Notices by sbi (sbi@toot.berlin)

We came across this on a wall in Berlin tonight. I like it.

@dalias @fedops @jhankins I have done both and I can tell you that jobs in factories are much harder than the desk jobs most of us are used to — even if they happen to be more meaningful than many desk jobs are (which most aren't). If you want better conditions in your job, then you do not want to build cars on a conveyor belt or saw jeans. No, you just want: better conditions in your job. (It would of course be great of the people at the conveyor belt would get better conditions, too.)

@inthehands @ramsey It was not true in the Reagan era.

@collectifission This might be funny, but it's actually wrong. Germany was a net power exporter in 2024, and mostly only bought power when it was cheaper to buy it abroad than to produce it at home. (And with nuclear power, that's never the case.)
/cc @cstross

@collectifission OK, so I remembered wrong, and Germany was indeed a net importer, not an exporter. I apologize.

You, however, got it wrong, too: While 28.3TW might indeed sound a lot when compared to an LED bulb's consumption, it's actually only 6% of the electrical energy generated in Germany. And large parts of that was renewable energy from Scandinavia, rather than French NP. (So much, BTW, that Scandinavians got annoyed because their electricity got more expensive due to all the exports.)

@collectifission And my other statement still applies: Germany mostly only imported because power from abroad was cheaper. There is no technical necessity, it's just the market doing its thing keeping the energy costs low.

@cstross See here for the stats: https://toot.berlin/@sbi/112235865952642075
Apparently, PV grows faster than all the other electricity producers combined.

For their bachelor in English literature, one of my children is contemplating to write about Pratchett's Tiffany Aching as an example of female coming of age. Since this is a bachelor, not a PhD, this would require some prior literature or other sources on the subject. Since I've always loved the Tiffany Aching books, I am rooting for this topic and want to lend some support. So here's my question:

Does anybody know if there's anything out there on the subject?

Please boost this!
#AskFedi

@graydon Software *should* be written so that it's easy to read, period.
Me and the team I am working with put a lot of effort into this, and mostly for selfish reasons. We keep coming back to our own code in order to fix it, extend it, or otherwise improve it and we want this to be easy and enjoyable work. We all have seen how badly rotten code can get if you do not put enough effort into preventing this and we do not want our project to die because the code becomes unmaintainable.