@movq@www.uninformativ.de Interesting internal education sessions are way too infrequent here as well. There are a bunch of “knowledge transfer” meetings actually, but 90% of the topics already sound totally boring to me. The other 9% talks turned out to be underwhelming, sadly. I only attended a single one where it was delivered what has been promised. They’re all talks, not real hands-on trainings like you did.

Once a year the security guys organize a really great hacking event, though. Teams can volunteer to hand in their software dev instances and all workmates are invited to hack them and report security vulnerabilities. That’s a lot of fun, but also gets frustrating towards the end when you don’t make any progress. :-) There’s also some actual hands-on training in advance for preparation of the two days. Unfortunately, I missed the last event due to my own project being very stressful at the time.

When I had a Do What You Want Day I also show my direct teammates what I learned in the hopes of this being interesting to them as well. I’m the only one in my team using this opportunity, sadly.

think i’m gonna use this license on my git repos going forward. it kicks ass https://anticapitalist.software/

Saw this on Mastodon:

https://racingbunny.com/@mookie/114718466149264471

18 rules of Software Engineering

1. You will regret complexity when on-call
   
2. Stop falling in love with your own code
   
3. Everything is a trade-off. There’s no “best” 3. Every line of code you write is a liability 4. Document your decisions and designs
   
4. Everyone hates code they didn’t write
   
5. Don’t use unnecessary dependencies
   
6. Coding standards prevent arguments
   
7. Write meaningful commit messages
   
8. Don’t ever stop learning new things
   
9. Code reviews spread knowledge
   
10. Always build for maintainability
    
11. Ask for help when you’re stuck
    
12. Fix root causes, not symptoms
    
13. Software is never completed
    
14. Estimates are not promises
    
15. Ship early, iterate often
    
16. Keep. It. Simple.
    

Solid list, even though 14 is up for debate in my opinion: Software can be completed. You have a use case / problem, you solve that problem, done. Your software is completed now. There might still be bugs and they should be fixed – but this doesn’t “add” to the program. Don’t use “software is never done” as an excuse to keep adding and adding stuff to your code.

@movq@www.uninformativ.de That sounds great! (Well, they actually must have recorded the audio with a potato or so.) You talked about pledge(…) and unveil(…) before, right? I somewhere ran across them once before. Never tried them out, but these syscalls seem to be really useful. They also have the potential to make one really rethink about software architecture. I should probably give this a try and see how I can improve my own programs.

@movq@www.uninformativ.de I hear you! I’d also love to forbid any use in military software (development). Even though I cannot imagine anything of my stuff ending up there.

When I chose the MIT license for all of my software, I thought:

“Should I use GPL, which I don’t really understand? Is that worth it? Yeah, there is a theoretical possibility that some company might use my code in their proprietary product … and then what? Should I sue them to enforce the GPL? I’m not going to do that anyway, so I’ll just use the MIT license.”

And now we have those LLM scrapers and now it’s suddenly a reality that these companies (ab)use my code. I can see it in my logs. I didn’t expect that back then.

GPL wouldn’t help, either, of course. (Regardless, I now think that GPL would have been the better choice anyway.)

I’m honestly considering taking my code and website offline. Maybe make it accessible through some obscure protocol like Gopher or Gemini, but no more HTTP.

(Yes, Anubis might help. Temporarily.)

I’m just tired.

@prologic@twtxt.net There have always been and there will always be people who have absolutely no clue what they’re doing. I’ve been 100% one of them when I started. Guaranteed, heaps of new SQL injections are born every single day, numbers rising.

That doesn’t justify all the WAF crap in the first place, though. In my opinion it’s just a filthy plaster applied to an injected wound. The software itself must be secure. Otherwise, don’t put that shit on the internet. Probably not even operate it at all. Nowhere. Fix it or throw it in the bin.

Once or twice a year, I make an effort to switch from dark mode / black terminals to light mode again.

It usually doesn’t end well, because the contrast is just not as good. There’s a reason that things like professional DAWs or CAD software use a dark theme.

With a heavy bold font, it’s much better:

https://movq.de/v/331aa40bde/s.png

My font doesn’t get any bolder than this, though. I’d have to make a new variant of it. Mhh. 🤔

Crucial Wii homebrew library contains code stolen from Nintendo, RTEMS
The Wii homebrew community has been dealt a pretty serious blow, as developers of The Homebrew Channel for the Wii have discovered that not only does an important library most Wii homebrew software rely on use code stolen straight from Nintendo, that same library also uses code taken from an open source real-time operating system without giving proper attribution. Most Wii homebrew software i … ⌘ Read more

The wonderful world of Linux package managers
One of the strong points of Linux has always been how solid the experience of installing and managing software is. Contrarily to what happens in the Windows and macOS world, software on Linux is obtained through something called a package manager, a piece of software that manages any piece of software the user installs, as well as its dependencies, automatically. ↫ Luca Bramè at Libre.News It truly is. I can’t imagine using any operating sy … ⌘ Read more

Linux on IBM Z and LinuxONE open source software report
Linux on IBM Z and IBM LinuxONE use the s390x hardware architecture to run various Linux distributions, including SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES), Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), and Ubuntu. Tens of thousands of software packages are tested and distributed through these projects, and various community distributions. ↫ Elizabeth K. Joseph at the IBM community website Various Linux distributions are available for the … ⌘ Read more

Spark AI (YC W24) is hiring a full-stack engineer in San Francisco
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@bender@twtxt.net I use it. It’s not the feature I use the most in the fediverse, but I communicate this way with several friends. For example, it’s the main way I talk to the original creator of the twtxt-el repository, the way people greet me for the first time or the way they notify me of some bugs in the software I maintain. I can even tell you that it’s the main way I talk to some maintainers of the Emacs community. If there are any of you reading my words, speak up!
Why not have the same? There are things I want to say to @prologic@twtxt.net in private, why should I have to send him an email or private IRC? Or an public twt.
Of course, here’s a topic we’ve already talked about: what is twtxt for you? For me it will always be a social network, in microblogging format, but an asynchronous way of communicating. And having a tool to control visibility is basic 😄
I look forward to hearing from you @eapl.me@eapl.me !

FurtherAI (YC W24) Is Hiring Software and AI Engineers
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@prologic@twtxt.net @bmallred@staystrong.run Ah, I just found this, didn’t see it before:

https://restic.net/#compatibility

So, yeah, they do use semver and, yes, they’re not at 1.0.0 yet, so things might break on the next restic update … but they “promise” to not break things too lightheartedly. Hm, well. 😅 Probably doesn’t make a big difference (they don’t say “don’t use this software until we reach 1.0.0”).

Flexport Is Hiring Software Engineers
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Fedora change aims for 99% package reproducibility
The effort to ensure that open-source software is reproducible has been gathering steam over the years, and gaining traction with major Linux distributions. Debian, for example, has been working toward reproducible builds for more than a decade; it can now produce official live CDs of the current stable release that are reproducible. Fedora started on the path much later, but it has progressed far enough that the project is now con … ⌘ Read more

The subjective charms of Objective-C
To argue that Objective-C resembles a metaphysically divine language, or even a good language, is like saying Shakespeare is best appreciated in pig latin. Objective-C is, at best, polarizing. Ridiculed for its unrelenting verbosity and peculiar square brackets, it is used only for building Mac and iPhone apps and would have faded into obscurity in the early 1990s had it not been for an unlikely quirk of history. Nevertheless, in my time working as a softwar … ⌘ Read more

AI can’t stop making up software dependencies and sabotaging everything
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Are .NET 4.x and JDK 8.x the “zombie” runtimes of enterprise software?
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IBM unveils z17 mainframe, z/OS 3.2
IBM today announced the IBM z17, the next generation of the company’s iconic mainframe, fully engineered with AI capabilities across hardware, software, and systems operations. Powered by the new IBM Telum II processor, IBM z17 expands the system’s capabilities beyond transactional AI capabilities to enable new workloads. ↫ IBM z17 press release Alongside this brand new behemoth of a computer, IBM also announced z/OS 3.2, the next version of its mainframe opera … ⌘ Read more

Bundeswehr to remove all Microsoft software from its systems
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The insanity of being a software engineer
Software gets more complicated. All of this complexity is there for a reason. But what happened to specializing? When a house is being built, tons of people are involved: architects, civil engineers, plumbers, electricians, bricklayers, interior designers, roofers, surveyors, pavers, you name it. You don’t expect a single person, or even a whole single company, to be able to do all of those. ↫ Vitor M. de Sousa Pereira I’ve always found that softwa … ⌘ Read more

Decoding the 90s: Cryptography in Early Software Development (2023)
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Type (YC W23) is hiring a senior software engineer
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Nintendo unveils Switch 2 ahead of June 5 launch
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DOGE’s Marko Elez is back on U.S. payroll
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Spice Data (YC S19) Is Hiring a Software Engineer
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MS-DOS and Windows 3.11 still run train dashboards at German railway (Jan’24)
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Spark AI (YC W24) Is Hiring a Full-Stack Engineer in San Francisco
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Software Eng Intern – Structured Labs (YC S23) Is Hiring
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@prologic@twtxt.net Gemini has an answer for you:

This is a conversation thread from a twtxt network, detailing a user’s (movq) frustration with the Mastodon “export data” feature and their consideration of self-hosting a fediverse alternative. Here’s a summary:

• movq’s initial issue:
  
  • movq is concerned about the volatility of their data on their current Mastodon instance due to a broken “export data” feature.
    
  • They contacted the admins, but the issue remains unresolved.
    
  • This led them to contemplate self-hosting.
    
• Alternative fediverse software suggestions:
  
  • kat suggests gotosocial as a lightweight alternative to Mastodon.
    
  • movq agrees, and also mentions snac as a potential option.
    
• movq’s change of heart:
  
  • movq ultimately decides that self-hosting any fediverse software, besides twtxt, is too much effort.
    
• Resolution and compromise:
  
  • The Mastodon admins attribute the export failure to the size of movq’s account.
    
  • movq decides to set their Mastodon account to auto-delete posts after approximately 180 days to manage data size.
    
  • Movq also mentions that they use auto-expiring links on twtxt to reduce data storage.

I now subscribed to most feeds in my Go tt reimplementation that I already followed with the old Python tt. Previously, I just had a few feeds for testing purposes in my new config. While transfering, I “dropped” heaps of feeds that appeared to be inactive.

This might motivate me to actually “finish” the new client, so that it could become my daily driver. No need to use the old software stack any longer. Let’s see how bad this goes.

@lyse@lyse.isobeef.org

Although, most software I use is decentish in that regard.

Is that because you mostly use Qt programs? 🤔

I wish Qt had a C API. Programming in C++ is pain. 😢

@movq@www.uninformativ.de Where can I join your club? Although, most software I use is decentish in that regard.

I just noted today that JetBrains improv^Wcompletely fucked up their new commit dialog. There’s no diff anymore where I would also be able to select which changes to stage. I guess from now on I’m going to exclusively commit from only the shell. No bloody git integration anymore. >:-( This is so useless now, unbelievable.

@movq@www.uninformativ.de mastodon is probably the worst fedi software to self host tbh, you might wanna check out gotosocial? not to like pull you in another direction but idk masto is just suuuuper heavy lol

@prologic@twtxt.net If it develops, and I’m not saying it will happen soon, perhaps Yarn could be connected as an additional node. Implementation would not be difficult for any client or software. It will not only be a backup of twtxt, but it will be the source for search, discovery and network health.

If we don’t keep insisting on simplify and “The beauty of twtxt is, you put one file on your server, done. One.”, then people should just use ActivityPub-based software like Mastodon, PixelFed, etc. which are getting a lot of attention and uses migrating to the fediverse from meta/x here in Denmark over the last couple of months.

Comparing Fuchsia components and Linux containers
Fuchsia is a new (non-Linux) operating system from Google, and one of the key pieces of Fuchsia’s design is the component framework. Components on Fuchsia have many similarities with some of the container solutions on Linux (such as Docker): they both fetch content addressed blobs from the network, assemble those blobs into an isolated filesystem structure that holds all the dependencies necessary to run some piece of software, and … ⌘ Read more

Hacer software código opensource es desafiante y paulatinamente desgasta a su autor. Todo comienza con pasión y entusiasmo, por supuesto. Si logras repercusión, te enfrentas a una carrera de fondo que muchos terminan abandonando por las demandas constantes de usuarios que, a menudo, no valoran el trabajo ni contribuyen de manera significativa. Por mencionar un caso reciente: Hector Martin. Líder del proyecto Asahi Linux, quien dedicó años a adaptar Linux para los procesadores Apple Silicon, un logro técnico impresionante. Sin embargo, terminó renunciando debido a la presión de usuarios que exigían soporte y mejoras como si fueran clientes pagos.

La mayoría de los mantenedores no reciben ningún soporte económico. Solo unos pocos proyectos logran sostenibilidad financiera a través de patrocinios, mientras que la mayoría de los desarrolladores terminan con un segundo empleo no remunerado.

Sin un cambio en la forma en que se valora y apoya los proyectos Opensource, y no solo hablo de las grandes empresas multimillonarias. Sería una perdida para todos si acabaremos con un ecosistema de software archivado y abandonado.

Ahora te paso la pelota a ti, ¿cuando fue la última vez que apoyaste a un mantenedor de software opensource?

#opensource #software #sostenibilidad

Blender-Rendered Movie ‘Flow’ Wins Oscar for Best Animated Feature, Beating Pixar
It’s a feature-length film “rendered on a free and open-source software platform called Blender,” reports Reuters. And it just won the Oscar for best animated feature film, beating movies from major studios like Disney/Pixar and Dreamworks.

In January Blender.org called Flow “the manifestation of Blender’s mission, … ⌘ Read more

Reading into the so-called CLEAN architecture reminds me of the work I did nearly two decades earlier called circuits hmmm 🧐

I read a lot about Clean Code, SOLID, TDD, DDD… now I’m discovering «A Philosophy of Software Design»… but nobody talks about the importance of the project architecture. Do we depend on the framework to do the work for us?
You know I’m a big fan of Clean Architecture, but I feel alone when I share my thoughts on social media or at work.
You have to think outside the framework.

Qualcomm gives OEMs the option of 8 years of Android updates
Starting with Android smartphones running on the Snapdragon 8 Elite Mobile Platform, Qualcomm Technologies now offers device manufacturers the ability to provide support for up to eight consecutive years of Android software and security updates. Smartphones launching on new Snapdragon 8 and 7-series mobile platforms will also be eligible to receive this extended support. ↫ Mike Genewich I mean, good news of cou … ⌘ Read more

1972 UNIX V2 “beta” resurrected from old tapes
There’s a number of backups of old DECtapes from Dennis Ritchie, which he gave to Warren Toomey in 1997. The tapes were eventually uploaded, and through analysis performed by Yufeng Gao, a lot of additional details, code, and software were recovered from them. A few days ago, Gao came back with the results from their analys of two more tapes, and on it, they found something quite special. Getting this recovered version to run was a bit of a … ⌘ Read more

NES86: x86 emulation on the NES
The goal of this project is to emulate an Intel 8086 processor and supporting PC hardware well enough to run the Embeddable Linux Kernel Subset (ELKS), including a shell and utilities. It should be possible to run other x86 software as long as it doesn’t require more than a simple serial terminal. ↫ NES86 GitHub page Is this useful in any meaningful sense? No. Will this change the word? No. Does it have any other purpose than just being fun and cool? Nope. None of that … ⌘ Read more

I finally got Ubuntu Software to find Kolourpaint and it installed, now when I run the APP nothing happens.
Dead, zip narda.

Stupid program , what is wrong?

AIDA64 drops support for Windows 95, 98, and ME
AIDA64, the popular benchmarking tool for Windows, released a new version today. I don’t particularly care about benchmarking – even less so benchmarking on Windows – but this new release comes with an interesting line in the release notes. Discontinued support for Windows 95, 98, Me ↫ AIDA64 v7.60 release notes Seeing a widely-used, popular piece of software drop support for Windows 95, 98, and ME only in this, the year of our lord, 2025 … ⌘ Read more

NASA has a list of 10 rules for software development https://www.cs.otago.ac.nz/cosc345/resources/nasa-10-rules.htm

Yesterday I was doing a lot of research on how #hyperdrive and the #holepunch project work. Would it be possible to use it to make #twtxt an easier gateway for new users? Could we stop using web servers?
My conclusion: We would end up being a #nostr. On the one hand it would become more complex to use, it would force the user to have software installed, and on the other hand the community would need a central proxy to make the routes accessible via HTTP. In other words, it’s not a good idea.
However, it’s an AMAZING technology. I want to start playing with it.