Category Archives: Ubuntu Linux

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NEW Jasper Documentation!

Hello All,

First, I want to thank everyone that has been patient with me so far in getting these things done one at a time…

I know it is not easy to get some of these things completed without good documentation.  So, with the help of a few community members, I have started what is a very rough draft of our documentation.  It is neither complete, or ready….  However, we are adding information as we go, so keep a close eye.  Even feel free to clone it, and contribute.  There will be documentation on how to do both of those coming as well.  Feel free to watch here, the repository, or the Support Forums/Slack for updates.  I update them all.

If you have items you would like to see added to the documentation, I would run it by myself, or d34dman first.  If we have not already written it (there are some not committed yet); then we will just let you know to put in a PR (aka Pull Request).  Once we have both reviewed it and give it a thumbs up.  We will merge it.

Alright, all that said… Here is the link to the documentation!

 

Thanks,

Matthew Curry

Pre-Built Jasper Kits, Ready to go out of the box!

These kits will arrive and be ready to use the moment you power them up. They will be customized to the user, and an image will be provided so they can restore any time they like.

They will include the following:

  • RPI3 B+
  • 32GB Class 10 SD Card
  • US Robotics 9610 [USB Speaker/Mic]
  • Customized/Installed/Setup of Jasper by me personally
    • Install of Jasper and all dependencies
    • STT Setup
    • TTS Setup
  • Testing
    • Running overnight
    • With your settings if you wish
  • Copy of your personalized image for backup
    • In case you wish to restore to a “Known Good” state
  • Updates
    • Such as customized integrations and modules provided by me.
    • Updated Installer / Setup script COMING SOON.

If you are interested in one of these kits, feel free to contact me or start the process by purchasing one below:




Jasper Images Updated version 1.4 (aka Revision 4)

They are updating now; this includes a few fixes and features.

 

  • Jasper Tools Cron Installed (keeps them updated)
  • TTS Server Setup Out of the box!
  • STT Setup Out of the Box! (Just add key in profile.yml)
  • Jasper Start at Boot Cron Installed (allows for Jasper to start at boot)
  • Tested with several different variations of USB devices
    • USB Mic /Speaker Combinations
  • A ‘paired’ installer will be released soon!
    • This will allow the user to answer a few simple questions and have it running in seconds.

I apologize for the delays recently, I have had some personal issues come up.

NAOMI gets an Upgrade… A head…

NAOMI-HEAD

 

Hardware Shown:

  • High Resolution Raspberry PI Camera
    • Eventually I would like to try stereoscopic vision
  • PIR Motion Sensor
    • Used to ‘Wake’ NAOMI to motion in the room.
  • UltraSonic Range Sensor
    • She will track any motion
    • Once an Object/Person/Face is being tracked the Range Sensor will take measurement readings.
  • PWM HAT
    • Used to remove ‘Jitter’, and allow for other Servos
    • May try an “Arm”
  • Server Mount Allowing Pan/Tilt

12 Years without Microsoft and loving it!

As of April, 2004 I stopped using all Microsoft products.

For many reasons. I know people like to debate about microsoft products. However, for me its not a debate.

Examples [Just a tiny bit]:

  • If I was a contractor and came into your company and said, “I am going to record all your keystrokes, and put them on my server every 30min”, you would laugh me out the door. Especially in software, where the source can be recreated from the key logs.  Well, Microsoft does it.
  • If I was a contractor and came in to your company and found a security bug, and then sold it on the black market making you vulnerable before there is a patch to hackers.  You would probably sue me; and maybe even press charges of some kind, as it can put you out of business.  Well, Microsoft does it.
  • If I was a contractor and came in during the night and upgraded all your desktops to an OS you haven’t tested… well I think you get the point by now…
  • UEFI – Just look into it…
  • Severe security issues; and poor coding.
    • Keep in mind even if they don’t use the keylog maliciously, with the poor security wrapped around it, it is within reason to think it would be compromised.

Please keep in mind I am just looking at the black and white of things. This has nothing to do with how I ‘feel’ about them.  From a business standpoint, I can not simply fathom the use of any Microsoft product in any serious company; especially a software development one.

Now, I am experienced in IT/Software Development/DevOps; and anyone will tell you security is a trade off with convenience.  That is true.  However, between the cost (which is high); and the constant worry about security and stability with each patch.  Its something people really need to ask themselves, ” Is this really convenient/cost effective”; and 15 years ago it might have been yes. Now, there is no excuse.

 

Reason #… I’ve lost count…not to use Microsoft.

image

Welcome all windows, and samba users. Please read badlock.org for why poor decisions have led to this day.

There is a known vulnerability with samba, please read the site listed. If time permits I will update this article with better info.  However, if you are running Samba the shame on you… especially the old version. I have not “had to run samba”, for anything in several years now.

Please read my article on using AFPd in linux to use it as a time machine  backup.  Works great! Or my preference is NFS on a LAN. 

Either way, I  hope this helps a few people. Please share the article if it helped.  There is a patch with CVE on the way according to their site.

Sincerely,
M

Be Careful with LetsEncrypt!

 

I must say, like a lot of people I love the idea of a free SSL Certificate.  So I thought this would be great for my site.  So I downloaded the LetsEncrypt package on to an Ubuntu 15.10 box.  The server was running Apache2, and was pretty much stock.  When I applied the cert to the site, it was super easy.  I was very impressed with the ‘–apache’ option.  I then updated my URLs in WordPress to HTTPS.  That’s it I was up and running in a few min.  I was pretty happy at this point.

Then, I realized it broke all of the other services I had on the machine that were public facing.  I had several.  Even ones with their own certs were breaking.  So I decided to remove it…. After removing it from Apache completely I noticed an issue.  All of my users that had been to the site; were getting redirected still.  Somehow it is keeping the redirct with the cert/data that is installed when the cert is installed from visiting the site.

Long story short, I had many people that thought my site was down.  I even moved servers; and it still happened. I tried clearing browser cache, DNS Cache on my MAC, from another IP. Finally after a reinstall (probably not needed, but quicker); I was able to actually load my site without the redirect.  I am sure there is something here I am not seeing; but to be honest I didn’t feel like spending all my time dealing with browser settings.

If anyone would like to let me know how they get around this I would like to know.

I hope this helps those who are thinking of trying out LetsEncrypt.  I am not saying its a bad product; or idea.  I love the install and the idea of it.  However, the practical implementation is not there yet.  For those reading this keep in mind that it is still in Beta as of this article.  So this might eventually go away.

P.S. – To those on the LetsEncrypt project, I appreciate all the work; and I hope you take this criticism positively. A good uninstall path is needed before I think this will go mainstream on monolithic boxes.  Maybe its ok with a 12 factor applications.

Sincerely,

Matthew Curry

NAOMI Updated Pics

Here is the latest picture I have of the ‘Semi-Portable’ version of NAOMI.

This includes the following:

  • 30AH Battery @ 2.2a (tested)
    • 35AH LiON Cells “Quick Drain”
  • Touch Screen 7″
    • Mounted Externally in own case
      • Not Permanent, built for bench
  • RPI2
  • 1TB USB 3.0 Hard Drive
  • Bluetooth Dongle
    • Not Shown
  • Powered USB Hub
    • Replaced/Rebuilt for one with switched ports
  • Logitech C170 USB Camera/Mic

Quick Tip of the Day.

Not that I have them daily, but I might if I get a good response.

Have you ever tried logging into an SSH server, and get a weird error:

/.ssh/config: line 22: Bad configuration option: 342200202

This is a very simple issue but it can be a huge PITA if you can’t fix it quickly.  This is especially true for those of us that have to use an enormous amount of keys in our daily lives.  I know, I have a fairly simple config for SSH, but I still ran into this issue when I pasted a block of text in  ~/.ssh/config.  I opened the file with VI, and NANO. I was only able to get it to work when I removed the spaces before each line it complained about.  I then just put them back as normal, and saved.

It turns out, that copying from another place can have the spaces not interpreted properly. They are tabbed indentations actually.  Once manually removed they are replaced by a normal “space” in the code and it should work properly.  I hope this saves some time for some people.

 

Thanks,
Matthew D. Curry