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Monday, July 29, 2019

Offline Cloud (AWS, GCP, Azure, etc...) Simulators/Emulators, Random Stuff, and More

- sometimes you don't have Internet access so the best you can do is setup emulators. I didn't realise until relatively recently that there are emulators for many cloud services out there such as AWS, GCP, Azure, etc... In this post we'll look at some of the options out there (these notes are from a long while back/maybe even years? so if they're not entirely up to date please excuse me)
- if you don't already know there are some cloud services that offer you the chance to use their services free (emulated services as well as real services) without having to register details of your personal credit card. Not surprisingly most services out there aren't that much different from one another
ibm cloud
rackspace free "no credit card"
free public cloud "no credit card"
- the obvious benefit of emulators are offline development and complete control over your environment. System requirements generally require/recommened 64-bit platforms, Debian/Redhat based software distributions, 4GB RAM, etc... 
localstack alternative to
- Localstack and Eucalyptus are the main ones everyone will be interested in if you want to explore AWS emulators/simulators
sudo pip install --download downloads localstack
aws emulator
aws simulator
localstack download
localstack demo
sudo pip install boto3
sudo pip install PySocks
sudo pip install flask_cors
eucalyptus debian
eucalyptus github
- you may need to use my nodep.sh script to 'clean packages up' a little bit. Note that there are a lot of broken links for the Azure emulator/simulator
offline azure emulator
azure simulator
- GCP is emulated as well
gcp emulator
google cloud emulator
- since the emulators seek to copy functionality you can often get away with looking up the original documentation if you're having problems. Ironically, one of the reasons why you would do this is because of lack of help/volunteers downstream in emulator software development
- if you didn't already know many of these software stacks have their own problems. There are lots of options to check for obvious problems now though so that you can mitigate much risk
search s3 buckets
open s3 bucket
find open s3 buckets
https://s3tools.org/s3cmd
finding open s3 buckets for an organisation
shodan alternative to
aws flaw checker
azure flaw checker
- I obviously tried localstack as well. Below are some of the errors and debug systems
sudo pip install moto
----
local install from whl files python
----
sudo pip install --upgrade localstack
2018-10-09T03:57:32:ERROR:localstack.services.generic_proxy: Error forwarding request: HTTPConnectionPool(host='127.0.0.1', port=4564): Max retries exceeded with url: / (Caused by NewConnectionError(': Failed to establish a new connection: [Errno 111] Connection refused',)) Traceback (most recent call last):
----
DEBUG=1 localstack start
----
Error: Unable to access jarfile /usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/localstack/infra/elasticmq/elasticmq-server.jar
----
https://s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/dynamodb-local-mumbai/dynamodb_local_latest.zip
user@system:/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/localstack/infra/dynamodb$ ls
DynamoDBLocal.jar
unzip dynamodb_local_latest.zip 
sudo cp /media/sda1/SYSTEM/dynamodb_local_latest.zip .
cd /usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/localstack/infra/dynamodb
- the funny thing with the Open Source versions of stacks is that most employers just don't seem to be interested in them. The obvious irony is that many proprietary stacks often build upon this technology? A closed and open source software divide exists even though it shouldn't?
ubuntu openstack install
free public cloud
- one trend that is interesting for me is compatibility seems to be increasing across the board and solutions seems to be converging in on one another
- there are free qualifications and certifications for many areas in IT if you didn't already know. Sometimes they even have free emulation systems in place. Note, that often for partners of particular companies there are free training courses and labs that they can attend. These run regularly and often when a new product is about to be released 
free amazon aws course site:edu.au
online aws simulator
- after you get things up and running things pretty much work like the real thing. That said if updates happen upstream things will come down the line a fraction later
- I've thought about building my own emulation systems as well as building my own lite software stacks obviously...

Random Stuff:
- as usual thanks to all of the individuals and groups who purchase and use my goods and services
- latest in science and technology
- latest in finance and politics
- latest in defense and intelligence
- latest in animal news
What’s in the water at the North Carolina Zoo? Yet another baby chimp is on the way
- latest in music and entertainment

Random Quotes:
- "So what I learned the most by working with celebrities and very famous artists is not just be humble but make them feel humbled; take care of them, take care of their people," he said in an episode of Business Insider's podcast "This Is Success."

He gave two hypothetical examples of an interaction, drawn from his own experiences:

"So I ended up in the studio with a great artist. He meets everyone. He says hello to everyone. He says hello to me. We're all cool. We have the greatest sessions ever. Make great music.

"Someone else comes in, he's like, 'Hey, yo ... what's up man? So nice to meet you. So let's get this thing cooking.' Doesn't say hi to my cameraman. Doesn't say hi to my manager, doesn't say hi to my publicist. I'm already like, 'Do I want to be affiliated with a person like this?' But not just me thinking this. Everyone in the room is thinking this."

Afrojack is also the head of his own record label, as well as the CEO of the talent agency LDH Europe, and he said that he would much rather work with someone he respects and get a moderate return on a project than work with an egotistical and selfish partner and get a massive r eturn. The former is more sustainable.

"So if you look from that perspective, no one's wanting to work with the guy who's an a--hole - or not necessarily be an a--hole, but has the ego, or thinks he has to live up to certain expectations," he said.

In show business, Afrojack noted, it can be easy to not recognise the power brokers behind the celebrities, and people starting at the bottom can end up on top the next day, but that shouldn't be the primary reason you treat a powerful person's team members with respect. For Afrojack, becoming egotistical is the first step to destroying your success, leading to foolish decisions and tarnished relationships.

"So don't just be nice to the people that 'matter,'" he said.
- “There are a lot of misconceptions about my life,” said Eisler, who believes he has achieved the “fame” without the “fortune”.

“The main one being that it is lucrative and that I make a lot of money. The truth is, if I were to stop travelling, I would need a second job to make this work.”

Life on the road can be exciting and lonely at the same time, and Eisler knows that only too well.

“It’s kind of a gift and a curse. I would really love to have a home, a girl, a routine and all of those regular things, but I feel the opportunities I have are too valuable to pass up. All those other things will come when they come. I’m in no rush.”

Eisler believes he has learnt more about life in the last few years being on the road than he did in his seven years of formal education. The simple life has taught him how to “make the most out of the least” and put up with various types of people.

So, if you think you’re ready to leave it all behind and live a life of adventure, Eisler has some sound advice.

“For people who want to travel like I do, the main thing is to get a mobile job. Learn web design or something you can do on a laptop from anywhere. For me, this is part blading, part video work.

“Once you can work from anywhere, the next part of the equation is replacing your rent and car payments with plane tickets.

“The world is not as scary or as dangerous as you would be led to believe.”
- CAPE TOWN - In its research of wealthy families across the world, including South Africa, Stonehage Fleming has found that there are four aspects to being wealthy:
1. Financial capital: The family’s tangible assets and intellectual property that have quantifiable financial value.
2. Cultural capital: That which brings a family together by identifying shared perspectives and themes including their approach to business, treatment of others, contribution to society, attitude to wealth and values.
3. Intellectual capital: A family’s accumulated skill, knowledge, experience and wisdom.
4. Social capital: The way in which a family relates to and engages with society and the communities in which it lives and operates.

Response to change

Stonehage Fleming’s latest report, “Four Pillars of Capital: The Next Chapter”, surveyed about 150 multigenerational families across the world. It highlights the issues facing wealthy families today and how they are responding. These include:

* Rate of change. The rate of technological, social and political change is probably greater today than it has been for any generation in living memory, the report says, and the gulf in perceptions and values between the generations “is significantly greater than in the past, which has an impact on long-term planning objectives”.
* Relationships among generations. “Intergenerational relationships are often less hierarchical than before, facilitating the discussion and resolution of any issues,” the report says.
* Leadership and succession planning. The report says traditional means of succession planning, such as the principle of primogeniture (the right of succession belonging to the first-born child) are being challenged. Although some families favour traditional approaches to passing on their legacy, “it seems likely that more sophisticated governance and communications will become the norm

Families are concerned about having leaders in place who will see the family through the uncertainties of a changing environment”.
* Risk management. The report says many families realise that it is of little use investing resources in managing the financial risks to their assets, while neglecting the management of non-financial risks, such as inter-family conflict.

Commenting on the report, Matthew Fleming, the global partner and head of family governance and succession, says families are also more aware of the political risks that accompany inequality in society, and as such look to use their wealth to good purpose (see below).
* Contribution to the community and reputation. There appears to be a greater desire to make a positive contribution to the community. There is also recognition of increasing risks to reputation, particularly from social media.
* Socially responsible investing. “Most families surveyed - particularly the younger generation - expressed a view that investments should be more socially responsible. Defining this strategy is a key component of effective family leadership for the 21st century,” the report says. It says 51% of respondents said they actively undertook investments that were in keeping with their values.
* Asset classes. Real estate remains the favoured asset class, the report says, with listed equities close behind. “Private equity remains popular, and there has been a significant increase in those prepared to consider alternative investments There was a notably limited interest in cryptocurrency,” the report says.
- Olivia:
So why is this book your favorite book?
Peter:
Because it talks about not depending on other people for answers. You can only find the answers inside yourself. Which given our current situation, it's kinda of amusing, if you think about it.
- Sachin Tendulkar is not short of a coin these days but, according to Indian commentator Harsha Bhogle, had a novel way of making a buck as a youngster.

Bhogle told ABC Grandstand a story of how Tendulkar's batting coach, Ramakant Achrekar, used to put a one rupee coin on the budding star's stump and told him if someone was to bowl him they could keep it. If it stayed, then the coin would be Tendulkar's.

"He had a bag full of coins," Bhogle said.
Sachin Tendulkar is not short of a coin these days but, according to Indian commentator Harsha Bhogle, had a novel way of making a buck as a youngster.

Bhogle told ABC Grandstand a story of how Tendulkar's batting coach, Ramakant Achrekar, used to put a one rupee coin on the budding star's stump and told him if someone was to bowl him they could keep it. If it stayed, then the coin would be Tendulkar's.

"He had a bag full of coins," Bhogle said.
- Then, in 2017, Reuters reported Mr Putin as saying he wanted his grandchildren to have a normal childhood.

“My daughters are involved in science and in education. They don’t interfere in anything, including politics. They live normally,” he said.

“The thing is I don’t want them to grow up like princes,” he said of his grandchildren.

Vladimir Putin and his ex-wife Lyudmila pictured in 2006. The couple divorced in 2013 after 29 years of marriage. Picture: www.g8russia.ru via Getty Images
Vladimir Putin and his ex-wife Lyudmila pictured in 2006. The couple divorced in 2013 after 29 years of marriage. Picture: www.g8russia.ru via Getty ImagesSource:Getty Images

“I want them to be normal people. And for that they need ordinary, normal communication with other children.

“They would be immediately identified and not left in peace. It would damage the children’s development. I ask you to understand me and to treat this position with understanding.”
- The government spends more money on pensions and aged payments than any other type of welfare. More than $70.2 billion will go to aged welfare payments in the next financial year.

That's an increase of four per cent, or $2.7 billion. The bulk of that money will go towards income support for seniors and aged care services.

Just over $47 billion will go towards the disability support pension, NDIS and carer payments.

Currently, over 750,000 Australians receive the disability support pension. Most are aged 35 to 54.

Assistance to families - which covers Family Tax benefits, parenting payment, childcare subsidies and paid parental leave - comes in at $37.4 billion.

About 2.5 million people currently receive some form of Family Tax Benefit.

Income support for the unemployed and the sick makes up $10.8 billion of the welfare budget, an increase of $358 million from 2018-19.

Welfare payments to Indigenous Australians make up $2.3 billion, a decrease of $19 million from 2018-19.

The rest of the welfare budget will go toward helping veterans, other welfare programs and general admin.
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Monday, July 22, 2019

Etherscan Analysis Script, Random Stuff, and More

- as indicated in my previous posts working in the cryptocurrency area can get frustrating sometimes. I've been looking at ways to determine how easy it is to see signs of cryptocurrency market manipulation. This post is obvious a follow of others that I've done on cryptocurrencies:
- I wrote a script to do basic analysis. Download it here:
- details of this script are as follows:
I obviously work in the cryptocurrency space from time to time.
Something which has been frustrating has been cryptocurrency
market manipulation. I am aware of services which handle this but
I wanted something of my own that I understood, could modify, could
run locally, etc...

To run it, download the relevant CSV file from the etherscan.io website.
Then run it as a parameter to this script:
The sample file included in this package was from a long while back
for the BAT token.

It's basically been designed for you to pipe the results to less for
basic manual analysis. I was going to add some form of statistical
distribution analysis, artificial intelligence, etc... capability to
this but it was too cumbersome and didn't really get me enough capability
for the added code so I left it out. If you want it just use something
like ministat.

As this is the very first version of the program it may be VERY buggy.
Please test prior to deployment in a production environment.

Examples:
./etherscan_analysis.sh export-token-0x0d8775f648430679a709e98d2b0cb6250d2887ef.csv
- there are already existing tools for cryptocurrency market analysis online. They can be cumbersome though and don't really integrate well or provide extensibility
etherscan
Token BAT
etherscan csv analyser
- indications of market manipulation are somewhat obvious. The level of obscurity is the key though
- my impression is that even if the market doesn't really grow cryptocurrencies are going to stick around for a while... That means either new analytics firms will pop up or existing finance firms will begin to move into this area (which they already have)
- despite all the hype the same principles of traditional finance apply to this field as well
blockchain analysis
- there are lots of closed source/private solutions for cryptocurrency analysis
- fewer open source options for cryptocurrency analysis though. Most are in Python or C++
blockchain analysis site:github.com
- one thing I've noticed about blockchain and cryptocurrencies is that code is abandoned incredibly quickly based on what I've seen in public source code repositories (much more quickly then when compared with other fields). Most people in this area are really grasping at things. Very few know the area genuinely well
- it's really nice that there are lots of free books and resources out there in this field. Please try to understand how cryotocurrency and blockchain technology works and it's theoretical limitations. It helps you to see through marketing hype that you hear about in many projects. At it's core blockchains are public databases. However, they are very slow. This means that many basic implementations of cryptocurrencies have no genuine chance of replacing fiat currencies or acting as a backup to the current financial and banking system
blockchain books free
- following will not work
for link in $(links -dump 'https://github.com/xieren58/the-best-blockchain-books' | grep 'https://github.com/' | grep -E ".pdf" | sed -r 's/^.*https:/https:/'); do wget -c "$link"; done
- these are some of the techniques and tools that I looked at to analyse cryptocurrency transactions
measure entropy numbers
r get mean from group of numbers
measure variance r from cli
tsv-utils debian
ministat
csv statistics debian package
find statistical links csv linux cli
ftp://atrey.karlin.mff.cuni.cz/pub/local/mj/linux/xsv-1.0.1.tar.gz
measure entropy from group of numbers linux
alternative xsv
XSV: A fast CSV command-line toolkit written in Rust (github.com)
test randomness of a file linux bash
csv process r linux cli
statistic distribution linux cli

Random Stuff:
- as usual thanks to all of the individuals and groups who purchase and use my goods and services
- latest in science and technology
- latest in finance and politics
The U.S. and China Will Both Lose the Trade War _ Debate #3
Buying Russian arms?! Be ready to regret this! - Fair competition acc. to US?
Dozens of US footwear giants ask Trump to halt tariff hike on China
- latest in defense and intelligence
Trump’s war whisperer John Bolton | The Weekly with Wendy Mesley
Argentina natn'l library opens Holocaust, anti-Semitism section
Argentina moves closer to blacklisting Hezbollah
- latest in animal news
- latest in music and entertainment

Random Quotes:
- “At the risk of sounding sentimental, I’ve always felt there are people who can leave an indelible mark on your soul, an imprint that can never be erased.” 
― Agent Broyles
- Steer clear of ever ordering a soft drink with ice at McDonald’s and always ask for no salt on your fries.

That’s the hot tip from an inside source at the fast food giant, who has lifted the lid on what everyone should avoid ordering and how to guarantee you can get the best service.

The crew member, who worked at a McDonald’s in Essex in England, told The Sun he gets drinks without ice and says everyone should too.

”I would never get anything with ice in it,” he spilt “It’s not the water that is used to make the ice. It is the machine. It just isn’t cleaned as often as it should be.”

Even though the ice isn’t recommended, the McDonald’s crew member did reveal how to ensure the fries are always fresh and the best time to get them.

“Order your chips without any salt because then we have to make a fresh batch of fries,” he revealed.

“We also have to clean out the tray that the fries are stored in to make sure no salt gets on them.”

Customers should go just after peak times when the menus are changing over because that is when the food will come out the best.

The employee said: “The peak times are eight and 10 (in the morning), 12 and two (in the afternoon), and five and seven (in the evening).”

He added that the worst times to come are during actual peak times because of how busy it gets.

His last helpful tip was to never order a milkshake because the mix to make it is the same as ice cream.

He said: “It’s a white liquid that comes in a sealed bag that we pour into the machine. I just don’t see the point in paying for one or the other when they are literally made from the same thing.”

A McDonald’s spokesman said: “We encourage all of our crew to speak up if they have any concerns, offering formal and informal channels for issues to be raised.”
- Both had some money saved from earlier entrepreneurial endeavors (Reina had a pop-up coffee shop one summer and Harari re-sold concert tickets and sneakers online), so in July 2017, they ordered 1,000 buttons for $2,500 from a Chinese distributor they found on Alibaba. They used LegalZoom to figure out trademark information and set up a website through SquareSpace, an Amazon storefront page and an eBay page for international orders. They advertised the site on Instagram ($75 and $150 per post) and spent $10 per day on Facebook ads.

“Our first day we got zero orders. Our second day, we got one order and celebrated,” Reina writes in a Reddit post. “Each day, sales were slowly dribbling in, and by week two, we were doing five sales a day and felt like Bill f------ Gates.”

Then just before the 2017 holiday season, a video of a Jack Russell Terrier playing with one of their Nut Buttons went viral. According to Reina, it was shared on Barstool’s Instagram account, which has roughly 6 million followers, and soon the co-founders were selling more than 100 buttons a day at $11.99 a pop. Reina, who had final exams, had to recruit his housemates (for $15 an hour) to help package and ship out the buttons to keep up with demand.


The Nut Button now sells for $14.99, and thanks to better prices from their distributor and cheaper fulfillment fees through an the Small and Light Amazon shipping program shipping program, the company’s profit margins are around 60 percent, according to the co-founders. So far, splitting everything 50-50, the partners say they have pocketed around $40,000 each.
- Poe's Law states:[1]

“”Without a clear indication of the author's intent, it is difficult or impossible to tell the difference between an expression of sincere extremism and a parody of extremism.
It is an observation that it's difficult, if not impossible, to distinguish between parodies of fundamentalism or other absurd beliefs and their genuine proponents, since they both seem equally insane. For example, some conservatives consider noted homophobe Fred Phelps to have been so over-the-top that they argue he was a "deep cover liberal" trying to discredit more mainstream homophobes[citation needed]. This conspiracy theory of sorts is either supported or refuted, depending on your point of view, by the fact that he ran for office in five Kansas Democratic primary elections. He never won.[2]

Poe's law applies not only to the absurdity of beliefs, but also to the absurdity of the arguments that are used on behalf of those beliefs. Arguments on behalf of young-Earth creationism and theodicy are especially known for their absurdity. The quintessential Poe's law argument is an argument on behalf of theodicy, which goes: "Who are we/you [mere humans] to question the motives of the almighty?". The absurd simple and obvious non-sequitur and circular logic therein (that God is good because he is the god) gives one the impression that that argument is intended as a humorous parody of Christians, but in fact that argument was made by a few actual insane Christians.

It is important to note that: linking a claim to Poe's Law is not the same as suggesting that said claim is in fact any type of parody at all. On the contrary, linking to Poe's Law just means that you could not tell if said claim was parody, or indeed sincerely held crankiness — assuming the original claimant didn't decide to also supply a clear indication of intent. When one is presented with a claim that is so over-the-top as to either be a brilliant parody or reflect a genuinely outrageous extremist belief, Poe's Law has been invoked.
- "Since China has closed its doors to our waste, the effective cost increases to councils are 400 and 500 per cent — it's just not feasible that councils can sustain those losses.

"It's unfortunate and we would prefer it to be otherwise, but without any sort of subsidy for our recyclable materials, councils just can't make the maths add up."

Ipswich Mayor Andrew Antoniolli said the level of recycling contamination had doubled in the last six months and reducing it to the required level for overseas waste operators was impossible.

"We were very good at our contamination levels a number of years ago — I would contest that Brisbane could get down much lower than 20 per cent of contamination … but all of a sudden I think people were starting to see the stories about the China crisis and they've started to lose faith in recycling," he said.
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Dodgy Job Contract Clauses, Random Stuff, and More

- in this post we'll be going through dodgy job contract clauses. Ironically, many of which are actually unlawful and unenforceable on c...