Paraexploring: Lipoa point, Maui

This past weekend, Saturday the 5th of April, I ventured out to a small ocean ridge on West Maui accommodating a rare north wind. It was the second time at a site I've been pioneering. On this island, at least, when we get the rare day of non-nuking trade winds, this pilot sits up and takes notice, and then goes paraexploring...

OK, so to put a bit of a damper on your anticipation it's not at all like the world-class Ko'olau range that produces state records and epic freestyle flying conditions. But given the dearth of ridge options on Maui and the prevalence of nuking wind days, we'll take what we can get!

The ridge is near Lipoa Point and can probably accommodate a wind direction of NNW through NNE, so basically it's flyable on the same post-frontal conditions that allow O'ahu pilots to fly Dillingham. The Lipoa Ridge is about 70' MSL and has a reasonable beach bailout zone off to the East side (if ya ain't gettin' it!) However directly below launch is giant boulders and pounding surf, kinda like the Makapu'u Crazy Man launch.

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In addition to the beach LZ, there are a few toplanding options, with nothing too tricky for you Kahana jockeys! And behind Lipoa Ridge is basically acres of flat grassy meadows and pineapple fields, so the turn-n-burn bailout option is available. This is an important consideration on Maui, where it seems the wind can pick up very quickly and violently while you're not paying attention!

The launches are all accessible with a short walk from the highway, but are nicely secluded, so you can set up and go without attracting too much attention until airborn. They resemble Kahana in terms of launch difficulty and could of course be improved a bit. I even forward launched at one point because I was having difficulty hefting my wing up into the smooth stream through the dead air near the ground!

Flashback: the first time I flew the ridge in December I had set up in an obvious party spot with plenty of broken beer bottle evidence that could put a snag in wing or pilot! And as Murphy would have it, that's exactly what happened to me then! Focusing on keeping my wing above me after a reverse inflation, I hardly noticed the "scrape" after tripping on the turn around. Got up into the buoyant air, looked down, and was surprised to see a deep gash in my leg and blood trickling into my boots!

Needless to say after a couple of passes in butter lift, I realized I had to land and continue the pioneering another day... As luck would have it I was heading out to O'ahu the very next day, so I needed to get myself patched up for the flying over there. So now you know why I was sporting a nasty wound last time I saw you!

Well that was then. And now, for obvious reasons, I avoided the party place and set up in a different spot: a tight grassy alley framed by ironwood trees and facing the incoming breeze. After a bit of site maintenance: twig cutting, Lantana shrub removal, I was ready!

OK, reverse inflation through the dead and rotoring ground air, until my wing is high enough and getting a solid grip on the breeze... Turn and moonwalk to the void and...

beep, beep, beep!

Right turn toward the beach bailout, just in case... Vario is still chirping happily... Now above the ridge and starting to attract attention from the tourist vehicles... It's all good!

I played it fairly conservative in terms of not going out to do some XC ridge. I stayed within glide distance of the beach. However I did make a few playful passes at a toplanding area before finally committing and getting down.

On the next flight I got high in a slight increase in the wind and decided to test the turn-n-burn bailout option. Verifying I could get way downwind from a stand of ironwood tree rotor, I blazed far downwind, turned back to face it and had a nice mellow landing in a grassy field. It's really good to know that option is available here!

After that I flew two more times and just relaxed and played at the edge of the lift band above the crashing waves, happy to enjoy some smooth and mellow ridge lift on Maui! But I couldn't help but look longingly over toward Halawa Valley on Moloka'i and imagine what the XC ridge potential along that north coast would have been on that brilliant Saturday afternoon...

Aloha!

P.S.: I'd say this site, unofficial as it is, would require a P3 (or advanced O'ahu P2) with a local guide--ME!--to fly safely.

Rule of thumb: only one sketch flight within 24 hours

One person's sketch flight will be another's routine flight.

Yeah, OK, but a night flight in a paraglider is illegal. Legal note: I'm not claiming that I've flown at night in a paraglider, but if I did, here's how I'd do it. Hat tip to OJ.

I'd set up around evening and wait for the clouds to disperse. I'd be swearing at the top of my lungs at the clouds to disperse, because there should be no fucken lift at that hour anyway when the sun is melting into the western sea.

OK, almost give up and hike my sorry ass back down the hill. If it weren't for these fucken clouds the half-moon would be plenty light enough!

Woah. It's clearing. Catabatic winds are melting the thin veil of cloud. Oops, maybe not. Anabatic cycles return and more swearing commences. What the fuck! The sun is down, how can there be lift out there?!

Oh shit. I see vehicle headlights. I'm not even sposed to be up here since those DLNR goons have closed the road. Grab my glider pack and hit the ditch. Wait for the truck to pass me by.

Flashback. I saw four of them drive back down this evening, and I had to hit the ditch 2 times hiking up the restricted-you-will-be-violated-and-prosecuted sign. But fuck, 3 minute flights suck, I needed at least a 12 minute sledder. 6 and now, fast-foward, 7 total DLNR cops up here. Wow, that's a good use of taxpayer money...

OK, so back to setting up the glider. OK, conditions are clearing! Catabatics aren't that bad. Shit, let's fuckengoforit! OK, final checks...

Sorting out my lines in the dark. Turn on my headlamp. Thank Gawd I brought it with me. Everything looks good, no snaggies. Shit, if I fly down under this half-moon, this'll sure beat the crap outta hiking my sorry butt back down...

OK, ready for it. Launch. Mild catabatic. But it's all good! headlamp illuminates a solid glider above my head. Commit...

And I'm flying, effortlessly over a moonlit landscape. Check my GPS. Heading is good and groundspeed is normal. No sketchiness. Relax and contemplate the planet below.

Landing is a cinch, I've done it with my eyes closed hundreds of times before...

And today? Well I hiked back down. My rule of thumb is only one sketch flight within 24 hours...

Someone's got to do it!

Some people have thousands of dollars of debt, and a big 'ole house that they're renting from the bank and a slick Lexus parked out front that they're also renting from the bank.

As for me? Well I've got my phunmobile, packed with thousands of dollars worth of phun. Equipment for Paragliding, kitesurfing, spearfishing and freediving, archery and bowhunting, hiking and camping.

I guess it comes down to values. You could go for the stuff of white-picket fences, cubicles, and 9-5. Or you can go for the stuff of experiences.

...

Yesterday I taught a paragliding lesson, making a little bank, caught a solo flight, and then I did archery all afternoon. I monitored my email and responded to a few IT support calls, making a little more bank, and finally had a nice cookout dinner while a mellow cloudy sunset revealed itself.

I didn't spend a dime all day and only burned a little gas shuffling up-n-down the road from the landing zone. Today's looking like the same. Completed lessons for the day and now spending time watching the clouds. I'm thinking I might do a bit more shooting and then go for a hike with my glider and maybe catch a sunset flight.

In the words of Ed Abbey, someone has to do it!

Semi-houseless, and livin' the life

"I guess you're living the life, huh?"

That's what an old high-school friend said to me recently when he found that I mostly just paraglide, kiteboard, and fool around with my spearguns and new compound bow. (I haven't technically gone bowhunting yet, but I'm getting there. Soon, hopefully; I've been doing plenty of target practice!)

So I rent a place downslope, but I spend a ton of time up on the mountain where I can fly, and teach flying and mess around with my bow for stretches when the kiteboarding looks like crap. I camp in my Phunmobile. And when I don't have a reason to come back down to lowland, why bother driving back and burning the gas?

"So you livin' outta that thing?"

Uh, yes, as a matter of fact I do live in it, for two night stretches at a time! After that, you really start jonesing for a nice hot shower, electricity, and refridgeration!

I've got enough amenities in the Phunmobile to have Internet access (Clearwire), hot food (propane stove), a decent twin-size bed platform with mattress and warm sleeping bags. Got rinse-off and quicky shower water with the ABS pipe contraption on the camper shell.

But I do miss continuous electricity and the fridge at my rental!

...

So the question is, could I do some kinda of timeshare-sublet to save money? OK, Mr. Subletter, you get the studio on Sat, Sun, Mon, and I get it the rest of the week. Wonder if that will become an option for folks as we go forward in this recession.

Why bother own when you can rent? And why bother rent full-time when you can go semi-houseless, saving your money? Plus the sunsets up here are spectacular!

Of course a sublet deal like that would also hafta be palatable to the landlord. Aye, there's the rub.

Deflationista!

OK, as you've seen from my economics posts, I've been a long fanboy of what has become the Deflationista wing of the Doom-n-Gloom camp.

Now I've got a Deflationista store where I can appropriately rant against the enemy!

But don't buy now, prices will be coming down in real terms soon!

Civilization

A Google on Special Forces Training brings up this video.

Wow. That shit looks really cool! Sign me the fuck up! I wanna do that when I grow up! Damn! Reminds of hide-n-seek games when I was a kid!


Except for the part about killing people.


Except for the part about fighting unnecessary wars.


Except for the part about supporting a corrupt and evil empire.


Actually I must admit that I couldn't watch all of it, knowing that raw in-your-face exercise of power is supporting empire. Someone please remind me to read Confessions of an Economic Hitman one of these days...

"Civilization does not mean electric lights. It does not mean producing atomic bombs, either. Civilization means not killing people."

~ Nichidatsu Fujii, Buddhist Nihonzan Miyoji Temple,
quoted by J.D. Forbes, PhD (Professor Emeritus, University of California), 1992

Blog inspiration and quote.

I'm voting for the Old White Dude

OK, so here we are in 2008 and all my liberal relatives and acquaintances and friends are no doubt backing Obama. And of course there's Hillary fighting for the position too. Here we are at the first election where the Democratic nominee is not some Old White Guy.

Hooray! Right?

Well what I think is more subtle and interesting is that this identity issue is not at all interesting at all. Because it feels commonplace. A minority as the next President? So what, who cares? Shouldn't we all just treat each other as individuals anyway? Shouldn't we care more about ideas, like the big questions of war, peace, empire, our money, the lust for power, the love of liberty, the pursuit of happiness, the content of our national character, ...?

Yes. And that's why this time around I'm voting for the Old White Guy. He's the only one who wants to have a serious discussion of these ideas, and is backed up by a record of action.

Full disclosure note: I'm a Caucasian, male, and on certain days I feel real old. So flame me!

Windoze/IT is a Makework SCAM!

With apologies to my friends who work at Micro$oft, but I must say that Windows is a huge makework scheme!

Getting one new user set up on a SBS machine and migrating the settings of an older user today plus interruptions and waiting for machines to reboot and take their sweet precious time doing whatever it is Windows machines do, took the greater part of 3 hours. Here's how it started...

• Get an urgent call to add a new account and move older settings to it.
• Login remotely to SBS.
  
• Wait for login to complete.
  
• Add the user. Power user template. Oh that was quick, not so bad so far.
• Attempt remote login to desktop that new user will use. Machine complains about desktop in use. Do I want to log them off, potentially causing loss of data? Uh, no.
  
• Call company. Nope, no one is using it. Please, sir, restart this machine, it's saying it's in use.
  
• Wait. Attempt to login as machine restarts. Not yet. Wait. Play Hearts.
  
• Attempt remote login to desktop again. OK, now I'm in.
• Muck with Control Panel: allow new user to log into this domain? Yes, please!
  
• Company calls back with some other Windoze issue. Spend 20 minutes walking them through something.
• OK where was I?
• Oh yeah, now log out of desktop.
• Log back into desktop as old user.
• Figure out data to copy from old user.
• Company calls with some other lame request...
  

OK, so now you g33ks will think I'm coming to the punchline where I say all this would have been so much easier/faster/better on Linux or *BSD because of it's superior X, and Y, and Z...

And yeah, true. I'm faster on the commandline than clicking and groping my way through the visual cacophony of Windows and yet...

I'm getting paid on Windows to fuck around, and even play hearts, while I wait for mysterious processes to churn away on obviously near-intractable problems.

Long live the Software Industrial Complex!

Busted!

I got busted by some rancher dude for launching and landing on a light wind day conducive to ridge soaring the ocean cliffs of west Maui.

Evidence:


Yeah, OK, technically I pirated the site, but I thought the launch was on semi-public easement land. When the wind increased in strength, I did need to land down in a pasture near the ocean, instead of toplanding. I was under the impression that this was OK as long as horses were not in the fields, which is what older pilots have said in the past. Apparently not.

Oh well. Despite the area having spectacular terrain to fly over, I expect this site to only work on a few days each year because of the normally very strong trade winds we get here on Maui. So, unless we get permission from land owners in the future, I'll save the ridge soaring for O'ahu...

Installing FreeBSD with GELI encrypted root partition on a laptop

Recently I had several false-starts attempting to install FreeBSD 7.0RC1 with GELI disk encryption on a laptop such that everything but /boot is encrypted. Not finding any documents on teh Intarweb documenting in some canonical fashion a procedure to do this, I decided to write down the method I used that ultimately worked (well enough for my not-so-demanding standards)! Your mileage may vary...

Synopsis

Briefly, the procedure requires you to install a minimal FreeBSD distribution to an external disk, then set up the internal disk/partition with GELI disk encryption, and finish by copying the external disk data over to the encrypted internal disk / partition. A /b partition holding the /boot directory will be the only thing unencrypted on the FreeBSD portion of the laptop.

I am indebted to a few documents for snippets of procedures listed below. The Encrypting Disk Partitions document within the FreeBSD handbook is one, and the GELI manpage is another. In addition, the dump/restore data copy procedure is taken from an excellent document on setting up gmirror from Ralf Engelschall.

I realize that it would be more secure to have the key be on an external device (like a USB keyring). I also realize I could do more command-line editing (like using bsdlabel instead of sysinstall). Comments welcome!

Before you begin, you should make sure you have backed up your data or are starting with a fresh laptop with nothing on it. I am not responsible for lost data!

Requirements:

• External hard drive. Mine is a Lacie USB 2.0 device, referred to below in commands as /dev/da0s1
• Internal hard drive, (obviously!) Mine already has a partition with Windows XP and another with Linux, and the MBR is already setup with Linux GRUB to handle the multi-booting. The FreeBSD partition is /dev/ad4s3
  
• FreeBSD CDs. I used 7.0RC1 #1 CD and the 7.0RC1 livefs CD
  

Part I - Installing minimal FreeBSD to the external HDD

This process requires that you first install the minimal distribution to an external hard drive. Boot the #1 CD, and begin the standard installation procedure (sysinstall).

Select the da0 device (external hard disk) to add the "fdisk" style partitions. I used option A to dedicate the entire external disk to FreeBSD, resulting in a partition of da0s1.

When prompted for MBR changes, choose None.

Continuing right along, now we get to choose FreeBSD slices. We will choose to create a partition scheme that will ultimately resemble:

512M  /b    da0s1a
IM    swap  da0s1b
JM    /     da0s1d

Where I is the amount of swap space (in Megs) you want--I chose 2048M--and J is the remaining space dedicated to the / partition.

Now, similar to something Microsoft could be accused of, sysinstall tries to be clever here, and we will need to do a bit of subterfuge to get our way. Sysinstall will automagically attempt to assign the / slice as sXa (instead of sXd). So when creating the slices, you will need to initially choose the 512Meg partition to be named / (instead of /b). Similarly you will initially need to name the / partition as something else, such as /foo

After slice creation, go back and select option M to change the mountpoints to the proper /b (da0s1a) and / (da0s1d). Whew. (For information WHY we need to do it this way, see the ASIDE after identically partitioning the internal disk below)...

OK, moving right along, after Qing out of that step, you will be in the distribution set selection phase. For now, choose the Minimal option. Select OK and then chooes your installation media (CD/DVD).

Last Chance! Are you SURE you want to continue the installation?

If you're running this on a disk with data you wish to save then WE STRONGLY ENCOURAGE YOU TO MAKE PROPER BACKUPS before proceeding!

We can take no responsibility for lost disk contents!

Now you watch and wait until the installation finishes on your external drive. After it completes, you can run through the various post-installation configuration options as you desire. I don't set up Linux binary compatibility at this point nor browse the package collection merely to save a little bit of time. You can always do these after completely installing FreeBSD on your encrypted internal hard disk.

OK after minimal post-installation configuration, go ahead and exit the installation, and reboot with the livefs CD.

Part II - Preparing the internal encrypted disk

At the sysinstall main menu, choose a Custom installation. Select the Partition option, on the internal hard disk (/dev/ad4 in my case). Make sure you don't change any of the existing partitions for the other operating systems (if you have them). Make sure the partition dedicated to FreeBSD is set to the FreeBSD type (using option T if needed). If you made any changes, you will need to use the W option to write the changes out. When prompted for a boot loader on the MBR, I choose None because I already have GRUB set up to do it.

Next, from the Custom installation menu, choose the Label option. It should automatically choose the internal harddisk for you since you selected it in the previous Partition phase. Here you will need to create the exact same slices as you did on your external HDD. Don't worry if the size of the / slice is different, but /b and swap should be the same. You will hafta jump through the same naming hoops as before. Ultimately you should end up with a slices like so:

512M   /b    ad4s3a
IM     swap  ad4s3b
JM     /     ad4s3d

ASIDE: The reason for having / be on a later slice (sXd) instead of the first one (sXa) is because the FreeBSD boot procedure by default will always attempt to load the /boot/loader from the first (sXa) slice of the dedicated FreeBSD partition. Also, / will be encrypted, and so will not be initially readable. If / was on sXa, then you would see a "No UFS" error when attempting to boot.

After completing the slices, select the W option to write out your changes. Then Q to return to the Custom menu. Exit this menu, then exit the installation, rebooting the livefs CD (why? because I'm not sure how to unmount the internal harddrive at this point, and I need it unmounted :-)

Part III - Encrypting and installing the internal hard disk

At the loader prompt on the livefs CD, hit option 6 to drop to the loader console. Load the geom_eli module and boot

load geom_eli
boot

At the main menu choose the Fixit option and choose to use the "live" filesystem CDROM/DVD.

Scramble the data on your FreeBSD swap and / slices:

dd if=/dev/random of=/dev/ad4s3b
dd if=/dev/random of=/dev/ad4s3d

Populate the /b slice on the external harddrive:

mkdir /tmp/m
mount /dev/da0s1d /tmp/m
mount /dev/da0s1a /tmp/m/b
cd /tmp/m
cp -Rp boot b
rm -rf boot
ln -s b/boot
cd /
umount /tmp/m/b
umount /tmp/m

Copy the /b slice from the external hard disk to the internal one

mount /dev/ad4s3a /tmp/m
dump -0 -f- /dev/da0s1a  |  (cd /tmp/m && restore -r -v -f-)
rm /tmp/m/restoresymtable

Begin GELI initialization of internal hard disk / partition. I choose Blowfish encryption, and select a good password:

dd if=/dev/random of=/tmp/m/boot/ad4s3d.key bs=64 count=1
chmod 600 /tmp/m/boot/ad4s3d.key
geli init -b -e Blowfish -s 4096 -K /tmp/m/boot/ad4s3d.key /dev/ad4s3d
geli attach -k /tmp/m/boot/ad4s3d.key /dev/ad4s3d
newfs /dev/ad4s3d.eli

Copy / from the external to the internal drive and mount /b in its proper location:

umount /tmp/m
mount /dev/ad4s3d.eli /tmp/m
dump -0 -f- /dev/da0s1d  |  (cd /tmp/m && restore -r -v -f-)
rm /tmp/m/restoresymtable
mount /dev/ad4s3a /tmp/m/b

Now we need to do some configuration. In particular, you will need to edit /tmp/m/etc/fstab to change the old da0s1 entries to resemble the following:

# Device          Mountpoint    FStype  Options     Dump    Pass#
/dev/ad4s3a       /b            ufs     rw          2       2
/dev/ad4s3b.eli   none          swap    sw          0       0
/dev/ad4s3d.eli   /             ufs     rw          1       1

You will also need to edit /tmp/m/b/boot/loader.conf to resemble something like this:

geom_eli_load="YES"
geli_ad4s3d_keyfile0_load="YES"
geli_ad4s3d_keyfile0_type="ad4s3d:geli_keyfile0"
geli_ad4s3d_keyfile0_name="/boot/ad4s3d.key"
vfs.root.mountfrom="ufs:/dev/ad4s3d.eli"

I find that now is a good time for performing other configuration of files in /etc, like rc.conf, sysctl.conf, syslog.conf, periodic.conf, etc, before the first boot. Go ahead and do that, I'll wait...

OK, now you can quit the livefs shell, and exit the installation, remove the livefs CD and attempt to reboot into your FreeBSD partition. If all goes well, everything should run smoothly. Hopefully you haven't forgotten your GELI password...

Part IV - Troubleshooting

Q. Initial boot complains about "No UFS".
A. It is trying to access the sXa slice which is either encrypted or doesn't actually have a UFS filesystem (did you forget to put the / partition on sXd? Did you forget to do a newfs?)

Q. The GELI password doesn't work.
A. Did you type it in correctly? Did you save the key file to the /b/boot/keyfile ?

Q. I'm never prompted for the password on boot.
A. Did you forget the geom_eli_load="YES" in the loader.conf?

Q. The loader works, and the kernel boots, the password takes, and it all works until it can't find the root filesystem.
A. You can type ? to see a list of potential root devices. Try specify something like ufs:/dev/adXsYd.eli and then you will need to fix the vfs.root.mountfrom variable in your loader.conf to the one that works.