Notices by Mark Stosberg (markstos@urbanists.social)

Tip for getting a change you want into an #opensource project:

Given limited time to triage a busy project, maintainers are more likely to focus their time on "pull requests"--- proposed code changes-- than bug reports and feature requests.

Yes, A contributor risks more time by creating a PR that will get ignored or rejected, but they also waste time assuming some volunteering is standing by implement their feature request or fix their bug. Sometimes they are, often the aren't.

#coding

The #Nix docs have a reputation for being not-great, and I got to experience that after reviewing the "Ad hoc Shell Environments" page and attempting to try some things there:

https://nix.dev/tutorials/first-steps/ad-hoc-shell-environments

```
❯ nix-shell -p nodejs-20_x
error: getting status of '/nix/var/nix/daemon-socket/socket': Permission denied
```

Now, why would creating an env specific to my current user require access to a socket owned by another user?

I read somewhere that to solve this #Nix error I needed to add my current user to the `nix-users` group, which I did, but then I got another error:

```
❯ nix-shell -p nodejs-20_x
error: creating directory '/nix/store': Permission denied
```

Again, I'm not running the command as root or with `sudo`, so it's unclear why Nix insists on attempting to run as another user.

`nix-shell` could also provide more useful error messages than "permission denied".

Not a great first impression.

So I created that directory and there's a new error:

```
❯ nix-shell -p nodejs-20_x
error: creating directory '/nix/store/.links': Permission denied
```

Created that directory, and there's another error:

```
❯ nix-shell -p nodejs-20_x
error: creating directory '/nix/var/nix/temproots': Permission denied
```

#Nix has an missed opportunity to here to check for these error states and produce a more useful diagnostic message than "permission denied".

I manually resolved those directory issues with #nix, only to reveal a new category of error:

```
error: file 'nixpkgs' was not found in the Nix search path (add it using $NIX_PATH or -I)
```

Sorry, if trying Nix was supposed to a step towards using #NixOS, the out of the box experience has been poor for me on Arch Linux.

Apparently this issue might be that first `nix-channel` needs to download something? That could have been done automatically or the diagnostic message could say that.

#MechanicalKeyboard fans

My favorite keycap and colorway is on sale now on eBay: MT3 Susuwatari.

The tactile design of this keycap helps keep my fingers centered on the keys, improving accuracy. That’s my story.

The F and J are dished slightly deeper as homing keys.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/156354474534?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=cfOE165ZTta&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=c4DN55D8TBW&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=MORE

After decades of consistency, #Apple is killing the square checkbox. https://tonsky.me/blog/checkbox/

@jimcarroll Adding context:

"pg_repack is a PostgreSQL extension which lets you remove bloat from tables and indexes, and optionally restore the physical order of clustered indexes. Unlike CLUSTER and VACUUM FULL it works online, without holding an exclusive lock on the processed tables during processing. pg_repack is efficient to boot, with performance comparable to using CLUSTER directly."

https://reorg.github.io/pg_repack/

Reminder: The reason that some email apps don't show images by default is for your #privacy

The images are not part of the email. They are hosted on remote servers controlled by the email publisher. The URL for the images contains a unique ID in it.

The result is that when you click "load images", the publisher can track that you specifically opened their email.

This is also why nearly every newsletter contains at least one image.

@reallychris I finally got booted into Hyprland.

The Easymotion plugin I was excited to use was very laggy to start. Then, either "Escape" couldn't be used to exit that mode, or it was very slow to do so. Even when it work it would frequently leave the overlaps up on other windows instead of closing them. Alternatives like `wmfocus` and `sway-easyfocus` start without lag on the same hardware.

The Expo plugin was nice, but also did not allow quitting with Escape by default.

@reallychris That may be the end of my #Hyprland experiment for now.

My issues with Sway are relatively minor and familiar. I've got a lot of other initiatives to pursue besides tuning my desktop.

Still, plenty of interesting ideas in #Hyprland. Besides that it has a plugin system, I liked that you can add formal descriptions of your keybindings and then introspect them via API.

Beginner #SwayWM users have long been interested in a way to search and run their key bindings.

@drewdevault And it's not like it's a binary choice either, like pointing the finger at the single worst cause of climate change and ignoring all others.

There are a lot of developers in the world. Enough to work on Rust-in-Linux and a Rust-only kernel as well.

A small, Rust-only kernel could try out some ideas that might actually spend up Rust-in-Linux development.

#GhostBlog is beginning #ActivityPub development for Ghost, while also still figuring out exactly which features they want to implement.

They have a form here for feedback, particularly for Ghost blog managers:
https://tally.so/r/m67X4P

#blogging #fediverse

@mdhughes @aral Woke up wanting to start a flame war, huh?

@CelloMomOnCars What climate denial and climate doom have in common is that they are both excuses for inaction.

@jimcarroll @molly0xfff You are welcome.

My own #GhostBlog is at https://mark.stosberg.com

I use the feature to have multiple newsletter segments, so folks can sign up for my mapping posts, tech posts or plant-powered adventures.

@jimcarroll @molly0xfff Ah, add a comma before "logging".

@jimcarroll @molly0xfff Here's how my config differs:

1. Add "logger": true, to options. I guess it adds more logging.
2. host: "smtp.mailgun.org". Not sure if that makes a difference.
3. "port": 465, Notice no quotes as well. Not sure if these differences should matter.

If you are getting JSON validation errors, you should post those, it looks OK to me.

@jimcarroll @molly0xfff That’s right. I worked on supporting others a couple of years ago and even submitted a code change for it. That didn’t fit their standards and was rejected. https://github.com/TryGhost/Ghost/pull/14984

I didn’t pick it back up because Mailgun has a free plan up to 5,000 emails per month, and I use that.

I also use SES at work and Mailgun is a nicer product to use.

@jimcarroll @molly0xfff #GhostBlog has separate configuration for transaction email and bulk email.

If you want to send out both through Mailgun, you can send the transactional emails out through the Mailgun SMTP interface.

You can send (only) transaction emails out through SES also via SMTP.

The Ghost project is open supporting other providers for bulk email, but first an "adapter" needs to be created that abstracts the details for each provider.

Ghost also uses Mailgun for analytics.