Tim's Bloghttps://tim.prose.sh2022-07-05T18:43:13ZThoughts, stories, and ideas.timLong time no see MrSlackware2022-08-10T15:28:31Zhttps://tim.prose.sh/Long%20time%20no%20see%20MrSlackware<p>Today I discovered, or maybe just realized that <a href="https://linode.com" rel="nofollow">Linode</a> let's you spin up a <a href="http://www.slackware.com/" rel="nofollow">Slackware</a> VPS. So, I spun one up.</p>
<p>The last time I used Slackware I was spending my time configuring the PPP connection for my Prodigy account. It was my first Linux distro back in the late 90's, you could say "my gateway drug".</p>
<p>Now that I have it installed I barely remember how to get stuff done on it. This will be my new toy for the next few weeks so I can relearn a lot of stuff I have forgotten. I'm looking forward to the experience.</p>
The little things2022-08-09T15:11:54Zhttps://tim.prose.sh/The%20little%20things<p>Besides this blog, I'm building another site with Hugo, don't want to keep all my eggs in one basket, no matter how bad they may be.</p>
<p>Today I was trying to get a category to generate and was trouble shooting it for about thirty minutes, only to find out I had misspelled categories as catagories 🤦♂️.</p>
<p>It's the little things that sure can give you a migraine.</p>
Writing setup2022-08-08T01:10:45Zhttps://tim.prose.sh/writing_setup<p>It has been awhile since I wrote anything in here. I'm playing around with the best setup for my posting process here on prose.sh.</p>
<p>I live my day to day in Windows and ArchLinux on WSL. I have my <code>/blog</code> folder on the Windows side with a symlink to it on my Arch install. So I can actually write my posts on either side and have them in the same folder.</p>
<p>On Windows I really like using <a href="https://ia.net/writer" rel="nofollow">IA Writer</a> for composing these little tidbits of babble coming out of my keyboard. I also could use <a href="https://micro-editor.github.io/" rel="nofollow">Micro</a> on the Windows side or the Linux side via the terminal.</p>
<p>I actually have the same keys on both sides also, so I can so my <code>scp</code> command in Powershell or bash on Arch. I think I have all my bases covered. I should be writing in here a bit more since I have things all ironed out.</p>
<p>The only other things I may want to do are,</p>
<ul>
<li>an alias to shorten up the <code>scp</code> command</li>
<li>maybe use one of my domains for this</li>
</ul>
<p>But otherwise I'm good to go. Let's see if I'm right.</p>
hello2022-07-06T12:36:21Zhttps://tim.prose.sh/hello<pre><code> # Hello prose!
</code></pre>
<p>So I am trying out Prose as a blogging platform for personal stuff. The idea is cool. Complete cli blogging, thats hard to beat.</p>
<p>Only time will tell.</p>
<p>The date format on this post is all screwed up and I love it. I wrote this 2021 years ago. I'm an aliean baby!</p>
Podcasts-goto-Hugo2022-07-11T14:46:29Zhttps://tim.prose.sh/Podcasts-goto-Hugo<p>I have been using just a plain html/css site handcrafted by yours truly for both of my podcast sites. If you have ever visited them, you will realize I am not a designer. Also it is really a pain when there are a lot of link lists since I have to manually create the show notes page. It's pretty time consuming. I really need another way.</p>
<p>So I am experimenting with moving both shows to Hugo. I think doing sites in markdown will make things much easier for me. Also it will solve issues I will run into with to many episodes on a page which will cause me to start having to create some sort of archive which will be much more manipulation of files and their location. Also changes that would need to be made to the RSS feed itself.</p>
<p>I will be building a test site this week and testing. Wish me luck!</p>
Podcasting2022-07-10T12:30:47Zhttps://tim.prose.sh/Podcasting<p>A couple of months ago, I got into podcasting, and man did I. In a few weeks, I had half a dozen show ideas and was blathering all over the interwebs. I had no clue what I was doing or why; I just wanted to podcast.</p>
<p>Since then, I have realized how much work is needed to create just one podcast. It's quite a bit if you want to do it right, and I still don't. As the Podcasting 2.0 crowd says, "I'm running with scissors." But I'm trying to create something that may be useful to some. So I narrowed it down to two shows.</p>
<p>The first is <em><a href="https://noexpectations.show" rel="nofollow">No Expectations</a></em>. This show will be my place to ramble. It is almost always about something tech but has no real plan. It's a place to voice my thoughts on anything, whether corporate tech, the distro wars, why I suck at programming, or whatever floats my boat at the time. I think it's a great way to practice public speaking.</p>
<p>The second is the <em><a href="https://appleontech.com" rel="nofollow">Apple on Tech</a></em> podcast. For this one, I'm using my last name to confuse people, and it has nothing to do with anything Apple computers. It's just my last name. On this show, I am building an RSS feed of applications, projects, distros(these all may be the same thing, but you get the gist), and so forth. The show is me updating the audience on whatever popped up in the feed that week from those sources, news items, releases, and so on. I hope this interests folk and allows them to hear about some of their favorite projects without stalking the project website themselves. I am also taking audience recommendations for projects to follow, Windows or Linux. The main thing is I'm focused more on enthusiast/geeky items. I want it to be stuff that makes using the computer fun and less about what we are forced to do to make money. If you have ideas, you can mail the show <a href="mailto:tim@appleontech.com" rel="nofollow">here</a>.</p>
<p>So that is the plan for now. I am doing the whole podcasting 2.0 valu4value thing. I won't get into it too much, but you can donate to the shows through the websites using the <a href="https://getalby.com/" rel="nofollow">Alby</a> extension or while listening on any of the Podcasting 2.0 apps.</p>
<p>I welcome input, so if you give either a listen, please provide feedback. Negative is ok; don't be too brutal..lol. Well, wish me luck!</p>
<p>Cheers!</p>
More-git-stuff2022-07-08T15:57:10Zhttps://tim.prose.sh/More-git-stuff<p>I am constantly toying with how much to self-host and what is overkill. Currently for Git I have a Gitea instance on a vps and then I have an instance running on my Umbrel. Then the repos are mirrored. I wonder if I need to be doing all the hosting on both ends. I subscribe to <a href="https://sr.ht/" rel="nofollow">Sr.ht</a> even though I don't use it. I just like supporting porjects that push the same ideals I do. So I am thinking maybe I will kill my VPS with the Gitea instance and use sr.ht and have it mirror to my local Gitea on the Umbrel.</p>
<p>I guess I have to investigate if it will work first. If it does, I think that will be the way to go. Then the only thing I have on that VPS is Tiny RSS which I may just bring my feeds local and regularly backup the opml file. That is to be determined, but it would be one less server I'm paying for. I think I am going to do it, I will check to see if the mirroring works later today.</p>
<p>Cheers!</p>
Prose-Windows-test2022-07-06T14:57:44Zhttps://tim.prose.sh/Prose-Windows-test<p>To use <a href="https://prose.sh" rel="nofollow">Prose</a> full time, I need to have access on my Windows machine also. To facilitate things I did the following.</p>
<ol>
<li>Used syncthing to share my <code>~/blog</code> folder.</li>
<li>Vim or Emacs don't work from Windows commandline, so I am using Micro.</li>
</ol>
<p>It's not much of a list really, ssh and scp are built into Windows so I don't have to do anything for them. Some people may say, "Why not use a WSL instance?". To that I say, it's just a litte inconvienent. I do have a couple installed on the machine and can access the Windows file system with them, so if I wanted to I could. I just want things simple, smooth, and quick while I'm working.</p>
<p>Well, that's all folks. Simple, short, and sweet.</p>
<p>Cheers!</p>
Moved-to-Prose2022-07-06T12:24:08Zhttps://tim.prose.sh/Moved-to-Prose<p>I have decided to kill my blog I coincidentally just started on my own instance of Ghost and I am going to ride the <a href="https://prose.sh" rel="nofollow">Prose</a> train for a bit and see where it goes.</p>
<p>I have jumped around from different blogging platforms for what seems like a million times. We will see if this lasts. Somthing about the fact that I am never going to leave the command line to write and publish this post is remarkably appealing.</p>
<p>Things I will be waiting for here:</p>
<ol>
<li>Using my own domain would be nice.</li>
<li>Pages would be nice also.</li>
<li>The ability to have a search and implement tags or somthing of the like.</li>
<li>I would love to be able to throw some html in my header also for some meta stuff.</li>
</ol>
<p>I think that is it. I don't know what they have planned here or how simple they will keep it. I would be happy with it as is plus one or two of the above features.</p>
<p>We will see what comes of it.</p>
<p>Cheers!
Tim</p>
Build-me-a-desktop2022-07-06T12:47:06Zhttps://tim.prose.sh/Build-me-a-desktop<p>When I use Linux, I don't actually mean I'm using it to get work done. Well, maybe I will get a little done. But what I do is install multiple desktop environments and window managers. Unfortunately, this leads me to eventually have so many packages, including multiple file managers, image viewers, settings managers, and so forth, that I give up, wipe the drive and start again.</p>
<p>I install a Gnome desktop. It's pretty nice; It's one of my favorite looks. But then I need my system tray and its status icons. There is an extension for it, but that is pretty buggy; well, extensions on Gnome, in general, are an issue. They cause random bugs, crash the shell, and are downright rowdy.</p>
<p>Plasma is just so beautifully customizable; I can tweak it to my heart's content, and it has my beloved system tray. But I always find Qt apps to not look as lovely as Gtk apps. But man, every app's configuration options and tools are astounding and make things yours.</p>
<p>Then there are my true loves, both i3 and Sway, depending on if you are on Wayland or not. The workflow for this window manager is what I would call perfect. I tend to go back to them purely due to their functionality. They are also really customizable. The downfall is the amount of research you have to do to find the right app or setting to get things the way you want, usually attained by a configuration text file.</p>
<p>So what I need is the following. First, I want the Gnome + Gtk combo for my look. Second, I need the configuration ability of Plasma and KDE. And finally, I would like the functionality of i3 or Sway. All rolled up into one pretty package. Is that too much to ask? Be sure to drop me an email with your thoughts.</p>
<p>318 words</p>