The little happenings in my small life in the woods
Daily steps to building our resistance into a General Strike 2026-01-23 In the face of extreme daily brutality the folks of Minnesota have been giving the rest of the US a demonstration of how we resist rising fascism in the US. Anyone can begin taking action to build their personal and community capacity for resistance today. Depending on your location and context, only some of these will apply.…
2026 is starting off with even more US fascism 2026-01-09 Well, we're one week into 2026 and the regime continues it the war against its own people and its war against the rest of the world. On January 3 the US abducted the elected president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro with a military strike that included bombings of infrastructure and killed at least 57. In the days following the regime…
The visual design and experience of using GNU/Linux 2025-12-28 Last week the folks that build the Elementary distribution of GNU/Linux announced the release of 8.1. I don’t usually jump to look at all the new releases of various distributions because I’ve been happy with Mint on my laptop and Trisquel on my Mini but I’ve been wanting to at least look at Elementary because I remembered hearing that…
2025 End of year personal computing check-in 2025-12-26 Part 1: The GNU/Linux Experience As I start this post in early November 2025 it’s been nine months since I first installed GNU/Linux on this 2012 MacMini. I had no idea at the beginning of the year that I would completely flip the table of my 30+ years of Apple-based computing. I had no idea that by the end of my first year of using GNU/Linux…
What's the web browser outlook for 2026? 2025-12-21 Amongst those that care about the quality and privacy of web browsers, Mozilla's Firefox has long served as the source for an ecosystem of other downstream browsers. But with each year it seems that the long-term reliability of this souce has grown less certain. From dependency on Google for funding to muddied messaging from Mozilla's management…
2025 Privacy Goals and Progress 2025-11-21 Reduce or eliminate use of cloud services Reduce exposure to data collection by apps Reduce exposure to data collection via web browsers Reduce exposure to location tracking First, I'll go over what I cut out. After that, I'll go over what I've switched to. Apple Services, Apps in general I pulled all my data out of iCloud with the exception of the most…
Using a data only eSIM + MySudo for greater phone privacy 2025-10-26 I wrote a couple weeks ago about my progress in making my iPhone more private . While those measures were a step in the right direction I was still going to rely on my phone carrier for phone calls when away from home. As someone who doesn't make or recieve a lot of calls, that seemed fine. Basically, I'd leave the phone in…
Becoming an Activist Part 3: deCleyre Co-op 2025-10-12 Note: This is part 3 in a series that I started in early February 2025 but never finished. Part 1: Becoming an activist Part 2: The Memphis Social Ecology Project deCleyre was meant to be a full-time activist co-op. It was really just a carry-over of our first shared housing experiment, Douglass House. The difference is that we were purchasing…
By default my cell phone is a surveillance device. I fixed that. 2025-10-10 One of my ongoing experiments at increasing privacy has been a shift in my phone use. A bit of context: the phone has always been my least favorite computing device. The screen is too small, I don’t like typing on it and I rarely get real calls but I do get a lot of spam calls. So, for me, it’s always mostly been a camera…
My ongoing effort to de-Apple the iPad 2025-09-24 As someone who had come to prefer using an iPad for all of my computing the switch to GNU/Linux was an unexpected turn but one that has been far better than expected. Delightful even. But, seven months in, a laptop is still a laptop with a permanently attached keyboard and no multi-touch screen. There's no denying it, I have missed the experience…
Freeing Apple Devices from Apple 2025-08-29 Over the past year I’ve often come across folks talking about de-Googling which largely comes down to disconnecting from Google services by finding alternatives. When I began my transition away from Apple a few months back I wasn’t sure what I would do with my various Apple devices. I knew I wanted to switch to GNU/Linux on my 2012 Mac, but I would still…
Apple to GNU/Linux Journal - GNU Emacs 2025-08-19 Back in late May and early June I began to give GNU Emacs a try. I’d opened it once or twice before only to quit it after a few minutes. Why bother when there are so many other text editors to choose from? The first thing I noticed about GNU Emacs was that it used different keybindings from those that have become fairly standard across most text…
Americans’ perpetual consumerism leads to insecurity and then fascism 2025-08-13 One of the problems of America is it’s culture of hyper-consumerism. We’ve come to find ourselves in a culture of never happy because we always want the next thing that we think will fill the void but it never does. It’s a permanent state of wanting more which leads to a permanent state of servitude to our stuff. The…
Update on our Community Computer Upcycle Project 2025-08-13 It’s been a slower start than I’d hoped for but we are making a bit of progress. I’m going to take the long view that a slow start is better than no start and if I keep at it, it will grow. Here’s a progress report. Three weeks ago I had my first request for an assisted GNU/Linux install on a Dell Latitude laptop. We met-up at the library…
Lefty Activists and Journalists: STOP using Google and other big US tech services! 2025-08-02 I’ve been helping an activist/journalist friend work her way out of Google services, primarily Gmail and she’s mentioned how many other activists she knows who are also using Gmail and it really seems like a problem that the activist community needs to deal with sooner rather than later. It was never a…
Five months with local cloud computing 2025-07-31 It’s been five months since I set-up my local files “cloud” and I thought I’d write a short update. I’ve made a few changes but, in short, it’s been a great experience with zero issues. My initial cloud was going to be syncing between the LinuxMini and an M1 MacMini. I expected to continue using the iPad for computing while out on the porch,…
Begin the Journey: Finding a practical starting point with Free Software 2025-07-20 As I’m writing this post it’s 85°F with 80% humidity at 8:30pm after a very hot, humid day in Missouri. There was no breeze at all today, just the sun bearing down with its relentless gaze. Do you know what provides the sweetest relief to this kind of stifling heat? A shady swim in the chilly waters of a woodland…
Apple to GNU/Linux Journal: Food and exercise tracking 2025-07-17 Ten years ago, after a short period of weight gain, I decided I needed to get in the habit of better tracking my diet and exercise. I used an app (or, a series of different apps) on the iPhone to do the diet tracking and an Apple Watch for the exercise tracking. I don’t think I’ve missed a day of entering in my food in that 10…
This morning as I was reading through my Mastodon timeline I came across this article, Anthropic, Google, OpenAI and xAI granted up to $200 million for AI work from Defense Department . I took a deep breath. I grumbled and cursed. Then the obvious occurred to me: Google is no longer a tech company, they are a US military contractor. They are a part of the military industrial complex. I stopped…
Begin the journey: Why your ethics might require adoption of Free Software 2025-07-04 My own journey into free software began with my ethics. It was, and is, deeply personal but simultaneously connected to my understanding of the larger world I am a part of. I’ve long believed and argued to those around me that what we do as individuals matters. We are not helpless, we are not without power in our…
We have a choice to make: How we compute matters 2025-06-26 Which side are you on? In the fall of 1992 I bought my first computer, a Mac Color Classic, to write my Masters thesis. I knew nothing about computers. I only chose a Mac because I was new to Memphis and one of the only people I knew was a Mac user that lived across the apartment complex and when I told him I needed a new computer that’s…
Morning Walk Wildflowers 2025-06-24 Dew covered red clover in the morning sun Rudbeckia hirta, the black-eyed Susan Misumena vatia, flower crab spider waiting for breakfast?
Trisquel: A fully free GNU/Linux distribution 2025-06-20 After spending more time reading through the Free Software Foundation I decided to try out one of their recommended free GNU/Linux distributions: Trisquel . I’m perfectly happy with Mint but the idealist in me wanted to at least try the ideal free distro. Would it work for me? When I made the decision to leave Apple for GNU/Linux I had not…
Your older Mac not eligible for macOS 26? 2025-06-10 With Apple’s WWDC25 announcements comes news that most pre-2020 Macs are ineligible for macOS 26. I don’t recall Apple’s policy for providing security updates for older Macs running the previous versions of macOS. A search seems to indicate about 2 years of security updates so anyone not eligible to upgrade this year will get another 2 years of…
Perilla! 2025-06-01 We've got a plant that grows everywhere around here and by everywhere I mean it. I have a near limitless supply. Perilla frutescens is an annual plant in the mint family native to southeast Asia. It's commonly grown in Korea, China, Japan and India as a crop. Bonus, it attracts butterflies. Another bonus: it's fairly nutritious. 7 carbs and 7 grams of fiber per 100g serving.…
Community Computer Upcycle 2025-05-20 A few weeks back I began thinking about the possibility of starting up a local community project to upcycle older computers. I contacted a local nonprofit where a friend works, Madison County Recovery Allies (MCRA), as well as my local regional library where I've been volunteering for several years. I sent both orgs a proposal and both want to join in. I met…
Are Apple Enthusiasts Miserable? 2025-05-03 It's been on my mind to write about Apple enthusiast user culture for the past couple weeks and this morning the title of the current Rebound podcast got my attention: General Misery About Life and Technology . I write this post as a former Apple enthusiast, a 30+ year user of Apple computers and devices. When I bought my first Mac in 1992 I just needed…
Apple to Linux Journal Two months, enjoying the journey! 2025-05-01 Happy May Day ! It's been over two months since my first install of Linux Mint on my old 2012 Mac Mini, now dubbed LinuxMini. I've got quite a few posts covering various apps and aspects of the migration but thought I'd write up a two month status report. My initial plan was for Linux to be an experiment and eventual migration…
Progress Exiting Google, iCloud and other US big tech firms Slowly but surely, I'm getting closer. I stopped using Google search years ago. I need to track down the last few accounts that use my google account for login. I don't actively use or rely on gmail but am monitoring for a while as I expect there might still be an account or two that remains linked. Yesterday this article in the Nation…
A few thoughts on consumer ethics and the new trade war 2025-04-06 For most of my adult life I've made it a point to actively boycott companies that seemed to have shitty ethics. It's difficult because capitalism is shitty at it's root so I don't think that ethical consumerism within capitalism is a solution to the problem. I don't want to be stuck in the lesser evil. But the problem is systemic.…
Are you bending the knee to fascism? If your favorite local hardware store started flying a Nazi flag would you shrug and go ahead and step through the door to purchase that garden hose you need? Many US companies and, relevant to this post, most of US big tech have all bent the knee to the Trump administration. For the sake of business and profit, Meta, Google, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon and others…
Apple to Linux Journal - Scribus is actually amazing 2025-03-29 The full Scribus window with left toolbar and panels docked on each side. In my last post I shared a few things that turned out to be incorrect or just lacking in information. Honestly, I should have known I'd not taken enough time and should have used the app another day or two before posting. First, I incorrectly stated that there…
Apple to Linux Journal - Rhythmbox as a local music player 2025-03-27 Okay, let me get this out of the way first: I learned long ago that Apple's Music app is absolute garbage for playing local music shared by a Mac on the network. Absolute and utter garbage. Essentially, it's broken. I would open Music on the iPad and attempt to stream via Home sharing and it would take 3-5 minutes to show my…
Apple to Linux Journal - Migrating from Apple Photos to digiKam One of my first considerations in moving from Apple to Linux was photo management. I've moved my photo workflow to digiKam . And I'll say right up front, this is NOT the app for families that want to live in one large, shared photo library in a cloud. digiKam is for managing a local file photo library. I might work over a local…
2025-03-22 So, you're a frustrated Apple user looking for alternatives? I'm old enough to remember 2022 when most tech pundit podcaster folks were complaining constantly about how difficult and confusing Mastodon was. They were frustrated with the direction Twitter was headed in but they were still comfortable there. They'd been there for years and they didn't want to deal with Mastodon because it…
2024-03-17 Apple to Linux Journal - Linux troubleshooting successes! My simple LinuxMini work nook. Today marks one month exactly with Linux and I was glad to solve two of my three issues that have continued since install. And, to be clear, these were obviously not deal breakers, just bothersome. Linux Mint is meant to be an easy way into Linux and it absolutely has been. Windows and macOS are not…
2025-03-16 Apple to Linux Journal Series Home It's been a month since I installed Linux on my old 2012 Mac Mini, now dubbed LinuxMini and I thought I'd collect the various posts I've written into one page which I'll update with future posts as I continue on in the process. The posts detail the concrete steps taken to migrate from Apple's iCloud: my own local cloud for photos, files and music with…
2025-03-13 Apple to Linux Journal - Can I replace Affinity Publisher with Scribus? First, I'm just going to say, I adore the Affinity suite of apps. Publisher and Designer in particular are two of my most used apps on the iPad. Affordable one-time purchases rather than subscriptions, regularly updated, stable and fully featured, these apps have been key to working from an iPad. And I expect I'll…
2025-03-10 We need a global foundation for an open source web engine My perhaps too simple take on the current situation with web browsers: We need a new governance model for the development and maintenance of the web browser rendering engine. The current situation is we have three big players: Chromium/Blink which is open source but under the control of Google. Webkit is open source, associated…
2024-03-07 Text Editor " Apple to Linux Journal: Moving email from iCloud to my own domains A mistake I made over 10+ years ago was depending on Apple for my email. It was easy, it was convenient. I'd done the same with Gmail before that. As of 2 weeks ago my email, according to Settings for iCloud showed that I was using around 5GB of storage. In my migration process the past two weeks I first…
2025-03-6 Linux Utilities: Autokey, Diodon and Ulauncher Upon switching to Linux I noticed there were three things missing that I was missing from the iPad: Text expansion, Clipboard history and Spotlight search. The iPad does not actually have a clipboard history but I was using a third party app for that function. These are the three I'm using on Linux. Autokey is an easy to configure app for…
2025-03-04 Linux apps for notes, blogging, coding and remote file management I've written a couple times in the past couple weeks about switching to Linux. As I've mentioned I'll still be stuck using Apple devices for a few years due to my reliance on the Affinity suite of apps but I'm shifting everything else to a Linux Mint Mac Mini and it's been great thus far. This post is specifically about…
2025-03-01 Building a reliable local cloud replacement for iCloud or other corporate cloud-based computing It's been 10 days since I installed Linux Mint on an older 2012 Mac Mini and began the process of migrating from Apple's hardware, software and iCloud services ecosystem. One of the more important tasks I've completed is building my local cloud replacement for Apple's iCloud. I should say…
2025-02-26 Apple, big tech, lock-in and the corporate colonization of life experience Over the past few weeks, months really, as I've been considering the state of the world and the US (as many have) I've found myself increasingly of the mind that it was time, probably past time, to more specifically redefine my use of computing technology. I've written about the most recent kick in the ass that…
2025-02-23 Apple to Linux Journal - a Week of progress I'm feeling really good about this move. My sister has observed of my personality that once I have made my mind up on something I don't fuck around and it's generally true. Once I decided that I needed to migrate away from Apple it became my focus. I expected most of the process to a couple months but I'll likely be mostly finished within this…
2025-02-22 Apple to Linux Journal - First Days Note, I started writing this at the end of my first day with Linux Mint but have been adding to it over the subsequent 4 days of use. I expected I'd publish it here but it's sorta written as note to myself. The first day with Linux went fairly well. Downloading, creating a bootable thumbdrive and install was easy. And by easy I mean almost anyone with…
Leonard Peltier is free. Democracy Now! post on YouTube
2025-02-19 Progress on migrating away from the Apple ecosystem A couple days ago I posted about my decision to stop using Apple products and services . Shortly after posting I came across Eric's post on Schwartztech highlighting a couple of other folks having very similar thoughts. First, he links to this post by Matt Massiocotte : Apple is supporting a regime that is not just destroying democracy…
2025-02-17 When computing and tech are turned against us "Here's to the fascist ones. The boot lickers. The sycophants. The toadies. The people who roll the fuck over. The ones that have no spine… They're not fond of integrity And they have no respect for human decency…" - Source I was deeply disgusted when I woke up a few days ago to the news that Apple has chosen to return to advertising on what…
2025-02-09 Becoming an Activist Part 2: The Memphis Social Ecology Project This is part 2 in a series. Part 1, Becoming an activist . This post is meant to serve as an overview of the development and history of 10 years of our active community building efforts in Memphis from 1992-2002. My hope is to provide enough of a description that the reader might get an idea of what they themselves might…