I was losing this game of backgammon badly, then I came back to win it, with white leaving five pieces on the board. How badly was I losing? At one point, I had five pieces pinned in white’s home quadrant, white offered a double or resign (and I did not resign), and white had alreadyContinue reading “Adventures in Backgammoning”
Author Archives: Allyn Gibson
A Day at the Surgical Center
I have reached that age where I needed a colonoscopy. Frankly, I put it off for a year. Three weeks ago, after my annual physical, I called and made an appointment. I thought, “Oh, it’s September. They’ll put me on the calendar for November or December.” No, WellSpan could get me in right away. “HowContinue reading “A Day at the Surgical Center”
Lo, There Shall Come a Bird!
Sitting outside yesterday morning, drinking my coffee, I noticed a bird in the bushes outside my apartment’s front window. The bird wasn’t doing much, just poking his beak into the mulch. Looking for food, I guess. I gave the bird little thought. He’ll be on his way soon enough. I went inside. Half an hourContinue reading “Lo, There Shall Come a Bird!”
WordPress Drama and Coding Frustrations
There is Capital-D Drama in the WordPress world. It would take too long to explain all the nuances. Basically, founder Matt Mullenweg is Big Mad that he tried to shake down a rival and failed, and his resulting temper tantrum is damaging the WordPress ecosystem to the point where the best thing might be forContinue reading “WordPress Drama and Coding Frustrations”
An Unexpected (Partial) Work-from-Home Day
Four and a half years after going work from home, yesterday, for the first time, I executed one of my key job duties remotely. Each month I run a process called the “Page & MCBA Number Update.” To describe it briefly, I load all the items in the month’s PREVIEWS catalog (typically about 3,000, plusContinue reading “An Unexpected (Partial) Work-from-Home Day”
War in the Baltic
Can you ever have enough houses and farms? That’s the question, isn’t it. Oh. You thought I was talkinng about housing and agricultural policy. There is a presidential election happening. I’m talking about that, surely. No, no. I was talking about Age of Empires II: Age of Kings. From time to time, I play AgeContinue reading “War in the Baltic”
Mixing MATE and the i3 Window Manager
So, I have been tinkering. Back in June, I installed Linux Mint 22, with the MATE desktop to an empty partition on my system and configured it to look like old-school GNOME 2. It’s a nice environment, something to have fun with, like using Compiz to turn my desktop into a cube and then spinningContinue reading “Mixing MATE and the i3 Window Manager”
It’s an Unlicensed Jersey, Charlie Brown!
A few days ago, I began to see some intriguing ads on Facebook — baseball jerseys, with Peanuts characters. I made the mistake — I suppose you can call it that — of clicking on one of the ads, as my feed is now full of these ads. Different sellers, same product. I can’t imagineContinue reading “It’s an Unlicensed Jersey, Charlie Brown!”
Trapped in a Past We Never Made
A few days ago the beta for Linux Mint 22 was approved for release, and while it hasn’t been officially announced yet I downloaded it off one of the mirrors to take a look at over the weekend. But not the usual Cinnamon edition, or the XFCE edition (which I use on my Chromebook). IContinue reading “Trapped in a Past We Never Made”
Operating System Archaeology
About a month ago, digging into the drawers of my desk, I found a stack of old Linux install CDs. Mostly Linux Mint — versions 5, 6, 9, 12, 13, a couple of others I can’t remember off the top of my head — and an Ubuntu 8.04 CD. Ubuntu 8.04! The first Linux IContinue reading “Operating System Archaeology”