Offline Websites
I created an “offline” copy of Wikipedia and several other reference websites. It's a local copy of the sites, hosted on a Raspberry Pi computer in my house, which can be powered by rechargeable batteries.
Weather Station Project
I wanted to be able to track my local climate over time, to analyze trends and also just for fun. I also wanted to learn more about small microcontroller projets, networking, and databases. After determining my requirements and spending a lot of time scrolling on Adafruit, I decided to create an ESP8266-based unit with a few small sensors.
At the time of writing, the project not yet complete, but beta testing has been going well.
Linux Up-Skill Challenge
These are my notes from the challenge https://old.reddit.com/r/linuxupskillchallenge
I'm sure they will be raw and un-edited.
Can I figure out how to set up a website?
After completing the Linux Up Skill challenge (https://www.reddit.com/r/linuxupskillchallenge/), I have a web-facing Linode Linux VPS that I don't know what to do with. Why not try a new project?
Goal
- Create a little photo album for my dog Lucy's birth anniversary on the 7th
- Self host it on my own VPS
- Learn more Linux admin
Temporary Email
Do you ever want to send or receive an email or two, but don't want your address ending up on an undesired mailing list? You might not know that there are 'temporary email' services freely available.
Guerilla Mail is one of these services. It's simple to use, you don't have to sign up or anything. Just visit https://www.guerrillamail.com and enter the email address you'd like for yourself (it will default to a randomly-generated one). From there, you have an inbox for incoming messages, and the ability to compose/send new messages.
Not recommended for anything personal or private—because anyone who knows your email address can see your inbox—but it's a nice tool for avoiding spam and keeping your PII away from others.
My first fishing story
“You fish?” asked Bob. He was driving a loaner SUV and I was in the passenger seat as we bumped along on a narrow dirt path surrounded by chest-high grass. The river had caught me by surprise. A large expanse of calm water, only fifty yards away. A moment before, we were passing through the woods as Bob tried to point out the location of landscape pins off in the woods, marking an invisible boundary. Bob knew these woods well, and the river. He had lived in this place for a few decades. Now, he was leaving.
App Highlight: youtube-dl
Do you ever want to download a video from a website? I often do. The easiest way I've found is with youtube-dl.
Garden Update
- Most (all?) in-garden transplanting has been completed
- Corn has germinated nicely, both 2020 seed and last year's crop
- Potatoes are looking strong for the most part, with a few gaps. Big variation in plant size.
- Transplanted tomatoes have been stalled, but alive
- Transplanted peppers look generally sad
- Eggplant seeing some pest damage
- Pumpkin seedlings mostly all killed by striped cucumber beetles, a few other squashes are doing better
- Turkish Rocket has been flowering for a while (2 weeks?)
- Grapes are growing fast, many leaves
- Pea pods have formed
- Scarlet Runner beans have germinated
- Some pests went to town on three of the Broccoli plants
Looking Back On Books
I'm going to occasionally write a little about some of the books I've read. Not really book reviews, just some rambling thoughts. Twitter-style, maybe? Or some bulleted lists.
Revisiting these books will be interesting. I've read a lot of books that I loved upon completion, which now I don't really agree with at all. I've learned a TON from books in the past few years, and it has helped me grow as a person. I expect that my opinions will continue to grow and evolve as I continue to learn. I'm sure my future self will cringe upon reading some of these posts.
I also expect some total misremembering, ample mistakes, typos, and omissions. I'll be writing about books that I read casually without taking notes. I finished many of these books years ago and I'm probably not going to be re-reading any of these books before writing about them. So I apologize in advice for mistakes
June 9th, 2020
Garden Update
Direct Seeded
- Zucchini (in south west corner, along fence)
- Black Sunflower (along eastern fence, near base of western grape plant)
- Cabbage (in shady northwest bed)
Transplanted
- Eggplant
- Chile peppers (both types)
Weather
- Mild and breezy, 70F
Notes
- Lot of weeding
- Added another string to pea trellis
- Several potato plants sprouted from last year unharvested
- Put down tarp for additional future bed
- The row-covered bed is now pretty much full
Observations
Syrphid flies on yellow Turkish Rocket flowers Small toad near sunflower transplant Pumpkins and winter squash have germinated