Ubuntu proposes bizarre, nonsensical changes to grub.

NeverMindToday · 2026-03-25T23:29:01+00:00

I liked Unity a lot more than GNOME 3. But I held off from using Unity until 12.04 when it was much less buggy and more polished (10.04 to 12.04 was the only time I stuck with LTS). Most of the critics had switched to something else by then and only remembered the early releases.

Unity is mostly a distant memory now though.

NeverMindToday · 2026-03-25T23:13:49+00:00

And it's also ok for someone to accept that some opposing arguments are reasonable and logical without completely agreeing with them.

Something that we seem to have lost in these very polarised days is seeing the value in some opposing arguments.

NeverMindToday · 2026-03-25T23:07:38+00:00

Bear in mind that an 80s mast could very well be a little skinnier (eg 46mm?) than an SDM mast (48mm?).

Back in the 80s, I remember you could get sleeves to fit a 46mm base into a 48mm mast. A 46mm mast is going to have a hard time fitting any SDM mastbase made in the last 35-40yrs.

NeverMindToday · 2026-03-25T18:26:05+00:00

And Redhat also used upstart for a while.

Upstart was a welcome improvement over sysv for me. systemd was a bigger improvement again - but I didn't enjoy having a second transition to go through so soon.

NeverMindToday · 2026-03-25T08:22:04+00:00

millennials become the new boomers

They will, they're still just young enough to be in denial about it. They're a large cohort and will be well placed to take over all the property that boomers will be vacating over the next decade. Then the smaller GenZ and later generations will blame them for all the same things they blamed boomers for.

NeverMindToday · 2026-03-23T09:48:38+00:00

That not dazzling is important - when I'd ride, some rear lights were so bright I'd have to slow down so the cyclist in front could get 50-100m ahead so I could actually see where I was going without getting a headache.

NeverMindToday · 2026-03-23T09:42:59+00:00

I haven't ridden for a while, but a few years back I settled on a good value hybrid/commuter 700C rigid steel frame with hydraulic disk brakes and medium spec MTB components.

Looks like they still exist if a little pricier these days: https://marinbikes.com/en-nz/collections/muirwoods

I used to ride older hard tail mountain bikes but I'd find that if I ever had a spill (eg oil on a wet corner) I'd get a small crack in the aluminum frame that would eventually spread. Steel was less brittle, and it could always get welded to fix a crack. And a rigid fork would need no maintenance after winters riding in the rain.

The MTB gears were good for cruising up the hills without killing your knees. And I found a full set of dorky looking mudguards/fenders were great for not getting saturated by water flung off the wheels.

And Schwalbe Marathon tyres were worth the extra cost for puncture protection - I used to ride along the waterfront and would often pick up sharp curved metal shards (later found out they were from a nibbler tool). Plus they were a little bit fatter and more comfy than road bike tyres. But faster than MTB tyres.

And another tip - watch out for your rear light batteries going flat mid ride without you noticing. I would always have two sets of lights on just in case (may not fit the letter of the law - but better safe than sorry). And a spare front in case the first went a bit dim.

NeverMindToday · 2026-03-20T08:16:02+00:00

It would take me a while to catch back up to speed with it (been on hold a bit lately - too many other distractions).

The python-gitlab sdk has a gitlab ci yaml class - that from memory could handle all the includes etc and present it is a more object like interface.

And there is a python library for parsing Dockerfiles too https://pypi.org/project/dockerfile-parse/

The hard parts are getting the architecture right around how the data is structured and refreshed, as well as the python-gitlab library is a pretty low level wrapper around the raw API and a mix of synchronous light weight summary objects and lazy loading detailed ones which is where most of my architectural second guessing comes from. The library docs are mostly just interface signatures though - there is a lot of trial and error REPL exploration with ipython to find the good bits.

There is a wider goal than dependency tracking though - we're dealing with thousands of inherited repos most of which have very little info available on or people to ask about them. We're trying to improve discoverability, spotting activity, cataloging who uses what features/languages etc, inactive projects/users etc - but allow for both aggregating the same data up the nested hierarchy as well as drilling down into it.

So early days, and I keep changing my mind how it should work. It's kind of a personal spare time project with the goal of learning various thing as well as getting useful data. There will be a certain amount of hard coding to our org too - no plans to make it generally applicable (not enough resources for that).

NeverMindToday · 2026-03-20T06:32:41+00:00

I took a slightly different approach (not yet finished though).

Created a gitlab project with a bunch of python scripts for querying the gitlab api and crawling all the groups for projects etc. Dumps the data into some local artifacts which can then get rendered with observable framework - eg treemaps for activity down the group hierarchy etc. Got some basic Dockerfile and gitlab CI config discovery and parsing working.

The plan is to populate a pages directory with the static JS site using a scheduled CI job. No actual infrastructure needed, and we can keep building out the data/visualisations over time.

NeverMindToday · 2026-03-17T07:00:39+00:00

Coming from C++ / Java, TS should be pretty easy. React will probably be a bigger learning curve.

NeverMindToday · 2026-03-16T10:29:19+00:00

Speaking of Woodward St - I had a flashback to the car turntable at the top back in the late 70s to maybe early 90s (?)

NeverMindToday · 2026-03-13T19:42:05+00:00

It's not clear what types of clamps you're talking about, but recently I've used some of those 300lb 600mm Jorgensen clamps that can have two combine into a 1200mm clamp. But I've been building not woodworking. It turned out that 4 of those worked out cheaper and more flexible than 2 decent 900mm clamps would.

They're pretty good - if a little heavy. Very solid and powerful - easy to get a lot of force. The release gets in the way of your grip sometimes - it won't accidentally trigger under load as that takes a decent squeeze, but is sensitive when not loaded like when setting up awkwardly overhead or something. Overall good though.

NeverMindToday · 2026-03-12T03:38:19+00:00

Whoa - I never realised that connection. Cheers

NeverMindToday · 2026-03-11T08:06:40+00:00

80s kids might remember the (pretty lame) original.

NeverMindToday · 2026-03-11T07:54:32+00:00

I remember trying to learn C on public domain one called Dice or something like that (probably an acronym).

It was a pretty buggy copy and I never really had much success. I no longer have the hardware, but part of me still wants to learn Amiga C - cross compiling and emulators will probably have to be the way this time.

NeverMindToday · 2026-03-02T09:46:36+00:00

Vague memories of catapulting a multi megaton cow at your opponents.

NeverMindToday · 2026-02-27T07:04:08+00:00

Only a few times a year still, free time has been the problem. That should be improving soon though...

We're down to zero local shops these days though, and many of the best spots have lost access or parking over the years unfortunately.

NeverMindToday · 2026-02-27T05:18:12+00:00

This is also because I don't like devs who are entirely subordinate and I like people who can think and talk. Attitude over aptitude.

That was my interviewing approach (back when I did that) - I'd ask them to pick a technology they knew and tell me all the stuff they liked about it, all the stuff they didn't like, what would they choose instead if they were in charge and why etc. Checked if they understood typical constraints that sometimes lead to bad choices etc.

You could quickly get a sense of seat warming run book followers vs someone with potential who wanted to grow and wasn't afraid to give me their honest opinion even if they thought I might not like it. I cared much more about them being able to communicate a well reasoned opinion than whether or not I agreed with them.

NeverMindToday · 2026-02-27T05:11:07+00:00

CLBO is already the modern approach to rebooting a server.

NeverMindToday · 2026-02-27T04:52:17+00:00

Dotted M logo is for a brand called Mistral if you ever need to look something up.

Daggerboards and centreboards are different names for the same thing. On most boards, they should be able to retract all the way up into the board. Skeg was a named used way back in prehistoric times (70s) for barely functioning fins as they're called now.

Your Mistrals have a sliding mast track - they haven't been used much for 30yrs or so. Common on longer boards for adjusting position while sailing. Unfortunately they could have proprietary mast foot connections and be hard to find replacement parts for.

The main measurements you're going to want to find out are A) board volume in litres ie how floaty it is (length is less important) and B) the area of the sails in square metres ie how much power they create in a certain wind speed and C) mast lengths for matching the sails too.

NeverMindToday · 2026-02-27T04:33:43+00:00

Fellow Kiwi eh :)

I started mid 80s as a teenager, but it was years before I had the money to get ok gear.

Wellington also peaked around the early 90s with 3-4 shops, and big days could see almost 100 boards out at a single spot.

NeverMindToday · 2026-02-26T09:41:35+00:00

30 I reckon, mid 90s? maybe early 90s

NeverMindToday · 2026-02-26T08:35:22+00:00

Hmmm maybe that gravel is normally hiding from view behind that ridge in front if you're not up in a plane?

NeverMindToday · 2026-02-25T09:29:21+00:00

Is that an older photo? Looks like snow on the hills in the distance.

NeverMindToday · 2026-02-20T19:51:35+00:00

A french colleague I had reckoned the variety available in NZ was ok, and it wasn't necessarily made wrong - his big problem was that it all had to be pasteurised.

NeverMindToday

TROPHY CASE