HOW I COMPUTE

It’s been a long time since I’ve written anything, so how about one of those classic “what hardware and software do you use?"-type posts. Hardware I use a Framework laptop as my main personal computer, and a work-provided Macbook Pro for work-related stuff. My home could server is an old desktop that I’ve stuffed with hard drives and stashed away under a pile of junk near my office desk. My work laptop usually stays docked downstairs in the office (using the monitor, keyboard and mouse that used to belong to the now-server desktop) and my personal laptop floats around with me.

WHAT I'VE BEEN DOING

It’s been quiet around here… Too quiet… But that doesn’t mean I haven’t been up to anything. Quite the opposite. Things both good and bad. Mostly good. Day job-wise, we did a pretty big software release earlier this year, and while the dust has been settling, I’ve been dealing with fair amount of customer support, alongside work on some newer projects. I need to get back to our cash-cow soon though, to put out a minor version bump, but I need to clear my plate (and my team’s plate) a bit more first.

GIT: TERMINAL PROMPTS DISABLED

A magic incantation to turn all git commands involving https://github.com/ into the much more reasonable git@github.com style. git config –global url."git@github.com:".insteadOf "https://github.com/" This saved my bacon with an internal project that uses a mixture of the two styles for submodules.

MY RC.LOCAL FILE

It’s no secret that when it comes to Linux distributions, I prefer Slackware. Partially that’s because Slackware feels the most Unix-like out of all of the distributions I’ve used over the years. I got my first taste of Unix with Solaris, and Slackware is the distribution that provides me with anything close to that same feeling. Over the past few months I’ve been using FreeBSD on my laptop, but I’m back to Slack now, and I feel like documenting a few of the tweaks I’ve made to my system.

UNSCREWING GIT SUBMODULE UPDATES

Sometimes when working with git submodules, submodules may be accidentally updated and committed. If you end up in such a situation where a submodule was accidentally bumped forward on you, and you’re in a bad state, here’s how you can roll things back. Checkout a previous commit where things worked git checkout COMMIT-HASH-HERE You can find the hash for your target commit by looking through your commit log. Take a look at what commit hashes your submodules are set to

WORKING FROM HOME

Due to the COVID-19 global pandemic, I am currently working from home. Luckily I have a basement office, so I’m not having to resort to working at the dining room table. Since I haven’t blogged in a while, and I like making lists, I thought I’d take this opportunity to jot down some of the software I’m using to make remote work as easy as possible. Plasma: The best desktop environment I’ve been a fan of the Plasma desktop environment for some time now.

HOW I BUILD MY SITE

I’m still using the hugo static site generator, and the following makefile to help me build new posts:

LOTS OF LIFE UPDATES

I haven't been blogging much lately, but I figured that I'd do a quick summarization of what's been going on this year. Home The main reason why I've been to pre-occupied to blog regularly this year is because my house now contains a one-year-old. My son, Billy, is by far my most amazing creation. He's also the busiest kid I've ever seen in my life. Busy in a good way, he's extra curious about everything.

FIVE LESSONS JOHN PERRY BARLOW TAUGHT THE WORLD

In light of the passing of the great John Perry Barlow, vpnMentor has published a wonderful tribute piece, titled 5 Lessons that John Barlow Taught the World. Typically I don’t link to these kinds of articles, but in the wake of John’s passing I feel the need to spread the message far and wide: digital privacy is important.

JOHN PERRY BARLOW HAS DIED

The world lost a great man today. John Perry Barlow was a hero of mine. He wrote lyrics for the Grateful Dead, co-founded the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and helped shape the internet and the freedoms therein. Though I never had the honor to meet him personally, he greatly shaped my views of the world. Rest in peace, John. What follows is a reprinting of John’s famous principles for adult behavior. May his words echo forever, so that he can keep striving to make the world a better place, even in death.