These are more-or-less protocols (well, maybe Signal is not). So instead this article could be named: Signal, Element, Dino I've used Signal for the past number of years as a chat / videocall app, having switched from Telegram after it went full Nazi. But there are other options, some I've tried. Below are some notes ... Read more
Week 02/2025 This is one of the ongoing weekly notes, as per Thej. Work Stalled on a number of things. Did a one trick thing that worked again and quadrupled sales. It won't last but handy nonetheless. Health Better mental health through tidying and doing spring cleaning (ongoing, and progressing). Doing things I can control. ... Read more
As an American, I grew up with instant ramen noodles, that is the very cheap wavy dried noodles one buys to eat, on a student's diet. Warm and filling, though honestly the nutritional content is quite suspect. I had no idea that this dried out version has extremely little to do with the actual food ... Read more
Week 02/2025 This is one of the ongoing weekly notes, as per Thej. Work To be honest, too many outstanding issues for both research and implementation. I have corralled all the scattered notes (e- and p- based) and am compiling and compressing them into something actionable. The week as the unit of effort makes much ... Read more
Ingredients 3 large eggs 1 tsp sugar 1 tsp soy sauce 1 TBSP water 2 tsp canola oil Procedure Mix water, sugar, soy Add eggs Mix with chopsticks gently (to not add air) Put some of the oil in square egg pan Pour in 1/3 of mixture Roll eggs as they cook Add second layer ... Read more
Week 01/2025 This is one of the ongoing weekly notes, as per Thej. Well, we publish this first weekly note two days late, hopefully not a harbinger. Work To be honest, too many outstanding issues for both research and implementation. I have corralled all the scattered notes (e- and p- based) and am compiling and ... Read more
Ingredients 500-600g potatoes 1/2 tsp salt thyme rosemary 1 TBSP canola oil Procedure Slice potatoes into wedges Immerse in water for 15 minutes Dry off Toss in salt, thyme, rosemary Toss in canola oil Place on parchement paper on baking pan Cook for 20 minutes at 230c Turn wedges over Cook for 20 minutes more ... Read more
Ingredients 8 cups of water 4 TBSP dashi miso or 4 TBSP white miso and one packet dashi 300 g of tofu one large sheet of nori, cut into thin bits sliced bits of carrot, potato, broccoli, cabbage, whatever is on hand (pre-cooked) Procedure Heat water in pan Add vegetables as desired Add miso by ... Read more
Ingredients 1 TBSP sugar 4 TBSP rice vinegar 4 TBSP white miso 4 TBSP canola oil splash lemon juice (if desired) Procedure Whisk sugar, vinegar, and miso smooth slowly add oil, whisking all the while, for a nice emulsion
Ingredients 1 cup milk 2 TBSP vinegar 1 egg 2 TBSP melted butter 1/2 tsp salt 1/2 tsp baking soda 1 tsp baking powder 170 g flour 1 TBSP sugar Procedure Put vinegar in milk for 5 minutes Melt butter and beat into egg Whisk milk and egg mixtures Combine and mix dry ingredients Combine ... Read more
It seems to me that coffee is more or less a waste of time and money. Any given study that might show any benefit of caffeine is offset by another study which shows a detriment, or simply no effect (other than the stimulent and short-term physical addiction). This year (2025) I will turn back the ... Read more
While in Thailand, the dangers of bicycling should not be understated. More than one around the world bicycling trip has had an untimely termination in Thailand. The main issue is the unwritten rule that smaller vehicles (motorcycles, bicycles, pedestrians) are to give way to larger vehicles (cars and trucks). There is no right of way ... Read more
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This is one of the ongoing weekly notes, as per Thej. Work Correcting some basic accounting issues. We keep making mistakes and need better QA. Using Antennapod, to try and better understand podcasts, which I don't really like or can get into. I do read a lot, for work and pleasure, and this still-growing publishing ... Read more
Ingredients 125 g graham / biscuit crumbs 500 g cream cheese 2 eggs 60 g butter 5 TBSP sugar (3g for filling, 2g for topping) 60 g strawberry compote (if desired) Procedure Use mixer or hand mix graham / biscuits of choice Melt 60 g butter and combine with graham / biscuits Press mixture into ... Read more
This is one of the ongoing weekly notes, as per Thej. Work Lot of research into the audiobook market, something I let slip over the past x months. Turns out this is still a fast-growing segment of the publishing industry (~27%). Need to finish this up! Health Started up the daily jogging, including my eldest ... Read more
This is one of the ongoing weekly notes, as per Thej. Work Lot of research into the audiobook market, something I let slip over the past x months. Turns out this is still a fast-growing segment of the publishing industry (~27%) Health Overall the family is fairly healthy, in the 90% range or so. I ... Read more
This is the continuation of weekly notes. Not sure how long this project will last, but want to give it a try, as per Thej. Work Little progress on the work front. Will have to projectize some tasks and then get it done. Some larger orders accommodated, and some on the Shopee platform, which is ... Read more
This is the start of weekly notes. Not sure how long this project will last, but want to give it a try, as per Thej. Work Little progress on the work front. Will have to projectize some tasks and then get it done. Health Generally getting over the cold that I had last week, but ... Read more
A thumbdrive or usb drive is generally essential, though there are some sdcard reader hardware that support using sdcards via USB A connectors. 16 years ago I bought this 8gb (fairly large at the time) in a mall in Vancouver, Canada. It has performed excellent service, though I don't use it daily. I remember it ... Read more
The story Around 80kph, on my 17 year-old Honda Wave 125i (a fantastic, durable, and functional motorbike that can go up to 120 kph) we ran over a nail and the rear tire explosively decompressed. The rear wheel started to slide around, hitting the rear brake did nothing, as we didn't have any surface to ... Read more
Sometimes there is a confluence of innovations, both technological, and economic, which conspire to prompt a purchase. Now it is that time for me, concerning the 2024 BYD Dolphin Standard Range. Reasons for buying: Phenomenal price 570,000 THB, 610,000 THB with 7% VAT (~17,600 USD) This is highly discounted, even since January 2024 when it ... Read more
Note see also Sandisk Clipjam and Portable Music Players and Linux Because the Sandisk Clipjam appears to be no longer manufactured, the most approximate portable MP3 player (with clip, suitable for running/bicycling) is the Ruizu x52 mp3 player. It is about $25 USD on Lazada, sold by Ruizu itself, with good reliability ratings. The unnecessary ... Read more
Ingredients 30 g peanut butter 30 g sliced almonds 30 g sunflower seeds 30 g pumpkin seeds 30 g dried cranberries 200 g apple sauce 250 g rolled oats cinnamon nutmeg olive oil Procedure Heat oven to 150 c parchment paper in a pan add all dry ingredients, mix add wet ingredients, mix pour into ... Read more
Elon Musk has engaged in outright fraud The TSLA Twitter bots The Solar City acquisition The Solar City roof tile scam The self-driving car scam Elon Musk is bad for the environment Spaceflight emissions No plans for ... Tesla's ESG rating Toxic metal mining Elon Musk is bad for humanity
Update 30-09-24 Wow, turns out everyday induction cooktops are horrible to work with carbon steel. My guess is that gas is needed, or a much improved induction. Both of which I'm not really interested in. Therefore, for the standard frying pan, a non-stick option is a better result at this timee. Stainless (or non-stick) for ... Read more
Google is such a tool. Even with apps only mode they show full-screen background ads on top of everything. Without that mode, nearly every element on the screen pushes apps and content that is unwanted and unneeded. It is now impossible to remove this without changing Google TV / Android TV launchers. Thankfully, this is ... Read more
Codium aka VSCodium Alternative to the instrumented VSCode. Less tracking, same Open Source flavor. Another option is Pulsar, the resurrected Atom editor. Ignore Pulsar, vscodium is fine. Note that with Foam, Codium can provide some level of Obsidian-like functionality, though not nearly as extensive functionality and constrained to a desktop (no mobile apps). Installation Installation ... Read more
I use Obsidian which is a closed source application but focused on open data standards, and with a thriving community of extensions and use cases. The main competitors of Obsidian are Notion (closed source cloud service) and Logseq (open source). So, why Obsidian? Why Obsidian? Freemium model, including various ways to help fund the organization ... Read more
SDcards, especially MicroSD cards, can also be connected via USB, so those speeds are also important. Notes and For any USB interface, Type 3.2 when possible. and
I spent a half-day or so looking for improvements to my current Swiss Army Knife collection (two), the Compact and the Jetsetter (3). Both are extremely compact and versatile (a bit redundant when discussing Swiss Army Knives / Victorinox). The outcome of this research is twofold: I have the most optimal (for me) Swiss Army ... Read more
Manga being a Japanese word, there are several other words (in other languages) for this kind of thing: Japanese: Manga Korean: Manhwa Chinese: Manhua English (US, CA, UK, etc.): Comics, Graphic Novels French: Bande dessinée Note the main differences between Manga, Manhwa, and Manhua. In Japan, the light novel -- akin to YA fiction in ... Read more
Git is great, and even better as a core part of a full development / deployment toolchain. These days there are choices as to which more robust Git platform to use. First, those not to use: Github (owned by Microsoft), proprietary Gitlab (owned publicly traded company), open core Both of these are worrisome for privacy ... Read more
This is meant to help with selecting and installing a chrome-based browser, with minimal tracking and other cruft. Ungoogled Chromium for Debian Actually there are a variety of OS builds for ungoogled Chromium. For Debian, the simplest is the add repository and install manually option. echo 'deb http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/ungoogled_chromium/Debian_Sid/ /' | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/home:ungoogled_chromium.list curl -fsSL ... Read more
I have not played with Mobian (yet), but it, and two other projects (Termux and UserLAnd), are quite promising. The biggest issue seems to be hardware at this point, as there are only Pine Phone and Tab, and Purism Librum, as well as one or two other devices are supported. That said, the Mobian project ... Read more
Intellectual property protections for typefaces and fonts are questionable at best, though there are a few areas in which protections do hold, including Copyright, Design Rights (and Patents), and Trademark.1 Copyright Originally in the US and other jurisdictions, the idea of a typefaces is one which is pure utility (that is, smacking ink on paper, ... Read more
Current cost-effective computing is focused on small, mobile, and Linux + Windows + Android. The Windows is for general familiarity and games for the children Current Devices Linux c214 - Ampton (ASUS C214MA) chromebook with Debian 12 (Bookworm) and Breath 4gb / 32gb + 256gb microsd n8 - NUC8i3BEH (Intel NUC) Debian 12 (Bookworm) 16gb ... Read more
There are many choices for PDF readers and editors for the Linux platform. I've used a variety over the years. Lately I had preferred these two: Xournal++ (xournalpp), which is a reader and editor, and is touted as a handwriting notetaking software with PDF annotation support ... supports pen input from devices such as Wacom ... Read more
This phenomena is such that virii which are present in our bodies, but dormant, can reemerge. Scientists want to understand the immune system. To do it, they're looking to fake space. Skin Viral Infections: Host Antiviral Innate Immunity and Viral Immune Evasion 5 Viruses That Can Cause Complications Later
Termux is an Android application (and plugins) which provides a Linux environment as a terminal emulator. Actually the Termux terminal doesn't need to be used, as it is possible to access various elements via API. The main support is various programming languages. Access to repositories via Git. And using Rclone, one can mount cloud drives ... Read more
Major update to this post as of April 2024, nearly 4 years later The below is woefully out of date. Trying to do the same thing with the same product (but different device) results in tears, mainly around Xiaomi OEM unlocking. The unlock tools simply don't work on the Linux and Windows devices I've tried ... Read more
Because ChromeOS is simply ridiculous in terms of resource requirements (on devices meant for it), the only proper approach is to install or boot from a USB drive running Debian Linux (in this case, Debian Stable). Note: there is GalliumOS but it seems to have stalled development. There are various steps involved in getting this ... Read more
There are low-end and high-end Chromebooks. This is about relatively low-end devices, specifically an ASUS C214MA which is a cheap, somewhat small, ruggedized device meant for the schooling market. It has an 11.6" HD+ screen and a 4gb/32gb RAM/ROM configuration. In our household we've run up against the limits of this device in a variety ... Read more
I've used Linode for the past three years, and before that, another two years (with 3 years of AWS in between). There has been a (reasonable) increase in prices, and not much else since the acquisition by Akamai. Before Linode I used Servint which had more tools but also was much higher in prices, for ... Read more
These specs are meant to help with acquisition decisions. More is usually better, and certainly for future-proofing purchases. Note that these are not adequate for modern games such as Starfield. Desktop and Laptop For processors, there is more leeway, but one should get the latest generation of whichever processor line is needed (e.g, for Intel ... Read more
Some basic (very basic) Pokemon Go tactics: Buddy system Most efficient approach to hearts for Buddies: Only feed buddies berries once per day Start with play (rub the head of the Pokemon, for some like Regigas without any obvious head then torso). Then take photo Then feed berries Then engage in battle with: Team Go ... Read more
[smartctl](https://www.baeldung.com/linux/storage-device-check-health) is a tool for testing hard drives. There is a graphical interface called gsmartcontrol which oddly cannot be found in the standard Debian testing repository but is otherwise available.
This is a fantastic tool: sudo apt install grub-customizer grub-customizer A nice little GUI.
I've been having trouble with the sleep cycle of a new monitor, such that causes problems with the LXDE lxpanel app. Basically the panel unloads when the monitor sleeps (or awakes). Since lxpanel is more or less frozen, I've looked to other desktop distributions to remedy this. Though I am generally satisfied with LXDE, it ... Read more
To change the volume name of a removable disk (USB / SD), in Debian (or other Linux): Open up > Accessories > Disks Click on device Click on gears icon (Additional partition options) Edit Filesystem Enter partition name