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diff --git a/gemfeed/2008-06-26-perl-poetry.gmi b/gemfeed/2008-06-26-perl-poetry.gmi index 536c9c50..a8345a71 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2008-06-26-perl-poetry.gmi +++ b/gemfeed/2008-06-26-perl-poetry.gmi @@ -2,6 +2,12 @@ > Published at 2008-06-26T21:43:51+01:00; Updated at 2021-05-04 +Here are some Perl Poems I wrote. They don't do anything useful when you run them, but they don't produce a compiler error either. They only exist for fun and demonstrate what you can do with Perl syntax. + +Wikipedia: "Perl poetry is the practice of writing poems that can be compiled as legal Perl code, for example the piece known as Black Perl. Perl poetry is made possible by the large number of English words that are used in the Perl language. New poems are regularly submitted to the community at PerlMonks." + +=> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perl + ``` '\|/' * -- * ----- @@ -28,20 +34,11 @@ _~~|~/_|_|__/|~~~~~~~ | / ~~~~~ | | ~~~~~~~~ ## Table of Contents * ⇢ Perl Poetry -* ⇢ ⇢ Introduction * ⇢ ⇢ math.pl * ⇢ ⇢ christmas.pl * ⇢ ⇢ shopping.pl * ⇢ ⇢ More... -## Introduction - -Here are some Perl Poems I wrote. They don't do anything useful when you run them, but they don't produce a compiler error either. They only exist for fun and demonstrate what you can do with Perl syntax. - -Wikipedia: "Perl poetry is the practice of writing poems that can be compiled as legal Perl code, for example the piece known as Black Perl. Perl poetry is made possible by the large number of English words that are used in the Perl language. New poems are regularly submitted to the community at PerlMonks." - -=> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perl - ## math.pl ```perl diff --git a/gemfeed/2008-06-26-perl-poetry.gmi.tpl b/gemfeed/2008-06-26-perl-poetry.gmi.tpl index 01636b3d..903c5c6e 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2008-06-26-perl-poetry.gmi.tpl +++ b/gemfeed/2008-06-26-perl-poetry.gmi.tpl @@ -2,6 +2,12 @@ > Published at 2008-06-26T21:43:51+01:00; Updated at 2021-05-04 +Here are some Perl Poems I wrote. They don't do anything useful when you run them, but they don't produce a compiler error either. They only exist for fun and demonstrate what you can do with Perl syntax. + +Wikipedia: "Perl poetry is the practice of writing poems that can be compiled as legal Perl code, for example the piece known as Black Perl. Perl poetry is made possible by the large number of English words that are used in the Perl language. New poems are regularly submitted to the community at PerlMonks." + +=> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perl + ``` '\|/' * -- * ----- @@ -27,14 +33,6 @@ _~~|~/_|_|__/|~~~~~~~ | / ~~~~~ | | ~~~~~~~~ << template::inline::toc -## Introduction - -Here are some Perl Poems I wrote. They don't do anything useful when you run them, but they don't produce a compiler error either. They only exist for fun and demonstrate what you can do with Perl syntax. - -Wikipedia: "Perl poetry is the practice of writing poems that can be compiled as legal Perl code, for example the piece known as Black Perl. Perl poetry is made possible by the large number of English words that are used in the Perl language. New poems are regularly submitted to the community at PerlMonks." - -=> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perl - ## math.pl ```perl diff --git a/gemfeed/2010-04-09-standard-ml-and-haskell.gmi b/gemfeed/2010-04-09-standard-ml-and-haskell.gmi index 844fd595..17bd4651 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2010-04-09-standard-ml-and-haskell.gmi +++ b/gemfeed/2010-04-09-standard-ml-and-haskell.gmi @@ -8,6 +8,16 @@ As you will see, SML and Haskell are very similar (at least when it comes to the Haskell is also a "pure functional" programming language, whereas SML also makes explicit use of imperative concepts. I am by far not a specialist in either of these languages, but here are a few functions implemented in both SML and Haskell: +## Table of Contents + +* ⇢ Standard ML and Haskell +* ⇢ ⇢ Defining a multi-data type +* ⇢ ⇢ Processing a multi +* ⇢ ⇢ Simplify function +* ⇢ ⇢ Delete all +* ⇢ ⇢ Delete one +* ⇢ ⇢ Higher-order functions + ## Defining a multi-data type Standard ML: diff --git a/gemfeed/2010-04-09-standard-ml-and-haskell.gmi.tpl b/gemfeed/2010-04-09-standard-ml-and-haskell.gmi.tpl new file mode 100644 index 00000000..a3d3ed79 --- /dev/null +++ b/gemfeed/2010-04-09-standard-ml-and-haskell.gmi.tpl @@ -0,0 +1,176 @@ +# Standard ML and Haskell + +> Published at 2010-04-09T22:57:36+01:00 + +I am currently looking into the functional programming language Standard ML (aka SML). The purpose is to refresh my functional programming skills and to learn something new too. Since I already knew a little Haskell, I could not help myself, and I also implemented the same exercises in Haskell. + +As you will see, SML and Haskell are very similar (at least when it comes to the basics). However, the syntax of Haskell is a bit more "advanced". Haskell utilizes fewer keywords (e.g. no val, end, fun, fn ...). Haskell also allows to write down the function types explicitly. What I have been missing in SML so far is the so-called pattern guards. Although this is a very superficial comparison for now, so far, I like Haskell more than SML. Nevertheless, I thought it would be fun to demonstrate a few simple functions of both languages to show off the similarities. + +Haskell is also a "pure functional" programming language, whereas SML also makes explicit use of imperative concepts. I am by far not a specialist in either of these languages, but here are a few functions implemented in both SML and Haskell: + +<< template::inline::toc + +## Defining a multi-data type + +Standard ML: + +```sml +datatype ’a multi + = EMPTY + | ELEM of ’a + | UNION of ’a multi * ’a multi +``` + +Haskell: + +```haskell +data (Eq a) => Multi a + = Empty + | Elem a + | Union (Multi a) (Multi a) + deriving Show +``` + +## Processing a multi + +Standard ML: + +```sml +fun number (EMPTY) _ = 0 + | number (ELEM x) w = if x = w then 1 else 0 + | number (UNION (x,y)) w = (number x w) + (number y w) +fun test_number w = number (UNION (EMPTY, \ + UNION (ELEM 4, UNION (ELEM 6, \ + UNION (UNION (ELEM 4, ELEM 4), EMPTY))))) w +``` + +Haskell: + +```haskell +number Empty _ = 0 +number (Elem x) w = if x == w then 1 else 0 +test_number w = number (Union Empty \ + (Union (Elem 4) (Union (Elem 6) \ + (Union (Union (Elem 4) (Elem 4)) Empty)))) w +``` + +## Simplify function + +Standard ML: + +```sml +fun simplify (UNION (x,y)) = + let fun is_empty (EMPTY) = true | is_empty _ = false + val x’ = simplify x + val y’ = simplify y + in if (is_empty x’) andalso (is_empty y’) + then EMPTY + else if (is_empty x’) + then y’ + else if (is_empty y’) + then x’ + else UNION (x’, y’) + end + | simplify x = x +``` + +Haskell: + +```haskell +simplify (Union x y) + | (isEmpty x’) && (isEmpty y’) = Empty + | isEmpty x’ = y’ + | isEmpty y’ = x’ + | otherwise = Union x’ y’ + where + isEmpty Empty = True + isEmpty _ = False + x’ = simplify x + y’ = simplify y +simplify x = x +``` + +## Delete all + +Standard ML: + +```sml +fun delete_all m w = + let fun delete_all’ (ELEM x) = if x = w then EMPTY else ELEM x + | delete_all’ (UNION (x,y)) = UNION (delete_all’ x, delete_all’ y) + | delete_all’ x = x + in simplify (delete_all’ m) + end +``` + +Haskell: + +```haskell +delete_all m w = simplify (delete_all’ m) + where + delete_all’ (Elem x) = if x == w then Empty else Elem x + delete_all’ (Union x y) = Union (delete_all’ x) (delete_all’ y) + delete_all’ x = x +``` + +## Delete one + +Standard ML: + +```sml +fun delete_one m w = + let fun delete_one’ (UNION (x,y)) = + let val (x’, deleted) = delete_one’ x + in if deleted + then (UNION (x’, y), deleted) + else let val (y’, deleted) = delete_one’ y + in (UNION (x, y’), deleted) + end + end + | delete_one’ (ELEM x) = + if x = w then (EMPTY, true) else (ELEM x, false) + | delete_one’ x = (x, false) + val (m’, _) = delete_one’ m + in simplify m’ + end +``` + +Haskell: + +```haskell +delete_one m w = do + let (m’, _) = delete_one’ m + simplify m’ + where + delete_one’ (Union x y) = + let (x’, deleted) = delete_one’ x + in if deleted + then (Union x’ y, deleted) + else let (y’, deleted) = delete_one’ y + in (Union x y’, deleted) + delete_one’ (Elem x) = + if x == w then (Empty, True) else (Elem x, False) + delete_one’ x = (x, False) +``` + +## Higher-order functions + +The first line is always the SML code, the second line the Haskell variant: + +``` +fun make_map_fn f1 = fn (x,y) => f1 x :: y +make_map_fn f1 = \x y -> f1 x : y + +fun make_filter_fn f1 = fn (x,y) => if f1 x then x :: y else y +make_filter_fn f1 = \x y -> if f1 then x : y else y + +fun my_map f l = foldr (make_map_fn f) [] l +my_map f l = foldr (make_map_fn f) [] l + +fun my_filter f l = foldr (make_filter_fn f) [] l +my_filter f l = foldr (make_filter_fn f) [] l +``` + +E-Mail your comments to `paul@nospam.buetow.org` :-) + +=> ../ Back to the main site diff --git a/gemfeed/2010-05-09-the-fype-programming-language.gmi b/gemfeed/2010-05-09-the-fype-programming-language.gmi index 5f847c35..b77d49fa 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2010-05-09-the-fype-programming-language.gmi +++ b/gemfeed/2010-05-09-the-fype-programming-language.gmi @@ -2,6 +2,12 @@ > Published at 2010-05-09T12:48:29+01:00; Updated at 2021-05-05 +Fype is an interpreted programming language created by me for learning and fun. The interpreter is written in C. It has been tested on FreeBSD and NetBSD and may also work on other Unix like operating systems such as Linux based ones. Besides learning and fun, there is no other use case of why Fype exists as many other programming languages are much faster and more powerful. + +The Fype syntax is straightforward and uses a maximum look ahead of 1 and an effortless top-down parsing mechanism. Fype is parsing and interpreting its code simultaneously. This means that syntax errors are only detected during program runtime. + +Fype is a recursive acronym and means "Fype is For Your Program Execution" or "Fype is Free Yak Programmed for ELF". You could also say, "It's not a hype - it's Fype!". + ``` ____ _ __ / / _|_ _ _ __ ___ _ _ ___ __ _| |__ / _|_ _ @@ -11,11 +17,33 @@ |___/|_| |___/ |___/ ``` -Fype is an interpreted programming language created by me for learning and fun. The interpreter is written in C. It has been tested on FreeBSD and NetBSD and may also work on other Unix like operating systems such as Linux based ones. Besides learning and fun, there is no other use case of why Fype exists as many other programming languages are much faster and more powerful. - -The Fype syntax is straightforward and uses a maximum look ahead of 1 and an effortless top-down parsing mechanism. Fype is parsing and interpreting its code simultaneously. This means that syntax errors are only detected during program runtime. - -Fype is a recursive acronym and means "Fype is For Your Program Execution" or "Fype is Free Yak Programmed for ELF". You could also say, "It's not a hype - it's Fype!". +## Table of Contents + +* ⇢ The Fype Programming Language +* ⇢ ⇢ Object-oriented C style +* ⇢ ⇢ Data types +* ⇢ ⇢ Syntax +* ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ Comments +* ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ Variables +* ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ Synonyms +* ⇢ ⇢ Statements and expressions +* ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ Parenthesis +* ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ Basic expressions +* ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ Bitwise expressions +* ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ Numeric expressions +* ⇢ ⇢ Control statements +* ⇢ ⇢ Scopes +* ⇢ ⇢ Definedness +* ⇢ ⇢ System +* ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ I/O +* ⇢ ⇢ Procedures and functions +* ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ Procedures +* ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ Nested procedures +* ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ Functions +* ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ Nested functions +* ⇢ ⇢ Arrays +* ⇢ ⇢ Fancy stuff +* ⇢ ⇢ May the source be with you ## Object-oriented C style diff --git a/gemfeed/2010-05-09-the-fype-programming-language.gmi.tpl b/gemfeed/2010-05-09-the-fype-programming-language.gmi.tpl new file mode 100644 index 00000000..d4dac222 --- /dev/null +++ b/gemfeed/2010-05-09-the-fype-programming-language.gmi.tpl @@ -0,0 +1,512 @@ +# The Fype Programming Language + +> Published at 2010-05-09T12:48:29+01:00; Updated at 2021-05-05 + +Fype is an interpreted programming language created by me for learning and fun. The interpreter is written in C. It has been tested on FreeBSD and NetBSD and may also work on other Unix like operating systems such as Linux based ones. Besides learning and fun, there is no other use case of why Fype exists as many other programming languages are much faster and more powerful. + +The Fype syntax is straightforward and uses a maximum look ahead of 1 and an effortless top-down parsing mechanism. Fype is parsing and interpreting its code simultaneously. This means that syntax errors are only detected during program runtime. + +Fype is a recursive acronym and means "Fype is For Your Program Execution" or "Fype is Free Yak Programmed for ELF". You could also say, "It's not a hype - it's Fype!". + +``` + ____ _ __ + / / _|_ _ _ __ ___ _ _ ___ __ _| |__ / _|_ _ + / / |_| | | | '_ \ / _ \ | | | |/ _ \/ _` | '_ \ | |_| | | | + _ / /| _| |_| | |_) | __/ | |_| | __/ (_| | | | |_| _| |_| | +(_)_/ |_| \__, | .__/ \___| \__, |\___|\__,_|_| |_(_)_| \__, | + |___/|_| |___/ |___/ +``` + +<< template::inline::toc + +## Object-oriented C style + +The Fype interpreter is written in an object-oriented style of C. Each "main component" has its own .h and .c file. There is a struct type for each (most components at least) component, which can be initialized using a "COMPONENT_new" function and destroyed using a "COMPONENT_delete" function. Method calls follow the same schema, e.g. "COMPONENT_METHODNAME". There is no such as class inheritance and polymorphism involved. + +To give you an idea of how it works here as an example is a snippet from the main Fype "class header": + +```c +typedef struct { + Tupel *p_tupel_argv; // Contains command line options + List *p_list_token; // Initial list of token + Hash *p_hash_syms; // Symbol table + char *c_basename; +} Fype; +``` + +And here is a snippet from the primary Fype "class implementation": + +```c +Fype* +fype_new() { + Fype *p_fype = malloc(sizeof(Fype)); + + p_fype->p_hash_syms = hash_new(512); + p_fype->p_list_token = list_new(); + p_fype->p_tupel_argv = tupel_new(); + p_fype->c_basename = NULL; + + garbage_init(); + + return (p_fype); +} + +void +fype_delete(Fype *p_fype) { + argv_tupel_delete(p_fype->p_tupel_argv); + + hash_iterate(p_fype->p_hash_syms, symbol_cleanup_hash_syms_cb); + hash_delete(p_fype->p_hash_syms); + + list_iterate(p_fype->p_list_token, token_ref_down_cb); + list_delete(p_fype->p_list_token); + + if (p_fype->c_basename) + free(p_fype->c_basename); + + garbage_destroy(); +} + +int +fype_run(int i_argc, char **pc_argv) { + Fype *p_fype = fype_new(); + + // argv: Maintains command line options + argv_run(p_fype, i_argc, pc_argv); + + // scanner: Creates a list of token + scanner_run(p_fype); + + // interpret: Interpret the list of token + interpret_run(p_fype); + + fype_delete(p_fype); + + return (0); +} +``` + +## Data types + +Fype uses auto type conversion. However, if you want to know what's going on, you may take a look at the following basic data types: +* integer - Specifies a number +* double - Specifies a double-precision number +* string - Specifies a string +* number - May be an integer or a double number +* any- May be any type above +* void - No type +* identifier - It's a variable name or a procedure name, or a function name + +There is no boolean type, but we can use the integer values 0 for false and 1 for true. There is support for explicit type casting too. + +## Syntax + +### Comments + +Text from a # character until the end of the current line is considered being a comment. Multi-line comments may start with an #* and with a *# anywhere. Exceptions are if those signs are inside of strings. + +### Variables + +Variables are defined with the "my" keyword (inspired by Perl :-). If you don't assign a value during declaration, it uses the default integer value 0. Variables may be changed during program runtime. Variables may be deleted using the "undef" keyword! Example: + +``` +my foo = 1 + 2; +say foo; + +my bar = 12, baz = foo; +say 1 + bar; +say bar; + +my baz; +say baz; # Will print out 0 +``` + +You may use the "defined" keyword to check if an identifier has been defined or not: + +``` +ifnot defined foo { + say "No foo yet defined"; +} + +my foo = 1; + +if defined foo { + put "foo is defined and has the value "; + say foo; +} +``` + +### Synonyms + +Each variable can have as many synonyms as wished. A synonym is another name to access the content of a specific variable. Here is an example of how to use it: + +``` +my foo = "foo"; +my bar = \foo; +foo = "bar"; + +# The synonym variable should now also set to "bar" +assert "bar" == bar; +``` + +Synonyms can be used for all kind of identifiers. It's not limited to standard variables but can also be used for function and procedure names (more about functions and procedures later). + +``` +# Create a new procedure baz +proc baz { say "I am baz"; } + +# Make a synonym baz, and undefine baz +my bay = \baz; + +undef baz; + +# bay still has a reference of the original procedure baz +bay; # this prints aut "I am baz" +``` + +The "syms" keyword gives you the total number of synonyms pointing to a specific value: + +``` +my foo = 1; +say syms foo; # Prints 1 + +my baz = \foo; +say syms foo; # Prints 2 +say syms baz; # Prints 2 + +undef baz; +say syms foo; # Prints 1 +``` + +## Statements and expressions + +A Fype program is a list of statements. Each keyword, expression or function call is part of a statement. Each statement is ended with a semicolon. Example: + +``` +my bar = 3, foo = 1 + 2; +say foo; +exit foo - bar; +``` + +### Parenthesis + +All parenthesis for function arguments is optional. They help to make the code better readable. They also help to force the precedence of expressions. + +### Basic expressions + +Any "any" value holding a string will be automatically converted to an integer value. + +``` +(any) <any> + <any> +(any) <any> - <any> +(any) <any> * <any> +(any) <any> / <any> +(integer) <any> == <any> +(integer) <any> != <any> +(integer) <any> <= <any> +(integer) <any> gt <any> +(integer) <any> <> <any> +(integer) <any> gt <any> +(integer) not <any> +``` + +### Bitwise expressions + +``` +(integer) <any> :< <any> +(integer) <any> :> <any> +(integer) <any> and <any> +(integer) <any> or <any> +(integer) <any> xor <any> +``` + +### Numeric expressions + +``` +(number) neg <number> +``` + +... returns the negative value of "number": + +``` +(integer) no <integer> +``` + +... returns 1 if the argument is 0; otherwise, it will return 0! If no argument is given, then 0 is returned! + +``` +(integer) yes <integer> +``` + +... always returns 1. The parameter is optional. Example: + +``` +# Prints out 1, because foo is not defined +if yes { say no defined foo; } +``` + +## Control statements + +Control statements available in Fype: + +``` +if <expression> { <statements> } +``` + +... runs the statements if the expression evaluates to a true value. + +``` +ifnot <expression> { <statements> } +``` + +... runs the statements if the expression evaluates to a false value. + +``` +while <expression> { <statements> } +``` + +... runs the statements as long as the expression evaluates to a true value. + +``` +until <expression> { <statements> } +``` + +... runs the statements as long as the expression evaluates to a false value. + +## Scopes + +A new scope starts with an { and ends with an }. An exception is a procedure, which does not use its own scope (see later in this manual). Control statements and functions support scopes. The "scope" function prints out all available symbols at the current scope. Here is a small example: + +``` +my foo = 1; + +{ + # Prints out 1 + put defined foo; + { + my bar = 2; + + # Prints out 1 + put defined bar; + + # Prints out all available symbols at this + # point to stdout. Those are: bar and foo + scope; + } + + # Prints out 0 + put defined bar; + + my baz = 3; +} + +# Prints out 0 +say defined bar; +``` + +Another example including an actual output: + +``` +./fype -e ’my global; func foo { my var4; func bar { my var2, var3; func baz { my var1; scope; } baz; } bar; } foo;’ +Scopes: +Scope stack size: 3 +Global symbols: +SYM_VARIABLE: global (id=00034, line=-0001, pos=-001, type=TT_INTEGER, dval=0.000000, refs=-1) +SYM_FUNCTION: foo +Local symbols: +SYM_VARIABLE: var1 (id=00038, line=-0001, pos=-001, type=TT_INTEGER, dval=0.000000, refs=-1) +1 level(s) up: +SYM_VARIABLE: var2 (id=00036, line=-0001, pos=-001, type=TT_INTEGER, dval=0.000000, refs=-1) +SYM_VARIABLE: var3 (id=00037, line=-0001, pos=-001, type=TT_INTEGER, dval=0.000000, refs=-1) +SYM_FUNCTION: baz +2 level(s) up: +SYM_VARIABLE: var4 (id=00035, line=-0001, pos=-001, type=TT_INTEGER, dval=0.000000, refs=-1) +SYM_FUNCTION: bar +``` + +## Definedness + +``` +(integer) defined <identifier> +``` + +... returns 1 if "identifier" has been defined. Returns 0 otherwise. + +``` +(integer) undef <identifier> +``` + +... tries to undefine/delete the "identifier". Returns 1 if it succeeded, otherwise 0 is returned. + +## System + +These are some system and interpreter specific built-in functions supported: + +``` +(void) end +``` + +... exits the program with the exit status of 0. + +``` +(void) exit <integer> +``` + +... exits the program with the specified exit status. + +``` +(integer) fork +``` + +... forks a subprocess. It returns 0 for the child process and the PID of the child process otherwise! Example: + +``` +my pid = fork; + +if pid { + put "I am the parent process; child has the pid "; + say pid; + +} ifnot pid { + say "I am the child process"; +} +``` + +To execute the garbage collector do: + +``` +(integer) GC +``` + +It returns the number of items freed! You may wonder why most of the time, it will produce a value of 0! Fype tries to free not needed memory ASAP. This may change in future versions to gain faster execution speed! + +### I/O + +``` +(any) put <any> +``` + +... prints out the argument + +``` +(any) say <any> +``` + +is the same as put, but also includes an ending newline. + +``` +(void) ln +``` + +... just prints a new line. + +## Procedures and functions + +### Procedures + +A procedure can be defined with the "proc" keyword and deleted with the "undef" keyword. A procedure does not return any value and does not support parameter passing. It's using already defined variables (e.g. global variables). A procedure does not have its own namespace. It's using the calling namespace. It is possible to define new variables inside of a procedure in the current namespace. + +``` +proc foo { + say 1 + a * 3 + b; + my c = 6; +} + +my a = 2, b = 4; + +foo; # Run the procedure. Print out "11\n" +say c; # Print out "6\n"; +``` + +### Nested procedures + +It's possible to define procedures inside of procedures. Since procedures don't have their own scope, nested procedures will be available to the current scope as soon as the main procedure has run the first time. You may use the "defined" keyword to check if a procedure has been defined or not. + +``` +proc foo { + say "I am foo"; + + undef bar; + proc bar { + say "I am bar"; + } +} + +# Here bar would produce an error because +# the proc is not yet defined! +# bar; + +foo; # Here the procedure foo will define the procedure bar! +bar; # Now the procedure bar is defined! +foo; # Here the procedure foo will redefine bar again! +``` + +### Functions + +A function can be defined with the "func" keyword and deleted with the "undef" keyword. Function do not yet return values and do not yet supports parameter passing. It's using local (lexical scoped) variables. If a certain variable does not exist, when It's using already defined variables (e.g. one scope above). + +``` +func foo { + say 1 + a * 3 + b; + my c = 6; +} + +my a = 2, b = 4; + +foo; # Run the procedure. Print out "11\n" +say c; # Will produce an error because c is out of scope! +``` + +### Nested functions + +Nested functions work the same way the nested procedures work, except that nested functions will not be available anymore after the function has been left! + +``` +func foo { + func bar { + say "Hello i am nested"; + } + + bar; # Calling nested +} + +foo; +bar; # Will produce an error because bar is out of scope! +``` + +## Arrays + +Some progress on arrays has been made too. The following example creates a multidimensional array "foo". Its first element is the return value of the func which is "bar". The fourth value is a string" 3" converted to a double number. The last element is an anonymous array which itself contains another anonymous array as its final element: + +``` +func bar { say ”bar” } +my foo = [bar, 1, 4/2, double ”3”, [”A”, [”BA”, ”BB”]]]; +say foo; +``` + +It produces the following output: + +``` +% ./fype arrays.fy +bar +01 +2 +3.000000 +A +BA +BB +``` + +## Fancy stuff + +Fancy stuff like OOP or Unicode or threading is not planed. But fancy stuff like function pointers and closures may be considered.:) + +## May the source be with you + +You can find all of this on the GitHub page. There is also an "examples" folders containing some Fype scripts! + +=> https://codeberg.org/snonux/fype + +E-Mail your comments to `paul@nospam.buetow.org` :-) + +=> ../ Back to the main site diff --git a/gemfeed/2011-05-07-perl-daemon-service-framework.gmi b/gemfeed/2011-05-07-perl-daemon-service-framework.gmi index 78c79a9e..0891101c 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2011-05-07-perl-daemon-service-framework.gmi +++ b/gemfeed/2011-05-07-perl-daemon-service-framework.gmi @@ -2,6 +2,8 @@ > Published at 2011-05-07T22:26:02+01:00; Updated at 2021-05-07 +PerlDaemon is a minimal daemon for Linux and other Unix like operating systems programmed in Perl. It is a minimal but pretty functional and fairly generic service framework. This means that it does not do anything useful other than providing a framework for starting, stopping, configuring and logging. To do something useful, a module (written in Perl) must be provided. + ``` a'! _,,_ a'! _,,_ a'! _,,_ \\_/ \ \\_/ \ \\_/ \.-, @@ -12,7 +14,6 @@ ## Table of Contents * ⇢ Perl Daemon (Service Framework) -* ⇢ ⇢ Introduction * ⇢ ⇢ Features * ⇢ ⇢ Quick Guide * ⇢ ⇢ How to configure @@ -23,10 +24,6 @@ * ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ Your own module * ⇢ ⇢ May the source be with you -## Introduction - -PerlDaemon is a minimal daemon for Linux and other Unix like operating systems programmed in Perl. It is a minimal but pretty functional and fairly generic service framework. This means that it does not do anything useful other than providing a framework for starting, stopping, configuring and logging. To do something useful, a module (written in Perl) must be provided. - ## Features PerlDaemon supports: diff --git a/gemfeed/2011-05-07-perl-daemon-service-framework.gmi.tpl b/gemfeed/2011-05-07-perl-daemon-service-framework.gmi.tpl index f7baa258..eba46212 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2011-05-07-perl-daemon-service-framework.gmi.tpl +++ b/gemfeed/2011-05-07-perl-daemon-service-framework.gmi.tpl @@ -2,6 +2,8 @@ > Published at 2011-05-07T22:26:02+01:00; Updated at 2021-05-07 +PerlDaemon is a minimal daemon for Linux and other Unix like operating systems programmed in Perl. It is a minimal but pretty functional and fairly generic service framework. This means that it does not do anything useful other than providing a framework for starting, stopping, configuring and logging. To do something useful, a module (written in Perl) must be provided. + ``` a'! _,,_ a'! _,,_ a'! _,,_ \\_/ \ \\_/ \ \\_/ \.-, @@ -11,10 +13,6 @@ << template::inline::toc -## Introduction - -PerlDaemon is a minimal daemon for Linux and other Unix like operating systems programmed in Perl. It is a minimal but pretty functional and fairly generic service framework. This means that it does not do anything useful other than providing a framework for starting, stopping, configuring and logging. To do something useful, a module (written in Perl) must be provided. - ## Features PerlDaemon supports: diff --git a/gemfeed/2015-12-05-run-debian-on-your-phone-with-debroid.gmi b/gemfeed/2015-12-05-run-debian-on-your-phone-with-debroid.gmi index f31ba96b..9328b1bf 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2015-12-05-run-debian-on-your-phone-with-debroid.gmi +++ b/gemfeed/2015-12-05-run-debian-on-your-phone-with-debroid.gmi @@ -2,6 +2,12 @@ > Published at 2015-12-05T16:12:57+00:00; Updated at 2021-05-16 +You can use the following tutorial to install a full-blown Debian GNU/Linux Chroot on an LG G3 D855 CyanogenMod 13 (Android 6). First of all, you need to have root permissions on your phone, and you also need to have the developer mode activated. The following steps have been tested on Linux (Fedora 23). + +=> ./run-debian-on-your-phone-with-debroid/Deboroid.png + +A couple of years have passed since I last worked on Debroid. Currently, I am using the Termux app on Android, which is less sophisticated than a fully blown Debian installation but sufficient for my current requirements. The content of this site may be still relevant, and it would also work with more recent versions of Debian and Android. I would expect that some minor modifications need to be made, though. + ``` ____ _ _ _ | _ \ ___| |__ _ __ ___ (_) __| | @@ -11,13 +17,16 @@ ``` -You can use the following tutorial to install a full-blown Debian GNU/Linux Chroot on an LG G3 D855 CyanogenMod 13 (Android 6). First of all, you need to have root permissions on your phone, and you also need to have the developer mode activated. The following steps have been tested on Linux (Fedora 23). - -=> ./run-debian-on-your-phone-with-debroid/Deboroid.png +## Table of Contents -## Foreword - -A couple of years have passed since I last worked on Debroid. Currently, I am using the Termux app on Android, which is less sophisticated than a fully blown Debian installation but sufficient for my current requirements. The content of this site may be still relevant, and it would also work with more recent versions of Debian and Android. I would expect that some minor modifications need to be made, though. +* ⇢ Run Debian on your phone with Debroid +* ⇢ ⇢ Step by step guide +* ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ First debootstrap stage +* ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ Copy Debian image to the phone +* ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ Second debootstrap stage +* ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ Setup of various scripts +* ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ Entering Debroid and enable a service +* ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ Include to Android startup: ## Step by step guide diff --git a/gemfeed/2015-12-05-run-debian-on-your-phone-with-debroid.gmi.tpl b/gemfeed/2015-12-05-run-debian-on-your-phone-with-debroid.gmi.tpl new file mode 100644 index 00000000..40539e7f --- /dev/null +++ b/gemfeed/2015-12-05-run-debian-on-your-phone-with-debroid.gmi.tpl @@ -0,0 +1,180 @@ +# Run Debian on your phone with Debroid + +> Published at 2015-12-05T16:12:57+00:00; Updated at 2021-05-16 + +You can use the following tutorial to install a full-blown Debian GNU/Linux Chroot on an LG G3 D855 CyanogenMod 13 (Android 6). First of all, you need to have root permissions on your phone, and you also need to have the developer mode activated. The following steps have been tested on Linux (Fedora 23). + +=> ./run-debian-on-your-phone-with-debroid/Deboroid.png + +A couple of years have passed since I last worked on Debroid. Currently, I am using the Termux app on Android, which is less sophisticated than a fully blown Debian installation but sufficient for my current requirements. The content of this site may be still relevant, and it would also work with more recent versions of Debian and Android. I would expect that some minor modifications need to be made, though. + +``` + ____ _ _ _ +| _ \ ___| |__ _ __ ___ (_) __| | +| | | |/ _ \ '_ \| '__/ _ \| |/ _` | +| |_| | __/ |_) | | | (_) | | (_| | +|____/ \___|_.__/|_| \___/|_|\__,_| + +``` + +<< template::inline::toc + +## Step by step guide + +All scripts mentioned here can be found on GitHub at: + +=> https://codeberg.org/snonux/debroid + +### First debootstrap stage + +This is to be performed on a Fedora Linux machine (could work on a Debian too, but Fedora is just what I use on my Laptop). The following steps prepare an initial Debian base image, which can then be transferred to the phone. + +```sh +sudo dnf install debootstrap +# 5g +dd if=/dev/zero of=jessie.img bs=$[ 1024 * 1024 ] \ + count=$[ 1024 * 5 ] + +# Show used loop devices +sudo losetup -f +# Store the next free one to $loop +loop=loopN +sudo losetup /dev/$loop jessie.img + +mkdir jessie +sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/$loop +sudo mount /dev/$loop jessie +sudo debootstrap --foreign --variant=minbase \ + --arch armel jessie jessie/ \ + http://http.debian.net/debian +sudo umount jessie +``` + +### Copy Debian image to the phone + +Now setup the Debian image on an external SD card on the Phone via Android Debugger as follows: + +```sh +adb root && adb wait-for-device && adb shell +mkdir -p /storage/sdcard1/Linux/jessie +exit + +# Sparse image problem, may be too big for copying otherwise +gzip jessie.img +# Copy over +adb push jessie.img.gz /storage/sdcard1/Linux/jessie.img.gz +adb shell +cd /storage/sdcard1/Linux +gunzip jessie.img.gz + +# Show used loop devices +losetup -f +# Store the next free one to $loop +loop=loopN + +# Use the next free one (replace the loop number) +losetup /dev/block/$loop $(pwd)/jessie.img +mount -t ext4 /dev/block/$loop $(pwd)/jessie + +# Bind-Mound proc, dev, sys` +busybox mount --bind /proc $(pwd)/jessie/proc +busybox mount --bind /dev $(pwd)/jessie/dev +busybox mount --bind /dev/pts $(pwd)/jessie/dev/pts +busybox mount --bind /sys $(pwd)/jessie/sys + +# Bind-Mound the rest of Android +mkdir -p $(pwd)/jessie/storage/sdcard{0,1} +busybox mount --bind /storage/emulated \ + $(pwd)/jessie/storage/sdcard0 +busybox mount --bind /storage/sdcard1 \ + $(pwd)/jessie/storage/sdcard1 + +# Check mounts +mount | grep jessie +``` + +### Second debootstrap stage + +This is to be performed on the Android phone itself (inside a Debian chroot): + +```sh +chroot $(pwd)/jessie /bin/bash -l +export PATH=/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/usr/sbin:/usr/local/sbin +/debootstrap/debootstrap --second-stage +exit # Leave chroot +exit # Leave adb shell +``` + +### Setup of various scripts + +jessie.sh deals with all the loopback mount magic and so on. It will be run later every time you start Debroid on your phone. + +```sh +# Install script jessie.sh +adb push storage/sdcard1/Linux/jessie.sh /storage/sdcard/Linux/jessie.sh +adb shell +cd /storage/sdcard1/Linux +sh jessie.sh enter + +# Bashrc +cat <<END >~/.bashrc +export PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:$PATH +export EDITOR=vim +hostname $(cat /etc/hostname) +END + +# Fixing an error message while loading the profile +sed -i s#id#/usr/bin/id# /etc/profile + +# Setting the hostname +echo phobos > /etc/hostname +echo 127.0.0.1 phobos > /etc/hosts +hostname phobos + +# Apt-sources +cat <<END > sources.list +deb http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ jessie main contrib non-free +deb-src http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ jessie main contrib non-free +END +apt-get update +apt-get upgrade +apt-get dist-upgrade +exit # Exit chroot +``` + +### Entering Debroid and enable a service + +This enters Debroid on your phone and starts the example service uptimed: + +```sh +sh jessie.sh enter + +# Setup example serice uptimed +apt-get install uptimed +cat <<END > /etc/rc.debroid +export PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:$PATH +service uptimed status &>/dev/null || service uptimed start +exit 0 +END + +chmod 0755 /etc/rc.debroid +exit # Exit chroot +exit # Exit adb shell +``` + +### Include to Android startup: + +If you want to start Debroid automatically whenever your phone starts, then do the following: + +```sh +adb push data/local/userinit.sh /data/local/userinit.sh +adb shell +chmod +x /data/local/userinit.sh +exit +``` + +Reboot & test! Enjoy! + +E-Mail your comments to `paul@nospam.buetow.org` :-) + +=> ../ Back to the main site diff --git a/gemfeed/2016-04-09-jails-and-zfs-on-freebsd-with-puppet.gmi b/gemfeed/2016-04-09-jails-and-zfs-on-freebsd-with-puppet.gmi index ee830eb5..dc28d940 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2016-04-09-jails-and-zfs-on-freebsd-with-puppet.gmi +++ b/gemfeed/2016-04-09-jails-and-zfs-on-freebsd-with-puppet.gmi @@ -2,6 +2,8 @@ > Published at 2016-04-09T18:29:47+01:00 +Over the last couple of years I wrote quite a few Puppet modules in order to manage my personal server infrastructure. One of them manages FreeBSD Jails and another one ZFS file systems. I thought I would give a brief overview in how it looks and feels. + ``` __ __ (( \---/ )) @@ -25,16 +27,11 @@ ## Table of Contents * ⇢ Jails and ZFS with Puppet on FreeBSD -* ⇢ ⇢ Introduction * ⇢ ⇢ ZFS * ⇢ ⇢ Jails * ⇢ ⇢ Inside-Jail Puppet * ⇢ ⇢ Managing multiple Jails -## Introduction - -Over the last couple of years I wrote quite a few Puppet modules in order to manage my personal server infrastructure. One of them manages FreeBSD Jails and another one ZFS file systems. I thought I would give a brief overview in how it looks and feels. - ## ZFS The ZFS module is a pretty basic one. It does not manage ZFS pools yet as I am not creating them often enough which would justify implementing an automation. But let's see how we can create a ZFS file system (on an already given ZFS pool named ztank): diff --git a/gemfeed/2016-04-09-jails-and-zfs-on-freebsd-with-puppet.gmi.tpl b/gemfeed/2016-04-09-jails-and-zfs-on-freebsd-with-puppet.gmi.tpl index a7a311d8..f99f2c18 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2016-04-09-jails-and-zfs-on-freebsd-with-puppet.gmi.tpl +++ b/gemfeed/2016-04-09-jails-and-zfs-on-freebsd-with-puppet.gmi.tpl @@ -2,6 +2,8 @@ > Published at 2016-04-09T18:29:47+01:00 +Over the last couple of years I wrote quite a few Puppet modules in order to manage my personal server infrastructure. One of them manages FreeBSD Jails and another one ZFS file systems. I thought I would give a brief overview in how it looks and feels. + ``` __ __ (( \---/ )) @@ -24,10 +26,6 @@ << template::inline::toc -## Introduction - -Over the last couple of years I wrote quite a few Puppet modules in order to manage my personal server infrastructure. One of them manages FreeBSD Jails and another one ZFS file systems. I thought I would give a brief overview in how it looks and feels. - ## ZFS The ZFS module is a pretty basic one. It does not manage ZFS pools yet as I am not creating them often enough which would justify implementing an automation. But let's see how we can create a ZFS file system (on an already given ZFS pool named ztank): diff --git a/gemfeed/2016-05-22-spinning-up-my-own-authoritative-dns-servers.gmi b/gemfeed/2016-05-22-spinning-up-my-own-authoritative-dns-servers.gmi index 41ae6512..6bcd8948 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2016-05-22-spinning-up-my-own-authoritative-dns-servers.gmi +++ b/gemfeed/2016-05-22-spinning-up-my-own-authoritative-dns-servers.gmi @@ -2,12 +2,20 @@ > Published at 2016-05-22T18:59:01+01:00 -## Background - Finally, I had time to deploy my authoritative DNS servers (master and slave) for my domains "buetow.org" and "buetow.zone". My domain name provider is Schlund Technologies. They allow their customers to edit the DNS records (BIND files) manually. And they also allow you to set your authoritative DNS servers for your domains. From now, I am making use of that option. => http://www.schlundtech.de Schlund Technologies +## Table of Contents + +* ⇢ Spinning up my own authoritative DNS servers +* ⇢ ⇢ All FreeBSD Jails +* ⇢ ⇢ PF firewall +* ⇢ ⇢ Puppet managed BIND zone files +* ⇢ ⇢ The result +* ⇢ ⇢ Monitoring +* ⇢ ⇢ DNS update workflow + ## All FreeBSD Jails To set up my authoritative DNS servers, I installed a FreeBSD Jail dedicated for DNS with Puppet on my root machine as follows: diff --git a/gemfeed/2016-05-22-spinning-up-my-own-authoritative-dns-servers.gmi.tpl b/gemfeed/2016-05-22-spinning-up-my-own-authoritative-dns-servers.gmi.tpl new file mode 100644 index 00000000..39415e69 --- /dev/null +++ b/gemfeed/2016-05-22-spinning-up-my-own-authoritative-dns-servers.gmi.tpl @@ -0,0 +1,239 @@ +# Spinning up my own authoritative DNS servers + +> Published at 2016-05-22T18:59:01+01:00 + +Finally, I had time to deploy my authoritative DNS servers (master and slave) for my domains "buetow.org" and "buetow.zone". My domain name provider is Schlund Technologies. They allow their customers to edit the DNS records (BIND files) manually. And they also allow you to set your authoritative DNS servers for your domains. From now, I am making use of that option. + +=> http://www.schlundtech.de Schlund Technologies + +<< template::inline::toc + +## All FreeBSD Jails + +To set up my authoritative DNS servers, I installed a FreeBSD Jail dedicated for DNS with Puppet on my root machine as follows: + +``` +include freebsd + +freebsd::ipalias { '2a01:4f8:120:30e8::14': + ensure => up, + proto => 'inet6', + preflen => '64', + interface => 're0', + aliasnum => '5', +} + +include jail::freebsd + +class { 'jail': + ensure => present, + jails_config => { + dns => { + '_ensure' => present, + '_type' => 'freebsd', + '_mirror' => 'ftp://ftp.de.freebsd.org', + '_remote_path' => 'FreeBSD/releases/amd64/10.1-RELEASE', + '_dists' => [ 'base.txz', 'doc.txz', ], + '_ensure_directories' => [ '/opt', '/opt/enc' ], + 'host.hostname' => "'dns.ian.buetow.org'", + 'ip4.addr' => '192.168.0.15', + 'ip6.addr' => '2a01:4f8:120:30e8::15', + }, + . + . + } +} +``` + +## PF firewall + +Please note that "dns.ian.buetow.org" is just the Jail name of the master DNS server (and "caprica.ian.buetow.org" the name of the Jail for the slave DNS server) and that I am using the DNS names "dns1.buetow.org" (master) and "dns2.buetow.org" (slave) for the actual service names (these are the DNS servers visible to the public). Please also note that the IPv4 address is an internal one. I have a PF to use NAT and PAT. The DNS ports are being forwarded (TCP and UDP) to that Jail. By default, all ports are blocked, so I am adding an exception rule for the IPv6 address. These are the PF rules in use: + +``` +% cat /etc/pf.conf +. +. +# dns.ian.buetow.org +rdr pass on re0 proto tcp from any to $pub_ip port {53} -> 192.168.0.15 +rdr pass on re0 proto udp from any to $pub_ip port {53} -> 192.168.0.15 +pass in on re0 inet6 proto tcp from any to 2a01:4f8:120:30e8::15 port {53} flags S/SA keep state +pass in on re0 inet6 proto udp from any to 2a01:4f8:120:30e8::15 port {53} flags S/SA keep state +. +. +``` + +## Puppet managed BIND zone files + +In "manifests/dns.pp" (the Puppet manifest for the Master DNS Jail itself), I configured the BIND DNS server this way: + +``` +class { 'bind_freebsd': + config => "puppet:///files/bind/named.${::hostname}.conf", + dynamic_config => "puppet:///files/bind/dynamic.${::hostname}", +} +``` + +The Puppet module is a pretty simple one. It installs the file "/usr/local/etc/named/named.conf" and it populates the "/usr/local/etc/named/dynamicdb" directory with all my zone files. + +Once (Puppet-) applied inside of the Jail, I get this: + +``` +paul uranus:~/git/blog/source [4268]% ssh admin@dns1.buetow.org.buetow.org pgrep -lf named +60748 /usr/local/sbin/named -u bind -c /usr/local/etc/namedb/named.conf +paul uranus:~/git/blog/source [4269]% ssh admin@dns1.buetow.org.buetow.org tail -n 13 /usr/local/etc/namedb/named.conf +zone "buetow.org" { + type master; + notify yes; + allow-update { key "buetoworgkey"; }; + file "/usr/local/etc/namedb/dynamic/buetow.org"; +}; + +zone "buetow.zone" { + type master; + notify yes; + allow-update { key "buetoworgkey"; }; + file "/usr/local/etc/namedb/dynamic/buetow.zone"; +}; +paul uranus:~/git/blog/source [4277]% ssh admin@dns1.buetow.org.buetow.org cat /usr/local/etc/namedb/dynamic/buetow.org +$TTL 3600 +@ IN SOA dns1.buetow.org. domains.buetow.org. ( + 25 ; Serial + 604800 ; Refresh + 86400 ; Retry + 2419200 ; Expire + 604800 ) ; Negative Cache TTL +; Infrastructure domains +@ IN NS dns1 +@ IN NS dns2 +* 300 IN CNAME web.ian +buetow.org. 86400 IN A 78.46.80.70 +buetow.org. 86400 IN AAAA 2a01:4f8:120:30e8:0:0:0:11 +buetow.org. 86400 IN MX 10 mail.ian +dns1 86400 IN A 78.46.80.70 +dns1 86400 IN AAAA 2a01:4f8:120:30e8:0:0:0:15 +dns2 86400 IN A 164.177.171.32 +dns2 86400 IN AAAA 2a03:2500:1:6:20:: +. +. +. +. +``` + +That is my master DNS server. My slave DNS server runs in another Jail on another bare-metal machine. Everything is set up similar to the master DNS server. However, that server is located in a different DC and different IP subnets. The only difference is the "named.conf". It's configured to be a slave, and that means that the "dynamicdb" gets populated by BIND itself while doing zone transfers from the master. + +``` +paul uranus:~/git/blog/source [4279]% ssh admin@dns2.buetow.org tail -n 11 /usr/local/etc/namedb/named.conf +zone "buetow.org" { + type slave; + masters { 78.46.80.70; }; + file "/usr/local/etc/namedb/dynamic/buetow.org"; +}; + +zone "buetow.zone" { + type slave; + masters { 78.46.80.70; }; + file "/usr/local/etc/namedb/dynamic/buetow.zone"; +}; +``` + +## The result + +The result looks like this now: + +``` +% dig -t ns buetow.org +; <<>> DiG 9.10.3-P4-RedHat-9.10.3-12.P4.fc23 <<>> -t ns buetow.org +;; global options: +cmd +;; Got answer: +;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 37883 +;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 2, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 1 + +;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION: +; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 512 +;; QUESTION SECTION: +;buetow.org. IN NS + +;; ANSWER SECTION: +buetow.org. 600 IN NS dns2.buetow.org. +buetow.org. 600 IN NS dns1.buetow.org. + +;; Query time: 41 msec +;; SERVER: 192.168.1.254#53(192.168.1.254) +;; WHEN: Sun May 22 11:34:11 BST 2016 +;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 77 + +% dig -t any buetow.org @dns1.buetow.org +; <<>> DiG 9.10.3-P4-RedHat-9.10.3-12.P4.fc23 <<>> -t any buetow.org @dns1.buetow.org +;; global options: +cmd +;; Got answer: +;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 49876 +;; flags: qr aa rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 6, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 7 + +;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION: +; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 4096 +;; QUESTION SECTION: +;buetow.org. IN ANY + +;; ANSWER SECTION: +buetow.org. 86400 IN A 78.46.80.70 +buetow.org. 86400 IN AAAA 2a01:4f8:120:30e8::11 +buetow.org. 86400 IN MX 10 mail.ian.buetow.org. +buetow.org. 3600 IN SOA dns1.buetow.org. domains.buetow.org. 25 604800 86400 2419200 604800 +buetow.org. 3600 IN NS dns2.buetow.org. +buetow.org. 3600 IN NS dns1.buetow.org. + +;; ADDITIONAL SECTION: +mail.ian.buetow.org. 86400 IN A 78.46.80.70 +dns1.buetow.org. 86400 IN A 78.46.80.70 +dns2.buetow.org. 86400 IN A 164.177.171.32 +mail.ian.buetow.org. 86400 IN AAAA 2a01:4f8:120:30e8::12 +dns1.buetow.org. 86400 IN AAAA 2a01:4f8:120:30e8::15 +dns2.buetow.org. 86400 IN AAAA 2a03:2500:1:6:20:: + +;; Query time: 42 msec +;; SERVER: 78.46.80.70#53(78.46.80.70) +;; WHEN: Sun May 22 11:34:41 BST 2016 +;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 322 +``` + +## Monitoring + +For monitoring, I am using Icinga2 (I am operating two Icinga2 instances in two different DCs). I may have to post another blog article about Icinga2, but to get the idea, these were the snippets added to my Icinga2 configuration: + +``` +apply Service "dig" { + import "generic-service" + + check_command = "dig" + vars.dig_lookup = "buetow.org" + vars.timeout = 30 + + assign where host.name == "dns.ian.buetow.org" || host.name == "caprica.ian.buetow.org" +} + +apply Service "dig6" { + import "generic-service" + + check_command = "dig" + vars.dig_lookup = "buetow.org" + vars.timeout = 30 + vars.check_ipv6 = true + + assign where host.name == "dns.ian.buetow.org" || host.name == "caprica.ian.buetow.org" +} +``` + +## DNS update workflow + +Whenever I have to change a DNS entry, all I have to do is: + +* Git clone or update the Puppet repository +* Update/commit and push the zone file (e.g. "buetow.org") +* Wait for Puppet. Puppet will deploy that updated zone file. And it will reload the BIND server. +* The BIND server will notify all slave DNS servers (at the moment, only one). And it will transfer the new version of the zone. + +That's much more comfortable now than manually clicking at some web UIs at Schlund Technologies. + +E-Mail your comments to `paul@nospam.buetow.org` :-) + +=> ../ Back to the main site diff --git a/gemfeed/2018-06-01-realistic-load-testing-with-ioriot-for-linux.gmi b/gemfeed/2018-06-01-realistic-load-testing-with-ioriot-for-linux.gmi index 4aeae0c6..0d7fcc6c 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2018-06-01-realistic-load-testing-with-ioriot-for-linux.gmi +++ b/gemfeed/2018-06-01-realistic-load-testing-with-ioriot-for-linux.gmi @@ -2,6 +2,16 @@ > Published at 2018-06-01T14:50:29+01:00; Updated at 2021-05-08 +This text first was published in the german IT-Administrator computer Magazine. 3 years have passed since and I decided to publish it on my blog too. + +=> https://www.admin-magazin.de/Das-Heft/2018/06/Realistische-Lasttests-mit-I-O-Riot + +I havn't worked on I/O Riot for some time now, but all what is written here is still valid. I am still using I/O Riot to debug I/O issues and pattern once in a while, so by all means the tool is not obsolete yet. The tool even helped to resolve a major production incident at work caused by disk I/O. + +I am eagerly looking forward to revamp I/O Riot so that it uses the new BPF Linux capabilities instead of plain old Systemtap (or alternatively: Newer versions of Systemtap can also use BPF as the backend I have learned). Also, when I wrote I/O Riot initially, I didn't have any experience with the Go programming language yet and therefore I wrote it in C. Once it gets revamped I might consider using Go instead of C as it would spare me from many segmentation faults and headaches during development ;-). I might also just stick to C for plain performance reasons and just refactor the code dealing with concurrency. + +Pleace notice that some of the screenshots show the command "ioreplay" instead of "ioriot". That's because the name has changed after taking those. + ``` .---. / \ @@ -13,17 +23,21 @@ jgs\__/'---'\__/ ``` -## Foreword - -This text first was published in the german IT-Administrator computer Magazine. 3 years have passed since and I decided to publish it on my blog too. - -=> https://www.admin-magazin.de/Das-Heft/2018/06/Realistische-Lasttests-mit-I-O-Riot - -I havn't worked on I/O Riot for some time now, but all what is written here is still valid. I am still using I/O Riot to debug I/O issues and pattern once in a while, so by all means the tool is not obsolete yet. The tool even helped to resolve a major production incident at work caused by disk I/O. - -I am eagerly looking forward to revamp I/O Riot so that it uses the new BPF Linux capabilities instead of plain old Systemtap (or alternatively: Newer versions of Systemtap can also use BPF as the backend I have learned). Also, when I wrote I/O Riot initially, I didn't have any experience with the Go programming language yet and therefore I wrote it in C. Once it gets revamped I might consider using Go instead of C as it would spare me from many segmentation faults and headaches during development ;-). I might also just stick to C for plain performance reasons and just refactor the code dealing with concurrency. - -Pleace notice that some of the screenshots show the command "ioreplay" instead of "ioriot". That's because the name has changed after taking those. +## Table of Contents + +* ⇢ Realistic load testing with I/O Riot for Linux +* ⇢ The article +* ⇢ ⇢ Background: Existing Techniques +* ⇢ ⇢ Benchmarking the Email Cloud at Mimecast +* ⇢ ⇢ Using I/O Riot +* ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ Installation +* ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ Recording of I/O events +* ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ Test preparation +* ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ Test Initialization +* ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ Replay +* ⇢ ⇢ I/O Riot is Open Source +* ⇢ ⇢ Systemtap +* ⇢ ⇢ More refereces # The article diff --git a/gemfeed/2018-06-01-realistic-load-testing-with-ioriot-for-linux.gmi.tpl b/gemfeed/2018-06-01-realistic-load-testing-with-ioriot-for-linux.gmi.tpl new file mode 100644 index 00000000..2fdea893 --- /dev/null +++ b/gemfeed/2018-06-01-realistic-load-testing-with-ioriot-for-linux.gmi.tpl @@ -0,0 +1,191 @@ +# Realistic load testing with I/O Riot for Linux + +> Published at 2018-06-01T14:50:29+01:00; Updated at 2021-05-08 + +This text first was published in the german IT-Administrator computer Magazine. 3 years have passed since and I decided to publish it on my blog too. + +=> https://www.admin-magazin.de/Das-Heft/2018/06/Realistische-Lasttests-mit-I-O-Riot + +I havn't worked on I/O Riot for some time now, but all what is written here is still valid. I am still using I/O Riot to debug I/O issues and pattern once in a while, so by all means the tool is not obsolete yet. The tool even helped to resolve a major production incident at work caused by disk I/O. + +I am eagerly looking forward to revamp I/O Riot so that it uses the new BPF Linux capabilities instead of plain old Systemtap (or alternatively: Newer versions of Systemtap can also use BPF as the backend I have learned). Also, when I wrote I/O Riot initially, I didn't have any experience with the Go programming language yet and therefore I wrote it in C. Once it gets revamped I might consider using Go instead of C as it would spare me from many segmentation faults and headaches during development ;-). I might also just stick to C for plain performance reasons and just refactor the code dealing with concurrency. + +Pleace notice that some of the screenshots show the command "ioreplay" instead of "ioriot". That's because the name has changed after taking those. + +``` + .---. + / \ + \.@-@./ + /`\_/`\ + // _ \\ + | \ )|_ + /`\_`> <_/ \ +jgs\__/'---'\__/ +``` + +<< template::inline::toc + +# The article + +With I/O Riot IT administrators can load test and optimize the I/O subsystem of Linux-based operating systems. The tool makes it possible to record I/O patterns and replay them at a later time as often as desired. This means bottlenecks can be reproduced and eradicated. + +When storing huge amounts of data, such as more than 200 billion archived emails at Mimecast, it's not only the available storage capacity that matters, but also the data throughput and latency. At the same time, operating costs must be kept as low as possible. The more systems involved, the more important it is to optimize the hardware, the operating system and the applications running on it. + +## Background: Existing Techniques + +Conventional I/O benchmarking: Administrators usually use open source benchmarking tools like IOZone and bonnie++. Available database systems such as Redis and MySQL come with their own benchmarking tools. The common problem with these tools is that they work with prescribed artificial I/O patterns. Although this can test both sequential and randomized data access, the patterns do not correspond to what can be found on production systems. + +Testing by load test environment: Another option is to use a separate load test environment in which, as far as possible, a production environment with all its dependencies is simulated. However, an environment consisting of many microservices is very complex. Microservices are usually managed by different teams, which means extra coordination effort for each load test. Another challenge is to generate the load as authentically as possible so that the patterns correspond to a productive environment. Such a load test environment can only handle as many requests as its weakest link can handle. For example, load generators send many read and write requests to a frontend microservice, whereby the frontend forwards the requests to a backend microservice responsible for storing the data. If the frontend service does not process the requests efficiently enough, the backend service is not well utilized in the first place. As a rule, all microservices are clustered across many servers, which makes everything even more complicated. Under all these conditions it is very difficult to test I/O of separate backend systems. Moreover, for many small and medium-sized companies, a separate load test environment would not be feasible for cost reasons. + +Testing in the production environment: For these reasons, benchmarks are often carried out in the production environment. In order to derive value from this such tests are especially performed during peak hours when systems are under high load. However, testing on production systems is associated with risks and can lead to failure or loss of data without adequate protection. + +## Benchmarking the Email Cloud at Mimecast + +For email archiving, Mimecast uses an internally developed microservice, which is operated directly on Linux-based storage systems. A storage cluster is divided into several replication volumes. Data is always replicated three times across two secure data centers. Customer data is automatically allocated to one or more volumes, depending on throughput, so that all volumes are automatically assigned the same load. Customer data is archived on conventional, but inexpensive hard disks with several terabytes of storage capacity each. I/O benchmarking proved difficult for all the reasons mentioned above. Furthermore, there are no ready-made tools for this purpose in the case of self-developed software. The service operates on many block devices simultaneously, which can make the RAID controller a bottleneck. None of the freely available benchmarking tools can test several block devices at the same time without extra effort. In addition, emails typically consist of many small files. Randomized access to many small files is particularly inefficient. In addition to many software adaptations, the hardware and operating system must also be optimized. + +Mimecast encourages employees to be innovative and pursue their own ideas in the form of an internal competition, Pet Project. The goal of the pet project I/O Riot was to simplify OS and hardware level I/O benchmarking. The first prototype of I/O Riot was awarded an internal roadmap prize in the spring of 2017. A few months later, I/O Riot was used to reduce write latency in the storage clusters by about 50%. The improvement was first verified by I/O replay on a test system and then successively applied to all storage systems. I/O Riot was also used to resolve a production incident caused by disk I/O load. + +## Using I/O Riot + +First, all I/O events are logged to a file on a production system with I/O Riot. It is then copied to a test system where all events are replayed in the same way. The crucial point here is that you can reproduce I/O patterns as they are found on a production system as often as you like on a test system. This results in the possibility of optimizing the set screws on the system after each run. + +### Installation + +I/O Riot was tested under CentOS 7.2 x86_64. For compiling, the GNU C compiler and Systemtap including kernel debug information are required. Other Linux distributions are theoretically compatible but untested. First of all, you should update the systems involved as follows: + +``` +% sudo yum update +``` + +If the kernel is updated, please restart the system. The installation would be done without a restart but this would complicate the installation. The installed kernel version should always correspond to the currently running kernel. You can then install I/O Riot as follows: + +``` +% sudo yum install gcc git systemtap yum-utils kernel-devel-$(uname -r) +% sudo debuginfo-install kernel-$(uname -r) +% git clone https://github.com/mimecast/ioriot +% cd ioriot +% make +% sudo make install +% export PATH=$PATH:/opt/ioriot/bin +``` + +Note: It is not best practice to install any compilers on production systems. For further information please have a look at the enclosed README.md. + +### Recording of I/O events + +All I/O events are kernel related. If a process wants to perform an I/O operation, such as opening a file, it must inform the kernel of this by a system call (short syscall). I/O Riot relies on the Systemtap tool to record I/O syscalls. Systemtap, available for all popular Linux distributions, helps you to take a look at the running kernel in productive environments, which makes it predestined to monitor all I/O-relevant Linux syscalls and log them to a file. Other tools, such as strace, are not an alternative because they slow down the system too much. + +During recording, ioriot acts as a wrapper and executes all relevant Systemtap commands for you. Use the following command to log all events to io.capture: + +``` +% sudo ioriot -c io.capture +``` + +=> ./realistic-load-testing-with-ioriot-for-linux/figure1-ioriot-io-recording.png Screenshot I/O recording + +A Ctrl-C (SIGINT) stops recording prematurely. Otherwise, ioriot terminates itself automatically after 1 hour. Depending on the system load, the output file can grow to several gigabytes. Only metadata is logged, not the read and written data itself. When replaying later, only random data is used. Under certain circumstances, Systemtap may omit some system calls and issue warnings. This is to ensure that Systemtap does not consume too many resources. + +### Test preparation + +Then copy io.capture to a test system. The log also contains all accesses to the pseudo file systems devfs, sysfs and procfs. This makes little sense, which is why you must first generate a cleaned and playable version io.replay from io.capture as follows: + +``` +% sudo ioriot -c io.capture -r io.replay -u $USER -n TESTNAME +``` + +The parameter -n allows you to assign a freely selectable test name. An arbitrary system user under which the test is to be played is specified via paramater -u. + +### Test Initialization + +The test will most likely want to access existing files. These are files the test wants to read but does not create by itself. The existence of these must be ensured before the test. You can do this as follows: + +``` +% sudo ioriot -i io.replay +``` + +To avoid any damage to the running system, ioreplay only works in special directories. The tool creates a separate subdirectory for each file system mount point (e.g. /, /usr/local, /store/00,...) (here: /.ioriot/TESTNAME, /usr/local/.ioriot/TESTNAME, /store/00/.ioriot/TESTNAME,...). By default, the working directory of ioriot is /usr/local/ioriot/TESTNAME. + +=> ./realistic-load-testing-with-ioriot-for-linux/figure2-ioriot-test-preparation.png Screenshot test preparation + +You must re-initialize the environment before each run. Data from previous tests will be moved to a trash directory automatically, which can be finally deleted with "sudo ioriot -P". + +### Replay + +After initialization, you can replay the log with -r. You can use -R to initiate both test initialization and replay in a single command and -S can be used to specify a file in which statistics are written after the test run. + +You can also influence the playback speed: "-s 0" is interpreted as "Playback as fast as possible" and is the default setting. With "-s 1" all operations are performed at original speed. "-s 2" would double the playback speed and "-s 0.5" would halve it. + +=> ./realistic-load-testing-with-ioriot-for-linux/figure3-ioriot-replay.png Screenshot replaying I/O + +As an initial test, for example, you could compare the two Linux I/O schedulers CFQ and Deadline and check which scheduler the test runs the fastest. They run the test separately for each scheduler. The following shell loop iterates through all attached block devices of the system and changes their I/O scheduler to the one specified in variable $new_scheduler (in this case either cfq or deadline). Subsequently, all I/O events from the io.replay protocol are played back. At the end, an output file with statistics is generated: + +``` +% new_scheduler=cfq +% for scheduler in /sys/block/*/queue/scheduler; do + echo $new_scheduler | sudo tee $scheduler +done +% sudo ioriot -R io.replay -S cfq.txt +% new_scheduler=deadline +% for scheduler in /sys/block/*/queue/scheduler; do + echo $new_scheduler | sudo tee $scheduler +done +% sudo ioriot -R io.replay -S deadline.txt +``` + +According to the results, the test could run 940 seconds faster with Deadline Scheduler: + +``` +% cat cfq.txt +Num workers: 4 +hreads per worker: 128 +otal threads: 512 +Highest loadavg: 259.29 +Performed ioops: 218624596 +Average ioops/s: 101544.17 +Time ahead: 1452s +Total time: 2153.00s +% cat deadline.txt +Num workers: 4 +Threads per worker: 128 +Total threads: 512 +Highest loadavg: 342.45 +Performed ioops: 218624596 +Average ioops/s: 180234.62 +Time ahead: 2392s +Total time: 1213.00s +``` + +In any case, you should also set up a time series database, such as Graphite, where the I/O throughput can be plotted. Figures 4 and 5 show the read and write access times of both tests. The break-in makes it clear when the CFQ test ended and the deadline test was started. The reading latency of both tests is similar. Write latency is dramatically improved using the Deadline Scheduler. + +=> ./realistic-load-testing-with-ioriot-for-linux/figure4-ioriot-read-latency.png Graphite visualization of the mean read access times in ms with CFQ and Deadline Scheduler. + +=> ./realistic-load-testing-with-ioriot-for-linux/figure5-ioriot-write-latency.png Graphite visualization of the average write access times in ms with CFQ and Deadline Scheduler. + +You should also take a look at the iostat tool. The iostat screenshot shows the output of iostat -x 10 during a test run. As you can see, a block device is fully loaded with 99% utilization, while all other block devices still have sufficient buffer. This could be an indication of poor data distribution in the storage system and is worth pursuing. It is not uncommon for I/O Riot to reveal software problems. + +=> ./realistic-load-testing-with-ioriot-for-linux/figure6-iostat.png Output of iostat. The block device sdy seems to be almost fully utilized by 99%. + +## I/O Riot is Open Source + +The tool has already proven to be very useful and will continue to be actively developed as time and priority permits. Mimecast intends to be an ongoing contributor to Open Source. You can find I/O Riot at: + +=> https://github.com/mimecast/ioriot + +## Systemtap + +Systemtap is a tool for the instrumentation of the Linux kernel. The tool provides an AWK-like programming language. Programs written in it are compiled from Systemtap to C- and then into a dynamically loadable kernel module. Loaded into the kernel, the program has access to Linux internals. A Systemtap program written for I/O Riot monitors when, with which parameters, at which time, and from which process I/O syscalls take place and their return values. + +For example, the open syscall opens a file and returns the responsible file descriptor. The read and write syscalls can operate on a file descriptor and return the number of read or written bytes. The close syscall closes a given file descriptor. I/O Riot comes with a ready-made Systemtap program, which you have already compiled into a kernel module and installed to /opt/ioriot. In addition to open, read and close, it logs many other I/O-relevant calls. + +=> https://sourceware.org/systemtap/ + +## More refereces + +=> http://www.iozone.org/ IOZone +=> https://www.coker.com.au/bonnie++/ Bonnie++ +=> https://graphiteapp.org Graphite +=> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory-mapped_I/O Memory mapped I/O + +E-Mail your comments to `paul@nospam.buetow.org` :-) + +=> ../ Back to the main site diff --git a/gemfeed/2021-04-22-dtail-the-distributed-log-tail-program.gmi b/gemfeed/2021-04-22-dtail-the-distributed-log-tail-program.gmi index df9a037d..6a4b8816 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2021-04-22-dtail-the-distributed-log-tail-program.gmi +++ b/gemfeed/2021-04-22-dtail-the-distributed-log-tail-program.gmi @@ -2,12 +2,23 @@ > Published at 2021-04-22T19:28:41+01:00; Updated at 2021-04-26 +This article first appeared at the Mimecast Engineering Blog but I made it available here in my personal internet site too. + +=> https://medium.com/mimecast-engineering/dtail-the-distributed-log-tail-program-79b8087904bb Original Mimecast Engineering Blog post at Medium + +Running a large cloud-based service requires monitoring the state of huge numbers of machines, a task for which many standard UNIX tools were not really designed. In this post, I will describe a simple program, DTail, that Mimecast has built and released as Open-Source, which enables us to monitor log files of many servers at once without the costly overhead of a full-blown log management system. + +At Mimecast, we run over 10 thousand server boxes. Most of them host multiple microservices and each of them produces log files. Even with the use of time series databases and monitoring systems, raw application logs are still an important source of information when it comes to analysing, debugging, and troubleshooting services. + +Every engineer familiar with UNIX or a UNIX-like platform (e.g., Linux) is well aware of tail, a command-line program for displaying a text file content on the terminal which is also especially useful for following application or system log files with tail -f logfile. + +Think of DTail as a distributed version of the tail program which is very useful when you have a distributed application running on many servers. DTail is an Open-Source, cross-platform, fairly easy to use, support and maintain log file analysis & statistics gathering tool designed for Engineers and Systems Administrators. It is programmed in Google Go. + => ./dtail-the-distributed-log-tail-program/title.png DTail logo image ## Table of Contents * ⇢ DTail - The distributed log tail program -* ⇢ ⇢ Introduction * ⇢ ⇢ A Mimecast Pet Project * ⇢ ⇢ Differentiating from log management systems * ⇢ ⇢ Combining simplicity, security and efficiency @@ -18,20 +29,6 @@ * ⇢ ⇢ For the future * ⇢ ⇢ Open Source -## Introduction - -This article first appeared at the Mimecast Engineering Blog but I made it available here in my personal internet site too. - -=> https://medium.com/mimecast-engineering/dtail-the-distributed-log-tail-program-79b8087904bb Original Mimecast Engineering Blog post at Medium - -Running a large cloud-based service requires monitoring the state of huge numbers of machines, a task for which many standard UNIX tools were not really designed. In this post, I will describe a simple program, DTail, that Mimecast has built and released as Open-Source, which enables us to monitor log files of many servers at once without the costly overhead of a full-blown log management system. - -At Mimecast, we run over 10 thousand server boxes. Most of them host multiple microservices and each of them produces log files. Even with the use of time series databases and monitoring systems, raw application logs are still an important source of information when it comes to analysing, debugging, and troubleshooting services. - -Every engineer familiar with UNIX or a UNIX-like platform (e.g., Linux) is well aware of tail, a command-line program for displaying a text file content on the terminal which is also especially useful for following application or system log files with tail -f logfile. - -Think of DTail as a distributed version of the tail program which is very useful when you have a distributed application running on many servers. DTail is an Open-Source, cross-platform, fairly easy to use, support and maintain log file analysis & statistics gathering tool designed for Engineers and Systems Administrators. It is programmed in Google Go. - ## A Mimecast Pet Project DTail got its inspiration from public domain tools available already in this area but it is a blue sky from-scratch development which was first presented at Mimecast’s annual internal Pet Project competition (awarded with a Bronze prize). It has gained popularity since and is one of the most widely deployed DevOps tools at Mimecast (reaching nearly 10k server installations) and many engineers use it on a regular basis. The Open-Source version of DTail is available at: diff --git a/gemfeed/2021-04-22-dtail-the-distributed-log-tail-program.gmi.tpl b/gemfeed/2021-04-22-dtail-the-distributed-log-tail-program.gmi.tpl index 97f9429d..2a6312fa 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2021-04-22-dtail-the-distributed-log-tail-program.gmi.tpl +++ b/gemfeed/2021-04-22-dtail-the-distributed-log-tail-program.gmi.tpl @@ -2,12 +2,6 @@ > Published at 2021-04-22T19:28:41+01:00; Updated at 2021-04-26 -=> ./dtail-the-distributed-log-tail-program/title.png DTail logo image - -<< template::inline::toc - -## Introduction - This article first appeared at the Mimecast Engineering Blog but I made it available here in my personal internet site too. => https://medium.com/mimecast-engineering/dtail-the-distributed-log-tail-program-79b8087904bb Original Mimecast Engineering Blog post at Medium @@ -20,6 +14,10 @@ Every engineer familiar with UNIX or a UNIX-like platform (e.g., Linux) is well Think of DTail as a distributed version of the tail program which is very useful when you have a distributed application running on many servers. DTail is an Open-Source, cross-platform, fairly easy to use, support and maintain log file analysis & statistics gathering tool designed for Engineers and Systems Administrators. It is programmed in Google Go. +=> ./dtail-the-distributed-log-tail-program/title.png DTail logo image + +<< template::inline::toc + ## A Mimecast Pet Project DTail got its inspiration from public domain tools available already in this area but it is a blue sky from-scratch development which was first presented at Mimecast’s annual internal Pet Project competition (awarded with a Bronze prize). It has gained popularity since and is one of the most widely deployed DevOps tools at Mimecast (reaching nearly 10k server installations) and many engineers use it on a regular basis. The Open-Source version of DTail is available at: diff --git a/gemfeed/2021-05-16-personal-bash-coding-style-guide.gmi b/gemfeed/2021-05-16-personal-bash-coding-style-guide.gmi index 1765f71d..126c0ec5 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2021-05-16-personal-bash-coding-style-guide.gmi +++ b/gemfeed/2021-05-16-personal-bash-coding-style-guide.gmi @@ -2,6 +2,10 @@ > Published at 2021-05-16T14:51:57+01:00 +Lately, I have been polishing and writing a lot of Bash code. Not that I never wrote a lot of Bash, but now as I also looked through the Google Shell Style Guide, I thought it is time also to write my thoughts on that. I agree with that guide in most, but not in all points. + +=> https://google.github.io/styleguide/shellguide.html Google Shell Style Guide + ``` .---------------------------. /,--..---..---..---..---..--. `. @@ -18,7 +22,6 @@ ## Table of Contents * ⇢ Personal Bash coding style guide -* ⇢ ⇢ Introduction * ⇢ ⇢ My modifications * ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ Shebang * ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ Two space soft-tabs indentation @@ -37,12 +40,6 @@ * ⇢ ⇢ Use common sense and BE CONSISTENT. * ⇢ ⇢ Advanced Bash learning pro tip -## Introduction - -Lately, I have been polishing and writing a lot of Bash code. Not that I never wrote a lot of Bash, but now as I also looked through the Google Shell Style Guide, I thought it is time also to write my thoughts on that. I agree with that guide in most, but not in all points. - -=> https://google.github.io/styleguide/shellguide.html Google Shell Style Guide - ## My modifications These are my modifications to the Google Guide. diff --git a/gemfeed/2021-05-16-personal-bash-coding-style-guide.gmi.tpl b/gemfeed/2021-05-16-personal-bash-coding-style-guide.gmi.tpl index 32e255f3..ff2c5fee 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2021-05-16-personal-bash-coding-style-guide.gmi.tpl +++ b/gemfeed/2021-05-16-personal-bash-coding-style-guide.gmi.tpl @@ -2,6 +2,10 @@ > Published at 2021-05-16T14:51:57+01:00 +Lately, I have been polishing and writing a lot of Bash code. Not that I never wrote a lot of Bash, but now as I also looked through the Google Shell Style Guide, I thought it is time also to write my thoughts on that. I agree with that guide in most, but not in all points. + +=> https://google.github.io/styleguide/shellguide.html Google Shell Style Guide + ``` .---------------------------. /,--..---..---..---..---..--. `. @@ -17,12 +21,6 @@ << template::inline::toc -## Introduction - -Lately, I have been polishing and writing a lot of Bash code. Not that I never wrote a lot of Bash, but now as I also looked through the Google Shell Style Guide, I thought it is time also to write my thoughts on that. I agree with that guide in most, but not in all points. - -=> https://google.github.io/styleguide/shellguide.html Google Shell Style Guide - ## My modifications These are my modifications to the Google Guide. diff --git a/gemfeed/2021-06-05-gemtexter-one-bash-script-to-rule-it-all.gmi b/gemfeed/2021-06-05-gemtexter-one-bash-script-to-rule-it-all.gmi index 4f5c0c3c..ee406493 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2021-06-05-gemtexter-one-bash-script-to-rule-it-all.gmi +++ b/gemfeed/2021-06-05-gemtexter-one-bash-script-to-rule-it-all.gmi @@ -2,6 +2,10 @@ > Published at 2021-06-05T19:03:32+01:00 +You might have read my previous blog posts about entering the Geminispace, where I pointed out the benefits of having and maintaining an internet presence there. This whole site (the blog and all other pages) is composed in the Gemtext markup language. + +This comes with the benefit that I can write content in my favourite text editor (Vim). + ``` o .,<>., o |\/\/\/\/| @@ -46,8 +50,7 @@ ## Table of Contents * ⇢ Gemtexter - One Bash script to rule it all -* ⇢ ⇢ Introduction -* ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ Motivation +* ⇢ ⇢ Motivation * ⇢ ⇢ Output formats * ⇢ ⇢ Taking it as far as I should, but no farther * ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ Modularization @@ -60,13 +63,7 @@ * ⇢ ⇢ Future features * ⇢ ⇢ Conclusion -## Introduction - -You might have read my previous blog posts about entering the Geminispace, where I pointed out the benefits of having and maintaining an internet presence there. This whole site (the blog and all other pages) is composed in the Gemtext markup language. - -This comes with the benefit that I can write content in my favourite text editor (Vim). - -### Motivation +## Motivation Another benefit of using Gemini is that the Gemtext markup language is easy to parse. As my site is dual-hosted (Gemini+HTTP), I could, in theory, just write a shell script to deal with the conversion from Gemtext to HTML; there is no need for a full-featured programming language here. I have done a lot of Bash in the past, but I am also often revisiting old tools and techniques for refreshing and keeping the knowledge up to date here. diff --git a/gemfeed/2021-06-05-gemtexter-one-bash-script-to-rule-it-all.gmi.tpl b/gemfeed/2021-06-05-gemtexter-one-bash-script-to-rule-it-all.gmi.tpl index f45bedec..c192f2c4 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2021-06-05-gemtexter-one-bash-script-to-rule-it-all.gmi.tpl +++ b/gemfeed/2021-06-05-gemtexter-one-bash-script-to-rule-it-all.gmi.tpl @@ -2,6 +2,10 @@ > Published at 2021-06-05T19:03:32+01:00 +You might have read my previous blog posts about entering the Geminispace, where I pointed out the benefits of having and maintaining an internet presence there. This whole site (the blog and all other pages) is composed in the Gemtext markup language. + +This comes with the benefit that I can write content in my favourite text editor (Vim). + ``` o .,<>., o |\/\/\/\/| @@ -45,13 +49,7 @@ << template::inline::toc -## Introduction - -You might have read my previous blog posts about entering the Geminispace, where I pointed out the benefits of having and maintaining an internet presence there. This whole site (the blog and all other pages) is composed in the Gemtext markup language. - -This comes with the benefit that I can write content in my favourite text editor (Vim). - -### Motivation +## Motivation Another benefit of using Gemini is that the Gemtext markup language is easy to parse. As my site is dual-hosted (Gemini+HTTP), I could, in theory, just write a shell script to deal with the conversion from Gemtext to HTML; there is no need for a full-featured programming language here. I have done a lot of Bash in the past, but I am also often revisiting old tools and techniques for refreshing and keeping the knowledge up to date here. diff --git a/gemfeed/2021-07-04-the-well-grounded-rubyist.gmi b/gemfeed/2021-07-04-the-well-grounded-rubyist.gmi index 55e8b0b1..6f2952e8 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2021-07-04-the-well-grounded-rubyist.gmi +++ b/gemfeed/2021-07-04-the-well-grounded-rubyist.gmi @@ -14,6 +14,20 @@ Superficially, Perl seems to have many similarities to Ruby (but, of course, it Yukihiro Matsumoto, the inventor of Ruby, said: "I wanted a scripting language that was more powerful than Perl and more object-oriented than Python" - So I can see where some of the similarities come from. I personally don't believe that Ruby is more powerful than Perl, though, especially when you take CPAN and/or Perl 6 (now known as Raku) into the equation. Well, it all depends on what you mean with "more powerful". But I want to stay pragmatic and use what's already used at my workplace. +## Table of Contents + +* ⇢ The Well-Grounded Rubyist +* ⇢ ⇢ My Ruby problem domain +* ⇢ ⇢ Being stuck in Ruby-mediocrity +* ⇢ ⇢ O'Reilly Safari Books Online +* ⇢ ⇢ Key takeaways +* ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ "Everything" is an object +* ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ "Normal" objects and singleton objects +* ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ Domain specific languages +* ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ Ruby is "self-ish" +* ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ Functional programming +* ⇢ ⇢ Perl + ## My Ruby problem domain I wrote a lot of Ruby code over the last couple of years. There were many small to medium-sized tools and other projects such as Nagios monitoring checks, even an internal monitoring & reporting site based on Sinatra. All Ruby scripts I wrote do their work well; I didn't encounter any significant problems using Ruby for any of these tasks. Of course, there's nothing that couldn't be written in Perl (or Python), though, after all, these languages are all Turing-complete and all these languages also come with a huge set of 3rd party libraries :-). diff --git a/gemfeed/2021-07-04-the-well-grounded-rubyist.gmi.tpl b/gemfeed/2021-07-04-the-well-grounded-rubyist.gmi.tpl new file mode 100644 index 00000000..4434f170 --- /dev/null +++ b/gemfeed/2021-07-04-the-well-grounded-rubyist.gmi.tpl @@ -0,0 +1,109 @@ +# The Well-Grounded Rubyist + +> Published at 2021-07-04T10:51:23+01:00 + +When I was a Linux System Administrator, I have been programming in Perl for years. I still maintain some personal Perl programming projects (e.g. Xerl, guprecords, Loadbars). After switching jobs a couple of years ago (becoming a Site Reliability Engineer), I found Ruby (and some Python) widely used there. As I wanted to do something new, I decided to give Ruby a go. + +You should learn or try out one new programming language once yearly anyway. If you end up not using the new language, that's not a problem. You will learn new techniques with each new programming language and this also helps you to improve your overall programming skills even for other languages. Also, having some background in a similar programming language makes it reasonably easy to get started. Besides that, learning a new programming language is kick-a** fun! + +=> ./the-well-grounded-rubyist/book-cover.jpg + +Superficially, Perl seems to have many similarities to Ruby (but, of course, it is entirely different to Perl when you look closer), which pushed me towards Ruby instead of Python. I have tried Python a couple of times before, and I managed to write good code, but I never felt satisfied with the language. I didn't love the syntax, especially the indentations used; they always confused me. I don't dislike Python, but I don't prefer to program in it if I have a choice, especially when there are more propelling alternatives available. Personally, it's so much more fun to program in Ruby than in Python. + +=> ./the-well-grounded-rubyist/book-backside.jpg + +Yukihiro Matsumoto, the inventor of Ruby, said: "I wanted a scripting language that was more powerful than Perl and more object-oriented than Python" - So I can see where some of the similarities come from. I personally don't believe that Ruby is more powerful than Perl, though, especially when you take CPAN and/or Perl 6 (now known as Raku) into the equation. Well, it all depends on what you mean with "more powerful". But I want to stay pragmatic and use what's already used at my workplace. + +<< template::inline::toc + +## My Ruby problem domain + +I wrote a lot of Ruby code over the last couple of years. There were many small to medium-sized tools and other projects such as Nagios monitoring checks, even an internal monitoring & reporting site based on Sinatra. All Ruby scripts I wrote do their work well; I didn't encounter any significant problems using Ruby for any of these tasks. Of course, there's nothing that couldn't be written in Perl (or Python), though, after all, these languages are all Turing-complete and all these languages also come with a huge set of 3rd party libraries :-). + +I don't use Ruby for all programming projects, though. + +* I am using Bash for small sized (usually below 500 lines of code) scripts and ad-hoc command-line automation. +* I program in Google Go for more complex tools (such as DTail) and for problem solving involving data crunching. +* Occasionally, I write some lines of Java code for minor feature enhancements and fixes to improve the reliability of some the services. +* Sometimes, I still program in good old C. This is for special projects (e.g. I/O Riot) or low-level PoCs or SystemTap guru mode scripts. + +=> ./2021-05-16-personal-bash-coding-style-guide.gmi Also have a look at my personal Bash coding style. +=> ./2021-04-22-dtail-the-distributed-log-tail-program.gmi Read here about DTail - the distributed log tail program. +=> ./2018-06-01-realistic-load-testing-with-ioriot-for-linux.gmi This is a magazine article about I/O Riot I wrote. + +For all other in-between tasks I mainly use the Ruby programming language (unless I decide to give something new a shot once in a while). + +## Being stuck in Ruby-mediocrity + +As a Site Reliability Engineer there were many tasks and problems to be solved as efficiently and quickly as possible and, of course, without bugs. So I learned Ruby relatively fast by doing and the occasional web search for "how to do thing X". I always was eager to get the problem at hand solved and as long as the code solved the problem I usually was happy. + +Until now, I never read a whole book or took a course on Ruby. As a result, I found myself writing Ruby in a Perl-ish procedural style (with Perl, you can do object-oriented programming too, but Perl wasn't designed from the ground up to be an object-oriented language). I didn't take advantage of all the specialities Ruby has to offer as I invested most of my time in the problems at hand and not in the Ruby idiomatic way of doing things. + +An unexpected benefit was that most of my Ruby code (probably not all, there are always dark corners in some old code bases lurking around) was easy to follow and extend or fix, even by people who usually don't speak Ruby, as there wasn't too much magic involved in my code - However, I could have done better still. Looking at other Ruby projects, I noticed over time that there is so much more to the language I wanted to explore. For example new techniques and the Ruby best practise, and much more about how things work under the hood, I wanted to learn about. + +## O'Reilly Safari Books Online + +I do have an O'Reilly Safari Online subscription (thank you, employer). To my liking, I found the "The Well-Grounded Rubyist" book there (the text version and also the video version of it). I watched the video version for a couple of weeks, chunking the content into small pieces so it was able to fit into my schedule, increasing the playback speed for the topics I knew already well enough and slowed it down to actual pace when there was something new to learn and occasionally jumped back to the text book to review what I just learned. To my satisfaction, I was already familiar with over half of the language. But there was still the big chunk, especially how the magic happens under the hood in Ruby, which I missed out on, but I am happy now to be aware of it now. + +I also loved the occasional dry humour in the book: "An enumerator is like a brain in a science fiction movie, sitting on a table with no connection to a body but still able to think". :-) + +Will I rewrite and refactor all of my existing Ruby programs? Probably not, as they all do their work as intended. Some of these scripts will be eventually replaced or retired. But depending on the situation, I might refactor a module, class or a method or two once in a while. I already knew how to program in an object-oriented style from other languages (e.g. Java, C++, Perl Moose and plain) before I started Ruby, so my existing Ruby code is not as bad as you might assume after reading this article :-). In contrast to Java/C++, Ruby is a dynamic language, and the idiomatic ways of doing things differs from statically typed languages. + +## Key takeaways + +These are my key takeaways. These only point out some specific things I have learned, and represent, by far, not everything I've learned from the book. + +### "Everything" is an object + +In Ruby, everything is an object. However, Ruby is not Smalltalk. It depends on what you mean by "everything". Fixnums are objects. Classes also are, as instances of class Class. Methods, operators and blocks aren't but can be wrapped by objects via a "Proc". A simple assignment is not and can't. Statements like "while" also aren't and can't. Comments obviously also fall in the latter group. Ruby is more object-oriented than everything else I have ever seen, except for Smalltalk. + +In Ruby, like in Java/C++, classes are classes, objects are instances of classes, and there are class inheritances. There is single inheritance in Ruby, but with the power of mixing in modules, you can extend your classes in a better way than multiple class inheritances (like in C++) would allow. It's also different to Java interfaces, as interfaces in Java only come with the method prototypes and not with the actual method implementations like Ruby modules. + +### "Normal" objects and singleton objects + +In Ruby, you can also have singleton objects. A singleton object can be an instance of a class but be modified after its creation (e.g. a method added to only this particular instance after its instantiation). Or, another variant of a singleton object is a class (yes, classes are also objects in Ruby). All of that is way better described in the book, so have a read by yourself if you are confused now; just remember: Rubys object system is very dynamic and flexible. At runtime, you can add and modify classes, objects of classes, singleton objects and modules. You don't need to restart the Ruby interpreter; you can change the code during runtime dynamically through Ruby code. + +### Domain specific languages + +Due to Ruby's flexibility through object individualization (e.g. adding methods at runtime, or changing the core behaviour of classes, catching unknown method calls and dynamically dispatch and/or generate the missing methods via the "method_missing" method), Ruby is a very good language to write your own small domain specific language (DSL) on top of Ruby syntax. I only noticed that after reading this book. Maybe, this is one of the reasons why even the configuration management system Puppet once tried to use a Ruby DSL instead of the Puppet DSL for its manifests. I am not sure why the project got abandoned though, probably it has to do with performance. Do be honest, Ruby is not the fastest language, but it is fast enough for most use cases. And, especially from Ruby 3, performance is one of the main things being worked on currently. If I want performance, I can always use another programming language. + +### Ruby is "self-ish" + +Ruby will fall back to the default "self" object if you don't specify an object method receiver. To give you an example, some more explanation is needed: There is the "Kernel" module mixed into almost every Ruby object. For example, "puts" is just a method of module "Kernel". When you write "puts :foo", Ruby sends the message "puts" to the current object "self". The class of object "self" is "Object". Class Object has module "Kernel" mixed in, and "Kernel" defines the method "puts". + +``` +>> self +=> main +>> self.class +=> Object +>> self.class.included_modules +=> [PP::ObjectMixin, Kernel] +>> Kernel.class +=> Module +>> Kernel.methods.grep(/puts/) +=> [:puts] +>> puts 'Hello Ruby' +Hello Ruby +=> nil +>> self.puts 'Hello World' +Hello World +=> nil +``` + +Ruby offers a lot of syntactic sugar and seemingly magic, but it all comes back to objects and messages to objects under the hood. As all is hidden in objects, you can unwrap and even change the magic and see what's happening under the hood. Then, suddenly everything makes so much sense. + +### Functional programming + +Ruby embraces an object-oriented programming style. But there is good news for fans of the functional programming paradigm: From immutable data (frozen objects), pure functions, lambdas and higher-order functions, lazy evaluation, tail-recursion optimization, method chaining, currying and partial function application, all of that is there. I am delighted about that, as I am a big fan of functional programming (having played with Haskell and Standard ML before). + +Remember, however, that Ruby is not a pure functional programming language. You, the Rubyist, need to explicitly decide when to apply a functional style, as, by heart, Ruby is designed to be an object-oriented language. The language will not enforce side effect avoidance, and you will have to enable tail-recursion optimization (as of Ruby 2.5) explicitly, and variables/objects aren't immutable by default either. But that all does not hinder you from using these features. + +I liked this book so much so that I even bought myself a (used) paper copy of it. To my delight, there was also a free eBook version in ePub format included, which I now have on my Kobo Forma eBook reader. :-) + +## Perl + +Will I abandon my beloved Perl? Probably not. There are also some Perl scripts I use at work. But unfortunately I only have a limited amount of time and I have to use it wisely. I might look into Raku (formerly known as Perl 6) next year and use it for a personal pet project, who knows. :-). I also highly recommend reading the two Perl books "Modern Perl" and "Higher-Order Perl". + +E-Mail your comments to `paul@nospam.buetow.org` :-) + +=> ../ Back to the main site diff --git a/gemfeed/2021-08-01-on-being-pedantic-about-open-source.gmi b/gemfeed/2021-08-01-on-being-pedantic-about-open-source.gmi index ac811e0b..17a91104 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2021-08-01-on-being-pedantic-about-open-source.gmi +++ b/gemfeed/2021-08-01-on-being-pedantic-about-open-source.gmi @@ -2,6 +2,8 @@ > Published at 2021-08-01T10:37:58+03:00; Updated at 2023-01-23 +I believe that it is essential to always have free and open-source alternatives to any kind of closed-source proprietary software available to choose from. But there are a couple of points you need to take into consideration. + ``` __ _____....--' .' @@ -14,7 +16,23 @@ '^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^' LGB - Art by lgbearrd ``` -I believe that it is essential to always have free and open-source alternatives to any kind of closed-source proprietary software available to choose from. But there are a couple of points you need to take into consideration. +## Table of Contents + +* ⇢ On being Pedantic about Open-Source +* ⇢ ⇢ The costs of open-source +* ⇢ ⇢ Commercial providers +* ⇢ ⇢ Earning on open-source +* ⇢ ⇢ Open-source organizations and individual contributors +* ⇢ ⇢ Lesser known projects and the charm of clunkiness +* ⇢ ⇢ The security aspect +* ⇢ ⇢ Always watch out for open-source alternatives +* ⇢ ⇢ What about mobile? +* ⇢ ⇢ Know the alternatives +* ⇢ ⇢ You can't control it all +* ⇢ ⇢ The middle way +* ⇢ ⇢ The downside of being a nobody +* ⇢ ⇢ Mobile open-source OSes are still evolving +* ⇢ ⇢ Conclusion ## The costs of open-source diff --git a/gemfeed/2021-08-01-on-being-pedantic-about-open-source.gmi.tpl b/gemfeed/2021-08-01-on-being-pedantic-about-open-source.gmi.tpl new file mode 100644 index 00000000..08dff942 --- /dev/null +++ b/gemfeed/2021-08-01-on-being-pedantic-about-open-source.gmi.tpl @@ -0,0 +1,121 @@ +# On being Pedantic about Open-Source + +> Published at 2021-08-01T10:37:58+03:00; Updated at 2023-01-23 + +I believe that it is essential to always have free and open-source alternatives to any kind of closed-source proprietary software available to choose from. But there are a couple of points you need to take into consideration. + +``` + __ + _____....--' .' + ___...---'._ o -`( + ___...---' \ .--. `\ + ___...---' | \ \ `| +| |o o | | | +| \___'.-`. '. +| | `---' +'^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^' LGB - Art by lgbearrd +``` + +<< template::inline::toc + +## The costs of open-source + +One benefit of using open-source software is that it doesn't cost anything, right? That's correct in many cases. However, in some cases you still need to spend a significant amount of time configuring the software to work for you. It will be more expensive to use open-source software than proprietary commercial one if you aren't careful. + +Not to say that I haven't seen the same effect with commercial software where people had to, after buying it, put a bunch of effort to make it work due to the lack of quality or due to high complexity. But that's either bad luck or bad decision-making. Most commercial providers I have worked with try to make it work for you, so you also will buy other products and services from them later on and don't lose you as a happy customer. + +## Commercial providers + +Producers of commercial software want to earn money after all. This is to grow their businesses and also to be able to pay their employees, who also need to care for their families. Employees build up their careers, build houses, and are proud of their accomplishments in the company. + +So per se, commercial software is not a bad thing. Right? At least, commercial closed-source software is not a bad thing in its heart. Unfortunately, some companies have to keep their software closed-source to not lose their competitive edge over other competitors. + +## Earning on open-source + +There are also companies that earn on open-source software. All the code they write is free for download and use, but you, as a customer, could pay for service and support if you are not an expert and can't manage it by yourself. + +I like this approach, as you can balance the effort and costs the way it suits you best, and in doubt, you can audit the source code. Are you already an expert? Perfect, you don't need to buy additional support for the software. Everything can be set up by yourself, given that you have the time and priority. + +Also, once an open-source project reached a certain size, it is unlikely to be abandoned one day. As long as at least one person is willing to be the open-source maintainer, the project won't die. Whereas commercial providers can decide from today to tomorrow to retire software or go bankrupt (unless you purchase Microsoft Word, I don't believe it will die anytime soon). + +## Open-source organizations and individual contributors + +Besides corporations, millions of individual open-source contributors write free and open-source software not for money but for pleasure. Often, they are organized in non-profit organizations, working together to reach a common goal (it is worth mentioning that there are also many professionals, payed by large corporations, working full-time for non-profit open-source projects in order to push the features and reach the goals of the corporations). Sometimes, people don't agree on the project goal, so it gets forked, which can be a good thing. The more diversity, the better, as this is where competition and innovation happens. Also, the end user will end up with more choices. + +These open-source projects are of a very high quality standard and are rock-solid, if not better, alternatives to proprietary counterparts. If the project isn't backed by a large corporation already, you should donate to these open-source organizations and/or individual contributors. I have donated to some projects I use personally. Do you learn a foreign language and use Anki flashcards? It's entirely free and open-source, and they happily accept donations ensuring future maintenance and development. + +## Lesser known projects and the charm of clunkiness + +Looking at the smaller, lesser-known open-source projects (not talking about established open-source projects like FreeBSD and Linux): You can't, however, expect the software to be perfect and bug-free. After all, most of the code is written for pleasure and fun in the developers' free time. Besides the developer himself, you might be the only user of the project. The software may be a bit clunky to use, and probably bugs are lurking around, and it might only work for a very specific use case. + +Clunkiness can be charmful, though. And it can also encourage you to contribute code to make it better. There is a lot of such code in personal GitHub and GitLab repositories. The quality of such small open-source projects varies drastically. Many hobbyist programmers see programming as an art and put tons of effort into their projects. Others upload broken crap, which is dangerous to use. So have a look at the code before you use it! + +## The security aspect + +One of the main conceptions about open-source software is that it is more secure than closed-source software because everybody can read and fix the code. Is that actually true? You can only be sure when you audit the code by yourself. If you are like me, you won't have time to audit all the open-source software you use. It's impossible to audit more than 100 million lines of Linux kernel code. Static code analysis tools come in handy here, but they still require humans to look at the results. + +Security bugs in open-source projects are exposed to the public and fixed quickly, while we don't know exactly what happens to security bugs in closed-source ones. Still, hackers and security specialists can find them through reverse engineering and penetration testing. Overall, thinking of security, In my opinion it is still better to prefer open-source software because the more significant the project, the higher the probability that security bugs are found and fixed as more parties are looking into it. Furthermore, provided you have the necessary resources, you could still deduct an audit by yourself. The latter especially happens when companies with its own security and penetration testing departments are evaluating the use of open-source. This is something not every company can afford though. + +## Always watch out for open-source alternatives + +Do you need Microsoft Word? Why don't you just use the Vim text editor or GNU Emacs to write your letters? If that's too nerdy, you can still use open-source alternatives such as AbiWord or LibreOffice. Larger organizations have the tendency to standardize the software their employees have to use. Unfortunately, as Microsoft Word is the de-facto standard text processing program, most companies prefer Word over LibreOffice. Same with Microsoft Excel vs LibreOffice Calc or other spreadsheet alternatives like Gnumeric. I don't know why that is; please.... + +E-Mail your comments to `paul@nospam.buetow.org` :-) + +I only use free and open-source operating systems on my personal Laptops, Desktop PCs and servers (FreeBSD and Linux based ones). Most of the programs and apps I use on them are free and open-source as well, and I am comfortable with it for over twenty years. Exceptions are the BIOSes and some firmwares of my devices. I also use Skype as most of my friends and family are using it. They are, unfortunately, proprietary software still. But I will be looking into Matrix as a Skype alternative when I have time. There are also open BIOS alternatives, but they usually don't work on my devices. + +## What about mobile? + +> Update 2023-01-21: Check out my newer post about GrapheneOS, which solves some of my dilemmas + +=> ./2023-01-23-why-grapheneos-rox.gmi Why GrapheneOS Rox + +I struggle to go 100% open-source on my Smartphone. I use a Samsung phone with the stock Android as provided by Samsung. I love the device as it is large enough to use as a portable reading and note-taking device, and it can also take decent pictures. As a cloud backup solution, I have my own NextCloud server (open-source). Android is mainly open-source software, but many closed parts are still included. I replaced most of the standard apps with free and open-source variants from the F-Droid store though. + +I could get a LineageOS based phone to get rid of the proprietary Android parts (I tried that out a couple of times in the past). But then a couple of convenient apps, such as Google Maps or Banking or Skype or the E-Ticket apps of various Airlines, various review apps when searching for restaurants, Audible (I think Audible offers an excellent service), etc., won't work anymore. The proprietary Google Maps is still the best maps app, even though there are open alternatives available. It's not that I couldn't live without these apps, but they make life a lot more convenient. + +## Know the alternatives + +Thinking about alternative solutions is always a good idea. My advice is never to be entirely dependant on any proprietary software. Before you decide to use proprietary software, try to find alternatives in the open-source world. You might need to invest some time playing around with the options available. Maybe they are good enough for you, or maybe not. + +If you still want to use proprietary software, use it with caution. Have a look at the recent change at Google Photos: For a long time, "high quality" photos could be uploaded there quota-less for free. However, Google recently changed the model so that people exceeding a quota have to start paying for the extra space consumed. I am not against Google's decision, but it shows you that a provider can always change its direction. So you can't entirely rely on these. I repeat myself: Don't fully rely on anything proprietary, but you might still use proprietary software or services for your own convenience. + +## You can't control it all + +The biggest problem I have with going 100% open-source is actually time. You can't control all the software you use or might be using in the future. You have only a finite amount of time available in your life. So you have to decide what's more important: Investigate and use an open-source alternative of every program and app you have installed, or rather spend quality time with your family and have a nice walk in the park or go to a sports class or cook a nice meal? You can't control it all in today's world of tech, not as a user and even not as a tech worker. There's a great blog post worth reading: + +=> https://unixsheikh.com/articles/how-to-stay-sane-in-todays-world-of-tech.html + +## The middle way + +Regarding my personal Smartphone dilemma: I guess the middle way is to use two phones: + +* Have a secondary, proprietary Android phone with Google Play store (or an Apple iPhone if this is more your thing) and all its benefits for occasional use. Use the proprietary phone only with intention. Such a phone implies some risks regarding your privacy. If you aren't careful, app providers will collect your personal data for building a digital profile of you, which gets used for online advertisement and other things. This doesn't only applies to the Smartphone, this also applies to some proprietary software (including cloud services such as Google Photos) you use on your home computer or websites you visit (I am looking at you, Facebook, Twitter and friends). Try to disable all tracking features on such a phone. It's not a guarantee that nobody will be collecting data from you anymore, but you should take at least the chance. Cal Newport once mentioned that you should not use privacy concerning apps as much anyway and instead spend more time on things which matter. +* Have a primary phone, entirely based on free and open-source software. There will be probably no app collecting your personal data. Try to use the primary phone for all of your everyday activities and fall back to the proprietary phone only for particular use cases. Once there is decent hardware (with a decent camera) running Linux (such as Mobian, for example) available, I will consider a purchase. The only 3rd party which then will still be able to track you will be your network provider. You could start your own phone network, but that seems overkill. There is already the Pinephone and the Librem 5 running a real Linux (Android is Linux based, but it doesn't count as a real Linux for me). Still, I want to wait a bit longer for better hardware to be available (I want to have a good camera always with me). +* You could also add a tertiary phone to the mix, which you only use for work and nothing else. That one will be very likely a proprietary phone too. You only have to keep this one around when you are working or when you are on-call. + +I have been playing with other smartphone OS alternatives, especially with MeeGo (which has died already) and SailfishOS, too. Security and privacy seem to be significantly improved compared to an Android. As a matter of fact, I bought a cheap and used Sony Xperia XA2 last year and installed SailfishOS on it. It's a nice toy, but it's still not the holy open-source grail as there are also proprietary parts in SailfishOS. Platforms such as Mobian, Ubuntu Touch and Plasma Mobile are more compelling to me. People must explore alternatives to Android and Apple here, as otherwise, you won't own any gadgets anymore: + +=> https://news.slashdot.org/story/21/07/10/0120236/by-2030-you-wont-own-any-gadgets + +Anyhow, any gadgets, including your phone, should be a tool you use. Don't let the phone use you! + +## The downside of being a nobody + +Be aware that it might be to your disadvantage if you manage to go completely under cover without anyone collecting data from you. Suppose you are a nobody on the web (no social media profiles, no tracking history, etc.). In that case, you aren't behaving like the mass, and therefore you are suspicious. So it might be even a good thing to leave your marks here and there once in a while. You aren't hiding anything anyway, correct? Just be mindful what you are sharing about yourself. I share personal things very rarely on Facebook for example. And I only share a small subset of my personal life on my personal homepage and this blog and on all of my social media accounts. Nobody is interested in what I have for breakfast anyway I guess. Write me an E-Mail if you are interested in what I am having for breakfast. + +## Mobile open-source OSes are still evolving + +You might have noticed that I wrote a lot about Smartphones in this article. The reason is that free and open-source software for Smartphones is still evolving. In contrast, for Laptops and Desktop PCs, it's already there. There is no reason to use proprietary operating systems such as Windows or macOS on your computers unless your employer forces you to use one of these. Why would they force you? It has to do with standardization again. The IT department only can manage so many platforms. It wouldn't be manageable by IT if every employee would install their own Linux distribution or one of the *BSDs. That might work for small startups but not for larger companies, especially not for a security-focused companies. + +I would love a standardized Linux at work, though. Dell and Lenovo also officially support Linux on their notebooks. The culprit may be knowledgeable IT staff maintaining and giving support to the Desktop Linux users. Not all colleagues are Linux geeks like you and me. I am using macOS for work, but I am not an Apple expert. Occasionally I have to contact IT support regarding some issues I have. I don't use the macOS GUI a lot; I mainly live in the terminal so I can run the same tools I also use on Linux. + +## Conclusion + +Should you be pedantic about open-source software? It depends. It depends on your fundamental values and how much time you are ready to invest. Open-source software is not just free as in money, but also free as in freedom. You will gain back complete control of your personal data. Unfortunately, installing ready proprietary apps from the Play Store is much more convenient than building up a trustworthy open-source-based infrastructure by yourself. As a guideline, use proprietary software and services with caution. Be mindful about your choices and where you leave your digital fingerprints. In doubt, think less is more. Do you really need this new shiny app? What benefit does it provide to you? Probably you don't really need that shiny new app. + +You have better chances when you know how to manage your own server and install and manage alternatives to the big cloud providers by yourself. I have the advantage that I have work experience as a Linux Systems Administrator here. I mentioned NextCloud already. I use NextCloud for online photo and file storage, contact and calendar sync and as an RSS news feed server. You could do the same with your own E-Mail server, you can also host your own website and blog. I also mentioned Matrix as a Skype alternative (which could also be an alternative to WhatsApp, Skype, Telegram, Viber, ...). I don't know a lot about Matrix yet, but it seems to be a very neat alternative. I am ready to invest time in it as one of my future personal pet projects. Not only because I think it's better, but also because for fun and as a hobby. But this doesn't mean that I invest *all* of my personal free time in it. + +E-Mail your comments to `paul@nospam.buetow.org` :-) + +=> ../ Back to the main site diff --git a/gemfeed/2021-09-12-keep-it-simple-and-stupid.gmi b/gemfeed/2021-09-12-keep-it-simple-and-stupid.gmi index 51f97223..24c88bb6 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2021-09-12-keep-it-simple-and-stupid.gmi +++ b/gemfeed/2021-09-12-keep-it-simple-and-stupid.gmi @@ -2,6 +2,8 @@ > Published at 2021-09-12T09:39:20+03:00; Updated at 2023-03-23 +A robust computer system must be kept simple and stupid (KISS). The fancier the system is, the more can break. Unfortunately, most systems tend to become complex and challenging to maintain in today's world. In the early days, so I was told, engineers understood every part of the system, but nowadays, we see more of the "lasagna" stack. One layer or framework is built on top of another layer, and in the end, nobody has got a clue what's going on. + ``` _______________ |*\_/*|_______ | ___________ | .-. .-. ||_/-\_|______ | @@ -20,7 +22,6 @@ ## Table of Contents * ⇢ Keep it simple and stupid -* ⇢ ⇢ Introduction * ⇢ ⇢ Need faster hardware * ⇢ ⇢ Too complex to be replaced * ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ On COBOL @@ -35,10 +36,6 @@ * ⇢ ⇢ When KISS is not KISS anymore * ⇢ ⇢ Other relevant readings -## Introduction - -A robust computer system must be kept simple and stupid (KISS). The fancier the system is, the more can break. Unfortunately, most systems tend to become complex and challenging to maintain in today's world. In the early days, so I was told, engineers understood every part of the system, but nowadays, we see more of the "lasagna" stack. One layer or framework is built on top of another layer, and in the end, nobody has got a clue what's going on. - ## Need faster hardware This not just makes the system much more complex, difficult to maintain and challenging to troubleshoot, but also slow. So more experts are needed to support it. Also, newer and faster hardware is required to make it run smoothly. Often, it's so much easier to buy speedier hardware than rewrite a whole system from scratch from the bottom-up. The latter would require much more resources in the short run, but in the long run, it should pay off. Unfortunately, many project owners scare away from it as they only want to get their project done and then move on. diff --git a/gemfeed/2021-09-12-keep-it-simple-and-stupid.gmi.tpl b/gemfeed/2021-09-12-keep-it-simple-and-stupid.gmi.tpl index 008f1662..9e45d1d0 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2021-09-12-keep-it-simple-and-stupid.gmi.tpl +++ b/gemfeed/2021-09-12-keep-it-simple-and-stupid.gmi.tpl @@ -2,6 +2,8 @@ > Published at 2021-09-12T09:39:20+03:00; Updated at 2023-03-23 +A robust computer system must be kept simple and stupid (KISS). The fancier the system is, the more can break. Unfortunately, most systems tend to become complex and challenging to maintain in today's world. In the early days, so I was told, engineers understood every part of the system, but nowadays, we see more of the "lasagna" stack. One layer or framework is built on top of another layer, and in the end, nobody has got a clue what's going on. + ``` _______________ |*\_/*|_______ | ___________ | .-. .-. ||_/-\_|______ | @@ -19,10 +21,6 @@ << template::inline::toc -## Introduction - -A robust computer system must be kept simple and stupid (KISS). The fancier the system is, the more can break. Unfortunately, most systems tend to become complex and challenging to maintain in today's world. In the early days, so I was told, engineers understood every part of the system, but nowadays, we see more of the "lasagna" stack. One layer or framework is built on top of another layer, and in the end, nobody has got a clue what's going on. - ## Need faster hardware This not just makes the system much more complex, difficult to maintain and challenging to troubleshoot, but also slow. So more experts are needed to support it. Also, newer and faster hardware is required to make it run smoothly. Often, it's so much easier to buy speedier hardware than rewrite a whole system from scratch from the bottom-up. The latter would require much more resources in the short run, but in the long run, it should pay off. Unfortunately, many project owners scare away from it as they only want to get their project done and then move on. diff --git a/gemfeed/2021-10-22-defensive-devops.gmi b/gemfeed/2021-10-22-defensive-devops.gmi index af6274c3..4d62d188 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2021-10-22-defensive-devops.gmi +++ b/gemfeed/2021-10-22-defensive-devops.gmi @@ -2,6 +2,16 @@ > Published at 2021-10-22T10:02:46+03:00 +I have seen many different setups and infrastructures during my carreer. My roles always included front-line ad-hoc fire fighting production issues. This often involves identifying and fixing these under time pressure, without the comfort of 2-week-long SCRUM sprints and without an exhaustive QA process. I also wrote a lot of code (Bash, Ruby, Perl, Go, and a little Java), and I followed the typical software development process, but that did not always apply to critical production issues. + +Unfortunately, no system is 100% reliable, and you can never be prepared for a subset of the possible problem-space. IT infrastructures can be complex. Not even mentioning Kubernetes yet, a Microservice-based infrastructure can complicate things even further. You can take care of 99% of all potential problems by following all DevOps best practices. Those best practices are not the subject of this blog post; this post is about the sub 1% of the issues arising from nowhere you can't be prepared for. + +Is there a software bug in a production, even though the software passed QA (after all, it is challenging to reproduce production behaviour in an artificial testing environment) and the software didn't show any issues running in production until a special case came up just now after it got deployed to production a week ago? Are there multiple hardware failure happening which causes loss of service redundancy or data inaccessibility? Is the automation of external customers connected to our infrastructure putting unexpectedly extra pressure on your grid, driving higher latencies and putting the SLAs at risk? You bet the solution is: Sysadmins, SREs and DevOps Engineers to the rescue. + +You agree that fixing production issues this way is not proactive but rather reactive. I prefer to call it defensive, though, as you "defend" your system against a production issue. But, at the same time, you have to take a cautious (defensive) approach to fix it, as you don't want to make things worse. + +Over time, I have compiled a list of fire-fighting automation strategies, which I would like to share here. + ``` c=====e H @@ -12,15 +22,17 @@ ASCII Art by Clyde Watson ``` -I have seen many different setups and infrastructures during my carreer. My roles always included front-line ad-hoc fire fighting production issues. This often involves identifying and fixing these under time pressure, without the comfort of 2-week-long SCRUM sprints and without an exhaustive QA process. I also wrote a lot of code (Bash, Ruby, Perl, Go, and a little Java), and I followed the typical software development process, but that did not always apply to critical production issues. - -Unfortunately, no system is 100% reliable, and you can never be prepared for a subset of the possible problem-space. IT infrastructures can be complex. Not even mentioning Kubernetes yet, a Microservice-based infrastructure can complicate things even further. You can take care of 99% of all potential problems by following all DevOps best practices. Those best practices are not the subject of this blog post; this post is about the sub 1% of the issues arising from nowhere you can't be prepared for. - -Is there a software bug in a production, even though the software passed QA (after all, it is challenging to reproduce production behaviour in an artificial testing environment) and the software didn't show any issues running in production until a special case came up just now after it got deployed to production a week ago? Are there multiple hardware failure happening which causes loss of service redundancy or data inaccessibility? Is the automation of external customers connected to our infrastructure putting unexpectedly extra pressure on your grid, driving higher latencies and putting the SLAs at risk? You bet the solution is: Sysadmins, SREs and DevOps Engineers to the rescue. - -You agree that fixing production issues this way is not proactive but rather reactive. I prefer to call it defensive, though, as you "defend" your system against a production issue. But, at the same time, you have to take a cautious (defensive) approach to fix it, as you don't want to make things worse. - -Over time, I have compiled a list of fire-fighting automation strategies, which I would like to share here. +## Table of Contents + +* ⇢ Defensive DevOps +* ⇢ ⇢ Meet Defensive DevOps +* ⇢ ⇢ Don't fully automate from the beginning +* ⇢ ⇢ Develop code directly on production systems +* ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ Don't make it worse +* ⇢ ⇢ Test your code +* ⇢ ⇢ Automation +* ⇢ ⇢ Out of office hours +* ⇢ ⇢ Retrospective ## Meet Defensive DevOps diff --git a/gemfeed/2021-10-22-defensive-devops.gmi.tpl b/gemfeed/2021-10-22-defensive-devops.gmi.tpl new file mode 100644 index 00000000..96237193 --- /dev/null +++ b/gemfeed/2021-10-22-defensive-devops.gmi.tpl @@ -0,0 +1,106 @@ +# Defensive DevOps + +> Published at 2021-10-22T10:02:46+03:00 + +I have seen many different setups and infrastructures during my carreer. My roles always included front-line ad-hoc fire fighting production issues. This often involves identifying and fixing these under time pressure, without the comfort of 2-week-long SCRUM sprints and without an exhaustive QA process. I also wrote a lot of code (Bash, Ruby, Perl, Go, and a little Java), and I followed the typical software development process, but that did not always apply to critical production issues. + +Unfortunately, no system is 100% reliable, and you can never be prepared for a subset of the possible problem-space. IT infrastructures can be complex. Not even mentioning Kubernetes yet, a Microservice-based infrastructure can complicate things even further. You can take care of 99% of all potential problems by following all DevOps best practices. Those best practices are not the subject of this blog post; this post is about the sub 1% of the issues arising from nowhere you can't be prepared for. + +Is there a software bug in a production, even though the software passed QA (after all, it is challenging to reproduce production behaviour in an artificial testing environment) and the software didn't show any issues running in production until a special case came up just now after it got deployed to production a week ago? Are there multiple hardware failure happening which causes loss of service redundancy or data inaccessibility? Is the automation of external customers connected to our infrastructure putting unexpectedly extra pressure on your grid, driving higher latencies and putting the SLAs at risk? You bet the solution is: Sysadmins, SREs and DevOps Engineers to the rescue. + +You agree that fixing production issues this way is not proactive but rather reactive. I prefer to call it defensive, though, as you "defend" your system against a production issue. But, at the same time, you have to take a cautious (defensive) approach to fix it, as you don't want to make things worse. + +Over time, I have compiled a list of fire-fighting automation strategies, which I would like to share here. + +``` + c=====e + H + ____________ _,,_H__ + (__((__((___() //| | + (__((__((___()()_____________________________________// |ACME | + (__((__((___()()()------------------------------------' |_____| + ASCII Art by Clyde Watson +``` + +<< template::inline::toc + +## Meet Defensive DevOps + +Defensive DevOps is a term I invented by myself. I define it this way: + +* It is the practice of automating production issues away ASAP as they appear. +* For rapid development, ignore most of the CI and QA best practices. +* Ignore the SCRUM process (if your team does SCRUM), as it will take too long to implement a solution. +* Be extremely careful (defensive) executing any fixing code in production, taking all failure scenarios into consideration and always have a rollback plan at hand. +* Still deliver a high-quality solution so that no customer will ever notice that there was an issue in the first place. + +That sounds a bit crazy, but this is, unfortunately, in rare occasions the reality. As the question is not whether production issues will happen, the question is WHEN they will happen. Every large provider, such as Google, Netflix, and so on, suffered significant outages before, and I firmly believe that their engineers know what they are doing. But you can prepare for the unexpected only to a certain degree. + +## Don't fully automate from the beginning + +Do you have to solve problem X? The best solution would be to fully automate it away, correct? No, the best way is to fix problem X manually first. Does the problem appear on one server or on thousand servers? The scale does not matter here. The point is that you should fix the problem at least once manually, so you understand the problem and how to solve it before implementing automation around it. + +You should also have a short meeting with your team. Every person may has a different perspective and can give valuable input for determining the best strategy. But, again, keep the session short and efficient. Focus on the facts. After all, you are the domain expert and you probably know what you are doing. + +Once you understand the problem, fix it on a different server again. This time maybe write a small program or script. Semi-automate the process, but don't fully automate it yet. Start the semi-automated solution manually on a couple of more servers and observe the result. You want to gain more confidence that this really solved the problem. This can take a couple of hours manually running it over and over again. During that process, you will improve your script iteratively. + +## Develop code directly on production systems + +You have to develop code directly on a production system. This sounds a bit controversial, but you want to get a working solution ASAP, and there is a very high chance that you can't reproduce problem X in a development or QA environment. Or at least it will consume significant effort and time to reproduce the problem, and by the time your code is ready, it's already too late. So the most practical solution is to directly develop your solution against a production system with the problem at hand. + +You might not have your full-featured IDE available on a production system, but a text editor, such as Vim (or Neovim), is sufficient for writing scripts. Some editors allow you to edit files remotely. With Vim you can accomplish it with "vim scp://SERVER///path/to/file.sh". Every time you save the file, it will be automatically uploaded via SCP to the server. From there, you can execute it directly. This comes with the additional benefits of still having access to all the Vim plugins installed locally, which you might not have installed on any production machines. This approach also removes any network delays you might experience when running your editor directly on a remote machine. + +Unfortunately, it will be a bit more complicated when you rely on code reviews (e.g. in a FIPS environment). Pair-programming could be the solution here. + +### Don't make it worse + +You want to triple-check that your script is not damaging your system even further. You might introduce a bug to the code, so there should always be a way to roll back any permanent change it causes. You have to program it in a defensive style: + +* Make sure that all that your script does is logged to a file. Best, when it's a Bash script, use "set -x". This makes the script print all commands as they are executed. Always write the output to a file. This helps to verify that your script is working as intended. The log output should always include timestamps for each significant operation performed. +* Make sure that no command executed by your script is failing. You should use "set -e" in your script, which makes the whole script terminate immediately if a command in it exits with a non-zero status. This will save you from apparent errors, e.g. trying to move files to a non-existent directory or trying to operate on a non-existent file. +* Your script should never delete any files. If solving problem X involves deleting files, don't delete them but rename or move them to a separate directory so that these can be recovered just in case. +* When you rename/move files around, always add a timestamp to a directory or the end of the file name (e.g. with "mv FILE FILE.$(date +%s"). This ensures that a backup never gets overwritten by another backup during a subsequential run of your script. Alternatively, before renaming a file, check whether the destination file already exists or not. +* When solving problem X involves manipulating files in place, be ultra-cautious. Best try to avoid in-place file manipulation. But if you really have to, you should, if disk space permits, always create a backup of the file first. Depending on the particular case, you might add a timestamp to the backup or only keep the very first initial backup of a file. +* You should implement a "--dry" switch in your script. When you run the script in dry mode, it won't manipulate anything on the system, but it would only print out what it would do. Always run your script in dry mode before running it for real. + +Furthermore, when you write Bash script, always run the tool ShellSheck (https://shellshock.io/) on it. This helps to catch many potential issues before applying it in production. + +## Test your code + +You probably won't have time for writing unit tests. But what you can do is to pedantically test your code manually. But you have to do the testing on a production machine. So how can you test your code in production without causing more damage? + +Your script should be idempotent. This means you can run it infinite times in a row, and you will always get the same result. For example, in the first run of the script, a file A get's renamed to A.backup. The second time you run the script, it attempts to do the same, but it recognises that A has already been renamed to A.backup and then it is skipping that step. This is very helpful for manually testing, as it means that you can re-run the script every time you extended it. You should dry-run the script at least once before running it for real. You can apply the same principle for almost all features you add to the code. + +You may also want to inject manual negative testing into your script. For example, you want to run a particular function F in your script but only if a certain pre-condition is met, and you want to ensure that the code branching works as expected. The pre-condition check could be pretty complex (e.g. N log messages containing a specific warning string are found in the applications logs, but only on the cluster leader server). You can flip the switch directly in the code manually (e.g. run F only, when the pre-condition isn't met) and then perform a dry run of the script and study the output. Once done, flip the switch back to its correct configuration. For double insurance, test the same on a different server type (e.g. on a follower and not on a leader system). + +By following these principles, you test every line of code while you are developing on it. + +## Automation + +At one point, you will be tired of manually running your script and also confident enough to automate it. You could deploy it with a configuration management system such as puppet Puppet and schedule a periodic execution via cron, a systemd timer or even a separate background daemon process. You have to be extremely careful here. The more you automate, the more damage you can cause. You don't want to automate it on all servers involved at once, but you want to slowly ramp up the automation. + +First, automate it only on one single server and monitor the result closely. At first, only automate running the script in dry mode. Also, don't forget that you still should log everything that the script is doing. Once everything looks fine, you can automate the script on the canary server for real. It shouldn't be a disaster if something goes wrong as usually systems are designed in a HA fashion, where the same data is still at least on another server available. In the worst-case scenario, you could recover data from there or from the local backup files your script created. + +Now, you can add a handful more canary servers to the automation. You should keep close attention to what the automation is doing. You could use a tool like DTail for distributed log file following. At this point, you could also think of deploying a monitoring check (e.g. Icinga) to see whether your script is not terminating abnormally or logging warnings or errors. + +=> ./2021-04-22-dtail-the-distributed-log-tail-program.gmi DTail - The distributed log tail program + +From there, you could automate the solution on more and more servers. Best, ramp up the automation to a handful of systems, and later to a whole line of servers (e.g. all secondary servers of a given cluster). And afterwards, automate it on all servers. + +Remember, whenever something goes wrong, you will have plenty of logs and backup files available. The disaster recovery would involve extending your script to take care of that too or writing a new script for rolling back the backups. + +## Out of office hours + +If possible, don't deploy any automation shortly before out of office hours, such as in the evening, before holidays or weekends. The only exception would be that you, or someone else, will be available to monitor the automation out of office hours. If it is a critical issue, someone, for example, the on-call person, could take over. Or ask your boss to work now but to take off another day to compensate. + +You should add an easy off-switch to your automation so that everyone from your team knows how to pause it if something goes wrong in order to adjust the automation accordingly. Of course, you should still follow all the principles mentioned in this blog post when making any changes. + +## Retrospective + +For every major incident, you need to follow up with an incident retrospective. A blame-free, detailed description of exactly what went wrong to cause the incident, along with a list of steps to take to prevent a similar incident from occurring again in the future. + +This usually means creating one or more tickets, which will be dealt with soon. Once the permanent fix is deployed, you can remove your ad-hoc automation and monitoring around it and focus on your regular work again. + +E-Mail your comments to `paul@nospam.buetow.org` :-) + +=> ../ Back to the main site diff --git a/gemfeed/2021-11-29-bash-golf-part-1.gmi b/gemfeed/2021-11-29-bash-golf-part-1.gmi index 0e6ef0fe..9e8792b7 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2021-11-29-bash-golf-part-1.gmi +++ b/gemfeed/2021-11-29-bash-golf-part-1.gmi @@ -2,6 +2,12 @@ > Published at 2021-11-29T14:06:14+00:00; Updated at 2022-01-05 +This is the first blog post about my Bash Golf series. This series is about random Bash tips, tricks and weirdnesses I came across. It's a collection of smaller articles I wrote in an older (in German language) blog, which I translated and refreshed with some new content. + +=> ./2021-11-29-bash-golf-part-1.gmi 2021-11-29 Bash Golf Part 1 (You are currently reading this) +=> ./2022-01-01-bash-golf-part-2.gmi 2022-01-01 Bash Golf Part 2 +=> ./2023-12-10-bash-golf-part-3.gmi 2023-12-10 Bash Golf Part 3 + ``` '\ . . |>18>> @@ -17,7 +23,6 @@ jgs^^^^^^^`^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ## Table of Contents * ⇢ Bash Golf Part 1 -* ⇢ ⇢ Introduction * ⇢ ⇢ TCP/IP networking * ⇢ ⇢ Process substitution * ⇢ ⇢ Grouping @@ -27,14 +32,6 @@ jgs^^^^^^^`^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ * ⇢ ⇢ : aka the null command * ⇢ ⇢ (No) floating point support -## Introduction - -This is the first blog post about my Bash Golf series. This series is about random Bash tips, tricks and weirdnesses I came across. It's a collection of smaller articles I wrote in an older (in German language) blog, which I translated and refreshed with some new content. - -=> ./2021-11-29-bash-golf-part-1.gmi 2021-11-29 Bash Golf Part 1 (You are currently reading this) -=> ./2022-01-01-bash-golf-part-2.gmi 2022-01-01 Bash Golf Part 2 -=> ./2023-12-10-bash-golf-part-3.gmi 2023-12-10 Bash Golf Part 3 - ## TCP/IP networking You probably know the Netcat tool, which is a swiss army knife for TCP/IP networking on the command line. But did you know that the Bash natively supports TCP/IP networking? diff --git a/gemfeed/2021-11-29-bash-golf-part-1.gmi.tpl b/gemfeed/2021-11-29-bash-golf-part-1.gmi.tpl index 0f4c0d21..9addba7b 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2021-11-29-bash-golf-part-1.gmi.tpl +++ b/gemfeed/2021-11-29-bash-golf-part-1.gmi.tpl @@ -2,6 +2,10 @@ > Published at 2021-11-29T14:06:14+00:00; Updated at 2022-01-05 +This is the first blog post about my Bash Golf series. This series is about random Bash tips, tricks and weirdnesses I came across. It's a collection of smaller articles I wrote in an older (in German language) blog, which I translated and refreshed with some new content. + +<< template::inline::index bash-golf + ``` '\ . . |>18>> @@ -16,12 +20,6 @@ jgs^^^^^^^`^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ << template::inline::toc -## Introduction - -This is the first blog post about my Bash Golf series. This series is about random Bash tips, tricks and weirdnesses I came across. It's a collection of smaller articles I wrote in an older (in German language) blog, which I translated and refreshed with some new content. - -<< template::inline::index bash-golf - ## TCP/IP networking You probably know the Netcat tool, which is a swiss army knife for TCP/IP networking on the command line. But did you know that the Bash natively supports TCP/IP networking? diff --git a/gemfeed/2021-12-26-how-to-stay-sane-as-a-devops-person.gmi b/gemfeed/2021-12-26-how-to-stay-sane-as-a-devops-person.gmi index 858c3982..e9ca9728 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2021-12-26-how-to-stay-sane-as-a-devops-person.gmi +++ b/gemfeed/2021-12-26-how-to-stay-sane-as-a-devops-person.gmi @@ -2,6 +2,12 @@ > Published at 2021-12-26T12:02:02+00:00; Updated at 2022-01-12 +Log4shell (CVE-2021-44228) made it clear, once again, that working in information technology is not an easy job (especially when you are a DevOps person). I thought it would be interesting to summarize a few techniques to help you to relax. + +(PS: When I mean DevOps, I also mean Site Reliability Engineers and Sysadmins. I believe SRE, DevOps Engineer and Sysadmin are just synonym titles for the same job). + +=> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Log4Shell + ``` ) ) (( ( @@ -22,13 +28,25 @@ ||| \ __/_|| __||__ -----||-/------`-._/||-o--o---o--- ~~~~~' -``` - -Log4shell (CVE-2021-44228) made it clear, once again, that working in information technology is not an easy job (especially when you are a DevOps person). I thought it would be interesting to summarize a few techniques to help you to relax. - -(PS: When I mean DevOps, I also mean Site Reliability Engineers and Sysadmins. I believe SRE, DevOps Engineer and Sysadmin are just synonym titles for the same job). - -=> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Log4Shell +``` + +## Table of Contents + +* ⇢ How to stay sane as a DevOps person +* ⇢ ⇢ Set clear expectations +* ⇢ ⇢ Always respond to requests but set expectations and boundaries +* ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ Dealing with requests +* ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ Escalation is only a tool +* ⇢ ⇢ Think positively +* ⇢ ⇢ Go slower even if you could go faster +* ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ You work in a team +* ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ Don't rush +* ⇢ ⇢ You are not a superhero +* ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ Give away some of your superpowers +* ⇢ ⇢ Don't jump on all problems immediately +* ⇢ ⇢ Force breaks; and shutdown now +* ⇢ ⇢ Block time every day for personal advance +* ⇢ ⇢ More ## Set clear expectations diff --git a/gemfeed/2021-12-26-how-to-stay-sane-as-a-devops-person.gmi.tpl b/gemfeed/2021-12-26-how-to-stay-sane-as-a-devops-person.gmi.tpl new file mode 100644 index 00000000..394c8d6a --- /dev/null +++ b/gemfeed/2021-12-26-how-to-stay-sane-as-a-devops-person.gmi.tpl @@ -0,0 +1,130 @@ +# How to stay sane as a DevOps person + +> Published at 2021-12-26T12:02:02+00:00; Updated at 2022-01-12 + +Log4shell (CVE-2021-44228) made it clear, once again, that working in information technology is not an easy job (especially when you are a DevOps person). I thought it would be interesting to summarize a few techniques to help you to relax. + +(PS: When I mean DevOps, I also mean Site Reliability Engineers and Sysadmins. I believe SRE, DevOps Engineer and Sysadmin are just synonym titles for the same job). + +=> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Log4Shell + +``` + ) + ) (( ( + ( )) ) + ) ) // ( + _ ( __ ( ~->> + ,-----' |__,_~~___<'__`)-~__--__-~->> < + | // : | -__ ~__ o)____)),__ - '> >- > + | // : |- \_ \ -\_\ -\ \ \ ~\_ \ ->> - , >> + | // : |_~_\ -\__\ \~'\ \ \, \__ . -<- >> + `-----._| ` -__`-- - ~~ -- ` --~> > + _/___\_ //)_`// | ||] + _____[_______]_[~~-_ (.L_/ || + [____________________]' `\_,/'/ + ||| / ||| ,___,'./ + ||| \ |||,'______| + ||| / /|| I==|| + ||| \ __/_|| __||__ +-----||-/------`-._/||-o--o---o--- + ~~~~~' +``` + +<< template::inline::toc + +## Set clear expectations + +It's important to set clear expectations. It can be difficult to guess what others expect or don't expect from you. If you know exactly what you are supposed to do, you can work towards a specific goal and don't worry about all the other noise so much. + +However, if you are in a more senior position, it is expected from you to plan your tasks by yourself to a large degree and also be flexible, so you can react quickly to new situations (e.g. resolving incidents). Also, to a large degree, you have to prioritise your work by yourself. This can overthrow all of your plans. In extreme cases, it can help to share your plans with your team so that everyone is on the same page. Afterwards, be the execution machine. People are happy when they see that stuff gets done. Communicate clearly all critical work you do. This will capture all the technical debt there might be. It does not help in the long run if things are fixed in the background without any visibility. + +Due to politeness, many people are not setting clear expectations. I personally may sound sometimes "too German" when setting expectations, but so far nobody complained, and I have even received positive feedback about it. + +## Always respond to requests but set expectations and boundaries + +There are many temptations to get side-tracked by other projects and/or issues. It is important to set boundaries here. But always answer to all requests as nothing is more frustrating than asking a person and never getting any answer back. This is especially the case when everyone is working form home where people are using tools such as Slack and E-Mail for most of their communications. + +### Dealing with requests + +If the request is urgent, and you have the capacity to help, probably you should help. If it's not urgent, maybe ask to pospone the request (e.g. ask to create a ticket, so that someone from your team can work on it later). + +If the request is urgent, but you don't have the knowledge or the capacity to help, try to defer to a colleague who might be able to help. You could also provide some quick tips and hints, so that the requester can resolve the issue by himself. Make it transparent why you might not have the time right now, as this can help the person to review his own priorities or to escalate. + +### Escalation is only a tool + +Never make or take an escalation personally. The only forms of escalation should be due to technical issues or lack of resources. An escalation then becomes like a math equation and does not need human resources involved. So de-facto, an escalation is nothing negative, but just a process people can follow to form decision-making. In a good company escalations tend to be an exception, though. Staff knows how to deal with the things by themselves without bothering management too much. + +## Think positively + +If times are very stressful, think that it could always be worse: + +* Nobody is dying, we are only doing some IT stuff. +* Your time after work is your own time, look forward to time with your family or a nice dinner or your favourite sports class. +* You probably will never run out of work in the IT sector. So you will always be able to make a living. +* Your IT job and life is actually pretty good (compared to a homeless person for example). You are probably part of the world's top 1% regarding life standard. + +## Go slower even if you could go faster + +When working in a team, you may feel that you could get done things faster when you just did everything by yourself. This can be a bit frustrating at times, as you might need to work late hours and also might need to explain things over and over again to others. Also, you could be the one who needs to get things explained over and over again as you are not so familiar with the topic (yet). You will appreciate it if the other person is slowing down for you a bit. + +### You work in a team + +Security is a team sport. So slow down and make sure that everyone is on track with the goals. You can go full-speed with your very own subtasks, though. Not everyone knows how to use all the tools so well like a full-time DevOps person. As a DevOps person, you are not a security expert, though. Security experts are different people in your company, but DevOps will be the main tribe deploying mitigations (following the security recommendations) and management will be the main tribe coordinating all the efforts. + +So even if you think that you can do everything faster by your own, can you really? You probably don't know what you don't know about IT security. The more you know about it, the more you know about what you don't know. + +### Don't rush + +Slowing down also helps to prevent errors. Don't rush your tasks, even if they are urgent. Try to be quick, but don't rush them. Maybe you are writing a script to mitigate a production issue. You could others peer review that script, for example. Their primary programming language may not be the same (e.g. Golang vs Perl), but they would understand the logic. Or ask another DevOps person from your company with good scripting skills review your mitigation, but he then may lack the domain knowledge of the software you are patching. So in either case, the review will take a bit longer as the reviewer might not be an expert in everything. + +So relax, don't always expect immediate results. Set clear and reasonable timelines for the management about the mitigations. You are not a superhero who has to do everything by yourself. Sometimes, you will miss a deadline. But that will have good reasons. Don't rush to complete just to meet a deadline. + +=> ./2021-10-22-defensive-devops.gmi Read also "Defensive DevOps" about deploying mitigation scripts. + +## You are not a superhero + +Always keep that in mind. You can't solve all problems by your own. Maybe you could, but that would be a lot of additional stress (and this will reflect to your personal life). Also, Superman and Wonder Woman receive much higher salaries than you will ever do ;-). + +I have been a superhero multiple times mitigating critical incidents, and I was proud about it in those moments. But actually, I am not proud looking at those retrospectively as for everything there should be other people around who should be able to resolve an incident. No company should rely on a single person, there must always be a substitute. You are not a superhero and as harsh as it sounds, everyone is replaceable. Every superhero can be replaced with another superhero. The only thing it takes to become a superhero is time to get to know the infrastructure and tools very well, paired with work dedication. + +This doesn't mean, that you shouldn't try your best. But you don't need to try to be the superhero. Maybe someone else will be the superhero, but that's OK as long as it's not always the same person every time. Everyone can have a good day after all. If I could choose between being a superhero or having a good night sleep, I would probably prefer the sleep. + +### Give away some of your superpowers + +If you are a superhero, try to give away some of your superpowers, so that you can relax in the evening knowing that others (e.g. the current on-call engineers) know how to tackle things. Every member of the team needs to do DevOps (even the team managers, in my humble opinion). Some may be less experienced than others or have other expertises, but to counteract this you could document the recurring tasks so that they are easy to follow (which then later could be either automated away or, even better, fully fixed). + +On the other side, if you are a DevOps person, try to sneak into other people's shoes too. For example, you might not be an expert in Java programming, but a lot of the infrastructure is programmed in Java. This is where usually the Software Developers and Engineers shine. But if you know how to read, debug and even extend Java code too (by learning from the Software Developer superheroes), then your will only benefit from it. + +So you are not a superhero. Or, if you are a superhero, then all colleagues should be superheroes too. + +## Don't jump on all problems immediately + +In a perfect world, every member of a team comes along with the same strengths and skills. But in reality, everyone is different. + +In order to distribute the troubleshooting skills across the team, you should not jump on every problem immediately. Leave some space for others to resolve the issue. This is where the best learning happens. Nobody will learn from you when you solve all problems. People might learn something after you explained what you did, but the takeaways will be minimal compared to when people try to resolve issues by themselves. Always be available for questions which will help your colleagues to steer into the right direction and if you think it helps, give them some tips resolving the issue, even if they didn't ask for it. Sometimes, engineers are too proud to ask. + +The whole paragraph changes when there is an issue you don't know how to resolve. Jump on it, so you can learn from it. But also ask for advice if you are unsure about it. + +If the issue is a very critical one, then you might better off trying to resolve it as fast as possible with your full powers in order to avoid any major damage to the company. This, of course, only works if you know how to resolve it quickly. So, don't leave others with not much experience yet looking at it. If possible, work with the team to resolve the issue. Unfortunately, solving it with the team is not always the fastest way. So in this particular circumstance, the company may be better off being saved by a single superhero. Make sure that the problem will not occur again or, at least, that others can fix it the next time without Superman flying by. + +## Force breaks; and shutdown now + +Be strict about your time off. Nowadays, tech workers check their messages also out of office hours and are reachable 24/7. This really should only be the case when you are on-call, to be honest (or if you work for a startup). All other out-of-office time is owned by you and not your employer. You have signed an 40 hour/week and not 7 days/week contract. Of course, there will be always some sort of flexibility and exceptions. You might need to work over the weekend to get a migration done or a problem solved. But to balance it out, you should have other days off as substitutes. + +It's important to shut down your brain from work during your breaks (be strict with your breaks, leave your desk for lunch or for a walk early afternoon and if you aren't on-call also don't take your work-phone with you). You will be happier and also much more energized and productive in the afternoon. Also, when you are reachable 24/7, your colleagues will start thinking that you don't have anything more important to do than work. + +## Block time every day for personal advance + +It does not matter how many tasks are in your backlog or how many issues are to be tackled. *Always* find time for personal advance. The most issues aren't critical anyway and can wait a bit. At the end of the day, you will have a nice feeling that you have accomplished something meaningful. This can be an interesting project or learning a new technology you are interested in. Of course, there must be consensus with your manager (unless you do that kind of thing in your personal time of course). + +If you are too busy at work and just can't block time, then maybe it's time to think about alternatives. But before you do that, probably there is something else you can do. Perhaps you just think you can't block time, but you would be positively surprised to hear from your manager that he will fully support you. Of course, he won't agree to you working full-time on your pet projects. But a certain portion of your time should be allocated for personal advance. After all, your employer also want's you to stay happy so that you don't look for alternatives. It's of everyone's interest that you like your job and stay motivated. The more you are motivated, the more productive you are. The more productive you are, the more valuable you are for the company. + +## More + +Another blog post worth reading: + +=> https://unixsheikh.com/articles/how-to-stay-sane-in-todays-world-of-tech.html + +E-Mail your comments to `paul@nospam.buetow.org` :-) + +=> ../ Back to the main site diff --git a/gemfeed/2022-01-01-bash-golf-part-2.gmi b/gemfeed/2022-01-01-bash-golf-part-2.gmi index 815cd361..d7a73a7e 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2022-01-01-bash-golf-part-2.gmi +++ b/gemfeed/2022-01-01-bash-golf-part-2.gmi @@ -2,6 +2,12 @@ > Published at 2022-01-01T23:36:15+00:00; Updated at 2022-01-05 +This is the second blog post about my Bash Golf series. This series is random Bash tips, tricks and weirdnesses I came across. It's a collection of smaller articles I wrote in an older (in German language) blog, which I translated and refreshed with some new content. + +=> ./2021-11-29-bash-golf-part-1.gmi 2021-11-29 Bash Golf Part 1 +=> ./2022-01-01-bash-golf-part-2.gmi 2022-01-01 Bash Golf Part 2 (You are currently reading this) +=> ./2023-12-10-bash-golf-part-3.gmi 2023-12-10 Bash Golf Part 3 + ``` '\ '\ . . |>18>> @@ -17,7 +23,6 @@ jgs^^^^^^^`^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ## Table of Contents * ⇢ Bash Golf Part 2 -* ⇢ ⇢ Introduction * ⇢ ⇢ Redirection * ⇢ ⇢ HERE * ⇢ ⇢ RANDOM @@ -26,14 +31,6 @@ jgs^^^^^^^`^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ * ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ -e * ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ pipefail -## Introduction - -This is the second blog post about my Bash Golf series. This series is random Bash tips, tricks and weirdnesses I came across. It's a collection of smaller articles I wrote in an older (in German language) blog, which I translated and refreshed with some new content. - -=> ./2021-11-29-bash-golf-part-1.gmi 2021-11-29 Bash Golf Part 1 -=> ./2022-01-01-bash-golf-part-2.gmi 2022-01-01 Bash Golf Part 2 (You are currently reading this) -=> ./2023-12-10-bash-golf-part-3.gmi 2023-12-10 Bash Golf Part 3 - ## Redirection Let's have a closer look at Bash redirection. As you might already know that there are 3 standard file descriptors: diff --git a/gemfeed/2022-01-01-bash-golf-part-2.gmi.tpl b/gemfeed/2022-01-01-bash-golf-part-2.gmi.tpl index 8a834664..62577885 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2022-01-01-bash-golf-part-2.gmi.tpl +++ b/gemfeed/2022-01-01-bash-golf-part-2.gmi.tpl @@ -2,6 +2,10 @@ > Published at 2022-01-01T23:36:15+00:00; Updated at 2022-01-05 +This is the second blog post about my Bash Golf series. This series is random Bash tips, tricks and weirdnesses I came across. It's a collection of smaller articles I wrote in an older (in German language) blog, which I translated and refreshed with some new content. + +<< template::inline::index bash-golf + ``` '\ '\ . . |>18>> @@ -16,12 +20,6 @@ jgs^^^^^^^`^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ << template::inline::toc -## Introduction - -This is the second blog post about my Bash Golf series. This series is random Bash tips, tricks and weirdnesses I came across. It's a collection of smaller articles I wrote in an older (in German language) blog, which I translated and refreshed with some new content. - -<< template::inline::index bash-golf - ## Redirection Let's have a closer look at Bash redirection. As you might already know that there are 3 standard file descriptors: diff --git a/gemfeed/2022-02-04-computer-operating-systems-i-use.gmi b/gemfeed/2022-02-04-computer-operating-systems-i-use.gmi index 987dc448..c55f00d3 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2022-02-04-computer-operating-systems-i-use.gmi +++ b/gemfeed/2022-02-04-computer-operating-systems-i-use.gmi @@ -2,6 +2,8 @@ > Published at 2022-02-04T09:58:22+00:00; Updated at 2022-02-18 +This is a list of Operating Systems I currently use. This list is in no particular order and also will be updated over time. The very first operating system I used was MS-DOS (mainly for games) and the very first Unix like operating system I used was SuSE Linux 5.3. My first smartphone OS was Symbian on a clunky Sony Ericsson device. + ``` /( )` \ \___ / | @@ -26,7 +28,6 @@ ## Table of Contents * ⇢ Computer operating systems I use(d) -* ⇢ ⇢ Introduction * ⇢ ⇢ Fedora Linux * ⇢ ⇢ EndeavourOS * ⇢ ⇢ FreeBSD @@ -48,10 +49,6 @@ * ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ Other OSes I only had a glance at... * ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ Other OSes which seem interesting... -## Introduction - -This is a list of Operating Systems I currently use. This list is in no particular order and also will be updated over time. The very first operating system I used was MS-DOS (mainly for games) and the very first Unix like operating system I used was SuSE Linux 5.3. My first smartphone OS was Symbian on a clunky Sony Ericsson device. - ## Fedora Linux Fedora Linux is the operating system I use on my primary (personal) laptop. It's a ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen. 9. Lenovo which comes along with official Lenovo Linux support. I already noticed hardware firmware updates being installed directly through Fedora from Lenovo. Fedora is a real powerhouse, cutting-edge and reasonably stable at the same time. It's baked by Red Hat. diff --git a/gemfeed/2022-02-04-computer-operating-systems-i-use.gmi.tpl b/gemfeed/2022-02-04-computer-operating-systems-i-use.gmi.tpl index 62822b9a..14638c92 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2022-02-04-computer-operating-systems-i-use.gmi.tpl +++ b/gemfeed/2022-02-04-computer-operating-systems-i-use.gmi.tpl @@ -2,6 +2,8 @@ > Published at 2022-02-04T09:58:22+00:00; Updated at 2022-02-18 +This is a list of Operating Systems I currently use. This list is in no particular order and also will be updated over time. The very first operating system I used was MS-DOS (mainly for games) and the very first Unix like operating system I used was SuSE Linux 5.3. My first smartphone OS was Symbian on a clunky Sony Ericsson device. + ``` /( )` \ \___ / | @@ -25,10 +27,6 @@ << template::inline::toc -## Introduction - -This is a list of Operating Systems I currently use. This list is in no particular order and also will be updated over time. The very first operating system I used was MS-DOS (mainly for games) and the very first Unix like operating system I used was SuSE Linux 5.3. My first smartphone OS was Symbian on a clunky Sony Ericsson device. - ## Fedora Linux Fedora Linux is the operating system I use on my primary (personal) laptop. It's a ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen. 9. Lenovo which comes along with official Lenovo Linux support. I already noticed hardware firmware updates being installed directly through Fedora from Lenovo. Fedora is a real powerhouse, cutting-edge and reasonably stable at the same time. It's baked by Red Hat. diff --git a/gemfeed/2022-03-06-the-release-of-dtail-4.0.0.gmi b/gemfeed/2022-03-06-the-release-of-dtail-4.0.0.gmi index eb4903f5..afb9e772 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2022-03-06-the-release-of-dtail-4.0.0.gmi +++ b/gemfeed/2022-03-06-the-release-of-dtail-4.0.0.gmi @@ -2,6 +2,10 @@ > Published at 2022-03-06T18:11:39+00:00 +I have recently released DTail 4.0.0 and this blog post goes through all the new goodies. If you want to jump directly to DTail, do it here (there are nice animated gifs which demonstrates the usage pretty well): + +=> https://dtail.dev + ``` ,_---~~~~~----._ _,,_,*^____ _____``*g*\"*, @@ -19,7 +23,6 @@ ## Table of Contents * ⇢ The release of DTail 4.0.0 -* ⇢ ⇢ Introduction * ⇢ ⇢ So, what's new in 4.0.0? * ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ Rewritten logging * ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ Configurable terminal color codes @@ -34,12 +37,6 @@ * ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ Use of memory pools * ⇢ ⇢ What's next -## Introduction - -I have recently released DTail 4.0.0 and this blog post goes through all the new goodies. If you want to jump directly to DTail, do it here (there are nice animated gifs which demonstrates the usage pretty well): - -=> https://dtail.dev - ## So, what's new in 4.0.0? ### Rewritten logging diff --git a/gemfeed/2022-03-06-the-release-of-dtail-4.0.0.gmi.tpl b/gemfeed/2022-03-06-the-release-of-dtail-4.0.0.gmi.tpl index a8f3a111..b2c05351 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2022-03-06-the-release-of-dtail-4.0.0.gmi.tpl +++ b/gemfeed/2022-03-06-the-release-of-dtail-4.0.0.gmi.tpl @@ -2,6 +2,10 @@ > Published at 2022-03-06T18:11:39+00:00 +I have recently released DTail 4.0.0 and this blog post goes through all the new goodies. If you want to jump directly to DTail, do it here (there are nice animated gifs which demonstrates the usage pretty well): + +=> https://dtail.dev + ``` ,_---~~~~~----._ _,,_,*^____ _____``*g*\"*, @@ -18,12 +22,6 @@ << template::inline::toc -## Introduction - -I have recently released DTail 4.0.0 and this blog post goes through all the new goodies. If you want to jump directly to DTail, do it here (there are nice animated gifs which demonstrates the usage pretty well): - -=> https://dtail.dev - ## So, what's new in 4.0.0? ### Rewritten logging diff --git a/gemfeed/2022-04-10-creative-universe.gmi b/gemfeed/2022-04-10-creative-universe.gmi index a050149d..04f675bb 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2022-04-10-creative-universe.gmi +++ b/gemfeed/2022-04-10-creative-universe.gmi @@ -2,6 +2,22 @@ > Published at 2022-04-10T10:09:11+01:00; Updated at 2022-04-18 +I have been participating in an annual work-internal project contest (we call it Pet Project contest) since I moved to London and switched jobs to my current employer. I am very happy to say that I won a "silver" prize last week here 🎆. Over the last couple of years I have been a finalist in this contest six times and won some kind of prize five times. Some of my projects were also released as open source software. One had a magazine article published, and for another one I wrote an article on my employer's engineering blog. If you have followed all my posts on this blog (the one you are currently reading), then you have probably figured out what these projects were: + +=> ./2021-04-22-dtail-the-distributed-log-tail-program.gmi DTail - The distributed log tail program +=> ./2018-06-01-realistic-load-testing-with-ioriot-for-linux.gmi Realistic load testing with I/O Riot for linux + +Note that my latest silver prize project isn't open source software and because of that there is no public material I can refer to. Maybe the next one again? + +I want to point out that I never won the "gold" prize and it's the first time I won "silver", though. I believe, looking at the company's contest history, I am the employee with the most consecutive successful project submissions (my streak broke as I didn't participate last year) and am also the one with the highest successful project count in total. Sorry if this all sounds a bit self-promotional, but I think it is something to be proud of. Consistency beats a one-off success. + +I often put endless hours and sometimes sleepless nights into such projects and all of that in my own time. I, an engineer whose native tongue is not English, also have to present such a project in front of the CEO, CTO and CPO, the Chief Scientist, the founders of the company, and, if it is not enough, to all other staff of the company too. I usually also demonstrate a working prototype live on a production grid during the presentation. 😓 + +So why would I sign up myself for such side projects? Isn't it a lot of stress and extra work? Besides the prize in form of money (you can not count on that, you may win or you may not win something) and recognition, there are also other motivational points: + +* I want to learn new technologies or to deepen my knowledge of a given technology. I want to have a personal benefit from the project, even when I don't win any prize. So when the company is offering a contest, why not use it as a motivational trampoline? It's good to have a hard deadline for a project. And the project will also benefit the company in some way. So it's a win-win. +* I love the idea of combining several old things into a new thing. You can call this creativity. At work, we call this sometimes Lego: Building new things from given blocks. But I also love to add something new and unique to the mix, something that didn't exist as a Lego block before and could not be built by using only the already existing blocks. + ``` . + . . . . . . . . . * @@ -23,23 +39,18 @@ - the universe ``` -## Prelude - -I have been participating in an annual work-internal project contest (we call it Pet Project contest) since I moved to London and switched jobs to my current employer. I am very happy to say that I won a "silver" prize last week here 🎆. Over the last couple of years I have been a finalist in this contest six times and won some kind of prize five times. Some of my projects were also released as open source software. One had a magazine article published, and for another one I wrote an article on my employer's engineering blog. If you have followed all my posts on this blog (the one you are currently reading), then you have probably figured out what these projects were: - -=> ./2021-04-22-dtail-the-distributed-log-tail-program.gmi DTail - The distributed log tail program -=> ./2018-06-01-realistic-load-testing-with-ioriot-for-linux.gmi Realistic load testing with I/O Riot for linux - -Note that my latest silver prize project isn't open source software and because of that there is no public material I can refer to. Maybe the next one again? - -I want to point out that I never won the "gold" prize and it's the first time I won "silver", though. I believe, looking at the company's contest history, I am the employee with the most consecutive successful project submissions (my streak broke as I didn't participate last year) and am also the one with the highest successful project count in total. Sorry if this all sounds a bit self-promotional, but I think it is something to be proud of. Consistency beats a one-off success. - -I often put endless hours and sometimes sleepless nights into such projects and all of that in my own time. I, an engineer whose native tongue is not English, also have to present such a project in front of the CEO, CTO and CPO, the Chief Scientist, the founders of the company, and, if it is not enough, to all other staff of the company too. I usually also demonstrate a working prototype live on a production grid during the presentation. 😓 - -So why would I sign up myself for such side projects? Isn't it a lot of stress and extra work? Besides the prize in form of money (you can not count on that, you may win or you may not win something) and recognition, there are also other motivational points: - -* I want to learn new technologies or to deepen my knowledge of a given technology. I want to have a personal benefit from the project, even when I don't win any prize. So when the company is offering a contest, why not use it as a motivational trampoline? It's good to have a hard deadline for a project. And the project will also benefit the company in some way. So it's a win-win. -* I love the idea of combining several old things into a new thing. You can call this creativity. At work, we call this sometimes Lego: Building new things from given blocks. But I also love to add something new and unique to the mix, something that didn't exist as a Lego block before and could not be built by using only the already existing blocks. +## Table of Contents + +* ⇢ Creative universe +* ⇢ ⇢ How to be creative +* ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ Know which problem you want to solve +* ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ Immerse / deep dive +* ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ Always have a notebook with you +* ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ When you didn't sleep enough +* ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ Have regular breaks and relax +* ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ Upside-down approach +* ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ Don't be busy all the time +* ⇢ ⇢ Conclusion ## How to be creative diff --git a/gemfeed/2022-04-10-creative-universe.gmi.tpl b/gemfeed/2022-04-10-creative-universe.gmi.tpl new file mode 100644 index 00000000..464f0b62 --- /dev/null +++ b/gemfeed/2022-04-10-creative-universe.gmi.tpl @@ -0,0 +1,142 @@ +# Creative universe + +> Published at 2022-04-10T10:09:11+01:00; Updated at 2022-04-18 + +I have been participating in an annual work-internal project contest (we call it Pet Project contest) since I moved to London and switched jobs to my current employer. I am very happy to say that I won a "silver" prize last week here 🎆. Over the last couple of years I have been a finalist in this contest six times and won some kind of prize five times. Some of my projects were also released as open source software. One had a magazine article published, and for another one I wrote an article on my employer's engineering blog. If you have followed all my posts on this blog (the one you are currently reading), then you have probably figured out what these projects were: + +=> ./2021-04-22-dtail-the-distributed-log-tail-program.gmi DTail - The distributed log tail program +=> ./2018-06-01-realistic-load-testing-with-ioriot-for-linux.gmi Realistic load testing with I/O Riot for linux + +Note that my latest silver prize project isn't open source software and because of that there is no public material I can refer to. Maybe the next one again? + +I want to point out that I never won the "gold" prize and it's the first time I won "silver", though. I believe, looking at the company's contest history, I am the employee with the most consecutive successful project submissions (my streak broke as I didn't participate last year) and am also the one with the highest successful project count in total. Sorry if this all sounds a bit self-promotional, but I think it is something to be proud of. Consistency beats a one-off success. + +I often put endless hours and sometimes sleepless nights into such projects and all of that in my own time. I, an engineer whose native tongue is not English, also have to present such a project in front of the CEO, CTO and CPO, the Chief Scientist, the founders of the company, and, if it is not enough, to all other staff of the company too. I usually also demonstrate a working prototype live on a production grid during the presentation. 😓 + +So why would I sign up myself for such side projects? Isn't it a lot of stress and extra work? Besides the prize in form of money (you can not count on that, you may win or you may not win something) and recognition, there are also other motivational points: + +* I want to learn new technologies or to deepen my knowledge of a given technology. I want to have a personal benefit from the project, even when I don't win any prize. So when the company is offering a contest, why not use it as a motivational trampoline? It's good to have a hard deadline for a project. And the project will also benefit the company in some way. So it's a win-win. +* I love the idea of combining several old things into a new thing. You can call this creativity. At work, we call this sometimes Lego: Building new things from given blocks. But I also love to add something new and unique to the mix, something that didn't exist as a Lego block before and could not be built by using only the already existing blocks. + +``` + . + . . . . . . + . . . * + . * . . . . . . + . + "You Are Here" . . + . . . +. | . . . . . . + | . . . +. + . + \|/ . . . . + . . V . * . . . . + . + + . . . + + . . + .+. . + . . . + . . . . . + . . . . . . . . ! / + * . . . + . . - O - + . . . + . . * . . / | + . + . . . .. + . +. . . . * . * . +.. . * + . . . . . . . . + . . + + - the universe +``` + +<< template::inline::toc + +## How to be creative + +How did I manage to be creative with all these Pet Projects? Unfortunately, there is no step-by-step guide I could point you to. But what I want to do in this blog post is share my personal experience so far. + +### Know which problem you want to solve + +There must be a problem to be solved or a thing to be improved. It makes no sense to have a project without a goal. A problem might be obvious to you, and you don't even need to think about it. In that case, you are all set, and you can immerse yourself with the problem. + +If, however, you don't know what problem you want to solve: Do you really need to be creative? All problems are solved anyway, correct? In that case, just go on with your work. As you immerse yourself with your daily work, you will find a project naturally after a while. I don't believe you should artificially find a project. It should come naturally to you. You should have an interest in the problem domain and a strong desire to find a proper solution for the problem. Artificially created projects come with the catch that you might give up on it rather sooner than later due to lack of motivation and desire. + +### Immerse / deep dive + +If you want to be creative in a field, you must know a lot about it. The more you know about it, the more dots you can connect. When you are learning a new technology or if you are thinking about a tough problem, do it thoroughly. Don't let anything distract you. Read books, watch lectures, listen to podcasts or audiobooks about the topic, talk to other people working on similar topics. Immerse yourself for multiple hours per day, multiple days per week, multiple weeks and maybe even months. Create your own inner universe. + +But once a day is over, shut your thoughts down. Hit the off-switch. Stop thinking about this problem for the remainder of the day. This can be difficult, as you didn't solve the problem- or didn't understand everything of the new technology yet, and you really want to get to the point. But be strict to yourself and stop thinking about it for a while. + +You must understand that you are more than just your conscious thoughts. Your brain does a lot of work in the background that you aren't aware of consciously. What happens when you stop consciously thinking about a problem is that your brain continues processing it. You might have experienced the "AHA"-effect, where suddenly you had an idea out of nowhere (e.g. during a walk, in the shower, or in the morning when you woke up)? This is your conscious self downloading a result from the background thread of your brain. You can elevate this effect by immersing with the problem immensely before giving your conscious self a break. + +Sometimes, depending on how deeply you were immersed, you may need to let the problem go for a couple of days (e.g. over a weekend) before you can download a new insight. + +### Always have a notebook with you + +Wherever you go, ensure that you always have something to take notes with you. Once you have an idea from nowhere (or from your unconscious but volatile brain), you really want to write it down to persistent storage. It doesn't matter what kind of note-taking device you use here. It can be a paper journal, or it can be your smartphone. + +My advice is to have a separate section where you put your notes of all of your ideas. At home or in the office, I write everything in my paper journal. When I am not at home, I use a digital note-taking app on my phone. Later, I copy the digital notes from it into a project-specific section of my paper journal. + +I prefer taking notes on paper, as it gives you more freedom of how to structure it. You can use any colour, and you can also quickly create diagrams without the use of any complex computer program. + +### When you didn't sleep enough + +I noticed while being sleep-deprived I am (obviously) unable to concentrate so much, and it is difficult to be immersed in a focused way. But on the other hand, I am a lot more creative compared to when I am not sleep-deprived. Then, my brain suddenly presents me with connections I have not thought of before. Here, I usually write any idea I have down on a sheet of paper or in my journal, so I can pick it up later. I then often continue to philosophise about a possible solution. Sometimes to the absurd, and sometimes to something pretty useful. + +I am not saying that you should skip sleep. By all means, if you can sleep, then sleep. But there are some days when you don't manage to sleep (e.g. think too much about a project and didn't manage to hit the off switch). This is, where you can take advantage of your current state of mind. Disclaimer: Skipping sleep damages your health. So, please don't try this out on purpose. But in case you had a bad night, remember this trick. + +### Have regular breaks and relax + +Have regular breaks. Don't skip your lunch break. Best, have a walk during lunchtime. And after work, do some kind of workout or visit a sports class. Do something completely unrelated to work before going to sleep (e.g. visit a parallel universe and read a Science Fiction novel). In short: Totally hit the off-switch after your work for the day is finished. You will be much more energised and motivated the next time you open your work laptop. + +=> ../other-resources.gmi I personally love to read Science Fiction novels + +I skip breakfast and lunch during the week. This means that on average, I intermittent fast on average 18-20 hours daily. It may sound odd to most people (who don't intermittent fast), but in a fasted state, I can be even more focused, thus helping me immerse myself in something even more. Not having breakfast and lunch also gives me back some time for other things (e.g. a nice walk, where I listen to podcasts or audiobooks or practise using my camera (street photography)). I relax my routine during the week ends, where I may enjoy a meal at any given time of the day. + +It also helps a lot eat healthy. Healthy food makes your brain work more efficiently. But I won't go into more details here, as nothing is as contradictory as the health and food industry. Conduct your own research. Your opinion may be different from mine anyway, and everyone's body reacts to certain foods differently. What for one person works may not work for another person. But be aware that you will find a lot of wrong and also conflicting information on the internet. So always use multiple resources for your research. + +### Upside-down approach + +It's easy to fall into the habit of "boxed" thinking, but creativity is exactly the opposite. Once in a while, make yourself think "Is A really required to do B?". Many assumptions are believed to be true. But are they really? A concrete example: "At work we only use the programming language L and framework F" and therefore, it is the standard we must use. + +Another way to think about it is "Is there an alternative way to accomplish the desired result? What if there were no programming language L and framework F? What would I do instead?". Maybe you would use programming language X to implement your own domain-specific language, which does what framework F would have done but in exactly the way you want to + much more flexible than F! And maybe language X would be much better suitable than L to implement a DSL anyway. Conclusion: It never hurts to verify your assumptions. + +Often, you will also find solutions to problems you never intended to solve and find new problems you never imagined to actually exist. That might not be a bad thing, but it might sidetrack you on your path to finding a solution for a particular problem. So be careful not to get sidetracked too much. In this case, just save a note for later reference (maybe your next Pet Project?) somewhere and go on with your actual problem. + +Don't be afraid to think about weird and unconventional solutions. Sometimes, the most unconventional solution is the best solution to a problem. Also, try to keep to the basics. The best solutions are KISS. + +=> ./2021-09-12-keep-it-simple-and-stupid.gmi Keep it simple and stupid + +A small additional trick: you can train yourself to generate new and unconventional ideas. Just write down 20 random ideas every day. It doesn't matter what the ideas are about and whether they are useful or not. The purpose of this exercise is to make your brain think about something new and unconventional. These can be absurd ideas such as "Jump out of the window naked in the morning in order to wake up faster". Of course, you would never do that, but at least you had an idea and made your brain generate something. + +### Don't be busy all the time + +Especially as a DevOps Engineer, you could be busy all the time with small, but frequent, ad hoc tasks. Don't lose yourself here. Yes, you should pay attention to your job and those tasks, but you should also make some room for creativity. Don't schedule meeting after ad hoc work after meeting after Jira ticket work after another Jira ticket. There should also be some "free" space in your calendar. + +Use the "free" time to play around with your tech stack. Try out new options, explore the system metrics, explore new tools, etc. Dividends will pay off with new ideas, which you would have never come up with if you were "just busy" like a machine. + +Sometimes, I pick a Unix manual page of a random command and start reading it. I have a bash helper function which will pick one for me: + +``` +❯ where learn +learn () { + man $(ls /bin /sbin /usr/bin /usr/sbin 2>/dev/null | shuf -n 1) | + sed -n "/^NAME/ { n;p;q }" +} +❯ learn + perltidy - a perl script indenter and reformatter +❯ learn + timedatectl - Control the system time and date +``` + +## Conclusion + +This all summarises advice I have, really. I hope this was interesting and helpful for you. + +I have one more small tip: I never published a blog post the same day I wrote it. After finishing writing it, I always wait for a couple of days. In all cases so far, I had an additional idea to add or to fine tune the blog post. + +Another article I found interesting and relevant is + +=> https://thesephist.com/posts/paradise/ Creative Paradise by The Sephist + +Relevant books I can recommend are: + +* Consciousness: A Very Short Introduction; Susan Blackmore; Oxford Uiversity Press +* Deep Work; Cal Newport; Piatkus +* So Good They Can't Ignore You; Cal Newport; Business Plus +* The Off Switch; Mark Cropley; Virgin Books +* Ultralearning; Scott Young; Thorsons + +E-Mail your comments to `paul@nospam.buetow.org` :-) + +=> ../ Back to the main site diff --git a/gemfeed/2022-05-27-perl-is-still-a-great-choice.gmi b/gemfeed/2022-05-27-perl-is-still-a-great-choice.gmi index cc7ccd07..12e38216 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2022-05-27-perl-is-still-a-great-choice.gmi +++ b/gemfeed/2022-05-27-perl-is-still-a-great-choice.gmi @@ -2,20 +2,6 @@ > Published at 2022-05-27T07:50:12+01:00; Updated at 2023-01-28 -=> ./perl-is-still-a-great-choice/regular_expressions.png Comic source: XKCD - -## Table of Contents - -* ⇢ Perl is still a great choice -* ⇢ ⇢ Introduction -* ⇢ ⇢ Write-only language -* ⇢ ⇢ Is Perl abandoned? -* ⇢ ⇢ Why use Perl as there are better alternatives? -* ⇢ ⇢ Why all the sigils? It looks like an exploding ASCII factory!! -* ⇢ ⇢ Where do I personally still use perl? - -## Introduction - Perl (the Practical Extraction and Report Language) is a battle-tested, mature, multi-paradigm dynamic programming language. Note that it's not called PERL, neither P.E.R.L. nor Pearl. "Perl" is the name of the language and `perl` the name of the interpreter or the interpreter command. Unfortunately (it makes me sad), Perl's popularity has been declining over the last years as Google trends shows: @@ -29,6 +15,17 @@ So why is that? Once the de-facto standard super-glue language for the web nowad * Why use Perl as there are better alternatives? * Why all the sigils? It looks like an exploding ASCII factory!! +=> ./perl-is-still-a-great-choice/regular_expressions.png Comic source: XKCD + +## Table of Contents + +* ⇢ Perl is still a great choice +* ⇢ ⇢ Write-only language +* ⇢ ⇢ Is Perl abandoned? +* ⇢ ⇢ Why use Perl as there are better alternatives? +* ⇢ ⇢ Why all the sigils? It looks like an exploding ASCII factory!! +* ⇢ ⇢ Where do I personally still use perl? + ## Write-only language Is Perl really a write-only language? You have to understand that Perl 5 was released in 1994 (28 years ago as of this writing) and when we refer to Perl we usually mean Perl 5. That's many years, and there are many old scripts not following the modern Perl best practices (as they didn't exist yet). So yes, legacy scripts may be difficult to read. Japanese may be difficult to read too if you don't know Japanese, though. diff --git a/gemfeed/2022-05-27-perl-is-still-a-great-choice.gmi.tpl b/gemfeed/2022-05-27-perl-is-still-a-great-choice.gmi.tpl index 890de11c..6ab585fd 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2022-05-27-perl-is-still-a-great-choice.gmi.tpl +++ b/gemfeed/2022-05-27-perl-is-still-a-great-choice.gmi.tpl @@ -2,12 +2,6 @@ > Published at 2022-05-27T07:50:12+01:00; Updated at 2023-01-28 -=> ./perl-is-still-a-great-choice/regular_expressions.png Comic source: XKCD - -<< template::inline::toc - -## Introduction - Perl (the Practical Extraction and Report Language) is a battle-tested, mature, multi-paradigm dynamic programming language. Note that it's not called PERL, neither P.E.R.L. nor Pearl. "Perl" is the name of the language and `perl` the name of the interpreter or the interpreter command. Unfortunately (it makes me sad), Perl's popularity has been declining over the last years as Google trends shows: @@ -21,6 +15,10 @@ So why is that? Once the de-facto standard super-glue language for the web nowad * Why use Perl as there are better alternatives? * Why all the sigils? It looks like an exploding ASCII factory!! +=> ./perl-is-still-a-great-choice/regular_expressions.png Comic source: XKCD + +<< template::inline::toc + ## Write-only language Is Perl really a write-only language? You have to understand that Perl 5 was released in 1994 (28 years ago as of this writing) and when we refer to Perl we usually mean Perl 5. That's many years, and there are many old scripts not following the modern Perl best practices (as they didn't exist yet). So yes, legacy scripts may be difficult to read. Japanese may be difficult to read too if you don't know Japanese, though. diff --git a/gemfeed/2022-06-15-sweating-the-small-stuff.gmi b/gemfeed/2022-06-15-sweating-the-small-stuff.gmi index aba7fa93..1e0c4e8c 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2022-06-15-sweating-the-small-stuff.gmi +++ b/gemfeed/2022-06-15-sweating-the-small-stuff.gmi @@ -2,14 +2,6 @@ > Published at 2022-06-15T08:47:44+01:00; Updated at 2022-06-18 -``` - _ - /_/_ .'''. - =O(_)))) ...' `. - jgs \_\ `. .''' - `..' -``` - This blog post is a bit different from the others. It consists of multiple but smaller projects worth mentioning. I got inspired by Julia Evan's "Tiny programs" blog post and the side projects of The Sephist, so I thought I would also write a blog posts listing a couple of small projects of mine: => https://jvns.ca/blog/2022/03/08/tiny-programs/ Tiny programs @@ -19,6 +11,39 @@ Working on tiny projects is a lot of fun as you don't need to worry about any st But before going through the tiny projects let's take a paragraph for the `1y` anniversary retrospective. +``` + _ + /_/_ .'''. + =O(_)))) ...' `. + jgs \_\ `. .''' + `..' +``` + +## Table of Contents + +* ⇢ Sweating the small stuff - Tiny projects of mine +* ⇢ ⇢ `1y` anniversary +* ⇢ ⇢ Static photo album generator +* ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ The Irregular Ninja +* ⇢ ⇢ Random journal page extractor +* ⇢ ⇢ Global uptime records statistic generator +* ⇢ ⇢ Server configuration management +* ⇢ ⇢ Fancy SSH execution loop +* ⇢ ⇢ A KISS dynamic DNS solution +* ⇢ ⇢ CPU information gatherer for Linux +* ⇢ ⇢ Show differences of two files over the network +* ⇢ ⇢ Delay sending out E-Mails with Mutt +* ⇢ ⇢ Graphical UI for sending text messages +* ⇢ ⇢ IPv6 and IPv4 connectivity testing site +* ⇢ ⇢ List open Jira tickets in the terminal +* ⇢ ⇢ Debian running on "your" Android phone +* ⇢ ⇢ Perl service framework +* ⇢ ⇢ More +* ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ Work time tracker +* ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ Password and document store +* ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ Backup procedure +* ⇢ ⇢ konpeito.media + ## `1y` anniversary It has been one year since I started posting regularly (at least once monthly) on this blog again. It has been a lot of fun (and work) doing so for various reasons: diff --git a/gemfeed/2022-06-15-sweating-the-small-stuff.gmi.tpl b/gemfeed/2022-06-15-sweating-the-small-stuff.gmi.tpl new file mode 100644 index 00000000..423be12e --- /dev/null +++ b/gemfeed/2022-06-15-sweating-the-small-stuff.gmi.tpl @@ -0,0 +1,330 @@ +# Sweating the small stuff - Tiny projects of mine + +> Published at 2022-06-15T08:47:44+01:00; Updated at 2022-06-18 + +This blog post is a bit different from the others. It consists of multiple but smaller projects worth mentioning. I got inspired by Julia Evan's "Tiny programs" blog post and the side projects of The Sephist, so I thought I would also write a blog posts listing a couple of small projects of mine: + +=> https://jvns.ca/blog/2022/03/08/tiny-programs/ Tiny programs +=> https://thesephist.com/projects/ The Sephist's project list + +Working on tiny projects is a lot of fun as you don't need to worry about any standards or code reviews and you decide how and when you work on it. There aren't restrictions regarding technologies used. You are likely the only person working on these tiny projects and that means that there is no conflict with any other developers. This is complete freedom :-). + +But before going through the tiny projects let's take a paragraph for the `1y` anniversary retrospective. + +``` + _ + /_/_ .'''. + =O(_)))) ...' `. + jgs \_\ `. .''' + `..' +``` + +<< template::inline::toc + +## `1y` anniversary + +It has been one year since I started posting regularly (at least once monthly) on this blog again. It has been a lot of fun (and work) doing so for various reasons: + +* I practice English writing (I am not a native speaker). I am far from being a novelist, but this blog helps improves my writing skills. I also tried out tools like Grammarly.com and Languagetool.org and also worked with `:spell` in Vim or the LibreOffice checker. This post was checked with the `write-better` Node application. +* I force myself to "finish" some kind of project worth writing about every month. If its not a project, then its still a topic which requires research and deep thinking. Producing 2k words of text can actually be challenging. +* It's fun to rely on KISS (keep it simple & stupid) tools. E.g. use of Gemtexter and not WordPress, use of Vim instead of an office suite or a rich web editor. + +Retrospectively, these have been the most popular blog posts of mine over the last year: + +=> ./2021-09-12-keep-it-simple-and-stupid.gmi Keep it simple and stupid +=> ./2022-04-10-creative-universe.gmi Creative universe +=> ./2021-11-29-bash-golf-part-1.gmi Bash Golf series +=> ./2021-12-26-how-to-stay-sane-as-a-devops-person.gmi How to stay sane as a DevOps person +=> ./2022-05-27-perl-is-still-a-great-choice.gmi Perl is still a great choice + +But now, let's continue with the small projects worth mentioning :-) + +## Static photo album generator + +`photoalbum.sh` is a minimal static HTML photo album generator. I use it to drive "The Irregular Ninja" site and for some ad-hoc (personal) albums to share photos with the family and friends. + +=> https://codeberg.org/snonux/photoalbum + +### The Irregular Ninja + +Photography is one of my casual hobbies. I love to capture interesting perspectives and motifs. I love to walk new streets and neighbourhoods I never walked before so I can capture those unexpected motifs, colours and moments. Unfortunately, because of time constraints (and sometime weather constraints), I do that on a pretty infrequent basis. + +=> ./sweating-the-small-stuff/ninja.jpg + +More than 10 years ago I wrote the bespoke small static photo album generator in Bash `photoalbum.sh` which I recently refactored to a modern Bash coding style and also freshened up the Cascading Style Sheets. Last but not least, the new domain name `irregular.ninja` has been registered. + +The thumbnails are presented in a random order and there are also random CSS effects for each preview. There's also a simple background blur for each page generated. And that's all in less than 300 lines of Bash code! The script requires ImageMagick (available for all common Linux and *BSD distributions) to be installed. + +As you can see, there is a lot of randomization and irregularity going on. Thus, the name "Irregular Ninja" was born. + +=> https://irregular.ninja + +I only use a digital compact camera or a smartphone to take the photos. I don't like the idea of carrying around a big camera with me "just in case" so I keep it small and simple. The best camera is the camera you have with you. :-) + +I hope you like this photo site. It's worth checking it out again around once every other month! + +## Random journal page extractor + +I bullet journal. I write my notes into a Leuchtturm paper notebook. Once full, I am scanning it to a PDF file and archive it. As of writing this, I am at journal #7 (each from 123 up to 251 pages in A5). It means that there is a lot of material already. + +Once in a while I want to revisit older notes and ideas. For that I have written a simple Bash script `randomjournalpage.sh` which randomly picks a PDF file from a folder and extracts 42 pages from it at a random page offset and opens them in a PDF viewer (Evince in this case, as I am a GNOME user). + +=> https://codeberg.org/snonux/randomjournalpage + +There's also a weekly `CRON` job on my servers to send me a reminder that I might want to read in my old journals again. My laptop also runs this script each time it boots and saves the output to a NextCloud folder. From there, it's synchronized to the NextCloud server so I can pick it up from there with my smartphone later when I am "on the road". + +## Global uptime records statistic generator + +`guprecords` is a Perl script which reads multiple `uprecord` files (produced by `uptimed` - a widely available daemon for recording server uptimes) and generates uptime statistics of multiple hosts combined. I keep all the record files of all my personal computers in a Git repository (I even keep the records of the boxes I don't own or use anymore) and there's already quite a collection of it. It looks like this: + +``` +❯ perl ~/git/guprecords/src/guprecords --indir=./stats/ --count=20 --all +Pos | System | Kernel | Uptime | Boot time + 1 | sun | FreeBSD 10.1-RELEA.. | 502d 03:29:19 | Sun Aug 16 15:56:40 2015 + 2 | vulcan | Linux 3.10.0-1160... | 313d 13:19:39 | Sun Jul 25 18:32:25 2021 + 3 | uugrn | FreeBSD 10.2-RELEASE | 303d 15:19:35 | Tue Dec 22 21:33:07 2015 + 4 | uugrn | FreeBSD 11.0-RELEA.. | 281d 14:38:04 | Fri Oct 21 15:22:02 2016 + 5 | deltavega | Linux 3.10.0-957.2.. | 279d 11:15:00 | Sun Jun 30 11:42:38 2019 + 6 | vulcan | Linux 3.10.0-957.2.. | 279d 11:12:14 | Sun Jun 30 11:43:41 2019 + 7 | deltavega | Linux 3.10.0-1160... | 253d 04:42:22 | Sat Apr 24 13:34:34 2021 + 8 | host0 | FreeBSD 6.2-RELEAS.. | 240d 02:23:23 | Wed Jan 31 20:34:46 2007 + 9 | uugrn | FreeBSD 11.1-RELEA.. | 202d 21:12:41 | Sun May 6 18:06:17 2018 + 10 | tauceti | Linux 3.2.0-4-amd64 | 197d 18:45:40 | Mon Dec 16 19:47:54 2013 + 11 | pluto | Linux 2.6.32-5-amd64 | 185d 11:53:04 | Wed Aug 1 07:34:10 2012 + 12 | sun | FreeBSD 10.3-RELEA.. | 164d 22:31:55 | Sat Jul 22 18:47:21 2017 + 13 | vulcan | Linux 3.10.0-1160... | 161d 07:08:43 | Sun Feb 14 10:05:38 2021 + 14 | sun | FreeBSD 10.3-RELEA.. | 158d 21:18:36 | Sat Jan 27 10:18:57 2018 + 15 | uugrn | FreeBSD 11.1-RELEA.. | 157d 20:57:24 | Fri Nov 3 05:02:54 2017 + 16 | tauceti-f | Linux 3.2.0-3-amd64 | 150d 04:12:38 | Mon Sep 16 09:02:58 2013 + 17 | tauceti | Linux 3.2.0-4-amd64 | 149d 09:21:43 | Mon Aug 11 09:47:50 2014 + 18 | pluto | Linux 3.2.0-4-amd64 | 142d 02:57:31 | Mon Sep 8 01:59:02 2014 + 19 | tauceti-f | Linux 3.2.0-3-amd64 | 132d 22:46:26 | Mon May 6 11:11:35 2013 + 20 | keppler-16b | Darwin 13.4.0 | 131d 08:17:12 | Thu Jun 11 10:44:25 2015 +``` + +It can also sum up all uptimes for each host to generate a total per host uptime top list: + +``` +❯ perl ~/git/guprecords/src/guprecords --indir=./stats/ --count=20 --total +Pos | System | Kernel | Uptime | + 1 | uranus | Linux 5.4.17-200.f.. | 1419d 19:05:39 | + 2 | sun | FreeBSD 10.1-RELEA.. | 1363d 11:41:14 | + 3 | vulcan | Linux 3.10.0-1160... | 1262d 20:27:48 | + 4 | uugrn | FreeBSD 10.2-RELEASE | 1219d 15:10:16 | + 5 | deltavega | Linux 3.10.0-957.2.. | 1115d 06:33:55 | + 6 | pluto | Linux 2.6.32-5-amd64 | 1086d 10:44:05 | + 7 | tauceti | Linux 3.2.0-4-amd64 | 846d 12:58:21 | + 8 | tauceti-f | Linux 3.2.0-3-amd64 | 625d 07:16:39 | + 9 | host0 | FreeBSD 6.2-RELEAS.. | 534d 19:50:13 | + 10 | keppler-16b | Darwin 13.4.0 | 448d 06:15:00 | + 11 | tauceti-e | Linux 3.2.0-4-amd64 | 415d 18:14:13 | + 12 | moon | Darwin 18.7.0 | 326d 11:21:42 | + 13 | callisto | Linux 4.0.4-303.fc.. | 303d 12:18:24 | + 14 | alphacentauri | FreeBSD 10.1-RELEA.. | 300d 20:15:00 | + 15 | earth | Linux 5.13.14-200... | 289d 08:05:05 | + 16 | makemake | Linux 5.11.9-200.f.. | 286d 21:53:03 | + 17 | london | Linux 3.2.0-4-amd64 | 258d 15:10:38 | + 18 | fishbone | OpenBSD 4.1 .. | 223d 05:55:26 | + 19 | sagittarius | Darwin 15.6.0 | 198d 23:53:59 | + 20 | mars | Linux 3.2.0-4-amd64 | 190d 05:44:21 | +``` + +=> https://codeberg.org/snonux/guprecords + +This all is of no real practical use but fun! + +## Server configuration management + +The `rexfiles` project contains all Rex files for my (personal) server setup automation. A `Rexfile` is written in a Perl DSL run by the Rex configuration management system. It's pretty much KISS and that's why I love it. It suits my personal needs perfectly. + +=> https://codeberg.org/snonux/rexfiles +=> https://www.rexify.org + +This is an E-Mail I posted to the Rex mailing list: + +> Hi there! I was searching for a simple way to automate my personal OpenBSD setup. I found that configuration management systems like Puppet, Salt, Chef, etc.. were too bloated for my personal needs. So for a while I was configuring everything by hand. At one point I got fed up and started writing Shell scripts. But that was not the holy grail so that I looked at Ansible. I found that Ansible had some dependencies on Python on the target machine when you want to use all the features. Furthermore, I am not really familiar with Python. But then I remembered that there was also Rex. It's written in my beloved Perl. Also, OpenBSD comes with Perl in the base system out of the box which makes it integrate better than all my scripts (automation and also scripts deployed via the automation to the system) are all in the same language. Rex may not have all the features like other configuration management systems, but its easy to work-around or extend when you know Perl. Thanks! + +## Fancy SSH execution loop + +`rubyfy` is a fancy SSH loop wrapper written in Ruby for running shell commands on multiple remote servers at once. I also forked this project for work (under a different name) where I added even more features such as automatic server discovery. It's used by many colleagues on a frequent basis. Here are some examples: + +``` +# Run command 'hostname' on server foo.example.com +./rubyfy.rb -c 'hostname' <<< foo.example.com + +# Run command 'id' as root (via sudo) on all servers listed in the list file +# Do it on 10 servers in parallel +./rubyfy.rb --parallel 10 --root --command 'id' < serverlist.txt + +# Run a fancy script in background on 50 servers in parallel +./rubyfy.rb -p 50 -r -b -c '/usr/local/scripts/fancy.zsh' < serverlist.txt + +# Grep for specific process on both servers and write output to ./out/grep.txt +echo {foo,bar}.example.com | ./rubyfy.rb -p 10 -c 'pgrep -lf httpd' -n grep.txt + +# Reboot server only if file /var/run/maintenance.lock does NOT exist! +echo foo.example.com | +./rubyfy.rb --root --command reboot --precondition /var/run/maintenance.lock +``` + +=> https://codeberg.org/snonux/rubyfy + +## A KISS dynamic DNS solution + +`dyndns` is a tiny shell script which implements "your" own DynDNS service. It relies on SSH access to the authoritative DNS server and the `nsupdate` command. There is really no need to use any of the "other" free DynDNS services out there. + +Syntax (this must run from the client connecting to the DNS server through SSH): + +``` +ssh dyndns@dyndnsserver /path/to/dyndns-update \ + your.host.name. TYPE new-entry TIMEOUT +``` + +This is a real world example: + +``` +ssh dyndns@dyndnsserver /path/to/dyndns-update \ + local.buetow.org. A 137.226.50.91 30 +``` + +=> https://codeberg.org/snonux/dyndns + +## CPU information gatherer for Linux + +This is a tiny GNU Awk script for Linux which displays information about the CPU. All what it does is presenting `/proc/cpuinfo` in an easier to read way. The output is somewhat more compact than the standard `lscpu` command you find commonly on Linux distributions. + +``` +❯ ./cpuinfo +cpuinfo (c) 1.0.2 Paul Buetow + + 11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-1185G7 @ 3.00GHz GenuineIntel 12288 KB cache + +p = 001 Physical processors +c = 004 Cores +s = 008 Siblings (Hyper-Threading enabled if s != c) +v = 008 [v = p*c*(s != c ? 2 : 1)] Total logical CPUs + Hyper-Threading is enabled + +0003000 MHz each core +0012000 MHz total +0005990 Bogomips each processor (including virtual) +0023961 Bogomips total +``` + +=> https://codeberg.org/snonux/cpuinfo + +## Show differences of two files over the network + +This is a shell wrapper to use the standard diff tool over the network to compare a file between two computers. It uses NetCat for the network part and also encrypts all traffic using OpenSSL. This is how its used: + +1. Open two terminal windows and login to two different hosts (you could use ClusterSSH or `tmux` here). 2. Run on the first host `netdiff otherhost.example.org /file/to/diff.txt` and run on the second host `netdiff firsthost.example.org /file/to/diff.txt`. 3. You then will see the file differences. + +=> https://codeberg.org/snonux/netdiff + +## Delay sending out E-Mails with Mutt + +This is a shell script for the Mutt email client for delaying sending out E-Mails. For example, you want to write an email on Saturday but don't want to bother the recipient earlier than Monday. It relies on CRON. + +=> https://codeberg.org/snonux/muttdelay + +## Graphical UI for sending text messages + +`jsmstrade` is a minimalistic graphical Java swing client for sending SMS messages over the SMStrade service. + +=> ./sweating-the-small-stuff/jsmstrade.png + +=> https://codeberg.org/snonux/jsmstrade +=> https://smstrade.de + +## IPv6 and IPv4 connectivity testing site + +`ipv6test` is a quick and dirty Perl CGI script for testing whether your browser connects via IPv4 or IPv6. It requires you to setup three sub-domains: One reachable only via IPv4 (e.g. `test4.ipv6.buetow.org`), another reachable only via IPv6 (e.g. `test6.ipv6.buetow.org`) and the main one reachable through both protocols (e.g. `ipv6.buetow.org`). + +I don't have it running on any of my servers at the moment. This means that there is no demo to show now. Sorry! + +## List open Jira tickets in the terminal + +`japi` s a small Perl script for listing open Jira issues. It might be broken by now as the Jira APIs may have changed. Sorry! But feel free to fork and modernize it. :-) + +=> https://codeberg.org/snonux/jsmstrade + +## Debian running on "your" Android phone + +Debroid is a tutorial and a set of scripts to install and to run a Debian `chroot` on an Android phone. + +=> ./2015-12-05-run-debian-on-your-phone-with-debroid.gmi Check out my previous post about it + +I am not using Debroid anymore as I have switched to Termux now. + +=> https://termux.com + +## Perl service framework + +PerlDaemon is a minimal daemon for Linux and other Unix like operating systems programmed in Perl. It is a minimal but pretty functional and fairly generic service framework. This means that it does not do anything useful other than providing a framework for starting, stopping, configuring and logging. To do something useful, a module (written in Perl) must be provided. + +=> ./2011-05-07-perl-daemon-service-framework.gmi Checkout my previous post about it + +## More + +There are more projects on my Codeberg page but they aren't as tiny as the ones mentioned in this post or aren't finished yet so I won't bother listing them here. However, there also a few more scripts used frequently by me (not publicly accessible (yet?)) which I would like to mention here: + +### Work time tracker + +`worktime.rb`, for example, is a command line Ruby script I use to track my time spent working. This is to make sure that I don't overwork (in particular useful when working from home). It also generates some daily and weekly stats and carries over work time (surpluses or minuses) to the next work day, week or even year. + +It has some special features such as tracking time for self-improvement/development, days off and time spent at the lunch break and time spent on Pet Projects. + +An example weekly report looks like this (I often don't track my lunch time but what I do instead I stop the work timer when I go out for lunch and start the work timer once back at the desk): + +``` + Mon 20211213 50: work:5.92h + Tue 20211214 50: work:7.47h lunch:0.50h pet:0.42h + Wed 20211215 50: work:8.86h pet:0.50h + Thu 20211216 50: work:8.02h pet:0.50h + Fri 20211217 50: work:9.81h + * Sat 20211218 50: work:0.00h selfdevelopment:1.00h + * Sun 20211219 50: work:2.08h pet:1.00h selfdevelopment:-2.08h +================================================ + balance:0.06h work:42.15h lunch:0.50h pet:2.42h selfdevelopment:-1.08h buffer:8.38h +``` + +All I do when I start work is to run the `wtlogin` command and after finishing work to run the `wtlogout` command. My shell will remind me when I work without having logged in. It uses a simple JSON database which is editable with `wtedit` (this opens the JSON in Vim). The report shown above can be generated with `wtreport`. Any out-of-bounds reporting can be added with the `wtadd` command. + +### Password and document store + +`geheim.rb` is my personal password and document store ("geheim" is the German word for secret). It's written in Ruby and heavily relies on Git, FZF (for search), Vim and standard encryption algorithms. Other than the standard `pass` Unix password manager, `geheim` also encrypts the file names and password titles. + +The tool is command line driven but also provides an interactive shell when invoked with `geheim shell`. It also works on my Android phone via Termux so I have all my documents and passwords always with me. + +### Backup procedure + +`backup` is a Bash script which does run once daily (or every time on boot) on my home FreeBSD NAS server and performs backup related tasks such as creating a local backup of my remote NextCloud instance, creating encrypted (incremental) ZFS snapshots of everything what's stored on the NAS and synchronizes (via `rsync`) backups to a remote cloud storage. It also can synchronize backups to a local external USB drive. + +=> ./2016-04-03-offsite-backup-with-zfs.gmi Check out my offsite backup series + +## konpeito.media + +Here's a bonus... + +``` + ▄ █ ▄ ▄ █ ▄ ▄ █ ▄ + ▄▀█▀▄ ▄▀█▀▄ ▄▀█▀▄ + ▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄ ▀ ▀ ▀ + █ ▄▄ ▄▄ █ + █ █ █▀▀▀█ █ █ █ ▄▀ ▄▀▀▀▀▄ █▄ █ █▀▀▀▀▀▄ ▄▀▀▀▀▄ █ ▀▀▀█▀▀▀ ▄▀▀▀▀▄ + █ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ █ █ ▄█ █ █ █ ▀▄ █ █▄▄▄▄▄▀ █▄▄▄▄▄▄█ █ █ █ █ + █ ▄▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▄ █ █▀ ▀▄ ▀▄ ▄▀ █ ▀▄█ █ ▀▄ ▄ █ █ ▀▄ ▄▀ + ▀▄█▄█▄▄▄▄▄▄▄█▄█▄▀ ▀ ▀ ▀▀▀▀ ▀ ▀ ▀ ▀▀▀▀ ▀ ▀ ▀▀▀ +``` + +*THIS ISN'T MY PROJECT* but I found KONPEITO an interesting Gemini capsule. It's a quarterly released Low-Fi music mix tape distributed only through Gemini (and not the web). + +=> gemini://konpeito.media + +If you wonder what Gemini is: + +=> ./2021-04-24-welcome-to-the-geminispace.gmi Welcome to the Geminispae + +E-Mail your comments to `paul@nospam.buetow.org` :-) + +=> ../ Back to the main site diff --git a/gemfeed/2022-07-30-lets-encrypt-with-openbsd-and-rex.gmi b/gemfeed/2022-07-30-lets-encrypt-with-openbsd-and-rex.gmi index 31c5cc2c..a0523378 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2022-07-30-lets-encrypt-with-openbsd-and-rex.gmi +++ b/gemfeed/2022-07-30-lets-encrypt-with-openbsd-and-rex.gmi @@ -2,6 +2,8 @@ > Published at 2022-07-30T12:14:31+01:00 +I was amazed at how easy it is to automatically generate and update Let's Encrypt certificates with OpenBSD. + ``` / _ \ The Hebern Machine \ ." ". / @@ -32,7 +34,6 @@ ## Table of Contents * ⇢ Let's Encrypt with OpenBSD and Rex -* ⇢ ⇢ Introduction * ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ What's Let's Encrypt? * ⇢ ⇢ Meet `acme-client` * ⇢ ⇢ Configuration @@ -46,10 +47,6 @@ * ⇢ ⇢ All pieces together * ⇢ ⇢ Conclusion -## Introduction - -I was amazed at how easy it is to automatically generate and update Let's Encrypt certificates with OpenBSD. - ### What's Let's Encrypt? > Let's Encrypt is a non-profit certificate authority run by Internet Security Research Group that provides X.509 certificates for Transport Layer Security (TLS) encryption at no charge. It is the world's largest certificate authority, used by more than 265 million websites, with the goal of all websites being secure and using HTTPS. diff --git a/gemfeed/2022-07-30-lets-encrypt-with-openbsd-and-rex.gmi.tpl b/gemfeed/2022-07-30-lets-encrypt-with-openbsd-and-rex.gmi.tpl index 6797ff2d..453b21dc 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2022-07-30-lets-encrypt-with-openbsd-and-rex.gmi.tpl +++ b/gemfeed/2022-07-30-lets-encrypt-with-openbsd-and-rex.gmi.tpl @@ -2,6 +2,8 @@ > Published at 2022-07-30T12:14:31+01:00 +I was amazed at how easy it is to automatically generate and update Let's Encrypt certificates with OpenBSD. + ``` / _ \ The Hebern Machine \ ." ". / @@ -31,10 +33,6 @@ << template::inline::toc -## Introduction - -I was amazed at how easy it is to automatically generate and update Let's Encrypt certificates with OpenBSD. - ### What's Let's Encrypt? > Let's Encrypt is a non-profit certificate authority run by Internet Security Research Group that provides X.509 certificates for Transport Layer Security (TLS) encryption at no charge. It is the world's largest certificate authority, used by more than 265 million websites, with the goal of all websites being secure and using HTTPS. diff --git a/gemfeed/2022-08-27-gemtexter-1.1.0-lets-gemtext-again.gmi b/gemfeed/2022-08-27-gemtexter-1.1.0-lets-gemtext-again.gmi index eb841254..d922c1a5 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2022-08-27-gemtexter-1.1.0-lets-gemtext-again.gmi +++ b/gemfeed/2022-08-27-gemtexter-1.1.0-lets-gemtext-again.gmi @@ -2,6 +2,12 @@ > Published at 2022-08-27T18:25:57+01:00 +I proudly announce that I've released Gemtexter version `1.1.0`. What is Gemtexter? It's my minimalist static site generator for Gemini Gemtext, HTML and Markdown written in GNU Bash. + +=> https://codeberg.org/snonux/gemtexter + +It has been around a year since I released the first version `1.0.0`. Although, there aren't any groundbreaking changes, there have been a couple of smaller commits and adjustments. I was quite surprised that I received a bunch of feedback and requests about Gemtexter so it means that I am not the only person in the universe actually using it. + ``` -=[ typewriter ]=- 1/98 @@ -17,7 +23,6 @@ ## Table of Contents * ⇢ Gemtexter 1.1.0 - Let's Gemtext again -* ⇢ ⇢ Introduction * ⇢ ⇢ What's new? * ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ Automatic check for GNU version requirements * ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ Backticks now produce `inline code blocks` in the HTML output @@ -28,14 +33,6 @@ * ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ Sub-section support * ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ More -## Introduction - -I proudly announce that I've released Gemtexter version `1.1.0`. What is Gemtexter? It's my minimalist static site generator for Gemini Gemtext, HTML and Markdown written in GNU Bash. - -=> https://codeberg.org/snonux/gemtexter - -It has been around a year since I released the first version `1.0.0`. Although, there aren't any groundbreaking changes, there have been a couple of smaller commits and adjustments. I was quite surprised that I received a bunch of feedback and requests about Gemtexter so it means that I am not the only person in the universe actually using it. - ## What's new? ### Automatic check for GNU version requirements diff --git a/gemfeed/2022-08-27-gemtexter-1.1.0-lets-gemtext-again.gmi.tpl b/gemfeed/2022-08-27-gemtexter-1.1.0-lets-gemtext-again.gmi.tpl index 1fb173da..df33c932 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2022-08-27-gemtexter-1.1.0-lets-gemtext-again.gmi.tpl +++ b/gemfeed/2022-08-27-gemtexter-1.1.0-lets-gemtext-again.gmi.tpl @@ -2,6 +2,12 @@ > Published at 2022-08-27T18:25:57+01:00 +I proudly announce that I've released Gemtexter version `1.1.0`. What is Gemtexter? It's my minimalist static site generator for Gemini Gemtext, HTML and Markdown written in GNU Bash. + +=> https://codeberg.org/snonux/gemtexter + +It has been around a year since I released the first version `1.0.0`. Although, there aren't any groundbreaking changes, there have been a couple of smaller commits and adjustments. I was quite surprised that I received a bunch of feedback and requests about Gemtexter so it means that I am not the only person in the universe actually using it. + ``` -=[ typewriter ]=- 1/98 @@ -16,14 +22,6 @@ << template::inline::toc -## Introduction - -I proudly announce that I've released Gemtexter version `1.1.0`. What is Gemtexter? It's my minimalist static site generator for Gemini Gemtext, HTML and Markdown written in GNU Bash. - -=> https://codeberg.org/snonux/gemtexter - -It has been around a year since I released the first version `1.0.0`. Although, there aren't any groundbreaking changes, there have been a couple of smaller commits and adjustments. I was quite surprised that I received a bunch of feedback and requests about Gemtexter so it means that I am not the only person in the universe actually using it. - ## What's new? ### Automatic check for GNU version requirements diff --git a/gemfeed/2022-09-30-after-a-bad-nights-sleep.gmi b/gemfeed/2022-09-30-after-a-bad-nights-sleep.gmi index da06f41a..66c0c25c 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2022-09-30-after-a-bad-nights-sleep.gmi +++ b/gemfeed/2022-09-30-after-a-bad-nights-sleep.gmi @@ -2,6 +2,8 @@ > Published at 2022-09-30T09:53:23+03:00; Updated at 2022-10-12 +Everyone has it once in a while: A bad night's sleep. Here I attempt to list valuable tips on how to deal with it. + ``` z z @@ -16,7 +18,24 @@ jgs (________\ \ '-' ``` -Everyone has it once in a while: A bad night's sleep. Here I attempt to list valuable tips on how to deal with it. +## Table of Contents + +* ⇢ After a bad night's sleep +* ⇢ ⇢ Don't take the day off. +* ⇢ ⇢ Start work early +* ⇢ ⇢ Sweat the small stuff +* ⇢ ⇢ Enter the flow state +* ⇢ ⇢ Reschedule meetings +* ⇢ ⇢ Invent +* ⇢ ⇢ Fast +* ⇢ ⇢ Stretch +* ⇢ ⇢ Walk +* ⇢ ⇢ Red Bull +* ⇢ ⇢ Power nap +* ⇢ ⇢ Don't take anything personally. +* ⇢ ⇢ Meditate +* ⇢ ⇢ Write things down +* ⇢ ⇢ Social media ## Don't take the day off. diff --git a/gemfeed/2022-09-30-after-a-bad-nights-sleep.gmi.tpl b/gemfeed/2022-09-30-after-a-bad-nights-sleep.gmi.tpl new file mode 100644 index 00000000..02bc0121 --- /dev/null +++ b/gemfeed/2022-09-30-after-a-bad-nights-sleep.gmi.tpl @@ -0,0 +1,100 @@ +# After a bad night's sleep + +> Published at 2022-09-30T09:53:23+03:00; Updated at 2022-10-12 + +Everyone has it once in a while: A bad night's sleep. Here I attempt to list valuable tips on how to deal with it. + +``` + z + z + Z + .--. Z Z + / _(c\ .-. __ + | / / '-; \'-'` `\______ + \_\/'/ __/ ) / ) | \--, + | \`""`__-/ .'--/ /--------\ \ + \\` ///-\/ / /---;-. '-' +jgs (________\ \ + '-' +``` + +<< template::inline::toc + +## Don't take the day off. + +Don't take a day off after not sleeping enough the previous night. That would be wasting the holiday allowance. It wouldn't be possible to enjoy my free time anyway, so why not just work? There's still a way for an IT Engineer to be productive (sometimes even more) with half or less of the concentration power available! + +## Start work early + +Probably I am already awake early and am unable to fall asleep again. My strategy here is to "attack" the day: Start work early and finish early. The early bird will also encounter fewer distractions from colleagues. + +## Sweat the small stuff + +There's never a shortage of small items to hook off my list. Most of these items don't require my full concentration power, and I will be happy to get them off my list so that the next day, after a good night's sleep, I can immerse myself again in focused, deep work with all concentration powers at hand. + +Examples of "small work items" are: + +* Tidying up the workspace. +* Installing pending computer software updates. +* Going through the work backlog: Create new tickets, close obsolete ones, and roughly pre-plan upcoming work. +* Finishing off the easy tickets from the current sprint. +* Going through any tedious paperwork. +* Catch up with the journal and mark off all trivial action items. + +## Enter the flow state + +I find it easy to enter the "flow state" after a bad night's sleep. All I need to do is to put on some ambient music (preferably instrumental chill house) and start to work on a not-too-difficult ticket. + +Usually, the "flow state" is associated with deep-focused work, but deep-focused work isn't easily possible under sleep deprivation. It's still possible to be in the flow by working on more manageable tasks and leaving the difficult ones for the next day. + +## Reschedule meetings + +I find engaging in discussions and demanding meetings challenging after a lousy night's sleep. I still attend the sessions I am invited to as "only" a participant, but I prefer to reschedule all meetings I am the primary driver of. + +This, unfortunately, also includes interviews. Interviews require full concentration power. So for interviews, I would find a colleague to step in for me or ask to reschedule the interview altogether. Everything else wouldn't make it justice and would waste everyone's time! + +## Invent + +The mind works differently under sleep deprivation: It's easier to invent new stuff as it's easier to have a look at things from different perspectives. Until an hour ago, I didn't know yet what I would be blogging about for this month, and then I just started writing this, and it took me only half an hour to write the first draft of this blog post! + +## Fast + +I don't eat breakfast, and I don't eat lunch on these days. I only have dinner. Not eating means my mind doesn't get foggy, and I keep up the work momentum. This is called intermittent fasting, which not only generally helps to keep the weight under control and boosts the concentration power. Furthermore, intermittent fasting is healthy. You should include it in your routine, even after a good night's sleep. + +## Stretch + +I won't have enough energy for strenuous physical exercise on those days, but a 30 to a 60-minute stretching session can make the day. Stretching will even hurt less under sleep deprivation! The stretching could also be substituted with a light Yoga session. + +## Walk + +Walking is healthy, and the time can be used to listen to interesting podcasts. The available concentration power might not be enough for more sophisticated audio literature. I will have enough energy for one or two daily walks (~10k steps for the day in total). Sometimes, I listen to music during walks. I also try to catch the bright sunlight. + +## Red Bull + +I don't think that Red Bull is a healthy drink. But once in a while, a can in the early afternoon brings wonders, and productivity will skyrocket. Other than Red Bull, drink a lot of water throughout the day. Don't forget to drink the sugar-free version; otherwise, your intermittent fast will be broken. + +## Power nap + +I don't know how to "enforce" a nap, but sometimes I manage to power nap, and it helps wonders. A 30-minute nap sometimes brings me back to normal. If you don't tend to fast as you are too hungry, it helps to try to nap approximately 30 minutes after eating something. + +## Don't take anything personally. + +It's much more challenging to keep the mind "under control" in this state. Every annoyance can potentially upset, which could reflect on the work colleagues. It is wise to attempt to go with a positive attitude into the day, always smile and be polite to the family and colleagues at work. Don't let anything drop out to the people next; they don't deserve it as they didn't do anything wrong! Also, remember, it can't be controlled at all. It's time to let go of the annoyances for the day. + +## Meditate + +To keep the good vibe, it helps to meditate for 10 minutes. Meditation must nothing be fancy. It can be just lying on the sofa and observing your thoughts as they come and go. Don't judge your thoughts, as that could put you in a negative mood. It's not necessary to sit in an uncomfortable Yoga pose, and it is not required to chant "Ohhmmmmm". + +## Write things down + +Sometimes something requiring more concentration power demands time. This is where it helps to write a note in a journal and return to it another day. This doesn't mean slacking off but managing the rarely available concentration power for the day. I might repeat myself: Today, sweat all the small stuff. Tomorrow, do the deep-focused work on that crucial project again. + +It's easier to forget things on those days, so everything should be written down so that it can be worked off later. Things written down will not be overlooked! + +## Social media + +I wouldn't say I like checking social media, as it can consume a lot of time and can become addictive. But once in a while, I want to catch up with my "networks". After a bad night's sleep, it's the perfect time to check your social media. Once done, you don't have to do it anymore for the next couple of days! + +E-Mail your comments to `paul@nospam.buetow.org` :-) + +=> ../ Back to the main site diff --git a/gemfeed/2022-10-30-installing-dtail-on-openbsd.gmi b/gemfeed/2022-10-30-installing-dtail-on-openbsd.gmi index da44662d..3492650a 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2022-10-30-installing-dtail-on-openbsd.gmi +++ b/gemfeed/2022-10-30-installing-dtail-on-openbsd.gmi @@ -2,6 +2,18 @@ > Published at 2022-10-30T11:03:19+02:00 +This will be a quick blog post, as I am busy with my personal life now. I have relocated to a different country and am still busy arranging things. So bear with me :-) + + In this post, I want to give a quick overview (or how-to) about installing DTail on OpenBSD, as the official documentation only covers Red Hat and Fedora Linux! And this blog post will also be used as my reference! + +=> https://dtail.dev + +I am using Rexify for my OpenBSD automation. Check out the following article covering my Rex setup in a little bit more detail: + +=> ./2022-07-30-lets-encrypt-with-openbsd-and-rex.gmi Let's Encrypt with OpenBSD and Rex + +I will also mention some relevant `Rexfile` snippets in this post! + ``` ,_---~~~~~----._ _,,_,*^____ _____``*g*\"*, @@ -42,7 +54,6 @@ ## Table of Contents * ⇢ Installing DTail on OpenBSD -* ⇢ ⇢ Introduction * ⇢ ⇢ Compile it * ⇢ ⇢ Install it * ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ Rexification @@ -54,20 +65,6 @@ * ⇢ ⇢ Use it * ⇢ ⇢ Conclusions -## Introduction - -This will be a quick blog post, as I am busy with my personal life now. I have relocated to a different country and am still busy arranging things. So bear with me :-) - - In this post, I want to give a quick overview (or how-to) about installing DTail on OpenBSD, as the official documentation only covers Red Hat and Fedora Linux! And this blog post will also be used as my reference! - -=> https://dtail.dev - -I am using Rexify for my OpenBSD automation. Check out the following article covering my Rex setup in a little bit more detail: - -=> ./2022-07-30-lets-encrypt-with-openbsd-and-rex.gmi Let's Encrypt with OpenBSD and Rex - -I will also mention some relevant `Rexfile` snippets in this post! - ## Compile it First of all, DTail needs to be downloaded and compiled. For that, `git`, `go`, and `gmake` are required: diff --git a/gemfeed/2022-10-30-installing-dtail-on-openbsd.gmi.tpl b/gemfeed/2022-10-30-installing-dtail-on-openbsd.gmi.tpl index d09bf49a..47a363cf 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2022-10-30-installing-dtail-on-openbsd.gmi.tpl +++ b/gemfeed/2022-10-30-installing-dtail-on-openbsd.gmi.tpl @@ -2,6 +2,18 @@ > Published at 2022-10-30T11:03:19+02:00 +This will be a quick blog post, as I am busy with my personal life now. I have relocated to a different country and am still busy arranging things. So bear with me :-) + + In this post, I want to give a quick overview (or how-to) about installing DTail on OpenBSD, as the official documentation only covers Red Hat and Fedora Linux! And this blog post will also be used as my reference! + +=> https://dtail.dev + +I am using Rexify for my OpenBSD automation. Check out the following article covering my Rex setup in a little bit more detail: + +=> ./2022-07-30-lets-encrypt-with-openbsd-and-rex.gmi Let's Encrypt with OpenBSD and Rex + +I will also mention some relevant `Rexfile` snippets in this post! + ``` ,_---~~~~~----._ _,,_,*^____ _____``*g*\"*, @@ -41,20 +53,6 @@ << template::inline::toc -## Introduction - -This will be a quick blog post, as I am busy with my personal life now. I have relocated to a different country and am still busy arranging things. So bear with me :-) - - In this post, I want to give a quick overview (or how-to) about installing DTail on OpenBSD, as the official documentation only covers Red Hat and Fedora Linux! And this blog post will also be used as my reference! - -=> https://dtail.dev - -I am using Rexify for my OpenBSD automation. Check out the following article covering my Rex setup in a little bit more detail: - -=> ./2022-07-30-lets-encrypt-with-openbsd-and-rex.gmi Let's Encrypt with OpenBSD and Rex - -I will also mention some relevant `Rexfile` snippets in this post! - ## Compile it First of all, DTail needs to be downloaded and compiled. For that, `git`, `go`, and `gmake` are required: diff --git a/gemfeed/2022-11-24-i-tried-emacs-but-i-switched-back-to-neovim.gmi b/gemfeed/2022-11-24-i-tried-emacs-but-i-switched-back-to-neovim.gmi index 98cacabc..dfe9fbd8 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2022-11-24-i-tried-emacs-but-i-switched-back-to-neovim.gmi +++ b/gemfeed/2022-11-24-i-tried-emacs-but-i-switched-back-to-neovim.gmi @@ -2,6 +2,18 @@ > Published at 2022-11-24T11:17:15+02:00; Updated at 2022-11-26 +As a long-lasting user of Vim (and NeoVim), I always wondered what GNU Emacs is really about, so I decided to try it. I didn't try vanilla GNU Emacs, but Doom Emacs. I chose Doom Emacs as it is a neat distribution of Emacs with Evil mode enabled by default. Evil mode allows Vi(m) key bindings (so to speak, it's emulating Vim within Emacs), and I am pretty sure I won't be ready to give up all the muscle memory I have built over more than a decade. + +=> https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/ GNU Emacs +=> https://github.com/doomemacs/ Doom Emacs + +I used Doom Emacs for around two months. Still, ultimately I decided to switch back to NeoVim as my primary editor and IDE and Vim (usually pre-installed on Linux-based systems) and Nvi (usually pre-installed on *BSD systems) as my "always available editor" for quick edits. (It is worth mentioning that I don't have a high opinion on whether Vim or NeoVim is the better editor, I prefer NeoVim as it comes with better defaults out of the box, but there is no real blocker to use Vim instead). + +=> https://www.vim.org Vim +=> https://neovim.io NeoVim + +So why did I switch back to the Vi-family? + ``` _/ \ _(\(o / \ / _ ^^^o @@ -15,17 +27,16 @@ Art by \ \_! / __! ^^----^^ "^--v' ``` -As a long-lasting user of Vim (and NeoVim), I always wondered what GNU Emacs is really about, so I decided to try it. I didn't try vanilla GNU Emacs, but Doom Emacs. I chose Doom Emacs as it is a neat distribution of Emacs with Evil mode enabled by default. Evil mode allows Vi(m) key bindings (so to speak, it's emulating Vim within Emacs), and I am pretty sure I won't be ready to give up all the muscle memory I have built over more than a decade. - -=> https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/ GNU Emacs -=> https://github.com/doomemacs/ Doom Emacs +## Table of Contents -I used Doom Emacs for around two months. Still, ultimately I decided to switch back to NeoVim as my primary editor and IDE and Vim (usually pre-installed on Linux-based systems) and Nvi (usually pre-installed on *BSD systems) as my "always available editor" for quick edits. (It is worth mentioning that I don't have a high opinion on whether Vim or NeoVim is the better editor, I prefer NeoVim as it comes with better defaults out of the box, but there is no real blocker to use Vim instead). - -=> https://www.vim.org Vim -=> https://neovim.io NeoVim - -So why did I switch back to the Vi-family? +* ⇢ I tried (Doom) Emacs, but I switched back to (Neo)Vim +* ⇢ ⇢ Emacs is a giant dragon +* ⇢ ⇢ Magit love +* ⇢ ⇢ Graphical UI +* ⇢ ⇢ Scripting it +* ⇢ ⇢ The famous Emacs Org mode +* ⇢ ⇢ Seeking simplicity +* ⇢ ⇢ Conclusion ## Emacs is a giant dragon diff --git a/gemfeed/2022-11-24-i-tried-emacs-but-i-switched-back-to-neovim.gmi.tpl b/gemfeed/2022-11-24-i-tried-emacs-but-i-switched-back-to-neovim.gmi.tpl new file mode 100644 index 00000000..8e44271e --- /dev/null +++ b/gemfeed/2022-11-24-i-tried-emacs-but-i-switched-back-to-neovim.gmi.tpl @@ -0,0 +1,117 @@ +# I tried (Doom) Emacs, but I switched back to (Neo)Vim + +> Published at 2022-11-24T11:17:15+02:00; Updated at 2022-11-26 + +As a long-lasting user of Vim (and NeoVim), I always wondered what GNU Emacs is really about, so I decided to try it. I didn't try vanilla GNU Emacs, but Doom Emacs. I chose Doom Emacs as it is a neat distribution of Emacs with Evil mode enabled by default. Evil mode allows Vi(m) key bindings (so to speak, it's emulating Vim within Emacs), and I am pretty sure I won't be ready to give up all the muscle memory I have built over more than a decade. + +=> https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/ GNU Emacs +=> https://github.com/doomemacs/ Doom Emacs + +I used Doom Emacs for around two months. Still, ultimately I decided to switch back to NeoVim as my primary editor and IDE and Vim (usually pre-installed on Linux-based systems) and Nvi (usually pre-installed on *BSD systems) as my "always available editor" for quick edits. (It is worth mentioning that I don't have a high opinion on whether Vim or NeoVim is the better editor, I prefer NeoVim as it comes with better defaults out of the box, but there is no real blocker to use Vim instead). + +=> https://www.vim.org Vim +=> https://neovim.io NeoVim + +So why did I switch back to the Vi-family? + +``` + _/ \ _(\(o + / \ / _ ^^^o + / ! \/ ! '!!!v' + ! ! \ _' ( \____ + ! . \ _!\ \===^\) +Art by \ \_! / __! + Gunnar Z. \! / \ <--- Emacs is a giant dragon + (\_ _/ _\ ) + \ ^^--^^ __-^ /(__ + ^^----^^ "^--v' +``` + +<< template::inline::toc + +## Emacs is a giant dragon + +Emacs feels like a giant dragon as it is much more than an editor or an integrated development environment. Emacs is a whole platform on its own. There's an E-Mail client, an IRC client, or even games you can run within Emacs. And you can also change Emacs within Emacs using its own Lisp dialect, Emacs Lisp (Emacs is programmed in Emacs Lisp). Therefore, Emacs is also its own programming language. You can change every aspect of Emacs within Emacs itself. People jokingly state Emacs is an operating system and that you should directly use it as the `init 1` process (if you don't know what the `init 1` process is: Under UNIX and similar operating systems, it's the very first userland processed launched. That's usually `systemd` on Linux-based systems, `launchd` on macOS, or any other init script or init system used by the OS)! + +In many aspects, Emacs is like shooting at everything with a bazooka! However, I prefer it simple. I only wanted Emacs to be a good editor (which it is, too), but there's too much other stuff in Emacs that I don't need to care about! Vim and NeoVim do one thing excellent: Being great text editors and, when loaded with plugins, decent IDEs, too. + +## Magit love + +I almost fell in love with Magit, an integrated Git client for Emacs. But I think the best way to interact with Git is to use the `git` command line directly. I don't worry about typing out all the commands, as the most commonly used commands are in my shell history. Other useful Git programs I use frequently are `bit` and `tig`. Also, get a mechanical keyboard that makes hammering whole commands into the terminal even more enjoyable. + +=> https://magit.vc/ Magit +=> https://github.com/jonas/tig Tig + +Magit is pretty neat for basic Git operations, but I found myself searching the internet for the correct sub-commands to do the things I wanted to do in Git. Mainly, the way how branches are managed is confusing. Often, I fell back to the command line to fix up the mess I produced with Magit (e.g. accidentally pushing to the wrong remote branch, so I found myself fixing things manually on the terminal with the `git` command with forced pushes....). Magit is hotkey driven, and common commands are quickly explorable through built-in hotkey menus. Still, I found it challenging to navigate to more advanced Git sub-commands that way which was much easier accomplished by using the `git` command directly. + +## Graphical UI + +If there is one thing I envy about Emacs is that it's a graphical program, whereas the Vi-family of editors are purely terminal-based. I see the benefits of being a graphical program as this enables the use of multiple fonts simultaneously to embed pictures and graphs (that would be neat as a Markdown preview, for example). There's also GVim (Vim with GTK UI), but that's more of an afterthought. + +There are now graphical front-end clients for NeoVim, but I still need to dig into them. Let me know your experience if you have one. Luckily, I don't rely on something graphical in my text editor, but it would improve how the editor looks and feels. UTF8 can already do a lot in the terminal, and terminal emulators also allow you to use TrueType fonts. Still, you will always be limited to one TTF font for the whole terminal, and it isn't possible to have, for example, a different font for headings, paragraphs, etc... you get the idea. TTF+UTF8 can't beat authentic graphics. + +## Scripting it + +It is possible to customize every aspect of Emacs through Emacs Lisp. I have done some Elk Scheme programming in the past (a dialect of Lisp), but that was a long time ago, and I am not willing to dive here again to customize my environment. I would instead take the pragmatic approach and script what I need in VimScript (a terrible language, but it gets the job done!). I watched Damian Conway's VimScript course on O'Reilly Safari Books Online, which I greatly recommend. Yes, VimScript feels clunky, funky and weird and is far less elegant than Lisp, but it gets its job done - in most cases! (That reminds me that the Vim team has announced a new major version of VimScript with improvements and language changes made - I haven't gotten to it yet - but I assume that VimScript will always stay VimScript). + +=> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emacs_Lisp Emacs Lisp +=> http://sam.zoy.org/elk/ Elk Scheme +=> http://vimscript.org/ VimScript +=> https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/scripting-vim/9781491996287/ Scripting Vim by Damian Conway + +NeoVim is also programmable with Lua, which seems to be a step up and Vim comes with a Perl plugin API (which was removed from NeoVim, but that is a different story - why would someone remove the most potent mature text manipulation programming language from one of the most powerful text editors?). + +=> https://neovim.io/doc/user/lua.html NeoVim Lua API + +One example is my workflow of how I compose my blog articles (e.g. this one you are currently reading): I am writing everything in NeoVim, but I also want to have every paragraph checked against Grammarly (as English is not my first language). So I write a whole paragraph, then I select the entire paragraph via visual selection with `SHIFT+v`, and then I press `,y` to yank the paragraph to the systems clipboard, then I paste the paragraph to Grammarly's browser window with `CTRL+v`, let Grammarly suggest the improvements, and then I copy the result back with `CTRL+c` to the system clipboard and in NeoVim I type `,i` to insert the result back overriding the old paragraph (which is still selected in visual mode) with the new content. That all sounds a bit complicated, but it's surprisingly natural and efficient. + +To come back to the example, for the clipboard integration, I use this small VimScript snippet, and I didn't have to dig into any Lisp or Perl for this: + +```vim +" Clipboard +vnoremap ,y !pbcopy<CR>ugv +vnoremap ,i !pbpaste<CR> +nmap ,i !wpbpaste<CR> +``` + +That's only a very few lines and does precisely what I want. It's quick and dirty but get's the job done! If VimScript becomes too cumbersome, I can use Lua for NeoVim scripting. + +## The famous Emacs Org mode + +Org-mode is an Emacs mode for keeping notes, authoring documents, computational notebooks, literate programming, maintaining to-do lists, planning projects, and more — in a fast and effective plain-text system. There's even a dedicated website for it: + +=> https://orgmode.org/ + +In short, Org-mode is an "interactive markup language" that helps you organize everything mentioned above. I rarely touched the surface during my two-month experiment with Emacs, and I am impressed by it, so I see the benefits of having that. But it's not for me. + +I use "Dead Tree Mode" to organize my work and notes. Dead tree? Yeah, I use an actual pen and a real paper journal (Leuchtturm or a Moleskine and a set of coloured `0.5` Muji Pens are excellent choices). That's far more immersive and flexible than a computer program can ever be. Yes, some automation and interaction with the computer (like calendar scheduling etc.) are missing. Still, an actual paper journal forces you to stay simple and focus on the actual work rather than tinkering with your computer program. (But I could not resist, and I wrote a VimScript which parses a table of contents page in Markdown format of my scanned paper journals, and NeoVim allows me to select a topic so that the corresponding PDF scan on the right journal page gets opened in an external PDF viewer (the PDF viewer is `zathura`, it uses Vi-keybindings, of course) :-). (See the appendix of this blog post for that script). + +=> https://pwmt.org/projects/zathura/ Zathura + +On the road, I also write some of my notes in Markdown format to NextCloud Notes, which is editable from my phone and via NeoVim on my computers. Markdown is much less powerful than Org-mode, but I prefer it the simple way. There's a neat terminal application, `ranger`, which I use to browse my NextCloud Notes when they are synced to a local folder on my machine. `ranger` is a file manager inspired by Vim and therefore makes use of Vim keybindings and it feels just natural to me. + +=> https://github.com/ranger/ranger Ranger - A Vim inspired file manager +Did I mention that I also use my `zsh` (my default shell) and my `tmux` (terminal multiplexer) in Vi-mode? + +=> https://zsh.sourceforge.io/ Z shell +=> https://github.com/tmux/tmux tmux terminal multiplexer + +## Seeking simplicity + +I am not ready to dive deep into the whole world of Emacs. I prefer small and simple tools as opposed to complex tools. Emacs comes with many features out of the box, whereas in Vim/NeoVim, you would need to install many plugins to replicate some of the behaviour. Yes, I need to invest time managing all the Vim/NeoVim plugins I use, but I feel more in control compared to Doom Emacs, where a framework around vanilla Emacs manages all the plugins. I could use vanilla Emacs and manage all my plugins the vanilla way, but for me, it's not worth the effort to learn and dive into that as all that I want to do I can already do with Vim/NeoVim. + +I am not saying that Vim/NeoVim are simple programs, but they are much simpler than Emacs with much smaller footprints; furthermore, they appear to be more straightforward as I am used to them. I only need Vim/NeoVim to be an editor, an IDE (through some plugins), and nothing more. + +## Conclusion + +I understand the Emacs users now. Emacs is an incredibly powerful platform for almost everything, not just text editing. With Emacs, you can do nearly everything (Writing, editing, programming, calendar scheduling and note taking, Jira integration, playing games, listening to music, reading/writing emails, browsing the web, using as a calculator, generating HTML pages, configuring interactive menus, jumping around between every feature and every file within one single session, chat on IRC, surf the Gopherspace, ... the options are endless....). If you want to have one piece of software which rules it all and you are happy to invest a large part of your time in your platform: Pick Emacs, and over time Emacs will become "your" Emacs, customized to your own needs and change the way it works, which makes the Emacs users stick even more to it. + +Vim/NeoVim also comes with a very high degree of customization options, but to a lesser extreme than Emacs (but still, a much higher degree than most other editors out there). If you want the best text editor in the world, which can also be tweaked to be a decent IDE, you are only looking for: Pick Vim or NeoVim! You would also need to invest a lot of time in learning, tweaking and customizing Vim/NeoVim, but that's a little more straightforward, and the result is much more lightweight once you get used to the "Vi way of doing things" you never would want to change back. I haven't tried the Emacs vanilla keystrokes, but they are terrible (that's probably one of the reasons why Doom Emacs uses Vim keybindings by default). + +> Update: One reader recommended to have a look at NvChad. NvChad is a NeoVim config written in Lua aiming to provide a base configuration with very beautiful UI and blazing fast startuptime (around `0.02` secs ~ `0.07` secs). They tweak UI plugins such as telescope, nvim-tree, bufferline etc well to provide an aesthetic UI experience. That sounds interesting! + +=> https://github.com/NvChad/NvChad + +E-Mail your comments to `paul@nospam.buetow.org` :-) + +=> ../ Back to the main site diff --git a/gemfeed/2022-12-24-ultrarelearning-java-my-takeaways.gmi b/gemfeed/2022-12-24-ultrarelearning-java-my-takeaways.gmi index d3b4d94d..8c58d5de 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2022-12-24-ultrarelearning-java-my-takeaways.gmi +++ b/gemfeed/2022-12-24-ultrarelearning-java-my-takeaways.gmi @@ -2,8 +2,6 @@ > Published at 2022-12-24T23:18:40+02:00 -=> ./ultrarelearning-java-my-takeaways/learnjava.jpg - As a regular participant in the annual Pet Project competition at work, I always try to find a project where I can learn something new. In this post, I would like to share my takeaways after revisiting Java. You can read about my motivations in my "Creative universe" post: => ./2022-04-10-creative-universe.gmi Creative universe @@ -16,6 +14,23 @@ However, after that, I became a Linux Sysadmin and mainly continued programming At my workplace, as an SRE, I don't do Java a lot. I have been reading Java code to understand the software better so I can apply and suggest workarounds or fixes to existing issues and bugs. However, most of our stack is in Java, and our Software Engineers use Java as their primary programming language. +=> ./ultrarelearning-java-my-takeaways/learnjava.jpg + +## Table of Contents + +* ⇢ (Re)learning Java - My takeaways +* ⇢ ⇢ Stuck at Java 1.4 +* ⇢ ⇢ (Re)learning & upskilling to Java 18 +* ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ Effective Java +* ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ Java Pub House +* ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ Java Concurrency course +* ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ Read a lot of Java code +* ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ Observed Java code reviews +* ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ Took ownership of a roadmap-Java project +* ⇢ ⇢ The good +* ⇢ ⇢ The bad and the ugly +* ⇢ ⇢ Conclusion + ## Stuck at Java 1.4 Over time, I had been missing out on many new features that were added to the language since Java 1.4, so I decided to implement my next Pet Project in Java and learn every further aspect of the language as my main goal. Of course, I still liked the idea of winning a Pet Project Prize, but my main objective was to level up my Java skills. diff --git a/gemfeed/2022-12-24-ultrarelearning-java-my-takeaways.gmi.tpl b/gemfeed/2022-12-24-ultrarelearning-java-my-takeaways.gmi.tpl new file mode 100644 index 00000000..8c23cfb5 --- /dev/null +++ b/gemfeed/2022-12-24-ultrarelearning-java-my-takeaways.gmi.tpl @@ -0,0 +1,109 @@ +# (Re)learning Java - My takeaways + +> Published at 2022-12-24T23:18:40+02:00 + +As a regular participant in the annual Pet Project competition at work, I always try to find a project where I can learn something new. In this post, I would like to share my takeaways after revisiting Java. You can read about my motivations in my "Creative universe" post: + +=> ./2022-04-10-creative-universe.gmi Creative universe + +I have been programming in Java back in the days as a university student, and even my Diploma Thesis I implemented in Java (it would require some overhaul so that it is fully compatible with a recent version of Java, though - It still compiles and runs, but with a lot of warnings, though!): + +=> https://codeberg.org/snonux/vs-sim VS-Sim: Distributed systems simulator + +However, after that, I became a Linux Sysadmin and mainly continued programming in Perl, Puppet, bash, and a little Python. For personal use, I also programmed a bit in Haskell and C. After my Sysadmin role, I moved to London and became a Site Reliability Engineer (SRE), where I mainly programmed in Ruby, bash, Puppet and Golang and a little bit of C. + +At my workplace, as an SRE, I don't do Java a lot. I have been reading Java code to understand the software better so I can apply and suggest workarounds or fixes to existing issues and bugs. However, most of our stack is in Java, and our Software Engineers use Java as their primary programming language. + +=> ./ultrarelearning-java-my-takeaways/learnjava.jpg + +<< template::inline::toc + +## Stuck at Java 1.4 + +Over time, I had been missing out on many new features that were added to the language since Java 1.4, so I decided to implement my next Pet Project in Java and learn every further aspect of the language as my main goal. Of course, I still liked the idea of winning a Pet Project Prize, but my main objective was to level up my Java skills. + +## (Re)learning & upskilling to Java 18 + +### Effective Java + +This book was recommended by my brother and also by at least another colleague at work to be one of the best, if not the best, book about Java programming. I read the whole book from the beginning to the end and immersed myself in it. I fully agree; this is a great book. Every Java developer or Java software engineer should read it! + +=> ./ultrarelearning-java-my-takeaways/effective-java.jpg + +I recommend reading the 90-part effective Java Series on `dev.to`. It's a perfect companion to the book as it explains all the chapters again but from a slightly different perspective and helps you to really understand the content. + +=> https://dev.to/kylec32/series/2292 Kyle Carter's 90-part Effective Java Series + +### Java Pub House + +During my lunch breaks, I usually have a walk around the block or in a nearby park. I used that time to listen to the Java Pub House podcast. I listened to *every* episode and learned tons of new stuff. I can highly recommend this podcast. Especially GraalVM, a high-performance JDK distribution written for Java and other JVM languages, captured my attention. GraalVM can compile Java code into native binaries, improving performance and easing the distribution of Java programs. Because of the latter, I should release a VS-Sim GraalVM edition one day through a Linux AppImage ;-). + +=> https://www.javapubhouse.com +=> https://www.graalvm.org + +### Java Concurrency course + +I also watched a course on O'Reilly Safari Books online about Java Concurrency. That gave an excellent refresher on how the Java thread pools work and what were the concurrency primitives available in the standard library. + +### Read a lot of Java code + +First, the source code is often the best documentation (if programmed nicely), and second, it helps to get the hang of the language and standard practices. I started to read more and more Java code at work. I did that whenever I had to understand how something, in particular, worked (e.g. while troubleshooting and debugging an issue). + +### Observed Java code reviews + +Another great way to get the hang of Java again was to sneak into the code reviews of the Software Engineer colleagues. They are the expert on the matter and are a great source to copy knowledge. It's OK to stay passive and only follow the reviews. Sometimes, it's OK to step up and take ownership of the review. The developers will also always be happy to answer any naive questions which come up. + +### Took ownership of a roadmap-Java project + +Besides my Pet Project, I also took ownership of a regular roadmap Java project at work, making an internal Java service capable of running in Kubernetes. This was a bunch of minor changes and adding a bunch of classes and unit tests dealing with the statelessness and a persistent job queue in Redis. The job also involved reading and understanding a lot of already existing Java code. It wasn't part of my job description, but it was fun, and I learned a lot. The service runs smoothly in production now. Of course, all of my code got reviewed by my Software Engineering colleagues. + +## The good + +From the new language features and syntaxes, there are many personal takeaways, and I can't possibly list them all, but here are some of my personal highlights: + +* Static factory methods and public constructors both have their uses, and it pays to understand their relative merits. Often static factories are preferable (cleaner and easier to read), so avoid the reflex to provide public constructors without first considering static factories. +* Java streams were utterly new to me. I love how they can help to produce more compact code. But it's challenging to set the line of when enough is enough. Overusing streams can have the opposite effect: Code becomes more complex and challenging to understand. And it is so easy to parallelize the computation of streams by "just" marking the stream as `.parallel()` (more on that later in this post). +* Overall, object-oriented languages tend to include more and more functional paradigms. The functional interfaces, which Java provides now, are fantastic. Their full powers shine in combination with the use of streams. An entire book can be written about Java functional interfaces, so I leave it to you to do any further digging. +* Local type inference help to reduce even more boilerplate code. E.g. instead of `Hash<String,Hash<String,String>> foo = new Hash<String,Hash<String,String>>();` it's possible to just write `var foo = new Hash<String,Hash<String,String>>();` +* Class inheritance isn't the preferred way anymore to structure reusable code. Now, it's composition over inheritance. E.g. use dependency injection (inject one object to another object through its constructor) or prefer interfaces (which now also support default implementations of methods) over class inheritance. This makes sense to me as I do that already when I program in Ruby. +* I learned the `try-with-resources` pattern. Very useful in ensuring closing resources again correctly. No need anymore for complicated and nested `finally`-blocks, which used to be almost impossible to get right previously in case of an error condition (e.g. I/O error somewhere deeply nested in an input or output stream). +* Optimize only when required. It's considered to be cleaner to prefer immutable variables (declaring them as `final`). I knew that already, but for Java, it always seemed to be a waste of resources (creating entirely new objects whenever states change), but apparently, it's okay. Java also does many internal tricks for performance optimization here, e.g. interning strings. +* I learned about the concept of static member classes and the difference between non-static member classes (also sometimes known as inner classes). Non-static member classes have full access to all members of their outer class (think of closure). In contrast, static member classes act like completely separate classes without such access but provide the benefit of a nested name that can help group functionality in the code. +* I learned about the existence of thread-local variables. These are only available to the current thread and aren't shared with other threads. +* I learned about the concept of Java modules, which help to structure larger code bases better. The traditional Java packages are different. +* I learned to love the new `Optional` type. I already knew the concept from Haskell, where `Maybe` would be the corresponding type. `Optional` helps to avoid `null`-pointers but comes with some (minimal) performance penalty. So, in the end, you end up with both `Optional` types and `null`-pointers in your code (depending on the requirements). But I like to prefer `Optional` over `null`-pointer when "no result" is a valid return value from a method. +* The `enum` type is way more powerful than I thought. Initially, I felt an `enum` could only be used to define a list of constants and then to compare an instance to another instance of the same. An `enum` is still there to define a list of constants, but it's also almost like a `class` (you can implement constructors, and methods, inherit from other enums). There are quite a lot of possible use cases. +* A small but almost the most helpful thing I learned is always to use the `@Override` annotation when overriding a method from a parent class. If done, Java helps to detect any typos or type errors when overriding methods. That's useful and spares a lot of time debugging where a method was mistakenly overloaded but not overridden. +* Lambdas are much cleaner, shorter and easier to read than anonymous classes. Many Java libraries require passing instances of (anonymous) classes (e.g. in Swing) to other objects. Lambdas are so lovely because they are primarily compatible with the passing of anonymous classes, so they are a 1:1 replacement in many instances. Lambdas also play very nicely together with the Java functional interfaces, as each Lambda got a type, and the type can be an already existing functional interface (or, if you got a particular case, you could define your custom functional interface for your own set of Lambdas, of course). +* I love the concept of Java records. You can think of a record as an immutable object holding some data (as members). They are ideal for pipe and stream processing. They are much easier to define (with much less boilerplate) and come with write protection out of the box. + +## The bad and the ugly + +There are also many ugly corners in Java. Many are doomed to stay there forever due to historical decisions and ensuring backward compatibility with older versions of the Java language and the Java standard library. + +* Finalizers and cleaners seem obsolete, fragile and still, you can use them. +* In many cases, extreme caution needs to be taken to minimize the accessibility of class members. You might think that Java provides the best "out-of-the-box" solution for proper encapsulation, but the language has many loopholes. +* In the early days, Java didn't support generics yet. So what you would use is to cast everything to `Object`. Java now fully supports generics (for a while already), but you can still cast everything to `Object` and back to whatever type you want. That can lead to nasty runtime errors. Also, there's a particular case to convert between an Array of Object to an Array of String or from an Array of String to a List of String. Java can't convert between these types automatically, and extreme caution needs to be taken when enforcing so (e.g. through explicit type casts). In many of these cases, Java would print out warnings that need to be manually suppressed via annotations. Programming that way, converting data between old and new best practices, is clunky. +* If you don't know what you do, Java streams can be all wrong. Side effects in functions used in streams can be nasty to debug. Also, don't just blindly add a `.parallel()` to your stream. You need to understand what the stream does and how it exactly works; otherwise, parallelizing a stream can impact the performance drastically (in a negative way). There need to be language constructs preventing you from doing the wrong things. That's so much easier to do it right in a purely functional programming language like Haskell. +* Java is a pretty old language (already), so there are many obstacles to consider. There are too many exceptions and different outcomes of how Java code can behave. In most cases, when you write an API, every method you program needs to be documented so the user won't encounter any surprises using your code. Writing and reading a lot of documentation seems to be quite the overhead when the method name is already descriptive. +* Java serialization is broken. It works, and the language still supports it, but you better not use Java's native way of object serialization and deserialization. Unbelievable how much can get wrong here, especially regarding security (injecting arbitrary code). +* Being a bit spoiled by Golang's Goroutines, I was shocked about the limitations of the Java threads. They are resource hungry, and you can't just spin up millions of them as you would with Goroutines. I knew this limitation of threads already (as it's not a problem of the language but of how threads work in the OS), but still, I was pretty shocked when I got reminded of them again. Of course, there's a workaround: Use asynchronous sockets so that you don't waste a whole thread on a single I/O operation (in my case, waiting for a network response). Golang's runtime does that automatically for you: An OS thread will be re-used for other tasks until the network socket unblocks. Every modern programming language should support lightweight threads or Coroutines like Go's Goroutines. + + +## Conclusion + +While (re)learning Java, I felt like a student again and was quite enthusiastic about it initially. I invested around half a year, immersing myself intensively in Java (again). The last time I did that was many years ago as a university student. I even won a Silver Prize at work, implementing a project this year (2022 as of writing this). I feel confident now with understanding, debugging and patching Java code at work, which boosted my debugging and troubleshooting skills. + +I don't hate Java, but I don't love programming in it, either. I will, I guess, always see Java as the necessary to get stuff done (reading code to understand how the service works, adding a tiny feature to make my life easier, adding a quick bug fix to overcome an obstacle...). + +Although Java has significantly improved since 1.4, its code still tends to be more boilerplate. Not mainly because due to lines of code (Golang code tends to be quite repetitive, primarily when no generics are used), but due to the levels of abstractions it uses. Class hierarchies can be ten classes or deeper, and it is challenging to understand what the code is doing. Good test coverage and much documentation can mitigate the problem partially. Big enterprises use Java, and that also reflects to the language. There are too many libraries and too many abstractions that are bundled with too many legacy abstractions and interfaces and too many exceptions in the library APIs. There's even an external library named Lombok, which aims to reduce Java boilerplate code. Why is there a need for an external library? It should be all part of Java itself. + +=> https://projectlombok.org/ + +Java needs a clean cut. The clean cut shall be incompatible with previous versions of Java and only promote modern best practices without all the legacy burden carried around. The same can be said for other languages, e.g. Perl, but in Perl, they already attack the problem with the use of flags which change the behaviour of the language to more modern standards. Or do it like Python, where they had a hard (incompatible) cut from version 2 to version 3. It will be painful, for sure. But that would be the only way I would enjoy using that language as one of my primary languages to code new stuff regularly. Currently, my Java will stay limited to very few projects and the more minor things already mentioned in this post. + +Am I a Java expert now? No, by far not. But I am better now than before :-). + +E-Mail your comments to `paul@nospam.buetow.org` :-) + +=> ../ Back to the main site diff --git a/gemfeed/2023-01-23-why-grapheneos-rox.gmi b/gemfeed/2023-01-23-why-grapheneos-rox.gmi index f9f4350d..3f869b65 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2023-01-23-why-grapheneos-rox.gmi +++ b/gemfeed/2023-01-23-why-grapheneos-rox.gmi @@ -2,6 +2,19 @@ > Published at 2023-01-23T15:31:52+02:00 +In 2021 I wrote "On Being Pedantic about Open-Source", and there was a section "What about mobile?" where I expressed the dilemma about the necessity of using proprietary mobile operating systems. With GrapheneOS, I found my perfect solution for personal mobile phone use. + +=> ./2021-08-01-on-being-pedantic-about-open-source.gmi On Being Pedantic about Open-Source + +What is GrapheneOS? + +> GrapheneOS is a privacy and security-focused mobile OS with Android app compatibility developed as a non-profit open-source project. It's focused on the research and development of privacy and security technologies, including substantial improvements to sandboxing, exploits mitigations and the permission model. + +GrapheneOS is an independent Android distribution based on the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) but hardened in multiple ways. Other independent Android distributions, like LineageOS, are also based on AOSP, but GrapheneOS takes it further so that it can be my daily driver on my phone. + +=> https://GrapheneOS.org +=> https://LineageOS.org + ``` Art by Joan Stark _.===========================._ @@ -25,18 +38,17 @@ Art by Joan Stark '-'-'-'--' ``` -In 2021 I wrote "On Being Pedantic about Open-Source", and there was a section "What about mobile?" where I expressed the dilemma about the necessity of using proprietary mobile operating systems. With GrapheneOS, I found my perfect solution for personal mobile phone use. - -=> ./2021-08-01-on-being-pedantic-about-open-source.gmi On Being Pedantic about Open-Source - -What is GrapheneOS? - -> GrapheneOS is a privacy and security-focused mobile OS with Android app compatibility developed as a non-profit open-source project. It's focused on the research and development of privacy and security technologies, including substantial improvements to sandboxing, exploits mitigations and the permission model. - -GrapheneOS is an independent Android distribution based on the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) but hardened in multiple ways. Other independent Android distributions, like LineageOS, are also based on AOSP, but GrapheneOS takes it further so that it can be my daily driver on my phone. - -=> https://GrapheneOS.org -=> https://LineageOS.org +## Table of Contents + +* ⇢ Why GrapheneOS rox +* ⇢ ⇢ User Profiles +* ⇢ ⇢ Proxying some of the Google offerings +* ⇢ ⇢ Google Play Sandboxing +* ⇢ ⇢ The camera and the cloud +* ⇢ ⇢ Fine granular permissions +* ⇢ ⇢ Termux +* ⇢ ⇢ So, why not use a pure Linux phone? +* ⇢ ⇢ Small GrapheneOS downsides ## User Profiles diff --git a/gemfeed/2023-01-23-why-grapheneos-rox.gmi.tpl b/gemfeed/2023-01-23-why-grapheneos-rox.gmi.tpl new file mode 100644 index 00000000..e266d22e --- /dev/null +++ b/gemfeed/2023-01-23-why-grapheneos-rox.gmi.tpl @@ -0,0 +1,143 @@ +# Why GrapheneOS rox + +> Published at 2023-01-23T15:31:52+02:00 + +In 2021 I wrote "On Being Pedantic about Open-Source", and there was a section "What about mobile?" where I expressed the dilemma about the necessity of using proprietary mobile operating systems. With GrapheneOS, I found my perfect solution for personal mobile phone use. + +=> ./2021-08-01-on-being-pedantic-about-open-source.gmi On Being Pedantic about Open-Source + +What is GrapheneOS? + +> GrapheneOS is a privacy and security-focused mobile OS with Android app compatibility developed as a non-profit open-source project. It's focused on the research and development of privacy and security technologies, including substantial improvements to sandboxing, exploits mitigations and the permission model. + +GrapheneOS is an independent Android distribution based on the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) but hardened in multiple ways. Other independent Android distributions, like LineageOS, are also based on AOSP, but GrapheneOS takes it further so that it can be my daily driver on my phone. + +=> https://GrapheneOS.org +=> https://LineageOS.org + +``` +Art by Joan Stark + _.===========================._ + .'` .- - __- - - -- --__--- -. `'. + __ / ,'` _|--|_________|--|_ `'. \ + /'--| ; _.'\ | ' ' | /'._ ; | + // | |_.-' .-'.' ___ '.'-. '-._| | + (\) \"` _.-` / .-'`_ `'-. \ `-._ `"/ + (\) `-' | .' .-'" "'-. '. | `-` + (\) | / .'(3)(2)(1)'. \ | + (\) | / / (4) .-. \ \ | + (\) | | |(5) ( )'==,J | | + (\) | \ \ (6) '-' (0) / / | + (\) | \ '.(7)(8)(9).' / | + (\) ___| '. '-.._..-' .' | + (\) /.--| '-._____.-' | + (\) (\) |\_ _ __ _ __ __/| + (\) (\) | | +(\)_._._.__(\) | | + (\\\\jgs\\\) '.___________________.' + '-'-'-'--' +``` + +<< template::inline::toc + +## User Profiles + +GrapheneOS allows configuring up to 32 user profiles (including a guest profile) on a single phone. A profile is a completely different environment within the phone, and it is possible to switch between them instantly. Sessions of a profile can continue running in the background or be fully terminated. Each profile can have completely different settings and different applications installed. + +I use my default profile with primarily open-source applications installed, which I trust. I use another profile for banking (PayPal, various proprietary bank apps, Amazon store app, etc.) and another profile for various Google services (which I try to avoid, but I have to use once in a while). Furthermore, I have configured a profile for Social Media use (that one isn't in my default profile, as otherwise I am tempted to scroll social media all the time, which I try to avoid and only want to do intentionally when switching to the corresponding profile!). + +The neat thing about the profiles is that some can run a sandboxed version of Google Play (see later in this post), while others don't. So some profiles can entirely operate without any Google Play, and only some profiles (to which I rarely switch) have Google Play enabled. + +You notice how much longer (multiple days) your phone can be on a single charge when Google Play Services isn't running in the background. This tells a lot about the background activities and indicates that using Google Play shouldn't be the norm. + +## Proxying some of the Google offerings + +There's also the case that I am using an app from the Google Play store (as the app isn't available from F-Droid), which doesn't require Google Play Services to run in the background. Here's where I use the Aurora Android store. The Aurora store can be installed through F-Droid. Aurora acts as an anonymous proxy from your phone to the Google Play Store and lets you install apps from there. No Google credentials are required for that! + +=> https://f-droid.org + +There's a similar solution for watching videos on YouTube. You can use the NewPipe app (also from F-Droid), which acts as an anonymous proxy for watching videos from YouTube. So there isn't any need to install the official YouTube app, and there isn't any need to login to your Google account. What's so bad about the official app? You don't know which data it is sending about you to Google, so it is a privacy concern. + +## Google Play Sandboxing + +Before switching to GrapheneOS, I had been using LineageOS on one of my phones for a couple of years. Still, I always had to have a secondary personal phone with all of these proprietary apps which (partially) only work with Google Play on the phone (e.g. Banking, Navigation, various travel apps from various Airlines, etc.) somewhere around as I didn't install Google Play on my LineageOS phone due to privacy concerns and only installed apps from the F-Droid store on it. When travelling, I always had to carry around a second phone with Google Play on it, as without it; life would become inconvenient pretty soon. + +With GrapheneOS, it is different. Here, I do not just have a separate user profile, "Google", for various Google apps where Google Play runs, but Google Play also runs in a sandbox!!! + +> GrapheneOS has a compatibility layer providing the option to install and use the official releases of Google Play in the standard app sandbox. Google Play receives no special access or privileges on GrapheneOS instead of bypassing the app sandbox and receiving a massive amount of highly privileged access. Instead, the compatibility layer teaches it how to work within the full app sandbox. It also isn't used as a backend for the OS services as it would be elsewhere since GrapheneOS doesn't use Google Play even when it's installed. + +When I need to access Google Play, I can switch to the "Google" profile. Even there, Google is sandboxed to the absolute minimum permissions required to be operational, which gives additional privacy protection. + +The sad truth is that Google Maps is still the best navigation app. When driving unknown routes, I can switch to my Google profile to use Google Maps. I don't need to do that when going streets I know about, but it is crucial (for me) to have Google Maps around when driving to a new destination. + +Also, Google Translate and Google Lens are still the best translation apps I know. I just recently relocated to another country, where I am still learning the language, so Google Lens has been proven very helpful on various occasions by ad-hoc translating text into English or German for me. + +The same applies to banking. Many banking apps require Google Play to be available (It might be even more secure to only use banking apps from the Google Play store due to official support and security updates). I rarely need to access my mobile banking app, but once in a while, I need to. As you have guessed by now, I can switch to my banking profile (with Google Play enabled), do what I need to do, and then terminate the session and go back to my default profile, and then my life can go on :-). + +It is great to have the flexibility to use any proprietary Android app when needed. That only applies to around 1% of my phone usage time, but you often don't always know when you need "that one app now". So it's perfect that it's covered with the phone you always have with you. + +## The camera and the cloud + +I really want my phone to shoot good looking pictures, so that I can later upload them to the Irregular Ninja: + +=> https://irregular.ninja + +The stock camera app of the OASP could be better. Photos usually look washed out, and the app lacks features. With GrapheneOS, there are two options: + +* Use the official Google camera app with sandboxed Google Play Services running. You will get the full Google experience here. +* Or, just use the default GrapheneOS camera app. + +The GrapheneOS camera app is much better than the stock OASP camera app. I have been comparing the photo quality of my Pixel phone under LineageOS and GrapheneOS, and the differences are pronounced. I didn't compare the quality with the official Google camera app, but I have seen some comparison videos and the differences seem like they aren't groundbreaking. + +For automatic backups of my photos, I am relying on a self-hosted instance of NextCloud (with a client app available via F-Droid). So there isn't any need to rely on any Google apps and services (Google Play Photos or Google Camera app) anymore, and that's great! + +=> https://nextcloud.com + +I also use NextCloud to synchronize my notes (NextCloud Notes), my RSS news feeds (NextCloud News) and contacts (DAVx5). All apps required are available in the F-Droid store. + +## Fine granular permissions + +Another great thing about GrapheneOS is that, besides putting your apps into different profiles, you can also restrict network access and configure storage scopes per app individually. + +For example, let's say you are installing that one proprietary app from the Google Play Store through the Aurora store, and then you want to ensure that the app doesn't send data "home" through the internet. Nothing is easier to do than that. Just remove network access permissions from that only app. + +The app also wants to store and read some data from your phone (e.g. it could be a proprietary app for enhancing photos, and therefore storage access to a photo folder would be required). In GrapheneOS, you can configure a storage scope for that particular app, e.g. only read and write from one folder but still forbid access to all other folders on your phone. + +## Termux + +Termux can be installed on any Android phone through F-Droid, so it doesn't need to be a GrapheneOS phone. But I have to mention Termux here as it significantly adds value to my phone experience. + +> Termux is an Android terminal emulator and Linux environment app that works directly with no rooting or setup required. A minimal base system is installed automatically - additional packages are available using the APT package manager. + +=> https://termux.dev + +In short, Termux is an entire Linux environment running on your Android phone. Just pair your phone with a Bluetooth keyboard, and you will have the whole Linux experience. I am only using terminal Linux applications with Termux, though. What makes it especially great is that I could write on a new blog post (in Neovim through Termux on my phone) or do some coding whilst travelling (e.g. during a flight), or look up my passwords or some other personal documents (through my terminal-based password manager). All changes I commit to Git can be synced to the server with a simple `git push` once online (e.g. after the plane landed) again. + +There are Pixel phones with a screen size of 6", and that's decent enough for occasional use like that, and everything (the phone, the BT keyboard, maybe an external battery pack) all fit nicely in a small travel pocket. + +## So, why not use a pure Linux phone? + +Strictly speaking, an Android phone is a Linux phone, but it's heavily modified and customized. For me, a "pure" Linux phone is a more streamlined Linux kernel running in a distribution like Ubuntu Touch or Mobian. + +A pure Linux phone, e.g. with Ubuntu Touch installed, e.g. on a PinePhone, Fairphone, the Librem 5 or the Volla phone, is very appealing to me. And they would also provide an even better Linux experience than Termux does. Some support running LineageOS within an Anbox, enabling you to run various proprietary Android apps occasionally within Linux. + +=> https://ubuntu-touch.io/ Ubuntu Touch +=> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_for_mobile_devices More Linux distributions for mobile devices + +But here, Google Play would not be sandboxed; you could not configure individual network permissions and storage scopes like in GrapheneOS. Pure Linux-compatible phones usually come with a crappy camera, and the battery life is generally pretty bad (only a few hours). Also, no big tech company pushes the development of Linux phones. Everything relies on hobbyists, whereas multiple big tech companies put a lot of effort into the Android project, and a lot of code also goes into the Android Open-Source project. + +Currently, pure Linux phones are only a nice toy to tinker with but are still not ready (will they ever?) to be the daily driver. SailfishOS may be an exception; I played around with it in the past. It is pretty usable, but it's not an option for me as it is partial a proprietary operating system. + +=> https://sailfishos.org SailfishOS + +## Small GrapheneOS downsides + +Sometimes, switching a profile to use a different app is annoying, and you can't copy and paste from the system clipboard from one profile to another. But that's a small price I am willing to pay! + +Another thing is that GrapheneOS can only run on Google Pixel phones, whereas LineageOS can be installed on a much larger variety of hardware. But on the other hand, GrapheneOS works very well on Pixel phones. The GrapheneOS team can concentrate their development efforts on a smaller set of hardware which then improves the software's quality (best example: The camera app). + +And, of course, GrapheneOS is an open-source project. This is a good thing; however, on the other side, nobody can guarantee that the OS will not break or will not damage your phone. You have to trust the GrapheneOS project and donate to the project so they can keep up with the great work. But I rather trust the GrapheneOS team than big tech. + +E-Mail your comments to `paul@nospam.buetow.org` :-) + +=> ../ Back to the main site diff --git a/gemfeed/2023-02-26-how-to-shut-down-after-work.gmi b/gemfeed/2023-02-26-how-to-shut-down-after-work.gmi index b44387a8..fa8ea4c6 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2023-02-26-how-to-shut-down-after-work.gmi +++ b/gemfeed/2023-02-26-how-to-shut-down-after-work.gmi @@ -2,6 +2,8 @@ > Published at 2023-02-26T23:48:01+02:00 +Do you need help fully discharging from work in the evenings or for the weekend? Shutting down from work won't just improve your work-life balance; it will also significantly improve the quality of your personal life and work. After a restful weekend, you will be much more energized and productive the next working day. So it should not just be in your own, but also your employers' interest that you fully relax and shut down after work. + ``` |\ "Music should be heard not only with the ears, but also the soul." |---|--\-----------------------|-----------------------------------------| @@ -17,7 +19,16 @@ -@- [kom...@uwec.edu] ``` -Do you need help fully discharging from work in the evenings or for the weekend? Shutting down from work won't just improve your work-life balance; it will also significantly improve the quality of your personal life and work. After a restful weekend, you will be much more energized and productive the next working day. So it should not just be in your own, but also your employers' interest that you fully relax and shut down after work. +## Table of Contents + +* ⇢ How to shut down after work +* ⇢ ⇢ Have a shutdown routine +* ⇢ ⇢ Don't work when you officially don't work +* ⇢ ⇢ Distract your mind +* ⇢ ⇢ Get a pet +* ⇢ ⇢ Journal your day +* ⇢ ⇢ Don't stress about what your employer expects from you +* ⇢ ⇢ Call it a day ## Have a shutdown routine diff --git a/gemfeed/2023-02-26-how-to-shut-down-after-work.gmi.tpl b/gemfeed/2023-02-26-how-to-shut-down-after-work.gmi.tpl new file mode 100644 index 00000000..dbbb82f5 --- /dev/null +++ b/gemfeed/2023-02-26-how-to-shut-down-after-work.gmi.tpl @@ -0,0 +1,80 @@ +# How to shut down after work + +> Published at 2023-02-26T23:48:01+02:00 + +Do you need help fully discharging from work in the evenings or for the weekend? Shutting down from work won't just improve your work-life balance; it will also significantly improve the quality of your personal life and work. After a restful weekend, you will be much more energized and productive the next working day. So it should not just be in your own, but also your employers' interest that you fully relax and shut down after work. + +``` + |\ "Music should be heard not only with the ears, but also the soul." +|---|--\-----------------------|-----------------------------------------| +| | |\ | |@ |\ | +|---|---|--\-------------------|-------------/|----|------|--\----|------| +| @| | |\ |O | 3 / | |@ | | | +|---|--@|---|--\--------|------|---------/----|----|------|-------|------| +| @| @| \ |O | / | | |@ @| @|. | +|-----------|-----|-----|------|-----/---|---@|----|--------------|------| +| @| | |O | | | | @|. | +|-----------|----@|-----|------|----|---@|------------------------|------| + @| | | Larry Komro @|. + -@- [kom...@uwec.edu] +``` + +<< template::inline::toc + +## Have a shutdown routine + +Have a routine. Try to finish work around the same time every day. Write any outstanding tasks down for the next day, so you are sure you will remember them. Writing them down brings wonders as you can remove them from your mind for the remainder of the day (or the upcoming weekend) as you know you will surely pick them up the next working day. Tidying up your workplace could also count toward your daily shutdown routine. + +A commute home from the office also greatly helps, as it disconnects your work from your personal life. Don't work on your commute home, though! If you don't commute but work from home, then it helps to walk around the block or in a nearby park to disconnect from work. + +## Don't work when you officially don't work + +Unless you are self-employed, you have likely signed an N-hour per week contract with your employer, and your regular working times are from X o'clock in the morning to Y o'clock in the evening (with M minutes lunch break in the middle). And there might be some flexibility in your working times, too. But that kind of flexibility (e.g. extending the lunch break so that there is time to pick up a family member from the airport) will be agreed upon, and you will counteract it, for example, by starting working earlier the next day or working late, that one exception. But overall, your weekly working time will stay N hours. + +Another exception would be when you are on an on-call schedule and are expected to watch your work notifications out-of-office times. But that is usually only a few days per month and, therefore, not the norm. And it should also be compensated accordingly. + +There might be some maintenance work you must carry out, which can only be done over the weekend, but it should be explicitly agreed upon and compensated for. Also, there might be a scenario that a production incident comes up shortly before the end of the work day, requiring you (and your colleagues) to stay a bit longer. But this should be an exceptional case. + +Other than that, there is no reason why you should work out-of-office hours. I know many people who suffer "the fear of missing out", so slack messages and E-Mails are checked until late in the evening, during weekends or holidays. I have been improving here personally a lot over the last couple of months, but still, I fall into this trap occasionally. + +Also, when you respond to slack messages and E-Mails, your colleagues can think that you have nothing better to do. They also will take it for granted and keep slacking and messaging you out of regular office times. + +Checking for your messages constantly outside of regular office times makes it impossible to shut down and relax from work altogether. + +## Distract your mind + +Often, your mind goes back to work-related stuff even after work. That's normal as you concentrated highly on your work throughout the day. The brain unconsciously continues to work and will automatically present you with random work-related thoughts. You can counteract this by focusing on non-work stuff, which may include: + +* Exercise. A half an hour workout or yoga session, followed by some stretching, helps to calm your mind after work. +* Play (with your family, pets, friends, or video game) +* Mindfully listen to music. When have you ever "really" listened to music? I mean, not just as a background stimulation but really paid attention to the melody, rhythm, voice and lyrics? That requires focused attention and distracts you from other thoughts. +* Think of or work on that fun passion project. I currently, for example, like to learn and code a bit in Rakulang. +* Read. Nothing beats reading a good Science Fiction Novel (or whatever you prefer) before falling asleep. + +Some of these can be habit-stacked: Exercise could be combined with watching videos about your passion project (e.g. watching lectures about that new programming language you are currently learning for fun). With walking, for example, you could combine listening to an Audiobook or music, or you could also think about your passion project during that walk. + +## Get a pet + +Even if you have children, it helps wonders to get a pet. My cat, for example, will remind me a few times daily to take a few minute's breaks to pet, play or give food. So my cat not only helps me after work but throughout the day. + +My neighbour also works from home, and he has dogs, which he regularly has to take out to the park. + +## Journal your day + +If you are upset about something, making it impossible to shut down from work, write down everything (e.g., with a pen in a paper journal). Writing things down helps you to "get rid" of the negative. Especially after conflicts with colleagues or company decisions, you don't agree on. This kind of self-therapy is excellent. Brainstorm all your emotions and (even if opinionated) opinions so you have everything on paper. Once done, you don't think about it so much anymore, as you know you can access that information if required. But stopping ruminating about it will be much easier now. You will likely never access that information again, though. But at least writing the thoughts down saved your day. + +Write down three things which went well for the day. This helps you to appreciate the day. + +## Don't stress about what your employer expects from you + +Think about what's fun and motivates you. Maybe the next promotion to Principal or a Manager role isn't for you. Many fall into the trap of stressing themselves out to satisfy the employer so that the next upgrade will happen and think about it constantly, even after work. But it is more important that you enjoy your craftsmanship. Work on what you expect from yourself. Ideally, your goals should be aligned with your employer. I am not saying you should abandon everything what your manager is asking you to do, but it is, after all, your life. And you have to decide where and on what you want to work. But don't sell yourself short. Keep track of your accomplishments. + +## Call it a day + +Every day you gave your best was good; the day's outcome doesn't matter. What matters is that you know you gave your best and are closer to your goals than the previous day. This gives you a sense of progress and accomplishment. + +There are some days at work you feel drained afterwards and think you didn't progress towards your goals at all. It's more challenging to shut down from work after such a day. A quick hack is to work on a quick win before the end of the day, giving you a sense of accomplishment after all. Another way is to make progress on your fun passion project after work. It must not be work-related, but a sense of accomplishment will still be there. + +E-Mail your comments to `paul@nospam.buetow.org` :-) + +=> ../ Back to the main site diff --git a/gemfeed/2023-03-25-gemtexter-2.0.0-lets-gemtext-again-2.gmi b/gemfeed/2023-03-25-gemtexter-2.0.0-lets-gemtext-again-2.gmi index 6adcfdee..d7dab515 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2023-03-25-gemtexter-2.0.0-lets-gemtext-again-2.gmi +++ b/gemfeed/2023-03-25-gemtexter-2.0.0-lets-gemtext-again-2.gmi @@ -2,6 +2,14 @@ > Published at 2023-03-25T17:50:32+02:00 +I proudly announce that I've released Gemtexter version `2.0.0`. What is Gemtexter? It's my minimalist static site generator for Gemini Gemtext, HTML and Markdown written in GNU Bash. + +=> https://codeberg.org/snonux/gemtexter + +This is a new major release, so it contains a breaking change (see "Meta cache made obsolete"). + +Let's list what's new! + ``` -=[ typewriters ]=- 1/98 @@ -18,7 +26,6 @@ ## Table of Contents * ⇢ Gemtexter 2.0.0 - Let's Gemtext again² -* ⇢ ⇢ Introduction * ⇢ ⇢ Minimal template engine * ⇢ ⇢ Added hooks * ⇢ ⇢ Use of safer Bash options @@ -26,16 +33,6 @@ * ⇢ ⇢ XMLLint support * ⇢ ⇢ More -## Introduction - -I proudly announce that I've released Gemtexter version `2.0.0`. What is Gemtexter? It's my minimalist static site generator for Gemini Gemtext, HTML and Markdown written in GNU Bash. - -=> https://codeberg.org/snonux/gemtexter - -This is a new major release, so it contains a breaking change (see "Meta cache made obsolete"). - -Let's list what's new! - ## Minimal template engine Gemtexter now supports templating, enabling dynamically generated content to `.gmi` files before converting anything to any output format like HTML and Markdown. diff --git a/gemfeed/2023-03-25-gemtexter-2.0.0-lets-gemtext-again-2.gmi.tpl b/gemfeed/2023-03-25-gemtexter-2.0.0-lets-gemtext-again-2.gmi.tpl index a8ed98e5..0017f716 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2023-03-25-gemtexter-2.0.0-lets-gemtext-again-2.gmi.tpl +++ b/gemfeed/2023-03-25-gemtexter-2.0.0-lets-gemtext-again-2.gmi.tpl @@ -2,6 +2,14 @@ > Published at 2023-03-25T17:50:32+02:00 +I proudly announce that I've released Gemtexter version `2.0.0`. What is Gemtexter? It's my minimalist static site generator for Gemini Gemtext, HTML and Markdown written in GNU Bash. + +=> https://codeberg.org/snonux/gemtexter + +This is a new major release, so it contains a breaking change (see "Meta cache made obsolete"). + +Let's list what's new! + ``` -=[ typewriters ]=- 1/98 @@ -17,16 +25,6 @@ << template::inline::toc -## Introduction - -I proudly announce that I've released Gemtexter version `2.0.0`. What is Gemtexter? It's my minimalist static site generator for Gemini Gemtext, HTML and Markdown written in GNU Bash. - -=> https://codeberg.org/snonux/gemtexter - -This is a new major release, so it contains a breaking change (see "Meta cache made obsolete"). - -Let's list what's new! - ## Minimal template engine Gemtexter now supports templating, enabling dynamically generated content to `.gmi` files before converting anything to any output format like HTML and Markdown. diff --git a/gemfeed/2023-04-01-never-split-the-difference-book-notes.gmi b/gemfeed/2023-04-01-never-split-the-difference-book-notes.gmi index e8731c16..cc79e0b9 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2023-04-01-never-split-the-difference-book-notes.gmi +++ b/gemfeed/2023-04-01-never-split-the-difference-book-notes.gmi @@ -16,6 +16,21 @@ These are my personal takeaways after reading "Never split the difference" by Ch ''' ``` +## Table of Contents + +* ⇢ "Never split the difference" book notes +* ⇢ ⇢ Tactical listening, spreading empathy +* ⇢ ⇢ Mindset of discovery +* ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ More tips +* ⇢ ⇢ "No" starts the conversation +* ⇢ ⇢ Win-win +* ⇢ ⇢ On Deadlines +* ⇢ ⇢ Analyse the opponent +* ⇢ ⇢ Use different ways of saying "no." +* ⇢ ⇢ Calibrated question +* ⇢ ⇢ The black swan +* ⇢ ⇢ More + ## Tactical listening, spreading empathy Be a mirror, copy each other to be comfy with each other to build up trust. Mirroring is mainly body language. A mirror is to repeat the words the other just said. Simple but effective. diff --git a/gemfeed/2023-04-01-never-split-the-difference-book-notes.gmi.tpl b/gemfeed/2023-04-01-never-split-the-difference-book-notes.gmi.tpl index d4751c4f..2ed4b067 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2023-04-01-never-split-the-difference-book-notes.gmi.tpl +++ b/gemfeed/2023-04-01-never-split-the-difference-book-notes.gmi.tpl @@ -16,6 +16,8 @@ These are my personal takeaways after reading "Never split the difference" by Ch ''' ``` +<< template::inline::toc + ## Tactical listening, spreading empathy Be a mirror, copy each other to be comfy with each other to build up trust. Mirroring is mainly body language. A mirror is to repeat the words the other just said. Simple but effective. diff --git a/gemfeed/2023-04-09-algorithms-and-data-structures-in-golang-part-1.gmi b/gemfeed/2023-04-09-algorithms-and-data-structures-in-golang-part-1.gmi index aa12a353..987dd14e 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2023-04-09-algorithms-and-data-structures-in-golang-part-1.gmi +++ b/gemfeed/2023-04-09-algorithms-and-data-structures-in-golang-part-1.gmi @@ -2,6 +2,12 @@ > Published at 2023-04-09T22:31:42+03:00 +This is the first blog post about my Algorithms and Data Structures in Go series. I am not a Software Developer in my day job. In my current role, programming and scripting skills are desirable but not mandatory. I have been learning about Data Structures and Algorithms many years ago at University. I thought it would be fun to revisit/refresh my knowledge here and implement many of the algorithms in Go. + +=> ./2023-04-09-algorithms-and-data-structures-in-golang-part-1.gmi 2023-04-09 Algorithms and Data Structures in Go - Part 1 (You are currently reading this) + +This post is about setting up some basic data structures and methods for this blog series. I promise, everything will be easy to follow in this post. It will become more interesting later in this series. + ``` ,_---~~~~~----._ _,,_,*^____ _____``*g*\"*, @@ -19,21 +25,12 @@ ## Table of Contents * ⇢ Algorithms and Data Structures in Go - Part 1 -* ⇢ ⇢ Introduction * ⇢ ⇢ Type constraints * ⇢ ⇢ ArrayList * ⇢ ⇢ Helper methods * ⇢ ⇢ Sleep sort * ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ Testing -## Introduction - -This is the first blog post about my Algorithms and Data Structures in Go series. I am not a Software Developer in my day job. In my current role, programming and scripting skills are desirable but not mandatory. I have been learning about Data Structures and Algorithms many years ago at University. I thought it would be fun to revisit/refresh my knowledge here and implement many of the algorithms in Go. - -=> ./2023-04-09-algorithms-and-data-structures-in-golang-part-1.gmi 2023-04-09 Algorithms and Data Structures in Go - Part 1 (You are currently reading this) - -This post is about setting up some basic data structures and methods for this blog series. I promise, everything will be easy to follow in this post. It will become more interesting later in this series. - ## Type constraints First, the package `ds` (data structures) defines the `types.go`. All examples will either operate on the `Integer` or `Number` type: diff --git a/gemfeed/2023-04-09-algorithms-and-data-structures-in-golang-part-1.gmi.tpl b/gemfeed/2023-04-09-algorithms-and-data-structures-in-golang-part-1.gmi.tpl index 8d3807d9..7fb202d7 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2023-04-09-algorithms-and-data-structures-in-golang-part-1.gmi.tpl +++ b/gemfeed/2023-04-09-algorithms-and-data-structures-in-golang-part-1.gmi.tpl @@ -2,6 +2,12 @@ > Published at 2023-04-09T22:31:42+03:00 +This is the first blog post about my Algorithms and Data Structures in Go series. I am not a Software Developer in my day job. In my current role, programming and scripting skills are desirable but not mandatory. I have been learning about Data Structures and Algorithms many years ago at University. I thought it would be fun to revisit/refresh my knowledge here and implement many of the algorithms in Go. + +<< template::inline::index algorithms-and-data-structures-in-golang-part + +This post is about setting up some basic data structures and methods for this blog series. I promise, everything will be easy to follow in this post. It will become more interesting later in this series. + ``` ,_---~~~~~----._ _,,_,*^____ _____``*g*\"*, @@ -18,14 +24,6 @@ << template::inline::toc -## Introduction - -This is the first blog post about my Algorithms and Data Structures in Go series. I am not a Software Developer in my day job. In my current role, programming and scripting skills are desirable but not mandatory. I have been learning about Data Structures and Algorithms many years ago at University. I thought it would be fun to revisit/refresh my knowledge here and implement many of the algorithms in Go. - -<< template::inline::index algorithms-and-data-structures-in-golang-part - -This post is about setting up some basic data structures and methods for this blog series. I promise, everything will be easy to follow in this post. It will become more interesting later in this series. - ## Type constraints First, the package `ds` (data structures) defines the `types.go`. All examples will either operate on the `Integer` or `Number` type: diff --git a/gemfeed/2023-05-01-unveiling-guprecords b/gemfeed/2023-05-01-unveiling-guprecords index e69de29b..8b137891 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2023-05-01-unveiling-guprecords +++ b/gemfeed/2023-05-01-unveiling-guprecords @@ -0,0 +1 @@ + diff --git a/gemfeed/2023-05-06-the-obstacle-is-the-way-book-notes.gmi b/gemfeed/2023-05-06-the-obstacle-is-the-way-book-notes.gmi index 39bcb63d..2c0bdce4 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2023-05-06-the-obstacle-is-the-way-book-notes.gmi +++ b/gemfeed/2023-05-06-the-obstacle-is-the-way-book-notes.gmi @@ -2,10 +2,23 @@ > Published at 2023-05-06T17:23:16+03:00 +These are my personal takeaways after reading "The Obstacle Is the Way" by Ryan Holiday. This is mainly for my own use, but you might find it helpful too. + +``` + ,.......... .........., + ,..,' '.' ',.., + ,' ,' : ', ', + ,' ,' : ', ', + ,' ,' : ', ', + ,' ,'............., : ,.............', ', +,' '............ '.' ............' ', + '''''''''''''''''';''';'''''''''''''''''' + ''' +``` + ## Table of Contents * ⇢ "The Obstacle is the Way" book notes -* ⇢ ⇢ Introduction * ⇢ ⇢ Reframe your perspective * ⇢ ⇢ Embrace rationality * ⇢ ⇢ Control your response @@ -19,23 +32,6 @@ * ⇢ ⇢ Love everything that happens * ⇢ ⇢ Conclusion -## Introduction - -These are my personal takeaways after reading "The Obstacle Is the Way" by Ryan Holiday. This is mainly for my own use, but you might find it helpful too. - - -``` - ,.......... .........., - ,..,' '.' ',.., - ,' ,' : ', ', - ,' ,' : ', ', - ,' ,' : ', ', - ,' ,'............., : ,.............', ', -,' '............ '.' ............' ', - '''''''''''''''''';''';'''''''''''''''''' - ''' -``` - "The obstacle is the way" is a powerful statement that encapsulates the wisdom of turning challenges into opportunities for growth and success. We will explore using obstacles as fuel, transforming weaknesses into strengths, and adopting a mindset that allows us to be creative and persistent in the face of adversity. ## Reframe your perspective diff --git a/gemfeed/2023-05-06-the-obstacle-is-the-way-book-notes.gmi.tpl b/gemfeed/2023-05-06-the-obstacle-is-the-way-book-notes.gmi.tpl index 9b33a943..57206933 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2023-05-06-the-obstacle-is-the-way-book-notes.gmi.tpl +++ b/gemfeed/2023-05-06-the-obstacle-is-the-way-book-notes.gmi.tpl @@ -2,13 +2,8 @@ > Published at 2023-05-06T17:23:16+03:00 -<< template::inline::toc - -## Introduction - These are my personal takeaways after reading "The Obstacle Is the Way" by Ryan Holiday. This is mainly for my own use, but you might find it helpful too. - ``` ,.......... .........., ,..,' '.' ',.., @@ -21,6 +16,8 @@ These are my personal takeaways after reading "The Obstacle Is the Way" by Ryan ''' ``` +<< template::inline::toc + "The obstacle is the way" is a powerful statement that encapsulates the wisdom of turning challenges into opportunities for growth and success. We will explore using obstacles as fuel, transforming weaknesses into strengths, and adopting a mindset that allows us to be creative and persistent in the face of adversity. ## Reframe your perspective diff --git a/gemfeed/2023-06-01-kiss-server-monitoring-with-gogios.gmi b/gemfeed/2023-06-01-kiss-server-monitoring-with-gogios.gmi index 3e0aadf4..f0df3c6b 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2023-06-01-kiss-server-monitoring-with-gogios.gmi +++ b/gemfeed/2023-06-01-kiss-server-monitoring-with-gogios.gmi @@ -2,12 +2,17 @@ > Published at 2023-06-01T21:10:17+03:00 +Gogios is a minimalistic and easy-to-use monitoring tool I programmed in Google Go designed specifically for small-scale self-hosted servers and virtual machines. The primary purpose of Gogios is to monitor my personal server infrastructure for `foo.zone`, my MTAs, my authoritative DNS servers, my NextCloud, Wallabag and Anki sync server installations, etc. + +With compatibility with the Nagios Check API, Gogios offers a simple yet effective solution to monitor a limited number of resources. In theory, Gogios scales to a couple of thousand checks, though. You can clone it from Codeberg here: + +=> https://codeberg.org/snonux/gogios + => ./kiss-server-monitoring-with-gogios/gogios-small.png Gogios logo ## Table of Contents * ⇢ KISS server monitoring with Gogios -* ⇢ ⇢ Introduction * ⇢ ⇢ Motivation * ⇢ ⇢ Features * ⇢ ⇢ Example alert @@ -22,14 +27,6 @@ * ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ High-availability * ⇢ ⇢ Conclusion: -## Introduction - -Gogios is a minimalistic and easy-to-use monitoring tool I programmed in Google Go designed specifically for small-scale self-hosted servers and virtual machines. The primary purpose of Gogios is to monitor my personal server infrastructure for `foo.zone`, my MTAs, my authoritative DNS servers, my NextCloud, Wallabag and Anki sync server installations, etc. - -With compatibility with the Nagios Check API, Gogios offers a simple yet effective solution to monitor a limited number of resources. In theory, Gogios scales to a couple of thousand checks, though. You can clone it from Codeberg here: - -=> https://codeberg.org/snonux/gogios - ``` _____________________________ ____________________________ / \ / \ diff --git a/gemfeed/2023-06-01-kiss-server-monitoring-with-gogios.gmi.tpl b/gemfeed/2023-06-01-kiss-server-monitoring-with-gogios.gmi.tpl index 2232ddb4..56100d85 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2023-06-01-kiss-server-monitoring-with-gogios.gmi.tpl +++ b/gemfeed/2023-06-01-kiss-server-monitoring-with-gogios.gmi.tpl @@ -2,18 +2,16 @@ > Published at 2023-06-01T21:10:17+03:00 -=> ./kiss-server-monitoring-with-gogios/gogios-small.png Gogios logo - -<< template::inline::toc - -## Introduction - Gogios is a minimalistic and easy-to-use monitoring tool I programmed in Google Go designed specifically for small-scale self-hosted servers and virtual machines. The primary purpose of Gogios is to monitor my personal server infrastructure for `foo.zone`, my MTAs, my authoritative DNS servers, my NextCloud, Wallabag and Anki sync server installations, etc. With compatibility with the Nagios Check API, Gogios offers a simple yet effective solution to monitor a limited number of resources. In theory, Gogios scales to a couple of thousand checks, though. You can clone it from Codeberg here: => https://codeberg.org/snonux/gogios +=> ./kiss-server-monitoring-with-gogios/gogios-small.png Gogios logo + +<< template::inline::toc + ``` _____________________________ ____________________________ / \ / \ diff --git a/gemfeed/2023-07-17-career-guide-and-soft-skills-book-notes.gmi b/gemfeed/2023-07-17-career-guide-and-soft-skills-book-notes.gmi index 3608ff78..bfbf70a3 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2023-07-17-career-guide-and-soft-skills-book-notes.gmi +++ b/gemfeed/2023-07-17-career-guide-and-soft-skills-book-notes.gmi @@ -2,16 +2,29 @@ > Published at 2023-07-17T04:56:20+03:00 +These notes are of two books by "John Sommez" I found helpful. I also added some of my own keypoints to it. These notes are mainly for my own use, but you might find them helpful, too. + +``` + ,.......... .........., + ,..,' '.' ',.., + ,' ,' : ', ', + ,' ,' : ', ', + ,' ,' : ', ', + ,' ,'............., : ,.............', ', +,' '............ '.' ............' ', + '''''''''''''''''';''';'''''''''''''''''' + ''' +``` + ## Table of Contents * ⇢ "Software Developmers Career Guide and Soft Skills" book notes -* ⇢ Introduction -* ⇢ Improve -* ⇢ ⇢ Always learn new things -* ⇢ ⇢ Set goals -* ⇢ ⇢ Ratings -* ⇢ ⇢ Promotions -* ⇢ ⇢ Finish things +* ⇢ ⇢ Improve +* ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ Always learn new things +* ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ Set goals +* ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ Ratings +* ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ Promotions +* ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ Finish things * ⇢ ⇢ Expand the empire * ⇢ ⇢ Be pragmatic and also manage your time * ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ The quota system @@ -35,25 +48,9 @@ * ⇢ ⇢ Testing * ⇢ ⇢ Books to read -# Introduction - -These notes are of two books by "John Sommez" I found helpful. I also added some of my own keypoints to it. These notes are mainly for my own use, but you might find them helpful, too. - -``` - ,.......... .........., - ,..,' '.' ',.., - ,' ,' : ', ', - ,' ,' : ', ', - ,' ,' : ', ', - ,' ,'............., : ,.............', ', -,' '............ '.' ............' ', - '''''''''''''''''';''';'''''''''''''''''' - ''' -``` - -# Improve +## Improve -## Always learn new things +### Always learn new things When you learn something new, e.g. a programming language, first gather an overview, learn from multiple sources, play around and learn by doing and not consuming and form your own questions. Don't read too much upfront. A large amount of time is spent in learning technical skills which were never use. You want to have a practical set of skills you are actually using. You need to know 20 percent to get out 80 percent of the results. @@ -70,18 +67,18 @@ Fake it until you make it. But be honest about your abilities or lack of. There Boot camps: The advantage of a boot camp is to pragmatically learn things fast. We almost always overestimate what we can do in a day. Especially during boot camps. Connect to others during the boot camps -## Set goals +### Set goals Your own goals are important but the manager also looks at how the team performs and how someone can help the team perform better. Check whether you are on track with your goals every 2 weeks in order to avoid surprises for the annual review. Make concrete goals for next review. Track and document your progress. Invest in your education. Make your goals known. If you want something, then ask for it. Nobody but you knows what you want. -## Ratings +### Ratings That's a trap: If you have to rate yourself, that's a trap. That never works in an unbiased way. Rate yourself always the best way but rate your weakest part as high as possible minus one point. Rate yourself as good as you can otherwise. Nobody is putting for fun a gun on his own head. * Don't do peer rating, it can fire back on you. What if the colleague becomes your new boss? * Cooperate rankings are unfortunately HR guidelines and politics and only mirror a little your actual performance. -## Promotions +### Promotions The most valuable employees are the ones who make themselves obsolete and automate all away. Keep a safety net of 3 to 6 months of finances. Safe at least 10 percent of your earnings. Also, if you make money it does not mean that you have to spent more money. Is a new car better than a used car which both can bring you from A to B? Liability vs assets. @@ -93,7 +90,7 @@ The most valuable employees are the ones who make themselves obsolete and automa * If you want a raise be specific how much and know to back your demands. Don't make a thread and no ultimatums. * Best way for a promotion is to switch jobs. You can even switch back with a better salary. -## Finish things +### Finish things Hard work is necessary for accomplish results. However, work smarter not harder. Furthermore, working smart is not a substitute for working hard. Work both, hard and smart. diff --git a/gemfeed/2023-07-17-career-guide-and-soft-skills-book-notes.gmi.tpl b/gemfeed/2023-07-17-career-guide-and-soft-skills-book-notes.gmi.tpl index 92b75aae..de15fb5d 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2023-07-17-career-guide-and-soft-skills-book-notes.gmi.tpl +++ b/gemfeed/2023-07-17-career-guide-and-soft-skills-book-notes.gmi.tpl @@ -2,10 +2,6 @@ > Published at 2023-07-17T04:56:20+03:00 -<< template::inline::toc - -# Introduction - These notes are of two books by "John Sommez" I found helpful. I also added some of my own keypoints to it. These notes are mainly for my own use, but you might find them helpful, too. ``` @@ -20,9 +16,11 @@ These notes are of two books by "John Sommez" I found helpful. I also added some ''' ``` -# Improve +<< template::inline::toc + +## Improve -## Always learn new things +### Always learn new things When you learn something new, e.g. a programming language, first gather an overview, learn from multiple sources, play around and learn by doing and not consuming and form your own questions. Don't read too much upfront. A large amount of time is spent in learning technical skills which were never use. You want to have a practical set of skills you are actually using. You need to know 20 percent to get out 80 percent of the results. @@ -39,18 +37,18 @@ Fake it until you make it. But be honest about your abilities or lack of. There Boot camps: The advantage of a boot camp is to pragmatically learn things fast. We almost always overestimate what we can do in a day. Especially during boot camps. Connect to others during the boot camps -## Set goals +### Set goals Your own goals are important but the manager also looks at how the team performs and how someone can help the team perform better. Check whether you are on track with your goals every 2 weeks in order to avoid surprises for the annual review. Make concrete goals for next review. Track and document your progress. Invest in your education. Make your goals known. If you want something, then ask for it. Nobody but you knows what you want. -## Ratings +### Ratings That's a trap: If you have to rate yourself, that's a trap. That never works in an unbiased way. Rate yourself always the best way but rate your weakest part as high as possible minus one point. Rate yourself as good as you can otherwise. Nobody is putting for fun a gun on his own head. * Don't do peer rating, it can fire back on you. What if the colleague becomes your new boss? * Cooperate rankings are unfortunately HR guidelines and politics and only mirror a little your actual performance. -## Promotions +### Promotions The most valuable employees are the ones who make themselves obsolete and automate all away. Keep a safety net of 3 to 6 months of finances. Safe at least 10 percent of your earnings. Also, if you make money it does not mean that you have to spent more money. Is a new car better than a used car which both can bring you from A to B? Liability vs assets. @@ -62,7 +60,7 @@ The most valuable employees are the ones who make themselves obsolete and automa * If you want a raise be specific how much and know to back your demands. Don't make a thread and no ultimatums. * Best way for a promotion is to switch jobs. You can even switch back with a better salary. -## Finish things +### Finish things Hard work is necessary for accomplish results. However, work smarter not harder. Furthermore, working smart is not a substitute for working hard. Work both, hard and smart. diff --git a/gemfeed/2023-07-21-gemtexter-2.1.0-lets-gemtext-again-3.gmi b/gemfeed/2023-07-21-gemtexter-2.1.0-lets-gemtext-again-3.gmi index 4782b3f2..712c4a23 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2023-07-21-gemtexter-2.1.0-lets-gemtext-again-3.gmi +++ b/gemfeed/2023-07-21-gemtexter-2.1.0-lets-gemtext-again-3.gmi @@ -2,6 +2,10 @@ > Published at 2023-07-21T10:19:31+03:00 +I proudly announce that I've released Gemtexter version `2.1.0`. What is Gemtexter? It's my minimalist static site generator for Gemini Gemtext, HTML and Markdown, written in GNU Bash. + +=> https://codeberg.org/snonux/gemtexter + ``` -=[ typewriters ]=- 1/98 .-------. @@ -18,7 +22,6 @@ ## Table of Contents * ⇢ Gemtexter 2.1.0 - Let's Gemtext again³ -* ⇢ ⇢ Introduction * ⇢ ⇢ Why Bash? * ⇢ ⇢ Switch to GPL3 license * ⇢ ⇢ Source code highlighting support @@ -27,12 +30,6 @@ * ⇢ ⇢ HTML Mastodon verification support * ⇢ ⇢ More -## Introduction - -I proudly announce that I've released Gemtexter version `2.1.0`. What is Gemtexter? It's my minimalist static site generator for Gemini Gemtext, HTML and Markdown, written in GNU Bash. - -=> https://codeberg.org/snonux/gemtexter - ## Why Bash? This project is too complex for a Bash script. Writing it in Bash was to try out how maintainable a "larger" Bash script could be. It's still pretty maintainable and helps me try new Bash tricks here and then! diff --git a/gemfeed/2023-07-21-gemtexter-2.1.0-lets-gemtext-again-3.gmi.tpl b/gemfeed/2023-07-21-gemtexter-2.1.0-lets-gemtext-again-3.gmi.tpl index 20c57265..d129a636 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2023-07-21-gemtexter-2.1.0-lets-gemtext-again-3.gmi.tpl +++ b/gemfeed/2023-07-21-gemtexter-2.1.0-lets-gemtext-again-3.gmi.tpl @@ -2,6 +2,10 @@ > Published at 2023-07-21T10:19:31+03:00 +I proudly announce that I've released Gemtexter version `2.1.0`. What is Gemtexter? It's my minimalist static site generator for Gemini Gemtext, HTML and Markdown, written in GNU Bash. + +=> https://codeberg.org/snonux/gemtexter + ``` -=[ typewriters ]=- 1/98 .-------. @@ -17,12 +21,6 @@ << template::inline::toc -## Introduction - -I proudly announce that I've released Gemtexter version `2.1.0`. What is Gemtexter? It's my minimalist static site generator for Gemini Gemtext, HTML and Markdown, written in GNU Bash. - -=> https://codeberg.org/snonux/gemtexter - ## Why Bash? This project is too complex for a Bash script. Writing it in Bash was to try out how maintainable a "larger" Bash script could be. It's still pretty maintainable and helps me try new Bash tricks here and then! diff --git a/gemfeed/2023-09-25-dtail-usage-examples.gmi b/gemfeed/2023-09-25-dtail-usage-examples.gmi index a3f5301a..b4ec9ea9 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2023-09-25-dtail-usage-examples.gmi +++ b/gemfeed/2023-09-25-dtail-usage-examples.gmi @@ -2,22 +2,6 @@ > Published at 2023-09-25T14:57:42+03:00 -## Table of Contents - -* ⇢ DTail usage examples -* ⇢ ⇢ Introduction -* ⇢ ⇢ Following logs -* ⇢ ⇢ Aggregating logs -* ⇢ ⇢ How to use `dcat` -* ⇢ ⇢ How to use `dgrep` -* ⇢ ⇢ How to use `dmap` -* ⇢ ⇢ How to use the DTail serverless mode -* ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ Serverless map-reduce query -* ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ Aggregating CSV files -* ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ Other serverless commands - -## Introduction - Hey there. As I am pretty busy this month personally (I am now on Paternity Leave) and as I still want to post once monthly, the blog post of this month will only be some DTail usage examples. They're from the DTail documentation, but not all readers of my blog may be aware of those! DTail is a distributed DevOps tool for tailing, grepping, catting logs and other text files on many remote machines at once which I programmed in Go. @@ -38,6 +22,22 @@ DTail is a distributed DevOps tool for tailing, grepping, catting logs and other | | ``` +## Table of Contents + +* ⇢ DTail usage examples +* ⇢ ⇢ Commands +* ⇢ ⇢ Following logs +* ⇢ ⇢ Aggregating logs +* ⇢ ⇢ How to use `dcat` +* ⇢ ⇢ How to use `dgrep` +* ⇢ ⇢ How to use `dmap` +* ⇢ ⇢ How to use the DTail serverless mode +* ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ Serverless map-reduce query +* ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ Aggregating CSV files +* ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ Other serverless commands + +## Commands + DTail consists out of a server and several client binaries. In this post, I am showcasing their use! * Use `dtail` to follow logs diff --git a/gemfeed/2023-09-25-dtail-usage-examples.gmi.tpl b/gemfeed/2023-09-25-dtail-usage-examples.gmi.tpl index 54a239ae..1d8e960a 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2023-09-25-dtail-usage-examples.gmi.tpl +++ b/gemfeed/2023-09-25-dtail-usage-examples.gmi.tpl @@ -2,10 +2,6 @@ > Published at 2023-09-25T14:57:42+03:00 -<< template::inline::toc - -## Introduction - Hey there. As I am pretty busy this month personally (I am now on Paternity Leave) and as I still want to post once monthly, the blog post of this month will only be some DTail usage examples. They're from the DTail documentation, but not all readers of my blog may be aware of those! DTail is a distributed DevOps tool for tailing, grepping, catting logs and other text files on many remote machines at once which I programmed in Go. @@ -26,6 +22,10 @@ DTail is a distributed DevOps tool for tailing, grepping, catting logs and other | | ``` +<< template::inline::toc + +## Commands + DTail consists out of a server and several client binaries. In this post, I am showcasing their use! * Use `dtail` to follow logs diff --git a/gemfeed/2023-10-29-kiss-static-web-photo-albums-with-photoalbum.sh.gmi b/gemfeed/2023-10-29-kiss-static-web-photo-albums-with-photoalbum.sh.gmi index 9a43d300..7197490c 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2023-10-29-kiss-static-web-photo-albums-with-photoalbum.sh.gmi +++ b/gemfeed/2023-10-29-kiss-static-web-photo-albums-with-photoalbum.sh.gmi @@ -2,6 +2,12 @@ > Published at 2023-10-29T22:25:04+02:00 +Once in a while, I share photos on the inter-web with either family and friends or on my The Irregular Ninja photo site. One hobby of mine is photography (even though I don't have enough time for it - so I am primarily a point-and-shoot photographer). + +I'm not particularly eager to use any photo social sharing platforms such as Flickr, 500px (I used them regularly in the past), etc., anymore. I value self-hosting, DIY and privacy (nobody should data mine my photos), and no third party should have any rights to my pictures. + +I value KISS (keep it simple and stupid) and simplicity. All that's required for a web photo album is some simple HTML and spice it up with CSS. No need for JavaScript, no need for a complex dynamic website. + ``` ___ .---------.._ ______!fsc!_....-' .g8888888p. '-------....._ @@ -22,7 +28,6 @@ ## Table of Contents * ⇢ KISS static web photo albums with `photoalbum.sh` -* ⇢ ⇢ Motivation * ⇢ ⇢ Introducing `photoalbum.sh` * ⇢ ⇢ Installation * ⇢ ⇢ Setting it up @@ -31,14 +36,6 @@ * ⇢ ⇢ HTML templates * ⇢ ⇢ Conclusion -## Motivation - -Once in a while, I share photos on the inter-web with either family and friends or on my The Irregular Ninja photo site. One hobby of mine is photography (even though I don't have enough time for it - so I am primarily a point-and-shoot photographer). - -I'm not particularly eager to use any photo social sharing platforms such as Flickr, 500px (I used them regularly in the past), etc., anymore. I value self-hosting, DIY and privacy (nobody should data mine my photos), and no third party should have any rights to my pictures. - -I value KISS (keep it simple and stupid) and simplicity. All that's required for a web photo album is some simple HTML and spice it up with CSS. No need for JavaScript, no need for a complex dynamic website. - ## Introducing `photoalbum.sh` `photoalbum.sh` is a minimal Bash (Bourne Again Shell) script for Unix-like operating systems (such as Linux) to generate static web photo albums. The resulting static photo album is pure HTML+CSS (without any JavaScript!). It is specially designed to be as simple as possible. diff --git a/gemfeed/2023-10-29-kiss-static-web-photo-albums-with-photoalbum.sh.gmi.tpl b/gemfeed/2023-10-29-kiss-static-web-photo-albums-with-photoalbum.sh.gmi.tpl index adb4a2db..451448fd 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2023-10-29-kiss-static-web-photo-albums-with-photoalbum.sh.gmi.tpl +++ b/gemfeed/2023-10-29-kiss-static-web-photo-albums-with-photoalbum.sh.gmi.tpl @@ -2,6 +2,12 @@ > Published at 2023-10-29T22:25:04+02:00 +Once in a while, I share photos on the inter-web with either family and friends or on my The Irregular Ninja photo site. One hobby of mine is photography (even though I don't have enough time for it - so I am primarily a point-and-shoot photographer). + +I'm not particularly eager to use any photo social sharing platforms such as Flickr, 500px (I used them regularly in the past), etc., anymore. I value self-hosting, DIY and privacy (nobody should data mine my photos), and no third party should have any rights to my pictures. + +I value KISS (keep it simple and stupid) and simplicity. All that's required for a web photo album is some simple HTML and spice it up with CSS. No need for JavaScript, no need for a complex dynamic website. + ``` ___ .---------.._ ______!fsc!_....-' .g8888888p. '-------....._ @@ -21,14 +27,6 @@ << template::inline::toc -## Motivation - -Once in a while, I share photos on the inter-web with either family and friends or on my The Irregular Ninja photo site. One hobby of mine is photography (even though I don't have enough time for it - so I am primarily a point-and-shoot photographer). - -I'm not particularly eager to use any photo social sharing platforms such as Flickr, 500px (I used them regularly in the past), etc., anymore. I value self-hosting, DIY and privacy (nobody should data mine my photos), and no third party should have any rights to my pictures. - -I value KISS (keep it simple and stupid) and simplicity. All that's required for a web photo album is some simple HTML and spice it up with CSS. No need for JavaScript, no need for a complex dynamic website. - ## Introducing `photoalbum.sh` `photoalbum.sh` is a minimal Bash (Bourne Again Shell) script for Unix-like operating systems (such as Linux) to generate static web photo albums. The resulting static photo album is pure HTML+CSS (without any JavaScript!). It is specially designed to be as simple as possible. diff --git a/gemfeed/2023-11-11-mind-management-book-notes.gmi b/gemfeed/2023-11-11-mind-management-book-notes.gmi index a8751977..d9e8f538 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2023-11-11-mind-management-book-notes.gmi +++ b/gemfeed/2023-11-11-mind-management-book-notes.gmi @@ -2,21 +2,6 @@ > Published at 2023-11-11T22:21:47+02:00 -## Table of Contents - -* ⇢ "Mind Management" book notes -* ⇢ ⇢ Introduction -* ⇢ ⇢ Empty slots in the calendar -* ⇢ ⇢ When you safe time... -* ⇢ ⇢ Follow your mood -* ⇢ ⇢ Boosting creativity -* ⇢ ⇢ The right mood for the task at hand -* ⇢ ⇢ Creativity hacks -* ⇢ ⇢ Planning and strategizing -* ⇢ ⇢ Fake it until you make it. - -## Introduction - These are my personal takeaways after reading "Mind Management" by David Kadavy. Note that the book contains much more knowledge wisdom and that these notes only contain points I personally found worth writing down. This is mainly for my own use, but you might find it helpful too. ``` @@ -31,6 +16,21 @@ These are my personal takeaways after reading "Mind Management" by David Kadavy. ''' ``` +## Table of Contents + +* ⇢ "Mind Management" book notes +* ⇢ ⇢ It's not about time management +* ⇢ ⇢ Empty slots in the calendar +* ⇢ ⇢ When you safe time... +* ⇢ ⇢ Follow your mood +* ⇢ ⇢ Boosting creativity +* ⇢ ⇢ The right mood for the task at hand +* ⇢ ⇢ Creativity hacks +* ⇢ ⇢ Planning and strategizing +* ⇢ ⇢ Fake it until you make it. + +## It's not about time management + Productivity isn't about time management - it's about mind management. When you put a lot of effort into something, there are: * The point of diminishing returns diff --git a/gemfeed/2023-11-11-mind-management-book-notes.gmi.tpl b/gemfeed/2023-11-11-mind-management-book-notes.gmi.tpl index 258b869d..2cda92b0 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2023-11-11-mind-management-book-notes.gmi.tpl +++ b/gemfeed/2023-11-11-mind-management-book-notes.gmi.tpl @@ -2,10 +2,6 @@ > Published at 2023-11-11T22:21:47+02:00 -<< template::inline::toc - -## Introduction - These are my personal takeaways after reading "Mind Management" by David Kadavy. Note that the book contains much more knowledge wisdom and that these notes only contain points I personally found worth writing down. This is mainly for my own use, but you might find it helpful too. ``` @@ -20,6 +16,10 @@ These are my personal takeaways after reading "Mind Management" by David Kadavy. ''' ``` +<< template::inline::toc + +## It's not about time management + Productivity isn't about time management - it's about mind management. When you put a lot of effort into something, there are: * The point of diminishing returns diff --git a/gemfeed/2023-12-10-bash-golf-part-3.gmi b/gemfeed/2023-12-10-bash-golf-part-3.gmi index 1857e286..9b9a5e6c 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2023-12-10-bash-golf-part-3.gmi +++ b/gemfeed/2023-12-10-bash-golf-part-3.gmi @@ -2,6 +2,12 @@ > Published at 2023-12-10T11:35:54+02:00 +This is the third blog post about my Bash Golf series. This series is random Bash tips, tricks, and weirdnesses I have encountered over time. + +=> ./2021-11-29-bash-golf-part-1.gmi 2021-11-29 Bash Golf Part 1 +=> ./2022-01-01-bash-golf-part-2.gmi 2022-01-01 Bash Golf Part 2 +=> ./2023-12-10-bash-golf-part-3.gmi 2023-12-10 Bash Golf Part 3 (You are currently reading this) + ``` '\ '\ '\ . . |>18>> @@ -17,7 +23,6 @@ jgs^^^^^^^`^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ## Table of Contents * ⇢ Bash Golf Part 3 -* ⇢ ⇢ Introduction * ⇢ ⇢ `FUNCNAME` * ⇢ ⇢ `:(){ :|:& };:` * ⇢ ⇢ Inner functions @@ -27,14 +32,6 @@ jgs^^^^^^^`^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ * ⇢ ⇢ Multi-line comments * ⇢ ⇢ Don't change it while it's executed -## Introduction - -This is the third blog post about my Bash Golf series. This series is random Bash tips, tricks, and weirdnesses I have encountered over time. - -=> ./2021-11-29-bash-golf-part-1.gmi 2021-11-29 Bash Golf Part 1 -=> ./2022-01-01-bash-golf-part-2.gmi 2022-01-01 Bash Golf Part 2 -=> ./2023-12-10-bash-golf-part-3.gmi 2023-12-10 Bash Golf Part 3 (You are currently reading this) - ## `FUNCNAME` `FUNCNAME` is an array you are looking for a way to dynamically determine the name of the current function (which could be considered the callee in the context of its own execution), you can use the special variable `FUNCNAME`. This is an array variable that contains the names of all shell functions currently in the execution call stack. The element `FUNCNAME[0]` holds the name of the currently executing function, `FUNCNAME[1]` the name of the function that called that, and so on. diff --git a/gemfeed/2023-12-10-bash-golf-part-3.gmi.tpl b/gemfeed/2023-12-10-bash-golf-part-3.gmi.tpl index 6fbd56f5..33c134cd 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2023-12-10-bash-golf-part-3.gmi.tpl +++ b/gemfeed/2023-12-10-bash-golf-part-3.gmi.tpl @@ -2,6 +2,10 @@ > Published at 2023-12-10T11:35:54+02:00 +This is the third blog post about my Bash Golf series. This series is random Bash tips, tricks, and weirdnesses I have encountered over time. + +<< template::inline::index bash-golf + ``` '\ '\ '\ . . |>18>> @@ -16,12 +20,6 @@ jgs^^^^^^^`^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ << template::inline::toc -## Introduction - -This is the third blog post about my Bash Golf series. This series is random Bash tips, tricks, and weirdnesses I have encountered over time. - -<< template::inline::index bash-golf - ## `FUNCNAME` `FUNCNAME` is an array you are looking for a way to dynamically determine the name of the current function (which could be considered the callee in the context of its own execution), you can use the special variable `FUNCNAME`. This is an array variable that contains the names of all shell functions currently in the execution call stack. The element `FUNCNAME[0]` holds the name of the currently executing function, `FUNCNAME[1]` the name of the function that called that, and so on. diff --git a/gemfeed/2024-02-04-from-babylon5.buetow.org-to-.cloud.gmi b/gemfeed/2024-02-04-from-babylon5.buetow.org-to-.cloud.gmi index e33dbf46..bd2d7519 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2024-02-04-from-babylon5.buetow.org-to-.cloud.gmi +++ b/gemfeed/2024-02-04-from-babylon5.buetow.org-to-.cloud.gmi @@ -8,6 +8,23 @@ So, I migrated all of my Docker-based self-hosted services to AWS. Usually, I am => ./from-.org-to-.cloud/old-man-yells-at-cloud.jpg Old man yells at cloud +## Table of Contents + +* ⇢ From `babylon5.buetow.org` to `*.buetow.cloud` +* ⇢ ⇢ The old `*.buetow.org` way +* ⇢ ⇢ I kept my `buetow.org` OpenBSD boxes alive +* ⇢ ⇢ The new `*.buetow.cloud` way +* ⇢ ⇢ The container apps +* ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ `flux.buetow.cloud` +* ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ `audiobookshelf.buetow.cloud` +* ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ `syncthing.buetow.cloud` +* ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ `radicale.buetow.cloud` +* ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ `bag.buetow.cloud` +* ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ `anki.buetow.cloud` +* ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ `vault.buetow.cloud` +* ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ `bastion.buetow.cloud` +* ⇢ ⇢ Conclusion + ## The old `*.buetow.org` way Before the migration, all those services were reachable through `buetow.org`-subdomains (Buetow is my last name) and ran on Docker containers on a single Rocky Linux 9 VM at Hetzner. And there was a Nginx reverse proxy with TLS offloading (with Let's Encrypt certificates). The Rocky Linux 9's hostname was `babylon5.buetow.org` (based on the Science Fiction series). diff --git a/gemfeed/2024-02-04-from-babylon5.buetow.org-to-.cloud.gmi.tpl b/gemfeed/2024-02-04-from-babylon5.buetow.org-to-.cloud.gmi.tpl new file mode 100644 index 00000000..67419606 --- /dev/null +++ b/gemfeed/2024-02-04-from-babylon5.buetow.org-to-.cloud.gmi.tpl @@ -0,0 +1,165 @@ +# From `babylon5.buetow.org` to `*.buetow.cloud` + +> Published at 2024-02-04T00:50:50+02:00 + +Recently, my employer sent me to a week-long AWS course. After the course, there wasn't any hands-on project I could dive into immediately, so I moved parts of my personal infrastructure to AWS to level up a bit through practical hands-on. + +So, I migrated all of my Docker-based self-hosted services to AWS. Usually, I am not a big fan of big cloud providers and instead use smaller hosters or indie providers and self-made solutions. However, I also must go with the times and try out technologies currently hot on the job market. I don't want to become the old man who yells at cloud :D + +=> ./from-.org-to-.cloud/old-man-yells-at-cloud.jpg Old man yells at cloud + +<< template::inline::toc + +## The old `*.buetow.org` way + +Before the migration, all those services were reachable through `buetow.org`-subdomains (Buetow is my last name) and ran on Docker containers on a single Rocky Linux 9 VM at Hetzner. And there was a Nginx reverse proxy with TLS offloading (with Let's Encrypt certificates). The Rocky Linux 9's hostname was `babylon5.buetow.org` (based on the Science Fiction series). + +=> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babylon_5 + +The downsides of this setup were: + +* Not highly available. If the server goes down, no service is reachable until it's repaired. To be fair, the Hetzner cloud VM is redundant by itself and would have re-spawned on a different worker node, I suppose. +* Manual installation. + +About the manual installation part: I could have used a configuration management system like Rexify, Puppet, etc. But I decided against it back in time, as setting up Docker containers isn't so complicated through simple start scripts. And it's only a single Linux box where a manual installation is less painful. However, regular backups (which Hetzner can do automatically for you) were a must. + +The benefits of this setup were: + +* KISS (Keep it Simple Stupid) +* Cheap + +## I kept my `buetow.org` OpenBSD boxes alive + +As pointed out, I only migrated the Docker-based self-hosted services (which run on the Babylon 5 Rocky Linux box) to AWS. Many self-hostable apps come with ready-to-use container images, making deploying them easy. + +My other two OpenBSD VMs (`blowfish.buetow.org`, hosted at Hetzner, and `fishfinger.buetow.org`, hosted at OpenBSD Amsterdam) still run (and they will keep running) the following services: + +* HTTP server for my websites (e.g. `https://foo.zone`, ...) +* ACME for Let's Encrypt TLS certificate auto-renewal. +* Gemini server for my capsules (e.g. `gemini://foo.zone`) +* Authoritative DNS servers for my domains (but `buetow.cloud`, which is on Route 53 now) +* Mail transfer agent (MTA) +* My Gogios monitoring system. +* My IRC bouncer. + +It is all automated with Rex, aka Rexify. This OpenBSD setup is my "fun" or "for pleasure" setup. Whereas the Rocky Linux 9 one I always considered the "pratical means to the end"-setup to have 3rd party Docker containers up and running with as little work as possible. + +=> https://www.rexify.org (R)?ex, the friendly automation framework +=> ./2023-06-01-kiss-server-monitoring-with-gogios.gmi KISS server monitoring with Gogios +=> ./2022-07-30-lets-encrypt-with-openbsd-and-rex.gmi Let's encrypt with OpenBSD and Rex + +## The new `*.buetow.cloud` way + +With AWS, I decided to get myself a new domain name, as I could fully separate my AWS setup from my conventional setup and give Route 53 as an authoritative DNS a spin. + +I decided to automate everything with Terraform, as I wanted to learn to use it as it appears standard now in the job market. + +All services are installed automatically to AWS ECS Fargate. ECS is AWS's Elastic Container Service, and Fargate automatically manages the underlying hardware infrastructure (e.g., how many CPUs, RAM, etc.) for me. So I don't have to bother about having enough EC2 instances to serve my demands, for example. + +The authoritative DNS for the `buetow.cloud` domain is AWS Route 53. TLS certificates are free here at AWS and offloaded through the AWS Application Load Balancer. The LB acts as a proxy to the ECS container instances of the services. A few services I run in ECS Fargate also require the AWS Network Load Balancer. + +All services require some persistent storage. For that, I use an encrypted EFS file system, automatically replicated across all AZs (availability zones) of my region of choice, `eu-central-1`. + +In case of an AZ outage, I could re-deploy all the failed containers in another AZ, and all the data would still be there. + +The EFS automatically gets backed up by AWS for me following their standard Backup schedule. The daily backups are kept for 30 days. + +Domain registration, TLS certificate configuration and configuration of the EFS backup were quickly done through the AWS web interface. These were only one-off tasks, so they weren't fully automated through Terraform. + +You can find all Terraform manifests here: + +=> https://codeberg.org/snonux/terraform + +Whereas: + +* `org-buetow-base` sets up the bare VPC (IPv4 and IPv6 subnets in 3 AZs, EFS, ECR (the AWS container registry for some self-built containers) and Route 53 zone. It's the requirement for most other Terraform manifests in this repository. +* `org-buetow-bastion` sets up a minimal Amazon Linux EC2 instance where I can manually SSH into and look at the EFS file system (if required). +* `org-buetow-elb` sets up the Elastic Load Balancer, a prerequisite for any service running in ECS Fargate. +* `org-buetow-ecs` finally sets up and deploys all the Docker apps mentioned above. Any apps can be turned on or off via the `variables.tf` file. + +## The container apps + +And here, finally, is the list of all the container apps my Terraform manifests deploy. The FQDNs here may not be reachable. I spin them up only on demand (for cost reasons). All services are fully dual-stacked (IPv4 & IPv6). + +### `flux.buetow.cloud` + +Miniflux is a minimalist and opinionated feed reader. With the move to AWS, I also retired my bloated instance of NextCloud. So, with Miniflux, I retired from NextCloud News. + +Miniflux requires two ECS containers. One is the Miniflux app, and the other is the PostgreSQL DB. + +=> https://miniflux.app/ + + +### `audiobookshelf.buetow.cloud` + +Audiobookshelf was the first Docker app I installed. It is a Self-hosted audiobook and podcast server. It comes with a neat web interface, and there is also an Android app available, which works also in offline mode. This is great, as I only have the ECS instance sometimes running for cost savings. + +With Audiobookshelf, I replaced my former Audible subscription and my separate Podcast app. For Podcast synchronisation I used to use the Gpodder NextCloud sync app. But that one I retired now with Audiobookshelf as well :-) + +=> https://www.audiobookshelf.org + +### `syncthing.buetow.cloud` + +Syncthing is a continuous file synchronisation program. In real-time, it synchronises files between two or more computers, safely protected from prying eyes. Your data is your own, and you deserve to choose where it is stored, whether it is shared with some third party, and how it's transmitted over the internet. + +With Syncthing, I retired my old NextCloud Files and file sync client on all my devices. I also quit my NextCloud Notes setup. All my Notes are now plain Markdown files in a `Notes` directory. On Android, I can edit them with any text or Markdown editor (e.g. Obsidian), and they will be synchronised via Syncthing to my other computers, both forward and back. + +I use Syncthing to synchronise some of my Phone's data (e.g. Notes, Pictures and other documents). Initially, I synced all of my pictures, videos, etc., with AWS. But that was pretty expensive. So for now, I use it only whilst travelling. Otherwise, I will use my Syncthing instance here on my LAN (I have a cheap cloud backup in AWS S3 Glacier Deep Archive, but that's for another blog post). + +=> https://syncthing.net/ + +### `radicale.buetow.cloud` + +Radicale is an excellent minimalist WebDAV calendar and contact synchronisation server. It was good enough to replace my NextCloud Calendar and NextCloud Contacts setup. Unfortunately, there wasn't a ready-to-use Docker image. So, I created my own. + +On Android, it works great together with the DAVx5 client for synchronisation. + +=> https://radicale.org/ +=> https://codeberg.org/snonux/docker-radicale-server +=> https://www.davx5.com/ + +### `bag.buetow.cloud` + +Wallabag is a self-hostable "save now - read later" service, and it also comes with an Android app which also has an offline mode. Think of Getpocket, but open-source! + +=> https://wallabag.org/ +=> https://github.com/wallabag/wallabag + +### `anki.buetow.cloud` + +Anki is a great (the greatest) flash-card learning program. I am currently learning Bulgarian as my 3rd language. There is also an Android app that has an offline mode, and advanced users can also self-host the server `anki-sync-server`. For some reason (not going into the details here), I had to build my own Docker image for the server. + +=> https://apps.ankiweb.net/ +=> https://codeberg.org/snonux/docker-anki-sync-server + +### `vault.buetow.cloud` + +Vaultwarden is an alternative implementation of the Bitwarden server API written in Rust and compatible with upstream Bitwarden clients, perfect for self-hosted deployment where running the official resource-heavy service might not be ideal. So, this is a great password manager server which can be used with any Bitwarden Android app. + +I currently don't use it, but I may in the future. I made it available in my ECS Fargate setup anyway for now. + +=> https://github.com/dani-garcia/vaultwarden + +I currently use `geheim`, a Ruby command line tool I wrote, as my current password manager. You can read a little bit about it here under "More": + +=> ./2022-06-15-sweating-the-small-stuff.gmi Sweating the small stuff + +### `bastion.buetow.cloud` + +This is a tiny ARM-based Amazon Linux EC2 instance, which I sometimes spin up for investigation or manual work on my EFS file system in AWS. + +## Conclusion + +I have learned a lot about AWS and Terraform during this migration. This was actually my first AWS hands-on project with practical use. + +All of this was not particularly difficult (but at times a bit confusing). I see the use of Terraform managing more extensive infrastructures (it was even helpful for my small setup here). At least I know now what all the buzz is about :-). I don't think Terraform's HCL is a nice language. It get's it's job done, but it could be more elegant IMHO. + +Deploying updates to AWS are much easier, and some of the manual maintenance burdens of my Rocky Linux 9 VM are no longer needed. So I will have more time for other projects! + +Will I keep it in the cloud? I don't know yet. But maybe I won't renew the `buetow.cloud` domain and instead will use `*.cloud.buetow.org` or `*.aws.buetow.org` subdomains. + +Will the AWS setup be cheaper than my old Rocky Linux setup? It might be more affordable as I only turn ECS and the load balancers on or off on-demand. Time will tell! The first forecasts suggest that it will be around the same costs. + +E-Mail your comments to `paul@nospam.buetow.org` :-) + +=> ../ Back to the main site diff --git a/gemfeed/2024-03-03-a-fine-fyne-android-app-for-quickly-logging-ideas-programmed-in-golang.gmi b/gemfeed/2024-03-03-a-fine-fyne-android-app-for-quickly-logging-ideas-programmed-in-golang.gmi index d38778aa..1d62ffa7 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2024-03-03-a-fine-fyne-android-app-for-quickly-logging-ideas-programmed-in-golang.gmi +++ b/gemfeed/2024-03-03-a-fine-fyne-android-app-for-quickly-logging-ideas-programmed-in-golang.gmi @@ -2,20 +2,20 @@ > Published at 2024-03-03T00:07:21+02:00 -## Table of Contents - -* ⇢ A fine Fyne Android app for quickly logging ideas programmed in Go -* ⇢ ⇢ Introduction -* ⇢ ⇢ All easy-peasy? - -## Introduction - I am an ideas person. I find myself frequently somewhere on the streets with an idea in my head but no paper journal noting it down. I have tried many note apps for my Android (I use GrapheneOS) phone. Most of them either don't do what I want, are proprietary software, require Google Play services (I have the main profile on my phone de-googled) or are too bloated. I was never into mobile app development, as I'm not too fond of the complexity of the developer toolchains. I don't want to use Android Studio (as a NeoVim user), and I don't want to use Java or Kotlin. I want to use a language I know (and like) for mobile app development. Go would be one of those languages. => a-fine-fyne-android-app-for-quickly-logging-ideas-programmed-in-golang/logo-small.png Quick logger Logo +## Table of Contents + +* ⇢ A fine Fyne Android app for quickly logging ideas programmed in Go +* ⇢ ⇢ Enter Quick logger +* ⇢ ⇢ All easy-peasy? + +## Enter Quick logger + Enter Quick logger – a compact GUI Android (well, cross-platform due to Fyne) app I've crafted using Go and the nifty Fyne framework. With Fyne, the app can be compiled easily into an Android APK. As of this writing, this app's whole Go source code is only 75 lines short!! This little tool is designed for spontaneous moments, allowing me to quickly log my thoughts as plain text files on my Android phone. There are no fancy file formats. Just plain text! => https://codeberg.org/snonux/quicklogger diff --git a/gemfeed/2024-03-03-a-fine-fyne-android-app-for-quickly-logging-ideas-programmed-in-golang.gmi.tpl b/gemfeed/2024-03-03-a-fine-fyne-android-app-for-quickly-logging-ideas-programmed-in-golang.gmi.tpl index 49b8e428..2d9dbbbb 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2024-03-03-a-fine-fyne-android-app-for-quickly-logging-ideas-programmed-in-golang.gmi.tpl +++ b/gemfeed/2024-03-03-a-fine-fyne-android-app-for-quickly-logging-ideas-programmed-in-golang.gmi.tpl @@ -2,16 +2,16 @@ > Published at 2024-03-03T00:07:21+02:00 -<< template::inline::toc - -## Introduction - I am an ideas person. I find myself frequently somewhere on the streets with an idea in my head but no paper journal noting it down. I have tried many note apps for my Android (I use GrapheneOS) phone. Most of them either don't do what I want, are proprietary software, require Google Play services (I have the main profile on my phone de-googled) or are too bloated. I was never into mobile app development, as I'm not too fond of the complexity of the developer toolchains. I don't want to use Android Studio (as a NeoVim user), and I don't want to use Java or Kotlin. I want to use a language I know (and like) for mobile app development. Go would be one of those languages. => a-fine-fyne-android-app-for-quickly-logging-ideas-programmed-in-golang/logo-small.png Quick logger Logo +<< template::inline::toc + +## Enter Quick logger + Enter Quick logger – a compact GUI Android (well, cross-platform due to Fyne) app I've crafted using Go and the nifty Fyne framework. With Fyne, the app can be compiled easily into an Android APK. As of this writing, this app's whole Go source code is only 75 lines short!! This little tool is designed for spontaneous moments, allowing me to quickly log my thoughts as plain text files on my Android phone. There are no fancy file formats. Just plain text! => https://codeberg.org/snonux/quicklogger diff --git a/gemfeed/2024-04-01-KISS-high-availability-with-OpenBSD.gmi b/gemfeed/2024-04-01-KISS-high-availability-with-OpenBSD.gmi index bd6d9eb1..70d36c16 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2024-04-01-KISS-high-availability-with-OpenBSD.gmi +++ b/gemfeed/2024-04-01-KISS-high-availability-with-OpenBSD.gmi @@ -2,6 +2,14 @@ > Published at 2024-03-30T22:12:56+02:00 +I have always wanted a highly available setup for my personal websites. I could have used off-the-shelf hosting solutions or hosted my sites in an AWS S3 bucket. I have used technologies like (in unsorted and slightly unrelated order) BGP, LVS/IPVS, ldirectord, Pacemaker, STONITH, scripted VIP failover via ARP, heartbeat, heartbeat2, Corosync, keepalived, DRBD, and commercial F5 Load Balancers for high availability at work. + +But still, my personal sites were never highly available. All those technologies are great for professional use, but I was looking for something much more straightforward for my personal space - something as KISS (keep it simple and stupid) as possible. + +It would be fine if my personal website wasn't highly available, but the geek in me wants it anyway. + +> PS: ASCII-art below reflects an OpenBSD under-water world with all the tools available in the base system. + ``` Art by Michael J. Penick (mod. by Paul B.) ACME-sky @@ -30,7 +38,6 @@ _____|_:_:_| (o)-(o) |_:_:_|--'`-. ,--. ksh under-water (((\'/ ## Table of Contents * ⇢ KISS high-availability with OpenBSD -* ⇢ ⇢ Introduction * ⇢ ⇢ My auto-failover requirements * ⇢ ⇢ My HA solution * ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ Only OpenBSD base installation required @@ -42,16 +49,6 @@ _____|_:_:_| (o)-(o) |_:_:_|--'`-. ,--. ksh under-water (((\'/ * ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ Rex automation * ⇢ ⇢ More HA -## Introduction - -I have always wanted a highly available setup for my personal websites. I could have used off-the-shelf hosting solutions or hosted my sites in an AWS S3 bucket. I have used technologies like (in unsorted and slightly unrelated order) BGP, LVS/IPVS, ldirectord, Pacemaker, STONITH, scripted VIP failover via ARP, heartbeat, heartbeat2, Corosync, keepalived, DRBD, and commercial F5 Load Balancers for high availability at work. - -But still, my personal sites were never highly available. All those technologies are great for professional use, but I was looking for something much more straightforward for my personal space - something as KISS (keep it simple and stupid) as possible. - -It would be fine if my personal website wasn't highly available, but the geek in me wants it anyway. - -> PS: ASCII-art reflects an OpenBSD under-water world with all the tools available in the base system. - ## My auto-failover requirements * Be OpenBSD-based (I prefer OpenBSD because of the cleanliness and good documentation) and rely on as few external packages as possible. diff --git a/gemfeed/2024-04-01-KISS-high-availability-with-OpenBSD.gmi.tpl b/gemfeed/2024-04-01-KISS-high-availability-with-OpenBSD.gmi.tpl index 70f31f21..1d0bbfde 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2024-04-01-KISS-high-availability-with-OpenBSD.gmi.tpl +++ b/gemfeed/2024-04-01-KISS-high-availability-with-OpenBSD.gmi.tpl @@ -2,6 +2,14 @@ > Published at 2024-03-30T22:12:56+02:00 +I have always wanted a highly available setup for my personal websites. I could have used off-the-shelf hosting solutions or hosted my sites in an AWS S3 bucket. I have used technologies like (in unsorted and slightly unrelated order) BGP, LVS/IPVS, ldirectord, Pacemaker, STONITH, scripted VIP failover via ARP, heartbeat, heartbeat2, Corosync, keepalived, DRBD, and commercial F5 Load Balancers for high availability at work. + +But still, my personal sites were never highly available. All those technologies are great for professional use, but I was looking for something much more straightforward for my personal space - something as KISS (keep it simple and stupid) as possible. + +It would be fine if my personal website wasn't highly available, but the geek in me wants it anyway. + +> PS: ASCII-art below reflects an OpenBSD under-water world with all the tools available in the base system. + ``` Art by Michael J. Penick (mod. by Paul B.) ACME-sky @@ -29,16 +37,6 @@ _____|_:_:_| (o)-(o) |_:_:_|--'`-. ,--. ksh under-water (((\'/ << template::inline::toc -## Introduction - -I have always wanted a highly available setup for my personal websites. I could have used off-the-shelf hosting solutions or hosted my sites in an AWS S3 bucket. I have used technologies like (in unsorted and slightly unrelated order) BGP, LVS/IPVS, ldirectord, Pacemaker, STONITH, scripted VIP failover via ARP, heartbeat, heartbeat2, Corosync, keepalived, DRBD, and commercial F5 Load Balancers for high availability at work. - -But still, my personal sites were never highly available. All those technologies are great for professional use, but I was looking for something much more straightforward for my personal space - something as KISS (keep it simple and stupid) as possible. - -It would be fine if my personal website wasn't highly available, but the geek in me wants it anyway. - -> PS: ASCII-art reflects an OpenBSD under-water world with all the tools available in the base system. - ## My auto-failover requirements * Be OpenBSD-based (I prefer OpenBSD because of the cleanliness and good documentation) and rely on as few external packages as possible. diff --git a/gemfeed/2024-05-01-slow-productivity-book-notes.gmi b/gemfeed/2024-05-01-slow-productivity-book-notes.gmi index 0f0b9a8c..0766e8cd 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2024-05-01-slow-productivity-book-notes.gmi +++ b/gemfeed/2024-05-01-slow-productivity-book-notes.gmi @@ -2,18 +2,6 @@ > Published at 2024-04-27T14:18:51+03:00 -## Table of Contents - -* ⇢ "Slow Productivity" book notes -* ⇢ ⇢ Introduction -* ⇢ ⇢ Pseudo-productivity and Shallow work -* ⇢ ⇢ Accomplishments without burnout -* ⇢ ⇢ Do fewer things -* ⇢ ⇢ Work at a natural pace -* ⇢ ⇢ Obsess over quality - -## Introduction - These are my personal takeaways after reading "Slow Productivity - The lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout" by Cal Newport. The case studies in this book were a bit long, but they appeared to be well-researched. I will only highlight the interesting, actionable items in the book notes. @@ -32,6 +20,18 @@ These notes are mainly for my own use, but you may find them helpful. ''' ``` +## Table of Contents + +* ⇢ "Slow Productivity" book notes +* ⇢ ⇢ It's not "slow productivity" +* ⇢ ⇢ Pseudo-productivity and Shallow work +* ⇢ ⇢ Accomplishments without burnout +* ⇢ ⇢ Do fewer things +* ⇢ ⇢ Work at a natural pace +* ⇢ ⇢ Obsess over quality + +## It's not "slow productivity" + "Slow productivity" does not mean being less productive. Cal Newport wants to point out that you can be much more productive with "slow productivity" than you would be without it. It is a different way of working than most of us are used to in the modern workplace, which is hyper-connected and always online. ## Pseudo-productivity and Shallow work diff --git a/gemfeed/2024-05-01-slow-productivity-book-notes.gmi.tpl b/gemfeed/2024-05-01-slow-productivity-book-notes.gmi.tpl index 46ec74f5..82cb3ced 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2024-05-01-slow-productivity-book-notes.gmi.tpl +++ b/gemfeed/2024-05-01-slow-productivity-book-notes.gmi.tpl @@ -2,10 +2,6 @@ > Published at 2024-04-27T14:18:51+03:00 -<< template::inline::toc - -## Introduction - These are my personal takeaways after reading "Slow Productivity - The lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout" by Cal Newport. The case studies in this book were a bit long, but they appeared to be well-researched. I will only highlight the interesting, actionable items in the book notes. @@ -24,6 +20,10 @@ These notes are mainly for my own use, but you may find them helpful. ''' ``` +<< template::inline::toc + +## It's not "slow productivity" + "Slow productivity" does not mean being less productive. Cal Newport wants to point out that you can be much more productive with "slow productivity" than you would be without it. It is a different way of working than most of us are used to in the modern workplace, which is hyper-connected and always online. ## Pseudo-productivity and Shallow work diff --git a/gemfeed/2024-05-03-projects-i-currently-dont-have-time-for.gmi b/gemfeed/2024-05-03-projects-i-currently-dont-have-time-for.gmi index 9dd52577..3809376e 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2024-05-03-projects-i-currently-dont-have-time-for.gmi +++ b/gemfeed/2024-05-03-projects-i-currently-dont-have-time-for.gmi @@ -2,6 +2,8 @@ > Published at 2024-05-03T16:23:03+03:00 +Over the years, I have collected many ideas for my personal projects and noted them down. I am currently in the process of cleaning up all my notes and reviewing those ideas. I don’t have time for the ones listed here and won’t have any soon due to other commitments and personal projects. So, in order to "get rid of them" from my notes folder, I decided to simply put them in this blog post so that those ideas don't get lost. Maybe I will pick up one or another idea someday in the future, but for now, they are all put on ice in favor of other personal projects or family time. + ``` Art by Laura Brown @@ -18,7 +20,6 @@ Art by Laura Brown ## Table of Contents * ⇢ Projects I currently don't have time for -* ⇢ ⇢ Introduction * ⇢ ⇢ Hardware projects I don't have time for * ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ I use Arch, btw! * ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ OpenBSD home router @@ -53,10 +54,6 @@ Art by Laura Brown * ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ Project secure * ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ CPU utilisation is all wrong -## Introduction - -Over the years, I have collected many ideas for my personal projects and noted them down. I am currently in the process of cleaning up all my notes and reviewing those ideas. I don’t have time for the ones listed here and won’t have any soon due to other commitments and personal projects. So, in order to "get rid of them" from my notes folder, I decided to simply put them in this blog post so that those ideas don't get lost. Maybe I will pick up one or another idea someday in the future, but for now, they are all put on ice in favor of other personal projects or family time. - ## Hardware projects I don't have time for ### I use Arch, btw! diff --git a/gemfeed/2024-05-03-projects-i-currently-dont-have-time-for.gmi.tpl b/gemfeed/2024-05-03-projects-i-currently-dont-have-time-for.gmi.tpl index 58398d76..afac0b42 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2024-05-03-projects-i-currently-dont-have-time-for.gmi.tpl +++ b/gemfeed/2024-05-03-projects-i-currently-dont-have-time-for.gmi.tpl @@ -2,6 +2,8 @@ > Published at 2024-05-03T16:23:03+03:00 +Over the years, I have collected many ideas for my personal projects and noted them down. I am currently in the process of cleaning up all my notes and reviewing those ideas. I don’t have time for the ones listed here and won’t have any soon due to other commitments and personal projects. So, in order to "get rid of them" from my notes folder, I decided to simply put them in this blog post so that those ideas don't get lost. Maybe I will pick up one or another idea someday in the future, but for now, they are all put on ice in favor of other personal projects or family time. + ``` Art by Laura Brown @@ -17,10 +19,6 @@ Art by Laura Brown << template::inline::toc -## Introduction - -Over the years, I have collected many ideas for my personal projects and noted them down. I am currently in the process of cleaning up all my notes and reviewing those ideas. I don’t have time for the ones listed here and won’t have any soon due to other commitments and personal projects. So, in order to "get rid of them" from my notes folder, I decided to simply put them in this blog post so that those ideas don't get lost. Maybe I will pick up one or another idea someday in the future, but for now, they are all put on ice in favor of other personal projects or family time. - ## Hardware projects I don't have time for ### I use Arch, btw! diff --git a/gemfeed/2024-06-23-terminal-multiplexing-with-tmux.gmi b/gemfeed/2024-06-23-terminal-multiplexing-with-tmux.gmi index ff6b266d..17db3c9f 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2024-06-23-terminal-multiplexing-with-tmux.gmi +++ b/gemfeed/2024-06-23-terminal-multiplexing-with-tmux.gmi @@ -2,6 +2,15 @@ > Published at 2024-06-23T22:41:59+03:00 +Tmux (Terminal Multiplexer) is a powerful, terminal-based tool that manages multiple terminal sessions within a single window. Here are some of its primary features and functionalities: + +* Session management +* Window and Pane management +* Persistent Workspace +* Customization + +=> https://github.com/tmux/tmux/wiki + ``` _______ |.-----.| @@ -17,7 +26,7 @@ jgs `-=========-`() ## Table of Contents * ⇢ Terminal multiplexing with `tmux` -* ⇢ ⇢ Introduction +* ⇢ ⇢ Before continuing... * ⇢ ⇢ Shell aliases * ⇢ ⇢ The `tn` alias - Creating a new session * ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ Cleaning up default sessions automatically @@ -34,16 +43,7 @@ jgs `-=========-`() * ⇢ ⇢ Copy and paste workflow * ⇢ ⇢ Tmux configurations -## Introduction - -Tmux (Terminal Multiplexer) is a powerful, terminal-based tool that manages multiple terminal sessions within a single window. Here are some of its primary features and functionalities: - -* Session management -* Window and Pane management -* Persistent Workspace -* Customization - -=> https://github.com/tmux/tmux/wiki +## Before continuing... Before continuing to read this post, I encourage you to get familiar with Tmux first (unless you already know the basics). You can go through the official getting started guide: diff --git a/gemfeed/2024-06-23-terminal-multiplexing-with-tmux.gmi.tpl b/gemfeed/2024-06-23-terminal-multiplexing-with-tmux.gmi.tpl index 626a2d61..3c729b98 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2024-06-23-terminal-multiplexing-with-tmux.gmi.tpl +++ b/gemfeed/2024-06-23-terminal-multiplexing-with-tmux.gmi.tpl @@ -2,6 +2,15 @@ > Published at 2024-06-23T22:41:59+03:00 +Tmux (Terminal Multiplexer) is a powerful, terminal-based tool that manages multiple terminal sessions within a single window. Here are some of its primary features and functionalities: + +* Session management +* Window and Pane management +* Persistent Workspace +* Customization + +=> https://github.com/tmux/tmux/wiki + ``` _______ |.-----.| @@ -16,16 +25,7 @@ jgs `-=========-`() << template::inline::toc -## Introduction - -Tmux (Terminal Multiplexer) is a powerful, terminal-based tool that manages multiple terminal sessions within a single window. Here are some of its primary features and functionalities: - -* Session management -* Window and Pane management -* Persistent Workspace -* Customization - -=> https://github.com/tmux/tmux/wiki +## Before continuing... Before continuing to read this post, I encourage you to get familiar with Tmux first (unless you already know the basics). You can go through the official getting started guide: diff --git a/gemfeed/2024-07-05-random-weird-things.gmi b/gemfeed/2024-07-05-random-weird-things.gmi index f60b0c9a..88134dc2 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2024-07-05-random-weird-things.gmi +++ b/gemfeed/2024-07-05-random-weird-things.gmi @@ -2,10 +2,20 @@ > Published at 2024-07-05T10:59:59+03:00 +Every so often, I come across random, weird, and unexpected things on the internet. I thought it would be neat to share them here from time to time. As a start, here are ten of them. + +``` + /\_/\ +WHOA!! ( o.o ) + > ^ < + / - \ + / \ + /______\ \ +``` + ## Table of Contents * ⇢ Random Weird Things -* ⇢ ⇢ Introduction * ⇢ ⇢ 1. `bad.horse` traceroute * ⇢ ⇢ 2. ASCII cinema * ⇢ ⇢ 3. Netflix's Hello World application @@ -18,19 +28,6 @@ * ⇢ ⇢ 9. `jq` is a functional programming language * ⇢ ⇢ 10. Regular expression to verify email addresses -## Introduction - -Every so often, I come across random, weird, and unexpected things on the internet. I thought it would be neat to share them here from time to time. As a start, here are ten of them. - -``` - /\_/\ -WHOA!! ( o.o ) - > ^ < - / - \ - / \ - /______\ \ -``` - ## 1. `bad.horse` traceroute Run traceroute to get the poem (or song). diff --git a/gemfeed/2024-07-05-random-weird-things.gmi.tpl b/gemfeed/2024-07-05-random-weird-things.gmi.tpl index fbf75656..a58bf11b 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2024-07-05-random-weird-things.gmi.tpl +++ b/gemfeed/2024-07-05-random-weird-things.gmi.tpl @@ -2,10 +2,6 @@ > Published at 2024-07-05T10:59:59+03:00 -<< template::inline::toc - -## Introduction - Every so often, I come across random, weird, and unexpected things on the internet. I thought it would be neat to share them here from time to time. As a start, here are ten of them. ``` @@ -17,6 +13,8 @@ WHOA!! ( o.o ) /______\ \ ``` +<< template::inline::toc + ## 1. `bad.horse` traceroute Run traceroute to get the poem (or song). diff --git a/gemfeed/2024-07-07-the-stoic-challenge-book-notes.gmi b/gemfeed/2024-07-07-the-stoic-challenge-book-notes.gmi index 2f3415be..8b6a815c 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2024-07-07-the-stoic-challenge-book-notes.gmi +++ b/gemfeed/2024-07-07-the-stoic-challenge-book-notes.gmi @@ -2,15 +2,6 @@ > Published at 2024-07-07T12:46:55+03:00 -## Table of Contents - -* ⇢ "The Stoic Challenge" book notes -* ⇢ ⇢ Introduction -* ⇢ ⇢ Negative visualization -* ⇢ ⇢ Oh, nice trick, you stoic "god"! ;-) - -## Introduction - These are my personal takeaways after reading "The Stoic Challenge: A Philosopher's Guide to Becoming Tougher, Calmer, and More Resilient" by William B. Irvine. ``` @@ -25,6 +16,15 @@ These are my personal takeaways after reading "The Stoic Challenge: A Philosoph ''' ``` +## Table of Contents + +* ⇢ "The Stoic Challenge" book notes +* ⇢ ⇢ Got sets you up for a challenge +* ⇢ ⇢ Negative visualization +* ⇢ ⇢ Oh, nice trick, you stoic "god"! ;-) + +## Got sets you up for a challenge + Gods set you up for a challenge to see how resilient you are. Is getting angry worth the price? If you stay calm then you can find the optimal workaround for the obstacle. Stay calm even with big setbacks. Practice minimalism of negative emotions. Put a positive spin on everything. What should you do if someone wrong you? Don't get angry, there is no point in that, it just makes you suffer. Do the best what you got now and keep calm and carry on. A resilient person will refuse to play the role of a victim. You can develop the setback response skills. Turn a setback. e.g. a handycap, into a personal triumph. diff --git a/gemfeed/2024-07-07-the-stoic-challenge-book-notes.gmi.tpl b/gemfeed/2024-07-07-the-stoic-challenge-book-notes.gmi.tpl index 1d369ab8..b3070b35 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2024-07-07-the-stoic-challenge-book-notes.gmi.tpl +++ b/gemfeed/2024-07-07-the-stoic-challenge-book-notes.gmi.tpl @@ -2,10 +2,6 @@ > Published at 2024-07-07T12:46:55+03:00 -<< template::inline::toc - -## Introduction - These are my personal takeaways after reading "The Stoic Challenge: A Philosopher's Guide to Becoming Tougher, Calmer, and More Resilient" by William B. Irvine. ``` @@ -20,6 +16,10 @@ These are my personal takeaways after reading "The Stoic Challenge: A Philosoph ''' ``` +<< template::inline::toc + +## Got sets you up for a challenge + Gods set you up for a challenge to see how resilient you are. Is getting angry worth the price? If you stay calm then you can find the optimal workaround for the obstacle. Stay calm even with big setbacks. Practice minimalism of negative emotions. Put a positive spin on everything. What should you do if someone wrong you? Don't get angry, there is no point in that, it just makes you suffer. Do the best what you got now and keep calm and carry on. A resilient person will refuse to play the role of a victim. You can develop the setback response skills. Turn a setback. e.g. a handycap, into a personal triumph. diff --git a/gemfeed/2024-08-05-typing-127.1-words-per-minute.gmi b/gemfeed/2024-08-05-typing-127.1-words-per-minute.gmi index b6b848bd..97ddb0f5 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2024-08-05-typing-127.1-words-per-minute.gmi +++ b/gemfeed/2024-08-05-typing-127.1-words-per-minute.gmi @@ -2,6 +2,14 @@ > Published at 2024-08-05T17:39:30+03:00 +After work one day, I noticed some discomfort in my right wrist. Upon research, it appeared to be a mild case of Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI). Initially, I thought that this would go away after a while, but after a week it became even worse. This led me to consider potential causes such as poor posture or keyboard use habits. As an enthusiast of keyboards, I experimented with ergonomic concave ortholinear split keyboards. Wait, what?... + +* Concave: Some fingers are longer than others. A concave keyboard makes it so that the keycaps meant to be pressed by the longer fingers are further down (e.g., left middle finger for `e` on a Qwerty layout), and keycaps meant to be pressed by shorter fingers are further up (e.g., right pinky finger for the letter `p`). +* Ortholinear: The keys are arranged in a straight vertical line, unlike most conventional keyboards. The conventional keyboards still resemble the old typewriters, where the placement of the keys was optimized so that the typewriter would not jam. There is no such requirement anymore. +* Split: The keyboard is split into two halves (left and right), allowing one to place either hand where it is most ergonomic. + +After discovering ThePrimagen (I found him long ago, but I never bothered buying the same keyboard he is on) on YouTube and reading/watching a couple of reviews, I thought that as a computer professional, the equipment could be expensive anyway (laptop, adjustable desk, comfortable chair), so why not invest a bit more into the keyboard? I purchased myself the Kinesis Advantage360 Professional keyboard. + ``` ,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,-------, |1/2| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 0 | + | ' | <- | @@ -20,7 +28,6 @@ ## Table of Contents * ⇢ Typing `127.1` words per minute (`>100wpm average`) -* ⇢ ⇢ Introduction * ⇢ ⇢ Kinesis review * ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ Top build quality * ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ Bluetooth connectivity @@ -46,16 +53,6 @@ * ⇢ ⇢ Upcoming custom Kinesis build * ⇢ ⇢ Conclusion -## Introduction - -After work one day, I noticed some discomfort in my right wrist. Upon research, it appeared to be a mild case of Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI). Initially, I thought that this would go away after a while, but after a week it became even worse. This led me to consider potential causes such as poor posture or keyboard use habits. As an enthusiast of keyboards, I experimented with ergonomic concave ortholinear split keyboards. Wait, what?... - -* Concave: Some fingers are longer than others. A concave keyboard makes it so that the keycaps meant to be pressed by the longer fingers are further down (e.g., left middle finger for `e` on a Qwerty layout), and keycaps meant to be pressed by shorter fingers are further up (e.g., right pinky finger for the letter `p`). -* Ortholinear: The keys are arranged in a straight vertical line, unlike most conventional keyboards. The conventional keyboards still resemble the old typewriters, where the placement of the keys was optimized so that the typewriter would not jam. There is no such requirement anymore. -* Split: The keyboard is split into two halves (left and right), allowing one to place either hand where it is most ergonomic. - -After discovering ThePrimagen (I found him long ago, but I never bothered buying the same keyboard he is on) on YouTube and reading/watching a couple of reviews, I thought that as a computer professional, the equipment could be expensive anyway (laptop, adjustable desk, comfortable chair), so why not invest a bit more into the keyboard? I purchased myself the Kinesis Advantage360 Professional keyboard. - ## Kinesis review For an in-depth review, have a look at this great article: diff --git a/gemfeed/2024-08-05-typing-127.1-words-per-minute.gmi.tpl b/gemfeed/2024-08-05-typing-127.1-words-per-minute.gmi.tpl index 62630df6..4e83bb34 100644 --- a/gemfeed/2024-08-05-typing-127.1-words-per-minute.gmi.tpl +++ b/gemfeed/2024-08-05-typing-127.1-words-per-minute.gmi.tpl @@ -2,6 +2,14 @@ > Published at 2024-08-05T17:39:30+03:00 +After work one day, I noticed some discomfort in my right wrist. Upon research, it appeared to be a mild case of Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI). Initially, I thought that this would go away after a while, but after a week it became even worse. This led me to consider potential causes such as poor posture or keyboard use habits. As an enthusiast of keyboards, I experimented with ergonomic concave ortholinear split keyboards. Wait, what?... + +* Concave: Some fingers are longer than others. A concave keyboard makes it so that the keycaps meant to be pressed by the longer fingers are further down (e.g., left middle finger for `e` on a Qwerty layout), and keycaps meant to be pressed by shorter fingers are further up (e.g., right pinky finger for the letter `p`). +* Ortholinear: The keys are arranged in a straight vertical line, unlike most conventional keyboards. The conventional keyboards still resemble the old typewriters, where the placement of the keys was optimized so that the typewriter would not jam. There is no such requirement anymore. +* Split: The keyboard is split into two halves (left and right), allowing one to place either hand where it is most ergonomic. + +After discovering ThePrimagen (I found him long ago, but I never bothered buying the same keyboard he is on) on YouTube and reading/watching a couple of reviews, I thought that as a computer professional, the equipment could be expensive anyway (laptop, adjustable desk, comfortable chair), so why not invest a bit more into the keyboard? I purchased myself the Kinesis Advantage360 Professional keyboard. + ``` ,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,-------, |1/2| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 0 | + | ' | <- | @@ -19,16 +27,6 @@ << template::inline::toc -## Introduction - -After work one day, I noticed some discomfort in my right wrist. Upon research, it appeared to be a mild case of Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI). Initially, I thought that this would go away after a while, but after a week it became even worse. This led me to consider potential causes such as poor posture or keyboard use habits. As an enthusiast of keyboards, I experimented with ergonomic concave ortholinear split keyboards. Wait, what?... - -* Concave: Some fingers are longer than others. A concave keyboard makes it so that the keycaps meant to be pressed by the longer fingers are further down (e.g., left middle finger for `e` on a Qwerty layout), and keycaps meant to be pressed by shorter fingers are further up (e.g., right pinky finger for the letter `p`). -* Ortholinear: The keys are arranged in a straight vertical line, unlike most conventional keyboards. The conventional keyboards still resemble the old typewriters, where the placement of the keys was optimized so that the typewriter would not jam. There is no such requirement anymore. -* Split: The keyboard is split into two halves (left and right), allowing one to place either hand where it is most ergonomic. - -After discovering ThePrimagen (I found him long ago, but I never bothered buying the same keyboard he is on) on YouTube and reading/watching a couple of reviews, I thought that as a computer professional, the equipment could be expensive anyway (laptop, adjustable desk, comfortable chair), so why not invest a bit more into the keyboard? I purchased myself the Kinesis Advantage360 Professional keyboard. - ## Kinesis review For an in-depth review, have a look at this great article: diff --git a/gemfeed/DRAFT-site-reliability-engineering.gmi.tpl b/gemfeed/DRAFT-site-reliability-engineering.gmi.tpl new file mode 100644 index 00000000..be26119e --- /dev/null +++ b/gemfeed/DRAFT-site-reliability-engineering.gmi.tpl @@ -0,0 +1,152 @@ +## System Design and Incident Analysis: Building Resilience in the SRE Landscape + +A significant portion of the work revolves around system design and incident analysis. + +The first axiom is the acceptance of a bitter truth: things will always break. No matter the precision of which a system is crafted, the inevitability of failures looms large. However, what distinguishes a well-designed system from a mediocre one is its ability to minimise and contain cascading failures. These failures, if left unchecked, can spiral into global outages with come with consequences. + +There's a growing emphasis on building resilient systems to avoid such cascading failures to circumvent this. Such resilience requires foresight in system design, wherein potential weakpoints are identified and addressed before deployed to production. Prevention is better than cure. The primary objective is ensuring that services remain uninterrupted and dependable. + +Yet, despite these preventative measures, when incidents do arise, their analysis becomes a goldmine of learning. Every incident exposes gaps within the system. Instead of attributing these incidents to nebulous concepts like "human error," the onus is on dissecting them to uncover underlying systemic issues. Whether it's a tooling gap where operational tools prove insufficient or an operational expertise gap where engineers lack critical skills, incident analysis shines a light on these deficiencies. + +In doing so, incident analysis is about rectifying the immediate issue and learning and evolving the system design. Every incident offers an opportunity, a feedback loop, to refine the system further. Through rigorous postmortems focusing on customer impact, organisations can distil valuable lessons. These lessons, when incorporated, make the system more robust and less susceptible to similar failures in the future. + +Moreover, as systems grow more complex, the importance of observability tools cannot be overstated. These tools, designed to query against high cardinality data, provide granular insights into system operations. They enable engineers to diagnose problems rapidly, especially in the chaotic aftermath of an incident, giving clarity amidst the turmoil. + +In conclusion, the symbiotic relationship between system design and incident analysis underscores the evolving ethos of SRE. While impeccable system design lays the foundation for reliable operations, incident analysis ensures that this foundation remains robust and dynamic, adapting to challenges. Together, they form the pillars of a resilient, customer-centric service environment that stands the test of time. + +Add paragraph about product wants features, but observability is often an afterthought. So often, during an incident, people start agreeing, and then it was already too late. + +=> add 6 minutes to wt. + +## The Heroic Facade and Team Dynamics: Rethinking Success in SRE + +The realm of Site Reliability Engineering is punctuated by the constant ebb and flow of system challenges. While individual excellence is commendable, the overarching belief in the SRE culture should be that true success lies in cohesive teamwork and not in individual heroics. + +he SRE Hero is an anti-pattern that can occur when a few individuals consistently step in to save the day during incidents or emergencies, earning themselves the status of heroes. While this might seem positive at first, it can lead to several negative outcomes and should be addressed to ensure the reliability and sustainability of the SRE team's operations. These individuals might possess specialized knowledge, quick problem-solving skills, or simply a willingness to work long hours. As a result, they become the go-to people whenever something goes wrong. + +This culture can emerge for various reasons: + +- Immediate Problem Solving: Heroes are praised for their ability to solve issues quickly. However, this may lead to bypassing proper post-incident analysis and learning, as the focus is on getting systems up and running as fast as possible. + +- Burnout and Fatigue: Heroes are often overworked and stressed, leading to burnout and high turnover rates. + +- Skill Asymmetry: If only a few team members possess specific knowledge or skills, others may not have the chance to learn, grow, and take on more responsibilities. + +- Dependency: Teams become dependent on heroes, leading to a lack of collaboration and shared ownership of systems. + +How can you fix it? + +- Incident Reviews and Post-Mortems: Conduct thorough post-incident reviews to understand the root causes of issues. Focus on learning and prevention rather than just quick fixes. + +- Distribute Knowledge: Encourage knowledge sharing by documenting incidents, solutions, and best practices. Consider implementing a knowledge-sharing platform or wiki. + +- Rotating Responsibilities: Rotate on-call and incident response responsibilities among team members. This prevents burnout and ensures that everyone gains experience. + +- Automation and Tooling: Develop automation and tools that enable the entire team to handle incidents more effectively, reducing the reliance on individual heroics. + +- Training and Skill Development: Provide training and resources to help all team members enhance their skills. This levels the playing field and reduces skill asymmetry. + +- Recognize Collaborative Efforts: Shift the focus from individual heroics to collaborative efforts. Recognize and reward team members who contribute to preventive measures, incident response improvements, and system stability. + +- Leadership Support: Management should actively support efforts to address the hero culture. This might involve setting expectations for collaboration, learning, and shared responsibility. + +- Celebrate Learning: Emphasize that learning from failures is a positive outcome. This encourages a culture of continuous improvement rather than blame. + +By addressing the hero culture and fostering a collaborative, learning-oriented environment, SRE teams can enhance their overall effectiveness, prevent burnout, and ensure the long-term stability of the systems they manage. + + + + +The allure of the "hero" is undeniable. There's a certain appeal in being the one who swoops in, fixes critical incidents, and saves the day. However, this hero culture, while often romanticised, has its pitfalls. Heroes are necessary, no doubt, but a hero culture can often obscure the collaborative essence of SRE. Recognising that heroes do their best work as part of a team is a profound acknowledgement that true heroes don't need a hero culture to excel. + +The danger of a hero-driven approach is that it can lead to an over-reliance on specific individuals. The assumption that certain team members will always be there to address and mitigate issues can be a dangerous precedent. It fosters a reactive culture rather than a proactive one. Instead of developing inherently more resilient and reliable systems, the organisation starts relying on these heroes as a Band-Aid® solution, masking deeper systemic problems. + +A further dimension to this issue is the impact on team morale. Continually being in the spotlight, heroes might be inadvertently sidelining other team members, leading to feelings of underappreciation or undervaluation. Such a dynamic can hinder sharing knowledge, collaboration, and preparation – the pillars that successful SRE teams are built on. + +However, this isn't to say that individual excellence should be curbed. Instead, it's about shifting the narrative. Building a team culture based on collaboration ensures that knowledge sharing becomes second nature. Such an environment propels teams towards a dynamic where preparation and proactive measures are valued over-reactive heroics. When success stories are shared as a collective win, it boosts team morale and fosters a sense of shared responsibility. + +In the broader spectrum of SRE, it's also crucial to recognise the silent work – the preventive measures, the well-thought-out systems, the meticulous planning – that ensures incidents don't occur. This proactive approach often goes unnoticed because, in a well-functioning system, the absence of issues is the norm. But this 'silence' is a testament to a team working harmoniously, with every member contributing towards system reliability. + +To conclude, while the heroics in SRE can often be the stuff of legends, it's vital to see beyond this facade. The countless hours of teamwork, collaboration, and shared responsibility lie in the shadows of these heroic acts. The future of SRE lies not in individual heroics but in teams that operate like well-oiled machines, with every cog, big or small, playing its part to perfection. + +## Monitoring, Observability, and the SRE Arsenal: Navigating the Nuances of System Reliability + +Site Reliability Engineering is characterised by a relentless quest for reliability, uptime, and seamless user experiences. Within this universe, the notions of monitoring and observability emerge not as mere tools but as critical lifelines that guide decision-making, error diagnosis, and preventive strategies. + +At its core, monitoring is vigilantly monitoring system health, alerting engineers to potential anomalies that might adversely impact system performance or availability. Every alert is treated as an exceptional circumstance warranting immediate attention. However, it's worth noting that only some alerts translate into genuine threats. As such, if an alert merely adds noise without substance, the onus is on refining the monitoring system to filter out such distractions. This process of continuous refinement underscores the dynamism inherent in effective monitoring. + +In tandem with monitoring is the concept of observability. Beyond just knowing that something went wrong, observability equips engineers with the 'why.' It offers a deep dive into the system's intricate operations, allowing for a granular understanding of its behaviours. Observability tools designed to query against high cardinality data become the SRE's best allies in this endeavour. They help comprehensively diagnose problems, especially when conventional monitoring alerts might not capture the nuanced layers of an issue. + +However, monitoring and observability aren't standalone entities; they feed into the broader ambit of error budgets, service level objectives (SLOs), and service level indicators (SLIs). These metrics and frameworks collectively serve as a mirror, reflecting the true health of services. While SLIs define quantitative measures about the reliability of services, SLOs set targets for these measures. On the other hand, error budgets provide a tangible metric of 'how wrong things can go' before the service quality deteriorates below acceptable levels. + +Yet, the human element remains paramount amidst this arsenal of tools and methodologies. No matter how sophisticated, observational tools are only as valuable as the engineers wielding them. It demands a spirit of curiosity, a relentless quest for knowledge, and a willingness to delve deep into data-driven narratives. SREs, therefore, need to be both technically adept and intrinsically motivated to leverage these tools to their fullest potential. + +To sum it up, monitoring and observability play pivotal roles in the intricate dance of system reliability. They are the compass and map, guiding SREs through the labyrinthine challenges of modern systems. By leveraging them effectively and in conjunction with other SRE methodologies, organisations can achieve the zenith of reliability, ensuring that their services remain robust, resilient, and remarkably user-centric. + +## The Ever-evolving Landscape of SRE + +To begin, the very fabric of SRE is interwoven with organisational culture. Successful SRE adoption transcends the mere automation of software operations—it is deeply cultural. It demands a seismic shift in how organisations perceive failures, value preventative work, and prioritise communication. In such an environment, writing is not just a skill but a critical tool for reliability. Precise communication enhances clarity, mitigates risks, and facilitates collaboration. + +Central to SRE's operational philosophy is the balance between innovation and stability. Every system has its error budget, representing the acceptable threshold of issues before service quality falls below expectations. These error budgets are more than mere metrics—they guide decisions, helping organisations balance pushing new features and ensuring system reliability. Such operational nuances remind us that while things will inevitably break in the engineering world, the informed response, driven by data and proactive work, sets SRE apart. + +However, the brilliance of SRE is not merely in the systems but the people powering it. The human element in SRE is both its strength and vulnerability. On the one hand, SREs must be ceaselessly curious, ready to adopt new learnings, and willing to iterate rapidly. On the other, the high-stakes environment and demanding on-call rotations place them at risk of burnout. It's a stark reminder that while systems need monitoring, the well-being of those who maintain them is equally crucial. Organisations must ensure that on-call schedules are sustainable, mentorship is available, and continuous learning is encouraged. + +The SRE world is also marked by its vast arsenal of monitoring systems, observability tools, postmortems, and more. These tools, designed for high cardinality data querying, are pivotal in diagnosing problems, especially when traditional monitoring might miss the subtleties. Yet, tools alone aren't the panacea. The SRE's mindset, the ability to discern tooling gaps, operational expertise voids, and resource inadequacies truly elevates the discipline. + +In conclusion, as a discipline, SRE is a beacon of continuous evolution. As systems grow more complex and user expectations rise, the SRE landscape will inevitably shift, demanding adaptability, resilience, and foresight from its practitioners. But in this ever-changing terrain, the core tenets remain—balancing innovation with reliability, valuing human well-being, and leveraging tools and data for informed decision-making. In the grand tapestry of engineering, SRE stands out as a dynamic, challenging, yet immensely rewarding realm, ever-responsive to the rhythms of technology and human ingenuity. + +## Effective Communication and Collaboration in SRE + +Site Reliability Engineering is not merely a technical discipline. At its core, SRE underscores the importance of effective communication and collaboration as critical tenets of a resilient and efficient system. + +The dynamics of modern organisations, especially those heavily reliant on technology, present systems of such complexity that no single individual possesses a complete understanding. As highlighted from the insights, "Each person inside an organisation has only a partial understanding of how the overall system works." Such compartmentalisation necessitates a culture of open communication and collaboration to ensure that different components, managed by other teams, work in harmony. + +The importance of communication is not just limited to the intra-team dynamics but extends to how teams convey the value of their work, especially the preventive work that pre-empts potential incidents. As many SREs might attest, we live in a data-driven world, but capturing the metrics on incidents that didn't occur due to preventive measures is a challenge. This highlights the need for SREs to be adept at articulating the significance of their roles and their actions to ensure system reliability. It's about making the invisible work visible, ensuring stakeholders understand the value delivered. + +Further emphasising the role of communication, the insights suggest, "Writing is good for reliability; the more precise, the better." Precise communication, whether in documentation, runbooks, or postmortems, is essential for ensuring that every team member, whether an SRE or from an allied discipline, is on the same page. It mitigates the risk of misunderstandings that could compromise system reliability. + +On the other side of the coin is collaboration. An SRE's role frequently involves liaising with various teams, be it developers, back-end teams, or dedicated incident response teams. Effective collaboration with these teams is crucial in a crisis. When cascading failures occur and overload symptoms present simultaneously, this culture of collaboration can make the difference between swift mitigation and a full-blown global outage. + +Furthermore, the insights provide a perspective against fostering a hero culture. "Recognise that heroes do their best work as part of a team, and true heroes don't need a hero culture to do good." Such a sentiment emphasises the collective over the individual. It's a call to ensure team dynamics are built on mutual respect, trust, and a shared understanding of goals rather than relying on individual brilliance. + +In conclusion, while SRE is deeply technical, its efficacy is intertwined with the soft skills of communication and collaboration. As systems grow more intricate and the stakes rise, the ability to communicate clearly and collaborate effectively will distinguish successful SRE teams from the rest. It's a reminder that there are people at the heart of every machine, every line of code, and nurturing human connections is paramount to ensuring machine efficiency. + +## Inherent Curiosity and Continual Learning in SRE + +The realm of Site Reliability Engineering is expansive, dynamic, and deeply integrated with the ever-evolving technological landscape. It's evident that an essential trait underpinning successful SRE practice combines inherent curiosity and an unwavering commitment to continual learning. + +Within modern organisations, technology infrastructures have burgeoned into complex ecosystems. It's been highlighted that "each person inside an organisation has only a partial understanding of how the overall system works." In such an environment, an SRE cannot afford to be siloed or static in their knowledge. The intricacies of systems and the myriad of potential issues necessitate that SREs possess an innate curiosity. It's this curiosity that drives them to explore beyond their immediate purview, to question why systems behave the way they do, and to unravel the intricacies that lie beneath surface-level observations. + +Yet, curiosity alone isn't enough. The pace at which technology evolves is staggering. New tools emerge architectural paradigms shift, and what was once a best practice might become obsolete in a short span. To keep up with this dynamism, SREs need to be invested in continual learning. Whether mastering a new observability tool designed for high cardinality data or understanding the nuances of error budgets and their implications, SREs must be lifelong learners. + +This commitment to learning is about more than just keeping up-to-date with tools and practices. It's about broadening one's horizon and developing a holistic understanding of systems. As cascading failures emerge and system outages threaten, an SRE with a comprehensive knowledge base built on continual learning is better equipped to identify root causes, devise mitigation strategies, and ensure system resilience. + +Furthermore, as we glean from the insights, there's a marked shift in the perception of SRE as a discipline. We're transitioning into an era where "an SRE mindset will be an important hiring requirement for every engineering role." Such a shift implies that the principles of SRE are becoming fundamental to the broader engineering domain. And at the heart of this mindset is the thirst for knowledge and the spirit of exploration. + +In conclusion, the world of Site Reliability Engineering is not for the complacent. It's a domain that rewards the curious, the seekers, and those with an insatiable appetite for knowledge. As systems grow in complexity and the stakes become higher, this inherent curiosity and dedication to continual learning will define the success and resilience of SRE endeavours. The journey of an SRE, thus, is one of perpetual exploration, driven by the quest to know more and do better. + +## The Iterative Spirit of SRE + +Site Reliability Engineering is more than just a technical discipline; it embodies a mindset that embraces iteration, proactive problem-solving, and continuous enhancement. + +At the core of the SRE ethos lies the principle that prevention trumps cure. To build systems resilient to cascading failures and ensure that user impact is minimised, SREs work diligently to improve system designs. However, a crucial component of this prevention strategy is recognising that system designs will never be perfect. Instead, they are continually refined based on real-world performance, learnings from incidents, and shifting user needs. By leveraging tools like error budgets and performance metrics, SREs can gauge the effectiveness of their systems, identify areas of concern, and make informed decisions about where to allocate resources for improvements. + +Moreover, the SRE approach to incident analysis further underscores this iterative spirit. No matter how minor, every incident is viewed as an opportunity to learn. Incidents expose gaps, areas where the system's design or execution fell short. Through postmortems focusing on customer impact and detailed investigations, these gaps become learning avenues, leading to system refinements. The emphasis isn't on apportioning blame but on extracting insights that can fuel the next iteration of the system. + +In conjunction with system design, the tools and practices employed by SREs are also subject to this iterative refinement. Observability tools designed for high cardinality data, rollback automation, and failover tooling are all components of the SRE arsenal, but their effectiveness isn't taken for granted. SREs are consistently evaluating the efficacy of their tools, ensuring that they align with the current system demands and making enhancements as required. The idea is not to find the 'perfect' tool but to recognise that as systems evolve, the tools to manage them must evolve in tandem. + +Finally, the SRE's iterative spirit extends to collaboration and communication. The continual drive to enhance and refine is not a solitary endeavour. SREs actively collaborate with developers, back-end teams, and dedicated incident response units. This collaborative approach ensures that diverse perspectives contribute to the iterative process and collective wisdom is harnessed. + +In summary, the essence of Site Reliability Engineering is characterised by an iterative spirit, a recognition that perfection is a journey, not a destination. Whether refining system designs, enhancing tooling or fostering collaborative dialogues, SREs are always looking for the next improvement, refinement, and iteration. It's this spirit that ensures systems are reliable and continually evolving to meet the ever-changing demands of the digital age. + +## The role of simplicity Simplicity + +## Book tips + +* 97 Things Every SRE Should Know: Collective Wisdom from the Experts by Emily Stolarsky and Jaime Woo +* Site Reliability Engineering: How Google runs Production Systems by by Jennifer Petoff, Niall Murphy, Betsy Beyer and Chris Jones +* Implementing Service Level Objectives by Alex Hidalgo + +E-Mail your comments to `paul@nospam.buetow.org` :-) + +=> ../ Back to the main site diff --git a/gemfeed/atom.xml b/gemfeed/atom.xml index 28175223..977f83bc 100644 --- a/gemfeed/atom.xml +++ b/gemfeed/atom.xml @@ -1,6 +1,6 @@ <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <feed xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"> - <updated>2024-08-26T22:12:05+03:00</updated> + <updated>2024-08-26T23:06:58+03:00</updated> <title>foo.zone feed</title> <subtitle>To be in the .zone!</subtitle> <link href="gemini://foo.zone/gemfeed/atom.xml" rel="self" /> @@ -22,6 +22,15 @@ <br /> <span class='quote'>Published at 2024-08-05T17:39:30+03:00</span><br /> <br /> +<span>After work one day, I noticed some discomfort in my right wrist. Upon research, it appeared to be a mild case of Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI). Initially, I thought that this would go away after a while, but after a week it became even worse. This led me to consider potential causes such as poor posture or keyboard use habits. As an enthusiast of keyboards, I experimented with ergonomic concave ortholinear split keyboards. Wait, what?...</span><br /> +<br /> +<ul> +<li>Concave: Some fingers are longer than others. A concave keyboard makes it so that the keycaps meant to be pressed by the longer fingers are further down (e.g., left middle finger for <span class='inlinecode'>e</span> on a Qwerty layout), and keycaps meant to be pressed by shorter fingers are further up (e.g., right pinky finger for the letter <span class='inlinecode'>p</span>).</li> +<li>Ortholinear: The keys are arranged in a straight vertical line, unlike most conventional keyboards. The conventional keyboards still resemble the old typewriters, where the placement of the keys was optimized so that the typewriter would not jam. There is no such requirement anymore.</li> +<li>Split: The keyboard is split into two halves (left and right), allowing one to place either hand where it is most ergonomic.</li> +</ul><br /> +<span>After discovering ThePrimagen (I found him long ago, but I never bothered buying the same keyboard he is on) on YouTube and reading/watching a couple of reviews, I thought that as a computer professional, the equipment could be expensive anyway (laptop, adjustable desk, comfortable chair), so why not invest a bit more into the keyboard? I purchased myself the Kinesis Advantage360 Professional keyboard. </span><br /> +<br /> <pre> ,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,---,-------, |1/2| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 0 | + | ' | <- | @@ -41,7 +50,6 @@ <br /> <ul> <li><a href='#typing-1271-words-per-minute-100wpm-average'>Typing <span class='inlinecode'>127.1</span> words per minute (<span class='inlinecode'>>100wpm average</span>)</a></li> -<li>⇢ <a href='#introduction'>Introduction</a></li> <li>⇢ <a href='#kinesis-review'>Kinesis review</a></li> <li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#top-build-quality'>Top build quality</a></li> <li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#bluetooth-connectivity'>Bluetooth connectivity</a></li> @@ -67,17 +75,6 @@ <li>⇢ <a href='#upcoming-custom-kinesis-build'>Upcoming custom Kinesis build</a></li> <li>⇢ <a href='#conclusion'>Conclusion</a></li> </ul><br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='introduction'>Introduction</h2><br /> -<br /> -<span>After work one day, I noticed some discomfort in my right wrist. Upon research, it appeared to be a mild case of Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI). Initially, I thought that this would go away after a while, but after a week it became even worse. This led me to consider potential causes such as poor posture or keyboard use habits. As an enthusiast of keyboards, I experimented with ergonomic concave ortholinear split keyboards. Wait, what?...</span><br /> -<br /> -<ul> -<li>Concave: Some fingers are longer than others. A concave keyboard makes it so that the keycaps meant to be pressed by the longer fingers are further down (e.g., left middle finger for <span class='inlinecode'>e</span> on a Qwerty layout), and keycaps meant to be pressed by shorter fingers are further up (e.g., right pinky finger for the letter <span class='inlinecode'>p</span>).</li> -<li>Ortholinear: The keys are arranged in a straight vertical line, unlike most conventional keyboards. The conventional keyboards still resemble the old typewriters, where the placement of the keys was optimized so that the typewriter would not jam. There is no such requirement anymore.</li> -<li>Split: The keyboard is split into two halves (left and right), allowing one to place either hand where it is most ergonomic.</li> -</ul><br /> -<span>After discovering ThePrimagen (I found him long ago, but I never bothered buying the same keyboard he is on) on YouTube and reading/watching a couple of reviews, I thought that as a computer professional, the equipment could be expensive anyway (laptop, adjustable desk, comfortable chair), so why not invest a bit more into the keyboard? I purchased myself the Kinesis Advantage360 Professional keyboard. </span><br /> -<br /> <h2 style='display: inline' id='kinesis-review'>Kinesis review</h2><br /> <br /> <span>For an in-depth review, have a look at this great article:</span><br /> @@ -271,16 +268,6 @@ <br /> <span class='quote'>Published at 2024-07-07T12:46:55+03:00</span><br /> <br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='table-of-contents'>Table of Contents</h2><br /> -<br /> -<ul> -<li><a href='#the-stoic-challenge-book-notes'>"The Stoic Challenge" book notes</a></li> -<li>⇢ <a href='#introduction'>Introduction</a></li> -<li>⇢ <a href='#negative-visualization'>Negative visualization</a></li> -<li>⇢ <a href='#oh-nice-trick-you-stoic-god--'>Oh, nice trick, you stoic "god"! ;-)</a></li> -</ul><br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='introduction'>Introduction</h2><br /> -<br /> <span>These are my personal takeaways after reading "The Stoic Challenge: A Philosopher's Guide to Becoming Tougher, Calmer, and More Resilient" by William B. Irvine. </span><br /> <br /> <pre> @@ -295,6 +282,16 @@ ''' </pre> <br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='table-of-contents'>Table of Contents</h2><br /> +<br /> +<ul> +<li><a href='#the-stoic-challenge-book-notes'>"The Stoic Challenge" book notes</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#got-sets-you-up-for-a-challenge'>Got sets you up for a challenge</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#negative-visualization'>Negative visualization</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#oh-nice-trick-you-stoic-god--'>Oh, nice trick, you stoic "god"! ;-)</a></li> +</ul><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='got-sets-you-up-for-a-challenge'>Got sets you up for a challenge</h2><br /> +<br /> <span>Gods set you up for a challenge to see how resilient you are. Is getting angry worth the price? If you stay calm then you can find the optimal workaround for the obstacle. Stay calm even with big setbacks. Practice minimalism of negative emotions.</span><br /> <br /> <span>Put a positive spin on everything. What should you do if someone wrong you? Don't get angry, there is no point in that, it just makes you suffer. Do the best what you got now and keep calm and carry on. A resilient person will refuse to play the role of a victim. You can develop the setback response skills. Turn a setback. e.g. a handycap, into a personal triumph.</span><br /> @@ -358,11 +355,21 @@ <br /> <span class='quote'>Published at 2024-07-05T10:59:59+03:00</span><br /> <br /> +<span>Every so often, I come across random, weird, and unexpected things on the internet. I thought it would be neat to share them here from time to time. As a start, here are ten of them.</span><br /> +<br /> +<pre> + /\_/\ +WHOA!! ( o.o ) + > ^ < + / - \ + / \ + /______\ \ +</pre> +<br /> <h2 style='display: inline' id='table-of-contents'>Table of Contents</h2><br /> <br /> <ul> <li><a href='#random-weird-things'>Random Weird Things</a></li> -<li>⇢ <a href='#introduction'>Introduction</a></li> <li>⇢ <a href='#1-badhorse-traceroute'>1. <span class='inlinecode'>bad.horse</span> traceroute</a></li> <li>⇢ <a href='#2-ascii-cinema'>2. ASCII cinema</a></li> <li>⇢ <a href='#3-netflix-s-hello-world-application'>3. Netflix's Hello World application</a></li> @@ -375,19 +382,6 @@ <li>⇢ <a href='#9-jq-is-a-functional-programming-language'>9. <span class='inlinecode'>jq</span> is a functional programming language</a></li> <li>⇢ <a href='#10-regular-expression-to-verify-email-addresses'>10. Regular expression to verify email addresses</a></li> </ul><br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='introduction'>Introduction</h2><br /> -<br /> -<span>Every so often, I come across random, weird, and unexpected things on the internet. I thought it would be neat to share them here from time to time. As a start, here are ten of them.</span><br /> -<br /> -<pre> - /\_/\ -WHOA!! ( o.o ) - > ^ < - / - \ - / \ - /______\ \ -</pre> -<br /> <h2 style='display: inline' id='1-badhorse-traceroute'>1. <span class='inlinecode'>bad.horse</span> traceroute</h2><br /> <br /> <span>Run traceroute to get the poem (or song).</span><br /> @@ -740,6 +734,16 @@ r\\]|\\.)*\](?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])*)(?:\.(?:(?:\r\n)?[ \t])*(?:[^()<>@,;:\\".\ <br /> <span class='quote'>Published at 2024-06-23T22:41:59+03:00</span><br /> <br /> +<span>Tmux (Terminal Multiplexer) is a powerful, terminal-based tool that manages multiple terminal sessions within a single window. Here are some of its primary features and functionalities:</span><br /> +<br /> +<ul> +<li>Session management</li> +<li>Window and Pane management</li> +<li>Persistent Workspace</li> +<li>Customization</li> +</ul><br /> +<a class='textlink' href='https://github.com/tmux/tmux/wiki'>https://github.com/tmux/tmux/wiki</a><br /> +<br /> <pre> _______ |.-----.| @@ -756,7 +760,7 @@ jgs `-=========-`() <br /> <ul> <li><a href='#terminal-multiplexing-with-tmux'>Terminal multiplexing with <span class='inlinecode'>tmux</span></a></li> -<li>⇢ <a href='#introduction'>Introduction</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#before-continuing'>Before continuing...</a></li> <li>⇢ <a href='#shell-aliases'>Shell aliases</a></li> <li>⇢ <a href='#the-tn-alias---creating-a-new-session'>The <span class='inlinecode'>tn</span> alias - Creating a new session</a></li> <li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#cleaning-up-default-sessions-automatically'>Cleaning up default sessions automatically</a></li> @@ -773,17 +777,7 @@ jgs `-=========-`() <li>⇢ <a href='#copy-and-paste-workflow'>Copy and paste workflow</a></li> <li>⇢ <a href='#tmux-configurations'>Tmux configurations</a></li> </ul><br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='introduction'>Introduction</h2><br /> -<br /> -<span>Tmux (Terminal Multiplexer) is a powerful, terminal-based tool that manages multiple terminal sessions within a single window. Here are some of its primary features and functionalities:</span><br /> -<br /> -<ul> -<li>Session management</li> -<li>Window and Pane management</li> -<li>Persistent Workspace</li> -<li>Customization</li> -</ul><br /> -<a class='textlink' href='https://github.com/tmux/tmux/wiki'>https://github.com/tmux/tmux/wiki</a><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='before-continuing'>Before continuing...</h2><br /> <br /> <span>Before continuing to read this post, I encourage you to get familiar with Tmux first (unless you already know the basics). You can go through the official getting started guide:</span><br /> <br /> @@ -1170,13 +1164,15 @@ bind-key r source-file ~/.config/tmux/tmux.conf \; display-message "tmux.conf re <name>Paul Buetow aka snonux</name> <email>paul@dev.buetow.org</email> </author> - <summary>Art by Laura Brown</summary> + <summary>Over the years, I have collected many ideas for my personal projects and noted them down. I am currently in the process of cleaning up all my notes and reviewing those ideas. I don’t have time for the ones listed here and won’t have any soon due to other commitments and personal projects. So, in order to 'get rid of them' from my notes folder, I decided to simply put them in this blog post so that those ideas don't get lost. Maybe I will pick up one or another idea someday in the future, but for now, they are all put on ice in favor of other personal projects or family time.</summary> <content type="xhtml"> <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <h1 style='display: inline' id='projects-i-currently-don-t-have-time-for'>Projects I currently don't have time for</h1><br /> <br /> <span class='quote'>Published at 2024-05-03T16:23:03+03:00</span><br /> <br /> +<span>Over the years, I have collected many ideas for my personal projects and noted them down. I am currently in the process of cleaning up all my notes and reviewing those ideas. I don’t have time for the ones listed here and won’t have any soon due to other commitments and personal projects. So, in order to "get rid of them" from my notes folder, I decided to simply put them in this blog post so that those ideas don't get lost. Maybe I will pick up one or another idea someday in the future, but for now, they are all put on ice in favor of other personal projects or family time.</span><br /> +<br /> <pre> Art by Laura Brown @@ -1194,7 +1190,6 @@ Art by Laura Brown <br /> <ul> <li><a href='#projects-i-currently-don-t-have-time-for'>Projects I currently don't have time for</a></li> -<li>⇢ <a href='#introduction'>Introduction</a></li> <li>⇢ <a href='#hardware-projects-i-don-t-have-time-for'>Hardware projects I don't have time for</a></li> <li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#i-use-arch-btw'>I use Arch, btw!</a></li> <li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#openbsd-home-router'>OpenBSD home router</a></li> @@ -1229,10 +1224,6 @@ Art by Laura Brown <li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#project-secure'>Project secure</a></li> <li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#cpu-utilisation-is-all-wrong'>CPU utilisation is all wrong</a></li> </ul><br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='introduction'>Introduction</h2><br /> -<br /> -<span>Over the years, I have collected many ideas for my personal projects and noted them down. I am currently in the process of cleaning up all my notes and reviewing those ideas. I don’t have time for the ones listed here and won’t have any soon due to other commitments and personal projects. So, in order to "get rid of them" from my notes folder, I decided to simply put them in this blog post so that those ideas don't get lost. Maybe I will pick up one or another idea someday in the future, but for now, they are all put on ice in favor of other personal projects or family time.</span><br /> -<br /> <h2 style='display: inline' id='hardware-projects-i-don-t-have-time-for'>Hardware projects I don't have time for</h2><br /> <br /> <h3 style='display: inline' id='i-use-arch-btw'>I use Arch, btw!</h3><br /> @@ -1510,19 +1501,6 @@ http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite --> <br /> <span class='quote'>Published at 2024-04-27T14:18:51+03:00</span><br /> <br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='table-of-contents'>Table of Contents</h2><br /> -<br /> -<ul> -<li><a href='#slow-productivity-book-notes'>"Slow Productivity" book notes</a></li> -<li>⇢ <a href='#introduction'>Introduction</a></li> -<li>⇢ <a href='#pseudo-productivity-and-shallow-work'>Pseudo-productivity and Shallow work</a></li> -<li>⇢ <a href='#accomplishments-without-burnout'>Accomplishments without burnout</a></li> -<li>⇢ <a href='#do-fewer-things'>Do fewer things</a></li> -<li>⇢ <a href='#work-at-a-natural-pace'>Work at a natural pace</a></li> -<li>⇢ <a href='#obsess-over-quality-'>Obsess over quality </a></li> -</ul><br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='introduction'>Introduction</h2><br /> -<br /> <span>These are my personal takeaways after reading "Slow Productivity - The lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout" by Cal Newport.</span><br /> <br /> <span>The case studies in this book were a bit long, but they appeared to be well-researched. I will only highlight the interesting, actionable items in the book notes.</span><br /> @@ -1541,6 +1519,19 @@ http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite --> ''' </pre> <br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='table-of-contents'>Table of Contents</h2><br /> +<br /> +<ul> +<li><a href='#slow-productivity-book-notes'>"Slow Productivity" book notes</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#it-s-not-slow-productivity'>It's not "slow productivity"</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#pseudo-productivity-and-shallow-work'>Pseudo-productivity and Shallow work</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#accomplishments-without-burnout'>Accomplishments without burnout</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#do-fewer-things'>Do fewer things</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#work-at-a-natural-pace'>Work at a natural pace</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#obsess-over-quality-'>Obsess over quality </a></li> +</ul><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='it-s-not-slow-productivity'>It's not "slow productivity"</h2><br /> +<br /> <span>"Slow productivity" does not mean being less productive. Cal Newport wants to point out that you can be much more productive with "slow productivity" than you would be without it. It is a different way of working than most of us are used to in the modern workplace, which is hyper-connected and always online.</span><br /> <br /> <h2 style='display: inline' id='pseudo-productivity-and-shallow-work'>Pseudo-productivity and Shallow work</h2><br /> @@ -1674,13 +1665,21 @@ http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite --> <name>Paul Buetow aka snonux</name> <email>paul@dev.buetow.org</email> </author> - <summary>Art by Michael J. Penick (mod. by Paul B.)</summary> + <summary>I have always wanted a highly available setup for my personal websites. I could have used off-the-shelf hosting solutions or hosted my sites in an AWS S3 bucket. I have used technologies like (in unsorted and slightly unrelated order) BGP, LVS/IPVS, ldirectord, Pacemaker, STONITH, scripted VIP failover via ARP, heartbeat, heartbeat2, Corosync, keepalived, DRBD, and commercial F5 Load Balancers for high availability at work. </summary> <content type="xhtml"> <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <h1 style='display: inline' id='kiss-high-availability-with-openbsd'>KISS high-availability with OpenBSD</h1><br /> <br /> <span class='quote'>Published at 2024-03-30T22:12:56+02:00</span><br /> <br /> +<span>I have always wanted a highly available setup for my personal websites. I could have used off-the-shelf hosting solutions or hosted my sites in an AWS S3 bucket. I have used technologies like (in unsorted and slightly unrelated order) BGP, LVS/IPVS, ldirectord, Pacemaker, STONITH, scripted VIP failover via ARP, heartbeat, heartbeat2, Corosync, keepalived, DRBD, and commercial F5 Load Balancers for high availability at work. </span><br /> +<br /> +<span>But still, my personal sites were never highly available. All those technologies are great for professional use, but I was looking for something much more straightforward for my personal space - something as KISS (keep it simple and stupid) as possible.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span>It would be fine if my personal website wasn't highly available, but the geek in me wants it anyway.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span class='quote'>PS: ASCII-art below reflects an OpenBSD under-water world with all the tools available in the base system.</span><br /> +<br /> <pre> Art by Michael J. Penick (mod. by Paul B.) ACME-sky @@ -1710,7 +1709,6 @@ _____|_:_:_| (o)-(o) |_:_:_|--'`-. ,--. ksh under-water (((\'/ <br /> <ul> <li><a href='#kiss-high-availability-with-openbsd'>KISS high-availability with OpenBSD</a></li> -<li>⇢ <a href='#introduction'>Introduction</a></li> <li>⇢ <a href='#my-auto-failover-requirements'>My auto-failover requirements</a></li> <li>⇢ <a href='#my-ha-solution'>My HA solution</a></li> <li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#only-openbsd-base-installation-required'>Only OpenBSD base installation required</a></li> @@ -1722,16 +1720,6 @@ _____|_:_:_| (o)-(o) |_:_:_|--'`-. ,--. ksh under-water (((\'/ <li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#rex-automation'>Rex automation</a></li> <li>⇢ <a href='#more-ha'>More HA</a></li> </ul><br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='introduction'>Introduction</h2><br /> -<br /> -<span>I have always wanted a highly available setup for my personal websites. I could have used off-the-shelf hosting solutions or hosted my sites in an AWS S3 bucket. I have used technologies like (in unsorted and slightly unrelated order) BGP, LVS/IPVS, ldirectord, Pacemaker, STONITH, scripted VIP failover via ARP, heartbeat, heartbeat2, Corosync, keepalived, DRBD, and commercial F5 Load Balancers for high availability at work. </span><br /> -<br /> -<span>But still, my personal sites were never highly available. All those technologies are great for professional use, but I was looking for something much more straightforward for my personal space - something as KISS (keep it simple and stupid) as possible.</span><br /> -<br /> -<span>It would be fine if my personal website wasn't highly available, but the geek in me wants it anyway.</span><br /> -<br /> -<span class='quote'>PS: ASCII-art reflects an OpenBSD under-water world with all the tools available in the base system.</span><br /> -<br /> <h2 style='display: inline' id='my-auto-failover-requirements'>My auto-failover requirements</h2><br /> <br /> <ul> @@ -2028,20 +2016,20 @@ http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite --> <br /> <span class='quote'>Published at 2024-03-03T00:07:21+02:00</span><br /> <br /> +<span>I am an ideas person. I find myself frequently somewhere on the streets with an idea in my head but no paper journal noting it down. </span><br /> +<br /> +<span>I have tried many note apps for my Android (I use GrapheneOS) phone. Most of them either don't do what I want, are proprietary software, require Google Play services (I have the main profile on my phone de-googled) or are too bloated. I was never into mobile app development, as I'm not too fond of the complexity of the developer toolchains. I don't want to use Android Studio (as a NeoVim user), and I don't want to use Java or Kotlin. I want to use a language I know (and like) for mobile app development. Go would be one of those languages.</span><br /> +<br /> +<a href='a-fine-fyne-android-app-for-quickly-logging-ideas-programmed-in-golang/logo-small.png'><img alt='Quick logger Logo' title='Quick logger Logo' src='a-fine-fyne-android-app-for-quickly-logging-ideas-programmed-in-golang/logo-small.png' /></a><br /> +<br /> <h2 style='display: inline' id='table-of-contents'>Table of Contents</h2><br /> <br /> <ul> <li><a href='#a-fine-fyne-android-app-for-quickly-logging-ideas-programmed-in-go'>A fine Fyne Android app for quickly logging ideas programmed in Go</a></li> -<li>⇢ <a href='#introduction'>Introduction</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#enter-quick-logger'>Enter Quick logger</a></li> <li>⇢ <a href='#all-easy-peasy'>All easy-peasy?</a></li> </ul><br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='introduction'>Introduction</h2><br /> -<br /> -<span>I am an ideas person. I find myself frequently somewhere on the streets with an idea in my head but no paper journal noting it down. </span><br /> -<br /> -<span>I have tried many note apps for my Android (I use GrapheneOS) phone. Most of them either don't do what I want, are proprietary software, require Google Play services (I have the main profile on my phone de-googled) or are too bloated. I was never into mobile app development, as I'm not too fond of the complexity of the developer toolchains. I don't want to use Android Studio (as a NeoVim user), and I don't want to use Java or Kotlin. I want to use a language I know (and like) for mobile app development. Go would be one of those languages.</span><br /> -<br /> -<a href='a-fine-fyne-android-app-for-quickly-logging-ideas-programmed-in-golang/logo-small.png'><img alt='Quick logger Logo' title='Quick logger Logo' src='a-fine-fyne-android-app-for-quickly-logging-ideas-programmed-in-golang/logo-small.png' /></a><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='enter-quick-logger'>Enter Quick logger</h2><br /> <br /> <span>Enter Quick logger – a compact GUI Android (well, cross-platform due to Fyne) app I've crafted using Go and the nifty Fyne framework. With Fyne, the app can be compiled easily into an Android APK. As of this writing, this app's whole Go source code is only 75 lines short!! This little tool is designed for spontaneous moments, allowing me to quickly log my thoughts as plain text files on my Android phone. There are no fancy file formats. Just plain text!</span><br /> <br /> @@ -2100,7 +2088,7 @@ http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite --> <summary>Recently, my employer sent me to a week-long AWS course. After the course, there wasn't any hands-on project I could dive into immediately, so I moved parts of my personal infrastructure to AWS to level up a bit through practical hands-on.</summary> <content type="xhtml"> <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> - <h1 style='display: inline' id='Frombabylon5buetoworgtobuetowcloud'>From <span class='inlinecode'>babylon5.buetow.org</span> to <span class='inlinecode'>*.buetow.cloud</span></h1><br /> + <h1 style='display: inline' id='from-babylon5buetoworg-to-buetowcloud'>From <span class='inlinecode'>babylon5.buetow.org</span> to <span class='inlinecode'>*.buetow.cloud</span></h1><br /> <br /> <span class='quote'>Published at 2024-02-04T00:50:50+02:00</span><br /> <br /> @@ -2110,7 +2098,25 @@ http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite --> <br /> <a href='./from-.org-to-.cloud/old-man-yells-at-cloud.jpg'><img alt='Old man yells at cloud' title='Old man yells at cloud' src='./from-.org-to-.cloud/old-man-yells-at-cloud.jpg' /></a><br /> <br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='Theoldbuetoworgway'>The old <span class='inlinecode'>*.buetow.org</span> way</h2><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='table-of-contents'>Table of Contents</h2><br /> +<br /> +<ul> +<li><a href='#from-babylon5buetoworg-to-buetowcloud'>From <span class='inlinecode'>babylon5.buetow.org</span> to <span class='inlinecode'>*.buetow.cloud</span></a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#the-old-buetoworg-way'>The old <span class='inlinecode'>*.buetow.org</span> way</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#i-kept-my-buetoworg-openbsd-boxes-alive'>I kept my <span class='inlinecode'>buetow.org</span> OpenBSD boxes alive</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#the-new-buetowcloud-way'>The new <span class='inlinecode'>*.buetow.cloud</span> way</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#the-container-apps'>The container apps</a></li> +<li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#fluxbuetowcloud'><span class='inlinecode'>flux.buetow.cloud</span></a></li> +<li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#audiobookshelfbuetowcloud'><span class='inlinecode'>audiobookshelf.buetow.cloud</span></a></li> +<li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#syncthingbuetowcloud'><span class='inlinecode'>syncthing.buetow.cloud</span></a></li> +<li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#radicalebuetowcloud'><span class='inlinecode'>radicale.buetow.cloud</span></a></li> +<li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#bagbuetowcloud'><span class='inlinecode'>bag.buetow.cloud</span></a></li> +<li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#ankibuetowcloud'><span class='inlinecode'>anki.buetow.cloud</span></a></li> +<li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#vaultbuetowcloud'><span class='inlinecode'>vault.buetow.cloud</span></a></li> +<li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#bastionbuetowcloud'><span class='inlinecode'>bastion.buetow.cloud</span></a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#conclusion'>Conclusion</a></li> +</ul><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='the-old-buetoworg-way'>The old <span class='inlinecode'>*.buetow.org</span> way</h2><br /> <br /> <span>Before the migration, all those services were reachable through <span class='inlinecode'>buetow.org</span>-subdomains (Buetow is my last name) and ran on Docker containers on a single Rocky Linux 9 VM at Hetzner. And there was a Nginx reverse proxy with TLS offloading (with Let's Encrypt certificates). The Rocky Linux 9's hostname was <span class='inlinecode'>babylon5.buetow.org</span> (based on the Science Fiction series). </span><br /> <br /> @@ -2130,7 +2136,7 @@ http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite --> <li>KISS (Keep it Simple Stupid)</li> <li>Cheap</li> </ul><br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='IkeptmybuetoworgOpenBSDboxesalive'>I kept my <span class='inlinecode'>buetow.org</span> OpenBSD boxes alive</h2><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='i-kept-my-buetoworg-openbsd-boxes-alive'>I kept my <span class='inlinecode'>buetow.org</span> OpenBSD boxes alive</h2><br /> <br /> <span>As pointed out, I only migrated the Docker-based self-hosted services (which run on the Babylon 5 Rocky Linux box) to AWS. Many self-hostable apps come with ready-to-use container images, making deploying them easy.</span><br /> <br /> @@ -2151,7 +2157,7 @@ http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite --> <a class='textlink' href='./2023-06-01-kiss-server-monitoring-with-gogios.html'>KISS server monitoring with Gogios</a><br /> <a class='textlink' href='./2022-07-30-lets-encrypt-with-openbsd-and-rex.html'>Let's encrypt with OpenBSD and Rex</a><br /> <br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='Thenewbuetowcloudway'>The new <span class='inlinecode'>*.buetow.cloud</span> way</h2><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='the-new-buetowcloud-way'>The new <span class='inlinecode'>*.buetow.cloud</span> way</h2><br /> <br /> <span>With AWS, I decided to get myself a new domain name, as I could fully separate my AWS setup from my conventional setup and give Route 53 as an authoritative DNS a spin.</span><br /> <br /> @@ -2181,7 +2187,7 @@ http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite --> <li><span class='inlinecode'>org-buetow-elb</span> sets up the Elastic Load Balancer, a prerequisite for any service running in ECS Fargate.</li> <li><span class='inlinecode'>org-buetow-ecs</span> finally sets up and deploys all the Docker apps mentioned above. Any apps can be turned on or off via the <span class='inlinecode'>variables.tf</span> file.</li> </ul><br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='Thecontainerapps'>The container apps</h2><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='the-container-apps'>The container apps</h2><br /> <br /> <span>And here, finally, is the list of all the container apps my Terraform manifests deploy. The FQDNs here may not be reachable. I spin them up only on demand (for cost reasons). All services are fully dual-stacked (IPv4 & IPv6). </span><br /> <br /> @@ -2252,7 +2258,7 @@ http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite --> <br /> <span>This is a tiny ARM-based Amazon Linux EC2 instance, which I sometimes spin up for investigation or manual work on my EFS file system in AWS.</span><br /> <br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='Conclusion'>Conclusion</h2><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='conclusion'>Conclusion</h2><br /> <br /> <span>I have learned a lot about AWS and Terraform during this migration. This was actually my first AWS hands-on project with practical use.</span><br /> <br /> @@ -2441,6 +2447,12 @@ http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite --> <br /> <span class='quote'>Published at 2023-12-10T11:35:54+02:00</span><br /> <br /> +<span>This is the third blog post about my Bash Golf series. This series is random Bash tips, tricks, and weirdnesses I have encountered over time. </span><br /> +<br /> +<a class='textlink' href='./2021-11-29-bash-golf-part-1.html'>2021-11-29 Bash Golf Part 1</a><br /> +<a class='textlink' href='./2022-01-01-bash-golf-part-2.html'>2022-01-01 Bash Golf Part 2</a><br /> +<a class='textlink' href='./2023-12-10-bash-golf-part-3.html'>2023-12-10 Bash Golf Part 3 (You are currently reading this)</a><br /> +<br /> <pre> '\ '\ '\ . . |>18>> \ \ \ . ' . | @@ -2456,7 +2468,6 @@ jgs^^^^^^^`^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ <br /> <ul> <li><a href='#bash-golf-part-3'>Bash Golf Part 3</a></li> -<li>⇢ <a href='#introduction'>Introduction</a></li> <li>⇢ <a href='#funcname'><span class='inlinecode'>FUNCNAME</span></a></li> <li>⇢ <a href='#--'><span class='inlinecode'>:(){ :|:& };:</span></a></li> <li>⇢ <a href='#inner-functions'>Inner functions</a></li> @@ -2466,14 +2477,6 @@ jgs^^^^^^^`^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ <li>⇢ <a href='#multi-line-comments'>Multi-line comments</a></li> <li>⇢ <a href='#don-t-change-it-while-it-s-executed'>Don't change it while it's executed</a></li> </ul><br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='introduction'>Introduction</h2><br /> -<br /> -<span>This is the third blog post about my Bash Golf series. This series is random Bash tips, tricks, and weirdnesses I have encountered over time. </span><br /> -<br /> -<a class='textlink' href='./2021-11-29-bash-golf-part-1.html'>2021-11-29 Bash Golf Part 1</a><br /> -<a class='textlink' href='./2022-01-01-bash-golf-part-2.html'>2022-01-01 Bash Golf Part 2</a><br /> -<a class='textlink' href='./2023-12-10-bash-golf-part-3.html'>2023-12-10 Bash Golf Part 3 (You are currently reading this)</a><br /> -<br /> <h2 style='display: inline' id='funcname'><span class='inlinecode'>FUNCNAME</span></h2><br /> <br /> <span><span class='inlinecode'>FUNCNAME</span> is an array you are looking for a way to dynamically determine the name of the current function (which could be considered the callee in the context of its own execution), you can use the special variable <span class='inlinecode'>FUNCNAME</span>. This is an array variable that contains the names of all shell functions currently in the execution call stack. The element <span class='inlinecode'>FUNCNAME[0]</span> holds the name of the currently executing function, <span class='inlinecode'>FUNCNAME[1]</span> the name of the function that called that, and so on.</span><br /> @@ -2938,22 +2941,6 @@ echo baz <br /> <span class='quote'>Published at 2023-11-11T22:21:47+02:00</span><br /> <br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='table-of-contents'>Table of Contents</h2><br /> -<br /> -<ul> -<li><a href='#mind-management-book-notes'>"Mind Management" book notes</a></li> -<li>⇢ <a href='#introduction'>Introduction</a></li> -<li>⇢ <a href='#empty-slots-in-the-calendar'>Empty slots in the calendar</a></li> -<li>⇢ <a href='#when-you-safe-time'>When you safe time...</a></li> -<li>⇢ <a href='#follow-your-mood'>Follow your mood</a></li> -<li>⇢ <a href='#boosting-creativity'>Boosting creativity</a></li> -<li>⇢ <a href='#the-right-mood-for-the-task-at-hand'>The right mood for the task at hand</a></li> -<li>⇢ <a href='#creativity-hacks'>Creativity hacks</a></li> -<li>⇢ <a href='#planning-and-strategizing'>Planning and strategizing</a></li> -<li>⇢ <a href='#fake-it-until-you-make-it-'>Fake it until you make it. </a></li> -</ul><br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='introduction'>Introduction</h2><br /> -<br /> <span>These are my personal takeaways after reading "Mind Management" by David Kadavy. Note that the book contains much more knowledge wisdom and that these notes only contain points I personally found worth writing down. This is mainly for my own use, but you might find it helpful too.</span><br /> <br /> <pre> @@ -2968,6 +2955,22 @@ echo baz ''' </pre> <br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='table-of-contents'>Table of Contents</h2><br /> +<br /> +<ul> +<li><a href='#mind-management-book-notes'>"Mind Management" book notes</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#it-s-not-about-time-management'>It's not about time management</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#empty-slots-in-the-calendar'>Empty slots in the calendar</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#when-you-safe-time'>When you safe time...</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#follow-your-mood'>Follow your mood</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#boosting-creativity'>Boosting creativity</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#the-right-mood-for-the-task-at-hand'>The right mood for the task at hand</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#creativity-hacks'>Creativity hacks</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#planning-and-strategizing'>Planning and strategizing</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#fake-it-until-you-make-it-'>Fake it until you make it. </a></li> +</ul><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='it-s-not-about-time-management'>It's not about time management</h2><br /> +<br /> <span>Productivity isn't about time management - it's about mind management. When you put a lot of effort into something, there are:</span><br /> <br /> <ul> @@ -3083,6 +3086,12 @@ echo baz <br /> <span class='quote'>Published at 2023-10-29T22:25:04+02:00</span><br /> <br /> +<span>Once in a while, I share photos on the inter-web with either family and friends or on my The Irregular Ninja photo site. One hobby of mine is photography (even though I don't have enough time for it - so I am primarily a point-and-shoot photographer).</span><br /> +<br /> +<span>I'm not particularly eager to use any photo social sharing platforms such as Flickr, 500px (I used them regularly in the past), etc., anymore. I value self-hosting, DIY and privacy (nobody should data mine my photos), and no third party should have any rights to my pictures. </span><br /> +<br /> +<span>I value KISS (keep it simple and stupid) and simplicity. All that's required for a web photo album is some simple HTML and spice it up with CSS. No need for JavaScript, no need for a complex dynamic website. </span><br /> +<br /> <pre> ___ .---------.._ ______!fsc!_....-' .g8888888p. '-------....._ @@ -3104,7 +3113,6 @@ echo baz <br /> <ul> <li><a href='#kiss-static-web-photo-albums-with-photoalbumsh'>KISS static web photo albums with <span class='inlinecode'>photoalbum.sh</span></a></li> -<li>⇢ <a href='#motivation'>Motivation</a></li> <li>⇢ <a href='#introducing-photoalbumsh'>Introducing <span class='inlinecode'>photoalbum.sh</span></a></li> <li>⇢ <a href='#installation'>Installation</a></li> <li>⇢ <a href='#setting-it-up'>Setting it up</a></li> @@ -3113,14 +3121,6 @@ echo baz <li>⇢ <a href='#html-templates'>HTML templates</a></li> <li>⇢ <a href='#conclusion'>Conclusion</a></li> </ul><br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='motivation'>Motivation</h2><br /> -<br /> -<span>Once in a while, I share photos on the inter-web with either family and friends or on my The Irregular Ninja photo site. One hobby of mine is photography (even though I don't have enough time for it - so I am primarily a point-and-shoot photographer).</span><br /> -<br /> -<span>I'm not particularly eager to use any photo social sharing platforms such as Flickr, 500px (I used them regularly in the past), etc., anymore. I value self-hosting, DIY and privacy (nobody should data mine my photos), and no third party should have any rights to my pictures. </span><br /> -<br /> -<span>I value KISS (keep it simple and stupid) and simplicity. All that's required for a web photo album is some simple HTML and spice it up with CSS. No need for JavaScript, no need for a complex dynamic website. </span><br /> -<br /> <h2 style='display: inline' id='introducing-photoalbumsh'>Introducing <span class='inlinecode'>photoalbum.sh</span></h2><br /> <br /> <span><span class='inlinecode'>photoalbum.sh</span> is a minimal Bash (Bourne Again Shell) script for Unix-like operating systems (such as Linux) to generate static web photo albums. The resulting static photo album is pure HTML+CSS (without any JavaScript!). It is specially designed to be as simple as possible.</span><br /> @@ -3394,23 +3394,6 @@ blurs html index.html photos thumbs <br /> <span class='quote'>Published at 2023-09-25T14:57:42+03:00</span><br /> <br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='table-of-contents'>Table of Contents</h2><br /> -<br /> -<ul> -<li><a href='#dtail-usage-examples'>DTail usage examples</a></li> -<li>⇢ <a href='#introduction'>Introduction</a></li> -<li>⇢ <a href='#following-logs'>Following logs</a></li> -<li>⇢ <a href='#aggregating-logs'>Aggregating logs</a></li> -<li>⇢ <a href='#how-to-use-dcat'>How to use <span class='inlinecode'>dcat</span></a></li> -<li>⇢ <a href='#how-to-use-dgrep'>How to use <span class='inlinecode'>dgrep</span></a></li> -<li>⇢ <a href='#how-to-use-dmap'>How to use <span class='inlinecode'>dmap</span></a></li> -<li>⇢ <a href='#how-to-use-the-dtail-serverless-mode'>How to use the DTail serverless mode</a></li> -<li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#serverless-map-reduce-query'>Serverless map-reduce query</a></li> -<li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#aggregating-csv-files'>Aggregating CSV files</a></li> -<li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#other-serverless-commands'>Other serverless commands</a></li> -</ul><br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='introduction'>Introduction</h2><br /> -<br /> <span>Hey there. As I am pretty busy this month personally (I am now on Paternity Leave) and as I still want to post once monthly, the blog post of this month will only be some DTail usage examples. They're from the DTail documentation, but not all readers of my blog may be aware of those!</span><br /> <br /> <span>DTail is a distributed DevOps tool for tailing, grepping, catting logs and other text files on many remote machines at once which I programmed in Go.</span><br /> @@ -3431,6 +3414,23 @@ blurs html index.html photos thumbs | | </pre> <br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='table-of-contents'>Table of Contents</h2><br /> +<br /> +<ul> +<li><a href='#dtail-usage-examples'>DTail usage examples</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#commands'>Commands</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#following-logs'>Following logs</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#aggregating-logs'>Aggregating logs</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#how-to-use-dcat'>How to use <span class='inlinecode'>dcat</span></a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#how-to-use-dgrep'>How to use <span class='inlinecode'>dgrep</span></a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#how-to-use-dmap'>How to use <span class='inlinecode'>dmap</span></a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#how-to-use-the-dtail-serverless-mode'>How to use the DTail serverless mode</a></li> +<li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#serverless-map-reduce-query'>Serverless map-reduce query</a></li> +<li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#aggregating-csv-files'>Aggregating CSV files</a></li> +<li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#other-serverless-commands'>Other serverless commands</a></li> +</ul><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='commands'>Commands</h2><br /> +<br /> <span>DTail consists out of a server and several client binaries. In this post, I am showcasing their use!</span><br /> <br /> <ul> @@ -3805,6 +3805,10 @@ DC on fire: <br /> <span class='quote'>Published at 2023-07-21T10:19:31+03:00</span><br /> <br /> +<span>I proudly announce that I've released Gemtexter version <span class='inlinecode'>2.1.0</span>. What is Gemtexter? It's my minimalist static site generator for Gemini Gemtext, HTML and Markdown, written in GNU Bash.</span><br /> +<br /> +<a class='textlink' href='https://codeberg.org/snonux/gemtexter'>https://codeberg.org/snonux/gemtexter</a><br /> +<br /> <pre> -=[ typewriters ]=- 1/98 .-------. @@ -3822,7 +3826,6 @@ DC on fire: <br /> <ul> <li><a href='#gemtexter-210---let-s-gemtext-again'>Gemtexter 2.1.0 - Let's Gemtext again³</a></li> -<li>⇢ <a href='#introduction'>Introduction</a></li> <li>⇢ <a href='#why-bash'>Why Bash?</a></li> <li>⇢ <a href='#switch-to-gpl3-license'>Switch to GPL3 license</a></li> <li>⇢ <a href='#source-code-highlighting-support'>Source code highlighting support</a></li> @@ -3831,12 +3834,6 @@ DC on fire: <li>⇢ <a href='#html-mastodon-verification-support'>HTML Mastodon verification support</a></li> <li>⇢ <a href='#more'>More</a></li> </ul><br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='introduction'>Introduction</h2><br /> -<br /> -<span>I proudly announce that I've released Gemtexter version <span class='inlinecode'>2.1.0</span>. What is Gemtexter? It's my minimalist static site generator for Gemini Gemtext, HTML and Markdown, written in GNU Bash.</span><br /> -<br /> -<a class='textlink' href='https://codeberg.org/snonux/gemtexter'>https://codeberg.org/snonux/gemtexter</a><br /> -<br /> <h2 style='display: inline' id='why-bash'>Why Bash?</h2><br /> <br /> <span>This project is too complex for a Bash script. Writing it in Bash was to try out how maintainable a "larger" Bash script could be. It's still pretty maintainable and helps me try new Bash tricks here and then!</span><br /> @@ -3948,17 +3945,30 @@ http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite --> <br /> <span class='quote'>Published at 2023-07-17T04:56:20+03:00</span><br /> <br /> +<span>These notes are of two books by "John Sommez" I found helpful. I also added some of my own keypoints to it. These notes are mainly for my own use, but you might find them helpful, too.</span><br /> +<br /> +<pre> + ,.......... .........., + ,..,' '.' ',.., + ,' ,' : ', ', + ,' ,' : ', ', + ,' ,' : ', ', + ,' ,'............., : ,.............', ', +,' '............ '.' ............' ', + '''''''''''''''''';''';'''''''''''''''''' + ''' +</pre> +<br /> <h2 style='display: inline' id='table-of-contents'>Table of Contents</h2><br /> <br /> <ul> <li><a href='#software-developmers-career-guide-and-soft-skills-book-notes'>"Software Developmers Career Guide and Soft Skills" book notes</a></li> -<li><a href='#introduction'>Introduction</a></li> -<li><a href='#improve'>Improve</a></li> -<li>⇢ <a href='#always-learn-new-things'>Always learn new things</a></li> -<li>⇢ <a href='#set-goals'>Set goals</a></li> -<li>⇢ <a href='#ratings'>Ratings</a></li> -<li>⇢ <a href='#promotions'>Promotions</a></li> -<li>⇢ <a href='#finish-things'>Finish things</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#improve'>Improve</a></li> +<li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#always-learn-new-things'>Always learn new things</a></li> +<li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#set-goals'>Set goals</a></li> +<li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#ratings'>Ratings</a></li> +<li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#promotions'>Promotions</a></li> +<li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#finish-things'>Finish things</a></li> <li>⇢ <a href='#expand-the-empire'>Expand the empire</a></li> <li>⇢ <a href='#be-pragmatic-and-also-manage-your-time'>Be pragmatic and also manage your time</a></li> <li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#the-quota-system'>The quota system</a></li> @@ -3982,25 +3992,9 @@ http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite --> <li>⇢ <a href='#testing'>Testing</a></li> <li>⇢ <a href='#books-to-read'>Books to read</a></li> </ul><br /> -<h1 style='display: inline' id='introduction'>Introduction</h1><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='improve'>Improve</h2><br /> <br /> -<span>These notes are of two books by "John Sommez" I found helpful. I also added some of my own keypoints to it. These notes are mainly for my own use, but you might find them helpful, too.</span><br /> -<br /> -<pre> - ,.......... .........., - ,..,' '.' ',.., - ,' ,' : ', ', - ,' ,' : ', ', - ,' ,' : ', ', - ,' ,'............., : ,.............', ', -,' '............ '.' ............' ', - '''''''''''''''''';''';'''''''''''''''''' - ''' -</pre> -<br /> -<h1 style='display: inline' id='improve'>Improve</h1><br /> -<br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='always-learn-new-things'>Always learn new things</h2><br /> +<h3 style='display: inline' id='always-learn-new-things'>Always learn new things</h3><br /> <br /> <span>When you learn something new, e.g. a programming language, first gather an overview, learn from multiple sources, play around and learn by doing and not consuming and form your own questions. Don't read too much upfront. A large amount of time is spent in learning technical skills which were never use. You want to have a practical set of skills you are actually using. You need to know 20 percent to get out 80 percent of the results.</span><br /> <br /> @@ -4018,11 +4012,11 @@ http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite --> <br /> <span>Boot camps: The advantage of a boot camp is to pragmatically learn things fast. We almost always overestimate what we can do in a day. Especially during boot camps. Connect to others during the boot camps</span><br /> <br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='set-goals'>Set goals</h2><br /> +<h3 style='display: inline' id='set-goals'>Set goals</h3><br /> <br /> <span>Your own goals are important but the manager also looks at how the team performs and how someone can help the team perform better. Check whether you are on track with your goals every 2 weeks in order to avoid surprises for the annual review. Make concrete goals for next review. Track and document your progress. Invest in your education. Make your goals known. If you want something, then ask for it. Nobody but you knows what you want.</span><br /> <br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='ratings'>Ratings</h2><br /> +<h3 style='display: inline' id='ratings'>Ratings</h3><br /> <br /> <span>That's a trap: If you have to rate yourself, that's a trap. That never works in an unbiased way. Rate yourself always the best way but rate your weakest part as high as possible minus one point. Rate yourself as good as you can otherwise. Nobody is putting for fun a gun on his own head. </span><br /> <br /> @@ -4030,7 +4024,7 @@ http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite --> <li>Don't do peer rating, it can fire back on you. What if the colleague becomes your new boss?</li> <li>Cooperate rankings are unfortunately HR guidelines and politics and only mirror a little your actual performance.</li> </ul><br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='promotions'>Promotions</h2><br /> +<h3 style='display: inline' id='promotions'>Promotions</h3><br /> <br /> <span>The most valuable employees are the ones who make themselves obsolete and automate all away. Keep a safety net of 3 to 6 months of finances. Safe at least 10 percent of your earnings. Also, if you make money it does not mean that you have to spent more money. Is a new car better than a used car which both can bring you from A to B? Liability vs assets.</span><br /> <br /> @@ -4043,7 +4037,7 @@ http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite --> <li>If you want a raise be specific how much and know to back your demands. Don't make a thread and no ultimatums.</li> <li>Best way for a promotion is to switch jobs. You can even switch back with a better salary.</li> </ul><br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='finish-things'>Finish things</h2><br /> +<h3 style='display: inline' id='finish-things'>Finish things</h3><br /> <br /> <span>Hard work is necessary for accomplish results. However, work smarter not harder. Furthermore, working smart is not a substitute for working hard. Work both, hard and smart.</span><br /> <br /> @@ -4311,13 +4305,18 @@ http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite --> <br /> <span class='quote'>Published at 2023-06-01T21:10:17+03:00</span><br /> <br /> +<span>Gogios is a minimalistic and easy-to-use monitoring tool I programmed in Google Go designed specifically for small-scale self-hosted servers and virtual machines. The primary purpose of Gogios is to monitor my personal server infrastructure for <span class='inlinecode'>foo.zone</span>, my MTAs, my authoritative DNS servers, my NextCloud, Wallabag and Anki sync server installations, etc.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span>With compatibility with the Nagios Check API, Gogios offers a simple yet effective solution to monitor a limited number of resources. In theory, Gogios scales to a couple of thousand checks, though. You can clone it from Codeberg here:</span><br /> +<br /> +<a class='textlink' href='https://codeberg.org/snonux/gogios'>https://codeberg.org/snonux/gogios</a><br /> +<br /> <a href='./kiss-server-monitoring-with-gogios/gogios-small.png'><img alt='Gogios logo' title='Gogios logo' src='./kiss-server-monitoring-with-gogios/gogios-small.png' /></a><br /> <br /> <h2 style='display: inline' id='table-of-contents'>Table of Contents</h2><br /> <br /> <ul> <li><a href='#kiss-server-monitoring-with-gogios'>KISS server monitoring with Gogios</a></li> -<li>⇢ <a href='#introduction'>Introduction</a></li> <li>⇢ <a href='#motivation'>Motivation</a></li> <li>⇢ <a href='#features'>Features</a></li> <li>⇢ <a href='#example-alert'>Example alert</a></li> @@ -4332,14 +4331,6 @@ http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite --> <li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#high-availability'>High-availability</a></li> <li>⇢ <a href='#conclusion'>Conclusion:</a></li> </ul><br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='introduction'>Introduction</h2><br /> -<br /> -<span>Gogios is a minimalistic and easy-to-use monitoring tool I programmed in Google Go designed specifically for small-scale self-hosted servers and virtual machines. The primary purpose of Gogios is to monitor my personal server infrastructure for <span class='inlinecode'>foo.zone</span>, my MTAs, my authoritative DNS servers, my NextCloud, Wallabag and Anki sync server installations, etc.</span><br /> -<br /> -<span>With compatibility with the Nagios Check API, Gogios offers a simple yet effective solution to monitor a limited number of resources. In theory, Gogios scales to a couple of thousand checks, though. You can clone it from Codeberg here:</span><br /> -<br /> -<a class='textlink' href='https://codeberg.org/snonux/gogios'>https://codeberg.org/snonux/gogios</a><br /> -<br /> <pre> _____________________________ ____________________________ / \ / \ @@ -4614,11 +4605,24 @@ http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite --> <br /> <span class='quote'>Published at 2023-05-06T17:23:16+03:00</span><br /> <br /> +<span>These are my personal takeaways after reading "The Obstacle Is the Way" by Ryan Holiday. This is mainly for my own use, but you might find it helpful too.</span><br /> +<br /> +<pre> + ,.......... .........., + ,..,' '.' ',.., + ,' ,' : ', ', + ,' ,' : ', ', + ,' ,' : ', ', + ,' ,'............., : ,.............', ', +,' '............ '.' ............' ', + '''''''''''''''''';''';'''''''''''''''''' + ''' +</pre> +<br /> <h2 style='display: inline' id='table-of-contents'>Table of Contents</h2><br /> <br /> <ul> <li><a href='#the-obstacle-is-the-way-book-notes'>"The Obstacle is the Way" book notes</a></li> -<li>⇢ <a href='#introduction'>Introduction</a></li> <li>⇢ <a href='#reframe-your-perspective'>Reframe your perspective</a></li> <li>⇢ <a href='#embrace-rationality'>Embrace rationality</a></li> <li>⇢ <a href='#control-your-response'>Control your response</a></li> @@ -4632,23 +4636,6 @@ http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite --> <li>⇢ <a href='#love-everything-that-happens'>Love everything that happens</a></li> <li>⇢ <a href='#conclusion'>Conclusion</a></li> </ul><br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='introduction'>Introduction</h2><br /> -<br /> -<span>These are my personal takeaways after reading "The Obstacle Is the Way" by Ryan Holiday. This is mainly for my own use, but you might find it helpful too.</span><br /> -<br /> -<br /> -<pre> - ,.......... .........., - ,..,' '.' ',.., - ,' ,' : ', ', - ,' ,' : ', ', - ,' ,' : ', ', - ,' ,'............., : ,.............', ', -,' '............ '.' ............' ', - '''''''''''''''''';''';'''''''''''''''''' - ''' -</pre> -<br /> <span>"The obstacle is the way" is a powerful statement that encapsulates the wisdom of turning challenges into opportunities for growth and success. We will explore using obstacles as fuel, transforming weaknesses into strengths, and adopting a mindset that allows us to be creative and persistent in the face of adversity.</span><br /> <br /> <h2 style='display: inline' id='reframe-your-perspective'>Reframe your perspective</h2><br /> @@ -4937,6 +4924,12 @@ no1 in 455 days, 18:52:44 | at Sun Jul 21 07:37:51 2024 <br /> <span class='quote'>Published at 2023-04-09T22:31:42+03:00</span><br /> <br /> +<span>This is the first blog post about my Algorithms and Data Structures in Go series. I am not a Software Developer in my day job. In my current role, programming and scripting skills are desirable but not mandatory. I have been learning about Data Structures and Algorithms many years ago at University. I thought it would be fun to revisit/refresh my knowledge here and implement many of the algorithms in Go.</span><br /> +<br /> +<a class='textlink' href='./2023-04-09-algorithms-and-data-structures-in-golang-part-1.html'>2023-04-09 Algorithms and Data Structures in Go - Part 1 (You are currently reading this)</a><br /> +<br /> +<span>This post is about setting up some basic data structures and methods for this blog series. I promise, everything will be easy to follow in this post. It will become more interesting later in this series.</span><br /> +<br /> <pre> ,_---~~~~~----._ _,,_,*^____ _____``*g*\"*, @@ -4955,21 +4948,12 @@ no1 in 455 days, 18:52:44 | at Sun Jul 21 07:37:51 2024 <br /> <ul> <li><a href='#algorithms-and-data-structures-in-go---part-1'>Algorithms and Data Structures in Go - Part 1</a></li> -<li>⇢ <a href='#introduction'>Introduction</a></li> <li>⇢ <a href='#type-constraints'>Type constraints</a></li> <li>⇢ <a href='#arraylist'>ArrayList</a></li> <li>⇢ <a href='#helper-methods'>Helper methods</a></li> <li>⇢ <a href='#sleep-sort'>Sleep sort</a></li> <li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#testing'>Testing</a></li> </ul><br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='introduction'>Introduction</h2><br /> -<br /> -<span>This is the first blog post about my Algorithms and Data Structures in Go series. I am not a Software Developer in my day job. In my current role, programming and scripting skills are desirable but not mandatory. I have been learning about Data Structures and Algorithms many years ago at University. I thought it would be fun to revisit/refresh my knowledge here and implement many of the algorithms in Go.</span><br /> -<br /> -<a class='textlink' href='./2023-04-09-algorithms-and-data-structures-in-golang-part-1.html'>2023-04-09 Algorithms and Data Structures in Go - Part 1 (You are currently reading this)</a><br /> -<br /> -<span>This post is about setting up some basic data structures and methods for this blog series. I promise, everything will be easy to follow in this post. It will become more interesting later in this series.</span><br /> -<br /> <h2 style='display: inline' id='type-constraints'>Type constraints</h2><br /> <br /> <span>First, the package <span class='inlinecode'>ds</span> (data structures) defines the <span class='inlinecode'>types.go</span>. All examples will either operate on the <span class='inlinecode'>Integer</span> or <span class='inlinecode'>Number</span> type:</span><br /> @@ -5237,6 +5221,22 @@ http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite --> ''' </pre> <br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='table-of-contents'>Table of Contents</h2><br /> +<br /> +<ul> +<li><a href='#never-split-the-difference-book-notes'>"Never split the difference" book notes</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#tactical-listening-spreading-empathy'>Tactical listening, spreading empathy</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#mindset-of-discovery'>Mindset of discovery</a></li> +<li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#more-tips-'>More tips </a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#no-starts-the-conversation'>"No" starts the conversation</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#win-win'>Win-win</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#on-deadlines'>On Deadlines</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#analyse-the-opponent'>Analyse the opponent</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#use-different-ways-of-saying-no'>Use different ways of saying "no."</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#calibrated-question'>Calibrated question</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#the-black-swan-'>The black swan </a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#more'>More</a></li> +</ul><br /> <h2 style='display: inline' id='tactical-listening-spreading-empathy'>Tactical listening, spreading empathy</h2><br /> <br /> <span>Be a mirror, copy each other to be comfy with each other to build up trust. Mirroring is mainly body language. A mirror is to repeat the words the other just said. Simple but effective.</span><br /> @@ -5381,6 +5381,14 @@ http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite --> <br /> <span class='quote'>Published at 2023-03-25T17:50:32+02:00</span><br /> <br /> +<span>I proudly announce that I've released Gemtexter version <span class='inlinecode'>2.0.0</span>. What is Gemtexter? It's my minimalist static site generator for Gemini Gemtext, HTML and Markdown written in GNU Bash.</span><br /> +<br /> +<a class='textlink' href='https://codeberg.org/snonux/gemtexter'>https://codeberg.org/snonux/gemtexter</a><br /> +<br /> +<span>This is a new major release, so it contains a breaking change (see "Meta cache made obsolete").</span><br /> +<br /> +<span>Let's list what's new!</span><br /> +<br /> <pre> -=[ typewriters ]=- 1/98 @@ -5398,7 +5406,6 @@ http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite --> <br /> <ul> <li><a href='#gemtexter-200---let-s-gemtext-again'>Gemtexter 2.0.0 - Let's Gemtext again²</a></li> -<li>⇢ <a href='#introduction'>Introduction</a></li> <li>⇢ <a href='#minimal-template-engine'>Minimal template engine</a></li> <li>⇢ <a href='#added-hooks'>Added hooks</a></li> <li>⇢ <a href='#use-of-safer-bash-options'>Use of safer Bash options</a></li> @@ -5406,16 +5413,6 @@ http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite --> <li>⇢ <a href='#xmllint-support'>XMLLint support</a></li> <li>⇢ <a href='#more'>More</a></li> </ul><br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='introduction'>Introduction</h2><br /> -<br /> -<span>I proudly announce that I've released Gemtexter version <span class='inlinecode'>2.0.0</span>. What is Gemtexter? It's my minimalist static site generator for Gemini Gemtext, HTML and Markdown written in GNU Bash.</span><br /> -<br /> -<a class='textlink' href='https://codeberg.org/snonux/gemtexter'>https://codeberg.org/snonux/gemtexter</a><br /> -<br /> -<span>This is a new major release, so it contains a breaking change (see "Meta cache made obsolete").</span><br /> -<br /> -<span>Let's list what's new!</span><br /> -<br /> <h2 style='display: inline' id='minimal-template-engine'>Minimal template engine</h2><br /> <br /> <span>Gemtexter now supports templating, enabling dynamically generated content to <span class='inlinecode'>.gmi</span> files before converting anything to any output format like HTML and Markdown.</span><br /> @@ -5676,10 +5673,12 @@ http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite --> <summary>Do you need help fully discharging from work in the evenings or for the weekend? Shutting down from work won't just improve your work-life balance; it will also significantly improve the quality of your personal life and work. After a restful weekend, you will be much more energized and productive the next working day. So it should not just be in your own, but also your employers' interest that you fully relax and shut down after work. </summary> <content type="xhtml"> <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> - <h1 style='display: inline' id='Howtoshutdownafterwork'>How to shut down after work</h1><br /> + <h1 style='display: inline' id='how-to-shut-down-after-work'>How to shut down after work</h1><br /> <br /> <span class='quote'>Published at 2023-02-26T23:48:01+02:00</span><br /> <br /> +<span>Do you need help fully discharging from work in the evenings or for the weekend? Shutting down from work won't just improve your work-life balance; it will also significantly improve the quality of your personal life and work. After a restful weekend, you will be much more energized and productive the next working day. So it should not just be in your own, but also your employers' interest that you fully relax and shut down after work. </span><br /> +<br /> <pre> |\ "Music should be heard not only with the ears, but also the soul." |---|--\-----------------------|-----------------------------------------| @@ -5695,15 +5694,25 @@ http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite --> -@- [kom...@uwec.edu] </pre> <br /> -<span>Do you need help fully discharging from work in the evenings or for the weekend? Shutting down from work won't just improve your work-life balance; it will also significantly improve the quality of your personal life and work. After a restful weekend, you will be much more energized and productive the next working day. So it should not just be in your own, but also your employers' interest that you fully relax and shut down after work. </span><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='table-of-contents'>Table of Contents</h2><br /> <br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='Haveashutdownroutine'>Have a shutdown routine</h2><br /> +<ul> +<li><a href='#how-to-shut-down-after-work'>How to shut down after work</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#have-a-shutdown-routine'>Have a shutdown routine</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#don-t-work-when-you-officially-don-t-work'>Don't work when you officially don't work</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#distract-your-mind'>Distract your mind</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#get-a-pet'>Get a pet</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#journal-your-day'>Journal your day</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#don-t-stress-about-what-your-employer-expects-from-you'>Don't stress about what your employer expects from you</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#call-it-a-day'>Call it a day</a></li> +</ul><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='have-a-shutdown-routine'>Have a shutdown routine</h2><br /> <br /> <span>Have a routine. Try to finish work around the same time every day. Write any outstanding tasks down for the next day, so you are sure you will remember them. Writing them down brings wonders as you can remove them from your mind for the remainder of the day (or the upcoming weekend) as you know you will surely pick them up the next working day. Tidying up your workplace could also count toward your daily shutdown routine. </span><br /> <br /> <span>A commute home from the office also greatly helps, as it disconnects your work from your personal life. Don't work on your commute home, though! If you don't commute but work from home, then it helps to walk around the block or in a nearby park to disconnect from work. </span><br /> <br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='Dontworkwhenyouofficiallydontwork'>Don't work when you officially don't work</h2><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='don-t-work-when-you-officially-don-t-work'>Don't work when you officially don't work</h2><br /> <br /> <span>Unless you are self-employed, you have likely signed an N-hour per week contract with your employer, and your regular working times are from X o'clock in the morning to Y o'clock in the evening (with M minutes lunch break in the middle). And there might be some flexibility in your working times, too. But that kind of flexibility (e.g. extending the lunch break so that there is time to pick up a family member from the airport) will be agreed upon, and you will counteract it, for example, by starting working earlier the next day or working late, that one exception. But overall, your weekly working time will stay N hours. </span><br /> <br /> @@ -5717,7 +5726,7 @@ http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite --> <br /> <span>Checking for your messages constantly outside of regular office times makes it impossible to shut down and relax from work altogether. </span><br /> <br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='Distractyourmind'>Distract your mind</h2><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='distract-your-mind'>Distract your mind</h2><br /> <br /> <span>Often, your mind goes back to work-related stuff even after work. That's normal as you concentrated highly on your work throughout the day. The brain unconsciously continues to work and will automatically present you with random work-related thoughts. You can counteract this by focusing on non-work stuff, which may include:</span><br /> <br /> @@ -5730,23 +5739,23 @@ http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite --> </ul><br /> <span>Some of these can be habit-stacked: Exercise could be combined with watching videos about your passion project (e.g. watching lectures about that new programming language you are currently learning for fun). With walking, for example, you could combine listening to an Audiobook or music, or you could also think about your passion project during that walk. </span><br /> <br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='Getapet'>Get a pet</h2><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='get-a-pet'>Get a pet</h2><br /> <br /> <span>Even if you have children, it helps wonders to get a pet. My cat, for example, will remind me a few times daily to take a few minute's breaks to pet, play or give food. So my cat not only helps me after work but throughout the day.</span><br /> <br /> <span>My neighbour also works from home, and he has dogs, which he regularly has to take out to the park.</span><br /> <br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='Journalyourday'>Journal your day</h2><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='journal-your-day'>Journal your day</h2><br /> <br /> <span>If you are upset about something, making it impossible to shut down from work, write down everything (e.g., with a pen in a paper journal). Writing things down helps you to "get rid" of the negative. Especially after conflicts with colleagues or company decisions, you don't agree on. This kind of self-therapy is excellent. Brainstorm all your emotions and (even if opinionated) opinions so you have everything on paper. Once done, you don't think about it so much anymore, as you know you can access that information if required. But stopping ruminating about it will be much easier now. You will likely never access that information again, though. But at least writing the thoughts down saved your day. </span><br /> <br /> <span>Write down three things which went well for the day. This helps you to appreciate the day. </span><br /> <br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='Dontstressaboutwhatyouremployerexpectsfromyou'>Don't stress about what your employer expects from you</h2><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='don-t-stress-about-what-your-employer-expects-from-you'>Don't stress about what your employer expects from you</h2><br /> <br /> <span>Think about what's fun and motivates you. Maybe the next promotion to Principal or a Manager role isn't for you. Many fall into the trap of stressing themselves out to satisfy the employer so that the next upgrade will happen and think about it constantly, even after work. But it is more important that you enjoy your craftsmanship. Work on what you expect from yourself. Ideally, your goals should be aligned with your employer. I am not saying you should abandon everything what your manager is asking you to do, but it is, after all, your life. And you have to decide where and on what you want to work. But don't sell yourself short. Keep track of your accomplishments.</span><br /> <br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='Callitaday'>Call it a day</h2><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='call-it-a-day'>Call it a day</h2><br /> <br /> <span>Every day you gave your best was good; the day's outcome doesn't matter. What matters is that you know you gave your best and are closer to your goals than the previous day. This gives you a sense of progress and accomplishment.</span><br /> <br /> @@ -5767,13 +5776,26 @@ http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite --> <name>Paul Buetow aka snonux</name> <email>paul@dev.buetow.org</email> </author> - <summary>Art by Joan Stark</summary> + <summary>In 2021 I wrote 'On Being Pedantic about Open-Source', and there was a section 'What about mobile?' where I expressed the dilemma about the necessity of using proprietary mobile operating systems. With GrapheneOS, I found my perfect solution for personal mobile phone use. </summary> <content type="xhtml"> <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> - <h1 style='display: inline' id='WhyGrapheneOSrox'>Why GrapheneOS rox</h1><br /> + <h1 style='display: inline' id='why-grapheneos-rox'>Why GrapheneOS rox</h1><br /> <br /> <span class='quote'>Published at 2023-01-23T15:31:52+02:00</span><br /> <br /> +<span>In 2021 I wrote "On Being Pedantic about Open-Source", and there was a section "What about mobile?" where I expressed the dilemma about the necessity of using proprietary mobile operating systems. With GrapheneOS, I found my perfect solution for personal mobile phone use. </span><br /> +<br /> +<a class='textlink' href='./2021-08-01-on-being-pedantic-about-open-source.html'>On Being Pedantic about Open-Source</a><br /> +<br /> +<span>What is GrapheneOS?</span><br /> +<br /> +<span class='quote'>GrapheneOS is a privacy and security-focused mobile OS with Android app compatibility developed as a non-profit open-source project. It's focused on the research and development of privacy and security technologies, including substantial improvements to sandboxing, exploits mitigations and the permission model.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span>GrapheneOS is an independent Android distribution based on the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) but hardened in multiple ways. Other independent Android distributions, like LineageOS, are also based on AOSP, but GrapheneOS takes it further so that it can be my daily driver on my phone.</span><br /> +<br /> +<a class='textlink' href='https://GrapheneOS.org'>https://GrapheneOS.org</a><br /> +<a class='textlink' href='https://LineageOS.org'>https://LineageOS.org</a><br /> +<br /> <pre> Art by Joan Stark _.===========================._ @@ -5797,20 +5819,20 @@ Art by Joan Stark '-'-'-'--' </pre> <br /> -<span>In 2021 I wrote "On Being Pedantic about Open-Source", and there was a section "What about mobile?" where I expressed the dilemma about the necessity of using proprietary mobile operating systems. With GrapheneOS, I found my perfect solution for personal mobile phone use. </span><br /> -<br /> -<a class='textlink' href='./2021-08-01-on-being-pedantic-about-open-source.html'>On Being Pedantic about Open-Source</a><br /> -<br /> -<span>What is GrapheneOS?</span><br /> -<br /> -<span class='quote'>GrapheneOS is a privacy and security-focused mobile OS with Android app compatibility developed as a non-profit open-source project. It's focused on the research and development of privacy and security technologies, including substantial improvements to sandboxing, exploits mitigations and the permission model.</span><br /> -<br /> -<span>GrapheneOS is an independent Android distribution based on the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) but hardened in multiple ways. Other independent Android distributions, like LineageOS, are also based on AOSP, but GrapheneOS takes it further so that it can be my daily driver on my phone.</span><br /> -<br /> -<a class='textlink' href='https://GrapheneOS.org'>https://GrapheneOS.org</a><br /> -<a class='textlink' href='https://LineageOS.org'>https://LineageOS.org</a><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='table-of-contents'>Table of Contents</h2><br /> <br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='UserProfiles'>User Profiles</h2><br /> +<ul> +<li><a href='#why-grapheneos-rox'>Why GrapheneOS rox</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#user-profiles'>User Profiles</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#proxying-some-of-the-google-offerings-'>Proxying some of the Google offerings </a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#google-play-sandboxing-'>Google Play Sandboxing </a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#the-camera-and-the-cloud-'>The camera and the cloud </a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#fine-granular-permissions'>Fine granular permissions</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#termux'>Termux</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#so-why-not-use-a-pure-linux-phone'>So, why not use a pure Linux phone?</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#small-grapheneos-downsides-'>Small GrapheneOS downsides </a></li> +</ul><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='user-profiles'>User Profiles</h2><br /> <br /> <span>GrapheneOS allows configuring up to 32 user profiles (including a guest profile) on a single phone. A profile is a completely different environment within the phone, and it is possible to switch between them instantly. Sessions of a profile can continue running in the background or be fully terminated. Each profile can have completely different settings and different applications installed.</span><br /> <br /> @@ -5820,7 +5842,7 @@ Art by Joan Stark <br /> <span>You notice how much longer (multiple days) your phone can be on a single charge when Google Play Services isn't running in the background. This tells a lot about the background activities and indicates that using Google Play shouldn't be the norm.</span><br /> <br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='ProxyingsomeoftheGoogleofferings'>Proxying some of the Google offerings </h2><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='proxying-some-of-the-google-offerings-'>Proxying some of the Google offerings </h2><br /> <br /> <span>There's also the case that I am using an app from the Google Play store (as the app isn't available from F-Droid), which doesn't require Google Play Services to run in the background. Here's where I use the Aurora Android store. The Aurora store can be installed through F-Droid. Aurora acts as an anonymous proxy from your phone to the Google Play Store and lets you install apps from there. No Google credentials are required for that!</span><br /> <br /> @@ -5828,7 +5850,7 @@ Art by Joan Stark <br /> <span>There's a similar solution for watching videos on YouTube. You can use the NewPipe app (also from F-Droid), which acts as an anonymous proxy for watching videos from YouTube. So there isn't any need to install the official YouTube app, and there isn't any need to login to your Google account. What's so bad about the official app? You don't know which data it is sending about you to Google, so it is a privacy concern. </span><br /> <br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='GooglePlaySandboxing'>Google Play Sandboxing </h2><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='google-play-sandboxing-'>Google Play Sandboxing </h2><br /> <br /> <span>Before switching to GrapheneOS, I had been using LineageOS on one of my phones for a couple of years. Still, I always had to have a secondary personal phone with all of these proprietary apps which (partially) only work with Google Play on the phone (e.g. Banking, Navigation, various travel apps from various Airlines, etc.) somewhere around as I didn't install Google Play on my LineageOS phone due to privacy concerns and only installed apps from the F-Droid store on it. When travelling, I always had to carry around a second phone with Google Play on it, as without it; life would become inconvenient pretty soon. </span><br /> <br /> @@ -5846,7 +5868,7 @@ Art by Joan Stark <br /> <span>It is great to have the flexibility to use any proprietary Android app when needed. That only applies to around 1% of my phone usage time, but you often don't always know when you need "that one app now". So it's perfect that it's covered with the phone you always have with you. </span><br /> <br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='Thecameraandthecloud'>The camera and the cloud </h2><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='the-camera-and-the-cloud-'>The camera and the cloud </h2><br /> <br /> <span>I really want my phone to shoot good looking pictures, so that I can later upload them to the Irregular Ninja:</span><br /> <br /> @@ -5866,7 +5888,7 @@ Art by Joan Stark <br /> <span>I also use NextCloud to synchronize my notes (NextCloud Notes), my RSS news feeds (NextCloud News) and contacts (DAVx5). All apps required are available in the F-Droid store.</span><br /> <br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='Finegranularpermissions'>Fine granular permissions</h2><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='fine-granular-permissions'>Fine granular permissions</h2><br /> <br /> <span>Another great thing about GrapheneOS is that, besides putting your apps into different profiles, you can also restrict network access and configure storage scopes per app individually.</span><br /> <br /> @@ -5874,7 +5896,7 @@ Art by Joan Stark <br /> <span>The app also wants to store and read some data from your phone (e.g. it could be a proprietary app for enhancing photos, and therefore storage access to a photo folder would be required). In GrapheneOS, you can configure a storage scope for that particular app, e.g. only read and write from one folder but still forbid access to all other folders on your phone.</span><br /> <br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='Termux'>Termux</h2><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='termux'>Termux</h2><br /> <br /> <span>Termux can be installed on any Android phone through F-Droid, so it doesn't need to be a GrapheneOS phone. But I have to mention Termux here as it significantly adds value to my phone experience. </span><br /> <br /> @@ -5886,7 +5908,7 @@ Art by Joan Stark <br /> <span>There are Pixel phones with a screen size of 6", and that's decent enough for occasional use like that, and everything (the phone, the BT keyboard, maybe an external battery pack) all fit nicely in a small travel pocket.</span><br /> <br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='SowhynotuseapureLinuxphone'>So, why not use a pure Linux phone?</h2><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='so-why-not-use-a-pure-linux-phone'>So, why not use a pure Linux phone?</h2><br /> <br /> <span>Strictly speaking, an Android phone is a Linux phone, but it's heavily modified and customized. For me, a "pure" Linux phone is a more streamlined Linux kernel running in a distribution like Ubuntu Touch or Mobian. </span><br /> <br /> @@ -5901,7 +5923,7 @@ Art by Joan Stark <br /> <a class='textlink' href='https://sailfishos.org'>SailfishOS</a><br /> <br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='SmallGrapheneOSdownsides'>Small GrapheneOS downsides </h2><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='small-grapheneos-downsides-'>Small GrapheneOS downsides </h2><br /> <br /> <span>Sometimes, switching a profile to use a different app is annoying, and you can't copy and paste from the system clipboard from one profile to another. But that's a small price I am willing to pay!</span><br /> <br /> @@ -5927,12 +5949,10 @@ Art by Joan Stark <summary>As a regular participant in the annual Pet Project competition at work, I always try to find a project where I can learn something new. In this post, I would like to share my takeaways after revisiting Java. You can read about my motivations in my 'Creative universe' post:</summary> <content type="xhtml"> <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> - <h1 style='display: inline' id='RelearningJavaMytakeaways'>(Re)learning Java - My takeaways</h1><br /> + <h1 style='display: inline' id='relearning-java---my-takeaways'>(Re)learning Java - My takeaways</h1><br /> <br /> <span class='quote'>Published at 2022-12-24T23:18:40+02:00</span><br /> <br /> -<a href='./ultrarelearning-java-my-takeaways/learnjava.jpg'><img src='./ultrarelearning-java-my-takeaways/learnjava.jpg' /></a><br /> -<br /> <span>As a regular participant in the annual Pet Project competition at work, I always try to find a project where I can learn something new. In this post, I would like to share my takeaways after revisiting Java. You can read about my motivations in my "Creative universe" post:</span><br /> <br /> <a class='textlink' href='./2022-04-10-creative-universe.html'>Creative universe</a><br /> @@ -5945,13 +5965,31 @@ Art by Joan Stark <br /> <span>At my workplace, as an SRE, I don't do Java a lot. I have been reading Java code to understand the software better so I can apply and suggest workarounds or fixes to existing issues and bugs. However, most of our stack is in Java, and our Software Engineers use Java as their primary programming language.</span><br /> <br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='StuckatJava14'>Stuck at Java 1.4</h2><br /> +<a href='./ultrarelearning-java-my-takeaways/learnjava.jpg'><img src='./ultrarelearning-java-my-takeaways/learnjava.jpg' /></a><br /> +<br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='table-of-contents'>Table of Contents</h2><br /> +<br /> +<ul> +<li><a href='#relearning-java---my-takeaways'>(Re)learning Java - My takeaways</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#stuck-at-java-14'>Stuck at Java 1.4</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#relearning--upskilling-to-java-18'>(Re)learning & upskilling to Java 18</a></li> +<li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#effective-java'>Effective Java</a></li> +<li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#java-pub-house'>Java Pub House</a></li> +<li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#java-concurrency-course'>Java Concurrency course</a></li> +<li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#read-a-lot-of-java-code'>Read a lot of Java code</a></li> +<li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#observed-java-code-reviews'>Observed Java code reviews</a></li> +<li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#took-ownership-of-a-roadmap-java-project'>Took ownership of a roadmap-Java project</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#the-good'>The good</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#the-bad-and-the-ugly'>The bad and the ugly</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#conclusion'>Conclusion</a></li> +</ul><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='stuck-at-java-14'>Stuck at Java 1.4</h2><br /> <br /> <span>Over time, I had been missing out on many new features that were added to the language since Java 1.4, so I decided to implement my next Pet Project in Java and learn every further aspect of the language as my main goal. Of course, I still liked the idea of winning a Pet Project Prize, but my main objective was to level up my Java skills.</span><br /> <br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='RelearningupskillingtoJava18'>(Re)learning & upskilling to Java 18</h2><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='relearning--upskilling-to-java-18'>(Re)learning & upskilling to Java 18</h2><br /> <br /> -<h3 style='display: inline' id='EffectiveJava'>Effective Java</h3><br /> +<h3 style='display: inline' id='effective-java'>Effective Java</h3><br /> <br /> <span>This book was recommended by my brother and also by at least another colleague at work to be one of the best, if not the best, book about Java programming. I read the whole book from the beginning to the end and immersed myself in it. I fully agree; this is a great book. Every Java developer or Java software engineer should read it!</span><br /> <br /> @@ -5961,30 +5999,30 @@ Art by Joan Stark <br /> <a class='textlink' href='https://dev.to/kylec32/series/2292'>Kyle Carter's 90-part Effective Java Series </a><br /> <br /> -<h3 style='display: inline' id='JavaPubHouse'>Java Pub House</h3><br /> +<h3 style='display: inline' id='java-pub-house'>Java Pub House</h3><br /> <br /> <span>During my lunch breaks, I usually have a walk around the block or in a nearby park. I used that time to listen to the Java Pub House podcast. I listened to *every* episode and learned tons of new stuff. I can highly recommend this podcast. Especially GraalVM, a high-performance JDK distribution written for Java and other JVM languages, captured my attention. GraalVM can compile Java code into native binaries, improving performance and easing the distribution of Java programs. Because of the latter, I should release a VS-Sim GraalVM edition one day through a Linux AppImage ;-).</span><br /> <br /> <a class='textlink' href='https://www.javapubhouse.com'>https://www.javapubhouse.com</a><br /> <a class='textlink' href='https://www.graalvm.org'>https://www.graalvm.org</a><br /> <br /> -<h3 style='display: inline' id='JavaConcurrencycourse'>Java Concurrency course</h3><br /> +<h3 style='display: inline' id='java-concurrency-course'>Java Concurrency course</h3><br /> <br /> <span>I also watched a course on O'Reilly Safari Books online about Java Concurrency. That gave an excellent refresher on how the Java thread pools work and what were the concurrency primitives available in the standard library.</span><br /> <br /> -<h3 style='display: inline' id='ReadalotofJavacode'>Read a lot of Java code</h3><br /> +<h3 style='display: inline' id='read-a-lot-of-java-code'>Read a lot of Java code</h3><br /> <br /> <span>First, the source code is often the best documentation (if programmed nicely), and second, it helps to get the hang of the language and standard practices. I started to read more and more Java code at work. I did that whenever I had to understand how something, in particular, worked (e.g. while troubleshooting and debugging an issue). </span><br /> <br /> -<h3 style='display: inline' id='ObservedJavacodereviews'>Observed Java code reviews</h3><br /> +<h3 style='display: inline' id='observed-java-code-reviews'>Observed Java code reviews</h3><br /> <br /> <span>Another great way to get the hang of Java again was to sneak into the code reviews of the Software Engineer colleagues. They are the expert on the matter and are a great source to copy knowledge. It's OK to stay passive and only follow the reviews. Sometimes, it's OK to step up and take ownership of the review. The developers will also always be happy to answer any naive questions which come up.</span><br /> <br /> -<h3 style='display: inline' id='TookownershipofaroadmapJavaproject'>Took ownership of a roadmap-Java project</h3><br /> +<h3 style='display: inline' id='took-ownership-of-a-roadmap-java-project'>Took ownership of a roadmap-Java project</h3><br /> <br /> <span>Besides my Pet Project, I also took ownership of a regular roadmap Java project at work, making an internal Java service capable of running in Kubernetes. This was a bunch of minor changes and adding a bunch of classes and unit tests dealing with the statelessness and a persistent job queue in Redis. The job also involved reading and understanding a lot of already existing Java code. It wasn't part of my job description, but it was fun, and I learned a lot. The service runs smoothly in production now. Of course, all of my code got reviewed by my Software Engineering colleagues.</span><br /> <br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='Thegood'>The good</h2><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='the-good'>The good</h2><br /> <br /> <span>From the new language features and syntaxes, there are many personal takeaways, and I can't possibly list them all, but here are some of my personal highlights:</span><br /> <br /> @@ -6005,7 +6043,7 @@ Art by Joan Stark <li>Lambdas are much cleaner, shorter and easier to read than anonymous classes. Many Java libraries require passing instances of (anonymous) classes (e.g. in Swing) to other objects. Lambdas are so lovely because they are primarily compatible with the passing of anonymous classes, so they are a 1:1 replacement in many instances. Lambdas also play very nicely together with the Java functional interfaces, as each Lambda got a type, and the type can be an already existing functional interface (or, if you got a particular case, you could define your custom functional interface for your own set of Lambdas, of course).</li> <li>I love the concept of Java records. You can think of a record as an immutable object holding some data (as members). They are ideal for pipe and stream processing. They are much easier to define (with much less boilerplate) and come with write protection out of the box.</li> </ul><br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='Thebadandtheugly'>The bad and the ugly</h2><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='the-bad-and-the-ugly'>The bad and the ugly</h2><br /> <br /> <span>There are also many ugly corners in Java. Many are doomed to stay there forever due to historical decisions and ensuring backward compatibility with older versions of the Java language and the Java standard library. </span><br /> <br /> @@ -6019,7 +6057,7 @@ Art by Joan Stark <li>Being a bit spoiled by Golang's Goroutines, I was shocked about the limitations of the Java threads. They are resource hungry, and you can't just spin up millions of them as you would with Goroutines. I knew this limitation of threads already (as it's not a problem of the language but of how threads work in the OS), but still, I was pretty shocked when I got reminded of them again. Of course, there's a workaround: Use asynchronous sockets so that you don't waste a whole thread on a single I/O operation (in my case, waiting for a network response). Golang's runtime does that automatically for you: An OS thread will be re-used for other tasks until the network socket unblocks. Every modern programming language should support lightweight threads or Coroutines like Go's Goroutines. </li> </ul><br /> <br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='Conclusion'>Conclusion</h2><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='conclusion'>Conclusion</h2><br /> <br /> <span>While (re)learning Java, I felt like a student again and was quite enthusiastic about it initially. I invested around half a year, immersing myself intensively in Java (again). The last time I did that was many years ago as a university student. I even won a Silver Prize at work, implementing a project this year (2022 as of writing this). I feel confident now with understanding, debugging and patching Java code at work, which boosted my debugging and troubleshooting skills. </span><br /> <br /> @@ -6048,13 +6086,25 @@ Art by Joan Stark <name>Paul Buetow aka snonux</name> <email>paul@dev.buetow.org</email> </author> - <summary>Art by \ \_! / __!</summary> + <summary>As a long-lasting user of Vim (and NeoVim), I always wondered what GNU Emacs is really about, so I decided to try it. I didn't try vanilla GNU Emacs, but Doom Emacs. I chose Doom Emacs as it is a neat distribution of Emacs with Evil mode enabled by default. Evil mode allows Vi(m) key bindings (so to speak, it's emulating Vim within Emacs), and I am pretty sure I won't be ready to give up all the muscle memory I have built over more than a decade.</summary> <content type="xhtml"> <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> - <h1 style='display: inline' id='ItriedDoomEmacsbutIswitchedbacktoNeoVim'>I tried (Doom) Emacs, but I switched back to (Neo)Vim</h1><br /> + <h1 style='display: inline' id='i-tried-doom-emacs-but-i-switched-back-to-neovim'>I tried (Doom) Emacs, but I switched back to (Neo)Vim</h1><br /> <br /> <span class='quote'>Published at 2022-11-24T11:17:15+02:00; Updated at 2022-11-26</span><br /> <br /> +<span>As a long-lasting user of Vim (and NeoVim), I always wondered what GNU Emacs is really about, so I decided to try it. I didn't try vanilla GNU Emacs, but Doom Emacs. I chose Doom Emacs as it is a neat distribution of Emacs with Evil mode enabled by default. Evil mode allows Vi(m) key bindings (so to speak, it's emulating Vim within Emacs), and I am pretty sure I won't be ready to give up all the muscle memory I have built over more than a decade.</span><br /> +<br /> +<a class='textlink' href='https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/'>GNU Emacs</a><br /> +<a class='textlink' href='https://github.com/doomemacs/'>Doom Emacs</a><br /> +<br /> +<span>I used Doom Emacs for around two months. Still, ultimately I decided to switch back to NeoVim as my primary editor and IDE and Vim (usually pre-installed on Linux-based systems) and Nvi (usually pre-installed on *BSD systems) as my "always available editor" for quick edits. (It is worth mentioning that I don't have a high opinion on whether Vim or NeoVim is the better editor, I prefer NeoVim as it comes with better defaults out of the box, but there is no real blocker to use Vim instead).</span><br /> +<br /> +<a class='textlink' href='https://www.vim.org'>Vim</a><br /> +<a class='textlink' href='https://neovim.io'>NeoVim</a><br /> +<br /> +<span>So why did I switch back to the Vi-family?</span><br /> +<br /> <pre> _/ \ _(\(o / \ / _ ^^^o @@ -6068,25 +6118,25 @@ Art by \ \_! / __! ^^----^^ "^--v' </pre> <br /> -<span>As a long-lasting user of Vim (and NeoVim), I always wondered what GNU Emacs is really about, so I decided to try it. I didn't try vanilla GNU Emacs, but Doom Emacs. I chose Doom Emacs as it is a neat distribution of Emacs with Evil mode enabled by default. Evil mode allows Vi(m) key bindings (so to speak, it's emulating Vim within Emacs), and I am pretty sure I won't be ready to give up all the muscle memory I have built over more than a decade.</span><br /> -<br /> -<a class='textlink' href='https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/'>GNU Emacs</a><br /> -<a class='textlink' href='https://github.com/doomemacs/'>Doom Emacs</a><br /> -<br /> -<span>I used Doom Emacs for around two months. Still, ultimately I decided to switch back to NeoVim as my primary editor and IDE and Vim (usually pre-installed on Linux-based systems) and Nvi (usually pre-installed on *BSD systems) as my "always available editor" for quick edits. (It is worth mentioning that I don't have a high opinion on whether Vim or NeoVim is the better editor, I prefer NeoVim as it comes with better defaults out of the box, but there is no real blocker to use Vim instead).</span><br /> -<br /> -<a class='textlink' href='https://www.vim.org'>Vim</a><br /> -<a class='textlink' href='https://neovim.io'>NeoVim</a><br /> -<br /> -<span>So why did I switch back to the Vi-family?</span><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='table-of-contents'>Table of Contents</h2><br /> <br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='Emacsisagiantdragon'>Emacs is a giant dragon</h2><br /> +<ul> +<li><a href='#i-tried-doom-emacs-but-i-switched-back-to-neovim'>I tried (Doom) Emacs, but I switched back to (Neo)Vim</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#emacs-is-a-giant-dragon'>Emacs is a giant dragon</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#magit-love'>Magit love</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#graphical-ui'>Graphical UI</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#scripting-it'>Scripting it</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#the-famous-emacs-org-mode'>The famous Emacs Org mode</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#seeking-simplicity'>Seeking simplicity</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#conclusion'>Conclusion</a></li> +</ul><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='emacs-is-a-giant-dragon'>Emacs is a giant dragon</h2><br /> <br /> <span>Emacs feels like a giant dragon as it is much more than an editor or an integrated development environment. Emacs is a whole platform on its own. There's an E-Mail client, an IRC client, or even games you can run within Emacs. And you can also change Emacs within Emacs using its own Lisp dialect, Emacs Lisp (Emacs is programmed in Emacs Lisp). Therefore, Emacs is also its own programming language. You can change every aspect of Emacs within Emacs itself. People jokingly state Emacs is an operating system and that you should directly use it as the <span class='inlinecode'>init 1</span> process (if you don't know what the <span class='inlinecode'>init 1</span> process is: Under UNIX and similar operating systems, it's the very first userland processed launched. That's usually <span class='inlinecode'>systemd</span> on Linux-based systems, <span class='inlinecode'>launchd</span> on macOS, or any other init script or init system used by the OS)!</span><br /> <br /> <span>In many aspects, Emacs is like shooting at everything with a bazooka! However, I prefer it simple. I only wanted Emacs to be a good editor (which it is, too), but there's too much other stuff in Emacs that I don't need to care about! Vim and NeoVim do one thing excellent: Being great text editors and, when loaded with plugins, decent IDEs, too. </span><br /> <br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='Magitlove'>Magit love</h2><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='magit-love'>Magit love</h2><br /> <br /> <span>I almost fell in love with Magit, an integrated Git client for Emacs. But I think the best way to interact with Git is to use the <span class='inlinecode'>git</span> command line directly. I don't worry about typing out all the commands, as the most commonly used commands are in my shell history. Other useful Git programs I use frequently are <span class='inlinecode'>bit</span> and <span class='inlinecode'>tig</span>. Also, get a mechanical keyboard that makes hammering whole commands into the terminal even more enjoyable.</span><br /> <br /> @@ -6095,13 +6145,13 @@ Art by \ \_! / __! <br /> <span>Magit is pretty neat for basic Git operations, but I found myself searching the internet for the correct sub-commands to do the things I wanted to do in Git. Mainly, the way how branches are managed is confusing. Often, I fell back to the command line to fix up the mess I produced with Magit (e.g. accidentally pushing to the wrong remote branch, so I found myself fixing things manually on the terminal with the <span class='inlinecode'>git</span> command with forced pushes....). Magit is hotkey driven, and common commands are quickly explorable through built-in hotkey menus. Still, I found it challenging to navigate to more advanced Git sub-commands that way which was much easier accomplished by using the <span class='inlinecode'>git</span> command directly.</span><br /> <br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='GraphicalUI'>Graphical UI</h2><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='graphical-ui'>Graphical UI</h2><br /> <br /> <span>If there is one thing I envy about Emacs is that it's a graphical program, whereas the Vi-family of editors are purely terminal-based. I see the benefits of being a graphical program as this enables the use of multiple fonts simultaneously to embed pictures and graphs (that would be neat as a Markdown preview, for example). There's also GVim (Vim with GTK UI), but that's more of an afterthought.</span><br /> <br /> <span>There are now graphical front-end clients for NeoVim, but I still need to dig into them. Let me know your experience if you have one. Luckily, I don't rely on something graphical in my text editor, but it would improve how the editor looks and feels. UTF8 can already do a lot in the terminal, and terminal emulators also allow you to use TrueType fonts. Still, you will always be limited to one TTF font for the whole terminal, and it isn't possible to have, for example, a different font for headings, paragraphs, etc... you get the idea. TTF+UTF8 can't beat authentic graphics. </span><br /> <br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='Scriptingit'>Scripting it</h2><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='scripting-it'>Scripting it</h2><br /> <br /> <span>It is possible to customize every aspect of Emacs through Emacs Lisp. I have done some Elk Scheme programming in the past (a dialect of Lisp), but that was a long time ago, and I am not willing to dive here again to customize my environment. I would instead take the pragmatic approach and script what I need in VimScript (a terrible language, but it gets the job done!). I watched Damian Conway's VimScript course on O'Reilly Safari Books Online, which I greatly recommend. Yes, VimScript feels clunky, funky and weird and is far less elegant than Lisp, but it gets its job done - in most cases! (That reminds me that the Vim team has announced a new major version of VimScript with improvements and language changes made - I haven't gotten to it yet - but I assume that VimScript will always stay VimScript).</span><br /> <br /> @@ -6130,7 +6180,7 @@ http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite --> <br /> <span>That's only a very few lines and does precisely what I want. It's quick and dirty but get's the job done! If VimScript becomes too cumbersome, I can use Lua for NeoVim scripting.</span><br /> <br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='ThefamousEmacsOrgmode'>The famous Emacs Org mode</h2><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='the-famous-emacs-org-mode'>The famous Emacs Org mode</h2><br /> <br /> <span>Org-mode is an Emacs mode for keeping notes, authoring documents, computational notebooks, literate programming, maintaining to-do lists, planning projects, and more — in a fast and effective plain-text system. There's even a dedicated website for it:</span><br /> <br /> @@ -6150,13 +6200,13 @@ http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite --> <a class='textlink' href='https://zsh.sourceforge.io/'>Z shell</a><br /> <a class='textlink' href='https://github.com/tmux/tmux'>tmux terminal multiplexer</a><br /> <br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='Seekingsimplicity'>Seeking simplicity</h2><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='seeking-simplicity'>Seeking simplicity</h2><br /> <br /> <span>I am not ready to dive deep into the whole world of Emacs. I prefer small and simple tools as opposed to complex tools. Emacs comes with many features out of the box, whereas in Vim/NeoVim, you would need to install many plugins to replicate some of the behaviour. Yes, I need to invest time managing all the Vim/NeoVim plugins I use, but I feel more in control compared to Doom Emacs, where a framework around vanilla Emacs manages all the plugins. I could use vanilla Emacs and manage all my plugins the vanilla way, but for me, it's not worth the effort to learn and dive into that as all that I want to do I can already do with Vim/NeoVim.</span><br /> <br /> <span>I am not saying that Vim/NeoVim are simple programs, but they are much simpler than Emacs with much smaller footprints; furthermore, they appear to be more straightforward as I am used to them. I only need Vim/NeoVim to be an editor, an IDE (through some plugins), and nothing more.</span><br /> <br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='Conclusion'>Conclusion</h2><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='conclusion'>Conclusion</h2><br /> <br /> <span>I understand the Emacs users now. Emacs is an incredibly powerful platform for almost everything, not just text editing. With Emacs, you can do nearly everything (Writing, editing, programming, calendar scheduling and note taking, Jira integration, playing games, listening to music, reading/writing emails, browsing the web, using as a calculator, generating HTML pages, configuring interactive menus, jumping around between every feature and every file within one single session, chat on IRC, surf the Gopherspace, ... the options are endless....). If you want to have one piece of software which rules it all and you are happy to invest a large part of your time in your platform: Pick Emacs, and over time Emacs will become "your" Emacs, customized to your own needs and change the way it works, which makes the Emacs users stick even more to it.</span><br /> <br /> @@ -6188,6 +6238,18 @@ http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite --> <br /> <span class='quote'>Published at 2022-10-30T11:03:19+02:00</span><br /> <br /> +<span>This will be a quick blog post, as I am busy with my personal life now. I have relocated to a different country and am still busy arranging things. So bear with me :-)</span><br /> +<br /> +<span> In this post, I want to give a quick overview (or how-to) about installing DTail on OpenBSD, as the official documentation only covers Red Hat and Fedora Linux! And this blog post will also be used as my reference!</span><br /> +<br /> +<a class='textlink' href='https://dtail.dev'>https://dtail.dev</a><br /> +<br /> +<span>I am using Rexify for my OpenBSD automation. Check out the following article covering my Rex setup in a little bit more detail:</span><br /> +<br /> +<a class='textlink' href='./2022-07-30-lets-encrypt-with-openbsd-and-rex.html'>Let's Encrypt with OpenBSD and Rex</a><br /> +<br /> +<span>I will also mention some relevant <span class='inlinecode'>Rexfile</span> snippets in this post!</span><br /> +<br /> <pre> ,_---~~~~~----._ _,,_,*^____ _____``*g*\"*, @@ -6229,7 +6291,6 @@ http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite --> <br /> <ul> <li><a href='#installing-dtail-on-openbsd'>Installing DTail on OpenBSD</a></li> -<li>⇢ <a href='#introduction'>Introduction</a></li> <li>⇢ <a href='#compile-it'>Compile it</a></li> <li>⇢ <a href='#install-it'>Install it</a></li> <li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#rexification'>Rexification</a></li> @@ -6241,20 +6302,6 @@ http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite --> <li>⇢ <a href='#use-it'>Use it</a></li> <li>⇢ <a href='#conclusions'>Conclusions</a></li> </ul><br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='introduction'>Introduction</h2><br /> -<br /> -<span>This will be a quick blog post, as I am busy with my personal life now. I have relocated to a different country and am still busy arranging things. So bear with me :-)</span><br /> -<br /> -<span> In this post, I want to give a quick overview (or how-to) about installing DTail on OpenBSD, as the official documentation only covers Red Hat and Fedora Linux! And this blog post will also be used as my reference!</span><br /> -<br /> -<a class='textlink' href='https://dtail.dev'>https://dtail.dev</a><br /> -<br /> -<span>I am using Rexify for my OpenBSD automation. Check out the following article covering my Rex setup in a little bit more detail:</span><br /> -<br /> -<a class='textlink' href='./2022-07-30-lets-encrypt-with-openbsd-and-rex.html'>Let's Encrypt with OpenBSD and Rex</a><br /> -<br /> -<span>I will also mention some relevant <span class='inlinecode'>Rexfile</span> snippets in this post!</span><br /> -<br /> <h2 style='display: inline' id='compile-it'>Compile it</h2><br /> <br /> <span>First of all, DTail needs to be downloaded and compiled. For that, <span class='inlinecode'>git</span>, <span class='inlinecode'>go</span>, and <span class='inlinecode'>gmake</span> are required:</span><br /> @@ -6568,10 +6615,12 @@ REMOTE|fishfinger|100|7|fstab|093f510ec5c0f512.h /usr/local ffs rw,wxallowed,nod <summary>Everyone has it once in a while: A bad night's sleep. Here I attempt to list valuable tips on how to deal with it.</summary> <content type="xhtml"> <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> - <h1 style='display: inline' id='Afterabadnightssleep'>After a bad night's sleep</h1><br /> + <h1 style='display: inline' id='after-a-bad-night-s-sleep'>After a bad night's sleep</h1><br /> <br /> <span class='quote'>Published at 2022-09-30T09:53:23+03:00; Updated at 2022-10-12</span><br /> <br /> +<span>Everyone has it once in a while: A bad night's sleep. Here I attempt to list valuable tips on how to deal with it.</span><br /> +<br /> <pre> z z @@ -6586,17 +6635,35 @@ jgs (________\ \ '-' </pre> <br /> -<span>Everyone has it once in a while: A bad night's sleep. Here I attempt to list valuable tips on how to deal with it.</span><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='table-of-contents'>Table of Contents</h2><br /> <br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='Donttakethedayoff'>Don't take the day off.</h2><br /> +<ul> +<li><a href='#after-a-bad-night-s-sleep'>After a bad night's sleep</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#don-t-take-the-day-off'>Don't take the day off.</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#start-work-early'>Start work early</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#sweat-the-small-stuff'>Sweat the small stuff</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#enter-the-flow-state'>Enter the flow state</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#reschedule-meetings'>Reschedule meetings</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#invent'>Invent</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#fast'>Fast</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#stretch'>Stretch</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#walk'>Walk</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#red-bull'>Red Bull</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#power-nap'>Power nap</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#don-t-take-anything-personally'>Don't take anything personally.</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#meditate'>Meditate</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#write-things-down'>Write things down</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#social-media'>Social media</a></li> +</ul><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='don-t-take-the-day-off'>Don't take the day off.</h2><br /> <br /> <span>Don't take a day off after not sleeping enough the previous night. That would be wasting the holiday allowance. It wouldn't be possible to enjoy my free time anyway, so why not just work? There's still a way for an IT Engineer to be productive (sometimes even more) with half or less of the concentration power available!</span><br /> <br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='Startworkearly'>Start work early</h2><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='start-work-early'>Start work early</h2><br /> <br /> <span>Probably I am already awake early and am unable to fall asleep again. My strategy here is to "attack" the day: Start work early and finish early. The early bird will also encounter fewer distractions from colleagues.</span><br /> <br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='Sweatthesmallstuff'>Sweat the small stuff</h2><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='sweat-the-small-stuff'>Sweat the small stuff</h2><br /> <br /> <span>There's never a shortage of small items to hook off my list. Most of these items don't require my full concentration power, and I will be happy to get them off my list so that the next day, after a good night's sleep, I can immerse myself again in focused, deep work with all concentration powers at hand.</span><br /> <br /> @@ -6610,57 +6677,57 @@ jgs (________\ \ <li>Going through any tedious paperwork.</li> <li>Catch up with the journal and mark off all trivial action items.</li> </ul><br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='Entertheflowstate'>Enter the flow state</h2><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='enter-the-flow-state'>Enter the flow state</h2><br /> <br /> <span>I find it easy to enter the "flow state" after a bad night's sleep. All I need to do is to put on some ambient music (preferably instrumental chill house) and start to work on a not-too-difficult ticket.</span><br /> <br /> <span>Usually, the "flow state" is associated with deep-focused work, but deep-focused work isn't easily possible under sleep deprivation. It's still possible to be in the flow by working on more manageable tasks and leaving the difficult ones for the next day.</span><br /> <br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='Reschedulemeetings'>Reschedule meetings</h2><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='reschedule-meetings'>Reschedule meetings</h2><br /> <br /> <span>I find engaging in discussions and demanding meetings challenging after a lousy night's sleep. I still attend the sessions I am invited to as "only" a participant, but I prefer to reschedule all meetings I am the primary driver of.</span><br /> <br /> <span>This, unfortunately, also includes interviews. Interviews require full concentration power. So for interviews, I would find a colleague to step in for me or ask to reschedule the interview altogether. Everything else wouldn't make it justice and would waste everyone's time!</span><br /> <br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='Invent'>Invent</h2><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='invent'>Invent</h2><br /> <br /> <span>The mind works differently under sleep deprivation: It's easier to invent new stuff as it's easier to have a look at things from different perspectives. Until an hour ago, I didn't know yet what I would be blogging about for this month, and then I just started writing this, and it took me only half an hour to write the first draft of this blog post!</span><br /> <br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='Fast'>Fast</h2><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='fast'>Fast</h2><br /> <br /> <span>I don't eat breakfast, and I don't eat lunch on these days. I only have dinner. Not eating means my mind doesn't get foggy, and I keep up the work momentum. This is called intermittent fasting, which not only generally helps to keep the weight under control and boosts the concentration power. Furthermore, intermittent fasting is healthy. You should include it in your routine, even after a good night's sleep.</span><br /> <br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='Stretch'>Stretch</h2><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='stretch'>Stretch</h2><br /> <br /> <span>I won't have enough energy for strenuous physical exercise on those days, but a 30 to a 60-minute stretching session can make the day. Stretching will even hurt less under sleep deprivation! The stretching could also be substituted with a light Yoga session.</span><br /> <br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='Walk'>Walk</h2><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='walk'>Walk</h2><br /> <br /> <span>Walking is healthy, and the time can be used to listen to interesting podcasts. The available concentration power might not be enough for more sophisticated audio literature. I will have enough energy for one or two daily walks (~10k steps for the day in total). Sometimes, I listen to music during walks. I also try to catch the bright sunlight.</span><br /> <br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='RedBull'>Red Bull</h2><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='red-bull'>Red Bull</h2><br /> <br /> <span>I don't think that Red Bull is a healthy drink. But once in a while, a can in the early afternoon brings wonders, and productivity will skyrocket. Other than Red Bull, drink a lot of water throughout the day. Don't forget to drink the sugar-free version; otherwise, your intermittent fast will be broken.</span><br /> <br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='Powernap'>Power nap</h2><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='power-nap'>Power nap</h2><br /> <br /> <span>I don't know how to "enforce" a nap, but sometimes I manage to power nap, and it helps wonders. A 30-minute nap sometimes brings me back to normal. If you don't tend to fast as you are too hungry, it helps to try to nap approximately 30 minutes after eating something.</span><br /> <br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='Donttakeanythingpersonally'>Don't take anything personally.</h2><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='don-t-take-anything-personally'>Don't take anything personally.</h2><br /> <br /> <span>It's much more challenging to keep the mind "under control" in this state. Every annoyance can potentially upset, which could reflect on the work colleagues. It is wise to attempt to go with a positive attitude into the day, always smile and be polite to the family and colleagues at work. Don't let anything drop out to the people next; they don't deserve it as they didn't do anything wrong! Also, remember, it can't be controlled at all. It's time to let go of the annoyances for the day.</span><br /> <br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='Meditate'>Meditate</h2><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='meditate'>Meditate</h2><br /> <br /> <span>To keep the good vibe, it helps to meditate for 10 minutes. Meditation must nothing be fancy. It can be just lying on the sofa and observing your thoughts as they come and go. Don't judge your thoughts, as that could put you in a negative mood. It's not necessary to sit in an uncomfortable Yoga pose, and it is not required to chant "Ohhmmmmm".</span><br /> <br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='Writethingsdown'>Write things down</h2><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='write-things-down'>Write things down</h2><br /> <br /> <span>Sometimes something requiring more concentration power demands time. This is where it helps to write a note in a journal and return to it another day. This doesn't mean slacking off but managing the rarely available concentration power for the day. I might repeat myself: Today, sweat all the small stuff. Tomorrow, do the deep-focused work on that crucial project again.</span><br /> <br /> <span>It's easier to forget things on those days, so everything should be written down so that it can be worked off later. Things written down will not be overlooked!</span><br /> <br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='Socialmedia'>Social media</h2><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='social-media'>Social media</h2><br /> <br /> <span>I wouldn't say I like checking social media, as it can consume a lot of time and can become addictive. But once in a while, I want to catch up with my "networks". After a bad night's sleep, it's the perfect time to check your social media. Once done, you don't have to do it anymore for the next couple of days!</span><br /> <br /> @@ -6686,6 +6753,12 @@ jgs (________\ \ <br /> <span class='quote'>Published at 2022-08-27T18:25:57+01:00</span><br /> <br /> +<span>I proudly announce that I've released Gemtexter version <span class='inlinecode'>1.1.0</span>. What is Gemtexter? It's my minimalist static site generator for Gemini Gemtext, HTML and Markdown written in GNU Bash.</span><br /> +<br /> +<a class='textlink' href='https://codeberg.org/snonux/gemtexter'>https://codeberg.org/snonux/gemtexter</a><br /> +<br /> +<span>It has been around a year since I released the first version <span class='inlinecode'>1.0.0</span>. Although, there aren't any groundbreaking changes, there have been a couple of smaller commits and adjustments. I was quite surprised that I received a bunch of feedback and requests about Gemtexter so it means that I am not the only person in the universe actually using it.</span><br /> +<br /> <pre> -=[ typewriter ]=- 1/98 @@ -6702,7 +6775,6 @@ jgs (________\ \ <br /> <ul> <li><a href='#gemtexter-110---let-s-gemtext-again'>Gemtexter 1.1.0 - Let's Gemtext again</a></li> -<li>⇢ <a href='#introduction'>Introduction</a></li> <li>⇢ <a href='#what-s-new'>What's new?</a></li> <li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#automatic-check-for-gnu-version-requirements'>Automatic check for GNU version requirements</a></li> <li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#backticks-now-produce-inline-code-blocks-in-the-html-output'>Backticks now produce <span class='inlinecode'>inline code blocks</span> in the HTML output</a></li> @@ -6713,14 +6785,6 @@ jgs (________\ \ <li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#sub-section-support'>Sub-section support</a></li> <li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#more'>More</a></li> </ul><br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='introduction'>Introduction</h2><br /> -<br /> -<span>I proudly announce that I've released Gemtexter version <span class='inlinecode'>1.1.0</span>. What is Gemtexter? It's my minimalist static site generator for Gemini Gemtext, HTML and Markdown written in GNU Bash.</span><br /> -<br /> -<a class='textlink' href='https://codeberg.org/snonux/gemtexter'>https://codeberg.org/snonux/gemtexter</a><br /> -<br /> -<span>It has been around a year since I released the first version <span class='inlinecode'>1.0.0</span>. Although, there aren't any groundbreaking changes, there have been a couple of smaller commits and adjustments. I was quite surprised that I received a bunch of feedback and requests about Gemtexter so it means that I am not the only person in the universe actually using it.</span><br /> -<br /> <h2 style='display: inline' id='what-s-new'>What's new?</h2><br /> <br /> <h3 style='display: inline' id='automatic-check-for-gnu-version-requirements'>Automatic check for GNU version requirements</h3><br /> @@ -6822,6 +6886,8 @@ http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite --> <br /> <span class='quote'>Published at 2022-07-30T12:14:31+01:00</span><br /> <br /> +<span>I was amazed at how easy it is to automatically generate and update Let's Encrypt certificates with OpenBSD.</span><br /> +<br /> <pre> / _ \ The Hebern Machine \ ." ". / @@ -6853,7 +6919,6 @@ http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite --> <br /> <ul> <li><a href='#let-s-encrypt-with-openbsd-and-rex'>Let's Encrypt with OpenBSD and Rex</a></li> -<li>⇢ <a href='#introduction'>Introduction</a></li> <li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#what-s-let-s-encrypt'>What's Let's Encrypt?</a></li> <li>⇢ <a href='#meet-acme-client'>Meet <span class='inlinecode'>acme-client</span></a></li> <li>⇢ <a href='#configuration'>Configuration</a></li> @@ -6867,10 +6932,6 @@ http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite --> <li>⇢ <a href='#all-pieces-together'>All pieces together</a></li> <li>⇢ <a href='#conclusion'>Conclusion</a></li> </ul><br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='introduction'>Introduction</h2><br /> -<br /> -<span>I was amazed at how easy it is to automatically generate and update Let's Encrypt certificates with OpenBSD.</span><br /> -<br /> <h3 style='display: inline' id='what-s-let-s-encrypt'>What's Let's Encrypt?</h3><br /> <br /> <span class='quote'>Let's Encrypt is a non-profit certificate authority run by Internet Security Research Group that provides X.509 certificates for Transport Layer Security (TLS) encryption at no charge. It is the world's largest certificate authority, used by more than 265 million websites, with the goal of all websites being secure and using HTTPS.</span><br /> @@ -7524,18 +7585,10 @@ rex commons <summary>This blog post is a bit different from the others. It consists of multiple but smaller projects worth mentioning. I got inspired by Julia Evan's 'Tiny programs' blog post and the side projects of The Sephist, so I thought I would also write a blog posts listing a couple of small projects of mine:</summary> <content type="xhtml"> <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> - <h1 style='display: inline' id='SweatingthesmallstuffTinyprojectsofmine'>Sweating the small stuff - Tiny projects of mine</h1><br /> + <h1 style='display: inline' id='sweating-the-small-stuff---tiny-projects-of-mine'>Sweating the small stuff - Tiny projects of mine</h1><br /> <br /> <span class='quote'>Published at 2022-06-15T08:47:44+01:00; Updated at 2022-06-18</span><br /> <br /> -<pre> - _ - /_/_ .'''. - =O(_)))) ...' `. - jgs \_\ `. .''' - `..' -</pre> -<br /> <span>This blog post is a bit different from the others. It consists of multiple but smaller projects worth mentioning. I got inspired by Julia Evan's "Tiny programs" blog post and the side projects of The Sephist, so I thought I would also write a blog posts listing a couple of small projects of mine:</span><br /> <br /> <a class='textlink' href='https://jvns.ca/blog/2022/03/08/tiny-programs/'>Tiny programs</a><br /> @@ -7545,7 +7598,41 @@ rex commons <br /> <span>But before going through the tiny projects let's take a paragraph for the <span class='inlinecode'>1y</span> anniversary retrospective.</span><br /> <br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='1yanniversary'><span class='inlinecode'>1y</span> anniversary</h2><br /> +<pre> + _ + /_/_ .'''. + =O(_)))) ...' `. + jgs \_\ `. .''' + `..' +</pre> +<br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='table-of-contents'>Table of Contents</h2><br /> +<br /> +<ul> +<li><a href='#sweating-the-small-stuff---tiny-projects-of-mine'>Sweating the small stuff - Tiny projects of mine</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#1y-anniversary'><span class='inlinecode'>1y</span> anniversary</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#static-photo-album-generator'>Static photo album generator</a></li> +<li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#the-irregular-ninja'>The Irregular Ninja</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#random-journal-page-extractor'>Random journal page extractor</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#global-uptime-records-statistic-generator'>Global uptime records statistic generator</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#server-configuration-management'>Server configuration management</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#fancy-ssh-execution-loop'>Fancy SSH execution loop</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#a-kiss-dynamic-dns-solution'>A KISS dynamic DNS solution</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#cpu-information-gatherer-for-linux'>CPU information gatherer for Linux</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#show-differences-of-two-files-over-the-network'>Show differences of two files over the network</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#delay-sending-out-e-mails-with-mutt'>Delay sending out E-Mails with Mutt</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#graphical-ui-for-sending-text-messages'>Graphical UI for sending text messages</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#ipv6-and-ipv4-connectivity-testing-site'>IPv6 and IPv4 connectivity testing site</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#list-open-jira-tickets-in-the-terminal'>List open Jira tickets in the terminal</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#debian-running-on-your-android-phone'>Debian running on "your" Android phone</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#perl-service-framework'>Perl service framework</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#more'>More</a></li> +<li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#work-time-tracker'>Work time tracker</a></li> +<li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#password-and-document-store'>Password and document store</a></li> +<li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#backup-procedure'>Backup procedure</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#konpeitomedia'>konpeito.media</a></li> +</ul><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='1y-anniversary'><span class='inlinecode'>1y</span> anniversary</h2><br /> <br /> <span>It has been one year since I started posting regularly (at least once monthly) on this blog again. It has been a lot of fun (and work) doing so for various reasons:</span><br /> <br /> @@ -7564,13 +7651,13 @@ rex commons <br /> <span>But now, let's continue with the small projects worth mentioning :-)</span><br /> <br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='Staticphotoalbumgenerator'>Static photo album generator</h2><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='static-photo-album-generator'>Static photo album generator</h2><br /> <br /> <span><span class='inlinecode'>photoalbum.sh</span> is a minimal static HTML photo album generator. I use it to drive "The Irregular Ninja" site and for some ad-hoc (personal) albums to share photos with the family and friends.</span><br /> <br /> <a class='textlink' href='https://codeberg.org/snonux/photoalbum'>https://codeberg.org/snonux/photoalbum</a><br /> <br /> -<h3 style='display: inline' id='TheIrregularNinja'>The Irregular Ninja</h3><br /> +<h3 style='display: inline' id='the-irregular-ninja'>The Irregular Ninja</h3><br /> <br /> <span>Photography is one of my casual hobbies. I love to capture interesting perspectives and motifs. I love to walk new streets and neighbourhoods I never walked before so I can capture those unexpected motifs, colours and moments. Unfortunately, because of time constraints (and sometime weather constraints), I do that on a pretty infrequent basis.</span><br /> <br /> @@ -7588,7 +7675,7 @@ rex commons <br /> <span>I hope you like this photo site. It's worth checking it out again around once every other month!</span><br /> <br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='Randomjournalpageextractor'>Random journal page extractor</h2><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='random-journal-page-extractor'>Random journal page extractor</h2><br /> <br /> <span>I bullet journal. I write my notes into a Leuchtturm paper notebook. Once full, I am scanning it to a PDF file and archive it. As of writing this, I am at journal #7 (each from 123 up to 251 pages in A5). It means that there is a lot of material already.</span><br /> <br /> @@ -7598,7 +7685,7 @@ rex commons <br /> <span>There's also a weekly <span class='inlinecode'>CRON</span> job on my servers to send me a reminder that I might want to read in my old journals again. My laptop also runs this script each time it boots and saves the output to a NextCloud folder. From there, it's synchronized to the NextCloud server so I can pick it up from there with my smartphone later when I am "on the road".</span><br /> <br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='Globaluptimerecordsstatisticgenerator'>Global uptime records statistic generator</h2><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='global-uptime-records-statistic-generator'>Global uptime records statistic generator</h2><br /> <br /> <span><span class='inlinecode'>guprecords</span> is a Perl script which reads multiple <span class='inlinecode'>uprecord</span> files (produced by <span class='inlinecode'>uptimed</span> - a widely available daemon for recording server uptimes) and generates uptime statistics of multiple hosts combined. I keep all the record files of all my personal computers in a Git repository (I even keep the records of the boxes I don't own or use anymore) and there's already quite a collection of it. It looks like this:</span><br /> <br /> @@ -7658,7 +7745,7 @@ Pos | System | Kernel | Uptime | <br /> <span>This all is of no real practical use but fun!</span><br /> <br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='Serverconfigurationmanagement'>Server configuration management</h2><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='server-configuration-management'>Server configuration management</h2><br /> <br /> <span>The <span class='inlinecode'>rexfiles</span> project contains all Rex files for my (personal) server setup automation. A <span class='inlinecode'>Rexfile</span> is written in a Perl DSL run by the Rex configuration management system. It's pretty much KISS and that's why I love it. It suits my personal needs perfectly. </span><br /> <br /> @@ -7669,7 +7756,7 @@ Pos | System | Kernel | Uptime | <br /> <span class='quote'>Hi there! I was searching for a simple way to automate my personal OpenBSD setup. I found that configuration management systems like Puppet, Salt, Chef, etc.. were too bloated for my personal needs. So for a while I was configuring everything by hand. At one point I got fed up and started writing Shell scripts. But that was not the holy grail so that I looked at Ansible. I found that Ansible had some dependencies on Python on the target machine when you want to use all the features. Furthermore, I am not really familiar with Python. But then I remembered that there was also Rex. It's written in my beloved Perl. Also, OpenBSD comes with Perl in the base system out of the box which makes it integrate better than all my scripts (automation and also scripts deployed via the automation to the system) are all in the same language. Rex may not have all the features like other configuration management systems, but its easy to work-around or extend when you know Perl. Thanks!</span><br /> <br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='FancySSHexecutionloop'>Fancy SSH execution loop</h2><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='fancy-ssh-execution-loop'>Fancy SSH execution loop</h2><br /> <br /> <span><span class='inlinecode'>rubyfy</span> is a fancy SSH loop wrapper written in Ruby for running shell commands on multiple remote servers at once. I also forked this project for work (under a different name) where I added even more features such as automatic server discovery. It's used by many colleagues on a frequent basis. Here are some examples:</span><br /> <br /> @@ -7694,7 +7781,7 @@ echo foo.example.com | <br /> <a class='textlink' href='https://codeberg.org/snonux/rubyfy'>https://codeberg.org/snonux/rubyfy</a><br /> <br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='AKISSdynamicDNSsolution'>A KISS dynamic DNS solution</h2><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='a-kiss-dynamic-dns-solution'>A KISS dynamic DNS solution</h2><br /> <br /> <span><span class='inlinecode'>dyndns</span> is a tiny shell script which implements "your" own DynDNS service. It relies on SSH access to the authoritative DNS server and the <span class='inlinecode'>nsupdate</span> command. There is really no need to use any of the "other" free DynDNS services out there.</span><br /> <br /> @@ -7714,7 +7801,7 @@ ssh dyndns@dyndnsserver /path/to/dyndns-update \ <br /> <a class='textlink' href='https://codeberg.org/snonux/dyndns'>https://codeberg.org/snonux/dyndns</a><br /> <br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='CPUinformationgathererforLinux'>CPU information gatherer for Linux</h2><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='cpu-information-gatherer-for-linux'>CPU information gatherer for Linux</h2><br /> <br /> <span>This is a tiny GNU Awk script for Linux which displays information about the CPU. All what it does is presenting <span class='inlinecode'>/proc/cpuinfo</span> in an easier to read way. The output is somewhat more compact than the standard <span class='inlinecode'>lscpu</span> command you find commonly on Linux distributions.</span><br /> <br /> @@ -7738,7 +7825,7 @@ v = 008 [v = p*c*(s != c ? 2 : 1)] Total logical CPUs <br /> <a class='textlink' href='https://codeberg.org/snonux/cpuinfo'>https://codeberg.org/snonux/cpuinfo</a><br /> <br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='Showdifferencesoftwofilesoverthenetwork'>Show differences of two files over the network</h2><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='show-differences-of-two-files-over-the-network'>Show differences of two files over the network</h2><br /> <br /> <span>This is a shell wrapper to use the standard diff tool over the network to compare a file between two computers. It uses NetCat for the network part and also encrypts all traffic using OpenSSL. This is how its used:</span><br /> <br /> @@ -7746,13 +7833,13 @@ v = 008 [v = p*c*(s != c ? 2 : 1)] Total logical CPUs <br /> <a class='textlink' href='https://codeberg.org/snonux/netdiff'>https://codeberg.org/snonux/netdiff</a><br /> <br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='DelaysendingoutEMailswithMutt'>Delay sending out E-Mails with Mutt</h2><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='delay-sending-out-e-mails-with-mutt'>Delay sending out E-Mails with Mutt</h2><br /> <br /> <span>This is a shell script for the Mutt email client for delaying sending out E-Mails. For example, you want to write an email on Saturday but don't want to bother the recipient earlier than Monday. It relies on CRON.</span><br /> <br /> <a class='textlink' href='https://codeberg.org/snonux/muttdelay'>https://codeberg.org/snonux/muttdelay</a><br /> <br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='GraphicalUIforsendingtextmessages'>Graphical UI for sending text messages</h2><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='graphical-ui-for-sending-text-messages'>Graphical UI for sending text messages</h2><br /> <br /> <span><span class='inlinecode'>jsmstrade</span> is a minimalistic graphical Java swing client for sending SMS messages over the SMStrade service.</span><br /> <br /> @@ -7761,19 +7848,19 @@ v = 008 [v = p*c*(s != c ? 2 : 1)] Total logical CPUs <a class='textlink' href='https://codeberg.org/snonux/jsmstrade'>https://codeberg.org/snonux/jsmstrade</a><br /> <a class='textlink' href='https://smstrade.de'>https://smstrade.de</a><br /> <br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='IPv6andIPv4connectivitytestingsite'>IPv6 and IPv4 connectivity testing site</h2><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='ipv6-and-ipv4-connectivity-testing-site'>IPv6 and IPv4 connectivity testing site</h2><br /> <br /> <span><span class='inlinecode'>ipv6test</span> is a quick and dirty Perl CGI script for testing whether your browser connects via IPv4 or IPv6. It requires you to setup three sub-domains: One reachable only via IPv4 (e.g. <span class='inlinecode'>test4.ipv6.buetow.org</span>), another reachable only via IPv6 (e.g. <span class='inlinecode'>test6.ipv6.buetow.org</span>) and the main one reachable through both protocols (e.g. <span class='inlinecode'>ipv6.buetow.org</span>).</span><br /> <br /> <span>I don't have it running on any of my servers at the moment. This means that there is no demo to show now. Sorry!</span><br /> <br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='ListopenJiraticketsintheterminal'>List open Jira tickets in the terminal</h2><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='list-open-jira-tickets-in-the-terminal'>List open Jira tickets in the terminal</h2><br /> <br /> <span><span class='inlinecode'>japi</span> s a small Perl script for listing open Jira issues. It might be broken by now as the Jira APIs may have changed. Sorry! But feel free to fork and modernize it. :-)</span><br /> <br /> <a class='textlink' href='https://codeberg.org/snonux/jsmstrade'>https://codeberg.org/snonux/jsmstrade</a><br /> <span> </span><br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='DebianrunningonyourAndroidphone'>Debian running on "your" Android phone</h2><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='debian-running-on-your-android-phone'>Debian running on "your" Android phone</h2><br /> <br /> <span>Debroid is a tutorial and a set of scripts to install and to run a Debian <span class='inlinecode'>chroot</span> on an Android phone.</span><br /> <br /> @@ -7783,17 +7870,17 @@ v = 008 [v = p*c*(s != c ? 2 : 1)] Total logical CPUs <br /> <a class='textlink' href='https://termux.com'>https://termux.com</a><br /> <br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='Perlserviceframework'>Perl service framework</h2><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='perl-service-framework'>Perl service framework</h2><br /> <br /> <span>PerlDaemon is a minimal daemon for Linux and other Unix like operating systems programmed in Perl. It is a minimal but pretty functional and fairly generic service framework. This means that it does not do anything useful other than providing a framework for starting, stopping, configuring and logging. To do something useful, a module (written in Perl) must be provided.</span><br /> <br /> <a class='textlink' href='./2011-05-07-perl-daemon-service-framework.html'>Checkout my previous post about it</a><br /> <br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='More'>More</h2><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='more'>More</h2><br /> <br /> <span>There are more projects on my Codeberg page but they aren't as tiny as the ones mentioned in this post or aren't finished yet so I won't bother listing them here. However, there also a few more scripts used frequently by me (not publicly accessible (yet?)) which I would like to mention here:</span><br /> <br /> -<h3 style='display: inline' id='Worktimetracker'>Work time tracker</h3><br /> +<h3 style='display: inline' id='work-time-tracker'>Work time tracker</h3><br /> <br /> <span><span class='inlinecode'>worktime.rb</span>, for example, is a command line Ruby script I use to track my time spent working. This is to make sure that I don't overwork (in particular useful when working from home). It also generates some daily and weekly stats and carries over work time (surpluses or minuses) to the next work day, week or even year.</span><br /> <br /> @@ -7815,13 +7902,13 @@ v = 008 [v = p*c*(s != c ? 2 : 1)] Total logical CPUs <br /> <span>All I do when I start work is to run the <span class='inlinecode'>wtlogin</span> command and after finishing work to run the <span class='inlinecode'>wtlogout</span> command. My shell will remind me when I work without having logged in. It uses a simple JSON database which is editable with <span class='inlinecode'>wtedit</span> (this opens the JSON in Vim). The report shown above can be generated with <span class='inlinecode'>wtreport</span>. Any out-of-bounds reporting can be added with the <span class='inlinecode'>wtadd</span> command.</span><br /> <br /> -<h3 style='display: inline' id='Passwordanddocumentstore'>Password and document store</h3><br /> +<h3 style='display: inline' id='password-and-document-store'>Password and document store</h3><br /> <br /> <span><span class='inlinecode'>geheim.rb</span> is my personal password and document store ("geheim" is the German word for secret). It's written in Ruby and heavily relies on Git, FZF (for search), Vim and standard encryption algorithms. Other than the standard <span class='inlinecode'>pass</span> Unix password manager, <span class='inlinecode'>geheim</span> also encrypts the file names and password titles.</span><br /> <br /> <span>The tool is command line driven but also provides an interactive shell when invoked with <span class='inlinecode'>geheim shell</span>. It also works on my Android phone via Termux so I have all my documents and passwords always with me. </span><br /> <br /> -<h3 style='display: inline' id='Backupprocedure'>Backup procedure</h3><br /> +<h3 style='display: inline' id='backup-procedure'>Backup procedure</h3><br /> <br /> <span><span class='inlinecode'>backup</span> is a Bash script which does run once daily (or every time on boot) on my home FreeBSD NAS server and performs backup related tasks such as creating a local backup of my remote NextCloud instance, creating encrypted (incremental) ZFS snapshots of everything what's stored on the NAS and synchronizes (via <span class='inlinecode'>rsync</span>) backups to a remote cloud storage. It also can synchronize backups to a local external USB drive.</span><br /> <br /> @@ -7872,21 +7959,6 @@ v = 008 [v = p*c*(s != c ? 2 : 1)] Total logical CPUs <br /> <span class='quote'>Published at 2022-05-27T07:50:12+01:00; Updated at 2023-01-28</span><br /> <br /> -<a href='./perl-is-still-a-great-choice/regular_expressions.png'><img alt='Comic source: XKCD' title='Comic source: XKCD' src='./perl-is-still-a-great-choice/regular_expressions.png' /></a><br /> -<br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='table-of-contents'>Table of Contents</h2><br /> -<br /> -<ul> -<li><a href='#perl-is-still-a-great-choice'>Perl is still a great choice</a></li> -<li>⇢ <a href='#introduction'>Introduction</a></li> -<li>⇢ <a href='#write-only-language'>Write-only language</a></li> -<li>⇢ <a href='#is-perl-abandoned'>Is Perl abandoned?</a></li> -<li>⇢ <a href='#why-use-perl-as-there-are-better-alternatives'>Why use Perl as there are better alternatives?</a></li> -<li>⇢ <a href='#why-all-the-sigils-it-looks-like-an-exploding-ascii-factory'>Why all the sigils? It looks like an exploding ASCII factory!!</a></li> -<li>⇢ <a href='#where-do-i-personally-still-use-perl'>Where do I personally still use perl?</a></li> -</ul><br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='introduction'>Introduction</h2><br /> -<br /> <span>Perl (the Practical Extraction and Report Language) is a battle-tested, mature, multi-paradigm dynamic programming language. Note that it's not called PERL, neither P.E.R.L. nor Pearl. "Perl" is the name of the language and <span class='inlinecode'>perl</span> the name of the interpreter or the interpreter command.</span><br /> <br /> <span>Unfortunately (it makes me sad), Perl's popularity has been declining over the last years as Google trends shows:</span><br /> @@ -7901,6 +7973,18 @@ v = 008 [v = p*c*(s != c ? 2 : 1)] Total logical CPUs <li>Why use Perl as there are better alternatives?</li> <li>Why all the sigils? It looks like an exploding ASCII factory!!</li> </ul><br /> +<a href='./perl-is-still-a-great-choice/regular_expressions.png'><img alt='Comic source: XKCD' title='Comic source: XKCD' src='./perl-is-still-a-great-choice/regular_expressions.png' /></a><br /> +<br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='table-of-contents'>Table of Contents</h2><br /> +<br /> +<ul> +<li><a href='#perl-is-still-a-great-choice'>Perl is still a great choice</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#write-only-language'>Write-only language</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#is-perl-abandoned'>Is Perl abandoned?</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#why-use-perl-as-there-are-better-alternatives'>Why use Perl as there are better alternatives?</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#why-all-the-sigils-it-looks-like-an-exploding-ascii-factory'>Why all the sigils? It looks like an exploding ASCII factory!!</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#where-do-i-personally-still-use-perl'>Where do I personally still use perl?</a></li> +</ul><br /> <h2 style='display: inline' id='write-only-language'>Write-only language</h2><br /> <br /> <span>Is Perl really a write-only language? You have to understand that Perl 5 was released in 1994 (28 years ago as of this writing) and when we refer to Perl we usually mean Perl 5. That's many years, and there are many old scripts not following the modern Perl best practices (as they didn't exist yet). So yes, legacy scripts may be difficult to read. Japanese may be difficult to read too if you don't know Japanese, though.</span><br /> @@ -8047,10 +8131,27 @@ v = 008 [v = p*c*(s != c ? 2 : 1)] Total logical CPUs <summary>I have been participating in an annual work-internal project contest (we call it Pet Project contest) since I moved to London and switched jobs to my current employer. I am very happy to say that I won a 'silver' prize last week here 🎆. Over the last couple of years I have been a finalist in this contest six times and won some kind of prize five times. Some of my projects were also released as open source software. One had a magazine article published, and for another one I wrote an article on my employer's engineering blog. If you have followed all my posts on this blog (the one you are currently reading), then you have probably figured out what these projects were:</summary> <content type="xhtml"> <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> - <h1 style='display: inline' id='Creativeuniverse'>Creative universe</h1><br /> + <h1 style='display: inline' id='creative-universe'>Creative universe</h1><br /> <br /> <span class='quote'>Published at 2022-04-10T10:09:11+01:00; Updated at 2022-04-18</span><br /> <br /> +<span>I have been participating in an annual work-internal project contest (we call it Pet Project contest) since I moved to London and switched jobs to my current employer. I am very happy to say that I won a "silver" prize last week here 🎆. Over the last couple of years I have been a finalist in this contest six times and won some kind of prize five times. Some of my projects were also released as open source software. One had a magazine article published, and for another one I wrote an article on my employer's engineering blog. If you have followed all my posts on this blog (the one you are currently reading), then you have probably figured out what these projects were:</span><br /> +<br /> +<a class='textlink' href='./2021-04-22-dtail-the-distributed-log-tail-program.html'>DTail - The distributed log tail program</a><br /> +<a class='textlink' href='./2018-06-01-realistic-load-testing-with-ioriot-for-linux.html'>Realistic load testing with I/O Riot for linux</a><br /> +<br /> +<span>Note that my latest silver prize project isn't open source software and because of that there is no public material I can refer to. Maybe the next one again?</span><br /> +<br /> +<span>I want to point out that I never won the "gold" prize and it's the first time I won "silver", though. I believe, looking at the company's contest history, I am the employee with the most consecutive successful project submissions (my streak broke as I didn't participate last year) and am also the one with the highest successful project count in total. Sorry if this all sounds a bit self-promotional, but I think it is something to be proud of. Consistency beats a one-off success.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span>I often put endless hours and sometimes sleepless nights into such projects and all of that in my own time. I, an engineer whose native tongue is not English, also have to present such a project in front of the CEO, CTO and CPO, the Chief Scientist, the founders of the company, and, if it is not enough, to all other staff of the company too. I usually also demonstrate a working prototype live on a production grid during the presentation. 😓</span><br /> +<br /> +<span>So why would I sign up myself for such side projects? Isn't it a lot of stress and extra work? Besides the prize in form of money (you can not count on that, you may win or you may not win something) and recognition, there are also other motivational points:</span><br /> +<br /> +<ul> +<li>I want to learn new technologies or to deepen my knowledge of a given technology. I want to have a personal benefit from the project, even when I don't win any prize. So when the company is offering a contest, why not use it as a motivational trampoline? It's good to have a hard deadline for a project. And the project will also benefit the company in some way. So it's a win-win.</li> +<li>I love the idea of combining several old things into a new thing. You can call this creativity. At work, we call this sometimes Lego: Building new things from given blocks. But I also love to add something new and unique to the mix, something that didn't exist as a Lego block before and could not be built by using only the already existing blocks.</li> +</ul><br /> <pre> . + . . . . . . . . . * @@ -8072,36 +8173,31 @@ v = 008 [v = p*c*(s != c ? 2 : 1)] Total logical CPUs - the universe </pre> <br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='Prelude'>Prelude</h2><br /> -<br /> -<span>I have been participating in an annual work-internal project contest (we call it Pet Project contest) since I moved to London and switched jobs to my current employer. I am very happy to say that I won a "silver" prize last week here 🎆. Over the last couple of years I have been a finalist in this contest six times and won some kind of prize five times. Some of my projects were also released as open source software. One had a magazine article published, and for another one I wrote an article on my employer's engineering blog. If you have followed all my posts on this blog (the one you are currently reading), then you have probably figured out what these projects were:</span><br /> -<br /> -<a class='textlink' href='./2021-04-22-dtail-the-distributed-log-tail-program.html'>DTail - The distributed log tail program</a><br /> -<a class='textlink' href='./2018-06-01-realistic-load-testing-with-ioriot-for-linux.html'>Realistic load testing with I/O Riot for linux</a><br /> -<br /> -<span>Note that my latest silver prize project isn't open source software and because of that there is no public material I can refer to. Maybe the next one again?</span><br /> -<br /> -<span>I want to point out that I never won the "gold" prize and it's the first time I won "silver", though. I believe, looking at the company's contest history, I am the employee with the most consecutive successful project submissions (my streak broke as I didn't participate last year) and am also the one with the highest successful project count in total. Sorry if this all sounds a bit self-promotional, but I think it is something to be proud of. Consistency beats a one-off success.</span><br /> -<br /> -<span>I often put endless hours and sometimes sleepless nights into such projects and all of that in my own time. I, an engineer whose native tongue is not English, also have to present such a project in front of the CEO, CTO and CPO, the Chief Scientist, the founders of the company, and, if it is not enough, to all other staff of the company too. I usually also demonstrate a working prototype live on a production grid during the presentation. 😓</span><br /> -<br /> -<span>So why would I sign up myself for such side projects? Isn't it a lot of stress and extra work? Besides the prize in form of money (you can not count on that, you may win or you may not win something) and recognition, there are also other motivational points:</span><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='table-of-contents'>Table of Contents</h2><br /> <br /> <ul> -<li>I want to learn new technologies or to deepen my knowledge of a given technology. I want to have a personal benefit from the project, even when I don't win any prize. So when the company is offering a contest, why not use it as a motivational trampoline? It's good to have a hard deadline for a project. And the project will also benefit the company in some way. So it's a win-win.</li> -<li>I love the idea of combining several old things into a new thing. You can call this creativity. At work, we call this sometimes Lego: Building new things from given blocks. But I also love to add something new and unique to the mix, something that didn't exist as a Lego block before and could not be built by using only the already existing blocks.</li> +<li><a href='#creative-universe'>Creative universe</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#how-to-be-creative'>How to be creative</a></li> +<li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#know-which-problem-you-want-to-solve'>Know which problem you want to solve</a></li> +<li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#immerse--deep-dive'>Immerse / deep dive</a></li> +<li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#always-have-a-notebook-with-you'>Always have a notebook with you</a></li> +<li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#when-you-didn-t-sleep-enough'>When you didn't sleep enough</a></li> +<li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#have-regular-breaks-and-relax'>Have regular breaks and relax</a></li> +<li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#upside-down-approach'>Upside-down approach</a></li> +<li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#don-t-be-busy-all-the-time'>Don't be busy all the time</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#conclusion'>Conclusion</a></li> </ul><br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='Howtobecreative'>How to be creative</h2><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='how-to-be-creative'>How to be creative</h2><br /> <br /> <span>How did I manage to be creative with all these Pet Projects? Unfortunately, there is no step-by-step guide I could point you to. But what I want to do in this blog post is share my personal experience so far.</span><br /> <br /> -<h3 style='display: inline' id='Knowwhichproblemyouwanttosolve'>Know which problem you want to solve</h3><br /> +<h3 style='display: inline' id='know-which-problem-you-want-to-solve'>Know which problem you want to solve</h3><br /> <br /> <span>There must be a problem to be solved or a thing to be improved. It makes no sense to have a project without a goal. A problem might be obvious to you, and you don't even need to think about it. In that case, you are all set, and you can immerse yourself with the problem.</span><br /> <br /> <span>If, however, you don't know what problem you want to solve: Do you really need to be creative? All problems are solved anyway, correct? In that case, just go on with your work. As you immerse yourself with your daily work, you will find a project naturally after a while. I don't believe you should artificially find a project. It should come naturally to you. You should have an interest in the problem domain and a strong desire to find a proper solution for the problem. Artificially created projects come with the catch that you might give up on it rather sooner than later due to lack of motivation and desire.</span><br /> <br /> -<h3 style='display: inline' id='Immersedeepdive'>Immerse / deep dive</h3><br /> +<h3 style='display: inline' id='immerse--deep-dive'>Immerse / deep dive</h3><br /> <br /> <span>If you want to be creative in a field, you must know a lot about it. The more you know about it, the more dots you can connect. When you are learning a new technology or if you are thinking about a tough problem, do it thoroughly. Don't let anything distract you. Read books, watch lectures, listen to podcasts or audiobooks about the topic, talk to other people working on similar topics. Immerse yourself for multiple hours per day, multiple days per week, multiple weeks and maybe even months. Create your own inner universe.</span><br /> <br /> @@ -8111,7 +8207,7 @@ v = 008 [v = p*c*(s != c ? 2 : 1)] Total logical CPUs <br /> <span>Sometimes, depending on how deeply you were immersed, you may need to let the problem go for a couple of days (e.g. over a weekend) before you can download a new insight.</span><br /> <br /> -<h3 style='display: inline' id='Alwayshaveanotebookwithyou'>Always have a notebook with you</h3><br /> +<h3 style='display: inline' id='always-have-a-notebook-with-you'>Always have a notebook with you</h3><br /> <br /> <span>Wherever you go, ensure that you always have something to take notes with you. Once you have an idea from nowhere (or from your unconscious but volatile brain), you really want to write it down to persistent storage. It doesn't matter what kind of note-taking device you use here. It can be a paper journal, or it can be your smartphone. </span><br /> <br /> @@ -8119,13 +8215,13 @@ v = 008 [v = p*c*(s != c ? 2 : 1)] Total logical CPUs <br /> <span>I prefer taking notes on paper, as it gives you more freedom of how to structure it. You can use any colour, and you can also quickly create diagrams without the use of any complex computer program.</span><br /> <br /> -<h3 style='display: inline' id='Whenyoudidntsleepenough'>When you didn't sleep enough</h3><br /> +<h3 style='display: inline' id='when-you-didn-t-sleep-enough'>When you didn't sleep enough</h3><br /> <br /> <span>I noticed while being sleep-deprived I am (obviously) unable to concentrate so much, and it is difficult to be immersed in a focused way. But on the other hand, I am a lot more creative compared to when I am not sleep-deprived. Then, my brain suddenly presents me with connections I have not thought of before. Here, I usually write any idea I have down on a sheet of paper or in my journal, so I can pick it up later. I then often continue to philosophise about a possible solution. Sometimes to the absurd, and sometimes to something pretty useful.</span><br /> <br /> <span>I am not saying that you should skip sleep. By all means, if you can sleep, then sleep. But there are some days when you don't manage to sleep (e.g. think too much about a project and didn't manage to hit the off switch). This is, where you can take advantage of your current state of mind. Disclaimer: Skipping sleep damages your health. So, please don't try this out on purpose. But in case you had a bad night, remember this trick.</span><br /> <br /> -<h3 style='display: inline' id='Haveregularbreaksandrelax'>Have regular breaks and relax</h3><br /> +<h3 style='display: inline' id='have-regular-breaks-and-relax'>Have regular breaks and relax</h3><br /> <br /> <span>Have regular breaks. Don't skip your lunch break. Best, have a walk during lunchtime. And after work, do some kind of workout or visit a sports class. Do something completely unrelated to work before going to sleep (e.g. visit a parallel universe and read a Science Fiction novel). In short: Totally hit the off-switch after your work for the day is finished. You will be much more energised and motivated the next time you open your work laptop.</span><br /> <br /> @@ -8135,7 +8231,7 @@ v = 008 [v = p*c*(s != c ? 2 : 1)] Total logical CPUs <br /> <span>It also helps a lot eat healthy. Healthy food makes your brain work more efficiently. But I won't go into more details here, as nothing is as contradictory as the health and food industry. Conduct your own research. Your opinion may be different from mine anyway, and everyone's body reacts to certain foods differently. What for one person works may not work for another person. But be aware that you will find a lot of wrong and also conflicting information on the internet. So always use multiple resources for your research.</span><br /> <br /> -<h3 style='display: inline' id='Upsidedownapproach'>Upside-down approach</h3><br /> +<h3 style='display: inline' id='upside-down-approach'>Upside-down approach</h3><br /> <br /> <span>It's easy to fall into the habit of "boxed" thinking, but creativity is exactly the opposite. Once in a while, make yourself think "Is A really required to do B?". Many assumptions are believed to be true. But are they really? A concrete example: "At work we only use the programming language L and framework F" and therefore, it is the standard we must use.</span><br /> <br /> @@ -8149,7 +8245,7 @@ v = 008 [v = p*c*(s != c ? 2 : 1)] Total logical CPUs <br /> <span>A small additional trick: you can train yourself to generate new and unconventional ideas. Just write down 20 random ideas every day. It doesn't matter what the ideas are about and whether they are useful or not. The purpose of this exercise is to make your brain think about something new and unconventional. These can be absurd ideas such as "Jump out of the window naked in the morning in order to wake up faster". Of course, you would never do that, but at least you had an idea and made your brain generate something.</span><br /> <br /> -<h3 style='display: inline' id='Dontbebusyallthetime'>Don't be busy all the time</h3><br /> +<h3 style='display: inline' id='don-t-be-busy-all-the-time'>Don't be busy all the time</h3><br /> <br /> <span>Especially as a DevOps Engineer, you could be busy all the time with small, but frequent, ad hoc tasks. Don't lose yourself here. Yes, you should pay attention to your job and those tasks, but you should also make some room for creativity. Don't schedule meeting after ad hoc work after meeting after Jira ticket work after another Jira ticket. There should also be some "free" space in your calendar.</span><br /> <br /> @@ -8169,7 +8265,7 @@ learn () { timedatectl - Control the system time and date </pre> <br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='Conclusion'>Conclusion</h2><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='conclusion'>Conclusion</h2><br /> <br /> <span>This all summarises advice I have, really. I hope this was interesting and helpful for you.</span><br /> <br /> @@ -8210,6 +8306,10 @@ learn () { <br /> <span class='quote'>Published at 2022-03-06T18:11:39+00:00</span><br /> <br /> +<span>I have recently released DTail 4.0.0 and this blog post goes through all the new goodies. If you want to jump directly to DTail, do it here (there are nice animated gifs which demonstrates the usage pretty well):</span><br /> +<br /> +<a class='textlink' href='https://dtail.dev'>https://dtail.dev</a><br /> +<br /> <pre> ,_---~~~~~----._ _,,_,*^____ _____``*g*\"*, @@ -8228,7 +8328,6 @@ learn () { <br /> <ul> <li><a href='#the-release-of-dtail-400'>The release of DTail 4.0.0</a></li> -<li>⇢ <a href='#introduction'>Introduction</a></li> <li>⇢ <a href='#so-what-s-new-in-400'>So, what's new in 4.0.0?</a></li> <li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#rewritten-logging'>Rewritten logging</a></li> <li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#configurable-terminal-color-codes'>Configurable terminal color codes</a></li> @@ -8243,12 +8342,6 @@ learn () { <li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#use-of-memory-pools'>Use of memory pools</a></li> <li>⇢ <a href='#what-s-next'>What's next</a></li> </ul><br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='introduction'>Introduction</h2><br /> -<br /> -<span>I have recently released DTail 4.0.0 and this blog post goes through all the new goodies. If you want to jump directly to DTail, do it here (there are nice animated gifs which demonstrates the usage pretty well):</span><br /> -<br /> -<a class='textlink' href='https://dtail.dev'>https://dtail.dev</a><br /> -<br /> <h2 style='display: inline' id='so-what-s-new-in-400'>So, what's new in 4.0.0?</h2><br /> <br /> <h3 style='display: inline' id='rewritten-logging'>Rewritten logging</h3><br /> @@ -8552,6 +8645,8 @@ exec /usr/local/bin/dtailhealth --server localhost:2222 <br /> <span class='quote'>Published at 2022-02-04T09:58:22+00:00; Updated at 2022-02-18</span><br /> <br /> +<span>This is a list of Operating Systems I currently use. This list is in no particular order and also will be updated over time. The very first operating system I used was MS-DOS (mainly for games) and the very first Unix like operating system I used was SuSE Linux 5.3. My first smartphone OS was Symbian on a clunky Sony Ericsson device.</span><br /> +<br /> <pre> /( )` \ \___ / | @@ -8577,7 +8672,6 @@ exec /usr/local/bin/dtailhealth --server localhost:2222 <br /> <ul> <li><a href='#computer-operating-systems-i-used'>Computer operating systems I use(d)</a></li> -<li>⇢ <a href='#introduction'>Introduction</a></li> <li>⇢ <a href='#fedora-linux'>Fedora Linux</a></li> <li>⇢ <a href='#endeavouros'>EndeavourOS</a></li> <li>⇢ <a href='#freebsd'>FreeBSD</a></li> @@ -8599,10 +8693,6 @@ exec /usr/local/bin/dtailhealth --server localhost:2222 <li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#other-oses-i-only-had-a-glance-at'>Other OSes I only had a glance at...</a></li> <li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#other-oses-which-seem-interesting'>Other OSes which seem interesting...</a></li> </ul><br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='introduction'>Introduction</h2><br /> -<br /> -<span>This is a list of Operating Systems I currently use. This list is in no particular order and also will be updated over time. The very first operating system I used was MS-DOS (mainly for games) and the very first Unix like operating system I used was SuSE Linux 5.3. My first smartphone OS was Symbian on a clunky Sony Ericsson device.</span><br /> -<br /> <h2 style='display: inline' id='fedora-linux'>Fedora Linux</h2><br /> <br /> <span>Fedora Linux is the operating system I use on my primary (personal) laptop. It's a ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen. 9. Lenovo which comes along with official Lenovo Linux support. I already noticed hardware firmware updates being installed directly through Fedora from Lenovo. Fedora is a real powerhouse, cutting-edge and reasonably stable at the same time. It's baked by Red Hat.</span><br /> @@ -8892,6 +8982,12 @@ GNU/kFreeBSD rhea.buetow.org 8.0-RELEASE-p5 FreeBSD 8.0-RELEASE-p5 #2: Sat Nov 2 <br /> <span class='quote'>Published at 2022-01-01T23:36:15+00:00; Updated at 2022-01-05</span><br /> <br /> +<span>This is the second blog post about my Bash Golf series. This series is random Bash tips, tricks and weirdnesses I came across. It's a collection of smaller articles I wrote in an older (in German language) blog, which I translated and refreshed with some new content.</span><br /> +<br /> +<a class='textlink' href='./2021-11-29-bash-golf-part-1.html'>2021-11-29 Bash Golf Part 1</a><br /> +<a class='textlink' href='./2022-01-01-bash-golf-part-2.html'>2022-01-01 Bash Golf Part 2 (You are currently reading this)</a><br /> +<a class='textlink' href='./2023-12-10-bash-golf-part-3.html'>2023-12-10 Bash Golf Part 3</a><br /> +<br /> <pre> '\ '\ . . |>18>> \ \ . ' . | @@ -8907,7 +9003,6 @@ jgs^^^^^^^`^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ <br /> <ul> <li><a href='#bash-golf-part-2'>Bash Golf Part 2</a></li> -<li>⇢ <a href='#introduction'>Introduction</a></li> <li>⇢ <a href='#redirection'>Redirection</a></li> <li>⇢ <a href='#here'>HERE</a></li> <li>⇢ <a href='#random'>RANDOM</a></li> @@ -8916,14 +9011,6 @@ jgs^^^^^^^`^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ <li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#-e'>-e</a></li> <li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#pipefail'>pipefail</a></li> </ul><br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='introduction'>Introduction</h2><br /> -<br /> -<span>This is the second blog post about my Bash Golf series. This series is random Bash tips, tricks and weirdnesses I came across. It's a collection of smaller articles I wrote in an older (in German language) blog, which I translated and refreshed with some new content.</span><br /> -<br /> -<a class='textlink' href='./2021-11-29-bash-golf-part-1.html'>2021-11-29 Bash Golf Part 1</a><br /> -<a class='textlink' href='./2022-01-01-bash-golf-part-2.html'>2022-01-01 Bash Golf Part 2 (You are currently reading this)</a><br /> -<a class='textlink' href='./2023-12-10-bash-golf-part-3.html'>2023-12-10 Bash Golf Part 3</a><br /> -<br /> <h2 style='display: inline' id='redirection'>Redirection</h2><br /> <br /> <span>Let's have a closer look at Bash redirection. As you might already know that there are 3 standard file descriptors:</span><br /> @@ -9415,10 +9502,16 @@ PAUL:X:1000:1000:PAUL BUETOW:/HOME/PAUL:/BIN/BASH <summary>Log4shell (CVE-2021-44228) made it clear, once again, that working in information technology is not an easy job (especially when you are a DevOps person). I thought it would be interesting to summarize a few techniques to help you to relax.</summary> <content type="xhtml"> <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> - <h1 style='display: inline' id='HowtostaysaneasaDevOpsperson'>How to stay sane as a DevOps person </h1><br /> + <h1 style='display: inline' id='how-to-stay-sane-as-a-devops-person-'>How to stay sane as a DevOps person </h1><br /> <br /> <span class='quote'>Published at 2021-12-26T12:02:02+00:00; Updated at 2022-01-12</span><br /> <br /> +<span>Log4shell (CVE-2021-44228) made it clear, once again, that working in information technology is not an easy job (especially when you are a DevOps person). I thought it would be interesting to summarize a few techniques to help you to relax.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span>(PS: When I mean DevOps, I also mean Site Reliability Engineers and Sysadmins. I believe SRE, DevOps Engineer and Sysadmin are just synonym titles for the same job).</span><br /> +<br /> +<a class='textlink' href='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Log4Shell'>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Log4Shell</a><br /> +<br /> <pre> ) ) (( ( @@ -9441,13 +9534,26 @@ PAUL:X:1000:1000:PAUL BUETOW:/HOME/PAUL:/BIN/BASH ~~~~~' </pre> <br /> -<span>Log4shell (CVE-2021-44228) made it clear, once again, that working in information technology is not an easy job (especially when you are a DevOps person). I thought it would be interesting to summarize a few techniques to help you to relax.</span><br /> -<br /> -<span>(PS: When I mean DevOps, I also mean Site Reliability Engineers and Sysadmins. I believe SRE, DevOps Engineer and Sysadmin are just synonym titles for the same job).</span><br /> -<br /> -<a class='textlink' href='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Log4Shell'>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Log4Shell</a><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='table-of-contents'>Table of Contents</h2><br /> <br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='Setclearexpectations'>Set clear expectations</h2><br /> +<ul> +<li><a href='#how-to-stay-sane-as-a-devops-person-'>How to stay sane as a DevOps person </a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#set-clear-expectations'>Set clear expectations</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#always-respond-to-requests-but-set-expectations-and-boundaries'>Always respond to requests but set expectations and boundaries</a></li> +<li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#dealing-with-requests'>Dealing with requests</a></li> +<li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#escalation-is-only-a-tool'>Escalation is only a tool</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#think-positively'>Think positively</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#go-slower-even-if-you-could-go-faster'>Go slower even if you could go faster</a></li> +<li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#you-work-in-a-team'>You work in a team</a></li> +<li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#don-t-rush'>Don't rush</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#you-are-not-a-superhero'>You are not a superhero</a></li> +<li>⇢ ⇢ <a href='#give-away-some-of-your-superpowers'>Give away some of your superpowers</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#don-t-jump-on-all-problems-immediately'>Don't jump on all problems immediately</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#force-breaks-and-shutdown-now'>Force breaks; and shutdown now</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#block-time-every-day-for-personal-advance'>Block time every day for personal advance</a></li> +<li>⇢ <a href='#more'>More</a></li> +</ul><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='set-clear-expectations'>Set clear expectations</h2><br /> <br /> <span>It's important to set clear expectations. It can be difficult to guess what others expect or don't expect from you. If you know exactly what you are supposed to do, you can work towards a specific goal and don't worry about all the other noise so much.</span><br /> <br /> @@ -9455,21 +9561,21 @@ PAUL:X:1000:1000:PAUL BUETOW:/HOME/PAUL:/BIN/BASH <br /> <span>Due to politeness, many people are not setting clear expectations. I personally may sound sometimes "too German" when setting expectations, but so far nobody complained, and I have even received positive feedback about it.</span><br /> <br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='Alwaysrespondtorequestsbutsetexpectationsandboundaries'>Always respond to requests but set expectations and boundaries</h2><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='always-respond-to-requests-but-set-expectations-and-boundaries'>Always respond to requests but set expectations and boundaries</h2><br /> <br /> <span>There are many temptations to get side-tracked by other projects and/or issues. It is important to set boundaries here. But always answer to all requests as nothing is more frustrating than asking a person and never getting any answer back. This is especially the case when everyone is working form home where people are using tools such as Slack and E-Mail for most of their communications.</span><br /> <br /> -<h3 style='display: inline' id='Dealingwithrequests'>Dealing with requests</h3><br /> +<h3 style='display: inline' id='dealing-with-requests'>Dealing with requests</h3><br /> <br /> <span>If the request is urgent, and you have the capacity to help, probably you should help. If it's not urgent, maybe ask to pospone the request (e.g. ask to create a ticket, so that someone from your team can work on it later).</span><br /> <br /> <span>If the request is urgent, but you don't have the knowledge or the capacity to help, try to defer to a colleague who might be able to help. You could also provide some quick tips and hints, so that the requester can resolve the issue by himself. Make it transparent why you might not have the time right now, as this can help the person to review his own priorities or to escalate. </span><br /> <br /> -<h3 style='display: inline' id='Escalationisonlyatool'>Escalation is only a tool</h3><br /> +<h3 style='display: inline' id='escalation-is-only-a-tool'>Escalation is only a tool</h3><br /> <br /> <span>Never make or take an escalation personally. The only forms of escalation should be due to technical issues or lack of resources. An escalation then becomes like a math equation and does not need human resources involved. So de-facto, an escalation is nothing negative, but just a process people can follow to form decision-making. In a good company escalations tend to be an exception, though. Staff knows how to deal with the things by themselves without bothering management too much. </span><br /> <br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='Thinkpositively'>Think positively</h2><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='think-positively'>Think positively</h2><br /> <br /> <span>If times are very stressful, think that it could always be worse:</span><br /> <br /> @@ -9479,17 +9585,17 @@ PAUL:X:1000:1000:PAUL BUETOW:/HOME/PAUL:/BIN/BASH <li>You probably will never run out of work in the IT sector. So you will always be able to make a living.</li> <li>Your IT job and life is actually pretty good (compared to a homeless person for example). You are probably part of the world's top 1% regarding life standard.</li> </ul><br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='Goslowerevenifyoucouldgofaster'>Go slower even if you could go faster</h2><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='go-slower-even-if-you-could-go-faster'>Go slower even if you could go faster</h2><br /> <br /> <span>When working in a team, you may feel that you could get done things faster when you just did everything by yourself. This can be a bit frustrating at times, as you might need to work late hours and also might need to explain things over and over again to others. Also, you could be the one who needs to get things explained over and over again as you are not so familiar with the topic (yet). You will appreciate it if the other person is slowing down for you a bit.</span><br /> <br /> -<h3 style='display: inline' id='Youworkinateam'>You work in a team</h3><br /> +<h3 style='display: inline' id='you-work-in-a-team'>You work in a team</h3><br /> <br /> <span>Security is a team sport. So slow down and make sure that everyone is on track with the goals. You can go full-speed with your very own subtasks, though. Not everyone knows how to use all the tools so well like a full-time DevOps person. As a DevOps person, you are not a security expert, though. Security experts are different people in your company, but DevOps will be the main tribe deploying mitigations (following the security recommendations) and management will be the main tribe coordinating all the efforts. </span><br /> <br /> <span>So even if you think that you can do everything faster by your own, can you really? You probably don't know what you don't know about IT security. The more you know about it, the more you know about what you don't know.</span><br /> <br /> -<h3 style='display: inline' id='Dontrush'>Don't rush</h3><br /> +<h3 style='display: inline' id='don-t-rush'>Don't rush</h3><br /> <br /> <span>Slowing down also helps to prevent errors. Don't rush your tasks, even if they are urgent. Try to be quick, but don't rush them. Maybe you are writing a script to mitigate a production issue. You could others peer review that script, for example. Their primary programming language may not be the same (e.g. Golang vs Perl), but they would understand the logic. Or ask another DevOps person from your company with good scripting skills review your mitigation, but he then may lack the domain knowledge of the software you are patching. So in either case, the review will take a bit longer as the reviewer might not be an expert in everything.</span><br /> <br /> @@ -9497,7 +9603,7 @@ PAUL:X:1000:1000:PAUL BUETOW:/HOME/PAUL:/BIN/BASH <br /> <a class='textlink' href='./2021-10-22-defensive-devops.html'>Read also "Defensive DevOps" about deploying mitigation scripts.</a><br /> <br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='Youarenotasuperhero'>You are not a superhero</h2><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='you-are-not-a-superhero'>You are not a superhero</h2><br /> <br /> <span>Always keep that in mind. You can't solve all problems by your own. Maybe you could, but that would be a lot of additional stress (and this will reflect to your personal life). Also, Superman and Wonder Woman receive much higher salaries than you will ever do ;-).</span><br /> <br /> @@ -9505,7 +9611,7 @@ PAUL:X:1000:1000:PAUL BUETOW:/HOME/PAUL:/BIN/BASH <br /> <span>This doesn't mean, that you shouldn't try your best. But you don't need to try to be the superhero. Maybe someone else will be the superhero, but that's OK as long as it's not always the same person every time. Everyone can have a good day after all. If I could choose between being a superhero or having a good night sleep, I would probably prefer the sleep. </span><br /> <br /> -<h3 style='display: inline' id='Giveawaysomeofyoursuperpowers'>Give away some of your superpowers</h3><br /> +<h3 style='display: inline' id='give-away-some-of-your-superpowers'>Give away some of your superpowers</h3><br /> <br /> <span>If you are a superhero, try to give away some of your superpowers, so that you can relax in the evening knowing that others (e.g. the current on-call engineers) know how to tackle things. Every member of the team needs to do DevOps (even the team managers, in my humble opinion). Some may be less experienced than others or have other expertises, but to counteract this you could document the recurring tasks so that they are easy to follow (which then later could be either automated away or, even better, fully fixed).</span><br /> <br /> @@ -9513,7 +9619,7 @@ PAUL:X:1000:1000:PAUL BUETOW:/HOME/PAUL:/BIN/BASH <br /> <span>So you are not a superhero. Or, if you are a superhero, then all colleagues should be superheroes too.</span><br /> <br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='Dontjumponallproblemsimmediately'>Don't jump on all problems immediately</h2><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='don-t-jump-on-all-problems-immediately'>Don't jump on all problems immediately</h2><br /> <br /> <span>In a perfect world, every member of a team comes along with the same strengths and skills. But in reality, everyone is different. </span><br /> <br /> @@ -9523,19 +9629,19 @@ PAUL:X:1000:1000:PAUL BUETOW:/HOME/PAUL:/BIN/BASH <br /> <span>If the issue is a very critical one, then you might better off trying to resolve it as fast as possible with your full powers in order to avoid any major damage to the company. This, of course, only works if you know how to resolve it quickly. So, don't leave others with not much experience yet looking at it. If possible, work with the team to resolve the issue. Unfortunately, solving it with the team is not always the fastest way. So in this particular circumstance, the company may be better off being saved by a single superhero. Make sure that the problem will not occur again or, at least, that others can fix it the next time without Superman flying by.</span><br /> <br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='Forcebreaksandshutdownnow'>Force breaks; and shutdown now</h2><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='force-breaks-and-shutdown-now'>Force breaks; and shutdown now</h2><br /> <br /> <span>Be strict about your time off. Nowadays, tech workers check their messages also out of office hours and are reachable 24/7. This really should only be the case when you are on-call, to be honest (or if you work for a startup). All other out-of-office time is owned by you and not your employer. You have signed an 40 hour/week and not 7 days/week contract. Of course, there will be always some sort of flexibility and exceptions. You might need to work over the weekend to get a migration done or a problem solved. But to balance it out, you should have other days off as substitutes.</span><br /> <br /> <span>It's important to shut down your brain from work during your breaks (be strict with your breaks, leave your desk for lunch or for a walk early afternoon and if you aren't on-call also don't take your work-phone with you). You will be happier and also much more energized and productive in the afternoon. Also, when you are reachable 24/7, your colleagues will start thinking that you don't have anything more important to do than work.</span><br /> <br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='Blocktimeeverydayforpersonaladvance'>Block time every day for personal advance</h2><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='block-time-every-day-for-personal-advance'>Block time every day for personal advance</h2><br /> <br /> <span>It does not matter how many tasks are in your backlog or how many issues are to be tackled. *Always* find time for personal advance. The most issues aren't critical anyway and can wait a bit. At the end of the day, you will have a nice feeling that you have accomplished something meaningful. This can be an interesting project or learning a new technology you are interested in. Of course, there must be consensus with your manager (unless you do that kind of thing in your personal time of course). </span><br /> <br /> <span>If you are too busy at work and just can't block time, then maybe it's time to think about alternatives. But before you do that, probably there is something else you can do. Perhaps you just think you can't block time, but you would be positively surprised to hear from your manager that he will fully support you. Of course, he won't agree to you working full-time on your pet projects. But a certain portion of your time should be allocated for personal advance. After all, your employer also want's you to stay happy so that you don't look for alternatives. It's of everyone's interest that you like your job and stay motivated. The more you are motivated, the more productive you are. The more productive you are, the more valuable you are for the company.</span><br /> <br /> -<h2 style='display: inline' id='More'>More</h2><br /> +<h2 style='display: inline' id='more'>More</h2><br /> <br /> <span>Another blog post worth reading:</span><br /> <br /> |