@talexb@fosstodon.org avatar

talexb

@talexb@fosstodon.org

Semi-retired Perl developer in Toronto. Fan of bicycles and transit. Amateur musician.

I organized The Perl and Raku Conference 2023 that took place in Toronto July 11-13. Thanks to everyone who spoke, helped out, and attended. :)

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

talexb, to random
@talexb@fosstodon.org avatar

If you like cheese, and you like science fiction, then this is the book for you.
https://mastodon.social/@scalzi/112464094854949575

talexb, to random
@talexb@fosstodon.org avatar

Demolition at Pape and Danforth. It's happening.

garius, to random
@garius@mastodon.me.uk avatar

Today's bit of computing history, and a hint of what's coming in my next tech history column.

This small article in the 8th June 1981 issue of Infoworld caused absolute panic in Microsoft and IBM.

Because it accurately predicted the release and details of the PC, 4 months before it became official

talexb,
@talexb@fosstodon.org avatar

@garius InfoWorld was awesome. So much cool stuff was reported in that paper.

talexb, to firefox
@talexb@fosstodon.org avatar

I started using about two weeks ago, after being a huge fan of . Chrome eventually became a huge memory hog, and quite sluggish.

This morning, FF couldn't connect to the network. I had live terminal sessions that were updating every two seconds, so the network was there. I decided to close FF, at which point there was a pop-up saying that it had updated, and needed to relaunch. That's something that Chrome did well -- inform the user of a required restart.

sushee, to random
@sushee@fosstodon.org avatar

AI MY ASS AND I CAN'T FIND A STUPID BUG IN STUPID GITHUB ACTIONS GOD I HATE THIS STUFF SO MUCH IT IS LITERALLY EASIER TO PROGRAM THE APP THEN TO DEPLOY IT GRRRRRR

talexb,
@talexb@fosstodon.org avatar

@sushee My manager set up the GitHub actions to build an app I was working on .. and guess what broke the day he started his two week vacation? I couldn't get help from anyone else (internally or externally), so that high priority project idled for two weeks. He came back and fixed it -- but didn't share what he'd done.

I really, really dislike working with people who set up impossibly complex systems and hoard information.

talexb, to random
@talexb@fosstodon.org avatar

Power's out in East York.

GeePawHill, to random
@GeePawHill@mastodon.social avatar

As reported yesterday, I 'bout hurt myself changing gradle yesterday.

Reporting today, somehow reset the wrong repo, and lost them. In so many ways, I strive to model myself after my dad's good points, and one of those is the colorful stream of obscenity this resulted in.

*But . . . *

talexb,
@talexb@fosstodon.org avatar

@GeePawHill I had one manager berate me for staring out a window while I tried to solve a problem. His comment was, If you're not at the computer typing, you're not working. So wrong.

ajsadauskas, to fuckcars
@ajsadauskas@aus.social avatar

What can you get to within a 15-minute walk of your house?

A recent YouGov survey asked Americans what they think they should be able to get to within a 15-minute walk of their house.

Of these choices, I can currently walk to all of them from my apartment, aside from a university (no biggie, I'm not currently studying, although there is a Tafe within walking distance), a hospital, and a sports arena.

How many can you get to with a 15 minute walk from your house?

@fuck_cars

talexb,
@talexb@fosstodon.org avatar

@c_9 @ajsadauskas @fuck_cars

Interesting poll. Did you notice 'gas station' hiding in there?

That's irrelevant if you're walking, and also irrelevant if you're driving - so, a red herring. The only time you go to a gas station is when you're driving and your need gas.

jacobydave, to random

When you're looking at code, going through loops of "what the hell were you trying to do?" before you can even get near "what the hell were you thinking?"

talexb,
@talexb@fosstodon.org avatar

@jacobydave If only it were possible to write some sort of test script, to confirm that the code worked correctly. :/

CultureDesk, (edited ) to food
@CultureDesk@flipboard.social avatar

If you have leftover cheese from the holiday season and want to free up some refrigerator space, you may be able to find it a new home in your freezer. Here's Epicurious's guide to what you can freeze, what you can't and how to do it without sacrificing flavor. Tangentially related, but really we're just being nosy: Which country do you think makes the best cheese? Tell us in the comments what's on your dream cheeseboard.

https://flip.it/q.PeZO

#Food #Lifestyle #Culture #Cheese

talexb,
@talexb@fosstodon.org avatar

@CultureDesk I apologize -- I'm not sure I understand the phrase 'leftover cheese'.

mjgardner, to programming
@mjgardner@social.sdf.org avatar

@Perl Happy 36th to the language!

v1.0 then:
“Perl is kind of designed to make and semi-obsolete […] The language is intended to be practical (easy to use, efficient, complete) rather than beautiful (tiny, elegant, minimal).” https://github.com/Perl/perl5/releases/tag/perl-1.0

v5.38.2 now:
“Perl is […] now used for a wide range of tasks including , , network programming, development, and more.” https://perldoc.perl.org/perlintro#What-is-Perl%3F

talexb,
@talexb@fosstodon.org avatar

@mjgardner @Perl Yup, matches my experience.. I went from writing little C programs to do stuff, to writing awk scripts, and then trying this new (to me) language called Perl to write my scripts.

Hmm .. it's pretty good, like awk, but without the limitations. Oh, and there's a local user group that meets monthly? I should join.

25 years later, still here.

nixCraft, to random
@nixCraft@mastodon.social avatar

What's your favorite web application development framework, and why do you like it?

talexb,
@talexb@fosstodon.org avatar

@nixCraft I quite like Dancer, the Perl framework. Mojo is also great.

masukomi, to raku
@masukomi@connectified.com avatar

I've been asked to write an article for the advent calendar this year. I have a simple tutorial idea that I think will be good for beginners, and I swear to god I spent half the effing day yesterday fighting with ORM libraries and now I'm thinking "Fuck-it. I'll just write raw SQL."

Personally, I love SQL, but it feels kinda bullshit that that's where I ended up, and it's terrible for a beginner tutorial. Never-mind the fact that dramatically complicates the amount of code I'll need.

talexb,
@talexb@fosstodon.org avatar

@masukomi An ORM is great in theory. I've never had enough experience using them to be able to use them instead of bare SQL.

Jgmeadows, to random

Today is being another day where getting words out has been like passing a kidney stone. But if I get about 500 more this afternoon I'll still be on track.

talexb,
@talexb@fosstodon.org avatar

@Jgmeadows Do at least the minimum every day .. keep writing!

You can always cut the bad days in post. :)

c_9, to random

It’s a pointless effort, but I just spent ten minutes removing high quality full colour business cards filled with anti-reality lies from each car in the Gerrard Square parking lot. I presume the source was this… choice.

talexb,
@talexb@fosstodon.org avatar

@c_9 And I would hazard a guess that they're also obstructing more of their windows than they're allowed to.

People can be weird.

b0rk, (edited ) to random
@b0rk@jvns.ca avatar

if you're an infrequent command line user -- what text editor do you use if you need to occasionally edit a file on the command line (other than vim/emacs)?

curious about what people use to edit a git commit message etc

if you picked 'other', I'd love to hear what you do in the replies!

talexb,
@talexb@fosstodon.org avatar

@b0rk Vim can be used for just about anything -- I probably only use 5% of what it's capable of. The good news is that it's available on any Linux/Unix platform you can imagine, so wherever you go -- it's there.

Visual Thing may be a really cool IDE, but I'd hate to get super comfortable with it, then end up on a system without it.

b0rk, to random
@b0rk@jvns.ca avatar

today I'm thinking about the tradeoffs of using git rebase a bit. I think the goal of rebase is to have a nice linear commit history, which is something I like.

but what are the costs of using rebase? what problems has it caused for you in practice? I'm really only interested in specific bad experiences you've had here -- not opinions or general statements like “rewriting history is bad”

talexb,
@talexb@fosstodon.org avatar

@b0rk The way I understand rebase is that it 'rewrites history', and I'd rather not do that. If a bunch of stuff happened in a branch, just merge that branch in.

I guess I don't see the pressing need to do a rebase instead of a merge.

briankrebs, to random

Shadowserver, which helps organizations learn when their networks appear to be compromised, had its domain suspended at Network Solutions. Who wants to take bets on the underlying reason?

talexb,
@talexb@fosstodon.org avatar

@briankrebs I've worked at a registrar -- there should be an log of that action. The domain owner should be able to get a full log of all domain actions from the Compliance department.

Jgmeadows, to random

In my IT experience, most failed projects had the seeds of failure planted when requirements gathering wasn't done properly. Bad requirements = inaccurate timelines and faulty budgets. Would love to know Metrolinx did the requirements for the Crosstown line...

talexb,
@talexb@fosstodon.org avatar

@Jgmeadows I agree -- the post mortem report (aka after action report) would make for a fascinating read.

Of course, they have to get the thing done before that can happen.

Seems odd that this project is so far behind -- it's just a light rail project. This kind of thing has been done before -- it's not like it's new technology.

nixCraft, to random
@nixCraft@mastodon.social avatar

Printer as a service 😠 Fuck HP 🤡

talexb,
@talexb@fosstodon.org avatar

@nixCraft .. and this is why I will never sign up for any automated service.

My HP printer gets new ink when I feel like it, not when it decides to order more.

And my Anova oven (which I adore) is permanently banned from attaching to my home network.

There's no way I'm going to allow some nerd in Omaha, Vancouver or Berlin to decide my oven or my printer should no longer work.

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