andreas-mausch.de

LocalLLM: Running Qwen3.6-35B-A3B on an RTX 4070 Ti

2026-06-01T20:00:00Z

1. tl;dr

See the final command at the end.


CPU	AMD Ryzen 5950X
GPU	NVIDIA RTX 4070 Ti, 12 GB VRAM
RAM	64 GB DDR4 @ 2800 MHz
Model	Qwen3.6-35B-A3B
Quantization	IQ4_XS
Prompt processing	~800

VPNs on OpenWrt: WireGuard vs. IKEv2/IPSec vs. OpenVPN TAP mode

2026-03-01T13:00:00Z

1. Goals

My goal is to be able to connect to my home network from anywhere in the world and access everything on it the same way as I would be in my local WiFi.

2. Why three different VPN protocols?

WebDAV: Three ways to run a simple test server

2025-11-18T18:00:00Z

I needed a simple WebDAV file server for testing and want to share what I found.

1. Variants

1.1. rclone

Near-field communication (NFC): Tags, Smartcards, Javacards

2025-06-18T15:20:00Z

I tinkered with NFC tags the last couple of days and want to share what I learned.

1. NFC tag types and protocols

There are different kind of NFC tags from different vendors, which speak different protocols.

I first bought the wrong type, because I thought every NFC tag would speak the same standardized protocol. So don't make my mistake.

Most tags speak on

OpenPGP: Deterministic Key Derivation via BIP39

2025-04-18T10:00:00Z

Some of you might know BIP-39 from Bitcoin. It is used to generate multiple addresses from a base key, which is written as normal words.

Thus, it is easy to backup and store.

However, you can apply BIP-39 to represent any bits as a list of words. This is used by the following tool, which generates a private OpenPGP key for you based on a word list (also called seed phrase or mnemonic phrase) like:

pitch angle zero rubber index domain nature undo engine scrub gate mosquito

Actually I found two tools for it: One python tool, which I haven't tried, and one tool written in Rust:

Backup: 7z with error correction data using parchive

2025-03-25T08:00:00Z

Every few years I make a backup of my most important data files to a Blu-Ray M-disc.

I've heard M-disc is only a marketing gag nowadays and doesn't really provide a better material for the data layer as it used to, but well, it can't hurt to still use it. Maybe I'm overpaying a bit.

1. archive tool

Setting up my first eSIM via adapter on Linux

2025-03-22T12:00:00Z

Most modern phones already support eSIM by their hardware. Older phones sometimes do not, and I wanted to use a Samsung S10e as my travel phone.

It does not support eSIM, but there are adapter cards available, which are physical SIM cards you can install an eSIM profile on.
Even multiple ones, if you like. But only one profile can be active at the same time.

In the manual is a link to a website with their software:

https://www.eiotclub.com/pages/eiotclub-esim-reader-guide

I bought this without even knowing whether the software runs on Linux. After the download I found a hint to LPAC and it mentioned Linux in a file.

So afte

Eleventy: Upgrade from v2 to v3

2025-03-22T09:00:00Z

I made a bigger update to the blog system I use on this website, Eleventy. See my previous post about setting Eleventy up.

My base repository for the setup is here: base repository

Eleventy offers an Upgrade Helper Tool which I tried to use. Here is how it went.

1. Problem installing eleventy-upgrade-help

Docker Swarm: Wait for deployment

2025-03-12T18:00:00Z

I love Docker Compose files for their simplicity and use them a lot to start local services.

However, when using them in a Docker Swarm, you always need to take precautions to validate a deployment was successful.

If a health check failed or the image could not be pulled, the docker stack deploy command just finished without any error message, because the real deployment was done asynchronously after the command already exited and returned to the shell.

Today I just found out it is finally possible to wait for the result of the deployment by using the --detach=false mode. The command will block until the state of the swarm is stable again.

This is so good. It allows automatic scripts to check whether the deployment was successful or not, without any self-written scripts checking the stdout of docker service ps commands.

The

Vagrant alternative needed

2025-01-24T18:00:00Z

1. The problem

So few months ago I just wanted to start my virtual machine by using my usual vagrant command, and I was greeted with this:

LUKS container encryption

2025-01-17T18:00:00Z

While looking for a good way to encrypt my private data, I've tested several options:

GnuPG: Still my favorite for single files, because I can use my main master key without having any additional secrets.
Tomb and gocryptfs look like a viable options, but requires an additional key
VeraCrypt I haven't tested yet, but it is very popular
eCryptfs: I have used it in the past, but due to a limitation in filepath length I discourage anyone to use it.
EncFS has several security issues still open for several years now

But now I have tried LUKS for container encryption for the first time and want to share the commands I have used.

1. First approach: Using a key file

Waveshare 7.3inch ACeP 7-Color E-Paper

2024-11-10T18:00:00Z

I have bought a digitial photo frame with an e-Ink Display.

It works really well, but copying new images is a bit hacky and colors look a bit pale due to the display technology.

1. Specs

Link

minikube, a local Kubernetes

2024-10-23T18:00:00Z

I want to share my short experience with minikube: https://minikube.sigs.k8s.io/docs/

I had a look at K3s and MicroK8s also, and I prefer minikube:

Minikube is the closest to an official mini distribution for local testing and development, it is run by the same foundation as K8s.

K3s is a project by Rancher, it is compliant but it’s completely up to them what is or isn’t included.

Microk8s is a spin on what minikube tries to do and is run and maintained by Canonical (the Ubuntu people).

Fully agree. Also please note that microk8s is being distributed using the proprietary snapcraft store, which could be a concern.

https://www.reddit.com/r/kubernetes/comments/be0415/k3s_minikube_o

ESP-01S programming in Rust

2024-10-20T14:00:00Z

Today I've spent some hours trying to figure out if I could write programs for the ESP-01S SoC with the ESP8266 microcontroller using my favorite programming language Rust.

Long story short: I finally got it working, but the API is limited under Rust.

As always, all my example CLI commands are executed on Manjaro Linux.

1. Tools and requirements

Keychron K9 Pro QMK/VIA

2024-10-03T19:00:00Z

I have bought a Keychron K9 Pro some months ago (I still love my K8 TKL though).

I like it a lot, and one reason to buy it was it's open-source firmware Quantum Mechanical Keyboard. Check their website or repo.

The mappings for all keys can be redefined to your preferences via VIA, which is very handy on a 60% keyboard where you will need to have combos for some inputs.

Today I tried to compile the firmware QMK myself, and tried to follow the instructions from Keychron.

1. The (outdated) repository

Nitrokey 3C NFC: WebAuthn and OpenPGP

2024-10-02T17:00:00Z

Some time has passed since my last post about the Nitrokey.

I do own the newer model Nitrokey 3C NFC and want to share my experience with it, especially in regards of OpenPGP (which I use heavily) and WebAuthn, which I'd like to use more in the future.

1. OpenPGP and nitropy

jtxBoard: Notes and Journals on Nextcloud

2024-09-22T16:00:00Z

1. Intro

On my self-hosted Nextcloud instance I used to use Nextcloud Notes and the Android app to sync my notes.

But since I discovered jtxB

Single-Board Computers: Headless Setup for Raspberry Pi, Orange Pi, Radax

2024-08-31T17:30:00Z

I still like to set up my SPCs headless. This way, I don't need to connect a monitor and keyboard. I simply prepare the SD card on my laptop, plug it into the target and it connects to my network, allowing me to SSH into it.

Since my old post is outdated, here is an updated guide on how to set up an operating system for a single-board computer like a Raspberry Pi, Orange Pi or Radax.

In all cases, it is assumed you have flashed the image to a sd card, like this:

xzcat ./2024-07-04-raspios-bookworm-armhf-lite.img.xz | sudo dd of

RabbitMQ: Automatic retries with increasing delay

2024-08-29T17:30:00Z

I have finally implemented a solution to automatic retries for a RabbitMQ message queue. I have pointed out the problem of retrying failed messages with a delay in a previous post.

I am still sad there is no ready-to-use solution and you have to write code yourself to make this work, but well. At least it is a solution.

You can find an example project in python here: https://github.com/andreas-mausch/rabbitmq-with-retry-and-delay

The concept is heavily inspired by https://devcorner.digitalpress.blog/rabbitmq-retries-the-new-full-story/.

NAS

2024-06-15T12:30:00Z

I don't like cloud providers very much for hosting my data, for privacy reasons.

I do have koofr and use it's WebDAV interface in combination with rclone to encrypt everything. That works well. I still hesitate to upload some private data there.

But for my local data, I used to only have a single hard disk, which I backed up manually from time to time (like once every two years..).

I had been thinking about setting up a private NAS (Network Attached Storage) for some time, but never did it.

Until now. Here is what I did to set it up.

1. My requirements

AI models

2023-10-08T21:00:00Z

1. Text generation

UIs:

ollama (CLI)
GPT4All (GUI)
serge (web)
text-generation-webui (web)

Best models:

TheBloke/Mistral-7B-OpenOrca-GGUF: Runs very fast on Mac M1 via text-generation-webui
wizardlm-13b-v1.1-superhot-8k.ggmlv3.q4_0.bin (GPT4All): very good, supports LocalDocs
Mistral (ollama): https://github.com/jmorg

Bluetooth Speaker with 16x16 Display (Divoom Ditoo Pro)

2023-08-14T12:00:00Z

I've received a gift! It's a Divoom Ditoo Pro.

It's a bluetooth speaker with some keys and extras, and it looks fantastic.

However, I quickly discovered you need to create an Divoom account to use the app. You can enter anything you want, I did not receive any code via e-mail. I still really dislike the need for the account in the first place.

The only connection I made to the device was via bluetooth, so I thought it should be possible to create an open-source app which offers the basic features.

I looked around on GitHub and found there are similar devices from the same company, but I couldn't find exactly what I was looking for: Sending gifs via bluetooth without the need of the official app.

1. Capture Bluetooth network traffic on Samsung smartphone <

Programmable LED fan

2023-05-15T17:00:00Z

The fan came with a small CD-ROM for a Windows software to program the LEDs.

However, I quickly found a project on GitHub to do the same on Linux and MacOS:

https://github.com/fergofrog/microwave_usb_fan

The examples work great. You can upload multiple 144x11px images which are shown in sequence, and you can add a (simple) predefined animation to it.

One thing I noticed: You cannot address all of the available circular space. See this example file:

This leads to the result from the thumbnail:

As you can see, a small portion remains black.

Some more exampl

Philips OLED hidden Service Menu

2023-04-17T20:00:00Z

I have bought a Philips 48OLED707/12 for my homeoffice setup.

It is a great TV / monitor, but you might not like it's OLED protection settings. The screen saver comes on automatically and there is no way to disable it, you are forced to power it off for ~10min minimum after a long session..

..but the worst for me was the pixel shifting. Even in Gaming / PC mode I noticed the screen is not fully displayed. This is especially noticable when you look at the corners of the menu bars.

1. Disable Pixel Shifting

GnuPG for everything

2023-03-29T17:00:00Z

When I work with Git, I use SSH keys for authentication with GitHub, GitLab etc. Same goes for SSH connections for terminal connections to servers.

When I want to sign or encrypt my e-mails, I use GPG. I also use GPG indirectly when using pass - The Standard Unix Password Manager. And you need GPG if you want to publish a package to Maven Central, for example. You can also use GPG to sign your git commits.

I barely used GPG in the past, but since I heard you can use the GPG key also for SSH connections, I thought that this would be a big improvement for me. I would only have to handle the single GPG key instead of having GPG and SSH simultaneously.

I have also used a Nitrokey in the past, which can be used as a GPG smartcard. That means your keys wouldn't

Keyboard layouts, laptops and programming

2023-02-27T19:00:00Z

1. US keyboard layout, umlauts and EurKEY

When you start programming on a German (DE) keyboard layout, you will quickly notice that some keys, like curly brackets, are hard to type.

AltGr + 7 requires some mad skills for your right hand. If you decide to use both hands instead, you need to align your left hand

Virtual machines: VirtualBox vs. libvirt, QEMU on M1, vagrant

2022-11-28T19:00:00Z

I've used various virtualization technologies in the past and have now switched to libvirt as my main tool and would like to explain why.

1. What I use virtualization for

I use virtual machines..

..as an isolated playground for new technologies.
..to build programs for diff

Printing and Scanning on Linux

2022-09-06T20:00:00Z

1. Introduction

1.1. HP DeskJet 320

Migrate Blog from Jekyll to Eleventy

2022-08-11T19:00:00Z

1. Why Jekyll in first place (2015)

The reason I've decided to use Jekyll was pretty straight-forward: Github Pages was released and they offered built-in Jekyll integration.

Back then there was no Github Actions or any kind of built-in Github CI, and I wanted to have a way to publish blog posts with the lowest possible barrier.

At that point in time I w

My home server setup (Intel NUC)

2022-06-12T16:00:00Z

I have my setup for quite a while now, but since I need to make some changes to it, I thought it is a good time to share the process.

1. Hardware

I use a Intel NUC for being my 24/7 server.

Previously I have used a DC53427HYE (8 GB RAM, 120 GB SSD), and I now upgrade it to an D54250WYK (still old), but with 16 GB RAM and 500 GB SSD. I found two old cores are more than enough for my needs.

Geekb

makemkv: Backup Blu-ray discs

2022-03-14T18:00:00Z

I still like to use Blu-ray discs to watch movies.

Sometimes I want to watch them over the network though, and therefore I need to rip them from disc to put them on a hard-drive.

I stumbled across makemkv and a Docker image on github.

Since I prefer CLI usage over GUI, I also looked up this Docker image, which provides only the CLI part named makemkvcon.

1. Installation

Selenium: Disable CSS transitions and fail on JavaScript errors

2022-03-11T15:00:00Z

I've done both steps for a second time (in a different project) now, so I thought it is worth a blog post.

1. CSS transitions

If you use CSS animations, you have three choices for your tests:

Sleep for a specific amount of time and hope the animation has finished after
Introduce wait statements to make sure the animation ended
Disable animations

Opti

RabbitMQ CLI, Dead Letter Exchange and Quorum Queue

2022-02-24T22:00:00Z

Today I've taken a closer look at this code snippet in one of our services:

@Queue("${app.messaging.queueName}")
public void receive(byte[] data,
                    @Nullable

Cast your screen to a Chromecast without Chrome

2022-02-19T16:00:00Z

I tried to cast my screen to my TV (with a built-in Chromecast).

1. Tools tested

1.1. Google Chrome / Chromium

Buffer Overflow

2022-02-16T16:00:00Z

I remember I've tried hard when I was younger to create a super easy example of a buffer overflow. I read about it and understood the mechanism, but never accomplished writing a real program which demonstrates the effect.

That thought crossed my mind today and I realized I should be able to do it today with a little more experience.

In addition, I found this wonderful article about it:
dhavalkapil.com

So, I will basically repeat the steps in the article and build my first own buffer overflow program.

1. The program

Please support deploying to a subdirectory

2022-01-26T14:00:00Z

Lately I worked with three web apps which refused to being deployed on a subdirectory of a domain, for example https://my.domain/path. They all expected to run at the root of the domain https://my.domain. Which makes it difficult to use multiple apps on the same domain.

The only options are:

Run them on a different port
Run them on a subdomain

The first one makes the URL ugly, and in some companies it requires some bureaucracy to get another port opened in the company-wide firewall. The second one requires some technical setup as well, and it's not always the solution you are looking for.

I had the same problem with these apps:

F the caret

2021-08-20T19:00:00Z

Why I prefer fixed versions for dependencies and a reproducible build.

1. npm and the caret (^)

Most likely you have seen or maybe use yourself the caret in front of your dependency version, for example ^1.4.2.

Here is a great article which explains it's meaning:

Nikon stores wrong timestamp

2021-07-29T15:00:00Z

I noticed the File Modification Date/Time timestamp is saved incorrectly on my Nikon D5600.

This is annoying, because when I copy my files to my phone, some tools order the photos by their mtime, and if it is set incorrectly, pictures won't be in order.

I shot a photo at 16:40:30 CEST (UTC+2). Note: My camera settings are set to Berlin time (UTC+1) with summer time enabled. Sync time via bluetooth is enabled.

1. The problem

Show images in terminal

2021-07-21T08:00:00Z

Sometimes it is useful to display an image or video in the terminal, for example if you are on a ssh connection.

I used to use tiv (Link) for this purpose, but now I've switched to timg (Link).

Images just look better and the detection for terminal width and height works also better.

See the two example screenshots of tiv and timg in xfce4-terminal.

tiv:

timg:

As you can see, the aspect ration is off for tiv, and I had to adjust the height. It seems to use the whole widt

JPEG: Exif tags and XMP Rating

2021-07-18T19:00:00Z

I like to mark my best photos with a rating. There are plenty of tools for the job.

Since Windows 7 (or Vista?) it was even integrated into the operating system.

However, I found there is more than one way to save the rating into the metadata of the image, and different tools are not very compatible with each other.

Luckily, there is a defacto standard which most tools can work with: The Rating tag in the XMP metadata. It was first defined by Adobe.

So I've decided to use this tag from now on. It does not depend on a platform and can be used in almost all tools. However..I noticed that some tools lose data when I saved a rated image file. Not all previously existing meta tags were maintained.

That made me curious, and I now want to find a way to rate and tag my images without losing any data.

1. Analyze and display all metadata on a .jpg image

Binary diffs

2021-07-17T20:00:00Z

When I searched the internet on how to diff two binary files, the first results were not helpful to me.

Most of them only work well when the files are the same size and only differ in some bytes.

When there are bytes inserted at some point of the file, the result is not useful.

Let me show you.

1. Files are the same size, and some bytes are changed

Zeal: Offline Documentation Browser

2021-07-03T19:00:00Z

Zeal is a great tool for browsing documentation without the need for an internet connection.

As a great addition I can recommend zealusercontributions: https://zealusercontributions.now.sh

I love how fast it feels to browse the documentation, instead of wasting seconds after seconds waiting for some overloaded website to load.

I think the unfree MacOS tool Dash was there before, they also provide the docsets.

Zeal reminds me of the good old .chm file format: Microsoft Compiled HTML Help

RabbitMQ: Message persistence and Metrics

2021-05-17T17:00:00Z

1. Persistence

We've noticed our RabbitMQ lost messages when the container had to be restarted.

Three things to consider to not lose stuff on a restart:

Your exchanges and queues should be durable
Your messages should be persistent
If you run RabbitMQ via Docker, make sure to set a fixed hostname

Links to RabbitMQ's document

Monitoring: Grafana, Loki, Prometheus, Alertmanager

2021-05-14T12:00:00Z

Most of the times I evaluate tools or libraries I get disappointed: Bugs in the most common features, missing the simplest of use-cases, bad documentation, etc.

So that's why I've decided to write a praise to Grafana and Loki, which I've both heavily enjoyed to set up and use.

See my repo with a fully running setup here: andreas-mausch/grafana-prometheus-loki-alertmanager-setup

1. Background

OpenWRT on tp-link Archer C7 v5 AC1750 router

2021-05-01T15:00:00Z

Your Internet Service Provider (ISP) has access to your router provided by them and therefore access to your whole network.

In order to get some privacy into your network, you can use another router. To gain some more trust, use an open-source custom firmware, like OpenWrt.

If your router is supported, I recommend to try LibreCMC. It is a free firmware without any blobs required for some firmwares.

1. Original Firmware Download

Raspberry Pi Headless Setup

2021-03-17T18:00:00Z

1. Headless setup

This guide is outdated and Raspbian 12 Bookworm setups won't work. I will write a new guide soon.

The Backup and QEMU sections below should still work (I hope).

I've done this a couple of times already so I thought I should write it down.

How to setup the Raspberry Pi with

Nikon DSLR as Webcam

2021-03-08T20:00:00Z

1. Equipment

1.1. Nikon D5600

NitroKey Pro 2, encryption, gpg

2021-02-23T22:00:00Z

I've used the following commands to get my NitroKey Pro 2 running on Manjaro Linux.

NitroKey is an alternative for the YubiKey, which is better known, cheaper, has more functionality...BUT:
The NitroKey's hardware and firmware are open source!

I use my NitroKey mainly for pass, the "standard unix password manager", to keep my very important passwords top secret.

So I don't really use FIDO2 or other features of a YubiKey. NitroKey provides a comparison sheet for their different keys, and as you can see you have to decide between gpg or FIDO2. Too bad.

Cookie formats and Apache HttpClient

2021-02-03T18:00:00Z

I've spent some time isolating a bug in the company's cookie proxy. This is about the expires part of a cookie.

1. Two formats

Let's see what google.com uses:

Android: LineageOS, Root and TWRP Recovery on Samung Galaxy S7

2020-10-19T21:00:00Z

To get full control of the phone, I've installed LineageOS with root access.

The following instructions might result in data loss, so make sure you have a backup of all data on the phone!

1. Install TWRP recovery

Download

First, you need to boot into Odin Mode. Pre

Track your position with Nextcloud and PhoneTrack

2020-10-16T15:00:00Z

1. Tracking tools

I like to track my position via my phone and sync the data with my self-hosted Nextcloud server.

I use the PhoneTrack app for Nextcloud and the PhoneTrack app for Andro

Native Desktop GUI apps: wxWidgets with conan and premake

2020-09-29T16:00:00Z

I'm always looking for better ways to create desktop applications.

See here. And here.

Today: wxWidgets

The repo for my experiment is here: https://github.com/andreas-mausch/wxwidgets-conan-premake

1. Stats

Nostalgia: Highscreen 386

2020-09-07T17:00:00Z

1. Intro

My first own PC was a 286 with MS-DOS 3 (or maybe 4?).

My second PC, and the one I've spent most time with, was a Highscreen 386.

For nostalgia, I've decided to buy almost the exact model I had owned back then. Despite being a popular model, it was not that easy to find a functional computer together with it's original monitor, keyboard and mouse on the internet.

Unable to login after uninstalling eCryptFS

2020-08-19T16:00:00Z

1. The setup

I've used eCryptFS for the several past years to secure the data in my home directory.

However it comes with a big limitation: Filenames cannot be longer than 144 chars (plus minus). So this will fail on an eCryptFS'd directory:

Tizen on Samsung Gear S3

2020-06-22T12:00:00Z

I want to share my experience developing a watch face for a Galaxy S3 Gear smartwatch.

You can find the resulting project here: https://gitlab.com/andreas-mausch/moonwatch

1. Development environment setup

Retroflag GPi Case with a Raspberry Pi Zero W

2020-04-13T21:00:00Z

Corona quarantine time. So I've gotten myself a toy.

This Game Boy looking device can hold a Raspberry Pi Zero (W), has inputs, a display and sound. I've installed RetroPie onto it.

What's also impressive: If you don't want to use RetroPie, you still have a fully functional Raspi (+ a display) which runs just on batteries!

Connect Thunar to Nextcloud

2020-04-10T16:00:00Z

I was looking for a way to integrate the Nextcloud WebDAV interface into Thunar, a Linux file manager.

After some time I found you can just paste this link davs://cloud.neonew.de/remote.php/dav/files/<username> into the address line. Then I've right clicked -> Store as bookmark.

However, only the first part of the link was stored: davs://cloud.neonew.de/remote.php/dav. :(

So next I tried to find out where Thunar stores it bookmarks. A lot of stuff I've found said ~~~/.gtk-bookmarks~~. This is outdated tho, and the file is now located at ~/.config/gtk-3.0/bookmarks.

So add a new line to the file:

davs://cloud.neonew.de/remote.php/dav/files/<use

Split Git Repos

2020-04-10T13:00:00Z

My website has grown over time.

First, I just had a site for the WhatsApp Viewer.
Then, I've added a blog.
Then, I've added my landing page to present myself as a software professional.
Then, I've added a gallery.
Then, I've added my resume.
Then, I've added a site about things I like.
Then, I've added cheatsheets.

I've noticed the repo was getting too big for my likes.

So I'd rather like to have subdomains with separated repos, like cheatsheets.andreas-mausch.de.

Here are some commands which were useful to me:

# Create a new copy of the existing repo

NextCloudPi with Wi-Fi Hotspot

2020-03-18T01:30:00Z

NextCloudPi is a great project which provides ready-to-run images to run NextCloud on a Raspberry Pi. My favorite models are the 3B (without the plus) and the Zero W, because of their efficiency. I'll use a Raspberry Pi 3B for this project. It can be powered by an ordinary power bank.

My goal is to have a cloud service which is:

easy to connect to
energy-efficient
and portable

1. General setup

Desktop apps with Tauri

2020-02-20T13:00:00Z

I'm always looking for better ways to create desktop applications. See here.

Now, the easiest way to compose UIs is HTML and CSS, because it is used everywhere. And it would be great if it could be used to create desktop apps, right?

"Ah, there's Electron!" you might say. And yes, you are right. Electron exists.

However, I'm not exactly a fan of it, mainly because of the resulting executable file size (>100mb), but also of security things..I'm sure the browser of most electron apps are never updated and are target to hackers (see: WhatsApp Desktop patches major security vulnerability). People call it the "flash for desktop" for a reason.

Now there's Tauri: It just uses the o

Eat my time, element-ui

2020-02-12T18:00:00Z

I'm currently on a project to build a micro-frontend. Cool!

In general.

Technology stack is Vue.js, element-ui, export as web components, GraphQL API.

So today we found that dropdowns (el-select) won't work properly due to a bug. The dropdown popup (implemented using popper.js) is positioned incorrectly and we see erros in the browser console.

After some investigation we found this!

Right, somebody decided it's a good idea to just c/p the source of popper.js into the element-ui repo, instead of just making it a dependency (like any good citizen would).

No chance to overwrite the version in the package-lock.json because of this inlined dependency.

Element has nearly 44k stars on github btw. How.

Now the last time this "dependency" has been up

No newline at end of file

2020-02-12T10:00:00Z

tl;dr: Please put an empty line at the end of each text/source file (if you want to be POSIX compliant).

1. Reason

This.

External monitor on Linux

2019-08-12T19:00:00Z

1. On each connect

Short command to set the correct resolution and scaling for an external monitor.
I've decided to write this down because the --scale-from parameter seems to be uncommon. Most suggestions on the internet only use --scale, which I find less intuitive to use.

Sign Git commits

2019-07-12T14:00:00Z

1. Find signingkey

Assuming you already have a GPG key:

$ gpg --list-secret-keys --keyid-format long
/home/neonew/.gnupg/pubring.kbx

Dell XPS 15 7590

2019-07-10T20:00:00Z

1. Change WiFi chip for Intel 9260

Scaling images using imagemagick

2019-05-06T20:00:00Z

1. Downscale images (batch)

Just a useful command I use to downscale my images, for example to share them on social media.

magick mogrify -auto-orient

Stubbing third party services

2019-05-02T15:00:00Z

When you connect third party web services to your application, you'd like to have a convenient way to work with them during development.

1. The external service

Let's assume our application calls a REST API to validate user addresses.

Server on Android using Linux Deploy

2018-07-14T13:00:00Z

A friend asked me how difficult it would be to run a python program 24/7 in his own network. I said easy, just use a Raspi. He answered: "I got an old phone with a broken touchscreen".

I've played around with Linux Deploy in the past, so I already knew it is possible to install Linux on an Android phone. I wasn't sure if python would run, but I was confident it's gonna work so I tried.

1. Setup

Radio

2018-05-23T21:00:00Z

During the last weeks I wondered how radio works. I wasn't able to find a good source which explains in simple words how the transformation of eletric current to radio waves is done.

I wonder if it's comparable to a lightbulb, which also transforms current to electromagnetic waves. And I wonder if it's the opposite of the photoelectric effect, which takes photons to transform them into current. Even the (usually really good) Sendung mit der Maus couldn't really explain it to me. Armin rather focused on assembling pre-built components. :/

A lot of stuff is done via radio. Of course, there is FM/AM broadcasting, but there is way more:

RFID
Radar
WiFi
Bluetooth
Amateur radio
TV (DVB-T(2))
CCTV / cameras
Navigation (GPS / Galileo / GLONASS / Beidou)
Mobile communications (GSM / 3G / LTE)

Undervolting the XPS 15 9550 on Linux (i7-6700HQ)

2018-05-22T20:00:00Z

Undervolting in notebooks is useful to reduce temperatures, avoid throttling and extend battery life.

I tried to undervolt my notebook already some months ago, and found mihic/linux-intel-undervolt. However, I didn't get it to work because I didn't know what I was doing and rdmsr 0x150 always returned 0 for me, even after sudo modprobe msr. I think my mistake was to not execute it on every single core.

But today, I found this georgewhewell/undervolt. A small python script which does all the complicated work. According to the internet most Intel CPUs can be undervolted easily by 100 mV. While this doesn't sound like much, it's almost a 10% cut of the default 1.2 V.

I got my CPU working with a delta of

WiFi monitor mode

2018-04-30T17:00:00Z

With monitor mode enabled, you can receive all packages on wireless networks around, without being connected to any. It is useful for debugging and security analysis.

I am very forgetful so I will just write down how to enable monitor mode for the devices I own.

1. Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 8265 (iwlwifi)

Detailed explaination:

Self-made SMS receiver API

2018-04-28T16:00:00Z

Update: I've uploaded the sources https://github.com/andreas-mausch/sms-receiver.

This week we had problems with our SMS provider, which offers us virtual phone numbers we can send SMS to. We use it as SMS verification service via Authy on our staging system. If you register a new account with our app, Authy sends a SMS with a code to verify your phone number.

On our staging system we use two virtual phone numbers, and when a SMS is sent to them, we can query the text via an API. Our automated test then reads the SMS code and continues with the registration.

I wondered if I could develop a similar service by myself.
Also, it was a good chance to make use of my old surf stick (see here:

Manjaro Linux on Dell XPS 15 9550

2018-04-13T18:00:00Z

Below is a list of how I configured my laptop. Most is personal preference, some settings might affect more users. Maybe someone find it useful.

1. My device

I use the XPS 15 9550 in the maxed-out configuration.

Intel i7-6700HQ
32 GB DDR4-2133MHz
4K (Ultra-HD) Display
1 TB SSD (Toshiba)

2. Preparation

Migration to Visual Studio 2017

2018-03-29T19:07:00Z

I've developed WhatsApp Viewer with the good old Visual Studio 2008. It's a bit dated and doesn't support all of the new C++ features.

Since the new Visual Studio 2017 is free (no costs) for personal usage and open-source projects, I thought it might be worth a shot.

1. Setup

Samsung S4: Ad-Hoc WiFi (IBSS) on LineageOS 14.1

2017-12-11T01:00:00Z

I did some investigations into Mesh Networks few weeks ago, in which I set up an Ad-Hoc WiFi network on my Samsung S4 phone.
However, I used CyanogenMod 11, which is a little outdated.

I've received an e-mail from Andrew Hunter andrew.hunter@utexas.edu from Texas, who tried to run an Ad-Hoc network on the current LineageOS, 14.1.

For some reason, CyanogenMod decided to drop support for Ad-Hoc, so the current LineageOS doesn't have it.
In fact, you won't be even able to see Ad-Hoc networks on the network list. They are filtered out.

So he tried to establish a connection by directly calling the Linux command in the adb shell ($SSID can be TestAdHoc and $FREQ 2412 for example):

Kotlin Native

2017-12-10T18:00:00Z

1. Double-click & run

I like to develop small native desktop apps like WhatsApp Viewer or CS:GO Demoviewer.

However, whenever I want to create an application like this, I struggle to

Mesh networks on Android?

2017-07-20T19:00:00Z

I wondered if lets say three Android phones can be used to build up a mesh network. So if a phone has a connection to at least one of the others, it should still be part of the network. No router, no internet required. In theory, this should work, each device has the needed hardware.

I know there is Serval, but that's not really what I am looking for: It is limited to the features they provide in their app. You wouldn't be able to use all the software out there, not even a browser. That's because they have re-implemented common protocols: They have MDP instead of UDP, and they have

Dell XPS 15 (9550) BIOS updates changelog

2017-06-16T01:00:00Z

I tried to find a changelog of the BIOS updates for the XPS 15. I failed. So I've decided to create a list myself.

There is a well-hidden overview on the official Dell website. Click here for details. Note: There have been some updates released, which are not available for download anymore.

1.6.1
2017-12-23
1. Updated to the latest INTEL CPU microcodes.
2. Updated Intel ME Firmware to address security advisories INTEL-SA-00086 (CVE-2017-5705, CVE-2017-5708, CVE-2017-5711 & CVE-2017-5712) & INTEL-SA-00101(CVE-2017-13077, CVE-2017-13078 & CVE-2017-13080).
1.5.1
2017-11-14
1. Enhance audio quality when the brightness is adjusted
2. Extending battery support
3. Allows Dell Command Configure to implement the required Thunderbolt Sec Level settings w

Install Intel WiFi 8265 into Dell XPS 15 (9550)

2017-06-02T17:00:00Z

My main laptop I use for developing software is the Dell XPS 15 9550 (2016 model). It is a very solid, good laptop. One problem I had with it was the WiFi though. Connection in general was quite poor and in some places I wasn't able to complete uploads at all. They were stuck repeatedly at a certain percentage and didn't continue from there. But when I restarted my machine it worked again. I was like...well, might be shitty drivers. However, after a quick internet research I found there are other people with the same problems.

The wireless card installed was the Dell Wireless 1830 (DW1830) with a chip from Broadcom (BCM43602).

I've decided to buy a Intel 8265. It only has 2x2 antenna connections instead of the 3x3 of the DW1830, but the internet says it doesn't really make much of a difference.

Surfstick Huawei E173 on Linux

2017-05-31T17:00:00Z

I've tried to use an USB modem I've bought two years ago (and never really used) on my Linux machine. On the first try, everything went plug'n'play and I was asked to enter the PIN and it automatically connected. That was nice, but didn't work like that again. After some googling I've found this link:

https://wiki.ubuntuusers.de/USB_ModeSwitch/
(German only)

So "Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. Broadband stick" is the device.
We can see the Vendor ID (12d1) and the Product ID (1446).

A call to usb-devices shows it is in drive-mode:

Security: Playing around with NSA exploit EternalBlue (MS17-010)

2017-05-14T01:00:00Z

In April, TheShadowBrokers have released numerous exploits written by the Equation Group, which are "suspected of being tied to the United States National Security Agency (NSA)".

You can find the all the files here: https://github.com/adamcaudill/EquationGroupLeak

Among the files, there is the EternalBlue exploit. For me, it seems to be the biggest exploit since the RPC DCOM exploit used by Blaster in 2003 (see

Compass App in Kotlin

2017-05-14T00:00:00Z

My colleague spent some time researching into Kotlin. He was so impressed that it is now his favorite programming lanuage. So I decided to take a look at it and wrote a small compass app.

I've used IntelliJ with the Android and Kotlin plugins and it was very easy to get started. One notable thing is the convenient copy&paste of Java code into the IDE, which then automatically asks if it should convert the code into Kotlin. It worked very well. The language itself looks interesting as well. Although this app doesn't really contain a lot of code, I will dig deeper into the language. In some aspects it reminds me of Scala.

One thing I disliked a lot: I had to convert the SVG image into Android's special VectorDrawable format. I don't understand why they come up with a completely new fo

Record Screencasts on Linux

2016-11-12T17:00:00Z

1. Useful FFMPEG commands for recording your screen

# Record screen without audio. Replace 3840x

WhatsApp Viewer v1.9 with crypt12 support released

2016-10-22T22:00:00Z

I have released a new version of WhatsApp Viewer, get it here:

Download WhatsApp Viewer v1.9

Thanks to TripCode, who released source code to decrypt the crypt12 file format:

https://github.com/EliteAndroidApps/WhatsApp-Crypt12-Decrypter

See details about the format here:

Moved Gitlab server to another host

2016-05-05T22:00:00Z

I use the Gitlab Community Edition for private projects.

http://doc.gitlab.com/omnibus/docker/

Now I wanted to replace the Acer Revo with a more powerful Intel NUC i5 I bought. So I copied all volumes referenced by the docker container (for me it was ./gitlab/config, ./gitlab/data and ./gitlab/logs) and tried to start gitlab/gitlab-ce:latest.

In the log files (docker logs gitlab) Gitlab told me the permissions have changed due to the copying. I searched the internet, found this on github.com and I had to run:

docker

Linux Mint: Login loop after new graphics card

2016-04-23T02:00:00Z

I am a big fan of Linux and open-source in general. Despite the big improvements on usability there are still too many moments where you need to use the terminal.

Well, I am a developer and used to the terminal. However, this week I have experienced a problem which cost me some hours.

I have changed my graphics card from ATI to Nvidia. My PC recognized the new card, it reset the BIOS and my Windows partition booted up. It required new drivers which was fine.

When I tried to boot my Linux partition, I faced a black screen. After uninstalling the ATI drivers and installing the proprietary Nvidia drivers in recovery mode on command line I got to the login screen.

sudo apt-get p

Hypriot Docker and remote access

2015-12-18T19:00:00Z

Hypriot offers an Raspberry Pi image to run docker.
http://blog.hypriot.com/

However, by default docker doesn't listen on a network port which would allow to conveniently run docker commands from another host.

1. Make docker listen on network interface

Find and

Protractor: Geolocation in Google Chrome

2015-12-14T05:00:00Z

I am currently developing a hybrid app using Ionic. http://ionicframework.com
For end-to-end tests, they recommend Protractor. http://www.protractortest.org
Furthermore, I use a Selenium docker container.

As many other apps, I make use of geolocation to receive the user's position. However, when I tried to run a test with geolocation, it failed. I then used VNC to see if there is any error message, and I discovered Google Chrome prompts the user to allow or disallow geolocation. I searched the internet for answers, but couldn't find any. This didn't work for m

111 Stars on Github for WhatsApp Viewer

2015-11-23T21:00:00Z

Today I have received the 111th star on WhatsApp Viewer on github. I am still surprised by the spread of the application. I get lots of emails regarding key recovery, bugs and new features. Even though I have not worked on WhatsApp Viewer for a few months, download numbers are continual and a lot of people are interested in the app.

Thank you very much.

https://github.com/andreas-mausch/whatsapp-viewer

CS:GO Demoviewer Gif

2015-02-23T14:00:00Z

Current development screenshot

Jekyll and CS:GO Demoviewer

2015-02-20T20:13:44Z

Today I have set up Jekyll and did some work on my new project, the CS:GO Demoviewer.

CS:GO Demoviewer will be a tool to quickly review .dem files of the game Counter-Strike Global Offensive rendered in 2D. Development just started and I have a lot of ideas in mind to implement. Below a screenshot of a very early version:

Furthermore I am working on another tool for CS:GO, which will also parse a .dem file and output all highlights of it. Currently it shows the round number of rounds where a player got at least 3 frags and also clutches, when a lonely player left on his team won the round in 1vsX.