commit 02cba38755d911194ee20d671ff28e6a7b7e2a45
parent 16d70ecd47f5ca811cbf6a8deedd86e79b853b74
Author: Eamon Caddigan <eamon.caddigan@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 19 Jan 2025 21:21:47 -0800
Add weeknote for 2025-W04
Diffstat:
1 file changed, 51 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
diff --git a/content/posts/weeknotes/2025-w04/index.md b/content/posts/weeknotes/2025-w04/index.md
@@ -0,0 +1,51 @@
+---
+title: "Weeknote for 2025-W04"
+description: "Fixing fraudulent USB drives, checking out subdirectories with
+Git, and leaving Meta"
+date: 2025-01-20T07:59:00-08:00
+draft: false
+categories:
+- Weeknotes
+---
+
+## Fight Flash Fraud
+
+I came into possession of a fraudulent USB “thumb” drive, fully aware of
+what I was getting. The device claims to have a capacity of 2 TB, which is
+nearly impossible, but I wanted to keep it out of a landfill and I didn’t
+know its true capacity. I figured that one could find the last good sector
+of such a drive, create a partition that went up to that, and have
+a perfectly functional (but counterfeit) device. I also assumed that I would
+have to hack something together to do all this myself---but then I learned
+about `f3`, which does exactly what I want. Specifically, running `f3probe
+--destructive` followed by `f3fix` gave me a usable USB device. If you have
+a “defective” flash drive, use this tool to check it out!
+
+[f3 - Fight Flash
+Fraud](https://fight-flash-fraud.readthedocs.io/en/stable/)
+
+## Checking out a subdirectory with Git
+
+I finally tweaked [the script I use to write weeknotes]({{< ref
+"/december-adventure/2024-29/" >}}), and the notes are finally living in
+their own repository. I wanted to keep this extra repo lightweight, so
+I went digging and learned that it’s possible to check out only specific
+subdirectories of a Git repository. It takes a bit of setup but works great.
+
+[Subdirectory Checkouts with git
+sparse-checkout](https://jasonkarns.wordpress.com/2011/11/15/subdirectory-checkouts-with-git-sparse-checkout/)
+
+## Leaving Meta
+
+[Last year I wrote about deleting social media accounts]({{< ref
+"/posts/social-media/" >}}), but I skirted around some of my feelings about
+“big social”, what it was doing to me, and what I felt like it was doing to
+society. Dan’s post expresses these feelings better than I could have,
+reaching the same conclusions that I’ve come to. We’re even on the same
+Mastodon instance! I probably make too many assumptions about who would read
+what I post here, but I assume that most people who see this understand how
+high the cost of engaging with these platforms have become. If I’m wrong
+though, please consider which systems your actions reinforce in the coming
+years.
+
+[After Big Social](https://phiffer.org/after-big-social/)
