+ Modeled after my ViewSonic E70 CRT monitor, this website
+ operates in a similar way that a computer would, and it’s
+ designed at least somewhat after the Windows XP operating
+ system.
+
+
+ I’m a transfem somewhere in my twenties, and I enjoy anime,
+ manga, video games, computers, and pretty much about
+ anything nerdy!
+
+
+
+
+ I’m also a huge proponent of free and open source software,
+ as well as encryption, privacy, and security.
+
+
+ I hope you enjoy browsing about this weird little website of
+ mine!
+
About a month ago (give or take) I purchased a Nexus 7 2013 (WiFi)
+with the intent of flashing Ubuntu Touch (OTA 9) onto it. I had
+previously flashed Ubuntu Touch onto a Nexus 5 that I had gotten for
+Christmas last year, again with the intent of flashing Ubuntu Touch onto
+it, so I knew what I could look forward to and what I could expect.
+
Flashing Ubuntu Touch
+
Flashing Ubuntu Touch onto the Nexus 7 was pretty easy overall. First
+thing I had to do was install adb and fastboot
+onto my computer (running Ubuntu), as well as the
+ubports-installer snap.
+
+
Next, on the nexus 7 I needed to enable developer mode, enable USB
+debugging, unlock the bootloader, and re-enable dev mode and USB
+debugging. After that, I hooked up the Nexus 7 to my PC and launched the
+UBports Installer. It detected that the Nexus 7 was connected and pulled
+up the menu for flashing it right away. I clicked the needed buttons to
+flash it and let it do it's thing.
+
Initial Setup
+
After Ubuntu Touch was flashed onto the Nexus 7, I went through the
+initial setup of the device. First was the standard stuff like setting
+up WiFi and creating a user account.
+
After that, I made sure any updates were applied and went on to
+install the apps I use from the Open Store, as well as any that I made
+myself.
+
Day-to-Day Usage
+
Using this thing more-or-less every day for about the past month, it
+has worked great! I use it to check the weather, browse my Mastodon
+feed, shop on Amazon, and more!
+
Papercuts
+
Of course, my experience has not been perfect. While I have not had
+any major issues using Ubuntu Touch on the Nexus 7, here are some
+papercuts that I have come across:
+
+
Screen orrientaion is locked to landscape on lockscreen
+
WiFi may not auto-reconnect. Pulling down WiFi menu may reconnect
+Wifi. Disabling WiFi and re-enabling reconnects WiFi
+
Username on lockscreen does not move when keyboard pulls up
+
+
Summary
+
All in all, I love this thing! Ubuntu Touch is maturing nicely, and
+is very much in a usable, daily driver state. The Nexus 7 is a nice
+tablet, with a good screen resolution, feel, and size.
+
Of course, you may suffer from a lack of apps compaired to what you
+may be used to from iOS or Android, however there is a nice selection of
+apps available on the Open Store that may fill almost any role you need
+them to.
+
Overall, I would definitely suggest this setup to anyone wanting a
+nice tablet with a free OS on it, or simply a nice tablet experience
+overall!
+
Afterword: App Picks
+
Here are some apps I recommend using on Ubuntu Touch:
I have been an Android user all my life, I've never owned an iPhone
+before early September 2023
+
I very much like the design of iPhones, from how the hardware is
+(usually) designed, to how the home screen is designed, to how the icons
+look, to the animations and their fluidity
+
To TL;DR that, I like how they look, always have
+
+
+
That's not to say that I don't have my issues with iOS, and Apple's
+stuff in general
+
For starters, iOS is a closed-source operating system
+
One cannot simply look at the source code of it, make and contribute
+changes, and if so desired, redistribute their own spin of it
+
Another point of contention I've always had with Apple's devices, and
+one reason it took me so long to purchase an iPhone, is the cost
+
That's not to say that everything that isn't an iPhone is like half
+the price of one, but compared to the price of something like a Google
+Pixel 4a (which, by the way, something more privacy respecting like
+GrapheneOS or CalyxOS can be put on), it's quite a bit more (and yes, I
+am well aware of the iPhone SEs, which have roughly only been about
+$50 USD more than Google's [Pixel a] series phones)
+
Customization was another point of contention, however as my age
+steadily increases, I find that I want to fiddle with things less
+frequently, and like to have something that works for me and I don't
+have to mess around with all the time
+
Anyways, that's enough griping for the time being, let's get into my
+actual experiences with Apple's stuff
+
I Got… an iPhone?!
+
I purchased an iPhone XR off of someone I know for a very generous
+$100 USD at the beginning of September this year (the going
+rate at the time was around $220 USD), with the intended
+purpose of using it as an appliance for it's better facial tracking via
+the Face ID camera system compared to an Android camera or a stand alone
+webcam for my VTubing activities (which I swear I will get back into at
+some point!)
+
Since I had just acquired this device, and I had never really had the
+chance to toy around with an iPhone before, I decided that I would try
+using it for a bit, to see what the experience is like, and to see if
+how I like having things setup would translate well onto an iPhone
+(plus, I wanted to be able to test some things out, like XMPP clients
+for iOS, so I can better recommend those types of things to people that
+use an iPhone compared to an Android device)
+
Initial Fiddling with the
+Device
+
First off, allow me to get this out of the way: If you primarily use
+a Linux computer, and especially if you do not have a Windows or macOS
+machine in your home, forget about plugging the iPhone into your PC and
+doing anything with it
+
It can be done, somewhat, but trust me, save yourself the headache,
+it ain't worth it in my opinion
+
The first real issue, for me, that I ran into with trying to setup
+this iPhone like a daily driver was that the experience with trying to
+use a KeePass database for password management is… less than
+desirable
+
I ended up setting up Bitwarden and importing my KeePass database
+into it (which was really easy, by the by), and quite frankly, the
+experience of using Bitwarden on an iPhone, and even an Android device
+for that matter, is pretty sweet
+
Bitwarden on a Linux PC, at least in my use, leaves a small bit to be
+desired compared to using KeePassXC, primarily in the auto-typing
+category (or seemingly lack-there-of), but overall I actually enjoy
+using Bitwarden
+
Starting to Use an iPhone
+
I decided that, since I wanted to try using my newly acquired iPhone
+XR as a daily driver, I'd try using some of the conveniences that come
+with it, that I have avoided their contemporaries on other devices
+
So, I setup Face ID unlocking, and might I just say, it works REALLY
+nicely, and something I didn't know about, is that if you aren't looking
+right at the device, even if your face is pointed at it, it will not
+unlock the thing until you actually look at it, so that's a nice little
+touch that I was unaware of
+
I also put some of my cards in Apple Wallet, because it had been AGES
+since I last used tap-to-pay on a phone, due to using custom Android
+ROMs for the past few years without any of the Google-y bits, and let me
+just say, I missed tap-to-pay
+
+
+
Since I was unable to get my downloaded music collection onto the
+iPhone via the means I had available and was willing to do, I decided to
+give Apple Music a try, since I could get a one month free trial of
+it
+
It's perfectly fine, no real qualms with it, aside from the usual “I
+don't have any ownership of this music whatsoever and any given song,
+album, or artist can be ripped right out from under me at any given
+moment” stuff, but that's how I feel about all streaming platforms
+
I'd say I definitely prefer it to Spotify, because 1) it's more
+privacy respecting in comparison, and 2) I'm still bitter at Spotify for
+removing SCANDAL for a period of time, and they can go piss in a river
+for all I care
+
Where is She Now?
+
Well… okay hear me out here
+
So I've now been using an iPhone as my primary mobile computing
+device for just shy of two months, and quite frankly… I rather enjoy
+it
+
I have just recently purchased a brand new (pink!) iPhone 15, along
+with a brand new (also pink!) Apple Watch Series 9 (and a pink case and
+watchband as well!)
+
I have honestly come to enjoy using an iPhone, and am finding real
+value in what Apple has on offer, especially when one starts to possess
+multiple Apple devices (in my case, an iPhone and an Apple Watch)
+
I am leaning more into the convenience side of them, most definitely,
+and quite frankly I am finding actual joy in doing so and feel that it
+is providing actual value for me
+
I am still maintaining using essential services outside of Apple's
+ecosystem though, such as continuing to use Nextcloud for my contacts,
+calendar, and cloud storage, and Bitwarden versus iCloud Keychain for my
+passwords
+
Raivo, with any syncing turned off, has been my choice for a TOTP 2FA
+app
+
The Dynamic Island on the iPhone 15 is actually pretty nice, nothing
+groundbreaking, but what it does bring to the table is rather
+pleasant
+
+
+
I also rather like the Apple Watch
+
The haptic feedback wen turning the crown feels nice, the ability to
+easily find the phone that it's paired to if you misplace it is really
+nice to have, the fact that I can use Apple Pay with it instead of
+having to pull out my phone is really convenient, plus, and this is a
+major one here folks, I can spy on the kitties in Neko Atsume with
+it!
+
Are You Done Yet?
+
Mostly (#^-^#)\
+
+
+
Seriously though, I am finding that these things are bringing some
+serious value to me, even with all of things about them that annoy
+me
+
iOS isn't open-source; the only way to install apps without
+“jailbreaking” is through the App Store, which requires you to have an
+Apple ID, which I think asks for WAY too much personal information up
+front; without a Windows or macOS computer, you can pretty much forget
+about doing virtually anything that you'd be used to with an Android
+device, and even then you still lose out in comparison in that field
+
However, those gripes of mine are almost certainly not going to
+matter to most people, and to be frank, I'd sooner trust Apple with my
+shit than Google, Amazon, or Facebook/Meta
+
+
+
Anyways, I like using an iPhone now, I like the Apple Watch, I enjoy
+the conveniences they bring, I very well may end up sticking with
+Apple's stuff long-term, these things are making me happy
+
Don't shame people for using things that aren't the most private or
+secure, be practical when you are trying to help people with that type
+of stuff
+
I hope you enjoyed reading this, apologies for everything being kinda
+everywhere, I'll catch ya in the next one!
+
Software
+Recommendations for the iPhone
+
+
Raivo (TOTP 2FA)
+
Bitwarden (password management)
+
Monal/Siskin IM (XMPP)
+
Firefox Focus (general web browsing)
+
Brave (for using YouTube with a lot of the features of having
+YouTube Premium, without the downsides of having the actual app (TL;DR a
+more privacy respecting way to use YouTube))
+
Neko Atsume: Kitty Collector (for seeing cute kitties!)
After acquiring my first iPhone, I stumbled across a video on YouTube
+by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) [1] about how
+thieves are steeling peoples iPhones and, with just the victim's
+passcode, completely and permanently locking victims out of their Apple
+account (also detailed in another video [2] by
+the WSJ)
+
Both videos [1][2], as
+well as a video by Techlore [3] made (at least
+seemingly) in response to the WSJ's reporting, provide some guidance on
+what you can do to help protect yourself against something like his
+happening
+
In this blog post of mine, I'm really just gonna be outlining in a
+readable format, what was suggested by both the WSJ [1][2] and Techlore [3] on what can be done to help protect against
+something like this happening to you if your iPhone does get stolen
+
Use a Privacy Screen
+Protector
+
This one's kind of a low hanging fruit, but something as simple as
+using a privacy screen protector can help, simply because one won't be
+able to see what is on your screen if viewing your device from the
+side
+
I got myself this
+one off of Amazon, which seems to be a somewhat popular brand of
+screen protectors for iPhone (they have both normal and privacy screen
+protectors for iPhone form at least the XR up to the 15 series)
+
Use Longer, More Complex
+Passcodes
+
Using a complex passcode goes a long way, especially if it's an
+alpha-numeric passcode (where both numbers and letters are used)
+
Something like [111111] or [123456] is
+pretty easy to guess, but having a passcode like [727873],
+or even better, something like
+[I 4m 7h3 m057 1337 h4x0r 3v3r!] will improve the security
+of your device
+
And if typing out something like the alpha-numeric passcode I made up
+above every time you want to unlock your phone seems like a gigantic
+pain in the rear, you always have the option to
+
Use Biometric Unlock Options
+
Setting up either Face ID (on iPhone X and newer) or Touch ID (on
+iPhone 5-8, and iPhone SE (up to at least Gen II)), in combination with
+a strong passcode, will secure your device even further
+
With biometric unlocking, i.e. via Face ID, you won't need to enter
+your passcode every time you want to unlock your device, so you won't be
+inconvenienced by having a strong passcode, and the more you use it, the
+less likely a potential thief will be able to discover your iPhone's
+passcode
+
Create a Recovery Key
+
One of the things the aforementioned videos [1][2] thieves do is they
+create a recovery key for your Apple ID, which prevents you from using
+other account recovery options, and Apple from being able to do anything
+to help you per their own guidelines
+
So with that in mind, I STRONGLY recommend creating one yourself as
+soon as possible, even without concern for this type of thing happening,
+and storing it in someplace safe THAT IS NOT ON YOUR IPHONE
+
Plus, as explained in the Techlore video [3],
+this is a required step for enabling iCloud Advance Data Protection
+anyways, so if that's something that you have an interest in doing at
+some point, you'll already be ahead of the game there
+
To do this:
+
+
1: Open [Settings]
+
2: Tap on your Apple ID at the top of the Settings app
+
3: Tap [Sign-In & Security]
+
4: Tap [Account Recovery]
+
5: Tap [Recovery Key]
+
6: Enable [Recovery Key]
+
+
It will then display a recovery key, which you'll want to jot down,
+as the next screen will have you input it
+
Remember to store it somewhere safe, and off of your iPhone, lest you
+may be screwed in the future
+
Here's the link to
+Apple's
+support page regarding setting up a recovery key, should you wish to
+view it
+
Use
+Screen Time to Prevent Changing Your Passcode or Apple ID Password
+
As outlined in Techlore's video [3], and
+mentioned in one of WSJ's videos about this attack [2], you can make use of the Screen Time feature of
+the iPhone to lockdown the ability to change the device's passcode, as
+well as your Apple ID's password
+
To do this:
+
+
1: Open [Settings]
+
2: Tap [Screen Time]
+
3: Tap [Content & Privacy Restrictions]
+
4: Enable [Content & Privacy Restrictions]
+
5: Tap [Passcode Changes]
+
6: Tap [Don't Allow]
+
7: Tap [< Back]
+
8: Tap [Account Changes]
+
9: Tap [Don't Allow]
+
10: Go back to the [Screen Time] section
+
11: Tap [Change Screen Time Passcode]
+
+
From there, it will have you set a four (4) digit passcode which will
+be required to make any changes to anything under [Content & Privacy
+Restrictions]
+
When you are creating this passcode, be sure that you DO NOT MAKE IT
+THE SAME OR SIMILAR TO YOUR DEVICE'S PASSCODE
+
Use a
+Password Manager Other than iCloud Keychain
+
First off, if you're using a password manager, congratulations!
+
However, if you're using one properly, and that one is the one built
+into iCloud Keychain, then if you are locked out of your Apple ID,
+you're kinda screwed
+
What I would suggest, as well as what Techlore suggested [3], is to use a separate password manager
The Bitwarden app in iPhone can be used as your default autofill
+service, and can be unlocked via biometric, so you won't have to type in
+you (STRONG) master password every time you wish to access it
+
As a plus, if you have Face ID unlock for Bitwarden turned on, it
+will mandate the vault's master password to unlock it if Face ID can't
+unlock it (y'know, like, if someone steals your iPhone)
+
Wrapping Up
+
That's about all I've got for this one folks
+
Some other things that were mentioned between the three videos [1][2][3] were things like
+
+
Using separate passcodes for sensitive apps (i.e. banking apps) when
+able, that are different and unrelated to your device's
+
Not storing photos of sensitive documents (i.e. driver's license,
+tax documents) on your mobile device
+
Not storing banking passwords a password manager (I do see this as a
+major plus for overall security, however I personally find it to be too
+big of a hit to convenience, so you do you on this one)
I’ve… kinda not done anything on here for a while now, huh?
+
I mean, I updated the look of my website to function kinda like
+Windows XP, but I haven’t really done much in the way of blogging since…
+2023?!
+
Damn, over a year and a half huh?
+
What I’ve Been Up to
+
Where should I begin…
+
Oh, I know!
+
Major one first, I’ve got a girlfriend now!
+
We’ve been together for about as long as it’s been before my last
+blog posts regarding Apple stuff (she’s not responsible for my lack of
+blogging I swear!)
+
She’s funny, smart, kind, sweet, and just a genuinely awesome person,
+I truly love her from the bottom of my heart!
Been playing a bunch of
+Warframe as
+usual, however I’ve kinda been sleeping on it for a while now, just
+kinda been taking a break, I’ll be back on it again with a vengeance
+once Isleweaver drops on the 25th
+
Also have been playing some Battlefield 4 with some peoples recently
+on PC (so nice to play this game again, miss my stuff from Xbox though),
+and also played R.E.P.O. for the first time as well!
+
Outside of gaming stuff, I’ve switched all my computers (sans my
+media PC (soon TM)) to Debian, with ZFS on root, and ZFSBootMenu
+
Been running Debian Trixie on them all, which at the time of writing
+this is still in Testing, but is expected to become Stable potentially
+next month
+
I also installed Debian Bookworm with the same setup on my neighbor’s
+laptop, and will be doing the same for their new-to-them desktop once
+the remaining components that were missing have arrived
+
Shifting gears into Apple related stuff, I got the M2 iPad Air when
+it came out, in blue, along with the Apple Pencil Pro to go along with
+it
+
I also got my hands on two (2) black HomePod Minis a few months ago
+that were on clearance at a big box retailer near where I work for
+around $50 USD each
+
And they work rather nicely as stereo speakers for the Apple TV 4K
+(with ethernet) that I ordered new off the Apple Store app
+
Are You Done Yet?
+
I suppose so
+
Well anyways, with the recent redoing of how I
+craft my website, I should be doing more blog posts now, whenever I
+can think of something that I wanna write about, since all I gotta do
+now is write the Markdown for them and have my WebGen script take care
+of the rest for me
+
Here’s a fun fact before I sign off,
+Kate has a
+spell check toggle that I didn’t know about, which means I can use my
+favorite text editor to write these blog posts while still catching any
+incorrect spellings I might make along the way!
You’ve likely heard of static site generators before, there certainly
+seems to be no shortage of them
+
Just to name a few off the top of my head, there’s
+Hugo,
+Jekyll, and
+11ty
+
I personally have never found static site generators appealing,
+primarily because I didn’t want to be constrained to what themes were
+available to them, nor did I want to have to craft my website around how
+a given static site generator functioned
+
I also am “one of those” types of people that like to remove as many
+layers of abstraction as I can from what I am doing, and get down into
+the nitty gritty of things, partially because I want to know how they
+work, partially because I want to not be reliant on a layer of
+abstraction that hides what’s going on under the hood from me
+
That said, at least for the ones that you generate from Markdown
+files, I can see the appeal, since Markdown is easy to write, meaning
+you can, say, publish blog posts more often and more easily, compared to
+having to write out all the HTML each time you want to make a new one
+(even if you have an HTML file saved somewhere that has most of what’s
+needed in it already, ya still have to write the new HTML in there)
+
I personally like writing out the HTML, it allows me to fine-craft my
+site to be exactly how I like it, although it can be rather time
+consuming to do, even for something so simple as writing a blog post or
+something (which I totally do on the regular…)
+
Where I Was
+
So the most recent version of my website (as of late June 2025) was
+completely hand-crafted in HTML and CSS
+
I wrote everything in raw HTML, from the initial page where ya click
+the power button on the monitor to get into the site proper, to any blog
+posts I had written, which while fun, honestly did make it a slight
+chore when I wanted to make a new page, or write a new blog post (same
+difference for all intents and purposes)
+
What I Used to Do
+
Before the most recent (again, at the time of writing) redesign of my
+website, I made a nice little Bash script I called WebGen
+
It’s a wrapper for a program called
+Pandoc, which can
+take multiple kinds of document files (i.e. Markdown) as input, and
+convert them into multiple other kinds of document files (i.e. HTML) as
+output
+
Pandoc also has the ability to use ‘template’ files for the output,
+allowing, say, an HTML file to be used as a template that the content
+of, say, a Markdown file, can be slapped into at a specific place in the
+HTML
+
So my little WebGen script would scour a directory for Markdown
+files, convert them into HTML, put the converted HTML into the
+designated spot in the template HTML file, and output that to an HTML
+file where specified by the Markdown file
+
Twas pretty simple
+
What I’m doing now
+
After doing the whole “I’m gonna write everything on this website
+from complete scratch” thing for a while, I decided I’d take a look at
+that old WebGen script of mine again
+
I modified it to source a config file that houses where the root
+directory of the website is, where the Markdown files are kept, and
+where the template HTML files are located
+
The Markdown files now contain the title of the page (which Pandoc
+puts in the final output HTML), the name of the template HTML file to
+use, and the location of the new page relative to the web root
+
So the script crawls the directory of Markdown files, one-by-one
+parses the location and template from each Markdown file, and does the
+aforementioned stuff, and bang, web pages!
+
Long Story Short
+
I cleaned up WebGen, made some new template HTML files from the two
+main page styles of my website, and am using it again for non-bespoke
+pages on my website, especially blog posts
+
If
+I Wanna Use This Thing of Yours Myself, Where Can I Get it?
+
I’ll have it up on my Gitea whenever I get around to spinning up a
+new instance of it, and I’ll update this here post when I do
+
I also plan on rewriting WebGen in Python so that people on OSes
+besides Linux can make use of it if they so wish
+
+
diff --git a/blog/feed.rss b/blog/feed.rss
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..37542da
--- /dev/null
+++ b/blog/feed.rss
@@ -0,0 +1,116 @@
+
+
+
+
+ easthighNerd's Blog
+
+
+ https://www.easthighnerd.net/blog/
+
+
+ It's my blog, what else is there to say?
+
+
+
+ https://www.easthighnerd.net/res/img/favicon.gif
+
+
+ easthighNerd's Blog
+
+
+ https://www.easthighnerd.net/
+
+
+
+ en-us
+
+
+ Sat, 21 June 2025 15:48:24 -0400
+
+
+
+ Hello Again
+
+
+ https://www.easthighnerd.net/blog/2025/06/hello-again/
+
+
+ 64633128-6063-49f6-aa4a-eaddd3954071
+
+
+ Sat, 21 June 2025 13:32:17 -0400
+
+
+ I’ve… kinda not done anything on here for a while now, huh?
+
+
+
+
+ Static Site Generators
+
+
+ https://www.easthighnerd.net/blog/2025/06/static-site-generators/
+
+
+ c3452a3b-5f11-476e-bb7f-9f8e382b5169
+
+
+ Sat, 21 June 2025 13:32:04 -0400
+
+
+ You’ve likely heard of static site generators before, there certainly seems to be no shortage of them
+
+
+
+
+ Secure Apple ID Against iPhone Theft
+
+
+ https://www.easthighnerd.net/blog/2023/11/secure-apple-id-against-iphone-theft/
+
+
+ 102d83aa-906f-4735-a659-24d7f12c2325
+
+
+ Wed, 01 November 2023 00:00:01 -0400
+
+
+ After acquiring my first iPhone, I stumbled across a video on YouTube by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) about how thieves are steeling peoples iPhones and, with just the victim's passcode, completely and permanently locking victims out of their Apple account (also detailed in another video by the WSJ)
+
+
+
+
+ My Experience with Apple
+
+
+ https://www.easthighnerd.net/blog/2023/11/my-experience-with-apple/
+
+
+ 67057fa4-1bac-415d-b20d-c356a6fb0d54
+
+
+ Wed, 01 November 2023 00:00:00 -0400
+
+
+ Okay, we have some stuff to get into here
+
+
+
+
+ Nexus 7 2013 WiFi and Ubuntu Touch
+
+
+ https://www.easthighnerd.net/blog/2019/05/nexus-7-2013-wifi-and-ubuntu-touch/
+
+
+ 431d9310-a9f2-443e-8f3c-92e6021e0c51
+
+
+ Sun, 26 May 2019 00:00:00 -0400
+
+
+ About a month ago (give or take) I purchased a Nexus 7 2013 (WiFi) with the intent of flashing Ubuntu Touch (OTA 9) onto it. I had previously flashed Ubuntu Touch onto a Nexus 5 that I had gotten for Christmas last year, again with the intent of flashing Ubuntu Touch onto it, so I knew what I could look forward to and what I could expect.
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+ [ Blog | easthighNerd ]
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