- Talk - lists.gtalug.org

bell home hub 3000?
by Karen Lewellen 27 Apr '23

27 Apr '23

Hi wise folks, in the latest chapter of troubleshooting the situation with Internet here, my landlord and I have a question. well, I have a question, my landlord freely owns he knows absolutely nothing about the workings of his technology. which is why I am seeking a manual for the bell home hub 3000, or anyone here who might have this particular modem? Thanks profoundly, Kare

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Checking TLS certificates across multiple machines
by Giles Orr 27 Apr '23

27 Apr '23

Three weeks ago I mentioned to a couple people on this mailing list that I'd written a script at work that live-checks TLS certificates across multiple machines. This is a very useful thing to have when one of my jobs is maintaining multiple small websites. One of these people responded that I should give a short talk about this project, and added "Most of us do a little sys-admining and can learn from the pros." At which point I burst out laughing ... and realized Imposter Syndrome had reared its ugly head once again. A "professional" is someone who gets paid to do a job, and I am that. Doesn't mean I feel like a "professional sys-admin," even though I am - more of a professional jack-of-all-trades ... But "Imposter Syndrome" is another huge discussion ... we now return you to our irregularly scheduled programming. That message prompted me to talk to my bosses, one of whom not only endorsed my idea of publicly releasing this code, but did so enthusiastically. My thanks to Toronto Public Library for that. And so I give you: https://github.com/gilesorr/robotface-utils (The naming is a weird story - explanation in the README if you're curious.) Given a list of fully qualified domain names, the 'chkcertexpiry' script goes to each one, retrieves the TLS certificate, and lists the expiry date and issuer. If the expiry date is soon (number of days settable by a command line switch) the date is colour-highlighted. If there are connection problems, those are noted. At work, I run this once a week against all the sites I'm responsible for. I don't think we've had an expired cert on any of those domains in the 5-7 years I've been using this script. I hope people will use this. I welcome comments and suggestions. I'm a little scared of PRs because I've never had to deal with them before ... Please feel free to share as you think appropriate. -- Giles https://www.gilesorr.com/ gilesorr(a)gmail.com

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Fedora 38 is out
by D. Hugh Redelmeier 24 Apr '23

24 Apr '23

I just downloaded a 2G .iso. It seemed to take less than 30 seconds to download! I was using a 1g Rogers Cable connection. I guess that 20 seconds is about the fastest theoretically possible so this is startling.

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Apr 30th - Hacklab Junk Independence Day
by Scott Sullivan 23 Apr '23

23 Apr '23

Dropping this here as it's a favorite of much of this crowd. Hacklab Junk Independence Day Come drop off / swap old electronic and e-waste. * Sunday April 30th * 2PM – 7PM https://hacklab.to/archives/junk-independence-day-2/ -- Scott Sullivan

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Canadian hosting?
by Stewart C. Russell 14 Apr '23

14 Apr '23

I know that Akamai Cloud (formerly Linode) has dedicated root Linux servers in Toronto, but is there anyone else non-terrible*? There's a potential client who absolutely must have all data and processing hosted in Canada. I realize there's probably a 3x (or more) premium for in-country hosting. Any suggestions/caveats greatly appreciated. Best Wishes, Stewart *: your definition is fine. I don't know enough to have an opinion

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how I sign PDFs
by D. Hugh Redelmeier 13 Apr '23

13 Apr '23

We don't seem to have a Public Key Infrastructure that makes digital (cryptographic) signatures useful for non-computer work. I think signing a document is a solemn act. So I don't want to just paste a .PNG of my signature, I want to actually sign it. I don't have a modern Linux device with a stylus. (Somewhere I have a ThinkPad x61 and a couple of Sharp Zaurus PDAs.) I do have an iPad and a ThinkPad C13 ChromeBook, both of which have styli. In each case it is a little intricate so I thought others might find my methods useful. Suggestions welcome. On the iPad: - I can plug in the ipad to a USB port of my desktop and instruct the iPad to act like an external disk drive - using Gnome Files, I can transfer the PDF to a directory on the iPad. - using the file browser on the iPad, I navigate to the PDF, long press on it, and select "Quick View". I don't want Adobe tools. - I can just write on the document with the stylus and save it. I usually save it with a different name, one that indicates that it is a signed document. - using Gnome Files, I copy the signed document from the iPad to my desktop. - Using Gnome Files, I "eject" the two removable filesystems that are the iPad's. I can then unplug the iPad On the Chromebook: - I have already installed the Linux subsystem. I start up the terminal in the Linux container. - I use scp to copy the PDF from the desktop to ChromeBook's Linux filesystem (my home directory) - I use the ChromeOS Files application to open the PDF file (the Linux container's filesystem is visible to Files). - I tap a snake-like symbol on the top of the screen (It seems to signify scribbling). - I write my signature - I save the result, with a distinct name, in the Linux Container filesystem - back in the terminal, I issue the scp with the arguments suitably adjusted (easy to type with bash's history mechanism). I find the ChromeBook a bit easier. Partly because WiFi is easier than wiring (I have only one lightening cable and it is usually hooked up to a charger). If I found an iOS SCP application that might even the platforms.

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Free 8GB DDR2
by William Park 11 Apr '23

11 Apr '23

Anyone need 8GB (4x2GB) DDR2 memory sticks? Otherwise, it's to the garbage.

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Reminder: GTALUG General Meeting - Tuesday, April 11, 7:30pm
by Alan Heighway 09 Apr '23

09 Apr '23

Advancements in Generative AI <https://gtalug.org/meeting/2023-04/> with Marcel Gagne <https://gtalug.org/> 11 April, 2023 at 07:30 PM Join us for an insightful talk on the cutting-edge advancements in generative AI. Marcel will guide us into the intricacies of powerful models like GPT-3.5, GPT-4, and ChatGPT. Discover the potential of API access to ChatGPT and explore groundbreaking innovations in AI-driven creative tools, such as Stable Diffusion, and he'll even show you how to run it on your own computer. Prepare to be amazed as we delve into the capabilities of DALL-E, Midjourney, and AI-powered voice technologies like Revoicer. Don't miss this opportunity to expand your understanding of the current AI landscape and learn how these breakthroughs are revolutionizing the way we interact with technology and the world around us. We're going to use Big BLue Button for this meeting: https://blue.lpi.org/b/eva-zjc-gjy-kgl *Time:* April 11, 2023 7:30 PM Eastern Time *Join us on Big Blue Button:* https://blue.lpi.org/b/eva-zjc-gjy-kgl. *A*lan *H*eighway <http://heighway.ca/> heighway.ca VA3WAH / VA3YKZ [image: Please consider the environment before printing]

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war story: gtalug.org's filled up
by D. Hugh Redelmeier 06 Apr '23

06 Apr '23

(This post is also a test of whether the mailing list is working.) GTALUG's server's filesystem filled up: little disk space left. I discovered this when I tried to do "apt update; apt full-upgrade". The second step failed, saying that /var/cache/apt/archives had no room. This means that / has no room because / contains that directory. Tip: "df /some/path" will tell you how much space is used on the filesystem containing /some/path and it will tell you the mount point of that file system. I wandered around the filesystem, doing: sudo df -s * | sort -n This command lists things in the current directory, and their sizes, largest last. (It skips things with names starting with ".".) Pretty soon, I found that most of the space was taken up by /var/cache/apt/archives after all. This kind of surprised me. Googling got me to others with this problem. The advice: sudo apt autoclean That gave back (only) 3% of the disk. That directory was still way too big. Most of the space was taken by 35 versions of gitlab-runner. I have no idea why we need multiple versions. Violence is sometimes the answer. sudo apt clean That left only 32% of / used. Note /var/cache/apt/archives is only a cache. If the system wants any of these, it should be able to find them in a repo.

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Re: [GTALUG] penguin.gtalug.org disk got full
by BCLUG 05 Apr '23

05 Apr '23

D. Hugh Redelmeier wrote on 2023-04-04 15:07: > | I suspect it has to do with manual installation: those types of > packages are | flagged as to not be auto-removed, so something. | | > | See if gitlab shows up in: | | apt-mark showmanual > > Quite right: gitlab-runner is there. And a bunch of other stuff. > > I'm used to Red Hat's dnf which replaces old versions with new ones. > At least I think that it does. > > # apt list --installed gitlab-runner Listing... Done > gitlab-runner/stretch,now 15.10.1 amd64 [installed] N: There are 152 > additional versions. Please use the '-a' switch to see them. > > Does this mean that 153 versions are installed? I imagine not. I don't see gitlab-runner as a package in my Ubuntu repos, but I believe the 153 versions are all different versions that currently exist in the repo. I tested this with Firefox, and `apt show firefox` contained: > Version: 111.0.1+build2-0ubuntu0.22.04.1~mt1 > > ... > > "N: There are 2 additional records. Please use the -a switch to see > them." Whereas `apt show firefox -a` indicates there are versions 110.x, 111.x and snap available. So, all the un-removed packages in cache corresponding with existing entries in the repo may explain why `apt autoclean` didn't clear up much space (if I recall the situation correctly), since `man apt autoclean` says: > autoclean (and the auto-clean alias since 1.1) Like clean, autoclean > clears out the local repository of retrieved package files. The > difference is that it only removes package files that can no longer > be downloaded "Can no longer be downloaded"... Still, weird that the repo contains so many out-of-date versions; I'd have expected them to be removed when they're deprecated. Also, I *think* that's where `apt mark minimize-manual` can clear out some of the cruft that exists post-upgrade. Might be worth a try? rb [Re-directed this to the mailing list, since hopefully there's something of interest to the general community in here and nothing confidential.]

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