• Activity
  • Votes
  • Comments
  • New
  • All activity
  • Showing only topics in ~comp with the tag "help". Back to normal view / Search all groups
    1. Using work OSX machine while travelling

      I will shortly be travelling for work. I do not have the capacity to bring anything other than my work machine. In addition to working every day I would like to: legally stream movies in the...

      I will shortly be travelling for work. I do not have the capacity to bring anything other than my work machine. In addition to working every day I would like to: legally stream movies in the evening, work on writing, email friends etc. At home of course I use a separate laptop for this but in this case I won't have that option. Any thoughts on how best to achieve a separation of concerns while travelling? How do people on Tildes manage this case?

      p.s I know in a best case scenario it's not ideal, hence my behaviour at home, I just need a working method for this particular case.

      12 votes
    2. Windows 10 Admin account loses all functionality?

      I recently started having an issue on my windows machine with folder permissions. The start menu folder suddenly became inaccessible to any program that tried to create a shortcut there. I worked...

      I recently started having an issue on my windows machine with folder permissions. The start menu folder suddenly became inaccessible to any program that tried to create a shortcut there. I worked around it by just taking ownership.

      Now I'm facing a much worse problem where many operations that require admin elevation suddenly doesn't work even after a UAC prompt. This has really become a problem now that I want to install wsl on this machine. Running wsl --install just returns the wsl usage info and wsl --update throws a UAC prompt, but fails saying "The requested operation requires elevation" even while logged into the built in Administrator windows account.

      Normal programs can still use admin elevation (mostly), but everything that windows prompts for behaves as if I'm a regular user despite still giving and accepting a UAC prompt. The Microsoft Store has also seemingly lost the ability to update or repair itself also so that's probably related.

      I've tried all the usual stuff with /DISM, /sfc, every Microsoft troubleshooter. They found no issues. Creating a new admin account lets me create the account but then it inherits the same issues. I can't even gain admin elevation in safe mode. I'm really at a loss. I don't want to have to do a system refresh because it takes so much time to get set back up, but at this point I don't know what else to do.

      Has anyone else ever encountered an issue like this? I've tried searching for this and just end up on a bunch of identical 'help' pages telling me to right click -> run as admin or the generic Microsoft employee pointing me to reinstall again.

      Windows version 10.0.19045 Build 19045 in case that matters

      Edit: I never did find a solid reason why this was happening. It wasn't my university Maya account. While reinstalling windows on a freshly formatted drive I kept getting errors that eventually led me to discoving my ram was going bad. Got it replaced and installed windows just fine. I have to assume the problem started because of memory errors. Thanks for the suggestions everyone.

      10 votes
    3. Recent DAKboard issue

      I have been running a DAKBoard on a Raspberry Pi 4 for almost 4 years now without any problems until recently following this guide IIRC. About 2 weeks ago, DAKBoard started logging itself out and...

      I have been running a DAKBoard on a Raspberry Pi 4 for almost 4 years now without any problems until recently following this guide IIRC.

      About 2 weeks ago, DAKBoard started logging itself out and only shows a black screen with the time on it and the DAK logo in the lower right corner. If I go into the settings it will bring up the DAK page that shows I am not logged in. When I log in again it seems to work randomly for about 24-36 hours.

      I'm running it in a kiosk mode browser on Raspberry Pi OS. I am using the free tier of DAKBoard.

      Before I wipe the SD card and start over from scratch I was wondering if there were any suggestions? To be completely honest, it has been "set and forget" for the past number of years so I would like to make sure I'm not overlooking something pretty basic/easy.

      On a side note: Has anyone had any experiense using the DAKBoard OS on a Pi? I don't remember it being an option when I set it up originally.

      Thank you for any assistance and if you have any spare hardware laying around I'd highly recommend setting one up, my family finds it incredibly useful for the calendar function and a conversation piece when they notice different photos rotating in and out.

      3 votes
    4. [SOLVED] Help needed with a uBlock Origin filter rule

      Hi With this LITE site ---> https://lite.duckduckgo.com/lite/ There isn't the Dark Theme that's available for original duckduckgo site. I found a "My filters" rule on the web. Add these two lines...

      Hi
      With this LITE site ---> https://lite.duckduckgo.com/lite/
      There isn't the Dark Theme that's available for original duckduckgo site.

      I found a "My filters" rule on the web.

      Add these two lines to My filters

      lite.duckduckgo.com##html:style(color: rgb(141, 141, 141) !important; background: none repeat scroll 0 0 rgb(48, 48, 48) !important; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue','Segoe UI', Arial, sans-serif;)

      lite.duckduckgo.com##a:style(color: rgb(201, 201, 201) !important;)

      When the rule is used the search homepage looks reasonable.
      And the search results...
      The black background is not very black, not as black as Tildes black theme.
      I can live with that.

      But the red text under each result is very muddy.
      Can that be improved?
      Make it brighter Crimson or even Orange would look better.

      11 votes
    5. How do I install MAME and then add a particular arcade video game to play?

      So... a friend did this for me a long time ago, but I've replaced my computer since then, and I don't know how to do it for myself. I know how to find the MAME executable. I don't know whether I...

      So... a friend did this for me a long time ago, but I've replaced my computer since then, and I don't know how to do it for myself.

      I know how to find the MAME executable. I don't know whether I need to download the .exe file or the .zip file, but I assume the .exe file is the better option.

      I know how to run an executable file, and I'm assuming it installs itself.

      I know how to find a copy of the antique video game I want.

      However...

      The .zip file I download for the game contains a lot of files with names like "a26-13.109" - and I don't know what I'm supposed to do with those, to get them inside the MAME and make the game playable.

      I'm running Windows 10 on a 64-bit operating system, if that's relevant.

      Is anyone feeling charitable and willing to help someone who's not computer literate to do this?

      12 votes
    6. What is Usenet?

      I tried to use Gnus to set up some rss feeds about a year ago, and I became more than frustrated: I was actually confused. So here are a couple questions I don't even understand where to ask or...

      I tried to use Gnus to set up some rss feeds about a year ago, and I became more than frustrated: I was actually confused.

      So here are a couple questions I don't even understand where to ask or whether they're relevant or being asked in the right way:

      Are most newsgroups mirrored? And along those lines, is there one particular newsgroup server that would be sufficient for most users?

      Can I post to a newsgroup in the same way I would post to a mailing list: send an email somewhere? Where do I send that?

      What even is NNTP? Someone literally sent me the spec for the protocol, but I don't think they actually wanted to be helpful: I felt like they were putting me down and intentionally not answering while giving the appearance of being helpful. Is it actually something I need to understand to use Gnus effectively?

      If you're familiar with newsgroups, I would surely appreciate your knowledge.

      14 votes
    7. AI, Stable Diffusion, Models and Prompts

      Howdy Tildes wizards. I decided to have a looksy at Stable Diffusion on my local computer (Manjaro, AMD 7500x CPU, 32GB) using Easy Diffusion. I've gotten my head around the basics and grabbed...

      Howdy Tildes wizards.

      I decided to have a looksy at Stable Diffusion on my local computer (Manjaro, AMD 7500x CPU, 32GB) using Easy Diffusion. I've gotten my head around the basics and grabbed MidJourney V4 LLM, and now I'm learning how to prompt.

      So far I've generated some cool cyberpunk cyborg things, landscapes, etc. One of the things I wanted to use Stable Diffusion for is generating silhouettes. Sounds weird, I know, but they're great to use with decal and vinyl printing for my wife's business.

      Any ideas on ways to do silhouette generation?

      Next is, what's good to read to learn about model types and what all of the settings really do?

      I'm ordering a GPU (3060) to improve the horrendous render times, so don't worry about the under powered rig, I'm still in toy mode.

      13 votes
    8. Git branched on its own, WTH happened?

      I cannot push nor pull to/from my local repo to/from my remote. I get the message "Your branch and 'origin/main' have diverged", etc. I will be able to fix it, I'm already in the process of...

      I cannot push nor pull to/from my local repo to/from my remote. I get the message "Your branch and 'origin/main' have diverged", etc.

      I will be able to fix it, I'm already in the process of refreshing my memory on how to rebase this cleanly.

      But ... I am the only person working on this. I have only one local and one central/remote repository. And I never made a branch.

      It's just me, working on one computer, right here ... make a few commits locally, then push 'em ... make a few commits locally, then push 'em. That is my entire workflow.

      How in the hell did I end up with "my branch" (???) and the origin/main branch being in conflict with each other?

      Any Git gurus care to take a stab at this?

      Thanks in advance.


      Edit, more info:

      I am guessing here, but for awhile I was working in a VM on my local machine ... but Android SDK is too much of a resource hog, so I committed and pushed everything on the VM, shut it down, and then pulled latest down to my actual machine ... or at least, that's how I remember it.

      My working theory is that, somehow, I screwed up that "switching between machines" process, although, so far, no clue as to how/why I did.

      Theory #2 is that Android SDK did something sneaky/stupid behind the scenes -- my last several commits have been done through the Android Studio IDE, not directly in the terminal.


      Last Edit:

      D'oh!

      Found it. I made a couple of "quick changes" to the project's README.md file directly in the remote forge, and that's what screwed me up.

      10 votes
    9. Linux Question: I think my sys m.2 is failing and want to copy my / data for backup via cli

      So, I'm using Arch i3wm. I have multiple copies of my /home/username (I am the sole user), and I have a "Spare" drive with media, games, and other goodies, some of which are also stored on...

      So, I'm using Arch i3wm. I have multiple copies of my /home/username (I am the sole user), and I have a "Spare" drive with media, games, and other goodies, some of which are also stored on partitions on the m.2 in question, but they have backups.

      And the reason I ask this question is because while I've had my m.2 fail at the end of '21 (I didn't even know that was a thing, but it barely lasted a year, and things are acting shoddy now... though the original failed without a warning), I just bought a second m.2 for my games. I guess I could swap most of the whole thing over, but I know the boot partition is easier just rebuilt from scratch... which I had to do last week.

      Ultimately, what's making me suspicious is when I upgraded to the new drive and unplugged all my non-m.2 satas, I also added some memory and a new power supply. But then after the upgrade (Monday of last week, so the 5th), the system wouldn't boot up. I used a usb to troubleshoot and my /boot partition was apparently no gouda. I redid that, and everything was fine... until this week. Then my new Games partition (basically the new drive) failed fsck and it got stuck in a boot loop on Tuesday. I could boot emergency to root, but not skip the fsck and keep the Games disk auto mounted (I know I changed something to randomize fsck on bootup, but that's something I'm still kinda looking into how I managed...), so I just removed it from my fstab and it booted fine. For two times. I just manually mounted the drive, all was great, then my SO sent me a screenshot today while I was at work stating that my / partition (on the older m.2) apparently rebooted because it bypassed my screen lock, and was stating EXT4-fs error, reading directory lblock:0 and whatnot.

      So, that's my history on what's going on, and if anyone can offer any advice [mostly] on the backup stuff, though as I said, /home and the important tangible stuff is saved, but if you also have any input on something more than I suspect the drive is failing (since the /boot partition and now the / partition are crapping out), please feel free to share.

      (Also, thanks for letting me in. This is what I'd typically post on reddit and probably have to repost 10 times depending on the sub to get the right keywords and tags and yes, I already searched the internet but my search will not match yours... sigh)

      6 votes
    10. How can you have the img's src attribute point to a web page itself instead of an image?

      Consider the strange case of this reddit preview page for example: https://preview.redd.it/uhomipyb8kp71.jpg?width=575&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=b0e044ddd8a83774e0453cb7607ef681444c4c37 If you inspect...

      Consider the strange case of this reddit preview page for example:

      https://preview.redd.it/uhomipyb8kp71.jpg?width=575&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=b0e044ddd8a83774e0453cb7607ef681444c4c37

      If you inspect the primary <img> element on the page, you'll find its src attribute not pointing to any image file but (behold!) that link itself!

      Through this mechanism, they've effectively hidden the direct link to that image, isn't it? How is this even possible? Is this a new phenomenon or way in web development?

      7 votes
    11. How will Mullvad removing port forwarding affect Unraid?

      How does Mullvad removing port forwarding affect an Unraid setup using deluge-vpn container? I don’t access my server from outside my network and just use a basic binhex deluge-vpn docker setup....

      How does Mullvad removing port forwarding affect an Unraid setup using deluge-vpn container?

      I don’t access my server from outside my network and just use a basic binhex deluge-vpn docker setup. Any issues I’ll have here?

      Currently out of town and won’t be back until after this change happens tomorrow. Curious what to expect when I'm back home.

      4 votes
    12. Local DNS resolution for server?

      I have to preface this question with a disclaimer that I am an eager learner of Linux and servers in general, but I'm still a beginner and often run into roadblocks. Current setup: Raspberry Pi 3...

      I have to preface this question with a disclaimer that I am an eager learner of Linux and servers in general, but I'm still a beginner and often run into roadblocks.

      Current setup:


      • Raspberry Pi 3 with Adguard Home acting as primary DNS
      • unRAID server with Adguard Home acting as secondary DNS
      • About a dozen other containers running on same server
      • DHCP is handled by my router

      Goal:


      • provide local DNS names for the containers running in unRAID so I don't have to enter IP:Port (e.g, calibre.local) which also has the side benefit saving the various username/password combos into Bitwarden with an actual domain attached to it instead of 14 occurrences of 192.168.x.x

      Additional info:


      I had PiHole running on the Pi before as the primary and only DNS previously. And I seem to recall you could put IP:Port as a custom DNS and have it resolve. AGH does have a feature for DNS Rewrites but it does not allow for port numbers, IPs only. I switched to AGH because it seems to be more effective at blocking ads, which is likely more a function of the provided DNS blocklists out of the box as opposed to what I was doing in Pihole. I would prefer to stick with AGH for adblocking/DNS if possible.

      I looked into just modifying host files on the main computers I touch these apps from, but again, can't include port. What is a good solution for this? Preferably something approachable for a newb like me.

      11 votes
    13. Dealing with databases, inserts, updates, etc. in Python

      Current Library: built in sqlite Current db: sqlite (but will have access to Snowflake soon for option 1 below) Wondering if anyone here has some advise or a good place to learn about dealing with...

      Current Library: built in sqlite
      Current db: sqlite (but will have access to Snowflake soon for option 1 below)

      Wondering if anyone here has some advise or a good place to learn about dealing with databases with Python. I know SQL fairly well for pulling data and simple updates, but running into potential performance issues the way I've been doing it. Here are 2 examples.

      1. Dealing with Pandas dataframes. I'm doing some reconciliation between a couple of different datasources. I do not have a primary key to work with. I have some very specific matching criteria to determine a match (5 columns specifically - customer, date, contract, product, quantity). The matching process is all built within Python. Is there a good way to do the database commits with updates/inserts en masse vs. line by line? I've looked into upsert (or inserts with clause to update with existing data), but pretty much all examples I've seen rely on primary keys (which I don't have since the data has 5 columns I'm matching on).

      2. Dealing with JSON files which have multiple layers of related data. My database is built in such a way that I have a table for header information, line level detail, then third level with specific references assigned to the line level detail. As with a lot of transactional type databases there can be multiple references per line, multiple lines per header. I'm currently looping through the JSON file starting with the header information to create the primary key, then going to the line level detail to create a primary key for the line, but also include the foreign key for the header and also with the reference data. Before inserting I'm doing a lookup to see if the data already exists and then updating if it does or inserting a new record if it doesn't. This works fine, but is slow taking several seconds for maybe 100 inserts in total. While not a big deal since it's for a low volume of sales. I'd rather learn best practice and do this properly with commits/transactions vs inserting an updating each record individually within the ability to rollback should an error occur.

      11 votes
    14. Firefox refuses to use fonts in ~user/.config/fontconfig/fonts.conf

      I have the following on my fonts.conf <?xml version="1.0"?> <!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd"> <fontconfig> <alias> <family>system-ui</family> <prefer> <family>FreeSans</family> </prefer>...

      I have the following on my fonts.conf

      <?xml version="1.0"?>
      <!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">
      <fontconfig>
        <alias>
          <family>system-ui</family>
          <prefer>
            <family>FreeSans</family>
          </prefer>
        </alias>
      </fontconfig>
      

      But when websites use font-family: system-ui firefox just ignores this and uses Cantarell anyway, which I don't even know where it is getting it from. (Not Firefox font preferences).

      Any idea how to make firefox respect my fonts.conf?

      This is Linux with i3.

      11 votes
    15. Docker Nextcloud AIO Mastercontainer update failing

      I've got a problem with my nextcloud and as tildes is my favourite nice place to ask for tech-support, maybe somebody here can help me with that. I can start and run Nextcloud AIO without any...

      I've got a problem with my nextcloud and as tildes is my favourite nice place to ask for tech-support, maybe somebody here can help me with that.

      I can start and run Nextcloud AIO without any problems. I can update the subcontainers without any problems. But the update of the Mastercontainer always fails and I don't kno why, only that it has to be something with docker.sock and permissions, but I could not resolve the issues, and google does not seem to be helpful (or I'm looking for the wrong stuff).

      my update logs:

      time="2023-06-14T12:47:59Z" level=debug msg="Sleeping for a second to ensure the docker api client has been properly initialized."
      time="2023-06-14T12:48:00Z" level=debug msg="Making sure everything is sane before starting"
      time="2023-06-14T12:48:00Z" level=info msg="Watchtower 1.5.3"
      time="2023-06-14T12:48:00Z" level=info msg="Using no notifications"
      time="2023-06-14T12:48:00Z" level=info msg="Only checking containers which name matches \"nextcloud-aio-mastercontainer\""
      time="2023-06-14T12:48:00Z" level=info msg="Running a one time update."
      time="2023-06-14T12:48:00Z" level=debug msg="Checking containers for updated images"
      time="2023-06-14T12:48:00Z" level=debug msg="Retrieving running containers"
      time="2023-06-14T12:48:00Z" level=debug msg="FIXME: Got an status-code for which error does not match any expected type!!!" error="Cannot connect to the Docker daemon at unix:///var/run/docker.sock. Is the docker daemon running?" module=api status_code=-1
      time="2023-06-14T12:48:00Z" level=error msg="Cannot connect to the Docker daemon at unix:///var/run/docker.sock. Is the docker daemon running?"
      panic: runtime error: invalid memory address or nil pointer dereference
      [signal SIGSEGV: segmentation violation code=0x1 addr=0x30 pc=0x9f4a22]
      
      goroutine 1 [running]:
      github.com/containrrr/watchtower/pkg/metrics.NewMetric({0x0, 0x0})
      	/home/runner/work/watchtower/watchtower/pkg/metrics/metrics.go:31 +0x22
      github.com/containrrr/watchtower/cmd.runUpdatesWithNotifications(0xc0002fd830)
      	/home/runner/work/watchtower/watchtower/cmd/root.go:375 +0x15e
      github.com/containrrr/watchtower/cmd.Run(0xc00033c300?, {0xc000281300?, 0x4?, 0x4?})
      	/home/runner/work/watchtower/watchtower/cmd/root.go:168 +0x570
      github.com/spf13/cobra.(*Command).execute(0xc00033c300, {0xc0000300b0, 0x4, 0x4})
      	/home/runner/go/pkg/mod/github.com/spf13/cobra@v1.6.1/command.go:920 +0x847
      github.com/spf13/cobra.(*Command).ExecuteC(0xc00033c300)
      	/home/runner/go/pkg/mod/github.com/spf13/cobra@v1.6.1/command.go:1044 +0x3bc
      github.com/spf13/cobra.(*Command).Execute(...)
      	/home/runner/go/pkg/mod/github.com/spf13/cobra@v1.6.1/command.go:968
      github.com/containrrr/watchtower/cmd.Execute()
      	/home/runner/work/watchtower/watchtower/cmd/root.go:71 +0x52
      main.main()
      	/home/runner/work/watchtower/watchtower/main.go:13 +0x17
      
      

      my startup command

      sudo docker run \
      --sig-proxy=false \
      --name nextcloud-aio-mastercontainer \
      --restart unless-stopped \
      --publish 8080:8080 \
      -e APACHE_PORT=11000 \
      -e APACHE_IP_BINDING=127.0.0.1 \
      --volume nextcloud_aio_mastercontainer:/mnt/docker-aio-config \
      --volume /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock:ro \
      nextcloud/all-in-one:latest
      

      output after start:

      Trying to fix docker.sock permissions internally...
      Creating docker group internally with id 998
      WARNING: No swap limit support
      Initial startup of Nextcloud All-in-One complete!
      You should be able to open the Nextcloud AIO Interface now on port 8080 of this server!
      E.g. https://internal.ip.of.this.server:8080
      
      If your server has port 80 and 8443 open and you point a domain to your server, you can get a valid certificate automatically by opening the Nextcloud AIO Interface via:
      https://your-domain-that-points-to-this-server.tld:8443
      ++ head -1 /mnt/docker-aio-config/data/daily_backup_time
      + BACKUP_TIME=04:00
      + export BACKUP_TIME
      + export DAILY_BACKUP=1
      + DAILY_BACKUP=1
      ++ sed -n 2p /mnt/docker-aio-config/data/daily_backup_time
      + '[' '' '!=' automaticUpdatesAreNotEnabled ']'
      + export AUTOMATIC_UPDATES=1
      + AUTOMATIC_UPDATES=1
      + set +x
      {"level":"info","ts":1686746753.2700157,"msg":"using provided configuration","config_file":"/Caddyfile","config_adapter":""}
      {"level":"info","ts":1686746753.2748601,"msg":"failed to sufficiently increase receive buffer size (was: 208 kiB, wanted: 2048 kiB, got: 416 kiB). See https://github.com/quic-go/quic-go/wiki/UDP-Receive-Buffer-Size for details."}
      [14-Jun-2023 12:45:53] NOTICE: fpm is running, pid 106
      [14-Jun-2023 12:45:53] NOTICE: ready to handle connections
      
      

      I tried to change permissions on /var/run/docker.sock
      I tried to change permissions on /lib/systemd/system/docker.sock

      same but with restart of docker.sock
      same but with restart of docker.sock and docker.service

      nothing helped

      does somebody know where I go wrong or can me point in the right direction to resolve this problem? It's not a game stopper as I can update the container manually, but it is annoying.

      edit: it runs on a ubuntu server 20.04.6 LTS

      6 votes
    16. Linux newbies: ask your questions

      Whether you're new to distro installs or aiming to delve deeper, feel free to ask any questions here - remember, no question is stupid! I'll do my best to answer, and if I can't, someone here...

      Whether you're new to distro installs or aiming to delve deeper, feel free to ask any questions here - remember, no question is stupid!

      I'll do my best to answer, and if I can't, someone here likely can, or at least guide you in the right direction.

      Background: I've been a Linux user since 2007, starting with Ubuntu Feisty Fawn after losing my Windows XP product key. I've performed countless installs, worked in web hosting NOCs, and use multiple distros daily, including Proxmox.

      If you prefer, don't hesitate to PM me directly!

      30 votes
    17. [SOLVED] No audio in Chrome OS Flex on N42 Chromebook

      I currently have a Lenovo N42 Chromebook far past it's EoL, for which Google is no longer supporting it. I have put Chrome OS Flex on it by reflashing the bios, and it's pretty solid, but I have...

      I currently have a Lenovo N42 Chromebook far past it's EoL, for which Google is no longer supporting it. I have put Chrome OS Flex on it by reflashing the bios, and it's pretty solid, but I have no internal audio. Bluetooth audio and HDMI works fine, but no headphones, and no speakers.

      I found this solution for trying to hack in an Alsa configuration from an Ubuntu Live Disk (https://www.reddit.com/r/chromeos/comments/swzxsy/comment/irk5kqk/) and I was able to follow the instructions and enable development mode, but when I try to run the alsaconfig script, I get this.

      crosh> shell
      chronos@localhost / $ sudo alsarestore
      No state is present for card chtrt5650
      /usr/sbin/alsactl: sysfs_init:48: sysfs path '/sys' is invalid

      Found hardware: "chtrt5650" "" "" "" ""
      Hardware is initialized using a generic method
      No state is present for card chtrt5650

      It may have something to do with those instructions being for a different build computer, but I am outside my sphere of knowledge, and anything else I could troubleshoot would be appreciated. Internal audio isn't mission critical for me, but it would be appreciated.

      3 votes
    18. Docker rootless and Watchtower and some general questions about Docker

      I finally decided to accepted that my interest in working and playing with computers and servers is worth to spend some money on. So I ditched my old box in the corner and with it all my fights...

      I finally decided to accepted that my interest in working and playing with computers and servers is worth to spend some money on. So I ditched my old box in the corner and with it all my fights with my ISP, their NAT, dynamic DNS and all that and got myself a VPS and 1 TB storage solution for less than I would have paid a static IP with my ISP.
      Best decicion ever :-)

      So I'm getting into Docker a bit, just because it's just so easy to get Nextcloud running. I used native Caddy as a reverse proxy, because if I got this "machine" there I will use it for other things as well, so make it right from the beginning. And I used native b.c I did not yet understand bridge/host mode and installing caddy native seems easier.
      Then I fought for one day with CIFS and the nextcloud gui to get the semantics right to get my storage solution accepted as external storage.
      Then I set up Jellyfin with Docker because why not. As well through caddy.
      Then I fucked something up and was like, fuck it, lets start again this time for real :-P
      I wiped my VPS clean (chose ubuntu again) set up and hardend ssh + sudo installed Docker, and then I found out about docker rootless and in the docker docs it's mentioned that it is/might be more secure, so I set up docker rootless and installed all the rest again.
      And then I was like, hmm, do these Docker Images/Containers update themself? Like snap did?
      It seems not, so I looked for a solution and found watchtower. And now I wasted another day trying to get watchtower to run, and I just can not.

      I tried so many variations of the run command now most recently I tried:

      docker run \
      --name watchtower \
      -v ${DOCKER_SOCKET_PATH}:/var/run/docker.sock \
      containrrr/watchtower
      
      time="2023-01-20T01:17:41Z" level=error msg="Cannot connect to the Docker daemon at unix:///var/run/docker.sock. Is the docker daemon running?"
      time="2023-01-20T01:17:41Z" level=info msg="Waiting for the notification goroutine to finish" notify=no
      

      /run/user/1000/docker.sock exists, I own it, i tried connecting to it through docker -e and containrrr/watchtower --host "unix:///run/user/1000/docker.sock"
      I dont now what to try more and I'm at my end with my ddg-fu as well.

      And now while proofreading this, I read everything again and decided to try something again and it just worked...

      docker run \
      --name watchtower \
      -v /run/user/1000/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock \
      containrrr/watchtower
      

      seems like the environment variable was not set. But I'm shure I tried that before and it did not work... ghost in a machine :-)

      So thats where I'm at. I have to say it was a lot of fun and doing and learning all that tingled my brain in a funny way :-)

      But now I have some questions for my much more experienced Tildes-friends:

      • Do I even need watchtower? because I'm not actually interested to connect to my server regularly to do the updates/maintenance.
      • Was switching to docker rootless even a good idea? it seemed so reading the docker installation docs, but just now I read the Archwiki and there it seems it has some heavy security implications, so I made the security situation acutally worse by thinking making it better.
      • How do I get this watchtower thing to fucking work? (only if I actually need it)

      I very much appreciate all further/other advise, tricks, recomendations, questions and discussion as well :-)

      4 votes
    19. Are there any android 13 apps that can successfully spoof location (or otherwise thwart stalkerware)

      (apologies if this isn't the correct place to ask, I'm just a bit out of ideas) (content warning for abusive parents) I have a friend who's abusive parents track her location using the stalkerware...

      (apologies if this isn't the correct place to ask, I'm just a bit out of ideas)
      (content warning for abusive parents)

      I have a friend who's abusive parents track her location using the stalkerware app life360.

      she currently runs graphene os (android 13) on a pixel 7 pro.

      in my past android experience there are plenty apps that can spoof your location via developer settings. however they all crash on android 13 (or at least on graphene..)

      see below (none of these work, and they also crash on my android 13 phone, but they have worked for me in the past on like android 9):
      https://github.com/mcastillof/FakeTraveler
      https://github.com/wesaphzt/privatelocation
      https://github.com/warren-bank/Android-Mock-Location
      https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lexa.fakegps&gl=US

      if there are no functioning apps that will do this. do you know any other solutions? on other android roms or with root with magisk / xposed? obviously this is less secure than graphene os but the current problem is her parents more than anything else.

      we r also considering a secondary phone just for the stalkerware which can be opportunistically left in innocent places. or just killing the life360 app on occasion when needed. or just letting the phone die when it needs to. But not sure how obvious this might be to the abusers. any insight is appreciated.

      (suggestions like "leave her parents" are good but far easier said than done and while it will eventually happen its not feasible at the moment. That being said if you can provide detail suggestions are welcome)

      Thanks :)

      5 votes
    20. Has anyone with a WD NAS formatted drives for another system?

      This is a total longshot. I moved away from a WD My Cloud EX4100 w/ 3x WD Reds to a new box. I bought two more drives for the new one to make the move easier. After the move I took the drives out...

      This is a total longshot. I moved away from a WD My Cloud EX4100 w/ 3x WD Reds to a new box. I bought two more drives for the new one to make the move easier.

      After the move I took the drives out to format them only to find that each 4TB drive shows a partition of 1.8TB on any other system (diskpart with W10 LTSC, Disk Utility MacOS, and GParted with Ubuntu.) Inside the EX4100 the drives show their full capacity.. and I just don't get it.

      I reached out to their support, but I don't expect much of a response.

      Anybody have any idea why the heck this could be happening? This seems crazy. I don't mind buying more drives, but it seems like a waste when I've got 12TB just sitting there.

      7 votes
    21. Continuing My Education with a CS Degree in Canada [A Help Thread]

      My Goal I am applying to Canadian universities for fall admission as a CS major. This will be my second degree, and one of the requirements of getting admitted for a second degree is to show that...

      My Goal

      I am applying to Canadian universities for fall admission as a CS major. This will be my second degree, and one of the requirements of getting admitted for a second degree is to show that you have a significant interest in the subject. My plan is to get online certificates to show that I am actually dedicated to learning CS and getting a job in the field. I am actually dedicated, I just need a way to show it on paper. I have some experience with software development (only the basics), but there aren't any records of it since it was just informal study.

      My Problem

      I can't decide which certificates I should pursue. I am torn between EdX and Udemy. I would Tilderinos' help in choosing between the two. I would also appreciate any general advice you may have.

      Here are the courses I plan to take on EdX (prices in USD):

      UBC's MicroMasters Program in
      Software Development
      - $832

      Harvard CS50's Web Programming with Python and JavaScript - $199

      IBM's Professional Certificate in
      Cloud Application Development Foundations
      - $169

      Here are the courses I plan to take on Udemy:

      The Ultimate 2021 Fullstack Web Development Bootcamp - $15

      The Complete 2021 Web Development Bootcamp - $15

      The Ultimate MySQL Bootcamp: Go from SQL Beginner to Expert - $30

      Angular - The Complete Guide (2021 Edition) - $15

      Comparisons

      To reiterate, I have two goals going into this. One is to actually learn web development, since I would like to become a fullstack developer (but my options are semi-open). The other is to prove to the Canadian universities that I am dedicated to learning and to give myself an edge over applicants.

      If I go with EdX, then I have to pay a much steeper price for the certificates. These courses also take a long time to get through and the projects don't seem as relevant to real word applications. But I will also be learning from established institutions like Harvard and UBC. EdX certificates also come with the distinct advantage that a human is checking the problem sets you submit. This will show the Canadian universities that I have actually spent the time and effort to go through the courses and pass them.

      If I go with Udemy, I will get through the courses in less time and their projects seem more related to real world projects. If I go through the courses faster, I will also have more time to start on some personal projects, and I can show my dedication to learning through those projects. Personal projects and also volunteer work will also help establish a resumé for future work. The courses on Udemy are a lot cheaper too. But they don't have the same level of verification or prestige that EdX does.

      So in summary, EdX has prestige and quality courses, but a steep prices and a huge time commitment. Udemy is cheaper and gives me more opportunities to do personal projects and volunteer work, but it's certificates aren't fully trustworthy from the Canadian universities' perspective.

      Final Words

      What do you think? Which path should I take?

      For those of you wondering, why I am going to university instead of a bootcamp, it's because I plan to immigrate to Canada and becoming a student seems the straightest way of getting PR. I need to leave my third world country as soon as I can, for mental health and economic reasons. I have been mostly unemployed ever since the pandemic started so I can't get work in Canada (or the U.S.) on my first degree (a management degree). I already tried that route. I can't find proper work here either.

      Also, I am sorry if I posted in the wrong group, or if I shouldn't have posted it anywhere at all. I desperately need advice on what to do and I don't have a trustworthy network here that can help me through this. I'm sorry and thank you for your help.

      8 votes
    22. Why does a completely local, self-contained html file need to access gstatic.com?

      So, I'm a privacy advocate (or paranoiac, depending on your perspective). I run both uMatrix and NoScript plug-ins (among others) in my Firefox browser, so I can see when and where websites send...

      So, I'm a privacy advocate (or paranoiac, depending on your perspective). I run both uMatrix and NoScript plug-ins (among others) in my Firefox browser, so I can see when and where websites send calls out to other locations, and block the ones I want ... google analytics, google fonts, google-apis, google tag manager, and gstatic are all ubiquitous out there, probably 99% of websites use at least one of them (PS: Tildes is in the 1%; yeay, Deimos).

      And note ... there may well be nothing at all wrong with any of those sites/services ... but Google has a global all-encompassing Terms and Conditions policy that says, you use anything of Theirs, and They are allowed to harvest your personal data and make money off of it.

      And I do not accept those terms.

      Okay, that's the prologue. The deal is, I have a small piece of documentation, just basic "how to use this" info, for a WordPress plug-in. It is in .html format, with bundled bootstrap and jquery and a few other assets.

      Nothing, anywhere in the entire folder, references gstatic. And yet when I open this local, on-my-computer-only html file ... my browser tells me that it is trying to connect to gstatic.com.

      Anyone happen to know why/how that is happening?

      4 votes
    23. PC doesn't connect properly to thunderbolt dock if it's plugged in after booting

      I have a CalDigit TS3+ dock that I switch between my M1 Macbook Pro and a System76 Galago Pro that's currently running Windows 10 (I'm sorry, FOSS gods). The M1 has no problem using the TS3+ when...

      I have a CalDigit TS3+ dock that I switch between my M1 Macbook Pro and a System76 Galago Pro that's currently running Windows 10 (I'm sorry, FOSS gods). The M1 has no problem using the TS3+ when it's connected or disconnected and reconnected. But the Galago Pro will only connect to the dock if it was connected while booting up. Disconnecting and reconnecting leaves the dock in a state where only the pass-through thunderbolt port works. So my monitor that uses the pass-through for DisplayPort can operate after reconnecting the dock, but no other devices plugged into the dock will. My mouse/keyboard for example don't even receive power in this state.

      Oddly when setting up the drivers for thunderbolt I found that the only drivers available are for Intel's NUCs. IIRC someone on reddit said that this is actually the software I need to install, so that's what I did.

      Any help getting the dock to work better is appreciated! Currently I need to reboot the laptop every time I switch back from the M1 to the Galago Pro.

      4 votes
    24. If I'm using Cloudflare for my domains, do I need to bother with LE?

      It is late... and I am pretty much finished with migrating to a new VPS provider. I got rate limited with two domains, but I'm running everything through Cloudflare. Do I need to bother with...

      It is late... and I am pretty much finished with migrating to a new VPS provider. I got rate limited with two domains, but I'm running everything through Cloudflare. Do I need to bother with LetsEncrypt on the VPS itself? When I check the domains, the certs from CF are working nicely.

      This is my first time using CF.

      Quick edit while I pretend I can sleep.

      I’m thinking that CF will cover me for 443 and route all traffic there. I’ve got wildcards set for domains with services that require other ports — which is working. All CF is doing is caching my sites, right?

      7 votes
    25. Build Concept: The Mobius Chair

      In the DC canon, The Mobius Chair is a time-space/dimensional vehicle operated by the New God Metron. It allows him to travel and observe the universe, but the one I'm making is nowhere near as...

      In the DC canon, The Mobius Chair is a time-space/dimensional vehicle operated by the New God Metron. It allows him to travel and observe the universe, but the one I'm making is nowhere near as functional.

      I've come into a recliner chair with a cupholder on each armrest, and I already had a split keyboard. My plan is to use the cupholders as a mount for both ends of the split keyboard, so that I could use the entire run of armrest and have my hands lay naturally on the keys. Goals are to minimize weird stretching and be able to comfortably type for long stretches of time, to put off stuff building this that I planned to work on this weekend, and to look super boss, though not necessarily in that order.

      If I want ultimate angulation and the best range of motion, I was thinking about something like a cupholder with a phone or a tablet mount, like this one, but if anyone has recommendations for what would be best to work with, or have done something like this before, I'm all ears.

      6 votes
    26. LaTeX: Using a different font for glyphs used in commands like \sum

      Hello everyone. I consider myself fairly competent when it comes to my work with LaTeX, but as everyone who uses it knows, it is definetely strange sometimes. And right now I have a problem which...

      Hello everyone. I consider myself fairly competent when it comes to my work with LaTeX, but as everyone who uses it knows, it is definetely strange sometimes. And right now I have a problem which just irks me in the wrong ways:

      I use XeTeX and a number of custom fonts for my documents, but when writing mathematical formulas I found out that the font I set for Greek letters (Gentium Plus) is used for letter commands like \alpha, \Alpha, ... but not for commands like \sum, \prod. As you can see in this example here. You can see XeTeX defaults to Computer Modern.

      I've looked all over the net for solutions but I can't find one. I'm using mathspec, amsmath, amsfonts, amssymb as my font related packages and I set my fonts like this:

      \setmainfont{Charis SIL}
      \setsansfont{Helvetica Now Display}
      \setmonofont[Scale=MatchLowercase]{Fira Code Retina}
      \setmathfont(Digits,Latin){Charis SIL}
      \setmathfont(Greek){Gentium Plus}
      

      I feel like I'm going insane not solving this problem. Should you require it, my entire LaTeX template is here on Github. Please help, thank you.

      8 votes
    27. Help Packaging Elmer FEM for Nix

      I'm trying to package Elmer for use with NixOS, and could use some help from any experienced Nix users. My current attempt is located here. There is some junk left around in that file from my...

      I'm trying to package Elmer for use with NixOS, and could use some help from any experienced Nix users. My current attempt is located here. There is some junk left around in that file from my experimenting, but it's at least a start. There are also a few lines of error included in the comment here.

      Any help is appreciated!

      6 votes
    28. Help me get my head around DNSCrypt and DoH/DoT

      I want to adopt these technologies b/c I'm moving to a home w/o WiFi: I'll only use mobile networks in order to save some money. But the general pipeline and setup are hard to digest, and I'm not...

      I want to adopt these technologies b/c I'm moving to a home w/o WiFi: I'll only use mobile networks in order to save some money. But the general pipeline and setup are hard to digest, and I'm not sure if I really understand what are the implications for my privacy, except for the fact that DNS queries are encrypted so I don't leak domain names. This is especially important to me because Turkish internet law and the censorship mechanism is really intrusive, with DPI & DNS blocking. My current ISP does not fiddle with my HTTPS traffic, but I won't have that with my mobile network.

      I'm also considering a VPN, but major VPNs are blocked here. To what extent do the purposes of VPNs and these DNS solutions overlap? Assuming most of my important traffic is over HTTPS+DoH/T, how safe am I, and most importantly how much can I penetrate the censorship mechanisms?

      6 votes
    29. Need a simple way to password protect a webpage

      Hey Tildes! I've got a static, basic website, HTML and CSS. It's one page only. But I'd like to create a second page with some more private content that is password protected. I know that I can...

      Hey Tildes!

      I've got a static, basic website, HTML and CSS. It's one page only. But I'd like to create a second page with some more private content that is password protected.

      I know that I can accomplish this via .htaccess but what I don't like about this method is that when the user navigates to the page, they get a pop up asking for a username and password. What I would like is having the user navigate to the page, and then they are met with a simple form asking for just a password (no username). After they enter the password, the "veil" lifts or the page forwards and they get the private content.

      Here's the thing... the content really only needs to seem private. It's not super secret, personal information. I don't want it indexed by search engines (nofollow), and I want it basically hidden, but the password is only there to make the user feel exclusive. If some tech-minded person encountered this page and jumped through a bunch of hoops to get in without the password, it's not a big deal to me. In reality, 99.9% of people accessing this page will not be able to bypass the password.

      I'm guessing this can be accomplished easily in Javascript, but I don't really know much Javascript apart from finding code snippets and plunking them in. I also want to be able to fully design the password entry page so that it looks branded, so a code snippet plunked down into my HTML doc would be great for this.

      If there is an easy way to actually protect the content behind the password, that would be excellent. In this case, I imagine it would be much like a news site with an ad-blocker-blocker. Just some kind of pop-up that blocks all the content. Enter the password, and you're in.

      Anyhow, I hope I've described what I'm looking for accurately enough. Anybody have any easy and quick ways to accomplish this?

      14 votes
    30. How do you structure larger projects?

      I'll be writing a relatively large piece of scientific code for the first time, and before I begin I would at least like to outline how the project will be structured so that I don't run into...

      I'll be writing a relatively large piece of scientific code for the first time, and before I begin I would at least like to outline how the project will be structured so that I don't run into headaches later on. The problem is, I don't have much experience structuring large projects. Up until now most of the code I have written as been in the form of python scripts that I string together to form an ad-hoc pipeline for analysis, or else C++ programs that are relatively self contained. My current project is much larger in scope. It will consist of four main 'modules' (I'm not sure if this is the correct term, apologies if not) each of which consist of a handful of .cpp and .h files. The schematic I have in mind for how it should look is something like:

      src
       ├──Module1 (Initializer)
       │         ├ file1.cpp
       │         ├ file1.h
       │         │...
       │         └ Makefile
       ├───Module2 (solver)
       │          ├ file1.cpp
       │          ├ file1.h
       │          │...
       │          └ Makefile
       ├───Module3 (Distribute)
       │          ├ file1.cpp
       │          └Makefile 
       └ Makefile
      

      Basically, I build each self-contained 'module', and use the object files produced there to build my main program. Is there anything I should keep in mind here, or is this basically how such a project should be structured?

      I imagine the particularly structure will be dependent on my project, but I am more interested in general principles to keep in mind.

      14 votes
    31. State of WebRTC outside of major browsers

      I've been trying to set up a reliable lightweight solution for high quality, low-latency webcam (v4l2) streaming from Linux server to browsers, allowing for small (1-5) number of concurrent...

      I've been trying to set up a reliable lightweight solution for high quality, low-latency webcam (v4l2) streaming from Linux server to browsers, allowing for small (1-5) number of concurrent viewers.

      The obvious choice here is WebRTC, which when used through browser APIs, works wonderfully. It has low latency and automatic quality adjustment depending on network performance.
      I also checked out RTSP and RTMP, which are not supported without browser plugins. Next candidates were DASH and HLS, but while they provide high quality, they also have high latency.
      For a while I used MPEG1 streaming through Websockets (using jsmpeg library), which worked and had low latency, but the video quality was bad.

      Back to WebRTC - It seems like reliable, lightweight and maintained projects are really hard to find. So far I've found a few WebRTC media servers, but they're overkill for my use case:

      • Janus
      • MediaSoup
      • Kurento (unmaintained)

      I also tried implementing this functionality using low level Gstreamer elements in Python using PyGObject, but that's proving to be rather complicated with a ton of extremely low level implementation details.

      If anyone has tried doing something similar, I'd really like to hear what (if any) problems you had and if you found any sane solutions. Next thing on my list is using headless Chromium in combination with Puppeteer, but I'd really prefer more lightweight solutions.

      9 votes
    32. Help: I just received a mail from my own email, can't know if phishing or I'm hacked

      I just received a mail from my own e-mail address, hosted on Gandi on my own domain name. It said that the sender has hacked me, used malware, keyloggers and RDP to get my passwords and copy all...

      I just received a mail from my own e-mail address, hosted on Gandi on my own domain name. It said that the sender has hacked me, used malware, keyloggers and RDP to get my passwords and copy all my files to his own computer, and took videos of me while watching adult content using my webcam (I never noticed the light turning on for it). Claims they've been doing this for a few months. Gives a bitcoin address and wants $1000 (a sum I can't and won't give, don't even have a fraction of it) in 48 hrs, or else will share the videos with my contacts. It said something about a pixel the message included.

      I viewed the message from K-9 mail on android (which didn't tell anything about pixels or whatnot), and when I went back on my computer to check the headers and stuff, the message was deleted.

      Now, is this some sort of phishing or or have I really been pwned? I feel like it's just phishing, but the message deleting itself kinda gave me shills of fear. I promptly changed my password for the mail account.

      10 votes
    33. How to make money with Wordpress

      I have just graduated from uni, and am preparing for masters next fall. I'm a humanities student, but have some programming knowledge. Currently I'm looking for literary translation jobs, but...

      I have just graduated from uni, and am preparing for masters next fall. I'm a humanities student, but have some programming knowledge. Currently I'm looking for literary translation jobs, but should I fail that, I want to find some light freelance work (so that I can spare more time to my studies), and looking at e.g. freelancer.com, Wordpress is still quite popular.

      What are some good introductory material for Wordpress and PHP, that preferably does not assume total beginner to programming? How much can I expect to make, for how much effort? I'd be content if I could make $200-250 w/ 3-5hr work per day, or a couple full days a week, that's all I really need and such hours would mean that I could keep on doing such work even when I'm writing my thesis. I'm in Turkey, FWIW.

      7 votes
    34. Need help with Switching to linux

      Hi all, Hope ya'll doing good. I am done with windows. So I want to switch to linux. I have used it a few times. I just wanted to know, how long will it take to have it setup? Also, I am learning...

      Hi all, Hope ya'll doing good. I am done with windows. So I want to switch to linux. I have used it a few times. I just wanted to know, how long will it take to have it setup? Also, I am learning data science. Will switching to linux have any serious implications? Thanks

      29 votes
    35. How Do I Make A Database?

      Hello everyone! I've recently got an idea for a Database as a Service I'd like to create. The only issue is - I don't know how to create or host a database! I've only ever used Mongoose/mLab with...

      Hello everyone!

      I've recently got an idea for a Database as a Service I'd like to create. The only issue is - I don't know how to create or host a database!

      I've only ever used Mongoose/mLab with Javascript, and a minimal amount of Postgres with Python.

      If I'm looking to create a database that will, eventually, be able to store images, songs, and videos, where should I start my homework?

      I can create the backend and the frontend with no issue - just stuck on this part here. If it's of any relevance, I most frequently use the MERN stack.

      13 votes
    36. How important is response time in monitors and how distinguishable is it?

      I'm currently looking for a new monitor and I have the ASUS MG279Q, the ASUS PG248Q and the ASUS MG278Q. Now, my setup is not the highest end, but decent with an i7 and a 1060 3GB, and there are...

      I'm currently looking for a new monitor and I have the ASUS MG279Q, the ASUS PG248Q and the ASUS MG278Q. Now, my setup is not the highest end, but decent with an i7 and a 1060 3GB, and there are three concerns I have currently not found an answer for:

      1. The (potential) difference in quality between the MG279Q's IPS panel and the MG278's TN panel
      2. And the delay difference, the TN panel having a 1ms response time and the IPS' 4ms
      3. If my setup can even handle 1440p/144Hz (I don't need to play on the highest settings, nor do I need to reach those 144 FPS), in which case I would tend more towards the PG248Q

      I'd love to upgrade towards 1440p as the screen real estate would be good for working (which I do a lot on the PC) and I would, I could later upgrade my GPU if the performance in games isn't satisfactory. I think my setup wouldn't have any issue handling day to day tasks and if need be I can play on lower resolutions or lower graphic settings. Also I wonder how large the difference between the IPS and TN panel is and if it's noticeable, particularly with colours.

      Does anyone of you have experience with the subject or with the monitors named in particular?

      20 votes
    37. Getting Started as a Developer from Scratch

      I have been interested in making the gradual career change to software development from my current humanities field. This stems from a handful of different places. Of course the pay and...

      I have been interested in making the gradual career change to software development from my current humanities field. This stems from a handful of different places. Of course the pay and flexibility are strong drivers but I like the idea of a field that is somewhat of a creative expression; one where you can manifest your knowledge and experience into something tangible.

      I have no experience with programming other than SQL use in ArcGIS and am hoping to gain some knowledge about the field; so anything would be helpful. Whether what to expect from this line of work, where someone with no experience should look to get started and what to expect, personal journeys, etc.

      Cheers!

      14 votes
    38. Batch-saving websites for offline viewing

      Anybody here have a good setup for batch-downloading articles/news from several sites you specify, similar to youtube-dl but for general websites? I'm sure it could be scripted with not too much...

      Anybody here have a good setup for batch-downloading articles/news from several sites you specify, similar to youtube-dl but for general websites? I'm sure it could be scripted with not too much effort but I'm interested what polished solutions there are.

      The idea would be so people with rare internet access could go to a hotspot weekly or something and sync that week's worth of content.

      12 votes
    39. Advice for those who want a computer science career?

      Those that have pursued a career that deals with any type of computer science, what advice would you give to students before they get a job in it? What do you do on a daily basis? What would you...

      Those that have pursued a career that deals with any type of computer science, what advice would you give to students before they get a job in it? What do you do on a daily basis? What would you have wanted to know before you started?

      17 votes
    40. Need recommendation for codecademy-like course for PHP

      Hi there, It looks like codecademy took down their PHP course, which stinks becuase I love, love, love how that site approaches teaching by doing. Any other free resources out there for a...

      Hi there,

      It looks like codecademy took down their PHP course, which stinks becuase I love, love, love how that site approaches teaching by doing. Any other free resources out there for a do-not-show approach for learning PHP?

      Looking to get my feet wet so I'm a little less dangerous when tinkering with my WordPress templates.

      14 votes
    41. Total noob looking for (hopefully) simple greasemonkey script

      I have knowledge of the basic concepts of programming in general and html and some very basic knowledge of javascript, but this specific task is proving a little beyond me. I'm actually using...

      I have knowledge of the basic concepts of programming in general and html and some very basic knowledge of javascript, but this specific task is proving a little beyond me. I'm actually using tampermonkey, in case that matters.

      www.bricklink.com is a site to buy Lego from private sellers. By default, when looking at a shop's listing of items, it shows 25 per page. I would like to automatically switch to 100 per page every time.

      Here's a randomly selected store page (no affiliation) at the default 25 per page:

      https://store.bricklink.com/TheBricky#/shop?o={"itemType":"P","catID":"18","showHomeItems":0}

      Now, same page set to display 100 per page. Note how "pgSize" is added to the url but doesn't appear by default:

      https://store.bricklink.com/TheBricky#/shop?o={"pgSize":100,"itemType":"P","catID":"18","showHomeItems":0}

      What I would like is for pgSize to be set to 100 only IF

      "shop" appears in the url

      AND

      "pgSize" does not appear in the url OR "pgSize" does appear in the url but does not equal 100.

      Since Bricklink remembers pgSize per shop page per session, once pgSize is set to 100 for a particular shop greasemonkey doesn't need to do anything. Intercepting the url before the page loads would be nice but unnecessary since loading is fast and I'm not worried about bandwidth.

      I tried making this but wasn't sure how to input what I'm trying to test for in the url. Of course now that I've thought about it some more it seems the task is more probably difficult than I thought it would be at first. Any help would be appreciated.

      EDIT: This comment below seems to be working, although the way Bricklink makes their urls feels funky at times.

      10 votes
    42. Coding Noob Needs Help/Guidance on Small Project

      Hi, There's a certain site which hosts media files and has a player that depends on a lot of third-party resources to play, while browsers have native support for those file types. Those 3rd-party...

      Hi,

      There's a certain site which hosts media files and has a player that depends on a lot of third-party resources to play, while browsers have native support for those file types. Those 3rd-party resources are often blocked by ad blockers and I have no desire to white-list them. I would like to extract the direct link to the media file and make it playable on my custom web page.

      The link to the media file is present in the page source of each page, always on the same line. It's not anchored in HTML but present in the JavaScript for the player, like so:

          $(document).ready(function(){
            $("#jquery_jplayer_1").jPlayer({
              ready: function () {
                $(this).jPlayer("setMedia", {
                  [ext]: "https://[domain]/[filename.ext]"
                });
              },
      

      In this example it's on line #5. [ext] = the file extension.

      I want to build the following:

      • A web page with a form with a single input field meant to receive links from that specific file host
      • [Something] that extracts the file link from the source of the host's page
      • Present the linked file as playable in an embedded native player

      So far I've managed to create a form with an input box and a submit button, but it doesn't do anything yet. What is the best way to build the actual functionality? I know HTML/CSS. I have some rudimentary understanding of JavaScript/jQuery and Python3, so those would be my preferred tools.

      For those worried about piracy: The files in question are not copyrighted and I'm not looking to make copies. I just want to make them playable. This is for personal use.

      Thank you for reading this far. Any and all advice is welcome!

      10 votes
    43. Website Admin Question: How to Block Google?

      I have a personal website, and while I don't mind it showing up in SERPs for DuckDuckGo, Bing, etc. I do not want it showing up on Google at all. Google doesn't send traffic my way, I pay for my...

      I have a personal website, and while I don't mind it showing up in SERPs for DuckDuckGo, Bing, etc. I do not want it showing up on Google at all.

      Google doesn't send traffic my way, I pay for my site out of my salary from my day job instead of running ads, and preventing Google from indexing my site seems like the best form of nonviolent direct action I can take to protest their continuing dominance and their "embrace, extend, and extinguish" campaign against the Web.

      I figure the easiest way to do this is to add the following to my site's .htaccess file since I don't have access to the server config file:

      X-Robots-Tag: googlebot: none, noarchive, nosnippet, notranslate, noimageindex
      

      Are there any downsides that I should know about besides not showing up in Google results?

      11 votes
    44. Inexperienced Programming Question

      TLDR: What programming language would be useful for taking info in an excel file and producing a text file (that is organized and arranged in a particular way) containing that info? Which would be...

      TLDR: What programming language would be useful for taking info in an excel file and producing a text file (that is organized and arranged in a particular way) containing that info? Which would be useful for this problem but also helpful in general? And also, are there any recommended online courses where I could learn it?


      I have no real experience coding or anything but have always wanted to learn. Recently at work we've encountered a problem. My boss had created a matlab program in order to take text/numbers from an excel document and transfer them to a text file, but in an organized way.

      Say you have something you call "Pancakes" and the cell next to it has the number "3", as in there are three pancakes. I want to be able to create a text file that would read something like this:

      NUMBER OF PANCAKES

      • Pancakes: 3

      We recently have changed around the format of the excel document for a different item, for example "French Toast". I've tried to mess with matlab briefly but was unable to change the program to compensate, and I no longer easily have access to matlab.

      I'm seeing this as an opportunity to learn some programming and also fix some stuff at work. So what programming language would be useful for fixing this problem? Which would be useful for this problem, but also helpful in general? And also, are there any recommended online courses where I could learn it?

      Thanks for any help, I appreciate it.

      16 votes
    45. Learning to Program

      Hi folks, I figured this would be a good place to ask a rather simple question. Where do I start to learn to code? I'm in high school, so I have (some) time to dedicate to it, and it seems there...

      Hi folks,

      I figured this would be a good place to ask a rather simple question.

      Where do I start to learn to code?

      I'm in high school, so I have (some) time to dedicate to it, and it seems there are a plethora of websites/resources out there, so I ask: what do you recommend, and why has it worked for you? I have no prior experience. I believe that this would really help out in the long run, as I will graduate high school with an Associate's Degree in Business. Thank you!

      EDIT: Thank you for all your responses! I'll start with Python and move on from there. You guys have been a great help, and I'll vote you up or reply.

      26 votes
    46. Good open source projects for beginners to contribute to?

      I'm looking for a project to contribute too. I'm not that experienced with programming, so I want something that isn't too complex. I'm also looking for a fairly young project. Big, mature...

      I'm looking for a project to contribute too. I'm not that experienced with programming, so I want something that isn't too complex. I'm also looking for a fairly young project. Big, mature projects don't really have much that a newbie can work on.

      27 votes