calcifer @calcifer@hackers.town

Hello H.T

I've recently arrived from the Bauhaus, because you all have built a pretty sweet community here

I'm old, I'm all over the place, I get nerd-sniped on the regular, and I'm very enthusiastic about tech ethics

I like to fiddle with embedded stuff, particularly making stuff out of Arduino and LED pixels. I get cranky when "modern" means "we added complexity for no real reason". I think tech should aim for legibility and serve as a human enhancer; I get cranky when it's used to control or oppress or replace humans

I have no patience for stupid tech holy wars -- all hardware sucks, all software sucks, the documentation is provably incorrect, and the vendors all tell lies

I'm a dad -- so there will be dad jokes. I'm queer and polyam -- so there will occasionally be venting about that. I'm a nerd -- so there will be references and in-jokes aplenty

32-bit ARM processor on flexible substrate. Please let this actually get manufactured and not just stay a PoC; so many hobby uses!

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03625-w

Tom Barrack, Trump friend and chair of Trump's inaugural committee, charged with acting as a foreign agent while in the Trump administration (representing UAE interests)

https://apnews.com/article/barrack-trump-inaugural-uae-030e53361c4e6355baa7c463198a5b0b

I had to explain the differences between prescriptive, proscriptive, and descriptive rules today. And I was surprised how many people had not encountered that before. So:

• prescriptive rules dictate is required;
• proscriptive rules dictate what is forbidden;
• descriptive rules attempt to model existing behaviors.

Breaking pre/pro rules means you'll experience a consequence, either as a natural outcome or imposed upon you

"Breaking" a descriptive rule means the rule is inaccurate

"Oh they're just doing <extreme thing> for attention!"

And? Humans need attention, and if someone is resorting to extremes to get it, they either desperately need it or something is wrong and they need empathy and help.

It's so weird to be "oh, they're just doing it to satisfy a fundamental human need" as if it's so obviously deserving of harsh judgement

Ok, the #ebike is awesome. I haven't been able to run errands on my bike since the knee and back injury, because even moderate hills are painful. Which of course means I've gotten less in shape for riding, making it even harder

I rode 12 miles today, did all but one errand by bike. I didn't think I'd ever be able to do that again!

And while it's not half the workout riding a standard bike is, since it's pedal-assist, it's still a lot more exercise than driving

we have a new Meeple-based game (Dragonrealm), and one of the adventurer Meeple is missing a sword (from the factory—the broken edge is painted)

Me: oh no! He's broken

My kid, scolding: He's a Merson with a disability and a valued adventurer

No, validation team, I didn't set that service up on a higher-numbered port for "security by obscurity"; I did it because that service doesn't do privilege drops correctly and this way it never needs to be root

I’m getting real sick of a certain small group hammering on the absolutely false assertion that criticizing Israel is always anti-Semitic. They’re relying on people conflating antisemitism couched in political analysis (which is indeed a thing that happens) with sober criticism

Given that my family fled the Holocaust, and I grew up with those stories and lessons, I am very aware that antisemitism is a real thing and a serious problem. But:

It’s not antisemitic (or even “anti-Israel”) to have a problem with how the Israeli State is conducting its affairs

It’s not antisemitic to call out Israel’s apartheid policies or the need for the Palestinian people to be treated justly

Why does software engineering seem to attract more than its share of people who can't differentiate among "that's not the way I would do it", "that's suboptimal", and "that's wrong"?

Welp, looks like the promotion is indeed more work. Bigger team, some… less than competent management in the past, and a total lack of psych safety. Lots to fix.

Playing with Dendron as a personal knowledge manager (aka #PKM). It's Markdown plus some extra wiki-like syntax and some convenient UI. I like that it stores heirarchy without using directories (dot sep), and makes adding links to new entries useful

Add a link brings up a search for existing nodes, and if a link doesn't go to a node, the follow action creates one

Runs within VScode, unfortunately. But at least that means it's available across Mac, Win, and Linux. No iOS option, and it's "bring your own sync" (though as files and in an IDE, that's not too hard)

It's surprisingly mature of my kids to be able to separate "I like Harry Potter" and "Rowling is a TERF douchebag" and decide that they can enjoy HP stuff but don't want to purchase anything licensed because it'll support Rowling

They've asked for help finding HP stuff that's used or made by independent artists. The kids will be alright

There have been a number of open implementations for IP-based audio calls; things like XMPP voice and SIP were fairly widely available, and the ability to use them via a server meant people didn't have to deal with NAT or hostile ISPs

But somehow we collectively decided that closed, centralized, heavyweight commercial alternatives were the way to go? I can't remember the last time someone wanted audio time with me and suggested something other than Skype, Google Meet, or the like. And my suggestions to do a SIP call or voice via XMPP are met with discomfort and confusion

I don't understand this thing where manufacturers want to spend a ton of time putting me on the phone with a human to troubleshoot a broken item before accepting warranty service on it

I can see if it's a repeat problem, or a very expensive unit, or return costs are very high. But, like… this happened to me on 3 things that are less than $100

Like… I can just return it to the store instead if you're going to make me deal with a script for 45 minutes before you RMA it… that can't be cost effective for the manufacturer

If I see farther, it is because I have ridden on the backs of dragons