Jim Hall's Gibson ES-175 up close - Jazz Guitar Online https://www.jazzguitar.be/forum/guitar-amps-gizmos/62192-jim-halls-gibson-es-175-up-close.html

I didn't know that Jekyll was dead, but Bridgetown's Jared White says his project is next step for Ruby static-site generators https://www.bridgetownrb.com/

Today's CentOS Stream 8 updates on my system:

• gdm
• gnome-shell
• llvm-libs
• strace

(plus I installed the updated mutter from a downloaded RPM a week or so ago)

All in all, a light updates day (for me anyway)

There are a lot of CentOS Stream 8 updates available today — including the Mutter fix for the recent regression that was crashing GNOME in Wayland.

Good-bye AdoptOpenJDK. Hello Adoptium! | AdoptOpenJDK Blog https://blog.adoptopenjdk.net/2021/08/goodbye-adoptopenjdk-hello-adoptium/

GitHub kisses passwords goodbye – Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols/The New Stack https://thenewstack.io/github-kisses-passwords-goodbye/

Today's updates on my @CentOS Stream 8 system:

• device-mapper-persistent-data
• glusterfs
• libcap
• osinfo-db
• selinux-policy

RHEL surprises me. Somehow, some way, Java 17, Ruby 3.0.2, MySQL 8 and Node 16.7 are now available in @CentOS Stream 8. All but Java are implemented as modules, so you need to tap into it that way. http://mirror.keystealth.org/centos/8-stream/AppStream/x86_64/os/Packages/?C=M;O=D

This is how CentOS Stream 8 works for packages that aren't the Linux kernel:

The version of mutter in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.4 (and CentOS Linux 8.4) is 3.32.2-57.

The now-old version of mutter (which works) in Stream 8 is 3.32.2-58.

The new version of mutter (which crashes GNOME) in Stream 8 is 3.32.2-59.

Today's CentOS Stream 8 updates on my system:

• kernel 4.18.0-338.el8
• NetworkManager
• accountsservice
• bind-utils
• blivet-data
• bpftool
• cockpit
• curl
• dnf
• dracut
• ethtool
• exiv2
• fontconfig
• fstrm
• gdm
• glibc
• gnome-shell
• grilo
• grubby
• hwdata
• iproute
• iptables
• krb5-libs
• libX11
• lua
• mutter
• nmap
• nspr
• os-prober
• plymouth
• rpm
• selinux-policy
• systemd
• vdo
• yum

How do I get notification for new mail in all folders in Evolution? - Ask Ubuntu https://askubuntu.com/a/46583

I don't know if it's @CentOS Stream 8 or @vivaldibrowser, but things are running exceptionally well — and cool — today.

I kid, but @CentOS Stream 8 is SOLID AS A MF ROCK

Gthumb is my go-to photo-editing (yes, I said EDITING) app. I use it ALL THE TIME. It's available on most Linux systems. Thanks to @carlwgeorge for creating the EPEL package. https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Gthumb

I don't think using Vim is like playing a musical instrument, but it is like operating a complex machine, or maybe playing an instrument at a lower level.

Tonight's CentOS Stream 8 updates for my system

• kernel 4.18.0-331.el8
• ModemManager
• NetworkManager
• bpftool
• curl
• device-mapper
• kmod-kvdo
• lvm2
• selinux-policy
• shadow-utils
• sos

I just saw Fedora Hyperkitty — where the project archives its mailing lists — for the first time. It's a VERY impressive interface. https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/

.@AlmaLinux offers live media for GNOME, Xfce and KDE. It's a stunning (and needed) achievement for RHEL-based distros. https://www.reddit.com/r/AlmaLinux/comments/p3um25/almalinux_8_live_media_beta_now_with_kde_and_xfce/

So far, @debian Bullseye is strong on my mid-2011 iMac. In-place upgrade went off without a hitch.

And I thought CentOS 8 Stream confusion wasn't discussed on the CentOS Forum https://forums.centos.org/viewtopic.php?f=57&t=77952

In some ways, @CentOS Stream 8 is ahead of RHEL when it comes to security updates. Notable in this bunch from 8/12/21 are exiv2 and firefox-esr, which were just announced today -- 8/16 -- for RHEL. http://updates.passthejoe.net/2021_0812_061005_today_s_centos_stream_8_updates_on_my_system

Tweeting with blogPoster from Debian 11 running Ruby 2.7.4

I am upgrading the 2011 iMac 27-inch from @debian Buster to Bullseye. So far, so good.

The official @Debian 11 Bullseye release announcement https://www.debian.org/News/2021/20210814

There's something very exciting about a new @debian release, even though I tested it months ago. The two-ish-year cadence seems to really work. https://micronews.debian.org/2021/1628980288.html

I got a bunch of very timely updates today in @CentOS Stream 8, including Firefox, so that's a plus. The murkiness of kernel updates is annoying, but I have to trust the @RedHat/CentOS developers to keep these systems secure.

Today's CentOS Stream 8 updates on my system

• NetworkManager
• anaconda
• blivet-data
• cockpit
• device-mapper
• dnf
• dnsmasq
• dracut
• dyninst
• exiv2
• firefox
• firewalld
• gdb
• gnome-session
• gnome-shell
• iproute
• iscsi-initiator-utils
• A lot of iwl firmware
• kexec-tools
• lvm2
• lz4
• mcelog
• mdadm
• mobile-broadband-provider-info
• openldap
• poppler
• rsyslog
• sssd
• subscription-manager
• systemtap
• tpm2-tools
• yum

I did some significant work on the blogPoster microblog/Twitter/Mastodon posting app today. And all of that work is now in the Main branch. https://github.com/passthejoe/blogPoster

Atwater Village amp repairer and maker Colleen Fazio https://www.fazioelectric.com/about

Testing new code for Mastodon posting with the http Ruby gem

How L.A.'s indie bookstores survived the COVID pandemic - Dorany Pineda/Los Angeles Times https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/books/story/2021-06-16/indie-bookstores-in-la-say-theyre-out-of-the-red

How A Good Used Book's L.A. pop-ups survived COVID-19 - Max Bell/Los Angeles Times https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/books/story/2021-08-05/how-l-a-s-most-innovative-pop-up-bookstore-barely-survived-the-pandemic

The firefox-esr package is in MUCH better shape than chromium on Debian systems. It is up to date. https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/firefox-esr

There hasn't been a new Chromium package in any Debian version (stable, testing or unstable) since May 21. Not great. It's a security mess. https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/chromium

I will be returning Mastodon support to blogPoster. I will not be using the mastodon-api Ruby gem. Instead I will do the posting to Mastodon via the http gem. https://github.com/passthejoe/blogPoster/

git rm - How can I delete a file from a Git repository? - Stack Overflow https://stackoverflow.com/a/2047477

Today's CentOS Stream 8 updates on my system

• alsa-sof-firmware
• flatpak
• kmod-kvdo
• nfs-utils
• nvme-cli
• policycoreutils
• selinux-policy

Today's CentOS Stream 8 updates on my system

• alsa-sof-firmware
• flatpak
• kmod-kvdo
• nfs-utils
• nvme-cli
• policycoreutils
• selinux-policy

Universities often omit any mention of the private companies that help run their online degrees, but these companies typically take a 60 percent cut of tuition, sometimes more. - HuffPost https://www.huffpost.com/highline/article/capitalist-takeover-college/

I tried Fedora's Toolbox utility today in CentOS Stream 8. I wasn't impressed, and it also isn't what I'm looking for. Maybe GNOME Boxes will be better.

While Revue is owned by Twitter, there's no integration of comments (even a Twitter feed) in their newsletters. Substack has comments baked in, and I've seen writers use them to solicit discussion.

The mastodon-api Ruby gem has had trouble for some time. It hasn't worked since Ruby 2.7.1 — at least a year. https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon-api/issues/49

I'm now developing blogPoster in Ruby 3.0.2 via rbenv. I upgraded the Twitter gem from 6.2.0 to 7.0.0, which means no Mastodon support. If the mastodon-api gem is ever updated, or I find another solution, I'll bring it back. https://github.com/passthejoe/blogPoster

Today's CentOS Stream 8 updates on my system

• kernel 4.18.0-326.el8
• NetworkManager
• anaconda
• bpftool
• chkconfig
• device-mapper-multipath
• firefox
• gnome-calculator
• gtk3
• sos
• vdo

I am experimenting with rbenv. Right now I'm using Ruby 3.0.2 https://github.com/rbenv/rbenv

Could I use my iMac running Debian to get video off of a digital-tape camcorder? https://www.arsouyes.org/en/blog/2021/2021-07-05_Numerisation_DV

Updates to my CentOS Stream 8 system today (that notably don't include a new kernel EIGHT days after a major vulnerability was patched in RHEL):

• NetworkManager
• bash
• cockpit
• cups-filters
• dhcp-client
• glibc
• gnome-shell
• gsettings-desktop-schemas
• kexec-tools
• mdadm
• microcode_ctl
• sssd
• systemd
• tuned
• webkit2gtk3

Planning the CentOS 8 endgame - Jake Edge/LWN.net https://lwn.net/Articles/862832/

Today's CentOS Stream 8 updates on my system

• anaconda
• authselect
• gcc
• gnome-shell
• java-11
• man-pages-overrides
• mutter
• openssl
• ostree
• rpm
• samba
• selinux-policy
• subscription-manager
• tigervnc
• util-linux
• xfsprogs

Chromium hasn't been updated for Debian Stable since May https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/chromium

I'm not sure exactly what @vivaldibrowser has done in the past couple of months or so, but I can tell you that it is DEFINITELY ready for prime-time on Linux.

Wanted: More scientists of color for better science - Axios https://www.axios.com/hard-truths-deep-dive-science-race-underrepresentation-scientists-083e0441-a58c-4c47-bf9b-4045aa7589d7.html

Today's CentOS Stream 8 updates on my system

• NetworkManager
• autoconf
• binutils
• blivet-data
• cockpit
• coreutils
• device-mapper-multipath
• firefox
• glib2
• gnome-shell
• gnome-software
• ibus
• java 1.8.0
• java 11
• kpartx
• man-pages-overrides
• nettle
• nss
• openjpeg2
• parted
• rsyslog
• tuned
• valgrind
• vulcan-loader
• webkit2gtk3

My current setup remains CentOS Stream 8 on the HP Envy laptop. My work browser is Vivaldi, my not-work browser is Firefox. http://centos.org

blogPoster now has a Twitter-only branch in GitHub. Unfortunately that seems to be the direction in which things are heading. https://github.com/passthejoe/blogPoster

blogPoster update: Ruby 3.0 is working for Twitter in Windows, but in Linux it'sno-go for the entire app in Ruby 3.0. I thought I could disable Mastodon posting and have it work, but no. Another problem: My Fedora laptop's keyboard is dying again, making testing difficult. https://github.com/passthejoe/blogPoster

USA Today is getting a paywall. Who’s the audience for it? - Joshua Benton/Nieman Journalism Lab https://www.niemanlab.org/2021/07/usa-today-is-getting-a-paywall-whos-the-audience-for-it/

How does the twitter 7.0.0 Ruby gem play with Ruby 3.0? I'm about to find out.

This is my blogPoster app with an updated Twitter gem and NO mastodon-api gem. Let's see how it works.

Twitter sends me a LOT of ads for video games. Do they know I have zero interest?

I need to set up my blogPoster app with the newer version of the Twitter gem and no mastodon-api gem. If that solves the issues with Ruby >= 2.7, I might leave the unmaintained mastodon-api on the side of the road and make the app Twitter only. https://github.com/passthejoe/blogPoster

I read a book. It was "The Big Sleep," by Raymond Chandler. I had never read it before, though I have seen the movie.

Today's CentOS Stream 8 updates on my system

NetworkManager anaconda centos-backgrounds centos-logos glib2 glibc java 1.8.0 nettle nss selinux-policy sssd vino xorg-x11-server-Xwayland

This site has an archive page. Every post appears via one giant HTML file that I generate on the server. There's a little Javascript that tells you it's the archive page in the right rail. http://updates.passthejoe.net/archive.html

I wasn't in CentOS Stream 8 for a week, and I had quite a few updates waiting for me. RHEL/CentOS is a LOT more dynamic that you'd think. I've seen little bugs get fixed here and there. It's a lot more active than Debian Stable.

I need to run curl with NO output, and I used the --silent switch to do it. You can also use -s, but I like --silent because it tells me what it does.

The mastodon-api Ruby gem has had issues since Ruby 2.7.1 https://github.com/tootsuite/mastodon-api/issues/49

Now that I'm running Windows 10 without performance-crushing updates looming, it's a fairly pleasant experience. Solve the update problems, @microsoft.

Leo Garcia's Six String Journal is a very strong and informative classical guitar site https://sixstringjournal.com

I read two interviews in one day with musicians who said learning a piece by playing it 100 times all the way through isn't as good as perfecting one section, then another.

You can learn by doing and do by learning

Once you get past the updates and let things "settle" for a day or so, Windows 10 can be a pleasant, productive environment.

Windows 10 works a whole lot better when the mass of backed-up updates is 10 or 20 hours BEHIND you. It takes the OS a lot of time to stop doing whatever it does in the background and offer decent performance. When I reboot, how long before it 'settles' again?

My ruby app lives (and now dies) by its aging gems

It took me days to get my Windows 10 system updated and usable. This shouldn't have to happen. I had an endless loop of failed updates, finally got them started, and it took MANY DAYS to get them all through. The system is half-usable at best when this is happening.

Guitarist Andrea González Caballero plays Isaac Albéniz's "Sevilla" from Suite Española Op. 47. Great playing. - YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13WsK1xuCWA

Ricardo Viñes plays Albéniz's "Granada" (Serenata) Op. 47 No. 1. The pianist is said to have been the composer's favorite interpreter - YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nSMCT8DkZ0

I figured out my cron issue on NearlyFreeSpeech.net. It was the classic "don't forget to CD to your working directory" issue.

We ran out of things to watch and started @nbcthegoodplace on @netflix. Would recommend. I avoided it for years, thinking it was like "Touched By An Angel" (no offense). It is not. First season is GOLDEN.

When the local paper shrank, these journalists started an alternative - Katharine Q. Seeyle/The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/20/business/media/when-the-local-paper-shrank-these-journalists-started-an-alternative.html

I'm still trying to figure out the cron jobs, aka "scheduled tasks" on NearlyFreeSpeech.net. I keep changing directories, and they won't run. Looking at the support forum, I am now adding a line to CD into the proper directory. That's a good tip. Will report back.

I did write a script to make an HTML archive of this entire microblog once a day, but I'm still messing around with NearlyFreeSpeech cron

The script that creates the microblogging archive should be a cron job running daily so it's set it and forget it.

I need to write a small script that offers a static HTML page that contains this entire microblogging site. It's very much doable. It's possible to render it in Perl in a few seconds, but it'll be much faster as a static file.

I need to work on migrating this microblog to a static site generator. Probably Hugo.

Thank you, @redhat developers, for fixing this bug in CentOS Stream: 1967125 – SELinux is preventing libcap-ng from 'getattr' accesses on the filesystem /proc. https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1967125

Today's CentOS Stream 8 updates for my system

• NetworkManager
• alsa-utils
• anaconda
• binutils
• bluez
• ca-certificates
• cldr-emoji-annotation
• cockpit
• coreutils
• gcc
• cpp
• cups-filters
• dnf-plugin-subscription-manager
• firewalld
• gnome-session
• gnome-shell-extension
• graphviz
• gupnp
• iscsi-initiator-utils
• java-11
• kmod-kvdo
• krb5-libs
• openjpeg2
• openldap
• pango
• samba
• selinux-policy
• selinux-policy-targeted
• sssd
• subscription-manager
• systemd
• valgrind
• xorg

I am hoping that Flatseal will solve all my Flatpak permissions issues https://github.com/tchx84/flatseal

Company I've never heard of acquires Stack Overflow for $1.8 billion https://stackoverflow.blog/2021/06/02/prosus-acquires-stack-overflow/

Today's CentOS Stream 8 updates on my system

• kernel 4.18.0-310.el8
• alsa-utils
• autoconf
• bluez
• bpftool
• device-mapper
• dwz
• elfutils
• filesystem
• firefox
• hostname
• kmod
• lvm2
• openssh
• pango
• pcre
• qemu-kvm
• virt-what
• xorg

CentOS/RHEL never had the number of desktop packages that Debian and Fedora have. There are so many gaps. I will either figure out packaging and make what I want, or go back to where I came from. http://centos.org

How Replit used legal threats to kill my open-source project | Radon/Intuitive Explanations https://intuitiveexplanations.com/tech/replit/

My Windows system would NOT update, so I turned to this thing called Windows 10 Update Assistant. It worked, but the whole thing emphasizes how Windows is NOT easier to maintain than other OSes. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/windows-10-update-assistant-3550dfb2-a015-7765-12ea-fba2ac36fb3f

Today's CentOS Stream 8 updates on my system

• kernel 4.18.0.305.3.1.el8
• bpftool
• ethtool
• glib2
• microcode_ctl
• ncurses
• openssl
• polkit
• realmd
• rpm
• sssd
• tuned

Today's CentOS Stream 8 updates to my system

• Kernel 4.18.0-305.0.1
• NetworkManager
• Bash
• Bind
• Bluez
• bpftool
• CentOS backgrounds
• CentOS logos
• cockpit
• gcc
• GNOME Software
• Google noto emoji fonts
• lz4
• open-vm-tools
• Ruby 2.5.9
• Systemtap

I have been running CentOS Stream 8 for maybe a couple of months on the desktop at this point, and it is a solid OS. Once you figure out where/how to get your apps (for me it's Copr, EPEL and Flatpak), the whole experience is smooth and uneventful. I did most of a semester's C++ homework (with Geany) and a whole lot of news writing/editing/production.

I'm using the following Flatpaks in CentOS Stream 8

• Dropbox
• PDF Arranger
• Foliate
• PDF Slicer
• Spotify
• Chromium
• GIMP
• Gnote
• GNOME Clocks
• Adwaita
• Zoom

I'm at that point in my final CS program for the semester where I don't quite understand what's happening, but it's compiling, so I'm going with it.

This is that time of the semester when I finally solve the big mystery in my final CS assignment for Intermediate Programming in C++. This time it's manipulating data in structs via pointers. Once I figured out that I needed to make the data types match up, it all came together. I left myself PLENTY of time for this one. It took me about a week and a half to do the main() and four functions. I have three more functions — and a week and a half — to go.

The anxiety of influencers - Barrett Swanson/Harper's Magazine https://harpers.org/archive/2021/06/tiktok-house-collab-house-the-anxiety-of-influencers/

Huge CentOS Stream 8 update today

• Linux kernel
• NetworkManager
• bpftool
• centos-backgrounds
• centos-logos
• coreutils
• cups
• dbus
• device-mapper-multipath
• evolution
• file
• gdm
• glib2
• hdparm
• hostname
• json-c
• mdadm
• ostree
• pam
• python 2 and 3
• selinux-policy
• shadow-utils
• sos
• sqlite
• tigervnc
• unzip
• vdo
• which
• Other libraries and utilities (104 total packages on my system)

Influencer burnout is real - Rebecca Jennings/Vox https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2021/5/25/22451987/influencer-burnout-tiktok-clubhouse

I just discovered @ecoustics, and so far it is awesome https://www.ecoustics.com/

Dreaming of Jazz Kissa in a post-COVID world: Exit to Vintage Street - Eric Pye/ecoustics.com https://www.ecoustics.com/articles/jazz-kissa-post-covid/

How to set up a new Windows 10 PC perfectly in one hour or less | Ed Bott/ZDNet https://www.zdnet.com/article/how-to-set-up-a-new-windows-10-pc-perfectly-in-one-hour-or-less/

Due to issues with the ownership of Freenode, developers have quit and formed their own project and network https://libera.chat/

Quiet continues for CentOS Stream 8. No updates again today.

Why podcasting is free with Anchor https://blog.anchor.fm/updates/why-podcasting-is-free-with-anchor

I know it's a Spotify podcast content farm, but does Anchor make sense for poscasters? https://anchor.fm/

Spotify's Anchor makes podcasting free and (ostensibly) easy. Is it worth it to go this route? https://anchor.fm/

Another few days with no updates in the quiet CentOS Stream 8 Linux distribution. As I always say, this is how it is supposed to be. We'll see what this week brings. http://centos.org

Donald Trump has a blog that's also a micro blog. It's not a 60-million-follower Twitter feed, but it does the same thing, and he owns and controls the whole damn thing. https://www.donaldjtrump.com/desk

The @CentOS community is as friendly and knowledgeable as the @Fedora community, and that is a huge plus for picking up either Linux distro. Everybody wants to help.

Every time I have a CS assignment, I think it's impossible and will take me 100s of hours to figure out. I think I'll never be able to do it. Eventually I do "crack the code," you might say. On this last one, I didn't do everything, but everything I did do is done well.

Now is also the time when I mention that I've been running CentOS Stream 8 for maybe a month, and I'm doing all my day-job editing (news stories, photos) and CS homework (C++) with it.

Now is the time in the semester where I say that my CS teachers tell us to use MS Visual Studio, but I do everything with Geany in Linux. A .cpp file tells no tales.

Today's CentOS Stream 8 updates

• qt5
• cups
• dracut
• exiv2
• fwupd
• gcc
• glib2
• iproute
• python2
• quota
• sos
• subscription-manager

It's been a quiet few days for CentOS Stream 8 updates. I still need to do my review. http://centos.org

One of the best things so far about CentOS Stream is that I am not a RHEL customer, but I was able to file a bug in Red Hat Bugzilla and then see it resolved. It's like what happens in Fedora, but in CentOS (and near-future RHEL). http://centos.org

Today's CentOS Stream 8 updates:

• LibRaw
• NetworkManager
• evolution-data-server
• exiv2
• file
• glib2
• gnome-online-accounts
• java-11
• openssh
• python36
• udisks2

plus a few more

BIG CentOS Stream 8 update today:

• anaconda
• cockpit
• exiv2
• file-roller
• firefox
• glibc
• java
• openssh
• qt5

It has been many days since the last CentOS Stream 8 update. This is how it is supposed to be.

Java for everything - Lawrence Kesteloot https://www.teamten.com/lawrence/writings/java-for-everything.html

Slackware, which hasn't had a release for nearly a decade, is making a big comeback - Mayank Sharma/TechRadar https://www.techradar.com/news/this-long-lost-linux-distro-is-making-a-big-comeback

This is now the Internet Archive digitizes 78 RPM records https://twitter.com/internetarchive/status/1386423512810721284

Farming robot kills 100,000 weeds per hour with lasers - Kristin Houser/Freethink https://www.freethink.com/articles/farming-robot

It's been a quiet couple of days for CentOS Stream 8 updates. That's how it's supposed to be.

Why the new Macs are so short of memory - Barry Collins/Forbes https://www.forbes.com/sites/barrycollins/2020/11/11/why-the-new-macs-are-so-short-of-memory/

The CentOS Stream 8 Boot ISO installer is kind of broken. This should be a four-alarm emergency, am I right? https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1946347

I wanted to switch Java versions from 8 to 11 in CentOS Stream 8, and this Red Hat tutorial showed how easy it is. https://developers.redhat.com/blog/2018/12/10/install-java-rhel8/

Today's CentOS Stream 8 update: Java

Today's CentOS Stream 8 updates are binutils, file, libxcrypt and pcre

My Mahavishnu Orchestra obsession continues https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rD36-Zn2bA4

I'm in a heavy Mahavishnu Orchestra phase

Moog, a History in Recordings: In Celebration of the Minimoog - The Bob Moog Foundation https://moogfoundation.org/thom-holmes/

The CentOS Stream 8 installer is kind of broken, and I started a bug on it https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1946347

Today's CentOS Stream 8 update: glibc

A 'big' CentOS Stream 8 update came through tonight: new kernel, Java and a smattering of other packages.

Free RHEL is also RHEL - Rich Lucente and Micael Epley/Breaking Defense https://breakingdefense.com/2021/04/free-rhel-is-also-rhel/

COSMIC desktop to arrive in June release of Pop!_OS 21.04 - System76 Blog https://blog.system76.com/post/648371526931038208/cosmic-to-arrive-in-june-release-of-popos-2104

I am starting a new blog entry: The 2021 Linux laptop rebuild. It is a work in progress. http://passthejoe.net/posts/2021_0411_linux_laptop_rebuild/

With my move to CentOS Stream 8, I reinstalled Hugo and needed to update my old theme. Instead I just tried a new one. http://passthejoe.net/

It's not like I have issues with any Linux distribution on my 2017 HP laptop, but CentOS Stream 8 is exceptionally solid. Sound, suspend/resume, printing (with HPLIP), display, power management. It all works. The update pace is Debian Stable-slow.

It's ok to take a walk without headphones | RadReads https://radreads.co/telic/

After a week with CentOS Stream 8 as my laptop's OS, I can say that it is very solid. To install at this point, get a big USB flash drive and download the huge 10 GB DVD image.

The worst thing about Twitter is you can't go back in your feed. It only collects what has been posted since you began visiting the web site. If I wait 12 hours between visits, I can't see tweets 2, 6 or 10 hours old. Only 0 hours and 12 hours.

Free software's No. 1 mission should be increasing the number of women and under-represented groups (i.e. non-whites) using and developing software and otherwise contributing to projects.

So you want to be a writer? Essential tips for aspiring novelists - Colum McCann/The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/may/13/so-you-want-to-be-a-writer-colum-mccanns-tips-for-young-novelists

Review of 'Those Who Can, Teach' by Andria Zafirakou – a lesson in education - Lamorna Ash/The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/apr/02/those-who-can-teach-by-andria-zafirakou-review-a-lesson-in-education

'It was her story': Riad Sattouf on the real girl behind his Esther comics - Kim Willsher/The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/apr/01/riad-sattouf-the-real-girl-who-narrates-his-esther-comics-esthers-notebooks

An ActivityPub WordPress plugin – Larry Sanger https://larrysanger.org/2021/01/an-activitypub-wordpress-plugin/

Why communities use Slack better than companies 💬 - Luca Rossi/Refactoring https://refactoring.fm/p/why-communities-use-slack-better

I filed my first CentOS bug: 0018142: CentOS Stream 8 Boot ISO doesn't provide or otherwise offer mirrors for installation - CentOS Bug Tracker https://bugs.centos.org/view.php?id=18142

I am loving the ability to customize @vivaldibrowser by jiggling so many handles in the settings.

I'm sure that @vivaldibrowser has many arrangements that involve advertising and product placement with @Microsoft, @Amazon and even @Google, but the extent of the Google spying HAS to be much less. The fact that I'd rather be spied on by Microsoft should tell you something.

I am leaning hard into @vivaldibrowser for a Chrome base that doesn't phone home to the Google mothership. I don't know if the Chromium ban on using Google sync services ever really happened, but now I don't have to care.

The digital news industry was built on lies - Josh Marshall/The Atlantic https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/04/digital-news-industry-was-built-lies/618490/

Why does Discord not use ads? The questions we asked Discord's CEO - Bobby Allyn/NPR https://www.npr.org/2021/04/01/983159051/why-does-discord-not-use-ads-and-why-is-microsoft-interested-we-asked-discords-c

April Fool's online pranks just make me tired and aren't terribly witty either

This is how I got the day of the week to appear in the GNOME top panel in CentOS Stream 8. (Also, this will be in Tweak Tool in the next release) - Tip from Vivek/Technastic https://technastic.com/show-complete-date-time-in-ubuntu-gnome-top-panel/

This is my third day working in @CentOSProject Stream 8, and it is like @debian in that it is very stable and very boring — in a good way.

I generated an ed25519 ssh key for this new CentOS Stream 8 system, and I just found out that I needed two Ruby gems — ed25519 and bcrypt_pbkdf — to make it work with net-ssh.

Interview with Marko Saric of website analytics company Plausible Analytics | In the Good https://inthegood.co/taking-on-google/

Plausible Analytics: Simple, privacy-friendly alternative to Google Analytics https://plausible.io/

If you're running @debian Bullseye (Testing), the login manager now displays "Debian 11."

Google Maps' moat is evaporating - A Closer Look with Joe Morrison https://joemorrison.substack.com/p/google-maps-moat-is-evaporating

If you need to copy/paste pieces of URLs in @vivaldibrowser (and I seemingly need to do this all the time), go to Settings -- Address Bar and click "Show Full Address" to keep your cursor from jumping around when trying to grab out of the bar.

Kevin Roose's 'Futureproof' offers rules to thrive in the age of automation - Dave Davies/NPR (The answer isn't to learn computer science or make your life super efficient). https://www.npr.org/2021/03/16/977769873/the-age-of-automation-is-now-heres-how-to-futureproof-yourself

The fact that I was able to do work with @vivaldibrowser pretty much immediately says a lot. The browser offered to import my @firefox bookmarks but not Chromium's. That's OK. I got my company's Chrome extension to work, and that was key.

I installed the Vivaldi Browser https://vivaldi.com

Nyxt: A keyboard-based web browser fully configurable in Lisp. https://nyxt.atlas.engineer/

The world is stuck with decades of new plastic it can't recycle - Zoë Schlanger https://getpocket.com/explore/item/the-world-is-stuck-with-decades-of-new-plastic-it-can-t-recycle

Growing up with Steve Miller - Max Marshall/Texas Monthly https://getpocket.com/explore/item/growing-up-with-steve-miller

How Fanta was created for Nazi Germany - Matthew Blitz/Atlas Obscura https://getpocket.com/explore/item/how-fanta-was-created-for-nazi-germany

I finished my C++ assignment.

I learned how to:

• Reference arrays and variables in functions
• Compare and manipulate array elements in loops (This was the purpose of the assignment)
• Get user input of a date with with getline
• Convert strings to ints with stoi

When your parents die - Dave Winer/Scripting News: A very poignant look at what's important in life. Dave is very good at telling these kinds of stories. I appreciate him doing it. http://scripting.com/2021/03/17/155004.html?title=whenYourParentsDie

Here's why Substack's scam worked so well - Annalee Newitz/The Hypothesis https://thehypothesis.substack.com/p/heres-why-substacks-scam-worked-so

Charles Ives loved music ... and life insurance. Really. It means you can do two things in life and have it really work out. - Arthur C. Brooks/The Atlantic https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2021/03/having-dual-career-can-make-you-happier/618311/

I enjoy writing the programs in my computer science classes at @LAValleyCollege. I say that now while I'm maybe a third of the way through.

Samsung 970 EVO vs EVO Plus vs PRO: Which is best for you? https://premiumbuilds.com/storage/ssd/samsung-970-evo-vs-970-evo-plus-vs-970-pro/

Interesting take on AWS Lightsail vs. Digital Ocean Droplets: Should I pick DigitalOcean or AWS for my next project? - Corey Quinn/Last Week in AWS https://www.lastweekinaws.com/blog/should-i-pick-digitalocean-or-aws-for-my-next-project/

How Trader Joe's Two Buck Chuck revolutionized the wine industry - Zachary Crockett/The Hustle https://thehustle.co/how-two-buck-chuck-changed-the-wine-industry

The story of Willie Nelson's guitar, Trigger - Michael Hall/Texas Monthly https://getpocket.com/explore/item/trigger

As of March 16, 2021, @google sync is still working on the Chromium browser in @debian

Debian's apt full-upgrade removes old kernels I no longer need. It's a nice feature. https://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/debian-reference/ch02.en.html#_basic_package_management_operations_with_the_commandline

How to have Your Own Website for a Year https://cheapskatesguide.org/articles/raspberry-pi-website.html

I am fascinated by this website. It's great to find these hidden gems. https://cheapskatesguide.org/

The Cheapskate's Guide to Computers and the Internet https://cheapskatesguide.org/

What to Expect from Old Windows PC's https://cheapskatesguide.org/articles/end-of-life.html

BabbleWeb : A Free Website Visitors Comment Script https://cheapskatesguide.org/articles/babbleweb.html/

The Photoshop from Adobe CS2 installs in Linux via Wine. It ran OK once but wouldn't run after that despite reinstalls and reboots. It's not a tragedy because my Linux photo workflow is totally worked out. It's in Windows where I have a problem.

The Photoshop from this Adobe Creative Suite 2 ESR download from Archive.org works on Windows 10 https://archive.org/details/Adobe-CS2

From Vim to Emacs in fourteen days - Aaron Bieber https://blog.aaronbieber.com/2015/05/24/from-vim-to-emacs-in-fourteen-days.html

How I earn a living selling my open source software - Nemiah https://www.indiehackers.com/post/how-i-earn-a-living-selling-my-open-source-software-476f6bb07e

What is the U.S. Senate filibuster and why is everyone talking about it? - Susan Cornwell/Reuters https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-congress-filibuster-explainer-idUSKBN2B22HK

The HEY email service allows paid users to blog by sending emails. That's a very compelling feature. https://hey.com/world/

Today's updates to @debian Bullseye/Testing solved my sound issue. New kernel and firmware. Now when I unplug headphones, sound automatically switches to laptop speakers. As Bullseye inches toward its Stable release, things keep getting better.

I did a @Fedora 33 test today. I could definitely see myself returning. All the positives of community that might come to @centosproject are already there in Fedora, and the projects will be close no matter what. https://getfedora.org/

Hot take: The @Raspberry_Pi 400 is a down payment on an official Raspberry Pi laptop. https://www.raspberrypi.org/products/raspberry-pi-400/

From the Archives: 1938 storms change Los Angeles River - Los Angeles Times https://www.latimes.com/visuals/photography/la-me-fw-archives-1938-storms-change-los-angeles-river-20180116-htmlstory.html

How to practice: I wanted to get rid of my possessions, because possessions stood between me and death | Ann Patchett/The New Yorker https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/03/08/how-to-practice

The jazz pianist using a computer program to perform with other musicians in quarantine - Fred Kaplan/The New Yorker https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-jazz-pianist-using-a-computer-program-to-play-with-other-musicians-in-quarantine

Google to stop selling ads based on your specific web browsing - Wall Street Journal via Hacker News https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26328428

I didn't know how "far along" my Debian writing project was. I guessed I had 10k words across 7 or 8 text files. I used the wc utility to count the words, and I only have 2,800. That's good for 10 pages.

I was using the 1980s "Unix for Luddites" to play around with nroff and troff, which come from the groff-base package in Debian. But to get "full" functionality, you need to add the groff package, which brings the -me and ms macros onto the system. https://packages.debian.org/bullseye/groff

Now that I opened my long-sealed boxes from the now-closed @ladailynews office (we are working remote), I have my copy of Unix for Luddites and will be writing about my first experiences with Unix and how it led me to where I am today.

The Art of PostgreSQL: a modern PostgreSQL book in 2020 https://theartofpostgresql.com/

Do You Write Code With Your Mouse? A book to use more of the keyboard, less of the mouse. - Matthieu Cneude https://themouseless.dev/

I looked into my Unix past and used nroff to format a short letter. I even defined the .PP macro with info from the 1980s troff manual.

Sway is a tiling Wayland compositor and a drop-in replacement for the i3 window manager in X11 https://swaywm.org/

A Vim guide for advanced users - The Valuable Dev https://thevaluable.dev/vim-advanced/

A Vim guide for intermediate users - The Valuable Dev https://thevaluable.dev/vim-intermediate/

Is Vim really not for you? A beginner guide - The Valuable Dev https://thevaluable.dev/vim-beginner/

My website bio now has descriptions and links to the writing projects I'm working on with hosted Git sites http://passthejoe.net/about/

I am looking into floccus browser bookmarks sync even if Google decides not to bar Chromium browsers from the Chrome sync service https://floccus.org/

Look at this Community Update from @rocky_linux. They are doing it right. This will be a much stronger project than @CentOSProject in terms of governance, community involvement and transparency. All good! https://forums.rockylinux.org/t/community-update-february-2021/1934

How Garfield helped me make peace with a culture in decline - Dan Brooks/The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/16/magazine/garfield-twitter.html

I updated the archive links on the right column on Steven Rosenberg's microblog of short posts http://updates.passthejoe.net/

I very much like writing for Twitter and Mastodon in my own app because I can use the text editor of my choice, write once and post to both microblogging services as well as my own microblog. http://updates.passthejoe.net/

While I'm very much interested in @rocky_linux and @CentosProject Stream, it's hard to see me leaving @Debian. I also could see myself running @Ubuntu, which I haven't done in a long time. https://thenewstack.io/centos-creator-gregory-kurtzer-discusses-his-new-distro-rocky-linux/

I'm on the lookout for PulseAudio 14.2 to make its way into @Debian Bullseye/Testing. It entered Unstable on 1/19/2021. https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/pulseaudio

A new Chromium browser just made its way into @Debian Buster/Stable and Bullseye/Testing. It's a good sign for the package being maintained going forward. https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/chromium

PulseAudio 14.1 is in Debian Testing, 14.2 in Unstable. Hopefully 14.2 will make it into Bullseye to fix my headphones-to-speakers issue. https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/pulseaudio

This problem with PulseAudio 14.1 not auto-switching from headphones to speakers is also affecting Debian Bullseye/Testing https://forum.manjaro.org/t/pulseaudio-doesnt-switch-to-speakers-when-headphones-unplugged-after-recent-update/49073/6

Inside the secretly lucrative world of solo piano music - Elias Leight/Rolling Stone https://getpocket.com/explore/item/inside-the-secretly-lucrative-world-of-solo-piano-music

Why are there 5,280 feet in a mile? - Ethan Trex https://getpocket.com/explore/item/why-are-there-5-280-feet-in-a-mile

The Block Plan at @coloradocollege is a true innovation that I'd never heard of before. Very interesting. https://www.coloradocollege.edu/basics/blockplan/

Before I could play around with the command line shell for SQLite, I had to install the sqlite3 package in Debian https://www.sqlite.org/cli.html

CentOS Stream: Why it’s awesome - Phil Dibowitz — a very persuasive take on why you shouldn't reject what @redhat is doing with @centosproject out of hand. https://jaymzh.medium.com/centos-stream-why-its-awesome-5c45d944fb22

Michael Romero's Beautiful Hugo theme for the @gohugoio static site generator https://github.com/halogenica/beautifulhugo

.@popey uses the Beautiful Hugo theme for his @gohugoio blog https://popey.com/blog/

Living in New York’s unloved neighborhood - Rivka Galchen/The New Yorker https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/02/15/living-in-new-yorks-unloved-neighborhood

reuixiy's Hugo theme MemE: You can’t spell aWEsoME without MEME! 😝 https://github.com/reuixiy/hugo-theme-meme

I love the Hugo theme MemE that Daulton uses for Nix, Scripts, and Documentation https://daulton.ca/

My OpenBSD workstation configuration 2018 - Daulton/Nix, Scripts, and Documentation https://daulton.ca/2018/08/openbsd-workstation/

OpenBSD beginner essentials - Daulton/Nix, Scripts, and Documentation https://daulton.ca/2018/08/openbsd-essentials/

Syncthing server setup on OpenBSD - Daulton/Nix, Scripts, and Documentation https://daulton.ca/2020/09/openbsd-syncthing-server/

My OpenBSD desktop experience - Daulton/Nix, Scripts, and Documentation https://daulton.ca/2018/10/my-openbsd-desktop-experience/

OpenBSD on a laptop - Cullum Smith https://www.c0ffee.net/blog/openbsd-on-a-laptop/

Bring old hardware back to life with OpenBSD - Jonathan Garrido/Opensource.com https://opensource.com/article/20/10/old-hardware-openbsd

BareGUI for OpenBSD - shep/DaemonForums http://daemonforums.org/showthread.php?t=11178

Installing OpenBSD 6.8 with disk encryption (+ FVWM ricing) - Cristian Henrique https://medium.com/@crhenr/installing-openbsd-6-7-with-disk-encryption-fvwm-ricing-b6fb7e2073e6

LiveCD with OpenBSD - Get a fully featured OpenBSD desktop environment without installing - Gayatri Hitech http://livecd-openbsd.sourceforge.net/

OpenBSD 6.8 lite desktop on an old Thinkpad X60 - Keith Burnett https://www.k58.uk/openbsd.html

FreeBSD on the Desktop ‒ paedubucher.ch https://paedubucher.ch/articles/2020-08-11-freebsd-on-the-desktop.html

OpenBSD on the Desktop (Part II) ‒ paedubucher.ch https://paedubucher.ch/articles/2020-09-12-openbsd-on-the-desktop-part-ii.html

OpenBSD on the Desktop (Part I) ‒ paedubucher.ch https://paedubucher.ch/articles/2020-09-05-openbsd-on-the-desktop-part-i.html

Installing OpenBSD 6.7 on your laptop is really hard (not) https://sohcahtoa.org.uk/openbsd.html

mintBSD | OpenBSD desktop configuration https://www.mintbsd.com/

5 reasons the D programming language is a great choice for development - by @aberbamx for @opensourceway https://opensource.com/article/17/5/d-open-source-software-development

The feature that makes D my favorite programming language - by @aberbamx for @opensourceway https://opensource.com/article/20/7/d-programming

Why I use the D programming language for scripting - Lawrence Aberba for @opensourceway https://opensource.com/article/21/1/d-scripting

The @opensourceway newsletter and website are very, very good. The great tips keep on coming. https://opensource.com/

After a long AF wait, the Chromium web browser is back in @Debian testing. I will now say goodbye to the Flatpak and its login/cookie issues. https://tracker.debian.org/news/1229895/chromium-8804324146-1-migrated-to-testing/

Something tells me Chromium is returning soon to Debian Testing/Bullseye https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/chromium

Debian Bullseye ships with Python 3 by default and not Python 2. Also, you'll need to use the python3 command because the /usr/bin/python symlink is deprecated, though you can restore it with the python-is-python3 package. Python2 is still available. https://wiki.debian.org/Python

In Debian Bullseye, GNOME Software handles updates for Flatpak applications. This was broken in Buster (or at least was in my installation). It's one of many nice upgrades in Debian's current Testing branch.

Every time I install Debian, I forget to check the printer box and then wonder why I can't print. Then I install cups and everything works.

The Mediocre Programmer - Craig Maloney http://themediocreprogrammer.com/what-is-the-mediocre-programmer.html#what-is-the-mediocre-programmer

Sonic Pi: Code. Music. Live. https://github.com/sonic-pi-net/sonic-pi

The Document Foundation makes a classic mistake: Instead of telling enterprises what's in it for them if they pay for enterprise @libreoffice, they lead with how not doing that affects @tdforg. It's no way to make a sale, either for real $$$ or the other kind of buy-in. https://blog.documentfoundation.org/blog/2021/02/03/libreoffice-7-1-community/

GThumb is my go-to photo-editing app. It handles embedded captions in JPG better than most apps, which isn't hard b/c GIMP is seriously lacking in this capability. You can start in GThumb and bring in GIMP or any other program to do further edits. https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Gthumb

I only upgrade Vim in Windows every few years or so, and honestly, it's a pain in the ass. First I had to keep the installer from deleting my _vimrc, then I had to remember that I needed to change my path. Yeah, this is easier than NEVER NEEDING TO DO THIS in Linux.

I installed the Flatpak of Chromium in Debian Bullseye because there is no deb-packaged version available now (and maybe never). Yes, I do understand that Debian Testing is not ready for prime time. 1/

I couldn't take it any more. I installed the Chromium Flatpak in Debian Buster. My bookmarks synced. My "need Chrome" shift is coming up. I'm not sure if Chromium will ever come into Buster via a package in the Debian repo.

.@CentOSProject Stream 9 will launch in Q2 2021, says this FAQ. When is that in human months? https://www.redhat.com/en/blog/faq-centos-stream-updates

One of the things I really like about RHEL/@CentOSProject is the ability to choose from 3 different versions of various applications. It's a nice feature (and great for developers).

.@debian is conservative, and so is RHEL/@CentOSProject, even in the form of Stream. For the kinds of uses I have, Stream could really work.

I used ffmpeg on the command line to convert an API video to MP4 so I could upload to Twitter. Very easy — anybody can do it. (I Googled.)

One thing I'd like to see either from @CentOSProject Stream or @rocky_linux: A live image. @Fedora does it, and so should the "enterprise" distros.

The bridge on an acoustic guitar (flattop or classical) is a strange animal. Wht's keeping it stuck down despite the pull of the strings? Glue. Crazy (not the glue, the situation).

Nonfree images get a little bit of visibility on the "Getting Debian" page, albeit at the bottom. Better than nothing. https://www.debian.org/distrib/

The debian-devel mailing list has been burning up with posts on Debian being unfriendly for "hiding" nonfree firmware. While I prefer STARTING with nonfree (and use those images to install), Debian has always been a better second distro than a first for new Linux users. https://cdimage.debian.org/mirror/cdimage/unofficial/non-free/cd-including-firmware/

This 2017 HP laptop ran great under Debian Buster and even better with Bullseye. Firefox is easier on resources that Chromium (which Debian was having trouble with BEFORE all this sync drama). https://cdimage.debian.org/mirror/cdimage/unofficial/non-free/cd-including-firmware

Podcasts & capital: Thoughts on the podcast industry in 2021 - Justin Jackson https://justinjackson.ca/podcasts-and-capital

I know that @robinhood is supposed to steal from the rich and give to the poor. Not so much for @RobinhoodApp.

The Billy Lester story: The great reclusive jazz pianist - NPR https://www.npr.org/2021/01/28/961290410/lost-and-found-in-yonkers-the-billy-lester-story

I made a combo photo (two mugs as a horizontal) with @GIMP_Official. It's like my geeky bar mitzvah.

When to use (and not to use) SQLite https://www.sqlite.org/whentouse.html

10 uses for WordPress beyond blogging - Samantha Rodriguez/WP Engine https://wpengine.com/resources/extend-wordpress-beyond-blogging/

I love reading 1980s computer magazines, and so should you - Samuel Arbesman/WIRED https://www.wired.com/story/i-love-reading-1980s-computer-magazines-and-so-should-you/

Scott Henderson recommend Billy Cobham's "Spectrum" album from 1973 on the @GuitarWank podcast. So great. Everybody is burning. It's a jazz fusion album that KILLS. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spectrum_(Billy_Cobham_album)

Twitter acquires Revue, which bills itself as "an editorial newsletter tool for writers and publishers." Upon first look, it's not terrible, and Substack has a problem. https://www.getrevue.co/

The now-Twitter-owned paid-newsletter offering Revue charges a 5% fee, but Substack charges a still-lowish 10% and has a whole lot of momentum. If it were 30% vs. 5%, we'd have a conversation. Revue has to be technically solid to win this one. https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/company/2021/making-twitter-a-better-home-for-writers.html

Twitter takes aim at Substack with acquisition of Revue, a paid-newsletter company where fee is a rock-bottom 5% https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/company/2021/making-twitter-a-better-home-for-writers.html

Repl.it is awesome. Why every CS classes that can use @replit doesn't, I don't know. https://repl.it

I love the Fuji apple https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuji_(apple)

I took a computer science class last semester and will be taking another one this semester. That is the update.

The new Hugo in Debian Bullseye doesn't work with my old theme. I'm too lazy to upgrade the theme, so I found the old Debian Buster package for Hugo, extracted the executable and stashed it in my Hugo directory. I'll figure things out later. But now the blog lives.

I'm not opposed to nonfree firmware in Debian, but I removed it, and my laptop still runs fine - Steven Rosenberg http://passthejoe.net/post/2021_0123_debian_firmware_debate/

One thing I gained in Debian Bullseye over Buster: Scanning to a recent HP all-in-one works out of the box. No HPLIP needed.

It would be surprising if Debian Testing were more stable than Debian Stable, and it is not. My in-place upgrade did not work. I did a reinstall. Things are working very well, but not well enough to do the same on my desktop, which will stick with Buster.

Debian Security team member worries Chromium has so many issues that it will be too difficult to maintain in Bullseye without more people involved. https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=972134#83

Great LWN article on a Debian mailing list debate over the installer, firmware and free (as in Freedom). Most Debian users — myself included — have run into this problem. I THOUGHT I documented my last fix (but who can remember?). https://lwn.net/SubscriberLink/843172/21340b641eaa0f62/

Meet Raspberry Silicon: Raspberry Pi Pico now on sale at - Raspberry Pi https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/raspberry-pi-silicon-pico-now-on-sale/

It looks like Google really aims to keep Chromium users on Linux from using the Google API to log in for Google Sync https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/g/chromium-packagers/c/SG6jnsP4pWM/m/Y73W4CecCQAJ?pli=1

I didn't know about Ubuntu Core, and now I do https://ubuntu.com/core

Red Hat introduces free RHEL for small production workloads and development teams Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols/ZDNet https://www.zdnet.com/article/red-hat-introduces-free-rhel-for-small-production-workloads-development-teams/

You can get this free Adobe Creative Suite 2 from the Internet Archive https://archive.org/details/Adobe-CS2

In a thread about hating on Adobe, everyone is mentioning Affinity Photo, Designer and Publisher, which cost each. One time. No subscription fee. For Mac, Windows and iPad. https://affinity.serif.com

Decluttering low-Earth orbit - It’s time to tidy up space - The Economist https://www.economist.com/leaders/2021/01/14/its-time-to-tidy-up-space

I don't know if it's something in Debian Bullseye, or the fact that I'm using Firefox instead of Chromium but my laptop is running MUCH cooler than with Debian Buster. (And MUCH MUCH MUCH cooler than Windows 10, but you knew that already.)

Opinion: Has Trump's reckoning come too late? - Michelle Goldberg/The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/15/opinion/trump-second-impeachment.html

Developer blog platform Hashnode wins funding from Twitter backer - David Prosser/Forbes https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidprosser/2020/12/15/developer-blog-platform-hashnode-wins-funding-from-twitter-backer

Hashnode is a free blogging service aimed at developers that also offers free domain mapping. So what is the catch? They are certainly raising money. https://hashnode.com/

So far I'm very much enjoying @debian Bullseye. It's very smooth, and everything works. Going from @gnome 3.30 to 3.38 is a nice jump.

GitLab CEO may take company public - Ari Levy/CNBC https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/15/gitlab-ceo-eyes-public-market-after-secondary-valued-it-at-6-billion-.html

There's a pristine GM EV1 saved by a secretive caretaker in the depths of a university - Peter Holderith/The Drive https://www.thedrive.com/news/38743/theres-a-pristine-gm-ev1-saved-by-a-secretive-caretaker-in-the-depths-of-a-university

Atomic Kotlin by Bruce Eckel and Svetlana Isakova - Leanpub https://leanpub.com/AtomicKotlin

The problem with Gradle - Bruce Eckel https://www.bruceeckel.com/2021/01/02/the-problem-with-gradle/

Hubble snaps stunning barred spiral galaxy - NASA https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2021/hubble-snaps-stunning-barred-spiral-galaxy

Kuo: New MacBook Pro models to feature flat-edged design, MagSafe, no touch bar and more ports - Juli Clover/MacRumors https://www.macrumors.com/2021/01/15/new-macbook-pro-models-magsafe-ports/

For D&D fans: every issue of Dungeon Magazine is online at archive.org https://archive.org/details/dungeonmagazine

Cleanfeed: Connect & record live with anyone in the world https://cleanfeed.net/

Yale-led effort yields Zoom upgrades for music-making https://music.yale.edu/news/yale-led-effort-yields-zoom-upgrades

The @debian Bullseye freeze has begun, and I did my install yesterday. https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2021/01/msg00002.html

I am setting up my laptop with Debian Bullseye. I just got Git and Ruby working. It's funny that one of Git's dependencies is Ruby. After my attempt to upgrade from Buster to Bullseye bricked the system, the fresh install has been smooth.

Reminder: Please be nice - Adam Piggott/Signal Community https://community.signalusers.org/t/reminder-please-be-nice/21217

The 100 Year Computer - Tales From The Dork Web https://thedorkweb.substack.com/p/the-100-year-computer

I tested my blogPoster app with Ruby 3.0 today, and it works, even though the mastodon-api gem still throws an error (though does work) like it does in Ruby 2.7. http://github.com/passthejoe/blogposter

Variable scope is important in programming

We let Amazon Prime go, and I think they are now purposefully not shipping things for about a week in order to make it take longer

Doing a Ruby 3.0 test. If you see this, it passed.

Site.js: Small Web construction set https://sitejs.org/

I'm listening to Johnny Smith's "Kaleidoscope," one of the albums we had around the house as a kid. So great. And yes, I like exactly the same music as my 86-year-old mother.

Asahi Linux: Porting Linux to Apple Silicon Macs https://asahilinux.org

Debian Stable finally gets an up-to-date Chromium browser package https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/chromium

When big brands stopped spending on digital ads, nothing happened. Why? - Dr. Augustine Fou/Forbes https://www.forbes.com/sites/augustinefou/2021/01/02/when-big-brands-stopped-spending-on-digital-ads-nothing-happened-why/?sh=427cce841166

The CentOS Stream news and rage has really gone quiet

I dropped 2K Twitter followers

COBOL: The code that controls your money - Clive Thompson/Wealthsimple https://www.wealthsimple.com/en-ca/magazine/cobol-controls-your-money

Password rules are bullshit (2017) - Jeff Atwood https://blog.codinghorror.com/password-rules-are-bullshit/

CentOS Stream: Building an innovative future for enterprise Linux - Chris Wright/Red Hat https://www.redhat.com/en/blog/centos-stream-building-innovative-future-enterprise-linux

Ruby gems: Using Linux/BSD packages vs. gem install - Steven Rosenberg http://passthejoe.net/post/2020_1229_ruby_gems_package_vs_gem_install/

Ruby users of Linux and BSDs, what do you think of installing Ruby gems from Linux or BSD packages instead of using gem install for all?

I just updated my Ruby gems. Hope I didn't break anything.

My experiment with hosted Git as a way to create and publish things that are not code continues. I now have five writing projects on Github. https://github.com/passthejoe

I reviewed two gauges of @ernieball Earthwood 80/20 Bronze acoustic guitar strings https://github.com/passthejoe/acoustic-steel-strings

I thought my Yamaha dreadnought guitar was 10 years old. I found out it's actually 17 years old. So I wrote a review. Of a guitar I've owned 17 years. https://github.com/passthejoe/yamaha-fg403s

I wrote three recent posts on my WordPress site that I just copied over to my Hugo site. Not sure what I think about posting on WP.com. I spent a lot of time looking at the statistics page. I spend 0 time doing that in Hugo b/c I don't have one. http://passthejoe.net

CentOS replacement Rocky Linux is serious https://forums.rockylinux.org/t/community-update-december-2020/1157

Why CentOS Stream and the end of CentOS Linux doesn’t really matter – Steven Rosenberg https://passthejoe.wordpress.com/2020/12/23/why-centos-stream-and-the-end-of-centos-linux-doesnt-really-matter/

CentOS Stream and the end of the CentOS clone: perils, pitfalls, risks and opportunities for Red Hat https://passthejoe.wordpress.com/2020/12/22/centos-stream-and-the-end-of-the-centos-clone-perils-pitfalls-risks-and-opportunities-for-red-hat/

Another great take from @sjvn: Why Red Hat dumped CentOS for CentOS Stream | ZDNet https://www.zdnet.com/article/why-red-hat-dumped-centos-for-centos-stream/

I love having 3 Ruby versions available at the same time with ruby25, ruby26 and ruby27 in OpenBSD. Nice feature.

How this Debian Stable user ended up with Google Chrome from Google’s repository – Steven Rosenberg https://passthejoe.wordpress.com/2020/12/19/how-this-debian-stable-user-ended-up-with-google-chrome-from-googles-repository/

The @debian package for Chromium is very old. Sid and Buster both have version 83. Fedora and EPEL are shipping 87. The Ubuntu Snap is also at 87 (with optional 88 and 89). I had heard that Debian was way behind. And they are.

CentOS team discusses implications of move to Stream with Wikinews (more info here than in most of the stories out there) https://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Red_Hat_to_move_focus_away_from_CentOS_in_favour_of_Stream;_CentOS_team_discuss_implications_with_Wikinews

Why do Twitter and Google think I'm interested in wine? I might be, but I have given no indication that suggests this.

“A damn stupid thing to do” — the origins of C | Richard Jenson/Ars Technica https://arstechnica.com/features/2020/12/a-damn-stupid-thing-to-do-the-origins-of-c/

Loeb at first sight: The classics come in red and green | Amanda Kolson Hurley/Designers & Books http://www.designersandbooks.com/blog/loeb-classical-library-design

Working from home at 25MHz: You could do worse than a Quadra 700 (even in 2020) | Chris Wilkinson/Ars Technica https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/12/it-still-runs-on-your-imagination-passing-2020-time-with-a-macintosh-quadra-700/

CloudLinux announces release of RHEL fork following Red Hat's CentOS Stream announcement https://blog.cloudlinux.com/announcing-open-sourced-community-driven-rhel-fork-by-cloudlinux

My take on CentOS Stream:

• It'll be RHEL-ish enough for almost everybody (it's still 8.x)
• You'll probably get fixes quicker
• A new one every 3 years (just like now)
• 5 years of support (instead of 10)

Eastman Guitars is very deep in archtops. They still have one without a pickup (AR805 at the bottom of the page). https://www.eastmanguitars.com/electric_archtop

The CentOS Project just committed suicide - Mehmet Özel/FOSS Post https://fosspost.org/centos-project-suicide/

CentOS Stream: Building an innovative future for enterprise Linux - Chris Wright/Red Hat https://www.redhat.com/en/blog/centos-stream-building-innovative-future-enterprise-linux

Meet Rocky Linux: New RHEL fork by the original CentOS creator - Ankush Das/It's Foss News https://news.itsfoss.com/rocky-linux-announcement/

After a morning of drama, I have come to the conclusion that CentOS Stream is not the end of the world and that Red Hat is doing a very (very, very, very) poor job of public relations in explaining it.

After reading many CentOS Stream posts, I think it's going to be the current RHEL release, but ever so slightly rolling. It should work fine as a RHEL clone almost all of the time. The big difference for users is 5 years of support instead of 10.

Fedora's @mattdm says give CentOS Stream a chance https://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos-devel/2020-December/075503.html

Regarding CentOS Stream and 'enterprise' Linux, I think five years is an appropriate period of support. The two-year cadence for Debian really works for me. Six months is too short. Maybe one year would work.

It looks like CentOS Stream releases will get five years of support https://centos.org/distro-faq/#q6-will-there-be-separateparallelsimultaneous-streams-for-8-9-10-etc

Red Hat resets CentOS Linux — and users are angry - A very good overview from @sjvn for ZDNet https://www.zdnet.com/article/red-hat-resets-centos-linux-and-users-are-angry/

Keep up to date on Debian Long Term Support at Raphaël Hertzog's blog https://raphaelhertzog.com/

Please support the Debian LTS project https://wiki.debian.org/LTS

CentOS's Johnny Hughes seems more than a little conflicted https://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos-devel/2020-December/075534.html

This guy has a point on CentOS Stream vs. CentOS Linux vs. RHEL https://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos-devel/2020-December/075492.html

This view of CentOS Stream as being RHEL a month in the future seems reasonable https://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos-devel/2020-December/075551.html

Remember the days when CentOS wasn't owned by Red Hat, and there would be huge gaps in activity and releases? This doesn't justify anything. It just flashed into my mind. https://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos-announce/2020-December/048208.html

This guy is NOT happy about CentOS 8 turning into CentOS Stream https://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos-devel/2020-December/075464.html

Follow this thread on the CentOS-devel mailing list https://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos-devel/2020-December/075451.html

FAQ - CentOS Project shifts focus to CentOS Stream (in which CentOS/IBM kind of sort of answers a few questions) https://centos.org/distro-faq/

The untimely end of CentOS 8 throws quite the monkey wrench into cPanel and the entire shared-hosting world https://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos-announce/2020-December/048208.html

Remember Scientific Linux? I used to run it. The project ended because CentOS was doing the same thing so well. I can see it making a comeback now. https://lwn.net/Articles/786422/

CentOS founder is starting Rocky Linux, a new RHEL clone, now that CentOS is changing focus https://github.com/hpcng/rocky

Springdale Linux is a longtime RHEL clone - Hacker News https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25350357

Scientific Linux ended when it didn't seem necessary. The move to CentOS Stream probably means more Red Hat clones are on the way. For me, this illustrates why Debian is so important. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25345428

Many of the CentOS users who aren't happy with CentOS Stream say they will move to Debian Stable. But I imagine Ubuntu LTS will grab most users. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25345428

CentOS Project shifts focus to CentOS Stream, and people are not happy - Hacker News https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25345428

How to defog your windshield in no time this winter - Lifehacker https://lifehacker.com/use-this-method-from-a-former-nasa-engineer-to-defog-yo-1845817132

I have been experimenting with Git and Github as a way of working on writing projects. Hosted Git repositories are not just for programming. https://github.com/passthejoe?tab=repositories

Reviews of steel strings for acoustic guitars https://github.com/passthejoe/acoustic-steel-strings

Reviews of strings for the classical guitar https://github.com/passthejoe/classical-strings

The Zen of Debian (work in progress) https://github.com/passthejoe/zen-of-debian

My Emilio Pujol project is becoming more about his work overall and not just about the 17 variations on Aguado in 'Escuela Razonada' Vol. 4. https://github.com/passthejoe/pujol_variations_on_aguado

Steven Rosenberg on GitHub https://github.com/passthejoe

Steven Rosenberg's newer posts http://passthejoe.net/

Steven Rosenberg's microblog of short posts http://updates.passthejoe.net/

Steven Rosenberg's frugal technology, simple living and guerrilla large-appliance repair https://stevenrosenberg.nfshost.com/blog/

A whole bunch of new packages means Debian 10.7 has been released https://www.debian.org/News/2020/20201205

Why the release of Ruby 3 will be monumental | Jared White/RUBY3.dev https://www.ruby3.dev/the-art-of-code/2020/11/12/ruby-3-monumental/

C++ programming language: How it became the invisible foundation for everything, and what's next - Owen Hughes/TechRepublic https://www.techrepublic.com/article/c-programming-language-how-it-became-the-invisible-foundation-for-everything-and-whats-next/

I'm going to try the @EclipseJavaIDE for Java, C++ and Ruby. I didn't know it covered all these languages and more.

I ran out of clean sweatpants. I tried wearing regular pants. How did we ever do that? I had to rip them off my body and find the emergency sweatpants I didn't know I had. Sorry, Levi's, I just can't do it.

ES-175 chronicles - Vasily Ivanenko https://qrp-popcorn.blogspot.com/p/es175-pickup-modification.html

Fender Telecaster jazz box - Vasily Ivanenko https://qrp-popcorn.blogspot.com/2017/01/fender-telecaster-jazz-box.html

1968 Princeton Reverb repairs - Vasily Ivanenko https://qrp-popcorn.blogspot.com/2017/01/1968-princeton-reverb-repairs.html

Why Matthew Yglesias left Vox for the paid-newsletter platform Substack (hint: it's about political correctness in media) - Conor Friedersdorf/The Atlantic https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/11/substack-and-medias-groupthink-problem/617102/

I learned a new Vim thing: Open the last file you closed with :e# http://passthejoe.net/post/2020_1113_vim_tip_open_last_file_you_closed/

Why it pays to be grumpy and bad-tempered - Zaria Gorvett/BBC Future https://getpocket.com/explore/item/why-it-pays-to-be-grumpy-and-bad-tempered

Study says Facebook is bad for your emotional and physical health - Minda Zetlin/Inc. https://getpocket.com/explore/item/a-2-year-study-of-more-than-5-000-people-shows-this-1-activity-destroys-your-emotional-and-physical

After a few months playing the classical (even though it has a pretty nasty crack in the back), I went back to the Fender guitar (Lead I, front half of the humbucker as a single-coil). The Ernie Ball Power Slinky strings (11 to 48) are SO nice. It's hard to say too many good things about them. I have one of the pure nickel versions to try next. https://www.ernieball.com/guitar-strings/electric-guitar-strings/slinky-nickel-wound-electric-guitar-strings/6-string#P02220

Running four sites on NearlyFreeSpeech.net should cost me .92 per month - Steven Rosenberg http://passthejoe.net/post/2020_1107_nearlyfreespeechnet_costs/

So I tried to swap the esc and caps lock keys, with the idea being easier access to esc for Vim, but it was a disaster. You can't just move keys around. It's like driving on the wrong side of the road and the wrong side of the car.

Talkyard - is an open-source forum that is available as a service, or to run on your own system. It can also do blog comments. https://www.talkyard.io/

Raspberry Pi 400 Personal Computer Kit – https://www.raspberrypi.org/products/raspberry-pi-400

Raspberry Pi 400: the desktop PC: It's a Raspberry Pi built into its own keyboard. Get it with everything but a monitor for . https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/raspberry-pi-400-the-70-desktop-pc/

I moved a WordPress blog from one shared host to another. The new host is telling me every day that hackers are making repeated attempts to log into the site to use it for nefarious purposes. WP is definitely a target. I will take steps soon to reduce the risk.

I have made it through week 9 of Computer Architecture and Organization. We're working on x86 assembly. Boolean algebra, K-maps and logic circuits at the beginning were a little rocky, but the assembly language has been more smooth.

I've been playing the classical guitar for about 15 minutes a day for the past few months, mostly from Emilio Pujol's method. Today I hauled out the electric guitar and played from William Leavitt's Vol. 2. Even 15 minutes a day is enough to show improvement over time.

Sorry, but my Twitter feed is boring. I'm not here anywhere near as much, even though I use the Twitter API via a local script to post.

The cheap pen that changed writing forever - Stephen Dowling/BBC Future https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20201028-history-of-the-ballpoint-pen

WordPerfect for DOS Updated http://www.columbia.edu/~em36/wpdos/

This wasn't my first WP install without a cPanel, but it was the first time I moved an entire WP system (files + database) without any utilities like WP's export/import. It went all right. I need more practice in database admin, and I got some here.

I moved a WordPress blog from one server to another, and boy are my arms tired.

Why I'm Tcl-ish - Colin Macleod https://colin-macleod.blogspot.com/2020/10/why-im-tcl-ish.html

I had problems with the new Microsoft Edge while my Windows install was updating, but now it's doing great. I imported my Chrome settings — even a Chrome extension — and Edge is doing my daily production.

Perch, the really little CMS https://grabaperch.com

End of the office: The quiet, grinding loneliness of working from home - Simon Usborne/The Guardian https://getpocket.com/explore/item/end-of-the-office-the-quiet-grinding-loneliness-of-working-from-home

Why life has gotten more comfortable but less happy - Arthur C. Brooks/The Atlantic https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2020/10/why-life-has-gotten-more-comfortable-less-happy/616807/

Keith Jarrett confronts a future without the piano - Nate Chinen/The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/21/arts/music/keith-jarrett-piano.html

Twitter is temporarily changing how you retweet - Jay Peters/The Verge https://www.theverge.com/21524092/twitter-temporarily-changing-retweet-quote-tweet-election

I forgot to mention that I have returned to CS classes at LA Valley College. This semester I'm taking Computer Architecture and Organization.

Americans worry about 2020 being another 2000, but the real worry is another 1876 - Rachel Shelden and Erik B. Alexander/The Washington Post https://www.chron.com/opinion/article/Americans-worry-about-2020-being-another-2000-15660360.php

There was a kernel update in @debian Stable today. I don't know why, but I'm sure all will become clear.

Ruby 2.7 has caused me a lot of problems

I got a SinkShroom. Is it worth the money? - Steven Rosenberg http://passthejoe.net/post/2020_1008_sink_shroom/

The original IBM PC keyboard is still being made today in Kentucky, and you can get one for about https://www.pckeyboard.com/

Niccolò Paganini (1782-1840) – The guitar behind the violin - Pascal Proust/Strings by Mail https://www.stringsbymail.com/articles/niccolo-paganini-1782-1840-the-guitar-behind-the-violin/

No Starch Press is putting out a great-looking book, "Racket Programming the Fun Way," by James W. Stelly. Set for December 2020 publication, an early-access version is available now. The discount code RACKETFUN will get you 35% off through Oct. 16, 2020. The price is reasonable, and I'm tempted. https://nostarch.com/racket-programming-fun-way

My tech setup for recording courses and podcasts — Emma Bostian https://compiled.blog/blog/my-tech-setup

Big @debian Stable update for the firefox-esr browser, going from 68 to 78 https://www.debian.org/security/2020/dsa-4768

How many decimals of pi do we really need? - NASA/JPL https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu/news/2016/3/16/how-many-decimals-of-pi-do-we-really-need/

Having a Ubuntu/Debian/Fedora/what-have-you WSL in Windows is > the MacOS command line but < "real" Linux

Shopify’s Lite plan is just /month https://www.shopify.com/lite

‘It’s like Trump said: The cure has been worse than the disease’: A restaurant owner on closing his business during the coronavirus pandemic - The Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/09/26/restaurant-owner-closing-coronavirus

SC130: the perfect CP/M & Fuzix computer kit (at !) - Obsolescence Guaranteed http://obsolescenceguaranteed.blogspot.com/2020/01/sc130-perfect-cpm-computer-kit-at-50.html

PiDP-11: Re-creating the PDP-11/70 - Obsolescence Guaranteed https://obsolescence.wixsite.com/obsolescence/pidp-11

PiDP-8/I: Re-creating the PDP-8/I - Obsolescence Guaranteed https://obsolescence.wixsite.com/obsolescence/pidp-8

Lost cockatiel lands on fishing boat 10 miles off Scottish coast - BBC News https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-54263087

Substack review: Here’s what to know before you get started - Clara Ainsley McLaren/The Penny Hoarder https://www.thepennyhoarder.com/make-money/substack-review/

MIT's 6.S081 looks like an awesome class. They use a Unix V6 clone and draw on the EXCELLENT Lions' Commentary on UNIX 6th Edition. This page includes links to John Lions' book, the Unix V6 source code, and the PDP11/40 Processor Handbook. https://pdos.csail.mit.edu/6.828/2020/xv6.html

Pandemic spurs journalists to go it alone via email (mostly via Substack) - Sara Fischer/Axios https://www.axios.com/pandemic-spurs-journalists-to-go-it-alone-via-email-613ca2d5-e8d5-4235-9582-48cc028e9d8b.html