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Such a pain in the sas
  • Did pretty much the same with a new server recently - spent ages debugging why it didn't find the SAS disks. Turns out, disks like to have power connected, and no amount of debugging on software level will help you.

  • Why we don't have 128-bit CPUs
  • You still had a 4GB memory limit for processes, as well as a total memory limit of 64GB. Especially the first one was a problem for Java apps before AMD introduced 64bit extensions and a reason to use Sun servers for that.

  • What tool do you use to display your self-hosting infrastructure
  • I was referring to work setups with the overengineering - if I had a cent for every time I had to argue with somebody at work to not make things more complex than we actually need I'd have retired a long time ago.

  • What tool do you use to display your self-hosting infrastructure
  • Unless you are gunning for a job in infrastructure you don’t need to go into kubernetes or terraform or anything like that,

    Even then knowing when not to use k8s or similar things is often more valuable than having deep knowledge of those - a lot of stuff where I see k8s or similar stuff used doesn't have the uptime requirements to warrant the complexity. If I have something that just should be up during working hours, and have reliable monitoring plus the ability to re-deploy it via ansible within 10 minutes if it goes poof maybe putting a few additional layers that can blow up in between isn't the best idea.

  • What tool do you use to display your self-hosting infrastructure
  • Everything is deployed via ansible - including nameservices. So I already have the description of my infra in ansible, and rest is just a matter of writing scripts to pull it in a more readable form, and maybe add a few comment labels that also get extracted for easily forgettable admin URLs.

  • Old timers know
  • Shitty companies did it like that back then - and shitty companies still don't properly utilize what easy tools they have available for controlled deployment nowayads. So nothing really changed, just that the amount of people (and with that, amount of morons) skyrocketed.

    I had automated builds out of CVS with deployment to staging, and option to deploy to production after tests over 15 years ago.

  • Beware PowerShell: Too-helpful users tricked into ‘fixing’ their machines with malware
  • Accessing powershell is not the issue - that Windows is broken, with a sprinkle of bad permission management by corporations using it is the issue. And the bad permission practices are a direct result of how broken Windows is - I tried a while ago to use it with a fully unprivileged user, just like I do for decades on UNIX and now Linux. It pretty much is impossible without privilege elevation prompts every few minutes.

    In a proper environment a user should be able to destroy data they're working with - but not have the ability to alter the operating system.

  • The US healthcare system is broken...
  • Meanwhile over in Europe - went to the doctor in spring as a cough didn't go away for ages. As suspected nothing he could do much - irritated throat, and just at the time when cold season was giving way for allergy season. So he prescribed some nose spray - and asked if he should also add some antihistamine to the prescription to save me a few eur (didn't check, but it probably is single digits. That stuff is cheap)

  • Menschen erklären im NDR, dass sie wieder Stolz auf Deutschland sein wollen.
  • Der Titel war explizit "Stolz auf Deutschland" - und das waere ich in dem Fall. Stolz Deutscher zu sein eher nicht - wobei ich denke dass das am ehesten auf jemand zutreffen sollte der den Einbuergerungstest geschafft hat.

  • Menschen erklären im NDR, dass sie wieder Stolz auf Deutschland sein wollen.
  • Ich denke es gibt durchaus Situationen wo man Stolz auf sein Land sein darf. Fuer mich waere die Messlatte grob dass wir es schaffen dass jeder Einwohner die Mittel und Moeglichkeiten hat ein menschenwuerdiges Leben zu fuehren, ohne Gaengelung durch irgendwelche Aemter. Obdachlose haben die Moeglichkeit ohne Vorbedingungen in eine Wohnung vermittelt zu werden. Jedes Kind sollte die gleichen Bildungschancen haben - dazu wuerde eine bundesweite Verpflichtung zur Lernmittelfreiheit (was auch durch die Schule gestellte Computer enthalten muss) gehoeren. Kostenloses Mittagessen in der Schule waere auch nicht schlecht. Und gerade in den unteren Klassen Zusatzfoerderung im Klassenverband fuer Kinder die Probleme haben, und nicht der Versuch direkt auf andere Schulformen abzuschieben. Zumindest fuers Erststudium/Erstausbildung dann BAfoeG ersetzen durch kostenlose Studentenwohnung und genug Foerderung dass man nicht noch was zuverdienen muss.

    (Und bevor mir jetzt jemand mit "aber sowas ist unrealistisch" kommt - obiges ist grob der aktuelle Stand hier in Finnland. Wie weit weg davon Deutschland aktuell ist ist definitiv kein Grund um Stolz zu sein)

  • Warum die Suche nach Atommüll-Lagern so lange dauert
  • Kein wirklich grosses Problem. Hier in Finnland haben wir ein Endlager im Betrieb - 400m tief in Granit gesprengt, das ist geologisch extrem stabil. Faesser werden in einzelnen Loechern mit mehreren Layern zur Sicherheit gelagert, und am Ende werden die Zugangstunnel bis an die Oberflaeche zubetoniert. Falls das spaeter ueberhaupt jemand finden sollte - ohne ordentliches Werkzeug kommt da niemand rein, und eine Zivilisation die das hat duerfte auch die Gefahr erkennen.

  • Remember when it was a big deal if you chose .zip, .rar, or 7z, etc? Now we all have so much bandwidth it doesn't matter.
  • I personally prefer bzip2 - but it needs to be packed with pbzip, not the regular bzip to generate archives that can be extracted on multiple cores. Not a good option if you have to think about Windows users, though.

  • Remember when it was a big deal if you chose .zip, .rar, or 7z, etc? Now we all have so much bandwidth it doesn't matter.
  • Nowadays it matters if you use a compression algorithm that can utilize multiple cores for packing/unpacking larger data. For a multiple GB archive that can be the difference between "I'll grab a coffee until this is ready" or "I'll go for lunch and hope it is done when I come back"

  • Bildungsforscher ziehen Bilanz: Fast alle schulpolitischen Maßnahmen seit dem ersten PISA-Schock sind – gescheitert
  • Deutschland braucht endlich von Bundesebene vorgeschriebene komplette Lernmittelfreiheit. Geht aber vermutlich nicht weil dann der Buchhandel leidet, oder so.

    Meine Kinder sind in Finnland in der Schule - und ich hoere die Geschichten von Freuden aus Deutchland. Das ist jetzt noch schlimmer als zu meiner Schulzeit. Bloedsinn wie 'jedes Kind bringt pro Schuljahr einen Pack Kopierpapier mit'

  • Windows feature that screenshots everything labeled a security “disaster”
  • As a non-Windows-user I see that as a good thing. LLMs are not going away - but that kind of nonsense at least will make sure all PCs will eventually have cheap and reasonably fast AI acceleration. Which is required for killing off centrally hosted LLMs (plus nvidias cash grabbing)

  • How often do you lubricate the linear guides?
  • Currently my mk4 is printing pretty much 24/7 with IS profiles. I'm applying some lubricant roughly once per week - sometimes I notice the printer starts making strange noises, mostly I notice when rods have zero residue between prints, and just add a bit.

  • Was geht eigentlich auf Reddit mit den ganzen Atomkraft-Fans ab?
  • Ich hatte da frueher auch oefter mal die Diskussionen - das sind Leute die Atomkraft innerhalb einer idealen Umgebung sehen, wo es tatsaechlich bis vor kurzem noch eine gute Option gewesen waere, aber ausblenden dass ein alter Tischler die Laender in denen das halbwegs sauber gehandhabt wird an einer Hand abzehlen kann.

    Ich selber lebe seit langem in Finnland - Atomkraft hier sehe ich komplett unproblematisch, zumindest den Bestand. Neubau macht jetzt denke ich auch keinen Sinn mehr, und ich denke das haben die Verantwortlichen mit dem neulich ans Netz gegangenen Reaktor (nach massiven Verzoegerungen und Kostensteigerungen) auch kapiert. Aber: Die Gegend hier ist geologisch extrem stabil, und das Endlagerproblem ist ordentlich geloest.

    Fuer Deutschland sehe ich dagegen Atomkraft als unmachbar an - da bekommt man nicht mal ne Stromtrasse Nord-Sued hin, Endlagerversuche wurden mehrmals verkackt, politische Situation ist allgemein eine Katastrophe mit einem Misch aus NIMBY und Korruption.

  • Intel’s Anti-Upgrade Tricks Defeated With Kapton Tape
  • Intel is well known for requiring a new board for each new CPU generation, even if it is the same socket. AMD on the other hand is known to push stuff to its physical limits before they break compatibility.

  • 25 Years of Krita!
  • Had to look that lawyer bit up as it just sounded too much like Gravenreuth - and indeed it was.

  • Deutschlandwochen in Lidl Finnland

    Vor ein paar Tagen gabs hier ein Post zu Deutschlandwochen im Lidl in Italien, wo einer aus Schweden und ich mich ueber das Layout gewundert haben.

    Jetzt sind auch hier Deutschlandwochen - und anscheinend wurde generell das Packungslayout geaendert - frueher war das alles "Alpenfest", jetzt "taste of deutschland".

    Einige Produkte haben sich auch geaendert - z.b. waren die Apfel/Kirsch/Pflaumenkuchen frueher grosse runde Kuchen, jetzt sinds mehrere Teile.

    Und Maultaschen sind wieder nicht dabei.

    ! !

    19
    A futuristic city

    This is OpenDalle with img2img to make an existing picture into a futuristic city.

    I took this picture at work a while ago, and it reminded me of cities with brutalist architecture we see in movies now and then, so I tried to get it made into one:

    !

    Other interesting attempts:

    ! !

    Forcing it to stay closer to the source made things look more like a highschool cardboard model:

    ! !

    0
    IT security EDC bag

    I've finally found a bag which nicely fits almost everything I want to carry every day, and alos makes everything easily accessible - it is about the same size as what I used to carry, but now I no longer need to dump everything out to find what I neede, even with some lose parts still in there.

    Contents:

    Center:

    • 4 empty 64 microSD with SD adapter
    • one rpi 2040 with USB-A interface
    • headphones
    • bag of female jumper cables, with male-male adapters
    • a collection of the most used NFC keyfobs

    Left side:

    • USB-C cable with attached USB-A adapter (USB3, missing on picture)
    • two USB-C to headphone adapters
    • satechi USB-C power meter
    • headphone splitter
    • USB-C to SATA adapter
    • USB-C smartcart reader
    • VGA to HDMI
    • USB Ninja (USB-C)
    • proxmark3 with battery/bt
    • collection of NFC magic cards

    Right side:

    • USB-C hub with charging port
    • miniDP to HDMI
    • small USB-C dock
    • USB-C to whatever adapters (mini, micro, B, HDMI, ..)
    • Chameleon ultra
    • MPP pen
    • Ninja USB remote
    • USB-C to serial, connected via jumper cables

    !

    !

    21
    Import environment variables into Emacs from a shell or similar 'source of truth'
    github.com GitHub - bwachter/system-environment: Import variables into emacs from the system environment

    Import variables into emacs from the system environment - GitHub - bwachter/system-environment: Import variables into emacs from the system environment

    GitHub - bwachter/system-environment: Import variables into emacs from the system environment

    I recently had to add a Mac to my zoo of hardware I'm trying to do productive work on - which prompted me to clean up and document my environment variable importer, which had grown to platform specific functions with lots of code duplication.

    On both Windows and MacOS I have properly configured shells with all relevant variables - so it makes sense to query them, instead of duplicating the logic how they create that configuration into Emacs.

    On Linux that'd have worked too, but I also have the relevant variables in the systemd user session, and querying that is a tiny bit faster than launching a shell.

    2
    What's a skill that's taken for granted where you live, but is often missing in people moving there from abroad?

    I was thinking about that when I was dropping my 6 year old off at some hobbies earlier - it's pretty much expected to have learned how to ride a bicycle before starting school, and it massively expands the area you can go to by yourself. When she went to school by bicycle she can easily make a detour via a shop to spend some pocket money before coming home, while by foot that'd be rather time consuming.

    Quite a lot of friends from outside of Europe either can't ride a bicycle, or were learning it as adult after moving here, though.

    edit: the high number of replies mentioning "swimming" made me realize that I had that filed as a basic skill pretty much everybody has - probably due to swimming lessons being a mandatory part of school education here.

    498
    Functional 3D Printing @kbin.social aard @kyu.de
    Cover for old beam central vacuum sockets

    My kids broke the flap on one of our sockets, so I had to look into getting them replaced.

    Initially I tried to make them clip on to avoid having to remove the complete socket for future replacements, but that ended up either weakening the hinges too much, or making it impossible to attach it with the spring in the right position.

    The gasket and O-ring are donated from the original flap:

    !

    The original flap and the first test prints to check if I got the dimensions right:

    !

    The whole thing is over on printables

    1
    Emacs keybindings addon for Firefox

    I'm currently in the process of taking over as maintainer for the emacs-keybindings addon for Firefox.

    I've just published the first update in years, with changes including:

    • tested on Windows and Linux now
    • some functionality is now configurable: debug logging, custom new tab page, experimental features, modifier-less high level bindings
    • all keybindings are listed in the options settings page
    • M- keybindings are now also reachable via ESC
    • M-< and M-> was added for scrolling to top/bottom
    • introducing prefix key, currently only used for opening/closing of windows (C-u C-x C-f or C-u C-k)
    • search is introduced as experimental feature - currently it just highlights all matches
    • the extension now registers as browser action in preparation for additional features

    Unfortunately a lot of things that used to work with the old XUL plugins few years back just don't work with the new APIs - and Firefox developers have been sitting on relevant bugs for 8 years or more without anything happening now - so this is probably close to the best we can have for now. In combination with setting editing keybindings either via Gnome settings or AHK it makes browsing almost bearable again.

    8
    Excluding elements from search results when using find.find

    On the off chance somebody here is familiar with this API: I've spent some time trying to make using browsers somewhat bearable, and tried - with limited success - to re-implement search using find.find, with the search input in a HTML dialog.

    The problem with this approach is that the search query itself is treated as part of the results:

    !

    So far I haven't seen a way to have that excluded. Does anybody have ideas outside of "throw this away and reimplement with JavaScript"?

    The code is here

    0
    aard aard @kyu.de
    Posts 9
    Comments 531