the NEXUS-Gaia crowd. NEXUS was a meme possibly best explained in Dwayne "ddraig" Jones-Evans' wonderful NEXUS manifesto. The NEXUS movement was about combining housing collectives and worker cooperatives to share an Internet connection. Internet could then be used as a means for forming a federation of nexi for commerce and coordination. NEXUS-Gaia was the main mailing list of the movement, all the nexi of Gaia.

My own living in the T1 collective 1996–1997, known for its early cheapernet Internet connection, and the Area 41 collective (1998–2002 — four adults, two kids, 18 computers and redundant Internet connections!) might be said to have been a small part of it. I'm sure many others tried to live the dream.

Here's my flatmate Magnus and me in front of X terminals in T1's office space, probably in 1997:

We had a 19.2 kbit/s leased line when most homes in Sweden had dial-up at best.

In some of these stories I read/wrote back then we re-interpeted the Gaia of NEXUS-Gaia as the Global Association of Internet Anarchists, a rather suitable name for an association of free nexi.

Both the NEXUS meme of collaborative spaces and the idea of collaborative writing and trying to make it come true may have originated, or was at least much discussed, on the Future Culture mailing list in the early 90s.

I'm still subscribed to FUTUREC, but I can't seem to find much about this in the current archives. They only go back to 1996 and the mailing list itself was started (on another host) in ~1992. Some things are mentioned on Marius Watz' old FUTUREC pages, but not much. Still, have a look at Marius' pages for some really good vibes from FUTUREC of old!

After publishing the first version of this blog post Carl Winbäck reached out over IRC and pointed me to Heath Rezabek's old FAQs about the NEXUS movement:

http://www.slackware.com/~msimons/toasternet/nexus-mini-faq.txt

http://www.slackware.com/~msimons/toasternet/nexus-1-faq.txt

http://www.slackware.com/~msimons/toasternet/nexus-2-faq.txt

Something to note about the FAQs is how much text is about trying to get a decent Internet connection to your home. It was difficult and much of the point of a local NEXUS was sharing the cost of Internet, a total non-issue for most of us today.

In FAQ 1 rez writes:

[The NEXUS meme] found its way into a body of collaborative prose, based on a fusion of fact and vision, called FIXION.

Ah-ha! FIXION might have been what I was thinking about. I'm not sure. What it would be like living in a NEXUS was probably vividly imagined in FIXION. I'm sure it was on FutureCulture. Probably on LERI-L, too, and perhaps on the IRC counterparts #leri and #future as well.

The FIXION archives were here at one time:

ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/fixion/

but the Wayback Machine has nothing from them.

FIXION grew into scrytching which Carl pointed me to. I don't think I ever heard about that before, although rez might have mentioned it on FUTUREC.

It's funny that writing about yourself in the future is just what Alan Moore, one of my favourite magicians, talked about in a clip I happened to watch last night, Alan Moore on Language, Writing and Magic, but that's just the usual synchronicity at work, I guess.

Written by MC on Prickle-Prickle, the 73 day of Confusion in the YOLD 3184 (2018-08-07).

The Network Time Protocol (NTP) was born on an interesting PDP-11 operating system called Fuzzball. Fuzzballs were used as routers in the National Science Foundation part of the early Internet. They were remarkably picky about time synchronization.

NTP has been with us ever since and most of Internet (and more) relies on the venerable NTP to synchronize clocks. It's probably one of the oldest protocols still in use.

$DAYJOB keeps a hardware (Verilog) implementation of NTP with attached atomic clocks running in several locations in Sweden. Yes, you speak NTP directly to the FPGA chip! No software involved! The service is available to the public worldwide on ntp.se, which resolves to anycast v4 and v6 addresses.

This is, for most purposes, the Swedish time. More about this on Netnod's project pages.

But can you trust it? How do you know that the packets comes from the right sender? UDP spoofing is simple and NTP runs on top of UDP. Most(?) NTP clients use a random TransmitTime in their requests to mitigate this, but it's still sensitive to a man in the middle attack.

NTPv3 introduced support for symmetric authentication on time data using pre-shared keys. It's unchanged in the current v4 of the protocol. It looks remarkably old-fashioned to modern eyes. It's similar to TSIG in DNS, which is also dated, but a bit more useful than the NTP authentication. I think NTP authentication as it currently stands is very seldom used.

Network Time Security (NTS) is an attempt in the IETF NTP working group to change the NTP authentication to something slightly more useful.

During the IETF 102 hackathon (14–15 July) I teamed up with my friends Daniel "quite" Lublin, omni and raccoon to make an attempt at implementing the Dansarie NTS spec $DAYJOB has contributed to.

None of us has had much to do with the NTP project before, so we knew next to nothing when we started.

We couldn't attend the IETF meeting in Montreal physically, so we spent two days in Netnod's Malmö office instead. Well, evenings and nights, really, in some effort to match the time zone in Montreal and, of course, because it's a well-known fact that you hack best at night, occassionally boosted by Club-Mate.

We coordinated work mostly on ##nts on FreeNode and the occasional MeetEcho video conference provided by the IETF, to be able to see the kickoff and the presentations at the end of the hackathon.

We started with Brett Vickers' Go NTP package which is a pure-Go SNTP implementation. SNTP is a simpler version of the NTP protocol but wire-compatible with its big brother, so we thought it would probably work for our purposes.

However, Brett's package only supports client-side SNTP, so we cut and pasted from internal structures to quickly whip together a very basic SNTP server.

NTS-KE, the key exchange part of NTS, is based on TLS. Go's own TLS implementation doesn't support TLS 1.3 and no RFC 5705 key extraction. Instead, we found the mint TLS 1.3 library and used that to create basic TLS clients and servers. Unfortunately, mint only supports draft-22 of TLS 1.3, but we found a pull request supposedly bringing it up to draft-28.

It worked fine against Mozilla's TLS 1.3-only (HTTPS) test server,

https://tls13.crypto.mozilla.org/

but not against Martin Langer's OpenSSL-based NTS test server. We got TLS handshake errors. We gave up trying to make it work. It will probably work fine in the end when mint has been brought up to date.

On top of our TLS client and server we used mint's RFC 5705-support to extract keys, then negotiate the "ntske/1" ALPN application protocol on top of TLS. Inside all of that we implemented NTS-KE proper which turned out to be a really simple protocol.

The thing we had the most problem with was the cookies. We had a few false starts. It finally dawned on us after reading about the very similar TLS session tickets in RFC 5077.

What we accomplished:

• NTS-KE client that sends a request and can parse NTS-KE replies.
• NTS-KE server with hardcoded replies.
• A very basic SNTP client.
• A very basic SNTP server.
• Communication between the NTS-KE client and the SNTP client to send initial cookie and key material.
• Learned a lot and had a lot of fun!
• After the hackathon proper: Saw some very nice C64 demos and drank a few beers.

Still left to do:

• Implement NTP Extension fields in Brett's NTP package.
• Implement NTS using the extension fields.
• Generating cookies.
• Management of shared secret between the NTS-KE server and the NTP server for encryption of cookies.

We worked on FreeBSD and Linux machines but the code is very portable and cross-compiled cleanly to Windows, but we haven't yet tested anything on Windows.

I haven't touched this since the hackathon. The code is still in a private repo. It will probably end up on Github.

Written by MC on Pungenday, the 67 day of Confusion in the YOLD 3184 (2018-08-01).

(Photo by Michael L. Umbricht, CC BY-SA.)

ITS, the Incompatible Timesharing System, is seen in hackerdom as one of the most hacker friendly operating system for the wonderful PDP-10 series of computers (pictured above). It has its own chapter in Stephen Levy's remarkable book Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution, a book whose first third I often re-read when news about modern computing brings me down.

ITS was first described in AI memo 161/A from 1968/69 by Donald E. Eastlake 3rd, incidentally the same DEE3 we can blame for DNSSEC. A friendly MIT librarian scanned 161A for me when I asked about in the mid 1990s. Dave Carter later made it available as plain text, a copy of which I keep here:

https://hack.org/mc/texts/its-reference-1.5.txt

I once based a lecture on AI memo 161A. I lectured to unsuspecting first-year Informatics students at Linköping University, invited to do so by their senior students. I think at most a few understood what I was talking about, but it was very well received as a fake lecture. Fake lectures are traditionally held during the first weeks, typically with an equally fake student asking advanced questions in the audience. Another year I introduced the INTERCAL programming language, mostly with a straight face.

Another great text about ITS is Alan Bawden's paper on how the ITS operating system made system calls restartable: PCLSRing: Keeping Process State Modular.

ITS has been available for some time to run on emulators. Björn Victor has it running on a KLH-10 emulator on a Raspberry Pi. He has written a web server in MacLisp for it so it can serve its own web pages at:

http://up.update.uu.se/

Björn also keeps TOPS-20 running on KLH-10 on a similar raspi, a clone of the real TOPS-20 system AIDA in Uppsala: TINA Is not AIDA:

http://tina.update.uu.se/

Funny quote from Björn that might also cover the ITS machine:

The emulated system cost about 1/20000 of the original, weighs about 1/60000, using 1/6000 of the power, and still runs about 3 times faster than the original system.

Here's me hugging the real AIDA a few years ago during a visit to a museum:

See my blog post Visiting Aida.

Paul "pul-s" Svensson has also written a web server for ITS, but in the MIDAS assembler:

http://its.svensson.org/

MIDAS source for the web server.

You can connect to both these machines with SUPDUP for the complete experience. You can run the original TECO Emacs, for instance. ITS feels rather modern, considering its age.

Björn keeps an ITS wiki:

http://its.victor.se/wiki/

Lars Brinkhoff and friends are trying to make it easy to build ITS from scratch:

https://github.com/pdp-10/its

They are also trying to get the Knight TV consoles, the bitmap graphics terminals used at the MIT AI lab, working in emulation.

Very little is known about the Knight TV system but it seems they are digging up an awful lot of information. The TV consoles had PDP-11s as frontends to the PDP-10 backend. They were bitmapped but had no window system.

(Photo by C. Stacy.)

One of the interesting thing with the Knight consoles was the keyboard, here connected to a modern Novena laptop:

(Photo by Mike McMahon. CC BY.)

The Knight keyboard was the main inspiration to the later Space Cadet keyboard on the Lisp Machines, which is probably one of the reasons we have Meta and Super keys in X11.

Incidentally, if someone has a Knight or Space Cadet keyboard (or a Novena, for that matter!), my birthday is coming up soon…

Lars extracted the default Knight TV font and made it available both as an X11 BDF font and a VT220 soft font:

https://github.com/larsbrinkhoff/Knight-TV-font

He made the screenshot using cool-retro-term, not an actual, nor emulated, Knight console.

I'm sure Lars and friends will welcome any help even though I warn you that this is a real time sink that I have been down before.

Written by MC on Pungenday, the 67 day of Confusion in the YOLD 3184 (2018-08-01).

We found about 70–80 other people already on the roof. Some were having a picnic on an empty parking lot. One guy had climbed onto some higher structure on top of the roof. He sat there crosslegged, quietly smoking, looking to the south-east while the sun came down.

The surveillance cameras must have seen us all but no guards came.

At 21:15 the moon should have been over the horizon but we had to wait a while longer since there were some tall buildings to the south-east. Then it slowly rose above them, the blood moon! We hung around for a while longer, #3 jumping up and down in excitement, and then we saw Mars as well. Really, really clear, slightly orange and beaming towards us.

I think I only had pointed out Jupiter and Venus to her before. She was really excited to be able to see Mars.

Written by MC on Pungenday, the 67 day of Confusion in the YOLD 3184 (2018-08-01).

In December 2016, about the same time I ditched Apple in favour of good old FreeBSD on my laptop, I gave my mother my old iPhone as a Newtonmas present. To replace it I bought myself a Nexus 5x and immediately installed CopperheadOS on it. It has served me well since then.

Installation of CopperheadOS was a breeze. Tools such as fastboot and adb was readily available as FreeBSD packages that was easily installed on my Thinkpad without having to install a humongous Android Studio or a huge Android SDK or anything.

Copperhead keeps a fork of Signal called Noise in their F-Droid repo. At the start, this was necessary since the Android flavour of Signal used Google Cloud Messaging to push messages. The Noise fork instead keeps a websocket open all the time. Bad for the battery, perhaps, but keeps you free from the Google services.

The upstreams Signal has since been patched to do the same thing, but you'll have to install it from the APK since it's not available on the F-Droid repo.

The Conversations XMPP client also keeps a connection alive all the time, but my battery time has been quite acceptable.

The F-Droid package repo is excellent. The FLOSS scene on Android is so much better than on iOS, where almost all free apps are closed source and many have advertisments. Some of the apps I use besides the built-in in Copperhead apps are:

• Conversations - XMPP client. See the Legacy version if you need OTR support. The new version only allows OMEMO and, strangely enough, PGP!
• AnySoftKeyboard - Keyboard replacement.
• Feeder - Really nice RSS/Atom reader.
• AntennaPod - Podcast client.
• NewPipe - Youtube client.
• Orbot - Tor connection.
• Pretty Good Music Player - very simple music player.
• Yaaic - IRC client.
• WiFiAnalyzer - Great way to see what's in the air.
• Maps - Offline maps from OpenStreetMap based on the MAPS.ME project. Much better than the OsmAnd+ I used before.
• Calendar - a calendar that I like much more than the built-in Etar.
• ForRunners - a tracking app for runners which, unlike most of its kind, doesn't report your location to a server somewhere.

I don't do e-mail on my phone. If I did I would probably use the K9 e-mail client.

My work phone is still an iPhone and thoroughly connected to both the Apple and Google universes, but it's nice to think that at least my personal phone is free from them.

Written by MC on Pungenday, the 2 day of Confusion in the YOLD 3184 (2018-05-28).

Since I use Org every day, both in my free time and at work, it seemed natural I would want to write my blog entries in org-mode instead of Markdown. I considered for a while using Hugo's new Org parsing, but was charmed by the really simple org-static-blog, so I decided to do a few experiments.

First I made the HTML output validate, then, with a go-ahead from Bastian, I turned it into HTML 5. I also have a branch generating an Atom feed instead of RSS, but it isn't quite working yet.

There are some rough edges still, for instance how to handle relative paths in the feed, but it's promising. I also probably made a few mistakes in setting it up for my own blog because, for instance, the rendered date of the post seems to be included in the feed…

I converted my old Markdown posts with John MacFarlane's wonderfully generic pandoc utility. Actually installing pandoc on my laptop would install 128 dependencies and a total of 3 GiB of additional software! For a one-time job! Instead, I found James Gregory's pandoc Docker image which made the job quite easy. Well, that and a throw-away Go program that parsed the Hugo metadata into Org metadata.

Written by MC on Pungenday, the 45 day of Discord in the YOLD 3184 (2018-04-28).

What you put on the now page is up to you, of course, but the idea is that you write something like what you would be telling a long-lost friend about you and yours.

Derek has even started something like a community of people with now pages over at:

https://nownownow.com/

See their about page for more. At a first glance, however, it seems like some of the entries on the community pages are used for rather transparent SEO, but I still think the now page is a good idea.

Of course, I've added a now page of my own, so if you wonder what happened to me and what I'm doing now, just head over to my /now page!

Written by MC on Prickle-Prickle, the 41 day of Discord in the YOLD 3184 (2018-04-24).

config interface wan6
        option proto '6rd'
        option peeraddr '85.30.128.12'
        option ip6prefix '2a02:83::'
        option ip6prefixlen 32

Ta-da! Thanks, Philip @ Teleservice!

Ask your local ISP if they can do the same!

Written by MC on Setting Orange, the 64 day of Confusion in the YOLD 3182 (2016-07-29).

Main points:

• It's surprisingly easy to get a native distribution running.
• Linux and friends have changed somewhat since I last used them on a machine close to me: new stuff like systemd, pulseaudio, et cetera.
• X11 is still a security nightmare, but by running two sets of X servers you might be able to ward off the worst. Also, Wayland is coming along.
• I've missed mcwm but find dwm utterly charming on this small screen.
• I've missed my own keymap.

Written by MC on Setting Orange, the 64 day of Confusion in the YOLD 3182 (2016-07-29).

I remember seeing ads for Microbees in the 1980s and much later had an opportunity to play with a 32IC for a while. Quite nice little machines.

From 1985/86 my school had Compis computers, which I think was slightly more common, Compis being The Official Swedish School Computer. Compis was a 80186-based CP/M-86 machine with really nice, low keyboard and fairly high resolution monitors.

The system at my school were 640x400 monochrome (green) and a single colour-based machine with much slower graphics that everyone avoided. Allegedly there was also a version with 1280x800 monochrome (b/w), but I never saw anything like that.

The machines had floppy drives but were also connected to a shared 10 MiB hard disk. The hard-drive was only available in read-only form, except for one drive letter which only could have one user at a time. I remember a program called boxloss which unmounted this virtual drive from anyone who happened to be using it and mounting it for you. The password was "Fredrika". I don't remember how you were supposed to mount it without stealing it like this. Anyone?

There was some kind of menu system, but if you really wanted to you could get at the CP/M prompt. This prompt, unfortunately, was the standard CCP, not any of the fancy ZCPR stuff that people running CP/M on Z80s were used to by then.

One thing that struck me during our conversation, and from many other conversations about computers in Swedish primary schools in the 1980s, was that the computers were very seldom used for anything! For instance, we were not allowed to use the computers to write texts! There were no word processor or text editor available, at least to my knowledge, and we were certainly not allowed to use the computers outside of specific "computer classes".

This is particularly interesting if you look at the Microbee, since as far as I can tell all models had a built-in text editor!

We weren't allowed to use any advanced development tools either. On the Compis we had to write programs in COMAL, a language looking a lot like BASIC, but with proper procedures and functions. Really frustrating when I had the wonderful Turbo Pascal at home and I knew that Turbo Pascal was available on CP/M and for the Compis as well.

After our conversation I decided to look back at some development environments on CP/M and see if I could have lived with the environments back then…

I looked around for a Microbee emulator and found an emulator in Javascript, NanoWasp. Code on GitHub.

NanoWasp is unfortunately limited to a tape-drive system. It would be fun to work with something with floppy disk support. Anyone?

I didn't find any Compis emulators, but thought I'd look around for some more generic emulator to run CP/M on.

A popular emulator for CP/M seems to be the YAZE-AG Z80 emulator.

YAZE-AG comes pre-loaded with CP/M 3.1 and a lot of development tools. I was totally blown away by Turbo Modula-2! Look at drive M:.

Wikipedia tells me TM-2 was never marked by Borland but later became TopSpeed Modula-2 for MS-DOS. I had never used it before but it's really incredible. The environment is reminiscent of Turbo Pascal 3.0 with a small menu system and an WordStar-like editor, but the language is much richer.

According to this blurb the cost of TM-2 was $69.95. Tremendous value, indeed!

I would have been very happy indeed if this had been available at my school. I don't think TM-2 was available for CP/M-86, though, although it seems Logitech's Modula-2 compiler was. I think I would have been quite happy with just TP 3.0 as well, which was what I was programming in at home, but more important than this would have been access to the computers!

Written by MC on Setting Orange, the 27 day of Discord in the YOLD 3182 (2016-04-10).

Only if I use a resolver that are both on IPv6 and legacy IP will I be able to install packages.

What can I do to help?

Written by MC on Sweetmorn, the 13 day of Discord in the YOLD 3182 (2016-03-27).

Hours later we ended up in a fairly up-scale collective, or as the inhabitants called it, a "Wohnungsgemeinschaft", in Kreuzberg. There was beer cooling in the snow on the balcony, fair wifi and plans for a vegan buffet for New Year's Eve.

The real treat of the trip was of course the ~4000 hackers that were noisily gathering close to Alexanderplatz for the annual Chaos Communication Congress.

This was the start of my first ever C3 conference, a wonderful gathering of hackers and makers that I for a long time had mistakenly thought was just about computer security. I was so wrong. The conference is very much about technology and politics and how they interact and far from being just about computer (in)security.

Now, many years later, the many C3s I've been to have been the best conferences of my life. The organizers and the many volunteers continue to impress me, for example by having their own phone networks (one GSM, one DECT), a working pneumatic tube system covering the entire congress, and one of the best conference networks ever made: this year 4 * 10 Gigabit/s upstream and a wifi with a peak of 8150 clients.

They also offer a temporary co-location facility for your own servers for the duration of the conference.

All talks are streamed in real-time, now without Flash, on some talks including real-time interpretation and subtitling to English and/or German, as well recording everything and offering it to the public.

The talks, workshops and, perhaps best of all, the chance meetings with interesting individuals is why I keep going back year after year.

Written by MC on Pungenday, the 10 day of Discord in the YOLD 3182 (2016-03-24).

I'm sad to say it, but adding captions to photos in Apple Photos is much easier than doing it with Emacs, as I usually do.

The comments added by Apple Photos are not the familiar JFIF comments, however, but is instead the "caption" field in IPTC data. Fortunately for me, jhead knows how to parse IPTC as well. It says something like:

...
======= IPTC data: =======
City          : G
Record vers.  : 2
Object Name   : totoro
Caption       : totoro on kitchen floor

which I can easily get into simgal with:

exifdata=`jhead $current |awk '/^Date.*/ { print $3,$4 } ; /^Comment/ { print substr($0, index($0,$3)) } ; /^Caption/ { print substr($0, index($0,$3)) }'`

which I just then dump unceremoniously to the web page.

Written by MC on Pungenday, the 58 day of Chaos in the YOLD 3182 (2016-02-27).

Most of the old URLs to individual blog items should work. However, the feed URLs changed. I apologize. I hope people subscribing will notice and find the new feed URL easily. It should be auto-discoverable.

Written by MC on Boomtime, the 52 day of Chaos in the YOLD 3182 (2016-02-21).

Project page here:

https://hack.org/mc/projects/mub/

By default it gives you a readline-like user interface with command history and the usual command line editing with arrow keys and Emacs keys. If you give it the argument -sub it uses a dumb TTY interface instead which may be usable if you write your own UI interface. So far we have a graphical user interface written in C# (not yet released) that works under Windows and an experimental websockets interface in its early phases.

Tell me what you think!

Written by MC on Sweetmorn, the 51 day of Chaos in the YOLD 3182 (2016-02-20).

• 2015-07-24 totoro crashed. Investigated where to set up a virtual server before mail started to bounce.
• 2015-07-25 Got hold of someone in the co-lo and had them flip the power switch. totoro came back up with one less disk in the ZFS mirror.
• 2015-08-07 The second disk in the mirror crashed! Three year old Seagate disks in a ZFS mirror. I guess they were from the same batch or something… No hot spare, unfortunately.
• 2015-08-08 VPSes created and configured. Backup restored. Mail starts flowing again. Also properly set up everything in Ansible. Most of our stuff was already in Ansible playbooks, but not everything.

totoro was later brought to my home. If I removed the hard disks and turned one of them up-side down I heard a loud "click"!

We had backup of many things but not of the XMPP server data, so accounts, rosters, and any offline messages not yet delivered were lost.

If you don't see any presence from your hack.org XMPP contacts, add them again.

Written by MC on Boomtime, the 23 day of Bureaucracy in the YOLD 3181 (2015-08-30).

I've been mostly happy with emacs-jabber as my XMPP chat client for the last few years but as more and more of my contacts move to mandatory use of OTR encryption it leaves something to be desired. There's Magnus' jabber-otr which uses a pure-Python OTR implementation under the hood, but it's rather fragile and very much a work in progress.

Linus Nordberg pointed me to Adam "agl" Langley's xmpp-client a couple of months ago. It's a minimalist command line XMPP chat client written in Go with excellent OTR support. I started using it, but missed emacs-jabber a bit.

When I started learning Go two weeks ago I had an idea that I would do an Emacs frontend to xmpp-client and get back some of the emacs-jabber goodness. My idea was that, if the current user interface in xmpp-client was isolated from the functionality, I could write my own user interface code, specifically meant to be easy to parse from Emacs Lisp.

I delved into the code, but found that the terminal user interface is sprinkled all over xmpp-client together with the code that defines its function as a chat client. This means that if I go this way I would either have to reproduce a lot of the chat client functionality in my code or, probably better, do a lot of work to isolate the UI code.

While I was in the xmpp-client code I decided to at least make it nicer for me to use. I added a few commands and a new configuration item. My changes so far:

• /whois command. Gives information about a user, their current state online/offline away/chatty/xa/dnd and if we have a current OTR session.
• /who command. Lists online users in a short form. This ties in to the next feature.
• InitialAwayIsOnline, a new configuration item. If true it means people in our roster which are initially marked as "away" are considered online as far as /who is concerned. If set to false, those people are not listed. This is the default and the same as the old behaviour.
• /m command. Like /query in most IRC clients. Sets the default target we're chatting with. Also prints some data about our target: are they even online? Do we have an OTR encryption session? Are their identities verified?

Code here:

https://github.com/mchackorg/xmpp-client

All features merged in master branch. Each future is on a similarly named topic branch. InitialAwayIsOnline is on the "who" branch.

Written by MC on Boomtime, the 16 day of Confusion in the YOLD 3181 (2015-06-11).

Domain Name: SYMBOLICS.COM
Registrar: NETWORK SOLUTIONS, LLC.
Sponsoring Registrar IANA ID: 2
Whois Server: whois.networksolutions.com
Referral URL: http://networksolutions.com
Name Server: NS1.AMERINOC.COM
Name Server: NS2.AMERINOC.COM
Status: clientTransferProhibited http://www.icann.org/epp#clientTransferProhibited
Updated Date: 05-jun-2011
Creation Date: 15-mar-1985
Expiration Date: 16-mar-2016

Behind the domain name was once Symbolics, Inc., a legendary manufacturer of Lisp machines, computers with a special architecture suitable to run Lisp programs at high speed.

There's something in the eye of an old hacker when she thinks about Lisp machines. From what I can gather, they seem to have been the ultimate hacker computer: a completely dynamic environment with easy access to source for everything, including the lowest levels of the operating system, easily changed from within the interactive environment with the effects taking place immediately.

There were several LispM makers back before the AI Winter: Symbolics, LMI, Xerox and even Texas Instruments, with their TI Explorer. A brief history of lisp machines can be found here:

http://www.andromeda.com/people/ddyer/lisp/

I'm too young to have experienced the LispM directly myself. When I started at Linköping University the Computer Science department had just thrown out some Xerox LispMs and replaced them with Sun SPARCstation-1s. They still ran some Lisp assignments in an emulator called Medley but since I didn't even had official access to the the Suns, I never experienced it.

I don't know where the Xerox machines ended up. For some reason Lysator, the academic computing society at LiU, didn't get them. Update, Lysator's counterpart in Uppsala, has a few Symbolics machines.

To get a feeling of what it was like to work on a LispM, here's a movie of someone playing with a TI Explorer in Unisys disguise for an hour:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xx6QPgi7RSQ

and here's a collection of screenshots from Symbolics' Genera environment:

http://lispm.de/symbolics-ui-examples/symbolics-ui-examples.html

Remember that many of these screenshots are from the early 1980s, before the first Mac, for instance.

The CPU in most of the LispMs were developed from the architecture of the CONS and CADR machines from MIT's AI Lab. Both Symbolics' and LMI's first machines was based directly on the CADR.

For a couple of years it's been possible to run the CADR machine on an emulator written by Brad Parker. All the source from the original CADR system is also available:

http://www.unlambda.com/cadr/

Björn Victor has collected some information about running emulated LispMs:

http://bjorn.victor.se/lispm.php

Some people still seem to dream about running Lisp on the bare metal. Here are two such projects:

• CL on x86 - http://common-lisp.net/project/movitz
• Scheme on Raspberry PI - https://gitorious.org/lambdapi/

Other than that, the best way of experiencing something like the LispM environment on modern computers is probably to use Emacs as your main environment. This is what I do, although I have sometimes looked longingly at Racket.

Written by MC on Boomtime, the 64 day of Discord in the YOLD 3181 (2015-05-17).

My Squeezebox recently broke down and I figured I might use one of the Raspis as the new livingroom music player. The sound quality might not be as good, but I thought I'd do a test and if I wasn't happy with it I would shell out for a better DAC.

I ended up running Minibian with MPD as the music player. It mounts the music directoy from the FreeBSD file server with NFS 3. It seems to work fine and the audio quality is at least bearable.

I'm mostly controlling MPD with EMMS in Emacs on the laptop or MPDroid on the phone. I really don't miss the Squeezebox remote.

The other Raspi is destined for our country house. I'm probably going to connect a Tellstick Duo and use some wireless thermometers and hygrometers around the house. I'm writing some simple scripts so that the Raspi can call home over 4G and report data now and then.

When I got the raspis I tested some different operating systems: Raspian (Debian-based Linux), Minibian (also Debian-based Linux - but much smaller standard image), RISCOS (minimal OS originally for the Archimedes, the first ARM computer), FreeBSD and Plan 9.

I'm running FreeBSD on most servers and would have gone that way on raspi as way, but FreeBSD on the raspi meant living without binary packages and compiling everything from source was veeeery sloooow. Had a look into cross compiling ports, but it seemed a hazzle. NanoBSD might be an option but I haven't tested it.

Plan 9 was fun, as usual, but not very practical. Haven't done anything on Plan 9 for a while. Tried a modern Plan 9 on my Thinkpad a few years ago and now on the raspi. A raspi seems to be a pretty good (and very cheap) Plan 9 terminal. Interesting to think back and compare the RPi against, say, the MIPS Magnum 3000 and the NeXTStation that Bell Labs once considered as low-end workstations they used as Plan 9 terminals.

The end user experience in Plan 9 hasn't changed much since I had Plan 9 on my workstation at work in the middle 1990s. Some things have changed behind the scenes, though, with a file server these days typically storing blocks of data indexed by their hash. The window system has changed a bit as well: rio, the 8 1/2 replacement, does graphics a bit faster.

Not much seems to happen on Plan 9 at Bell Labs. Most of the Plan 9 hackers seems to have left for Google and seems to work on the Go programming language. Plan 9 lived a long time at Coraid, though, embedded in their storage over Ethernet products, but Coraid seems to have shut down! Some development seems to happen over at 9front, a forked Plan 9.

It would be fun to do something with Plan 9 on the raspi, but I will probably just use some Linux distribution for the summer house raspi as well.

Written by MC on Boomtime, the 64 day of Discord in the YOLD 3181 (2015-05-17).

HE's tunnels use built-in support in most most operating systems for the 6in4 tunneling protocol. It even works if you're home router might an odd duck, such as Plan 9. It doesn't work in all the scenarios some of the other tunnel clients support and it doesn't protect from IP spoofing, but it might be preferable in some situations.

My case is an EdgeRouter Lite, a rather nice MIPS-based thing (based on Cavium Octeon) from Ubiquiti Networks. I installed FreeBSD on it, but since this is a rather odd FreeBSD platform I don't get any binary packages and have to rebuild the firmware myself if I want to upgrade. I also don't get any support for the built-in network acceleration hardware.

I tossed the original Linux, since I didn't fancy rewriting all my pf rules nor adding them through a web UI, however nice. I did, however, make a copy of the Linux image and I'm especially interested in what's inside cavium-ip-offload.ko and friends. But that's for another time, if I can find the time.

Typically, you set up a 6in4 tunnel like this on FreeBSD:

ifconfig gif0 create
ifconfig gif0 tunnel 83.249.0.22 216.66.80.90
ifconfig gif0 inet6 2001:470:27:9d2::2 2001:470:27:9d2::1 prefixlen 128
route -n add -inet6 default 2001:470:27:9d2::1
ifconfig gif0 up

where 83.249.0.22 is the current IPv4 tunnel endpoint on my home router. You want some of these in rc.conf to survive reboots:

gif_interfaces="gif0"
ifconfig_gif0_ipv6="inet6 2001:470:27:9d2::2 2001:470:27:9d2::1 prefixlen 128"
ipv6_defaultrouter="2001:470:27:9d2::1"

My router gets its IPv4 from my ISP's DHCP, so the tunnel endpoint on my end might change at any time. Luckily, Hurricane thought of that and provides a web service to change my IPv4 endpoint easily by accessing:

https://${userid}:${updatekey}@ipv4.tunnelbroker.net/nic/update?hostname=${tunnelid}

so I wrote a script, he.sh:

#! /bin/sh

tunnelgw=216.66.80.90
userid=my-id
updatekey=my-update-key
tunnelid=my-tunnel-id

if [ $# != 1 ]
then
    echo Usage he.sh ip-adress
    exit
fi

# $1 should be my own IP
ifconfig gif0 tunnel $1 $tunnelgw

fetch --no-verify-peer -o - "https://${userid}:${updatekey}@ipv4.tunnelbroker.net/nic/update?hostname=${tunnelid}"

ifconfig gif0 inet6 2001:470:27:9d2::2 2001:470:27:9d2::1 prefixlen 128

ifconfig gif0 up

and call it from /etc/dhclient-exit-hooks, a program which, if it exists, runs automatically by FreeBSD dhclient DHCP client.

#! /bin/sh

/root/he.sh $new_ip_address

Ta-da!

Written by MC on Boomtime, the 64 day of Discord in the YOLD 3181 (2015-05-17).

Enter Pelican, a static blog generator written in Python with numerous themes and plugins. I experimented with it a bit and found it quite nice.

Many of the Pelican themes are huge files of Javascript and CSS based on popular frameworks with even more JS and CSS. I made a very minimalist theme instead.

Of course I wanted to convert my old Blosxom blog entries to Pelican. Some of the things I wanted to keep through the conversion:

1. Titles should be kept from the original. In Blosxom, the first line of the file is the title. Convert that to a "Title: title" in the new file.
2. Modifiation time of original file should be inserted into a "Date:" timestamp.
3. Permalinks should not be changed. I want the URL to the original blog entry to be the same after conversion. This is possible with the "url:" and "save_as:" metadata lines.

This is what I came up with:

#! /usr/bin/env python

import os
import time

newprefix = '/tmp/pelicanblog/'

if not os.path.isdir(newprefix):
        os.makedirs(newprefix)

for name in os.listdir('.'):
    if os.path.isfile(os.path.join('.', name)):
        # Get the modification time of file
        mtime = os.path.getmtime(name)

        with open(name, 'r') as f:
            # Now read first line of file as title
            title = f.readline()
            # Write out our collected metadata to name.md instead of
            # name.txt
            newname = name.replace('.txt', '.md')
            nf = open(newprefix + newname, 'w')
            nf.write('Title: {}'.format(title))
            nf.write('Date: {}\n'.format(time.ctime(mtime)))
            nameurl = name.replace('.txt', '.html')
            nf.write('url: {}\n'.format(nameurl))
            nf.write('save_as: {}\n'.format(nameurl))

            # Copy rest of file from original.
            for line in f:
                nf.write(line)

Run this script while standing in the directory where you keep all your Blosxom blog entries. You'll find the result under /tmp/pelicanblog. Weed out unnecessary files and then copy it all to your Pelican's content directory. Done!

The only thing that didn't go smooth in the transition is the syntax highlightning of code snippets. Sometimes the heuristics guess the wrong programming language. I have marked some of the entries manually.

All in all a rather smooth transition to a modern blogging tool.

Written by MC on Prickle-Prickle, the 39 day of Chaos in the YOLD 3181 (2015-02-08).

Using offlineimap means I now have all my mail in the local filesystem on my laptop again. Very handy in offline scenarios. Naturally, this also meant I needed a new way of telling me if I've got unread mail.

I duckduckgoed around a bit and found nsbiff, a small Objective C program that shows the number of unread mail in a single Maildir on the OS X status bar. nsbiff is a really simple program, the real code is in BIFFAppDelegate.m and the file is all of 102 lines including empty lines. I thought it quite neat and briefly considered adding stuff like extra Maildirs to check and other small changes…

Then, I accidentelly discovered that the program took up 79 megabytes of resident memory! To count files in a directory and show a number in the status bar!? Really?

Instead, I opted for this in Emacs:

(setq display-time-mail-directory "~/Maildir/hack/INBOX/new")

(setq display-time-string-forms
      '((if display-time-day-and-date
           (format "%s %s %s" dayname monthname day) "")
        (format "%s:%s"
                24-hours minutes)
        (if mail (propertize " " 'display display-time-mail-icon))))

(display-time)

which shows me a small mail icon on the Emacs mode-line if there are any files what so ever in the ~/Maildir/hack/INBOX/new directory.

Since I spend almost all of my tube time in front of Emacs anyway, this will have to do.

I also whipped up this small shell script to list the number of unread mail in some important folders. It's very brute force, since it counts all the files on every run, but on small folders it takes almost no time.

#! /bin/sh

prefix=/Users/mc/Maildir

maildirs="/hack/INBOX /hack/mail.mc-plus and a lot of other folders..."

for maildir in $maildirs
do
    count=`ls "$prefix$maildir/new" | wc -l`
    if [ ${count} != "0" ]
    then
        echo $maildir $count
    fi
done

Written by MC on Pungenday, the 71 day of The Aftermath in the YOLD 3180 (2014-12-29).

Gnus is great a News client but leaves something to be desired when it comes to mail, especially when it comes to search abilities. I've managed so far by SSHing to the server and grepping over the Maildir backend but that, of course, requires SSH access. Naturally I don't have SSH access on $DAYJOB's Exchange server, so grep searching is right out and I had to cope with webmail for searching. Luckily for me, they didn't turn off IMAP on the Exchange server so I can still use Gnus for ordinary mail tasks.

Enter mu4e, a very customisable Emacs-based mail client which works with the very fast mu mail searching tool.

Together with offlineimap and the goodness of the Xapian search engine on which mu is built I now have very quick search available locally.

Running offlineimap on both work and play mail took a while. ~90,000 mail messages covering 1.6 GiB! Actually working with mu4e is quick enough, though. Impressively quick.

Instead of using Emacs' own smtpmail for sending messages, I opted to use the nice msmtp mail sending client and some Emacs Lisp to choose which server to send through depending on the From: line in the message I'm currently composing. See below.

Here's my inital mu4e configuration, subject to change. Some mail addresses has been removed or made slightly more obscure because, you know, spam.

(add-to-list 'load-path "/usr/local/share/emacs/site-lisp/mu4e")
(autoload 'mu4e "mu4e" "mu for Emacs." t)
(setq mu4e-date-format-long "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S")
(setq mu4e-headers-date-format "%y%m%d %H:%M:%S")
(setq mu4e-view-show-images t)

;; Silly mu4e only shows names in From: by default. Of course we also
;; want the addresses.
(setq mu4e-view-show-addresses t)

    ;;; Set defaults.
(setq mu4e-sent-folder (concat "/hack/sent." (format-time-string "%Y-%m" (current-time))))
(setq mu4e-drafts-folder "/hack/draft")
(setq mu4e-trash-folder "/hack/trash")

;; Re-index every 15 minutes.
(setq mu4e-update-interval (* 10 60))

    ;;; Bookmarks list demands mu4e loaded.
(require 'mu4e)

    ;;; Create new bookmarks to quickly visit an INBOX and show only
    ;;; flagged and unread messages.

(add-to-list 'mu4e-bookmarks
             '("maildir:/hack/INBOX flag:flagged OR maildir:/hack/INBOX flag:unread" "Unread or flagged in hack.org INBOX" ?h))

(add-to-list 'mu4e-bookmarks
             '("maildir:/$dayjob/INBOX flag:flagged OR maildir:/$dayjob/INBOX flag:unread" "Unread or flagged in $DAYJOB INBOX" ?s))

(setq mu4e-user-mail-address-list
      '(
        "long list of e-mail addresses deleted for spam harvesting
          reasons."
        ))

    ;;; Default html2text is no good. Can't use shr since I don't link
    ;;; Emacs with libxml2. So use w3m instead.
(setq mu4e-html2text-command "w3m -I utf8 -O utf8 -T text/html")

    ;;; FIXME: Should depend on what folder I'm replying from.
(setq mu4e-compose-signature "MC, https://hack.org/mc/\nIRC: mchack @ Freenode, OFTC\nTwitter: @mchackorg")

(defun mc-set-from-address ()
  "Set the From address based on where the folder of the parent,
    if this is a reply. Otherwise, use default."
  (setq user-mail-address
        (if mu4e-compose-parent-message
            (cond
             ((string-match "\/slu.*" (mu4e-message-field mu4e-compose-parent-message :maildir))
              "michael.cardell.widerkrantz@$dayjob.se")
             (t "mc at the domain hack.org"))
          "mc at the domain hack.org")))

(add-hook 'mu4e-compose-pre-hook 'mc-set-from-address)

(defun mc-set-archive-folder ()
  "Set archive and draft folder name based on time and which mail server we use."
  (interactive)
  (let ((from-address (message-field-value "From"))
        (to-address (message-field-value "To")))
    (cond
     ((string-match "mc at the domain hack.org" from-address)
      (setq mu4e-sent-folder
            (concat "/hack/sent." (format-time-string "%Y-%m" (current-time))))
      (setq mu4e-drafts-folder "/hack/draft"))
     ((string-match "michael.cardell.widerkrantz@$dayjob.se" from-address)
      (setq mu4e-sent-folder
            (concat "/$dayjob/sent." (format-time-string "%Y-%m" (current-time))))
      (setq mu4e-drafts-folder "/$dayjob/draft"))
     )))

(add-hook 'mu4e-compose-mode-hook 'mc-set-archive-folder)

;; Borrowed from http://ionrock.org/emacs-email-and-mu.html
(defun choose-msmtp-account ()
  "Choose account label to feed msmtp -a option based on From
    header in Message buffer. This function must be added to
    message-send-mail-hook for on-the-fly change of From address
    before sending message since message-send-mail-hook is processed
    right before sending message."
  (if (message-mail-p)
      (save-excursion
        (let*
            ((from (save-restriction
                     (message-narrow-to-headers)
                     (message-fetch-field "from")))
             (account
              (cond
               ((string-match "mc at the domain hack.org" from) "hack")
               ((string-match "michael.cardell.widerkrantz@$dayjob.se" from) "$dayjob")
               )))
          (setq message-sendmail-extra-arguments (list '"-a" account))))))

(setq message-sendmail-envelope-from 'header)
(add-hook 'message-send-mail-hook 'choose-msmtp-account)

(defun mc-message-mode ()
  "Define shortcuts to sign or encrypt a message."
  (define-key message-mode-map (kbd "\C-cp") 'mml-secure-message-sign-pgpmime)
  (define-key message-mode-map (kbd "\C-ce") 'mml-secure-message-sign-encrypt))

(add-hook 'message-mode-hook 'mc-message-mode)

(setq message-send-mail-function 'message-send-mail-with-sendmail
      sendmail-program "/usr/local/bin/msmtp")

Written by MC on Prickle-Prickle, the 67 day of The Aftermath in the YOLD 3180 (2014-12-25).

http://3g2upl4pq6kufc4m.onion/

Using this .onion address means you never leave the Tor network and will, of course, require you to have Tor installed to be able to get at it at all.

I've made a simple search plugin for Firefox that uses this hidden service. No fancy packaging yet. You will have to copy it to the right place yourself. Get it at https://hack.org/mc/projects/duckduckgo-tor/.

UPDATE: If you go to http://3g2upl4pq6kufc4m.onion/html/ and go to the search bar menu you will see an extra menu option:

Add "DuckDuckGo (HTML)"

This will do the same thing as installing my plugin, except for the name.

Written by MC on Prickle-Prickle, the 35 day of Bureaucracy in the YOLD 3180 (2014-09-11).

I found that I would like to have User Notification when my nick was mentioned on an IRC channel or I was sent a private message. Here's how to do it.

First, grab terminal-notifier, a neat little program that generates User Notifications. Install it and test it out with, say:

/Applications/terminal-notifier.app/Contents/MacOS/terminal-notifier -title Title -message Message

If that works, on to the next step. Now grab rcirc-notify.el. Patch it like so:

--- a/rcirc-notify.el
+++ b/rcirc-notify.el
@@ -34,9 +34,9 @@ same person.")
 (defun rcirc-send-notification (title message)
   (cond ((and (or (eq window-system 'mac)
                   (eq window-system 'ns))
-              (executable-find "growlnotify"))
-         (start-process "rcirc-notify" nil "growlnotify"
-                        "-t" title "-m" message "-a" "Emacs.app" (if rcirc-notify-sticky "-s" "")))
+              (executable-find "/Applications/terminal-notifier.app/Contents/MacOS/terminal-notifier"))
+         (start-process "rcirc-notify" nil "/Applications/terminal-notifier.app/Contents/MacOS/terminal-notifier"
+                        "-title" title "-message" message))
         ((and (eq window-system 'x)
               (executable-find "notify-send"))
          (start-process "rcirc-notify" nil

Eval the buffer and turn notify on with M-x turn-on-rcirc-notify RET.

Also add something like this to your .emacs.el:

(autoload 'rcirc-notify "rcirc-notify.el" "Notify me when something happens in IRC" t)

(eval-after-load 'rcirc
  '(require 'rcirc-notify))

Enjoy your User Notifications.

Written by MC on Boomtime, the 52 day of Chaos in the YOLD 3180 (2014-02-21).

Embarrasingly I discovered that there was a bug that only showed the first word of any JFIF comment in a JPEG file instead of the entire comment! A case of print $3 versus print substr($0, index($0,$3)), of course.

Written by MC on Chaoflux in the YOLD 3180 (2014-02-19).

Like many people involved in free software I use IRC a lot. I'm on three different IRC networks all the time: Freenode, OFTC and an internal IRC server at $DAYJOB.

To manage all this, and not miss interesting messages sent when I'm not in attendance, I use the bip bouncer program. bip sits on my shell box and keeps me connected all the time and keeps a backlog of messages that it sends to my client when I connect.

My IRC client of choice is the fairly lightweight rcirc client that comes with Emacs. Many moons ago I used to use ZenIRC, but rcirc is nicer in many ways.

Way back in 1991 when I first discovered IRC I used ircII and a bunch of silly scripts to do silly actions and whatnot, but I might just be a little more mature now. If someone recognizes Teakettle from that time, get in touch!

rcirc identifies an IRC server by its FQDN. This is a problem if you want to have several connections to the same server, like you would if you connect to a bip bouncer several times. A workaround is to add something like this to /etc/hosts:

194.109.217.58  freenode
194.109.217.58  oftc
2001:888:22b3::2    freenode
2001:888:22b3::2    oftc

Then you can use something like:

(setq rcirc-server-alist
      '(
        ("freenode"
         :port NNNN
         :encryption tls)

        ("oftc"
         :port NNNN :encryption tls)))

(where "NNNN" is the bip port number, obviously.)

Not very pretty, I know, but it works.

Written by MC on Chaoflux in the YOLD 3180 (2014-02-19).

When I made the switch to Macintosh I continued to live in Emacs but continued to use terminal-based music players. No longer! It's time Emacs did what it does best… er… play music!

Install mpg321, flac123 and libtag from Homebrew.

Clone latest version of EMMS from git:

% git clone git://git.sv.gnu.org/emms.git
% cd emms
% make

Copy the emms-print-metadata program (that uses libtag to be able to edit music metadata) to my program directory:

% cp src/emms-print-metadata ~/bin/

Add to ~/.emacs.el:

; Emacs Multimedia System (EMMS)
(add-to-list 'load-path "~/hacks/emms/lisp")
(require 'emms-setup)
(emms-standard)
(require 'emms-tag-editor)
(require 'emms-info)

; Use only libtag for tagging.
(require 'emms-info-libtag)
(setq emms-info-functions '(emms-info-libtag))
(setq emms-info-libtag-program-name "/Users/mc/bin/emms-print-metadata")

(emms-default-players)
(setq emms-source-file-default-directory "~/Music/")

; Play FLAC with flac123.
(define-emms-simple-player flac123 '(file) 
  "\\.flac$" "/usr/local/bin/flac123")
(add-to-list 'emms-player-list emms-player-flac123)

; Add music file or directory to EMMS playlist on ! in dired.
(define-key dired-mode-map "!" 'emms-add-dired)

Note well: Tag information won't work if you have spaces in file names.

If you really need to change large amount of files and directories, consider using the Perl rename script from Homebrew and then do:

% find . -depth -name "* *" -execdir rename 's/ /_/g' "{}" \;

over your music collection.

Written by MC on Setting Orange, the 35 day of Chaos in the YOLD 3180 (2014-02-04).

Flying to Uppsala was uneventful, but as usual included a 'random' pat down at the airport, and some much colder weather than expected.

Half the day was spent in meetings, then some tech stuff where I was brought up to speed with the systems I'll manage. More of the same tomorrow.

I'm now at the hotel, with a beer and a sauna.

First day's t-shirt: "We come in peace", 27C3's official t-shirt.

Tomorrow's t-shirt: "Miscatonic University, Arkham, Mass.".

Today's music: Sidewalking, The Jesus and Mary Chain.

Written by MC on Pungenday, the 13 day of Chaos in the YOLD 3180 (2014-01-13).

Combined with a serial port server with SSH access (thanks XS4all!) or, say, HP's iLO which can also provides SSH access to the serial port it's a very nice way to be able to access your server even if you need to boot to single-user or if you locked yourself out. Even better, combine this with a firmware that knows something about console redirection and you also get at the BIOS setup over the same port.

I recently found myself in a situation where I couldn't use COM1 as the serial console port on a new server. The Handbook says:

If there is no COM1 (sio0), get one. At this time, there is no way to select a port other than COM1 for the boot blocks without recompiling the boot blocks.

[…]

25.6.4.2. Using a Serial Port Other Than sio0 for the Console

Using a port other than sio0 as the console requires the boot blocks, the boot loader, and the kernel to be recompiled as follows.

which sounds a bit scary. I'm not foreign to the notion of running a customized kernel. However, on a stock x86 server in co-lo which I hope to be able to update with freebsd-update(8), I don't really want to run a custom kernel. Thinking it through a little and looking at the uart(4) manual page I got an idea.

There is an alternative to compile your own kernel, and I admit it might fall under the tip "get one" above: Change your COM3 (or whatever) to COM1! Here's how I did it:

Normal /boot/device.hints lists the first serial port as:

hint.uart.0.at="isa"
hint.uart.0.port="0x3F8"
hint.uart.0.flags="0x10"
hint.uart.0.irq="4"

Note that sio(4) as mentioned in the Handbook is not listed in device.hints anymore.

The serial port I want to use as console is on the PCI bus, so I changed uart.0 to:

hint.uart.0.at="pci"
hint.uart.0.port="0xEC00"
hint.uart.0.flags="0x10"
hint.uart.0.irq="B"

and it just works! The details were taken from what the BIOS setup told me about what it called "COM3". The AMI BIOS of a Supermicro C7X58 motherboard can see at least a 16C550 compatible PCI serial cards just fine.

If you later want to enter the BIOS setup over the serial port, use ESC 4 when it tells you to press F4. Move around by pressing arrow keys and TAB after each arrow key.

Written by MC on Setting Orange, the 43 day of The Aftermath in the YOLD 3179 (2013-12-01).

During the mid-90's there was a brief fad of doing web-based personality tests in my small part of Swedish hackerdom. Typically you would then publish your result in your .signature, customised mail header, finger-able .plan file, those newfangled web pages or some corresponding metadata.

It was seen as a good thing to qualify as an INTP or INTJ in the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator system. I think it may have originated with Eric Raymond's famous A Portrait of J. Random Hacker, an appendix in ESR's version of The Jargon File based on questions posed to readers of a Usenet newsgroup back in the Olden Days.

I'm usually sceptical about personality tests and about many psychological tests in general. It's often much too easy to fake the result and many of them have poor test-retest results. The exception, perhaps, are depression scale tests like Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale, which I believe are genuinly useful and occassionally lifesaving.

But of course I fell for the group pressure. So I did a test. I seem to remember it was some bastardised form of the Keirsey temperament sorter combined with Myers-Briggs, probably an abridged version of the 'real thing', if there is such a thing. I ended up as Architect/INTP. Quotes from the Wikipedia page on the Architect role:

[…] introspective, logical, rational, pragmatic, clear-headed, informative, and attentive.

Architects are designers of theoretical systems and new technologies. Rearranging the environment to fit their design is a distant goal of Architects.

Time passes…

In 2009 my wife was handpicked for a series of leadership courses. Myers-Briggs testing was a part of the course. I piggybacked on the test and finally did a 'real' Myers-Briggs test. Like many tests I found that it probably would be easy to fake a result that you want, but I decided to do this one honestly.

One of the funny things with the real Myers-Briggs test, at least as it was given in this course, is that as a part of the test you were supposed to guess your result! I guessed, based on the earlier experiences with the (uncomplete and online) Keirsey/MBTI test that I would end up INTP (although I know that there is much debate that Keirsey's INTP and Myers-Brigg's INTP are different things), but…

Result: ISFP with only a slightly higher S over N, rather ISFP than INFP.

Some descriptions of the ISFP type:

• Portrait of an ISFP, 'The Artist'
• Team Technology's ISFP
• A particularly funny and/or harsh description.

You can find the corresponding INFP descriptions easily. Et cetera ad nauseam.

Getting ISFP instead of INTP could, of course, be explained by poor test-retest, but my artist mentality is slightly offended by that…

I'm a sensitive artist, dammit!

Written by MC on Pungenday, the 41 day of The Aftermath in the YOLD 3179 (2013-11-29).

Les sanglots longs
Des violons
De l'automne
Blessent mon cœur
D'une langueur
Monotone.

Autumn is here and with it the usual diseases: the flu, the common cold, the melancholia. Consequently, I'm at home nursing a sick child. It wouldn't be so bad except for the little one's constant crying when she's not asleep. I try my best to cheer her up, but a high fever is hard to live with.

This weekend I revisited the isolated cottage I first wrote of in 2011. As usual, we had a nice evening of good food, decent wine and a fine brandy. The night was cold and clear with a spectacular full moon and lots of stars visible.

We listened to a lot of music fitting for the season and the mood, including some film music by Zbigniew Preisner and Yann Tiersen. I was glad to discover that Zbigniew Preisner's entire Requiem for my friend (dedicated to his friend Krzysztof Kieślowski) is available on Youtube.

I'm looking forward to hearing Brahm's Ein deutches Requiem on November 2.

Written by MC on Setting Orange, the 3 day of The Aftermath in the YOLD 3179 (2013-10-22).

The computer is very fast, incredibly light and quiet. So far I've never even heard the fan. I've been travelling quite a lot this summer and it's been very comfortable to travel with the Air. It's like a luxary version of my Efika Smartbook but with a lot more oomph.

OS X itself feels very much like a real Unix. I feel right at home. That said, I mainly spend my time in Emacs or in ssh sessions to our development servers. Emacs with TRAMP (and a little help from rsync and ssh) works quite OK for remote development.

Here are some notes I wrote about what I've learned so far about OS X and how to configure it to my liking: OS X survival guide.

Written by MC on Sweetmorn, the 17 day of Bureaucracy in the YOLD 3179 (2013-08-24).

1. Work for 25 minutes.
2. Take a short break, typically five minutes.
3. Work for 25 minutes.
4. Short break.
5. Work for 25 minutes.
6. Short break.
7. Work for 25 minutes.
8. Take a longer break, typically 15–30 minutes.

Then repeat the whole thing again and again during the day.

This looks simple enough. So simple, in fact, that there must be something more to the system. There is. The real magic is not in this simple list. The real magic is in scheduling all your work items in sizable 25 minute chunks.

When I have something I'm able to complete in just 25 minutes, I find it's much easier to focus on the task. I'm not allowed to check my e-mail, respond to instant messages or doing something else during those 25 minutes unless it's an emergency.

The original pomodoro is named after the Francesco Cirillo's kitchen timer, which was in the shape of a tomato ("pomodoro" in Italian). He simply set his tomato timer according to the list above.

Unlike Francesco I'm not using a physical timer. I'm using Dave Kerschner's pomodoro.el in Emacs to keep time.

I'm on a Mac these days, so I customized pomodoro-sound-player to the OS X built-in sound player /usr/bin/afplay. I recorded a small sound (a discreet "Hrmph!") with QuickTime to use with the timer.

I found the counter in the mode line counting down the seconds a little hysterical. I changed it to show only minutes left to the next period instead.

The original code just displayed the time for the current period, say "w24:59", but I wanted to see where in the cycle I was, so I changed it to say "w1-24" for 24 minutes left of the the first work period, "w2-09" for 9 minutes left of the second work period, et cetera.

I also added a function I call pomodoro-reset to reset the counters to the beginning of a work set.

Here's a diff:

diff --git a/pomodoro.el b/pomodoro.el
index 85069f1..b3b86dd 100644
--- a/pomodoro.el
+++ b/pomodoro.el
@@ -102,6 +102,12 @@
 (defvar pomodoro-mode-line-string "")
 (defvar pomodoro-end-time) ; the data type should be time instead of integer

+(defun pomodoro-reset ()
+  "Reset counters."
+  (interactive)
+  (setq pomodoro-current-cycle "w")
+  (setq pomodoros 0))
+
 (defun pomodoro-set-end-time (minutes)
   "Set how long the pomodoro timer should run"
   ;; no slave can work 2^16 seconds without rest!
@@ -132,8 +138,9 @@
             (setq pomodoro-current-cycle pomodoro-work-cycle)
             (pomodoro-set-end-time pomodoro-work-time))))
     (setq pomodoro-mode-line-string
-          (format (concat "%s" (format-seconds "%.2m:%.2s " time))
-                  pomodoro-current-cycle))
+          (format (concat "%s%s-" (format-seconds "%.2m " time))
+                  pomodoro-current-cycle 
+                  (+ 1 (mod pomodoros pomodoro-nth-for-longer-break))))
     (force-mode-line-update)))

 ;;;###autoload

Happy pomodoring,
MC

Written by MC on Setting Orange, the 16 day of Bureaucracy in the YOLD 3179 (2013-08-23).

View from the house:

I'm working here:

and sometimes in a comfortable armchair.

My daily lunch walks has been a lot nicer than usual:

As seen from the kitchen window:

Yes, that's a rabbit!

Written by MC on Setting Orange, the 16 day of Bureaucracy in the YOLD 3179 (2013-08-23).

Barcelona in 2013 is not the revolutionary city of 1936 that I have dreamt of since first reading the wonderful Homage to Catalonia, the amazing Syndikalismen vid makten and other books about the Spanish civil war. There were no red/black flags meeting the eye, no happy workers or militia members on La Rambla, no A las barricadas blaring from loudspeakers day and night.

Instead of the red/black, most everywhere I looked I saw one of the versions of the Catalan nationalist flag. There are, however, some red/black traces left…

CNT's bookshop, La Rosa de Foc:

Shrapnel marks on a wall from one of at least 200 bombings of Barcelona by the Italian airforce:

The graffiti says "Always remember the victims of fascist regimes".

The Telefónica building where the 1937 May events started is still in use:

A revolutionary street sign recently uncovered:

If you don't know Catalan I'm told it says "The Unknown Militiaman Square".

Some of these sights were included in Nick Lloyd's wonderful Spanish Civil War tour. Well worth the three hours and the 20 euros.

Apparently someone else also thought Orwell's Homage to Catalonia was good, so they named a square after him:

At this square there are no less than two vegetarian restaurants! It was really no problem at all to be vegan in Barcelona.

I found some other traces of a living Anarchist culture as well. I passed La Otra Carboniera, a squat with a social center ("Centre Social Okupat"), a few times.

Of course, we visited most of the tourist traps, including the hideous La Sagrada Família:

I concur with Orwell that the Anarchists showed bad taste in not blowing it up when they had the chance. Mind you, other Gaudi houses and Parc Güell are quite beautiful.

I leave you with a photo from the slopes of Montjuïc, close to Hotel Miramar:

Written by MC on Setting Orange, the 34 day of Confusion in the YOLD 3179 (2013-06-29).

From: "Anonymous Remailer (austria)" <mixmaster AT THE DOMAIN remailer.privacy.at>
To: mc AT THE DOMAIN hack.org
Subject: I have sad, tragic news, mister widerkrantz

Dear Sir,

with wayland, running mcwm will not be possible anymore.
We have to give up our litte window managers and switch
to GNOME or KDE. Sad as it is, that is called progress, I guess.

Good-bye, I'm going to kill myself once that comes true

Anonymous

Dear Anonymous,

Like you, I often get emotionally attached to my tools. I would find it hard to live in a world without, say, Emacs. I admit that I have strong feelings about the user interface of programs I use, and, yes, about window managers, too.

The Wayland system is a replacement for the aging X system. Wayland defines a protocol for clients to speak with a compositor for later display, much like the X11 protocol is a protocol for clients to speak with the X server, although there are many differences.

Unlike X, which typically uses a separate process for window management, the window management functionality in Wayland is by design a part of the compositor. This means, as the letter writer above suggests, that it's not possible to change the window manager without also changing compositor. But why would that be a problem?

In the default Wayland system the compositor is called Weston. Weston seems to be built mostly by function calls to libraries. It wouldn't be that hard to replace Weston entirely by using the same library functions in your own compositor. In fact, this is probably what KDE and Gnome intend to do.

There are already alternatives to Weston available:

• Enlightenment has a branch with Wayland support.
• ADWC is a tiling alternative.
• The Maui Linux distribution's Hawaii desktop environment is based on Wayland and uses its own compositor, Green Island.

Here's a video where a developer using Enlightenment as a Wayland compositor:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfnvYAKKPZI

Here's a video with someone using ADWC:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKcvE6Rhbk4

A short demo of the Hawaii desktop environment is here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWvgxUqkr7I

I don't know what will happen with Wayland and if it will replace X on any major Linux distribution soon. My guess is that it will probably be some time before that happens. This means there will be plenty of time to write a compositor/window manager that doesn't suck too much.

Complicating the picture is Canonical's recent announcement that they won't be using Wayland after all. Instead, they're going with something they call Mir.

I haven't looked that much at Mir and I'm not sure I understand the reasons they don't want to use Wayland other than that they seem to prefer C++. shiver

My guess, however, is that it's quite possible to the same thing in Mir and replace the default compositor with something that you can live with.

Take care,
MC.

Written by MC on Syaday in the YOLD 3179 (2013-05-31).

When I tried to implement Better-than-nothing Security I chose to work with OpenBSD's new IKEv2 daemon, iked. When Reyk and Mike ported iked to Apple's OS X and created the portabled version, Openiked, it seemed only natural that I would try to port it to FreeBSD and Linux.

To afford to spend time on porting, I applied for funds from .SE's Internet Fund. However, before I even started with the project, someone, probably Mike and/or Reyk, ported Openiked to FreeBSD and Linux! This was in late 2012.

I lost a bit of steam there, but I decided that I could at least make a software package for FreeBSD of Openiked (in the FreeBSD ports system) and try to implement NAT-traversal configuration when iked runs on FreeBSD and Linux.

Openiked is submitted to FreeBSD ports as security/openiked. You can follow its progress here:

http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=177651

Please note: There hasn't been any official releases of Openiked yet, so my port is based on the Git version as it was on 2013-03-12. When any official releases is made, I will update the port.

On my Openiked project web page there's also a patch available to configure the IPsec stack on both FreeBSD and Linux to encapsulate the ESP packets in UDP for traversing a NAT. However, something seems to be missing. The IKEv2 dialogue detects a NAT, the configuration works and outgoing ESP is duly encapsulated in UDP. Traffic comes through to the other end… and is immediately thrown away!

I don't know why this happens. I've been staring at the code and going through kernel code for what seems like ages. I have to admit that I'm stuck. If someone can find out what's wrong I would appreciate it if you contacted me.

I have done a sort of brain dump about the problem and what I've already tried on the project page. Perhaps it will be of some help if someone else (even myself, at a later date), tries to figure out what's wrong. For more, see:

https://hack.org/mc/projects/openiked/

Reyk recently presented Openiked at BSDCan 2013. I wish him luck and I hope that the project will get the interest it deserves.

I will continue to follow the Openiked project, updating the FreeBSD port security/openiked as needed. If there's any new development on the NAT-T front, I will also update my patch, but from now on I won't spend much time on it.

Written by MC on Setting Orange, the 67 day of Discord in the YOLD 3179 (2013-05-20).

We were mostly in London, visited British Musuem, went to the HMS Belfast and, of course, had some nice vegan meals. One restaurant in particular gets a mention: the wonderful south Indian Sagar. Not the best service but great food.

We had some incidents that might have turned rather difficult. I realized only two days before flying from Copenhagen that we might need passports! It turns out that, although a member of the European Union, the UK hasn't signed the Schengen Agreement allowing free travel. I didn't know. I was lucky that I checked. Imagine being sent back on a return flight!

I had to shell out to have three emergency passports made. Later, #2 forgot his bag in a restaurant with the passport in it! Luckily, we got the bag back.

However, what probably interests the readers of my blog more is that we also visited Bletchley Park, the home of the Government Code & Cypher School during World War II. Co-located within Bletchley Park is The National History of Computing Museum, also well worth a visit.

It was really easy to get to Bletchley Park. There are direct trains to Bletchley from London Euston. Not all trains stop at the Bletchley train station but you can also go to nearby Milton Keynes and go back by bus. From Bletchley station it's very easy to find your way to Bletchley Park.

This seems to be the right way:

And here's the gate to the park:

Bletchley Park was much bigger than I thought. During WWII ~9000 people worked here! In the literature I've read about an ugly mansion and some "huts", but it's seldom mentioned that these huts were later replaced by brick buildings several storeys high! The different departments kept their "hut" designation even after the move.

Bletchley Park is also a living place, what with the Bletchley Park Science and Innovation Centre occupying several of the huts and the upper floor of the mansion.

We took a tour around the premises. Highly recommended. We also got to see a working Bombe replica actually operating!

Here's Ludvig in front of the Bombe replica:

Then we were off to the real excitement: Colossus! Depending on the day you visit there will be a presentation of Colossus and it will actually be running.

Colossus during the presentation:

Inside Colossus:

In early reports on the Colossus, it was explained that it was an early computer. After having read two books on the development of Colossus I'm not so sure I agree. For example, Colossus lacks conditional branching. Still, it's definitely a great step forward into using electronics.

The Colossus replica is shared with The National History of Computing Museum. If you want to see the entire collection, and not just the (Heath) Robinson replica and the Colossus, you will have to pay for an extra ticket, but it's well worth it!

There are guided tours on Tuesdays and Sundays but as we were there on a Saturday we missed that. It would have been nice to know a little more about where some of the computers had been used.

A lot of the machines were in running condition and some of them were turned on. One of the biggest was an entire ICL 2966 mainframe, complete with a huge disk farm! However, the most impressive was the 1951 vintage Harwell Dekatron, also known as WITCH, here with Ludvig:

More about the WITCH.

The work on the machines were mostly done by volunteers from the Computer Conservation Society, who also have a page about WITCH.

There was also a full 'classroom' of BBC Micros!

With the exception of the classroom full of BBC Micros with plenty of books and mostly BASIC programs there was very little software on display. They had a large poster describing programming language history, but not much in the form of hands-on experience. The software gallery on the TNMOC web pages is also mostly empty:

http://www.tnmoc.org/explore/software-gallery

but it seems they are working on it together with the CCS' software preservation project.

I tried to have a closer look at the Perq, an early windowed workstation, but the boys wanted to move on.

Here's a picture of the ICL/Three Rivers Perq and, surprisingly, a Norsk Data ND-100 Satellite:

I was a bit surprised to note that TNMoC didn't have a PDP-10. Several PDP-11s were present and two of them were running, displaying radar reflections on two large radar screens (labelled "Ericsson"!). There was also at least one Prime, a 750, but it wasn't running and there was no information displayed about it. I had thought Prime computers were pretty common in the UK and expected more, perhaps even a possibility to play with PRIMOS.

Before leaving I bought three books from the Bletchley Park bookshop: Colossus: The Secrets of Bletchley Park's Codebreaking Computers by B. Jack Copeland et al, Paul Gannon's Colossus: Bletchley Park's Greatest Secret and Andrew Hodges' biography Alan Turing: The Enigma.

As I'm writing this I've read Paul Gannon's great book on the Colossus development and, really, a rather general history of telecommunications and the work at Bletchley Park and I'm halfway through the really good Turing biography. Highly recommended!

Statue of Turing at Bletchley Park:

On our way back to the hotel from Euston station we happened to notice that we we're right beside where BBC's Sherlock placed 221B Baker Stret: 187 North Gower Street. I couldn't resist taking a photo, so I leave you with the photo of the mock Baker Street:

Written by MC on Boomtime, the 34 day of Discord in the YOLD 3179 (2013-04-17).

Hail Eris!

We have arrived at the Year 3179 of Our Lady of Discord.

New Year's Eve was a calm event with just me, Petra and #3. Come midnight we turned off the lights and looked out through the large windows on our new flat and saw some marvellous fireworks.

After slightly more than my fair share of disease that made December a less than productive month we moved to a new flat just before Newtonmass. It was chaotic. 147 boxes are now emptied but the new flat is still a mess and there's a huge heap of junk in the middle of our living room.

I'm in the process of giving away things, including some old computers that have been standing unattended in a closet for much too long. This is what one of my old Suns said when I booted it:

3130 days since I booted it? Time to get rid of this junk!

The chaos is also present on my desk in the new flat.

If you look closely on the desk you can see that Newtonmass brought a new toy, a Snom 300 SIP phone.

I haven't done any real work for many weeks, but I hope I'll be back at it soon, Goddess allowing.

Written by MC on Sweetmorn, the 11 day of Chaos in the YOLD 3179 (2013-01-11).

The (corrected) slides are here:

https://hack.org/mc/projects/btns/pres-btns.pdf

Typically, the URLs to the project pages was wrong in the original slides.

You can find my presentation notes here:

https://hack.org/mc/projects/btns/notes-btns.html

More about the projects:

https://hack.org/mc/projects/ipsec/

https://hack.org/mc/projects/btns/

Written by MC on Sweetmorn, the 24 day of The Aftermath in the YOLD 3178 (2012-11-12).

I traveled to IDD with nothing but an idea and was given a piece of brown paper (180x96 cm) stuck to the wall and some felt pens. Then I was expected to present my idea to some 800(!) visitors from 13:00 to 17:00!

I was, of course, ridiculously nervous. Therapists call these things exposures for good reason.

Anyway, I have this idea that, to be a good programmer, you don't necessarily need to know calculus. Instead, you might need to know how to, I don't know, program a computer? Many university programmes seems to take the reverse position. Many vocational schools in Sweden seems to focus on turning you into a web designer rather than a programmer. Meanwhile, the industry is screaming for real programmers: C, networks, sockets, Python, Perl, cross compilers, embedded programming, et cetera, et cetera.

I made some drafts about a new curriculum and presented an idea about a hacker school (in Swedish) at IDD to see what kind of response I would get.

The basic idea is to issue a call for proposals to companies already using free and open source software (FOSS). The companies are asked to suggest student projects. The students work on real projects, using real code and real tools together with a few very experienced lead programmers/mentors from the school shared by all student groups. Every company that gets a project accepted will also have to give something like 20% of one of their programmer's time as a project leader and to do integration of code back into their platform.

All new code is free software and given back to the community and, of course, back to the company proposing the project. Think Google Summer of Code. But backwards. Also, compare Hackerschool, but consider longer and/or more projects and resulting in a real degree.

All this would be free for the students and free for the involved companies, except the 20% of someone's time per chosen project.

Most of the work would be done remotely. We would use the net quite a bit: chat, VoIP, mailing lists, distributed VCS, remote pair programming (or troika when one of the lead programmers looks over their virtual shoulders). Everyone will be expected on a (voice) roll call each morning where we go through what was done yesterday and what is to be done today. Hacking! Not slacking.

We would get together for physical hackathons at the beginning and at the end of a project. To keep costs down we could perhaps use one of the inolved companies for space during these hackathons.

We would earn money by becoming a state-financed vocational school (every student comes with a bag of the state's money) and by doing active recruitment of the students. We, the teachers/lead programmers, would be in a unique position to place the right hacker at the right place.

That's it. That's what I presented at the IDD. I stirred up at least a little bit of interest with that provocative "hacker" name.

Unlike most of the projects at IDD I wasn't looking for money. I was looking for contacts in existing educational organisations and other likeminded hackers that would be willing to spend time as lead programmers/mentors/co-founders. I may have found a few. If you feel you may be one more, get in touch!

Written by MC on Boomtime, the 10 day of The Aftermath in the YOLD 3178 (2012-10-29).

The real reason for my visit to Gustavianum, however, was that the Update Computer Club had placed some of their more rare computers on display, including my old friend AIDA, a DEC 2065 that used to run TOPS-20, no less than two KOM conference systems and a copy of the original Essex MUD. Here's a picture of me hugging AIDA like some hunchback haunting the science museum:

Bad photo, I'm afraid. Taken without flash with my mobile phone.

Here are some much better photos taken by an Update member during the inauguration of their displays at Gustavianum:

http://www.update.uu.se/~jeppe/tmp/vernissage/

Here's a particularly nice one of AIDA:

RAM, CPU and PDP-11 frontend in the grey/terracotta casing to the right. Hard disks in front. Tape drive to the left.

I was a bit disappointed that none of the terminals present were hooked up to anything. It would have been a nice way to present TOPS-20 to people if a real terminal would have been hooked into a small PC running a PDP-10 emulator with TOPS-20 on it.

Update has two similar projects running already: TINA (TINA Is Not AIDA) which is a copy of AIDA running on an emulator and UP, an ITS instance running on a PDP-10 emulator. UP is actually hosting its own HTTP server writting in MacLisp!

After visiting Uppsala I went to Stockholm for the Internet discovery day (see separate post) and the Internetdagarna conference. I was struck down by a temperature on the first day and didn't really recover until days later. I spent a few lonely nights shivering in a hotel room in central Stockholm. In case you knew I was coming to Stockholm and didn't hear from me, that's why.

Written by MC on Boomtime, the 10 day of The Aftermath in the YOLD 3178 (2012-10-29).

It's a nice change that, for once, the difference between hacker and crackers is highlighted. My only gripe about the article is that the journalist exaggerates quite a bit when he says that I have more than 30 years of experience with the hacker culture!

I mentioned to him that I first programmed a computer in 1981 and I guess he took 1981 as the starting point of my hacker career. I wouldn't say that a nine-year-old typing BASIC into his cousin's Sinclair ZX81 is a member of the hacker culture just like that, but there you go.

Written by MC on Boomtime, the 73 day of Bureaucracy in the YOLD 3178 (2012-10-19).

https://www.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=delete_account

Some background, if you really need it:

10 reasons to delete your Facebook account.

Facebook's Eroding Privacy Policy: A Timeline.

Facebook is not your friend.

Why is Facebook bad? How to Delete an Account?

Written by MC on Pungenday, the 69 day of Bureaucracy in the YOLD 3178 (2012-10-15).

My talk will cover two experimental implementations of IPsec key management, using DNS as a key distribution channel and anonymous keying, Better-than-nothing security.

See you there!

Written by MC on Pungenday, the 64 day of Bureaucracy in the YOLD 3178 (2012-10-10).

The new patch adds a new keyword, "btns", that you can add to a policy, like this:

ikev2 active esp from 10.0.0.6 to 10.0.0.4 srcid ipsec3.hack.org btns

The "btns" keyword means it's not an error if we can't validate the public key the peer sends us, that is, Better-than-nothing security.

Work continues…

Happy hacking,
MC.

Written by MC on Boomtime, the 43 day of Bureaucracy in the YOLD 3178 (2012-09-19).

Edit to add BTNS working.

Sickness has delayed the BTNS project. I apologise if someone out there is holding their breath. Please exhale. This will take the time it takes.

I am, however, very pleased to announce the following:

sa_state: VALID -> ESTABLISHED from 10.0.0.6:500 to 10.0.0.4:500 policy 'policy1'

What you see is OpenBSD's iked telling us that is established a Security Association with a peer. Nothing unusual in that. However, this time it is preceeded by:

MC!!!!! ca_getcert: type RSA key

MC: validate_pubkey: id_type: 2, len: 270
ca_validate_pubkey: looking up pubkeys/fqdn/ipsec3.hack.org
MC: Found the key on file.
MC: The public keys are the same.

which means that iked is not using the ordinary X.509 certificates. Instead, it's using raw RSA public keys in the CERT payload.

You can find my incredibly crude first patch linked on the project page.

If you apply that patch iked will validate the raw RSA key in the CERT payload against a file with the peer's public key. If you apply a small patch to ignore the key validation you have Better-Than-Nothing Security! Hardcoded and incredible crude, but working.

Written by MC on Sweetmorn, the 22 day of Bureaucracy in the YOLD 3178 (2012-08-29).

I recently turned 40. My birthday was heralded by a bleeding ulcer. I've had better times. As a result my birthday was spent in relative quiet having coffee and cake with a few friends and relatives. Sickness is also the reason why the journal has been unusually quiet and why I haven't been more active in my code repositories, mailing lists, et cetera.

I didn't really expect any presents on my birthday and was rather surprised when I got a Certina DS-1 mechanical wrist watch! One of Certina's promotional photos of my model:

Bad wrist photo taken with my mobile phone:

Interestingly, my watch is about six times more expensive than my mobile phone! Some people get high tech smartphones. I get the 1950s version of high tech. The DS 1 was introduced in 1960. My first mechanical watch! Thank you!

Another surprise among several was The Annotated Alice, a combined Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-glass with extensive commentary by Martin Gardner. Many years ago I found it in the university library and I have wanted a copy since. I hadn't realized there had been a new, improved edition in 1999! But someone did. Thanks!

Written by MC on Pungenday, the 14 day of Bureaucracy in the YOLD 3178 (2012-08-21).

Sites that provide information about or promote illegal or questionable access to or use of computer or communication equipment, software, or databases.

and Trend Micro defines as:

Sites that provide software for bypassing computer security systems.

It seems a bit of a stretch to categorise my personal web pages under this category but I realise how the mistake was made: They call their category "hacking" and the words "hacking" and "hacker" do show up a lot on my web pages and, after all, the domain itself contains the word "hack". I can see how automatic software looking for keywords can make the wrong decision. Of course, their software doesn't know anything about the hacker vs cracker confusion.

My guess is that most of the web filtering companies use automatic software looking for keywords and I guess most of these programs are really, really bad at trying to understand what a web page is really about. My advice to people even thinking about buying into a service like this is to ask the companies technical questions on how their scanning works. For instance, scanning for known signatures of malware is an entirely different ballgame compared to trying to categorise web content from keywords.

Of course, I have tried several times to report back to Websense and Trend Micro and other web filtering companies that they have miscategorised hack.org. It seems the best I have managed to do was to trigger an automatic rescanning which, of course, found the same amount of keywords it was looking for and failed to change the category.

Just the other day I received an alarming message. It said that if you use a Trend Micro product and tried to look at my personal web pages it would stop you and say:

Verified fraud page or threat source.

Wow! This is something entirely different than placing my web pages in the wrong content category. This is verging on libel!

Verified fraud or threat? Verified how, exactly? What have they verified and how did they do it? I really want to know. If anyone has any insights into Trend Micro's database, please get in touch.

Trend Micro has a public service here:

http://global.sitesafety.trendmicro.com/

If I type in hack.org I get a result that says:

Is it safe?

Dangerous: The latest tests indicate that this URL contains malicious software or could defraud visitors.

How would you categorize this URL?

Hacking: Sites that provide software for bypassing computer security systems

It's still wrong, of course, but at least better than "verified fraud"! Trend Micro has categorised hack.org as "hacking" for many years now. No change there.

What the "Dangerous" label is about, I don't know. It has also been the same for many years now. I wonder what their tests found? A careful review of the few personal web pages at the main hack.org server doesn't yield anything suspicious.

Of course, I can't answer for any contents on any other web servers ending in hack.org, but I doubt that this is the real problem here. A simple test with a small web server I keep for test reasons, which almost doesn't contain any information at all, gets the same result from Trend Micro, probably just because it ends with "hack.org".

I can live with the entire domain being in the wrong category in web filtering software, but I really want to get rid of at least the libellous "verified fraud or threat" and "dangerous" classification.

Any suggestions? A libel suit seems a bit over the top, don't you think?

Written by MC on Setting Orange, the 24 day of Confusion in the YOLD 3178 (2012-06-19).

We met up with Ludvig at his school and took some pictures. This is me next to the beaming composer-to-be:

Helena, Ludvig's mother, visited us for the occasion. Here's Ludvig and his mother. You can also see Ludvig's youngest sister in the baby carrier.

Afterwards we had a nice dinner before Ludvig took off to the pub.

My little boy is all grown up!

Written by MC on Sweetmorn, the 20 day of Confusion in the YOLD 3178 (2012-06-15).

When I noticed the error, I contacted .SE and they have now fixed the text in the press release. Of course, the press release had already gone out and quite possibly some media had already published it. For instance, there are articles on IDG (in Swedish) and the news portal Cisionwire (in Swedish) with the error still in it.

If you notice any errors in other media, and have the possibility to do so, please correct them. Thanks.

Written by MC on Setting Orange, the 19 day of Confusion in the YOLD 3178 (2012-06-14).

This time I'm tackling Better-than-nothing security, often known as BTNS. BTNS is an unauthenticated mode of IPsec.

Unlike ordinary IPsec BTNS can be used even if we can't fully authenticate the peer. We simply trust that the node is who she says she is and work from there.

This is not without merits. OK, so we don't know that we're speaking to the right node, but we still get all the other benifits of traditional IPsec: confidentiality, integrity, et cetera. We also get continuity of association, a guarantee that we're still speaking to the same party as we did when the conversation started.

For more on this, see the BTNS project page.

Written by MC on Prickle-Prickle, the 18 day of Confusion in the YOLD 3178 (2012-06-13).

Ludvig and I recently upgraded the Debian distribution installed on his computer. Unfortunately, some strange things happened. Some packages simply disappeared, among them update-notifier. It was weird, but re-installing the package helped. Sadly, I couldn't find the time to figure out what really happened.

Dad's Inofficial Computer Support won't be open all the time and when Ludvig moves out this autumn for college it would be good if he was running something with a little more long-time support. Enter the latest Ubuntu LTS with a pledged support of five years, even for the desktop distribution. It's a possible solution.

I have no real experience of Ubuntu but since it's more or less a Debian system I seem to be able to find my way around in it. However, Ubuntu has recently changed their default desktop to something called Unity which I don't know much about. I just had to check it out first.

A lot of people have expressed their horrors about Unity and I dreaded what I was going to see when I tried to install Ubuntu on my test machine. To my surprise it was rather usable! Yes, it used almost 300 MiB RAM just after login, without even having started any applicatons yet, but that's what I've come to expect from modern desktop environments. I don't think it's much worse than, say, Gnome or KDE or whatever kids run these days.

I showed Unity to Ludvig and we played around for a bit. He says he might come to like it even though he's been using XFCE for the last few years. We'll see. If not, it shouldn't bee too hard to install XFCE, although you might loose some of the integrated features, I guess.

Obviously, I'm staying with a much more lightweight solution myself. I see no reason for me to start using a desktop environment. It wouldn't add much to my user experience.

While playing around with Ubuntu I also found, to my surprise, the Sugar environment from the One Laptop Per Child project. I tried it but it almost immediately hanged: The Python process running Sugar used 100% CPU until I killed it a few minutes later when nothing appeared to happen.

If you want to try Sugar don't forget to install some activities (Sugar's way of saying "program") as well. Of the activities I found and tested no-one seemed very child friendly compared to what is offered in the Unity or Gnome environments. In some cases I think programs running in a straight terminal would suffice. Yes, really!

Sugar didn't look very stable. Perhaps I was using some pre-Alpha release? It said 0.90, after all.

To my suprise I also found that the Wayland project's Weston compositor is included in Ubuntu! If you don't know, Wayland is a replacement of the X Window System with some rather nice ideas about direct rendering. Most of the criticism against Wayland has been about the lack of network transparency. Wayland fans argue that this should be easily remedied by an X server on top of Wayland or using VNC or similar technologies.

I tried Weston with the Weston-terminal terminal emulator on my test machine. The compositor on my laptop 1024x768 screen weighed in at 16 megs resident (74 meg virtual). The terminal emulator seemed to chew about 10-15% of the CPU! While idle! It seems a bit strange but I guess it's still early in development.

I admit that I sometimes still dream of a more lightweight window system for Unix systems, perhaps something in the tradition of Plan 9's rio or 8½, Blit's mux or even the old MGR, something exceedingly simple, easy to understand and easy to program.

Written by MC on Prickle-Prickle, the 71 day of Discord in the YOLD 3178 (2012-05-24).

You can view the resulting movie in your web browser or download the 75 MiB WebM file: Local copy. Original at fscons.org.

Written by MC on Boomtime, the 29 day of Discord in the YOLD 3178 (2012-04-12).

I maxed out the memory with 24 gigs of three-way ECC RAM and had two mirrored 2 TiB disks installed in a 8 piece hot-swap drive bay for storage. Standing right next to it, connected with Gigabit Ethernet, is a fileserver with additional storage.

I call the new box totoro because it's huge and really screams. I just might paint it blue!

I had originally planned to use totoro as a traditional workstation standing under my desk. I even went so far as buying an Nvidia Quadro 600 graphics card so I could hook up both my HP ZR24w 24" displays and even do decent 3D graphics. (Yeah, right, I know. Me using 3D?)

However, the box is very noisy. I can't work in the same room.

Apparently I've been using terminals and fairly silent laptops for so many years that a supposedly whisper-quiet workstation is way too noisy. Of course, the absolutely huge heat-sink necessary on my choice of CPU makes it impossible to use the air shroud that Supermicro is so famous for. That might be one part of the problem. Another is that I'm rather sensitive to noise.

After trying to work with the huge box standing under my desk for a few weeks I finally had enough and moved it into the closet next to the fileserver. Instead, I brought back an old Hewlett-Packard t5125 thin client into service. It was in heavy use as an X terminal from 2005 to 2010.

I connected the t5125 on the second NIC on totoro and created a private network where I could run VNC without SSH tunneling. I think performance would be awful with SSH running on the very slow t5125. Using X instead of VNC would also be way to slow on this terminal if I were to run complicated clients such as, for example, Firefox. For terminal emulators and Emacs frames, however, X would be probably be faster than VNC.

The t5125 is basically a very low-powered PC with a Via Eden (Samuel 2) CPU at 400 MHz, 128 megs of RAM, 32 megs of flash and a 100 Mbit/s Ethernet. It currently runs an ancient Linux booted from a DOM.

Of course, using the t5125 meant I couldn't use any of my 24" monitors, much less both of them at once. Instead I had to make do with an old Samsung 17" LCD I had lying around and using 1280x1024 instead of 1920x1200 (times two).

For a couple of weeks this was rather satisfactory. It worked much better than I anticipated. And, of course, there were no moving parts! Ah! The wonderful silence!

Just the other day my upgrade arrived. It's an HP t5745, a much more modern version of the t5125. Specs: Intel Atom N280 CPU, GL40 chipset (including the GM45 Express GPU), 1 gig RAM expandable to 8 GiB(!), Broadcom gigabit Ethernet and VGA and DisplayPort(!) connections.

I'm a little surprised that these terminals still have a serial port, but that might come in handy for a serial console connection to any embedded projects.

There is no fan. The terminal is dead quiet. It's also cool. Running full speed with a process taking 100% CPU for an hour or so the CPU temperature hits 28 degrees Celsius. Idling CPU temperature seems to be around 21 degrees.

It comes with HP Thinpro, a Debian based GNU/Linux distribution, installed on a 1 GiB DOM. It boots into a selection where you can connect with all sorts of thin client protocols, ICA, RDP and, perhaps more important, XDMCP and SSH. You can also start a local Firefox which seems to work quite well.

VNC is lacking from the connection menu, however, but a TightVNC viewer is installed. You can find it under the Advanced label, start an xterm and then start it with vncviewer. A bit silly, I think, that they didn't include in the standard connection manager.

Anyway, I wasn't going to waste all this CPU power and a gig of RAM just running as a thin client. I'm going to use this as a sort of small workstation.

I experimented for a while booting different Linux distributions from USB sticks. I even tried booting Plan 9 which, I'm sorry to say, didn't work. Finally I installed FreeBSD on a USB stick and that's what I'm running now.

Everything, including sound, seems to work under FreeBSD 9 except for one important thing: the DisplayPort connection. The screen just goes blank if I start X with the monitor on DP. VGA works fine. My guess is that FreeBSD's old X.org simply doesn't support DisplayPort with Intel graphics drivers.

No suprise there, really, since Intel has moved on to work only with KMS/GEM. Coming soon to a FreeBSD distribution near you, I hear. I might experiment with FreeBSD's new KMS/GEM/DRI code eventually but right now I'm busy with other things. The VGA connection and a single 24" monitor at 1920x1200 will have to do for now.

I'm not going to use the local filesystem much except for booting and starting applications because writing to the USB stick it's booting from makes things crawl to a halt. This probably won't be a problem in my scenario but might be a problem for others. Installing the OS on the DOM might help, but I wanted to keep that pristine just in case. Installing a bigger SSD might be an option as well but I don't know if there's any space in the box.

Other than the snag about not being able to use the DisplayPort connection right now, this terminal/light workstation is really, really nice. I'm thinking about buying another so I can have one in the office and one downstairs on a small office desk in the living room.

Written by MC on Boomtime, the 24 day of Discord in the YOLD 3178 (2012-04-07).

Screen was already a few years old when I was introduced to it in the underground headquarters of the Lysator Academic Computer Society in 1991. It was originally written by Oliver Laumann starting in 1987. It would have been very nice to have on my ABCenix/D-NIX box in 1988 but I didn't know about it back then.

Another great thing with screen is that you can detach your session (by choice or by, say, network failure) and attach it later, possibly from another terminal without disturbing your running programs. For me, this meant I was able to start working using a terminal at home connected through a dial-up modem, then detach screen, turn off the terminal and bike to the university, re-attach my screen and continue like I had never moved. Or vice versa: re-attach when I got home without losing any state.

I have used screen almost every day ever since I discovered it. 21 years. Not bad.

Even in this modern world of ubiquitous window systems, screen is still very useful. I usually run screen on remote servers I manage. It's a very easy way to flip among several running programs: a build running in one virtual screen, a configuration file being edited in another, idling on a friendly channel in an IRC client in a third, et cetera, et cetera.

I also usually run a screen on my local workstation. This makes it very easy for me to get at important stuff even from the downstairs terminal or while using the portable terminal (aka Genesi Smartbook).

In screen I usually also run several emacsclient -t that attaches to my main Emacs process (usually started with emacs --daemon). Under X on the workstation I use emacsclient -c to create new Emacs frames that attaches to the same Emacs process. Very nice.

However, over the years screen has become more and more complex. For instance, to mention just a few features, screen now has support for hardware Braille displays, builtin serial communications, a built-in telnet client and a rather complex setup of access control lists for multi-user session sharing.

I don't use many of screen's features. When I do want to use telnet or serial communications, say, I would rather use an external program, even while running inside screen.

As you can imagine, the code has also suffered a bit from adding more features. It has, according to some, become more or less unmaintainable and hard to audit. This is bad, especially when one part of screen is usually run as root.

Enter tmux. It's a new terminal multiplexer with interesting design choices and what appears to be more maintainable code. It also doesn't have screen's somewhat strange access control lists for multi-user sessions. Instead you can just control the permissions on the Unix domain socket it uses between client and server.

tmux also has some nice features not available in screen: it's possible to run several sessions of virtual screens at once and move screens between these sessions. It also has support for tiling windows, although I'm not personally very interested in the latter feature.

If you want to use tmux in a multi-user setting for, say, pair programming I recently found wemux, a program that helps in setting up tmux for multi-user sessions. It seems nice but I haven't actually tried it yet.

tmux itself is very nice and easy to use. I changed some of the key bindings, though, since I'm so used to my key bindings from screen. Here's my .tmux.conf.

I use emacs-jabber for instant messaging. When I was using screen I got a small message from screen everytime someone sent me a message or someone said something in a MUC. Naturally, I would like this feature in tmux as well. It seemed easy enough:

(defun jabber-tmux-message (msg)
  "Show MSG in tmux"
  (call-process "tmux" nil nil nil "display-message" msg))

; Automatically defines jabber-{message,muc,presence,info}-tmux
; functions.
(define-jabber-alert tmux "Show a message through the tmux terminal multiplexer"
  'jabber-tmux-message)

With this you can add jabber-message-tmux to jabber-alert-message-hooks and jabber-muc-tmux to jabber-alert-muc-hooks as you like and get the expected result, just like the screen support in emacs-jabber.

Written by MC on Prickle-Prickle, the 1 day of Discord in the YOLD 3178 (2012-03-15).

My window manager, mcwm, is not the only stacking window manager based on XCB after all. I found another stacking window manager that uses XCB: µWM.

Shortened list of features:

• stacking window manager
• written in C (with many comments)
• less dependencies (only XCB and X11 required)
• doesn't use/need GNU autoconfigure and other auto-tools
• executable < 200k
• < 20k Source Lines of Code
• low memory footprint during runtime ~ 1800k RES
• low X11 resource usage ~ 200k (without desktop backgrounds)
• configurable and themeable
• no XML config file
• builtin menu(s)
• builtin panel(s) (other names are slit/bar/dock).
• builtin tooltips
• builtin background setter
• composite support with xcompmgr (sample X compositing manager)
• multiple desktops
• multiple screen (xinerama)

An impressive list. As you can see it's not quite as minimalist as mcwm: the executable is about ten times bigger and it includes lots more graphical features that are handled by external programs in mcwm.

I haven't even got it to build on FreeBSD. Too swamped with other things at the moment.

The author is Lutz Sammer, known for his work on Freecraft, the Warcraft II clone that turned into the Stratagus game engine.

Written by MC on Boomtime, the 67 day of Chaos in the YOLD 3178 (2012-03-08).

I recently found a window manager called Be Lucky Window Manager. In the README it says:

I started this from my port of catwm ( https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=100215&p=1 ) july 2011 With the source for mcwm ( https://hack.org/mc/hacks/mcwm/ ) open in front of me. Cheers for the code sharing :) See bluckywm.c or config.h for thanks and licensing.

They seem to have copied at least some mcwm code verbatim, including comments. After looking through the blwm code I find it's not that much, really, but I think I should mention it.

Neither beluckywm.c nor config.h has any information on licensing.

My guess is that this is just an oversight on moetunes' part.

At first I didn't know how to contact moetunes. I didn't see any contact information on the github profile or the commits in github. Then I realized I might be able to see an e-mail address in the git repo itself. After cloning I found an e-mail address. I sent a message.

Written by MC on Setting Orange, the 65 day of Chaos in the YOLD 3178 (2012-03-06).

I have also changed the small 9icon script somewhat to better deal with windows with strange titles, for instance including shell glob symbols such as “*”. It works OK unless, of course, you have a quote in the window title. Sigh.

My own program, hidden, seems to have problems with some titles. I'm not sure it's me causing the problem, though.

During the same train trip I also wrote a program to display a menu window using only XCB. It's not finished but at least it maps a window and draws some text into it. Most of the time. About one in five times it doesn't draw anything at all. I admit I'm puzzled. I don't have time right now to hunt down the bug, though.

The plan is to eventually merge my small menu program with hidden. This will replace the functionality of 9icon in one small program that can easily be called from mcwm.

Writing GUI programs using only XCB is pretty painful, so I abstracted away some of it and finally ended up with a small program looking something like this:

init();
win = window(1, 1, WIDTH, HEIGHT);
setfont(win, "12x24", "yellow", "black");
printat(win, 1, 20, "foo");
cleanup();

Perhaps this is the beginning of a small UI toolkit?

Written by MC on Prickle-Prickle, the 64 day of Chaos in the YOLD 3178 (2012-03-05).

Thanks to Gsson I'm now the proud owner of yet another Happy Hacking Keyboard Professional 2.

This means I have two Professional 2 with no keytops, one white and one black. The white keyboard will be used on my new workstation and the black will probably travel with my laptop.

Topre switches FTW!

I also have one of the original HHKB, as you can see on the photo above. The original has an equally great Sun Type 3-like layout but it's otherwise an ordinary, but good, rubber dome keyboard.

You might also be interested in a description of my own keyboard layout which also serves as instructions on how to remap your keyboard using the XKB extension without touching system files.

Written by MC on Prickle-Prickle, the 54 day of Chaos in the YOLD 3178 (2012-02-23).

This means that if you use my racoon patches and my resolver together you can now have opportunistic encryption with fairly strong DNS authentication.

Typically you will trigger the authentication and encryption automagically just by querying DNS and then sending traffic to the other node. This means a simple, say,

% ping6 ipsec1.hack.org

will automatically authenticate that you're talking to the right node and then encrypt all your precious traffic.

I have updated the HOWTO. Please try to follow the instructions and test. Report back to me.

Please note that all this is still very experimental.

Written by MC on Boomtime, the 52 day of Chaos in the YOLD 3178 (2012-02-21).

ipseckey-20120220.patch.bz2

racoonctl can now load a binary RSA public key from a file into a running racoon.

I have also updated the HOWTO document.

Written by MC on Sweetmorn, the 51 day of Chaos in the YOLD 3178 (2012-02-20).

Received loadkey command from admin socket, len = 610
Key for addresses:
IP address: 2001:16d8:ffff:1::4
IP address: 2001:16d8:ffff:1::3
Key length 514.
RSA key exp: 3
RSA key mod: ...

This means that the small capturing DNS resolver I wrote can load keys into racoon when it captured a user process in the process of querying for A/AAAA.

One step closer to authenticated but opportunistic IPsec encryption.

Written by MC on Pungenday, the 48 day of Chaos in the YOLD 3178 (2012-02-17).

Still no internal way of getting windows back, though. In the little free time I can find I'm experimenting on how I want to do this. I have a small external program that is almost finished that does what Christian's 9icon script does. I'm also thinking about including a menu in mcwm proper, but I'll see about that.

Currently, mcwm never draws anything, not even the borders. It's a feature in the X server that draws the borders automatically. It would be quite nice to keep it that way.

I'll have to think about this…

Written by MC on Pungenday, the 48 day of Chaos in the YOLD 3178 (2012-02-17).

I've hidden the patch behind a flag (-i) that you will have to use when starting mcwm to allow windows to be hidden. You can also change the default in config.h if you like.

I did it like this because currently there is no way of getting unmapped windows back from within mcwm. You will have to use an external program to do that. Christian has provided us with one called 9icon, which is distributed as scripts/9icon in mcwm. You might want to use some sort of panel instead, perhaps. Note that there is still not much support for EWMH, so panels that use the Extended Window Manager Hints won't work very well.

If someone knows of a standalone icon manager, please tell me about it. Preferably it would be written in C, use the XCB library and be able to be used both in popup mode and persistent on screen. If there isn't one I guess I have to write one unless, of course, someone else gets there first.

No release yet. Everything is in git. Use

git://hack.org/mcwm

Please note: If you use the version in git you will need xcb-util 0.3.8 to build.

Please test and report back to me. If everything looks fine for everyone I will probably make a new release.

Written by MC on Sweetmorn, the 46 day of Chaos in the YOLD 3178 (2012-02-15).

Written by MC on Boomtime, the 42 day of Chaos in the YOLD 3178 (2012-02-11).

ipseckey-20120210.patch.bz2

and apply it to ipsec-tools 0.8.0.

The new stuff is mainly that rekeying works, both for ISAKMP-SA and IPsec-SA, because the public key is loaded from DNS into a list which is checked when authentication has to be done again.

I want the key in the list because in Scenario 1 I need an external program, the resolver, to load the key into the IKE server.

Feel free to test things.

Written by MC on Sweetmorn, the 41 day of Chaos in the YOLD 3178 (2012-02-10).

The text is mostly for testing and development purposes, not for production use.

I have only tested on FreeBSD 8 and 9 but it might work equally well under Linux. Please test and report.

Written by MC on Setting Orange, the 40 day of Chaos in the YOLD 3178 (2012-02-09).

ipseckey-20120130.patch.bz2

Apply them to racoon from ipsec-tools 0.8.0.

You can use them with this configuration file:

racoon-ipseckey.conf

Note that I override the use of "dnssec" authentication for my own purposes.

Please note well that these patches by themselves are enough to implement Scenario #2. However, Scenario #2 is likely vulnerable to a MitM attack. See a previous blog entry.

Of course, before using it you need to generate RSA key pairs for all nodes involved and insert the public key and the corresponding A or AAAA record into the proper DNS zone.

To generate a key, use:

% plainrsa-gen -b 4096 -f ipsec1.rsa

In the .rsa file you will find the public key in the commented out "pubkey" line. Insert that into your DNS zone without the first "0s" (which just marks it as BASE64). In BIND's zone format, it looks like this:

ipsec1                  IN      IPSECKEY ( 10 0 2
                                           .
                                           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

ipsec1                  IN      AAAA    2001:16d8:ffff:1::3

Happy hacking,
MC

Written by MC on Setting Orange, the 30 day of Chaos in the YOLD 3178 (2012-01-30).

In the first scenario I need a local DNS resolver that captures any A or AAAA queries and also looks up the IPSECKEY record for the same name. The resolver then loads the public key into the IKE daemon before returning the query results. When the IKE dialogue starts the peer is authenticated with the preloaded key and we send our own ID to it.

I have written a small resolver that does all this except loading the key into the IKE daemon.

In the second scenario the two IKE daemons send their FQDN as IDs and the IKE daemons queries DNS for the IPSECKEY of their peers. Unfortunately this scenario is likely vulnerable to a man in the middle attack even if we're using signed DNS records at least as long as we use forward zones. The bond is weak between the connection identifier, the IP address, and the name.

Imagine if someone, the Evil Eavesdropper Eve, were to listen in on an IKE dialogue where Alice is initalizing the dialogue with Bob. Alice has queried for Bob's address and is attempting to start an IKE dialogue with that IP address.

Eve captures all the traffic and spoofs replies from the intended peer, Bob. Instead of getting Bob's FQDN (bob.example.org) Alice gets Eve's FQDN (eve.example.org) as ID. Alice then queries for the IPSECKEY for eve.example.org and it validates fine in DNSSEC since it's Eve's record, not Bob's, and Alice continues the dialogue, not realizing that she's not talking to Bob.

Of course, all this might be visible in logs since Eve sends her real name as ID but by then it is probably too late.

I believe scenario #1 isn't vulnerable, since the FQDN used to query for A/AAAA and IPSECKEY comes from the user or a local process and not the peer, but more analysis is needed.

Written by MC on Setting Orange, the 30 day of Chaos in the YOLD 3178 (2012-01-30).

First, the IPSECKEY RRs I added to the hack.org zone had a mistake. I accidentally marked the keys as DSA keys (algorithm 1) instead of RSA (algorithm 2). On the other hand, my code didn't even look at the algorithm to see that we actually had an RSA key. When I added this, it was the first time I noticed the mistake.

I've also changed the way keys are loaded. Instead of loading the public key to the internal list of keys, I just set it to be the peer's public key (the struct ph1handler element called rsa_p) after querying DNS.

I was stuck for a while here because when loading the binary key with binbuf_pubkey2rsa() I got an even modulus! It took a while to find out why. The reason was I accidentally allocated too large a buffer for the key.

Anyway, here's the debug output for node ipsec1 documenting the first successful security association setup between two nodes with transport mode opportunistic encryption using DNS keys:

Querying for IPSECKEY for ipsec1.hack.org.
Precedence: 10
GW type: 0
Algorithm: 2
About to load binary RSA key.
rdlength = 514
RSA key exp: 3
RSA key mod:
694913600036185438993921168228021937466057130393896470658117457642787491739628277347739214111009475566180366417075914489628611802311555976477394376215746650261879176034066424255318465503312147134539969215567953271646717204598342561705430835742785081980058810243747062929669386297941389266784069911908790958669624829252049368204263159776885004920853508395529997309049004264686570844655837509348340996362563661222290110998461210029247714608874709448708852854486035445398182880541292532261465658595945459794731603692369323935808537825251587769487509831287328187917490553609545412965997565515176372090553125521899596249141830135227228738309881444637223802982958463985902185081179057608461585384189650076205267084415494806805358202249321673305590906361755185424944833600130678011130562219609244020874378039663815076008003580667266737166092938960118742823445186464541147935210725546258002614112386720194987823671990667030489122370399617127538186975887826632841701328093084393632959251063222976988423463690745266575203616531356014967825161718241064781805911511758034131272770962425058529622542274935036119622969141568437886118555468855661770674419607044935142805396752764250140058372653682999058293922316647030399183884626344870920539322537
2012-01-26 12:37:26: WARNING: CERT validation disabled by
configuration
Checking signature.
Signature OK!!!!!
2012-01-26 12:37:26: INFO: ISAKMP-SA established
2001:16d8:ffff:1::4[500]-2001:16d8:ffff:1::3[500]
spi:4dbf33cd73600138:1f003e83f65af8e8
2012-01-26 12:37:26: [2001:16d8:ffff:1::3] INFO: received
INITIAL-CONTACT
2012-01-26 12:37:27: INFO: initiate new phase 2 negotiation:
2001:16d8:ffff:1::4[500]<=>2001:16d8:ffff:1::3[500]
2012-01-26 12:37:27: INFO: respond new phase 2 negotiation:
2001:16d8:ffff:1::4[500]<=>2001:16d8:ffff:1::3[500]
2012-01-26 12:37:27: INFO: Update the generated policy :
2001:16d8:ffff:1::3/128[0] 2001:16d8:ffff:1::4/128[0] proto=any dir=in
2012-01-26 12:37:27: INFO: IPsec-SA established: ESP/Transport
2001:16d8:ffff:1::4[500]->2001:16d8:ffff:1::3[500]
spi=58166992(0x3778ed0)
2012-01-26 12:37:27: INFO: IPsec-SA established: ESP/Transport
2001:16d8:ffff:1::4[500]->2001:16d8:ffff:1::3[500]
spi=160491056(0x990e630)
2012-01-26 12:37:27: INFO: IPsec-SA established: ESP/Transport
2001:16d8:ffff:1::4[500]->2001:16d8:ffff:1::3[500]
spi=215844934(0xcdd8846)
2012-01-26 12:37:27: INFO: IPsec-SA established: ESP/Transport
2001:16d8:ffff:1::4[500]->2001:16d8:ffff:1::3[500]
spi=25812946(0x189dfd2)

In case you're worried the line about the CERT validation being disabled is of no concern. It's just racoon's way of saying that we're not trying to compare the name in the CN in an X.509 cert with the peer's ID. It would be quite silly to check that in this scenario when there's no CN and no cert.

I need to polish the code at least a bit before publishing. Stay tuned.

Written by MC on Sweetmorn, the 26 day of Chaos in the YOLD 3178 (2012-01-26).

Seen here, racoon gets an FQDN from the peer, queries DNS for its IPSECKEY, parses the IPSECKEY reply, loads the RSA public key into the key list and then fails miserable in trying to find it. It fails because I haven't added the IP addresses to the key item. The addresses are not readily available in the function where I add the key. Still, it's progress.

ipsec1# ./racoon -F -f /usr/local/etc/racoon/racoon.conf
Foreground mode.
2012-01-20 13:22:24: INFO: @(#)ipsec-tools 0.8.0 (http://ipsec-tools.sourceforge.net)
2012-01-20 13:22:24: INFO: @(#)This product linked OpenSSL 0.9.8q 2 Dec 2010 (http://www.openssl.org/)
2012-01-20 13:22:24: INFO: Reading configuration from "/usr/local/etc/racoon/racoon.conf"
2012-01-20 13:22:24: INFO: 2001:16d8:ffff:1::3[500] used as isakmp port (fd=6)
2012-01-20 13:22:24: INFO: fe80:1::5054:ff:fe12:3456[500] used as isakmp port (fd=7)
2012-01-20 13:22:24: INFO: 10.0.0.23[500] used as isakmp port (fd=8)
2012-01-20 13:22:24: INFO: 127.0.0.1[500] used as isakmp port (fd=9)
2012-01-20 13:22:24: INFO: ::1[500] used as isakmp port (fd=10)
2012-01-20 13:22:24: INFO: fe80:3::1[500] used as isakmp port (fd=11)
2012-01-20 13:22:33: INFO: respond new phase 1 negotiation: 2001:16d8:ffff:1::3[500]<=>2001:16d8:ffff:1::4[500]
2012-01-20 13:22:33: INFO: begin Identity Protection mode.
Querying for IPSECKEY for ipsec2.hack.org.
0000000 0a 00 01 01 03 ba f7 3b 96 c3 d7 97 e7 dc 67 66 
0000010 3c d2 37 e3 7d 0d 47 05 22 6d 21 b5 bd 97 44 b4 
0000020 e1 2d a5 59 0b 5b 91 54 9c 16 d9 29 1e 2e b9 49 
0000030 ba 2a 3a 89 9a a1 dd 64 b6 39 f1 d8 72 7f 33 13 
0000040 41 f4 a1 59 da 1b 9f f7 f2 e9 bf e8 b5 4d ff 2b 
0000050 0e 59 7b 7c 14 f5 30 57 83 d5 ca 39 49 25 80 b5 
0000060 e4 d4 76 fa 1e a4 35 b4 79 67 c5 cf cf 42 31 be 
0000070 d6 0e d8 17 ac e3 8c 6a db 62 f4 f7 3f dc 5e 8a 
0000080 20 fe 05 bc 0f 34 66 41 26 7e 3a b5 03 3f 1d c6 
0000090 ed e8 f6 a5 ff cf f3 c4 cf 73 10 e1 ca 97 d7 24 
00000a0 28 1c f0 83 11 68 3a 46 2a c2 de 93 30 d6 54 e5 
00000b0 cf 43 93 48 88 92 b0 7c 0e 16 32 ea 61 b3 80 71 
00000c0 b8 b8 ac 60 93 d2 e9 30 a5 d3 97 46 2a 54 ae 43 
00000d0 8c da 43 8b b1 30 cd 6a 5f 54 6f 2d 13 fc b6 90 
00000e0 9f 68 db 09 cc 08 60 72 2a 91 6c fd af 9e f7 9c 
00000f0 c9 71 c2 eb 26 82 b9 20 f4 2c 3c f5 cf 6b 8b 5d 
0000100 24 01 bb 1a c5 e4 5f b2 53 27 32 a9 9b 7b 42 f0 
0000110 4d d7 73 e4 e6 3c 39 7b 66 02 b0 cc cf c9 d1 70 
0000120 e9 e6 55 01 ca c9 a2 5f 63 4e be 96 c4 1f d9 dd 
0000130 3d 1c 03 3f 43 da 70 40 84 27 fc 1f fe e4 7c 6a 
0000140 9c 8a f6 3c 77 ed 9f b8 d9 77 8f ef 09 eb c1 36 
0000150 bf b9 ed 25 06 6e fc 38 db ec ab 3a a6 31 02 1c 
0000160 44 b5 2a 44 30 c0 bf 88 08 a4 21 a6 a0 91 4b 67 
0000170 b2 b5 d8 01 5c 90 a3 bc f1 90 62 a6 d1 29 cb 82 
0000180 8f bc 0c b7 11 82 78 38 50 c2 ad 3b 58 c5 44 ff 
0000190 4f 6e db 1a 38 de 46 21 d1 de 90 45 f8 b4 12 65 
00001a0 05 58 99 3c 73 b5 18 51 33 9d f8 10 48 8a 29 ed 
00001b0 92 e5 02 65 75 80 88 fc 65 91 41 13 95 6b a2 e6 
00001c0 88 e6 ba f3 98 aa 92 03 4e 35 03 f2 12 cc 60 c1 
00001d0 ef 96 39 cf 73 b3 9e b9 5b 89 c8 27 8a 4e 74 be 
00001e0 e5 f1 e1 b1 97 42 60 bb 25 c2 8d 4d 2d cd b0 cb 
00001f0 3a 8f 6b d2 42 13 9f 9f 71 84 bc 84 52 12 2e bb 
0000200 80 51 11 6f 2b 
About to parse binary RSA key.
rdlength = 514
0000000 01 03 ba f7 3b 96 c3 d7 97 e7 dc 67 66 3c d2 37 
0000010 e3 7d 0d 47 05 22 6d 21 b5 bd 97 44 b4 e1 2d a5 
0000020 59 0b 5b 91 54 9c 16 d9 29 1e 2e b9 49 ba 2a 3a 
0000030 89 9a a1 dd 64 b6 39 f1 d8 72 7f 33 13 41 f4 a1 
0000040 59 da 1b 9f f7 f2 e9 bf e8 b5 4d ff 2b 0e 59 7b 
0000050 7c 14 f5 30 57 83 d5 ca 39 49 25 80 b5 e4 d4 76 
0000060 fa 1e a4 35 b4 79 67 c5 cf cf 42 31 be d6 0e d8 
0000070 17 ac e3 8c 6a db 62 f4 f7 3f dc 5e 8a 20 fe 05 
0000080 bc 0f 34 66 41 26 7e 3a b5 03 3f 1d c6 ed e8 f6 
0000090 a5 ff cf f3 c4 cf 73 10 e1 ca 97 d7 24 28 1c f0 
00000a0 83 11 68 3a 46 2a c2 de 93 30 d6 54 e5 cf 43 93 
00000b0 48 88 92 b0 7c 0e 16 32 ea 61 b3 80 71 b8 b8 ac 
00000c0 60 93 d2 e9 30 a5 d3 97 46 2a 54 ae 43 8c da 43 
00000d0 8b b1 30 cd 6a 5f 54 6f 2d 13 fc b6 90 9f 68 db 
00000e0 09 cc 08 60 72 2a 91 6c fd af 9e f7 9c c9 71 c2 
00000f0 eb 26 82 b9 20 f4 2c 3c f5 cf 6b 8b 5d 24 01 bb 
0000100 1a c5 e4 5f b2 53 27 32 a9 9b 7b 42 f0 4d d7 73 
0000110 e4 e6 3c 39 7b 66 02 b0 cc cf c9 d1 70 e9 e6 55 
0000120 01 ca c9 a2 5f 63 4e be 96 c4 1f d9 dd 3d 1c 03 
0000130 3f 43 da 70 40 84 27 fc 1f fe e4 7c 6a 9c 8a f6 
0000140 3c 77 ed 9f b8 d9 77 8f ef 09 eb c1 36 bf b9 ed 
0000150 25 06 6e fc 38 db ec ab 3a a6 31 02 1c 44 b5 2a 
0000160 44 30 c0 bf 88 08 a4 21 a6 a0 91 4b 67 b2 b5 d8 
0000170 01 5c 90 a3 bc f1 90 62 a6 d1 29 cb 82 8f bc 0c 
0000180 b7 11 82 78 38 50 c2 ad 3b 58 c5 44 ff 4f 6e db 
0000190 1a 38 de 46 21 d1 de 90 45 f8 b4 12 65 05 58 99 
00001a0 3c 73 b5 18 51 33 9d f8 10 48 8a 29 ed 92 e5 02 
00001b0 65 75 80 88 fc 65 91 41 13 95 6b a2 e6 88 e6 ba 
00001c0 f3 98 aa 92 03 4e 35 03 f2 12 cc 60 c1 ef 96 39 
00001d0 cf 73 b3 9e b9 5b 89 c8 27 8a 4e 74 be e5 f1 e1 
00001e0 b1 97 42 60 bb 25 c2 8d 4d 2d cd b0 cb 3a 8f 6b 
00001f0 d2 42 13 9f 9f 71 84 bc 84 52 12 2e bb 80 51 11 
0000200 6f 2b 
2012-01-20 13:22:33: ERROR: Public RSA key not found for 2001:16d8:ffff:1::3[500] <-> 2001:16d8:ffff:1::4[500]

Written by MC on Setting Orange, the 20 day of Chaos in the YOLD 3178 (2012-01-20).

As usual, I went to Berlin after Newtonmass, attending the 28th incarnation of the Chaos Communication Congress. I thought the most interesting talk this time was Meredith L. Patterson's The Science of Insecurity. Youtube video available. Of course, a lot of other talks were interesting as well, but if I had to choose just one it would be Meredith's. It's worth noting, though, that Jake and Roger from Tor got a standing ovation for their work.

28C3 was a bit tainted by my back ache. I missed out almost completely on the third day and stayed in our Prenzlauer Berg flat instead. Thank goddess for easily available painkillers.

As usual we also managed to visit not only Dolores for burritos a couple of times but also had brunch twice at the wonderful Cafe Morgenrot.

New year's eve was spent with friends outside of Linköping. I'm back in Malmö since yesterday. Expect more soon.

Carved in 100% recycled electrons by MC on this day, Pungenday, the 3 day of Chaos in the YOLD 3178.

Written by MC on Pungenday, the 3 day of Chaos in the YOLD 3178 (2012-01-03).

Written by MC on Boomtime, the 70 day of The Aftermath in the YOLD 3177 (2011-12-28).

https://gist.github.com/1478365

I haven't found the time to test it myself but perhaps it can be useful to some of you.

Renato Botelho do Couto, garga@, is importing the new xcb-util to FreeBSD ports and said he is going to add David's patch to the mcwm port as well.

When I'm back from 28C3 @ Berlin I'll have a closer look at all this.

If you're also at the 28C3, feel free to get in touch. I'm at 95445 on the conference phone network.

Written by MC on Boomtime, the 70 day of The Aftermath in the YOLD 3177 (2011-12-28).

#!/sbin/setkey -f 

spdflush ; 

spdadd ::/0 ::/0 any -P in ipsec esp/transport//use ; 
spdadd ::/0 ::/0 any -P out ipsec esp/transport//use ; 

spdadd 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 any -P in ipsec esp/transport//use ; 
spdadd 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0  any -P out ipsec esp/transport//use ;

Using this with my racoon configuration with statically configured public key files works fine.

Now racoon only needs to get the public key loaded on demand. This might happen from my resolver or perhaps with a patch to racoon itself. It can already lookup CERT records in DNS, albeit the obsolete RFC 2538 version. I might be able to reuse this code to do an IPSECKEY lookup.

More later…

Written by MC on Pungenday, the 61 day of The Aftermath in the YOLD 3177 (2011-12-19).

ipsec1# ./ns.pl
Adding local address:
2001:16d8:ffff:1:0:0:0:3
Any AAAA records for ipsec2.hack.org?
Oh! It's A or AAAA!
Lookup IPSECKEY.
We got an IPSECKEY!
Public key (RSA): 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
Setting up security policy between 2001:16d8:ffff:1:0:0:0:3 and 2001:16d8:ffff:1:0:0:0:4

def init(id, cfg):
    log_info("pythonmod: init called, module id is %d port: %d script: %s" % (id, cfg.port, cfg.python_script))
    return True

def deinit(id):
    log_info("pythonmod: deinit called, module id is %d" % id)
    return True

def inform_super(id, qstate, superqstate, qdata):
    return True

def operate(id, event, qstate, qdata):
    print "operate(): event is ", event

    if event == MODULE_EVENT_NEW or event == MODULE_EVENT_PASS:
        print("Sending original query \"%s\", type %s (%d), class %s (%d) " % (
            qstate.qinfo.qname_str, qstate.qinfo.qtype_str,
            qstate.qinfo.qtype,
            qstate.qinfo.qclass_str, qstate.qinfo.qclass)) 

        # Pass on the new event to the iterator for a lookup.
        qstate.ext_state[id] = MODULE_WAIT_MODULE 
        return True

    if event == MODULE_EVENT_MODDONE:
        # Iterator finished. We might have a reply.

        print("Reply for query \"%s\", type %s (%d), class %s (%d) " % (
            qstate.qinfo.qname_str, qstate.qinfo.qtype_str,
            qstate.qinfo.qtype,
            qstate.qinfo.qclass_str, qstate.qinfo.qclass)) 

        if qstate.return_msg and qstate.qinfo.qtype_str == "A":
            print("Store away reply for A record.")

            # TODO: Store away the original message.

            # Look up IPSEC.
            print("Look up IPSECKEY")

            # XXX Now what?

        # We're done.
        qstate.ext_state[id] = MODULE_FINISHED 
        return True

    qstate.ext_state[id] = MODULE_ERROR
    return True

log_info("pythonmod: script loaded.")

# Pass on the new event to the iterator for a lookup.
newq.ext_state[id] = MODULE_WAIT_MODULE

qemu -enable-kqemu -nographic -hda /backup/slask/fbsd.img -m 512M -net nic,model=e1000 -net tap,name=tap0,script=no

qemu -enable-kqemu -nographic -hda /backup/slask/fbsd2.img -m 512M -net nic,model=e1000,macaddr=52:54:00:12:34:57 -net tap,name=tap1,script=no

net.link.tap.user_open=1
net.link.tap.up_on_open=1

perm    /dev/tap0       0660
perm    /dev/tap1       0660

cloned_interfaces="tap0 tap1 bridge0"
ifconfig_bridge0="addm em0 addm tap0 addm tap1 up"

% plainrsa-gen -b 4096 -f privatekey.rsa

path certificate "/usr/local/etc/racoon/certs";

remote anonymous
{       
        exchange_mode main;
        # Doesn't really matter if we use main mode or aggressive
        # mode. Our identy isn't secret and we don't send any
        # hashes of a pre-shared key in the clear.
        # exchange_mode aggressive;
        lifetime time 24 hour;
        my_identifier fqdn "ipsec2.hack.org";
        # On the other host:
        # my_identifier fqdn "ipsec1.hack.org";
        certificate_type plain_rsa "privatekey.rsa";

        # The other host's public key:
        peers_certfile plain_rsa "pubkey1.rsa";
        # On the other side:
        # peers_certfile plain_rsa "pubkey2.rsa";

        # Automatically generate a Security Policy when the other
        # side initiates dialogue.
        generate_policy on;
        
        proposal
        {       
                encryption_algorithm aes;
                hash_algorithm sha256;

                # Use public key authentication:
                authentication_method rsasig;

                dh_group 2;
        }
}

sainfo anonymous
{        
         lifetime time 1 hour;
         encryption_algorithm aes;
         authentication_algorithm hmac_sha256;
         compression_algorithm deflate;
}

#!/sbin/setkey -f

spdflush;
spdadd 10.0.0.22 10.0.0.23 any -P out ipsec esp/transport//require ;
spdadd 10.0.0.23 10.0.0.22 any -P in ipsec esp/transport//require ;

spdadd 2001:16d8:ffff:1::3 2001:16d8:ffff:1::4 any -P out ipsec esp/transport//use ;
spdadd 2001:16d8:ffff:1::4  2001:16d8:ffff:1::3 any -P in ipsec esp/transport//use ;

ipsec1                  IN      AAAA    2001:16d8:ffff:1::3

ipsec1                  IN      IPSECKEY ( 10 0 1
                                           .
                                           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

3.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.1.0.0.0.f.f.f.f.8.d.6.1.1.0.0.2.ip6.arpa. IN PTR ipsec1.hack.org.

Written by MC on Pungenday, the 61 day of The Aftermath in the YOLD 3177 (2011-12-19).

The major change is a small and pretty stupid helper program called raresolv whose only job is to read single characters ("+" or "-") on a pipe and to call the resolvconf program to add or delete resolv.conf data.

I've had the code finished since late October but haven't got around to committing it until now.

I've just tested it on Debian Linux with the resolvconf program and on FreeBSD with openresolv.

I'm not ready for a new release just yet. I'm sure I did some mistakes. I also need to have a patch ready for the FreeBSD ports files.

Please pull and test!

Written by MC on Setting Orange, the 48 day of The Aftermath in the YOLD 3177 (2011-12-06).

Please note that from this release -b is no longer a boolean option. It now requires a numeric argument, the number of pixels in the border. 0 means mcwm asks the X server not to draw any borders.

From the NEWS file:

2011-11-22

  * Now optionally starts programs when MODKEY + mouse buttons are
    pressed on root window. See config.h for configuration and the
    manual page for an example.

    Also simplified starting programs.

2011-11-17

  * In a ConfigureRequest we no longer obey window movements not
    initiated by the user.

  * Fixed bug where client-initiated resize could resize outside of
    physical screen.

  * Fixed bug with topright command on other physical screens.

  * -b no longer boolean. Now takes parameter number of pixels.

There are a few items left in the TODO file. I'm currently swamped with other things but two things stand out: 1) window operations menu, and, 2) separate workspaces per physical screens.

Christian Neukirchen sent me a nice patch for hiding windows and getting them back again with the help of a script he wrote and the 9menu program. I'm thinking about what to do with them. Chances are I'm going to include a menu handling for hidden windows in the mcwm proper instead of relying on an external program.

More later…

Written by MC on Prickle-Prickle, the 47 day of The Aftermath in the YOLD 3177 (2011-12-05).

This was my third(?) year visiting the conference but the first year I held a presentation. I presented my window manager, mcwm and the X Protocol C-language Binding. 17:15 on a Sunday might have been an unfortunate time slot, perhaps, but there were still some 20–30 people attending my talk.

Of course, given my slight social phobia and the usual stage fright that comes with that, I was really nervous. I was especially nervous about doing the presentation in English. I think it went reasonably well in the end. Thank Goddess for beta blockers.

The talk was filmed. You will probably eventually find the film linked from the FSCONS schedule slot for my talk.

My slides weren't that interesting but you can look at them anyway if you like. Most information was given orally. I have to clean up my notes for the talk a bit before publishing them. Stay tuned.

I attended many other talks. The most interesting talk was the OpenRISC presentation, about a small MIPS-like CPU that can be used on an FPGA and or be synthesized on an ASIC. It's available under a free license at OpenCores.

The OpenCores repository itself is now managed by Swedish company ORSoC. They have more information on their own web pages about the OpenRISC 1200 Platform.

ORSoC also sells FPGA development boards. They showed us a new board at FSCONS based on an Altera FPGA, with SDRAM, Ethernet, USB, SD, JTAG and UARTs. It seems a really complete little board to do lots of cool stuff with. Really cool and pretty cheap.

I also enjoyed Jose Marchisi's Algol 68 talk. He has done impressive work writing a Brainfuck frontend for GCC in Algol 68! The next step is, of course, to write a real Algol 68 frontend in Algol 68. That's a brainfuck if I ever saw one.

After FSCONS I was really washed out and needed some time by myself or close to my family. Naturally, I also succumbed to a case of the common cold. This prevented me from using the free ticket to .SE's yearly Internet Days in Stockholm. The ticket went to my friend Martin. I'm waiting as I write for some report on the conference and especially any poster sessions not listed in the schedule.

Written by MC on Boomtime, the 35 day of The Aftermath in the YOLD 3177 (2011-11-23).

There was a slightly overgrown but very nice garden with a few berries still left. In October!

I was reminded about Lawrence's Clouds Hill, although I believe this cottage has many facilities in comparison with T.E.'s ascetic digs. Nevertheless, I think it serves much the same purpose for its owner. I admit to being a bit jealous.

In the evening I cooked a simple vegan dinner with an apple pie for dessert. There was wine and a very good brandy (Braastad's XO) to go with the coffee. We sat and talked late about many things; going all the way from the foundation of mathematics we even touched the rather dull subject of computer security.

I left the day after feeling a bit down, wishing I could isolate myself quite as easily. Since then I haven't turned on my computer and mostly spent my time at home, caring for a sick daughter and reading a biography of Kim Philby and no less than two Le Carré novels.

After reading the spy novels I have to admit I'm almost ashamed that I had suspected Mr. Cornwell of writing pulp fiction. This is great literature.

Written by MC on Prickle-Prickle, the 60 day of Bureaucracy in the YOLD 3177 (2011-10-06).

More information here:

http://redmine.pfsense.org/issues/1836

Written by MC on Boomtime, the 53 day of Bureaucracy in the YOLD 3177 (2011-09-29).

This means I have three programs in ports: kbdscan, a small program to show raw keyboard scancodes in the console (misc/kbdscan – I would have chosen sysutils, but I didn't commit it), my window manager mcwm (x11-wm/mcwm) and now dns/radns.

Yes, I know that rtsold in the coming release, FreeBSD 9, also supports the RDNSS option in IPv6 RA. Still, radns is more portable to non-BSDs and has had RDNSS support longer.

Written by MC on Sweetmorn, the 52 day of Bureaucracy in the YOLD 3177 (2011-09-28).

When nothing seemed to help we called the helpdesk and an on-site technician went to have a look. He said “I can see the problem. It's your power supply.“ Uh-oh!

A little while later the same technician, Gerben, called back and said "You're in a bit of luck". Apparently XS4All also use Supermicro boxen and he simply lifted a power supply from one of their decommissioned servers and replaced ours!

Now that's service above and beyond the call of duty. Thanks, Gerben! I hope you liked the cookies.

Written by MC on Setting Orange, the 51 day of Bureaucracy in the YOLD 3177 (2011-09-27).

I'm a fan of all things Sherlock Holmes. When I somewhat disillusioned resigned from my latest job to become an at-home dad almost three years ago the first thing I did was to re-read all the Sherlock Holmes stories. I felt a lot better afterwards.

There's much to be said about Sir Arthur, about his silly infatuation with spiritism and how he was fooled by the Cottingley fairies photographs, but I'm glad he invented Sherlock. Of course, Sherlock himself is not always as scientific as I would like him to be, but there's a lot to be said about the feeling of intellectual wonder I get when reading the adventures.

I don't know why it has taken me so long to view the new Sherlock Holmes TV-series, Sherlock, but not owning a TV set might be a part of the explaination. The series won the 2011 BAFTA Television Award for Best Drama Series and it's a wonderful adaption to modern times. It's based on new material and not just an adaption of the original adventures, but a lot of the material is taken more or less unchanged from the originals. I like the modern twists a lot.

Unfortunately, the new TV-series was only three episodes. I hear a second season is in production and I'm looking forward to see what they make of it.

My only gripe with the series is Moriarty. When we finally meet him he strikes me as more creepy than evil. What a letdown!

Benedict Cumberbatch is great as a young Sherlock and dresses wonderfully in a very good looking Spencer Hart suit and a dramatic Belstaff coat. Of course, in my mind, Sherlock still looks like Jeremy Brett:

I was a little surprised seeing Rupert Graves as DI Lestrade. I don't remember seeing Rupert since he was playing Freddie in A Room with a View, one of my teenage favourites. Yes, I confess that my infatuation with the movie probably had at least something to do with a young Helena Bonham-Carter but I blame Julian Sands, too.

Written by MC on Setting Orange, the 51 day of Bureaucracy in the YOLD 3177 (2011-09-27).

Wonderful walkthrough of the MUT by John Davis.

Written by MC on Setting Orange, the 51 day of Bureaucracy in the YOLD 3177 (2011-09-27).

Written by MC on Setting Orange, the 51 day of Bureaucracy in the YOLD 3177 (2011-09-27).

I wrote a report on the work (in Swedish) in August that some of you might want to read.

On August 9 I sent radns to FreeBSD ports. I also have a preliminary Debian package ready. See the project web pages.

Since then I haven't spent much time with radns but what I have done is to add better integration with the resolvconf program in Debian. You see, resolvconf assumes that you're running as root and radns quickly gives up root and runs as a non-privileged user. I have added some sort of privelege seperation to work around this. I did the work in a separate program and will soon integrate with radns. Look for it in the git repo.

Written by MC on Boomtime, the 48 day of Bureaucracy in the YOLD 3177 (2011-09-24).

I wouldn't normally write about it here but after the purchase I noticed the phrase "Made with Nano Technology" on JohnnyLove's web site. I would like to comment on that.

Nanotechnology? Really? Is the coat full of tiny robots that rebuild the coat when needed like in a Charlie Stross novel? While that would be insanely cool it's not even close to the truth. What they really mean is that the cotton garment has been treated with silicone and seems more or less water resistant and wind proof. Considering the really wet and windy summer we've had here in the south of Sweden this is certainly a good thing but I don't think nanotechnology comes into it.

Funny.

Btw, the price mentioned on the web page, €4200, is clearly wrong too, by an order of magnitude or so…

Written by MC on Boomtime, the 48 day of Bureaucracy in the YOLD 3177 (2011-09-24).

Written by MC on Boomtime, the 48 day of Bureaucracy in the YOLD 3177 (2011-09-24).

Den är byggd runt en Freescale i.MX515 SoC med en ARM Cortex-A8 (ARMv7) på 800MHz och 512 meg RAM. Det är 16 gig fastlödd SSD på den men det finns plats för SD och microSD. Den är alltså ganska långsam och har lite ont om resurser jämfört med andra netbooks och ultraportabla laptops.

Den bootar trots sin sega CPU ändå snabbt. Det tar 16 sekunder från att jag trycker på strömbrytaren tills jag har en login-prompt i console. Det tar 6 sekunder att starta X och få en prompt som frågar efter min SSH-lösenfras. Direkt efteråt har jag en terminalemulator att börja arbeta i, snabbare om jag skippar X, förstås.

Shutdown tar 4 sekunder. Jag har inte fått suspend att fungera. Någon som fått det att fungera?

Dess största nackdel är att en ganska blank skärm:

och att den inte har trådat nät. Det senare löste jag med ett USB Ethernet som jag hittade på som noname-produkt på Claes Ohlson för 200 spänn! Det är i själva verket en Good Way AE2220 och fungerar både under Linux och FreeBSD.

För att göra burken lite mer användbar stängde jag av en massa saker. Med 512 meg RAM och seg CPU vill man inte köra en full Gnome-desktop, om man nu någonsin vill det. I stället kompilerade jag mcwm på den och försöker låta bli att köra tungrodda Firefox eller Chromium på den. Det är ganska slött. Emacs, en bunt urxvt och lite kompileringar fungerar bra på den och som SSH-terminal fungerar den utmärkt.

Jag har också mappat om det amriska tangentbordet till min egen svenska layout både i console och i X. Jag slänger upp konfigurationsfilerna för det någonstans snart. Hojta till om ni vill ha dem och det är bråttom.

Knapparna för backlight fungerar inte i min miljö, så jag skrev ett litet tämligen trivialt program för att sätt backlight-nivån. Publiceras snart. Dito för batteriindikatorn.

Tyvärr är burken lite instabil. Den kraschar ibland men den har aldrig kraschat när jag arbetat på den. Jag tror det har något att göra med någon strömsparfunktion, kanske för skärmen. Även om jag slår av skärmsläckaren med "xset s off" så slår den nämligen av skärmen. Ibland går den inte att väcka. Jag har inte haft tid eller möjlighet att debugga.

Written by MC on Pungenday, the 39 day of Bureaucracy in the YOLD 3177 (2011-09-15).

Det stora nya är förstås RANDR-stödet. Nu vet alltså mcwm åtminstone något om olika fysiska skärmar. Det finns också nya tangentkombinationer för att flytta fönster mellan skärmar.

Jag har faktiskt även hunnit peta in lite ändringar även efter releasen. Det allra senaste finns förstås i git:

git://hack.org/mcwm

Om ni inte sett det finns en brevlista för mcwm. Det är bara jag som skriver på den och det kommer ganska sällan brev. Skriv ”subscribe” i body på ett mail till

mcwm-announce-request på list.hack.org

för att gå med i den.

Written by MC on Boomtime, the 61 day of Confusion in the YOLD 3177 (2011-07-26).

Den har tre ordinare knappar (riktigt mittenknapp är viktigt!) och dessutom scrollhjul. Den har dessutom uttag för två ytterligare knappar. Kanske försöker jag hitta ett par pedaler!

Unboxing:

På lägsta känsligheten, 800 cpi, är den lätt att ha att göra med. Just nu kör jag den på det dubbla och det tar nog en stund att vänja sig vid hur lite jag behöver röra kulan.

En intressant sak är att kulan är exakt samma diameter som en biljardboll! Jag funderar på att köpa en biljardboll, kanske en 3:a, att ersätta den med. Någon som vet var jag kan köpa enstaka biljardbollar?

Written by MC on Sweetmorn, the 55 day of Confusion in the YOLD 3177 (2011-07-20).

Written by MC on Setting Orange, the 54 day of Confusion in the YOLD 3177 (2011-07-19).

Written by MC on Boomtime, the 51 day of Confusion in the YOLD 3177 (2011-07-16).

Med xmodmap är det förstås busenkelt. Nu är det äntligen löst med XKB också. Det nämns inte mycket om det här i manualer så det tog en stund att klura ut.

Så här gör man:

Skapa en beskrivning av ditt totala tangentbord. Så här ser min ut beskrivning ut:

xkb_keymap {
  xkb_keycodes { include "xfree86+aliases(qwerty)" };
  xkb_types { include "complete" };
  xkb_compat { include "complete" };
  xkb_symbols { include "pc+se(se)+mchack(se)" };
  // xkb_symbols { include "pc+us+mchack(us)" };
  xkb_geometry { include "hhk(win2)" };
};

Spara den här beskrivningen i en katalog för XKB. Jag har den i ~/mc/conf/xkb/mchack.xkb.

Observera ”mchack(se)”. Det är det som är mina egna definitioner.

En rad är utkommenterad. Använd den i stället om du vill ha amriskt tangentbord men med svenska tecken med AltGr + krullar och hakar, som i swascii.

Skapa sedan en katalog som heter symbols i samma katalog och stoppa in dina förändringar och döp den filen till vad du skrivit ovan, alltså i mitt fall ”mchack”. Där stoppar jag in:

// Swedish map for use with HHKB Pro 2 with SW 01 1010, that is Lite ext,
// Backspace on rubout and diamond gives Alt.
default partial alphanumeric_keys modifier_keys
xkb_symbols "se" {
    include "latin(type2)"
    include "se(se)"

    key <AE04> { [ 4, dollar ] };
    key <BKSL> { [ apostrophe, asterisk, grave ] };
    key <TLDE> { [ less, greater ] };
    key <AD11> { [ aring, Aring, braceright, bracketright ] };
    key <AD12> { [ asciitilde, asciicircum, dead_diaeresis, dead_circumflex] };
    key <AC10> { [ odiaeresis, Odiaeresis, bar, backslash ] };
    key <AC11> { [ adiaeresis, Adiaeresis, braceleft, bracketleft ] };

    key <LWIN> { [ Hyper_L ] };
    key <LALT> { [ Meta_L ] };

    // Override default in se(se) which has RALT as Level 3 shift.
    // Stops xkbcomp's complaints about multiple symbols.
    key <RALT> { 
      type[Group1]="TWO_LEVEL",
      type[Group2]="TWO_LEVEL",
      type[Group3]="TWO_LEVEL",
      type[Group4]="TWO_LEVEL",
      symbols[Group1] = [ Meta_R ], 
      symbols[Group2] = [ Meta_R ], 
      symbols[Group3] = [ Meta_R ], 
      symbols[Group4] = [ Meta_R ]
    };

    key <RWIN> { [ ISO_Level3_Shift ] };

    modifier_map Mod1 { Meta_L, Meta_R };
    modifier_map Mod4 { Hyper_L };
    modifier_map Mod5 { ISO_Level3_Shift };
};

// American version of the above but with Swedish characters on
// AltGr+brackets, braces, backslash and bar.
partial alphanumeric_keys modifier_keys
xkb_symbols "us" {
    include "us"

    key <AD11> { [ bracketleft, braceleft, adiaeresis, Adiaeresis ] };
    key <AD12> { [ bracketright, braceright, aring, Aring ] };
    key <BKSL> { [ backslash, bar, odiaeresis, Odiaeresis ] };

    key <LWIN> { [ Hyper_L ] };
    key <LALT> { [ Meta_L ] };
    key <RALT> { [ Meta_R ] };
    key <RWIN> { [ ISO_Level3_Shift ] };

    modifier_map Mod1 { Meta_L, Meta_R };
    modifier_map Mod4 { Hyper_L };
    modifier_map Mod5 { ISO_Level3_Shift };
};

Ladda allt det goda med:

% xkbcomp -I/home/mc/conf/xkb ~/conf/xkb/keymap/mchack.xkb $DISPLAY

eller din motsvarighet för hemkatalog.

OBS! Det skall inte vara något mellanslag efter ”-I”.

Klart!

Jag får fortfarande lite felmeddelanden från xkbcomp men alla handlar om obundna keycodes. De obundna symbolerna spelar nog ingen roll.

Written by MC on Boomtime, the 51 day of Confusion in the YOLD 3177 (2011-07-16).

Jag har nästan så länge jag använt X kört min egen tangentbordslayout på många olika fysiska tangentbord. Jag har hela den tiden använt xmodmap för att mappa om tangentbordslayouten. Några av mina layouter finns här:

https://hack.org/mc/files/

Observera att mappningarna är beroende av vilken X-server man kör och möjligen vad man ställt in tangentbordet på, om det nu går att anpassa, som till exempel HHKB-familjen.

Det har bitit mig några gånger under utvecklingen av min fönsterhanterare att jag kört en tangentbordslayout som varit långt från det som etablerats som de facto-standard. Till exempel hade det inte slagit mig att Mod2 brukade användas för Num Lock! Hade jag kommit ihåg det hade jag förstås inte valt den som modifier för att göra saker med fönstren!

När jag upptäckte det bytte jag förstås fort till att använda Mod4 som magisk modifier för mcwm:s fönsteroperationer. Mod4 är traditionellt bunden till Hyper och Hyper är i sin tur oftast bunden till Windows-tangenterna på ett modernt PC-tangentbord. Windows-tangenten passar ju bra för just fönsteroperationer.

Sedan jag ändrade fungerar alltså mcwm rätt OK på ett standardtangentbord utan att behöva mappa om det. Den stora majoriteten av användare mappar nog inte om sitt tangentbord överhuvudtaget och nöjer sig med att, på sin höjd, välja default för sitt språk.

Ett HHKB, emellertid, har förstås inga Windows-tangenter. Jag fortsatte alltså köra min egen xmodmap för HHKB där jag mappade den vänstra av de tangenter det står ”Alt” på (eller där det skulle ha stått Alt om det stod något alls på knapparna på mitt tangentbord) till att generera Mod4-modifiermasken.

Jag hade inte brytt mig om dipswitcharna på mitt HHKB särskilt mycket så de keycodes jag fick var de som ges per default. Jag kollade helt enkelt efter med xev vad som genererades och mappade om som jag ville ha det.

Jag har kommit på att det kanske är ett misstag att göra så, alldeles särskilt om jag skulle få för mig att trycka in mitt HHKB Pro 2 i en annan maskin någonstans och vill att det skall fungera åtminstone någorlunda som ett vanligt PC-tangentbord.

Jag har följaktligen just ställt om mitt tangentbord till 011010, som betyder ”Lite ext” som ger mig Windows-tangenter överhuvudtaget, ”Backspace” för att radera och att diamantangenterna skall ge Alt-tangenternas keycodes. Efter det bestämde jag för att göra en ny layout utifrån de keycodes som ges nu, men denna gång tänkte jag försöka använda XKB-utökningen.

Som ni säkert känner till har X inte mindre än två sätt att ändra tangentbordslayouter: det gamla core-protokollets sätt, som man normalt som användare kommer åt med kommandot xmodmap, och en utökning, kallad XKB (eller ibland XKEYBOARD), som man till exempel kommer åt med setxkbmap.

Det är nog bara gamla stötar som jag som fortfarande använder xmodmap, i alla fall om man använder en X-server som X.org eller XFree86. Jag har tidigare inte riktigt orkat sätta mig in i den något håriga XKB men igår ikväll gjorde jag ett första försök.

Resultatet ser hittills ut så här:

// For use with HHKB Pro 2 with SW 01 1010, that is Lite ext,
// Backspace on rubout and diamond gives Alt.
partial alphanumeric_keys modifier_keys
xkb_symbols "mc2" {
    include "latin(type2)"
    include "se(se)"

    key <AE04> { [ 4, dollar ] };
    key <BKSL> { [ apostrophe, asterisk, grave ] };
    key <TLDE> { [ less, greater ] };
    key <AD11> { [ aring, Aring, braceright, bracketright ] };
    key <AD12> { [ asciitilde, asciicircum, dead_diaeresis, dead_circumflex] };
    key <AC10> { [ odiaeresis, Odiaeresis, bar, backslash ] };
    key <AC11> { [ adiaeresis, Adiaeresis, braceleft, bracketleft ] };

    key <LWIN> { [ Hyper_L ] };
    key <LALT> { [ Meta_L ] };
    key <RALT> { [ Meta_R ] };
    key <RWIN> { [ ISO_Level3_Shift ] };

    modifier_map Mod1 { Meta_L, Meta_R };
    modifier_map Mod4 { Hyper_L };
    modifier_map Mod5 { ISO_Level3_Shift };
};

Det där tryckte jag in i, i mitt fall, /usr/local/share/X11/xkb/symbols/se och gjorde sedan:

% setxkbmap -v 100 -geometry "hhk(win2)" se mc2

Det verkar fungera. Frågar jag X-servern hur layouten ser ut med xkbprint får jag detta som svar:

Jag har ännu inte listat ut hur jag får det där i en egen konfigurationsfil skild från systemets men det kan väl inte vara svårt?

En annan sak som är smått irriterande är att för att generera Control-] måste jag nu trycka Control-AltGr-Shift-å i stället för, som förr, bara Control-å! Det har jag inte löst ännu. Tips är välkomna.

Written by MC on Confuflux in the YOLD 3177 (2011-07-15).

https://hack.org/mc/git/mcwm/

Obs! Ingen webfront. Använd git direkt.

Det är inte färdigt än. Jag har till exempel inte testat att byta modes. Det finns heller ännu inte separata workspaces på olika fysiska skärmar. Det kommer.

Written by MC on Boomtime, the 6 day of Confusion in the YOLD 3177 (2011-06-01).

Sedan tre–fyra dagar är radns, tror jag, RFC 6106 compliant och kan både RDNSS- och DNSSL-optionen. Det återstår naturligtvis massor av test och koden är bergis mycket buggig. Ni får hemskt gärna testa den.

Jag har hittills själv bara testat under FreeBSD på x86 men jag har fått rapport att den åtminstone kompilerar under Linux med målarkitektur cris också.

OBS! Den här versionen är enbart i git än så länge.

https://hack.org/mc/hacks/radns/

Det är mycket kod som ändrats. Minneshanteringen är helt omskriven. Koden är ganska mycket uppsnyggad. Den nya funktionen är inte så stor men kanske tillräcklig för att vara spännande. Både adresser till DNS-servrar (RDNSS-optionen) och en lista med domänsuffix (DNSSL) stöds nu.

För att kompilera på Linux måste man slänga på -lrt också.

Det är en del varningar, framför allt från debugutskriften. Jag skall rensa upp när jag får lite energi igen, och fixa Makefile och liknande så det går att kompilera utan större handpåläggning på fler system.

Det är förstås en massa testande och debuggande kvar. Jag skall också försöka paketera radns för FreeBSD ports och göra ett Debian-paket.

Bara härom dagen fick jag möjlighet att testa som hastigast under Linux x86. Det verkar fungera!

Henrik ”gsson” Gustafsson har skickat mig en patch för MacOS X också men den har varken jag eller gsson haft möjlighet att testa ännu. Jag stoppar troligen in den så småningom. Tack, gsson!

När jag började hacka på radns igen så noterade jag efter ett tag att det numera finns ganska mycket stöd för RFC 6106. En RFC som är Draft Standard snarare än Experimental får tydligen igång utvecklare. Det finns nu alltså patchar till både rtsold i både FreeBSD som OpenBSD för att stöda RDNSS- och DNSSL-optionerna! Det är två separata patchar av två olika utvecklare, alltså.

Jag försöker ändå göra klart radns, för dels siktar den på att vara portabel på ett annat sätt, dels tror jag att flera implementationer driver standardiseringen och best practises framåt. Det kunde man inte minst märka när statusen på RFC 5006 diskuterades på v6ops-listan och existerande implementationer direkt ledde till skapandet av RFC 6106.

Efter att radns blev feature complete tröttnade jag lite på att lägga min lilla fritid (framför allt någon timme på tidiga mornar) på den. För att slappna av lite hackade jag i stället in ett första försök till riktigt stöd för RANDR-utökningen i mcwm.

Jag har inte pushat än, men nu vet mcwm om storleken på fysiska skärmar och tar hänsyn till det vid sådana saker som maximering, flytt till hörnen, et cetera. Det blev mycket trevligare att köra mcwm med flera skärmar! Håll koll på git så får ni smaka.

https://hack.org/mc/hacks/mcwm/

Written by MC on Boomtime, the 6 day of Confusion in the YOLD 3177 (2011-06-01).

Sist jag köpte en portabel musikspelare var det en minidisc-spelare. Det var över 10 år sedan. Det var rätt smärtsamt att överföra musik till MD. Jag orkade inte med det och slutade använda spelaren inom ett år. Sedan dess har jag inte använt någon portabel musikspelare alls, om man inte räknar min Thinkpad som portabel musikspelare, förstås.

Jag kollade runt lite på det nuvarande utbudet. Utvecklingen har gått lite framåt, kan man säga.

Det jag framför allt var ute efter var något som kunde spela FLAC och Ogg, gärna med fri programvara. En bonus vore om det fanns ett utbytbart lagringsmedium på spelaren. Jag blev ganska förvånad då jag hittade den ARM-baserade SanDisk Sansa Clip + för 300 pix på Kjell & Company.

Den uppfyller alla kraven. Den kan spela Ogg och FLAC out of the box och har plats för microSDHC, som alltså borde ge upp till 32 gig utöver det inbyggda minnet. Spelaren stöds dessutom av det fria firmware-alternativet Rockbox!

Jag rusade förstås iväg och köpte en spelare. Fick snabbt in Rockbox på den med RockboxUtility. Jag fick dock låna en annan dator i hushållet eftersom Utility inte snurrar under FreeBSD ännu.

Allt fungerade bra redan från början, utom möjligen att spela Doom på den, men det är displayens fel snarare än något annat. Hastigheten är det inget fel på. Det är lite skrämmande att Doom överhuvudtaget är portat till den lilla spelaren!

Jag kan bara konstatera att min lilla musikspelare, som är mindre än en tändsticksask, har väldigt mycket mer CPU och disk än vad de datorer som, säg, Ken och Dennis utvecklade Unix på och använde de första tio–femton åren. Tillsammans. Spelaren har också (utan SD-kort) mer än 100 gånger så stort lagringsutrymme som min första hårddisk.

Jag har sett rykten om att SanDisk själva släppte information om spelaren till Rockbox-projektet men jag vet inte om det är sant. Det vore trevligt om det var så. Hur som helst är det en väldig trevlig miljö.

Jag har inte hunnit göra något i Rockbox själv men det kanske jag kan hitta tid till så småningom.

Written by MC on Sweetmorn, the 63 day of Discord in the YOLD 3177 (2011-05-16).

Så här såg det ut när Minix 1.5 bootade på Atari ST-emulatorn hatari hemma hos mig för någon vecka sedan.

Jag bootade med diskett-images härifrån:

http://www.minix3.org/previous-versions/Atari/

även som bzippad tarboll.

Manualen finns här:

http://www.minix3.org/previous-versions/bzipped/Ref-man-1.5.tar.bz2

Efter att du bootat kan du logga in som Andy Tanenbaum med ”ast” och lösenordet ”Lösenord”, fast på nederländska: ”Wachtwoord”. root-lösen är ”Geheim”.

Det går inte snabbt men roligt är det.

Riktig ST-hårdvara troligen på gång i mitten av juni. Få se om jag kan lyckas boota då också. Måste komma på något sätt att skriva till diskett. Jag vet inte ens om jag har en fungerande diskettstation.

Written by MC on Prickle-Prickle, the 56 day of Discord in the YOLD 3177 (2011-05-09).

Det slog henne för ett tag sedan att det nog vore praktiskt om jag också visste vad hon planerade om dagarna, till exempel för att veta hur sent hon slutar en viss dag. Hon ville alltså dela med sig av sin Google Calendar. Men hur?

Google tillåter att man delar ut sin kalender till andra som använder Google Calendar. Det kräver förstås att man är inloggad hos Google. De har också något de kallar en ”privat” URL till en fil i iCalender-format för export. Den kan man komma åt helt utan inloggning. Jag fick den privata URLen till Petras kalender och skrev följande funktion:

(defun pcal ()
  "Import Petra's calendar."
  (interactive)
  (if (shell-command "fetch -q -o ~/conf/petra-basic.ics https://www.google.com/calendar/ical/...") 
      (progn
        (if (file-exists-p "~/conf/petra-cal")
            (delete-file "~/conf/petra-cal"))

        (if (get-buffer "petra-cal")
            (kill-buffer "petra-cal"))

        (if (get-buffer "petra-basic.ics")
            (kill-buffer "petra-basic.ics"))

        (icalendar-import-file "~/conf/petra-basic.ics"
                               "~/conf/petra-cal"))))

Programmet fetch ingår i FreeBSD:s base. Det hämtar en fil på angiven URL och lagrar den lokalt. Hade inte fetch redan funnits hade jag kanske använt wget eller curl i stället.

Observera att funktionen icalender-import-file är stendum. Om du kör den två gånger på samma iCalender-fil så kommer din Emacs Calendar att ha samma händelser dubblerade. Det är därför jag raderar filen petra-cal och tar bort eventuell kalenderbuffert innan jag gör importen.

Nu fungerar allt. Jag använder själv enbart Emacs Calendar för att ha koll på datum och sådant men nu får jag alltså också markeringar när Petra har antecknat något för dagen och kan lätt se när hon förväntas hem.

För mina egna kalenderbehov använder jag en vanlig textfil per år med veckovyer som fungerar både som löpande journal och kalender för att komma ihåg saker. Kombinerat med Emacs Calender för att slå upp datum fungerar det rätt bra. Jag började med det här systemet 1999 och med tiden har jag blivit rätt van vid det. Jag brukar producera kanske 1–2 megabyte text per år i en sådan fil. En slags Org Mode light, kanske. Den senaste tiden har jag lekt lite med Org Mode för att se om jag kan gå över till det men har kommit fram till att det jag har är gott nog, åtminstone tills vidare.

Written by MC on Prickle-Prickle, the 56 day of Discord in the YOLD 3177 (2011-05-09).

Jag velade med ansökan, för jag visste inte riktigt hur jag skulle argumentera för att jag skulle få pengar eller vad pengarna skulle användas till. Lön? Det har jag svårt att argumentera för. Vad skulle jag säga?

Kanske en vecka innan deadline till Internetfonden började jag ändå skriva på en ansökan…

Projektet jag sökte om är radns. Det är ett litet klientprogram som fångar upp en adress till en DNS-server som en IPv6-router (kanske, om RDNSS-optionen finns med) skickar ut och stoppar adressen i systemet så att andra program kan slå upp namn.

Min klient fungerar åtminstone under FreeBSD (primär utvecklingsplattform), OpenBSD och Debian GNU/Linux. Åtminstone en tidigare version kompilerade även under MacOS X men OS X har ett annat sätt att tala om för systemet var det finns en DNS-server så den biten är inte fixad. Det kanske någon Mac-hacker har lust att fixa? Det är möjligt att delar av koden också skulle kunna fungera under Windows, i alla fall om man plockar bort unixismerna om daemon-skapande och sådant.

Från början är radns en förmiddags fulhack som växte lite. Det finns en hel del att snygga upp. Det hoppas jag också hitta lite tid att göra någon gång.

Mer specifikt gällde min ansökan att anpassa radns till RFC 6106, den nya, blivande standarden. Den nuvarande implementationen följer alltså den äldre och experimentella RFC 5006. Arbetet att ordna anpassningen verkar närmast trivialt och radns i sig själv är heller inget stort eller särskilt avancerat program.

Jag tar faktiskt åt mig åtminstone lite av äran att det överhuvudtaget finns en RFC på ”standards track” numera. Det diskuterades för strax över ett år sedan vad det skulle bli av RFC 5006 i v6ops- och 6man-arbetsgrupperna inom Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), det närmaste Internet kommer ett standardiseringsorgan. RDNSS-optionens liv som framtida standard hängde rätt mycket på om det fanns körande kod och om någon använde den. Det visade det sig göra, bland annat genom att flera pekade på radns. Se också mitt tidigare blogginlägg om saken.

Eftersom det verkade vara så lite arbete att anpassa klienten till den nya RFC:n slängde jag i ansökan också med att jag vill paketera radns som åtminstone FreeBSD ports (nu nästan klart) och som Debian-paket. Det har jag länge velat göra i vilket fall.

Jag sökte inte pengar för att göra själva jobbet. Jag kom som sagt inte på hur jag skulle rättfärdiga det. I stället sökte jag pengar för att besöka nästa IETF-möte och för att Petra skall kunna vara ledig från jobbet under mötet.

För någon vecka sedan fick jag ett brev som bara innehöll ”Ring mig!” från en projektledare på .SE. Jag klarade tyvärr inte av att ringa men efter lite brevväxling blev det så småningom ett möte i Malmö. Vi möttes faktiskt på Glassfabriken! Dottern var med, förstås. Citat från den yngste medlemmen på mötet: ”Kaka! Gott!”, men det sades innan vi fick sällskap, sedan blev hon lite skygg.

Det verkar alltså som om .SE valt att sponsra min resa. .SE släppte den 13:e dennes ett pressmeddelande med titeln Internetfonden finansierar 14 nya projekt där mitt projekt är med. Tyvärr har de inte länkat till några projektsidor, konstigt nog.

Det återstår att se om jag får några pengar. Jag vet egentligen inte mycket mer än.

Det är trevligt att de valt ut mitt lilla projekt även om det också är ganska pinsamt. Det måste ju finnas värdigare, mer ambitiösa teknikprojekt än mitt triviala hack? Jag brottades med ganska stora skuld- och/eller skamkänslor kring det när jag först fick beskedet. Det är också därför jag inte bloggat om det förrän nu.

Jag hoppas att det till slut kommer något bra ur det.

Written by MC on Prickle-Prickle, the 41 day of Discord in the YOLD 3177 (2011-04-24).

Lätt fixat. Jag måste minnas mellan körningarna vilken fil som det står ”No next” i:

echo $imagefile > .last
    

och när det är dags att lägga till nya bilder så:

if [ -f .last ]
then
    lastimage=`cat .last`
fi

och

if ! [ -f $imagefile ] || [ x${imagefile} = x${lastimage} ]

Följaktligen finns en ny release av simgal:

https://hack.org/mc/hacks/simgal/

Written by MC on Sweetmorn, the 38 day of Discord in the YOLD 3177 (2011-04-21).

Det är inte alls så att jag tycker speciellt bra om Bourne shell eller speciellt illa om zsh. Jag använder zsh som mitt loginskal på de flesta platser! Det är bara det att jag gärna skulle ha sett att simgal kunde köras på vilken unixhoj som helst. Det är illa nog att behöva installera ImageMagick men att dra in ett skal till också? Det finns bergis de som är religiösa nog att tveka där.

Jag slutade tänka på det och accepterade mitt öde.

Trodde jag.

Den senaste tiden har jag skrivit en del script i rc, skalet i Plan 9 och Tenth Edition Unix. Då slog det mig: shift i rc finns ju i Bourne också! Duh! En sådan här konstruktion i en funktion i Bourne shell:

fileloop() 
{
    prev=''    
    for current
    do
        shift
        next=$1

        # do something to $prev, $current and $next 
        # ...

        prev=$current    
    done
}

ger mig ju både nuvarande, föregående och nästa filnamn! Ta-da!

Utifrån det blev jag lite inspirerad och skrev om hela simgal, nu med funktioner och ett väldigt enkelt huvudprogram:

[ -d $thumbdir ] || mkdir $thumbdir
[ -d $scaledir ] || mkdir $scaledir

header
fileloop $images
footer

SLOCCount tycker att det totalt är 127 rader kod.

Demoalbum finns här:

https://hack.org/mc/gallery/

Här är scriptet:

https://hack.org/mc/hacks/simgal/

Written by MC on Boomtime, the 34 day of Discord in the YOLD 3177 (2011-04-17).

http://www.open-video.org/details.php?videoid=8038

Det är en demonstration av en fönsterhanterare av den dynamiska tiling-smaken från 1987. Jag vet inte vad den använder för fönstersystem i presentationen. Det enda som nämns är ”Sun window”. I en ;login:-artikel (här återpublicerad i AUUGN:s nyhetsbrev) kan man emellertid läsa att den använder ”CMU/ITC Andrew Protocol”, så gissningsvis är det Andrew-fönstersystemet vi ser.

Som nämns i artikeln så portades fönsterhanteraren sedan till X Window System. Det finns ingen anledning att tro att det gick snabbare då, speciellt inte på samma hårdvara.

Tänk på hastigheten som fönstren ritas om. Gah! Så frustrerande.

Filmen är en utmärkt illustration till varför jag länge höll mig kvar vid att antingen köra MGR, som ändå var förhållandevis snabb på vanliga fönsteroperationer och text, eller helt enkelt lät bli att köra något fönstersystem överhuvudtaget.

Jämför gärna fönstersystemet i filmen med hastigheten på Blit som alltså kom många år tidigare och som troligen kördes på långsammare hårdvara. Här är länken till Rob Pikes Blit-demonstration, den som jag också länkade till i ett tidigare inlägg:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waTL1abCm9I

Visst är det intressant att det ser ut som att det gick snabbare 1982 än 1987?

För övrigt rekommenderar jag en skrift av skaparen av Andrew-fönstersystemet där han i december 2002 skriver Window System Design: If I had to do it over again in 2002. Författaren är James Gosling som nu för tiden troligen är mer känd för att ha skapat Java än för sina fönstersystem.

Med tanke på dess design kan jag tänka mig att skaparna av Wayland Display Server blivit inspirerade. Jag har hittills inte tittat så noga på Wayland men nog påminner det en hel del om vad Gosling föreslår?

Written by MC on Sweetmorn, the 28 day of Discord in the YOLD 3177 (2011-04-11).

Simgal har sin egen websida här:

https://hack.org/mc/hacks/simgal/

och ett git-repo här:

https://hack.org/mc/git/simgal/

OBS! Bara ett repo, ingen web-frontend (än).

Written by MC on Boomtime, the 24 day of Discord in the YOLD 3177 (2011-04-07).

Jag har skrivit en fotalbumgenerator. Jag har inte packat ihop den på något snyggt sätt än men ni kan se lite av dess resultat under mina publika album. Jag meddelar här när koden dyker upp på lagom plats.

Tidigare använde jag Lukas Ertls swiggle som jag hade gjort en del triviala ändringar i men retade mig ibland på den och började för ett tag sedan leta efter alternativ. Jag tyckte lazygal var rätt lovande men det hade dels en hel del beroenden och betedde sig inte som jag hade förväntat.

Då slog det mig: Borde jag inte kunna göra något enkelt med ett litet skalscript? Alldeles säkert har många redan gjort liknande saker. Det verkar finnas massor i alla upptänkliga språk och skal på nätet. Kanske en slags rite of passage för hackers som jag av någon anledning missat? Dags att hacka!

Jag skrev ett litet script som använde convert från ImageMagick för att göra en bunt tumnaglar över alla bilder i en katalog (jag sorterade med ls -tr *.jpg) och slänga in dem i en enda HTML-fil med länkar till de stora bilderna. Scriptet var busenkelt, blev pyttelitet och tog förutsägbart nog jättelång tid att köra över ~300 bilder.

Den uppenbara optimeringen var att låta bli att generera tumnaglar om en tumnagel för bilden redan existerade. Vips så flög programmet fram då det bara behövde jobba när jag lade till nya bilder.

Nästa steg var att skapa en HTML-fil per bild, för jag vill ha två steg till det stora fotografiet: Först ett stort index med alla tumnaglar, sedan en skalad förhandsvisning och sist den stora bilden, precis som den kom från digitalkameran.

Det var också lätt gjort.

Efter det körde jag fast lite, för jag ville också ha länkar till föregående och nästa bild i förhandsvisningen. Hur skulle jag göra det? Med ett språk lite mer kraftfullt än Bourne shell hade jag gjort en lista eller en array med filnamnen i och saken skulle vara biff.

Efter en stunds funderande gav jag upp och fuskade: Jag använde zsh:s arrayer.

images=(`ls -tr *.jpg`)

Vips funkade även det:

# If this isn't the first image, link to the previous
# image with a thumbnail.
if [ $i != 1 ]
then
  echo "<a href='$images[$i - 1].html' accesskey='p'><img src='thumbs/$images[$i - 1]' width='150' height='150'></a>"
else
  echo "No previous."
fi

# If this isn't the last image, link to the next image
# with a thumbnail.
if [ $i != $max ]
then
  echo "<a href='$images[$i + 1].html' accesskey='n'><img src='thumbs/$images[$i + 1]' width='150' height='150'></a>"
else
  echo "No next."
fi

Ja, zsh:s arrayer börjar faktiskt med 1. Och, ja, du kan vandra runt i mina album med N och P. Det är Alt-Shift-N…, i alla fall i Firefox på unixar och Windows. IE8 verkar kräva ett slag på returtangenten också.

Färdigt. Nu var jag på samma nivå som swiggle, ungefär. Ja, OK, swiggle kan lite tuffare sortering också.

Jag ville också ha EXIF-data, åtminstone en tidsstämpel när bilden togs. Först använde jag exiftags men så hittade jag jhead som kunde inte bara det utan en del andra trevliga saker.

Med jheads hjälp (och jpegtran) passade jag också på att peta in automagisk rotation av bilderna också, om nu EXIF-data sa att det behövdes. Hustruns nya kamera känner av hur hon håller den, nämligen.

För att stoppa in kommentarer under varje bild såg jag att JPEG-formatet har något som kallas COM-block. I COM-blocket kan jhead stoppa in godtyckliga strängar. Det använder jag nu för eventuella bildkommentarer.

Efter det skrev jag lite CSS för albumen. Det ser inte så pjåkigt ut och fungerar förstås också bra helt utan CSS.

Det här duger ganska bra för mina små krav. Självklart görs allt det stora jobbet av convert, jhead och jpegtran. Det jag gjort är inte särskilt avancerat i sig utan en naturlig sammanfogning av vad som redan fanns fritt tillgängligt. Leve den fria programvaran!

Written by MC on Boomtime, the 19 day of Discord in the YOLD 3177 (2011-04-02).

Den främsta orsaken att jag gick till HTML5 var att det var så struligt med att servera XHTML med korrekt Content-Type. Se till exempel W3C:s Serving XHTML 1.0 för en lång diskussion om saken.

Gamla hederliga HTML4 eller till och med HTML2 hade kanske varit OK men jag tyckte jag för en gångs skull skulle försöka leva on the edge och se vad som hände. Jag verifierade förstås med W3C:s Validator-tjänst och testade med alla browsers jag hade tillgång till men såg ingenting konstigt.

Under det här året som gått har ingen sagt något alls om renderingen av mina websidor överhuvudtaget. Jag tror alltså att det lilla subset av HTML5 som jag valde var rätt OK.

Idag har jag gått till nästa nivå. Jag har framför allt stoppat in <nav>-taggar både i bloggen och på en hel del andra websidor. Jag har också stoppat in ytterligare taggar som ger lite semantik till texten men som i övrigt inte märks så mycket.

Jag har skrivit CSS som beskriver hur de här skall renderas för de som förstår sig på sådant. Hustruns IE8 förstod ingenting, så där såg navigeringen ut som en punktad lista. Samma sak, förstås, i Lynx och w3m. Det är OK det också, i och för sig, så jag kan tryggt säga att sidorna degraderar på ett ganska snällt sätt.

Written by MC on Sweetmorn, the 18 day of Discord in the YOLD 3177 (2011-04-01).

http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=155610

Se även Freshports:

http://www.freshports.org/x11-wm/mcwm/

Detta betyder att mcwm nu finns paketerad för åtminstone FreeBSD, NetBSD, PuppyLinux och OpenSuSE, om jag förstått det rätt. Jag gissar att det nu är för sent att försöka hitta på ett bättre namn åt mcwm…

Martin Samuelsson har byggt ett Debian-paket också. Om någon vill vara maintainer av det så får ni gärna höra av er.

Written by MC on Boomtime, the 4 day of Discord in the YOLD 3177 (2011-03-18).

Jag visste inte hur jag skulle laga 1600:n och bestämde mig att i stället köpa en ny dator. Jag hade en hel del pengar från sommarjobbet och försäljningen av min moped (även känd som Mopeden från Helvetet!!!!111!! eftersom den verkade vara ute efter mig).

Om någon förresten vet något alls om 1600:ns fönstersystem så meddela gärna mig! Manualer är bra, källkod bäst!

Eftersom det inte fanns någon datorbutik för privatpersoner överhuvudtaget i Hudiksvall på den tiden åkte jag ofta på små pilgrimsfärder till den stora staden Sundsvall för att besöka datorbutikerna där. Där fanns både butiker riktade till privatpersoner och mer företagsorienterade butiker som i alla fall inte omedelbart kastade ut tonåringar på besök.

Jag och min kompis Peter brukade hänga bland annat på Televerkets butik, som på den tiden sålde datorer (Spectravideo 728, om någon minns den), och prata med andra entusiaster. Någon gång 1986 eller 1987(?) såg jag också min första Amiga 1000. Den kraschade nästan direkt då jag petade på den, tyvärr.

När det var dags att shoppa ny dator blev jag speciellt intresserad av Atari Mega ST, särskilt med dess relativt högupplösta monokroma skärm. Jag vet inte vilken av Mega-modellerna det kan ha varit men det var alltså någon gång 1988. Den jag tittade på kom med en separat hårddisk på, tror jag, 20 megabyte och alltså en monokrom skärm med 640x400 i 72Hz. Knivskarp. Inte lika kul som 1600:ns vridbara skärm med 1024x768, förstås, men 1600:n kostade å andra sidan ny nästan 50 000 kronor (motsvarande 93,5 k idag), och det kan kanske inte jämföras med något för omkring 10 000.

Om jag minns rätt skulle paketet med hårddisk gå på omkring 14 000 kronor (~24 k idag). Jag tvekade. Jag minns inte riktigt varför jag tvekade. Det kan ha haft något med bristen på multi-tasking att göra. Om det var så måste jag ha varit helt slut i huvudet när jag till slut gav upp och köpte mig en PC/AT-klon med 20 meg disk, Hercules-grafik, monokrom (amber) skärm och MS-DOS för samma summa!

Jag gjorde dessutom precis som nästan alla andra och körde den bara som en snabbare PC, utan att ens försöka utnyttja 286:an till något spännande. Jag nöjde mig alltså med att köra MS-DOS! Befängt! Till och med en liten Forth som utnyttjade 286-instruktioner hade varit bättre.

Min retardering varade visserligen bara till -91 eller -92 då jag till min stora lycka fick tag i inte mindre än två begagnade Sun 3/60 och ordningen var återställd. För mer om det, se MC's Centre for Geek Pr0n.

Då och då har jag funderat på hur det hade varit om jag hade slagit till och köpt den där Atarin, i alla fall.

I helgen satt jag och lekte med ST-emulatorn hatari. Systemet är förvånansvärt rappt i användargränssnittet även om det påstås att emulatorn skall vara skapligt cykelexakt. Kanske var det grafiska gränssnittet så pass snabbt?

Jag drog ner lite utvecklingsmiljöer, däribland Pure C och assemblermiljön Hisoft Devpack. Jag har hunnit skriva några exempelprogram i C men ännu inte gett mig på assemblern. Vi får se om jag hittar någon tid till det.

Fönstersystemets API är förvånansvärt rättframt och det är enkelt att göra något i C även om jag erkänner att jag slogs lite grann mot Pure C:s egna motsvarighet till Make-filer.

I en gammal Byte från 1986 jag har liggande, troligen min första Byte någonsin, såg jag dessutom nyligen en annons för en annan C-kompilator till Atari, Mark Williams C:

Hade jag känt till vad jag känner till idag på den tiden hade jag definitivt köpte en Atari! Om någon råkar ha en kopia av Mark Williams C till Atari ST så är jag intresserad. Jag hittade också en fascinerande recension av MWC här:

http://www.atarimagazines.com/startv2n2/markwilliamsc.html

Vad tänkte jag göra med ST-emulatorn? Jag tänkte ägna mig åt lite kreativ nostalgi: Se vad jag med min kunskap idag skulle kunna ha gjort då om jag hade skaffat mig en ST. Jag är medveten om att det här inte alls är realistiskt men det har i alla fall potential att bli lite roligt.

Min första tanke var att skriva ett terminalprogram med flera samtidigt uppkopplade fönster mot värddatorn, ungefär i samma anda som Bell Labs Blit och dess efterföljare (Teletype 5620, AT&T 630, et cetera). Här nedan en 630, introducerad 1987, från omslaget till manulen på Bitsavers.

Blit och dess efterföljare var strikt talat inte grafiska terminaler och inte heller bara terminaler. Blit använder ett protokoll med paket med etiketter som talar om vilket fönster de skall till. Eftersom det är ett vanligt seriesnöre, möjligen över modem, behövs också felkorrigering och flödeskontroll.

Grafik görs inte med protokollet eller ESC-sekvenser, som på en vanlig grafikterminal, utan med nedladdade program som kör i egna fönster. Det är alltså egentligen en slags disklös arbetstation. Ofta använde man tvådelade program, där en del laddades ner och kördes lokalt i terminalen och den andra delen körde på servern. Ett typexempel på program som visar det här beteendet är texteditorn Sam, som fortfarande lever, fast nu under antingen Plan 9 eller i sin X-variant. Jag har hört talas om att den till och med finns portad till Windows!

Rob Pike beskriver Blit i The Blit: A Multiplexed Graphics Terminal och det finns en film bevarad från 1982, tror jag, där de förklarar hur den användes, inklusive en rolig bit där de visar hur en mus fungerar. Filmen finns till exempel på Youtube här:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waTL1abCm9I

OS:et i Blit var strax över 1000 rader C och kanske några hundra rader assembler. Det var multitaskande man saknade minnesskydd. Rätt imponerande, tycker jag.

Blit kommersialiserades först som AT&T Teletype 5620, fast med en annan processor än originalets 68k. 1987 kom efterföljaren AT&T 630 MTG, nu återigen med en 68k. 630:n hade en 16" monokrom skärm med 1024x1024. En bunt AT&T 630 MTG hade varit fina att ha i datorsalen på gymnasiet!

Som många läsare säkert redan känner till skrev jag 2003 en text jag kallade Datorn i skolan enligt MC. I den skissade jag bland annat på vad jag då önskade att min gymnasieskola hade satsat på när de förnyade maskinparken över sommaren mellan mitt första och andra år.

Jag blev så arg när jag kom tillbaka efter sommaren och insåg att de utan medverkan av eller ens förvarning till eleverna hade slösat 1,5 miljon (idag ungefär 2,6 miljoner enligt SCB) på en massa IBM PS/2:or!

I texten föreslår jag att gymnasieskolan kunde ha köpt en VAX och kört någon unixsmak i stället för en bunt oerhört underuttnyttjade IBM PS/2. På det viset hade vi fått en mycket mer tillfredsställande användarupplevelse för de allra flesta användarna, möjligen med undantag för de stackars CAD-användarna som kanske var lite väl sålda på AutoCAD.

Det är inte så lite önsketänkande i texten, för jag föreslår att man skall använda BSD. Mer realistiskt hade det kanske ändå varit med Ultrix, så hade man fått kanske fått support från leverantören, men det hade varit på bekostnad av tillgång till källkoden. Till och med VMS (eller rent av en Prime med PRIMOS) hade varit ett stort lyft jämfört med den dystra verkligheten. Det enda jag på rak arm kan komma på var positivt med PS/2:orna var de trevliga Model M-tangentborden!

Jag tänkte mig hur som helst när jag skrev texten att användare typiskt skulle sitta vid teckenterminaler. Jag nämner som exempel DEC:s egen VT320 eller kanske någon av Facits terminaler, exempelvis den trevliga Twist-terminalen.

När jag läser om den idag känns det som att riktiga terminaler kanske skulle ha blivit för dyrt. En Facit Twist kostade till exempel vid lanseringen 1986 över 12 000 kronor, vilket motsvarar ~23 000 idag. Jag gissar att DEC:s originalterminaler, som den VT320 jag nämnde, kostade mycket mer. Även om PS/2:orna kostade över 30 000 kronor i styck i den tidens penningvärde så är det rätt mycket begärt att betala nästan lika mycket för en bra mycket dummare teckenterminal.

Vad kostade då AT&T 630, som hade varit mycket trevligare? Det vet jag inte. Min Google-Fu är tydligen inte stark nog att hitta en prislista från AT&T. Någon?

Det uppenbara alternativet, när vi nu alltså pratar Atari ST-hackande och terminalemulering, är att trycka in en massa Atari ST som terminaler i stället. Mega ST-varianten med trevligare separat tangentbord hade nog varit trevligast. Utan hårddisk men med monokrom monitor kostade de omkring 10 000 kronor. Fläktlösa. Tysta. Aaah. Precis som teckenterminaler, AT&T:s Blit och 630:n. VAXen kan stå och brusa för sig själv.

Burkarna borde ha varit, just det, utrustade för att köra något slags fönsterbaserat terminalsystem, troligen också med inbyggd filöverföring. Ett sådant system hade varit billigt och troligen också så billigt att lärare och i alla fall de mest intresserade eleverna kunde ha samma slags 'terminal' hemma även om det antagligen inte hade varit riktigt lika roligt över 1200 eller 2400 bit/s som över 9600 eller 19200 b/s, som man troligen hade kunnat köra på skolan.

Jag skrev själv en VT100-emulator på skolans uppdrag som sedan användes i biblioteket för att automatiskt ringa upp och logga in på stadsbibliotekets Unix-dator för sökningar. Det var förstås på en PC med MS-DOS, men jag har svårt att föreställa mig att det hade varit så mycket svårare på en ST.

Den eller de gymnasieeleveer som blev satta att utföra jobbet hade ju ju inte nödvändigtvis behövt börja med att skriva ett eget operativsystem som Rob Pike, även om det naturligtvis i längden kanske hade varit både bra och roligt. Man behövde inte ens köra flera terminalfönster samtidigt till att börja med. I den absoluta början kanske till och med den VT52-emulerande terminalen som följer med systemet i en Atari ST kan duga, tills man fått upp farten på den egna emulatorn.

Hur som helst hade jag tänkt att detta skulle bli min första uppgift på Atari-emulatorn: ett program på ST:n som ger mig flera samtidiga terminaler och som pratar något enkelt protokoll över seriesnöret till program nummer två som sitter på lagom unixhoj och ger mig pty:er för varje fönster och pratar samma protokoll. Fönstren kunde sedan vara antingen vanliga teckenterminaler eller rent av ha stöd för några grafiska primitiver för att rita linjer eller geometriska figurer eller för att placera en bitmap på någon lagom pixelposition.

Jag letade först runt efter befintliga program och hittade utan större problem att fönstersystemet MGR som jag en gång i tiden använde mycket finns portat till MiNT på Atari ST. MGR innehåller också en mux för att multiplexa MGR-trafik över godtyckliga förbindelser, alltså även över vanlig seriellport. Det hade faktiskt fungerat. MiNT lanserades dock något för sent för min nostalgiska tripp.

För den intresserade nostalgikern så finns MGR för MiNT här:

ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/atari/INDEX

atarimgr.zoo är den ni söker. Sedan tillkomer rmgr.arc eller rmgr.lzh som förklaras i indexet som ”Howard's remote windows manager” och ”Multiple remote sessions thru a serial line”. Programmet rmgr ingår också i den MGR-distribution jag har liggande. Howard som nämns är Howard Chu enligt vad jag kan se i MGR-distributionen. Han skrev rmgr 1990 och baserade den på kod från screen, ett program jag liksom alldeles säkert många läsare fortfarande använder mycket.

I samma indexfil finns också:

uw.tar.Z        Unix Windows source for host
uwbin.arc       Unix Windows binaries for ST

Det här är John Bruners UW, ”a multiple-window interface to UNIX for the Macintosh computer”, där klientdelen för Atari ST är skriven av Hans-Martin Mosner, Brad Bosch och Brian Katzung. Datumet på README-filen är -85! Senaste filen är från -89.

Jag har tagit ner UW och startat i alla fall klientdelen under hatari. Jag har inte testat mot en seriellport än men resten av programmet ser ut att fungera.

Här med defaultfonten 7x13. Det finns en pyttefont på 4x7 som faktiskt ändå är läsbar som nog hade varit mer användbar på riktig hårdvara. Det går tyvärr inte att ta bort menyraden i programmet men det kanske kan fixas.

Källkoden på Unix-sidan ser ganska rättfram ut men kan inte kompilera rätt av under FreeBSD. Det ser ut att vara pty-problem men det går nog att ordna. I allra värsta fall kan man använda samma protokoll och skriva en ny serversida.

Precis det jag hade tänkt göra är alltså redan gjort! Det där hade varit väldigt användbart på 80-talet och en bra bit in på 90-talet, skulle jag tro. Det kanske är ett välkänt program i Atari-kretsar? Varför har det inte spridit sig mer, till andra plattformar? rmgr fanns, förvisso, som en del av MGR men det är heller inte så känt.

Jag har ännu inte hittat källkoden till UW-klienten för Atari ST. Om någon sitter på den, meddela gärna mig.

Jag vet inte riktigt vad nästa steg är. Troligen försöker jag få Unix-sidan att fungera och försöker sedan lista ut hur jag får hatari att prata seriellport, fast kanske bara på låtsas utan att faktiskt blanda in riktiga seriellportar. Jag tänkte köra mot min bärbara för att testa att köra UW.

I förbigående sagt fick jag också tips från Marcus Comstedt om Matt Dillons DNet:

Till Amiga finns DNet, som använder en serielina för att multiplexa olika tjänster, t.ex. filöverföringar men även "terminalfönster". http://aminet.net/comm/net/dnet2.10.13.lha (innehåller full källkod, dokumentation, samt även en implementation för Unix).

Det verkar också väldigt lovande.

Det vore också kul att experimentera med alternativa OS till Atari ST. Jag tog ner en install-image för Minix men lyckades inte boota från floppy. Skit bakom spakarna, troligen. Vore kul att se hur det fungerar. Det vore också roligt att se om jag kan få något litet eget att boota på bara metallen…

Happy hacking,
MC.

Written by MC on Setting Orange, the 70 day of Chaos in the YOLD 3177 (2011-03-11).

https://hack.org/mc/hacks/mcwm/

Jag har äntligen hittat lite tid att stoppa in en funktion så man snabbt kan tabba tillbaka till föregående fönster.

Det här betyder alltså att när man tabbar runt med fokus med MODKEY + Tab så minns mcwm var man började. Efter att ha bytt fokus (och alltså släppt upp MODKEY) så kommer man lätt tillbaka till fönstret man började i med ett tryck på MODKEY + Tab.

Det här är förstås samma funktion som många andra fönsterhanterare redan har. Exempelvis gör evilwm, openbox och till och med Windows likadant. Jag har saknat det men inte hunnit fixa det tidigare.

Observera att just nu är Alt_L hårdkodat som MODKEY för den här funktionen även om man ändrar på MODKEY i konfigurationen. Det kommer att ändras så fort jag får lite tid att testa om man kan använda GetModifierMapping-anropet för att ta reda på det i stället.

Written by MC on Pungenday, the 68 day of Chaos in the YOLD 3177 (2011-03-09).

Enter dzen.

Nu har jag en statusrad högst upp på min skärm som ser ut så här:

Detta skall utttydas som datum, tid, CPU-temperatur, batterinivå, om strömkontakten är inkopplad och hur många olästa mail jag har.

Detta är förstås bara början. Jag har just experimenterat med att få små notiser om någon försöker prata med mig över IRC eller XMPP.

Allt det här genereras i själva verket av ett shellscript jag skrev som just nu matar ut:

2011-03-09 13:31 ^fg(grey60)^i(/home/mc/images/dzen-xbm-pack/temp.xbm)^p(3)54.0C ^fg(grey60)^i(/home/mc/images/dzen-xbm-pack/power-bat2.xbm)^p(3)100% ^fg(grey60)^i(/home/mc/images/dzen-xbm-pack/power-ac.xbm) 

Detta pipas till dzen som gör om det till något som liknar statusraden i bilden ovan.

Temperaturen och strömkontaktstatus hämtas från sysctl:erna hw.acpi.battery.life och hw.acpi.acline. Processortemperaturen kommer från dev.cpu.1.temperature. Mailstatus räknar helt enkelt filer i Maildir/new. Svårare är det inte.

Nu skall jag bara få in i mcwm att den tar hänsyn till att statusraden finns vid maximeringar och sådant också…

Written by MC on Pungenday, the 68 day of Chaos in the YOLD 3177 (2011-03-09).

http://www.iana.org/assignments/ipv4-address-space/ipv4-address-space.txt

så finns det fem /8-block som har status UNALLOCATED. De delas nu automatiskt ut till de regionala organisationer (RIR) som har hand om den praktiska utdelningen av IP-adresser.

Vad kommer att hända nu? Är IPv4-adresserna verkligen slut?

Det beror på. Det finns alltså inga fria /8-adressblock längre. Troligen sitter RIRarna fortfarande på en hel del adresser som alltså i praktiken ännu inte är utdelade till ISP:er eller organisationer. Det kommer att ta ytterligare en tid innan de är helt utdelade.

Naturligtvis finns det många ISP:er och enskilda organisationer där ute som inte heller gjort slut på sina redan utdelade adressblock. Det dröjer nog innan de tar slut helt och hållet. Det kanske till och med uppstår (har uppstått?) en handel med IPv4-adresser?

I praktiken har det redan hänt saker som indikerar att adresserna är slut. I flera år har vi ju som alla vet levt med NAT. Det är inte längre självklart att en nod på Internet har en globalt adresserbar adress! Det ställer som bekant till det oerhört, till exempel för IP-telefoni och liknande tjänster där vilken nod som helst kan vara en 'server' i någon bemärkelse.

NAT har traditonellt använts i lokala nät men börjar allt mer användas också av internetleverantörerna. Det betyder att en typisk hemanvändares dator befinner sig bakom minst två lager av adressöversättning: dels leverantörerns, dels hemmarouterns. Det kommer att förstöra ännu mer saker, förutom IP-telefoni antagligen också P2P och spel.

Mobilnäten har varit tidigt ute med levarantörs-NAT. Alla nät har inte haft NAT men allt fler inför det på större skala. Till exempel skrev Mikael Abrahamsson på Tele2 alldeles nyligen på v6ops-listan att de kommer att införa NAT för sina mobilkunder. Han undrade om erfarenheter av att köra enbart IPv6 till mobilunder. Den oerhört intressanta tråden börjar här:

http://www.ietf.org/mail-archive/web/v6ops/current/msg06611.html

I tråden nämns att den stora amerikanska leverantören T-Mobile kör ett betatest av att leverera enbart IPv6 till mobiltelefoner. Det verkar troligt att de kommer att köra det för alla sina kunder inom kort.

De kunder som får enbart IPv6 kommer att nå IPv4-noder med hjälp av NAT64 och DNS64.

NAT64 är en teknik för att noder på ett rent IPv6-nät skall kunna prata med IPv4-noder. Det betyder kortfattat att ett reserverat IPv6-nät kan innehålla hela IPv4-adressrymden och används som destination när en IPv6-nod vill prata med en IPv4-nod. En NAT64-låda någonstans översätter det ena till det andra.

För att det där skall fungera krävs också att man busar med DNS-uppslagningar, förstås, för en ren IPv6-nod vill ju bara ha svar på AAAA-frågor och ställer antagligen inte ens A-frågor. Då får resolvern helt enkelt ställa A-frågor på nodens vägnar och trycka in svaret i en förfalskad AAAA-post med en adress i NAT64-nätet, om jag förstår det rätt. Det är detta som kallas DNS64.

Bergis är det några fler sådana fultricks som kan behövas. Hur som helst tycker jag det är betydligt mindre ont och fel än vanlig NAT på IPv4.

Dags att migrera till IPv6!

Written by MC on Boomtime, the 32 day of Chaos in the YOLD 3177 (2011-02-01).

Jag spenderade mellandagarna i Berlin på 27C3. Det här var mitt tredje besök på konferensen och 27:e(!) året den hölls. Jag tycker det är bra synd att jag inte upptäckte den tidigare.

Petra och barnen varit väldigt tålmodiga med mig de senaste tre åren när jag pipit iväg till Berlin direkt efter julfirandet, men det har fungerat ganska bra. Undantaget var förra året när jag var borta från lillflickan alldeles för länge och kom tillbaka först en bit in i januari. Det tänker jag inte göra om. Pappa saknade dotter och dotter saknade pappa. Jag hoppas ändå jag kan fortsätta åka iväg på de här fantastiska konferenserna.

C3 är en av de allra bästa konferenser jag någonsin varit på och då har jag ändå varit på en hel del konferenser och stora möten under min karriär (such as it is). Dessutom är C3 en av de billigaste konferenser jag stött på. Denna gång kostade det 70 euro för fyra dagars konferens förutom kostnaden för resa, bostad och mat (och öl), så klart.

Bostadskostnaden har tidigare hållts nere genom att jag kraschat hos vännen Lars i ett kollektiv i Kreuzberg men Lars har fått jobb i USA och lämnat Berlin. Denna gång blev det alltså hotell. Ett alternativ hade kanske varit sovsäck i den gymnastiksal som CCC tillhandahåller men jag kände mig för gammal och bekväm för att det skulle vara realistiskt.

Jag tycker förstås också årets konferens var fantastisk även om jag kanske inte maximerade antalet föredrag. En av de stora grejerna med C3 är att ~4000 hackers samlas på samma ställe. Mingelpotentialen, om man nu vågar, är väldigt hög. Föreläsningar går att ta till sig även i efterhand men förlorade kontakter hittar man inte igen lika lätt.

Inspelningar av föreläsningarna finns här:

http://events.ccc.de/congress/2010/wiki/Documentation

Jag och vännen R åkte ner dagen före konferensen började. Vi checkade in på hotell Wall Street, ett hotell med börstema som roligt nog låg på just Wallstrasse. Mattorna i korridorerna hade börstickers som mönster, mattan i rummet var i form av en stor dollarsedel och på väggarna stod citat av berömda börsmäklare, et cetera ad nauseam.

Det är otroligt ironiskt att jag, med min något negativa syn på finansmarknaden, bodde på det här hotellet, måste jag säga. Tack och lov spenderade vi ganska lite tid på hotellet. I övrigt var det väl rätt OK och framför allt ett kap för de pengar vi gav: Det blev ungefär 250 pix per person och natt.

Efter incheckning begav vi oss ut i jakt på mat. Tyvärr var min information felaktig och veganrestaurangen Yellow Sunshine var stängd när vi väl promenerat ända dit. Det är annars problemet med att åka någonstans i mellandagarna — saker tenderar att vara stängda. Vi hittade i stället en indisk restaurang på Oranienstrasse som serverade veganskt, tack och lov.

Orsaken att vi promenerade var framför allt för att automaterna på U-bahn vägrade ta emot våra sedlar. Det visade sig till slut att det inte var så stora problem att gå nästan överallt ändå, trots det tämligen kalla och snöiga Berlin. Undantaget var den långa och traditionsenliga brunchen på Cafe Morgenrot i Prenzlauer Berg då vi faktiskt åkte U-bahn. Morgenrots brunch måste upplevas! Rekommenderas verkligen!

Vegankäk i övrigt hittade jag ganska ofta på underbara Dolores. Dolores ligger inte så långt från bcc, där C3 normalt hålls, så det är ett tips till alla läsare med smak för det veganska köket.

Vi begav oss efter indiska käket direkt till bcc och vinkades bara förbi av de som stod vid dörren. Armbanden hade ännu inte börjat delas ut. Vi hittade bord och några andra svenskar, bänkade oss och drog fram datorerna. Jag gick och registrerade min medhavda DECT-telefon, för som vanligt fanns ett eget telefonnät på konferensen, courtesy of Eventphone. Detta år, precis som förra, fanns också ett eget GSM-nät med minst en egen basstation.

I år ringde faktiskt folk till mig även över SIP-bryggan och inte bara över det vanliga telefonnätet. Jag vet inte varför ingen gjort det förut, fast jag lämnat ut SIP-adressen. Kanske är det fortfarande så ovanligt med SIP-klienter?

Det var tur att jag reggade telefonen för bara en liten stund senare drabbades vi av switchproblem vid vårt bord. Det trådlösa var redan hopplöst så vi körde så klart på medhavda TP-kablar. Vi ringde NOCen vid 23-tiden och de fixade genast switchens problem. R kommenterade: ”Inte corporate IT, direkt”. Nej, just det.

Vi gick till slut ner och fixade de armband som fungerar som biljett och slet oss så småningom till hotellet för att sova lite innan konferensen började på allvar nästa dag.

Keynote, som öppnade konferensen dagen därpå, hölls av den närmaste legendariske Rop Gonggrijp som en gång i tiden startade hackertidningen Hack-tic, internetleverantören XS4All och började arbetet på Cryptophone. Hans föredrag handlade om en slags uppdatering från ett tidigare föredrag på en C3 som hette ”We Lost the War”. Nu lät han betydligt mer hoppfull.

Senare på dagen lyssnade jag på Peter Stuge som berättade initierat om USB och libusb. Han lovade en workshop och den blev av någon dag (natt!) senare även om den var helt improviserad om jag förstår det rätt. Folk lärde sig nog mycket men jag var inte där.

Efter det tänkte jag gå till en föreläsning med den mystiska titeln ”Desktop on the Linux… (and BSD, of course)”, som verkade handla om kritik av X och associerade tekniker som GNOME, KDE, dbus, HAL, pulseaudio, et cetera. Det var fullt i salen när jag kom, så jag stod en stund utanför och tittade på föreläsningen på en skärm. Det började väldigt snabbt bli pinsamt, tyvärr, eftersom jag ändå tyckte att föreläsaren hade en del viktiga poänger. De verkade dock försvinna rätt mycket i debatt med framför allt Lennart Poettering, författaren av bland annat pulseaudio, som fanns i publiken.

Jag gav upp och jagade mat i stället. Andra sa i efterhand att föreläsningen varit väldigt rolig, mest på grund av att den stackars föreläsaren blev så utskälld. Själv tyckte jag som sagt mest att det var pinsamt.

Jag såg ett roande föredrag av Bruce Dang som illustrerade hur det går till bakom kulisserna på Microsoft när de jagar säkerhetshål. Föredraget hette ”Adventures in analyzing Stuxnet” och de visade på fyra stycken 0-day exploits och hur de analyserade dem. Bruce snackade rätt college-artad och det var mycket ”What the fuck!?” och liknande. Även om det var roande att lyssna på så framstod Microsoft-analytikerna som ganska kaotiska. Tyvärr nämnde han inte Stuxnets payload överhuvudtaget men det har jag hört att andra har analyserat även om jag ännu inte läst något om det själv.

Inför dag två hade jag skrivit upp ”File -> Print -> Electronics”, som jag valde att skippa även om det lät intressant. Killen hade byggt om en skrivare så han kunde skriva ut PCB:er, om jag förstod det rätt. Det låter naturligtvis otroligt coolt men jag vill i så fall köpa en sådan skrivare, inte behöva bygga den själv. Det är nog några år bort fortfarande. Jag kanske rent av hinner lära mig något om elektronikkonstruktion först…

Det första jag såg på dag två var i stället den otroligt imponerande ”Reverse Engineering the MOS 6502”. Michael Steil, som höll föreläsningen, gick snabbt framåt men var samtidigt mycket pedagogisk.

Föredraget handlade rätt mycket om något jag redan hade sett och uppskattat: några som fotograferat och vektoriserat 6502-processorn och sedan skapat en cykelexakt simulator med själva 'ritningen' som bas. Resultatet i form av en stor SVG driven av Javascript(!) finns här:

http://visual6502.org/

Om du tänker köra simulatorn behöver du en rejält snabb dator och browser. Steil själv sa att han skrivit om själva motorn i simulatorn i C. Det blev ungefär 1000 gånger snabbare enligt hans beräkningar. Jag vet tyvärr ännu inte var man hittar Steils simulatordrivare men jag har heller inte letat så noga.

Denna dag var också det föredrag som kanske fick mest genomslag i vanliga nyhetsmedia: ”Wideband GSM Sniffing”. Jag såg det inte och är inte överdrivet intresserad personligen men jag förstod det som att de använt den stora regnbågstabellen för A5-kryptot som massor med folk räknat fram och använder en egen GSM-stack i en telefon för att sniffa på någon låg nivå på GSM-nätet. Efter det kan de på kort tid knäcka kryptot och lyssna på vad de spelat in.

Nästa fördrag jag lyssnade på var i stället ”Defense is not dead. Why we will have more secure computers - tomorrow” av Andreas Bogk. Han tog upp sådana saker som formell verifiering av mjukvara och taggade arkitekturer i hårdvara, som tydligen verkar vara på väg tillbaka på modet. Woho! Lispmaskiner, någon?

Andreas nämnde något oerhört intressant, ”Cleanslate design of Resilient, Adaptive, Secure Hosts” (CRASH), som jag tyvärr inte hittat så mycket om ännu. Jag hittar DARPA:s upphandling av det:

http://www.darpa.mil/i2o/programs/crash/crash.asp

men inte mycket mer. Andreas har skickat mig lite bakgrundspapper som jag ännu inte hunnit läsa.

Nästa föredrag var ett till stort namn, Daniel Bernstein, som skulle hålla föredrag om ”High-speed high-security cryptography: encrypting and authenticating the whole Internet”. Det DJB mest gjorde var att basha DNSSEC, basha lite till, basha DNSSEC, sedan basha tcpcrypt och sedan DNSSEC lite mer.

Hans kritik mot DNSSEC var dels att det kanske inte skyddar det man vill skydda och dels kunde användas för att skapa trafik för DDoS. tcpcrypt sågade han för att det var så trivialt att injicera trafik i. Enligt DJB har skaparna av tcpcrypt inte insett att folk kan skapa och injicera egna IP-paket!

Hans lösning på alltihop var i stället ett eget UDP-baserat protokoll med elliptic curve-kryptering som han ville skulle ersätta all trafik på nätet. Dessutom skulle rubbet prata UDP på port 53, alltså där DNS-trafiken vanligen finns, för att på så sätt komma förbi eventuella filtreringar.

Tyvärr framgick inte hur man skulle få något mer än opportunistisk kryptering, för jag hängde inte med på hur man skall kunna lita på autenticeringsnycklarna för ändnoderna. Kanske missförstod jag honom eller så utelämnade han någon detalj.

Överhuvdtaget tyckte jag hans förslag var lite konstigt. Jag skulle gärna i stället se någon implementation av Better Than Nothing Security (BTNS), IPsec med opportunistisk kryptering. RFC:erna finns där! Nog borde man kunna använda elliptic curve-krypton även här, om det nu är så fina saker? Någon?

Dag tre började med en stor förvåning: P1 Morgon sände från 27C3!

http://sverigesradio.se/sida/artikel.aspx?programid=1650&artikel=4264249

Ljudfil i MPEG4/AAC finns här:

http://sverigesradio.se/topsy/ljudfil/2819288-hi.m4a

Första föredraget jag gick på var ”Console Hacking 2010”, en fantastiskt genomgång av knäckning av moderna spelconsoler med en ännu mer fantastisk avslutning: Sony PS3 är nu ordentligt knäckt utan någon som helst chans att fixa med firmware-uppgradering. Woho! Detta kanske betyder att ett fritt OS återigen kan leva på min PS3:a så småningom.

Som bekant tog Sony i panik bort OtherOS-funktionaliteten i en uppgradering för kanske ett år sedan. Jag hade, så klart, Linux installerad på min PS3:a och hade precis börjat försöka göra något med den och den fina Cell-processorn som bor i PS3:an när uppgraderingen kom. Jag vägrade förstås uppgradera och tänkte ha kvar min Linux-installation men tyvärr slutade sådana saker som multiplayer helt att fungera. Ledsna söner tjatade på sin far. Fadern lät sig övertygas och min Linux-installation offrades på familjelyckans altare. sniff

Nu kanske det kan bli ändring… Som grädde på moset fick jag alldeles nyss höra att FreeBSD portats till PS3!

Nästa föredrag var ”FrozenCache: Mitigating cold-boot attacks for Full-Disk-Encryption software” som verkade vara en lovande lösning. Lösningen går ut på att spara nyckeldata inne i en x86-processors cache och i övrigt helt enkelt slå av cache-användningen. Det här blir naturligtvis otroligt långsamt och något som naturligtvis bara skall användas när det verkligen behövs.

Under kvällen träffade jag en användare av min fönsterhanterare, mcwm, en matematikstudent från München vid namn Christian Neukirchen. Han kan vara den första användaren jag känner till utanför vänkretsen. Christian skrev till mig tidigt under utvecklingen i somras och kom både med patchar och önskemål. Vi hade ett givande samtal.

Jag pratade också med Michael Stapelberg, huvudutvecklaren av i3, en annan fönsterhanterare som använder XCB. Det var ett kort samtal men också givande.

Det verkar förresten hittills som om alla fönsterhanterare som använder XCB, utom mcwm, är tiling window managers.

På kvällen var det Christmas Ball Festival 2010 på Huxley's Neue Welt i Berlin. Där spelade bland annat Fields of the Nephilim och Laibach! Jag gick faktiskt ändå inte dit. Äldste sonen Ludvig där hemma trodde inte sina öron och var nog ganska avundsjuk. Fields of the Nephilim! Och pappa gick inte ens dit!

Sista dagen på 27C3 inledde jag med att lyssna på Sergey Bratus om ”Hackers and Computer Science”. Han sa, i princip, att många exploits kunde man se på som ”weird machines”, automata eller rent av turing-kompletta universella maskiner som oavsiktligt finns i konstruktionen, speciellt om man utnyttjar flera olika nivåer i sin attack. Hans föredrag handlade om att han ville dela med sig av den här fundamentala insikten och om hur man, möjligen, skulle kunna skydda sig mot det. Otroligt intressant.

Sergeys föredrag överlappade delvis med ”Data Analysis in Terabit Ethernet Traffic” som jag också hade velat se, men R, som lyssnade på den senare sa att jag inte hade missat någonting. Det var tydligen mest en rabbling av olika leverantörer och modellnummer, konstigt nog. Var fanns de snuskiga detaljerna? Hade föreläsaren missat vilka han föreläste för?

Vi såg sedan tillsammans Jeroen Massars ”How the Internet sees you” som skulle visa vad hans analysverktyg kunde ge för resultat på en analys av all nättrafik från 27C3 så långt. Tyvärr hade hans forskningscenter på IBM fått kalla fötter och deras jurister hade övertalat dem om att skriva på att de kastar och anonymiserar allting, så det blev väldigt lite analys av det hela och mer lite vanligt trafikgrafer. Jag tror inte det var det Jeroen hade tänkt visa.

Konstigt nog valde han inte att visa ens någon screenshot av ens dummydata från de verktyg han varit inblandad i, däribland AURORA, nu komersialiserad som Tivoli Netcool Performance Flow Analyzer (TNPFA). Han nämnde konstig nog inte ens verktygen vid namn, vad jag minns.

Han berättade däremot en del av vad verktygen kunde göra och hur identifierad man kunde bli bara på sin användning av nätet.

I år skippade vi avslutningsfesten och drog oss i stället iväg mot Tegel för att flyga till Köpenhamn. Planet var försenat, naturligtvis, men efter två öl i baren fick vi kliva ombord och åka hem.

Written by MC on Sweetmorn, the 11 day of Chaos in the YOLD 3177 (2011-01-11).

Nu har jag rättat en del allvarliga fel. Jag har därför gjort en ny release.

Rick Dicaire påpekade för mig i mail hur jag kunde förbättra mitt startscript, så det fungerar nu mycket bättre.

Pinsamt nog hade jag skapat PID-filen före processen forkade och blev daemon, så fel PID stod i filen! Haha. Så går det när jag själv bara kör den i förgrunden för att debugga… ∗rodna∗

När jag stoppade in åldrande av RDNSS-informationen lyckades jag dessvärre också ta bort kontrollen att jag överhuvudtaget hade fått någon RDNSS-option! Alltså skrevs en resolv.conf ut även om jag inte hade fått några data. Filen var då fylld av slumpmässig data. Aaaah!

Det är uppenbart från allt detta att jag behöver en testsvit, eller hur?

Written by MC on Sweetmorn, the 69 day of The Aftermath in the YOLD 3176 (2010-12-27).

http://www.srcf.ucam.org/principia/

Tekniska museets förteckning över datorrelaterade objekt i samlingen:

http://www.tekniskamuseet.se/download/18.689e694f125720d4ec480001504/Datorer+p%C3%A5+TM.pdf

Kort kommentar: De har faktiskt en Datasaab D21! Däremot finns inga DEC PDP-11:or eller -10:or! De har en enda Amiga, men ingen Atari ST.

Requirements for IPv6 in ICT Equipment (RIPE 501).

Nya skollagen (SFS 2010:800) säger:

4 § Barn ska från och med höstterminen det år barnet fyller tre år erbjudas förskola under minst 525 timmar om året, om inte annat följer av 5-7 §§.

1,5 år kvar, sen kan jag kanske hacka tre timmar om dagen. Ja, om jag inte hittar på något annat än att vara hemmapappa före det, alltså.

Written by MC on Pungenday, the 41 day of The Aftermath in the YOLD 3176 (2010-11-29).

https://hack.org/mc/hacks/mcwm/

De viktigaste nyheterna är att jag fixat en del buggar, bland annat en där den workspace-lokala listan över fönster manglades om ett fönster på en annan workspace än den aktiva förstördes.

Jag har också stoppat möjligheten för klienter att själva utan vidare mappa sig själva om mcwm anser att redan tillhör en annan workspace, som jag nämnde i ett tidigare inlägg. Kanske får jag anledning att revidera det. Jag vet inte ännu. Mer användaråsikter behövs.

Sedan några versioner stödjer mcwm också fönsters initiala koordinater (typiskt satta med -geom eller med X-resurser) när fönstret mappas första gången. Det gjorde den inte alls tidigare utan placerade i stället fönster där den ville.

Den allra senaste förändringen är trivial, men viktig: Jag har bytt modifier för tangentkombinationerna från Mod2 till Mod4. Orsaken är att jag insåg att Mod2-masken ofta genereras av NumLock i moderna X-konfigurationers defaultmappning! NumLock! Ooops! Det är ju dessutom en låsande tangent!

Orsaken att jag inte visste att Mod2 och NumLock hörde ihop är förstås att jag så länge använt helt egna tangentbordsmappningar. Jag har inte varit i närheten av någon defaultkonfiguration länge nog för att upptäcka det här.

Nu har jag alltså bytt default till Mod4 i stället, som på många konfigurationer verkar vara bunden till Super_L, som typiskt på ett 104-tangenters PC-tangentbord är Windows-tangenten. Det tycker jag verkar vara ett mycket vettigare val än NumLock.

För mer förändringar att vänta, se TODO-filen i tarbollen.

Thomas Klausner har förpackat mcwm för pkgsrc, paketsystemet som bland annat NetBSD använder! Se wip/mcwm. Jag vet inga omständigheter. Thomas kommunicerade inte med mig om det. Jag hittade det av en slump.

Helt nyligen fick jag också höra att mcwm finns förpackat för Linux-distributionen Puppy Linux.

Folk som använder NetBSD eller Puppy Linux kan nu alltså testa mcwm något lättare än ni andra.

Sex stycken mcwm-användare har hört av sig till mig direkt. Två av dem har dessutom skickat patchar. Jag gissar att det finns åtminstone någon mer än vi sju som faktiskt använder mcwm som vår vanliga fönsterhanterare, men jag har förstås inget sätt att ta reda på det.

Om ni testar, hör gärna av er!

Written by MC on Pungenday, the 31 day of The Aftermath in the YOLD 3176 (2010-11-19).

Säg att du har en Emacs igång med Emacs-fönster på en annan workspace och att du har server-raise-frame satt som icke-nil (det är default-värdet). Säg att du nu startar nu emacsclient. Då flyttas plötsligt ett av dina Emacs-fönster, vilket som helst, till den workspace du är på! Den flyttar också muspekaren till det flyttade fönstret.

Jag upplevde detta först under min egen fönsterhanterare, mcwm, men verifierade beteendet också under ctwm, evilwm och openbox.

Jag tvingade Emacs att sluta göra så genom att helt enkelt i mcwm förbjuda fönster som redan finns i en annan workspace-lista att dyka upp på den aktuella workspacen (om det nu inte är mcwm själv som bestämt det, förstås). Det löste problemet, åtminstone delvis. Kvar är problemet med en flyttande markör. Emacs flyttar fortfarande markören dit den tror att den just flyttat fönstret.

Ett annat sätt att lösa problemet är förstås

(setq server-raise-frame nil)

och det löser ju också muspekarens förflyttning. Däremot löser det ju inte det generella fallet med X-klienter som själva försöker smita från workspaces. Det vill jag inte tillåta i mcwm.

Om man skall lösa problemet ordentligt, inklusive muspekarens flytt, så kanske man kan ändra i select-frame-set-input-focus i frame.el. Den innehåller:

  "Select FRAME, raise it, and set input focus, if possible.
If `mouse-autoselect-window' is non-nil, also move mouse pointer
to FRAME's selected window.  Otherwise, if `focus-follows-mouse'
is non-nil, move mouse cursor to FRAME."
  (select-frame frame)
  (raise-frame frame)
  ;; Ensure, if possible, that FRAME gets input focus.
  (when (memq (window-system frame) '(x w32 ns))
(x-focus-frame frame))
  ;; Move mouse cursor if necessary.
  (cond
   (mouse-autoselect-window
(let ((edges (window-inside-edges (frame-selected-window frame))))
  ;; Move mouse cursor into FRAME's selected window to avoid that
  ;; Emacs mouse-autoselects another window.
  (set-mouse-position frame (nth 2 edges) (nth 1 edges))))
   (focus-follows-mouse
;; Move mouse cursor into FRAME to avoid that another frame gets
;; selected by the window manager.
(set-mouse-position frame (1- (frame-width frame)) 0))))

Här ser vi att koden antar att raise-frame fungerade. Vad händer om fönstret inte är mappat? Då flyttas alltså muspekaren i alla fall.

I Emacs-koden finns raise-frame som C-funktion i frame.c. Den kallar på make_frame_visible() som sedan kallar på xterm.c:x_make_frame_visible(). Den ser ut att göra så rätt den kan, tycker jag, men den returnerar inga hints om att den kanske gett upp ifall fönsterhanteraren vägrade mappa fönstret.

Tillbaka till elispkoden i select-frame-set-input-focus som jag citerade ovan: Om man skulle peta in en koll med frame-visible-p efter raise-frame för att se om operationen att göra Emacs-fönstret synlig misslyckades så kan man ge upp. Det skulle lösa allas problem, vad jag vet. Jag vet ännu inte vad Emacs-utvecklare tycker om det, men kanske skall försöka nämna det någonstans.

Written by MC on Pungenday, the 31 day of The Aftermath in the YOLD 3176 (2010-11-19).

Två föredrag stod ut ur mängden: Javier Serranos presentation av Open Hardware Repository och Alessandro Rubinis workshop ”OS from scratch”.

OHR är en samlingsplats för kompletta elektronikkonstruktioner. Det händer att FPGA:er är inblandade och ibland används HDL-beskrivningar från OpenCores, som naturligtvis kan få vara kvar där, men ibland finns även själva HDL-koden i OHR-arkivet, om jag förstår det rätt.

Javier tog speciellt upp två projekt, RHINO och White Rabbit, som exempel på vad som finns i OHR.

RHINO är ett projekt för att ge hårdvarustöd för Software Defined Radio. Just nu verkar RHINO och dess föregångare framför allt används inom radioastronomin. Konstruktionen verkar lite tuffare än USRP som jag varit nog så imponerad av.

Javiers eget projekt, White Rabbit, är en specialiserad Ethernet-switch med tidssynkronisering på både fysiska lagret och länklagret (med PTP) som skalar upp till 10 km, ~1000 noder och med en noggrannhet på under 1 nanosekund!

Javier avslutade sitt föredrag genom att säga att han förmodade att han pratade framför allt inför mjukvaruhackers och att han behövde hjälp. Han sade att det som framför allt behövs är fria verktyg för elektronikkonstruktion och hårdvarudesign.

Det finns några fria verktyg redan, däribland gEDA-projektet som nämndes i en diskussion med publiken (framför allt med Peter Stuge), men det behövs mer arbete. Javier talade sig särskilt varm för Stephen Williams Icarus, ett HDL-verktyg som är lite udda eftersom det beter sig mer som en vanlig kompilator. Personligen skulle jag känna mig mycket mer bekväm med det, men såna där hårdvarudesigners kanske skulle tycka att det var konstigt.

Alessandros workshop om Two Hour Operating System (THOS) var på söndag förmiddag. Det var dagen efter FSCONS:s egen Social Event med buffé och utdelning av Nordic Free Software Award till Bjarni Rúnar Einarsson, så deltagarna kanske var lite trötta. För egen del hade jag dessutom följt upp FSCONS-firandet i bergrummet Berg 211 med ett (alltför) långt besök på en extrainsatt burleskklubb…

Hur som helst var THOS-workshopen väldigt kul. Alessandro skrev verkligen stora delar av koden framför oss åhörare! Han kommenterade hela tiden vad han gjorde på ett mycket roande och insatt sätt. Ibland frågade han ut i publiken om vi hade några förslag på lösningar.

Resultatet blev till slut ett litet operativystem på en ARM-baserad prototypbräda. OS:et hade faktiskt processer och en scheduler, så det var inte bara ett program som bootade på bara metallen.

Koden skrevs framför allt i C och han använde GCC som korskompilator. En del kod skrevs, så klart, i ARM-assembler.

Jag frågade honom om han kunde tänkas publicera koden han skrivit och fick ett jakande svar, men har ännu inte sett någon länk. Får jag reda på något så dyker det upp i ett annat inlägg här.

Jag åt efter THOS-workshopen lunch och var visserligen med på ytterligare något, men var så trött vid det laget att jag snart gav upp, åkte till övernattningsplatsen (Tack igen, Måns!), packade ihop och synkade sedan med vänner för en middag på restaurang Solrosen innan jag åkte tåget hemåt.

Vi ses nästa år på FSCONS 2011!

Written by MC on Setting Orange, the 28 day of The Aftermath in the YOLD 3176 (2010-11-16).

Jag använder som bekant framför allt Emacs-w3m för att surfa på webben och jag vet inte om det är så stor poäng att köra den som en annan användare, men min metod nedan fungerar på den också, om man vill. Jag känner mig desto mer säker på att det är en väldigt bra idé att inte låta den Firefox jag ibland startar ha någon som helst möjlighet att skriva eller ens läsa filer min hemkatalog.

Jag vet inte hur Martins lösning ser ut eller vilken webläsare han använder, men jag tänkte berätta hur jag löste det: Jag drar ut autenticeringskakan från min X-server, stoppar ner den i en fil, går över till en annan användare, drar in kakan och startar Firefox som den användaren mot min gamla användares X-display.

Jag startar alltså numera Firefox med ett script, fireweb. Det scriptet ser ut så här:

#! /bin/sh

umask 027
xauth extract - :0.0 > /tmp/foo.txt
chgrp ff /tmp/foo.txt
su -l mcff /home/mcff/bin/fireweb
rm /tmp/foo.txt

Användarna mc (jag) och mcff (den som skall köra Firefox) är båda med i gruppen ff och får båda läsa /tmp/foo.txt, som jag alltså trycker in X-kakan i. mcff:s eget fireweb-script ser ut så här:

#! /bin/sh

xauth merge /tmp/foo.txt
export DISPLAY=:0.0
firefox3 &

Firefox körs sedan som mcff men visas på min vanliga X-display. Beroende på rättigheterna jag har på min hemkatalog som användaren mc så kan inte användaren mcff komma åt filerna där och ställa till fuffens. Den attackvektor som finns kvar är förstås X-servern, men det är svårt att göra något åt.

Kanske kan detta vara användbart även för någon annan.

Written by MC on Sweetmorn, the 72 day of Bureaucracy in the YOLD 3176 (2010-10-18).

En gång om dagen är långt ifrån den tidigare hetsen när jag vanligen läste mail så fort den anlände, förstås, men det kanske är bättre så här. Jag vet faktiskt inte ännu. Jag har hela tiden ryckningar i fingrarna för att kolla mail, läsa LysKOM eller hoppa in i en chat, irriterande nog. Ytterligare en orsak att inte vara med på Facebook eller något annat liknande — jag skulle inte få något annat gjort!

Jag ber om ursäkt om jag varit seg att svara på sladdpost. Jag läser allt som är direkt adresserat till mig och inte uppenbart är spam, men det kan ta ett tag att svara på breven.

Naturligtvis har jag fortsatt att i stort sett helt undvika telefon och har dessutom träffat förhållandevis få personer Away From Keyboard. Det är framför allt min familj och någon enstaka vän jag träffar just nu.

Jag tror det här är en nödvändig paus och kanske ett slags återladdande av batterierna. Å andra sidan vet jag inte om jag kommer tillbaka till det gamla beteendet överhuvudtaget.

Hemmapappabestyren tar rätt mycket av min tid och jag försöker samtidigt gå igenom en hel del saker här hemma. Det går långsamt, men behövs. Det är också en hel del saker som behöver gås igenom mentalt, men det finns det tyvärr mindre tid för. Framtiden känns lite oviss. Mer om det i ett annat inlägg. Kanske.

Trots att jag känner mig en smula asocial skall jag snart på konferens: Först ut är Free Society Conference and Nordic Summit (FSCONS) i Göteborg 5–7:e november. Föredragen är kanske inte så fantastiskt hardcorenördiga, men det var rätt trevligt förra året, även om den tekniska höjden alltså oftast inte var så hög.

Nästa konferens, däremot, är definitivt riktigt hardcorenördig. Jag skall återigen åka på Chaos Communication Congress (C3), Chaos Computer Clubs årliga konferens i Berlin som hålls under mellandagarna. Det blir min tredje gång på konferensen och 27:e året den hålls. C3 är de bästa konferenserna jag någonsin varit på och jag har varit på många (påstått) tekniska konferenser. För 80 euro för fyra dagar är det dessutom en av de billigaste.

Något program (eller ”Fahrplan” som det brukar kallas) för 27C3 finns ännu inte, men jag har hört det sägas att det skall dyka upp i november. Vanligen finns ett eller flera hemliga punkter på programmet som dyker upp medan konferensen pågår, så håll ögonen öppna och kolla Fahrplan igen under konferensen. De hemliga punkterna brukar vara de stora och det som avslöjas där brukar ofta hamna i världspressen.

27C3:s website finns här, men innehåller inte så mycket ännu:

http://events.ccc.de/congress/2010/

Titta gärna på websiten för 26C3, alltså förra årets konferens, för att få ett slags intryck om vad det är för något:

http://events.ccc.de/congress/2009/

Nytt för i år är också att det är förköp på biljetterna. Tidigare år har det bara gått att köpa biljetter på plats, vilket kan bli lite svårt när du trängs med 4000 andra hackers som också hemskt gärna vill komma in.

Vi ses i Berlin!

Written by MC on Sweetmorn, the 72 day of Bureaucracy in the YOLD 3176 (2010-10-18).

Något senare installerade jag om FreeBSD på min huvudsakliga maskin, min Thinkpad X60s, och återställde hemkatalogen från backup. Jag insåg då att jag inte hade räddat min konfiguration för musikspelaren moc!

Naturligtvis hade jag gjort tangentbordsbindningarna i moc ganska Emacs-lika. Tyvärr lyckades jag inte fullt ut och fick inte Meta-tangenter att fungera. Men nu var alltså min konfiguration borta.

Hellre än att göra om min konfiguration började jag leta efter andra musikspelare med ett trevligt användargränssnitt eftersom jag ändå stört mig lite på moc. Mina krav är ändå ganska enkla:

• Fri programvara! Naturligtvis.
• Textbaserad, curses (eller libslang eller något motsvarande), inte CLI.
• Inga enbart dekorativa utsmyckningar, som ramar eller färger som inte fyller någon funktion. moc har till exempel en irriterande ram som inte kan konfigureras bort, tyvärr.
• Tangentbordsbindningar som kan användas utan piltangenter eller PgUp, PgDn, et cetera. Gärna vänliga för någon som har Emacs eller vi i ryggmärgen. I brist på detta duger förstås alldeles utmärkt om det går att binda om tangenterna.
• Kan spela FLAC, Ogg Vorbis och MP3.
• Kan spara och ladda spellistor som vanliga filer.
• Kan välja ljudfiler från katalogstruktur.

Extra poäng, men inte absoluta måsten:

• Förstå sig på ID-taggar i ljudfilerna.
• Skriven i ett programspråk jag behärskar.

Jag hittade efter lite letande en lovande kandidat som jag inte hört talas om tidigare: Herrie. Det visar sig dessutom att den är utvecklad av FreeBSD-hackern Ed Schouten!

Herrie har ett enkelt användargränssnitt som visar en fillista och en spellista. Överst visas nu spelande låt. Det går att skapa spellistor från fillistan och vandra runt med hjkl, som i vi eller Nethack. TAB byter mellan vyerna. Det verkade trevligt.

Programmet är skrivet i C, använder vanliga curses och förstår sig enligt websidan på att spela åtminstone MP3, Ogg Vorbis och FLAC och förstår dessutom ID-taggar i filerna om det finns några.

Jag installerade så klart Herrie för att testa. Tyvärr visar det sig att Herrie som paket inte kan FLAC! WTF!?

% herrie -v
herrie 2.2 (Two-clause BSD license, using GNU GPL licensed libraries)

Global configuration file: /usr/local/etc/herrie.conf
Audio output: oss
Support for AudioScrobbler: yes
Support for HTTP streams: yes
Support for XSPF playlists (`spiff'): yes
Supported audio file formats:
- Ogg Vorbis
- MP3

Av någon för mig okänd anledning har paketversionen inte länkat med libsndfile som också ger FLAC-stödet. Nåväl, in med ports-versionen i stället:

% herrie -v
herrie 2.2 (Two-clause BSD license, using GNU GPL licensed libraries)

Global configuration file: /usr/local/etc/herrie.conf
Audio output: oss
Support for AudioScrobbler: yes
Support for HTTP streams: yes
Support for XSPF playlists (`spiff'): no
Supported audio file formats:
- Ogg Vorbis
- MP3
- libsndfile

Och jodå, nu kunde den spela FLAC (och WAV, om jag nu skulle vilja).

Gränssnittet blir mycket trevligare om jag slår av färgerna helt och hållet med:

gui.color.enabled=no

i .herrie/config. Det ser då ut så här i en urxvt:

Kort sagt: Det uppfyller i stort sett alla mina punkter i den lilla kravlistan ovan. Rekommenderas!

Written by MC on Boomtime, the 66 day of Confusion in the YOLD 3176 (2010-07-31).

ukbd0: <Topre Corporation HHKB Professional, class 0/0, rev 1.10/1.02, addr 3> on usbus4
kbd2 at ukbd0

Muhahaha! Jag har fått det! Min langare kom förbi med det igår. Jag talar förstås om Extravagant Födelsedagspresent #2: ett Happy Hacking Keyboard Professional 2. Jag skaffade mig den svarta modellen med blanka tangenter, modellnummer PD-KB400BN. Mitt exemplar är tillverkat i februari 2010.

Det är väldigt, väldigt skönt att skriva på och ger ifrån sig ett distinkt ljud, men inte alls lika högljutt som somliga mekaniska tangentbord (Model M på gamla PS/2:or!). Good feeling of oneness with cup rubber, indeed:

Min inmatningsmiljö ser alltså nu ut så här:

(Blixten gör att tangentbordet ser ljusare ut än vad det är. Det är mattsvart rakt igenom.)

Det känns helt rätt.

Jag skriver ganska bra på det, trots tangenter utan märkning. De enda problemen jag märkt hittills är när jag skall logga in på min nätbank: Då håller jag vanligen inloggningsdosan med ena handen och försöker alltså knappa in en sifferkod med andra handen utan visuell feedback att jag knappar in rätt siffror, för bankens gränssnitt ger mig bara punkter. Det går inget vidare. Jag får nog lägga ifrån mig dosan, helt enkelt.

Det andra fallet är om jag försöker skriva något med en hand och håller dottern med andra handen. Det går dock att argumentera för att jag inte skall försöka skriva något på datorn i det läget och i stället ägna mig åt dottern. Ho hum.

Written by MC on Pungenday, the 62 day of Confusion in the YOLD 3176 (2010-07-27).

Jag upptäckte två problem:

• Höger Meta genererade inte längre keycode 143. Den gav i stället 129 om jag undersökte med i xev(1).
• Ordningen på Mode_switch och Shift spelade plötsligt roll!

Det första problemet var förstås lätt fixat. Jag ändrade helt enkelt koden i min xmodmap-fil för HHKB. Fixat!

Varför i hela friden X-servern plötsligt anser att just den tangenten har en ny keycode har jag ingen aning om. Om något stort gjorts i ändringen av keycode-hanteringen tycker jag mer saker än just min högra Meta-tangent borde gå sönder. Om någon vet vad det är fråga om får ni gärna berätta för mig.

Det andra problemet tog lite längre tid att lista ut: Jag har alltså Mode_switch på höger Alt på mitt HHKB. Jag trycker på höger Alt i kombination med åäö för att få }{| och med Shift för att få ][\. Jag trycker också på den tillsammans med några andra tangenter.

Plötsligt spelade det alltså roll om jag tryckte ner höger Alt eller Shift-tangenten först. Jag fick inte längre någon Mode_switch-funktion om jag tryckte ner Shift före Alt!

En xev-undersökning visade att höger Alt gav keysym NoSymbol om jag tryckte ner Shift först! Nämen! Jag har alltid sett Mode_switch som en modifier (knuten till Mod5 i mitt fall), ungefär som Control! De skall ju inte byta keysym om man trycker på dem tillsammans med Shift. Det har det i alla fall inte gjort tidigare.

Lösningen är att peta in Mode_shift även på Shift-platsen för xmodmap, resulterande i:

keycode 113 = Mode_switch Mode_switch

Det löste problemet. Enkelt, när jag tänker på det. Duh! Men varför har beteendet ändrats och när gjorde det det? Jag har inte sett något någonstans om det här. Någon?

Hur som helst kanske det här inlägget kan hjälpa andra i samma knipa.

Written by MC on Boomtime, the 61 day of Confusion in the YOLD 3176 (2010-07-26).

Den första presenten är en ny extern skärm, en Hewlett Packard ZR24w, här kopplad till trotjänaren brain, min Thinkpad X60s, som nu har fyra på nacken (blixten gör att den ser riktigt dammig ut – med blotta ögat är det inte riktigt lika hemskt):

Monitorn är tyvärr ansluten via VGA men brain har ingen annan videoutgång. Skärmen har VGA, DVI och DisplayPort. DisplayPort hade varit fint att prova.

VGA-anslutningen fungerar ändå bra. Skärmen synkar automatiskt på ett bra sätt utan att jag behöver göra något, vare sig på skärmen eller på brain. Den Samsung 24-tummare vi normalt har till Playstation 3:an krävde lite pillande för att fungera bra när jag testade den mot brain.

Den nya HP-skärmen är också en 24-tummare. Den har en H2-IPS-panel som ger 178 graders betraktningsvinkel och, tycker amatören MC, väldigt bra färgåtergivning. Panelen sitter monterad på en piedestal, där jag kan justera den riktigt mycket och dessutom rotera skärmen 90 grader. Piedestalen och de riktiga knapparna (inte hemska touchknappar!) är några av anledningarna att det blev just den här skärmen.

En kul detalj är att det gick att stänga av den blå power-LEDen. Tack och lov. Blå LED rakt i ögonen! Vad tänkte folk? PS3:ans skärm har också det och där är det mer irriterande, speciellt om man skall titta på film i ett mörkt rum. Jag har funderat på att tejpa över…

Det är lite oklart vad det HP kallar H2-IPS är för något, men troligen en variant av H-IPS. Helt klart är i alla fall att det är totalt överlägset TN-panelerna här hemma, även om det är väldigt tydligt på vår senaste Samsung att TN-panelerna också utvecklats oerhört över åren.

Bäst av allt är ändå upplösningen, 1920x1200. 1200 pixlar vertikalt! Woho! 91 rader i Emacs!

Bisarrt nog hade jag 1200 pixlar på höjden senast 1999, när jag fortfarande jobbade på Cendio (tidigare Signum Support). Där hade jag i några år en Eizo 6600M. En fantastisk skärm som jag ibland fortfarande saknar.

6600:an var en gråskaleskärm med 1024 gråtoner i varje fysisk pixel. Ingen dot pitch! Vanlig CRT, förstås, men inte lika tung som motsvarande färgskärmar (28 kg jämfört med nästan 40 kg) och inte heller lika djup. Och mycket skarpare! Den var också mycket, mycket billigare än motsvarande färgskärmar. Jag tror den kostade 12000 kronor när den köptes in, antingen -97 eller -98. Färgskärmar i samma storlek och upplösning kostade tre, fyra gånger så mycket!

Min HP ZR24w kostade som jämförelse 3800 kronor. Ett kap, inte bara jämfört med priserna -97, -98 utan också jämfört med vad andra IPS-paneler fortfarande kostar. Jämför till exempel med Eizos IPS-paneler. Den närmaste konkurrenten med vettigare prisläge är nog Dell U2410. Jag tittade mycket på U2410-recensioner och i forum men blev lite mörkrädd för alla rapporter om de som haft problem med sina U2410:or. Jag bestämde mig till slut alltså för HP-skärmen.

Den är som levererad en smula ljus (ljusstyrkan var på 90%!), men lite rattande på ljusstyrka och kontrast löste det rätt bra. En mycket detaljerad recension med tips om till exempel just detta finns här:

http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/hp_zr24w.htm

Ett återstående litet ljusproblem är det som brukar kallas ”white glow” på IPS-paneler: väldigt mörka partier blir lite ljusare om de ses ur en ganska extrem vinkel. Jag märker det bara om rummet är ganska mörkt, även om mina terminalfönster alla har svart bakgrund! Jag kan alltså leva med det.

Å andra sidan köpte jag knappast skärmen för att bygga hemmabio. Hade jag varit ute efter något sådant hade jag kanske föredragit ännu svartare svart. Jag är framför allt ute efter att få plats med många rader och skarp text, som ni nog kunde gissa. Det får jag verkligen med råge med den här skärmen. Färgåtergivningen, den jämna färgen och extrema betrakningsvinklar är en bra bonus.

För att få saker att fungera med brain testade jag först med xrandr. EDID-snacket fungerade och skärmen talade om vilka upplösningar den förstod sig på. Jag hade varit lite nojig kring det här eftersom någon sagt att de inte fått EDID att fungera mot ZR24w, fast det var oklart med vilket system. Jag läste på för att försäkra mig om att det faktiskt fortfarande gick att använda egentillverkade modelines, som på den gamla onda tiden. Nu slapp jag tack och lov det. Med en

% xrandr --output VGA --mode 1920x1200

blev allt väldigt mycket roligare!

Ännu roligare blev det, i alla fall en stund, med

% xrandr --output VGA --right-of LVDS

som alltså gjorde att jag hade en virtuell skärm på 2944 x 1200, fördelad på brains interna skärm och HP-skärmen. Tyvärr blev allting också mycket långsammare och till exempel mplayer leker inte längre med XVideo, utan kräver att jag använder -vo x11. Jag får alltså i så fall titta på filmer utan hårdvaruacceleration. Det hettar upp CPU:n, må ni tro, att köra med mjukvaruzoom till fullscreen!

För tillfället kör jag alltså i stället med den inbyggda skärmen avstängd när jag använder den externa. 1920x1200 räcker bra! Just nu, i alla fall…

Written by MC on Boomtime, the 51 day of Confusion in the YOLD 3176 (2010-07-16).

Det jag saknade mest sist jag skrev var virtuella skärmar. Det stoppade jag in 30:e juni. Det visade sig faktiskt inte vara särskilt svårt, så själva arbetet för det gick på någon timme.

Eftersom jag hela tiden startade om mcwm medan jag utvecklade blev det ganska snart uppenbart att jag måste spara undan informationen om vilka fönster som hörde till vilka workspaces någonstans utanför själva fönsterhanteraren, som jag ju dödade hela tiden. Lyckligtvis har Extended Window Manager Hints redan en hint för detta, _NET_WM_DESKTOP. Stöd för det kunde jag plocka in ganska snabbt, även om jag kanske gjorde det på ett något naivt sätt. Det betyder alltså att även andra fönsterhanterare förstår var fönstren skall placeras om jag nu startar en annan wm eller om en annan wm satt fönstren på särskilda virtuella skärmar redan.

Tyvärr var det saker jag inte hade förstått. Exempel: Om du gjort en sökning i ett dokument med xpdf och sedan fortsatt läsa i filen så gör xpdf bara unmap på sökfönstret i stället för att förstöra det. Kanske sparar xpdf lite tid på det viset om du vill göra en sökning igen.

Om jag bytte workspace och bytte tillbaka så mappade min fönsterhanterare också sökfönstret, fast xpdf alltså inte ansåg att det var aktivt… Oops! Några andra program, till exempel Ghostscript-fronten gv, gjorde likadant.

Det tog lite tid att komma på ett bra sätt att hantera det. Rätt svar är troligen att hantera UnmapNotify-händelser i fönsterhanteraren och när vi får en sådan glömma bort fönstret helt och hållet, om det inte var vi själva som gjorde unmap för att vi håller på att byta workspace.

Det här innebar också att starten av fönsterhanteraren blev ändrad så att vi enbart hanterar fönster som faktiskt redan syns när vi startar. Förut hanterade den alla fönster som inte explicit sagt att de inte skall hanteras, alltså de med ”override redirect” satt.

En bieffekt av den ändringen är att jag nu låter mcwm dö på ett snyggare(?) sätt: Den mappar alla fönster den känner till och sätter om tangentbordsfokus till att automatiskt följa muspekaren (X:s default). Jag stoppade också in signalhanterare för att se till att mcwm dör på samma sätt ifall den skulle krascha.

De här ändringarna gör mycket riktigt att xpdf:s sökfönster och utskriftfönster inte längre mappas vid byte till dess workspace om de nu inte var aktiva. Om xpdf eller gv var igång och hade sådana subfönster när mcwm startade så kommer de inte heller att synas i onödan. Det fungerade!

Fokusbyte från tangentbordet stoppade jag in i samma veva som workspaces. Hittills är det bara en enkel fönsterring som gör att du kan gå runt mellan alla fönster som finns på skärmen. Det är kanske av begränsat värde jämfört med vad man skulle vilja ha, men det är en bit på väg.

Från början hade jag lite problem med hur jag skulle göra för fönster som är ”fixed”, alltså de som syns på alla workspaces. Hur skulle jag få in dem i fokusbytet? Jag löste det genom att sådana fönster alltid följer med in i den lista över fönster som finns på en workspace. När du byter workspace adderas alltså alla fönster som är ”fixed” till den workspace-listan också. De tas bort igen när du byter workspace.

mcwm kan nu också verkligen hantera att man vrider på sin skärm eller tar bort en skärm. Tidigare noterade den bara den nya skärmstorleken och lät dig flytta fönster lite längre. Nu hanterar den det lite snyggare.

Om du till exempel tar bort en skärm och det fanns fönster på den skärmen så flyttas de så att de blir synliga och får plats på den eller de skärmar som är kvar. Om du vrider på en skärm och en del fönster hamnat helt eller delvis utanför den nya geometrin så flyttas de in.

Jag är nästan feature-komplett och har nästan en miljö som ser ut och beter sig som min gamla fönstermiljö med evilwm och ctwm! Det som saknas är nog bättre fokus från tangentbordet (gå till fönster jag senast arbetade i snarare än en fönsterring) och ”snap to border”.

Nu kommer också de saker som gör mer än vad min gamla miljö kunde. Det jag framför allt tänker på är RandR-hantering för att ge mig en uppsättning workspaces per fysisk skärm.

Hur som helst så tror jag mcwm i sitt nuvarande skick inte längre är något enbart för självplågande utvecklare som jag själv. Det går faktiskt att använda den. Ta gärna ner och testa!

https://hack.org/mc/hacks/mcwm/

Written by MC on Pungenday, the 47 day of Confusion in the YOLD 3176 (2010-07-12).

Officiell websida här:

https://hack.org/mc/hacks/mcwm/

Här är en screenshot, där det visserligen inte syns något av fönsterhanteraren eftersom den inte ens ritat ramarna runt fönstren (den har dock satt färg och tjocklek på dem):

Det började lite som ett skämt. 'Alla' har ju skrivit en fönsterhanterare, så varför inte jag också?

Jag har länge använt gamla CTWM och till och med bidragit med några patchar. Jag har ändå länge funderat på att byta. Nu senast blev det aktuellt eftersom jag fick problem när jag bytte till UTF-8 på mitt system.

CTWM:s kod är ganska gammal och fylld med saker som väldigt få (någon?) längre förstår. Koden är tungrodd, smått ogenomtränglig och alldeles för stor för det som CTWM kan göra.

Tidigare har jag i perioder flörtat lite med åtminstone (i omvänd tidsordning) evilwm, ratpoison, wm2, fvwm och 9wm. Jag har använt samtliga länge nog för att bli skapligt nöjd med min konfiguration och/eller patchat mig till det (evilwm och 9wm).

Jag har förstås testat många andra fönsterhanterare också, inklusive tiling-modellen à la larswm. Hittills har jag varit alltför beroende av att fönster stannar kvar på samma ställe på skärmen för att vara nöjd med tiling. Jag tycker det är lite förvirrande.

När CTWM började krångla var mitt förstaval i stället evilwm. Jag använde den i några veckor tills jag började reta mig på en del saker som verkade kräva ganska stora ingrepp i koden.

Eftersom jag nyligen hört talas om XCB och funderat på att lära mig lite mer om det började jag i stället skriva lite testprogram för XCB. Man kanske kan säga att mina testprogram växte lite över förväntan…

XCB är en mer direkt mappning av X-protokollet jämfört med libX11. En speciellt intressant sak med det är att det grundar sig i en formell beskrivning av protokollet och att koden för att generera X-anropen är automatgenererad från den beskrivningen!

Det som är automatgenerat är alltså bara koden för själva X-protokollet. Naturligtvis är hjälpfunktionerna och -biblioteken i XCB skrivna för hand.

Vanliga libX11 är sedan en tid omskriven för att använda XCB, så det verkar som om XCB är framtiden för X-protokollet oavsett om man använder det direkt eller inte. Alla program som länkar mot libX11 använder alltså redan nu XCB, om än indirekt.

Jag hittade tyvärr inte så mycket dokumentation för XCB, men tack och lov finns själva X-protokollet beskrivet i form av Scheiflers X Window System Protocol. I fysisk form har jag dessutom ett dumpstrat ex av Adrian Nyes Xlib Programming Manual från O'Reillys serie om X Window System, som var rätt hjälpsam.

Inter-Client Communication Conventions Manual finns också fritt tillgänglig, men den har jag inte orkat ta mig igenom ännu. Dito för Extended Window Manager Hints. Nu stöder min lilla fönsterhanterare än så länge knappt några hints alls, men det är troligt att det blir stöd för åtminstone några fler när jag orkar läsa igenom och försöka förstå ovanstående.

I övrigt läste jag källkod från bland annat CTWM, evilwm och tinywm. Den senare är smått otroliga 56 rader kod!

När jag hade börjat hacka på min XCB-baserade wm hittade jag faktiskt också en annan fönsterhanterare som använt XCB från början: i3. Awesome har också nyligen portats från Xlib till XCB. Jag har dock inte provat någon av dem ännu. i3 har en dependency på ett JSON-lib som i sin tur kräver hela Ruby för att alls bygga! Awesome är beroende av massor av libraries.

För att utmana mig själv att göra min fönsterhanterare mer komplett började jag redan samma kväll använda den som min huvudsakliga fönsterhanterare: ”an itch to scratch”. Det fungerade! Dagarna efter hackade jag in nästan allting som jag tycker jag behöver i en fönsterhanterare.

Den är inte feature-komplett ännu (se WISHLIST och TODO i distributionen). Det som saknas mest är virtuella skärmar och att kunna byta fokus från tangentbordet. Det går dock alldeles utmärkt att använda den. Jag har använt den hela tiden sedan förra tisdagen då jag alltså började utveckla den.

En kul sak som jag inte sett hos någon annan fönsterhanterare är att jag utan att använda någon extension kunde få reda på om användaren hade kopplat in eller ur en skärm. Det visar sig att rootfönstret skickar en ConfigureNotify och talar om den nya storleken! Rätt naturligt, faktiskt, men jag tror inte många traditionella fönsterhanterare någonsin prenumerade på denna event, för vem trodde att root-fönstret någonsin skulle förändras? Så icke i dessa tider med RANDR.

I nuvarande skick fungerar min fönsterhanterare faktiskt med alla program jag normalt startar men det finns naturligtvis massor av buggar, nästan ingen felkontroll och en hel del fula antaganden kvar i koden. Var försiktiga om ni provar. Jag rekommenderar inte alls att testa den på en äldre maskin som inte är TrueColor.

Observera att den för att vara användbar kräver att du vet vilken tangent på ditt tangentbord som generar Mod1 (vanligen Alt, men det går inte att veta) och vilken som generar Mod2. Om du inte har koll och mappat ditt tangenbord själv vill du kanske kolla med xev(1) innan du försöker starta mcwm.

Min utvecklingsplattform är FreeBSD. För att bygga krävs följande paket:

• libxcb
• xcbproto
• xcb-util

men så vitt jag vet ingår de alla ändå om du alls har X installerat.

Igår kväll meddelade vännen Dennis att mcwm gick att kompilera under Ubuntu GNU/Linux. Jag har alltså inte själv testat den under Linux ännu men det verkar lovande. Återkommer om det.

Hackandet fortsätter.

Happy hacking,
MC

Written by MC on Pungenday, the 27 day of Confusion in the YOLD 3176 (2010-06-22).

31:a maj gjorde jag en ny release, som nu också innehåller:

• En grundläggande man-sida.
• Startscript (för rc.d) i FreeBSD.
• Exempelscript för integration med resolvconf-programmen.
• Exempelscript för integration med ISC:s dhclient.

I själva radns finns nu också följande funktionalitet:

• Skapande av en pid-fil.
• Time to live-information hanteras, så att adresserna till DNS-servrarna åldras.
• Ett script kan kallas på när ny information kommer.
• Släpper root-privilegier och övergår i en egen användare.

I samband med att jag stoppade in stöd för integration med resolvconf behövde jag få reda på vilket gränssnitt som meddelandet kommit in på. Det gjorde tyvärr att programmet inte längre kompilerar på MacOS X, eftersom den OS-version jag testade på inte hade fullt stöd för Advanced Sockets API for IPv6 (RFC 3542), utan en äldre version. Kanske har det åtgärdats i senare OS X-versioner? Mac-användare får gärna höra av sig om de vill hjälpa till, för jag har ingen egen Macintosh.

Jag har ännu inte skrivit något startscript för SysV init, som till exempel finns i de flesta Linux-distributioner. (Väl? Det verkar vara något på gång här.) Om någon som sitter på ett sådant system och vill skriva ett startscript, skicka det gärna till mig!

Distribution här:

https://hack.org/mc/hacks/radns/

Written by MC on Setting Orange, the 19 day of Confusion in the YOLD 3176 (2010-06-14).

Orsaken är nog mest feghet, tror jag. Jag har känt mig otrygg med vad som skall hända med alla filer (och en del filnamn!) jag har i ISO 8859-1. Kommer de program jag använder att ens tolerera dem om jag byter till en locale som säger att jag använder UTF-8?

Använder jag UTF-8 kan jag dessutom inte längre att kunna arbeta obehindrat i konsolläge i FreeBSD, eftersom konsollen ännu inte kan UTF-8. Det är i och för sig ett mindre problem jämfört med de många andra jag föreställde mig att jag skulle få.

Nu gjorde jag i alla fall härom dagen

export LANG=en_US.UTF-8

och det verkar fungera för det mesta.

Jag fick göra en del konverteringar, men mycket av det dagliga arbetet hjälper Emacs mig med. Emacs kan automagiskt känna igen en fil i Latin 1 och nästan vilken annan kodning som helst om jag får tro manualen. Det fungerar faktiskt förvånansvärt bra för det mesta. Emacs fortsätter att spara filen i den kodningen så länge jag inte stoppar in tecken som inte kan representeras. Sedan jag sist försiktigt experimenterade med det här har Emacs blivit mycket bättre på Unicode-hantering.

Jag var däremot inte alls lika nöjd med hur xterm klarade sig. Jag vill förstås att min terminalemulator när den dyker på en kodpunkt som inte finns definierad i defaultfonten skall försöka hitta en annan font som kan visa dem, men det fungerade inte. Trevligt nog hade jag på en hackjunta nyligen blivit visad rxvt-forken rxvt-unicode, så jag installerade den och experimenterade lite. Jag är mycket nöjd med resultatet. Jag borde inte ha blivit förvånad, men allt fungerar också i en screen över ssh.

Jag fick några trevliga X-resurser för urxvt från bland annat Anders Waldenborg och kombinerat med mina gamla xterm-resurser blev det här resultatet:

urxvt.background:       #000000
urxvt.foreground:       gray90
urxvt.color0: black
urxvt.color1: IndianRed
urxvt.color2: palegreen
urxvt.color3: goldenrod
urxvt.color4: SteelBlue3
urxvt.color5: PaleVioletRed
urxvt.color6: cyan3
urxvt.color7: gray90
urxvt.color8: gray30
urxvt.color9: red
urxvt.color10: cyan4
urxvt.color11: DarkOrange
urxvt.color12: RoyalBlue3
urxvt.color13: HotPink
urxvt.color14: VioletRed
urxvt.color15: white

urxvt.colorBD:          #ffffff
! Amber:
urxvt.cursorColor:      #ff7f24
urxvt.highlightColor:   dimgrey
urxvt.scrollBar: false
urxvt.saveLines: 512
urxvt.secondaryScroll:  true
urxvt.termName: xterm-88color
urxvt.font: FIXFONT
urxvt.visualBell: true

där FIXFONT är definierad som

#define FIXFONT -xos4-terminus-medium-r-normal--16-160-72-72-c-80-iso10646-1

Resten fungerar väl med defaultinställningarna, tycker jag.

När jag väl bytt började jag förstås leka med andra saker också, till exempel trådmarkeringen i Gnus som jag nu plötsligt kan ha roligare tecken i, oavsett om jag kör min Emacs som X-tillämpning eller i en urxvt. Från min .gnus.el:

;;; Make threading look pretty with Unicode line-drawing.
(setq-default
 gnus-sum-thread-tree-single-indent " "
 gnus-sum-thread-tree-false-root ""
 gnus-sum-thread-tree-root "┌ "
 gnus-sum-thread-tree-vertical "│" 
 gnus-sum-thread-tree-leaf-with-other "├─>" 
 gnus-sum-thread-tree-single-leaf "└─>" 
 gnus-sum-thread-tree-indent "")

Det ser ut så här:

Dessutom stoppade jag in utf-8 och utf-16 i den här listan:

(setq mm-body-charset-encoding-alist 
  '((utf-16 . 8bit)
    (utf-16be . 8bit)
    (utf-16le . 8bit)
    (utf-8 . 8bit)
    (iso-8859-1 . 8bit)))

för att vara någorlunda säker på att vanliga brev skrivna med Unicode inte skickas i BASE64 eller något annat hemskt som inte är så lätt att greppa i.

Å andra sidan finns specialfallet PGP-signerade brev. Som bekant kan det hända att vägen MUA-MTA-MTA-MUA inte alltid är helt åttabitarsren och det kan, men måste inte, förekomma konverteringar på vägen. Om mitt fina åttabitarsbrev blivit konverterat till Quoted (un)Printables på vägen så validerar förstås inte längre min PGP-signatur hos mottagaren. Misär!

Alltså behövs en liten revidering, speciellt vad gäller just signerade brev i klartext:

(setq mm-content-transfer-encoding-defaults 
  '(("text/.*" 8bit) 
    ("message/rfc822" 8bit) 
    ("application/emacs-lisp" 8bit) 
    ("application/x-emacs-lisp" 8bit) 
    ("application/x-patch" 8bit) 
    ("multipart/signed" qp) ; Obs!
    (".*" base64)))

Kanske är det fegt att säga att allt annat skall kodas som BASE64. Jag vet inte. Jag måste nog utföra lite experiment för att bli trygg med något annat där.

I Emacs i övrigt hakade jag också in det här för att kunna knappa in några vanliga tecken som annars inte finns på mitt tangentbord (ur min .emacs.el):

; em-dash
(define-key global-map [(meta \-)] "—")
; en-dash
(define-key global-map [(meta \_)] "–")
; quotes
(define-key global-map [(meta \!)] "“")
(define-key global-map [(meta \")] "”")

Det var värre med mina websidor. De serveras av webservern thttpd som av någon anledning alltid skickar med ”charset=foo” för MIME-typerna ”text/*” där ”foo” är vad du sagt i konfigurationen eller som default iso-8859-1. Det är alltså inte beroende på vad filerna faktiskt råkar vara kodade i!

Jag är mycket nöjd med thttpd i övrigt, men just det här var bara korkat. Tyvärr går just detta inte att konfigurera bort, så det slutade med en omkompilering efter följande ändring i thttpd 2.25b:

--- mime_types.txt~ 2003-10-26 18:00:45.000000000 +0100
+++ mime_types.txt  2010-05-18 23:11:14.000000000 +0200
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@
 asc    text/plain
 asf    video/x-ms-asf
 asx    video/x-ms-asf
+atom   application/atom+xml
 au audio/basic
 avi    video/x-msvideo
 bcpio  application/x-bcpio
@@ -52,8 +53,8 @@
 gtar   application/x-gtar
 hdf    application/x-hdf
 hqx    application/mac-binhex40
-htm    text/html; charset=%s
-html   text/html; charset=%s
+htm    text/html
+html   text/html
 ice    x-conference/x-cooltalk
 ief    image/ief
 iges   model/iges
@@ -161,7 +162,7 @@
 tr application/x-troff
 tsp    application/dsptype
 tsv    text/tab-separated-values
-txt    text/plain; charset=%s
+txt    text/plain
 ustar  application/x-ustar
 vcd    application/x-cdlink
 vrml   model/vrml

Jag tog alltså helt enkelt bort att ”charset” skickas med överhuvudtaget i innehållsdeklarationen. Dessutom passade jag på att lägga till en MIME-typ för Atom-flöden, som ni ser. (Förresten validerar nu Atom-flödet enligt W3C Feed Validator, men det är nog ett annat bloginlägg.)

Efter den här förändringen litar jag dessvärre på att filerna som serveras som MIME-typerna ”text/*” själva skall tala om vad de har för teckenuppsättning. Det gör inte alla än, men i de browsers jag testat (w3m, Lynx, Firefox och Internet Explorer 7), så verkar den inbyggda heuristiken för att känna igen teckenuppsättningar ändå fungera ganska bra.

Jag ändrade också på mitt lilla script för att generera websidor, mdn, så att den deklarerar teckenuppsättning som UTF-8 i stället för ISO-8859-1. Samma ändring gjorde jag i Blosxom som genererar den här bloggen.

Jag skrev ett throw away-script för att konvertera alla inlägg i bloggen till UTF-8. Tyvärr var det lite buggigt, så det blev lite handpåläggning på några inlägg i alla fall. Hade jag inte gjort någon konverting hade det nästa gång jag skriver ett inlägg (nu, alltså!) blivit en intressant blandning av Latin 1 och UTF-8, med bara en innehållsdeklaration, åtminstone i HTML-filen.

En del andra filer konverterade jag med hjälp av iconv och passade i en del fall på att dessutom börja använda min nya Markdown-baserade märkning. Jag byter alltså långsamt från min gamla hackade txt2tags till mitt eget mdn.

Slutsatsen är ändå att bytet till UTF-8 gått ganska bra, i alla fall än så länge. Jag får nog tacka Emacs och urxvt mest för det, tror jag.

Jag slutar med lite roande läsning i form av några brev från Rob Pike om tillblivelsen av UTF-8 som Marcus Kuhn sparat:

http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/ucs/utf-8-history.txt

サヨウナラ,
MC

(Sayōnara, alltså. Jag kan inte ens lite japanska, men det är ju ett kul test av UTF-8.)

Written by MC on Boomtime, the 69 day of Discord in the YOLD 3176 (2010-05-22).

Inledning

Typsnitt

Typsnitten jag för det mesta använder är som sagt bitmappade och ser ut så här:

Det här typsnittet heter "-misc-fixed-medium-r-normal–15-140-75-75-c-90-iso10646-1" i X Logical Font Description (XLFD), men är också känt som 9x15. Det har funnits länge i X, men har på senare tid fått en del Unicode-tecken tillagt. Jag använder den framför allt i Emacs.

Tidigare använde jag Gacha 8x16 i Emacs, här i en xterm:

Gacha var defaulttypsnitt i fönsterystemet MGR, fast då vanligen på mycket större skärmar än på min bärbaras lilla 13-tummare. Var typsnittet kommer ifrån ursprungligen vet jag inte. Jag har sett det på skärmdumpar från SunView också, så det var tydligen inte begränsat till MGR. Om någon vet varifrån det kommer och vem som gjort det får ni gärna berätta för mig.

Jag har gjort om MGR-typssnittet till PCF, som moderna X-servrar använder:

https://hack.org/mc/files/gacha-8x16.pcf

Jag har också gjort om det till ett VGA-typsnitt för konsollanvändning under FreeBSD och Linux. Det fungerar antagligen under MS-DOS och FreeDOS också.

https://hack.org/mc/files/gacha-8x16.vga

Gacha täcker tyvärr bara Latin 1. Jag använder därför inte den längre i min Emacs. Även om jag fortfarande kör en Latin 1-locale så kan Emacs hantera tecken utanför Latin 1 och får jag till exempel ett mail med tecken utanför Latin 1 använder Emacs plötsligt ett annat typsnitt för just det tecknet, även om det skulle råka vara till exempel en genitivapostrof. Jag fann det så irriterande att jag bytte till 9x15.

För sena nätter och/eller långa arbetsdagar brukar jag ibland köra Terminus 24, som också ger en skön retrokänsla tillbaka till tiden då jag satt framför en 80x24-terminal, fast nu med klart bättre upplösning:

Jag har definierat en fånig liten elispfunktion för att byta till den:

(defun night-font ()
  "Change default font to something huge."
  (interactive)
  (set-frame-font
  "-xos4-terminus-medium-r-normal--24-240-72-72-c-120-iso10646-1" t))

Terminus är överhuvudtaget ett ganska begagligt typsnitt av Dimitar Zhekov:

http://www.is-vn.bg/hamster/

Jag har bara testat det ett kort tag och kan kanske övertygas om att 8x14- eller 8x16-varianten kan bli min nya default i Emacs.

I typiska xtermar är jag annars förtjust i Lucida Typewriter:

Dess fulla namn i XLFD är: "-b&h-lucidatypewriter-medium-r-normal-sans-12-120-75-75-m-70-iso8859-1".

Den finns också i en Unicode-variant, men jag kör som sagt fortfarande i en Latin 1-locale i mitt skal.

Det finns ett intressant projekt som heter GNU Unifont som försöker verkar täcka hela Unicode BMP:

http://unifoundry.com/unifont.html

Tyvärr verkar den inte fungera något vidare med Emacs, i alla fall inte i den version jag testade. Emacs blev rejält förvirrad och de redan lite störande "fringes" blev någon centimeter breda! Jag vet inte varför ännu.

Ett annat intressant typsnitt är Liberation Mono, som finns med de andra Liberation-typsnitten här:

https://fedorahosted.org/liberation-fonts/

Red Hat har tydligen beställt dem från typsnittsmakaren Ascender för att få typsnitt som är storleksmässigt kompatibla med Microsofts Windows-typsnitt. De har dessutom haft den goda smaken att släppa dem som GPL med några tillägg.

Liberation Mono fungerar faktiskt förvånansvärt bra som programmeringstypsnitt, tycker jag, speciellt för att vara ett skalbart typsnitt. Här i en xterm med en emacsclient:

Här är några andra kul genomgångar av typsnitt för programmerare:

http://www.codeproject.com/KB/work/FontSurvey.aspx

http://hivelogic.com/articles/top-10-programming-fonts

http://www.lowing.org/fonts/

% xterm -fa "Bitstream Vera Sans Mono" -fs 10

% cd /path/till/katalogen
% ttmkfdir -o fonts.dir
% xset fp+ /path/till/katalogen
% xset fp rehash

-redhat-liberation mono-medium-r-normal--0-0-0-0-p-0-iso10646-1

xterm -fn '-redhat-liberation mono-medium-r-normal--0-100-0-0-p-0-iso10646-1'

FontPath "/path/till/katalogen"

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">
<fontconfig>
  <match target="font">
    <edit name="antialias" mode="assign">
      <bool>false</bool>
    </edit>
  </match>
</fontconfig>

<match target="font" >
  <edit mode="assign" name="hinting" >
    <bool>true</bool>
  </edit>

  <edit name="autohint" mode="assign">
    <bool>false</bool>
  </edit>
</match>

Written by MC on Sweetmorn, the 58 day of Discord in the YOLD 3176 (2010-05-11).

Jag hann alltså skriva en hel del inlägg innan jag började använda Markdown. Tyvärr blev de äldre inläggen lite trasiga när jag började använda denna plugin.

Det skall nu vara lagat. Natten till i dag ("i nättras", som det så fint heter på gotländska) använde jag först Aaron Swartz html2text för att konvertera de äldre inläggen, sedan iconv för att konvertera teckenuppsättning mellan UTF-8 och Latin 1 och till slut fick jag tyvärr också fixa en hel del för hand. Det betalade sig, tycker jag. Nu validerar bloggens indexsida som XHTML 1.0 Strict!

RSS-flödet validerar också. Jag hade gjort ett misstag när jag angav språkkoden och skrivit se_SV i stället för se-SV, märkte jag.

Atom-flödet validerar dessvärre inte. Det ser ut att vara buggar i den Atom-plugin jag använder till Blosxom. Jag skall se om jag kan hitta felen i koden eller se om det finns en modernare plugin eller en ersättare.

Written by MC on Prickle-Prickle, the 56 day of Discord in the YOLD 3176 (2010-05-09).

I förra inlägget skrev jag att jag hade hittat ett program på en rysk sida som visade scancodes från tangentbordet i FreeBSD-konsollen. Programmet var av ganska läskig kodkvalitet och jag gissar, utan att kunna ryska, att det var tänkt som ett väldigt snabbt ihophackat exempel i en längre sida som förklarade något om syscons-drivisen.

Jag inspirerades av programmet (snodde de två ioctl:erna, alltså) och skrev ett eget program från grunden, som jag tycker är åtminstone något snyggare, även om det också är ett snabbt hack. Här är en första version:

https://hack.org/mc/hacks/kbdscan-0.1.c

Programmet sätter om terminalen i raw mode, sätter om tangentbordet i konsollen att ge scancodes och visar sedan vilka scancodes som kommer från tangenter som trycks ner och tangenter som släpps upp. Fem sekunder av inaktivitet gör att programmet återställer terminalen och tangentbordet och avslutar.

Jag har ännu inte stoppat in någon signalhanterare, så om en signal avbryter programmet så kommer det inte att återställa terminalen eller tangentbordet. Varning! I övrigt verkar det göra vad det skall.

Written by MC on Boomtime, the 39 day of Discord in the YOLD 3176 (2010-04-22).

Det finns också dagar då jag vill undvika X. Jag blir ibland irriterad på um… bloatware i allmänhet och då får X stryk av bara farten, inte nödvändigtvis för att X på sistone gjort sig mer förtjänt av det än andra program (Firefox… host OpenOffice.org!), men X gör det också möjligt att överhuvudtaget köra dessa bestar. Då går jag tillfälligt tillbaka till något slags terminalläge och stannar där ett tag. Ibland höjer det min produktivitet något enastående!

Naturligtvis vill jag i konsollen ha samma tangentbordsmappning som jag har i X, så jag har skapat en svensk tangentbordsmappning med mina specialare, måsvingar och hakparenteser på de svenska tecknen + AltGr:

• å ger }, Å ger ].
• ä ger {, Ä ger [.
• ö ger |, Ö ger \.

Mappningen ger också sådana saker som ESC direkt till vänster om "1" och Control i stället för Caps Lock. Dessutom byter funktionstangenterna virtuell konsoll omodifierade.

Här är tangentbordsmappningen:

https://hack.org/mc/files/freebsd-sw.kbd

Ladda in den med:

% kbdcontrol -l freebsd-sw.kbd

direkt i en konsoll.

Så långt allt väl.

Nu för tiden använder jag förstås mitt Happy Hacking Keyboard även i FreeBSD-konsollen. Det är ju lite annorlunda, så jag skapade nya mappningar.

Här är min svenska mappning:

https://hack.org/mc/files/freebsd-hhkb-se.kbd

HHKB saknar emellertid en del av knapparna som finns på ett vanligt svensk tangentbord, så jag har stoppat in några tecken på andra ställen:

• '* är på högsta raden bredvid ´` eftersom det inte finns rum bredvid äÄ.
• <> är längst upp, längst till höger, eftersom det inte finns någon tangent till vänster om zZ.
• ~^ är bredvid åÅ, direkt som det är. Det finns alltså ingen diaeresis.

Motsvarande mappning för HHKB för X finns förresten här:

https://hack.org/mc/files/hhkb-se.xmodmap

Jag har också fixat en mappning för amerikanskt tangentbord (det som är tryckt på mitt HHKB), fast med svenska tecken på Alt + [\]:

https://hack.org/mc/files/freebsd-hhkb-us.kbd

Dito för X: https://hack.org/mc/files/hhkb-us.xmodmap

Här är samma sak, fast med svenska tecken per default på de tangenterna (originaltangenterna med höger Alt):

https://hack.org/mc/files/freebsd-hhkb-us-se.kbd

Dito för X: https://hack.org/mc/files/hhkb-us-se.xmodmap.

#include <machine/console.h>
#include <ncurses.h>

main()
{ char c;

  initscr(); savetty(); raw(); noecho();
  if (ioctl(0, KDSKBMODE, K_CODE) < 0) perror(0);

  do {
   c = getchar();
   if ( c > 0) {
      printf("%d\n\r", c);
      fflush(stdout);
   }
  } while (c != 1);

  if (ioctl(0, KDSKBMODE, K_XLATE) < 0) perror(0);
  resetty();

  exit();
}

#include <sys/consio.h>
#include <sys/kbio.h>
#include <ncurses.h>

main()
{ char c;

  initscr(); savetty(); raw(); noecho();
  if (ioctl(0, KDSKBMODE, K_CODE) < 0) perror(0);

  do {
   c = getchar();
   if ( c > 0) {
  printf("%d\n\r", c);
  fflush(stdout);
   }
  } while (c != 1);

  if (ioctl(0, KDSKBMODE, K_XLATE) < 0) perror(0);
  resetty();

  exit(0);
}

Written by MC on Sweetmorn, the 38 day of Discord in the YOLD 3176 (2010-04-21).

Här sitter till exempel Johan och Joel med matchande laptops och jobbar tillsammans. Med på bilden är också Petters nya chockrosa bärbara.

Den här hackjuntan ordnades genom brevlistan mosig och var början på en förhoppningsvis återkommande händelse varannan måndag. Nästa gång borde alltså vara 3:e maj.

Företaget Purple Scout bjöd denna gång på lokal, juice, ström och väldigt bra WLAN. Arrangör var framför allt Henrik "gsson" Gustafsson. Förhoppningsvis kan han ordna lokaler även nästa gång.

Folk från mosig träffas sedan flera år på onsdagar udda veckor för att käka pizza, dricka öl och nörda ut, men det saknades lite hands on i den ekvationen. Måndagarna kanske kan fylla det tomrummet.

Visserligen möts hackerspacet Forskningsavdelningen tisdagar varje vecka, men det är framför allt hårdvaruinriktat och en lite annan grupp. Grupperna överlappar i och för sig ganska avsevärt, så det är nog en hel del som går till både forskens tisdagskvällar och hackjuntan varannan vecka.

Jag vet inte riktigt vad andra gjorde eller tyckte, men mitt uppdrag för kvällen var ganska trivialt: stoppa in en PID-filfunktion i radns. Det var kanske trivialt, men jag finner att ofta är de små finjusteringarna som tar längst tid i programmeringsprojekt!

De senaste, säg, åtta månaderna har det varit särskilt svårt att avsluta programmeringsprojekt. Ett annat projekt konkurrerar om uppmärksamhet: Dottern, den lilla hacker in training jag numera ägnar min dagar åt att ta hand om.

Eftersom jag är hemmapappa på heltid numera behöver jag alltså en slags nördventil ibland. Mosig-träffarna varannan onsdag har varit bra, men det har inte blivit så mycket gjort. En hackjunta skulle kunna vara ett lyckat komplement.

Jag lyckades hur som helst åtminstone denna gång med mitt uppsåt och checkade in och pushade resultatet till min Git. Se mer här:

https://hack.org/mc/hacks/radns/

Jag gick därifrån 21:30. Jag vet inte hur länge de andra höll ut. Jag fick i alla fall mycket gjort och ser gärna en fortsättning.

Några fler bilder jag tog finns här:

https://hack.org/mc/gallery/hackjunta1/

Happy hacking!

Written by MC on Setting Orange, the 37 day of Discord in the YOLD 3176 (2010-04-20).

Jag testade att stoppa in en annan plugin, meta, för att kunna specifiera exakt vilka inlägg som Markdown skulle bry sig om att hantera och strunta i de gamla som var skrivna i HTML. Resultatet var dock katastrofalt: RSS-filen som genererades saknade helt markup! Det var inte riktigt vad jag hade hoppats på.

Möjligen är det hela resultatet av skit bakom spakarna, men jag tror ändå det är dags att undersöka andra blogkompilatorer. Om någon har några tips för ett bra verktyg, så tveka inte att kontakta mig. Kravlista:

• Skall gå att köra från kommandoraden. Ingen CGI, tack.
• Skall generera statiska filer.
• Skall generera både RSS och Atom, helst validerande.
• Jag vill slippa skriva HTML. Markdown eller txt2tags-format, fungerar. Jag kan säkert leva med något annat motsvarande också.

Flera gånger har jag funderat på att byta ut verktygen jag använder för att bygga hela min website och en del av de jag tittat på kan faktiskt också användas för att generera bloggar. Jag tänker framför allt på ikiwiki och werc.

Jag skall göra lite experiment innan jag byter. Under tiden kanske ni får stå ut med att feeden ser ut så här. Sorry. Tips mottages tacksamt.

Written by MC on Boomtime, the 34 day of Discord in the YOLD 3176 (2010-04-17).

Den sista rent sociala webcommunity jag var medlem på var svartrocksinriktade Helgon.net. Jag utplånade min användare där för några år sedan. Jag gjorde några försök att avsluta medlemsskapet före det, men skapade till min stora irritation varje gång en ny användare efter en liten paus. Det hände kanske två–tre gånger innan jag lyckades låta bli att återvända.

Orsaken var nog framför allt att jag hade svårt att slita mig från de dagböcker jag följde. Tack och lov har de flesta personer vars dagböcker jag följde på Helgon.net sedan dess börjat publicera sig på andra sätt, till exempel med vanliga bloggar.

Jag har på sistone tyvärr sett en trend bland bekanta att gå tillbaka till stängda communities, framför allt Facebook. Det är tråkigt, men jag tror inte att jag tänker ge mig in i den världen igen. Jag hoppas i stället på en annan utveckling.

Bergis missar jag massor av intressanta saker genom att inte vara med på Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Helgon.net, Lunarstorm, Last.FM, Haket, Vilda Webben, SprayDate eller någon av de andra 4711 sociala webmojsarna som finns eller har funnits, men det kan jag nog ta så länge jag slipper de vanligen hemska webgränssnitten. Jag har visserligen hört att Facebook skall vara undantaget, men det tror jag när jag ser det.

Mina sociala datorkontakter sköter jag i stället genom:

• Personliga brev. Jag får kanske fem–tio om dagen. Det tar antagligen mer tid att skriva svar på breven än många inlägg jag skriver på andra ställen, även om de inläggen är många fler. Jag tycker om att både få och skriva långa personliga brev. E-mail: Brevskrivandets renässans?
• Brevlistor: Jag deltar i (eller i en del fall, bara läser) några hundra listor, både med direkt prenumeration och genom Lars Magne Ingebrigtsens fantastiskt trevliga Gmane. Jag kommer åt både mail och News från min kombinerade mail- och News-läsare, Gnus, som samme Lars råkar vara huvudutvecklare för.
• Usenet News: Jag prenumererar på omkring tio newsgroups, mest sådana saker som alt.folklore.computers, alt.sys.pdp10, comp.arch, comp.compilers och liknande. Tidigare använde jag Lysators News-server, men den dog tyvärr förra sommaren. Jag använder nu Eternal September. Det är samma tjänst som tidigare var känd som Motzarella. Det är en mycket trevlig gratistjänst som bara bär Usenets textgrupper, alltså Big 8 + alt./ utom alt.binaries./ och en massa andra hierarkier, som de.*, fido7.* och många fler.
• SSLUG News: Skåne/Sjaelland Linux User Group har en intern News-server så man slipper gå med i deras olika brevlistor. Jag prenumerar på omkring tio grupper.
• KOM-system: Jag deltar i omkring 300 möten i Lysators KOM och 50 möten i KOM-systemet Common. I Updates LysKOM, Stackens LysKOM och Ludds LysKOM är jag med i något färre möten.
• Bloggar: Kanske 20–30 stycken. Hit räknar jag också sådana saker som Slashdot, som jag visserligen läser importerad till ett LysKOM-möte, Boing Boing och XKCD, inte bara personliga bloggar.

Allt ovan läser jag varje dag om de har något nytt material, med några undantag. Jag gissar att ovanstående är ganska typiskt för en svensk hacker, med lite variation. Somliga följer bergis hundratals bloggar, till exempel.

Om jag dessutom skulle använda någon social webplats så skulle ytterligare tid gå åt till att läsa en massa uppdateringar, gästboksinlägg och vad det nu kan vara. Vill jag verkligen lägga min tid på det? Å andra sidan, vill jag lägga min tid på allt jag räknat upp ovan?

Då och då får jag faktiskt för mig att rensa ut bland prenumerationerna och tar också bort massor, men långsamt brukar det byggas upp igen. Om någon kommer på ett sätt att hantera allt det där, eller ett sätt att aggregera data från alla de där systemen på ett smart sätt så snackar vi killer app! I och för sig så hjälper trådning, filtrering och liknande ganska bra. Jag kan täcka tusentals olästa inlägg ganska fort med Gnus.

Jag har länge också varit lite skeptisk till chatsystem, eftersom jag ju vet att det slukar tid på motsvarande sätt. Vad värre är, är att realtidsmedia stör min koncentration. Det där med att ständigt vara tillgänglig är inte riktigt så frestande om det samtidigt betyder att min uppmärksamhet på det jag skall göra när som helst kan brytas. Det tar ofta ganska lång tid för mig att komma tillbaka till vad jag höll på med.

1991–1992 spenderade jag otroligt mycket tid på det då enda officiella Internet Relay Chat-nätet, så jag vet hur besatt jag kan bli av det. Bröllopet med min första fru hölls till och med på IRC, bara några dagar efter AFK-bröllopet, om jag minns rätt.

På den tiden kallade jag mig förresten Teakettle på IRC. Om någon minns mig från den tiden får ni gärna ta kontakt.

Sedan början av 90-talet har jag använt de nu många IRC-näten högst sporadiskt. Jag finns trots det då och då ibland på IRC-nätet Freenode. Den enda egentliga anledningen att jag ibland hänger där är för samordning eller brainstorming kring olika fria program och/eller möten.

Sedan en tid tillbaka experimenterar jag med XMPP, det decentraliserade chatsystem som tidigare kallades Jabber. Den senaste omgången har det varit ganska flitigt användande, mest för att jag fick klienten emacs-jabber att fungera mot servern. Emacs-jabber är inte optimal, men den känns lätt att anpassa, så den kanske kan bli vad jag vill ha av en chatklient.

Jag är nästan alltid "away" om jag inte känner mig oerhört pratglad. Markeringen som "away" är till för att meddela att det kan dröja innan jag svarar, för jag ser kanske inte meddelanden direkt. Min klient kör dessutom i en screen på en server, så det är alltså inte ens säkert att min XMPP-klient är ihopkopplad med en terminal.

Jag använder hittills framför allt XMPP för att delta i Multi-User Chats (MUCs). MUC är XMPP-terminologi för motsvarigheten till IRC:s kanaler.

Det finns risk att jag inte använder XMPP som många andra, för många jag pratat med verkar vara mer inne på att använda det för en till en-kommunikation. Kanske är det en gammal IRC-skada?

Written by MC on Boomtime, the 34 day of Discord in the YOLD 3176 (2010-04-17).

De moderna mössen som ibland sägs ha tre knappar har vanligen två knappar och ett scrollhjul placerat mitt emellan dem, där jag alltså förväntar mig en riktig, fullstor, knapp. Jag vill inte ha något scrollhjul. De gånger jag använt en sådan mus och försöker använda hjulet som mellanknapp händer det ofta att jag scrollar iväg av misstag. Misär!

Mellanknappen vill jag ha för att göra sådana saker som att klistra in text jag markerat, välja saker i menyer eller få ett fönster att höjas eller sänkas i min fönsterhanterare (även om min CTWM är dresserad att göra mycket med tangentkombinationer). Många program jag använder förutsätter att det finns en mittenknapp: Emacs, xterm, et cetera.

Varför är jag och de program jag använder så inställda på att en mus skall ha tre knappar? En liten personligt vinklad historielektion följer…

Den första datormus jag hade var kopplad till en Luxor ABC 1600. Den hade det vitsiga modellnamnet R8. Jo, den hette faktiskt "råtta"! Musen var formad som ett halvklot, hade tre knappar och en hemsk stålkula som inte hade någon friktion att tala om. Men den hade tre knappar! Runes PC-museum har en bild av ABC R8.

Mina nästa två möss var kopplade till en Sun 3/60 och en Sun SPARCstation ELC. De var faktiskt optiska, låt vara på en därför speciellt avsedd musmatta av metall med ett särskilt rutmönster på, men de hade tre knappar och riktigt bra respons. I alla fall tyckte jag det på den tiden.

Här är ett svenskt Sun Type 4 med tillhörande mus, precis som på min ELC. Musen såg likadan ut till Type 3-tangentbordet.

(Tack för bilden, Fredrik.)

Av någon för mig okänd anledning bestämde sig Sun för att sluta med sina optiska möss och började leverera med möss med hjul. Här är en bild på musen som kom med min Sun Ultra 1:

Den hade i alla fall tre knappar. Alltid något.

Min första X-terminal hade förstås också tre knappar. Musen var tillverkad av Logitech och kopplad med seriellkabel till en NCD 16:

Den fungerade så småningom också alldeles utmärkt att koppla in till en seriellport på en vanlig PC.

Den första arbetsstation från Digital jag hade hemma, en Alpha XL 266, hade förstås också en treknapparsmus:

Den här musen från Digital har PS/2-anslutning och jag kunde alltså använda den mot en vanlig PC också. Så klarade jag mig länge, men sedan slog de nya optiska mössen igenom. De optiska mössen var totalt överlägsna i respons, så jag ville förstås också ha en sådan.

Jag hittade efter ett tag en Logitech-mus med USB-anslutning som faktiskt hade en slags mellanknapp förutom scrollhjulet:

Den heter UltraX Optical Mouse och passar rätt bra ihop med Logitechs UltraX- tangentbord. Just ett sådant använde jag länge som externt tangentbord. Jag saknade dock fortfarande en mellanknapp som var lika stor som de andra två knapparna.

När jag först skaffade en bärbar dator, en IBM Thinkpad 570, hade den tre fullstora musknappar. Det har min nuvarande Thinkpad X60s också:

Styrpinnen och de tre musknapparna är en av anledningarna att jag skaffade en 570 och fortsatte med Thinkpad X-serien. Säkert har många andra gjort likadant.

Jag ville fortfarande ha en extern mus också, speciellt då jag använder en extern skärm med min Thinkpad.

Döm om min förvåning när jag nyligen såg att HP faktiskt säljer just en optisk mus med tre knappar! HP part number DY651A. På HP:s egna websidor påstås den kosta 15 USD.

Jag blev ännu mer förvånad när jag hittade just den HP-musen på Dustin Home! Tyvärr kostade den där 350 SEK, men jag slog till hur som helst.

Den ser ut så här:

Den känns visserligen lite plastig och det kanske är ett överpris med 350 spänn för en vanlig mus, men jag har äntligen både responsen hos en optisk mus och en riktig mittenknapp. Jag är rätt nöjd.

Written by MC on Pungenday, the 30 day of Discord in the YOLD 3176 (2010-04-13).

Jag har suktat efter att prova ett HHKB sedan jag hörde talas om dem första gången, antagligen i slutet på 90-talet, men tyvärr aldrig tidigare fått möjligheten. De är ganska dyra, så att köpa ett otestat har aldrig varit ett alternativ.

Jag råkade nämna min längtan efter att åtminstone få prova ett HHKB på en brevlista och blev i stället genast erbjuden att få ett gammalt original-HHKB gratis! Självklart tackade jag ja. Tack, Magnus!

Det jag fått är alltså ett original-HHKB, modellnummer PD-KB02. Just mitt exemplar tillverkades i januari 2000. Den här versionen har PS/2-anslutning, så jag köpte en USB-PS/2-konverter på Clas Ohlson för att koppla in den i min bärbara.

Tillverkarna har bytt teknik i de moderna HHKB-modellerna, så jag kan inte uttala mig om dem, men den här varianten är väldigt trevligt att skriva på. Det känns rätt mycket som ett Sun type 4, tycker jag. Tyvärr har jag inget type 3 kvar att jämföra med.

Apropå type 3 så påstås det på många ställen att HHKB-layouten är inspirerad av just type 3. Det stämmer nog, i alla fall om man undantar att type 3 hade såväl numeriskt tangentbord som funktionstangenter både till vänster (L-tangenterna) och ovanför (F-) de ordinarie tangenterna. Jag minns hur som helst type 3 på min Sun 3/60 och på Sun 3:orna på Lysator med kärlek.

En stor fördel är förstås att ett HHKB tar upp mycket mindre plats än, säg, ett type 5:

Det är också litet jämfört med det jag fram tills nu använt som externt tangentbord, ett Logitech Ultra X:

Wikipedia har en ganska lång artikel om HHKB-varianterna som också beskriver ganska bra varför någon skulle vilja ha ett.

För min egen del är en av de viktigaste punkterna känslan i tangentbordet. Det känns alltså rätt mycket som ett Sun type 4. Jag tycker om känslan i de tangentborden, men har inte använt något sådant dagligen sedan min huvudsakliga hemdator var en SPARCstation ELC.

Eftersom HHKB saknar såväl piltangenter som numeriskt tangentbord så behöver jag inte heller sträcka mig så långt för att putta till råttan. Jag försöker visserligen göra mycket med tangentbordet, men ibland måste även jag ratta råtta.

Det är så klart också en bonus att ESC och Control sitter på Rätt Plats, men det spelar inte så stor roll, för på vanliga tangentbord mappar jag sedan mycket länge vanligen om Caps Lock till Control och tangenten till vänster om "1" till ESC, precis som på HHKB. Nu står det å andra sidan rätt text på tangenterna, men det är egentligen inte så noga.

Jag brukar vanligen använda svensk layout på mina tangentbord, med den skillnaden att Mode_switch + "åäö" ger "}{|" ("][" med shift). Just de här tecknen är de som motsvarar svenska tecken i vanliga ASCII i den svenska varianten av ASCII, ISO 646SE, ibland känd som 'swascii'. De som växt upp med 7-bitarstecken på sina terminaler förstår nog, men jag tycker hur som helst att det är praktiskt att de här tangenterna är mer lättillgängliga än på på sifferraden. AltGr+7 är verkligen inte lika lätt att trycka som AltGr+ä, till exempel.

Jag har några xmodmap-filer (och dito för console under Linux och FreeBSD) enligt den här filosofin liggande för olika tangentbord, se:

https://hack.org/mc/files/

Ett HHKB har tyvärr inte lika många tangenter på alla rader som ett vanligt svenskt tangentbord så just min vanliga layout som jag beskrivit ovan är alltså omöjlig. Vad göra?

Jag har testat några olika mappningar.

Den mappning jag har just nu ger åäö på den plats de normalt har på ett svenskt tangentbord, men i övrigt enligt vad som faktiskt står på tangenterna. För att få fram de tangenter jag överlagrat måste jag trycka in höger ALT (som jag sagt är Mode_switch) också. Det fungerar OK, men kanske inte optimalt. Jag skall fundera på hur jag vill ha det.

HHKB-upplevelsen gör mig naturligtvis ännu mer nyfiken på hur ett modernt HHKB Pro 2 känns. De kostar dock över 2000 spänn och verkar nu för tiden enbart gå att få tag i via japanimport. De företag jag hittat som skickar till Sverige är GeekStuff 4 U och Japan Direct Shop.

För den riktigt nyfikne finns också några bilder på innandömet av ett modernt HHKB Pro 2 på GeekHack.

Written by MC on Setting Orange, the 27 day of Discord in the YOLD 3176 (2010-04-10).

Inledning

ICMP6_FILTER_SETBLOCKALL(&filter);
ICMP6_FILTER_SETPASS(ND_ROUTER_ADVERT, &filter);

Written by MC on Prickle-Prickle, the 6 day of Discord in the YOLD 3176 (2010-03-20).

Instant flashback! Första gången jag åkte i Morsan var jag på väg till den frihetligt socialistiska A-mässan i Sätila utanför Göteborg. Året var nog 1994. Jag hade med mig min Sun 3/60, en 68020-baserad arbetsstation med unixsmaken SunOS. 3/60:n hade en gigantisk svartvit monitor som vägde som ett litet hus, som jag dumt nog också tog med mig. Hur tänkte jag när jag överhuvudtaget tog med min Sun!? Vilken katastrof det hade varit för mig om 3/60:n hade gått sönder. Det var min enda egentliga dator på den tiden.

Jag hade också en PC jag lånat av Jonas som drev Mayday BBS (Fidonet 2:204/423) på den tiden. På dess hårddisk fanns större delen av texterna från Spunk Library, som jag hade varit med att grunda. Spunk Library är ett numera avsomnat arkiv av frihetligt socialistiska texter som på den tiden nog fortfarande var känt som Spunk Press.

Jag åkte till A-mässan för att visa på vad gott datorerna och nätet kan göra för att sammanföra aktivister och planera aktioner. På min Sun hade jag tänkt visa hur mail fungerar, demonstrera ett KOM-system (SklaffKOM, som jag hade portat till SunOS) och visa hur man konfigurerar Taylor UUCP för att tanka hem post.

Jag hade också tänkt kopiera texter från Spunk-biblioteket till diskett till de som ville ha det. Få hade på den tiden tillgång till nätet eller ens till några av våra distributions-BBS:er. Inte särskilt många hade modem, trots att det alltså var 90-tal.

När jag väl kom fram efter en händelserik resa med bussen Morsan där vi blev stoppad av Polisen minst två gånger och många av oss (nej, inte chauffören) drack rätt mycket öl, fick jag min plats visad för mig. Jag fick ett bord mitt i det stora tältet och hade massor av ström. Finfint. Mindre fint var vädret. Det var typisk svensk sommar, alltså omkring 10 grader och mycket, mycket fuktigt i luften.

Min Sun tyckte inte alls om luftfuktigheten och vägrade starta. PC:n gick tack och lov igång. Det kändes lite fattigt att bara kunna bjuda på Spunk-texter men inte kunna visa mail och KOM, men så fick det bli.

Jag hade skrivit ut katalogen över alla titlar vi hade i Spunk-arkivet och lade ut några exemplar av katalogen på bordet. De som ville kunde sedan peka på titlar och jag kopierade för glatta livet och gav dem en eller ibland flera disketter med texterna.

Jag kommer inte ihåg hur det gick till, men jag skulle också hålla ett föredrag, minns jag. Jag minns att började med att berätta vad jag menade med Internet, eftersom mångas syn på det där med datorkommunikation var fast i tanken uppringda modemförbindelser. Det var en uppenbarelse för många när de insåg hur paketförmedlad kommunikation fungerar.

Föredraget var välbesökt och efteråt kom någon från tidningen Arbetaren fram och frågade "Kan du skriva om det där?" Jag svarade jakande och resultatet blev faktiskt så småningom en artikel, även om det kanske inte blev vad jag först hade tänkt mig: Anarkister på nätet.

I artikeln skrev jag att det fanns 300 BBS:er i området kring Linköping, i alla fall i den version jag har sparad! Hur jag fick det till det har jag ingen aning om. Kanske slant jag på en tangent? 30 låter i och för sig också mycket, men i alla fall mycket mer troligt. Jag skulle annars så här i efterhand gissa på 10–15.

Arbetaren valde av någon anledning att göra reklam för min artikel på löpsedeln! De skrev "PC-rebeller!" eller något liknande. Jag tyckte det var lite humoristiskt, speciellt som jag överhuvudtaget inte ägde någon PC.

Efter föredraget bar jag med ett litet sällskap av extra intresserade iväg Jonas PC och ett modem till ett rum med strömuttag och telefonjack och ringde upp ett KOM. Jag inte kunde demonstrera ett KOM lokalt då min Sun fortfarande strejkade i regnet. Alla var mycket intresserade och jag hoppas att jag inspirerade många att skaffade modem.

Efter A-mässan har jag för mig att det publicerades en lista på alla organisationer som deltog. Jag representerade ingen formell organisation och hade i stället fyllt i "några anarkistiska hackare" som organisationsnamn. Jag tyckte det var både roligt och att det stämde ganska bra. Tyvärr tror jag att organisatörerna såg det som ett skämt för några anarkistiska hackare fanns tyvärr inte med i organisationslistan.

Written by MC on Setting Orange, the 2 day of Discord in the YOLD 3176 (2010-03-16).