Messaging Overload
Posted on Sat, Feb 13, 2021
(Last modified on Sun, Feb 14, 2021)
| Alan Pope
How many chat/messaging systems is too many?
Note the scrollbar. There’s more below the fold.
I still chat to some friends and open source contacts on IRC. I’m in a channel I’ve been in for nearly twenty years continuously with some long time friends I don’t really talk to elsewhere.
Internal company chat is Mattermost, and a couple of other projects use it. I have the Mattermost client open all day every work day, then close it outside those hours.
[Read More]Hunting Down A New Laptop
Posted on Fri, Feb 12, 2021
(Last modified on Mon, Feb 15, 2021)
| Alan Pope
My most “recent” laptop history looks a bit like this:
Toshiba T1910cs (~1994) Toshiba T2100cs (~1995) Sony Vaio PCG-C1 (~1998) Dell Inspiron XPS Gen 2 (~2005) Toshiba Portege M400 (~2007) Apple MacBook Pro (~2010) ThinkPad X220 i7 (~2012) ThinkPad T450 i7 (~2016) There have been other, non-primary computer devices over the years like the Intel Classmate, ASUS Transformer, Asus EEE 701 & 900, EEE 1000HA, Dell Latitudes, Toshiba AC100, Pinebook, Pinebook Pro, an Entroware Athena and, briefly a MacBook Air.
[Read More]Mastodon Instances, Everywhere
Posted on Thu, Feb 11, 2021
(Last modified on Tue, Aug 22, 2023)
| Alan Pope
Mastodon is interesting. It’s “free and open-source software for running self-hosted social networking services.”. To any normal personal that’s “Open Source Twitter”, largely.
Anyone can grab the code and spin up their own Mastodon instance. I put one up a year or so ago, but unfortunately I didn’t have the time or resources to maintain it, so I shut it down. Maybe it will return.
Currently I’m using the mastodon.social instance, so that makes me https://mastodon.
[Read More]My Podcast Listening List
Posted on Wed, Feb 10, 2021
(Last modified on Mon, Sep 11, 2023)
| Alan Pope
My podcast listening tastes have changed quite a bit over the years. I first got into listening to podcasts in the early 2000’s, on the commute to the office - remember them? I initially started listening on my iRiver iHP-140 then moved on to using a Nokia N82. Both fantastic devices for their time.
I used to use hpodder to download episodes and then squirt them down a cable to the device.
[Read More]Command-Line only Laptop
Posted on Tue, Feb 9, 2021
(Last modified on Tue, Aug 22, 2023)
| Alan Pope
Today, I’m following along from an earlier article “The Allure of The Terminal” where I talked about how I love the terminal aesthetic. How much, well, one of my computers is a command-line only install. I thought I’d talk a bit about that setup. Firstly, it’s not command-line only because it can’t run a graphical environment, although it isn’t a super modern system. It is certainly capable of running Ubuntu MATE, for example, I just choose not to.
[Read More]The Allure of The Terminal
Posted on Mon, Feb 8, 2021
| Alan Pope
Why is this interface so alluring?
Okay, so that blank window might not be, let’s fill it with something more interesting. How about top.
… or htop …
… or bpytop …
… or Dwarf Fortress?
Ignore for a moment it’s a GNOME Terminal window on Ubuntu with the Yaru theme, it’s the contents of the window that’s alluring to me. That and the IBM Plex font showing it off so well.
[Read More]Chromium on Linux
Posted on Sun, Feb 7, 2021
(Last modified on Mon, Feb 8, 2021)
| Alan Pope
Rumours are swirling in Linux circles that some prominent distributions are preparing to remove the Open Source Chromium web browser from their archives.
This appears to have come about because of a change being made by Google, which reduces functionality in third party chromium-based browsers. Chromium (perhaps unsurprisingly) falls into this category. While the proprietary Google Chrome is built on the same technology as the open source Chromium browser, they’re not the same.
[Read More]Trying 'Proper' Coffee
Posted on Sat, Feb 6, 2021
(Last modified on Mon, Feb 15, 2021)
| Alan Pope
I’m not a fussy eater, I’ll eat pretty much whatever is put in front of me. I used to quip that the only thing I wouldn’t eat is celery, but even that now features on my plate now and then. It’s an especially good vehicle for getting melted cheese into my gob. Being an unfussy eater means I’m also a pretty unfussy drinker.
“I fancy a coffee!” at home usually results in a spoon of instant coffee granules, sugar or sweetener, milk and hot water being mixed in a cup and guzzled shortly after.
[Read More]Pitchforks set to Stun
Posted on Fri, Feb 5, 2021
(Last modified on Sat, Feb 6, 2021)
| Alan Pope
It’s just a month into the new year and we have our first controversy in the Linux community for 2021. In a recent update to Raspberry Pi OS, the official operating system for the diminuative computers, a new repository was added to the default install. This change means new and existing Raspberry Pi devices, running the officially maintained and blessed Operating System will check in with an additional software repository when updated, which will offer more software to the consumer.
[Read More]Reboot Aversion
Posted on Thu, Feb 4, 2021
(Last modified on Tue, Aug 22, 2023)
| Alan Pope
I am not a fan of rebooting my computers. As you can see:
alan@robot:~$ for host in $(cat computers.txt); do ssh "$host" "uptime"; done 20:24:53 up 117 days, 5:06, 10 users, load average: 5.85, 6.07, 5.48 20:24:55 up 113 days, 4:56, 7 users, load average: 0.95, 0.68, 0.72 20:24:56 up 66 days, 9:05, 5 users, load average: 1.06, 0.58, 0.51 20:24:57 up 2 min, 1 user, load average: 0.60, 1.09, 0.
[Read More]Let's Go Snapping
Posted on Wed, Feb 3, 2021
(Last modified on Tue, Aug 22, 2023)
| Alan Pope
Last year ( 😄 ) I wrote an article called Snap Along With Me in which I detailed how I approached snapping a rust application called t-rec. Well, I’m back with another “Snap Along”, this time we’re snapping an application written in Golang.
During a meeting to on-board a new member of the team at work today, I went through a similar process as my last blog post. This time I chose a different application, so I thought I’d write it up here.
[Read More]Book Review: UnPresidented
Posted on Tue, Feb 2, 2021
| Alan Pope
I recenlty finished reading listening to Jon Sopel’s book, “UnPresidented: Politics, Pandemics and the Race That Trumped All Others” (affiliate link). I have enjoyed Jon’s reporting over the years for the BBC, but this is the first of his books I’ve picked up. I grabbed it as an audio book because I’m a terrible reader. It was narrated by the author, which made it all the more appealing for me as I find Jon pleasing to listen to.
[Read More]Dry January 2021
Posted on Mon, Feb 1, 2021
| Alan Pope
January 2021 was my first intentional Dry January - a month-long annual alcoholic abstinence. After the typical excess of Christmas, Dry January can make for a good mind & body rest and recuperation.
Personally I sleep better, get up more refreshed in the morning and feel a bit more “with it” when I’m not drinking. I wouldn’t say I drink heavily, most of the time, but I imagine many people who drink feel the same way.
[Read More]Late Night Linux Extra: 14 - Transcription
Posted on Sun, Jan 31, 2021
| Alan Pope
I was recently interviewed by Joe Ressington for Late Night Linux Extra episode 14. Here’s a transcription I typed up, which may be useful. I used an automated tool to create the transcription, then tidied it up myself. If you spot anything which doesn’t match the audio, and is materially important, do feel free to propose an edit on GitHub (link at the top of the page).
Joe: This episode is about snaps, quite the controversial topic in some circles, and who better to talk about it than Alan Pope - “popey” as he’s affectionately known by almost everyone.
[Read More]TikTok for Breakfast
Posted on Sat, Jan 30, 2021
| Alan Pope
TikTok - the popular social video platform - is my new recipe discovery engine of choice. When bored or idle I might browse through my “For You” page until I stumble upon a recipe. I’ll then like (❤️) or bookmark (🔖) and come back to it later.
Yes, that’s right boomer, I’m explaining TikTok to you in a blog, like from 2004.
See, the thing is, I really love TikTok, despite being outside their likely target demographic.
[Read More]Let's Call The Whole Thing Off
Posted on Fri, Jan 29, 2021
| Alan Pope
I’ve mentioned before that I ‘suffer’ from xkcd 386. I’m trying to improve, and maybe writing this post will help me. If it helps you, that’s awesome too. Let’s work on this together. 🤝
There’s a strong prevalence among some in the Linux community for people correcting others. Specifically correcting pronunciation. I have been guilty of this in the past, but I’m trying to be the change I want to be.
[Read More]The Best Toaster
Posted on Thu, Jan 28, 2021
| Alan Pope
If you know me well in person, or online, you’ll almost certainly have heard me evangelise about the best toaster you can buy. If so, you are excused from reading any further. However, I may test you on this text at some point. So skip reading it at your peril!
There are no affiliate links in this post. I do not seek to financially benefit from your enjoyment of deliciously toasted bread.
[Read More]Magewell HDMI Capture with ffmpeg
Posted on Wed, Jan 27, 2021
| Alan Pope
Three years ago I bought a Magewell USB HDMI capture device (affiliate link). It’s a neat, reliable and well made, if expensive device. I use it to capture the output of computers, mostly to get pixel perfect bug reports, and to make some videos for YouTube. I prefer these hardware solutions over the software screencasting counterparts, as they tend to be more reliable, and don’t consume resources on the computer being recorded.
[Read More]Snapcraft GNOME Extension Update
Posted on Tue, Jan 26, 2021
| Alan Pope
This is an early PSA aimed at developers who publish snaps in the Snap Store. They can probably skip this preamble, but for anyone else here’s some backstory in case you’re bored interested.
Preamble Snaps are confined software packages for Linux. They were originally designed / intended for IoT use cases so are optimised for size, bundling dependencies, are compressed on disk and auto update. They can also be used to package server software, like NextCloud, and desktop software like Signal Desktop.
[Read More]Raspberry Pi: Boot to BASIC
Posted on Mon, Jan 25, 2021
(Last modified on Wed, Mar 27, 2024)
| Alan Pope
10 REM TL;DR My Raspberry Pi 400 boots from this:
To this.
BBC BASIC!
This blog post is what parts I smashed together to make this work and why.
20 PRINT “HELLO” 40 years ago this Christmas, I got my first “personal computer”. It was a Sinclair ZX81 with 1KiB of RAM and a tape deck for storage. Every time I powered it on, like all ‘81 owners, I was greeted with this.
[Read More]