Neurotypical Spectrum Disorder (NTSD) Proposed diagnostic construct. Not recognized by any legitimate diagnostic body, though widely reinforced by social institutions. Diagnostic Criteria A. Persistent pattern of cognitive, emotional, and social functioning characterized by a strong preference for normative coherence, rapid closure of uncertainty, and limited tolerance for sustained depth—intellectual, experiential, or emotional—beginning in early socialization and present across multiple contexts (e.g. interpersonal relationships, workplace environments, family systems, cultural participation).

Neurotypical Spectrum Disorder (NTSD)

Proposed diagnostic construct. Not recognized by any legitimate diagnostic body, though widely reinforced by social institutions. Diagnostic Criteria A. Persistent pattern of cognitive, emotional, and social functioning characterized by a strong preference for…

sort -u vs sort | uniq: a tiny Linux fork in the road I recently fell into one of those algorithmic rabbit holes that only the internet can provide. The spark was a YouTube Short by @TechWithHazem: a rapid-fire terminal demo showing a neat little text-processing trick built entirely out of classic Linux tools. No frameworks, no dependencies, just pipes, filters, and decades of accumulated wisdom compressed into under a minute. That’s the modern paradox of Unix & Linux culture: tools older than many of us are being rediscovered through vertical videos and autoplay feeds.

sort -u vs sort | uniq: a tiny Linux fork in the road

I recently fell into one of those algorithmic rabbit holes that only the internet can provide. The spark was a YouTube Short by @TechWithHazem: a rapid-fire terminal demo showing a neat little text-processing trick built entirely out of classic…

25 Years of amedee.be – A Quarter Century Online 🎉 Today marks exactly 25 years since I registered amedee.be. On 12 December 2000, at 17:15 CET, my own domain officially entered the world. It feels like a different era: an internet of static pages, squealing dial-up modems, and websites you assembled yourself with HTML, stubbornness, and whatever tools you could scrape together. 🧑‍💻📟 I had websites before that—my first one must have been around 1996, hosted on university servers or one of those free hosting platforms that have long since disappeared.

25 Years of amedee.be – A Quarter Century Online 🎉

Today marks exactly 25 years since I registered amedee.be. On 12 December 2000, at 17:15 CET, my own domain officially entered the world. It feels like a different era: an internet of static pages, squealing dial-up modems, and websites you…

A Field Guide to Dance Communities Or How I Discovered That Fusion Is… Fine, I Guess 🕺 Last night I did something new: I went fusion dancing for the first time.Yes, fusion — that mysterious realm where dancers claim to “just feel the music,” which is usually code for nobody knows what we’re doing but we vibe anyway.The setting: a church in Ghent.

I tried fusion dancing in a church and learned a lot… mostly about myself. A humorous roast of dance styles I love, like, tolerate, or flee from.

🏡 Spreadsheets, Photos, and the Art of Moving Out When you move out of a cohousing, you don’t just pack your boxes — you pack your shared life.And in our case, that meant making an inventory of everything that lived in the house at Van Ooteghem:Who takes what, what gets sold, and what’s destined for the containerpark. To keep things organised (and avoid the classic “wait, whose toaster was that again?” discussion), we split the task — each person took care of one room.

🏡 Spreadsheets, Photos, and the Art of Moving Out

When you move out of a cohousing, you don’t just pack your boxes — you pack your shared life.And in our case, that meant making an inventory of everything that lived in the house at Van Ooteghem:Who takes what, what gets sold, and what’s destined…

Phew, We Actually Moved! 🎉 After days of boxes, labels, and that one mysterious piece of furniture that no one remembers what it belongs to, we can finally say it: we’ve moved! And yes, mostly without casualties (except for a few missing screws). The most nerve-wracking moment? Without a doubt, moving the piano. It got more attention than any other piece of furniture — and rightfully so.

Phew, We Actually Moved! 🎉

After days of boxes, labels, and that one mysterious piece of furniture that no one remembers what it belongs to, we can finally say it: we’ve moved! And yes, mostly without casualties (except for a few missing screws). The most nerve-wracking moment? Without a doubt,…

👾 GRUB Invaders: Because Bootloaders Deserve to Have Fun Too You know how you can make your bootloader sing a little tune?Well… what if instead of music, you could make it play Space Invaders? Yes, that’s a real thing.It’s called GRUB Invaders, and it runs before your operating system even wakes up.Because who needs Linux when you can blast aliens straight from your BIOS screen?

👾 GRUB Invaders: Because Bootloaders Deserve to Have Fun Too

You know how you can make your bootloader sing a little tune?Well… what if instead of music, you could make it play Space Invaders? Yes, that’s a real thing.It’s called GRUB Invaders, and it runs before your operating system even wakes…

Verhuisdag Part 1: Dozen, Dégage en Deeg! 🍕🚐📦 We hebben de sleutels nog niet, maar ik plan toch al een verhuisdag op woensdag 29 oktober. (To be confirmed, maar het komt dichterbij!) Waar ik hulp bij kan gebruiken 💪 Bananendozen verhuizen — ik zorg dat het meeste op voorhand is ingepakt.Ruwe schatting: zo’n 30 dozen (ik heb ze niet geteld, ik leef graag gevaarlijk). Demonteren en verhuizen van meubels:

Verhuisdag Part 1: Dozen, Dégage en Deeg! 🍕🚐📦

We hebben de sleutels nog niet, maar ik plan toch al een verhuisdag op woensdag 29 oktober. (To be confirmed, maar het komt dichterbij!) Waar ik hulp bij kan gebruiken 💪 Bananendozen verhuizen — ik zorg dat het meeste op voorhand is ingepakt.Ruwe…

🎵 The Secret Soundtrack of GRUB: Making Your Bootloader Sing So, you know that feeling when you’re editing GRUB for the thousandth time, because dual-booting is apparently a lifestyle choice?In a previous post — Resurrecting My Windows Partition After 4 Years 🖥️🎮 — I was neck-deep in grub.cfg, poking at boot entries, fixing UUIDs, and generally performing a ritual worthy of system resurrection. While I was at it, I decided to take a closer look at all those mysterious variables lurking in…

🎵 The Secret Soundtrack of GRUB: Making Your Bootloader Sing

So, you know that feeling when you’re editing GRUB for the thousandth time, because dual-booting is apparently a lifestyle choice?In a previous post — Resurrecting My Windows Partition After 4 Years 🖥️🎮 — I was neck-deep in grub.cfg,…

🧼 Pre-commit: Because “oops, forgot to format” is so last year As a solo developer, I wear all the hats. 🎩👷‍♂️🎨That includes the very boring Quality Assurance Hat™ — the one that says “yes, Amedee, you do need to check for trailing whitespace again.” And honestly? I suck at remembering those little details. I’d rather be building cool stuff than remembering to run Black or fix a missing newline. So I let my robot friend handle it.

Tired of messy commits and forgotten formatting? 😬 Let `pre-commit` clean up your code *before* it hits your repo. From trimming whitespace to catching secrets with gitleaks, it’s your automated QA sidekick. ⚡ Easy setup, big payoff. #devtools #git #precommit #automation

Resurrecting My Windows Partition After 4 Years 🖥️🎮 Sometimes Linux life is bliss. I have my terminal, my editor, my tools, and Steam games that run natively. For nearly four years, I didn’t touch Windows once — and I didn’t miss it. And then Fortnite happened. My girlfriend Enya and her wife Kyra got hooked, and naturally I wanted to join them. But Fortnite refuses to run on Linux — some copy-protection magic that digs into the Windows kernel.

Resurrecting My Windows Partition After 4 Years 🖥️🎮

Sometimes Linux life is bliss. I have my terminal, my editor, my tools, and Steam games that run natively. For nearly four years, I didn’t touch Windows once — and I didn’t miss it. And then Fortnite happened. My girlfriend Enya and her wife Kyra…

Dear Facebook, 🚪👋 Goodbye, Meta’s walled gardens Facebook and Threads now flag my own blog links as spam unless I pay to “boost” them. So I’m done posting new articles on my Facebook Page and on Threads. I’ll still use my Profile to check events and photos, but the Page/Threads era is over. If you want my writing without algorithms, takedowns or zuckerbots, subscribe via RSS, email, or follow me here. 🎻 I’d much rather play nyckelharpa or dance balfolk than argue with an algorithm. Full post 👉

🚪👋 Goodbye, Meta’s walled gardens

Facebook and Threads now flag my own blog links as spam unless I pay to “boost” them.

So I’m done posting new articles on my Facebook Page and on Threads. I’ll still use my Profile to check events and photos, but the Page/Threads era is over.

🚀 Smarter CI with GitHub Actions Cache for Ansible (aka “Stop Downloading the Internet”) Mood: Slightly annoyed at CI pipelines 🧨CI runs shouldn't feel like molasses. Here's how I got Ansible to stop downloading the internet. You're welcome. Let’s get one thing straight: nobody likes waiting on CI.Not you. Not me. Not even the coffee you brewed while waiting for Galaxy roles to install — again. So I said “nope” and made it snappy.

🚀 Tired of Ansible downloading the internet on every CI run? I used GitHub Actions cache (plus retries & sass) to speed things up. Smarter installs, fewer headaches, and zero patience lost. 🧙‍♂️✨ #DevOps #GitHubActions #Ansible #CI

🧟‍♂️ Resurrecting a Dead Commit from the GitHub Graveyard There comes a time in every developer’s life when you just know a certain commit existed. You remember its hash: deadbeef1234. You remember what it did. You know it was important. And yet, when you go looking for it... 💥 fatal: unable to read tree <deadbeef1234> Great. Git has ghosted you. That was me today. All I had was a lonely commit hash.

Lost a commit after its branch got deleted on GitHub? I did too. Cloning didn’t help. `git fsck` didn’t help. But `git fetch origin ` saved the day. Turns out even GitHub forgets things—unless you ask *really* nicely. Full story on the blog. 🧟‍♂️ #git #programming

🧹 Tidying Up After Myself: Automatically Deleting Old GitHub Issues At some point, I had to admit it: I’ve turned GitHub Issues into a glorified chart gallery. Let me explain. Over on my amedee/ansible-servers repository, I have a workflow called workflow-metrics.yml, which runs after every pipeline. It uses yykamei/github-workflows-metrics to generate beautiful charts that show how long my CI pipeline takes to run. Those charts are then posted into a GitHub Issue—one per run.

Automate your GitHub cleanup! 🧹 Learn how to use GitHub Actions and GitHub CLI to delete old closed issues safely and efficiently, keeping your repo tidy without losing important data. Perfect for managing ephemeral CI/CD metric issues or any temporary GitHub issues. #GitHub #DevOps

📦 Auto-growing disks in Vagrant: because 10 GB is never enough Have you ever fired up a Vagrant VM, provisioned a project, pulled some Docker images, ran a build… and ran out of disk space halfway through? Welcome to my world. Apparently, the default disk size in Vagrant is tiny—and while you can specify a bigger virtual disk, Ubuntu won't magically use the extra space. You need to resize the partition…

Automatically resize your LVM disk in Vagrant with a shell script that adjusts partitions, physical volumes, and logical volumes—no manual steps needed. Perfect for provisioning Ubuntu 24.04 boxes with VirtualBox. 💾📦 #DevOps #Vagrant #Linux #Automation #LVM

🧪 GitHub Actions and Environment Variables: Static vs. Dynamic Smackdown Let’s talk about environment variables in GitHub Actions — those little gremlins that either make your CI/CD run silky smooth or throw a wrench in your perfectly crafted YAML. If you've ever squinted at your pipeline and wondered, “Where the heck should I declare this ANSIBLE_CONFIG thing so it doesn’t vanish into the void between steps?”, you’re not alone. I’ve been there.

Tired of juggling env vars in GitHub Actions like a circus clown? 🎪 Static vs dynamic, job-level vs step-level — I break down the best moves to keep your workflows slick and drama-free. No more env var chaos. Your CI deserves better. #GitHubActions #DevOps #CI_CD

Safer Commands with argv in Ansible: Pros, Cons, and Real Examples When using Ansible to automate tasks, the command module is your bread and butter for executing system commands. But did you know that there's a safer, cleaner, and more predictable way to pass arguments? Meet argv—an alternative to writing commands as strings. In this post, I’ll explore the pros and cons of using argv, and I’ll walk through several real-world examples tailored to web servers and mail servers.

Avoid shell headaches in Ansible! 🧠 Use argv in the command module for safer, more predictable automation—no more quoting chaos or shell injection risks. 🚀 Learn when (and when *not*) to use it, with real-world examples. 👉 #Ansible #DevOps #Automation #SysAdmin

🎣 The Curious Case of the Beg Bounty Bait — or: Licence to Phish Not every day do I get an email from a very serious security researcher, clearly a man on a mission to save the internet — one vague, copy-pasted email at a time. Here’s the message I received: From: Peter Hooks <peterhooks007@gmail.com>Subject: Security Vulnerability Disclosure Hi Team, I’ve identified security vulnerabilities in your app that may put users at risk.

Just got a "security researcher" email full of vague threats, generic greetings, and a Gmail address with 007 in it. No app, no bounty, no clue. Naturally, I wrote a blog post. 🎣🕵️‍♂️
#BegBounty #Infosec #CyberLOL

Creating 10 000 Random Files & Analyzing Their Size Distribution: Because Why Not? 🧐💾 Ever wondered what it’s like to unleash 10 000 tiny little data beasts on your hard drive? No? Well, buckle up anyway — because today, we’re diving into the curious world of random file generation, and then nerding out by calculating their size distribution. Spoiler alert: it’s less fun than it sounds. 😏 Step 1: Let’s Make Some Files... Lots of Them…

Creating 10 000 Random Files & Analyzing Their Size Distribution: Because Why Not? 🧐💾

Ever wondered what it’s like to unleash 10 000 tiny little data beasts on your hard drive? No? Well, buckle up anyway — because today, we’re diving into the curious world of random file generation, and then…

How I Tamed Duplicity’s Buggy Versions — and Made Sure I Always Have a Backup 🛡️💾 If you’re running Mail-in-a-Box like me, you might rely on Duplicity to handle backups quietly in the background. It’s a great tool — until it isn’t. Recently, I ran into some frustrating issues caused by buggy Duplicity versions. Here’s the story, a useful discussion from the Mail-in-a-Box forums, and a neat trick I use to keep fallback versions handy. Spoiler: it involves an APT hook and some smart file copying!

How I Tamed Duplicity’s Buggy Versions — and Made Sure I Always Have a Backup 🛡️💾

If you’re running Mail-in-a-Box like me, you might rely on Duplicity to handle backups quietly in the background. It’s a great tool — until it isn’t. Recently, I ran into some frustrating issues caused by buggy…

🔍 How I Accidentally Discovered Power Query A few weeks ago, I was knee-deep in CSV files. Not the fun kind. These were automatically generated reports from Cisco IronPort, and they weren’t exactly what I’d call analysis-friendly. Think: dozens of columns wide, thousands of rows, with summary data buried in awkward corners. I was trying to make sense of incoming mail categories—Spam, Clean, Malware—and the numbers that went with them.

🔍 How I Accidentally Discovered Power Query

A few weeks ago, I was knee-deep in CSV files. Not the fun kind. These were automatically generated reports from Cisco IronPort, and they weren’t exactly what I’d call analysis-friendly. Think: dozens of columns wide, thousands of rows, with summary data…

Help ons zoeken: drie mensen op zoek naar een warm huis in Gent Soms zit het mee, soms nét niet. Het herenhuis waar we helemaal verliefd op waren, is helaas aan iemand anders verhuurd. Jammer, maar we blijven niet bij de pakken zitten. We zoeken verder — en hopelijk kan jij ons daarbij helpen! Wij zijn drie mensen die samen een huis willen delen in Gent. We vormen een warme, bewuste en respectvolle woongroep, en we dromen van een plek waar we rust, verbinding en creativiteit kunnen combineren.

Help ons zoeken: drie mensen op zoek naar een warm huis in Gent

Soms zit het mee, soms nét niet. Het herenhuis waar we helemaal verliefd op waren, is helaas aan iemand anders verhuurd. Jammer, maar we blijven niet bij de pakken zitten. We zoeken verder — en hopelijk kan jij ons daarbij helpen! Wij…

In Defense of the Em Dash — A Beautiful Line of Thought ✍️ Lately, I’ve noticed something strange happening in online discussions: the humble em dash (—) is getting side-eyed as a telltale sign that a text was written with a so-called “AI.” I prefer the more accurate term: LLM (Large Language Model), because “artificial intelligence” is a bit of a stretch — we’re really just dealing with very complicated statistics 🤖📊. Now, I get it — people are on high alert, trying to spot generated content.

In Defense of the Em Dash — A Beautiful Line of Thought ✍️

Lately, I’ve noticed something strange happening in online discussions: the humble em dash (—) is getting side-eyed as a telltale sign that a text was written with a so-called “AI.” I prefer the more accurate term: LLM (Large Language…

Samenwonen in Gent? Wij starten een nieuwe cohousing en zoeken nog iemand!

Heb jij altijd al willen samenwonen met fijne mensen in een warme, open en respectvolle sfeer? Dan is dit misschien wel iets voor jou. Samen met twee vrienden ben ik een nieuwe cohousing aan het opstarten in Gent. We hebben…

Looking for a housemate in Ghent – Join our new cohousing!

Have you ever dreamed of living in a beautiful house with thoughtful, like-minded people? Then this might be just what you're looking for. Together with two friends, I’m starting a new cohousing project in Ghent. We’ve found a recently…

📰 Featured by Sibelga and Passwerk: When Being Different Becomes a Strength I am excited to share some wonderful news—Sibelga and Passwerk have recently published a testimonial about my work, and it has been shared across LinkedIn, Sibelga's website, and even on YouTube! 🧩 LinkedIn Post:Sibelga – Testimonial with PasswerkA brief but impactful post summarizing the collaboration. 🌐 Article on Sibelga.be (Dutch):Wanneer anders zijn een sterkte wordt…

📰 Featured by Sibelga and Passwerk: When Being Different Becomes a Strength

I am excited to share some wonderful news—Sibelga and Passwerk have recently published a testimonial about my work, and it has been shared across LinkedIn, Sibelga's website, and even on YouTube! 🧩 LinkedIn Post:Sibelga –…

🚗 French Road Trip to Balilas: From Ghent to Janzé with Strangers Turned Friends A few weeks ago, I set off for Balilas, a balfolk festival in Janzé (near Rennes), Brittany (France). I had never been before, but as long as you have dance shoes, a tent, and good company, what more do you need? Bananas for scale From Ghent to Brittany… with Two Dutch Strangers My journey began in Ghent, where I was picked up by…

🚗 French Road Trip to Balilas: From Ghent to Janzé with Strangers Turned Friends

A few weeks ago, I set off for Balilas, a balfolk festival in Janzé (near Rennes), Brittany (France). I had never been before, but as long as you have dance shoes, a tent, and good company, what more do you need?…

🎥 Automating Git Repository Visualizations with GitHub Actions and Gource In the world of DevOps and continuous integration, automation is essential. One fascinating way to visualize the evolution of a codebase is with Gource, a tool that creates animated tree diagrams of project histories. Recently, I implemented a GitHub Actions workflow in my ansible-servers repository to automatically generate and deploy Gource visualizations. In this post, I will walk you through how the workflow is set up and what it does.

🎥 Automating Git Repository Visualizations with GitHub Actions and Gource

In the world of DevOps and continuous integration, automation is essential. One fascinating way to visualize the evolution of a codebase is with Gource, a tool that creates animated tree diagrams of project histories.…

🎻 Spring Tunes: Three Inspiring Music Courses I Attended This Season This spring was filled with music, learning, and connection. I had the opportunity to participate in three wonderful music courses, each offering something unique—new styles, deeper technique, and a strong sense of community. Here is a look back at these inspiring experiences. 🎶 1. Fiddlers on the Move – Ghent (5–9 March) Photo: Filip Verpoest In early March, I joined…

🎻 Spring Tunes: Three Inspiring Music Courses I Attended This Season

This spring was filled with music, learning, and connection. I had the opportunity to participate in three wonderful music courses, each offering something unique—new styles, deeper technique, and a strong sense of community.…