Brant Gardner @bgardner@mastodon.sdf.org

One Xeon server, built from a bunch of used parts, two used Barracuda firewalls enjoying new life as servers plud some odds and ends (Zotac micro PCs). All running #guix and behaving fine so far. Datacenter on the cheap. 😄

Ye gods, found a new item for my #pinebook unofficial review under the heading, "keyboard layout sucks":

1. The power button on this keyboard is in the position of Delete on many other of my keyboards.

2. Pressing Power on a #pinebook shuts down. Like right now. Didn't save? Too bad.

I still *really* like this thing, but these keyboard issues are going to definitely take some getting used to.

So far:

CPU is easy on the battery and surprisingly powerful.

Keyboard layout is *bad*. A couple of ultra-common symbols such as the double quote require a counterintuitive three-finger combo. Having to stop cold and work this out for each and every quote is a drag. I can adjust but this is a pain point.

1080p screen is brilliant and lovely, no complaints at all.

Overall construction is shockingly solid. I expected flimsy, it is not at all.

Overall, absolutely worth the (low) price!

My #pinebook just arrived. Gonna try it out for a bit as-is to see how it performs, but my plan is to trim back to a light #i3 config and then add #guix for package management.

Okay, turns out this is a terrible implementation of security-by-obscurity. It's an INI file with application settings pretending to be a DLL.

Dear unknown developer: you're ridiculous.

$ file chrkls.dll
chrkls.dll: : ASCII text, with CRLF line terminators

Haha... what?

Blech. Fan noise led me to investigate my most recent addition and it's wayyy too hot for my comfort.

83C at idle? Not okay, time to recheck everything.

I'm up to 5 systems running #guix system now; my plan is to designate the best one as the offload builder.

Just found out that if I log into my bank's website and then tile #emacs side-by-side with it, it assumes that my resulting 'portrait' layout for the web page means I'm on a phone so it displays this GIGANTIC button menu to 'help' me with that. 🤨

https://www.gnu.org/software/guix/blog/2019/gnu-guix-1.0.0-released/ #guix

My grandfather taught me this poem(?) when I was very young:

"Late one night in the middle of the day;
Two dead boys went out to play;
Back-to-back they faced each other;
Drew their swords and shot each other;
A deaf policeman heard the noise;
And came and shot the two dead boys;
If you don't believe my story is true;
Ask the blind man;
She saw it too."

I have no idea where it comes from originally, but it came back to me in the middle of the night and I thought I would share it.

Last part just arrived, time to start assembly and find out if I missed anything.

Client had me ssh in and check out the server.

Everything-- EVERYTHING -- runs as root.

ALL file permissions are 777.

I cannot make this stuff up. What am I supposed to do with this? 😱

For anyone who has a 3D printer, what practical use is it? Genuine question - I'd love to get one but I can't think how to justify it.

Got a $20 rackmount Barracuda used off eBay, disemboweled it, added memory & replacement power supply (also eBay used) then installed #GuixSD & finally #YaCy. Time to get my spider on.

So the client baked a specific TZ into the *entire* database.

Every. Single. Column.

Why... why would you do that? 😢