Month Notes January 2026
Hello! I’ve been cooking up these January notes for a little bit, but it’s taken a while due to all the nerd action.
Learning Kotlin
I am trying to develop myself and learn some other tech skills outside of .Net + Node/JS.
I came across a cool company using Kotlin for their backend, and looking into Kotlin, it spoke to me. I thought it might also be useful to have JVM experience as that covers Java, Kotlin, Groovy, and more.
So, I started learning Kotlin using Hyperskill and the Kotlin Koans course plugin for IntelliJ.
Lightning reviews: Hyperskill is ok on PC, useless on phone. The exercises swing wildly from Duolingo style tap-the-answer or fill-the-gap up to complex coding questions that (I think) you’re expected to pre-solve in an IDE before entering the answer. In IntelliJ, the Kotlin Koans are good - the courseware plugin works excellently - but you have to give them time and attention; the difficulty does ramp quickly and some things go under-explained.
I didn’t actually have space left on the C: drive of my trusty Surface Pro 4 to install IntelliJ, so some yak-shaving was required up front…
Sidebar: I bought this preowned SP4 in 2020 when it was 5 years old already. It came with the drive partitioned with only 128GB usable but when I investigated, it had another 128GB unallocated!! At the time, I made that into a D: drive, which I’ve used for project code and music production tools, VSTs, etc.
I haven’t used my music production stuff in several years so I decided to let go. I backed up D: to an external drive, and with lots of googling, removed the partition (and its recovery partition), merged the space into C:, and brought up a new recovery partition.
All that to say: I moved a load of stuff around to make more space for development tools. That meant I could install IntelliJ IDEA and the bits and bobs I needed.
GitHub CoPilot CLI
I started an entry for the GitHub CoPilot CLI hackathon on dev.to
I hope to do a Kotlin entry to do double duty as a portfolio piece.
Mouse
I’ve been using a Microsoft Sculpt Ergonomic keyboard + mouse set for a long time. I love love love love love love love it. But the left click on the mouse stopped working. Also it’s falling apart. I switched briefly to a regular wireless mouse and boy! Ouch! My hand was so uncomfortable all day.
Having rested my hand on one in Currys a few months ago, I ordered a Logi MX Vertical from an eBay seller, in like new condition. It was £45 instead of the street price of £80-110! Logi do a few ergonomic mice, but the MX Vertical is suited to “large hands” which is the kind of hands that I have 👋
I’m really happy with it; it’s super comfortable. The best feature I didn’t expect to work is the device switcher. You can tap a button underneath the mouse to flick it between three devices. So, #1 is the wireless USB dongle (work PC), #2 is Bluetooth to my SP4. It’s great! One minor niggle, the scrollwheel has that dusty-grindy feeling of a cheaper mouse and feels like it might fail. We’ll see.
Hieroglyphics
I found out about Unicode Hieroglyphics. I suppose if you’d asked me “do you know there are hieroglyphics in unicode” I would have said, “Yes, that makes sense”. But I never looked through them.
I am going to print some here
𓄿 𓅀 𓅁 𓅂 𓅃 𓅄 𓅅 𓅆 𓅇 𓅈 𓅉 𓅊 𓅋 𓅌 𓅍 𓅎 𓅏 𓅐 𓅑 𓅒 𓅓 𓅔 𓅕 𓅖 𓅗 𓅘 𓅙 𓅚 𓅛 𓅜 𓅝 𓅞 𓅟 𓅠 𓅡 𓅢 𓅣 𓅤 𓅥 𓅦 𓅧 𓅨 𓅩 𓅪 𓅫 𓅬 𓅭 𓅮 𓅯 𓅰 𓅱 𓅲 𓅳 𓅴 𓅵 𓅶 𓅷 𓅸 𓅹 𓅺 𓅻 𓅼 𓅽 𓅾 𓅿 𓆀 𓆁 𓆂 𓆃 𓆄 𓆅 𓆆 𓆇 𓆈 𓆉 𓆊 𓆋 𓆌 𓆍 𓆎 𓆏 𓆐 𓆑 𓆒 𓆓 𓆔 𓆕 𓆖 𓆗 𓆘 𓆙 𓆚 𓆛 𓆜 𓆝 𓆞 𓆟 𓆡 𓆢 𓆣 𓆤 𓆥 𓆦 𓆧 𓆨 𓆫 𓆬 𓆭 𓆮 𓆯 𓆰 𓆱 𓆲 𓃒 𓃓 𓃔 𓃕 𓃖 𓃗 𓃘 𓃙 𓃚 𓃛 𓃜 𓃝 𓃞 𓃟 𓃠 𓃡 𓃢 𓃣 𓃤 𓃥 𓃦 𓃧 𓃨 𓃩 𓃪 𓃫 𓃬 𓃭 𓃮 𓃯 𓃰 𓃱 𓃲 𓃳 𓃴 𓃵 𓃶 𓃷 𓃸 𓃹 𓃺 𓃻 𓃼 𓃽
Here’s my favourite:
𓀬
You also get some those cowards won’t put in the Emoji range (one of which is redacted on most OSes but not iOS):
𓀐 𓁒 𓂺
I think this really invites some kind of broke-woke-bespoke meme comparison to emojis which I’ll leave as an exercise for the reader.
BEST OF ALL, ChatGPT has no idea what it’s looking at when you paste these characters, so we finally have a secret code the computers can’t understand. Nobody post descriptions of the hieroglyphs!! Defend the cipher!!
Got a server
Got an OVH VPS and started setting it up. Tried Coolify and it didn’t work out for me. Tried Disco.cloud instead and it’s going 👍👍
I didn’t want to do docker. But I appreciate that the alternative is installing all the frameworks on the VPS and then managing which app calls which one, and… it’s not practical. Ofc this is docker’s raison d’etre.
The best docker volumes tutorial is an SO answer, as usual: Understanding “VOLUME” instruction in dockerfile
Other stuff
Did some sweatshirt art for a family event/meme… looking forward to doing an art writeup when I get time.
Commercially sensitive secret things.
Seahawks win!! Yes! 𓄿
Thank you for reading my blog
You can email me if you want to be friends. My email address is ste. You already know the domain.
Have a nice February~ 👔🏓