Posts by Baudwalk

Tiling terminal multiplexers for the console connoisseur

.ssh/config

Host bigbox-tmux

HostName bigbox

Port 22

User baudwalk

RequestTTY force

RemoteCommand tmux new -A

Now Windows Longhorn is long gone, witness reflects on Microsoft's OS belly-flop

Re: Deliver something worthwhile?

XP had to be activated. Either on-line or through a phone call with you reciting a string of letters and numbers and then entering the answer from the supporter at the other end.

Linux royalty backs adoption of Rust for kernel code, says its rise is inevitable

If they'd just...

...add inheritance OO as an option too, I'd probably switch my primary go-to language to Rust.

Without inheritance, I just can't be bothered to spend the time getting properly up to speed on a replacement for my current all-rounder, C++.

North Korea targets crypto developers via NPM supply chain attack

Whenever yet another...

...of these stories break, I feel a decidedly un-gentlemanly smugness in my C/C++ world.

Apologies to all.

Sage Copilot grounded briefly to fix AI misbehavior

Getting answers...

...from a bot trained on other people's data and processes, resulting in unfortunate information leaks?

Shirley not.

How Windows got to version 3 – an illustrated history

Love this....

...old shtuff.

My favourite books in this area are:

Barbarians Led by Bill Gates

On the Edge: the Spectacular Rise and Fall of Commodore - (My copy is from 2006. Later versions have been re-edited and split into two volumes. I don't know if they're better or worse.)

UNIX: A History and a Memoir

Any other recommendations?

How a good business deal made us underestimate BASIC

Re: You had me...

I think I got his point. I had a C=64 too 40 years ago.

I just don't think the scenario is still valid, or at least not optimal, today, as we have better options for getting beginners started on coding today than was available back then.

You had me...

...until "line numbers good - files bad".

Beginners should definitely not care about line numbers. And some sort of storage is needed.

My favourite beginner platform for teaching to code is Makecode Arcade.

Drsg and drop code that isn't gimped but pretty fully functional.

It does support multiple files, but that's well hidden at first. Just name your project and go.

Sure, it's by Microsoft, but it's great for getting kids interested and the graphical coding concepts map directly to "real code" ideas. In fact, you can toggle between (a subset of) TypeScript and the graphical representation.

BOFH: Don't sell The Boss a firewall. Sell him The Dream

I can think of...

...cheaper ways of buying a happy ending.

After 27 years, Tcl/Tk 9 finally arrives with 64-bit power and Zip file magic

Clearlooks...

...how desktop applications still ought to look.

Raspberry Pi OS goes goth

Dark mode has been default...

...for years on my Pies.

As I mostly have them boot to the console. I can always start X11 later, if I want to run GUI app.

Just like we did in the 80s and 90s. :old-man-yells-at-cloud:

Microsoft delays debut of IoT security offer due to 'unexpected system challenges'

You might even say...

...that Microsoft have been ahead of their time for decades. [/sarcasm]

These days everybody flog their wares well before they're fully baked.

USENET, the OG social network, rises again like a text-only phoenix

sudo apt install slrn

Must admit it's been years since I last browsed USENET.

Quite a nostalgia trip just listing the groups again. comp.lang.c, rec.arts.sf.tv,babylon5, alt.music.enya, ...

Not as bereft of life as I expected, but not exactly about to nuzzle up to the bars, bend 'em apart with its beak, and VOOM.

File Explorer gets facelift in latest Windows 11 build

I always mean to try...

WinUI3.

As well as every other new UI stack eagerly promoted at the future of Windowsy applications.

But whenever I need a Windows GUI, I still reach for wxWidgets.

Looks old^H^H^Habout as modern as I think desktop apps ought to, rather than looking like a web page.

And I've paid for Total Commander some time ago. Only file manager I need on Windows.

Working from home could kill career advancement, says IBM CEO

As Dr. Evil said...

..."There's nothing quite like a shorn scrotum."

Python still has the strongest grip on developers

Speaking of Flask...

...I've been eyeing it for simple interactivity on a website, but also wondering about safety.

Is Python + Flask (or Django) secure on their own? Would putting them behind an Apache proxy be better?

Microsoft is busy rewriting core Windows code in memory-safe Rust

My preferred GUI library is...

...wxWidgets.

On Windows, it's just a C++ wrapper for native.

The end of Microsoft-brand peripherals is only Surface deep

Was the Strategic Commander...

...actually good?

I picked one out of the bargain bin 20 years ago, but never actually plugged it in.

I came across it, clearing out the attic about a year ago, and finally took it to the recycling centre.

BOFH takes a visit to retro computing land

Nobody is touching...

...my two C=64s.

I wonder how Bruce Lee will look on our 55" OLED.

UK watchdog blocks Microsoft's Activision Blizzard acquisition

Why do you...

..."trust" Steam?

Honest question.

Personally, I consider anything with DRM as a form of rental, whether Steam, Microsoft/Xbox/Apple-App/Google-Play Store or, the honestly labelled rental model, Game Pass.

The vast majority of PC game purchases I've made over the past decade have been at gog.com. (Though I certainly recognise most people's game preferences aren't properly served by them.)

Benchmark a cloud PC? No way. Just trust us, they work, says Microsoft

Azure's paper specs...

...are kinda useless.

I rented a VPS on Azure for a couple of months for running a Minecraft server for my son, as I already knew how Azure admin worked. The price was OK, but I spun it up on demand and had it auto shutdown each night.

Then I noticed Hetzner weren't as expensive as I had assumed, and I could get a VPS with the same specs as the Azure one.

While the servers had the same specs, the Hetzner server has consistently been much, MUCH more responsive than the Azure one at the best of times.

Updating new areas on the Azure Minecraft stalled regularly. On Hetzner it's always buttery smooth.

And while my total monthly cost is the same, the Hetzner server is kept running 24/7. That many hours of up-time on Azure would have been horribly expensive.

OpenMandriva Rome version 23.03 is out now

Odd nostalgia trip...

...for me.

I remember my sequence of main distros as: Red Hat (good), SuSE (better) which came with an impressive selection dead-tree literature, Slackware (best, but time-consuming), Debian (good enough for the lazy^Wtime constrained).

But I also recall giving Mandrake a shot. (Probably partly due to liking the old Mandrake the Magician comics.) I wonder if that was between SuSE and Slackware...

Raspberry Pi Foundation launches $12 USB Debug Probe

Re: Looks interesting...

If so, the Segger J-Link Edu Mini, which is also OK to use for personal, non-commercial projects, could be worth a look.

I paid something to the tune of €25 (incl. 25% VAT) for mine a few years ago.

As Apple sales slide, Tim Cook says fanbois will tolerate higher iPhone prices

>>>Huawei phones were not only better than iPhones in value for money terms but also better quality<<<

Err. no.

Huawei's Bluetooth was (still is?) notoriously incompatible/troublesome to work with.

And their non-OLED screens were cheap looking too, IMHO

I'm on Android, but Huawei would be on my no-buy list, sanctions related issues regardless.

Fujitsu re-org sparks alphabet soup splatter: GSBG splits into GTSBG and GBSBG

Reminds me of...

...Yes, Minister.

-

Bernard: In the civil service, CMG stands for "Call Me God". And KCMG for "Kindly Call Me God".

Jim: What does GCMG stand for?

Bernard: "God Calls Me God".

GCC 13 to support Modula-2: Follow-up to Pascal lives on in FOSS form

Re: Had M2 become popular...

The year of the Penguin^W Walrus operator.

Microsoft reportedly mulls a does-everything 'super app' to expand mobile search

I actually ...

...quite like New Microsoft.

Windows 11 is visually a step in the right direction, IMHO, and their webby stuff works quite well in Penguin land too.

But to really win me over, they would have to disable all the ads for 365 subscribers.

Musk says spat with Apple over App Store ejection threat for Twitter was 'misunderstanding'

Re: Yes, but...

>>>if they try, we go all goudere on them......<<<

Mildly cheesy?

Apple forgoes cooling systems in M2 MacBook Air

What's crap about this one?

At my pre-corona employer I had an Air M1 to play with, and it was an absolutely amazing machine.

That kind of speed (including emulated Windows 3D games) in a fan-less laptop with instant (not just the near-instant seen on the best Windows laptops) wake-up, was fscking amazing.

When I left, was tempted to buy one for myself. I 100% would have if I trusted Apple to maintain the Rosetta Intel emulation layer for any length of time. Apple's track record didn't leave me with confidence in that regard, so I opted for a Ryzen 4700U powered HP Envy 13 convertible.

Predictive Dirty Dozen: What will and won't happen in 2022 (unless it doesn’t/does)

Re: "All office chairs are gaming chairs"

Forget about those crappy gaming <insert anything vaguely computing related>.

For a proper office chair (also good for extended gaming sessions, if you have that sort of time to spare), get a HÅG Creed 6002.

Pricey but built to last, and at least you don't look like you're using your teenage kid's chair in Zoom^WTeams meetings.

My older model is well over 20 years old and still as comfy as ever.

Your back will thank you.

How much would you pay me to develop a COVID tracking app that actually works? Ah, thought so: nothing

Is the place full of…

…data leeks?

New IETF draft reveals Egyptians invented pyramids to sharpen razor blades

As Pratchett himself wrote:...

..."A Pyramid, properly viewed as a device for manipulating time, doesn't so much keep a razor blade sharp as remind it of a time in its life when it wasn't blunt, and to make a suggestion that this would be a nice time to revisit, for just long enough to do Pharaoh's legs."

The Audacity of it all: Version 3.0 of open-source audio fave boasts new file format, 160+ bug fixes

Pretty it isn't...

...but i can't recall an audio editor that was, to be honest.

And with wxWidgets, at least it looks like a desktop application with clearly marked UI elements, rather than a web page where everything is a muddled together, indistinguishable porridge.

Blind man sues Dell over inaccessible website

As a blind person writing and reading code, do you have any comments on how various programming languages' syntax translate to screen readers?

Any favourites or pet peeves?

Python Package Index nukes 3,653 malicious libraries uploaded soon after security shortcoming highlighted

C/C++ library discovery and building is...

...tedious.

But it's stories like these that make me love even these deficiencies of the C++ ecosystem.

It does mean reinventing the wheel more often than developers who exclusively code in Rust, Python, Go, Java, C#, JavaScript, Perl, Ruby, OCaml, Haskell, ... *sigh* (wipes tear away) *sniffle*

But at least the risc of catching, and distributing, something nasty is lessened.

Devuan adds third init option in sixth birthday release

Re: In other Linux news ...

I ran Slackware Current for some years.

It was the most stable OS, I've ever used.

But as it didn't come with a huge set of packaged applications, it did take more time to manage and keep current than most distros. Not helped by me compiling everything non-core from original sources.

The thing really was rock-solid, though.

When that PC needed replacing, general life had gotten in the way, so I went the way of the lazy and installed Debian.

Re: PulseAudio?

OSS was the Linux sound system when I started on the Righteous Path of Tux in '96.

There was some kerfuffle about 4Front and licence terms, and (IIRC, which I may very well not) that lead to the development of ALSA.

Linux developers get ready to wield the secateurs against elderly microprocessors

Re: what is linux good for?

As well as any PC with less than 8GB of RAM and/or a spinning rust drive.

I know. I've been a penguin botherer since '96.

Re: what is linux good for?

Well, large-ish embedded anyway.

Not the small stuff.

Re: what is linux good for?

Also nice on, funnily enough, Microsoft Azure servers.

The Nord N10 is OnePlus's cheapest 5G handset and, boy, does it show

Are 4GB...

... classified as "little" memory in a phone, these days?

Chr*st al-effin-mighty!

SW devs need to step back and... well, I would have said optimise, but if a phone needs 6GB of RAM to not be sluggish, it's beyond optimisation to fix, it's more like time to “unlearn what you have learned".

BBC Micro:bit with boosted specs and onboard mic to go on sale from next month

Re: Sadly

But you can have it scroll BOOBS across the 5x5 LEDS.

He was a skater boy. We said, 'see you later, boy' – and the VAX machine mysteriously began to work as intended

Rather than...

...reminding us that unlikely named "Ethan" is a pseudonym, why not use more natural names like "Tarquin Fin-tim-lin-bin-whin-bim-lim-bus-stop-F'tang-F'tang-Olé-Biscuitbarrel"?

Better Java than Java: Kotlin 1.4 introduces new compilers for JVM and JavaScript

Kotlin itself is quite nice...

...but getting the exact incantations right for including some of the popular dependencies is pure hell.

Kotlin and even Java itself these days are actually pretty nice languages (Clojure is better, IMHO), but Gradle is a big no. Just No!

Even the C++ ecosystem's way of tracking down, downloading and building by hand each library feels less onerous.

Can AI-enhanced virtual sports presenters do the job? It's a big ask

Ananova...

...?

How did I miss that phenomenon?

The only Ana Nova I remember, was an actress, the IMDb blurb on DuckDuckGo assures me starred in some health video involving colonic yoga.

Re: To be fair...

Underfloor heating takes a while to, well, heat up.

Snakes on a wane: Python 2 development is finally frozen in time, version 3 slithers on

'Tis but a scratch! ...

... Just a flesh wound.

We live so fast I can't even finish this sent...

>>>However, I think you might be missing the point<<<

Surely better than missing the bowl.

How do you ascertain user acceptability if you keep killing off the users?

Launching vegetables...

...at the missus?

Unlike self driving cars, you're aiming for that 100% assured fatality rate, I see.

BOFH: I'd like introduce you to a groovy little web log I call 'That's Boss'

intestate...

... no balls?