Porting the Frosty Flake to VIA So I want to preface this by saying that I am not a programmer. Not by any means. I am also not an electrical engeneer. I’m just a dude that really likes keyboards. Like, a lot. Okay, with that being said, let’s continue. For those that don’t know, the Frosty Flake is a custom PCB to control the CoolerMaster Quick Fire Rapid. I got mine from 1upkeyboards but as far as I know, they are no longer being produced. The Frosty Flake was designed to use the TMK Keyboard Firmware but was later ported to QMK. I’m not going to get into QMK in this post but it’s definitely worth looking into in your own time. ...

Using ubports on my Nexus 6P as a daily driver. So I love tech. I love tech and the Open Source community. But I’m no developer so I have to do other things to help out and contribute. So one of the ways I’ve decided to do that is by testing software and in this case I’m testing ubports for my old Nexus 6P. I’ve been using different versions of Android for the past 9 or so years and over all I’ve been really happy but I’ve always liked the idea of different operating systems. As far as phones are concerned there are really only two main mobile operating systems, Apple’s iOS (or whatever they are calling it now) and Android. Now a lot of OEM’s customize their version of Android with features but it all remains the same AOSP (Android Open Source Project) base. ...

I never really figured out what I wanted to do with this blog, but I have decided that it’s going to be a place for me to write about whatever I feel is important to me at the moment. If you haven’t figured it out yet, I really value privacy and security. I believe that it is a basic human right and everyone should take it seriously. I’ve already written a post about the password manager that I use so I figured I’d kind of build on to that subject with which 2FA app I used and why. I’ll also explain what 2FA is and why it’s important. ...

I am not a very organized person. I forget things all the time – just ask my wife. But I’m trying to get better at it. So I decided I was going to start keeping track of tasks. Now, I’m not one to carry around a pad of paper and a pen to write everything down so I don’t forget it. For God’s sake, it’s 2020, who carries around a pad of paper anymore? No, we all have smart phones these days and smart phones are great for taking notes and things like that. In the past I have used apps like Wunderlist, Any.do, and TickTick. These services are really good at what they do, with the exception of Wunderlist that was bought and killed my Micro$oft. They are awesome for syncing todo/grocery lists with other people, but they all have one thing that I’m not a huge fan of. They all require you to create an account to use. This used to not bother me in the past. But I’m become more and more aware of how much data companies like Microsoft, or Google, or whoever, are collecting on me. It’s honestly frightening but that’s not what this entry is about. Basically, I wanted to be in control of my data. I know that I might be “overreacting” when it comes to some random company knowing what I need to do around the house, or what I need to buy at the store, but it’s important to me. It’s my “private” life and I want to keep it as private as I can and that brings us to Todo.txt. ...

First off, HAPPY NEW YEAR! Anyway, I’m a keyboard nerd. Everyone who knows me already knows this. I mean, I have an r/MechanicalKeyboards sticker on my car! I’ve built around 8 or 9 keyboards on my own. It’s a hobby I never really saw myself getting into, but when I did, I got into it hard. I currently have 12 keyboards and countless key cap sets. One of the things that really drew me to building custom keyboards was the ability to program custom layouts using the QMK Frimware. I liked the thought of having full control over what each and every key did when I pressed it or held it or double tapped it or whatever. Over the past few years I’ve messed around with a few different layouts until I finally settled on one that I liked1 So I’ll share that one with you now! ...

Okay. So in my last post I completely neglected to talk about the features of gopass and what really made me choose it. I can’t believe I just forgot to talk about what the post was supposed to be about. Derp. So I’m going to make that up with this post. Why I use gopass In the last post I really only talked about the fact that I didn’t like some company potentially having access to my data. While that is the main reason I decided to switch from Bitwarden, it’s not the only reason. I like the simplicity of being able to quickly find and copy my passwords from the command line. Now, I don’t do that too often because I use the browser extensions, it’s still quick and handy when I need it. ...

In our digital lives we create a lot of accounts – and with these accounts come a lot of passwords. If you are like me, then you want to keep these accounts safe. I used to be the kind of person that used one password for every single account. I didn’t know any better. I didn’t know how terrible of a place the internet could be. When I was younger I didn’t really have anything on the internet that was of value to anyone else. But then I started making my own money. And with my own money came my own debit card. And with my own debit card came making purchases online. ...

The Holidays Are Coming And with that, my free time is leaving. Which sucks. I’m working more, and when I’m not working I’m ether sleeping, or spending time with my family. Now, I’m not saying that spending time with family sucks. I love my family. I love spending time with them, but I’ll have less time to myself until the end of the year. And that means I’ll have less time to stream on Twitch. I like streaming on Twitch and I know I’ve been slacking lately. I want to get back into it and make it a more regular thing. I know that I say that a lot and then I just end up going back to not streaming. ...

So it’s been quite a while since my last post. In the beginning I had no idea what this blog was going to be, and to be honest, I still have no idea. It was originally going to be a “tech” focused blog. Just random writings about random tech stuff I found myself doing/learning about. But then I never got around to doing that. But now I think it’s just going to be about my life. Just posts about things going on with me. Maybe someone will find them interesting or useful depending on the context of the post. But for now I’m just going to post an update. ...

I spent the better part of 4 years using MacBooks as my daily laptop. Starting in 2009 with a white MacBook that I was given by my parents as a graduation gift. I thought I was the coolest kid in the world. I loved that thing. I customized the heck out of it, and I used it all the time. I was a photographer and photographers used MacBooks. Fast forward a few years to 2012 and I upgraded to a late 2011 MacBook Pro. Again, I loved it. I loved the “power” it had – or rather I thought it had – I loved the look of it. It was sleek and sexy. The touch pad clicked in. It was awesome and I thought I needed a MacBook Pro because I was a photographer. ...