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

Mon, 13 Apr 2026 13:01:40 +0000

First chance I get, I will investigate if can be installed on this tablet.

My personal Samsung Galaxy Tab runs LineageOS, and it is a joy to use. Samsung's version of Android with One UI has just become horrible to use.

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Mon, 13 Apr 2026 12:52:58 +0000

I'm fuming!

I needed to use a Samsung Galaxy Tab tablet for a task at work. The tablet hadn't been used for a while. The first thing the tablet insisted doing was downloading and installing an update to Android & One UI, TWICE.

Once this delay to my work had completed, I found the interface had changed in lots of annoying ways.

The final straw was finding that pressing the power button no longer initiates a shutdown. Instead, it fires-up Google AI. WTF!

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Sun, 12 Apr 2026 10:06:09 +0000

I'm feeling really depressed about the continual centralisation of the Internet, & the complete erosion of privacy.

Do you remember the Good Old Days™ when people thought that the Internet might be a democratising tech? How quaint.

Instead, we have control and surveillance by an ever decreasing number of huge players including: Meta, Alphabet, Apple & Microsoft.

Added to that are the recent AI developments, particularly Mythos. Skynet here we come. I feel like a villager with a pitchfork.

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Sat, 11 Apr 2026 13:11:22 +0000

Colonial Britain still exists.

It is being reported that a plan to return the Chagos Islands to Mauritius has been shelved. The problem, as many things, is the Trump administration. The UK & US share a military base on Diego Garcia (Chagos Islands). Apparently, Trump was annoyed when Starmer's government was minded to refuse US use of UK bases for pre-emptive strikes on Iran. US support to return Chagos was removed.

The forcibly removed Chagos people will remain homeless.

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Sat, 11 Apr 2026 12:38:11 +0000

RE: mathstodon.xyz/@ColinTheMathmo

See, I told you...
2026 may not necessarily be the Year of Linux on the Desktop, but, the tectonic plates are moving.

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Sat, 11 Apr 2026 12:04:45 +0000

RE: mstdn.io/@fitheach/10199228319

I do love it when people find, and favourite/boost, my posts from years ago. For some reason my post from 2019 about the "ultimate cheat sheet" suddenly got some love.

As far as I can tell, the cheat sheet has been continuously updated, and is still relevant.

Check it out!

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