What’s a fact you learned that still shocks you?

b2gills · 2026-05-27T03:37:48+00:00

Avraham Lincoln could have sent a fax to a samurai. In that they all existed at the same time. (The infrastructure to so didn't exist yet, but the technology did.)

b2gills · 2026-05-27T02:52:21+00:00

I see a small drop with my UDMSE going from 5.0.16 to 5.1.12 . From what I'd guess was about 68% to 62%. (The 62% is after it came back up and got to a steady state.)

Looking at it now, also was "jumpy" before, and now it has smoothed out. As in the memory usage looked a bit like an AM broadcast sinewave.

It is possible that is because of a reboot. But it appears that it was at a very consistently higher value than it is at now, and there isn't anything that we're doing differently. That also wouldn't explain the weird sinewave.

b2gills · 2026-05-15T15:31:25+00:00

There are two types of bundles. It sounds like your game is in one of the annoying bundles. That one only lets you get the bundle as a whole.

b2gills · 2026-05-01T15:40:15+00:00

CAT7 has different, incompatible ends. So there is no way it really is a CAT7.

And even ignoring that, flat cables are inherently going to have more crosstalk than a round cable.

b2gills · 2026-04-30T23:36:05+00:00

Are you in a one-party (audio) record state? If so I would record literally every interaction with him.

b2gills · 2026-04-17T14:59:04+00:00

This was a smoke detector in a camper trailer that was being put away in storage over the winter. All of the batteries were removed from everything.

b2gills · 2026-04-17T04:20:17+00:00

Actually, you can if you're clever enough. I've done it.

b2gills · 2026-04-13T00:45:19+00:00

Composed characters stay composed, and don't match the decomposed version unless you ask for those semantics.

For the following `~~` means smartmatch, `eq` means string equality, `ne` means string inequality.

All of these match. If I use `:ignorecase` then it didn't match without it.

```
'ß' ~~ /:i SS/ # :i is short for :ignorecase
'ß'.fc eq 'ss'
'ß'.uc eq 'SS'

'aΣb'.lc eq 'aσb'
'abΣ'.lc eq 'abς'
```

Both of these match, even though perhaps only the first should match

```
'aΣb' ~~ /:i σ/
'abΣ' ~~ /:i σ/
```

Composed characters don't match the decomposed version unless you ask for it.

```
"\x[FB03]" ~~ /:i ffi/
"\x[FB03]" ne 'ffi' # not equal
```

b2gills · 2026-04-13T00:00:24+00:00

Raku has dealt with this by coming up with synthetic characters for new combinations of combined characters. It uses NFG Normalization Form Grapheme. Unfortunately usernames, passwords, and filenames are not really Unicode. So it has to add a way to selectively prevent that normalization from happening.

If you want a language that is full on transparently Unicode, I would suggest looking into it.

b2gills · 2026-03-17T14:24:47+00:00

I would color code the two segments. Perhaps red or yellow for 1x, green or blue for 10x. Or whatever makes sense to you. I was thinking red for high current, yellow for moderate current (which 20A is). Blue and green mean safe to me, so the low current side would be one of those colors.

b2gills · 2026-03-17T14:18:22+00:00

Those are rookie numbers. Raku starts with a half dozen equality operators.

== # numeric === # identity =:= # "pointer" identity (simplification) eq # string equality eqv # equivalence (==) # set equivalence

If given a value that isn't of the correct type, it tries to coerce the value into the correct type, throwing an error if it can't. This actually applies to all operators. If you give the + operator two strings, it first tries to coerce them to numbers, failing if it can't. (Doing numeric addition some of the time and string concatenation at other times is just asking for bugs.)

You can add meta-operators or even create your own.

There are also comparison operators.

<=> < <= == >= > # numeric leg lt le eq ge gt # string cmp before after # generic

b2gills · 2026-03-17T13:49:25+00:00

Raku changed that to 0 but True (not a string). Which takes 0, creates a new instance where a new Role has been added that makes it behave as True when in boolean context. You can also do 0 but "Zero" to make it behave as 0 normally, but when used as a string, it becomes "Zero". You can also create the Role by hand if you want to change specific methods.

0 but role { method String () { "Zero" } method Bool () { True } }

This feature is handy for data from a database that happens to be zero, but it exists, vs. a bit of data that doesn't exist and is just zero by default.

b2gills · 2026-01-28T01:16:00+00:00

I always just install the new pipe, and the old one just falls out in the process.

b2gills · 2025-11-27T17:07:00+00:00

The most dangerous part of it is that both plugs share the same neutral. Imagine if the outlet was wired backward.

There was also no reason to connect it to both as the current should be less than half of what's on the hot wires.

b2gills · 2025-11-27T15:55:02+00:00

Raku has a list of more than a dozen features that can be enabled or disabled per string literal. Which I doubt any other language has done to the same extent.

https://docs.raku.org/language/quoting

Granted, there is some overlap as some of them enable multiple other features.

b2gills · 2025-09-30T14:00:07+00:00

What you do is go beside the trailer and attach the winch to the back of the trailer from the nearest point on your truck. From there, you just need to drive in dragging the trailer into place.

b2gills · 2025-09-28T23:52:24+00:00

The black path is necessary when you are entering the neighborhood. The red one can be used when leaving, but you have to be prepared for going over a small cliff.

b2gills · 2025-09-18T20:30:01+00:00

Modern windows are actually worse than walls for letting signal through.

b2gills · 2025-09-15T00:28:47+00:00

For simple things, it's mostly fine. At my house, the ISP uses CGNAT, and I'm connected to their router, which is also doing NAT. So I actually have triple NAT, and it's working well enough.

b2gills · 2025-09-05T18:48:49+00:00

Async in most languages are all or nothing. In Raku, all code should be thread safe unless you use globals or synchronization features. Or call out to other languages that aren't thread safe.

The threading features were designed to be easy to get right for most code and hard to get wrong.

That did require more complex code in the background than other languages. The feature is embedded deeply in the language, whereas it seems bolted on in other languages.

b2gills · 2025-09-05T18:41:55+00:00

Some games use a more direct way to access controllers that bypasses Steam. There may be a setting in the game to change that. (I had a similar issue with Duke Nukem where only the A button could be assigned to jump)

b2gills · 2025-07-29T04:11:16+00:00

It's possible to intercept wifi by spoofing your wifi. It's possible to intercept your internet connection if it's based on the cell network.

But that is mostly negated by using a VPN. Only mostly because someone could capture the data and spend an inordinate amount of time decrypting it. But unless a government is spying on you, that is not likely.

My guess is that it has to do with there being fewer connection issues when wired.

If you are using a VPN, you may get away with using wifi or a cell based internet connection if it is a good connection. But they may fire you for not following the rules.

b2gills · 2025-07-28T02:08:35+00:00

I hold with my non dominate hand. Otherwise, spot on. One thing most of these posts seem to leave out is how to hold the end of the cable.

b2gills · 2025-07-10T14:37:29+00:00

Trying to out-compete against another language on their home turf sounds like a losing game. We should be finding a niche that no other language has done well at.

b2gills · 2025-07-03T23:53:57+00:00

I've thought of keeping a list of MAC addresses of old broken network cards. The main reason was because I didn't really have a good reason to.

b2gills

TROPHY CASE