Cruft

June 28th, 2023

In Rasbian 11, you use dhcpcd (note the extra ‘c’ in that name). You add hooks, scripts that run after the dhcp client runs. If you read the man pages for dhcpcd, you’ll find that the hooks are located in /lib/dhcpcd/dhcpcd-hooks/. You’ll find files that start with numbers which defines the execution order woth low numbers being executed first. I added my ‘route add’ command to a file I called 70-routeadd and rebooted. Magic.

Try searching on how to add a persistent route to Raspbian 11 and you’re 99% likely to find old, wrong answers. The reason is there are several ways, some no longer really supported, to manage networking. The venerable interfaces method is deprecated, as near as I can tell, but you can still find the configuration structure and services in a brand new default installation. Network configuration has moved to DHCP even for static addresses.

There is the dhclient set of utilities, configuration files, and the service daemon for it. It won’t work either and I have no idea why its installed. I stumbled across the dhcpcd daemon looking at a list of services and finally decided its something different from dhclient. After reading the man pages, I figured it was a shot in the dark and followed it and Voila! Success.

Tl:Dr white list email addresses and domains in the From line in Gmail filters using curly braces like {gmail.com,other domain,other domain,email address}

It’s 2016 and there is no way in Gmail to easily define a list of authorized or white listed email addresses. A few days ago some shithead decided to sign me up for several hundred subscriptions using a bot. I got hammered on day 1with over 500 and it’s trickled off but the problem remains but I’m down to less than 10 a day now.

To Gmail, or any mail system, these look like legitimate emails. The shithead is using open registration forms to sign my account up for services which in turn  send me the emails, so the headers look OK and most will pass Gmail’s various anti-SPAM measures.

The Gmail folks contacted me on Twitter and suggested that a Lab tool called Authentication icon for Verified Senders, which I already had enabled, but that doesn’t help because I still get the email in my Inbox.

I make extensive use of GMail’s filters to label and sort incoming email. It’s a simple but effective way to manage my inbox. I tried, but did not like, Google’s Inbox to automate my email.

What I want is a “trusted email” list that comes from those people who are in my contacts list OR I have interacted with in the past. Should be a pretty straight forward feature to implement. Microsoft has in Outlook.com and Twitter has a similar feature showing only replies from accounts you follow.

So, faced with this limitation, I Googled for an answer and come across a few blogs (I can’t find the source I used otherwise I’d credit it properly) that used curly braces such as {} to create groups. For example, in the From line of filters, I’d add {gmail.com,other domain,other domain,email address} etc. You can even add Circles as in ‘circle:friends’ but I haven’t tested that yet. Then, for a rule action, I froward the email to another account.

I fly often enough that committing to one airline has benefit for me like getting, better seating and smaller lines. Usually those benefits confer to your traveling companion flying on the same ticket which in my case is  my wife. However, Delta has been reducing benefits (the Points Guy has a list, see paragraph 2) and Miles Cards lists a few other changes for 2016. Frankly, its insulting to customers who commit repeat business to a company. Noteably, the site One Mile At A Time has a summarization of the changes to Delta’s Comfort+.  Ive already noted a customer service issue where benefits weren’t available to my wife.

I've finally had it. Early in 2016, the company started making getting Comfort+ a hassle for Medallion flyers. Where I used to be able to select a Comfort+ seat prior to 2016, all of a sudden, I now had to "Opt-In" for Comfort+ for each reservation. The problem for me, and I bet a lot of other business travellers, is that when we travel on business, someone else books our flights. If that person doesn't opt us in, then the only course is to call Delta and request the benefit. You know, the benefit we get as part of being, in my case, Platinum Medallion. Delta finally heard enough complaints that they added an option to your profile to automatically Opt-In which we then had to go enable. And only if you knew to ask about it.

Really, Delta, Opt-in couldn't have been enabled by default? I think Delta is hoping Medallion flyers don't take the benefit so they can sell the upgrade because why would Delta want to reward repeat flyers?

The next insult is that companion flyers no longer have the same benefits. That little nugget is buried 3 clicks deep on its Medallion Benefits site.

Click the link for Medallion Benefits. Scroll down to "Unlimited Complimentary Companion First Class and Delta Comfort+ Upgrades" See those blue checks? Looks like companions get Medallion benefits, right? Nope, Wrong.

Click the blue text to see the exact policies. Scroll down to "Unlimited Complimentary Delta Comfort+ Upgrades" and

Click again to see the Policy. Now scroll down to the heading "COMPANION ACCESS" for the language. You'll see "Companion upgrades must be requested. You can request your companion upgrade at delta.com, by calling Reservations, or at the airport. You and a traveling companion may both enjoy Delta Comfort+ when traveling on Delta and certain Delta Connection carriers." [emphasis, mine] Oh, so companions get upgraded? No, silly reader.

Read on. "TRAVELING WITH ONE COMPANION: You will both be eligible for a Delta Comfort+ upgrade as long as the companion is a SkyMiles member. The upgrade window for both members is based on the member with the lowest tier." [emphasis, mine]

That's right. This benefit, now called an upgrade, is based on the lowest tier flyer. My wife doesn't fly much but so she doesn't have status, but I do. Or I thought I did. Screw Medallion customers!

Oh, apparently, Delta claims it will change that lowest tier policy in the summer of 2016, but I don't believe it. I suspect, but I don't know, that it is experimenting with these changes to see the impact of this shitty policy and if the change doesn't hurt too much business, it won't change.

Ok, #Microsoft. I’ll “click for more details.”

*Click*

tl:dr, Take away every perk possible. Make the remainder hard to get.

The benefits of flying with  Delta--of being a loyal customer--are eroding. The Points Guy has a list. What does remain is unnecessarily to claim. Most recently I found out that to upgrade to Comfort+, a perk that is available to Platinum Medallion, I have to actually request the upgrade manually. 

Presumably, if I book a flight myself with my account, that it should be an option and perhaps a default but for work, we have an agent do the booking. That means I’ll be calling Delta every time I book a flight, like I did today. That’s a change not for the better. In the past, my travel was booked and then I could select my seats in Comfort+ I guess that doing so now has become a hassle. But it gets better. 

My wife decides she wants to go on one of my trips. As a Medallion flyer, my benefits apply to her when we travel together. Great! I booked a ticket but she doesn’t share my benefits. What? My company books my flights for me, if my wife wants to go on a trip with me, we have to book her separately. One trip, two reservations, exact same itinerary. For Delta, this is such a foreign concept that there is no way that I can add her to my benefits for a flight we are both taking as if we booked together. If we were both booked on the same reservation, no problem, but with separate reservations, no dice.

WTF?

Fine, whatever. It’s clear I’m not going to succeed against this insanity. So I go back to the website to move myself to coach so that I can sit next to my wife, but I can’t. Great. I call back and get some overly perky CSR who is shocked that I want to give up Comfort+ and, I’m paraphrasing, 

“No one does that Mr. Fratto but a few clicks of the keys and it’s done. Is that better now? You see this is a new product and your wife is a regular flyer and sometimes its hard to tell friends an family they have to pay a higher fare for Comfort+ but this is a new product ...”

Here I am in Paris. I’ve been here a few days. I’ve been using a Twitter client while on Wi-Fi from Paris. Thankfully it was already logged in. I didn’t even think about it. Then, I tried to log-in with the Tweetdeck application and I get hit with a suspicious activity alert!

Looks scary, right? OMIGOD SOMEONE IS TRYING TO HAXOR MY TWITTER!

No, just me trying to login from Paris. Ya know the same fricking place I’ve been Tweeting from for the last two damn days!

Maybe I don’t have to worry about Twitter following my every move. Ya know, they can’t put 2+2 together. If I’m Tweeting from Paris and trying to login from Paris, maybe I really am in Paris. Or someone stole my phone and smuggled it to Paris.

Twitter’s 10Q ending Sept 31st, 2015 shows that for the quarter Twitter made $512,867 million in revenue for the quarter from 320 million Monthly Average Users (Twitter’s estimate of actual users minus bots and sock puppets). Twitter demotes engagement with an ad as something like retweeting, liking, responding, or otherwise interacting with sponsored content so the revenue generation is only from a subset of the Twitter population because not all Twitter’s users interact with promoted content. I don’t, for example.

So the math (quarterly revenue / MAU) = Revenue Per User Per Quarter. Divide by 3 gives Revenue per User Per Month. That works out to ($512,867mm / 320 mm) / 3 = ~$0.53 per user per month in ad revenue. Now, I spent about 5 minutes in the 10Q and thinking about this, so I may be very wrong here. But at first blush, seems right. Again, this assumes all users interact with ads and that isn’t true at all, some users generate more revenue for Twitter by interacting with ads while others, like me, don’t.

Now, if Twitter were to charge a monthly subscription for the service, anything over $1.60 would be additional revenue not including the costs to set-up a subscription system or pay processing fees, but I imagine that’s small potatoes overall. In addition, Twitter might capture revenue from users who they currently don’t directly capture revenue from. In theory, since I am a MAU, Twitter can count me as one of 320 mm users when courting advertisers, so there is some benefit to me being MAU even though I don’t interact with ads. I don’t know about that valuation so I focus on direct generation through interaction.

Now my gut tells me that Twitter could charge up to $2 per month as a, optional subscription fee and generate triple the monthly revenue for some slice of their user population that they aren’t currently generating revenue from and they could increase revenue from users that do interact with ads. Over $2.00 a month and I think the pricing gets into the pause territory. “$24 a year? For Twitter? Facebook is free!“ some people will think. I’m not a pricing expert, so I could be wrong.

Twitter could offer a few things:

A free, ad supported service like they have now.

An optional subscription service that removes ads and promoted content from the timeline

An optional subscription service where users can, at their discretion, perhaps by brand, even, enable ads and promoted content (Bonus! Subscription and Ad revenue)

Everyone one wins. Twitter gets new revenue streams. Users get more control over their experience (if enough people leave, Twitter becomes less interactive overall which is less interesting which becomes less interactive).

I don’t know why they haven’t explored subscriptions more deeply. For the right price, I’d do it.

One last thing, Twitter, you really need to consider giving users options. Don’t force changes to the experience. make them options. Let your users decide how they want to interact on Twitter.

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About once a year a news story comes out how employers monitoring employees communications on phones, email, web, whatever. There's also a predictable backlash about the invasion of privacy, mistrust, and so on. Privacy advocates claim your communications should be sacrosanct no matter what. Employers beg to differ. In an ideal world, employees would act responsibly and not put their employers at risk (for example, initiating a "sexualy charged workplace" because someone is viewing porn) or wasting company resources (employee time, really) goofing off on-line rather than working. In an ideal world, employers would trust employees to do their work knowing that sometimes employees need to take a break or blow off steam.

I'm sure we'd love to live in that ideal world of mutual trust and responsibility but we live in the real world where the actions of a few impact the many which ultimately leads to employer monitoring. Monitoring, by the way, is hardly new or unique to the Internet.

Don't like it? Tough shit.

The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse has an extensive page on Workplace Privacy and Employee Monitoring along with citations to relevant cases upholding employers monitoring rights. In the U.S., monitoring is an accepted practice. The general principle is that employers can monitor communications, regardless of the medium, that originates or traverses its equipment. In some cases, employers have to stop monitoring if they determine the communication is private such as with a doctor or lawyer. Otherwise, it's fair game. Most employers have written policies stating they they may monitor employees communications. If you're really curious, contact a lawyer in your state to dig into the laws that apply to you.

About 7 years ago, I embarked on a journey to remove all personal use of company owned equipment. As a home worker, I didn't have to worry about the network; just the laptop and VoIP phone that was provided as well as email. I made a clean break and you know what? It's not that hard.

I spent about a year getting friends and family to stop sending me email to my work address.

I changed the contact address for any personal Internet site to a private address.

I told friends and family to not call my work number.

I don't accept work email in my personal email account even when our mail server tanks.

I don't do any personal web browsing on my company laptop. If I travel with it, I bring a tablet to surf with.

When I'm in the office, I don't casually surf the web over their Wi-Fi network. I use mobile data or nothing at all.

The only time I cross the work/personal line is that I get work email on my personal smart phone when traveling. If my current or future employer ever enacts a policy that states they can wipe or access my personal device because I receive email (like my last employer did), I'll promptly stop doing so.

Password requirement: 8-32 characters and must contain 3 of the following: 1 uppercase, 1 lowercase, 1 number, or 1 special character ( ., @, -, _, !, #, $, :, ~ ) No more than 3 special characters are allowed.

I hate ads. All ads. There are no good ads, only bad ads. Advertisers suck. I hate what they do. Yes, I know, the Internet runs on ads and that’s how many sites make their revenue. I worked for such a site for 15 years. I get it. I still hate ads. I hated the ads that my old company peppered around my content. I fought, unsuccessfully, against intrusive ads. I happily used ad blockers while using the site I worked for.

I’ve been using ad blockers for as long as I can remember. I can tell you why I started using an ad blocker--it was when the ads became so intrusive by flashing, playing video, playing audio, popping over and under other windows, roadblocking a page (with the tiniest of buttons to close the ad!), surrounding a page with ads so if you clicked, or worse, moused over--an ad, something would happen. It got, and still is, so bad that I can barely focus on the content without having to make adjustments to clear the visual vomit on the screen. No, ad networks are getting infected with Javascript shit that tries to trick users into installing malware by pretending to be a browser or OS alert--complete with obnoxious audio at full volume.

So I give advertisers the metaphorical middle finger and block them. If a site using some technology to detect ad blocking and stop the content display holding me hostage, I leave. Fuck ‘em. Their content isn’t so special that I need to unblock ads on that site to read whatever I came to read. I can find similar content elsewhere. Whatever.

Ironically, I came here to write this and for first time I’ve seen an ad on Tumblr. At the top of the page. That won’t go away. I may leave and not come back because of it.

But I suspect that since Apple allowed Ad Blockers on iPhones, the specter of what was once a fringe activity--ad blocking--is now going to be a Big Deal and someone will do something about it and that mean mostly likely a renewed focus on making ad unblockable.

A Summary of What I want to See

Seeing the inevitable, there is, I think a solution. I’d like a service, a single service not a bunch of competing services, where I can register my preferences for ads--topics I am interested in--and ad networks can use that to surface ads to me regardless of which site I’m on. Let me explain:

First, I want to talk to content owners and creators. You create or you pay someone to create content for your site. I’m sure you take pride in producing the best content you can. Then you push it to your site and wrap it with shitty ads from some ad network or another. The ads are irrelevant and in fact, you drive readers away or at the very least, you drive them to ad blockers. The more intrusive the advertising, the more people don’t come back or don’t stick around. You’re pissing off the very people you want to return.

Treat Ads like Content

Rather, treat ads like content and not like the crap you do to make our page impression commitments each month. Make sure ads are relevant, perhaps informative, and actually add value to the content. You’re going to say, “But Mike, we do that now!” No, no you don’t. What you do is take what ever crap comes from the ad network, try to match it up with some key words in the page in an attempt to make it topical, then walk away. If you happen to be behind on page impressions for a particular ad campaign, you’ll have the ad network serve up more ads overriding any attempt to maintain topicality so that you can say “See Mr./Ms. Advertiser, we met our 50k impression goal this month. Pay me, please.” And you hope the advertiser doesn’t notice you’re wasting their money serving up ads about fantasy football to people who don’t care.

This also means being relentless with ad networks to not serve up irrelevant ads and to do better self-policing to make sure ads are properly classified and don’t contain malicious code that blocks content, attempts phishing, and generally doesn’t impede the reader.

You, the content owners, have all the power in changing how ad networks function. Without content sites, ad networks have nothing and no way to make money. You just don’t exercise that power. Tell them “Get your service in order, serve only relevant, clean ads to our visitors, or we’re going elsewhere.”

Sometimes I find Amazon’s customer service appalling. I’m looking to buy a new Android tablet and I have narrowed my choice down to a Samsung Galaxy Tab S2. Good size, plenty of processing power and battery. Good weight. But I also know that when I get it, I may not be happy with it. The form factor may not be good for me. Samsung’s Touchwiz may break some applications I use (my wife bought a G5 and some apps are broken on it) and that I absolutely require. I can’t tell if these things will be issues or not without trying the tablet out.

At about $600 for the tablet and a keyboard, I want to know that I can return it if I don’t like it and not take a loss. Or, at the very least, what the loss will be so I can factor that into my buying decision. Truth be told, one of the reasons I buy from Amazon is because of the liberal return policy. So I went looking for the return policy on Amazon’s site and they don’t explicitly say there is no restocking fee, but they also don’t say there isn’t one either.

The section headed ‘Computers’ on the return policy page says that unopened or dead on arrival computers and tablets can be returned within 30 days for a full refund. It also says that if I claim it is DoA but it’s not, Amazon can charge me a 15% restocking fee--presumably a punishment for lying to get a full refund. It also says that if I return a damaged or unsellable product due to something I did, Amazon can charge me a higher restocking fee.

Nowhere does Amazon say it will charge a restocking fee simply for returning an opened computer or tablet. Now, you may assume that Amazon will or won’t charge a restocking fee, but the company doesn’t state it will or won’t on its official return policy page. In fact, language about restocking fees is conspicuously missing from the policy. Most, if not all, other retail sites and stores will tell you what the restocking fee is and when it is applied. Especially when asked. Amazon doesn’t.

So I reached out to Amazon via chat (you can see the transcript below) to ask what the fees are. The gist is that charging a restocking fee is up to the return center but Amazon’s representative said that if I return the product within the 30 days, I likely won’t be charged.

I’ve spent a lot of money with Amazon over the years. Am I a good enough customer that Amazon will eat the restocking fee to keep me happy? Have I  returned too many things in the past and I’ve crossed an invisible threshold above which I will be charged a fee? If I am charged, will I have to call and argue my case to get the charge reversed? What are the criteria for assessing a restocking fee? These aren’t difficult or unreasonable questions to ask or answer. Since that charge could range from $90 to $120, I’d like to know what I’m in for before I commit to the purchase.

What I am left with is an uneasy feeling from “just trust me.”

The Transcript

Here's a copy of the chat transcript you requested:

Initial Question: return policy for a tablet sold via Amazon. Hi, I am looking at the Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 ASIN: B0134RE54W and the return policy is unclear as to whether there is a restocking fee if I open and decide I no longer want and return it within 30 days.

                                                                                                   12:14 PM PST Priscila(Amazon): Hello Mike , my name is Priscila. I'm here to help you today. Please allow me a moment to check this for you

12:14 PM PST Mike Fratto: k

12:17 PM PST Priscila: The return policy means that you can return an item within the 30 day window after it was delivered. You will get a full refund if it was returned because it came damaged or defective but if you are returning it because you no longer wanted, there may be a restocking fee. And this is determined by the return center that receives the item and the reason why you no longer want it

12:20 PM PST Mike Fratto: ok, what is the restocking fee? I can't imagine this is left up to the restocking center. I am only asking about the case where the product is open, NOT damaged, but I don't want it. In other words, I am not going to say the tablet is dead on arrival to get a full refund. :-)

12:22 PM PST Priscila: I can totally understand and it's always good to ask. You can use this link to get a better understanding of restocking fees:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=901926

12:23 PM PST Priscila: This one may also help you:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=15015721

12:26 PM PST Mike Fratto: Neither of those answer the question, though. The "About Our Returns Policies" only says "Amazon.com may test computers that are returned because they didn't start when they arrived and impose a customer fee equal to 15 percent of the product sales price if the customer misrepresents the condition of the product." So does that mean the 15% restocking fee is applied only if I try to lie about the reason for the return? This is not a tricky question. Is there a restocking fee for opened returned items and if so, what is it?

12:30 PM PST Priscila: The restocking fee can be 15% up to 20% depending on the reason for the return, however Mike, for experience, if you return the item within the return window even if it is because you no longer want it, a full refund is issued.

12:32 PM PST Mike Fratto: Hrm, very vague. I'm looking to spend $600 and that is potentially a $90-$120 loss depending on who knows what. See the issue? Thanks. I have to run to a call.

I like my OnePlus 1 phone well enough and it just happens that when I was ready to buy a new phone, I had an invite handy. I got lucky. But this invite system simply sucks and I’m surprised they are still in business.

I’m a lost repeat customer. When my wife wanted to buy a new phone, neither of us had an invite for the OnePlus 2, so she bought a Samsung G6 instead. Now we both have new(er) phones and I’m not in the market for a new phone, yet I got an invite today that expires in 24 hours.

Google is spinning out Niantic Labs, the company that brought us Field Trip which is a very cool app showing what’s around you and the real-time live game, Ingress. But rather than assume that its users want their personal information transferred to Niantic Labs, even though we apparently agreed to such a transfer when we signed up for Ingress, Google is letting users opt-out.

That’s how you do it when you spin out a company. Put your users privacy first and let them decide what they want to do.

TL:DR It's no big deal. Don't let your friends screw with you.

A colonoscopy is becoming a rite of passage. You turn 50 and someone wants to stick a camera up your butt. It’s also an opportunity for friends and family who had the procedure to tease you about the prep. "Bring a book with you!" "You'll have explosive shits!" "You have to drink a gallon of prep which tastes horrible!" they said followed by evil laughter. I think they were just screwing with me.

The worst part is the prep and even that is more of an inconvenience of drinking and expelling liquid than anything else. The prep I used came in two bottles. I had mixed 1 bottle with 16 ounces of water and drink at once. Then I had to drink 32 more ounces of just water within the hour. I drink a lot of water anyway, but that was hard to get down that much in an hour. The prep tastes kind of sweet and salty. Not horrible. Four hours later, I did another round. My advice is to take the earliest appointment you can get that way you only have 24 hours of a liquid diet to get through and then you're done. You can also get a full nights sleep.

Then comes the expulsion. For me, it was like diarrhea without the cramps and sweating. Again, no big deal. You feel you have to go to the bathroom and you go. The first few times were gross but it clears up after that. Make sure you have some soft tissue though. Right before bed, I showered so I was all cleaned up and comfortable. That was it. Maybe 6 hours of inconvenience and done.

The procedure was simple. I opted for sedation so I slept through it. My brother in law had lighter sedation because he wanted to watch the procedure. Pick what is comfortable for you. I slept. I woke up. I got dressed. I ate a breakfast.

A few pointers that might make things easier:

Get to your appointment early. If the office does a lot of procedures, you can end up in a long queue.

The day before your prep, eat lightly and soft food like soup and pasta. No meat. It will help with the prep.

Make up several bowls of Jell-O to eat.

Beef broth takes good. Chicken broth does not.