Posts

Sile: The LaTeX Alternative

Feb 15, 2022 · 2 min read · Typography

Sile's a typesetting program which makes nifty pdfs. It's been going great for me, so I thought I'd share the journey so far. The Good It's based on lua, which is super-simple. You don't need to know any lua to use it, but if you want to poke about, it's easier enough for a non programmer to get an idea of what's going …

False FOSS Dichotomies

Feb 11, 2022 · 2 min read · Prattle FOSS

People often talk in terms of the false dichotomy between pragmatic software use, and ethical software use. 'Us pragmatic folks', they begin, 'just want to use what works'. We should understand of course that they have nothing against people who have principles, but would prefer functioning to non-functioning …

LaTeX is Broken

Feb 5, 2022 · 9 min read · FOSS Typography

I love LaTeX because it can do things nothing else can. I have to use it, because it can do things nothing else can. But it has some deep problems. Packages I think the biggest root of problems is having packages, rather than just having people submit a pull request on a central repository and add whatever feature …

Fun Terminal APIs

Jan 26, 2022 · 2 min read · Linux FOSS

These are some commands you can do from any Linux terminal. They all run through someone else's server, so any information you send will be visible to the owner. Get the Current Weather curl wttr.in It's best to open the terminal full-screen here to see the full result. You can also do a city. For some reason, the …

Overview: Void Linux

Jan 13, 2022 · 6 min read · Linux

It's the little things that make me feel comfy. Services are Simple Systemd is fine, but I have to look up how to make a new unit file every time, and then input the path to the executable, which is generally some script I've written. With Void's runit, the service file is the script. There's nothing to learn or look …

Self Driving Cars may not happen

Jan 4, 2022 · 3 min read · Prattle Prognostication

I have doubts about self-driving cars. The entire argument rests on analogy with software translators. Software translators began as simple dictionaries. You type in 'cat', it returns 'le chat'. Next, programmers started to feed in simple rules, so 'black cats' could return 'les chats noire'. The rules became so …

The Jimbo Problem

Jan 2, 2022 · 5 min read · Prattle

In one episode of the cartoon South Park, Chef declares that the town flag is racist, and should be replaced. Uncle Jimbo disagrees that it should be taken down, and makes arguments about the importance of history. However, at this point the KKK arrive behind Jimbo and start shouting in support. From that point on he …

Privacy for One

Dec 23, 2021 · 2 min read · FOSS Politics

Privacy for one makes very little sense. As individual as an individual might be, humans think in groups. We talk, research, and revise ideas together. I once had super-encrypted email with Tutanota. Nobody could see it, even with a court order, because the emails were persistently encrypted on the server's disk, and …

Robot Non-Wars

Dec 22, 2021 · 3 min read · Prattle Prognostication

Printers never waged war on pens, they simply made pens redundant. I suspect that if robots ever take over, we'll go the way of the pen rather than the dodo. Once machines can bake bread, calculate the proper tax rate and generally take care of what needs done, and do so cheaply, humanity can take a breather. I'm not …

Arch Linux is an Act of Faith

Dec 12, 2021 · 2 min read · Linux

Too much ASCII has been spilled debating about whether or not Arch Linux is worth the time, but I'd like to offer yet another way to judge the situation, starting with the cost. Costs Starting Arch requires that you already know the basics of bash (or zsh). Playing about with a terminal in Ubuntu and following …