EdTheDev

@ben@s.djehuti.com The Troughton era of Doctor Who can be surprisingly great.

@JoscelynTransient@chaosfem.tw There is https://bleedingcool.com/comics/trans-green-lantern-introduced-in-the-last-issue-of-green-lantern-dark/ but it doesn't look like DC has done much with the character, yet.

@heysupratim@fosstodon.org I've been as happy as anyone to enjoy cloud services that - until recently - had unbeatable prices and untouchable uptimes. Lately, they simply don't compete with three used Dell Optiplexes plugged into a cheap surge protector, in my closet. This feels like a silly state for things, but here we are. #cloud #selfhosting #wtf

I ran Commodore OS for about a week as my daily driver, and then I needed really needed to switch to a dark theme for my daily driver. I probably could have configured a cool C64 tribute theme - and someday I may do so and contribute it back. But this time, I dropped in my Ol Reliable Debian install media, and decided to see what weird options I could find in the install menu. This led me to discover FreedomBox, and I think I'm in love. FeeedomBox has an impressive number of pre-packaged home server tools, and pre-integrated with each-other. https://www.freedombox.org/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FreedomBox #linux #debian #freedombox

Since I re-image my Linux desktop so often, I have given a great deal of thought to preserving and re-creating my configurations.

So I wrote a single bash file to rule them all, sort of.

My script, dot, creates a tiny CLI Ansible installation, and interactively helps write a short Ansible playbook that defines symlinks, install scripts and Python environments.

I download the script and run ./dot --help to get started. Use dot check to review selections, and dot apply to ensure localhost is configured with them.

Because it uses Ansible under the hood, it doesn't do unecessary work, it provides detailed output, and it creates a file with a full definition of the configuration in a well know standard (which can always be re-used later, even without my script.)

If you add dot to your own dotfiles repository, and organize yours like mine (files, installs and reqs) then dot will use find your folders and offer to link your files, run your install scripts, or create your Python environments.

https://codeberg.org/EdTheDev/dotfiles/src/branch/main/bin/dot

#linux #macos #bash #cli #localhost #config #ansible

@jaredwhite@indieweb.social @diazona@techhub.social @AgentOrange96@mastodon.social Thanks for the clarification. With that I can sign up, as well. I've built some LLM things for the sake of learning, but when the outcome matters, I code by hand.

Linux microblog update: ProxMox (or maybe my network hardware) does not like when I swap harddrives onto different motherboards (and therefore different ethernet cards with new MAC addresses.) I do this anyway because used old Dell Optiplexes tend to be... used...and old, and it can be a bit...dynamic...adding additonal storage to them. Luckily reinstalling a ProxMox node from my USB key is quick, and now the node thinks it was born with this motherboard and ethernet card. #linux #microblog #proxmox #dell #optiplex #reduce #reuse #recycle

@riverpunk@defcon.social My blog is at https://edward.delaporte.us/blog I joined a web ring last year out of spite for the modern search expeirence. There's some great (non-AI) digital artists in the web ring I joined (links in the footer of my blog.) I'm just learning about the #indieweb hashtag from this post and will be following along, thanks!

I realized I once again installed a server OS as my desktop, so FreedomBox had to go (temporarily). Back to ol' reliable Debian install media. This build will be a tuned experience that I hope to run for awhile. I was disappointed to learn that Hyprland is not in Debian 13, and has not been added to back-ports yet, either. I suspect I'll switch to it as my primary desktop, when it makes in. In the meantime, I added KDE Plasma as my desktop. My personal explanation of KDE Plasma is that it is what Apple desktop would feel like if it was just slightly better in 100 tiny ways. #linux #debian #freedombox #hyprland #kde #plasma

@cav@infosec.exchange Nice. I actually remember exactly the last X-Box game I bought. It was Guardian Heroes, as a digital download attached to my X-Box Live account. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guardian_Heroes Less than a month after this purchase, someone called Xbox support and stole my account - essentially simply by asking politely of their phone support desk. With a phone call of my own and solid proof of ownership, I got my account back, except that my digital purchases were gone. My simple polite request to actually restore my account to it's pre-theft state was ignored. So...I canceled my Live subscription that same week, and I haven't bought anything from X-box / Microsoft games in roughly 15 years, and I haven't recommended anything from either to any gamer friends in an equally long time. But at least they didn't risk losing themselves $5.00 by restoring my digital purchase of a nearly forgotten Sega Saturn title.

@jzb@hachyderm.io Lack of strong SQLite compatibility was the other person's challenge with LibreOffice Base, as well, I believe. Which is ironic, as MS Access also lacks strong SQLite compatibility, I imagine. But back when I was a Microsoft environment developer, I took for granted that I could make a quick messy data build prototype in MS Access, populate a few example records, and then quickly re-use most of it in MS SQL, later. I was surprised I didn't find a similar path from LibreOffice Base's default database layer to at least SQLite or Postgres. I could easily have missed it, if a preferred path exists.

I've been trying to reconcile how much more cautious my Cybersecurity peers are than other colleagues, with regards to AI. Yes, we're a paranoid bunch, but our reaction to AI is measurably colder than our reaction to Cloud, or shadow IT, or bring-your-own-device, which all come with substantial risks and trade-offs. I'm getting an ugly feeling that there's one key factor: Cybersecurity professionals are extensively trained in how to detect fraud. Like all new questionable technology, I kind of adore LLMs. But I have to admit that the various smells of fraud are all over this whole AI situation. (Hype cycles, fear of missing out, first taste is free, solution seeking problems, un-missable investment opportunity, we're building huge buildings so of course we're making money, etc.)

@imaginaryuncle@masto.nu Welcome!

@buckfiftyseven@mastodon.social Yes! Exactly!

For quite awhile, I just did an apt list and emailed it to myself.

But then I was thinking about the trade-offs between Ansible (great, but I'm lazy) and Bash (fast and practical, but costly to maintain) and I realized I could write something weird to split the difference.

I've used this weird little script enough times, I don't hate it.

I've been thinking a next step may be to try to update it to a self contained portable Python app, and package that for apt install...

@ben@s.djehuti.com I'm be watching for those, now!

@StephenRBerg@mastodon.social He's such a cool toy, and looks great on display in any mode! I hope Hasbro willl release a matching Jetfire, someday.

@bkuhn@fedi.copyleft.org @next@fedi.copyleft.org

Interesting read. Thank you for sharing it here!

With apogogies for length, this got me thinking, and I got stuck on one point that I think merits more discussion:

Imagining that AI can rewrite any code is doing ourselves - as maintainers - a disservice.

AI can remix any code, but getting code secure, correct and efficient, while covering all edge cases is really difficult.

AI can help with really difficult problems, but the easy hand-wave version of AI has nothing useful to contribute.

Across my career - I have seen hundreds of problems that I thought were easy to quickly code perfect solutions for.

In every single case, what was really happening was that I had a deeply naive understanding of the problem space.

AI code duplicates my junior developer naivety and multiplies it's harm through rapid automation.

There are certainly plenty of cases where that's still good enough, just like my early code contributions were still good enough for those who hired me.

But the narrative that cheap AI remixes will meaningfully and lastingly replace important code is just sales hype bullshit that our coding communities seem to keep falling for.

Hard problems rarely yield to anything less than hard work.

For important code, we have to think about maintenance lifecycles, supply chain protections, and sometimes even a clean title of intellectual property - all of which most forms of AI code assist makes harder to manage, not easier.

We know this parable, but it's not new or interesting or exciting enough to get attention, in the current discourse.

The rabbit wins trivial sprints. The tortoise wins marathons while the rabbit is busy celebrating prematurely.

@cav@infosec.exchange If this verdict had happened sooner, I might still buy X-box games. Microsoft's unwillingness to make hackes customers whole baffled me. Oh well. I took my money elsewhere.

@Purplegengar25@lgbtqia.space Yes. When I'm building workflows that I need to have just continue to work for as long as possible (surviving proprietary app shut-downs, and other forms of bit rot), Debian is my go to default.

@blogdiva@mastodon.social This part drives me nuts. I'm not going off the conspiracy deep end, people are choosing to ignore the risk. I sympathize - calling out a major vendor's privacy promises as possibly being a bald faced lie is uncomfortable. But my professional responsibility includes akknowledging this risk. There's plenty of evidence that most of these vendors are moving too quickly to keep their houses in order, and might not even known if such breaches of trust are happening. #ai #privacy #risk

@j_mcelroy@mstdn.ca this place is still hopping!

@briankrebs@infosec.exchange I'm self hosting everything I can, right now. Even services spared by uncontrolled costs have been falling to half assed (AI) DevOps instead. I'm well past "we can pool resources to do better" and all the way to "fuck it, I'll do it, myself". This is causing me to look much closer at what the Debian community has been up to, though. I'm trying to catch up quickly so that I can contribute more, soon.

Linux microblog update: I spent some time making Proxmox dance on tht head of a pin (okay, three used Dell Optiplexes) this evening. I can't escape the ugly feeling that the reason I'm investing in learning this...is that allies who I previously relied on have been disrespected at and dismissed from organizations I used to love to partner with. There's a disruption coming to technology - not due to AI - but due to new lines of trust being built after old easy comfortable ones were torn out to save a few dollars on one quarterly earnings report. Wise investments in 2026 will have to figure out where the real trust is, and where it isn't. #linux #cloud #ai #technology #trust

I had the loveliest work conversation today that might lead to reaching out to another colleague about a possible novel use for a supercomputer. My colleagues are the best part of my job. Some of the stuff they create is just so terribly cool. Sorry for vague-posting. I'll share details and links later if/when there are specifics ready to share.

@leniwcowaty@fosstodon.org Yes. I think you are objectively correct on all points, but at the end of the day, I still prefer KDE Plasma. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

@mhoye@cosocial.ca My favorite thing to tell junior developers who ask my advice: When I was young, I was often confused. Now that I am expeirenced, I am confused much more often. What changed is the things that confuse me. When I started, simple things confused me. Now I have the privilege of solving those waley simple things so quickly that I can move on to being confused by deeply interesting and truly difficult problems.

@lexoyo@framapiaf.org @mozilla@mastodon.social There's truth in this. Sure, I know how to set up lama.cpp - but for a new user, maybe the free tier of Microsoft Copilot can walk then through it!

@ben@s.djehuti.com I don't especially trust operator-less elevators. The signed public certificate of when the last audit passed does help (and is thankfully mandatory where I am.) I have gotten out of elevators due to those audits being too far out-of-date for my comfort. Of course, I also realize I enjoy some privilege that the stairs are usually a fine option, for me. Sorry for the long reply, I love how elevators can bring our ease, practicallity, access, audit and cost needs all into sharp focus.

@jzb@hachyderm.io Someone here posted recently that they haven't been able to get their hands on a modern open source clone of MS Access - and I can't help but keep thinking about how useful a pure text MS Access clone could be, using SQLite as the back end file. It would mostly come down to setting a consistent data table convention, and thinking hard about a really usable text interface...

@hailey@hails.org Yes. I like to say that Computer Science is a research field trying desperately to grow up into a proper trade skill. People working in computer science could be better off if we had more shared norms, consistently recommended practices, and formal solutions supporting progression and mentorship.

I should mention these instructions were printed in at least a dozen languages, and attached to a box containing a piece of string and how-to booklet for doing cats cradle type string games. I'm particularly pleased that the instructions felt the need to clarify that squeezing is prohibited for the piece of string.

@ludicity@mastodon.sprawl.club @Viss@mastodon.social @hailey@hails.org Oh, thanks for discussing here. I think I've been looking for this.

Linux microblog update - I just used my computers this weekend, for personal computer stuff. I didn't add remove, re-image, or rewrite anything. I realize this is kind of a non-update. Even as a non-stop command line guru, sometimes I just want a simple, stable PC to use. Linux as my daily driver meets me where I am, and does a very crisp clean fast job at being a boring desktop for note-taking and web browsing. #linux #debian #pc #microblog

@GeePawHill@mastodon.social Altered Carbon is quite good. The bigger picture plot and mystery doesn't land, for me, as well as the many simpler character driven stories within the series. But those stories are well worth watching.

@gaffen@social.coop My personal site is fully in git, and public at https://github.com/edthedev/edthedev.github.io I started it on WordPress, but migrated to static pages some years ago. Splitting the content from the mechanics into separate repositories has been on my someday/maybe list for years. I have posted some brief notes about how I built the site, at https://edward.delaporte.us/meta/ I'm happy to answer questions about it. I've felt the blog notes deserve an update, for a while. Having a question to answer would give me focus to take the time.

@beaubhavik@mastodon.social To be clear, I don't mean than all AI for security is worse than useless. I mean that - during today's quest to maximize tokens - no one seems willing to disable AI in the corners that make it aggressively worse than useless. I think there's a useful tool waiting to come out, after the hype wave dies down. But currently, unwillingness to tune the tools has led to outcomes o consider worse than doing nothing.

@jameshowell@fediscience.org And it had gesture typing! Hooray! Thanks for the tip!

@maxwells_daemon@infosec.exchange If you want to try out full stack development, I would try out Flask. For the front end, JavaScript is plenty to learn with, today. And here's my big page of mostly free learn to code resources, in case it inspires any ideas. https://edward.delaporte.us/learn2code/

@linuxteck@mastodon.social Oh, cool. It looks like Hyprland is in back-ports now. https://linuxiac.com/debian-13-stable-users-can-now-install-hyprland-from-backports/

Many apps I rely on daily now open with a warning that they simply won't comply with Google's invasive verification in October. This doesn't affect me, as my critical devices are fully de-googled. I'm curious if folks inside Google's word garden are seeing this as well? Or is software freedom on Android quietly ending for all but the most diehard open Android users?

Oh my! My spouse has been shopping for used Dell Optiplexes today. I'm in love. Again. #truelove #dell #selfhosting #ReduceRepairReuseRecycle

@UlrikNyman@mastodon.social @jaredwhite@indieweb.social Your question led to an interesting thread. Thank you!

@mighty_orbot@retro.pizza I'll be curious how you like the Hot wheels one! I'm a little afraid they'll be really good, since there's several and they're not cheap, and I really shouldn't add any shelf room for them...

I our house we: Take a break for 20 minutes before solving our appliance repair challenges with an angle grinder.