@underlap@fosstodon.org
@underlap@fosstodon.org avatar

underlap

@underlap@fosstodon.org

Husband, father, grandfather, follower of Jesus, but very much a work in progress.

Retired software developer, visiting lecturer, IETF editor. Likes repairability. BTW I use arch.

Hobbies: reading, blogging, running, sailing.

Delighted to live in Winchester, UK. Involved in a local church.

Banner: Derwent Water
Profile picture: Dorset coast

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

cory, to random
@cory@social.lol avatar

deleted_by_author

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    underlap,
    @underlap@fosstodon.org avatar

    @cory This link displays a blank page.

    underlap, to random
    @underlap@fosstodon.org avatar

    @cory Do you have any pointers to evidence that some AI web crawlers are ignoring robots.txt? I think you mentioned such an example somewhere, but I forget.

    underlap,
    @underlap@fosstodon.org avatar

    @cory @roelant Ok, thanks. WIBNI all AI web crawlers respected robots.txt?

    underlap,
    @underlap@fosstodon.org avatar

    @cory @roelant This seems to be the closest we've gotten to a smoking gun: https://roelant.net/en/2024/im-blocking-ai-crawlers-part-2/

    underlap,
    @underlap@fosstodon.org avatar

    @cory That post wasn't really conclusive. I'm hoping @roelant may find the time to investigate further.

    underlap,
    @underlap@fosstodon.org avatar

    @roelant @cory Sounds like solid progress. I'll look forward to a new article - but no rush!

    I had a look through my NGINX logs earlier, but the only recent 403's (due to my robot blocker module) were my tests using curl. I also had a look at successful accesses of robots.txt, but didn't spot any known AI crawlers.

    underlap, to random
    @underlap@fosstodon.org avatar

    I agree with @keenan that it's not worth adding analytics to personal websites. But dare I turn off read counts so that I'm less aware of how interesting others find my posts?

    https://gkeenan.co/avgb/im-turning-off-my-website-analytics-because-im-very-brave-and-i-promise-i-truly-do-not-care-about-the-numbers

    kev, (edited ) to random
    @kev@fosstodon.org avatar

    This just glorious from @keenan. The way they read the post is just 👌

    https://gkeenan.co/avgb/rss-readers-make-me-want-to-jump-into-a-vat-of-acid

    underlap,
    @underlap@fosstodon.org avatar

    @kev @keenan It's the same for any feed. It's hard to get good quality without also getting excess volume. I don't even find it easy to "sample" my Mastodon feed like others seem to manage. So keeping up can become a burden. No answer here, but worth mulling over the problem...

    underlap, to random
    @underlap@fosstodon.org avatar

    Just when we thought UK water companies couldn't get worse, it turns out they've been lying all the time.

    Insiders say UK water firms knowingly break sewage laws
    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/apr/20/dirty-secret-insiders-say-uk-water-firms-knowingly-breaking-sewage-laws?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

    underlap, (edited ) to random
    @underlap@fosstodon.org avatar

    My NGINX robot access module is now complete and running on underlap.org. To see it in action try the following (but make sure to specify https:// before underlap.org):

    curl -A "GPTBot" https://underlap.org

    (should produce a 403 error)

    https://github.com/glyn/nginx_robot_access

    underlap,
    @underlap@fosstodon.org avatar

    If only I could use markdown to format a mastodon post

    timbray, to random
    @timbray@cosocial.ca avatar

    I asked meta.ai to generate an image of “a free oboe concert in Shibuya”

    [yeah, I know, but it’s been a long day. I also asked for an image of Neil Young fighting a dragon, but it refused.]

    underlap,
    @underlap@fosstodon.org avatar

    @timbray What's an appropriate metric for these AI systems? LOLs per gram of CO₂?

    mosseri, to random

    Excited to see this launch today. Meta AI is now integrated into search and is expanding to more counties in English so more people can use it on Instagram.

    underlap, (edited )
    @underlap@fosstodon.org avatar

    @kingrat @mosseri I ditched Facebook a while back, but I may have to stop following Threads engineers if they continue to promote Meta AI. I'm not interested in (a) Meta marketing or (b) AI - I'm really only interested in how well Threads federates with ActivityPub.

    underlap, to random
    @underlap@fosstodon.org avatar

    How big will be the carbon emissions associated with Meta AI? 🔥🔥🔥 https://www.threads.net/@zuck/post/C56MVfdxIZ-

    cory, to random
    @cory@social.lol avatar

    🔗 What you see https://everythingchanges.us/blog/what-you-see/

    underlap,
    @underlap@fosstodon.org avatar

    @cory Great article!

    matroska, to random
    @matroska@fosstodon.org avatar

    RFC9559 it will be

    underlap,
    @underlap@fosstodon.org avatar

    @matroska Intriguing. What's the context?

    underlap,
    @underlap@fosstodon.org avatar

    @matroska This? https://www.ietf.org/archive/id/draft-ietf-cellar-matroska-12.html

    underlap,
    @underlap@fosstodon.org avatar

    @matroska Thanks and nice to see another RFC in the making.

    lulu_powerful, to random
    @lulu_powerful@fosstodon.org avatar

    Nice try, Word, but it's not happening! You can't make me put an Oxford comma everywhere.

    And by the way, Word. Don't get too comfortable. This time next week, I won't need you any more.

    underlap,
    @underlap@fosstodon.org avatar

    @lulu_powerful Looking forward to hearing about Word's successor.

    mike, to random
    @mike@fosstodon.org avatar

    I installed rustc tonight and proceeded to write HelloWorld.rs. My first ever :rust: program. And it's 13MB. What the hell??

    underlap,
    @underlap@fosstodon.org avatar

    @mike I reproduced your hello world code (using cargo new hello --bin).

    cargo build produces a debug executable of 3.8 MB on Linux.

    But cargo build --release produces a 420 KB executable without debug symbols etc.

    (I believe it's possible to shrink the executable right down to a minimal form that depends on libc but I couldn't get that to work easily.)

    underlap,
    @underlap@fosstodon.org avatar

    @mike That's odd. If you want to chase the problem, create another project using cargo new --bin, check that produces a much smaller release binary, then play spot the difference with your project.

    Also cargo clean may help sort out your project.

    underlap, to random
    @underlap@fosstodon.org avatar

    Phew! Found the illusive bug in my NGINX robot access project.

    It turns out the robotstxt dependency was intended for use by web crawlers rather than web servers. For details, see "An unexpected bug" in the post (https://underlap.org/nginx-robot-access).

    Bed time now...

    indubitablyodin, to tech
    @indubitablyodin@sfba.social avatar

    Anyone here have a Framework 13 laptop? I'm considering getting a Ryzen 7 base model and adding my own RAM/HD.

    Right now, I have an awesome little Zepheryus g14, but it doesn't have good battery life and it's a fair few years old. I'll keep running it as my home computer but I think I need a backup on hand, as well as something I can travel with.

    Be interested in hearing any current owners' thoughts.

    underlap,
    @underlap@fosstodon.org avatar

    @indubitablyodin Did you read this: https://fedi.vale.rocks/objects/7c59741d-a9d0-4287-ac0a-8f7cb3214e70 ?

    underlap, (edited ) to rust
    @underlap@fosstodon.org avatar

    Here's the beginnings of a small project to create a NGINX module to enforce the rules in robots.txt, for AI web crawlers that ignore the rules.

    New Post: NGINX robot access, https://underlap.org/nginx-robot-access.

    jamescooke, to random
    @jamescooke@fosstodon.org avatar

    An email arrives in a lesser known but widely used Python package:

    """
    Dear Maintainer name,

    Our mutual friend and contributor to your package, jon420, has noted that your package's codebase would benefit from the addition of some updated code formatting.

    You will receive a PR from our mutual friend at 07:46 UTC on 2024-05-01 which will add a new formatter and fix the linting errors that have cropped up.

    ...
    """

    1/2 An inspired story

    underlap,
    @underlap@fosstodon.org avatar

    @jamescooke I'll look forward to seeing the "reformat" PR.

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