timorl @timorl@qoto.org

It's the end of 2019 and there still is no decent, usable, #PGP-enabled e-mail client that I could roll-out to regular, non tech-savvy users without feeling bad.

10 years ago that would have been #KMail. But KMail shot itself in the foot, knee, and hip with Akonadi.

#Thunderbird is... Thunderbird.
#Mailpile doesn't do writes to IMAP, so you either use *only* it, or not use it at all.

#Kube just crashed on me because I tried to reply to a signed e-mail.

Anybody any other suggestions?

> Writing a Formally-Verified Porn Browser in Coq and Haskell

https://slatestarcodex.com/2015/10/12/against-against-autism-cures/ is definitely an interesting read

@amdt
@gueorgui
The quality of OSM data depends on how active the local community is. Google maps is no comparison to OSM in central Europe. Google lacks everything but paved roads for cars. It is absolutely unusable as a cyclist.

France proposes upload filter law, “forgets” user rights

https://juliareda.eu/2019/12/french_uploadfilter_law/

Unreal. People in the federated timeline are debating whether or not to vote because “voting supports capitalism”. I do understand that there are a lot of anarchists on the fediverse, but not representing your own interests in the legal construct that you have to live under is, well, crazy. Otherwise, you end up looking like a “sovereign citizen” (for entertainment, look that up on YouTube) and no one takes you seriously.

Become informed and vote. Encourage others to do the same.

Interesting fact of the day: Webster's Dictionary in 1828 defined gender in much the same way as modern liberals define it, that being, ones expression of pronouns and does not strictly adhere to any sense of sex. In fact the dictionary definition at the time goes into some detail on that point.

So strictly speaking assigning ones gender based on preferred pronouns or expression of femininity/masculinity is in fact the traditional and historic usage of the word.

Here is a word-for-word copy of the text of the definition for gender in Webster's 1828 dictionary:

In grammar, a difference in words to express distinction of sex; usually a difference of termination in nouns, adjectives and participles, to express the distinction of male and female. But although this was the original design of different terminations, yet in the progress of language, other words having no relation to one sex or the other, came to have genders assigned them by custom. Words expressing males are said to be of the masculine gender; those expressing females, of the feminine gender; and in some languages, words expressing things having no sex, are of the neuter or neither gender

http://webstersdictionary1828.com/Dictionary/gender

#gender #english #grammar #lgbt #lgbtq #equalrights #trans

#PaperbackCLI is a #paper-based #backup system.

Paperback-cli is a tool which encodes any file into a very large 2D #barcode which can be decoded back into the original file. The encoded barcode is resilient to error and can be printed onto a piece of paper to later be scanned and decoded. Paperback-cli can encode upwards of 500 kB of raw data per laser printed page.

Website 🔗️: https://git.teknik.io/scuti/paperback-cli

#free #opensource #foss #fossmendations #security

I officially nominate @mngrif in the moderator election

https://discourse.qoto.org/t/nomination-for-moderator-nov-2019/92/5

#QOTO

At the moment, my view is something along the lines of:

- Do what you can as an individual, to the best of your ability
- Don't be overburdened by guilt if you can't do it all
- Be very conscious that not everyone is in a position to do what you think is 'doing the right thing' (including yourself)
- The system is pretty rigged against doing the right thing, so ultimately the system is the one that needs to change
- Individual behaviour change is probably a part of bringing about system change

Good news as EU formally adopts Ecodesign measures:

- As of 2021, all TVs, monitors, fridges, freezers, washing machines, washer-dryers, dishwashers and lighting products on the EU market will have to meet minimum repairability requirements
- Manufacturers will have to ensure easy disassembly with commonly available tools.
- Spare parts and repair information will have to be made available to professional repairers for a minimum number of years.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-49884827
https://www.coolproducts.eu/news/eu-to-pull-plug-on-wasteful-unrepairable-products

Floating-point rounding errors as an energy source: In one simulation, robots learned that small rounding errors in the math that calculated forces meant that they got a tiny bit of extra energy with motion. They learned to twitch rapidly, generating lots of free energy that they could harness. The programmer noticed the problem when the robots started swimming extraordinarily fast.

https://aiweirdness.com/post/172894792687/when-algorithms-surprise-us/amp?__twitter_impression=true

Just re-upping this offer: because being comfortable with git is a barrier to entry to many FS/OSS projects, and because I care deeply about lowering those barriers, I will tutor anyone who asks for help with git, and/or connect them with any mentor(s) they might prefer.

I'll do this while I put energy and work into making the tool more approachable, and into making better tools and learning paths.

Boosts gratefully appreciated.

#gittutors

#toyprogrammingchallenge

I want to propose a programming challenge. This could be fun for beginners and experienced programmers as well. It is language agnostic. It might even be more about community than the programming part itself. The challenge itself should not take more than an hour. But it shouldn't be so simple that you don't have to put in a little effort. I will propose the first one, and those who participate are welcome to propose the next and as we can agree on it we can go off and knock it out.

Once you see other people's results you can modify your own, or even propose something to make someone else's better or faster or fix a bug that you find.

These can become toy programs for you to have around for testing concepts, and helping to try out other languages.

If you are interested or know someone else who might want to play too share this with them.

I guess we can use this thread to get started, and I guess i am supposed to use a hashtag for something like this so how about #toyprogrammingchallenge

I will try to work in Python at least in the beginning but you are welcome to work in whatever you are comfortable with.

#toyprogrammingchallenge
First challenge:

"Ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall"

Generate the whole song from "Ninety-nine" to "No". The output should look like :

Ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall.
Ninety-nine bottles of beer. Take one down,
pass it around... Ninety-eight bottles of beer.

(You know what the middle looks like)

Two bottles of beer on the wall.
Two bottles of beer. Take one down,
pass it around... one bottle of beer.

One bottle of beer on the wall.
One bottle of beer. Take one down,
pass it around... No bottles of beer.

I won't put too many specifics on how you get there, but the output should be words, not numerals :) Try to write clean, maintainable and visually understandable code.

Let see if I am alone or anyone wants to play along. :)

Here is my first attempt total time 48 minutes.

https://git.qoto.org/Absinthe/ninety_nine_bottles

Great online book "Programming Language Foundations in #agda" written by the marvelous Phlip Wadler https://plfa.github.io/

#HongKong should make everyone realise how important Freedom is worth fighting for.
Look at the Hong Kong Youth, knowing they could be jailed for 10 years for so called "rioting", knowing that the PRC millitary could invade with/without the request of the HK government and slaughter them all.
That is why we shouldn't give up on basic rights just as Privacy, Freedom of Speech etc. because it is what matters the most.
#FreeHongKong