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Some of you may remember that last year I have been #handsewing a shirt in red wool, but by the time I've mostly¹ finished it it was already too warm to be able to wear it significantly.

At least, the Sensible Season seems to have started, and I can wear it!

There will be a blog post. At some unknown time in the future.

¹ it does need a few detachable collar and cuffs variants, to style it a bit differently, but those don't prevent me from wearing the shirt as is.

#historyBounding #FreeSoftWear

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Elena ``of Valhalla''
@Kermode I mean, I'm used to Garibaldi's name appearing around every corner here in Italy, and I know he was called hero of the two Worlds (the old and the new, but afaik it was mostly in South America) and that he was quite a celebrity in his time. But I didn't expect a mountain named after him in Canada!


mass shootings, insightful shitpost

quoteposting to add a Content Wrapper:


Gun nuts get very upset when you mislabel an AR-15 as an assault rifle. So to avoid any controversy, please refer to the weapon using its proper technical classification, which is a mass murder rifle.




On a street I've seen two lost pet announcements: one for a cat named Kitty and one for an unnamed ferret, and now I'm really really hoping that somebody will find that mustelid and force him to marry Kitty!

Sai reshared this.

in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla''

Per strada ho visto due annunci di animali smarriti: un gatto di nome Kitty e un furetto del quale non era specificato il nome, e adesso sto sperando caldamente che qualcuno trovi quel mustelide e lo costringa a sposare Kitty!

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Wooops, apparently I've been writting in the Void for a couple of days, except that the Void was carefully storing everything I had written to be ready to send it to the right recipients as soon as asked.

Sorry for the flood :D

Oblomov reshared this.

in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla''

Infatti notavo delle discrepanze con l'ora del toot: non è che sei su GMT, visto che arrivano da 2 ore nel passato?
in reply to rag. Gustavino Bevilacqua

@Rag. Gustavino Bevilacqua no, no, questo post era stato scritto poco prima delle 10 di stamattina, ma ci sono volute un paio di ore prima che tutta la coda di messaggi vecchi arrivasse ad essere spedita in giro.

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TIL: #valentina (the pattern drafting software) now has a manual layout component that generates pattern PDFs that are much nicer than the automatic ones, and closer to what one expects from a bought pattern (including registration marks and watermarks with a logo or text).
in reply to rag. Gustavino Bevilacqua

@Rag. Gustavino Bevilacqua crocine / crocette non sono i segni di riferimento per il taglio (che mi pareva di aver sentito chiamare crocini, però, anche)?
in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla''

Il termine corretto è "crocini di registro" per quelli che servono per centrare i colori (nell'immagine di esempio NON sono centrati!) e "crocini di taglio" per quelli per tagliare.

it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crocino



Waking up thought of this morning¹:

“Higher than the sun” describe the earth every year for a time centered on December-ish when the sun is in Sagittarius² and thus between us and the center of the galaxy, right?

¹ actually, it was still the middle of the night, I woke up briefly and went back to sleep
² wait, while writing this I've just been reminded of the precession of the equinoxes, so it's actually centered in january-ish

in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla''

Pensiero al risveglio di stamattina¹:

“più in alto del sole” descrive la terra ogni anno per un periodo di tempo centrato più o meno su dicembre quando il sole è in sagittario² e quindi tra di noi e il centro della galassia, giusto?

¹ in realtà di quando mi sono svegliata brevemente che era ancora notte fonda, per poi tornare a dormire
² no, mentre scrivevo mi son ricordata della precessione degli equinozi, quindi centrato da qualche parte attorno a gennaio o giù di lì


in reply to Fabio

@Fabio non che io l'abbia letta per intero (ancora :D ), ho fatto passare un po' di pagine.

forse qualche affermazione corretta la fa. forse :D

in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla''

@Fabio e non glie ne si può fare una colpa, eh.

è più una considerazione su come faccia impressione quanto certe cose di linguistica che oggi sembrano universalmente note e scontate siano scoperte relativamente recenti



/me, puts away a pair of linen detachable cuffs, sees her cozy, warm, flannel 1880s shirt.

is it winter yet? and yet? and yet? and…

Oblomov reshared this.

in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla''

* ripone nell'armadio un paio di polsini di lino separati, vede la camicia di flanella morbida e calda in stile 1880.

è arrivato l'inverno? eh? eh? e adesso, è arrivato?

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in reply to Oblomov

@Oblomov @Rag. Gustavino Bevilacqua alla fine di agosto non c'è un'occasione “ufficiale” per andare in giro in costume (non che io abbia piani quest'anno di andare a Lucca, ma se volessi andarci, dovrei preoccuparmi di gestire le temperature col costume, e io non ci andrei col costume da uomo nudo :D )

quindi evidentemente agosto e ottobre non sono la stessa cosa!

Unknown parent

Elena ``of Valhalla''

@Kermode that's probably¹ lower than I've ever experienced in my life :D

¹ I've had exactly one experience of -18°C, so maybe on that night I've also met a -19°C, hence the probably



@LaVi 🕊️📚🐈

si parlava di treni storici, c'è un viaggio questo weekend (però questo sarà elettrico, non a vapore)

trenord.it/giteintreno/diverti…

@LaVi
Unknown parent

mario
@fabrixxm c'è anche chi fa sesso con vampiri e zombie
Unknown parent

Elena ``of Valhalla''
@LaVi 🕊️📚🐈 @Fabio beh, dai, se sei in vacanza e devi prendere un treno solo (niente coincidenze) alla fine se anche il treno fa 20 minuti di ritardo te ne accorgi il giusto, non è che devi timbrare il biglietto.



/me, playing a game of 0ad and looking at the random factions: “oh, it's civil war between Syrians, and my Syrian allies have asked the help of the Roman empire against the yellow Syrians”

@Diego Roversi “fools”

/me, looking and how my ally still has more or less their initial corner of the map, while my territory has been enlarged significantly “you're not wrong”



TIL: if you put thread on both sides of the sewing machine, things you've sewn keep together better :D
in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla''

TIL: se metti il filo da entrambe le parti della macchina da cucire, le cose che hai cucito stanno assieme meglio

barfly reshared this.




This week I haven't complained about #handsewing with plastic thread yet, right?

well, now I'm complaining about handsewing plastic fabric with plastic thread when there is even a layer of mylar safety blanket under the fabric.

but binding the edges with a machine seam and then handsewing it on the back is so much neater than trying to stitch in the ditch by machine!

#sewing

in reply to donkey herder, fowl friend

@donkey herder a roll for cards (ID, driver license, etc.), the mylar blanket is there to make it harder to read them remotely (it's not perfect, but it should help reducing the distance the reader has to be to work).

I'm using some leftovers of cordura from my backpack lining, and sew-all thread.



Quando ti sembra che l'applicativo web che stai sviluppando sia troppo lento a rispondere, e ti disperi, non sai più dove mettere le mani e non ti senti all'altezza del compito...

apri il sito di youtube.

Nei 15 secondi che ci mette a caricarsi ritroverai tutta la fiducia in te stesso.



Chickpea Crackers


Posted on September 20, 2023
A flatbread, prescored into small portions, but still in one piece on top of a plate and overflowing to the side (it's about 10 cm × 30 cm or so). A side is thin and more browned, the other side is a bit thicker and paler.

And another half-written article I had in my repo. (Am I doing #FallFinishAlong with blog articles instead of / in addition to craft projects? it feels so).

I was in need of snacks. I wanted something bready, but with a bit less carbs and more proteins. I had a bag of chickpea flour.

Ingredients were:

  • 100 g wheat flour
  • 100 g chickpea flour
  • 100 g water
  • 3 g salt
  • 1 g dry yeast

Mix everything as usual for bread, leave to rise for 4-6 hours.

Divide in 4 parts, roll them out to a thickness of about 1 – 2 mm, prick them with a fork (or the fancy cracker pricking tool that you don’t really need but I may have bought).

Optionally spray with a bit of water and sprinkle with salt (coarse or flake is best).

Preheat the oven to 240°C and cook for 5 minutes, or preheat the oven to 210°C and cook for 10 minutes for a dryer version.

I’ve tried both cooking temperatures: the 210°C had the big advantage of being the same as the common bread I was already making, so no additional oven time was required (it was summer. this was a consideration.), but I’m not sure which version I like best, so I think in winter I will alternate between the two.

Put it in a cotton (linen?) bag and keep it in a dry place, where it will keep for weeks (assuming you’ve made a bigger batch :D ).

This is now part of my staples.


blog.trueelena.org/blog/2023/0…

Unknown parent

Elena ``of Valhalla''

@Nathan Lövsund 🐒 🚀 mine aren't extremely crispy (like commercial crackers) either, more like homemade crackers.

Nice idea using sourdough, I should also try it one day!



somebody on tumblr wrote:

“stories can resonate with you even when the characters are nothing like you’ is something a 6 year old would understand but it needs to be explained to fandom adults on tumblr”



thinking of the roman empire

I know, it's a media thing to attract views and stuff, but I can't resist.

Why? don't you all think of the roman empire when spinning wool while walking on the streets of a town that used to be part of the empire (and thus, you're doing something that, I've read somewhere, was considered a thing not done)?

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in reply to rag. Gustavino Bevilacqua

pensare all'impero romano

@Rag. Gustavino Bevilacqua wikipedia mi dice di guardare Erodoto - Le storie (Ἱστορίαι), capitolo 71, libro II

Però hypo era ὑπό, mentre cavallo è ῐ̔́ππος, non son così simili, in fondo

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in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla''

pensare all'impero romano
Quindi i casi sono due: o gli ippopotami erano così magri da esser scambiati per cavalli, o quello che si fumava all'epoca era veramente potente.


Installing minidlna


Posted on September 19, 2023
I’ve found the draft of this article I almost completely wrote (checks) more than 3 months ago, and I guess it’s time to finish and publish it.

The very first A10 based device that entered our home, before they started to use it for SBCs, was a Chinese media server with a slot for a 3.5" hard disk and a few analogue audio outputs.

Of course from the time it entered our home it has always been running Debian.

Now that we may have a few, more powerful, A20 SBCs available, it has been fully dedicated to music: it is connected to the stereo, the hard disk has a clone of the git-annex repository where I’ve ripped all of my CDs1 and is played by connecting via ssh and running alsaplayer.

It’s simple (for my tastes). it works. Unless you’re in a different room than the one with the stereo.

And then I read this post on the fediverse that suggested installing minidlna on an old Raspberry Pi, and on a whim I decided I needed it.

I installed the package from Debian, set a few easy settings in the configuration file (such as which directories to serve), restarted the service.

And that’s it, it just worked.

The only thing I had to take care about is that to use git-annex repositories as the source of media files either the root of the repository should be used as media-dir, or the wide_links options should be set to yes, otherwise the symbolic links that point outside of the media-dir won’t be served.

As a client I used VLC (note for myself in case I ever forget, it’s under View → Playlist and then Local Network → Universal Plug ‘n’ Play), mostly because I already had it around.

Now that I’ve used it for a few months I have to say that it isn’t a perfect solution: the main format I store my music in is in flac 2, which isn’t supported by dlna; for a significant part of it I’ve also already generated single-song ogg files for convenience 3, and at least it works for those.

I don’t store (yet?) my video collection on the A10 device, but I did a quick test, and no, of course a raw dump of a DVD as generated by dvdbackup isn’t supported, so I would have to convert those too. And there is some support for subtitles as a separate file (which is something else I tend to have around), but only one file, with strict requirements for the name, which is a bit restrictive.

On the other hand, the hassle to set this up was so low that the functionality / hassle ratio is most definitely worth, and I’m quite happy I did and plan to continue using it.


  1. (yes, I’m still using CDs, I have objections to those newfangled streaming services)↩︎
  2. full CD rip in a single file, with an embedded cuesheet, to preserve as much as possible of the original disc.↩︎
  3. in theory the flac was supposed to be future-proof storage, with the ogg files for actual use, but then I always listen to full albums, so the flac just work, and I only tend to bother generating the ogg when I’m already generating mp3 for the car.↩︎

blog.trueelena.org/blog/2023/0…



Inspired by the excellent UI for emergency alerts on smartphones, @Fabio had the idea to write a new phone interface: Launcher Ultima

It's an isometric RPG, to make a call you have to find a phone box, to answer an incoming a call you need to be close to the *right* phone box (and of course there are multiple ones).

The address book is, as the name suggests, a book. Or rather multiple books, spread out around the whole world.

And if you receive an emergency alert a huge red face appears on top of the screen, and *loudly* reads the text of the alert.

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Daniele Tricoli
con tanto di boss da sconfiggere prima di poter leggere uno dei tanti libri in cui è suddivisa la rubrica, giusto?
Unknown parent

Elena ``of Valhalla''
@LaVi 🕊️📚🐈 @Fabio tranne che nei luoghi di rilevanza sociale: ospedali, carceri, interfacce per telefoni :D


In the spirit of #FallFinishAlong, 3 days ago (3 days??? just 3 days???) i posted about a #YarnChicken victory at the middle of the shawl I'm knitting.

Pictured here, because I'm slow at moving pictures over from the camera to the pc :D

Anyway, the whole shawl is made of 4 balls of yarn, I started it in mid June, finished #knitting the second ball 3 months later. and now I've almost finished working the third ball, and I'm ready to attach the last one.

The last quarter of the work is probably going to go significantly slower, because it's no longer garter stitch, but still. I wasn't sure this would have been ready for December, but now it's starting to look realistic.


I'm #knitting a shawl in two colours, and according to the precision scale I have exactly the amount of yarn I need to knit another two rows with the first colour before moving on to the next one.

I've added a lifeline, in case I lose this round of #yarnChicken.

And now, I should really stop knitting and have my breakfast, but that would delay *knowing*.


in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla''

And I'm more than halfway through the fourth ball of yarn.

The next steps are:
* one row (k all sts)
* inserting a lifeline
* two rows (yo / k2t and k all sts)
* start binding off with a method I've never used
* lose the yarn chicken round
* rip to the lifeline
* bind off, this time for real

in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla''

E ho più che passato la metà del quarto gomitolo.

I prossimi passi sono:
* un ferro al dritto
* inserire un filo di salvataggio
* due ferri (lanciato / due lavorati assieme, e l'altro tutto al dritto)
* iniziare a chiudere con un metodo che non ho ancora mai usato
* perdere la partita a yarn chicken
* disfare fino al filo
* chiudere, stavolta davvero

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Non-e (Note)Book


Posted on September 18, 2023
A coptic bound book with a blue PCB as the cover.

Some time ago our LUG bought some things from soldered.com and while browsing around the website my SO and I decided to add a junk box to the order and see what we would get.

Other than a few useful things, there were two mostly unpopulated boards for the inkplate 10 which would have been pretty hard to reuse as electronics.

Two PCBs for the Inkplate 10 from eradionica, unpopulated. They are rectangles with a long slit close to one long side, a few holes and a notch at the bottom.

On the other hand, at 23 cm × 18 cm they are a size that is reasonable for a book, and the slit near a long edge made them look suitable for the cover plates of a coptic bound book.

Since the size isn’t a standard one, I used some paper I already had in big (A1) sheet: Clairefontaine Dessin Croquis Blanc at 120 g/m², and cut 32 sheet 466 mm × 182 mm big, to have room to trim the excess at the end and straighten the edges. This would make 8 signatures of 4 sheet each, for a total of 128 pages.

The paper will make it suitable both as a notebook (where I’ll write with liquid ink, of course, not ballpoints) or as a sketchbook for pencil (but not wet techniques).

I could have added a few more signatures, but this felt already good enough, and the risk to end up with an half-empty notebook was non-trivial (I will already have to force myself to actually use it, rather than keep it for a good topic that will never be).

First we finished depopulating the boards, using it as a desoldering exercise and trying (and not always succeeding) to save as many components as possible, even if most of them were too tiny for our current soldiering skills.

The book, closed, partially sewn.

And then I only had to sew the book, which was done mostly while watching the DebConf streams.

The finished book seen from the front edge, showing that the trimming isn't very smooth.

And a couple of days later, trim and sand the pages, which as usual I could have done better, but, well, it works.

The next time I do something like this I think I will have to add a couple more mm also to the height, to be able to trim also those edges.

A coptic bound book, open between signatures, on white pages.

And now of course the Big Question is: what should I dedicate this notebook to? Will I actually use it? This year? This decade?


blog.trueelena.org/blog/2023/0…

Kermode reshared this.

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Elena ``of Valhalla''

@Kermode yeah, it's a know problem.

I willingly got myself into trouble by using a static site generator written in haskell, and now I should learn enough haskell to fix the mangling of image urls for the rss feed (which gets read by friendica and posted here on the fediverse).

And learning haskell was the whole point of it, but it means I need some time to do it, and I keep getting distracted by other projects :D



@devrtz :debian: ,
btw, I think I need a t-shirt with these words. or a patch on my backpack. Yeah, I think a patch for my backpack will happen in the near future. And if anybody wants to print stickers or anything else, I will submit this to the usual places :D

(And until I've submitted it to the right places, the source can be found on eoval.org/YFf9WaTC#debian_phon… , under the same license as the debian logo)

@Fabio , @Diego Roversi and the other locals: if you also want something with these words, we can talk about it :)

in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla''

@Fabio @Diego Roversi

(assuming that the photosensitive thing for screen printing is still working, otherwise it will happen in the somewhat less near future when I buy a new bottle)

in reply to fnord99

@fnord99 mine can't, and I wouldn't want to do that anyway.

Now, I wouldn't mind using a few apps that are in f-droid, but not strongly enough that I have ever bothered looking into how to do it.

Anyway, I posted on my linux mobile experience some months ago, and it's still pretty accurate (but note that some of the big problems are hardware-related and apparently are not a problem with a more expensive phone) blog.trueelena.org/blog/2023/0…

in reply to fnord99

@fnord99
To be brutally honest:
Don't know, don't care.

I avoid that shit for a reason.
And I have always had enough willpower to resist that shit.

If you must, feel free to feel offended 🦄

in reply to devrtz :debian:

@devrtz :debian: @fnord99 @Fabio @Diego Roversi the biggest temptation for me would be StreetComplete (from f-droid, not from the playstore), but then I have a pinephone, so the GPS is, well, not great, and I'm not sure it would work anyway.

For everything else I'd need I can think of an alternative that is native to linux and packaged in debian.

(a Librem 5 may solve that problem, but that's quite out of my budget)

in reply to devrtz :debian:

on a very practical level: apps for buying tickets for public transport in your city; for cashless payments; for navigation with live information on traffic; for online banking; for charging an EV etc. - they range from "convenient" to "life-saving" **literally**. Is all of that available under Debian for mobile?
in reply to fnord99

@fnord99 @Fabio @Diego Roversi @devrtz :debian:

for tickets for public transport I go to a kiosk (or sometimes an actual ticket window with an actual person, because the kiosk is half-broken). If I was using it more often I would probably buy a monthly pass online from the website.

For cashless payments I use the payment card from my bank.

I've had pretty bad experiences with navigation with live traffic information when traveling with friends (being sent on unreasonable detours that probably *increased* travel time), so, meh, that's not really something I feel the need for.

For online banking I use the website, usually from my pc; there is some 2FA happening with a phone call (with a machine, not a person)

I haven't tried those websites from a mobile browser, they may or may not work (I'm sure that the train website is horrible, but that's also true on the pc version, the only way to navigate it is by blocking 3/4 of the javascript, which firefox on the pinephone could do.)

AFAIK some EV charging places in EU have a card that you can use if you don't want to install an app. I really hope that as EVs get more common they will start accepting cash or cards like every other place where you have to buy things, however. (I also don't travel enough to be in the market for an EV, or any kind of new car, at the moment)

in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla''

we are probably living in very different places. I live in Norway. Here, not using the apps Vipps, Ruter, google maps, EV charger etc. - will in the best case cost you a lot more time used. Worst case, e.g. there is an incident ahead which you may well avoid by changing route in due time. Or you have to call a taxi instead of taking a bus. For my personal use i think i could not avoid Android, too much lost time and possibilities without it.
in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla''

@Fabio @Diego Roversi @devrtz :debian: @fnord99 my experience (in Italy) is that a lot of places that are trying to pressure you into installing their app do have an app-free alternative hidden somewhere, it only takes a bit of patience (and time, which not everybody has, of course) to find them.


Ed è iniziata la stagione delle freselle con sopra il minestrone.

E nel minestrone dei bei pezzi di zucca.

Non serve che dica altro, vero?

#teamInverno #teamAutunno #MaLImportanteÈCheFiniscaLEstate

Unknown parent

Elena ``of Valhalla''

@Kermode the south Italian variant of hardtack, except it's actually good in taste and texture :D

This picture is closer to what I'm having

it.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Fri…

in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla''

@Kermode having it with minestrone instead of fresh tomatoes and oil is not a traditional thing, btw, and is one that will probably cause some people from the south of Italy to recoil in horror :D


I'm #knitting a shawl in two colours, and according to the precision scale I have exactly the amount of yarn I need to knit another two rows with the first colour before moving on to the next one.

I've added a lifeline, in case I lose this round of #yarnChicken.

And now, I should really stop knitting and have my breakfast, but that would delay *knowing*.

in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla''

The pattern is basically “repeat until the end of the colour, change colour, repeat until the end of that yarn”, so there would have been no dishonour in changing the colour two rows earlier.

But surely that's wasteful, right?

in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla''

Is it possible for this shawl to be “too big”? That’s the only reason I could think of to stop early.
in reply to Deborah Pickett

@Deborah Pickett not really, I don't have a lot of yarn (I'm using something from the stash), so I don't think there is a chance for it to become too big. And just two rows wouldn't make that much of a difference anyway, I think.
in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla''

and I WON! with a full *quarter of a gram* of yarn left!

edit: that's 80 cm!

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goat? droppings

Filed under: conflicting messages

The mystery remains: how are they managing the grass in that area?

(it's the outdoor area of a museum, where the public is supposed to walk to reach the planes on display, so they have to keep the grass short enough that it's not a danger)

in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla''

goat? droppings

Nella categoria: messaggi contradditori.

E rimane il mistero: con quale dei due metodi gestiscono il prato?

(È l'area all'aperto di un museo, dove il pubblico deve camminare per raggiungere gli aeroplani esposti, per cui è necessario tenere l'erba abbastanza corta da non essere un pericolo)



@LaVi 🕊️📚🐈, @Fabio non so perché, ma vedendo questo cartello ho pensato a voi :D

Era attaccato a:

E il cartello dall'altra parte lo descriveva come “Sulla linea Como - Laveno”, per dire quanto è vintage :)

reshared this

in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla''

No English version of the post above, which is mostly for people who travel on the local commuter trains, but the picture is of a model of a rather impressive (in person) 5 arcs railway bridge above a valley with a river and, at the time of the model, a second railway (which only had a relatively short life because of international politics¹ and now at that place is just a path through the woods)

¹ as in: it was an international local line, and then fascism.



Pietro Conti, nel 1896 ha scritto:

“Onore di pianto avrete ed il vostro nome durerà finché i sacrosanti ideali di libertà ed indipendenza batteranno nei petti umani e finché si giudicherà sommo sacrificio versare il sangue per la patria.”

ecco, mi spiace dirtelo, perché ammetto che l'entusiasmo che traspira dal capitolo un po' è contagioso, ma temo che quel “finché” non sia durato molti altri decenni, e per ottime ragioni.

(la formattazione qui su friendica da info che potrebbero non arrivare su mastodon)



How I Keep my Life in Git


Posted on September 12, 2023

git secret_cabal greet

After watching My life in git, after subversion, after CVS. from DebConf, I’ve realized it’s been a while since I talked about the way I keep everything1 I do in git, and I don’t think I’ve ever done it online, so it looked like a good time for a blog post.

Beyond git itself (of course), I use a few git-related programs:

  • myrepos (also known as mr) to manage multiple git repositories with one command;
  • vcsh to make it easy to keep dot-files under git;
  • git annex to store media files (anything that is big and will not change);
  • etckeeper to keep an history of the /etc directory;
  • gitolite and cgit to host my git repositories;

and some programs that don’t use git directly, but easily interact with it:

  • ansible to keep track of the system configuration of all machines;
  • lesana as a project tracker and journal and to inventory the things made of atoms that are hard 2 to store in git.

All of these programs are installed from Debian packages, on stable (plus rarely backports) or testing, depending on the machine.

I’m also grateful to the vcs-home people, who wrote most of the tools I use, and sometimes hang around their IRC channel.

And now, on to what I’m actually doing.

With the git repositories I’ve decided to err for too much granularity rather than too little3, so of course each project has its own repository, and so do different kinds of media files, dot-files that are related to different programs etc.

Most of the repositories are hosted on two gitolite servers: one runs on the home server, for stuff that should remain private, and the other one is on my VPS for things that are public (or may become public in the future), and also has a web interface with cgit. Of course things where I’m collaborating with other people are sometimes hosted elsewhere, mostly on salsa, sourcehut or on $DAYJOB related gitlab instances.

The .mr directory is where everything is managed: I don’t have a single .mrconfig file but a few different ones, that in turn load all files in a directory with the same name:

  • collections.mr for the media file annexes and inventories (split into different files, so that computers with little disk space can only get the inventories);
  • private.mr for stuff that should only go on my own personal machine, not on shared ones;
  • projects.mr for the actual projects, with different files for the kinds of projects (software, docs, packaging, crafts, etc.);
  • setup.mr with all of the vcsh repositories, including the one that tracks the mr files (I’ll talk about the circular dependency later);
  • work.mr for repositories that are related to $DAYJOB.

Then there are the files in the .mr/machines directory, each one of which has the list of repositories that should be on every specific machine, including a generic workstation, but also specific machines such as e.g. the media center which has a custom set of repositories.

The dot files from my home directory are kept in vcsh, so that it’s easy to split them out into different repositories, and I’m mostly used the simplest configuration described in the 30 Second How-to in its homepage; vcsh gives some commands to work on all vcsh repositories at the same time, but most of the time I work on a single repository, and use mr to act on more than one repo.

The media collections are also pretty straightforward git-annex repositories, one for each kind of media (music, movies and other videos, e-books, pictures, etc.) and I don’t use any auto-syncing features but simply copy and move files around between clones with the git annex copy, git annex move and git annex get commands.

There isn’t much to say about the project repositories (plain git), and I think that the way I use my own program lesana for inventories and project tracking is worth an article of its own, here I’ll just say that the file format used has been designed (of course) to work nicely with git.

On every machine I install etckeeper so that there is a history of the changes in the /etc directory, but that’s only a local repository, not stored anywhere else, and is used mostly in case something breaks with an update or in similar situation. The authoritative source for the configuration of each machine is an ansible playbook (of course saved in git) which can be used to fully reconfigure the machine from a bare Debian installation.

When such a reconfiguration from scratch happens, it will be in two stages: first a run of ansible does the system-wide configuration (including installing packages, creating users etc.), and then I login on the machine and run mr to set up my own home. Of course there is a chicken-and-egg problem in that I need the mr configuration to know where to get the mr configuration, and that is solved by having setup two vcsh repositories from an old tarball export: the one with the ssh configuration to access the repositories and the one with the mr files.

So, after a machine has been configured with ansible what I’ll actually do is to login, use vcsh pull to update those two repositories and then run mr to checkout everything else.

And that’s it, if you have questions on something feel free to ask me on the fediverse or via email (contacts are in the about page)

Update (2023-09-12 17:00ish): The ~/.mr directory is not special for mr, it’s just what I use and then I always run mr -c ~/.mr/some/suitable/file.mr, with the actual file being different whether I’m registering a new repo or checking out / updating them. I could include some appropriate ~/.mr/machines/some_machine.mr in ~/.mrconfig, but I’ve never bothered to do so, since it wouldn’t cover all usecases anyway. Thanks to the person on #vcs-home@OFTC who asked me the question :)


  1. At least, everything that I made that is made of bits, and a diary and/or inventory of the things made of atoms.↩︎
  2. until we get a working replicator, I guess :D↩︎
  3. in time I’ve consolidated a bit some of the repositories, e.g. merging the repositories for music from different sources (CD rips, legal downloads, etc.) into a single repository, but that only happened a few times, and usually I’m fine with the excess of granularity.↩︎

blog.trueelena.org/blog/2023/0…

#vcs

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Hey @Cube Drone ! I liked "Detective Capilano and the Case of the Car Crash that Was Also Maybe A Murder? This Title is Too Long." 👍😀

cube-drone.com/capilano/index.…



Banners and Signs


Posted on September 8, 2023
I forgot to write down the details back when it happened, but now that the surprise has been delivered I can write about it.

A triangular fabric banner, black with a reflective grey border, and a penguin outline where part of the outline is in the shape of Lake Como screenprinted in white and light blue.

Some time ago, I decided to make a small banner with the GL-Como penguin for a friend, because reasons.

However, this friend has a big problem, he, well, is from Pisa (no, I’m not from Leghorn, why do you ask?), and I had a screen printing kit, openclipart and no inhibitions.

Three fabric banners: one is the one mentioned above, two are square with a yellow corded border, a yellow triangle and a tower of Pisa in black in the middle. The yellow triangles aren't perfectly flat yellow, but somewhat ruined, one more than the other.

So, with the encouragement of a few friends who were in the secret, this happened. In two copies, because the first attempt at the print had issues.

And yesterday we finally met that friend again, gave him all of the banners, and no violence happened, but he liked them :D

An ISO 7071-style triangle warning sign with a simplified tower of Pisa in black on yellow background.

If somebody is interested, the source image I used is on openclipart, with links to all of the sources I’ve used.

I don’t remember exactly how it happened, but when I was working on the Pisani sign I also stumbled on the “no dogs” sign and decided that the world needed a “mandatory cat” sign, and well, here is the full set (all images are a link to the openclipart page).

ISO 7071 “no dogs” sign, a black dog on white background with a red circle with a diagonal line.

ISO 7071-style “mandatory cats” sign, a white cat on blue circle background.

ISO 7071-style “mandatory dogs” sign, a white dog on blue circle background.

ISO 7071-style “no cats”, a black cat on white background with a red circle with a diagonal line.


blog.trueelena.org/blog/2023/0…



book bundles (drm-free ebooks for sale)

The current storybundle includes a few complete trilogies, rather than the usual book 1 (and then you're on your own getting the rest), as long as you pay at least the bonus level, and I'd strongly recommend Machineries of Empires to anybody who loves space opera and/or excellent worldbuilding.

storybundle.com/trilogies

(I'm not involved in any of this, I've just loved reading it)

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in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla''

book bundles (drm-free ebooks for sale)
thanks, I had mindlessly deleted that email but I will take a second look.


Un amico mi scrive quanto segue:

“Ciao,

mi devo liberare dei #libri di cui puoi trovare le copertine al seguente link:

data.laboccadellupo.it/index.p…

Li ho rozzamente classificati e non li ho catalogati perche' non trovo che il gioco valga la candela. Voglio provare a salvarli dal loro tristo destino: finire nella stufa, una pagina alla volta, questo inverno. Mi dai una mano?

Sono i vecchi libri miei, di mia madre e di mio padre che abbiamo deciso di non tenere dopo aver venduto la vecchia casa di famiglia. La URL ti permette di accedere ad un gestore di file web: accedi ad una cartella, clicca su un'immagine e comincia a scorrere con i tasti freccia destra e sinistra tra le copertine. Qualcosa so che finira' sicuramente nella bocca della stufa, ma magari qualcosa no (spero la maggior parte!).

Sono quasi tutti in italiano, tranne quelli in un'apposita e chiara cartella. Cosa troverai? Arte e romanzi, saggi sull'Italia repubblicana, qualcosa di filosofia, vecchi manuali liceali, qualcosa di informatico, vecchie riviste e fumetti, pubblicazioni molto locali. Guardati intorno.

Segnati il nome del file che appare sopra l'immagine della copertina e mandamelo per dirmi che vuoi il libro o maggiori informazioni. Passa pure questo messaggio a persone che possono aiutarci a salvarli, pero' io agisco nella sola area di #Varese e dintorni mentre tu ti prendi la responsabilita' per amiche o amici piu' lontani.

Consulta il file "istruzioni.txt" per trovare il modo di contattarmi ed eventuali altre informazioni che potrei aver aggiunto nel tempo rispetto al momento in cui hai ricevuto questo messaggio.”

(hashtag miei)

Qualcuno qui sul fediverso vuole dargli una mano?

#mastoregalo

in reply to Scimmia di Mare

@Scimmia di Mare :unverified: e immagino che tu non abbia qualche amico/parente/conoscente che capita in zona a cui far fare da corriere (della droga :D ), vero?


Consiglio caldamente l'apertura con blocco javascript, e l'articolo probabilmente è stato scritto su calda raccomandazione dell'azienda, ma dice cose interessanti sui TiLo (treni pendolari / locali tra lombardia e ticino), anche se a livello molto poco approfondito.

#trenò, #trenord

Reply Guy reshared this.

in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla''

La gente che si chiede perché non ci siano treni che vanno direttamente da uno stato all'altro queste cose non le sa.
in reply to rag. Gustavino Bevilacqua

@Rag. Gustavino Bevilacqua Però è anche vero che oggi come oggi non è così difficile costruire treni che accettano più tensioni (che io sappia molto più semplice di quanto non fosse una volta).

E se non altro, sui confini italiani mi risulta che lo scartamento sia sempre lo stesso (contrariamente alla Spagna che ha uno scartamento diverso dalla Francia (e dal resto d'Europa))

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car, +

TFW you announce “and now I'm driving on a straight and wide road” and 10 seconds later you turn an almost-blind curve and see two big buses overtaking a bike and end up brushing the bushes at the edge of the road with the left rear view mirror to avoid hitting the second bus with the right mirror.

(No significant damage was done to the mirror nor to the bush, it was just a light touch, like a cat using her whiskers to check that she could pass in a narrow opening :D )

in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla''

automobili, +

TFW annunci “e adesso sto guidando su una strada larga e dritta” e 10 secondi dopo esci da una curva quasi cieca e vedi due pulman che stanno sorpassando una bicicletta e finisci a sfiorare la siepe a bordo strada con lo specchietto di sinistra per evitare di toccare il secondo pulman con lo specchietto di estra.

(Nessuno si è fatto male, né lo specchietto né il cespuglio, è stata una cosa tipo gatto che usa le vibrisse per controllare se ci passa da un pertugio :D )

Rapita dagli alieni reshared this.

Unknown parent

Elena ``of Valhalla''
car, +

@David de Groot it wasn't that bad: when I got out of the curve there was plenty of space for the first bus to finish overtaking, and thus plenty of space for me to react to the second bus who did the same when there *wasn't* plenty of space (because of course it would do that, they were probably traveling together, and my expectations were safely low :D ).

It was just proof that, while definitely *wider* and *straighter* than the road I had been driving just before, well, calling it *wide* and *straight* was still a bit of a stretch :D



A proposito di lingua che evolve:

“Fin verso la metà del volgente secolo oltre due terzi delle tenute boscate erano di proprietà dei comuni i quali in seguito ne cedettero, in gran parte, il possesso ai comunisti”

Pietro Conti — Memorie Storiche della Vall'Intelvi, 1896

E avendo letto questo sono andata a vedere treccani.it/vocabolario/comuni… e ho scoperto che il significato di uso comune oggi non è una parola italiana, ma che è un adattamento di una parola francese.

(Ovviamente lì sopra lo usano nel significato treccani.it/vocabolario/comuni… , pagina che purtroppo non aiuta a capire se siano tutti gli abitanti del comune, o solo un loro sottoinsieme privilegiato, tipo il patriziato svizzero)

NghiAm_Nullu reshared this.

in reply to Fighen

@Fighen e se si trasferiva una famiglia nuova nel comune non aveva quel diritto, giusto? e i loro discendenti?
in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla''

Dipende dalle regole immagino. Qualcuna è stata anche pubblicata e forse ci sarebbero notizie più precise lì.dalle mie parti le terre comuni erano su scala molto inferiore al comune come noi non intendiamo oggi, cioè come unità amministrativa.e con ogni probabilità se qualcuno si aggregava alla comunità, aveva anche lui il diritto di, ad esempio fare legna,


“Quasi a contrasto dell'allegro e spaziante suolo intelvese, da Lanzo discendi nell'orrida *Valmara*. Da quel fondo tetro e lugubre lo spirito rifugge, oppresso e sgomento; lo sguardo incarcerato appena scorge una striscia sottile di cielo, che si allarga alle estremità, frastagliata tra le cornose vette dei due nuclei montuosi, che quasi si accavallano, si confondono e l'eco in quell'angusto tragitto, più che mai sonoro, dal basso all'alto ripercuote tra il fragore dell'acque cascanti, il fischio del pastore, che richiama alla stalla le capre pascentesi tra le erbose sinuosità di quelle eterne rupi. Tuttavia il pensiero anche da quell'orrido aspetto in quell'imo profondo riscontra eloquente il bello, il sublime della natura ed il sentimentalismo , anche il meno fervido, trova ad esuberanza materia, princip ̛i. concetti, idee con cui filosofare, fantasticare, vagare, approfondirsi, innalzarsi, inebriarsi.”

Pietro Conti — Memorie Storiche della Vall'Intelvi

@LaVi 🕊️📚🐈 è la strada *divertente¹* che citavo oggi pomeriggio, descritta dal libro che accidentalmente mi è capitato di comprare in fiera :D

¹ per qualche valore di divertente che poche persone condividono :D

@LaVi
in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla''

"divertente" = "arrivare in fondo con metà battistrada rispetto alla partenza, i freni che fumano, sette anni in meno di aspettativa di vita ed un carico di adrenalina che 'narcos levatevi'"? #StradeDivertenti
in reply to Ferdinando Simonetti

@Ferdinando Simonetti @LaVi 🕊️📚🐈 pendenza del 18%, circa 20 m tra un tornante e l'altro

le velocità che consumano i battistrada cerco di evitarle, che non si arriva al fondo vivi, tutto il resto lo posso confermare :D



TFW you go looking for an old linocut plate to make a test print, and it's. the. first. one. you. check.

win!

in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla''

anyway, doing a couple of prints with acrylic paint and a spray bottle of water instead of proper linocut ink works, cleaning up is a bit of a pain. I would never do tens of prints with it (but then I'm not doing them anyway).

Retarder medium would probably help, but I don't have it. But maybe for those few times when I want to use metallic or other special effect paint it's more sensible to buy that, and use the acrylics I already have, rather than buying more types of linocut ink.



Il cavallo è quasi arrivato in stazione, ma il treno #trenord con cui voleva fuggire era in ritardo e sono riusciti a catturarlo

(consiglio di aprire il sito con javascript bloccato)

las_lallero reshared this.

in reply to Elena ``of Valhalla''

E ringrazia che "la provincia di Varese" ha chiuso, anche se ogni tanto regalava certe perle...

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