mxuribe's recent activity
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Comment on Ars Asks: Share your shell and show us your tricked-out terminals in ~comp
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Comment on Ars Asks: Share your shell and show us your tricked-out terminals in ~comp
mxuribe Link ParentI LOVE Cool Retro Term! I don't use it as much as I did in the past (mostly due to laziness in installing and configuring it when i nuke and pave my machines)...but still have much love for it!I LOVE Cool Retro Term! I don't use it as much as I did in the past (mostly due to laziness in installing and configuring it when i nuke and pave my machines)...but still have much love for it!
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Comment on How to turn anything into a router in ~comp
mxuribe Link ParentNo, no, most people know that sourdough is the worse type of bread for a speed boost in networking...Its just so good tasting that humans and network packets alike want to slow things down in...No, no, most people know that sourdough is the worse type of bread for a speed boost in networking...Its just so good tasting that humans and network packets alike want to slow things down in order to better relish the yummiess!!! lol :-D
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Comment on How do you keep your life organized? What tools & systems do you use? in ~talk
mxuribe LinkHi @Atvelonis i think the suggestion from @artvandelay to give Trello a try might be a good idea for you. I used to use Trello for a few years, and liked it alot. (I recently moved away from...Hi @Atvelonis i think the suggestion from @artvandelay to give Trello a try might be a good idea for you. I used to use Trello for a few years, and liked it alot. (I recently moved away from Trello, but not due to lack of features, nor anything bad or nefarious that Trello did...Moved more for my differing work flow, plus my desire to use more open source stuff or self-host my own things, etc.) Trello seems to check some of the features you seek.
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Comment on Scripts I wrote that I use all the time in ~comp
mxuribe Link ParentI'm happy to have helped @tauon (even though it was a happy accident)! :-D And, funny that you should mention about your version of the author's copy/pasta...Now, that i've been getting more and...I'm happy to have helped @tauon (even though it was a happy accident)! :-D
And, funny that you should mention about your version of the author's copy/pasta...Now, that i've been getting more and more back into using the terminal on a more regular basis...I'm really enjoying reading about these scripts that others create and use. And, of course, inspiring me to create my own for personal use...which are by no means sophisticated. But getting back into all this, has begun to generate some fun and energy for me - some of it bringing me back to my earlier computing days...ah, the fun i had, and am now beginning to have again! -
Comment on Scripts I wrote that I use all the time in ~comp
mxuribe Link ParentOh wow @Boojum, I'm going to have to borrow 1 or 2 of your snippets myself! Your "toimg" alias function is brilliant! Kudos!Oh wow @Boojum, I'm going to have to borrow 1 or 2 of your snippets myself! Your "toimg" alias function is brilliant! Kudos!
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Comment on Paid e-mail providers - your experiences, how you use them and how I would use it in ~tech
mxuribe Link@Pavouk106 I'll add another comment (separate from my Zoho feedback)...that if you have an Android mobile phone there is an annoyance for syncing contacts and calendars with any paid email...@Pavouk106 I'll add another comment (separate from my Zoho feedback)...that if you have an Android mobile phone there is an annoyance for syncing contacts and calendars with any paid email providers...This is NOT the fault of any email providers, its simply how Android is configured to favor Google offerings. Basically, whenever not using a google offering like Gmail or Google calendar, Android will need a sort of "sync bridge" between your Android device and providers that are not Google. So, whatever email providers you consider might either nudge you to use their mobile apps (which avoid the Android synch hoop jumping), or they will suggest that you use a sync bridge in their setup guides....The ones i see recommended are DavX5 (which is what i use, and it works great!), etc. Don't be turned off by this! Its annoying, but many providers craft good documentation around this, and you do it once and won't need to worry about it (unless you change phones, etc.).
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Comment on Paid e-mail providers - your experiences, how you use them and how I would use it in ~tech
mxuribe Link ParentI'll second this on Zoho! I've been a paid customer for a handful of years now, and its been really great! I'm on the lowest paid plan - i think "Lite" maybe? Anyway, the storage tier isn't that...I'll second this on Zoho!
I've been a paid customer for a handful of years now, and its been really great! I'm on the lowest paid plan - i think "Lite" maybe? Anyway, the storage tier isn't that great, its ok, but more than enough for my family's needs. I moved to them as i was beginning my de-googling. Funny actually, because i was grandfathered into that Google w/Your Own domain/Google Suite thing, whatever it was called. Back then i was weighing my options between Fastmail, Zoho, and a few others (i think one of the options i considered was also a low cost one in Germany as well?)...anyway, I really just went with Zoho due to low costs. But, as noted, they've been really great for several years.Some Pros:
- low cost overall
- also, you can start with a low cost paid tier, and then instead of jumping to next up tier, you can simply add small enhancemnts. for example, if you're on the $1/month tier and the next tier is $3/month, but you only want a little more storage, they have i think they call them add-ons, where you just pay for a little more storage...so i think you pay like $0.25 more per month for that extra storage.
- decent performance via a conventional mail desktop clients like thunderbird, or mobile app like K9 Mail, etc.
- generous enough amount of storage - at least for the price
- you not only get email, contacts, and calendar, but also other stuff like ToDos, and other ancillary apps...Its not like super amazing, but they're decnet...and again, not bad what they throw in for the low cost
- their uptime/availability is ridiculously rock solid...the very few outages have had zero impact to any storage (no data loss), and these outages last like 3 minutes, etc. Again, the outages are really impressive considering the low cost!
- when you have what's called an "Organization" where you pay for more than a single account (like i pay for 4 accounts for my family), their admin portal has tons of knobs and buttons to configure...its clear they've made it 100% suitable not just for private/consumer users but also bigger corporations...of course, you need not use many of these features...but for small or medium businesses, their admin portal is impressive, flexible, comprehensive!
- oh and very important for me, they support all the established standards (imap, cardDav, calDav, ActiveSync, etc.)...so while you can use their web and mobile apps, that is not required.
- also, both their web and mobile apps are decent....the one exception being slight recent issues with their web ...but its still quite functional!
Some Cons:
- performance via their web mail UI used to be much faster, but has degraded in speed over just the last year...its not super terrible, but its a thing now..or at least, i'm noticing it more just recently. Now once might assume that it could have been a bad code release...but its been like this for several months...maybe just shy of a year
- also they seem to have more ads...To clarify: they're not general ads (since you're paying them for email service), they're specifically Zoho ads. Ads for their other paid offerings, or for some free conference they're hosting, etc. I mean, they're not terrible ads. Its just that there are a couple more than there used to be...Still not so bad...its just that they seem slightly more intrusive. I also wonder if the code to run these ads might be more of the cause for the web mail UI degradation that i have only started feeling over last year. So far, its annoying but not enough to leave...but, if things get much much worse, then i'll look elsehwere of course.
- while the UI interface for the web app is totally fine, i find that the size of their buttons and some UI elements are a little too small for someone my age...they basically don't design their stuff well for accessibility...which may not be a thing for many young whipper snappers, but i guess for me now, its annoying enough. When i'm on mobile or on desktop client like thunderbird, its not an issue...but lately have needed to use the web app..and i feel the annoyance...and weirdly for all the comprehensiveness of their admin portal, they lack any suitable accessibility options, or very, very minimal set of them.
- There are couple of other Cons...but they're so very minimal, i would be nitpicking severely at that point. and, again, at less than $2/month, i'd be a jerk to bring them up.
Still, overall, Zoho is pretty good for the low cost.
Now @Pavouk106 I'll add a tiny bit about Fastmail, since there's many mentions of them...While i have only experience with what used to be their free tier mail years ago, it was really rock solid and , well, fast...but i've never used their paid offerings. Back a few years ago, when i was looking for a paid email provider, Fastmail seemed to be the most expensive offering on my shortlist, and the storage was ok, not bad, but not great...Well, i just checked and wow have they raised the amount of storage you get when you pay them! If i ever move away from Zoho, I'll be seriously considering migrating to Fastmail! My comment might only be a small data point, but hope it helps!
EDIT: As @macleod rightly noted, Zoho's MX DNs record setup wizard is pretty impressive!
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Comment on What follows GitHub? in ~tech
mxuribe Link ParentThis really helped; thanks! I also looked at the (software) forge entry on wikipedia...But prefer your explanation :-) Thanks so much again!!!This really helped; thanks!
I also looked at the (software) forge entry on wikipedia...But prefer your explanation :-) Thanks so much again!!! -
Comment on The family computer in ~tech
mxuribe Link ParentPAM usb login via floppy disks? - That's truly awesome! And, yeah fully agreed, that for a family computer for those scenarios where the different users want their own space, customizations, etc.,...PAM usb login via floppy disks? - That's truly awesome!
And, yeah fully agreed, that for a family computer for those scenarios where the different users want their own space, customizations, etc., 100% that linux is the perfect kind of OS!
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Comment on The family computer in ~tech
mxuribe LinkThis post was wonderful and full a neat nostalgia! And that line near the end (about installing a linux distro) made me chuckle quite loudly! :-) Its really cool to see that linux has become/is...This post was wonderful and full a neat nostalgia!
...did what any sensible person would: I installed a Linux distribution...
And that line near the end (about installing a linux distro) made me chuckle quite loudly! :-)
Its really cool to see that linux has become/is becoming more of the solution for both replacing machines after Win10 dies/goes out of support...but also - and i would say more importantly - sustaining older machines far beyond their expected lifecycle! Beyond the cost savings to a family, its really nice from a green/environmental aspect. (Yes, yes, i know that some older devices are not as power efficient...but if this approach avoids/delays dumping stuff into landfills...then i think its worth it!) -
Comment on What follows GitHub? in ~tech
mxuribe Link ParentHi @Banazir would you kindly clarify what the difference(s) might be here? I genuinely did not these were different things...and really wish to learn. I have not done professional dev work in...I fall into the category of people who don't need a git forge, just a git host.
Hi @Banazir would you kindly clarify what the difference(s) might be here? I genuinely did not these were different things...and really wish to learn.
I have not done professional dev work in about 19 years, but do the odd little script for myself. So, yeah i have a github account with tiny repos...and it only exists for convenience...But would prefer to use something else (for philosophical reasons)...but alternatives often felt a bit much - again, just for little old me and my tiny scripts.
So...if there's some info you could share about git forge vs git host (or even directions that i could research myself), please share; and thanks! :-) -
Comment on A friendly introduction to SVG in ~comp
mxuribe LinkWow, this is really amazing! Not only because SVGs are cooler than i guess i gave them credit for...but, the way the author writes is really quite effective from an instructional perspective!...Wow, this is really amazing! Not only because SVGs are cooler than i guess i gave them credit for...but, the way the author writes is really quite effective from an instructional perspective! Really quite brilliant, and so easy to follow! My days of web design are behind, but wow, these kinds of tutorials would have really helped back in the day!
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Comment on NGINX introduces native support for ACME protocol for obtaining TLS certificates (Preview release) in ~comp
mxuribe LinkI don't want to say "too little, too late"....because i consider myself a fan of nginx, and very much welcome this change...but, then again, i have started using Caddy (as others have noted as...I don't want to say "too little, too late"....because i consider myself a fan of nginx, and very much welcome this change...but, then again, i have started using Caddy (as others have noted as well)...and, i'm really loving Caddy!
I have about a dozen or so domains and assorted websites that live under nginx (and have for many years now), and similar to what @kari noted, i also do alot of copy/pasting of configs to ease management, etc....but that ever so small amount of friction of managing certs via nginx and certbot was the original thing that had me test out Caddy. Using Caddy is still early days for me, so while i love that certs have pretty much almost become a "solved" thing that i don't have to think too much about...now, the challenge i have is simply the learning curve of Caddy.
I think the documentation for Caddy is well-written, but not detailed enough for my liking...Though i take full responsibility that maybe i overthink things too much sometimes...but i sure wish there were more examples of Caddy config details.
Even still, with this new change for nginx...i now have to weigh for my personal websites, while nginx is reputed to be more performant than Caddy...i think (for my traffic volume needs), Caddy might start to win out, and i might start replacing nginx with Caddy. Now, if any of my sites begins to draw tons more traffic, that is when i will review nginx again.
So, again, its great news to hear that nginx is doing this! And, i honestly don't mean to be a poopie head, but, i think i'm already on my way towards standardizing on Caddy - convenience seems to win over performance here! ;-)
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Comment on The future is not self-hosted in ~tech
mxuribe Link ParentI love the concept behind Solid! But, I think open protocols is an important dependency here...so as to allow for not only eventual interoperability, but also for parallel development of different...I love the concept behind Solid! But, I think open protocols is an important dependency here...so as to allow for not only eventual interoperability, but also for parallel development of different solutions...which of course only addresses the technical aspects. But, yeah, open protocols is a good start...and then the implementation of solutions and approaches like Solid work great because they empower the user with maximum control.
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Comment on The future is not self-hosted in ~tech
mxuribe Link ParentI agree that the "how" is tough in this topic. And, in fact, i would have suggested the "local library" model has worked (to a degree) historically for non-digital stuff...where a community pays...So any public investment is going to be a uphill battle to get done.
I agree that the "how" is tough in this topic. And, in fact, i would have suggested the "local library" model has worked (to a degree) historically for non-digital stuff...where a community pays taxes into the municipality, and the town uses some tax revenue (combined with other funds like from state/provincial/federal, etc.) to fund conventional library programs (e.g. book borrowing, etc.) for the benefit of local citizens. If i were to oversimplify things, that makes me think that such a model might work for self-hosting and other digital benefits...but nowadays, it feels like local libraries are under immense pressure to even survive, let alone thrive and add on digital services. So, yeah, not sure if this model would work everywhere - well, maybe some areas more than others. Either way, tough to figure out how to do it on wider scale for the benefit of people.
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Comment on I have been using a neo-dumbphone for a week, here are my thoughts in ~tech
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Comment on Dutch public broadcaster NOS have made teletext accessible through SSH in ~tech
mxuribe LinkThis is so awesome in a few ways! The nostalgia of old tech like teletext still being available...just because it is possible to do! The coolness factor of enabling this legacy tech through very...This is so awesome in a few ways!
- The nostalgia of old tech like teletext still being available...just because it is possible to do!
- The coolness factor of enabling this legacy tech through very "hacker" mechanism!
- I get to practice my Dutch...and they say one way to learn a language is to read the news :-)
- News via terminal (via terminal rss reader, this Dutch teletext via ssh, etc.) can be quite efficient (read: time saver)!
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Comment on I have been using a neo-dumbphone for a week, here are my thoughts in ~tech
mxuribe LinkWow, this phone is fascinating to me! When i first heard of the Lite phone, i thought it was cool, but its constraints were too much for me...I'm on a sort of digital minimalism journey, and would...Wow, this phone is fascinating to me!
When i first heard of the Lite phone, i thought it was cool, but its constraints were too much for me...I'm on a sort of digital minimalism journey, and would like to have a more basic mobile phone that is still solid...But now this Minimal phone seems much more like a middle ground. Very interesting!
The only thing i worry about is the screen being slow...i say that never really having ever had a kindle or any other eInk device. So, i guess i'd have to play around with it in real life to determine if it woulkd be an issue or not.
Also, i'm not a die hard fan of physical keyboards anymore. I used to love them back in the day, and very much hated when phone manufacturerers moved away from. (My partner is a superfan of physical keyboards...and would likely hop on this phone right away because of it having this keybaord!) but, if all other things being fine with this phone (like the screen ending up not being an issue), then the presence of a physical keyboard is certainly not a deal breaker.
As far as the cost, it actually does not seem outrageous to me. Yeah, i agree with comments that costs should be lesser if there are less things included....but i also can not argue with the premise that maybe paying a tiny bit more for "better suited/better fitting" device might be justified? So, am torn for what a phone like this should cost. In any case, if i had to choose between say some other neo-dumb phone vs Lite phone vs Minimal phone, there would be no contest for me to gladly pay for Minimal phone!I guess i'm going to have to do a little more research on this phone!
EDIT: And, thanks for sharing your thoughts on this phone!!! :-)
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Comment on What is your personal online "tech stack"? How do you like it? in ~tech
mxuribe Link ParentGood point about Cloudflare! I do use Cloudflare as name servers and front-end CDN (and i guess also front-end security and tls/ssl certs.). So, basically, whether i register a domain via...Good point about Cloudflare!
I do use Cloudflare as name servers and front-end CDN (and i guess also front-end security and tls/ssl certs.). So, basically, whether i register a domain via namecheap or porkbun, unless there is rare reason, i typically opt to have Cloudflare manage name servers and all underlying DNS records for my domain names. I've been using Cloudflare for years, and (knock on wood) have never had an issue (and have been on their free tier this whole time).As far as using cloudflare as a domain name registrar, I do recall some time ago when they first announced this. I have NO reason to believe that they will do a bad job or become baddies, considering how good they have behaved for other services that i use from them. I guess maybe a small part of it might be wanting a tiny bit of separation of concerns possibly? I suppose its not fair of me to have this fear, since i do consolidate things elsehwere, but something about it hasn't compelled me to race to migrate all my domains to cloudflare...again, maybe its unfair of me to think that since i have no evidence to fear them i guess.
Separately, i have been curious to use some of Cloudflare's other offerings like Workers, durable storage, etc...because the more that Microsoft, AWs, Google have as far as competition in such services, i think the better! But just have not had the chance yet to play with these cloudflare services.
I really like playing with the themes, look-and-feel, and custom prompts of the shell/terminal...but i discovered that it blocks me from getting stuff done. So, i tend to use some very minimal prompt customizations, and store them in my .bashrc, and call it a day. When i really, really feel like changing my theme/look-and-feel, i use the available themes in konsole, and then swap between them every few months...but don't get too hung up on things anymore, and don;'t spend time implementing them permanently in my .bashrc file.
I have to keep reminding myself that life is too short to fiddle around with "customization p0rn"! :-D