September 28, 2022
This site is one of a couple static sites I’ve been maintaining. I’ve been deploying them locally on filesystem with rsync, then hosting a webserver to present the content. I’ve been using Cloudflare for a couple years for DNS specifically.
Over time they have released a portfolio of interesting products, providing source for many of their implementations. They have also been outspoken in the public about the uncomfortable role they play in censorship.
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September 21, 2022
Using Gnome/GDM with large HiDPI displays (like a television) is great, except GDM is by default scaled at 1.0. It’s possible to change the scaling of GDM through modification of /var/lib/gdm/.config/monitors.xml. This file may not exist, so you can modify your display via the Gnome GUI, then copy that configuration over (assuming Fedora Silverblue, you’re going to want to target /var so it persists):
sudo cp /var/home//.config/monitors.xml /var/lib/gdm/.config/
The main thing you’re looking for in the configuration file is the expression of scale: <scale>2</scale>.
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August 21, 2022
Baseboard Management Controller is implemented on “enterprise” systems and along with several satellite controllers facilitates access via a platform management system. IPMI is a set of specifications for interacting with these systems. Typically the BMC provides a web interface, but there is also ipmitool which facilitates access over an ssh server running on the BMC.
There are “taps” in place to allow for serial based interaction between the BMC and the primary host metal.
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August 17, 2022
Talking with a handful of people about mobile phones and what to do about them. There is genuine interest in using simpler devices while on the move for communication but there isn’t a ton of options. Seems like we’ve landed in a local optimum of what our devices are capable of doing and why we carry them around. These devices provide significant utility, but they also come at a cost that {mentally, behaviorally} is becoming more apparent.
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July 15, 2022
Photo taken (of the home my Grandparents lived in for 70+ years) in July 2022 in Owosso Michigan with a Pixel.
Culture # Found out about some wine documentaries when riding bicycles: Somm (2012) Somm: Into the Bottle (2015) Somm III (2018) Red Obsession (2013) Blood into Wine (2010) Tavour allows you to build out a custom box of craft beer and ship it to your home. However in Michigan this is currently impossible due to rough public policy.
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July 12, 2022
Author # Originally I’d found Kim Stanley Robinson (KSR) from an interesting talk at The Long Now Foundation. His talk was engaging and it turns out that he’d fictionalized these concepts into a novel titled The Ministry of the Future. The Mars trilogy has been on my list for a while. The talk at Long Now highlighted a near future focus on impending/realistic problems that humanity faces, which drew me in to selecting a more recent text.
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June 3, 2022
Photo taken (Of Enoch the dog!) in May 2022 in Fulton Heights of Grand Rapids Michigan with a Pixel.
Culture # Slack is something I’ve been looking to read more about, these two articles were interesting: My slack budget: 3 surprise problems per week Slack gives you space to notice/reflect on subtle things We saw a Sylvansport Go, seems like a great way to rapidly tent and keep yourself off the ground.
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May 4, 2022
For a deployment recently we wanted to create an out-of-band circuit with a root bridge on a server that had the IPMI/BMC of several edge devices connected to it. There was a complexity in that one of the BMCs was remote and was being made accessible via a transparent bridge that had an arbitrary vlan tag set. Maybe its embarrassing to admit, but for these edge devices there was a need to be able to see both ssh (ipmitool) and http (graphical kvm), so these were exposed via wireguard.
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April 24, 2022
Photo taken (Of Enoch the dog!) in March 2022 in Fulton Heights of Grand Rapids Michigan with a Pixel.
Culture # Brandon Sanderson did a crowd funding campaign for some previously un-announced novels in the Cosmere universe. Recently played Wingspan which has excellent game mechanics and a good deal of learning about birds! The same publisher has Scythe which is based on the works of Jakub Różalski. His alternative history dieselpunk steampunk mecha work is the basis for a crowd funded game called Iron Harvest.
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April 24, 2022
Author # Brandon Sanderson is a prolific writer and creator of worlds. His main works are the creation of the Cosmere universe. His other works include finishing the Wheel of Time series after the passing of Robert Jordan (The series is now an epic fantasy on Amazon Prime Video).
His works are considered to be a part of Hard Fantasy largely because of Sanderson’s Laws of Magic.
He, his wife, and a small team operate Dragonsteel Entertainment which seems to be highly engaging with the community.
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