May 14 2019 Sub-domains, LXD and Jekyll Meet

Mike tried to explain to Brian how he configured his server to allow a single IP address to serve four domains, each configured as a subdomain on his server. It was suggested that Mike prepare a piece on this for a later meeting.

It was noted in passing that the Windows Subsystem for Linux is getting a Linux kernel.

Brian then demonstrated how he had been inspired by Bernard’s talk on LXD containers to start experimenting with them himself. He has created a base image which he keeps up-to-date and then copies whenever he wants to create a new image.

Running ifconfig will list the IP addresses of running containers under lxdbr0.

He has created a container for Pi-hole which he previously ran on an Raspberry Pi but which he now runs in a container on his laptop.

He had discovered the backup script, lxdbackup, by Rosco Nap which he had modified slightly to allow him to backup a container and then copy it to another device.

He then went on to share his experiences with Jekyll using the Giraffe Academy tutorials.

To do this he had installed ruby-dev and gem and then entered:

gem install bundler
gen install jekyll

He had created his site with:

jekyll new <nameofsite>

and then, from the directory of the new website, had

bundle exec jekyll serve --host <IP>

where <IP> was the IP of the LXD container in which he was running Jekyll. Once set up the shorter form

jekyll serve --host <IP>

can be used.

Among the other points he had picked up from the tutorials were:

• posts can be in HTML or markdown
• each post starts with some frontmatter which normally contains the date and the layout used
• an alternative URL can be inserted into the frontmatter in place of the date
• defaults go in the config.yml file
• an alternative theme can be selected as default in the config.yml file but note that not all themes incorporate all layouts.

Finally, he mentioned the Firefox Multi-account Containers which allow you to isolate your browsing experience.

Darren said that there was a discussion in the Open University about student assessment of tutors and abolishing exams which prompted comments about the relative merits and pressures of continuous assessment and exams and the possibilities of plagiarism. John slightly took over the conversation saying that, when he had taught mature students, a study had shown that exams benefited a minority of students. So abolishing them would have disadvantaged a minority of students but not the majority. On the courses he had taught they had created assignments which drew on the students’ own situations which students could not plagiarise. Finally, a book had been published in the 1980s surveying teacher assessment which came to the conclusion that the most reliable form of teacher assessment was student assessment.

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