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There's something else going on there besides base64 encoding of the URL -- possibly they have some binary tracking data or other crap that only makes sense to the creator of the link.

It's not hard to write a small Python script that gets what you want out of a URL like that though. Here's one that works with your sample link:

#!/usr/bin/env python3

import base64
import binascii
import itertools
import string
import sys

input_url = sys.argv[1]
parts = input_url.split("/")
  
for chunk in itertools.accumulate(reversed(parts), lambda b,a: "/".join([a,b])):
  try:
    text = base64.b64decode(chunk).decode("ascii", errors="ignore")
    clean = "".join(itertools.takewhile(lambda x: x in string.printable, text))
    print(clean)
  except binascii.Error:
    continue

Save that to a file like decode.py and then you can you run it on the command line like python3 ./decode.py 'YOUR-LINK-HERE'

e.g.

$ python3 ./decode.py 'https://link.sfchronicle.com/external/41488169.38548/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuaG90ZG9nYmlsbHMuY29tL2hhbWJ1cmdlci1tb2xkcy9idXJnZXItZG9nLW1vbGQ_c2lkPTY4MTNkMTljYzM0ZWJjZTE4NDA1ZGVjYSZzcz1QJnN0X3JpZD1udWxsJnV0bV9zb3VyY2U9bmV3c2xldHRlciZ1dG1fbWVkaXVtPWVtYWlsJnV0bV90ZXJtPWJyaWVmaW5nJnV0bV9jYW1wYWlnbj1zZmNfYml0ZWN1cmlvdXM/6813d19cc34ebce18405decaB7ef84e41'
https://www.hotdogbills.com/hamburger-molds/burger-dog-mold

This script works by spitting the URL at '/' characters and then recombining the parts (right-to-left) and checking if that chunk of text can be base64 decoded successfully. If it does, it then takes any printable ASCII characters at the start of the string and outputs it (to clean up the garbage characters at the end). If there's more than one possible valid interpretation as base64 it will print them all as it finds them.

If it actually worked reliably enough, it would be like having a dedicated, knowledgeable, and infinitely patient tutor that you can ask questions to and interactively explore a subject with who can adapt their explanations specifically to your way of thinking. i.e. it would understand not just the subject matter but also you. That would help facilitate knowledge transfer and could reduce the tedium of trying to make sense of something that's not explained well enough for you to understand (as written) with your current background knowledge but which you are capable of understanding.

I had similar problems and couldn't figure out how to get out of that cycle before it ended up with me having panic attacks, and anxiety/depression bad enough to be put on SSRIs. If you can't relax and feel tense all the time, that is a serious issue! Nip it in the bud if you can.

What I eventually figured out is that I needed separation between my work and my personal time -- and yes, those kinds of personal projects are still work even if you're just doing them for yourself.

Decide how long you want to dedicate to working -- then hold yourself to that. Like, actually write down the start and end times you worked so that you can prove to yourself that you really put in the effort. I use plain text files on my computer for this; do what works for you. After you've put in the time you committed to, you are OFF THE CLOCK. Stop working -- even if you have to force yourself -- and go do something else. Without guilt.

Nginx is running in Docker

Are you launching the container with the correct ports exposed? You generally cannot make connections into a container from the outside unless you explicitly tell Docker that you want it to allow that to happen... i.e. assuming you want a simple one-to-one mapping for HTTP and HTTPS standard ports are you passing something like -p 80:80 -p 443:443 to docker run on the command line, adding the appropriate ports in your compose file, or doing something similar with another tool for bringing the container up?

I've put drives into standby mode with the gnome disks GUI tool on my regular desktop when they were being noisy and I wanted some peace for a while. If the drive was mounted before I put it to sleep, trying to access something on the disk will cause it to spin back up.

I wonder if anyone has ever passed messages between spacecraft as a peculiar form of delay line memory -- or pinged a satellite at a predictable distance as part of a timing system...

Are you running different versions of the software? (e.g. different versions of ffmpeg, maybe?)

I don't like Anubis because it requires me to enable JS -- making me less secure. reddthat started using go-away recently as an alternative that doesn't require JS when we were getting hammered by scrapers.

netstat -tp -- that'll show you TCP connections and the associated program, doing a DNS lookup for the IPs they're connected to. You may need elevated permissions to see what some processes are.

There are a bunch of other options (e.g. -n to get numeric output instead of looking up names, -l to get programs listening for incoming connections, etc); check the man pages for more details.

I just right click on the terminal to change the profile to whatever I feel like it should be in the moment (usually red). I do it by reflex, basically. I never felt the need to try to set up automation for different servers, but I expect there's probably a way to do that if you really wanted to.

"You love the robot more than me!" 💔️