Monthly Archive for February, 2025

Data Science Time Warp Machine

Published on February 23, 2025 in Computing Notes.

Fedora 38 freezes up and crashes sometimes when using Gnome on bare metal.  This may be the result of Gnome reliability issues.  In a previous article I detailed creating a massive repo of Fedora 38, and I still have it.  I will not delete the 238GB repo because Fedora 40 is the last one with Python 2.7 in the repositories.  They elected to completely remove it in Fedora 41 and beyond.  I created some software in Python 2.7 that may never make it to Python 3 because I will be an old man by the time I could complete the conversion relative to my available time in the present day. I had migrated from bare metal to WSL with Fedora 36 a few years ago. I had created my own WSL instance using the Fedora 36 cloud init image, and then upgraded it over the years to Fedora 38 and then ceased updating it.  WSL crashes and cannot be relied upon to run tasks that require many hours of continuous processing.

WSL really was wonderful for development and running Linux applications with underlying Linux features.  I used it for development using Pycharm.  The problem is that I would often return after 12 hours and see a message that the terminal could be closed with a CTRL + D which indicated that the service had stopped for some reason.  I suspect these occurred when available RAM conflicted with the /dev/share features of Linux.  Troubleshooting it would take too long. I don’t trust the releases from the Windows store because forced updates in Windows can take features away or cause unexpected problems.  I upgraded my Windows 11 home desktop to Windows 11 Pro specifically so I could disable Windows automatic updates via group policies, service disablement, and registry modifications that fail to stop auto updates on Windows 11 Home.

To create a long use time capsule of sorts, I decided to switch to Alma Linux 8 from Fedora 38.  Alma Linux 9 follows the tradition of RHEL 9 and removes the easy support for Python 2.

I setup Alma Linux 8.10 Cerulean Leopard, installed from the KDE live DVD, and installed r Studio server to access via web browser.

edit /ect/dnf/dnf.conf and add keepcache=True

dnf install epel-release    
dnf config-manager -enable powertools    
dnf install R    
dnf install python2

The python2 install installs pip2.7 automatically. One calls pip2 via the pip2.7 command.

As regular user the following is required for a script I made because parsedatetime changed after version 2.5 and is no longer compatible with the previous versions.

pip2.7 install parsedatetime==2.5 --user

• Install rstudio-2024.12.0+467-1.rpm from direct download

• Install rstudio-server-rhel-2024.12.0-467.rpm from direct download

systemctl enable rstudio-server

Configure the firewall to allow 8787.

usermod -a -G rstudio-server <username> 
setenforce 0

The last instruction to turn off SELinux is temporary until I can ascertain the specific rules that will need modification to allow it work. With SELinux enforcing with the initial configuration, the server cannot be accessed via web browser remotely

Tags: , , , , .

Gardening from containers other self-reliance

Published on February 22, 2025 in Garden Notes.

This post contains some YouTube videos that may become necessary for some things that I anticipate doing in the future.

How do it yourself basic auto foam repair1 provides a great demonstration of filling a damaged car seat with replacement foam.

Growing Strawberries in Plastic Bottles2 demonstrates how to grow strawberries in hanging bottles.  This video really interested me.  Last year I planted some strawberries and strawberries produce daughter plants and require an intensive amount of cultivated land if one intends to grow them at ground level.  This works very badly if one is attempting to grow them anywhere near grass that needs to be cut with a lawn mower.

Sunchokes – from garden to gut3 includes an incredibly wonderful pickling recipe that requires no heat.  More research on this is necessary to insure detailed plans and safety.

How to Make Flat Bread4 demonstrates a great and simple way to make flatbread cakes.

Root Depths of various garden plants5 provides a great estimate of some fruit depths and generally agrees with Larry Hodgson’s version, but Larry’s has a few more plants and estimates different root depths for a few of them.6

The following relate so an old book.  This is not medical advice, and I am not a medical practitioner.

Dietetics for Nurses by Fairfax T. Proudfit, 1918 contains details of enzymes in the human body.  This book also contains tables of foods and percent of carbohydrates.  This book contains extensive details and dietary plans used early in the previous century for many medical ailments.

A recipe for nut cream to use in place of butter is found in Food Remedies Facts About Foods and Their Medicinal Uses by Florence Daniel, 1908:

”…nut-cream for brain-workers. Pound in a mortar, or mince finely, 3 blanched almonds, 2 walnuts, 2 ounces of pine kernels. Steep overnight in orange or lemon juice. It should be made fresh daily, and may be used in place of butter. ”

You Won’t Believe This Potato Trick7  shows how to grow potatoes from planter containers. How I Grew 450 lbs of Potatoes In Just 200 sq. Ft8 contains a great example of a wooden support system for the plants.  The plants sit in the containers on the ground and grow up through the wooden stakes.

Using a container like a miniature greenhouse will boost growth rate.  One Square Foot is the recommended space for sweet potatoes.  Turn One Sweet Potato into 100LBS of Sweet Potatoes is a great video on how to manage sweet potato slips.9

Today I picked up Yukon Gold Potatoes, Pontiac Potatoes, Red Onions, White Onions, and Yellow Onion bulbs in preparation for the upcoming gardening season.

 

1. How to Do It Yourself Basic Seat Auto Foam Repair DIY, 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N14VbKUdctk.

2. Growing Strawberries in Plastic Bottles – Surprising Results!, 2024. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjW3ZWkLyHU.

3. Sunchokes – from Garden to Gut (Permaculture Living Non-Monetised), 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7xHhRIwISQ.

4. How To Make Flat Bread – The Oldest Bread In The World – Perfect Survival Bread!, 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6BHwAoljng.

5. Ly, Linda. “How to Find the Root Depth of Vegetables (Chart Included).” Garden Betty, March 6, 2020. https://gardenbetty.com/how-deep-are-the-roots-of-garden-vegetables/.

6. Hodgson, Larry. “Root Depth for Vegetables.” Laidback Gardener (blog), May 21, 2020. https://laidbackgardener.blog/2020/05/21/root-depth-for-vegetables/.

7.  You Won’t Believe This Potato Trick: 235 Lbs in 200 Sq Ft!, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrytUqXE9Ns.

8. How I Grew 450 Lbs of Potatoes in Just 200 Sq. Ft. (You Can Too!), 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYdC60Hvxow.

9. Turn ONE Sweet Potato Into 100 LBS Of Sweet Potatoes By Growing SWEET POTATO SLIPS! [Complete Guide], 2022. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0igp5IzO21g.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , .

Blog code and general code release note system

Published on February 22, 2025 in Computing Notes.

Today’s site updates including removing the RSS feed links. Kinsta provided source code.1  The code for functions.php to remove it is:

remove_action( 'wp_head', 'feed_links_extra', 3 );
remove_action( 'wp_head', 'feed_links', 2 );

Kinsta also provided another very useful function2 and that was one that removed the various update notifications in the dashboard.

function kinsta_hide_update_nag() {
remove_action( 'admin_notices', 'update_nag', 3 );
}

add_action('admin_menu','kinsta_hide_update_nag');

Another very useful function for WordPress is one where you may add additional mime types for upload to the library.  This is useful for uploading compressed archives in different formats. Chris Meller’s venerable blog provides the source.3

add_filter('upload_mimes', 'custom_upload_mimes');
function custom_upload_mimes ( $existing_mimes=array() ) {

	// add your ext => mime to the array
	$existing_mimes['xz'] = 'application/x-xz';
        $existing_mimes['zip'] = 'application/zip';
	$existing_mimes['xml'] = 'application/xml';

	// add as many as you like
	// and return the new full result
	return $existing_mimes;

}

Somewhere along the way I picked up the following items to use as release notes within the scripts that I create.

E.g. 11/05/2024: [*] Changed URL to 1.1.1.1 from 8.8.8.8

[+] = Added
[*] = Changed  
[^] = Moved  
[=] = No Changes  
[x] = Deleted  
[!] = Bugs  
[_] = To Do  
[>] = Migrated  
[<] = Migrated

1. Kinsta®. “WordPress Disable RSS Feed,” August 30, 2016. https://kinsta.com/knowledgebase/wordpress-disable-rss-feed/.

2. Kinsta®. “How To Disable WordPress Update Notifications (Plugin or Code),” July 4, 2022. https://kinsta.com/knowledgebase/disable-wordpress-update-notification/.

3. Meller, Chris. “Modifying Allowed Upload Types in WordPress | Chris Meller,” July 26, 2007. https://blog.chrismeller.com/modifying-allowed-upload-types-in-wordpress.

Tags: , , .