June 4, 2021

I changed jobs recently, and am now working for a cybersecurity firm as a Technical Support Engineer.

The job itself is really interesting, and the product itself is really neat. It’s a lot to learn, but I think I’m ready at this point of my life. Let’s just say I spent the last week learning how to use a Mac, and figuring out how to get the best version of Emacs up and running for my daily note taking, which in itself, wasn’t too easy. Though the MacPorts version is better than the Brew install version, I’m still running into this weird zoom issue comparatively, but as always, its nothing that a good change to the Emacs config can’t work out.

I have been working on deploying my own email address via a Vultur VM with OpenBSD, so that’s been a new experience in itself. Never used any of the BSDs before so it was pretty interesting how the default ‘ksh’ Korn Shell works.

I fixed the “Pizzatime” Wordpress site, so now images appear as they should on posts due to an annoying permissions issue I was encountering. This means that I can continue to create more pizzas as I have some crazy fusion food ideas in mind:

With this in mind, I probably will work on deploying an 2021 based art gallery as a separate Wordpress site, as well as an “Inconsolation” ripoff site that forces me to use Debian purely in a Getty based TTY shell, which will be enlightening to say the least, and will probably put so-called “Linux minimalists” who still boot into X11 with cringy window managers like ‘DWM’ to shame.

I switched over to Fedora Server Linux, which is awesome in itself. Its like a better Debian with more up-to-date packages, plus the installation process is a breeze compared to Gentoo. Gentoo was cool, but I don’t really want to modify kernel configs just for my daily laptop usage. I would come back to Gentoo on an older machine that needed it for pure optimization but the time spent on trying to get things up and running is such a time sink. People who insist upon Gentoo, and Arch, etc, don’t have normal day jobs and or other important time commitments. Otherwise, I just don’t see how you could fathom spending 5+ hours to figure out how to actually get it working without tapping into IRC. Sure, you learn a lot, but man, sometimes I kind of wish I got the time back just so I can work on better projects instead.

I basically use all my machines like Emacs machines these days so whatever gets me going to keep my workflow improved is what wins. No editor comes close (okay, maybe Spacemacs but yeah that’s an exception since I do like Vim and Emacs equally).

I created a server rack using the IKEA Lack Rack trick, see this video for reference as its super easy and cheap to do:

I bought an old Dell Optiplex 7010 SFF on eBay to rescue an older machine. What I didn’t realize is that I can only really put a 2.5" inch and a 3.5" HDD in there, so I plan on just using a WD RED drive for the 3.5" drive, and a standard consumer grade Seagate drive for the 2.5" drive. To be consisent, I’m also planning on putting Fedora Server on that machine as well as I’m only going to use it for backup purposes and possibly a Git server.

I’m still in the process of doing a ton of cable management for the home office room, but have a while to go as I’m debating if I should get 2 monitors or an ultra-wide monitor instead for both work AND my personal Desktop machine as well. Yeah, I might turn into that guy who has like 4 monitors per machine, but hey, one step at a time.

I plan on figuring out how to use the FreeMCBoot memory card I bought for my old PS2 a few weeks ago as well, and accessing games via a local SAMBA share (most likely via the Dell Optiplex). Its crazy cool to see how far PS2 modding has come along.

I’m planning on building the guitar kit I bought from “TheFretwire.com”. Its gonna be cool with a purple blueberry burst ink finish. Just have to sand it in the driveway first one of these weekends and apply individual coats of the ink at a time. Might make a corresponding Wordpress site if I get in the habit of building more guitars.

And I’ve taken up a bit of gardening but let’s just say I think I’ve overwatered the plants a bit and have learned my lesson :/

What’s funny is that the soil that did land on the ground did start to sprout some of the things I planted, so here’s to re-planting :)

~ Sam