Search Results: "DLange"

18 September 2020

Daniel Lange: Getting rid of the Google cookie consent popup

If you clear your browser cookies regularly (as you should do), Google will annoy you with a full screen cookie consent overlay these days. And - of course - there is no "no tracking consent, technically required cookies only" button. You may log in to Google to set your preference. Yeah, I'm sure this is totally following the intent of the EU Directive 2009/136/EC (the "cookie law"). Google cookie consent pop-up Unfortunately none of the big "anti-annoyances" filter lists seem to have picked that one up yet but the friendly folks from the Computerbase Forum [German] to the rescue. User "Sepp Depp" has created the following filter set that WFM: Add this to your uBlock Origin "My filters" tab:
! Google - remove cookie-consent-popup and restore scroll functionality
google.*##.wwYr3.aID8W.bErdLd
google.*##.aID8W.m114nf.t7xA6
google.*##div[jsname][jsaction^="dg_close"]
google.*##html:style(overflow: visible !important;)
google.*##.widget-consent-fullscreen.widget-consent

21 June 2020

Daniel Lange: Upgrading Limesurvey with (near) zero downtime

Limesurvey is an online survey tool. It is very powerful and commonly used in academic environments because it is Free Software (GPLv2+), allows for local installations protecting the data of participants and allowing to comply with data protection regulations. This also means there are typically no load-balanced multi-server szenarios with HA databases. But simple VMs where Limesurvey runs and needs upgrading in place. There's an LTS branch (currently 3.x) and a stable branch (currently 4.x). There's also a 2.06 LTS branch that is restricted to paying customers. The main developers behind Limesurvey offer many services from template design to custom development to support to hosting ("Cloud", "Limesurvey Pro"). Unfortunately they also charge for easy updates called "ComfortUpdate" (currently 39 for three months) and the manual process is made a bit cumbersome to make the "ComfortUpdate" offer more attractive. Due to Limesurvey being an old code base and UI elements not being clearly separated, most serious use cases will end up patching files and symlinking logos around template directories. That conflicts a bit with the opaque "ComfortUpdate" process where you push a button and then magic happens. Or you have downtime and a recovery case while surveys are running. If you do not intend to use the "ComfortUpdate" offering, you can prevent Limesurvey from connecting to http://comfortupdate.limesurvey.org daily by adding the updatable stanza as in line 14 to limesurvey/application/config/config.php:
  1. return array(
  2. [...]
  3. // Use the following config variable to set modified optional settings copied from config-defaults.php
  4. 'config'=>array(
  5. // debug: Set this to 1 if you are looking for errors. If you still get no errors after enabling this
  6. // then please check your error-logs - either in your hosting provider admin panel or in some /logs directory
  7. // on your webspace.
  8. // LimeSurvey developers: Set this to 2 to additionally display STRICT PHP error messages and get full access to standard templates
  9. 'debug'=>0,
  10. 'debugsql'=>0, // Set this to 1 to enanble sql logging, only active when debug = 2
  11. // Mysql database engine (INNODB MYISAM):
  12. 'mysqlEngine' => 'MYISAM'
  13. , // Update default LimeSurvey config here
  14. 'updatable' => false,
  15. )
  16. );
The comma on line 13 is placed like that in the current default limesurvey config.php, don't let yourself get confused. Every item in a php array must end with a comma. It can be on the next line. The basic principle of low risk, near-zero downtime, in-place upgrades is:
  1. Create a diff between the current release and the target release
  2. Inspect the diff
  3. Make backups of the application webroot
  4. Patch a copy of the application in-place
  5. (optional) stop the web server
  6. Make a backup of the production database
  7. Move the patched application to the production webroot
  8. (if 5) Start the webserver
  9. Upgrade the database (if needed)
  10. Check the application
So, in detail: Continue reading "Upgrading Limesurvey with (near) zero downtime"

14 April 2020

Daniel Lange: I think we need more creativity in statistics

" 'Boa constrictors swallow their prey whole, without chewing it. After that they are not able to move, and they sleep through the six months that they need for digestion.' I pondered deeply, then, over the adventures of the jungle. And after some work with a colored pencil I succeeded in making my first drawing. My Drawing Number One. It looked something like this: Boa Constrictor by Antoine de Saint Exup ry I showed my masterpiece to the grown-ups, and asked them whether the drawing frightened them. But they answered: 'Frighten? Why should any one be frightened by a hat?' My drawing was not a picture of a hat. It was a picture of a boa constrictor digesting an elephant. But since the grown-ups were not able to understand it, I made another drawing: I drew the inside of a boa constrictor, so that the grown-ups could see it clearly. They always need to have things explained. My Drawing Number Two looked like this: Boa Constrictor in sectional drawing by Antoine de Saint Exup ry The grown-ups' response, this time, was to advise me to lay aside my drawings of boa constrictors, whether from the inside or the outside, and devote myself instead to geography, history, arithmetic, and grammar. That is why, at the age of six, I gave up what might have been a magnificent career as a painter. I had been disheartened by the failure of my Drawing Number One and my Drawing Number Two. Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them." from The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exup ry Outcome of Cases (Recovery or Death) in Germany by Worldometers from the Corona Fun with Statistics department at Worldometers (source, archive.org link)

11 May 2017

Daniel Lange: Thunderbird startup hang (hint: Add-Ons)

If you see Thunderbird hanging during startup for a minute and then continuing to load fine, you are probably running into an issue similar to what I saw when Debian migrated Icedove back to the "official" Mozilla Thunderbird branding and changed ~/.icedove to ~/.thunderbird in the process (one symlinked to the other). Looking at the console log (=start Thunderbird from a terminal so you see its messages), I got:
console.log: foxclocks.bootstrap._loadIntoWindow(): got xul-overlay-merged - waiting for overlay-loaded
[.. one minute delay ..]
console.log: foxclocks.bootstrap._windowListener(): got window load chrome://global/content/commonDialog.xul
Stracing confirms it hangs because Thunderbird loops waiting for a FUTEX until that apparently gets kicked by a XUL core timeout.
(Thanks for defensive programming folks!) So in my case uninstalling the Add-On Foxclocks easily solved the problem. I assume other Thunderbird Add-Ons may cause the same issue, hence the more generic description above.

8 January 2017

Bits from Debian: New Debian Developers and Maintainers (November and December 2016)

The following contributors got their Debian Developer accounts in the last two months: The following contributors were added as Debian Maintainers in the last two months: Congratulations!

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