I looked into SingularityCE because I know a lot of scientists who use git-annex also use it. I was surprised to see that it also just kinda matches the way I'd prefer to use containers.
Implemented a way to check a Singularity container into git-annex, and then use that container to compute the content of annexed files.
https://git-annex.branchable.com/special_remotes/compute/git-annex-compute-singularity-examples/
Really neat thing is the container can contain another git-annex-compute- program, and then using it works just like using that program running on bare metal. Except it's all sandboxed. Here I'm using my earlier compute program that converts between file formats with imagemagick:
git-annex initremote foo type=compute program=git-annex-compute-singularity passthrough=imageconvert.sif
git-annex addcomputed --to=foo foo.jpeg foo.gif
mounted the third and final combiner box behind the solar fence with the main wires landed in it, and have been finishing up the last few little things (like filling in trenching) before I tackle the next part of the installation
I am amazed at wasmedge's built-in security footgun of running AoT optimized native code by default BTW.
I'm glad I noticed that and avoided it, but it does slightly make me wonder what else I might not have noticed. What kind of sandbox doesn't sandbox by default, but only with an option (that is not even documented well)?
completely ridiculous to use a python interpreter for this, but it was the first useful WASM program I happened upon and I didn't want to get into making my own today
Using a WASM build of python checked into a #gitAnnex repository to compute other annexed files in the repository.
#gitAnnex compute special remote is live and coming soon to an autobuilder near you!
https://git-annex.branchable.com/special_remotes/compute/
I spent a few minutes to write a first compute program for it, which allows, for example:
git-annex addcomputed --to=imageconvert foo.jpeg foo.png
The code to that shows how simple it is to write these. Who will contribute the second one? https://git-annex.branchable.com/special_remotes/compute/git-annex-compute-imageconvert
1.15 cents per mile
Coming out of winter, my car has been able to charge up 10% from #offgrid solar nearly every day this month. And I found a free level 2 charger downtown. So I spent only $4.64 on charging last month.
Updated my home automation today to notice when the car reaches the desired charge level, and dump the solar power to other loads. Which will be a hot water heater eventually.
Alternatively, it might be that they're quoting it as a means to establish a definition. The ToU does use the term one other time.
Executable Form is a term used in the MPL, which #firefox is licensed under.
“Executable Code" is a *quoted* term used in the new firefox Terms of Use.
What are they quoting from if not the license of firefox? And if they're quoting the license of firefox, then don't they intend the ToU to apply to all Executable Forms of firefox?
Which certainly, as far as the use in the MPL goes, means not only Mozilla's firefox binary, but Debian's. And also librewolf's.
I'd love it if a lawyer could weigh in. In the meantime, I will probably be leaving librewolf behind, argh.
"what's your main web browser?" is gonna be quite an interesting interview question for technical jobs now... if they say #firefox, make note that they are unlikely to negotiate on any terms of their contract
I suspect this was a calculated maneuver, the good old ask for a mile and then take an inch.
well Mozilla has blinked
https://blog.mozilla.org/en/products/firefox/update-on-terms-of-use/
"You give Mozilla the rights necessary to operate Firefox. This includes processing your data as we describe in the Firefox Privacy Notice. It also includes a nonexclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license for the purpose of doing as you request with the content you input in Firefox. This does not give Mozilla any ownership in that content."
Still seems probably problematic, and to be clear, once you're dead to me, you're dead to me.
People are saying don't worry, #firefox doesn't contain code that will upload all your content to their servers to monetize it.
Well, it doesn't need to. Mozilla is claiming a license to things you post in public or private anywhere, so they just need enough tracking information from their adtech partners to know which posts were made by firefox users. Then they can obtain those posts from their scraping and/or data collection partners (eg facebook) and feed those posts into advertising partner's LLM and use it to generate compelling ads for you that they display in the browser.
As their terms of use puts it, they can "use that information to help you navigate, experience, and interact with online content".
I had to mess with some about:config to get disk caching to work, and to get zoom settings to be remembered. Of course these have privacy implications.
switched to #librewolf
I've done some testing with my clock set to April to see how #firefox is going to behave to new users after early March when their blog says it will make acknowledging their new, thieving TOU part of the "standard product experience".
I think it will be as simple as https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/privacy/firefox/ getting a link to the TOU. That page is currently opened in a tab when starting firefox for the 1st time. It does not currently link to the TOU.
For existing users, I think a new firefox release later will make it pop up the TOU page.
I think this will mean that the TOU will apply equally to *all* builds of firefox, including eg from Debian.
So there are only 2 web browser engines, and it seems likely there will soon only be 1, and making a whole new web browser from the ground up is effectively impossible because the browsers vendors have weaponized web standards complexity against any newcomers. Maybe eventually someone will succeed and there will be 2 again. Best case. What a situation.
So throw out all the web standards. Make a browser that just runs WASM blobs, and gives them a surface to use, sorta like Wayland does. It has tabs, and a throbber, and urls, but no HTML, no javascript, no CSS. Just HTTP of WASM blobs.
This is where the web browser is going eventually anyway, except in the current line of evolution it will be WASM with all the web standards complexity baked in and reinforcing the current situation.
Would this be a mass of proprietary software? Have you looked at any corporate website's "source" lately? But what's important is that this would make it easy enough to build new browsers that they would stop being a point of control.
Want a browser that natively supports RSS? Poll the feeds, make a UI, download the WASM enclosures to view the posts. Want a browser that supports IPFS or gopher? Fork any browser and add it, the mantenance load will be minimal. Want to provide access to GPIO pins or something? Add an extension that can be accessed via the WASI component model. This would allow for so many things like that which won't and can't happen with the current market duopoly browser situation.
And as for your WASM web pages, well you can still use HTML if you like. Use the WASI component model to pull in a HTML engine. It doesn't need to support everything, just the parts of web standards that you want to use. Or you can do something entitely different in your WASM that is not HTML based at all but a better paradigm (oh hi Spritely or display postscript or gemini capsules or whatever).
Dual innovation sources or duopoly? I know which I'd prefer. This is not my project to build though.
giant meteor, why have you forsaken us?
irefox
Need a good laugh? #Mozilla's privacy faq now has:
"Since we strive for transparency, and the LEGAL definition of “sale of data“ is extremely broad in some places, we’ve had to step back from making the definitive statements you know and love."
The latest pack of lies from Mozilla
Mozilla is now actively gaslighting their users.
I restrung my windchimes yesterday. Same great tones, but now they're also saying "you repaired this". At least there's that.
"You give Mozilla all rights necessary to operate Firefox, including processing data as we describe in the Firefox Privacy Notice, as well as acting on your behalf to help you navigate the internet. When you upload or input information through Firefox, you hereby grant us a nonexclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license to use that information to help you navigate, experience, and interact with online content as you indicate with your use of Firefox."
People are reading this in lots of motivated ways to convince themselves it doesn't say what a lawyer wants it to say. But I guarantee you it does. And that's not "our program needs a license to your content to do stuff with it". Nor is it "you'll tell firefox what's appropriate and it will do that, it's your user agent after all". It's not 1999 people.
It's more like "by using firefox at all, you have agreed to this terms of use, and we will monitize you and claim ownership over everything we can"
If #mozilla goes through with this #firefox terms of use, we need to block their user agent from our websites. And I mean anyone who runs a website where users enter or upload content they own.
It's unacceptable to passively sit by and let a browser vendor hoover up licenses to all your user's content.
today's milestone: I can run `git-annex recompute` and it notices there's a new version of foo, and so generates a new version of bar
when you delete the Washington Post from your web browser's start page, and it's replaced with the guillotine icon from @pluralistic.net
Notice it checksummed the result of the second run of the computation and verified it's the same as the first run. That's because this particular computation declares itself to be reproducible. When a computation is not reproducible, it uses a VURL key instead, and learns the hashes of each new run of the computation. Also with --fast, adds an annexed file without running the computation, and so uses a VURL key.
I'm pretty pleased how these peices are fitting together.
compute remote works! #gitAnnex
What if the plastic-milk-jug method of winter sowing isn’t the only way—or even the best way—to get a jump start on the garden year? While other gardeners were cutting up containers and buying potting soil, I tried out a simpler, cheaper approach that might actually work better….
Container winter sowing: Why I was skeptical
If you’ve been hanging out in gardening spaces online in the last few years, you’ve probably seen people glowing about winter sowing. Basically, the principle is that you start seeds outside far earlier than the soil temperature suggests is smart, counting on sprouting happening at the best time for the plants in question.
Most folks winter sow in plastic containers like milk jugs, cut in half so you can use the bottom as a pot filled with store-bought potting soil and the top as a mini greenhouse. I wasn’t interested in that method because of the cost of the soil and the fiddly-ness of the plastic containers. Plus, anything set on top of the earth is going to be chillier than the ground itself for most of the winter, which is a major downside when cold-weather gardening.
On the other hand…
Direct ground winter sowing: My experiment
…I’ve been noticing how both kale and lettuce seeds that fall into my wood-chip-mulched aisles due to seed-saving efforts often come up better and faster in early spring than those I start in garden beds after the ground reaches each vegetable’s minimum germination temperature. What if, I wondered, I experimented with my own version of winter sowing by planting lettuce and kale seeds in my usual row-cover-fabric-protected caterpillar tunnels, tweaking my seed starting approach by sowing far earlier than I previously would have risked?
To cut a long story short, I did exactly that on January 30 in our zone 6b garden. We were enjoying a short break from a very cold winter in which multiple weeks have stayed below freezing in the afternoons then dropped into the teens through single-digit negatives (Fahrenheit) at night. The ground was still frozen solid below the top quarter inch, but I scratched seeds into that small thawed area. After a four-day break with more normal temperatures (high of 40!), the cold returned and I forgot all about my experiment.
Early seed starting success!
Another thaw hit us at the beginning of this week and I opened up the caterpillar tunnels…to find both kale and lettuce seedlings pushing up through the soil!
The seedlings did seem to be doing better where there was more debris on the ground, suggesting that a very light mulch might improve winter-sowing success. But I’m highly impressed to see anything at all after three and a half weeks with such cold temperatures.
What other crops would I recommend winter sowing in this manner? Not peas — they tend to rot in the ground (or get eaten by hungry critters) if you don’t get them up and running fast. And not plants like broccoli, tomatoes, and peppers that need to be raised as inside sets if you want to time the season correctly. But maybe parsley and carrots? I wonder if even fickle spinach and swiss chard might sprout better using this technique?
No-cost winter seed starting
This method of winter sowing has a couple of benefits over the more mainstream version. Namely, I didn’t have to buy potting soil or transplant the seedlings after they sprouted.
Meanwhile, my version maintains the winter-sowing advantages of getting a jump on the growing season without requiring the use of grow lights. That’s a definite plus when I have other types of seedlings using up all of my indoor space.
I’ll be expanding my winter sowing experiments next season and updating with more results. Until then, happy growing!
<p>The post New winter sowing method without the fuss first appeared on WetKnee Books.</p>
running some code for the first time.. well this is promising #gitAnnex
joey@darkstar:~/tmp/x>git-annex initremote foo type=compute program=git-annex-compute-test passes=10 --whatelse
passes
Number of passes
raw
A photo in RAW format
There will be a lot of #gitAnnex users at Distribits in Dusseldorf this fall. Many of them will be scientists, but I want to encourage a wider cross section of git-annex users to come. Give a talk on an interesting way you use git-annex, build a special remote in the hackathon, hang out with cool folks who sling data to better understand the world.
Come join us, registration is open!
https://fosstodon.org/@distribits/114043529057185997
https://distribits.live/events/2025-distribits/call-for-contributions/
found my new favorite cafe and it's around the corner from the parking garage with the only free L2 #EV charger in these parts.. nice
After tax incentives, my 11kw offgrid #solar install total cost comes to $0.84 per watt. The average cost for residential solar installation in the US is $2.56 per watt. I seem to have achieved around the same cost as utility scale solar.
Happy that my power cost is 1/3rd of average. For the next 25+ years or until PV installation prices catch up...
(Still have to put in some more unpaid labor to complete the install..)
river supposed to crest at 20 ft, 1 foot below major flood level, already the highway is impassable in both directions, island mode activated
flooded in
my emotional support terminals
aah, found the bug... I had replaced doesPathExist with doesDirectoryExist in a case where it should have been doesFileExist. Happy passing test suite.
20 thousand line patch to #gitAnnex that I've been working on for 3 weeks. I know it contains some bugs. I doubt reviewing it will possibly find them, luckily the test suite does find a few.
List of feeds:
- Anna and Mark: Waldeneffect: last checked (4610 posts)
- Anna and Mark: Wetknee: last checked (46 posts)
- Joey: last checked (227 posts)
- Joey devblog: last checked (271 posts)
- Joey short: last checked (1398 posts)
- Jay: last checked (50 posts)
- Errol: last checked (53 posts)
- Maggie: last checked (8 posts)
- Tomoko: last checked (77 posts)
- Jerry: last checked (28 posts)
- Dani: last checked (23 posts)