Modern Linux includes a module called evbug. If it is not blacklisted, then every USB event is logged to dmesg, and, if you have kernel configured to allow dmesg to be invoked with a non-privileged user, and you have a USB keyboard, there is a method for any user to gain access to your root account.

The fix for this is to blacklist evbug. In /etc/modprobe, create a file such as blacklist.conf, that contains:

blacklist evbug

And reboot. This should stop the evbug module from being loaded and thus your USB keyboard input from being printed to dmesg for potential public viewing.

Come out with a credit card that has a debt limit of zero, that is you can't actually charge anything to it, but it is in every other way valid.

This way when you have these sites with opt-out free trials, that is free trials that at the end you have to go in and opt out, often made so complicated as to be easier to cancel the card, rather than having the service just terminate if you don't opt-in at this point, you can use this card for the payment info, enjoy your trial, and then the billing will fail so you automatically opt-out on these opt-in bogus sites like youtube-tv.

Posted on October 2, 2022

Things are running smoothly but load is high with stock 5.15.0 kernel from Ubuntu. I’ve configured the latest 5.15 kernel (5.15.71) and installed on a number of machines and it is also running well with no forced preemption, 100HZ clock, and fully tickless kernel. This reduces overhead somewhat and so I am going to install on the physical servers tonight at 11PM which will require rebooting everything. This will result in some downtime between 11PM-11:30PM, not more than about 10 minutes for any given service.

I will be installing this kernel on most of the other machines during the week but I need to get it on the physical hosts tonight.

This will affect all Eskimo North services, including private virtual servers, shell servers, shared web hosting packages such as virtual domains, personal and business web hosting packages, and e-mail.

It will also affect our fediverse services friendica.eskimo.com/ (a fediverse social media site), hubzilla.eskimo.com/ (another fediverse social media site), nextcloud.eskimo.com/ (a federated cloud service), and yacy.eskimo.com/ (a federated non-censored search engine).

I just sent our illustrious President coup master a message, "Is your idea of building back better turning us all into radioactive dust?"

Suggest others let him know this course of action is NOT okay. Others being YOU!

Posted on September 30, 2022

From kernels 5.15 forward, we’ve had issues with expedited RCU CPU stalls on our servers.

I’ve experimented with kernels configured per the stock Ubuntu configuration and these same kernels do NOT show expedited RCU CPU stalls.

The RCU system is Read-Copy-Update, it is a means to allow read concurrency with updates without requiring a lock resulting in greater efficiency in modern multi-core CPUs or in multiple CPU systems. If you are interested in details read kernel.org/doc/html/latest/RCU…

The kernels I will be putting in place tonight are 5.19.12 and in a few cases 5.19.11 (I started the update working with 5.19.11 then kernel.org came out with 5.19.12), with a configuration closely resembling the Ubuntu “generic” kernels, which is to say it won’t be entirely tickless, only idle tickless and it won’t be entirely non-preemptive, but will allow voluntary preemption. This is less efficient than our normal kernels but a weeks worth of testing has shown it to be stable on four of our busiest servers.

I will be further testing a kernel that is voluntarily preemptive but completely tickless on the four busiest servers to see if that is stable. I’ve been testing this configuration on my workstation and other than higher latency you get with non-preemptive kernels, it has been stable. If this works out we will adopt this configuration on the rest of the servers next Friday.

This will affect all Eskimo services, shared web hosting, shell services, e-mail, virtual private servers, as well as our Fediverse services, friendica.eskimo.com/, hubzilla.eskimo.com/, nextcloud.eskimo.com/, and yacy.eskimo.com/.

The updates will begin at 11PM and should be completed by 11:30PM Pacific Daylight Time (GMT-0700) tonight Friday September 30th, 2022. No single service should be down for more than about ten minutes.

Many people have a world view that man is not part of nature, we should be separated from nature, Klaus Schwab and the WEF take that to the extreme.

The truth is we arose from and are part of nature just as every other species of this planet did.

I don't really like people that feel it is terrible to "domesticate" (whatever the hell that means exactly) wild animals. I just got off "Rover.com", and read about Wolfs, they says Wolfs can not become pets. Well, my aunt had a pet wolf, and it was pretty much like any other large dog breed. It was okay with us kids at the time, (she and her Wolf have both long since passed away) a bit noisy but so are my Dobermans.

People make the distinction that they have huge bone crushing jaws, well, you're average pit bull is capable of 1600 lbs/sq inch jaw pressure, Rottweiler's, 1200 lbs/sq inch, and Doberman is good for 900 lbs/sq inch, all of which is enough to crush bones.

When I was a kid I had a group of wild squirrels I would hand feed and some of them would climb up into my lap and even let me pet them.

And big cats, anyone who has "domestic" cats but has watched Messi or Gerdi on youtube will instantly recognize their behaviors as identical to your own domestic animals. Spraying? Don't neuter your domestic male cat and see what happens, and if it doesn't happen by itself bring in another male and it will.

In my view, if there is any hope for the future in this planet it is in learning to live better with nature and learning to better integrate ourselves rather than trying to isolate ourselves. It means taking risks, life without risk has zero meaning. It means accepting our mortality because in the final analysis we have NO CHOICE and only cause grief and tension by denying it.