Author: pstav@adelie.net

When iOS 12.0 was released, I noticed the much improved Shortcuts capability and app. This is a free Apple App that enables Siri to both listen (dictate) and speak.  

Thinking that was enough to get Siri to run my departure checklist, I sat down and “coded” a simple example of a departure checklist.  So, we then have a completely voice-activated checklist without purchasing anything.

It requires that your device be connected to data, either cellular data or WiFi, so it’s not useful when you are flying, but it’s a fun demo for startup, taxi, and departure.

Anyhow find, attached the Shortcut. To activate it import it via Dropbox or another method of your choice. Hook it to a Siri command, “Takeoff Checklist.” Connected to power, you can enable, “Hey Siri.” It’s kinda fun then to say, “Hey Siri, Run Takeoff Checklist.” At every step you can say, “done,” “check,” or whatever you want. At the end Siri will say, “Checklist Complete, have a nice flight.” If you say, “Stop,” Siri will respond, “Checklist not complete.”

–paul

A very usable way to instance a seperate operating system using the same hardware. We use it for supporting older linux versions.

Some notes:

Here at Progress Technical, I’ve decided it’s time to trust virtualization with a client’s uptime.  It solves a big problem for us.  We have a very old application running in a 32-bit environment and really can’t find adequate hosting for such an old app.  Being able to run Centos 6 with PHP 4/5 is a huge gain.  Little did I know there are at least six very popular virtualization approaches: VMWare, LXC, LXD, Docker, etc.   I am simplifying, so are type 1 virtualization some are type 2.  We settled on LXC for Centos 7 as that’s the system more readily available to use and for which we are most familiar.

LXC containers are fairly easy to get going.  There are a lot of good guides for creating a container in that environment.  What is difficult if you haven’t been through it is getting a containers to talk on the same network as the host:

Just some notes to self.  My 32 bit container is called mycentos6:

HOST setup:  in /var/lib/lxc/mycentos6/config:

# Template used to create this container: /usr/share/lxc/templates/lxc-download
# Parameters passed to the template: -d centos -r 6 -a i386
# For additional config options, please look at lxc.container.conf(5)

# Distribution configuration
lxc.include = /usr/share/lxc/config/centos.common.conf
lxc.arch = x86

# Container specific configuration
lxc.rootfs = /var/lib/lxc/mycentos6/rootfs
lxc.utsname = mycentos6

# Network configuration
lxc.utsname = mycentos6.adelie.loc
lxc.network.type = veth
lxc.network.name = eth0
lxc.network.link = br0
lxc.network.ipv4 = 192.168.0.113/24
lxc.network.hwaddr = 00:1E:2D:F7:E3:4E

CONTAINER ETH0

ifcfg-eth0:
DEVICE=eth0
ONBOOT=yes
HOSTNAME=mycentos6
NM_CONTROLLED=no
TYPE=Ethernet
IPADDR=192.168.0.112
NETMASK=255.255.255.0
GATEWAY=192.168.0.251
DNS1=192.168.0.251
IPV6INIT=no
USERCTL=no

One example page that helped:

LXC bridge example CentOS
cat /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0
DEVICE=eth0
TYPE=Ethernet
BOOTPROTO=none
ONBOOT=yes
NM_CONTROLLED=no
BRIDGE=br0
cat /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-br0
DEVICE=br0
TYPE=Bridge
IPADDR=10.66.1.27
NETMASK=255.255.255.0
GATEWAY=10.66.1.1
ONBOOT=yes
BOOTPROTO=none
NM_CONTROLLED=no
DELAY=0
cat /etc/sysconfig/lxc-net
USE_LXC_BRIDGE=”false”
LXC_BRIDGE=”lxcbr0″
LXC_ADDR=”10.28.14.1″
LXC_NETMASK=”255.255.255.0″
LXC_NETWORK=”10.28.14.0/24″
LXC_DHCP_RANGE=”10.28.14.2,10.28.14.254″
LXC_DHCP_MAX=”253″
cat /var/lib/lxc/test/config
lxc.network.type = veth
lxc.network.flags = up
lxc.rootfs = /var/lib/lxc/test/rootfs
lxc.include = /usr/share/lxc/config/centos.common.conf
lxc.arch = x86_64
lxc.utsname = test.alex.loc
lxc.network.name = eth0
lxc.network.link = br0
lxc.network.veth.pair = veth-01
lxc.network.ipv4 = 10.66.1.61/24
lxc.network.ipv4.gateway = 10.66.1.1
lxc.network.hwaddr = 00:1E:2D:F7:E3:4E