[ids] * [main] # copilot key leftshift+leftmeta+f23 = rightcontrol # keep right ctrl as it is. keyd by default remaps it to left ctrl for some reason rightcontrol = rightcontrol
09 February 2026
Gemini CLI
is getting even stronger
for Clojure code.
The clojure-mcp
is part of that power:
it’s exploring the code and fixing up syntax
quicker now.
In addition to writing code, it’s been good at listing and implementing optimizations and refactorings to improve the code when asked.
I’d still like to remind you to ask the AI to explain itself. It’s still our responsibility to understand what it’s doing and to question its decisions, just like we would to get the best we can from any other teammate. It’s our opportunity to learn and understand too from a very comprehensive summary of all the internet searches I used to need to do for myself.
19 January 2026
The Lenovo IdeaPad 5 has a CoPilot where it should have
a Control Key.
The key simulates a combination of keys,
so normal ways of mapping the key
(udev/hwdb.d on Debian) do not work.
keyd can hook the key,
though,
and present another virtual keyboard device.
There are inexpensive USB adapters
that allow plugging a CW key or Iambic paddle
into the computer
for use with vBand
or other games.
The adapter presents as a keyboard,
and the paddles show up as additional Left and Right Ctrl keys.
If you are running keyd on the machine,
its default behavior of mapping Right Ctrl to be Left Ctrl
(which I guess lots of people find useful)
will interfere
and cause both sides of the paddle to trigger the same dit or dah.
Fortunately, we can undo this broken behavior to get the key working again.
Create /etc/keyd/default.conf:
[ids] * [main] # copilot key leftshift+leftmeta+f23 = rightcontrol # keep right ctrl as it is. keyd by default remaps it to left ctrl for some reason rightcontrol = rightcontrol
Restart keyd: systemctl restart keyd
After the mappings have been applied,
you can be observe it with evtest.
You’ll also see the key working in vBand.
I wouldn’t have needed keyd if it wasn’t for
needing to remap the useless CoPilot key.
31 December 2025
I’ve had Gemini CLI installed on my workstation since August 2025.
Originally,
it would default
to use the gemini-2.5-pro model
and your "access" to that
would run out for the day,
and it would switch to using gemini-2.5-flash.
I found the flash model to be adequate
for the way I’d use it to do Clojure and ClojureScript,
so most the time I’d override
it to just use flash from the beginning.
I thought I could kick over to pro
if I found a problem for which I’d need more power.
Eventually,
Gemini CLI started switching back and forth
between models more intelligently,
so it didn’t burn through your limited access
to pro,
so I no longer override it with 3.0 models.
The AI agent by itself has read lots of documentation, and it’s pretty good at Googling the answers to questions and picking something to try. (I often get a bit of analysis paralysis when trying to choose a library.) It can be surprisingly good at translating sample usage of some JavaScript library it finds into a simple bit of ClojureScript.
In my experience, it’s sometimes bad at matching parentheses, so I just fix them myself. Recently, it may be getting better, and some Clojure MCP projects can cleanup parentheses automatically.
I only ask it to do small tasks,
and I closely review and test
the code it generates.
When it looks good,
I commit and push the code,
but I know I can always
easily go back to a previous working version
when the AI goes off the rails.
I don’t have to worry too much
about it getting too confused
or destroying something.
I tell it to forget what we were doing,
/clear the context,
or just restart the agent completely,
and recover my known good state from git.
I find that even if it fails to complete a task, I at least learn a little from what it did, and often have an initial direction or two to explore.
It’s pretty good at keeping my momentum when working and keeping me from spinning my wheels, like pairing with another programmer.
26 November 2025
GIMP 3.0 hit my Linux machines a while ago, and all my personal and 3rd-party scripts broke.
I finally took a moment to look at the errors and figure out what needed to be updated.
My simplest script merely sets the current layer’s blend mode to Soft Light, but even that broke. Why’s that useful? Once there’s an action in the menu, I can bind a keyboard shortcut (Ctrl-S) to it. I need to switch lots of new layers to Soft Light: High Pass for sharpening, or a layer for dodging and burning.
Registering the menu is what often failed:
attempted to install procedure "" with a full menu path "<Image>/Shortcuts/_Change to Softlight" as menu label, this is not supported any longer.
To fix it,
we move the menu path into a separate call, instead of all at once
in script-fu-register.
Here’s the fixed script:
(define (softlight-layer img inLayer)
(gimp-layer-set-mode inLayer LAYER-MODE-SOFTLIGHT)
(gimp-displays-flush))
(script-fu-register
"softlight-layer" ;function name
"Change to Softlight" ;menu label
"Change current layer to Softlight mode" ;description
"John Flinchbaugh" ;author
"Copyright 2025, John Flinchbaugh" ;copyright notice
"November 26, 2025" ;date created
"RGB* GRAY*" ;image type that the script works on
SF-IMAGE "image" 0
SF-DRAWABLE "drawable" 0)
(script-fu-menu-register "softlight-layer" "<Image>/Shortcuts")