iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Garik @garik.codes · 18/08/2026

You know something's up when the bond market is making headlines. The past month has seen some unprecedented moves--taking the US's Euro reserves to prop up the Yen because our Secretary of the Treasury is trying to limit the selloff of dollars? Great. Everybody strap in.

121

Garik @garik.codes · 17/08/2026

You know how you're supposed to call before you dig?? Well, last week ODOT apparently didn't, and on their first day of a project here in Wallowa County they cut off the internet and mobile networks in one fell swoop. It's our only line in and out for ~5k people 👀

Traffic stopped as ODOT does maintenance work on Highway 82 where they cut out the internet by accident.

000

Garik @garik.codes · 07/08/2026

Real talk: why don't we price homes properly? As in, why do we just throw a sticker price on it and completely ignore interest + time? I know there are real reasons--asset value and insurance and taxation--but in 2021 buying at 2.65%, you'd pay roughly 1.5x sticker price. 2 years later, it was 2.5x

The math of home ownership is really dictated by interest rates

000

Garik @garik.codes · 03/08/2026

Week 3 of this. Will be so, so glad when it's behind us.

000

Garik @garik.codes · 03/08/2026

Yesterday, while driving out for a long run, I put on an episode of Kubernetes Bytes. I was pleased to learn that my setup of 3 NUCs with K3s running on them--from 2018 even--is the exact stack that Chick-fil-A uses on the edge at each of their ~3k stores 🤯

NUCs FTW

https://open.spotify.com/episode/3G4PFhdpv0cQB1XRXSfgkg?si=b73e32e4d6e742bd

120

Garik @garik.codes · 02/08/2026

This is still a crazy accomplishment over the last decade even though China's progress is slowing down due to its continued reliance on coal.

Air pollution in China over the last decade

https://www.ft.com/content/7235e7c3-d185-4d74-b60c-2bd573491341?syn-25a6b1a6=1

010

Garik @garik.codes · 01/08/2026

But, get this, on the website the error was instantly clear: they don't accept Discover. One of these experiences is way better than the other :)

000

Garik @garik.codes · 01/08/2026

Today I was trying to sign up for a free trial with Strava when I got stuck in a loop. In the app I was in no man's land--I'd try to pay, get blocked because of some error, be told to activate, get blocked, and on and on.

100

Garik @garik.codes · 27/07/2026

Post a perfect album from the 90s that isn't Nirvana, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam or Alice In Chains. Two easy ones, in the same vein, I've had on the last little bit:

130

Garik @garik.codes · 26/07/2026

Just a few more fires out there blowing up.

000

Garik @garik.codes · 25/07/2026

In the US, success can be found with the Veterans Affairs program mostly after the 2nd Iraq War. Veterans' homelessness rates have been halved by providing housing vouchers and access to social services. What a thought. 🧵 13/15

Vouchers and access to services halved veteran homelessness in the US

https://www.statista.com/chart/33457/number-of-homeless-veterans-in-the-us/

100

Garik @garik.codes · 25/07/2026

Finland, on the other hand, tried something radical. Give homeless people homes. Full stop. And it's mostly worked. Down ~80% in 40 years. 🧵 12/15

Give people homes and support

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/homelessness-week-2025-learning-from-finland-tony-davies-b5knc/

"Studies have shown that offering dwellings for one long-term homeless person save approximately 15,000€ of public funds per year. For instance, in 2015, the city of Helsinki saved 1.5 million euros with work on housing guidance, and by ensuring a place to call home for hundreds of people."

https://www.focusingfuture.com/eco-city/the-fight-against-homelessness/

100

Garik @garik.codes · 25/07/2026

Here are complaints over the last few years as well as data on homelessness in King County. The unsheltered population has nearly tripled in the last decade, though a methodology change helped inflate numbers some. Seattle is 2nd behind LA in terms of total unsheltered population. 🧵 9/15

Complaints are on the rise, too

https://boltsmag.org/seattle-mayoral-race-tensions-over-homelessness-harrell-wilson/

110

Garik @garik.codes · 25/07/2026

Seattle's mayoral race last year prominently featured homelessness and sweeps as a policy measure. Incumbent Bruce Harrell ultimately lost out. 🧵 8/15

Sweeps in Seattle by mayor

https://gossipguy.net/seattle-swept-homeless-people-2-500-times-in-2024-marking-continued-record-levels-of-displacement/

100

Garik @garik.codes · 25/07/2026

Homelessness dramatically lowers life expectancy, too. It basically lops off 25 years. For perspective, that was the life expectancy around 1900. 🧵 7/15

Life expectancy takes a major hit if you're homeless

https://www.usich.gov/guidance-reports-data/data-trends

100

Garik @garik.codes · 25/07/2026

So that's geography. But what about demography? Sadly, and unsurprisingly, minority and marginalized populations have a tougher time. In particular, Pacific Islanders, LGBTIQ+, and those with disabilities face disproportionate hardships. 🧵 6/15

Hawaii skews Pacific Islanders but still

https://endhomelessness.org/state-of-homelessness/

Those with disabilities face prolonged hardships

https://endhomelessness.org/state-of-homelessness/

LGBTIQ+ youth are unsheltered at higher rates than other groups

https://endhomelessness.org/resources/sharable-graphics/data-snapshot-non-cisgender-homeless-individuals-face-higher-risk-of-being-unsheltered/

100

Garik @garik.codes · 25/07/2026

In fact, 7 or 8 of the top 10 unsheltered populations are in California alone. All are above 50% unsheltered. The other 2 are Portland and Seattle. The West coast dominates unsheltered homelessness. Climate and culture undoubtedly are major factors. 🧵 5/15

Sheltered vs. unsheltered populations vary widely across SW and NE geographies in the US

https://usafacts.org/articles/which-cities-in-the-us-have-the-most-homelessness/

100

Garik @garik.codes · 25/07/2026

However, it does not affect people or places equally. For example, New York is highest in the US in terms of gross and per capita rates. But, most people, especially in winter, are temporarily housed or sheltered. For NYC, it's basically 95%. For LA, that is significantly lower at 35%. 🧵 4/15

Homeless populations in the US

https://usafacts.org/articles/which-cities-in-the-us-have-the-most-homelessness/

Homelessness rates in the US

https://usafacts.org/articles/which-states-have-the-highest-and-lowest-rates-of-homelessness/

100

Garik @garik.codes · 25/07/2026

Homelessness basically boils down to housing availability/affordability issues and problems accessing proper/pertinent medical care and social services. 🧵 3/15

Rent vs. homelessness

https://endhomelessness.org/state-of-homelessness/

Another perspective on rent graphed with homelessness showing a similar relationship

https://usafacts.org/articles/which-states-have-the-highest-and-lowest-rates-of-homelessness/

100

Garik @garik.codes · 24/07/2026

Well this'll impact my ultra training for the next bit :/

Mapping is one of technology's best niches

000

Garik @garik.codes · 24/07/2026

"You could potentially radically drop the cost of healthcare." The possibility is there, for sure, but sadly the pessimist/realist in me has a hard time swallowing it. And don't even get me started on the digital democracy bs at the end.

Not a bad video, but also so much work left to be done.

https://youtu.be/D0DUzZItVyI?si=tUkfDwsbmhxrcCpl&t=2828

000

Garik @garik.codes · 23/07/2026

Getting to Windows 11 is a pain. Even though updates are on and group policies allow updates, nothing happens. I have to download and run the installation assistant. Then, since that doesn't fully do its job, I have to install and execute the PC health check setup.

100

Garik @garik.codes · 22/07/2026

Going from a 28-port PoE managed behemoth next to my desk down to two separate 8-port PoE+ fanless switches has been amazing. So much peace and quiet!

010

Garik @garik.codes · 22/07/2026

This is a sure sign you are at a great coffee shop.

020

Garik @garik.codes · 18/07/2026

Found on the job. It's the little things.

000

Garik @garik.codes · 09/07/2026

After my mistake last week of wiping my Ventoy, I found out that you can't install it from Mac. That is unless you use Mactoy! Pretty nice project that worked for my use case at least. github.com/cashcon57/ma...

000

Garik @garik.codes · 09/07/2026

Just a small reminder about the importance of network monitoring and alerting: we had a site where the AC adapter for an eight-port dumb switch was unintentionally unplugged. There was not any security footage for 6 days because alerting was not fully set up 👀

Make sure your alerting is set properly!

110

Garik @garik.codes · 08/07/2026

Finally gonna try #zettelkasten after being scared for so long. @bobdoto.bsky.social breakin it down

It's not the notes, it's the space between the notes

140

Garik @garik.codes · 07/07/2026

That moment when you realize you just ran fdisk, then wipefs and deleted your Ventoy instead of your hard drive. Classic. This is the equivalent of measure twice, cut once. Always lsblk first to know what you're actually messing with 😶 #Arch #oops

010

Garik @garik.codes · 03/07/2026

I knew this going into it, but it's still true. Maybe even double true.

000

Garik @garik.codes · 03/07/2026

Turns out that if you max out your RAM--default was 2 GB in Rancher Desktop--then everything fails without any real explanation. Fortunately bumping it up in preferences solved it. RAM shortages are everywhere ;)

000

Garik @garik.codes · 01/07/2026

In today's chapter of "It's Always DNS," it was actually DNSSEC options in my browser. Had to exempt my local domain. That took ~20 minutes too long to come around to.

000

Garik @garik.codes · 30/06/2026

You can change it, no??

1110

Garik @garik.codes · 29/06/2026

Well this was a fun + scary 3 minutes #reboot

000

Garik @garik.codes · 29/06/2026

Finally using all these myself--what else am I missing? 🦀🛠️

000

Garik @garik.codes · 28/06/2026

The Dead Internet Theory is alive and well.

Bots > humans. In terms of internet traffic at least.

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/bot-web-traffic-overtaken-human-web-traffic-data-shows-rcna348522

100

Garik @garik.codes · 27/06/2026

Pet peeve: when folks are presenting spreadsheets and are stuck with start menus, windows, tabs, bookmark bars, and titles. Especially for long documents that you'll be going through for hours.

000

Garik @garik.codes · 25/06/2026

Well wouldn't you know, just got done reading Breath and then this fancy Ratatui project comes out. In case anyone else needs a little breath pacer in the terminal :)

Breath summed up in 2 paragraphs.

https://www.google.com/books/edition/Breath/a1CMEQAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=5.5+breath&pg=PA295&printsec=frontcover

Respire source code and TUI

https://github.com/ElevenJune/respire

000

Garik @garik.codes · 25/06/2026

A couple week's ago I met up with a buddy who was asking for help with consulting and freelancing. Mostly, though, she bitched about how dumb businesses are to use AI for literally every flyer or poster ever. I agree, and so for my courtyard party I made this beauty the old fashioned way.

000

Garik @garik.codes · 24/06/2026

To quote Agent Ryan, "It's a goddamn cook!"

000

Garik @garik.codes · 24/06/2026

So last night I had the gumption to manually set up Obsidian sync with GitHub on my phone! It was pretty sweet--had to get termux and termux:boot from F-Droid, install packages, create directories, switch permissions, navigate the file system, make a script, and set a cronjob. But it works :)

020

Garik @garik.codes · 23/06/2026

In today's fun + wild distraction, I learned about why JMAP is superior to IMAP, plus was reminded of the insane complexity of email in general. It's been 50 years of tacking one thing on another and patching this or that. Stalwart--built in Rust btw--is a self-hosted email server that looks rad!

JMAP > IMAP although it is JSON. But better is good enough.

https://jmap.io/

Stalwart's epic slide deck: https://stalw.art/slides/1

000

Garik @garik.codes · 23/06/2026

I don't travel as much as I used to, but this is about right for the last year or so. Thanks, @dawarich.bsky.social, for a fun distraction today.

121

Garik @garik.codes · 22/06/2026

TIL that curl doesn't really work in the default PowerShell because it is just is an alias for Invoke-WebRequest. You have to run curl.exe for it to work correctly. And that PowerShell 5 and PowerShell 7 are not the same thing, even remotely? And that this is all very confusing.

When curl is not curl. Thank you, PowerShell 5.x.x

100

Garik @garik.codes · 17/06/2026

Finally got starship up and going at work. It makes terminal hopping much nicer!

000

Garik @garik.codes · 16/06/2026

Other headaches waiting to happen. But think about the learning opportunities! Took me an embarrassing 10 minutes to realize the secure boot settings are buried in initial setup on ProxMox, see: forum.proxmox.com/threads/disa...

000

Garik @garik.codes · 08/06/2026

Had to make a change to my feed:

020