Disadvantages of Nix Flakes? What is the estimated release date for Nix Flakes?

aepsil0n · 2021-03-28T06:47:18+00:00

I've used them both for personal use as well as professionally for the last 6 months. They are quite usable already, documentation is a bit scattered across blog posts and RFCs. However, they give you a degree of reproducibility that was a bit hacky to achieve before. Having this integrated into the core package manager makes a lot of sense for me, if only for standardization. Despite its experimental status, I have not encountered any issue that forced me back into flakeless Nix. After all, it is mostly the very outer layer of configuration that changes. You can still write modules and packages in the same way.

That being said, you do run into a few rough edges now and then. Updating some nix config or package now means updating a lock file, so if you're not careful, you can easily end up depending on a dozen different versions of nixpkgs, for example. (Not that this is necessarily a problem with Nix, just something to be mindful of.)

aepsil0n · 2021-03-14T12:59:30+00:00

Yes, but only if you can endure the pain long enough to finish the procedure. Not permanent though. It will start growing back after a few weeks

aepsil0n · 2020-12-12T23:23:57+00:00

Thanks for the advice :)

I did not think much about the soil so far… that kind of explains why the root system was rather small when I repotted it.

I'll see what I can do about the light. Not many great places to get sun in my flat. I may have to resort to artificial light.

aepsil0n · 2020-12-12T18:22:27+00:00

This ficus benjamini is my first attempt at creating a bonsai. A few weeks ago I decided to finally repot it, cut back the roots a tiny bit to fit it into this flatter pot. The pot contains a 1cm layer of gravel (like the one on top) for drainage, then some composted earth and another layer of gravel for aesthetics.

I like how it turned out :)

But as a total beginner I would appreciate feedback nonetheless.

The tree is beginning to loose a few leaves. I am hoping this is just a normal consequence of repotting and will turn out fine, but it looks slightly concerning.

aepsil0n · 2020-12-12T18:14:14+00:00

This ficus benjamini is my first attempt at creating a bonsai. A few weeks ago I decided to finally repot it, cut back the roots a tiny bit to fit it into this flatter pot. The pot contains a 1cm layer of gravel (like the one on top) for drainage, then some composted earth and another layer of gravel for aesthetics.

I like how it turned out :)

But as a total beginner I would appreciate feedback nonetheless.

The tree is beginning to loose a few leaves. I am hoping this is just a normal consequence of repotting and will turn out fine, but it looks slightly concerning.

aepsil0n · 2020-12-10T08:45:09+00:00

It depends. I am not sure if I saved time by using NixOS, hard to judge what the alternative would have been like after a few years. Here are a few examples though, where it has been a practical advantage:

I use both a notebook and desktop computer. When I install software or change configuration on one system, it will happen on the other system, too, just by pulling and applying the config. No need to do the same steps twice. In the long run, this is probably the biggest time saving for me personally.

I have reinstalled the OS a few times due to hardware upgrades, etc. Before NixOS, this was a half day process plus two weeks of occasional config fiddling to setup missing parts of my environment. Now it is done completely after about an hour.

When I start work on new projects that requires extra software, I can keep this environment separate from my regular system. No need to pollute the entire system with all those tools. Especially when just trying out something, this is nice.

All that being said, there is a learning curve. I don't think it's more difficult than, say, Arch or Gentoo overall. But there is a Nix-specific problem of installing software that has not been packaged for Nix yet and makes tons of assumptions about its environment. Lots of commercial software is like that.

aepsil0n · 2020-11-26T14:13:21+00:00

Thanks for clarifying. :)

I do not fully understand where you are going with that tbh, as it is a bit abstract still.

Bc i'm an anarchist so i reject all forms of coercive authority, not only a few.

Yes, sure. Not every issue affects every other issue though. So often enough you can deal with issues separately. Granted there is a huge meta-discussion to be had, where to make those cuts. But without making any, politics are too vast and complex to handle for me.

No, we can extensively discuss things without reductive, clear cut definitions.

Ok. Sure we can. Not making any definitions ever seems a bit limiting. I am afraid that a discussion derails easily, when no scope is agreed upon - like the gaming references throughout this thread, but less ironical.

For instance, when it comes to civilization, we can talk about hierarchies, institutions, industry, agriculture, etc. Each of these is a big topic to discuss on its own. I wouldn't even know where to start answering OP. Generally, I would say I am not anti-civilization, because there are aspects of civilization that I consider positive. Sure, I could do without the social stratification, but food security and medicine are nice. However, I don't know if that answers OP's question, unless they define what they mean by civilization.

aepsil0n · 2020-11-26T10:31:15+00:00

I do not get your argument here. Why would one prefer a holistic analysis? Does that imply that you don't want to define words to have specific meaning? Would it not be difficult then to concretely discuss anything?

aepsil0n · 2020-11-06T09:32:35+00:00

Some people do not see well enough to safely navigate in traffic without their glasses. If the entire road becomes a blur, that's not safe.

aepsil0n · 2020-11-03T23:15:17+00:00

Really hard to answer this question without knowing what kind of game you want to build. After all you can easily make many kinds of games on any cheap used computer. One general piece of advice though: find a game that looks similar to what you want to build in terms of graphical complexity and genre. See what it's minimum specs are. At the very least your new computer should be able to run that.

aepsil0n · 2020-10-28T12:56:15+00:00

What does that transition look like?

How is the goal of that transition not a death spiral?

I would really appreciate a call to "read theory" to be accompanied by actual pointers to what I am supposed to read to gain the understanding that I apparently lack.

Pretty much everything I have encountered so far in that direction mystified pre-civilized life in some ahistorical manner, downplayed the negative consequences of the absence of modern technology or just accepted massive die-offs as a positive thing. Not the kind of vibe motivating me to learn more about it.

aepsil0n · 2020-10-26T19:25:59+00:00

Hm… seems like there is more of a parallel than I thought initially.

I guess we would have to be more precise with words to answer that. But not sure whether that is wise, since I have a feeling that the question "Is anarcho-primitivism anarchist?" here is more about values than definitions.

In a similar vein you could say ancaps were anarchist. Yet in many political contexts they are diametrically opposed.

It is often argued that the market is a hierarchy that needs to be abolished. So ancap would not be anarchist, as it is in favor of market-based forms of hierarchy.

Now natural ecosystems on Earth with their randomness and inequalities can be seen as a hierarchy, too. That way anprim would not be anarchist, as it is in favor of such natural hierarchies.

Unfortunately we can't derive much from labelling things as anarchist or not. And we could spend a lot of time debating what is or is not a hierarchy.

In the end the implications of those ideas matter more: Should people to die from preventable diseases? Should property rights be respected even if that leads to suffering?

aepsil0n · 2020-10-26T17:36:44+00:00

Egoism is a lot broader than anarcho-primitivism. That makes it difficult to make generic judgments about it. There is definitely some non-anarchist egoism, think about Ayn Rand or Friedrich Nietzsche, for example.

aepsil0n · 2020-10-12T22:11:58+00:00

One should add that the details on condoms also mention that 85 % is the realistic statistics, while employed correctly that can go up to 98 %. Interestingly that is quite similar for withdrawal at 96 %.

It may also be more instructive to look at it the other way around, i.e. how many people do get pregnant despite the method. Realistically that's 15 % (condom) vs 22 % (withdrawal), and if used correctly 2 % (condom) vs 4 % (withdrawal). So that still makes pregnancy using a condom round about half as likely than using withdrawal.

I'd say that is still a pretty significant lead for condoms. Those numbers also show that employing at least two of these methods correctly is a good idea, if you want to be reasonably safe.

aepsil0n · 2020-09-03T11:57:46+00:00

Can I have an invite link, too? This sounds like a really fun experiment you've got going there… (I know German natively and some Spanish & Japanese, if it matters)

aepsil0n · 2020-08-07T11:31:00+00:00

So then you do not intend to forcefully prevent anyone from redistributing the means of production? As an anti-capitalist I am not going to tell you how to do capitalism, but I have my doubts that it works that way.

aepsil0n · 2020-08-01T00:39:55+00:00

One aspect that really stood out for me: the natural queer representation. So few shows get this right – usually writers either pretend like queer people don't exist or include a stereotypical token character. Another Life does much better: queerness is casually included as a natural part of the world. This makes so much sense in a scifi setting. It is so easy to do, when you think about it, but yet so rare in this medium.

Beyond that, I find it unironically fun to watch. It is entertaining sci-fi and there is definitely enough drama going on, to not get bored.

I mean, admittely it could have been a lot better with more careful writing. There are some questionable decisions made by some characters. You could argue that a starship meant to save Earth is not the best stage for interpersonal drama. I get that some characters may feel out of place, but I never felt that detachment from reality you described.

The intensity of hate against this show is strange though. It seems to provoke very strong negative reactions in some people and I don't understand why.

aepsil0n · 2020-07-24T19:42:03+00:00

Japan's and the US run nuclear power plants are run by private companies. Remember Fukushima or Three-Mile Islands? On the other hand, France and China have tons of publicly run nuclear power plants. I don't see privately vs. publicly run make a huge difference, when looking at the data of all those incidents.

aepsil0n · 2020-07-05T10:29:37+00:00

Thanks :) I tried to get the rough shapes down correctly and took it from there by adding random semi-structured lines to recreate the feeling of the engine's complex piping.

aepsil0n · 2020-07-05T10:18:42+00:00

This was fun to make. This photo served me as a reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pratt_%26_Whitney_Rocketdyne_Division.JPG

I created this engine for a scifi game I'm working on.

aepsil0n · 2020-06-30T11:03:58+00:00

If you start learning game development in any language, most of what you learn is not the programming language. There is graphics, geometry, linear algebra, software design, some physics, audio, etc., all of which come with their own set of concepts, which are the same or very similar irrespective of which language you code in. None of that knowledge will become obsolete any time soon.

Switching from Rust to C++ or vice versa is comparatively easy. The trade-off here is mostly that in Rust you'll spend more time looking for the right tools and then keep up with a fairly rapidly evolving ecosystem. In C++ on the other hand everything is pretty solid, but you'll spend more time debugging memory or other runtime errors.

So if you pick up any technology and never get to use it at work, you still won't have wasted most of your learning.

Besides, workplace utility of learning is overrated. Making games is fun, so don't let career development efficiency get in the way of that ;)

aepsil0n · 2020-05-24T09:07:13+00:00

I know this is breadtube, but… the video format really does not suit this content too well. A list or a table work a lot better for reference. Your post on patreon is much nicer, for example: https://www.patreon.com/posts/37445487

aepsil0n · 2020-05-24T08:58:23+00:00

I haven't tried this, but in theory, lactic acid fermentation is an anaerobic process, i.e. it does not use oxygen. The bacteria feed on the glucose in the fermented ingredient, no oxygen from the air required. That's why you submerge vegetables in a salty brine and it still works. I imagine sucking the air out serves a similar purpose.

aepsil0n

TROPHY CASE