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Author SHA1 Message Date
Cadey Ratio 44f3b65c7b more words 2020-06-17 19:31:23 -04:00
Cadey Ratio e97151b665 start miau oneshot 2020-06-15 17:04:06 -04:00
195 changed files with 3726 additions and 15253 deletions

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.gitattributes vendored
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nix/deps.nix linguist-vendored
nix/sources.nix linguist-vendored

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.github/workflows/go.yml vendored Normal file
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name: Go
on: [push]
jobs:
build:
name: Build
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- name: Set up Go 1.14
uses: actions/setup-go@v1
with:
go-version: 1.14
id: go
- name: Check out code into the Go module directory
uses: actions/checkout@v1
- name: Test
run: go test -v ./...
env:
GO111MODULE: on
GOPROXY: https://cache.greedo.xeserv.us

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name: "CI/CD"
on:
push:
branches:
- master
jobs:
deploy:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v1
- name: Build container image
run: |
docker build -t xena/christinewebsite:$(echo $GITHUB_SHA | head -c7) .
echo $DOCKER_PASSWORD | docker login -u $DOCKER_USERNAME --password-stdin
docker push xena/christinewebsite
env:
DOCKER_USERNAME: "xena"
DOCKER_PASSWORD: ${{ secrets.DOCKER_PASSWORD }}
- name: Download secrets/Install/Configure/Use Dyson
run: |
mkdir ~/.ssh
echo $FILE_DATA | base64 -d > ~/.ssh/id_rsa
md5sum ~/.ssh/id_rsa
chmod 600 ~/.ssh/id_rsa
git clone git@ssh.tulpa.dev:cadey/within-terraform-secret
curl https://xena.greedo.xeserv.us/files/dyson-linux-amd64-0.1.0.tgz | tar xz
cp ./dyson-linux-amd64-0.1.1/dyson .
rm -rf dyson-linux-amd64-0.1.1
mkdir -p ~/.config/dyson
echo '[DigitalOcean]
Token = ""
[Cloudflare]
Email = ""
Token = ""
[Secrets]
GitCheckout = "./within-terraform-secret"' > ~/.config/dyson/dyson.ini
./dyson manifest \
--name=christinewebsite \
--domain=christine.website \
--dockerImage=xena/christinewebsite:$(echo $GITHUB_SHA | head -c7) \
--containerPort=5000 \
--replicas=2 \
--useProdLE=true > $GITHUB_WORKSPACE/deploy.yml
env:
FILE_DATA: ${{ secrets.SSH_PRIVATE_KEY }}
GIT_SSH_COMMAND: "ssh -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa -o UserKnownHostsFile=/dev/null -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no"
- name: Save DigitalOcean kubeconfig
uses: digitalocean/action-doctl@master
env:
DIGITALOCEAN_ACCESS_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.DIGITALOCEAN_TOKEN }}
with:
args: kubernetes cluster kubeconfig show kubermemes > $GITHUB_WORKSPACE/.kubeconfig
- name: Deploy to DigitalOcean Kubernetes
uses: docker://lachlanevenson/k8s-kubectl
with:
args: --kubeconfig=/github/workspace/.kubeconfig apply -n apps -f /github/workspace/deploy.yml
- name: Verify deployment
uses: docker://lachlanevenson/k8s-kubectl
with:
args: --kubeconfig=/github/workspace/.kubeconfig rollout status -n apps deployment/christinewebsite
- name: Ping Google
uses: docker://lachlanevenson/k8s-kubectl
with:
args: --kubeconfig=/github/workspace/.kubeconfig apply -f /github/workspace/k8s/job.yml
- name: Sleep
run: |
sleep 5
- name: Don't Ping Google
uses: docker://lachlanevenson/k8s-kubectl
with:
args: --kubeconfig=/github/workspace/.kubeconfig delete -f /github/workspace/k8s/job.yml
- name: POSSE
env:
MI_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.MI_TOKEN }}
run: |
curl -H "Authorization: $MI_TOKEN" --data "https://christine.website/blog.json" https://mi.within.website/blog/refresh

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name: "Nix"
on:
push:
branches:
- main
pull_request:
branches:
- main
jobs:
docker-build:
tests:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v1
- uses: cachix/install-nix-action@v12
- uses: cachix/cachix-action@v7
with:
name: xe
- run: nix build --no-link
- uses: actions/checkout@v1
- uses: cachix/install-nix-action@v6
- uses: cachix/cachix-action@v3
with:
name: xe
- run: |
nix-build docker.nix
docker load -i result
docker tag xena/christinewebsite:latest xena/christinewebsite:$(echo $GITHUB_SHA | head -c7)
- run: |
nix-env -if ./nix/dhall-yaml.nix
dhall-to-yaml-ng --omit-empty --file site.dhall

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/result-*
/result
.#*
/target

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# Changelog
New site features will be documented here.
## 2.1.0
- Blogpost bodies are now present in the RSS feed
## 2.0.1
Custom render RSS/Atom feeds
## 2.0.0
Complete site rewrite in Rust

2841
Cargo.lock generated

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[package]
name = "xesite"
version = "2.2.0"
authors = ["Christine Dodrill <me@christine.website>"]
edition = "2018"
build = "src/build.rs"
repository = "https://github.com/Xe/site"
# See more keys and their definitions at https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/manifest.html
[dependencies]
color-eyre = "0.5"
chrono = "0.4"
comrak = "0.9"
envy = "0.4"
glob = "0.3"
hyper = "0.14"
kankyo = "0.3"
lazy_static = "1.4"
log = "0.4"
mime = "0.3.0"
prometheus = { version = "0.11", default-features = false, features = ["process"] }
rand = "0"
reqwest = { version = "0.11", features = ["json"] }
sdnotify = { version = "0.1", default-features = false }
serde_dhall = "0.9.0"
serde = { version = "1", features = ["derive"] }
serde_yaml = "0.8"
sitemap = "0.4"
thiserror = "1"
tokio = { version = "1", features = ["full"] }
tracing = "0.1"
tracing-futures = "0.2"
tracing-subscriber = { version = "0.2", features = ["fmt"] }
warp = "0.3"
xml-rs = "0.8"
url = "2"
uuid = { version = "0.8", features = ["serde", "v4"] }
# workspace dependencies
cfcache = { path = "./lib/cfcache" }
go_vanity = { path = "./lib/go_vanity" }
jsonfeed = { path = "./lib/jsonfeed" }
mi = { path = "./lib/mi" }
patreon = { path = "./lib/patreon" }
[build-dependencies]
ructe = { version = "0.13", features = ["warp02"] }
[dev-dependencies]
pfacts = "0"
serde_json = "1"
eyre = "0.6"
pretty_env_logger = "0"
[workspace]
members = [
"./lib/*",
]

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FROM xena/go:1.14 AS build
ENV GOPROXY https://cache.greedo.xeserv.us
COPY . /site
WORKDIR /site
RUN CGO_ENABLED=0 go test -v ./...
RUN CGO_ENABLED=0 GOBIN=/root go install -v ./cmd/site
FROM xena/alpine
EXPOSE 5000
WORKDIR /site
COPY --from=build /root/site .
COPY ./static /site/static
COPY ./templates /site/templates
COPY ./blog /site/blog
COPY ./talks /site/talks
COPY ./gallery /site/gallery
COPY ./css /site/css
COPY ./signalboost.dhall /site/signalboost.dhall
HEALTHCHECK CMD wget --spider http://127.0.0.1:5000/.within/health || exit 1
CMD ./site

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Copyright (c) 2017-2021 Christine Dodrill <me@christine.website>
Copyright (c) 2017 Christine Dodrill <me@christine.website>
This software is provided 'as-is', without any express or implied
warranty. In no event will the authors be held liable for any damages

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# site
[![built with
nix](https://builtwithnix.org/badge.svg)](https://builtwithnix.org)
![Nix](https://github.com/Xe/site/workflows/Nix/badge.svg)
![Rust](https://github.com/Xe/site/workflows/Rust/badge.svg)
My personal/portfolio website.
![https://puu.sh/vWnJx/57cda175d8.png](https://puu.sh/vWnJx/57cda175d8.png)

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2.1.0

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---
title: The 7th Edition
date: 2020-12-19
tags:
- ttrpg
---
# The 7th Edition
You know what, fuck rules. Fuck systems. Fuck limitations. Let's dial the
tabletop RPG system down to its roots. Let's throw out every stat but one:
Awesomeness. When you try to do something that could fail, roll for Awesomeness.
If your roll is more than your awesomeness stat, you win. If not, you lose. If
you are or have something that would benefit you in that situation, roll for
awesomeness twice and take the higher value.
No stats.<br />
No counts.<br />
No limits.<br />
No gods.<br />
No masters.<br />
Just you and me and nature in the battlefield.
* Want to shoot an arrow? Roll for awesomeness. You failed? You're out of ammo.
* Want to, defeat a goblin but you have a goblin-slaying-broadsword? Roll twice
for awesomeness and take the higher value. You got a 20? That goblin was
obliterated. Good job.
* Want to pick up an item into your inventory? Roll for awesomeness. You got it?
It's in your inventory.
Etc. Don't think too hard. Let a roll of the dice decide if you are unsure.
## Base Awesomeness Stats
Here are some probably balanced awesomeness base stats depending on what kind of
dice you are using:
* 6-sided: 4 or 5
* 8-sided: 5 or 6
* 10-sided: 6 or 7
* 12-sided: 7 or 8
* 20-sided: anywhere from 11-13
## Character Sheet Template
Here's an example character sheet:
```
Name:
Awesomeness:
Race:
Class:
Inventory:
*
```
That's it. You don't even need the race or class if you don't want to have it.
You can add more if you feel it is relevant for your character. If your
character is a street brat that has experience with haggling, then fuck it be
the most street brattiest haggler you can. Try to not overload your sheet with
information, this game is supposed to be simple. A sentence or two at most is
good.
## One Player is The World
The World is a character that other systems would call the Narrator, the
Pathfinder, Dungeon Master or similar. Let's strip this down to the core of the
matter. One player doesn't just dictate the world, they _are_ the world.
The World also controls the monsters and non-player characters. In general, if
you are in doubt as to who should roll for an event, The World does that roll.
## Mixins/Mods
These are things you can do to make the base game even more tailored to your
group. Whether you should do this is highly variable to the needs and whims of
your group in particular.
### Mixin: Adjustable Awesomeness
So, one problem that could come up with this is that bad luck could make this
not as fun. As a result, add these two rules in:
* Every time you roll above your awesomeness, add 1 to your awesomeness stat
* Every time you roll below your awesomeness, remove 1 from your awesomeness
stat
This should add up so that luck would even out over time. Players that have less
luck than usual will eventually get their awesomeness evened out so that luck
will be in their favor.
### Mixin: No Awesomeness
In this mod, rip out Awesomeness altogether. When two parties are at odds, they
both roll dice. The one that rolls higher gets what they want. If they tie, both
people get a little part of what they want. For extra fun do this with six-sided
dice.
* Monster wants to attack a player? The World and that player roll. If the
player wins, they can choose to counterattack. If the monster wins, they do a
wound or something.
* One player wants to steal from another? Have them both roll to see what
happens.
Use your imagination! Ask others if you are unsure!
## Other Advice
This is not essential but it may help.
### Monster Building
Okay so basically monsters fall into two categories: peons and bosses. Peons
should be easy to defeat, usually requiring one action. Bosses may require more
and might require more than pure damage to defeat. Get clever. Maybe require the
players to drop a chandelier on the boss. Use the environment.
In general, peons should have a very high base awesomeness in order to do things
they want. Bosses can vary based on your mood.
Adjustable awesomeness should affect monsters too.
### Worldbuilding
Take a setting from somewhere and roll with it. You want to do a cyberpunk jaunt
in Night City with a sword-wielding warlock, a succubus space marine, a bard
netrunner and a shapeshifting monk? Do the hell out of that. That sounds
awesome.
Don't worry about accuracy or the like. You are setting out to have fun.
## Special Thanks
Special thanks goes to Jared, who sent out this [tweet][1] that inspired this
document. In case the tweet gets deleted, here's what it said:
[1]: https://twitter.com/infinite_mao/status/1340402360259137541
> heres a d&d for you
> you have one stat, its a saving throw. if you need to roll dice, you roll your
> save.
> you have a class and some equipment and junk. if the thing you need to roll
> dice for is relevant to your class or equipment or whatever, roll your save
> with advantage.
> oh your Save is 5 or something. if you do something awesome, raise your save
> by 1.
> no hp, save vs death. no damage, save vs goblin. no tracking arrows, save vs
> running out of ammo.
> thanks to @Axes_N_Orcs for this
> What's So Cool About Save vs Death?
> can you carry all that treasure and equipment? save vs gains
I replied:
> Can you get more minimal than this?
He replied:
> when two or more parties are at odds, all roll dice. highest result gets what
> they want.
> hows that?
This document is really just this twitter exchange in more words so that people
less familiar with tabletop games can understand it more easily. You know you
have finished when there is nothing left to remove, not when you can add
something to "fix" it.
I might put this on my [itch.io page](https://withinstudios.itch.io/).

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---
title: "TL;DR Rust"
date: 2020-09-19
series: rust
tags:
- go
- golang
---
# TL;DR Rust
Recently I've been starting to use Rust more and more for larger and larger
projects. As things have come up, I realized that I am missing a good reference
for common things in Rust as compared to Go. This post contains a quick
high-level overview of patterns in Rust and how they compare to patterns
in Go. This will focus on code samples. This is no replacement for the [Rust
book](https://doc.rust-lang.org/book/), but should help you get spun up on the
various patterns used in Rust code.
Also I'm happy to introduce Mara to the blog!
[Hey, happy to be here! I'm Mara, a shark hacker from Christine's imagination.
I'll interject with side information, challenge assertions and more! Thanks for
inviting me!](conversation://Mara/hacker)
Let's start somewhere simple: functions.
## Making Functions
Functions are defined using `fn` instead of `func`:
```go
func foo() {}
```
```rust
fn foo() {}
```
### Arguments
Arguments can be passed by separating the name from the type with a colon:
```go
func foo(bar int) {}
```
```rust
fn foo(bar: i32) {}
```
### Returns
Values can be returned by adding `-> Type` to the function declaration:
```go
func foo() int {
return 2
}
```
```rust
fn foo() -> i32 {
return 2;
}
```
In Rust values can also be returned on the last statement without the `return`
keyword or a terminating semicolon:
```rust
fn foo() -> i32 {
2
}
```
[Hmm, what if I try to do something like this. Will this
work?](conversation://Mara/hmm)
```rust
fn foo() -> i32 {
if some_cond {
2
}
4
}
```
Let's find out! The compiler spits back an error:
```
error[E0308]: mismatched types
--> src/lib.rs:3:9
|
2 | / if some_cond {
3 | | 2
| | ^ expected `()`, found integer
4 | | }
| | -- help: consider using a semicolon here
| |_____|
| expected this to be `()`
```
This happens because most basic statements in Rust can return values. The best
way to fix this would be to move the `4` return into an `else` block:
```rust
fn foo() -> i32 {
if some_cond {
2
} else {
4
}
}
```
Otherwise, the compiler will think you are trying to use that `if` as a
statement, such as like this:
```rust
let val = if some_cond { 2 } else { 4 };
```
### Functions that can fail
The [Result](https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/result/) type represents things that
can fail with specific errors. The [eyre Result
type](https://docs.rs/eyre) represents things that can fail
with any error. For readability, this post will use the eyre Result type.
[The angle brackets in the `Result` type are arguments to the type, this allows
the Result type to work across any type you could imagine.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
```go
import "errors"
func divide(x, y int) (int, err) {
if y == 0 {
return 0, errors.New("cannot divide by zero")
}
return x / y, nil
}
```
```rust
use eyre::{eyre, Result};
fn divide(x: i32, y: i32) -> Result<i32> {
match y {
0 => Err(eyre!("cannot divide by zero")),
_ => Ok(x / y),
}
}
```
[Huh? I thought Rust had the <a
href="https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/error/trait.Error.html">Error trait</a>,
shouldn't you be able to use that instead of a third party package like
eyre?](conversation://Mara/wat)
Let's try that, however we will need to make our own error type because the
[`eyre!`](https://docs.rs/eyre/0.6.0/eyre/macro.eyre.html) macro creates its own
transient error type on the fly.
First we need to make our own simple error type for a DivideByZero error:
```rust
use std::error::Error;
use std::fmt;
#[derive(Debug)]
struct DivideByZero;
impl fmt::Display for DivideByZero {
fn fmt(&self, f: &mut fmt::Formatter<'_>) -> fmt::Result {
write!(f, "cannot divide by zero")
}
}
impl Error for DivideByZero {}
```
So now let's use it:
```rust
fn divide(x: i32, y: i32) -> Result<i32, DivideByZero> {
match y {
0 => Err(DivideByZero{}),
_ => Ok(x / y),
}
}
```
However there is still one thing left: the function returns a DivideByZero
error, not _any_ error like the [error interface in
Go](https://godoc.org/builtin#error). In order to represent that we need to
return something that implements the Error trait:
```rust
fn divide(x: i32, y: i32) -> Result<i32, impl Error> {
// ...
}
```
And for the simple case, this will work. However as things get more complicated
this simple facade will not work due to reality and its complexities. This is
why I am shipping as much as I can out to other packages like eyre or
[anyhow](https://docs.rs/anyhow). Check out this code in the [Rust
Playground](https://play.rust-lang.org/?version=stable&mode=debug&edition=2018&gist=946057d8eb02f388cb3f03bae226d10d)
to mess with this code interactively.
[Pro tip: eyre (via <a href="https://docs.rs/color-eyre">color-eyre</a>) also
has support for adding <a href="https://docs.rs/color-eyre/0.5.4/color_eyre/#custom-sections-for-error-reports-via-help-trait">custom
sections and context</a> to errors similar to Go's <a href="https://godoc.org/fmt#Errorf">`fmt.Errorf` `%w`
format argument</a>, which will help in real world
applications. When you do need to actually make your own errors, you may want to look into
crates like <a href="https://docs.rs/thiserror">thiserror</a> to help with
automatically generating your error implementation.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
### The `?` Operator
In Rust, the `?` operator checks for an error in a function call and if there is
one, it automatically returns the error and gives you the result of the function
if there was no error. This only works in functions that return either an Option
or a Result.
[The <a href="https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/option/index.html">Option</a> type
isn't shown in very much detail here, but it acts like a "this thing might not exist and it's your
responsibility to check" container for any value. The closest analogue in Go is
making a pointer to a value or possibly putting a value in an `interface{}`
(which can be annoying to deal with in practice).](conversation://Mara/hacker)
```go
func doThing() (int, error) {
result, err := divide(3, 4)
if err != nil {
return 0, err
}
return result, nil
}
```
```rust
use eyre::Result;
fn do_thing() -> Result<i32> {
let result = divide(3, 4)?;
Ok(result)
}
```
If the second argument of divide is changed to `0`, then `do_thing` will return
an error.
[And how does that work with eyre?](conversation://Mara/hmm)
It works with eyre because eyre has its own error wrapper type called
[`Report`](https://docs.rs/eyre/0.6.0/eyre/struct.Report.html), which can
represent anything that implements the Error trait.
## Macros
Rust macros are function calls with `!` after their name:
```rust
println!("hello, world");
```
## Variables
Variables are created using `let`:
```go
var foo int
var foo = 3
foo := 3
```
```rust
let foo: i32;
let foo = 3;
```
### Mutability
In Rust, every variable is immutable (unchangeable) by default. If we try to
change those variables above we get a compiler error:
```rust
fn main() {
let foo: i32;
let foo = 3;
foo = 4;
}
```
This makes the compiler return this error:
```
error[E0384]: cannot assign twice to immutable variable `foo`
--> src/main.rs:4:5
|
3 | let foo = 3;
| ---
| |
| first assignment to `foo`
| help: make this binding mutable: `mut foo`
4 | foo = 4;
| ^^^^^^^ cannot assign twice to immutable variable
```
As the compiler suggests, you can create a mutable variable by adding the `mut`
keyword after the `let` keyword. There is no analog to this in Go.
```rust
let mut foo: i32 = 0;
foo = 4;
```
[This is slightly a lie. There's more advanced cases involving interior
mutability and other fun stuff like that, however this is a more advanced topic
that isn't covered here.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
### Lifetimes
Rust does garbage collection at compile time. It also passes ownership of memory
to functions as soon as possible. Lifetimes are how Rust calculates how "long" a
given bit of data should exist in the program. Rust will then tell the compiled
code to destroy the data from memory as soon as possible.
[This is slightly inaccurate in order to make this simpler to explain and
understand. It's probably more accurate to say that Rust calculates _when_ to
collect garbage at compile time, but the difference doesn't really matter for
most cases](conversation://Mara/hacker)
For example, this code will fail to compile because `quo` was moved into the
second divide call:
```rust
let quo = divide(4, 8)?;
let other_quo = divide(quo, 5)?;
// Fails compile because ownership of quo was given to divide to create other_quo
let yet_another_quo = divide(quo, 4)?;
```
To work around this you can pass a reference to the divide function:
```rust
let other_quo = divide(&quo, 5);
let yet_another_quo = divide(&quo, 4)?;
```
Or even create a clone of it:
```rust
let other_quo = divide(quo.clone(), 5);
let yet_another_quo = divide(quo, 4)?;
```
[You can also get more fancy with <a
href="https://doc.rust-lang.org/rust-by-example/scope/lifetime/explicit.html">explicit
lifetime annotations</a>, however as of Rust's 2018 edition they aren't usually
required unless you are doing something weird. This is something that is also
covered in more detail in <a
href="https://doc.rust-lang.org/stable/book/ch04-00-understanding-ownership.html">The
Rust Book</a>.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
### Passing Mutability
Sometimes functions need mutable variables. To pass a mutable reference, add
`&mut` before the name of the variable:
```rust
let something = do_something_to_quo(&mut quo)?;
```
## Project Setup
### Imports
External dependencies are declared using the [Cargo.toml
file](https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/specifying-dependencies.html):
```toml
# Cargo.toml
[dependencies]
eyre = "0.6"
```
This depends on the crate [eyre](https://crates.io/crates/eyre) at version
0.6.x.
[You can do much more with version requirements with cargo, see more <a
href="https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/specifying-dependencies.html">here</a>.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
Dependencies can also have optional features:
```toml
# Cargo.toml
[dependencies]
reqwest = { version = "0.10", features = ["json"] }
```
This depends on the crate [reqwest](https://crates.io/reqwest) at version 0.10.x
with the `json` feature enabled (in this case it enables reqwest being able to
automagically convert things to/from json using Serde).
External dependencies can be used with the `use` statement:
```go
// go
import "github.com/foo/bar"
```
```rust
use foo; // -> foo now has the members of crate foo behind the :: operator
use foo::Bar; // -> Bar is now exposed as a type in this file
use eyre::{eyre, Result}; // exposes the eyre! and Result members of eyre
```
[This doesn't cover how the <a
href="http://www.sheshbabu.com/posts/rust-module-system/">module system</a>
works, however the post I linked there covers this better than I
can.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
## Async/Await
Async functions may be interrupted to let other things execute as needed. This
program uses [tokio](https://tokio.rs/) to handle async tasks. To run an async
task and wait for its result, do this:
```
let printer_fact = reqwest::get("https://printerfacts.cetacean.club/fact")
.await?
.text()
.await?;
println!("your printer fact is: {}", printer_fact);
```
This will populate `response` with an amusing fact about everyone's favorite
household pet, the [printer](https://printerfacts.cetacean.club).
To make an async function, add the `async` keyword before the `fn` keyword:
```rust
async fn get_text(url: String) -> Result<String> {
reqwest::get(&url)
.await?
.text()
.await?
}
```
This can then be called like this:
```rust
let printer_fact = get_text("https://printerfacts.cetacean.club/fact").await?;
```
## Public/Private Types and Functions
Rust has three privacy levels for functions:
- Only visible to the current file (no keyword, lowercase in Go)
- Visible to anything in the current crate (`pub(crate)`, internal packages in
go)
- Visible to everyone (`pub`, upper case in Go)
[You can't get a perfect analog to `pub(crate)` in Go, but <a
href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1e8kOo3r51b2BWtTs_1uADIA5djfXhPT36s6eHVRIvaU/edit">internal
packages</a> can get close to this behavior. Additionally you can have a lot
more control over access levels than this, see <a
href="https://doc.rust-lang.org/nightly/reference/visibility-and-privacy.html">here</a>
for more information.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
## Structures
Rust structures are created using the `struct` keyword:
```go
type Client struct {
Token string
}
```
```rust
pub struct Client {
pub token: String,
}
```
If the `pub` keyword is not specified before a member name, it will not be
usable outside the Rust source code file it is defined in:
```go
type Client struct {
token string
}
```
```rust
pub(crate) struct Client {
token: String,
}
```
### Encoding structs to JSON
[serde](https://serde.rs) is used to convert structures to json. The Rust
compiler's
[derive](https://doc.rust-lang.org/stable/rust-by-example/trait/derive.html)
feature is used to automatically implement the conversion logic.
```go
type Response struct {
Name string `json:"name"`
Description *string `json:"description,omitempty"`
}
```
```rust
use serde::{Serialize, Deserialize};
#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize, Debug)]
pub(crate) struct Response {
pub name: String,
pub description: Option<String>,
}
```
## Strings
Rust has a few string types that do different things. You can read more about
this [here](https://fasterthanli.me/blog/2020/working-with-strings-in-rust/),
but at a high level most projects only uses a few of them:
- `&str`, a slice reference to a String owned by someone else
- String, an owned UTF-8 string
- PathBuf, a filepath string (encoded in whatever encoding the OS running this
code uses for filesystems)
The strings are different types for safety reasons. See the linked blogpost for
more detail about this.
## Enumerations / Tagged Unions
Enumerations, also known as tagged unions, are a way to specify a superposition
of one of a few different kinds of values in one type. A neat way to show them
off (along with some other fancy features like the derivation system) is with the
[structopt](https://docs.rs/structopt/0.3.14/structopt/) crate. There is no easy
analog for this in Go.
[We've actually been dealing with enumerations ever since we touched the Result
type earlier. <a
href="https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/result/enum.Result.html">Result</a> and <a
href="https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/option/enum.Option.html">Option</a> are
implemented with enumerations.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
```rust
#[derive(StructOpt, Debug)]
#[structopt(about = "A simple release management tool")]
pub(crate) enum Cmd {
/// Creates a new release for a git repo
Cut {
#[structopt(flatten)]
common: Common,
/// Changelog location
#[structopt(long, short, default_value="./CHANGELOG.md")]
changelog: PathBuf,
},
/// Runs releases as triggered by GitHub Actions
GitHubAction {
#[structopt(flatten)]
gha: GitHubAction,
},
}
```
Enum variants can be matched using the `match` keyword:
```rust
match cmd {
Cmd::Cut { common, changelog } => {
cmd::cut::run(common, changelog).await
}
Cmd::GitHubAction { gha } => {
cmd::github_action::run(gha).await
}
}
```
All variants of an enum must be matched in order for the code to compile.
[This code was borrowed from <a
href="https://github.com/lightspeed/palisade">palisade</a> in order to
demonstrate this better. If you want to see these patterns in action, check this
repository out!](conversation://Mara/hacker)
## Testing
Test functions need to be marked with the `#[test]` annotation, then they will
be run alongside `cargo test`:
```rust
mod tests { // not required but it is good practice
#[test]
fn math_works() {
assert_eq!(2 + 2, 4);
}
#[tokio::test] // needs tokio as a dependency
async fn http_works() {
let _ = get_html("https://within.website").await.unwrap();
}
}
```
Avoid the use of `unwrap()` outside of tests. In the wrong cases, using
`unwrap()` in production code can cause the server to crash and can incur data
loss.
[Alternatively, you can also use the <a href="https://learning-rust.github.io/docs/e4.unwrap_and_expect.html#expect">`.expect()`</a> method instead
of `.unwrap()`. This lets you attach a message that will be shown when the
result isn't Ok.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
---
This is by no means comprehensive, see the rust book or [Learn X in Y Minutes
Where X = Rust](https://learnxinyminutes.com/docs/rust/) for more information.
This code is written to be as boring and obvious as possible. If things don't
make sense, please reach out and don't be afraid to ask questions.

View File

@ -23,13 +23,13 @@ This is a surprisingly hard question to answer. Most of the time though, I know
Art doesn't have to follow conventional ideas of what most people think "art" is. Art can be just about anything that you can classify as art. As a conventional example, consider something like the Mona Lisa:
![The Mona Lisa, the most famous painting in the world](https://xena.greedo.xeserv.us/files/monalisa_small.jpg)
<center> ![The Mona Lisa, the most famous painting in the world](https://xena.greedo.xeserv.us/files/monalisa_small.jpg) </center>
People will accept this as art without much argument. It's a painting, it obviously took a lot of skill and time to create. It is said that Leonardo Da Vinci (the artist of the painting) created it partially [as a contribution to the state of the art of oil painting][monalisawhy].
So that painting is art, and a lot of people would consider it art; so what *would* a lot of people *not* consider art? Here's an example:
![Untitled (Perfect Lovers) by Felix Gonzalez-Torres](https://xena.greedo.xeserv.us/files/perfect-lovers.jpg)
<center> ![Untitled (Perfect Lovers) by Felix Gonzalez-Torres](https://xena.greedo.xeserv.us/files/perfect-lovers.jpg) </center>
This is *Untitled (Perfect Lovers)* by Felix Gonzalez. If you just take a look at it without context, it's just two battery-operated clocks on a wall. Where is the expertise and the like that goes into this? This is just the result of someone buying two clocks from the store and putting them somewhere, right?

View File

@ -1,229 +0,0 @@
---
title: "</kubernetes>"
date: 2021-01-03
---
# &lt;/kubernetes&gt;
Well, since I posted [that last post](/blog/k8s-pondering-2020-12-31) I have had
an adventure. A good friend pointed out a server host that I had missed when I
was looking for other places to use, and now I have migrated my blog to this new
server. As of yesterday, I now run my website on a dedicated server in Finland.
Here is the story of my journey to migrate 6 years of cruft and technical debt
to this new server.
Let's talk about this goliath of a server. This server is an AX41 from Hetzner.
It has 64 GB of ram, a 512 GB nvme drive, 3 2 TB drives, and a Ryzen 3600. For
all practical concerns, this beast is beyond overkill and rivals my workstation
tower in everything but the GPU power. I have named it `lufta`, which is the
word for feather in [L'ewa](https://lewa.within.website/dictionary.html).
## Assimilation
For my server setup process, the first step it to assimilate it. In this step I
get a base NixOS install on it somehow. Since I was using Hetzner, I was able to
boot into a NixOS install image using the process documented
[here](https://nixos.wiki/wiki/Install_NixOS_on_Hetzner_Online). Then I decided
that it would also be cool to have this server use
[zfs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZFS) as its filesystem to take advantage of
its legendary subvolume and snapshotting features.
So I wrote up a bootstrap system definition like the Hetzner tutorial said and
ended up with `hosts/lufta/bootstrap.nix`:
```nix
{ pkgs, ... }:
{
services.openssh.enable = true;
users.users.root.openssh.authorizedKeys.keys = [
"ssh-ed25519 AAAAC3NzaC1lZDI1NTE5AAAAIPg9gYKVglnO2HQodSJt4z4mNrUSUiyJQ7b+J798bwD9 cadey@shachi"
];
networking.usePredictableInterfaceNames = false;
systemd.network = {
enable = true;
networks."eth0".extraConfig = ''
[Match]
Name = eth0
[Network]
# Add your own assigned ipv6 subnet here here!
Address = 2a01:4f9:3a:1a1c::/64
Gateway = fe80::1
# optionally you can do the same for ipv4 and disable DHCP (networking.dhcpcd.enable = false;)
Address = 135.181.162.99/26
Gateway = 135.181.162.65
'';
};
boot.supportedFilesystems = [ "zfs" ];
environment.systemPackages = with pkgs; [ wget vim zfs ];
}
```
Then I fired up the kexec tarball and waited for the server to boot into a NixOS
live environment. A few minutes later I was in. I started formatting the drives
according to the [NixOS install
guide](https://nixos.org/manual/nixos/stable/index.html#sec-installation) with
one major difference: I added a `/boot` ext4 partition on the SSD. This allows
me to have the system root device on zfs. I added the disks to a `raidz1` pool
and created a few volumes. I also added the SSD as a log device so I get SSD
caching.
From there I installed NixOS as normal and rebooted the server. It booted
normally. I had a shiny new NixOS server in the cloud! I noticed that the server
had booted into NixOS unstable as opposed to NixOS 20.09 like my other nodes. I
thought "ah, well, that probably isn't a problem" and continued to the
configuration step.
[That's ominous...](conversation://Mara/hmm)
## Configuration
Now that the server was assimilated and I could SSH into it, the next step was
to configure it to run my services. While I was waiting for Hetzner to provision
my server I ported a bunch of my services over to Nixops services [a-la this
post](/blog/nixops-services-2020-11-09) in [this
folder](https://github.com/Xe/nixos-configs/tree/master/common/services) of my
configs repo.
Now that I had them, it was time to add this server to my Nixops setup. So I
opened the [nixops definition
folder](https://github.com/Xe/nixos-configs/tree/master/nixops/hexagone) and
added the metadata for `lufta`. Then I added it to my Nixops deployment with
this command:
```console
$ nixops modify -d hexagone -n hexagone *.nix
```
Then I copied over the autogenerated config from `lufta`'s `/etc/nixos/` folder
into
[`hosts/lufta`](https://github.com/Xe/nixos-configs/tree/master/hosts/lufta) and
ran a `nixops deploy` to add some other base configuration.
## Migration
Once that was done, I started enabling my services and pushing configs to test
them. After I got to a point where I thought things would work I opened up the
Kubernetes console and started deleting deployments on my kubernetes cluster as
I felt "safe" to migrate them over. Then I saw the deployments come back. I
deleted them again and they came back again.
Oh, right. I enabled that one Kubernetes service that made it intentionally hard
to delete deployments. One clever set of scale-downs and kills later and I was
able to kill things with wild abandon.
I copied over the gitea data with `rsync` running in the kubernetes deployment.
Then I killed the gitea deployment, updated DNS and reran a whole bunch of gitea
jobs to resanify the environment. I did a test clone on a few of my repos and
then I deleted the gitea volume from DigitalOcean.
Moving over the other deployments from Kubernetes into NixOS services was
somewhat easy, however I did need to repackage a bunch of my programs and static
sites for NixOS. I made the
[`pkgs`](https://github.com/Xe/nixos-configs/tree/master/pkgs) tree a bit more
fleshed out to compensate.
[Okay, packaging static sites in NixOS is beyond overkill, however a lot of them
need some annoyingly complicated build steps and throwing it all into Nix means
that we can make them reproducible and use one build system to rule them
all. Not to mention that when I need to upgrade the system, everything will
rebuild with new system libraries to avoid the <a
href="https://blog.tidelift.com/bit-rot-the-silent-killer">Docker bitrot
problem</a>.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
## Reboot Test
After a significant portion of the services were moved over, I decided it was
time to do the reboot test. I ran the `reboot` command and then...nothing.
My continuous ping test was timing out. My phone was blowing up with downtime
messages from NodePing. Yep, I messed something up.
I was able to boot the server back into a NixOS recovery environment using the
kexec trick, and from there I was able to prove the following:
- The zfs setup is healthy
- I can read some of the data I migrated over
- I can unmount and remount the ZFS volumes repeatedly
I was confused. This shouldn't be happening. After half an hour of
troubleshooting, I gave in and ordered an IPKVM to be installed in my server.
Once that was set up (and I managed to trick MacOS into letting me boot a .jnlp
web start file), I rebooted the server so I could see what error I was getting
on boot. I missed it the first time around, but on the second time I was able to
capture this screenshot:
![The error I was looking
for](https://cdn.christine.website/file/christine-static/blog/Screen+Shot+2021-01-03+at+1.13.05+AM.png)
Then it hit me. I did the install on NixOS unstable. My other servers use NixOS
20.09. I had downgraded zfs and the older version of zfs couldn't mount the
volume created by the newer version of zfs in read/write mode. One more trip to
the recovery environment later to install NixOS unstable in a new generation.
Then I switched my tower's default NixOS channel to the unstable channel and ran
`nixops deploy` to reactivate my services. After the NodePing uptime
notifications came in, I ran the reboot test again while looking at the console
output to be sure.
It booted. It worked. I had a stable setup. Then I reconnected to IRC and passed
out.
## Services Migrated
Here is a list of all of the services I have migrated over from my old dedicated
server, my kubernetes cluster and my dokku server:
- aerial -> discord chatbot
- goproxy -> go modules proxy
- lewa -> https://lewa.within.website
- hlang -> https://h.christine.website
- mi -> https://mi.within.website
- printerfacts -> https://printerfacts.cetacean.club
- xesite -> https://christine.website
- graphviz -> https://graphviz.christine.website
- idp -> https://idp.christine.website
- oragono -> ircs://irc.within.website:6697/
- tron -> discord bot
- withinbot -> discord bot
- withinwebsite -> https://within.website
- gitea -> https://tulpa.dev
- other static sites
Doing this migration is a bit of an archaeology project as well. I was
continuously discovering services that I had littered over my machines with very
poorly documented requirements and configuration. I hope that this move will let
the next time I do this kind of migration be a lot easier by comparison.
I still have a few other services to move over, however the ones that are left
are much more annoying to set up properly. I'm going to get to deprovision 5
servers in this migration and as a result get this stupidly powerful goliath of
a server to do whatever I want with and I also get to cut my monthly server
costs by over half.
I am very close to being able to turn off the Kubernetes cluster and use NixOS
for everything. A few services that are still on the Kubernetes cluster are
resistant to being nixified, so I may have to use the Docker containers for
that. I was hoping to be able to cut out Docker entirely, however we don't seem
to be that lucky yet.
Sure, there is some added latency with the server being in Europe instead of
Montreal, however if this ever becomes a practical issue I can always launch a
cheap DigitalOcean VPS in Toronto to act as a DNS server for my WireGuard setup.
Either way, I am now off Kubernetes for my highest traffic services. If services
of mine need to use the disk, they can now just use the disk. If I really care
about the data, I can add the service folders to the list of paths to back up to
`rsync.net` (I have a post about how this backup process works in the drafting
stage) via [borgbackup](https://www.borgbackup.org/).
Let's hope it stays online!
---
Many thanks to [Graham Christensen](https://twitter.com/grhmc), [Dave
Anderson](https://twitter.com/dave_universetf) and everyone else who has been
helping me along this journey. I would be lost without them.

View File

@ -1,178 +0,0 @@
---
title: "How to Set Up Borg Backup on NixOS"
date: 2021-01-09
series: howto
tags:
- nixos
- borgbackup
---
# How to Set Up Borg Backup on NixOS
[Borg Backup](https://www.borgbackup.org/) is a encrypted, compressed,
deduplicated backup program for multiple platforms including Linux. This
combined with the [NixOS options for configuring
Borg Backup](https://search.nixos.org/options?channel=20.09&show=services.borgbackup.jobs.%3Cname%3E.paths&from=0&size=30&sort=relevance&query=services.borgbackup.jobs)
allows you to backup on a schedule and restore from those backups when you need
to.
Borg Backup works with local files, remote servers and there are even [cloud
hosts](https://www.borgbackup.org/support/commercial.html) that specialize in
hosting your backups. In this post we will cover how to set up a backup job on a
server using [BorgBase](https://www.borgbase.com/)'s free tier to host the
backup files.
## Setup
You will need a few things:
- A free BorgBase account
- A server running NixOS
- A list of folders to back up
- A list of folders to NOT back up
First, we will need to create a SSH key for root to use when connecting to
BorgBase. Open a shell as root on the server and make a `borgbackup` folder in
root's home directory:
```shell
mkdir borgbackup
cd borgbackup
```
Then create a SSH key that will be used to connect to BorgBase:
```shell
ssh-keygen -f ssh_key -t ed25519 -C "Borg Backup"
```
Ignore the SSH key password because at this time the automated Borg Backup job
doesn't allow the use of password-protected SSH keys.
Now we need to create an encryption passphrase for the backup repository. Run
this command to generate one using [xkcdpass](https://pypi.org/project/xkcdpass/):
```shell
nix-shell -p python39Packages.xkcdpass --run 'xkcdpass -n 12' > passphrase
```
[You can do whatever you want to generate a suitable passphrase, however
xkcdpass is proven to be <a href="https://xkcd.com/936/">more random</a> than
most other password generators.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
## BorgBase Setup
Now that we have the basic requirements out of the way, let's configure BorgBase
to use that SSH key. In the BorgBase UI click on the Account tab in the upper
right and open the SSH key management window. Click on Add Key and paste in the
contents of `./ssh_key.pub`. Name it after the hostname of the server you are
working on. Click Add Key and then go back to the Repositories tab in the upper
right.
Click New Repo and name it after the hostname of the server you are working on.
Select the key you just created to have full access. Choose the region of the
backup volume and then click Add Repository.
On the main page copy the repository path with the copy icon next to your
repository in the list. You will need this below. Attempt to SSH into the backup
repo in order to have ssh recognize the server's host key:
```shell
ssh -i ./ssh_key o6h6zl22@o6h6zl22.repo.borgbase.com
```
Then accept the host key and press control-c to terminate the SSH connection.
## NixOS Configuration
In your `configuration.nix` file, add the following block:
```nix
services.borgbackup.jobs."borgbase" = {
paths = [
"/var/lib"
"/srv"
"/home"
];
exclude = [
# very large paths
"/var/lib/docker"
"/var/lib/systemd"
"/var/lib/libvirt"
# temporary files created by cargo and `go build`
"**/target"
"/home/*/go/bin"
"/home/*/go/pkg"
];
repo = "o6h6zl22@o6h6zl22.repo.borgbase.com:repo";
encryption = {
mode = "repokey-blake2";
passCommand = "cat /root/borgbackup/passphrase";
};
environment.BORG_RSH = "ssh -i /root/borgbackup/ssh_key";
compression = "auto,lzma";
startAt = "daily";
};
```
Customize the paths and exclude lists to your needs. Once you are satisfied,
rebuild your NixOS system using `nixos-rebuild`:
```shell
nixos-rebuild switch
```
And then you can fire off an initial backup job with this command:
```shell
systemctl start borgbackup-job-borgbase.service
```
Monitor the job with this command:
```shell
journalctl -fu borgbackup-job-borgbase.service
```
The first backup job will always take the longest to run. Every incremental
backup after that will get smaller and smaller. By default, the system will
create new backup snapshots every night at midnight local time.
## Restoring Files
To restore files, first figure out when you want to restore the files from.
NixOS includes a wrapper script for each Borg job you define. you can mount your
backup archive using this command:
```
mkdir mount
borg-job-borgbase mount o6h6zl22@o6h6zl22.repo.borgbase.com:repo ./mount
```
Then you can explore the backup (and with it each incremental snapshot) to
your heart's content and copy files out manually. You can look through each
folder and copy out what you need.
When you are done you can unmount it with this command:
```
borg-job-borgbase umount /root/borgbase/mount
```
---
And that's it! You can get more fancy with nixops using a setup [like
this](https://github.com/Xe/nixos-configs/blob/master/common/services/backup.nix).
In general though, you can get away with this setup. It may be a good idea to
copy down the encryption passphrase onto paper and put it in a safe space like a
safety deposit box.
For more information about Borg Backup on NixOS, see [the relevant chapter of
the NixOS
manual](https://nixos.org/manual/nixos/stable/index.html#module-borgbase) or
[the list of borgbackup
options](https://search.nixos.org/options?channel=20.09&query=services.borgbackup.jobs)
that you can pick from.
I hope this is able to help.

View File

@ -1,88 +0,0 @@
---
title: Colemak Layout - First Week
date: 2020-08-22
series: colemak
---
# Colemak Layout - First Week
A week ago I posted the last post in this series where I announced I was going
all colemak all the time. I have not been measuring words per minute (to avoid
psyching myself out), but so far my typing speed has gone from intolerably slow
to manageably slow. I have been only dipping back into qwerty for two main
things:
1. Passwords, specifically the ones I have in muscle memory
2. Coding at work that needs to be done fast
Other than that, everything else has been in colemak. I have written DnD-style
game notes, hacked at my own "Linux distro", started a few QMK keymaps and more
all via colemak.
Here are some of the lessons I've learned:
## Let Your Coworkers Know You Are Going to Be Slow
This kind of thing is a long tirm investment. In the short term, your
productivity is going to crash through the floor. This will feel frustrating. It
took me an entire workday to implement and test a HTTP handler/client for it in
Go. You will be making weird typos. Let your coworkers know so they don't jump
to the wrong conclusions too quickly.
Also, this goes without saying, but don't do this kind of change during crunch
time. That's a bit of a dick move.
## Print Out the Layout
I have the layout printed and taped to my monitor and iPad stand. This helps a
lot. Instead of looking at the keyboard, I look at the layout image and let my
fingers drift into position.
I also have a blank keyboard at my desk, this helps because I can't look at the
keycaps and become confused (however this has backfired with typing numbers,
lol). This keyboard has cherry MX blues though, which means it can be loud when
I get to typing up a storm.
## Have Friends Ask You What Layout You Are Using
Something that works for me is to have friends ask me what keyboard layout I am
using, so I can be mindful of the change. I have a few people asking me that on
the regular, so I can be accountable to them and myself.
## macOS and iPadOS have Colemak Out of the Box
The settings app lets you configure colemak input without having to jailbreak or
install a custom keyboard layout. Take advantage of this.
Someone has also created a colemak windows package for windows that includes an
IA-64 (Itanium) binary. It was last updated in 2004, and still works without
hassle on windows 10. It was the irst time I've ever seen an IA-64 windows
binary in the wild!
## Relearn How To Type Your Passwords
I type passwords from muscle memory. I have had to rediscover what they actually
are so I can relearn how to type them.
---
The colemak experiment continues. I also have a [ZSA
Moonlander](https://www.zsa.io/moonlander/) and the kit for a
[GergoPlex](https://www.gboards.ca/product/gergoplex) coming in the mail. Both
of these run [QMK](https://qmk.fm), which allows me to fully program them with a
rich macro engine. Here are a few of the macros I plan to use:
```c
// Programming
SUBS(ifErr, "if err != nil {\n\t\n}", KC_E, KC_I)
SUBS(goTest, "go test ./...\n", KC_G, KC_T)
SUBS(cargoTest, "cargo test\n", KC_C, KC_T)
```
This will autotype a few common things when I press the keys "ei", "gt", or "ct"
at the same time. I plan to add a few more as things turn up so I can more
quickly type common idioms or commands to save me time. The `if err != nil`
combination started as a joke, but I bet it will end up being incredibly
valuable.
Be well, take care of your hands.

View File

@ -1,27 +0,0 @@
---
title: Colemak Layout - Beginning
date: 2020-08-15
series: colemak
---
# Colemak Layout - Beginning
I write a lot. On average I write a few kilobytes of text per day. This has been
adding up and is taking a huge toll on my hands, especially considering the
Covid situation. Something needs to change. I've been working on learning a new
keyboard layout: [Colemak](https://colemak.com).
This post will be shorter than most of my posts because I'm writing it with
Colemak enabled on my iPad. Writing this is painfully slow at the moment. My
sentences are short and choppy because those are easier to type.
I also have a [ZSA Moonlander](https://www.zsa.io/moonlander/) on the way, it
should be here in October or November. I will also be sure to write about that
once I get it in the mail.
So far, I have about 30 words per minute on the homerow, but once I go off the
homerow the speed tanks to less than about five.
However, I am making progress!
Be well all, don't stress your hands out.

View File

@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ Death is a very misunderstood card in Tarot, but not for the reasons you'd think
Tarot does not see death in this way. Death, the skeleton knight wearing armor, does not see color, race or creed, thus he is depicted as a skeleton. He is riding towards a child and another younger person. The sun is rising in the distance, but even it cannot stop Death. Nor can royalty, as shown by the king under him, dead.
![](/static/img/tarot_death.jpg)
<center>![](/static/img/tarot_death.jpg)</center>
Death, however, does not actually refer to the act of a physical body physically dying. Death is a change that cannot be reverted. The consequences of this change can and will affect what comes next, however.

View File

@ -92,7 +92,7 @@ the real thing that advances is the skill of the player. You make the
deliveries. You go the distance. You do your job as the post-apocalyptic UPS man
that America needs.
![UPS Simulator 2019](/static/img/ups-simulator-2019.jpg)
<center>![UPS Simulator 2019](/static/img/ups-simulator-2019.jpg)</center>
By [mmmintdesign](https://twitter.com/mmmintdesign) [source](https://twitter.com/mmmintdesign/status/1192856164331114497)

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@ -1,330 +0,0 @@
---
title: Continuous Deployment to Kubernetes with Gitea and Drone
date: 2020-07-10
series: howto
tags:
- nix
- kubernetes
- drone
- gitea
---
# Continuous Deployment to Kubernetes with Gitea and Drone
Recently I put a complete rewrite of [the printerfacts
server](https://printerfacts.cetacean.club) into service based on
[warp](https://github.com/seanmonstar/warp). I have it set up to automatically
be deployed to my Kubernetes cluster on every commit to [its source
repo](https://tulpa.dev/cadey/printerfacts). I'm going to explain how this works
and how I set it up.
## Nix
One of the first elements in this is [Nix](https://nixos.org/nix). I use Nix to
build reproducible docker images of the printerfacts server, as well as managing
my own developer tooling locally. I also pull in the following packages from
GitHub:
- [naersk](https://github.com/nmattia/naersk) - an automagic builder for Rust
crates that is friendly to the nix store
- [gruvbox-css](https://github.com/Xe/gruvbox-css) - the CSS file that the
printerfacts service uses
- [nixpkgs](https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs) - contains definitions for the
base packages of the system
These are tracked using [niv](https://github.com/nmattia/niv), which allows me
to store these dependencies in the global nix store for free. This lets them be
reused and deduplicated as they need to be.
Next, I made a build script for the printerfacts service that builds on top of
these in `printerfacts.nix`:
```nix
{ sources ? import ./nix/sources.nix, pkgs ? import <nixpkgs> { } }:
let
srcNoTarget = dir:
builtins.filterSource
(path: type: type != "directory" || builtins.baseNameOf path != "target")
dir;
src = srcNoTarget ./.;
naersk = pkgs.callPackage sources.naersk { };
gruvbox-css = pkgs.callPackage sources.gruvbox-css { };
pfacts = naersk.buildPackage {
inherit src;
remapPathPrefix = true;
};
in pkgs.stdenv.mkDerivation {
inherit (pfacts) name;
inherit src;
phases = "installPhase";
installPhase = ''
mkdir -p $out/static
cp -rf $src/templates $out/templates
cp -rf ${pfacts}/bin $out/bin
cp -rf ${gruvbox-css}/gruvbox.css $out/static/gruvbox.css
'';
}
```
And finally a simple docker image builder in `default.nix`:
```nix
{ system ? builtins.currentSystem }:
let
sources = import ./nix/sources.nix;
pkgs = import <nixpkgs> { };
printerfacts = pkgs.callPackage ./printerfacts.nix { };
name = "xena/printerfacts";
tag = "latest";
in pkgs.dockerTools.buildLayeredImage {
inherit name tag;
contents = [ printerfacts ];
config = {
Cmd = [ "${printerfacts}/bin/printerfacts" ];
Env = [ "RUST_LOG=info" ];
WorkingDir = "/";
};
}
```
This creates a docker image with only the printerfacts service in it and any
dependencies that are absolutely required for the service to function. Each
dependency is also split into its own docker layer so that it is much more
efficient on docker caches, which translates into faster start times on existing
servers. Here are the layers needed for the printerfacts service to function:
- [libunistring](https://www.gnu.org/software/libunistring/) - Unicode-safe
string manipulation library
- [libidn2](https://www.gnu.org/software/libidn/) - An internationalized domain
name decoder
- [glibc](https://www.gnu.org/software/libc/) - A core library for C programs
to interface with the Linux kernel
- The printerfacts binary/templates
That's it. It packs all of this into an image that is 13 megabytes when
compressed.
## Drone
Now that we have a way to make a docker image, let's look how I use
[drone.io](https://drone.io) to build and push this image to the [Docker
Hub](https://hub.docker.com/repository/docker/xena/printerfacts/tags).
I have a drone manifest that looks like
[this](https://tulpa.dev/cadey/printerfacts/src/branch/master/.drone.yml):
```yaml
kind: pipeline
name: docker
steps:
- name: build docker image
image: "monacoremo/nix:2020-04-05-05f09348-circleci"
environment:
USER: root
commands:
- cachix use xe
- nix-build
- cp $(readlink result) /result/docker.tgz
volumes:
- name: image
path: /result
- name: push docker image
image: docker:dind
volumes:
- name: image
path: /result
- name: dockersock
path: /var/run/docker.sock
commands:
- docker load -i /result/docker.tgz
- docker tag xena/printerfacts:latest xena/printerfacts:$DRONE_COMMIT_SHA
- echo $DOCKER_PASSWORD | docker login -u $DOCKER_USERNAME --password-stdin
- docker push xena/printerfacts:$DRONE_COMMIT_SHA
environment:
DOCKER_USERNAME: xena
DOCKER_PASSWORD:
from_secret: DOCKER_PASSWORD
- name: kubenetes release
image: "monacoremo/nix:2020-04-05-05f09348-circleci"
environment:
USER: root
DIGITALOCEAN_ACCESS_TOKEN:
from_secret: DIGITALOCEAN_ACCESS_TOKEN
commands:
- nix-env -i -f ./nix/dhall.nix
- ./scripts/release.sh
volumes:
- name: image
temp: {}
- name: dockersock
host:
path: /var/run/docker.sock
```
This is a lot, so let's break it up into the individual parts.
### Configuration
Drone steps normally don't have access to a docker daemon, privileged mode or
host-mounted paths. I configured the
[cadey/printerfacts](https://drone.tulpa.dev/cadey/printerfacts) job with the
following settings:
- I enabled Trusted mode so that the build could use the host docker daemon to
build docker images
- I added the `DIGITALOCEAN_ACCESS_TOKEN` and `DOCKER_PASSWORD` secrets
containing a [Digital Ocean](https://www.digitalocean.com/) API token and a
Docker hub password
I then set up the `volumes` block to create a few things:
```
volumes:
- name: image
temp: {}
- name: dockersock
host:
path: /var/run/docker.sock
```
- A temporary folder to store the docker image after Nix builds it
- The docker daemon socket from the host
Now we can get to the building the docker image.
### Docker Image Build
I use [this docker image](https://hub.docker.com/r/monacoremo/nix) to build with
Nix on my Drone setup. As of the time of writing this post, the most recent tag
of this image is `monacoremo/nix:2020-04-05-05f09348-circleci`. This image has a
core setup of Nix and a few userspace tools so that it works in CI tooling. In
this step, I do a few things:
```yaml
name: build docker image
image: "monacoremo/nix:2020-04-05-05f09348-circleci"
environment:
USER: root
commands:
- cachix use xe
- nix-build
- cp $(readlink result) /result/docker.tgz
volumes:
- name: image
path: /result
```
I first activate my [cachix](https://xe.cachix.org) cache so that any pre-built
parts of this setup can be fetched from the cache instead of rebuilt from source
or fetched from [crates.io](https://crates.io). This makes the builds slightly
faster in my limited testing.
Then I build the docker image with `nix-build` (`nix-build` defaults to
`default.nix` when a filename is not specified, which is where the docker build
is defined in this case) and copy the resulting tarball to that shared temporary
folder I mentioned earlier. This lets me build the docker image _without needing
a docker daemon_ or any other special permissions on the host.
### Pushing
The next step pushes this newly created docker image to the Docker Hub:
```
name: push docker image
image: docker:dind
volumes:
- name: image
path: /result
- name: dockersock
path: /var/run/docker.sock
commands:
- docker load -i /result/docker.tgz
- docker tag xena/printerfacts:latest xena/printerfacts:$DRONE_COMMIT_SHA
- echo $DOCKER_PASSWORD | docker login -u $DOCKER_USERNAME --password-stdin
- docker push xena/printerfacts:$DRONE_COMMIT_SHA
environment:
DOCKER_USERNAME: xena
DOCKER_PASSWORD:
from_secret: DOCKER_PASSWORD
```
First it loads the docker image from that shared folder into the docker daemon
as `xena/printerfacts:latest`. This image is then tagged with the relevant git
commit using the magic
[`$DRONE_COMMIT_SHA`](https://docs.drone.io/pipeline/environment/reference/drone-commit-sha/)
variable that Drone defines for you.
In order to push docker images, you need to log into the Docker Hub. I log in
using this method in order to avoid the chance that the docker password will be
leaked to the build logs.
```
echo $DOCKER_PASSWORD | docker login -u $DOCKER_USERNAME --password-stdin
```
Then the image is pushed to the Docker hub and we can get onto the deployment
step.
### Deploying to Kubernetes
The deploy step does two small things. First, it installs
[dhall-yaml](https://github.com/dhall-lang/dhall-haskell/tree/master/dhall-yaml)
for generating the Kubernetes manifest (see
[here](https://christine.website/blog/dhall-kubernetes-2020-01-25)) and then
runs
[`scripts/release.sh`](https://tulpa.dev/cadey/printerfacts/src/branch/master/scripts/release.sh):
```
#!/usr/bin/env nix-shell
#! nix-shell -p doctl -p kubectl -i bash
doctl kubernetes cluster kubeconfig save kubermemes
dhall-to-yaml-ng < ./printerfacts.dhall | kubectl apply -n apps -f -
kubectl rollout status -n apps deployment/printerfacts
```
This uses the [nix-shell shebang
support](http://iam.travishartwell.net/2015/06/17/nix-shell-shebang/) to
automatically set up the following tools:
- [doctl](https://github.com/digitalocean/doctl) to log into kubernetes
- [kubectl](https://kubernetes.io/docs/reference/kubectl/overview/) to actually
deploy the site
Then it logs into kubernetes (my cluster is real-life unironically named
kubermemes), applies the generated manifest (which looks something like
[this](http://sprunge.us/zsO4os)) and makes sure the deployment rolls out
successfully.
This will have the kubernetes cluster automatically roll out new versions of the
service and maintain at least two active replicas of the service. This will make
sure that you users can always have access to high-quality printer facts, even
if one or more of the kubernetes nodes go down.
---
And that is how I continuously deploy things on my Gitea server to Kubernetes
using Drone, Dhall and Nix.
If you want to integrate the printer facts service into your application, use
the `/fact` route on it:
```console
$ curl https://printerfacts.cetacean.club/fact
A printer has a total of 24 whiskers, 4 rows of whiskers on each side. The upper
two rows can move independently of the bottom two rows.
```
There is currently no rate limit to this API. Please do not make me have to
create one.

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@ -1,65 +0,0 @@
---
title: RSS/Atom Feeds Fixed and Announcing my Flight Journal
date: 2020-07-26
tags:
- gemini
---
# RSS/Atom Feeds Fixed and Announcing my Flight Journal
I have released version 2.0.1 of this site's code. With it I have fixed the RSS
and Atom feed generation. For now I have had to sacrifice the post content being
in the feed, but I will bring it back as soon as possible.
Victory badges:
[![Valid Atom Feed](https://validator.w3.org/feed/images/valid-atom.png)](/blog.atom)
[![Valid RSS Feed](https://validator.w3.org/feed/images/valid-rss-rogers.png)](/blog.rss)
Thanks to [W3Schools](https://www.w3schools.com/XML/xml_rss.asp) for having a
minimal example of an RSS feed and [this Flickr
image](https://www.flickr.com/photos/sepblog/3652359502/) for expanding it so I
can have the post dates be included too.
## Flight Journal
I have created a [Gemini](https://gemini.circumlunar.space) protocol server at
[gemini://cetacean.club](gemini://cetacean.club). Gemini is an exploration of
the space between [Gopher](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gopher_%28protocol%29)
and HTTP. Right now my site doesn't have much on it, but I have added its feed
to [my feeds page](/feeds).
Please note that the content on this Gemini site is going to be of a much more
personal nature compared to the more professional kind of content I put on this
blog. Please keep this in mind before casting judgement or making any kind of
conclusions about me.
If you don't have a Gemini client installed, you can view the site content
[here](https://portal.mozz.us/gemini/cetacean.club/). I plan to make a HTTP
frontend to this site once I get [Maj](https://tulpa.dev/cadey/maj) up and
functional.
## Maj
I have created a Gemini client and server framework for Rust programs called
[Maj](https://tulpa.dev/cadey/maj). Right now it includes the following
features:
- Synchronous client
- Asynchronous server framework
- Gemini response parser
- `text/gemini` parser
Additionally, I have a few projects in progress for the Maj ecosystem:
- [majc](https://portal.mozz.us/gemini/cetacean.club/maj/majc.gmi) - an
interactive curses client for Gemini
- majd - An advanced reverse proxy and Lua handler daemon for people running
Gemini servers
- majsite - A simple example of the maj server framework in action
I will write more about this in the future when I have more than just this
little preview of what is to come implemented. However, here's a screenshot of
majc rendering my flight journal:
![majc preview image rendering cetacean.club](/static/img/majc_preview.png)

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@ -1,108 +0,0 @@
---
title: The Fear Of Missing Out
date: 2020-08-02
tags:
- culture
- web
---
# The Fear Of Missing Out
Humans have evolved over thousands of years with communities that are small,
tight-knit and where it is easy to feel like you know everyone in them. The
Internet changes this completely. With the Internet, it's easy to send messages,
write articles and even publish books that untold thousands of people can read
and interact with. This has lead to an instinctive fear in humanity I'm going to
call the Fear of Missing Out [1].
[[1]: The Fear of Missing Out](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear_of_missing_out)
The Internet in its current form capitalizes and makes billions off of this.
Infinite scrolling and live updating pages that make it feel like there's always
something new to read. Uncountable hours of engineering and psychological
testing spent making sure people click and scroll and click and consume all day
until that little hit of dopamine becomes its own addiction. We have taken a
system for displaying documents and accidentally turned it into a hulking
abomination that consumes the souls of all who get trapped in it, crystallizing
them in an endless cycle of checking notifications, looking for new posts on
your newsfeed, scrolling down to find just that something you think you're
looking for.
When I was in high school, I bagged groceries for a store. I also had the
opportunity to help customers out to their cars and was able to talk with them.
Obviously, I was minimum wage and had a whole bunch of other things to do;
however there were a few times that I could really get to talk with regular
customers and feel like I got to know them. What comes to mind however is a
story where that is not the case. One day I was helping this older woman to her
car, and she eventually said something like "All of these people just keep
going, going, going nonstop. It drives me mad. How can't they see where they are
is good enough already?" I thought for a moment and I wasn't able to come up
with a decent reply.
The infinite scrollbars and newsfeeds of the web just keep going, going, going,
going, going, going, going and going until the user gives up to do something
elses. There's no consideration of _how_ the content is discovered, and _why_
the content is discovered, it's just an endless feed of noise. One subtle change
in your worldview after another, just from the headlines alone. Not to mention
the endless torrent of advertising.
However, I think there may be a way out, a kind of detox from the infinite
scrolling, newsfeeds, notifications and the like for the internet, and I think a
good step towards that is the Gemini [2] protocol.
[[2]: Gemini Protocol](https://gemini.circumlunar.space/)
Gemini is a protocol that is somewhere between HTTP and Gopher. A user sends a
request to a Gemini server and the user gets a response back. This response
could be anything, but a little header tells the client what kind of data it is.
There's also a little markup format that's a very lightweight take on
markdown [3], but overall the entire goal of the project is to be minimal and
just serve documents.
[[3]: Gemtext markup](https://portal.mozz.us/gemini/gemini.circumlunar.space/docs/gemtext.gmi)
I've noticed something as I browse through the known constellation of Gemini
capsules though. I keep refreshing the CAPCOM feed of posts. I keep refreshing
the mailing list archives. I keep refreshing my email client, looking for new
content and feel frustrated when it doesn't show up like I expect it to. I'm
addicted to the newsfeeds. I'm caught in the trap that autoplay put me in. I'm a
victim to infinite scrolling and that constant little hit of dopamine that
modern social media has put on us all. Realizing this feels like I am realizing
an addiction to a drug (but I'd argue that it somewhat is a drug, by design,
what better way to get people to be exposed to ads than to make the service that
serves the ads addictive!).
I'm not sure how to best combat this. It feels kind of scary. I'm starting to
attempt to detox though. I'm writing a lot more on my Gemini capsule [4] [5]. I'm
starting to really consider the Fear of Missing Out when I design and implement
things in the future. So many things update instantly on the modern internet, it
may be a good idea to attempt to make something that updates weekly or even
monthly.
[[4]: My Gemini capsule](gemini://cetacean.club)
[[5]: [experimental] My Gemini capsule over HTTP](http://cetacean.club)
I'm still going to attempt a few ideas that I have regarding long term archival
of the Gemini constellation, but I'm definitely going to make sure that I take
the time to actually consider the consequences of my actions and what kind of
world it creates. I want to create the kind of world that enables people to
better themselves.
Let's work together to detox from the harmful effects of what we all have
created. I'm considering opening up a Gemini server that other people can have
accounts on and write about things that interest them.
If you want to get started with Gemini, I suggest taking a look at the main site
through the Gemini to HTTP proxy [6]. There are some clients listed in the pages
there, including a _very good_ iOS client that is currently in TestFlight.
Please do keep in mind that Gemini is very much a back-button navigation kind of
experience. The web has made people expect navigation links to be everywhere,
which can make it a weird/jarring experience at first, but you get used to it.
You can see evidence of this in my site with all the "Go back" links on each
page. I'll remove those at some point, but for now I'm going to keep them.
[[6]: Project Gemini](https://portal.mozz.us/gemini/gemini.circumlunar.space/)
Don't be afraid of missing out. It's inevitable. Things happen. It's okay for
them to happen without you having to see them. They will still be there when you
look again.

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@ -1,78 +0,0 @@
---
title: hlang in 30 Seconds
date: 2021-01-04
series: h
tags:
- satire
---
# hlang in 30 Seconds
hlang (the h language) is a revolutionary new use of WebAssembly that enables
single-paridigm programming without any pesky state or memory accessing. The
simplest program you can use in hlang is the h world program:
```
h
```
When run in [the hlang playground](https://h.christine.website/play), you can
see its output:
```
h
```
To get more output, separate multiple h's by spaces:
```
h h h h
```
This returns:
```
h
h
h
h
```
## Internationalization
For internationalization concerns, hlang also supports the Lojbanic h `'`. You can
mix h and `'` to your heart's content:
```
' h '
```
This returns:
```
'
h
'
```
Finally an easy solution to your pesky Lojban internationalization problems!
## Errors
For maximum understandability, compiler errors are provided in Lojban. For
example this error tells you that you have an invalid character at the first
character of the string:
```
h: gentoldra fi'o zvati fe li no
```
Here is an interlinear gloss of that error:
```
h: gentoldra fi'o zvati fe li no
grammar-wrong existing-at second-place use-number 0
```
And now you are fully fluent in hlang, the most exciting programming language
since sliced bread.

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@ -1,193 +0,0 @@
---
title: "How Mara Works"
date: 2020-09-30
tags:
- avif
- webp
- markdown
---
# How Mara Works
Recently I introduced Mara to this blog and I didn't explain much of the theory
and implementation behind them in order to proceed with the rest of the post.
There was actually a significant amount of engineering that went into
implementing Mara and I'd like to go into detail about this as well as explain
how I implemented them into this blog.
## Mara's Background
Mara is an anthropomorphic shark. They are nonbinary and go by they/she
pronouns. Mara enjoys hacking, swimming and is a Chaotic Good Rogue in the
tabletop games I've played her in. Mara was originally made to help test my
upcoming tabletop game The Source, and I have used them in a few solitaire
tabletop sessions (click
[here](http://cetacean.club/journal/mara-castle-charon.gmi) to read the results
of one of these).
[I use a hand-soldered <a href="https://www.ergodox.io/">Ergodox</a> with the <a
href="https://www.artofchording.com/">stenographer</a> layout so I can dab on
the haters at 200 words per minute!](conversation://Mara/hacker)
## The Theory
My blogposts have a habit of getting long, wordy and sometimes pretty damn dry.
I notice that there are usually a few common threads in how this becomes the
case, so I want to do these three things to help keep things engaging.
1. I go into detail. A lot of detail. This can make paragraphs long and wordy
because there is legitimately a lot to cover. [fasterthanlime's Cool Bear's
Hot Tip](https://fasterthanli.me/articles/image-decay-as-a-service) is a good
way to help Amos focus on the core and let another character bring up the
finer details that may go off the core of the message.
2. I have been looking into how to integrate concepts from [The Socratic
method](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socratic_method) into my posts. The
Socratic method focuses on dialogue/questions and answers between
interlocutors as a way to explore a topic that can be dry or vague.
3. [Soatok's
blog](https://soatok.blog/2020/09/12/edutech-spyware-is-still-spyware-proctorio-edition/)
was an inspiration to this. Soatok dives into deep technical topics that can
feel like a slog, and inserts some stickers between paragraphs to help keep
things upbeat and lively.
I wanted to make a unique way to help break up walls of text using the concepts
of Cool Bear's Hot Tip and the Socratic method with some furry art sprinkled in
and I eventually arrived at Mara.
[Fun fact! My name was originally derived from a <a
href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mara_(demon)">Buddhist conceptual demon of
forces antagonistic to enlightenment</a> which is deliciously ironic given that
my role is to help people understand things now.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
## How Mara is Implemented
I write my blogposts in
[Markdown](https://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/), specifically a
dialect that has some niceties from [GitHub flavored
markdown](https://guides.github.com/features/mastering-markdown/#GitHub-flavored-markdown)
as parsed by [comrak](https://docs.rs/comrak). Mara's interjections are actually
specially formed links, such as this:
[Hi! I am saying something!](conversation://Mara/hacker)
```markdown
[Hi! I am saying something!](conversation://Mara/hacker)
```
Notice how the destination URL doesn't actually exist. It's actually intercepted
in my [markdown parsing
function](https://github.com/Xe/site/blob/b540631792493169bd41f489c18b7369159d12a9/src/app/markdown.rs#L8)
and then a [HTML
template](https://github.com/Xe/site/blob/b540631792493169bd41f489c18b7369159d12a9/templates/mara.rs.html#L1)
is used to create the divs that make up the image and conversation bits. I have
intentionally left this open so I can add more characters in the future. I may
end up making some stickers for myself so I can reply to Mara a-la [this
blogpost by
fasterthanlime](https://fasterthanli.me/articles/so-you-want-to-live-reload-rust)
(search for "What's with the @@GLIBC_2.2.5 suffixes?"). The syntax of the URL is
as follows:
```
conversation://<character>/<mood>[?reply]
```
This will then fetch the images off of my CDN hosted by CloudFlare. However if
you are using Tor to view my site, this may result in not being able to see the
images. I am working on ways to solve this. Please bear with me, this stuff is
hard.
You may have noticed that Mara sometimes has links inside her dialogue.
Understandably, this is something that vanilla markdown does not support.
However, I enabled putting raw HTML in my markdown which lets this work anyways!
Consider this:
[My art was drawn by <a
href="https://selic.re">Selicre</a>!](conversation://Mara/hacker)
In the markdown source, that actually looks like this:
```markdown
[My art was drawn by <a href="https://selic.re">Selicre</a>!](conversation://Mara/hacker)
```
This is honestly one of my favorite parts of how this is implemented, though
others I have shown this to say it's kind of terrifying.
### The `<picture>` Element and Image Formats
Something you might notice about the HTML template is that I use the
[`<picture>`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/picture)
element like this:
```html
<picture>
<source srcset="https://cdn.christine.website/file/christine-static/stickers/@character.to_lowercase()/@(mood).avif" type="image/avif">
<source srcset="https://cdn.christine.website/file/christine-static/stickers/@character.to_lowercase()/@(mood).webp" type="image/webp">
<img src="https://cdn.christine.website/file/christine-static/stickers/@character.to_lowercase()/@(mood).png" alt="@character is @mood">
</picture>
```
The `<picture>` element allows me to specify multiple versions of the stickers
and have your browser pick the image format that it supports. It is also fully
backwards compatible with browsers that do not support `<picture>` and in those
cases you will see the fallback image in .png format. I went into a lot of
detail about this in [a twitter
thread](https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1310358201842401281?s=21),
but in short here are how each of the formats looks next to its filesize
information:
![](https://cdn.christine.website/file/christine-static/blog/mara_png.png)
![](https://cdn.christine.website/file/christine-static/blog/mara_webp.png)
![](https://cdn.christine.website/file/christine-static/blog/mara_avif.png)
The
[avif](https://reachlightspeed.com/blog/using-the-new-high-performance-avif-image-format-on-the-web-today/)
version does have the ugliest quality when blown up, however consider how small
these stickers will appear on the webpages:
[This is how big the stickers will appear, or is it?](conversation://Mara/hmm)
At these sizes most people will not notice any lingering artifacts unless they
look closely. However at about 5-6 kilobytes per image I think the smaller
filesize greatly wins out. This helps keep page loads fast, which is something I
want to optimize for as it makes people think my website loads quickly.
I go into a lot more detail on the twitter thread, but the commands I use to get
the webp and avif versions of the stickers are as follows:
```shell
#!/bin/sh
cwebp \
$1.png \
-o $1.webp
avifenc \
$1.png \
-o $1.avif \
-s 0 \
-d 8 \
--min 48 \
--max 48 \
--minalpha 48 \
--maxalpha 48
```
I plan to automate this further in the future, but for the scale I am at this
works fine. These stickers are then uploaded to my cloud storage bucket and
CloudFlare provides a CDN for them so they can load very quickly.
---
Anyways, this is how Mara is implemented and some of the challenges that went
into developing them as a feature (while leaving the door open for other
characters in the future). Mara is here to stay and I have gotten a lot of
positive feedback about her.
As a side note, for those of you that are not amused that I am choosing to have
Mara (and consequentially furry art in general) as a site feature, I can only
hope that you can learn to respect that as an independent blogger I am free to
implement my blog (and the content that I am choosing to provide _FOR FREE_ even
though I've gotten requests to make it paid content) as I see fit. Further
complaints will only increase the amount of furry art in future posts.
Be well all.

View File

@ -20,7 +20,9 @@ img {
}
</style>
<center>
![](/static/img/ios_profiles.png)
</center>
- Go up a level to General
- Select About
@ -28,7 +30,9 @@ img {
- Each root that has been installed via a profile will be listed below the heading Enable Full Trust For Root Certificates
- Users can toggle on/off trust for each root:
<center>
![](/static/img/ios_cert_trust.png)
</center>
Please understand that by doing this, users will potentially be vulnerable to a
[HTTPS man in the middle attack a-la Superfish](https://slate.com/technology/2015/02/lenovo-superfish-scandal-why-its-one-of-the-worst-consumer-computing-screw-ups-ever.html). Please ensure that you have appropriate measures in place to keep the signing key for the CA safe.

View File

@ -1,160 +0,0 @@
---
title: Kubernetes Pondering
date: 2020-12-31
tags:
- k8s
- kubernetes
- soyoustart
- kimsufi
- digitalocean
- vultr
---
# Kubernetes Pondering
Right now I am using a freight train to mail a letter when it comes to hosting
my web applications. If you are reading this post on the day it comes out, then
you are connected to one of a few replicas of my site code running across at
least 3 machines in my Kubernetes cluster. This certainly _works_, however it is
not very ergonomic and ends up being quite expensive.
I think I made a mistake when I decided to put my cards into Kubernetes for my
personal setup. It made sense at the time (I was trying to learn Kubernetes and
I am cursed into learning by doing), however I don't think it is really the best
choice available for my needs. I am not a large company. I am a single person
making things that are really targeted for myself. I would like to replace this
setup with something more at my scale. Here are a few options I have been
exploring combined with their pros and cons.
Here are the services I currently host on my Kubernetes cluster:
- [this site](/)
- [my git server](https://tulpa.dev)
- [hlang](https://h.christine.website)
- A few personal services that I've been meaning to consolidate
- The [olin demo](https://olin.within.website/)
- The venerable [printer facts server](https://printerfacts.cetacean.club)
- A few static websites
- An IRC server (`irc.within.website`)
My goal in evaluating other options is to reduce cost and complexity. Kubernetes
is a very complicated system and requires a lot of hand-holding and rejiggering
to make it do what you want. NixOS, on the other hand, is a lot simpler overall
and I would like to use it for running my services where I can.
Cost is a huge factor in this. My Kubernetes setup is a money pit. I want to
prioritize cost reduction as much as possible.
## Option 1: Do Nothing
I could do nothing about this and eat the complexity as a cost of having this
website and those other services online. However over the year or so I've been
using Kubernetes I've had to do a lot of hacking at it to get it to do what I
want.
I set up the cluster using Terraform and Helm 2. Helm 3 is the current
(backwards-incompatible) release, and all of the things that are managed by Helm
2 have resisted being upgraded to Helm 3.
I'm going to say something slightly controversial here, but YAML is a HORRIBLE
format for configuration. I can't trust myself to write unambiguous YAML. I have
to reference the spec constantly to make sure I don't have an accidental
Norway/Ontario bug. I have a Dhall package that takes away most of the pain,
however it's not flexible enough to describe the entire scope of what my
services need to do (IE: pinging Google/Bing to update their indexes on each
deploy), and I don't feel like putting in the time to make it that flexible.
[This is the regex for determining what is a valid boolean value in YAML:
`y|Y|yes|Yes|YES|n|N|no|No|NO|true|True|TRUE|false|False|FALSE|on|On|ON|off|Off|OFF`.
This can bite you eventually. See the <a
href="https://hitchdev.com/strictyaml/why/implicit-typing-removed/">Norway
Problem</a> for more information.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
I have a tor hidden service endpoint for a few of my services. I have to use an
[unmaintained tool](https://github.com/kragniz/tor-controller) to manage these
on Kubernetes. It works _today_, but the Kubernetes operator API could change at
any time (or the API this uses could be deprecated and removed without much
warning) and leave me in the dust.
I could live with all of this, however I don't really think it's the best idea
going forward. There's a bunch of services that I added on top of Kubernetes
that are dangerous to upgrade and very difficult (if not impossible) to
downgrade when something goes wrong during the upgrade.
One of the big things that I have with this setup that I would have to rebuild
in NixOS is the continuous deployment setup. However I've done that before and
it wouldn't really be that much of an issue to do it again.
NixOS fixes all the jank I mentioned above by making my specifications not have
to include the version numbers of everything the system already provides. You
can _actually trust the package repos to have up to date packages_. I don't
have to go around and bump the versions of shims and pray they work, because
with NixOS I don't need them anymore.
## Option 2: NixOS on top of SoYouStart or Kimsufi
This is a doable option. The main problem here would be doing the provision
step. SoYouStart and Kimsufi (both are offshoot/discount brands of OVH) have
very little in terms of customization of machine config. They work best when you
are using "normal" distributions like Ubuntu or CentOS and leave them be. I
would want to run NixOS on it and would have to do several trial and error runs
with a tool such as [nixos-infect](https://github.com/elitak/nixos-infect) to
assimilate the server into running NixOS.
With this option I would get the most storage out of any other option by far. 4
TB is a _lot_ of space. However, SoYouStart and Kimsufi run decade-old hardware
at best. I would end up paying a lot for very little in the CPU department. For
most things I am sure this would be fine, however some of my services can have
CPU needs that might exceed what second-generation Xeons can provide.
SoYouStart and Kimsufi have weird kernel versions though. The last SoYouStart
dedi I used ran Fedora and was gimped with a grsec kernel by default. I had to
end up writing [this gem of a systemd service on
boot](https://github.com/Xe/dotfiles/blob/master/ansible/roles/soyoustart/files/conditional-kexec.sh)
which did a [`kexec`](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kexec) to boot into a
non-gimped kernel on boot. It was a huge hack and somehow worked every time. I
was still afraid to reboot the machine though.
Sure is a lot of ram for the cost though.
## Option 3: NixOS on top of Digital Ocean
This shares most of the problems as the SoYouStart or Kimsufi nodes. However,
nixos-infect is known to have a higher success rate on Digital Ocean droplets.
It would be really nice if Digital Ocean let you upload arbitrary ISO files and
go from there, but that is apparently not the world we live in.
8 GB of ram would be _way more than enough_ for what I am doing with these
services.
## Option 4: NixOS on top of Vultr
Vultr is probably my top pick for this. You can upload an arbitrary ISO file,
kick off your VPS from it and install it like normal. I have a little shell
server shared between some friends built on top of such a Vultr node. It works
beautifully.
The fact that it has the same cost as the Digital Ocean droplet just adds to the
perfection of this option.
## Costs
Here is the cost table I've drawn up while comparing these options:
| Option | Ram | Disk | Cost per month | Hacks |
| :--------- | :----------------- | :------------------------------------ | :-------------- | :----------- |
| Do nothing | 6 GB (4 GB usable) | Not really usable, volumes cost extra | $60/month | Very Yes |
| SoYouStart | 32 GB | 2x2TB SAS | $40/month | Yes |
| Kimsufi | 32 GB | 2x2TB SAS | $35/month | Yes |
| Digital Ocean | 8 GB | 160 GB SSD | $40/month | On provision |
| Vultr | 8 GB | 160 GB SSD | $40/month | No |
I think I am going to go with the Vultr option. I will need to modernize some of
my services to support being deployed in NixOS in order to do this, however I
think that I will end up creating a more robust setup in the process. At least I
will create a setup that allows me to more easily maintain my own backups rather
than just relying on DigitalOcean snapshots and praying like I do with the
Kubernetes setup.
Thanks farcaller, Marbles, John Rinehart and others for reviewing this post
prior to it being published.

View File

@ -1,54 +0,0 @@
---
title: kalama pali pi kulupu Kala
date: 2020-10-12
tags:
- 100DaysToOffload
---
# kalama pali pi kulupu Kala
I've wanted to write a novel for a while, and I think I've finally got a solid
idea for it. I want to write about the good guys winning against an oppressive
system. I've been letting the ideas and thoughts marinate in my heart for a long
time; these short stories are how I am exploring the world and other related
concepts. I want to use language as a tool in this world. So here is my take on
a creation myth for the main species of this world, the Kala (the title of this
post roughly translates to "creation story of the Kala").
This is day 2 of my 100 days to offload.
---
In the beginning, the gods roamed the skies. Pali, Sona and Soweli talked and
talked about their plans.
tenpo wan la sewi li lon e sewi. sewi Pali en sewi Sona en sewi Soweli li toki.
Soweli went down to the world Pali had created. Animals of all kinds followed
them as Soweli moved about the earth.
sewi Soweli li tawa e sike. soweli li kama e sike.
Sona followed and went towards the whales. Sona took a liking to how graceful
they were in the water, and decided to have them be the arbiters of knowledge.
Sona also reshaped them to look like the gods did. The Kala people resulted.
sewi Sona li tawa e soweli sike. sewi Sona li tawa e kala suli. sewi Sona li
lukin li pona e kala suli. sewi Sona li pana e sona e kon tawa kala suli. sewi
Sona li pali e jan kama kala suli. kulupu Kala li lon.
Pali had created the entire world, so Pali fell into a deep slumber in the
ocean.
tenpo pini la sewi Pali li pali e sike. sewi Pali li lape lon telo suli.
Soweli had created all of the animals on the whole world, so Soweli fell asleep
in Soweli mountain.
tenpo pini la sewi Soweli li pali e soweli ale. sewi Soweli li lape e nena Soweli.
Sona lifted themselves into the skies to watch the Kala from above. Sona keeps
an eye on us to make sure we are using their gift responsibly.
sewi Sona li tawa e sewi. sewi Sona li lukin e kulupu Kala. kulupu Kala li jo
sona li jo toki. kulupu Kala li pona e sewi Sona.

View File

@ -1,100 +0,0 @@
---
title: "ln - The Natural Log Function"
date: 2020-10-17
tags:
- golang
- go
---
# ln - The Natural Log Function
One of the most essential things in software is a good interface for logging
data to places. Logging is a surprisingly hard problem and there are many
approaches to doing it. This time, we're going to talk about my favorite logging
library in Go that uses my favorite function I've ever written in Go.
Today we're talking about [ln](https://github.com/Xe/ln), the natural log
function. ln works with key value pairs and logs them to somewhere. By default
it logs things to standard out. Here is how you use it:
```go
package main
import (
"context"
"within.website/ln"
)
func main() {
ctx := context.Background()
ln.Log(ctx, ln.Fmt("hello %s", "world"), ln.F{"demo": "usage"})
}
```
ln works with key value pairs called [F](https://godoc.org/within.website/ln#F).
This type allows you to log just about _anything_ you want, including custom
data types with an [Fer](https://godoc.org/within.website/ln#Fer). This will let
you annotate your data types so that you can automatically extract the important
information into your logs while automatically filtering out passwords or other
secret data. Here's an example:
```go
type User struct {
ID int
Username string
Password []byte
}
func (u User) F() ln.F {
return ln.F{
"user_id": u.ID,
"user_name": u.Username,
}
}
```
Then if you create that user somehow, you can log the ID and username without
logging the password on accident:
```go
var theDude User = abides()
ln.Log(ctx, ln.Info("created new user"), theDude)
```
This will create a log line that looks something like this:
```
level=info msg="created new user" user_name="The Dude" user_id=1337
```
[You can also put values in contexts! See <a
href="https://github.com/Xe/ln/blob/master/ex/http.go#L21">here</a> for more
detail on how this works.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
The way this is all glued together is that F itself is an Fer, meaning that the
Log/Error functions take a variadic set of Fers. This is where my favorite Go
function comes into play, it is the implementation of the Fer interface for F.
Here is that function verbatim:
```go
// F makes F an Fer
func (f F) F() F {
return f
}
```
I love how this function looks like some kind of abstract art. This function
holds this library together.
If you end up using ln for your projects in the future, please let me know what
your experience is like. I would love to make this library the best it can
possibly be. It is not a nanosecond scale zero allocation library (I think those
kind of things are a bit of a waste of time, because most of the time your
logging library is NOT going to be your bottleneck), but it is designed to have
very usable defaults and solve the problem good enough that you shouldn't need
to care. There are a few useful tools in the
[ex](https://godoc.org/within.website/ln/ex) package nested in ln. The biggest
thing is the HTTP middleware, which has saved me a lot of effort when writing
web services in Go.

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@ -1,51 +0,0 @@
---
title: "Mara: Sh0rk of Justice: Version 1.0.0 Released"
date: 2020-12-28
tags:
- gameboy
- gbstudio
- indiedev
---
# Mara: Sh0rk of Justice: Version 1.0.0 Released
Over the long weekend I found out about a program called [GB Studio](https://www.gbstudio.dev).
It's a simple drag-and-drop interface that you can use to make homebrew games for the
[Nintendo Game Boy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Boy). I was intrigued and I had
some time, so I set out to make a little top-down adventure game. After a few days of
tinkering I came up with an idea and created Mara: Sh0rk of Justice.
[You made a game about me? :D](conversation://Mara/hacker)
> Guide Mara through the spooky dungeon in order to find all of its secrets. Seek out
> the secrets of the spooks! Defeat the evil mage! Solve the puzzles! Find the items
> of power! It's up you to save us all, Mara!
You can play it in an `<iframe>` on itch.io!
<iframe frameborder="0" src="https://itch.io/embed/866982?dark=true" width="552" height="167"><a href="https://withinstudios.itch.io/mara-sh0rk-justice">Mara: Sh0rk of Justice by Within</a></iframe>
## Things I Learned
Game development is hard. Even with tools that help you do it, there's a limit to how
much you can get done at once. Everything links together. You really need to test
things both in isolation and as a cohesive whole.
I cannot compose music to save my life. I used free-to-use music assets from the
[GB Studio Community Assets](https://github.com/DeerTears/GB-Studio-Community-Assets)
pack to make this game. I think I managed to get everything acceptable.
GB Studio is rather inflexible. It feels like it's there to really help you get
started from a template. Even though you can make the whole game from inside GB
Studio, I probably should have ejected the engine to source code so I could
customize some things like the jump button being weird in platforming sections.
Pixel art is an art of its own. I used a lot of free to use assets from itch.io for
the tileset and a few NPC's. The rest was created myself using
[Aseprite](https://www.aseprite.org). Getting Mara's walking animation to a point
that I thought was acceptable was a chore. I found a nice compromise though.
---
Overall I'm happy with the result as a whole. Try it out, see how you like it and
please do let me know what I can improve on for the future.

View File

@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ I recently posted (a variant of) this image of some Go source code to Twitter
and it spawned some interesting conversations about what it does, how it works
and why it needs to exist in the first place:
![the source code of package maybedoer](/static/blog/maybedoer.png)
<center>![the source code of package maybedoer](/static/blog/maybedoer.png)</center>
This file is used to sequence functions that could fail together, allowing you
to avoid doing an `if err != nil` check on every single fallible function call.

View File

@ -0,0 +1,67 @@
---
title: "6E Oneshot: Retrieve the Sandstorm Amulet"
date: 2020-06-15
series: 6e
tags:
- miau
---
# 6E Oneshot: Retrieve the Sandstorm Amulet
## Intro
I've been working on ideas for an original fiction novel about someone that
rediscovers magic in an incredibly secular world. This is a bit of a bigger task
(and would really be one of the biggest works of art I've ever done), and coming
up with ideas for it can be difficult. I've also been casually interested in
[Dungeons and Dragons](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeons_%26_Dragons) for a
long time, but have never had the chance to play it. Though it is a great tool
to help guide the creation of stories, it can be intimidating and complicated to
get into. There really is a lot going on there. Recently [itch.io][itch] created
a [Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality][itchbundle], and one of the items in
there was [6E][sixe], a simplified view of Dungeons and Dragons that is aimed to
be very rules-light and focus on the situations.
[itch]: https://itch.io
[itchbundle]: https://itch.io/b/520/bundle-for-racial-justice-and-equality
[sixe]: https://s-jared.itch.io/6e
This is great if you have ideas for what to do in a campaign, but sometimes you
just don't. This is an idea that you can build on for a small, short one-shot
adventure with [6E][sixe]. This should only take an hour or two and is perfect
for helping people get into the flow of table-top role-playing games. You will
need the following things:
- 4-5 people (including yourself) willing to play together (whether in person or
over the internet)
- Six-sided dice (at least 4) or a chatbot that can handle dice rolling for you
- The playbook PDF from the [6E page on itch.io][sixe]
- A bit of creativity (you can work together if you are suddenly lacking
inspiration)
- A willingness to learn
## Setting
Deep in the desert wasteland of Miau there is a cove for bandits. This cove is
full of bandits and evil boomerang rats. You and your party walk into the
entrance of the cave. There is a torch by the entrance. What do you do?
## Process
Choose someone to be the Dungeon Master. Give them the sheets for the Dungeon
Master and then have the others start filling out their stats. Rolling for stats
is done like on the Dungeon Master character creation sheet. Follow those
directions until you have a full party set up.
Here's some items that will come in handy in this adventure:
- Torch to help you see in the dark
- Rope to climb with
- Hydroflask to drink from to restore HP
- Bandages to patch up wounds from boomerang rats or bandits
- Lockpicks to help get into chests
If situations demand it, come up with other things! I'm just here as a guide,
not a dictator.
## Items

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@ -1,397 +0,0 @@
---
title: "Minicompiler: Lexing"
date: 2020-10-29
series: rust
tags:
- rust
- templeos
- compiler
---
# Minicompiler: Lexing
I've always wanted to make my own compiler. Compilers are an integral part of
my day to day job and I use the fruits of them constantly. A while ago while I
was browsing through the TempleOS source code I found
[MiniCompiler.HC][minicompiler] in the `::/Demos/Lectures` folder and I was a
bit blown away. It implements a two phase compiler from simple math expressions
to AMD64 bytecode (complete with bit-banging it to an array that the code later
jumps to) and has a lot to teach about how compilers work. For those of you that
don't have a TempleOS VM handy, here is a video of MiniCompiler.HC in action:
[minicompiler]: https://github.com/Xe/TempleOS/blob/master/Demo/Lectures/MiniCompiler.HC
<video controls width="100%">
<source src="https://cdn.christine.website/file/christine-static/img/minicompiler/tmp.YDcgaHSb3z.webm"
type="video/webm">
<source src="https://cdn.christine.website/file/christine-static/img/minicompiler/tmp.YDcgaHSb3z.mp4"
type="video/mp4">
Sorry, your browser doesn't support embedded videos.
</video>
You put in a math expression, the compiler builds it and then spits out a bunch
of assembly and runs it to return the result. In this series we are going to be
creating an implementation of this compiler that targets [WebAssembly][wasm].
This compiler will be written in Rust and will use only the standard library for
everything but the final bytecode compilation and execution phase. There is a
lot going on here, so I expect this to be at least a three part series. The
source code will be in [Xe/minicompiler][Xemincompiler] in case you want to read
it in detail. Follow along and let's learn some Rust on the way!
[wasm]: https://webassembly.org/
[Xemincompiler]: https://github.com/Xe/minicompiler
[Compilers for languages like C are built on top of the fundamentals here, but
they are _much_ more complicated.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
## Description of the Language
This language uses normal infix math expressions on whole numbers. Here are a
few examples:
- `2 + 2`
- `420 * 69`
- `(34 + 23) / 38 - 42`
- `(((34 + 21) / 5) - 12) * 348`
Ideally we should be able to nest the parentheses as deep as we want without any
issues.
Looking at these values we can notice a few patterns that will make parsing this
a lot easier:
- There seems to be only 4 major parts to this language:
- numbers
- math operators
- open parentheses
- close parentheses
- All of the math operators act identically and take two arguments
- Each program is one line long and ends at the end of the line
Let's turn this description into Rust code:
## Bringing in Rust
Make a new project called `minicompiler` with a command that looks something
like this:
```console
$ cargo new minicompiler
```
This will create a folder called `minicompiler` and a file called `src/main.rs`.
Open that file in your editor and copy the following into it:
```rust
// src/main.rs
/// Mathematical operations that our compiler can do.
#[derive(Debug, Eq, PartialEq)]
enum Op {
Mul,
Div,
Add,
Sub,
}
/// All of the possible tokens for the compiler, this limits the compiler
/// to simple math expressions.
#[derive(Debug, Eq, PartialEq)]
enum Token {
EOF,
Number(i32),
Operation(Op),
LeftParen,
RightParen,
}
```
[In compilers, "tokens" refer to the individual parts of the language you are
working with. In this case every token represents every possible part of a
program.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
And then let's start a function that can turn a program string into a bunch of
tokens:
```rust
// src/main.rs
fn lex(input: &str) -> Vec<Token> {
todo!("implement this");
}
```
[Wait, what do you do about bad input such as things that are not math expressions?
Shouldn't this function be able to fail?](conversation://Mara/hmm)
You're right! Let's make a little error type that represents bad input. For
creativity's sake let's call it `BadInput`:
```rust
// src/main.rs
use std::error::Error;
use std::fmt;
/// The error that gets returned on bad input. This only tells the user that it's
/// wrong because debug information is out of scope here. Sorry.
#[derive(Debug, Eq, PartialEq)]
struct BadInput;
// Errors need to be displayable.
impl fmt::Display for BadInput {
fn fmt(&self, f: &mut fmt::Formatter) -> fmt::Result {
write!(f, "something in your input is bad, good luck")
}
}
// The default Error implementation will do here.
impl Error for BadInput {}
```
And then let's adjust the type of `lex()` to compensate for this:
```rust
// src/main.rs
fn lex(input: &str) -> Result<Vec<Token>, BadInput> {
todo!("implement this");
}
```
So now that we have the function type we want, let's start implementing `lex()`
by setting up the result and a loop over the characters in the input string:
```rust
// src/main.rs
fn lex(input: &str) -> Result<Vec<Token>, BadInput> {
let mut result: Vec<Token> = Vec::new();
for character in input.chars() {
todo!("implement this");
}
Ok(result)
}
```
Looking at the examples from earlier we can start writing some boilerplate to
turn characters into tokens:
```rust
// src/main.rs
// ...
for character in input.chars() {
match character {
// Skip whitespace
' ' => continue,
// Ending characters
';' | '\n' => {
result.push(Token::EOF);
break;
}
// Math operations
'*' => result.push(Token::Operation(Op::Mul)),
'/' => result.push(Token::Operation(Op::Div)),
'+' => result.push(Token::Operation(Op::Add)),
'-' => result.push(Token::Operation(Op::Sub)),
// Parentheses
'(' => result.push(Token::LeftParen),
')' => result.push(Token::RightParen),
// Numbers
'0' | '1' | '2' | '3' | '4' | '5' | '6' | '7' | '8' | '9' => {
todo!("implement number parsing")
}
// Everything else is bad input
_ => return Err(BadInput),
}
}
// ...
```
[Ugh, you're writing `Token::` and `Op::` a lot. Is there a way to simplify
that?](conversation://Mara/hmm)
Yes! enum variants can be shortened to their names with a `use` statement like
this:
```rust
// src/main.rs
// ...
use Op::*;
use Token::*;
match character {
// ...
// Math operations
'*' => result.push(Operation(Mul)),
'/' => result.push(Operation(Div)),
'+' => result.push(Operation(Add)),
'-' => result.push(Operation(Sub)),
// Parentheses
'(' => result.push(LeftParen),
')' => result.push(RightParen),
// ...
}
// ...
```
Which looks a _lot_ better.
[You can use the `use` statement just about anywhere in your program. However to
keep things flowing nicer, the `use` statement is right next to where it is
needed in these examples.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
Now we can get into the fun that is parsing numbers. When he wrote MiniCompiler,
Terry Davis used an approach that is something like this (spacing added for readability):
```c
case '0'...'9':
i = 0;
do {
i = i * 10 + *src - '0';
src++;
} while ('0' <= *src <= '9');
*num=i;
```
This sets an intermediate variable `i` to 0 and then consumes characters from
the input string as long as they are between `'0'` and `'9'`. As a neat side
effect of the numbers being input in base 10, you can conceptualize `40` as `(4 *
10) + 2`. So it multiplies the old digit by 10 and then adds the new digit to
the resulting number. Our setup doesn't let us get that fancy as easily, however
we can emulate it with a bit of stack manipulation according to these rules:
- If `result` is empty, push this number to result and continue lexing the
program
- Pop the last item in `result` and save it as `last`
- If `last` is a number, multiply that number by 10 and add the current number
to it
- Otherwise push the node back into `result` and push the current number to
`result` as well
Translating these rules to Rust, we get this:
```rust
// src/main.rs
// ...
// Numbers
'0' | '1' | '2' | '3' | '4' | '5' | '6' | '7' | '8' | '9' => {
let num: i32 = (character as u8 - '0' as u8) as i32;
if result.len() == 0 {
result.push(Number(num));
continue;
}
let last = result.pop().unwrap();
match last {
Number(i) => {
result.push(Number((i * 10) + num));
}
_ => {
result.push(last);
result.push(Number(num));
}
}
}
// ...
```
[This is not the most robust number parsing code in the world, however it will
suffice for now. Extra credit if you can identify the edge
cases!](conversation://Mara/hacker)
This should cover the tokens for the language. Let's write some tests to be sure
everything is working the way we think it is!
## Testing
Rust has a [robust testing
framework](https://doc.rust-lang.org/book/ch11-00-testing.html) built into the
standard library. We can use it here to make sure we are generating tokens
correctly. Let's add the following to the bottom of `main.rs`:
```rust
#[cfg(test)] // tells the compiler to only build this code when tests are being run
mod tests {
use super::{Op::*, Token::*, *};
// registers the following function as a test function
#[test]
fn basic_lexing() {
assert!(lex("420 + 69").is_ok());
assert!(lex("tacos are tasty").is_err());
assert_eq!(
lex("420 + 69"),
Ok(vec![Number(420), Operation(Add), Number(69)])
);
assert_eq!(
lex("(30 + 560) / 4"),
Ok(vec![
LeftParen,
Number(30),
Operation(Add),
Number(560),
RightParen,
Operation(Div),
Number(4)
])
);
}
}
```
This test can and probably should be expanded on, but when we run `cargo test`:
```console
$ cargo test
Compiling minicompiler v0.1.0 (/home/cadey/code/Xe/minicompiler)
Finished test [unoptimized + debuginfo] target(s) in 0.22s
Running target/debug/deps/minicompiler-03cad314858b0419
running 1 test
test tests::basic_lexing ... ok
test result: ok. 1 passed; 0 failed; 0 ignored; 0 measured; 0 filtered out
```
And hey presto! We verified that all of the parsing is working correctly. Those
test cases should be sufficient to cover all of the functionality of the
language.
---
This is it for part 1. We covered a lot today. Next time we are going to run a
validation pass on the program, convert the infix expressions to reverse polish
notation and then also get started on compiling that to WebAssembly. This has
been fun so far and I hope you were able to learn from it.
Special thanks to the following people for reviewing this post:
- Steven Weeks
- sirpros
- Leonora Tindall
- Chetan Conikee
- Pablo
- boopstrap
- ash2x3

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@ -1,92 +0,0 @@
---
title: "Book Release: Musings from Within"
date: 2020-07-28
tags:
- release
- book
- musingsfromwithin
---
# Book Release: Musings from Within
I am happy to announce that I have successfully created an eBook compilation of
the best of the posts on this blog plus a bunch of writing I have never before
made public, and the result is now available for purchase on
[itch.io](https://withinstudios.itch.io/musings-from-within) and the Kindle
Store (TODO(Xe): add kindle link here when it gets approved) for USD$5. This
book is the product of 5 years of effort writing, getting better at writing,
failing at writing and everything inbetween.
I have collected the following essays, poems, recipes and stories:
- Against Label Permanence
- A Letter to Those Who Bullied Me
- All There is is Now
- Alone
- Barrier
- Bricks
- Chaos Magick Debugging
- Chicken Stir Fry
- Creators Mission
- Death
- Died to Save Me
- Don't Look Into the Light
- Every Koan Ever
- Final Chapter
- Gratitude
- h
- How HTTP Requests Work
- Humanity
- I Love
- Instant Pot Quinoa Taco Bowls
- Instant Pot Spaghetti
- I Put Words on this Webpage so You Have to Listen to Me Now
- I Remember
- It Is Free
- Listen to Your Rubber Duck
- MrBeast is Postmodern Gold
- My Experience Cursing Out God
- Narrative of Sickness
- One Day
- Plurality-Driven Development
- Practical Kasmakfa
- Questions
- Second Go Around
- Self
- Sorting Time
- Tarot for Hackers
- The Gears and The Gods
- The Origin of h
- The Service is Already Down
- The Story of Hol
- The Sumerian Creation Myth
- Toast Sandwich Recipe
- Untitled Cyberpunk Furry Story
- We Exist
- What Its Like to Be Me
- When Then Zen
- When Then Zen: Anapana
- When Then Zen: Wonderland Immersion
- You Are Fine
Most of these are available on this site, but a good portion of them are not
available anywhere else. There's poetry about shamanism, stories about
reincarnation, koans and more.
I am also uploading eBook files to my [Patreon](https://patreon.com/cadey) page,
anyone who supports me for $1 or more has [immediate
access](https://www.patreon.com/posts/39825969)
to the DRM-free ePub, MOBIPocket and PDF files of this book.
If you are facing financial difficulties, want to read my book and just simply
cannot afford it, please [contact me](/contact) and I will send you my book free
of charge.
Feedback and reviews of this book are more than welcome. If you decide to tweet
or toot about it, please use the hashtag `#musingsfromwithin` so I can collect
them into future updates to the description of the store pages, as well as
assemble them below.
Enjoy the book! My hope is that you get as much from it as I've gotten from
writing these things for the last 5 or so years. Here's to five more. I'll
likely create another anthology/collection of them at that point.

View File

@ -40,8 +40,7 @@ The following table is a history of my software career by title, date and salary
| Software Engineer | August 24, 2016 | November 22, 2016 | 90 days | 21 days | $105,000/year | Terminated |
| Consultant | Feburary 13, 2017 | November 13, 2017 | 273 days | 83 days | don't remember | Hired |
| Senior Software Engineer | November 13, 2017 | March 8, 2019 | 480 days | 0 days | $150,000/year | Voulntary quit |
| Senior Site Reliability Expert | May 6, 2019 | October 27, 2020 | 540 days | 48 days | CAD$115,000/year (about USD$ 80k and change) | Voluntary quit |
| Software Designer | December 14, 2020 | *current* | n/a | n/a | CAD$135,000/year (about USD$ 105k and change) | n/a |
| Senior Site Reliability Expert | May 6, 2019 | (will be current) | n/a | n/a | CAD$115,000/year (about USD$ 80k and change) | n/a |
Even though I've been fired three times, I don't regret my career as it's been
thus far. I've been able to work on experimental technology integrating into

View File

@ -1,81 +0,0 @@
---
title: "Life Update: New Adventures"
date: 2020-10-24
tags:
- personal
---
# Life Update: New Adventures
Today was my last day at my job, and as of the time that I have published this
post, I am now inbetween jobs. I have had an adventure at Lightspeed, but all
things must come to an end and my adventure has come to an end there. I have a
new job lined up and I will be heading to it soon, but for the meantime I plan
to relax and decompress.
I want to finish that tabletop RPG book I have prototyped out. When I have
something closer to a cohesive book I will post something on my
[patreon](https://www.patreon.com/cadey) so that you all can take a look. Any
and all feedback would be very appreciated. I hope to have it published on my
[Itch page](https://withinstudios.itch.io/) by the end of this year. My target
is on or about $5 for the game manual and supplemental material.
Thanks for reading; no, seriously, thank you. Without people like you that
read and share articles on this blog I would never have gotten to the level of
success that I have now. Additionally, I would like to emphasize that I am fine
as far as new jobs go. I have primary and fallback plans in place, but if they
all somehow fall through I will be sure to put up a note here. Please be sure to
check out [/signalboost](/signalboost) for people to consider when making hiring
decisions.
## May Our Paths Cross Again: My Farewell Letter to Lightspeed
Hey all,
Today is my last day at Lightspeed. Working at Lightspeed has been catalytic to
my career. I have been exposed to so many people from so many backgrounds and
you all have irreparably changed me for the better and given me the space to
thrive. There is passion here, and it is being tapped in order to create
fantastic solutions for our customers to enable them to succeed. I originally
came to Montréal to live with my fiancé and if Covid had struck a week later he
would be my husband.
However, I feel that I have done as much as I can at Lightspeed and our paths
thusly need to divide. I have gotten a fantastic opportunity and I will be
working on technology that will become a foundational part of personal and
professional IP networking over WireGuard for many companies and people. I'm
sorry if this comes as a shock to anyone, I don't mean to cause anyone grief
with this move.
I have been attaching a little poem in Lojban to the signature of my emails,
here is it and its translation:
```
la budza pu cusku lu
<<.i ko do snura .i ko do kanro
.i ko do panpi .i ko do gleki>> li'u
```
> May you be safe. May you be healthy.
> May you be at peace. May you be happy.
- Buddha
I will be reachable on the internet. See https://christine.website/contact to
see contact information that will help you reach out to me. If you can, please
direct replies to me@christine.website, that way I can read them after this
account gets disabled.
I hope I was able to brighten your path.
From my world to yours,
--
Christine Dodrill
https://christine.website
```
la budza pu cusku lu
<<.i ko do snura .i ko do kanro
.i ko do panpi .i ko do gleki>> li'u
```

View File

@ -1,38 +0,0 @@
---
title: New PGP Key Fingerprint
date: 2021-01-15
---
# New PGP Key Fingerprint
This morning I got an encrypted email, and in the process of trying to decrypt
it I discovered that I had _lost_ my PGP key. I have no idea how I lost it. As
such, I have created a new PGP key and replaced the one on my website with it.
I did the replacement in [this
commit](https://github.com/Xe/site/commit/66233bcd40155cf71e221edf08851db39dbd421c),
which you can see is verified with a subkey of my new key.
My new PGP key ID is `803C 935A E118 A224`. The key with the ID `799F 9134 8118
1111` should not be used anymore. Here are all the subkey fingerprints:
```
Signature key ....: 378E BFC6 3D79 B49D 8C36 448C 803C 935A E118 A224
created ....: 2021-01-15 13:04:28
Encryption key....: 8C61 7F30 F331 D21B 5517 6478 8C5C 9BC7 0FC2 511E
created ....: 2021-01-15 13:04:28
Authentication key: 7BF7 E531 ABA3 7F77 FD17 8F72 CE17 781B F55D E945
created ....: 2021-01-15 13:06:20
General key info..: pub rsa2048/803C935AE118A224 2021-01-15 Christine Dodrill (Yubikey) <me@christine.website>
sec> rsa2048/803C935AE118A224 created: 2021-01-15 expires: 2031-01-13
card-no: 0006 03646872
ssb> rsa2048/8C5C9BC70FC2511E created: 2021-01-15 expires: 2031-01-13
card-no: 0006 03646872
ssb> rsa2048/CE17781BF55DE945 created: 2021-01-15 expires: 2031-01-13
card-no: 0006 03646872
```
I don't really know what the proper way is to go about revoking an old PGP key.
It probably doesn't help that I don't use PGP very often. I think this is the
first encrypted email I've gotten in a year.
Let's hope that I don't lose this key as easily!

View File

@ -1,317 +0,0 @@
---
title: Nixops Services on Your Home Network
date: 2020-11-09
series: howto
tags:
- nixos
- systemd
---
# Nixops Services on Your Home Network
My homelab has a few NixOS machines. Right now they mostly run services inside
Docker, because that has been what I have done for years. This works fine, but
persistent state gets annoying*. NixOS has a tool called
[Nixops](https://releases.nixos.org/nixops/nixops-1.7/manual/manual.html) that
allows you to push configurations to remote machines. I use this for managing my
fleet of machines, and today I'm going to show you how to create service
deployments with Nixops and push them to your servers.
[Pedantically, Docker offers <a
href="https://releases.nixos.org/nixops/nixops-1.7/manual/manual.html">volumes</a>
to simplify this, but it is very easy to accidentally delete Docker volumes.
Plain disk files like we are going to use today are a bit simpler than docker
volumes, and thusly a bit harder to mess up.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
## Parts of a Service
For this example, let's deploy a chatbot. To make things easier, let's assume
the following about this chatbot:
- The chatbot has a git repo somewhere
- The chatbot's git repo has a `default.nix` that builds the service and
includes any supporting files it might need
- The chatbot reads its configuration from environment variables which may
contain secret values (API keys, etc.)
- The chatbot stores any temporary files in its current working directory
- The chatbot is "well-behaved" (for some definition of "well-behaved")
I will also need to assume that you have a git repo (or at least a folder) with
all of your configuration similar to [mine](https://github.com/Xe/nixos-configs).
For this example I'm going to use [withinbot](https://github.com/Xe/withinbot)
as the service we will deploy via Nixops. withinbot is a chatbot that I use on
my own Discord guild that does a number of vital functions including supplying
amusing facts about printers:
```
<Cadey~> ~printerfact
<Within[BOT]> @Cadey~ Printers, especially older printers, do get cancer. Many
times this disease can be treated successfully
```
[To get your own amusing facts about printers, see <a
href="https://printerfacts.cetacean.club">here</a> or for using its API, call <a
href="https://printerfacts.cetacean.club/fact">`/fact`</a>. This API has no
practical rate limits, but please don't test that.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
## Service Definition
We will need to do a few major things for defining this service:
1. Add the bot code as a package
1. Create a "services" folder for the service modules
1. Create a user account for the service
1. Set up a systemd unit for the service
1. Configure the secrets using [Nixops
keys](https://releases.nixos.org/nixops/nixops-1.7/manual/manual.html#idm140737322342384)
### Add the Code as a Package
In order for the program to be installed to the remote system, you need to tell
the system how to import it. There's many ways to do this, but the cheezy way is
to add the packages to
[`nixpkgs.config.packageOverrides`](https://nixos.org/manual/nixos/stable/#sec-customising-packages)
like this:
```nix
nixpkgs.config = {
packageOverrides = pkgs: {
within = {
withinbot = import (builtins.fetchTarball
"https://github.com/Xe/withinbot/archive/main.tar.gz") { };
};
};
};
```
And now we can access it as `pkgs.within.withinbot` in the rest of our config.
[In production circumstances you should probably use <a
href="https://nixos.org/manual/nixpkgs/stable/#chap-pkgs-fetchers">a fetcher
that locks to a specific version</a> using unique URLs and hashing, but this
will work enough to get us off the ground in this
example.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
### Create a "services" Folder
In your configuration folder, create a folder that you will use for these
service definitions. I made mine in `common/services`. In that folder, create a
`default.nix` with the following contents:
```nix
{ config, lib, ... }:
{
imports = [ ./withinbot.nix ];
users.groups.within = {};
}
```
The group listed here is optional, but I find that having a group like that can
help you better share resources and files between services.
Now we need a folder for storing secrets. Let's create that under the services
folder:
```console
$ mkdir secrets
```
And let's also add a gitignore file so that we don't accidentally commit these
secrets to the repo:
```gitignore
# common/services/secrets/.gitignore
*
```
Now we can put any secrets we want in the secrets folder without the risk of
committing them to the git repo.
### Service Manifest
Let's create `withinbot.nix` and set it up:
```nix
{ config, lib, pkgs, ... }:
with lib; {
options.within.services.withinbot.enable =
mkEnableOption "Activates Withinbot (the furryhole chatbot)";
config = mkIf config.within.services.withinbot.enable {
};
}
```
This sets up an option called `within.services.withinbot.enable` which will only
add the service configuration if that option is set to `true`. This will allow
us to define a lot of services that are available, but none of their config will
be active unless they are explicitly enabled.
Now, let's create a user account for the service:
```nix
# ...
config = ... {
users.users.withinbot = {
createHome = true;
description = "github.com/Xe/withinbot";
isSystemUser = true;
group = "within";
home = "/srv/within/withinbot";
extraGroups = [ "keys" ];
};
};
# ...
```
This will create a user named `withinbot` with the home directory
`/srv/within/withinbot`, the group `within` and also in the group `keys` so the
withinbot user can read deployment secrets.
Now let's add the deployment secrets to the configuration:
```nix
# ...
config = ... {
users.users.withinbot = { ... };
deployment.keys.withinbot = {
text = builtins.readFile ./secrets/withinbot.env;
user = "withinbot";
group = "within";
permissions = "0640";
};
};
# ...
```
Assuming you have the configuration at `./secrets/withinbot.env`, this will
register the secrets into `/run/keys/withinbot` and also create a systemd
oneshot service named `withinbot-key`. This allows you to add the secret's
existence as a condition for withinbot to run. However, Nixops puts these keys
in `/run`, which by default is mounted using a temporary memory-only filesystem,
meaning these keys will need to be re-added to machines when they are rebooted.
Fortunately, `nixops reboot` will automatically add the keys back after the
reboot succeeds.
Now that we have everything else we need, let's add the service configuration:
```nix
# ...
config = ... {
users.users.withinbot = { ... };
deployment.keys.withinbot = { ... };
systemd.services.withinbot = {
wantedBy = [ "multi-user.target" ];
after = [ "withinbot-key.service" ];
wants = [ "withinbot-key.service" ];
serviceConfig = {
User = "withinbot";
Group = "within";
Restart = "on-failure"; # automatically restart the bot when it dies
WorkingDirectory = "/srv/within/withinbot";
RestartSec = "30s";
};
script = let withinbot = pkgs.within.withinbot;
in ''
# load the environment variables from /run/keys/withinbot
export $(grep -v '^#' /run/keys/withinbot | xargs)
# service-specific configuration
export CAMPAIGN_FOLDER=${withinbot}/campaigns
# kick off the chatbot
exec ${withinbot}/bin/withinbot
'';
};
};
# ...
```
This will create the systemd configuration for the service so that it starts on
boot, waits to start until the secrets have been loaded into it, runs withinbot
as its own user and in the `within` group, and throttles the service restart so
that it doesn't incur Discord rate limits as easily. This will also put all
withinbot logs in journald, meaning that you can manage and monitor this service
like you would any other systemd service.
## Deploying the Service
In your target server's `configuration.nix` file, add an import of your services
directory:
```nix
{
# ...
imports = [
# ...
/home/cadey/code/nixos-configs/common/services
];
# ...
}
```
And then enable the withinbot service:
```nix
{
# ...
within.services = {
withinbot.enable = true;
};
# ...
}
```
[Make that a block so you can enable multiple services at once like <a
href="https://github.com/Xe/nixos-configs/blob/e111413e8b895f5a117dea534b17fc9d0b38d268/hosts/chrysalis/configuration.nix#L93-L96">this</a>!](conversation://Mara/hacker)
Now you are free to deploy it to your network with `nixops deploy`:
```console
$ nixops deploy -d hexagone
```
<video controls width="100%">
<source src="https://cdn.christine.website/file/christine-static/img/nixops/tmp.Tr7HTFFd2c.webm"
type="video/webm">
<source src="https://cdn.christine.website/file/christine-static/img/nixops/tmp.Tr7HTFFd2c.mp4"
type="video/mp4">
Sorry, your browser doesn't support embedded videos.
</video>
And then you can verify the service is up with `systemctl status`:
```console
$ nixops ssh -d hexagone chrysalis -- systemctl status withinbot
● withinbot.service
Loaded: loaded (/nix/store/7ab7jzycpcci4f5wjwhjx3al7xy85ka7-unit-withinbot.service/withinbot.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since Mon 2020-11-09 09:51:51 EST; 2h 29min ago
Main PID: 12295 (withinbot)
IP: 0B in, 0B out
Tasks: 13 (limit: 4915)
Memory: 7.9M
CPU: 4.456s
CGroup: /system.slice/withinbot.service
└─12295 /nix/store/qpq281hcb1grh4k5fm6ksky6w0981arp-withinbot-0.1.0/bin/withinbot
Nov 09 09:51:51 chrysalis systemd[1]: Started withinbot.service.
```
---
This basic template is enough to expand out to anything you would need and is
what I am using for my own network. This should be generic enough for most of
your needs. Check out the [NixOS manual](https://nixos.org/manual/nixos/stable/)
for more examples and things you can do with this. The [Nixops
manual](https://releases.nixos.org/nixops/nixops-1.7/manual/manual.html) is also
a good read. It can also set up deployments with VirtualBox, libvirtd, AWS,
Digital Ocean, and even Google Cloud.
The cloud is the limit! Be well.

View File

@ -48,9 +48,9 @@ NixOS and how they fit into how I use NixOS on my desktop.
Earlier, I mentioned that Nix is a _functional_ package manager. This means that
Nix views packages as a combination of inputs to get an output:
![A nix package is the metadata, the source code, the build instructions and
<center>![A nix package is the metadata, the source code, the build instructions and
some patches as input to a derivation to create a
package](/static/blog/nix-package.png)
package](/static/blog/nix-package.png)</center>
This is how most package managers work (even things like Windows installer
files), but Nix goes a step further by disallowing package builds to access the

View File

@ -1,146 +0,0 @@
---
title: Discord Webhooks via NixOS and Systemd Timers
date: 2020-11-30
series: howto
tags:
- nixos
- discord
- systemd
---
# Discord Webhooks via NixOS and Systemd Timers
Recently I needed to set up a Discord message on a cronjob as a part of
moderating a guild I've been in for years. I've done this before using
[cronjobs](/blog/howto-automate-discord-webhook-cron-2018-03-29), however this
time we will be using [NixOS](https://nixos.org/) and [systemd
timers](https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Systemd/Timers). Here's what you
will need to follow along:
- A machine running NixOS
- A [Discord](https://discord.com/) account
- A
[webhook](https://support.discord.com/hc/en-us/articles/228383668-Intro-to-Webhooks)
configured for a channel
- A message you want to send to Discord
[If you don't have moderation permissions in any guilds, make your own for
testing! You will need the "Manage Webhooks" permission to create a
webhook.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
## Setting Up Timers
systemd timers are like cronjobs, except they trigger systemd services instead
of shell commands. For this example, let's create a daily webhook reminder to
check on your Animal Crossing island at 9 am.
Let's create the systemd service at the end of the machine's
`configuration.nix`:
```nix
systemd.services.acnh-island-check-reminder = {
serviceConfig.Type = "oneshot";
script = ''
MESSAGE="It's time to check on your island! Check those stonks!"
WEBHOOK="${builtins.readFile /home/cadey/prefix/secrets/acnh-webhook-secret}"
USERNAME="Domo"
${pkgs.curl}/bin/curl \
-X POST \
-F "content=$MESSAGE" \
-F "username=$USERNAME" \
"$WEBHOOK"
'';
};
```
[This service is a <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/a/39050387">oneshot</a>
unit, meaning systemd will launch this once and not expect it to always stay
running.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
Now let's create a timer for this service. We need to do the following:
- Associate the timer with that service
- Assign a schedule to the timer
Add this to the end of your `configuration.nix`:
```nix
systemd.timers.acnh-island-check-reminder = {
wantedBy = [ "timers.target" ];
partOf = [ "acnh-island-check-reminder.service" ];
timerConfig.OnCalendar = "TODO(Xe): this";
};
```
Before we mentioned that we want to trigger this reminder every morning at 9 am.
systemd timers specify their calendar config in the following format:
```
DayOfWeek Year-Month-Day Hour:Minute:Second
```
So for something that triggers every day at 9 AM, it would look like this:
```
*-*-* 8:00:00
```
[You can ignore the day of the week if it's not
relevant!](conversation://Mara/hacker)
So our final timer definition would look like this:
```nix
systemd.timers.acnh-island-check-reminder = {
wantedBy = [ "timers.target" ];
partOf = [ "acnh-island-check-reminder.service" ];
timerConfig.OnCalendar = "*-*-* 8:00:00";
};
```
## Deployment and Testing
Now we can deploy this with `nixos-rebuild`:
```console
$ sudo nixos-rebuild switch
```
You should see a line that says something like this in the `nixos-rebuild`
output:
```
starting the following units: acnh-island-check-reminder.timer
```
Let's test the service out using `systemctl`:
```console
$ sudo systemctl start acnh-island-check-reminder.service
```
And you should then see a message on Discord. If you don't see a message, check
the logs using `journalctl`:
```console
$ journalctl -u acnh-island-check-reminder.service
```
If you see an error that looks like this:
```
curl: (26) Failed to open/read local data from file/application
```
This usually means that you tried to do a role or user mention at the beginning
of the message and curl tried to interpret that as a file input. Add a word like
"hey" at the beginning of the line to disable this behavior. See
[here](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/6408904/send-request-to-curl-with-post-data-sourced-from-a-file)
for more information.
---
Also happy December! My site has the [snow
CSS](https://christine.website/blog/let-it-snow-2018-12-17) loaded for the
month. Enjoy!

View File

@ -1,332 +0,0 @@
---
title: Encrypted Secrets with NixOS
date: 2021-01-20
series: nixos
tags:
- age
- ed25519
---
# Encrypted Secrets with NixOS
One of the best things about NixOS is the fact that it's so easy to do
configuration management using it. The Nix store (where all your packages live)
has a huge flaw for secret management though: everything in the Nix store is
globally readable. This means that anyone logged into or running code on the
system could read any secret in the Nix store without any limits. This is
sub-optimal if your goal is to keep secret values secret. There have been a few
approaches to this over the years, but I want to describe how I'm doing it.
Here are my goals and implementation for this setup and how a few other secret
management strategies don't quite pan out.
At a high level I have these goals:
* It should be trivial to declare new secrets
* Secrets should never be globally readable in any useful form
* If I restart the machine, I should not need to take manual human action to
ensure all of the services come back online
* GPG should be avoided at all costs
As a side goal being able to roll back secret changes would also be nice.
The two biggest tools that offer a way to help with secret management on NixOS
that come to mind are NixOps and Morph.
[NixOps](https://github.com/NixOS/nixops) is a tool that helps administrators
operate NixOS across multiple servers at once. I use NixOps extensively in my
own setup. It calls deployment secrets "keys" and they are documented
[here](https://hydra.nixos.org/build/115931128/download/1/manual/manual.html#idm140737322649152).
At a high level they are declared like this:
```nix
deployment.keys.example = {
text = "this is a super sekrit value :)";
user = "example";
group = "keys";
permissions = "0400";
};
```
This will create a new secret in `/run/keys` that will contain our super secret
value.
[Wait, isn't `/run` an ephemeral filesystem? What happens when the system
reboots?](conversation://Mara/hmm)
Let's make an example system and find out! So let's say we have that `example`
secret from earlier and want to use it in a job. The job definition could look
something like this:
```nix
# create a service-specific user
users.users.example.isSystemUser = true;
# without this group the secret can't be read
users.users.example.extraGroups = [ "keys" ];
systemd.services.example = {
wantedBy = [ "multi-user.target" ];
after = [ "example-key.service" ];
wants = [ "example-key.service" ];
serviceConfig.User = "example";
serviceConfig.Type = "oneshot";
script = ''
stat /run/keys/example
'';
};
```
This creates a user called `example` and gives it permission to read deployment
keys. It also creates a systemd service called `example.service` and runs
[`stat(1)`](https://linux.die.net/man/1/stat) to show the permissions of the
service and the key file. It also runs as our `example` user. To avoid systemd
thinking our service failed, we're also going to mark it as a
[oneshot](https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/understanding-systemd-units-and-unit-files#the-service-section).
Altogether it could look something like
[this](https://gist.github.com/Xe/4a71d7741e508d9002be91b62248144a). Let's see
what `systemctl` has to report:
```console
$ nixops ssh -d blog-example pa -- systemctl status example
● example.service
Loaded: loaded (/nix/store/j4a8f6mnaw3v4sz7dqlnz95psh72xglw-unit-example.service/example.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: inactive (dead) since Wed 2021-01-20 20:53:54 UTC; 37s ago
Process: 2230 ExecStart=/nix/store/1yg89z4dsdp1axacqk07iq5jqv58q169-unit-script-example-start/bin/example-start (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Main PID: 2230 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
IP: 0B in, 0B out
CPU: 3ms
Jan 20 20:53:54 pa example-start[2235]: File: /run/keys/example
Jan 20 20:53:54 pa example-start[2235]: Size: 31 Blocks: 8 IO Block: 4096 regular file
Jan 20 20:53:54 pa example-start[2235]: Device: 18h/24d Inode: 37428 Links: 1
Jan 20 20:53:54 pa example-start[2235]: Access: (0400/-r--------) Uid: ( 998/ example) Gid: ( 96/ keys)
Jan 20 20:53:54 pa example-start[2235]: Access: 2021-01-20 20:53:54.010554201 +0000
Jan 20 20:53:54 pa example-start[2235]: Modify: 2021-01-20 20:53:54.010554201 +0000
Jan 20 20:53:54 pa example-start[2235]: Change: 2021-01-20 20:53:54.398103181 +0000
Jan 20 20:53:54 pa example-start[2235]: Birth: -
Jan 20 20:53:54 pa systemd[1]: example.service: Succeeded.
Jan 20 20:53:54 pa systemd[1]: Finished example.service.
```
So what happens when we reboot? I'll force a reboot in my hypervisor and we'll
find out:
```console
$ nixops ssh -d blog-example pa -- systemctl status example
● example.service
Loaded: loaded (/nix/store/j4a8f6mnaw3v4sz7dqlnz95psh72xglw-unit-example.service/example.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: inactive (dead)
```
The service is inactive. Let's see what the status of `example-key.service` is:
```console
$ nixops ssh -d blog-example pa -- systemctl status example-key
● example-key.service
Loaded: loaded (/nix/store/ikqn64cjq8pspkf3ma1jmx8qzpyrckpb-unit-example-key.service/example-key.service; linked; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: activating (start-pre) since Wed 2021-01-20 20:56:05 UTC; 3min 1s ago
Cntrl PID: 610 (example-key-pre)
IP: 0B in, 0B out
IO: 116.0K read, 0B written
Tasks: 4 (limit: 2374)
Memory: 1.6M
CPU: 3ms
CGroup: /system.slice/example-key.service
├─610 /nix/store/kl6lr3czkbnr6m5crcy8ffwfzbj8a22i-bash-4.4-p23/bin/bash -e /nix/store/awx1zrics3cal8kd9c5d05xzp5ikazlk-unit-script-example-key-pre-start/bin/example-key-pre-start
├─619 /nix/store/kl6lr3czkbnr6m5crcy8ffwfzbj8a22i-bash-4.4-p23/bin/bash -e /nix/store/awx1zrics3cal8kd9c5d05xzp5ikazlk-unit-script-example-key-pre-start/bin/example-key-pre-start
├─620 /nix/store/kl6lr3czkbnr6m5crcy8ffwfzbj8a22i-bash-4.4-p23/bin/bash -e /nix/store/awx1zrics3cal8kd9c5d05xzp5ikazlk-unit-script-example-key-pre-start/bin/example-key-pre-start
└─621 inotifywait -qm --format %f -e create,move /run/keys
Jan 20 20:56:05 pa systemd[1]: Starting example-key.service...
```
The service is blocked waiting for the keys to exist. We have to populate the
keys with `nixops send-keys`:
```console
$ nixops send-keys -d blog-example
pa> uploading key example...
```
Now when we check on `example.service`, we get the following:
```console
$ nixops ssh -d blog-example pa -- systemctl status example
● example.service
Loaded: loaded (/nix/store/j4a8f6mnaw3v4sz7dqlnz95psh72xglw-unit-example.service/example.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: inactive (dead) since Wed 2021-01-20 21:00:24 UTC; 32s ago
Process: 954 ExecStart=/nix/store/1yg89z4dsdp1axacqk07iq5jqv58q169-unit-script-example-start/bin/example-start (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Main PID: 954 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
IP: 0B in, 0B out
CPU: 3ms
Jan 20 21:00:24 pa example-start[957]: File: /run/keys/example
Jan 20 21:00:24 pa example-start[957]: Size: 31 Blocks: 8 IO Block: 4096 regular file
Jan 20 21:00:24 pa example-start[957]: Device: 18h/24d Inode: 27774 Links: 1
Jan 20 21:00:24 pa example-start[957]: Access: (0400/-r--------) Uid: ( 998/ example) Gid: ( 96/ keys)
Jan 20 21:00:24 pa example-start[957]: Access: 2021-01-20 21:00:24.588494730 +0000
Jan 20 21:00:24 pa example-start[957]: Modify: 2021-01-20 21:00:24.588494730 +0000
Jan 20 21:00:24 pa example-start[957]: Change: 2021-01-20 21:00:24.606495751 +0000
Jan 20 21:00:24 pa example-start[957]: Birth: -
Jan 20 21:00:24 pa systemd[1]: example.service: Succeeded.
Jan 20 21:00:24 pa systemd[1]: Finished example.service.
```
This means that NixOps secrets require _manual human intervention_ in order to
repopulate them on server boot. If your server went offline overnight due to an
unexpected issue, your services using those keys could be stuck offline until
morning. This is undesirable for a number of reasons. This plus the requirement
for the `keys` group (which at time of writing was undocumented) to be added to
service user accounts means that while they do work, they are not very
ergonomic.
[You can read secrets from files using something like
`deployment.keys.example.text = "${builtins.readFile ./secrets/example.env}"`,
but it is kind of a pain to have to do that. It would be better to just
reference the secrets by filesystem paths in the first
place.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
On the other hand [Morph](https://github.com/DBCDK/morph) gets this a bit
better. It is sadly even less documented than NixOps is, but it offers a similar
experience via [deployment
secrets](https://github.com/DBCDK/morph/blob/master/examples/secrets.nix). The
main differences that Morph brings to the table are taking paths to secrets and
allowing you to run an arbitrary command on the secret being uploaded. Secrets
are also able to be put anywhere on the disk, meaning that when a host reboots it
will come back up with the most recent secrets uploaded to it.
However, like NixOps, Morph secrets don't have the ability to be rolled back.
This means that if you mess up a secret value you better hope you have the old
information somewhere. This violates what you'd expect from a NixOS machine.
So given these examples, I thought it would be interesting to explore what the
middle path could look like. I chose to use
[age](https://github.com/FiloSottile/age) for encrypting secrets in the Nix
store as well as using SSH host keys to ensure that every secret is decryptable
at runtime by _that machine only_. If you get your hands on the secret
cyphertext, it should be unusable to you.
One of the harder things here will be keeping a list of all of the server host
keys. Recently I added a
[hosts.toml](https://github.com/Xe/nixos-configs/blob/master/ops/metadata/hosts.toml)
file to my config repo for autoconfiguring my WireGuard overlay network. It was
easy enough to add all the SSH host keys for each machine using a command like
this to get them:
[We will cover how this WireGuard overlay works in a future post.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
```console
$ nixops ssh-for-each -d hexagone -- cat /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ed25519_key.pub
firgu....> ssh-ed25519 AAAAC3NzaC1lZDI1NTE5AAAAIB8+mCR+MEsv0XYi7ohvdKLbDecBtb3uKGQOPfIhdj3C root@nixos
chrysalis> ssh-ed25519 AAAAC3NzaC1lZDI1NTE5AAAAIGDA5iXvkKyvAiMEd/5IruwKwoymC8WxH4tLcLWOSYJ1 root@chrysalis
lufta....> ssh-ed25519 AAAAC3NzaC1lZDI1NTE5AAAAIMADhGV0hKt3ZY+uBjgOXX08txBS6MmHZcSL61KAd3df root@lufta
keanu....> ssh-ed25519 AAAAC3NzaC1lZDI1NTE5AAAAIGDZUmuhfjEIROo2hog2c8J53taRuPJLNOtdaT8Nt69W root@nixos
```
age lets you use SSH keys for decryption, so I added these keys to my
`hosts.toml` and ended up with something like
[this](https://github.com/Xe/nixos-configs/commit/14726e982001e794cd72afa1ece209eed58d3f38#diff-61d1d8dddd71be624c0d718be22072c950ec31c72fded8a25094ea53d94c8185).
Now we can encrypt secrets on the host machine and safely put them in the Nix
store because they will be readable to each target machine with a command like
this:
```shell
age -d -i /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ed25519_key -o $dest $src
```
From here it's easy to make a function that we can use for generating new
encrypted secrets in the Nix store. First we need to import the host metadata
from the toml file:
```nix
let
cfg = config.within.secrets;
metadata = lib.importTOML ../../ops/metadata/hosts.toml;
mkSecretOnDisk = name:
{ source, ... }:
pkgs.stdenv.mkDerivation {
name = "${name}-secret";
phases = "installPhase";
buildInputs = [ pkgs.age ];
installPhase =
let key = metadata.hosts."${config.networking.hostName}".ssh_pubkey;
in ''
age -a -r "${key}" -o $out ${source}
'';
};
```
And then we can generate systemd oneshot jobs with something like this:
```nix
mkService = name:
{ source, dest, owner, group, permissions, ... }: {
description = "decrypt secret for ${name}";
wantedBy = [ "multi-user.target" ];
serviceConfig.Type = "oneshot";
script = with pkgs; ''
rm -rf ${dest}
${age}/bin/age -d -i /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ed25519_key -o ${dest} ${
mkSecretOnDisk name { inherit source; }
}
chown ${owner}:${group} ${dest}
chmod ${permissions} ${dest}
'';
};
```
And from there we just need some [boring
boilerplate](https://github.com/Xe/nixos-configs/blob/master/common/crypto/default.nix#L8-L38)
to define a secret type. Then we declare the secret type and its invocation:
```nix
in {
options.within.secrets = mkOption {
type = types.attrsOf secret;
description = "secret configuration";
default = { };
};
config.systemd.services = let
units = mapAttrs' (name: info: {
name = "${name}-key";
value = (mkService name info);
}) cfg;
in units;
}
```
And we have ourself a NixOS module that allows us to:
* Trivially declare new secrets
* Make secrets in the Nix store useless without the key
* Make every secret be transparently decrypted on startup
* Avoid the use of GPG
* Roll back secrets like any other configuration change
Declaring new secrets works like this (as stolen from [the service definition
for the website you are reading right now](https://github.com/Xe/nixos-configs/blob/master/common/services/xesite.nix#L35-L41)):
```nix
within.secrets.example = {
source = ./secrets/example.env;
dest = "/var/lib/example/.env";
owner = "example";
group = "nogroup";
permissions = "0400";
};
```
Barring some kind of cryptographic attack against age, this should allow the
secrets to be stored securely. I am working on a way to make this more generic.
This overall approach was inspired by [agenix](https://github.com/ryantm/agenix)
but made more specific for my needs. I hope this approach will make it easy for
me to manage these secrets in the future.

View File

@ -1,12 +0,0 @@
---
title: "Tailscale on NixOS: A New Minecraft Server in Ten Minutes"
date: 2021-01-19
tags:
- link
redirect_to: https://tailscale.com/blog/nixos-minecraft/
---
# Tailscale on NixOS: A New Minecraft Server in Ten Minutes
Check out this post [on the Tailscale
blog](https://tailscale.com/blog/nixos-minecraft/)!

View File

@ -1,129 +0,0 @@
---
title: My Org Mode Flow
date: 2020-09-08
tags:
- emacs
---
# My Org Mode Flow
At almost every job I've worked at, at least one of my coworkers has noticed
that I use Emacs as my main text editor. People have pointed me at IntelliJ, VS
Code, Atom and more, but I keep sticking to Emacs because it has one huge ace up
its sleeve that other editors simply cannot match. Emacs has a package that
helps me organize my workflow, focus my note-taking and even keep a timeclock
for how long I spend working on tasks. This package is called Org mode, and this
is my flow for using it.
[Org mode](https://orgmode.org/) is a TODO list manager, document authoring
platform and more for [GNU Emacs](https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/). It uses
specially formatted plain text that can be managed using version control
systems. I have used it daily for about five years for keeping track of what I
need to do for work. Please note that my usage of it _barely scratches the
surface_ of what Org mode can do, because this is all I have needed.
## `~/org`
My org flow starts with a single folder: `~/org`. The main file I use is
`todo.org` and it looks something like this:
```org
#+TITLE: TODO
* Doing
** TODO WAT-42069 Unfrobnicate the rilkef for flopnax-ropjar push...
* In Review
** TODO WAT-42042 New Relic Dashboards...
* Reviews
** DONE HAX-1337 Security architecture of wasmcloud
* Interrupt
* Generic todo
* Overhead
** 09/08/2020
*** DONE workday start...
*** DONE standup...
```
Each level of stars creates a new heading level, and these headings can be
treated like a tree. You can use the tab key to open and close the heading
levels and hide those parts of the tree if they are not relevant. Let's open up
the standup subtree with tab:
```org
*** DONE standup
CLOSED: [2020-09-08 Tue 10:12]
:LOGBOOK:
CLOCK: [2020-09-08 Tue 10:00]--[2020-09-08 Tue 10:12] => 0:12
:END:
```
Org mode automatically entered in nearly all of the information in this subtree
for me. I clocked in (alt-x org-clock-in with that TODO item highighted) when
the standup started and I clocked out by marking the task as done (alt-x
org-todo with that TODO item highlighted). If I am working on a task that takes
longer than one session, I can clock out of it (alt-x org-clock-out) and then
the time I spent (about 20 minutes) will be recorded in the file for me. Then I
can manually enter the time spent into tools like Jira.
When I am ready to move a task from In Progress to In Review, I close the
subtree with tab and then highlight the collapsed subtree, cut it and paste it
under the In Review header. This will keep the time tracking information
associated with that header entry.
I will tend to let tasks build up over the week and then on Monday morning I
will move all of the done tasks to `done.org`, which is where I store things
that are done. As I move things over, I double check with Jira to make sure the
time tracking has been accurately updated. This can take a while, but doing this
has caught cases where I have misreported time and then had the opportunity to
correct it.
## Clocktables
Org mode is also able to generate tables based on information in org files. One
of the most useful ones is the [clock
table](https://orgmode.org/manual/The-clock-table.html#). You can use these
clock tables to make reports about how much time was spent in each task. I use
these to help me know what I have done in the day so I can report about it in
the next day's standup meeting. To add a clock table, add an empty block for it
and press control-c c on the `BEGIN` line. Here's an example:
```org
#+BEGIN: clocktable :block today
#+END:
```
This will show you all of the things you have recorded for that day. This may
end up being a bit much if you nest things deep enough. My preferred clock table
is a daily view only showing the second level and lower for the current file:
```org
#+BEGIN: clocktable :maxlevel 2 :block today :scope file
#+CAPTION: Clock summary at [2020-09-08 Tue 15:47], for Tuesday, September 08, 2020.
| Headline | Time | |
|-----------------------------|--------|------|
| *Total time* | *6:14* | |
|-----------------------------|--------|------|
| In Progress | 2:09 | |
| \_ WAT-42069 Unfrobnica... | | 2:09 |
| Overhead | 4:05 | |
| \_ 09/08/2020 | | 4:05 |
#+END:
```
This allows me to see that I've been working today for about 6.25 hours for the
day, so I can use that information when deciding what to do next.
## Other Things You Can Do
In the past I used to use org mode for a lot of things. In one of my older files
I have a comprehensive list of all of the times I smoked weed down to the amount
smoked and what I felt about it at the time. In another I have a script that I
used for applying ansible files across a cluster. The sky really is the limit.
However, I have really decided to keep things simple for the most part. I leave
org mode for work stuff and mostly use iCloud services for personal stuff. There
are mobile apps for using org-mode on the go, but they haven't aged well at all
and I have been focusing my time into actually doing things instead of
configuring WEBDAV servers or the like.
This is how I keep track of things at work.

View File

@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ make this data anonymous, simplistic and (reasonably) public.
Here is how it works:
![A diagram on how this works](/static/img/pageview_flowchart.png)
<center>![A diagram on how this works](/static/img/pageview_flowchart.png)</center>
When the page is loaded, a [javascript file records the start time](/static/js/pageview_timer.js).
This then sets a [pagehide handler](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Window/pagehide_event)

View File

@ -148,7 +148,7 @@ We'll see though.
I have also designed a placeholder logo for pa'i. Here it is:
![the logo for pa'i](/static/blog/pahi-logo.png)
<center>![the logo for pa'i](/static/blog/pahi-logo.png)</center>
It might be changed in the future, but this is what I am going with for now. The
circuit traces all spell out messages of love (inspired from the Senzar runes of

View File

@ -1,395 +0,0 @@
---
title: How to Setup Prometheus, Grafana and Loki on NixOS
date: 2020-11-20
tags:
- nixos
- prometheus
- grafana
- loki
- promtail
---
# How to Setup Prometheus, Grafana and Loki on NixOS
When setting up services on your home network, sometimes you have questions
along the lines of "how do I know that things are working?". In this blogpost we
will go over a few tools that you can use to monitor and visualize your machine
state so you can answer that. Specifically we are going to use the following
tools to do this:
- [Grafana](https://grafana.com/) for creating pretty graphs and managing
alerts
- [Prometheus](https://prometheus.io/) for storing metrics and as a common
metrics format
- [Prometheus node_exporter](https://github.com/prometheus/node_exporter) for
deriving metrics from system state
- [Loki](https://grafana.com/oss/loki/) as a central log storage point
- [promtail](https://grafana.com/docs/loki/latest/clients/promtail/) to push
logs to Loki
Let's get going!
[Something to note: in here you might see domains using the `.pele` top-level
domain. This domain will likely not be available on your home network. See <a
href="/blog/series/site-to-site-wireguard">this series</a> on how to set up
something similar for your home network. If you don't have such a setup, replace
anything that ends in `.pele` with whatever you normally use for
this.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
## Grafana
Grafana is a service that handles graphing and alerting. It also has some nice
tools to create dashboards. Here we will be using it for a few main purposes:
- Exploring what metrics are available
- Reading system logs
- Making graphs and dashboards
- Creating alerts over metrics or lack of metrics
Let's configure Grafana on a machine. Open that machine's `configuration.nix` in
an editor and add the following to it:
```nix
# hosts/chrysalis/configuration.nix
{ config, pkgs, ... }: {
# grafana configuration
services.grafana = {
enable = true;
domain = "grafana.pele";
port = 2342;
addr = "127.0.0.1";
};
# nginx reverse proxy
services.nginx.virtualHosts.${config.services.grafana.domain} = {
locations."/" = {
proxyPass = "http://127.0.0.1:${toString config.services.grafana.port}";
proxyWebsockets = true;
};
};
}
```
[If you have a <a href="/blog/site-to-site-wireguard-part-3-2019-04-11">custom
TLS Certificate Authority</a>, you can set up HTTPS for this deployment. See <a
href="https://github.com/Xe/nixos-configs/blob/master/common/sites/grafana.akua.nix">here</a>
for an example of doing this. If this server is exposed to the internet, you can
use a certificate from <a
href="https://nixos.wiki/wiki/Nginx#TLS_reverse_proxy">Let's Encrypt</a> instead
of your own Certificate Authority.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
Then you will need to deploy it to your cluster with `nixops deploy`:
```console
$ nixops deploy -d home
```
Now open the Grafana server in your browser at http://grafana.pele and login
with the super secure default credentials of admin/admin. Grafana will ask you
to change your password. Please change it to something other than admin.
This is all of the setup we will do with Grafana for now. We will come back to
it later.
## Prometheus
> Prometheus was punished by the gods by giving the gift of knowledge to man. He
> was cast into the bowels of the earth and pecked by birds.
Oracle Turret, Portal 2
Prometheus is a service that reads metrics from other services, stores them and
allows you to search and aggregate them. Let's add it to our `configuration.nix`
file:
```nix
# hosts/chrysalis/configuration.nix
services.prometheus = {
enable = true;
port = 9001;
};
```
Now let's deploy this config to the cluster with `nixops deploy`:
```console
$ nixops deploy -d home
```
And let's configure Grafana to read from Prometheus. Open Grafana and click on
the gear to the left side of the page. The `Data Sources` tab should be active.
If it is not active, click on `Data Sources`. Then click "add data source" and
choose Prometheus. Set the URL to `http://127.0.0.1:9001` (or with whatever port
you configured above) and leave everything set to the default values. Click
"Save & Test". If there is an error, be sure to check the port number.
![The Grafana UI for adding a data
source](https://cdn.christine.website/file/christine-static/blog/Screenshot_20201120_145819.png)
Now let's start getting some data into Prometheus with the node exporter.
### Node Exporter Setup
The Prometheus node exporter exposes a lot of information about systems ranging
from memory, disk usage and even systemd service information. There are also
some [other
collectors](https://search.nixos.org/options?channel=20.09&query=prometheus.exporters+enable)
you can set up based on your individual setup, however we are going to enable
only the node collector here.
In your `configuration.nix`, add an exporters block and configure the node
exporter under `services.prometheus`:
```nix
# hosts/chrysalis/configuration.nix
services.prometheus = {
exporters = {
node = {
enable = true;
enabledCollectors = [ "systemd" ];
port = 9002;
};
};
}
```
Now we need to configure Prometheus to read metrics from this exporter. In your
`configuration.nix`, add a `scrapeConfigs` block under `services.prometheus`
that points to the node exporter we configured just now:
```nix
# hosts/chrysalis/configuration.nix
services.prometheus = {
# ...
scrapeConfigs = [
{
job_name = "chrysalis";
static_configs = [{
targets = [ "127.0.0.1:${toString config.services.prometheus.exporters.node.port}" ];
}];
}
];
# ...
}
# ...
```
[The complicated expression in the target above allows you to change the port of
the node exporter and ensure that Prometheus will always be pointing at the
right port!](conversation://Mara/hacker)
Now we can deploy this to your cluster with nixops:
```console
$ nixops deploy -d home
```
Open the Explore tab in Grafana and type in the following expression:
```
node_memory_MemFree_bytes
```
and hit shift-enter (or click the "Run Query" button in the upper left side of
the screen). You should see a graph showing you the amount of ram that is free
on the host, something like this:
![A graph of the amount of system memory that is available on the host
chrysalis](https://cdn.christine.website/file/christine-static/blog/Screenshot_20201120_150328.png)
If you want to query other fields, you can type in `node_` into the searchbox
and autocomplete will show what is available. For a full list of what is
available, open the node exporter metrics route in your browser and look through
it.
## Grafana Dashboards
Now that we have all of this information about our machine, let's create a
little dashboard for it and set up a few alerts.
Click on the plus icon on the left side of the Grafana UI to create a new
dashboard. It will look something like this:
![An empty dashboard in
Grafana](https://cdn.christine.website/file/christine-static/blog/Screenshot_20201120_151205.png)
In Grafana terminology, everything you see in a dashboard is inside a panel.
Let's create a new panel to keep track of memory usage for our server. Click
"Add New Panel" and you will get a screen that looks like this:
![A Grafana panel configuration
screen](https://cdn.christine.website/file/christine-static/blog/Screenshot_20201120_151609.png)
Let's make this keep track of free memory. Write "Memory Free" in the panel
title field on the right. Write the following query in the textbox next to the
dropdown labeled "Metrics":
```
node_memory_MemFree_bytes
```
and set the legend to `{{job}}`. You should get a graph that looks something
like this:
![A populated
graph](https://cdn.christine.website/file/christine-static/blog/Screenshot_20201120_152126.png)
This will show you how much memory is free on each machine you are monitoring
with Prometheus' node exporter. Now let's configure an alert for the amount of
free memory being low (where "low" means less than 64 megabytes of ram free).
Hit save in the upper right corner of the Grafana UI and give your dashboard a
name, such as "Home Cluster Status". Now open the "Memory Free" panel for
editing (click on the name and then click "Edit"), click the "Alert" tab, and
click the "Create Alert" button. Let's configure it to do the following:
- Check if free memory gets below 64 megabytes (64000000 bytes)
- Send the message "Running out of memory!" when the alert fires
You can do that with a configuration like this:
![The above configuration input to the Grafana
UI](https://cdn.christine.website/file/christine-static/blog/Screenshot_20201120_153419.png)
Save the changes to apply this config.
[Wait a minute. Where will this alert go to?](conversation://Mara/hmm)
It will only show up on the alerts page:
![The alerts page with memory free alerts
configured](https://cdn.christine.website/file/christine-static/blog/Screenshot_20201120_154027.png)
But we can add a notification channel to customize this. Click on the
Notification Channels tab and then click "New Channel". It should look something
like this:
![Notification Channel
configuration](https://cdn.christine.website/file/christine-static/blog/Screenshot_20201120_154317.png)
You can send notifications to many services, but let's send one to Discord this
time. Acquire a Discord webhook link from somewhere and paste it in the Webhook
URL field. Name it something like "Discord". It may also be a good idea to make
this the default notification channel using the "Default" checkbox under the
Notification Settings, so that our existing alert will show up in Discord when
the system runs out of memory.
You can configure other alerts like this so you can monitor any other node
metrics you want.
[You can also monitor for the _lack_ of data on particular metrics. If something
that should always be reported suddenly isn't reported, it may be a good
indicator that a server went down. You can also add other services to your
`scrapeConfigs` settings so you can monitor things that expose metrics to
Prometheus at `/metrics`.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
Now that we have metrics configured, let's enable Loki for logging.
## Loki
Loki is a log aggregator created by the people behind Grafana. Here we will use
it as a target for all system logs. Unfortunately, the Loki NixOS module is very
basic at the moment, so we will need to configure it with our own custom yaml
file. Create a file in your `configuration.nix` folder called `loki.yaml` and
copy in the config from [this
gist](https://gist.github.com/Xe/c3c786b41ec2820725ee77a7af551225):
Then enable Loki with your config in your `configuration.nix` file:
```nix
# hosts/chrysalis/configuration.nix
services.loki = {
enable = true;
configFile = ./loki-local-config.yaml;
};
```
Promtail is a tool made by the Loki team that sends logs into Loki. Create a
file called `promtail.yaml` in the same folder as `configuration.nix` with the
following contents:
```yaml
server:
http_listen_port: 28183
grpc_listen_port: 0
positions:
filename: /tmp/positions.yaml
clients:
- url: http://127.0.0.1:3100/loki/api/v1/push
scrape_configs:
- job_name: journal
journal:
max_age: 12h
labels:
job: systemd-journal
host: chrysalis
relabel_configs:
- source_labels: ['__journal__systemd_unit']
target_label: 'unit'
```
Now we can add promtail to your `configuration.nix` by creating a systemd
service to run it with this snippet:
```nix
# hosts/chrysalis/configuration.nix
systemd.services.promtail = {
description = "Promtail service for Loki";
wantedBy = [ "multi-user.target" ];
serviceConfig = {
ExecStart = ''
${pkgs.grafana-loki}/bin/promtail --config.file ${./promtail.yaml}
'';
};
};
```
Now that you have this all set up, you can push this to your cluster with
nixops:
```console
$ nixops deploy -d home
```
Once that finishes, open up Grafana and configure a new Loki data source with
the URL `http://127.0.0.1:3100`:
![Loki Data Source
configuration](https://cdn.christine.website/file/christine-static/blog/Screenshot_20201120_161610.png)
Now that you have Loki set up, let's query it! Open the Explore view in Grafana
again, choose Loki as the source, and enter in the query `{job="systemd-journal"}`:
![Loki
search](https://cdn.christine.website/file/christine-static/blog/Screenshot_20201120_162043.png)
[You can also add Loki queries like this to dashboards! Loki also lets you query by
systemd unit with the `unit` field. If you wanted to search for logs from
`foo.service`, you would need a query that looks something like
`{job="systemd-journal", unit="foo.service"}` You can do many more complicated
things with Loki. Look <a
href="https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/datasources/loki/#search-expression">here
</a> for more information on what you can query. As of the time of writing this
blogpost, you are currently unable to make Grafana alerts based on Loki queries
as far as I am aware.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
---
This barely scrapes the surface of what you can accomplish with a setup like
this. Using more fancy setups you can alert on the rate of metrics changing. I
plan to make NixOS modules to make this setup easier in the future. There is
also a set of options in
[services.grafana.provision](https://search.nixos.org/options?channel=20.09&from=0&size=30&sort=relevance&query=grafana.provision)
that can make it easier to automagically set up Grafana with per-host
dashboards, alerts and all of the data sources that are outlined in this post.
The setup in this post is quite meager, but it should be enough to get you
started with whatever you need to monitor. Adding Prometheus metrics to your
services will go a long way in terms of being able to better monitor things in
production, do not be afraid to experiment!

View File

@ -1,616 +0,0 @@
---
title: Rust Crates that do What the Go Standard library Does
date: 2020-09-27
series: rust
---
# Rust Crates that do What the Go Standard library Does
One of Go's greatest strengths is how batteries-included the standard library
is. You can do most of what you need to do with only the standard library. On
the other hand, Rust's standard library is severely lacking by comparison.
However, the community has capitalized on this and been working on a bunch of
batteries that you can include in your rust projects. I'm going to cover a bunch
of them in this post in a few sections.
[A lot of these are actually used to help make this blog site
work!](conversation://Mara/hacker)
## Logging
Go has logging out of the box with package [`log`](https://godoc.org/log).
Package `log` is a very uncontroversial logger. It does what it says it does and
with little fuss. However it does not include a lot of niceties like logging
levels and context-aware values.
In Rust, we have the [`log`](https://docs.rs/log/) crate which is a very simple
interface. It uses the `error!`, `warn!`, `info!`, `debug!` and `trace!` macros
which correlate to the highest and lowest levels. If you want to use `log` in a
Rust crate, you can add it to your `Cargo.toml` file like this:
```toml
[dependencies]
log = "0.4"
```
Then you can use it in your Rust code like this:
```rust
use log::{error, warn, info, debug, trace};
fn main() {
trace!("starting main");
debug!("debug message");
info!("this is some information");
warn!("oh no something bad is about to happen");
error!("oh no it's an error");
}
```
[Wait, where does that log to? I ran that example locally but I didn't see any
of the messages anywhere.](conversation://Mara/wat)
This is because the `log` crate doesn't directly log anything anywhere, it is a
facade that other packages build off of.
[`pretty_env_logger`](https://docs.rs/pretty_env_logger) is a commonly used
crate with the `log` facade. Let's add it to the program and work from there:
```toml
[dependencies]
log = "0.4"
pretty_env_logger = "0.4"
```
Then let's enable it in our code:
```rust
use log::{error, warn, info, debug, trace};
fn main() {
pretty_env_logger::init();
trace!("starting main");
debug!("debug message");
info!("this is some information");
warn!("oh no something bad is about to happen");
error!("oh no it's an error");
}
```
And now let's run it with `RUST_LOG=trace`:
```console
$ env RUST_LOG=trace cargo run --example logger_test
Finished dev [unoptimized + debuginfo] target(s) in 0.07s
Running `/home/cadey/code/christine.website/target/debug/logger_test`
TRACE logger_test > starting main
DEBUG logger_test > debug message
INFO logger_test > this is some information
WARN logger_test > oh no something bad is about to happen
ERROR logger_test > oh no it's an error
```
There are [many
other](https://docs.rs/log/0.4.11/log/#available-logging-implementations)
consumers of the log crate and implementing a consumer is easy should you want
to do more than `pretty_env_logger` can do on its own. However, I have found
that `pretty_env_logger` does just enough on its own. See its documentation for
more information.
## Flags
Go's standard library has the [`flag`](https://godoc.org/flag) package out of
the box. This package is incredibly basic, but is surprisingly capable in terms
of what you can actually do with it. A common thing to do is use flags for
configuration or other options, such as
[here](https://github.com/Xe/hlang/blob/44bb74efa6f124ca05483a527c0e735ce0fca143/main.go#L15-L22):
```go
package main
import "flag"
var (
program = flag.String("p", "", "h program to compile/run")
outFname = flag.String("o", "", "if specified, write the webassembly binary created by -p here")
watFname = flag.String("o-wat", "", "if specified, write the uncompiled webassembly created by -p here")
port = flag.String("port", "", "HTTP port to listen on")
writeTao = flag.Bool("koan", false, "if true, print the h koan and then exit")
writeVersion = flag.Bool("v", false, "if true, print the version of h and then exit")
)
```
This will make a few package-global variables that will contain the values of
the command-line arguments.
In Rust, a commonly used command line parsing package is
[`structopt`](https://docs.rs/structopt). It works in a bit of a different way
than Go's `flag` package does though. `structopt` focuses on loading options into
a structure rather than into globally mutable variables.
[Something you may notice in Rust-land is that globally mutable state is talked
about as if it is something to be avoided. It's not inherently bad, but it does
make things more likely to crash at runtime. In most cases, these global
variables with package `flag` are fine, but only if they are ever written to
before the program really starts to do what it needs to do. If they are ever
written to and read from dynamically at runtime, then you can get into a lot of
problems such as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_condition">race
conditions</a>.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
Here's a quick example copied from [pa'i](https://github.com/Xe/pahi):
```rust
#[derive(Debug, StructOpt)]
#[structopt(
name = "pa'i",
about = "A WebAssembly runtime in Rust meeting the Olin ABI."
)]
struct Opt {
/// Backend
#[structopt(short, long, default_value = "cranelift")]
backend: String,
/// Print syscalls on exit
#[structopt(short, long)]
function_log: bool,
/// Do not cache compiled code?
#[structopt(short, long)]
no_cache: bool,
/// Binary to run
#[structopt()]
fname: String,
/// Main function
#[structopt(short, long, default_value = "_start")]
entrypoint: String,
/// Arguments of the wasm child
#[structopt()]
args: Vec<String>,
}
```
This has the Rust compiler generate the needed argument parsing code for you, so
you can just use the values as normal:
```rust
fn main() {
let opt = Opt::from_args();
debug!("args: {:?}", opt.args);
}
```
You can even handle subcommands with this, such as in
[palisade](https://github.com/lightspeed/palisade/blob/master/src/main.rs). This
package should handle just about everything you'd do with the `flag` package,
but will also work for cases where `flag` falls apart.
## Errors
Go's standard library has the [`error`
interface](https://godoc.org/builtin#error) which lets you create a type that
describes why functions fail to do what they intend. Rust has the [`Error`
trait](https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/error/trait.Error.html) which lets you also
create a type that describes why functions fail to do what they intend.
In [my last post](https://christine.website/blog/TLDR-rust-2020-09-19) I
described [`eyre`](https://docs.rs/eyre) and the Result type. However, this time
we're going to dive into [`thiserror`](https://docs.rs/thiserror) for making our
own error type. Let's add `thiserror` to our crate:
```toml
[dependencies]
thiserror = "1"
```
And then let's re-implement our `DivideByZero` error from the last post:
```rust
use std::fmt;
use thiserror::Error;
#[derive(Debug, Error)]
struct DivideByZero;
impl fmt::Display for DivideByZero {
fn fmt(&self, f: &mut fmt::Formatter<'_>) -> fmt::Result {
write!(f, "cannot divide by zero")
}
}
```
The compiler made our error instance for us! It can even do that for more
complicated error types like this one that wraps a lot of other error cases and
error types in [maj](https://tulpa.dev/cadey/maj):
```rust
#[derive(thiserror::Error, Debug)]
pub enum Error {
#[error("TLS error: {0:?}")]
TLS(#[from] TLSError),
#[error("URL error: {0:?}")]
URL(#[from] url::ParseError),
#[error("Invalid DNS name: {0:?}")]
InvalidDNSName(#[from] webpki::InvalidDNSNameError),
#[error("IO error: {0:?}")]
IO(#[from] std::io::Error),
#[error("Response parsing error: {0:?}")]
ResponseParse(#[from] crate::ResponseError),
#[error("Invalid URL scheme {0:?}")]
InvalidScheme(String),
}
```
[These `#[error("whatever")]` annotations will show up when the error message is
printed. See <a
href="https://docs.rs/thiserror/1.0.20/thiserror/#details">here</a> for more
information on what details you can include here.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
## Serialization / Deserialization
Go has JSON encoding/decoding in its standard library via package
[`encoding/json`](https://godoc.org/encoding/json). This allows you to define
types that can be read from and write to JSON easily. Let's take this simple
JSON object representing a comment from some imaginary API as an example:
```json
{
"id": 31337,
"author": {
"id": 420,
"name": "Cadey"
},
"body": "hahaha its is an laughter image",
"in_reply_to": 31335
}
```
In Go you could write this as:
```go
type Author struct {
ID int `json:"id"`
Name string `json:"name"`
}
type Comment struct {
ID int `json:"id"`
Author Author `json:"author"`
Body string `json:"body"`
InReplyTo int `json:"in_reply_to"`
}
```
Rust does not have this capability out of the box, however there is a fantastic
framework available known as [serde](https://serde.rs/) which works across JSON
and every other serialization method that you can think of. Let's add serde and
its JSON support to our crate:
```toml
[dependencies]
serde = { version = "1", features = ["derive"] }
serde_json = "1"
```
[You might notice that the dependency line for serde is different here. Go's
JSON package works by using <a
href="https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-use-struct-tags-in-go">struct
tags</a> as metadata, but Rust doesn't have these. We need to use Rust's derive
feature instead.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
So, to use serde for our comment type, we would write Rust that looks like this:
```rust
use serde::{Deserialize, Serialize};
#[derive(Clone, Debug, Deserialize, Serialize)]
pub struct Author {
pub id: i32,
pub name: String,
}
#[derive(Clone, Debug, Deserialize, Serialize)]
pub struct Comment {
pub id: i32,
pub author: Author,
pub body: String,
pub in_reply_to: i32,
}
```
And then we can load that from JSON using code like this:
```rust
fn main() {
let data = r#"
{
"id": 31337,
"author": {
"id": 420,
"name": "Cadey"
},
"body": "hahaha its is an laughter image",
"in_reply_to": 31335
}
"#;
let c: Comment = serde_json::from_str(data).expect("json to parse");
println!("comment: {:#?}", c);
}
```
And you can use it like this:
```console
$ cargo run --example json
Compiling xesite v2.0.1 (/home/cadey/code/christine.website)
Finished dev [unoptimized + debuginfo] target(s) in 0.43s
Running `target/debug/examples/json`
comment: Comment {
id: 31337,
author: Author {
id: 420,
name: "Cadey",
},
body: "hahaha its is an laughter image",
in_reply_to: 31335,
}
```
## HTTP
Many APIs expose their data over HTTP. Go has the
[`net/http`](https://godoc.org/net/http) package that acts as a production-grade
(Google uses this in production) HTTP client and server. This allows you to get
going with new projects very easily. The Rust standard library doesn't have this
out of the box, but there are some very convenient crates that can fill in the
blanks.
### Client
For an HTTP client, we can use [`reqwest`](https://docs.rs/reqwest). It can also
seamlessly integrate with serde to allow you to parse JSON from HTTP without any
issues. Let's add reqwest to our crate as well as [`tokio`](https://tokio.rs) to
act as an asynchronous runtime:
```toml
[dependencies]
reqwest = { version = "0.10", features = ["json"] }
tokio = { version = "0.2", features = ["full"] }
```
[We need `tokio` because Rust doesn't ship with an asynchronous runtime by
default. Go does as a core part of the standard library (and arguably the
language), but `tokio` is about equivalent to most of the important things that
the Go runtime handles for you. This omission may seem annoying, but it makes it
easy for you to create a custom asynchronous runtime should you need
to.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
And then let's integrate with that imaginary comment api at
[https://xena.greedo.xeserv.us/files/comment.json](https://xena.greedo.xeserv.us/files/comment.json):
```rust
use eyre::Result;
use serde::{Deserialize, Serialize};
#[derive(Clone, Debug, Deserialize, Serialize)]
pub struct Author {
pub id: i32,
pub name: String,
}
#[derive(Clone, Debug, Deserialize, Serialize)]
pub struct Comment {
pub id: i32,
pub author: Author,
pub body: String,
pub in_reply_to: i32,
}
#[tokio::main]
async fn main() -> Result<()> {
let c: Comment = reqwest::get("https://xena.greedo.xeserv.us/files/comment.json")
.await?
.json()
.await?;
println!("comment: {:#?}", c);
Ok(())
}
```
And then let's run this:
```console
$ cargo run --example http
Compiling xesite v2.0.1 (/home/cadey/code/christine.website)
Finished dev [unoptimized + debuginfo] target(s) in 2.20s
Running `target/debug/examples/http`
comment: Comment {
id: 31337,
author: Author {
id: 420,
name: "Cadey",
},
body: "hahaha its is an laughter image",
in_reply_to: 31335,
}
```
[But what if the response status is not 200?](conversation://Mara/hmm)
We can change the code to something like this:
```rust
let c: Comment = reqwest::get("https://xena.greedo.xeserv.us/files/comment2.json")
.await?
.error_for_status()?
.json()
.await?;
```
And then when we run it we get an error back:
```console
$ cargo run --example http_fail
Compiling xesite v2.0.1 (/home/cadey/code/christine.website)
Finished dev [unoptimized + debuginfo] target(s) in 1.84s
Running `/home/cadey/code/christine.website/target/debug/examples/http_fail`
Error: HTTP status client error (404 Not Found) for url (https://xena.greedo.xeserv.us/files/comment2.json)
```
This combined with the other features in `reqwest` give you an very capable HTTP
client that does even more than Go's HTTP client does out of the box.
### Server
As for HTTP servers though, let's take a look at [`warp`](https://docs.rs/warp).
`warp` is a HTTP server framework that builds on top of Rust's type system.
You can add warp to your dependencies like this:
```toml
[dependencies]
warp = "0.2"
```
Let's take a look at its ["Hello, World" example](https://github.com/seanmonstar/warp/blob/master/examples/hello.rs):
```rust
use warp::Filter;
#[tokio::main]
async fn main() {
// GET /hello/warp => 200 OK with body "Hello, warp!"
let hello = warp::path!("hello" / String)
.map(|name| format!("Hello, {}!", name));
warp::serve(hello)
.run(([127, 0, 0, 1], 3030))
.await;
}
```
We can then build up multiple routes with its `or` pattern:
```
let hello = warp::path!("hello" / String)
.map(|name| format!("Hello, {}!", name));
let health = warp::path!(".within" / "health")
.map(|| "OK");
let routes = hello.or(health);
```
And even inject other datatypes into your handlers with filters such as in the
[printer facts API server](https://tulpa.dev/cadey/printerfacts/src/branch/main/src/main.rs):
```
let fact = {
let facts = pfacts::make();
warp::any().map(move || facts.clone())
};
let fact_handler = warp::get()
.and(warp::path("fact"))
.and(fact.clone())
.and_then(give_fact);
```
`warp` is an extremely capable HTTP server and can work across everything you
need for production-grade web apps.
[The blog you are looking at right now is powered by
warp!](conversation://Mara/hacker)
## Templating
Go's standard library also includes HTML and plain text templating with its
packages [`html/template`](https://godoc.org/html/template) and
[`text/template`](https://godoc.org/text/template). There are many solutions for
templating HTML in Rust, but the one I like the most is
[`ructe`](https://docs.rs/ructe). `ructe` uses Cargo's
[build.rs](https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/build-scripts.html) feature
to generate Rust code for its templates at compile time. This allows your HTML
templates to be compiled into the resulting application binary, allowing them to
render at ludicrous speeds. To use it, you need to add it to your
`build-dependencies` section of your `Cargo.toml`:
```toml
[build-dependencies]
ructe = { version = "0.12", features = ["warp02"] }
```
You will also need to add the [`mime`](https://docs.rs/mime) crate to your
dependencies because the generated template code will require it at runtime.
```toml
[dependencies]
mime = "0.3.0"
```
Once you've done this, create a new folder named `templates` in your current
working directory. Create a file called `hello.rs.html` and put the following in
it:
```html
@(title: String, message: String)
<html>
<head>
<title>@title</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>@title</h1>
<p>@message</p>
</body>
</html>
```
Now add the following to the bottom of your `main.rs` file:
```rust
include!(concat!(env!("OUT_DIR"), "/templates.rs"));
```
And then use the template like this:
```rust
use warp::{http::Response, Filter, Rejection, Reply};
async fn hello_html(message: String) -> Result<impl Reply, Rejection> {
Response::builder()
.html(|o| templates::index_html(o, "Hello".to_string(), message).unwrap().clone()))
}
```
And hook it up in your main function:
```rust
let hello_html_rt = warp::path!("hello" / "html" / String)
.and_then(hello_html);
let routes = hello_html_rt.or(health).or(hello);
```
For a more comprehensive example, check out the [printerfacts
server](https://tulpa.dev/cadey/printerfacts). It also shows how to handle 404
responses and other things like that.
---
Wow, this covered a lot. I've included most of the example code in the
[`examples`](https://github.com/Xe/site/tree/master/examples) folder of [this
site's GitHub repo](https://github.com/Xe/site). I hope it will help you on your
journey in Rust. This is documentation that I wish I had when I was learning
Rust.

View File

@ -1,351 +0,0 @@
---
title: Scavenger Hunt Solution
date: 2020-11-25
tags:
- ctf
- wasm
- steganography
- stenography
---
# Scavenger Hunt Solution
On November 22, I sent a
[tweet](https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1330532765482311687) that
contained the following text:
```
#467662 #207768 #7A7A6C #6B2061 #6F6C20 #6D7079
#7A6120 #616C7A #612E20 #5A6C6C #206F61 #61773A
#2F2F6A #6C6168 #6A6C68 #752E6A #736269 #2F6462
#796675 #612E6E #747020 #6D7679 #207476 #796C20
#70756D #767974 #686170 #76752E
```
This was actually the first part of a scavenger hunt/mini CTF that I had set up
in order to see who went down the rabbit hole to solve it. I've had nearly a
dozen people report back to me telling that they solved all of the puzzles and
nearly all of them said they had a lot of fun. Here's how to solve each of the
layers of the solution and how I created them.
## Layer 1
The first layer was that encoded tweet. If you notice, everything in it is
formatted as HTML color codes. HTML color codes just so happen to be encoded in
hexadecimal. Looking at the codes you can see `20` come up a lot, which happens
to be the hex-encoded symbol for the spacebar. So, let's turn this into a
continuous hex string with `s/#//g` and `s/ //g`:
[If you've seen a `%20` in a URL before, that is the URL encoded form of the
spacebar!](conversation://Mara/hacker)
```
4676622077687A7A6C6B20616F6C206D7079
7A6120616C7A612E205A6C6C206F6161773A
2F2F6A6C61686A6C68752E6A7362692F6462
796675612E6E7470206D7679207476796C20
70756D76797468617076752E
```
And then turn it into an ASCII string:
> Fvb whzzlk aol mpyza alza. Zll oaaw://jlahjlhu.jsbi/dbyfua.ntp mvy tvyl pumvythapvu.
[Wait, what? this doesn't look like much of anything...wait, look at the
`oaaw://`. Could that be `http://`?](conversation://Mara/hmm)
Indeed it is my perceptive shark friend! Let's decode the rest of the string
using the [Caeser Cipher](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caesar_cipher):
> You passed the first test. See http://cetacean.club/wurynt.gmi for more information.
Now we're onto something!
## Layer 2
Opening http://cetacean.club/wurynt.gmi we see the following:
> wurynt
>
> a father of modern computing, <br />
> rejected by his kin, <br />
> for an unintentional sin, <br />
> creator of a machine to break <br />
> the cipher that this message is encoded in
>
> bq cr di ej kw mt os px uz gh
>
> VI 1 1
> I 17 1
> III 12 1
>
> qghja xmbzc fmqsb vcpzc zosah tmmho whyph lvnjj mpdkf gbsjl tnxqf ktqia mwogp
> eidny awoxj ggjqz mbrcm tkmyd fogzt sqkga udmbw nmkhp jppqs xerqq gdsle zfxmq
> yfdfj kuauk nefdc jkwrs cirut wevji pumqt hrxjr sfioj nbcrc nvxny vrphc r
>
> Correction for the last bit
>
> gilmb egdcr sowab igtyq pbzgv gmlsq udftc mzhqz exbmx zaxth isghc hukhc zlrrk
> cixhb isokt vftwy rfdyl qenxa nljca kyoej wnbpf uprgc igywv qzuud hrxzw gnhuz
> kclku hefzk xtdpk tfjzu byfyi sqmel gweou acwsi ptpwv drhor ahcqd kpzde lguqt
> wutvk nqprx gmiad dfdcm dpiwb twegt hjzdf vbkwa qskmf osjtk tcxle mkbnv iqdbe
> oejsx lgqc
[Hmm, "a father of computing", "rejected by his kin", "an unintentional sin",
"creator of a machine to break a cipher" could that mean Alan Turing? He made
something to break the Enigma cipher and was rejected by the British government
for being gay right?](conversation://Mara/hmm)
Indeed. Let's punch these settings into an [online enigma
machine](https://cryptii.com/pipes/enigma-machine) and see what we get:
```
congr adula tions forfi gurin goutt hisen igmao famys teryy ouhav egott enfar
thert hanan yonee lseha sbefo rehel pmebr eakfr eefol lowth ewhit erabb ittom
araht tpyvz vgjiu ztkhf uhvjq roybx dswzz caiaq kgesk hutvx iplwa donio n
httpc olons lashs lashw hyvec torze dgamm ajayi ndigo ultra zedfi vetan gokil
ohalo fineu ltrah alove ctorj ayqui etrho omega yotta betax raysi xdonu tseve
nsupe rwhyz edzed canad aasia indig oasia twoqu ietki logam maeps ilons uperk
iloha loult rafou rtang ovect orsev ensix xrayi ndigo place limaw hyasi adelt
adoto nion
```
And here is where I messed up with this challenge. Enigma doesn't handle
numbers. It was designed to encode the 26 letters of the Latin alphabet. If you
look at the last bit of the output you can see `onio n` and `o nion`. This
points you to a [Tor hidden
service](https://www.linuxjournal.com/content/tor-hidden-services), but because
I messed this up the two hints point you at slightly wrong onion addresses (tor
hidden service addresses usually have numbers in them). Once I realized this, I
made a correction that just gives away the solution so people could move on to
the next step.
Onwards to
http://yvzvgjiuz5tkhfuhvjqroybx6d7swzzcaia2qkgeskhu4tv76xiplwad.onion/!
## Layer 3
Open your [tor browser](https://www.torproject.org/download/) and punch in the
onion URL. You should get a page that looks like this:
![Mara's
Realm](https://cdn.christine.website/file/christine-static/blog/Screenshot_20201125_101515.png)
This shows some confusing combinations of letters and some hexadecimal text.
We'll get back to the hexadecimal text in a moment, but let's take a closer look
at the letters. There is a hint here to search the plover dictionary.
[Plover](http://www.openstenoproject.org/) is a tool that allows hobbyists to
learn [stenography](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stenotype) to type at the rate
of human speech. My moonlander has a layer for typing out stenography strokes,
so let's enable it and type them out:
> Follow the white rabbit
>
> Go to/test. w a s m
Which we can reinterpret as:
> Follow the white rabbit
>
> Go to /test.wasm
[The joke here is that many people seem to get stenography and steganography
confused, so that's why there's stenography in this steganography
challenge!](conversation://Mara/hacker)
Going to /test.wasm we get a WebAssembly download. I've uploaded a copy to my
blog's CDN
[here](https://cdn.christine.website/file/christine-static/blog/test.wasm).
## Layer 4
Going back to that hexadecimal text from above, we see that it says this:
> go get tulpa.dev/cadey/hlang
This points to the source repo of [hlang](https://h.christine.website), which is
a satirical "programming language" that can only print the letter `h` (or the
lojbanic h `'` for that sweet sweet internationalisation cred). Something odd
about hlang is that it uses [WebAssembly](https://webassembly.org/) to execute
all programs written in it (this helps it reach its "no sandboxing required" and
"zero* dependencies" goals).
Let's decompile this WebAssembly file with
[`wasm2wat`](https://webassembly.github.io/wabt/doc/wasm2wat.1.html)
```console
$ wasm2wat /data/test.wasm
<output too big, see https://git.io/Jkyli>
```
Looking at the decompilation we can see that it imports a host function `h.h` as
the hlang documentation suggests and then constantly calls it a bunch of times:
```lisp
(module
(type (;0;) (func (param i32)))
(type (;1;) (func))
(import "h" "h" (func (;0;) (type 0)))
(func (;1;) (type 1)
i32.const 121
call 0
i32.const 111
call 0
i32.const 117
call 0
; ...
```
There's a lot of `32` in the output. `32` is the base 10 version of `0x20`,
which is the space character in ASCII. Let's try to reformat the numbers to
ascii characters and see what we get:
> you made it, this is the end of the line however. writing all of this up takes
> a lot of time. if you made it this far, email me@christine.website to get your
> name entered into the hall of heroes. be well.
## How I Implemented This
Each layer was designed independently and then I started building them together
later.
One of the first steps was to create the website for Mara's Realm. I started by
writing out all of the prose into a file called `index.md` and then I ran
[sw](https://github.com/jroimartin/sw) using [Pandoc](https://pandoc.org/) for
markdown conversion.
Then I created the WebAssembly binary by locally hacking a copy of hlang to
allow arbitrary strings. I stuck it in the source directory for the website and
told `sw` to not try and render it as markdown.
Once I had the HTML source, I copied it to a machine on my network at
`/srv/http/marahunt` using this command:
```console
$ rsync \
-avz \
site.static/ \
root@192.168.0.127:/srv/http/marahunt
```
And then I created a tor hidden service using the
[services.tor.hiddenServices](https://search.nixos.org/options?channel=20.09&from=0&size=30&sort=relevance&query=services.tor.hiddenServices)
options:
```nix
services.tor = {
enable = true;
hiddenServices = {
"hunt" = {
name = "hunt";
version = 3;
map = [{
port = 80;
toPort = 80;
}];
};
};
};
```
Once I pushed this config to that server, I grabbed the hostname from
`/var/lib/tor/onion/hunt/hostname` and set up an nginx virtualhost:
```nix
services.nginx = {
virtualHosts."yvzvgjiuz5tkhfuhvjqroybx6d7swzzcaia2qkgeskhu4tv76xiplwad.onion" =
{
root = "/srv/http/marahunt";
};
};
```
And then I pushed the config again and tested it with curl:
```console
$ curl -H "Host: yvzvgjiuz5tkhfuhvjqroybx6d7swzzcaia2qkgeskhu4tv76xiplwad.onion" http://127.0.0.1 | grep title
% Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current
Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed
100 3043 100 3043 0 0 2971k 0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:-- 2971k
<title>Mara's Realm</title>
.headerSubtitle { font-size: 0.6em; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 1em; }
<a href="index.html">Mara's Realm</a> <span class="headerSubtitle">sh0rk in the cloud</span>
```
Once I was satisfied with the HTML, I opened up an enigma encoder and started
writing out the message congradulating the user for figuring out "this enigma of
a mystery". I also included the onion URL (with the above mistake) in that
message.
Then I started writing the wurynt page on my
[gemini](https://gemini.circumlunar.space/) server. wurynt was coined by blindly
pressing 6 keys on my keyboard. I added a little poem about Alan Turing to give
a hint that this was an enigma cipher and then copied the Enigma settings on the
page just in case. It turned out that I was using the default settings for the
[Cryptee Enigma simulator](https://cryptii.com/pipes/enigma-machine), so this
was not needed; however it was probably better to include them regardless.
This is where I messed up as I mentioned earlier. Once I realized my mistake in
trying to encode the onion address twice, I decided it would be best to just
give away the answer on the page, so I added the correct onion URL to the end of
the enigma message so that it wouldn't break flow for people.
The final part was to write and encode the message that I would tweet out. I
opened a scratch buffer and wrote out the "You passed the first test" line and
then encoded it using the ceasar cipher and encoded the result of that into hex.
After a lot of rejiggering and rewriting to make it have a multiple of 3
characters of text, I reformatted it as HTML color codes and tweeted it without
context.
## Feedback I Got
Some of the emails and twitter DM's I got had some useful and amusing feedback.
Here's some of my favorites:
> my favourite part was the opportunity to go down different various rabbit
> holes (I got to learn about stenography and WASM, which I'd never looked
> into!)
> I want to sleep. It's 2 AM here, but a friend sent me the link an hour ago and
> I'm a cat, so the curiosity killed me.
> That was a fun little game. Thanks for putting it together.
> oh *noooo* this is going to nerd snipe me
> I'm amused that you left the online enigma emulator on default settings.
> I swear to god I'm gonna beach your orca ass
## Improvements For Next Time
Next time I'd like to try and branch out from just using ascii. I'd like to
throw other encodings into the game (maybe even have a stage written in EBCDIC
formatted Esperanto or something crazy like that). I was also considering having
some public/private key crypto in the mix to stretch people's skillsets.
Something I will definitely do next time is make sure that all of the layers are
solveable. I really messed up with the enigma step and I had to unblock people
by DMing them the answer. Always make sure your puzzles can be solved.
## Hall of Heroes
(in no particular order)
- Saphire Lattice
- Open Skies
- Tralomine
- AstroSnail
- Dominika
- pbardera
- Max Hollman
- Vojtěch
- [object Object]
- Bytewave
Thank you for solving this! I'm happy this turned out so successfully. More to
come in the future.
🙂

View File

@ -1,189 +0,0 @@
---
title: "Site Update: Rewrite in Rust"
date: 2020-07-16
tags:
- rust
---
# Site Update: Rewrite in Rust
Hello there! You are reading this post thanks to a lot of effort, research and
consultation that has resulted in a complete from-scratch rewrite of this
website in [Rust](https://rust-lang.org). The original implementation in Go is
available [here](https://github.com/Xe/site/releases/tag/v1.5.0) should anyone
want to reference that for any reason.
If you find any issues with the [RSS feed](/blog.rss), [Atom feed](/blog.atom)
or [JSONFeed](/blog.json), please let me know as soon as possible so I can fix
them.
This website stands on the shoulder of giants. Here are just a few of those and
how they add up into this whole package.
## comrak
All of my posts are written in
[markdown](https://github.com/Xe/site/blob/master/blog/all-there-is-is-now-2019-05-25.markdown).
[comrak](https://github.com/kivikakk/comrak) is a markdown parser written by a
friend of mine that is as fast and as correct as possible. comrak does the job
of turning all of that markdown (over 150 files at the time of writing this
post) into the HTML that you are reading right now. It also supports a lot of
common markdown extensions, which I use heavily in my posts.
## warp
[warp](https://github.com/seanmonstar/warp) is the web framework I use for Rust.
It gives users a set of filters that add up into entire web applications. For an
example, see this example from its readme:
```rust
use warp::Filter;
#[tokio::main]
async fn main() {
// GET /hello/warp => 200 OK with body "Hello, warp!"
let hello = warp::path!("hello" / String)
.map(|name| format!("Hello, {}!", name));
warp::serve(hello)
.run(([127, 0, 0, 1], 3030))
.await;
}
```
This can then be built up into something like this:
```rust
let site = index
.or(contact.or(feeds).or(resume.or(signalboost)).or(patrons))
.or(blog_index.or(series.or(series_view).or(post_view)))
.or(gallery_index.or(gallery_post_view))
.or(talk_index.or(talk_post_view))
.or(jsonfeed.or(atom).or(rss.or(sitemap)))
.or(files.or(css).or(favicon).or(sw.or(robots)))
.or(healthcheck.or(metrics_endpoint).or(go_vanity_jsonfeed))
// ...
```
which is the actual routing setup for this website!
## ructe
In the previous version of this site, I used Go's
[html/template](https://godoc.org/html/template). Rust does not have an
equivalent of html/template in its standard library. After some research, I
settled on [ructe](https://github.com/kaj/ructe) for the HTML templates. ructe
works by preprocessing templates using a little domain-specific language that
compiles down to Rust source code. This makes the templates become optimized
with the rest of the program and enables my website to render most pages in less
than 100 microseconds. Here is an example template (the one for
[/patrons](/patrons)):
```html
@use patreon::Users;
@use super::{header_html, footer_html};
@(users: Users)
@:header_html(Some("Patrons"), None)
<h1>Patrons</h1>
<p>These awesome people donate to me on <a href="https://patreon.com/cadey">Patreon</a>.
If you would like to show up in this list, please donate to me on Patreon. This
is refreshed every time the site is deployed.</p>
<p>
<ul>
@for user in users {
<li>@user.attributes.full_name</li>
}
</ul>
</p>
@:footer_html()
```
The templates compile down to Rust, which lets me include other parts of the
program into the templates. Here I use that to take a list of users from the
incredibly hacky Patreon API client I wrote for this website and iterate over
it, making a list of every patron by name.
## Build Process
As a nice side effect of this rewrite, my website is now completely built using
[Nix](https://nixos.org/). This allows the website to be built reproducibly, as
well as a full development environment setup for free for anyone that checks out
the repo and runs `nix-shell`. Check out
[naersk](https://github.com/nmattia/naersk) for the secret sauce that enables my
docker image build. See [this blogpost](/blog/drone-kubernetes-cd-2020-07-10)
for more information about this build process (though my site uses GitHub
Actions instead of Drone).
## `jsonfeed` Go package
I used to have a [JSONFeed](https://www.jsonfeed.org/) package publicly visible
at the go import path `christine.website/jsonfeed`. As far as I know I'm the
only person who ended up using it; but in case there are any private repos that
I don't know about depending on it, I have made the jsonfeed package available
at its old location as well as its source code
[here](https://tulpa.dev/Xe/jsonfeed). You may have to update your `go.mod` file
to import `christine.website/jsonfeed` instead of `christine.website`. If
something ends up going wrong as a result of this, please [file a GitHub issue
here](https://github.com/Xe/site/issues/new) and I can attempt to assist
further.
## `go_vanity` crate
I have written a small go vanity import crate and exposed it in my Git repo. If
you want to use it, add it to your `Cargo.toml` like this:
```toml
[dependencies]
go_vanity = { git = "https://github.com/Xe/site", branch = "master" }
```
You can then use it from any warp application by calling `go_vanity::github` or
`go_vanity::gitea` like this:
```rust
let go_vanity_jsonfeed = warp::path("jsonfeed")
.and(warp::any().map(move || "christine.website/jsonfeed"))
.and(warp::any().map(move || "https://tulpa.dev/Xe/jsonfeed"))
.and_then(go_vanity::gitea);
```
I plan to add full documentation to this crate soon as well as release it
properly on crates.io.
## `patreon` crate
I have also written a small [Patreon](https://www.patreon.com/) API client and
made it available in my Git repo. If you want to use it, add it to your
`Cargo.toml` like this:
```toml
[dependencies]
patreon = { git = "https://github.com/Xe/site", branch = "master" }
```
This client is _incredibly limited_ and only supports the minimum parts of the
Patreon API that are required for my website to function. Patreon has also
apparently started to phase out support for its API anyways, so I don't know how
long this will be useful.
But this is there should you need it!
## Dhall Kubernetes Manifest
I also took the time to port the kubernetes manifest to
[Dhall](https://dhall-lang.org/). This allows me to have a type-safe kubernetes
manifest that will correctly have all of the secrets injected for me from the
environment of the deploy script.
---
These are the biggest giants that my website now sits on. The code for this
rewrite is still a bit messy. I'm working on making it better, but my goal is to
have this website's code shine as an example of how to best write this kind of
website in Rust. Check out the code [here](https://github.com/Xe/site).

View File

@ -1,69 +0,0 @@
---
title: "Site Update: RSS Bandwidth Fixes"
date: 2021-01-14
tags:
- devops
- optimization
---
# Site Update: RSS Bandwidth Fixes
Well, so I think I found out where my Kubernetes cluster cost came from. For
context, this blog gets a lot of traffic. Since the last deploy, my blog has
served its RSS feed over 19,000 times. I have some pretty naiive code powering
the RSS feed. It basically looked something like this:
- Write RSS feed content-type and beginning of feed
- For every post I have ever made, include its metadata and content
- Write end of RSS feed
This code was _fantastically simple_ to develop, however it was very expensive
in terms of bandwidth. When you add all this up, my RSS feed used to be more
than a _one megabyte_ response. It was also only getting larger as I posted more
content.
This is unsustainable, so I have taken multiple actions to try and fix this from
several angles.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Rationale: this is my
most commonly hit and largest endpoint. I want to try and cut down its size.
<br><br>current feed (everything): 1356706 bytes<br>20 posts: 177931 bytes<br>10
posts: 53004 bytes<br>5 posts: 29318 bytes <a
href="https://t.co/snjnn8RFh8">pic.twitter.com/snjnn8RFh8</a></p>&mdash; Cadey
A. Ratio (@theprincessxena) <a
href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1349892662871150594?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January
15, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async
src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
[Yes, that graph is showing in _gigabytes_. We're so lucky that bandwidth is
free on Hetzner.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
First I finally set up the site to run behind Cloudflare. The Cloudflare
settings are set very permissively, so your RSS feed reading bots or whatever
should NOT be affected by this change. If you run into any side effects as a
result of this change, [contact me](/contact) and I can fix it.
Second, I also now set cache control headers on every response. By default the
"static" pages are cached for a day and the "dynamic" pages are cached for 5
minutes. This should allow new posts to show up quickly as they have previously.
Thirdly, I set up
[ETags](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers/ETag) for the
feeds. Each of my feeds will send an ETag in a response header. Please use this
tag in future requests to ensure that you don't ask for content you already
have. From what I recall most RSS readers should already support this, however
I'll monitor the situation as reality demands.
Lastly, I adjusted the
[ttl](https://cyber.harvard.edu/rss/rss.html#ltttlgtSubelementOfLtchannelgt) of
the RSS feed so that compliant feed readers should only check once per day. I've
seen some feed readers request the feed up to every 5 minutes, which is very
excessive. Hopefully this setting will gently nudge them into behaving.
As a nice side effect I should have slightly lower ram usage on the blog server
too! Right now it's sitting at about 58 and a half MB of ram, however with fewer
copies of my posts sitting in memory this should fall by a significant amount.
If you have any feedback about this, please [contact me](/contact) or mention me
on Twitter. I read my email frequently and am notified about Twitter mentions
very quickly.

View File

@ -37,9 +37,9 @@ identical source code that could be used to create a byte-for-byte identical
copy of your program's binary. But surely nobody would do that, that would be
crazy, wouldn't it?
![Noooo! You can't just port a Nintendo 64 game to LibGL! They're
<center>![Noooo! You can't just port a Nintendo 64 game to LibGL! They're
completely different hardware! It wouldn't respect the wishes of the creators!
Hahaha porting machine go brrrrrrrr](/static/blog/portingmachinegobrrr.png)
Hahaha porting machine go brrrrrrrr](/static/blog/portingmachinegobrrr.png)</center>
Someone did. The fruits of this effort are available [here][sm64dc]. This was
mostly a proof of concept and is a masterpiece in its own right. However,

View File

@ -111,23 +111,33 @@ Make sure to remove the TempleOS live CD from your hardware or it will be booted
The [TempleOS Bootloader](https://github.com/Xe/TempleOS/blob/1dd8859b7803355f41d75222d01ed42d5dda057f/Adam/Opt/Boot/BootMHDIns.HC#L69) presents a helpful menu to let you choose if you want to boot from a copy of the old boot record (preserved at install time), drive C or drive D. Press 1:
<center>
![TempleOS boot, picking the partition](/static/img/tos/tos_boot_1.png)
</center>
The first boot requires the dictionary to be uncompressed as well as other housekeeping chores, so let it do its thing:
<center>
![TempleOS boot, chores](/static/img/tos/tos_boot_2.png)
</center>
Once it is done, you will see if the option to take the tour. I highly suggest going through this tour, but that is beyond the scope of this article, so we'll assume you pressed `n`:
<center>
![TempleOS boot, denying the tour](/static/img/tos/tos_boot_3.png)
</center>
### Using the Compiler
<center>
![TempleOS boot, HolyC prompt](/static/img/tos/tos_boot_4.png)
</center>
The "shell" is itself an interface to the HolyC (similar to C) compiler. There is no difference between a "shell" REPL and a HolyC repl. This is stupidly powerful:
<center>
![TempleOS hello world](/static/img/tos/tos_compiler_1.png)
</center>
```
"Hello, world\n";
@ -137,25 +147,37 @@ Let's make this into a "program" and disassemble it. This is way easier than it
Open a new file with `Ed("HelloWorld.HC");` (the semicolon is important):
<center>
![TempleOS opening a file](/static/img/tos/tos_compiler_2.png)
</center>
<center>
![TempleOS editor screen](/static/img/tos/tos_compiler_3.png)
</center>
Now press Alt-Shift-a to kill autocomplete:
<center>
![TempleOS sans autocomplete](/static/img/tos/tos_compiler_4.png)
</center>
Click the `X` in the upper right-hand corner to close the other shell window:
<center>
![TempleOS sans other window](/static/img/tos/tos_compiler_5.png)
</center>
Finally press drag the right side of the window to maximize the editor pane:
<center>
![TempleOS full screen editor](/static/img/tos/tos_compiler_6.png)
</center>
Let's put the hello word example into the program and press `F5` to run it:
<center>
![TempleOS hello world in a file](/static/img/tos/tos_compiler_7.png)
</center>
Neat! Close that shell window that just popped up. Let's put this hello world code into a function:
@ -169,7 +191,9 @@ HelloWorld;
Now press `F5` again:
<center>
![TempleOS hello world from a function](/static/img/tos/tos_compiler_8.png)
</center>
Let's disassemble it:
@ -181,7 +205,9 @@ U0 HelloWorld() {
Uf("HelloWorld");
```
<center>
![TempleOS hello world disassembled](/static/img/tos/tos_compiler_9.png)
</center>
The `Uf` function also works with anything else, including things like the editor:
@ -189,11 +215,15 @@ The `Uf` function also works with anything else, including things like the edito
Uf("Ed");
```
<center>
![TempleOS editor disassembled](/static/img/tos/tos_compiler_10.png)
</center>
All of the red underscored things that look like links actually are links to the source code of functions. While the HolyC compiler builds things, it internally keeps a sourcemap (much like webapp sourcemaps or how gcc relates errors at runtime to lines of code for the developer) of all of the functions it compiles. Let's look at the definition of `Free()`:
<center>
![TempleOS Free() function](/static/img/tos/tos_compiler_11.png)
</center>
And from here you can dig deeper into the kernel source code.

View File

@ -1,338 +0,0 @@
---
title: "The Dwarven Cavern - A Beginner 6E Adventure"
date: 2020-06-28
series: thesource
tags:
- 6e
---
# The Dwarven Cavern - A Beginner 6E Adventure
Recently itch.io had [one of the largest game bundles in history][itchbundle]
and one of the things in it was this humble game named [6E][6e]. Some friends
and I have started up a small group that meets on the weekends to spend a few
hours with an adventure. I've been writing a few adventures for them, and I
would like to start sharing their archetypes. These will all be included in a
small zine that describes the systems we have built on top of 6E that I'm
calling [The Source](https://www.patreon.com/posts/source-v0-1-38587786). This
PDF will be available publicly once it is closer to done (however if you really
want a copy early on to dig at it, let me know and we can surely work something
out).
[itchbundle]: https://itch.io/b/520/bundle-for-racial-justice-and-equality
[6e]: https://s-jared.itch.io/6e
Today, I would like to share the details that went into writing the most recent
adventure: The Dwarven Cavern. This was derived from One Page Dungeons by
[Geoffrey Cullop](https://twitter.com/cullopgeoffrey), specifically this is a
variant of Kobold Caverns on page 5. Please note that the experience, gold and
hitpoints of enemies are balanced for the group I play with, and will probably
need to be adjusted for other parties of adventurers. This should work for
players at level 1-3. By the end they should gain enough experience to level up
once. My group is also very stun-heavy, so that makes my job of attempting to
balance things really interesting.
Like most great adventures, this starts at a humble tavern, The Flying
Ombudsman.
## The Flying Ombudsman
The players start off in The Flying Ombudsman, a tavern in the town of
LAST\_TOWN\_YOUR\_PLAYERS\_WERE\_IN. There are a few people sitting at the bar
and drinking steamy mugs of grog. There is a salesperson sitting at one of the
tables fidgeting with a golden scepter head and looks like she has plenty of
items should people want them. There is someone rather sad sitting at another of
the tables, looking like he has suffered a great loss.
For extra immersion, have the NPC's speak with a slightly Irish accent. For
extra fun, throw in random words from scottish, english and australian accents.
Keeps the players thinking.
When players ask the bartender for a mug o' grog, he will sell them one for 5
gold (limit 4 each player). If players ask for the history behind the name,
explain to the players the information in The Story of Hol below.
The salesperson at the top sells the following:
| Name | Effect | Price |
| :---------------------- | :--------------------------------------------------------------- | :------- |
| 3x potion of cure poison | Cures poison and grants 2hp | 15g each |
| Golden Scepter head | Doesn't look like it does anything if it's not on top of a staff | 50g |
You may want to add a few more items to this list. I need to draw up a table
for items that salespeople like this can have.
The salesperson can also get you a room at the inn for 30g. It is big enough to
hold all of the party.
When players talk to the person at the bottom, they get a sad story about the
hoe-pocalypse that threatens the end of the village the person comes from.
Dwarves snuck up from underground and stole the hoe from him, making it
difficult to feed his hamlet. He asks the adventurers to go to the cavern the
dwarves live in and get them back. The players should eventually agree to do it,
and the NPC will progressively offer more and more gold as a reward. A charisma
check will get him to throw in some salted meat as a reward.
### The Story of Hol
The bartender previously ran a failing tavern, and was running out of hope and
money. One day, the bartender found a weird looking mug and found that it could
be used to talk with the gods. He eventually found a god named Hol. Hol offered
him the recipe for the strongest alcohol he could possibly make, for a price.
The bartender agreed without further thought and gained the ability to make
intensely strong alcohol, but lost his ability to negotiate permanently.
One day the local ombudsman got news of how strong the liquor was and decided to
enforce some obscure liquor control law to get the strength reduced. The bartender
refused to negotiate and it escalated into a situation where the bartender kicked
the ombudsman so hard that he flew into the wall. People started calling the
tavern "the place where the ombudsman flew" and that eventually evolved into the
name The Flying Ombudsman.
Business has been booming ever since.
## The Cave
The first part has 1 mechanical trap around the second corner, players will need
to work their way through it with low light or to grab a working torch off the
wall. The trap does 1d4 damage.
The tunnel opens into a guard station, the dwarf archers wait behind cover for
players to get in range of their shortbows. If they get within 10 feet of the
archers, they fall back to the room behind them to the left. The Archers have 6
hp and grant 100xp on defeat.
The room behind and to the left is a labratory that is very well-lit. Lots of
weird liquid in flasks, scientific equipment, etc. There is a Dwarf Grenadier
there and will attack you on sight. He throws alchemical grenades at range (1d6
damage, =6 -> random elemental effect), If the players get within melee range of
the Grenadier then he will use a poisoned dagger. If the guards retreated then
he will use them as meat shields. He has 25 hp. He drops 1d4 alchemical grenades
and also drops his poisoned dagger. He grants 300xp on defeat.
The bigger chamber is the dwarven living area. Plenty of beds to hide behind,
but there are 1d6 dwarves living in there. They attack on sight, but flee south
if their attack goes poorly. The dwarves each grant 100xp on defeat. There is a
chest in there that is actually a mimic. It drops an Amulet of Chest on defeat.
The room south is the home of Bubba the Bugbear, a hired goon of the dwarves.
Bubba and the remaining dwarves make their last stand here. Bubba grants 500xp
on defeat and has 30hp and 1d6+2 attack damage with his giant club.
The final room is the treasure room, which contains the stolen hoe, some other
farming equipment and 250 gold. After this the dungeon is cleared and players
gain experience from their journey, then go back to The Flying Ombudsman
victorious. The quest NPC will award them with however many gold they agreed to
and any items they also agreed to.
## Enemies
### Dwarf Archer
*Decent guard, horrible foresight*
- **Hit Points** 6
| STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA |
| :---: | :---: | :---: | :---: | :---: | :---: |
| 0 | +1 | 0 | -2 | -2 | 0 |
- **Condition Immunities** drunk, groggy
- **Senses** Night-vision
- **Languages** Dwarf
- **Challenge** 2 (100xp)
***Keep-away.*** Will flee at the first sign of trouble.
#### Actions
***Crossbow.*** *Ranged Attack:* 1d4 damage
### Dwarf Grenadier
*Mad scientist, crazier inventions*
- **Hit Points** 25
| STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA |
| :---: | :---: | :---: | :---: | :---: | :---: |
| 0 | +1 | -2 | +2 | 0 | +1 |
- **Condition Immunities** drunk, groggy
- **Senses** Night-vision
- **Languages** Dwarf
- **Challenge** 6 (300xp)
***Insane.*** Will do things that normal enemies would not.
#### Actions
***Alchemical Grenade.*** *Ranged Attack:* 1d6 damage plus elemental effect if
6 damage. See table for Alchemical Grenades.
***Poisoned Dagger.*** *Melee Attack:* 1d4 damage. On hit player must roll for
constitution. If the check fails they get _disadvantage_ for their throws the
next 1d3 turns.
### Dwarf
*Underground folk that love digging*
**Hit Points** 6
| STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA |
| :---: | :---: | :---: | :---: | :---: | :---: |
| 0 | +1 | 0 | -2 | -2 | 0 |
- **Condition Immunities** drunk, groggy
- **Senses** Night-vision
- **Languages** Dwarf
- **Challenge** 2 (100xp)
***Short and Stout.*** Easily able to hit enemies below the belt.
#### Actions
***Dagger.*** *Melee Attack:* 1d4 damage
### Mimic
*Just an ordinary chest, don't question it*
- **Hit Points** 14
| STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA |
| :---: | :---: | :---: | :---: | :---: | :---: |
| 0 | 0 | -2 | 0 | 0 | -1 |
- **Condition Immunities** burn, poison
- **Languages** None
- **Challenge** 5 (250xp)
***Unsuspicious.*** Come on, the chest wouldn't be alive, would it?
#### Actions
***Omnomnom*** *Melee Attack:* 1d6 piercing damage, gets advantage if the player
tries to open the chest.
### Bubba the Bugbear
*From Bubba with Love*
- **Hit Points** 30
| STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA |
| :---: | :---: | :---: | :---: | :---: | :---: |
| +2 | +2 | +1 | -2 | 0 | -1 |
- **Condition Immunities** blinded
- **Languages** Dwarf
- **Challenge** 10 (500xp)
***Unreasonable.*** Does not respond well to trickery.
#### Actions
***Whomp.*** *Melee Attack:* 1d6+2 damage, piercing if the player fails a
constitution check.
## Items
These are the unique items specific to this quest.
### Mug of Grog
A wooden/iron mug full of the barkeep's grog. Consuming it gives you the
following stat boosts for 3 turns:
| STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA |
| :---: | :---: | :---: | :---: | :---: | :---: |
| +0 | -1 | +0 | -1 | -1 | +3 |
This bonus does not stack. When you drink the grog, you keep the mug and can use
it to bludgeon people for normal attack damage. It can also be used as a tool to
check for traps.
Does not sell, purchasable for 5g.
### Golden Scepter Head
A golden scepter head that looks like The Grand Nagus from Star Trek. It has no
effect outside of when it's put on a staff. When it is on a staff it gives you
25% more gold when you collect gold from places. This has 5 charges and cannot
be refreshed.
Sells for 50g, purchases for 50g.
### Alchemical Grenades
Standard grenades that look like they are made out of wood, metal, insanity and
magic. They do d6 damage normally, but when you crit with one it also causes one
of the following status effects (roll a d4):
#### Alchemical Effects
| Roll | Effect |
| :----: | :------------- |
| 1 | Acid makes the entity take off their armor |
| 2 | The entity rolls a constitution check, if it fails they get poisoned and need to roll for constitution before every action, passing removes the poison, failing makes them not have any action. |
| 3 | The entity is burned for 1d4 damage every turn they fail a constitution check. |
| 4 | The entity is stunned for 1d3 turns. |
Sells for 25g each, unpurchaseable.
### Poisoned Dagger
A standard dagger that gives no distinct bonuses. However when you use it as a
normal dagger, you need to roll for constitution in addition to rolling for
strength. If you fail the constitution check (but pass the strength check), you
get poisoned from the poison streaking out of the dagger.
The poison has 5 charges.
Merchants do not want to take the risk buying it and will have you pay them for its
disposal. This cannot be purchased.
### Bubba's Clubba
A rather large mace that does +2 damage. It is a giant thing designed for a
9-foot tall centaur. It takes up three slots in your inventory. It looks
imposing and may require a lot of strength to use properly.
Sells for 25g.
### Amulet of Chest
This cursed amulet lets the holder transform into a harmless looking treasure
chest, but also grants them advantage if an enemy tries to open it. After 4
transformations, they need to roll a charisma check when they try to turn back.
If that fails, they stay a chest for an hour (with arms/legs/a mouth/etc). After
4 more transformations, they turn into a mimic permanently. The transformation
count stays persistent until someone becomes a mimic, then it resets to zero.
Merchants will pay 100 gold for it, but will only accept it after the player
rolls for charisma.
## Dungeon Map
![](https://xena.greedo.xeserv.us/6E/img/kja4u2A.png)
## Adventure Highlights
When I ran this yesterday, the following amazing things happened:
- The players used a crossbow from a previous adventure and a torch to hit the
grenades held by the grenadier, vaporizing it from 5 grenades exploding at once.
- The Artificer shield-bashed one of the dwarves so hard that it ricocheted into
the other dwarves like pool balls. That caused a lot of damage to all of the
enemies.
- The Monk critted a Ki art and shredded an archer with their claws, making the
other archer flee.
- The Thief straight up banished a dwarf to the shadow realm with a slingshot
hit.
I still wonder how they are going to use that Cursed Amulet of Chest though.
---
Thank you [@infinite_mao](https://twitter.com/infinite_mao) for making 6E. I can
only hope that my buying your stuff separately and making this content for 6E
can help give back to the community.
Feedback on the balance of this is very welcome. I openly welcome any and all
feedback about how this quest could be rebalanced to be a bit less lopsided in
favor of the players. I also wanted to err on the side of balancing towards the
players to avoid an unwanted party death.

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@ -1,58 +0,0 @@
---
title: The Itch
date: 2020-10-11
tags:
- 100DaysToOffload
---
# The Itch
I write a lot. I code a lot. This leads to people asking me questions like "how
do you have the energy to do that?" or "why do you keep doing that day in and
day out?". I was reading [this
post](https://aarontag.dev/2020/06/14/the-urge.html) that I found linked in the
Forbidden Orange Site's comments and it really resonated with me.
At the core, I have this deep burning sensation to try things out to see what
they are like. It's like this itch deep in me that I can only scratch with
writing, coding or sometimes even just answering people's questions in
chatrooms. This itch is a catalyst to my productivity. It powers my daily work
and makes me able to do what I do in order to make things better for everyone.
However, sometimes the itch isn't there. Sometimes it makes me want to focus on
something else. Trying to do something else without the itch empowering me can
feel like swimming upstream with heavy chains wrapped around me. My greatest
boon is simultaneously my greatest vice.
I don't really know how to handle the days where it's not working. I try to save
up my sick and vacation days so that I can avoid burning myself out on the bad
days. Things like this are why I am a huge fan of unlimited vacation policies.
Unlimited vacation does mean that I get paid out less money when I leave a job;
however it means that I have the freedom to have bad days and let the good days
tank me through the bad days so that I come out above average.
Trying to explain this to people can feel stressful. Especially to a manager.
I've had some bad experiences with that in the past. Phrase this wrong, and some
people will hear "I don't want to do this work ever" instead of "I can't do this
work today". This especially sucks when deadlines roll in and that vital itch
goes away, leaving me at half capacity at the worst possible time.
This itch leads me to set increasing standards on myself too. It's had some
negative sides in that it makes me feel like I need to make everything better
than the last thing. Each post better than the previous ones. Each project
implementation better than the last. Onwards and onwards into a spiral that sets
the bar so high I stress myself out trying to approach it.
I haven't kept to my informal goal to have at least one post per week on this
blog because of that absurdly high standard I set for myself. I'm going to try
and change this. I'm going to start participating in [100 days to
offload](https://100daystooffload.com). Expect some shorter and more focused
posts for the immediate future. I am going to be working on the Rust series,
however each part of it will be in isolation from here on out instead of the
longer multifaceted posts.
This is day 1 of my 100 days to offload.
Also be sure to check out my post on
[Palisade](https://tech.lightspeedhq.com/palisade-version-bumping-at-scale-in-ci/),
a version bumping tool for GitHub repositories.

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@ -1,24 +0,0 @@
---
title: The Source Version 1.0.0 Release
date: 2020-12-25
tags:
- ttrpg
---
# The Source Version 1.0.0 Release
After hours of work and adjustment, I have finally finished version 1 of my
tabletop roleplaying game The Source. It is available on
[itch.io](https://withinstudios.itch.io/q7rvfw33fw) with an added 50% discount
for readers of my blog. This discount will only last for the next two weeks.
<iframe src="https://itch.io/embed/866470?linkback=true" width="552"
height="167" frameborder="0"><a
href="https://withinstudios.itch.io/the-source">The Source by
Within</a></iframe>
Patrons (of any price tier) can claim a free copy
[here](https://withinstudios.itch.io/the-source/patreon-access). Your support
gives me so much.
Merry christmas all.

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@ -1,26 +0,0 @@
---
title: Trisiel Update
date: 2020-12-04
series: olin
tags:
- trisiel
---
# Trisiel Update
The project I formerly called
[wasmcloud](/blog/wasmcloud-progress-domains-2020-10-31) has now been renamed to
Trisiel after the discovery of a name conflict. The main domain for Trisiel is
now https://trisiel.com to avoid any confusions between our two projects.
Planning for implementing and hosting Trisiel is still in progress. I will give
more updates as they are ready to be released. To get more up to the minute
information please follow the twitter account
[@trisielcloud](https://twitter.com/trisielcloud), I will be posting there as I
have more information.
> I am limitless. There is no cage or constraint that can corral me into one
> constant place. I am limitless. I can change, shift, overcome, transform,
> because I am not bound to a thing that serves me, and my body serves me.
Quantusum, James Mahu

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@ -1,95 +0,0 @@
---
title: Plea to Twitter
date: 2020-12-14
---
**NOTE**: This is a very different kind of post compared to what I usually
write. If you or anyone you know works at Twitter, please link this to them. I
am in a unique situation and the normal account recovery means do not work. If
you work at Twitter and are reading this, my case number is [redacted].
**EDIT**(19:51 M12 14 2020): My account is back. Thank you anonymous Twitter
support people. For everyone else, please take this as an example of how
**NOT** to handle account issues. The fact that I had to complain loudly on
Twitter to get this weird edge case taken care of is ludicrous. I'd gladly pay
Twitter just to have a support mechanism that gets me an actual human without
having to complain on Twitter.
# Plea to Twitter
On Sunday, December 13, 2020, I noticed that I was locked out of my Twitter
account. If you go to [@theprincessxena](https://twitter.com/theprincessxena)
today, you will see that the account is locked out for "unusual activity". I
don't know what I did to cause this to happen (though I have a few theories) and
I hope to explain them in the headings below. I have gotten no emails or contact
from Twitter about this yet. I have a backup account at
[@CadeyRatio](https://twitter.com/CadeyRatio) as a stopgap. I am also on
mastodon as [@cadey@mst3k.interlinked.me](https://mst3k.interlinked.me/@cadey).
In place of my tweeting about quarantine life, I am writing about my experiences
[here](http://cetacean.club/journal/).
## Why I Can't Unlock My Account
I can't unlock my account the normal way because I forgot to set up two factor
authentication and I also forgot to change the phone number registered with the
account to my Canadian one when I [moved to
Canada](/blog/life-update-2019-05-16). I remembered to do this change for all of
the other accounts I use regularly except for my Twitter account.
In order to stop having to pay T-Mobile $70 per month, I transferred my phone
number to [Twilio](https://www.twilio.com/). This combined with some clever code
allowed me to gracefully migrate to my new Canadian number. Unfortunately,
Twitter flat-out refuses to send authentication codes to Twilio numbers. It's
probably to prevent spam, but it would be nice if there was an option to get the
authentication code over a phone call.
## Theory 1: International Travel
Recently I needed to travel internationally in order to start my new job at
[Tailscale](https://tailscale.com/). Due to an unfortunate series of events over
two months, I needed to actually travel internationally to get a new visa. This
lead me to take a very boring trip to Minnesota for a week.
During that trip, I tweeted and fleeted about my travels. I took pictures and
was in my hotel room a lot.
[We can't dig up the link for obvious reasons, but one person said they were
always able to tell when we are traveling because it turns the twitter account
into a fast food blog.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
I think Twitter may have locked out my account because I was suddenly in
Minnesota after being in Canada for almost a year.
## Theory 2: Misbehaving API Client
I use [mi](https://github.com/Xe/mi) as part of my new blogpost announcement
pipeline. One of the things mi does is submits new blogposts and some metadata
about them to Twitter. I haven't been able to find any logs to confirm this, but
if something messed up in a place that was unlogged somehow, it could have
triggered some kind of anti-abuse pipeline.
## Theory 3: NixOS Screenshot Set Off Some Bad Thing
One of my recent tweets that I can't find anymore is a tweet about a NixOS
screenshot for my work machine. I think that some part of the algorithm
somewhere really hated it, and thus triggered the account lock. I don't really
understand how a screenshot of KDE 5 showing neofetch output could make my
account get locked, but with enough distributed machine learning anything can
happen.
## Theory 4: My Password Got Cracked
I used a random password generated with iCloud for my Twitter password.
Theoretically this could have been broken, but I doubt it.
---
Overall, I just want to be able to tweet again. Please spread this around for
reach. I don't like using my blog to reach out like this, but I've been unable
to find anyone that knows someone at Twitter so far and I feel this is the best
way to broadcast it. I'll update this post with the resolution to this problem
when I get one.
I think the International Travel theory is the most likely scenario. I just want
a human to see this situation and help fix it.

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@ -1,8 +1,8 @@
---
title: V is for Vaporware
date: 2019-06-23
series: v
tags:
- v
- rant
---

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@ -1,8 +1,8 @@
---
title: "V is for Vvork in Progress"
date: 2020-01-03
series: v
tags:
- v
- constructive-criticism
---

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@ -1,230 +0,0 @@
---
title: Various Updates
date: 2020-11-18
tags:
- personal
- consulting
- docker
- nixos
---
# Various Updates
Immigration purgatory is an experience. It's got a lot of waiting and there is a
lot of uncertainty that can make it feel stressful. Like I said
[before](/blog/new-adventures-2020-10-24), I'm not concerned; however I have a
lot of free time on my hands and I've been using it to make some plans for the
blog (and a new offering for companies that need help dealing with the new
[Docker Hub rate
limits](https://docs.docker.com/docker-hub/download-rate-limit/)) in the future.
I'm gonna outline them below in their own sections. This blogpost was originally
about 4 separate blogposts that I started and abandoned because I had trouble
focusing on finishing them. Stress sucks lol.
## WebMention Support
I recently deployed [mi v1.0.0](https://github.com/Xe/mi) to my home cluster. mi
is a service that handles a lot of personal API tasks including the automatic
post notifications to Twitter and Mastodon. The old implementation was in Go and
stored its data in RethinkDB. I also have a snazzy frontend in Elm for mi. This
new version is rewritten from scratch to use Rust, [Rocket](https://rocket.rs/)
and SQLite. It is also fully
[nixified](https://github.com/Xe/mi/blob/mara/default.nix) and is deployed to my
home cluster via a [NixOS
module](https://github.com/Xe/nixos-configs/blob/master/common/services/mi.nix).
One of the major new features I have in this rewrite is
[WebMention](https://www.w3.org/TR/webmention/) support. WebMentions allow
compatible websites to "mention" my articles or other pages on my main domains
by sending a specially formatted HTTP request to mi. I am still in the early
stages of integrating mi into my site code, but eventually I hope to have a list
of places that articles are mentioned in each post. The WebMention endpoint for
my site is `https://mi.within.website/api/webmention/accept`. I have added
WebMention metadata into the HTML source of the blog pages as well as in the
`Link` header as the W3 spec demands.
If you encounter any issues with this feature, please [let me know](/contact) so
I can get it fixed as soon as possible.
### Thoughts on Elm as Used in mi
[Elm](https://elm-lang.org/) is an interesting language for making single page
applications. The old version of mi was the first time I had really ever used
Elm for anything serious and after some research I settled on using
[elm-spa](https://www.elm-spa.dev/) as a framework to smooth over some of the
weirder parts of the language. elm-spa worked great at first. All of the pages
were separated out into their own components and the routing setup was really
intuitive (if a bit weird because of the magic involved). It's worked great for
a few years and has been very low maintenance.
However when I was starting to implement the backend of mi in Rust, I tried to
nixify the elm-spa frontend I made. This was a disaster. The magic that elm-spa
relied on fell apart and _at the time I attempted to do this_ it was very
difficult to do this.
As a result I ended up rewriting the frontend in very very boring Elm using
information from the [Elm Guide](https://guide.elm-lang.org/) and a lot of
blogposts and help from the Elm slack. Overall this was a successful experiment
and I can easily see this new frontend (which I have named sina as a compound
[toki pona](https://tokipona.org/) pun) becoming a powerful tool for
investigating and managing the data in mi.
[Special thanks to malinoff, wolfadex, chadtech and mfeineis on the Elm slack
for helping with the weird issues involved in getting a split model approach
working.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
Feel free to check out the code [here](https://github.com/Xe/mi/tree/mara/sina).
I may try to make an Elm frontend to my site for people that use the Progressive
Web App support.
### elm2nix
[elm2nix](https://github.com/cachix/elm2nix) is a very nice tool that lets you
generate Nix definitions from Elm packages, however the
template it uses is a bit out of date. To fix it you need to do the following:
```console
$ elm2nix init > default.nix
$ elm2nix convert > elm-srcs.nix
$ elm2nix snapshot
```
Then open `default.nix` in your favorite text editor and change this:
```nix
buildInputs = [ elmPackages.elm ]
++ lib.optional outputJavaScript nodePackages_10_x.uglify-js;
```
to this:
```nix
buildInputs = [ elmPackages.elm ]
++ lib.optional outputJavaScript nodePackages.uglify-js;
```
and this:
```nix
uglifyjs $out/${module}.${extension} --compress 'pure_funcs="F2,F3,F4,F5,F6,F7,F8,F9,A2,A3,A4,A5,A6,A7,A8,A9",pure_getters,keep_fargs=false,unsafe_comps,unsafe' \
| uglifyjs --mangle --output=$out/${module}.min.${extension}
```
to this:
```nix
uglifyjs $out/${module}.${extension} --compress 'pure_funcs="F2,F3,F4,F5,F6,F7,F8,F9,A2,A3,A4,A5,A6,A7,A8,A9",pure_getters,keep_fargs=false,unsafe_comps,unsafe' \
| uglifyjs --mangle --output $out/${module}.min.${extension}
```
These issues should be fixed in the next release of elm2nix.
## New Character in the Blog Cutouts
As I mentioned [in the past](/blog/how-mara-works-2020-09-30), I am looking into
developing out other characters for my blog. I am still in the early stages of
designing this, but I think the next character in my blog is going to be an
anthro snow leopard named Alicia. I want Alicia to be a beginner that is very
new to computer programming and other topics, which would then make Mara into
more of a teacher type. I may also introduce my own OC Cadey (the orca looking
thing you can see [here](https://christine.website/static/img/avatar_large.png)
or in the favicon of my site) into the mix to reply to these questions in
something more close to the Socratic method.
Some people have joked that the introduction of Mara turned my blog into a shark
visual novel that teaches you things. This sounds hilarious to me, and I am
looking into what it would take to make an actual visual novel on a page on my
blog using Rust and WebAssembly. I am in very early planning stages for this, so
don't expect this to come out any time soon.
## Gergoplex Build
My [Gergoplex kit](https://www.gboards.ca/product/gergoplex) finally came in
yesterday, and I got to work soldering it up with some switches and applying the
keycaps.
![Me soldering the Gergoplex](https://cdn.christine.website/file/christine-static/img/keeb/gergoplex/EnEYNxvW4AEfWcH.jpg)
![A glory shot of the Gergoplex](https://cdn.christine.website/file/christine-static/img/keeb/gergoplex/Elm3dN8XUAAYHws.jpg)
I picked the Pro Red linear switches with a 35 gram spring in them (read: they
need 35 grams of force to actuate, which is lighter than most switches) and
typing on it is buttery smooth. The keycaps are a boring black, but they look
nice on it.
Overall this kit (with the partial board, switches and keycaps) cost me about
US$124 (not including shipping) with the costs looking something like this:
| Name | Count | Cost |
| :------------------------- | :----- | :---- |
| Gergoplex Partial Kit | 1 | $70 |
| Choc Pro Red 35g switches | 4 | $10 |
| Keycaps (15) | 3 | $30 |
| Braided interconnect cable | 1 | $7 |
| Mini-USB cable | 1 | $7 |
I'd say this was a worthwhile experience. I haven't really soldered anything
since I was in high school and it was fun to pick up the iron again and make
something useful. If you are looking for a beginner soldering project, I can't
recommend the Gergoplex enough.
I also picked up some extra switches and keycaps (prices not listed here) for a
future project involving an eInk display. More on that when it is time.
## Branch Conventions
You may have noticed that some of my projects have default branches named `main`
and others have default branches named `mara`. This difference is very
intentional. Repos with the default branch `main` generally contain code that is
"stable" and contains robust and reusable code. Repos with the default branch
`mara` are generally my experimental repos and the code in them may not be the
most reusable across other projects. mi is a repo with a `mara` default branch
because it is a very experimental thing. In the future I may promote it up to
having a `main` branch, however for now it's less effort to keep things the way
it is.
## Docker Consulting
The new [Docker Hub rate
limits](https://docs.docker.com/docker-hub/download-rate-limit/) have thrown a
wrench into many CI/CD setups as well as uncertainty in how CI services will
handle this. Many build pipelines implictly trust the Docker Hub to be up and
that it will serve the appropriate image so that your build can work. Many
organizations use their own Docker registry (GHCR, AWS/Google Cloud image
registries, Artifactory, etc.), however most image build definitions I've seen
start out with something like this:
```Dockerfile
FROM golang:alpine
```
which will implicitly pull from the Docker Hub. This can lead to bad things.
If you would like to have a call with me for examining your process for building
Docker images in CI and get a list of actionable suggestions for how to work
around this, [contact me](/contact) so that we can discuss pricing and
scheduling.
I have been using Docker for my entire professional career (way back since
Docker required you to recompile your kernel to enable cgroup support in public
beta) and I can also discuss methods to make your Docker images as small as they
can possibly get. My record smallest Docker image is 5 MB.
If either of these prospects interest you, please contact me so we can work
something out.
---
Here's hoping that the immigration purgatory ends soon. I'm lucky enough to have
enough cash built up that I can weather this jobless month. I've been using this
time to work on personal projects (like mi and
[wasmcloud](https://wasmcloud.app)) and better myself. I've also done a little
writing that I plan to release in the future after I clean it up.
In retrospect I probably should have done [NaNoWriMo](https://nanowrimo.org/)
seeing that I basically will have the entire month of November jobless. I've had
an idea for a while about someone that goes down the rabbit hole of mysticism
and magick, but I may end up incorporating that into the visual novel project I
mentioned in the Elm section.
Be well and stay safe out there. Wear a mask, stay at home.

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@ -1,269 +0,0 @@
---
title: V Update - June 2020
date: 2020-06-17
series: v
---
EDIT(Xe): 2020 M12 22
Hi Hacker News. Please read the below notes. I am now also blocked by the V
team on Twitter.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="und" dir="ltr"><a href="https://t.co/WIqX73GB5Z">pic.twitter.com/WIqX73GB5Z</a></p>&mdash; Cadey A. Ratio (@theprincessxena) <a href="https://twitter.com/theprincessxena/status/1341525594715140098?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 22, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
EDIT(Xe): 2020 M06 23
I do not plan to make any future update posts about the V programming language
in the future. The V community is something I would really rather not be
associated with. This is an edited-down version of the post that was released
last week (2020 M06 17).
As of the time of writing this note to the end of this post and as far as I am
aware, I am banned from being able to contribute to the V language in any form.
I am therefore forced to consider that the V project will respond to criticism
of their language with bans. This subjective view of reality may not be accurate
to what others see.
I would like to see this situation result in a net improvement for everyone
involved. V is an interesting take on a stagnant field of computer science, but
I cannot continue to comment on this language or give it any of the signal boost
I have given it with this series of posts.
Thank you for reading. I will continue with my normal posts in the next few
days.
Be well.
# V Update - June 2020
Every so often I like to check in on the [V Programming Language][vlang]. It's been
about six months since [my last post](https://christine.website/blog/v-vvork-in-progress-2020-01-03),
so I thought I'd take another look at it and see what progress has been done in six
months.
[vlang]: https://vlang.io
Last time I checked, V 0.2 was slated for release in December 2019. It is currently
June 2020, and the latest release (at time of writing) is [0.1.27][vrelease0127].
## Feature Updates
Interestingly, the V author seems to have walked back one of their original
listed features of V and now has an [abstract syntax tree][ast] for representing the
grammar of the language. They still claim that functions are "pure" by default, but
allow functions to perform print statements while still being "pure". Printing data
to standard out is an impure side effect, but if you constrain the definition of
"side effects" to only include mutability of memory, this could be fine. There
seems to be an issue about this on [the github tracker][vpure], but it was
closed.
[vrelease0127]: https://github.com/vlang/v/releases/tag/0.1.27
[ast]: https://github.com/vlang/v/commit/093a025ebfe4f0957d5d69ad4ddcdc905a6d7b81#diff-5adb689a65970037f7f0ced3d4b9e800
[vpure]: https://github.com/vlang/v/issues/4930
The next stable release 0.2 seems to be planned for June 2020 (according to the readme);
and according to the todo list in the repo, memory management seems to be one of the
things that will be finished. V is also apparently in alpha, but will also apparently
jump from alpha directly to stable? Given the track record of constantly missed
release windows, I am not very confident that V 0.2 will be released on time.
Tools like this need to be ready when they are ready. Trying to rush things is a
very unproductive thing to do and can result in more net harm than good.
## Build
Testing V is a bit more difficult for me now as its build process is incompatible
with my Linux tower's [NixOS](https://nixos.org/nixos) install (I tend to try and
package all the programs I use for testing this stuff so it is easier to reproduce
my environment on other machines). The V scripts also do not work on my NixOS tower
because it doesn't have a `/usr/local/bin`. The correct way to make a shell script
cross-platform is to use the following header:
```sh
#!/usr/bin/env v
```
This makes the `env` program search for the V binary in your `$PATH`, and will
function correctly on all platforms (this may not work on environments like [Termux](https://termux.com/)
due to limitations of how Android works, but it will solve 99% of cases. I am unsure
how to make a shell script that will function properly across Android and non-Android
environments).
The Makefile in the V source tree seems to do
network calls, specifically a `git clone`. Remember that this is on the front page
of the website:
> V can be bootstrapped in under a second by compiling its code translated to C with a simple
>
> `cc v.c`
>
> No libraries or dependencies needed.
Git is a dependency, which means perl is a dependency, which means a shell is a
dependency, which means glibc is a dependency, which means that a lot of other
things (including posix threads) are also dependencies. Pedantically, you could even
go as far as saying that you could count the Linux kernel, the processor being used
and the like as dependencies, but that's a bit out of scope for this.
I claim that the V compiler has dependencies because it requires other libraries
or programs in order to function. For an example, see the output of `ldd` (a
program that lists the dynamically linked dependencies of other programs) on the
V compiler and a hello world program:
```
$ ldd ./v
linux-vdso.so.1 (0x00007fff2d044000)
libpthread.so.0 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpthread.so.0 (0x00007f2fb3e4c000)
libc.so.6 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6 (0x00007f2fb3a5b000)
/lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00007f2fb4345000)
```
```
$ ldd ./hello
linux-vdso.so.1 (0x00007ffdfdff2000)
libc.so.6 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6 (0x00007fed25771000)
/lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00007fed25d88000)
```
If these binaries were really as dependency-free as the V website claims, the
output of `ldd` would look something like this:
```
$ ldd $HOME/bin/dhall
not a dynamic executable
```
The V compiler claims to have support for generating machine code directly, but
in my testing I was unable to figure out how to set the compiler into this mode.
## Memory Management
> V doesn't use garbage collection or reference counting. The compiler cleans
> everything up during compilation. If your V program compiles, it's guaranteed
> that it's going to be leak free.
Accordingly, the documentation still claims that memory management is both a work in
progress and has (or will have, it's not clear which is accurate from the
documentation alone) perfect accuracy for cleaning up things at compile time.
Every one of these posts I have run a benchmark against the V compiler, I like to
call it the "how much ram do you leak compiling hello world" test. Last it leaked
`4,600,383` bytes (or about 4.6 megabytes) and before that it leaked `3,861,785`
bytes (or about 3.9 megabytes). This time:
```
$ valgrind ./v hello.v
==5413== Memcheck, a memory error detector
==5413== Copyright (C) 2002-2017, and GNU GPL'd, by Julian Seward et al.
==5413== Using Valgrind-3.13.0 and LibVEX; rerun with -h for copyright info
==5413== Command: ./v hello.v
==5413==
==5413==
==5413== HEAP SUMMARY:
==5413== in use at exit: 7,232,779 bytes in 163,690 blocks
==5413== total heap usage: 182,696 allocs, 19,006 frees, 11,309,504 bytes allocated
==5413==
==5413== LEAK SUMMARY:
==5413== definitely lost: 2,673,351 bytes in 85,739 blocks
==5413== indirectly lost: 4,265,809 bytes in 77,711 blocks
==5413== possibly lost: 256,000 bytes in 1 blocks
==5413== still reachable: 37,619 bytes in 239 blocks
==5413== suppressed: 0 bytes in 0 blocks
==5413== Rerun with --leak-check=full to see details of leaked memory
==5413==
==5413== For counts of detected and suppressed errors, rerun with: -v
==5413== ERROR SUMMARY: 0 errors from 0 contexts (suppressed: 0 from 0)
```
It seems that the memory managment really is a work in progress. This increase in
leakage means that the compiler building itself now creates `7,232,779` bytes of
leaked ram (which still is amusingly its install size in memory, when including
git deltas, temporary files and a worktree copy of V).
## Doom
The [Doom](https://github.com/vlang/doom) translation project still has one file
translated (and apparently it breaks sound effects but not music). I have been
looking forward to the full release of this as it will show a lot about how
readable the output of V's C to V translation feature is.
## 1.2 Million Lines of Code
Let's re-run the artificial as heck 1.2 million lines of code benchmark from the
last post:
```
$ bash -c 'time ~/code/v/v main.v'
real 7m54.847s
user 7m32.860s
sys 0m14.212s
```
Compared to the last time this benchmark was run, this took 2 minutes less (last
time it took about 10 minutes). This is actually a major improvement, and means
that V's claims of speed are that much closer to reality at least on my test
hardware.
## Concurrency
A common problem that shows up when writing multi-threaded code are
[race conditions][races]. Effectively, race conditions are when two bits of code try
to do the same thing at the same time on the same block of memory. This leads to
undefined behavior, which is bad because it can corrupt or crash programs.
[races]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_condition
As an example, consider this program `raceanint.v`:
```
fn main() {
foo := [ 1 ]
go add(mut foo)
go add(mut foo)
for {}
}
fn add(mut foo []int) {
for {
foo[0] = foo[0] + 1
}
}
```
In theory, this should have two threads infinitely trying to increment `foo[0]`,
which will eventually result in `foo[0]` getting corrupted by two threads trying to
do the same thing at the same time (given the tight loops invovled). This leads
to undefined behavior, which can be catastrophic in production facing applications.
However, I can't get this to build:
```
==================
/home/cadey/.cache/v/raceanint.tmp.c: In function add_thread_wrapper:
/home/cadey/.cache/v/raceanint.tmp.c:1209:6: error: incompatible type for argument 1 of add
add(arg->arg1);
^~~
/home/cadey/.cache/v/raceanint.tmp.c:1198:13: note: expected array_int * {aka struct array *} but argument is of type array_int {aka struct array}
static void add(array_int* foo);
^~~
/home/cadey/.cache/v/raceanint.tmp.c: In function strconv__v_sprintf:
/home/cadey/.cache/v/raceanint.tmp.c:3611:7: warning: variable th_separator set but not used [-Wunused-but-set-variable]
bool th_separator = false;
^~~~~~~~~~~~
/home/cadey/.cache/v/raceanint.tmp.c: In function print_backtrace_skipping_top_frames_linux:
...
==================
(Use `v -cg` to print the entire error message)
builder error:
==================
C error. This should never happen.
If you were not working with C interop, please raise an issue on GitHub:
https://github.com/vlang/v/issues/new/choose
```
Like I said before, I also cannot file new issues about this. So if you are willing
to help me out, please open an issue about this.

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@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
---
title: "Trisiel Progress: Hello, World!"
title: "Wasmcloud Progress: Hello, World!"
date: 2019-12-08
series: olin
tags:
@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ tags:
I have been working off and on over the years and have finally created the base
of a functions as a service backend for [WebAssembly][wasm] code. I'm code-naming this
wasmcloud. [Trisiel][wasmcloud] is a pre-alpha prototype and is currently very much work in
wasmcloud. [Wasmcloud][wasmcloud] is a pre-alpha prototype and is currently very much work in
progress. However, it's far enough along that I would like to explain what I
have been doing for the last few years and what it's all built up to.
@ -100,7 +100,7 @@ I've even written a few blogposts about Olin:
But, this was great for running stuff interactively and via the command line. It
left me wanting more. I wanted to have that mythical functions as a service
backend that I've been dreaming of. So, I created [Trisiel][wasmcloud].
backend that I've been dreaming of. So, I created [wasmcloud][wasmcloud].
## h
@ -139,14 +139,14 @@ h
I think this is the smallest (if not one of the smallest) quine generator in the
world. I even got this program running on bare metal:
![](/static/blog/xeos_h.png)
<center>![](/static/blog/xeos_h.png)</center>
[hlang]: https://h.christine.website
[vlang]: https://vlang.io
## Trisiel
## Wasmcloud
[Trisiel][wasmcloud] is the culmination of all of this work. The goal of
[Wasmcloud][wasmcloud] is the culmination of all of this work. The goal of
wasmcloud is to create a functions as a service backend for running people's
code in an isolated server-side environment.
@ -181,11 +181,11 @@ Top-level flags (use "wasmcloud flags" for a full list):
This tool lets you do a few basic things:
- Authenticate with the Trisiel server
- Authenticate with the wasmcloud server
- Create handlers from WebAssembly files that meet the CommonWA API as realized
by Olin
- Get logs for individual handler invocations
- Run WebAssembly modules locally like they would get run on Trisiel
- Run WebAssembly modules locally like they would get run on wasmcloud
Nearly all of the complexity is abstracted away from users as much as possible.

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@ -1,202 +0,0 @@
---
title: "Trisiel Progress: Rewritten in Rust"
date: 2020-10-31
series: olin
tags:
- wasm
- trisiel
- wasmer
---
# Trisiel Progress: Rewritten in Rust
It's been a while since I had the [last update for
Trisiel](/blog/wasmcloud-progress-2019-12-08). In that time I have gotten a
lot done. As the title mentions I have completely rewritten Trisiel's entire
stack in Rust. Part of the reason was for [increased
speed](/blog/pahi-benchmarks-2020-03-26) and the other part was to get better at
Rust. I also wanted to experiment with running Rust in production and this has
been an excellent way to do that.
Trisiel is going to have a few major parts:
- The API (likely to be hosted at `api.trisiel.com`)
- The Executor (likely to be hosted at `run.trisiel.dev`)
- The Panel (likely to be hosted at `panel.trisiel.com`)
- The command line tool `trisiel`
- The Documentation site (likely to be hosted at `docs.trisiel`)
These parts will work together to implement a functions as a service platform.
[The executor is on its own domain to prevent problems like <a
href="https://github.blog/2013-04-05-new-github-pages-domain-github-io/">this
GitHub Pages vulnerability</a> from 2013. It is on a `.lgbt` domain because LGBT
rights are human rights.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
I have also set up a landing page at
[trisiel.com](https://trisiel.com) and a twitter account at
[@trisielcloud](https://twitter.com/trisielcloud). Right now these are
placeholders. I wanted to register the domains before they were taken by anyone
else.
## Architecture
My previous attempt at Trisiel had more of a four tier webapp setup. The
overall stack looked something like this:
- Nginx in front of everything
- The api server that did about everything
- The executors that waited on message queues to run code and push results to
the requester
- Postgres
- A message queue to communicate with the executors
- IPFS to store WebAssembly modules
In simple testing, this works amazingly. The API server will send execution
requests to the executors and everything will usually work out. However, the
message queue I used was very "fire and forget" and had difficulties with
multiple executors set up to listen on the queue. Additionally, the added
indirection of needing to send the data around twice means that it would have
difficulties scaling globally due to ingress and egress data costs. This model
is solid and _probably would have worked_ with some compression or other
improvements like that, but overall I was not happy with it and decided to scrap
it while I was porting the executor component to Rust. If you want to read the
source code of this iteration of Trisiel, take a look
[here](https://tulpa.dev/within/wasmcloud).
The new architecture of Trisiel looks something like this:
- Nginx in front of everything
- An API server that handles login with my gitea instance
- The executor server that listens over https
- Postgres
- Backblaze B2 to store WebAssembly modules
The main change here is the fact that the executor listens over HTTPS, avoiding
_a lot_ of the overhead involved in running this on a message queue. It's also
much simpler to implement and allows me to reuse a vast majority of the
boilerplate that I developed for the Trisiel API server.
This new version of Trisiel is also built on top of
[Wasmer](https://wasmer.io/). Wasmer is a seriously fantastic library for this
and getting up and running was absolutely trivial, even though I knew very
little Rust when I was writing [pa'i](/blog/pahi-hello-world-2020-02-22). I
cannot recommend it enough if you ever want to execute WebAssembly on a server.
## Roadmap
At this point, I can create new functions, upload them to the API server and
then trigger them to be executed. The output of those functions is not returned
to the user at this point. I am working on ways to implement that. There is also
very little accounting for what resources and system calls are used, however it
does keep track of execution time. The executor also needs to have the request
body of the client be wired to the standard in of the underlying module, which
will enable me to parse CGI replies from WebAssembly functions. This will allow
you to host HTTP endpoints on Trisiel using the same code that powers
[this](https://olin.within.website) and
[this](http://cetacean.club/cgi-bin/olinfetch.wasm).
I also need to go in and completely refactor the
[olin](https://github.com/Xe/pahi/tree/main/wasm/olin/src) crate and make the
APIs much more ergonomic, not to mention make the HTTP client actually work
again.
Then comes the documentation. Oh god there will be so much documentation. I will
be _drowning_ in documentation by the end of this.
I need to write the panel and command line tool for Trisiel. I want to write
the panel in [Elm](https://elm-lang.org/) and the command line tool in Rust.
There is basically zero validation for anything submitted to the Trisiel API.
I will need to write validation in order to make it safer.
I may also explore enabling support for [WASI](https://wasi.dev/) in the future,
but as I have stated before I do not believe that WASI works very well for the
futuristic plan-9 inspired model I want to use on Trisiel.
Right now the executor shells out to pa'i, but I want to embed pa'i into the
executor binary so there are fewer moving parts involved.
I also need to figure out what I should do with this project in general. It
feels like it is close to being productizable, but I am in a very bad stage of
my life to be able to jump in headfirst and build a company around this. Visa
limitations also don't help here.
## Things I Learned
[Rocket](https://rocket.rs) is an absolutely fantastic web framework and I
cannot recommend it enough. I am able to save _so much time_ with Rocket and its
slightly magic use of proc-macros. For an example, here is the entire source
code of the `/whoami` route in the Trisiel API:
```rust
#[get("/whoami")]
#[instrument]
pub fn whoami(user: models::User) -> Json<models::User> {
Json(user)
}
```
The `FromRequest` instance I have on my database user model allows me to inject
the user associated with an API token purely based on the (validated against the
database) claims associated with the JSON Web Token that the user uses for
authentication. This then allows me to make API routes protected by simply
putting the user model as an input to the handler function. It's magic and I
love it.
Postgres lets you use triggers to automatically update `updated_at` fields for
free. You just need a function that looks like this:
```sql
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION trigger_set_timestamp()
RETURNS TRIGGER AS $$
BEGIN
NEW.updated_at = NOW();
RETURN NEW;
END;
$$ LANGUAGE plpgsql;
```
And then you can make triggers for your tables like this:
```sql
CREATE TRIGGER set_timestamp_users
BEFORE UPDATE ON users
FOR EACH ROW
EXECUTE PROCEDURE trigger_set_timestamp();
```
Every table in Trisiel uses this in order to make programming against the
database easier.
The symbol/number layer on my Moonlander has been _so good_. It looks something
like this:
![](https://cdn.christine.website/file/christine-static/blog/m5Id6Qs.png)
And it makes using programming sigils _so much easier_. I don't have to stray
far from the homerow to hit the most common ones. The only one that I still have
to reach for is `_`, but I think I will bind that to the blank key under the `]`
key.
The best programming music is [lofi hip hop radio - beats to study/relax
to](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qap5aO4i9A). Second best is [Animal
Crossing music](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nYNJLfktds). They both have
this upbeat quality that makes the ideas melt into code and flow out of your
hands.
---
Overall I'd say this is pretty good for a week of hacking while learning a new
keyboard layout. I will do more in the future. I have plans. To read through the
(admittedly kinda hacky/awful) code I've written this week, check out [this git
repo](https://tulpa.dev/wasmcloud/wasmcloud). If you have any feedback, please
[contact me](/contact). I will be happy to answer any questions.
As far as signups go, I am not accepting any signups at the moment. This is
pre-alpha software. The abuse story will need to be figured out, but I am fairly
sure it will end up being some kind of "pay or you can only run the precompiled
example code in the documentation" with some kind of application process for the
"free tier" of Trisiel. Of course, this is all theoretical and hinges on
Trisiel actually being productizable; so who knows?
Be well.

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@ -1,54 +0,0 @@
---
title: "Site Update: WebMention Support"
date: 2020-12-02
tags:
- indieweb
---
# Site Update: WebMention Support
Recently in my [Various Updates](/blog/various-updates-2020-11-18) post I
announced that my website had gotten
[WebMention](https://www.w3.org/TR/webmention/) support. Today I implemented
WebMention integration into blog articles, allowing you to see where my articles
are mentioned across the internet. This will not work with every single mention
of my site, but if your publishing platform supports sending WebMentions, then
you will see them show up on the next deploy of my site.
Thanks to the work of the folks at [Bridgy](https://brid.gy/), I have been able
to also keep track of mentions of my content across Twitter, Reddit and
Mastodon. My WebMention service will also attempt to resolve Bridgy mention
links to their original sources as much as it can. Hopefully this should allow
you to post my articles as normal across those networks and have those mentions
be recorded without having to do anything else.
As I mentioned before, this is implemented on top of
[mi](https://github.com/Xe/mi). mi receives mentions sent to
`https://mi.within.website/api/webmention/accept` and will return a reference
URL in the `Location` header. This will return JSON-formatted data about the
mention. Here is an example:
```console
$ curl https://mi.within.website/api/webmention/01ERGGEG7DCKRH3R7DH4BXZ6R9 | jq
{
"id": "01ERGGEG7DCKRH3R7DH4BXZ6R9",
"source_url": "https://maya.land/responses/2020/12/01/i-think-this-blog-post-might-have-been.html",
"target_url": "https://christine.website/blog/toast-sandwich-recipe-2019-12-02",
"title": null
}
```
This is all of the information I store about each WebMention. I am working on
title detection (using the
[readability](https://github.com/jangernert/readability) algorithm), however I
am unable to run JavaScript on my scraper server. Content that is JavaScript
only may not be able to be scraped like this.
---
Many thanks to [Chris Aldrich](https://boffosocko.com/2020/12/01/55781873/) for
inspiring me to push this feature to the end. Any articles that don't have any
WebMentions yet will link to the [WebMention
spec](https://www.w3.org/TR/webmention/).
Be well.

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@ -1,220 +0,0 @@
---
title: The Within Go Repo Layout
date: 2020-09-07
series: howto
tags:
- go
- standards
---
# The Within Go Repo Layout
Go repository layout is a very different thing compared to other languages.
There's a lot of conflicting opinions and little firm guidance to help steer
people along a path to more maintainable code. This is a collection of
guidelines that help to facilitate understandable and idiomatic Go.
At a high level the following principles should be followed:
- If the code is designed to be consumed by other random people using that
repository, it is made available for others to import
- If the code is NOT designed to be consumed by other random people using that
repository, it is NOT made available for others to import
- Code should be as close to where it's used as possible
- Documentation helps understand _why_, not _how_
- More people can reuse your code than you think
## Folder Structure
At a minimum, the following folders should be present in the repository:
- `cmd/` -> houses executable commands
- `docs/` -> houses human readable documentation
- `internal/` -> houses code not intended to be used by others
- `scripts/` -> houses any scripts needed for meta-operations
Any additional code can be placed anywhere in the repo as long as it makes
sense. More on this later in the document.
## Additional Code
If there is code that should be available for other people outside of this
project to use, it is better to make it a publicly available (not internal)
package. If the code is also used across multiple parts of your program or is
only intended for outside use, it should be in the repository root. If not, it
should be as close to where it is used as makes sense. Consider this directory
layout:
```
repo-root
├── cmd
│   ├── paperwork
│   │   ├── create
│   │   │   └── create.go
│   │   └── main.go
│   ├── hospital
│   │   ├── internal
│   │   │   └── operate.go
│   │   └── main.go
│   └── integrator
│   ├── integrate.go
│   └── main.go
├── internal
│   └── log_manipulate.go
└── web
├── error.go
└── instrument.go
```
This would expose packages `repo-root/web` and `repo-root/cmd/paperwork/create`
to be consumed by outside users. This would allow reuse of the error handling in
package `web`, but it would not allow reuse of whatever manipulation is done to
logging in package `repo-root/internal`.
## `repo-root/cmd/`
This folder has subfolders with go files in them. Each of these subfolders is
one command binary. The entrypoint of each command should be `main.go` so that
it is easy to identify in a directory listing. This follows how the [go standard
library][stdlibcmd] does this.
For example:
```
repo-root
└── cmd
├── paperwork
│   └── main.go
├── hospital
│   └── main.go
└── integrator
└── main.go
```
This would be for three commands named `paperwork`, `hospital`, and `integrate`
respectively.
As your commands get more complicated, it's tempting to create packages in
`repo-root/internal/` to implement them. This is probably a bad idea. It's
better to create the packages in the same folder as the command, or optionally
in its `internal` package. Consider if `paperwork` has a command named `create`,
`hospital` has a command named `operate` and `integrator` has a command named
`integrate`:
```
repo-root
└── cmd
├── paperwork
│   ├── create
│   │   └── create.go
│   └── main.go
├── hospital
│   ├── internal
│   │   └── operate.go
│   └── main.go
└── integrator
├── integrate.go
└── main.go
```
Each of these commands has the logic separated into different packages.
`paperwork` has the create command as a subpackage, meaning that other parts of the
application can consume that code if they need to.
`hospital` has the operate command inside its internal package, meaning [only
cmd/foo/ and anything that has the same import path prefix can use that
code][internalcode].
This makes it easier to isolate the code so that other parts of the repo
_cannot_ use it.
`integrator` has the integrate command as a separate go file in the main package of
the command. This makes the integrate command code only usable within the
command because main packages cannot be imported by other packages.
Each of these methods makes sense in some contexts and not in others. Real-world
usage will probably see a mix of these depending on what makes sense.
## `repo-root/docs/`
This folder has human-readable documentation files.
These files are intended to help humans understand how to
use the program or reasons why the program was put together the way it was. This
documentation should be in the language most common to the team of people
developing the software.
The structure inside this folder is going to be very organic, so it is not
entirely defined here.
## `repo-root/internal/`
The [internal folder should house code that others shouldn't
consume][internalcode]. This can be for many reasons. Generally if you cannot
see a use for this code outside the context of the program you are developing,
but it needs to be used across multiple packages in different areas of the repo,
it should default to going here.
If the code is safe for public consumption, it should go elsewhere.
## `repo-root/scripts/`
The scripts folder should contain each script that is needed for various
operations. This could be for running fully automated tests in a docker
container or packaging the program for distribution. These files should be
documented as makes sense.
## Test Code
Code should be tested in the same folder that it's written in. See the [upstream
testing documentation][gotest] for more information.
Integration tests or other things should be done in an internal subpackage
called "integration" or similar.f
## Questions and Answers
### Why not use `pkg/` for packages you intend others to use?
The name `pkg` is already well-known in the Go ecosystem. It is [the folder that
compiled packages (not command binaries) go][pkgfolder]. Using it creates the
potential for confusion between code that others are encouraged to use and the
meaning that the Go compiler toolchain has.
If a package prefix for publicly available code is really needed, choose a name
not already known to the Go compiler toolchain such as "public".
### How does this differ from https://github.com/golang-standards/project-layout?
This differs in a few key ways:
- Discourages the use of `pkg`, because it's obvious if something is publicly
available or not if it can be imported outside of the package
- Leaves the development team a lot more agency to decide how to name things
The core philosophy of this layout is that the developers should be able to
decide how to put files into the repository.
### But I really think I need `pkg`!
Set up another git repo for those libraries then. If they are so important that
other people need to use them, they should probably be in a `libraries` repo or
individual git repos.
Besides, nothing is stopping you from actually using `pkg` if you want to. Some
more experienced go programmers will protest though.
## Examples of This in Action
Here are a few examples of views of this layout in action:
- https://github.com/golang/go/tree/master/src
- https://github.com/golang/tools
- https://github.com/PonyvilleFM/aura
- https://github.com/Xe/ln
- https://github.com/goproxyio/goproxy
- https://github.com/heroku/x
[stdlibcmd]: https://github.com/golang/go/tree/master/src/cmd
[internalcode]: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1e8kOo3r51b2BWtTs_1uADIA5djfXhPT36s6eHVRIvaU/edit
[gotest]: https://golang.org/pkg/testing/
[pkgfolder]: https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/understanding-the-gopath

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@ -1,76 +0,0 @@
---
title: ZSA Moonlander First Impressions
date: 2020-10-27
series: keeb
tags:
- moonlander
- keyboard
---
# ZSA Moonlander First Impressions
As I mentioned
[before](https://christine.website/blog/colemak-layout-2020-08-15), I ordered a
[ZSA Moonlander](https://zsa.io/moonlander) and it has finally arrived. I am
writing this post from my Moonlander, and as such I may do a few more typos
than normal, I'm still getting used to this.
![a picture of the keyboard on my
desk](https://cdn.christine.website/file/christine-static/img/keeb/ElVbBm_XUAcVhOg.jpg)
The Moonlander is a weird keyboard. I knew that it would be odd from the get-go
(split ergonomic keyboards have this reputation for a reason), but I was
surprised at how natural it feels. Setup was a breeze (unbox, plug it in, flash
firmware, type), and I have been experimenting with tenting angles on my desk.
It is a _very_ solid keyboard with basically zero deck flex.
I have a [fairly complicated
keymap](https://tulpa.dev/cadey/kadis-layouts/src/branch/master/moonlander) that
worked almost entirely on the first try. Here is a more user friendly
visualization of my keymap (sans fun things like leader macros):
<div style="padding-top: 60%; position: relative;">
<iframe src="https://configure.ergodox-ez.com/embed/moonlander/layouts/xbJXx/latest/0" style="border: 0; height: 100%; left: 0; position: absolute; top: 0; width: 100%"></iframe>
</div>
My typing speed has been destroyed by the change to this ortholinear layout.
Before I was getting around 70 words per minute at best (according to
[monkeytype.com](https://monkeytype.com/)), but now I am lucky to hit about 35
words per minute. My fingers kinda reach for where keys are on a staggered
keyboard and I have the most trouble with `x`, `v`, `.` and `b` at the moment. I
really like having a dedicated : key on my right hand. It makes command mode (and
yaml) so much easier. The larger red buttons are a bit odd to hit at the moment,
but I imagine that will get much easier with time.
Each key has a programmable RGB light under it. This allows you to get some
really nice effects like this:
![The left hand of my steno
layout](https://cdn.christine.website/file/christine-static/img/keeb/ElTG7QSW0AEqXeE.jpg)
However brown colors don't come out as well as I'd hoped:
![My media layer that mostly has brown lighting, this looks a bit better in the
dark](https://cdn.christine.website/file/christine-static/img/keeb/ElVdFKoX0AE_dAA.jpg)
I am not sure how I feel about the armrests. On one hand they feel a bit cold
(context: it is currently 1.57 degrees outside and I'm wearing a hoodie at my
desk so that may end up being the cause of this), but on the other hand i really
hate typing on this without them. The tenting is nice, I need to play with it
more but the included instructions help a lot.
I still have a long way to go. I'll write up a longer and more detailed review
in a few weeks.
Expect to see many more glory shots on
[Twitter](https://twitter.com/theprincessxena)!
As an added bonus, here is the `if err != nil` key in action:
<video controls width="100%">
<source src="https://cdn.christine.website/file/christine-static/img/keeb/tmp.ZdCemPUcnd.webm"
type="video/webm">
<source src="https://cdn.christine.website/file/christine-static/img/keeb/tmp.ZdCemPUcnd.mp4"
type="video/mp4">
Sorry, your browser doesn't support embedded videos.
</video>

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@ -1,442 +0,0 @@
---
title: ZSA Moonlander Review
date: 2020-11-06
series: keeb
tags:
- moonlander
- keyboard
- nixos
---
# ZSA Moonlander Review
I am nowhere near qualified to review things objectively. Therefore this
blogpost will mostly be about what I like about this keyboard. I plan to go into
a fair bit of detail, however please do keep in mind that this is subjective as
all hell. Also keep in mind that this is partially also going to be a review of
my own keyboard layout too. I'm going to tackle this in a few parts that I will
label with headings.
This review is NOT sponsored. I paid for this device with my own money. I have
no influence pushing me either way on this keyboard.
![a picture of the keyboard on my
desk](https://cdn.christine.website/file/christine-static/img/keeb/Elm3dN8XUAAYHws.jpg)
[That 3d printed brain is built from the 3D model that was made as a part of <a
href="https://christine.website/blog/brain-fmri-to-3d-model-2019-08-23">this
blogpost</a>.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
## tl;dr
I like the Moonlander. It gets out of my way and lets me focus on writing and
code. I don't like how limited the Oryx configurator is, but the fact that I can
build my own firmware from source and flash it to the keyboard on my own makes
up for that. I think this was a purchase well worth making, but I can understand
why others would disagree. I can easily see this device becoming a core part of
my workflow for years to come.
## Build Quality
The Moonlander is a solid keyboard. Once you set it up with the tenting legs and
adjust the key cluster, the keyboard is rock solid. The only give I've noticed
is because my desk mat is made of a rubber-like material. The construction of
the keyboard is all plastic but there isn't any deck flex that I can tell.
Compare this to cheaper laptops where the entire keyboard bends if you so much
as touch the keys too hard.
The palmrests are detachable and when they are off it gives the keyboard a
space-age vibe to it:
![the left half of the keyboard without the palmrest
attached](https://cdn.christine.website/file/christine-static/img/keeb/EmJ1bqNXUAAJy4d.jpg)
The palmrests feel very solid and fold up into the back of the keyboard for
travel. However folding up the palmrest does mess up the tenting stability, so
you can't fold in the palmrest and type very comfortably. This makes sense
though, the palmrest is made out of smooth plastic so it feels nicer on the
hands.
ZSA said that iPad compatibility is not guaranteed due to the fact that the iPad
might not put out enough juice to run it, however in my testing with an iPad Pro
2018 (12", 512 GB storage) it works fine. The battery drains a little faster,
but the Moonlander is a much more active keyboard than the smart keyboard so I
can forgive this.
## Switches
I've been using mechanical keyboards for years, but most of them have been
clicky switches (such as cloned Cherry MX blues, actual legit Cherry MX blues
and the awful Razer Green switches). This is my first real experience with
Cherry MX brown switches. There are many other options when you are about to
order a moonlander, but I figured Cherry MX browns would be a nice neutral
choice.
The keyswitches are hot-swappable (no disassembly or soldering required), and
changing out keyswitches **DOES NOT** void your warranty. I plan to look into
[Holy Pandas](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLm8DNH5hJk) and [Zilents
V2](https://youtu.be/uGVw85solnE) in the future. There is even a clever little
tool in the box that makes it easy to change out keyswitches.
Overall, this has been one of the best typing experiences I have ever had. The
noise is a little louder than I would have liked (please note that I tend to
bottom out the keycaps as I type, so this may end up factoring into the noise I
experience); but overall I really like it. It is far better than I have ever had
with clicky switches.
## Typing Feel
The Moonlander uses an ortholinear layout as opposed to the staggered layout
that you find on most keyboards. This took some getting used to, but I have
found that it is incredibly comfortable and natural to write on.
## My Keymap
Each side of the keyboard has the following:
- 20 alphanumeric keys (some are used for `;`, `,`, `.` and `/` like normal
keyboards)
- 12 freely assignable keys (useful for layer changes, arrow keys, symbols and
modifiers)
- 4 thumb keys
In total, this keyboard has 72 keys, making it about a 70% keyboard (assuming
the math in my head is right).
My keymap uses all but two of these keys. The two keys I haven't figured out how
to best use yet are the ones that I currently have the `[` and `]` keycaps on.
Right now they are mapped to the left and right arrow keys. This was the
default.
My keymap is organized into
[layers](https://docs.qmk.fm/#/keymap?id=keymap-and-layers). In each of these
subsections I will go into detail about what these layers are, what they do and
how they help me. My keymap code is
[here](https://tulpa.dev/cadey/kadis-layouts/src/branch/master/moonlander) and I
have a limited view of it embedded below:
<div style="padding-top: 60%; position: relative;">
<iframe src="https://configure.ergodox-ez.com/embed/moonlander/layouts/xbJXx/latest/0" style="border: 0; height: 100%; left: 0; position: absolute; top: 0; width: 100%"></iframe>
</div>
If you want to flash my layout to your Moonlander for some reason, you can find
the firmware binary
[here](https://cdn.christine.website/file/christine-static/img/keeb/moonlander_kadis.bin).
You can then flash this to your keyboard with
[Wally](https://ergodox-ez.com/pages/wally).
### Base Layers
I have a few base layers that contain the main set of letters and numbers that I
type. The main base layer is my Colemak layer. I have the keys arranged to a
standard [Colemak](https://Colemak.com/) layout and it is currently the layer I
type the fastest on. I have the RGB configured so that it is mostly pink with
the homerow using a lighter shade of pink. The color codes come from my logo
that you can see in the favicon [or here for a larger
version](https://christine.website/static/img/avatar_large.png).
I also have a qwerty layer for gaming. Most games expect qwerty keyboards and
this is an excellent stopgap to avoid having to rebind every game that I want to
play. The left side of the keyboard is the active one with the controller board
in it too, so I can unplug the other half of the keyboard and give my mouse a
lot of room to roam.
Thanks to a friend of mine, I am also playing with Dvorak. I have not gotten far
in Dvorak yet, but it is interesting to play with.
I'll cover the leader key in the section below dedicated to it, but the other
major thing that I have is a colon key on my right hand thumb cluster. This has
been a huge boon for programming. The colon key is typed a lot. Having it on the
thumb cluster means that I can just reach down and hit it when I need to. This
makes writing code in Go and Rust so much easier.
### Symbol/Number Layer
If you look at the base layer keymap, you will see that I do not have square
brackets mapped anywhere there. Yet I write code with it effortlessly. This is
because of the symbol/number layer that I access with the lower right and lower
left keys on the keyboard. I have it positioned there so I can roll my hand to
the side and then unlock the symbols there. I have access to every major symbol
needed for programming save `<` and `>` (which I can easily access on the base
layer with the shift key). I also get a nav cluster and a number pad.
I also have [dynamic macros](https://docs.qmk.fm/#/feature_dynamic_macros) on
this layer which function kinda like vim macros. The only difference is that
there's only two macros instead of many like vim. They are convenient though.
### Media Layer
One of the cooler parts of the Moonlander is that it can act as a mouse. It is a
very terrible mouse (understandably, mostly because the digital inputs of
keypresses cannot match the analog precision of a mouse). This layer has an
arrow key cluster too. I normally use the arrow keys along the bottom of the
keyboard with my thumbs, but sometimes it can help to have a dedicated inverse T
arrow cluster for things like old MS-DOS games.
I also have media control keys here. They aren't the most useful on my linux
desktop, however when I plug it into my iPad they are amazing.
### dwm Layer
I use [dwm](/blog/why-i-use-suckless-tools-2020-06-05) as my main window manager
in Linux. dwm is entirely controlled using the keyboard. I have a dedicated
keyboard layer to control dwm and send out its keyboard shortcuts. It's really
nice and lets me get all of the advantages of my tiling setup without needing to
hit weird keycombos.
### Leader Macros
[Leader macros](https://docs.qmk.fm/#/feature_leader_key) are one of the killer
features of my layout. I have a [huge
bank](https://tulpa.dev/cadey/kadis-layouts/src/branch/master/doc/leader.md) of
them and use them to do type out things that I type a lot. Most common git and
Kubernetes commands are just a leader macro away.
The Go `if err != nil` macro that got me on /r/programmingcirclejerk twice is
one of my leader macros, but I may end up promoting it to its own key if I keep
getting so much use out of it (maybe one of the keys I don't use can become my
`if err != nil` key). I'm sad that the threads got deleted (I love it when my
content gets on there, it's one of my favorite subreddits), but such is life.
## NixOS, the Moonlander and Colemak
When I got this keyboard, flashed the firmware and plugged it in, I noticed that
my keyboard was sending weird inputs. It was rendering things that look like
this:
```
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy yellow dog.
```
into this:
```
Ghf qluce bpywk tyx nlm;r yvfp ghf iazj jfiiyw syd.
```
This is because I had configured my NixOS install to interpret the keyboard as
if it was Colemak. However the keyboard is able to lie and sends out normal
keycodes (even though I am typing them in Colemak) as if I was typing in qwerty.
This double Colemak meant that a lot of messages and commands were completely
unintelligible until I popped into my qwerty layer.
I quickly found the culprit in my config:
```nix
console.useXkbConfig = true;
services.xserver = {
layout = "us";
xkbVariant = "colemak";
xkbOptions = "caps:escape";
};
```
This config told the X server to always interpret my keyboard as if it was
Colemak, meaning that I needed to tell it not to. As a stopgap I commented this
section of my config out and rebuilt my system.
X11 allows you to specify keyboard configuration for keyboards individually by
device product/vendor names. The easiest way I know to get this information is
to open a terminal, run `dmesg -w` to get a constant stream of kernel logs,
unplug and plug the keyboard back in and see what the kernel reports:
```console
[242718.024229] usb 1-2: USB disconnect, device number 8
[242948.272824] usb 1-2: new full-speed USB device number 9 using xhci_hcd
[242948.420895] usb 1-2: New USB device found, idVendor=3297, idProduct=1969, bcdDevice= 0.01
[242948.420896] usb 1-2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[242948.420897] usb 1-2: Product: Moonlander Mark I
[242948.420898] usb 1-2: Manufacturer: ZSA Technology Labs
[242948.420898] usb 1-2: SerialNumber: 0
```
The product is named `Moonlander Mark I`, which means we can match for it and
tell X11 to not colemakify the keycodes using something like this:
```
Section "InputClass"
Identifier "moonlander"
MatchIsKeyboard "on"
MatchProduct "Moonlander"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
Option "XkbVariant" "basic"
EndSection
```
[For more information on what you can do in an `InputClass` section, see <a
href="https://www.x.org/releases/current/doc/man/man5/xorg.conf.5.xhtml#heading9">here</a>
in the X11 documentation.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
This configuration fragment can easily go in the normal X11 configuration
folder, but doing it like this would mean that I would have to manually drop
this file in on every system I want to colemakify. This does not scale and
defeats the point of doing this in NixOS.
Thankfully NixOS has [an
option](https://search.nixos.org/options?channel=20.09&show=services.xserver.inputClassSections&from=0&size=30&sort=relevance&query=inputClassSections)
to solve this very problem. Using this module we can write something like this:
```nix
services.xserver = {
layout = "us";
xkbVariant = "colemak";
xkbOptions = "caps:escape";
inputClassSections = [
''
Identifier "yubikey"
MatchIsKeyboard "on"
MatchProduct "Yubikey"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
Option "XkbVariant" "basic"
''
''
Identifier "moonlander"
MatchIsKeyboard "on"
MatchProduct "Moonlander"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
Option "XkbVariant" "basic"
''
];
};
```
But this is NixOS and that allows us to go one step further and make the
identifier and product matching string configurable as will with our own [NixOS
options](https://nixos.org/manual/nixos/stable/index.html#sec-writing-modules).
Let's start by lifting all of that above config into its own module:
```nix
# Colemak.nix
{ config, lib, ... }: with lib; {
options = {
cadey.colemak = {
enable = mkEnableOption "Enables colemak for the default X config";
};
};
config = mkIf config.cadey.Colemak.enable {
services.xserver = {
layout = "us";
xkbVariant = "colemak";
xkbOptions = "caps:escape";
inputClassSections = [
''
Identifier "yubikey"
MatchIsKeyboard "on"
MatchProduct "Yubikey"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
Option "XkbVariant" "basic"
''
''
Identifier "moonlander"
MatchIsKeyboard "on"
MatchProduct "Moonlander"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
Option "XkbVariant" "basic"
''
];
};
};
}
```
[This also has Yubikey inputs not get processed into Colemak so that <a
href="https://developers.yubico.com/OTP/OTPs_Explained.html">Yubikey OTPs</a>
still work as expected. Keep in mind that a Yubikey in this mode pretends to be
a keyboard, so without this configuration the OTP will be processed into
Colemak. The Yubico verification service will not be able to understand OTPs
that are typed out in Colemak.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
Then we can turn the identifier and product values into options with
[mkOption](https://nixos.org/manual/nixos/stable/index.html#sec-option-declarations)
and string interpolation:
```nix
# ...
cadey.colemak = {
enable = mkEnableOption "Enables Colemak for the default X config";
ignore = {
identifier = mkOption {
type = types.str;
description = "Keyboard input identifier to send raw keycodes for";
default = "moonlander";
};
product = mkOption {
type = types.str;
description = "Keyboard input product to send raw keycodes for";
default = "Moonlander";
};
};
};
# ...
''
Identifier "${config.cadey.colemak.ignore.identifier}"
MatchIsKeyboard "on"
MatchProduct "${config.cadey.colemak.ignore.product}"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
''
# ...
```
Adding this to the default load path and enabling it with `cadey.colemak.enable
= true;` in my tower's `configuration.nix`
This section was made possible thanks to help from [Graham
Christensen](https://twitter.com/grhmc) who seems to be in search of a job. If
you are wanting someone on your team that is kind and more than willing to help
make your team flourish, I highly suggest looking into putting him in your
hiring pipeline. See
[here](https://twitter.com/grhmc/status/1324765493534875650) for contact
information.
## Oryx
[Oryx](https://configure.ergodox-ez.com) is the configurator that ZSA created to
allow people to create keymaps without needing to compile your own firmware or
install the [QMK](https://qmk.fm) toolchain.
[QMK is the name of the firmware that the Moonlander (and a lot of other
custom/split mechanical keyboards) use. It works on AVR and Arm
processors.](conversation://Mara/hacker)
For most people, Oryx should be sufficient. I actually started my keymap using
Oryx and sorta outgrew it as I learned more about QMK. It would be nice if Oryx
added leader key support, however this is more of an advanced feature so I
understand why it doesn't have that.
## Things I Don't Like
This keyboard isn't flawless, but it gets so many things right that this is
mostly petty bickering at this point. I had to look hard to find these.
I would have liked having another thumb key for things like layer toggling. I
can make do with what I have, but another key would have been nice. Maybe add a
1u key under the red shaped key?
At the point I ordered the Moonlander, I was unable to order a black keyboard
with white keycaps. I am told that ZSA will be selling keycap sets as early as
next year. When that happens I will be sure to order a white one so that I can
have an orca vibe.
ZSA ships with UPS. Normally UPS is fine for me, but the driver that was slated
to deliver it one day just didn't deliver it. I was able to get the keyboard
eventually though. Contrary to their claims, the UPS website does NOT update
instantly and is NOT the most up to date source of information about your
package.
The cables aren't braided. I would have liked braided cables.
Like I said, these are _really minor_ things, but it's all I can really come up
with as far as downsides go.
## Conclusion
Overall this keyboard is amazing. I would really suggest it to anyone that wants
to be able to have control over their main tool and craft it towards their
desires instead of making do with what some product manager somewhere decided
what keys should do what. It's expensive at USD$350, but for the right kind of
person this will be worth every penny. Your mileage may vary, but I like it.

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cmd/site/clacks.go Normal file
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package main
import (
"math/rand"
"net/http"
"time"
)
type ClackSet []string
func (cs ClackSet) Name() string {
return "GNU " + cs[rand.Intn(len(cs))]
}
func (cs ClackSet) Middleware(next http.Handler) http.Handler {
return http.HandlerFunc(func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
w.Header().Add("X-Clacks-Overhead", cs.Name())
next.ServeHTTP(w, r)
})
}
func init() {
rand.Seed(time.Now().Unix())
}

245
cmd/site/html.go Normal file
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@ -0,0 +1,245 @@
package main
import (
"context"
"fmt"
"html/template"
"net/http"
"path/filepath"
"strings"
"time"
"christine.website/cmd/site/internal"
"christine.website/cmd/site/internal/blog"
"github.com/prometheus/client_golang/prometheus"
"github.com/prometheus/client_golang/prometheus/promauto"
"within.website/ln"
"within.website/ln/opname"
)
var (
templateRenderTime = promauto.NewHistogramVec(prometheus.HistogramOpts{
Name: "template_render_time",
Help: "Template render time in nanoseconds",
}, []string{"name"})
)
func logTemplateTime(ctx context.Context, name string, f ln.F, from time.Time) {
dur := time.Since(from)
templateRenderTime.With(prometheus.Labels{"name": name}).Observe(float64(dur))
ln.Log(ctx, f, ln.F{"dur": dur, "name": name})
}
func (s *Site) renderTemplatePage(templateFname string, data interface{}) http.Handler {
return http.HandlerFunc(func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
ctx := opname.With(r.Context(), "renderTemplatePage")
fetag := "W/" + internal.Hash(templateFname, etag) + "-1"
f := ln.F{"etag": fetag, "if_none_match": r.Header.Get("If-None-Match")}
if r.Header.Get("If-None-Match") == fetag {
http.Error(w, "Cached data OK", http.StatusNotModified)
ln.Log(ctx, f, ln.Info("Cache hit"))
return
}
defer logTemplateTime(ctx, templateFname, f, time.Now())
var t *template.Template
var err error
t, err = template.ParseFiles("templates/base.html", "templates/"+templateFname)
if err != nil {
w.WriteHeader(http.StatusInternalServerError)
ln.Error(ctx, err, ln.F{"action": "renderTemplatePage", "page": templateFname})
fmt.Fprintf(w, "error: %v", err)
}
w.Header().Set("ETag", fetag)
w.Header().Set("Cache-Control", "max-age=432000")
err = t.Execute(w, data)
if err != nil {
panic(err)
}
})
}
var postView = promauto.NewCounterVec(prometheus.CounterOpts{
Name: "posts_viewed",
Help: "The number of views per post or talk",
}, []string{"base"})
func (s *Site) listSeries(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
s.renderTemplatePage("series.html", s.Series).ServeHTTP(w, r)
}
func (s *Site) showSeries(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
if r.RequestURI == "/blog/series/" {
http.Redirect(w, r, "/blog/series", http.StatusSeeOther)
return
}
series := filepath.Base(r.URL.Path)
var posts []blog.Post
for _, p := range s.Posts {
if p.Series == series {
posts = append(posts, p)
}
}
s.renderTemplatePage("serieslist.html", struct {
Name string
Posts []blog.Post
}{
Name: series,
Posts: posts,
}).ServeHTTP(w, r)
}
func (s *Site) showGallery(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
if r.RequestURI == "/gallery/" {
http.Redirect(w, r, "/gallery", http.StatusSeeOther)
return
}
cmp := r.URL.Path[1:]
var p blog.Post
var found bool
for _, pst := range s.Gallery {
if pst.Link == cmp {
p = pst
found = true
}
}
if !found {
w.WriteHeader(http.StatusNotFound)
s.renderTemplatePage("error.html", "no such post found: "+r.RequestURI).ServeHTTP(w, r)
return
}
var tags string
if len(p.Tags) != 0 {
for _, t := range p.Tags {
tags = tags + " #" + strings.ReplaceAll(t, "-", "")
}
}
h := s.renderTemplatePage("gallerypost.html", struct {
Title string
Link string
BodyHTML template.HTML
Date string
Tags string
Image string
}{
Title: p.Title,
Link: p.Link,
BodyHTML: p.BodyHTML,
Date: internal.IOS13Detri(p.Date),
Tags: tags,
Image: p.ImageURL,
})
if h == nil {
panic("how did we get here?")
}
h.ServeHTTP(w, r)
postView.With(prometheus.Labels{"base": filepath.Base(p.Link)}).Inc()
}
func (s *Site) showTalk(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
if r.RequestURI == "/talks/" {
http.Redirect(w, r, "/talks", http.StatusSeeOther)
return
}
cmp := r.URL.Path[1:]
var p blog.Post
var found bool
for _, pst := range s.Talks {
if pst.Link == cmp {
p = pst
found = true
}
}
if !found {
w.WriteHeader(http.StatusNotFound)
s.renderTemplatePage("error.html", "no such post found: "+r.RequestURI).ServeHTTP(w, r)
return
}
h := s.renderTemplatePage("talkpost.html", struct {
Title string
Link string
BodyHTML template.HTML
Date string
SlidesLink string
}{
Title: p.Title,
Link: p.Link,
BodyHTML: p.BodyHTML,
Date: internal.IOS13Detri(p.Date),
SlidesLink: p.SlidesLink,
})
if h == nil {
panic("how did we get here?")
}
h.ServeHTTP(w, r)
postView.With(prometheus.Labels{"base": filepath.Base(p.Link)}).Inc()
}
func (s *Site) showPost(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
if r.RequestURI == "/blog/" {
http.Redirect(w, r, "/blog", http.StatusSeeOther)
return
}
cmp := r.URL.Path[1:]
var p blog.Post
var found bool
for _, pst := range s.Posts {
if pst.Link == cmp {
p = pst
found = true
}
}
if !found {
w.WriteHeader(http.StatusNotFound)
s.renderTemplatePage("error.html", "no such post found: "+r.RequestURI).ServeHTTP(w, r)
return
}
var tags string
if len(p.Tags) != 0 {
for _, t := range p.Tags {
tags = tags + " #" + strings.ReplaceAll(t, "-", "")
}
}
s.renderTemplatePage("blogpost.html", struct {
Title string
Link string
BodyHTML template.HTML
Date string
Series, SeriesTag string
Tags string
}{
Title: p.Title,
Link: p.Link,
BodyHTML: p.BodyHTML,
Date: internal.IOS13Detri(p.Date),
Series: p.Series,
SeriesTag: strings.ReplaceAll(p.Series, "-", ""),
Tags: tags,
}).ServeHTTP(w, r)
postView.With(prometheus.Labels{"base": filepath.Base(p.Link)}).Inc()
}

View File

@ -0,0 +1,136 @@
package blog
import (
"html/template"
"io/ioutil"
"os"
"path/filepath"
"sort"
"strings"
"time"
"christine.website/cmd/site/internal/front"
"github.com/russross/blackfriday"
)
// Post is a single blogpost.
type Post struct {
Title string `json:"title"`
Link string `json:"link"`
Summary string `json:"summary,omitifempty"`
Body string `json:"-"`
BodyHTML template.HTML `json:"body"`
Series string `json:"series"`
Tags []string `json:"tags"`
SlidesLink string `json:"slides_link"`
ImageURL string `json:"image_url"`
ThumbURL string `json:"thumb_url"`
Date time.Time
DateString string `json:"date"`
}
// Posts implements sort.Interface for a slice of Post objects.
type Posts []Post
func (p Posts) Series() []string {
names := map[string]struct{}{}
for _, ps := range p {
if ps.Series != "" {
names[ps.Series] = struct{}{}
}
}
var result []string
for name := range names {
result = append(result, name)
}
return result
}
func (p Posts) Len() int { return len(p) }
func (p Posts) Less(i, j int) bool {
iDate := p[i].Date
jDate := p[j].Date
return iDate.Unix() < jDate.Unix()
}
func (p Posts) Swap(i, j int) { p[i], p[j] = p[j], p[i] }
// LoadPosts loads posts for a given directory.
func LoadPosts(path string, prepend string) (Posts, error) {
type postFM struct {
Title string
Date string
Series string
Tags []string
SlidesLink string `yaml:"slides_link"`
Image string
Thumb string
}
var result Posts
err := filepath.Walk(path, func(path string, info os.FileInfo, err error) error {
if err != nil {
return err
}
if info.IsDir() {
return nil
}
fin, err := os.Open(path)
if err != nil {
return err
}
defer fin.Close()
content, err := ioutil.ReadAll(fin)
if err != nil {
return err
}
var fm postFM
remaining, err := front.Unmarshal(content, &fm)
if err != nil {
return err
}
output := blackfriday.Run(remaining)
const timeFormat = `2006-01-02`
date, err := time.Parse(timeFormat, fm.Date)
if err != nil {
return err
}
fname := filepath.Base(path)
fname = strings.TrimSuffix(fname, filepath.Ext(fname))
p := Post{
Title: fm.Title,
Date: date,
DateString: fm.Date,
Link: filepath.Join(prepend, fname),
Body: string(remaining),
BodyHTML: template.HTML(output),
SlidesLink: fm.SlidesLink,
Series: fm.Series,
Tags: fm.Tags,
ImageURL: fm.Image,
ThumbURL: fm.Thumb,
}
result = append(result, p)
return nil
})
if err != nil {
return nil, err
}
sort.Sort(sort.Reverse(result))
return result, nil
}

View File

@ -0,0 +1,66 @@
package blog
import (
"testing"
)
func TestLoadPosts(t *testing.T) {
posts, err := LoadPosts("../../../../blog", "blog")
if err != nil {
t.Fatal(err)
}
for _, post := range posts {
t.Run(post.Link, post.test)
}
}
func TestLoadTalks(t *testing.T) {
talks, err := LoadPosts("../../../../talks", "talks")
if err != nil {
t.Fatal(err)
}
for _, talk := range talks {
t.Run(talk.Link, talk.test)
if talk.SlidesLink == "" {
t.Errorf("talk %s (%s) doesn't have a slides link", talk.Title, talk.DateString)
}
}
}
func TestLoadGallery(t *testing.T) {
gallery, err := LoadPosts("../../../../gallery", "gallery")
if err != nil {
t.Fatal(err)
}
for _, art := range gallery {
t.Run(art.Link, art.test)
if art.ImageURL == "" {
t.Errorf("art %s (%s) doesn't have an image link", art.Title, art.DateString)
}
if art.ThumbURL == "" {
t.Errorf("art %s (%s) doesn't have a thumbnail link", art.Title, art.DateString)
}
}
}
func (p Post) test(t *testing.T) {
if p.Title == "" {
t.Error("no post title")
}
if p.DateString == "" {
t.Error("no date")
}
if p.Link == "" {
t.Error("no link")
}
if p.Body == "" {
t.Error("no body")
}
}

10
cmd/site/internal/date.go Normal file
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package internal
import "time"
const iOS13DetriFormat = `2006 M1 2`
// IOS13Detri formats a datestamp like iOS 13 does with the Lojban locale.
func IOS13Detri(t time.Time) string {
return t.Format(iOS13DetriFormat)
}

View File

@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
package internal
import (
"fmt"
"testing"
"time"
)
func TestIOS13Detri(t *testing.T) {
cases := []struct {
in time.Time
out string
}{
{
in: time.Date(2019, time.March, 30, 0, 0, 0, 0, time.FixedZone("UTC", 0)),
out: "2019 M3 30",
},
}
for _, cs := range cases {
t.Run(fmt.Sprintf("%s -> %s", cs.in.Format(time.RFC3339), cs.out), func(t *testing.T) {
result := IOS13Detri(cs.in)
if result != cs.out {
t.Fatalf("wanted: %s, got: %s", cs.out, result)
}
})
}
}

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@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
Copyright (c) 2017 TJ Holowaychuk <tj@vision-media.ca>
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in
all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN
THE SOFTWARE.

View File

@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
// Package front provides YAML frontmatter unmarshalling.
package front
import (
"bytes"
"gopkg.in/yaml.v2"
)
// Delimiter.
var delim = []byte("---")
// Unmarshal parses YAML frontmatter and returns the content. When no
// frontmatter delimiters are present the original content is returned.
func Unmarshal(b []byte, v interface{}) (content []byte, err error) {
if !bytes.HasPrefix(b, delim) {
return b, nil
}
parts := bytes.SplitN(b, delim, 3)
content = parts[2]
err = yaml.Unmarshal(parts[1], v)
return
}

View File

@ -0,0 +1,42 @@
package front_test
import (
"fmt"
"log"
"christine.website/cmd/site/internal/front"
)
var markdown = []byte(`---
title: Ferrets
authors:
- Tobi
- Loki
- Jane
---
Some content here, so
interesting, you just
want to keep reading.`)
type article struct {
Title string
Authors []string
}
func Example() {
var a article
content, err := front.Unmarshal(markdown, &a)
if err != nil {
log.Fatalf("error unmarshalling: %s", err)
}
fmt.Printf("%#v\n", a)
fmt.Printf("%s\n", string(content))
// Output:
// front_test.article{Title:"Ferrets", Authors:[]string{"Tobi", "Loki", "Jane"}}
//
// Some content here, so
// interesting, you just
// want to keep reading.
}

14
cmd/site/internal/hash.go Normal file
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@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
package internal
import (
"crypto/md5"
"fmt"
)
// Hash is a simple wrapper around the MD5 algorithm implementation in the
// Go standard library. It takes in data and a salt and returns the hashed
// representation.
func Hash(data string, salt string) string {
output := md5.Sum([]byte(data + salt))
return fmt.Sprintf("%x", output)
}

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@ -0,0 +1,43 @@
package middleware
import (
"net/http"
"github.com/prometheus/client_golang/prometheus"
"github.com/prometheus/client_golang/prometheus/promhttp"
)
var (
requestCounter = prometheus.NewCounterVec(
prometheus.CounterOpts{
Name: "handler_requests_total",
Help: "Total number of request/responses by HTTP status code.",
}, []string{"handler", "code"})
requestDuration = prometheus.NewHistogramVec(prometheus.HistogramOpts{
Name: "handler_request_duration",
Help: "Handler request duration.",
}, []string{"handler", "method"})
requestInFlight = prometheus.NewGaugeVec(prometheus.GaugeOpts{
Name: "handler_requests_in_flight",
Help: "Current number of requests being served.",
}, []string{"handler"})
)
func init() {
_ = prometheus.Register(requestCounter)
_ = prometheus.Register(requestDuration)
_ = prometheus.Register(requestInFlight)
}
// Metrics captures request duration, request count and in-flight request count
// metrics for HTTP handlers. The family field is used to discriminate handlers.
func Metrics(family string, next http.Handler) http.Handler {
return promhttp.InstrumentHandlerDuration(
requestDuration.MustCurryWith(prometheus.Labels{"handler": family}),
promhttp.InstrumentHandlerCounter(requestCounter.MustCurryWith(prometheus.Labels{"handler": family}),
promhttp.InstrumentHandlerInFlight(requestInFlight.With(prometheus.Labels{"handler": family}), next),
),
)
}

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@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
package middleware
import (
"net/http"
"github.com/celrenheit/sandflake"
"within.website/ln"
)
// RequestID appends a unique (sandflake) request ID to each request's
// X-Request-Id header field, much like Heroku's router does.
func RequestID(next http.Handler) http.Handler {
var g sandflake.Generator
return http.HandlerFunc(func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
id := g.Next().String()
if rid := r.Header.Get("X-Request-Id"); rid != "" {
id = rid + "," + id
}
ctx := ln.WithF(r.Context(), ln.F{
"request_id": id,
})
r = r.WithContext(ctx)
w.Header().Set("X-Request-Id", id)
r.Header.Set("X-Request-Id", id)
next.ServeHTTP(w, r)
})
}

295
cmd/site/main.go Normal file
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@ -0,0 +1,295 @@
package main
import (
"context"
"html/template"
"io/ioutil"
"net/http"
"os"
"sort"
"strings"
"time"
"christine.website/cmd/site/internal/blog"
"christine.website/cmd/site/internal/middleware"
"christine.website/jsonfeed"
"github.com/gorilla/feeds"
_ "github.com/joho/godotenv/autoload"
"github.com/povilasv/prommod"
"github.com/prometheus/client_golang/prometheus"
"github.com/prometheus/client_golang/prometheus/promhttp"
blackfriday "github.com/russross/blackfriday"
"github.com/sebest/xff"
"github.com/snabb/sitemap"
"within.website/ln"
"within.website/ln/ex"
"within.website/ln/opname"
)
var port = os.Getenv("PORT")
func main() {
if port == "" {
port = "29384"
}
ctx := ln.WithF(opname.With(context.Background(), "main"), ln.F{
"port": port,
"git_rev": gitRev,
})
_ = prometheus.Register(prommod.NewCollector("christine"))
s, err := Build()
if err != nil {
ln.FatalErr(ctx, err, ln.Action("Build"))
}
mux := http.NewServeMux()
mux.HandleFunc("/.within/health", func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
http.Error(w, "OK", http.StatusOK)
})
mux.Handle("/", s)
ln.Log(ctx, ln.Action("http_listening"))
ln.FatalErr(ctx, http.ListenAndServe(":"+port, mux))
}
// Site is the parent object for https://christine.website's backend.
type Site struct {
Posts blog.Posts
Talks blog.Posts
Gallery blog.Posts
Resume template.HTML
Series []string
SignalBoost []Person
clacks ClackSet
patrons []string
rssFeed *feeds.Feed
jsonFeed *jsonfeed.Feed
mux *http.ServeMux
xffmw *xff.XFF
}
var gitRev = os.Getenv("GIT_REV")
func envOr(key, or string) string {
if result, ok := os.LookupEnv(key); ok {
return result
}
return or
}
func (s *Site) ServeHTTP(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
ctx := opname.With(r.Context(), "site.ServeHTTP")
ctx = ln.WithF(ctx, ln.F{
"user_agent": r.Header.Get("User-Agent"),
})
r = r.WithContext(ctx)
if gitRev != "" {
w.Header().Add("X-Git-Rev", gitRev)
}
w.Header().Add("X-Hacker", "If you are reading this, check out /signalboost to find people for your team")
s.clacks.Middleware(
middleware.RequestID(
s.xffmw.Handler(
ex.HTTPLog(s.mux),
),
),
).ServeHTTP(w, r)
}
var arbDate = time.Date(2020, time.May, 21, 0, 0, 0, 0, time.UTC)
// Build creates a new Site instance or fails.
func Build() (*Site, error) {
pc, err := NewPatreonClient()
if err != nil {
return nil, err
}
pledges, err := GetPledges(pc)
if err != nil {
return nil, err
}
people, err := loadPeople("./signalboost.dhall")
if err != nil {
return nil, err
}
smi := sitemap.New()
smi.Add(&sitemap.URL{
Loc: "https://christine.website/resume",
LastMod: &arbDate,
ChangeFreq: sitemap.Monthly,
})
smi.Add(&sitemap.URL{
Loc: "https://christine.website/contact",
LastMod: &arbDate,
ChangeFreq: sitemap.Monthly,
})
smi.Add(&sitemap.URL{
Loc: "https://christine.website/",
LastMod: &arbDate,
ChangeFreq: sitemap.Monthly,
})
smi.Add(&sitemap.URL{
Loc: "https://christine.website/patrons",
LastMod: &arbDate,
ChangeFreq: sitemap.Weekly,
})
smi.Add(&sitemap.URL{
Loc: "https://christine.website/blog",
LastMod: &arbDate,
ChangeFreq: sitemap.Weekly,
})
xffmw, err := xff.Default()
if err != nil {
return nil, err
}
s := &Site{
rssFeed: &feeds.Feed{
Title: "Christine Dodrill's Blog",
Link: &feeds.Link{Href: "https://christine.website/blog"},
Description: "My blog posts and rants about various technology things.",
Author: &feeds.Author{Name: "Christine Dodrill", Email: "me@christine.website"},
Created: bootTime,
Copyright: "This work is copyright Christine Dodrill. My viewpoints are my own and not the view of any employer past, current or future.",
},
jsonFeed: &jsonfeed.Feed{
Version: jsonfeed.CurrentVersion,
Title: "Christine Dodrill's Blog",
HomePageURL: "https://christine.website",
FeedURL: "https://christine.website/blog.json",
Description: "My blog posts and rants about various technology things.",
UserComment: "This is a JSON feed of my blogposts. For more information read: https://jsonfeed.org/version/1",
Icon: icon,
Favicon: icon,
Author: jsonfeed.Author{
Name: "Christine Dodrill",
Avatar: icon,
},
},
mux: http.NewServeMux(),
xffmw: xffmw,
clacks: ClackSet(strings.Split(envOr("CLACK_SET", "Ashlynn"), ",")),
patrons: pledges,
SignalBoost: people,
}
posts, err := blog.LoadPosts("./blog/", "blog")
if err != nil {
return nil, err
}
s.Posts = posts
s.Series = posts.Series()
sort.Strings(s.Series)
talks, err := blog.LoadPosts("./talks", "talks")
if err != nil {
return nil, err
}
s.Talks = talks
gallery, err := blog.LoadPosts("./gallery", "gallery")
if err != nil {
return nil, err
}
s.Gallery = gallery
var everything blog.Posts
everything = append(everything, posts...)
everything = append(everything, talks...)
everything = append(everything, gallery...)
sort.Sort(sort.Reverse(everything))
resumeData, err := ioutil.ReadFile("./static/resume/resume.md")
if err != nil {
return nil, err
}
s.Resume = template.HTML(blackfriday.Run(resumeData))
for _, item := range everything {
s.rssFeed.Items = append(s.rssFeed.Items, &feeds.Item{
Title: item.Title,
Link: &feeds.Link{Href: "https://christine.website/" + item.Link},
Description: item.Summary,
Created: item.Date,
Content: string(item.BodyHTML),
})
s.jsonFeed.Items = append(s.jsonFeed.Items, jsonfeed.Item{
ID: "https://christine.website/" + item.Link,
URL: "https://christine.website/" + item.Link,
Title: item.Title,
DatePublished: item.Date,
ContentHTML: string(item.BodyHTML),
Tags: item.Tags,
})
smi.Add(&sitemap.URL{
Loc: "https://christine.website/" + item.Link,
LastMod: &item.Date,
ChangeFreq: sitemap.Monthly,
})
}
// Add HTTP routes here
s.mux.HandleFunc("/", func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
if r.URL.Path != "/" {
w.WriteHeader(http.StatusNotFound)
s.renderTemplatePage("error.html", "can't find "+r.URL.Path).ServeHTTP(w, r)
return
}
s.renderTemplatePage("index.html", nil).ServeHTTP(w, r)
})
s.mux.Handle("/metrics", promhttp.Handler())
s.mux.Handle("/patrons", middleware.Metrics("patrons", s.renderTemplatePage("patrons.html", s.patrons)))
s.mux.Handle("/signalboost", middleware.Metrics("signalboost", s.renderTemplatePage("signalboost.html", s.SignalBoost)))
s.mux.Handle("/resume", middleware.Metrics("resume", s.renderTemplatePage("resume.html", s.Resume)))
s.mux.Handle("/blog", middleware.Metrics("blog", s.renderTemplatePage("blogindex.html", s.Posts)))
s.mux.Handle("/talks", middleware.Metrics("talks", s.renderTemplatePage("talkindex.html", s.Talks)))
s.mux.Handle("/gallery", middleware.Metrics("gallery", s.renderTemplatePage("galleryindex.html", s.Gallery)))
s.mux.Handle("/contact", middleware.Metrics("contact", s.renderTemplatePage("contact.html", nil)))
s.mux.Handle("/blog.rss", middleware.Metrics("blog.rss", http.HandlerFunc(s.createFeed)))
s.mux.Handle("/blog.atom", middleware.Metrics("blog.atom", http.HandlerFunc(s.createAtom)))
s.mux.Handle("/blog.json", middleware.Metrics("blog.json", http.HandlerFunc(s.createJSONFeed)))
s.mux.Handle("/blog/", middleware.Metrics("blogpost", http.HandlerFunc(s.showPost)))
s.mux.Handle("/blog/series", http.HandlerFunc(s.listSeries))
s.mux.Handle("/blog/series/", http.HandlerFunc(s.showSeries))
s.mux.Handle("/talks/", middleware.Metrics("talks", http.HandlerFunc(s.showTalk)))
s.mux.Handle("/gallery/", middleware.Metrics("gallery", http.HandlerFunc(s.showGallery)))
s.mux.Handle("/css/", http.FileServer(http.Dir(".")))
s.mux.Handle("/static/", http.FileServer(http.Dir(".")))
s.mux.HandleFunc("/sw.js", func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
http.ServeFile(w, r, "./static/js/sw.js")
})
s.mux.HandleFunc("/robots.txt", func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
http.ServeFile(w, r, "./static/robots.txt")
})
s.mux.Handle("/sitemap.xml", middleware.Metrics("sitemap", http.HandlerFunc(func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
w.Header().Set("Content-Type", "application/xml")
_, _ = smi.WriteTo(w)
})))
s.mux.HandleFunc("/api/pageview-timer", handlePageViewTimer)
return s, nil
}
const icon = "https://christine.website/static/img/avatar.png"

53
cmd/site/pageview.go Normal file
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@ -0,0 +1,53 @@
package main
import (
"encoding/json"
"io/ioutil"
"net/http"
"time"
"github.com/prometheus/client_golang/prometheus"
"within.website/ln"
)
var (
readTimes = prometheus.NewHistogramVec(prometheus.HistogramOpts{
Name: "blogpage_read_times",
Help: "This tracks how much time people spend reading articles on my blog",
}, []string{"path"})
)
func init() {
_ = prometheus.Register(readTimes)
}
func handlePageViewTimer(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
if r.Header.Get("DNT") == "1" {
http.NotFound(w, r)
return
}
data, err := ioutil.ReadAll(r.Body)
if err != nil {
ln.Error(r.Context(), err, ln.Info("while reading data"))
http.Error(w, "oopsie whoopsie uwu", http.StatusInternalServerError)
return
}
r.Body.Close()
type metricsData struct {
Path string `json:"path"`
StartTime time.Time `json:"start_time"`
EndTime time.Time `json:"end_time"`
}
var md metricsData
err = json.Unmarshal(data, &md)
if err != nil {
http.NotFound(w, r)
return
}
diff := md.EndTime.Sub(md.StartTime).Seconds()
readTimes.WithLabelValues(md.Path).Observe(float64(diff))
}

112
cmd/site/patreon.go Normal file
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@ -0,0 +1,112 @@
package main
import (
"context"
"fmt"
"net/http"
"os"
"sort"
"time"
"github.com/mxpv/patreon-go"
"golang.org/x/oauth2"
"within.website/ln"
)
func NewPatreonClient() (*patreon.Client, error) {
for _, name := range []string{"CLIENT_ID", "CLIENT_SECRET", "ACCESS_TOKEN", "REFRESH_TOKEN"} {
if os.Getenv("PATREON_"+name) == "" {
return nil, fmt.Errorf("wanted envvar PATREON_%s", name)
}
}
config := oauth2.Config{
ClientID: os.Getenv("PATREON_CLIENT_ID"),
ClientSecret: os.Getenv("PATREON_CLIENT_SECRET"),
Endpoint: oauth2.Endpoint{
AuthURL: patreon.AuthorizationURL,
TokenURL: patreon.AccessTokenURL,
},
Scopes: []string{"users", "campaigns", "pledges", "pledges-to-me", "my-campaign"},
}
token := oauth2.Token{
AccessToken: os.Getenv("PATREON_ACCESS_TOKEN"),
RefreshToken: os.Getenv("PATREON_REFRESH_TOKEN"),
// Must be non-nil, otherwise token will not be expired
Expiry: time.Now().Add(90 * 24 * time.Hour),
}
tc := config.Client(context.Background(), &token)
trans := tc.Transport
tc.Transport = lnLoggingTransport{next: trans}
client := patreon.NewClient(tc)
return client, nil
}
func GetPledges(pc *patreon.Client) ([]string, error) {
campaign, err := pc.FetchCampaign()
if err != nil {
return nil, fmt.Errorf("campaign fetch error: %w", err)
}
campaignID := campaign.Data[0].ID
cursor := ""
var result []string
for {
pledgesResponse, err := pc.FetchPledges(campaignID, patreon.WithPageSize(25), patreon.WithCursor(cursor))
if err != nil {
return nil, err
}
users := make(map[string]*patreon.User)
for _, item := range pledgesResponse.Included.Items {
u, ok := item.(*patreon.User)
if !ok {
continue
}
users[u.ID] = u
}
for _, pledge := range pledgesResponse.Data {
pid := pledge.Relationships.Patron.Data.ID
patronFullName := users[pid].Attributes.FullName
result = append(result, patronFullName)
}
cursor = pledgesResponse.Links.Next
if cursor == "" {
break
}
}
sort.Strings(result)
return result, nil
}
type lnLoggingTransport struct{ next http.RoundTripper }
func (l lnLoggingTransport) RoundTrip(r *http.Request) (*http.Response, error) {
ctx := r.Context()
f := ln.F{
"url": r.URL.String(),
"has_token": r.Header.Get("Authorization") != "",
}
resp, err := l.next.RoundTrip(r)
if err != nil {
return nil, err
}
f["status"] = resp.Status
ln.Log(ctx, f)
return resp, nil
}

91
cmd/site/rss.go Normal file
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@ -0,0 +1,91 @@
package main
import (
"encoding/json"
"net/http"
"time"
"christine.website/cmd/site/internal"
"within.website/ln"
"within.website/ln/opname"
)
var bootTime = time.Now()
var etag = internal.Hash(bootTime.String(), IncrediblySecureSalt)
// IncrediblySecureSalt *******
const IncrediblySecureSalt = "hunter2"
func (s *Site) createFeed(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
ctx := opname.With(r.Context(), "rss-feed")
fetag := "W/" + internal.Hash(bootTime.String(), IncrediblySecureSalt)
w.Header().Set("ETag", fetag)
if r.Header.Get("If-None-Match") == fetag {
http.Error(w, "Cached data OK", http.StatusNotModified)
ln.Log(ctx, ln.Info("cache hit"))
return
}
w.Header().Set("Content-Type", "application/rss+xml")
err := s.rssFeed.WriteRss(w)
if err != nil {
http.Error(w, "Internal server error", http.StatusInternalServerError)
ln.Error(r.Context(), err, ln.F{
"remote_addr": r.RemoteAddr,
"action": "generating_rss",
"uri": r.RequestURI,
"host": r.Host,
})
}
}
func (s *Site) createAtom(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
ctx := opname.With(r.Context(), "atom-feed")
fetag := "W/" + internal.Hash(bootTime.String(), IncrediblySecureSalt)
w.Header().Set("ETag", fetag)
if r.Header.Get("If-None-Match") == fetag {
http.Error(w, "Cached data OK", http.StatusNotModified)
ln.Log(ctx, ln.Info("cache hit"))
return
}
w.Header().Set("Content-Type", "application/atom+xml")
err := s.rssFeed.WriteAtom(w)
if err != nil {
http.Error(w, "Internal server error", http.StatusInternalServerError)
ln.Error(ctx, err, ln.F{
"remote_addr": r.RemoteAddr,
"action": "generating_atom",
"uri": r.RequestURI,
"host": r.Host,
})
}
}
func (s *Site) createJSONFeed(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
ctx := opname.With(r.Context(), "atom-feed")
fetag := "W/" + internal.Hash(bootTime.String(), IncrediblySecureSalt)
w.Header().Set("ETag", fetag)
if r.Header.Get("If-None-Match") == fetag {
http.Error(w, "Cached data OK", http.StatusNotModified)
ln.Log(ctx, ln.Info("cache hit"))
return
}
w.Header().Set("Content-Type", "application/json")
e := json.NewEncoder(w)
e.SetIndent("", "\t")
err := e.Encode(s.jsonFeed)
if err != nil {
http.Error(w, "Internal server error", http.StatusInternalServerError)
ln.Error(ctx, err, ln.F{
"remote_addr": r.RemoteAddr,
"action": "generating_jsonfeed",
"uri": r.RequestURI,
"host": r.Host,
})
}
}

29
cmd/site/signalboost.go Normal file
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@ -0,0 +1,29 @@
package main
import (
"io/ioutil"
"github.com/philandstuff/dhall-golang"
)
type Person struct {
Name string `dhall:"name"`
GitLink string `dhall:"gitLink"`
Twitter string `dhall:"twitter"`
Tags []string `dhall:"tags"`
}
func loadPeople(path string) ([]Person, error) {
data, err := ioutil.ReadFile(path)
if err != nil {
return nil, err
}
var people []Person
err = dhall.Unmarshal(data, &people)
if err != nil {
return nil, err
}
return people, nil
}

View File

@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
package main
import "testing"
func TestLoadPeople(t *testing.T) {
people, err := loadPeople("../../signalboost.dhall")
if err != nil {t.Fatal(err)}
for _, person := range people {
t.Run(person.Name, func(t *testing.T) {
if person.Name == "" {
t.Error("missing name")
}
if len(person.Tags) == 0 {
t.Error("missing tags")
}
if person.Twitter == "" {
t.Error("missing twitter")
}
if person.GitLink == "" {
t.Error("missing git link")
}
})
}
}

View File

@ -1,35 +0,0 @@
let Person =
{ Type = { name : Text, tags : List Text, gitLink : Text, twitter : Text }
, default =
{ name = "", tags = [] : List Text, gitLink = "", twitter = "" }
}
let defaultPort = env:PORT ? 3030
let defaultWebMentionEndpoint =
env:WEBMENTION_ENDPOINT
? "https://mi.within.website/api/webmention/accept"
let Config =
{ Type =
{ signalboost : List Person.Type
, port : Natural
, clackSet : List Text
, resumeFname : Text
, webMentionEndpoint : Text
, miToken : Text
}
, default =
{ signalboost = [] : List Person.Type
, port = defaultPort
, clackSet = [ "Ashlynn" ]
, resumeFname = "./static/resume/resume.md"
, webMentionEndpoint = defaultWebMentionEndpoint
, miToken = "${env:MI_TOKEN as Text ? ""}"
}
}
in Config::{
, signalboost = ./signalboost.dhall
, clackSet = [ "Ashlynn", "Terry Davis", "Dennis Ritchie" ]
}

View File

@ -218,7 +218,7 @@ a:hover {
overflow: hidden;
}
.hack h1:after {
content: "===============================================================================================================================================================";
content: "====================================================================================================";
position: absolute;
bottom: 10px;
left: 0;
@ -297,7 +297,7 @@ a:hover {
}
.hack pre code:after,
.hack pre code:before {
display: none;
content: "";
}
.hack code {
font-weight: 700;
@ -315,7 +315,7 @@ a:hover {
margin: 20px 0;
}
.hack hr:after {
content: "---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------";
content: "----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------";
position: absolute;
top: 0;
left: 0;
@ -789,12 +789,3 @@ select.form-control {
width: 100%;
}
}
.signalboost > .cell {
padding-right: 1rem;
padding-bottom: 2rem;
}
.signalboost > .cell > p {
margin-top: 0.5rem;
margin-bottom: 0.5rem;
}

View File

@ -1,30 +0,0 @@
.main {
padding: 20px 10px;
}
.hack h1 {
padding-top: 0;
}
footer.footer {
border-top: 1px solid #ccc;
margin-top: 80px;
margin-top: 5rem;
padding: 48px 0;
padding: 3rem 0;
}
img {
max-width: 100%;
padding: 1em;
}
.conversation {
display: flex;
}
.conversation-picture {
flex: 1;
min-width: 9rem;
max-width: calc(((70rem - 2rem)/6));
}

View File

@ -19,7 +19,7 @@
padding: 1em;
}
/* @keyframes snow { */
/* 0% {background-position: 0px 0px, 0px 0px, 0px 0px;} */
/* 100% {background-position: 500px 1000px, 400px 400px, 300px 300px} */
/* } */
@keyframes snow {
0% {background-position: 0px 0px, 0px 0px, 0px 0px;}
100% {background-position: 500px 1000px, 400px 400px, 300px 300px}
}

View File

@ -1,57 +1,6 @@
{ sources ? import ./nix/sources.nix, pkgs ? import sources.nixpkgs { } }:
with pkgs;
{ }:
let
rust = pkgs.callPackage ./nix/rust.nix { };
srcNoTarget = dir:
builtins.filterSource
(path: type: type != "directory" || builtins.baseNameOf path != "target")
dir;
naersk = pkgs.callPackage sources.naersk {
rustc = rust;
cargo = rust;
};
dhallpkgs = import sources.easy-dhall-nix { inherit pkgs; };
src = srcNoTarget ./.;
xesite = naersk.buildPackage {
inherit src;
doCheck = true;
buildInputs = [ pkg-config openssl git ];
remapPathPrefix = true;
};
config = stdenv.mkDerivation {
pname = "xesite-config";
version = "HEAD";
buildInputs = [ dhallpkgs.dhall-simple ];
phases = "installPhase";
installPhase = ''
cd ${src}
dhall resolve < ${src}/config.dhall >> $out
'';
};
in pkgs.stdenv.mkDerivation {
inherit (xesite) name;
inherit src;
phases = "installPhase";
installPhase = ''
mkdir -p $out $out/bin
cp -rf ${config} $out/config.dhall
cp -rf $src/blog $out/blog
cp -rf $src/css $out/css
cp -rf $src/gallery $out/gallery
cp -rf $src/signalboost.dhall $out/signalboost.dhall
cp -rf $src/static $out/static
cp -rf $src/talks $out/talks
cp -rf ${xesite}/bin/xesite $out/bin/xesite
'';
}
sources = import ./nix/sources.nix;
pkgs = import sources.nixpkgs { };
in pkgs.callPackage ./site.nix { inherit pkgs; }

21
docker.nix Normal file
View File

@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
{ system ? builtins.currentSystem }:
let
pkgs = import (import ./nix/sources.nix).nixpkgs { inherit system; };
callPackage = pkgs.lib.callPackageWith pkgs;
site = callPackage ./site.nix { };
dockerImage = pkg:
pkgs.dockerTools.buildLayeredImage {
name = "xena/christinewebsite";
tag = pkg.version;
contents = [ pkg pkgs.cacert ];
config = {
Cmd = [ "/bin/site" ];
WorkingDir = "/";
};
};
in dockerImage site

View File

@ -1,27 +0,0 @@
use eyre::Result;
use serde::{Deserialize, Serialize};
#[derive(Clone, Debug, Deserialize, Serialize)]
pub struct Author {
pub id: i32,
pub name: String,
}
#[derive(Clone, Debug, Deserialize, Serialize)]
pub struct Comment {
pub id: i32,
pub author: Author,
pub body: String,
pub in_reply_to: i32,
}
#[tokio::main]
async fn main() -> Result<()> {
let c: Comment = reqwest::get("https://xena.greedo.xeserv.us/files/comment.json")
.await?
.json()
.await?;
println!("comment: {:#?}", c);
Ok(())
}

View File

@ -1,28 +0,0 @@
use eyre::Result;
use serde::{Deserialize, Serialize};
#[derive(Clone, Debug, Deserialize, Serialize)]
pub struct Author {
pub id: i32,
pub name: String,
}
#[derive(Clone, Debug, Deserialize, Serialize)]
pub struct Comment {
pub id: i32,
pub author: Author,
pub body: String,
pub in_reply_to: i32,
}
#[tokio::main]
async fn main() -> Result<()> {
let c: Comment = reqwest::get("https://xena.greedo.xeserv.us/files/comment2.json")
.await?
.error_for_status()?
.json()
.await?;
println!("comment: {:#?}", c);
Ok(())
}

View File

@ -1,32 +0,0 @@
use serde::{Deserialize, Serialize};
#[derive(Clone, Debug, Deserialize, Serialize)]
pub struct Author {
pub id: i32,
pub name: String,
}
#[derive(Clone, Debug, Deserialize, Serialize)]
pub struct Comment {
pub id: i32,
pub author: Author,
pub body: String,
pub in_reply_to: i32,
}
fn main() {
let data = r#"
{
"id": 31337,
"author": {
"id": 420,
"name": "Cadey"
},
"body": "hahaha its is an laughter image",
"in_reply_to": 31335
}
"#;
let c: Comment = serde_json::from_str(data).expect("json to parse");
println!("comment: {:#?}", c);
}

View File

@ -1,11 +0,0 @@
use log::{debug, error, info, trace, warn};
fn main() {
pretty_env_logger::init();
trace!("starting main");
debug!("debug message");
info!("this is some information");
warn!("oh no something bad is about to happen");
error!("oh no it's an error");
}

View File

@ -1,14 +0,0 @@
use warp::Filter;
#[tokio::main]
async fn main() {
let hello = warp::path!("hello" / String)
.map(|name| format!("Hello, {}!", name));
let health = warp::path!(".within" / "health")
.map(|| "OK");
let routes = hello.or(health);
warp::serve(routes)
.run(([0, 0, 0, 0], 3030))
.await;
}

View File

@ -1,14 +0,0 @@
---
title: Fairly Odd Orca
date: 2020-06-15
tags:
- furry
- orca
- raster
- oddparents
image: /static/art/Fairly_Odd_Orca.png
thumb: /static/art/Fairly_Odd_Orca_tn.jpg
---
Made in Drawpile with an iPad Pro connected as a display to a MacBook. I can
upload the .ora file on request.

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