Fitheach

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, 01 Jul 2026 11:59:53 +0000

#RIP Victor Willis 1951 - 2026

Willis was best known as the co-founder, lead singer and main songwriter of the 70s disco group Village People. Willis is shown dressed as the policeman character (2nd left) in this original line-up photo from the 1970s.

#music

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Tue, 23 Jun 2026 11:35:12 +0000

It is difficult to recognise the absence of something. I realised on to-day's #DogWalk that I haven't heard a cuckoo for over a week. It wasn't that long ago that I was heralding the arrival of the cuckoos. Now, they have left already (or, maybe, have stopped calling).

To be honest, the incessant calling of the cuckoos, during May, was getting on my nerves. 😃

https://mstdn.io/@fitheach/116436769597334911

#nature #Highlands #Scotland

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Fri, 19 Jun 2026 11:29:50 +0000

I'm at the dentist's.
Lots and lots of staff walking about.
All of them young women, no men, at all. I don't mind, one way or the other, it's just an observation.

I wonder if it is the result of recruitment bias, or a career that particularly appeals to women.

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Thu, 18 Jun 2026 10:56:53 +0000

June is the month of orchids in my part of the #Highlands. On to-day's #DogWalk I was seeing orchids everywhere. In particular, there are lots of these Common Spotted Orchids (Urach bhallach - Dactylorhiza fuchsii) shown in the attached photos. They have a preference for a moist, boggy environment. We have no shortage of boggy places this June. 😃

#Scotland #nature #flowers #photography #blumen #fleurs

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Wed, 17 Jun 2026 12:52:34 +0000

I was looking for some duplicate images in amongst thousands of images. I didn't find this functionality in any of my usual image viewers.

That's when I discovered "findimagedupes". It's a command line program to find "visually similar or duplicate images". This is better than something inside an image viewer, as findimagedupes can be included in scripts.

Example:
findimagedupes -R -- .

[Compare images in all subdirectories of the current directory.]

https://github.com/jhnc/findimagedupes

#FOSS #FLOSS

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