Posts on phil@bajsicki:~$

Shiny objects, and learning

Wed, 24 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0200

It’s been three months, and life has moved forward a little. Today’s rant is one that’s been brewing in me for a long time.

One of the most pernicious, annoying, frustrating, infuriating aspects of online businesses is the influence of non-technical management.

A kind view of business

Thu, 25 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0100

Scrolling LinkedIn today, I saw a post talking about the entitled attitude of business owners when hiring(1) (1)Sorry for not linking to it, I can’t morally support that platform. .

A new look: ox-tufte

Mon, 23 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0200

Struck by insomnia and dissatisfaction with the way my website has looked so far, I have opted for something less garish, and lighter, than before.

MissKey: Resetting Admin Password

Fri, 11 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0200

So recently I had the need to reset the admin password in MissKey.

Alas, there was no recovery email configured, nor other users on the instance, so I needed to do some digging in the database.

My favorite Factorio mods

Mon, 24 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0200

I’ve been meaning to make a list of Factorio mods that I’ve really liked, and write a little bit about them. While Factorio is a masterpiece in both game design and quality, there are many mods for it that make the game either more fun, entirely different, or plain ol’ QoL.

On Avoidance in Business

Thu, 04 May 2023 00:00:00 +0200

I have worked with a wide variety of businesses. I feel like that puts me in a reasonably good position to comment on one of the most frequent issues small businesses encounter.

Some words in a moment of peace

Tue, 04 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0200

There are many things in the world which annoy me.

Yet time and time again, I have these moments of clarity where the world makes sense and everything is good. It’s hopeful.

Wisdom from a Satyr

Thu, 30 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0200

This is something a dear friend said in a chat a while back. I thought it was one an awesome summary of the human condition.

Shared hosting is a scam

Wed, 29 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0200

This isn’t the first, and won’t be the last time I rant against shared hosting, SaaS, and all the other ‘I want to be a landlord’ scams out there.

This time in shared hosting: friend of mine wants to set up a tech stack for their new agency. Website, email, CRM, the works.

Note about LLM's and training data

Thu, 09 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0100

No license is granted for any use of the content on this website for the purposes of training Large Language Models (commonly referred to as “AI”), commercial, or any other purposes not covered by Fair Use.

Yes, I don’t want corporations to profit a single bit from my work. Bite me.

Join the FSF.

Brain supplements: A two month summary

Fri, 06 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0100

Over the past two months I’ve been trying out some brain supplements for my issues with focus and concentration.

[Happy Holidays!] On posting lists for self-promotion

Sun, 25 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0100

Recently I have been talked into signing up for LinkedIn by a friend. I found myself faced with a wall of blatant self-promotion.

On Problems

Mon, 21 Nov 2022 00:00:00 +0100

I had a fairly interesting conversation today with a young immigrant from Palestine to Germany.

Trying out some brain supplements, pt. 2

Sun, 20 Nov 2022 00:00:00 +0100

Two days have passed. I’ve found that Alpha-GPC should be dosed at twice what I’ve been using. Today’s the first day that I’ve done that.

Trying out some brain supplements

Fri, 18 Nov 2022 00:00:00 +0100

As a person working in a high-speed, high-attention and multifaceted environment (currently working as an Executive Assistant, soon starting a new job in Quality Assurance), I am changing contexts all the time.

Efficient computer use

Sat, 12 Nov 2022 00:00:00 +0100

There’s been a whole bunch of things going in the background that kept me from writing more recently. Work has regularly left me brain-drained, and I’ve found myself in a position where I desperately need to focus on moving my career forward.

Heaps of fun (Yakuza)

Mon, 17 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0200

I’ve been a bit sick over the past week. Not the ‘rona as far as I can tell. Just a flu. Probably.

I spent most of that time playing Yakuza Zero, then Kiwami, and now I’m in the middle of playing through Kiwami 2.

Haxe, heaps, and VSCode (small rant)

Mon, 10 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0200

Yesterday me and a friend have been trying to set me up with a development environment to start working on a small game.

He’s already made all the big choices, and so the plan was for me to set up with Haxe, Heaps, and the HashLink VM with the IDE VSCode.

We got everything running, except for the debugger link. We spent - no joke - over two hours until we found an explanation for the issue.

Weekend thoughts - Mastering Emacs by Mickey Petersen

Sat, 08 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0200

Over The Past few weeks I’ve found myself spending more and more time in Emacs. As such, I want to learn more about it, and how to use it effectively. It seems worth the effort, because if I save 5 seconds every day, that stacks up and saves inordinate amounts of time.

VPS is my new friend

Fri, 07 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0200

Over the past month and a half, I have migrated all of my services over to a VPS that I am renting from Netcup.de. Unsurprisingly, I am very happy with it.

Considerations on FOSS and subscription models

Sun, 02 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0200

I’ve had this idea for a few days. Mulled it over. Thought about it. And I end up considering options.

There are a ton of vendors for automation services. Zapier, Make, and others. Fundamentally what they do can be done as a one-time service.

I really, really like Emacs

Sat, 01 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0200

I was taking with a friend a few hours ago and he mentioned that Emacs is intimidating. And yes, it may well appear so.

On the value of calling it a day (and how to get there)

Fri, 30 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0200

There is little as refreshing as finishing all the work you have to do on a Friday early.

Realistic deadlines

Fri, 30 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0200

Recently a wrote an after-action report on a project that failed to materialize for a number of reasons. The details are irrelevant - whether it worked or not would be an afterthought given its consequences in other places.

Some thoughts on SaaS and business applications of Free Software

Wed, 28 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0200

SaaS is a pain in the rear for many reasons, which bother me a lot and which I can’t help but vent about today.

Overcoming typing-related RSI

Thu, 22 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0200

[2022-09-22 Thu]

Over the past few weeks, I’ve found that decreasing the amount I type has helped a lot. I can’t remember the last time I was unable to sleep due to pain.

Learning a new keyboard layout

Thu, 18 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0200

[2022-08-18 Thu]

Given that I type a lot - and I do mean A LOT, and I’m past the age of good hand health… I’m in a certain amount of constant pain.

VPS set-up

Thu, 18 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0200

A few months ago I took up a project to centralize and collect all of my websites and email boxes.