Ceud Mìle Fàilte
Thank you for dropping-by, I hope you enjoy your visit. The main content is to be found in the blog, where I discuss everything and anything, but, topics including: photography, nature, technology, food, movies, music, politics, and life in the Highlands of Scotland, make regular appearances.
I commonly write reviews of movies (or films, if you prefer). Some movie reviews are short, others will be discussed in more detail. The scope covered will be mainly mainstream English language movies from the 1930s until the present day.
About me
My name is Iain MacDonald, and I live in the Highlands of Scotland (although I have lived elsewhere in the past). I use Fitheach as my online pseudonym, on this website, on Mastodon, and on Matrix. I am a big fan of Free & Open Source Software, which I use both professionally and at home.
Computing and technology tend to infuse themselves into my other interests, as once you learn some skills in one area it is convenient to use them to solve problems in other spheres.
When not tinkering with computers, I am likely to be found repairing things because living in the countryside you learn to be resourceful.
Of course, man doesn't live by SSH tunnels and kerosene vapour burners alone, so, food, as a subject, makes regular appearances, too.
My latest Life articles
My most recent ramblings can be found in the Life section.
My latest Mastodon posts
Mastodon is a microblogging app that is part of the decentralised web known as The Fediverse. See this article for more details.
Fitheach
Wed, 11 Mar 2026 14:50:48 +0000
<<<
The one exception to this rosy picture was transferring my SMS store.
I used SSH to login to the #Sailfish device, installed sqlite, and did a dump of the database. I transferred the dump to my PC. I converted the dump from CSV to JSON. Finally, I zipped the file for use by "SMS Import / Export".
I was pleased with myself. Then I realised that the two devices stored the data in different ways. 🙄 For example, the LOS device needs a "thread_id". Bummer!
I might revisit this later.
End
Wed, 11 Mar 2026 14:31:02 +0000
<<<
Moving from #Sailfish back to #LineageOS was fairly pain free.
Installation of LOS was as seamless as ever. The docs are really superb. Motorola provide an online mechanism to unlock the bootloader, which makes life much easier.
Moving my data was straightforward, with one exception. My photos and music were transferred from my SD card. Nextcloud stuff was synced. I don't have my Contacts and Calendar in the Cloud. I make it a policy to use apps which support both import and export.
>>>
Wed, 11 Mar 2026 14:17:52 +0000
<<<
The device has four cameras, three front and one selfie. The main front camera supports 108MP. However, the camera app in LOS (based around Aperture) only supports one front and one selfie camera. Furthermore, the app only supports a maximum of 12MP for the front camera. Disappointing. 
I could try running Moto Camera 3 (Motorola's own app), which is available from the Play store. However, I suspect it wouldn't work, as it relies on lots of Google stuff that I wouldn't use.
>>>
Wed, 11 Mar 2026 14:07:49 +0000
Motorola Edge 20
I sourced this 'phone last year in my frantic search for a device which could run #LineageOS and handle VoLTE on Three. Subsequently, I moved to EE, and got an Xperia to run #Sailfish. This 'phone has been sitting on a shelf ever since.
As the photo shows it is now running LOS. More about that later.
This is the first 'phone I've used that doesn't have a MicroSD slot. Half the 128GB has gone already. No notification LED, either.
>>>
Tue, 10 Mar 2026 19:19:15 +0000
I wish websites wouldn't specify dates with very woolly terms like "three days ago", as I don't know which timezone is meant. Are they using their timezone (whichever one that might be), or are they converting to what they think is my timezone.
The answer is simple, specify dates as an absolute, preferably UTC.
I like precision. 😃
Tue, 10 Mar 2026 18:15:22 +0000
The irony wasn't lost on me that the two were discussing this on Rick's YouTube channel. 😃
Benn has a YouTube channel, too.