XPost: alt.hacker
From: *@eli.users.panix.com
In alt.hackers, Big Bad Bob <
BigBadBob-at-mrp3-dot-com@testing.local> wrote:
(for alt.hackers, this entire post is considered an 'ObHack' since the Android code is really hacking their UI to do things they never intended
be done - YEAH!)
Thanks for posting stuff here. It's nice to see /some/ traffic.
then draws a border around itself based on the 'pressed state'. It's a
nice 3D skeuomorphic border, similar to what you'd expect in a desktop operating system, and is NOT "2D FLATTY McFLATFACE FLATSO".
I dunno. My preferred UI and GUI is very plain. The thing that bothers
me most about Android is how much it tries to hide that it's a linux
system. I do a lot of stuff via Termux, which gives me a complete shell,
but Android itself limits what the shell can do[*]: "find /" --
"Permission denied". Skeuomorphic design often strikes me as excessive,
and I'd be happy if I could have a curses style GUI for some of my
stuff.
[*] Barring rooting, which I'm not against, but I do not have an easy
way to do for my preferred pocket computer. My pockets are not a
forgiving environment, so I've been getting the super-rugged phones
from Bullitt Group marketed under the construction equipment brand
Cat. Waterproof and drop resistant even on concrete, both of which
I've verified from personal experience.
Alright, some hacks.
Android hack
------------
First that Termux environment I mentioned? I use it for my image sharing
from the phone. $HOME/bin/termux-file-editor is run when you "edit" a
file with Termux, eg from my image gallery tool. That's a shell script
for me that strips exif and scales down images (to a configurable size,
but defaulting to 1000 pixels in largest dimension) and then forwards
the resized image to a tool I have on a personal server. That tool then
handles zero or more forwards to other locations. I get several benefits
from this:
1) My exif is not shared with the world, for privacy.
2) My full-size images are not shared with the world preventing photo
sensor fingerprinting.
3) Uploading a 1000 x 750 pixel image is a lot faster than uploading
a 4600 x 3400 image, even including resize time.
4) One phone upload can be sent to multiple locations without using
multiple phone uploads.
I find 3 & 4 a big benefit in out-of-the-way areas with poor cell
connections.
DNS hack
--------
At my current place of employment, the people who were in Devops two
years ago thought it was the bees-knees to use "views" in DNS. One DNS
server will give out different answers for the same request based on
the originating network (vlan). In many cases these view specific
answers will be the same for 6 of 8 networks which can lead to a false
sense of security. "Well, when I checked puppet.example.org, I got 10.123.45.67."
Another trouble is, those view-fan people have all left the company,
and since then new vlans have been created. Knowing how the DNS server
will respond to a view-specific request on a new host became a
challenge.
So I decided have DNS itself give us a diagnostic test. I created a TXT
record in every view called "vlan-check" that has the name of the view
as a response.
[personal computer] $ dig +short vlan-check.example.com TXT
"hq"
[personal computer] $
[jenkins server] $ dig +short vlan-check.example.com TXT
"vlan220"
[jenkins server] $
Xmas Hanging Hack
-----------------
There's a tree in my front yard that I hang large (8" diameter and up)
baubles on every year for the xmas holiday. For years I had been using a
ladder leaning against the tree to climb up, place one or two ornaments,
climb down, move the ladder, repeat for twenty items.
As one can imagine, this was quite a chore, and about as difficult on
the take-down end.
In 2017, I came up with a fix. Take a string, tie a heavy nut (as in for
a bolt, not a chestnut or something) to it, stand behind the tree, throw
the nut over the tree and string play out, find where the nut landed,
untie it and retie the string to the ornament, go back behind the tree,
pull the string until the ornament is high enough, cut the string, and
tie it off.
To get the decorations back down, I had someone assist me, I'd untie the
string and let it drop for the other person to catch. (The ornaments are
not too fragile, but do break on a uncontrolled fall to the ground.)
In 2018 (so last month), I refined this a bit. This time I used fishing
line monofilament to hide the supports better. And for taking them down,
I made myself a long hook tool. I took a pole from an old ceiling duster
tool, long and light weight, and attached the hook from a dry cleaning
wire hanger to the end with a nut and bolt. When I untied the fishing
line, I'd figure out which ornament it connected to and then hook the
line to the decoration side of the line and use the tool to control the descent. This has worked out to be a whole lot faster and easier to my
pre-2017 method, even including the time I spent making the hook tool.
Elijah
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what's with the alt.hacker crosspost?
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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