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Think globally, microblog locally
Tue, 29 Sep 2020

Big @debian Stable update for the firefox-esr browser, going from 68 to 78 https://www.debian.org/security/2020/dsa-4768

How many decimals of pi do we really need? - NASA/JPL https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu/news/2016/3/16/how-many-decimals-of-pi-do-we-really-need/

Sun, 27 Sep 2020

Having a Ubuntu/Debian/Fedora/what-have-you WSL in Windows is > the MacOS command line but < "real" Linux

Shopify’s Lite plan is just /month https://www.shopify.com/lite

‘It’s like Trump said: The cure has been worse than the disease’: A restaurant owner on closing his business during the coronavirus pandemic - The Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/09/26/restaurant-owner-closing-coronavirus

Sat, 26 Sep 2020

SC130: the perfect CP/M & Fuzix computer kit (at !) - Obsolescence Guaranteed http://obsolescenceguaranteed.blogspot.com/2020/01/sc130-perfect-cpm-computer-kit-at-50.html

PiDP-11: Re-creating the PDP-11/70 - Obsolescence Guaranteed https://obsolescence.wixsite.com/obsolescence/pidp-11

PiDP-8/I: Re-creating the PDP-8/I - Obsolescence Guaranteed https://obsolescence.wixsite.com/obsolescence/pidp-8

Fri, 25 Sep 2020

Lost cockatiel lands on fishing boat 10 miles off Scottish coast - BBC News https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-54263087

Thu, 24 Sep 2020

Substack review: Here’s what to know before you get started - Clara Ainsley McLaren/The Penny Hoarder https://www.thepennyhoarder.com/make-money/substack-review/

MIT's 6.S081 looks like an awesome class. They use a Unix V6 clone and draw on the EXCELLENT Lions' Commentary on UNIX 6th Edition. This page includes links to John Lions' book, the Unix V6 source code, and the PDP11/40 Processor Handbook. https://pdos.csail.mit.edu/6.828/2020/xv6.html

Pandemic spurs journalists to go it alone via email (mostly via Substack) - Sara Fischer/Axios https://www.axios.com/pandemic-spurs-journalists-to-go-it-alone-via-email-613ca2d5-e8d5-4235-9582-48cc028e9d8b.html

Lede: Subscription-driven publishing that bakes in WordPress VIP, Pico for membership manangement, Coral for comments and Mailchimp for newsletters. The product is aimed at both startups and established media. https://joinlede.com/

I can't believe how good a web host NearlyFreeSpeech.net has been — and I end up paying about two bucks a month. When you don't need a VPN (and you probably don't, even if you think you do), it's the way to go.

Facebook leaks show Mark Zuckerberg defending his decisions to angry employees - Casey Newton/The Verge https://www.theverge.com/21444203/facebook-leaked-audio-zuckerberg-trump-pandemic-blm

Journalists are leaving the noisy internet for your email inbox (or more specifically, Substack) - Marc Tracy/The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/23/business/media/substack-newsletters-journalists.html

Tue, 22 Sep 2020

I love the design of this site: A Matter of Perspective https://spirals.blog/

The era of Visual Studio Code - Roben Kleene https://blog.robenkleene.com/2020/09/21/the-era-of-visual-studio-code/

Linux Journal is back https://www.linuxjournal.com/content/linux-journal-back

Older people have become younger: Physical and cognitive function have improved meaningfully in 30 years — University of Jyväskylä https://www.jyu.fi/en/current/archive/2020/09/older-people-have-become-younger-physical-and-cognitive-function-have-improved-meaningfully-in-30-years

If I had $1 for every PR pitch I get with a dead web link, I'd have about $5 a day #YouHaveOneJob

Mon, 21 Sep 2020

MyNOR - The yet minor computer. No CPU, no ALU, one NOR-gate is enough. http://mynor.org/

Homebrew Computers Web-Ring https://www.homebrewcpuring.org/

GIGATRON retrocomputer building kit https://www.budgetronics.eu/en/building-kits/gigatron-retrocomputer-building-kit/a-25779-20

Gigatron – TTL microcomputer https://gigatron.io/

Sun, 20 Sep 2020

Why the Apple II didn’t support lowercase letters - Steve Wozniak https://www.vintagecomputing.com/index.php/archives/2833/why-the-apple-ii-didnt-support-lowercase-letters

Sat, 19 Sep 2020

Hubble captures crisp new image of Jupiter and Europa | ESA/Hubble https://www.spacetelescope.org/news/heic2017/

Facebook accused of watching Instagram users through cameras - Robert Burnson/Bloomberg https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-09-18/facebook-accused-of-watching-instagram-users-through-cameras

GitHub - github/renaming: Guidance for changing the default branch name for GitHub repositories https://github.com/github/renaming

Fri, 18 Sep 2020

The science behind honey’s eternal shelf life - Natasha Geiling/Smithsonian Magazine https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/the-science-behind-honeys-eternal-shelf-life-1218690/

Free is evil: tech’s original sin - Jesse Hercules https://medium.com/@jesse.hercules/free-is-evil-d2be55b028d4

Vue v3.0.0 'One Piece' is released https://github.com/vuejs/vue-next/releases/tag/v3.0.0

Google Drive will start to delete trashed files after 30 days starting on Oct. 13 - Chaim GartenBerg/The Verge https://www.theverge.com/2020/9/17/21441226/google-drive-delete-trash-empty-files-documents-30-days-date

COBOL: Built to last - Mar Hicks/Logic Magazine https://logicmag.io/care/built-to-last/

Outschool, which started to provide online classes to homeschoolers, is booming during COVID - TechCrunch https://techcrunch.com/2020/09/18/outschool-newly-profitable-raises-a-45m-series-b-for-virtual-small-group-classes/

A sensory deprivation flotation tank almost drowned me - Saffron Huang (tl;dr DON'T go in a sensory deprivation tank) https://saffronhuang.com/post/a-sensory-deprivation-flotation-tank-almost-drowned-me/

Z80 Number Cruncher http://www.andreadrian.de/oldcpu/Z80_number_cruncher.html

Telling people to delete Facebook won’t fix the internet: The Social Dilemma is a clever but simplistic drama-documentary - Adi Robertson/The Verge https://www.theverge.com/2020/9/4/21419993/the-social-dilemma-jeff-orlowski-netflix-movie-review-social-media-algorithms

CD players are back from the dead and now work with Airpods - Andrew Liszewski/Gizmodo https://gizmodo.com/cd-players-are-back-from-the-dead-and-now-work-with-air-1845091060

On Mullenweg and the Jamstack - Regression or Future? - Matt Billmann/Netlify https://www.netlify.com/blog/2020/09/15/on-mullenweg-and-the-jamstack-regression-or-future/

Canonical CEO Mark Shuttleworth makes peace with Ubuntu Linux community - Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols/ZDNet https://www.zdnet.com/article/canonical-ceo-mark-shuttleworth-makes-peace-with-ubuntu-linux-community/

999 real fans - Grant Dever https://www.grantdever.com/999-real-fans/

Thu, 17 Sep 2020

By using my local blogPoster terminal program to write microblog posts for my own site, Twitter and Mastodon, I can create and publish without having to be on the sites at all. I can look at Twitter or Mastodon (and interact if I choose) when I'm ready. http://github.com/passthejoe/blogPoster

Tutanota email has been suffering from DDos and DNS attacks for weeks now. The downtime isn't a total deal-breaker. Yet. Hopefully they will figure out a better defense. I like the service. I like the price even better.

I had some Debian Stable with GNOME issues. First, the Chromium browser occasionally dies and won't restart. Second, the Nautilus file manager stops allowing files to be moved. Fix for both is to log out and log back in. That it's happening at all is disturbing.

What's new in Thunderbird 78? tl;dr: dark mode, account setup updates, redesigned composed window, end-to-end encryption support, integrated calendar and tasks https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/78.0/whatsnew/

Wed, 16 Sep 2020

We all got flu shots at the pediatrician's office, where they're doing it for the whole family. No lollipops.

How a job at Yale in the 1960s set Susan Eggers on a groundbreaking path in computer science | Lisa Qian/Yale Economic Growth Center https://egc.yale.edu/how-job-yale-1960s-set-susan-eggers-groundbreaking-path-computer-science

Google says it doesn't monopolize digital ad market. Senators don't buy it - Shannon Bond/NPR https://www.npr.org/2020/09/15/913328975/google-says-it-doesnt-monopolize-digital-ad-market-senators-don-t-buy-it

Tue, 15 Sep 2020

I've said a lot of things about @GetSpectrum, but right now the broadband service is ROCK solid, even with 3 work/school-from-homers hitting it simultaneously. Price has been stable and decent, too.

Keeping Time at NIST - Mark Esser/NIST https://www.nist.gov/blogs/taking-measure/keeping-time-nist

YouTube starts rolling out its TikTok competitor, YouTube Shorts - Julia Alexander/The Verge https://www.theverge.com/2020/9/14/21436158/youtube-starts-tiktok-competitor-short-form-video-instagram-reels-beta-test

Mon, 14 Sep 2020

Create a personal website using your LinkedIn account (this is a third-party service that appears to be "free") https://linkedcv.site/

Scientists find a possible sign of life on Venus - Marina Koren/The Atlantic https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/09/venus-life-phosphine-microbes/616342/

UK government under pressure to intervene in Arm sale to Nvidia - The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/sep/14/arm-co-founder-deals-like-nvidia-sale-may-undermine-uks-tech-vision

Why are two million people still getting Netflix DVDs by post? - Amit Katwala/WIRED UK https://www.wired.co.uk/article/netflix-dvds

Altair 8800 Clone https://altairclone.com/

How do computers generate random numbers? - Aryaman Sharda/Digital Bunker https://digitalbunker.dev/2020/09/08/how-do-computers-generate-random-numbers/

Microsoft's underwater data centre resurfaces after two years - BBC News https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-54146718

Ask HN: What do you think about 'The Social Dilemma' on Netflix? - Hacker News https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24468533