Tech on nonpunctual

Add Search To a Hugo Site With Fuse.js

Mon, 11 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The search begins.

Today I added search on my Hugo static site with Fuse.js. I am unreasonably excited about this for kind of a negative reason:

I’ve had a lot, A LOT of recent experience with a static site that had pretty disappointing search capability.

I found Fuse.js in Blowfish - a really thoughtful & nice looking Hugo theme that I probably would have used for my site if I’d discovered it early.

Interactively Create Hugo Content With Frontmatter

Thu, 30 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Hugo “Droste Effect”.

I’ve been working on nonpunctual.org quite a bit lately. It might not show - websites are harder than they look.

One of the things that is very helpful in Hugo for creating new content is the archetypes schema. Hugo users can create “archetype” files in their project - .md file templates that can be populated with:

auto-generated content file metadata (frontmatter)
markdown formatting / document structure
- headers
- lists
- links
- raw HTML
- text
- etc.
shortcodes
etc.

You can even use archetypes to create directory structures for content (which I am using for photos).

No Free Space For Complexity

Tue, 31 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

It is amazing how systems can be connected today compared to 10-15 years ago.

Enterprise chat platforms were nascent, but ascendant then. Now, all sorts of fancy stuff probably happens in your chat app. Maybe you:

get notifications about computers & servers being configured
make tickets in a help desk system
do AI searches with bots in Salesforce data
get AI-generated sentiment summaries from customer calls

The sky is the limit! (Well, the sky, the amount of 💰 you have to spend on integrations, the complexity of your tools & the patience your IT person has to configure all of it…)

UTI: Uncomfortable In Any Context

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Info

These posts are being re-created from old Jamf Nation posts not because they are the best but because they may have useful things that were mangled in the Jamf Nation transition to its most recent hosting platform.

That, & they were always supposed to be blog posts anyway… I didn’t have a blog then.

Note

UTI in this domain unpacks to “Uniform Type Identifier” not “Urinary Tract Infection”. Get your mind out of the gutter…

The Endpoint

Mon, 16 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

What Is an Endpoint? Link to heading

The word “endpoint” is used a lot in tech. In the device management domain, an endpoint is any managed computer or mobile device that is actively used for work. This can mean servers, but it typically means devices that are deployed “1:1”, in end user’s hands. For most modern organizations 1:1 deployed endpoints are the primary portals to collaboration and productivity.

Migration "Assistant"

Wed, 15 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Info

That, & they were always supposed to be blog posts anyway… I didn’t have a blog then.

Note

UPDATE 1: 20260305

When I wrote this script, it was intentionally for blocking Migration Assistant.app - I re-wrote it so any app can be blocked this way just by setting the variables at the top.

JSON & the Arg-nauts

Fri, 05 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Info

NOTE: These posts are being re-created from old Jamf Nation posts not because they are the best but because they may have useful things that were mangled in the Jamf Nation transition to its most recent hosting platform.

That, & they were always supposed to be blog posts anyway… I didn’t have a blog then.

Note

UPDATE: Something I thought would never happen has happened. Since the beta features are under NDA, I guess I can’t really say what it is, but, IYKYK, &, it makes everything in this post mostly obsolete. :) Cheers.

Yule Logging

Thu, 21 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Info

That, & they were always supposed to be blog posts anyway… I didn’t have a blog then.

As it is the holiday season, I wanted to offer up a little gratitude in the form of 🎁 boilerplate code 🎁 related to topics that come up in the Mac admins #scripting & #bash channels again & again. I hope people find it here & find it useful.

Apple CIDR

Mon, 21 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Info

That, & they were always supposed to be blog posts anyway… I didn’t have a blog then.

It’s been a while so here is something that you may never need, or, you have something clever that you already use for this & I am too dumb to know about it, or, maybe, someone will find it useful.

A Haiku On Regular Expressions

Sun, 18 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Info

That, & they were always supposed to be blog posts anyway… I didn’t have a blog then.

For whatever reason, there was a day when the Mac admins slack was particularly goofy & there was a call for poems. I posted this:

Dynamic Token Of Static Appreciation

Mon, 08 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Info

That, & they were always supposed to be blog posts anyway… I didn’t have a blog then.

It’s been a while since I posted anything, so, for (future) me & for you I am posting this script that dynamically updates Static Group membership.

Super Size Me

Thu, 23 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Info

That, & they were always supposed to be blog posts anyway… I didn’t have a blog then.

A while back I posted very excitedly about an update to the du binary. I forgot to post that I actually used it for something…

Surfin' Safari

Fri, 03 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Info

That, & they were always supposed to be blog posts anyway… I didn’t have a blog then.

Everybody's learnin' how…

It is an objective fact that The Beach Boys are one of the 5 most overrated musical acts of all time (the others are The Who, The Doors, The Grateful Dead, & Elvis Presley). However, that discussion will have to wait for another time & place…

Firefoxy

Mon, 30 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Info

That, & they were always supposed to be blog posts anyway… I didn’t have a blog then.

Note

So,  added jq to macOS. I do have a funny story about this… The version I will tell here in public is: I was told that would never happen & then it did!

I've Got the Power

Tue, 15 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Info

That, & they were always supposed to be blog posts anyway… I didn’t have a blog then.

An Extension Attribute script for Mac portable battery health:

#!/bin/bash
#shellcheck disable=SC2207

if ! /usr/sbin/sysctl -n hw.model | /usr/bin/grep -q -i 'book'
then
 echo "<result>no</result>"; exit
fi

IFS=$'\n'
pwrdata=($(/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy \
 -c "print 0:_items:0:sppower_battery_health_info:sppower_battery_health" \
 -c "print 0:_items:0:sppower_battery_health_info:sppower_battery_cycle_count" \
 -c "print 0:_items:0:sppower_battery_health_info:sppower_battery_health_maximum_capacity" \
 -c "print 0:_items:0:sppower_battery_charge_info:sppower_battery_max_capacity" \
 -c "print 0:_items:0:sppower_battery_model_info:sppower_battery_manufacturer" \
 -c "print 0:_items:0:sppower_battery_model_info:sppower_battery_firmware_version" \
 -c "print 0:_items:0:sppower_battery_model_info:sppower_battery_hardware_revision" \
 -c "print 0:_items:0:sppower_battery_model_info:sppower_battery_cell_revision" \
 /dev/stdin <<< "$(/usr/sbin/system_profiler -xml SPPowerDataType)" 2> /dev/null))

result(){
 echo "Health = ${pwrdata[0]}"
 echo "Cycle Count = ${pwrdata[1]}"
 
 if [[ "${pwrdata[2]}" == *'%'* ]]
 then
 echo "Max Capacity = ${pwrdata[2]}"
 else
 echo "Max Capacity = ${pwrdata[2]} mAh"
 fi

 if [ "$(/usr/sbin/sysctl -in hw.optional.arm64)" = 1 ] && /usr/sbin/sysctl -n machdep.cpu.brand_string | /usr/bin/grep -q 'Apple' && /usr/bin/uname -v | /usr/bin/grep -q 'ARM64'
 then
 i=5 # Apple Silicon
 else
 i=6 # Intel
 echo "Manufacturer = ${pwrdata[i-3]}"
 fi

 echo "Firmware Version = ${pwrdata[i-2]}"
 echo "Hardware Revision = ${pwrdata[i-1]}"
 echo "Cell Revision = ${pwrdata[i]}"
}

echo "<result>$(result)</result>"

Some notes:

Googalogically Speaking

Fri, 04 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Info

That, & they were always supposed to be blog posts anyway… I didn’t have a blog then.

tl;dr: This script is dumb. Do not read this.

Long version: I have seen lots of “curl the package then install the package” scripts. Some are ghastly, some are complicated (ahem, _APS…)

A Light Unto My Xpath

Wed, 22 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Info

That, & they were always supposed to be blog posts anyway… I didn’t have a blog then.

Note

From the legendary Armin Briegel in the comments:

There seems to be a change to the xmllint command behavior in Ventura. Now this:

The networkQuality Is Not Strained

Wed, 15 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Info

That, & they were always supposed to be blog posts anyway… I didn’t have a blog then.

I posted this in the Mac admins Slack & kind of forgot to post it here…

GNU (New?) du Binary Option In macOS 12 Monterey

Sat, 20 Nov 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Info

That, & they were always supposed to be blog posts anyway… I didn’t have a blog then.

I was using du the other day to create an extension attribute & noticed that it now has a helpful option which obviates some ugly math:

"Automating" the Mac Evaluation Utility.app (MEU)

Fri, 12 Nov 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Info

That, & they were always supposed to be blog posts anyway… I didn’t have a blog then.

This is a (pretty dumb) script that will automate the execution of the “Mac Evaluation Utility” v. 4.0.1

Collect Year From Mac Marketing Model Name

Sat, 30 Oct 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Info

That, & they were always supposed to be blog posts anyway… I didn’t have a blog then.

I’ve seen a few tricks for getting what Apple calls the Marketing Model name of a Mac in Terminal. One uses the last 4 characters of the serial number in a curl command. This seems to work (it requires the -L flag on curl). It may stop working because of changes to Apple serial numbers.

Removing System Roots (is probably a bad idea)

Thu, 17 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Info

That, & they were always supposed to be blog posts anyway… I didn’t have a blog then.

Note

I haven’t tested this recently. I am pretty sure you can’t do it. I guess you can test if it’s possible by disabling System Integrity Protction (SIP) but that might not even work. The script techniques are still vaguely interesting…

There may come a time when you need to delete a System Root certificate. This is not something you should do lightly, but, maybe a cert was installed by an update that you know is bad. Maybe a cert is expired. This isn’t a huge deal, but, there’s no reason for it to be there.

The Date Command Is Pretty Hard To Use

Wed, 02 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Info

That, & they were always supposed to be blog posts anyway… I didn’t have a blog then.

So, I don’t know about you, but, when I use the date command it’s usually to match some arcane format. This means I am then scrolling to the bottom of the date man page to find the name of the man page where all the format options are listed. Every time is just like the 1st time, but, not in a good way! (It’s strftime by the way… good luck remembering it.)

Unify Your macOS Terminal Command History

Mon, 18 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Info

That, & they were always supposed to be blog posts anyway… I didn’t have a blog then.

I’m embarrassed to not have known this until now, but, the joy in the discovery outweighs the pain of embarrassment, so, here goes.

Remember That Time You Wanted All Of Your Self Service Display Names To Actually Match Your Policy Names?

Wed, 24 Jul 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Info

That, & they were always supposed to be blog posts anyway… I didn’t have a blog then.

Note

The Jamf Pro API basic authentication method used in this script is deprecated. See the following links for updated auth methods:

Thinking About Extension Attributes

Sun, 25 Sep 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Info

That, & they were always supposed to be blog posts anyway… I didn’t have a blog then.

Note

For other Jamf Nation posts under my brock_walters “employee” account, see: https://community.jamf.com/search/activity/reactions?userid=45006

One great thing about JAMF Nation is that awesome workflows can be shared so easily. Sometimes, however, ones that are slightly less than optimal get propagated. The other day I happened to come across an instance of this that I thought maybe I could help explain.