Me
My name is Mark Doliner. I’m a computer software engineer living and working in North Carolina, USA. I worked in the San Francisco Bay area for 13 years before moving back East in 2019. My email address is mark@kingant.net.
Pages
Me, Elsewhere
Other Stuff
Categories
Archives
Category Archives: Computers
Mastodon and ActivityPub
I’ve started using Mastodon. It’s an open alternative to Twitter. “Open” meaning there’s no central controlling entity. Tech-savvy people can run their own server and servers can talk to each other (referred to as federation). If you’re interested in joining … Continue reading
Posted in All, Computers
Leave a comment
Let’s Encrypt is Fantastic
Apparently I haven’t posted this anywhere so I just want to go on record: Let’s Encrypt is amazing and fantastic. In five years the percentage of web pages loaded by Firefox using HTTPS went from 30% to 80%. That’s huge! … Continue reading
Posted in All, Computers
Leave a comment
Using Salt to Manage Server Configuration
Background I’ve been using Salt (for clarity and searchability it’s also sometimes referred to as Salt Project or Salt Stack) to manage the configuration of my web server since 2014. It’s similar to Puppet, Chef (I guess they call it … Continue reading
Posted in Computers
Leave a comment
Firefox as a Snap package in Ubuntu 22.04
In Ubuntu 22.04 Firefox is installed from a Snap package and not a dpkg like most other things and the update experience is awful. I get this notification: However, closing Firefox and reopening it does not cause it to be … Continue reading
Posted in Computers
Leave a comment
SlowCOVIDNC app
Update 2022-08-13: A few months ago the app started crashing and kept crashing so I uninstalled it. Looking at the comments on Play Store, other people have had the same problem. That was on a three and a half year … Continue reading
Posted in Computers
Leave a comment
Laptop shopping
I bought a laptop four months ago. A 13″ MacBook Air with Retina display, 16 GB memory and 256 GB SSD. I was laptopless after leaving Honor. I have a great desktop but I knew a laptop would be useful … Continue reading
Posted in All, Computers
Leave a comment
Interesting ideas, technologies, and companies
I’m in the market for a job! I left my old job at Honor in San Francisco at the end of February. I love Honor, loved working there, I’m proud to have been a part of their growth over the … Continue reading
Posted in All, Computers
Leave a comment
Rounding numbers in Python 2 and Python 3
There are two changes to rounding between Python 2 and Python 3 that programmers should watch out for when migrating. I realize that Python 3 has been out for ten years, but I also know there are still people using … Continue reading
Posted in Computers
Leave a comment