I was looking for a tea timer countdown but quickly realised I might as well use a countdown script for this. I based my script on the linked script but added a customizable notification at the end

$ nano ~/bin/countdown

#!/bin/bash
# v2 - 2019-05-01
secs=$1
msg=${2:-$1 seconds passed.}
while [ $secs -gt 0 ]; do
   echo -ne "$secs\033[0K\r"
   sleep 1
   : $((secs--))
done
notify-send 'Countdown Finished' "$msg"

$ chmod +x ~/bin/countdown
$ countdown 180 "Tea is ready."

#linux

So I was seeing graphical glitches, freezes and Activity Monitor indicated memory pressure. Turns out macOS doesn't mount a swap file, as I am running from an external SSD install.

This is easily fixed. I can't believe it is a problem though.

By the way I had to change the end of line 4 (because the command in the Ask Different answer returned multiple results) to:

VM_VOLUME=$(/usr/sbin/diskutil list | grep "VM" | awk 'NR==1{print $7;exit }')

It's easy to add the launch item using Lingon X and start it with sudo ./mountvm.sh for the current session.

#macos

As a security conscious person I setup my OpenPGP keys with a passphrase, however on OpenSUSE Leap 15 this causes a login prompt to appear that delays the network connection from initiating. The same issue also blocks software updates and means a browser restart due to DNS cache stopping connections to websites. This is fairly annoying.

It turns out that this can be fixed by sharing the network connection via Connections > open the connection > General Configuration > All users may connect to this network. This causes NetworkManager to cache the required  authorization tokens (this is my understanding).

Note that other software such as Kontact might set a daemon to startup by default, causing the same prompt. This can be unticked in its settings.

If everything else fails, then you could remove the passphrase for the PGP key but this is not recommended as this means someone can take on your identity should your key be exposed for any reason.

#opensuse #ux

Aka why I keep having bad customer experiences.

Assuming the idea of a business (and us when we represent it) is to stay in business then it should aim to make the customer (a fellow person) happy as happy people are loyal.

This means the person needs to understand what the other person wants from the transaction to be happy. It also means both parties must understand the details of the transaction to know how this makes them happy. The product must be understood  to ensure maximum happiness.  And finally if the product or service offered is not making the customer happy then it’s the responsibility of a good business to help the customer find happiness another way. 

Doing good business is about understanding people, and having empathy. 

This is also why why car dealerships keep disappointing me. Stop pushing product. Start making people happy.