Nina Kalinina

While I'm still feeling meh, I want to at least call your attention to some projects that are worth highlighting: cproc C compiler https://sr.ht/~mcf/cproc/ Did you know that GCC allows fully LLM generated tests and some amount of LLM code in codegen? Did you know that LLVM allows even more? That tinycc main branch is free for all with vibe code? That author of chibicc is now full on in vibe coding, and even vintage pcc, watcom and tack might be endangered to slop? It's all very, very sad and scary. Cproc is the only C compiler that I know of that is explicitly not allowing LLM output in its code. It is reasonably mature, as it can compile a Linux distribution called oasis, and it is fairly portable - e.g. I had very little problems of building simple programs with it on NetBSD amd64 - but it is not a drop in replacement for GCC. (I forgot 9front's compiler, it's fine too, but it's not the C flavour I know) 🧵 Continues

Software projects you probably should know about, continues servo browser engine https://servo.orgSea Monkey https://www.seamonkey-project.orgPaleMoon https://palemoon.orgDillo https://dillo-browser.orgNetsurf www.netsurf-browser.org Chromium and Firefox rely on LLM generated code extensively. This means Firefox forks and Chromium forks are AI-tainted. WebKit, too, has Claude and Codex generated code in it. This means ways of browsing the web, the modern web, without slop, are critically endangered. If you want to reduce the harms of LLM usage, even moving to a Firefox fork would be a net positive thing, but our next best bets for slop-free web browsing are either Servo (warning: Rust and some dependencies needed for it are somewhat AI tainted) or forks of old Firefox, I think. And alternative js-free browsers. I'm really, really sorry, but I think modern web might not make it. Smolweb? Sure. Let's use smolweb more 🧵 Continues

When I was young, there was a joke among computer people: "sorry, I'm posting here from my coffee maker" (or a fridge, or a washing machine, or a kettle). It was very fun to think about such ways of computing. I was reminded of the joke last month, when I've had an interaction with a coffee grinder at the office. The coffee grinder refused to grind any beans; it was running a modern Android as an operating system, got a wireless software upgrade, and lost the WiFi connection it required (?!) for the grinding operation.

I wish I could offer more advice and guidance on living without AI-tainted or anti-humanist/fascist software. I think if you're worried about it, and have energy and time, you should try keeping your existing software and hardware going for as long as it is feasible. If updates stop coming, consider moving things to be offline-only. Research repairable alternatives. Learn about emulation. Choose safer options, and you probably will find No-AI list as helpful as I did: https://noai.starlightnet.work/list.html Additionally you might want to be aware of Open-Slopware list, though it keeps the projects in the list to a very high standard, including things I personally find forgivable (e.g. MartyPC is in the list): https://codeberg.org/ethical-foss/open-slopware Finally, if you want my opinion on Linux: I'm sorry but I think it's mostly done for, for my purposes. I don't think I'll find it fully ethical to use after LTS support for the late 5.x/early 6.x kernel drops. And don't get me started on systemd, python and other things that embrace AI. 🧵 end

@techokami@woof.tech it sounds like Linux finds only the whole partition but not multiple file systems inside (assuming you went for separate root and usr file systems?) The right mount invocation is a bit cryptic then but seems to be described here: https://wiki.netbsd.org/tutorials/how_to_mount_ffs_partition_under_linux/ Edit: nope the link doesn't explain all too much 🥲 @MrDOS@hachyderm.io @plzupgrademe@fedi.txw.ca @netbsd@mastodon.sdf.org

@techokami@woof.tech I vaguely remember that Linux might confuse OpenBSD and NetBSD file systems and needs a nudge in the right direction, could it be the case? @plzupgrademe@fedi.txw.ca @netbsd@mastodon.sdf.org

I miss unhinged phone designs, like this Nokia 7280 (for people much younger than me: no, it's not fake, I've seen this model with my own eyes)

Trying to learn from manga, still work in progress, redrawing a frame from "Uesugi-kun wants to stop being a girl". Trying to take long breaks to notice mistakes and fix them

@techokami@woof.tech please take it easy! I wonder if the phone's not connecting in the right mode anymore 😭 @plzupgrademe@fedi.txw.ca @netbsd@mastodon.sdf.org

Reading untranslated manga to my bae is one of the happiest things in my life, ever

A weird idea for a retro-style game: finishing a level uncovers a password for the next level, but the passwords are valid Win9x product keys

While we're at it, have you seen "Permacomputing 101"? https://100r.co/site/permacomputing_101.html

NetBSD 11 for i386 installed and booted on this eeePC 900 without an issue. As I expected, WiFi was turned off in the BIOS settings; I flipped it on, and the WiFi was detected by the OS. The graphic acceleration works, and it works pretty well - glxgears run smoothly. I'm currently installing some applications to try them out; sadly, the newest Firefox available for it in the packages is v52, which doesn't load many sites well, but there's Midori with webkit that might work better. The CPU has SSE2, so I expect most of the packages from pkgsrc would work even if I just grab the binaries.

@techokami@woof.tech hmm hmm maybe the kernel doesn't have the right file system support compiled in? 🤔 @plzupgrademe@fedi.txw.ca @netbsd@mastodon.sdf.org

Let's get some basics sorted out. Using NetBSD is generally more difficult than using Windows, MacOS or Linux. It is harder to configure, its hardware support is not as good, and there's fewer software options available. Depending on your needs and circumstances, using NetBSD (or OpenBSD, or FreeBSD) as your main operating system might be difficult or even impossible. So, why bother, you might ask. Well, I keep thinking about a metaphor; it might not be the most apt one, but I can't think of anything better: imagine that you're vegan, and you absolutely do not want to eat animal products. It is very obviously a choice. Now, if the supermarket does not sell vegan food, you are going to have a problem. Maybe you'll make your own tofu and seitan. It is not an easy life, but you try. Maybe you can't fully commit to it, because it's hard, but you feel like you (and everyone else) should have a choice. So, if one wants to choose not to use LLM-tainted software, I'm afraid NetBSD is one of a few options. 🧵 2/?

Good news, everyone! It looks like FreeDOS decided to ban AI writing the code for FreeDOS: https://www.freedos.org/about/ai/ They used to have a few LLM authored commits, so I was worried things will deteriorate/bit rot. Hopefully they will not!

@techokami@woof.tech I asked the author on their stance on LLM, didn't hear back yet. I similarly asked the authors of pcc, and got a sad (non authoritative) reply that LLM contributions should be welcomed. I think it's unsafe to assume that something old/historic/niche is going to be safe from slop. At this point, only cproc is safe ;( not even tinycc, chibicc or Watcom

@techokami@woof.tech on the topic of tack, maybe we could just summon the current maintainer directly in this thread, but seeing his ongoing FluxEngine project having Skills.md, something tells me that the maintainer would not be opposed to merging LLM PRs into tack whatsoever.

Imagine turning 16, watching your first show ranked "16+", getting to the Episode 83, and seeing: This program contains graphic content, adult themes and violence that may not be suitable for some viewers and is inappropriate for children. The content is intended for mature audiences only. "Oh no, I have to wait 2 years now!" probably said no 16-year-old watching Attack on Titan 😅

NetBSD gaming after work: got VA-11 Hall-A and PCSX2 work under Wine. Both have laggy sound, but otherwise are playable. I suspect it might be related to the timer provided by the kernel (I remember vaguely reading about it somewhere). I had to install NetBSD 10.1 for i386 and then replace /libexec/ld.so_elf from the latest builds of NetBSD 10 to get Wine working in principle, and from there I have to keep track of DLL names, because Wine somehow thinks that oleaut.dll and OLEAUT.DLL are different files (in other words, doesn't behave like Windows). Anything that tries to use DirectX with hardware acceleration crashes immediately, but software render works. Also, I think it should be possible to just port pcsx2 to NetBSD, but no idea what is the last version without Claude commits in it... sigh

If your i915 GPU glitches like in the post above under your #NetBSD 11, try creating an X config with X -configure, then change the device type from intel to modesetting in a freshly created xorg.conf.new, and then try running with this new config. This change has completely fixed visual snow and glitches on my Comet Lake GT2

@techokami@woof.tech the current computing landscape really makes me depressed. There's hope, but there's not enough cope.

My SO has been prescribed antimemetics, now it's impossible to rickroll her

Today I've experienced an unfortunate type of a wardrobe malfunction where a bottled drink in my handbag became just a drink in my handbag. I only had glasses wipes, band aids and a film camera in there. I hope the film in the camera isn't going to be ruined after being submerged in Coca Cola (but I expect there at least will be artefacts)

I want to print on B4 JIS paper, but the only printer I have that can do it is a dot matrix. This is the "draft" quality, it can do better, as far as I can tell.

I just realised that "motorcycle" means "motor cycle". Motor.... Cycle. 😭

@antanicus@puntarella.party the article reprints an article that reprints an article that refers to a small-scale but promising study from 2019 - https://www.researchgate.net/publication/335583033_Agrivoltaics_provide_mutual_benefits_across_the_food-energy-water_nexus_in_drylands The area of the each test site was 9x18 meters, and the study seemingly was running only for a year or two. I am not sure if the results are as readily replicable as the articles claim. However, the point of the research was the plants that are adapted to shade - like cherry tomatoes and jalapenos - so it is not that surprising they'd thrive in such conditions, and humanity definitely should experiment MUCH more with stuff like this.

I used Unix-like systems for a long time, but I only learned about apropos a couple of years ago. 😓 i should've had RTFM

@antanicus@puntarella.party looked up more, found the claim source for 62000 acres of agrivoltaics in the US. The research resources by NLR are kind of incredible: https://www.nlr.gov/solar/market-research-analysis/agrivoltaics

@mcc@mastodon.social there are quite a few sharp corners, but if more people would start daily driving it, there's lots of hope. Most of the hard, non rewarding work in OSdev is working on stability and performance. New features are relatively simple, for better or worse

I tried running Luanti on this eeePC, and it worked, but was unplayable. Even with the lowest graphics settings, minimum rendering distance and running only the client, I got 2 FPS at best. I suppose Celeron M isn't exactly a gaming processor... The biggest problem is that after a few minutes of playing, the laptop would reboot - presumably from overheating. Or is it?! NetBSD repo has Celeste Classic in it, and it works great. For comparison, I tried to run it on a Pentium 3M at 1GHz with 256MB RAM, and it was unplayable. Here, I think, I should be able to comfortably run quite a few emulators, e.g. PS1, GBA, SNES, SMS...

@FritzAdalis@infosec.exchange I'm reading in Japanese and then immediately translate to a mix of English and Russian, spiced up with Japanese noises

@mcc@mastodon.social that's great news though? 🤔 Potentially that means you might have super osdev powers

Midnight; time to think about a business plan for a manga cafe. I wonder how many regulars are needed to keep such a place afloat (in South Wales)

RIP, can't find my copy of a book on shojo manga history that I've gotten second hand in paper precisely because a digital copy is $100 or more (which isn't uncommon for academic books😭)

I guess I should mention that there are quite a few chapters of the "Ubuntu!" manga, and some of them are very funny. It is, of course, just an edutaiment about FOSS for a specific group of readers. If you're looking for more info, English Wikipedia has links: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubunchu

@aceryz@social.hackerspace.pl if you're interested, I can print out a few photos to demonstrate different printing settings

@PetrichorSquirrel@meow.social @keirFox@tiggi.es I bet it's pronounced "y u no perhfekt" /j

@weddige@gruene.social @gloriouscow@oldbytes.space same here; I think my browser is not rendering the emoji right

@wyatt@soc.megatokyo.moe iirc I read about it either in NetBSD gsoc notes on wine or in one of the pkgsrc-wip comments

Ed Sheeran is on the radio, and for the first time ever I'm listening closer to the lyrics of "Shape of you", for the first time realising that the song is depressing (to me) as heck. Ew.