René's old blog

René’s old blog

  • Kayaking again

    Kayaking again

    Kayaking in Venice used to be my job, but when that ended, we almost stopped entirely.

    Keeping boats in Venice is (absurdly) not easy, but we have found a solution to keeping two kayaks near our home, so we can go paddling for fun and pleasure again.

    It is the first time for a long time, that I’ve been paddling just for the pleasure of it, without being responsible for somebody else.

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  • Atlantis KD3116 keyboard

    Atlantis KD3116 keyboard

    Looking for a compact keyboard with an integrated touchpad, I found the Atlantis KD3616 keyboard.

    It is an Italian brand, and I’m not sure if this keyboard is available outside Italy.

    What sold it to me, was the promise of three finger gestures on the touchpad, which I use a lot in Gnome, to switch between desktops and open and close the overview.

    It does, kind of, but it also doesn’t.

  • Logitech and Solaar

    I have a Logitech keyboard K380s, mouse M350s (pebble) kit, which I used on my StarLite tablet with Bluetooth.

    When i wanted to use the included “Logitech Bolt” USB dongle, none of the two peripherals wanted to connect using the dongle.

    After some taking batteries out, disabling Bluetooth on the computer, turning things on and off, the keyboard connected. I don’t know how and why.

    The mouse seemed lost, or maybe not paired with the dongle.

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  • Nextcloud CLI updater

    I use Nextcloud extensively to run my little micro-business, and updating has often been a hassle, with regular timeouts and “Gad gateway” messages.

    Then I discovered the Nextcloud CLI updater.

    You can update Nextcloud (and apps) directly from the command line on your server.

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  • Moving Darktable files

    Moving Darktable files

    Moving Darktable’s from one place to another was surprisingly easy.

  • StarLabs StarBook Horizon

    StarLabs StarBook Horizon

    As computer prices are skyrocketing due to the as-of-now not yet burst AI bubble, I decided to get a newer and more capacious computer, as most of what I have is old, as in last decade. I might not be able to afford one next year.

    As I’ve been delighted with the StarLite mkV, and especially with the support from the StarLabs team, I pre-ordered a StarBook Horizon, which arrived yesterday.

    After twenty-five years with Debian, which StarLabs doesn’t offer pre-installed, I did the installation myself as soon as it arrived.

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  • Nextcloud markdown editor ­— CLI

    I use the rich text editor in Nextcloud a lot, and it can be opened through a sub-menu of the context menu in the GNOME file manager.

    You can only open one file at a time, and requires a few clicks and moving the mouse around.

    Now, if we could have a simple command to open the Nextcloud editor, for one or more file?

    Having a look at the GNOME Files extension, it wasn’t that complicated.

  • External disk with ext4 doesn’t auto-mount

    I have an external SSD in a NVME USB enclosure, with an EXT4 file-system. When I plug it in, it doesn’t auto-mount, and haven’t done so for a while.

    Most other external disks do auto-mount.

    I finally figured out why, and how to fix it.

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  • Sending newsletters in bulk

    Sending newsletters in bulk

    I have a newsletter — Venetian Stories about the history of Venice — with a couple of hundred recipients.

    For some time, I have managed that with a free WordPress plugin. One of those with a PRO version, and every update shifted some functionality over to the paid version.

    When I wanted to move the newsletter from my History Walks Venice site to a dedicated domain, there was no way of migrating the plugin data without moving to the PRO version. Several functions I had used for a long time, were no only available for payment.

    Confronted with these futile complications, I decided to return to basics.

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  • A tablet with Linux

    A tablet with Linux

    Something highly unusual has happened to me in the last few days.

    I have bought some Microsoft branded hardware, and I am actually delighted about it.

    As a die-hard Unix and Linux user for some forty years, that’s something.

  • Spy in your pocket

    Nobody expected the Shining City upon the Hill to cave in to corporate fascism as easy as it did.

    Fascism is, in the words of Mussolini himself, corporativism — the merger of the state with big business.

    With state power and corporate power merged, the little guy and gal will lose. Common people have no real representation in the corporativist state, except as subjects and consumers.

    Now that it has happened, and the Corporate States of America is upon us, what can we do?

  • Fairphone 4 and sensors

    Fairphone 4 and sensors

    I bought a Fairphone 4 as a part of my project of de-googling my life.

    Playing with different operating systems, I somehow ended up with a phone where most of the sensors didn’t work, even if they did when I got the phone.