JDPFu.com 2025

A little printer hacking for fun, not profit.

I haven’t been a fan of snaps since the beginning. Why? Because they include all the dependencies in the install packages, AND those package versions are only used by the single snap/flatpak/appimage, the amount of waste is huge.

Snaps also have restrictions for which storage can be accessed. Snaps usually allow access to HOME and stuff under /media/, but nowhere else.
No, you can’t access NFS storage or CIFS storage that is mounted elsewhere.
No, you can’t access /tmp/.
I’ve found no way to override the compiled-in limitations.

How much disk and RAM waste is involved? An example, is the vidcutter tool. Normally, I’d use mkvmerge —split parts: to accomplish simple cutting, but sometimes a GUI is handy. The cuts will be on GOP boundaries anyway, so it isn’t like this is frame-accurate.

Just got the new ACA insurance quotes for 2019. 12.4% increase from last year.

4.38x more money and zero better options. There is nothing affordable about these plans.

My real monthly rates:

Thank you former President Obama and all our representatives. Nice job.

I have ZERO medical issues, besides being slightly overweight and wearing glasses. Vision and dental are NOT included in these plans.

ZERO medications besides the very occasional Sudafed for sniffles.

Saw this on a forum by an AC today:

I think that my freedom is more important than my security.
I prefer to live in a free but insecure world than in a perfectly safe but not free world.

When govts try for a perfectly safe world, they need to be reminded of this stance.

Also, New Zealand has a law that fines someone refusing to unlock their electronics at the border with NZD$5,000. The claim is that they must have a good reason to demand access, but that is a little late. The article also said that the device would be in “airplane mode” for the searches.

Update for 2018. 37% higher than in 2017!!! 387% higher than I paid in 2014 plus the deductible is much higher and the coverage is much worse.

3.87x more money and zero better options. No question to me why the democrats didn’t win the last presidential election. Their decisions on this are costing me thousands more yearly and I’m on the cheapest plan available in my state.

My real monthly rates:

Thank you former President Obama and all our representatives. Nice job.

I have ZERO medical issues, besides being slightly overweight and wearing glasses.
ZERO medications besides the very occasional Sudafed for sniffles.

There are times when not using a GUI is a smart option.

Not everyone has the desire to read a book and slowly learn Unix/Linux in the formal methods that have been proven. After all, we all learn best by scratching a personal itch. Learning bash, sh, ksh, tcsh, zsh, fish, or any of the multiple other Unix shells isn’t any different. All of them are base on the Bourne Shell, sh, so they are usually similar. Almost all Unix systems today default to bash, the Bourne-again shell .

People are always looking for the shortest way to become fluent in different topics, including Linux. There aren’t any shortcuts. It takes time and active learning. Our minds need time to consider what we learn every day. New connections from things learned last week, last month, and last year are made as we learn new things this month.

Review these three links, in order …. Should take about an hour to get the core information.

• Linux for Windows people
• Linux is not Windows
• Some directed, learning a quality linux book That is a free, no-hassle, PDF book link.

You can always google for the Ubuntu Desktop Guide and/or Ubuntu Server Guide – these are written for beginners. Sadly, they leave out the why and only provide 1, simple, method for the how. They also cover many things that almost nobody should be using anymore. Things like setting up an FTP server when use of plain FTP should have ended in the mid-1990s. Stop Using Plain FTP .

Amazon Prime Video has free (for prime members) Ubuntu beginning videos. There’s something about seeing someone else do something that is really helpful.
Youtube has lots and lots of videos of different quality. #1 thing to learn is how tab-completion works. If you are typing more than 2-3 characters at a time, then you are probably doing it wrong.

The Linux Foundation has free online classes. These can also be seen on EdX.org as well.

Effort is required to learn a new OS, just like effort is required to learn a new spoken/written language. If you want something simpler, but still Linux, get a chromebook or a tablet running Android. Ubuntu and similar Linux distros are extremely powerful operating systems. 90% of the power comes from non-GUI stuff. Imagine all the things you do with typical GUI-centric OSes – and multiply that 9x – that’s the power of a Unix OS that can be accessed without any GUI.

Knowing the WHY, is important since thinking the Unix-way is a fundamental mind shift from using GUI-centric operating systems. Making the connections between each newly learned skill will help with the why. It does become clearer, over time.

It is common for new-to-linux users to complain that everything in Linux isn’t easy. What can I say. With great power, comes great responsibility.

A much longer version of my Learning Linux post with many more details.

At Southeast LinuxFest 2016, there was a pretty great set of Container Security presentations. I took notes on most, but not all of them. Actually, the most important presentation, my notes only say to re-watch the video when it becomes available. Sadly, the SELF guys have been really busy and it is 7 months later – no videos posted.

What are we going to do about that? ….

Watch Live OTA TV from your home from anywhere in the world – big deal, right? Well, it could be. Let me explain.

• No extra service provider needed.
• 1-time costs for equipment that works at home AND remotely from anywhere
• Get around sports blackouts with a friend outside the blackout areas. THIS is the biggy.

Picked up a sampler 12-pak of Blue Moon beer thinking I’d get to try some tasty alternatives. Didn’t look at the different options too closely because I’ve been pleasantly surprised by other brewery sample packs – Spoetzl Brewery in particular.

Well, the Blue Moon guys were drinking a little too much. That’s all I can say – they made a Cappuccino Stout. Some things are just a really bad idea.

Just sayin’.