Mastodon Feed
Boosted by jwz:
fen@zoner.work ("fenchelmit") wrote:
heard "be the elephant you want to see in the room" earlier and gosh if that hasn't stuck with me
Mastodon FeedMastodon Feeddb@social.lol ("David Bushell 🪿") wrote:
@simon one for the future!
https://bloomberg.github.io/js-blog/post/temporal/
```
const duration = Temporal.Duration.from({seconds:10_000_000});
const hours = duration.total({unit:"hours"});
```however `duration.hours` returns zero 🫤
re: https://elvery.net/drzax/creating-a-duration-object-from-a-number-of-seconds/
Mastodon Feeddb@social.lol ("David Bushell 🪿") wrote:
regular reminder: GitHub is dying, how much open source will it take down with it?
Mastodon FeedGargron ("Eugen Rochko") wrote:
RE: https://mastodon.social/@Gargron/1
10 years today.
Mastodon FeedBoosted by zkat@toot.cat:
misty@digipres.club ("Misty") wrote:
Every new thing that happens to the "Napster" brand feels like it's weirder than the last https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2026/01/02/napster-music-streaming-shut-down-ai-pivot/
Mastodon FeedBoosted by glyph ("Glyph"):
mttaggart@infosec.exchange ("Taggart") wrote:
@glyph It very depends. You need a lot of things in place to make this work. First and foremost, a faculty willing to give it a go. If the machines can't easily do what students and teachers need, that's the ballgame. Forget your principles for a second. If the damned things can't print or run the necessary apps, you're donezo with the experiment (and probably looking for a new job).
But if there is an appetite, then you want to lean into it as much as possible. I never got to go as far as Charlie Reisinger did, but that was always the goal.
But yeah everything must proceed first from curriculum. What the students need should drive tech decisions, not whatever flights of fancy the IT department might have. And that gets complicated, because you'll have some folks claim that proprietary applications are necessary for "preparation." And of course there are some testing regimes that require specific OSes to function. Chromebooks have obviated that somewhat, but it's still true to some degree.
But if all that comes together, I would first explore identity management, followed by provisioning by Ansible or Puppet, followed by Wireguard-enabled networking for always-available resources and support.
Mastodon FeedBoosted by glyph ("Glyph"):
SnoopJ@hachyderm.io wrote:
This is your periodic reminder that `0xfor....real` is a syntactically-valid AND error-free #Python program
Mastodon FeedBoosted by glyph ("Glyph"):
randomgeek@masto.hackers.town ("Random Geek") wrote:
this
> if he were given the Ring, he would soon forget it, or most likely throw it away. Such things have no hold on his mind. He would be a most unsafe guardian; and that alone is answer enough.
but also this
> He appeared already to know much about them and all their families, and indeed to know much of all the history and doings of the Shire down from days hardly remembered among the hobbits themselves.
I posit that Tom Bombadil was JRR Tokien's depiction of auDHD. In this essay I will—
Mastodon FeedTurns out the answer is: turn off file vault; reboot; turn off guest user; reboot again; turn on guest user.
If you don't do all of that, the guest user goes into some horrid, kiosky "I am an iPad instead of a computer" mode.
Mastodon FeedBoosted by fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻 ✍️ 🥐 🇵🇷"):
bpetit@mastodon.green ("Benoit Petit") wrote:
Collecting datacenters metrics, land, energy and environmental footprint
I got the opportunity to present my ongoing work regarding datacenters #osint metrics collection during a @boavizta workshop.
I showed how this data collection process can be performed by anyone. Truely, anyone.
Why not do it, the open-source way... collaboratively at a large scale ?
Yes, this is a teaser about the #DCWatch project. More soon.
https://peertube.designersethiques.org/w/jhCmWMxiekNWLxPtA1Jprj
Mastodon FeedIt's also going to give a TON more kids access to things like "a terminal". Kids will be encountering MacBook Neos in places where they've previously seen Chromebooks or iPads, devices which either cannot be used to write software at all, or implicitly have locks that most people will not bother to remove. This will not be 100% consistent (some schools will wall off MacBook Neo dev tools for "security", I'm sure) but it will still be a big enough population that it will be *interesting*.
Mastodon FeedSo, back to the MacBook Neo and why it is interesting.
If you're reading this, you probably shouldn't buy it. But you should be aware that so many people *are* going to buy it, that it's going to set a consistent new minimum standard for software. For one thing, lots of apps are going to want to start targeting "fits into a MacBook Neo's memory envelope", which is to say, 8GB minus macOS overhead. Cheap hardware exists now, but not enough of it deployed consistently enough for app devs to care.
Mastodon FeedIf you really want to help them save money, step zero is you have to volunteer to be 24/7 on-call tech support, be responsible for the decision, and help them out every step of the way. I have done this! It's a TON of work! It can be very rewarding when you help people build the relevant skills to use a computer like that. Personally, I have a kid now and I could not handle it today myself, but if you can do it you probably *should*, but it's important that you recognize you *need to*.
Mastodon FeedTelling someone to get an old Linux machine when they don't know anything about Linux yet, and then sending them off to college only for them to fail out of their first literature seminar because when they needed to submit their homework their wifi suddenly stopped working, and that "shouldn't be a big deal because you can get a more reliable driver on github" or some other kind of "fuck you" like that, you're turning other people into grist for your ideological project.
Mastodon FeedBut if you have people with zero tech experience in your life, who have a kid who doesn't really know what kind of computer they need… I'm not going to tell you that you should never recommend Linux to such a person. But at the *very least* you cannot be recommending that they go bargain hunting for mystery-meat laptops that will "probably work with Linux". You need to find a company like System76 or Framework that will actually help them out if the dang thing breaks.
Mastodon FeedIf you think that you can compete with this with a bespoke Linux installation on a few old ThinkPads, you need to figure out a way to provide *all that other stuff* to the people who will be using them. And I wish you would! If you ran a charity campaign to raise money to scale up such an effort for a few local school districts in a particular region, I'd probably donate to it!
Mastodon FeedThis problem is magnified for institutional buyers, but for folks without a ton of tech experience it's the same. The 1-year manufacturer warranty for new-in-store models is a big deal. The implicit promise of several years of software support is really important. Apple stores run free trainings you can go to. They have a business support program where you can talk to someone about fleet management problems for free. They have 24/7 chat support on the web if you have software issues.
Mastodon FeedBut if you're trying to source a 50-machine bulk order for a CS extracurricular program, with a uniform hardware profile so that students have a consistent experience, then no, you cannot reliably do that by going around to garage sales and rummaging through bargain bins. You cannot afford to repair all of these units (which WILL have a failure rate several times the average for a new machine) yourself. You can't even afford to troubleshoot them and manage the RMA process.
Mastodon FeedYes, you could personally get a more powerful computer by getting a refurb 16GB M1 MacBook Air somewhere by bargain hunting. But you will need to hunt; right now on the official refurb store the cheapest MacBook Air is $929. If you're shopping on eBay, now you've got a machine with a ton of wear cycles on the SSD, and dubious amounts of damage.
If you, personally, have the time & energy for that, it *IS* a better choice.
Mastodon FeedOut of all of these I have the most experience with category 4. I have set up labs full of Linux computers on many occasions. I've also done the same for macs. I won't say that macs are universally superior but there are TONS of things about imaging, configuring, provisioning, and authenticating macs that are vastly superior to Linux. If it's to teach a topic that isn't programming or sysadmin, like say graphic design, macOS has huge, huge advantages for legibility to the instructor.
Mastodon FeedPotential customers for this fall into a few categories, including:
1. Parents who don't know a lot about tech, but whose kids need "a laptop" for school.
2. Kids & young adults who want a macbook to run something like GarageBand but have a very limited budget *and* also don't otherwise know much about tech.
3. Schools.
4. School-like programs, like software dev clubs & summer camps.These customer types need a low price, but they also need A LOT of *support*. The support is the product here.
Mastodon FeedWhat is interesting about the device is not that you *should* buy it—the whole value proposition is that it is a very cheap, but also kinda bad, MacBook—it's that people *will* buy it. A lot. It fills a market gap. The only products that this is positioned against are Chromebooks and iPads; cheap refurb Linux machines are not in the same product category for most potential buyers, and I think the fact that Linux fans do not understand the different categories are endemic to why Linux struggles.
Mastodon FeedMacbook Neo Hot Take™, take 2. Earlier I was annoyed at tech reviewers who should *really* know better giving a *really* myopic assessment of its gaming potential. Now I'm seeing another bad take on Fedi, which is "all you Apple shills love this stupid thing, but a cheap Linux laptop would work better, don't buy it". I am much more sympathetic to this but it appears to be missing what is interesting about this device and why people are talking about it at all.
Mastodon FeedBoosted by soatok@furry.engineer ("Soatok Dreamseeker"):
argals@mstdn.ca ("Argals") wrote:
"Healthy people cost less.
Educated people contribute more.
Housed people are more stable....in a healthy society there are no "undeserving".
There are just people."
Mastodon FeedBoosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
Lazarou ("Lazarou Monkey Terror 🚀💙🌈") wrote:
There is something really not right with that nation state....
https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/orban-government-engulfed-explosive-child-abuse-scandal-after-dossier-reveals-3300-cases-state-1762689
#Orban #Hungary #Patriarchy #Misogyny
Mastodon FeedBoosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
mike@thecanadian.social ("Mike Fraser") wrote:
As you know we've taken over administrator of journa.host and newsie.social, two instances focussed on journalists and news outlets.
We've put together a news app that combines the feeds to give you the latest. It's a work in progress but you can find it at https://dispatchnews.net #news #journalism #journa #newsie
Mastodon FeedBoosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
annamam ("Anna Mamotiuk") wrote:
Hi! My name is Anna! I’m a traditional artist from Kyiv 🇺🇦 . I paint, I adore cats, and I love working out at the gym.
I’m always working on my English, but sometimes I might post in Ukrainian because I don’t always feel like double-checking every word. I hope that’s okay.
I’m not much of a talker, and I’m not quite sure yet what exactly I’ll be posting here, but I wanted to give it a try🫶
Mastodon FeedBoosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
alyx@frogs.lgbt ("alyx (dual-stack)") wrote:
so uh
we rescued a set of 4K movie film scannersdoes anyone need a set of 4K movie film scanners
if you have a need for a cinema film scanner (or can give it a good home!), and can arrange to have it transported from the Seattle area, message me on fedi or e-mail me at hello@alyx.sh
Mastodon Feedfromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻 ✍️ 🥐 🇵🇷") wrote:
"If you own a device with a camera on it, just assume it is always recording, and that footage will be stored somewhere, forever."
Bars. We love a techno-radical short king.
Mastodon FeedBoosted by jsonstein@masto.deoan.org ("Jeff Sonstein"):
jackel23gr@mastodon.world wrote:
Graphic explaining why this is not required.
SAVE America Act is not saving Americans, just the crooked Dump admin.https://mastodon.social/@grrlscientist/116227742389242857
#USpol #USpolitics #SAVEact