ackalker's comments

I find your example of installing a package to be somewhat amusing.

The fact that one can install a package in some OS means that somewhere, one or more people sat down and wrote a recipe for building and packaging it, and then hopefully performed some minimal QA on the final product to make sure it actually works.

This is not trivial, particularly not if multiple versions of a compiler may need to coexist (because of other packages depending on a particular version), and it needs to be done for each combination of compiler version and OS.

To me, examples like: "just run <insert package installation command here>", expecting a package to just magically install itself on some OS are the symptoms of a cargo-cult.

Rather, I think that using containers is more like outfitting a cargo container with a fully stocked and staffed workshop, then shipping the container and personnel to where the client needs it to be. The client then only needs to supply the storage space for the container and the goods that need processing (a shared directory in this particular case) and wait for the finished result. Sure, some of the workers may not speak your language, they may use different tools, but until (if?) the workshop gets rebuilt and staffed on "native soil", the inconvenience should be acceptable.

In my case the setting lists two languages, but "en-US" does appear to have a higher 'quality' factor, so there.

> [...] The experience does not collect or share any data [...]

Wrong (unless proven otherwise).

From the Shield Studies FAQ[1]:

> What data do Shield Studies normally collect?

> [...]

> Mechanism:

>

> - at STARTUP, SHUTDOWN, INSTALL, UNINSTALL, - send a `shield-study` packet containing the Unified Telemetry Environment.

As was stated before, users report that they have had this extension pushed to their browser without their prior consent to sending any telemetry data.

[1]: https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox/Shield/Shield_Studies

There would be "rioting in the streets" of the internet if Mozilla ever decided to drop support for ALSA in Firefox.

There are distros, Void Linux (which I am using right now) for one, which ship without pulseaudio (or systemd for that matter) installed by default, thank goodness.

> [...] the extension gets silently pushed to all the US users(!)

Non-US user here, my Firefox got it, too.

This is about forwarding individual remote applications, not entire desktops.

Ah, memories of one of my very first lab assignments in digital circuits engineering class (back when computer science was still busy splitting off from applied mathematics and electrical engineering). We were given nothing but a breadboard, some chips with basic logic gates (NANDs, multiplexers/demultiplexers), an EPROM, access to an EPROM burner (w/ hex keypad!), some LEDs, switches, resistors, jumper wires and a power source.

The assignment was to build a traffic light simulator, set the whole thing running, change the traffic lights as a result of switch inputs acting as sensors and a simulated interval timer.

Some students were baffled by this (lectures hadn't caught up with lab assignments at that point): how could you build a small processor using only logic and an EPROM? There's no memory or registers to keep state!

This is what differentiates combinatorial logic from sequential logic: feedback. Use some of the EPROM's data outputs along with logic gates and switch outputs (using the multiplexers / demultplexers) as address inputs to the same EPROM.

Sweet memories of solving Karnaugh maps, Quine-McCluskey minimization, logic hazard mitigation, etc. Good times.

They're called proprietary video drivers, and yes, they pass unknown commands, without user authorization (think DRM) to PCI(e) devices (video cards) all the time.

In the same vein, do try ":help 42" as well... :)

An experimental, no, production feature I would love to have in every browser is a way to disable these excruciatingly annoying full-screen popups which some sites (including the one linked in the topic) show you on your first visit.

No, I don't want to subscribe to your newsletter, I don't want email notifications, I don't want to become a member (at least not until I've read a few posts first).

Make it possible for me to make those choices my global defaults and I'll be a very happy user.

Interesting fact: while not all shared object files are executable (or rather: do something interesting other than dump core), some most definitely are: try executing libc someday: $ /usr/lib/libc.so.6

See http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1449987/building-a-so-tha... for more information.

Much better than that, actually: http://visualgdb.com/

This one has been around a bit longer, too, and despite its name is now much more than just a pretty face for GDB but rather a full cross-platform development environment which has IntelliSense everywhere, handles the installation of toolchains and BSPs for embedded targets, building kernel modules (with VisualKernel addon), etc.

Mmm, love the good ole'style hack. Find a hole in the system and peek through, good-natured of course. Reminds me of how I discovered that some hosting company's FTP server supported the somewhat obscure `cdup` command (which should work identical to `cd ..`), but didn't check if the connecting user actually had access rights to poke around that parent directory (it did for `cd ..`).

Much mischievous grinning ensued as I showed to my colleagues how i could "escape" from our allotted home directory and look at directories of some of the other clients, before I reported it to the hosting company. I don't know if they ever fixed that loophole...

> ...which allows selecting different distributions, including Arch Linux?

Sorry to rain on your parade, but there is _no_ official Arch Linux image on Docker[1], as you can easily verify[2]. Use at your own risk whatever Arch Linux image you happen to find on Docker Hub, such as this one[3]. It might work or it might break, but it ain't official.

[1]: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=214973

[2]: https://hub.docker.com/explore/

[3]: https://hub.docker.com/r/base/archlinux/

TL;DR: KISS+YAGNI :-)

It's so amazing, it was probably made with secret alien technology!

Maybe it time-traveled back from the future to save us from deadly attack by an alien probe, to give us a chance to get things right this time.

Exactly. The high current, if combined with unevenly split loads, improperly installed or maintained wiring, excessive use of spurs etc. can actually mean a greater risk of (fire) damage due to overload compared to 'star'-like circuits carrying less current per segment. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_circuit has some of the gory details.

Those of us coding in GNU Radio, LabView, MaxMSP, PureData, Simulink, VEE, vvvv, etc., would object to such an overly general statement.

(Hint: those are all visual or hybrid textual/visual programming languages.)

Erhm, no local network setup? Why is it that nowadays all the so-called cool stuff requires me to sign up with some online service?