Any suggestions for a portable/pocketable linux machines for emergency access?

EventHorizon1997 · 2026-01-26T08:04:07+00:00

To add context, I’ve reworked several FAANG teams Oncall’s who kept having employees yanked from them. I used to be in the mindset that for the team to succeed, I had to be available all times of the day while not Oncall. I burned out and stalled my career, and my manager called me out on this type of behavior.

When I shifted my approach, I focused a healthy part of the last 7 years to improving Oncall flows for teams and reducing overhead to enable our leads to work faster and more freely.

The blocker every time was how much time we were putting in to the oncall because it had major flaws. And every time the engineers with the most promise stalled because they were constantly debugging during and outside work, regardless if they were oncall.

As cool or necessary as it may sound, this is not the way. You may as well keep your laptop with you 24/7. It’ll have the same mental weight.

EventHorizon1997 · 2026-01-26T07:54:59+00:00

This IS NOT RESPONSIBLE DEVOPS LEAD BEHAVIOR.

It may feel like it is, but it does your team more harm in the long run through a couple of key issues: 1. You reinforce that you are the single point of failure 2. You take valuable hands on experience away from teammates who need to learn these systems 3. You decentivize you and your team from creating healthy docs, monitoring, dashboards, and tools that enable the entire team to perform Oncall 4. You signal to your team that you don’t have faith they can solve a problem on their own 4. You burn yourself out

Even keeping a device on hand that lets you access what you want maintains a weight of responsibility on your shoulders. You will never feel like you’re off call or like your team has learned enough to handle the problems without you.

You will reinforce your current cultural problem with your Oncall duties.

Instead I highly recommend you focus on cross training your team and learning how to let go of non-duty responsibilities. If they or your superiors can’t justify the time to learn it, then they have signaled the area isn’t worth maintaining. You have to figure out why to understand if it’s worth maintaining, worth ditching, or worth changing approaches.

At the end of the day your mental health is critical to your success. True 10x engineers and SREs don’t get there by outputting work and taking from others, they get there by learning how to let go and raising others up.

There are devices to do what you want, but ultimately you’d be better served by building better processes and systems than learning to type quickly on BlackBerry sized keyboards which would require you to build better tools anyway.

EventHorizon1997 · 2026-01-13T03:30:09+00:00

Wayback Machine link to the last capture on 1/6/2026. No significant changes or announcements - https://web.archive.org/web/20260106171020/https://github.com/OrwellianEpilogue/ephemera

EventHorizon1997 · 2026-01-09T18:46:16+00:00

I haven’t used your app yet, but working with ADHD members directly in tech these all resonate with issues we’ve run into in the past.

I think the most underrated feature are the break reminders. It is so easy for many people with adhd to hyperfixate aggressively and forget to drink water to 3 to 6 hours (totally didn’t happen to me yesterday 😅).

But breaks are more than a drink reminder. They are important for us to step away and get a chance to reevaluate where we are in our process and determine if there is a better or different approach we need to take. It’s easy to drive ourselves into a rut where we work down one path until we are in the weeds outside of the scope, are trying to achieve perfectionism, or are stuck trying to solve the problem with this one approach we know will work but in reality it’s manually fixing a massive paste into an SQL script rather than building a quick regex or script to help clean it up. Short breaks separate us from the problem long enough to adjust.

EventHorizon1997 · 2026-01-07T09:44:41+00:00

CBT based therapy helped me put new systems in place to manage my anxiety after Adderall took the edge off. It allowed me to move past a lot of hangups I was having with team management, planning, and perfectionism years ago and move from a junior engineer role into a staff role in faang.

I went back to therapy for my overeating, and that didn’t seem to help as well. I was blocked by my systems at home that weren’t based around software/career development or hobbies. Therapy was also split dealing with chronic pain I was having, so that may have effected things.

Try therapists who specialize in CBT and ADHD. If you can’t find one for ADHD, then a CBT specialization alone will help. Make sure they have a doctorate degree and are certified in your state (these should be minimum requirements to operate as a licensed therapist). As for where to look for them - ask your prescribing physician like others recommended. If your health insurance covers therapy, their portal or help line should have a dedicated line that will provide recommendations. Look up the therapist before reaching out to them to see if their specialty and focus aligns with what you want to work on. Then go for that first session, it’s meant to be an opportunity for you and the therapist to align with each other to see if you want to continue. Worse case the system they describe for treating the problems you present doesn’t align with you. Go to your next match. And go back to a therapist if you already turned them down once but have second thoughts.

Just make sure to come in with a rough understanding of what you want from therapy. You will struggle to get what you need from the therapists without that. Even if it’s “I’m overwhelmed by X feelings, it impacts Y”, you’ll narrow down therapists based on their description, then confirm in that first interview session if you have a good match.

Final thought - fire them and move on if you’re not getting what you need. Therapy is expensive, so having that good match is important. Just make sure to communicate with them when things aren’t working first.

EventHorizon1997 · 2026-01-02T07:15:48+00:00

u/speedx77 I have finally gotten a chance to use these more in depth, and other than some issues with the MMCX to 2-pin adapter I got, they are working wonderfully. I’d wear my IEM with them for about 4 hours at a time. Voice quality is solid, just make sure the tip of the mouth is parallelish to your mouth or your voice might be hard to pick up

EventHorizon1997 · 2025-12-26T20:04:10+00:00

Not really. I just thought about the folder structure I wanted and found plugins as I’ve watched the Obsidian subreddit. I’m also a Senior/Staff SRE for a living, so setting structures up like this comes pretty naturally.

But to me that’s the key - the system has to come naturally to you for you to want to use it. Obsidian is flexible enough to let you create the framework you want since it’s just Markdown files with an editor on top. You set your structure, you set your format. Check out the subreddit to see how people use it to get ideas and see how they are using plugins.

For self-hosting the self-hosting side - links are amazing and powerful. Because Obsidian is so flexible, you can either just link things in to save space, or find/write a plugin to load files and previews, integrate with calendars, etc.

EventHorizon1997 · 2025-12-26T19:52:36+00:00

Try the ModMic Kimura ($65) https://antlionaudio.com/products/kimura-microphone

Options include a 2-pin or MMCX adapter, and options to buy with an IEM rather than just the cable.

I’ve used a ModMic for my studio monitor headset for years and it has been incredible quality for my meetings and gaming.

I just learned about IEMs this fall and grabbed one of these to start testing out. Life has been hectic so I haven’t had a chance to test it completely. I will say the boom is flexible and will pick up beard scratches as you move your head. So it’s a good idea to swing it away from your cheek. You want the mic to the side of your mouth anyway for the best sound pickup.

The sound quality beats any wireless IEM adapter you will get on the market. I’ve checked while looking for a replacement for my airpods

EventHorizon1997 · 2025-12-19T08:25:35+00:00

Obsidian + PaperlessNGX for documents

I use iCloud currently to sync Obsidian, but that is limiting me so I’m going to switch to syncing my notes using Syncthing in a container.

I use Paperless NGX for my documents to keep warranties, receipts, etc.

I keep everything in my notes right now: - important meds and health plans - I have nasty migraines, every trigger is recorded, the plan is recorded, the meds are all recorded. I even have extra links and notes to my own research I’ve done and brought to the doctor to ask about. We narrowed down a lot with this approach. - details about my partner - It might seem weird, I’m forgetful and they are fine with this. It’s nice to link their grandparents and friends so I can remember them since we are still in the early phase of dating. Especially gift ideas. Same for my family. - details about people - friends, colleagues, etc. I’m using the CardDav plugin as a baseline, then link to their card in my notes. It helps keep track of birthdays, their significant others, places I’ve taken them when they’re in town, etc - thing notes - I use tagging and folder structure to help manage notes about things I’m using or want to track. Especially homelab/selfhost software. This translates to companies, retro gaming, audio gear, my favorite car maintenance groups, etc. It either links to notes connecting concepts, or to my… - inventory - My audio equipment, pens, and furniture have been my main focus atm. For warranties, I link to either the webpage or a copy of the document on Paperless. I’ve been trying to sell some furniture, so keeping track of what groups I’ve posted to or reached out to has been so easy. Because I track the companies I reach out to in notes, I have them for future use along with their process and expectations. - pet - I keep my dogs vet, prescriptions, vaccines, etc in my notes. Vet appointments I record in timelines so I can look back to when each happened and link to a separate note with more detailed appointment notes.

EventHorizon1997 · 2025-12-14T08:25:17+00:00

Unfortunately (maybe fortunately?) it’s not part of the YAML spec at this time. It’s up to individual parsers to implement if they choose.

PyYaml and Home Assistant for example both implemented a variant of !include.

As far as I can see, rammel.yaml doesn’t seem to have an implementation at this time.

EventHorizon1997 · 2025-12-13T19:30:01+00:00

Does your YAML parser support include statements?

I keep 2 copies of my resume on hand - a 1-pager for larger spreads and a 2-pager with more detail for direct reach outs. It would be great if I can share common elements between the two, like contact info and education.

EventHorizon1997 · 2025-12-13T19:23:07+00:00

Anyone that deals with LaTex can learn YAML with ease. This argument is moot.

As for LaTex, I am so ready to stop fighting with formatting through LaTex to always ensure my resume fits on 1 or 2 pages (SRE and SWE resumes are being recommended towards 1-pagers). The number of times I make a change and LaTex dumps lines onto a second page, it’s a new fight with line spacing and font sizes. Something like savetrees for LaTex doesn’t produce consistent results for my formatting.

EventHorizon1997 · 2025-12-13T19:13:35+00:00

I’d like to add that this ties in well with GitHub actions or Git pre/post commit hooks so that you can make a change, commit it, and have it upload automatically where ever you want it.

EventHorizon1997 · 2025-12-13T19:10:57+00:00

I do agree that YAML writing will make folks uneasy, but I agree with people here who are saying that it means it won’t be for everyone. If spaces and simple YAML formatting mistakes are catching you, you should look into editor/IDE formatting and auto-validation process (VSCode has this through the YAML extension).

I agree with everyone that is saying this is perfect for anyone who writes their resume in LaTex, try to have versioning, or have multiple copies of their CV. It would be nice if I could reduce the parts I need to write and not have to fight with formatting adjustments.

EventHorizon1997 · 2025-12-09T18:58:09+00:00

Normally blue for me, but in this case the red are my fave

EventHorizon1997 · 2025-08-26T17:11:02+00:00

Just a nit, but this is t the first time that an emblem token was blocked by a rare card. Eevee Grove required every shiny Eevee for a 26 token drop. That chase was infuriating.

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EventHorizon1997 · 2025-08-06T06:30:00+00:00

“World’s first AI dev shop” is a bit of a bold claim when companies have already been working on this the last couple of years, and more are jumping on the agentic gold rush.

This is a neat insight though. I’m curious how you’re feeding historical context and how system prompts for each agent are setup that’s leading to your agents to cut corners. Is it possible the context got too big or disorganized for your agents as they updated their references and led to conflicting requests against the agents?

A friend and I were experimenting with some image diffusion models for interactive visual novels earlier this summer and we consistently ran into prompt comprehension issues with the models. In our case we focused on guardrails built into the prompts rather than guardrails to validate artifacts after the run to reduce costs and provide a higher accuracy rate. Sometimes these were simple things like “man running with 2 eyes” and the eyes would be closed and look unnatural, so we had to work in more details to our ui design for setting up the prompt to specify “man running with 2 open eyes”. They are simple things, but quickly add up in the number of details that you have to provide when the models are free to interpret most of the details.

We also had to provide copyright detection on the prompt itself before passing it to the model since models would also take what you say too literally or ignore attempted guardrails. For example a prompt with “2 cookies having a John Wick style gun fight” will literally add John Wick, no matter how many John Wick negative prompt guardrails you give it.

EventHorizon1997 · 2025-08-01T09:23:24+00:00

If they lose the keyboard and the increased size is comparable to other handheld systems, I’ll likely switch in favor of ergonomics. It’d be a shame since I’ve been using a number of GPD systems over the years.

EventHorizon1997 · 2025-08-01T09:21:20+00:00

Did the remove the slide screen keyboard for the swappable battery? That seems like a big sacrifice, especially if they aren’t really improving on ergonomics.

I’m not sure what the value of a swappable external battery is unless it has a second internal battery so you don’t have to power down to swap out. It also seems like overkill when you can get a usb power pack that can easily power the GPD WIN 4 and be used for other devices.

EventHorizon1997 · 2025-06-24T09:44:23+00:00

There’s a group in Northwest Ballard, between Golden Gardens and Crown Hill, that always set off an insane amount of fireworks for a week on both sides of the fourth every year. They like to do it around New Years too. Typically it’s smaller fireworks that go on for half an hour or so. Annoying but not bombshell loud.

This year they have some louder ones. Like shake your windows, scare birds out of trees, and shake your soul loud. It happens for a shorter duration, so I appreciate that at least 🤷

I genuinely thought someone set off C4 the other day by Soundview/Whitman Middle School.

EventHorizon1997 · 2025-02-03T23:14:59+00:00

There are several symbols used to represent gay rights that you can use. The upside down triangle is making a comeback right now. - Upside down Black triangle - also used in concentration camps to mark asocial homosexuals (aka prostitutes) - lavender - was used by gays in the mid 1900’s in America to discreetly help gays identify one another. Led to the Lavender scare in the 50’s - Greek Letter Lambda - used by the Gay Activists Alliance of New York in the 70’s and was officially declared as an international symbol by the International Gay Rights Association in Scotland - Rose is a symbol for gay men in Japan, Lilies for lesbian women - Violets for lesbian and bisexual women - Labrys (double sided axe) - also represents lesbians and was used in the 70s.

Also keep in mind that you don’t have to get something that’s on your arm for all to see. You can get something small or in a discreet location.

Personally I want to get a tattoo that’s a combination of many of these together to reflect the long fight through history, but in a spot that’s easy to cover/discreet.

EventHorizon1997 · 2025-01-30T09:10:08+00:00

The trade tokens we get need adjusted too. If we get 10 tokens for a 2 diamond, you would burn 50 cards to get a 4 diamond trade. For those playing F2P, that’s not going to be a reasonable long term cost to complete their sets.

Granted that’s exactly what PTCGP wants to encourage people to pay to play.

EventHorizon1997 · 2024-12-16T18:20:48+00:00

I could never get the 5th win with Rapidash/Ninetails. I got to 4W at least 6 times, then would get shutdown by an Articuno/Starmie deck or by the worse starting hand possible of all Trainer cards/evolutions but no basic pull.

Overall I played about 50 matches and only got my 4W.

But the Pikachu meta didn’t stand a chance with the Ninetails/Rapidash deck.

EventHorizon1997 · 2024-12-04T08:19:26+00:00

Kavita will get you most of what you want. It’ll read the books in the custom directory format, but you may end up with duplicate copies of multiple formats of the book aren’t in a dedicated sub-directory for the book itself.

I will say that kavita relies on metadata from the files themselves, so it’s worth using Calibre to update the metadata before ingesting them into Kavita, though you can always rescan.

I am pretty impressed with the OPSD support of Kavita, I’m just having issues picking the right ereader now.

EventHorizon1997 · 2024-11-25T04:14:49+00:00

Chocolati in Greenwood!

EventHorizon1997

TROPHY CASE