-
Time Flies 🕰
A lot of things have happened in the last few months that have me thinking deeply about time. One of my best friends passed away unexpectedly and I have been quite consumed with thoughts of our conversations and time together before his death. Now the COVID-19 (Corona virus) pandemic finds me unemployed and with an abundance of newfound time with my family at home. …
-
Big Time Web Server Update ⤴️
I decided to update my aforementioned tiny web server and ended up spending much more time than I had anticipated getting everything the way I wanted. Not that the CHIP didn’t do a great job, but some of the software was aging and I felt I was going to redo everything soon, so it seemed like a good time to update the hardware as well. I wanted something with a dedicated ethernet connection as the tiny server sits next to my router already. The old server used WiFi and I never liked that. I’d rather have everything possible use ethernet and keep the radio traffic to what needs it. I happened to have a Raspberry Pi 4 B sitting unused that seemed too perfect not to use. …
-
Where Am I? 📍
Sometimes, you just need to know where you are. IRL you can check a map or a GPS if you’re lucky. But in the world of computers and networks, you often need to know the IP address of your network as it appears to the outside world. One of my favorite linux commands to run is: …
-
Source.Unsplash FTW!
For a number of years now, whenever I’ve needed free high-resolution images for almost anything, I’ve turned to the awesome resource that is Unsplash.com. They have grown from a small blog featuring beautiful, royalty-free photography, to one of the world foremost visual communities. Originally born out of frustration with the stock media experiences of the time, the Unsplash license allows you to use any photos published on their platform for free, even for commercial purposes, without attribution! Just take a look at what their license says: …
-
Sauce Like a Boss ☕️
Are you a lazy developer like me? Would you go to
greatmedium lengths merely to save a few keystrokes? My awesome devops friend Dopamine taught me this little ditty. In the.bashrcfile, include an alias to source your common shell logins like so: …
-
Atlanta & Cocktail Cove: Homegrown Poker Variations
I’ve been playing in a small local poker game for quite some time. In fact, we recently celebrated 10 years of our weekly traditional game. It started innocently enough, just No-limit Texas Hold’em. Then, occasionally someone would deal Pot Limit Omaha Hi-Lo or even Big O. But as the weeks and months rolled by, two distinctly homegrown variations of poker had arisen from our little suburban game. In keeping with poker tradition, both were given local names: Atlanta & Cocktail Cove. We’ve been playing these poker variations for years now, but it recently occurred to me they are probably not documented anywhere. So now, for posterity and to claim their origin, I will attempt to succinctly describe the rules and gameplay of our favorite homegrown poker variants. …
-
I've Been ฿it
It’s been a few months since I really started wondering about Bitcoin. Of course as an avid user of the Interwebs and a general computer nerdist, I had heard of Bitcoin for a few years. Then a new friend at work asked if I had any and was frequently commenting on prices of a few altcoin. A few months ago I honestly didn’t know there were digital currencies other than Bitcoin and after initially reading up and researching how one even acquires digital currency all the while watching the price fluctuate, I decided to take the plunge. …
-
Free SSL Encryption
I’ve been working on web sites for almost 20 years now. Dang I’m old. Anyways, I come from a time when having an
httpsin the front of your URL was an ~$80 per year prospect. You had to pay that Certificate Authority to sign your digital document stating you really are who your domain says you are. …
-
RVM is Awesome
I’ve used RVM for a few years now to manage different versions of Ruby on the same computer for different projects. I just recently had reason to install it again on the previously mentioned CHIP and it reminded me of an earlier conclusion: RVM is awesome! …
-
Tiny Static Server
Tonight I stayed up way too late with a project I’ve been wanting to do since almost nine months ago when I first stumbled upon Jekyll. I created this statically generated blog on a $9 CHIP, an embedded linux computer, which is currently sitting on my
kitchen counterfiling cabinet. I had been looking for a new hosting solution for a while, and now I think I’m ready to trade my old low cost VPS hosting for a free solution using microhardware of my own design and control. …