commit ab836e7dab3dfb3811eae61d884323531f48f223
parent bd92865f95c93d2b8fcec006319b8c703b72d3c1
Author: pyratebeard <root@pyratebeard.net>
Date: Thu, 25 Aug 2022 20:15:41 +0100
Merge remote-tracking branch 'refs/remotes/origin/main'
Diffstat:
2 files changed, 48 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
diff --git a/entry/20220610-welcome_to_the_alien_jungle.md b/entry/20220610-welcome_to_the_alien_jungle.md
@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+In 2009 while on deployment I picked up a battered old sci-fi novel from the shelf of books in our equipment tent.
+
+I remember something about a spaceship crashing on an alien world and the crew having to travel through a dangerous jungle. That is it. I don't remember the name of the novel or the author. I don't remember the characters, major plot points, or even what the cover looked like.
+
+In the back of my mind I thought I know what the cover was but could never quite bring that image forward.
+
+For years I have searched for this novel. It is very hard to search for "spaceship crash in alien jungle", there is a surprisingly large number of sci-fi novels with spaceships and jungles.
+
+Sometimes I think I have come close but have never stumbled upon "the one". That was until last week. As happens on occasion I was going through another bout of searching when I happened on one of the cover images for "The Legion of Space" by Jack Williamson ([ISFDB](http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?222345){target="_blank" rel="noreferrer"}). The cover caught my eye and so I read the plot summary on [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Legion_of_Space#Plot_summary){target="_blank" rel="noreferrer"} and while most of it didn't sound familiar there was one paragraph;
+
+> Through the machinations of his uncle, a powerful politician with a hidden agenda, John Ulnar is assigned to Aladoree's guard force at a secret fort on Mars. When she is kidnapped by a huge alien spaceship, John and the three other survivors of the guard force follow her kidnappers to a planet of Barnard's Star. They crash-land and must battle their way across a savage continent to the sole remaining citadel of the Medusae.
+
+I decided to give it a read, hoping for a moment of remembrance. First I had a look on [Project Gutenberg](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/bookshelf/68){target="_blank" rel="noreferrer"} to no avail. They have some "Astonishing Stories", which Legion of Space was serialised in before being published, but I didn't know the issues and didn't really want to go digging through them all.
+
+I checked my local library but they also did not carry a copy. Thus I succumbed to Amazon. The novel was available on Kindle so I purchased it, excited that this may finally be it.
+
+My first thoughts were that my search had failed again. Nothing was sparking any memories. The plot, the characters, I didn't remember a thing.
+
+Soon the writing, Williamson's descriptive prose, started to feel familiar. Yet still no sudden recollection. Then the spaceship crash on a alien planet and the crew having to venture into a deadly jungle. The only plot points I vaguely remember, and yet, I couldn't be confident this was the same book.
+
+After finishing the novel a few days ago I have tried to accept that The Legion of Space is probably the novel I read back in 2009. I also am having to accept that for some reason I cannot, and probably never will, actually remember. There are lots of memories I have from that deployment, almost all of it (I think), but not the name, or even the cover art, of that novel.
+
+Hopefully by finding The Legion of Space I can finally lay this quest to rest. At the very least I have read a(nother) decent sci-fi adventure novel about a spaceship crash in an alien jungle.
diff --git a/entry/20220703-the_great_ssh_escape.md b/entry/20220703-the_great_ssh_escape.md
@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+You have an ssh session on a remote system and your network drops. Your terminal is now stuck. We've all been there.
+
+Instead of killing the terminal you can use an ssh escape sequence to terminate the session. The sequence we want is `~.` (tilde and period).
+
+First key Return, then key the sequence `~.`. Your terminal is free!
+
+This isn't the only ssh escape sequence. To see others open an ssh session to a remote system and key `~?`, you will be presented with this message
+```
+Supported escape sequences:
+ ~. - terminate connection (and any multiplexed sessions)
+ ~B - send a BREAK to the remote system
+ ~C - open a command line
+ ~R - request rekey
+ ~V/v - decrease/increase verbosity (LogLevel)
+ ~^Z - suspend ssh
+ ~# - list forwarded connections
+ ~& - background ssh (when waiting for connections to terminate)
+ ~? - this message
+ ~~ - send the escape character by typing it twice
+(Note that escapes are only recognized immediately after newline.)
+```
+
+On occasion I use `~.` when I experience network drop out. I have used `~^Z` before to suspend my ssh session, useful when you want to leave jobs running and don't have screen or tmux available (see my post "[this ssux](20220331-this_ssux.html) on how I use tmux with ssh).
+
+The other escape sequences I have not used, but it is good to know they are there.
