Google Nest (Mini) Cannot delete scheduled tasks

So you have a Google Nest Mini (this may apply to other models too) and you said to it turn on a light everyday at 8pm. This cannot currently be deleted or amended. Huge flaw! 

I asked mine to turn on a light at 4.20pm everyday and it misheard me and chose 4.20am for all lights including bedrooms - not cool! 

This link explains the issue:

https://www.howtogeek.com/748360/hey-google-scheduled-actions-are-giving-people-nightmares/amp/?utm_source=pocket_mylist

The solution (workaround!) - create a new "Home" in your Google home app. Call it something different and move all your devices to it one by one. Invite your family members to it and delete the older Home. Then you can rename the home to the name your original "home" was called.

Sadly there is no way to stop this happening again! My advice is to use the devices own primary apps to create schedules. They're generally fuller featured too as Google home only supports the more basic primary functions.  

Dell R510 (also R610,R710 etc) with H700 Perc card and Proxmox with ZFS

 

The Dell Perc H700 card cannot do pass-through (aka non-RAID aka raw disk aka JBOD). Ideally this is needed for ZFS and other similar technologies including VMware VSAN.

ZFS needs complete and direct access to your disks without going through any middleman RAID controller. However you can create a raid0 volume of each individual disk in raid config ([CTRL] +[R] when booting) and present that. Proxmox will warn that this is a bad idea and rightly so - but it will work and will detect each of those drives and allow you install the the base system as ZFS on those.

You may prefer to segregate your boot from your data - ie: have a RAID1 mirror with possibly ext4 for Proxmox itself and then have the rest as raid0 presented drives formatted with ZFS. 

This process of having drives presented as individual RAID0 instances isn't supported by ZFS or Proxmox but oddly is supported in VMware VSAN. Another difference which is interesting is that with VSAN mixed mode is not supported - say with a Dell Perc H730 in R730 for example, you can put your OS (esxi) on a RAID1 mirror and then leave the remaining drives as raw pass-through. VSAN will work, but it isn't recommended or supported. 

For Proxmox storage with ZFS and to some extent also with VMware VSAN, the best option is avoid hardware RAID for data drives and get a HBA card for attaching those. If you haven't a HBA card you may be able to re-flash a RAID card but unfortunately this is not possible for the Dell Perc H700.

Proxmox ZFS transfer vs LVM, progress

 

Progress report of Migration with ZFS

If you're using LVM to migrate VMs between nodes you won't get any progress reported, with ZFS you get a percentage complete which is useful. WIth LVM migration between nodes, all you can do is issue "pkill -USR1 dd" on the terminal and it'll tell you how many GB are transferred at that moment, but not a percentage so it isn't easy to determine how long it'll take. 

Horizon View Dell OpenManage manual install via esxcli

If you have Dell OpenManage vib and wish to install it via the shell, you'll see something like this on various sites and blogs:

esxcli software vib install -d OM-Srv....zip  
in some older articles you'll see --depot instead of -d as well

It is quite fussy about paths, it won't work even if you're in the directory containing the zip file, you still need to reference the full path. I had a 4 hosts to run this on so I copied from shared vSAN data store to /tmp and ran it on each as so:

esxcli software vib install -d=/tmp/OM-SrvAdmin-Dell-Web-9.1.0-2757.VIB-ESX65i_A00

Note I've added in an equals sign. I suggest putting a space before OM and hitting tab, as it won't otherwise autocomplete which is annoying. Then delete the space after using ctrl and left cursor to jump back quickly.

Hope this saves somebody a few mins of messing. There is a method for adding all of this into vCenter as a converged package but it's a licenced paid extra from Dell. There's also a graphical method of doing this via Update Manager in ESXi using an online pull method from http://vmwaredepot.dell.com/  which probably scales better but it may force automatic maintenance mode where that isn't strictly required to install this vib.

Bad usernames

There are a lot (a LOT!) of articles about bad and weak passwords. What about weak usernames?

I have a server with public facing sshd (stuck on standard port 22). Running this gives a rough idea of what default usernames are to avoid:

lastb -w | awk -F " " '{print $1}' | sort -n | uniq -c  | sort -n -r | more
     39 admin     29 oracle     21 test      9 user      9 postgres      8 guest      8 git      8 a      7 nagios      4 ubuntu      4 ftpuser      3 redmine      3 office      3 developer      3 b      3 alias      3 ADMIN      2 zhangyan      2 www      2 vyatta      2 ucpss      2 ubnt      2 tomcat      2 teamspeak3      2 teamspeak      2 steam

What else can be done besides passwordless ssh key only encryption for access? Well limiting exposure with fail2ban slows down any possibility of brute forcing and whitelisting by geo-locating IP addresses may help too: http://www.axllent.org/docs/view/ssh-geoip/
And of course only open the ports needed via firewall etc.

Mosh and SSH

I recently gave mosh a try. I'd read a bit about how useful it can be with unreliable connections and queuing commands and maintaining a local echo to screen as you type avoiding lag - all good stuff.

However using GNU screen (or tmux) solves a lot of the problems with reconnecting so I just never bothered. I was also under the impression that mosh and ssh were mutually exclusive when in fact they both work together. I was  concerned that installing mosh might break or hamper an exiting reliable ssh service. Well so far I've installed it on several systems and it's has no negative effects on sshd. And that's the point of this post. I could not find that information written anywhere on the web.

That's not to say it's been perfect. It is possible to orphan a mosh session to which you cannot reattach. That is a bit annoying if rare. It doesn't aid scp and  sftp transfers in terms of resumes. But that limitation doesn't bother me. Also there is no mosh support in putty (nor is there likely to be!) or its forks such as kitty which is disappointing if you use any windows systems. There are some mosh clients for windows but they're crippled versions of free or commercial packages or buggy cygwin hacks. Not against payware - there just isn't one around I like the look of.

On mobile platforms however, JuiceSSH implements mosh admirably. Highly recommended on the Android platform.

Mosh monitors active ssh connections on a high port so port 22 or equivalent isn't enough. It requires upd on an additional high port (~60001) to be opened on firewall etc. 

Filtering out old results from google search

For searching technical information, often it's the case that results older than a year may as well be in a glass case in a museum. If like me you're sick of scrolling through old results and various mouse clicks to set a suitable filter - append this to your search result:

&tbs=qdr:m

Ideally the "m" for month can be replaced with a year "y" or even "h" for hour.
It would be better if there was a quickly typed search operator for this. But there isn't. There is a date range filter but it requires dates in Julian Calendar format - yuck.

Monitoring users ssh tunnels (port forwarding)

I hope this aids others faced with the same issue. The problem was as follows. We have have a number of remote users to a Linux system who need to access resources on some machines on a private network range. There are a number of solutions that could be employed such as VPN but for a variety of reasons we have decided to use ssh.

The tunneling works fine via the allocated ssh server. It is quite secure in that all users are given private keys and password access is disabled along with fail2ban. And from a usage perspective it has proven very robust. But this is all on the basis that your users are trusted. Ours are to a point, but we still need some more visibility and accountability.

Whilst sshd does log connections and you can increase that verbosity up to debug level in sshd_config, it still will not make a record anywhere of tunnels created. In short sshd only allows you disable or enable port forwarding globally or per user. We still need more!

One option is to manually patch ssh:
http://blog.rootshell.be/2009/03/01/keep-an-eye-on-ssh-forwarding/

An alternative quick and dirty solution is what I've gone with. I've put a cron running a variant of this (also pipped into another grep to limit to specific username groups) every minute which feeds that into a log file in /var/log. In turn this is rotated daily and compressed.

lsof -i -n | egrep '\'

Something perhaps like this in a script:
date | tr '\n' ' '; lsof -i -n | egrep '\' | grep -v 22; printf '\n'

insert the date, trim newline characters, get rid of ordinary port 22 notices as they're already catered for in auth.log. You may need to alter slightly to suit your needs.

In crontab -e you can do something like:

*/1 * * * * /sbin/showtunnels.sh >> /var/log/sshd_tunnels

1 minute might be to verbose or insufficient depending on your system. Ideally it would be useful to report only the changes every minute rather than keep reporting the same tunnels still being open but that is another days work. This is very much a work in progress!

Symbian, MeeGo, Nokia and prospective developers

There's a lot of misinformation regarding the announcement that Nokia is moving to MeeGo for N-series phones. A lot of rumours, leaked prototypes and some panic amongst developers.

It certainly seems that this prototype E series currently called E7-00 is a spiritual successor to the N97 from the pictures. I would presume that the N8 and this phone were conceived long before the decision to move to MeeGo for N series. The re-badging of the N to E and/or X or even C series is just that, badge engineering. It will be the next crop of phones that really show any sign of dramatic changes. From right here right now, it looks like new E-series encompasses all existing E-series style and traditional N-series, whilst the N-series moves upmarket to a sector of UMPC (ultra mobile pcs) converged with smartphones.

UMPCs aren't new. There have been a few devices just before the N900 that have just missed the mark due to poor performance and the technology simply not being mature enough. The (now bankrupt) OQO Model 1 and Model 2 range was ahead of it's time in concept but lacked the ability to do phone functions, was pricey and had battery & reliability issues. But that seems to be the vacant market niche where N-series with MeeGo is headed. It's just not clear how much of the current E-series will be MeeGo. If I was a developer on Symbian I would port to it. Also it's an open Linux platform and it may open up new market opportunities beyond phones. Or perhaps even beyond just Nokia.

Back to the present, certainly Nokia has acquired a reputation for having dropped the ball and let Apple and HTC streak ahead. Apple partially by marketing, partially by fresh GUI design. HTC from pure technical ability. Nokia have done a lot of good things lately but they simply aren't shouting loud enough. The free for life OVI mapping alone should be dripping off billboards and blaring from FM and TV adverts. But it just isn't. Nokia also simply haven't made the phones a fashion accessory in the way that Apple have. Nokia are still seen as functional whereas the iPhone is seen as an object of desire. The iPhone may be flawed but it isn't stopping sales. Even the reception issue on iPhone 4 isn't preventing it selling out. No other phone has that same level of hysteria with the general public. And general public isn't tech enthusiasts, it isn't bloggers. They're ordinary people who want a simple self explanatory interface. Big buttons!


What also strikes me as insane is the cost of having multiple operating systems. If you look at a different industry - take airlines for example. They will generally try and only use (so far as possible) one aircraft brand with one engine brand (RollsRoyce or GE/CFM) etc as it simplifies training costs, maintenance costs, interoperability. Aer Lingus uses Airbus with CFM, Brititsh Airways uses Boeing etc. Another parallel would be engine and platform sharing in the car industry.

So  Nokia have to maintain S40, S60, MeeGo. Sony Ericsson have S60, Windows Mobile, Android. Samsung seem the worst as they have S60, Bada, LiMO and Android. Even HTC have this problem to contend with as they have Windows Mobile, Android etc. Many of the aforementioned have other their own propriety systems too. But Apple have one phone operating system. Yes they're only in the higher end smartphone market now but I'll bet lesser devices when they appear will use the same iOS operating system. That's just one to maintain and develop. That's going to have some cost and profitability implications. And for a prospective developer wondering what systems they will develop and test for, it's going to have a big impact on their decision too.

Facebook games/quizzes security

Most people now have a rough idea of how to secure their Facebook profiles at this stage. Or at least have an awareness of what is publicly available versus what is available to people in their friends list.

But many aren't aware of the risks of playing games and quizzes to not only their data but the data of those of whom they're connected.

When you add a game or application to your profile you potentially agree to allow that the same access as one of your friends to the developers of that game, quiz or application. The problem is you have no idea who they are or what they're going to do with data mined from your profile be it pictures or personal information. It could be used for marketing information, republished elsewhere or even result in identification theft.

Each application is not a single person you are sharing with, it is an unknown number which could range from zero to entirely publicly accessible. In your Facebook application settings, it defaults to "recently used" but that does not take account of all the games/applications/quizzes you have authorized to have full access to your data in your profile. Click this link whilst logged into Facebook to see the "allowed" apps in your own profile:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/editapps.php?v=allowed

You may be shocked at the amount of things authorised that you weren't even aware were there.

Then remove (using the clickable "X") any games or quizzes you no longer actively use or trust. Also be aware of the "Edit Settings" on each listed. Some will allow individual privacy settings as exceptions to other things in your profile which you can change from "Everyone" to "Friends only" or whatever you deem appropiate.

The other key thing I want to write about here is that when you add an application or game to your profile you are potentially opening up not only your own data to strangers but potentially that of people connected with you.

pixel pipe test

testing out pixelpipe

Samsung H1 experiences (Vodafone 360)

Just upgraded to the latest firmware update. The general user interface is much improved. Significantly more responsive. Less sluggish for scrolling etc is particularly noticeable.

However I'm still finding hard to warm to this phone. Several things continue to frustrate. There seems to be little control of what interface your data goes by. It won't automatically reconnect to known wifi access points through reboots and moving away and back to those wifi zones. In fact if you reboot the phone wifi won't remain on until you manually activate it. This is particularly annoying as you are then faced with slow gprs connections when wifi is available.

The main failing of this device is one that affects the iphone - lack of multitasking. In some ipod applications you can switch apps and whilst it will not run them in parallel it will at least try to save the state so when you return to that application you can continue where you left off. With the H1, you close an app, you'll be starting fresh next time you load it. It seems terrible restriction to not be able to poll for new tweets or instant messages in the background whilst you do other tasks.

The range of available addon applications seems to be improving. Given this phone's leanings towards social networking it was surprising that it lacked a Facebook application. It does now, although it needs further development. I was going to include some screen captures, but couldn't find an app for it. LiMo seems to not be supported yet by a lot of popular applications such as Nimbuzz, Fring, Skype etc.

For e-mail it seems to be restricted to the services provided by Vodafone such as (in my area) Yahoo, Hotmail, MSN Live, 360 and Gmail. I have my own domain and there is no way to add that to the current native mail system which is frustrating. Also there is no way to use this in a business environment by connecting to corporate MS Exchange services.

The standard web browser is Opera based and as such is pretty good for many things, but lacks any form of Adobe Flash or even Flash Lite support as is standard on Nokia browsers. Flash 10 and MS Silverlight are starting to make an appearance in Skyfire browser, alas not available on the LiMo platform yet. No streaming internet radio is a bit of a shame. Also lack of built in stereo speakers like the Nokia 5800 would be nice.

I had a problem with my 360 services (well everybody did, it was down) and I was shocked how much relied on that. Without the 360 services you lose the GPS mapping system entirely as well a number of other key features like the shop.That's a crazy design flaw. The 3D interface is a bit of a gimmick, it does show facebook status and so on but I'm not sure it's all that useful or quick compared to a traditional list interface. There is a list interface available too so no problem there.Whilst some of us will have the time and patience to sit down and get all our contacts on the 360 site sorted neatly etc, most people won't ever bother to put in that effort and the 360 features may be somewhat wasted on them. And this becoming more mainstream is key to making it attractive to developers for the shop for apps etc.



The camera on the H1 continues to impress. The pictures produced and features seem to equal a dedicated digital camera. My only gripe is the lens is in a location that makes it difficult to hold steady in both hands with getting in the way of the view. As a phone it is very good, it just works and sound quality is decent.

I hope significant improvements are made to the firmware but for now LiMo in this implementation doesn't seem much of a rival for Symbian operating system in versatility or the Apple iPhone in terms of slick well considered design.

Listen to PowerFM Dublin into the car &more (with Nokia phones)

What you need -

1. New-ish Nokia Phone
2. Wifi and/or good data plan with your mobile phone operator
    (careful, this could get expensive!)
3. LCG Jukebox available here: http://www.lonelycatgames.com/?app=lcgjukebox
    Costs: 18.50 Euro
4. Setting up PowerFM in LCG Jukebox:

Browse - Menu, Playlist, Station manager. Menu, New Station.
Put in the following, title of "Powerfm" and beneath that:
http://war.powerfm.org:8000/powerfm.mp3
In the bitrate box put: 128   

If you have line-in on your car stereo you can use the headphone out jack on your phone to connect up. Or if you are lucky enough to have a Bluetooth A2DP enabled car radio, you can connect and stream PowerFM wirelessly.

Where you're near wifi, you can use your phone like an old FM walkman and listen to powerfm on headphones away from your pc with no data costs.