Free Software

I was playing around with Nesta recently, a Ruby-based web platform, which uses just text files instead of databases (like the more heavyweight Drupal, which this site runs on.) It's actually remarkably simple, lets me write things in a range of markup languages, such as Markdown and HAML, and best of all, lets me edit the articles directly in my text editor, rather than having to use a little box in the web browser. It's not required, but the idea is that you use git to manage a Nesta site and publish things. And I like git.

A few months ago (and I forgot to blog about this), I was elected as one of the Trusted Users at Archlinux, which has been my preferred GNU/Linux distribution for a good few years now. The TUs are basically a bunch of people who are responsible for keeping the Arch User Repository (AUR) in good order, and for maintaining packages in the community repository.

So, I decided (and this was long overdue I think), to start writing down more tidbits of knowledge that I pick while hacking around on Arch. To this end, I've set up muddygoat.org, a Nesta-based site, which will serve mainly as a place to collect aids to memory, and to record things that took a while to figure out or find an answer to. I've also stuck up a web interface to git repositories of my current configuration files, etc. This seems to be the "thing to do", and actually I've benefited a great deal from others doing the same.

My intention is to keep this site, Pete's Odyssey, as it has been: a place where I can let off steam or spew my opinions and ill-thought-out musings. But, I intend to use muddygoat.org just for more technical stuff that might not really be of interest to a general audience.

If hacky Linux stuff is your thing, take a look.