toroidalcore

I'd like to attempt writing a Fediverse bot. I have a GoToSocial instance which works fairly well, even if it's still alpha software, and managed to create a bot account and post using a curl command.

I was thinking of using it for posting statuses from my hobbyist off-grid system. Basically, voltage, current, power, and/or energy readings taken off of the charge controller. I already have some scripts in place to do this, so I can read various things over SSH from across my LAN, so it's not that huge of a stretch.

Perhaps it would post once a day, or every hour. I'd probably be the main one to follow it, but it would fun to leave it open for others to as well. One would have to be careful of giving away too much information, but maybe something like daily production would suffice.

I think there's a good bit of potential with bots like this, especially ones you could interact with. That combined with GoToSocial, which has made running a small instance fairly easy (although not entirely trivial) opens a lot of possibilities.

Find me at @toroidalcore@hackers.town

I treat this as sort of like Fediverse microblogging, but slightly bigger. I just wanted to play around with the software, and I like it. But I'm not sure about giving up Wordpress. I mean, I kind of planned on doing that anyways, in favor of a static site of some sort, which I haven't done yet. And yes, I know Wordpress can interact with the Fediverse now.

Every time I think about what I'd like to do with my web presence, I face decision paralysis, enabled by wondering what exactly I would like to write about. So I end up putting it off, but I'm not sure that's a bad thing. I sit on a few domains, and post here and there, and maybe that's enough.

Now I think I'm going to go eat lunch.

Find me at @toroidalcore@hackers.town

New Ubuntu coming out soon. I've more or less settled on it as my daily driver, or variations thereof. For example I have Kubuntu on one machine, and Ubuntu Studio on another. Servers I tend to favor Debian. I've accumulated a few computers, and tend to have them in different areas, depending on what I do. Eg, my main desktop runs Ubuntu, and I have an older laptop I leave in my kitchen, and a more powerful laptop I use wherever.

Ubuntu works for the most part. I'm not the hugest fan of snaps, but it works. I've used Redhat-based distros in the past, but using Debian for servers makes it easier to just use Debian-based distros on the desktop as well, not that it's a huge deal. I've used Mint before, and it's nice. Maybe a little better for someone coming from Windows.

I used to distro-hop, especially back when I was starting with Linux. It was kind of fun, but after a while it became apparent that it's mostly the same group of software. Some things are different, and of course you can go nuts with customizing a slightly off-the-beaten-path window manager. But for the most part, the differences are minimal, and I just kept using Ubuntu.

A pet peeve of mine is responsiveness. Things like applications starting up quick and responding to user actions, not just sheer performance. There are also other little usability things I think common desktop environments could improve on. You can go a long ways without touching the command line on Linux (although it's useful and still IMHO a big part of using a Linux environment), but it would be helpful to have more options enumerated in the GUI. Along with ironing out some inconsistencies in GUIs... Using Digikam on normal Ubuntu (with Gnome) changes the cursor, for instance.

Sometimes you see changes like that in a different distro, other times not. So I don't obsess too much. Now, distros like NixOS are different, and look interesting. Same with something like GoboLinux. But unless I feel like experimenting with one of those, I stick to what seems to work.

Find me at @toroidalcore@hackers.town

My house isn't too dirty, but it's not very tidy right now. I go in cycles of managing to clean it, put things in their place, find a place for things that don't have one, or just throwing them out. That's along with actual cleaning, as the kitchen floor needs right now.

Cat hair builds up of course, as does dust. Then I get water in the basement when it rains, which requires something to the effect of squeegeeing or pumping to manage this. Luckily it's not a lot, maybe a quarter inch of total accumulation down there, but frustratingly it doesn't all flow to the sump pump.

We had a wind storm recently, so I have another round of tree branches down. Good future firewood, yes, but requiring of some work to chop up. And then there are things I'm planning to bring some contractors in for...

Whatever, 'tis all good. My home is comfortable, and looks nice once the cleaning/tidying cycle comes around.

Find me at @toroidalcore@hackers.town

I have multiple computers in my house, a couple desktops and a couple laptops which I use normally. I also have a file server, and a couple other servers for various things. I have a couple IP cameras which are isolated from the rest of the network, but don't really have any “Internet of Things” things. In other words, no network-enabled light bulbs. I do have some things controlled by X10 controllers connected to one computer, but no commercial embedded IoT.

Having a file server, as well as an LDAP directory to sync UIDs and GIDs, I have the makings of an infrastructure you might use in some sort of organization, not for one person. This is convenient when it comes to things like NFS or making backups, but there is a degree of overkill here.

It is kind of a hobby that happens to be useful. Things get frustrating as they often do with computers, but I don't mind being in control. Granted, a big part of maintaining sanity has been getting things to work simply and reliably, so that most of the time I'm not trying to fix things. Sometimes it's inevitable, of course.

Find me at @toroidalcore@hackers.town

Time moves a lot quicker these days, it seems. When I was in high school, a friend (who was about the age I am now) pointed out that when you're younger, a week is much longer in relation to your life than it is when you get older. I can relate to that now, since weeks seem to fly by a lot quicker than they did back then.

On one hand, I still have plenty of ideas and projects I want to attack. Things for the house, life goals, and projects, electrical, musical, etc., that I want to attack. It's actually still quite easy for me to think of things to put on the mental queue. On the other hand, after a long work day, it's nice to just settle down after dinner and watch Star Trek with a cat on one's lap. I fit chores in here and there, and work on little things, but when in that state it's hard to think about the loftier goals.

Finishing something, getting some kind of milestone, keeps me going. Even if it's nothing huge, just getting some kind of finished product is a great motivator. And at least I can say I made it part of the way.

Find me at @toroidalcore@hackers.town

Today there is a total solar eclipse across North America. I traveled to be with family in the path of totality, and... It's cloudy. This is too bad, since I was hoping to see some of the eclipse itself (through glasses), and yesterday was actually pretty clear. People have come a long way to this area as well. Different parts of the path are clear, but this is just what we risk in April in this area.

On the other hand, it should still be interesting in an hour when we actually get totality, since of course even with the clouds there's still some sunlight. It might actually be kind of interesting.

This is sort of a once-in-a-lifetime thing, not necessarily the eclipse itself but just coming through this area. I'm not the biggest space nerd, but it's a neat natural phenomenon that you may as well try to witness.

Find me at @toroidalcore@hackers.town

I've been up tonight watching some old Star Trek TNG episodes. I'm working my way through all seven seasons. I used to watch them with my family back in the 90s, but didn't really remember much of it.

Now it's late. It's peaceful here at night, and the sky is beautiful when it's clear out. There's light pollution, but not too much.

So I'm off to bed.

Find me at @toroidalcore@hackers.town

I don't always have something to write about, but I try to do it now and then because it feels good. I try to have something to say, to put down, but I like to keep it brief. I'm mainly thinking of this place.

I've always treated this as something a little more formal than microblogging, in the way of Mastodon. Yet not quite as involved as something I would publish on my Wordpress site. But part of me feels like I should just give one of them up – this place or Wordpress – and focus on one.

I actually don't think I will do that. I've decided that it's a decision I should make when I actually know what will work out, and I don't think I'm there quite yet. I do like that this is federated, and lightweight.

Find me at @toroidalcore@hackers.town

I technically have another blog at my site, my “main” one. This one just started because I wanted to play around with WriteFreely. I like it, it's simple, and plays well with the Fediverse. I treat it as something between the microblogging of something like Mastodon or Gotosocial, and the full-out Wordpress experience.

Truthfully, when I log into my Wordpress install, it feels like more of a project. Writing and publishing a post feels like writing a mini paper as opposed to just putting something down, which this seems more conducive to. I was thinking about whether or not I should just switch to one and stop doing the other, but I don't think I will.

I do want to play around with the ActivityPub plugin for Wordpress. It looks interesting, and is probably a logical step. I also still toy with the idea of a static site, although I'm going to do that with my own static site generator... Which I haven't written yet. I looked at the countless ones in existence already, and just decided that if/when I make that leap it will be with my own project.

I also have a Mediawiki install, which to me was a way to organize things like howtos and stuff that didn't feel right as a blog post... Although those could also be static pages I guess. I don't know.

Web development isn't my profession, and while it's something I want to learn more about I don't have a terribly constant web presence, or reason to have one outside of social media reasons. I have stuff I want to share, eventually, and I may just have to publish them by whatever means I can actually get content put down.

I'd like to move toward static pages, and maybe that will happen someday. I'll keep playing in the Fediverse, though.

Find me at @toroidalcore@hackers.town