The why and how of backing up your Mastodon data
Your server or your Mastodon account could go away at any time. If you don’t want to lose your data, you should back it up. Here’s how to do that, and how to restore it later.
Category Archives: Free software
This is how to make the “Install pending software updates” checkbox go away in GNOME
You can switch GNOME Software to manual updates, or block offline updates completely with polkit. Neither solution is perfect. The GNOME developers have no interest in improving the situation.
How I lost my family’s email, recovered most of it, and made sure it wouldn’t happen again
I made some mistakes, it cost me some time and a bit of lost data, and I’ve taken steps to make sure if it happens again I’ll lose less time and less data.
Don’t abuse open-source software maintainers or this might happen
If you abuse me privately, I will name and shame you publicly.
Why software product support is (sometimes) a terrible job
Software maintainers can’t help people who can’t or won’t read and answer straightforward questions, and some people who need help with software are incapable of reading and answering straightforward questions.
Notes from migrating Linux to a new hard drive
Migrating a Linux install to a new drive can be easy (Clonezilla) or hard. I chose hard. It was a learning experience.
Handle MFA like a pro so you don’t get locked out or let the bad guys in
Why you should use MFA, what about passkeys, what kind of MFA to use, how to make it easier to use, and how to protect yourself against being locked out of an account because of MFA.
WaPo article about Signal use by feds with me as lead-off hitter
This morning over at The Washington Post ([archive link]), Shira Ovide, Danielle Abril, and Hannah Natanson write about Signal use among federal workers. I’m the lede (funsies!). This is a great article capturing the mood among federal workers right now, and it makes relatively clear that while what Pete Hegseth et al are doing is… Read More »
Hack of the day: CGI script for temporary download bandwidth throttling
I wrote a self-service way for my family to tell my computer to stop hogging all the download bandwidth so they can do their online meetings or gaming.
Tampermonkey script to un-Gmail Google Contacts
When you click on a contact’s email address in the Google Contacts web app, instead of opening a new draft in your default email app with the “To” field populated with that email address, which is what it should do, Google Contacts opens a Gmail compose window. I hate this behavior. While I do have… Read More »