Veronica Explains

I make dorky YouTube/PeerTube videos about Linux and vintage tech, and occasionally write about stuff. I'm also a geeky musician and used to be a COBOL dev. Pronouns are she/her.

Proudly supported by viewers like you via Patreon and Ko-Fi. Thank you for your consideration!

Locked down due to harassment. My website has RSS. 🤷🏻‍♀️

💻 Web: https://vkc.sh
📺 Peertube: https://tinkerbetter.tube/c/veronicaexplains/
📼 YouTube: https://youtube.com/veronicaexplains
💸 Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/VeronicaExplains

Public Key

npub1dmlzf6x428vxd8vht2skcelgd6a8p8zy8ug8hxe6gg5hcrv0fn8sycx796

NIP-05 Address

vkc_at_linuxmom.net@momostr.pink

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsxal3yar24rkrxnkt44gtvvl5xawnsn3zr7yrmnvayy2tupk85encd4dgg9

Author Public Key

npub1dmlzf6x428vxd8vht2skcelgd6a8p8zy8ug8hxe6gg5hcrv0fn8sycx796

Show more details

Last Notes

2025-03-28 18:06:23

- reply

It's honestly less about "they're trying to mansplain" (although that happens), and more about how federation and defederation work in the context of a thread.
You can't see all the replies I do, so often different folks will post the same thing repeatedly. A quick disclaimer can save the effort when it's something I either don't need to know about or don't have an interest in discussion.
Helps keep the thread focused.

2025-03-28 18:04:26

- reply

TinkerBetter is 100% just my videos (although federation might cause other server's videos to show up on a federated timeline). Again, much like Mastodon, it's decentralized and you'll have different pockets.

2024-10-28 22:13:08

- reply

from what I can tell it's more like "the transcriptionist made up some new material", and not like "eat up martha".
Example from the article:
> A speaker in another recording described “two other girls and one lady.” Whisper invented extra commentary on race, adding “two other girls and one lady, um, which were Black.”

2024-10-28 22:11:11

- reply

If you use any speech-to-text system for creating your transcriptions, whether that's Vosk, Whisper, or really anything else, do yourself and your viewers a favor and proofread them.
I use Kdenlive and can import the srt and edit right in my editor, as if it's a video track.

2024-09-19 15:19:31

I'm going to keep choosing hope.

2024-09-01 01:16:43

- reply

I'll also be trying Bluesky a bit more in depth, but I don't have a lot of hope for that platform either.
I'm on there (at)vkc(dot)sh.
https://bsky.app/profile/vkc.sh

2024-08-31 15:59:05

- reply

but that won't help with the next one, and the next one, and the next one.
I don't want to play whack-a-troll 24 hours a day.

2024-08-31 15:56:28

- reply

"But Veronica, it's defederated, so there's nothing we can do about that"
I know. That's why I'm saying maybe this place isn't fun for a woman with a following.

2024-08-31 15:54:32

- reply

Since a few of you have asked, I'll just explain what happened this time.
I posted an affirming message like I do every Friday, with a message like "call someone you miss".
Folks in the comments started sexually harassing me, and when someone pushed back, the harassers said that they have fun harassing me.
My favorite* part of this is that because I'd blocked them, they could carry on talking about how fun it is to harass me and I couldn't see it.
---
* I don't love this

2024-08-31 15:20:25

- reply

I'm sorry if I've seemed so down lately, folks.
With notoriety comes attacks, I guess. I was hoping the fediverse would feel different, but it's just not.

2024-08-31 05:22:04

Deleted my affirming Friday post because I can't escape pervy guys replying to me.
I guess that's one more thing I don't get to do here anymore.

2024-08-25 23:24:42

Anyone have an FTP client they like for Windows 9X?
I'm having fun playing with these systems this week but pulling out floppies is painful at times.
I always used something that came with my AOL setup back-in-the-day but I have no idea what that was.

2024-08-23 14:34:01

- reply

For the record, I actually think Arch is easier to install nowadays than it's ever been thanks to the `archinstall` script and the incredible Arch Wiki.
It's not perfect, but it might be as easy to install as Debian is now, and that's really saying something.
As someone who's used both Arch and Manjaro, I've always experienced that Arch is tougher to install but much easier to administer and troubleshoot. Now that installation hurdle is a lot lower.

2024-08-23 14:26:34

- reply

No.
I don't harbor ill will for Manjaro but it's not Arch. In much the same way Ubuntu isn't Debian. Different experience.

2024-08-23 14:20:06

I'm trying Arch again for the first time in a bit.
I have not found a use for the AUR this time around- I'm simply enjoying what's in the regular repo!
Anyone else enjoying Arch without the AUR?
#Linux #ArchLinux

2024-08-19 00:09:46

- reply

North-Central American English (in other words, the Minnesota accent), but as I grew up nearer to the urban core of the Twin Cities, it’s much less inflected than what you might imagine from the film Fargo.

2024-08-17 18:56:54

"You're a Linux YouTuber, not a retro YouTuber"... um, ok?
Like, I can be both. But also, here's a fun fact:
I've never once been asked to participate in a Linux conference. Meanwhile, the vintage computing community has invited me to several.
So... there's that.

2024-08-17 00:11:01

- reply

you're asking a lot of questions for someone who isn't my state permit office

2024-08-17 00:10:07

- reply

I always get my work inspected by the municipal inspection crew, properly permitted and evaluated according to the laws of my city and state.

2024-08-16 21:17:14

I'm rewiring my basement and I'm soooo tired of badly generated LLM websites interjecting as I'm trying to read about code compliance.
It's "well ackchyually" at scale and I'm sick of it.

2024-08-15 20:48:27

- reply

first one that comes to mind is installing GrapheneOS- needs a Chromium browser to connect over USB.
(Yes, I can do that over adb but don't want to)

2024-08-15 20:47:21

- reply

they have their own Flatpak if I remember correctly. Nothing against Flatpak, I am known as a supporter of it, but I'm hesitant to recommend a browser that isn't already packaged up for the popular distros natively. For some, flatpak can be complicated to get started and I try to respect that.

2024-08-15 20:22:19

- reply

honest and sincere question: was your post directed at me? Or my readers?
Because to me, it absolutely read as though you wanted to tell *me* something you thought *I* didn't know, and then added hashtags to encourage others to participate in that behavior.

2024-08-15 20:05:38

- reply

Didn't we have a singalong performance of Purple Rain (the song) literally in the state House once? Did I dream that?

2024-08-15 20:02:00

- reply

You're talking down to a Linux expert about privacy and then adding hashtags to her post to increase your own discoverability while making her look bad.
So, like, I dunno, maybe don't?

2024-08-15 19:35:48

- reply

you're encouraging me to leave the Fediverse because I'm too popular.
That's... not helpful

2024-08-15 19:32:28

- reply

you may not know this, but you're basically telling me not to post because I'm popular enough to get death threats for the otherwise boring topics I talk about. "Engagement" comes at a price when there's a bigger audience, and that's something I need to consider.
If that's not how you intended it to sound, I just want you to know that it's how it comes off.

2024-08-15 19:29:57

- reply

To the folks arguing that "the purpose of social media is to be seen", therefore "amplifying content" can't be aggressive:
Clearly you've never been threatened because you talked about the wrong kind of boot media tool. 🤦‍♀️
Please please please don't add visibility without talking with the OP first.

2024-08-15 19:17:33

- reply

"how could that even be considered criticism or harmful?"
Because it takes away control over discoverability. Hashtags increase discoverability surface here on Mastodon. I for one value being able to control parts of my visibility and don't want every word I said getting picked apart through hashtags I didn't put there.

2024-08-15 18:26:24

- reply

FOLLOWUP POLL: if you answered "no", and ONLY if you answered "no", are you on a big instance with 1000+ users?

2024-08-15 18:12:10

- reply

right, but you didn't say "subjectively there's an argument to be made".
You got on my post and felt like you "wanted to remind people", which *absolutely* comes across as arguing down to me, a literal professional, about the benefits of hosting your wares.
And if that's not how you intended it, please rethink your word choices and hop off this thread.

2024-08-15 18:09:02

- reply

yeah, but that's not what you said. What you said is that you "wanted to remind people" that the time spent on self-hosting your services well was "unreasonable". And what I'm saying is that your assertion lacks citation, plus ignores the fact that uptime isn't all that important to a lot of us.

2024-08-15 18:02:33

- reply

In my mind, making someone else's post *more discoverable* feels aggressive.

2024-08-15 18:01:42

POLL: so if you post a post without hashtags here on Mastodon, and someone comes in and replies to your post and adds hashtags, does that feel aggressive to you?

2024-08-15 17:55:36

- reply

I know this, I don't know why you felt like it needed to be mentioned?

2024-08-15 17:54:17

- reply

"self-hosted services have lower uptime than centralized ones"
1. Citation needed, and
2. Uptime is only as important as the access need. I shut down servers when I don't need the services, another joy of self-hosting.

2024-08-15 17:32:59

- reply

Can't speak for everyone, but for me it's just habit at this point. I run across lots of unsavory links in my work and it's probably better for my mental health to not have bad stuff suggested back at me.

2024-08-15 16:29:26

- reply

(Cue the Brave folks. Once again, I will not use Brave for lots and lots of reasons)

2024-08-15 16:28:54

- reply

For me, the important part is *not* using a Chromium based browser. I'm basically a "single issue browser user" in this regard.
Firefox still feels like the simplest way to do that. So that's what I'll keep using.

2024-08-15 16:27:41

I still use Firefox. It's still fine, uBlock still works on it.
I know Mozilla isn't perfect, but I still feel they're better than the alternatives on the whole.
I've also been playing with LibreWolf (a fork of Firefox) and it's got some strong defaults, but it's not packaged for all distros yet so it's hard to recommend it.

2024-08-14 17:37:56

- reply

No need to switch if you are happy with the services, at least from what I can tell. But Patreon has added a lot of "features" recently which are driving folks away, and I just want to make sure folks know there's an option if they'd like to continue supporting me.
(And thanks btw!!!)

2024-08-14 17:36:52

- reply

same. Genuinely don't get it.

2024-08-05 19:34:41

- reply

I'm sharing this because it's just too strange not to mention.
I shared video picking on Elon Musk's Twitter, and didn't get this kind of zealous reaction. Same with my video critiquing Red Hat's recent changes. Both videos were far more successful than this video, too.
The zeal-to-views ratio is too weird for it to be natural, and as a popular open source project, I am worried about what I see here.
That's why I'm sharing this- I hope folks smarter than me can get to the bottom of this.

2024-08-05 19:27:34

I can't get over how weird this Ventoy "controversy" is. Like, again, my sin is that I *didn't mention Ventoy*.
Here's a comment I genuinely don't understand, after several similarly-toned comments aimed at me?
It's... a boot tool. Why are humans acting like this? Are humans acting like this?
https://mastomedia.linuxmom.net/media_attachments/files/112/911/051/390/459/812/original/6a7d4cde08d8deeb.png

2024-08-05 16:00:13

- reply

Side note: I'm so glad YouTube lets me filter comments based on words.
It'd be a nice feature here on Mastodon, but I'm not holding my breath.

2024-08-05 15:48:16

- reply

Threats are getting violent over on YouTube. Locking up over here for a bit.
Seriously, the Ventoy community is unhinged. Again, my sin is that I *didn't mention them enough*.
Please just leave me alone.

2024-08-05 14:36:54

- reply

So, here's my recommendation: don't use Ventoy.
The community will threaten you if you ever leave.

2024-08-05 14:34:41

I was just told I'm threatening the Ventoy "community" by [checks notes] not mentioning it enough in my video. Had someone say they're coming after my systems now. 🙃
Didn't think I was going to be putting up my harassment defenses over a boot tool, but here we are.

2024-07-31 20:33:44

- reply

(yes, that was a Gardeners' World reference)

2024-07-23 02:28:53

- reply

(Sees that it's KDE Plasma, immediately starts tweaking things)

2024-07-23 02:28:18

- reply

Oooo do you have dotfiles for this? I'd love to see how you did this.

2024-07-18 21:32:23

- reply

what I want to know is how to search for an address in US postal format. As in "1234 Cheese Ave, Cheddarville, CH 99999". I can never figure out how to search for an address in Organic Maps, so it becomes challenging to use unless I know a nearby named business that shows up.
If there's some magic order those items need to go in, I don't know it yet, and would love help clarifying that.

2024-07-09 03:10:31

- reply

For those who didn't need the "what's a VCR" explanation just now, get up and stretch your back a bit.

2024-07-09 03:09:04

- reply

For those who were too young to experience it- before DVRs and on-demand media via the internet, there was a wonderful time when we could record television shows on VHS tape via our VCRs.
We could set timers according to TV Guide, and because encrypted television wasn't a factor, we could pretty much record anything we could watch.
I had an awesome VCR which did a really good job of pausing while recording, so I could easily edit out commercials if I was watching it live.

2024-07-09 03:05:22

- reply

It's not exciting- a bunch of documentaries, MST3K, and The Simpsons, as well as bands I enjoyed when they were performing on late night TV.
Plenty of Star Trek as well.

2024-07-09 03:03:03

Currently digitizing some old VHS tapes I recorded off the TV as a teenager.
Observation 1: commercials haven't changed much.
Observation 2: I was an insufferable nerd as a teenager based on what I wanted to tape.

2024-07-06 17:48:47

KDE Plasma is great. GNOME is awesome. Window managers are wonderful. Everything has quirks but I love all these options we have. I can't wait to see where we take them.
#Linux

2024-07-06 03:21:34

- reply

This week, I'm thankful for supporters both on Patreon/Ko-Fi as well as folks buying merch. It's been an expensive and hectic few weeks and the support has meant a lot.

2024-07-06 03:09:18

We made it through another week, folks. You've earned a break. Good job!

2024-07-04 16:49:32

One downside of hosting my own Mastodon account is that I have to, you know, *do stuff* just to post silly things on this service.
Another reason to pick, or create, a small instance based on your likes or locality.

2024-07-03 19:51:03

POLL: let's say you load the original 1966 "Star Trek" series into your Jellyfin/Plex/Emby/etc. Not one of the spinoffs, but the original five year mission that only lasted three seasons. NBC/Desilu.
In the metadata, you are referring to this series as...
#StarTrek #StarTrekTOS #SelfHosting

2024-07-03 17:03:48

- reply

Anywho, the order of colors in the standard is hard for some folks to memorize, so I made a shirt with it. It's also nerdy and the most popular shirt in my merch store.
https://vkc.sh/product-tag/t568b-cheat-sheet/
https://mastomedia.linuxmom.net/media_attachments/files/112/723/629/188/749/783/original/a371f1675c99538f.png

2024-07-03 16:47:38

- reply

Now, I'm not a network historian, but here's how I was taught.
Earlier registered jack connections had two wires. For the sake of understanding let's call them "the two blue wires" (but they weren't always blue, this is a simplification).
When two more wires were added to the mix (let's call them "the two green wires" even though they weren't always green), they were added to either side for ✨compatibility reasons✨.
Contracts required it, so standards were built around it.

2024-07-03 16:34:54

- reply

So why is this important? Well, standards for one. That's why so many folks have learned a "right way" to do it, and some will be upset if you do it *differently* than they're anticipating. And for good reason as unexpectedly terminating a cable in different ways on each end can result in headaches.
But, why not just pair the colors off? Why doesn't solid-green come *after* white-green? Why is blue there instead?
For the best reason in the world, legacy!

2024-07-03 16:23:45

- reply

So now, after digging out some passthrough connectors to really demonstrate this, I've (somewhat hastily) begun the process of terminating that sliced cable, thus turning it into something that can be used in the network.
Notice the color scheme? 😜
https://mastomedia.linuxmom.net/media_attachments/files/112/723/469/661/981/866/original/5f270598a19c39e8.jpg

2024-07-03 16:00:41

- reply

Now, here's a close-up of that cable, specifically the twisted pair that's green. Note that the white wire isn't completely white, it's white with a green stripe on it!
https://mastomedia.linuxmom.net/media_attachments/files/112/723/385/053/457/773/original/8b53e5b07189d3cd.jpeg

2024-07-03 15:54:14

- reply

There's eight wires here in total. Those wires are twisted into pairs, which is a way to reduce electromagnetic radiation between each other.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twisted_pair

2024-07-03 15:50:12

- reply

This is a glamour shot of a cat-6 twisted pair cable, which we (somewhat lazily) call "Ethernet cable", cut open. Chances are pretty high that you have at least one of these somewhere in your network, if only between your router and modem.
Here you can see the inside of the cable: four pairs of twisted wires, in addition to a plastic backing (which I think helps avoid breakage by reducing the bend radius, but don't quote me on that).
https://mastomedia.linuxmom.net/media_attachments/files/112/723/316/272/563/353/original/e0e858cd273e9a2c.jpg

2024-07-03 15:25:31

So I have a shirt that I sell which has been gaining traction on the merch store recently. You may have noticed it, the shirt has color names written on it:
white-orange
orange
white-green
blue
white-blue
green
white-brown
brown
A few folks have asked me "what does this mean", not getting the joke. So, I'll explain it!
(Link in case you're interested, it's my merch store and proceeds support my work: https://vkc.sh/product/t568b-cheat-sheet-fashion-fit-tee/)

2024-07-01 22:59:18

Go do something.

2024-07-01 19:23:51

- reply

(I mean, I suppose I could just port it to a fresh container but I figure someone's made a snappy way to do this by now?)

2024-07-01 19:22:40

- reply

My preferred container is LXC, if that helps, but I'm learning Podman lately and don't hate it.

2024-07-01 17:15:13

- reply

I should also mention that I typically remote from a static IP provided by my wireless carrier. So, in my case, the firewall knew where I'd be coming from and I could block most of the internet from getting in.

2024-07-01 17:13:05

- reply

"safer" is relative to the threat, of course.
In my typical case, OpenVPN is handled itself by my firewall appliance. While it opens a port it also knows what bad traffic to scan for, without me telling it what to do. Again, I'm not a security researcher, but I tend to trust pfSense/OPNsense/etc more than myself when it comes to opening a port and watching for baddies.
And nowadays I don't even do that, because I just don't need it badly enough anymore.

2024-07-01 16:09:54

- reply

awesome! Some VPS providers do really cool things with firewalls and virtual networking. Combining that with pre-defined SSH keys for initial setup and a lot of SSH security steps becomes simply a few clicks!

2024-07-01 16:07:47

- reply

Tailscale is fun, I haven't deployed it personally but have played around on it a bit. I'm also not a fan of port knocking and tend to VPN when away from home.
I'm ancient so I've typically used OpenVPN but I rarely use it anymore anyway, since nowadays if I'm leaving home I don't need to bring my homelab with me. :)

2024-07-01 14:22:17

- reply

This is a friendly reminder to put a firewall in between your server and the wider internet, and no, I'm not talking about fail2ban. Which is good for lots of things, but I wouldn't rely on it alone.
Don't open SSH ports up to the entire world. Put a firewall in between your server and those who would do you harm. Lots of providers have network-based access controls, cloud firewalls, etc: use them.
Friends don't let friends run sshd out in the open. :P

2024-07-01 14:06:53

- reply

I am not a security researcher, and I don't want to sound authoritative on stuff I'm *not* an authority on.
If you run Debian like I do, this page might be useful. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2024-6387

2024-07-01 13:53:05

Happy "quickly updating all of the servers" day to those who celebrate.

2024-06-26 18:12:10

I wish I knew who shared my T568-B shirt, sales are way way up over the last 24 hours.
https://vkc.sh/product-tag/t568b-cheat-sheet/

2024-06-25 15:12:04

RSS

2024-06-24 23:57:24

Muting #linux for one week. I'm a retro tooter now.

2024-06-24 17:54:38

To be clear, since many folks seem to not understand it:
I am NOT saying Linux and FOSS software is perfect for all workflows. I am NOT saying you aren't "trying hard enough" if you can't switch or don't want to. I am NOT saying my way is better and your way is worse. I am NOT calling you lazy.
What I am saying, emphatically, is that telling people that #Linux and #FOSS are *incapable* of professional work is fundamentally incorrect.
It's my profession, I do it, and it works.

2024-06-24 12:52:46

I'm muting everyone who is reply-guying at me to tell me why Adobe etc has "better workflows" than FOSS. That's all subjective, you missed the point, and I'll see you next year.

2024-06-24 00:33:03

- reply

And again, just to say it over and over again- there's nothing wrong with preferring your workflow on Windows or Mac either.
But saying "Linux can't do it" or "FOSS can't do it" is just... incorrect.
I'm proof.

2024-06-24 00:30:19

- reply

And like, not to toot my own horn (Mastodon pun intended), but my videos are doing OK. Kdenlive can do a TON of really great stuff.
Are there bugs? Yup! But it's not like Adobe and DaVinci are well known for being bug free.

2024-06-24 00:28:17

- reply

Every video I've done? Kdenlive or OBS, entirely on Linux. Thumbnails? GNU/IMP or Inkscape, entirely on Linux.
What they mean to say is "Free/Open Source Software isn't what *they* know." And that's fine, but like, that doesn't mean the entire ecosystem is unusable.

2024-06-24 00:25:50

People: "Free/Open Source software can't be used for making professional content on the internet."
Me: [looks up from making popular YouTube videos with FOSS] "what?"

2024-06-21 23:27:10

Please don't digitally catcall me.

2024-06-20 21:36:09

- reply

Now, I know some of you are going to say "what's the point, don't you know the Raspberry Pi is more powerful than the VIC-20? Why not just emulate?"
To that I say: quit raining on my parade, jerk.

2024-06-20 21:34:56

- reply

Lumacode is a project that uses FPGA-based modification boards created by the legendary C0pperdragon. In this case, it slots in between the VIC chip (video chip) and its socket on the VIC-20.
It then outputs a signal which another upscaler (in my case, an RGBtoHDMI on a Raspberry Pi) can use to generate *pixel perfect* video from the original chips. No emulation.
The GitHub: https://github.com/c0pperdragon/LumaCode/wiki/VIC20digitizer-(for-VIC-20)

2024-06-20 21:27:34

- reply

This is now a #commodore #vic20 #lumacode thread. Hope you like sharp pixels on computers older than me.

2024-06-20 21:20:43

- reply

Oooo wait, maybe I could just print a new control plate for this one...

2024-06-20 21:19:05

✋ Spending 3 minutes cutting into the plastics of my VIC-20
👉 Spending hours 3D printing replacement parts so I don't have to mod anything

2024-06-20 19:25:52

- reply

I've had this happen before when I've replaced keyboards on used laptops- most often in my experience it's damage to the ribbon cable which connects the keyboard to the motherboard.
If liquid/gunk/smoke damage got in it, carefully placed contact cleaner can fix it. Sometimes just carefully removing and reseating the cable can also repair it. But if the connector is damaged it might require replacement.

2024-06-19 19:34:41

Block button is getting a good workout today.

2024-06-18 22:44:08

- reply

(Minnesotans are famously passive aggressive, we'd much rather say something like "funny, my Linux machine doesn't do that")

2024-06-18 22:42:51

I might just be painfully Minnesotan about this, but replying to someone's Windows problem with "try Linux" is super ineffective at both solving problems and bringing folks into Linux.

2024-06-18 22:19:34

- reply

I've tried virtually all of the BSDs, as I used to work as a legacy systems admin and COBOL dev, and BSDs are common enough in that space. They're great!
I don't use them daily because I prefer Linux' community size.

2024-06-18 22:08:54

- reply

In more sincere news, the vast majority of you are awesome and affirming and wonderful toward me. I hope you're like this everywhere else in the Fediverse.
I appreciate you all following along with my snark.