January 2024 - Lug-nuts

Google is Bad
by Gary 29 Jan '24

29 Jan '24

I recently had occasion to use Google searches to support a brake job on my truck and a software/hardware issue with Fedora 38. God the results were amazingly bad. I got the Fedora issue fixed. The big issue with the Google results is that you can't really restrict the results to Fedora 38 only. Google wants to give me 3 million results and not the 30 I really need. You can't tell what version of Fedora a lot of the results were for and they didn't work. Even if it was a Fedora or Red Had website. I finally found a result where someone mentioned that it was the H264 codec that was the problem. Focusing on that got me the fix. Which allowed me to realize that if anyone on the Fedora team though about my use case,: the infrequent and obscure use of a web browser to stream a video, the problem never would have occurred. But that is for another rant. I'm thinking I want to do a startup for a search engine that prioritizes results that include all the search terms and appropriately implements and, not, or, and maybe shows the date the result was created or first found (some websites do this and I really like it). Maybe we could use Google's data. Maybe we could rank the results some other way than the number of times someone clicked on it or haw it fits into our ad strategy. Maybe get feedback. Maybe use AI. I did get the brake drum fixed, but mostly by using what I already knew. None of the information and YouTube videos actually provided the information necessary to successfully do the job and most left major safety issues unaddressed. The ones at the top of the results did seem to be doing a good job selling things like rust penetrants and showing how to spary them is places where they don't do any good. One of the places they said was a cover you should remove so you could spray some magic stuff was actually the cover for the star adjuster on the drum brake. This has to be manually backed off so you can remove the drum. Seeing this video reminded me that I hadn't done that. You can't pull the drum unless you do that. Nothing mentioned this step. Yet they all showed smiling happy people taking the drum off. Some with really impressive background music. You have to be careful when working the bleed nipple so that you don't get air in the cylinder. No one mentioned this. You should ckeck the level in the reservoir when you are done. In fact, one encouraged you to "just drive off, you're all done". If you had actually done the job, you would have backed off the star wheel. This is the self adjuster. It is now not adjusting and you should back up a short distance and apply the brakes firmly a few times to get it readjusted. Otherwise, you have no rear brakes when you stop -Gary

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ordered X1 Carbon Gen 11 laptop with Fedora preinstalled
by Brian E. Lavender 26 Jan '24

26 Jan '24

I ordered an X1 carbon from Lenovo with Fedora preinstalled. https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/p/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpadx1/thinkpad-x1-carb… It seems that they have the hi-res screen offering with the camera that previously did not have support. It was a known issue for at least two years to avoid that hardware configuration. It looks like it is supported now! Lenovo has 45% discount promotion on their site! I configured the system with 64 Gig ram and 2 TB storage with the 2880x1800 screen. The "estimated" delivery is Feb 1. I have the 1st gen X1 Carbon and it has been a great machine! Brian -- Brian Lavender http://www.brie.com/brian/ "There are two ways of constructing a software design. One way is to make it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies. And the other way is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies." Professor C. A. R. Hoare The 1980 Turing award lecture

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pipewire-pulse vs pulseaudio
by Gary 23 Jan '24

23 Jan '24

Anyone played around with pipewire. I was just going to do some pacmd stuff on one of my recent Fedora 38 installs when I found out I am actually running pipewire-pulse instead of pulseaudio. It's suppose to be a seamless dropin for pulseaudio, but pacmd doesn't seem to see it. The man pages and online documentation for pipewire seems a bit sparse. -Gary

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Group meeting
by Gary 18 Jan '24

18 Jan '24

I'd like to thank Brian for hosting the group meeting at Kupros last night. It was supposed to be mostly social, but we ended up talking a lot of Linux. He mentioned that his new laptop seemed to have many options for the core configuration and we started to discuss how this was possible and might have gone off the deep end :) We looked at some of the details of the C code for the navigation app and it was interesting to see the API's for accessing the sensor data. I hadn't played with that stuff for quite a while. We discussed the ease of accessing sensor data provided by a phone vs usb add on. And the happy hour snack and beer weren't bad either. We are shooting for being back at BelAir next month. -Gary

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January meeting Tuesday, January 16, 2024
by Brian E. Lavender 16 Jan '24

16 Jan '24

Hi Everyone, The Raley's room is booked for January, so I decided to schedule a social back at Kupros. Sen said he wanted to do a dry run of his embedded video player. The last I heard back from him was late December and we are now a week away. Raley's Natomas has a room, yet I do not have a confirmation, so I am not going to schedule something that is uncertain. Social at Kupros on 21st St. is what I decided. 1217 21st Street Sacramento, CA 95811 Tuesday, January 16, 2024 6:30pm - 8:30pm See you there! Brian -- Brian Lavender http://www.brie.com/brian/ "There are two ways of constructing a software design. One way is to make it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies. And the other way is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies." Professor C. A. R. Hoare The 1980 Turing award lecture

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[bob.dev.oak@gmail.com: Re: A problem, a phone, and a solution]
by Gary 04 Jan '24

04 Jan '24

Thanks!! I found an Intermac 15 used on ebay. Bought it. I'll give it a try. I knew things like this existed, but I couldn't find it. -Gary ---- Forwarded message from bob r <bob.dev.oak(a)gmail.com> ----- Date: Thu, 4 Jan 2024 18:03:33 -0800 From: bob r <bob.dev.oak(a)gmail.com> To: Gary <saclug(a)garymcglinn.com> CC: lug-nuts(a)bigbrie.com Subject: [Lug-nuts] Re: A problem, a phone, and a solution Found it. It is called an astronomical time switch. Mine is the RT-200-I Made by Watt Stopper. But it is a few years old. The -W version is available on amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Wattstopper-RT-200-W-Astronomical-Timer-Switch/dp/B0… On Thu, Jan 4, 2024 at 5:40 PM bob r <bob.dev.oak(a)gmail.com> wrote: > We have one of those switches you install in the wall, instead of a normal > light switch, and it automatically adjusts changes to when the sun sets and > rises and also accounts for the time changes. It always goes on at sunset > and always goes off at sunrise. Once every 2 years or so, I have to reset > the time back a few minutes, but other than that you just program the time > in once and you are good to go. Best thing ever. > I can't remember what the guy called it, but it sounded like an "automatic > lightswitch" but that is not it. > I even have an extra one. Let me try to find it.... > > > > On Thu, Jan 4, 2024 at 4:07 PM Gary <saclug(a)garymcglinn.com> wrote: > >> I hope you find this entertaining. >> >> I have a very simple problem. I have a secondary structure on my >> property some distance from my house. It has a light that I want to come >> on sometime after sunset and turn off sometime before dawn. >> >> There are a few issues. >> >> 1. The light is visible from the road, so it should look nice. Adding a >> socket with a day night sensor isn't possible. It won't fit inside the >> current lighting fixture. >> >> 2. The WiFi from the house does reach this structure, but it isn't very >> strong. My laptop can pick it up just fine, but the Shelly home automation >> switch I bought doesn't see it. >> >> 3. I have an extra phone that I use only for 2 factor authentication and >> a few other minor uses. I have a $10/month plan for that phone. >> >> Note: The Shelly is installed. It can't see any WiFi, so it won't let >> me set up a schedule because it can't see a clock. Not withstanding the >> fact that I could tell it what the time is and even $0.20 chips have a >> reasonably accurate clock. We aren't flying planes or running nuclear >> reactors here. But it will let me tell it how long to wait after I turn it >> on to turn it off. This uses a clock, but I guess it slipped through. >> It's from Romania. I manually turn the light on every evening. >> >> Plan 1 >> >> Move the second phone to the secondary structure and just use VNC to get >> any messages. Turn on the hot spot and have the Shelly get the time from >> that. >> >> Result: I abandonded this plan when I couldn't VNC into the phone from >> the world. Lo and behold, this only works if you access the phone using >> WiFi. Since I want to use the hotspot, this means being connected to the >> phone's hot spot. Which means I have to be there, which defeats the whole >> purpose. >> >> Plan 2 >> >> Set up my rPi on the hot spot from the phone. Use a remote ssh tunnel to >> access the rPi and then access the phone. >> >> Result: The remote tunnel is blocked. I only did some brief reading, but >> you have to do some packet inspection to do this. >> >> Plan 3 >> >> Use the slow network from the house to contact the rPi on a second >> external and good antenna. Use the rPi's native antenna to contact the >> phone. >> >> Result: This works. But it is incredibly slow. The clock on the phone >> that I see when using vnc updates every 5 minutes. But despite this, it >> seemed pretty stable. Not really workable though. >> >> Note: Although an ssh remote tunnel won't work, sshfs apparently will. >> I wouldn't have guessed that. >> >> Note: Devices that are using the phone's hot spot can't see each other. >> They can only see the phone. This would mean that if I connected the >> Shelly to the hot spot, I wouldn't be able to see it from another device, >> like the rPi that I can talk to from my house. However, the phone can see >> all of the connected devices. And the rPi can VNC to the phone. >> >> Next plan >> >> Connect the Shelly to the hot spot. That should give it a clock and I >> should be able to schedule it using the phone. If I am away and need to >> make a change I should be able to use the rPi to VNC headlessly to the >> phone. Then I am thinking screen shots requested by the slow connection >> and forwarded to the sshfs share over the hot spot. I'll have to make sure >> I set the Shelly up with a static IP, or I'll never find it, since the >> phone, the only thing that could see it, won't nmap or tell me what is >> connected to it. >> >> Thoughts >> >> Having a few old phones and access to $10/month plans, it would be nice >> to just be able to access a phone from the world. It would be easy to >> monitor and perhaps control things at remote locations for cheap. I've >> used phones this way before, but they were alway on WiFi and so I had >> access. When they are the hot spot/AP, things get all jacked up. As an >> aside:I hate IoT. >> >> If anyone has any thoughts, comments, or suggestions, I would welcome >> them. >> >> If you read this far, I hope it was entertaining. >> >> Final thought >> >> After rereading this, I think I could just replace the Shelly with an >> X-10 light switch. Install the controller on the rPi and control it with a >> cron job. I could make any changes using the slow connection from the >> house. Or alternatively, I could use the native WiFi interface on the rPi >> as an Ad Hoc/AP for the Shelly. I did try this, but it didn't work. But >> I've upgraded the OS on the rPi to bookworm from stretch since then. Maybe >> that will address some of the issues. I was using my laptop to test and I >> think I was having version compatiblity issues. >> >> Thanks. >> >> Full circle >> >> -Gary >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Lug-nuts mailing list -- lug-nuts(a)bigbrie.com >> To unsubscribe send an email to lug-nuts-leave(a)bigbrie.com >> > _______________________________________________ Lug-nuts mailing list -- lug-nuts(a)bigbrie.com To unsubscribe send an email to lug-nuts-leave(a)bigbrie.com ----- End forwarded message -----

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A problem, a phone, and a solution
by Gary 04 Jan '24

04 Jan '24

I hope you find this entertaining. I have a very simple problem. I have a secondary structure on my property some distance from my house. It has a light that I want to come on sometime after sunset and turn off sometime before dawn. There are a few issues. 1. The light is visible from the road, so it should look nice. Adding a socket with a day night sensor isn't possible. It won't fit inside the current lighting fixture. 2. The WiFi from the house does reach this structure, but it isn't very strong. My laptop can pick it up just fine, but the Shelly home automation switch I bought doesn't see it. 3. I have an extra phone that I use only for 2 factor authentication and a few other minor uses. I have a $10/month plan for that phone. Note: The Shelly is installed. It can't see any WiFi, so it won't let me set up a schedule because it can't see a clock. Not withstanding the fact that I could tell it what the time is and even $0.20 chips have a reasonably accurate clock. We aren't flying planes or running nuclear reactors here. But it will let me tell it how long to wait after I turn it on to turn it off. This uses a clock, but I guess it slipped through. It's from Romania. I manually turn the light on every evening. Plan 1 Move the second phone to the secondary structure and just use VNC to get any messages. Turn on the hot spot and have the Shelly get the time from that. Result: I abandonded this plan when I couldn't VNC into the phone from the world. Lo and behold, this only works if you access the phone using WiFi. Since I want to use the hotspot, this means being connected to the phone's hot spot. Which means I have to be there, which defeats the whole purpose. Plan 2 Set up my rPi on the hot spot from the phone. Use a remote ssh tunnel to access the rPi and then access the phone. Result: The remote tunnel is blocked. I only did some brief reading, but you have to do some packet inspection to do this. Plan 3 Use the slow network from the house to contact the rPi on a second external and good antenna. Use the rPi's native antenna to contact the phone. Result: This works. But it is incredibly slow. The clock on the phone that I see when using vnc updates every 5 minutes. But despite this, it seemed pretty stable. Not really workable though. Note: Although an ssh remote tunnel won't work, sshfs apparently will. I wouldn't have guessed that. Note: Devices that are using the phone's hot spot can't see each other. They can only see the phone. This would mean that if I connected the Shelly to the hot spot, I wouldn't be able to see it from another device, like the rPi that I can talk to from my house. However, the phone can see all of the connected devices. And the rPi can VNC to the phone. Next plan Connect the Shelly to the hot spot. That should give it a clock and I should be able to schedule it using the phone. If I am away and need to make a change I should be able to use the rPi to VNC headlessly to the phone. Then I am thinking screen shots requested by the slow connection and forwarded to the sshfs share over the hot spot. I'll have to make sure I set the Shelly up with a static IP, or I'll never find it, since the phone, the only thing that could see it, won't nmap or tell me what is connected to it. Thoughts Having a few old phones and access to $10/month plans, it would be nice to just be able to access a phone from the world. It would be easy to monitor and perhaps control things at remote locations for cheap. I've used phones this way before, but they were alway on WiFi and so I had access. When they are the hot spot/AP, things get all jacked up. As an aside:I hate IoT. If anyone has any thoughts, comments, or suggestions, I would welcome them. If you read this far, I hope it was entertaining. Final thought After rereading this, I think I could just replace the Shelly with an X-10 light switch. Install the controller on the rPi and control it with a cron job. I could make any changes using the slow connection from the house. Or alternatively, I could use the native WiFi interface on the rPi as an Ad Hoc/AP for the Shelly. I did try this, but it didn't work. But I've upgraded the OS on the rPi to bookworm from stretch since then. Maybe that will address some of the issues. I was using my laptop to test and I think I was having version compatiblity issues. Thanks. Full circle -Gary

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check again
by Brian E. Lavender 03 Jan '24

03 Jan '24

Is this thing working? -- Brian Lavender http://www.brie.com/brian/ "There are two ways of constructing a software design. One way is to make it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies. And the other way is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies." Professor C. A. R. Hoare The 1980 Turing award lecture

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still working?
by Brian E. Lavender 03 Jan '24

03 Jan '24

list working? -- Brian Lavender http://www.brie.com/brian/ "There are two ways of constructing a software design. One way is to make it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies. And the other way is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies." Professor C. A. R. Hoare The 1980 Turing award lecture

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Apache support for tomcat proxy
by Brian E. Lavender 03 Jan '24

03 Jan '24

I found a page for doing proxy between Apache httpd and Apache Tomcat. https://tomcat.apache.org/tomcat-9.0-doc/proxy-howto.html -- Brian Lavender http://www.brie.com/brian/ "There are two ways of constructing a software design. One way is to make it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies. And the other way is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies." Professor C. A. R. Hoare The 1980 Turing award lecture

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Lug-nuts January 2024