Michel Salim @michel_slm@floss.social

People often ask me what kind of tools I use to manage OS related things like network, audio, jails, backup etc. I'm basically doing everything manually just using #FreeBSD base system tools (sometimes wrapped in a small shell script). I try to avoid automagic stuff as much as possible. Most people will probably find this totally impractical and annyoing, but I prefer to stay in control of these things and it suited me well over the years. #BSD

Projects like #DOI (Digital Object Identifier) and #Handle.net have created ways to permanently link to documents on the web, even if their actual URL changes. But like #Webcitation.org and #Archive.org, both are centralized systems, requiring layers of bureacracy and ongoing funding to maintain. #DataShards has been proposed as a way to automate this, in a decentralized and even offline way:
https://librelounge.org/episodes/26-announcing-datashards.html

#GMail is harmful to e-mail ecosystem; its antispam blocking policy matches too many valid messages as spam.

It blocked LastPass email leak warning email, because it contained "a link" to a leaked site.

It blocked an e-mail from goverment agency addressed directly to me.

It discriminates all non-gmail servers, and it's pretty much impossible to own a private SMTP server these days, because GMail will classify everything as spam.

It's not how e-mail should work.

Consider dropping GMail.

Holy crap, there's finally a Fairphone 3! 📱🎉 https://www.fairphone.com/en/2019/08/27/launching-fairphone-3/

#ethical #alternatives #fairphone3

Economically, the "Manly McManface" edition of "Ed Mastery" was a failure. I mean, 71 copies sold? That barely covered the stock art I used for the cover.

But socially? A total win. It's rare that I get such a perfect chance to scream FU at a select group of troglodytes.

I suspect its existence boosted regular edition sales.

And it vastly reduced the amount of email I get from MRAs, which makes me feel all ​

I LOVE the ability to self-publish such trolls.

Things You Didn't Know About GNU Readline https://twobithistory.org/2019/08/22/readline.html

If you are in any way, shape or form involved in either #infosec or #programming this is a must read ...
https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/teaching/1011/R01/75-protection.pdf

Yes, it's from 1975 but still relevant AF.

Getting into #emacs ~24 years ago has payed off so many times it's insane.

An example of what I used #emacs for today:

Shell = Emacs eshell
File Manager = Emacs dired
Email = Emacs mu4e
Git Client = Emacs magit
RSS Reader = Emacs elfeed
Twitter Client = Emacs Twitter.el
Slack Client = Emacs slack
IRC Client = Emacs ERC
Mastodon Client = Emacs Mastodon.el
Task Manager = Emacs org-mode
Calendar & Planning = Emacs org-mode
Text / Code / Whatever Editor = Emacs
...
...

Happy birthday Linux. You don't look a day over 27.

"Happy birthday to the Linux kernel: What's your favorite release?"

https://opensource.com/article/19/8/linux-kernel-favorite-release

#Glimpse is a fork of GIMP with a moderized user interface - and a less offensive name to encourage usage also in professional environments. It is also somewhat related to the original project (developed also by some GNOME devs) and promises to work together with upstream developers.

@glimpse

@cjd no one that i know doesnt like javascript because of its speed.

people dont like javascript because its a mess. its designed for dom manipulation, but its user insist on trying to make it work on the backend, as a scripting language, anywhere.

people dont like javascript because its not being use as a simple interactive tool. its being used to render whole sites. its cutting out a slew of people who dont use javascript, whose internet connection cant cope with downloading that much javascript, whose devices arent powerful enough to cope with that javascript, who cant interract with the javascript because it fucks the ui so hard that in their disabled state they cant even scroll the page anymore.

people dont like javascript because its a breach of their privacy. as it expands in features (to do the aforementioned crap) it becomes more and more a full language run on the end users computer without their consent, sending microdetails of their lives for a small profit to the website owner.

javascript more than any other language compromises the freedom of the user, who should really be at the center of consideration when writing programs. maybe its ubiquity could have been put to good use as a great tool for teaching programming, but its too late now - its notoriety precedes it.

thats why people hate javascript. as scripting languages go, its speed isnt that bad

Neovim has adopted builds.sr.ht for OpenBSD CI 🎉 welcome to Sourcehut!

Some days I can't shake the fact that HN is a hive of capitalist degeneracy run by a company that represents much of what I hate in the industry

It sucks that a name as strong as "Hacker News" is controlled by and overrun by a perverse group of people who have little to no understanding of hacker ethics

BitBucket is dropping Mercurial support. Here is a script which will migrate your repos to Sourcehut:

https://hg.sr.ht/~sircmpwn/invertbucket

I'm so happy I found out of @sir's sr.ht earlier this year. With BitBucket deciding to terminate their support for #mercurial, having sr.ht has made my host migration path a no brainer.

I keep saying reports about #microsoft giving bribes to universities in exchange for things (they get more money >back<). They disguise these as "grants". Universities should not take these corporate bribes.

I have some INCREDIBLY exciting news. I’m going to be working full time on free software!

Specifically, I have been awarded an EU grant to work on https://spectrum-os.org, a security-through-compartmentalization-based operating system in the style of Qubes, powered and managed by Nix.

https://alyssa.is/leaving-freeagent/

Looks like fedichive.tk lost his domain because he violated the FreeNOM AUP.

Looks like FreeNOM has already released it to anyone else who wants to register it for the low, low price of $0.

Oops, looks like between the time I wrote the above paragraph and this one someone else registered it.

Distros really shouldn't package and make available any software they aren't prepared to support. Since distros only really support software that's in their default install, if it's not installed by default, then they shouldn't package it.

#Linux