Nostr notes by lproven

OK. I have no particular axe to grind and very little skin in ...

2026-07-08T19:11:47Z

In reply to nevent1q…wat8
_________________________

OK.

I have no particular axe to grind and very little skin in this game. I came to IPv4 nearly a decade into my professional career in network construction & admin, and to this day, I still prefer IPX/SPX, DECnet, AppleTalk, and even plain old NetBEUI for a single-segment LAN. They were so much less work.

IPv4 works for me, albeit that it was and is and always will be a PITA compared to simpler 1980s protocols.

IPv6 gives me nothing I need, and nothing I needed from circa 1995 to circa 2015 when I was actively fettling IP networks.

This is a very much more technical version. I think.

https://apenwarr.ca/log/20170810

Sorry to hear that! Should I ask?

2026-07-08T09:23:25Z

In reply to nevent1q…f9sx
_________________________

Sorry to hear that! Should I ask?

I disagree on petty much all counts, but it's clear that you ...

2026-06-28T19:47:09Z

In reply to nevent1q…x66h
_________________________

I disagree on petty much all counts, but it's clear that you won't even entertain any interpretation except your own, so I see no point in continuing.

You are misreading and misunderstanding both me and the post. ...

2026-06-28T19:08:32Z

In reply to nevent1q…3zsg
_________________________

You are misreading and misunderstanding both me *and* the post.

1. When I said it wasn't the goal, I mean of the GPL.

I have discovered that a lot of GPL fans don't understand it -- indeed possibly have not even read it.

This was reinforced when I went on stage to discuss this at the world's biggest FOSS conference.

https://archive.fosdem.org/2024/schedule/event/fosdem-2024-3113-rhel-and-centos-and-the-growth-of-openwashing-in-foss/

Second, you don't seem to understand what I think is the purpose of the "cuck license" piece.

As to what I think is the motivation and purpose here, I addressed that here:

https://social.vivaldi.net/@lproven/116829268993013025

quoting
note1t70…gv52

I disagree, or I wouldn't have posted it.

I am strongly reminded of this vaccination warning poster from over a decade ago...

https://lproven.livejournal.com/288546.html

Some of my friends vigorously objected to this. It has bad words!

Well, you'll only get through to some people if you drop the white-coat pedagogical style and use bad words. It is a price worth paying.

And the same applies here. If this brings a rather abstruse philosophical argument to a new audience, then it's serving a useful purpose. Even if it upsets some, because the people liable to be upset by nasty words are probably already aware of the issue.

I disagree, or I wouldn't have posted it. I am strongly ...

2026-06-28T18:59:31Z

In reply to nevent1q…5fhj
_________________________

I disagree, or I wouldn't have posted it.

I am strongly reminded of this vaccination warning poster from over a decade ago...

https://lproven.livejournal.com/288546.html

Some of my friends vigorously objected to this. It has bad words!

Well, you'll only get through to some people if you drop the white-coat pedagogical style and use bad words. It is a price worth paying.

And the same applies here. If this brings a rather abstruse philosophical argument to a new audience, then it's serving a useful purpose. Even if it upsets some, because the people liable to be upset by nasty words are probably already aware of the issue.

It never was the stated goal. It was stated not to be a goal.

2026-06-28T18:44:03Z

In reply to nevent1q…trqy
_________________________

It never was the stated goal. It was stated not to be a goal.

Why I Use the GPL and Not Cuck Licenses ...

2026-06-28T14:59:00Z

Why I Use the GPL and Not Cuck Licenses

https://lukesmith.xyz/articles/why-i-use-the-gpl-and-not-cuck-licenses/

<- look through, or past, the inflammatory language. Look at the concept here. The point is a powerful one.

What was Classic MacOS like? ...

2026-06-28T11:22:00Z

What was Classic MacOS like?

https://liam-on-linux.dreamwidth.org/98794.html

<- relatively rare tech blog post from me

Ian's Secure Shoelace Knot ...

2026-06-23T14:59:00Z

Ian's Secure Shoelace Knot

https://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/secureknot.htm

To have a moral stance on AI is to be an outcast, and it sucks. ...

2026-05-31T11:22:00Z

To have a moral stance on AI is to be an outcast, and it sucks.

https://musings.martyn.berlin/to-have-a-moral-stance-on-ai-is-to-be-an-outcast-and-it-sucks

I know the technology, I understand what it's doing and I know the impact, so I am vehemently anti-AI.

Fits on a Floppy: A Manifesto for Small Software ...

2026-05-18T14:59:01Z

Fits on a Floppy: A Manifesto for Small Software

https://fitsonafloppy.com/

«
Software should be as small as it can be. Not as a gimmick, but as a discipline. The floppy disk is the measuring stick: 1.44 MB. If the software that ran entire businesses could fit in that space, then a modern, focused, single-purpose tool certainly can.
»

"DTs"?

2026-04-29T10:48:38Z

In reply to nevent1q…vyl2
_________________________

"DTs"?

Nostr event nevent1qqsqh9uwwtr84ayfr9rusum4dr95vsc48r9y28w6k67fe0gp6hjw2mgzyq53qyxkmxy20w3wttnv044h7garyu9m8lc22rzxj73psy682kfjy72cp5n

2026-04-11T10:38:25Z

The machines are fine. I'm worried about us. ...

2026-04-06T14:59:00Z

The machines are fine. I'm worried about us.

https://ergosphere.blog/posts/the-machines-are-fine/

«
Imagine you're a new assistant professor at a research university. You just got the job, you just got a small pot of startup funding, and you just hired your first two PhD students: Alice and Bob. You're in astrophysics. This is the beginning of everything.
»

How the AI bubble bursts ...

2026-04-01T11:22:02Z

How the AI bubble bursts

https://martinvol.pe/blog/2026/03/30/how-the-ai-bubble-bursts/

«
The catalysts for a crash are already laid out, and it can happen sooner than most expect. AI is here to stay. If used right, chances are it will make us all more productive. That, on the other hand, does not mean it will be a good investment.
»

Well, yes and no. On the one hand: Google _has_ a gDrive client ...

2026-03-31T16:58:50Z

In reply to nevent1q…jrg4
_________________________

Well, yes and no.

On the one hand: Google _has_ a gDrive client for Linux. ChromeOS is based around it.

But it's never been publicly available on any other distro. GNOME found a way around it – and that's going away, which was _not_ clearly messaged, and it should have been.

Ubuntu 26.04 beta arrives packing GNOME 50, which no longer ...

2026-03-31T15:40:17Z

Ubuntu 26.04 beta arrives packing GNOME 50, which no longer supports Google Drive

https://www.theregister.com/2026/03/31/ubuntu_2604_beta/

Yep, you read that right. And there's no official Linux client from Google

<- by me on [@theregister](https://geeknews.chat/@theregister )

I Decompiled the White House's New App ...

2026-03-31T11:22:00Z

I Decompiled the White House's New App

https://blog.thereallo.dev/blog/decompiling-the-white-house-app

The official White House Android app has a cookie/paywall bypass injector, tracks your GPS every 4.5 minutes, and loads JavaScript from some guy's GitHub Pages.

"History repeats the old deceits" (by the Joy of Tech) ...

2026-03-27T15:59:03Z

"History repeats the old deceits" (by the Joy of Tech)

Source: https://www.geekculture.com/joyoftech/joyarchives/3246.html

How sports fans look to me (by Bizarro) Source: ...

2026-03-27T13:39:19Z

How sports fans look to me (by Bizarro)

Source:
https://comicskingdom.com/bizarro/2026-03-26

Markdown Ate The World ...

2026-03-25T13:42:25Z

Markdown Ate The World

https://matduggan.com/markdown-ate-the-world/

<- with a better explanation than The Document Foundation's of why MICROS~1's claim its XML format is "open" is a lie -- & why it doesn't matter

Age checks creep into Linux as systemd gets a DOB field ...

2026-03-24T18:41:27Z

Age checks creep into Linux as systemd gets a DOB field

https://www.theregister.com/2026/03/24/foss_age_verification/

Flatpak may be next, and the lobbying behind it is raising eyebrows

<- by me on [@theregister](https://geeknews.chat/@theregister )

You did notice who wrote the piece you're citing, right? Just ...

2026-03-17T13:47:24Z

In reply to nevent1q…z3t0
_________________________

You did notice who wrote the piece you're citing, right? Just checking...

Big moves in Linux filesystems as new bcachefs lands and KDE adds ...

2026-03-17T11:02:12Z

Big moves in Linux filesystems as new bcachefs lands and KDE adds support for Apple's APFS

https://www.theregister.com/2026/03/17/bcachefs_and_apfs_news/

<- by me on @theregister

EnKITTification Artist: bruised_blood b3ta.com/board/11426454 ...

2026-03-16T15:11:33Z

EnKITTification

Artist: bruised_blood

b3ta.com/board/11426454

From the '80s Tech Today' challenge
https://b3ta.com/challenge/80stechtoday/popular/

#80sTechToday

The OVHcloud fire still smolders ...

2026-03-11T13:39:00Z

The OVHcloud fire still smolders

https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/analysis/ovhcloud-fire-france-data-center/?fbclid=Iwb21leAQcxGRjbGNrBBzEGWV4dG4DYWVtAjExAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkDDM1MDY4NTUzMTcyOAABHglvRNqJCuRIFo41T59PA3IMIFaGOaxRHPszduaPP6cUP6zYM4Lpv0ttcaA6_aem_-8yORpDpv4ppivBG4DcN-A

Three years after an OVHcloud data center burned to the ground, more questions than answers about the incident remain

"You don’t have to if you don’t want to." ...

2026-03-03T12:22:00Z

"You don’t have to if you don’t want to."

https://www.scottsmitelli.com/articles/you-dont-have-to/

<- perhaps the single most eloquent essay against LLM-bot development I've seen. Very long, very worth it.

The Death of Curiosity ...

2026-02-27T17:20:28Z

The Death of Curiosity

https://medium.com/@cupofcat/the-death-of-curiosity-96b6a09328b6

How nine forces spent sixty years hollowing out the soul of software engineering — and why blaming AI misses the point.

Found this on Twitter. No idea if it's true, but I liked it. ...

2026-02-27T10:37:02Z

Found this on Twitter. No idea if it's true, but I liked it.

RT Mr_Husky1@bird.makeup

[p1]

I got a piece of mail last month that didn't belong to me. It had my address, but the name was "Sarah Jenkins."
It looked official, so I didn't throw it away. I asked the landlord, and he sighed. "Sarah was the tenant before you. Single mom. She got laid off and evicted. Left no forwarding address."
I looked down at the letter. The envelope was slightly torn, and I could see the words: Final Notice - Storage Unit Auction. All her worldly possessions, her kids' baby photos, her memories, were going to be auctioned off on Friday for a $300 unpaid bill. It was Wednesday.
I don't know why, but I couldn't let it go. I posted on our neighborhood Facebook group, asking if anyone knew her. Within an hour, someone messaged me. They had seen her working the drive-thru at a fast-food place a few towns over.
I drove there. I ordered a coffee, pulled up to the window, and there she was. She looked exhausted.
"Sarah?" I asked.
She looked startled. "Yes?"

[Cont'd in alt text as it won't fit]

General Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord's classification of ...

2026-02-24T19:28:04Z

General Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord's classification of military officers:

«
I distinguish four types.

There are clever, hardworking, stupid, and lazy officers. Usually two characteristics are combined.

Some are clever and hardworking; their place is the General Staff.

The next ones are stupid and lazy; they make up 90 percent of every army and are suited to routine duties.

Anyone who is both clever and lazy is qualified for the highest leadership duties, because he possesses the mental clarity and strength of nerve necessary for difficult decisions.

One must beware of anyone who is both stupid and hardworking; he must not be entrusted with any responsibility because he will always only cause damage.
»

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_von_Hammerstein-Equord#Classification_of_officers

How Much of CP/M’s Design Ended Up in MS‑DOS? ...

2026-02-12T13:39:01Z

How Much of CP/M’s Design Ended Up in MS‑DOS?

https://nemanjatrifunovic.substack.com/p/how-much-of-cpms-design-ended-up

MS-DOS was designed to be API compatible with CP/M. But how much of CP/M’s internal design carried over?

(AI) Slop Terrifies Me https://ezhik.jp/ai-slop-terrifies-me/ ...

2026-02-08T13:39:00Z

(AI) Slop Terrifies Me

https://ezhik.jp/ai-slop-terrifies-me/

What if this is as good as software is ever going to be? What if AI stops getting better and what if people stop caring?

Containers, cloud, blockchain, AI – it's all the same old ...

2026-02-08T13:12:15Z

Containers, cloud, blockchain, AI – it's all the same old BS, says veteran Red Hatter

https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/08/waves_of_tech_bs/

After decades in the trenches, this engineer is done with hype cycles

<- by me on [@theregister](https://geeknews.chat/@theregister )

#FOSDEM #CENTOSCONNECT

Nostr event nevent1qqs8ggkh86vv6v4038sutl5d0klcqyu75j456mjt3dc5ddndatj659gzyq53qyxkmxy20w3wttnv044h7garyu9m8lc22rzxj73psy682kfjya3yquy

2026-02-05T17:34:45Z

'The EU runs on Microsoft' – and Uncle Sam could turn ...

2026-02-04T12:32:15Z

'The EU runs on Microsoft' – and Uncle Sam could turn it off, claims MEP

https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/04/eu_foss_fears/

Open source gains urgency as Europe reassesses reliance on US tech

<- by me on [@theregister](https://geeknews.chat/@theregister )

Please Don’t Say Mean Things about the AI That I Just Invested ...

2026-01-29T13:39:00Z

Please Don’t Say Mean Things about the AI That I Just Invested a Billion Dollars In

https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/please-dont-say-mean-things-about-the-ai-that-i-just-invested-a-billion-dollars-in

“[Nvidia CEO] Jensen Huang Is Begging You to Stop Being So Negative About AI” — Headline from Gizmodo

“Once men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope ...

2026-01-26T12:22:00Z

“Once men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them.”

― Frank Herbert, _Dune_

AI Completely Failing to Boost Productivity, Says Top Analyst ...

2026-01-20T15:59:01Z

AI Completely Failing to Boost Productivity, Says Top Analyst

https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/ai-failing-boost-productivity

"Where we are today, we're not seeing it."

<- good to see El Reg getting cited (even if not one of mine!)

Only 1 of my Macs can run macOS 26. I have chosen not to update, ...

2026-01-13T13:39:01Z

Only 1 of my Macs can run macOS 26. I have chosen not to update, so far.

But wow -- when even Daring Fireball says "don't upgrade" and suggests rolling back, I feel vindicated.

https://daringfireball.net/2026/01/resizing_windows_macos_26

Is there anyone out there 3D printing spare parts for Polly ...

2026-01-10T20:21:15Z

Is there anyone out there 3D printing spare parts for Polly Pocket toys for little kids?

Free/Open Source Software tainted by LLM developers/developed by ...

2026-01-10T15:59:00Z

Free/Open Source Software tainted by LLM developers/developed by genAI boosters, along with alternatives.

https://codeberg.org/gen-ai-transparency/open-slopware

Discord is running a survey about integrating generative ...

2026-01-10T15:11:41Z

Discord is running a survey about integrating generative "AI" into its service. Please do go tell them what you think.

https://discord.sjc1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_5BGtstVUidXadts

GNOME dev gives fans of Linux's middle-click paste the middle ...

2026-01-07T13:46:24Z

GNOME dev gives fans of Linux's middle-click paste the middle finger

https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/07/gnome_middle_click_paste/

Proposal targets long-standing behavior as 'an X11ism'

<- by me on [@theregister](https://geeknews.chat/@theregister )

Stinking, Spongy, Dark, Huge: A Spider Web Unlike Any Seen Before ...

2026-01-06T13:39:01Z

Stinking, Spongy, Dark, Huge: A Spider Web Unlike Any Seen Before

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/08/science/biggest-spiderweb-sulfur-cave.html

A pitch-black cave in the Balkans is home to what researchers say is a singular work of cooperation by two usually-hostile species of spider.

The baffling purple honey found only in North Carolina ...

2026-01-06T12:22:01Z

The baffling purple honey found only in North Carolina

https://www.bbc.co.uk/travel/article/20250417-the-baffling-purple-honey-found-only-in-north-carolina

In a quiet corner of North Carolina, bees produce a violet-hued honey so rare and unpredictable that even experts can't explain it – and that's what makes it magical.

The point here being... The Winchester cartridge-loading type of ...

2025-12-21T13:18:33Z

In reply to nevent1q…s9md
_________________________

The point here being...

The Winchester cartridge-loading type of hard disk was affordable enough to be used with smaller inexpensive minicomputers, instead of mainframes, which were typically leased not sold.

When you own the computer, you can do experiments, like writing new OSes for it, that was not feasible on $multi-million big iron which costs multiple dollars a second to use.

An early hard disk, but yes, with removable media. Hard disks ...

2025-12-21T13:14:49Z

In reply to nevent1q…7u39
_________________________

An early hard disk, but yes, with removable media.

Hard disks were originally called Winchester disks:

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Winchester_disk

Not the first hard disk: huge very expensive HDD units were sold (or more to the point rented) for mainframes (huge very expensive computers) years earlier.

No, the name was from the model that made the tech affordable and took it mainstream, the IBM 3340.

https://www.computerhistory.org/storageengine/winchester-pioneers-key-hdd-technology/

It was nicknamed Winchester by IBM project lead Kenneth E. Haughton, and not because they came from IBM Winchester (a common urban myth). He named it because the storage was in a removable cartridge. It had two 30MB platters, and the comparison was with an early cartridge rifle known as the Winchester 30-30:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winchester_Model_1894

It other words, strictly, it is named after the ammunition, not the weapon itself.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.30-30_Winchester

Oh yes, it was multi-user from the start. The user directory is ...

2025-12-21T12:36:53Z

In reply to nevent1q…lejw
_________________________

Oh yes, it was multi-user from the start.

The user directory is called `/usr`. That's what it means! The "Unix System Resources" thing is a silly backronym some joker coined later.

Dennis and Ken simply didn't have enough disk space on their original PDP machines. Each RK05 disk only held 1.5MB. So they kept inventing new folder names to add more disks to the system.

https://lists.busybox.net/pipermail/busybox/2010-December/074114.html

RE: https://oldbytes.space/@flexion/115752573933914452 The oldest ...

2025-12-21T11:15:38Z

RE: https://oldbytes.space/@flexion/115752573933914452

The oldest Unix written in C was successfully recovered from tape this weekend -- and here it is running on IRIX.

The amazing bit is the contents of the big window in the middle, for children under 50, *not* the windows themselves.

quoting
note1st3…g64y

The "UNIX v4 tape" running in simh PDP11 emu on IRIX:

NVIDIA Isn't Enron - So What Is It? ...

2025-12-15T18:44:26Z

NVIDIA Isn't Enron - So What Is It?

https://www.wheresyoured.at/nvidia-isnt-enron-so-what-is-it/

<- this is a good one. Overlong as ever, but very funny.

RE: https://eupolicy.social/@bert_hubert/115714778648950997 It ...

2025-12-13T23:56:06Z

RE: https://eupolicy.social/@bert_hubert/115714778648950997

It took 3 horses, several years, and cost $60,000...

quoting
note1mrq…362y

lcamtuf :verified: :verified: :verified: (npub1ysw…uzpe)

LLMs are a failure. A new AI winter is coming. ...

2025-12-02T15:59:01Z

LLMs are a failure. A new AI winter is coming.

https://taranis.ie/llms-are-a-failure-a-new-ai-winter-is-coming/

Though LLMs had a lot of promise, this has not been demonstrated in practice. The technology is essentially a failure, and a new AI winter is coming.

An open letter: stop spreading outdated advice about internet ...

2025-11-26T13:39:01Z

An open letter: stop spreading outdated advice about internet security

https://www.hacklore.org/letter

All this is BAD ADVICE. Don't…

• Avoid public WiFi
• Never scan QR codes
• Never charge devices from public USB ports
• Turn off Bluetooth & NFC
• Regularly “clear cookies”
• Regularly change passwords

With Love to KDE: Take a Moment ...

2025-11-24T13:39:01Z

With Love to KDE: Take a Moment

https://korcenji.neocities.org/Writings/KDE-Take-A-Moment

<- eloquently spells out an anti-"AI" point that isn't subtle or difficult, but is just too hard for many FOSS project leaders

I think this #smbc_comics could be called... The ones who walk ...

2025-11-21T22:35:02Z

I think this #smbc_comics could be called...

The ones who walk away from touching-racks.

https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/blame

Thunderbird 145 finally adds ‘native’ Exchange support ...

2025-11-21T09:54:47Z

Thunderbird 145 finally adds ‘native’ Exchange support

https://www.theregister.com/2025/11/20/thunderbird_microsoft_exchange_support/

EWS-powered email only for now, with calendars and contacts still on the to-do list

<- by me on [@theregister](https://geeknews.chat/@theregister )

How the Linux-vs-BSD culture clash looked in the 1980s/1990s ...

2025-11-19T23:11:28Z

How the Linux-vs-BSD culture clash looked in the 1980s/1990s

https://liam-on-linux.dreamwidth.org/97149.html

(Fairly rare tech blog post, from me.)

Latest Servo release hints at a real Rust alternative to Chromium ...

2025-11-18T12:09:27Z

Latest Servo release hints at a real Rust alternative to Chromium

https://www.theregister.com/2025/11/18/servo_002_arrives/

As Mozilla stumbles into 'AI everywhere,' you might be glad of a non-Google browser engine

<- by me on [@theregister](https://geeknews.chat/@theregister )

> surface design that takes me back to the 1990s That is one ...

2025-11-13T10:47:41Z

In reply to nevent1q…7acw
_________________________

> surface design that takes me back to the 1990s

That is one of the appealing features for me.

Function *ALWAYS* must rank higher than form. What a tool does objectively matters more than how it looks.

Flat appearances, ribbons, pointing-device centric UIs that are less convenient to drive with the keyboard... these are all functional impairments. They all make things harder to find: as a reader, I want *text,* and graphics are an order of magnitude more difficult to search through.

I want standard keyboard shortcuts, which means IBM CUA.

I want buttons with borders around them so I can immediately distinguish buttons from labels from fields that expect to be filled.

It seems to me that "flat design" was the creation of people who thought that a lot of UI was so obvious it didn't need visual hinting.

They were wrong.

Evidence of ancient tree-climbing 'drop crocs' found in ...

2025-11-12T11:08:31Z

Evidence of ancient tree-climbing 'drop crocs' found in Australia

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c2lpyrnjleeo

<- this is the most terrifying predator since Africa's infamous flying lions.

Why Engineers Can't Be Rational About Programming Languages: ...

2025-11-05T13:39:01Z

Why Engineers Can't Be Rational About Programming Languages:

The Leadership Blindspot: How Identity Drives Multi-Million Dollar Technical Debt

https://spf13.com/p/the-hidden-conversation/

<- this is THE dominant factor explaining 21st century computing

How AGI became the most consequential conspiracy theory of our ...

2025-11-03T12:22:00Z

How AGI became the most consequential conspiracy theory of our time (MIT Technology Review)

https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/10/30/1127057/agi-conspiracy-theory-artifcial-general-intelligence/

The idea that machines will be as smart as—or smarter than—humans has hijacked an entire industry. But look closely & you’ll see it’s a myth that persists for many of the same reasons conspiracies do.

The Human Only Public License https://vanderessen.com/posts/hopl/ ...

2025-10-29T15:59:02Z

The Human Only Public License

https://vanderessen.com/posts/hopl/

<- A software license that bans all AI use. Nice idea. I approve.

A prophetic 1933 novel has found a surprising second life – it ...

2025-10-18T11:22:00Z

A prophetic 1933 novel has found a surprising second life – it holds lessons for us all

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/oct/18/crooked-cross-hitler-1933-novel-sally-carson

Sally Carson’s Crooked Cross was written and set during the rise of nazism. It shows both how extremism takes hold, and the moral certainty needed to resist it

Abort Retry Fail: The QNX Operating System Quantum Software and ...

2025-10-11T12:39:00Z

Abort Retry Fail: The QNX Operating System
Quantum Software and the microkernel UNIX

https://www.abortretry.fail/p/the-qnx-operating-system

The great Dr Jane Goodall, ethologist and campaigner for great ...

2025-10-01T18:37:51Z

The great Dr Jane Goodall, ethologist and campaigner for great apes and much else, has died at the age of 91.

She loved this _Far Side_ cartoon, and wrote a forward for a later Gary Larson collection.

Seen two people talking about a new, paid-for "AI" ...

2025-09-30T09:15:16Z

Seen two people talking about a new, paid-for "AI" powered browser from "Norwegian browser company Opera" today.

1. Opera sold out to China in 2016. It's a Chinese browser company now.

2. This is a key indicator the "AI" bubble is about to pop: when they start charging the rubes for the snake oil that was previoiusly free...

Greatest irony of the AI age: Humans being increasingly hired to ...

2025-09-25T11:22:02Z

Greatest irony of the AI age: Humans being increasingly hired to clean AI slop

https://www.sify.com/ai-analytics/greatest-irony-of-the-ai-age-humans-being-increasingly-hired-to-clean-ai-slop/

On one side is AI swallowing millions of jobs, and on the other is humans being hired to clean up the nonsense AI often generates, finds Satyen K. Bordoloi

« Ian Fleming's original James Bond novels haven't aged ...

2025-09-25T11:11:55Z

«
Ian Fleming's original James Bond novels haven't aged well. For example, Moonraker - published almost exactly 70 years ago in April 1955 - features a villain who's a super-rich industrialist and rocket-maker seeking to cause chaos because he's a secret Nazi. Such a silly idea!
»

Source: https://x.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1893339509204394392

What I Found on the 365-Mile Trail of a Lost Folk Hero ...

2025-09-21T11:22:00Z

What I Found on the 365-Mile Trail of a Lost Folk Hero

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/09/magazine/old-leatherman-walk-new-york-connecticut.html

The Old Leatherman, a sort of real-life Northeastern Sasquatch, gave me an excuse to step outside my own life.

A months of ad-free OSNews: we’re closing in on the fundraising ...

2025-09-16T11:22:01Z

A months of ad-free OSNews: we’re closing in on the fundraising goal, and need your help to get there

https://www.osnews.com/story/143347/a-months-of-ad-free-osnews-were-closing-in-on-the-fundraising-goal-and-need-your-help-to-get-there/

<- this is a bold brave move by a good site, which I've been reading for decades. Support it if you can.

I clicked through. Can't reply directly though. It wasn't ...

2025-09-12T18:10:49Z

In reply to nevent1q…2736
_________________________

I clicked through. Can't reply directly though.

It wasn't worth it. Tired rant using American tropes that are meaningless to me.

I'm not American. I'm neither Republican, nor Democrat, nor anything else. I'm not Christian; I'm not merely atheist, I'm anti-theist, and you would not even recognise my political position because it isn't on your pathetic old 1D left-to-right scale. Real life is not a line; it's not even a 2D area. It's 3D.

If you think the big answers are anything to do with money then you don't even understand what the real questions are.

But your reductionary view is blinkering you to the real world.

Take them off.

Step 1: basic high-level survey of all the world's electoral and political systems, such as demarchy by sortition.

_Then_ thank me.

No, I'm not going to waste my time chasing citations for all ...

2025-09-12T10:20:25Z

In reply to nevent1q…gyrh
_________________________

No, I'm not going to waste my time chasing citations for all these. Yesterday I'd never heard of the scrote. Once I learned who and what he was, it took no time to decide the world was better off without him.

I'm no Christian. There are lots of people the world would be better off without. Trump, Bolsonaro, Orban, Fico, Putin, legions more. Peter Hitchens is alive and Christopher Hitchens is dead, and we'd all be better off if that were the other way round.

In his own words... ...

2025-09-12T10:16:28Z

In reply to nevent1q…ce09
_________________________

In his own words...

As Chris Tregenza put it on Bluesky: ...

2025-09-12T10:16:03Z

In reply to nevent1q…negc
_________________________

As Chris Tregenza put it on Bluesky:

https://bsky.app/profile/tregenza.bsky.social/post/3lykgsglofc24

Disclaimer: not read. Don't want to. Nobody is dehumanising ...

2025-09-12T09:58:19Z

In reply to nevent1q…f3lj
_________________________

Disclaimer: not read. Don't want to.

Nobody is dehumanising Kirk. He did that all to himself.

He spread, promoted and glorified hatred and violence, and he got what he endorsed.

The differences between bogs, fens, swamps and marshes… * Bog: ...

2025-09-07T14:59:01Z

The differences between bogs, fens, swamps and marshes…

* Bog: acidic wetland, filled by rain, nutrient poor (so, carnivorous plants)
* Fen: alkaline wetland, filled by groundwater, nutrient rich
* Swamp: wetland that can support trees & woody plants
* Marsh: wetland that only supports herbaceous plants, sometimes coastal & saline

I have tried several alternative phone OSes and de-Googled ...

2025-09-02T11:23:23Z

In reply to nevent1q…a9hl
_________________________

I have tried several alternative phone OSes and de-Googled Androids, and written about some.

I do not know of anywhere that I can go and see a list of all of them.

Here is a nice easy non-coding project for anyone who is interested in this area.

* A list of FOSS phone OSes

* Better still, with strengths/weaknesses comparisons: what each one is good for

* Better still, some tool where you can enter your phone model and it tells you you could run.

Just fucking use HTML https://justfuckingusehtml.com/ <- the ...

2025-08-31T11:22:00Z

Just fucking use HTML

https://justfuckingusehtml.com/

<- the language of the Web is HTML. Not Javascript. The best website is one with no JS at all. Let's make this a movement.

Programmers: you have to watch your weight, too ...

2025-08-30T16:58:27Z

Programmers: you have to watch your weight, too

https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/30/programmers_watch_your_weight/

We are drowning in code, but at least some folks are swimming

<- by me on The Register (npub10cz…4lpy) – & I warn you, this doesn't go where you might expect…

Scientist exposes anti-wind groups as oil-funded. Now they want ...

2025-08-27T14:59:01Z

Scientist exposes anti-wind groups as oil-funded. Now they want to silence him.

https://electrek.co/2025/08/25/scientist-exposes-anti-wind-groups-as-oil-funded-now-they-want-to-silence-him/

<- just as tobacco companies sponsored anti-anti-smoking legislation, now fossil-fuel companies are sponsoring global warming denial. The denialists are mostly not smart enough to know this.

Do I Need Kubernetes? https://doineedkubernetes.com/

2025-08-27T11:22:01Z

Do I Need Kubernetes?

https://doineedkubernetes.com/

There are 2 big snags with that. 1. It's much slower. 2. But ...

2025-08-17T14:14:00Z

In reply to nevent1q…n3u9
_________________________

There are 2 big snags with that.

1. It's much slower.

2. But worse: you can't boot off a FUSE volume. And since the COW functionality is most important for OS updates & rollback, you need it for the boot volume.

Why do you say that? You did RTFA before commenting, didn't ...

2025-08-17T12:27:06Z

In reply to nevent1q…5w5a
_________________________

Why do you say that?

You did RTFA before commenting, didn't you?

Linux is about to lose a feature – over a personality clash ...

2025-08-17T08:52:04Z

Linux is about to lose a feature – over a personality clash

https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/15/sad_end_of_bcachefs/

A large and unfortunate mistake in the kernel development management process is underway

<- by me on The Register (npub10cz…4lpy)

Some users report their Firefox browser is scoffing CPU power ...

2025-08-13T11:24:38Z

Some users report their Firefox browser is scoffing CPU power

https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/13/firefox_ai_scoffing_power/

You guessed it: looks like it's a so-called AI

<- by me on The Register (npub10cz…4lpy)

Long live the nub: ThinkPad designer David Hill spills secrets, ...

2025-08-03T11:22:01Z

Long live the nub: ThinkPad designer David Hill spills secrets, designs that never made it

https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/02/thinkpad_david_hill_interview/

We almost got more butterfly keyboards and foldable workstations

<- *not* by me on El Reg, but I enjoyed it.

That is true but it's also endlessly adaptable. When a ...

2025-08-02T09:23:51Z

In reply to nevent1q…d9yc
_________________________

That is true but it's also endlessly adaptable.

When a project attempts to bring a phone model to the desktop, badly, as GNOME did in V3, then the result is crippling everyone. Yes it brings everyone to the same level, but by reducing everyone to a lowest common denominator. It cripples me. My preferred UI, keyboard control augmented by pointing, is gone.

That's bad design.

I disagree with all of these except C++. Desktop accessibility is ...

2025-08-02T09:09:24Z

In reply to nevent1q…wxud
_________________________

I disagree with all of these except C++.

Desktop accessibility is far better than you think. As an example I can happily, quickly and efficiently drive a Windows computer with no mouse (or other pointing device) using 90% of the same UI I already use... Because it was designed with thought and insight and understanding, and the same UI is available to both sighted and blind users.

No, Wayback doesn't count, although I've written about it and am watching with interest.

Gadget geeks aghast at guru's geriatric GPU ...

2025-08-01T22:33:38Z

Gadget geeks aghast at guru's geriatric GPU
https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/01/geeks_aghast_at_guru_gpu/

Paramount Penguin Linus Torvalds still uses a 2017 graphics card

<- by me on The Register (npub10cz…4lpy)

If I may, I think you are missing things too. 1. Damaging a very ...

2025-07-30T09:53:26Z

In reply to nevent1q…a5zm
_________________________

If I may, I think you are missing things too.

1. Damaging a very widespread use case for a niche one is bad planning.

2. Losing the clean separation of "display server" from "window manager" was a bad design decision.

3. Discarding 30+Y of R&D for a system which is less capable is bad planning. It effectively kills around 25 alternative desktops for instance. There is a real habit of only considering the biggest most mainstream products and ignoring all the smaller ones.

4. Linux is not all of Unix. The Wayland team only considered Linux. Same reasoning as above.

5. It's not Unixy at all. Unix is about files. Plan 9's Rio display system shows the way: windows are filesystem objects. This is the Unix way. Wayland is counter to the philosophy of its host OS.

6. X had unique abilities that Wayland discards. The developers should study the principle of _kaizen_ -- continual incremental improvement. This is also an aspect of the Unix way.

7. There is a deep failure to understand the existing tools and why they work how they do. This is the philosophical objection called _Chesterton's Fence_ and every project lead needs to understand it.

8. A11y and inclusion are important. Wayland is much weaker at this.

Those are the first to mind -- I am short of time and this is in haste.

Wayback 0.1 debuts as early Wayland display server for X11 ...

2025-07-25T08:43:23Z

Wayback 0.1 debuts as early Wayland display server for X11 diehards

https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/24/wayback_01_released/

Complete with new website – but the software's still alpha level stuff, so be careful

<- by me on The Register (npub10cz…4lpy)

Arch Linux users told to purge Firefox forks after AUR malware ...

2025-07-22T20:14:24Z

Arch Linux users told to purge Firefox forks after AUR malware scare

https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/22/arch_aur_browsers_compromised/

The distro's greatest asset is arguably also its greatest weakness

<- by me on The Register (npub10cz…4lpy)

They're putting blue food coloring in everything ...

2025-07-22T11:22:21Z

They're putting blue food coloring in everything

https://blog.foxtrotluna.social/theyre-putting-blue-food-coloring-in-everything/

<- for those with reading skills in the single-digit-years range, it's about "AI"

The price of software freedom is eternal politics ...

2025-07-12T14:19:34Z

The price of software freedom is eternal politics

https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/12/the_price_of_software_freedom/

Many don't realize or forget, but the FOSS world has ideological wings, too

<- by me on The Register (npub10cz…4lpy)

How and why to migrate your e-mail from KDE KMail to Mozilla ...

2025-07-10T14:59:15Z

How and why to migrate your e-mail from KDE KMail to Mozilla Thunderbird

https://cromwell-intl.com/open-source/kmail-to-thunderbird.html

<- a guide for OpenBSD users

... But this also reveals why I see KDE as a Lovecraftian horror. It's tentacles all the way down. I don't merely not want it, I recoil from it in appalled horror.

Anubis guards gates against hordes of LLM bot crawlers ...

2025-07-10T10:15:06Z

Anubis guards gates against hordes of LLM bot crawlers

https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/09/anubis_fighting_the_llm_hordes/

Using proof of work to block the web-crawlers of 'AI' companies

<- by me on The Register (npub10cz…4lpy)

JavaScript broke the web (and called it progress) ...

2025-07-04T14:59:07Z

JavaScript broke the web (and called it progress)

https://www.jonoalderson.com/conjecture/javascript-broke-the-web-and-called-it-progress/

«
Most websites are awful… They load slowly, render erratically, and hide their content behind megabytes of JavaScript. They glitch on mobile. They frustrate users and confuse search engines. They’re impossible to maintain. And somehow, we’re calling this progress.

The tragedy is, none of this is necessary. Once upon a time, we had a fast, stable, resilient web. But we replaced it with a JavaScript cargo cult.
»

Well who doesn't?

2025-07-01T13:57:35Z

In reply to nevent1q…6dw2
_________________________

Well who doesn't?

Make Fun Of Them (Ed Zitron) ...

2025-07-01T12:39:12Z

Make Fun Of Them (Ed Zitron)

https://www.wheresyoured.at/make-fun-of-them/

<- the entire "AI" business is a scam – but a key thing is that the people running it, scamming the captains of industry, are rather dim. We're just collectively so used to bafflegab, from Br*x*t to Tr*mp, that we don't stop to ask what it means.