Disqus - Latest Comments for gma

Re: How to Pick a Good Monitor for Software Development

Graham Ashton — Mon, 27 Jun 2022 07:04:27 -0000

Hi Nick. Thanks for this, it was a seriously useful post and allowed me to go from "hmmm, I think it's time I got a bigger monitor" to 'I need whatever the current 25" 1440p Dell is' in the space of just a couple hours. Normally, that'd take me days of research and a couple of weeks of indecision.

I totally agree with you on the 1x scaling. A few years ago I used a 27" 1440p iMac as my only screen, and while I liked it at the time, when doing some testing with it I did feel that a 25" screen would be better at my typical viewing distance. My monitors are VESA-mounted on arms, so my viewing distance is easily tweaked. I've got the 25" (which turned up yesterday) about 29" away, and it's great. Text is noticeably clearer than on a 23" 1080p Apple Cinema display (which is otherwise still superb, 16 years after I bought it).

I've got a 2007FPb (1600x1200) to the left of my main screen. That's very handy for either docs, or for displaying whatever I'm currently developing. In portrait mode it's the same shape as an A4 page, so great for displaying a full page of a PDF eBook if I'm studying some new tech. And it's not a lot taller than the 25" Dell. I might get another one (second hand) to go on the right side. You don't have to turn your head too far to see everything with this setup.

P.S. I came across you when I took your Docker course a few years ago. To anyone reading this who wants to learn Docker, I'd recommend it. In fact I've recommended it to friends, who've agreed it's very good.

Re: Bikepacking England Guidebook by Emma Kingston

Graham Ashton — Fri, 04 Jun 2021 13:10:00 -0000

Hi Thomas. I've already got my copy, and Emma addresses the choice of bike early on. She starts by saying the best bike is the one you already have. She also mentions gravel and rigid bikes, saying they'll be quicker on and better suited to sections of some routes (eg where they use disused railway lines). But she also suggests a hard tail is the best compromise of speed, versatility and comfort for the routes she's put together.

It's a great book, by the way. I've enjoyed reading through it.

Re: When Panasonic's Android app won't connect to your Lumix camera (and a workaround)

Graham Ashton — Fri, 05 Jun 2020 10:55:58 -0000

:-(

Re: When Panasonic's Android app won't connect to your Lumix camera (and a workaround)

Graham Ashton — Mon, 16 Dec 2019 17:14:12 -0000

Excellent — thanks for letting me know. It's galling that they've still not fixed this though. I gave up using cameras with mobile apps in disgust shortly after I wrote this post. I did try a Fuji camera and their app earlier this year, but connecting that to a Google Pixel (i.e. stock Android) didn't work either!

Re: Six of the best: bicycle bells

Graham Ashton — Sat, 01 Jun 2019 02:48:18 -0000

I've a Spurcycle and like the design of the strap. I can't see how it can come off if it's engaged properly - mine is extremely solid. Could yours have had a fault?

Re: Six of the best: bicycle bells

Graham Ashton — Sat, 01 Jun 2019 02:44:57 -0000

Couldn't agree more. I tested it in a shop and it sounded fine, but it's not loud enough to alert chatting dog walkers on a quiet canal towpath that you're bimbling along slowly behind them. I had a few "get a bell!" comments from people even though I'd been ringing mine like a crazy person.

Put it on eBay, got a Spurcycle (yes, pricey, but I do a lot of canal towpath commuting). Haven't regretted it for a moment.

Also have a Lion on another bike. If you've room on the bars for that style, it's the best sounding by far.

Re: Creating trackable promotional cards with Moo

Graham Ashton — Tue, 28 May 2019 07:58:51 -0000

Brilliant - I'm glad it's still current. :-)

Re: DSA DOLCH 145KEYS KEYCAPS – KBDfans

Graham Ashton — Sat, 10 Nov 2018 05:14:56 -0000

These look lovely, and I'd buy a set in a heartbeat if the 2/" and 3/£ keys (from the UK layout) were included. Any chance of adding them to a future version?

Re: ENJOYPBT ISO COMPATIBILITY KIT (4 KEYS)

Graham Ashton — Sat, 10 Nov 2018 05:02:01 -0000

Any thoughts on whether/when you'll be getting the black or dolch grey versions back in stock? I'd like to order a couple of sets of keycaps from you, one of which would be a set of blank cherries, but the lack of ISO enter in a darker colour is holding me up (I'm in the UK so would rather just place the one order, for customs + shipping reasons).

Thanks.

Re: DSA BLANK KEYSET (FOR TADA68, GH60, POKER, ETC.)

Graham Ashton — Sat, 10 Nov 2018 02:56:46 -0000

Hi. Are these PBT or ABS? Cheers.

Re: Building a Mechanical Keyboard part 2: the build

Graham Ashton — Sat, 27 Oct 2018 03:13:55 -0000

That's very cool. I couldn't make it to lambda lounge to see your talk the other week, and keep forgetting to come and ask you about it. I Googled in the hope there might be slides, and found these posts. :-)

I got into mech keyboards again this year after switching back to Linux. I disappeared down the "which switch?" rabbit hole for a while (which culminated in a visit to The Keyboard Company during which I was sat at an enormous empty desk, surrounded by a big mountain of keyboards that they got out for me). This was useful, as I ruled out Topre immediately (too spongey).

I got a Filco TKL from them, before moving on to a Poker 3 with MX clears (like heavier browns; you need 65cN to reach the bump).

I really like my Poker, but yours is totally next level!

Re: Printing discount codes on your business card

Graham Ashton — Thu, 19 Jul 2018 05:48:49 -0000

Hi Adam. I wrote a snippet of Ruby that produced a random sequence of letters for me, then ran that code in a loop to produce as many different codes as I wanted.

This is the code: `('A'..'Z').to_a.shuffle[0, 8].join`. I hope that helps! (even if you're not using Ruby)

Re: Saddlebags for Bikepacking and Front Rolltop Bags

Graham Ashton — Tue, 26 Jun 2018 04:17:52 -0000

Using spacers is an excellent idea; I've always wondered about how to approach mounting a Carradice on the bars when the gap between the supporting rack and the bars is taller than the bag itself.

I'm thinking some kind of short tubes might work well, with the strap fed inside the tube. For that idea to stand the test of time the end of the tube would need to be smooth enough not to start to cut into strap. Using tubes a little wider than the handlebar should deal with that problem though, so that the end of the tube pushes against the bar, rather than on the strap. I hope that makes sense…

Re: After a week working in my camper, what do I think?

Graham Ashton — Wed, 06 Jun 2018 07:20:07 -0000

Cheers Gayle. :-)

Excel in a swell sounds positively vom inducing! I'm definitely the "weekend warrior" type of van user, though doing the odd day in it here and there would be fun. Trying it somewhere like Pembrokeshire would be interesting. How's the 4G down there?

Re: Sailing past the Berney

Graham Ashton — Wed, 21 Feb 2018 13:01:47 -0000

Hi. It'll be the standard B&W effect. It's the best in-camera B&W I've come across, and often produces a nicer image than I'm able to achieve myself with decent image editors (e.g. the Silver Efex software). It depends what look you're after, obviously, but it does do nice rich tones.

Re: Creating trackable promotional cards with Moo

Graham Ashton — Mon, 12 Feb 2018 04:09:04 -0000

The Mac operating system. These days they call it macOS.

Re: Happy New Year

Graham Ashton — Fri, 12 Jan 2018 14:14:05 -0000

Hi Jayne. The only thing I've really planned this year is this weekend. I'm writing this comment from the Star Inn in Dyliffe, in deepest Wales. It's the usual destination the night before a Bearbones event, and tomorrow I'll be dragging the bike around some rather crispy bits of Welsh forest (with a friend I met at last year's touring festival, as it happens, after he gave a talk about bikepacking).

It's a good question though - I need to do some proper planning. Bikepacking Scotland's Wild About Argyll route looks like a bit of a winner, so I'll probably try and get that in. Beyond that, we will have to see what transpires. Have you got anything lined up yet?

Re: Happy New Year

Graham Ashton — Sun, 07 Jan 2018 06:38:03 -0000

Hi Jayne. Liking the yoga links – I ought to work her stuff into my daily routine.

Packrafting is ace fun. They're seriously stable. I tried it at last year's adventure cycle festival, and I think they might run a bike rafting workshop this year. Recommended. I'm inevitably going to get one, it's just a question of when...

And if you fancy talking more about your Scottish adventures, I'm sure your talk would go down well at the Cycle Touring Festival (I think Barry is going again this year too). The schedule gets planned round about now, should you fancy it...

Re: The Ultimate Comprehensive 2018 Calendar to UK Adventure Festivals & Events

Graham Ashton — Wed, 03 Jan 2018 10:57:14 -0000

This is worth adding: http://www.adventurecyclefe...

I went to the first one last year, and it was great fun. It's on the shores of Lake Windermere in the grounds of a country hall.

I spent one morning doing bushcraft, gathering food from the local woodland, cooking salmon and baking bread on open fires. In the afternoon I went pack-rafting on the lake, and on top of all that it was full of all sorts of camping and adventure-cycling kit (with a load of bikes you could try).

Re: Recovering Lost Commits with git reflog and reset

Graham Ashton — Wed, 15 Nov 2017 17:17:09 -0000

You know, so many people seem to have saved themselves hours by reading this, writing it may well be the most productive thing I've ever done! Glad it's still helping. :-)

Re: The Final Countdown

Graham Ashton — Wed, 09 Aug 2017 09:16:45 -0000

Cheers Jayne. That's the simplest way to get OS maps onto a phone that I've seen so far. And it's nice to hear of such a straightforward setup working so well.

Re: Installing a specific version of a homebrew package

Graham Ashton — Mon, 31 Jul 2017 06:11:14 -0000

I'm not going to be able to look into how this should now be done for a week or two, but I suspect that homebrew's stance on how to install arbitrary old versions might be to create your own "tap".

Homebrew core is now capable of serving multiple versions of a project, but I suspect it's only intended to allow for supporting the versions of a project that are still getting security fixes applied upstream.

See the last paragraph on this page:
https://docs.brew.sh/Versio...

It says:

> You should create your own tap for formulae you or your organisation wishes to control the versioning of or those that do not meet the above standards.

I'll add a paragraph explaining what people can try these days, once I've looked into it properly.

Re: The Final Countdown

Graham Ashton — Sun, 23 Jul 2017 04:13:00 -0000

I've followed a few people's tour blogs over the years, but this is the first time I've read every post.

Thanks for sharing, I've enjoyed it all.

Now, here's a question. How have you been navigating? I get the impression you might have done route 10 by following the Sustrans signs (which suggests you don't have a Garmin on the bars), but I'm thinking you must have had maps of some sort for the west coast. And then I got to wondering whether digital or traditional...

Or maybe Monkey is the navigator?

Re: Cruising to Canna

Graham Ashton — Thu, 06 Jul 2017 02:33:41 -0000

Canna looks beautiful – I shall have to check it out one day.

These ticks are little buggers, eh? You're not doing too badly though. I'm just back from a fortnight on the Outer Hebrides (your earlier posts provided some great input, thanks), where I averaged one tick per week! And I wasn't even wild camping. Have you got one of those nifty tick removers?

Re: The last piece of the 'Bikes, Bothies & Booze' jigsaw - the Bothy!

Graham Ashton — Wed, 24 May 2017 09:49:28 -0000

I'm really enjoying reading about all these adventures. And I miss the west coast of Scotland. Keep 'em coming!