Kember.net

Old hymns made new

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 10:18:01 +0000

Call it what you like – the hymn re-write movement; re-imaginings and adaptations of old hymns or simply putting old hymns to new music. This is a trend that’s here to stay. The only surprise, really, is that it went away for a few years. Here is a little introduction to some of the groups making great music. There are also lots of free tracks, which doesn’t hurt.

Indelible Grace

This is a kind of super-group – albums are composed of hymns sung by various artists. The production quality is excellent – this is hymns done right.

Get the full picture by visiting the Indelible Grace website
Listen to one of their live concert albums, The Hymn Sing: Live In Nashville
Get Arise My Soul: An Indelible Grace Sampler free

Red Mountain Music

RMM is a music group formed by members and friends of Red Mountain Church in Birmingham, Alabama.

Here’s Red Mountain Music’s website
Download the B-side collection – a bunch of songs that aren’t on their albums.
Get Help my unbelief free

The Gospel Coalition

Now, the Gospel Coalition do a lot more than music, but nevertheless, this is well worth a listen.

Sing Them Again: The Gospel Coalition Hymn Sing Sampler
Zac Hicks has released Lord, I Believe for free, as a communion hymn, via Justin Taylor

Matthew Smith

Matthew Smith, of Indelible Grace, has released a lot of his own albums of hymns, available to listen to on Bandcamp

Sojourn Music

Sojourn Music have also released some lovely work on Bandcamp including their album, The water and the blood

Sandra McCracken

Sandra McCracken, of Indelible Grace, has a sampler of her New old hymns on Noisetrade and plenty of her own music.

Page CXVI

Page CXVI are dedicated to making hymns accessible and known again. Their work doesn’t seem to have the production finesse of some of other groups here (is it the vocals that feel flat?) but they’re worth checking out.

Ordinary Time

From their website: Ordinary Time is an independent folk acoustic trio rooted in the Christian tradition. The band’s oeuvre seamlessly weaves the hymns of generations past with their own new songs – often indistinguishably – producing a sound that ranges from bluegrass-tinged Americana to sacred harp hymn arrangements.

Ubuntu home server: Notifications by email

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 09:30:02 +0000

This walkthrough tells you how to provide an email service to daemons on a home server so that it can send emails to a server admin's Gmail account.

Key: Actions look like this, results look like this and commands you enter on a terminal look like this. Replace [my_username] with your login on this server e.g. andrew. Replace [external_FQDN] with the domain name that you use to access your server from outside your local network. (FQDN is Fully Qualified Domain Name.) Replace [gmail address] with your normal email address. This should work just as well for non-gmail addresses, but it's a useful distinction to show we'll be sending mail outside our local network.

Pre-requisites:

Computer running Ubuntu (This was done on 10.04, but it's fairly standard stuff)
Domain name and DNS provider who can make this work - e.g. dyn.com

sudo aptitude install postfix

Postfix installs
Postfix starts its configuration gui

Select defaults for:

General type of mail configuration
System mail name

sudo dpkg-reconfigure postfix
Postfix starts its configuration gui

Select the following options:

General type of mail configuration: Internet Site
System mail name: [external_FQDN]
Root and postmaster mail recipient: [my_username]
Other destinations to accept mail for (blank for none): localhost.[external_FQDN], localhost
Force synchronous updates on mail queue?: No
Local networks: 127.0.0.0/8 [::ffff:127.0.0.0]/104 [::1]/128 [internal CIDR block, e.g. 192.168.0.0/24]
Mailbox size limit (bytes): 0
Local address extension character: +
Internet protocols to use: all

Configure Postfix for SMTP-AUTH using Dovecot SASL

sudo postconf -e 'smtpd_sasl_type = dovecot' sudo postconf -e 'smtpd_sasl_path = private/auth-client' sudo postconf -e 'smtpd_sasl_local_domain =' sudo postconf -e 'smtpd_sasl_security_options = noanonymous' sudo postconf -e 'broken_sasl_auth_clients = yes' sudo postconf -e 'smtpd_sasl_auth_enable = yes' sudo postconf -e 'smtpd_recipient_restrictions = permit_sasl_authenticated,permit_mynetworks,reject_unauth_destination' sudo postconf -e 'inet_interfaces = all'

Postfix is configured silently - there is no output from these commands unless there's a problem.

Generate the keys for the Certificate Signing Request (CSR)

openssl genrsa -des3 -out server.key 1024
Enter passphrase when prompted
server.key file is created in your current working directory.

Now create the insecure key (no passphrase):
openssl rsa -in server.key -out server.key.insecure
Enter passphrase when prompted
server.key.insecure file is created in your current working directory.

Name the key files appropriately:
mv server.key server.key.secure mv server.key.insecure server.key
server.key.secure and server.key files are present in your current working directory.

Create the CSR using the insecure key:
openssl req -new -key server.key -out server.csr
In the next step, you'll fill in some details. The only important option is the Common Name, which should be the FQDN of the server. This is slightly different to the advice on Wikipedia which indicates that the CN(Common Name) is used as part of the DN(Distinguished Name).
Fill in some details about: Country Name; State or Province Name; Locality Name; Organization Name; Organizational Unit Name; Common Name; Email address.
When prompted for the following optional attributes, leave them blank: A challenge password; An optional company name.
server.csr file is create in your current working directory.

Create a self-signed certificate and install it

Note that this certificate will be valid from now until an end date determined by the number after the -days option.
openssl x509 -req -days 365 -in server.csr -signkey server.key -out server.crt sudo cp server.crt /etc/ssl/certs sudo cp server.key /etc/ssl/private

Configure Postfix to provide TLS encryption for incoming and outgoing mail

sudo postconf -e 'smtpd_tls_auth_only = no' sudo postconf -e 'smtp_tls_security_level = may' sudo postconf -e 'smtpd_tls_security_level = may' sudo postconf -e 'smtp_tls_note_starttls_offer = yes' sudo postconf -e 'smtpd_tls_key_file = /etc/ssl/private/server.key' sudo postconf -e 'smtpd_tls_cert_file = /etc/ssl/certs/server.crt' sudo postconf -e 'smtpd_tls_loglevel = 1' sudo postconf -e 'smtpd_tls_received_header = yes' sudo postconf -e 'smtpd_tls_session_cache_timeout = 3600s' sudo postconf -e 'tls_random_source = dev:/dev/urandom' sudo postconf -e 'myhostname = [external_FQDN]'
Now restart postfix:
sudo /etc/init.d/postfix restart
Postfix should restart with no errors

Configuring SASL

sudo apt-get install dovecot-common
Dovecot will install.

Edit /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf as root (e.g. sudoedit /etc/dovecot/dovecot.conf)
On line 1116, or thereabouts, uncomment the socket listen option and modify the section so it looks like this:

 socket listen {
    #master {
      # Master socket provides access to userdb information. It's typically
      # used to give Dovecot's local delivery agent access to userdb so it
      # can find mailbox locations.
      #path = /var/run/dovecot/auth-master
      #mode = 0600
      # Default user/group is the one who started dovecot-auth (root)
      #user = 
      #group = 
    #}
    client {
      # The client socket is generally safe to export to everyone. Typical use
      # is to export it to your SMTP server so it can do SMTP AUTH lookups
      # using it.
      path = /var/spool/postfix/private/auth-client
      mode = 0660
      user = postfix
      group = postfix
    }
  }

Now restart Dovecot
sudo /etc/init.d/dovecot restart

Setting up Aliases

Edit /etc/aliases as root (e.g. sudoedit /etc/aliases) to add your gmail address. Once you've finished, it should look like this:

    # See man 5 aliases for format
    postmaster:    root
    root:          [gmail address]
    [my_username]: [gmail address]

Testing

Lets see if we can connect to our postfix instance with telnet.
telnet localhost 25
... results in the following:

    Trying ::1...
    Connected to localhost.
    Escape character is '^]'.
    220 [external_FQDN] ESMTP Postfix (Ubuntu)

Type the following command into the telnet session:
ehlo [external_FQDN]
The output should include the following lines (and probably a bunch of others):

    250-[external_FQDN]
    250-STARTTLS
    250-AUTH PLAIN
    250-AUTH=PLAIN
    250-8BITMIME

Let's follow that up by sending an email directly from the telnet session.
Type the following commands into the telnet session:
mail from: root@localhost rcpt to: [my_username]@localhost data Subject: My first mail on Postfix Hello, Are you there, Charlie Bear? regards, Me . (Type the .[dot] in a new Line and press Enter ) quit
Postfix will acknowledge each command with a message ending in 'Ok' (except when you type the message contents). The output should look a bit like this:

    250 2.0.0 Ok: queued as 402DA9FCD4
    quit
    221 2.0.0 Bye
    Connection closed by foreign host.

Wait for it... Okay - now check your email. If all has gone well, you've got an email from yourself sitting in your inbox.

These instructions were pieced together from Postfix: Ubuntu server guide and Certificates: Ubuntu server guide.

Have you seen Mexicoco

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 20:32:14 +0000

Mexicoco is the brainchild of my talented wife, Lisa Kember. Lisa shows groups of people the techniques and skills they need to make their own chocolates. Lisa also makes incredible chocolates with exquisite flavours influenced by Mexican cuisine. They’re amazing – you’ve never tasted anything quite like them!

Have you heard of chocolate tempering? It’s the art of melting and setting chocolate so that it’s beautiful, crisp and glossy. If you’ve ever tried to make your own chocolates, you’ve probably already realised that chocolate is naturally dull and squishy. There’s an art to making it beautiful and tasty, but you can learn it, and Lisa can teach you how it’s done.

If you would like to learn how to make professional-looking chocolates with fillings that taste really good, you can.

Have I piqued your interest? Take a look at the Mexicoco website. We’re looking for shops to distribute Lisa’s hand-made chocolates. Can you help? Please get in touch!

Google Chrome OS for Aunties

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 19:54:25 +0000

As a techie type, my ears pricked up when I heard Google announce their intention to release an operating system. I like noodling around with new software when I get the chance, but my main interest in Google’s Chrome OS is not for me. It’s for people for whom the phrase, “Open Explorer and go to your Documents folder” is filled with intrigue and mystery.

These are the relatives and friends who frequently get themselves into trouble with viruses, malware and trojans because they view the Internet with innocence and optimism. I’m not at all sure that Google Chrome OS will help them find their “missing” documents (although if any company on Earth could, surely it would be Google) but this caught my eye:

And as we did for the Google Chrome browser, we are going back to the basics and completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don’t have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work.

That would be worth its weight in gold. Modern operating systems make a real effort to ensure common tasks are quite easy to perform, but slip up, or stray from the path a little, and we stumble into a bewildering forest of menus, options and files. I remember running Windows 3.1 on my 486, and being amazed that I had three thousand files on the hard drive. I noticed recently that I have about 300,000 files on my home PC – I doubt that’s unusual. I think that most people using computers today need access to an Expert: Somebody who can guide them out of whatever tangled mess they find themselves in.

I don’t think that the role of Expert will go away, just because Google enters the OS market. However, if the Chrome OS could remove – dramatically reduce, at least – the dangerous bits associated with getting in a computer-related pickle, then that would be very welcome. I shall watch with interest.

Going to be a daddy

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 16:33:32 +0000

Praise the Lord! We’re expecting this black and white smudge will be born in April.

Baptised

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 22:56:35 +0000

I shall be getting baptised this Sunday. I’ve been a Christian for many years, but haven’t yet done this. It’s an opportunity to demonstrate my faith and the way that God has made me right with Him. The symbol of washing away my sins, leaving me clean and unblemished is a powerful one. Baptism is also clearly necessary. Jesus is baptised, and we are told to be baptised too.

Awesome feature of dropbox - instant sync

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 22:54:07 +0000

Dropbox is a really useful file sharing, syncing, backup tool that quietly syncs my Dropbox folder with my other computers and with the online Dropbox website.

I use it to send my parents movies of my daughter; I use it to share my documents with my other computer and I get peace of mind knowing that right now there is a valid, complete backup of all my important stuff.

Here's the awesome feature

If I put a file in my dropbox that is the same as a file in anybody's dropbox (that's anybody in the world) then the upload is instant. For example, I've just purchased a download of MS Office 2010. It's 665MB big. When I put it in my dropbox, The Little Dropbox Elf (LDE) says,

Oh, that one? I've already got one of them. No need to upload another one, I'll just make a note of that.

Just so that you know — I don't actually hear the LDE. That would be annoying, and Dropbox is anything but annoying.

If you'd like to try Dropbox, you can sign up for a 2GB free account. If you sign up with this referral code, you’ll get an extra 250MB. So will I. Thanks.

Sansa clip volume problem

Thu, 15 Jul 2010 00:00:00 +0000

I recently updated my Sandisk Sansa Clip firmware and found that the volume was dramatically reduced.

One of the key reasons for leaving behind my iPod Nano was that it was rather quiet. Now, before you tell me how I should be looking after my ears, I should say that playing music was just fine. However, I listen to a lot of podcasts and the audio level is often rather low — hence the need to pump up the volume.

Now, it seems that the E.U. have called for a limit of 80dB on the volume of mp3 players. The only sensible way to implement this is to limit the volume scale on the device so that the normal volume of music is restricted to 80dB. This makes my podcasts really quiet!

The solution, for the Sansa Clip, is very easy:

Turn on your Sansa Clip
Make a note of any settings you would like to keep (we're going to reset them in a minute)
Select 'Settings' from the main menu
Select 'Reset All'
Select 'Yes'
Select your language of choice (English for me)
Select 'Rest of World' as your region
Optionally:
- Scroll through the settings menu to 'Volume'
- Select 'High'
Set the volume as you normally would - you should have lots more oomph now

Just remember to mind your ears when you listen to music after you've finished that quiet podcast!

Using regular expressions with the Find command

Tue, 25 May 2010 00:00:00 +0000

“Why don’t my regular expressions work with the ‘find’ utility in Linux/Ubuntu/Unix/Cygwin/Posix-environment?”

You need -regextype posix-extended
E.g. To find files with either of two file extensions, use: find . -regextype posix-extended -regex '.*\.(xsd|java)'

Want to know the differences between POSIX Extended Regular Expressions and basic ones? Read this excellent resource about regular expressions. Want to test your regular expressions, live, in the browser? Try Regexpal

Similarly, use egrep instead of grep to enable extended regex functionality and use sed -r instead of sed.

Removing Landscape advert from Ubuntu login

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000

To remove the text that says: “Graph this data and manage this system at https://landscape.canonical.com/” while keeping the useful system information, edit (or add) the configuration file that controls the Landscape client:

sudoedit /etc/landscape/client.conf

Edit this file to include the section:
[sysinfo] exclude_sysinfo_plugins=LandscapeLink

This is a better solution than editing the Message of the Day script (/etc/update-motd.d/50-landscape-sysinfo) because it survives updates to the Landscape and update-motd packages.

Test this change by running:
/etc/update-motd.d/50-landscape-sysinfo

It should look like:

  System information as of Mon Mar 19 06:46:31 GMT 2012

  System load:  0.0               Temperature:         59 C
  Usage of /:   8.1% of 39.85GB   Processes:           92
  Memory usage: 20%               Users logged in:     1
  Swap usage:   0%                IP address for eth0: 192.168.0.1

This article was updated with j's suggestion from the comments. Many thanks to j for making it even simpler!

Can't run Crashplan desktop under Ubuntu

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve installed Crashplan on my Ubuntu server (it installed its own JVM) and now I’m trying to start the Crashplan desktop client using X11 forwarding. I get:

$ cat /usr/local/crashplan/log/ui_error.log com.backup42.desktop.CPDesktop main SEVERE: Failed to launch CPDesktop; java.lang.UnsatisfiedLinkError: no swt-pi-gtk-3448 or swt-pi-gtk in swt.library.path, java.library.path or the jar file java.lang.UnsatisfiedLinkError: no swt-pi-gtk-3448 or swt-pi-gtk in swt.library.path, java.library.path or the jar file

Solution: Install Java. Specifically the JRE version 1.5. Unlike this report here it has nothing to do with 32/64 bit conflicts, because it’s a 32 bit machine. If you don’t want to install Java, and its associated clutter, then you could try following the advice in the Crashplan readme file about running the UI locally and connecting to the remote crashplan service via the service port:

Remote GUI Config of CrashPlan on a shell account:

What if you have a remote shell account on a box that has SSH access, but no X windows interface or GUI? We’re going to show you how to attach your local desktop CrashPlan UI to the remote CrashPlanEngine on a remote box.

We’ll do this by using SSH to forward local traffic to the GUI control port of the service on the remote machine.

Step 1. Install & start engine on host 1.2.3.4 (this is the far away text only server)

Step 2. Install CrashPlan on your local desktop. (Mac, Windows, Linux, doesn’t matter)

Step 3. In the CrashPlan folder of your local install, there is a folder called “conf”, edit the file called my.ui.properties. Add this as a new line at the bottom of the file and save it. Shut down the GUI, and add this as a new line at the bottom of the file and save it. (If you are running a CrashPlanPRO blue client, substitute 4283 for 4200 in the commands below.)

servicePort=4200

Step 4. We need to forward port 4200 locally to our remote server using SSH. Type this in terminal:

ssh -L 4200:localhost:4243 yourusername@1.2.3.4

Step 5. Run your CrashPlan UI. You’re now connected to remote CrashPlanEngine and can configure it at will.

Step 6. (optional) Pointing your UI back to local crashplan. Edit the “my.ui.properties” and comment out the servicePort change by putting a “#” in front and saving it. That’s it! Next time you use UI it will connect to your local CrashPlan again.

#servicePort=4200

Let me know if it works for you!

Pasting in Ajaxterm with Firefox

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Ajaxterm is a linux terminal available in a browser.

To paste text into the terminal window, you need to press the ‘Paste’ button, but Firefox doesn’t allow javascript to access your clipboard for security reasons. To change that:

Go to about:config
Filter for codebase
Change the value of signed.applets.codebase_principal_support from false to true (double-click on it)

Now Firefox will prompt you when a website wants clipboard access.

(via Java Effective)

Job asks Eliphaz for compassion

Wed, 27 May 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Job replies to Eliphaz, who is chastening him for lamenting his birth after all Job’s sons and daughters were killed:

How forceful are upright words!
But what does reproof from you reprove?
Do you think that you can reprove words,
when the speech of a despairing man is wind?

(Job 6:25 – 26)

I read this as: Despairing people say all kinds of things. Don’t correct the theology of what they say – that doesn’t help them. Instead, be compassionate and comfort them instead.

Having a technically orientated brain, like mine, makes the first option so much more inviting. Telling friends what they should think is so much easier than humbling myself to walk alongside them and support them.

Batch file comments

Thu, 14 May 2009 00:00:00 +0000

In Windows batch files, you can use a double-colon (::) as a comment. I’ve just spend a few hours trying to figure out why my batch file says, “The syntax of the command is incorrect.” when I run it. The answer? I’ve got a :: comment as the last statement after a group of IF statements. Obscure? Yes. Flaky? Certainly. Oh – hang on, it might be because I’ve got the :: before a for statement. For some arrangements of the :: comment, I’m also getting “The system cannot find the drive specified.”

:: is a bad, bad thing. My advice: Stick to REM

Frustrating science

Wed, 18 Mar 2009 00:00:00 +0000

I love science. It provokes a sense of awe and wonder in me that is often not prevalent in my day-to-day life. Seeing the intricacies of Creation and – better yet – understanding something about them gives me a thrilling feeling.

I’m very grateful to the teachers who have demonstrated the finer points of physics, chemistry and biology to me over the years. So it’s with a sense of frustration that I watched this movie from the Training and Development Agency for Schools. It shows a really cool chemistry experiment called Screaming jelly babies in which a (poor unfortunate) jelly baby is dropped into a test-tube of hot potassium chlorate. The sugar in the jelly is, um, “rapidly oxidised” which is a scientific way of saying that it fizzes, burns, glows and smokes until there’s not a lot left. It’s a fantastic demonstration, but, hang on, what’s that the teacher says as he’s heating the test-tube?

…it’s getting really hot. Probably not just hundreds of degrees, but nearer thousands of degrees. The powder is starting to turn into a liquid…

Thousands of degrees? I don’t think so. The melting point of the potassium chlorate is 356 °C. The Bunsen burner flame itself tops out at about 1500 °C. Heck – if the temperature rose much above 800 °C, the borosilicate glass of the test-tube would start to melt!

The point I’m making is that if we hold teachers to high standards of accuracy, we should hold people who teach teachers to even higher standards.

The problem with Truecrypt and Keepass

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 00:00:00 +0000

…Is that there’s no back-door. If I forget the passwords, I’m stuck. I wouldn’t change them for the world – they’re both great pieces of software that I use lots. It’s just that my sieve-for-brain can’t remember the Access Codes. I end up with old Truecrypt volumes, file containers and Keepass databases lying all over the place. Still, they (clearly) don’t contain anything important, because I haven’t missed them.

Evoluent VerticalMouse driver can't programme buttons

Fri, 30 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve got an Evoluent VerticalMouse 3 (rev 2) for work.

It’s like a normal mouse, rotated a quarter of a turn. It’s good because it means I can hold my hand in a more comfortable position. It’s bad because the buttons won’t do what their told!

My problem was that I kept clicking the extra button at the bottom of the mouse – that silver bit that’s lower than the normal mouse buttons is a button in its own right. I had the Evoluent mouse driver installed, but it didn’t seem to have any effect. My googling turned up nothing because the issue was addressed by their website as “Some buttons do not work” instead of “Some buttons do the wrong thing”. I did eventually make the connection:

“The VerticalMouse must not be moved to another port after installing the driver, otherwise the driver will not load and some buttons will appear not to work. If the VerticalMouse must be moved to another port, uninstall the driver and install it again after moving the mouse.”

Voila! Uninstall and reinstall the driver and all’s well.

Sterilising water for feeding babies - is boiling enough?

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Our thirteen-week-old daughter had a very slightly dicky tummy, which was enough to make us wonder what the cause might be. One of the first things we needed to rule out was dodgy water in her bottles.

To make up the bottles, we boil freshly drawn water in our kettle. We leave it to cool for about half an hour (boiling water in plastic bottles can apparently release more Bisphenol A) before pouring it into freshly sterilised bottles, which are then sealed.

I remember advice for campers indicating that water should be boiled for some time to kill pathogens. Whilst our kettle boils the water thoroughly, it only maintains a rolling boil for a few seconds. The question is, does this kill the nasty microbes?

According to Survival Topics and The Backpacker’s Field Manual by Rick Curtis

“Boiling is the most certain way of killing all micro-organisms. According to the Wilderness Medical Society, water temperatures above 160°F (70°C) kill all pathogens within 30 minutes and above 185°F (85°C) within a few minutes. So in the time it takes for the water to reach the boiling point (212°F or 100°C) from 160°F (70°C), all pathogens will be killed, even at high altitude.”

So that’s a yes.

An interesting aside: Reading about bacteria lead me to this article discussing how long bacteria survive on dry surfaces. The answer that you didn’t really want to know is that depending on the bacteria, they can live for days, weeks, months or years. So break out the anti-bac surface spray!

Oh – and our daughter’s dodgy tummy was caused by her starting to teethe. You live and learn.

Bash prompt

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 00:00:00 +0000

I always forget how to make my bash prompt just the way I like it, so here it is for posterity. In ~/.bashrc:

PS1='\[\e]2;\u@\H \w\a\]\[\e[32m\][\t] \[\e[33m\]\w\[\e[0m\]\n\$ '

This gives me a prompt like this with the time and path:

[11:00:48] ~/code/database_info
$

And a terminal title like this:
username@host path

Here’s the long guide to the codes, and here’s the one I use from IBM.

REISUB - the gentle Linux restart

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 00:00:00 +0000

According to Lifehacker a frozen Linux system that’s not responding to the Ctrl-Alt-Delete three-finger-salute can be restarted more safely than by pushing the power button, which is usually the next step.

Holding down Alt and SysRq (which is the Print Screen key) while slowly typing REISUB will get you safely restarted. REISUO will do a shutdown rather than a restart.

Sounds like either an April Fools joke or some very strange magic akin to the old BIOS beeps we used to use to diagnose PC faults so bad that nothing would boot. Wikipedia comes to the rescue with an in-depth listing of all the SysRq keys.

R: Switch the keyboard from raw mode to XLATE mode
E: Send the SIGTERM signal to all processes except init
I: Send the SIGKILL signal to all processes except init
S: Sync all mounted filesystems
U: Remount all mounted filesystems in read-only mode
B: Immediately reboot the system, without unmounting partitions or syncing

(Discovered originally here)

Did you find the REISUB article useful? I think you’d like Dropbox too. It’s an amazing file-syncing app that works on Linux, Windows and Mac. Free accounts have 2GB storage. If you sign up with this referral code, you’ll get an extra 250MB. So will I. Thanks.