> Notes...

Why should I be happy? How can I? My friends Chuck, and Justyna, have cancer. They have suffered, and continue to suffer, very, very much. Their family, and friends, suffer.

War rages on in Ukraine, in Israel, in Palestine. Conflicts, and deep poverty, remain in Africa, Asia, Central, and South America; pain and death everywhere. Children are being exploited, and women, and people all over the world. There is so much suffering, and horror. How could I be happy? Where can I fit a bit of it?

I can’t be happy. Nobody truly should.

Going back to this, work has now provided me with a Linux (Ubuntu) laptop, and a docking station. I am to relinquish my dear Mac, and stop using (for work) macOS. I would have never thought of this happening!

iOS 17.2 released yesterday, and within it, the highly anticipated Journal app. As I commented to a friend, I am finding it to be “bland”, and “a bit of a disappointment”. Comes to prove, always set your expectations as low as possible, then chances are you will always be dazzled. :-)

Watched “Love Actually” (★★★★★) because, you know, it is that time of the year. Call me silly, but I will probably watch it once more before 2023 is over.

Moving from my beloved iMac 2015 (running macOS Monterey), to this little abomination of a Linux desktop (because, you know, 2023 is “the year of the Linux desktop” /s).

Updated my blog to version 4 (that link will initiate a download) on the Inter font. It is such a lovely font, and free!

Watched “The Farewell” (★★★★★) again, because it is one of those movies that keep you kind of down all throughout, but makes you feel happy, and shed some tears, at the end. I recommend you see it.

Now, this is coming, but I don’t have a laptop, and I am 100% setup to work remote. How are they planning we accomplish this? Would those be idle, or full of meeting days, with little—to none—productivity?

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Looming upcoming changes at work. As of 8 January 2024, show up to office on Mondays and Wednesdays. Mandatory. As of August 2024, show up to office three days a week: Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. Also mandatory. This is going to be the biggest mistake of 2024.

Miscellaneous things. Every day when I wake up I feel thankful by the simple fact I did wake up. I also think of everyone I care about, and wish them well. Yes, that means you.

Even with my deafening tinnitus I try very hard to enjoy a moment of “silence” each day. I do my best to welcome each Monday as if it was a Friday.

Between being sick, then work, then house problems, I have ended up having no inspiration, nor desire, nor words to bring here. “Nothing lasts forever”, I keep repeating to myself. Then again, that’s one of my problems, literally.

🎉 Happy birthday, Claud! It has already been a year, eh?! Cheers to many more to come, and wishing you the very best, always!

“I’m tired, boss. Tired of being on the road, lonely as a sparrow in the rain. I’m tired of never having me a buddy to be with to tell me where we’s going to, coming from, or why. Mostly, I’m tired of people being ugly to each other. I’m tired of all the pain I feel and hear in the world… every day. There’s too much of it. It’s like pieces of glass in my head… all the time. Can you understand?”

This week recount, starting Friday 6 October 2023.

• Pickup my friend (but brother in reality) Martin at the airport. He will stay with us until Tuesday, 10 October.
• Took Martin around town all Saturday, watched movies at night.
• Went to Saint Augustine, “the oldest continuously inhabited European-established settlement in what is now the contiguous United States” on Sunday. Watched more movies at night.
• Took Martin even more places Monday morning, went to The H for dinner. Yes, you guessed it, more binge occurred at night.
• Went for breakfast at Chick-fil-A, lunch at Don Julio, and then talked to Martin non-stop till it was time to take him to the airport. We had lots to catch up. Still have much more.
• Missed my friend all night.
• Worked mostly on Ubuntu related tasks the rest of the week, till today.

On January 2021 our Chief Information Officer (CIO) was hired. His last day will be 15 November 2023. He is moving to greener pastures at Texas State University. Go Bobcats!

It is going to be an interesting period this year end… and half of the next.

I never thought, in a million years, that I was going to write this: when it comes to UI between Windows 11 and Windows 95, I prefer the later. You will not believe the memories “My Briefcase”, and “The Microsoft Network” brought to me!

The Guidebook has many more screenshots worth re-seeing.

What this company is doing is truly inspiring. Not only are they helping with the polluting waste problem we increasingly have, but they create beautiful looking things, useful things, out of discarded plastic.

➝ Via @claudrod.

My open case with Canonical has been worked, back and forth, for over a month. It started at severity level 3, and now is at 1. Every time I thought I was seeing the metaphorical “light at the end of the tunnel”, it became dark once more. This is beyond painful.

Once again we are beating records, with September breaking them “for the highest temperature anomaly of any month”. And we are doing next to nothing. Are we really that stupid? I am sure we know the answer by now.

Each day I discover a font that I like. Today is, so far (and I write so far because it is only early morning), “Quattrocento Sans”. So pretty, so crispy, so legible! I am in love!

It is proven, time after time, that it is completely stupid to censor that which you don’t want people to remember, or know. Stupid because the end result is the total opposite of the aim. In this case, especially, because it wasn’t something done on purpose.

Light rain has come to change my afternoon plans. Perhaps it will let me bike? Haven’t done it for the last four days, and I am starting to miss the lack of pain in my legs.

Rainy Sunday, my kind of days: rainy, and Sunday. Wish there was more like these, more often!

It is that time of the week again, in which the front lawn and I spend quality time together. The backyard time will come soon after, otherwise jealousy ensues.

I have been getting worried and depressed for things I can’t control, and it’s not fun. I have got to exile those thoughts somehow. Maybe exercise will do it.

Unpopular opinion: if you need an RSS reader to keep up with everything, you are consuming too much. While I can see the utility of RSS, it doesn’t beat the full web experience.

I had forgotten how much Apple Music improves my working day. And my hobby time in front of the computer. And my driving time. I had forgotten how much I love the service. Now, with Apple One, it is mine once again!

Raspberry Pi just announced version 5 of their board, and I yawned. For about the same amount one can get a micro computer with better specifications, and support for pretty much all operating systems.

I have become such a snob, and I feel bad about it. I can’t stand WordPress sites and, more often than not, I will simply browse away if I see the site is built with it. I want to change but it’s rather clinical. Please, help!

I have been getting “You can’t perform that action at this time.” messages left and right, when trying to star repositories on GitHub. The thing is, they get starred, but the message still shows. Thanks Microsoft! </s>

My currently open L3 support case with Canonical just passed the 20 days mark. I have asked to raise its priority to L2. Let’s see now. 🙄

When I say “Don’t worry about the dishes, I will do them later!” I don’t only say it out of love, or out of duty (doing the dishes is my chore). I say it becase I do them better. You know, like really clean, not a sloppy job. 😂

I started writing a note on my thoughts about “wisdom”, prompted by this submission on Hacker News. It became too long to be a note, so it made it to my blog instead. It is short, just not short enough.

The iPhone 15 Pro Max camera is getting amazing reviews at DXOMARK. Too bad that I will not be getting a new phone this year.

A thought came to me this morning about how would secular people from past history communicated with each other. By secular I mean the common people, not the decent-to-filthy rich kind. Did they scribbled notes? Did they even know how to scribble? Would they keep journals and, if so, what ever happened to them? Were they simply discarded, thrown into the bin? I know I kept journals at various stages of childhood. None of them survived. Nor did the many notes, and letters I wrote, and received.

Come to think, after all, all things in life truly are ephemeral.

The six (the foundation, at least, as there could be more) components of an apology. The bottom line? Very few people know how to genuinely apologise.

1. An expression of regret — this, usually, is the actual “I’m sorry.”
2. An explanation (but, importantly, not a justification).
3. An acknowledgement of responsibility.
4. A declaration of repentance.
5. An offer of repair.
6. A request for forgiveness.

The original article is well worth reading. I found it to be excellent.

➝ Via Kottke.

My first web browser was Mosaic, then Netscape, then Mozilla which became Firefox. Firefox became my default go-to web browser for many years. If Microsoft Windows was my OS platform of choice it would probably still be. Ever since I completely, and absolutely, moved to macOS/iOS/iPadOS, the choice has been Safari. I had had no reason to look elsewhere.

This blog post is everlasting. Since 2018, when it was written, things have gotten worse. I don’t see the light at the end of the tunnel anytime soon.

We put virtual machines inside Linux, and then we put Docker inside virtual machines, simply because nobody was able to clean up the mess that most programs, languages and their environment produce. We cover shit with blankets just not to deal with it. “Single binary” is still a HUGE selling point for Go, for example. No mess == success.

Sound on and up, please. I really liked this version of “Ozymandias”. The text is the same, it wouldn’t be “Ozymandias” otherwise. It is the spoken voice, the beat, the emphasis and cadence behind it, that drives it.

Incidentally, “Breaking Bad” (★★★★★) is really good. If you haven’t watched it yet, I strongly recommend you do.

Now I know how my mum felt seeing her beloved actors and actresses become old, and dropping off big screens. It is a mix of melancholy, and worry.