f-log

I want to get more procedural when dealing with spam. I get a lot of spam and every now and then I want to digger deep and mess with the scammers.

The first thing I need is to extract the URLs out of the emails.

Claws to the rescue. I previously used Claws Mail to send an auto reply template from a specific address

It started simple and then got more fun :D

#!/bin/bash
#
# dissects and email file
#
# expects to be called from Claws Mail

filename="$1"

echo Dissecting $filename

grep -Eioz '"https?://[^"]+"' "$filename" | tr --delete '\n' | sed -re 's/"/\n/g' | grep -E --binary-files=text  "\w+"

read

which is called via an Action with

    xfce4-terminal -T "Email dissector" -x ~/scripts/email_dissector.sh %f

Which all does the following

• opens a terminal window titled "Email dissector"
• passes the selected email file name to my script
• which looks for http and https addresses
• z = ignore line breaks
• removes the resulting line breaks
• replaces the double quotes with line breaks
• removes blank lines from the result
• and waits for the user to press return (read)

Works quite well and I might get it to do more in the future.

After a couple of embarrassing demos that didn't quite work on a phone, I resolved to update a couple of my GitHub repos.

HTML5 Eyeball

This seemed like a simple "add touch support", but turned into a remove JQuery and replace the colour picker widget.

Wheel of Destiny

This was a different sort of job. People had asked to have an easier to configure and share Wheel. So after removing JQuery I added a URL builder and new page that took the values from the query string to render the Wheel.

What was a pleasant surprise was not having to touch the core code in either repo. Only the example pages and links were changed.

This Xmas I got scammed! Yeah!

The annoying thing was that it didn't trip my usually spot on bad-stuff radar.

It all started on Facebook, in the pages of posts I saw something interesting and at what seemed a reasonable price.

The advert felt high quality and the website also had a high production demonstration video. In fact none of the following were triggered.

1. Unreasonably cheap price
2. Some kind of timer or limited offer
3. Technology that seems too good to be true
4. A product that would excite a large audience
5. Bad spelling, low quality website etc
6. Odd url
7. High price

So I bought it for 35

The first hint of trouble was the name on the transaction shown on my banking app.

EBAY O*14-10905-12558

(values changed in-case it links to me)

It was nothing to do with EBay. Then it didn't turn up.

But, Barclays were able to refund me in just a few days after reporting it.

The reporting process was a bit onerous and obviously in place to stop frivolous charge backs. So I can live with that.

A friend got scammed for 55 using Facebook Marketplace and their bank, HSBC has not provided a refund after two weeks. When chased, the response was that the investigation could take up to 6 weeks. Ouch!

A quick update on the Hertz Hurts post from last month.

They agreed to refund the over-time fee and to pay back the fuel... minus a 15 processing fee.

I will not be following this up any further. It has been too painful and such a time sink.

The refund notice detailing the processing fee included a block of text from the Terms and Conditions that state I owe it.

I still cannot quite get over the fact that Hertz knows nothing about Hertz 247 and has never heard of a customer getting confused about them being separate teams. Even though the human I did speak to stated that they are the same company.

\__ ()_/

This made me giggle.

Dear Customer,

Tracking Number:Included in the Attached file
Packaging type: Standard
Number of Pieces: 2 pieces
Weight: 10.40 kg.
File Password : YourEmail Password should be valid to access the file.

Sadly some people will fall for it.

I have been playing a rather odd VR gem called Eolia.

Bought it on the Quest 2 on deal back at the beginning of the year and could not play it.

The first thing it asks you to do is reach forward and bang a large drum. Unfortunately I could not reach far enough to do so. But now I have moved , I can...

The game is Hands-First, which immediately hits some interesting problems.

Depending on how your room is laid out, hand tracking might only work in certain directions or angles.

So, should you bother with this game?

YES!

It is truly magical, but it has a steep learning curve. Nothing is clearly explained, but this adds to the adventure(*) and the overwhelming sense of accomplishment when you conquer some insurmountable obstacle.

(*) The caveat is the hand tracking can go off when you least expect it. I was climbing a vine, hand over hand and the tracking decided my hand was no longer holding on. That vine takes over a minute to climb to the top.

There are a number of other similar examples I could give, but I don't care. I keep coming back and trying one more thing.

Annoyance number two is the "powers". You can drink potions you find to enhance yourself, but they run-out after a short amount of time and potions (nothing) re-spawns. So, you will want to hoard them.

The tutorial introduces you to a flute that when played correctly can give you the same powers. But, and it's a huge But, you don't not get the flute for a very long time and I was worried that I had screwed up the game because of the lack of access to this item.

The flute powers also run-out, but not quite so quickly. The flutes problem is that some tunes are quite complex and will take multiple attempts to perform correctly. The whole time you are trying to add "double-jump" your "torch" is running out.

There is some balance in this frustration to value of working with the game to experience the world and lore. I think I am, maybe, to used to NPC hand-holding my every step. Though I have completed actions that should have triggered results only to find I was in ever-so slightly the wrong place.

Graphics are a mixed bag. Some text is difficult to read on the quest2, some areas are very blocky and angular and others are expansive and detailed.

There are lots of problems with using your hands correctly to bring up the inventory etc but I am not quitting yet!

I wanted to get some photos off my Pixel 7 Pro onto Gentoo.

In the past I used a USB stick that has both a USB type C and USB type A connector, transferred them from the phone, then unplugged and plugged into my Linux machine.

It worked, but was janky as hell. I knew there was a better way.

And slightly annoyingly, I am pretty sure I did this before and forgot to write any of the instructions down :(

this is for reference ONLY!

wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/MTPfs

run groups and make sure your user is in plugdev

then just

mkdir /tmp/pixel
mtpfs /tmp/pixel

takes at least 30 seconds

ls /tmp/pixel
ls "/tmp/pixel/Internal shared storage"
ls "/tmp/pixel/Internal shared storage/DCIM"
ls "/tmp/pixel/Internal shared storage/DCIM/Camera"

and ...

There are no files :(

unmount

fusermount -u /tmp/pixel

/tmp will be destroyed on the next boot

What actually worked

(after putting the phone in to Developer mode and enabling USB debugging)

adb pull /sdcard/DCIM/Camera/ .

downloaded all the files from the Camera folder on the phone to the current folder

Must add lots of tags to this post so I don't lose it !