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Ivan Sagalaev

@isagalaev@mastodon.social

mastodon 4.8.0-nightly.2026-10-06

Recovering techie in Pacific Northwest.

Donating to https://wholewashington.org/
Donating to https://www.houseourneighbors.org/
Donating to https://indivisible.org/

Flag: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White-blue-white_flag

0 Followers

0 Following

50 Posts

Joined April 04, 2017

Web site:

https://softwaremaniacs.org/

Photos:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/isagalaev/

@isagalaev@mastodon.social

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@Npars01@mstdn.social @inthehands@hachyderm.io it reminds me how whenever a user data breach happens at some corp, it just gets written off on "hacking". Like it's just some inevitable force of nature, and not incompetence and underinvestment in common sense security measures by that corp.

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@isagalaev@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Forest path. #mosstodon

#photography #darktable

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@isagalaev@mastodon.social

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@nedbat@hachyderm.io @glyph@mastodon.social the problem many of us have with the use of AI* has nothing to do with the quality of the artifact it produces. Here's a drastic analogy: I don't care about the quality of clothes produced from cotton harvested with slave labor. AI is not slavery, of course, but the argument is the same: I don't want to use the product of an immoral technology. *) AI, as in billionaire-controlled LLMs built on mass resource extraction with complete disregard of adverse effects.

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@isagalaev@mastodon.social

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@davidcelis@xoxo.zone good!

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@isagalaev@mastodon.social

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@Retrograde there's already a similar effort https://codeberg.org/NerdNextDoor/evi

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@isagalaev@mastodon.social

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@decay and that's not even mentioning a simple fact that programming with AI *costs money*. Writing code in an editor is free.

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@isagalaev@mastodon.social

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@AnarchoCatgirlism okay, I'm totally steeling the phrase "advanced begging" — such an eloquent description of it!

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@isagalaev@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@NunavutBirder@mas.to darktable is absolutely great, has been my photo developer for years. However one important thing to keep in mind coming from Lightroom in particular, it's not just a different app doing the same thing. It has its own philosophy, its own approaches and a lot of legacy as well. Thankfully, it also has good docs explaining things in depth, and a good community producing tutorials and answering questions on https://discuss.pixls.us/ But it's going to be a learning curve.

discuss.pixls.us

discuss.pixls.us

discuss.pixls.us

Discussion forum for PIXLS.US - Free/Open Source Photography

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@isagalaev@mastodon.social

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@hannah "we used a machine that can pretend to be a person to pretend that we do research".

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@isagalaev@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Forming cone. I think this is what a coniferous cone looks like when it's not yet fully formed.

#photography #darktable

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@isagalaev@mastodon.social

· 7mo ago

Replying to

@WeirdWriter@caneandable.social @onepict@chaos.social that is such a precise observation. Just recently I had to mute a guy here who suddenly started posting looooong threads about how LLM coding was inevitable. I wonder why it needs so much energy to convince people about something obvious and "inevitable".

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@isagalaev@mastodon.social

· 4mo ago

Replying to

@grumpybozo@toad.social @niconiconi@mk.absturztau.be but wouldn't higher current "fry" the device? Or is it ultimately controlled by the device, and it just doesn't request more power when the resistors are absent?

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@isagalaev@mastodon.social

· 4mo ago

Replying to

@valpackett@social.treehouse.systems for people without context, what does it do, practically speaking?

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@isagalaev@mastodon.social

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@davidrevoy awww, Terry Pratchett is one of my favorite authors! Do more from him, please!

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@isagalaev@mastodon.social

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@jplebreton here goes another idol. Thanks for sharing for those of us who aren't on Twitter anymore. I'm starting to believe modesty is the greatest virtue in a man. As soon as a guy goes "why, I am actually smarter than everyone else", this happens ^.

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@isagalaev@mastodon.social

· 3mo ago

Replying to

@ge0rg@chaos.social just showed this to my wife while she's in the process of *doing exactly that* :-)

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@isagalaev@mastodon.social

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@codebyjeff@hachyderm.io what's absolutely *amazing* to me is when actual experienced programmers start singing songs about increased productivity and give examples like "C compiler in two weeks from scratch". They should know better, but it looks like there's something about those tools that captures them on a deep psychological level.

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@isagalaev@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

RE: @phoronix@masto.ai

OK, here's *the one* reason that'll finally make me find time and switch away from Ubuntu. I've been considering it for a while now, but was leaning towards taking the easy way out *again*: just upgrade my LTS and forget about it for 2 years. But "AI" is a bridge too far.

I don't car how non-envasive and opt-out it might be. One of the reason I use any Linux is to not be in adversarial relationship with my system.

Phoronix: "Ubuntu Linux Will Begin Landing AI Features Throu…" - Mastodon

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@isagalaev@mastodon.social

· 9mo ago

Replying to

@TimWardCam@c.im @ronanmcd@mastodon.green @micr0@wetdry.world "malicious compliance" is the name

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@isagalaev@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@wezm with 87% population living in the Northern hemisphere, you can probably forgive people this harmless default assumption :-)

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@isagalaev@mastodon.social

· 7mo ago

Replying to

@mhoye@cosocial.ca BUT PRODUCTIVITY!!! $$$$$$

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@isagalaev@mastodon.social

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@wwahammy none of this is going to happen, not likely. Currently main Linux distros are graciously allowed to boot by Microsoft letting them use Microsoft-signed binary for the Secure Boot process. California AG could just facilitate uhm "cease of continuation" of this practice.

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@isagalaev@mastodon.social

· 7mo ago

Replying to

@munificent@mastodon.social wishing you a speedy recovery!

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@isagalaev@mastodon.social

· 12mo ago

Replying to

@shanselman@hachyderm.io jokes aside, I once helped in a medical episode on the flight by translating to a nurse for a diabetic lady who didn't speak English. So yeah, keep vigilant!

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@isagalaev@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@ShadSterling@mastodon.social @xgranade@wandering.shop @glyph@mastodon.social I know I can view results. I don't understand the meaning of "change the most", specifically. Like, imagine we have 99 votes, and mine would be the 100th. The current split is 60/39, and I simply don't understand which of 61/39 or 60/40 "changes" the most. It's a change by 1 in both cases.

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@isagalaev@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@ShadSterling@mastodon.social @xgranade@wandering.shop @glyph@mastodon.social yeah, may be me not reading the thread was the problem… Again, may be it's all just me. I'm just highlighting it might be confusing to someone.

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@isagalaev@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@xgranade@wandering.shop @glyph@mastodon.social "vote on whichever answer causes the current results to change the most" — I seriously don't understand this phrasing. The "current result" is two numbers, they're going to change by 1 vote no matter what I choose. Do you mean I need to increase the gap? P.S. I suspect I'm not the only one having trouble understanding it.

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@isagalaev@mastodon.social

· 7mo ago

Replying to

@tsturm @gknauss from what I saw, most of the tech is in it for money. And has been for many years. I think as soon as the Big Tech formed and started poaching talent from each other by inflating compensation, that was the moment when most people started going into STEM simply in anticipation of a cushy lifestyle ahead. I've seen *a lot* of young folks who saw coding only as a necessary first step in a career.

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@isagalaev@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@wezm but the fact that you quoted that announcement is the evidence that people do indeed forget. All I'm saying is that it's understandable.

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@isagalaev@mastodon.social

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@kirakira@furry.engineer @Lana@beige.party what they mean is the world-first rail line over a floating bridge. However this achievement has absolutely nothing to do with Katie Wilson. It was a 20 year old project of Sound Transit funded by voters from all over the area, which they finally finished a week ago. And I wish my fellow Seattle progressives wouldn't try so hard to bend the facts to fit the "female socialist mayor" narrative. She was only there for 3 months, we don't know how effective she's going to be.

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@isagalaev@mastodon.social

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@chrisjrn@social.coop @kyle@mastodon.kylerank.in good thing we have now trained the consumer to expect shitty software :-)

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@isagalaev@mastodon.social

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@Star12Mt great juxtaposition!

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@isagalaev@mastodon.social

· 10mo ago

Replying to

@ottaross that's the spirit!

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@isagalaev@mastodon.social

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@chrisjrn@social.coop @kyle@mastodon.kylerank.in to me, this explains everything why the corporate world embraced LLM coding so eagerly: this is just how they look at software. The approach of careful, sustainable development doesn't work there. It's only in open-source where you'd find 20, 30-year old projects still going strong.

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@isagalaev@mastodon.social

· 4mo ago

Replying to

@niconiconi@mk.absturztau.be @grumpybozo@toad.social @valpackett@social.treehouse.systems got it. Thanks for the explanations everyone!

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@isagalaev@mastodon.social

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@kyle@mastodon.kylerank.in @chrisjrn@social.coop this is not new for LLMs, by the way. This is how typical in-house corporate software has lived for some time: a year or two of frantic development, then stuck unmaintainable and then replaced by a new system. The approach works even though it's technically inefficient, as our industry rewards overhiring. The latter might be changing though…

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@isagalaev@mastodon.social

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@sysadmin1138@ngmx.com I'm 2 and 3. Thank you!

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@isagalaev@mastodon.social

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@chrisjrn@social.coop gotcha

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@isagalaev@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@rubenerd @wezm that's a notable nuance, thanks!

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@isagalaev@mastodon.social

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@wwahammy can't say. What I mean there's a simple technical way to coerce distros rather than a complicated legal one.

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@isagalaev@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@wezm but it's not wild for the northerners, as we run into such misunderstandings only very rarely, because most of the world is heavily biased to this default. Let me rephrase it this way: apparently the 87/13 bias is enough to form a clear cultural default. Another one of those: American tourists simply assume everyone speak Eglish. And most of the time, people actually do! I don't believe Americans are uniquely dumb or arrogant, it just follows from their actual experience.

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@isagalaev@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@samwilson@wikis.world wow, it's a completely different face on these two photos.

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@isagalaev@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@pbx@fosstodon.org why do you read your spam? :-)

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@isagalaev@mastodon.social

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@tgpo thanks for reminding us how much crap we *don't* get from Jellyfin! This project is one of the bright spots on today's technical landscape.

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@isagalaev@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@alanstanley is it iris?

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@isagalaev@mastodon.social

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@kyle@mastodon.kylerank.in @chrisjrn@social.coop oh, for sure. I wasn't implying open-source never does rewrites. I'm saying that long-burn projects mostly make sense for open-source.

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@isagalaev@mastodon.social

· 10mo ago

Replying to

@dwineman@xoxo.zone oh god this hits so hard…

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@isagalaev@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

You know what's infuriating? Cleaning spring thyme leaves off it's thin, fragile stems!!! #cooking

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@isagalaev@mastodon.social

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@chrisjrn@social.coop @kyle@mastodon.kylerank.in "I think that's true in the proprietary space, too." — may be, although I can't think of a good example. Foundational libraries and frameworks tend to get open-sourced anyway.

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@isagalaev@mastodon.social

· 8mo ago

Replying to on hachyderm.io

@thisalex@hachyderm.io 404!

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