Amitai Schleier
@schmonz@schmonz.com
If your business makes software, I might be good for your business.
I'm moving to my own federated instance at davidj.org. If you'd like to continue our relationship, reply to this and I'll follow you from over there.
@glook are you going to do a migration so it brings along your followers?
@alphy No, I like a clean split. I'm going to do a couple rounds of this and then delete the tech.lgbt account.
@glook Gotcha! Followed the new account.
How did you set up your hosting (if you don't mind my asking)? I like the idea, but it seems a little daunting.
@alphy I'm using snac. I like it so far and I look forward to figuring out how to change things like default css or layout.
Alt...
Wooden bench facing birds, trees, partly frozen river, bridge
@schmonz That's a beautiful place and picture.
@schmonz happy new year!
What are all the cool kids use today to have an e-mail with their own domain name, but without using Google Workspaces? I haven't done that in so long.
Edit: I settled on mailbox.org for now. The setup using my own domain was as easy as I expected.
@afilina I'm using mailbox.org for all my domains: https://kb.mailbox.org/en/private/custom-domains/
@afilina Not sure whether I'm a cool kid, but I have several domains on mailbox.org and it works fine. (AMA if you want)
@afilina Loser-kid answer: I use the included-free email in my trashy Dreamhost account.
Forward all to a gmail address in Dreamhost, then set up “Send As" in Gmail and "Alternate Email" in Google Profile, so that Google treats it as an alias in pretty much every way.
Not always blazing fast, but does the job and has been low-to-no-maintenance over the years.
Obviously that's if you just want "free workspaces”. I used to use it as an actual POP account too.
@afilina been a Fastmail customer for many years. Zero complaints. TBH I’d use Google except for I can’t have Google Workspace and also has family YouTube premium, etc etc. that’s what led me to Fastmail.
@afilina I'm certainly not cool and probably do not qualify as a kid, but I've always been running my own mx server. Still doing so.
But we also have a mailbox.org account.
Not sure I'd recommend runnig everything youraelf if yoy haven't done so before these days but there are quite few ready to rock email OSS bundles, even with containers ;-) and admin ui
@afilina I've continued running my own mail server (for like 20 years now), with postfix and dovecot.
@afilina I currently point my DNS MX records at Apple iCloud, but you can point them wherever you want really.
I have two options:
- my favorite: https://proton.me/
- good alternative: https://www.infomaniak.com/en
both are excellent in regards of service, support, performance, innovation AND PRIVACY
(both are hosted in Switzerland)
@afilina I ran on qmailToaster for the longest time, then Zimbra open source and recently migrated to dockerized Mailcow. Really happy about it
@afilina I know you’ve already made your choice, so this is a bit late: I switched from Google Workspace to Fastmail in 2022 and I’ve enjoyed using it so far.
I blogged about migrating my MX (email) from self-hosted #Qmail, with Gmail as the front-end, to @fastmail: https://www.rainskit.com/blog/migrating-from-qmail-and-gmail-to-fastmail/
Many #yaks were shaved in this adventure, and I'm much less visible to Google, now!
The post is long, mostly because I needed to eulogize the end of 25 years of email self-hosting. But it might be interesting to some of you. And it might be helpful if you are on Qmail and want to stop self hosting.
@yvonnezlam Noted. If this migration goes ahead, I suspect I'll be spending a weekend in Edinburgh asking very patient questions indeed, and surreptitiously gnawing through my own leg.
@ncdominie Is there a way to do something midway, like a virtual machine of linux on the desktop, to see if they like it? (This may be a terrible idea, so feel free to ignore it.)
@yvonnezlam I shall ponder... whatever happens I'm likely to have to upgrade my own technical knowledge so maybe learning how to do that wouldn't be the worst use of my time.
@ncdominie I'm seeing a bunch of stuff about Linux on the desktop in my feed, fwiw, so it seems like a good time to learn.
@ncdominie @yvonnezlam Are you planning on moving to linux? I just moved my desktop to LinuxMint because Windows11 was too awful.
@BarneyDellar @yvonnezlam A relative is contemplating it. You're the second person to mention Mint in this context — I'm getting the impression it'd be the least fiddly approach.
@ncdominie @yvonnezlam It feels very similar to Windows. But without all the annoying bits. And it’s nice to have a computer that boots up in seconds, rather than nearly a minute!
@schmonz @ncdominie When I stuck linux on a VERY old laptop, the hardest bit was figuring out how to get to the boot screen and then how to tell it to boot from a USB stick.
Booted 8’s ISO without any special grub flags. (On this box, whoa.) Easy repair.
These were my final big questions. I now trust this system with my data. Blog post soon.
Alt...
Please reboot the system, they said
Alt...
Debian 13 etc
1. Get fastfetch and all of its dependencies building on Mac OS 10.9 #MavericksForever
2. Include pkgsrc in the package report
Alt...
fastfetch output
That’s your clue: refactor first.
(Special case of the general KFB wisdom “First make the change easy, then make the easy change.”)
@schmonz we talk a lot about continuous integration / continuous deployment, but we should talk more about continuous refactoring / continuous improvement
Hit up your network before applying. If you’re reading this, I’m in your network.
I've updated my binary package repository for PowerPC Mac OS X. New and updated packages for curl, git, python 3.10, apache, nginx, openssh, rsync, yt-dlp, vim, zsh, tmux, and many more.
But if a supposed #ExtremeProgramming expert doesn’t grok this, such remarkably deep failure of understanding indicates ignorance AND profound obstinacy.
I think I *finally* understand people who like #cooking. It’s so satisfying to get good at something and do it well, creating something that people enjoy.
I usually think of food as “I need it to survive” + “I love it when it tastes amazing!”
But making it takes lots of time, and I’m almost always under time pressure, so the time just didn’t seem worth the benefit.
Now that my sabbatical has freed me from that time pressure… I get it! That’s a gift that will last the rest of my life.
This toot brought to you by my first attempt at making homemade pasta (spaghetti), which was triggered by my first attempt at making bread, which was triggered by making Bavarian pretzels, all of which turned out very well. (With many thanks to YouTube!)
Plus it turns out I have a catalog of recipes I enjoy making… huh, maybe I’ve been enjoying this cooking thing for longer than I realized 😳
Here's my setup: https://schmonz.com/2025/11/12/small-macs/
(Writing... muscles... loosening.)
Hey #NetBSD 🚩community! There's been discussion over the years about whether the NetBSD project should have its own unique mascot (separate from the general BSD Beastie).
I outlined a proposal for one back in 2021, including some concepts:
https://mail-index.netbsd.org/netbsd-advocacy/2021/01/21/msg000828.html
What's the general feeling today? #RunBSD #OpenSource #FreeBSD #OpenBSD #DragonflyBSD
| Yes, we need a unique mascot!: | 40 |
| No, the flag/Beastie is enough.: | 43 |
| I'm not sure / No opinion.: | 9 |
| Just show me the results.: | 11 |
Closed
Yes, a cute mascot would be nice... But why an orange pickle for yours? 🤓
(I probably would not do much better than this though, but now I want to draw a cute mascot!)
@ParadeGrotesque there are other options as well along email trail :)
https://mail-index.netbsd.org/netbsd-advocacy/2021/01/22/msg000832.html
I like the squirrel one, seems to fit NetBSD qualities better.
Something along the line of small, cute and nimble. 🤔
Why not a cute little spider? You know, for "net".
Something like this little guy...
Alt...
Orange/yellow opistoncus spider on a green leaf.
@7heo @ParadeGrotesque that net is trap which doesn't go with values NetBSD has :)
Just thought it was cute. But yeah, I get your point.
I think we just made cute little spiders sad.
I mean, I love spiders, they are great, they clean your homes and gardens, and while it is correct that their net often serves as a trap, is serves other purposes too (like hearing).
Plus, animals trapping others for food are hardly rare, and even tho spiders do do that, I find it sad to focus on this fact only. But I guess that's just because I like spiders. 😅
boosted@jaypatelani I thought this was canon https://analognowhere.com/techno-mage/pocket-daemons/
boosted@jaypatelani I agree with Pierre, a mascot would be cool, so long as it's not overly cartoonish.
boostedCandidates for the next NetBSD beastie mascot...
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Alien, Predator, Darkness, Tribble
@jaypatelani NetBSD runs on almost anything, right? So should the mascot, so maybe: raccoon, honey badger, corvid, my uncle Frank's liver...
I blogged about the system we have used for years to teach our #kids about saving #money: https://www.rainskit.com/blog/kids_money/
I've been very happy with it, and maybe this system will be useful for you, too!
boosted@alexthurow @rjbs At ZipRecruiter people sometimes said “I'm sorry I broke your program” which I still find a bit shocking. I always tried to say back something like “It was broken all along, you just showed me how.”
@alexthurow @rjbs debugging is the art of invalidating your cached mental model of how the code works
An asteroid born out of wedlock is a basteroid.
An asteroid with greater than average speed is a fasteroid.
An asteroid that lacks courage and principle is a dasteroid.
An asteroid that’s missing its front bit is just a steroid.
I will be taking no questions at this time.
@schmonz An asteroid that goes boom is a blasteroid.
@schmonz an asteroid that is strong with the force is a Jedi asteroid.
@schmonz An asteroid that is rendered pixel by pixel is a rasteroid.
To enable #greylisting, simply uncomment "greylisting-spp-wrapper" in control/smtpplugins. That’s it.
(Add any exempt recipient addresses to control/greylist/exemptrcpts, or entire recipient domains to control/greylist/exemptrcpthosts.)
\# chown qmaild:nofiles control/servercert.pem
\# chmod 640 control/servercert.pem
\# ln -s control/servercert.pem control/clientcert.pem
\# update_tmprsadh
\# /etc/rc.d/qmail restart
🔐
echo srs.dom.ain > control/srs_domain
echo "$SECRET" > control/srs_secrets
echo srs.dom.ain >> control/rcpthosts
echo srs.dom.ain:srs >> control/virtualdomains
echo "| srsfilter" > alias/.qmail-srs-default
+ MX for srs.dom.ain
If there is one thing I could pass along to folk:
Your career will outlive every bad decision that someone in upper management will make. Your role is to learn what you can, not just the task or tech, but what to watch out for next time. Help the folk who will get caught up in the next bad decision, because they will help when you get hit.
And if you are in the position to make bad decisions, have a failure plan that protects your team. It’s easy to get someone to follow you once.
Getting them to follow you the second time makes you a leader.
You should know #pkgsrc 2025Q3 was released yesterday:
https://mail-index.netbsd.org/pkgsrc-users/2025/09/25/msg042016.html
For the same reasons, some published authors are better at describing than at enacting.
Maybe an author really knows, in context, under stress, how to do the thing. Maybe not.
Alt...
Dahlia
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A gif of Dahlia Hawthorne, a character from the Ace Attorney trilogy of games. She's a dinky, princess-like red-haired young woman in a light summer dress with a gauze shawl and a parasol/umbrella, all of it white and pink and very cute and girly. The result is stunning and innocent-looking. Spoiler: she's the overarching villain mastermind for the whole trilogy and probably the most evil and twisted character you'll encounter in a while.
1. Become Director of Engineering
2. Tell org and stakeholders that XP will fix longstanding problems
3. Regularly interfere with devs’ learning
4. Design projects to delay ROI
5. Find scapegoats
Maybe they’ll blame #XP.
If the only bits of #ExtremeProgramming you’ve mastered are the technical ones, you’re not an XP expert. Especially if you’re sure you are.
@schmonz No, it’s a post of yours referencing a specific article (something about XP that wasn’t)
@schmonz The only code I'm ever satisfied with (with very rare exceptions) is my own, and that is exactly why I'm not qualified for "technical leadership" and have always avoided climbing the management ladder. I want no other responsibilities than technical ones and that's where I'm at my best.
Unfortunately, society in general does not value that.
I appreciate the reminder to consider systemic factors that push people to make such choices. The systemic factors suck. But also people who make any part of others' lives miserable suck.
@schmonz I understand the goal and targeted audience of your toot, don't worry. I just wanted to provide you with my slightly different perspective 😉
@schmonz I am almost never satisfied with neither "my", nor "others'" code. That's why I insist on the code to be maintained relentlessly (TDD, refactoring and CI above all) and that's what I expect from others. Because currently most of the others act as if the code they write is perfect (the write once mentality and the notion that the code can be "done" which it never is).
Lastly, there should be no such thing as my and your code.
Some years after learning TDD, I had a coding interview. TDD was not widely known. I delivered TDD code.
They said it was the best code they had ever seen.
A few years later, I decided to pull up my submission and take a look at it.
I was *seriously embarrassed* that I would have submitted this code for a job application. It would need a fair number of changes before I would consider it *minimally acceptable.*
I like to think I've continued with improvement.
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