It hasn’t been a great year for Hololive fans. The trailblazing Amelia Watson graduated in all but name back in September, with Sakamata Chloe following suit as an “affiliate”. Minato Aqua left permanently in August, and Yozora Mel was dismissed. Now Ceres Fauna of Council/Promis … | Continue reading
I read this section on Alex Russell’s recent post on web “frameworkism”, and thought it was brilliant: Code that runs on the server can be fully costed. Performance and availability of server-side systems are under the control of the provisioning organisation, and latency can be … | Continue reading
Today’s Music Monday a is beautiful, but a sombre affair for those following the news of Ceres Fauna and her graduation. I’ll have a proper post about this shortly, but in the meantime I thought her original song was apt. 💚 By Ruben Schade in Sydney, 2024-12-02. | Continue reading
This morning was Clara’s and my first time using our new Baratza Encore ESP grinder, and the Clever Coffee Dripper, a Taiwanese take on a filter or pourover-style coffee maker. It’s too much fun! While superficially resembling a Hario V60, Bee House, or the funnel of a Chemex, th … | Continue reading
We put up the family tree at my sister’s this year, and I think it turned out great! If you look very closely at a couple of the baubles, you might see us smiling and waving. Feel free to use if it will help bring your desktop some cheer. 🎄 By Ruben Schade in Sydney, 2024 … | Continue reading
My older FreeBSD homelab server runs on a Supermicro X11SAE-M workstation board with a Xeon E3-1275 v6. This is a photo of the motherboard: This board has two USB 3.0 headers, seen in the photo as small cyan rectangles at the bottom. These headers are generally used to attach to … | Continue reading
Back in 2022 I talked about my dream all-flash NAS setup. I say dream because it literally was. Some people have cool dreams; I dream about storage. I can’t recall if I also dreamed about OpenZFS, though I can’t imagine wanting to run anything else. Clara’s and my homelab will ne … | Continue reading
Via The Mastodons: The more I learn about cryptography, the more I think Alice and Bob should probably just talk in person. By Ruben Schade in Sydney, 2024-11-29. | Continue reading
We’re officially not renters anymore! 🔑 Related: We’ve moved in! We own our own home! Goodbye to an old spreadsheet House inspections Unrelated: If you like piña colada~ By Ruben Schade in Sydney, 2024-11-28. | Continue reading
404Media provides us an example of Betteridge’s Law: Are Overemployed ‘Ghost Engineers’ Making Six Figures to Do Nothing? The answer may surprise you! The author quotes a Stanford researcher’s… let’s charitably refer to them as findings: “It is insane that ~9.5 percent of softwar … | Continue reading
Friend of the blog Josh has a locked account, so I’ve paraphrased: I’ve wanted to leave comments on your posts before, but I’ve probably only been able to muster it 10% of the time. It floors me that some people want to take the time to do this via email to sent something rude, r … | Continue reading
In my continuing quest to implement All The XML Things, this morning I implemented a lexicon.pls file. Specifically, a Pronunciation Lexicon file, as recommended by the W3C. From the introduction: The Pronunciation Lexicon Specification (PLS) is designed to enable interoperable s … | Continue reading
I posted this on Mastodon, but thought it was fun to share. I’m not doing Writing Month, or the AI-infested original, but according to my blog repo, I’ve written: 177,555 words this year 15,474 words in November It ain’t no book that’s for sure. But better than a poke in the eye … | Continue reading
A few of you have said you enjoy it when I get stuck into car culture and public transport, so here’s one for you! Last week I received a newsletter from the New South Wales state government, with the following subject line: Claim a toll rebate up to $340 a week Oh I definitely h … | Continue reading
I’m pretty good at a few things. You have a technical system you need described and documented? A complex application with a database, load balancers, and caching you need help installing, configuring, or pushing from dev to production? You need to migrate between providers, or f … | Continue reading
Paul Kafasis concluded a post about the recent elections in the US with this, but I think it broadly applies: Even as cruelty is ascendent, we must not be done with kindness. Let us also not be done with joy. Instead, we should locate humor wherever we can and revel in it. The da … | Continue reading
I love that this exists. By Potch: If you’re here, that likely means a project linked you here. Thanks so much for being interested in that project! Open Source is rewarding- but it can also be exhausting. The linking project’s code is provided as-is, and is not actively maintain … | Continue reading
AAAAAAAA! A year of house hunting, applying for finance pre-approval from a cooperative, legal adventures that threw a massive and unexpected spanner in the works (maybe a topic for another time), interstate travel, putting in offers, anxiety attacks, weekend after weekend of ins … | Continue reading
Yesterday I blogged about The Scunthorpe Problem, and included this (emphasis added): […] because they dared to to talk […] I didn’t notice the duplicated word to, because the line happened to wrap between them in my text editor. It wasn’t until I saw the post published that the … | Continue reading
I was talking with a friend recently about an email of theirs running afoul (🐔) of another aggressive filter system, because they dared to to talk with someone called Dickson. I know right, they’re the absolute worst. For those unfamiliar, this is the The Scunthorpe Probl … | Continue reading
I asked on Mastodon, but posting here as well. What 10G Ethernet cards are people using on NetBSD thesedays? Are there any in particular you would recommend? I just buy used Intel X550 cards for FreeBSD and Penguins, but I’ve never messed with 10G on NetBSD. Ideally it would also … | Continue reading
It’s time to play another game! We haven’t done one of these for a while. I was shopping for a new laundry appliance last week—like a gentleman—when I saw this incredible public answer posted on a seller’s website. Your challenge, should you wish to accept, is to determine what t … | Continue reading
To be clear to the journalists covering the current Ukrainian War, it did not start a thousand days ago. Crimea was invaded ten years ago. What you are referring to is a thousand days in the escalation in this unprovoked, unjustified hostility against a nation of people who just … | Continue reading
It’s Music Monday time! Each and every Monday, except when I forget, I regale everyone with tales of a specific tune, album, artist, genre, or combination of all of the above. Except when I forget. Today we have a bit of a treat. English jazz extraordinaire Chris Standring’s Boss … | Continue reading
I tongue-in-cheek referenced the 418 status code in my ultimate multi-function device post. I’m relieved that past attempts to buzzkill it out of existence were met with such enthusiastic and ongoing repudiation. @romellem put it best: I for one like fun little easter eggs that y … | Continue reading
Don’t worry, this isn’t a post about an overengineered access protocol I last talked about a decade ago. Or… is it? In 1978, Michael Franks began his search for the perfect shampoo. My mum heard a friend play that song on their turntable in the 1980s, and it began a lifelong obse … | Continue reading
We’ve all seen those multi-function devices people use in small offices and when working from home. They’ve been invaluable to me over the years, but they’ve always lacked a certain Je ne sais quoi. This would be my dream device: Monochrome laser printer, for expediency and legib … | Continue reading
I overheard a few techbros having a conversation next to me at this coffee shop. It was easy, they weren’t using their indoor voices: Dude A: Day one seems to all be about accessibility. They have workshops and… Dude B: Well that’s a massive wank. Day two? Being an older millenni … | Continue reading
I read a lot of blogs. My public blogroll is woefully out of date; I probably have close to a third more feeds in my reader than what I have published there. Independent writers are my favourite, because I get enough curated, sanitised corporate media in my $DAYJOB and other plac … | Continue reading
It might shock some of you to know I spend time in coffee shops. Apothecary Coffee is my favourite on Sydney’s North Shore, tucked away next to the Zenith building in Chatswood. They do great espresso, but I’m a particular fan of their pour-overs. This is opposed to a pour-on, wh … | Continue reading
In no particular order: The parameters for FORMAT in DOS to prepare a 720 KiB double density floppy disk, instead of high density. When Funan Centre in Singapore was The IT Mall. How to answer a phone call that’s a fax. “Hello, Ruben speaking…” PSSSHHHHHHHHHH aaah hang up and pre … | Continue reading
I loved reading syndicated comic strips when I was a kid. I had all the Garfield Fat Cat Three Pack volumes, and oodles of Far Side and FoxTrot. It was also so much fun as a kid seeing them adopt Xmas decorations at that time of year. And yet, I never really made the transition t … | Continue reading
Did you go to university, polytechnic, or a similar institution? If so, do you remember… group assignments? No two words combined strike as much fear in the minds of undergraduates in my experience, other than perhaps pop quiz. I worked with some standout people during some of my … | Continue reading
I was fixing a page at work—like a gentleman—but I couldn’t figure out why a simple link wasn’t being respected. I must have read over the output of this script at least a dozen times, if not more. As always, the W3C Validator came to the rescue: Line 36, Column 308: there is no … | Continue reading
Today’s Music Monday is less a specific song, and more an exploration of a band that was a huge part of my childhood. Mad World! Sewing the Seeds of Love! Everybody Wants to Rule the World! Shout (Let it all out)! If you’ve never seen Trash Theory before, the channel explores the … | Continue reading
This is great news, via the Fedora Pagure: As discussed at Flock, the Fedora KDE SIG and the newly forming Fedora Personal Systems Working Group that will oversee the SIG are requesting that the Fedora KDE Plasma Desktop spin be upgraded to Edition status for Fedora Linux 42. amo … | Continue reading
In no particular order: The serif fonts have been retired. It was fun, but they weren’t as legible on non-HiDPI/Retina displays. You might need to clear your cache or press SHIFT when refreshing to see any change. I’ve added Ninomae Ina’nis and Ceres Fauna to my fan section on th … | Continue reading
I’ve struggled mentally with the idea of blocking people. I internalised the oft-repeated idea that I was being closed minded each time I reached for the big red button, and that I could be the “bigger person” somehow (whatever that means). I got around this before by claiming I … | Continue reading
Last year I signed up for one of those online book summary services. I’d been curious for a while, and they were offering a steep discount for the first year. I figured I could give it a shot, and cancel it before renewal if I didn’t find it useful. This service promised to “dist … | Continue reading
The Atari ST family of machines are my favourite of the 16-bit era. Introduced between 1985 and 1993, they weren’t the most technically advanced available, nor did they achieve significant marketshare against incumbents like Apple, Commodore, or the ever-expanding PC clone market … | Continue reading
I love filter and immersion brewing at home. I’ve talked about how much I love the AeroPress as a daily driver, and the Hario V60 is a fun treat when I’m feeling a bit fancier. Some nice single-origin beans from a local roaster, fresh water, and those cheap coffee machines make s … | Continue reading
Social media was flooded with pictures of a smoky grassfire at Sydney Airport this afternoon, after an aircraft bound for Brisbane experienced an engine failure on take-off. Fun! Qantas released a statement: Qantas engineers have conducted a preliminary inspection of the engine a … | Continue reading
It happens after every big political and sports event. Pundits are publishing their analyses, and they already have tidy, convenient explanations for the outcome. $FOO clearly failed because of X. $BAR clearly succeeded because of Y. Thing is, if the outcome had been different, t … | Continue reading
Here’s something that’s occupied a portion of mental CPU cycles for decades at this point. Take this shop for kids shoes in our local shopping centre: Why can’t stores for kids… spell? You see this everywhere. The legendary Toys R Us. Kidz Cutz, which was a terrifyingly-named hai … | Continue reading
I saw this one float by on Mastodon, and thought it’d be a fun distraction. As a PSA, if you’re not like me and use keysmashes stored in a password manager for “secret questions”, you probably shouldn’t answer things like this. What’s your nickname? Based on the email I receive w … | Continue reading
Thom Holwerda asked if we use NetBSD for anything. I answered! NetBSD is wonderful! I first started using it back in the early 2000s when I was in school. My ageing iBook G3 refused to boot Yellow Dog Linux, but NetBSD/macppc installed without any issues. Starting from the ground … | Continue reading
Jeremy emailed me back in July (sorry!) with what he found when using a genAI tool to look up this site. It went as well as you’d expect. Rubenerd is the stage name of Ruben Schade, who hosts a podcast called The Rubenerd Show. Topics covered on the show include holidays, energy, … | Continue reading
For someone living the digital lifestyle and working in a paperless office, I still print and post a lot of documents. And yes, also fax, which a few of you were mortified to read about. The latter is only for fun; the printing is because I demand delivering hardcopies of importa … | Continue reading