This Week in Squirrels: 2026-W36

This week in squirrels… From Sun Aug 30th to Sat Sep 5th

Summary

• Short Stream Sunday
  • I got back into it and was so happy to, but the persistent post-lumbar puncture headache makes it hard to sit at a screen and focus on a game and be entertaining for any long time.
• The end of the shell wars
  • In the end, I am never happy with a heavyweight shell, and even lightweight ones. I rolled back and then cleaned up my configs a touch, finally got waybar to play nice… er. I swear it always comes back to me being annoyed at waybar.
  • But the next version looks like it fixes most of the things I wished worked. So since I use NixOS, I patched it in and am now using the latest version from the main branch. And after some restyling, it’s pretty great.
• The eternity of head pain
  • I also had to lean on my nausea meds a bunch this week.
  • Feeling all messed up
• The lowest-key birthday I ever had
  • I normally like to throw out as hard as I can for my birthday. However, I am feeling so wrecked and headachy I just can’t.
• 1Password -> Bitwarden
  • Yep, this is called voting with my money.
  • The migration is anything but painless with a vault that runs back to the low 2000s. I got all my passkeys and passwords over, but it didn’t respect the archive vs. active status, so I had to go through and re-archive EVERYTHING I have archived in the past: about 600 items.
  • The SSH key functionality was easy peasy, not as nice as 1Password’s, but once I archived years of old keys, it worked well. I liked being able to select which keys to use from 1Password, but it hasn’t been a blocker for me yet.
  • Bitwarden is a bit awkward. Not bad, but awkward. There is no sort by used, created, changed, nothing. Only name. Weird and gross. Also, the browser plugin and client are not linked in any way, so it’s two separate unlocks and stores.
  • Bitwarden ALSO does not have an op equivalent OR a quick viewer, both of which I think are pretty bad. Luckily, the open-source Rust client rwb works as an op CLI replacement and, with some scripting, a quick viewer.
  • There are some rough edges in Bitwarden for sure, but none of them are dealbreakers once I got rbw working and integrated it into some stuff.
  • Still feels wild to delete an account for a service I have been paying for for 17 years now.
• ALL the planning calls
  • CAR-T starts immediately after Labor Day weekend. And I found out about this at the begining of the week. So it’s been a SCRAMBLE to get everything booked and ready to be gone for TWO WHOLE MONTHS.
  • Also, like, wtf, it’s been a mess, off, on, off, on, maybe… ok no wait we got you.
  • Luckily I got my retired mom to help, and I got some assistance for booking out the stay. It’s going to be months.

Books

• Nope. I miss reading. I should get out of my pit and back on it

Music

• clipping.
  • Their horror albums own a place in my soul.
• Garbage
  • It’s been too long since I lost myself in this lowkey very queer music
• Slayyyter
  • “WOR$T GIRL IN AMERICA” keeps growing on me more and more
• Rob Zombie
  • Still plucking through the newer albums. I think “The Lunar Injection Kool Aid Eclipse Conspiracy” is still one of my favorites

Reads and Videos

• Debian 13 Is Taking Over 2,200+ Control Systems Across CERN | Linuxiac
  • This is a wild read about managing SCADA-style systems. For those who prefer a video, it’s based on a talk at a MiniDebConf
• VC isn’t VC anymore — understanding the rise of Cancer Capital | Anil Dash
  • I know I beat on a lot of anti-capitalism things, but it’s really wild to see some of how we got here from a financial and investing point.
• I rented a car, and within hours, my driver’s license was for sale | Ars Technica
  • weLP
• The Ultimate Equation about AI Coding | Codemanship’s Blog
  • This is going around a lot at work. I think it has some “old man yells at cloud” stink on it, but he makes solid points about needing and implementing feedback to improve, especially after the initial setup.
• 1Password wades into a right-wing mess after funding a Linux project | The Verge
  • It is BEYOND WILD to me to start swinging the accusation “1Password Supports the Ethnic Cleansing of Europe” because they funded Omarchy. Where are all the accusations against the CEOs who donated more than three times as much as 1Password? Who’s coming for Dropbox, Shopify, Stripe, Dell, & Cloudflare?
  • Don’t get me wrong, I think this is an atrocious look for 1Password, and they’ve earned every lost customer they paid for here including myself.
  • A friend I’ve had since childhood used to say, “Hanging out at a party with David Duke doesn’t make you a Klansman, but if I were at a party and he showed up, I’d start questioning all my friend choices.”
• Markets can’t ignore the war anymore | Axios
  • weLP
• Plex warns users to patch security vulnerabilities immediately
  • Nutbeans
• NVIDIA to Acquire Hugging Face | NVIDIA Blog
  • The best way to make sure your hardware stays on top is to prioritize systems that prioritize your hardware. Why not control access to models?
  • I am always cranky when I learn the reason nobody likes AMD is that so few things actually use the hardware well. Everybody just stopped developing against them and put everything into the Nvidia basket
• Colorado Can Take Months to Warn Consumers of Risky Cannabis Products | ProPublica
  • For the “fucking embarrassing” pile. We can’t even trust our own health regulators to let us know when they already know of a problem
• Amazon achieves enshittification inception | Pluralistic
  • I am not a big fan of agreeing with Cory Doctorow, but I read no lies in all of this. They really are peeking at this post-capitalist hellscape build.
• Trans people need a politics of ordinary life | Washington Blade
  • Early in my transition, someone who was helping me as an elder told me that my entire existence is political. So there is no opting out of the fact that it has to color and shape every part of my existence, and everybody will react to it.
• Tailcat: An open-source CLI for Tailscale’s WireGuard®, NAT traversal, and DERP
  • This company is so furry they are naming their tools tailcat
• Network lock-in | net.wars
  • The claim that enshittification isn’t real is WILD to me.
• A Racist Arcade Is The Latest White House Initiative Nobody Asked For | Aftermath
  • PETA… The White House is now PETA. The only other political group that makes obnoxious, overly political ripoffs of other people’s IP is PETA. And it feels like it tracks.
• when an AI “artist” actually tries performing live 😂 | The Needle Drop
  • Normally these “burn” shorts aren’t worth sharing outside of some catharsis or something IMO, but he does bring up a solid point in this one.
• Training a Misaligned Reward Seeker | Anthropic
  • Well, this is dark AF

Quote of the Week

I’m finding it increasingly difficult to take online interactions seriously anymore. Is everyone a bot now?

- Selfh.st Newsletter