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, 10 Mar 2026 17:43:53 +0000
"I told Google not to listen,
I told Facebook not to listen,
but,
these businesses exist for the purpose of reselling or using your personal data."
Benn Jordan talking to Rick Beato, three days ago.
Benn went on to liken Google & Facebook to hungry dogs next to a pizza. You tell them don't eat the pizza, you look away, then you go "where'd the pizza go?" 😃
Tue, 10 Mar 2026 12:34:38 +0000
Should I take it as an insult that I've just been followed by a user called "Low Quality Facts"? 😂
Tue, 10 Mar 2026 10:48:31 +0000
I'm back to LineageOS.
As with any 'phone there were a few niggles with the Xperia running Sailfish. One major thing was the poor performance of the camera app in low light. However, the last straw was Android App Support crashing on a regular basis. This resulted in me missing an important time-sensitive to-do item (I use Etar, an Android app).
I'm going to investigate reverting to my original version of Sailfish (5.0.0.62), as AAS worked flawlessly.
Daily driver will be LineageOS, though.
Mon, 09 Mar 2026 10:37:55 +0000
On yesterday evening's #DogWalk we encountered lots of deer, some Reds and some Sika. The group in the photo were the nearest to us. Apart from lifting their heads, to look at us, the deer stood motionless.
#Gruoch knew the deer were somewhere, she could smell them. However, even though she looked towards them, she didn't perceive them as deer because they didn't move.
Dogs, and presumably wolves, perceive movement not static shapes.
#dogs #DogsOfMastodon #Highlands #Scotland
Sun, 08 Mar 2026 14:31:27 +0000
It is now officially Spring, as #Gruoch just got her first tick of 2026. I noticed the tick crawling about her, and removed it before it had time to attach.
I'm now expecting an explosion in tick numbers in the next week or so. 
Mon, 02 Mar 2026 15:08:07 +0000
Asking for a friend (no, really).
Looking for a #FOSS implementation of the Mahjongg game.
There is one on F-droid, but, it is really old, and has had the source code removed. I've not found anything else.