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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...

Another Round of Adventures in Microsoft Incompetence - Read More…

Rough Week! Alienware M18 Blew Up and Burned! Meanwhile Installing Q4OS TDE on Alienware M16

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).

Rough Week! Alienware M18 Blew Up and Burned! Meanwhile Installing Q4OS TDE on Alienware M16 - Read More…

Is the Jan.ai executable infected?

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 !

Is the Jan.ai executable infected? - Read More…

Time Tracking

Notes on self time tracking in Debian Linux Q4OS Trinity Desktop

Time Tracking - Read More…

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...

My preferred development release cycles list of environments - Read More…

Remember CTRL-L for File Selector Full Text File Path Feature in Firefox Instead of 28+ Mouse Clicks Every Time

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!

Remember CTRL-L for File Selector Full Text File Path Feature in Firefox Instead of 28+ Mouse Clicks Every Time - Read More…

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.

If killall by name not working try pkill -f - Read More…

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.

Increasingly Unmotived, Mercenary, Unethical, and Unaltrustic Global Work Force Culture and the Correlated Poisoning of the Open Source Movement - Read More…

80% of projects and companies don't need 100% custom-coding!

80% of projects and companies don't need 100% custom-coding!

There has been a growing trend in the past 10 years or so regressing back to 100% custom-coding everything. This is a ludicrous waste of time and money, and around 80% of the time completely unnecessary and very unwise...

80% of projects and companies don't need 100% custom-coding! - Read More…

Debian 12 Q4OS on Alienware M18 r1

Debian 12 Q4OS on Alienware M18 r1

Notes on attempting to get Debian 12 and Q4OS 5.2 working on an Alienware M18 r1.

Debian 12 Q4OS on Alienware M18 r1 - Read More…

Don't Get All Your Code Thrown In The Dumpster (Fire)

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!

Don't Get All Your Code Thrown In The Dumpster (Fire) - Read More…

"Open Source" Mercenaries: Stop Killing the Geese That Laid the Golden Eggs - Before They Become Extinct

"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.

"Open Source" Mercenaries: Stop Killing the Geese That Laid the Golden Eggs - Before They Become Extinct - Read More…

Debian 11 Q4OS on Alienware M18 R1 Laptop

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.

Debian 11 Q4OS on Alienware M18 R1 Laptop - Read More…

Guidance on a More Effective Approach to Your Project and Coding

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).

Guidance on a More Effective Approach to Your Project and Coding - Read More…

Xwiki on Debian 11 Bullseye

Xwiki on Debian 11 Bullseye

Basic notes for setting up and running XWiki (version: ____) on Debian 11 Bullseye

Xwiki on Debian 11 Bullseye - Read More…

Apple MacOS MacBook Pro Hiding my Older Version Logic Pro 10.0.6 Trying to force me to buy again

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!

Apple MacOS MacBook Pro Hiding my Older Version Logic Pro 10.0.6 Trying to force me to buy again - Read More…

Plone 5.2 on Debian 11 with Python 3.8

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.

Plone 5.2 on Debian 11 with Python 3.8 - Read More…

ERPNext Customize Job Openings jobs Autogenerated /Jobs and Job Opening Pages in ERPNext

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.

ERPNext Customize Job Openings jobs Autogenerated /Jobs and Job Opening Pages in ERPNext - Read More…

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...

Disable HTS checking in Nginx - Read More…

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.

ERPNext Self-hosted on Debian 11 Bullseye - Read More…

Odoo has become too Mercenary. Abandoning Odoo and evaluating alternative replacement options. - Trying ERPNext

Odoo has become too Mercenary. Abandoning Odoo and evaluating alternative replacement options. - Trying ERPNext

Unfortunately the opensource community in the last 10 years is killing the goose that laid the golden egg. The new generation of coders who don't know what it was like before opensource, are shooting themselves in the foot by becoming increasingly mercenary in their opensource approach. We saw this with Plone, and now with Odoo. So now we need to find another alternative, one again.

Odoo has become too Mercenary. Abandoning Odoo and evaluating alternative replacement options. - Trying ERPNext - Read More…

Old Technology Grognard's Opinion Piece On Current Hype About Blockchain Buzzword Bingo

Old Technology Grognard's Opinion Piece On Current Hype About Blockchain Buzzword Bingo

I've been involved with computer/information technology since 1979, and online since the same time. This is just a quick response to an email conversation I had with someone, that I thought might be worth capturing here. Much of what I state is arguable, so take it as the opinion piece that it is, rather than the more instructional pieces I usually write. Cheers!

Old Technology Grognard's Opinion Piece On Current Hype About Blockchain Buzzword Bingo - Read More…

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