It's been a pretty dry week here on Rubenerd. So here’s Omame’s Kill la Kill art with the characters looking like pinup girls. I really like this retro style!
Alas, Clara and I dropped the serie a few episodes before its conclusion. Action gets so dull when relied upon to carry an entire plot for more than a few episodes. Someone (anyone?), convince us to finish this.
A privacy newsgroup recently had a discussion about Iran's summons for Mark Zuckerberg over Facebook privacy violations. There was the usual discussion about politics, followed by people claiming you just shouldn’t use Facebook if you don't like their creepyness.
This line of reasoning troubles me every time I read it now, partly because I used to think the same way.
For a lot of jobs now, a Facebook account is all but mandatory, especially if you're under thirty. Universities/companies increasingly accept/hire people based on what they find out about them online; an absence on large social networks is implied to mean you had an account, but were embarrassed to make it public and you hid it.
I'm not defending the practice; I despise Facebook and hiring procedures. I'm also not defending the Iranian government, and wouldn’t hold anything against Zuck for not going there.
But this whole mantra that companies can get away with whatever privacy violations they want because use of their service is optional really has to stop, or they'll only keep getting away with more stuff.
The fda parameter can be used to define a disk when starting QEMU.
$ qemu-system-x86_64 -fda floppy1.img [..]
If you get to the point where you need to swap disks, enter CTRL+ALT+2 and update the fda disk. Or so the online guides say.
(qemu) change fda "floppy1.img" ==> Device 'fda' not found
Recent versions of QEMU seem to have changed this. Run info block showed a different identifier for the floppy drive:
floppy0: ./floppy1.img (raw)
Removable device: not locked, tray closed
Cache mode: writeback
Using this identifier works.
(qemu) change floppy0 "floppy2.img" ==> [silently accepted]
Now you can go back with CTRL+ALT+1.
The ejabberd XMPP server requires the server key and certificate in the one pem file, in that order. Alas, writing these out caused new connections to drop. Oops.
The first catch was my pem file wasn't readable by the ejabberd user, a rookie mistake.
$ ls -l server.pem location: sydney --- $ chown ejabberd:ejabberd server.pem location: sydney ---
Connections could now be established, but verification failed:
$ openssl s_client -connect subdomain.server.tld:5222 -starttls xmpp ==> [..] ==> Verify return code: 21 (unable to verify the first certificate)
Not to get all Malcolm Turnbull Gladwell on you, but turns out you need to append the intermediate RapidSSL CA as well. For me, this required both sets of certs from this knowledgebase article.
Lesson learned; if you use a wildcard RapidSSL cert with ejabberd, make sure you include the RapidSSL and GeoTrust certs in the pem file.
I think this is the first time my three homes have been on the Wikipedia homepage at the same time.
In the news
Malcolm Turnbull (pictured) replaces Tony Abbott as the Liberal Party leader, becoming Prime Minister of Australia. [..]
The ruling People's Action Party, led by Lee Hsien Loong, retains its majority in the Singaporean general election.
On this day...
September 16: Malaysia Day; [..]
“Home” in this context referring to where I’ve grown up, and consider home. I do not, nor could I with my limited financial resources, own real estate in these three places. A nice apartment in Damansara Perdana, Outram Park and a leafy northern Sydney suburb would be lovely though.
Matthew Proctor made an interesting point in his article When will VoIP kill the telephone. But with a pretty big caveat.
Try it. Pick a customer, a vendor or a friend that you call regularly. Now put their email address into your favourite unified communications client, such as Skype, Lync or Facebook Messenger, and the likelihood is you’ll never spend a cent on calling them on your telephone again.
For my next business, I won’t be getting a telephone number, let alone any handsets. But people will still be able to call me, using just my email address.
Two words: emgergency services. When you’re panicking, can’t find your mobile, your internet is down or there’s no reception, you don’t have time to think twice. Family history informs this.
For that reason alone, I insist on having a landline, even if I don’t ever use it. And you should too.
Podcast: Play in new window · Download
29:00 – The official park studios of the show, getting weird looks, insomnia, the Renaissance Podcaster obsession with “nuance”, street lamps in parks, shadows on grass, Chinese vegetarian food (Chinatown in Sydney, Emperor’s Puffs, Kopitiam and hawker centres in Singapore), Australia has a new Prime Minister (the party spill motion, Turnbull, Abbott, Rudd, Gillard), the Westminster System, tiring of political cynicism, and the glorious placebo effect of pushing pedestrian-crossing buttons.
Recorded in Sydney, Australia. Licence for this track: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0. Attribution: Ruben Schade.
Released September 2015 on The Overnightscape Underground, an Internet talk radio channel focusing on a freeform monologue style, with diverse and fascinating hosts.
Subscribe with iTunes, Pocket Casts, Overcast or add this feed to your podcast client.
The Overnightscape Central is a fun weekly podcast hosted by the illustrious PQ Ribber. Hosts and listeners of The Overnightscape Underground participate in a topic each week, and you’re welcome to join.
02:48:09 – Smidge Kurdlebaum!! Clara Ts
e!! Frank Edward Nora!! Rubenerd!! Four brave internet broadcast legends join PQ Ribber for another classic Central about Music!!
You can view this episode on the Underground, listen to it here, and subscribe with this feed in your podcast client.
Speaking of projects on Git, the venerable FreshPorts has published its site source. That was a lot of links.
Dan Langille still also needs your LTO tapes and drives.
We haven’t had a Pointless Rubenerd Milestone in ages. And what an unfortunate number to have one of, let alone three in a row!
I posted about 666 posts in 2007, hence the above image. In a few years, I'll have that number of pages. Cool.