Posts by jbqueru@fosstodon.org
(DIR) Post #Aad6bFTN33gPrRNfiS by jbqueru@fosstodon.org
2023-10-08T11:21:49Z
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@selzero I remember my mom asking me why I care that other folks get access to health coverage and education. I explained that I don't want to store clerk to sneeze over the produce they are setting up in the supermarket, or that I want the people who'll take care of me when I'm old and sick to actually know what they're doing. She got it.
(DIR) Post #AbGShlaYAs5dvzZK7c by jbqueru@fosstodon.org
2023-10-29T13:57:17Z
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@js @thomholwerda in my experience, HTTPS is only secure if you explicitly check that the server certificate is as expected (a.k.a. certificate pinning). Without pinning, HTTPS MITM is annoyingly common. Signing packages is the way to go for any kind of serious download security those days, HTTPS is just not enough.
(DIR) Post #AbPng3Q9BXYFKyjELQ by jbqueru@fosstodon.org
2023-11-03T01:53:53Z
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@dntlookbehindu Yup. And, code is cheap in the way oil is cheap: the true costs are paid by someone else.
(DIR) Post #AhPpdr4d7StbSEnplw by jbqueru@fosstodon.org
2024-04-30T13:49:24Z
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@futurebird I like small computers, whether modern or retro, when they are simple enough for a single person to understand and program directly at the hardware level.
(DIR) Post #AhunEfR6Dz0DJHIm3c by jbqueru@fosstodon.org
2024-05-05T07:49:19Z
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Hmmm. Write Z80 first, then port to 6502? Write 6502 first, then port to Z80? Write 68000 first, then port to both Z80 and 6502? Write a bytecode interpreter on both 6502 and Z80 and then code to that bytecode?I guess I'm looking for an excuse to think about writing code instead of, you know, actually writing code.
(DIR) Post #AhunEh4q7iNwOou1dg by jbqueru@fosstodon.org
2024-05-05T17:16:10Z
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Replying to myself, after lots of valuable and thought-provoking inputs from the wise crowd: some bytecode interpreter might make sense.-Write once for multiple platforms.-The interpreters are reasonable to test from within their respective target environments.-The bytecode is easy to test in any modern host environment.-Having an interpreter gives me flexibility to interleave it into time-sensitive code (2600, but also CPC and ST where I like racing the beam).
(DIR) Post #AhvW5tDo62p7OdGzSK by jbqueru@fosstodon.org
2024-05-05T18:58:38Z
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@proedie @aeberbach @mos_8502 The more stupid the idea, the more lovable. Because breakthroughs come from seemingly stupid ideas.
(DIR) Post #AhxCNIxC4L9fMIRtK4 by jbqueru@fosstodon.org
2024-05-06T08:20:35Z
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@rbreich Beyond market manipulation, stock buybacks are also tax evasion: they allow shareholders to recognize long-term capital gains and to control the timing of such gains (e.g. to match them with tax loss harvesting).
(DIR) Post #Ai1bOiD4vYnlSuUDZ2 by jbqueru@fosstodon.org
2024-04-01T05:37:14Z
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My wife @eugenialoli has been working on installing Linux on various old computers for which a lot of other options are now unsupported.She's been finding that machines with 2GB or RAM or 16GB of storage tend to struggle, whether while installing the OS, booting, installing common apps or running those apps.2GB of RAM is an incredibly large amount. As is 16GB of storage.WTF are we software people doing as an industry that makes us consume so many resources?
(DIR) Post #Ai1bOjknBhMcFlGeki by jbqueru@fosstodon.org
2024-04-01T05:39:22Z
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For reference, Windows XP's official requirements were 64MB of RAM and 1.5GB of storage. Even giving ourselves a 4x margin at 256MB/6GB, that's a very far cry from 2GB/16GB.Windows XP was honestly a vastly usable OS, with vastly usable applications running on top.What are we doing that now requires so much more?!?
(DIR) Post #Ai1bOoEiWNg49jIbx3 by jbqueru@fosstodon.org
2024-04-01T06:40:17Z
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Let's talk orders of magnitude.My workstation has 128GB of main RAM. Enough for some very heavy applications.Shrink by 1000x, 128MB would run Windows XP or MacOS X of the same era, or early iOS or Android. Rich graphical environment, one application + accessories.1000x further, 128kB is the top end of many 8-bit machines. Text mode single-tasking, simple documents.Still 1000x, 128B is the Atari 2600 (+4kB or ROM for the code). Working set for simple games.
(DIR) Post #Ai7HIk0OVU1HA4Bk7k by jbqueru@fosstodon.org
2024-05-21T12:51:51Z
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@futurebird It's invertible, and primality is defined modulo invertible numbers.
(DIR) Post #Ai7P25oGz5QZUt5iOu by jbqueru@fosstodon.org
2024-05-21T12:56:09Z
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@winter @glitzersachen @futurebird Yeah, the definition of "only divisible by 1 and itself" is only valid for natural numbers, but gets weird in larger sets. E.g. if you include negative numbers, 2 is still a prime, but it is divisible by 2, -2, 1 and -1.(and, weirdly, 2 is not a prime in gaussian integers, since it is (1+i)*(1-i))
(DIR) Post #AlfP2zR44O680JwwqW by jbqueru@fosstodon.org
2024-09-04T17:08:02Z
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I am looking at the possibility that my PC (13900K) might be a million times as fast as home computers from 40 years ago.Which would mean that my PC can do as much processing in 20 minutes as such an old computer could have done since its original release.Even though I'm deeply familiar with the performance differences, my mind is still blown.
(DIR) Post #AmqrmgLDF5Vbc5FgIa by jbqueru@fosstodon.org
2024-10-10T04:10:50Z
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@foone There's #define private public, which is more "let me do what I want, dammit!"
(DIR) Post #AqEalmQHh3GCOqvkWG by jbqueru@fosstodon.org
2025-01-19T08:29:25Z
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@foone Deep inside, that implies that the logic to display FP numbers uses FP math. That is, well, unexpected, and somewhat scary: I wonder whether some bad rounding might e.g. cause off-by-over errors in the exponent, which would be bad.
(DIR) Post #AqVsly5zOcOLSpznXs by jbqueru@fosstodon.org
2025-01-27T16:41:19Z
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@foone It's probably encrypted with triple-ROT-13.
(DIR) Post #AqyFFaCNQ8fHqQqQHw by jbqueru@fosstodon.org
2025-02-10T09:05:00Z
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@foone It's easy to store 77 arbitrary bits in extended precision and have valid numbers (i.e. that can be loaded and stored back unmodified by any x87 FPU). 78 is possible with minor constraints, all 80 is unlikely to be possible. For 8-byte characters, you'll have 9 characters, with the caveats that they won't fit as 9 groups of 8 bits, at least of them will be split.
(DIR) Post #ArCaoo6OXOwQLr7gYa by jbqueru@fosstodon.org
2025-02-17T07:12:18Z
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@foone RET is nothing more than POP IP (and on some RISC processors that's quite hte only option.) I love manipulating the stack like that.
(DIR) Post #Asw3ZluURca0vmRgDg by jbqueru@fosstodon.org
2025-04-10T03:28:42Z
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@foone XP and 7 were the better versions of Windows. Vista was a miss, it included the things that didn't make it into XP because they weren't actually important, and starting with 8 MSFT started to forget that an operating system is supposed to be invisible, and instead decided to make it be in the users' face.It's crazy that my wife recently installed Linux Mint on a friend's old Win10 laptop, and the friend's immediate reaction, with zero linux experience, was "this is easier than Windows."