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
Tue, 28 Apr 2026 09:30:16 +0000
I'm developing an unhealthy obsession with power tools. It started with tools I definitely needed: pole saw, hedge trimmer, brushcutter, strimmer, one-handed chainsaw and regular chainsaw. All these tools are Einhell. It makes sense to use the same battery system, and the manufacturers play into this logic.
I've just bought a power drill and impact driver, which are also essential tools. However, I caught myself perusing the Einhell catalogue thinking "that might be handy". This is deadly. 😮
Mon, 27 Apr 2026 22:18:23 +0000
Thanks everyone.
I hadn't realised that Joplin doesn't recognise folders, only notebooks and notes. Folders mean nothing to Joplin. I had the folder structure originally in Moinmoin, which I then moved to Zim, I then moved that to Qownnotes. All these apps understood folders. My latest move to Joplin means my folders are meaningless. I have to move everything into notebooks with the same structure as my previous folders. This will take a lot of work as I have 4,000+ notes in 100s of folders.
Mon, 27 Apr 2026 16:45:06 +0000
I'm using Joplin on my laptop, for notes. Every note is sorted into folders, and sub-folders. I then sync that to a Joplin folder on Nextcloud, provided by murena.io. The sync uses WebDAV.
This is all working, EXCEPT the folder structure isn't preserved. All my notes are dumped into one folder.
Am I missing something, or is this a feature?
Sun, 26 Apr 2026 09:44:10 +0000
In nature, just as in human existence, poor choices or bad luck can have disastrous outcomes.
The black bits in the photo are the remains of tadpoles, after the puddle they were in completely dried-out. Just 50cm to the left the tadpoles in the deeper ditch water were thriving. A puddle on the forestry track was a poor choice of location to place your offspring. However, had we not had a week of dry, sunny weather the puddle may have stayed wet.
Sat, 25 Apr 2026 08:32:54 +0000
The base of the lichen is approximately 20mm wide, and the tallest tendril reaches a height of 30mm.
Sat, 25 Apr 2026 08:28:33 +0000
When you look in detail at some lichen they are stranger than anything we imagine coming from outer space. 😃