Last night, I re-watched The KGB, the Computer, and Me, a 1990 episode of NOVΛ chronicling Cliff Stoll's efforts to catch a West German hacker who was using the Lawrence Berkeley Labs' computer systems to hack into military computers in the late 1980s.
I say re-watched, because I …
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Computing
Ethics
Non-religious post
UNIX
Video
LLMs (Large Language Models, colloquially referred to as "A.I.") are perfect...
Much like so many loud voices in society today, the LLM is incapable of discerning reliable from unreliable sources, identifying the origin and validity of a …
Category: Ethics
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Computing
Ethics
Life
Non-religious post
Philosophy
Polemic
I resolved never to put a web browser on this machine, which is a Thinkpad X200t from early 2010 with the Libreboot firmware flashed to it, and the wifi card replaced with a FOSS-driver-loving atheros-based card. Ever since I got it in early 2019, it's been my "writing machine …
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FOSS (Free and Open Source Software)
Linux
Non-religious post
Productivity
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Unix Tips
WritingMonth
You may have seen me mention The Fediverse or "FediFriends" in previous posts. Now, I anticipate that 100% of my readers are already in the Fediverse (or within a rounding error of 100% 😄), but just in case someone doesn't know, the following is a succinct description and discussion of the …
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Computing
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FOSS (Free and Open Source Software)
Federated Services
Non-religious post
Non-technical post
WritingMonth
I was watching a youtuber I rather like, and he closed out his video talking about his pragmatic approach to operating systems. He said he used multiple OSes (some FOSS and some non-FOSS), and he summed up his approach with "Use what works for you."
This is not a polemic …
Category: Ethics
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BSD
Computing
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FOSS (Free and Open Source Software)
FreeBSD
Linux
Non-religious post
UNIX
WritingMonth
I was re-reading my original UNIX is dead. Long live UNIX article, and I realized something that helped me better classify the various types of UNIX OSes:
I see OSes like the BSDs as UNIXes, while I view MacOS and many Linux distros (particularly the Gnome-oriented ones, more about that …
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BSD
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FOSS (Free and Open Source Software)
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WritingMonth
I remember once watching a video of presenter at a Linux conference boldly proclaim, "UNIX is dead."
As someone who worked on UNIX systems for over a decade, and who's played with UNIX variants off and on for three decades, that is a pretty incendiary statement.
With apologies to Sophocles …
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BSD
Computing
Ethics
FOSS (Free and Open Source Software)
Linux
Non-religious post
Philosophy
UNIX
WritingMonth
I was thinking about the difference between a kingdom and an empire, and the difference between a king and an emperor.
Let's start with some basic definitions...
Category: Ethics
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Bible
Christianity
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Language
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Non-technical post
Content Warning: This is straight-up Bible stuff from a very Christian perspective. If that's not what you're looking for, I'm sure I'll have other posts you'd be interested in soon. Cheers.
Content Warning #2: Ummm, guys... don't blog angry. Maybe skip this one. XD
I've been home sick the past …
Category: Ethics
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100DaysToOffload
Philosophy
Ethics
Christianity
Non-technical post