Kaur Palang

Appears I have way too many Linux ISOs. What do people whose storage space is filled with Linux ISOs do? Correct, they get more storage. My home server consists of a computer whose creator specifically designed it to extort currency from clients. This means I am unable to upgrade its measly 256gb internal storage. For a while I used a random NVMe to USB enclosure to extend my storage space by another random 256gb. ...

Preamble I’ve found myself in need of some baby monitors. In the past I’ve used a pair of prehistoric hand-me-downs, but I decided to go fancy this time. Getting started The criteria were that it was to have no knowledge of wifi or cloud connectivity, and I wanted it to have reasonable range. Range more reasonable than Bluetooth - I might as well just sleep next to them then. I did look into throwing together a DIY solution based on an RPi and cameras and whatnot, but eventually decided that even after sourcing the day- and night-vision components and wiring them together, I’d still have to do software and manufacture a decent-looking enclosure. This list was in order of difficulty from easiest to hardest. I’ve discovered I can imagine wonderful 3D designs in my head, but severely lack the skill to make em into a proper model. ...

The fridge broke. It has the peak luxury feature where it dispenses water (both liquid and frozen) from one of its doors. Highest form of hedonism. However. One must use caution when using the features the manufacturer claims work and to support. I found myself craving water with crushed ice in an unnecessarily fancy glass. After filling the glass with said crushed ice, the fridge kept making outrageous racket - even worse than when it was crushing ice. ...

I’ve been an avid Linux user for about 10 years now. Started out, as customary, hopping around - Ubuntu, Debian, Elementary OS, and eventually settling on Manjaro Linux. Loved the fact that everything I need lives in two repositories and I didn’t have to go scouring for PPAs to get my crap installed. And you know what? Am happy. Still love it and have actually managed to teach it to four other people who I did not expect to be receptive of anything other than Windows at all. ...

How to avoid common mistakes associated with “bad code”.

I like saunas. For those unfamiliar with the concept, it is a hot room where you are occasionally beaten with tree-branches. You might have seen images like this: While in reality it is often more like this Anyway, while looking for my very own financial burden to call home, I stumbled upon an offering which heavily promoted the fact that it had a sauna. ...

Today I’ll be starting a new series of posts called “Fixing stupid things that should not have been stupid in the first place”, or FSTTSNHBSITFP… Mmmm, just rolls off the tongue. Anyway. Logging in to Slack this morning, I noticed an irritating change. Almost every message was followed by a “Translate” button. What a waste of screen real-estate! At first, I thought it was another AI crap. It’s been absolutely everywhere lately. ...

So there I was. Half-shaven with a stupid look on my face. My beard trimmer had just died. Any other time this would not have been that much of an issue. Just go get the charger from the bag, right? Right? Not really. You see, I had also realized that while the charger was indeed in the bag I knew it to be, the bag itself was 3000 kilometers away. ...

Just use this library, dude! I’ll be honest, I was inspired to write this post due the absolute pain Hibernate is causing at work. But more on that later. Abstractions They’re absolutely everywhere. Every single thing, item, object, you see around you is an abstraction of something else. The car you drive is an abstraction of internal combustion power-trains, the house or apartment you live in is an abstraction of plumbing and electrical work, interior finish and design. The food you eat is (usually) an abstraction of farming, animal husbandry, transport logistics. By the way, transport logistics is an abstraction of route planning, cargo handling, and, funnily enough, cars. The very computer you’re reading this article on is an abstraction of electrical manufacturing, radio communications, transport logistics (pattern here). And I only say “computer” because phones are computers too, so unless you’ve either printed this post (why you wasting a tree, man?), or reading it on stone tablets, you’re on a computer. ...

The start-up culture has become quite a hot topic recently, bringing with it a wave of people exclaiming corporate is bad and start-ups are the single truth. While I do agree to a point, there are, as always, nuances. Having worked in both environments I happen to have some thoughts to share. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be here, would you? First let’s discuss start-ups The first and possibly the most obvious perk of working in a start-up, or even building your own endeavor is the complete and total freedom to choose. You get to choose everything. ...