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 * links
 * sitemap
 * notes
 * search

As George Costanza used to say, "You know, we're living in a society!", but just
in case we don't, remember this website has a mirror on the Tor network, so
bookmark it. RSS feed is here.


OPENSEARCH, HUGO AND SIZEOF.CAT

March 15, 2024    Article    257 words    2 mins read

Ever since I made contact with the OpenSearch spec I wanted to implement it on
my website, but it was postponed, and postponed, and postponed. Not anymore, I
had some free time and I implemented it (not like it was a huge change, took
less than 5 minutes).

Add a new Hugo output format declaration (in config.toml):

[outputFormats]
	[outputFormats.OpenSearch]
		baseName = "opensearch"
		isHTML = false
		isPlainText = false
		mediaType = "application/opensearchdescription+xml"
		noUgly = true


Read more ...


A CHILD

March 4, 2024    Article    843 words    4 mins read

> The more I study the works of men in their institutions, the more clearly I
> see that, in their efforts after independence, they become slaves, and that
> their very freedom is wasted in vain attempts to assure its continuance. That
> they may not be carried away by the flood of things, they form all sorts of
> attachments; then as soon as they wish to move forward they are surprised to
> find that everything drags them back. It seems to me that to set oneself free
> we need do nothing, we need only continue to desire freedom. Jean-Jacques
> Rousseau, Emile, or On Education

Very frequently I get flashes of “This is exactly how I saw this when I was a
kid” about random things. Sometimes specific things, like if I watch a video of
a game I used to play when I was a kid, I’ll have a sudden flash of “how open
the world seemed to me, how amazingly full of possibilities it was”, etc., along
with a lot of (this is almost impossible to describe) “how just this weird shiny
red patch on the health bar seemed so important, or special, or amazing”. I
think I’m basically remembering fragments of a child really thinking and
believing things like “If I just had a shiny mech suit like that I’d be so
happy” or “I want to live in this space-sim world where everything is just
chrome.”

Read more ...


VIRTUALIZATION AND WINDOWS 7

March 3, 2024    Article    1255 words    6 mins read

This article is the next in the “I have a Nokia Booklet 3g netbook and I want to
do retro stuff on it” series. I’ll install virtualization software (namely
Microsoft Virtual PC) on Windows 7 and virtualize some operating systems, which
is an amazing thing to do on such an underpowered netbook (Intel Atom CPU, 1GB
RAM). Remember you’re probably connecting a severely outdated operating system
to the network, so you might get the chilly willy.


MICROSOFT VIRTUAL PC

Virtual PC is an x86 emulator for PowerPC Mac hosts and a virtualization app for
Microsoft Windows hosts. Virtual PC emulates the following environments:

 * Intel Pentium II (32-bit) processor (but virtualizes the host processor on
   Windows versions) with an Intel 440BX chipset (with PIIX4E southbridge).
 * Standard SVGA VESA graphics card (S3 Trio 32 PCI with 4 MB video RAM,
   adjustable in later versions up to 16 MB by manually editing a virtual
   machine’s settings file).
 * System BIOS from American Megatrends (AMI).
 * Creative Labs Sound Blaster 16 ISA PnP.
 * DEC 21041 (DEC 21140 in newer versions) Ethernet network card.
 * Programs using undocumented features of hardware, exotic timings, or
   unsupported opcodes may not work.

Read more ...


VPN KILLSWITCH AND WINDOWS 7

February 20, 2024    Article    513 words    3 mins read

Lately I’ve been having fun with my Nokia Booklet netbook and Windows 7, and I
wanted all Internet traffic blocked when there is no active VPN connection (VPN
killswitch); this can be done with just Windows Firewall.

There are several steps involved:

 1. Download and install OpenVPN GUI for Windows 7 (make sure you don’t install
    OpenVPN Connect by mistake).
 2. Get a OpenVPN profile from a VPN provider (Proton, Njal.la, Riseup).
 3. Setup all VPN traffic to be allowed.
 4. Setup all other network traffic to be blocked.
 5. Fine-tune the firewall rules.

Go to Start Menu -> All Programs -> Administrative Tools -> Windows Firewall
with Advanced Security. In the left panel click on Outbound Rules and once the
outbound firewall rules are listed, click on New Rule in the right panel.

Read more ...


SOFTWARE THAT FITS IN YOUR BACKPACK

February 19, 2024    Bookmark    https://atthis.link/blog/2023/16728.html

> Building and using only the tools and software that do what you need rather
> than what you might doesn’t mean you need to pretend it’s the 80’s and every
> kilobyte and clock cycle is precious - or even that you need to forgo all the
> excitement of computing and choose boring technology. Rather, there’s value in
> periodically assessing what you use, how you use it, and weighing up whether
> there’s value in doing more with less. Not every program needs to handle every
> eventuality.
> 
> Does your email client, text editor, or todo app need to essentially be
> another operating system unto itself? So much so that they very likely have
> complete support for Xbox-360 controllers for some reason? Could you achieve
> just as much, if not more functionality, by putting everything in a simple
> text file? It’s worth exploring.
> 
> Marc


FUTURE

February 17, 2024    Article    521 words    3 mins read

My great-grandmother had ten children, eight of whom lived to adulthood. When
none had yet left the household, she used to bake golden-brown dinner rolls
before dinnertime, cooling them in a towel-lined basket from which the smell of
the rolls inside would waft through her whole house, announcing that the meal
was almost ready to eat. Afterwards, if any of the rolls remained, the children
would grab them out of the basket as a snack or to eat at lunch.

My grandmother had six children. Her mother passed down the recipe for those
same dinner rolls down to her, and in the same fashion, she would bake them in
the early afternoon and leave them in a basket on her kitchen countertop after
meals were done. The table in her and my grandfather’s house, in time, hosted
dozens of family friends, guests, and cherished extended family members, all of
whom would end up having one of my grandmother’s dinner rolls at one point or
another. Each of her children, just like she did when she was younger, would
sneak a roll from the basket throughout the day, until all that was left was a
pile of crumbs lining the bottom.

When my father married my mother, his parents passed down to him a family recipe
book, a hundred fifty pages of jumbled, handwritten-and-copied notes on the
dishes he had grown up with and how to make them just so. At the back of this
book was the original dinner roll recipe, passed down from his mother’s mother
to my grandmother, to him, and my mother. As a child, I often saw my mother
kneading bread dough on a floured countertop on days when guests were expected,
holidays, and special occasions, and on those days the warmth of the oven would
dissipate throughout the house after what we knew as Mom’s dinner rolls had been
pulled out and left to cool on a wire rack by the kitchen windowsill. I remember
being able to make several of the buttery, crusty rolls disappear - as if by
magic.

Read more ...
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For a bird born in captivity, flight is a mental illness.
Nickname: sizeof(cat)
Job: Consultant, Hacker
PGP key: F273 5495

For a bird born in captivity, flight is a mental illness.