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Fun with OpenBSD ifconfig / hostname.if... put a new "join" line into hostname.if. And "it didn't work". Until I slapped myself: Obviously adding the join line won't do anything until I run sh /etc/netstart... sometimes I think I'm getting old.

Fixing the meta type of the Nikola RSS feed in OpenBSD's httpd

In blog related news, keen observers might have noticed, that this weblog operates as a static site. That in turn is generated by a so-called "static-site generator". In this case this is Nikola. Nikola is written in Python (which makes it approachable to me, as I've a bit of Python experience). The user experience of operating the weblog with Nikola is also quite nice, especially if you like to work on the command line (and who doesn't?)

The first little snag I actually ran into, was when I was so nerdish as to validate the RSS feed. So it seems that the rss feed was served witih meta-type "application/octet-stream". There are two problems with that:

  1. The rss validation tool complains. It says that most rss readers will cope, but still it is right to complain. Machine readable formats should be handled properly.

  2. Clicking on the rss link in the browser offered to download the xml file. I'm not really reading rss feeds in the browser, but this behaviour is not correct anyway.

So, time to fix things. Looking around at what Nikola generates, there is a plain file on a file system. The meta-type header is not generated there.

Which means the OpenBSD httpd (web server) is not mapping the file extension '.xml' to the meta-type we want it to. Reading up on the httpd.conf(5) man page, I noticed that I can override meta-type definitions. At first I got it wrong, because I thought I can "override" that one meta-type I need different (setting it to application/xml xml)... but then everything else was served as the default "application/octet-stream". So I had to set up all those that are mentioned at being set by default in the man page. No biggie. And no more complaints about the meta-type in the RSS validator.

After posting so much of my homework here, I wonder if any random readers who might turn up will think this is a russian language blog. Maybe I should post something in other languages a bit more often.

Morning gymnastics: The best way to start the day energised and exhausted.

Snow on Naxos, January 2022

Snowed in olive trees on Naxos, January 2022

In January 2022 there was an exceptional amount of snow on Naxos. I spent four wonderful days at home, going for walks at least twice a day. I didn't venture out far, certainly didn't try to drive anywhere. There were blocked roads all over and some road damage in the mountains.

But even around the village, the scenery was quite nice and especially a nice change for me. If you live in a more northern place, this will of course be quite normal to you. On the other hand, if you like to have a look at pictures of snowed in olive trees, here is a small gallery of fotos

If you want a good looking blog, you either need to know CSS or have really great friends. Thank you segun!

RUN BSD

RUNBSD sticker on my laptop in the "klik" cafe

Some time ago I came across this cool site called RUN BSD that promotes the various BSD operating systems by giving out free stickers. Partially I guess it is a sign of the times, as less people are travelling to computer conventions and giving/getting stickers there. But for me, the last years not travelling much anyway, this was a great find. I signed up... and got some stickers a few weeks ago (with the usual long postal run times here).

I like the design and I think it fits well on my "new" thinkpad. Also went to work with mauro in the "klik" cafe in town, first time since forever. Perfect time to grab a pic of the sticker.

So, thank you Mischa and Roman (and whoever else helps with this)! Really great idea and really appreciated!

Finished Beevor's Stalingrad. Do I see this right, in the end he gives us the colour of each fart of any captured german general. But he totally forgets to mention the ca. 10k german holdouts in cellars and sewers, who had to be fought and dug out for a month after the official surrender of the north "Kessel"?

The Anniversary of the End

Today rk heard in one of her favorite radio shows a feature about the anniversary of the end of the battle of Stalingrad. As I've been listening to an audiobook of Beevor's book about Stalingrad, and as I've been reading up about the topic lately for some time (in a reawakened interest in history), she mentioned it to me. Indeed, on the 2nd of February, the remaining German formations in the northern "Kessel" formally capitulated, thus marking the official end of that battle.

Interesting enough, I've never thought about it being the anniversary of the end of the battle. Even though I obviously have a rough idea about the date frame of the event. And even though obviously that's the thing to remember: First, because the start cannot really be pinned down to a single date, and second, because the end of that most gruesome episode in the abyss of human history is what we should remember.

Making bad choices and new installs

There was a time

For a short while, I didn't have a website at all. That was quite a change, since I had a website for about 25 years. I reinstalled my server, now there wasn't anything anymore. That's how it goes.

But now there will be a site again. It will be very minimal, which is nice, it's kind of like moving back to the start. My first website was one page, everything on that one page. I'm not going that far back, but maybe I'll manage to go back to when my weblog was just a little collection of daily thoughts.

The old content... right now I think that I won't bring it back. Time to let the past be the past. It's all playing sandcastles with time and entropy anyway.