*Memory Matrix

When I first obtained a CompTIA A+ certification some time ago, the concept of bit rot related to what happens to software reliability as the number of updates to the system increases. Over time, software that worked in years past ceases to work as new system updates block system calls or change permissions and files that the software originally relied upon. This slow decaying of reliability was called bit rot. There are some other definitions floating around on the internet, but that is the one most relevant for me.

To prevent this and reduce the amount of time spent in sorting out the bit rot introduced to my investments by Microsoft’s proclivities, I have standardized on two operating systems for major time investments in computing that occupy my life.  Windows still has a place since I sometimes use Windows only games to play with my child.  Other than that necessity, I have built the things I rely on for use with Linux.  The two versions that I have standardized on are Debian and Fedora. Specifically Debian 12 and Fedora 38.  These are not what is used for the website, but they are the major components of my anti-bitrot infrastructure.  I am aware this may not be good security practice, but this isn’t to get me a job, this is to serve an aging man and his family reliably over time.

There are a few reasons that I selected Fedora 38 and Debian 12. Fedora 38 still has Python 2.7 in the repositories.  It was within 2 versions for upgrading from Fedora 36. Fedora 36 was what I was running in my Windows Subsystem for Linux instance, and I upgraded it to Fedora 38.   When deciding to move back to bare metal for my Linux software development and automation needs, I decided to standardize on that one.  Debian has a 32 bit version. I have both the 32-bit and 64-bit deployed in my network.  Debian 32 bit allows on to easily 32-bit builds of Java on a Linux server.  One can add the testing repository and have the latest Java in 32 bit form.  32-bit Java is necessary to run older Minecraft versions.  My family has a large set of mod-collections and old Java Minecraft instances and maps going back about 8 years. I can then run the latest JVM and the latest Minecraft on the same server because the 32bit JVM is available.  It is very annoying to try and  manage 32bit and 64bit Java virtual machines on the same host, so having it all 32-bit solves a huge problem.  One can add the Debian 11 repository and install Python2.7 if one wants to use old Python versions.  I need this old Python version for a project that I worked on over the course of the last 8 years.

The general anti-bit rot measure for Debian is to always use apt-get to install packages as this will leave the .deb file in the cache.  Then copy those .deb files on a regular basis to another location for use as a repository for other Debian installations.  This can be configured to work via a cron job.  Debian is really the only long-term viable game in town if one wants a 32-bit anti-bitrot bunker that will last into the future, over say, a ten year time horizon. Save the .deb files on a private web-server inside the network and periodically update that repository with the files copied via the sweeps from the cache directory.

For Fedora, this should work with any version.  Fedora 38 is the one I use.  Edit the /etc/dnf/dnf.conf file to say keep_cache=True, and this will save the dowloaded RPMS.  One can then build their repository using only what they need if so desired.  The other genuine long term standardization option is to mirror the entire repositories to the private webserver within one’s network.  To do this, install yumdownloader.   Then, move all of the .repo files from /etc/yum.repos.d except for one to a temporary location.  Then, go into a directory with a lot of space.  For Fedora 38, the complete mirror was 229GB.  Then use yumdownloader * and it will download all files from that repository.  Then, use yumdownloader –source * and it will download all source packages for the packages that it just downloaded.  Then, go back to /etc/yum.repos.d and switch that .repo file out with one that was moved previously, and repeat the process until all repositories have been completely downloaded.  Then, copy all downloaded RPMS to one large directory on the webserver and use createrepo to create the meta data.  Then on the client machines, create a .repo pointing to your own webserver, and move the existing .repo files in /etc/yum.repos.d to an archival location.   Then all of your installations will occur from your own webserver and all machines will have the same versions of packages.

In my case, I then install the data science specifics that I need for the automated software that I created.  The process varies slightly depending on whether the system is Fedora or Debian.

For Debian:

Add bullseye to sources.list
Install python2 via bullseye repositories
Install pip via the downloaded file from https://linuxhint.com/install-pip-on-debian-11/ that is to say,
1. wget https://bootstrap.pypa.io/pip/2.7/get-pip.py
2. python2 ./get-pip.py
Apt-get install libcurl4-openssl-dev

R:
Install.packages(‘curl’)
Install.packages(‘fpp2’)
Install.packages(‘magrittr’)
Install.packages(‘urca’)
Install.packages(‘vars’)
Install.packages(‘psych’)
Apt-get install r-cran-rjava
Install.packages(‘rJava’)
Install.packages(‘xlsx’)
Install.packages(‘Hmisc’)
Install.packages(‘prophet’)
Install.packages(‘dplyr’)
pip2 install parsedatetime==2.5
apt-get install awscli
pip2 install boto3
apt-get install r-cran-car

Troubleshooting steps if .xlsx and others are not built:
Are all R packages installed successfully with a 0 exit status?

On Fedora, the repositories do not contain R components in the same way the Debian repositories do.  Here is the process for Fedora 38.

Used the script https://bootstrap.pypa.io/pip/2.7/get-pip.py
pip2 install parsedatetime==2.5 –user
dnf install libcurl
dnf install libcurl-devel
dnf install R
dnf install awscli
pip2 install boto3 –user
dnf install cmake

Within R:
install.packages(‘car’)
install.packages(‘curl’)
install.packages(‘fpp2′)
install.packages(‘magrittr’)
install.packages(‘urca’)
install.packages(‘vars’)
install.packages(‘psych’)
install.packages(‘rJava’)
install.packages(‘xlsx’)
install.packages(‘Hmisc’)
install.packages(‘prophet’)
install.packages(‘dplyr’)

The Interlinear Literal Translation of the Greek New Testament with the Authorized Version (1897). This is an interlinear Bible with the Authorized Version (King James) along with a Greek text along with it.

The Claude AI terms of service at Anthropic, as of 14 October 2024, say that

you may not use the service to “develop any products or services that compete with our Services, including to develop or train any artificial intelligence or machine learning algorithms or models.”

Claude’s terms further state

“Equitable relief. You agree that (a) no adequate remedy exists at law if you breach Section 3 (Use of Our Services); (b) it would be difficult to determine the damages resulting from such breach, and any such breach would cause irreparable harm; and (c) a grant of injunctive relief provides the best remedy for any such breach. You waive any opposition to such injunctive relief, as well as any demand that we prove actual damage or post a bond or other security in connection with such injunctive relief.”

Machine learning includes linear regression. Other Machine Learning algorithms include Logistic Regression, decision trees, random forests, support vector machines, K-Nearest Neighbors, & Bayes Algorithms. It seems to me, that as of 14 October 2024, no one seeking to handle any data science can legitimately use Claude. They are driving toward Claude working as the replacement of human co-workers according to some of the latest marketing.  If the users are forbidden from using the results of the services to strengthen their own work, it seems like it will produce a walled garden without machine learning expertise within the businesses.

This is a list of Greek letters and their names.

α alpha
β beta
γ gamma
δ delta
ε epsilon
ζ zeta
η eta
θ theta
ι iota
κ kappa
λ lamda
μ mu
ν nu
ξ xi
ο omicron
π pi
ρ rho
σ/ς sigma/final sigma
τ tau
υ upsilon
φ phi
χ chi
ψ psi
ω omega

Holy Bible – Geneva Bible – 1579

Create file /usr/lib/systemd/system/yacy.service and add this content:

[Unit]
Description=YaCy search server
After=network.target
Restart=always

[Service]
Type=forking
User=yacy
ExecStart=/opt/yacy/startYACY.sh
ExecStop=/opt/yacy/stopYACY.sh
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=1s

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Then use systemctl enable yacy.service.

Zero Hedge reported on California launching a hydrogen hub infrastructure for hydrogen refueling infrastructure. https://www.zerohedge.com/political/california-launch-hydrogen-hub-expand-zero-emission-technology.  The California government’s official press release on the Hydrogen Hub was released 17 July 2024 at https://www.gov.ca.gov/2024/07/17/california-launches-world-leading-hydrogen-hub/. Clean Technica produced an article about the Hydrogen Hub grant program that covers multiple states.

This blog will follow Nikola and Hyla, which are available online at https://www.nikolamotor.com/ and https://www.hyla.co/. Nikola produces the TRE FCEV.

General Motors has a partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy and Honda for Hydrogen development. Hyundai has the XCIENT fuel cell truck. Kenworth has the T680. Like the Hyundai the T680 places the fuel tanks behind the driver from floor to ceiling.  The Kenworth is a partnership with Toyota with Toyota producing the fuel cell power plant and Kenworth producing the trucks.  All of these are limited to around 400-450 miles of range, with the exception of one of the XCIENTS which listed 400km, which is 248 miles. Hyundai has a class 8 truck in partnership with a company called Plus, and they claim to be fully autonomous.

Volvo has fuel cell trucks with a range of up to 1000 km.  International Trucks has a hydrogen fuel cell technology designed for routes 300+ miles in testing.  They use the General Motors fuel cell platform, and OneH2 mobile hydrogen production and fueling technology to bring the fuel station to the customer in a manner similar to Hyla.

Mistral Instruct using the above as Local Documents input:

The Hydrogen Hub infrastructure launched by California is an important step towards expanding zero-emission transportation options. With more refueling stations available, it will be easier for consumers to switch to hydrogen-powered vehicles and reduce their carbon footprint. It’s great to see multiple companies working together on developing hydrogen technology, including Nikola, Hyla, General Motors, Honda, Kenworth, Toyota, Volvo, International Trucks, and more. The range of these vehicles varies, but it’s clear that there is a growing interest in producing longer-range hydrogen fuel cell trucks.

Addendum 9/21/24:  Ford has a hydrogen vehicle in the works with an outsourced power train, but it was not included at the time of original writing.

The Simon Says blog has been online for a long time. Here is an entry from 2008 about ripping CDs on a Mac.  In a way this site shows what is wrong with the web.  Twenty years ago blogs and websites had favorites and blog rolls.  Through this people discovered many great sites.  Around 2012 WordPress removed the Link Manager from the default WordPress and the blog-sphere began to fade away because the links began to fray.  From there, Google began to limit search results to the chosen few.  Recently Bing search has begun allowing scrolling to many different search results again. I went to page 16 the other day just to see.  To use a Search Engine like it’s 2009, which was way better than now, use Mojeek.  I hope they don’t break it.  That’s how I found that 2008 entry about ripping CDs on a Mac.  That is a discovery that one would never find on Google.  It was like stepping into a time machine.

Use about:config –> browser.uidensity .

browser.uidensity is set to 0 by default.  Changer the  value to 1 and it takes immediate effect.

To convert a dynamic VirtualBox disk to a Fixed disk, run the following command:

vboxmanage clonemedium disk /path/disk.vdi /path/newdisk.vdi -variant Fixed

using –variant Standard would create a dynamic disk.  Then open the virtual machine and remove the existing disk and attach the new disk.  Then use the media manager to delete the unused media.

Use the following command to list registered virtual disks:

vboxmanage list hdds

Chromium:

Joplin Web Clipper, Zotero Connector, floccus bookmarks sync, uBlock Origin, Quick Javascript Switcher, SingleFile, uMatrix

Firefox:

floccus bookmarks sync, Joplin Web Clipper, Search by Image, uMatrix, Undo Close Tab, Zotero, uBlock Origin

[x]  Removed some Firefox/LibreWolf extensions

[+] Added Zotero and uBlock Origin, which have been long used, but neglected with regards to appearing in this list.

A few quirks with Debain 12 include that path not being set in similar fashion to Fedora, Ubuntu, and other distributions.  One must regularly set

export PATH=$PATH:/usr/sbin

In Gnome, applications will open on the server instead of the client when using X11 forwarding.  This will occur even though xcalc opens on the client normally.  The way to avoid this is to add the following to .bashrc

unset XDG_RUNTIME_DIR 
unset GDK_BACKEND

The general rule is compress, then encrypt.^{1, 2}

1. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4676095/when-compressing-and-encrypting-should-i-compress-first-or-encrypt-first

2. https://crypto.stackexchange.com/questions/33737/is-it-better-to-encrypt-before-compression-or-vice-versa