From e42e270b4412c9cad0b6e9a6dfcbf31e3928d92e Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Kévin Le Gouguec Date: Tue, 15 May 2018 18:16:24 +0200 Subject: Turn "technical" into a first-level folder; add a nit --- README.md | 7 +- personal/itches.md | 4 + reviews/technical/linux.conf.au-2017.md | 330 -------------------------------- technical/reviews/linux.conf.au-2017.md | 330 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 4 files changed, 338 insertions(+), 333 deletions(-) delete mode 100644 reviews/technical/linux.conf.au-2017.md create mode 100644 technical/reviews/linux.conf.au-2017.md diff --git a/README.md b/README.md index 09d1ba9..5828693 100644 --- a/README.md +++ b/README.md @@ -33,9 +33,10 @@ that makes them… gestating? [a bunch of things]: personal/interests.md -[blogging bandwagon]: reviews/blog-roll.md +[blogging bandwagon]: technical/blog-roll.md [list of itches]: personal/itches.md -[trying to keep up with my industry]: reviews/technical/ +[trying to keep up with my industry]: technical/reviews/ [screwing around with my computers]: personal/setups.md -[lots of silly things]: reviews/entertainment.md +[lots of silly things]: personal/entertainment.md + [fuckload]: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1131729/quotes/qt0536137 diff --git a/personal/itches.md b/personal/itches.md index 826f045..c6c8747 100644 --- a/personal/itches.md +++ b/personal/itches.md @@ -31,6 +31,10 @@ - make ellipses for "invisible" text easily customizable (src/xdisp.c) - Man-mode: make isearch skip end-of-line hyphens - whitespace-mode: skip line/wrap-prefix variables and properties +- when opening `.gpg` files in a TTY, some characters (e.g. TAB) are + swallowed by Emacs instead of being forwarded to the gpg prompt; + these characters are then inserted in the decrypted file's buffer + (see `epa-file-insert-file-contents`). [bug#30008]: https://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=30008 diff --git a/reviews/technical/linux.conf.au-2017.md b/reviews/technical/linux.conf.au-2017.md deleted file mode 100644 index 9eb8da7..0000000 --- a/reviews/technical/linux.conf.au-2017.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,330 +0,0 @@ -# linux.conf.au 2017 - -## General comments - -Re-stating the audience's questions before replying is helpful. - -## Choose Your Own Adventure, Please! - -Keynote by Pia Waugh. - -Warns against short-sighted itch-scratching; wants to encourage more -long-lasting systemic change. To contrast with Maciej Cegłowski, who -warns against [ivory-tower wank] in Sillicon Valley, where no-one -seems interested in working on the severe poverty problems nearby. - -(To be fair, Pia does say we need both "symptomatic relief" and -systemic change.) - -41:30 - -> My favourite story from my studies with martial arts was actually -> about two monks walking around. They're walking along, elder one, -> younger one, and when they get to the river, a person comes and says -> "I'm being chased by robbers, can you help me across the river -> please?". The older monk says "Yep, not a problem", picks them up -> and carries them across (because they're hurt). The person gets -> away. And they're walking along, still in silence, and the younger -> monk says: "… You know, back at the river back there"; the older -> monk says "Yeah?"; the younger monk says "I thought we had taken a -> vow of silence". The other goes, "Yeah?". "… Should you have -> spoken to that person?", and the older monk says: "I put that person -> down back at the river. Why haven't you?" - -That story appeals to me: it's got some sort of -Jesus-ish-unconditional-forgiveness-Zen vibe that feels reassuring, -"it's OK to make mistakes, as long as you aimed for the Greater Good, -focus on the Spirit of the Law instead of upholding the Letter". But -slippery slope turns that into "move fast and break things", -consequences and accountability be damned. - -You can even link that to ["fussy" compilers] and false alarms: why -should Buddhist GCC warn on Vow-of-Silence violation if it's not -actually a problem? The warning should be refined, the diagnosis -should be smarter, the standard amended, otherwise how do you -distinguish between the shades of red? - -["fussy" compilers]: https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-devel/2016-04/msg00190.html -[ivory-tower wank]: http://idlewords.com/talks/superintelligence.htm - -## Stephen King's practical advice for tech writers - -By Rikki Endsley. - -Lots of pointers, e.g. [The Care and Feeding of the -Press](http://netpress.org/care-feeding-press/). - -Suggested outline: - -- intro (invite the reader in) -- state the problem (background) -- solution -- (for tech article, tutorial, whitepaper: technical stuff (howto, FAQ)) -- conclude (important dates, action items) - -Parasite words: "very", "some". Be mindful of slang. - -## Sharing the love: making games with PICO-8 - -By John Dalton. - -> Sad old people, longing for the glory days - -PICO-8 restores the "Democracy of Creating". - -Kids get the point of sharing without having to be "encouraged" by -licences. - -## Writing less, saying more: UX lessons from the small screen - -By Claire Mahoney. - -- "mobile" is not necessarily "on the move" -- a "mobile" app does not have to be a "diet" version of the original - -Users do not expect the functionality to be diminished. - -> Context can be better than words - -(I feel like there is a connection to be made here with namespaces in -programming languages.) - -Patterns are good, repetition is not. - -Defining purpose with "when X, I want Y so I can Z" helps "keeping it -real" and reminding you of the user out there. - -## Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Rock Star Developers - -By Rikki Endsley. - -When writing job descriptions, stop asking for rock stars. Focus on: - -- job requirements -- job environment - -Makes it easier for people to figure whether they will fit in. - -Look for developers interested in making *others* succeed, learning -*new* skills; make sure they are accessible, they use the best tool -for the job, and they are able to innovate, lead, and collaborate with -a diverse mix of people. - -If you have a rockstar on your hands, make sure the janitors still get -some credits. - -## Why haven't you licensed your project? - -By Richard Fontana. - -"Post open-source" has actually been a thing for a while: the term -describes the widespread trend of not attributing a license to one's -project. - -Berne convention says that copyright is automatic, so this POSS -software might be implicitly "proprietary". Why worry? There is a -lot of proprietary software already. - -Not putting on a license constitutes a statement for some developers. - -Some attempts at public-domain dedication: - -- [WTFPL](http://www.wtfpl.net/) -- [Unlicense](http://unlicense.org/) -- [0-clause BSD](http://landley.net/toybox/license.html) -- [BOLA](https://blitiri.com.ar/p/bola/) -- [CC0](https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/public-domain/cc0/) - -## Handle Conflict, Like a Boss! - -By Deb Nicholson. - -Conflict mostly comes from missing information, mismatched goals. - -Avoidance, accomodation and assertion each have their own issues as -conflict-handling strategies. - -Using historical motivations can help give credit to new ideas. - -Hypotheticals such as "What's the worst that could happen?" help -identify the root issues people will not directly talk about. - -No ad hominem. No name-calling. Period. Beware of [Contempt Culture]. - -Setting expectations can help enforce a civil tone and constructive -criticism. - -[Contempt Culture]: (https://blog.aurynn.com/2015/12/16-contempt-culture). - -## The journey of a word: how text ends up on a page - -By Simon Cozens. - -Very interesting explanations on the lengths Unicode must go to in -order to turn humanity's sprawling mess of written communication -methods into rigorous rules that a computer can understand. - -Some diacritics can be encoded either with a single code point or a -vowel plus a combining code point; this is because Unicode intends to -have one code point for *every character that other encodings have -ever contained*. - -Cozens is publishing a free online book on the subject: [Fonts and -Layout for Global Scripts]. - -[Fonts and Layout for Global Scripts]: https://simoncozens.github.io/fonts-and-layout/ - -## Surviving the Next 30 Years of Free Software - -By Karen Sandler. - -Is copyright assignment to big organizations (Canonical, FSF?) the -solution to problems we cannot anticipate? - -Wills are tricky: recipients might be taxed on the "monetary value" of -the "legacy". - -Using a trust as a "legal hack": would build a "registry" of free -software; the trust can map handles to contact information to preserve -anonymity. - -The idea is vaporware for now, since this trust cannot be built -without debating a lot of finer points. - -> The best gift you can give to the people you love is to make sure -> they're prepared for when you're gone. - -## The relationship between openness and democracy - -By Pia Waugh. - -Openness creates a natural incentive for "doing the right thing". - -Some people think shady deals which allow politicians to make huge -amounts of money from the industry are fair game, since they have to -get the investments they made during their campaign back. - -On "policy-based evidence" as an alternative to evidence-based policy: - -> That's rather funny'n'clever'n'witty… Oh shit, you're serious. - -How representative and legitimate are elected individuals? Never mind -the participation rate, most people vote for (or against) one or two -things, not the whole program. - -> (13:00) Everyone loves to kick public servants; **everyone**. - -> (14:30) I was gonna start a cartoon. And the first thing was gonna -> be someone saying "I'm surprised that you're working in government, -> I would've thought you'd disagree with X, Y, Z." OK. -> -> The second panel somone saying to me "I just can't believe you're -> working in government! I thought you had *integrity*! I thought -> you would disagree with all of these things!" … *OK*. -> -> The third person says "YOU MOTHER-"… Anyway, goes on a complete -> tirade, I'll probably get hit on the head. -> -> The fourth panel is me running off in the distance. Into the -> sunset. And the three people saying to each other "Why are there no -> good people in government?" - -"Consulting the public" used to be a point on a checklist, not -intended to yield useful outputs. - -## JavaScript is Awe-ful - -By Katie McLaughlin. - -In JavaScript, functions have to add `var` explicitly to their local -variable declarations, otherwise they will assign to global variables. - -``` javascript -> [] + [] -"" -> [] + {} -[object Object] -> {} + [] -0 -> {} + {} -NaN -``` - -JavaScript is a registered trademark; ECMAScript is the actual, -*standardised*, **versioned** language. - -Some examples of things which can be accomplished without JavaScript: -. - -Cross-compilers alleviate some of the pain; one has to be careful with -their prefered language's warts though. - -In Ruby, `&&` and `and` do not have the same precedence with respect -to `not`. - -## Data Structures and Algorithms in the 21st Century - -By Jacinta Catherine Richardson. - -Voronoi diagrams have a lot of applications: - -- modeling the capacity of wireless networks -- robot navigation -- mouse hoverstate - -Fourier transforms help with data compression. Naively: O(n²); from -the sixties onward: O(n log(n)). Nearly Optimal Sparse Fourier -Transform (2012): O(k log(n)), helps on-the-fly data compression. - -Singular Value Decomposition helps with pattern recognition/comparison -by allowing to express e.g. rotations. - -> New stuff! - -Evolutionary algorithms (a form of AI/machine learning) to find -optima: - -- a function to tell "is this good enough?" - -Genetic algorithms (a form of evolutionary): - -- fitness criteria -- swap information ("breed") -- random-ish variations - -> Setting up the fitness criteria and the initial conditions for -> genetic algorithms […] is as much art as it is science. - -Artificial Immune Systems (90s) is used in computer security. - -Swarm algorithms: agents share the value of their findings and -converge. Used e.g. to locate cancer; considered for e.g. traveling -sales person problem, unmanned cars. - -Bacterial Foraging Optimization; Shuffled Frog Leaping; -Teaching-Learning-Based Optimisations. - -[Foldit](http://fold.it) is an experiment consisting in making humans -solve hard problems (e.g. protein folding) through competitive gaming. - -Graph isomorphism is *hard*. Easy to verify, hard to solve. Until a -week ago: we can now solve them in quasi-polynomial time. - -## My personal fight against the modern laptop - -By Hamish Coleman. - -Ports, durability, keys are getting worse. - -Plugging an older keyboard on newer Thinkpads presents issues: - -- the motherboard sends in high-voltage current to enable backlight -- some keys don't work; the firmware must be changed (and then - re-encrypted) - -Sharing firmware patches is challenging; most end-users have no idea -what these even are; some of them run Windows and cannot easily use -the patching tools. - -Newer firmwares seem to be signed; this will probably make them harder -to tweak. diff --git a/technical/reviews/linux.conf.au-2017.md b/technical/reviews/linux.conf.au-2017.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9eb8da7 --- /dev/null +++ b/technical/reviews/linux.conf.au-2017.md @@ -0,0 +1,330 @@ +# linux.conf.au 2017 + +## General comments + +Re-stating the audience's questions before replying is helpful. + +## Choose Your Own Adventure, Please! + +Keynote by Pia Waugh. + +Warns against short-sighted itch-scratching; wants to encourage more +long-lasting systemic change. To contrast with Maciej Cegłowski, who +warns against [ivory-tower wank] in Sillicon Valley, where no-one +seems interested in working on the severe poverty problems nearby. + +(To be fair, Pia does say we need both "symptomatic relief" and +systemic change.) + +41:30 + +> My favourite story from my studies with martial arts was actually +> about two monks walking around. They're walking along, elder one, +> younger one, and when they get to the river, a person comes and says +> "I'm being chased by robbers, can you help me across the river +> please?". The older monk says "Yep, not a problem", picks them up +> and carries them across (because they're hurt). The person gets +> away. And they're walking along, still in silence, and the younger +> monk says: "… You know, back at the river back there"; the older +> monk says "Yeah?"; the younger monk says "I thought we had taken a +> vow of silence". The other goes, "Yeah?". "… Should you have +> spoken to that person?", and the older monk says: "I put that person +> down back at the river. Why haven't you?" + +That story appeals to me: it's got some sort of +Jesus-ish-unconditional-forgiveness-Zen vibe that feels reassuring, +"it's OK to make mistakes, as long as you aimed for the Greater Good, +focus on the Spirit of the Law instead of upholding the Letter". But +slippery slope turns that into "move fast and break things", +consequences and accountability be damned. + +You can even link that to ["fussy" compilers] and false alarms: why +should Buddhist GCC warn on Vow-of-Silence violation if it's not +actually a problem? The warning should be refined, the diagnosis +should be smarter, the standard amended, otherwise how do you +distinguish between the shades of red? + +["fussy" compilers]: https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/emacs-devel/2016-04/msg00190.html +[ivory-tower wank]: http://idlewords.com/talks/superintelligence.htm + +## Stephen King's practical advice for tech writers + +By Rikki Endsley. + +Lots of pointers, e.g. [The Care and Feeding of the +Press](http://netpress.org/care-feeding-press/). + +Suggested outline: + +- intro (invite the reader in) +- state the problem (background) +- solution +- (for tech article, tutorial, whitepaper: technical stuff (howto, FAQ)) +- conclude (important dates, action items) + +Parasite words: "very", "some". Be mindful of slang. + +## Sharing the love: making games with PICO-8 + +By John Dalton. + +> Sad old people, longing for the glory days + +PICO-8 restores the "Democracy of Creating". + +Kids get the point of sharing without having to be "encouraged" by +licences. + +## Writing less, saying more: UX lessons from the small screen + +By Claire Mahoney. + +- "mobile" is not necessarily "on the move" +- a "mobile" app does not have to be a "diet" version of the original + +Users do not expect the functionality to be diminished. + +> Context can be better than words + +(I feel like there is a connection to be made here with namespaces in +programming languages.) + +Patterns are good, repetition is not. + +Defining purpose with "when X, I want Y so I can Z" helps "keeping it +real" and reminding you of the user out there. + +## Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Rock Star Developers + +By Rikki Endsley. + +When writing job descriptions, stop asking for rock stars. Focus on: + +- job requirements +- job environment + +Makes it easier for people to figure whether they will fit in. + +Look for developers interested in making *others* succeed, learning +*new* skills; make sure they are accessible, they use the best tool +for the job, and they are able to innovate, lead, and collaborate with +a diverse mix of people. + +If you have a rockstar on your hands, make sure the janitors still get +some credits. + +## Why haven't you licensed your project? + +By Richard Fontana. + +"Post open-source" has actually been a thing for a while: the term +describes the widespread trend of not attributing a license to one's +project. + +Berne convention says that copyright is automatic, so this POSS +software might be implicitly "proprietary". Why worry? There is a +lot of proprietary software already. + +Not putting on a license constitutes a statement for some developers. + +Some attempts at public-domain dedication: + +- [WTFPL](http://www.wtfpl.net/) +- [Unlicense](http://unlicense.org/) +- [0-clause BSD](http://landley.net/toybox/license.html) +- [BOLA](https://blitiri.com.ar/p/bola/) +- [CC0](https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/public-domain/cc0/) + +## Handle Conflict, Like a Boss! + +By Deb Nicholson. + +Conflict mostly comes from missing information, mismatched goals. + +Avoidance, accomodation and assertion each have their own issues as +conflict-handling strategies. + +Using historical motivations can help give credit to new ideas. + +Hypotheticals such as "What's the worst that could happen?" help +identify the root issues people will not directly talk about. + +No ad hominem. No name-calling. Period. Beware of [Contempt Culture]. + +Setting expectations can help enforce a civil tone and constructive +criticism. + +[Contempt Culture]: (https://blog.aurynn.com/2015/12/16-contempt-culture). + +## The journey of a word: how text ends up on a page + +By Simon Cozens. + +Very interesting explanations on the lengths Unicode must go to in +order to turn humanity's sprawling mess of written communication +methods into rigorous rules that a computer can understand. + +Some diacritics can be encoded either with a single code point or a +vowel plus a combining code point; this is because Unicode intends to +have one code point for *every character that other encodings have +ever contained*. + +Cozens is publishing a free online book on the subject: [Fonts and +Layout for Global Scripts]. + +[Fonts and Layout for Global Scripts]: https://simoncozens.github.io/fonts-and-layout/ + +## Surviving the Next 30 Years of Free Software + +By Karen Sandler. + +Is copyright assignment to big organizations (Canonical, FSF?) the +solution to problems we cannot anticipate? + +Wills are tricky: recipients might be taxed on the "monetary value" of +the "legacy". + +Using a trust as a "legal hack": would build a "registry" of free +software; the trust can map handles to contact information to preserve +anonymity. + +The idea is vaporware for now, since this trust cannot be built +without debating a lot of finer points. + +> The best gift you can give to the people you love is to make sure +> they're prepared for when you're gone. + +## The relationship between openness and democracy + +By Pia Waugh. + +Openness creates a natural incentive for "doing the right thing". + +Some people think shady deals which allow politicians to make huge +amounts of money from the industry are fair game, since they have to +get the investments they made during their campaign back. + +On "policy-based evidence" as an alternative to evidence-based policy: + +> That's rather funny'n'clever'n'witty… Oh shit, you're serious. + +How representative and legitimate are elected individuals? Never mind +the participation rate, most people vote for (or against) one or two +things, not the whole program. + +> (13:00) Everyone loves to kick public servants; **everyone**. + +> (14:30) I was gonna start a cartoon. And the first thing was gonna +> be someone saying "I'm surprised that you're working in government, +> I would've thought you'd disagree with X, Y, Z." OK. +> +> The second panel somone saying to me "I just can't believe you're +> working in government! I thought you had *integrity*! I thought +> you would disagree with all of these things!" … *OK*. +> +> The third person says "YOU MOTHER-"… Anyway, goes on a complete +> tirade, I'll probably get hit on the head. +> +> The fourth panel is me running off in the distance. Into the +> sunset. And the three people saying to each other "Why are there no +> good people in government?" + +"Consulting the public" used to be a point on a checklist, not +intended to yield useful outputs. + +## JavaScript is Awe-ful + +By Katie McLaughlin. + +In JavaScript, functions have to add `var` explicitly to their local +variable declarations, otherwise they will assign to global variables. + +``` javascript +> [] + [] +"" +> [] + {} +[object Object] +> {} + [] +0 +> {} + {} +NaN +``` + +JavaScript is a registered trademark; ECMAScript is the actual, +*standardised*, **versioned** language. + +Some examples of things which can be accomplished without JavaScript: +. + +Cross-compilers alleviate some of the pain; one has to be careful with +their prefered language's warts though. + +In Ruby, `&&` and `and` do not have the same precedence with respect +to `not`. + +## Data Structures and Algorithms in the 21st Century + +By Jacinta Catherine Richardson. + +Voronoi diagrams have a lot of applications: + +- modeling the capacity of wireless networks +- robot navigation +- mouse hoverstate + +Fourier transforms help with data compression. Naively: O(n²); from +the sixties onward: O(n log(n)). Nearly Optimal Sparse Fourier +Transform (2012): O(k log(n)), helps on-the-fly data compression. + +Singular Value Decomposition helps with pattern recognition/comparison +by allowing to express e.g. rotations. + +> New stuff! + +Evolutionary algorithms (a form of AI/machine learning) to find +optima: + +- a function to tell "is this good enough?" + +Genetic algorithms (a form of evolutionary): + +- fitness criteria +- swap information ("breed") +- random-ish variations + +> Setting up the fitness criteria and the initial conditions for +> genetic algorithms […] is as much art as it is science. + +Artificial Immune Systems (90s) is used in computer security. + +Swarm algorithms: agents share the value of their findings and +converge. Used e.g. to locate cancer; considered for e.g. traveling +sales person problem, unmanned cars. + +Bacterial Foraging Optimization; Shuffled Frog Leaping; +Teaching-Learning-Based Optimisations. + +[Foldit](http://fold.it) is an experiment consisting in making humans +solve hard problems (e.g. protein folding) through competitive gaming. + +Graph isomorphism is *hard*. Easy to verify, hard to solve. Until a +week ago: we can now solve them in quasi-polynomial time. + +## My personal fight against the modern laptop + +By Hamish Coleman. + +Ports, durability, keys are getting worse. + +Plugging an older keyboard on newer Thinkpads presents issues: + +- the motherboard sends in high-voltage current to enable backlight +- some keys don't work; the firmware must be changed (and then + re-encrypted) + +Sharing firmware patches is challenging; most end-users have no idea +what these even are; some of them run Windows and cannot easily use +the patching tools. + +Newer firmwares seem to be signed; this will probably make them harder +to tweak. -- cgit v1.2.3