Category: Geekery

A Domain In Search Of A Project

This morning I shut down and deleted the virtual server which was running the Matrix server I set up for family chats. (Think “Discord, but not run by a corporate entity.”) Nobody was using it, and if I hadn’t directly pinged the last two family members besides myself who had even looked at it I bet they wouldn’t have noticed for a while.

I had the perfect domain name for it and everything. Now I just need to come up with another project to attach that name to… much the same as with several other domains that I’m absolutely not relinquishing which I want to do things with in the future.

I’m better at building things than I am at building things people actually like, apparently.

2 February, 2025
Winter Anime 2025 (So Far)

Kind of went a while without posting, didn’t I? Sailor V¹, I suppose.

I’m passing the time much as usual, with games (various mobile, plus Warframe and Satisfactory) and music and work and chores, but also this season I’m keeping up with more anime series than usual. (The usual is “one or two,” for the record.)

Would you like some recommendations? Here’s what I’m enjoying so far.

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26 January, 2025
Satisfactory: Logistics Floors Rock

It’s been an entire month since my last Satisfactory post, hasn’t it? Not that I haven’t been playing, it’s just that I haven’t done anything particularly noteworthy. I haven’t picked up any more strange bomb-shaped gifts, don’t worry! I’ve just been chugging away, making progress toward nuclear power.

(What’s that, you ask? What about the Turbofuel plant? Have I maxed that out yet? Of course I haven’t. Never mind, though! It’s time for the new and the shiny!)

To that end, I needed a factory that can churn out a sufficient quantity of something called an Electromagnetic Control Rod. Today I completed that factory… and actually put a roof and some walls & windows on it, even.

The details of the factory itself aren’t that interesting. What I want to highlight is the use of logistics floors.
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12 January, 2025
Anime Year In Review: 2024

Normally I’d write a music round-up at this point in the year, but 2024 was kind of dreary for my music library. I bought a new album by PSB (the boys from the shop full of pets) and a new album by PSB (the broadcasting that is a service for the public) and neither of them really stuck in my mind very well. (Sorry, gentlemen.) So let’s talk about anime instead.

I don’t do that here very often. Which is odd because I used to have an entire secondary blog about it. And: Why didn’t I just fold that content into the main blog instead of deleting it? Dingbat.

Anyway.

So, 2024. What kind of year was it for watching Japanese animated TV shows?

Eh? Much like with the music of the year, “Not as good as 2023” is a valid answer. (Your mileage will, of course, vary. I am led to believe that for pop music at large, 2024 was bountiful. I’m happy for y’all enjoyers!) I mean, last year we had the start of both Frieren and Apothecary Diaries, each of which will probably feature on best-of lists for years to come yet.
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30 December, 2024
The (al)Lure of Static Site Generators

So, with all the argy-bargy in the news about WordPress and the guy in charge of it and the ecosystem being affected by that guy’s shenanigans… why stay on WordPress? Why not, for instance, jump on the bandwagon of the last few years and change over to a static site generator (or SSG)? This site could load much faster, and with vastly less server processing overhead! No more SQL database, no more finicky plugin shenanigans… easy peasy, right?

I spent most of my morning today reading up on doing exactly this, and while it might still work for the webcomic (provided I never update it again… which is admittedly all-too-likely) it won’t work here, and it took hours of reading before I finally found someone who pointed out why:

When you update the site, you have to regenerate every page on the site. Every time. A lot of these guys (and it’s all guys, yes) have maybe a couple dozen posts, tops. Regenerating the flat files from Markdown sources could take them maybe a minute or so! Who cares, right?

The current count of entries listed as “posts” on the website you’re reading right now is well over 2,500. And that’s not counting “pages” and other such additions.

Yeah, nope. I can’t take that seriously. I want to be posting here more often, not less. And if I find myself dreading the rebuild time every time I want to publish, that’s not going to help. (Never mind if something about one of those several thousand posts breaks the generator!) So if I migrate off of Dubya Pee it’ll have to be to something more… CMS-y.

Such is the way of things, I suppose.

29 December, 2024
Ducks: In Enamel Pin Form

I wasn’t actually expecting them before Christmas, but here they are: The Frost Dragon Designs “Yellow Duck RPG” enamel pin set, mounted on the corkboard panel that Vyx gifted me (since she knew the pins were coming at some point).

How could I not have, right? Right. I’m glad we’re on the same page.

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate in whatever way you choose to, and a delightful regular (if potentially off-kilter) day to everyone else.

25 December, 2024