dspillett (u/dspillett)

dspillett commented on UK drops demand for backdoor into Apple encryption theverge.com/news/761240/... · Posted by u/iamdamian

catigula · 5 days ago

It's not just that, this construction:

> This isn't X, this is Y

is a huge ChatGPT signal.

dspillett · 5 days ago

But surely it is only a ChatGPT signal because it was a strong signal in the training data. You need more than one strong signal with that sort of potential for false positives to make a reasonably accurate identification.

dspillett commented on Why I'm all-in on Zen Browser werd.io/why-im-all-in-on-... · Posted by u/benwerd

monkey26 · 5 days ago

I want profiles. For example, work and personal. Different bookmarks, different plugins. Even some different settings.

dspillett · 5 days ago

When I want that sort of separation, which I do between work and play, I run browsers (and everything else) as different users. That works with any browser and I don't even have to worry about bugs in profile or container separation, and it reduces (though of course didn't remove) the chance of idiot here using the wrong instance for the wrong use. Heck, where possible I even use a separate machine. DayJob provide a PC on the office that I remote into (via VPN+RDC) for work purposes, so the contact point between that work and everything else is minimal (in fact my main desktop is a VM I "remote" into, I only use the base metal when I take have too which is usually things unhappy running that way (Bambu Studio and games, which do not like the lack of faf free access to the GPU)). You can still access everything from one machine, or even have the different users instances on the same desktop (this does reduce the barriers a touch though).

The only real cost is that running things this way eats more memory, but I've not experienced OOM issues for years away from deliberately small VMs (for testing or small sever tasks) that turned out to be too small.

dspillett commented on FFmpeg moves to Forgejo code.ffmpeg.org/FFmpeg/FF... · Posted by u/whataguy

mmmmbbbhb · 7 days ago

I have to say you're exaggerating, ignoring prs isn't such a chore.

dspillett · 7 days ago

If you are ignoring all of them. Filtering PRs to see which are worth having might take time in a large popular project. Even if it isn't much time, it is more than zero. You also have to deal with all the other comms associated: people submitting genuinely useful patches which accidentally get rejected querying (maybe politely, maybe not) and people who submitted less useful ones bitching about their rejection, both to the project and in public forums.

dspillett commented on Teenage Engineering's free computer case teenage.engineering/store... · Posted by u/textadventure

TabTwo · 9 days ago

Curious question, this case is pure PP. What about shilding EMV emissions? Is this "legal" to run a pc open like that?

dspillett · 9 days ago

It varies, but in many places you couldn't sell a device without proper shielding, but unless you are causing disruption to a public service or safety equipment there is nothing that stops a person owning and running one. Just think of the world full of rPi units, other SBCs, and other PCs, running completely caseless or in cases without much/any thought towards EMC shielding - it obviously isn't a problem, or it would be a big problem.

Most rPi units and similar are fine as they can be argued to be sold as parts rather than devices just like any other motherboard¹. The Pi400 presumably gets away with it, as something this is conspicuously sold as a device not a part, because that chonky heatsink² is enough to disrupt any errant EM fields outside the ranges that it should be emitting (those around 2.4GHz and 5GHz).

There are many grey areas, and indeed those where the letter of the regs is broken but not enforced. To cut a long story short wrt “Is this "legal" to run a pc open like that?”: yes running a PC in a case like that with no extra shielding is legal pretty much everywhere, though selling a complete PC with a case like that probably breaks regs and maybe even laws.

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[1] putting the responsibility with the purchaser, where it isn't enforced unless it is a problem (I chose not to shield my TV-box Pi4, not the company, and it isn't putting enough junk out to disrupt anyone else's anything else)

[2] everything else about the case is plastic

dspillett commented on Print, a one-line BASIC program 10print.org... · Posted by u/NKosmatos

weinzierl · 10 days ago

Back in the day computer mags had 20-liner competitions. The objective was to cram as much functionality into 20 lines of BASIC and people did amazing stuff with that.

To use the space as best as possible lines were filled to brim and BASIC commands abbreviated. PRINT was ? and other command abbreviations contained PETASCII characters that don't even have a Unicode equivalent[1].

The Commodore 64 particularly had square[2] 8x8 pixel characters and a line on the screen was 40 of them in a row. A logical line from the BASIC interpreter's perspective was still 80 characters long though, which made the program effectively 40 screen lines high.

You see, where this is going. The perfect 20-liner was close to a 40 by 40 square of character salad.

[1] They were one letter and a shifted letter, which could be displayed as symbol depending which mode you were in. They were printed expanded when listing the program. Everything was a bit complicated.

[2] Almost. Pixels were not perfectly square, with the aspect ratio depending on PAL or NTSC.

dspillett · 10 days ago

> Back in the day computer mags had 20-liner competitions.

In the magazines I remember from my days cutting my programming teeth on an Acorn Electron, there were 10-liners and 1-liners. What some people could squeeze out of 252 bytes was very impressive, even without using extra features (extra graphics primatives for instance) found in other models like the Master series.

dspillett commented on Pebble Time 2 Design Reveal [video] youtube.com/watch?v=pcPzm... · Posted by u/net01

legitster · 11 days ago

The Pebble battery life is with the display always on.

It's squarely aimed at people who want the watch functionality to be first and foremost - no dorky wrist flicks or the distraction of the screen coming on and off all the time.

dspillett · 10 days ago

> The Pebble battery life is with the display always on. … no dorky wrist flicks

My watch display (Garming Fenix 7) is always on and the battery life is great. Any dorky wrist flick or button presses are for the backlight when it is needed.

[Though as others point out, the balance of needs targetted by the two devices differ noticably]

dspillett commented on Pebble Time 2 Design Reveal [video] youtube.com/watch?v=pcPzm... · Posted by u/net01

leokennis · 10 days ago

And still the Garmin offers much of the same functionality. It seems Apple is wasting 30 × battery life just to be 2 × "nicer" than a Garmin.

dspillett · 10 days ago

That is the (modern) Apple way. They optimise for smooth experience first¹, other factors second.

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[1] Actually second, their priorities are money->UX->others - hence being uncooperative with any efforts to improve standard web apps despite the potential user benefits as they could compete with their appstore

dspillett commented on Nginx introduces native support for ACME protocol blog.nginx.org/blog/nativ... · Posted by u/phickey

andrewmcwatters · 11 days ago

This is really cool, but I find projects that have thousands of people depending on it not cutting a stable release really distasteful.

Edit: Downvote me all you want, that's reality folks, if you don't release v1.0.0, the interface you consume can change without you realizing it.

Don't consume major version 0 software, it'll bite you one day. Convince your maintainers to release stable cuts if they've been sitting on major version 0 for years. It's just lazy and immature practice abusing semantic versioning. Maintainers can learn and grow. It's normal.

Dehydrated has been major version 0 for 7 years, it's probably past due.

See also React, LÖVE, and others that made 0.n.x jumps to n.x.x. (https://0ver.org)

CalVer: "If both you and someone you don't know use your project seriously, then use a serious version."

SemVer: "If your software is being used in production, it should probably already be 1.0.0."

https://0ver.org/about.html

dspillett · 11 days ago

Feel free to provide and support a "stable" branch/fork that meets your standards.

Be the change you want to see!

Edit to comment on the edit:

> Edit: Downvote me all you want

I don't generally downvote, but if I were going to I would not need your permission :)

> that's reality folks, if you don't release v1.0.0, the interface you consume can change without you realizing it.

I assume you meant "present" there rather than "consume"?

Anyway, 1.0.0 is just a number. Without relevant promises and a track record and/or contract to back them up breaking changes are as likely there as with any other number. A "version 0.x.x" of a well used and scrutinized open source project is more reliable and trustworthy than something that has just had a 1.0.0 sticker slapped on it.

Edit after more parent edits: or go with one of the other many versioning schemes. Maybe ItIsFunToWindUpEntitledDicksVer Which says "stick with 0.x for eternity, go on, you know you want to!".

dspillett commented on Modos Paper Monitor – Open-hardware e-paper monitor and dev kit crowdsupply.com/modos-tec... · Posted by u/RossBencina

porridgeraisin · 12 days ago

What about syntax highlighting?

dspillett · 12 days ago

You have the option of a few greyscale levels, bold, pehaps italic, and depending on font maybe extra-bold and light. That should be enough for the essentials, though it will feel like a downgrade if you have got used to a richly colourful environment and rely on it for reasons other than liking it being pretty.

dspillett commented on Modos Paper Monitor – Open-hardware e-paper monitor and dev kit crowdsupply.com/modos-tec... · Posted by u/RossBencina

bbarnett · 12 days ago

There's a lot better being done by Boox, and even with colour e-ink in terms of ghosting. I think a lot of that is software end, though.

The one unfortunate thing is that this monitor seems to have a glossy screen, not matte, but maybe that's an additional layer over a dev kit?

If this truly is 'open', then it should be trivial to write special X11/Wayland drivers for it, to handle a lot of the ghosting issues at that end. I think Boox actually refreshes portions of screens, and a double or triple video buffer in X/Wayland could do the same.

(One problem with Boox is their relentless phone-home to servers in China, which cannot be disable by normal means.)

dspillett · 12 days ago

Another problem with Boox is the disregard of the requirements of the GPL family of licences. I've been interested in some of their devices but won't touch them due to that (and now due to the issue you stated - though I was unaware there was un-disablable “telemetry”, I'd have to look into that if they ever did something about the lack of GPL compliance).