chris_spackman

@chris_spackman@twit.social

ESOL Coordinator in Columbus, Ohio, USA.
L1: English, L2: Japanese

#Linux user since 1998. #Emacs and #TexLatex user since 1999. #Gentoo is my Linux distro of choice.

Teacher of English to Speakers of Other Languages: #TESOL, #ESOL, #ESL, #EFL. Advocate for #EnglishLearners (aka #EMEB, #MLL, #ELL)

Advocate for, and creator of, #OpenContent, #OpenEducation, #CreativeCommons, #OER, etc.

Lover of #history, especially #JapaneseHistory. I studied #TaishoDemocracy and #OsugiSakae in grad school.

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

chris_spackman, to linux

I spent a lot of time today trying to figure out / to encrypt and sign backups. I've used it occasionally for literally decades, but still struggle with it. I know if I used it more, I would get used to it and feel more comfortable, but I don't have the time or the need to use it more.

Is there another good open source program to symmetrically encrypt a file? But, for signing, you would still need to use key pairs, right?

Any good how-tos out there?

chris_spackman, to ukteachers

It is that wonderful (not really) time of the school year when I spend basically 4 months doing standardized state testing.

As much as I would rather not have to proctor the tests, I feel very sorry for the students who have to waste valuable school time taking all these tests.



governa, to linux
@governa@fosstodon.org avatar

Working with RAM Disk Devices in

https://linuxconfig.org/working-with-ram-disk-devices-in-linux

chris_spackman,

@governa

I love using ram disks in . I've got plenty of ram, and use ssds, so I have the less important, commonly-written stuff in ram disks.

For example, $user thumbnail directory. Don't care if it gets wiped at reboot, and don't want Thunar / Dolphin et al writing thousands of small files to ssd all the time.

Not sure how meaningful it is, but also have profile dir in memory, synced to ssd every 30 min. Less wear and tear on the ssd, and I've seen no downsides.

danie10, to opensource
@danie10@mastodon.social avatar

LibrePhotos – a self-hosted open-source photo management service

Unlike commercial service that store your photos in the cloud and scan/index them to train their machine learning models and collect ad targeting data on you, LibrePhotos keeps all your photos and metadata on your local machine. Your data is never sent to or ...continues

See https://gadgeteer.co.za/librephotos-a-self-hosted-open-source-photo-management-service/

chris_spackman,

@danie10

Oh, thanks! I am going to look into this. I've avoided Google Photos for ... all the reasons, but seems like a great solution.

chris_spackman, to random

Great TWIT this past Sunday.

Incredible panel, some of my favorite guests. Cory Doctorow (@pluralistic), Iaian Thomson (@iainthomson maybe?), and Alex Lindsay. And Leo (@leo) of course.

Cory Doctorow, especially, always discusses tech matters with such insight and eloquence.

https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech/episodes/963?autostart=false

georgetakei, to random

Brilliant.

chris_spackman,

@georgetakei

In my class last weekend we were just talking about how "eggplants" were plants, but certainly not eggs (at least, not the ones we are used to).

I stand corrected.

chris_spackman, to Fonts

Occasional reminder that there is no solid research showing that special make a significant difference for readers.

I check occasionally for new research. This is the most recent, most interesting one I've found (that I have access to the full version of).

I like that it approaches supporting students from a more "holistic" (my word) readability / style point of view, not just a narrow font focus.

https://www.atlantis-press.com/proceedings/imdes-20/125947156

edits: added tags

paulox, (edited ) to books
@paulox@fosstodon.org avatar

I highly recommend supporting the Standard Ebooks project. 📚

«Standard Ebooks is a volunteer-driven project that produces new editions of public domain e-books that are lovingly formatted, open source, free of copyright restrictions, and free of cost.»

Donate 👇
https://standardebooks.org/donate

Please boost 🙏

chris_spackman,

@paulox

For people like me who are wondering "how is this different from Project Gutenberg?", there is an FAQ for that:

https://standardebooks.org/about/what-makes-standard-ebooks-different

Short answer: files created for modern ebook readers; less strict devotion to the original formatting and extraneous content.

chris_spackman, to ChatGPT

Great example of how helpful is: it just walked me through the math behind . I kind of, sort of understand the math better now.

It also came up with code to show each step of the math involved, for whichever two primes are input. It seems to work fine, without any tweaking or fixing.

Don't worry - I know enough to know not to try to roll my own anything. This is just for showing students how public key crypto works.

XeroLinux, to foss
@XeroLinux@fosstodon.org avatar

This is new on ... What is it I have no clue. Global shortcuts?

chris_spackman,

@XeroLinux

Perhaps I am misunderstanding, and if so, please ignore this post.

Global shortcuts are often part of the DE or WM and are recognized regardless of which (if any) program has focus. Like using the (shudder) Windows key to bring up the KDE menu.

I think the X11 app support question is asking if KDE should allow X11 apps to listen for those types of keystrokes.

"never" is safest. "all but only if a modifier key is also pressed" is probably most likely to do what you want.

chris_spackman,

@tkinias @XeroLinux

Yeah. The first, and so far only thing I can think of is a screenshot application.

On a WM, it makes sense because different people will use different things for launching programs, for example. But most things like that are build into the DE, so not sure.

chris_spackman,

@tkinias @XeroLinux

yup. agreed.

dnc, to Japan
@dnc@vive.im avatar

What is this condiment used for? https://www.diningandcooking.com/1022810/what-is-this-condiment-used-for/

chris_spackman,

@dnc

We just eat it on white rice (aka "rice") usually as part of a larger meal.

I love it and think it is delicious.

dnc, to Japan
@dnc@vive.im avatar

First time go easy. Grilled chicken miso ramen https://www.diningandcooking.com/1011684/first-time-go-easy-grilled-chicken-miso-ramen/

chris_spackman,

@dnc

Looks great. Will have to try this soon.

chris_spackman,

@dnc

Just had a thought ... are you calling it "oyako ramen"?

amoroso, to design
@amoroso@fosstodon.org avatar

User hostile design such as impossibly thin, auto hiding scrollbars is common in Big Tech products. But what's insane is open source projects blindly following along.

This post shares some tips for reclaiming scrollbars and making them work better:

https://artemis.sh/2023/10/12/scrollbars.html

chris_spackman,

@amoroso

Thanks. This was really helpful. I've been struggling with the scrollbars on since forever. Now fixed.

chris_spackman, to keyboards

I really, really want "Shift Happens". I'm sure it is worth $150 dollars, but I can't afford that.

If you love keyboards, history, and can afford it:

https://shifthappens.site/

QasimRashid, (edited ) to random
@QasimRashid@mastodon.social avatar

Wow. Rep Ro Khanna to intro major bill to increase congressional & judicial accountability:
•12 year Congress term limit
•18 year SCOTUS term limit
•Judicial code of ethics
•Ban Congress from trading stocks
•Ban Corporate & PAC donations

Count me in!
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/house/ro-khanna-unveils-blueprint-term-limits-stock-trading-ban

chris_spackman,

@anubis2814 @QasimRashid

IANAL, but Congress makes the laws - so unless the length of SC terms is specified in the Constitution (or a later amendment), I think Congress has authority to set them.

They also fund the court and they can increase the size of the court (that is, add more justices). So, doable, I think.

But, again, IANAL. I don't even play one on TV.

AshleyMarineP, (edited ) to random

Should they have left Gordon in 2025?

chris_spackman,

@AshleyMarineP

That's what was so great about the show. Both answers are both right and wrong.

BlackAzizAnansi, (edited ) to random
@BlackAzizAnansi@mas.to avatar

What's your favorite foss?

chris_spackman,

@BlackAzizAnansi

Pretty much everything everyone else mentioned (except vi).

But, have to put (and X.org?) at the top of the list because everything I use is on top of those.

Fluxbox does what I need, has the features I want (like grouped / tabbed windows) and is easy to customize.

chris_spackman, to accessibility

Does anyone else have to deal with a university (which I'm sure receives plenty of federal $$$) whose staff routinely send out emails consisting entirely of an image and no text?

On a good day the alt text is "a picture. alt text generated automatically".

Hilariously, one year a new accessibility / compliance person sent some emails trying to get others to follow the law. She gave up after a few months.

FWIW, their tech security is even worse.

chris_spackman, to random

Linguistics wonder: why does have to have the doubled 't' in the middle?

Even though (the above) is a made up / recently coined word, "enshitification' just looks wrong.

Maybe a long vowel thing?

chris_spackman, to random

I forget who it was who suggested an socks proxy, but thanks! It worked like a charm when I needed to access some sites from my computer in the USA, while I was in Japan.

I used the directions from this page: https://ma.ttias.be/socks-proxy-linux-ssh-bypass-content-filters/

chris_spackman, to random

Saw some posts saying vi and have poor user interfaces and are newbie hostile. That's probably true.

They also (basically) claim that users are imagining any improved productivity that they think they get from using vi / emacs. I'm not sure that is always true.

If you do a lot with text files, and you put the time into learning emacs, then I'm not sure that something like Kate or Kile is necessarily going to make you significantly more productive.

And, all the other things you can do

chris_spackman, to random

Perhaps legislators in Texas would have better luck if they tried passing a bill requiring the prominent placement of the 7 Tenets of The Satanic Temple up is classrooms?

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