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mrcat — Thu, 29 Oct 2026 13:13:41 +0000

Using Linux again intensively on the desktop. But I wasn't quite fan of the default KDE look but neither the Gnome look. I know I could use Sway, but given my workflow a desktop would fit better.

What it seemed people were doing, was either using the Breeze theme / niche dark theme or trying to mimic Windows or Mac. None of these options seemed appealing to me.

What I ended up doing was theming the KDE desktop, to look like a classic redhat linux desktop from around the 2000 era.

So far it's been very comfortable and a bit nostalgic. I like the simplicity of the icons, and that they're not this "flat theme" trend. With the flat theme, it's just to distinguish the icons.

Yet, I the modern KDE features. In Nautilus, the file explorer, I can press the F4 key to instantly have a terminal. In the start bar, there is a little search options. So it very comfy.

I did see there are some new desktop trends for Linux. One being skeuomorphic design, where the desktop is more like a real desk.

And another being PaperWM, where every Windows is always maximized. I believe that was a Gnome extension.

Anyway, for now I'll stick with this classic look for the desktop.

Still I use the terminal a lot. And do a lot of CTF (capture the flag) labs as hobby. If you are new to the terminal, you could learn using labs. While learning commands slowly by trial-and-error works, it's a lot slower and you may only learn the commands you need right now rather than fully grasp the terminal.

SQL basics

mrcat — Wed, 28 Oct 2026 11:33:36 +0000

Computers need to store data. Typically they do so in files, but if many computers need the same data files are not practical. As such, databases were invented.

Databases store data in tables, think of them as different excel sheets. Metaphorically, each table matches an excel sheet.

Getting data out of the database

But once you have data in databases, how do you interact with them? You use a computer language called SQL. Where a single command, lets you create, read, write and update data in one or more database tables.

Each table has columns (horizontally) and rows/records (vertically). In the screenshot, the columns are user_id, name, email, country and signup_date. And you can see many records/rows in there like (101, Priya Raman, priya at gmail.com India, 2023-11-02, Premium).

You can get specific columns, by modifying the query:

SELECT name, email FROM users;

There's always a semicolon (;) at the end of a query. Selecting the columns, returns only those columns.

If you want to select a row, you add WHERE to the end of the query, like so,

SELECT name, email FROM users WHERE email = 'liam@outlook.com';

But more often, the unique ID is used,

SELECT * FROM users WHERE user_id = 104;

Besides getting data out of the database, you can of course delete, update and insert data into database tables too with SQL. You can play around with SQL, without installing.

These days SQL is used everywhere, any website you use online, any mobile app you use, SQL is running behind the scenes to work with data.

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SQL basics

Getting data out of the database