jnxx

16 ms·

151.
by jnxx 5y ago
I totally believe it is possible, it is perhaps more of a cultural thing.
152.
by jnxx 5y ago
No, it is not always the maintainer. Imagine you download a binary software package via HTTPS. In theory, the integrity of the download is protected by the server certificate. However, it is possible that certificates get hacked, get stolen
153.
by jnxx 5y ago
Bootstrapping from a very small binary core (I think 512 bytes) with an initial C compiler written in Scheme also has the advantage that the system can easily be ported to different hardware. Which is one major strength of the GNU projects
154.
by jnxx 5y ago
That's too black-and-white. Being able to reproduce stuff makes some kind of attacks entirely uninteresting because malicious changes can be traced back. Which is what many types of attackers do not want. Debian, or the Linux kernel, f
155.
by jnxx 5y ago
This is great! The one fly in the ointment, pardon, is that Nix is a bit lax about trusting proprietary and binary-only stuff. It would be great if there were a FLOSS-only core system for NixOS which would be fully transparent.
156.
by jnxx 5y ago
A good sign that the friendly competition by Guix has a positive influence :) https://guix.gnu.org/manual/en/html_node/Bootstrapping.html https://guix.gnu.org/en/blog/2020/guix-
157.
by jnxx 5y ago
The thing is that a comprehensive Python packaging solution would need to include packaging of C and C++ extensions at least. And that's not simple. In the meantime, Guix is establishing itself as a cross-language package manager wich
158.
by jnxx 5y ago
Yeah, really a cool project, and so much potential. https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2017/apr/05... It got cancelled by the mother company E.ON and want into administration, and seems that som
159.
by jnxx 5y ago
What is unique about this wave energy converter is that it couples most strongly to ocean waves with a certain wavelength. When waves become large, it dives below them with weak coupling. This solves the problem of most wave power plants th
160.
Pelamis Wave Energy Converter generating electricity off the coast of Portugal(youtube.com)
4 points by jnxx 5y ago|3 comments
161.
by jnxx 5y ago
If cheap energy is the issue, bitcoin could eventually become a support program for clean energy: https://ourworldindata.org/cheap-renewables-growth One exciting technology which is underdeveloped is near-shore wave power,
162.
by jnxx 5y ago
This reminds me in the poison plot of the Nakam group: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nakam The water supplies are just one example - so much in our civilization rests on trust. I think it would be better to accept that
163.
by jnxx 5y ago
> That left the housing market with a serious shortage of homes, just as millennials have begun getting married and having kids — traditional hallmarks of home-buying interest. That works only as long as the new generation is money to bu
164.
by jnxx 5y ago
Maybe Guix can save the packaging aspect, which would need to include C and C++ extensions.
165.
by jnxx 5y ago
I think the biggest drawback is a cultural one: The Python developers and the wider python community do not value backwards compatibility. This has the consequence that it is easy to write new code, or to maintain short-lived code, like wha
166.
by jnxx 5y ago
Then why not use an open source OS with generic drivers which are available in source code and can be inspected, and even build in an exactly reproducible way with a system like GNU Guix?
167.
by jnxx 5y ago
I think Peter Seibels and Edmung Weitz' books are both fantastic books with a comprehensive and modern view. Can't recommend them enough.
168.
by jnxx 5y ago
Well, Common Lisp or Racket are a lot faster than Python, too, and both are general-purpose languages which has many advantages over a language specific for numerical computing.
169.
by jnxx 5y ago
I use on Linux the XCompose key (which is assigned the menu key right from the space bar, or the "Print Screen" key), and then "\mu" like in LaTeX. I don't need to think about it because I have used LaTeX for years
170.
by jnxx 5y ago
The possibility of entering nonsensical data does not break old software.
171.
by jnxx 5y ago
> Is that the main reason? I think it is mostly the effect of them being legacy systems. Old systems become legacy systems if they are developed further. They can be difficult to work with but the mere fact that the language or platform
172.
by jnxx 5y ago
> And not keeping the old API around incurs work, potentially a lot, for everyone using the thing - transitively. Not only that, but breaking backwards compatibility will cause dependency conflicts once a dependency graph is a bit la
173.
by jnxx 5y ago
So why does the Python Wiki runs Python 2 with MoinMoin Wiki? You seem to imply it is easy and quick to rewrite software to match it to new versions, and resources for this are always available?
174.
by jnxx 5y ago
> Linux is quite beginner friendly these days Not only that - Linux as a standard Debian or Ubuntu system did also become astonishingly beginner-friendly for people who do not like to tinker with computers, and just use them to read mail
175.
by jnxx 5y ago
GUI libraries use a socket connection to the X server, which is a global object; they also use a message loop, which is again global. Libraries like glibc to some degreee manage parts of the runtime environment. It would likely cause diffic
176.
by jnxx 5y ago
> You're basically suggesting reimplementing semver in a clunkier way. There is a huge difference: Most languages and runtimes do not support having the same dynamic library twice in the same process. This means that if you just bum
177.
by jnxx 5y ago
Also, Hyrums law are about unforeseen breakage because people did not relay only on the documented API specification. This is undesirable, and in fact hard to avoid completely. But most breaking changes such as in semantic versioning major
178.
by jnxx 5y ago
> At big companies this attitude eventually yields a stagnant product. Such as Linux?
179.
by jnxx 5y ago
>Semver doesn't cover changes in behavior. It does: https://semver.org/ "Software using Semantic Versioning MUST declare a public API. This API could be declared in the code itself or exist strictly in document
180.
by jnxx 5y ago
Might in some cases be OK, but it is also how you get "general protection fault" and rampant uncaught exceptions in some earlier versions of Windows.

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