Several new posts and Zond update

Config.ron

@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@
     domain: "gemini.hitchhiker-linux.org",
     path: None,
     entries: 3,
+    display_date: GemlogOnly,
     feed: Some(Both),
     license: Some(CcBySa),
     footer_links: [(url: "finger://hitchhiker-linux.org/nathan", display: "Finger")],

Makefile

@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ build:
 	zond build
 
 upload: build
-	scp -r public/* gimli:/srv/gemini
+	scp -r public/* hitchhiker-linux.org:/srv/gemini
 
 publish:
 	echo "$(submit_url)" | eval openssl s_client -connect warmedal.se:1965 -crlf \

content/gemlog/farewell_to_arm.gmi

@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
+Meta(
+    title: "Farewell to Arm",
+    summary: Some("One of my Raspberry Pi servers kicks the bucket, just when it\'s needed"),
+    published: Some(Time(
+        year: 2022,
+        month: 8,
+        day: 28,
+        hour: 22,
+        minute: 52,
+        second: 36,
+    )),
+    tags: [
+        "hardware",
+    ],
+)
+---
+It's been a good three years at least since I gave up my last desktop PC in favor of a cluster of Raspberry Pi's running various small services. I still have some x86_64 machines in the form of two laptops, but they run when needed rather than 24/7 like the Pi's. In that time I've discovered that provided you keep the expectations reasonable a Pi makes for a great little home server.
+
+My little cluster until today consisted of Frodo, Samwise, Gimli and Legolas. Frodo a Caldav and Carddav service as well as serving my ebook library via Calibre. Samwise is a torrent box and sometime DNS cache. Gimli runs this capsule over both Gemini and Spartan, a Finger service and a Gitea instance. Finally, Legolas runs a web server which also proxies a few of the other services on the network. Since yesterday after an upgrade and reboot Legolas has been offline, and today I tracked the problem down to a failed ethernet connection.
+
+Since I don't have a spare Pi that means that I'm going to be pressing Gimli into service to host the web server as well. The plus side is that now my capsule is running off of the same SSD that stored the website, rather then being stored on an SD card. I'm not under any illusion that any of my services see all that much traffic, so even this Raspberry Pi 4 is probably overspec'ed for the duty it's pulling, but if you're reading this then rest easy knowing that you got the page with probably a few nanoseconds less latency..
+
+## The timing sucks
+The site which Legolas was hosting, and which is currently offline until I can sort out the connections after work tonight, is for HitchHiker Linux. This has been a long running project of mine. HitchHiker is of course yet another Linux distro, and one can argue that we have too many of those already, but it's at least something fairly different. It's not using binary packages from any other distro for one, but builds a base system from a source directory using make similar to how FreeBSD is built. It uses NetBSD's Pkgsrc for third party packages. The init system is the S6 supervision suite, and the userland is a mix of utilities ported from BSD to Linux, suckless tools and a number of utilities I wrote myself.
+
+I don't talk about it much because it's been stuck in an almost usable state for quite a while, due to my losing some steam on the project before sorting out the init system. Of course now I've got it running as a dual boot on my main laptop, and am about to start moving the Pi cluster over (right now they run Arch, Suse and Ubuntu). At any rate, I was about to do a first release. So yeah, having the site go down along with the proxy service for the Git repository kinda sucked.
+
+Anyway, if the idea of a very Unix-like Linux distro appeals to you, watch this space. I'll be announcing it officially soon enough.

content/gemlog/hell_week.gmi

@@ -0,0 +1,36 @@
+Meta(
+    title: "Hell Week",
+    summary: Some("I really hate automobiles and jobs"),
+    published: Some(Time(
+        year: 2022,
+        month: 8,
+        day: 5,
+        hour: 13,
+        minute: 12,
+        second: 33,
+    )),
+    tags: [
+        "automobiles",
+        "work",
+    ],
+)
+---
+It was bound to happen sooner or later. But the timing really does suck.
+
+I started hearing a clanging noise from my truck a couple of months ago, very intermittently. Something like the sound of an exhaust pipe just starting to drag on the ground. Sometimes followed by other noises, which sounded like bearing noise of some sort. I haven't been able to track it down.
+
+Money is, of course, a critical concern right now. In our post-Covid economy, our once just adequate incomes have turned into a slow backpedal and decline. So taking it somewhere to have an expert work on it was out of the question. It's heart wrenching seeing everything that you've worked for slowly slip away.
+
+Anyway, I came out of work a few days ago to a dead battery. Not even enough juice to turn on a dome light. My girlfriend came out and we hooked up the jumper cables, but even after ten minutes the starter still wouldn't engage. Went home, caught a ride in from her brother the following day. Brought my handy code reader with me, but yeah, not enough battery power in the truck to even read anything. Chrystal (the girlfriend) came to pick me up after work and we hooked up the jumper cables and then the code reader. No codes - apparently the engine computer needs power for it's persistent storage.
+
+Next two days we were both off work. Went out to the truck with some tools. Pulled the battery and had it tested. The battery tester didn't even register that anything was connected to it. Thankfully, it was under warranty and they replaced it. But the starter still won't engage. So I went under the truck to check out the starter and the solenoid is so hot to the touch it burned my hand. So yeah, that starter is most likely toast. I start trying to take it out, right there in the parking lot. Of course it's both hot and lightly raining at the same time, and I'm struggling in that really confined space under a truck that hasn't even been jacked up off the ground at all. It's like a bayou in my pants when I finally give up. The top bolt is just not something I'm going to be able to reach with the tools that I brought with me.
+
+One of my son's coworkers throws us a bone. Her husband has a car hauler and will bring the truck to the house for just some gas money. Now this is why I still love rednecks. Nice people generally, and in the country we tend to help each other out. But he can't get to it until the next day afer work. I take him up on the offer anyway, not wanting to attempt any more parking lot mechanics. But sadly, it's not going to get resolved while we're both off work.
+
+Got the truck home at about 9PM on Wednesday. I'm already exhausted. The guy was really nice, but quite a talker. And his tow vehicle had iffy springs, so he thought he'd try to give it a break and load the truck with the engine towards the back of the trailer. Bad idea it turns out. With all that weight on the back of the trailer it pulled the hitch up high and swayed like a hula dancer the entire way to the house. But we did make it without damage to person or property.
+
+Thursday it's back to work. Chrystal works normal day shift, but I'm on afternoons. I catch a ride from her anyway and spend the entire day stuck in town, with no way to work on the truck. It's maddening. And we can't make this work all week, because she has to go in early on Saturday. So last night I got to work at about 11:30PM. The starter comes out easily enough now that I've got all of the tools. It's in her car now, and she'll be taking it to the parts store after her shift to have it tested and get the replacement.
+
+The good news, I'm really pretty sure that I know what happened now. The starter solenoid was getting stuck in the engaged position. The clanging was the pinion gear rattling against the flywheel. The bearing noise was from the starter spinning constantly at high speed as I drove. Which fried the starter, to the point of a dead short. Which in turn collapsed at least one cell in the battery. So, fingers crossed, a new starter will get it back on the road. At this point I'm just exhausted, frustrated, and tired of being dirty. And there's still the nagging fear that there's something else wrong.
+
+I would give up driving in a hot second if I could. I want a remote job (anyone want to take a chance on a self taught software developer?) and to not be reliant on that damn truck being in running condition every day. I'm even more convinced that the way we've structured our society is unnatural for humans. But yeah, I'm too tired to start writing philosophy.

content/gemlog/re:_the_sandman_-_as_a_fan.gmi

@@ -0,0 +1,45 @@
+Meta(
+    title: "Re: The Sandman - as a Fan",
+    summary: Some("Some thoughts about The Sandman and how I feel about the term `woke`"),
+    published: Some(Time(
+        year: 2022,
+        month: 8,
+        day: 29,
+        hour: 22,
+        minute: 47,
+        second: 14,
+    )),
+    tags: [
+        "sandman",
+        "race",
+        "gender",
+        "sexuality",
+    ],
+)
+---
+Smokey has a nice ramble about American feelings on race, sexuality and gender touched off by watching "The Sandman" with his mother.
+=> gemini://tilde.team/~smokey/logs/2022-08-29-woke.gmi Smokey: Some thoughts on the Show 'The Sandman' and wokeness in Modern Media
+
+Smokey, if you read this, I want to make it clear that I appreciate your point of view and I do think that you're approaching the topic from an open minded place. That said, I am both a long term fan of The Sandman and a person who cringes every time the term 'woke' is used unironically. So I may at times come off a bit confrontational, and I ask that you don't take that personally.
+
+## The Sandman - NOT pandering
+I became aware of The Sandman in the mid 90's and quickly fell in love with the storytelling. I have literally been waiting for most of my adult life to see this turned into a show. Having read every issue, close to the time that it was released, and having that time in close context, I would say that obviously it pushed boundaries. It pushed them Hard. But that was never the point, it was always about the stories.
+
+One of the casting choices that drew some attention was Death. In the comics, Death was a porcelein skinned goth girl looking like a more grown up Winona Rider ala Beetlejuice to Dream's Robert Smith or the Cure. But they're both of The Endless, and they can appear literally however they wish. This is apparent in a later issue where we meet Dream in Mesopotamia, at a time when he fell in love with a mortal woman (and we get a hint of this in the series, out of continuity, when we meet said woman in Hell). But frankly, their appearance is hardly important compared with their personalities. And their personalities are captured perfectly.
+
+Death in the comics was incongruously cheery considering her role. She absolutely adores her brother, while also pulling no punches when telling him off for how self absorbed and silly his depression is. In the episode, 'The Sound of her Wings', this comes across perfectly. The actor nailed it, to the point that she is now the definitive version of the character in my mind.
+
+Going back to the idea that appearance doesn't exactly matter so much as character development, the entire idea of the character of Fiddler's Green is that he is the personification of a place. That was pretty damn abstract in the 90's. And it also reinforces my point. These stories are about storytelling, and you are meant to look past the surface.
+
+Are there more lesbians, people of color and other minorities in the show than in the comics? Well yes. But is it pandering? I really don't see it that way. It's the nature of the stories being told.
+
+Lucifer was modeled off of David Bowie during his most flamboyantly genderqueer era.
+
+Desire was always androgenous.
+
+The issue in the diner always had a lesbian front and center. And I'm actually quite glad that they made some changes in presentation at this point, because I was uncomfortable reading that issue originally and I think it works better.
+
+## I do agree that pandering exists
+I get the point that Smokey was going for, and yeah, there's a lot of media out there that is obviously a cash grab with no deeper meaning. One need look no further than all of the teen oriented superhero shows on the CW network (interestingly, more DC properties). Then, of course, there was the king of pandering, Donald Trump. That asshole took it to another level entirely and actually convinced middle America that he was doing what was in their interest. Of course he's not alone. I don't believe for one second that Joe Biden is as open minded as his current political platform, because of his history.
+
+I also have kids who are in the process of coming of age. And it colors my point of view. One of my daughters is gay. She is also a successful business woman at the age of 23, and I couldn't be more proud of her. Another of my kids is trans. Add to that the fact that their mother is Latina, and I immersed myself wholly in her family while we were together, and I'll tell you I doubt I think like the average middle aged white guy. Maybe it does make my contemporaries uncomfortable to see all of this gayness and color, but for a whole lot of other people they had to grow up with zero representation, or with the only representation on TV bordering on characature. So I'm not particularly sympathetic. Yes, it's going to take some time for people's minds and hearts to change. I have a lot of extended family that I never quite pulled along for the ride so I'm well aquianted with that concept. But I got over this stuff myself a long time ago, and my advice for everyone who is being made uncomfortable by it now is to do some real self reflection and ask yourself if you like that about yourself. Does the fact that this sort of thing bothers you say anything good about you as a person? Is it actually wrong of minorities to be getting some representation, and is it actually out of proportion? Or are you just not actually the sort of person (yet) who can look past those things and enjoy the deeper stories?

content/gemlog/re_migrating_neovim_config_to_lua.gmi

@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+Meta(
+    title: "Re: Migrating Neovim config to Lua",
+    summary: Some("Some additional thoughts on NeoVim"),
+    published: None,
+    tags: ["programming", "editor"],
+)
+---
+Schmiddi had a nice post about migrating his NeoVim config to Lua.
+=> gemini://blog.schmidhuberj.de/2022/08/21/migrating-neovim-config-to-lua/
+
+> Is it worth migrating the config? I would definitely say so. Lua is easier to handle than the old vimscript-way. Furthermore, the migration is really not hard, it maybe takes an hour to migrate..
+
+That was largely my experience as well. But I really just want to take a post to talk about NeoVim in general, and how my workflow has evolved over time. Everyone who codes has a favorite editor or IDE, and for the most part we tend to get -very- attached to this tool. I've settled on using NeoVim with a number of plugins and language servers, but it wasn't always that way. I've used a lot of different editors and IDE's in fact. Enough to have become rather opinionated over time. And since this is my capsule, I've absolutely no qualms about expressing those opinions.
+
+## My history with computing in brief
+My first computer, like a lot of folks my age, was a TRS-80 (the Trashcan). There wasn't really a full fledged editor, but you got a Basic interpreter and a line editor built in. Documentation was in the form of the printed manual and whatever printed books you could get your hands on. I'm not advocating that anyone needs to go back to this. It was terrible in almost every way and the hardware was extremely limiting. But I do get nostalgic from time to time nonetheless. As a teenager I lost interest in computers anyway, in favor of playing guitar. By the time I came back to computers Linux was a good few years old and the early internet existed.
+
+I ditched Windows within a few months of getting my second ever computer, an Athlon K5 my dad put together with Windows ME. For those of you who thought that Vista or even Windows 8 were bad releases, just be glad that you never had to deal with ME. The less said the better. In any event it was not at all long after getting that computer that I was looking into alternatives to Photoshop, which even at that time was already ridiculously expensive, and heard that there was this thing called Linux which ran all free software. Not realizing at the time just how important that discovery was going to be for me.
+
+That computer followed me as a second box after upgrading to a more powerful Athlon based system around 2004, and became a test box for me. By that time I was running Fedora on the fast machine, and compiling software from ports in FreeBSD using the old K5. I was advancing in my knowledge for sure, but I wasn't really writing code yet. I was actually hosting my own website though. And, still being broke, I homebrewed the site. A lot of folks have talked about writing html using Notepad over the years. I was using Leafpad. I still like Leafpad. It was just enough editor to get the job done, while not having really any learning curve whatsoever.
+
+Around that time I also started getting interested in shell scripting. I abused the shell quite extensively using nothing more than Leafpad. I contributed to Puppy Linux a bit along the way. It was fun, but still taking a back seat to other pursuits such as photography and music. At some point I discovered Geany, and really loved that it had an attached terminal. It also had syntax highlighting, which I had never had with Leafpad. It was cool, but it didn't always work correctly. Back then I don't think anyone really relied on such things because they just weren't reliable.
+
+## I don't think that new programmers should start with an IDE
+I imagine a lot of people will disagree with this. But I'm pretty firm on it. When you are just beginning to learn to code (and by extension learn how to compile and run your code) I think having certain things abstracted away is probably bad. If you're writing C, then you should also be learning how to find the documentation for the C standard library using the man command. You should be learning how to invoke the compiler manually. And you should be learning how to structure a source distribution rather than having an IDE do so for you from a template.
+
+The big danger in starting with something like VSCode is that you will never learn how the rest of the tooling fits together because you IDE takes care of it for you. There are people out there in the wild being paid to write code who have no idea how to use Git on the command line. There are a number of people arguing that isn't actually a problem they should be concerning themselves with anyway. I humbly disagree. If your IDE has a button that you push to build your program then you won't have to learn the mechanics of how it gets built. You'll never write a Makefile by hand, even if the program in question is a single C file.