It is with a heavy heart I need to remind everyone again that the only true and valid definition of productivity is how much happiness and well-being is being produced.
Remote
Lars Wirzenius
@liw@toot.liw.fi
mastodon 4.7.2Currently working full time on #Radicle (https://radicle.xyz/). On the side, I do training in the #Rust #RustLang language (https://liw.fi/training/rust-basics/)
I have 40 years of experience, almost 30 of it working full time. I have code running on billions of devices, on all continents, on all oceans, in orbit, and on Mars.
Please don't post or re-post fediverse posts via bridges, or otherwise, on commercial social media.
My posts auto-delete after some weeks.
2300 Followers
108 Following
50 Posts
Joined May 18, 2019
On this day in 1983 Stanislav Petrov saved the world by refusing to start a nuclear war.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislav_Petrov
#OTD #OnThisDay
I see increasing number of cases where people say "I asked an LLM to explain this to me". Whenever they're about a topic I actually know about, I see errors. I have stopped engaging in those discussions.
If you want to understand something, I'm usually happy to share what I know. I will not, however, spend time and effort to first disentangle what a machine has produced.
Boosted by @Dragofix@veganism.social
On this day in 1991 some college kid in Finland told people on Usenet he would not be doing a big and professional operating system. It would later be called Linux.
https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~awb/linux.history.html
#Linux #OnThisDay #OTD
Open source development, like all software development, is inherently a political act.
Our societies rely on software so much now, that any software incorporates a view of how we should run our lives. Thus, it's as much political as writing a pamphlet.
(Just shouting this into the aether. Not going to debate this. Don't try.)
Replying to
@husku@eliitin-some.fi Meillä on tuollaisia hätätilanteita varten ns. "go bag", jossa on vaatteita, varapuhelin, SIM-kortti, vähän käteistä, yms, äkkilähtöä varten. Ei ole onneksi tositilanteessa testattu.
"LLMs are just a tool" the way "Slavery is just a lifestyle choice".
#rant
Intolerance in general, and hate speech in particular, has consequences, including physical violence. Don't tolerate intolerance.
Boosted by @GroupNebula563@mastodon.social
Life in the open source ecosystem in 2026
A non-profit organization that provides a valuable service for free. It's membership votes to limit its service by excluding uses that they feel harm their community. The Internet entitlement machine spins up. Many people object to this, and claim they are being censored.
Sometimes I get so tired of my supposed peer group.
(Yes, this is about Codeberg.)
What was the first computer you wrote code for? What country were you in? When was this?
Me: Luxor ABC-802, Finland, 1984
Interested in distributed CI?
I organize a weekly office hour, for questions about Radicle CI and related topics, in https://meet.ffmuc.net/radicleciofficehour (Jitsi, only needs browser, mic and webcam optional but helpful).
This week: Wednesday, 07 UTC (09 CEST, 10 EEST).
Please join if you have questions, are curious, or need help.
https://radicle-ci.liw.fi/
#Radicle #RadicleCI #ContinuousIntegration #officeHour
Is Google evil?
I continue to think that Linus's law ("with enough eyeballs all bugs are shallow") does not mean bugs get found, but that causes for bugs get found.
"The Linux kernel misbehaves if this happens" ⇒ lots of people look for why. As far as I can see, this continues to be true.
NOT: "Lots of people interested the Linux kernel, therefore all bugs are found quickly". That makes no sense at all to me.
#subtoot
Happy sysadmin appreciation day!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_Administrator_Appreciation_Day
Replying to
@rpsu@mas.to Toinen asia fasistien pelikirjasta on media-luottamuksten tuhoaminen. Vrt. persut ja Ylen rampauttaminen.
If you ask for help from an open source project, and they ask you a specific question, please answer that exactly as asked. Avoid indirection: "latest version in repository" does not tell us what version you have, and it leaves the question of what repository you use.
Copy-pasting the output of "foo --version" or similar command is the desired answer.
You can add additional details if you want, but do NOT skip the exact answer requested. This way you avoid unnecessary misunderstandings.
Repercussion: the act of hitting a musical instrument again.
It's difficult to be funny. Most attempts are misunderstood. That's why I often add "that was a joke" to make it clear people should laugh.
I like the English language.
"Linen" has several meanings:
- a textile made out the flax plant
- any household fabric made out of any material, usually linen or cotton
- a church altar cloth, possibly made out of linen
It's a wonder communication ever happens.
Replying to
@turmalina@mementomori.social @timolaine@mastodon.green @raik_su@mstdn.social @magdalenahai@mstdn.social Eikä sitä visiota voi jättää virkamiesten muotoiltavaksi. Siihen tarvitaan koko yhteiskunnan laajuinen keskustelu.
Replying to
@rimmajoonatan@mementomori.social En ole juristi, mutta ymmärtääkseni tavaramerkkien tarkoitus on suojella ostajaa, jotta tietää mitä on ostamassa, eikä haluamansa asian kopiota. Jos ostan kellon, jonka myyjä sanoo olevan Rolex, sen pitää olla kuuluisan sveitsiläisen kellotehtaan tekemä, eikä jotain muuta. Jos ostan Reissumies-leivän, se ei saa olla jokin toinen leipä.
Kirjoissa kirjan nimi ei ole ainoa tunniste, vaan myös tekijän nimi. Samannimisiä kirjoja on paljon, aina ollut.
En ymmärrä Pajukantaa.
Today, @kinnison@social.flarn.net and I have moved the Subplot project from gitlab.com to Radicle.
Subplot is our tool for documenting acceptance criteria and how they are verified for all stakeholders of a system. Coincidentally, Subplot can also generate code to perform the verification.
The new location is here:
https://radicle.network/nodes/radicle.liw.fi/rad%3Azjxyd2A1A7FnxtC69qDfoAajfTHo
Replying to
It's impressive because of how large Debian is and because it's basically all volunteers.
Replying to
@retrocomputing@mastodon.social An author that calls a reader who doesn't want DRM on their devices a pirate is an author who simplifies a nuanced, complicated complex of issues into a monochromatic caricature that allows for no shades and belies the diversity that is the richness of the world and of great fiction.
Claiming that I am a pirate when I want software freedom on my computing devices is about as sensible as claiming everyone is either a Nazi or a communist.
#rant
@Ketakater@social.vivaldi.net @maxpool@mathstodon.xyz @pluralistic@mamot.fr
Replying to
Replying to
@corbet@social.kernel.org @baldur@toot.cafe I agree that LWN does good tech journalism, but it's the very rare exception, and always has been.
Replying to
@ssundell@mastodontti.fi "Kenelle siitä on haittaa, Mikael? Kenelle?" Päätellen aikaisemmasta historiasta, siitä on välittömiä kuluja työnantajille ja se lasketaan haitaksi. Sillä ei ole väliä, onko työnantajalle hyötyä, että työnantaja on terve. Mikä tahansa asiaa, joka pienentää työnantaman menoja lyhyellä tähtäimellä on hyväksi, jos tuolta lafkalta kysytään.
("Suomen yrittäjät" on harhaanjohtavasti nimetty organisaatio, koska se ei edusta kaikkia suomalaisia yrittäjiä. Esimerkiksi minua ja minun firmaani.)
I organize a weekly office hour, for questions about Radicle CI, distributed CI, local-first CI, or related topics, in https://meet.ffmuc.net/radicleciofficehour (Jitsi, only needs browser, mic and webcam optional but helpful).
This week on 07:00 UTC (9 CEST, 10 EST). I don't have any special topic this week.
Replying to
Replying to
@ElinaPyy@mastodon.social @kaarne@ecoevo.social @anulahtinen@mementomori.social Ainakaan Google Maps ja Open Street Map eivät löydä Kaislankuiske -paikkaa.
Replying to
@brennen@federation.p1k3.com I concur with the previous speaker.
https://blog.liw.fi/posts/2025/why-debian/
I need to debug a thing that runs in CI. Part of the run is a tool that takes five minutes to run and this makes iterations slow. I could rewrite that to run in less than ten seconds, but doing that would take a week or two of full time work. What do I do?
I need to debug a thing that runs in CI. Part of the run is a tool that takes five minutes to run and this makes iterations slow. I could rewrite that to run in less than ten seconds, but doing that would take a week or two of full time work. What do I do?
Replying to
@KimmoAhokas@mastodon.social @kinnison@social.flarn.net https://subplot.tech/ is the actual web site, which might be hard to find from the repository.
Replying to
@suihkulokki@society.oftrolls.com Based on previous and other actions I suspect it's financial fraud.
Replying to
@baldur@toot.cafe There's never been much knowledgeable journalism about tech, and what little there was, is now dead. I say this not to gloat, but to lament.
Replying to
@brennen@federation.p1k3.com I concur. While waiting for that, I've gotten an ultrasonic cleaner and an air blower, which works reasonably well. Fill with water, add a drop of dish washing liquid, dunk in glasses, run for five minutes or so, rinse, use air blower to dry. If there's a smudge left, clean with a microfiber cloth.
Repeat as needed. I do that every few days.
Replying to
@brennen@federation.p1k3.com Ours is a cheap plastic one from our local wannabe-but-not-really hardware store. I've been surprised how well it works for this.
Replying to
@Sini74@piipitin.fi Mun lista on https://liw.fi/style/ mutta a) lähinnä miesten tyylille b) ei vain kotimaisia. Mutta linkkaan siltä varalta, että siitä on iloa.
Replying to
@pare@kamu.social On ihan syynsä sille, että itse käytän Wikipedian sivua. Ei sekään ole Liikenneviraston kontrollissa, mutta ei ole Flickr myöskään, oikeasti.
Teknisesti oman luettelona ja kuva-arkiston tekeminen on varmasti Liikenneviraston käyttämän sisällönhallintajärjestelmän (CMS) ominaisuus.
https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luettelo_Suomen_liikennemerkeist%C3%A4
Replying to
@maxpool@mathstodon.xyz It's possible I misunderstood his meaning, of course. I don't know him and his communication style.
@retrocomputing@mastodon.social @Ketakater@social.vivaldi.net @pluralistic@mamot.fr
Replying to
@pahoittelemme@mastodontti.fi Jouduin hiljattain asentamaan Matkahuollon appin, koska muuten uusi pakettiautomaatti ei olisi antanut pakettiani. Jatkossa vältän tuon firman palveluiden käyttämistä.
Replying to
@nilesh@social.tchncs.de I doubt I will ever re-join Debian. I've done enough operating system / distro development in this lifetime.
Replying to
@bkuhn@fedi.copyleft.org I've hammered into my brain "I'm creating a new thing y that points at x" so "ln x y" comes more easily to me now. But I still check after creating the symlink.
Replying to
@foone@digipres.club Not just bluesky users. Also everyone researching social media and harms social media use can cause.
En tykkää kun jäätelöauto kiertää naapurustoa ja vähän väliä soittaa kovaäänistä mainosmelodiaansa.
#nillitys
Boosted by @oxy@social.bsdlab.au
Replying to
@neil@mastodon.neilzone.co.uk While I don't know the KDE community at all, open source, hacker, techie, and similar organizations in general have a bad track record in having rules for conduct, and when they do, applying them evenly and in a just way. Governance, for any large group of people, is difficult, and during conflicts it gets much more so. There's a reason why in most societies it's delegated to experts in that in the form of the judicial system.