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2022/1/29 #poetry You could find out so very easily. You could use the incredibly numerous resources at your disposal through the internet. You could find them with a search or even ask. But instead you would rather confirm your current beliefs or reinforce new beliefs that suit your whims. I'm not saying that it is easy to figure out what is accurate. Nor that it doesn't take work. Just that you could compare information, sources, and arguments that favor opposing opinions and see which ones are emotionally driven and which ones are based on solid logic. That wouldn't make it impossible for you to be fooled, but it would make it a lot harder. Attempting to avoid being fooled by agreeing with anything that threatens that you will be fooled by others should you ignore it is not such a great tactic. Attempting to reconcile conflicting information rather than taking any dictum as wrote will go a long way toward actually preventing deception.

Setelah beberapa hari lalu berjanji untuk bertemu, akhirnya hari Sabtu pun tiba. Gema tidak dapat berbohong soal dirinya yang menanti hari ini datang, tapi mendadak merasa gugup karena akan bertemu Dalu secara kasual.

Memang Gema selalu menyapa Dalu tiap kali menjemput keponakannya itu, bahkan jika Bella masih belum ingin pulang dan asyik bermain dengan temannya, Dalu sering menghampiri dan mengajak mengobrol berdua. Hanya saja, mereka tidak banyak membicarakan hal-hal di luar konteks Bella atau kawan-kawannya. Jadi, ia kali ini merasa bahwa pertemuan secara kasual ini lah waktu yang tepat untuk mengenal Dalu lebih jauh.

Setelah membaca pesan dari Dalu, Gema pun melajukan mobilnya menuju lokasi yang sudah diberikan. Hatinya sedikit berdebar karena tidak sabar untuk bertemu dengan Dalu, bahkan ia sampai berdandan demi penampilan yang baik di hadapan orang yang akan ditemui.

Laju mobilnya sama tidak sabarnya dengan ia yang ingin segera menemui Dalu, berharap dapat segera melihat sosok manis itu sesegera mungkin. Meski baru kemarin bertemu dan saling menyapa, ia menyadari ada tense lain yang membuatnya berdebar. Entah apa Dalu juga merasakannya, yang jelas ia kini berdegup karena perasaan yang sulit didefinisikan.

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Gema berniat untuk menghubungi Dalu dan memintanya keluar setelah sampai, namun ia sudah lebih dulu menemukan pemuda yang ia ketahui setahun lebih muda itu sudah berdiri dengan pakaian rapi dan senyuman manis menyambut kedatangannya. Kepalanya mendadak kosong, tatapan berbinar dan senyum lebar yang dilayangkan padanya membuat ia melihat sekali lagi bunga-bunga yang berjatuhan di sekeliling Dalu.

Dalam balutan kemeja putih kebesaran, juga celana jeans yang terlihat sama kebesarannya, ditambah tas selempang yang dikenakan melintang dari bahu kanan ke sisi pinggang kiri; tidak ada kata yang tepat yang dapat menggambarkan apa yang Gema rasakan saat melihat penampilan sederhana dari orang yang selama ini dilihatnya mengenakan seragam pendidik di TK. Buru-buru ia menyimpan penampilan Dalu sore itu dalam memori, memastikan kali ini tidak akan terlupakan hingga nanti.

Di sisi lain, saat Gema telah makin dekat, Dalu terpukau. Mata yang saling bersitatap membuat ia sejenak membiarkan dirinya merasa kosong, tapi juga penuh dengan perasaan senang melihat sosok yang lebih tua. Meski ia tahu bahwa Gema selalu terlihat rapi dan tampan, namun pada detik ini ia merasa ada sesuatu yang berbeda hingga dirinya begitu terkagum.

Gema punya aroma yang nyaman memenuhi rongga hidung, terpecah di pusat sarafnya dari napas menuju paru-paru dan harum yang terpatri di ingatan. Dalu yakin dirinya tidak akan dengan mudah melupakan bagaimana Gema tercium begitu manis, tapi juga menenangkan.

“Selamat sore, Mas Gema,” sapa Dalu pada akhirnya. Terlihat ia tersenyum makin lebar hingga matanya tenggelam di balik pipi yang merekah. “Susah, nggak, cari rumah saya?”

Sapaan dari Dalu membuat Gema terhenti dari keterkagumannya, ia lantas berdahem lembut sebelum balas tersenyum. “Sore, Dalu. Yuk, berangkat. Hari ini saya lagi pingin Sushi, Dalu keberatan gak ya kalau harus makan Sushi?”

“Nggak masalah, Mas,” jawab Dalu sambil beranjak mendekat untuk naik ke kendaraan Gema. Setelah memakai sabuk pengaman, ia pun menoleh pada yang lebih tua. “Yuk, berangkat.”

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© 2022, Kamelia and SHO.

Pensi alla morte e ti vengono in mente cimiteri sconfinati, lapidi, sculture monumentali, campanili, distese di ghiaia bianca, candele accese, turiboli d’incenso, canti gregoriani e processioni dolenti. In effetti il cimitero monumentale ricostruisce fedelmente la concezione della morte che informava un mondo passato, ma nemmeno troppo. Nella dimora finale, seppur, per qualcuno, temporanea, si riproduceva la grandezza dell’uomo, o, più raramente, donna, in vita. Statue eroiche, iscrizioni su marmo, titoli nobiliari, riconoscimenti, alti gradi militari. In fondo sono morti, si pensa. Quindi sono innocui. Pure a qualche anarchico, da morto, si riconosce una discreta grandezza. La damnatio memoriae, in fondo, non è che la meschineria di chi non riesce a staccarsi dalla propria ideologia o religione senza pietà. Basti pensare ai fiumi d’inchiostro spesi ancora oggi per maledire ogni aspetto, ogni uomo, dell’esperienza fascista. Il duce non ha fatto niente di buono, proprio no. Figuriamoci, al potere vent’anni solo a far cazzate, significherebbe che il popolo che governava era fatto di caproni e pecore… forse era proprio così? O caproni sono quelli che si adattano al comune sentire senza provare a pensare? O sono solo cattivi senza pietas. Ma ritorna sempre l’idea, è morto, povero, in fondo non era poi così… e qui, a scelta, ci puoi mettere cattivo, bastardo, stronzo, fascista o comunista (a seconda di chi parla)… Come se la morte santificasse tutti o quasi. Ma davvero è così? Ok, a seconda delle convinzioni di ognuno ci si regola, ma questa storia non è un’altra stupida convenzione più cristiana che non si può? Fuoco sul carro funebre si diceva una volta, proprio per non dimenticare quello che dei bastardi morti avevano commesso da vivi. Allora non dimentichiamo che nessuno è un santo, tanto meno i santi veri, in realtà autentici bastardi. Ricordiamo sempre che la memoria è bene conservarla, che chi dimentica la storia è condannato a ripeterla… Insomma una merda eri da vivo, una merda resti da morto. Punto. Almeno finché dura la memoria, appunto. Poi, conservare odio per qualcuno vissuto secoli fa, sembra, almeno un poco, stupido.

Or put another way, if I'm attempting to create a republican system that, as you may have seen in my previous post, is essentially all progressive values... why not just support progressives? I guess because I'm a little absurd.

It's true though, I don't see progressives as enemies, and that is currently the direction I vote. However I think there is one area in particular where a progressive republican could differ from a progressive democrat: decentralization.

I believe that basic human needs should absolutely be enshrined in law as universal rights, as anyone with progressive values would agree. However, while these rights should be universal, I think it would be preferable that they be implemented through a diversity of means, by many kinds of institutions (except corporations, which have proven they shouldn't exist).

I also want to work on this project, because I think certain changes are inevitable, and that means some ideas should no longer have a home. Namely capitalism. If we can plant the seeds now, of a republicanism that categorically rejects capitalist ideology, it might hasten the day when society as a whole rightly recognizes it as the form of tyranny, and ever-present threat to all forms of democracy that it is.

In the future it will be normal to group capitalism right alongside monarchy, theocracy, and dictatorships – an ugly thing that we don't do anymore.

Is this an impossibly uphill battle? Probably, but what does it hurt to write, write, write? Besides, if conservatives can steal libertarianism from anarchists, wouldn't it be fun to take their words too? We all know how much they hate when everyone else redefines a word in a way they dislike.

2022/1/28 #poetry Simple foods are nice to prepare. Easy, quick, and fun. All I do is pull it out, maybe heat it up, and I'm done. Then I get to eat it. Now I can go slow. To savor each mastication, and the flavors they bestow. I do have time to cook, I could make more complex things, But I just don't have the interest, despite the satisfaction it brings. Perhaps if you'd like to join me, to either make or consume a meal I'd find it more enticing and find culinary zeal.

In this article, we will attempt to solve PicoCTF 2022 Forensics challenges 1 to 3.

This post assumes you are familiar with what CTF is, if not then feel free to check out this introduction to CTF video by LiveOverFlow:

So, let's get started.

Challenge 1 – Enhance

As we can see in the description that we are provided with a download link of an image file and no hints.

Let's start by firing up our terminal and grabbing the image using curl and open it.

curl -LO "https://artifacts.picoctf.net/c/137/drawing.flag.svg"

When opened:

It looks like there's nothing here. Let's try something else. Let's try to cat this image file.

cat drawing.flag.svg

Output:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?>
<!-- Created with Inkscape (http://www.inkscape.org/) -->

<svg
   xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
   xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#"
   xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#"
   xmlns:svg="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"
   xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"
   xmlns:sodipodi="http://sodipodi.sourceforge.net/DTD/sodipodi-0.dtd"
   xmlns:inkscape="http://www.inkscape.org/namespaces/inkscape"
   width="210mm"
   height="297mm"
   viewBox="0 0 210 297"
   version="1.1"
   id="svg8"
   inkscape:version="0.92.5 (2060ec1f9f, 2020-04-08)"
   sodipodi:docname="drawing.svg">
  <defs
     id="defs2" />
  <sodipodi:namedview
     id="base"
     pagecolor="#ffffff"
     bordercolor="#666666"
     borderopacity="1.0"
     inkscape:pageopacity="0.0"
     inkscape:pageshadow="2"
     inkscape:zoom="0.69833333"
     inkscape:cx="400"
     inkscape:cy="538.41159"
     inkscape:document-units="mm"
     inkscape:current-layer="layer1"
     showgrid="false"
     inkscape:window-width="1872"
     inkscape:window-height="1016"
     inkscape:window-x="48"
     inkscape:window-y="27"
     inkscape:window-maximized="1" />
  <metadata
     id="metadata5">
    <rdf:RDF>
      <cc:Work
         rdf:about="">
        <dc:format>image/svg+xml</dc:format>
        <dc:type
           rdf:resource="http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/StillImage" />
        <dc:title></dc:title>
      </cc:Work>
    </rdf:RDF>
  </metadata>
  <g
     inkscape:label="Layer 1"
     inkscape:groupmode="layer"
     id="layer1">
    <ellipse
       id="path3713"
       cx="106.2122"
       cy="134.47203"
       rx="102.05357"
       ry="99.029755"
       style="stroke-width:0.26458332" />
    <circle
       style="fill:#ffffff;stroke-width:0.26458332"
       id="path3717"
       cx="107.59055"
       cy="132.30211"
       r="3.3341289" />
    <ellipse
       style="fill:#000000;stroke-width:0.26458332"
       id="path3719"
       cx="107.45217"
       cy="132.10078"
       rx="0.027842503"
       ry="0.031820003" />
    <text
       xml:space="preserve"
       style="font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;font-size:0.00352781px;line-height:1.25;font-family:sans-serif;letter-spacing:0px;word-spacing:0px;fill:#ffffff;fill-opacity:1;stroke:none;stroke-width:0.26458332;"
       x="107.43014"
       y="132.08501"
       id="text3723"><tspan
         sodipodi:role="line"
         x="107.43014"
         y="132.08501"
         style="font-size:0.00352781px;line-height:1.25;fill:#ffffff;stroke-width:0.26458332;"
         id="tspan3748">p </tspan><tspan
         sodipodi:role="line"
         x="107.43014"
         y="132.08942"
         style="font-size:0.00352781px;line-height:1.25;fill:#ffffff;stroke-width:0.26458332;"
         id="tspan3754">i </tspan><tspan
         sodipodi:role="line"
         x="107.43014"
         y="132.09383"
         style="font-size:0.00352781px;line-height:1.25;fill:#ffffff;stroke-width:0.26458332;"
         id="tspan3756">c </tspan><tspan
         sodipodi:role="line"
         x="107.43014"
         y="132.09824"
         style="font-size:0.00352781px;line-height:1.25;fill:#ffffff;stroke-width:0.26458332;"
         id="tspan3758">o </tspan><tspan
         sodipodi:role="line"
         x="107.43014"
         y="132.10265"
         style="font-size:0.00352781px;line-height:1.25;fill:#ffffff;stroke-width:0.26458332;"
         id="tspan3760">C </tspan><tspan
         sodipodi:role="line"
         x="107.43014"
         y="132.10706"
         style="font-size:0.00352781px;line-height:1.25;fill:#ffffff;stroke-width:0.26458332;"
         id="tspan3762">T </tspan><tspan
         sodipodi:role="line"
         x="107.43014"
         y="132.11147"
         style="font-size:0.00352781px;line-height:1.25;fill:#ffffff;stroke-width:0.26458332;"
         id="tspan3764">F { 3 n h 4 n </tspan><tspan
         sodipodi:role="line"
         x="107.43014"
         y="132.11588"
         style="font-size:0.00352781px;line-height:1.25;fill:#ffffff;stroke-width:0.26458332;"
         id="tspan3752">c 3 d _ 2 4 3 7 4 6 7 5 }</tspan></text>
  </g>
</svg>

Upon looking closely at the end of the output, we see that before every, </tspan> there's a little fragment of the flag. Let us now concatenate this and remove the spaces from between: Flag: picoCTF{3nh4nc3d_24374675}

Challenge 2 – File types

Let's begin this challenge by downloading the linked PDF file. curl -LO "https://artifacts.picoctf.net/c/324/Flag.pdf"

When I tried to open the linked Flag.pdf, I faced an error:

When I clicked on hint it said:

It is possible for this file to not be a PDF, let us now check it using the “file” command in our Linux terminal. file command is used to determine file type.

file Flag.pdf

Running this command revealed that this is not a PDF file, but it's a “shell archive text”. Let us now try to rename it to .sh extension, give it executable permission and then try to execute it. mv Flag.pdf Flag.sh chmod +x Flag.sh ./Flag.sh

It threw an error uudecode: command not found After doing a quick internet search I found Arch Linux's manual for uudecode and under package information found the package name: “extra/sharutils”

Let us now install it: sudo pacman -S sharutils

Now after I re-executed the Flag.sh did ls, I found a new file named flag in my directory.

After again running file command on our new flag, it is revealed that it is current ar archive.

To extract it I then used binwalk: binwalk -e

Which then created a folder named _flag.extracted which then contained a file named 64 which turned out to be gzip compressed data

Again, we can use binwalk to extract this file. Upon doing so, we got a folder _64.extracted which contained two files flag and flag.gz, both compressed data, one lzip and the other one gzip.

I tried extracting the flag lzip file using binwalk -e flag, but it didn't work. So I tried extracting it using lzip command, and the output file flag.out turned out to be LZ4 compressed data lzip -k -d flag

Then I extracted the lz4 data and then ran file command on the output file2.out, and it turned out to be LZMA compressed data lz4 -d flag.out flag2.out

Then the to extract the lzma file I executed lzma -d -k flag2.out But it gave me an error: lzma: flag2.out: No such file or directory So I renamed the flag2.out to flag2.lzma and ran the command again: lzma -d -k flag2.lzma Which successfully executed and created a new file named flag2 which then turned out to be lzop compressed data upon running file command.

To extract the lzop file, I then installed the lzop package using sudo pacman -S lzop. After changing the name of the file flag2 to flag2.lzop I ran: lzop -d -k flag2.lzop -o flag3 Which then created the file named flag3 which turned out to be lzip compressed data and then again, to extract it I ran: lzip -k -d flag3 Which created flag3.out, XZ compressed data

Then after renaming flag3.out to flag4.xz, I extracted flag4.xz using the xz command, which created flag4 which turned out to be an ASCII text. mv flag3.out flag4.xz xz -d -k flag4.xz

After running cat on flag4 which is an ASCII file, I got: 7069636f4354467b66316c656e406d335f6d406e3170756c407431306e5f 6630725f3062326375723137795f37396230316332367d0a

So to decode it from hex I went over to CyberChef which gave me the flag:

picoCTF{[email protected][email protected]@t10n_f0r_0b2cur17y_79b01c26}

Challenge 3 – Lookey here

Let's begin this challenge by downloading the linked anthem.flag.txt file.

This time it is what it says, a text file.

After viewing it in using less I realised it's a very long text file, so I ran wc to count the lines: wc -l anthem.flag.txt Output: 2146 anthem.flag.txt

So I ran grep to search through it if it contains our flag or not. grep pico anthem.flag.txt

And we've found the flag: picoCTF{[email protected]_58f5c024}

RR is an effort to see how wildly republicanism can diverge from current norms, circa 2022.

The seed of the idea began years ago, when I did some searches to see if there was such a thing as a right-leaning group that accepted human-caused climate change as real, and had any intentions of doing anything about it. I found nothing, not even a hint.

A few years later I searched again. That time something did seem to show. It was a libertarian group claiming to be in favor of environmental protection. I looked at their articles only to find the same old rubbish under a new coat of paint. There were posts about how “efficiency” was the key, and that Big Gov got in the way of efficiency, and thus environmental protection. In their bizarro world, building more oil pipelines is good for the planet! It's not like corporations want to be evil. They only have to because government regulations force them to.

In other words, thinly veiled astroturfing, and a political ideology that amounts to little more than blaming all their problems on the government.

Does identifying as Republican have to mean being a climate denier? Let's cast the net wider. Do they have to be anti-science? Anti-education? Does being a Republican mean having to gaslight entire groups of marginalized people, denying the reality of systemic racism and bigotry in our societies?

Here's a radical one: is it mandatory for a Republican to be pro-capitalist?

There is a lot to talk about. This blog is an effort to carve out a space and get into all these things, to see if others have been asking the same questions. I intend to to forge a new kind of republic ideology, so that the moniker is something I no longer have to call “they”, and start calling “us.”

Oh, and that effort to see if anyone on the right is accepting climate science? I did one last search before writing this, and it does appear that things could be starting to change, though I have doubts about how effective that change can be without biting directly into root causes. Still, change is constant.

https://www.npr.org/2020/09/25/916238283/light-years-ahead-of-their-elders-young-republicans-pus-hgop-on-climat-echange

It has happened to most of us, Linux users, that a friend or family member needs help online with a program or task in their computer, and sending them a dozen screenshots with countless annotations is time-consuming for us and intimidating or confusing for them. On the other hand, opening and setting up an advanced video recording application like OBS just to record a 25-second clip where we don't even need sound recording is a massive overkill and as time-consuming (if not more) than taking and annotating screenshots.

Enter Peek, an easy to use and simple short-clip screen recorder for Linux. It's intended for recording quick animated GIFs (or video files with no sound) of an area of your computer screen. It's amazing how easily I can explain something today when previously, before using Peek, I spent 15 minutes taking and annotating screenshots. Now I just send the short clip via Skype, Whatsapp or even email and they solve their problem.

How to install Peek.

You can find Peek in the official package repositories for the following Linux distributions: – Arch – Debian – Fedora – Gentoo – NixOS – OpenSUSE Tumbleweed – Parabola – Solus

If you are using Ubuntu or an Ubuntu-based distro, you can install it by typing in the Terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:peek-developers/stable
sudo apt update
sudo apt install peek

If you are using Fedora, you can type in the Terminal:

sudo dnf install peek

If you are using Arch or an Arch-based distro, you can type in the Terminal:

sudo pacman -S peek

Peek can also be installed through Flatpak; if you have Flatpak in your Linux distro, install Peek through the Terminal with the following command (you will need to install several dependencies in Flatpak, like ffmpeg, for Peek to function properly):

flatpak install flathub com.uploadedlobster.peek

How to use Peek.

Using Peek is very straightforward: just open the application, define the size of the window to capture if you need to, and hit the “Record as GIF/MP4/etc...” button in the upper-left corner. When you finish, just press again the upper-left button to stop and save the recording.

You can change the size of the capture area by either dragging the sides or corners of the window like you would normally do in any other windowed application, or by clicking on the button with the three vertical dots near the upper-right corner and selecting the “Set window size” option.

Peek lets you quickly choose between different recording formats in the main screen; this is very useful because one format can be better than others depending on the service you'll use to send the clip; for example, when I'm recording to post something in a web page (like in this article), I use GIF recording, but if I want to send the clip to Whatsapp, I record in MP4 format.

You might also want to take a look at the Preferences to change a few settings, like the framerate or the delay before the recording starts after you click on the “Record as...” button.

In the animated GIF below, you can see how easy it is to understand a procedure (changing the white color in the image to transparent) that, if using screenshots, it would have needed several images and annotations.

Things to consider.

1. Set the framerate between the default 10fps and 15fps if you are saving in GIF format, and no more than 25 or 30fps if you're using MP4/WebM formats. Remember, the purpose of Peek is to record quick video screen captures and keep the files as small and portable as possible. If you want to do more complex screen captures, use a more complex program, like SimpleScreenRecorder, vokoscreenNG or OBS.

2. If you choose GIF format for recording, the capture area should be smaller than 800 pixels in any axis, if the window size is 800px or larger, the GIF recording will be automatically resized to ½ the size. This limitation is not present when using MP4 or WebM formats.

Conclusion.

And there you have it! A quick and easy way of recording an area of your screen to share with friends, family or even yourself if you need to refresh your memory about some procedure you don't do often.

Finally, don't forget that Peek is a free and open source project, so feel free to visit their Github page if you have questions, bug reports or if you want to collaborate or donate to the project.

#peek #linux #foss #recording #clips

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To download this blog post in PDF form, visit: this link

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https://fediverse.blog/@/LoremIpsum
https://paper.wf/loremipsum
[email protected]

All the content is published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. Feel free to copy or share it, but please; give me, the author, proper credit for it.

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2022/1/27 #poetry I saw the cactus in the morning. Covered in dew, looking like an overengineered dessert. The early light giving it a soft glow. The illumination weaving through the drops. The gentle mantle of light giving it a false appearance of delicate softness. A shining white vale around a crisp green column. The tiny spines all dressed up in white fullness, fattened with moisture. Wispy white needles obscured, blurred together to seem like a fuzzy fur. I delighted in the moment. I demanded that I would not let it pass unnoticed. That I should savor it completely. Declaring to myself that this simple experience of wonder was not one I could easily reproduce or find elsewhere on a whim. That this time was worth it. That I should focus on nothing else. That I must enjoy.

After some not-so-satisfying experiences with a few BSD's, I wanted to test something I am somewhat familiar with and came across a project anyone would suspect me of developing an instant dislike for: Mabox is a quite young distribution based on Manjaro, providing a customized Openbox environment and some additional tools for easier system customization. According to the project's homepage, this operating system aims to be fast, lightweight, functional, and stable – nothing beyond the common buzzword bingo, at least on the website's first page; the project's about page grants a little more insight:

Mabox Linux is based on Manjaro, featuring a customized Openbox window manager preconfigured to be ready to use.

It was inspired by CrunchBang, and uses some BunsenLabs utilities adapted for Manjaro.

Mabox Linux uses some of XFCE and LXDE components.

Tint2 is default panel.

Mabox use jgmenu for main menu, sidepanels, exit dialog and screenshot tool.

Ignoring the broken English for now, Mabox appears to emulate one of the most popular “lightweight” distributions, yet with a different base. It should be mentioned that Mabox is not the only distribution attempting to provide a CrunchBang-like experience, however only BunsenLabs succeeded at reaching a “wider” userbase. Given that I use a lightweight distribution based on Arch Linux as my daily driver and already tested Manjaro last year, it shouldn't be too difficult to judge Mabox.

Live-ISO

Due to having encountered many fundamental issues with distributions specifically targeting weak hardware and/or ricers, I decided to exclusively test Mabox within a poorly-configured virtual environment. The ISO is 2.1 GB in size, which is heavier than those of most “lightweight distributions” such as BunsenLabs and Archcraft, though approximately 1 GB lighter than Manjaro's. Loading the ISO first prompts a customized GRUB boot loader, which also allows to set the preferred timezone, keyboard layout, drivers, and language prior to booting the system. Once finished, I immediately came across a “bug” I regularly encounter when testing Openbox-based distributions, and this time I would be unable to choose a fitting screen resolution due to Mabox failing to detect it completely.

Before progressing, I observed the distribution's idle performance and noticed the Conky keeping track of used resources registering the CPU jumping between 22 and 52% for roughly four minutes until settling at 2%. Usually, I only encounter this kind of behavior when the system's set to automatically search for software updates after logon, though the same Conky, which also lists the most heavy processes, did not indicate such.

Installation

Like Manjaro, Mabox lets Calamares handle the installation process. Being kept “vanilla”, it automatically sets the location and keyboard layout to the choices I made when I started to run the ISO and thus only required me to get active when setting up an user. Confirming my choices instantly let the installer do its job, which would take longer than anticipated, despite progressing fast when copying the base files. The shown slides merely repeat what is already being stated on the project's homepage, although the single empty slide was rather unexpected. Postinstall configurations took the longest to set up and the installer became stuck at pacman-key --populate archlinux manjaro for five minutes, pushing the entire installation process up to a little more than ten minutes.

Installed Sytem

Booting the installed system instantly revealed a bug that causes GRUB to be empty and unusable, though it did not make Mabox unbootable. The second bug I encountered can be missed easily if not keeping an eye on systemd initializing and when not using the OS within a virtual machine; the missing VirtualBox Guest Additions might explain why Mabox refused to detect my screen resolution, yet this is something I did not encounter on Manjaro, which provided a bigger choice of screen resolutions and aspects.

Speaking of screen resolution: Before I could even close the welcome window, I had to adjust the screen and was confused to find out that Mabox uses two tools to manage monitor settings: ARandR and LXRandR, with the latter also being labeled “Monitor” in jgmenu and also acting as the only tool allowing permanent changes. And although I had to settle with a smaller resolution, I got to check out the Mabox Control Center.

This tool, inherited from Manjaro, offers a variety of settings, including desktop tweaks and system-related adjustments like kernel management. Since I seldom encounter issues with the vanilla kernel and also wanted to figure out if installing another kernel alongside the LTS one would fix the empty GRUB issue, I decided to download Linux 5.19.7-1. Once installed, Mabox recommended a reboot, yet again, I was presented with an empty GRUB menu, unable to choose a kernel pre-boot, and the vanilla kernel automatically being loaded.

Package Management

While additional kernels can be installed via Mabox Control Center, Mabox offers the GUI tool Pamac to manage packages. Alternatively, pacman and the AUR helper yay can be used, as well. Pamac is set to scann for updates every six hours – way too short for a distribution that receives non-AUR updates every two weeks.

During this test, I mainly relied on pacman and yay to fetch additional packages. Upon closer inspection, Mabox does not pull packages directly from Manjaro but, alongside the usual Arch Linux repos, from its own Mabox repository. So effectively, it's virtually no different from the Manjaro repository and, in a sense, redundant.

Documentation

Trying to figure out, which packages originate from where, Mabox doesn't offer any documentation on this topic, in fact documentation is limited to installation, desktop configuration, and few specific tools. The forum hints that users would be advised to keep up with official documentation provided by Manjaro and Arch Linux, given that only a handful of people are regularly active on Mabox's forum.

Performance

Overall, Mabox performed significantly better than Manjaro during my last test, even within a virtual environment, though with three tools installed to check system resources, I got slightly varying results:

	btop	Task Manager	Conky
CPU rate (idle)	10%	7%	10%
RAM (idle)	494 MB	333 MB	334 MB

At first I assumed that bashtop might explain the RAM gap, yet upon re-checking, the CLI tool does not need an additional 160 MB. This led me to another strange discovery that appears to be common among small “ricer” distributions.

Other Observations

While dotfiles for htop, another CLI process monitor, exist and thus indicate that the program is shipped with Mabox, the tool itself actually isn't installed and needs to be pulled manually. It`s likely that prior ISO's came with htop pre-installed and the developers simply forgot to remove the dotfiles after switching to bashtop.

Speaking of inconsistencies: While I tried to appreciate the customization options and actually do prefer those to Archcraft's approach, it's hard to ignore the design flaws of both Tint2 themes and the display manager's bottom bar. A distributions focusing this heavily on aesthetics can't set icons and text to centric on its own. Interestingly, whilst testing the live environment on bare metal, the same Tint2 configuration failed to load, among other symbols, the < next to Applications for no apparent reason, as those did load without issues within a VM.

Another thing that will irk non-QWERTY users is the keybinding for quake-terminal. Due to QWERTZ keyboards requiring me to press Alt Gr to access the ~ symbol, I was unable to even check the application due to it also not being available in jgmenu.

TL;DR

At this point, I honestly don't get why ricers refuse to simply dump their dotfiles on code hosting sites and write simple installation scripts for every Linux user to profit from and instead try to create a distribution without really wanting to take care of anything beyond desktop customization. Mabox resides somewhere between a remix of a distribution's desktop and a more independent OS similar to Ubuntu and Manjaro. Ultimately, it's a hobbyist distribution that shouldn't be used as a daily driver, despite its claims of being suited as such. It won't make users more productive due to being distracting and virtually being no different from Manjaro under the hood.

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Hardware

Medion Akoya E4070 D

Processor: AMD A10–5700 APU @ 3.40 GHz

Display: Trinity (Radeon HD 7660D)

Memory: 4 GB RAM (3462 MiB)

Storage: 1 TB ST1000DM003-9YN162 (CC4G)

Network: RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Control & Realtek RTL 8188CUS 802.11n WLAN Adapter

2022/1/26 #poetry I agree with you. I think you know what you mean. I think you say it well. I think that you have perfect ideas which are logically consistent with themselves and each other. I think that you are able to construct meaning within the worldview that you have chosen to adopt. I think that you are able to adapt your thinking to include new information and are able to create a coherent total picture that does not rely on patching holes as they crop up with inconsistent reactive rationalization. I think that you are interested in being accurate.

2022/1/25 #poetry I would like to write about important things. If other people are to read them, that is. I'm much more agreeable to writing complete nonsense if it's just for me. I can really get into writing something profoundly obvious just for the fun of typing and stringing words together that sound neat. I can entertain myself by making word salad. Those long runs of empty phrases that all but cancel each other out or serve to introduce merely the beginning of an idea that something is about to be said. I really like the rhyming phrase plug in drug. I think quite often about the addictive qualities of screens and the myriad addictive flickers they display. Almost all the screens flicker, you see. They count the flickers in Hz. Too fast to notice for the most part, but some people get headaches or other odd symptoms due to the particular frequency of some flickers. I have the unfortunate affect of falling asleep under the glow of certain tube fluorescents. Makes classes much more difficult than they should be. It can be a nice feeling if I'm not resisting it. A very pleasant tiredness. Spooky, as it was very hard to pinpoint what the cause was. Most people aren't affected so it isn't well known. Once I figured it out, tracking down information about it was not easy, and that's with the benefit of the internet. I did get what I was looking for eventually after much effort and it changed my life. I now have a remedy for the issue. Turn off the light, leave the room, or introduce a similarly or more powerful light with a steady glow to fill in the gaps. If only we could find a frequency that effected us in a positive way. The first step to create a plug in drug that didn't serve content. How things would change.

Jour 4

“Les concepts, il faut les fabriquer [...] Un concept ça ne se fabrique pas comme ça [...] Il faut qu'il y ait une nécessité, sinon il n'y a rien du tout.”

Gilles Deleuze

26/09/2022 00:16

Appunti volanti

Frank si sentiva di merda. Da alcuni giorni dormiva pochissimo, aveva lo stomaco sottosopra nonostante i farmaci assunti prima di colazione, sentiva gli occhi chiudersi, una sensazione di malessere lo pervadeva interamente. Aveva voglia di mandare tutto e tutti affanculo, tornare a casa e mettersi a letto nel buio senza considerare più nessuno. Ok, i gatti avrebbero potuto salire sul letto con lui, nessun altro. Invece… Invece doveva fare presenza, presidiare il reparto, portare attenzione e accoglienza agli ospiti e cercare di sorridere, peggio ancora essere partecipe dei loro problemi. Oltre, naturalmente, a organizzare le giornata, i lavori interni, la gestione della cucina e le uscite del giorno festivo.

La vita di Nicola seguiva da tempo l’andamento dei suoi consumi alcoolici. La sobrietà rappresentava la possibilità di fare qualcosa di costruttivo, vivere, mentre l’alcool significava farsi vivere dalle bevande. Era arrivato a situazioni estreme, un clochard che viveva sotto la scala antincendio di un palazzo di uffici comunali in una piazza adiacente il centro città. Accendeva un fuoco in un’aiuola per scaldarsi qualche pasto, le rare volte in cui mangiava, per il resto le calorie venivano tutte dalle birre.

Orang lain cerah; Aku sendiri suram. Orang lain tajam; Aku sendiri tumpul.

Orang lain punya tujuan; Aku sendiri tak tahu.

Aku terombang-ambing bagai ombak di lautan, Aku bertiup bagai angin tanpa tujuan.

-Lao Tzu Kitab Dao De Jing (Tao Te Ching)

Tidak seperti orang lain yang benar-benar menikmati hidup dengan bahagia, aku merasa seperti orang yang tidak memiliki kehidupan sama sekali. Aku terisolasi dari dunia, aku merasa bahwa diriku tidak memiliki tempat di dunia ini.

Aku tidak mengetahui kenapa diriku dilahirkan berbeda dengan mereka yang lain. Pada saat itu, aku merasa seperti diikuti oleh kutukan ke manapun diriku pergi. Aku selalu merasa berdosa, atas hal yang tidak pernah kuinginkan.

Aku menyadari diriku berbeda pada masa diriku memasuki jenjang SMP, sekitaran pertengahan kelas VIII. Pada masa itu, layaknya remaja pada umumnya, diriku merasakan cinta pertama. Dunia tiba-tiba menjadi berkali-kali lebih indah, membuatku merasa bersemangat untuk berangkat ke sekolah.

Dia adalah seorang anak laki-laki di kelasku, biasanya ia selalu duduk di kursi kedua dari belakang. Ia tidaklah tinggi, melainkan malah sedikit lebih pendek dariku. Dia juga tidak memiliki ciri khas yang membuatnya berbeda dari manusia lainnya, he is simply ordinary person.

Aku sendiri tidak tahu mengapa aku mencintainya, tapi bukankah memang seperti inilah cinta? Kamu tidak memerlukan alasan untuk mencintai seseorang, tiba-tiba saja kamu mencintai seseorang dan kamu tidak tahu mengapa itu terjadi.

Walaupun aku begitu mencintai dirinya, namun aku tidak pernah mengungkapkan perasaan tersebut. Ketakutan menyelimuti diriku, lagi pula saat itu diriku masih dipenuhi dengan rasa bersalah, frustasi, merasa berdosa, dan juga self-denial. Ditambah lagi guru pendidikan agama islam di sekolah yang terus menerus menceritakan tentang kisah Nabi Luth, yang mana selalu diakhiri dengan ancaman hukuman rajam (dilempari batu hingga mati), dan akhirnya masuk neraka untuk selama-lamanya.

Kenapa?

Apa yang membedakan “cintaku” dengan “cinta mereka”? Kenapa cinta antara lelaki dan perempuan dianggap suci dan bersih, sementara cinta antara dua orang lelaki dianggap berdosa dan kotor? Kenapa?

Sekali lagi, apa yang membedakan “cintaku” dengan “cinta mereka”?

Saat itu, diriku yang masih berusia sekitar 15 hanya bisa menyalahkan diriku sendiri. Tentu saja itu hanya mengundang berkecamuknya hati serta kesedihan yang mendalam. Hal ini diperparah oleh bullying yang dilakukan oleh beberapa teman seangkatan saya (aku bahkan ragu harus memanggil mereka “teman” seangkatan atau tidak), membuat saya semakin dalam jatuh ke dalam jurang kesedihan.

Tentu saja tidak semua dari mereka melakukan perundungan terhadap saya, namun walaupun begitu, tidak ada dari mereka yang maju untuk membela saya ketika saya terkena perundungan. Mereka semua hanya melihat, bukan karena mereka tidak berani, namun simply karena mereka tidak mempedulikan seorang freak dan seorang femboy seperti saya.

Setelah semua perlakuan buruk yang saya alami tersebut, pada akhirnya muncul sebuah keinginan agar saya bisa menjadi straight seperti mereka yang lainnya, hanya agar bisa mendapatkan perlakuan yang sama dengan mereka.

Berbagai metode saya coba agar saya bisa ‘sembuh’, mulai dari memberikan sugesti terhadap diri saya sendiri, hingga menahan perilaku flamboyan saya.

“Saya menyukai wanita, saya menyukai wanita, saya menyukai wanita,” seperti itulah saya terus menerus mengatakan sugesti tersebut kepada diri saya sendiri beribu-ribu kali setiap harinya.

Mengingat hal tersebut membuat saya berpikir, “betapa bodohnya saya saat itu”.

Seperti layaknya warna kulit, LGBTQIA+ bukanlah sebuah penyakit, itu adalah suatu hal yang kita bawa dari semenjak kita lahir.

Berusaha menyembuhkan LGBTQIA+ sama saja seperti kita berusaha menyembuhkan orang berkulit hitam, agar memiliki kulit berwarna putih. Bukan “kesembuhan” yang didapat, justru hal tersebut akan menghancurkan mereka secara fisik dan mental.

Hal ini juga terjadi pada saya, saya merasa menjadi lebih hancur sehancur-hancurnya. Dunia terasa suram bagiku, aku merasa seluruh alam semesta menolak diriku. Tidak disadari diriku menjadi lebih tertutup dan lebih jarang berbicara terhadap orang lain, perlahan-lahan mengubahku menjadi pribadi yang pendiam. Sulit bagiku untuk menumbuhkan rasa saling percaya di antara manusia, membuat diriku meragukan kepercayaan antar-teman dan manusia.

Aku selalu diberitahu bahwa Tuhan itu maha-penyayang dan maha-adil, tapi kenapa aku tidak bisa merasakan kedua hal itu?

Tuhan menciptakan diriku yang ‘berbeda’, namun membenci perbedaan tersebut. Apakah Tuhan hanya ingin mempermainkan diriku?

Inilah awal mula aku mempertanyakan kepercayaan yang saya anut.

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Perjalanan Spiritual Menuju Self-Acceptance (Bagian Dua)