no drawing tablet, just true warrior GIMP plus a mouse. i dont think i have a future in art.

Must do’s and must don’ts

Never share your private key with anybody other than yourself. If you need it to be accessible on multiple devices, password protect your key (you will get a prompt to do this automatically), and transfer it over a secure connection, or preferably off of the network (usb stick, ext hdd). If someone else needs to access your server, they can make their own key, and you can add it to your config later.

Share your public key on the internet. Keep a link to your public key on your website, as well as on keys.openpgp.org. Otherwise people won’t be able to encrypt their messages to you!

If you’re going to keep password authentication on, make sure it’s a good damn password. Use a free and open source audited password manager. I use proton pass. It is not free and open source. I wonder what Richard would think….

Desirable, but not mandatory

Make sure your SSH configuration is bulletproof. There are some options that you should absolutely set in your sshd_config, which is located at /etc/ssh/sshd_config. Also see man sshd_config.

Port 1234

Run your SSH server on a different port than default (22). Automated brute-force bots scour the internet on port 22 to find weakly secured servers. This is less feasible on servers that have many services that all use port 22 as default. Pick a number that you like. 1337 is a crowd favourite.

NOTE: this isn’t a valid security technique. This just moves the attack surface. From my experience, I have had 0 automated attack attempts since moving it, but if someone REALLY wants to try your SSH server they will do a portscan and find it.

PubkeyAuthentication yes

This enables authenticating with a public key, which is what this guide is all about.

PermitRootLogin no

You should spend as little time as root as possible. Services should never run as root unless they NEED to, for example if they need to bind to a privileged port. Logging in as root shouldn’t be done, and for a bad actor, it’s a dream come true if they can. Failing to secure root can and will lead to bitcoin miners being placed on your server, exposure of any secret keys you have, and probably replace your beautiful painstaking complex nginx config with a link to a syrian terror cell or something.

X11Forwarding no

You shouldn’t need X11 for anything. It’s best to keep this option off. I will revoke your hacker card if you have a DE on your server.

Banner /etc/issue.net

When people attempt to connect to your server, you can display a scary/funny message using this config option. This is very much optional but I continue to enjoy my banner.

PasswordAuthentication no

This disables password authentication. This is a best practice, if you genuinely have a good, long password, and set up fail2ban or any other SSHD audit software it should be fine, but using key based auth is quick and easy and foolproof.

NOTE: keep this on until you are SURE pubkey authentication is working. This WILL lock you out otherwise.

SERIOUSLY!!!!!!!!!! Unless you are on a VPS with options to reformat, you will lose access FOREVER if the server is remote.

Creating your key (GPG/PGP)

If you want a key for OpenPGP encryption for your emails, GPG simplifies this greatly.

First of all, get a Linux box. You can do this pretty easily on Windows using wsl --install.

Then, you can generate your key using this command:

gpg --quick-gen-key <email address> <algorithm>

You also have the option of passing in an expiry date, which supports multiple formats. ISO-8601 is probably the easiest to remember, which is YYYY-MM-DD. Manual revocation is also an option, in case your algorithm gets obsoleted by quantum computing in a couple years.

I recommend using ed25519 as your algorithm, but rsa is absolutely fine for this usecase in case you are working with a really old openssl/ssh implementation which doesn’t support elliptic curve cryptography.

Getting other people’s public keys

Importing public keys is simple, too. GPG keys can be fetched remotely using keys.openpgp.org, which has helpful documentation. Some people might link their public key on their site. In this case, importing it is as easy as cURLing it into GPG.

curl -L example.com/my-key.pgp | gpg --import

-L:Follow redirects

Using your key to encrypt messages

Most email clients support OpenPGP. If you are using Thunderbird, importing a personal key is as simple as exporting it to a file, then adding it to your account settings under “end to end encryption”.

To export your key, first find your key ID (or use your email address). Use gpg --list-secret-keys, and copy it. The format of this output is as follows:

sec <algorithm> <date-created> [capabilities] [expiry]

<key id>

Then paste your key ID into an export command:

gpg --armor --export-secret-keys <key id> > key.pgp

An armored (ASCII rather than hex) PGP key will be forwarded into the file key.pgp. You can then import it into thunderbird. Make sure you password protect your key! it could stick with you for a long time. Thunderbird can automatically import your recipients pubkey. If this fails, just export their key after importing it, using this command, then add it to your Thunderbird keyring:

gpg --list-public-keys # get key ID of recipient. email address also works

gpg --armor --export <key ID/email> > recipient.pgp

Encrypting things outside of an email client

Encrypting things using GPG is pretty simple outside of a client. The simplest way is to just use echo.

echo "i miss you" | gpg --armor -e -r <recipient email addr> -r <your email addr> > message.gpg

This will spit out an armored, encrypted GPG message. It’s only readable by the recipients specified by -r, which you can pass an email address or a key ID, but only for keys in your keyring, i.e.

gpg --list-public-key

You can verify that this is unreadable to anybody else by opening a virtual machine, and attempting to decrypt it with:

cat message.gpg | gpg -d

Make sure you include your email address when specifying recipients, otherwise you will be unable to read your message later.

Creating your key (SSH)

Every linux box should have the utility ssh-keygen baked in. Give the manpage at man ssh-keygen a read if you are unsure about any flags I use below, or if you want to use a different algo/add your own flags.

The defaults provided by ssh-keygen are excellent, but I would personally generate an ED25519 key for SSH. I am only a messenger. Some dweeb who is much smarter than me invented something which is supposedly much better than RSA. Something about prime numbers. you’d be better off reading the wikipedia article.

(ED25519 uses a smaller keysize, which should in theory make it faster to generate, and faster to auth to server. How much this actually accelerates your workflow will probably be minimal. Neither are quantum resistant, but RSA is definitively broken by shor’s algorithm).

ssh-keygen -t ed25519

Make sure you save this key in your $HOME/.ssh directory, which is where SSH looks for keys (if not defined in config). You should next create this config in $HOME/.ssh/config, and define the following options:

Host mysite

# the options below the Host should be indented

HostName example.com

User myname

IdentityFile /path/to/key # $HOME/.ssh/id_ed25519 if you didn't set a name

Port 22 # Default value

Connecting using your key

Connect using password auth on your first login. Copy and paste the public key, which has the extension .pub, into the authorized_keys file in the $HOME/.ssh directory of your server.

After setting options in your ssh config (not on the server), ssh will automatically use pubkey authentication to login. Once this is working, feel free to disable password authentication.

Did this guide help you?

Send me an encrypted email ;). Here’s my pubkey. Happy hunting!

Downgrading was not available due to hard disk size

fuck

Fine, make a snapshot and reinit with it.

Downgrading not available

FUCK

Luckily with an hour, sftp, and my failing memory, I copied over all my certs, and all the stuff that wasn’t synchronized with git.

Delete server, buy smaller one, copy shit over. bosh. or so i thought

Here were the issues with the server migration:

1. I had a private wiki up which we used as a friend thing for software we make in university. all gone. fuck!
2. mailcow dockerized had the default password and login open to the internet for 20 minutes. double fuck
3. my custom systemd modules were all pointed to specific versions of node, and failed one by one, including the one that handles new articles being posted here. i dont even know if this will post without me manually triggering a git pull
4. mailcow dockerized also eats up 2 gig, or 3 with clam installed. luckily my MAU is at like 200. bad implications for the bloated piece of shit java comic reader which loves to escape the confines of -Xmx because something something JRE does what it wants. all i got is 4 gigs!
5. I didn’t copy over my custom mailcow conf and all the ports were borked for a while

Some successes occurred. Mailcow synced over my mailboxes (surprisingly), using sftp is fun because it looks like le haxor in movie and i also had an excuse to use tmux which is always a good thing. one of the windows was btop. btop is cool.

I hope you enjoy the new, slower experience. send me money i have no money

tyler ;)

Recently, my tastes have swayed a lot towards 80s music. kind of a phase i guess. but i’ve been big on listening to it again for the first time in a while.

I’ve also been enjoying jazz for a while now too. Mostly Chet Baker, who has a beautiful voice and deserved a more dignified death than falling off a balcony

Song 1: Squids - Sewerslvt

Squids makes use of a lot of classic UKG samples, as well as a lot of sounds I hear in older techno and electronica. Possibly the best song in her entire catalogue, nice rough amen breaks and a song I could see myself having a good time with at a rave. 100% leans more towards DnB than breakcore.

Song 2: Isn’t it Midnight - Fleetwood Mac

Fleetwood Mac felt like an easy pick at first until I realised that this song had only 14 million streams on Spotify. I am utterly convinced that this is the best song in their catalogue, for the incredible ending riffs, angelic vocals and just all around on the nose 80’s vibes throughout. Doubly impressive that they managed to make such an incredible performance in the studio while coked out of their minds. I can’t judge though it was the 80’s everyone was doing coke.

Song 3: King Diamond - Team Sleep

Quality vocals in this one. Can’t vouch for the message since i can never understand what the hell chino moreno is saying but the whole song just has this otherworldly feel to it, like it was written in the future (see: LFO - LFO). A lot of songs from this album were postponed and released under Deftones debut album.

However, there’s still no good dependency management system. I loathe nexus mods for creating a gated modded system which is capped. Bandwidth isn’t free, but surely there are lessons to be learned from Flatpak, deb mirrors, and any modern dependency/package management system? They of course have to protect their profit margins, but a 3MB/s cap in 2024 is absurd.

There are thankfully utilities to help with installing necessary libraries and toolsets. MO2 will refuse outright to compile natively on Linux, or at least Debian. It uses the new c++ std::format (libfmt) header which is gated behind gcc13, and I do not trust myself to fuck with the system compiler because currently I enjoy my computer booting. Not to mention that Debian 13 is on the horizon.

MO2 will work… okay on linux. There is a quick and easy package to bootstrap an install here, which will make it boot using Protonv9 through the Skyrim Special Edition binary on steam. On top of this, you need a few different direct3d libraries as well as the 2019-2024 VCRedist from microsoft. Winetricks makes that a breeze so it’s not so bad.

Through this, you can do usual MO installs through Nexus, although the next roadblock is ENB tooling. If you want lighting in Skyrim to not look like total shit, you have to unfortunately use free but gated software (contrib?) from the revered Boris Vorontsov. You hear polarising things about the guy, since he provides what is probably the best lighting (shaders?) or whatever the fuck an ENB is software out there. Not sure if there are any OSS alternatives out there. For sure he’s a talented developer.

Problems arise when you try use enbseries on linux, AMD uses RADV as the Vulkan driver, a part of the open source Mesa venture. This somehow pops a breakpoint on loading into Skyrim, and it’s a total fucking nightmare. I fixed it by using AMDVLK, the enterprise alternative that many consider inferior. It was previously enterprise only, recently open sourced here.

Now, my interests lie in fixing textures clipping and base Skyrim looking like total shit. It’s been a decade and a half!

But remember, when breakpoints bother you, set

export VK_ICD_FILENAMES="/etc/vulkan/icd.d/amd_icd64.json"

Good luck if your journey found you here. Download bethini and turn off antialiasing while you’re at it.

T

From a young age, Wain was thought to be an under-performer in school, as well as physically weak. In 1877, he transferred to the West London School of Art, graduating in 1880.

In 1884, he married. Unfortunately, his wife Emily was diagnosed with breast cancer and died 2 years later. During this time they adopted a cat, a stray that they named Peter. Wain would entertain his wife while she was in pain by painting photos of Peter. At her recommendation, Wain had these drawings submitted to and accepted by journals, beginning his rise to acclaim.

His first piece to reach the wider general public was “A Kittens Christmas Party”, commissioned by Illustrated London News for their Christmas issue of 1886.

Emily died soon after the paintings publication. This strengthened his bond with Peter, as well as worked to cement his fascination with felines, with his works thereon being almost solely cat related.

That same year, he was commissioned by book publisher Macmillan to create the illustrations for “Mrs. Tabby’s Establishment”, a children’s novel about an orphanage for kittens, where a young girl is sent to learn to behave like a cat. Booktryst’s Stephen J. Gertz has written an excellent summary on this novel, which I recommend reading.

In 1895, having completed numerous works for all manner of journals, aristocrats, and newspapers, Wain moved in with his mother in Kent, continuing his commissions and supporting his family as the only man in the family during a time where women were not seen as socially acceptable in the workplace.

In the coming years, Wain’s style changed, and the cats began to adopt human like, or anthropomorphic traits. They’d feature heavily in scenes like schools and barbers, and exhibit human like emotions and behaviours, frequently with love or courting as a theme, perhaps owed to the loss of Emily.

Wain continued to create art for the Illustrated London News, even a decade later. He painted the participants of the national cat club show at Crystal Palace in 1896. He was also the chairman of the organisation.

For the next few years, Wain continued to paint and draw. I’m going to showcase some of my favourite works of his from 1898-1905.

As of 1907, Wain travelled to the United States where he continued his work until 1910, after receiving news that his mother was ill. Unfortunately, he did not return in time. He remained, however, in the United Kingdom to support his sisters.

The outbreak of World War 1 heavily impacted Wain’s success, as the postcard industry had a downward surge in demand. During this period, Wain would continue to draw commissions and typical postcards, but also produce pieces of art related to the war.

In 1917, one of Wain’s sisters passed of influenza. Many consider this to be the beginning of Wain’s struggle with mental illness, and a turning point in his artistic style. He was admitted to a mental hospital, known for poor treatment and conditions, 7 years later. He attributed his admission to this incident.

In 1925, after word of his commitment to a public hospital spread to the public in Britain, future prime minister Ramsey MacDonald was involved in his transfer to a private mental hospital with far better conditions.

This was also around the time that Wain created one of his most famous portraits in the modern era. On hearing of the support that he was receiving from the wider public, he was overjoyed.

The painting feels tragic to me, a shining example of Louis Wain’s resounding spirit, hope, and will to continue in the face of his strengthening mental affliction.

Wain was transferred twice more, before dying in Napsbury Hospital on July 4th, 1939 in the aftermath of a stroke.

In his later life, he was known for embracing experimentalism in his art. Psychadelia and intricate patterns were ever-present in his art. Some attribute this to his worsening mental condition, but interestingly, Aidan McGennis’ entry in the Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine seems to suggest that changes in his art are not linked to his schizophrenia, as his output was next to nothing during severe outbreaks and psychosis. McGennis, A., 1999. Louis Wain: his life, his art and his mental illness. Irish journal of psychological medicine, 16(1), pp.27-28

To finish this article off, I will add some extra paintings from Wain’s later life.

A special thanks to the website and content repository that made this article possible. Catland is a comprehensive library of Louis Wain’s known art. Thank you very much :)

Also, check out the creators of catland’s sites, internetbasedghosts and distin!

in another life - pikaro

Released last week, erin is the latest album from pikaro. don’t tell me this isn’t breakcore and drop me the same old spiel about erm speedcore erm mashcore erm this is ambient dnb. i’ve heard it! i believe you! leave me alone and head back henceforth to the primary school you enjoy despite being 23.

In another life is an excellent song. The vocal samples are excellent, and they did something interesting with an amen break which is quite difficult considering how ubiquitous it is in the genre. I love the bass underlying the entire song, it gives an incredible structure to the whole song, and the synths on top keep a brilliant pace to the song.

The song has a pretty uplifting motif throughout, and it feels similar to a lot of the stuff shinyflvres is putting out, while still having a strong sense of individuality. It’s something you could dance or relax to, and I’ve loved it since it came out.

school violins - whitelight

An excellent single by whitelight, an artist who I consider very underrated. This song reminds me of the early works of goreshit, with excellent chops and a brilliant drum sample heard throughout.

The song almost seems foggy and confusing (not in a bad way) with all the different effects applied but in an organized chaos kind of way. Whitelight was introduced to me by a friend who loves the genre and I’m thankful for it every day.

Give it a listen !!

Heaven in Your Head - Nuclear Daisies

The vocals in this song remind me a lot of pastel ghost (or maybe LSD and the search for god), who I really love. Sort of ethereal dreamy sounds, distorted riffs. Maybe this is shoegaze or dreampop. I just like it!

It feels like a rainy day look out of the window kind of song. Not really very angsty, more of like a song that would play during a characters moment of desperation in a movie.

I encourage any fans of shoegaze to give it a listen. It feels fresh and I don’t get tired of relistening to it like so many songs in the genre.

Unrelated music fun fact #1

Did you know just like heaven by the cure is about making out with someone until they hyperventilate? this is why the smiths will never be better than the cure.

Hard to Read - Day Wave

Ethereal, floaty vocals characterise this song. Feels like every song is about love if you overanalyse enough but I truly love this song and the seemingly raw desperation carried across in the lyrics, performed brilliantly by Jackson Phillips.

I think the hardest part of talking about a song is always translating how the song makes you feel into words. I’d like to say this song transports me to the beautiful summer we had in 2021 and reminds me of optimism in the face of everything that goes on. I’m sure all of us had a year like that where things fall into place, at least briefly, and if not it’s coming !!

Sucette - Sugar Candy Mountain

Released as a single after the success of their album 666, Sucette is a beautiful psychadelic song. Makes me want a cocktail that I drink out of a coconut and some sort of idyllic landscape to enjoy it in front of me.

Simply, it makes me happy to listen regardless of the situation and I think for that reason alone, it should be listened to.

2+2=4 - Turkey

A really interesting project that I came across. People say it’s inspired by The Garden, and call it “vada vada”, a term coined by them. Elements of 90’s ukg and dnb are identifiable, and it also makes good use of sampling, in a way that is also very similar to The Garden.

I think it’s very unique. It has a lot of elements that I like and kind of bridges a lot of gaps between genres, modern and old.

This is mostly ripped from this microsoft article but i figured i’d keep it here for when i inevitably have to do this again.

/* Mount NVME from path (GET-CimInstance -query) */
wsl --mount \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE1
wsl
/* Find the partition number (i.e sda1 = 1) */
lsblk
exit
/* Remount the drive with the correct partition */
wsl --mount \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE1 --partition 1 --type ext4
wsl
/* Find mount point within wsl (in my case, /dev/sdd2 */
df 
/* Mount drive within wsl */
sudo mkdir /mnt/debian
sudo mount -t ext4 /dev/sdd2 /mnt/debian

With this completed, you’ll be able to natively access an ext4 partition using the WSL file explorer integration and zoom all your files across at good speeds.