If a technical book was free to read on the web under a Creative Commons license, would you still buy a digital copy if it were made available in other formats? (Think PDF, ePub, Info, etc)
Today is auspicious for another reason. 30 years ago today, in 1994, Linus Torvalds released the 1.0 version of Linux. Of course Linux had been available since the fall of 1991, but to me there's just something defining about a 1.0 release.
@mike But, for me, version 0.99pl12 will live in my memory forever as being the version that made it possible to use my PC properly for the first time! 🙂
I tried reading Consider Phlebas by Iain Banks but couldn’t get more than a few pages in to it. It got great reviews so it’s just not my cup of tea 🫖.
Instead I started The Lies of the Ajungo by Moses Ose Utomi and am liking it so far. #amreading@bookstodon
University College London shoutout! UCL is unwilling to set up a Mastodon account now, but they say that if there's lots of UCL presence here already it will nudge them in this direction. If you're at UCL or know someone who is, and you're on here, please reply to this to let us know! Current chief plotters: @sellathechemist , me and maybe more)
Years ago one of my dear friends (who is a huge bookworm) and I were talking. She told me she hated short stories. I can’t remember why or if she even told me a reason. This conversation has stuck with me, because I struggle with them- why? I have no idea. I have tried different tactics to overcome this. I am s l o w l y reading one now, but I don’t gravitate toward it (not the one pictured, but it’s one I really want to read if I can ever get there).
@MikeHar94962844@Likewise@bookstodon
For science fiction, there are plenty of sources of excellent short stories, e.g. Analog, Asimov's, Clarkesworld, Uncanny, ..., especially if you're OK with epub or PDF.
Of course, sometimes, a long story is what one needs! I like alternating.
At work I have to do a lot of development in an on browser based IDE, which means no nice #emacs movement shortcuts like I'm used to, and moving around the code is painfully slow. The IDE does support #vi movements though, which I've been trying as a 'better than nothing' solution, and yeah, it's still hard. I don't think I'll ever get used to the logic of: if "h" is left/back, then "j" is down, and not up. Arghhh.
@hl Not that it will help but the logic was that C-h was backspace so h moves left and C-j was linefeed so j moves down. Doesn't, of course, explain k and l... 🤪 #emacs#vi
Switched from #straight to #elpaca in my #emacs configuration and I love the speed increase. The switch was relatively painless. Just had to make sure the latest elpaca was installed with elpaca-update and change around some stuff to actually load in the correct order, due to elpaca's asynchronous loading. Now, package loading is a much smaller part of the startup time compared to reading all my org-roam files 😄
@boo_ Interesting. I did not know that the different package managers had different performance. The performance aspect is not really an issue for me as #Emacs is my window manager and I only restart when I have to (maybe once very few weeks). However, how do the different managers compare in terms of, say, ease of use? I have never tried anything beyond the default package manager.
If you've got questions about Emacs, Guix, Guile, or other related topics and want a friendly place to ask them, come check out the new System Crafters Forum!
@sqrtminusone@daviwil Partly why web forums are such a poor substitute for USENET newsgroups. I dislike these forums and seldom use them (two exceptions: mobileread.com and pyra-handheld.com but visit infrequently even then).
I would love to see a systemcrafters usenet newgroup... maybe on feedbase.org? Just musing out loud here.
@daviwil@sqrtminusone@publicvoit Sorry David, I was not trying to say it's not useful to others and I understand your reasons for setting this up. I just find having to open up web browsers intrusive! As always, YMMV.
#emacs geeks. A while ago i added something to my config that turned all characters after the 80th column red. I desperately want to turn this off in org-mode (or off entirely) but i can NOT figure out wtf is doing it.
I've looked for all the things SO answers have suggested, but I'm getting nowhere.
This spontaneous holiday project was the reason why I didn't work on most of the projects I actually planned for this week: re-arranging my #desk by rotating it 90 degrees and completely re-doing #cablemanagement with some longer cables. Had to put both speakers on desk.
Now, I'm much more flexible with my desk orientation.
Furthermore, it's now according to #ergonomic regulations with the window at the side and not behind monitors as before. 🤓
I'm always amazed at how many people have monitors in front of windows. I would have a splitting headache within minutes. And I prefer to ponder things by looking out the window without being able to see the monitors. 😀
Mostly. I am still trying to get it to work with #usenet, and I still need to get email working.
I'm not sure why I should have a BBS in the first place, but there you go.
It mostly is actually intended as a #nntp server for #ttrpg groups. And it largely works. I can USE it as a server. I just can't pull any new articles from other servers right now, which makes this somewhat less than ideal.
@lextenebris@kensanata@kyonshi I also did my time in the coal mines of USENET (love that expression)! So long ago, in fact, that I was using USENET before the major hierarhy upheaval, when groups changed from net.comp, net.singles, and net.jokes to comp., soc., etc. ;-)
The tools we had were and continue to be excellent for the volumes you can get in newsgroups. I only use gnus now but I remember tin, nn, slrn, and others.