Posts by gtw@mastodon.nz
 (DIR) Post #AuguNt4txDdVodUnFQ by gtw@mastodon.nz
       2025-06-01T14:27:42Z
       
       0 likes, 1 repeats
       
       This isn't a budget; it's an obituary.https://nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/files/00-NSF-FY26-CJ-Entire-Rollup.pdfThis proposal "saves" $5.1B a year by eliminating funding for 240,100 scientists.To put that figure in perspective, it's less than the cost ($5.4B) to just 500 US companies of last year's CrowdStrike fiasco.Browse through the current list of 1669 cancelled awards: https://grant-watch.us/nsf-data.html and then predict next year's cancellation list of five times that size.  Can you imagine that new list might contain an award funding some scientist who over the course of the year might have learned something that would eventually allow somebody somewhere to avert the next CrowdStrike?  If so, then that discovery would MORE than have paid for the funding for everything all the other 240,099 scientists would have done.I don't think a word exists to describe how foolish this proposal is.  I suppose I'll just have to say it's doubleplusunwise.#NSF #science
       
 (DIR) Post #B2a74Su77zjMWLcSlE by gtw@mastodon.nz
       2026-01-23T16:02:51Z
       
       0 likes, 1 repeats
       
       Congratulations #GNU #Guix, on the release of version 1.5.0!https://guix.gnu.org/Guix is the most boring distribution I've ever used.  By "boring" I mean that it lacks surprises: you can be confident that everything that worked yesterday will still work tomorrow.  Rolling back a change is even easier than making it in the first place.And it's all #FreeSoftware: Guix is free not only from restrictions, but also from side effects.