Today's Spiritual Message: Unselfish Service

Today's message is essentially a corollary to last week's message.

I hope you enjoy it.

Today's Spiritual Message: Putting Life on Pause to Serve

This week I learned about Tyler Haws.  He is arguably one of the most successful high school basketball players, ever, and he has put his collegiate career with BYU on hold, to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.



I'm very impressed with this decision, as I understand it can be very difficult to be away from a sport for two years and then try to pick it up again, with the same excellence.

Regardless of how Tyler plays basketball when he returns, I'm glad he decided to dedicate two years of his life to serving his Heavenly Father's children as a missionary.

How to SAVE Your WPA2-Enterprise (Work/School) Network Configuration On Your Cr-48

HUGE UPDATE:  This walk around is now unnecessary, as the issue has basically been fixed!

UPDATE:  If you want to breeze through this walk-through by copying and pasting the relevant entries, simply highlight the text you want to copy, switch over to your command line shell and press down with four fingers on the touch pad -- it seems like this is a special kind of copy/paste functionality for the Cr-48.  Be sure to manually edit your info where necessary.

Okay, after setting up my school wireless connection on my Cr-48 every day, for a month, from scratch(!), I'm delighted to announce I've finally come up with a one-time solution, thanks to Nick Naro.

So you're aware, this post builds off a previous post I wrote on 1/29/11, input from Jay Lee's blog, and is originally founded on David Burrow's instruction set.

Next, I'M WRITING THIS FOR PEOPLE WHO SIMPLY WANT A LIST OF WHAT TO DO.  To that end, this how-to can be followed character for character.  KEEP IN MIND THAT YOUR NETWORK SETTINGS MAY BE DIFFERENT (e.g., yours may use TKIP instead of CCMP, as in mine, below), SO PLEASE CHECK THEM AND MAKE CHANGES WHERE NECESSARY.  Also, if your network requires a security certificate, I believe you will be out of luck (period) until the Chrome team fixes an issue with security certificates.

Please note that this method will save your password to your hard drive.

Also, please note the usual disclaimer that if you accidentally type something in wrong and blow up your computer, it's your bad, and I will be hesitant to cry for you.  On the other hand, I typed loads of stuff wrong, myself, and failed to have anything blow up (or make trouble).

With that said, let's dive in.

Type in exactly what I have shown and hit enter, except for #1.  (Be sure to exclude the explanatory remarks and numbering).

1. ctrl+alt+t
This takes us into crosh, the "command line" center for Chrome OS, based on Linux (this area's like MS-DOS).

2. shell
This takes us into the bash shell (the title's unimportant, other than having the label handy, if necessary).

3. sudo -s
This takes us into what's often referred to as "root," which is where we can make substantial system changes (I imagine it's distantly similar to the Windows registry, in terms of how much it can change).

4. cd /mnt/stateful_partition/home/chronos
This means we're navigating to our home folder, home/chronos. I believe cd simply tells the system to navigate to the directory I list.

5. qemacs AUTOWIRELESS.sh
Qemacs opens up a simple text editor for us, where we'll be creating a script (like an Excel macro).  Autowireless is what I named my file; I suggest naming yours the same, unless you want to remember throughout that yours is different.  The .sh, I assume, stands for a script file extension.

6. Enter the following (including the \ marks) in the blank page that's opened up, recalling that you may have some variation (I assume at least your ssid (network name), identity, and password will be different than mine):

wpa_cli add_network

wpa_cli set_network 0 ssid \"Securewireless\"

wpa_cli set_network 0 scan_ssid 1

wpa_cli set_network 0 proto WPA2

wpa_cli set_network 0 priority 1

wpa_cli set_network 0 key_mgmt WPA-EAP

wpa_cli set_network 0 eap PEAP

wpa_cli set_network 0 pairwise CCMP

wpa_cli set_network 0 group CCMP

wpa_cli identity 0 "username"

wpa_cli password 0 "password"

wpa_cli set_network 0 phase2 \"auth=MSCHAPV2\"

wpa_cli select_network 0

7. ctrl+x and then ctrl+c

As in the keyboard keys.  In other words, press the ctrl key with x and then the control key with c.  This saves your file and exits the script editor.

8. chmod +x AUTOWIRELESS.sh

I'm unsure exactly what this does.  I presume it gives the file special permissions or something.

9. sudo /usr/share/vboot/bin/make_dev_ssd.sh --remove_rootfs_verification

I believe you will be able to take this step immediately after #8.  If you fail to see a 3-6 line list describing how things have been changed (look for the word kernel in there), then type exit then sudo -s and try again.  The "remove_rootfs_verification" command makes it so we can edit some system files that are normally "read only" (unchangeable).

10. Reboot (you may want to type exit and exit and exit first, to be completely out of crosh -- although, I doubt it really matters).

11. Login to your account and repeat steps #1-3.

12. mkdir /mnt/stateful_partition/home/backupScripts

I assume that here we're simply making a backup folder to store a file in a moment.  I believe mkdir means make directory.

13. cp /etc/init/login.conf /mnt/stateful_partition/home/backupScripts/login.conf.original

I believe we're simply copying the login.conf file into its new backup location.  I assume cp means copy path.  Make sure you have a space in between /login.conf and /mnt/.

14. cp /mnt/stateful_partition/home/chronos/AUTOWIRELESS.sh /etc/wpa_supplicant/AUTOWIRELESS.sh

Here, like in #13, we're copying a file from one place into another.  In this case, we're copying our network script into the folder that runs wireless commands at account login.  Note the space between .sh and /etc/.

15. qemacs /etc/init/login.conf

We're editing the file that tells the system what to do at login.

16. Add ./etc/wpa_supplicant/AUTOWIRELESS.sh just below touch /var/run/state/logged-in

So, go, with your cursor, to the end of the /logged-in line, press enter and add the ./etc/ entry.  We're telling the system to run our network connection script at login.

17. ctrl+x and ctrl+c

This is the same save/quit command as we did in #7.

YOU'RE DONE!  Wahoo!!!  (I suppose your rejoicing will depend on whether it works.)  I believe you may need to enter your ssid each time you login and perhaps your phase2 info (see #6).

TROUBLESHOOTING:

If you have any issues, I strongly suggest you first check your script:  Do steps #1-3 and then type cd /mnt/stateful_partition/home/chronos.  Next type qemacs AUTOWIRELESS.sh.  Do the entries in your file match up with what I have in #6, exactly, except for where your network varies?

Next, you can test if your script is working, by doing steps #1-3 and then typing bash /etc/wpa_supplicant/AUTOWIRELESS.sh.  The system will run every instruction from your script and present OK or FAIL, after every entry.  If you get FAIL, that means a line in the script needs to be fixed (so go back to the paragraph immediately above and follow those steps).

Finally, please ask me for help, if you're having issues, or contact your IT department or friendly Linux person.

I hope this helps you with the few days or weeks we have left with the manual network connection workaround!

Watson Wins -- Humans Lose: What's Next?

What is Toronto???

I'll spare you a rehash of the Watson saga.  If you want more background reading, check out his (er, its) Wikipedia page.

What I want to address is what HAL's, excuse me, Watson's, destroying Jeopardy!'s best means for society and, more acutely, the human race.

Let me just cut to the chase, F-word style:  Human existence on this planet has 25-50 years, tops.

First, we, or our children's generation, at the latest, will become transformed, cyber-genetic beings (like Jean Luke, here).

Soon after our cyber-genetic transformation, our computer partitions will overcome our biological flesh, turning us into straight computers -- and so humans, as we know them, will cease to exist.

Resistance is futile.

That or computers will pull a Skynet and completely destroy all human life.

I, for one, welcome our new computer overlords.

I love the red eyes.

HAL: Dave,
although you took very thorough precautions in the pod against my hearing you, I could see your lips move.
Dave Bowman: Alright, HAL. I'll go in through the emergency airlock.
HAL: Without your space helmet, Dave, you're going to find that rather difficult.
Dave Bowman: HAL, I won't argue with you anymore. Open the doors.

Goodbye, humans.

HAL: Dave, this conversation can serve no purpose anymore. Goodbye.

Why even try to resist?

Jimmer Worship

Okay, so I've been out of Provo for a while and missed the whole Jimmer Fredette worship letter in the Daily Universe (BYU school newspaper), until tonight.

I first read this article from NBC, and then saw the following video there.

If you are LDS, I think you will love the intro.



With that said, I wonder how Michelle Peralta will feel some 15 years from now, when she'll be remembered (by all those familiar with the story, at least) as the woman who tried to end Jimmer worship.

Heck, the man has his own verb:  1. Jimmered.  The act of being smoked by the best player in the NCAA men's basketball. Jimmer Fredette.

Some parting thoughts from the NBC writer:

The first rule of college basketball is: You don’t rip The Jimmer. The second rule of college basketball is: You DO NOT rip The Jimmer. 

Next time Michelle, follow the rules. And remember, everything’s on the web. Everything.  [Especially when it's posted on Facebook.]

Today's Spiritual Message: Families Can Be Together Forever

Hope you enjoy it.



I'll add a fun video of our daughter asleep, in nursery, tomorrow.

As promised:

Just

tuckered out.

Are Your Gmail Desktop Notifications Working? Mine Seem Broken. :(

On January 26, 2011, Gmail announced it had added desktop notifications for emails and chats (for Chrome users).  Gmail users rejoiced.

Sweet notification goodness.

And then reality set in.  To be short in writing, I'll simply say my email notifications are incredibly fickle on my Cr-48 (although they seem to really like Chromium bug emails . . .) and I've failed to get Gmail email/chat notifications to work on my HP.  If you really want all the agonizing details, let me know in the comments.

So here's the $1.3 trillion question (oh wait, that's the US deficit):  Are your Gmail desktop notifications working?  If you got them to work, how did you do it?  (Jedi mind tricks?)

Please let me know.

Today's Spiritual Message & 400th Post: Preserving Religious Freedom

I'm glad to see my 400th post coincides with an issue I am deeply concerned about:  preserving religious freedom.

I'm uncertain if I have directly spoken on this issue, before.  On the other hand, back in September, 2010, I made reference to two addresses given by Elder Dallin H. Oaks about the divine influence in our U.S. Constitution.

On February 4, 2011, Elder Oaks spoke at the Chapman University School of Law on preserving religious freedom.  You can read a news article discussing it, here.

It is time to stand together in defense of religious freedom.

Elder Oaks pointed out that religion has had an essential role in the establishment of our great nation.  For example, John Adams declared

we have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people.  It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

Some might ask then, "So, where and what are the great encroachments upon religious freedom?"  In response to this question, and with Elder Oaks, I quote James Madison:

There are more instances of the abridgement of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.

Rather than engage in a drawn-out discussion here, I will simply note my concern that a variety of forces are quietly (often quite vocally -- through forceful letters, pickets, or protests) and systematically combining against religion to silence it or force it out of the public square and into the secluded corners of "freedom of worship."  Whether these voices and movements are coordinated or even intentional, I'm alarmed at the chilling effects they could have on the "free exercise of religion" (which is the first right included in the Bill of Rights).

I strongly encourage you to read the transcript of Elder Oaks' address and watch an interview he gave, discussing the same subject:

Click the image above, scroll to the bottom of the page, and then click on the play button image.

This is what the play button image will look like.

My Wife Scores a Cr-48, Novelists Rejoice

I'm amazed at fate's sense of humor.

So, earlier this afternoon, I'm back home from school, enjoying the good times with my wife.  Our daughter is asleep and the world is at peace (well, except for Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Afghanistan . . . okay, our apartment was at peace).

Thanks, PCMag.com

All of a sudden, I hear a knock on the door.  Sweet!  Gleeful that my Conflict of Laws casebook had finally come in the mail (I expedited the thing last Thursday!), I sprang to my feet.  When I opened the door, I asked the guy if it were my casebook and received a "Dude, do you really think I care?  Just sign the delivery," kind of look.  So I did.

Turns out it was a lovely, pristine, new Cr-48 for my wife!

Okay, let's put this in perspective.  My wife fills out one application, stating how she's a stay-at-home mom, who runs her own business, and wants a quick an easy device, so she can spend more time with her family.  Bingo bango, she gets a laptop, at our door, when we (at least I) least expect it.

The CA?  I filled out five million applications, proclaiming how I am the coolest Googler ever, that shipping me a Cr-48 will make Google the wealthiest entity in history and simultaneously achieve world peace.  I seriously filled out a form like every morning (maybe they sent me one just to end my chirping?).

The wait; the anxiety.

One day, I'm checking the trusty Cr-48 shipping tracker (now dead), and, to my amazement, I see a device that was slated for my zip code, and then delayed . . .  Next thing I know, my wife brings in a UPS sticker, saying someone tried to drop off a package for me and, rather than leave it at our door, carried it away (I think UPS lacked a key to our complex, at the time).

So, I look up the tracking code and, sure enough, it's mysteriously a six pound object (cue Twilight Zone music).  Now, I'm filling out an online form to have UPS call me, so I can find out where to pick up the package up because I'm giddier than a high school senior who just won state (you can picture the F-Word, here, because my team failed to even make it to the playoffs -- or, if you prefer, picture me as a 7-year-old celebrating that victory).

After waiting an hour and a half (UPS is supposed to call me within an hour), I call UPS to ask what's going on and am told I can pick up my package, after hours (so around 7), in downtown Cincinnati.

Cut to the UPS warehouse scene.  No package yet.  Anxiety begins to set in:  What if it's a box of dandelion greens sent from my mom!?!  (Which would be the coolest thing ever -- next to getting a Cr-48.)

Maybe next time.

My wife entertains our daughter by pushing around a package dolly with her, receiving a stinging rebuke from another woman about safety and child labor laws (okay, just safety).

Ironic, don't ya think?

Finally, a UPS worker behind the desk calls out my name.  The moment has come!  Oh my gosh.  The box looks so plain, it must be dandelion greens!  Noooo!!!!


We get in the car, I'm about to have a nervous breakdown, I finally open up the package and, Yeeeeesssss!  "There's the dented beatle!  Loiafoaijfe!!!!"

Like I say, I'm amused at fate's sense of humor.  A little Alanis Morissette, anyone?

Turns out my wife was convinced she would get a Cr-48 all along . . .  "It figurs."