*Memory Matrix

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

To add a new virtual disk and move the existing Linux partition to the new disk use the following process. The process assumes standard partitions without the use of Logical Volume Manager (LVM).

1. Backup the existing VM. One good way to do that is to clone the Virtual Machine and use the procedure on the new Virtual Machine.

2. Create the partition and format it.

$ mount /dev/sbd /mnt

$ shopt -s dotglob

$ rsync -aulvXpogtr /var/* /mnt

$ nano /etc/fstab

Add this line, replacing sdb and ext4 as necessary:

/dev/sdb /var ext4 defaults,noatime,nofail 0 2

Then

$ mv /var/ /var.old

Reboot and enjoy the new drive.

Minecraft Java edition lost compatibility with Java 17 between 1.20.4 and 1.20.6. Version 1.20.4 works with Java 17, and 1.20.6 no longer works with Java 17.  Several guides appear online for installing downloaded packages of the 64-bit runtime from Oracle or other sources.  Since Debian offers 32-bit server operating systems in the present day, the package manager versions are the easiest option if one uses the 32-bit version of Debian.  One of the reasons to use the 32-bit version of Debian is for use with older versions of Minecraft such as 1.10 and 1.12.  The older versions’ ecosystem contain an incredible number of mods.  The older versions require 32-bit java runtimes and the easiest way to handle that is to use a 32-bit operating system and then one can have newer versions of Java alongside older versions of Java and then one can run any version of Minecraft and Minecraft Forge that they desire.

Edit /etc/apt/sources.list to contain the following lines:

deb http://deb.debian.org/debian testing main
deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian testing main

Then, run the following commands.

apt-get update
apt-get install openjdk-21-jre

java –version

https://wiki.debian.org/DebianTesting contains a good reference guide for using Debian Testing, including details on upgrading to the next distribution.  The approximate Java lifecycle can be found at https://www.oracle.com/java/technologies/java-se-support-roadmap.html.

1. R² is the coefficient of determination, which is the square of the Pearson correlation coefficient, r, the formula for which is ρ=β₁(σx/σy), where β₁ is the parameter estimate. ASCI and Unicode text does not have a circumflex, ^, on top of the β. For this documentation the objective is multiplatform long-term readability so an equation editor with specialized support for circumflexes is out of the question.

2. There is also the existence of the rejection region method. We reject the null hypothesis if the test statistic’s absolute value is greater than the critical value, which we can express with the formula Reject if |t| > t_α/2,n-1

Open the Thunderbird program folder (e.g. C:\Program Files (x86)\Thunderbird)
create a new folder named distribution
Create a file named policies.json with the following content:

{
    "policies": {
    "DisableAppUpdate": true
    }
}

Thanks to sifferedd.

Use printenv to see what environment variables are set.

#!/usr/bin/env bash
printenv
    set -x

Edit $HOME/.nanorc to contain the following:

include /usr/share/nano/java.nanorc
include /usr/share/nano/man.nanorc
include /usr/share/nano/nanorc.nanorc
include /usr/share/nano/python.nanorc
include /usr/share/nano/sh.nanorc
include /usr/share/nano/html.nanorc
include /usr/share/nano/perl.nanorc
include /usr/share/nano/php.nanorc

CentOS 7 uses a much older version of nano than the one that presently ships on most distributions. The php.nanorc on newer The following should appear in /usr/share/nano/php.nanorc on CentOS7 to allow syntax highlighting for php:

## Syntax highlighting for PHP

syntax "php" "\.(php[23457s~]?|phtml|ctp)$"

# PHP markings.
color brightgreen "()"

# Function names.
color white "\

The .bashrc file I use on CentOS6

# .bashrc

# User specific aliases and functions

alias rm='rm -i'
alias cp='cp -i'
alias mv='mv -i'

# Source global definitions
if [ -f /etc/bashrc ]; then
        . /etc/bashrc
fi

# system variables
export VISUAL=nano  # sets nano as the crontab editor
export GZIP=-9      # maximum compression
export XZ_OPT=-9    # maximum compressions

# ls modifications
alias ll='ls -alF'
alias la='ls -A'
alias l='ls -CF'

# calculator
calc() { echo "$*" | bc -l; }

# Generate a UUID
uuid() { UUID=$(cat /proc/sys/kernel/random/uuid) && echo $UUID; }

# CHANGE SHELL/WINDOW TITLE
# Works on Opensuse 15.3
# PS1=$PS1"\[\e]0;test1\a\]"
shellrename() { read -p "Enter new shell name: " name && PS1=$PS1"\[\e]0;${name}\a\]"; }

# For older versions of gnome-terminal
# shellrename() { read -p "Enter new shell name: " name && PROMPT_COMMAND='echo -ne "\033]0;${name}\007"'; }

# Zen Burn
# Another old way that works great in gnome-terminal while causing problems
# in some configurations involving SSH:
echo -ne '\e]12;#BFBFBF\a'
echo -ne '\e]10;#DCDCCC\a'
echo -ne '\e]11;#3F3F3F\a'
echo -ne '\e]4;0;#3F3F3F\a'
echo -ne '\e]4;1;#705050\a'
echo -ne '\e]4;2;#60B48A\a'
echo -ne '\e]4;3;#DFAF8F\a'
echo -ne '\e]4;4;#506070\a'
echo -ne '\e]4;5;#DC8CC3\a'
echo -ne '\e]4;6;#8CD0D3\a'
echo -ne '\e]4;7;#DCDCCC\a'
echo -ne '\e]4;8;#709080\a'
echo -ne '\e]4;9;#DCA3A3\a'
echo -ne '\e]4;10;#C3BF9F\a'
echo -ne '\e]4;11;#F0DFAF\a'
echo -ne '\e]4;12;#94BFF3\a'
echo -ne '\e]4;13;#EC93D3\a'