Posts by Chris Warrick

Git is unprepared for the AI coding tsunami

Re: Git is doing fine.

I agree that pulling changes in large and often-updated repositories can take a while, but the AI grifters specifically complained about slow commit operations. And commits are generally instantaneous, even in large repos.

Re: Git is doing fine.

It’s just git rebase -i HEAD~n, where n is the number of commits you want to go back. You are then given a text file with a list of your commits. You can reorder commits by reordering lines. To reword a commit, change pick to reword. That’s it. Note that you’re rewriting history, which is not welcome on branches many people work with, and which may require a force-push if you’ve already pushed the old history.

Git is doing fine.

This article is full of people selling their stuff, but lacks substance.

> Git operations, especially when used in GitOps-style automated deployments, still need to be managed by people. Updates, commits, pushes, merges are often yoked into sequences of “stop/go” episodes where someone has to hit enter on the keyboard a few times to continue the workflow, Karayanev noted. This model may not hold up once agents start getting priority.

This is nothing specific to Git. If you want to give LLMs full permissions to push slop to main, just disable the branch protection rules in GitHub (or compatible). Indeed, that’s what the most “prolific” vibe-coders do.

> It [semi-proprietary tool] allows the developer to work on two different branches simultaneously, using a technique called virtual branching.

This sounds like a recipe for branches which fail to build due to a dependency on some minor change introduced on another branch. If you want to work on two things, just use git worktree to spin up a second copy of the repo.

> They can reorder commits, or edit the comments of a previous commit.

Trivial with git rebase.

> Maybe Git should be run locally, mirrored globally and managed with clients … such as [advertisement], Chacon suggested.

That’s what Git already is. Everyone has a full copy of the repository locally, including full history and all branches. I can switch branches, browse history, make commits without network access.

> Operations run on a single thread, making concurrent operations impossible. As a result, the larger the repository, the slower the commit operations – a deadly combination for fast-paced agentic software development, Medvedovsky noted.

It is single-threaded, because you get merge hell and divergent views of history otherwise. But pushing a commit to a local repo is instantaneous, so the only thing that you could maybe optimise is the network speed. (But really, no real workflow will notice the difference.)

Git is fine as it is. GitHub has issues due to a technology stack that was very fashionable around 2010 (Rails + MySQL), but it doesn’t really scale well.

Hands off my trademark! Notepad++ dev threatens legal action against macOS port

100% slop

If you look at GitHub, that Mac project is 100% Claude slop of the I'm-too-lazy-to-make-commits-myself kind, so you know it must be good. I don’t know why the original maintainer has any reservations about it.

Classic MacOS for non-Apple PowerPC kit rediscovered

Last month's news

> What's just been rediscovered are [...]

That’s a funny way to spell a month ago.

Microsoft quietly shuts down Windows shortcut flaw after years of espionage abuse

The actual flaw

This article fails to mention the actual flaw and the resolution. The flaw was Windows truncating the displayed shortcut location to 260 characters (which is the maximum path length in Win32 APIs), so evil code could be smuggled beyond that limit. The fix was to remove truncation and display all 32k characters.

With that context, the "major security flaw" sounds like a nothingburger to me.

Microsoft's lack of quality control is out of control

Re: Program / Programme

For some time, the British version of Windows 11 translated "Compress to ZIP file" as "Compress to postcode file".

Meanwhile, the Polish version of Windows 11 changed the long-standing translation of "View", and now it is effectively the "Show" menu (or more precisely, "Display" as a verb), which does not make sense at all.

Microsoft keeps adding stuff into Windows we don't want – here's what we actually need

Audio device switching is already easy

You can access the audio devices list with just two clicks: click on the network/volume/battery icons, and click the icon to the right side of the volume slider.

Or if you like keyboard shortcuts, Ctrl+Windows+V.

Speaking of keyboard shortcuts, remapping them on Windows would require co-operation from app developers, there is no central mechanism that Microsoft could hook into.

A quick guide to tool-calling in large language models

OK, but why?

Why is an LLM required here? I can just type whatever I want calculated into the calculator app on my phone or computer, or I can use a small electronic device called a "pocket calculator", or I can use a Google feature that exists since time immemorial, and even Siri can handle elementary maths. Similarly, it’s faster to glance at the phone or taskbar to see the date and time. The Proxmox thing might have some use, but if I wanted reports like this, I could just build a simple web app that does the querying and returns HTML directly. Again, faster and easier than a chatbot.

Core Python developer suspended for three months

Shadowy cabals hate criticism

I have been reading the discussions, and Tim’s remarks sounded reasonable and sane (if a little harsh at times). Tim is not the only person that was suspended by the shadowy “CoC working group”; those folks were quite productive recently, handing out indefinite suspensions for some other Discourse members, because they had the audacity to criticise extending the power of the CoC WG’s banhammer.

Meanwhile, packaging in Python is still a trainwreck, the standard implementation is still slow. Gee, I why they have no time nor resources to actually improve the language?

Azure Linux 3 hits general availability – but don't expect any frills

Re: "Windows Subsystem for Linux springs to mind."

Using systemd in WSL is very easy, you only need to edit one config file: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/systemd

ChatGPT wrongly insists Trump-Biden CNN debate had 1 to 2-minute delay

Re: It is important though

Where is the El Reg campaign to ban LLMs?

I didn’t get the memo that ChatGPT is now including live Internet results in its bullshit (as opposed to an outdated knowledgebase). But weren’t the bullshitters supposed to refuse to answer any election questions, or was it another company’s?

Regardless, they all should be shut down, as they are actively harming humanity.

Samsung Korea warns many apps won't run on its Qualcomm-powered Copilot+ PCs

Kind of. Windows RT prevented running apps not from the Microsoft Store. Windows 11 on Arm has x86 emulation and allows running anything. That said, the emulation might be too slow for games, or it might break cheat detection and DRM, or it might not be applicable to device drivers in kernel mode.

FOSS replacement for Partition Magic, Gparted 1.6 is here to save your data

Partition Magic?

Partition Magic is an old, proprietary tool. One of many partitioning tools out there, Wikipedia lists a ton: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_disk_partitioning_software . GParted is almost 20 years old, and fairly well-known. Does modern open-source need to feel inferior to old proprietary software just because it’s proprietary?

Windows 11 24H2 is coming so we can all shut up about Windows 12 for another year

Was there any credible evidence for Windows 12, or is it just bloggers making stuff up? Windows’ release cadence was all over the place, there’s no reason to believe Microsoft will replace 11 with 12 in just 3 years.

Windows 12: Savior of PC makers, or just an apology for Windows 11?

Windows supports an alternate shell, and has done so since forever. Now, can you show an example of a full replacement shell that is still being developed and has any significant usage? There are a few extensions like Open Shell or Explorer Patcher, but those only hide or fix small parts of Explorer.

Microsoft to intro dedicated mode for Cloud PCs

Windows 365 Boot?

I don't really see the point of Windows 365 Boot. You’re giving your employees modern hardware powerful enough to run Windows 11, and the only thing it’s used for is remote desktop. Why? Why not get them cheaper thin clients? Or alternatively, why not just use Windows 11 on that PC?

Apple drops a bomb on long-life HTTPS certificates: Safari to snub new security certs valid for more than 13 months

Re: I understand

The EV system is completely broken. Someone managed to get EV certs for "Stripe, Inc." (even though they were not the payment processor) and "Identity Verified" (because they registered a company with that name). https://www.typewritten.net/writer/ev-phishing-final/

At the same time, users didn't notice the extra text added by EV certs, so its security value was zero. https://www.troyhunt.com/extended-validation-certificates-are-really-really-dead/