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Topics - diddly

Pages: [1] 2 3 ... 7
1
General Discussion / AI Generated Music
« on: March 27, 2024, 08:50:26 PM »
Colour me impressed.  I just played around with Suno AI and generated a couple progressive rock songs about camping in the rain.  Have a listen:
Version 1
Version 2

I would've liked another couple verses of that second version!

The service even generates images for your songs.  I've attached the one for these

2
General Discussion / Format USB FAT32
« on: February 18, 2024, 08:14:04 PM »
Often I find a need to format a USB stick with the FAT32 filesystem.  For example, the A500 Mini (half size Amiga 500) requires it.  Windows can format a USB with FAT32 natively, but only if it's a small size.  For anything usable you need to turn to alternatives.  The folks at Retro32 have a solution, and fear the utility may someday disappear.

For that reason I have attached it here.  The zip file contains both a GUI and CLI version of the fat32 formatting tool originally from Ridgecrop Consultants


3
News / Update your WinRAR
« on: October 21, 2023, 01:09:32 PM »
It has been a long running joke that so many people have been using WinRAR for free past the 40 day trial period.  Now the joke is on you, if you haven't updated your copy already.  Hackers in Russia and China are using a serious exploit in WinRAR to run malicious scripts on victim's computers.


4
General Discussion / Docker Update Checker
« on: May 09, 2023, 11:29:29 AM »
Docker is what I use to run a lot of my services (including this web site!).  It keeps them contained and avoids having to clutter my host server with all sorts of dependencies needed by each service.  It also makes staying updated easier.

However.

I used to use Portainer to manage my docker images and containers.  Works great but for one of my services, rather than just downloading the updated image, it would download ALL images from all time for all architectures.  Basically, it would fill my disk if I let it.  So I moved away from Portainer.

Watchtower sounded like it did what I wanted, but I kept reading it was unsupported, then back, then deprecated, then back, then retired.  Not instilling me with confidence.

So I went wholly command line, writing scripts that would download the latest image, create the container, and update.  I still didn't know if there were updates actually available.  I just forced it every so often.

Today I found on Stack Overflow a script that lets me know if there's updates available for any of my running containers.

Code: [Select]
#!/bin/bash

DATAPATH='/data/docker/updater/data'

if [ ! -d "${DATAPATH}" ]; then
        mkdir "${DATAPATH}";
fi
IMAGES=$(docker ps --format "{{.Image}}")
for IMAGE in $IMAGES; do
        ORIGIMAGE=${IMAGE}
        if [[ "$IMAGE" != *\/* ]]; then
                IMAGE=library/${IMAGE}
        fi
        IMAGE=${IMAGE%%:*}
        echo "Checking ${IMAGE}"
        PARSED=${IMAGE//\//.}
        if [ ! -f "${DATAPATH}/${PARSED}" ]; then
                # File doesn't exist yet, make baseline
                echo "Setting baseline for ${IMAGE}"
                curl -s "https://registry.hub.docker.com/v2/repositories/${IMAGE}/tags/" > "${DATAPATH}/${PARSED}"
        else
                # File does exist, do a compare
                NEW=$(curl -s "https://registry.hub.docker.com/v2/repositories/${IMAGE}/tags/")
                OLD=$(cat "${DATAPATH}/${PARSED}")
                if [[ "${VAR1}" == "${VAR2}" ]]; then
                        echo "Image ${IMAGE} is up to date";
                else
                        echo ${NEW} > "${DATAPATH}/${PARSED}"
                        echo "Image ${IMAGE} needs to be updated";
                        H=`hostname`
                        ssh -i /data/keys/<KEYFILE> <USER>@<REMOTEHOST>.com "{ echo \"MAIL FROM: root@${H}\"; echo \"RCPT TO: <USER>@<EMAILHOST>.com\"; echo \"DATA\"; echo \"Subject: ${H} - ${IMAGE} needs update\"; echo \"\"; echo -e \"\n${IMAGE} needs update.\n\ndocker pull ${ORIGIMAGE}\"; echo \"\"; echo \".\"; echo \"quit\"; sleep 1; } | telnet <SMTPHOST> 25"
                fi

        fi
done;

Personally, I commented out the ssh line that does email notification, and will just run the script manually to check my images.  Clearly this was meant as a cron job that would run automatically, which you could do if so inclined.

I just wanted to capture this here should I need to find it again, and for anyone else who might be looking for a scripted solution.

5
News / Zellers Coming Back!
« on: January 18, 2023, 09:59:21 AM »
In this day of high inflation and mass layoffs, it will be refreshing to have another discount department store other than just Walmart.  HBC, who owns the Zellers brand, has announced they're opening new stores, including one in Cambridge!  After Target lost $5.4 Billion trying to replace Zellers in Canada, I really hope the original is able to come back strong.  I actually liked their little in-store restaurant, and it was always the first store I'd visit for new every-day-wear clothes.  The price was right.

6
News / Toots
« on: November 10, 2022, 01:50:49 PM »
Let's face it.  Twitter is done.  Elon Musk has killed it by laying off half the employees, banning remote work, adding a monthly subscription cost, and even considering putting content behind a paywall.

Twitter users are looking for a new home, and many of them are flocking to Mastodon.  This is a distributed social media that's been around for several years, and lets you host your own serverDarkshade even has an instance!

It's like twitter, but tweets are called toots (following the elephant theme) and accounts are named @user@server.  You can follow me @diddly@darkshade.social

7
News / Old Message Forum
« on: October 30, 2022, 10:12:13 PM »
Time marches on, and the ability to run our old message forum has been lost with recent system updates.  If there were posts you want to revisit, there does exist a snapshot on the wayback machine at archive.org.

The current message forum is still fine though since it's much more recent software.

8
News / Stable Diffusion
« on: September 11, 2022, 10:34:28 PM »
You might have heard recently of an AI called Stable Diffusion that can generate images from text prompts.  I just installed it on my M1 Mac Mini tonight using a tool called DiffusionBee and put it to work.

Among the images I had it create were "The Predator steps through The Stargate", "Two Galleons battling at sea during sunset", and "a woman walking her dog, in the style of Monet".

It takes a while to run, since I have only 8GB of RAM instead of the recommended 16GB.  It does still work though, as you can see.

9
News / Netflix Considering Ads
« on: April 20, 2022, 09:48:43 AM »
Due to a dramatic drop in their stock price, Netflix is considering adding Ads to lower level subscriptions.  If you're concerned about 200,000 subscribers suddenly leaving, adding advertisements doesn't sound to me like a way to entice others to stay.

10
News / Two Year Ban on Foreign Buyers
« on: April 19, 2022, 04:41:36 PM »
In an effort to calm soaring house prices, Canada has banned foreign buyers for two years.  Now, apparently foreign purchases account for only 3.4% of property buyers, so will this change make much difference?

11
Reviews / Phillips SensoTouch 3D
« on: March 07, 2022, 09:06:00 PM »
Back in 2014 I reviewed this electric razor:
Quote
I don't like electric shavers.  While convenient, my experience was always that they pulled, got hot, and couldn't cut on anything but a flat, dry patch of skin.  Any curves or moisture and forget it.

Since I switched to blades, I never looked back.  But recently I read a review on Gizmodo for the best electric razor.  http://gizmodo.com/5976226/the-best-electric-razor  I wondered if the tech had improved since I was in school.  Certainly the ability to shave wet or dry was new.

They described their top razor, the Philips Norelco SensoTouch 3D, as feeling like "removing facial hair with robot kisses."  That's a far cry from what I remember... more like robot meat grinder.  Intrigued I read on, and ultimately decided to pick one up from Walmart.

http://www.walmart.ca/en/ip/ph.....lex-3d/6000012376359

I tried it out yesterday, on 4 day growth.  Till now, that's strictly razor blade territory.  The Philips 3D made quick work of it.  Robot kisses indeed!  The little pivoting heads hugged every bump and bend as well as a blade, and even took less time.  Certain spots that always get nicked were no problem with this.  Cleanup was a cinch.  Just pop the little heads open and dump the whiskers.  If it had been a wet shave, with foam, I'd have to additionally run the open heads under hot water.  That's it.

To me, it felt a smoother shave than I was getting with a disposable razor.  Perhaps its because with the Philips you're supposed to shave in a circular motion, while a blade should just go "with the grain".

The SensoTouch 3D is amazingly better than the electric razors I had in the '90s.  The price was a bit steep, but frankly, worth it.  Now when I go away for a few days, I don't have to pack blades and gel.  Shaving just got easier.

The Good: Fast charging.  Wet or Dry shave.  Robot kisses.
The Bad: $200 for an electric shaver.  That's about 500 shaves with disposables.
The Ugly: The "stylish" carrying case looks like a tiny bicycle seat.

It just died last week.  Although at last use, the battery would still last for 3 shaves between charges, it no longer accepts a charge.  I've since replaced it with a Phillips Shaver Series 9000 which is currently $100 off at Amazon

Amazingly it's an even gentler shave!  I was sporting several days growth (something I would cringe at with the previous model) and it handled it like a champ without any pulling or irritation.

12
News / Dodge to Drop Muscle Cars
« on: November 23, 2021, 10:57:10 AM »
The Dodge Challenger and Charger will both be discontinued in 2024 in favour of hybrids and electric cars.  I guess it wasn't going to be long after Ford bastardized the Mustang into a hybrid SUV crossover that the competition would follow suit.  It's sad to see cars with character reaching the end of their line.

13
Roleplaying / MOVED: Rhun improvements
« on: September 09, 2021, 09:08:53 AM »

14
Roleplaying / MOVED: Rhun issues
« on: September 09, 2021, 09:02:48 AM »

15
General Discussion / Do we need a counter-conspiracy?
« on: August 31, 2021, 10:17:14 AM »
We're fighting a losing battle, and I'm baffled.  It seems there's a certain percentage of the population that is really adamant against science and fact but zealous to support demonstrably false fictions.  Before the internet this would be things like the moon landing being faked, but now we even have flat earthers proliferating.

The issue du jour is this rampant uptake of ivermectin as a covid cure:
Quote
Right-wing pundits and politicians have lent their support to the use of ivermectin, and an extensive NBC News investigation published on Aug. 26 found that its use was being promoted by America’s Frontline Doctors, a group of conspiracy theorists behind a viral PR stunt claiming the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine as a similar miracle cure. The group’s members have dubious credentials, including Dr. Stella Immanuel, a Texas pediatrician and minister who has previously claimed that gynecological issues are caused by dream sex with demons and that the government is partially run by reptilian aliens.
https://gizmodo.com/judge-orders-hospital-to-give-severely-ill-covid-19-pat-1847586545

To these people, it's more plausible that governments, health care organizations, and big pharma are conspiring to push useless (or harmful) vaccines while suppressing viable remedies that could cure covid.

Perhaps what we need is a counter-conspiracy.  Something dumb enough the bleach drinkers can buy.

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