Revisiting SailfishOS – September 2025 Thoughts |
My latest reflections on SailfishOS as of September 2025. UI brilliance, ecosystem struggles, and what Jolla needs to do next.| geekyschmidt.com
Efficiency is the most overlooked opportunity in edge data center design. The cheapest electron is the one not used.| Posts on
Living out in the boonies has its charms: quiet nights, open skies, and an estate that keeps me busy, but internet choices aren’t one of them. Options are slim, and Carrier-Grade NAT (CGNAT) makes life rough if you want to self-host. Static, routable IPs are what you really need, but out here that’s a luxury. I didn’t want to rely on Cloudflare tunnels, ngrok, or similar middlemen. For a while, I leaned on Tailscale as a DIY SD-WAN (basically a secure mesh network overlay across your de...| Posts on
Thanks to Anirudh for getting me started on the right path! Running Signal Desktop in a Debian VM on OpenBSD I wanted to get Signal Desktop running in a way that integrates smoothly with my OpenBSD host. Since Signal doesn’t have a native OpenBSD port, I spun up a Debian VM using vmm(4) and vmctl. Below are my notes for setting this up, including a few gotchas. --- Step 1: Download Debian ISO Start with the Bookworm Debian netinst ISO (I had issues with Trixie):| Posts on
OpenBSD and Me OpenBSD holds a place near and dear to my heart. Back in the Air Force, I deployed some of the first Snort sensors in 2003/2004 to detect network traffic. I quickly became engrossed with the elegance and simplicity of OpenBSD’s build system and ongoing maintenance. I wish I could dig back through my early eBay purchases and find the little Compaq machine that powered my first home server install. In my dorm room, I built my first PF firewall and router to practice network con...| Posts on
There’s something delightfully analog about growing up before smartphones. We don’t have TikTok timelines or Instagram reels of high school. Our memories live on dusty Hi8 and DV tapes, glitchy, lo-fi fragments from a time before social media ruled our lives. Back in Latimer, Mississippi, our English teacher Vadis Perkins, a true visionary, gave us the green light to launch a morning news show at St. Martin High. She handed us a makeshift newsroom: a few camcorders, some clear tape, and a...| Posts on
I’ve been a loyal follower of Nokia’s mobile innovation journey for years, starting with the Nokia N800 and every subsequent device. Before Android fully established itself, Nokia’s Linux-based devices offered a genuinely geek-friendly alternative. I fondly recall a time in Tel Aviv when I used my N900 to SSH into a server and fix a config file while riding in a taxi—those were magical moments! Over the years, I’ve kept up with the evolution of Nokia and Jolla devices, purchasing ea...| Posts on
In my teens, close family friends gave me a [Sega Nomad](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genesis_Nomad) along with several Genesis/Mega Drive games. Up until then, I was only allowed a computer and a GameBoy, so the Nomad—with its colour screen and vast game library—became an instant favourite as I travelled around Europe. It was a fantastic but little-known device; its biggest flaw was its battery life. Even with the brightness set to its lowest, you’d be lucky to get two hours of playti...| Posts on
I’m the kind of guy who buys a car and keeps it forever. When we got our Model 3 over five years ago, I thought I’d be handing the virtual keys to our daughter in a decade. Well, it’s totalled. That started our search for another electric vehicle. We left the ICE world behind and didn’t consider hybrids—we’re firmly in the EV camp. After a week of driving ICE cars in Europe, we were reminded why we won’t go back.| Posts on
Sitting in a coffee shop in Vienna feels like stepping into a timeless tradition. The air is filled with the rich aroma of freshly brewed coffee and the subtle sweetness of pastries. The décor blends classic and modern—high ceilings, chandeliers, and plush seating paired with sleek, minimalist touches. It's the kind of space that invites lingering, whether reading, writing, or simply watching the world go by through the large windows. Last week, as I sat in a Viennese coffee shop flipping ...| Posts on
After travelling most of my life, I have been on a crusade to reduce my tech baggage. There was a time when I would have multiple laptops, games, and a litany of cables. International converters further complicated this during times of 110/220, requiring separate blocks. Like clothing, I overpacked what was actually used and needed. This trip, I decided to attempt just a tablet with a keyboard. I found that with Android and work MDM profiles, it was easy enough — additionally, turning off m...| Posts on
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At times, I've felt a twinge of disappointment that I don't read as much or as often as I'd like. The giants of philosophy, history, and technology had devoured volumes by this stage in their lives, a feat that seems beyond my reach. But then, I realised that my approach to media consumption is unique and satisfying in its own way. For the past seven days, I have made it a point to note when I am listening to a podcast or audiobook, watching a YouTube documentary, or mindlessly scrolling thro...| Posts on
After a decade of loyal service, my Sole Treadmill finally threw in the towel. Not one to contribute to e-waste, I tried replacing capacitors and control boards until I exhausted every part I could find online. Realising that my time was worth more than my patience, I decided it was time for a new one. My wishlist was pretty straightforward: Incline/Decline capabilities Speeds over 10 mph No required subscription Delivery and setup service (since moving the old one to the basement was a Hercu...| Posts on
It has been two years since we picked up the Lightning, and I wanted to discuss what has changed. Many of my first posts focused on the present rather than the future. Well, here we are in the future. I planned a trip from Standish to Duck Creek RV Park in Muskegon. I followed the same process I outlined two years ago: Plug the destination into the FordPass App and chuckle at the recommendations. Go to ABRP and see what the recommendations were. Go to PlugShare and validate the reviews of cha...| Posts on
My Dad and I drove to Ohio to pick up the Tesla Model 3, which I had traded for my beloved BMW Z4MC. At the time, buying a Tesla in Michigan was illegal due to the franchise rules. It was bittersweet as we took the road trip to, sight unseen, pick up the vehicle I had purchased online. Alicia and I knew with the impending arrival of our child, the 2 seater would only get a little use in our household. We had batted around getting another BMW, Audi, or Volvo. Still, in the end, I did the math ...| Posts on
During interviews for podcasts or panels, I’m often asked what I’d do if I weren’t in tech. While I playfully consider taking up farming, the true answer is writing. This passion for writing has been a constant in my life, deeply rooted and contrasting with my professional journey in technology. My fascination with technology began as a child with a Commodore 64 and GEOS, gifted by my supportive parents. This early exposure to tech didn’t overshadow my growing interest in writing, par...| Posts on
The 1990s was when small computers began their march towards becoming the sleek tech companions we know today. Picture this: A young military brat Eyes wide with wonder Flipping through the colossal pages of Computer Shopper magazine Amidst the bulky desktops, the little palmtops sparkled like gems of possibility. Imagine taking your computer wherever you go! Enter my first tech flirtation: the Casio JD-5000. A business organiser in the hands of a kid who had, let’s be honest, absolutely no...| Posts on
Alicia Schmidt and I are proud to announce the “Measure Twice, Cut Once Trades Scholarship,” which is two $2,500 awards to those in Arenac County pursuing vocational or trade schools post-graduation. Please share within the community! Teachers like Fran Laakman and Ann Holland (among many others) saw something I often overlooked in myself. While acknowledging my academic challenges, they celebrated my strengths and interests in computers, sports, and exploration. It took missed opportunit...| Posts on
I was on the road longer than I had hoped this trip, flipping through old photos alone in a hotel. As one does when you are lonely and philosophical, you think about German philosophers, right? Schopenhauer eloquently outlined that “aesthetic pleasure in the beautiful consists, to a large extent, in the fact that, when we enter the state of pure contemplation, we are raised for the moment above all willing, above all desires and cares; we are, so to speak, rid of ourselves.”| Posts on
For most of my adult life, I have been on the road travelling. Some years, it was mostly CONUS; other times, it was extensively OCONUS, but I found my old Slingbox while cleaning the basement. What is a Slingbox, you might be asking? Sit down, children and let me talk about a time you will soon see again… Slingbox (Early 2000s) Slingbox, introduced in the early 2000s, was a pioneering device that allowed users to remotely view their home television programming from anywhere with an internet...| Posts on
I will do a little experiment and let ChatGPT also write this blog post. I have made minor edits to ensure it aligns with the screenshots, but this is not me! A few essential items before we dive in: I am using GPT4 with Data Analysis through a paid account I work in the energy space, so I knew basically what I was trying to do with the prompts The Consumers website could have done this analysis in precisely 3 clicks through their portal, so I saved little time Yes, we use a ton of electricit...| Posts on
In our household, energy is more than just a utility; it’s a way of life. We’ve gone to great lengths to optimize our home, employing a symphony of solar panels, batteries, geothermal systems, and even energy monitoring to keep things in check. But, as they say, the devil is in the details, and I’m on a mission to uncover the hidden secrets that conventional energy monitoring won’t reveal. I often remind my team that energy is a force that doesn’t just vanish into thin air. Whether ...| Posts on
Have you ever watched a video and thought, “Is this even real?” In today’s age of digital manipulation, discerning the real from the fake has become an intricate dance. I decided to see how the non-tech folks in my life would react to me using AI and Machine Learning to become multilingual maestro. The Genesis of the Idea The adventure began when I stumbled upon a post on Mastodon about using AI to generate deepfake videos. “Deepfakes,” if you’re unfamiliar, are videos produced th...| Posts on
I am fortunate to have exposure to work on grid policy and implementation in both the US and European Union. The duality of those two worlds colliding helps look for the best approaches in both spheres. I wanted to talk about the most significant differences for those also looking to understand the differences. It is safe to say that both the US and Europe recognise the critical importance of grid security in maintaining a stable and reliable energy supply. As you compare the two governing bo...| Posts on
The current landscape of security approaches within Utility and ISO Programs is reminiscent of the early DITSCAP, DIACAP, and Rainbow Series progression of the Department of Defense world from the 80s and 90s. Given the ongoing Russia-Ukrain war and current geopolitical events, the urgency to bolster grid security and protect critical infrastructure in the US cannot be understated. Ageing power distribution systems are vulnerable to cyberattacks that can potentially jeopardise national securi...| Posts on
Köpenick holds a special place in my mind as a homecoming from my childhood. I spent formative years bouncing around Bitburg, but returning to Germany as an adult during this period provided a similar growth trajectory. Spec Ops Technology was well underway, and the little company we started was gaining steam. As my business partner would say, I was busy as a one-armed wallpaper hanger. I was in Berlin working on an airborne platform through the gruelling winter, focusing almost all my days ...| Posts on
Jack Morrison, from Scythe Robotics, made a post on LinkedIn talking about the electrification of tractors and how autonomous systems can aid in the process. I have thought about this topic for years and decided to do an entire blog post on Tractor Electrification and Autonomous Farming. I love what his team is doing and think the vision of small fleets of autonomous tractors is the future, but I wanted to outline some of the challenges this segment of vehicle electrification will have. Enjoy!| Posts on
My thoughts on the Pixel 7a from a standard user… My Samsung Fold 4 has a beautiful bright pink line and two circles of dead pixels across the screen. Since I live in the middle of nowhere, I had to mail my phone to the Samsung Service Centre. Unfortunately, that meant being phone-less for at least a week, which, professionally, is a non-starter. I went to Best Buy and picked up a Pixel 7a to hold me over and serve as our backup phone. My last Pixel was the 5, and I loved that device. Small...| Posts on
Introduction A few weeks ago, I woke up in NYC with my throat and chest burning and sore. I rolled over to grab my phone and start answering the morning litany of Slack and email messages from our European team well underway with their day. Google was kind enough to alert me that the air quality would be an issue. When I landed in Michigan, the issue cleared within 24 hours. Weird.| Posts on
Crosspost from Power Mag --- Today, modern network technology can transform commercial and industrial facilities into power sources that generate, store, and trade clean energy, allowing owners to increase cash flow, achieve decarbonization goals, and improve energy reliability. Energy flexibility can be a competitive advantage, particularly when an industry is operating under increased constraints. Changeable power costs, the need to reduce carbon emissions, and questions about energy reliab...| Posts on
Crosspost from Avionics International --- Nick Schmidt, Chief Technology Officer at Blueprint Power, recently offered some perspectives on their services and technology platform as well as the topic of decarbonization in the aviation industry. Check out our question-and-answer session with Nick Schmidt below. Avionics: How does the Blueprint Power platform work? Nick Schmidt: We think of airports as “mini cities,” given the number and variety of buildings and transportation operating at a...| Posts on
You can’t grow up in tech and not feel obliged to share an end-of-year wrap-up. So without further ado - here is mine for 2022. Media Best Album - Pacifica’s 2022 Less album, and just more every track they have put out this year has been gold. GOLD JERRY! Best Song - Rick Astley - abcdefu (GAYLE Cover) I don’t know if you know, but Rick Astley is more than Rick Rolling. He has an active youtube channel where he covers music he enjoys. His taste knows no bounds, and it has introduced me ...| Posts on
When you learn new languages, you can often find connections in words and ideas. Sometimes it’s wholesale incorporation of a word into the zeitgeist. Dunkelflaute is one I see more and more used in the energy world. “A Dark Lull” is the exact translation, but it intends to describe what happens when the sun isn’t shining, or the wind is blowing. The German language is beautiful; I don’t care what others say, but it is also incredibly literal. It is less flowery in its descriptors an...| Posts on
Intro If you closed your eyes tight enough and opened them without hesitation, it felt like pre-COVID a little this year. If you acclimated you’d realise it was not yet. I did over 100k miles/160k km this year (or nearly 300/482+ by Delta’s qualifying) and over 130 nights in a hotel. I am lucky enough that my family, more often than not, travels with me, but that is still a gruelling schedule. Who knows what next year brings, but it will likely be a lot of the same.| Posts on
TL;DR Great test run with the Airstream cut short by a sick kiddo. Stats and thoughts are below! Solid headwinds and gradual climb = 1mi/kWh on the way there Downhill with light winds and modified driving habits = 1.4mi/kWh Charging networks were more than sufficient to get us there and back. The chargers were positioned so that the truck and trailer could fit. The winds were so destructive in Cadillac that a buggy took off in the Meijers parking lot and rammed the back of the Airstream…gru...| Posts on
TL;DR - Towing my 23fb Airstream with the lightning basically cuts range in half. I was able to tow the Airstream around 30 miles today and understand how the Lightning does with some weight behind it. The TL;DR is that with a 23-foot Airstream, I am seeing 0.8mi/kWh. Compared to the 1.5-1.8 I have seen on my road trips thus far without the trailer, its around 50% of the range when towing.| Posts on
Charging networks are just as strategic as battery suppliers. Everyone who isn’t Tesla needs to focus on build-out. What we have today is not acceptable to the vast majority of consumers. Charging Network Our Tesla, when it sits for a few days, can drop significant battery capacity, so when we pulled up to Mackinaw City, I wanted to be sure we had more than the 70 miles we had. I put into the Ford’s GPS the closest high-speed charger and navigated.| Posts on
It made big news yesterday, but for the sake of posterity, we are the first F-150 Lightning Owner in the world at this point. The timing was great as we have a long-ish road trip today to visit the beautiful Mackinac Island. This meant practically moving a car seat, all the junk in the current truck, and getting the suitcase and bikes loaded before the following day. Yippie! First Charge At the dealership, I had to sign paperwork stating that I acknowledged that the fast charger would not com...| Posts on
I have struggled a little to collect my thoughts around the Steam Deck. The Linux geek in me is astonished that I sat on an aeroplane and played Halo on an Arch powered gaming system. Given that people in my life are not necessarily that same type of geek, I am going to break this review into three sections: Is this a fun gaming device? Is it an excellent portable Linux system? I am not a tinkering gamer; should I buy one?| Posts on
Prague is a familiar location for our marriage; we have found ourselves here for my work. We were here often enough to have made friends, had favourite local places, and met US friends here as they went on holiday (Hi Brandon!). While I have been coming here for decades now, it was always with the eyes of Milan Kundera. From the moment I read “The Unbearable Lightness of Being”, the Prague Spring became the lens through which I viewed everything as I explored this stunning city.| Posts on
My generator was an island of mystery in my home data pool. The Overview When we moved to Northern Michigan, loosing power was not an option. While I was not working from home as much back then, my wonderful Wife made it very clear that she would not be going cold in the great artic winters we have. “Duly noted,” I said, and when our home was built, I ensured that we buried the power lines up our winding driveway and installed a 22kw Generac generator. I dusted off my hands and called it ...| Posts on
One of our design philosophies at Blueprint Power is that you don’t spend too much time optimising code early on but instead focus on writing maintainable code with maintainable languages. More often than not, I have watched teams concentrate on picking the fastest language or improving the processing by some percentage instead of defining a solid data model and design pattern for the code. This hunch has served me well throughout the years. More often than not, by the time the performance ...| Posts on
I have had the fantastic opportunity the past few years to learn the energy space inside and out at Blueprint Power. Everything from regulatory frameworks to how low-level ERT frames function on smart meters. I always started my elevator pitch with “My background is not in energy…” which isn’t entirely accurate in the more abstract sense. I wanted to share this because our industry is blossoming, with many brilliant people wishing to be part of the energy transition. A question that I...| Posts on
My Father was stationed at Comiso Air Station when I was around two years old and was our home until kindergarten. The air station has since closed, but it holds a special place in my heart as I fell in love with computers and technology there. Our home was across the runway from the Base Exchange (BX), and we would ride our bikes across the base going to and from school, pick up my little brother, etc. For my younger self, though, that meant a visit to the BX where there was a computer secti...| Posts on
I live in a beautiful town called Standish, Michigan. Our total population is around 1400 people, and the majority of our population are farmers. That is to include the majority of my family who lives around our home here. Growing up, this was where I would come home for the Summers living abroad, as my father would joke, to learn more about the family business. My father married my mother, joined the Air Force, and then left to travel the world. He had entertained coming back home throughout...| Posts on
BeOS Love & Haiku OS Beta 3 Hot Takes Introduction To say I am a bit of a BeOS zealot would be an understatement. I have loved the operating system from the first time I saw it boot and keep tabs on all the updates in the community to this day. I was one of those weird folks who held on after r5 into the ZETA days hoping someone would pick it up and continue to advance it.| Posts on
Is there a more prominent sign of being a geek than wanting to have your special OSS tooling at hand 24x7? I started writing this post as a review of the PinePhone and ended up taking a trip down memory lane. I guess that is something that happens when you are getting to be an older geek. Below is less review though that is at the end and more thinking through how we got to this place in the history of Linux on mobile devices.| Posts on
Our team had a lively discussion yesterday around Kubernetes and the fallacy of innovation & ROI from tech. I am usually the curmudgeon old grey beard, but K8 is one of those stacks that make sense. Let me explain… The days before the containerised world, we sysadmins (remember when we were called that!?) had to deal with packaging and deployment in unique ways. Also, we had to monitor the systems to ensure uptime. This included networks, logging, firewall, monitoring, security, etc.| Posts on
I landed at LGA Airport yesterday and, for the first time, had a Tesla Uber Model 3 I was a bit surprised to see. We lived in Brooklyn and drove a Model 3, and I find the charging infrastructure to be incredibly difficult to deal with. Let alone on a fleet level. From PlugShare, we can see that the only “true” (120kW+) SuperChargers in the NYC metro are in NJ or JFK Airport. If we lower the limit to 70kW, we get a few more options, but if we think that at 120kW, the bare minimum takes 2+ ...| Posts on
In between calls, I decided to split some wood. I find it incredibly relaxing, and it’s a great workout. I was thinking about a conversation I had with a buddy about rural communities energy needs. It is a genuine issue in Michigan. My “fun” activity of splitting wood is life & death for some communities here in Northern Michigan. I am incredibly fortunate that this a hobby and not required for my family’s wellbeing. In all the discussions about energy, I find these communities often ...| Posts on
Background ZFS is one of those technologies that once you are introduced to it, it is challenging to think in the old ways again. One of the features I was always hesitant to embrace was snapshots as a mechanism for backup and recovery. I know that sounds a bit nutty given how powerful they can be, but my old tooling is muscle memory at this time. Bacula, rsync, and tar has been in my mind since I was a child.| Posts on
Background I live in the boonies of Michigan, and my only option for unmetered and unlimited internet is SpeedConnect. The company is a smaller WISP that, for the most part, has been pretty solid. Over the past six years, though, they have performed a single network upgrade that doubled my speed to a blazing 6mbps down and 300kbps up. I began to look for other options to offset the lack of speed during these weird COVID-19 times, where my home internet became much more critical.| Posts on
TL;DR There is a reason, despite spending an abundant amount of hours in Tcl/Tk and Perl, I can only barely read the codebases of years past. I lost it. German wanes in that same space, but luckily I have kept up a routine that at least keeps me semi-useful. When I found out we were expecting a daughter, it reaffirmed my desire to ensure she was given the opportunity to have multiple languages in the home. With that I started a daily routine:| Posts on
Introduction I value my time abroad at all stages of my life. While making me not only a better and more curious person, it has changed the way I consume and understand news. My Wife also has helped shape the routine. Our day is usually filled with: Wake-up and start to switch between the live news streams and clips. We usually flip as they wrap-up their news routine for the hour. Check our favourite apps. Share some Twitter links or news from our consumption. Get ready with BBC stream. Liste...| Posts on
It was 2013, and there I sat in Istanbul International waiting for my third flight of the day. Beaten up from the multiple timezones and airline meals that encompassed my every day at that stage of my life. I lifted my head from a quick nap to see Anthony Bourdain was catching the same flight to Israel. He looked how I felt, and he was disappearing; it seemed into the solace of the empty terminal and cocoon of self. I debated at length in my head if I should introduce myself or let him know h...| Posts on
Introduction In both of our homes I have a Unix server for a variety of uses, but something that has been on interest for awhile was Steam in Home Streaming. In essence it takes the frame buffer of the video card and remotely displays it on any other machine running Steam. The benefit, for me at least, is two-fold. It is cheaper and easier to drop a GPU into the server than it is to upgrade the laptop and it allows for me to have a remote OpenCL machine that I use in my security research.| Posts on
TL;DR - Migrated 11 year old Wordpress blog to Jekyll. Wouldn’t recommend at all to multi-user, beginner, or corporate entities. Was a fun and geeky experiment for a weekend project. Picked up some ruby programming along the way. Introduction It was time. I have been running this blog faithfully on Dreamhost since 2006. It started during a time when I was much younger, and much less wise. I remember battling the desire to go with static HTML pages or to go with one of these new CMS systems ...| Posts on
TL;DR Unix geek tries Windows 10 for a year. For the most part it works, but lots of growing pains. Going back to the land of GNU. Introduction A year ago, I started an attempt to give Windows another try. I jump around different platforms to stay current and cognisant of the industry shifts professionally. The need to get back to Windows happen to coincide with need for a new laptop.| Posts on
New laptop purchase seems like a good time to give Microsoft another chance. What happened? I was using a wonderful 4th Generation X1 Carbon that ran Linux like a top. My only issue was that, in taking on a new role, I needed Windows or Mac support with a CUDA capable GPU. Moving to a 15” MacBook Pro wasn’t an option due to the size/weight and my general dismay of the direction of macOS.| Posts on
I use an OpenWRT travel router to deal with public WiFi access security and geolocation concerns. I have written extensively prior and ran into an issue with the latest OpenWRT release. For those struggling with PIA using the luci-app-openvpn please see the below for a working config you can place in /etc/config/openvpn. Grab the new PIA Strong crypto files here: https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/openvpn/openvpn-strong.zip vi /etc/config/openvpn Paste this block of text and change th...| Posts on
The Ring Doorbell has been invaluable as we travel the world. The reactions of people are often times pretty funny as the doorbell they just pressed begins talking to them and asking them to do some action in our absence. Even over our very low-bandwidth WiMax link it is usable. The most annoying part of the device, until now, is that our dog Bentley goes crazy when the device rings the multitude of devices. Even when we are abroad if he hears the phone notification he goes ballistic instinct...| Posts on
Starting with Apache 2.4, headers were dropped that contained items to include underscores and expects dashes instead. Red Hat backported this change into the Apache 2.2 that ships with 6.7. You can read more here:https://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/env.html If you run into the issue where your REMOTE_USER or similar is not being passed to your WSGI application or similar, it is most likely due to the above. Good news, easy fix. I came across this issue with the wonderful Oracle Access Manager ...| Posts on
After the unfortunate loss of my 2014 Nexus 7 tablet I was on the prowl for a replacement. I prefer to keep an Android tablet due to the flexibility to use it as a mini Linux workstation if the need arises. The USB OTG support means the tablet is capable of taking on most of the tasks I use my Linux laptop with in the event I am stuck somewhere. Additionally I wanted a tablet that really excelled at media consumption as that is the primary use for a tablet in my workflow.| Posts on
Introduction The idea of keeping a production and development network always wears on me. Unless the change management is in place to offer some assurances that both threads are kept exactly in sync, they inevitably turn into a game of not good enough to buy down risk. That was the rationale behind creating a system that allowed rapid captures of running machines, transitioning to a closed network, and with no changes to the network/systems have them be as they were just minutes earlier. ...| Posts on
“Mom, I don’t want to play clarinet! It is for girls!” I remember yelling at my Mother as I prepped for band my middle school years. We were poor growing up and the only option I had to afford an instrument and be in band was to use the hand-me down clarinet. My Grandmother had spent a decent amount of money when my Mother was the same age as I was then on a Buffet Crampon. For whatever reason I had associated some sexuality to all wind instruments and as such considered this suggestion...| Posts on
I am always in search of products that help me automate and secure my home. I have run a mix of Foscam, D-Link, and Panasonics cameras dumping to a Linux server for the longest time, but it was clunky and not without its horrendous maintenance. Additionally the cameras, as aptly pointed out by Wife, were less than aesthetically pleasing.| Posts on
Say Yes! to Michigan Moving here was the culmination of a vacation turned scouting trip. Having spent the past 4 years living abroad in various countries it was time to visit the Vaterland and bring my Wife to meet the family. That was until I decided I wanted and we needed a change. Having now spent 6 full months here I wanted to share the things I have learned since moving here. It is by no means an exhaustive list, but they are the things that have struck me as a new Michigander.| Posts on
In order to make full use of my half-duplex WiMAX link, I started looking for anything and everything I could use to optimize it. Linux has some pretty decent utilities with iproute2 and netem to handle these type of configurations. They don’t compare to OpenBSD’s PF, but they work once you get the setup in place. Due in part to how ugly TC is out of the box, I really like FireQOS for defining the basic configuration. The developer also makes a great iptables wrapper called FireHOL, but i...| Posts on
I live in the boonies now, but thankfully we have some semblance of broadband with SpeedConnect. It is a WiMax setup with a modem that needs to be reset once a day (sometimes more if I am downloading ISO’s) and only connects at 10Mb Half-Duplex. Better than nothing I suppose. Originally I just succom to needing to wake-up, hit the head, and then hit the server room to pull the power. The geek in me couldn’t take it. Enter an extra Wemo Insight I had lying around. Initially I attempted t...| Posts on
Circumstances were such that I could not make a more public notification when it actually occurred, but I am now able. I have sold my portion of Spec Ops Technology and will be moving on to new and exciting things for which I have yet to fully determine. It is such a bittersweet moment in life to look back on the progress and effects we have done as a company. We had such humble beginnings and desires that were quickly overshadowed by the reality of success. During my tenure as Co-Founder and...| Posts on
I love aviation and love software defined radios so building an ADS-B receiver and plotter was high on the lists of to-do. In Standish Michigan there are not a lot of fly overs so I wanted to be sure to capture those that happened. Haven seen now a few A-10’s on low pass it only fueled that desire :) I use yaourt for my AUR package management, but whatever tool you use should be capable.| Posts on
Today marks the 365th day we have been blissfully married. It is hard to believe as it feels like yesterday we were standing on top of the mountains in the Carolinas saying “I do.” We have had the most amazing first year I think any married couple could request. Two days before we exchanged nuptials I flew home from Dubai. We had planned to elope and best I could the schedule for work was squashed to fit that. After 16 hours in the air we switched the suitcases and drove South. The winery...| Posts on
--- Let me pretense this with we are not actually leaving Abu Dhabi, but rather we are leaving a slice of time for which we were there. Spec Ops Technology still has offices in Dubai (expanding in the Emirates too…) and will require us to be back at least twice a year, but the period for which we lived…existed… is for now gone. My Father always told me as we bounced around the globe growing up, when you are somewhere it is like your hand in a bucket of water. The moment you remove you...| Posts on
I was asked by SingleHop to write a blog post about being a geek. I imagine they found my name through the URL which is hard to ignore when looking for geeks. Especially those of the Schmidt type. I cannot vouch for their products or services, but I appreciate the opportunity to write something I am passionate about. Without further ado What makes you a geek? There is the age-old question of geek vs. nerd. In my mind a geek is less of a thing and more of a lifestyle and way of thinking....| Posts on
We live in hotels most of the year. Last year we “lived” in our house for less than 30 days if you don’t count our frequent reminiscing via home security cameras. I would consider myself a bit of a connoisseur in such matters of the rating and luxury of such establishments. With that said there are a few things that will QUICKLY force your hotel onto my shit list. For those starting new places I recommend you follow the list below.| Posts on
If you glance around my computer museum (I mean office) you will see the following mobile devices: WebOS Maemo Android PalmOS Blackberry (no 10 devices yet) WinCE (don’t ask) And up until a few years ago many an iOS device scattered around. Part of my job is learning what the latest and greatest is capable of and implementing for my customers. It was after helping one of them recently that I realized my iOS knowledge was becoming a little dated and as such I found myself in the Schiphol Air...| Posts on
Contents 0.1 News 0.2 Music 0.3 Moving Images 0.4 Tech News 0.5 Dumbest Things of the Year 0.6 Extra Sauce: <li> <a href="#Share_this"><span class="toc_number toc_depth_1">1</span> Share this:</a> </li> I skipped 2012 for some reason. I think I was just super busy, but then again I am more busy now. No standout moments in 2012 so nothing lost. Events| Posts on
My requirements for the next laptop were pretty simple: 3rd Generation i7 or better 16GiB of RAM Light and thin (jealous of the wife’s Macbook Air) Fingerprint Scanner Pointer thingie Run Linux Additionally I had hoped for a Nvidia GPU, but realized the Intel GPUs have gotten to the point they can play Civilization which suffices for me. Unfortunately the trend appears to be less is more for the ultra-portables out there. The toughest of the above requirements was the 16GiB of RAM. Most of ...| Posts on
I have run the hotel/apartment room server off a BeagleBoard-XM for a few months now. I had no case for it, so I was a little worried to have an exposed computing platform hanging out there while the cleaning team and visitors were around. This put me on a search for a ARM-based platform that was small, silent, and could run Arch Linux. Up till this point I had used the Beagleboard with Ubuntu due to the ease of install. Yes it is capable of running Arch, but it isn’t a seamless process. A...| Posts on
I like to look back at the year and see how good (or bad) my investments were in stocks for the year. As the rest of the year is going to be crazy busy I wanted to type this while I couldn’t sleep last night. I doubt there will be any huge swings from now till 31 Dec. I buy and hold-on to stocks vs. quick trades so my goal is not to make a quick buck on a flip. There were a few interesting surprises and fails this year. I am leaving my overall investment dollars out so you just get percenta...| Posts on
Most likely my favourite addition to my otherwise untouched BASH profile is the calc function. From the shell on my Linux box I can simply type “calc 2*10+10/1” and be presented with a result. Having been on a Mac with spotlight the past 3 years, this is something I truly missed. Additionally I missed a universal extractor that was easily accessible. File-roller works sufficiently in the GUI, but I wanted something quick from the CLI. Now I can type “extract archive.tar.bz2” and away ...| Posts on
I started my day with a run and was lost in the writings of Norman Angell. A month or so ago I read his book, Great Illusion, and was awe-struck on how much pre-WWI Europe mirrors our own world today. He makes the case that globalization in those times would prohibit the tinderbox from catching fire due to the inter-dependencies. I see those same arguments today (article from The Telegraph) and feel a sense of misery from past mistakes being forgotten.| Posts on
Simulating WAN links used to be a difficult process. I would load FreeBSD with a dummynet driver and play with the settings to tweak where I needed it for the activity. OpenBSD with ALTQ made this a step simpler with the ease of bridging adapters. On a recent project for Spec Ops Technology, I needed to simulate a WAN with latency, loss, and randomness. I decided I needed to dig more into the netem work included in most recent linux distributions. Netem has matured to the point of being a ver...| Posts on
“Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears!” This year alone I have been in 12 countries and accumulated over 500k miles of travel and want to share my tips and tricks to make us better citizens of the globe. I want to provide some tips from my many days on the road. It is my hope this transforms you from clueless tourist to world citizen. **Learn the basic language – **The quickest and easiest way to make connections with people is to approach them with their native tongue. You w...| Posts on
Microsoft Lync is prevalent through the corporate world. Honestly its a pretty decent product on a Windows machine. On Linux and Mac though it is really a half-baked product of varying working status. On Mac the official client burns through your battery due to requiring the Nvidia graphics card on my Retina Pro?? I am a big fan on Pidgin (or Adium on the Mac) and have been struggling to get Lync support working on Mac/Linux using this client. Today I was finally able to connect.| Posts on
Apple must have been reading my blog when I wrote-up how to use two locations for Time Machine. Now in Mountain Lion it is built in and is much more seamless than my band-aid hack. Backups were always such an elusive concept for people, but Apple has really done a great job here. If you own a Mac and do not use Time Machine…shame… The two locations here are a Whole Disk Encrypted external FW drive and a Debian file server with an encrypted volume.| Posts on
TL;DR – Sometimes the smallest laptop isn’t the best option for a traveler. If you live on one machine then maybe sucking up the weight for power isn’t a bad idea. If you have a tablet then there is no question My apologies to my blog readers for two things: That my blog has not been updated in N+1 more months than it should have That it has taken a very travel oriented slant as of late I blame both on starting an international engineering firm, but it has forced me to change my habits ...| Posts on
It is highly infuriating to be a security person and have your own house knocked down. This was the case if you visited my site as of late and found broken links and spam spewed across it. This was not due to my own security mishaps. This website is: Scanned daily by WSD Security script Multifactor authenticated with a Yubikey for all logins and edits Weekly backup sent to offsite Strong passwords across the board Check for updates weekly and subscribe to security lists As we say in the sec...| Posts on
Contents 1 Home Screen: 2 Productivity: 3 Finance: 4 Travel: 5 Transportation: 6 Personal: 7 Share this: I think I was one of the first to carry around a smartphone. I remember the marriage of a phone and PDA made me so excited and to see that technology in a single device…phew…love. The Treo 180 was severely limited, but it brought to the world an idea that phones were for more than phone calls. Fast forward a decade and now I can run the entire company from a smart phone. Out of all t...| Posts on
Contents 0.0.1 Events 0.0.2 News 0.0.3 Music 0.0.4 Moving Images 0.0.5 Tech News 0.0.6 Dumbest Things of the Year <li> <a href="#Here_is_to_2012"><span class="toc_number toc_depth_1">1</span> Here is to 2012!</a><ul> <li> <a href="#Share_this"><span class="toc_number toc_depth_2">1.1</span> Share this:</a> </li> </ul> </li> It is coming up on the end of another year so I wanted to look back and give some “Best Of” Events Professionally: Started Spec Ops Technology Location: Moved into Was...| Posts on
Contents 0.1 GR&A 0.2 General Findings 0.3 Rankings by price per month <li> <a href="#Share_this"><span class="toc_number toc_depth_1">1</span> Share this:</a> </li> Its hard to travel the globe and not be connected. When we started Spec Ops Technology we had plans to simply use unlocked phones and purchase SIM cards in the country we would primarily be working. That is fine and dandy till you miss a meeting because you were not within WIFI range to check your email or can’t remember which...| Posts on
Contents 0.1 The Ingredients: 0.2 Secret Magic Scripts: 0.3 Letting the Penguins talk to the Fruit: 0.4 Convince the Mac its right at home: 0.5 Location, Location, Location: <li> <a href="#Share_this"><span class="toc_number toc_depth_1">1</span> Share this:</a> </li> With the purchase of the Apple Thunderbolt Display my Air now has a jumbo-frame enabled ethernet port at its disposal. My current backup strategy is to utilize an encrypted external USB laptop drive while on the road and to just...| Posts on
Contents 0.1 Display 0.2 Cables 0.3 Ports 0.4 Speakers 0.5 iSight HD 0.6 Gaming 0.7 Going Green 0.8 Before and After <li> <a href="#Share_this"><span class="toc_number toc_depth_1">1</span> Share this:</a> </li> With the increase in travel as of late I am finding myself tied more and more to the laptop. Despite an extensive home lab with KVM switches and dual monitors, there I would sit with my 11″ MacBook Air. Simplicity was the main reason I found. Transfer files, syncing something to a n...| Posts on
Contents 1 Laptop 2 Tablet 3 Security 4 Power on the Go 5 Creature Comforts 6 Share this: 65,000 km a month is my current travel routine with my international engineering firm, Spec Ops Technology. In my past there was formidable travel, but it always was within the continental US which removed some of the complexities in life. With the crossing of borders the type of equipment you need changes dramatically. Below are some of my favorite items to carry that have saved me numerous times. I...| Posts on
Starting a company (as I understand it from my older peers) once required a great deal of coordination and assistance. The stories of polyester suit visits to the local bank have all but slipped into historical memory. Today the buzz word is “boot strapping” a business. The bar to reach now only requires a good idea and some planning to start a company for under a few thousand dollars. Here is how Spec Ops Technology got there…| Posts on
As we move up the food chain of life, our free-time becomes more and more precious. There are only so many hours in the day and my generation utilizes them to the fullest. I have been blessed and fortunate to be placed early on in my career in leadership positions while often having to continue my technical work. This means keeping a foot in each role and staying current. The past few years I have honed my life work-flow to accomplish this. Here are my tools of choice:| geekyschmidt.com
Dad, CTO, and lover of all things 1's and 0's.| geekyschmidt.com
My latest reflections on SailfishOS as of September 2025. UI brilliance, ecosystem struggles, and what Jolla needs to do next.| geekyschmidt.com
