Old Computer Challenge 2024 - Day 1

So I decided I'd give the #OldComputerChallenge ¹. Not gonna lie, day 1 was truly a challenge.

Setup

Fortunately the OCC rules aren't that very strict, and for a first time I am going to keep it easier.

So I decided I'd try to avoid using my M1 Macbook Pro as much as I can and instead use my wife's no-longer-used first-gen Macbook Air that I first used as a Pop_OS! development box but lately has become my OpenBSD test box. Not the greatest hardware choice because it needed a WiFi chip replaced and I still cannot figure out why bootup is so slow or how I could do better with sleep/wake; but that's just gonna add to the spice.

I didn't ditch anything else. I have to keep using the iPhone for work and there are random "computers" in the home like an Apple TV; or an iPad.

Daily Tasks on Day 1

Here's another challenging but: I use relatively non-standard stuff. I use ProtonMail for e-mail, alongside ProtonVPN, occasionally ProtonDrive. I use Kagi for search and NextDNS. All my work shared calendars are in iCloud and I use iMessage quite a bit.

My life would be SO much easier this week, if I had a "standard" IMAP/SMTP setuo, with some basic XMPP based messaging, or CalDav, or something. But I am locked in now...

So actually e-mail and diaries and stuff, for the most part, are on the iPhone so far.

First Task of the Day: Write a Homily

Universalis, the Catholic Lectionary app is only available natively for the "mainstream" - MacOS and Windoze. Fortunately they offer a web-only version, that is good enough for now, because it goves

me the daily readings. TODO: reverse-engineer the SQLite database...

So I know what I should write on but the how remains a question.

I use nVim and Helix mostly on OpenBSD, and nVim is good 'nuff for Markdown. I will figure out the "syncing" part later.

So I wrote the homily, but printing proved a challenge.

i tried to set up lpr as per the Interwebs' suggestion. And it kinda worked! Kinda. I had to configure something in /etc with parameters I just copypasted off some blog (wish I had known what I was exactly doing), but it kinda worked. I say "kinda" because I couldn't at all figure out how to properly print from Terminal, I only ever got the first few lines out if it.

I resorted to uploading the document to ProtonDrive "just in case", and because it helpfully formatted it to rich text, I ended up pasting it into LibreOffice.

LibreOffice worked perfectly well.

I will have to do some searching about what's the deal with CUPS on OpenBSD, or whether my "one line printing" issue is a common one...

Anyway, I managed to get it all printed, but on a busy Sunday morning it wasn't what I needed. OTOH I have learnt something about lpr and ultimately learning is what this is all about!

=> ¹ OCC