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So about the Feb. Meeting... it falls on valentines day...
by Tim Keller Jan. 7, 2019

Jan. 7, 2019

We can talk about this at the meeting but looking at at calendar the Feb. WLUG meeting is going to fall on Valentines day. I see this as a problem... Why don't we move it to the 21st preemptively. Thanks, Tim. -- I am leery of the allegiances of any politician who refers to their constituents as "consumers".

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WLUG Meeting THIS Thursday Jan. 10th, 2019! Topic: A Scheme to bootstrap Trust
by Tim Keller Jan. 7, 2019

Jan. 7, 2019

Here are the pertinent details: Date & Time: Jan. 10th, 2019 @ 7pm Location: WPI Student Center Room 128 "Taylor Room" It's the room at the BOTTOM of the stairs. Topic: A Scheme to Bootstrap Trust. Presenter: Dr. Keith Wright. Snacks and Refreshments will be provided and we'll head off for dinner afterwards to continue to conversation. Thanks, Tim. -- I am leery of the allegiances of any politician who refers to their constituents as "consumers".

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Demon haunted windows 10 laptop...
by Tim Keller Jan. 6, 2019

Jan. 6, 2019

So my trusty old piece of crap finally, well crapped out. My company gave me a shiny new Lenovo 470 but it came with windows 10... no worries I'll just quick grab the 18.10 ubuntu iso and use one of the various tools to create a bootable USB... The *moment* I plugged it into my ethernet network, all hell broke loose. I didn't want to hook it up to my wifi because I assume it'll just send my wifi info back to a mothership somewhere. My Verizion AP / router promptly crashed, hard. I had to yank the power sing the ABC song for it to fully discharge and reboot. Windows... evil to the core... -- I am leery of the allegiances of any politician who refers to their constituents as "consumers".

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Jan. WLUG Meeting: Jan 10th, Topic: Keith's talk!
by Tim Keller Jan. 5, 2019

Jan. 5, 2019

Hey Gang, We've got a meeting on Thursday, January 10th, 2019 @ 7pm. Topic: I'm not sure of the tile, but esteemed longtime member Keith Wright will be giving a talk! The reminders will definitely have the topic name in them, hint, hint... Location: WPI Campus Center, Taylor Room 128. As usual refreshments and snacks will be provided and afterwards we'll head off for dinner to keep the conversation going. Thanks, Tim. -- I am leery of the allegiances of any politician who refers to their constituents as "consumers".

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Dec. WLUG meeting reminder! Topic: DMARC, SPF and DKIM
by Tim Keller Jan. 5, 2019

Jan. 5, 2019

Hey Everybody! We've got a meeting tomorrow! Date & Time: December 13th 2018 @ 7PM Location: WPI Student Center Mid Century Room (rm 331) Presenter: Frank Sweetser Topic: DMARC, SPF and DKIM. This topic came up on the list as a possible reason why some people weren't seeing all the mail on the list and I thought it might be an interesting topic. The good old days of the internet are sadly dead. Now that the Nigerian princes have given up trying to distribute their money, we're instead left with more sophisticated attacks. DMARC, SPF and DKIM are a few of the techniques now being employed to help cut down on spoofed email. As usual refreshments and snacks will be provided and afterwards we'll head off from dinner and keep the conversation going. Thanks, Tim. -- I am leery of the allegiances of any politician who refers to their constituents as "consumers".

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cool HW-info linux/bsd tool "inxi"
by Doug Mildram Jan. 5, 2019

Jan. 5, 2019

doug> Ran into this out of the blue, and wanted to share the joy (if you like attempting to understand the gore of PC hardware.... or figure out what you just plugged in, or assembled,etc. Sample output below! I havent even studied the args/options yet. Sections I "asked for" (the options/args I used.. "inxi -Fxz" , gave me....) System,Machine,CPU,Graphics,Audio,Network,Drives,Partition,Sensors,Info. I like how it reports disk (3 below) info, with per-disk temperature! Except on an SSD on another machine, temp.=0C I like how it reports per-disk temperature! Except on an SSD, I got temp.=0C sections I asked for with : Drives: HDD Total Size: 250.1GB (5.1% used) ID-1: /dev/sda model: Samsung_SSD_860 size: 250.1GB temp: 0C pardon the TMI/detail+long_lines below. -doug *Inix* is available in most mainstream Linux distribution repositories, and runs on BSDs as well. $ sudo apt-get install inxi [On *Debian/Ubuntu/Linux Mint*] $ sudo yum install inxi [On *CentOs/RHEL/Fedora*] $ sudo dnf install inxi [On *Fedora 22+*] $ inxi -Fxz > System: Host: P5Q Kernel: 3.10.0-862.14.4.el7.x86_64 x86_64 bits: 64 > compiler: gcc v: 4.8.5 Console: tty 1 > Distro: CentOS Linux release 7.5.1804 (Core) > Machine: Type: Desktop Mobo: ASUSTeK model: P5Q-PRO v: Rev 1.xx serial: > <filter> BIOS: American Megatrends > v: 2102 date: 02/23/2009 > CPU: Topology: Dual Core model: Intel Core2 Duo E8400 bits: 64 type: > MCP arch: Penryn rev: A > L2 cache: 6144 KiB > flags: lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 11997 > Speed: 2003 MHz min/max: 2003/3003 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: > 2003 2: 2003 > Graphics: Device-1: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] RV610 [Radeon HD > 2400 PRO/XT] driver: radeon v: kernel > bus ID: 01:00.0 > Display: server: X.org 1.19.5 driver: ati,radeon unloaded: > fbdev,modesetting,vesa tty: 134x42 > Message: Advanced graphics data unavailable in console. Try -G > --display > Audio: Device-1: VIA VT1720/24 [Envy24PT/HT] PCI Multi-Channel Audio > driver: snd_ice1724 v: kernel > bus ID: 05:00.0 > Sound Server: ALSA v: k3.10.0-862.14.4.el7.x86_64 > Network: Device-1: Qualcomm Atheros AR8121/AR8113/AR8114 Gigabit or Fast > Ethernet driver: ATL1E v: N/A > port: bc00 bus ID: 02:00.0 > IF: enp2s0 state: down mac: <filter> > Device-2: Intel 82541PI Gigabit Ethernet driver: e1000 v: > 7.3.21-k8-NAPI port: ec00 bus ID: 07:01.0 > IF: enp7s1 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter> > IF-ID-1: virbr0 state: down mac: <filter> > IF-ID-2: virbr0-nic state: down mac: <filter> > Drives: Local Storage: total: 1.41 TiB used: 398.89 GiB (27.6%) > ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Hitachi model: HDS724040KLSA80 size: > 372.61 GiB temp: 39 C > ID-2: /dev/sdb vendor: Western Digital model: WD7500AACS-65D6B0 > size: 698.64 GiB temp: 35 C > ID-3: /dev/sdc vendor: Hitachi model: HDS724040KLSA80 size: > 372.61 GiB temp: 42 C > Partition: ID-1: / size: 64.04 GiB used: 9.41 GiB (14.7%) fs: ext4 dev: > /dev/sdb1 > Sensors: System Temperatures: cpu: 31.0 C mobo: N/A gpu: radeon temp: 43 > C > Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A > Info: Processes: 196 Uptime: 11h 09m Memory: 1.79 GiB used: 896.5 MiB > (48.8%) Init: systemd runlevel: 5 > Compilers: gcc: N/A Shell: bash v: 4.2.46 inxi: 3.0.26 >

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Apt-X support
by Richard Klein Dec. 30, 2018

Dec. 30, 2018

I'm looking at bluetooth dongles for my desktop. Is Apt-X support provided by the hardware or the OS? -- Rich

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new/old toy soon? (yet another Gigabyte GA-NNN looming)
by Doug Mildram Dec. 13, 2018

Dec. 13, 2018

Thanks for the support and keeping the list alive. Perhaps too alive (I can rant/ramble!) Are Gigabyte motherboards OK? I've only had one so far. Now dying perhaps. Looking ahead..... since I upgrade "combo style" (all ram and cpu attached/included) I'm gonna look at (days from now) a used motherboard+cpu+ram+beast video+beast fan, hope it fits under my hood, dude speaks well about his retired GIGABYTE GA-870A-UD3 SKT.AM3 AMD870+SB850 4XDDR3-1866, IEEE1394 USB3, SATA3, RAID, ATX plus cpu,ram, and even fan info on this BEAST of a fan, should i be scared? https://www.amazon.com/Noctua-NH-U9B-SE2-CPU-Cooler/dp/B002VT1GZ6 doug> I find it cool that a machine/mb that old, is still way more than I need. I've only got one HD/disk for example. I'll try to buy her a tiny computer NEW someday if my new/old cheap-out fails. I want less power! Good brakes please! Ballpark of $100+ for the combo you CAN still find online if you dare and you get lucky that it really works for you. ...below, tangent about the seller i will meet this weekend. Sounds very smart/honest! I almost got him interested in our meeting. He said: (plus, he's a CS engr) Hello network engineer, me> Engineer too....I also a) use Linux only at home b) used Linux only on that machine, rock solid :) The cpu does not come with embedded gpu : I saved 10$ at the time, too bad now!

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desktop (wife=moved->linux Mint) MB/sata/grub fun
by Doug Mildram Dec. 12, 2018

Dec. 12, 2018

Warning: there's a couple "fun" ( my definition for "new to me") errors/areas in this LONG email. Months ago i managed to move wife/maureen's desktop environment to Mint(ubuntu underneath). Usage: firefox,gmail (almost nothing else of note. This took some persuading, but desktops are such a fallback these days......another topic for another day) DESKTOP: 10?yr-old Gigabyte motherboard with sata2 ... 4 ports. I only use 1 sata port. I "gave" it a $90/bestbuy 256g SSD Samsung months ago for /dev/sda which ran well+fast of course, turns out the SSD is actually still fine internally. A FEW WEEKS AGO, the "hint" symptom (1 of 2 in this long story) for disk woes was.... (well, it started crashing occasionally, then) ON BOOT, it would sometimes STOP at this prompt initramfs> and with good eyes as the boot-attempt screen(s) would fly by and return to above prompt, I discovered I could fix it with ( actually i did not use the "-y" prompt, but it's the same fix either way) initramfs> fsck -y /dev/sda1 Which would fix a few things, nothing scary for an ex-unix-sysadmin, and initramfs> exit ######## would allow it to boot and be OK for days or so. I taped THAT magic (fsck...) onto a paper mini-sign on the PC for another rainy day. TODAY, the crash was followed by not booting (random results, kernel panics or bios/grub waiting). Worse (not that we care!) near the end of this story, the Patriots gave up cool kickoff return with a lead and 0:04 left. But timing-wise, I'm glad I had a few hours in the living room to debug all this. So I brought the SSD to my other living room desktop (not booting FROM it...) checked SSD with sudo smartcl -a /dev/sda #### AND ITS FINE. I moved the SSD "back" to wife's PC on another SATA port. It's fine! (motherboard deteriorating i guess....but might last another decade). I did run into.... ("created" by moving the disk i assume) .... a boot/warning error NEW TO ME: On initial boot a WARNING ERROR on the early/black screen (similar to where initramfs> shows up..just before that i think) "warning: environment block too small" was actually ignorable (after a few secs, boot marched on to kernel/logo). But I found "it's a thing" and the error appears solvable with first google hit suggesting linux user# sudo rm /boot/grub/grubenv # or "mv" it somewhere.old; 1024 byte file. ...............# sudo grub-editenv /boot/grub/grubenv create and reboot. Seems good now except (new i think; probably from the sata port move?) there's a ONE MINUTE wait on the initial boot with the Mint logo flashing. Final things-to-inspect: (no need to "fix" /etc/fstab which of course does find the disk parts ( just / and swap) by UUID and /var/log/syslog ( I have exported it all, i think the disk errors stopped. ) =========================WRAPUP Haven't solved this learn-all mission yet, but...hope to make it to WLUG THURS EVE and i just thought of a topic. Trick is knowing where to start such a story/tutorial; I'd try to skip over BIOS and sata/disk/etc basics, the fuzzy parts for me involve "initramfs" ... grub ..... and maybe that's it for me. Desired talk/take-home: linux BOOT steps you don't want to know. -doug

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Topic of Thursday meeting
by Keith Wright Dec. 10, 2018

Dec. 10, 2018

> From: "Anderson, Charles R" <cra(a)wpi.edu> > Subject: [WLUG] WLUG meeting this week > > We have a WLUG meeting scheduled for this Thursday at 7pm in the WPI > Campus Center, Mid-Century Room (the location we use most often). > > Subject: [WLUG] Re: December Meeting Reminder! > From: Chuck Anderson via WLUG <wlug(a)lists.wlug.org> > > Maybe we could talk about DMARC, DKIM, and SPF! ****pssst! Frank!*** Why does one message say From: cra(a)wpi.edu, and the other From: wlug(a)lists.wlug.org? (Nervermind, CRA explained that.) I don't want to try to prevent anyone from talking about anything, but I don't have much to say about that. I would have wrote you a letter, but I couldn't spell PHLTT!! If Frank does not have a presentation, I could commit by Thursday to make some slides and bring a laptop. I tested slide-showing a few months ago with the WPI cable in the Mid-century Room and it worked. Here's the catch: My usual ride is unavailable that day. I don't drive and I have not been walking well. I used to walk to WLUG; I fell on the hill. No problem; I got up and went on; it happens. I don't want to be carrying heavy and fragile equipment. I tried to go for a walk this morning, but fell and skinned my knee at the end of my own driveway. If someone could commit to pick me up at my house about 1/2 hour before the meeting I would make sure I was ready enough to fake it. I live about a mile from WPI. Send me mail. I will show you some of what I have been doing, and how I do it. The title of my talk: Love Programs work better than Love Poems Computatational Metaphysics Why and how to write soutce code that can be read Or something else if I thnk of it. Someone said recently that one of the best talks ever was Doug Waud showing TeX printing stuff nobody understood. I thought: "I could do that". I am not a pharmacist, so I will dazzle you with Scheme programs and Algebraic Geometry run through LaTeX. All in living black and white (or glowing green). -- Keith

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