Coolvibe's digital moshpit

Doom Emacs

Fri, 20 Dec 2019 13:22:47 +0100

Introduction

You might look at the title and be a bit confused. Doom Emacs? What the hell is that supposed to mean? Well, it’s a config for Emacs for martian “vimmers”, as the author claims. Yeah, I’ve got muscle memory for vi-type editors. Looking at Emacs’ default keybindings I suddenly get onset carpal tunnel. Doom Emacs is based on Emacs’ Evil-Mode, which replaces the crappy editor inside Emacs with something a lot more VIM-like.

My Superfast Desktop Setup

Tue, 20 Aug 2019 12:56:03 +0200

Introduction

I dislike spending lots of time setting up my desktop. I like to be up and running as fast as possible. I also like Arch linux, because it’s quite barebones and light and relatively cruft-free.

Because I like to get up and running fast, I’ve made some tools to speed up this process. Check out https://git.hackerheaven.org/ekollof/desktop-installer.

Prerequisites

A resonably high specced machine. Minimally 8 GB of memory is probably best (some packages like nerd-fonts-complete are really large and stress tmpfs. You don’t really want a desktop with less than that anyway.
A minimal Arch installation with no users except root.
- The following packages installed: git sudo python wget
- If your machine has wifi, make sure these are installed for wifi-menu: dialog wireless_tools wget unzip
A working internet connection. Pacman should at least be able to install packages.
A bit of patience, and a cup of coffee.

How to install

I’m not going to go into installing Arch, that’s outside of the scope of this document, and it’s been documented to death already. So I’m not going to repeat that. I’m going to assume you’ve gone through this wonderful process, and have a working and booting system, with a root account, and a working internet connection.

My IPFS Hosting Setup

Tue, 30 Jul 2019 12:54:30 +0200

Let’s do some IPFS hosting…

Introduction

As my previous post so joyously stated, my blog is now completely hosted over IPFS. This post will show you how I update my blog, and how I publish it over IPFS. Note that these are still manual steps, and I am looking into how to automate it all so I can just edit, commit and push and have all this done automatically without thinking.

Yay IPFS

Tue, 18 Jun 2019 14:03:38 +0200

Long time no post!

I just wanted to let you go that as of now this website is hosted via IPFS. I’ll do a writeup on what I use to publish and deploy in a bit once I shake out all the bugs.

Meanwhile, you can just read as normal, or point your gateway at /ipns/coolvibe.org

What Would I Do With a Crapload of Money

Fri, 25 Jan 2019 13:38:45 +0100

Imagine that some hair-brained plan of mine fell through and I ended up with a metric assload of money. Most people wouldn’t have a clue what to do with it, but I would.

Since I dabble in audio engineering, I would love to make something like that my full time job or profession. And since I am naturally a generous person, I would like others to benefit as well.

So, what would I do? I would probably set up a Music Nexus. By the way, feel free to implement this yourself if you like, because the world could use lots of places like this. Hell, if anything, give me feedback. I would like to know if anything I mention here is in any way feasible.

Tiling Window Managers

Thu, 13 Dec 2018 02:37:34 +0100

Window manager and desktop environments. If you run a Unix-like desktop, you probably use them. Most people just use what comes with their distribution. They either run Cinnamon, GNOME or maybe even KDE/Plasma.

That’s fine. But I am a tinkerer, and I’ll be damned if I won’t tinker.

I do like KDE, but it is a big piece of bloat. So is GNOME. So is Cinnamon. Not that they are bad environments to work in, but they aren’t really efficient. They have swathes of code that isn’t even used a lot. I would be surprised if there wasn’t a whole damn heap of dead code in those projects.

Why I'm an Atheist

Wed, 07 Nov 2018 10:56:34 +0100

I guess this comes up sometimes when I talk to people online. Especially religious people. But I think it merits a post on my blog, and my blog needs a new post. So this is me killing multiple birds with one stone.

So, when religion comes up, I do have to confess I am an Atheist. What makes me a bit different from your typical Atheist is that I am a natural one. What does that mean, really? Well, it means that I never actually grew up with a religion. The first time I encountered religion is when I was around 6 or 7 (not completely sure about that, it’s a long time ago), and that’s way too late for religious indoctrination. Which leaves my “religion”-module in my brain (of which the existance I am uncertain, but I heard there were studies confirming such a thing exists) pretty much unpopulated. I’ve filled in that void with LaVeyan-styled Satanism (I might devote a blog post about that) and a dash of occult esotericism and paganism, but it leaves me with one pretty significant downside: I really don’t understand religion.

Social Media Detox

Sun, 03 Jun 2018 14:16:38 +0200

I guess some of you noticed that I don’t post anything on Facebook any more. I guess you noticed right. I’ve deleted the facebook and messenger apps on my phone and removed it from my bookmarks. Note that I never said I deleted my facebook account. Because I didn’t.

So, how do I keep in touch? I’ve set up an XMPP server with some transports. I’ve set up transports for Facebook messenger and Google hangouts. Of course I also do raw Jabber (which I kinda prefer, because of OMEMO (encryption) for privacy). I can be reached at coolvibe (at) hackerheaven.org with any jabber client.

Distractions Make You Unproductive

Thu, 03 May 2018 23:55:09 +0200

Distracted?

Yeah, those are a thing. At least they are to me. Ever since I’ve took an axe to most of the distractions on my phone (also known as notifications), I’ve been a lot more productive, and where I have not been productive, my slacking has become productive. While I’m not distracted by notifications from social media, I’ve been able to tend to projects that I had put off for half a year, if not more. Getting this done pretty much cut my hosting costs in half.

Sorry for the Silence

Mon, 30 Apr 2018 11:02:56 +0200

So, what’s going on?

Hey folks,

As some of you undoubtedly have noticed, it’s been pretty quiet on my end. I haven’t been active a lot on social media. And I understand some of you might miss be a bit. So, to alleviate the confusion and to bring some peace of mind, I’ll update you about what’s going on with me lately.

I’m not dead. I’m also not depressed or in trouble. Far from it. I’ve been busy with life, work and music most of the time. Ever since I’ve stopped interacting with Facebook, I’ve regained some of my sanity. I’ve been missing interacting with some of you (which is an actual loss), and I hope some of you will venture to stay in touch with me outside of Facebook. I’m reachable via the ever-ancient e-mail (try ‘me’ at this domain), and I sometimes still shitpost on Twitter. I also have accounts on several alt-tech sites (Minds, Steemit, et al), and I sometimes post on there as well. Look for either Andrath or Coolvibe and you should find me. (there is also the possibility to comment below this post). Say hello!

My Thoughts on the Youtube Shooting

Wed, 04 Apr 2018 10:47:10 +0200

Oh, boy. Where do I begin?

As you probably have heard, someone decided to go to the YouTube HQ near San Francisco to shoot the place up. When the news first broke, ‘progressives’ naturally assumed the perp was white, male and conservative. Imagine the shock when it broke that the shooter was female, vegan/animal activist/extreme left, and Iranian. Even though I felt terrible about it, I couldn’t help but laugh. It just proves the point I have always made when it comes to these things. It’s not the weapons. It’s the people wielding the weapons.

The youth of today at concerts.

Mon, 19 Mar 2018 16:10:53 +0100

This just might be a sign that I’m getting old, because I just fail to understand this.

The picture in the header does speak a thousand words. This is what I see when I go see a show of a larger known band. A sea of phones, recording the performance from a thousand angles. All of them with crappy lenses, and crappy microphones, all of them recording a subpar version of whatever is happening on stage. Why? Why look at the performance through a crappy lens and a crappy screen? The actual resolution of your eyes is a lot higher. Hell, you could even make eye-contact with the performer! How about that! That famous person might just remember you because you weren’t a soulless mobile-phone being held up aloft.

Why I am quitting reenactment.

Sun, 18 Mar 2018 14:54:53 +0100

I’ve been active in reenactment groups for many years together with my wife (who will be continuing this hobby), and we both started getting involved in historical reenactment together. I kinda lit the match, but for me personally, the fire has died out. I have lost interest in it. You could say my heart is no longer in it anymore, and I wish to move on.

Don’t get me wrong, I still think teaching people about history by showing it to them is a wonderful goal, and the people involved in reenactment are wonderful, but I personally don’t get any enjoyment out of it anymore. I have had some awesome moments with my fellow re-enactor friends which I wouldn’t want to trade in for anything, but I won’t be part of it anymore.

Politics in the Netherlands

Wed, 14 Mar 2018 16:13:15 +0100

This is quite a long read. It’s also based on my opinion and how I look at things. Firstly, since I’m writing this in English, I will assume you are unfamiliar with the way Dutch government works so I will give some high-level primers first which are a tad simplified, but hopefully won’t detract from the flaws I’m pointing out.

1. Introduction

As some of you know, I’m Dutch and I live and work in the Netherlands. You might have heard a bit about the Dutch government and its quirks. It’s a monarchist representative constitutional democracy on paper, but over the years, quite a few nasty kinks have crept into the system that made it quite less representative, and also a lot less democratic. EU involvement in our lawmaking hasn’t helped matters either.

Trigger Test

Wed, 14 Mar 2018 13:54:19 +0100

What is this?

Just a test. I need to see if my IFTTT triggers still work the way I want.

Please ignore. (Or don’t. Do whatever you want.)

Static websites

Wed, 14 Mar 2018 13:20:30 +0100

Wait, did he get rid of Wordpress?

Yes, he did. I hope you like how it turned out. I’m using Hugo with the Tranquilpeak theme.

It’s going to change my workflow though. I have to commit my new articles into a github repository, where a webhook will trigger a rebuild of the website. An IfThisThenThat recipe will take care of posting stuff to google/twitter/etc.

I’m also looking into converting other sites over, but having my first main weblog in this format is a good first step.

What I think of women in the workplace.

Mon, 19 Feb 2018 08:26:20 +0000

How’s this for click bait? But there was some study that said that people (yes, this includes women) don’t prefer to have a woman as a boss. Of course, the femibots start frothing at the mouth, but all the frothing on the planet won’t change the facts.

First, for the impatient folks, the TL;DR:

I enjoy having women as coworkers, but I prefer not to work under them (modulo exceptions, but see below). As for the why, well, just read, okay? It’ s not that long.

Taking a break from social media again

Sun, 18 Feb 2018 15:31:55 +0000

It seems general stupidity has moved into a lower DEFCON level again, so I’m tapping out for a bit. So, you won’t see any posts from me again for a while. You can have your little bubble, while I lurk on and watch the shit flinging from afar. If you do value my input from time to time, I’ll be listening on Messenger, e-mail, this here weblog, Minds, Gab, Twitter, Bitchute, etc. Feel free to look me up there, and while you’re at it, create an account for yourself in those places as well. They are going to be a safe haven for your opinion when Faceberg decides to clamp down on wrongthink.

Bye nginx, hello Caddyserver!

Mon, 22 Jan 2018 15:04:05 +0000

I did some shuffling again. I’ve moved all my websites over to FreeBSD and the venerable Caddy webserver. I also ditched SaltStack and went full Ansible for maintaining everything.

So, this releases me from quite a few nasty dependancies. The SSL implementation of Caddy is based on the internal Go one, which doesn’t need the dingy OpenSSL at all. The configuration is a lot simpler and less complex than nginx’s. If only WordPress would work on PostgreSQL, then I would be shot of MySQL as well. Yeah, I could use MariaDB, but it’s actually the same bloody thing,

First steps on Steemit

Tue, 29 Aug 2017 21:24:42 +0000

So, I’m dipping my toe into the Steemit waters, and I’m kinda excited. It seems there is a large community out there on this Blockchain-based platform that seems very friendly and will interact with you. And as a bonus, you can earn a little bit of cash as well if your stuff seems to be interesting enough. I have also found DTube, where I will upload videos. It seems like a better alternative to Youtube, and very censorship-proof. Given the crazyness the Googles, Twitters and Facebooks are up to lately, an alternative seems worthy to check out.

Interesting times

Mon, 28 Aug 2017 20:20:29 +0000

(repost for Steemit)

“寧為太平犬，莫做亂離人” (nìng wéi tàipíng quǎn, mò zuò luàn lí rén), or “Better to be a dog in a peaceful time, than to be a human in a chaotic (warring) period.”

The above line is also known as the “Chinese Curse”, and is often translated as “May you live in interesting times.”

Why do I bring this up? Because we are in a chaotic period. According to StyxHexenhammer666, it’s a moral panic, or shows signs of being a moral panic and it will pass. Now, he might be right, but that doesn’t take away my worry. I read and have read quite a bit. Silly tomes like “Fahrenheit 451”, “1984”, “Animal Farm”, “Thus Spoke Zarathustra” and more of those apocalyptic stories about what might happen when horrible ideas get their foot in the door and are allowed to expand.

The Shitlord Manifesto (first draft)

Tue, 15 Aug 2017 20:56:57 +0000

Sargon of Akkad mentioned that we needed a manifesto. Here’s a first rough stab at that.

The Shitlord Manifesto (first draft)

By Emiel Kollof

I don’t care about your race, sexuality or gender. All people should have equal opportunity, but equality must never be forced. Let the people that are the best at it do the work.
Free speech must be free, no matter how egregious it is to anyone. Violent speech should only be prosecuted if actual violence came of it. Let the idiots expose themselves. Hate speech does not exist.
Violence without a need is always reprehensible. This includes politically motivated violence.
The only weapon against speech you don’t agree with, is more speech.
Don’t assign epithets to people when you don’t even know what the epithet means.
Any action that disadvantages or maligns anyone because of race, sex or creed is racism, sexism or discrimination.
You have the right to be offended. Others have the right to ignore you. But you don’t have the right to limit the freedom of anyone because you are offended.
Religion is not a race. I will criticize your religion (regardless of what it is) if it has dangerous tenets.
I will listen to your ideas and attempt to shoot holes in it. I expect the same in return.
Facts over feelings.
I’m not better than you. The inverse is also true.
Communism and Socialism have never worked, and will never work. Trying again won’t make it work, so give it a rest already.
Men and women are physically and emotionally different. This does not imply ability, but it plays a factor in preferences. Also, exceptions exist, but they are indeed exceptions, not the rule, and not in any way more or less appreciated.
I will not rewrite history, furthermore I will protest the destruction of history even if it offends people. Because if you don’t see the past, you’re doomed to repeat it.
Echo chambers are where reason goes to die.

Some thoughts on Agile/Scrum…

Fri, 23 Jun 2017 12:20:46 +0000

I’ve just ended a project where I was working in an Agile/Scrum based environment, with sprints, stories, and deadlines. I kinda liked it, because you collaborate closely with your colleagues, and you pick your own tasks. Things can move potentially very fast, but there are some very glaring downsides. I’ll list them below:

The burndown.

The holy and sacred burndown. People care way too much about getting a Sprint completely burned down. It sometimes makes Agile feel more like a panic room, than a flexible way of working. Especially when you have to wait for third parties. Other squads can really shit in your cereal by letting you wait days for a request to be fulfilled and things get blocked.

I got even more head!

Fri, 16 Jun 2017 23:24:21 +0000

The lovely people at Bax Shop (great store if you’re in the Netherlands), where besides Thomann I buy most of my gear, finally sent me my Bugera back. Even though the Blackstar is no slouch (as witnessed by my latest release):

The Bugera just rips it’s head (haha, pun) clean off in raw power. It’s supposed to, it has 20 watts more and it’s a tube amp, while the Blackstar is a solid state one (and a very nice one at that). So I have a mallot for the brutal stuff, and a ball peen hammer for the finesse.

I got some more head.

Wed, 31 May 2017 19:09:24 +0000

It’s a Blackstar ID:100 TVP. Yes it’s solid state, and no I don’t care. It hits like a Mack truck. Very versatile box that makes interesting noises.

The difference between belief and religion

Wed, 31 May 2017 06:54:35 +0000

(Repost for Steemit)

First, let’s get this out of the way: I’m an atheist at my core. There’s stuff stacked on top of my atheism to facilitate esoteric reasoning, but there is always reasoning, according to some sort of logic. Having never been indoctrinated with any religion when I grew up, I have no learned concepts for fear of gods or an afterlife. The concepts are alien to me.

I understand that people believe things. I’m no exception. There are things that seem true to me for which I have no evidence. There are things I can’t explain. The difference between a religious person and me is that I don’t mind admitting that I don’t know. I have perfect solace in not knowing, if I don’t need to know to live a fulfilling live (for which my needs are modest and mundane) then I don’t care to.

Censorship through advertising

Thu, 11 May 2017 08:46:36 +0000

I have opinions that might rub people the wrong way (big list here). If you examine that list, you might pick up that I’m in favor of complete freedom of speech. This includes things I have disdain for or things I vehemently disagree with. Everyone should have a platform, no matter how disgusting the idea.

You might think: “where do you draw the line?”. It’s really simple. Physical violence or extreme psychological terror (which does not include offense). I also think people should be allowed to have violent speech. The crux is that if actual violence does happen, the person responsible for convincing others should be held responsible.

Is the current left compatible with democracy?

Tue, 09 May 2017 05:59:33 +0000

It’s been a while since I penned something, but I was pondering something that I would like to run by you.

Disclaimer, I am basically left winged. You might not think it judging from my posts, but I actually am. I’m a classic liberalist and egalitarian when it comes to democracy, free speech and how the state should take care of the people. I’m of the school of thought of de Toqueville and his contemporaries. This also means that I personally think that the current “left” has little to do with being left. It seems that what has replaced the left nowadays are whiney antidemocratic socialists and communists.

‘Brexit Begins! Article 50 Triggered’

Wed, 29 Mar 2017 18:08:47 +0000

An American understands the situation a lot better than most Europeans do. Think about it.

The ‘triggering’ is real…

Wed, 29 Mar 2017 12:24:11 +0000

Go to twitter. Search for #brexitday or #article50. Watch all the crybabies flail about and lashing out. Pay special attention to the rhetoric from the hordes of now disgruntled remain-supporters that didn’t actually vote (and who think their voice actually counts when they don’t). Somehow the word ‘majority rules’ only holds sway when it’s in their favor.

Suck it up, Buttercup. Britain is getting out and no amount of cry-bullying and virtue signalling is going to revert or block it. I hope the rest of Europe follows the UK’s example. Unless if the EU suddenly disbands the European Commission and abolishes all lobbying, but monkeys will fly out of my butt before that will happen.

Point of no return

Wed, 29 Mar 2017 06:24:10 +0000

That’s what I’ve seen it called. And it’s quite apt. And true too. May signed the Brexit letter and now the negotiations start with two possible outcomes: Either the UK finishes negotiations with the EU, or they crash out of it. Either way, the UK will be out of the EU. It can’t be blocked, or reverted (no matter how much the remoaners cry about it).

Now, I’ve seen the news reports, and the mainstream media is quite busy scaremongering about it, especially towards expatriates that live and work in the UK. Oh dear, they would have to get visas and work permits. What a bother. Ask any American, Indian, or any non-european that works in the UK (there are quite a few of them) how much of a chore that is (hint: it isn’t). If you have work, you won’t get kicked out. If you’re married/widowed to a UK citizen, you’ll be okay too.

Studio reorganization

Mon, 27 Mar 2017 14:24:35 +0000

Well, it’s spring, and with spring comes the spring cleaning. Or so I’m told. Anyway, because my loud-as-fuck amp is in the shop for repairs (busted fuse, I think. Anyway, a warranty case), and subsequently am not using it, it gave me an opportunity to untangle the cable junction behind my 4×12 cab. I also rotated my desk setup 90 degrees. The result is quite a lot more room made free, and better audio coverage for my monitors. Also, my lovely wife now has access to the window, something she has been asking for ever since I set up shop in the side room. I also have easier access to my guitars now, and it will also provide a nice backdrop for when I ever decide to shoot videos for YouTube again. I’ve been meaning to do that again, but inspiration for stuff to yak about has been lacking.

My political/social leanings

Mon, 27 Mar 2017 13:12:53 +0000

Just to clarify, I’ll explain what my policial and social viewpoints are. I often disagree with liberal leftists, who then promptly assume I’m on the right-hand side of the political spectrum, while I’m actually pretty far removed from that, other than that I agree with a few things that the conservatives like to put forward. Just because I think modern day feminism and social justice is dangerous and harmful, doesn’t mean I’m automatically part of the alt-right. I find many of the alt-right viewpoints deplorable. But the so-called ‘liberal left’ likes to lump people into boxes, I guess.

Social media detox

Mon, 27 Mar 2017 10:59:28 +0000

So, I’ve been withholding direct interaction on social media for a while now, and I have to admit that I sometimes miss posting random thoughts into that churning mess. But other than that, I’ve been lurking in every now and then and several things come to mind when reading what people post and share.

Most things that people post are inane and of little importance.
Most times it’s not even their own material.
When they do editorialize, they just sheepishly copy opinions from somewhere else.
Most ‘debates’ end in identity politics and Godwin’s law is often in effect. The level is often times ‘everyone that disagrees with me is literally Hitler’.

I often have to fight the urge to jump in, only to wait and see that the intellectual level is definitively subpar and the person that attempts to inject common sense is called a fascist, racist, xenophobe, or whatever label seems the most apt to shut down the discussion. And then I’m glad I never participated. For the people that are getting tired of all the bullshit, I can certainly recommend switching to read-only mode on social media.

Dutch Elections 2017 – The aftermath

Thu, 16 Mar 2017 08:04:47 +0000

The Dutch elections of 2017 came and went, and we’re stuck with 4 more years of a VVD coalition. While Groenlinks won big (relatively seen), and all the pro-euro trash is patting themselves for stopping the “wrong kind” of populism (what an abject terminology), they are dismissing that PVV and also DENK won seats in parliament. The media likes to gloss over this and ignore it, but they shouldn’t. As Wilders influenced the campaign, while he’s in the opposition, he can still steer the discussion. Now with even more people.

Why not the others? (TK2017)

Wed, 15 Mar 2017 13:28:48 +0000

Might as well continue with a little series about what made me not want to choose one of the other parties here. This list will probably not entail all 28 parties running, because I either didn’t really look at their party platform, or have no past experience with them.

Well, here goes:

PVV:

I actually very briefly considered PVV (although I wouldn’t have voted for Wilders, but rather Fleur Agema). They are very supportive of personal freedoms, freedom of speech, cultural and national sovereignty and totally not politically correct (which are all pros in my opinion). I found them just a bit too polarizing. I do understand why people will vote for this party though, and unlike many people I know, I will not judge people because they did vote for these people.

I voted: Geenpeil

Wed, 15 Mar 2017 07:08:27 +0000

For the longest time I was torn between the Dutch pirate party, and the direct democracy initiative of Geenpeil. I was really conflicted. But I went for Geenpeil anyway. The reasons:

It’s a social hack. As someone with a hacker mindset, this appeals to me.
It’s an idea that needs it’s tires kicked, so actually getting to use it is a pretty good road test. Yes, there are security concerns, but the risk is acceptable since the concept can now be battle tested (if they do win some seats)
I can change my alignment at will. The system they want to implement will not inundate you with voting requests. You can pick and choose the things that interest you.

This is what tided me over. The concept of direct democracy has always had my fancy. I hope I convinced others to give geenpeil a go.

To all the people that condemn other people’s choices…

Tue, 14 Mar 2017 06:46:14 +0000

You’re all a bunch of idiots. It’s their choice to make. Conversely, to all the people that get flak for their choices; more power to you. Screw the naysayers. Don’t let them influence you into making a different choice.

Because then you will exactly get what you never wanted.

It’s how we got into this utter mess in the first place.

When two tribes go to war…

Mon, 13 Mar 2017 12:54:00 +0000

I’m actually proud of my country for once. The small country that refused to back down to the dictator in Turkey. Of course, the wayward Turks that live here that seem to have more sympathy towards their homeland are waving their red and white crescents about and are being a general nuisance.

Their glorious leader is calling the Dutch fascists, but I guess that guy should look in the mirror. How many judges, journalists, teachers and other dissidents have the Dutch thrown into jail? That’s right, none. How many people did the Dutch jail for being openly critical with the ruling government? None. How are the Dutch being fascist? Hmm?

Watch “VERY IMPORTANT! The VAULT 7 LEAKS and Why You Should Care.” on YouTube

Tue, 07 Mar 2017 22:40:37 +0000

Everything is false. Everything is also true.

Nope, everyone is still bonkers.

Tue, 07 Mar 2017 19:23:23 +0000

So, how goes my little hiatus from social media? Pretty good, I’d say. Lots of peace and quiet, and a lot less idiots to contend with. I of course maintain communication with my closer circles, but every time I look at my timelines, it drives home why I stepped out. Idiocy is still quite rampant.

The sheep still act like sheep, and there are some that staunchly try to distribute red pills. I’d like to recommend to those people to step aside for a while. Why waste energy on those that don’t want to listen? Give yourself a break. Just look in once in a while to measure the level, and just observe the echo chamber in action. It’s like a regressive zoo. But by all means, don’t interact. Don’t feed the livestock.

‘The Third Phase of The YouTube Skeptic Community’

Fri, 03 Mar 2017 10:23:46 +0000

David Cullen has hit upon a stark realisation. With all the crap and hatchet jobs from the ‘old’ media (and the inevitable hurd of sheep falling for it), it seems the candle burns brightest when it’s about to snuff itself out.

‘Sam Harris: The Left is Irredeemable’ op YouTube

Wed, 01 Mar 2017 20:21:06 +0000

Quick post. This echoes exactly what I’m thinking.

The straw that broke the camel’s back.

Thu, 23 Feb 2017 21:30:18 +0000

Please watch this video:

When the Milo slander piece appeared, I was surprised to see that everyone lapped it up, without actually checking for context, where it came from, and where it originated from. The above video gives ample context and sources. I was surprised that many of my friends of which I hold many in high esteem stooped so low as to just echo this, without asking questions. Yes, I am disappointed. I thought you guys were better than that.

Regressive left

Thu, 23 Feb 2017 14:51:17 +0000

Pretty descriptive for the regressive left:

“After an inferior man has been taught a doctrine of superiority he will remain as inferior as he was before his lesson. He will merely assume himself to be superior, and attempt to employ his recently-learned tactics against his own kind, whom he will then consider his inferiors. With each inferior man enjoying what he considers his unique role, the entire bunch will be reduced to a pack of strutting, foppish, self-centered monkeys gamboling about on an island of ignorance. There they will play their games under the supervision of their keeper, who was and will always be a superior man.”

Time

Thu, 23 Feb 2017 14:30:49 +0000

“There are many who would take my time, I shun them. There are some who share my time, I am entertained by them. There are precious few who contribute to my time, I cherish them.”

― Anton Szandor LaVey

Project Fear in the Netherlands

Thu, 23 Feb 2017 10:53:37 +0000

I was on my way to work, and I noticed an interesting ad on a billboard that was using the same flawed rhetoric as the remainers did for brexit, but this time it was aimed at the remain side of a nexit (what people call the intention of the Netherlands to leave the EU). I regrettably didn’t snap a picture of it since I was in a hurry to catch the subway. This raised a few questions.

Peak stupid

Tue, 21 Feb 2017 22:34:32 +0000

Well, I guess we’re here. Peak stupid. Hyperbole and identity politics from the left, and kneejerking from the right. I’m sick and tired having to defend Milo, Trump, a cadre of other people, not because I like those people (I’m pretty much indifferent to them), but because I don’t like misinformation and identity politics. But I also don’t like fighting windmills, even if they are spinning out of control. So I’m tapping out of social media for a bit. I’m not deinstalling or deleting accounts, just don’t expect me to interact. I’ll just be disabling notifications and peek in every once in a while to gauge the retardedness-levels. I’ll keep messenger running for people that actually want to talk to me.

Sprint!

Tue, 17 Jan 2017 15:18:11 +0000

And then something cool comes your way. I can’t get into details yet, but it means I will have to pump my free time into my music, or more specifically, the music of RÁN. I have until the end of February to finish all the songs from the upcoming Rock to Hell CD in a scratch state, since we now have a reason to crunch and get that album out as soon as possible.

New weapon

Mon, 05 Dec 2016 16:01:11 +0000

Sometimes I get a break. This time, I used that break to acquire a new axe for my arsenal of stringed noisemakers. This particular model is the Parallaxe Solar V 7, a signature model from Ola Englund of Feared, Six feet under and The Haunted. It is a very nice 7 string guitar, with a nice ebony fretboard and very nice Seymour Duncan pickups.

Now I have to decide which guitar I bring with me when I visit Nekron from RÁN in Iceland this Yuletide.

Patreon and distrokid!

Wed, 30 Nov 2016 14:21:25 +0000

In the previous post, I outlined some ideas for creating some revenue with my music. I have done two of those things I mentioned, and I would have to look into the others. First of all, I hooked up with Distrokid and I am releasing content through there. My single “Hymn of Belial” has been released there and is now available on Google Play, Spotify, iTunes and many other places. More releases will come as I sort out the artwork for those tracks.

Turning a hobby into a paycheck?

Fri, 25 Nov 2016 09:42:06 +0000

I have been thinking. I can write music. I got some music production chops. I also have quite a bit of nice gear to record with. When I ask for feedback about my music, I usually get positive comments about my production quality (many people are actually surprised it comes from a so-called ‘bedroom’ studio). Now that got me thinking. Why don’t I generate some extra revenue with it?

I got some ideas to generate some income from this (warning, incoherent stream of thought ahead):

Full disclosure or GTFO

Tue, 01 Nov 2016 13:06:49 +0000

I also posted this on my LinkedIn, but just to have some coverage I have posted it here as well.

I have a pet peeve. When recruiters/headhunters try to pitch me for a position at a certain client, they are always so skimpy with information. It is always generic terms like “a client” or “a big player in ” and some vague and incomplete description of the typical work involved, and usually some namedropping of some big clients. This does not entice me at all. In fact, I really wonder how this trend of withholding information came about. You are pitching me, so provide me with information. I will not tell other recruiters, honest. Not giving me all the information tells me that you don’t trust me, and that is no way to start a relationship if you ask me.

Pushy recruiters

Tue, 01 Nov 2016 13:00:37 +0000

Yes, I do put myself out there. I have profiles on networking sites like branded.me, LinkedIn and probably some others. Usually, the recruiters and headhunters there behave themselves and don’t pester me that much. They send me messages through LinkedIn or whatever, but lately some of them have become REALLY pushy. Pushy insofar that they somehow found my personal mail address and are now reminding me through my personal mailbox to respond to some job I don’t want.

Stretch

Mon, 29 Aug 2016 13:40:30 +0000

The guitar. Wonderful instrument, but also a potential source of problems when you push yourself too hard. I just came out of a bout of tendonitis, as I overloaded the tendon in my fretting hand, and most notably the tendon that connects my thumb to the rest of my body. This is called ‘De Cuervain’s Tendinosis’, and it can happen when you grip incorrectly. I usually warm up before I start practice. I stretch and massage my fingers so they are nice and limber and flexible. I paid attention to my stretching and warming up routine, and discovered I often overlook my thumb, even though you use that thing very intensively every time you grab a chord. With thrash and death metal I haven’t needed to grab overly complicated chordings, now that I am messing with black metal, more traditional chording is way more prevalent. Add a guitar with heavier gauge strings, and you end up with an overworked thumb, in the fretting hand.

Goodbye, Nergal

Fri, 19 Aug 2016 08:36:05 +0000

Nergal was the VPS (a virtual server, for the laypeople) which used to serve this website (amongst other things). After many years of faithful service, I had to decommission it because it was draining a bit too much of my funds. So, after some furious back upping and transferring of services and data, I just turned it off and sent it to Valhalla.

So, Ave Nergal. It was fun.

Get me out of here.

Thu, 11 Aug 2016 12:45:21 +0000

I’m kinda fed up. Fed up with the current government. Fed up with the apathy and simple boneheadedness of people. Fed up with the social justice idiots. Fed up with wage slaving. Fed up with the Netherlands. Fed up with Europe.

I’m pretty much done with everything and I would much rather like to go somewhere else and do something else. Sure, my infinite patience will provide me with the means to carry on, but in my heart of hearts I would rather just leave and go somewhere far, far away, and pretty much watch the world burn from there without my participation. I would rather just go to the outer rim of the world and dive into my music.

Droplets, droplets, everywhere

Wed, 10 Aug 2016 14:42:10 +0000

Seems I need to reboot some things again. So I am now moving my websites to Digital Ocean. Right now, this website is running on Ubuntu, PHP-hhvm, and MariaDB. And everything is managed

by SaltStack. It’s a nice low-maintenance setup this way.

I might retire the VPS I have at TransIP. It’s becoming a bit of an expense that I can avoid. DigitalOcean seems to scale a lot better for me, and less of a headache to maintain with Salt.

Andrath the Merciless

Mon, 20 Jun 2016 08:34:56 +0000

Wow, what a week it has been. I haven’t been putting time into music again since I was just starting out with BMPS. If Andrath must slay, my guitar game needs some work. I have the skills, but I need to hone them again and I need to push some boundaries. I’m up for that. There are some areas I’m going to put some time into:

Stamina. I would like to have it where I was gigging with BMPS again, possibly even better.
Solo’s. Since I’m the sole guitarist in RÁN, this duty befalls upon me. I currently suck at that. I’ve always been a rhythm bloke that could destroy with sheer brutality. Now I need some finesse too.
Accuracy. Especially for my solo game.
Speed. Faster is better. I’m already quite fast, but I can always get faster.

On top of this, I still have a metric ton of material to get through. But I think I can squeeze the above into mastering the songs.

Grymm and Frostbitten

Mon, 06 Jun 2016 16:15:03 +0000

Welp, I have another project. My good friend Didrik from RÁN recruited me to play in his band. I’m looking forward to it too, since I’ll be crushing stages not before long. I do have to learn a lot of material though. It’s not all super mindblowingly difficult stuff, but still, it is quite a lot of stuff to learn and memorise. Since I am pretty much stage-ready since I have all the gear that I need (head, cabinet, axes, stompboxes, cables, pedalboard, etc), I am looking forward to getting out there again, even though I’ll be pretty much unrecognisable with all the corpsepaint, leather clothing and spikes. But I don’t mind. I might enjoy the obscurity.

Competition

Mon, 09 May 2016 15:45:20 +0000

I generally don’t enter into competitions. I never win them anyway. But his one was too much fun to pass up. Here’s the competition outlined (ignore the US-only part, because that was amended in a later video)

So yeah, the goal is to make this guy laugh with a self-written metal track. I decided to make a spoof of every black metal videoclip out there. here’s my entry:

Tone

Sun, 17 Apr 2016 11:51:30 +0000

I was messing with a new track and recording some random things, and I stumbled upon something great. The tone I am after. It sounds like this:

[CONCEPT] Seek Your Satan by Emiel Kollof on hearthis.at

It’s nice and heavy. Cuts through mixes like an axe murderer. Plenty of juicy mids, and not too woofy. I like it.

Writer’s block

Wed, 13 Apr 2016 14:23:06 +0000

I have a peculiar problem. As some of you know, I sometimes make all types of noise on instruments like guitar, bass, drums and I’ve been known to shout into a microphone every once in a while. When it comes to stuff to play on instruments, I haven’t had a shortage of stuff to play. Riffs and ideas just well up out of nowhere, and I end up with little gems like these:

Could I stop vaping?

Tue, 05 Apr 2016 13:22:56 +0000

Very short answer? Yes, but I don’t want to.

Long answer? Yes, I could. But why would I want to? I enjoy the flavours, the vapour, the hardware, the coil building, the community, helping people off of tobacco, etcetera. Vaping turned compulsive nicotine consumption into a recreational one. Note the difference.

Vaping is like having a coffee, eating a cupcake, drinking a beer, having a soda.

I want alcohol in my beer. I want caffeine in my coffee, I want sugar in my cupcakes and my sodas. I just want to enjoy myself with my little vices, so I want nicotine in my vapes.

Memes

Tue, 22 Mar 2016 14:30:09 +0000

You have no doubt seen them. Those silly memes that imply that vapers are all gay, are all flat capped hipsters that blow huge clouds. In the beginning I thought they were funny. Hell, some where even original. But now I see the same ones reappearing every time. Yeah, I get it, you don’t understand enough about vaping to see what benefits there are to doing it instead of smoking, and it can look ridiculous, so I understand the potential for ridicule. Oh, and think up some new ones. The vape=gay ones are getting stale.

Why so angry?

Thu, 21 Jan 2016 10:11:56 +0000

Yes, I get it. You vape, and you are livid about public health spokesholes misrepresenting the facts. I know vaping has the potential of eradicating smoking tobacco. I enjoy my mods. atomizers, DIY coil building and all the flavorful juices out there. I’m just like you. I kicked a nasty habit, and I want to tell the world that big tobacco is evil and that most public health organizations are either BT (big tobacco) shills or on the Big Pharma payroll. I get it.

Vape some more

Wed, 20 Jan 2016 13:16:58 +0000

Wow, has it really been more than four months since I last lit a cigarette? Yes, I replaced the habit with another habit, but with one that is undoubtedly less damaging to myself and my surroundings. I have also jumped into the fray of advocacy. Yes, I am fighting the good fight against Big Tobacco, Big Pharma and corrupt public health organizations that rig studies and massage science to fit their wish (instead of science proving the inverse).

Work

Mon, 02 Nov 2015 21:41:29 +0000

I have to pay the bills to be able to pursue what I like, so I work. Preferably I like to work at a place where I actually like working. This is taken from my LinkedIn profile, it’s there too. But it can’ t hurt to post it here as well.

Imagine, for a moment, that you could create your own job with ideal conditions for you to work in. What would it be? This question I get asked sometimes during job interviews. My answer is usually the same, but I thought it would be worthwhile to share this and expound on it a bit. This way I could also elaborate on why this would be ideal for me, and hopefully, some enterprising person has this exact job for me (unlikely, but I like to be surprised).

I will start with soundbite-like sentences and I will elaborate on these. First, a little background on myself and how I like to work. First of all, I am a creative and curious person, and this has been the greatest contributing factor in myself being quite a generalist when it comes to skills. When someone asks me if I know anything about a certain thing (be it operating systems, technology, products, protocol, APIs, frameworks or what have you) I haven’t encountered before, I usually respond with “not yet”. If it tickles a certain fancy, I will dive into it in my free time. This also makes my work seem chaotic, but there is a certain method to my madness. When I have to come from an unknown angle, the work takes longer, but I will learn a lot in the process. This enriches my tool chest of tricks I can later employ. Needless to say, I have built up quite a war chest of knowledge that way in my career.

So, what would my ideal work environment look like? Well, the job itself would be a combination of system administration, engineering, slacking and playing with new technology (preferably open source). Inspiration was gleaned from the things I liked when I worked at several companies. More after the jump.

Who am I?

Mon, 02 Nov 2015 21:17:04 +0000

Hi.

I’m just another geek/nerd that messes with code, music mostly metal, but I have broad tastes in other genres), philosophy, technology, vaping and whatever catches my interest. I have decided to post some of my thoughts here.

Just a small warning though. I tend to have controversial ideas. I might insult you with what I am saying. This is entirely your problem, not mine. Also, I don’ t take myself too seriously, and neither should you.

Vape

Mon, 02 Nov 2015 17:03:22 +0000

I started vaping 2 months ago. This coincided with me quitting smoking. I made do with a Lavatube 2 Mouth to Lung device for a while. When I knew I was serious, I got myself a serious device. I explain here:

So. nowadays I wire my own custom coils and stuff. I twist kanthal and nickel wire with drills, and I fiddle with screwdrivers and cotton to get something like so:

Rebuild.

Mon, 02 Nov 2015 16:32:33 +0000

So, I decided to make an effort to dump OpenSSL and replace it with LibreSSL. This has been mostly succesful (there are a few holdouts, but they are non-critical and they are not internet-facing, so no worries). But man, if you see how many places OpenSSL has stuck it’s grubby paws into, you would be shocked. It’s really a lot. Most of it software that has been around for a while. Also lots of stuff that many people trust. And I have seen interesting breakages from some apps that fall back to EGD for grabbing seeds. Yes, I am not kidding. This is one area where OpenSSL is extremely broken (random numbers). See http://opensslrampage.org/post/82975103611/so-the-openssl-codebase-does-get-the-time-add-it

Fresh start

Mon, 02 Nov 2015 14:43:06 +0000

Hey everyone,

Yeah, I have owned this domain for ages. Might as well add new life to it again. This time I will update it more often. Honest. 🙂

Oh, for the people feeling the urge to comment, do it in English. Comment in any other language, and your comment will be deleted. You have been warned.

Voor de Nederlanders: Commentaar in het Engels. Nederlands commentaar word subiet gewist. Niet iedereen die dit leest verstaat Nederlands.