Email Forwarding Broken on iCloud
I have been getting occasional bounces from an iCloud+ Custom Domain email filter I have, which forwards certain emails I receive to wife. The first one I got looked like this:

<wife.email@mydomain.com>: host mx01.mail.icloud.com[17.57.156.30] said: 554 5.7.1
   [HM07] Message rejected due to local policy. Please visit
   https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204137 (in reply to end of DATA command)

I sent an email to t … ⌘ Read more

Not Too Active Here
As you can see, I am not too active around here. I am elsewhere writing notes, which are short, silly, but fun. I am keeping this around for, mostly, two reasons. Old stuff, though bad, is part of me, a record of my past. I also may decide to come by, eventually, and write something in a longer format.

So, here I leave this blog—which I insisted on calling “weblog” for a while—frozen in time. ⌘ Read more

The Exit
This happened during the morning drive.

There is an exit to our street from a nearby highway eastbound, but there is none westbound. I told wife that it would be so great to have one. The I told her my plan.

Maybe I would start by requesting it to the city. Gather signatures, create a Change.org petition. Should that fail, I would initiate protests. First it would be just me, then I would enlist others, create a movement.

Then maybe, just maybe, by the time I am geriatric it would be considered, and budget allocat … ⌘ Read more

It Has Been a While
It has been a while since I last came by. Much has changed since, and I feel as if my draw to write, or babble, has been drained. I have a cold (I think?) as I write this. The first in the last six years. I should have kept using masks.

I have no much to say. I am not sure what will I do with this. Perhaps I will wait four years or so, and see how I feel then. ⌘ Read more

Of All Things
Of all the things we might celebrate each year, whether new year, religious and secular holidays (depending on the country one lives in, etc.), there is one I consider extremely special, and worth of celebrating: one’s birthday.

Birthdays do not only mark a milestone in one’s life, they are the true new year, the most important new year for each one of us. A new year begins right after your birthday. The one everybody celebrates at year’s end is alright, but the new year you start at the sunset of your b … ⌘ Read more

Julienne Franus
It has been over 8 years since Kent stopped learning how to play the violin. I remember how sad I felt having to tell his violin teacher, Julie, that he didn’t want to continue learning.

I tried getting in touch with Julie months after, to see how she was doing. I still felt bad, because she was so sweet, and such a good teacher to our child. I wanted to know if she needed anything. Our family was ready to help her. For as much as I tried, I didn’t get … ⌘ Read more

On Wisdom
We come across much “wisdom” throughout our lives. Inherited from people from old, past periods, or from religious books and teachings, or from our parents—for those, like me, lucky enough to had had good ones. It seems that just about everyone, from yesterday to today, has some wisdom to convey: from world leaders, religious leaders, and the common folk amongst us. Some of their “wisdom”, depending on the nation, or ethnic group, or religion, or another myriad of small factors, tends to contradict itself.

Now, wh … ⌘ Read more

Everyone is gone
I am the youngest of my siblings. Having been born when my parents were in their late forties has a few meanings. It means my parents are gone. It also means all my aunts and uncles, all the people around my parents age in my native neighbourhood, they are all gone.

Today I spent some time remembering them. In my memories I searched house by house in my neighbourhood (or my block, rather), remembering—and often trying to remember—their names, and their faces. It is horrible how memory fades away, and … ⌘ Read more

Twosday
Because today is 22-2-22, or 2-22-22, or 2022-2-22, it makes it worth for me to come here, after so many months of silence, to mark the event. So, happy Twosday, everyone! ⌘ Read more

Alone, scared, and lonely
Our vehicle was towed away earlier this week because I parked it on the street momentarily during the day, and completely forgot to move it back to the driveway at dusk. Our neighbourhood strictly enforces a no street parking from 00:00 to 06:00, so we paid the consequences of an old mind’s oversight.

Other than having to pick it up, spending time, and money–it cost $125 to get it back–we worried about the poor automobile. It was alone, scared, and lonely, in an unknown te … ⌘ Read more

Horses don’t lie
A horse is a straight forward animal. When you look at a horse’s eyes you know it is telling you the truth, even before it mutters a word—not that it can, but you get the gist. A horse is sincere, forthcoming, warm, and above all faithful.

My wife is a Horse 😂 ❤️. Let it be noted. ⌘ Read more

Adobe Flash Player EOL
After ten years since Steve Jobs expressed his thoughts on Flash, effectively banning Flash from ever existing on iOS, Adobe has finally decided to announce that as of 31 December 2020 they will stop distributing, and updating, the Flash Player. Why, they say, they are doing this?

Open standards such as HTML5, WebGL, and WebAssembly have continually matured over the years and serve as viable alternatives for Flash content. Also … ⌘ Read more

Dreelix, King of Gears
Dreelix is a goblin, and he is 130 years old. A young goblin, as goblins can live for many, many years. Dreelix lives in a tidy, relatively small house, in the little town of Enter Town Name Here near the Enter geographical reference here. He is a tinker by nature and by heritage, as his parents, and parents’ parents were all tinkers, and very proud of it.

The title he holds, King of Gears, was given to his great-great-great-great-great grandfather by the Trade Excellency Tenlix … ⌘ Read more

Automatically scheduled bank payments
So, you sign up for a gym, or another service, that gives you a small discount for paying using an automatic scheduled withdraw from your bank’s checking account. Things go well for a while, then they go sour—or you simply change your mind—and you want to sever that agreement, to disconnect the link between them and your bank account. Guess what? You can’t. Not through your mobile banking app, nor through a bank’s web site, call, or in-person … ⌘ Read more

Elections 2020
Election time is always an important time. We, the people, get to vote for the person that will be our nation’s president for at least four years—and with any luck, eight. The presidential election of 2020 is going to be an interesting one. I know, I know, we could say the same for every election. This time, though, it’s easy to understand why the upcoming election holds an extra weight.

I could go on, and describe the reasons why Trump shouldn’t get re-elected. They ar … ⌘ Read more

Using Gnupg and openssl for encryption
I have used Gnupg to encrypt my private files, specially those that I upload to the clouds, for a long time. I used to encrypt to self, using my own key, then later moved to symmetric encryption only. The command is easy:

To encrypt:

gpg --cipher-algo aes256 --symmetric file.txt

Adding the option --armor to the above will produce an ASCII armoured encrypted file.

To decrypt:

... ⌘ [Read more](https://collantes.us/2019/07/30/using-gnupg-and-openssl-for-encryption/)

There is always a first time
For eleven years I have used iPhones exclusively. More than half of that time, I have used them without any cover. My rationale? It is a beautifully crafted device, why to hide its beauty behind a cover? I never had an issue with it, until today. I am coming here to mark the first time my iPhone screen has ever shattered. I didn’t drop it, but placed it in a way that, after a few vibrations, made it fall to a tiled floor. RIP!

This will not change, nor affect, how I ke … ⌘ Read more

Closing LinkedIn
Not long ago—not even a year now—I re-created a LinkedIn account, mostly following an invitation to join from one of my friends. I did it against my will, because for whatever reason I have hated LinkedIn even since before it was acquired by Microsoft. Yet, I joined, filled very little information, set privacy settings to fully closed—or so I thought—and moved on.

Soon after I started receiving UCE from medical, or pharmaceutical related companies. As many as ten emails per day. I calle … ⌘ Read more

Close my account, Robinhood!
On 23 April, 2019 I sent an email to Robinhood, using their on-line help tool, because I couldn’t find a phone number to call on their website.

Couldn’t find […] a proper choice under “support issue,” so picked something that is close to what I want, but not quite. I would like to close, and delete my account (not just deactivate). Thanks!

The reply promptly arrived the same day, stating, along other things:

We’ve submitted a request to close your … ⌘ Read more

I am sorry I was late
I can explain why I was so late, I swear.

I woke up this morning after a brilliant two hours of sleep and went to milk the cow. She did not really have much, so the cereal kinda blew. Anyways, as I turned on my red 1993 Chevy Malibu I realised the garage was not opening. Great, the power was down! I went upstairs with a broom and woke up the hamster, which must have fallen asleep on the job. It took some deliberation, taking a full three minutes to get the power working again.

I … ⌘ Read more

My friend
Friends are not easy to come across. They are made, just like good wine, after many years of ageing. At a certain point they cease to be just friends and become family. They give you the best advise, uncompromisingly, unabashedly, unreservedly. They praise your virtues and take pride on them, but are quick to call out the stupid things you are bound to do. They are patient, they forgive, they forget. They listen, and they are always available.

John was my dear friend for eighteen years. John was family.� … ⌘ Read more

What is happiness?
After questioning myself on the meaning of life—something I still do, by the way—I long settled that, regardless of what it might be, living a happy life and aiming to be happy is what life is all about. Happiness, though, isn’t a fixed thing. Just like the many avatars of gods, their many incarnations, happiness comes from many sources, and is often found in subtle contexts throughout life. It is not absolute, and its definition may vary from person to person: what brings me happiness migh … ⌘ Read more

Someone is in trouble when…
You know a company is in trouble when they have to take a full page advertisement on several major newspapers in the U.S., and the U.K., with an apology from their chief. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg did just that. ⌘ Read more

Simplicity
That is a screenshot of my macOS desktop. It could be simpler, but as it is it does what I need, and want. When I need to use an app, I simply hit command (⌘) space and start typing the app name to launch it. That is, I use Spotlight.

Wouldn’t it be great that iOS could be customized like that too? Preferably it would be a setting, that would allow to turn off the visibility of all, or any app on the phone. Then, to open an app, one would use the [Spotlight]( … ⌘ Read more

Another meltdown
Someone is having another meltdown.

The Mueller probe should never have been started in that there was no collusion and there was no crime. It was based on fraudulent activities and a Fake Dossier paid for by Crooked Hillary and the DNC, and improperly used in FISA COURT for surveillance of my campaign. WITCH HUNT!

😂

Now, there is a [background](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/after-mccabe-fir … ⌘ Read more

Flowers will follow
To the untrained, this image will have little meaning. Who could imagine that those “ugly sticks,” as the child called them, will soon bloom into hundreds of beautiful yellow flowers? Yet, as it has happened each year, flowers will follow! ⌘ Read more

Searching for the car
A year ago, Kent got his learner’s permit. With the help of John, and a little from me, he practiced driving for over 250 hours. A year later — more or less — on 9 March, he got his driver’s license, passing the practical test with a 96, out of 100 points, score. And so the asking for a car began.

What car should we get for a 17 year old? New, or [used](https://www.consumerreports.org/used-cars/best-used-cars … ⌘ Read more

Mueller goes after the Trump Organisation
I have disliked other presidents in the past, for actions taken while they were in the office that I—and many others—considered stupid, crazy, or just plain wrong. My dislike for the current president eclipses any of my previous. I voted for Hillary, and wrongly predicted that she would win the presidency.

[Today news](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/ … ⌘ Read more

On the market for a camera
We have gone through quite a few cameras. The very first one we recall was a Canon EOS D30, with an amazing 3.2 megapixel — sarcasm aside, it took amazing photos. After that we had had many Sony Cyber-shots, a Canon Powershot A640, a couple of Canon Powershot Gs, and another bigger Canon, the [EO … ⌘ Read more

About the impermanence of things
Thinking about the impermanence of things is a reoccurring theme for me. It usually happens if I get mad at something I don’t like, which used to be quite often no long ago. I still notice situations that are less than desirable for my point of view, but I no longer get mad every single time. I am trying my very best not to get upset for anything, or with anyone. Yet, the thought of everything being temporary still surrounds me. The last time it came to mind was whe … ⌘ Read more

Grandfather has left us
Grandfather died today.

Kim was very close to him because she lived with her grandparents since she was young, until we got married. Back in Vietnam, when she was in elementary school, grandpa took her and her siblings to school, and picked them up in his bicycle every day. He was more than a grandfather to her. He was, throughout her life, a father figure.

Grandpa was a soft spoken man. I never heard him raise his voice, never saw him mad. He was also a man of little wants; … ⌘ Read more

Unalloyed irony
Soon to be ex-Senator Al Franken announced, on an emotional speech, his resignation yesterday. He is leaving the Senate after been accused of sexual misconduct.

“I, of all people, am aware that there is some irony in the fact that I am leaving while a man who has bragged on tape about his history of sexual assault sits in the Oval Office, and a man who has repeatedly preyed on young girls campaigns for the Senate with the [full support of his party] … ⌘ Read more

On AT&T fibre
Had to chat with an AT&T employee, as a result of an order I placed yesterday. This is the feedback I left (with minor spelling corrections), after concluding the chat:

The chat experience was excellent (chat agent, Marry). AT&T experience thus far, not quite so.

I had an AT&T sales agent visit me yesterday. I signed up for Internet 1Gbps (Internet 1000 on AT&T lingo), and phone service (transferring my current number). I have a signed form, with all one time service charges waived. The appoint … ⌘ Read more

A downright moron
Henry Louis Mencken wrote an article on the Baltimore Sun, on 26 July, 1920, that amongst other things read:

As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.

It seems we have “perfected” democrac … ⌘ Read more

The Uber affair
Using Uber for the first time, in France, was a delightful experience. We were able to summon a relatively cheap minivan within minutes, the drivers were nice, nothing found to complain. Then, once back home, I decided that I might want to occasionally drive for Uber, for fun. That is when the real affair started.

To begin with, the rider photo I had on my profile no longer met their requirements. Then, the driver’s application asked me for information that I did not have handy, making me chang … ⌘ Read more

Comey’s sacking
This is, at least for me, completely surreal. It is not only that Trump sacked the FBI director — who arguably helped him getting elected President — while he was conducting an investigation on Trump’s presidential campaign, but the way he wrote the sacking letter (I emphasised):

Dear Director Comey:

I have received the attached letters from the Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General of the United States recommending your dismissal as the Director of the Federal Bureau of Inve … ⌘ Read more

A few technical changes
A few things have happened on my current server setup. The biggest one was my move from FreeBSD to Ubuntu. I do not have complains about FreeBSD — how could I? — but I wanted to play with more recent stuff, and it was becoming very hard to do under BSD. I also wanted a refresh, since I had been running that VPS for a while and it was starting to feel “dirty.”

So, I spawned up an [Ubuntu 16.04 LTS](http://releases.ubuntu … ⌘ Read more

An intelligent person
From Twitter:

The most amazing thing about the Trump presidency is that it’s made GWB look like a reasonably intelligent person.

— Derek Powazek (@fraying) February 27, 2017

And from The New York Times:

Former President George W. Bush said Monday “we all need answers” on the extent of contact between President Donald Trump’s team and the Russian government, and didn’t … ⌘ Read more

The silence of the hacks
There is a reason why I subscribed to the digital edition of The New York Times. Its journalists are superb; it is a paper I trust, and have found to be veridical after cross referencing the news they post with other major, equally trusted, news sources.

From yesterday’s edition (some emphasis mine):

The story so far: A foreign dictator _in … ⌘ Read more

Incapable of serving
From the opinion pages of The New York Times yesterday, 13 of February, 2017, also appearing in print today. Some emphasis mine.

Mr. Trump’s speech and actions demonstrate an inability to tolerate views different from his own, leading to rage reactions. His words and behavior suggest a profound inability to empathize. Individuals with these traits distort reality to suit their psychological state, attacking facts and those who convey them (journalists, scientists).
�� … ⌘ Read more

Cleaning the plate
My wife has always told me, “don’t eat everything in your plate, leave something!” It is her believe, and her culture’s, that only poor people eats everything, and that if I do so, it will show I am dying of hunger, and thus, poor. If it were so, what’s wrong with being poor? Why will I leave food on the plate, food that I really like, to pretend what I am not? I am poor, poor, poor!

That custom, though, would be an easy one to follow if the food was bad. That’s something … ⌘ Read more

Fake email clients
For a few (years?) now, there has been an increase of so called email clients that are not so. I am talking about the “value added email clients” that require a third party server/service to work. Within that category there is Nylas, Polymail, and Sparkmail, to mention a few. Although they bring an array of features not normally found on an email client, they are worthless if the third party company server(s) goes down, … ⌘ Read more

Hard to believe
If you hear or read this somewhere else — whether on social media, or via your clueless uncle Olaf — you will find it hard, if not impossible, to believe. Now, finding it on Reuters is a different story.

In his first call as president with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump denounced a treaty that caps U.S. and Russian deployment of nuclear warheads as a bad deal for the United States, according to two U.S. officials and one former U.S. official with knowledge of the call.

… ⌘ Read more

Unpresidential
Not presidential at all.

“President-elect Donald J. Trump’s aides often cite his appearances at professional wrestling matches as an inspiration for his outsize political speaking style, and his buoyantly belligerent news conference in New York on Wednesday proved he has no plans to betray his brawler’s roots in the service of seeming more presidential.”

— New York Times ⌘ Read more

Warming up to emoji
No long ago I wrote that I loathed Emoji. My main grumble was their usage abuse, and, especially, the overuse of “smilies.”

Since Apple’s iOS 10, I have been warming up to them, but it wasn’t until I came across Mu-An that they really started to captivate me. She uses them, sparingly, but with such taste! A few of her repositories exclusively deal with Emoji as well. Thus, this post i … ⌘ Read more

I was wrong
Back in 5 October 2015, I wrote a prediction, which I saved in a file for which I posted a hash. I predicted that Hillary Clinton would win the United States presidential elections. Sadly, I was wrong.

I really do not have much else to say. I am sorry. ⌘ Read more

What have you taught me?
His father was only giving him a small advise, worried for him. Parents worry too much, sometimes. It was not taken well.

“You suffocate me, don’t worry so much about me! Enough advise, what have you taught me, until now?” He asks. Perhaps no much, the father thinks in retrospect. Brushing the teeth, maybe? Lacing the shoes? How to clean the arse? How to respect others, and do good? To be happy, love, study hard, work hard? That, and the many little things of daily life. … ⌘ Read more

Bernie Sanders keeps fighting
Bernie Sanders has had a good run. Yet numbers are pilled against him, and he should know it. After all he said he was “ pretty good in arithmetic.” Hillary has beaten him, and the right and honorable thing for him to do is to call it quits.

“ If, on November 8th of this year, Hillary Clinton is elected President, we will have only begun to fight,” Sanders told a packed rally in San Francisco.

– … ⌘ Read more

Violin lessons
Just as they started, randomly, on a whim, as a child desire to learn to play the violin, the lessons that Kent has been taking for almost two years came to an end two weeks ago. It was hard to tell Julie — his teacher — that he was not to continue, but it was what he wanted.

Kent never intended to play violin professionally, it was no more than an artistic hobby. As such, he can hold the violin and extract out of it some lamenting notes. This entry is for the records. Who knows, maybe one day … ⌘ Read more

A dangerous precedent
The United States government demanded that Apple weakens the security on iOS. Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, replied.

Rather than asking for legislative action through Congress, the FBI is proposing an unprecedented use of the All Writs Act of 1789 to justify an expansion of its authority.

The government would have us remove security features and add new capabilities to the operating system, allow … ⌘ Read more