@alcinnz@floss.social
@alcinnz@floss.social avatar

alcinnz

@alcinnz@floss.social

A browser developer posting mostly about how free software projects work, and occasionally about climate change.

Though I do enjoy german board games given an opponent.

Pronouns: he/him

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

stevestreza, to random

This month's haul:

alcinnz,
@alcinnz@floss.social avatar

@SEGFAULT @OkieSpaceQueen @stevestreza Got another interested buyer here!

ryanhoulihan, to random
@ryanhoulihan@mastodon.social avatar

If they want to try letting AI do human jobs, why not start with CEO?

alcinnz,
@alcinnz@floss.social avatar

@ryanhoulihan Think of all the cost savings! CEOs are expensive!

alcinnz, to random
@alcinnz@floss.social avatar

I finished reading World Wide Waste by Gerry McGovern. I'd consider it essential reading for anyone working with computers!

https://gerrymcgovern.com/books/world-wide-waste/

It's well cited (though I still need to check those citations) & uses maths effectively to make it's point.

That computers + (surveillance) capitalism is actually worse for the environment than the predigital era. That we can and must move slow and fix things, and fund that vital work directly.

alcinnz,
@alcinnz@floss.social avatar

@oranger2020 Maybe it depends on what we consider significant. One of the most expensive activities we regularly do online is a Google, etc search which according to this book amounts to 1080joules, akin to leaving a 60watt lightbulb on for 17s.

alcinnz,
@alcinnz@floss.social avatar

@oranger2020 In regards to building the computers: agreed. I was more thinking in terms of usage.

lolennui, to random
@lolennui@mstdn.social avatar

we need to stop pretending white supremacist groups operate in the deepest bowels of the internet when they’re literally just on youtube one click away from a game play through

alcinnz,
@alcinnz@floss.social avatar

@lolennui The term "the deep web" annoys me! It's nowhere near cohesive as the term implys, & the quality you get for digging beneath the surface web is a lot higher.

As you say, the nastiness is on the surface web!

Then there's the question of whether a distinction is being made between "the deep web" & "the dark web".

nielsa, to random

Hey @adamconover ! I just commented on your interview with @emilymbender and @timnitGebru on youtube, but thought you might prefer to respond somewhere like here, so I'm posting it here, too:

alcinnz,
@alcinnz@floss.social avatar

@nielsa @adamconover Meanwhile I know devs who have a different experience...

alcinnz,
@alcinnz@floss.social avatar

@nielsa @adamconover I don't find it worth optimizing my code writing with AI, that's not where I spend my time! Almost all my time is spent communicating with others figuring out in detail what code to write. Or figuring out how to tweak, usually someone else's, code to do what I want.

There is tech which helps with the latter that goes unused, whilst the former is fundamentally human.

alcinnz, to random
@alcinnz@floss.social avatar

Hopefully finishing my studies of Shadow's accounts/authorization commands today...

After initializing LibShadow, internationalization chgpasswd parsing commandline flags (handling -R special), opens log, checks privs with PAM if suppored, checks shadow-group file's presence if it's buildflag's set, opens relevant files under lock reporting errors, & reads each line of stdin before reporting errors & cleaning up.

1/?

alcinnz,
@alcinnz@floss.social avatar

After sanitizing envvars then initializing LibShadow & internationalization passwd parses/validates commandline args (handling -R special) whilst opening logging & checking whether we're root, retrieve our own entry in the passwords file, checks the next arg for the account to set fallingback to our own, verify no further args are given, handle -a flag validating other flags aren't set by iterating the passwords file & outputting each entry, validates flags further, ...

5/?

alcinnz,
@alcinnz@floss.social avatar

Then accepting 2 additional args grpck opens the group files under lock reporting any errors including to syslog, either sorts or validates them, closes the files, cleans up flushing caches, & reports any errors including in the exitcode.

Validation involves iterating over the group file skipping over NIS entries reporting any syntax errors (which it prompts to delete), duplication, fields validity, & correspondance in Shadow file. Has seperate validation for shadowfile.

4/?

alcinnz,
@alcinnz@floss.social avatar

... opens the faillog file retrieving its size & reporting errors, possibly reads/updates locktime within that file, possibly does same for max-fails, possibly resets fail count, otherwise prints relevant entries, & cleans up reporting errors. These changes can apply to a single user-ID or a range of them, giving each support function a wrapper handling this branching.

After initializing LibShadow & i18n grpck parses commandline flags (handling -R special) whilst opening logging.

3/?

alcinnz,
@alcinnz@floss.social avatar

For each valid stdin line chgpassword parses it, checks the configured hash function & hashes the password with it, locates the group (in both group files, depending on buildflags), sets the new password, & writes updates.

chpasswd meanwhile works similarly except it adds a configurable salt, & has extra per-item PAM authentication if supported.

After initializing LibShadow & i18n faillog parses/validates commandline flags (handling -R special) validating no args remain, ...

2/?

alcinnz,
@alcinnz@floss.social avatar

... resets envvars, checks privs with PAM if supported, looks up our password entry for more privs checking & reauthorization, fills in fallback values, logs this action, configures new credentials with or without PAM, writes to audit log, reconfigures envvars again, reconfigure shell, cleans up, & runs the shell command.

6.5/6.5 Fin for today! I should definitely be able to finish tomorrow!

This is taking me a while, didn't expect that...

alcinnz,
@alcinnz@floss.social avatar

... validates the user's presence, checks privs with PAM if supported, validates we're root or changing our own password, given -S exits outputting our entry, either calls PAM routines or having re-authenticated the user prompts them for their password twice validating against LibCrack, cleans up flushing caches, & reports results.

After initializing i18n su initializes LibShadow to save info from our password entry, opens logging, parses commandline flags & remaining args, ...

6/7! for now

somarasu, to random

I think the main difference between the fediverse and something like Twitter (or its bluesky alternative) is that the fediverse truly has a "community" aspect to it.

Remember when old-school BBS folks lamented the net b/c it didn't have that local kinda flavor? I think the fediverse is the answer to that.

Everything else has kinda felt like a cheap imitation (i.e. Bluesky)

alcinnz,
@alcinnz@floss.social avatar

@somarasu Soylant green is people!

HerraBRE, to random
@HerraBRE@mastodon.xyz avatar

This is a very interesting take on the current state of "AI" - at least one Googler thinks the Open Source world is in the process of leaving all the big companies in the dust when it comes to improving and building on LLMs.

https://www.semianalysis.com/p/google-we-have-no-moat-and-neither

alcinnz,
@alcinnz@floss.social avatar

@HerraBRE Curious to see your response!

alcinnz,
@alcinnz@floss.social avatar

@HerraBRE Fair enough, same!

Get the training needs down far enough & it might be interesting to include in a bookmark manager. Where I'm not avoiding text input, that is!

alcinnz, to random
@alcinnz@floss.social avatar

For any new followers since I last mentioned this: I am an amateur browserengine dev, currently with NLnet funding! Currently focusing on building a great TV experience "Haphaestus".

I strive to show the potential of a simpler JavaScript-free web to work on any conceivable device! Without sacrificing support for a myriad of written languages, or accessibility measures! Written in reusable Haskell.

And yes, I threw in Gemini support since that was trivial.

1/2

alcinnz,
@alcinnz@floss.social avatar

@indieterminacy Thanks!

With Haphaestus I'm designing for the limitations of TV remotes, whilst enforcing accessibility mitigations. It's the same underlying technology which I've started calling "The Argonaut Stack", but targetting a different medium.

I might even incorporate Rhapsode into Haphaestus to give the VCR buttons something to do!

scottjenson, to opensource
@scottjenson@social.coop avatar

I really enjoyed offering UX Coaching to an maintainer last week. We covered a lot in 30 minutes and they'll be sending me a UX work proposal I'll review.

If any maintainer wants a free UX consultation to:

  • help write an UX onboarding brief
    - Discuss how best to use a UX Designer
  • Bitch about UX designers (really...)

I'm happy to help. Just DM me and we can setup a time. I strongly feel we can get more UX in , it just takes a little bridge building.

alcinnz,
@alcinnz@floss.social avatar

@scottjenson I'd enjoy a chat, though most of my work is facilitating others' designs more than implementing my own!

alcinnz, to random
@alcinnz@floss.social avatar

New blogpost!

Lists - me @ Argonaut Constellation: https://argonaut-constellation.org/2023/05/08/lists.html

Stuffed full of excellent links, as I like it! Granted several are to cssreference.io or developer.mozilla.org (I like those references), but still! As I said this morning, this reminds me of why I love hypertext as a medium.

After tomorrow I'll start (GPU) rendering as "Mondrian"...

alcinnz,
@alcinnz@floss.social avatar

Also I improved my site somewhat so CatTrap & Balkón are no longer listed as in-progress. And hopefully the webfeed works for more people now!

Oh, & I gave CatTrap an icon. Help make it's name make a bit more sense to those who don't regularly experience how much cats love boxes!

alcinnz, to random
@alcinnz@floss.social avatar

My writing on AI; the story so far - Baldur Bjarnason: https://www.baldurbjarnason.com/2023/writing-on-ai-the-story-so-far/

The polarisation of AI discourse serves nobody except power: https://www.baldurbjarnason.com/2023/polarised-ai-discourse/

Personally I think this tech can be useful but on balance is actively more harmful. And not in a "singularity" way. I try to boost the more balanced takes, which Bjarnason is great for!

alcinnz, to random
@alcinnz@floss.social avatar

short note: why isn’t role=presentation/none allowed on focusable elements? - Steve F: https://html5accessibility.com/stuff/2023/05/02/short-note-why-isnt-rolepresentation-none-allowed-on-focusable-elements
React Testing Library & Accessibility - Mark Steadman @ Dev.To: https://dev.to/steady5063/react-testing-library-accessibility-4fom
A11y matters at the IP Office UK (IPO) - Amy Price: https://accessibility.blog.gov.uk/2023/05/04/accessibility-matters-at-the-intellectual-property-office-uk-ipo

alcinnz, to random
@alcinnz@floss.social avatar

I'm being reminded of why I like hypertext as a medium! No pressure to include all the context I'm referencing within the document I'm writing, I can always link to others who've written about it better!

New blogpost should be coming out tonight, with sight enhancements.

alcinnz, to random
@alcinnz@floss.social avatar

Reclaiming My Time - Miriam Eric Suzanne: https://www.miriamsuzanne.com/2023/05/06/2023-preview/

alcinnz, to random
@alcinnz@floss.social avatar

Hey fediverse: I'm looking for a link to share (in a blogpost) about internationalizing software? So that it can speak multiple languages.

I can find plenty about how to do it, but I'd prefer to boost someone else's voice on why to do it! Does anyone have such a link?

alcinnz, to random
@alcinnz@floss.social avatar

Getting VoiceOver to shut up - tempertemper: https://www.tempertemper.net/blog/getting-voiceover-to-shut-up

Accessible HTML Elements - Amber Wilson: https://amberwilson.co.uk/blog/accessible-html-elements/#ordered-list%2C-unordered-list%2C-and-list-item

No, APG’s Support Charts Are Not ‘Can I Use’ for ARIA - Adrian Roselli: https://adrianroselli.com/2023/04/no-apgs-support-charts-are-not-can-i-use-for-aria.html

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