Freezr "P.E.B.C.A.K." ⌨️
The reason why I didn't choose a career in Computer Science… 😅
Archive
Here you can find the previous diary's archives...
2025-12-11
Micro Wireless Keyboard: Hands on! 🫱⌨️🫲
Today I tested this micro keyboard and despite the fact its quality is something we had better to not talk about, the object in itself is pretty cool and very nerd-y! Definitely I love it!
It comes with a WiFi dongle, it is recognized without issue by FreeBSD, I used to blindly unlock the GhostPC at boot time, and to operate commands while trying to fixing the WiFi.
As a matter of fact it looks like using the GhostPC as hot-spot saturates so much the WiFi bandwidth that puts the dongle KO, making the hot-spot unreachable!
Thus, while I was looking for some solution, eventually I stepped into an AI response, and whilst at the beginning it appeared very informative, when I went to verify the information provided I realized the AI had the usual hallucination, inventing stuff! 🤦
Eventually the second reply was more correct cause I already verified by myself the documentation earlier…
Micro Wireless Keyboard 🔬🛜⌨️
I bought this micro wireless keyboard from Amazon:
The idea is to use it to unlock the new FreeBSD based GhostPC. The design is cool but the quality feels very flimsy…
I haven't tested yet so I hope that is not fail on me… 🙏
2025-12-09
Slimming down your Debian/Devuan kernel image 🥒🥬🥦
It is happening that on some very old Debian installations the /boot partition space I assigned, based on the old default, is not sufficient anymore to store even two kernel images at the same time.
This gave me a lot of headaches during the upgrade to Trixie, but on the Debian forum a super-dude gave me a good suggestion: it is possible to change the setting to create a slim kernel image!
Open this file:
/etc/initramfs-tools/initramfs.conf
Modify from "most" to "dep":
# # MODULES: [ most | netboot | dep | list ] # # most - Add most filesystem and all harddrive drivers. # # dep - Try and guess which modules to load. # # netboot - Add the base modules, network modules, but skip block devices. # # list - Only include modules from the 'additional modules' list # MODULES=dep
Rebuild all the `initramfs`:
# update-initramfs -u -k all
And now check the difference!
with "most"
df -h /boot Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on /dev/mmcblk0p2 456M 135M 297M 32% /boot
with "dep"
df -h /boot Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on /dev/mmcblk0p2 456M 63M 369M 15% /boot
It slimmed down more than an half!
This will also let my computers to boot slightly faster! 🏎️
2025-12-03
The force has been restored ☯️
For a very long-time I have omitted to tell everybody an extremely important detail! Something that would let anybody falling down from the (desktop) chair, no exclusion!
This summer before to travel for the vacation I performed the best epic fail of my pebcak misadventures…
Master of Pebcak
Perhaps because it was very late, perhaps because I was very tired, but while I was trying to delete the FreeBSD /usr/ports directory I ran the command:
rm -RF *
Into the root directory! 🤦
When I started to read on the screen weird output comments I realized the mistake and I stopped the command immediately, however it was too late, I had already compromised the system.
With the computer unbootable and two days left before to depart, I simply gave up and left for months my main workstation broken, not because I was wise but instead I felt very depressed.
The state of depression is perhaps the key that pushed me toward the BSDverse again; as a matter of fact I use GNU/Linux because it is convenient and still opensource, but I stopped to like it.
Thanks thanksgiving
The weekend before thanksgiving I had the rare occasion to stay alone without my family and therefore I could dedicate myself to this (delicate) recovery task. Luckily I was able, to recover the 98% of the data — it doesn't matter ZFS if you don't do replications or at least snapshots — and to change the topology of my workstation, from two 250GB SSD sata ZFS mir to 250GB NVMe ZFS single stripe + 1TB SSD sata ZFS mir for the /home and data.
Pushing toward the light-side of the force
I decided to get rid of the Linux fallback, thus no more dual boot, and I also decided to move the GhostPC to FreeBSD as well! The latter still needs some tuning though, I will document everything once I've done with the set up!
Now I have 2 computers and 1 VPS running FreeBSD and 2 computer running Linux (Devuan, Armbian Ubuntu), I can definitely state that I restored the balance, actually I promoted the light-side of the force. It would be cool moving also the file server but the compatibility with FreeBSD is very poor and OpenBSD still doesn't provide a decent file-system.
Feel the force! 🧙
2025-11-07
🎲 GAME 🎲 State 3 reasons why KDE is better than XFCE!
I tried this on the Fediverse twice but it didn't work out, I hope to get you guys more excited!
Dear KDE users, let's make a game, please state three reasons why you consider KDE superior (or better) than XFCE!
I will collect your replies and I will address later on this very Capsule.
You can reply to me using a "RE:Log" or sending me an email at:
If you want to be anonymous please don't forget to mention it on your email or through a second email! 😉
Let's have fun! 😁
2025-11-03
Devuan 6 "Excalibur" released! 🍾🍾🍾
Finally! 🍾
And now it is time to update all the computers… 💪
The GhostPC has been already updated, I had just some issue with "dropbear" because "openssh" deprecated the 'ssh-rsa' algorithm, luckily that was fixed and the related guides were updated:
Actually my current GhostPC is not anymore a LibreComputer Renegade SOC, but a GMTek N97 Intel, I closed with these Arm SoC eventually cost more, are more problematic and lesser powerful of this N100 Intel CPUs that perform very well. Actually for the GhostPC I made up my mind and I will shortly move on FreeBSD.
However I have my kids laptops to move over Devuan 6; I am tired to troubleshoot weird issues on their computer because the irrationality of "systemd" and its hundreds of services opened by default, as it was a whatever Windows computer.
2025-10-31
🎃 Scary guides (and Publisher PRO)
If for any reason you tried to follow my (latest) guide to compile Speedata Publisher Pro:
Unfortunately I totally screwed up with the instructions: I copied wrong some wrong commands; I recommended to download the wrong source; a completely mess!
I realized when I try to follow the same steps (on my battle laptop) and nothing worked out! 🤦
And I really hate this, because if there is something that really pisses me off are these untested and recycled guides that you find on internet, spread and spread to the infinite, that nobody cared, at least one time, to check and verify! 🤬
I apology for that, but at least now the guide has been double checked and verified! 🧐
2025-10-23
Some fancy stats! 📊
I am still in celebration mood, time to write down some stats!
The core of the project is split in six files:
LINES / CHARS / FILE ----------------------- 854 42369 layout.xml 52 2403 colors.xml 90 3437 fonts.xml 67 3170 graphics.xml 695 25639 masters.xml 1758 77018 total
The very first catalog is also split in six files:
LINES / CHARS / FILE
-----------------------
32 714 catalog.xml
500 41782 sec01.xml
708 36778 sec02.xml
958 82489 sec03.xml
740 61228 sec04.xml
1554 88326 sec05.xml
4492 311317 total
Image used and edited (cover not included) for this project:
cat sec01.xml sec02.xml sec03.xml sec04.xml sec05.xml masters.xml | grep -c .jpg 363 cat sec01.xml sec02.xml sec03.xml sec04.xml sec05.xml masters.xml | grep -c .png 71 cat sec01.xml sec02.xml sec03.xml sec04.xml sec05.xml masters.xml | grep -c .pdf 18
- Total lines: 6250
- Total chars: 388335
- Total images: 452
From the perspective of someone that hasn't never coded anything is very impressive!
😏
When you fully checkmark your TODO list! ✅
If your read my diary, perhaps you might remember that I started, almost two years ago, an important project in which I invested all my spare time available and my residual strength; and where I infused a lot of hopes and expectations!
I built everything around this project: the brand, the website, the advertising, the communication; the last missing piece was the product!
I spent the last two years in crafting my skills with Speedata Publisher and I barely scraped the surface! However, I finished creating a real product based on real data (found somewhere on the Internet), and I can state that I have practically done with my TODO list:
The TODO List:
# CTLG0 PROJECT 1. Fixing the layout [✅] 2. Cleaning the database [✅] 3. Convert the database [✅] 4. Organize the catalog.xml [✅] 5. Generate the first PDF [✅] 6. Tuning the catalog.xml [✅] 7. Prepare additional graphics [✅] 8. Tweaking the layout.xml [✅] 9. Fine tuning the catalog.xml [✅] 10. Prepare the cover [⚙️] 11. Exporting the final PDF [⏳]
The last things left are the cover and to export the final PDF for printing! 💪
For the latter I am already prepared, and as a matter of fact I already compiled the PRO version, and wrote the instructions for Devuan:
For the cover I have already got some ideas, this task will be very quickly and simple, and it will be made with Inkscape. The cover isn't part of the product, the product is the body!
I look forward to print the first samples! 🤞
2025-10-13
Youtube is a crime against parenting ☣️
If you are a parent and your child or children are still kids or teens, Youtube is a serious problem. It is the primary source of distraction, is a cauldron with very limited filters where anybody can have voice while it shouldn't.
I heard that they forced strictly rules upon video uploaders but those filters haven't nothing to do regards protecting kids brain development against the petabyte of craps, especially short videos.
I decided that I had enough of this crap, I checked briefly on LibreWolf and I spoof out a bunch of urls that should prevent any videos from being loaded on Youtube as well on other search engines, I also added all the other sources of crap that any kids had better to avoid.
Of course you need to modify your `etc/hosts` file, I assumed that nobody here use Windows, just copy this on your kid's laptop (I hope you installed any *nix on its computer):
127.0.0.1 play.google.com 127.0.0.1 youtube.com www.youtube.com m.youtube.com .youtube.com 127.0.0.1 i.ytimg.com www.i.ytimg.com .ytimg.com 127.0.0.1 encrypted-vtbn0.gstatic.com www.encrypted-vtbn0.gstatic.com .encrypted-vtbn0.gstatic.com 127.0.0.1 encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com www.encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com .encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com 127.0.0.1 ogs.google.com 127.0.0.1 googleusercontent.com www.googleusercontent.com .googleusercontent.com 127.0.0.1 googlevideo.com www.googlevideo.com .googlevideo.com 127.0.0.1 facebook.com www.facebook.com .facebook.com 127.0.0.1 instagram.com www.instagram.com .instagram.com 127.0.0.1 tiktok.com www.tiktok.com .tiktok.com 127.0.0.1 snapchat.com www.snapchat.com .snapchat.com 127.0.0.1 reddit.com www.reddit.com .reddit.com 127.0.0.1 v.redd.it .redd.it 127.0.0.1 discordapp.com www.discordapp.com .discordapp.com 127.0.0.1 discord.com www.discord.com .discord.com 127.0.0.1 fandom.com www.fandom.com .fandom.com 127.0.0.1 x.com www.x.com .x.com 127.0.0.1 bsky.app www.bsky.app .bsky.app
I know this is not properly done but it works; any suggestion is welcomed!
Please sent me an email to:
This is only the begin, I am going to come back over this topic with more aggressive restrictions…
2025-09-01
Discoveries, CCN Lite 📰
This was brought to my attention by a FediFriend of mine.
The CCN has a lite version that is basically text:
If your client supports HTTP Proxy, like for instance Lagrange, you can add Stargate by Acidus…
stargate.gemi.dev:1994
…and read updated and fresh news directly from your favorite Gemini client.
The whole experience is pretty neat because the homepage and the following pages are still basic text and integration with your client is nearly perfect.
Warmly recommend to read mainstream news while on Gemini! 👍
2025-09-01
Discoveries, Duck.ai and ChatGPT 5 mini 🦆
I wrote an opinionated g-log recently that, I guess, nobody really cared about…
However I have been actively working on a big project of mine that is absorbing all my spare time available. This project is based on a typesetting software that can read data from an XLSX through a LUA script. Even though I was provided with a LUA template I couldn't really do anything.
It really frustrate me the fact that I can't read or understand LUA, but since the typesetting software is already complicated I can't spend another year to barely learn LUA; therefore I asked help to a developer expert in LUA.
After an exchange of scripts he admitted to be lazy and to use ChatGPT to generate the code he was providing to me. It took a couple of days to understand that he was suggested me to do the same. I don't have any account to OpenAI, therefore I used Duck.ai to use a LLM, and as other DDG tools it doesn't track you which is good. I started with ChatGPT 4 mini, but after hours of trials I could get any decent results. Then I created a very detailed prompt without missing any relevant details, but I continued to get broken code, almost despaired I tried with Google Gemini, but result was catastrophic the same.
It is well known that I have bias against the LLM and AI in general so I was about to scream aloud about all this crap when I realized I had been processing the wrong XLSX for half of a day… PEBCAK… 🤦
Then I got back again to Google Gemini but still nothing good, it looks like it was trying to do the task correctly but it continued to fail. Although skeptical, and disappointed, I went back again on Duck.ai, this time selecting ChatGPT 5 mini. With the latter in only two iterations I was able to get a script able to export XLSX database properly, I was also able to get a second improved version. This really boosted my hope for the outcome of this project very important to me!
Eventually I was very impressed, the code looks ugly, but it does exactly what I asked and what I expected. It spared me to quick learn LUA and made me independently by the kindness of someone else. I still don't like the fact that I don't understand what the script is actually doing, but learning LUA slid down to the bottom of my concerning list. Now, as long as it lasts, I have a tool that really helps me to do the heavy lift.
I am not very proud of this but I feel quite the lucky… 👼
2025-06-14
GeminiSpace.Club next to expire ⌛
Hello geminauts, for all the people still subscribed to "GeminSpace.Club", I must remind you that domain will expire on July 11. You have lesser than 30 days to switch to "Pebcak.Club".
Besides that I update this server from FreeBSD 14.2 to 14.3, the operation went smooth and everything is running fine!
Hopefully this summer I should have find to publish something, my side project is absorbing all my spare time… 😩
See you soon… 😉
2025-05-10
I am officially a Geek! 🤓
Yes, indeed! 🤓
I opened my first repository to share my Speedata Publisher layouts, at least some of them. This is the first time that I publish something in the open-source space, I have been always a user, and sometimes I did some (poor) bug reports… 😅
It is a niche area that perhaps interest very few people, but I really like that software and I hope it can gradually take over on the "Opensource Desktop Publishing" that I just baptized as: ODTP… 😏
To not be confused with "Open Digital Twin Platform" 😂
2025-04-21
Spring Cleaning… 🧹💨
Today, with the help of Cage, I cleaned up the main page of "Pebcak [dot] Org". This is surely good although, unfortunately, a lot of links were broken and perhaps missing for ever… 😢
I guess it is unavoidable, the Geminiverse community is still tiny and hasn't developed any resiliency yet. People are here just because they love it and because they appreciate the Gemini Protocol low(est) technology grade.
Se you soon… 😉
2025-04-17
Back to the Geminiverse… 🚀
Indeed… I am finally here again! 💪
I am going to dedicate more time to this capsule even though my spare time has shrunk to almost nothing, but I still love the idea to have Gemini to succeed so I won't give up just for the laziness!
Stay tuned… 📻