Blog – Page 3 – S-Config

Webrings – Death and a Rebirth.

June 12, 2024June 12, 2023 by S-Config

Why a "Webring" page? Why revive the dead? During the start of the internet (approximately the early 90s or so) search engines weren't what you call as big and overreaching as they are nowadays. When you searched for something on the internet search engines of old often would only care about the baseline result of ... Read more

Self-hosting.

September 28, 2024May 27, 2023 by S-Config

previously , previously , previously

Inspiration to self-host is.....

As some are aware we decided to participate in this ancient practice known as webrings. This technique occurred because social networks didn't really exist in the 90s. You can't really blast your site out on IRC without someone bitching at best; Or, getting K-lined by an Op at worst. Finally, search engines back in the day were not elegant and often missed a lot of personal sites (Very much like they do today but for different reasons.) Usually to join a webring can be as simple as submitting a site and hoping the other side believes you are human enough to enter. Other webrings tend to go through forums in which people get support and offer commentaries on a thread.

One of those comments we found interesting was one that criticized the overall quality of self-hosting within the Webring community. That there are some that put up a website with some graphics, have one "Hello World" blog and if they have other categories leave construction gif icons everywhere and call it a day. It's ironically very Geocities of them and fits the 90's website aesthetic to a tee! But we've also heard of comments from people who build websites asking for help that they aren't even sure what to talk about once they got the site going.

Perhaps this is a good opportunity to help. So read on if you wish to listen to our diatribes further!

“No JavaScript” Brutalisim.

December 18, 2023May 13, 2023 by S-Config

S-Config.com - Now with No JavaScript.

I'm not sure how exactly I ended up at this point. Or to rephrase this question:

Why didn't we do this sooner? - S

But after about 3 days of fucking around with WordPress functions. We've now disabled JQuery on the front end which is responsible for running the mass majority of WordPress-related JavaScript. What does that mean to you the average reader? Well! Outside of dropping our payload by half which will result in faster load times. Those rocking the No-Script plugin will have the exact same experience as those NOT rocking the No-Script plugin. Neat huh?

A website devoid of all JavaScript is certainly an aesthetic.

The diatribes continue. Would you like to know more?

Taking a step back – PI Vs. Thin Client.

July 20, 2024April 9, 2023 by S-Config

We've blogged about single-board computers like the Raspberry Pi in the past. We got our power issues resolved. And in general, we loved them!

Originally these single-board machines were designed to teach children how computers worked by giving them access direct to processors via GPIO. Something that allowed perfect timing and was easy enough for children to program was also something the industrial world wanted as well. Eventually, the "PI" became the Swiss army knife of computing. From RL applications to running them as a low-power server. These were great.

But as time marches on along with world events. Something has me reconsidering my decision as the "PI" being the end-all solution to everything.

Read on to continue this diatribe.

Goodbye FooGallery. Hello CSS gallery.

December 18, 2023March 18, 2023 by S-Config

It's time to say goodbye to FooGallery.

We know it's a little back and to back to be talking about this plugin again after we simply turned off the Videos in our previous blog. But to keep things short and sweet for everyone reading quickly here. This blog has not disabled a beautiful, but expensive both in cost and bandwidth plugin in WordPress. That we're not stopping with just video. We're ripping it all out:

FooGallery
Foobox

Read on if you wish to continue with more web-admin diatribes.

Two dollar keyboard.

December 18, 2023March 14, 2023 by S-Config

In shorter blogging news...

We were at the local Goodwill as it's something I used to do a ton when working with Xbox Controllers but something caught my eye in the rack of keyboards. A legit RedDragon keyboard that had a price tag of $2.00 (USD)

Well then...

Intel Arc A380 – Does it encode?!?

October 30, 2024March 8, 2023 by S-Config

Yes, the Intel Arc A380 encodes video! Wow! Easy Peasy!

Phew! That was an easy article! Pack it up boys, girls and synths! It's time to move on to the next article! :D - S

Okay, obviously that would be a cop-out and a sad excuse to get clicks. But unlike shitty AI bloggers. We have video to back up our proof!

As Covid, chip shortage, cryptocurrency, and video card prices got crazy stupid in 2022. We witnessed businesses spend $450 on a Geforce 1050ti (normally $125 at the time) because they needed SOMETHING to work with Adobe products. Getting a 30xx series Nvidia card was just about $2,000 which given it was supposed to come at an initial price point of $600 the world of 3-D graphics cards was undoubtedly a stupid time! Now, these companies claim that they learned from their mistakes and will start building chip companies in different countries around the world instead of coming from a single location which sounds great and all. But that unfortunately will not be tested until we get another incident that shits out the entire world economy or shipping industry.

But then, out from the shadows of onboard laptop graphics chipsets. Intel announced the "ARC" series. An affordable graphics card that is good for gaming and applications. This article is going to focus a lot more on the video editing side of the ARC as it seems to shine better than the gaming side of things.

Would you like to know more? Read on!

About FooGallery Video.

June 29, 2024February 22, 2023 by S-Config

S-Config will be going back to HTML5 markup.

When we started this site we became beta testers for FooPlugins. Originally, we paid $60 for a license which then became a lifetime after the beta program was complete. This enabled us to get a free lifetime license for both "FooBox" (Which let's be honest it's just a javascript lightbox with a coat of paint) and "FooGallery". Instead of spending stupid amounts of money to present videos and artwork to you the viewer. It can all be done for next to nothing. We were happy customers of FooGallery for a long time. However, as the years went on we started to see less and less value in the product as it stands today. This especially hits home for our video blogging where we self-host every video for every blog.

In part because we threw the middle fingers at YouTube. But also in part that this website is reachable on protocols beyond the clear-net as our black-mirror page informs everyone.

The licensing policies have changed. Video encoding has changed to make the entire plugin too rigid. And finally, because of how much JavaScript is involved with that program, it's time to slowly sever ties with FooPlugins.

Read on if you would like to hear my web-admin diatribes:

State of the blog 2023.

January 5, 2025January 8, 2023 by S-Config

Holy crap. It's 2023.

This is the year where we should be running around in man-bikinis in the UK worshipping a God that vomits guns Zardoz style! Okay Zardoz, the penis may be evil. You MAY have a point. But we're keeping it regardless of how many H&K fully automatics you try to give us.

Okay, we know Zardoz is set in 2293 because the movie tells you and thus the meme is wrong. Guess the internet is impatient and can't wait another 270 years. The consolation prize is that anything that gets people to watch this hot mess of sci-fi is bonus points in our book!

Looking beyond that. We at S-Config wish you guys a happy new year. A look back on 2022. Perhaps what we hope to accomplish in 2023. Read on if you want to know more.

2nd try at the Fediverse.

December 18, 2023December 28, 2022 by S-Config

Twitter is a shit show. So let's try the Fediverse... Again!

It's no surprise to anyone who has read my previous articles that we had a bad taste in our mouths during our first Fediverse run. So much so that we took down our pro-mastodon post when individuals within the instance we were on decided to shout out their communist manifesto stating sites like mine should be destroyed (we're already dancing madly on a lip of a volcano, we really don't need help in downing the server.) We published, much like Facebook, Twitter, and every other major corporate site out there. We are a centralized model. Just without a spaceman with a child-like temper throwing billions of dollars at us.

We decided to give the Fediverse another spin because of the infinite popcorn machine known as Twitter. We'll discuss that one too. Why the fuck not?

Proceed if you wish to read on about our diatribes.