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Standards of Practice: Code Commenting Style Preferences and Recommendations
Too many programmers in the past 10-15 years increasingly seem to consider code commenting and documentation passe and too time consuming without enough benefit to justify the effort (they are outright _wrong_), but for those that understand the value of good and useful code comments, here are some suggested recommended guidelines...
Verbalizing Coding Parlance
A lot of symbols used in software developing coding languages have some inconsistencies in how they are described. This page shows my standardization on the terminology to reduce confusion when speaking aloud about code.
Another Round of Adventures in Microsoft Incompetence
One of the first adventures at PracticingMusician as their shiny new CTO, was migrating them from Godaddy's Microsoft 365 Tenancy to Microsoft's. They had been trying for several months and been getting nowhere, so I rolled up my sleeves, dusted off my MCSE (never expires) from 1998 knowledge and experience, and dug in. Here are some highlights from the adventures that ensued...
Rough Week! Alienware M18 Blew Up and Burned! Meanwhile Installing Q4OS TDE on Alienware M16
The first part of this posting covers my primary productivity system, Alienware M18 blowing itself up, in the middle of a remarkably rough week and last few months. The second part provides information on the installation and use of Q4OS (Debian 12 bookworm) with Trinity Desktop Environment (TDE) on Dell Alienware M16 R1/0TC7T8 (the latter going surprisingly well).
Is the Jan.ai executable infected?
January 9th, 2024, 10:00 am Pacific Time, BitDefender Total Security Alert: @janhq\inference-nitro-extension\dist\bin\win-cpu\nitro.exe is infected with Gen:Variant.Tedy.258323 !
My preferred development release cycles list of environments
Many companies can't afford this, so there are many variations, but when I have been fortunate enough to work for organizations (or I had the money myself) to have the ideal resources in place, this it what it looks like for me to ensure 99.999% or better up times each year...
Remember CTRL-L for File Selector Full Text File Path Feature in Firefox Instead of 28+ Mouse Clicks Every Time
Using a mouse is 4-10x less efficient than hotkeys and typing. But alas, so many apps force you to use a mouse for repetitive tasks. This had stumped for a while after Firefox removed the full text path for the Select File dialog. Finally I found how to bring that back, CTRL-L!
If killall by name not working try pkill -f
In recent years some distros and apps no loger responding to kill -9 <app name> such as killall -9 firefox.
Increasingly Unmotived, Mercenary, Unethical, and Unaltrustic Global Work Force Culture and the Correlated Poisoning of the Open Source Movement
There has been a very disturbing increase in a trend over the past 5-10 years in the volunteer, paid, and opensource sectors: decreasing worth ethic, lack of motivation, and increasingly severe mercenary and inconsiderate attitudes and behaviors from workers and developers. This trend pre-dates covid. Of course, correlation does not prove causality, but these are some parallel observations.
80-90+% of projects and companies don't need 100% custom-coding!
Welcome to the 21st century! Or is it the 1970s? Unfortunately in recent years there is a ludicrous regression back to 1970s & 80s outdated thinking, with around 80-90+% of custom-coded projects completely unnecessary to be custom-coded.
Almost 2 years later and still no Fxtec F(x)tec PRO¹ X 256/8GB - QWERTY Smartphone :-(
I ordered this $900 phone back in December 2021, and in September 2023 still no phone and just continued stall tactic.
Debian 12 Q4OS on Alienware M18 r1
Notes on attempting to get Debian 12 and Q4OS 5.2 working on an Alienware M18 r1.
Issues Grub Failing Boot on Debian with NVME Drives
Started with Q$OS tracked to Debian Upstream, problems booting after install.
Don't Get All Your Code Thrown In The Dumpster (Fire)
I have been online and coding (on and off) since 1979, and increasingly over the past 5 to 10 years I have had to toss the entire code bases (and databases) of (other developers) entire platforms/project into the trash because they were such terrible dumpster fires (to mix metaphors). Don't let this happen to your code/project!
"Open Source" Mercenaries: Stop Killing the Geese That Laid the Golden Eggs - Before They Become Extinct
In the past 10 years a disturbingly number of "open source" projects are increasingly sabotaging the overall benefits of open source. That is self-defeating, unscalable, and unsustainable. Please learn the history of what it was like before open source and get back on track before you destroy the progress of decades. Here are some suggestions here on a sustainable model that will help you be more successful, less mercenary, more altruistic, and yet also more financially rewarded.
Example of Rudimentary Practical Exam for Basic Systems Administrator / SysOps / DevOps
I recently accepted an intern from Eastern Washington University.
Debian 11 Q4OS on Alienware M18 R1 Laptop
Here are notes on the trials, tribulations, and triumphs installing and using Linux on a brand shiny new Alienware m18r1 18" laptop.
ASUS ZenScreen MB16AC USB-C DisplayLink Monitor on Asus Strix with Debian 11 Linux Bullseye
Notes on getting an ASUS ZenScreen MB16AC USB-C DisplayLink Monitor with and Asus Strix laptop working with Debian 11 Linux.
Guidance on a More Effective Approach to Your Project and Coding
This posting is about some very basic, but FUNDAMENTAL, steps that should be taken with every project at all levels. Taking short cuts on these basics "passes the buck" down to others and is very inconsiderate of everyone that comes after you, so please make this a basic habit for everything you do, if not for yourself, then for everyone else that has to look at your project or code later (you won't be around forever).
Xwiki on Debian 11 Bullseye
Basic notes for setting up and running XWiki (version: ____) on Debian 11 Bullseye
Matrix.org Homeserver Synapse User Lost Password Manual Reset Through Database
If a user doesn't include an email with their matrix account, it is impossible to reset the lost password.
Apple MacOS MacBook Pro Hiding my Older Version Logic Pro 10.0.6 Trying to force me to buy again
I paid in 2014 for Logic Pro X 10.0.6 (forced to buy a new copy when my 2012 Logic Pro 9 wasn't allowed on newer versions of MacOS). I have the receipt etc. However, when I try to install from App Store with the same account as the receipt, it only shows $199.99 Buy Now, with no option to install. Constantly trying to force me to buy again. I found a solution!
Potential Scam Alert warning pro wiki creation prowikicreation.com
Just a heads-up warning to be cautious about pro wiki creation prowikicreation.com
Plone 5.2 on Debian 11 with Python 3.8
Debian 11 currently comes with Python 3.9. Plone 5.2(.9) is not supported with Python 3.9. This information covers the Linux Unified Installer tarball on this platform and added Python 3.8.
ERPNext Customize Job Openings jobs Autogenerated /Jobs and Job Opening Pages in ERPNext
Unfortunately the ERPNext community forum has been mostly unresponsive to most queries, so I am sharing what I had to do to customize the Job Openings and /jobs pages to actually be usable in ERPNext.
Disable HTS checking in Nginx
Often for testing, development, admin, or troubleshooting purposes, HSTS is a PITA that needs to be turned off. Here are some quick notes to do so in nginx...
ERPNext Self-hosted on Debian 11 Bullseye
ERPNext technically is better supported on Debian 10, but since that is getting a bit old in support I'm trying to make it work on Debian 11 so I can remain on there as long as possible, this does mean some tweaks have to be performed to get it all working and dialed in. This page summarizes the tweaks I have found, and will be updated periodically as new ones come up.
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