Cthulu201

Just another voice in the noise.

[cthulu201]

**UPDATED** Testing ArchStrike

I. Install the Repository

Notes:

This guide assumes you already have a working copy of Arch Linux

Lines beginning with # are command line operations that should be run as root or using sudo

Lines beginning with $ are command line operations that can be run as either root or a user

1. Setup the master ArchStrike repository mirror

Add the following to the bottom of your /etc/pacman.conf:

[archstrike] Server = https://mirror.archstrike.org/$arch/$repo

Note: x86_64 users should also ensure that the multilib repository is enabled.

Refresh the pacman package database by running:

# pacman -Syy

2. Bootstrap and install the ArchStrike keyring

Initialize the pacman keyring and start dirmngr, then import and sign the key used to sign the archstrike-keyring package:

# pacman-key --init # dirmngr < /dev/null # pacman-key -r F32D93DA # pacman-key --lsign-key F32D93DA

3. Install required packages

Install archstrike-keyring and archstrike-mirrorlist to import the keyring and setup the mirrorlist:

# pacman -S archstrike-keyring # pacman -S archstrike-mirrorlist

4. Configure pacman to use the mirrorlist

Open /etc/pacman.conf and replace the following block you added above:

[archstrike] Server = https://mirror.archstrike.org/$arch/$repo

with a new block that uses the mirrorlist instead:

[archstrike] Include = /etc/pacman.d/archstrike-mirrorlist

Note: To use the archstrike-testing repository you should also add the following block (See the repositories page for more information). Use this at your discretion since packages might have some bugs:

[archstrike-testing] Include = /etc/pacman.d/archstrike-mirrorlist

Refresh the pacman package database again to reflect the changes above by running:

# pacman -Syy

II. Groups and Packages

The list of ArchStrike packages from each repository can be viewed by running:

$ pacman -Sl archstrike $ pacman -Sl archstrike-testing

The list of ArchStrike groups available can be viewed by running:

$ pacman -Sg | grep archstrike

[cthulu201]

Kim Davis

This situation is an example that shows many failures. The one that speaks to me is how people don’t understand the words they use.

Take the word “condone”, for example. As a representative of her elected office, Mrs. Davis is acting as a representative of the government. Her signature of office just means that the licensee meets the requirements to legally obtain a license. That’s not an act of “condoning”.

What she is doing is acting as an extension of her church, not the office she campaigned for. That means she’s not acting as the representative of the government office that people elected her for. As an extension of her church, if she were to wed a gay couple, or witness a gay marriage, then those would be actual acts supportive of the word “condone”.

What’s this all mean? We’re witnessing a situation that’s bigger than it needs to be, and it could have been avoided if people were smarter.

[cthulu201]

Secure Email Options

Tutanota (Germany) Lavaboom (Germany) Bitmessage (Switzerland) ProtonMail (Switzerland) OpenMailBox (France) Autistici/Inventati (Netherlands)

All email sites have free options and end-to-end encryption. Plus, open source software is used, and, unless the option was chosen, they don’t backup your keys.

Except for Tutanota and ProtonMail, all have POP3/IMAP options. Tutanota has an Android and iOS app - ProtonMail, I believe, are developing Android and iOS apps.

[cthulu201]

dm-crypt and LUKS

Want a True Crypt alternative on ‘nix-based computers?

# # Create encrypted container with dm-crypt # # 1. Create encrypted container: $ dd if=/dev/urandom of=/root/FILE_NAME bs=1M count=30 # Create 30M file containing random data $ cryptsetup -y luksFormat /root/FILE_NAME # Create encrypted container $ cryptsetup luksOpen /root/FILE_NAME LABEL_NAME # Open encrypted container $ file /root/FILE_NAME # Test file # 2. Create filesystem and mount container: $ sudo mkfs.ext4 -j /dev/mapper/LABEL_NAME # Create filesystem $ sudo mkdir /mnt/DIRECTORY_NAME # Create mount point $ sudo mount /dev/mapper/LABEL_NAME /mnt/DIRECTORY_NAME # Mount encrypted container # 3. Unmount volume and close container: $ cd # Change to home directory $ sudo umount /mnt/files # Unmount volume $ cryptsetup luksClose LABEL_NAME # Close container # 4. Open and mount encrypted container $ cryptsetup luksOpen /root/FILE_NAME LABEL_NAME # Open encrypted container $ sudo mount /dev/mapper/LABEL_NAME /mnt/files # Mount encrypted container

Note: 3 & 4 apply after container has been created and used

[cthulu201]

systemd Links

I converted to Arch Linux/ArchAssault last year after using FreeBSD for a couple years. I will admit the transition was challenging, and challenges still pop up from time-to-time, but I’m happy. I also don’t mind learning new things, and I like change - which is how progress is made. This is a one-stop page of links for me, which I pulled from Lennart Poettering’s blog. He has a blog entry that groups the first 10 of the “systemd for admins”, but not all of them. So here they are:

# systemd for Administrators

Verifying Bootup

Which Services Owns Which Processes?

How Do I Convert A SysV Init Script Into A systemd Service File?

Killing Services

The Three Levels of "Off"

Changing Roots

The Blame Game

The New Configuration Files

On /etc/sysconfig and /etc/default

Instantiated Services

Converting inetd Services

Securing Your Services

Log and Service Status

The Self-Explanatory Boot

Watchdogs

Gettys on Serial Consoles (and Elsewhere)

Using the Journal

Managing Resources

Detecting Virtualization

Socket Activated Internet Services and OS Containers

Container Integration

# systemd for Developers

Socket Activation

Socket Activation, Part II

Logging to the Journal

[cthulu201]

What does Black Sabbath, Van Halen, and Iron Maiden have that Journey, Styx, and Queensryche don't have? Successful careers that didn't rely on people who sounded like their original singers.

[cthulu201]

How To Pronounce Nerd Words & More

GNU - guh-NOO GNOME - guh-NOHM Linux - LIH-nux Ubuntu - oo-BUN-too Lubuntu - loo-BUN-too Xubuntu - zoo-BUN-too Debian - DEH-BEE-un MATE - MAH-tay

Words misused with correct examples: Acronym (abbreviations pronounced like words): NASA, RADAR, SONAR Abbreviation (letters are sounded out): VA, NSA, CIA

Nothing annoys me more when there isn't any uniformity, because if we all don't know how to speak then there will be a lot of misunderstanding. I'll try to add more in the future.

[cthulu201]

Slackware Part 1 - Updating

All of this is after the operating system has been installed, rebooted, and configured to use the Internet. The following should update the OS and some of the packages (at least the ones installed during the OS install):

# slackpkg update gpg #New OS install this is a must # slackpkg update # slackpkg install-new # slackpkg upgrade-all # slackpkg clean-system # Removes packages not in a standard install

[cthulu201]

FCC And Comcast Will Lose

If the FCC fucks the American people over net neutrality then 1 thing is certainly clear: I will be saving money.

But more about the savings in a minute. Regardless of Obama's current stance on Net Neutrality, I don't understand why he appointed a cable lobbyist to head the FCC. No one is surprised Tom Wheeler is in support of Internet providers squeezing more money out of tax payers - who he works for regardless of his saying he's not beholden to the White House. All government workers are beholden to American citizens.

So why appoint someone like Wheeler and then months later act like you're in support of Net Neutrality?

Now on to how will I be saving? I will be unplugging. I ditched AT&T for throttling my bandwidth after being guaranteed unlimited data, which is why I'm now with Sprint. So what's left? Ditching my smart phone for just a regular cell phone; ditching cable for Netflix DVD/Blu-ray service; ditching the Internet all around.

Honestly, I don't really need Comcast or the Internet. TV is for entertainment, and I now have a library card and am reading a lot more. The Internet made life easier and kept me in touch with friends and family. However, the Post Office is still around, and everyone I know has a phone.

Lastly, there is a slow movement to get away from cable providers - I know many people who only have the Internet and a Roku-like device. Throttling users' connectivity will impact companies like Amazon, Netflix, and Apple since they deliver content. It will also impact companies like Facebook and Google because their annoying ads and data tracking business will shrink. And let's also look at law enforcement. How can they track "people of interest" if they pull from the Internet? This will just create an underground network.

The fox is close to guarding the hen house, folks.

[cthulu201]

LVM Reduce

Surprisingly my root partition was filling up fast, so I decided to resize it from 25G to 40G+. Since the /home partition had close to a terabyte of storage dedicated I decided to reduce the size to ~880G. To do that I had to log in as root and perform the following actions (logged in as a user causes the /home partition to be busy and can't resize):

# umount /home # e2fsck -f /dev/LinLVM01/home # lvreduce -r -L 880G /dev/LinLVM01/home # mount /dev/LinLVM01/home /home # lvextend -r -l +100%FREE /dev/LinLVM01/root

Instead of using the resize2fs command I decided to use the -r switch with lvreduce and lvextend because it does the same thing.

[cthulu201]

Apple Has Really Fucked Up

With the strides Android is making for being primarily 32-bit devices is impressive. However, they're still limited and will be obsolete.

Apple, on the other hand, has 64-bit technology in their devices for a couple years now. That means they could have expanded the capability of their devices for awhile now, but havent. Now they're following the business model of their Android competition instead of keeping the path Steve Jobs focused Apple on, or creating new ones.

Simply put, Apple has over extended themselves again, after Steve Jobs' focus was to reel it all back in when he came back to Apple. And they're wasting the obvious better 64-bit architecture.

After disliking Jobs I can now say I respect what he did for Apple. I used to be a Mac fanboi, but I'm now happy knowing that at least my BSD and Linux computers have been more advanced then anything I've used for the last couple years.

As for Android? Until the architecture catches up with current trends I won't be upgrading my HTC One M7 and Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Ed.

[cthulu201]

Feed The Fear

I'm tired. I'm so tired of hearing about things "that could affect me," and don't. The likelihood of a car bomb being in my driveway, a crazy religious person popping out of the bushes to shoot me, or N1H1 getting to me is remote. So remote that even believing in some of that hype made me feel like a complete dumb ass.

Now there's ebola, which I think is the new H1N1 scare. Yes, it's horrible. However, the likelihood of it getting to me is, again, so remote that feeding that fear will make me feel like a complete dumb ass again. I have friends and family that are far removed from Texas and they post on Facebook about their fears, followed by conspiracy commentary. I end up rolling my eyes.

We've passed through so many epidemic scares, one right after another, and people still react this way. SARS, avian flu, swine flu, MERS, and now ebola. There's nothing wrong with being cognizant, but to be a chicken little does nothing but put undue stress on your body.

[cthulu201]

Radio Is Dead

Having transitioned from radio to satellite back to radio and now podcasts I can safely say radio is dead.

Podcasts are better produced today than they were years ago, and the ads don't overshadow the content like it does on terrestrial radio. One of the selling points of satellite is that it's commercial free ... it isn't.

There are a lot of different podcasts out there for any interest - they're not all technology-based. And the podcasts I listen too have relatively few ads. I can listen to a podcast for approximately 20-45 minutes, then the host segues for a 2 minute ad. Then the cast continues for another 20-45 minutes. On terrestrial radio it seems like ads happen after every 2 songs and then there's a, figuratively speaking, 15 minute window of ads. It feels like songs are now the ads and the ads are the content, and I hate that. Satellite radio says there aren't ads, but there are. This is how I define an ad, if there's a pitch of anything on a channel then it's an ad. Whether it's from a sponsor or a way to lure a listener to listen to another channel, it's an ad. When I'm listening to the Boneyard I don't want to hear an ad for the 40's station - what retard thinks that ad makes sense for the demographic listening to heavy metal?

Podcast apps have come a long way too. You don't have to scour the Internet anymore because: 1. new podcast apps have a great subscription/feed location option that allows a user to search by topic/name or browse by categories, and 2. most websites now list podcast URLs on their homepages. There are podcasts from your favorite news organization to photography to even the lifestyle.

I get tired of social networking. If I ever get bored and feel like feeding the Facebook addiction I end up opening my podcast app (DoggCatcher on Android is what I use) I end up managing my podcasts to get a break, from updating feeds (if I didn't set up my app to do it all for me) to looking for new casts to watch or listen to. Yes, there are also video podcasts too.

[cthulu201]

SwiftKey

Why does SwiftKey need to hit the network, on my android device, so much? Application's Name: SwiftKey Total Packets Blocked: 349 [TCP]54.76.86.185:443(16) [TCP]54.76.91.4:80(4) [TCP]54.194.227.216:80(4) [TCP]54.229.249.126:443(8) [TCP]54.72.173.88:443(16) [TCP]54.76.52.168:80(4) [TCP]54.76.69.192:443(14) [TCP]54.76.69.192:80(4) [TCP]54.72.230.42:443(20) [TCP]54.72.114.92:443(16) [TCP]54.72.231.127:443(12) [TCP]54.76.91.46:443(12) [TCP]54.76.52.168:443(16) [TCP]54.246.156.6:80(8) [TCP]54.194.149.0:80(4) [TCP]54.72.231.127:80(8) [TCP]54.246.156.6:443(16) [TCP]54.246.213.114:80(8) [TCP]54.246.140.242:443(9) [TCP]54.246.213.114:443(16) [TCP]54.76.103.28:80(12) [TCP]54.194.227.216:443(12) [TCP]54.76.103.28:443(24) [TCP]54.246.139.2:443(8) [TCP]54.72.89.14:443(11) [TCP]54.72.230.42:80(8) [TCP]54.76.86.185:80(4) [TCP]54.76.91.4:443(14) [TCP]54.72.114.92:80(8) [TCP]54.72.173.88:80(8) [TCP]54.76.91.46:80(4) [TCP]54.229.215.76:443(1) [TCP]54.72.89.14:80(8) [TCP]54.194.149.0:443(12)

[cthulu201]

Why I Hate Sites Like Mashable & Buzzfeed

1. My grammar and vocabulary skills are horrendous. If I can find multiple errors in every single article then the writer, in my opinion, is an idiot. 2. Out of a barrage of crap that invades my privacy (read: asks me for personal data for a stupid quiz like "What type of duck lipped sphincter muscle are you?"), or unverified lists that no one cares about (read: sand density from beaches of the world), there's probably 1 interesting nugget every 4-6 months. 3. I don't consider myself a font of knowledge, but when I find an error in what a site is blogging/reporting then I feel like I'm wasting my time and that people are getting misinformed.

[cthulu201]

Root HTC One M7

For various reasons I decided to root my HTC One M7 cell phone, which range from security to, hopefully, a performance increase. I'm not going to list all of the steps I did because I had to piecemeal the process from various forum posts and blogs. I will, however, list the sites I used for success.

First place to go is here, the XDA Developers forum. To understand the process and find helpful links for files will be found here.

For unlocking the bootloader and installing the Team Win Recovery Project (TWRP) I went to these sites: HTCOneRoot TWRP XDA Thread TWRP Project HTC Develpers page

A couple notes: 1. I downloaded from HTC and replaced the fastboot file from HTCOneRoot. So instead of fastboot-linux, I used fastboot. 2. The TWRP image in the thread is old (2.8.0.0 was current as of this writing). However, the videos are better. 3. Go to the TWRP site, click on the TWRP2 project, and a link in the upper-right corner will help you find the latest image. 4. I didn't have a .zip file when I did the final RESTORE TWRP process. So I opted to just reboot the phone. After swiping in I was prompted to install SuperSU. I wasn't able to install it via the Play store.

[cthulu201]

First Amendment

I read this story and couldn't believe what I read.

If anyone took the time to actually think about a situation and what it means then we wouldn't have stupid situations like this. Not only does an atheist have a First Amendment right to believe/disbelieve, but not crossing out "so help me God" means that person believes in a "God".

I guess it could be legally argued that crossing it out invalidates the contract. However, only a narcississtic asshole with visions of grandeur and bandwagon thinking would play that card. Why? Because we live in a great country filled with people of varying beliefs and backgrounds, and to stand one up as the master race, er, belief, ruins a cohesion that once allowed to be a great nation to emulate. Unfortunately we are slowly becoming like a Christian Iran with Christian Taliban-like reactions. A fake war on Christmas and nativity scenes on public property are actual issues people are arguing over - the Taliban destroyed Buddhist statues.

So do we treat this Airman as an American, or should we employ a Taliban-like reaction?