johnvaluk · HackerTrans

29 dagen geledendiscuss

The older Intel-based Dell XPS 13 machines have the same footprint as some 11 inch Chromebooks. Some models have thermal quirks that cause a shutdown, which is easily addressed by lowering the CPU frequency. Battery life is pretty good (but I replaced the batteries before I realized the CPU issue was the culprit).

johnvaluk

29 dagen geledendiscuss

There are a lot of old Chromebooks with only 2GB of RAM soldered to the motherboard. Other than that, they're surprisingly capable machines after you flash them with MrChromebox firmware.

johnvaluk

2 jaar geledendiscuss

Is it possible to override shellcheck? It's a valuable tool that I use all the time, but it reports many false positives. It's not unusual for junior developers to introduce bugs in scripts because they blindly follow the output of shellcheck.

johnvaluk

2 jaar geledendiscuss

And a CLI you can use interactively or for automation (once you get the quoting right).

johnvaluk

3 jaar geledendiscuss

Like any documentation system, its success depends on its audience.

As an administrator, I wish MediaWiki had a built-in updater (bonus points if it could be automated).

johnvaluk

3 jaar geledendiscuss

Can you describe the fix?

johnvaluk

3 jaar geledendiscuss

This isn't fair. Researchers put an extraordinary burden on administration in an academic institution. Research by its very nature is cutting edge and is always testing limits. "I want it now!" ignores existing streamlined processes and administration often provides value by enforcing compliance. This kind of oversight also minimizes a lot of abuse.

johnvaluk

3 jaar geledendiscuss

Yes, your local agent can be accessed on the destination host by any other user with the necessary privileges (including your own account -- a root compromise is not required). This has been known for a very long time and a warning is included in the documentation. No, it does not compromise any private keys.

Your private keys are more likely to be compromised when you store them on untrusted systems. SSH-Agent allows you to avoid that risk.

Another mitigation is to use a dedicated agent per private key (or group of keys) to prevent forwarding keys to destinations that don't need them.

SSH agent restriction (ssh-add -h) looks promising, but support isn't widespread and it doesn't cover all use cases.

The article assumes a remote attacker, but the attacker can more easily be your boss or team. Keep this in mind whenever you forward your agent and plan accordingly.

johnvaluk

3 jaar geledendiscuss

SSHFS provides enormous value precisely because it doesn't rely on configuring a file server or elevated privileges. It's convenient, secure and performs well. The ability to create ad hoc mounts for any remote location I can access via SSH is awesome (though I prefer rsync or scp for file transfers).

But relying on SSHFS in production... Yeah, that's insane.

johnvaluk

3 jaar geledendiscuss

This is a nice guide.

In my experience, it isn't necessary to configure ChromeOS by logging into a Google account after enabling Developer Mode, if you simply want to ditch ChromeOS and flash the UEFI firmware. Just press ctrl+alt+F2 to get a shell, login as chronos (no password), then type `sudo bash` or `sudo -s` to get a root shell.

In addition to the other recommended distros, NixOS runs well on all my converted ChromeOS devices.

It's a great way to get continued use out of hardware that no longer receives ChromeOS updates. Even underpowered devices can be appealing for some tasks because they're lightweight and fanless.

johnvaluk

3 jaar geledendiscuss

Great novel. It's a shame the author never gave it a title. /s

johnvaluk

3 jaar geledendiscuss

I started refusing local anaesthetic for dental procedures when I was teenager. I discovered the pain of the procedure itself (such as drilling a cavity) was the same, but I was spared the pain of the injection and lingering numbness afterwards. I was happy to leave my appointments alert and pain-free.

I imagine any color light or other type of distraction would provide the same results. It's not even a placebo effect, so much as the fact that a lot of these procedures are well within most people's pain tolerance and/or can be over in a minute.

I gladly went under general anaesthesia to have my wisdom teeth removed, however.

johnvaluk

3 jaar geledendiscuss

It would be nice to see the MacOS-specific commands in a separate table (or somehow marked as such).

johnvaluk

3 jaar geledendiscuss

The discourse UI is horrible. Adding insult to injury, it checks browser versions and breaks for anything it deems unworthy. Why would a text forum care about which browser is used?

johnvaluk

3 jaar geledendiscuss

I call them firemen who put out their own fires. Also annoying are the managers who suddenly champion mission continuity without wondering why operations have been free of disruption for years...

johnvaluk

3 jaar geledendiscuss

Whenever someone wishes for a film adaptation of Blood Meridian, I recommend The Proposition. I'll be amazed if any Blood Meridian movie is as good.

johnvaluk

3 jaar geledendiscuss

I just canceled one of my ISPs because there was no way for me to adjust my plan online unless I selected an upgrade. The agents I chatted with were misleading and the website was full of dark patterns. I'd still be a customer if they had simply allowed me to make choices a la carte.

johnvaluk

3 jaar geledendiscuss

You can also hold down the Option key when booting to select bootable partitions or external devices. Different models may require extra steps to enable this, but I've never needed to use rEFInd.

johnvaluk

3 jaar geledendiscuss

I run NixOS on several old Chromebooks with 2 GB RAM and 16 GB drives. It's doable if you stay on top of garbage collection. YMMV depending on your use case.

johnvaluk

3 jaar geledendiscuss

Note that some firmware upgrades will only be applied if MacOS is booted from the internal drive (NVME support was added this way to some models). I leave MacOS on the machine for as long as it's supported and dual boot other operating systems from external devices. Some can run completely in RAM if there's room, which is nice.

When the model is no longer supported with MacOS updates, I wipe the disk and install Linux. Sometimes I'll keep a copy of MacOS on an external drive if I need to access or troubleshoot specific features of that model (like digital optical audio before support matured on Linux).

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