@CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com

C.W. Smith 🇺🇸 @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com · Aug 05, 2026

So replaced the old HPs battery and AC Adapter. Need to spend the time rebuilding the operating system. Once I do that and document some things rebuild my personal files and Nextcloud files.

Developing some standard operating procedures here with the assistance of one of the AIs.

While pondering what kind of Shed to buy for Vanlife projects.

#Thinking

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C.W. Smith 🇺🇸 @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com · Aug 04, 2026

Fighting Pleroma to get my avatar and background working again.

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C.W. Smith 🇺🇸 @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com · Aug 04, 2026

Been thinking of finding an old 79 Chevy Camero once the Kia and Van are all working and have their major maintenance and repairs done.

Never tried to learn auto mechanics. Figure and old car not needing a full IT degree might be interesting to work on.

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C.W. Smith 🇺🇸 @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com · Aug 03, 2026

Replying to @pheonix@hachyderm.io

@pheonix@hachyderm.io If ChatGPT has it's way I'll be hiring legitimate artists for specific work before I actually get Gentoo reinstalled on this Laptop of mine.

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C.W. Smith 🇺🇸 @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com · Aug 03, 2026

ChatGPR has me creating an entire Character Profile for a Mascot for my projects... I am gonna need someone at some point to draw actually legitimate shit I think.

I also need 19th Century Adult Male Given Names for men from Texas.

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C.W. Smith 🇺🇸 @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com · Aug 03, 2026

So I have been using ChatGPT a lot lately. And frankly I wonder if someone decided to design this program to be extremely supportive in General.

I asked it about notes and working with Nextcloud. I'm now writing a journal in markdown and keeping structured notes on projects.

I talked to it about creating a multi iso toolkit using Ventoy. I'm now building that along with a portable knowledge base for every bit of Tech I have.

I asked it for a short lesson on programming. I'm now doing a short thing every once in a while trying to learn how to code in C and C++.

It's making me do more than I would normally do. Kinda interesting.

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C.W. Smith 🇺🇸 @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com · Aug 01, 2026

Started rebuilding my HP laptop's operating system again. Solved a few problems and have a new AC adapter and Battery on the way. Documenting what I am doing and posting later when it's done on Hybridized-Concepts when it's ready.

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C.W. Smith 🇺🇸 @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com · Jul 31, 2026

I started playing with ChatGPT to work on some ideas for a few things.

It's recommended I create an Anthropomorphic Armadillo man as a character to cast in the various roles my projects take on...

... I like the idea.

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C.W. Smith 🇺🇸 @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com · Jul 30, 2026

Been starting projects on ChatGPT to help plan things out. It's helpful and gets some stuff organized. Also started writing a Journal in markdown that gets synced to the Nextcloud server. Its starting to help organize.

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C.W. Smith 🇺🇸 @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com · Jul 30, 2026

... kinda wondering where my avatar and banner went right now.

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C.W. Smith 🇺🇸 @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com · Jul 30, 2026

Got the latest moved. The old server is gone. We are 100% running on Gentoo now. Using AI to help me theme my Drupal pages since I am not a good themer.

Just need to keep working it over.

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C.W. Smith 🇺🇸 @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com · Jul 28, 2026

Sitting here pondering. Was in a discord with some fanfiction writers and enthusiasts talking about the only way of the internet.

How the big centralized social media sites and archives cost us a lot of Fandom culture.

They aren't wrong.

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C.W. Smith 🇺🇸 @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com · Jul 26, 2026

Went to a Church service for the first time in two and a half decades that wasn't a funeral. Need to take the time to reread things and reconnect.

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C.W. Smith 🇺🇸 @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com · Jul 25, 2026

#Automotive

Got the Brakes handled finally.

It was a pain. First find out I didn't need as much as I bought, was honestly feeling pretty good that I could return some parts and make it out a little bit on the better side.

Then found out I needed new rear Calipers as the old ones had seized and was what had made the new rotors necessary.

So bit of a wash today.

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C.W. Smith 🇺🇸 @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com · Jul 25, 2026

So I am taking the car in for a brake job today. I have the parts just need to get the install done. Gonna take maybe and hour or two.

While that happens I'm gonna try and finish moving some websites from an old Ubuntu server onto a new Gentoo server and confirm they at least have everything working before deleting the old server. Depending on my vps bill this month I may decide to increase the new server appropriately.

The LLMs are making it a little easier to get problems solved and sped up.

Will post more later.

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C.W. Smith 🇺🇸 @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com · Jun 03, 2026

So I went and switched from Treadmill to Elliptical Machine. Its getting more of my body moving while being lower impact. The recent pangs in my right leg where the bar connects made that necessary.

Feels like I am making progress again on reshaping my old body.

The jaw exerciser actually made my muscles in the face feel something.

Gonna try and add more content to my forums as I can.

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C.W. Smith 🇺🇸 @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com · Jun 01, 2026

Apparently product tie ins for 50th Anniversary celebrations can include wine. You have your beach sand white, your ocean blue spritzer, and your blood red...

...

Nice.

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C.W. Smith 🇺🇸 @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com · May 31, 2026

#Sunday

Got the mockups and resizing done for the Blade Runner Discs. Will probably go to the UV print shop on Hulen to have the work done next Saturday.

I'll post the results then.

Gonna see if a friend can recieve parts for the Kia repairs like the bumper and grill. Also gonna pile up some parts for the van to take to the shop and get worked on.

Saving not just money for the work but hours of PTO.

:)

social.mechanizedarmadillo.com

#Sunday

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C.W. Smith 🇺🇸 @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com · May 30, 2026

Working on this today.

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C.W. Smith 🇺🇸 @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com · May 29, 2026

#Fitness
#Wellness
#Sitrep

So I moved from the treadmill to the Elliptical Machine now. Doing the same time at the same speed but more movement.

Bought some jaw exercisers to try and lift my sagging face and chin. Started with the lowest level... never knew how little strength my jaw had.

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C.W. Smith 🇺🇸 @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com · May 27, 2026

#ChaplinCards

My work contracts with a Chaplin service that comes through every week or two.

One hands out cards with little sayings. So I will share those. I have several saved.

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C.W. Smith 🇺🇸 @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com · May 26, 2026

I heard a question that was supposed to show that the guy who asked it was an Idiot.

... I spent too much time answering it.

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C.W. Smith 🇺🇸 @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com · May 25, 2026

#AIArt
#BAckground
#GrokAI

So I was using Grok to prototype some printing ideas for three Minidiscs for Blade Runner. Part of it was generating this background that looks like the ribbed area of the discs.

I figured I would post it so if someone had a use for it they could see what they could do with it.

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C.W. Smith 🇺🇸 @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com · May 18, 2026

#Fitness

Used the Elliptical Machine instead or the Treadmill today. Burned about as many calories but also worked a bit more of the body since I didn't feel like I was gonna slide off the Machine.

Slowly making progress.

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C.W. Smith 🇺🇸 @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com · May 16, 2026

#SaturdayProjects

Weather is a bit windy here and Dad decided to grill a weeks worth of Chicken so the smoke is blowing right where I would want to work on my lantern. So it's Starbucks for some website work.

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C.W. Smith 🇺🇸 @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com · May 11, 2026

Decided to try and start working on my Drupal Recipes some today. Story archiving for the Storytellerarchive.com page. And Maybe some Drupal Forum reworking since they took that out of the core.

Want to write some original stuff but I am consolidating my websites and pages.

Stuff stuff stuff.

#Drupal
#Projects
#Writing

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C.W. Smith 🇺🇸 @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com · May 11, 2026

#Fitness
#Health
#Sitrep

We had a front move through last night. So of course my knee and the spots where the screws are hurt today. As well as my left foot.

Makes everything suck really.

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C.W. Smith 🇺🇸 @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com · May 08, 2026

#CSS
#Images
#1980sComputing

Am I crazy or was there a way to show images in some way on a terminal console in 80s computers?

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C.W. Smith 🇺🇸 @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com · May 06, 2026

Being 47 and alone except for my parents is a bit depressing. Not knowing where I could go to fix this situation is worse.

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C.W. Smith 🇺🇸 @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com · May 04, 2026

#Webdesign

So for a moment, while thinking of how I might create a theme for Hybridized-concepts... I wondered if there was a way to simulate the loading times... if only just for nostalgia.

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C.W. Smith 🇺🇸 @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com · May 01, 2026

#Mastodon
#Mastoadmin

I had to restore the old setup. For some reason I couldn't determine the setup wouldn't operate properly on the new server for longer than a few moments.

Sucks.

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C.W. Smith 🇺🇸 @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com · Mar 27, 2026

#Server
#Gentoo
#MastoAdmin

Moving my sites over to the Gentoo server slowly. Have to get the dependencies installed and files moved from the current Ubuntu server to the new one. Aside from some pita that is the databases this shouldn't be a problem.

The problem will come when I start moving the Federated stuff like my Mastodon and NodeBB pages. Mastodon has 3 systemd scripts it requires to function and the Gentok server runs on Open-RC. Gonna take some work to modify the scripts and get them proper.

Any advice on that side is welcome.

Gonna start a community for hybridized-concepts.com, my tech commentary and projects page. Probably gonna be interesting with opposing ideas.

social.mechanizedarmadillo.com

#Server

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C.W. Smith 🇺🇸 @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com · Nov 06, 2025

Replying to @NetscapeNavigator@social.vivaldi.net

@NetscapeNavigator@social.vivaldi.net @alice@lgbtqia.space That's the key there though. Properly trained. I have seen far too many people get screwed by a system just because it thought they were doing something when they weren't. You see people complain about it from sites like YouTube and Twitch all the time. It just takes one bad piece of code to unintentionally cause a lot of harm. Frankly I don't feel that any moderation enforcement actions should be done until an actual act that violates a forums rules occurs. I saw Minority Report. As it relates to bots and spam, the Spamhaus model has been pretty effective in its own right. Surely at least on that front we could simply retrofit that solution into our use case while maintaining a real human interaction. You can maybe judge people based on their reputation... but as a man with two of the most common first and last names around I don't want to pay for others mistakes.

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C.W. Smith 🇺🇸 @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com · Nov 06, 2025

Replying to @NetscapeNavigator@social.vivaldi.net

@NetscapeNavigator@social.vivaldi.net @alice@lgbtqia.space Would a non-ai solution be feesable? I am personally for human review of all AI decisions as sort of mandatory, especially when discussing moderation activity. Bot wise at least why can't we integrate Spamhaus and other currently active services?

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C.W. Smith 🇺🇸 @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com · Aug 11, 2025

Replying to @jcastroarnaud@mathstodon.xyz

@jcastroarnaud@mathstodon.xyz @nixCraft@mastodon.social Apparently at least two projects, and I know there are a few that do that as well. Its just a question of how friendly the particular options are. Bittorrents would be great though for distributing compiled good to use packages. While I am not big on the specifics, I have seen Bittorrent from its inception. As long as one person has that package available for download it can never really be lost.

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C.W. Smith 🇺🇸 @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com · Aug 11, 2025

Replying to @jcastroarnaud@mathstodon.xyz

@jcastroarnaud@mathstodon.xyz @nixCraft@mastodon.social Maybe. The way the Bittorrent Protocol works though doesn't on its surface seem a good way to easily sync updates to the code base. For project distribution its fine, but management beyond that I don't know. Maybe someone knows better.

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C.W. Smith 🇺🇸 @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com · Aug 11, 2025

Replying to @nixCraft@mastodon.social

@nixCraft@mastodon.social The projects and server software are out there. I know the @E@foss.social project has its own git repo. Freedesktop does the same. It's not impossible. Its just that having a central spot is easier for a lot of folks.

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C.W. Smith 🇺🇸 @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com · Aug 11, 2025

Replying to @nixCraft@mastodon.social

@nixCraft@mastodon.social End of the day, any centralized repo will be at risk. Unfortunately the truth is maintaining digital infrastructure costs a lot of money. Microsoft bought Github, still requires projects be open source and forkable, but also scans for AI. I won't talk consent because depending on the License there might be a loophole there. Truth it the best way is to do with repos the same thing we do in Federated systems. A lot of small servers maintained by a team that can afford the time and money to do so.

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C.W. Smith 🇺🇸 @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com · Apr 16, 2025

Replying to @FediTips@social.growyourown.services

@FediTips It's rhe guys who ran Twitter before Musk. They shadow banned anyone who spoke out against how the Chinese Government destroyed Hong Kong's democratic system. Are you shocked they would cave to another Authoritarian Regime?

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C.W. Smith 🇺🇸 @CWSmith@social.mechanizedarmadillo.com · Feb 15, 2024

Replying to @kellogh@hachyderm.io

@kellogh@hachyderm.io I honestly think everyone would benifit if we just covered all the massive parking lots this way. The business gets power and maybe excess it can work with, and customers get covered parking for protection from weather.

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C.W. Smith 🇺🇸

Posts

#Sunday

#Server

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