Bobby Moss @trechnex@mastodon.sdf.org

I love this rebuttal to the “10x engineer” trope.

The amusing part is it can basically be summarised as “don’t be a sociopath” 😂

https://1x.engineer/

1. Open Notepad
2. Type .LOG
3. Save and close the file
4. Now open it again

You should see Notepad automatically add a timestamp each time you open the file.

It's a classic thing that's existed since early versions of Windows, and I just got reminded about it on birdsite and felt very nostalgic 😅

In other news, I now have a new personal blog! It's here: https://trechnex.github.io/

My previous blog link still works for now though: http://trechnex.freeshell.org/

Basically I'm shifting from handwritten content on the SDF public access UNIX server to a static Hugo site served from Github Pages.

It's a bit less nerdy, but it does look more modern and is a darnsight easier to maintain.

I highly recommend the "Don't Break Debian" wiki page, because much of its advice can be applied to other Linux distros you might use on your home workstations.

https://wiki.debian.org/DontBreakDebian

Don't worry, they'll tell you.

For those who missed it, Epic Games has thrown its toys out the pram because Apple pulled Fortnite from the App Store for violating its policies and Google *may* have prevented it from cutting a deal with OnePlus.

https://twitter.com/trechnex/status/1294096599497547776

I'd probably have more sympathy if they weren't also a multibillion dollar company in an industry that profits from getting kids to gamble and destroying their employees' marriages with excessive stress/overtime/mental breakdowns

Wow! That was a hell of a lightning flash. It briefly lit up the entire ground floor of my house! 😱

I guess the thunderstorms just arrived where I live. 😂 🌩️

"I'm so good at Call of Duty they call me 007!"

"Wow! That's amazing"

*Stats screen comes up*

0 Deaths
0 Assists
7 Deaths

In other news, I have ordered a Pinebook Pro!

I probably won’t actually receive it until September, but given it’s basically sold at cost (and therefore very cheap) I think it’ll be a fun little tinkering machine. I’m also interested to see how well Glimpse works on ARM64. 🤔

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised I’m doing this. I had much the same reaction to Linux netbooks back in 2008.

Speaking of which, I still have an Asus Eee PC 900 sat on my “todo shelf” as a potential refurbishment project.

Now the heatwave is dissipating and the storm clouds are rolling in, now is an excellent opportunity to strip the beds, flip the mattresses & launder pillows/duvets/bedsheets.

There is no excuse for sleeping in puddles of sweat again!

...and here’s a devastating list of all the teams that have been gutted by the Mozilla Corp executives: https://twitter.com/zkat__/status/1293585676336693253?s=21

I love this rebuttal to the “10x engineer” trope.

The amusing part is it can basically be summarised as “don’t be a sociopath” 😂

https://1x.engineer/

Source for that btw: https://twitter.com/gossithedog/status/1293440423235649536?s=21

I can understand their desire to “keep the lights on”, but it has an impact.

While web standards are still open in theory, one company (Google) now effectively defines how they will be implemented for the vast majority of Internet users.

Given that’s the same company that wants every website to run on AMP and their flagship browser to collect as much data as possible, that seems like... not a good thing.

Also worth mentioning Mozilla Corp recently launched a paid VPN service. Among laid-off staff is its entire threat management team.

I’ve long thought Mozilla Corporation is probably led by donkeys, but that’s definitely bad!

(For background they slowly & consistently lost market share for over a decade, but don’t seem to care as long as they make money.

They also neglected Thunderbird for years, spun it out into its own organisation, then brought it back in again when it started making money)

In case you missed it, Mozilla are laying off 250 staff, citing the COVID pandemic hurting revenue as the cause: https://www.cnet.com/news/mozilla-cutting-250-jobs-after-coronavirus-pandemic-cuts-revenue/

This is an odd one to react to, as this news affects the for-profit Mozilla Corporation (where their chief executive has a 2.4 million dollar salary), rather than the not-for-profit Mozilla Foundation that accepts donations.

...also it's been nearly 25 minutes since I stopped and I still feel ill.

Oooooh maaaaaaaannnnnnn 🤢

(Maybe the heatwave here in the UK is a factor? It's 29°C indoors at 02:17 UK time)

Amusing though this was, it was also quite a teaching moment for me.

Most of the avatars are women, and I felt actual discomfort when I tried some of those out. Whenever I looked down or saw myself in a mirror I was like "nope, this feels wrong. I don't like this!" and it really bothered me.

The two avatars I got on with was a muscly dude in camp sports gear with an excellent moustache, and an elaborate robot character. I think I'll stick with those!

I installed it on my Oculus Quest and gave it a go this evening, and I have some thoughts.

For one thing, I don't like the movement mechanics! After an hour or so, it made me start feeling ill. So I think if I play it again I'll try to make more natural movements or play it sitting down.

Also, there's not much to the actual servers. I didn't interact with randos on the Internet in this initial playthrough, so the low poly worlds were *very* obvious.

For background, UK houses & flats don't have air conditioners.

They are built for winter, so they usually have double-layered brick walls with insulation, and double-glazed windows. Also if you live in a mid-terraced house like I do, you have stud walls that absorb heat from the neighbouring houses.

This serves to turn our buildings into saunas when we're hit with a heatwave.

Offices, supermarkets & coffee shops with AC can offer respite, but social distancing & lockdown nix those options.

It's comforting to see the #cantsleep tag trending in the UK on birdsite.

I managed a 9:30pm to 2:30am nap, but it's far too warm so I'm downstairs watching Netflix and drinking plenty of fluids.

My CO detector reckons it's 27°C indoors atm, so... that's not great. 😂

We're coming up on nearly 3 years now since people starting asking the Riot/Element team for the ability for people to request to join invite-only community channels. 🤦‍♂️

https://github.com/vector-im/element-web/issues/5788

*wonders how long it'll be before FOSSbros start screaming about someone getting Trisquel to work on Windows Subsystem for Linux*

https://twitter.com/richturn_ms/status/1292876667438825473?s=20

The ocean is an over-seasoned soup.

It's way too hot in the UK to actually sleep, so I'm currently up at nearly 2:30am drinking home-made lager shandies and watching random twitch streams.

In other news, the FSF is having a totally normal one again.

https://static.fsf.org/nosvn/videos/fsf-heroes/?pk_campaign=frspring2020&pk_source=wat_no-really-wat