Technology Commentary

Technology Commentary

Thinking Elixir Podcast 299: Don't Paste That Into Your Terminal
Thinking Elixir Podcast 299: Don't Paste That Into Your Terminal
The EEF needs your support for a major security grant, Hex.pm completes its first security audit, José Valim drops a massive Tidewave update, and we discuss the ClickFix supply chain attack that hit Axios, and more!
·podcast.thinkingelixir.com·
Thinking Elixir Podcast 299: Don't Paste That Into Your Terminal
How Big Tech Co-opted DIY – and how to Fight Back | The Quietus
How Big Tech Co-opted DIY – and how to Fight Back | The Quietus
As technology has developed in the last twenty years, it has brought with it a sense of enablement. Over time, access to nearly everything has become simpler, and as such, the message from Silicon Valley and its offshoots was that you can do it all.  I have worked in the music industry since the late […]
·thequietus.com·
How Big Tech Co-opted DIY – and how to Fight Back | The Quietus
They Weren’t Joking: Gentoo WAS Ported To GNU Hurd
They Weren’t Joking: Gentoo WAS Ported To GNU Hurd
Long ago, in the aftermath of the UNIX wars, three kernels emerged from the rubble: BSD, Linux, and Hurd. BSD, being UNIX, was held back by legal wrangling in the aftermath of the wars, and that al…
·hackaday.com·
They Weren’t Joking: Gentoo WAS Ported To GNU Hurd
ssh-agent — Vivian Voss
ssh-agent — Vivian Voss
2,624 lines of C. One file. One socket. No config. The private key never leaves the process. Born from impatience, designed with discipline.
·vivianvoss.net·
ssh-agent — Vivian Voss
Completion is a Substrate, not a UI
Completion is a Substrate, not a UI
ICR is not a convenience feature. It is a structural change in how the cost of an interaction scales with the size of the underlying data.
·chiply.dev·
Completion is a Substrate, not a UI
Embody tech to master human intelligences
Embody tech to master human intelligences
Weeknotes 384 - Thoughts on repetitiveness as a signal for losing or learning in an intelligence world, new strategies for care. And the latest news captures on physical AI.
·iskandr.nl·
Embody tech to master human intelligences
From Mic Blip to Wiki Page: Meet Hubert, Our Self-Writing Meeting Machine
From Mic Blip to Wiki Page: Meet Hubert, Our Self-Writing Meeting Machine
Meet Hubert, our self-writing meeting machine, inspired by the legendary OSS 117. Like Hubert Bonisseur de la Bath, it navigates chaos with effortless charm, turning audio into structured notes. No buttons, no fuss. Just results, delivered with the panache of Jean Dujardin’s iconic wink.
·blog.kalvad.com·
From Mic Blip to Wiki Page: Meet Hubert, Our Self-Writing Meeting Machine
The Productivity Software Way of Thinking
The Productivity Software Way of Thinking
I was supposed to give a 20-minute presentation this morning, but alas, it is 2026 and our household, once again, has COVID. So I’m skipping the part where I read this piece of writing aloud to a Zoom audience, even though there’d be no chance of infecting them
·2ndbreakfast.audreywatters.com·
The Productivity Software Way of Thinking
Google Has a Secret Reference Desk. Here's How to Use It.
Google Has a Secret Reference Desk. Here's How to Use It.
40 Google features to find exactly what you need, the alternative search engines that do things Google won't, and the reference desk framework underneath all of it.
·cardcatalogforlife.substack.com·
Google Has a Secret Reference Desk. Here's How to Use It.
The Kids Take Over
The Kids Take Over
This story appeared in the April 2019 issue of Linux Journal. It’s still there, but with no photos (which seem to have vanished from much of the magazine’s archives).* I think both the …
·doc.searls.com·
The Kids Take Over
ESP32 Weather Display Runs Macintosh System 3
ESP32 Weather Display Runs Macintosh System 3
It seems like everybody takes their turn doing an ESP32-based weather display, and why not? They’re cheap, they’re easy, and you need to start somewhere. With the Cheap Yellow Display (…
·hackaday.com·
ESP32 Weather Display Runs Macintosh System 3
Reverse-Engineering Human Cognition And Decision Making In A Modern Age
Reverse-Engineering Human Cognition And Decision Making In A Modern Age
Cognitive processes are not something that we generally pay much attention to until something goes wrong, but they cover the entire scope of us ingesting sensory information, the processing and rec…
·hackaday.com·
Reverse-Engineering Human Cognition And Decision Making In A Modern Age
IrDA
IrDA
·computer.rip·
IrDA
The origins of the IrDA infrared communications standard
The origins of the IrDA infrared communications standard
J. B. Crawford writes on the Computers Are Bad newsletter about the IrDA infrared data standard used in older devices to communicate. In 1993, Hewlett-Packard hosted an industry meeting that kicked…
·blog.adafruit.com·
The origins of the IrDA infrared communications standard
Skylab Under The Ocean
Skylab Under The Ocean
A crew lives on a station in a hostile environment. Leaving that environment requires oxygen tanks and specialized gear to deal with pressure differentials. A space station? Nah. A base built on th…
·hackaday.com·
Skylab Under The Ocean
Agents as scaffolding for recurring tasks.
Agents as scaffolding for recurring tasks.
One of my gifts/curses is an endless fixation with how processes can be optimized. For a brief moment early in my career, that was focused on improving how humans collaborate, but that quickly switched to figuring out how we can minimize human involvement, and eliminate human-to-human handoffs as much as possible. Lately, every time I perform a recurring task–or see someone else perform one–I think about how we might eliminate the human’s involvement entirely by introducing agents. This both has worked well, but also worked poorly, and I wanted to highlight the pattern I’ve found useful.
·lethain.com·
Agents as scaffolding for recurring tasks.
No one owes you supply-chain security
No one owes you supply-chain security
In case you’re unaware, I’m not a developer. I’m actually an autistic catgirl annoyed by suboptimal use of computing power, and fixing that happens to involve programming. Crucially, it also includes discussing foundational technology with people behind the scenes, and apparently that makes me more aware of social aspects of this sphere. So, I have opinions about criticism of crates.io for supply-chain attacks. After a dozen similar articles, I have some select words to voice about why it’s off the mark.
·purplesyringa.moe·
No one owes you supply-chain security
High fantasy map of tech writing (AI edition)
High fantasy map of tech writing (AI edition)
Three years ago I published a high fantasy map of technical writing. The world has moved quite a bit since then. AI happened, and with it a darkness has crept in from the north, one that feeds on the daily pessimism of writers that feel cornered. I felt like an update was long overdue, so I sat down, fired up an editor and created a new version. It’s a map of contested territory, and we’re still on it, waiting for someone to check the advance of natural stupidity. Can you find yourself in it?
·passo.uno·
High fantasy map of tech writing (AI edition)
UniFi UTR Initial Impressions, Setup and Review
UniFi UTR Initial Impressions, Setup and Review
The UTR is a small, portable router that you can take anywhere with you. It fits in your pocket. It supports both 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands and can
·packetswitch.co.uk·
UniFi UTR Initial Impressions, Setup and Review
HPA-managed workloads: Why the obvious waste stays
HPA-managed workloads: Why the obvious waste stays
Teams running Kubernetes can usually see where they’re overprovisioned. Requests are higher than they need to be, there’s consistent headroom, and capacity
·thenewstack.io·
HPA-managed workloads: Why the obvious waste stays
Why Code Validation is the Next Frontier - DevOps.com
Why Code Validation is the Next Frontier - DevOps.com
Shared staging environments are cracking under the pressure of AI-driven development. Arjun Iyer discusses what needs to replace them.
·devops.com·
Why Code Validation is the Next Frontier - DevOps.com
Anos – a modern operating system for x86_64 PCs and RISC-V machines
Anos – a modern operating system for x86_64 PCs and RISC-V machines
Anos is a modern, opinionated, non-POSIX operating system (just a hobby, won’t be big and professional like GNU-Linux®) for x86_64 PCs and RISC-V machines. Anos currently comprises the STAGE3…
·blog.adafruit.com·
Anos – a modern operating system for x86_64 PCs and RISC-V machines