Unlike the iPad, UTM on mac has full support for JIT, so performance is much better.
I use UTM Remote to access the VMs on my iPad, even though they are running on the Mac.
Windows 98 SE: Further Setup
The first screen after Windows 98 SE boots for the first time is this welcome screen. Time to disable it and prevent it from ever showing up again.
Welcome to Windows 98
I heard the accompanying (rock) music for the first time ever, because I always had cheap AC’97 chipsets and you needed to install the drivers later, manually. Virtually, I can afford the Creative Sound Blaster 16; for which, Windows has drivers pre-installed.
The next step is to disable the Task Scheduler forever which I also, always did back in the day.
Stop using Task Scheduler
Windows 98 SE: Chipset driver setup
For the next few steps, it is advisable to keep the CD (Or the iso) popped in as windows will install a lot of drivers.
As you can see below, Windows 98 SE has failed to detect the PCI bus (and consequently, everything else connected to it). It needs a bit of manual push to be recognised properly.
Device Manager – Plug and Play BIOSDisplay a list of all the driversStandard system devices – PCI BusTo finish setting up your new hardware, you must restart your computer
We are at the 6th restart since starting the installation, so why not?
After the restart, Windows 98 SE detects a whole bunch of new devices, freshly exposed from behind the PCI bus. Surely some of the names are made up, right?
New Hardware Found : PCI Host BridgeIntel 82441FX Pentium(r) Pro Processor to PCI BridgeNew Hardware Found : PCI ISA BridgeNew Hardware Found : IO read data port for ISA Plug and Play enumeratorNew Hardware Found : IRQ Holder for PCI SteeringNew Hardware Found : PCI IDE ControllerDo you want to restart your computer now?
After the 8th reboot, yet more devices.
Intel 82371EB Power Management ControllerNew Hardware Found : PCI VGA Compatible Display AdapterCirrus Logic 5446 PCI
It’s not Windows if it doesn’t rash a few times along the way and Scandisk gets a chance to check the disks again.
Because Windows was not properly shut down, one or more of your drives may have errors on it
Windows 98 SE: Display
With the display adapter correctly detected and the drivers installed, we can bump up the resolution and colour depth. Of course this brings us to the 10th restart.
Display Properties : High Color (16 bit) and 800 by 609 pixelsCompatibility Warning : Restart the computer with the new color settings?
Now its time to set a proper theme.
Windows 98 : Dangerous Creatures
This used to be my mother’s favourite theme, even if not mine. I used to keep this on in hopes that she would like it and let me use the computer for some more time.
Time to shut down the VM and let it rest for yet another adventure for another day.
For those who don’t know, Jetpack is Automattic’s WordPress plugin, which connects your blog to their cloud service and provides a number of features.
I have been using Jetpack for as long as I remember having this site on WordPress. And for most of the time, it has worked well. However, recently, I noticed that when composing posts, the block editor would get stuck “saving” and not recover at all. Over many months, it led to hours of lost work. After troubleshooting thoroughly, I found that the problem only happened when Jetpack was enabled.
I knew there’s no single plugin that can replace Jetpack in totality, but when I made a list of the Jetpack features I use and how many plugins it would take to replace it, I was shocked.
Below is a description of what I did.
Social Media Share Icons
I decided to start with the easy items and immediately found “Simple Social Icons” to replace Jetpack’s social share icons.
Share button integration with Jetpack
Simple Social Icons by Osompress
All good. Let’s continue.
Commenting System
WordPress’s default commenting system requires a person to create an account on your blog before they can comment. Obviously this is not practical for blogs like mine where no one would bother to do this. So I tried 2 options:
Disqus
I was already familiar with Disqus, because I used it on my blog long ago, but I seem to have forgotten that it shows advertisements. I have kept my blog proudly clean over decades, why would I let a plugin display ads? Hard pass.
Advertisements in Disqus’s comment system
More things against this plugin were the requirement to create & maintain a Disqus account and it maintaining your comments on its servers, rather than integrating with WordPress’s comments (At least by default).
wpDiscuz
In-spite of the childish name spelling, this plugin was quite powerful, even with the free iteration.
wpDiscuz Comment Examples
This plugin actually out-performs Jetpack by allowing users to login with many different social media accounts (Jetpack allows only WordPress and Facebook accounts).
For downtime monitoring, I chose Pingdom’s service. The service is quite powerful, generating detailed stats, certainly more so than Jetpack which only shows up/down alerts. However, I realised later that the free tier only supports monitoring for 30 days. Since I don’t earn any money from this website, I decided to forego this feature and stay in the blind.
Pingdom’s site monitoring tool
Fetch images directly from services
Jetpack’s image fetch tool
Jetpack has this nifty feature which allows you to insert royalty-free images directly from multiple image services (vs finding an image, verifying the license, saving it, then uploading it). I mostly use it for the cover image of each post.
To replace this, I found Instant Images, which allows fetching images from even more platforms.
WordPress shows you graphs of how many people visited your blog and from where. This data is widely disputed to be flawed. Since I was already using Cloudflare, I chose Cloudflare’s stats for this.
However, I didn’t find a way to view these statistics in a formatting suitable for mobile displays.
Cloudflare statistics: Requests by country
Email Subscription & Sign Up Form
I saved the most complicated for the last and eventually this was the item which eventually caused me to give up.
Basically, I wanted people to be able to sign up to my blog newsletters via a sign-up form on the blog page and then receive notification emails when there’s a new post. Simple, right? Not so
MailChimp & MC4WP
MailChimp
MailChimp is the world’s leading email marketing platform. You can use it for free if you have less than 2000 subscribers, which is not a problem for me.
Signing up for an account and starting a campaign requires a lot of verification (To prevent spam, they say), but I was done in an hour, including importing my existing subscribers via a .csv file.
MC4WP
To make a subscription form on my website for people to type their email addresses in, I used MC4WP, which is a nifty tool which can update the subscriber’s list on your MailChimp account.
The free account was suitable for my needs.
However, I got stuck on the next part, which was to automatically send a notification email to my subscribers when there’s a new post. There doesn’t seem to be a native way to do this. The method recommended by MailChimp is to set up a “classic” automation which would read from an RSS feed of my blog and trigger the email sending. However, this feature was paid and I didn’t want to pay to send emails to 30 subscribers. On to the next option, then.
Icegram Express
Icegram Express
The big advantage of Icegram Express was that it all runs natively within your WordPress installation, without a need for an account with them.
It took me 20 minutes to configure everything and setup the automations. However, when I tried testing the email digest (I tried both WPMail and PHPmail), it would only send emails half the time. The other half, it would say it sent the email, but the recipient would never receive it.
I tried my best, but I couldn’t find another alternative.
Eventually, I took stock of where I was. I had replaced Jetpack with 5 different plugins, created accounts with 3 new services and still I was nowhere near the functionality Jetpack provided.
I made the hard decision to give up and go back to Jetpack, with a new found appreciation for how useful this plugin actually is & how much it does for free.
If I edit my posts in Firefox, I don’t run across the “saving” problem anymore, however, I have raised a feedback with Apple to hopefully get it fixed.
Continuing my series, this post is about the Crassula Ovata, commonly known as the Jade Plant.
Jade Plant (Crassula ovata) is a beloved succulent known for its thick, glossy, oval-shaped leaves and its tree-like appearance. Native to South Africa and Mozambique, it has become a popular houseplant around the world. It is prized for both its beauty and symbolic meaning.
Often referred to as the “money plant” or “friendship tree,” the Jade Plant is associated with good luck, prosperity, and positive energy, especially in Feng Shui practices. Its fleshy leaves are thought to resemble coins, reinforcing its connection to wealth and abundance.
I keep this plant in shade all the time, as it prefers indirect light but can tolerate low light conditions. It sits on our living room cabinet, next to the Mac Mini.
This plant requires no maintenance at all, making it perfect for those who may not have a green thumb. With proper care, they can live for decades and even grow into small indoor trees, making them a lasting and meaningful addition to any space.
I water it twice a week. It is drought-tolerant, so I don’t have to worry about watering it frequently.
Additionally, I fertilise it every 2 months or when it shows signs of growth, helping to promote healthy foliage and overall vitality.
I recently did some pretty complicated configurations on my Synology NAS & subsequently the Mac Mini & decided to make diagrams to document how things communicate with each other. The below sections describe the traffic flow for Homebridge & Plex on my home server.
Homebridge
The Homebridge traffic flow is relatively straight forward.
Traffic flow, Homekit
Homebridge acts as a bridge between IoT devices and Apple’s HomeKit. There are many 3rd party plugins for different types of devices. The plugins are searchable/downloadable from the app itself.
Homebridge polls your IoT devices regularly (depending on how the plugins are built) and gets status information, storing it in a local database
Homebridge shows up as a HomeKit bridge to your HomeKit home hub and exposes all its connected accessories.
There’s a fair bit of mDNS involved for device discovery, so make sure your router allows Layer 2 multicast between the wired and wireless networks.
Plex
There are 2 use cases here, both a bit complicated
Plex Home Media Streaming
Traffic flow, Plex Media Streaming
Plex Media Server is installed on my Mac Mini and can access all my media.
For devices on the local network, streaming is straight forward, the devices access Plex Media Server and stream the media.
Plex Streaming graph
For devices on the internet, I needed to setup a Cloudflare tunnel for remote access. This is because my ISP doesn’t provide a Public IP via which I can establish direct inbound access. Cloudflared establishes a tunnel outbound from my NAS to Cloudflare’s servers. Devices on the internet use DNS mapping on a domain name to locate the tunnel endpoint and stream media through it.
Plex IPTV Streaming
A few weeks ago, I figured out how to integrate my IPTV service with Plex. Now, Plex by itself doesn’t support IPTV services, but it does support TV tuners. That’s where Threadfin comes in.
Traffic flow, Plex IPTV Streaming with threadfin
So, there are 2 separate, independent traffic flows we need to consider.
IPTV Control Traffic
Before IPTV streaming can start, all the devices involved need to have the correct information. This is how it goes:
Threadfin fetches the channel list from the IPTV provider using an authenticated .m3u playlist
Threadfin fetches the programme guide from the IPTV provider using an authenticated .xml file
Threadfin allows you to filter both the above to reduce the list of channels sent to Plex.
Threadfin exposes itself as a TV tuner to Plex. Plex fetches the filtered list of channels and EPG information from Threadfin.
One quirk with Threadfin is that it stores the original playlist in its memory, so the container may use up a lot of RAM. My container was using 2.6GB RAM with 113k channels in the playlist. After I asked my IPTV provider to trim it, currently it is using 800MB with 37k channels.
IPTV Media streaming
Threadfin doesn’t participate in the actual media stream. When a channel is selected on Plex to be viewed, Threadfin provides Plex with the actual streaming URL.
Once Plex has the original URL, it starts fetching the stream directly from the IPTV server and provides it to all client devices, local or remote, using the same mechanism as media streaming.
Continuing my series, this post is about the Bougainvillea that we recently bought.
Bougainvillea is a vibrant, fast-growing ornamental plant known for its explosion of colorful, papery bracts that surround its tiny, white, inconspicuous flowers. Native to South America, it’s widely cultivated in warm climates around the world for its stunning display and hardy nature.
Bougainvillea
Bougainvillea is perfect for adding bold color to gardens, balconies, and landscapes. With minimal care and the right sunny spot, it rewards with vibrant, long-lasting blooms almost year-round. It is one of the most striking flowering plants you can grow, prized for its vivid, paper-like bracts that bloom in bold colors throughout the year in warm climates. Though often mistaken for flowers, these bracts actually surround the plant’s tiny, white blossoms and are what give Bougainvillea its unmistakable appearance.
Continuing my series, this post is about the Dracaena Sanderiana, commonly known as the Lucky Bamboo.
Dracaena sanderiana is a popular houseplant. People know this for its elegant, slender stalks and its reputation for bringing good fortune and positive energy. Despite its name, Lucky Bamboo isn’t a true bamboo—it belongs to the Dracaena genus, which is native to Central Africa.
This resilient plant is often used in Feng Shui to promote harmony and prosperity. Its stalks are frequently arranged in decorative groupings, with each number symbolizing a different kind of luck. For instance, two stalks for love, three for happiness, wealth, and longevity, and eight for growth and abundance. Ours has eight stalks.
So what if it’s tiny? It deserves a post.
Lucky Bamboo (Dracaena Sanderiana)
I keep this plant in shade all the time, on our dining room table.
The Lucky Bamboo requires no maintenance at all, making it perfect for those who may not have a green thumb. Although, to be honest, I personally don’t like such hands-off plants.
I water it twice a week & drain/change the water every month, as the pot doesn’t have a drain hole; basically a bonsai.
After the painful (and unstable) experience of using Windows 95 and Windows 98, Windows 2000 Professional came as a breath of fresh air. It was the first version of Windows I used, based on NT technology. While going through the process of running it on my NAS, I tried to recall what I felt the first time I installed it.
This was almost 25 years ago, and I was apprehensive about moving to a new platform. When I consulted my friend Vishal Chopra about it, his simple advice was “2000 is a higher number than 98, so it is better”.
Windows 2000 Professional: Setup
The first phase of the setup process resembled Linux more than it did other Windows versions.
Windows 2000 Setup: Setup is loading filesWelcome to SetupWindows 2000 Setup: To continue Setup, press C
Yeah sure, nuclear, chemical or biological weapons.
Widows 2000 Licensing Agreement
Oooh, a shiny, new, modern file system.
Windows 2000 Setup: Unpartitioned spaceExisting PartitionsWindows 2000 Setup: Format the partition using the NTFS file systemWindows 2000 Setup: Setup is formatting
The part of copying files was extremely fast.
Windows 2000 Setup: Setup is copying filesPlease wait while Setup initializes your Windows 2000 configurationWindows 2000 Setup: This portion of Setup has completed successfully
The first boot screen was less modern than Windows 98. The second boot screen was more modern than Windows 98, showing a progress bar for the first time.
Starting WindowsMicrosoft Windows 2000 Professional: Built on NT Technology
The second phased of setup felt as if it was running within Windows.
Windows 2000 Setup: Please wait…Windows 2000 Setup: Welcome to the Windows 2000 Setup WizardSetup: Installing DevicesWindows 2000 Setup: Regional SettingsSetup: Personalize Your SoftwareWindows 2000 Setup: Date and Time Settings
Networking was pretty robust in Windows 2000 Professional. I always felt (maybe placebo effect) that my dial-up internet worked faster and was more stable on it.
Windows 2000 Setup: Please wait while Windows installs networking components
Windows 2000 Setup: Installing DevicesSetup: Please wait while Setup: Installs Start menu itemsWindows 2000 Setup: Please wait while Setup: Registers componentsSetup: Please wait while Setup: Saves settingsWindows 2000 Setup: Please wait while Setup: Removes any temporary files usedSetup: Completing the Windows 2000 Setup Wizard
The first version of Windows I used that encouraged you to configure a login password.
Welcome to the Network Identification WizardNetwork Identification Wizard
Windows 2000 Professional: Out of Box Experience
Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional: Loading your personal settingsMicrosoft Windows 2000 Professional: Applying your personal settings
The first order of business was disabling the terrible “getting started” screen forever.
Getting Started with Windows 2000
believe this bubble was redundant, as people were already familiar with the Start menu for many years by now.
Click on the Start Button
Second order of business was enabling web content for the desktop and exposing hidden files and folders.
Folder Options : Enable Web content on my desktopFolder Options : Show hidden files and folders
Thankfully, Windows 2000 did not put Task Scheduler in the system tray by default, disabling which was also an action item with Windows 98.
The shut down experience was also much better on Windows 2000.
Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional: Saving your settingsWindows 2000 Professional: Windows is shutting down
Luckily, most of the games I played back then worked well on Windows 2000; although DirectX did not come out of the box.
Continuing my series, this post is about nine succulents that I recently bought.
Dog-Tail Cactus (Strophocactus Testudo)
The Strophocactus testudo, also known as Dog-Tail Cactus is a fascinating succulent that boasts long, trailing stems resembling a dog’s tail. This unique growth habit makes it a popular choice for hanging baskets and terrariums. It is the favourite of all my succulents.
This succulent is native to Central and SouthAmerica, found abundantly in Brazil.
It needs careful handling, or bits of it can fall off.
Lophophora williamsii, commonly known as peyote, is a small, spineless cactus native to the southeastern United States and northern Mexico. This unique cactus is renowned for its psychoactive properties, particularly due to the presence of mescaline, a naturally occurring psychedelic compound.
Lophophora williamsii (Peyote)
Indigenous peoples in North America have used this plant for thousands of years for religious and spiritual ceremonies. It is a sacred plant that facilitates introspection, healing, and connection with the divine.
The African spear plant, also known as Sansevieria cylindrica or Dracaena angolensis, is a striking and low-maintenance succulent native to Angola.
Its gray-green leaves often grow in a fan shape and can reach several feet in height. Some varieties are braided or trained into patterns for a decorative effect. Like other members of the Sansevieria family, the African spear plant is incredibly hardy—thriving in a range of light conditions from bright indirect light to low light—and needs minimal watering, making it perfect for beginners or busy plant lovers.
The Jade plant (Crassula ovata) is a popular succulent known for its thick, fleshy leaves that resemble small jade coins—hence the name. Native to South Africa and Mozambique, it’s often seen as a symbol of luck and prosperity, making it a common gift for housewarmings or new ventures. Easy to care for, the jade plant thrives in bright light and needs only occasional watering, making it ideal for both beginner and experienced plant lovers. Over time, it can grow into a small, tree-like shrub with a sturdy trunk and branches.
The Bird’s Nest Snake Plant (Sansevieria trifasciata ‘Hahnii’) is a compact, rosette-forming variety of the classic snake plant. Its short, broad leaves grow in a tight, nest-like cluster—hence the name—and feature striking green variegation with lighter horizontal stripes. Native to West Africa, this plant is incredibly hardy, tolerating low light, infrequent watering, and a range of conditions.
The Pies from Heaven plant (Sedeveria ‘Blue Elf’) is a charming hybrid succulent, a cross between Sedum and Echeveria. It features compact rosettes of chubby, bluish-green leaves that can blush with pink or red tones under bright sunlight or cooler temperatures. This drought-tolerant plant thrives in well-draining soil and lots of sunlight, making it a favorite for rock gardens, containers, and succulent arrangements. In the spring, it produces cheerful, star-shaped yellow flowers that attract pollinators and add to its appeal.
Pies from Heaven (Sedeveria)
Zebra Plant (Haworthiopsis attenuata)
The Zebra Plant (Haworthiopsis attenuata, formerly Haworthia attenuata) is a small, eye-catching succulent native to South Africa. It’s named for the white, horizontal stripes that decorate its dark green, pointed leaves—resembling a zebra’s pattern. Compact and low-growing, this plant forms rosettes and is ideal for containers or small indoor spaces. It thrives in bright, indirect light and well-draining soil, requiring only occasional watering. Easy to care for and visually striking, the Zebra Plant is a favorite among succulent enthusiasts and beginners alike.
The Monk’s Hood Cactus (Astrophytum ornatum) is a striking and slow-growing cactus native to the central highlands of Mexico. It gets its name from the curved, hood-like shape of its ribs, which give it a somewhat monastic appearance. Its tall, columnar body is often ribbed and covered in small white speckles and spines, adding to its visual appeal. In summer, it may produce large, yellow, daisy-like flowers near the top, making it even more eye-catching. Hardy and drought-tolerant, the Monk’s Hood Cactus thrives in bright light and well-draining soil, perfect for arid gardens or sunny windowsills.
All 9 succulents thrive in bright sunlight in our south-facing balcony.
I water all of them twice a week, allowing the soil to dry out completely between watering sessions.
Succulents in the balcony
During the summer growing season, a light fertilisation every month can promote healthy growth, but it’s important to refrain from this during the dormant winter months.
Continuing my series, this post is about the Mexican Heather plant that we recently bought.
Mexican Heather (Cuphea hyssopifolia) is a charming, low-maintenance ornamental plant known for its fine-textured foliage and delicate, colorful flowers. Despite its name, it’s not a true heather but gets the nickname due to its similar appearance.
I generally grows about 1 to 2 feet tall and wide, making it perfect for borders and ground cover. It is a pollinator-friendly plant, attracting bees and butterflies. The flowers are tiny, trumpet-shaped blooms in shades of purple, lavender, pink, or white, appearing almost year-round in warm climates.
With its dainty flowers and tidy growth habit, Mexican Heather adds soft color and texture to gardens almost year-round and is a favorite for beginner and seasoned gardeners alike.
This plant is native to Mexico, Guatemala, and parts of Central America. It thrives in warm, tropical to subtropical climates and naturally grows in open, sunny areas with well-drained soils.
I keep this plant in direct sunlight. On our south-facing balcony in winters & north-facing balcony in summers, where it receives bright sunlight 2-3 hours a day.
Continuing my series, this post is about the Garden Croton plant that we recently bought.
The Garden Croton (Codiaeum variegatum) is a vibrant, tropical shrub known for its bold, multicoloured foliage. Native to Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands, it features leathery leaves in a dazzling mix of green, yellow, red, orange, and even purple, often with dramatic veining or spotting.
While they’re often grown outdoors in tropical climates, they also make striking houseplants. However, keeping them indoors turns the leaves dull and green, so I refuse to bring it indoors.
It is known for the variety of leaf shapes it offers—ranging from broad and oval to long, narrow, and even twisted or lobed.
I keep this plant on our south-facing balcony, in indirect sunlight. I plan to move it indoors during the winters, so prevent it from getting hit by the direct sun.
This plant requires low maintenance.
I water it three times a week, but will reduce the frequency once it is indoors.
I fertilise it every 2 months or when it shows signs of growth.
