Title photo
Think globally, microblog locally
Sun, 28 Feb 2021

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.

Sat, 27 Feb 2021

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/

Tue, 23 Feb 2021

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/

Mon, 22 Feb 2021

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

Fri, 19 Feb 2021

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

Thu, 18 Feb 2021

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

Wed, 17 Feb 2021

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

Tue, 16 Feb 2021

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/

Mon, 15 Feb 2021

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

Fri, 12 Feb 2021

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

Thu, 11 Feb 2021

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/

Wed, 10 Feb 2021

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/

Tue, 09 Feb 2021

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/

Mon, 08 Feb 2021

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.

Sun, 07 Feb 2021

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

Sat, 06 Feb 2021

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.