Running Snaps on openSUSE MicroOS Desktop
UPDATE: Apparently this is documented in the openSUSE revamped docs - just follow those instructions! UPDATE2: I can't get the method linked above to survive reboots, so keeping my method here for now. I'll keep investigating. This is my unofficial entry for openSUSE's Hack Week 20. It's not too complex, mostly realizing that this was possible and good documentation from the openSUSE folks made this way easier than I thought. I am trying to remove mutable computing devices from my life, one...
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Using GitHub Discussions for Meeting Notes
My compatriot Wayne Witzel pointed out to me how his team at Octant publishes their meeting notes and I think it's fantastic. They publish their notes right into GitHub. Here's a specific example, one thread per meeting. I really like this for a few reasons: Single source of truth, no need to link gdocs or hackmd. Clearly you'll want to use hackmd for the notetaking so you can do it as a team and let people contribute and dive in, this seems like a great way to archive notes. Compare this to ...
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I've stopped feeling guilty about blocking ads
You've seen it, the make-you-feel guilty popups and notices on websites asking you to stop blocking ads. I know writers and people who have worked in online media, so I am empathetic towards their cause -- I also wish that the model was more sustainable. But like, I'm done. What's annoying is the blame in shift from the content producers to the consumers as to why I am blocking ads. Why are you trying to make me feel guilty? You can't preach to me about how you're trying to make a living and t...
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VMWare container for Folding @ Home
Thanks to Ryan Kelly who has published a container for Folding@home. This is a great way to have a PC helping to solve for COVID-19. It works on standalone machines and on Kubernetes, and there's a toggle for enabling your GPU as well as supporting the common use flags for the fah client. Here's a shorthand: docker run --rm -it -p7396:7396 vmware/folding-at-home:latest --user=myusername --team=52737 --passkey=1385yourpasskeyhere5924 --gpu=false --smp=true --power=full And here's what I actu...
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The ability to send a plain text email is not a skill people care about (mostly)
The amount of folks who are up in arms about Sarah Novotny's views on email based workflows in Linux put a smirk on my face today, but I figured I would post my own opinions, having both spent way too many hours with mutt, offlineimap, postfix, and so on. I even wrote an entire article series on this for Ars Technica that is so old I can't even find it on the web any more. And Lee Hutchinson's version is from 2014! How can someone who is wanting to contribute to the kernel possibly not know ho...
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Easy comfort food chicken on the grill
Here's a quick chicken breast recipe I've been carrying around since college(!) It's based on Smothered Chicken from Bennigans. You can find lots of copycat recipes but I'm basing mine off the old recipe from back in the day. You need: Chicken Breasts (4) - I usually make them 4 at a time, but up to you. If you have time to marinade the day of tossing them in a ziplock and adding your favorite Italian dressing and having them marinate in the fridge isn't a bad idea. My local grocer sells pre...
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The Fall of Civilizations and Software
I've been spending lots of time sitting outside at night and mostly staring into a firepit while listening to podcasts. This has proven to be relaxing for me since there's not much else to do during the pandemic. I've really been enjoying the Fall of Civilizations Podcast : One thing I've been trying to pay attention to is how historical subjects can be applied to modern open source communities. For example a year ago if you would have asked me what caused the Bronze Age collapse I'd have ...
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Fixing Zoom white balance in Linux
I guess one of the nice benefits of tying my note taking app to my blog is that it makes publishing my little computer snippets much more interesting. Zoom has a weird thing that happens to me in Linux where the white balance of my camera turns purple. I can usually force it back to default by running these commands in a terminal: # v4l2-ctl -c white_balance_temperature_auto=0 # v4l2-ctl -c white_balance_temperature=4000 ...
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Getting back on the long-form horse
I love Standard Notes, and it seems that they've added support to spit out to a hosted blog right from the UI. I came to know standard-notes via @popey and since I'm on lots of platforms having a linux snap + Android + Windows + Web in an OSS app with built-in encryption is just the perfect match for me. And the pricing to make the project sustainable is interesting. They have the usual monthly and yearly plans, but they give you an option for a 5-year plan that is $149 every five years optio...
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How to video conference without people hating you
While video conferencing has been a real boon to productivity there are still lots of things that can go wrong during a conference video call. There are some things that are just plain out of your control, but there are some things that you can control. So, after doing these for the past 15 years or so, here are some tips if you're just getting into remote work and want to do a better job. Of course I have been guilty of all of these. :D Stuff to have Get a Microphone - Other than my desk, c...
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Kubernetes Ask Me Anything on Reddit
A bunch of Kubernetes developers are doing an Ask Me Anything today on Reddit if you're interested in asking any questions, hope to see you there! ...
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Updating your CNCF Developer Affiliation
The Cloud Native Computing Foundation uses gitdm to figue out who is contributing and from where. This is used to generate reports and so forth. There is a huge text file where they are mapping email addresses used and affiliation. It probably doesn't hurt to check your entry, for example, here's mine: Jorge O. Castro*: jorge.castro!gmail.com Lemon Ice Lemon Location City until 2017-05-01 Lemon Travel Smart Vacation Club until 2015-06-01 Whoa? What? This is what a corrected entry...
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Thoughts on the first Kubernetes Steering Election
The first steering committee election for Kubernetes is now over.  Congratulations to Aaron Crickenberger, Derek Carr, Michelle Noorali, Phillip Wittrock, Quinton Hoole and Timothy St. Clair, who will be joining the newly formed Kubernetes Steering Committe. If you're unfamiliar with what the SC does, you can check out their charter and backlog. I was fortunate to work alongside Paris Pittman on executing this election, hopefully the first of many "PB&J Productions". To give you some backs...
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