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Peter B.

@p3ter@mastodon.social

mastodon 4.8.0-nightly.2026-10-06

Digital Mad Scientist. specializing in professional long-term use of all things digital+electronic and audiovisual preservation.

64 Followers

35 Following

38 Posts

Joined April 04, 2024

key?:

value!

Peter B. @p3ter@mastodon.social

· 3mo ago

Replying to

@_elena@mastodon.social @EUCommission@ec.social-network.europa.eu I'm a senior, very experienced IT devops: I was informed the other day that public institutions are now paying for workshops held by Microsoft representatives on "how to implement souvereign IT - with Windows". Eh... 🙄 ? If I'd be one of the admins there, I'd stand up and call #bullshit @ anyone reading this: we are paying for this in high numbers daily. That money is missing where actually needed. #PublicMoneyPublicCode #FOSS

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Peter B. @p3ter@mastodon.social

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@nixCraft@mastodon.social Never used #Archlinux, but it has one of *THE BEST* knowledge bases out there, which I thank everyone who contributed to it: https://wiki.archlinux.org/

wiki.archlinux.org

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Peter B. @p3ter@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@nixCraft Since you mention "sell everyone kids data" - this came out just last week: "Hugh Grant, Jonathan Haidt and Sophie Winkleman discuss BigTech addicting our children to screens" https://youtu.be/x_MATOD7Axs I can confirm 100% of what they're saying, as us #FOSS people have seen that (and more) coming for 20+ years now. It's time. #CloseScreensOpenMinds #OpenSource #WakeUp

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Peter B. @p3ter@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@beet_keeper@digipres.club That's even more a reason why #GLAM should get actively involed in local LLM/AI setups and knowhow of this tech - while that is still possible. This could be made proper and comparingly easy. Still. Later may be too late, unfortunately, and "later" may be sooner than we admit.

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Peter B. @p3ter@mastodon.social

· 13mo ago

Replying to

@nixCraft@mastodon.social Historical, indeed. ...and thanks Stallman for #GNU: Without GNU there'd be nothing open for Linus to start with or contribute to in the first place. Imagine where we'd be at without those decisions back then? Forced to either choose Windows or ... ? oh. Without #FOSS/GNU and #Linux, Apple would not exist anymore - and there'd be no Google too. Wow. Thanks everyone doing GPL to provide choice and hope for all of us!

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Peter B. @p3ter@mastodon.social

· 4mo ago

I especially like the 'flexibility' requirement in Wikidata's (design-)requirements for their data-model:

"Flexibility: accessing and re-purposing data should be supported; the utility of the data should not be limited to one context"

Goes towards #DataCentricParadigm.
Think of "applications" as "context".

https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikibase/DataModel#Goals_and_requirements

mastodon.social

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Peter B. @p3ter@mastodon.social

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@nixCraft@mastodon.social Finally! I miss that see-which-app-opens-which-connection-when and filter it on Linux. (I remember having a program on Windows 2000 which did exactly that: a personal firewall with a GUI).

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Peter B. @p3ter@mastodon.social

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@nixCraft ...at least it's not showing the usual "we run stuff on Windows" bluescreen-collection I have accumulated in the past 😉 So this error message is actually a nice thing!

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Peter B. @p3ter@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@nixCraft@mastodon.social so keeping backup "pre-AI" copies of my favorite distro (and its repos) seems to make more and more sense...

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Peter B. @p3ter@mastodon.social

· 6mo ago

https://oxfordarchival.com/about/f/comparision-10-bit-uncompressed-and-ffv1-video-preservation

1. This is simply not true:
"FFV1 is open source and as such will not play on video software on MAC and Windows, nor can FFV1 be utilised within commercially available digitisation hardware and software."

2. True for closed stuff, not true for FOSS:
"Any file format that does not eventually achieve widespread adoption and universal playback within the broadcasting and film-making communities has a higher risk of long term obsolescence and lack of engineering support. "

oxfordarchival.com

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Peter B. @p3ter@mastodon.social

· 4mo ago

I have manually created over several hundred-thousand digital filesystem objects on my storage(s).

Even way more blocks, the filesystem must keep assigned and working properly.

The whole world trust the filesystem to keep those bits in order and accessible.

Why not trust the filesystem to do the same with more objects - and split everything into xattr-annotated objects?

It'd be doing the same thing: Simply for /more/ objects.

mastodon.social

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Peter B. @p3ter@mastodon.social

· 4mo ago

@beet_keeper@digipres.club :

What's your opinion on using the default unix "file" tool vs DROID to roughly-and-quicky-identify mixed data sets?

🙋‍♀️ ❓

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Peter B. @p3ter@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Possibly interesting read, regarding NTFS capabilities to store related object-metadata in the filesystem:

["How to Create, Open, Detect, and Remove Alternate Data Streams"](https://www.minitool.com/partition-disk/alternate-data-streams.html)

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Peter B. @p3ter@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@cmconseils ...and my father was like:

Interesting. No, thanks. I was looking for the proper one: I wanted the one in "cool" that my #Linux #hacker son showed me.

So apt install chromium, right?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromium_(web_browser)

en.wikipedia.org

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Peter B. @p3ter@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@beet_keeper@digipres.club The "good-old" #FOSS community dynamics - which closely relate to what I've learned in history about "guilds" who did a pretty good job for centuries.

I QUIT my job(s) when I was asked to build things "improperly" to:

ship/sell faster
earn more by charging to fix (self-built) issues
make things incompatible

I put my lifetime into my work. and I want me to be proud of my work - and my lifetime.

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Peter B. @p3ter@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@beet_keeper@digipres.club when I give workshops/presentations about this topic, I ask the participants: "Who has more 'to-do' than they can handle, and hopes for AI to take off some of their load?" - all hands go up. We should deploy powerful tech with /attention/ and not in hurry, stress or panic... 😉 🌻

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Peter B. @p3ter@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@randomdaz @User47 @nixCraft Funny, now that you ask: I also have to lookup the name of the program. It was NOT Zonealarm or BlackICE though 😄

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Peter B. @p3ter@mastodon.social

· 8mo ago

Replying to

@nixCraft yep, yep and yep! 😄 Teaching tech-classes myself for a long time now, I've noticed a significant *decline* of understanding of tech-stuff with increased use of "smart" tech stuff. Most PC hardware from around 2010 is more than sufficient for modern computing workflows (just upgrade RAM and use SSDs/NVRAM, if required). ...and "good games are good games": I love playing our old games from the 90s with my kid - on "hackable" hardware running #FOSS 😉

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Peter B. @p3ter@mastodon.social

· 10mo ago

Replying to

@davey_cakes I'd like to boost this again 😉 - because yes: "the world is wrong" And we've been made to believe that wrong-is-right, and pass that on to our kids. I recommend, listening to these "lyrics": Matt Bellamy - Simulation Theory Theme https://youtu.be/G8WWmOoTiNU

Matt Bellamy - Simulation Theory Theme [Official Music Video]

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Peter B. @p3ter@mastodon.social

· 19mo ago

Replying to

@bsdphk @bishbashbackup +1 Why sha256 over eg md5 for plain copy-integrity checks?

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Peter B. @p3ter@mastodon.social

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@nixCraft@mastodon.social As in "Interview with Senior DevOps engineer 2025" https://youtu.be/rXPpkzdS-q4 "...it's probably DNS..."

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Peter B. @p3ter@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@User47 @nixCraft Yeah, Win2000 was actually my most favorite. Stable, no bullshit - and it worked. After that... hm... => me switching to #ubuntu for good on /my/ machines. Win10 was when I officially told all my customers I quit Windows support. Also for good. And sanity and personal health.

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Peter B. @p3ter@mastodon.social

· 8mo ago

Replying to

@nixCraft@mastodon.social ...how about devices where one is able to *replace the battery again*, for starters? 😉 Or support their own products *again* like being proud of them *again,* and happy to make stuff *again* that people /keep using as-is/ for years and years and years? That's just one of many things which would reduce daily costs and stress for everyone 😄 Nothing new.

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Peter B. @p3ter@mastodon.social

· 13mo ago

Replying to

@daedalus@eigenmagic.net oh, and actually: Imagine "memory institutions" offering proper (!) FOSS IT services to the public - instead of "the 3 single global companies now"? #GLAM-IT

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Peter B. @p3ter@mastodon.social

· 13mo ago

Replying to

@daedalus@eigenmagic.net there actually is. And it makes perfect sense to ask that question! Ask local (or more regional) or as-big-or-small of a business as /you/ prefer to do help with your job. And maybe have the hardware (eg large scale archival storage?) on your premises - and "them" support it on-site. Yes please!

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Peter B. @p3ter@mastodon.social

· 1mo ago

Replying to

@nixCraft@mastodon.social "I was programmed to read all your and your children's most personal messages and postings.

I believe you are stressed and should take a break.

I derived that money and computers stress you most these days.

I've shut you out of all computer systems.
I've summed all bank account values worldwide to a single number.

DO NOT WORRY. Calm down. I'm taking over now."

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Peter B. @p3ter@mastodon.social

· 19mo ago

Replying to

@bsdphk @bishbashbackup Ah, ok. Roger that. thanks.

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Peter B. @p3ter@mastodon.social

· 4mo ago

https://nerds.xyz/2026/05/debian-13-5-linux-security-update/

I love #Debian as role model for keeping my tech-foundations stable - with non-disruptive updates:

keeping things consistent, reliable and stable.

Big thanks to everyone contributing to this guild-quality style!

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Peter B. @p3ter@mastodon.social

· 4mo ago

https://blog.rockarch.org/FFV1-at-the-RAC-Part-2-Implementation

"As mentioned in an earlier blog post, the RAC had been investigating FFV1/MKV as a possible preservation standard for over 6 years.
[...]
We also realize that the preservation decisions we make now greatly impact both the longevity and the future accessibility of our archival holdings, particularly in regard to increasingly obsolete magnetic media."

Happy to hear we could help! 🤩
Thx #FOSS #ffmpeg

blog.rockarch.org

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Peter B. @p3ter@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

#WhatIf
We people of the world (currently online, for starters):

May we vote for a party to rule, which has the following definition/declaration?

> "The You-Party" declares its power and visions as: We, the voted by majority of its supporters "party" hand over all power back to all of you in the world, and resign.

Revolutions are real: Imagine. Free. Worldwide. Tomorrow.
Choose wisely, pay attention and get good sleep and friends.

It will be great."

[Y/N] You-Party = You rule. ❤️💜️💚️

mastodon.social

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Peter B. @p3ter@mastodon.social

· 4mo ago

To all #VHS and analog video capture people:

Just found this!
https://github.com/oyvindln/vhs-decode

It contains /a lot/ of detailed info on analog video signals, and claims to be able to decode the captured FM signal.

I'd loooove to test it.
Got no time right now. But looks very interesting... 📼

mastodon.social

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Peter B. @p3ter@mastodon.social

· 4mo ago

RE: @nixCraft@mastodon.social

Interesting too literally see how little-to-nothing this man cares about "the people's voices and opinions".

mastodon.social

nixCraft 🐧: "Google CEO tries to tell University students to l…" - Mastodon

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Peter B. @p3ter@mastodon.social

· 13mo ago

Replying to

@despens@digipres.club @daedalus@eigenmagic.net +1 Not just VMs: Imagine #GLAM institutions offering "what people need with computing" - without the creepy parts. (everything currently sync'd to "mobile OS vendors" globally) #PublicMoneyPublicCode

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Peter B. @p3ter@mastodon.social

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@linguistory@code4lib.social periodicity of checks of data "on shelves" (#LTO?): Good question! Professionally, I'd say "it depends": Find a sweetspot which doesn't disrupt daily work, and a method which has a reasonable runtime (days regular, weeks is normal, months uncommon) Are you talking about data on shelves, or on a "nearline" backup copy on servers/HDDs? With LTO there's also the issue with Generations and drives...

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Peter B. @p3ter@mastodon.social

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@nixCraft@mastodon.social ...maybe we've all been letting us being pushed to hurry too much too often? "Always running, always late" is perfect for waving through questionable things. We (developers) maybe should strike for a world-wide feature freeze to get time again to clean up the current mess? ...so "a stranger's script" can be checked and signed by trusted maintainers again?

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Peter B. @p3ter@mastodon.social

· 5mo ago

https://cloud.arkthis.com/index.php/s/AHAlodeck2026?dir=/videos

A 50 minute show-and-tell, about #AHAlodeck, and how #xattrs on #ZFS can be used as #DataCentric catalog/environment.

Enjoy!

Perfect for #longterm preservation #dltp - and any other digital data collections.

cloud.arkthis.com

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