Nathan Gilbert

The Ruby Mountains of Nevada

2026-08-16T00:00:00Z

The Ruby Mountains in June, 2026

Just south of Elko, Nevada is a vast island of trees, streams, birds and bugs inside a wide sagebrush sea known as the Ruby Mountains. Most of Nevada's forest-lands are collected in the Humboldt–Toiyabe conglomerate. The Humboldt part of the name comes from a 19th Century German naturalist (what do I need in my LinkedIn profile to get this job title?), Alexander von Humboldt. He was born important because of the "von" in his name. This guy traveled throughout Spanish South and Latin America, eventually staying in "Nueva España" (Mexico) for several years, mainly around Mexico City. On the way back to Europe he basically texts President Tom Jefferson to see if can drop in on him at Washington to talk fossils.

See, TJ was spending a decent amount of time rage-posting (rage-ledgering?) against a theory known at the time as "American Degeneracy", which said that the "colder/wetter" temperatures of the Western Hemisphere caused flora and fauna to become small. Humboldt backed Jefferson in this debate and bolstered their position with fossilized teeth of mammoth he found while at the equator. TJ didn't listen to Alex about slavery, though, which makes me think of other theories of American Degeneracy...that are true, then and now.

Clearly, these adherents to the "Cloudy-day shrinkage theory" of biological development had not spent much time in the Great Basin of the United States, circa 2026, amidst a record-breaking El Niño season. Jack rabbits should be 12 feet tall here. Coming from the East, as you traverse through northern Nevada towards Elko on Highway 80, each basin and range takes you a little higher, a little bit further from the desolate salt flats and up into something that approximates a montane landscape with the corresponding drop in mercury. Toyiabe is the Shoshone (Newe) word for "mountain".

The drive up Lamoille Canyon road is easy. It's paved and not an an extreme grade. It's an out-and-back road that has a terminus at the Ruby Crest National Recreational Trail's head. This canyon is referred to by some (the Nevada tourism department) as the "Yosemite of Nevada". It is a spectacular drive. Lamoille evidently comes from an early settlers fondness of a French typographical error about the area that came to known as Vermont. History just seems arbitrary at some point.

Thomas Canyon Campground. The trail leaves from the bottom of the loop.

We camped at Thomas Canyon Campground, at a site somewhere in the 20s or 30s. That just meant it was hugging the canyon, close to the trail. The lower numbered sites are closer to the road and a little more in the sun. Our campground sits at around 7550ft in elevation and had good separation between each individual site. The sun was intense in the middle of the day, but since the canyon was fairly narrow, you start getting decent shade around 4-5pm.

For June, it seemed like a lot of Northern Nevadans were ready to hit the mountains and have a little early summer hoe-down. That was fine for us; the plentiful aspen and roaring creek kept their sounds at bay. The Creek, as mentioned, was flowing strong in this month. That waterway being the Lamoille Creek. The Thomas Canyon creek also had strong flow, with several waterfalls easily visible from the aforementioned trail that starts right in this campground.

There are several small trails and stops along the road as you head towards the top. The interpretive trails are fun and informative. Otherwise, mainly the other trail-heads are for overnight backpacking trips which we were not doing on this trip.

The Rubies are known as habitat for Big Horn sheep (which we didn't find) and many species of bird, including the Himalayan Snowcock which is not native to the mountains, and interestingly, that website linked from the Nevada DOW differs in the story of how they were introduced from other places I've seen. We did glimpse many types of hawk, eagle and corvid in the canyon, thankfully. Several small ground mammals and fish as well.

I plan on coming back to the Ruby's at some point, I enjoyed the several days we spent there during this trip. Whenever leaving the Rubies from the North, always stop at Cowboy Joes for the caffeine.

My trusty steed; the 1998 Jeep XJ. I should have fixed my exhaust tip before this trip though...I lost some boots as a result.

It packs a lot.

A Ruby Mountain

The view from our campsite

The Lamoille Creek

The Lamoille Creek up from our campsite.

Look how green that mountain is. Hard to believe you're in Nevada.

Our setup for dinner.

Thomas Canyon Creek

A small waterfall in Thomas Canyon, there are several bigger than this near the trail.

Love a shadow shot

There's more waterfalls up the trail, here's another one.

Thomas Canyon wall

Mount Fitzgerald, 11,220 ft. Only the 39th highest mountain in the state tho.

Fitz was getting closer, still had decent snow.

Flowers were out in June.

A shot of Fitzgerald's long tail. We turned around here on the trail.

Literally just turned around and snapped this shot.

This is further up the Lamoille Canyon road from our campground. Not quite at the top yet.

The Ruby Crest Trailhead parking lot.

Backpackers' starting their trip.

The avalanche chute.

This area was really interesting, there was a small pond that was elevated maybe 3 feet above the surrounding ground which was an odd perspective. The photo doesn't really capture it. The pond isn't even in it, but it's directly to the right of this photo.

Many trout in these waters.

(Conan) Trout, man. The Kyuss song, the Rambo character, and what I said here under my breath.

All the water in Nevada seems to be in the Rubies. This is a different pond than what I mentioned before.

Butterflies and moths were abundant in the Rubies; thankfully mosquitoes were absent at this time.

Bears Ears National Monument

2026-08-09T00:00:00Z

Bears Ears, May 2017

This National Monument is back in the news; yet again reduced in size. There are lots of people better able to articulate why this is bad and not good than me. I've only been to the monument a single time so far. It's a beautiful place with deep meaning for many people.

The monument was originally proclaimed on December 28, 2016, so our visit was around 5 months after its creation. From what I remember there wasn't really a visitor center or even a permanent sign at the entrance, but more of a cardboard "hey there's a monument here!" type of thing.

We spent several days in the region, visiting Natural Bridges National Monument as well as driving down the Moki Dugway switchbacks to the Valley of the Gods. The switchbacks offer amazing views over the landscape and are fun to drive down. Like many of these switchback roads, they look more intimidating in photos than they look when you're actually driving down (or up) them. That said, be careful, a little mistake goes a long ways here. We stopped quickly at Goosenecks State Park which has an amazing overlook of the San Juan river winding through desert canyons.

Mule Canyon Kiva is another easy stop in this area. You can spend a day or several days in (the once and future) Bears Ears. There's lot of exposed hiking in Bears Ears with little cover from the sun, so plan for that, but you get to see a lot of natural and historical beauty throughout the monument. Driving by the "Ears" is a great memory of this visit. Natural Bridges has one great hike that takes most of the day, you get to see many different arches. The hike is an out-and-back style, we luckily got a ride back to the trailhead from an Australian man which saved us a lot of time (and effort, of which we'd already extended much of that day on the hike.)

The morning sun makes the red rocks pop.

Sunrise on the morning we went to Bears Ears.

Always get a picture of the sign. There wasn't even one for Bears Ears at this time.

House on Fire in good light

Love a Pinyon/Juniper forest.

It's challenging to find Utah Junipers for sale in any nursery here if you can believe it.

House on Fire on the return in the shade.

Mule Canyon Kiva

The Moki Dugway sign, under its usual coat of stickers.

Approaching Moki Dugway.

The top of Moki Dugway switchbacks.

You don't like the desert if these types of viewpoints don't give you goosebumps.

To the Valley of the Gods.

The San Juan river.

Goosenecks State Park

The Bears Ears

Another shot of the Bears Ears.

Mock Where It’s Imported, Not Defined

2025-10-06T00:00:00Z

Mocking Where It’s Imported (Not Defined)

If you’ve ever written tests in Python using pytest and unittest.mock, you’ve probably seen this confusing bit of advice:

“You have to mock where the function is imported, not where it’s defined.”

At first glance, this seems counterintuitive — why should you patch the same function name in multiple places when it’s clearly defined in one module? The answer has everything to do with how Python imports work.

The Import Mechanism

When you write this:

# foo.py
def get_data():
    return "real data"

# And in another module there is this
# bar.py
from foo import get_data

def process():
    return f"processed {get_data()}"

Python copies a reference to foo.get_data into the namespace of bar.

So bar.get_data is not dynamically looked up each time — it’s bound once when bar is imported.

That means if you want to replace get_data() in your tests, mocking foo.get_data won’t help, because bar already has its own local reference to the original function.

The Wrong Way

This is a common mistake:

# test_bar.py
from unittest.mock import patch
import bar

@patch("foo.get_data", return_value="fake data")
def test_process(mock_get):
    result = bar.process()
    assert result == "processed fake data"

This test fails, because bar still calls the real get_data() as it imported from foo before you patched it. Your patch changed foo.get_data, not bar.get_data.

The Right Way

Instead, you need to patch the reference that bar uses:

@patch("bar.get_data", return_value="fake data")
def test_process(mock_get):
    result = bar.process()
    assert result == "processed fake data"

Now it works! The unittest.mock.patch swapped out the object that bar actually calls.

In a pytest fixture

import pytest
from unittest.mock import patch

@pytest.fixture
def mock_get_data():
    with patch("bar.get_data", return_value="mocked") as mock:
        yield mock

def test_process(mock_get_data):
    from bar import process
    assert process() == "processed mocked"

Why This Happens

import statements in Python work by copying a reference from the source module into the importing module’s namespace. Once that reference is bound, the importer doesn’t look it up again. This is different from JavaScript’s live bindings, where imports always reflect the current value of the export. So when you patch something, you’re not changing a global function everywhere — you’re just swapping out one module’s reference to it.

Mocking in Python is about replacing references, not rewriting definitions. Always patch in the namespace where the code under test looks up the function, not where it was first written. That mental model will save you from countless hours of “why isn’t my mock working?” frustration — and make your tests more predictable.

Quick Rules of Thumb

Patch where the function is looked up. Think in terms of “who is calling it,” not “where it lives.”
Use fully qualified paths. Always patch using the dotted path as it’s imported in the module under test (e.g., bar.get_data).
Patch as close to the call site as possible. If bar.process calls it, patch bar.get_data. If baz imports bar and calls bar.process(), patch in baz if that’s where the call happens.

Pickleball Struggle Session

2025-09-06T00:00:00Z

It is with a spirit of humility and discipline that I, the undersigned, issue this public recantation. For too long I have held erroneous views regarding the practice of pickleball. I publicly denounced it as a distraction, an opiate for retirees, and ultimately, a diversion from the true struggle. I scoffed at the plastic ball, the so-called "kitchen," and the truncated court as symbols of decadence and decline. In doing so, I not only slandered the activity itself but also revealed the limitations of my physical and ideological development.

Through the process of criticism and self-criticism, and guided by the patient intervention of my comrades, I have come to see that pickleball is not the enemy. Rather, it is a collective, participatory endeavor that fosters solidarity, inter-generational exchange, and joyful movement. To dismiss it as frivolous was to lapse into elitism and cultural dogmatism, alienating myself from the very masses I claim to serve.

Signed: Nathan Gilbert

Jeep Misc

2025-02-01T00:00:00Z

Random Jeep Stuff

XJ Trailer Hitch Installation Instructions

I replaced my old rusty original trailer hitch and was surprised you can still purchase a Mopar factory trailer hitch for a 97-01 XJ. Instructions are here.

XJ Rear Splash Guard Installation Instructions

I found a NOS set of mudflaps for my 97-01 XJ. The installation instructions were even in the box, figured I post them in case anyone else needs them: Here they are.

TJ Fog Light Stone Guard Installation Instructions

I found a NOS set of fog-light stone guards for my 1998 TJ Wrangler. The installation instructions were even in the box, too. These are also valid instructions for Mopar 82202585 and Mopar 82204503.

Mopar Luggage Carrier Kit Installation Instructions

I found a NOS Mopar Luggage Carrier Kit for my 1998 XJ Cherokee. The installation instructions were even in the box, too. These are also valid instructions for Mopar 82207198 and Mopar 82208301.

Mopar Canoe Carrier Kit Installation Instructions

These are the instructions for a Mopar 822004700 Canoe Carrier Kit.

Lint for Complexity

2024-12-24T00:00:00Z

Understanding & Linting for Cyclomatic Complexity

Background

There are many ways to measure the complexity of a piece of software: number of lines, Big O, and so on. Cyclomatic Complexity attempts to do this by enumerating all linearly independent paths through a segment of code. Linearly independent means that each path has at least one edge that is not in another path (if viewing the code as a graph).

McCabe defined CC using graph theory as:

M = E - N + 2P

Where:

E = edges in the graph
N = nodes in the graph
P = number of connected components (think modules) of a program

If a program had no control flow statements (if, switch, goto, etc.), then the CC would be 1. If a program has 1 if statement, then its CC is 2.

A program that has 50 lines consisting of 25 consecutive "if/then" constructs will have over 33 million (2^{25}) distinct paths through the program. There's no way all those paths are getting tested!

Let's analyze the following snippet of Python code:

def cc_example(b, c):
  a = 0
  if b > c:
    a = b
  else:
    a = c
  print(a, b, c)

What is the cyclomatic complexity of this method?

We can draw the graph of this method:

The graph has seven nodes and seven edges, so its cyclomatic complexity is:

7 - 7 + 2 = 2

Suggested Levels of CC

There doesn't seem to be an agreed-upon threshold for what amount of CC is too much, though generally the higher your code's CC, the harder it is to maintain. This naturally grows with the number of lines in your software.

According to a random StackExchange post, the following is a rubric for CC scores and their meaning:

< 10: Easy to maintain
11-20: Harder to maintain
21+: Candidates for refactoring/redesign

Other websites have slightly different tolerances, but I like the StackExchange metric for methods.

Pros of Using CC in Your Project

Helps write code that is easier to read & reason about
Easier to write unit tests (fewer paths that need to be explored)
Easy to calculate with plugins to popular linters

ESLint Settings for Cyclomatic Complexity

If you're using JavaScript or TypeScript in your project, you've already got a Cyclomatic Complexity checker at hand. You just need to configure it to run when you're linting.

The following additions to your .eslintrc file will activate the complexity rules and several other related checks. The complexity rule below measures Cyclomatic Complexity specifically. Here, it is set to raise a linting error if the complexity of a method is above 5.

Many of the other rules measure things like clause depth and the number of lines in a method.

{
  "rules": {
    "complexity": ["error", 5],
    "array-callback-return": "error",
    "max-statements": ["error", 20],
    "max-statements-per-line": ["error", { "max": 1 }],
    "max-nested-callbacks": ["error", 3],
    "max-depth": ["error", { "max": 3 }],
    "max-lines": ["error", 200],
    "no-return-assign": "error",
    "no-param-reassign": "error"
  }
}

Some tricks I use to make devlife easier

2024-12-24T00:00:00Z

Subjective Dev Life Hacks

Aliases

Aliases are available in most modern shells. They save time by reducing the amount of characters needed to invoke common commands.

alias ga='git add . and git add -u .'
alias gb='git branch'
alias gs='git status'
alias gt='cd (git rev-parse --show-cdup)'
alias gbd='git branch --delete'
alias gca='git commit --amend'
alias glg="git log --pretty=format:'%Cred%h%Creset -%Creset %s %Cgreen(%cr) %C(bold blue)<%an>%Creset' --abbrev-commit"
alias gpr='git pull --rebase'
alias nus='nvm use stable'
alias gcam='git commit -a -m'
alias gcan='git commit --amend --no-edit'
alias gcma='git checkout main'

Git Decorations in Your Shell

You spend a lot of time in your shell, make it nice to look at and work for you.

Command History and Searching

Bash
- 6 Methods of Executing Historical Commands in Bash
Zsh
- Zsh Completions
- fzf for Zsh
Fish
- History is built-in!
- fzf for Fish

Directory Jumping

Life's too short to type long directory names.

Bash
- Z for Bash
Zsh
- Zsh-z
Fish
- z for Fish

IDE Plugins

You probably spend even more time in your IDE, so spruce it up a bit.

Shortcuts: The Guide to VSCode Shortcuts
ESLint: VSCode ESLint
Code Spell Checker: Spell Checker Plugin
Rainbow Brackets: Rainbow Brackets Plugin
Jest: Jest Plugin
Prettier: Prettier VSCode Plugin, run it on save!
Vim: 😁 😈

Some handy git commands

2024-12-24T00:00:00Z

Helpful Git Commands to Slice & Dice Commits

This Conway's Game of Life repo is the basis for the examples here, specifically, the activate-demo and main branches.

git cherry-pick

Say you have a bunch of commits in a branch that you want to break up into multiple commits (for smaller Pull or Merge Requests). If you have confidence that your commits are atomic, use git cherry-pick to copy them to a new branch. Use git log to find the commit you want to copy in your current working branch, grab its SHA. Checkout the main branch and create a new branch off of it. Then change to the new branch and cherry-pick using:

git cherry-pick <SHA-of-COMMIT>

This is useful when you want to grab a single commit from one branch and place it in another one.

git rebase -i

But what if you have multiple commits you want to rearrange or move?

Rebase them. This is a very powerful tool. You can rewrite large chunks of history in one go with this command. You can reorder commits. You can delete commits.

When using this command, you specify the number of previous commits you'd like to rebase with:

git rebase -i HEAD~5

This would target the previous 5 commits. The image below demonstrates the look of the rebase menu with 5 commits. One thing to note is that the commits are listed oldest first.

Rebase commands:

p, pick : Actually use the commit in the result.
r, reword : Edit the commit message and use it.
e, edit : Amend this commit and use it.
s, squash : Use it but meld into the previous commit.
f, fixup : Like "squash," but discard this commit's log message.
x, exec : Run command (the rest of the line) using the shell.
b, break: Stop here (continues rebase with git rebase --continue).
d, drop : Remove the commit.
l, label : Label the current HEAD with a name.
t, reset : Reset HEAD to a label.
m, merge: Create a merge commit.

As you can see, there is a lot you can do with this command. The most useful features for me are typically squashing or rewording multiple commit messages in one step.

Interactive Rebase is useful for editing multiple commits in a branch at the same time.

git reflog

This command is useful if you make mistakes using the previous commands. The reflog contains all the changes made to the tips of branches.

It's useful to find a safe place to reset your current working branch in case you've made a mistake using cherry-pick or rebase. For instance, you can see the current HEAD (the tips of the branches) on both your remote and local branches. If you haven't pushed your incorrect local changes to a remote branch yet, you can recover the old HEAD from the remote branch locally—thus reverting your mistake.

Using reflog gives you a map back to safety if you've made mistakes in your branch.

Jeep XJ Axle Information

2024-12-24T00:00:00Z

Jeep XJ Axle Info

Dana 44 Axles for MJs and XJs

The Trak-Lok options mean it is a Limited-Slip differential.

Serial #	Host Model	Year	Gear Ratio	Options
605287-1	MJ	86	3.54:1
605287-2	MJ	86	4.09:1
605287-3	MJ	86	3.54:1	Trak-Loc
605287-4	MJ	86	4.09:1	Trak-Loc
605342-1	XJ	87.5	3.07:1
605342-2	XJ	87.5	3.07:1	Trac-Lok
605342-3	XJ	87.5	3.54:1
605342-4	XJ	87.5	3.54:1	Trac-Lok
605342-5	XJ	87.5	3.55:1
605342-6	XJ	87.5	3.55:1	Trac-Lok
605325-1	MJ/XJ	87.5-93.5	3.54:1
605325-2	MJ/XJ	87.5-93.5	4.09:1
605325-3	MJ/XJ	87.5-93.5	3.07:1
605325-4	MJ/XJ	87.5-93.5	3.07:1	Trac-Lok
605325-5	MJ/XJ	87.5-93.5	3.54:1	Trac-Lok
605325-6	MJ/XJ	87.5-93.5	3.54:1
605325-7	MJ/XJ	87.5-93.5	3.54:1	Trac-Lok
605325-8	MJ/XJ	87.5-93.5	3.07:1	Trac-Lok
605325-9	MJ/XJ	87.5-93.5	3.54:1	Trac-Lok
605325-10	MJ/XJ	87.5-93.5	3.54:1
605325-11	MJ/XJ	87.5-93.5	4.09:1
605325-12	MJ/XJ	87.5-93.5	3.07:1
605325-13	MJ/XJ	87.5-93.5	3.07:1	Trac-Lok
605325-14	MJ/XJ	87.5-93.5	3.54:1	Trac-Lok
605325-15	MJ/XJ	87.5-93.5	4.09:1	Trac-Lok

I own a 605325-9 taken from a 1990 MJ. I had a shop convert it to fit an XJ (leafs over the axle, relocated shock mounts) and installed it on my 1998 XJ.

For cases where logic must do.

2024-12-24T00:00:00Z

Logical Fallacies

Just some examples I wanted to keep around for posterity. I originally saw this posted on Usenet many years ago.

Fallacies that result from errors in induction

Overstatement: An unqualified generalization.
Examples:
"My English teacher never gives A's."
"Almonds are good for the heart; everyone should eat 2 handfuls of almonds every day."
Hasty Generalization: Stating a conclusion based on too little evidence or ignoring some evidence. Examples:
"Running must be bad for your heart. Look what happened to Florence Joiner."
"My little Yamaha motorcycle never gave me problems. Yamaha motorcycles are the best."
Stereotyping: Giving the same characteristics to everyone in a group.
Examples:
"Used-car salesmen can't be trusted."
"Utah State graduates are all nerdy."
"Southern Utahns are all right-wing conservative fanatics who refuse to pay taxes and want to destroy the environment."
Forced hypothesis: Reaching a conclusion that is not supported by the evidence or is unnecessarily complicated. Example:
"Jerry and Kim live next door to each other, so they must be really good friends."
Non sequitur: Conclusions not logically derived from preceding reasoning.
Example:
"Al Gore is a wonderful father, so he would have made a great president."
Slippery slope: Asserting that X should not happen because it will inevitably lead to Y and Z, which are terrible. Examples:
"Utah should not legalize parimutuel betting on horse races because that will only lead to gambling on other sporting events and finally to casino gambling." "We should never allow families to have doctors disconnect the respirators and feeding tubes of brain-dead patients. If we do, pretty soon we will be asking doctors to kill people with Alzheimer's disease."
False dilemma: Asserting only two options exist when more are available.
Example:
"You either support the war in Iraq or you are a traitor to your country and an enemy to freedom."
False analogy: Comparing two things with differences too great to justify the comparison.
Example:
"There are 10,000 deaths from alcohol poisoning to 1 from mad-dog bites in this country. In spite of this, we license liquor but shoot the dogs."
Post hoc: From the Latin "after this, therefore because of it," assigning a cause-effect relationship where none exists. Example:
"A black cat ran across my path on the way to work this morning, and sure enough, I got a flat tire on the way home."

Fallacies that result from ignoring the issue

Begging the question: Assuming part or all of your argument is true without support.
Examples:
"The federal government should not subsidize development of alternative-fuel automobiles because gasoline is the cheapest and cleanest fuel." "We should give every American the right to have assault weapons in their home because we know that a nation where citizens have assault weapons will be safer." "We know that our police are never involved in bribery, dishonesty, or abuse of the law because the police report said so."
Red herring: Introducing an irrelevant side issue to divert attention.
Example:
"Mary Gordon shouldn't be elected to the school board because she doesn't have any children in public schools."
Straw man: Misrepresenting an opponent's view and attacking the misrepresentation instead.
Example:
"Environmentalists are trying to save the spotted owl because they want to run American loggers out of business."
Ad hominem: Attacking the person making the argument rather than the argument itself.
Example:
"You're too young to understand the importance of this issue."
Argument ad Misericordiam ("Argument to Pity"): Using emotional appeal instead of logic.
Examples:
"I know my paper is late, but I had the worst pimple on my nose for a week. Please don't mark it late." "Janice, you have to marry me! If you don't, I will be the most miserable person alive."
Common practice: Arguing that something is acceptable because "everyone is doing it."
Examples:
"Don't worry about using your older brother's research paper; half the kids in the class are doing it." "Dad, I can't live without a cell phone and a laptop. All the kids have them now."
Argument ad populum: Appealing to the beliefs of the masses.
Example:
"Republican candidates are the choice of red-blooded Americans who believe in traditional American values."
Argumentum ad Baculum ("Appeal to Force"): Using threats or force to persuade.
Example:
"If you don't support this policy, you're unpatriotic and will face backlash."

Machine Learning Labs

2024-12-24T00:00:00Z

Machine Learning Labs

I've been working on some labs for the AI/ML Guild at Workfront. Here they are:

Lab 1 - General beginner steps getting started with an ML project.
Lab 2 - Perceptrons and linear binary
classification. Multi-Layer Perceptrons and Neural Nets.
Lab 3 - Decision Trees are fun.

Naming Things is Hard

2024-12-24T00:00:00Z

Naming things is hard

It's hard to be descriptive about the code you're writing. Maybe it's because you're still figuring out what the purpose of the code you're writing is or you are not a domain-expert on the problem at hand.

Most of these examples are taken from Clean Code by Robert Martin.

Be Practical

Use names that convey intention, e.g., int elapsedTimeInDays;
Use words that you can say, programming is communicating!
Use searchable terms
- Hard to find a variable named a in a codebase.
Names can be vectors for feature-creep
- Too general of a class name, and suddenly you have a catch-all, deeply coupled class instead of targeted functionality

Be Clear

Avoid misnomers (duh)
- Don't name something diamondList when the collection is a map.
Make things different enough to understand
- Don't name things just to satisfy a compiler
- zork vs theZork isn't that meaningful
- Codebase dependent
Don't create a code to write your code
- Use language from the domain of the program
- In typed languages, it's not great to include the data type in the name. e.g., phoneString; what if the datatype changes?
- It's still good practice to use naming conventions for interfaces or implementations.
- Bob doesn't like member declarations; I don't mind them. Using underscores for private variables or unused variables is fine too.
One word per concept
- Generally, classes are nouns, functions are verbs.
Add Context, at the right level, but not too much
- Very dependent on the codebase.
- Examples from the book: firstName, lastName, but for what purpose?
- Too much context: prefixing every class in the codebase.

Jokes aside

This is the hardest for me at times.

In (or Out) Jokes
- Not professional, confusing
- Say what you mean, mean what you say
No Puns (same word for different purposes)

OpenBSD Setup

2024-12-24T00:00:00Z

OpenBSD

I recently bought an old Acer laptop and revived it using OpenBSD. It's a fun operating system to use on any hardware. OpenBSD is touted as the most secure OS in the world.

Some good setup links:

XDM Setup

The login screen is managed by XDM. This is the config I used to get a nice blue background with the puffer fish logo.

`/etc/X11/Xenodm/Xsetup_0`

#!/bin/sh
xrandr --output default --dpi 96

# requires pkg_add terminus-font
xset fp+ /usr/local/share/fonts/terminus

prefix="/usr/X11R6"
exec_prefix="${prefix}"

BG_COLOR="#203051"
${exec_prefix}/bin/xsetroot -solid $BG_COLOR

# Disable xconsole
# ${exec_prefix}/bin/xconsole -geometry 480x130-0-0 -daemon -notify -verbose -fn fixed -exitOnFail

# Show the Sleep / Restart / Shutdown bar
# In case of sleep, pop xmessage again after waking up
(
while true; do
  xmessage -geometry +825-32 \
    -buttons "[ Sleep ]":20,"[ Restart ]":21,"[ Shutdown ]":22 ""
  ACTION=$?
  echo "Xmessage said: $ACTION"
  if   [ $ACTION -eq 20 ]; then /usr/sbin/zzz;
  elif [ $ACTION -eq 21 ]; then
    xsetroot -cursor_name watch
    /sbin/shutdown -r now
  elif [ $ACTION -eq 22 ]; then
    xsetroot -cursor_name watch
    /sbin/shutdown -p now
  else echo "Something bad happened to Xmessage.";
  fi
  # Stop looping if xclock died (hopefully killed by GiveConsole)
  if [ -z "$(pgrep -U root xclock)" ]; then break; fi
done
) &

OS_NAME=$(uname -n)
OS_INFO=$(uname -smr)
xclock -digital -geometry -0+0 -strftime "$OS_NAME ($OS_INFO) | %a. %d %b. %Y  %H:%M " &

Setting up a Raspberry Pi as a server

2024-12-24T00:00:00Z

Raspian Raspberry Pi Setup

Load the SDHC card into your machine and install the Raspbian image.
Create a file called ssh in /Volumes/boot of that installation.
Disable WiFi and Bluetooth by adding the following two lines to /boot/config.txt:
- dtoverlay=disable-wifi
- dtoverlay=disable-bt
Insert the SDHC card and power on the Pi.
Log in using the default user/password via SSH.
Change the Pi user password:
```
passwd
```
Change the Pi user's locale and time zone -> use raspi-config.
Update packages: sudo apt update
Install the latest Fish shell and fzf.
To change the user shell, edit /etc/passwd or use: chsh -s /usr/bin/fish nathan

Setting up BOINC Client

Ensure there is a /var/lib/cc_configs.xml file. Make sure it contains the following:

<options>
   <allow_remote_gui_rpc>1</allow_remote_gui_rpc>
</options>

Verify that the remote_hosts.cfg file has the hosts you want inside it. Networking Troubleshooting

If you are running a headless Pi but want to use XRDP, you may encounter both dhcpcd and wicd running. You may need to disable wicd: systemctl disable wicd

Vim config

2024-12-24T00:00:00Z

Vim Settings I Use

set tabstop=8
set softtabstop=4               " makes space feel like tabs
set shiftwidth=4
set expandtab
set textwidth=80                " each line can only be 79 chars (+newline) long
set formatoptions=cqt           " automatically wrap long lines
set number                      " line numbers
set cursorline                  " highlight the current line
set t_Co=256                    " set terminal to 256 colors
set history=100                 " keep 100 lines of command line history
set ruler                       " show the cursor position all the time
set showcmd                     " display incomplete commands
set incsearch                   " do incremental searching
set autoread                    " automatically read a file changed externally
set hlsearch                    " highlights all search matches
set backspace=indent,eol,start  " allow backspacing in insert mode
set noerrorbells                " Attempts to turn off errorbells.
set vb                          " turn on visual bell
set showmatch                   " match parenthesis
set encoding=UTF-8              " helps devicons
set backup                      " save backup files
set backupdir=~/.vim/backup//   " where to put backup files
set directory=~/.vim/swap//     " where to save swap files
set undodir=~/.vim/undo//       " where to undo files

Wiio's Laws

2024-12-24T00:00:00Z

Wiio's Laws

So many problems seem to come down to poor communication. I often think about these laws when information is being shared.

Communication usually fails, except by accident.
- If communication can fail, it will.
- If communication cannot fail, it still most usually fails.
- If communication seems to succeed in the intended way, there's a misunderstanding.
- If you are content with your message, communication certainly fails.
If a message can be interpreted in several ways, it will be interpreted in a manner that maximizes the damage.
There is always someone who knows better than you what you meant with your message.
The more we communicate, the worse communication succeeds.
- The more we communicate, the faster misunderstandings propagate.
In mass communication, the important thing is not how things are but how they seem to be.
The importance of a news item is inversely proportional to the square of the distance.
The more important the situation is, the more probable you had forgotten an essential thing that you remembered a moment ago.

Wikipedia