tauon's recent activity

  1. Comment on What is a non-professional situation, area or activity in which you are uniquely experienced or skilled? in ~talk

    tauon
    Link Parent
    Ooh, I was fresh out of ideas on what rather unique skills I could present, but your comment about ambidextrousness reminded me of something. I am ambidextrous to a lesser degree (professional...

    Ooh, I was fresh out of ideas on what rather unique skills I could present, but your comment about ambidextrousness reminded me of something. I am ambidextrous to a lesser degree (professional diagnosis back then was “likely self-taught to switch to the other hand”, so in essence I’m better with my weaker hand than is usual, but not truly ambidextrous).

    Anyway, the skill is writing, pretty fluidly, in reverse (mirrored) handwriting. Both reading and writing. I just tested (on paper) to verify I can still do it fairly well too, haha.

    Example (instead of a photo) because I’m not sure I explained it well:

    ,ƨiʜɈ ɘʞil ɘɈiɿwbnɒʜ nɒɔ I oƧ

    and like this too, of course.

    2 votes

  2. Comment on Anyone can access deleted and private repository data on GitHub in ~comp

    tauon
    Link Parent
    Thank you for doing the detailed testing to confirm! :D This does bring down the severeness, I think, since the scenario shouldn’t be all too common. And in the end, like you said – rotate out...

    Thank you for doing the detailed testing to confirm! :D

    This does bring down the severeness, I think, since the scenario shouldn’t be all too common. And in the end, like you said – rotate out anything that’s ever gotten leaked into source code anyways, so this isn’t a “new” issue.

    2 votes

  3. Comment on Anyone can access deleted and private repository data on GitHub in ~comp

    tauon
    Link Parent
    Well yeah, in an ideal world, everybody would read the documentation (lol), but in that scenario nobody would ever leak confidential keys into source code, either (double lol). I think it’s...

    Well yeah, in an ideal world, everybody would read the documentation (lol), but in that scenario nobody would ever leak confidential keys into source code, either (double lol).

    I think it’s completely fine if GitHub wants the fork network technology to work like that, it’s a well-thought design in all likeliness, but in that case they should announce its caveats more visibly. The people who would read up on how forks and private repositories work when intertwined are probably already the least likely demographic to leak secrets…

    An issue I do see remaining in that scenario is non-FOSS or partially open sourced software based on an open upstream, as was mentioned in the article. The solution for the case of keeping their “premium offering” products’ code private, if that’s something the company wants to do, seems to be moving it elsewhere from the getgo, to be frank.

    3 votes

  4. Comment on Thinking of getting into emacs, any advice? in ~comp

    tauon
    Link Parent
    First off, awesome comment. I tend to agree, and wanted to add pandoc -o novel.pdf novel.md as a recommendation. With pandoc installed and any editor for the Markdown (personally I like Helix),...

    First off, awesome comment.

    Just for writing Markdown: Neovim, Kakoune, Helix, or some other modal editor would probably be fine. Vim-likes don't have as extensive tooling for organizing and publishing text into novels as Emacs though.

    I tend to agree, and wanted to add pandoc -o novel.pdf novel.md as a recommendation. With pandoc installed and any editor for the Markdown (personally I like Helix), you're pretty much bound to get good to great results with minimal effort.

    2 votes

  5. Comment on Anyone can access deleted and private repository data on GitHub in ~comp

    tauon
    Link
    Damn! I wonder if, despite it being an “intended“ feature, GitHub will pivot to changing the way this behaves now that it’s being publicized (and publicly critized).

    Damn! I wonder if, despite it being an “intended“ feature, GitHub will pivot to changing the way this behaves now that it’s being publicized (and publicly critized).

    4 votes

  6. Comment on Google now only search engine allowed to provide results from Reddit in ~tech

    tauon
    Link Parent
    … Or pay up. (Off-topic, but the Kagi founder on their Discord a couple of hours ago: – not sure I agree but yeah, technically the title is incorrect) Like the article even mentions,

    Time for the other search engines that roll up their sleeves and start […] spoofing Googlebot’s user agent.

    … Or pay up.

    (Off-topic, but the Kagi founder on their Discord a couple of hours ago:

    too bad to see such a clickbait title on 404

    – not sure I agree but yeah, technically the title is incorrect)

    Like the article even mentions,

    Searching for Reddit still works on Kagi, an independent, paid search engine that buys part of its search index from Google.

    6 votes

  7. Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp

    tauon
    Link Parent
    Nice! I’ve also had this revelation multiple times over the past few weeks – if you don’t have a tendency for performance bottlenecks to occur at specific spots in your idea/project, LLMs can...

    Nice! I’ve also had this revelation multiple times over the past few weeks – if you don’t have a tendency for performance bottlenecks to occur at specific spots in your idea/project, LLMs can bridge the “syntax gap” between natural language and basic e.g. Python fairly well…… most of the time. Which is why it’s not replacing programmers anytime soon. At most, maybe coders, but coding IMO is the smallest (and often most enjoyable part) of programming or software engineering as a whole, as in architecture/design.

    as long as pdftotext worked

    That tangent aside, have there been many/any failures at all? If so, for which reasons – malformed PDFs or rather strange text alignments or similar such issues within the files?

    2 votes

  8. Comment on Let's build a playlist! in ~music

    tauon
    Link Parent
    Just when I go to grocery shopping, didn’t expect you to be so fast – I had edited my post before even refreshing to see your response, haha.

    Just when I go to grocery shopping, didn’t expect you to be so fast – I had edited my post before even refreshing to see your response, haha.

    1 vote

  9. Comment on Let's build a playlist! in ~music

    tauon
    Link Parent
    4EVA is great! Not a lot of songs so far otherwise which I’ve heard before, but to be frank, I always feel I should get to know other styles of music in an attempt to decrease my un-cultured-ness…

    4EVA is great! Not a lot of songs so far otherwise which I’ve heard before, but to be frank, I always feel I should get to know other styles of music in an attempt to decrease my un-cultured-ness…

    1 vote

  10. Comment on Let's build a playlist! in ~music

    tauon
    (edited )
    Link
    Also quite late to the party, but I feel these songs still bring something new to the table/to the playlist :) Denzel Curry – Me Now (Hip hop/Rap) JID – 2007 (Hip hop/Rap) Ka – Destined (Hip...

    Also quite late to the party, but I feel these songs still bring something new to the table/to the playlist :)

    Denzel Curry – Me Now (Hip hop/Rap)

    JID – 2007 (Hip hop/Rap)

    Ka – Destined (Hip hop/Rap)

    Sub Focus, Dimension – Ready To Fly (Drum ‘n’ Bass, probably?)

    Feint – Farcall (I-don’t-even-know-which-subgenres of Electronic)

    Edit: I’m reminded of Standing On the Corner’s “Red Burns” album from 2017, which would’ve allowed for a bit of cheating on the spirit of this idea: Its runtime is an hour, but all the tracks are listed under two 30+ minute long “sides” – it’s cool music, but I wouldn’t add it to the playlist :P

    Edit 2: if it’s not too late, I’d like to have JID’s song replaced with a different one of his (previously was: Dance Now Kody Blu 31)

    1 vote

  11. Comment on Taking my diabetes treatment into my own hands in ~comp

    tauon
    Link
    Very interesting read, thanks for sharing! I do wonder when, though. For all the people that I know in my life are affected, I hope they can iron out any remaining issues in the studies rather...

    Very interesting read, thanks for sharing!

    So, the artificial pancreas is slowly coming. Unlike nuclear fusion.

    I do wonder when, though. For all the people that I know in my life are affected, I hope they can iron out any remaining issues in the studies rather sooner than later.

    7 votes

  12. Comment on Slugs - how are you coping? in ~life.home_improvement

    tauon
    Link Parent
    Any tips for ways of slug-murder that disgusted spouses or other family members could stand to do… besides alerting people with higher yuck tolerance?

    Any tips for ways of slug-murder that disgusted spouses or other family members could stand to do… besides alerting people with higher yuck tolerance?

    3 votes

  13. Comment on US President Joe Biden announces that he will not run for re-election in ~news

    tauon
    Link Parent
    While a funny (very loose meaning of the word…) possibility to consider, I can’t imagine it. Despite more people actually voting for her in 2016 over Trump – a margin of nearly 3 million! – a...

    While a funny (very loose meaning of the word…) possibility to consider, I can’t imagine it.

    Despite more people actually voting for her in 2016 over Trump – a margin of nearly 3 million! – a majority of people looking back now, it feels like, have a sentiment of Clinton being the less favorable option, for whichever reasons. I don’t think her odds would stand too high, in all honesty. Virtually no campaign and a prior “loss” against the same opponent? The DNC would not do itself any favors with that nomination…

    Edit: People are commenting Biden has just endorsed Harris, as was expected by observers without pants on their head ;)

    12 votes

  14. Comment on US President Joe Biden announces that he will not run for re-election in ~news

    tauon
    Link Parent
    Yesterday @Japeth had already found the perfect words for the situation, in my opinion: Now we get to see how the second scenario really plays out, I guess.

    Yesterday @Japeth had already found the perfect words for the situation, in my opinion:

    If Biden stays in the race and loses, it'll be the biggest strategic misstep in modern political history. An unforced error that irreparably damages global society. Every single political pundit and commentator will talk about how stupid it was to let Biden stay in the race.

    And if Biden steps down and the new Democrat loses, it'll be the biggest strategic misstep in modern political history. An unforced error that irreparably damages global society. Every single political pundit and commentator will talk about how stupid it was to push Biden out of the race.

    Now we get to see how the second scenario really plays out, I guess.

    116 votes

  15. Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp

    tauon
    Link
    It’s a very short & sweet project, but just the other day I finished completely rewriting trl, my concise command-line translation script. It just wraps the DeepL API, which I found out to my...

    It’s a very short & sweet project, but just the other day I finished completely rewriting trl, my concise command-line translation script.

    It just wraps the DeepL API, which I found out to my surprise last year sports a very generous free tier, and using it feels way faster than opening a browser and having to navigate to their website and selecting the language(s) I want. And I can pipe into/out from it, redirect in- and output from/to files, use it in other software or workflows, etc.

    The v1 I wrote last year was a very rudimentary bash script which couldn’t even do all basics of a “classic” UNIX utility. Now it’s written in Python, has gotten way more readable, extendable, and probably more portable too. :D

    1 vote

  16. Comment on Escape from the box: new technology and old tactics have made buying a car a death march of deception in ~transport

    tauon
    Link Parent
    Sounds like a great strategy, thank you for sharing and I’m happy it has worked for you multiple times over the years! The issue is that you’ve lost the average consumer’s interest and motivation...

    Sounds like a great strategy, thank you for sharing and I’m happy it has worked for you multiple times over the years!

    The issue is that you’ve lost the average consumer’s interest and motivation at “spreadsheet” – willing- or ableness to prepare well must be a big factor in preventing getting things you didn’t actually want (such as higher monthly payments).

    1 vote

  17. Comment on "Privacy-Preserving" Attribution: Mozilla disappoints us yet again in ~tech

    tauon
    Link Parent
    Just earlier today I read about AdNauseam which aims to make this exact mechanism dysfunctional. (Haven’t looked into it more closely since then, though)

    Paid advertising requires both the buyer and seller to have a reasonably trustworthy way of counting traffic. The website shouldn’t be able to just make up a bigger number to get paid more, and the advertiser shouldn’t be able to pretend that they didn’t get any clicks, so they don’t have to pay for their ads. This lack of trust is why a third party needs to be involved in the counting. (At a minimum, the ‘ping’ attribute on an <a> tag would allow multiple websites to keep a count, but I think that still makes it pretty easy to cheat?)

    Just earlier today I read about AdNauseam which aims to make this exact mechanism dysfunctional. (Haven’t looked into it more closely since then, though)

    3 votes

  18. Comment on "Privacy-Preserving" Attribution: Mozilla disappoints us yet again in ~tech

    tauon
    Link Parent
    Orion is as far as I know not quite profitable yet, but they offer a voluntary payment model to support development (it’s a side effort of the company, not their main bread and butter). In my...

    Orion is as far as I know not quite profitable yet, but they offer a voluntary payment model to support development (it’s a side effort of the company, not their main bread and butter).

    In my opinion that software is on its way to becoming the best browser on the planet… but it’s unfortunately currently still only available on Apple devices.

    1 vote

  19. Comment on "Privacy-Preserving" Attribution: Mozilla disappoints us yet again in ~tech

    tauon
    Link Parent
    I first heard of it through this viral thread on Mastodon, which covers the basics pretty well: https://mastodon.social/@mcc/112775362045378963 As they mentioned, it is fairly “funny” that Apple’s...

    Does anyone else know more or have a resource where I can learn more?

    I first heard of it through this viral thread on Mastodon, which covers the basics pretty well:

    https://mastodon.social/@mcc/112775362045378963

    As they mentioned, it is fairly “funny” that Apple’s Safari does it as well. Seems that Google really aren’t the only bad guys in this game.

    6 votes

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

    tauon
    Link Parent
    Imagine they hadn’t stolen Al Gore the election win, a single state deciding for the right thing, and we would’ve stood a chance at fighting climate change, preventing middle eastern wars and so...

    I hate this timeline. I would like to re-start from the late 90's please.

    Imagine they hadn’t stolen Al Gore the election win, a single state deciding for the right thing, and we would’ve stood a chance at fighting climate change, preventing middle eastern wars and so much more…

    23 votes