orphean task: when you almost succeed, but lose everything the moment you turn around to check your progress.
daedalean task: when you’re forced to design something brilliant and functional… that you yourself will inevitably become trapped inside.
medusan task: when your project becomes so horrifying that everyone involved freezes in place rather than deal with it.
tantaline task: when success is right there, but bureaucracy or budget cuts keep snatching it away at the last moment, forever.
pandoran task: when fixing one small issue unleashes a thousand new ones, but hey — at least there’s still hope somewhere in the ticket backlog.
odyssean task: when the assignment technically has an end, but it’s buried under so many side quests that you forget what the original goal was.
narcissian task: when the entire effort is about maintaining appearances rather than achieving anything of substance.
promethean task: when you give people a powerful new tool that could transform their work — and are punished eternally for doing so.
orestian task: when the mess you’re cleaning up is the direct result of the last cleanup you performed.
thesean task: when the only way to finish is to disassemble everything piece by piece — until you’re no longer sure if what’s left is the same project you started.
achillean task: when your work is flawless except for that one fatal oversight that will, inevitably, destroy you.
penelopean task: when you diligently undo by night what you accomplish by day, just to keep the stakeholders pacified.
midasean task: when everything you touch turns into paperwork, compliance documents, or gold-plated nonsense nobody actually needs.
gordian task: not intended to be actually done, but violence is the answer.
@FreakyFwoof my apologies but I have another question about Logic Pro. Do you use any of these Keyboard Maestro extensions to make the program easier with VoiceOver and if so, which one? On another note, I know the sounds aren't really professional grade but I do like some of them.
The Studio piano, horns and bass are perfectly wonderful. The synths as well, just some of the older sounds can go away. I rarely use any of those third-party things but if I do it's Logic Ease.
Just reminded that here-documents at the #bash prompt aren't completely useless.
At the interactive prompt, I wouldn't normally type anything like this:
cat <<'EOF' >file some text EOF
because this takes fewer keystrokes:
cat >file some text ^D
But the usefulness of the first version is that you get to use bash command recall while typing the text that goes into the file. In particular, if I've just edited and re-run a complicated command 10 times interactively until I got it right, and now I want to save it into a script:
cat <<'EOF' >file.sh [press Up to recall the final working version of the complicated command] EOF
Did the #FediBuzz relay stop working for anyone who upgraded to Mastodon 4.5? If that's the case I need to find a Rust implementation of RFC9421 ASAP: docs.joinmastodon.org/spec/sec…
Both of the November 2025 patches have been provided in our regular non-security-preview releases for over a month, so we've already had the 2025-11-05 Android security patch level for over a month. Our patch level is set based on providing both the Android and Pixel security patches, so we're leaving it at 2025-11-01 until the Pixel stock OS release and Pixel Update Bulletin are published. The stock Pixel OS also included both November 2025 patches in early September. We expect they made a 2nd October release to ship the November carrier changes and will make a release in mid-November with patches from future Android Security Bulletins.
raise declared patch level to 2025-11-01 which has already been provided in GrapheneOS since our regular 2025090200 release (not a security preview) since the patches were included in the September security preview and were then pushed to AOSP despite not being listed in the bulletin
kernel (6.1): update to latest GKI LTS branch revision
kernel (6.1): keep POSIX_MQUEUE disabled to avoid increasing attack surface
kernel (6.6): update to latest GKI LTS branch revision including update to 6.6.114
kernel (6.12): update to latest GKI LTS branch revision
adevtool: switch to obtaining Android 16 QPR1 backports from the latest October releases for 7th/8th/9th gen Pixels (6th gen Pixels did not have an October release) for very minor radio carrier configuration changes (no code changes)
Settings: add 1 second delay for approving device admin activation to mitigate tapjacking (this matches the 1 second delay we add to both permission prompts and ADB authorization prompts which is currently not configurable)
All of the Android 16 security patches from the December 2025, January 2026, February 2026 and March 2026 Android Security Bulletins are included in the 2025110601 security preview release. List of additional fixed CVEs:
2025110601 provides at least the full 2025-12-01 Android security patch level (a Pixel Update Bulletin for November 2025 hasn't been released could have fixes we don't get early, although it's likely empty) but will remain marked as providing 2025-11-01.
For detailed information on security preview releases, see our post about it.
This update is available to GrapheneOS users via our app repository and will also be bundled into the next OS release. Vanadium isn't yet officially available for users outside GrapheneOS, although we plan to do that eventually. It won't be able to provide the WebView outside GrapheneOS and will have missing hardening and other features.
Privacy and security enhanced releases of Chromium for GrapheneOS. Vanadium provides the WebView and standard user-facing browser on GrapheneOS. It depends on hardening in other GrapheneOS reposito...
Here’s the weekly roundup from A Public Witness. In addition to a report on Illinois State Police pepperballing a minister that is free for anyone to read, paid subscribers to A Public Witness received a look at an inaccurate attack on church-state s…
Recently, a trained, active firefighter said that smoke alarms and CO2 alarms have different beeps. Smoke is three longer beeps, while CO2 is four shorter ones. I don't doubt he knows what he's talking about, but I've never heard a residential smoke alarm that doesn't alert using a continuous series of beeps with no pause at all. I'm not sure why there's a disconnect between firefighters' knowledge and what I've heard from real alarms my whole life.
The current code 3, or temporal pattern, used pretty much everywhere these days, is somewhat recent. It was codified in 1996, and even for a while after that, fire alarms did all sorts of different things over the years. The most common in households in the late 80s to about late 90s was a continuous bunch of beeps with only very short pauses between them. The speed and pitch varied by brand. This came after the previous generation of alarms, which would give one loud, continuous beep, usually with an actual paper speaker. This was much lower in frequency, maybe 500 to 600 hz. We had some of these in my house when I was a very small person.
@BorrisInABox Thanks... I think I might have to get new alarms. Ours do the constant beeps, but I thought they were relatively new. Perhaps not. Having alarms at 600Hz is odd--that's a relatively low sound and wouldn't travel as far, I'd imagine. I guess that's why they fell out of fashion.
New studies indicate that lower frequencies are more likely to wake people up. So lots of apartment complexes, dorms, etc. are using 500 or 1000 Hz sounders in sleeping areas, combined with the modern temporal pattern.
Also, it's possible, I suppose, to still find more modern smoke alarms that don't do temporal pattern, but they're very rare. You should replace smoke alarms at least every ten years, as those based on ionization (most out there now) are prone to being far less reliable after that point.
@BorrisInABox Borris: Excellent nugget of information. Alex: In the like vein of this informationn, indicating that the alarms you're using could potentially be as old as 30 years, it is most certainly advisable to replace all of these older alarms ASAP. All alarms actually do indeed have an expiry date, beyond which some of the materials used internally in the detection process actually decay and become less effective, until in fact the device becomes ineffective at its job, as more time passes.
@adam @BorrisInABox I knew ten years was the recommendation. I just didn't realize ours were as old as they apparently are. I have some Amazon shopping to do.
Dog owners should be subject to strict inspections and recurring training to ensure they have the necessary time, skills, and dedication to own such an animal. Dog attacks and bites are stupidly common, and they really shouldn't be. I can barely fart without a permit and three licenses, but any fucking idiot can get a dog, neglect it, and have it bite a toddler - and then the dog gets blamed and put down. Insanity.
it's easier than that: give certain animals some legal rights, then it's just straight up illegal to neglect them and let them become feral monsters
nobody wants to do this though, because once we start there we end up doing things like giving other non-humans rights like rivers and lakes and then capitalism has a stroke over it
I'm very much getting tired of explaining to people why I'm still in high school at 41, especially to GenZ teachers. Yeah, it might only be in dreams, but it, along with the inevitability of a fire alarm going off somewhere (never a residential one, by the way), happens just about every night, or whatever passes for night.
In the midst of all the American chaos, let's eliminate seven digit dialing in every market that still has it, and allow phone numbers to start with 1 and 0.
Today in 1994, 31 years ago: WXYC, the student radio station of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, launches the world's first internet radio broadcast.
Have you ever booted a zip archive? I was doing my regular computing shenanigans, and then it dawned on me that a floppy image can be a valid ZIP archive. That's because the boot sector and the FAT table are at the beginning of the file, and the ZIP file header is at the end of it. The trick was used in the past for something called "rarjpeg" (a JPEG image that is a valid RAR file).
I needed a test fast, so I took @nanochess's bootBASIC, and created a file that has the bootsector at the beginning, then 701709 bytes of padding, and then 25159 bytes of ZIP file with the bootBASIC sources.
It can be unzipped by your favourite archiver, or booted in your favourite emulator ( qemu-system-i386 -fda bootableBASIC.zip)
I found possibly the darkest humor ever in a physics text. The first chapter of "States of Matter" by David Goldstein begins:
"Ludwig Boltzmann, who spent much of life studying statistical mechanics, died in 1906, by his own hand. Paul Ehrenfest, carrying on the work, died similarly in 1933. Now it is our turn to study statistical mechanics."
Slack annoyance of the day: If you switch between workspaces with control+tab while running a screen reader, it reads whatever announcement was last spoonfed to the screen reader via the hidden announcer live region trick. So I guess they have a separate announcer region per workspace. Thoughtless compartmentalization enabled by component systems FTW.
...It's funy, I was literally just talking to someone about live region announcing to a screen reader, and you posted this. DO you know if Voiceover on the phone will announce whatever string hidden announcer will? I don't do enough browsing on the phone to know.
/24 and metal doesn't grow on trees. they do however crawl on the ocean floor while the whales float by. voyage to search for hidden emeralds is in order. a family grows through signatures.
It's official: WhatsApp (non-beta) for Windows is going to be downdated to the web version on november 5th. I just got a pop-up when I opened the app. The text is as follows:
The next update starting 5 November
Some changes are coming to WhatsApp for Windows. Channels will be available and you’ll be able to do more with Status and Communities. What will happen: • You’ll be logged out • You’ll need to open WhatsApp on your phone to log back in • Up to 1 year of chat history will sync from your phone <OK>
I've said it before, but it's disappointing when small things let down the #accessibility of an otherwise good interface.
For instance, I've told many people that the Tailscale web UI is actually quite good with a #screenReader. Unfortunately, the first thing an NVDA user hears after authenticating is a bunch of nonsense caused by an unlabelled SVG, and it doesn't create the best first impression:
" banner landmark visited link graphic graphic visited link graphic graphic visited link graphic graphic visited link graphic graphic visited link graphic graphic visited link graphic graphic visited link graphic graphic visited link graphic graphic visited link graphic graphic "
По совету @abera80486 перешёл с пены для бритья на мыло для бритья. Взял мыло Proraso, лезвия Feather. Иии... сразу испортил себе впечатление порезами и раздражением. Но потом вернулся к копеечным лезвиям Спутник, и всё стало хорошо.
Теперь порезы случаются крайне редко, и кожа морды лица не раздражается. Да и баночки с мылом, кажется, хватит очень надолго - разровнял мыло ложкой перед первым использованием, чтобы легче было елозить помазком, с тех пор его как будто меньше не становится. На моей азиатской физиономии волосня какая-то редкая и короткая, но если не бриться пару дней, становлюсь похожим на алкаша. Борода не успела вырасти, так уже первые седые волосы пошли, лол.
У меня гиперчувствительная кожа. Я пробовал всё, в итоге не придумано (ну лично для меня) ничего лучше, чем Мак3 джилетовский и их же гель. Всё остальное — морда красными пятнами(
Ищешь в интернете как нужно бриться т-отразными станками. По этим правилам бреешься обычными одноразовыми станками, или теми же самыми мак3. Никакого покраснения не будет
shibaozi
in reply to feld • • •feld
in reply to shibaozi • • •