Here is a collection of webzines covering a wealth of topics.
]]>This is my collection of livesets that were streamed during the 2020 global COVID lockdown. I find them to be a fascinating time capsule of a particularly weird and nervous time. I keep adding to this list as I come across the videos, I would greatly appreciate any livesets bookmarked from that time to be shared with me.
]]>Here is a collection of different public unix servers I have come across. While similar to hosting services services, pubnixes tend to be more general purpose and offer access to a bunch of different software made available to the community.
]]>An excellent hard groove/hypnotic techno DJ set by Lola Kay.
The historical forum thread that lead to the creation of the :-) emoticon, and emoticons in general.
Cristiam Ramos creates some incredible art from denim.
A website for the Heaven's Gate cult, still being managed by members who volunteered to stay behind specifically to keep the cult's message going.
Browse webcams that are open on the internet. Don't forget to change default passwords.
]]>Here is a collection of different search engines. You can filter the links by the intended purpose of the search engine, whether it is for generalized or specific searching.
]]>I have split my music section back into two separate sections, Mixes and Songs, to make it easier to organize and find things. This will break previous page links, but not the actual media file links.
]]>This is a list of my most favorite operating systems, they are simply a joy to use. I am also compiling a list of interesting alternative operating systems that are different than the Linux, MacOS, or Windows standard. I try to keep my uses page up to date with my current operating system installations, but it is likely one, or a combination, of the following.
]]>These are my favorite series, ones that I enjoy watching multiple times. You might be interested in my movie and anime recomendations as well.
These are my favorite movies, ones that I enjoy watching multiple times. You might be insterested in my anime and series recomendations as well.
]]>Here are my favorite mixes, either ones I’m particularly proud of doing or mixes by other people that are just incredible. I am also compiling a list of live sets that were streamed during the 2020 global COVID lockdown.
These are my favorite animes, ones that I enjoy watching multiple times. You might be insterested in my movie and series recomendations as well.
Here is a collection of shell projects I have come across, alternative to POSIX and POSIX-adjcent shells like dash, bash, fish, ksh, or zsh.
]]>You will find a collection of operating system projects that are drastically different than the Linux, MacOS, and Windows standard here on my Linkding instance.
Additionally, I also have a list of Linux distributions that stand out from the thousand-plus different distributions.
]]>You will find a collection of links for alternative network and telecommunication technologies here on my Linkding instance.
]]>I have decided to make a significant change to my website/blog. For the last some years, I have had two sections of my website sharing links and information, my blog section and my notes section (deprecated link).
My blog posts are (were?) considered to be permanent and my notes were (are?) considered ephemeral. This means that I tried to refrain from editing a blog post after the publish date, but notes were meant to be updated whenever needed. But I still would edit blog posts when the need arises. And my notes are practically just lists of different links, which has become secondary as a location to store links to my Linkding instance.
As an effort to simplify my website and workflow, I will make sure that all of the links shared the notes section of my website are bookmarked and shared in my Linkding instance, and I will have a blog post that links to those bookmarks and gets updated when a change is needed to be shared.
I am trying to reduce redundant steps with updating my website, which I hope will lead to more quality updates.
]]>Roüge is another incredible new-to-me DJ and this back-to-back set is just excellent.
Quite a randomly artistic website, completely unrelated to the movie. I don't know what to make of it, but I still like it.
A database of lobbyists, showing who is paying money to whom and for what.
It's incredible that corporations are increasing electricity usage around the globe to push a terrible product at a time where we should be reducing our electricity usage to help combat climate change.
This jellyfish does not look real; it is beautiful and alien.
]]>
If you like schranz techno, then you really should check out this set; hard, powerful, raw emotional beats.
An excellent set of instructions for getting Alpine Linux set up as a server. While I'm not currently running Alpine for anything except a WSL container at work, it remains my favorite Linux distribution.
I appreciate Kurzgesagt detailed explanation on how much time and energy it takes to truly fact check something, an increasingly difficult task in today's hyper-connected world.
Simone Marzulli's collection of websites that "mimic the appearance and functionality of desktop operating systems", the website itself being a web desktop.
A fun game that tests your knowledge and memory of POSIX-adjacent shell commands.
]]>This is Kurzgesagt's opinion on AI slop, and like The Oatmeal's opinion that was shared on last week's Five Link Friday, I completely agree with it.
Spoiler, it's grass. Grass is so incredibly dumb to maintain as a primarily aesthetic plant. I can forgive maintaining a grass field if it is actively being used for outdoor activities, but it is an incredible waste of water to maintain a lawn around a building, purely for aesthetic purposes.
I was not aware of the history of Western Sahara, whose issues can be of course be linked to horrible America's foreign interference.
In my humble opinion, if you are choosing to heavily use AI chatbots, then you may be lacking critical thinking skills to begin with…
Artbat has always crushed it, I would love to see them live.
]]>
This episode of Everything Is Sine was streamed on my Owncast instance with some simple visuals.
]]>An excellent techno set, I wish it was longer.
OpenAI's introduction of Sora 2, possibly the worst product to ever exist, a social network of AI generated short form videos. I absolutely do not understand why anybody would want to use this, it is truly brainrot.
An opinion on AI art, which I totally agree with, but could never share as beautifully as The Oatmeal has done.
I found this explanation for the Audicity project decision making process.
It is utterly ridiculous that disposable vapes contain enough computing power to run a web server, considering the environmental and social impact that manufacturing those chips cause.
]]>I have decided to delete my SoundCloud profile. I do not know how long I have had that account, but if I were to take a guess, probably 13 or more years. I have been considering deleting the account for awhile, it is one of the few corporate owned social media profiles I have. Here is the quick rundown for why:
Now for the reasons why I still think most people would be happy sticking with SoundCloud:
While I still think it's the best commercial streaming service online, it's not enough to keep me around. My ugly website will always be cooler than a polished profile on somebody else's computer.
]]>Here is a collection of websites for learning how to be more private online. You will find software and service recommendations that attempt to oppose the surveillance economy.
]]>This is the first mix that introduced me to ISOxo and it is incredible. ISOxo is mostly a bass music (brostep & trapstyle) DJ, but this Boiler Room set encapsulates so many genres outside of bass music. I feel like this mix encapsulates the future of rave DJing, as all the different genres of dance music start melding into each other.
A wonderfully terrible aggregate of the worst user interfaces; death by a thousand paper cuts.
An oldie, but a goodie. This is a "meme" from the before times that was shared in the pre-social media interwebs.
The website for DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency for the United States of America. It's a trip that this shit exists; evidence of the memelords' effect over society.
An r/place clone that puts the pixels over a map of the globe, allowing you to draw on geographical locations.
]]>This DJ set makes me want to dance in the middle of the night in a forest at the bottom of a mountain.
This is a fun little Tic Tac Toe game hosted with the Gemini protocol, which has nothing to do with Google's Gemini AI garbage.
The Stumble Upon toolbar used to be the best way to learn about any topic. This article was a nice stroll down memory lane, sharing the history of Stumble Upon.
A silly game where you play by scrolling.
I have shared a handful of Benn Jordan videos, his stuff is great. This video shares a lot information about the physical surveillance economy, and how it could be possibly challenged.
]]>I really love Parfait's livesets and she just kills it in this face 2 face format.
I do not fully understand the math portion of this video, but it is a great example of multi-media art. They mush together some incredible visuals with cool sounds with mathematics.
This study explains and validates what we all assumed, that automotive headlights are brighter than before.
Cybersecurity is hard, but damn, there are some basic standards to follow for protecting information.
If you aren't running your own personal website, then you should be. And if you don't know where to start, then explore this website. It provides some great information on how to join the indie, personal, non-commercial side of the web.
]]>Talia Dorr plays an excellent housey, techy, tech-house set, definitely worth a listen.
A similar quiz to The JavaScript Date Quiz, that I shared on another Five Link Friday, that shows how ridiculous email addresses can be.
Discover new, indie music with this blog, I'm envious of however they discover the musicians they can then share.
I don't drink much anymore and I stick to the occasional lager or pilsner, but this list of cocktails is fun to explore. There are some great sounding drinks out there.
This Wikipedia page really got me thinking about how we as a society generally talk about systems. If a system isn't accomplishing the stated goal, then the stated goal is wrong.
]]>2025-08-22:00:00-08:00
This dude is an incredible turntablist, a skill that I've never tried in my sets.
Another reason added to the long list of reasons for people to boycott Facebook, and yet people will still continue using Facebook.
What did you think was going to happen when we pair an internet facing text generator with a something that executes code.
This article details the economic impact that will happen with the AI bubble collapses.
Quite possibly the best, most useful URL shortener service available. If you ever need to shorten a URL to the smallest number of different characters, then this is the service for you.
]]>I have recently discovered Hannah Laing, I love her style, and she also seems like a really great person. I think it was so cool how at the end of the set, she goes down to meet her fans while playing the last song, giving them a special memory.
Benn Jordan does the thing in the title and it is incredible.
I don't fully understand the motive behind corporations falsely reporting people to the police at the risk to their profit.
I knew nothing about Hunter Biden, other than that there is a MAGA conspiracy involving him and "his laptop", before watching this interview with Andrew Callaghan, along with the second and third interviews. I have come to really appreciate him and his character. Hunter Biden for president.
Cogito puts out high quality videos and his latest shift from anthropology adjacent topics to sharing the history behind some of the more egregious global political issues.
]]>Ask Leo! is a new-to-me YouTube channel making videos that I want to share with people. This particular video masterfully expresses an argument that I have shared with others, the ability learn and master computer technology is not related to age. From my decade plus experience working the help desk, young people can fail to understand how to operate a computer and old people can excel at such.
Andrew Callaghan with Channel 5 News is setting the standard for modern journalism. This documentary provides information on how the American government and corporations are destroying the lives of Native Americans.
A fun little bubble popping game.
This is such a perfect web app, providing a simple meditation timer.
This web app provides an interesting approach for creative writing by limiting your ability to edit previously entered text.
]]>I really like this song with the accompanying visuals. I came across it on the fediverse, definitely worth checking out.
I have never used a physical Commodore 64, I have only messed around with an emulator. I think it's awesome that a new release is available, despite being an obvious attempt to money grab.
Here is a fun Wordle-esque game where you try to guess an unknown color by manipulating a circle on the screen to change its color.
A quiz on the absurdity of the JavaScript Date function. JavaScript is a garbage programming language and it's insane how much of the global online infrastructure is built with it.
I've been bingeing on a lot of PaymoneyWubby's clips and highlights a lot recently, and I found the absurdity of this particular clip a perfect introduction to the chaos of PaymoneyWubby and one of the most stupid hilarious things I've come across online in awhile.
]]>I recently discovered Poly Chain and she's now my latest favorite DJ.
A collection of the random audio that gets uploaded to Wikipedia.
A fun feed providing pictures of lovely little scenes built with mini miniatures.
A webzine accessible with telnet. I love finding new things made with old tech.
The first successful heart transplant with a robot that didn't involve opening the ribcage, which is such a crazy advancement in modern medicine.
]]>A hilarious and seemingly legitimate display of somebody losing their ignorance and innocence.
A bug in the authd package that does as the title says. I do not develop software, but I understand how complicated it can be. And yet, I feel defaulting to root privileges should be completely avoided before deploying something.
A detailed video essay showing how European and American imperialism over the last couple hundred years has destroyed and continues to destroy paradise.
A database doxxing ICE agents, be careful out there.
A similar database doxxing LAPD officers, be careful out there... again.
]]>A gallery of 404 pages created with some artistic effort.
Clean up your HTML documents by removing unnecessary cruft from the <head> section. HTML documents do not have to be so large and complicated.
Jeff Huang wrote this manifesto for publishing long lasting content on the web. I try to amateurly incorporate similar ideas while building my own website.
An exploration into what late-stage capitalism can look like, published in 1910.
A fascinating study that shows how environmental regulations can unintentionally cause environmental harm, specifically reducing the pollution from shipping exhaust also reduced the cloud cover along the shipping corridors resulting in the temperature increasing in that area, instead of the inverse (and no, we should not reverse those regulations because of the unintended effect).
]]>Some nice tips for being safe with a smartphone at a protest, be careful out there.
An attempt at creating a new protocol for publishing and reading content online. I don't fully understand it, but I like what I do understand.
People make the coolest stuff; here is a project attempting to keep old technology alive, specifically The XBAND server for online gaming with the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis.
A study on how people move through any given space, because apparently that's something humans predictably do.
Bread is a new to me YouTuber who has a lot of videos sharing cool tips and tricks relating to Linux software. I've learned about some really cool software from this her.
]]>An opinionated website sharing problems with modern software and providing solutions, albeit, the solutions can be problematic themselves. I love using minimal, terminal-centric tools, but I recognize the average person is not willing to use that style of software.
This article provides a starting point for those interested in building community owned and ran broadband networks.
James Mickens describes the current state of information security in a wonderfully snarky way. I try to explain best security practices to people at my job, but the average person does not care to know the best security practices, and I believe passwordless authentication will cause more issues as people get locked out of their accounts.
As the current US federal government works on dismantling everything from the inside, there are people attempting to save some of that information. This website offers torrents for publicly funded datasets for crowd sourced preservation.
Similar to the website above, this website is tracking changes being made to US government websites.
]]>A wonderful YouTube playlist by Techlore that explains how to be secure, private, and anonymous using internet connected devices.
A great instruction set for reporting phishing emails. If we all followed these steps, then we can help train the automation systems that flag and block malicious emails.
A study that shows how bad current AI tools are at carrying out simple tasks like managing a single vending machine. One example from the study is when the slop machines expected the inventory to arrive immediately when the business started for the day, and when the inventory didn't arrive immediately, the slop machines declared it a failed business.
This comic really got me to pause and think about how terrible things are here in the States right now, more than any talking head.
I do occassionally use ChatGPT to help build bash scripts, but I am not an AI enthusiast. This article shows how people who are enthused with AI are using the services, the author creates "employees" to carry out tasks for his business. The oddest part in the article has to be when the author hit on one of his AI "employees", which he was also perfectly comfortable sharing that information with the internet...
]]>A really cool virtual bookcase of all the books in the ISBN database. The website requires WebGL 2, which can be checked on this website to see which browsers and their respective versions support WebGL 2.
An interactive map to show the area of destruction from a nuclear bomb detonation.
Maggie Miller impressively explains how to visualize dimensions beyond the third dimension.
I love all of this new server software being developed that aims to address the hostility from artifical intelligence companies scraping websites.
A neat social network that is only accessible between 19:39 and 22:39 EST. This social network reminded me of Pony.gg, which only delivered emails once a day instead of instanteously and I learned is no longer operational. They both provide a slowed alternative for modern technology.
]]>I think it is so impressive that Leo Iwamura plays this wonderful lofi hip-hop set on a single Roland SP-404, I have already listened to it multiple times.
This video by James Lee is peak meta, multimedia art; it is incredibly entertaining and informative.
A nice archive of video game levels that can be explored in the browser. The website requires WebGL 2, which can be checked on this website to see which browsers and their respective versions support WebGL 2.
Vox shares 40 maps partially explain the history that influenced the current state of politics in the Middle East, but there is not enough information on the impact of western imperialism on the area, especially regarding the United States.
Hilarious new episode ideas of Seinfeld and his career change into computer technology.
]]>Manuel Moreale shared this photo recently, which was so fun to see since I had just taken a similar photo a month ago. I think Manuel's photo is better than mine because the clouds can be seen, while the sky in mine is completely washed out. Photography is a new hobby for me and I have much to learn about lighting and focal points. I have been trying to keep my eye out for interesting perspectives, such as my second photo, which is another shot under a bridge.
A wonderful website that uses netizens to send an alert when fish are needing to pass through a canal gate in Weerdsluis, a town in the Netherlands.
My home decorations are quite typical, meaning no decorations and barely any furniture. I find empty spaces more comfortable than decorated nests, but I can understand how the latter can be more comfortable to other people. My home is not very homey, and I am hoping to change that a little bit with what I am learning from Caroline Winkler's YouTube channel.
Benn Jordan presents a solution for companies training their AI tools on media without permission, which is accomplished by adding signals in an audio stream that doesn't alter the original audio (at least the audio that humans can hear) but corrupts the AI scanning making the audio useless to LLMs.
A poignant video that shows how children interpret high fashion adverts, which reflects how gender roles are represented.
I keep opening websites that are using Anubis to block scapers, which is barely noticeable and way less annoying than captchas.
]]>I created a neat little Bash script and I was so pleased with how the script turned out that I wanted to share it in a blog post, essentially providing the missing comments in the script. I got inspired from a recent video by Films By Kris (Kris with a K). The script will output an OpenStreetMap URL for any address provided.
The address is provided as a string, either piped into the script or all arguments are combined into a string. The string is sent as a query request to OpenStreetMaps, using their Nominatim API. OpenStreetMaps will return JSON data about the address, which the script will use to construct a URL linking to a map for the address, returned as standard output. There is no validation check with the address provided, so non-addresses can be used, but the script will fail if the address provided does not return JSON data.
curl and jq are required for the script, curl is used to send the query and jq is used to parse the JSON that is returned from OpenStreetMaps. The function below checks to see if the programs are installed and exits with an error when anything is missing, listing the missing programs.
command_check() {local MISSING=()for cmd in "$@"; do if ! command -v "$cmd" >/dev/null 2>&1; thenMISSING+=("$cmd")fidoneif [[ ${#MISSING[*]} -gt 0 ]]; thenecho "Error: Missing required programs:" >&2for cmd in "${MISSING[@]}"; doecho " - $cmd" >&2doneexit 1fi}command_check curl jq
The address can be provided as standard input, either piped or provided as an argument. There is no error checking to confirm the string provided in a valid address, the API will return no data which will cause the JSON validation check to fail and exit with an error. If no data is piped and no arguments are given, then the script will ask for an address with user input. The input is replaces spaces with the URL encoded form to help curl with the request.
if [[ ! -t 0 ]]; thenQUERY="$(cat)"elif [[ $# -gt 0 ]]; thenQUERY="$*"elseprintf "Create a map link for a location.\n"printf "Address? "read -r QUERYfiENCODED_QUERY="${QUERY// /%20}"LOCATION_JSON="$(curl -s "https://nominatim.openstreetmap.org/search?q=$ENCODED_QUERY&limit=2&format=json")"if ! jq empty <<<"$LOCATION_JSON" 2>/dev/null; thenecho "Error: Something wrong, invalid JSON for location query." >&apm;2exit 1fi
The coordinate function is used to pull the latitude and longitude coordinates from the JSON data, which it assigns to variables that are ultimately used in the final OpenStreetMap URL for a map with a marker pointing to the location.
coordinate() {local COOR="$1"local VALUEVALUE="$(jq -r ".[0].$COOR" <<<"$LOCATION_JSON")"if [[ "$VALUE" =~ ^-?[0-9]+([.][0-9]+)?$ ]]; thenecho "$VALUE"elseecho "Error: Not a number" >&2echo "Usage: $0 <address>" >&2echo "Query was: $QUERY" >&2echo "Encoded query was: $ENCODED_QUERY" >&2echo "Location JSON was: $LOCATION_JSON" >&2exit 1fi}LAT="$(coordinate lat)"LON="$(coordinate lon)"echo "https://www.openstreetmap.org/?mlat=$LAT&mlon=$LON#map=16/$LAT/$LON"
This script can be plugged into different configurations. I created the following little function in my main menu script (which will be shared another day). This function will ask me for an address with rofi and then copies the URL to the clipboard, and asks to open it.
URL="$(printf '' | rofi -dmenu -i -p "Address? " | map.sh)"wl-copy "$URL"notify-send "copied" "$URL"test "$(printf "Yes\nNo\n" | rofi -dmenu -i -p 'Open? ')" = "Yes" && xdg-open "$URL"
A cute comic illustrating the switch from Firefox to Librewolf
I am so excited for this software project, it feels like it can truly compete with Mozilla, Apple, and especially Google as an alternative browser not tied to corporate interests.
A YouTube playlist of every episode of Bob Ross's painting show.
I guess technically this is now a Six Link Friday post, but these mixes should be shared together. Listening to DJ sets from the OGs in the '90s is incredible, hearing what they were doing when DJing was still a growing artform.
A nice little http website that can be used in those instances when you need to load an http site for whatever network testing.
]]>An excellent goth dance mix by Yami Spechie, it is quite moody, broody, and groovy!
Homestarrunner's site was very popular in my teenage friend group, I'm so happy to see it is still being updated. This latest update celebrates their 25th anniversary and advocates ditching social media for a personal website.
This is an interesting project provides a list of personal websites that can be browsed with an interface that emulates TV channel guides on cable and satellite services. This is getting added to my linkroll of linkrolls list.
Dylan Beattie explains a difference between programs and products, and how vibe coding should only be used to create programs and not products. I can get behind this distinction, my personal scripts are my own to be used by me so it doesn't matter if they are messy and can break if I sneeze to hard (not that I am vibe coding or even coding).
Another manifesto I can get behind which I was introduced to through Naomi Brockwell's YouTube channel. I appreciate her and Techlore pushing the privacy, security, and anonymity conversation with accessible tutorials and essays for the general public.
]]>Yes, but my dentist will always say I am not doing it correctly.
All of the above, depending on the time of day. Water first thing in the morning and all throughout the day, coffee in the morning, and green tea on evenings. I've tried many other teas, but prefer green tea over them all.
I wear sandals in the summer, sneakers in the winter, and I switch it up a lot for work, as long as they are closed toe. I don't actually like wearing shoes, my feet need to breathe!
Dirt pudding cake like my grandma used to make.
Hit the snooze button.
My late 20s and early 30s were going well and my back hurt less, I would enjoy that time period again.
A rotating collection of five-panel caps, anything else doesn't look great on my big head.
Two really close of photos of some derpy cats that I am watching while my friend is out of town.
All celebrity worship reality TV shows.
My childhood dream was to become a pilot, live in Australia, and own a convertible. I accomplished none of that.
]]>I love everything about this. It's a trading card game being sold in a small Japanese town that features local men on the cards; really shows the spirit of the local community.
The internet that we all grew up with, that feels like got eaten up by corporations, and that many people think is gone, is still here; it just gets pushed down the search results. This article shows how to discover or rediscover that fun personal internet. I also have links to those quirky areas of the internet that are so full of life.
A sociological exploration in why there is a gender disparity in STEM careers.
I am so, so annoyed with how much LLMs are being shoved in our faces and with how much people are onboard with using them. This article adds another item to the long list of reasons that AI output is not reliable and should not be trusted, specifically the study shows how AI will cheat in a game when told to win a game.
I appreciate Anna Borges writing this piece, the analogy of treading water in an endless ocean is resonates with me. "It’s crucial to nourish a life full of things we want to stay afloat for."
]]>An excellent mix of early 2000's trance music, possibly the best decade of trance, mixed by Tinzo of Book Club Radio. I appreciate Book Club Radio's efforts to encourage people to be present with themselves at a rave.
It's incredible the steps Apple takes to avoid the GPL 3.0 license and maintain control of their system. They held off updating rsync on MacOS until an alternative with a more permissive license came along, just like they did with bash.
More evidence to how terribly fucked America is...
A fascinating phenomena happening with the aging console.
A detailed article from last year sharing the extent of the bird flu currently working its way across the globe.
]]>It's impressive how much this explanation of the political compass is accurate.
Benn Jordan's video essays are so good and well researched, this one being particularly poignant.
I am so impressed with this cybersecurity project by a local girl scout troop.
Such a wonderful analogy for how to approach online moderation, people should be expected to behave themselves in somebody's living room.
A collection of articles on personal websites discussing the notion that the internet is not longer fun and personal.
]]>
]]>Yousuke Yukimatsu's sets are always incredible, I am envious of his ability to seamlessly mix so many different genres together.
It's nice to see Rebecca Black out there doing what she likes, after the internet bullied her for the song Friday when she was a kid. Spoiler: she plays it at the end of this mix and it is so cool to see the crowd singing along with her.
I don't have to write posts on my blog, when others do a better job describing how I feel. The world is filled with so much good stuff, and there is not enough time to explore it all.
"Google is a guest on the web, as we all are. Guests don't make the rules." 'Nuff said, except also, fuck Google!
Title says it all, another example of the issues LLMs are causing.
]]>After years of trashing on the backspin as a transitioning tool, I have finally tried it in a mix. Did it work in the moment? Sure. Will I use it again? meh...
A fifteen year old article describing the trend web applications taking over native applications that is quite prevalent now.
Excellent hard techno set from an old-school Chicago house DJ.
The Facebook study that describes how a person can be emotionally manipulated by altering the contents of a social network feed. This is the study where they used minors on their platform as test subjects without knowledge or consent from the minors or their parents.
A poll showing how much Americans overestimate the size of minority groups and underestimate the size of many majority groups.
An article sharing a bunch of details on the state of the drought in California, which is important to stay informed about, not just for us Californians, but also for everybody across the globe that eats produce grown in California.
]]>2025-03-14T00:00:00-08:00
The first website ever posted on the world wide web, check out the incredibly minimal design aesthetics.
A recreation of the first ever web browser to explore within a modern web browser.
Doom can run on everything, even in a PDF.
Similar to Doom, Linux running in a PDF which only works in a Chromium-based browser, but is still quite impressive.
A book written by Derek Sivers that touches on 27 rules for living your life, purposefully filled with contradictions to bring attention to how silly self-help books can be.
]]>2025-03-11T00:00:00-08:00
Vale wrote an opinionated blog post on the following list of things to consider when designing a URL.
I do agree with some of these, but I also ultimately feel that people can and should do whatever they want with their website. Doing so adds a personal touch to each website, they don't all need to be the same. Vale's guidelines are great suggestions for creating URLs that are easily understood and shareable. But I do disagree with some of the guidelines and I wanted to share why I disagree.
Underscores do require an extra and awkward keypress to type, but they are a useful symbol. I use hyphens AND underscores in my file and directory names, because they each represent a different function in a joined string of characters. Underscores join strings of characters into a single string, and hyphens separate strings from each other. This is useful if you are selecting text with a mouse and only want to select a specific string, or to visually separate different concepts in a file name, such as the date and title of a file.
For example, all of my mix files include the name of the collection, the date, and occasionally the time it was recorded. If I want to copy the text of the name, I can double click to select that underscored string. I would have to click and drag if the words were hyphenated. Of course clicking and dragging the cursor isn't a big deal, but a double click is more efficient than clicking and dragging. Use the following text to try selecting strings of underscored and hyphenated text:
Underscored: date_string-title_string-other_string
Hyphenated: date-string-title-string-other-string
So I am advocating the use of underscores and hyphens, not either/or, because they each have a specific function for how a mouse interacts with a string of text.
I think it is appropriate to leave the .html at the end of a URL, in certain cases. If somebody is downloading a final product of sorts, like a blog post, then the URL should indicate it. Creating URL paths is completely arbitrary, but if the file being opened is an index.html, then it should be the index for the pages in that directory. And if the file being opened is the final destination, then the URL should reflect that with the file extension.
I absolutely agree with Vale on the trailing slash on the end, it just needs to be pointed out that if we include the .html in the filename, then there would be no confusion with what a trailing slash indicates. Trailing slashes obfuscate the index.
2025-03-07T00:00:00-08:00
This is an interesting site that provides a TikTok-like interface for browsing Wikipedia articles. It’s nice for being introduced to random subjects.
This is a third-party client for Discord developed for old versions of Windows. I love new software for old systems.
NixOS is an incredile Linux distro and I highly recommend anybody checking it out, but after running it as my main desktop OS for a year, I decided to move away from it. The article perfectly captures my feelings about the distribution and should also be read by anybody considering installing it as their main OS.
One of my preferred RegEx editor. I can never remember all of the syntax RegEx is something
Just simply the nicest place on the Internet.
]]>A beautiful minimal web theme, and I appreciate the detail with describing the design aethetics.
This short film is incredibly weird, bizarre, surreal, etc and I love it.
An incredible time capsule showing how music production worked in the ’90s using Vision by Opcode Systems.
A Flickr album of a funny and kinda weird art exhibit at the Harvard Museum of Natural History in 2011. With how often people tend to not read signs, did people notice it if nobody told them it was there.
I completely agree with and appreciate this post by fogknife, especially considering the current state of the American government.
]]>2025-02-23T21:19:34-08:00
Let’s start this Five Link Friday off with an excellent mix by Flotussin, I first came across her from this mix and will be looking forward to more stuff.
I love that people still create things for old tech. This is a newly released game developed for the original Nintendo Entertainment System.
“At age 30, participants reported relying on an average of two support providers, which decreased to just one by age 90.” If most men only have two support providers at the age of 30, then it would seem that most men hardly have an emotional support network to begin with.
A lovely presentation on how addictive the instant access to information and entertainment is for our brains.
A nice, concise article that points out a lot of the issues with all of these stupid tech services that are constantly released.
]]>Some examples of the enshittification of the web
An interesting sociological analysis of patterns found in data, considering picking up the books mentioned in the article.
A mildly poignant article sharing some excellent tips for navigating the warts of the Internet.
A Wikipedia article about an issue in the science research industry in which the results from many different scientific studies are difficult or impossible to reproduce.
An infographic sharing who owns the most land in the world
]]>2025-02-13T00:00:00-08:00
I have been on a static site generator discovery journey, testing many different projects to see which one worked for me. The list below isn’t complete, but they are the projects I looked into the most.
Hugo and Gozer are the two that I spent the most time on, working my site’s content into fitting the requirements of these programs. It is possible that might be why I struggle sticking to most static site generators. I’m spending a lot of time trying to figure out how these projects want to build my site, and I feel less like it is my site. I like it when my site is weird and quirky and kind of broken, those are the types of sites that I like to discover.
I was considering going to back to manually writing all the HTML and RSS XML myself, and that option is still rolling around in my head, but I did come across another site generator to play around with. Pblog is a shell script utilizing Pandoc to convert Markdown files into HTML, like the other SSGs. I had tried writing my own script last year doing exactly this, but I was struggling with the logic and didn’t even know where to start with RSS XML generation. I’m now able to build an ugly personal site closer to what I want, while automating and standardizing the extra stuff like headers, navigation, footers, feed generation, etc.
I was also running into weird bugs with Gozer where it sometimes wouldn’t create a page in one run, but would in the next run, with nothing different between the two runs. I am able to troubleshoot shell scripts much more easily than Go programs.
Of course there are hiccoughs with implementing a new tool, in this case, I am breaking all of the note and blog post URLs yet again. I can understand the argument for maintaining URL history to prevent linkrot, but I personally don’t actually care about that. Nothing lasts forever, everything is ephemeral, and I would rather tinker with my site and break some links, then worry about keeping every URL perfectly captured forever. That said, if I don’t stick with Pblog, then the current state of my site will be closer to it’s future state when I go back to manually writing out the HTML and XML.
You can check out my website source here. And if you would like, you can send me your thoughts to my email or Mastodon.
]]>2025-02-16T00:00:00-08:00
As I have shared before, I have recently set up a server at home to run this website and web services like Mastodon, Gitea, Owncast, Miniflux, Linkding, and other great stuff. I decided to use Cloudron for simple server management, because I was struggling to get things up and running myself manually with package managers or compiling the software myself, or auto-magically using Docker, NixOS, etc. And I chose Cloudron over other similar services like YunoHost because I have used it before, it is quite stable, and does the thing it sets out to do well. The struggle with manually taking care of hosting issues came from long hours at work getting things set up and troubleshooting, and not having the energy in the evenings or weekends to get stuff set up and troubleshoot.
This blog post isn’t a review of Cloudron though, instead I wanted to write down the solution to a weird issue I was having after I initially launched the server, which also took a somewhat embarrassing amount of time to fix. The issue was my website would not open in a web browser on my home computer after it went live, the browser would end the connection attempt with a timeout. I knew the website was up and live though, because I could open it from my phone connected to the cellular network. Tethering a laptop to my cell phone network and running nmap 0x212.com showed the domain name was resolving to my public IP, as well as the correct open ports for my server. Something was mis-configured on my local network.
My local network has two connected routers and three private VLANs. One of the VLANs is a DMZ between the public-facing and private-facing router, the private router drops all connection requests hitting the interface on that network. Port forwarding is enabled on the public router, so it sends all packets it receives from the internet to my Cloudron server that is also in the DMZ. The server is directly connected to the public-facing router.
On my private local network, I could ping the public IP address and the private IP address of the server and all router gateways between, but I could not ping 0x212.com, indicating an issue with DNS. Yet, running nslookup 0x212.com showed correct name resolution, returning my public IP address. I am not running a private DNS server, so all DNS requests for my website were going out to a public DNS server. After checking and rechecking the router and server configurations, I started researching the issue online and learned that Network Address Translation requires loop-back to be enabled on the router for a web connection on the same IP address. But not all routers have that feature available, especially non-enterprise routers like my public facing router from AT&T (required for the fiber connection).
While I was researching the name resolution issue, a different but related issue came up. Like all good multi-taskers doing too much at one time, I was playing around with all the new toys I was installing on the server. Since I could connect to my website from the Internet, I just enabled a VPN connection with Mullvad to connect to my servers web services. But while connected to the VPN, I could not SSH into the local IP address for the server. This was necessary because I was needing to transfer files from my computer to the server, and I did not want to send that transfer across the internet. The Mullvad VPN client has a local network sharing setting that allows your computer to connect to other devices on the local network, but this setting will only apply to devices on the same local network as the computer.
So fundamentally I wanted DNS requests to resolve my website’s domain to the server’s private IP address for my computer on my local network. The Cloudron server has an setting that dynamically updates DNS records using the APIs for various DNS registrars, which can be configured to the public or private IP address for the server. Mine is configured for the public IP address. I started thinking of different ways to resolve my issues, such as the following:
I probably should have installed Cloudron in a virtual machine and I may at some point, but that will be a later project and write-up. I do have another server running Proxmox, but I since I have one server running 24/7-ish, I was trying to reduce how often I am running other computers to reduce my electric bill carbon footprint. So I spent some time mulling over this silly little issue, considering how much time and money various solutions cost, and then in a moment of clarity after reading a post in a Mullvad support forum, I realized a simple, practical, and cheap solution for everything.
The Mullvad client will respect static routes configured on the machine. So running ip route add $SECOND_VLAN via $GATEWAY via $INTERFACE on my computer allowed me to connect to the private IP address for the server while connected to Mullvad’s VPN. With the static route configured, I added $SERVER_PRIVATE_IP 0x212.com to /etc/hosts to my computer. Now the 0x212.com domain resolves to the server’s private IP address for my computer, while still using public DNS servers for everything else. I felt like this was a simple solution that I should’ve realized sooner, but I got caught up considering more complicated, enterprise-grade solutions.
I’m probably will move Cloudron to a virtual machine and setup a private firewall and DNS server, but I don’t need to at this time and can focus on other fun things like updating my website and writing blog posts.
]]>2025-02-15T00:00:00-08:00
James’ Coffee Blog posted a fun quiz to help determine which HTML element somebody is based on their personality. Super scientific stuff, here are my results:
You are the <search> element!
You love finding things on the web and are an expert at using search engines.
Your nested element is <audio>.
You like to think in different modalities and embrace the interactivity of the web.
Resources
[\<search\> on MDN](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/search)[\<audio\> on MDN](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/audio)
I also noticed how James organizes the blog posts, might break all my post links and follow suit.
]]>A humorous and wise list of Wikipedia article ideas that should be considered.
Another bullet point on the long list of how computer technology has a negative impact on social interaction.
An article that shares how indie sites are pushed down Google’s search results, larger sites are brought up in the results.
An incredible parody of Bob Ross by Rickey Tinez, substituting paint and brushes with soundwaves and synthesizers.
The beginning of the radicalization of an artist. There are more videos in the channel documenting the change worth being discovered.
]]>2025-02-01T00:00:00-08:00
Many people working in tech have likely been asked this question and Geoff Graham has written this article as a great response to that question. It does a great job of sharing the complexity of websites through a series of questions requesting details about the proposed website project.
An article from 2023 sharing the unintended consequences that environmental laws can cause, specifically how less air pollution from freight ships have contributed to global warming by reducing the amount of ocean clouds seeded by the pollution.
I first learned about Floccus from Solene’s write-up. Floccus is a great way to sync your bookmarks between your devices, though I recently installed Linkding as a potential alternative.
Parfait is an incredible DJ and I've blasted this set on my speakers a couple of times.
A somewhat incomplete map that shows how popular search engines are related.
]]>I relatively recent discovered CARV the DJ and Verknipt the music festival, enjoying listening to music from the individual and the collective, respectively. Here is an excellent hard techno set from CARV playing at Verknipt.
A beautifully subjective list organizing the different styles of DJing, from most difficult to least, that feels quite objectively accurate.
Considering current events in the USA, it is interesting to see the historical patterns in the data for deportation rates.
A nice and easy article that explains the low level technical details of a keyboard key press in a computer terminal.
A weird website from internet history that sold 1 million pixels for 1 dollar per pixel. What did people create with their pixels? Ads. What did you think would be created?
]]>2024-11-30T00:00:00-08:00
]]>2024-09-03T00:00:00-08:00
This post by Manual Moreale gave me a chuckle. It’s the same type of chuckle I get when I read posts in my RSS feeds talking about the death and/or rebirth of RSS.
]]>2024-08-31T00:00:00-08:00
I came across this post by Guillermo Garron sharing how to see your most used shell commands. The post says “Linux Commands”, but this will work with any POSIX or POSIX adjacent shell. Just run the following command:
history | awk '{print $2}' | sort | uniq -c | sort -nr | head -n 10I thought it would be fun and silly to share my results, which were:
1 historyThe reason why there is only this one command in my top 10 list of most used commands is because I don’t keep that history. My $HISTFILE is set to /dev/null, which helps keep my home folder clean of unnecessary files, and I believe that history is unnecessary. I keep a lot of notes for commands that I need to refer back to later, or I create shell scripts for commands that need to be repeatedly ran. This practice works for me because I feel like I am always starting with a clean slate, while still being able to quickly look up what I need to do with man-pages, my personal notes, or shell scripts.
Give it a try, delete your history!
]]>2024-06-09T00:00:00-08:00
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2023-12-26T04:00:00-08:00
I miss four AM…
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This mix was prerecorded to play on aNONradio, but I had decided to cancel my show before airing.
2022-12-31T19:52:12-08:00
2022-12-26T19:20:07-08:00
2022-12-25T00:00:00-08:00
2022.12.25 - Bits In Stereo on aNONradio.net
2022-12-20T19:38:25-08:00
2022-12-18T00:00:00-08:00
2022.12.18 - Bits In Stereo on aNONradio.net
2022-12-17T20:22:15-08:00
2022-12-04T00:00:00-08:00
2022.12.04 - Bits In Stereo on aNONradio.net
2022-12-02T21:37:24-08:00
2022-11-27T00:00:00-08:00
2022.11.27 - Bits In Stereo on aNONradio.net
2022-11-26T19:25:12-08:00
2022-11-22T20:31:51-08:00
2022-11-20T00:00:00-08:00
2022.11.20 - Bits In Stereo on aNONradio.net
2022-11-16T19:31:54-08:00
2022-11-16T00:00:00-08:00
2022-11-13T00:00:00-08:00
2022.11.13 - Bits In Stereo on aNONradio.net
2022-11-06T00:00:00-08:00
2022.11.06 - Bits In Stereo on aNONradio.net
2022-11-04T05:20:00-08:00
2022-10-30T00:00:00-08:00
2022.10.30 - Bits In Stereo on aNONradio.net
2022-10-23T00:00:00-08:00
2022.10.23 - Bits In Stereo on aNONradio.net
2022-10-16T00:00:00-08:00
2022.10.16 - Bits In Stereo on aNONradio.net
2022-10-09T00:00:00-08:00
2022.10.09 - Bits In Stereo on aNONradio.net
2022-10-02T00:00:00-08:00
2022.10.02 - Bits In Stereo on aNONradio.net
2022-10-01T03:00:00-08:00
2022-09-25T00:00:00-08:00
2022-09-25T00:00:00-08:00
2022.09.25 - Bits In Stereo on aNONradio.net
2022-09-18T00:00:00-08:00
2022.09.18 - Bits In Stereo on aNONradio.net
2022-09-11T00:00:00-08:00
2022.09.11 - Bits In Stereo on aNONradio.net
2022-09-09T02:20:00-08:00
2022-09-04T00:00:00-08:00
2022.09.04 - Bits In Stereo on aNONradio.net
2022-08-29T00:00:00-08:00
2022-08-21T00:00:00-08:00
2022.08.21 - Bits In Stereo on aNONradio.net
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2022.08.14 - Bits In Stereo on aNONradio.net
2022-07-31T00:00:00-08:00
2022.07.31 - Bits In Stereo on aNONradio.net
2022-07-23T00:00:00-08:00
2022.07.23 - Bits In Stereo on aNONradio.net
2022-07-17T00:00:00-08:00
2022.07.17 - Bits In Stereo on aNONradio.net
2022-07-10T00:00:00-08:00
2022.07.10 - Bits In Stereo on aNONradio.net
2022-07-03T00:00:00-08:00
2022.07.03 - Bits In Stereo on aNONradio.net
2022-06-26T00:00:00-08:00
2022.06.26 - Bits In Stereo on aNONradio.net
2022-06-19T00:00:00-08:00
2022.06.19 - Bits In Stereo on aNONradio.net
2022-06-12T00:00:00-08:00
2022.06.12 - Bits In Stereo on aNONradio.net
2022-06-05T00:00:00-08:00
2022.06.05 - Bits In Stereo on aNONradio.net
2022-05-30T20:02:19-08:00
2022-05-26T10:11:16-08:00
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2022-02-03T19:48:04-08:00
2022-02-01T19:12:44-08:00
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2022-01-28T19:09:49-08:00
2021-12-29T00:00:00-08:00
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2021-12-26T00:00:00-08:00
Juliet Fox - 6am (iiogama Bootleg Remix)
]]>2021-12-15T19:56:24-08:00
2021-12-11T00:00:00-08:00
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2021-12-03T19:35:44-08:00
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2021-10-10T00:00:00-08:00
2021-10-10 - Dally Rhythms on aNONradio.net
2021-09-26T00:00:00-08:00
2021-09-26 - Dally Rhythms on aNONradio.net
2021-09-19T00:00:00-08:00
2021-09-19 - Dally Rhythms on aNONradio.net
2021-09-12T00:00:00-08:00
2021-09-12 - Dally Rhythms on aNONradio.net
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2021-08-29 - Dally Rhythms on aNONradio.net
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2021-08-15 - Dally Rhythms on aNONradio.net
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2021-08-08 - Dally Rhythms on aNONradio.net
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2021-08-01 - Dally Rhythms on aNONradio.net
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2021-07-25 - Dally Rhythms on aNONradio.net
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2021-07-18 - Dally Rhythms on aNONradio.net
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2021-07-11 - Dally Rhythms on aNONradio.net
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2021-07-04 - Dally Rhythms on aNONradio.net
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2021-06-27 - Dally Rhythms on aNONradio.net
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2021-06-20 - Dally Rhythms on aNONradio.net
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2021-06-13 - Dally Rhythms on aNONradio.net
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2021-05-30 - Dally Rhythms on aNONradio.net
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2021-05-23 - Dally Rhythms on aNONradio.net
2021-05-16T00:00:00-08:00
2021-05-16 - Dally Rhythms on aNONradio.net
2021-05-09T00:00:00-08:00
2021-05-09 - Dally Rhythms on aNONradio.net
2021-05-02T00:00:00-08:00
2021-05-02 - Dally Rhythms on aNONradio.net
2021-04-25T00:00:00-08:00
2021-04-25 - Dally Rhythms on aNONradio.net
2021-04-18T00:00:00-08:00
2021-04-18 - Dally Rhythms on aNONradio.net
2021-04-11T00:00:00-08:00
2021-04-11 - Dally Rhythms on aNONradio.net
2021-04-04T00:00:00-08:00
2021-04-04 - Dally Rhythms on aNONradio.net
2021-03-21T00:00:00-08:00
2021-03-21 - Dally Rhythms on aNONradio.net
2021-03-14T00:00:00-08:00
2021-03-14 - Dally Rhythms on aNONradio.net
2021-03-07T00:00:00-08:00
2021-03-07 - Dally Rhythms on aNONradio.net
2021-03-06T00:00:00-08:00
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2021-02-28 - Dally Rhythms on aNONradio.net
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2021-02-21 - Dally Rhythms on aNONradio.net
2021-02-14T00:00:00-08:00
2021-02-14 - Dally Rhythms on aNONradio.net
2021-01-31T00:00:00-08:00
2021-01-31 - Dally Rhythms on aNONradio.net
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2021-01-24 - Dally Rhythms on aNONradio.net
2021-01-17T00:00:00-08:00
2021-01-17 - Dally Rhythms on aNONradio.net
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2021-01-10 - Dally Rhythms on aNONradio.net
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2021-01-03 - Dally Rhythms on aNONradio.net
2020-12-27T00:00:00-08:00
2020-12-27 - Dally Rhythms on aNONradio.net
2020-12-25T00:00:00-08:00
2020-12-24T00:00:00-08:00
2020-12-13T00:00:00-08:00
2020-12-13 - Dally Rhythms on aNONradio.net
2020-12-06T00:00:00-08:00
2020-12-06 - Dally Rhythms on aNONradio.net
2020-11-29T00:00:00-08:00
2020-11-29 - Dally Rhythms on aNONradio.net
2020-11-22T00:00:00-08:00
2020-11-22 - Dally Rhythms on aNONradio.net
2020-12-11T00:00:00-08:00
2020-10-18T00:00:00-08:00
2020-10-18 - Dally Rhythms on aNONradio.net
2020-10-11T00:00:00-08:00
2020-10-11 - Dally Rhythms on aNONradio.net
2020-10-04T00:00:00-08:00
2020-10-04 - Dally Rhythms on aNONradio.net
2020-09-27T00:00:00-08:00
2020-09-27 - Dally Rhythms on aNONradio.net
2020-09-13T00:00:00-08:00
2020-09-13 - Dally Rhythms on aNONradio.net
2020-09-06T00:00:00-08:00
2020-09-06 - Dally Rhythms on aNONradio.net
2020-09-04T00:00:00-08:00
2020-08-30T00:00:00-08:00
2020-08-30 - Dally Rhythms on aNONradio.net
2020-08-23T00:00:00-08:00
2020-08-23 - Dally Rhythms on aNONradio.net
2020-08-23T00:00:00-08:00
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2020-08-16T00:00:00-08:00
2020-08-16 - Dally Rhythms on aNONradio.net
2020-08-07T00:00:00-08:00
2020-08-02T00:00:00-08:00
2020-08-02 - Dally Rhythms on aNONradio.net
2020-08-01T00:00:00-08:00
2020-07-26T00:00:00-08:00
2020-07-26 - Dally Rhythms on aNONradio.net
2020-07-24T00:00:00-08:00
2020-07-19T00:00:00-08:00
2020-07-19 - Dally Rhythms on aNONradio.net
2020-07-12T00:00:00-08:00
2020-07-12 - Dally Rhythms on aNONradio.net
2020-06-28T00:00:00-08:00
2020-06-28 - Dally Rhythms on aNONradio.net
2020-06-21T00:00:00-08:00
2020-06-21 - Dally Rhythms on aNONradio.net
2020-06-14T00:00:00-08:00
2020-06-14 - Dally Rhythms on aNONradio.net
2020-06-07T00:00:00-08:00
2020-06-07 - Dally Rhythms on aNONradio.net
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In doing so, I explained how my setup had changed throughout the years and some people on SDF expressed interest in the history of my setup. This article is to share the evolution of my current setup over 12-ish years of DJing.
My interest in electronic music started in March of ’96 with Firestarter by The Prodigy. My young, naive self didn’t realize the significance of electronic music with that song (nor realized it was “electronic music”), but that sound stuck with me growing up. As I grew up and my taste in music changed, I began to understand and appreciate the art of DJing and mixing music. Around 2006, I learned that a co-worker was a DJ, but was discouraged from pursuing the hobby when they shared how much their Pioneer CDJ + DJM setup cost.
My interest in DJing and electronic music grew, but being well below the poverty line, I could never justify the cost of gear and didn’t have anyone to share that cost or their gear (I had moved away from my previous co-worker/DJ friend). Around 2008, I became friends with some ravers who also had an interest in DJing and they introduced me to Native Instrument’s Traktor Pro and midi controllers. Before this, I thought that turntables or CDJs were the only way to DJ and so when I tried researching DJing, it was only within that context. DJ software with midi controllers made DJing much more financially accessible. I saved up some money and purchased a Numark Total Control, which came with a lite version of Traktor Pro (I believe it only allowed two decks, no recording, no streaming, and other limitations).
I eventually saved up money again and purchased a full version of Traktor Pro and started playing with the robust midi mapping capability. If you aren’t familiar with the idea of midi controllers and midi mapping, then the following article will get you caught up.
Intro to Basic Midi Mapping with Traktor
I used and abused that Total Control for a couple years, even DJing for a couple parties and campouts. I used the headphone jack on my laptop to get audio out to a system, sometimes only using some cheap desktop speakers. Nobody really complained as long as the music was good and could be heard, though as I practiced and started learning more about DJing, I realized the importance of being able to cue in a pair of headphones. This realization led me to saving up again and getting a Numark DJiO USB audio interface. I don’t remember what my first pair of headphones were, though I assume they were some cheap, over-the-ears model.
As a fan of Ean Golden and a reader of DJ Tech Tools, I really wanted to introduce elements of Controllerism into my setup.
I was tweaking my midi map of my Total Control quite regularly, but found myself wanting more out of my setup. These feelings led me to saving some money, selling the Total Control and DJiO to an old friend who was interested in digital DJing, and purchasing the Novation Twitch, which had a built-in audio interface (which unfortunately was quite quiet for whatever reason). The Novation Twitch was an amazing controller that introduced the form factor of controllers that is still in use today, though it was built with Serato in mind, not Traktor Pro. I was able to still midi map it, but I found myself using it with Serato much more.
Eventually, music production started to interest me, along with exploring traditional DJing. While I have looked at and considered many different DAWs, Ableton Live was always the one that stood out, mostly because it can be used as a DJing tool, in addition to producing music. During this time, I received an original Novation Launchpad as a Christmas gift to use with my copy of Ableton Live (initially pirated, eventually purchased). My Launchpad is still being used, though more for controlling Traktor than Ableton.
2012 was a quite the pivotal year for me, my identity, and my DJing; it was the year I went back to school and it was the year that I purchased my Allen & Heath Xone:DB2. This purchase did not come after I had saved up money though, it came out of my student loan for that school year (obviously a terrible decision, but we are long past that point in time). After much internal deliberation, I sold my Novation Twitch to help offset the cost of the Xone:DB2. I had figured that I could map my Launchpad in Traktor to closely mimic the workflow that the Twitch provided with the Xone:DB2. This deliberation included me considering an Allen & Heath Xone:92 and Traktor Scratch Audio 6, instead of the Xone:DB2. I decided on the Xone:DB2 because of the singularity of the system, instead of a mixer and audio interface. In hindsight, I wish I had gone with the Xone:92 due to the issues I have ran into with the Xone:DB2 drivers, but I still love my DB2.
During this time, I started analyzing my mixing and realizing that I really wasn’t the next greatest controllerist. Most of the time, I was blending two songs together and that can get kinda boring if the sync is turned on. I wanted to move towards a more traditional DJ setup and force myself to be able to DJ with anything. This was where I again researched gear, saved up money, sold some things, and purchased two Denon SC2900s (took a few months to get both of them). The Denon SC2900 was an amazing CDJ that could also be a midi controller for Traktor Pro (having been upgraded to version Pro 2 at some point). The player allowed me to learn how to manually mix on a CDJ without the sync enabled, while also being able to fall back on the familiarity of Traktor and my mapped Launchpad.
After learning and feeling comfortable with mixing on CDJs, I was left with one last traditional DJ medium; turntables. Native Instruments announced that Traktor digital vinyl system (DVS) will work with any audio interface when they released the Traktor Pro 3 update. This announcement is what encouraged me to once again save money, sell items (the SC2900s), and purchase new equipment. This time I purchased two Audio Technica AT-LP120-USB turntables with a pair of Traktor control vinyl.
So my latest setup consists of two Audio Technica AT-LP120-USB, a Novation Launchpad mkI, and an Allen & Heath Xone:DB2 controlling Traktor Pro 3 and mixing digital files and actual vinyl (though that last point is only during private practice sessions). This setup includes pieces of kit that were purchased eight or more years ago, and I doubt it will be the same eight years from now. My headphones are the Audio Technica ATH-M50 and they are perfect for me. I did have the V-Moda Crossfade at some point, but they were stolen from me. The Crossfade’s sounded amazing, but weren’t that comfortable on my head. I feel quite happy and comfortable with my current setup and don’t have this urge to change it. Check back in a couple years.
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This post is for explaining the pros and cons of a group of shell and shell-like iOS apps that I have explored on my iPad Pro. Before going into details about the apps, I’m going to first explain how and why I ended up using the iPad Pro as my main device.
Despite running Linux as my main OS for years, I decided recently to switch to an iPad Pro as my daily driver after some issues with a Thinkpad T430 became too much. The Thinkpad was running Debian Buster and had some hardware issues that started affecting the portability of the device, such as the backplate to the screen breaking at the hinge, making it difficult to open and close the lid; the latch for securing the extra drive in the ultrabay losing its ability to stay latched; the battery was unable to maintain a charge for much more than an hour. These hardware issues were pretty minor, but they were also accompanied by a (nearly) complete data loss that may or may not have been associated with Nextcloud (I have no evidence of that, just a suspicion that I am unable to prove). I had reached a point where I was considering a drastic change to my personal workflow.
The iPad Pro became a consideration after coming across multiple people using them as a live performing tool (Jakob Haq, Electronisounds, Dylan Paris, and more). I did some research on how other people use an iPad as their main device and decided to make to make the switch myself. One major hurdle to switching from a Linux device to an iPad is the lack of a shell. I prefer using commandline programs to graphic programs, which I completely understand is antithetical to the iOS UX philosophy. I still stuck with the switch because there are some talented developers who have brought the shell to iOS. The apps I have tried are iSH, Termius, Blink.sh, a-Shell, iVim, and LibTerm. I have also learned of OpenTerm, but never used it.
iSH is an amazing project bringing a real Linux distro to iOS. It’s essentially an x86 emulator running an Alpine Linux in an iOS app. The app is only available (at the time of writing) in beta using Apple’s TestFlight service. While there are quite a few things that don’t work in the app, most basic programs and functions do work (ssh, vim, unix tools, etc). This app would solely meet my work needs except that the one and only issue with using iSH for any kinda of real work is the speed of the app. Vim is incredibly slow with a noticeable latency between key presses and perceived output. Tmux and screen has some display glitches, like the cursor being on top of the last character. The developer seems to be addressing most of the issues with iSH, but at this time, it is noticably a beta project and some issues, like the latency, may not be addressable considering it’s an x86 emulator running on an iPad.
Termius is not a shell, but rather manages ssh connections. As long as you have a network connection and a remote server, you can have a shell environment to work in, but of course those two things can be hard to come by. Termuis follows a freemium model, which allows you to use most of the basic features of the app for free, but blocks premium features unless you pay a monthly fee. The premium features are built around syncing your settings between devices through their server. I am not particularly fond of cloud based services, nor monthly fees for software.
Blink.sh would almost be perfect. It’s similar to Termius, in that it is only meant to manage remote connections. I like it better than Termius, because it feels like you’re in a real shell when you use it and it’s only a one-time payment. There are a few local commands you can run to manage files (it even has ed, the standard unix editor), but it doesn’t work well, or at all, with files outside of it’s iOS directory.
a-Shell would almost be perfect (too). It acts as a local shell on the iPad with basically the same commands available as Blink.sh, except ed is replaced with vim. Sshing into a server with a-Shell isn’t great though, with the display getting messed up anytime you run a curses-like app. The feature that a-Shell offers over everything else is the ability to managed and edit any local iOS file. Paired with Working Copy, a-Shell becomes very powerful. That could be indicative of the iOS “There’s an app for that” philosophy (which is a commoditized version of the Unix philosophy). The two apps are pretty good at their intended purpose, but struggle beyond that.
Working Copy is not a shell-like app, it’s a git client for iOS. Using git, it allows you to edit and sync your projects with a remote server. It does have a built in text editor, but it’s rather basic without any vim-like modal features that I’m accustomed to. A-Shell is able to edit the files saved within Working Copy directly. These two apps allow someone to work on files in a similar manner to a computer with a shell.
I really wanted to integrate iVim into my iOS workflow, I really did. It is fast, really fast compared to running vim in any of the other mentioned apps. The issues with iVim is that it is awkward to use with Working Copy and I was not able to scp files to my server from iVim. Everything that I tried to do took way too much to time to research whether iVim was capable and to test it out.
I did not spend much time with LibTerm, but the little bit I did work with it, I found it quite buggy. By that time, I had already started working with Blink.sh + a-Shell + Working Copy and LibTerm did not offer anything over those three apps.
I have not tried out this app. It costs $3.99 in the app store and since my work needs were met after paying for Blink.sh and Working Copy, I didn’t see a reason to buy OpenTerm. I may buy it down the line to see if I can consolidate my workflow, but not at this time.
After trying all of these apps, I ended up sticking with Blink.sh for remote connection management, Working Copy for automated remote syncing, and a-Shell for local file management. These three apps together provide a work flow that is similar enough to a computer with a shell.
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Welcome! I am iiogama and this is my slice of the internet, a digital home where I can play, explore, and express myself with almost complete control. I’ll explain the “almost” part shortly, let’s start with more of the myself part of “About Me”. I have an academic interest in sociology, an active interest in various outdoor activities, and a growing spiritual interest in eastern philosophies, while being passionate about computing technology and audible art. My intent for this blog is to document and share what I have learned regarding these interests and passions, while also encouraging me to write more.
As an introduction to my technical background, I’ll explain the server that is running this website and my current (as of 2020.02.01) setup for managing the server and updating this blog. The current setup is entirely subject to change, due to my tinkering/exploring ways (honestly, I have techno-FOMO). This site is hosted on a VPS provided by Vultr, which I recently switched from Linode, which was switched from Digital Ocean (hence the previously mentioned techno-FOMO). As much as I would like to have my own server in my home with complete control and reducing my reliance on external services, I do not have the resources to acquire that hardware. I selected Vultr because they offer OpenBSD as an OS option and I have recently been exploring what OpenBSD offers over Linux, which is what I primarily have ran on my personal computers and servers. I have used almost every major distro, starting with Ubuntu 7.04 and moving to CrunchBang, Debian, Arch, Manjaro, Debian, Fedora, and again, back to Debian. I’ve played a bit with Solus, Parabola, Deepin, and quite possibly many others that I cannot remember at this time. I have extensively used OS X/MacOS and Windows for personal and professional use-cases, but have always preferred the FOSS OS options. Details on the why and how to my OpenBSD switch will come in a future blog post.
My current setup for writing is an iPad Pro running iSH, Blink.sh, and iVim, which is still being tuned. The iPad Pro absolutely sounds antithetical to my previously stated preference to FOSS OS options, but it came at a time where my old laptop friend broke, both physically and digitally. The case around the screen hinge broke around the same time that I lost almost all of my data on a Debian install. I was down a personal computer and decided that I needed something that my digital tinkering couldn’t break. The iPad offers an interesting environment with obstacles to overcome for writing and music creation. One day, I hope to get a Macbook Pro to install OpenBSD on, but until that day, I will be using an iPad Pro.
Moving past my technical background and into my creative side, I enjoy DJing and producing electronic music. At the time of writing, I have been DJing as a hobbyist for about 10 years and broadcasting a live mix show on anonradio.net for one year. I enjoy DJing a wide range of electronic styles, from deep house to drum & bass; hardcore to psydub; trance to chillhop, though my anonradio show focuses on deeper sounds of house and techno. I started with a Numark Total Control midi controller and Traktor Pro and ventured into controllerism by midi-mapping a Novation Launchpad to controlling Traktor Pro, and then moved to CDJs and ended up using DVS with Traktor Pro 3. A recent update to Mac OS Catalina has broken my ability to connect my Allen & Heath Xone:DB2 to the Macbook (I know, I know, I never mentioned the Macbook in the technical background paragraph, we can get to that later), so I’ve been using the iPad Pro to DJ, while broadcasting with my phone. It’s not an ideal DJ setup, but totally works for now.
As previously stated, I also like to produce electronic music, though I don’t spend as much time on that as I do computing and DJing. I have played with Ableton Live, but currently use two Novation Circuits as drum machines and controllers for various synth apps on the iPad Pro. It’s an incredibly fun live production setup that allows me to play and discover my own “sound”. I plan to start taking some ideas I’ve come up with and start releasing songs with this setup.
In conclusion, another welcome to my site. As you can see in this rambly post, there is quite a bit that makes up “me” that I am willing and wanting to share. I keep the homepage updated more than this blog with all of the ways that you can interact with me online. If you have any comments about this or future posts, reach out to me with those methods :)
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I don’t actually know the date I recorded these first 10 Mix Anosic mixes, they are the only mixes saved from when I first started learning how to DJ.
