Greg Boone

Learning out Loud in Milwaukee, WI

Category: Blog

  • Year of Desktop Linux part two

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    Greg Boone
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    I wrote previously about how, as part of prepping for my sabbatical, I’m converting a Raspberry Pi 4 with 1GB of RAM to use as my primary computer for at least the three months I’m off. If it goes well, I’ll probably continue using it to further separate work and life. I wanted to upgrade…

  • WordPress at 20

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    Greg Boone
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    It’s a little wild that I’ve been using WordPress longer than I’ve been in the (professional) workforce. Something I think about a lot is how impactful WordPress has been on not only my life, but the life of the new web, and how the early decision to empower creators with the four freedoms of the…

  • Sabbatical prep

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    Greg Boone
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    I hit five years with Automattic on January 20th 2023 and with that milestone I became eligible for a special benefit: A sabbatical. It’s a bittersweet timing, a little, because we’re in the middle of an exciting growth opportunity for the public sector, and especially the federal marketplace. Still, I’m extremely excited for June 19th…

  • A small act of accessibility

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    Greg Boone
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    I keep a small office in a building in my neighborhood. It works out nicely that my employer defrays the cost a bit because unlike apparently everybody else with a remote job I can’t seem to get any work done while sharing a small home office with another person and with wild animals pets, and…

  • Books of 2022

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    Greg Boone
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    I didn’t finish quite as many books (for grown ups) this year as I did in 2021. In part, because I read fewer graphic novels, in part because 2022 was more exhausting somehow. Still, I did finish quite a few books, few of them published this year, but all of them worth reading. Here’s the…

  • Jerry Craft on NPR

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    Greg Boone
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    This interview with author Jerry Craft on Morning Edition last week was fantastic. I’ve really appreciated the perspective that A Martínez brings to Morning Edition, especially when interviewing authors of color. Anyway, I’ll be on the lookout for Jerry’s books this year.

  • Four years of Christmas quinzhees

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    Greg Boone
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    A quinzhee is a temporary snow shelter made by piling up snow, letting it set, and then hollowing it out. Temperatures inside a well-made quinzhee can exceed 45º once people are inside, and if the door is blocked or positioned opposite the wind, it can also be a significant wind block, which is handy when…

  • On Twitter and social media stuff

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    Greg Boone
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    I was an early adopter of Twitter, I suppose. It was founded in 2006 and I think I created my account in 2007 or 2008. There were only a handful of people I knew with an account and it was a pretty exciting time to be a user. Back then, you could use the website,…

  • Getting back into Goodreads

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    Greg Boone
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    I know I’m late to the party here but I’ve been having fun starting up my Goodreads account again. Based on the books I was in-progress on, I’m guessing I stopped using it back in 2012 or ‘13. Safe to say I’m not going to be able to backfill all my books since then, but…

  • Open source payphones in Philly and Portland

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    Greg Boone
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    Where I work, we have a creed and in it we say that open source is one of the most powerful ideas of our generation. The Philtel program and Futel in Portland seem to exemplify that idea. The pay phone was an important part of connectivity infrastructure when I was a kid and long before.…

  • Ancient canoes in Lake Mendota

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    Greg Boone
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    Lake Mendota is one of Madison, WI’s principal lakes: Monona, across the isthmus, Waubesa, and Wingra are the others. Mendota, lately, has drawn a lot of attention for excavation of some important artifacts: Canoes. We’re not talking Old Towns or We-no-nah canoes, these canoes are dugout canoes, carved from single pieces of Oak thousands of…

  • How I turned an IBM ThinkPad T30 into a Pi-hole

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    Greg Boone
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    The IBM ThinkPad T30 was the premier business laptop of 2002 – 2004. It was sturdy, had a 14″ screen, and an Intel Pentium 4 CPU which, at the time, was pretty fast. I found one in at my Mother in-law’s old house back in 2020. It’s been sitting on a shelf turned off ever…