My "production stuff" is listed at https://github.com/alexpdp7/alexpdp7/blob/master/README.md#other-usable-projects-of-mine
I'm not sure Windows Sandbox is very well-known. It starts a clean Windows VM quite easily. It's not available in Windows Home, but Pro and other editions have it.
It is quite handy for recording tutorials so you can show how everything works on a clean Windows. I don't think it has snapshots or anything like that, which would be pretty convenient, but it's fine if you can do everything in one go without dying.
Bizarre thing: the Windows VM for instance does not have... Notepad.
The previous toot was about testing LanguageTool usage on Windows. It's more tedious than on Linux or macOS as no one has provided a decent "package", but I think the process required is reasonable. I wrote down some notes here:
https://alex.corcoles.net/notes/tech/language-tool
In my opinion, LanguageTool is quite good for English, Spanish and Catalan. Plus running it yourself seems to avoid some problems.
If you do a web search for "Java" you'll land on a java.com page offering a Java 8 download. Update 511, because Java 8 came out on 2014. Only about 70 seem to be public updates, that's still close to 6 releases a year.
This must be one of the longest running long-term support public/free updates for any piece of software.
The next LTS no longer has applets and Java Web Start and JavaFX was separated, the policy makes sense on some levels.
@bnuuy @coder @datarama oh, I don't disagree. With Wordpress it's kinda funny because I feel coders have just went all in in static site generators which are not really usable by non-coders, therefore making making Wordpress even more irreplaceable. (Yeah, I know there are alternatives.)
Also, shared PHP hosting is just... well, there's nothing quite like it also. Despite its flaws, it has enabled *so* much.
@datarama also there must be a reason PHP is half of the Internet!
(I dislike PHP myself, but in the past I loved it.)
There's also thoughts about monocultures there somewhere...
@mjg59 isn't the main problem software that bundles their own roots?
I think there should be a couple of alternatives to FUSE anyway.
https://www.mcmillen.dev/sigbovik/
(Presented without comment.)
@datarama https://scalie.computer/ and https://sic.pm/ have policies about LLM content that might work for you. Scalie is more computer-related and you might like the theme. sic.pm is more generalistic. Neither has a lot of traffic, I suspect you would make nice contributions to sic.pm
@coder @acidiclight @datarama btw, in Spanish the verb "claudicar" mostly means "surrender", the dictionary has the medical term and limping, but I think most people only know it means surrender.
@datarama @coder @acidiclight hah, yes, I voted all of the above and it might have rekindled my interest in the word "claudicare" :)
I'm thinking now of the Roman empire. Wait, I meant thinking of watching "I, Claudius".
@datarama @coder @acidiclight it's sad because I have some memories of watching "I, Claudius" as a child. I thought:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claudication
would have some relationship to Claudius' limp, but I don't think there is :(
> I've had that exact interaction on a few occasions (both with code and with pixel art), and it is quite upsetting. I don't really know how to counter it properly.
In my head, there's enough people who will not say "Claude can do that" that you can focus on engaging on those people first, and talk to the claudicators once you've finished all the possible conversations you can have with the non-claudicators.
@coder I updated my article at:
https://alex.corcoles.net/notes/tech/customizable-external-storage-for-applications
This is still fairly niche, but opens some interesting possibilities.
You can create directory in Nextcloud and get credentials that have read/write access via WebDAV only in that directory.
This sounds dumb, but this enables using Nextcloud as a backend for data storage for *any* application in a way that should be reasonably safe.
So you can write an app that can have synchronized storage (configuration, data) without providing a backend service. This is possible with Google Drive and iCloud, but now it is also possible with a popular open storage service.
https://stonetools.ghost.io/lotusimprov-next/
Spreadsheets. They suck, but we suck because we can't find something better than people will use. "Worse is better."
Lotus Improv was another failed attempt. On NeXT computers, no less.
The article is long, but fascinating. If I squint, I see a relational database with some hierarchical notes.
Will I see what comes after spreadsheets? I had some hope for Notion/Coda/etc., but it's time to admit they are not it.
@datarama heh, I got "koala" as my nickname in university. Lately I'm more into capybaras, but a critter that sleeps seems so much more intelligent than us.
To make it fair, maybe you should have included in the list animals that hurt severely their peers, if there are any...
My favourite optimisation trick is to just hit 'break' in the debugger. It's more likely to stop where the program's spending more of its time. It seems like you should have to do it multiple times and gather stats or something, but so often it just goes straight to the heart of the matter.
@bremner I don't think it's close to what you need, but I liked reading:
https://xogium.me/the-text-mode-lie-why-modern-tuis-are-a-nightmare-for-accessibility
30 years coding and this is the first time I pay to verify some code I wrote.
I wrote a Klondike solver and I couldn't find a better way to test it than reproduce two solutions with a physical deck, so I had to buy one.
Theoretically, about 80% of starting positions are solvable. My solver only does about 50%, but I can only to 14%, so I guess I'm happy.
Fun how I wrote a Sokoban solver that beat me easily on a set of mazes. (Another popular set of mazes is better for humans- I won there.)
Somehow I missed this in 2014:
In memory and honor of Margaret Hamilton (1936–2026), American hero. https://news.mit.edu/2026/margaret-hamilton-computing-pioneer-dies-1007
@thomasfuchs @david_chisnall I know I'm likely looking past with rose-tinted glasses and claiming a golden age, but I don't think we're really making that much "impactful" progress.
I have computers from 2016-2017 that are still quite good! (Except with bloated Electron apps.)