Analysis followed through to conclusions

"This particular operation means to render unthinkable the idea that people could arrive at revolutionary politics via a clear-headed analysis followed through to conclusions. Instead they must be in the grip of some hidden compulsion which they obey relentlessly, all the while insisting that this obedience is freedom."

 Review of 'The East'

The sea and her love

ZFS on Linux with LUKS startup automount; Ubuntu 16.04

When ZFS became a first class citizen under Ubuntu, the issue of ZFS on Linux with LUKS not auto-mounting properly at startup was finally addressed in Xenial 16.04.

The following steps successfully produced a successful auto-mount on a nightly build of Xenial in VirtualBox:

# list block devices using /dev/disk/by-id
sudo ls /dev/disk/by-id

# identify the block device for the LUKS container; here, the example is a VirtualBox device
ata-VBOX_HARDDISK_VBd5b297e5-009dc9f9

# create a key file
sudo dd if=/dev/urandom of=/root/key bs=1024 count=64

# encrypt [using defaults here for simplicity] target block device with key file
sudo cryptsetup luksFormat /dev/disk/by-id/ata-VBOX_HARDDISK_VBd5b297e5-009dc9f9 /root/key

# find the newly encrypted LUKS container uuid
sudo blkid

# the result should show the device with TYPE="crypto_LUKS"
/dev/sdc: UUID="b7458a4d-2d45-42bc-8fe7-f392e0a0f85f" TYPE="crypto_LUKS"

# open the LUKS container with key file and map it to a name, example here is mapped to "crypt-c"
sudo cryptsetup luksOpen UUID=b7458a4d-2d45-42bc-8fe7-f392e0a0f85f --key-file /root/key crypt-c

# add a line for the new LUKS container under crypttab so it can be identified during startup
sudo nano /etc/crypttab
crypt-c UUID=b7458a4d-2d45-42bc-8fe7-f392e0a0f85f /root/key luks

# Identify the LUKS partition UUID
sudo ls /dev/disk/by-id

# the result should show the device starting with dm-uuid-CRYPT
dm-uuid-CRYPT-LUKS1-b7458a4d2d4542bc8fe7f392e0a0f85f-crypt-c

# create the zfs partition on top of the LUKS partition
sudo zpool create -o ashift=12 zfs-test-pool /dev/disk/by-id/dm-uuid-CRYPT-LUKS1-b7458a4d2d4542bc8fe7f392e0a0f85f-crypt-c

# nothing added under /etc/fstab

# upon restarting, zfs-test-pool is auto-mounted and can be verified with zpool status

Reference links:
zfs-raid-and-luks-encryption-in-linux
zfs-on-linux-with-luks-encrypted-disks
zfs-raidz-encryption
zfsonlinux/pkg-zfs/issues/126
cryptsetup/+bug/1422153
Dm-crypt/Device_encryption manual

St. Dominic

But what then?

"But what then? Is it better to stand by in the face of tragedy? To let it wash over the world, a hungry tide?"

Equity

As all Western legal systems have known since Aristotle, literal interpretation of any legal material will sometimes produce unintended unjust results, which can and should be corrected by the invocation of "equity."

 The Linux Kernel, CDDL, ZFS, Dtrace

Compression patterns, debris footprint

Released

I've decided to publish and back date some drafts that I've been withholding. These are posts that were written for occasions, experiences and periods in life that left me with such raw feelings, feelings that I found difficult to both capture and disclose.With time and distance I can approach some of these instances with detachment. All drafts will be released as an ongoing process, be it takes months, years, or even decades, so that the truth of the moment is not lost to time.

"A Russian officer maybe?"

"Do you know my parents?"

"Are they famous?"

Elena nodded. "My father was a Russian officer maybe, I think, and Mama comes from a famous Cossack family. They're all soldiers!"

"A Russian officer maybe?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Well, Mama met him when she was dressed as a man and joined the Cossack host. He was very surprised, I think," Elena shrugged. "Mama says he died of shock, leaving me as a present. But I think he probably ran away because Mama is so fierce!" She looked proud rather than distressed at this prospect.

I blinked down at the little cabin girl, rather at loss as to how I should respond. "That's... nice." I hazarded, and she nodded enthusiastically.

Photographs

The thought of photographs and cameras made me feel very melancholy. I remember buying an extremely poor quality camera and then abandoning it only to have my parents take up on it. They made use of it enthusiastically, not minding that the camera was of a Christmas-cracker joke quality. They seemed truly derived joy in using it. There is something about the effect of documenting the present, the happiness of capturing the effervescent.

Thinking of fleeting moments make me think of the future. Will there be someone to remember me? As I remember my parents now, however narrowly? I am thirty one now and yet to have a family of my own. I feel... very alone, sometimes. There is few if anything, no photographs, to document the life I am living/have lived. My mind wanders widely. But how much can we say to have lived if we pass through the world silently, observing? And letting what we read and the ideas that we understand act as ciphers of our being?

80 Days

"As well as brilliantly retelling Jules Verne’s classic through hundreds of optional and intertwined encounters, its locations and their inhabitants are a constant source of delight. It is, wonderfully, a game concerned with progress and progressive thinking. The journey itself is at the heart of that but Inkle repeatedly confound my expectations with the humane and empathetic depiction of the many cultures and people of the world."

 80 Days Impressions

She was trouble

... which reminds me...

Quantum Converter

And when at last it is time for the transition from megacorporation to planetary government, from entrepreneur to emperor, it is then that the true genius of our strategy shall become apparent, for energy is the lifeblood of this society and when the chips are down he who controls the energy supply controls Planet. In former times the energy monopoly was called “The Power Company”; we intend to give this name an entirely new meaning.

—CEO Nwabudike Morgan, “The Centauri Monopoly”

King of Dragon Pass

Winter, summer, converging

Von

Caithe's Remorse

"I will bear your pain."

Wynne's Locket

"I go where I please, and just now it pleases me to stay among friends."

Tree Farm

In the great commons at Gaia’s Landing we have a tall and particularly beautiful stand of white pine, planted at the time of the first colonies. It represents our promise to the people, and to Planet itself, never to repeat the tragedy of Earth.

 —Lady Deirdre Skye, “Planet Dreams”

Die Gedanken sind frei

Die Gedanken sind frei, but if you don’t understand the language, thoughts aren’t free: getting access to them is difficult and expensive.

If you conceive of science as an information system, as an accumulation of data and logical relations between data, then you will probably feel that the efficiencies of English monolingualism outweigh its disadvantages. But Gordin also (and too briefly) introduces a different conception of science, not much taken up by philosophers, which emphasises the importance of metaphorical extension in scientific change. Scientific notions like wave, force, law, heredity and fact have different semantics when expressed in different languages: as metaphors imported from everyday life, they have different resonances and affiliations in different cultures and languages, and therefore different bearings on the resources scientists have to extend their meanings through research and theory. (Science itself is such a notion: its semantics in English are not exactly the same as les sciences, Wissenschaft, наука or επιστήμη.) So, depending on whether you think of science solely as an information system or as encompassing the dynamic exploration of metaphors, you come to different conclusions about the significance of monolingualism. If metaphor is central to science, then the language in which science happens matters a lot.

The road from universal Latinity to universal English was full of twists, turns and bumps