I created this page to post random things that I learned that I figure I should share. The things I learn about that I post here can be any range of things, but I will try to keep it technical and avoid posting things like “TIL that the Washington Redskins are not from the state Washington.” The posted TILs will also not necessarily be things that aren’t widely known - they will only be things that I did not know before the date I added them.
I’ve been working late nights for an upcoming conference deadline, and over the past two nights
between the hours of 1am and 3am I have completed what is probably the worst python library idea
of all time.
Getting started with Open Source contributions can be a daunting task, but there are many projects
that are just waiting for contributors to help out with, regardless of skill level.
As I mentioned in my post about my mental health, I am using an X230 as my personal daily driver. I have yet to go completely crazy and swap the keyboard for an X220 keyboard (which I’m actually not sure I’d want to do - I like both keyboards and can’t say for certain which I like more), nor have I upgraded the display to either an IPS 12” or 13” panel (which I am more keen on doing when I have the money).
This story is going to seem like it is going nowhere, but trust me, it only kind of goes nowhere. Last year, someone asked me for advice on a pair of headphones for under $50, so I started watching random collections of tech stuff under $50. This led me to randomfrankp. After finding out that he was an Eagles fan, I decided to keep watching his videos, and eventually I saw the single best looking computer mouse of all time.
I have gone completely insane. Within the month of May, I have ordered four ThinkPads. X201 Tablet My first purchase was an X201 Tablet, with an i7-640LM, and 4GB of RAM. It came with a battery and a charger, but no storage. I slapped in a 120GB SSD with Arch Linux, and all was well. I also spent $18 on a new pen for it. The laptop itself was $57 off eBay.
To be honest, I haven’t posted in a while, and this is really just an excuse for me to do so. Anyways, I’ll just briefly be talking about my experience with Hacktoberfest this year. If you’re not familiar with Hacktoberfest, you can read more about it here. I’ll admit that I shamefully only did the minimum 5 pull requests, but I’ve had a very busy month. Hopefully I will do better for Christmas, when I should have more free time.
Now I know the first time I wrote about my Model M keyboard I said it wasn’t worth it to leave a $10 dev board attached to the keyboard, opting instead to use an adapter, but I’ve changed my mind. My change of heart came about for two reasons: I couldn’t get the $5 adapter to work. Being able to remap keys on the fly is definitely worth $5. That second point is in reference to my recent blog post.