Recent submissions

Comment · 2 years ago
Hmm, I'm not saying it's a good idea, but what about a daemon that keeps a symlinked version of the entire jira environment up to date? So you have one jira-as-filesystem that's the raw files, but then for human consumption/interaction, you have a tree of symlinks, including multiple links to the same file wherever it's relevant. Might be adding more layers than needed, based on my lack of understanding, but might technically solve the (current/stated) abstraction issue.
Comment · 2 years ago
Off-topic except that it's about gumroad - does anyone know of a proper abuse submission address or form for gumroad?

I've received two spam emails from them in the past week, where a seller "sold" me something for $0, with a cryptocurrency scam in the item description - so I received an email from a legit gumroad address, but with attacker-provided content (text only in the email at least).

I submitted one through their form, but it's a Google Forms page configured to only allow a single response, so I could only submit once. I also forwarded one to "[email protected]", but no clue if that's a real destination or the best place for it...

Gmail flagged both of these as Spam, so while I'm not really concerned about my own security here, I figure gumroad themselves would at least like to know about this so they can limit the (spam list) reputation hit...

Comment · 2 years ago
That's one of the difficult things when dealing with any sort of conspiracy theory or major discussion about fundamental issues with government - there _are_ significant issues, so straight dismissing "The Deep State" isn't possible because there actually are instances of that sort of fundamental corruption. But then you have people who jump from those very real issues to moon landing hoax conspiracies, flat earth conspiracies, etc. etc., using that grain of truth of The Deep State to justify whatever belief they want.

It's related to a fundamental issue with discussing scientific principles in a non-scientific setting - yes, gravity is a _theory_ in the scientific sense, but that doesn't you can say "scientists don't know anything! they say gravity is just a theory, so what's stopping us from floating off into space tomorrow!?". Adapt the examples there to whatever you want...

And yes, that sounds fairly judgy of me - I am, alas, human, thus subject to the same fallacies and traps that I recognize in others, and being aware of those issues doesn't guarantee I can avoid them...

Comment · 2 years ago
Comment · 2 years ago
From the linked article:

"Vanilla OS also checks for system updates weekly, by default. Users can change this to daily, weekly, or never if they choose. To minimize any impact on the user experience, the updater considers factors such as system load, battery level, and network connection before applying system updates. With the core operating system and applications set for automatic updates, Vanilla OS aims to relieve users of the often tedious task of keeping all packages updated."

As long as the update process actually works, I think that's a good balance - weekly by default, but can be disabled.

Comment · 2 years ago
Comment · 2 years ago
"No, 'c_water' means 'clean_water', it has nothing to do with the temperature, so that's why you got burnt; also 'gray water' has nothing to do with a positional encoding scheme, and 'garbage collection' is just a service that goes around and picks up your discarded post-it notes - you didn't take that rotting fruit out of the bowl, so how could we be expected to know you were done with it?"
Comment · 2 years ago
Comment · 2 years ago
Another guess - just comparing Linode and OVHCloud quickly, my guess is that Linode focuses more on multi-VPS systems, while OVHCloud has a larger fleet of dedicated servers. If you have limited rack space and an existing fleet of servers, my guess it would be easier to provide multi-VPS systems than dedicated; that's assuming and implying a _lot_ of history on how Linode has developed (and apparently been bought by Akamai back in 2022...), but could be one "practical" explanation for the different pricing for dedicated servers - VPS pricing between Linode and OVHCloud is much closer.
Comment · 2 years ago
All valid points, but I will say services don't help in this situation - I received an email from @redditmail.com recently, which is real and part of reddit but feels off on first glance.

Couple that with gmail having no way to show the full email address (by default - I know you can hover, etc.), rather than the sender-provided "sender name", and my false-positive rate for at least double checking and confirming the sending domain is kinda high...better that than a bunch of false-negatives of course.

Comment · 2 years ago
Yeah, too recent to understand (though I've also been out of the loop a bit) - so thank you, that's...a good one.
Comment · 2 years ago
Absolutely all valid points.

I will say (because you specifically pointed out you haven't checked - I do enjoy clear and honest communication online) that Obsidian at least deals with straight Markdown files, so while (per my current understanding) the program itself isn't OSS, the datafiles are all easily importable into other systems, and the files themselves are grep-able and mostly human readable (all text is there, but extra features and layout will not show up as nicely as in a Markdown-specific renderer) in any text editor.

Have a good day X)

Comment · 2 years ago
That's one of the benefits of the body cams - it protects the police from false accusations while it protects the citizens from abuse.

Your point about "absolutely highest impossible standards" is valid, though I'd say that I don't actually support _impossible_ standards. I don't know what the parent poster was thinking, what you're thinking, or what _anyone_ other than me is thinking about what would be "reasonable" standards, but obviously _impossible_ standards are, well, impossible... So yes, the standards would need lots of discussion and work, that I have not put in (and am not qualified for).

As for your general point about harassment...there's a lot.

First, I don't get how your specific example of jaywalking would apply - I don't think that would be something that a random person can take another random person to court over. Ignoring that pedantic note - if the cop jaywalks while not on duty, I don't really care - treat it the same as any other jaywalking incident. If they're on duty - if they're actively pursuing a crime/criminal, or doing something else that justifies the action, fine; if a random citizen reports them, worst case should be that someone (group, really) reviews the body cam footage, and then issues either a "no this was fine" or appropriate punishment - for jaywalking, I hope that wouldn't be more than a strongly worded "try to stick to the sidewalks and crosswalks when in uniform".

In general, the jaywalking example is actually really valuable - laws that are unenforced or unequally enforced leave a huge amount of space for abuse.

So maybe that would be a good start for the standards for the police - enforce the laws that actually already exist. So if a cop, say, walks into somebody's house to update them on their search for someone who was creeping around, and then ends up shooting the person _who called the police there_ in the head, well - sounds a lot like murder, and should be pursued as such. Same for kneeling on someone's neck for, what was it, 8 minutes and 46 seconds while others stand around and watch - sounds a lot like murder and ignoring a murder going on right in front of you (while you have the ability and responsibility as a representative of law enforcement to stop it)...

Alright, that turned into...much more of a rant than I expected, sorry.

Again, thanks for reading, and the civil discussion (not sarcasm). Have a good day all.

Comment · 2 years ago
You might like Notion, Obsidian or similar note taking apps - using it as basically a stream-of-consciousness tool, recording what you've tested, those notes you mentioned, but also being able to embed code, screenshots, etc. _all in-line_ really helps with the context reacquisition. Just lookup the shortcut to insert the current datetime (Evernote was "ctrl+;", Notion I think the best is probably "@now") and you've got good timestamps as well.

I'm not super familiar with Obsidian, but from your general description I think it might work best - I _think_ you can just have your (markdown?) Obsidian file in the project folder like you mentioned.

Comment · 2 years ago
Not trolling or attacking, but - how would criminals use higher standards of behavior to harass police?

I don't propose to have any magic solutions or great insights, but if there's a proper series of reforms I don't see how that could make them an easier target. As for a "proper series of reforms" - mandatory body cams is on my personal short list (enshrined in law or insurance policies, but with clear and severe repercussions for incidents of not having them on), though better pay (it's harder to bribe someone who isn't having money issues), crisis and mental health training (and yes, establishing other support structures for these issues, rather than relying on police to handle them too), stricter and more streamlined disciplinary action (no more needing national outrage to get a murderer fired and charged, and no union/FOB protection for clear violations of civil rights and this new code of conduct), and whistleblower protection would all be great.

If anything, that would make police _safer_ - there will always be criminals and those who wish to do harm, in general or to those who oppose their illegal activities - but having the entire citizenry at best wary of you, and at worst hostile, does _not_ help. Policing their own and just generally "doing better" would do a lot to increase general support for the police, which would increase cooperation and reduce the chances of radicalizing citizens.

The entire discussion is very complex, and I'm just an idiot on the internet, so take this with a bucket of salt.

Thanks for reading that wall of text; have a good day.

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