My Year in Reading, 2023 Edition

I normally hide Easter eggs or just random comments into my footnotes. And so normally it does not matter if you folk read it or not. But this post was really off the cuff and there are some details that have snuck into the footnotes. So, please do give ’em a peek courtesy, Tom Gauld Reading is my one thing. The thing that most people I know, can say without reservation, that I do....

December 31, 2023 · Mario Jason Braganza

Emacs, Three and a Half Years On

If someone had told me three and a half years ago, that I would: Use Emacs as my primary editor nearly everywhere. Not just as an editor. In fact, I would stop thinking of it as an editor and come to see it for what it really is. A whole computer with an editor bolted on. Use Emacs not just for writing, but also have it serve as the cornerstone for two other extremely important activities in my life, organising my life (with Org Mode) and tending to my commonplace book (with Org Roam) Come so far as to scrape a web page, set it up as a connected node in my Zettelkasten, strip close to fifty superfluous lines, edit the rest to my liking, change the title to title case, and then file it way within minutes, and learn do all this by osmosis and research over the years, just by using it daily and being curious1 Have a kind community support all my crazy attempts to bend Emacs to my will I would have told you, you were off your rocker....

December 30, 2023 · Mario Jason Braganza

On How the Kubernetes v1.29 Logo Came About

Kubernetes v1.29 was released a couple of days ago. And just like every other release before it, it has a distinct name and theme (Mandala) as well as its own unique logo. In whose creation, I’m proud to say, I had a part to play! The logo! Look, how pretty! It all began when I helped the v1.29 Release Lead, mentee and trouble-maker in general, Priyanka Saggu set up her blog in 2018....

December 15, 2023 · Mario Jason Braganza

Weirdly Placed Emacs Org Branches Are Only Cosmetic

Every evening, after my shutdown ritual, I move my current day’s branch to the bottom of my Org Mode file, so I begin the next day at the same fixed place, at line 36.1 The day is done; moving it to the bottom of the pile Every time I move though, it goes there and sits, right next to the last branch, instead of under it. So I would grumble a bit, and then go hit the return key as required, to get it all right and proper....

November 27, 2023 · Mario Jason Braganza

Getting Emacs Windows to Not Be Shy

Figuring out my webapps problem yesterday made me ask myself if I could somehow repurpose that little xdotool script to solve another niche itch that I had. Spoiler alert: It did. I run Emacs as a daemon, and use EmacsClient to connect to the Emacs process. Makes it really ease to launch, work on, sling around and close lots of Emacs windows.1 Which brings me to the hiccough. I launch EmacsClient and a window (frame) does indeed launch, but it just … stays there in the background....

November 18, 2023 · Mario Jason Braganza

On How Emacs Adapts

I love it whenever the Roger Ebert of the Emacs world aka Jon Snader aka irreal, gets his hands on one of my posts and uses it for his insightful annotations. His conclusion is something I totally relate to, because that is exactly what has kept me using Emacs ever since I began using it. It bends to my will. Or as Jon puts it … It’s yet another way that Emacs adapts itself to its users rather than insisting those users adapt themselves to Emacs....

November 18, 2023 · Mario Jason Braganza

Getting Around Linux Mint Web App Manager Window Errors

One of best parts of using Linux Mint is its Web Apps Manager. I can use most of my websites as dedicated applications now. Case in point, I use a dedicated web app to run Elk, the web client for Mastodon. Social stuff like this, or banking stuff or my webmail for that matter, stays away from the rest of my browsing and lets me keep these activities cognitively separate....

November 17, 2023 · Mario Jason Braganza

Having My Emacs Tasks and Notes Ready

Updated: 2023-11-17. Read more below Nearly everything I write is in Emacs.1 It’s been slightly more than two years, since I made the move to using it as my everyday text editor. I have a spartan Emacs config, with only a few customisations, that I found by watching David Wilson aka System Crafters’ Emacs From Scratch #1 video and the rest by searching on the web and asking around on the fediverse....

November 16, 2023 · Mario Jason Braganza

My Custom CSS for Miniflux

Various bits and bobs, I gradually accumulated over the past couple of years, to make my self hosted Miniflux look just the way I want it. Width and Size Changed the width to 850 pixels wide, because even on my vertical monitor, there was quite a bit of wasted horizontal space. Changed the body to use a slightly smaller size. body { max-width: 850px; !important; font-size: 90%; } Italic Blockquotes Changed blockquotes to be italic, so that they’re better set off against normal body text....

November 15, 2023 · Mario Jason Braganza

Reworking Blog/Newsletter Subscription Options

I’ve had a rash of folk1, unsubscribing from the newsletter after last few I’ve sent. I guess a few of you signed on, for techy posts and because of life, most of my recent newsletters have mostly been photography, or writing or other stuff.2 So, I went ahead, reworked the subscribe page on the blog and segmented the rest of you folk. Hopefully, you see only the emails you are interested in....

September 21, 2023 · Mario Jason Braganza