Computers & Tech posts

F-droid basic

I’m switching my Android devices from F-Droid to F-Droid Basic. They’re both made by the F-Droid team, but the Basic version is simpler, lighter weight, and most importantly for me, with fewer permissions. I don’t need any of the sharing and the like the non-basic version has. I use F-Droid to install some open source software on my phones / e-readers: Aegis AntennaPod, EinkBro, Fennec, GadgetBridge, Thunderbird, VLC. So far I’m happy with the switch.


Git aliases and POSIX sh

An interesting problem I encountered when moving to use Linux more is that git aliases are often run in POSIX sh instead of the terminal in use, such as bash or zsh. A few of my aliases are complex enough to require running an external shell command, ie using !. Some of those have complex comparisons or verify with the user what they are doing. I had long used some bashisms to simplify these, and didn’t have problems on my Mac, which uses bash as the sh implementation, but had problems in Ubuntu, which uses dash.

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Vim: Netrw SFTP error

I was annoyed by a problem that cropped up in the latest version of MacVim when using SFTP with the included Netrw plugin. It showed an error every time I opened a directory. So I filed a bug and helped get it fixed. I spent a fair amount of time looking for the exact commit in the Netrw code where the problem started. I then filed a GitHub issue about it with that information. It got fixed in like an hour, at least in the repo. Still waiting for it to make it to MacVim.

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vim.tiny and vimrc

I tried installing my dotfiles on an unmodified Ubuntu install. My vimrc threw many errors. Ubuntu and other Debian based distros install the tiny build of vim by default, which has a lot of features disabled, including eval, but still loads the user vimrc. That means that many things that might be in there, including function and even let, do not exist in tiny. :help no-eval-feature provides a solution: Wrap everything that should only work in +eval capable versions of vim in if 1 … endif.

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Since MacOS 15.7.1, the touch ID (fingerprint reader) often takes a while to become available on the login screen after the computer has awakened. It takes like 15 seconds to become functional, in which the user circles do a jumpy little dance. I know it’s ready when the message about using the touch id or password to log in shows up. This definitely slows my roll, as I lock the screen every time I leave the computer, which happens frequently.


Sequel Ace

I finally moved from Sequel Pro to Sequel Ace. Sequel Pro hasn’t been updated in years. It mostly worked but did have some annoying problems. During a recent OS and app reinstall, I found that Sequel Pro was no longer available on Homebrew, so I went for Sequel Ace, a fork that is still maintained. It is very similar but improved. I like it.

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