Archives

Antranig Vartanian

May 15, 2023

I like Windows because it’s the best for gaming!

Meanwhile on Windows: The simplest game that has been around for 30 years, Solitaire, has ads in it. You have to pay $2/month or $15/year to remove ads.

The design is ugly, it’s so ugly that the Windows XP version easily beats it and it takes at least 10 seconds to load the game, which used to take 1 second on Windows XP.

I’ve stopped using Windows 12 years ago, I’m not sure why everyone else hasn’t.

If I didn’t need to test network protocols every once in a while, I would be happier, because booting Windows feels like a pain already…

Antranig Vartanian

May 12, 2023

The Pixelmator Team released Photomator a month ago (well, technically renamed), one of the things on their roadmap was Photomator for Mac.

I submitted a form to join the TestFlight Beta and I got in! I’ve been using it for couple of days now and I absolutely love it.

The Photomator Team sent an email saying “Photomator will be released on ███ ██th, so we ask all testers to hold back on sharing any screenshots of Photomator for Mac until this date.”

While I can’t share any screenshots, I will share a photo edited using Photomator for Mac.

Can’t wait for the official release!

That’s all folks…

Antranig Vartanian

April 27, 2023

I use the Skype mobile app once a month, usually to talk with friends and family. I just noticed this.

There’s a new tab/view named “Today” which shows a feed of articles… WHY???

Are all proprietary vendors trying to do “everything, everywhere” or what?

I have no words, I’m still shocked.

Antranig Vartanian

April 25, 2023

This is just a test 🙂 I’m trying to configure and use child themes!

Update: Looks like it all works fine!

Antranig Vartanian

April 7, 2023

At this point all I want is MarsEdit for iOS. I just noticed that I haven’t logged into my WordPress website using the admin interface for weeks, which means that MarsEdit is REALLY awesome.

On the other hand, the WordPress App on iOS is very much tied with the WordPress services such as WordPress.com and Jetpack. While I like both services and recommend them to friends, they are not for me, so that’s a pass…

MarsEdit for iOS, I’d even pay monthly for that.

Antranig Vartanian

March 29, 2023

After weeks of thinking, I decided that I need to fork Jailer. Yes, I want to fork my own code. There are two reasons to do this.

  1. Keep the promise of Jailer being “very compatible with FreeBSD”
  2. Have a new version that pushes these limits of compatibility.

The fork is going to be named bant, which is Armenian for jail. I think we’re all tired of Greek names at this point 🙂

I’ll share the details of bant as soon as I have a prototype, which means at least couple of weeks.

Meanwhile, Jailer will be the very-compatible-with-FreeBSD version, that doesn’t brake things and allows new users to use Jails with ease.

Fingers crossed…

Antranig Vartanian

March 29, 2023

Code cleanup is hard. I’ve been trying to make Jailer’s code simpler, more modular for hours now, and the more I try to simplify it, the harder it is.

My biggest issue right now is this massive complex code that does image management. The end goal is to make it so simple, that anyone with basic knowledge if shell can understand it.

Antranig Vartanian

March 28, 2023

I’m sure at this point everyone heard that GitHub updated their RSA SSH host key.

This is a common issue, say you re-installed a server at the same IP/hostname. No problem, you remove a line and put in another one.

But honestly, I thought that GitHub had SSHFP records in their DNS.

$ dig SSHFP github.com +short | wc 
       0       0       0

Not so much… But then again, looks like they DO need to sign their zone first.

$ whois github.com | grep DNSSEC
   DNSSEC: unsigned
DNSSEC: unsigned

I have to say, using SSHFP has changed my life. Obviously there are some issues (Windows and macOS, specifically), but if you’re running a normal, modern operating system (hello BSDs, hello Linux) then it’s like magic!

I just setup one for our hackerspace!

$ whois hackerspace.am | grep DS
   DNS servers (zone signed, 1 DS record):
$ dig hackerspace.am SSHFP +short | wc -l
       6

Anyway, I’m sure many CI/CD pipelines are going crazy because of this… Good luck everyone!

Antranig Vartanian

March 26, 2023

Couple of years ago, I saw an article that said “By the year 20XX 70% of all created content will be video”. Unfortunately, I didn’t bookmark the article, so I can’t link it.

But I did not believe that. More importantly, I did not want to believe that, and for a long time, I thought that it was wrong.

But couple of weeks ago, while sitting next to my girlfriend, I watched her scroll in Instagram, and oh my god, that article was very much accurate. Everything was a video.

This is specifically sad, because Instagram was a photo sharing platform and now most of the content there is indeed video.

After weeks of researching, looks like that most things ARE video these days.

I have mixed feelings about this.

I wonder if there are any non-Instagram, non-TikTok, actually a real world wide web, video blogs. We’ve seen web logs, we’ve seen photo blogs, but video blogs wold be very interesting. Maintaining them too!

Antranig Vartanian

March 14, 2023

It took me a while to realize this, but if you’re also working from home, these two tips might help you be more productive.

  1. When you start your work, make sure you’re dressed.
  2. Get a static working desk.

It seems so simple and rudimentary, right? It took me 6 months to realize this! Working from a desk fully clothed is a lot better than working in underwear in bed.

But I guess everyone is different. For me, this has been a huge productivity change 🙂