August 2018 – Tech in the Trenches

Tinkering

On August 22, 2018

Yesterday flew by like lightning. I was setting up the Ubuntu desktop I have on my desk so it is usable as a web server to test out a CCTV solution for my house as well as some CMS tools I wanted to play around with.

WordPress Thought: I’m tired of WordPress because every single theme looks exactly the same!

I installed a local copy of WithKnown, a self-hosted tumblog, but its Markdown plugin does not work which in 2018 is a deal breaker for me. I don’t want to use a GUI to make links or bold text. I don’t want to

I found a nice little tool called Bludit. But it refused to see the .htaccess file very clearly at its root. If I removed the file completely, it threw an error, but when I added it back it complained about not finding it. Which it clearly found because it errored out without it. After much too long, I gave up trying to use it and moved on.

I installed Pico. Remembered I didn’t want to mess with hand coding and deleted Pico.

I looked at Grav again. And Hugo. I didn’t get as far as installing either yesterday, but I thought about it. Only to remember why I never end up using them. Either something doesn’t work (that I can’t figure out) or it’s too much work.

I want a simple place to write text, style it with Markdown, add a photo or two, and post. I don’t want a hacker’s solution. I don’t want to mess with plain text config files. I don’t want to spend more time tinkering with the writing space than writing.

After the day of tinkering I didn’t come to a good conclusion. Nor did I get anything written which was part of the reason I was setting something up. I still yearn for the place to dump Markdown files but when I set those up, it’s too fidgety to dump them and there ends up being extra work I need to do to get it either looking nice or working. At all.

Permission

By Carl

On August 21, 2018

In Briefs

Ask forgiveness and not permission.
Otherwise you’ll never get permission, and never get denied that permission. You’ll exist in a state of limbo for as long as you wait to take action. Then when you finally do take action, you’ll be chastised for taking action without permission (that was never coming).

Why are race tracks called Downs?

By Carl

On August 10, 2018

In Briefs

I was watching a movie last week where there was a Downs I now can’t remember. I think it was in California somewhere and it struck my ear oddly.

Dover Downs is nearby. Churchill Downs hosts the Kentucky Derby every year. But this was a new Downs to me and it got me thinking. I understand where Park and Course come from, but downs?

Why are horse race tracks called downs?

From Who came up with downs? – Harness Racing Newsroom – USTA – USTROTTING

The British and the Irish.

The term downs comes from Great Britain and Ireland where around the year 1500, horse races were held on grassy plains before formal race tracks were built. These grassy areas were known as downs. Later, after real tracks were constructed (usually on the same sites) they named the track and kept the downs in the name. Probably the most famous track there was Epsom Downs which originated around 1661 and became famous for the big race they started known as “The Derby.”

Reading Reptiles

By Carl

On August 8, 2018

In Links and Quotes

The Georgetown Library was closed for more than two days after staff noticed an odd gathering near one of the building’s basement meeting rooms: snakes. Several of them.

…

It’s unlikely the snakes were looking for a quiet corner to do some reading.

Source: A D.C. library was closed for more than two days after several live snakes were found inside