Nov 12, 2020

FUCK YOU HP (aka how to downgrade firmware on HP 254dw)

 Fucking shoot me in the face. Nothing in this world works, any any attempt to make it better just makes it worse.

This time it's HP. FUCK YOU HP.

< Actual ranting goes on for a while, just scroll past the image for downgrade steps >

I've had this image on my printer for the past few weeks, but since I didn't have to print anything, I figured it'd go away eventually. Printer has been pretty solid for the last 2 years, and just fed it brand new cartridges.


Well... Turns out a few things:

a. Last time I upgraded firmware, it enabled auto upgrade.

b. in Nov 2020, HP pushed a firmware that disables 3rd party cartridges. Instantly bricking 1000s of customers printers all over the world. FUCK YOU AGAIN.  Nice write up here:   https://borncity.com/win/2018/09/19/blocks-hp-firmware-update-third-party-ink-catriges-again/ 

c. Now, instead of all colors for $50 from amazon, customers have to pay $600 for 4 high capacity cartridges.




Downgrade steps - w/o special installers

This process follows the HP article here: https://support.hp.com/nz-en/document/c01711356#AbT3
How to disable auto upgrades going forward:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DxGnet3XLg




Step 1. Download new firmware from HP FTP archives.

Grab both, 2019 and 2020 firmwares
2: ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/networking/software/pfirmware/HP_Color_LaserJet_Pro_M254_dw_Printer_series_20200612.rfu  or anywhere on the internet that may host it by the time you read this.

Note: Looks like 2020-06 is published same day as November, and doesn't work as the first upload. So you'll be downgrading to 2019 to unbrick your printer first.


 


Step 2. Get your printers IPv4 or IPv6 address address. #3 or #5 below.



Step 2b: Enable FTP access in networking





Step 3: FTP into printer using and upload file using put command
Type put and type a space, and then drag and drop the 2019 .RFU file onto the terminal window.




Step 4: Install firmware

Within a few seconds (up to 5 minutes per doc above) the printer will self reboot and self install it.



Step 5: To get 2020-06 version:

For whatever reason, I couldn't upgrade to 2020-06 immediately after 2019 version. I did get it to work using following steps (no idea if all of them are necessary, but I don't care to test)

After 2019 firmware is done, reboot printer.
Check for latest update, decline update.
Disable FTP
Enable FTP
Install 2020-06 successfully


Done

You're back in business with amazon cartridges.
Now, maybe disable FTP printing, maybe not. Up to you ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

Nov 7, 2020

Booking tickets during Covid-19 with ITA

Years ago I read a wonderful blog post showing some advanced use-cases for ITA

I have a following problem: I need a ticket from Russia to US that doesn't go through any countries with locked borders due to Covid-19. 


So, Step 1: List of rules: 

Sorry I didn't clean up formatting, that's not the point of the post.

From CDC: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/from-other-countries.html

plane solid icon

With specific exceptions, foreign nationals who have been in any of the following countries during the past 14 days may not enter the United States. For a full list of exceptions, please refer to the relevant proclamations in the links below.


And another one from Trip.com < Full URL>

United StatesPartially restricted
Foreign nationals who have visited any of the following countries / regions within 14 days of their arrival in the United States are prohibited from entering: Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mainland China, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Vatican City, United Kingdom.

All persons returning to the United States from abroad should self-isolate and monitor their health status for 14 days. From March 20, 2020, the United States government has suspended the issuing of new visas. From March 21, 2020, all US land border checkpoints with Canada and Mexico are closed to non-essential traffic. From June 24, 2020, additional restrictions are in place for persons holding special category visas including H-1B, H-2B, J-1, and L-1 visas. Travelers should verify their status with the US Department of Homeland Security prior to making travel arrangements.


Next, I had to find that wonderful blog post:

 Luckily I found it very quickly. Turns out, not many people write about ITA

>>>   https://creativeroam.com/blog/advanced-flight-searching/  <<<

READ THIS:> The big reason I needed this post, was for the attachments. It has a very convenient list of ALL airport codes by continent and by region. These codes are needed for filtering in ITA. Otherwise, I would have to fetch all of the airport codes for each of the countries in the list. 

Btw, text extraction processing in One Note didn't extract even 20%. If you've read this far into the blog post, I would appreciate a suggestion for a good took to extract text from images.

This wonderful document is here: < Link to google excel



Next, feed this info into ITA:

ITA is here: https://matrix.itasoftware.com/

You need to enable Advanced Controls and add syntax to Routing codes to disable connections. The Question mark sign has documentation with examples on the knobs you can turn.



So, outbound extension code for me, is to Disable NY (JFK) and Chicago (ORD) as connections on US side, because there are some connecting flights via SFO. I learned it by poking around flight searches. Also, I had to Disable all of Europe.

Routing code for that is a space delimited list of airports. Just enable header filters in google sheets, and then paste codes straight from the column. Comma delimited list was the old format, and isn't needed (and doesn't work) any more. When it's ready, paste it into the outbound extension code box:

-cities JFK ORD SJJ SOF BUD SKP BUH OTP EVN BAK MSQ OMO BOJ GOZ ROU SLS TGV VAR VID DBV LSZ OSI PUY RJK SPU ZAD ZAG QUF TLL TBS RIX VNO OHD CND AER KHV HTA IKT KZN MRV MOW DME SVO VKO MMK OVB LED UUD VLU ARH YKS BTS LJU MBX KBP IEV LWO NLV ODS SIP BEG INI QND TGD PRN TIV TIA INN SZG VIE CPH HEL BER SXF TXL DRS HAM ATH HEW CFU KGS JMK MJT RHO SKG IBZ ORK DUB GWY KIR NOC SNN CAG MLA BGO OSL TRF KRK WAW LIS PDL PMI SVQ VLC GOT STO ARN BMA BHD BFS PIK GLA INV ALV GRZ KLU LNZ ANR BRU LGG AKT LCA QLI NIC PFO PRG AAR AAL BLL EBJ FAE KRP ODE RNN SKS SGD TED ENF IVL JOE JYV KAJ KHJ KEM KTT KOK KUO KAO LPP MHQ MIK OUL POR RVN SVL SJY SOT TMP TKU VAA VRK AJA LBI NCY AUR BIA BIQ BOD BES CLY CMF CFE DNR FSC FRJ GNB LRH LAI LIL LIG LRT LDE LYS MRS MZM MPL MLH ENC NTE NCE FNI PAR CDG LBG ORY PUF PGF UIP RNS RNE RDZ SBK EBU SXB TLS AGB BYU BRE CGN DTM DUS ERF FRA HNN FDH HAJ HOQ FKB KEL CGN LEJ MUC FMO MSR NUE PAD SCN STR GWT WIE GIB GPA CHQ JKH HER KLX AOK KVA PVK SKG SMI JSI JTR ZTH CXI EGS REK KEF SXL AHO AOI BRI BGY BLQ VBS BDS CTA FLR GOA SUF LMP MIL LIN MXP BGY NAP OLB PMO PNL PEG PSR PSA REG RMI ROM CIA FCO TPS TSF TRS TRN VCE VBS VRN LUX AMS HAG EIN LEY MST RTM AES ALF BDU BOO BNN EVE FRO HFT HAU KKN KRS KSU LKL SOG SVG TOS TRD GDN POZ SZZ FAO FNC HOR OPO PXO SMA TER ALC LEI ACE BJZ BCN BIO ODB FUE GRO GRX XRY LCG LPA MAD MAH AGP MJV OVD REU EAS SPC SDR SCQ TCI TFS TFN VLL VDE VGO VIT ZAZ LYR JHE JKG KLR KSD KRN KID LDK LLA MMA MMX NRK ORB RNB SDL VXO VST VBY ACH BSL BRN ZDJ GVA LUG ZRH EAP TFN TFS SZD ABZ BHX BRS CBG CWL EMA LDY EDI GCI HUY IOM JER LBA LPL LON LCY LGW LHR LTN STN MAN NCL KOI SOU SEN STN SYY LSI MME WIC


From here, you can now filter down your results using the dropdowns in UI, or going back and adding additional controls on search screen.


What the excel looked like:


 


That's it.
You can have google flights in another window. It's got much easier controls, but doesn't show all of the options.




Oct 29, 2020

Migrating Atlassian users from Google SSO to Azure SSO

 Scenario: You decided to move your company (and all of your users) from Google to Azure.

You would assume that as an Admin, you could bulk migrate all of your users, but you can't. Don't ask why, I am pretty sure Atlassian themselves don't know why.


Every user will have to migrate themselves, and work through Atlassians "not bugs but features" bugs.


Step 0Turns out this is important: Validate that you can login with email account and not Google SSO. 
  • Log out and log back in using @<your company>.com email address & password combination. If you don’t know, reset your password for @<your company>.com address. 
  • After you know your password, proceed.
  • Log in using Username / Password combination.

Next: Update your email address to different SSO

  • Now that you’re logged in, browse to https://id.atlassian.com/manage-profile. Then select “Email” (direct URL: https://id.atlassian.com/manage-profile/email )

    OPTIONAL: While you’re here, why not use the Email Preference Center to unsubscribe from marketing emails?

     

  • Enter your <new email address> in the box and save your changes.

  • You will get confirmation email in your <new email> inbox.

  • Open the email, click the link, and you’ll taken to the login in screen showing your <new email address> account.

  • Use your <new email address> and old password.

    THIS IS CRITICAL and a massive source of pain (which is "behavior as expected" according to Attlassian.)

    • If you don’t know your password, stop, log out and go to step 0. Resetting password here will create the new account, and you’ll have to go to troubleshooting section.


Last: Connect to Azure SSO

  • Super duper important (otherwise you’ll create additional headaches for youself): Review your Atlassian profile to validate that your email address has been updated to <new email associated with Azure> (https://id.atlassian.com/manage-profile)

  • Log out

  • Log in using "Sign in with Microsoft" button

  • You will get an email in your new account with a long string of numbers.

  • Enter it into the prompt and you're done.

  • Now under your "Email" page in Account settings, you will see a banner that reads "Your account is connected to a Microsoft account. Changing the email address here will disconnect your account from the Microsoft account."

Final: If you’ve ever posted in the Atlassian forums, you will get another confirmation email with a link to approve Forums email address update.



Troubleshooting:

Q: At confirmation screen: you don’t know the password for your <new email address> 

A: This is actually the password for your <old account> account. Attlassian claims it's not a bug



Q: You’re getting an error that account is already in use?

A: This means that somehow an Atlassian account already exists. You’ll have to free it up first, and then switch the <old account> to <new account>

The path of least resistance is to log into conflicting account, and update email address to some other email address. (dont forget to mark it for deletion when it's all done)

Once that's done, and your desired email address gets freed up, and you can attempt to switch address to Azure SSO again using steps above. 

Note: Due to Atlassian creating accounts on login attempts without explicitly asking for an account, this problem can happen multiple times. Sorry

After successful switch, log into the extra account, and delete it from "Account Preference" page (https://id.atlassian.com/manage-profile/account-preferences). it’ll take 2 weeks.



Q: You’re getting an error that you need to wait 24 hours due to email update limit.
A: Wait 24 hours.