lholden

I didn't actually buy anything new for my transition back to Linux. I have a gaming system that had traditionally been running windows. It's a powerful system, but has always been a "toy" running Windows for playing games. Last year I moved it to Linux and have been incredibly happy with the move.

These days I am also now working from home full time, so it kinda hit me. "Why the hell am I trying to work from this MacBook when I have my really great gaming desktop that runs Linux now?" Moved my work over and have been incredibly happy.

I'll have to give the Fedora Asahi Remix a go on my MacBook Pro though. That's a great idea!

It is maybe one of the most featureless terminals out there. Slow, poor color support, weird and frustrating permission interactions, limited font options, incomplete terminal emulation, etc.

It has improved a bit over the years and is generally fine if you just need to knock out a few commands. But I don't find it to be a very pleasurable experience compared to the alternatives. It feels very much like Apple implemented "just enough" and no more.

I ended up doing something similar a few years ago. Picked up a MacBook Pro M1 Max back when the M1 stuff was new to replace an aging Lenovo running Linux. I actually really loved my Lenovo + Linux, but the M1 was new and shiny and I desperately wanted better battery life.

The hardware was great, but life on a Mac always felt a bit convoluted. Updating the OS was especially frustrating as a software developer because of all the interdependent bits (xcode, brew, etc) that often ended up breaking my dev environment in some way. It also always amazed me at the stuff that was missing. Like, how isn't the default terminal app fully functional after all these years? On the plus side, over the time I used it they did add tiling and the ability to hide the notch.

Finally at the start of the year I moved back to Linux and couldn't be happier. Had forgotten just how nice it is to have everything I need out of the box. The big thing I miss is Affinity Photo, though that looks like it's in the middle of dying right now.

Took me a moment to realize this isn't related to 86Box, the low level hardware emulator.

Cool project though. We needed something like this in Linux.

I used this for a couple years many many years ago. I even made several dock widgets for it for various purposes. The source code for these widgets even helped me get my first programming job!

Good memories!

I honestly don't know. I imagine not.

My mom lived in a historical house when she was a kid in the 60s. Since then, the house has become a museum. There are a lot of "artifacts" on display that "came from the 1800s" that are actually just toys my moms brothers made. My mom got a good laugh about it when she took me to visit the place.

I'm sure these finds must have dated in some way to verify the authenticity, but I always think back to seeing my uncles toys on display as if they were historical artifacts when I see stuff like this.

Most people think of swap as "emergency memory in case I run out of memory" and while it's true that it can get used in this way, it usually serves a much more critical purpose in your OS's ability to reason about and use memory.

For a good article on why this is true for Linux: https://chrisdown.name/2018/01/02/in-defence-of-swap.html

I believe that most operating systems are going to make use of memory in a similar manner.

With that said, I'll turn off swap on devices that have unreliable storage. (Anything using an SD card)

Scheme, Racket, Clojure.

Awww. "Please don't leave me! I bring you gifts!"

I had a cat that would gift give if I was away for a while too. I always figured it was a bribe to not do it again. He also liked to play fetch, but it predated the gift thing.

This isn't related to SWEET16 directly, but a workflow I enjoy for 6502 assembly is to use the zero page as a data stack. With a small set of macros and functions you can easily pass a very large number of values to a function this way. This also makes 16 bit (or 24, 32, etc) math a lot easier as well.

You can use the actual stack for this, but it gets weird with JSR, especially when dealing with nested function calls. Of course, on systems that use the Zero Page for other uses (Like the Apple II) this isn't really an option. You can use a different location in memory, but it isn't as efficient.

I appreciate your stance, though it's dripping with the zealotry you are complaining about. Just in the other direction. :)

I like the nano, but it suffers from the "I may find myself doing work on it when I'm trying to not be working" problem. The X1 series are great though, I've been a big fan and user of the ThinkPad X1 Carbon for several years.

I will say, my iPad had nothing to do with any kind of love for Apple. Buying the iPad was to prevent myself from being able to use it for work, and I do think it's served that purpose pretty well. It also beats the hell out of my X1 Carbon for watching movies.

But I don't really understand how people can seriously claim they use it to entirely replace a laptop. It's just too awkward of a device for that use case.

I have the magic keyboard, which doubles as a case. It's actually a pretty decent keyboard, though it certainly adds to the weight of the device. Pretty easy to recommend though.

I have the apple pencil and it works pretty well for drawing, but I don't otherwise use it for anything else.

I don't really have anything else accessory wise :).

A few years ago, I wanted to switch my leisure time computing to a device that would basically keep me from being able to work when I'm not actually working. I'll often sit in front of a screen from the couch or whatever and I wanted to make it impossible for me to keep working.

I ended up buying an ipad for this and have been using it ever since. I will say that while the iPad has achieved the goal I set out, I do find it pretty frustrating to use at times.

- You are basically stuck with Safari in some form. You can install an alternative browser, but the "engine" behind rendering is basically Safari.

- The limited amount of system ram can become an issue while browsing. Now granted, I have the last iPad model before the M1 came out and it has a little less ram than these do. But, things can get really weird when you have multiple tabs. Some pages will even stop functioning until you reload them. Occasionally you have to restart Safari (though rare)

- Many native apps have an iPad version, but they are just a stretched out version of the iOS app and look terrible. You can mitigate this by using the "slide over" feature to dock the app to the side of the screen.

- I have the 12.9" iPad and it ends up being a weird middle ground. In landscape, especially when docked to the magic keyboard, it works pretty well. But it feels awkward and heavy (especially one handed) in portrait. When docked to the magic keyboard though, it's very back heavy and will often tip over if not supported.

I'm at a point where I am wanting to do a hardware upgrade, but having a really hard time deciding on "what". The 12.9" iPad I currently have is such a weird middle ground. A smaller device would be nice for reading technical books (or D&D stuff) in portrait. A model with more memory might sort out some of my browsing issues. A ultralight laptop would solve many issues and fit many of my use cases but not all of them. I'd love to just have one device, but I kinda feel like I'd be better off with two.

"no longer free for all" implies that it was "free for all" and the change is making it no longer "free for all". In other words, the title is presenting information to the reader that is literally not true.

For your personal reference, here is how the dictionary defines the word "misleading". (Cambridge and Merriam Webster, respectively)

causing someone to believe something that is not true

to lead in a wrong direction or into a mistaken action or belief often by deliberate deceit

to lead astray : give a wrong impression

I would say that the title manages to hit on all 3 of these definitions, with a possible note that perhaps the author "misspoke" rather than intentionally creating a deliberate deceit.

The title, especially in light of the stuff that went on with Unity, makes one think that this will affect a much wider group of people than it actually does.

Unreal was never "free for all". For game development, there has always been revenue thresholds.

The new licensing is around commercial use outside of game development, and will also be revenue threshold based. Meaning, just like with game development, if your project is making you money over X threshold, then the licensing kicks in.

The title is misleading.

Very misleading article title.

The licensing changes target big commercial usages outside of game development. (With revenue thresholds, similar to how it already works right now for game development.)

For example, up until now Unreal has seen use in vfx for movie and tv production. The licensing model for Unreal was primarily oriented for game development, which meant that this wasn't generating any revenue for Epic unless that company opted into the optional support plan.

Unlike the crazy situation with Unity, these changes are being announced in advance without affecting usage of previous versions of Unreal.

(Not saying I like or care for subscriptions for software. But context helps understand what's going on here.)

I'm surprised they didn't make this change sooner.

Do you have an example of an addon this has happened to you for? I've had the opposite experience (stuff breaking on Chrome and well, never had an issue with it on Firefox).

I switched from Speedcrunch to Qalculate a while ago. I don't actually remember exactly why I switched at this point. (I think due to a lack of updates). Qalculate very similar in many ways, but I do like the interface on Speedcrunch better (after hiding the keyboard). The new UI for Qalculate has a similar enough feel to Speedcrunch that I've been happy with it.

Fidonet still exists! There are a fair number of BBSs that participate in it still. You can find more information on https://www.fidonet.org/

There is also fsxnet, which is based on the same tech, but more open. https://fsxnet.nz/start

I had a personal BBS that I ran that was on both for a few years.

I switched to Windows 11 early on and honestly haven't really had any problems with it. It feels like Windows 10, but with a UI refresh. I mostly like what they've done with the refresh, though some things feel a bit bolted on (like the new right click menus).

The new terminal app feels good, though I think you could get it with Windows 10. The new task bar and start menu are "fine" and I don't really have any specific problem with them. I like that winget is baseline now.

I do have some nitpicks. For example, I have no idea why think having the centered task bar is a good idea, but that's fixable with a setting. Some of the things I took issue with required more intrusive fixing... which is pretty frustrating. I couldn't tell you exactly what I did to resolve these at this point.

I only use Windows for some of my development, but what I do use from Windows has continued to work without issue.

These days I drink my cup in the morning 5 days a week. I quit drinking caffeine for about a month every year, and when I start drinking it again that first cup always a shocker. It gives me jitters and makes me extremely hyper. It's pretty easy to forget that caffeine is a stimulant when you are drinking it every day.

I would be surprised if the guy wasn't being negatively affected given the amount of caffeine he was drinking, even with resistance. And like most things you put in your body (even water!), moderation is super important. You are going to get a scary story when someone is doing something in excess like that.

With that said, I'm surprised we (at least in the US) don't have labeling saying "Hey, this contains a stimulant! Like with all drugs, maybe have a think before putting it in your body and practice some moderation. The recommended serving limit is X."

I would have if any of the BBSs I was on had it :). I just downloaded a boatload of SLS Linux floppy images from a BBS instead! :D

I think Qt Creator deserves a mention as well. It's a batteries included c++ environment with drag and drop GUI building and etc.

I started programming with BASIC back in the late 80s and into the early 90s. Started with gw-basic and then with QBasic, both of which were included in versions of DOS.

QBasic was really cool at the time. I wrote a lot of (very crappy and slow) games in it. The documentation was all readily available and it had a lot of power. QBasic (and VB) were very "batteries included" and that was amazing.

But, and this may sound harsh, I've always felt that BASIC was a language of desperation. You use it because it's the only thing available to you, not because you actually want to use it. There was a time where some form of basic was available on literally every computer. This continued well past the 80s with VBA and gave a lot of people the power of extensibility over their applications.

Back when I was writing a lot of BASIC code, I quickly found myself running into walls and realizing that it just wasn't a great environment to build anything serious in. The lack of a real compiler in DOS was the primary reason I found Linux and C in the mid 90s. Once I had my hands on a C compiler I never wanted to look back ever again.

(I know that QuickBasic and Visual Basic existed and could create binaries. But, I was young and couldn't exactly afford them. Before finding C, I was using a BASIC environment called ASIC, which wasn't quite as nice as QBasic, but could produce binaries.)

It makes me wonder how things might have been different for me if DOS came with a C compiler and something like raylib. The lack of a real (free) compiler drove me to Linux. Would I have still gotten into Linux? I don't really know!

I love seeing new editors come up. Always curious to see what people have planned for them. With that said... I do have to say that the landing page for this was a turn off for me.

Digging through the landing page, the focus seems to be on how to support it and there just isn't enough time spent talking about why this project is cool or worth supporting.

From what I can gleam from the page this seems to have a GPU backed renderer and have fast startup times. It seems intended for C++ but doesn't really talk about C++ specific features. (Ex, CMake integration, integration with doctest/catch/etc).

The one C++ specific thing it mentions is "full C++ parser for syntax highlighting, autocomplete, goto-definition, find references and a lot more". Does this support C++20? Is it using it's own engine for this or is integrating with clang or something similar. What is this doing that all of the other editors with C++ syntax support don't have?

I consider CLion to be a "gold standard" for features and functionality as a editor/IDE for C++. The only thing it doesn't do for me is "be fast and light". I'm also a long time VIM user and I generally default to VIM when I want something "fast and light".

If there was an editor/ide that had many of the features of CLion and the speed of VIM, I would certainly consider that to be "10x".

Hard to believe the last Merb release was 12 years ago. (I was a contributor).

Rest in peace Ezra.

Lua on the Pico-8 Fantasy Console. It's easy to work with, has a built in editor, and it's very easy to make games in. I think it's a fantastic environment to learn programming with. What kid doesn't want to make a game? :)

Lazy Devs on youtube is currently producing a "Making a Shmup" tutorial that is very "from the basics" as well.

It's possible the author is unaware that there are cables that have a USB-C (TB4) connector on one end and a DisplayPort connector on the other. This should directly support running DisplayPort 1.4 off just the dock they purchased without additional dongles. (Which would also work with the OWC TB4 dock you mention).

Possibly they had a specific need for actual DisplayPort ports on the dock though, and because they specifically wanted DisplayPort 1.4, that ruled out TB3 docks.

How do you like that OWC dock? It looks pretty nice. I also noticed that CalDigit has successor to your TS3 that looks pretty nice too.

Not really explained by the linked article, but my understanding is that as the Sun increases in luminosity (increasing the solar flux), the chemical reactions that binds CO2 will increase. Within 500-600 million years the CO2 levels drop beyond the point for C3 photosynthesis. Plants using C4 photosynthesis will survive for about twice as long, though by that point the increased solar flux will have caused the surface temperature on Earth to be uninhabitable anyways.

Of course, who really knows how life might evolve to adapt to these changes. Humans have been pretty good at liberating carbon for instance :P.