λ ryan. himmelwright. net


Eno River State Park, Durham, NC

Quick Jira Card Links in Obsidian

I record notes in obsidian all day. I keep daily logs to plan out my days, and sometimes write separate meetings notes. In both cases, I usually refer to Jira cards. Recently, I grew tired of writing out the obsidian and url links every time I wanted to reference a Jira card. So I found a better way.


Setting Up RssOnly Posts in Hugo

Awhile ago, I wanted to write posts that would show up in the website’s rss feed, but not be linked to anywhere else on the site. Unfortunately, this isn’t an option you can simply toggle on in hugo (that I could find). So, I implemented it myself in my theme layout.


Nearly headless VMs Using utmctl

I’ve been using UTM since I switched to Apple silicon macs, but I recently discovered it’s cli tool, utmctl. It’s completely changed how I mange UTM and VMs on my macs.


Trying Choc Sunset Switches

A couple weeks ago, I finally ordered a set of choc sunset switches for my wireless ferris sweep. After using Kailh choc silver switches daily for over a year, I wanted to try a “good” choc tactile switch. Here are some of my notes after several weeks of use.


Enable Syntax Highlighting for .keymap Files in Neovim

I’ve made a few minor tweaks to my keyboard layout (both in qmk and zmk) in the last few weeks. Each time, I’ve been annoyed with the non-highlighted text of the .keymap files when I edit them in neovim. I learned how to fix this, and the solution is very simple.


My Required MacOs Apps (2023)

Now that my work computer is a MacBook Pro, I’m spending a lot of time on a Mac. Overall, I enjoy it… after some tweaks from the default configuration. I rely on a few applications to really make macOS work for me. Here are four that make my experience in macOS much more enjoyable and productive.


Work Laptop Refresh: 16" MacBook Pro M1 Pro

Near the end of last year (2022), I was eligible for a laptop refresh at work. This time around, I chose to replace my 7th generation X1 carbon with the 16" Macbook Pro option.


Converting my 34 Key layout from QMK to ZMK

After months loving my ferris sweep, I decided to build a second one. Specifically, I wanted a wireless version so I could avoid all the wires when using it in portable setups. However, the nice!nano controllers used for bluetooth keyboard builds, uses the ZMK firmware instead of QMK, which I had previously used. So, I had to convert my ferris sweep layout to ZMK. Here’s my experience.


Home-Manager Dark Mode Toggle

A few months ago, I took the plunge and migrated my dotfiles system into my home-manager (nix) setup. Around the same time, I also switched to a desk in the office that is next to a window. I love all the natural light, but need to use light colored themes during different times of the day due to the brightness.

Manually switching my terminal and neovim themes every time I wanted to toggle between light and dark themes was tedious. So, I turned to my new dotfile system to see if I could figure out a more automated approach.


Using gTile

Years ago I enjoyed using minimal tiling window managers. Now, I prefer to use a ’normal’, full desktop environment (ex: Gnome or Plasma). That said, I still prefer to arrange and manage my windows from the keyboard. On macOS, I’ve been using betterTouchTool for improved window management (rectangle is also great).

During my time using betterTouchTool, I’ve been annoyed that I didn’t have an equivalent method to set windows quite the same way on Linux. While testing out an ultra wide monitor at work, I really needed a better solution. So I searched a bit harder. It turns out there is an option that does exactly what I want in Linux (at least on Gnome): gTile.