thanius - live fast eat trash

How to properly listen to music

2026-06-13T00:00:00Z

Physical first!

I have, as of late, been trying to get rid of my dependence on services when it comes to consuming media. There will always be a need for certain streaming services, such as Netflix, since their content may never be released in physical formats.

My view is that any form of media - be it music, video games or movies and TV shows - should be physical first. Not only for the sake of preservation (because what are you going to do if Netflix makes a bad decision and goes bankrupt?) but also because if you're going to throw money at something, you might as well own the thing you paid for, right?

#Stopify

The absolutely easiest thing to move away from is Spotify. In fact, I've been trying to coin a boycott term - #Stopify - in order to spread the word of all the nastiness the company is up to.

Not only are they paying minimal compensation to artists, they're also allowing and even incentivising AI-generated content on their platform, which in sheer volume outperforms new human artists in terms of both releases and engagement.

And what does the company do with its subscription and advertising revenue instead of increasing (human) artist compensation? Besides providing substantial payouts to executives and investors, it has invested significant sums in controversial podcasting ventures, such as in the pseudo-science/lite-right/"just-asking-questions" show The Joe Rogan Experience, as well as in military AI drone technology.

The company has thus moved away from its core product. Rather than focusing solely on music streaming, Spotify is increasingly trying to become an all-in-one media platform by hosting not only podcasts and audiobooks but, most recently, video content as well.

So, if you're using Spotify for music, why are you paying for all of the above?

Instead of spending money on an ever-increasing monthly fee that supports practices you may disagree with, I suggest finding an alternative that focuses on music and fair artist compensation.

My preferred service is the French platform Qobuz.

Q as in Quality

Why choose Qobuz? Instead of comparing it to other services, I'm going to outline its pros and cons on its own terms.

First, the streaming uses lossless FLAC. This means that, compared to CD quality, you're getting effectively the same audio fidelity. A higher subscription tier is not required, as it is included by default. If you enjoy off-grid consumption of digital media, you can cache your music for offline playback to your heart's content, with storage limits being the only constraint.

You can also purchase music at reasonable prices, available in formats such as WAV, FLAC, MP3 and DSD. All of it is DRM-free, meaning it is yours to keep forever on whatever storage you'd like.

Another aspect I appreciate is the minimal reliance on algorithmic recommendation systems. Instead of depending primarily on engagement metrics, Qobuz employs human curation for genre-based recommendations. It also offers an online magazine with reviews, interviews and articles. Together, this results in recommendations that feel less hyper-influenced or artificial and more grounded.

If I were to compare, I'd say that Spotify resembles a hip radio station filled with ads that tries to shove whatever the latest record label-driven trend is down your throat, while Qobuz feels more like a small, well-curated music shop staffed by knowledgeable employees that shares your love for music.

The only two potential downsides I can think of with Qobuz are pricing and catalogue availability. While most major artists do make their way onto Qobuz, releases are not always available on day one. In most cases they are, but not consistently. This is especially true for smaller artists and bands, particularly those using distributors that may not deliver to the platform at all.

As mentioned, the price may also deter some newcomers. At the time of writing a monthly subscription costs around 17 USD per month (or roughly 14 USD per month with annual billing). This can seem steep, but remember that Qobuz reportedly pays significantly more to artists than Spotify (up to four times more, actually.) As a result, a larger portion of your subscription is more directly directed toward artist compensation.

Thrift, rip and stream!

If you want a cheaper alternative though, you can always visit thrift stores and pick up albums for a dollar or two. "But I don't have a CD player," I hear you cry. If your PC has an optical drive - or if you can pick one up at the same thrift store - you can rip your music effortlessly and store it as FLAC, MP3, or any other format you prefer.

Of course, this isn't as convenient as being able to stream your music from anywhere. This is where self-hosting a media server comes in.

In our household, we've been using Plex for the past 15 years - with Plexamp being my favorite music player of all time. Unfortunately, it's not something I can wholeheartedly recommend today. The company has increasingly shifted toward monetisation, and the price of a lifetime Plex Pass has risen dramatically over the years.

I'm all for purchasing software outright instead of paying subscriptions, but paying hundreds of dollars simply to access features for consuming my own media feels difficult to justify and especially as a recommendation for others.

If I weren't already a lifetime Plex Pass holder, I would probably choose Jellyfin instead. It's free, open source and continues to improve with every release.

Some day I'll write an article detailing how I manage my media collection, from ripping and organisation to streaming and backup. But not today. Just know that there are alternatives out there.

Physically - digitally!

When I listen to music, I usually do so with gusto. I love pulling a record off the shelf, placing it on the turntable, and simply sitting back in my chair to listen. Sometimes I'll read at the same time.

For music on the go, however, I prefer to bring my MiniDisc player. The player in question is a NetMD Walkman MZ-N707, which I managed to pick up cheaply on eBay. This particular model features a USB interface and can transfer audio encoded in ATRAC format - Sony's answer to MP3 and other compressed audio formats at the time. With NetMD, you don't have to sit around and wait for the tracks to be recorded onto the disc (well, you do, but not in realtime), as the music is stored as files rather than audio. The audio files are then transferred from disc onto an onboard memory before decoded and enjoyed through a snazzy pair of corded headphones.

Fuck AirPods. Fuck Apple.

To manage my discs, I use a web application called Web MiniDisc Pro, available through the MiniDisc Wiki site. The application requires a Chromium-based browser (for WebUSB functionality) and can convert almost any audio file into ATRAC using various quality presets. This allows you to fit as much music as possible onto a disc without sacrificing too much audio quality.

Using this setup, I create themed playlists such as "Retrowave Night Driving" or "Ultimate Adult-Oriented Rock", each stored on its own disc. Through the MiniDisc Wiki, I also discovered this store called Minidisc Today that provides custom UV prints on secondhand discs, resulting in some genuinely fantastic-looking products.

Perhaps that's why I enjoy physical media so much, and music in particular.

Whether I'm pulling a record from the shelf, prepping a MiniDisc "mixtape" before a long walk or a tedious chore, or organising my music library on a server at home, I'm interacting with something I actually own. No subscriptions. No recommendations fighting for my attention. No monthly fee determining whether I can access the collection I've spent the past decade building.

In a world increasingly built around renting access instead of owning things, that alone feels worth preserving.

This music is mine.

The Midnight 2025

2025-10-05T00:00:00Z

So, I managed to score a ticket to The Midnight playing in Stockholm. I'm a bit of a fanboy and bought a ticket as soon as they were available, without thinking about hooking up with someone to go to the concert with. Luckily, my childhood friend Johnny was up for the task and came along to watch them with me last month.

I booked the closest hotel I could find, which was Quality Hotel Globe, situated just a stone's throw from the Globen Arena. The hotel was okay, but I liked the fact that it was somewhat video game centric. There was a pixelated heart on display in the lobby, boasting about the video game exports to have come out of Stockholm in recent years. There were also a couple of rooms dedicated as "gamer" rooms, complete with gaming rigs, RGB lights, and the like.

Johnny and I had dinner at Greken just outside Annexet, which was an experience in itself because of the hockey match taking place that same evening. A bunch of fans were occupying the entire place, drinking and chanting. We tried our best to keep a low profile.

After dinner we took a stroll down to the Slaughterhouse area where Fållan is, and got armed with awesome light stick bracelets given out by the tour crew. Mine lasted about five minutes. The concert was great, even though I wish I didn't have to endure the support act. I mean, they weren't bad, but all the songs sounded alike, and by the time The Midnight got on stage, my feet were already aching.
They played a bunch of songs from the new album, including my favourite "Summer's Ending Soon", but also classics like "Gloria", "Sunset", and "Lost Boys".
I didn't cry or anything, but boy, was I close. Especially during "Sunset", my absolute favourite.

After the concert, Johnny wanted to show me the bar N3rds. It's a gaming-themed watering hole where the patrons may rent gaming devices by the hour. Unfortunately, the rate was a bit too high for something we can experience for free at home, but nonetheless a cool place for the (adult) kids to hang out at. Even though it's a bit smelly. And sticky.

The next day, I had to take an early flight because I managed to score a cheap ticket (only 250 SEK, bargain get!). As luck would have it, I managed to miss my train and was a bit late to Arlanda, although still in time for my flight. Being a complete dumbass, I got screened at security because I forgot to leave my credit card-sized stainless steel toolkit in my wallet, which apparently looked suspicious on the X-ray. Once through security, I had to walk a thousand miles to get to my gate because of ongoing renovations.

I sat down at the gate, and once it was time to board the plane, the flight blipped out of existence on the screen! Panic ensued, and I ran to an information sign to see what had happened to my flight. Apparently, it had moved to another gate, which meant I had to sprint through the gate area so I wouldn't miss my flight (even though there were still about twenty minutes before takeoff, it was still quite stressful).

In all the panic and running, I didn't notice that I had dropped my Commodore 64 baseball cap, which I had clipped onto a belt loop on my jeans. Such a disappointment, but still, it was one of the best weekends in a long time.

Review - D-Pad Hero 2

2025-09-14T00:00:00Z


Platform	Nintendo Entertainment System
Genre	Rhythm
Players	1-2
Developer	Kent Hansen, Andreas Pedersen
Publisher	Public Domain
Released	2010
Playtime	1-2 hours

This review was originally published on my swedish personal blog.

Just in time for the swan song of the plastic instrument music genre comes the sequel to one of 2009's most talked-about homebrews, namely D-Pad Hero for the Nintendo Entertainment System.

D-Pad Hero and its sequel are, as their titles suggest, Guitar Hero clones that swap out plastic Fender and Explorer replicas for a good old NES controller as the input device. Which, admittedly, makes these games more like Beatmania clones with a GH-inspired graphical interface.

What makes D-Pad Hero 2 unique, aside from the 8-bit interpretations of classic songs, is that challenges and items have been added that make the game feel polished. Where bosses, items, bombs, and other "video game-y" elements might feel gimmicky in other rhythm games of plastic instrument nature, here they feel completely natural on the console that singlehandedly defined video games during the 80s and early 90s.

When starting the game, you unlock songs using a handful of credits, the number of which depends on the difficulty you choose. Each song represents a boss that, in true Mega Man fashion, is named after the song title or the band, e.g. Free Man after Queen's I Want To Break Free or Deth Man after Megadeth.

When the music starts, anyone who has ever squeezed a plastic, miniaturized Gibson SG will immediately feel at home. Colored balls float down from the top of the screen, and you burn them away by pressing the right button at the right time. But instead of five colors you only need to keep track of three and instead need to watch in which column the balls move towards. There are five columns representing the game's buttons: left/right on the directional pad, Select as well as the A and B buttons. Despite the lack of a strum button and whammy bar, this works surprisingly well and you'll be rocking out in no time.

Alongside the now-classic setup, other markers also appear, such as skulls that drain your life bar, POW blocks that clear all markers on screen, a clock that slows the speed down significantly, and a star that grants "invincibility" for certain buttons.

To earn credits in which you need to unlock new songs, you must complete various challenges such as reaching a certain score or hitting 100 orbs in a row, find and hit three upside-down skulls or spell out "D-PAD HERO" by hitting the green orbs. The boss character is defeated once you complete a certain number of challenges, after which you're rewarded with a piece of a controller puzzle jig.

Music, sound, design, and graphics are all top-tier and show incredible dedication and passion for both the music genre, the NES, and the marriage between the two. D-Pad Hero 2 is such a polished experience that you'd almost believe it carried an "Official Seal of Quality" on the cover. The thing is, there is no cover. Nor a manual or even a cartridge for the game. It's an entirely free game you can download and play via emulator, or preferably on original hardware using a flash cart and a genuine NES controller.

Throw away those lame plastic instruments and download without a doubt one of the world's best music games, right now!

Three fake skulls out of four.

Tweeby 2025-08-19

2025-08-19T00:00:00Z


MODEL	HP Laptop 14-em0924no
CPU	AMD Ryzen 5 7520U (8) @ 4.39 GHz
RAM	8GB
GPU	AMD Radeon 610M
OS	Ubuntu 25.04
KERN	Linux 6.14.0-28-generic
WM/DE	Mutter (Wayland) / GNOME 48
Wallpaper	Screenshot from Death Stranding 2

This month I actually bought a new computer, to replace my Chromebook (which in hindsight, feels like a waste of money. At least you can still use it as a Netflix machine!) I opted for a HP Laptop 14-em0924no as according to my experience HP has excellent Linux support, and it didn't disappoint!

It has a nice keyboard, albeit non-backlit and not really full size, but nice travel and feedback. The multitouch trackpad works perfectly and out-of-the-box in Ubuntu and the small form factor reminds me about the Chromebook in portability.

Building the boy

2025-08-14T00:00:00Z

So the other day when I was cleaning out my workstation in the garage I noticed I had this Gameboy Color motherboard lying around. Neat I thought, and ordered myself some FunnyPlaying components. I grabbed their RetroPixel laminated IPS LCD as well as the custom shell that goes with it. I topped it up with a fresh pair of buttons and a crispy new speaker. All of this landed me with a bill of around 60 bucks, which I think is reasonable. The rubber membranes I already had spares, but those would have cost me an additional 2 dollars.

After two weeks all the parts arrived, so last night I snuck into the garage, blasted More Balls to Picasso by Bruce Dickinson and got straight to work.

First thing first, I had to check so that the screen actually worked. For this I simply plugged it in and shoved in some fresh AA and lo and behold, the screen lit up with the classic logo. Then I took the insulation film that came with the screen and adhered it to the metal plate so that it wouldn't touch any contacts and risk shorting them out.

I then took a pair of flushcutters and trimmed down the cartridge connector pins, to make place for the new screen. FunnyPlaying included another film to cover these pins, but since the adhesion wasn't that great I opted instead for using regular old kapton tape.

The next step was to fit the screen into the case, which meant peeling off some 3M tape and sliding it in. Once the screen was in place, I soldered the backlight power and two wires going to the START and SELECT button for the OSD menu. On the screen ribbon cable there was also a touch sensor I taped to the case with the included double sided tape.

After soldering the speaker and putting the buttons in place, I screwed the case together and finally marvelled at my wonderful creation. A few adjustments in the menu later, and I love how the pixels just pop!

Looking at my old IPS enhanced Gameboy Color side by side, you can clearly see how improved the new one is. Not only is it brighter, but larger too!

Some final thoughts: FunnyPlaying has some high quality products that are well worth their price. This LCD was easy to install without the need to adjust the panel in the screen window, and the buttons feel great!

The only beef I have with my build is that the case has a Retropixel branding instead of Nintendo, and there's a slight bleedthrough of the backlight from bottom corners of the screen lens.

But other than that, I love my new Boy.

Bigbubbah 2025-08-12

2025-08-12T00:00:00Z


CPU	AMD Ryzen 5 3600 (12) @ 3.600GHz
RAM	8GB
GPU	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti
OS	Ubuntu 25.04
KERN	6.8.0-40-generic
WM/DE	Window Maker 0.96.0
Wallpaper	An old background I made from a wallpaper pattern found online, and GIMP:ed a bit

I realized that it's been almost a year since I posted my last desktop. Not much has changed, even though I've installed latest Ubuntu and actually been swapping window manager and desktop environments around.

In the end, I still landed back on Windowmaker because, well, Windowmaker is awesome. I still have the same old dockapps, except I've swapped cputnik for three instances of wmmon - blinkety-blink deluxe!

Another addition is a modified version of docker, which now has a nice frame and if forced in Windowmaker mode. I plan to add some more features to this app, but I need to brush up on my C first.

Backing up Docker

2025-08-02T00:00:00Z

Now that I've started to migrate my stuff to Docker, I just wanted to share how I've configured the backup solution for them. I've made the move from Duplicity, which was causing some of my backups to become corrupt. Instead, I'm now using Kopia, which not only handles many of the settings I want for my backups in the backend, but also serves a nice graphical frontend.

Even though this screenshot make it seem like each snapshot is over 100GB each, Kopia actually handles deduplication between snapshots, meaning if a file hash matches from any previous snapshot, it will create links instead of making copies which significally reduces the backups in size.

Kopia also indexes each file it backs up, so that you can restore single files instantanously, unlike Duplicity where you had to first download the manifest before you could even list the contents of the backup before performing a restore. Here, I'll just go to the snapshot in time from where I want to restore, browse to the file and just download it. It's as simple as that!

As Kopia is rather easy to setup, I won't bore you with a tutorial, and let this blog entry focus more on the Docker side of the setup.

Kopia Docker container

First I installed Kopia as a docker container alongside my other containers. This was as simple as setting up a docker compose file. Here's my current file:

services:
    kopia:
        image: kopia/kopia:latest
        hostname: fukusha
        container_name: fukusha
        restart: unless-stopped
        ports:
            - 51515:51515
        command:
            - server
            - start
            - --disable-csrf-token-checks
            - --insecure
            - --address=0.0.0.0:51515
            - --server-username=${SERVER_USERNAME}
            - --server-password=${SERVER_PASSWORD}
        environment:
            USER: ${REPO_USER}
            KOPIA_PASSWORD: ${REPO_PASSWORD}
        volumes:
            - ./config:/app/config
            - ./cache:/app/cache
            - ./logs:/app/logs
            - ./data:/data:ro
            - ./repository:/repository
            - ./tmp:/tmp:shared
            - ./rclone/rclone.conf:/app/rclone/rclone.conf:ro

This setup uses an .env file for storing passwords, so be sure to set one up with the appropriate variables.

WARNING: SIDE NOTE
I named the host fukusha (複写), which translates to "duplication" or "copy" in japanese. I like to give my hostnames rememberable
names which also represents their functions. For example, my apache server's hostname is geronimo, and my Mastodon is named manny (even though the Ice Age character is actually a mammoth, but tomato/tomato.)

For my off-site storage, I'm using a simple 2TB Dropbox account, which can be uploaded to using rclone, included in the Kopia image. Since I previously also used rclone for my old backup I simply copied over my configuration and added it as a volume bind in the docker compose file. If you want to configure this yourself you can follow the guide in the official rclone documentation like I did.

Starting the container with docker compose up -d should get you up and running and you can log onto the GUI using the SERVER_USERNAME account you configured earlier in the .env file.

Helper scripts

In most cases, we want to do some actions before taking the backup, for example dumping a database or shutting down a container. For this, I've created a helper script which can be run inside the Kopia container. The helper script is used to start or stop containers or execute commands inside of them. The helper script is then used as source for other service specific backup scripts, which are the ones executed by Kopia before starting the backup process. For it to function properly, we need to give access to it in the Kopia docker compose file, as well as to the host's Docker socket (so that we can communicate with the Docker API):

        volumes:
            - ./config:/app/config
            - ./cache:/app/cache
            - ./logs:/app/logs
            - ./data:/data:ro
            - ./repository:/repository
            - ./tmp:/tmp:shared
            - ./rclone/rclone.conf:/app/rclone/rclone.conf:ro
            
            # Docker socket and helper script
            - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock:ro
            - ./backup/docker-helper.sh:/app/backup/docker-helper.sh:ro

I will use Mastodon as an example. We will have to add some access to the files from the Mastodon container we want to backup:

        volumes:
            - ./config:/app/config
            - ./cache:/app/cache
            - ./logs:/app/logs
            - ./data:/data:ro
            - ./repository:/repository
            - ./tmp:/tmp:shared
            - ./rclone/rclone.conf:/app/rclone/rclone.conf:ro
            
            # Docker socket and helper script
            - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock:ro
            - ./backup/docker-helper.sh:/app/backup/docker-helper.sh:ro
        
        #-- Backup endpoints --#

            # Mastodon
            - ../mastodon/backup:/app/backup/mastodon
            - ../mastodon/public:/app/backup/mastodon/data/files/public:ro
            - ../mastodon/docker-compose.yml:/app/backup/mastodon/docker-compose.yml:ro
            - ../mastodon/.env.production:/app/backup/mastodon/.env.production:ro

Here we tell Kopia to bind the backup folder in the Mastodon docker working directory to the mountpoint /app/backup/mastodon in the Kopia container. We also bind the public folder containing user files and cache to the /app/backup/mastodon/data/files mountpoint. For good measure, I also mount the docker compose file for Mastodon as well as the environment variables so those can be backed up as well.

Here's the initial folder structure for the backup setup on the Docker host machine:

$HOME
└── docker
    ├── kopia
    │   └── backup
    │       └── docker-helper.sh
    └── mastodon
        └── backup
            └── dump_db.sh

The dump_db.sh script makes calls to the Docker API in order to execute commands within the database instances:

#!/bin/bash

WORKDIR=$(dirname "$(readlink -f "$0")")
source $WORKDIR/../docker-helper.sh
mkdir -p $WORKDIR/data/databases

# Postgres dump
echo -n "Creating Postgres dump... "
container_exec mastodon-db-1 "pg_dump -U postgres mastodon_production" > ${WORKDIR}/data/databases/postgres-dump.sql
echo "Done!"

# Redis dump
echo -n "Creating Redis dump... "
container_exec mastodon-redis-1 "redis-cli SAVE"
container_exec mastodon-redis-1 "cat /data/dump.rdb" > "$WORKDIR/data/databases/redis-dump.rdb"

Next thing I need to setup the actual backup in Kopia, called a snapshot. Using my Dropbox repository, I create a snapshot pointing to the /app/backup/mastodon folder in the Kopia container, and add the /app/backup/mastodon/dump_db.sh script as pre-execution (Snapshot Actions ⇛ Before Snapshot) to its policy. The dumps of PostgreSQL and Redis databases will be performed inside respective container and write them to the $HOME/docker/mastodon/backup/databases/.

If I wanted I could also create a post-backup script that removes the database dumps after backup has completed, but I figured there's no harm in having them locally available should I ever need to quickly restore the databases.

Conclusion

The neat thing with this setup, is that it should work for any Docker container. I'll just mount to the Kopia container what I want to backup, make snapshot for the top folder and presto. In fact, I'm using the same setup for several other containers already.

I haven't gone through the Kopia documentation that thoroughly, but from what I gather it seems like Kopia is meant to backup files from local sources or mounted paths. I haven't seen anything noteworthy or any best practices regarding handling Docker containers, so until I find anything that can improve my setup this is how I'll keep it for now.

Jolldown 2025

2025-07-27T00:00:00Z

The weather

Despite a forecast predicting thunder and rain for most of the day, thirteen brave pirates ventured down the river Uman and claimed victory in this year's Jolldown! Surprisingly, it turned out to be a great success. Apart from a 15-minute monsoon-like downpour, the rest of the journey was so sunny that I ended up sunburned. Serves me right for trusting the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute.

In recent years, we've launched from the beach at Backenkyrkan, but since the West Link road is now complete and the water is clear of debris, we were able to start further upstream this year, at the beach at Baggböleören. Expecting rain, we decided to meet an hour earlier at 11:00 to pump up the boats (and ourselves). At noon, it was time to jump into the water, which was pleasantly warm and had a good current. No lost souls drifting in circles this year!

The route

As usual, the route is split into two stages. We start at the top of the navigable section of the Ume River (you can start even further up, at the Notvarp bridge) and glide downstream until we reach our first, shorter stop for snacks and mingling at scenic Bölesholmarna. After that, we take the so-called "Congo Trail" before entering downtown, cruising between bridge pillars until we arrive at our final destination: Öbacka beach. The whole journey is roughly 10 kilometers and takes about six hours, including the pit stop.

The goal

Reaching civilization always brings a wave of relief and pride. It is a joy to see people cheering us on and snapping photos as we float beneath the bridges. After landing and packing up our gear, we had about an hour of personal downtime before meeting up again at the boat restaurant Båten ("The Boat", true to the nautical theme). It was the perfect end to a perfect day. I hope to see all my friends, old and new, again next year.

The Movie

Here's a short video on PeerTube I cut together from this year's journey. Enjoy!

SSHpringboard!

2025-07-21T00:00:00Z

Being a self-hoster (is that even a name?), there are times when I have to do some maintenance or updates away from home. For this there's a standard tool and protocol in the form of SSH (Secure Shell) which is a network terminal protocol that transfers data encrypted between server and client.

SSH have come long ways since its introduction in 1995 and today there are multiple ways to securely connect to a server. For my setup, I've created a container that is exposed to the internet over an obfuscated port which I use as an entrypoint for the rest of the servers as a jump server. Side note: The obfuscated port is not a security measurement but rather to mitigate any automated port sniffers out there which usually targets the standard SSH port of 22.

As for the security measure, I've forced the use of key pairs for users (that is, me, myself and I) so that there's no way for anyone to login without having their public key authorized on the server. There's also fail2ban installed in case anyone try to brute force their way in (which of course, isn't possible without a key anyways.)

I usually use SSH from the cli even though there are popular graphical implementations such as Putty, so I thought I'd share how I've setup my workstation to use my entrypoint as a jump server and to reach other servers on the network.

First off, I've generated the key pair for authorization. This I do on each workstation I want to reach my jump server from, and then copy over the public key to the server:

ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -a 256 -f $HOME/.ssh/id_ed25519
ssh-copy-id -i $HOME/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub -p <PORT> <USER>@<HOST>

Note that if you intend to connect to multiple remote servers, don't use the same keypair for all logins. Instead, create a file for each purpose, for example codeberg_ed25519, chuggybumba_ed25519, etc.

The SSH configuration is then (somewhat) hardened by disabling some default settings and forcing public key. I took a backup of the configuration file and then created my own:

cp /etc/ssh/sshd_config /etc/ssh/sshd_config.bak
cat <<EOF | sudo tee /etc/ssh/sshd_config > /dev/null
Port <PORT>
PermitRootLogin no
AllowUsers <USER> <USER> <etc>
AllowGroups ssh
MaxAuthTries 3
MaxSessions 2
PubkeyAuthentication yes
PasswordAuthentication no
KbdInteractiveAuthentication no
UsePAM yes
X11Forwarding no
ClientAliveInterval 300
ClientAliveCountMax 2
EOF

Some of these settings might be too restrictive for some (especially the TTL and session count), but I'm usually multitasking using screen and thus session is handled directly on the server. If you're curious about what all these settings do, I suggest you read the manual.

After the configuration file is saved, make sure you have a SSH session logged in so that you can troubleshoot in case needed, then restart the daemon:

sudo service sshd restart

That takes care of the remote part, now we'll configure the local part. I want to easily be able to logon to my destination server by a simple command without having to specify too many arguments in the commandline.

To achieve this, I configure my SSH client as such:

cat <<EOF | tee $HOME/.ssh/config > /dev/null
Host jumpserver
    HostName <HOST OR IP>
    Port <PORT>
    User <USER>
    IdentityFile <IDENTITY FILE>

Host mastodon
    HostName <HOST OR IP>
    Port <PORT>
    User <USER>
    ProxyJump jumpserver
EOF

For my own convenience, I haven't hardened any of the unexposed SSH servers in my setup, so that they can be easily reached from the jumpserver.

Now I can connect to my (internal) server mastodon from the internet, by simply running:

ssh mastodon

I hope you enjoyed this tiny tutorial, and if you've found anything to slap me on the wrists for, feel free to reach out to me on Mastodon.

Migrating to Docker!

2025-07-13T00:00:00Z

Well, it's time to go with the flow. Many guides and setups are pivoting against Docker setups, and to be honest, it's for the best. It's a clean way to deploy applications (but not always easy!)

I started by following guides on how to get the reverse proxy Traefik up and running, which honestly wasn't that hard. The issue though was that nothing I threw at it proxied correctly - well, except for this Apache container.

Once I configured SSL to fetch certificates from Let's Encrypt it also started to hammering my poor DNS trying to reach sites that were pointing at my IP address, meaning I had no control over this except for my own DNS entries. I even got banned for an hour!

So I gave up on Traefik. Instead I managed today to spin up Nginx Proxy Manager, and by contrast it was super chill to configure sites.

It even supports Docker networks, meaning I can try to migrate all my stuff to containers instead of VMs. Frankly, I'm quite fed up trying to remember all different IP numbers and hostnames. It might take a while before I get everything moved, I will need to take extra care when migrating my Mastodon instance - it's my only social media, after all!

So next blog entry may be a little tutorial/testimony on how I got stuff up and running on my part of the internet.

Until then, surf smoothly!

Happy Midsummer!

2025-06-20T00:00:00Z

Well, hello!

It's that time of the year again.

Midsummer, you say? No, that time of the year when I get an urge to write something for the homepage /slash/ blog. I really ought to be better at updating, but you know: life, time, energy and all that jazz.

Anyways, today's the big day - Sweden's actual national holiday. Midsummer's Eve, or Summer Solstice, however you want to look at it. It's a pagan tradition that survived the christianity takeover where we celebrate the light, life and fertility. You may have heard about or seen the horror movie Midsommar, and let me tell you - it's exactly like that. Except everyone's drunk.

A colleague of mine showed me the other day this utterly hilarious video - which unfortunately, I haven't been able to find since - where someone had prompted "true Swedish midsummer's eve" into a generator. The result was somewhat as you'd expect: People eating herring and strawberry cakes, toasting with snaps and falling over, raising the May pole and basically doing every Svenne-banan midsummer cliché imaginable.

Except for one major detail in every scene.

Everyone was shouting. Like, from the top of their lungs. As if they were frustrated over life itself or giving birth to an 8 kilo absolute unit. We chuckled and scoffed at this obvious hallucination on the LLM's part.

But then it hit me. It must have been trained on the movie, where they do this exact thing. There's this intense scene where the protagonist Dani is brought into a ritual where everyone collectively screams in order to release repressed feelings (I bet you've at least seen the memes that were based on this very scene!)

This apparent screwup of the generative engine makes me both gigglish (haha, what an useless twerp) and sad (content on the internet will be ruined forever.) I just hope that we'll get tired of it soon and go back to human created content.

But I digress.

As for us, we'll be ditching my family gathering this year and instead celebrate in the village of Sillviken, just outside of Inntertavle where we live. I assume there'll be dancing around the pole singing "Små grodorna" ("The small frogs"), hopefully without any murderous cult inviting us in to any drug-induced cathartic screaming rites.

Glad Midsommar!

Freedom without enshittification

2024-12-30T00:00:00Z

"Are you a member?" the cashier asks, her tone friendly, though there's an unmistakable hint that the answer should be obvious.

"Yes, I am," I reply without hesitation. "Do you need my email address?"

She nods ever so slightly, her face impassive. A barely audible sigh slips out, as if Christmas shopping has once again tested even the most seasoned of cashiers. "Yes, your email, please," she says, preparing to enter it into the system.

I begin dictating, but just as I reach the "at," she cuts me off abruptly.

"Oh, by the way: our system doesn't support Gmail. But if you have an iPhone, you can use your iCloud address instead."

This, of course, is a fictional scenario. A point of sale system that doesn't support email addresses based on providers would be completely unreasonable. Email is designed to work regardless of provider, that's the point. The internet has always been about creating standards that connect everything and everyone, no matter the platform or service.

The word "internet" is a portmanteau that doesn't just mean "international network," but rather reflects the idea of a network of networks - interconnected systems that form a whole. "Inter" comes from Latin and means "between," emphasizing the role of the internet in linking different networks and enabling communication between them.

So why have the big tech companies locked us into their platforms? Why strand us on small islands, unable to communicate with each other?

Journalist and author Cory Doctorow created a blog post, later published in Locus magazine last January, to describe "enshittification" - the steps platforms or services go through before their inevitable collapse. In it, Doctorow describes how platforms initially offer loss-making services to attract new users, then gradually degrade the quality to maximize shareholder profits. When users and providers are locked in, there is no incentive to maintain quality.

To counter this, Doctorow proposes two principles: "End-to-end," where users get what they ask for, not what the platform wants to present, and "Right to Leave," meaning users should easily be able to switch platforms without losing their content or data.

Imagine living in a fantastic, free (WOW!) rental apartment with the latest amenities and a committed landlord. However, the lease includes a clause stating you will be monitored every second, both at home and when you're out walking about or shopping. The landlord also rings every five minutes to introduce new neighbors.

Over time, the apartment that was once so nice starts to deteriorate, and its standard worsens. The constant introductions of new (but now also old) neighbors begin to get tiresome, especially when you've already met most of them. The landlord suggests that if you want to maintain the quality you're used to or avoid being introduced to neighbors, you must sign a new lease with rent. Naturally, you don't want to do that, so you continue living under the same contract. After all, it's still free, despite all the problems.

But the living conditions keep getting worse, and eventually, you decide to move. The lease you signed turns out to include another clause, which forces you to move to another apartment with the same landlord, or else you must leave all your belongings behind.

It may seem crazy, but this situation can be likened to social media, where users are locked in and forced to accept increasingly poor quality with no way out if they want to keep their contacts and followers. In contrast, there is the Fediverse, where principles of user freedom and control are often upheld, because doing otherwise would be an infringement on users' rights.

The Fediverse can be seen as a rebellion against the big companies, where the users themselves build their social media and services that offer the same experience without privacy violations or algorithms that limit content. Examples of services in the Fediverse include Mastodon (instead of Twitter), Pixelfed (instead of Instagram), Peertube and Loops (instead of YouTube and TikTok).

These platforms are open as anyone can set up their own server and control the content. The best part is that all servers can communicate with each other, much like how email works. For example, you can follow users on Mastodon and Peertube, regardless of which server or platform they belong to. This is made possible by the ActivityPub protocol, which works independently of the provider and lacks annoying algorithms.

The Fediverse is therefore not just about alternative platforms, but about taking back control of our digital lives. It's a return to the internet principles of the past, such as openness, standards, and freedom, where users themselves are in charge without sacrificing privacy or freedom. It's about being part of an open network, on your own terms.

And we sure as hell shouldn't have to leave our shit behind when we move to a new address.

Review - Donkey Kong Land

2024-12-28T00:00:00Z


Platform(s)	Game Boy
Genre	Platformer
Players	1
Developer	Rare
Publisher	Nintendo
Released	1995
Playtime	Between 2-3 hours for 100%

When news broke about a Game Boy port of the excellent Donkey Kong Country, I was stunned. How could Rare possibly compress all that ACM tech into a tiny 8-bit cartridge? It seemed like an impossible feat! But when the game launched in late summer 1995 and I finally got to play it, I was utterly blown away. The graphics were just as impressive as on the SNES and ran just as smoothly.

The game doesn't offer much of an introduction. After selecting a save file, you're immediately dropped onto DK Island to begin your new adventure - no letter from King K. Rool explaining he's stolen Donkey's banana hoard, nothing. To understand the story, you'll need to whip out the good old manual. According to it, Cranky Kong was mocking Donkey and Diddy for surviving what he considered a "cushy adventure" in Donkey Kong Country, claiming that kids would buy any game with modern graphics and sound. To prove him wrong, Donkey and Diddy let Cranky strike a deal with K. Rool to steal the banana hoard again. This time, the two buddies must retrieve it on the Game Boy. Talk about breaking the fourth wall!

For anyone who's played Donkey Kong Country, the sights and sounds should feel instantly familiar. The first stage is a lush jungle, accompanied by the excellent track "DK Island Swing" from the original game, now beautifully reimagined as an 8-bit chiptune. The controls are impressively faithful, replicating nearly all the moves from the SNES version, with the exception of the hand slam which in all honestly wasn't that widely used. While the controls may feel slightly touchy and floaty at times, they still provide excellent precision for running, jumping, and taking down Kremlings.

Even though the game looks and feels like its Super counterpart, this is far from a straight port. It features entirely new levels and unique enemy designs, adding a fresh twist to what may seem a familiar experience. Among these is Hogwash, a flying pig who makes its debut in this game. Perhaps his inclusion is a cheeky nod to the seemingly impossible task of porting Donkey Kong Country's advanced visuals and gameplay to an 8-bit system, achieving something that could only happen "when pigs fly."

The game is relatively short, featuring only four distinct worlds: Gangplank Galleon Ahoy!, Kremlantis, Monkey Mountains & Chimpanzee Clouds (these two areas being one consistent world), and finally Big Ape City. Each world consists of seven stages, including a final boss at the end of the map, for a total of 32 stages. The difficulty varies, especially since collecting the KONG letters scattered throughout the stages is necessary to save your progress. These letters can be easy to spot or devilishly hidden near pitfalls or tucked away in secret rooms. Speaking of secrets, achieving 100% completion requires finding all the hidden bonus rooms, which significantly extends playtime. Discovering that elusive secret bonus level and earning a completion tick on the map is incredibly satisfying!

Alongside its short length, my main complaint about the game is the lackluster boss fights. These encounters are fairly uninspired, basically boiling down to the bog-standard fare of avoiding attacks and retaliating by jumping on the enemy's head repeatedly until they're defeated. They lack the creativity and impact of the larger-than-life battles from the original. These boss fights could have been far more impressive should the developers had employed some clever design tricks to create room-sized foes, like Master Necky from the SNES version. As it stands, these bosses feel more like an afterthought rather than a conscious design choice.

The Game Boy screen can be difficult to see, with its dark and murky display complicating the ability to make out of what's going on at times. Because of this, I highly recommend playing the game on the Super Game Boy for the best experience. Not only does this eliminate any issues with visibility, but it also enhances the graphics with an expanded color palette, breathing new life into the game. Despite these minor shortcomings, I thoroughly enjoyed this bite-sized Donkey Kong adventure on the go. Hunting down the secret rooms to fully complete the game was particularly rewarding and added an extra layer of challenge to an already fun experience.

I reward the game with 4 well-deserved, large banana bunches out of 5.

Cranky's Corner

"Listen here, you Doofus! Always keep a buddy on spare. You never know when you'll need a helping hand. You can't do it all alone, kid!

And don't forget about those Kong Tokens! Grab 'em whenever you see 'em. You can turn those into extra lives in one of the hidden bonus rooms! Trust me, they'll come in handy.

The hidden bonus rooms? Well, those are sneaky little devils. You need to look everywhere, Donkey-brain! Sometimes they're on top of the screen, sometimes near a pit, but you might find them hidden right on the ground. Jump high enough and you'll pound the spot where a magic rope appears. Keep your eyes peeled!

Maxed out on lives? Well, don't stop now! Keep collecting bananas and tokens. Those 1-ups just keep piling up beyond the screen, even out of sight! Remember, you can never have enough retries!

Heading for that second playthrough to find all the secret rooms? Good idea! But here's a trick - once you find a secret room, you don't actually have to finish the level. Unless, of course, you feel like saving your progress. I'm not one to tell you what to do!"

Review - Zombie Vikings

2024-12-12T00:00:00Z

NOTE: This review was originally published in early October 2015 on the now defunct swedish leg of IGN.
It was written by yours truly in swedish and has been machine translated by ChatGPT and reworked for an international audience. Please enjoy.


Platform(s)	Playstation 4 (reviewed), PC, Wii U
Genre	Beat'em Up
Players	1-4 players offline/online cooperative
Developer	Zoink!
Publisher	Zoink!
Released	2015
Playtime	8h

When Odin's only eye is stolen by Loki, he finds no other solution to the problem than resurrecting four peculiar Viking warriors from the afterlife and sending them on a crusade to retrieve it. Why Loki actually wants this magical eye is unclear, but it seems it has something to do with mead-pong.

Zombie Vikings is a cooperative side-scrolling beat 'em up for up to four players set in a world steeped in Norse mythology. Like other games in the genre, the goal is to (mostly) move from left to right and beat up virtually everything that moves. However, this entry offers more variety. Not only do the levels provide more space to maneuver (making it feel more like an action-oriented adventure game than an old-school beat 'em up), but you can also acquire new weapons and upgrades along the way.

The humor is the game's strongest asset. From the title screen, it's clear that the tone of Zombie Vikings is anything but serious, as evidenced by the misplaced "Ö" in the English words. A quirky, well-worn joke that might be funnier for us Nordics because we know how to pronounce it. (Repeat after me and try not to chuckle: "Öptions," "Shöp.")

Silly spellings aside, the game successfully entertains with a superbly written Monty Python-esque script.

Fans of Zoink's previous adventure, Stick It To The Man, will be reminded of the graphical style with its colorful, paper-thin characters and flapping mouths. However, the artists have honed their skills, as both the backgrounds and characters look significantly more polished than before. The animations also feel more natural here.

The trademark absurd humor is back, this time penned by Zach Weiner, known from the webcomic Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal. The constant quirky (and often pop-culture-inspired) comments on everything the protagonists encounter are another appreciated hallmark of Zoink. Nearly everything that made me enjoy the studio's last game is present here, albeit with a different gameplay structure.

We meet our antiheroes after they've been pulled back to the mortal realm from Valhalla. The crew consists of the octopus-man Seagurd, eternally fused with the legendary octopus Inky Pinky when they both died after a prolonged battle. Next is Caw-Kaa, a cynical goth girl raised by crows. Then there's Gunborg, a super-jacked, fiercely competitive football (as in soccer) player. Lastly, we have the slightly unhinged, horned hairball Hedgy.

Each character has unique abilities: Seagurd can spray ink and attack with his (and Inky Pinky's) tentacles. Caw-Kaa has birdlike traits and can perform a deadly aerial assault. Gunborg is the strongest lass this side of Midgard, with muscles so powerful they can explode. Hedgy, meanwhile, spews up exploding cadavers and can roll into a razor-sharp hedgehog ball.

The controls function as expected in a brawler. You can fight, jump, pick up items and enemies, and perform character-specific unique attacks. Standard combos are executed by pressing the attack button in sequences, while holding it charges up a stronger strike. Each character's unique ability can also be charged for either a weaker or stronger version, depending on how long you hold the button.

By mastering the combination of movements and attacks, you achieve a satisfying flow rarely seen in the genre. It creates a sense of mastery, even when you know you're not the best. This keeps Zombie Vikings fun to play, even though the variety of enemy types is somewhat lacking.

Unfortunately, there are barely a handful of enemy types, no matter how well Zoink tries to disguise them with different outfits. Despite their varied hats and weapons, they behave identically to the clones from earlier levels. It's a shame considering the potential villains undead Vikings could have faced in such a freely told mythological tale.

Boss fights, however, are anything but generic. You'll do everything from battling armored killer worms to playing a Viking-themed football game involving throwing gnomes into monster mouths to score. You even get to brawl with one of the Norse seas! Each boss feels unique and becomes a driving force as you progress through the game, knowing there's a good laugh awaiting after a long level of relentless hacking and slashing.

The aforementioned weapon upgrades are also giggle-worthy, as most "swords" are anything but conventional weapons. Powerful and equipped with special properties, they include items like a cat tied to a stick that lashes out with claws or an enchanted nasal prosthetic that sneezes on enemies due to its allergy to humans. You can also find magical runes that grant abilities like health regeneration or double-jumping. These are especially helpful in certain levels where the balance between enemies and players feels off - particularly in solo play - but alas, you can only activate one rune at a time.

The game's story-driven nature becomes apparent early on, which is a welcome feature as you're bombarded with short, comedic sequences. However, the downside is that certain levels force you to play as specific characters to explore their backstories. This can feel unnecessary since the entire gang is present in all cutscenes anyway. It's likely a way to encourage players to try out all characters.

Another positive aspect is the attention to detail in everything from menus to backgrounds. The voice acting is generally excellent, and I love that they added a song in the pause menu (where our friends shout "FIKAPAUS!") The music is great, though one of the tracks is a bit too frequent on the soundtrack.

Every level is vibrant and brimming with detail, encouraging exploration. However, Zoink stumbles here as the backgrounds are just that - only backgrounds. There's very little interaction beyond a few gameplay mechanics. Allowing players to engage with background objects and characters might have brought out more of the game's zany humor, making some of the less memorable levels stand out more.

Each level includes an optional side quest, usually involving helping someone in need with a fetch quest. Completing these grants new weapons or runes, making it worth the effort, such as tracking down a blind hag's cat.

That said, Zombie Vikings suffers from some teething issues. Minor graphical bugs and AI glitches are frequent, but more serious game-breaking bugs also exist. It's frustrating to slog through a long level only to be forced back to the map due to a glitch, like when one of the four gnomes you're supposed to capture suddenly vanishes.

The online multiplayer also performed poorly during testing, with frame drops and moments where the camera froze entirely. If you're playing co-op, I recommend doing so locally, at least until future updates iron out these issues.

It is also very apparent that Zombie Vikings is designed with multiplayer in mind, as reflected in the level design, with large open spaces perfect for chaotic battles. Playing alone is still entirely viable and works well, though there's a noticeable difficulty imbalance. Solo play is significantly harder than multiplayer, even though more enemies spawn in the latter. Multiplayer is easier for two reasons: you can revive fallen teammates (literally putting their heads back on), and certain levels let players merge into a massive Frankenstein-esque zombie that deals devastating damage.

At times, it was too difficult for me to progress solo. I occasionally resorted to using an extra controller to summon a second character as a decoy while I attacked enemies from behind.

The Verdict

Despite encountering nearly every bug the game had to offer and finding it challenging to play solo at times, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. The humor is consistently top-notch, never feeling too silly and serving as a reward for overcoming tough sections. Add to this the unique graphics, superb sound and music, and varied, entertaining gameplay moments, and Zombie Vikings is one of the best beat 'em ups in recent years.

The loss of a friend

2024-12-12T00:00:00Z

NOTE: This piece was originally published October 2nd 2015 on the now defunct swedish leg of IGN.
It was written by yours truly in swedish and has been machine translated by ChatGPT and reworked for an international audience. Please enjoy.

You know when meeting a good friend you haven't seen in years, how you can just sit down and hang out as if no time has passed, as if it's been mere days since you last saw each other? That's how it was with me and my friend.

Over the years we'd met sporadically, a night now and then, but unfortunately as of late we never really managed to spend time together as often as we used to about fifteen years ago. Still, all of a sudden, we'd reconnect as usual. We'd sit down and play a game together, just like we used to. Maybe a 2D shooter... She used to love those.

Please forgive me.

This is hard for me.

I mean, I like 2D shooters too. Maybe not as much as she did, but then again, she was amazing at them. I, on the other hand, suck. Sometimes, I'd just sit and watch her play on her own. I was always amazed at how she made the spaceship glide across the screen like it was nothing at all, dodging the inferno of bullets the enemies sprayed.

I'd usually suggest switching to a fighting game so we could play together, like Street Fighter Zero 3. She had one of those expansion cartridges that let you play foreign games, so Japanese imports weren't a problem. I always picked Ryu - maybe because he was the character I could handle best. You know, Hadoken and all that stuff.

Sigh.

Anyway, she was amazing at 2D games.

Better than me and most people I know.

The other day, I thought we'd hang out again. It had been a year or so since the last time, but that usually didn't matter. Old friends, you know. But this time, when we met, something was different.

I'd bought a new Japanese game, a 3D platformer starring a ninja penguin. Apparently, it was based on some anime. As I was putting the disc in, I noticed something was wrong.

She was sick. She was coughing and wheezing terribly. I wondered what was going on, but she ensured it was nothing. Insisting we should just keep playing. She, who used to sing and glee at the thought of gaming, was now completely silent as we played. Except for the coughing, that is.

That damn coughing will haunt my dreams forever.

Suddenly, the penguin on the screen stopped moving. It wouldn't budge. I looked at her, and she just stared back. No sound. No reaction. And then I realized.

She died. Right in front of me. My wonderful friend, who had been by my side all these years. Suddenly lifeless. I didn't know what to feel. Deep down, I'd known this day would come eventually. She was twenty years old, after all. But still, a massive hole was carved into my heart, leaving me cold as I sat there on the floor in a lotus position beside her. I turned off the power and let out a heavy sigh.

Rest in peace.

My dear Sega Saturn.

Remembering an Adventure

2024-12-12T00:00:00Z

NOTE: This piece was originally published September 20th 2015 on the now defunct swedish leg of IGN.
It was written by yours truly in swedish and has been machine translated by ChatGPT and reworked for an international audience. Please enjoy.

I could barely contain my excitement.

The clock on the wall was ticking away all too slowly. The more I stared at its second hand, the more it seemed to be moving backward. I can’t quite remember what the teacher in front of the class was actually talking about; it might have been something inconsequential like the great Swedish reign or about some dead king. At that moment, everything sounded like dull, incomprehensible murmur.

After saving my weekly allowance for several months, I had finally scrambled enough moolah to buy the game I longed for the most. Unfortunately, I had already used up all my gaming hours for that day, so it had to wait on the shelf until the next day. And now, that day had arrived.

Suddenly, it happened. The school bell rang, signaling the end of the day, and everybody scurried to put away their books and pens. I was probably the fastest of them all. The classroom continued to buzz as I threw on my neon green jacket in the coatroom. There was no time to tie my shoes; I simply put the laces inside and stomped them against the insoles instead.

It had been raining. Outside, the asphalt glistened, and a sharp wet smell hung in the air. Water splashed loudly to the sides as I ran home, my shoes becoming progressively soaked. To reach home, I had to run along a forest path that I usually was terrified of, but on this day I couldn’t care less, even though the darkness of autumn had fallen.

Once home, I haphazardly threw my clothes on the hall rack and ran into my room. I grabbed my Game Boy from the desk and threw myself onto the bottom of the bunk bed I was forced to share with my sister before I got my own room. I refrained from turning on the ceiling lamp and relied only on the reading light on the headboard. It was cozier that way. I directed the light towards the small green screen and flipped the switch.

Ping.

I still get shivers today from that familiar sound when starting up Nintendo’s portable console. Like a warm welcome into an exciting world full of adventures. The game began.

A black sky, shrouded in dark clouds, unfolds over the horizon. Rain lashes against the lonely sailboat struggling against violent waves. Thunder roars ominously all around as lightning strikes as if doomsday is approaching. A lonely blonde boy in a hood clings on for dear life, the halyard wrapped around his arm to avoid falling overboard. Lightning strikes yet again, this time splitting the boat asunder.

Outside, I heard the rain starting to hit the window again. Thunder rumbled in the distance. I pulled the blanket over my legs.

A girl walks by the sea. The storm has subsided, and the waves now gently lap against the shore, emitting a faint, soothing sound. Palm trees in the background indicate that it is an exotic location. Suddenly, the girl reacts. She sees something ahead and cautiously hurries there. A boy lies washed ashore, seemingly lifeless. She approaches, bends down, and tries to wake him. The camera pans up to the sky, and in the distance, you can see the silhouette of a large mountain. Perhaps it’s a volcano. At the top rests a gigantic egg.

I never owned a Super Nintendo, nor did I have a PlayStation. I relied on 8 bits to live out my digital adventures conveyed through a greenish 2.6-inch screen and a small monophonic speaker (I had no headphones). Of course, this machine couldn’t convince me with photo-realistic graphics or CD-quality music, but I still managed to immerse myself in the games.

Today when looking back on that game about the little stranded boy with his sword and shield, I remember the story of course, but not as vividly as the feelings I got from everything happening around outside the machine. But whenever it smells of wet asphalt outside or when I’m curled up under a blanket underneath the light of a reading lamp, I’m not reminded of that cold November month 20 years ago. Instead, I remember my great adventure on the exotic island of Koholint.

Funny how memories work that way.

Review - TMNT - Fall of the Foot Clan

2024-12-09T00:00:00Z


Platform(s)	Game Boy
Genre	Action
Players	1
Developer	Konami
Publisher	Ultra Games
Released	1990
Playtime	Around 1h

Cowabunga! The green ninja heroes are back and meaner than ever, this time in a portable format. In this sequel, you'll once again don your bandana and join the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in their relentless battle against the vile Shredder.

April's found herself in another pickle, and it's up to you and our mutant heroes to rescue her. You'll need to battle through hordes of Foot Soldiers across five stages, starting on the streets of New York and culminating in the depths of the Technodrome.

Pick and choose, win or lose

At the start of the game, you'll choose your fighter from one of the four turtle brothers. Unlike the previous installment, you can't swap characters mid-game — once you pick your turtle, you're stuck with them until you complete the stage. Fortunately, each turtle is just as skilled at kicking butt as the next, so you're in good hands no matter who you choose.

You can also choose your starting stage, and if you're feeling brave, you can jump straight to the final level! However, to unlock the true ending, you'll need to play through the game in order, starting from the first stage.

The controls are functional but may feel sluggish at times, though this is mostly due to the game's pacing. Despite their famously slow pace (pun intended), the turtles can still dispatch enemies quickly with rapid button presses.

Looks and sounds

Fall of the Foot Clan is visually impressive, even surpassing the graphics of its big brother, the NES. The cutscenes between stages are particularly noteworthy, with stills that look like they were ripped straight from the TV show! The sprites are large and well-detailed, and despite the Game Boy's lower resolution, there's no mistaking what enemies you're up against. The music is excellent, even though there isn't much variety. But who needs variety when surf rock has never sounded so good? Be sure to wear headphones to fully appreciate the awesome stereo effect!

Tips from the dojo

If you get flanked by enemies from both sides, quickly tap the d-pad left/right while attacking: This will kill both enemies simultaneously!
If you run out of hit points and are just about to become turtle soup - pause the game! When the game is paused, press the following in order: UP, UP, DOWN, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT, LEFT, RIGHT, B, A. This will restore your health in full, but use it as a last resort, as it will only work once!

Short and sweet

The game isn't particularly difficult, and you'll most likely complete it without breaking a sweat, perhaps during a long car ride. That said, it's an exciting hour of gameplay as you'll constantly be swarmed by enemies. Each turtle can take around 10 hits before being captured by the Foot Clan and once all turtles are captured, it's game over. The only way to regain health is by eating — you guessed it — pizza! The real challenge though lies in defeating the end-of-stage bosses before they take you down.

Turtle time

Overall, this is a solid game for fans of the show, especially if you're looking for a quick and fun experience before diving into the arcade conversion. The playtime may be short, but it packs in plenty of shell-shocking Turtle action.

3 Donatellos out of 5

Steam Deck Gyro Drift Fix

2024-09-12T00:00:00Z

A while back I became quite disappointed when I noticed that my Steam Deck started to drift in games that utilized the gyro controls. Even if I were to calibrate the controls, the drift would return every time I powered on the system or woke it up from sleep.

I contacted Steam support who recommended to do a factory reset, but then I would need to download all the games anew. There had to be another way!

I scoured the internet in hope to get some answers, but all I got was either the normal calibration “trick” (it’s not a trick if it’s an actual function, lol) or some random scripts that forced the calibration settings automatically every reboot which didn’t work.

So, this started around when I got myself a dock for the Steam Deck. Because of this, I was afraid that it might have caused some damage to the system. Too bad, because I loved having a powerful, albeit a clunky Nintendon’t Steam Pro™…

However, one day when I was about to play I had it laying flat on the desk next to me while it was booting when an update had been received. Without picking it up, I applied the update and rebooted. Back in business, when I started the game and was about to do the calibration as per usual, lo and behold, the gyro drift was gone!

I wonder if the drift had anything to do with the Steam Deck resting on the dock, slightly tilted? It sure seems like it, I have now restarted the Steam Deck (both laying flat and while holding it) and the gyro is all calibrated now. However, I noticed a slight drift when I started the Deck while resting my thumb on the capacitive area of the joystick. I guess it’s like when you start up a console holding the stick in a certain direction, and the console thinks that direction is the resting position.

So if you’re having issues with the gyro, remember – for great justice, don’t fiddle the sticks while booting.

Bigbubbah 2024-08-18

2024-08-18T00:00:00Z


CPU	AMD Ryzen 5 3600 (12) @ 3.600GHz
RAM	8GB
GPU	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti
OS	Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
KERN	6.8.0-40-generic
WM/DE	Window Maker 0.96.0
Wallpaper	Photo by @ambivalena

For this period, I’ve settled on getting a nice Window Maker environment working. I like Window Maker because of its simplicity, low resource requirements and the use of dockapps. Dockapps are small apps that are designed to sit in the dock and show information or perform tasks. I’ve installed a couple that have similar look between them. From top to bottom:

1. Time – wmtime
What can I say, it display an analog clock as well as day of week and the date

2. CPU/RAM – cputnik
This displays how much all cores are working and also shows how much RAM has been used up. When clicking on the dockapp, gnome-system-monitor opens up

3. Misc – wmmisc
This dockapp shows exactly what it’s called, namely miscellaneous information about the system. Logged on users, uptime, ongoing processes, etc.

4. Network – wmifs
This is a blinkenlights for the ongoing network traffic. You can see the amount of packets being sent as well as lights for receiving/transmitting data

5. Audio control – wmusic
This is a general audio controller which is written for use with XMMS but can work with any audio player with support for multimedia controls. By double clicking the dockapp, it tries to launch xmms, but I’ve circumvented this by creating a bash script that launches Plexamp instead

6. Volume control – wmamixer
Last but not least, a nifty volume controller. It can controll both left and right channels as well as master/capture. Worked out of the box for me.

Most of these dockapps are available in the normal Ubuntu repository, but some of them I had to compile myself like cputnik and wmamixer.

The rest of the dock is occupied by quick launcher for Firefox, Thunderbird, Tilix (I will create a blog post about this lovely little gem later!) and Thunar. For those familiar with Window Maker may also notice that I’ve also disabled the workspace dock, a.k.a. the clip, as I’m not really fond of its functionality.

KeePassXC for all your password needs!

2024-06-16T00:00:00Z

No, you should not make your passwords complex and super long! This will only lead to you forgetting the password and then later reset to one that you will actually remember – which, of course, we know will be super dumb and easy to crack.

Instead, you should go for passphrases. These are basically passwords, but longer and easier to remember. For example, a passphrase can be:

pancake lord on moon vacation three times left turn

According to Security.org's password check, this would take a computer of today’s capacity about 1 unvigintillion years to crack. How many years is one unvigintillion? I don’t know, but I do know that I definitely won’t be around by then.

The reason for it being hard to crack this passphrase, isn’t the complexity, but rather its length. The longer the passphrase, the more possible combinations any brute force attempt needs to perform.

But, you ask, what about the required password complexity of sites, operating systems and the like? The lowercases and uppercases, special characters and such?

Well, that’s where password managers come into the picture! You see, there’s a lot of password managers out there and chances are you’re using a web browser with one built-in, right now! There are even services that let you store and access your passwords in the cloud for convenience, for example when you’ve lost access to your computer or device.

With a password manager, you can generate a super random and hard to remember password that fulfills any uptight requirements of an account registration. The point is that you will never need to remember it, the manager will!

The problem with most built-in managers though, is that they are exposed to the internet, meaning that if the client or browser is compromised – so are your passwords. The same goes for any online service that promises security – it’s all fine and dandy and cherries until the service is hacked and your passwords are stolen. This happened a while back with LastPass where, even though encrypted, users’ vaults were stolen and could potentially be cracked. This is exactly why centralization is bad – it gives hackers a single point of entry for thousands if not millions of users.

Now, how to avoid this? Well, firstly you should avoid centralization. But you cannot avoid hackers on the internet unless you go offline, of course. It might sound like a bummer, but that’s why I’m writing this post, you see!

Here’s where KeePassXC comes in. KeePassXC is an excellent password manager and vault that is secure, open source and totally free. KeePassXC is an application only, meaning no servers to connect to – all it needs is the database to keep its records. Already here, we’ve eliminated one potential threat in that we’re not exposing our passwords to the intertubes. The database can be safely stored where ever you like, for example in your home folder or on an encrypted drive. You can have multiple databases, for example one for private passwords and another for work related passwords (which I would recommend.)

So it’s easy to get started, just download and install the application. For Ubuntu/Debian users, I strongly recommend to install the PPA and use APT to install, instead of snap.

After installing and running it for the first time, you can create a new database. Set a passphrase, one that you can actually remember, because if you forget it you lose access to the database. I also recommend that you create an encryption key which can preferably be stored onto a physical drive for added security.

Once the database is up and running, all you have to do is store all your passwords. As you can see in the above screenshot, you can even use it for two-factor authentication. You can associate the entries to their respective sites and applications, organize them in groups and add icons to the entries.

I would however recommend that you install a browser extension, otherwise you would need to go back to the application every time you need to log onto a site. There’s an official extension for the most popular browsers, called KeePassXC-Browser (available for all browsers). Once installed and configured (and the main application running in the background) it will ask for database password and fetch the associated entry when autofilling the login forms on a site.

A word of warning though: It’s known not to work with snap installations of browsers, which is the default installation method in Ubuntu. Be sure to use the APT version of both the web browser and KeePassXC and you should be good to go. Oh, you might have to add a permission entry in AppArmor if you’re getting “Cannot connect to database” errors, though.

Also, you might want to have some sort of cross-device sync. I know, this contradicts what I mentioned earlier with having the database offline, but the alternative would be manually copy over database and encryption key to every device each time you’ve added or updated an entry. Not too convenient. As long as you don’t use a centralized service, I believe you’re good though. For example, using a Nextcloud instance, you can sync between selected devices. As for mobile applications, for Android, there’s KeePassDX that’s fully compatible and also can use Nextcloud mounted storage to access the database. This is the one I’m using and can recommend.

All in all, I’m really satisfied with KeePassXC knowing that I’m in total control over my password vault and that I’m one step further from allowing Big Tech to have control over my online life.

It's a baby!

2024-05-25T00:00:00Z

It's been a while since I've written any long form posts. To remedy this, I've now installed the WordPress app on my phone so that I can post on the go.

So, what's been up lately? Well, for starters, we're getting a dog! It's a still some weeks away, since doggo's only a couple of days old. She was born on May 14th and her current name is Fia-Lotta, although I'm not too keen on that name so we're thinking of renaming her once she gets home. The name candidates are Lexi, Chili, Hilda and Cilla. She'll be ready for pickup in the middle of July, we can't wait for her to join our family!

What else, what else… Oh! I'm off to see Bruce Dickinson in Stockholm and Gröna Lund on June 11th! It's going to be awesome. Even though his latest album ain't no Chemical Wedding, it still has some bangers. Also it's likely that they'll play some classics as well. Anyway, as soon as I heard about the concert I booked all the tickets immediately. I wasn't sure if any of my friends were going, but it seems like I'm getting some company after all – one of my best mates even booked in the same hotel! Did I mention it's going to be awesome?

In other news, my birthday was this week! Yes, you're now looking (?) at a 41 year old fart. It was quite low key since I'm not too excited over birthdays that aren't major milestones, like last year. I was happy that my wife got me the NES game Micro Mages on physical cart, as well a rechargeable air duster and a HDD Clicker. Unfortunately, the HDD Clicker doesn't seem to like the LED signal from my 486 (it was clicking non-stop), so it will have to live in my Pentium 2 instead. And for those who haven't heard of Micro Mages, it's an awesome arcade platformer with some tiny mages scaling towers full of baddies. It's amazing how they managed to fit everything in just 40 kilobytes, there's a great video on YouTube explaining how they did it.

How can I have such a thoughtful wife that knows exactly what I wanted? Well, I just gave her the link to my nifty Wishlistr.

Until next time:
live fast eat trash

Review - Adventure Island

2024-04-03T00:00:00Z


Platform	Game Boy
Genre	Playformer, run-and-jump
Players	1
Developer	Hudson Soft
Publisher	Hudson Soft
Released	1992
Playtime	1 hour

"Adventure Island" is a run-and-jump game for the Game Boy that despite sharing name and cover art (at least in the PAL region) bears more resemblance to the sequel rather than the original outing on the NES.

You play as Master Higgins, a somewhat heavy lad with an underbite wearing nothing but a loin cloth and a baseball cap being in a constant state of famine. You must explore 8 critter-infested islands in order to save your girlfriend Tina from the monsters holding her captive. That’s it, that’s the whole story.

The gameplay is all about running from left to right, defeating and avoiding flora and fauna on the way, while hatching eggs containing axes, skateboards and friendly dinosaur to ride. These dinos each has their own ability which can wary from shooting electricity from the tail to taking off to the skies. They won’t alter the overall experience dramatically, but will make traveling a bit faster and easier.

Being released 1992 here in euro territory, it feels heavily outdated standing next to contemporary titles such as "Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins" and "Kirby’s Dreamland". Not only does the graphics feel bland, but the repetitiveness of both sounds and level design wears my patience thin throughout the entire game. About half-way through the levels starts to be rehashed and there’s nothing new that entices the player to continue their journey. The bosses are incredibly simple and even if you do reach the end, the reward for beating the game isn’t worthwhile the roughly hour it takes to complete it.

Should this have been a release title I could have seen through its shortcomings, but unfortunately I cannot recommend this game to anyone who wants to experience a varied, challenging platformer on the go.

Two miniature Master Higgins out of five.

Review - Tinykin

2024-03-23T00:00:00Z


Platform(s)	Steam (reviewed), Xbox One/Series X, Playstation 4/5, Nintendo Switch
Genre	3D puzzle-platformer, collect-a-thon
Players	1
Developer	Splashteam
Publisher	tinyBuild
Released	2022
Playtime	Around 7h normal playthrough, 12h completionist

So, what do you get if you take equal parts "Pikmin," "Paper Mario," and "Banjo-Kazooie" and add a dash of French animation? Well, if you answered "a Frankenstein’s monster of game concepts," then you’d be right. However, the point being that "Tinykin" is a marvelous game that takes a little inspiration from each of these mentioned titles, culminating in its own thing.

In "Tinykin," you play as Milodane, an archaeologist from the planet Aegis, who is determined to find the origins of the human race by following a signal emanating from a nearby galaxy. Unfortunately, something went wrong during the bubble teleportation, and he wound up the size of a dust bunny inside a gigantic house! Now, it’s up to you to assist Milodane in exploring the house and unraveling the mystery of the intergalactic human migration. And, of course, to help him regain his proper size.

You soon run into these small, round creatures – tinykin, if you will – that are helpful in several ways. Sure, you can pick them up and throw them around to your heart’s content, but they actually possess special abilities which are determined by their colors. Pink tinykin help you haul small and large household items around, while red ones explode upon impact and can light stuff up. Green ones stack together and are used as vertical ladders, whereas yellow ones can bridge large gaps (where applicable). Blue tinykin are electrically conductive, which is quite useful when you need to turn on appliances. Don’t worry, they actually enjoy the pain.

The house consists of five different levels, with two areas acting as connecting hubs between them. The levels are actually rooms in the house, while one of the connecting hubs is the foyer and a level in itself, all of which are open to explore as you please once you have unlocked them all. Each room is inhabited by an assortment of people, or rather, insects such as ants, praying mantises, and shield bugs. For each level, you are tasked with completing a list of objectives requested by these insectoid citizens, and successfully doing so will reward you with one of the machine pieces necessary for Milodane to return home. Each objective is a quirky little happening in the world of these insects, for example, starting up a CD player so that a group of religious dragonflies can sing the canticle of their deity, Arwin, or helping resolve a dispute between anxious dung beetles and partying silverfishes.

Besides completing these chores, one of the main objectives of the game is to gather pollen. A challenging but fun task as there are about a total of 1200 pieces scattered around each level. Pocketing around 900 of these rewards you with bubbles which let you float through the air. In your aid in finding and reaching every pollen, you have the tinykin, the aforementioned bubble floater, as well as a soap bar that is unlocked early on in the game. The soap bar acts as a sort of hovercraft/skateboard, which lets you travel fast and grind upon furniture edges like a miniature Tony Hawk. Who would have thought that cleaning the floors would be such fun?

One of the great aspects of the game is that there are no enemies to encounter. It’s just you, the insects, and a buttload of pollen to collect. The lack of enemies means that this is a game you can play at your own pace and leisure without worrying about being killed. Although there are a couple of environmental hazards such as water, spikes, and carnivorous plants (which I guess could count as an enemy), meaning there are times you’ll see Milodane pop as a balloon more than once, if that indeed is your sort of thing.

The game is otherwise an excellent platformer, which despite being in 3D, has the characters rendered as high-resolution 2D sprites. Their animations and designs are of such high quality, though, that soon enough you’ll accept them as being as fully fleshed out as the objects around them. The music is also top-notch, with each level having its atmospheric composition. Very enjoyable, but alas, there unfortunately weren’t any tunes that got stuck in my head, and I could barely hum them after turning off the game. But still, I very much liked the soundtrack.

The main takeaway from the experience I’ve had is that "Tinykin" is a wonderful indie gem that will be a great addition to my favorite collect-a-thons of all time. This is because it’s fun and approachable, has an imaginative level design, and the fact that the actual collecting didn’t feel like a necessary chore to forward the plot. There’s also a new time trial update to the game where you can zoom around the levels and clear courses in a race against the clock. This was quite an endeavor which I soon gave up on upon collecting my first platinum medal. The stress these races invoked wasn’t quite worth it as it only awards you with different outfits in the end. Fortunately, being an add-on bonus, the time trials won’t affect the achievements so you can still complete the game 100% without grabbing all the medals.

I award this game with 4 out of 5 tinykins.

Introducing - The SatBat™!

2024-03-12T00:00:00Z

Tired of the constant hunt for those elusive CR2032 batteries? Fear no more, retro gaming enthusiasts! The SatBat™ is here to revolutionize your Sega Saturn experience. With The SatBat™, you’ll never miss a moment of gaming action. Features include:

Power on Demand: Swap out those old, underperforming CR2032 batteries for the robust, easily replaceable AA batteries. Two in series deliver a seamless 3V power surge directly to your console
Universal Compatibility: Whether you’re a fan of traditional or rechargeable batteries, The SatBat™ welcomes them all. Enjoy the flexibility and ease of use, no matter your preference
Unmatched Battery Life: Leap from a mere 200 mAh to up to an astounding 3000 mAh. That’s right, with The SatBat™ you can enjoy up to 15 times the battery life! The game doesn’t end until you say so

🔋 SatBat: Transform Your Gaming, Amplify Your Adventure. Say goodbye to frequent replacements and hello to uninterrupted gameplay. Your Sega Saturn deserves the best. Give it the power it needs with The SatBat™!

In all seriousness, though. I’ve been waiting for a product like this to come along in a long time, until I decided to create it myself.

One of the worst things with the Sega Saturn is the SRAM, which tends to die once the CR2032 dries out, after about a year or two but sometimes even less. Yes, you can perform one of those fancy FRAM replacements, but what if you don’t want to do open heart surgery on your beloved Sega console? That’s why I made the The SatBat™.

It’s nothing fancy really: A 3D printed battery box which holds two AA in series, outputting a total of 3V. Don’t mind the Kapton tape in the photo above, that’s just a precaution on my side.

My initial idea was to design a doublesided PCB for the coin cell replacement, but settled upon 3D printing and copper instead. The copper tape is soldered directly to the battery pack, I was impressed of how well it worked. I had to print the coin cell 95% smaller because my model wasn’t a perfect reproduction of a CR2032, but would still sit nicely. The box was a snugly fit instead of the old cover, and there’s even plenty of room for the Satiator! See?

You can download the STL file from Thingiverse if you fancy creating one yourself. Just be sure to either label the sides of the coin cell simulator (pat.pend.) or take note of which cable goes to the negative poles of the battery pack (negative is always the underside of the CR2032.)

And remember: DANGER OF EXPLOSION IF BATTERY IS INCORRECTLY REPLACED

Ps. If LaserBear Industries would like to create this as a professional product, feel free to do so but in that case please give me some credits (perhaps some in-store credits, wink-wink.)

Removing stickers from Nintendo boxes

2024-03-02T00:00:00Z

Here’s my latest attempt at removing some nasty tamper-evident stickers off a carton, this time a copy of Super Mario Land in otherwise nice condition. The featured image above shows how it looked on the Tradera/eBay listing prior to the sticker removal.

This will be a small tutorial of sorts on how to get rid of nasty stickers and residue off Nintendo (and other) cardboard boxes. Just because a box is full of stickers, doesn’t mean it can’t be fixed! Using this method you can still transform it into a presentable state.

What you will need is basically three things:

1.High percentage Isopropanol Alcohol
2.Cotton buds
3.Patience

The first thing you'll wanna do is to empty the box so that its contents won't be affected should anything go wrong. Put out some kitchen wipes or some other paper for the table’s protection, and then soak a cotton bud plentiful in alcohol before starting massaging the stickers.

Once you see that the stickers are starting to fade and you can notice the artwork underneath, you’re almost at the finish line! Even on my box, where these stickers were quite thick, they accepted the alcohol pretty well and started to loosen up after a minute or two. Keep adding alcohol if it has dried out, but don’t overdo it at this point. You’ll want to gently rub in the alcohol, not scrub as I did and managed to ruin some of the box.

Once the stickers start to become translucent, try carefully feel the corners to see if they are willing to let go of the priceless artwork. Don’t force them, they should just slide off. If not, add some more alcohol on top and around the edges.

This was the final result. Not perfect, but a hell of a lot better than it was before. You can see the result of me rubbing a bit too hard, but still, I’m pleased with the outcome. Looking up close, it’s barely noticeable where the stickers used to reside.

Once done, I celebrated by playing the game. I know this game by heart so it took me about half an hour to complete. I simply love Hip Tanaka’s ending theme for the game. And I must admit, the game does look good in the cabinet.

Until next time, retronauts!

Git the hub outta here - Climbing the Codeberg

2024-02-29T00:00:00Z

Today I took the step in migrating all my public repos from Github to Codeberg. If you would like to see what I’ve been tinkering with in the past (please excuse my scriptkiddie competence) I can now be found on https://codeberg.org/thanius. From there you can even follow me on my projects or subscribe to my RSS feed.

There might be some interesting code and nifty releases there if you’re a Swede like me, for example my Swedish translation of The Secret of Monkey Island or an integration to update a Google Calendar with dates whenever PostNord decides to deliver some mail.

Soon another little project of mine will be uploaded there, so keep your eyes peeled if you like old computers!

Aegis – The go-to 2FA for Android

2024-02-04T00:00:00Z

Why Aegis?

I’ve been jumping between different two factor authenticator (2FA) apps the past year or two. I had earlier for a long time settled for Authy, mostly because I wanted to get away from Google and Microsoft. This app seemed robust enough, had some customizable logos for the connected services and also employed a backup feature – which at the time was MIA over at Google’s and Microsoft’s departments. It also had a desktop version that was synced, which at least at the time seemed like a good idea.

As the months passed by I started slowly to realize the flaws in Authy. Not only could you actually not customize the logos yourself, but the search engine used was simply a Google image search wrapper; meaning that logos showed up that either aesthetically didn’t fit or was totally unrelated to the service you tried to configure for. I tested this theory by simply searching for some random crap and Authy downloaded the image without hesitation.

Not only that, I realized that while it’s nice to have the OTP’s synced between devices, it did this through centralization. This, in my opinion, isn’t secure at all and could potentially invade my privacy.

Enough about Authy. I’ve moved on, and so should you.

So what makes Aegis any different? Well, first and foremost, it’s completely free (as in libre) and open source software not developed or run by a for-profit corporation.

This means that not only is the code available for anyone to examine and contribute to (which, contrary to popular beliefs is actually very important for security applications), it’s also available to download without the involvement of Google as it’s available through the F-Droid repository.

Second, it has all the features needed for a proper 2FA application and some quality-of-life improvements over its competitors, which I’ll get into shortly.

The only real downside for Aegis is that it’s not available for iOS. But if you’re using iOS, you’ve got other problems to attend to. Yes, by all means, please be offended.

Features

Customizable views

This is one of the most important features for me, as I’ve got almost all my accounts configured with 2FA and will be picking up my phone several times a day to fetch their one-time codes.

Since Aegis allows you to pick your own icons, or even download icon packs from them, the account is instantly recognized through its branding. And for a better overview, you may also configure how the codes are displayed in different sizes: normal, compact, small and tiles. I personally like the setting “small”.

You can also separate the codes between groups. Say you want to have your work OTP’s in the same app as your private, you can create a group for those and have those filtered out by default. This is especially useful if you have two or more different accounts on the same service.

Security

The configurations are safely stored on your device with encryption, which can be unlocked by a password or by using bio-metrics such as fingerprints and/or face unlock. It also allows for a separate encryption password for the backups, should you want an extra layer of security.

Aegis can also be configured to disallow screenshots from being taken, should you ever have been infected by malware that tries to steal your OTP’s. You can also configure to have the codes be hidden from prying eyes until you tap on them.

These are just a few of the security settings I figured was worth mentioning.

Backup, import and export

Another key feature is being able to restore your 2FA configurations should your device ever be lost. Instead of having the vault sync using a centralized service, you can configure continuous backup instead.

Since the vault is encrypted, this means you can put your backup wherever you want. You can use your device’s automatic cloud backup as well as backup through Storage Access Framework in Android, perfect if you’ve got a personal Nextcloud server.

If you’ve got multiple devices, these can be synced using the import/export functions of the app. You can also use the import function to fetch configurations from other 2FA apps, but unfortunately it does not support Authy (this isn’t Aegis fault though, it’s simply because Authy doesn’t support export at all.)

Final words

I mean, there isn’t much else I can share with you guys. It’s only a 2FA app, after all.

It works securely and with personal customization, it’s open and free and has awesome features. So if you’re ever in need of two factor authentication, look no further than Aegis.

Hello world! (or - "How to WordPress behind Reverse Proxy")

2023-01-22T00:00:00Z

I have now, knock on wood, finally managed to set up WordPress multisite behind an Nginx Reverse Proxy with working subdomains and corresponding certificates. Previous attempts had resulted in long response times and timeouts, which almost made me give up on the idea. But today, I once again delved into the madness and started with some terminal-fu.

In previous attempts, I had installed the Fastest Cache plugin, which satisfied WordPress’s recommendation to use page and object caching, all within a single plugin. The problem with this is that it adds a lot of redirects to the .htaccess file, and I suspect that this was causing the long response times for pages and the API.

And since there are probably more people who need a setup like this, I thought I’d share my settings.

First and foremost, we need an Nginx configuration for the domain/subdomain that needs to be accessed. This configuration will also provide the pages with their certificates:

server {
     server_name chuggybumba.com;

     listen 443 ssl http2;
     ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/chuggybumba.com/fullchain.pem;
     ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/chuggybumba.com/privkey.pem;

     location / {
          proxy_set_header Host $host;
          proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
          proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $remote_addr;
          proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
          proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Host $host;
          proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Server $host;
          proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
          proxy_pass https://[INTERN IP-ADRESS]:443/;
     }
}

server {
     if ($host = chuggybumba.com) {
          return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
     }

     server_name chuggybumba.com;
     listen 80;
     return 404;
}

As you can see, Let’s Encrypt is already configured here. To get started with Let’s Encrypt using this configuration, set up a virtual host that only listens on port 80, and then let CertBot take care of the configuration. Once it’s done, adjust using the settings mentioned above. Note that it’s absolutely important to have a slash ( / ) after the port number in the proxy_pass command!

We’re proxying directly to port 443 on the internal server, as this is to ensure that the WordPress API functions smoothly and doesn’t need to go through multiple redirects.

The next configuration is for the local Apache server (though Nginx could be used here as well, I’m following the WordPress-recommended installation, so Apache it is!)

<VirtualHost *:443>
     ServerAdmin admin@chuggybumba.com

     ServerName chuggybumba.com
     DocumentRoot /var/www/wordpress

     SSLEngine on
     SSLCertificateFile /etc/ssl/certs/ssl-cert-snakeoil.pem
     SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/ssl/private/ssl-cert-snakeoil.key

     ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
     CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
 
     <Directory /var/www/wordpress>
         Options FollowSymLinks
         AllowOverride Limit Options FileInfo
         DirectoryIndex index.php
         Require all granted
     </Directory>

     <Directory /var/www/wordpress/wp-content>
         Options FollowSymLinks
         Require all granted
     </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

In the Apache configuration, we don’t need to set up any subdomain virtual hosts, as these are handled by the reverse proxy on the Nginx machine. We also don’t need to use a valid certificate here. Instead, we have installed a snake-oil certificate to allow us to deliver encrypted traffic to the reverse proxy.

After this, you can simply follow WordPress’s own instructions to set up the multisite configuration.

Once everything is up and running, make sure not to use plugins that add their own redirects to the .htaccess file, such as Fastest Cache, as this will only lead to issues. Instead, I recommend installing WP Super Cache for page caching and Memcached for object cache storage.

Bubbolix 2011-10-16

2011-10-16T00:00:00Z


HARDWARE	Sony Xperia Mini Pro (SK17i)
ROM	GinTonic SE v2.4.1
OS	Android 2.3 Gingerbread

Here I exhibit an installation of the custom rom GinTonic SE on my Sony Xperia Mini Pro. Unfortunately, I have no idea what wallpaper nor which icon theme I used for the dock.

And yes, this is the max resolution of the phone.

Amiga 1200 2011-01-19

2011-01-19T00:00:00Z


MODEL	Amiga 1200
CPU	Motorola 68020 @ 14Mhz, Motorola 68EC030 @ 28MHz
RAM	2MB CHIP, 64MB Fast SDRAM
ACCELERATOR	ACA 1230
HDD	Compact Flash 4GB
OS/DE	Workbench 3.1
Wallpaper	Hope II by Eran Fowler
Icons	MagicWB 2.1 by Martin Huttenloher

This is a nice one. This accelerated Amiga sported a wallpaper which was converted using Rebel's and Cammy's 16-colour palette (this post is affected by link rot, unfortunately. The Web Archive has the FullPalette configuration, but not for ImageStudio, which I used to convert the wallpaper with) and the icons are standard MagicWB.

Bigbubbah 2010-11-01

2010-11-01T00:00:00Z


CPU	AMD Athlon 64 X2 (2) @ 2.6 GHz
RAM	1GB
GPU	Nvidia GeForce 7600GS / 512MB
OS	Ubuntu 10.10
KERN	2.6.35-generic
WM/DE	Gnome 2.31.5
Wallpaper	AEnema by alexcherrypicks
Icon theme	Faenza by Matthieu James (tiheum)
GTK theme	Equinyx by Matthieu James (tiheum)

The dock being used is Avant Window Manager while the docked applications are, from left to right, Gnome Terminal, Firefox (version 2) and Audacious (when the Winamp skins were still in style).

Bigbubbah 2010-08-29

2010-08-29T00:00:00Z


MODEL	Eee PC 1001HA
CPU	Intel Atom N270 (1) @ 1.6 GHz
RAM	1GB
GPU	Intel Other UMA
OS	Ubuntu 10.04 LTS
KERN	2.6.32-11-generic
WM/DE	Metacity, Gnome 2.3
Wallpaper	Desert Journey by unknown

Here's a minimalistic desktop for my Eee PC. It sports a panel-less Gnome environment, which is replaced by Avant Window Navigator for the dock and Conky for the monitors on top of the screen. The system tray is handled by trayer.

I have no idea what icons I used here, but by the looks of it, it's seems like a mix-and-match kind of situation.

Bigbubbah 2010-07-12

2010-07-12T00:00:00Z


MODEL	Eee PC 1001HA
CPU	Intel Atom N270 (1) @ 1.6 GHz
RAM	1GB
GPU	Intel Other UMA
OS	Ubuntu 10.04 LTS
KERN	2.6.32-11-generic
WM/DE	Metacity, Gnome 2.3
Wallpaper	Bow Lake in Banff National Park by unknown
GTK theme	Radiance by Ubuntu

A bog standard Gnome 2/MATE desktop, not much going on around here, folks.

But seriously, I do like the soothing palette and the serenity of Bow Lake.

By the looks of it, I was using not only Google Chrome, but also Gmail, Facebook and Google Reader.

Bigbubbah 2008-09-12

2008-09-12T00:00:00Z


MODEL	Eee PC 1001HA
CPU	Intel Atom N270 (1) @ 1.6 GHz
RAM	1GB
GPU	Intel Other UMA
OS	Ubuntu 10.04 LTS
KERN	2.6.32-21-generic
WM/DE	Metacity, Gnome 2.30.2
Wallpaper	Yorisukii by Masaki Hoshino (HYBRIDWORKS)
Icon theme	Faenza by Matthieu James (tiheum)
GTK theme	Equinox 1.30.1 by Matthieu James (tiheum)

This is one of my favourites from one of my favourite hardware I've ever owned! This screenshot shows a Gnome 2/MATE desktop on an Asus EeePC 900a using the Equinox GTK theme and Faenza icons. The wallpaper is that of a Japanese tatami room with shoji panels framing a vivid autumn garden scene.

The Faenza icons stack up perfectly on the dark mode panel, which shows some of my most used applications at the time, namely a terminal (probably Gnome-terminal), Firefox, Skype (remember Skype?!) and the current flavor of whatever text editor came with Gnome back then. Also, we had Dropbox support all the way back then, who'd thought.

Bigbubbah 2008-08-08

2008-08-08T00:00:00Z


CPU	AMD Athlon 64 X2 (2) @ 2.6 GHz
RAM	1GB
GPU	Nvidia GeForce 7600GS / 512MB
OS	Ubuntu 08.04 LTS
KERN	2.6.24-16-generic
WM/DE	Metacity, Gnome 2.22
Wallpaper	Seaside Scivu by Marco Cogoni (magcogoni)
Icon theme	nuoveXT by Alexandre Moore (saki)
GTK theme	Misty by Toto Galego (eamon63)

So here we have a little summer breeze coming in. This is a desktop which sports what we today know as Gnome MATE, with a task bar on the bottom and a utility bar on top. Here we can see MSN running through Pidgin, a terminal that is about to log onto DUMII and a Firefox session showing the login page to Wordpress (where my old blog was hosted.)

Bigbubbah 2008-07-11

2008-07-11T00:00:00Z


CPU	AMD Athlon 64 X2 (2) @ 2.6 GHz
RAM	1GB
GPU	Nvidia GeForce 7600GS / 512MB
OS	Ubuntu 08.04 LTS
KERN	2.6.24-16-generic
WM/DE	Emerald, Gnome 2.22.2
Compositor	Compiz-Fusion 0.7.4
Wallpaper	Vintage by Tobias Hellgren (thanius)
Icon theme	nuoveXT 1.6 by Alexandre Moore (saki)
Emerald theme	radial by Hersch Stevenson (aceph)

This desktop houses a frankensteined theme of mine, where I whipped together not only a snazzy vintage wallpaper wallpaper (see what I did there!) but also the Avant Window Navigator theme as well as the Conky Screenlet theme.

The wallpaper was yanked from a stock image site called Fotolia (now Adobe Stock) and GIMPed into perfection.

I really like the look of this one, and might try to recreate it someday.

Bigbubbah 2008-05-14

2008-05-14T00:00:00Z


CPU	AMD Athlon 64 X2 (2) @ 2.6 GHz
RAM	1GB
GPU	Nvidia GeForce 7600GS / 512MB
OS	Ubuntu 08.04 LTS
KERN	2.6.24-16-generic
WM/DE	Metacity, Gnome 2.22.2
Wallpaper	Night of Ubuntu by Roberto Della Ragione (BITZER)
Icon themes	nuoveXT 1.6 and nuoveXT 2 by Alexandre Moore (saki)
Metacity theme	Stormcloud by Justin JME (hbweb500)
AWN theme	Hovering Icons by Or Grinberg (org21)

I believe this was the first time I was introduced to Avant Window Manager, the nifty little dock that mimics the OSX one. I also found out there were Screenlet plugins for Conky, with some nice monitors and widgets.

The screenlets used here, in no particular order:

CircleClock by Helder Fraga (WHISE)
CircleSensors by Helder Fraga (WHISE)
NowPlaying by Helder Fraga (WHISE) with the theme simpleOneV2 (which I can't find a link to, unfortunately)
Terminal by Mark Hayes (SPDF)

As seen above, I was also experimenting with a borderless terminal, Quake style. This particular terminal was a Screenlet, which would pop up on the top whenever I hit tilde, toning down the other windows.

Bigbubbah 2008-04-26

2008-04-26T00:00:00Z


CPU	AMD Athlon 64 X2 (2) @ 2.6 GHz
RAM	1GB
GPU	Nvidia GeForce 7600GS / 512MB
OS	Ubuntu 08.04 LTS
KERN	2.6.24-16-generic
WM/DE	Metacity, Gnome 2.22
Compositor	Compiz Fusion
GTK theme	Human
Icon theme	Human

2008 marked a year when I got to experience hassle-free Linux for the first time. Having messed around with text-based installations, mandatory Kernel compilations and broken sound for years, Ubuntu just worked.

It also introduced me to the 3D rendered desktop, in the form of the compositor Compiz Fusion which enabled all these cool effects:

All these eventually made it into other OS:es, but remember folks where it all began!

Unfortunately, I cannot find the original source of the wallpaper. The bottom pane shows a few applications pinned, from left to right: Gnome-Terminal, Firefox, Thunderbird, Pidgin, Audacious and Deluge.