The problem with the Code of Conduct
I don't believe a CoC is the right solution to help people feel safe at events or in communities. This feeling grew stronger in the last months when I had - once more - to deal with someone that I believe I can call a harasser.shiromarieke.github.io
To be clear: I strongly believe that our tech communities can get better at making people feel safe. I believe it is urgent to work on solutions to achieve that goal. But I feel like we can do better than a CoC. We need to do better than a CoC because a CoC is a band aid on a larger problem and it won't help in the long term....
Programming the iCE40HX1K-EVB FPGA with a Bus Pirate
I've posted a new article on my website: 
my first experiences, and an howto for my specific set of hardware (iCE40HX1K-EVB and a Bus Pirate as an SPI programmer).
@Gruppo Linux Como @LIFO
Programming the iCE40HX1K-EVB FPGA with a Bus Pirate
Now that it is possible to use some FPGAs with a fully Free Software toolchain, I've started to play with them (as apparently everybody is doing these days), currently just with the aim to learn something new (yay for solutions in search of a problem!)...www.trueelena.org
@Gruppo Linux Como @LIFO
Piace a Harald Eilertsen.
Foot fetish #1 (SFW)
One foot to press them
one foot to guide them
one foot to roll them
and in a tidy hem bind them.
(That's a 24 meter strip of cotton voile, or 48 meters of rolled hem sewed with small stitches (length setting <2 on the machine) that took more than one hour with a hemming foot, I don't want to think how long that would have taken without. Next step: the ruffler)
On the demise of Slackʼs IRC / XMPP gateways
Well, they have lost me as a user. The day my IRC client fails to connect to Slack, I will delete my user account. They already had record of all of my interactions using their system. Maybe I won't be able to move any of the groups I am part of away from Slack – But many of us can help create a flood.gwolf.org
Say no to predatory tactics. Say no to _Embrace, Extend and Extinguish_. Say no to Slack.
Questa voce è stata modificata (1 mese fa)
How we conduct ourselves
The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one’s time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.www.carmenbianca.eu
H. L. Mencken (1880 - 1956)
More and more often, I find myself having to defend my political opponents, or having to argue against those whom I presumably agree with.
And then there is that bit at the end :)
prove you are not an Evil corporate person
In which Google be Google and I drop a hot AGPL tip. Google Is Quietly Providing AI Technology for Drone Strike Targeting ProjectGoogle Is Helping the Pentagon Build AI for Drones to automate the identification and classification of images taken by drones — cars, buildings, people — providing analysts with increased ability to make informed dec...joeyh.name
Report from the Geniatech vs. McHardy GPL violation court hearing
Today, I took some time off to attend the court hearing in the appeal
hearing related to a GPL infringement dispute between former netfilter
colleague Partrick McHardy and Geniatech Europe
laforge.gnumonks.org
(the site looks semi-dead, but tracing your own picture to make a croquis in your own body shape looks a pretty good idea, and on that page there are instructions on how to take the picture.
via: https://thepragmaticcostumer.wordpress.com/2018/01/22/getting-your-ideas-on-paper-using-croquis-to-design-your-historical-gowns/
via: https://thepragmaticcostumer.wordpress.com/2018/01/22/getting-your-ideas-on-paper-using-croquis-to-design-your-historical-gowns/
from the department of licensing terms done... WTF
What is Debian all about, really? Or: friction, packaging complex applications
This weekend, those interested in Debian development have been having a discussion on the debian-devel mailing list about "What can Debian do to provide complex applications to its users?"...
blog.liw.fi
Also, get out of my lawn, or something
SnowCamp in Laveno (e cena del sabato)
Il 22 febbraio si avvicina e con esso la data dello SnowCamp, ritrovo invernale di Debianari a Laveno, per lavorare in compagnia e rendere più facile l'attesa di DebConf e altri eventi estivi.lists.debian.org
Piace a Davide De Prisco.
Renata's blog - The right to be included in the conversation
Why do I have to be coarsed into signing up agreements with corporations to be able to interact with other people using the internet?
rsip22.github.io
Piace a 3 persone.
But even the choir needs new input now and again :) I especially like the way she points out that the responsibility is ours, not the vendors:
We exclude people from the conversation, from the ability to interact with us when we chose proprietary (and closed) services to communicate with each other.That's very well said!
Piace a Elena ``of Valhalla''.
I've heard people say "If you're not on FB, you don't exist." - it's good to remind them that they are in fact saying "If you don't agree to FB's Terms, you don't exist." Also it's a nice to remind them that some time ago the bar for existence was the ability to think, not the fact of being on FB:)
Piace a Elena ``of Valhalla''.
Buttonhole Anonymous
Hello, I'm Elena, and I prefer to make buttonholes by hand.
It may be because all of my machines only have the classical 4-step buttonhole that requires a bit of manual handling, and I've never tried the automagical 1-step set-the-size-and-the-machine-does-everything, but I consider making machine buttonholes a messy process where you lead fabric under the machine hoping for the best, then precariously cutting in the middle of threads, and finally discover that you've doing it wrong, but at least it's usable.
By hand, instead, you first cut (too little), try the button, snip another bit so that the button actually passes, and then proceed to do neat, carefully controlled stitches. It does take more time, but you can easily do it while e.g. lurking an IRC meeting :)
Am I insane? should I try the automagical machine and that would convert me? Would that require me to surrender to the idea of proprietary software in my sewing machine?
It may be because all of my machines only have the classical 4-step buttonhole that requires a bit of manual handling, and I've never tried the automagical 1-step set-the-size-and-the-machine-does-everything, but I consider making machine buttonholes a messy process where you lead fabric under the machine hoping for the best, then precariously cutting in the middle of threads, and finally discover that you've doing it wrong, but at least it's usable.
By hand, instead, you first cut (too little), try the button, snip another bit so that the button actually passes, and then proceed to do neat, carefully controlled stitches. It does take more time, but you can easily do it while e.g. lurking an IRC meeting :)
Am I insane? should I try the automagical machine and that would convert me? Would that require me to surrender to the idea of proprietary software in my sewing machine?
some might might say it is insane to think any idea is proprietary indeed. Yet, some might say it is not the idea but the interpretation that is unique no matter what.
Uhm, copyright law says that no ideas are proprietary, only their fixed expression.
Besides, I wasn't talking of the idea of one-step-buttonholes being proprietary, just the specific expression (or rather implementation) of it (and all other functionalities) that run on the processor inside all modern electronic sewing machines.
It may be possible to implement a one-step buttonhole that is purely mechanic, but that is going to be quite a complex and expensive bit of mainteinance-requiring engineering, not something that one would usually get in a home sewing machine.
That leaves the electronic ones, where implementing such features is much easier (for values of "easy" that require the right actuators, possibly sensors, and patient work from the programmers to time everything at the right moment, but probably no big ideas), but I've been avoiding them for various reasons including the fact that AFAIK they all run proprietary and not-easily-replaceable code.
Besides, I wasn't talking of the idea of one-step-buttonholes being proprietary, just the specific expression (or rather implementation) of it (and all other functionalities) that run on the processor inside all modern electronic sewing machines.
It may be possible to implement a one-step buttonhole that is purely mechanic, but that is going to be quite a complex and expensive bit of mainteinance-requiring engineering, not something that one would usually get in a home sewing machine.
That leaves the electronic ones, where implementing such features is much easier (for values of "easy" that require the right actuators, possibly sensors, and patient work from the programmers to time everything at the right moment, but probably no big ideas), but I've been avoiding them for various reasons including the fact that AFAIK they all run proprietary and not-easily-replaceable code.
Can I haz entropy?
A couple of geological ages ago, I stumbled on GnuK on the Maple Mini and our very geeky household decided that we needed a handful of those maple mini clones.
Then there was shipping from China (through the Italian customs), finding a time to play with it, discovering that no, it can't be loaded through the maple bootloader (and semi-bricking two boards in the process), deciding that this was the perfect excuse to buy a BusPirate, and finally, we were able to load both GnuK and NeuG on said semi-bricked boards.
Using debian testing (buster) all prerequisites were available in the distribution: both the toolchain as described in the READMEs and a version of openocd with support for the BusPirate; the configure line from the above article worked just fine and what was left was to follow instructions from Programming the FST-01 (gnuk) with a Bus Pirate + OpenOCD to load the firmware on the boards.
(The NeuG required a slightely different configure line:./configure --vidpid=234b:0001 --target=MAPLE_MINI , to select the right USB IDs — note that these IDs are only available for experimental uses or under conditions detailed in the READMEs for GnuK and NeuG.)
One note: you may have heard that the BusPirate is slow for this kind of tasks, and I can confirm it. Flashing the NeuG took 325.728790s for 24576 bytes, flashing the bigger GnuK took about half of forever, i.e. about 20 minutes (and the first time it failed with a timeout). Afterwards everything seems to work, but I strongly recommend doing something else in the meanwhile.
Now, why would I need the NeuG, other than simply because HRNGs are cool? Well, #874720 makes it pretty painful to build python-gnupg multiple times in a row¹, and as long as I don't manage to make it run all tests using urandom an HRNG that only costed a few EURs² looks pretty attractive³.
To be continued, as I find time to play with the GnuK and NeuG...
¹ In case you're wondering: the quality of available entropy is not going to impact on the resulting binary: building the package simply drains entropy while generating a handful of throwaway keys in order to run tests.
² if you don't count the PirateBus, but I already wanted one, I was just waiting for an excuse :D
³ of course, haveged would cost even less, but as I said, HRNGs are cool :)
Then there was shipping from China (through the Italian customs), finding a time to play with it, discovering that no, it can't be loaded through the maple bootloader (and semi-bricking two boards in the process), deciding that this was the perfect excuse to buy a BusPirate, and finally, we were able to load both GnuK and NeuG on said semi-bricked boards.
Using debian testing (buster) all prerequisites were available in the distribution: both the toolchain as described in the READMEs and a version of openocd with support for the BusPirate; the configure line from the above article worked just fine and what was left was to follow instructions from Programming the FST-01 (gnuk) with a Bus Pirate + OpenOCD to load the firmware on the boards.
(The NeuG required a slightely different configure line:
One note: you may have heard that the BusPirate is slow for this kind of tasks, and I can confirm it. Flashing the NeuG took 325.728790s for 24576 bytes, flashing the bigger GnuK took about half of forever, i.e. about 20 minutes (and the first time it failed with a timeout). Afterwards everything seems to work, but I strongly recommend doing something else in the meanwhile.
Now, why would I need the NeuG, other than simply because HRNGs are cool? Well, #874720 makes it pretty painful to build python-gnupg multiple times in a row¹, and as long as I don't manage to make it run all tests using urandom an HRNG that only costed a few EURs² looks pretty attractive³.
To be continued, as I find time to play with the GnuK and NeuG...
¹ In case you're wondering: the quality of available entropy is not going to impact on the resulting binary: building the package simply drains entropy while generating a handful of throwaway keys in order to run tests.
² if you don't count the PirateBus, but I already wanted one, I was just waiting for an excuse :D
³ of course, haveged would cost even less, but as I said, HRNGs are cool :)
Piace a setThemFree.
mjg59 | Privacy expectations and the connected home
We have social norms against bugging our houseguests, but we have no social norms that require us to explain to them that there'll be a record of every light that they turn on or off. This feels like it's going to end badly.
mjg59.dreamwidth.org
Piace a Harald Eilertsen.
That's some very interesting observation. Another thing I have pondered is, what are my rights as a visitor if I visit someone with an Amazon Echo or Samsung TV that's always listened. When installing these things into your own home you implicitly or explicitly accept their terms for listening on you, but as a visitor, I never agreed to any such terms.
I'll assume everyone's already heard repeatedly about the Meltdown and Spectre security issues that affect many CPUs. If not, see meltdownattack.com. These primarily affect systems that run untrusted code - such as multi-tenant virtual hosting systems. Spectre is also a problem for web browsers with Javascript enabled.a short, to the point, update on the status in Debian
Fabio 1 mese fa da Friendly
Anyway, I always refused to register to slack.
I found projects which use slack as a forum / documentation / user support thing. I'ts the worst experience ever. In that case I had to find an alternative project with sane user support...
Elena ``of Valhalla'' 1 mese fa
Elena ``of Valhalla'' 1 mese fa