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Strava ‘glitch’

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I am an avid Strava user, free version of course. Recently I was reviewing my activities and came across this infuriating glitch.

Strava glitch

Key elements of my data were missing and only the field names were displayed. After numerous google searches for a solution I decided to put up with the problem convinced it was an underhand ploy by Strava to get me to use the ‘paid for’ version.

By chance today I used Firefox to review my activities on Strava and ‘hey presto’ the glitch had magically disappeared. This proved to me that the problem was with Google chrome and not Strava.

clear browsing data

The above did not work….. so went for the nuclear option…. log out of Google and using the Advanced option from settings Reset chrome.

By logging back into Google and resyncing chrome the glitch with Strava was resolved.

Bitcoin

BlockFi, 2FA and Google authenticator

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An initial problem with 2FA and logging into BlockFi has turned into an interesting problem that I am not sure has been satisfactorily resolved.

On trying to log into BlockFi today I discovered that my 2FA token was not being recognised.

In order to log in I used the original Recovery code that is created when you first sign up. Obviously this is not a satisfactory solution and I must have a valid 2FA token for future use.

This is a problem that I have encountered before with other applications and I thought I had the solution. Firstly check and reset the time on my 2FA generator, in this case Google Authenticator (other authenticators are available) , there is an option in settings that sync’s your device to the servers at Google. No joy. So after searching for solutions one suggestion I saw involved resetting the on the device used to login.

This contradicts my understanding of how the 2FA token works and would involve the syncronization of 3 time stamps. The timestamps on

the application, the 2FA generator, the computer

To my mind the time stamp on the computer should be irrelevant (as only the App and the 2FA generator need to be in sync ) but worth a try under the circumstances.

So I check that the time is correctly set on my Linux PC and reset.

name@computer :~$ timedatectl set-ntp yes

Still no joy….. as my PC is dual boot I thought I would make doubly sure the system time was working by resetting the time under Windows (10).

Youtube video 3 Ways to Synchronize Windows Clock With an Internet Time Server

2FA still NOT working

My only solution at this point is to login using the recovery code, switch OFF 2FA and then switch 2FA back on to create a new token. This still did NOT work. To cut a long story short to create a 2FA token that works under Google authenticator I first had to DELETE the token in Authenticator, rather than just scan and REPLACE.

So the fault lies with Google authenticator when generating and replacing the token but does not occur when deleting the token and generating a new token.

The fault could also lie with my phone by not saving the new code correctly when using scan and REPLACE.

Lastly I still have no idea why the initial 2FA token I was using failed after using it successfully for a number of weeks.

Linux

Small is beautiful

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Carrying on from ‘Does size matter’ I have decided to test my Raspberry Pi 3 model B as a replacement for a desktop machine.

The black box (2×3 inches) is the Pi

The last time I used the Pi was about 6mths ago for a Python project for use in schools (a part of my former life) and the original SD card had Raspbian wheezy installed. On boot up the OS gui failed to load and eventually loaded a command line with errors.

Using another computer I downloaded the latest version of Raspbian….Buster and tried to reformat the SD card using SD formatter

Quick format didn’t work and I had to resort to full format. I then used Etcher to flash to image file to the SD card

Buster comes with basic desktop software installed and includes Libre office, Chromium browser, Claws mail and VNC viewer plus a host of other software and programming utilities

As mentioned in a previous post (Does size matter?) essential desktop software includes Veracrypt and KeePass, an encryption app and a password safe app.

The following website provides excellent and concise instructions to install Veracrypt version 1.2 on a Raspberry Pi

How to install VeraCrypt on Raspbian 
sudo apt install libfuse-dev libwxbase3.0-dev

wget -L -O veracrypt-1.21-raspbian-setup.tar.bz2 https://sourceforge.net/projects/veracrypt/files/VeraCrypt%201.21/veracrypt-1.21-raspbian-setup.tar.bz2/download

tar xvf veracrypt-1.21-raspbian-setup.tar.bz2

chmod +x veracrypt-1.21-setup-console-armv7

sudo ./veracrypt-1.21-setup-console-armv7

Installation takes a few minutes and is not quick.

Running setup at this point there is a long long process to spacebar through numerous license agreements…..and don’t forget to agree ‘y’ for yes at the end. Do not abort this process by pressing Ctl Z or Ctl X otherwise you will have to re-install from the beginning.

Before installing KeePass I thought it wise to update the OS using the following commands

sudo apt update

Followed by

sudo apt full-upgrade

Unfortunately this crashed the Pi ! although it was fine on re-boot and progressing the full update again.

Rather than installing KeePass I use a portable version of KeePass stored on a USB stick which can be used on a Pi by installing ‘Mono’

sudoapt-get install mono-complete

access your USB stick as follows

cd media/pi/yourUSB/KeePass

mono keepass.exe

It takes a few seconds to load but it is perfectly useable and has the added advantage that it can be used with Windows and other Linux operating systems.

In conclusion this version of the Raspberry Pi makes a passable desktop computer albiet a little slow, but it performs all the necssary desktop functions. e.g. Wordprocessing, Spreadsheets, Browsing the internet and using email. A Raspberry Pi 4 is probably a better option with as much memory as possible……4Gb

Linux

Failure to launch….and screen issues

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Last week my bargain basement desktop PC died…….it refused to boot except for 3 short beeps and one long. POST (power on self test ) beep code for a memory problem I believe…….after opening up and re-seating the RAM memory modules nothing changed the outcome.

Still beep beep beep beeeeeeeeeeeeeeep. Luckily the 90 day warranty was still active. I rang the help desk at Encore and got an immediate response. Next day the desktop was picked up by courier. 3 days later I got my Thinkcentre back with a new motherboard and 8mg of RAM instead of 4mg…….a great result. Impressed with Encore-PC ………as long as this desktop build lasts longer than 3 months 🙂

Next I recieved an unwanted tv from a family member which could also be used a new monitor for my desktop. Unfortunately the initial result was as follows

And what I really wanted was

After much searching on the internet I have concocted the following script file which gets the screen I want

#!/bin/bash
#
# set screen display
#
xrandr
xrandr --newmode "1920x1080" 173.00  1920 2048 2248 2576  1080 1083 1088 1120 -hsync +vsync
xrandr --addmode VGA-1 1920x1080
xrandr 
echo "note the list starts at zero"
xrandr -s 4
Linux

Does size matter?

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After long service I decided a couple of months ago to upgrade from my 2009 HP desktop (originally running Windows 7) to something more up to date. Namely something that can run Windows 10. Although an avid Linux fan occasionally there is no other option but to use Windows.

Due to a limited budget I decided to scour the internet for refurbished desktops. The only criteria being the ability to run Windows 10.

For 55 quid I got the following

LENOVO THINKCENTRE M92P – PENTIUM G645T 2.50GHZ – 4GB RAM – 250GB HDD

Hard Drive 250GB HDD

Memory 4GB

Operating System Windows 10 Home

Warranty 90 Day RTB Warranty

The biggest surprise on delivery was its size…….I knew it would be smaller but

Its hard to make out in this picture but its about half the size of an A4 magazine. The company supplying the desktop (Encore PC) was slightly disingenuous in that the Thinkcentre boots up into Windows 7 with the option to upgrade (for free) to Windows 10…….. which for non-technical customer could prove to be a little tricky as the package did not include any instructions.

As a desktop PC for standard use it has proved to be more than adequate. After road testing windows for a day or so I installed my current favourite Linux distro which is Ubuntu Studio 19.10 (Eoan Ermine) . This presented no problems although I have yet to try the more resource intense applications available with this distro.

To any standard desktop configuration I use the following software packages can be added

Veracrypt a free open source disk encryption software for Windows, Mac OSX and Linux

Keepass a free open source light-weight and easy-to-use password manager which includes a portable edition that can be used in both a Windows and Linux environment when installed on a USB stick

Due to painful experience I no longer store any information on internal harddrives, all my data is always stored on separate external disks or USB sticks…….in this way my data is always portable and backed up in various locations……sometimes even in the cloud.

For 55 quid I have a great dual boot desktop system.

Altcoins

Tweakin the Pi…OKCash

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It’s strange how a minor irritation can transform into a major bugbear – and so it goes.
Rokos version 8 on my raspberry pi(2 model B 1Gb) does not keep time and I find myself manually adjusting the settings…irritating…..sometimes I wonder if I am ever so slightly autistic.

From settings select Time and Date

Unlock and select Keep synchronized with Internet servers which will result in a request to install NTP

Unlock

and then select the time zone

and lock

on reboot the Pi will magically reproduce the correct time.

OKcash

select Settings and go to Options, tick ‘detach databases at shutdown’ and Apply

select Settings and go to change passphrase

Unless you have an exceptional memory that can remember a random 10 character password or a random selection of seed words then a good option in which to store your passphrase and other passwords is Keepass. I know it doesn’t get crazier than this…..a master password to unlock all your other passwords!

(It works for me 🙂

In order to install KeePassX first of all update the Pi

Type sudo apt-get update in Terminal and press Enter

and install keepassx

Type sudo apt-get install keepassx in Terminal and press Enter.

From the main menu Keepass will be installed under accessories

 

 

Altcoins

Moving OKcash wallet from Windows to a Raspberry Pi

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First things first: build OKcash on the Raspberry Pi using the Rokos installation

https://rokos.space/index.html

Download latest rokos version – in this case version 8 – download the checksum text file to verify the download. Check the hash using an online hash calculator such as the site listed below

https://md5file.com/calculator

Compare the results with results contained in the text file

Extract the image file. The .rar file expands from 2.3Gb to a 5.9Gb .img file

If you have problems extracting the rar file with Xarchiver and get this cryptic error :-

An error occurred! Please check the ‘Store Archiver Output’ option to see it.

Try installing unrar

# apt-get install unrar

and extract the file using the following command

# unrar e <filename>

Burn image file to the SDcard. For Linux users there is an excellent product from Resin.io called Etcher which can be downloaded from

https://etcher.io/

It also has versions for Windows and MacOs

The only part of the SDcard useable at the moment is the size of the image file, the rest of the SDcard will have several Gb of unallocated space depending on the size of your SDcard. Resize the active partition to take full advantage of the whole SDcard space. For Linux users Gparted is the easiest utility.

Next insert the SD card into your Raspberry Pi device and switch on the power. (password is ‘rokos’)At this stage it is prudent (though not essential) to update your system and change the password, this can be done on the Raspberry Pi by using ‘Software updater’ from the system menu option. If you are unsure how to change your password here is a useful guide:-

https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/linux-change-password/

Quite often software updater will fail with the following error message

Software Updater does not have enough disk space on the /boot drive. 

If this occurs the easiest solution, (although not the quickest) is to use Gparted ‘move’ the ext partition and ‘resize’ the boot partition

After successfully booting the Raspberry Pi navigate to the following directory

“/home/pi”

The following script will bootstrap the latest OKcash blockchain to your SDcard and create an empty wallet

./ok-sync-arm64.sh

USB stick

There are good reasons to keep the blockchain and wallet on a USB stick. If you only have a 8Gb SDcard there is not much room for the blockchain to grow. Even if you have a larger SDcard to future proof your node and keep the system on ‘auto-pilot’ it is better to keep system and application files separate from data files. Additionally the separation makes housekeeping procedures easier to implement.

Automount will place your USB stick in the location below

/media/pi/yourUSBname

The following configuration statement needs to be added to okcash.conf (use Mouspad or something similar)

datadir=/media/pi/yourUSBname

And the files from the “/home/pi/.okcash” directory need to be copied to your USB stick

so that when OKcash is launched it will use your USB as the default directory for the wallet and blockchain.

Syncing the blockchain

The bootstrap will contain 90%+ of the total blockchain, at this stage the OKcash wallet still needs to sync up to the network. This will probably take about 3 to 4 hours.

Once the blockchain is in sync your Windows OKcash wallet can be copied onto your USB stick.

“wallet.dat” can be found in the following directory on Windows systems:-

%APPDATA%\OKCash

by default this looks something like C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\OKCash

Note that “AppData” is an hidden folder

Before relying exclusively on your Raspberry Pi installation take your time to test a few transactions, ‘soak’ test the installation for at least a few days and make a backup of your USB stick.

Note your Raspberry Pi will locate your USB stick on reboot but will NOT mount the USB until you manually access it. Failure to mount the USB stick before loading OKCash can result in a corrupt blockchain.

Note also that on my Raspberry Pi Firefox would not load; if this is the case the Midori browser can be installed using the following in Terminal

sudo apt-get install midori

OKCash donations accepted here:-

P9ognJGmNWV7stSwcEaN2wiwsoSNMBmAbx

 

 

 

 

 

Altcoins

FOMO : Monero XMR

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After a brief dip Monero is on the rise again, according to Cryptocurrency Market (https://coinmarketcap.com/) $142.92 on Monday 28-08-2017 (04.03 GMT). Most observers agree the listing of Monero on the South Korean exchange bithumb will have a positive effect on the Monero price. Newcomers entering this market should note that Monero may have peaked too soon with the possibility of a price fall. My own personal belief is that given the incentives provided by bithumb  Monero’s price is likely jump significantly over the next week or so with the inevitable correction shortly afterwards.

(https://www.bithumb.com/event/e20170823_XMR_open)

For people buying into the Monero market now this presents a FOMO moment.

bithumb deposit address is now open and the listing day is August 30th, 2017 Midnight – although some details may have been lost in translation as the website infers that the 30th is Sunday?!

It is sobering to reflect on the fact that for the first 3 months of 2017 the price of Monero hovered around $12. FOMO strikes again

Fear Of Missing Out

Altcoins

FOMO : Bitcoin Cash

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If like me you sold at 500$ or less FOMO is beginning to take hold. At 300$ you thought ‘OK’ long term Bitcoin Cash has nowhere to go so it’s time to sell, after all it’s free money….but now the doubts are setting in. (740$ !!)

Maybe short term to medium term there will be a concerted effort to usurp Bitcoin’s position as the top cryptocurrency with the likes of Goldman Sachs who have been very vocal recently about Bitcoin as a rising asset class. My conspiracy head has just revealed that this is a double bluff and that the establishment finance will be investing heavily in Bitcoin Cash for a ‘pump n dump’. Don’t say you haven’t been warned.

If you still own Bitcoin Cash sell half now and the rest when it gets to 2000$

Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh FOMO !!

Manchester

Is Manchester behind the curve?

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Entrepreneur Pavel Bains argues in a recent article that the time is ripe for cities to create their own digital currencies by observing that national currencies do not work for the for all of a country’s urban areas.

Why Cities Will Soon Choose Digital Currency Over Fiat Money

The benefits of a local currency are well understood and their viability is proven by the success even before the cryptocurrency revolution by the likes of the Bristol pound and the Brixton pound. Internationally city states such as Hong Kong and Singapore can respond rapidly to changing economic conditions and can plan and implement policies accordingly.

In the UK as already stated there is the success of the Bristol pound and the Brixton pound established years before digital currency was a practical solution. Recently the Liverpool pound has been successfully launched and is likely to be followed by the cities of Glasgow and Birmingham.

Love local 

The list of cities and towns in the UK experimenting with local currencies is growing rapidly and can be viewed as a reaction to the failing economic policies of central government and growing inequalities within regions. Coupled to this is the rise in secure digital currency systems such as Bitcoin and the UK’s 80% penetration of smart phones as a means of payment indicates that this is not a fashionable trend but long term change in how ‘money’ is utilised within society.

The question is….why is Manchester missing from the list below

Liverpool                         @LiverpoolPound

Glasgow                          @glasgowpound

Hull                                    @HullCoin

Sheffield                         @SheffieldPound

Birmingham                 @brumpound

Bristol                             @BristolPound

 

Resources : Guild of Independent Currencies