2023 phlog
==========
2023-12-30
On Christmas Day, we all went visit our 93 year old
Aunt and spent the day. She was very happy to see us
and really enjoyed the day. When we were leaving in
the evening, other relatives came to hang with her.
I would say she had a very good and busy day :)
2023-12-05
In the vtwm mailing list I saw an issue with Firefox
and vtwm. The same issue also happens in twm. The
issue has to do with "AutoRaise" and probably impacts
many "older" Window Managers. If enabled Firefox menus
act very odd. To fix, you do this in Firefox:
1. go to "about:config"
2. set "widget.gtk.grab-pointer" to "1"
3. Restart Firefox
2023-12-04
In testing 10.0 RC1, I discovered this issue
(port-amd64/57387) screen tearing issue still happens
on a heavy load, even when the External Monitor is
not connected.
2023-11-17
I have been running NetBSD RC1 since Nov 7, so
far no issues. There was a minor pkgsrc issue with
Firefox115, but it was fixed quickly via PR pkg/57688.
File "/usr/pkg/bin/firefox115" needed to be changed to
use "/usr/pkg/lib/firefox115/firefox115". One thing
like, is with pkgsrc you can have two versions of
Firefox installed. I have Firefox versions 102
and 115. Eventually I may remove 102.
2023-11-15
I have been playing around with xfce on Slackware
for the past week so. So far, after I configured it
to my needs, I find it very nice. I think xfce is a
DE I could see myself using. I tried KDE and at work
we are forced to use GNOME3. Both of these are good,
but they are a bit too much for me. GNOME3 annoys me a
little, KDE is nice but too fancy. One thing to note
about xfce, holding down the "alt" key and using the
mouse wheel, enables screen zoom. A very nice feature,
but I was not aware of it. I accidentally zoomed in
a number of times and had to exit xfce to undo it.
In a long search session I found that key combination
and I use it often these days.
2023-11-09
NetBSD 10.0 RC1 was released on Nov 7 and upgraded
on the 7th. I have it on a spare drive on the T420.
So far it is working great, no issues. I like the
NetBSD folks, they are very friendly and no drama.
2023-10-20
I have a travel Laptop (T420) with OpenBSD. I noticed
connecting to other systems via ssh was problematic
since the upgrade to 7.4. I did some searches and
discovered if you are using an old RSA key, this can
cause issues. So the recommendation to correct is to
use ssh-keygen(1) and create a new key of type ed25519.
I re-created the ssh keys and that corrected he issue.
2023-10-18
I started playing with the new OpenBSD memory leak
"detector". I took a simple program, added a leak and
compiled it. It worked great and I found this check
to be much simpler than how to test using valgrind
under Linux and it is built into the OS. So no third
party applications needed. Nice Work OpenBSD team.
2023-10-16
OpenBSD 7.4 was released, as usual the upgrade from
7.3 was trivial. All is working great, no issues.
I was planning on waiting for a couple of days, but
this morning I changed my mind :)
2023-10-12
I am locked out of GitHub, I went there to see some
images someone put together for BSD. I have 7 days
to enable 2FA or something will happen, I do not
know what. Next week or so I will try again and see
what happened. As noted below, I moved my repositories
to sdf.org as taballs a few weeks ago, so Microsoft
GitHub is dead to me.
2023-09-25
I have been playing with KDE on Slackware for the
last few weeks. I have it setup to my liking,
but usability is a bit lacking. The only issue I
really have happens when I try to use an External
Monitor with the Laptop. My requirement is to use one
monitor at a time. So, when I plug the External in,
I need to restart via kquitapp5 to activate my setup.
When I revert back to the Laptop Monitor, it reverts
to a resolution I do not like. I need to logout and
back in. On the Laptop I want to use 1600x900, but
if forces 1920x1080 and it is a pain to flip it back.
So, I dread the day we will be forced to use Wayland
instead of X.
2023-09-20
For Gemini rendering, I have used bombadillo, amfora,
lagrange and Emacs elpa. Though all are good, I find
elpa to be the best. Plus with Emacs, you can even
directly edit the files on the remote server using
TRAMP Mode.
2023-09-10
I completed the move of my repositories from Microsoft
GitHub to my Gemini Capsule. Links to the repository
is in my main Gemini Capsule.
2023-08-29
I just received a notice from GitHub telling me I
have until October 12 to enable 2FA for my repository.
This requires the use of a Cell Phone, I will not give
Microsoft my Cell Number. So I am not yet sure what
I will do, but I expect I will be deleting my GitHub
ID and going elsewhere. For me, I consider this
2FA change the straw that "Broke the Camels Back".
This link describes other issues I have with GitHub
since Microsoft purchased it.
https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2022/jun/30/give-up-github-launch/
2023-08-26
I usually do not like to link items here, but
these links touches a bit on were Linux is moving.
The future of Linux concerns me because it seems to be
heading to become a Microsoft Windows Clone or maybe
an Apple Clone. The end result is you the "user"
could end you with a system that spies on you in a
similar manner as Windows 11 and Smart Phones. Plus,
you will be unable to make the OS work the way you
want it to. Right now, we have Slackware, and Gentoo
who are fighting this Linux Trend, plus the *BSD
for a similar OS. But I fear it is a loosing battle.
Red Hat type Distros and many Debian type Distros seems
to have already started moving over to making their
system "work like Windows". I expect around 5 or 10
years from now, using Linux will be rather similar to
using Microsoft Windows.
gemini://gemini.techrights.org/2023/08/26/secure-boot-ruining-everything/
gemini://gemini.techrights.org/2023/08/24/uefi-problems/
2023-08-10
As many of you know, just about everyone moved to git.
I moved to git many years for items items I made public
on GitHub. Even were I worked they moved to git,
I even heard SAP now uses a git back end. I really
do not like git, I doubt I ever will, but it is usable
and not that difficult. I grew up with SCCS and RCS,
and to me they are the best. The main reason is these
force you to talk to people when you want to change
an object. When someone checks out the object, no one
can change it until the person releases it. To me,
this alone will help avoid software bugs and testing
issues. But the world moved on to where "fast" is
considered better that safe. With that said, one thing
I really like about git, and the reason I deal with it,
GnuPG signing. That is worth the price of admission.
2023-08-10
Late yesterday I was on librachat ##ibmthinkpad talking
to people about the nVidia Heat issue on the W541.
The end result is if you have a W541, best to avoid
using OpenBSD and NetBSD on it until the heat issue can
be fixed. I have opened a PR for NetBSD (kern/57540),
OpenBSD's main rule about nVidia is "Avoid it at
all cost". Which to be honest that is now my rule.
But I was able to get the W541 at an extremely cheap
price when I retired. FWIW, my main OS, Slackware,
works great on the W541.
2023-08.09
Copied most of my WEB Site to Gemini Space, the WEB
Site was updated to point to my capsule. Only one
more item to move, but that page needs a full rewrite.
Why did I move ? Gemini is far easier to maintain and
it ensures one cannot "spy" on people who accesses
my Capsule.
2023-08-02
Learned Gemini, I am slowly moving my WEB Pages to my
Gemini Capsule.
2023-07-28
4 weeks ago my aunt fell and fractured her arm, when
I visited today the cast had been removed and a small
brace was put on. At 93, her healing "powers" still
amazes me. She drinks Moxie a lot and has been for
her whole life, something in Moxie :)
2023-07-14
A relative and I spent the day visiting the area were
we use to stay for 2 weeks every year when we were
children. His father (my Uncle) would rent a cabin on a
lake for 2 weeks. Turned out not many changes except
for one town. That town had practically nothing,
but now it is a very small quaint tourist town.
2023-07-10
COVID is back, the nursing home I visit is in locked
down again due to COVID. Luckily the people I visit
there are doing fine. Having known few people that
died due to COVID, I wish people would do the right
thing and get vaccinated and keep up with boosters.
Then we would be through this mess, right now many
nice old people and workers are at risk because someone
brought COVID into that nursing home.
2023-07-10
Participated in the Old Computer Challenge 3
2023-02-01
Retired, wish I could say I miss work, but no :)
2023-01-28
This is where I will just post links, things I did and
random items. I will keep this updated, but updates
will probably be few and far between.
2023-01-01
For the last few years I have been also using OpenBSD
and NetBSD to test my development objects along with
RHEL and Slackware. There is a very minor issue
with the BSDs on the Thinkpad W541, but far from a
showstopper. When running BSD, the nVidia Chip heats
up quite a bit, with Slackware, no issues.
$Id: 2023.txt,v 1.1 2024/10/07 14:28:55 jmccue Exp $