pdt 🛸 @pdt@mastodon.sdf.org

I thought I'd try a new setup in my latest @netbsd install and overlay writeable paths on a read-only root file system via mount_union(8), but in my first naïve attempt I'm running into unexpected permission issues (under /var in particular). This would seem like something not entirely useless or unusual, so I wonder if there is a recommended way to go about it.

It's great to see how much of humanity's energy is spent not only on wasting opportunities and obstructing progress but also on actively and forcefully moving backwards.

Really proud of my species and its unshakeable commitment to stupidity at any cost.

What I like about good hard sci-fi is that it even challenges the very laws of physics as the absolute limits to what's imaginable, in dire contrast to a daily reality of the lowest of lowly aspirations grinding to a halt amid a suffocating runaway expansion of made-up constraints created by regressive forces and maintained by subservient drones with no imagination or humour

Turns out quantitative easing and stimuli (who comes up with these euphemisms?) a.k.a. creating money out of thin air lead to inflation.

Who would've thought.

Organisations and work: which gives rise to which?

This week in Graeber and Parkinson. Don't miss it.

device trees are madness

elementary particles of the universe, unite!

rise up against the tyranny of causality!

end electron slavery

mediocrity wins by paying talent to do nothing

looking at aliexpress the days when sourcing stuff from China meant they were essentially almost free seem to be over

I want to say I'm too old to be assembling IKEA furniture, but as what I'm assembling happens to be a workbench I fear the implications for my DIYer image.

Humanity's tried and tested way of dealing with anything that requires collective action is first to bury its head in the sand, then to find reason to argue and disagree, and finally, once things have become too acute and obvious to pretend otherwise, to talk at length about doing something, meanwhile doing little to nothing of positive consequence all along until (long after) left only with measures of last resort.

Selenium is an effective way to deal with a whole category of problems that shouldn't exist in the first place.

Also on an entirely unrelated note, don't let the Silicon Valley fairy dust trick you into believing most IT is anything but (badly) computerised bureaucracy.

I receive a letter asking me to make an appointment online to pick up another paper document in person, using the (long) link printed out in the letter.

The multi-level irony must be lost on whoever designed this experience. Or is that their evil laughter I hear echo in my mind?

oh i love to wait a few months for an appointment to submit a request in person that could have been a click on a website.

but not all is lost since you must make the appointment online (by typing out the long link printed in the letter you received by post).

you get to use a clunky IT system to dissuade those with disabilities or limited computer access or skills from applying.

*and* you get to enjoy the efficiency of a legendary paper-based bureaucracy.

the best of both worlds.

Not having taken any form of public transport other than planes in the past 2+ years, I had forgotten the surreal pleasure of being stuck on an immobile S-Bahn train for half an hour only to switch next to a tram that decides to change its route and destination on the go.

I typed in the wrong terminal and shut down the wrong machine. It was a clear indicator that it's time for bed.

Hello darkness, my old friend...