Notices by ARGVMI~1.PIF (argv_minus_one@mastodon.sdf.org), page 3

I must confess I'm really liking #SQLite right now.

The database is just a file. You can put it anywhere, even on a network file system. There is no user name, no password, no IP address and port number, no certificate, and no separate RDBMS process to babysit.

And yet it's still a proper database with SQL and ACID and all. I can query it like any other database, even if there is some other program writing to the database at the same time.

Beautiful.

#programming

Oof. Repeatedly, rapidly switching my right hand between mouse and keyboard is hard on my shoulder.

Middle-aged programmer problems. 😅

How the hell did we ever live with 640×480?

I'm running 3840×2160 on a 28-inch screen and I still sometimes turn on my second screen to get more space.

At 640×480 I would surely go mad.

#retrocomputing

Happy Friday to all who celebrate.

That's neat how I can scan a bunch of papers into a 57MB PDF and the whole thing fits easily into RAM, let alone disk.

There was a time when people (by which I mean me) dreamed of scanning all the things and storing them microscopically in the computer. Well, the future is now!

Slightly disappointed that it's called #LibrePhone and not “GNA's Not Android”.

#FSF #GNU #shitpost

At #Microsoft in the 2000s, the Recycle Bin wasn't just an icon on the desktop. They had actual recycle bins throughout the campus too.

When it came time to dispose of them, #RaymondChen saw to it that the recycle bins were, themselves, recycled. He tells the story in this installment of #OldNewThing. https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20121016-00/?p=6323

If a toot is written in all caps is it called a honk?

#shitpost

If #BIOS vendors could standardize on one key to get a boot menu, and give me enough time to see on the screen which key that is and press it, that'd be great.

Back in the #retrocomputing days, this wasn't a problem because computers did a lengthy memory test at power on, but that's long gone now. Also, the screen came to life right away, whereas now the computer is already most of the way through the POST sequence when it gets around to initializing video.

The existence of a system call named “fork” implies the existence of a system call named “spoon”.

#Unix #shitpost

@tony

Character-cell pseudo-graphics! This was done back in the 1980s to get #CGA to do 16-color #graphics. (Normally you'd need #EGA to do that.)

But of course this is the 21st century, so we can do it in 24-bit color now.

Fun fact: #kitty has a straight-up 24/32-bit pixel graphics protocol too https://sw.kovidgoyal.net/kitty/graphics-protocol/ although it does not support lossy compression (MPEG, AV1, etc) and therefore requires tons of bandwidth to play video.

@ryanc

#retrocomputing

@tony

I wonder if #terminal s like #kitty should add a sound protocol as well? 🤔

@ryanc

The problem with pointing a fan at my face is that it strips the moisture from my eyes.

How come we never see windows in the floor?

Whenever we see the outside of a starship saucer section, there are lots of windows on the ventral side. So unless the artificial gravity is reversed on the ventral side of the saucer, there must be a ton of rooms with windows in the floor.

And if the artificial gravity in those roons is reversed, then what happens to their contents when the ship lands on a planet?

#StarTrek

If IPv4 is so great, how come they didn't make IPv…oh wait

I just went viral by posting a meme about keyboard interrupts. My God, you people are nerds!

And I wouldn't have it any other way. ❤️

#USB keyboards can't interrupt the CPU themselves, but the USB controller continuously polls them and will interrupt it on their behalf. Loudly.

#keyboard #shitpost

@jessew

You kid, but it's actually true. One of the earliest recorded uses of non-trivial math was when the ancient Babylonians and Egyptians used it for financial calculations, including taxes.

They did, however, also use math for construction and astronomy.

Needless to say, math is still heavily used for all of these things.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematics#Ancient

@janl

Replicators are pretty similar to transporters. If you have a replicator and you fully understand how it works, you probably already know how to build a transporter.

@gedeonm

Everybody knows what a light-emitting diode is.

It's fairly common knowledge that incandescent lightbulbs are light-emitting resistors.

I briefly wondered if there's such a thing as a light-emitting capacitor. Then I remembered that yes, yes there is: a cathode ray tube.

#CRT