Random ponderings
Another installment of @hyde 's "Vim Carnival" , this time asking, "How do you use Neovim/Vim to build your knowledge management?" Unstructured Data While boring, I dump all my unstructured "knowledge" data in a simple notes.txt file within my "personal data/text files" repo stored in git for syncing between machines. This file contains a host of random thoughts and web-clippings. Disambiguations…
@hyde over on Mastodon issued a call for "Vim Carnival" posts, with this month's topic suggesting the vim motion that changed everything . Buckle up, because you get not one but multiple motions that changed things. The Boring Motion(s) While boring, you get 6 motions for the price of one: f / F / t / T jump forward/backward landing on (or immediately short of) a target character; and , / ; . to…
In a recent conversation, the topic of encrypted disks on OpenBSD came up, and how to have multiple FDE disks while only needing to enter a passphrase once. If you install to a FDE root, and then follow the official instructions for setting up FDE on your additional drive(s), you'll likely end up needing to enter your passphrase multiple times during boot, once for each drive or provide a…
Every week or two, a post seems to pop up on one of the BSD-related sub-reddits where I hang out ( FreeBSD , OpenBSD , NetBSD , & BSD ) asking why folks would choose a BSD over a Linux distribution. Having answered the same question multiple times, I figured the time had come to post my "why" here. Skip the history and jump to the push/pull Early Unix experiences (1987–1994) I'd grown up on Apple…
"word to your moms, I came to drop bombs, I've got more less tips than the Bible's got Psalms." In a recent discussion on Reddit I shared a number of tips about the common utility less(1) that others found helpful so I figured I'd aggregate some of those tips here. Operating on multiple files While most folks invoke less at the tail of a pipeline like $ command | less Invoking less in a pipeline…
Why did you start blogging in the first place? Part of me wants to just record my thought-process and solidify my thinking. Another part like sharing things I learn in case they help others. And sometimes I just want to rant. What platform are you using to manage your blog, and why do you use it In the late 90s, I wrote raw HTML files and just posted them on the RedHat web-server that my college…
In the beginning Similar to some Mail User Agents (MUAs) and NNTP clients, the specification for HTTP since at least version 0.9 have included User-Agent headers that still exist in modern HTTP standards. This header lets the server know what software made the request. But it also provides a reminder that the software existed to act on behalf of the user . Abuse Sadly, server-side software started…
Sigh. Lowe's doesn't seem to be able to competently ship a part that still shows as in-stock on their site. Rant documenting the drama follows. tl;dr order online, they cancel. order online again, they cancel. Call support, get told to place the order with the local store. Call local store, get told they can't. Call support, get told to physically go into the store to order. Order gets placed.…
Overview Wanting to dig into ActivityPub / ActivityStreams for a while I figured I'd read the specs and dive in. Having read plenty of RFC specs before, I figured this wouldn't take too long. Boy was I wrong. This article is currently a WIP so it may get updated multiple times as I learn more and read deeper into the various specs/RFCs and their sub-dependencies. The whole family of specs feels…
I had a bunch of items on the todo list for the day and wanted to arrange them in order, but I needed to certain items before others: Drop donations off at the resale store, but can't do that before 10:00 when they open Get the daughter ready for soccer camp before dropping her off Drop the daughter off at camp before taking paperwork up to her school cut the son's hair before he takes a shower…