Notices by tef (tef@mastodon.social)

https://explaining.software/archive/the-sudoku-affair/

incredible writeup of one of the best running jokes in programming

anyway yes to be clear: protest always causes problems, pulling the fire alarm can have negative consequences, much like blocking a door, a road, and you might not like it, but that's a conversation you can have elsewhere

to be clear i'm not going to fosdem, i don't work in open source, i'm only a hobbyist

it's pretty funny to see infosec people telling me this is a bad idea

when all i am doing is disclosing a vulnerability and noting that it requires very little technical skill

"what do we want" meaningful political change

"how do we want it" without any inconvenience to those in power, or any interruption to the status-quo

same as it ever was

*casually walking up to a monk on fire* you know that's carcenogenic right

the thing about pulling the fire alarm to stop a talk, you don't even have to be in the same room, just in the same building, or somewhere on the same fire circuits, it's pretty impossible to stop

that, and with large enough buildings, they can't turn the alarms off without having someone from the fire service check

the more you know huh

it's funny to note that the systemd guy doesn't protested at fosdem because despite the invective, he isn't as despised as jack dorsey

the thing about nerds at fosdem,

socioeconomically speaking, it's full of people who had access to computers at an early age, and people who earn well over the median

so, well, there aren't many people who've ever had to fight or protest, which is why you'll always hear "have we tried not causing problems" as a preferred option

it's the same sort of brainrot logic of "blocking a road could block an ambulance" where a theoretical consequence blocks any action with a result

someone has explained "pulling the fire alarm causes problems" and "the event organizers can suffer consequence for it" in what i can only describe as an incredible achievement in understanding a post

btw if you're planning on protesting a talk, the easiest way is to pull the fire alarm

and if you're at fosdem, you can say "i just saw a vape cloud i guess" if anyone asks why

@sarahdalgulls

> Imagine an alternate 2025 where Kamala Harris won the presidency. Would Meta be hiring conservative pundits and scaling back content moderation? Of course not.

It's worth noting that (a) all of this is happening under a biden presidency and (b) the gop have been threatening meta for years about this

in fact, they'd probably do stuff like this under kamala to demonstrate their "impartiality"

@mcc i mean, much like stadia, google products are considered successful if they hamper adoption for their competitors

@glyph @mcc when something is impossible it usually means "we would have to rip 90% of our engine code out and try again" or "we can't do that in a portable way" because if they give gamers even a fraction of an inch, they'll never cease whining

@glyph @mcc you need to remember, statements by gamedevs are not to other programmers

they're to gamers, who don't understand how computers work, how software is built, or that corporations have priorities beyond fps

@glyph @mcc if you are not a gamedev then it's easy to forget how *exploratory* gamecode is

i remember when celeste's state machine got published and people were pouting and huffing, despite it being a well defined state machine and not 1800 if statements in different parts of the codebase

impossible means "as much work as starting over" most of the time

incredible looking drum machine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Movement_Systems_Drum_Computer

caught up with the last season of lower decks, just in time for the finale

i did not think a trek comedy show would be this funny or well written, or hands down the best star trek i've seen since ds9

it really is a love note to star trek, including all the weird canon and lore, that takes itself just seriously enough to work and no more

"Why did Silicon Valley turn right?" Why did bear shit in woods? Why is pope catholic? Why did scratched liberal embrace fascism? Who can tell

"wow this group of people who think they're smarter than everyone else and the rules shouldn't apply to them, turns out they aren't against hierarchy, just any hierarchy that doesn't put them at the apex"

tbh if you want to be surrounded by nerds interested in breaking things without being interested in breaking people, you get into speedrunning and not infosec