Kar Epker

Remote unlocking a Raspberry Pi running Arch Linux with an encrypted root drive

Background

I purchased a Raspberry Pi in 2016 (version 3B v1.2) to use as a web server for serving the static HTML pages I render my journal into. With SSH local forwarding, I can view the HTML pages on other devices over SSH, which limits attack vectors.

I recently decided to reimage this system after having bootstrapped more knowledge of system management over the past several years.

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“J’adore Juin” as The Apartment

It’s an understandable mistake when listeners pigeonhole the music of Australian electronic musician and DJ Nick Bertke, better known as “Pogo”, into the mood of nostalgia. His music sits perfectly in the intersection of reverb-heavy, dreamy music production techniques and the English-speaking world’s Disney-sponsored childhood. One need look no further than Pogo’s first video, “Alice”, which heavily samples the 1951 Disney movie Alice in Wonderland. “Alice” was a viral hit when it was released in 2007, and has 20+ million views to date.

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This Ain’t Your Professor’s History

A review of American Nations by comparison with Albion’s Seed

In a class my friend took in college, he had to think of five labels to describe himself. When my friend gave his labels, his professor asked why he didn’t include “American” as one of them. Intrigued by this exercise, I too, found that “American” was not really a way in which I thought of myself (though my views have evolved on this topic since I started working with many colleagues not from the U.S.). I thought about it off and on for a few years, trying to understand why it didn’t feel right.

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Pentatonix review

Pentatonix goes pop

Pentatonix surprises me. For years, Pentatonix has talked about their goal to release an all original album: a goal they finally realized with the release of Pentatonix. Pentatonix claimed that 2015 was the right time to release an all-original album, place their covers in the background, and develop what they have to say as an artist.

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