How to play Spore via Steam on Linux Mint (SteamPlay)...

 Why does nobody just write this:

PROTON_NO_ESYNC=1 PROTON_NO_FSYNC=1 PROTON_USE_WINED3D=1 %command%

My virt-manager cloned VMs get the same IP on the host

For some reason the host is giving each cloned VM the same IP address, even though the clone gets a new MAC address for its NIC...

Useful commands:

virsh net-list
virsh net-info default
virsh net-dhcp-leases default

virsh list
virsh domifaddr <domain>

virsh net-dumpxml default
virsh dumpxml <domain>

Why? What the flip? The MAC addresses are different! Logging into each box and requesting a new lease only worked temporarily. Something was wrong...

And for the solution see: https://superuser.com/questions/1338510/wrong-ip-address-from-dhcp-client-on-ubuntu-18-04

The lease is given per Client-ID (not per MAC), and Client-ID is derived from /etc/machine-id, and that file is the same on all VMs!

Just tweak /etc/machine-id and reboot. Hey presto, new IPs!

Many thanks to stefanha at irc://irc.oftc.net/#virt

Using qemu to run or test a Linux Mint ISO (or USB)

I grabbed a Linux Mint ISO from here: https://www.linuxmint.com/download.php

and ripped it to USB following instructions here: https://www.linux.com/tutorials/how-burn-iso-usb-drive/

However, the qemu step didn't work for me. I got excellent help from irc://irc.freenode.net/##linux (user "][_R_][" in particular).

Step 1, use the right tool:
qemu-system-x86_64 (the guide says just 'qemu')

Step 2, debug this weird 'kernel panic':

The key phrase (for google) being:

Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(0,0)

Turns out this is VERY simple (for a 1337 expert) to fix. It's just an issue of not allocating enough memory to the VM!

The fix is:
qemu-system-x86_64 -cdrom linuxmint-19.3-xfce-64bit.iso -m 2G

To make things run good you can also say:
sudo qemu-system-x86_64 -cdrom linuxmint-19.3-xfce-64bit.iso -m 6G -enable-kvm -cpu host

New server first steps

# Basics
apt update
apt upgrade

apt install emacs

# Security
emacs /etc/ssh/sshd_config

diff  /etc/ssh/sshd_config~ /etc/ssh/sshd_config
56c56
< #PasswordAuthentication yes
---
> PasswordAuthentication no

service ssh restart

# Test that...
exit

ssh root@mahserver -o PubkeyAuthentication=no
# root@mahserver: Permission denied (publickey).

# Belt and braces
apt install fail2ban
fail2ban-client status sshd

# Cosmetic
emacs .bash_aliases

cat .bash_aliases
alias lt='ls -latr'

alias rm='rm -i'
alias mv='mv -i'
alias cp='cp -i'

apt install ecryptfs-utils

adduser bioblog --encrypt-home

Computational Intelligence (CI) Dream

I had the weirdest dream...

It was about the Twitter platform, except instead of tweets, people were tweeting these little AI programmes that represented the point you wanted to make.

The tweets would go out and then either interactively represent your argument in a discussion, or do other interactive things, like dance in time to music 'client side'.

For some reason people were calling them 'Computational Intelligences'. I can only assume this was out of respect for the derogatory connotation of 'Artificial'.

So you had this tweet stream of CIs that essentially talked to you, tried to engage you, or did other things in response to you.

The next phase were these AI documents. It was like, given that we can produce an infinite amount of text now, using language models, the actual text itself is irrelevant. Once there is essentially infinite text, any given text, no matter how persuasive or novel or important, is essentially worthless.

Instead we have 'smart documents', that embody the essence of the argument, I guess using finding from computational argumentation.

So you'd draft your argument, rather than a specific text, and the CI would go out and advocate your argument.

The other thing was it could produce the best text for a given argument, allowing you to re-structure your argument and automatically generate a text for it. Like a context sensitive drag and drop. Moving this concept into the introduction changes the font, or the form, of the argument.

Well... it was just a dream.

AMFIE correspondent bank accounts

For some reason, this information isn't available anywhere on the web... It is a list of the AMFIE correspondent banks (accounts you can use to transfer funds into your AMFIE account, and the associated currency of the account).

AMFIE Correspondent banks (PDF)

To send money to one of these accounts, just include your AMFIE account number in the reference information on the SEPA transfer.


Correspondent banks
Accounts you can use to transfer funds

Banques correspondantes
Banques où vous pouvez effectuer vos virements


Country
Pays

Bank
Banque

Currency
Devise

AMFIE account number
Numéro du compte de l’AMFIE

Swift/BIC code
Code Swift/BIC

Austria
Autriche

Bank Austria
Agence V.I.C.,
A-1400 Vienna

EUR AT33 1100 0093 7023 3000 BKAUATWW

Australia
Australie

Commonwealth Bank of Australia
48 Martin Place
Sydney NSW 2000

AUD 14632785

BSB number: 062000 CTBAAU2S

Belgium
Belgique

ING Belgium S.A.
Champ de Mars 23,
B-1050 Brussels

EUR BE69 3101 4150 2878 BBRUBEBB

Canada
Canada

Toronto Dominion Bank
Beaver Hall & Viger
525 Viger Ouest Suite 100
Montréal, P.Q., H2Z 0B2

USD
CAD

0010-7302531 - Transit 41601-004
0010-5205809 - Transit 41601-004 TDOMCATTMTL

France
France

ING Bank France
Immeuble Lumière
40 avenue des Terroirs de France
F-75616 Paris, Cedex 12

EUR FR76 3043 8000 0141 7790 3600 017 INGBFRPP

Germany
Allemagne

ING-DiBa AG
Hamburger Allee 1,
D-60486 Frankfurt

EUR DE36 5002 1000 0010 1388 08 INGBDEFF

Italy
Italie

ING BANK N.V., Milan Branch
Via Arrigo Boito, 10
20121 Milano, Italy

EUR IT55 Z034 7501 6010 0005 2092 410 INGBITMMICM

Luxembourg
Luxembourg

Banque Internationale à Luxembourg
(B.I.L)
69, route d’Esch,
L-2953 Luxembourg

EUR
USD
CHF
GBP
CAD
AUD

LU63 0023 1723 2326 7300
LU58 0023 1723 2329 9400
LU93 0023 1723 2325 9000
LU41 0023 1723 2327 0800
LU47 0023 1723 2327 6900
LU67 0023 1723 2326 4900

BILLLULL

ING Luxembourg S.A.
26, Place de la Gare
L-1616 Luxembourg

EUR
USD
CHF
GBP
CAD
AUD
DKK

LU35 0141 6408 6620 0000
LU30 0141 4408 6620 3010
LU93 0141 2408 6620 3050
LU17 0141 8408 6620 3030
LU08 0141 5408 6620 3110
LU48 0141 2408 6620 3860
LU63 0141 3408 6620 3100

CELLLULL

Netherlands
Pays-Bas

ING BANK N.V.
P.O. Box 23432, 1100 DX Amsterdam
Location code DEA 03

EUR NL55INGB0007735750 INGBNL2A

Spain
Espagne

ING BANK N.V., Sucursal en España
C/Genova, 27, 3rd floor
28004 Madrid

EUR ES78 1465 9000 1700 0186 3912 BBRUESMX

Switzerland
Suisse

ING Belgium, Brussels, Geneva Branch
6 rue Jean Petitot,
CH-1204 Geneva

CHF
EUR

CH84 0838 7000 0010 80473
CH79 0838 7000 0011 80473 BBRUCHGT

United
Kingdom
Royaume-Uni

Barclays Bank Plc.
31 Market Place,
Wokingham, RG40 1AR

GBP GB41 BARC 2011 7440 0556 46 BARCGB22

Stop Scheduled Emails from Google Analytics

Possibly the most hidden feature ever? Not to mention changing every release... The information below refers to the version of GA as of March 2016 (also known as "the new-new-version").

Summary:
Admin > VIEW > Scheduled Emails

Details:

1. Click "Admin" from the menu at the top.
1. Select the right "ACCOUNT" from the Account column.
2. Select the right "PROPERTY" from the Property column.
3. Select the right "VIEW" from the View column.
2. Select "Scheduled Emails" from  under the View column.
1. Below the "PERSONAL TOOLS & ASSETS" section!
3. Now scroll back up. (Yes, it's that well hidden!)
4. Select "Actions".
5. Select "Delete".
6. Confirm.

Dear Google! Was this designed by a Microsoft engineer?

May I suggest that the email itself should contain a link that takes you directly to step 3 (assuming you have the right privileges to see that page) or a simple 'unsubscribe' link for users that don't.

kthxbi