@elb@social.sdf.org avatar

elb

@elb@social.sdf.org

I'm here for old computers, radios, and cool nerdery.

I identify with #Unix #Linux #HamRadio #retrocomputing and #making.

Professionally I am a computer scientist, now primarily an educator of college students. I am a #SystemsProgrammer with deep experience in #networking, #EmbeddedSystems, and #OperatingSystems. I have also worked in #security from time to time.

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

elb, to academia
@elb@social.sdf.org avatar

OK Brightspace, I can identify at least one part of your trash software that can be skipped.

elb, to privacy
@elb@social.sdf.org avatar

Companies doing business in the United States should have liability for users and customers' personal information. Companies sharing that data with third parties should retain that liability, and the third parties should accrue additional liability. (NOT assume responsibility for the liability!) By liability, I don't mean "pay for credit monitoring from a company that has previously lost the same data", I mean cash on the barrel head, payable to the customer liability.

elb, to random
@elb@social.sdf.org avatar

> We are currently investigating an incident involving a Dell portal, which contains a database with [...] customer information[.] We believe there is not a significant risk [...] given the type of information involved.

but also:
> What data was accessed?
> * Name
> * Physical address

and also:
> The information involved does not include [...] any highly sensitive customer information.

This feels like the kind of thing people like @evacide have opinions on. For some people that's a BIG DEAL.

elb, to academia
@elb@social.sdf.org avatar

Friends in , my week: The last day of classes was yesterday, the first day of finals is tomorrow. Of course, there's a school all-hands meeting and a dept faculty meeting today, thus proving that administration absolutely doesn't teach or think about teaching. (I skipped the former, it's always creative numbers and affirmations, but the latter has some important stuff in it, so I'm zooming in while I finish up a final.)

elb, to hamradio
@elb@social.sdf.org avatar

The local radio club (LARA) is having a in Lockport, NY on June 8!

Entrance is $8, vendor or browser, vendors must bring their own tables. Gates open at 8 AM, FREE license testing from 9-11 AM.

elb, to random
@elb@social.sdf.org avatar

We paid over THREE HUNDRED DOLLARS each for some pre-hung solid wood doors made by Masonite ... and they're the worst doors I've ever bought. Far lesser in quality than the $100 pre-hung doors I bought under ten years ago. The strikes aren't mounted square to the frame, the joinery has huge gaps, the strikes are fastened with huge ugly staples that are proud of the wood surface, the hinges aren't seated square or full in their mortises, ... All in all it's a VERY disappointing result.

elb, to random
@elb@social.sdf.org avatar

To go along with jokes about Champagne, Bourbon, and Parmesan ("if it's not ... it's just sparkling ..." style), I present the following Roger Canning quote from 1967: "[computing is] the old tabulating operation with chromium plating".

(Once again via A New History of Modern Computing, by Haigh and Ceruzzi)

elb, to random
@elb@social.sdf.org avatar

I am frequently asked to grill fish. I have no idea how to tell if most fish is done. Sometimes it's pretty good. Sometimes...

elb, to random
@elb@social.sdf.org avatar

"Despite its name, software is more permanent than hardware."

  • A New History of Modern Computing, Thomas Haigh and Paul E. Ceruzzi
elb, to random
@elb@social.sdf.org avatar

Imagined #XBox360 Product Development conversations:

"CPU/CPU said thermals needed work, but Optical Drive said the drive was fine, so we decided not to make any changes."

"Mechanicals had a really solid case design, but Eject Button Guy was a little late and showed up with some great ideas, so we had to make changes."

"Video Connector Guy thought the back panel looked a little sparse."

"I've been assured the plasticizers are appropriate."

elb, to emacs
@elb@social.sdf.org avatar

One of my students opened up today, opened up a GUI file manager, found a file, grabbed the icon, dragged it onto Emacs, and dropped it. And it WORKED. I'm not sure which part distressed me more.

elb,
@elb@social.sdf.org avatar

@chrishuck In my experience the 21st century has a fair way to go to catch up to Emacs. But sometimes it surprises me with something like drag-and-drop anyway.

elb,
@elb@social.sdf.org avatar

@chrishuck @vt52 What's a half score of years among friends?

scruss, to pareidolia
@scruss@xoxo.zone avatar

Put-upon nocturnal woodgrain robot face

(as seen between seats in this Via train)

elb,
@elb@social.sdf.org avatar

@scruss (It is Groot)

ricci, to random
@ricci@discuss.systems avatar

On graduation day, a reflection on why I'm a professor:

I am where I am because of people at every stage of my life who have given me the opportunity, the support, the resources, the environment, the encouragement, to be successful. They've shared their knowledge, their experiences, they have been patient with me, and they have believed in me. Teachers, parents, friends, community, professors, mentors, colleagues. You bet I worked hard, but that hard work was possible and fruitful because of the environment that was built around me.

And now I get to do that for other people - AS A JOB. How fucking cool is that‽

elb,
@elb@social.sdf.org avatar

@AlanSill @ricci The quantity of stuff that's not in the job description (not just bureaucracy!) is ... staggering. Some of it is super rewarding, but a lot if it is just not. The students are worth it, though.

elb, to random
@elb@social.sdf.org avatar

Cameras on everything, sensors everywhere, multi-GHz processors in wristwatches, and I still don't have focus-follows-eyes.

THIS is how I know I'm on the Bad Timeline.

ricci, to random
@ricci@discuss.systems avatar

I just created a figure in LaTeX by typing everything from memory instead of cutting and pasting from an old document, AMA

elb,
@elb@social.sdf.org avatar

@ricci @aburka @pmonson is there information on your keyboard choice?

Asking for a friend with a keyboard problem who also moves keys from his pinkies to his thumbs.

It's me, I have a keyboard problem.

elb,
@elb@social.sdf.org avatar

@aburka @ricci @pmonson That's one of the best things about just running a firmware you can update. No more xmodmap/xkbcomp/setxkbmap/whatever. Just fix the daggone key to send the right code.

elb,
@elb@social.sdf.org avatar

@ricci @aburka @pmonson What's holding me back from that is the lack of a window manager that already does what I want.

elb,
@elb@social.sdf.org avatar

@ricci @aburka @pmonson I'm using Awesome, so I'm in that neighborhood, but it doesn't look zero-friction.

elb,
@elb@social.sdf.org avatar

@pmonson @ricci @aburka my trouble is that I said "oh, this is trivially customizable with code", and then I went and wrote my own layouts, so i3 and Sway definitely don't have those.

okennedy, to random
@okennedy@social.sdf.org avatar

One of my earliest "real" coding experiences was a language/environment for MacOS (~7-8 or so) called Frontier. The language came with an environment... a sandboxed runtime that you could mess with (I gather Smalltalk and Erlang are similar). This environment was great... I ended up learning a lot about network protocols (I have fond memories of my hand-coded webserver and hotline client) and scripting in general. 1/N

elb,
@elb@social.sdf.org avatar

@okennedy Similarly, I hooked a bunch of project management stuff into the existing project management infrastructure in Emacs that understands the filesystem layout that I use for associating lectures, assignments, labs, etc. all with a "course". All of the UI I use when interacting with that stuff is the Emacs UI that already exists for managing projects, it just understands a bit better how I do MY work. 5/

elb,
@elb@social.sdf.org avatar

@okennedy The "something deeper" is that I'm in an environment which is infinitely malleable and for which that malleability is up front and center all of the time. If I do something two or three times, I immediately thing "this should be a macro" or "this should be some lisp", and there's a rising cost of making those moves matched with a corresponding but force-multiplied power of doing so. Whatever I do can then be easily made permanent, if it turns out to b a Good Idea. 6/6

elb,
@elb@social.sdf.org avatar

@okennedy Post Script: This goes back to whether one thinks of Emacs as an editor that happens to be implemented in Lisp, or a Lisp machine that happens to be used to implement an editor. I think it's telling that most of the programming modes for Emacs are designed around the Lisp machine idea, though; Common Lisp and Scheme modes in Emacs have a REPL and incremental incorporation, but so do Ruby, Python, Scala, and other modes for REPL-having languages that are not so Lispy.

elb,
@elb@social.sdf.org avatar

@okennedy I think the spreadsheet reference is very apt, here. Emacs lets me treat a WHOLE LOT of things more like a spreadsheet treats its data. It doesn't, however, make it trivial to manipulate a matrix of values with loosely-defined relationships as easily as a spreadsheet does.

In the sense of "buffers are my state and I can either meat-modify them or splash code across them", yes, absolutely.

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • Leos
  • kavyap
  • cisconetworking
  • thenastyranch
  • magazineikmin
  • hgfsjryuu7
  • DreamBathrooms
  • InstantRegret
  • Youngstown
  • slotface
  • PowerRangers
  • Durango
  • everett
  • rosin
  • anitta
  • vwfavf
  • modclub
  • ethstaker
  • khanakhh
  • tacticalgear
  • ngwrru68w68
  • osvaldo12
  • mdbf
  • tester
  • cubers
  • normalnudes
  • GTA5RPClips
  • provamag3
  • All magazines
    •