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Diffstat (limited to 'src')
| -rw-r--r-- | src/published/arch-philosophy.txt | 18 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | src/published/technology.txt | 56 |
2 files changed, 63 insertions, 11 deletions
diff --git a/src/published/arch-philosophy.txt b/src/published/arch-philosophy.txt index 66a93de..4bd4bae 100644 --- a/src/published/arch-philosophy.txt +++ b/src/published/arch-philosophy.txt @@ -14,26 +14,22 @@ Which is not to say the Arch community is any better, just that Arch itself has But there's more to it than that. -I've always known I'd end up with Arch. If you take a strange, peaceful joy in configuring things with plain text files you too will eventually end up with Arch. Or you'll end up fighting everything else you try. My Arch setup is minimalist, no desktop, just [Openbox](http://openbox.org/wiki/Main_Page) and [Tint2](https://gitlab.com/o9000/tint2). I primarily open apps with [dmenu](http://tools.suckless.org/dmenu/) and do most of my file system tasks from the terminal using bash (or [Ranger](http://nongnu.org/ranger/) if I want something fancier). Currently my setup uses about 200MB of RAM with no apps open, meaning I have no need to spend more than $400 on a PC, which makes me happy. - -<figure class="picwide"> -<img src="https://images.luxagraf.net/2016/arch.jpg" class="picwide" /> -<figcaption>That's all there is to it.</figcaption> -</figure> +I've always known I'd end up with Arch. If you take a strange, peaceful joy in configuring things with plain text files you too will eventually end up with Arch. Or you'll end up fighting everything else you try. My Arch setup is minimalist, just the [i3](https://i3wm.org/) window manager with [i3status](https://i3wm.org/i3status/manpage.html). I open apps with [dmenu](http://tools.suckless.org/dmenu/) and do most of my file system tasks from the terminal using bash (or [Ranger](http://nongnu.org/ranger/) if I want something fancier). Currently my setup uses about 200MB of RAM with no apps open, meaning I have no need to spend more than $400 on a PC, which makes me happy. +<img src="images/2018/arch.jpg" id="image-1211" class="picwide caption" /> Arch was also liberating for me precisely because it is the end of the line -- there's nothing else to explore. I'm done. I have my stack and I can move on to other things. It's been a long time since that was true. -Arch is unquestionably the best linux distro I've used. It has a simple, clean install that doesn't bundle tons of crap and lets you decide what to install. Sure there's Debian minimal too if you're really opposed to Arch (like I was for a while), but then you end up with more out of date software. To me that's fine for the server. In fact these words are being served from a Debian server (these days I use [SSD VPS hosting by Evolution Host](https://evolution-host.com/ssd-vps-hosting.php)). +Arch is unquestionably the best linux distro I've used. It has a simple, clean install that doesn't bundle tons of crap and lets you decide what to install. Sure there's Debian minimal too if you're really opposed to Arch (like I was for a while), but then you end up with more out of date software. I've even switched to using Arch on my server. This server in fact. I still use Debian for client sites, but these words are being served from an Arch server. Lately I've been using [Vultr](https://www.vultr.com/?ref=6825229) (affiliate link) precisely because they make it easy to install Arch on a VPS. On the desktop though Debian's packages are too out of date for my tastes. Yeah, even testing. Okay not Sid. But have you ever managed to keep Sid working through more than one update? My experience with Arch so far is much, much stabler than Sid or testing. And, more important for me, managing your out of repo software is a million times easier in Arch. There's no need to remember or track what was installed with dpkg-buildpackage, what used checkinstall or apt-src or god forbid some horror you re-packaged from an .rpm file. Not that I would do that. Cough. -Arch has a decent set of repositories with most of the software you'd ever want all official like and whatnot. Yeah it's tiny compared to Debian, but my needs are simple: bash, vim, tmux, mutt, newsbeuter, mpd, git, git annex, feh, Openbox, tint2, gimp, darktable and dev stuff like python3, postgis, etc. Every distro has this stuff. +Arch has a decent set of repositories with most of the software you'd ever want all official like and whatnot. Yeah it's tiny compared to Debian, but my needs are simple: i3, bash, vim, tmux, mutt, newsboat, mpd, git, feh, gimp, darktable and dev stuff like python3, postgis, etc. Every distro has this stuff. -Arch's real strength though is how amazingly easy it is to package your own software. Because even Debian's epically oversized repos can't hold everything. The Debian repos pale next to the Arch User Respository (AUR), which has just about every piece of software available for Linux. And it's up-to-date. So up to date that half the AUR packages have a -git variant that's pulled straight from git. The best part is there are tools to manage and update all these out of repo packages. I strongly suggest you learn to package and install AUR repos by hand, but once you've done that a few times and you know what's happening I suggest installing [yaourt](https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/yaourt/) to simplify managing all those AUR installs. +Arch's real strength though is how amazingly easy it is to package your own software. Because even Debian's epically oversized repos can't hold everything. The Debian repos pale next to the Arch User Respository (AUR), which has just about every piece of software available for Linux. And it's up-to-date. So up-to-date that half the AUR packages have a -git variant that's pulled straight from the project's git repo. The best part is there are tools to manage and update all these out of repo packages. I strongly suggest you learn to package and install AUR repos by hand, but once you've done that a few times and you know what's happening I suggest installing [yaourt](https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/yaourt/) to simplify managing all those AUR installs. -I've installed Arch on four machines at this point. I started with my Macbook Pro, which I've since sold (no need for high end hardware with my setup), but it ran Arch like a champ (what a relief to not need OS X). I also installed Arch on a Dell Chromebook 13 (by far the hardest of the bunch) I used [this guide](https://github.com/Kerryliu/Native-Linux-on-Dell-Chromebook-13/wiki) to get everything set up and then I banged my head against the Arch Wiki beginner page, installing and failing over and over again until I gave up on GPT, went with MBR and Grub. It works, but I have to eject the microSD card I use for extra storage whenever I reboot (I suspect either it's a shortcoming of the legacy firmware patch or maybe I need to edit the fstab file, but I haven't bothered to debug it since it has an easy fix). Getting ALSA working on this machine was a pain, but otherwise everything was fine. +I've installed Arch on about a dozen machines at this point. I started with my Macbook Pro, which I've since sold (no need for high end hardware with my setup), but it ran Arch like a champ (what a relief to not need OS X). I also installed Arch on a Dell Chromebook 13 (by far the hardest of the bunch) I used [this guide](https://github.com/Kerryliu/Native-Linux-on-Dell-Chromebook-13/wiki) to get everything set up and then I banged my head against the Arch Wiki beginner page, installing and failing over and over again until I gave up on GPT, went with MBR and Grub. It works, but I have to eject the microSD card I use for extra storage whenever I reboot (I suspect either it's a shortcoming of the legacy firmware patch or maybe I need to edit the fstab file, but I haven't bothered to debug it since it has an easy fix). Getting ALSA working on this machine was a pain, but otherwise everything was fine. -And then there's my EeePC 1005HA, which I bought in 2008 and is still chugging along. It was a snap, I installed everything as per the Arch wiki and it just worked. Take that Apple. +Currently I use a Lenovo x250 that I picked up off eBay for a couple hundred bucks and upgraded with a bigger hard drive and 1080p screen. It runs Arch like a champ and gives me all I could ever want in a laptop. Okay, maybe more RAM would be nice for my occasional bouts of video editing, but otherwise it's more than enough. diff --git a/src/published/technology.txt b/src/published/technology.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..cb613cb --- /dev/null +++ b/src/published/technology.txt @@ -0,0 +1,56 @@ +Sometimes people email me to ask how I make luxagraf. Here's now I do it: I write, take pictures and combine them into stories. + +I recognize that this is not particularly helpful. Or it is, I think, but it's not why people email me. They want to know about at the tools I use. Which is fine. I guess. Consumerism! Yeah! Anyway, I decided to make a page I can just point people to, this one. There's no affiliate links and I'd really prefer it if you didn't buy any of this stuff because you don't need it. I don't need it. I could get by with less. I should get by with less. + +Still, for better or worse. Here are the tools I use. + +### Notebook and Pen + +My primary "device" is my notebook. I don't have a fancy notebook. I do have several notebooks though. One is in my pocket at all times and is filled with illegible scribbles that I attempt to decipher later. The other is larger and it's my sort of captain's log, though I don't write in with the kind regularity captain's do. Or that I imagine captain's do. Then I have other notebooks for specific purposes, meditation journal, etc. + +I'm not all that picky about notebooks, if they have paper in them I'm happy enough, but I could devote thousands and thousands of words to pens. For what seems like forever I was religiously devoted to the Uniball Roller Stick Pen in micro point, which I used to swipe from my dad's desk drawer back in high school. It's a lovely pen, I was gratified to note it was the pen of choice at the lawyer's office where we finalized the sale of our house. And yes, I totally took one. + +Once I bought a fancy pen from Japan that takes Parker ink refills, and it's my pen of choice. I can't remember the brand or anything which sucks because I'd love to get another. + +When that's not handy I use Uniball Vision pens, which also fill my two primary requirements in a pen: 1) it writes well 2) I can buy it almost anywhere for next to nothing. + +### Camera + +This is what everyone wants to know about. I used a Sony A7ii. It's a full frame mirrorless camera that happens to make it easy to use legacy film lenses. I bought it specifically because it's the only full frame digital camera available that lets me use the old lens that I love. Without the old lenses I find the Sony's output to be a little digital for my tastes, though the RAW files from the A7ii have wonderful dynamic range, which was the other selling point for me. + +That said, it's not a cheap camera. You should not buy one. The Sony a6000 is very nearly at good and costs $500 ($400 on eBay). In fact, having tested dozens of cameras for Wired over the years I can say with some authority that the a6000 is the best value for money on the market period, but doubly so if you want at cheap way to test out some older lenses. + +All of my lenses are old and manual focus, which I prefer to autofocus lenses. I like the fact that they're cheap too, but really the main appeal for me with old lenses was the far superior focusing rings. I grew up using all manual focus cameras. Autofocus was probably around by the time I picked up a camera, but I never had it. My father had (still has) a screw mount Pentax. I bought a Minolta with money from a high school job. Eventually I upgraded to a Nikon F3 which was my primary camera until 2004. While there are advantages to autofocus, and certainly modern lenses are much sharper in most cases, neither autofocus nor perfect edge to edge sharpness are significant for the type of photos I like to make. + +####lenses + +One thing about shooting manual lenses is that there are a ton of cheap manual lenses out there. I have seen amazing photos produced with $10 lenses. Learn to manual focus a lens is like opening a door into a secret world. A secret world where lenses are cheap. The net result of my foray into this world is that I have a ridiculous collection of lenses. And we live in a bus, lord knows what I'd have if we had more space. + +That said, about 90% of the time I have a very fast, relatively lightweight Canon FD 50 f1.4. I love this lens. I love love love it. The other fifty I love love love is my minolta 50 f/2, which is the slow one in the Minolta 50 family, but man is a great lens. I bought it for $20. + +At the wide end of the spectrum I have another Canon, the FD 20mm f2.8. For portraits I use the Minolta MD 100 f2 and an Olympus M Zuiko 100 f/2.8. I also have this crazy Russian fisheye thing I bought one night on eBay after I'd been drinking. It's pretty hilarious bad at anything less than f8, but it's useful for shooting in small spaces, like the inside of the bus. + +I also have, cough, a few other lenses that I don't use very often or that I use for a while and pass along via eBay. Right now I have a Minolta 58 f/1.4 that I really like, a Pentax 28 f/3.5 that doesn't do much for me (28mm just isn't how I see the world) and Canon 35 f/1.8 that I like alot but won't mount on any adapter I have. I need to get it serviced. + + +### laptop + +My laptop is a Lenovo x250 I bought off eBay for $300. I upgraded the hard drives and put in an HD screen, which brought the total outlay to $550, which is really way too much to spend on a computer these days, but my excuse is that I make money using it. + +Why this particular laptop? It's small and the battery lasts quite a while (like 15 hrs when I'm writing, more 12 when editing photos). It also has a removable battery and can be upgraded by the user. I packed in almost 3TB of disk storage, which is nice. It does make a high pitch whining noise that drives me crazy whenever I'm in a quiet room with it, but since I mostly use it outdoors, sitting around our camps, this is rarely an issue. + +Still, like I said, I could get by with less. I should get by with less. + +The laptop runs Linux because everything else sucks a lot more than Linux. Which isn't too say that I love Linux, it could use some work too. But it sucks a whole lot less than the rest. I run Arch Linux, which I have written about elsewhere. The main appeal of Arch for me is that once I set it up I never have to think about it again. Because I test software for a living I also have a partition that hosts a revolving door of other Linux distros that I use from time to time, but never when I want to get work done. When I want to get work done, I use Arch. + +Because I am hopelessly bored with technology, I stick mainly with simple, text-based applications. Almost everything I do is done inside a single terminal (urxvt) window running tmux, which gives me four tabs. I write in Vim. For email I use mutt. I read RSS feeds with newsbeuter and I listen to music via mpd. I also have a command line calculator and a locally-hosted dictionary that I use pretty regularly. + +I do use a few GUI apps: Tor for browsing the web, Darktable and GIMP for editing photos, Stellarium for learning more about the night sky, and LibreOffice Calc for spreadsheets. That's about it. + +### ithing/tablet/drone/wrist tracking device thingy + +Yeah I don't have any of those. I'm one of those people. I pay for everything in cash too. Fucking weirdo is what I am. I told you you didn't want to know how I make stuff. + +<hr /> + +So there you have it, my technology stack. I am of course always looking for ways to get by with less technology, but I think, after years of getting rid of stuff, I reached something close to ideal. |