RushWorx Labs

Crustang Teardown 1

Posted on September 1, 2018 in Cars, Ford, Fox Platform

Well, I need space in my driveway so it’s time to dismantle my 1986 Mustang. The Crustang will be giving up its ghost for a project that I plan to start in the coming months, more on that later. It’s a crusty pile of shit so has got to go:

Yeah that is the rear passenger seat belt flopping in the breeze.

Underneath that huge hole in the passenger side and the hastily tossed in plate we find a nice pin hole:

I believe that actually turned out to be a vent. Instead of venting to the tank its would vent into the passenger carpet. Perfect! This fucking death trap.

Now I don’t know the exact path this overflow tube is supposed to take from factory but you can be damn sure it wasn’t meant to dump into your trunk.

Of course this heap of shit has more than five gallons of gas in it making this process take up all night with my rinky dink $5 siphon. Don’t buy this kind of siphon ever. So I had to stop what I was doing and go fill up my Fairmont with this slightly yellow gas. It doesn’t seem to have bothered the carb yet, and the Crustang did run on it so I meh its okay.

Easily Switching Between i3 Modifiers

Posted on September 25, 2017 in Uncategorized

In the search to make my computing experience as ergonomic as possible (read: mouse free), I use i3. I change between a built-in laptop keyboard where I would like to use the Windows key aka Super aka mod4, and an ErgoDox where I use AltGr aka ISO_Level3_Shift aka mod5.

I have two scripts to facilitate easily switching between them. A command line tool:

#!/bin/bash # i3changemod # CLI tool to switch between i3 modifiers by editing the i3 config.

The default shortcut to restart i3 in-place is mod+shift+r. If you do not have the modifier key, you can’t restart it. So, I added another shortcut:
bindsym Ctrl+Shift+h restart

#!/bin/bash # GUI tool to pick an i3 modofier, uses i3changemod script.


#i3changemod is located in my private binaries path..

PATH=$PATH:/home/$U/bin/
command=$(zenity --list  --text "Change i3 Modifier" --radiolist \

--column "Pick" --column "Command" --column "    Label" \

TRUE  'i3changemod 1' '    Alt: mod1' \

FALSE 'i3changemod 4' '    Super: mod4' \

FALSE 'i3changemod 5' '    AltGr: mod5' \

);

#$command $1

$command
i3-msg restart

# for my ergodox: xmodmap -e 'keycode 104 = ISO_Level3_Shift' # 104=kp enter

For convenience, I added the xmodmap command that I need to map AltGr on to KP Enter on my ergodox, rather than having to use another keyboard shortcut for that too.

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Moving MariaDB Data Drama

Posted on September 21, 2017 in Computers, Linux CLI

For those of you who work with MySQL on CentOS or RedHat servers on a regular basis, running out of room for large MySQL databases on the root partition is pretty common. The default options in the OS installer suggest a 30GB root partition which has probably been the default value for at least ten years. Normally, this is easy to remedy. However, I was trying this on a server with MariaDB …

Trying this both via editing my.cnf and by simply a symlink produces failure:

Sep 14 16:49:06 id27131.1wpo.com mysqld[22796]: 2017-09-14 16:49:06 140313610287360 [Note] /usr/sbin/mysqld (mysqld 10.1.26-MariaDB) starting as process 22796 …
Sep 14 16:49:06 id27131.1wpo.com mysqld[22796]: 2017-09-14 16:49:06 140313610287360 [Warning] Can’t create test file /var/lib/mysql/id27131.lower-test64 ID=15680 PROTO=UDP SPT=53 DPT=60246 LEN=192 UID=25 GID=25

Looks like it may be due to a bug with mariadb!

A tutorial on DO says you need to specify the socket for the MySQL client.. i didnt even try that as mysqld fails to start!
Seems like this would have to be done by changing the variable basedir not datadir, I have yet to try that.

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Ergodox Scavenge Build

Posted on September 18, 2017 in Computers

I bought my first ErgoDox from a coworker. Bringing a keyboard back and forth to work is a pain in the ass, so I built another one.

I used to have what I am pretty sure was a Chicony 5581.

Chicony 5581 Keyboard

For whatever reason some years back, during the height of my take-shit-apart-without-a-concrete-goal-in-mind phase, I lost the top half of the case, some components of the track ball, and some keycaps. Well, turns out this sucker used Cherry MX Blue switches. They feel quite a bit different from the low mile switches in my aluminum-acrylic-sandwich bodied ErgoDox I use at work. I’m not sure if the MX blues from ’88 are equivalent to modern days ones. Anyway I figured I would put those to use eventually.

Naked Chicony Keyboard

Chicony Controller

Chicony Close Up

Chicony Printed Circuit Board Back

Chicony Printed Circuit Board Back Detail

Weller Soldering Iron

There have been several ways to order ErgoDox keyboards either completely assembled or as a kit. Currently you can get an assembled ErgoDox from ergodox-ez.com but starting at $270 its awfully expensive. Well, I have these key switches just waiting for a purpose, and key switches make up a large amount of the price of any mechanical keyboard. Also, I already had a set of keycaps which aren’t included in kits anyway, so, instead of a kit I went ahead and ordered a pair of PCBs from mechanicalkeyboards.com, a teensy from PJRC and other miscellaneous bits from DigiKey.

It took a while and more than a little elbow grease to harvest the switches. If you have not done something like this it involves jamming a screw driver under the switch while alternating between which leads you hit with a soldering iron. The trusty ol’ Weller I inherited from my dad’s days of television repair got the job done, love that thing.

ErgoDox Printed Circuit Board

While the keycaps from the Chicony are doubleshot, they do not suit the ErgoDox well as they are sculpted, not flat DSA, which does not facilitate customizing your layout. I did end up using a different set of non-DSA keycaps for the alpha which looked better matched with blank DSA caps I had for the modifier keys.

ErgoDox Teensy Controller

ErgoDox 3D Printed Assembly in Progress 1

ErgoDox 3D Printed Assembly in Progress Close Up

ErgoDox 3D Printed Assembled 2

ErgoDox 3D Printed Assembled 4

ErgoDox 3D Printed Assembled 3

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Less Syntax Highlighting on Ubuntu 16.04 and Debian 8

Posted on September 15, 2017 in Linux CLI

Looking at shell scripts or just about anything without highlighting is painful. I use less a lot to page through long stuff, so why not have some color?

sudo apt install source-highlight

then add the following to your .bashrc:
export LESSOPEN="| /usr/share/source-highlight/src-hilite-lesspipe.sh %s" export LESS=" -R "

This is modified from a script on GitHub. That script is specific to CentOS

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MechWarrior Chronological Playthrough Intro

Posted on September 5, 2017 in Games, MechWarrior (Video Games)

For a few months I’ve been on a bit of a BattleTech / MechWarrior kick. One of the things that crossed my mind is how disjointed most of the MechWarrior games are chronologically:

The first releases, BattleTech: Crescent Hawk’s Inception in 1988 and MechWarrior in 1989 were sensibly enough set in the original or ‘classic’ BT time period in 3028.

The sequel to BT:CHI, Crescent Hawk’s Revenge began right after BT:CHI but made jumps forward as far as the Battle of Luthien in 3052. This one covers a lot of ground.

Next, released in 1995 the ground breaking MechWarrior 2: 31st Century Combat inexplicably advances the timeline to 3057. In a major departure the backdrop is in Clan space rather than the Inner Sphere. The story is basically completely unrelated to events in prior titles, and I’m not even sure if they are explained in-game / a link is made to earlier titles in-game.

1996’s MechWarrior2: Mercenaries reverts to a spheroid protagonist and takes a time machine back to 3044 and concludes at the Battle of Luthien .. uh, again.

For 1998’s MechCommander and 1999’s MechWarrior 3 the timeline leaped forward to 3059 and finally from here on out the releases actually increment the timeline predictably. What a mess

Trying to wrap your head around any of that is a waste, not to mention the glaring differences from cannon that many of the games exhibit.
But hey why not figure out the chronological order and play them? So, here are all 18 games:


Game		Year		Published	Plot/Era/Locale		
------		----		---------	--------------
mw1		3024-3028+	1989
mw snes		3027		1993	
bt: chi		3028		1988	Chara III (Pacifica)	
bt: chr		3028-3052	1990	Lyons, War of 3039, Luthien
mw2 mercs	3044-3052	1996	Clan Invasion!
mw 3050		3050		1995	Clan Invasion
mw2 31cc	3057		1995	Refusal War
mw2 gbl?	late 3050s	1995
mc1		3059		1998	Operation Bulldog
mw3		3059		1999	Post OpBulldog, Serpent
mw3 pm		3060		1999	
mcx		3060		1999	Post OpBulldog
mw4: v		3062		2000	FedCom civil war
mw4: bk		3060s		2000	FedCom civil war
mw4: mercs	3062-67		2002	FedCom civil war
mc2		3063		2001	FedCom civil war
ma		~3067-81	2002	WoB Jihad
ma2		~3067-81	2004

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MechWarrior Retrospective

Posted on September 5, 2017 in Games, MechWarrior (Video Games)

I came across a great YouTube channel The Examined Life (of Gaming). You can tell this guy is a true nerd by his fofxStudios YouTube URL … my kind of guy! Well he happens to be as nerdy as I am about all things MechWarrior and has a great series of videos critiquing the games and going over their history. Check out the playlist here MechWarrior Retrospective

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Pick from different Java Versions when launching JNLP

Posted on July 19, 2016 in Linux Desktop

Extenuating circumstances require me to run more than one version of Java JRE for work. Instead of using packages from the distro, I got the .tar.gz’s right from Oracle. I had to manually add the plugin to Firefox. Then, I extracted both JRE into /opt/java, added /opt/java to my path and made symlinks:

carl@carlworkstation:/opt/java$ ls -l total 8 lrwxrwxrwx 1 carl carl 20 Jul 1 15:01 java -> jre1.7.0_80/bin/java lrwxrwxrwx 1 carl carl 20 Jul 7 16:05 java7-java -> jre1.7.0_80/bin/java lrwxrwxrwx 1 carl carl 22 Jul 7 16:49 java7-javaws -> jre1.7.0_80/bin/javaws lrwxrwxrwx 1 carl carl 20 Jul 19 14:52 java8-java -> jre1.8.0_92/bin/java lrwxrwxrwx 1 carl carl 22 Jul 7 16:06 java8-javaws -> jre1.8.0_92/bin/javaws drwxr-xr-x 6 carl carl 4096 Apr 10 2015 jre1.7.0_80 drwxr-xr-x 6 carl carl 4096 Apr 1 00:17 jre1.8.0_92

I wrote a little helper script which I use as the default application in Firefox for this, using zenity (actually I use Palemoon, but same difference).

#!/bin/bash command=$(zenity --list --text "Is linux.byexamples.com helpful?" --radiolist \ --column "Pick" --column "Opinion" TRUE /opt/java/java8-javaws FALSE /opt/java/java7-javaws ); $command $1

Java Selector

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Password safe and GnuPG on Ubuntu 14.04

Posted on February 17, 2016 in Linux Desktop

Once again here is how to verify and install Password safe. This is an update of an earlier post. Considering this software is guarding some of your most important secrets I see it worthwhile to verify the GnuPG signature. OS this time is Ubuntu 14.04 Trusty Tahr (Linux Mint 17.2 Rafaela).

Password safe

To verify the signature we need GnuPG.

install gnupg

$ sudo apt-get install gnupg
import project administrator’s signing key (RSA)
i. We’re going to import Rony Shapiro’s Password Safe Signing key. Go to https://pwsafe.org/contact.php click the link for “this public key”.
ii. Save the page it gives you as pwsafe.key and strip out the HTML tags.
iii. import the key

$ gpg –import pwsafe.key
gpg: key 5CCF8BB3: public key “Rony Shapiro (PasswordSafe Signing Key) <[email protected]>” imported
gpg: Total number processed: 1
gpg: imported: 1 (RSA: 1)
gpg: no ultimately trusted keys found

iiii. verify the key fingerprint against what is listed at the bottom of https://pwsafe.org/contact.php

$ gpg –fingerprint
/home/mrdesk/.gnupg/pubring.gpg
——————————-
pub 2048R/5CCF8BB3 2011-02-10
Key fingerprint = A703 C132 8EAB C7B2 0175 3BA3 9194 6451 5CCF 8BB3
uid Rony Shapiro (PasswordSafe Signing Key) <[email protected]>
sub 2048R/04B638E7 2011-02-10
Download the package
i. SourceForge (bleh) is the only place the .deb package is available. https://sourceforge.net/projects/passwordsafe/files/ Don’t be fooled, SourceForge lists 0.94BETA as the newest release, actually 0.97BETA is the newest as of the time of writing this article. In my case, passwordsafe-ubuntu-0.97BETA.amd64.deb. There are also .debs specific to debian, RPMs and source packages available.
ii. Download the pakage signature. In my case, passwordsafe-ubuntu-0.97BETA.amd64.deb.sig
Verify the Password Safe .deb package
You need to have the .deb and the .sig file in the same directory.

$ gpg –verify passwordsafe-ubuntu-0.97BETA.amd64.deb.sig gpg: Signature made Fri 09 Oct 2015 05:21:50 AM EDT using RSA key ID 5CCF8BB3
gpg: Good signature from “Rony Shapiro (PasswordSafe Signing Key) <[email protected]>”
gpg: WARNING: This key is not certified with a trusted signature!
gpg: There is no indication that the signature belongs to the owner.
Primary key fingerprint: A703 C132 8EAB C7B2 0175 3BA3 9194 6451 5CCF 8BB3

Notice the fingerprint matches the one we verified earlier listed on http://pwsafe.org/contact.shtml — ok good!
Go ahead and install

$ sudo dpkg -i passwordsafe-ubuntu-0.97BETA.amd64.deb
It will complain about dependencies for libwxgtk3.0-0, libxerces-c3.1, and libykpers-1-1. So, install your dependencies

$ sudo apt-get -f install

Done! To verify your .deb has been installed:

$ dpkg –get-selections | grep passwordsafe
passwordsafe install

You can launch the password safe gui either by

$ pwsafe &

or by finding ‘Password Safe’ it in your launcher menu.

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Password Safe and GnuPG on Ubuntu 13.10

Posted on June 25, 2014 in Linux Desktop

This was actually done on Linux Mint Petra but in this case its entirely Ubuntu compatible. Yes, I know 13.10 is about to expire, don’t worry, I’ll fix this for 14.4 as soon as Linux Mint XFCE Qiana comes out and I put it on my desktop.

I am tired of resetting passwords, so the other day I set up Password Safe on my laptop. It wasn’t hard but did take a little time so here is how to do it. I took the extra few steps of verifying Password Safe’s signature because I take my passwords seriously. As such, this guide steps through basics of GNU Privacy Guard (GnuPG).

Password safe

To verify the signature we need GnuPG.

install gnupg

$ sudo apt-get install gnupg
import Rony Shapiro’s Password Safe Signing key (RSA)
i. go to http://pwsafe.org/contact.shtml click the link for “this public key”.ii. Save the page it gives you as pwsafe.key and strip out the HTML tags.iii. import the key

$ gpg –import pwsafe.key
Verify the Password Safe .deb package

$ gpg –verify passwordsafe-ubuntu-0.93BETA.amd64.deb.sig
gpg: Signature made Fri 07 Feb 2014 01:07:50 PM EST using RSA key ID 5CCF8BB3
gpg: Good signature from “Rony Shapiro (PasswordSafe Signing Key) <[email protected]>”
gpg: WARNING: This key is not certified with a trusted signature!
gpg: There is no indication that the signature belongs to the owner.
Primary key fingerprint: A703 C132 8EAB C7B2 0175 3BA3 9194 6451 5CCF 8BB3

Notice the fingerprint matches the one listed on http://pwsafe.org/contact.shtml — ok good!
go ahead and install

$ sudo dpkg -i passwordsafe-ubuntu-0.93BETA.amd64.deb
it will complain about dependencies for libwxgtk2.8-0, libxerces-c3.1, and libykpers-1-1. So, install your dependencies

$ sudo apt-get -f isntall

Done! To verify your .deb has been installed:

$ dpkg –get-selections | grep passwordsafe
passwordsafe install

You can launch the password safe gui either by

$ pwsafe &

or by finding ‘Password Safe’ it in your launcher menu.

GNU Privacy Guard, GnuPG, Linux Mint, Password Safe, Ubuntu

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Computers, Cars, Gaming.

Ergodox Scavenge Build

Pick from different Java Versions when launching JNLP

MechWarrior Video Games

HP Laptop Audio Hack Part 2

Crustang Teardown 1

Easily Switching Between i3 Modifiers

Moving MariaDB Data Drama

Ergodox Scavenge Build

Less Syntax Highlighting on Ubuntu 16.04 and Debian 8

MechWarrior Chronological Playthrough Intro

MechWarrior Retrospective

Pick from different Java Versions when launching JNLP

Password safe and GnuPG on Ubuntu 14.04

Password Safe and GnuPG on Ubuntu 13.10