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Grimpen

@ Grimpen @lemmy.ca

Posts
3
Comments
55
Joined
3 yr. ago

  • Interactive Fiction Games Could Make A Comeback With This E-reader Handheld Console

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  • I'm assuming interactive fiction means more along the lines of Choose Your Own Adventure books or Fighting Fantasy game books.

    Article mentions text adventures as well, but old school like Zork and such wouldn't work well without a keyboard. Maybe more the nineties era Gabriel Knight and Beneath a Steel Sky,but that would suffer from a black and white screen.

  • Looking for a better emoji picker

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  • That's exactly why I always enable the Compose key. It's the fastest and easiest way to just type a variety of Unicode glyphs. The key combinations trend to be intuitive as well.

    There's a good chance the default config file will have a pretty decent selection. Although I have edited the config in the past, I haven't done it under KDE. The KDE article on setting up the compose key seems to say that KDE uses a different config file anyways.

    Turning on the Compose key is pretty straightforward as I recall, just another setting under Keyboard settings. Finding that config file is still useful if you can't guess the right combo for your desired glyph.

    Very useful for using character common in math and science.

  • Looking for a better emoji picker

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  • Not exactly what you may be looking for, but one of the first things I set up in Linux is the "Compose" key. Sun keyboards in the 90's had a dedicated Compose key, and you can enable the functionality still. I usually set it to Right Alt.

    The Compose key is kind of like an extended shift key, so 'Compose' + "c" + "/" for example will give you "¢".

    The key combinations and characters can be edited in a config file (can't remember off the top of my head).

    Not as versatile and an "Emoji picker", but allows quick insertion of Unicode glyphs into text. Useful for ¢£€¥™×° type characters.

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  • Google soft-forked Linux for Android (maintained in parallel IIRC) but re-merged into the mainline, presumably because why maintain a whole operating system?

    In theory the Linux Foundation would keep Google, Microsoft, AMD, whoever playing nice with each other for mutual benefit and maintenance of Linux, but like you said, and the source of my worry, is who else would have Linus' combination of prestige, principles, and perseverance?

    I'm sure there are others who could fill the role, but even Linus is still bullying Nvidia with only partial success. The most vital role Linus probably has had for some time now is leadership. But even someone who might have superior soft-skills wouldn't have the history, which certainly contributes to his authority.

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  • Glad someone finally mentioned Bus Factor.

    On topic, I wonder if Linux technically has a bus factor problem. In theory, anyone could fork, take all the source give and start making Johnix, Tomix, or Whosix. Everything is documented and all the code is available.

    In the real world, you have multiple teams and individuals submitting code from all over the world. Sure you've got the Linux Foundation, but who would have the respect and authority to keep everyone contributing instead of forking off?

  • Publishers are absolutely terrified "preserved video games would be used for recreational purposes," so the US copyright office has struck down a major effort for game preservation

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  • I know there are several seminal works locked in archives or even just lost.

    I couldn't think of any specific examples off the top of my head, but I was considering the fate of Microprose, Sierra On-Line, and other studios that were gobbled up, disbanded, broken up, etc.

    Your Mechwarrior example is a good example of licensing, where you might have defunct TTRPG studios (FASA) licensing a property to a have company it studio that has also gone though several mergers.

    There should be a "use it or lose it" provision in copyright law, kind of like back in the day with what happened to "It's A Wonderful Life". The only reason IAWL became a Christmas classic isbecause it became public domain.

  • Publishers are absolutely terrified "preserved video games would be used for recreational purposes," so the US copyright office has struck down a major effort for game preservation

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  • And this is the real cost. Sorry Mario Brothers will pretty much always be available as long as Nintendo is around, but obscure games or classics with disputed Copyright will disappear.

    Who is out there even trying to stream the old Sierra games? At least they are on GoG, but I know even GoG has tried to track down current copyright holders for old classics and the are plenty of orphan games where after several mergers and divestments, there is some uncertainty, and it's not worth it for any of the potential copyright holders to sort it out and license it, and unfortunately it's not worth it for GoG to publish it to find out if they'll sue GoG.

    This is why Abandonware is such an important concept.

  • What's the most obscure distro you can think of

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  • Didn't think Knoppix was obscure, but that was my gateway to Linux first on all my personal PCs.

    I guess the years have passed it by.

  • OS market share in Top 500 supercomputers

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  • I remember when 128 but SSL Encryption was export restricted in the mid 90's. When I first opened an online banking account, the Bank sent a CD with a customized version of Netscape Navigator with 128 bit SSL, and the bank logo in place of the Netscape N.

  • OS market share in Top 500 supercomputers

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  • I think it was PS3 that shipped with "Other OS" functionality, and were sold a little cheaper than production costs would indicate, to make it up on games.

    Only thing is, a bunch of institutions discovered you could order a pallet of PS3's, set up Linux, and have a pretty skookum cluster for cheap.

    I'm pretty sure Sony dropped "Other OS" not because of vague concerns of piracy, but because they were effectively subsidizing supercomputers.

    Don't know if any of those PS3 clusters made it onto Top500.

  • What's your experience with the sneakernet?

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  • That was exactly what I thought it was. Classic! And an official RFC (although introduced on April 1).

  • What's your experience with the sneakernet?

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  • Right there with you!

    My first experience with the internet was Gopher.

  • Deleted

    Mozilla.Social is Shutting Down

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  • The whole Fediverse is still a little on the niche side, but if growth continues, I think this is exactly another development. When you work for Company X, your work email is usually somebody@companyx.com, likewise I would expect official Fediverse presences.

    Where it will probably take off though is when somebody starts selling corporations a turn-key solution. Kind of how products like Outlook took over corporate email.

  • I got SWAT'ed and handcuffed live while Linux development streaming!

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  • The police also knocked and only entered after he answered it sounded like. While certainly armed and probably prepared for something wild, they didn't force entry with guns at the ready.

    Once again, mostly comparing to videos of US police interactions, which is kind of weird as a non-USian commenting on a German police interrogation. Would be curious to see an "audit the audit" type review of this.

  • I got SWAT'ed and handcuffed live while Linux development streaming!

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  • Respect. Only through destruction can we be purified.

  • Australia's internet watchdog says she received "death threats" and that her children were doxxed after she was targeted by Elon Musk for attempting to regulate Xitter

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  • Pretty much. Musk is far from a free speech absolutist as he proclaimed himself to be. I would go further and say he's substantially worse, unpredictable and inconsistent in free speech matters.

    Old Twitter would hardly be a true paragon of free expression, but they were at least relatively transparent. Good luck getting any answers from new Xitter or any consistency.

  • Founder and CEO of Telegram messaging service arrested in France

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  • The standard I recall being established back in the nineties as to whether strong encryption was even legal in the US was "substantial non-infringing use" or similar. It's been awhile.

    The problem with key-escrow or anything similar is that any proscribed circumvention is also available to the "bad guys".

    I think Telegram's stance would be that they can't moderate because of strong end-to-end encryption. Back in the day the parallel would have been made to the phone system or mail.

    Of course this is all happening in France, so I have no idea what the combination of French and EU laws will have on this, but I would still broadly expect that if a parallel can be made to mail or phone, Telegram would be in the clear. The phone company and mail service have no expectation of content moderation.

    I guess we'll see.

  • "In The Beginning Was The Command Line" An essay by Neal Stephenson that talks about proprietary operating systems and FOSS operating systems. Written in 1999.

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  • VAX/VMS was still around then, and as far as I recall, that was the king for uptime.

    Linux back then supported much less hardware. I can remember even in the early aughts, there was while families of popular wireless network chipsets that weren't supported.

  • The Best way to switch to Linux is to NOT

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  • Pretty much exactly what happened to me. Mostly open source apps on Windows. Set up dual boot with Windows default. One day I noticed I was switching to Linux more often than not, so changed to Linux default.