Messages

1

Offtopic / Re: Reversing to Orion - project 1oom

« on: November 14, 2018, 07:30:10 am »

1oom v1.0 has been released. Changes:
    - quit brings back to main menu
    - clicking on the Tech screen lights sets the slider to bonus limit
    - governor color coding based on where the rest is spent
    - extra menu (bottom-left corner, shortcut E) expanded
    - a handful of bugs fixed

Source code: https://gitlab.com/KilgoreTroutMaskReplicant/1oom
Binaries: https://gitlab.com/KilgoreTroutMaskReplicant/1oom/tags/v1.0
Homepage: https://kilgoretroutmaskreplicant.gitlab.io/plain-html/

This is the final release. I will be homeless in a matter of days; less C and disasm, more sucking cock for shelter.

I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C code glitter in the dark near the A20 gate. All those moments will be stored in git... like tears in PNG... Time to die.

- Kilgore Trout Mask Replicant Hobo Chang Ba With A Shotgun*

* see Galapagos

2

Offtopic / Re: Looking for a new book series to read?

« on: November 10, 2018, 01:57:07 pm »

Between fat books? Feeling cheerful? Try something from the other end by reading a short story by James Tiptree, Jr. The stories will likely haunt you for far longer.

3

Offtopic / Re: Xcom Enemy unknown theme music

« on: November 10, 2018, 01:48:54 pm »

Nice medley! Could use some cowbell over-the-top guitar noodling, but it doesn't quite fit the source material.

I'm always happy to hear heavy remixes of game music (and 8-bit remixes of popular music). Check out Press Play on Tape or Machinae Supremacy if your gaming history extends to the '80s.

4

Offtopic / Re: Irrelevant cat videos

« on: November 10, 2018, 01:33:22 pm »

Internet + cats = memes

Humanity will not be missed.

5

Offtopic / Re: Post-meritocracy

« on: November 08, 2018, 05:27:14 pm »

In lieu of just letting them free, I shall first take advantage of them and then make the unicornburgers. I now see that this is in their best interests.

Careful now. Threathening or mocking imaginary beings can land you in jail (or worse) in some jurisdictions.

Also: medium-rare, thanks.

He was also a homosexual child-molesting Elder God from Outer Space.

Here's the proof:
https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-complicated-friendship-of-h-p-lovecraft-and-robert-barlow-one-of-his-biggest-fans

Interesting read. Suicidal gay man in the '50s... reminds me that having Turing in a file called HACKING probably paints me homophobic. Anyway, white gay men are not far enough down on the intersectional oppression ladder to matter for Diversity.

(although this one is even more damning).

... it started to stare back at me. Nietzsche had some other quip about fighting dragons that applies quite well to the people pushing CoCs. (Feel free to throw that back at me when I start slandering them instead of their work.)

You will not stop my Quest for Justice!

But it offends me, a random observer with zero investment in the project! Sorry, the progressive demand censorship and witch hunts. Freedom and justice are mutually exclusive. Freedom is slaveryworker-y. Ignorance is strength. A trout weights as much as a duck.

6

Offtopic / Re: Post-meritocracy

« on: November 08, 2018, 01:08:16 pm »

But I'm totally reusing the TFTD Cthulhu coffin.

Hold your unicorns! From the previously linked anti-meritocracy article:

Much of the literature that we love and respect as geeks was written by extraordinarily bigoted individuals, from H.P. Lovecraft’s rampant racism to Orson Scott Card’s aggressive homophobia. But these serious flaws are generally either ignored or explained away by cultural, historical or generational differences. We hide behind the motto of “love the art, hate the artist” to justify our preferences despite the faint voice of conscience, persistent in telling us that something is amiss.

Lovecraft was racist! "Death of author" is not an excuse: going "Iä! Iä! Cthulhu fh'tang!" makes you guilty by association. (Citing epithets from the Howard's Cat Naming Convention book is a bit more clear cut case.)

Stop perpetuating mythology coined by ungood people!

(Hmm... where does that leave Islam?)

7

Offtopic / Re: Post-meritocracy

« on: November 07, 2018, 05:53:54 pm »

academia

This Cult of Diversity is well represented in those circles. How about Harvard discriminating Asian-Americans? It would be a shame if being egalitarian resulted in a too yellow campus. Tip: If you discriminate by race, you just might be a racist!

Oh, how could I miss that?! This changes the whole deal!

Someone else noticed that and wrote about it on LWN. I found it funny. Still too lazy to search for the message...

It does bring a certain "these are my words and nobody is holding a gun to my head" air to it; solid conspiracy nut fuel (that can't melt steal beams!!!1)

besides, maybe I should make a subfaction to humanists in piratez so that "progressives" are properly represented. complete with pink hats, frothing at the mouth (this would require a minor change to the engine so that their blabberings can be shoven down the player's throat) and a "rescue Linus" mission ala the siberian base.

Better make sure the gender variable is a float.

8

Offtopic / Re: Post-meritocracy

« on: November 07, 2018, 09:41:45 am »

I believe there was no conspiracy, plans or campaigns, just random attention whoring with a bit of protection racket/power grab smell to it.

Reality tends to be dull. For more conspiracy fuel, check the announcement email closely: Linus seems to use two different apostrophe characters.

(No, I don't believe there was a conspiracy. Just a panicky reaction to a vile mainstream news article that someone took as an opportunity to shove a bad CoC in.)

Perhaps the whole mess shows a flaw in meritocracy: just because someone is a good subsystem/stable branch maintainer, they can't be trusted to introduce good policy updates.

9

Offtopic / Re: Post-meritocracy

« on: November 06, 2018, 01:55:21 pm »

Linux is neither meritocracy or anti-meritocracy, it is anarchy/communism, whether you like it or not, and that is possible because copying cost is negligible.

Are you confusing Linux-the-kernel with Linux-the-desktop-OS? Linux is a Unix-like kernel[1] project created and managed by Linus Torvalds. What you get when you download Ubuntu Linux is a collection of software that uses Linux as the kernel; to avoid further confusion, let's call such things... I dunno, "GNU/Linux".

Linus is the Benevolent Dictator For Life of Linux. He has chosen (based on merit) trusted "lieutenants" to be subsystem maintainers, but the last word on if to merge any given patch is Linus'. That is the meritocracy we're talking about.

Copying (aka "forking") a project is free. Maintaining it or convincing, say, Ubuntu to switch from Linux to MyBetterLinux is not. How is the forked project governed?

I can buy the anarchy/communism claim in the larger GNU/Linux (or F/OSS) ecosystem context. Within a project, it's (typically) meritocracy.

This leads to shitty code simply becoming landfill.

If only...

They may appear like some sort of leftists, but their actual endgame is to end this anarchist utopia and commercialize linux. Or destroy it so it stops being competition to commercial systems. Mark my words.

You do realize that the GPL allows you to copy Linux, GNOME and OpenXcom a flash drive and sell it in a street corner?

Did you know that IBM just bought Red Hat, a commercial GNU/Linux vendor that employs many Linux, GNOME and other F/OSS project developers (including a notorious Mr. Poettering)?

Did you know that Android phones use a (forked) Linux kernel? Did you know that Microsoft claims that Linux infringes upon numerous patents and collects royalties from Android device makers (and makes more money that way than from any Windows Phone ventures)?

Anarchist utopia? Hardly. I do agree that the CoC is a fantasic way to sow discord and tear projects apart.

And Mr. Torvalds was likely given choice between:
- Comply to demands
- Go Snowden
- Go to prison for rape and/or pedophilia, it's so easy nowadays. All they need is to drop some child porn on any computer you're working on and you're toast.

That seems plausible if you happen to believe ESR's informant. Seeing one of Linus' daughters appear in the Manifesto signatories gives credence to a different conspiracy theory.

Regardless of motive and tactics, this whole mess is disgusting. Linus was one of my heroes. Seeing him cave in to bullies' demands makes me sad.

[1] A kernel is the piece of software that controls the hardware, manages multitasking, handles the networking stack and such things. No person uses a kernel directly[2]; programs use it, and the vast majority of those only via other libraries. Haven't checked, but I very much doubt that OXC has any Linux-specific code in it (and POSIX is not Linux).

[2] inb4 cat /dev/random > /dev/sda1 (FFS don't do this!)

(EDIT: typical tipsy tuesday typos)

10

Offtopic / Re: Post-meritocracy

« on: November 05, 2018, 12:50:54 pm »

I don't put it to just violence, because not all the things that certainly need intervention are violent. There is the matter of if someone is dumb enough to share their kiddie porn . . . call the police right away!

This reminded me of one individual who suggested Linux devs who dislike the CoC to rescind their license grant. From that email:

Since none of you woman worshiping anti-marry-little-girls** faggots are lawyers you believe whatever you're told by "SFConservancy"*)
[...]
**(YHWH explicitly allows men to have female children as brides (Devarim chapter 22, verse 28 (na'ar) (same expressed in the Septuagint (padia)) (including in cases of a forceful taking (taphas))

How should this guy be dealt with? From the CoC:

[...] harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of [...] religion, or sexual identity and orientation.

Is sending armed thugs to raid your home harassment?

Examples of unacceptable behavior by participants include:
- [...] unwelcome sexual attention or advances

Given that the kernel dev age distribution does not quite reach single digits, I can't see this one causing trouble for the guy.

Examples of unacceptable behavior by participants include:
- Publishing others’ private information, such as a physical or electronic address, without explicit permission

Does informing the authorities count as publishing? Arrest records etc tend to be public.

Why does this guy oppose the CoC? Seems like his under-represented minority is protected by it.


(For the Illiterati: I'm ridiculing the CoC. I'm not advocating this guy's mission or lifestyle. Don't break Linux. Don't diddle kids. OK? Cool.)

11

Offtopic / Re: Reversing to Orion - project 1oom

« on: November 04, 2018, 12:34:39 pm »

Now that 1oom has percolated up to Thotimx's LP thread that sparked it, it's time for disclosure.

Most people who have read a book (or even a game manual) in their lives have learned the difference between parenthesis-without-space (uncertain plural) and parenthesis-with-space (supplementary information). Thotimx is not one of them.

Not having :tenbux: to spare on a Something Awful account, I started 1oom to get Thotimx to correct the error in their writing style. A year later, Thotimx has noticed the project and the inflammatory README comment. And persist on writing incorrectly. I must have misread that book about winnowing friends and influenza people (or somesuch).

Thus, the project has failed. At least we got a decent F/OSS MOO1-like as collateral.

Last call for feature requests and bug reports.

12

Offtopic / Re: Post-meritocracy

« on: November 04, 2018, 12:32:34 pm »

These Westerners have way too much time on their hands.

Wise words from someone with 7846 posts under their belt on a forum about an engine reimplementation for a 25 year old game.

Not that you're wrong in implying this thread would not exist if I received more than 1 bug report / feature request per three days. Still, a rather Puritan view.

Meanwhile...

Linus has calmed down after the operation. No more swearing. And they all lived happily ever after.

13

Offtopic / Re: Post-meritocracy

« on: November 02, 2018, 06:45:40 am »

(Apologies to SupSuper for using you in an example. I hope your keen eye on sarcasm and level head will let that slide.)

As far as the harassment is concerned, usually it won't call for the police, but if someone has been told to no longer contact another user, contact should stop right there. After all, unlike a professional setting, contributors don't really have to talk, so if one is being a pain in the ass it is, and certain should be, easy to cut them off.

I agree. The project leaders must have the power to do (or not do) this. The decision must remain in their hands and not given to Twitter mobs and CoC-enabled rule lawyers. If the asshole in question happens to be the leader, the F/OSS solution is to fork the project.

I don't put it to just violence, because not all the things that certainly need intervention are violent.

Did you know that Linus is advocating for physical intimidation and violence?

I do agree that there is a point where the cops need to be called. However, not surveilling the general interwebs for participants' misconduct should not be be punishable.

--

Now that Linus has said that the pivotal New Yorker article was the reason for the hasty CoC adoption, let's take a look at it.

In a response to The New Yorker, Torvalds said, “I am very proud of the Linux code that I invented and the impact it has had on the world. [...]"

Code... invented? The probabilility of that being a direct quote is zero.

Torvalds’s decision to step aside came after The New Yorker asked him a series of questions about his conduct for a story on complaints about his abusive behavior discouraging women from working as Linux-kernel programmers.

"Abusive behaviour" being calling crap code crap.

According to Squire’s tabulations, more than a thousand of the twenty-one thousand e-mails Torvalds sent in a four-year period used the word “crap.” “Slut,” “bitch,” and “bastard” were employed much less frequently during that period.

Ooh, me too!

According to Replicant's hasty counts, more than ten of the eighty-seven posts Replicant sent in a half-year period used the word "fuck." "Slut," "bitch," and "hysterectomy" were employed much less frequently during that period.

Both reports are factually correct. Guess which words were used zero times.

This article is trying hard to make Linus look like a misogynist without using actual lies. Combining the phrase "abusive behavior discouraging women" with the (sneakily injected) words "slut" and "bitch" paints a very dishonest picture of his communication. Now the readership think of Linus yelling "shut up bitch and make a sandwich" at every female coder.

14

Offtopic / Re: Post-meritocracy

« on: November 01, 2018, 09:38:18 am »

https://github.com/unwireddevices/RIOT/commit/fc51d09...

the guy keeps his own fork in part because of upstream maintainers' asshattery

Community split, CoC working as planned. This is how you get rid of the undesirables who have an unhealthy obsession in actually producing software (and are probably racist too).

Hey, hold my beer:

Examples of unacceptable behavior by participants include:
- The use of sexualized language

You can prick a finger, but not finger a prick. Also, masturbating monkeys! Redundant at this point, but I'll throw in a "fuck" for good measure.

unwelcome sexual attention or advances

Hello, sailor! I put on my robe and wizard hat...

... the creators of Bottled Outrage and NaziCard bring you the latest in virtue signal processing: the Unwanted-Pass Filter! It adaptively filters messages based on source status and destination mood. The perfect tool for high-fidelity lifestyle! Employing Fat Furry Transform, the operating range is 0 to 20 kiloHunks with Total Harmony Destruction of ...

- Trolling

Does this count?

insulting/derogatory comments

Your father does have a elderberry-like whiff going on...

personal

... you silly person.

political attacks

Free Tibet!

- Public or private harassment

SupSuper, you fucking idiot! What kind of a douche sets the forum rules to something simple, tested and agreeable?!

- Other conduct which could reasonably be considered inappropriate in a professional setting

Pants constrict my coding flow.

*whew* There! Now I've pre-emptively ejected myself from any project that employs the Covenant CoC.

Have you?

Are you sure about that?

15

Offtopic / Re: Post-meritocracy

« on: October 31, 2018, 05:20:40 pm »

Have you heard what SQLite did? They oficially adopted rules of a monastic order: https://www.sqlite.org/codeofethics.html When this caught attention last week, they made it "Code of Ethics of the Project Founder" and for others replaced it with Mozilla guidelines.

I heard. I even went back and edited my link to point at an acrhived version once I found out they caved in. They even catered to Catholics:

69. Love your juniors.

I see two ways to deal with this creeping disease:
- atheist: ignore and it will go away
- pastafarian: ridicule to expose the stupidity

IMO the monastic CoC was a brilliant piece of satire. I guess Mozilla did not agree; not that surprising after the Eich debacle.

An actual threat of violence or a reported plan for serious criminal activity does need police called.

Serious criminal activity in which jurisdiction? Seemingly benign things can get you beheaded in some corners of the world. In the USA, judging by the harshness of the punishment, sharing Michael Jackson's music is a crime worse than killing Michael Jackson.

If you're in favor of policing contributor speech, please draw the line. It may end up awfully squiggly. (Or call it "violence" and move on with out lives.)

Other than these, yeah, stay hands off an let project contributors deal with their own problems. Even if the problem is one of them doesn't have a sense of humor. There certain don't need to be special rules to deal with it.

RAmen.

--

Bored? Typing "man socket"[1] in a terminal made you feel vaguely sexist? Read an article from the Manifesto author on why meritocracy is bad:

In the Ruby world, we insist that “Matz Is Nice And So We Are Nice,” ignoring the sexist statements he has made with regard to diversity outreach efforts. We write off Linus Torvalds' dismissal of diversity as an “unimportant detail” and justify it based on the utility of his creations.

But why is it that we can proudly refuse to use software created by corporations whose often aggressive business policies we disagree with, but continue to adopt software written by sexists, racists, homophobes, transphobes?

Welp.

Perhaps you'd prefer an account on PHP and CoC instead.

[1] For the benefit of non-developers: the command opens up a manual related to network programming.