G's Blog

Weekly music review and a new service offering (#100DaysToOffLoad Day 26)

So this week i have been listening to Cataclysm by Electric Dragon. To no surprise i have been enjoying every minute. This artist is a bit darker than most other Synthwave artists i've listened to but that's what makes it so great. It's like being down in the under belly having a party.

I'm not sure where the inspiration came for this album but i suspect that 2020 had a general impact on it. Most of the songs make reference to the end of days in some way but it's put together in such a way that is very enjoyable. I'll be listening to this one again for sure and you should as well.

Now for next weeks album we are going to stick in the Synthwave genre but a little different still.

This album is by a band that has interested me for a while but i never really checked it out.

The band is called Master Boot Record. I think you can see why the name would interest me.

Anyways the album i'll be listening to is Floopy Disk Overdrive. Please go and check it out. If you are more skilled in those things than me maybe you can unlock the secret track. Come back next week for more music.

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As a hobbyist self-hoster i'm almost always looking for something else to host. One because i like to see what else is available in terms of self-hostable stuff and two because i just enjoy the setup process.

So when @selea@social.linux.pizza put out a call for someone to take over https://tempmail.linux.pizza (now redirects to my server) i saw it as something i could throw onto my recently uncovered Raspberry Pi model B and i jumped at the chance. So https://tempmail.youdabomb.social is born(Literally just yesterday). What does it offer:

Random Disposable Mailbox ✅
No Access Logs ✅
Mail Deleted after 2 days ✅

2 domains to choose from anon.ymous.xyz nullnvoid.xyz More domains to come later(Maybe...Probably)

It is made possible by Disposable-Mailbox.

So if you want to avoid some spam associated with some websites or just want to be able to use/join a website without giving your regular email well now you can.

Keep in mind that this is running on quite the small device so while it can't handle all of you at once it should be able to service everyone given time. If it's in high enough demand i'll look at upgrading the hardware it's on. For now it should do.

Well that is all for now

Until next time Be Safe!

@mgrondin@youdabomb.social

#Music #Tech #SelfHost #BSD #Raspi

Until next time. Stay safe!

G @mgrondin@youdabomb.social

Weekly Music review and a GopherHole (#100DaysToOffload Day 24)

So for today's post we start off with the weekly music review.

This wee i've been listening to Virtual Trails by Milchomalefic. I must say that with this week it's confirmed that my love for Metal(at least the heavier kind) is diminishing. I enjoyed this weeks album much more than last weeks.

The album lives up to it's name. It really makes you feel like you are traveling around some wonderful world. It is great music to be driving to. It's both calming and invigorating. It was pleasant to listen to when leaving work. Got me out of the workday mood. At the same time it's great to listen to while going to work. Helps me to wake up. I look forward to listening to this one for many years to come.

Now for the next album i'm going to cheat a little. What i'm going to do is use the album that i've already been listening to for #mmbc with @uxintro@social.chinwag.org and @mike@social.chinwag.org. Since this is the review week for #mmbc i figured i could double review it. The album is Punk/HC by Lavage. I wont say much but do yourself a favor and pick it up. Really pick up both albums i've mentioned here.

Check back next week for more music.

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Now onto the next topic for today.

Recently(as in like Friday) i found out about #Gopher. A protocol that was around very early in the days of the internet i think it even pre-dates http. It basically does the same as http in which it serves content over the internet.

From wikipedia

The Gopher protocol /ˈɡoʊfər/ is a communications protocol designed for distributing, searching, and retrieving documents in Internet Protocol networks. The design of the Gopher protocol and user interface is menu-driven, and presented an alternative to the World Wide Web in its early stages, but ultimately fell into disfavor, yielding to the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). The Gopher ecosystem is often regarded as the effective predecessor of the World Wide Web

It really only support serving basic text but really that's all you need to get a point across. Mind you i'm still learning about it and i have seen mention of images and sound it can support but i have not experimented with those functions yet.

So i decided this was something i could do with one of my old Raspberry PI Model b(Rev.2) i have around. So i went about setting up a server. I also decided that it would be a great opportunity to really give BSD a go. So i went with FreeBSD for the operating system. So far i'm really enjoying it. It was fairly easy to setup and is even more easy to publish content to. Write up a text file and upload it. Voila that's it. I'm going to keep playing with this for sure and might even open up the server to some users if there is interest. I think it's nice to go back to that point in time of the internet. No ADs no one was really in it to make money. Much of it(The internet) was about sharing and exchanging ideas. That is now so often lost...

Anyways if you want to check it out have a look at my GopherHole(Writefreely wont make the link clickable you will have to copy paste):

gopher://gopher.pizza

Sadly most modern browsers have long dropped support for the gopher protocol but thanks to some add-ons it can still be browsed. The add-on i use/recommend is OverbiteWX/NX as it works with all major browsers. Other browsers that support it that i have tired are lynx(CLI based) and Dooble. One thing that i'm still figuring out is if all clients are created equal. So far it seems not or it seems some documentation on the syntax supported is inaccurate. But the basics should work across all clients.

Anyways that is all for today.

Until next time. Be Safe!

@mgrondin@youdabomb.social

#Music #Gopher #BSD

Until next time. Stay safe!

G @mgrondin@youdabomb.social

Weekly Music Review ( #100DaysToOffload Day 23)

So this week will be a quick post. During this past week i have been listening to The Record Of The Returning Race by Pagan Spirit. First i'll be honest i have not listen to the whole album yet so i may revisit this one later but i did want to keep the schedule of posts going.

This album is a pure metal album from the first second there is no doubt what you are in for. Simply RAW power in music. Great heavy rifts paired up with fairly low growly vocals make for a wild ride. If you are a metal fan do yourself a favor and check out this album.

Along the way i realized something. Maybe my musical tastes are moving away from such metal. I did not find myself enjoying it as much as i was expecting or even as much as i have enjoyed other metal albums in the past. Maybe it was simply due to being more tired than normal this past week or my musical tastes truly changing. Time will tell if this keeps up. Like i said i'll revisit this album for sure.

Onto the next one. Because of the above feelings i've gone with something less like my usual tastes. This weeks album is Virtual Trails by Milchomalefic. A brand new release in the darksynth/synthwave genre. Synthwave is a genre i started exploring at the start of this year(2020) and i've quite enjoyed it. Lets see where this one takes me.

Before i leave you for another week i'll just plug my #Peertube channel just because i'm finally doing stuff with it. Find that here

Well that's all for now.

Until next time. Be Safe!

@mgrondin@youdabomb.social

#Music #Peertube

Until next time. Stay safe!

G @mgrondin@youdabomb.social

Weekly Music Review and New Endeavor ( #100DaysToOffLoad Day 22)

So last week i checked out Black Cat by Silver Dunes. This short EP is classified as Experimental music and i suppose i can see why. It is not quite like anything else i've ever heard. I listened to the whole EP around 5-7 times. The first time, i'll be honest, i was not sure how i would listen to it again. But in the spirit of the “project” i gave it another listen. Every listen after i found myself enjoying it more. It is still not the kind of music i would listen to all the time but it's enjoyable. It's to describe exactly what this album is like because i little reference for something like this. It's worth a listen for sure. Where it think it would fit it great is as ambiance music to a casual sit down party.

So now this week i will be listening to The Record of the Returning Race by Pagan Spirit. I chose this album both because the album cover was interesting and because i wanted to return to something i am more familiar with. METAL! Can't wait to give this one a listen.

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Now something else i've wanted to delve into was recording/posting videos. Either game play or software feature. But i never found just the right tools to do so. But now that i found out about OBS i think i can accomplish this very easy. So i've purchased a inexpensive mic to get started and plan on trying my hand at it. I wont set any kind of schedule for video releases it will be whenever i find/make the time. I will probably do a few different things. Some game walk/play through and some one offs of other games. I'll be posting these exclusively on my #Peertube instance.

Videos will be posted here for gaming vids and here for more general/random things.

Now that i have a mic i plan to restart my play through of Full Throttle so i can add some commentary to it. Should be able to get at least part one done in the next few days(i hope) so watch for that.

At some point i MAY start streaming as well. After i get a little more comfortable doing it but for now it will be just posting.

Well that's all for now.

Until next time. Be Safe!

@mgrondin@youdabomb.social

#Music #Gaming #Peertube #Videos

Until next time. Stay safe!

G @mgrondin@youdabomb.social

A close call with COVID, Weekly Music review and Monthly Music Book Club ( #100DaysToOffLoad Day 21)

So today should be the day where i post my impressions of the album i picked last week. Unfortunately this past week was a write off. Everything was fine at first but by Tuesday morning my wife was showing a few symptoms of COVID. Took all week to finally get her tested on Friday and we finally got the results back just yesterday. Negative! OOOF such a relief.

So the week was spent in self isolation working from home and complaining about the fact that it was taking so long to get her tested not much else was accomplished. I don't think i listened to any music at all. So last weeks album will become this weeks album. Check back next sunday for that.

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Something else i wanted to talk about is #mmbc (Monthly Music Book Club) that was started by @uxintro@social.chinwag.org last month. The premise is simple. Pick an album and listen to it over a month or so then get together on XMPP to talk about it and pick another album. So far i think it's only @uxintro@social.chinwag.org , @mike@social.chinwag.org and me participating at least based on who is in the XMPP room. So come join us. search up #mmbc on the fediverse to find out more and see what we are listening to this month.

Well that's all for today

Until next time stay safe

@mgrondin@youdabomb.social

#Music #Covid19

Until next time. Stay safe!

G @mgrondin@youdabomb.social

A musical Review and More on Esperanto ( #100DaysToOffLoad Day 20)

So for the last week pretty much the only music i listened to was Cyber World by FX Machine. Now i will try to put in a few words my experience.

From start to finish this album is a journey. The artist does a great a job of putting you on a distant cyberpunk planet where you get the feeling things are not always as they seem.

It open up with what feels like a tourist brochure almost. Welcoming you to the new world where things are promised to be great and better. At the same time something feels not quite right. An ominous feeling that can't be shaken. Each of the following tracks is like a journey into the underground culture of this new world. Each with there own feelings of things are ok but also there is a very dark side to the whole world/album. My words do not do it justice. Do yourself a favor and give it a listen.

For the next album i've picked an experimental EP from Sean Gadoury called Black Cat. I picked this one simply because of the name/album cover. Let see what this is like.

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Now a quick update on my Esperanto progress. I am still committed to learning this wonderful language. I have found another resource to help me. Kurso de Esperanto. It's a free course with apps/programs for all platforms. So far i enjoy it. It has pronunciation sections to help improve that. Hopefully that will help with the progress i feel i'm making with only Duolingo.

Well that is all for now.

Till next time. Be safe!

Ĝis revido

@mgrondin@youdabomb.social

#Music #Esperanto

Until next time. Stay safe!

G @mgrondin@youdabomb.social

A new language and a new idea (#100DaysToOffLoad Day 19)

I have again decided to learn a new language. It's something i've tried a couple of times. First Spanish then Italian. I'm not 100% sure why i gave up on them. I think i just lost interest and with no one to practice with it was just boring i guess.

This time i have chosen Esperanto. Not a popular language and it might not be as useful as others in the world but the origin of it intrigued me so i had to look it up and at least start learning it. I've been at it for about 2 weeks using Duolingo on my phone for about 15-20 minutes a day sometimes more. So far i'm enjoying it. I can't hold a decent conversation yet but i'm getting there. Somethings i don't like about Duolingo is that it gives little explanation as to the rules of the language. For that reason i also looked for another learning resource to better understand things like the plural of words or actionable verbs/words. Maybe that would come later with Duolingo but not understanding those things made it harder to connect with the language. The second resource i found/am using is https://lernu.net. I've only done a couple of lessons on there because they do require a little more time to dedicate but they do provide more context for things. I will keep up with both as time permits(At least Duolingo each day) and keep posting updates on my progress. Maybe one day a whole post in Esperanto. I still wish i had someone to practice with. My wife and son are so far not interested in learning it as they find it a “silly” language since it's not popular. I have found a local(ish) Esperanto group that i may join/meet with at some point. I just feel like this early on i would be more comfortable practicing with people i already know. I hope the lack of practice partner wont cause me to give up on it...

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Now as you can tell as much as i want to blog i struggle to find (meaningful/interesting) things to write about. To try and help remedy that i've decided to try something. Music is a big part of my life. Not playing it but listening to/feeling it. So i'm going to use that as something to blog about.

What i plan on doing is visiting bandcamp each sunday and choosing a random album to purchase and listen to for that week. The genre will differ as well from my traditional Rock/Metal/Punk to some new genre i'll try and explore like Synthwave(Dark,Retro) which i'm starting to really get into. The plan will be to listen to the chosen album almost exclusively for that week. From start to finish a few times to see how it flows together then randomly song by song to see how they hold up on there own. Then the following Saturday/Sunday write up my experience and share it here. I suspect the first few posts in this experiment will be ruff as i may struggle to put my experience into words but hopefully that will come with time. It'll probably help if i jot things down during the week then put it together at the end. This will do 2 things. First give me something to write about. Second(And maybe more important) it will give independent artists more exposure. There will be few “rules” to my selections but at least

• Try to pick smaller/independent artists
• Different genre each week
• Choice will be made based on things like
  • Album cover
  • Album name
  • Artist name
• I will listen to at most one/two songs before choosing just to give me the idea of what the album/artist is about.

Lets see what this leads to.

So lets get that started. This week i'll be listening to Cyber World By FX Machine This choice was made based on the album cover.

Check back next weekend for my post on that.

Until next time. Stay safe! and Take Care!

@mgrondin@youdabomb.social

#Esperanto #Music

Until next time. Stay safe!

G @mgrondin@youdabomb.social

New Keyboard and GeekCode (#100DaysToOffload Day 18)

In today's post we will have a quick look at the new keyboard i got about a week back. I wont call it an official review because i suck at those but hopefully it can give yo an idea about how great it is and tip you over if you are on the fence about getting one of these. I'll also talk about something kinda neat/silly i found.

First the keyboard.

So a long while ago @selea@social.linux.pizza posted about a sweet keyboard he got(including the video below) from Unicomp.

I told myself that day that i would someday have one. That day has come. About a week ago i got this baby

I must say i absolutely love it!! I got the tux keys to replace the windows keys because well i run linux. I decided to go with the trackball version just for the simple reason of why not? I probably wont put the trackball to much use but it does look pretty cool. Anyone looking for a new keyboard should consider a Unicomp keyboard. The feeling/experience of typing on one of these is like nothing else. Each key press is followed by very distinct “click” and a nice audible bounce back of the spring. There is nothing like it.

Also made a quick/dirty unboxing video. You can view that below if you wish

Now lets talk about the GeekCode.

As described on the above the GeekCode is the creation of Robert Hayden back in the mid/late 90's. It's intent was a quick way for geeks to recognize each other's skill level/interest while communicating on mailing lists/forums/NewsGroups. I for one had never come across it until i stumbled upon V1 of it on textfiles.com when someone i follow on Mastodon posted a link to that site. Soon after i found the latest version V3.12 and set out to craft mine. The result is:

——-BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK——- Version: 3.1 GCM/IT d- s:– a C++(+++) UL+++ P L+++ !E W++ !N !o K-? w$ !O !M !V PS@ !PE Y+>++ PGP+ t++ 5+ !X !R tv+ b>+ DI>+ D+ G e+ h—— r+++ y+++ ———END GEEK CODE BLOCK———

If you want to decode that to understand it you can do that here

This code will now be at the bottom of every email i send. It's also on my mastodon/pleroma profiles. I think it's kinda neat. Its somewhat easy to read/understand once you know what each section is. If you get one or already have one please share.

Anyways that's all for now.

Until next time stay safe!

@mgrondin@youdabomb.social

#Tech #Geek

Until next time. Stay safe!

G @mgrondin@youdabomb.social

Time to get back at this ( #100DaysToOffload Day 17)

So first i must admit something. I got overwhelmed with posting everyday so i did what i always do. I gave up. Then recently i found this post redefining the challenge a little and making it less about 100 posts in 100 days but more 100 post in 365 days. That's something that should make this easier for me. I could have probably made this choice myself but i was really trying to stick to the challenge and instead gave up...

So with that i will do my best to reach 100 post before day 365 and if not at least i tried. So this post is going to be short and simple. A way to get my feet wet again if you will.

Things are finding a new normal here in the wake of COVID-19. Not that i think we are fully done with it but for now things are calm. As of next week we can travel between our 2 neighbor provinces so that's something. I have been back to working in the office since June 1st. Not much has changed there but we must practice physical distancing and wear a mask when walking around the building. Other than that it's the same. I'll be honest i miss working from home even tho i appreciate that being back in the office means things are finding a new normal i felt more productive working from home. It was an adjustment. Also back to seeing my wife and kids much less now as i work days and my wife works nights.

I've secured a new keyboard since last i posted but that will be the topic for another post. I'll do my best to find interesting things to write but also try to post every 3 or so days so some post might be lighter content.

Anyways i guess that's all for now.

Till next time stay safe!

@mgrondin@youdabomb.social

Until next time. Stay safe!

G @mgrondin@youdabomb.social