Category: Ramblings

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Books Read: 2022

Having forgotten to make this post at the end of 2022, this post is a little tardy. But, I organize my reading into year based ‘Collections’ on my Kindle, so knowing what was read isn’t too hard to figure out. Figuring our the order in which I read them proving a stiffer challenge!

I started the year with a couple of books on time, and historical time keeping. Firstly, I read ‘Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time‘. Solving the problem of navigation for sailing ships was a tough one.… Click here to read more!

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Books Read: 2023

(I’ll try to get my 2021, and 2022 posts up soon too.. totally forgot to write them!)

Firstly, my reading has really declined this year! Though I continue to work from home, I have struggled this year to find gaps to do much reading. I do most of my reading during lunch, or in little pockets throughout the day. This year however, I did not do a good job of actually taking a lunch at work. Something to be addressed in the new year for sure…

[Links below do point to Amazon, since I’m a Kindle reader, but these are simple, direct links without any tracking, etc.]… Click here to read more!

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My Default Apps at the End of 2023

Quick and dirty! Here’s all the stuff I can think of…

Mail Client: Apple Mail and Thunderbird
Mail Server: Fastmail
Notes: Apple Notes
To-Do: Nothing
iPhone Photo Shooting: iOS Camera
iPhone Photo Backup: Nextcloud
Photo Management: Apple Phones (on iPhone), On1 on MacOS
Calendar: Apple Calendar
Cloud File Storage: Nextcloud
RSS: TinyTinyRSS
Contacts: Apple Contacts
Browser: Firefox
Chat: iMessage
Bookmarks: Firefox
Homepage/News: Protopage
Music: Apple Music (The app, not the service)
Podcasts: Overcast
Password Management: KeePassXC

Other Default Apps and Devices:

Mastodon Client: Mono
eReader: Kindle Oasis
Digital Audio Workstation (DAW): AVID Pro Tools
Video Editing (NLE): Davinci Resolve
Linux Distribution: Debian (Bookworm)
Firewall: OpnSense (PC Engines APU4)
VPN Platform: Wireguard
Storage System: ZFS (on Debian)
Virtual Machines: KVM/qemu
Containers: Podman
Backup Service: Crashplan Pro
ZFS Data Replication: Syncoid (Sanoid)
Non-Web File Syncing: Syncthing
Home Automation: Home Assistant (Zigbee and WiFi for devices, with MQTT)
Weather Station: WeeWx
‘Serious’ Camera: OM Digital Solutions OM-1 (Micro Four Thirds)

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Books Read: 2019

As I did last year, below is a listing of all the books I read in the previous year, and my thoughts on them. For the first time, all of the books I read last year were in digital form.

I began the year finishing Charles Dickens’s ‘A Christmas Carol’. I read this as part of a collection of his Christmas stories.

In keeping with my love of murder mysteries, I read Introducing Agatha Raisin: The Quiche of Death/The Vicious Vet, the first of the Agatha Raisin books by M. C. Beaton. We’ve watched the TV series and they seemed like some light reading after the holidays.… Click here to read more!

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Switching from Nikon to Olympus: Part 1 – Isn’t Micro Four Thirds a Toy format?

Though I’ve not been a very regular blogger, I have done a decent job of documenting my various photography gear related changes here since my first DSLR, a Nikon D40, back in 2006. From that first DSLR, through my foray into 35mm film cameras, medium format, and the various other DSLRs I moved to along the way, those milestones have been written about here. And, with the exception of the medium format gear, all of that equipment has always been from Nikon.

Perhaps to my detriment, I’ve always been 100% loyal to Nikon. SLRs, DSLRs, lenses and accessories, I always bought Nikon gear.… Click here to read more!

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Books Read: 2018

Using my (now aged) Kindle, I do a fair bit of reading. For some reason, whenever I finish a book I put it into a folder on my Kindle named for the current year. These folders exist only on the Kindle itself, so I thought I might start to keep track of them here on the blog.

At the end of 2017 I was reading a lot of memoirs of people who moved into the wilderness, both in recent years and in centuries past. That continued into 2018 and the first book I read was:

Winds of Skilak, by Bonnie Ward
This was an excellent book, written by Bonnie, about her and her husband’s journey leaving Ohio and moving to an isolated island on Skilak Lake in Alaska.… Click here to read more!

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How To: A Clean install of Windows 7 in 2016

Maybe I’m alone here, but I still have occasion to install Windows 7 from time to time. For a while, that was no big deal; Install the OS, update, update, update and you’re good to go. Lately though, the process has become far more cumbersome. Not only does the process take ages to complete, but when you’re done its always nagging you to update to Windows 10. What follows is my process for getting this done without too much hassle.

Firstly, I’ve not created anything new here. I’ve simply found a series of tools and bit of information online that helped me along the way so I’m compiling it here for my future benefit.… Click here to read more!

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Install Centos 6 on a Non-PAE Machine

I have a Thecus N5200 that was modified to have a VGA port. Though the machine will run a variety of current Linux distributions, I wanted it to run Centos 6. Unfortunately, the N5200 doesn’t support PAE, which Centos 6 requires.

The first major problem is that a Non-PAE machine won’t even boot the Centos installer CD/DVD. You have to find some way around that. There are several ways to get around that but they are all quite complex and time-consuming. Plus, as time goes on they work less and less. The old software needed is harder and harder to find.… Click here to read more!

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Three Shades of Photography

To my mind, I see three ‘goals’ in photography: Documentation, Journalism, and Art. You may have other goals in mind but for me I’m usually shooting with one of those goals in mind.

The art goal is easy to define. Any picture that you have taken simply for the sake of taking it. Maybe you’ve spotted an interesting texture, a unique geometric pattern or just a vibrant flower and taken a picture.

Defining journalism photography, especially in contrast to documentation photography, can be a little more difficult to put into words. I see the types both being about gathering information, be it about a local disaster or celebration.… Click here to read more!

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One Guy’s Approach to Being More Healthy

I’m not a doctor. I’m not an expert. I know only what I’ve been doing and how it’s been going for me. I’m not telling anyone what to do or making a recommendation. This is what I’ve been doing for the past year and it’s been working well for me so I thought I’d document the process a bit.

All that being said, let me explain a bit of background. I’m a pretty average American guy with more then a few extra pounds hanging around that I would like to get rid of. Generally speaking, I’ve never been one to eat a lot of fast food but I do have a sweet tooth.… Click here to read more!