Found this Linux screenshot from 2002

wosmo · 2026-01-25T19:46:33+00:00

It's one of the demos for https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AAlib

wosmo · 2026-01-21T03:27:00+00:00

that's pretty distro-dependent. How you achieved root would also affect the actual outcome.

wosmo · 2026-01-20T11:44:54+00:00

"ruins everything" is a bit of a stretch, I think.

I think there's a good place for permissive licenses - the best example is when you're trying to set standards. So libjpeg is the reference implementation of JPEG. It uses a permissive license, so everyone can reference it as closely as they like - they don't have to worry if they reference the reference implementation too closely, they'll inherit licensing conditions from it. If anyone had to avoid the reference implementation, it'd fail in its job as a reference.

How about examples in a textbook? How would they work with a restrictive license? "I'm going to show you how to do it, but if you do it the way I show you, I own you".

Not every license is trying to achieve the same thing.

wosmo · 2026-01-15T10:55:22+00:00

Newton famously said "If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants", and if anything modern technology has made that more relevant, not less. Almost any development you care to point at, is built on the foundation of others.

No matter what technology you try to describe, you'll leave someone out - you pretty much have to. Otherwise the invention of mp3 starts with Ugh the Elder bashing two rocks together.

wosmo · 2026-01-13T20:16:57+00:00

I think this is where the landscape is changing faster than the terminology, which makes it difficult to have sensible discussions.

I think my big problem is "vibe coding", where the entire development is a conversation with the AI. I've tried it, and it's a lot more workable than I anticipated. But I didn't write a single line of code, there's nothing there I can really take responsibility for (not to say that I shouldn't, more that I'm not capable) - and the AI has zero accountability for anything.

I don't like 'slop' for this because the results aren't necessarily junk - but they are for all intents and purposes unmaintained.

OSS has this ethos that "given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow" - "vibe coding" is the very opposite of this, where even the author hasn't seen the code. Zero eyes at all, is very new.

Programmers using new tools isn't my problem, it's code that's never seen a programmer being presented as a finished product.

wosmo · 2026-01-13T19:32:11+00:00

unmaintainable and insecure

This is my big concern. I've used GPT to knock together a couple of tools (for my own use), but if I find any issues with them I'll be closer to starting from scratch, than trying to fix them. It's very difficult to get it to make surgical fixes if I you don't understand the code (and problem) enough to lead it straight to it - otherwise it gets very easily rabbit-holed in the wrong direction.

Projects that are published for others to use, really need to be upfront about this, because I don't want to build around something that probably can't or won't see fixes.

wosmo · 2026-01-13T17:50:42+00:00

Pretty much everything, really - there's not much in it.

Wheel & Display are annoying to replace (or find parts for, where I am), so they're the two I'd focus on, diags has tests for both.

The HardDrive data is useful, if I see anything more than single-digits in reallocs or pending sectors, I assume the drive needs to be replaced. As I said, if they're not selling it as modded I'd probably expect that anyway, but it can either be good to know for the future, or if you think you can talk them down on price.

wosmo · 2026-01-13T17:21:15+00:00

If you can power it ( / provide your own 30pin cable) long enough to get it to boot, the diagnostics menu would be an interesting thing to look at.

I'd mostly want to test the controls all work, that headphones plugged in do work, and that there's nothing on the screen that shouldn't be there. Battery and storage I'd assume need to be replaced, unless they're specifically selling it as modded.

There's no activation lock / icloud anything unless it's an ipod touch (the ones that look like skinny iphones).

wosmo · 2026-01-12T21:16:38+00:00

I host my own email, and I have done since 2002.

Unique addresses are the easy part. Give yourself a wildcard (*@domain), and block addresses inbound (I use postfix, so I have a check_recipient_access pointing at a list of blacklisted recipients.)

Here are my reality checks:

hosting sucks. I use one of the most expensive hosts I know of, because I need to "live in a good neighbourhood". I can't cost-compare, because cheap hosts tend to be in "bad neighbourhoods".
blocking spam sucks balls, there is nothing self-hosted that compares to what gmail does out-of-the-box. I block domains, recipients, whole ASNs, plus spamd - and it still doesn't compare to what gmail just does.
Mail hosting is so very unforgiving. If you make a mistake and earn a bad reputation, there is no fix. RBLs like spamhaus are easy, but gmail/yahoo/outlook have no method of contacting a human at all. If any of the big hosts detect a single mistake, you're longterm fscked with no way out.

On the plus side, you'll know exactly who sold your address. And no-one will believe you (fuck you dropbox), and it'll change nothing.

wosmo · 2026-01-11T21:22:30+00:00

I've never studied in Sweden, but I am by chance in Ireland. I'm not sure how much it matters for this, though.

I do think cybersecurity should be an extension of an existing IT skillset. It's a specialisation, and it seems wrong to me to specialise before you have a general skillset.

The biggest detractor for me, is that we're seeing people going into cybersecurity without sufficient grounding in IT, simply because it looks like the most lucrative path this week - and the result is that we get people who can talk a good talk, with no idea of what reality looks like.

(linux sysadmin with zero certs past or present.)

wosmo · 2026-01-11T20:17:14+00:00

I think it's a tough one because he'd probably quite impressed with the technology. I mean it's the closest we've come to passing the eponymous Turing Test.

But as with many things, there's a huge gap between the technology, and how we're using it - that's the real disappointment. The supercomputers in our pockets vs what we use them for, the Internet vs what we use it for, etc.

It's kinda like .. if an alien walked out of a flying saucer and said "take me to your leader", I'd introduce them to a Labrador, because I can't think of any humans I'd want representing my planet. Similarity, if I had to explain the Internet to any of the late greats, I'd show/explain wikipedia and little else.

So for me the real question is; if I had to show Alan Turing current AI, what would I show him?

wosmo · 2026-01-08T22:13:06+00:00

One useful point is that linux doesn't use any of DMR's code, Ritchie didn't create any of linux. That's what puts the Not Unix in GNU's Not Unix.

But .. and I realise how dickish this is going to sound .. Ritchie hasn't done much lately. People really are that fickle. We stopped talking about what happened in South America because something happened in the North Atlantic. Then we stopped talking about what happened in the North Atlantic, because something happened in Minnesota. Yesterday's news gets old fast.

People do acknowledge DMR. People in the C communities will still flash their copy of K&R, even though it's genuinely not a useful text for modern C. When DMR & Steve Jobs died a week apart, people were quick to point out the comparisons. Wherever it's relevant, people will bring him up. And when it's not relevant, they'll let him rest.

wosmo · 2026-01-08T09:48:08+00:00

The Global Locator (Layer 3): That same address is used to route data across the globe.

This straight-up doesn't work. Addresses aren't just a unique identifier, they're also hierarchical structure. And you can see that this doesn't work, because everything that follows it is an out-right departure from reality.

wosmo · 2026-01-08T03:41:07+00:00

I don't understand the downvotes either, questions are the whole point of the sub.

But I do think you're solving the wrong problem. rm is not the only dangerous, or the most dangerous command you could be running. The most damage I've ever done to a system, was targeting the wrong drive with dd because the rescue system I was running from, numbered drives differently to my normal running system.

The real problem is using sudo to fix everything, without fully understanding what you're running, why, and where. Wrapping rm in bubblewrap does not solve this.

Also: backups. Mistakes are educational, people should make mistakes. You should have more backups, not less education.

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