Semi-technical thoughts

A few lives ago I started my professional career by trying to sell custom office software. Having opinions about that kind of stuff I've chosen Python and PyGTK and some NoSQL database library and it's been quite a struggle. In this present moment I live as a digital nomad traveling neutral zones around World War Z and I use many different online services in my professional life and all desktop clients for them are super shitty, starting with google-built web browsers. And whenever I consider building a kind of desktop utility those programs are there's a lot of resistance and comparative lack of tools (in comparison with what web backend context provides). And a lot of primary consumers for some of those services (think collaboration services) are educated, experienced, and opinionated folks like myself. Perhaps there's profit in coding desktop linux software again? And combined with my backend proficiency I could be weird full stack dev services developer... I should ...

It's starting to happen more and more often to me. I'm trying to use some service and all of a sudden I see an error page, sometimes a custom one but more often generated by cloudflare or a similar service, with error message effectively saying that IP addresses from Russia are banned on the service. And what is even more interesting, most of this services don't have any particular policy reasons not to allow Russian users, it's not not like they are publishing prescribed materials or doing anything interesting whatsoever. A payment processor, a popular online course provider, some random forums and information sites, one site with educational videos that I like (that one is especially funny because I'm banned from the subscription page and so can't pay them but their cdn does't care and I can actually download any video I want). But why does it happen? Is there some recommendation in some popular security guideline "block Russia, Cambodia, and Afghan...

If you own a Bluetooth A2DP headset and any kind of personal computer, good chance is you tried connecting them together. Isn't it nice to watch movies and listen to music free from cluttering wires? Well, good chance is you hated that experience and if that was the reason for buying the headset, you might've even considered throwing it away (or using it only with your phone). Why do they suck so much? Everything points to the fact that it's not a hardware problem. The same headset most likely will work flawlessly paired with an android device or even the same computer under a different operating system (windows users report huge difference between, like, 8.0 and 8.1, and not in favor of the latter, surprisingly, I think only mac users report good stuff about their macbooks and beats although I didn't try it myself so they might all be faking it :) ). And most likely it's not even the drivers or other low-level stuff, android and desktop linux has mostly the same ...

Sorry, it's not a complete instruction, just a thought. It occurred to me (some time ago) that Python's virtualenv is, essentially, a simplified version of system "prefix", it has bin, lib, include, and can have more stuff when needed. If you're willing to experiment (you'll probably have to set a few additional environment variables and/or build flags but that's no big deal), you can install various other tools there up until you have a complete system with its own compiler and complete set of libraries although it's much simpler to keep using system compiler and libraries only complimenting them when needed. Granted, prefixes are nothing new, people were using /opt (and their home directory) this way since the beginning of time. But with little help of virtualenv-wrapper or pyenv you can easily switch between them and isolate environments better. Binaries and stuff installed in virtualenv would override system defaults but only when venv is activat...

Generation 2 of Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga was announced at this year's CES with both small and big improvements. They finally added Thunderbolt 3 ports with USB-PD charging support, which makes it slightly better deal than Yoga 910 (which is still visually more pleasing to me but no thunderbolt = muh). Anyway, the best part is it's virtually the only laptop with OLED display and I love OLED. I almost immediately decided that I'm gonna buy it eventually (not right now unless something happens, my Yoga 900 is not yet outdated, probably next year or whenever they make Gen 3) provided there are no deal breakers. Then I saw its keyboard: Apart from weird Home/End position (why not make it Fn-PgUp/Fn-PgDn like everyone does? F1-F12 keys are pretty small as a result. But maybe they could be used for some hotkeys with a little xmodmap magic?..) the obvious elephant in the room is swapped Fn-Ctrl keys: seriously, who does that? I even wrote it off as a dealbreaking thing and forgo...

More than once I've written about stuff made by Big Brand manufacturers so I decided to balance things out by writing about a mostly-unknown but good things. In short, if you need something small like HDD enclosure or some cable or USB hub or a dongle of some kind, check if ORICO makes it and chances are you won't be disappointed. It's usually slightly more expensive than low-end stuff from aliexpress but, in my opinion, it's usually worth it. Disclaimer. This post is a shameless promotion of their brand although, unfortunately, nobody paid me for it or even sent me any free stuff. Guys from ORICO and not, if you read this, I'll gladly review whatever free goodies you send me :) I only do honest reviews so better make sure to send the good stuff. At this point I own a USB hub, three different 2.5" HDD enclosures, and a precision screwdriver set from them. And probably something else I don't remember. Here are the pics: USB hub in its natural habitat...

While we are on the topic of sockets and chargers. UK three-prong plug (type G) allows you to put heavier things into the socket and they will sit there securely. Also it's rated 250V/13A allowing more powerful appliances and probably safer than any other plug type  (not mentioned there that almost every socket has an off switch, as an additional safety feature, apart from all the shutters, insulation, and built-in fuses). (Photo from Wikimedia Commons) If the world ever comes to a standard AC plug type, I hope it will be either that or at least something as robust and safe. And, let's face it, the only two alternatives (EU and US plugs) are not that universal, there are dozens of variations (where to put the ground prong, how to ensure polarity, even how big the prongs themselves must be) that makes either harder to adopt as a single universal standard.