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newsSurgery on thumb
Accident yesterday; I was drilling 3.5mm holes in some aluminium sheet, with a handheld electric drill, and holding the workpiece steady with my right hand. The drill-bit snapped, the drill veared sideways and down, and drilled right through my thumb. I know it was careless; should have used a g-clamp to hold the workpiece.
Anyway, the drill went in one side of the right thumb and exited through the nail on the other side, ripping up the nail. If that seems pretty ghastly, it is, except that there is a silver lining. The drill bit just missed the bone, and did not sever major nerves. The thumb is still basically functional.
Had surgery this morning, local anaesthetic. The surgeon removed the nail; and this very interesting -- she put it back on the thumb. A new nail will grow, but putting back the old nail helps to preserve the surface on which the new nail will grow.
Here is my hand, at home after the operation:
Here is some explanation of the surgical procedure, with pictures:
...it doesn't mention replacing the original nail, but apparently that is the usual practice, see here:
I have to keep the hand elevated for a few days, which is a problem. Right now using the mouse with left hand, and one-hand typing. Awkward. Won't be doing much on the computer for awhile, maybe for next couple of weeks. Probably no work on the trike for several weeks.
Just to let you know. Won't be online much for
awhile.
Tags: admin
puppylinux.com is down
In case you have come here, hoping that I might know something; I don't really, except that it is being worked on.
The host suspended puppylinux.com without any notification or explanation. If that seems a bit rude, yes, it is. A decent host provider should give an explanation.
Anyway, Erik (rockedge on the forum) is the main guy who has setup and maintains puppylinux.com, and he has raised a support ticket.
I reckon, when Erik gets puppylinux.com up again, he will deserve a few donations (there is a donation button on the forum).
It is not just this latest incident; keeping it all going requires ongoing maintenance.
EDIT:
Erik has a reply to the ticket, quoting an email from Erik:
We have a serious problem of DDOS attack. I noticed this but
hoped it wasn't so. The host shut us down and I am fighting to
get
us back up
Information about DDOS:
https://www.imperva.com/learn/ddos/denial-of-service/
If you want to chat with others in the pup-family, there is this alternative forum:
https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/puppy-71/
Note: puppylinux.com is now up, but the forum is down. So I guess
it is the forum that is being attacked.
Tags: admin
Donation button removed
I had a PayPal donation button on the "contact me" page, however have taken it down:
Over the years, I have blown hot and cold over whether to have a
donation button. Did take it down for awhile, about a year ago I think.
I received an email asking if can send me a bank cheque, which reminded me about that donation button. I declined the offer.
I really don't need donations. It is really my pleasure to upload
blog reports about EasyOS, Puppy, DIY hiking gear, and all the rest that
have posted about. Ibiblio.org is still very kindly hosting downloads,
and I also went back to the Puppy Forum.
Regarding the forum, when I went it alone, there was a time overhead
maintaining it, fighting off spammers, handling people who are unable to
register, moderating. So just went back to a special section inside the
Puppy Forum for EasyOS:
https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewforum.php?f=63
...which is putting all the maintenance load onto 'rockedge' and his helpers.
So, if you do feel like donating something, rockedge will appreciate a little remuneration:
https://forum.puppylinux.com/donate
As far as EasyOS is concerned, I am moving into more of a "niche
product". I have been asked about the Buster-series, whether there will
be an update, and I replied yes -- however, rethinking that, now the
answer is no. Plan to stick with the Dunfell-series for the next few
years, and it will become increasingly the "odd man out".
Already odd, with a mix of new and old packages. For example, staying
with pango prior to 1.44, reverted to Xorg server 1.19.x. Staying with
alsa and gtk2 (though have gtk3 based apps when forced to) -- one
example, is keeping the gtk2-based gtkdialog.
Increasing going down that path of being a quirky little OS. Not going to struggle any more to cater to everyone's hardware.
The Puppy developers, on the other hand, are surging ahead,
supporting pulseaudio and Xwayland. And good on them, they are young
guys, full of enthusiasm. I still do have enthusiasm, lots in fact, but
only want to tailor EasyOS as a light-duty hobby OS as I transition more
into activities such as camping.
Hey, this was supposed to only be a post about dropping the donation button. Rambled on a bit.
Tags: admin
100,000 visitors to this blog front page
Just realised, since starting the blog counter on February 2, 2020, have exceeded 100,000:
That is only counting visits to the front page of the blog. Anyone
who has gone directly to a particular post will not affect the counter.
So overall visits to the blog will be considerably higher than 100,000.
100,000 per year is a modest visitor rate compared with some blogs
out there, but it is nice to know that there is a steady stream of
interested readers.
EDIT 2021-02-24:
Received an email from Rob, suggesting that many of those 100,000 hits will be from bots. Oh well.
Rob also sent this link, suggesting I might find it an interesting read:
I looked through it, PeerTube looks very interesting:
Tags: admin
Record of PayPal donations
I would like to thank those who have donated money to maintain my
websites and the project. From feedback, there is support for both
EasyOS and the solar water distiller projects. Of course, support in
other ways, such as testing EasyOS releases, is also much appreciated.
The table below shows donations since 2017, all in US$. The PayPal
donate button has not been "up" all of that time. For example, it was
removed early April and restored July 9, 2019.
| Name |
US$ |
Date |
| dogle |
250 |
Dec. 22, 2019 |
| William |
40 |
Dec. 6 |
| Franz |
40 |
Oct. 20 |
| Eddie |
103 |
Sep. 23 |
| Andrew |
20 |
Sep. 6 |
| Edward |
50 |
Sep. 1 |
| William |
50 |
Aug. 2 |
| Alfred |
20 |
Jul. 14 |
| George |
50 |
Jul. 10 |
| Bhaskar |
2.84 |
Mar. 3 |
| Alfons |
200 |
Jan. 31 |
| Leslie |
12 |
Jan. 30 |
| Michael |
20 |
Dec. 24, 2018 |
| Lawrence |
21 |
Dec. 20 |
| Clinton |
5 |
Dec. 17 |
| Adrian |
20 |
Nov. 17 |
| Matt |
5 |
Nov. 16 |
| Lawrence |
25 |
Sep. 20 |
| William |
20 |
Sep. 6 |
| Ben |
40 |
May 27 |
| Bernhard |
50 |
Dec. 2, 2017 |
Note regarding domain names. There are bkhome.org and easyos.org, plus 5 or 6 others, and also I still pay for puppylinux.org registration. The other main Puppy domain, puppylinux.com, is now owned by 01micko, and he pays for it's registration and hosting. puppylinux.org is no longer hosted separately and redirects to puppylinux.com.
Merry Christmas!
Tags: admin
Donate button restored
Back in April this year, I removed the donate button. Reason given was that I felt uncomfortable with receiving donations.
However, reflecting on that, I think that I was being overly
sensitive. If someone wants to support my projects with a monetary
donation, then that is OK, in fact, is helpful as I am currently pouring
cash into camping-related projects. And of course there is the cost of
maintaining the website and domain names.
Regarding the camping projects, a few more projects in the pipeline.
For the solar water distiller, currently planning prototype #3, buying
materials for it will start soon.
Here is the contact page, with restored donate button:
Tags: admin
Donate button removed
I put a PayPal "Donate" button onto my "Contact me" page in October 2017. Have now removed it.
If you really really really want to make a donation, you can still do so, using paypal, pay to STARTbkaulerATgmailDOTcomEND
I have never been comfortable with soliciting donations. In total,
since putting in the Donate button, I have received almost US$500, which
I appreciate. However, my "age pension" is sufficient to cover expenses
for the website and equipment (as well as food, housing, etc.!), so I
really do not need donations.
Here is the "Contact me" page:
Tags: admin