smores's recent activity

  1. Comment on Donald Trump whisked off stage in Pennsylvania after apparent gunshots rang through the crowd in ~news

  2. Comment on Donald Trump loathes our laws, puts self over country, and is dangerous for America. He is fully unfit to lead, writes the editorial board. (gifted link) in ~misc

    smores
    Link Parent
    A.G. Sulzberger is the NYT Publisher and his family owns (and has always owned) the controlling stake in the company. He is… definitely not a conservative man. And there’s no world in which he...

    A.G. Sulzberger is the NYT Publisher and his family owns (and has always owned) the controlling stake in the company. He is… definitely not a conservative man. And there’s no world in which he supports Donald Trump; when Trump was president, he met with him specifically to attempt to convince Trump to stop attacking the entire premise of journalism:

    https://www.nytco.com/press/statement-of-a-g-sulzberger-publisher-the-new-york-times-in-response-to-president-trumps-tweet-about-their-meeting/

    1 vote

  3. Comment on The American elevator explains why housing costs have skyrocketed in ~engineering

    smores
    Link Parent
    I’m literally the first person to call out how ridiculous the NYT continued defense of publishing truly bad and often vile takes in their opinion section over and over is, but this is a guest...

    I’m literally the first person to call out how ridiculous the NYT continued defense of publishing truly bad and often vile takes in their opinion section over and over is, but this is a guest essay in the opinion section, not something from the editorial board or actual journalists at the Times. The Times publishes quite a lot of content that represents the actual perspectives of very few, if any, actual employees or decision makers of the Times. This practice is itself pretty indefensible in 2024, if you ask me, but I don’t think it makes sense to read this as a stance that represents actual NYT journalists.

    19 votes

  4. Comment on Does node.js have a future? in ~comp

    smores
    Link
    My experience is like @koopa’s; working at the NYT, for example, there were several teams that defaulted to Node.js for backend development. It’s actually somewhat funny; working on Storyteller,...

    My experience is like @koopa’s; working at the NYT, for example, there were several teams that defaulted to Node.js for backend development. It’s actually somewhat funny; working on Storyteller, my open source project, I first wrote the backend in Python (because the Whisper implementation I wanted to use is in Python), and eventually switched it to Node.js anyway because the ecosystem of third party libraries is just so much more robust and well maintained.

    It seems like maybe you’re less involved in the Node.js dev community, which is totally fine, and so aren’t as aware of some of the very popular and well liked libraries and frameworks there as you are in other spaces. It’s also worth noting that Javascript is fundamentally a different language that Python, Ruby, and PHP, and became widely popular at a very different era of software development, and so its libraries and frameworks lean into different aspects of software development than those of its predecessors. There is no widely used, literally-everything-you-could-dream-of monolithic MVC framework like Django or Rails because that’s not how most Node.js developers prefer to design systems.

    That said:

    Express.js is the backbone of Node.js API development, and has been around truly forever. It’s comparable to Flask in basically every respect.

    There are plenty of large, well maintained MVC frameworks as well, they just aren’t as popular among Node.js devs, as I mentioned. Personally I’d much prefer, say, building my backend with PostGraphile than with Ruby on Rails (and I cut my teeth on Rails!).

    There are of course bog standard db drivers for every database there is (though sqlite support is a bit of a nightmare). The postgres driver has five million weekly downloads!

    And there are truly outstanding options for both headless and fullstack CMS-based website development. @koopa already mentioned Ghost, which is indeed a Node.js self hosted and customizable publishing platform; there’s also Strapi, an open source headless CMS, and any number of popular and well maintained static site builders. These vary from Next.js, which is a full stack React framework that does way more than static site building, to Gatsby, Eleventy, and like… quite a good many more.

    On the idea of not being sure how many people even use Node.js for backend development, consider that Express has 30 million weekly downloads on npm, and is exclusively a backend development library!

    10 votes

  5. Comment on The food that makes you gay in ~lgbt

    smores
    Link Parent
    Oh, wow, this is intensely relatable for me. I am intentionally free with this flavor of personal information in public, but I steel myself far more before revealing that I’m vegan than revealing...

    Oh, wow, this is intensely relatable for me. I am intentionally free with this flavor of personal information in public, but I steel myself far more before revealing that I’m vegan than revealing that I’m bi.

    Part of it is definitely that I feel confident in dismissing the opinions of, and even relationships with, anyone who isn’t accepting of the fact that I’m bi (I’m extremely lucky to be in a place where this group hasn’t included anyone important to me). But a much, much larger group of people, upon first learning that I’m vegan, have some gut reaction that compels them to challenge it in some way.

    I think that it’s made more difficult by the fact that being vegan is indeed a choice, if not one that I feel I could have chosen differently, and the fact that I have made such a choice, especially on moral grounds, pushes others into a place of defense about their own choices on how they engage with industrial farming and animal rights. As people have become more comfortable with the idea that being queer isn’t a choice, it’s become easier (I think) for folks to learn that someone else is queer without that knowledge affecting their perception of themselves; because food choices are in fact choices, it’s harder for people to avoid the way those choices reflect on them.

    6 votes

  6. Comment on Nebula strikes deal with Spotify to stream video content in ~tech

    smores
    Link Parent
    I’ve watched most if not all Adam Neely videos that have come out in the past few years. He’s a really excellent musician (check out his band Sungazer’s full album, Perihelion, too!), and he has...

    I’ve watched most if not all Adam Neely videos that have come out in the past few years. He’s a really excellent musician (check out his band Sungazer’s full album, Perihelion, too!), and he has some really thoughtful and good takes on music copyright, systemic racism and ethnocentricity in music analysis and education, and what it means to make music. But he also has loads of fun videos that are just well done music analysis of interesting songs or pieces of music, that even my wife (not a musician, no musical training) has watched mearly all of, and has gotten quite a lot out of!

    Unfortunately now probably isn’t the best time to get into Adam Neely’s video content, as he has all but retired from the format, and is much more invested in his music at the moment/going forward. I expect he’ll still make the occasional high quality video, but it won’t be the regular output that he had for years prior.

    8 votes

  7. Comment on How do you take notes while reading? Do you have a “marginalia” process? What has helped you learn better and retain new knowledge? in ~creative

    smores
    Link Parent
    I very much agree with this, and I wanted to add something that helps me considerably with retention and comprehension: on or after my first read through (depending on the length of the content),...

    I very much agree with this, and I wanted to add something that helps me considerably with retention and comprehension: on or after my first read through (depending on the length of the content), I try to explain it to someone else. I try to do this with someone who is sufficiently interested in the content to point out where I’m not able to explain something well, but not already an expert.

    This gives me very clear feedback on where I need to focus on my second read through, and I find that content that I learned this way sticks with me in considerable detail for years without much need for refreshing.

    3 votes

  8. Comment on I am moving to New Jersey! Anything I should know? in ~life

    smores
    Link
    Congrats on the job, and welcome to New Jersey! I grew up in and now again live in central Jersey. I don't have much insight into the towns directly around New Brunswick, though as other folks...

    Congrats on the job, and welcome to New Jersey!

    I grew up in and now again live in central Jersey. I don't have much insight into the towns directly around New Brunswick, though as other folks have mentioned, New Brunswick itself is very much a college town and is not necessarily where you would want to actually live full time. Metuchen and Edison both have train stations on the Northeast Corridor line, which goes through New Brunswick and up to the Newark airport and New York City as well.

    There are loads of fun restaurants and activities in New Brunswick. though! My wife and I just did a Turkish lamp-making class up there the other week (I'll have to ask her what the place was called), and our favorite Ethiopian restaurant is up there too (Dashen Ethiopian Cuisine).

    If you're into hiking, you'll probably enjoy the Delaware Water Gap. You're also not far from the Jersey Shore; there are some great beach towns like Asbury Park that are pretty close to New Brunswick.

    Feel free to ask if you have any other questions, either here or via DM!

    1 vote

  9. Comment on Why are Americans fighting over no-fault divorce? Maybe they can’t agree what marriage is for. in ~life

    smores
    Link Parent
    It’s true that many legal contracts have explicit language in them that declare penalties for violations. But that’s not so much society agreeing on those penalties as it is the two parties who...

    It’s true that many legal contracts have explicit language in them that declare penalties for violations. But that’s not so much society agreeing on those penalties as it is the two parties who are entering into a contract together agreeing on them. Even in this case, the government will not force you to remain in your lease; even if there are penalties, you are allowed to break the contract.

    There’s no literal legal contract signed between two people getting married in the US, though. You have to sign your marriage license application, in which you are confirming that you didn’t lie on the application, and you have to sign your marriage certificate, in which you are confirming that the marriage actually happened and you agree to it. There are no terms and conditions on these (at least, there weren’t on mine!), the they don’t represent an agreement between two individuals, but an agreement with the state.

    Family law is complicated because of property ownership and parental rights, neither of which is intrinsically tied to marriage. If two people get married, but never pool their resources (not uncommon!) and don’t have children, divorce seems like it ought to be a simple matter, legally, of informing the state that the two are no longer married.

    1 vote

  10. Comment on Why are Americans fighting over no-fault divorce? Maybe they can’t agree what marriage is for. in ~life

    smores
    Link
    I feel like this article makes a leap in logic that I'm struggling to follow. It defines the key principle of no-fault divorce as "the ability to divorce regardless of what the other party wants",...

    I feel like this article makes a leap in logic that I'm struggling to follow. It defines the key principle of no-fault divorce as "the ability to divorce regardless of what the other party wants", but then spends the bulk of the article discussing very specifically whether love, specifically, is a "valid" reason to marry, or lack thereof a "valid" reason to divorce.

    It seems like this author is sort of having a separate conversation, barely connected to the primary concern of the importance of no-fault divorce. You can agree that marriage can or even should be transactional and still be in favor of no-fault divorce; if one member of a transactional partnership feels that they are no longer receiving their expected value from that partnership, shouldn't they be able to end their participation in it? You can agree instead that marriage is a declaration of love, still be in love with your spouse, and yet wish to end your marriage for literally hundreds of reasons that you don't think you should have to prove to a judge. The question of whether marriages are "for love" feels almost wholly orthogonal to whether divorces should require state-sanctioned justification.

    The important conversation here is the one that the author alludes to and then drops: "the ability to divorce regardless of what the other party wants", and rest honestly feels like sort of a nothing-burger of a thought.

    31 votes

  11. Comment on Redis adopts dual source-available licensing in ~tech

    smores
    Link Parent
    I could be missing something (I didn’t actually attempt to read the new licenses, for one thing), but it seems like not only are they still making all source code available, anyone is still free...

    I could be missing something (I didn’t actually attempt to read the new licenses, for one thing), but it seems like not only are they still making all source code available, anyone is still free to modify that source code for their own use as they see fit. The only change seems to be that you can no longer use Redis source code to sell a product that directly competes with Redis’ cloud offerings.

    I generally agree with you that the world would be a better place if all or almost all software was open source, but this feels like a pretty reasonable compromise for the engineers that maintain this software to be compensated for the truly immense value they’ve provided to the entire world.

    16 votes

  12. Comment on how do you manage your personal ssh keys? in ~comp

    smores
    Link Parent
    I also hopped in here to mention 1Password! I’ve started using it for SSH keys lately and it rocks. Very smooth, protected with built in biometrics, and available on all of my devices. Plus, you...

    I also hopped in here to mention 1Password! I’ve started using it for SSH keys lately and it rocks. Very smooth, protected with built in biometrics, and available on all of my devices. Plus, you can use SSH keys to sign git commits now!

    6 votes

  13. Comment on [SOLVED] Debugging a slow connection between local devices in only one direction in ~tech

    smores
    Link Parent
    I think you're like... right on the money with a driver bug for my NIC, or something in that genre. Literally minutes before you posted this, I switched to the primary NIC for my motherboard, and...

    I think you're like... right on the money with a driver bug for my NIC, or something in that genre. Literally minutes before you posted this, I switched to the primary NIC for my motherboard, and that fixed it! No idea what the heck was going on, but I think I'm ok with this outcome hahaha

    3 votes

  14. Comment on [SOLVED] Debugging a slow connection between local devices in only one direction in ~tech

    smores
    Link Parent
    Thank you for hopping in! This is a longstanding problem, and the firmware was just updated like five days ago, so it would have to be a longstanding firmware bug (which I suppose is possible!)....

    Thank you for hopping in!

    This is a longstanding problem, and the firmware was just updated like five days ago, so it would have to be a longstanding firmware bug (which I suppose is possible!). It would be weird if the bug only affected transfers to one specific device, but I suppose it could be a confluence of things.

    The laptops can upload files to other wired and wireless devices on the network at the expected speeds.

    All of the devices are on the same IP subnet for sure. I'm going to try to disable the guest network just in case, but none of the devices are on that.

  15. Comment on [SOLVED] Debugging a slow connection between local devices in only one direction in ~tech

    smores
    Link Parent
    Hm, ok. I SSH'ed into the AP and ran tcpdump src <laptop> and dst <server A>. Then I ran an iperf test (basically the same results as above). For comparison, I did the same with server B. I don't...

    Hm, ok. I SSH'ed into the AP and ran tcpdump src <laptop> and dst <server A>. Then I ran an iperf test (basically the same results as above). For comparison, I did the same with server B. I don't really see any distinction between the two outputs, but I also am not totally sure what I should be looking for.

    Another thing I did notice is that the "Congestion window" for server A is tiny compared to server B. On the order of 5 KBytes or so, compared to 1.5 MBytes. It's not clear to me why that would be, or whether it's relevant. When I run an iperf from server B to server A, the bitrate is about 950 Mb/s, and the Cwnd is like 340 Kbytes.

    1 vote

  16. Comment on [SOLVED] Debugging a slow connection between local devices in only one direction in ~tech

    smores
    Link Parent
    Ah... I'm not, really, but if you have any tips I would definitely give it a shot. One relevant thing (@first-must-burn in case this triggers anything for you) is that I just noticed that there...

    Ah... I'm not, really, but if you have any tips I would definitely give it a shot.

    One relevant thing (@first-must-burn in case this triggers anything for you) is that I just noticed that there are tons of packets dropped on the slow transfers. Here's a sample iperf run:

    Connecting to host 192.168.1.73, port 9869
[  5] local 192.168.1.146 port 53620 connected to 192.168.1.73 port 9869
[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate         Retr  Cwnd
[  5]   0.00-1.00   sec  1.25 MBytes  10.5 Mbits/sec  124   4.24 KBytes       
[  5]   1.00-2.00   sec  1.50 MBytes  12.6 Mbits/sec  134   1.41 KBytes       
[  5]   2.00-3.00   sec  1.62 MBytes  13.6 Mbits/sec  126   5.66 KBytes       
[  5]   3.00-4.00   sec  1.12 MBytes  9.44 Mbits/sec  138   1.41 KBytes       
[  5]   4.00-5.00   sec  1.62 MBytes  13.6 Mbits/sec  125   19.8 KBytes       
[  5]   5.00-6.00   sec  1.25 MBytes  10.5 Mbits/sec  137   4.24 KBytes

    If there's any way to determine why or where those packets get lost, that seems like it'd be very relevant??

    2 votes

  17. Comment on [SOLVED] Debugging a slow connection between local devices in only one direction in ~tech

    smores
    (edited )
    Link Parent
    Thanks so much. Some updates: Gave this a shot, same issues no matter which port I'm using. It basically can't be the cable, because server B can write to server A with no issue! Sorry for the...

    Thanks so much. Some updates:

    • Swap the cables and ports connecting the servers to the switch to see if its the cable or the port on the switch

    Gave this a shot, same issues no matter which port I'm using. It basically can't be the cable, because server B can write to server A with no issue!

    • Test speeds between server B and server A (I wasn't sure if that was included in your "all devices" comment about server A). I would do that to see if the wireless is involved.

    Sorry for the lack of clarity: yes, I can write from server B to server A with no issue (900 Mb/s). It does seem somehow specific to wireless devices.

    • Take the laptops off the wireless network and plug them into the switch, then rerun your speed tests.

    This is a good thought; I don't know if I have the necessary dongles for this (just tried daisy chaining a USB-C -> Thunderbolt and Thunderbolt -> Ethernet together to no avail) but I will keep hunting around and give it a shot if I can.

    • Take the UAPs offline one at a time to see if either of them contributes to the problem.

    It doesn't matter which UAP the wireless devices are connected to, same issue.

    • Try the wireless speed tests from different physical locations to see if interference is at play.

    It doesn't seem to matter. Also, I get exactly the expected speeds when wirelessly connecting to server B! So I don't think it's anything about the wireless connection itself.

    • if you have a spare or USB Ethernet adapter, try using it on server A to see if it's a bad port on the server.

    I think this is ruled out by successful transfers from server B to server A

    I really appreciate all of the tips, going to keep trying to find a way to connect the laptops with Ethernet!

    Update:

    Got my Macbook connected with Ethernet. It can transfer perfectly fine; 940 Mb/s on average. As soon as it's back on WiFi, down to 11 Mb/s!

    2 votes

  18. Comment on [SOLVED] Debugging a slow connection between local devices in only one direction in ~tech

    smores
    Link Parent
    This occurs when running iperf3 tests and scp'ing to /dev/null, too, so it's not related to the storage medium (that is a good a thought though and I also spent a few hours ruling that out initially!)

    This occurs when running iperf3 tests and scp'ing to /dev/null, too, so it's not related to the storage medium (that is a good a thought though and I also spent a few hours ruling that out initially!)

    1 vote

  19. [SOLVED] Debugging a slow connection between local devices in only one direction

    ~tech Ask (advice)
    [SOLVED] ... well, this is in many ways very unsatisfying, because I have no idea why this worked, but I seem to have fixed it. Server A has two Ethernet ports, an Intel I219V and a Killer E3100....

    [SOLVED]

    ... well, this is in many ways very unsatisfying, because I have no idea why this worked, but I seem to have fixed it.

    Server A has two Ethernet ports, an Intel I219V and a Killer E3100. Several months ago, when trying to debug sporadic btrfs errors (I had my RAM installed incorrectly!), I had disabled some unused devices in BIOS, including the Killer Ethernet port.

    Since I had no other ideas, and it seemed like this was somehow specific to this server, I just re-enabled the Killer port and switched the Ethernet cable to that port. I'm now getting 300 Mb/s transfers from my wireless devices to my server, exactly as expected.

    I'm gonna like... go for a walk or something. Thank you so much to everyone who helped me rule out all of the very many things this could have been! I love this place, you all are so kind and supportive.

    Original:

    I'm trying to debug a perplexing networking situation, and I could use some guidance if anyone has any.

    Here's my setup:

    • UniFi Security Gateway
    • UniFi Switch Lite
    • Two UAPs
    • Two servers, A and B, connected to the USW-Lite with GbE
    • Many wireless devices, connected to the UAPs

    Here's what I'm experiencing:

    • Network transfers from the wireless devices to server A (as measured by iperf3 tests) are very slow. Consistently between 10 and 20 Mb/s.
    • Network transfers from server A to all devices are expected speeds. 900-1000 Mb/s to server B, 350-ish Mb/s to wireless devices.
    • Network transfers between server B and all devices (in both directions!) are expected speeds.
    • Network transfers from the USG to server A also seem slow, which is odd. Only about 60 MB/s.
    • Network transfers from the USG to server B and the wireless devices is about 300 MB/s

    So, specifically network transfers from any wireless device to server A are slow, and no other connections have any issues that I can see.

    Some potentially relevant details:

    • Server A is running Unraid
    • Server B is running Ubuntu
    • Wireless devices include a Fedora laptop, an iPhone, and a Macbook Pro
    • UniFi configuration is pretty straightforward. I have a few ports forwarded, a guest WiFi network (that none of these devices are on), a single default VLAN, and two simple "Allow LAN" firewall rules for Wireguard on the USG. No other firewall or routing config that I'm aware of.

    If anyone has any thoughts at all on how to continue debugging, I would be immensely grateful! I suppose the next step would be to try to determine whether it's the networking equipment or the server itself that is responsible for the throttling, but I'm not sure how best to do that.

    15 votes

  20. Comment on Lil Dicky - Harrison Ave (2024) in ~music

    smores
    Link Parent
    Lil Dicky is the stage name of David Burd. He’s been a rapper publicly since like 2013. Also, separately, he produced a loosely autobiographical TV show, DAVE. David Burd plays a fictionalized...

    Lil Dicky is the stage name of David Burd. He’s been a rapper publicly since like 2013.

    Also, separately, he produced a loosely autobiographical TV show, DAVE. David Burd plays a fictionalized version of himself in the show, as does GaTa (who is Burd’s real life friend and hype man, and himself a rapper).

    He’s now actually releasing an album called Penith, which is the name of the album that his character created in DAVE. The episode of the show that you’re referring to, that this song is about, is about a real event in Burd’s life, and he wrote Harrison Ave about it, and then wrote the episode about it/the song.

    4 votes