Jan Boddez @jan@geekcompass.com

I’ve been using Mastodon for quite a while now—since #DeactiDay, give or take—but have never posted a proper #introduction.

So, I’m a thirtysomething mechanical engineer and lousy guitarist. I work in the semiconductor industry, spend most of my spare time developing for the web, and own quite a few affordable (!) electric guitars, a handful of Raspberry Pis, and a couple hacked together MAME—I know—cabinets. Also, happily married, father of two, wannabe investor.

#introductions

What I’m saying is, interests include #PHP, the #IndieWeb, #PunkRock, #HomeRecording, #art, and personal finance.

Capdown! Liberator! Skin of Tears! The Get Up Kids! Jimmy Eat World! Kris Roe! Mad Caddies! No Use for a Name! No Fun at All! Shelter! Gorilla Biscuits! Bring Me the Horizon, come to think of it. Etc., etc. (× 1000)

Was able to create a surprisingly complete list of shows I’ve ever attended, mostly from memory, old emails, and some googling. A few Facebook and other web pages with old flyers came in handy, too—visual memory much? There’s at least two, and probably more, gaps, but still.

#music

(https://jan.boddez.net/notes/215e5db0fb)

First request is crazy slow, takes like 10–15 seconds. Subsequent requests just fine. As if the VPS gets "spun down" during low-traffic periods or something. (No errors or nothing, and no obvious mistakes in, e.g., docker-compose.yml, like wrong version numbers or so. On the latest branch, ran all migrations, etc.)

Why do I know this? I'm not even a _software_ engineer. (Although, funnily enough, I do happen to be a "certified software tester." Still, I have yet to write my first test, at least professionally.)

And while _all_ of Jetpack’s tests _can_ be removed—or unhooked—I’d rather just hide the one “wrong” test. (Can’t even do that for IndieAuth, whose callback is a non-static method of a class, the instance of which cannot be retrieved by any other code, e.g., using a “singleton pattern” or global var.)

#wordpress

(https://jan.boddez.net/notes/824165aa28)

I wish plugin authors would make the tests they hook into `site_status_tests` and thus WordPress’s Site Health Check _filterable_. I’ve got some instances that still run Jetpack, in _development mode_ and thus _not_ connected to WP.com, and they’re all complaining about a missing token. And IndieAuth somehow thinks I’m missing an auth header while the suggested workaround works just fine.

(https://jan.boddez.net/notes/2120142d02)

Randomly listening to This Is a Standoff’s Be Disappointed on the stereo upstairs. Realizing I saw them live (just) once, in Brussels. Thinking of all the shows I used to go to—how things have changed! Thinking of Rob Weychert’s site of all shows he’s ever been to.

(https://jan.boddez.net/notes/446f289dde)

Disclaimer: Already own a house. Mortgage, too, and the tax break—not a fan, but the rules are the same for everyone—that comes with it. And _not_ looking to take on another reno.

“Is property an asset you want to buy at a discount?” Not necessarily, when stocks are trading at 10 times larger “discounts.” Semiconductor stocks had halved by mid-April, while their first and second quarter results, it turned out, were _hardly, if at all, affected_ by the corona crisis. All are now way up again. Imagine having put all your savings in a pile of bricks instead.

If markets again crash by over 40%—or more, whatevs—I'm not going to be broke or suddenly unable to buy food or clothes, or travel, or buy a new car. My stocks will be worth less and that'll be it. I'll likely just keep buying the same ETFs, at much lower prices. 🤷 I mean, unless actual disaster strikes, like, to me personally, I'm going to be working for at least another thirty years. Also, I'm terribly cheap.

I pretty much just dollar-cost average, try to stay away from any hypes and otherwise care very little.

This guy. “This a story of inspiration to help you get through the downtimes with less stress.”

“I Sold My Entire Investment Portfolio One Hour Ago” https://entrepreneurshandbook.co/i-sold-my-entire-investment-portfolio-one-hour-ago-f71a6ed534c7

Sales coming up. (Literally—in Belgian stores—and metaphorically.) I'm some 30% cash now. (Mostly new savings. I don't sell very often, and when I do, prices typically rise for months still.)

@bekopharm (By "should pick up only articles," I mean I'm "subscribed" to only the `/kind/article` URL, not that I'm, I dunno, actively filtering everything else out or something.)

@bekopharm Did you just add recent posts to your sidebar or something? My feed reader, which should only pick up "articles," seems to suddenly also see all the small bits in the sidebar (for which not all [author, etc.] microformats are there), I think because you've got `class="h-feed"` on the body and they're thus technically part of the feed. (Just asking!)