rollcat

38 ms·

451.
by rollcat 2y ago
I like the general idea of execline, but I feel like it relies too much on chaining. It's a bit like Lisp, but without any parens - it hurts readability. It went from "shells have too much syntax, which creates security issues&quo
452.
by rollcat 2y ago
> Exactly. I expect a modular fork of systemd when people get annoyed enough. That's exactly the case with elogind, used by e.g. Alpine, Void, and Gentoo. > I still don't understand why people treat systemd as the second com
453.
by rollcat 2y ago
I don't think Markdown is the right language to solve these problems. As you've noted, it's not standardised at all, and you'd have to pick an interpreter that everyone could agree on (and that means C). Markdown also do
454.
by rollcat 2y ago
Try working as a manager. Software development is just one piece of the bigger picture that your manager is concerned with, same way as adding features is just one among your many responsibilities. Managers understand risk. Communicate the
455.
by rollcat 2y ago
IMHO a kernel managing a file (any file) all on its own imposes too many assumptions about hardware and user space. This could unexpectedly bite you if you're in a rescue system trying to fsck, booting from external RO media, running d
456.
by rollcat 2y ago
> Has anyone found effective tools for maintaining this synchronization between documented architecture and implemented code? Yes, it's called structure, discipline, and iterative improvement. Keep the documentation alongside the co
457.
by rollcat 2y ago
True, virtually all companies harvesting LLM training datasets don't bother honouring even the most permissive licenses, like MIT or BSD - Microsoft leading the pack with Github and Copilot. You're right to point out that the tide
458.
by rollcat 2y ago
Long before systemd took over the init world, Debian led a huge effort to switch their entire infrastructure to dash[1], specifically making heavy use of checkbashisms[2]. The main reason behind it was performance: POSIX sh implementations
459.
by rollcat 2y ago
It's also almost 50 years since "An Open Letter to Hobbyists"[1]. It's amazing that in the last 30+ years, the "hobbyists" managed to turn the entire software industry by 180°, and that Microsoft themselves are
460.
by rollcat 2y ago
That's the sane way to tackle it. If you're the vendor, just target the top N (whatever value of N you can cope with). I don't mean disrespect towards people running Alpine (hi), Arch, or Gentoo, but you wouldn't be runn
461.
by rollcat 2y ago
This is technically true, but this pretty much exactly illustrates my point. The SCM URL you've provided, you have to dig it up. It refers you to < https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/index.html >, which aga
462.
by rollcat 2y ago
Let's start with: there is no such thing as "Linux" man pages. There's < https://docs.kernel.org > but that only concerns the kernel itself. How does a particular distribution handle its man pages is up t
463.
by rollcat 2y ago
Perhaps I'm spoiled by ever so slightly higher-level languages, but it seems your entire point is that if a program is ever so slightly incorrect, the programmer (and/or the end user) should suffer all of the consequences. From wh
464.
by rollcat 2y ago
The base/packages split is one of the main reasons why I appreciate the BSDs (that includes macOS). However /usr/local/etc in particular violates several assumptions: - I can make /usr read-only, exclude it from bac
465.
by rollcat 2y ago
I've thrown "home server workloads" at my Mac mini. It stays on 24/7 anyway, because idle power draw is negligible. Syncthing is a great use case. Wherever I take my laptop, the files stay in sync between the two devices
466.
by rollcat 2y ago
I have mixed feelings about FreeBSD. Some stuff is genuinely good: major/minor release branches, the best ZFS experience you can get OOB, actual man pages, overall a lot "cleaner" than most Linux distros. OTOH when you compar
467.
by rollcat 2y ago
Agree, W2k was peak Windows. Even the UI effects, like subtle drop shadows and fade-out animations looked tasteful, and were smooth on pretty average HW. Speaking of "workstation grade" Windows, you can still approximate this kind
468.
by rollcat 2y ago
It's because the UB must be continuously exploited by compilers for that extra 1% perf gain. I've been eyeing Zig recently. It makes a lot of choices straightforward yet explicit, e.g. you choose between four optimisation strategi
469.
by rollcat 2y ago
There was a thread the other day about Forth on 6051, and someone challenged Forth's utility. I think it fits the same niche: enables quick iteration, exploration, while maintaining a "just right" level of abstraction over th
470.
by rollcat 2y ago
Tangential: I've been playing around with the color blindness filters on my iPhone, and the grayscale filter had me thinking for a moment. I've set it to 50%, set up the accessibility shortcut (triple-click on the home button) to
471.
by rollcat 2y ago
> If there is one leap that the infosec community consistently fails to make, it is this: people who are not like me, who have different needs and priorities, who have less time or are less technical, STILL DESERVE PRIVACY AND SECURITY.
472.
by rollcat 2y ago
Huh, pretty cool. Would you mind submitting your scores to Geekbench? Can you also test idle power? Genuinely interested.
473.
by rollcat 2y ago
Well I found out the hard way that company culture or values can mean nothing if you don't CYA. Granted, the shop was small enough that our team was in charge of both the security policies and ops, but still, on one unfortunate occas
474.
by rollcat 2y ago
I work in live media production. I would never consider doing any mixing on Linux - just like I wouldn't consider putting Docker containers on a Mac to serve live HTTP traffic.
475.
by rollcat 2y ago
Yeah I was talking about the "AI". It's such an utter failure that even Gruber has been calling it out. It was already the same story with AirPower (the wireless charging mat). They've pre-announced it, even tried to ups
476.
by rollcat 2y ago
Does the mini PC go from zero to eleven though? Can I play BG3, Factorio, or Minecraft on the same hardware? Can I saturate a TB3 port? Transcode video? Run an LLM or text2img? Any of that while remaining responsive, having a video call? If
477.
by rollcat 2y ago
> In general, I have found that things which are difficult on Linux are so because the problem is difficult [...]. Hard disagree. Audio mixing is not difficult[1]. The Linux kernel guys were right - it does not belong in the kernel.
478.
by rollcat 2y ago
> At least production got fixed and money kept flowing. You were denied the tools to get your job done. You've put yourself at risk by applying an unapproved workaround. Never ever do this (unless you hold substantial shares). Let t
479.
by rollcat 2y ago
That shuffling was caused by Apple utterly failing to deliver a major feature, that was a key selling point for the latest generation of their hardware. "Bad press" for their declining software quality is like people complaining t
480.
by rollcat 2y ago
My Mac mini (M1) sips ~6W idle and is completely inaudible. It acts as a desktop whenever I need it to, and as a server 24/7. I only power up my NAS (WoL) for daily backups. The rest of the homelab is for fun and experiments, but mostl

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