About#

Who are we? Well, Who cares! If you like something on this site, I'm glad, if you dislike something here, too bad, the interweb is a huge place! If you find a mistake, I may get around to correcting it someday. Most importantly, if you think you gained something of value from here, please think of donating to one of the linked charities or to the author of the underlying tool I am using.

No KVM No Mess#

Introducing the awesome Mouse Without Borders and masterful Control My Monitor#

So here is a strange scenario I found myself in; Two monitors, two PC's one hub (a Lenovo Thunderbolt dock), one keyboard and one mouse.... and a very small table to work on. WEll, irrespective of the size of the table, I wanted to use one mouse, one keyboard and no additional hardware (for those who might be thinking, "Is he an idiot?", the hag would say, "Of Course he is you dimwit!").

To complicate the matter, one of the PC's is a work device, which is on VPN all the time using something called 'Global Whatnot We are Watching you' (nevermind the question of who exactly is being protected here), so the hundreds of software KVM tools out there would mostlikely not work or needed significant investment (as in Not Free).

Enter, Microsoft Garages 'MouseWithoutBorders'! (MWB, hereforth, my abbriveation not theirs)

Some tweaking, badabingbadaboom, We are sharing keyboards, moving mice, copy/paste, draganddrop and all kinds of goodies!

But hold on! Did we not want to use two monitors too? I mean, yes, I have dual moniotrs but I did want all that screen realestate for the PC I was working on, not split the screens across two PC's. Here, MWB does not claim any fame. So what to do?

Was it all an exercise in futility?

Oh No No No! Enter the Israeli swashbuckler (my description not his) Nir Sofer and his fantabulous freeware tool, 'ControlMyMonitor'! (CMM, hereforth, my abbriveation not his) What a guy!

CMM, allows you to send signals to the connected monitors allowing you to do fun stuff like adjust the various properties without entering the oft fiddly menus on-screen. But hold on, one of the vaules it exposes is the MonitorID!. Enter one monitors ID and boom you are on that screen. Enter the other monitors ID and boom, there you are.

A little script (.bat, Windoze Zindabad) and what we have is a fully software controlled multiPC multiMonitor mono-keyboard adn mono-mouse setup. Most importantly, totally free.

Single vs. Double Quotes#

SPMW

Perhaps it is a good thing to begin the knowledge base with something I discovered via trial and error. When trying to start the SPMW, and providing a wildcard argument to inorporate all the markdown files in a given folder, using Single quotes, caused a dump on windows while using double quotes succeded.

On windoze Dont#

npx --yes -- single-page-markdown-website '*.md' --open

Do#

npx --yes -- single-page-markdown-website "*.md" --open

Happy gathering

Independance Day - WIP#

Reclaiming space on my Synology and DeDuping my photos and videos.#

The Duplicates Conundrum#

Tools#

Total Cost#

Steps#

Dryrun#

rclone dedupe newest praphagdrive:"" --by-hash --dry-run~

Work In Progress Thoughts#

I found out, not only do I have duplicates and triplicates, I also have multiplicates (this is a new word I just made up to indicate multiples of multiples). In various places too. A portable SSD, an older NAS with one HDD in it, the new NAS with two HDD's in it, the OneDrive (for each family member), the Google Drive(s).... aaarrggghhh!!

Currently, the attempt is to pull all the files into one NAS (the new one) and run rClone against it. However, this time, I am going to delete all the files from the various storages once I have copied them. Then there is no going back.

What are the exact activities I need to do during the dedupe process? Without specifically focusing on rclone

Using Git / Github#

How does it get so complicated? All I want to do is have soe fun (yes, I was young in the 80's)

A List of Curated Links#

Single Page Markdown Website

When using a version control tool like Git, sometimes, all one wants to do is to be lazy and push every commit 😨

Bash script to Auto push Generic stackoverflow response to auto push Simple example for a Post-Commit hook A Good combined answer to hooks

How to Not Listen to your users; An exercise in Product Management A Python Book from freeCodeCamp [A developer fights back - Somce Interview Questions] (https://hackernoon.com/36-questions-every-software-developer-should-ask-potential-employers)

Authors P. Jr. is currently reading.#

The NEXT job hunt Journey#

Why am I doing this?#

One word sums up all the reasons - Money. For the longest of times, I have been hampered by factors like shame (poor formal qualifications), inferiority complexes (am I knowledgeable enough?), imposter syndrome (others know much more than me, I am not on top of all the topics), loyalty, and so on. Having not only completed my MSc., I also recognise the window of oportunity we have here to make a significant adjustment to the earnings potential I have. Given that I estimate I only have another 15 years of real earning potential, it is now time to begin working on realizing that potential.

Where should I start?#

If it is so that earnings potential is the main driving force, then should I not simply ask for a raise? Given the relatively long history I have in this company, the network, the knowledge and all the other soft skills needed to navigate in todays world? the answer is two fold;

Firstly, aking for a raise in this weak economic climate can result in a 'No'! In that case one needs to be prepared to accept that outcome if one wishes to continue. If the negative answer is not acceptable, and in my case, it is not, then one needs to be able to seamlessly (well, as seamlessly as possible) move on. Yes, I will ask for an realignment of my compensation package with the current tasks and role, but I am preparing to be dissapointed.

Secondly, having been here for a while, I can see that there is need for a refresh. It is very easy to slide into a cocoon of complacency when one is well insulated and I do want to take on some new challenges while increasing my net worth.

The obvious place was to begin by (re?)searching the internet to see what was being said out there on the meat market! How has the market evolved? What are the recruiters doing to attract talent? As a mature talent, how can I keep myself relevant and not end up in the, 'too old, non-white, I'll pass, pile'!

How job searches work in the new world

Cecil Adkins' blog on Medium came up while googling the topic. While I am not sure about all of what he is saying, there are some points that are relevant and worthwile.

Ok, so I did some Googling, now what?#

Well, the thing is, for the longest of times, well, actually somce 2018 or so, when I went to Richemont to tell them that SAP can do real SSO, I've been wanting to go work for them. The allure of Switzerland, th offices by Lake Geneva, the huge pay (I assume), the employee discounts on designer brands, all make me wonder if I wont be as happy with them as I am here.

AND they have two roles, both of which I can fulfil. So why not start with them?

myBrainDump