Jonathan Corbet
Posts
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
It's almost enough to make me want to get a cat.
https://soranews24.com/2026/03/27/japan-now-has-a-special-desk-for-people-who-work-at-home-with-a-pet-catphotos/
https://soranews24.com/2026/03/27/japan-now-has-a-special-desk-for-people-who-work-at-home-with-a-pet-catphotos/
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
I see on HN that John Bradley, the creator of xv, has died:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47534086
The real announcements, alas, come from sources that I am unwilling to link to.
Xv, an image viewer/editor, is one of those tools that hit a peak of usability that really hasn't been matched since. It supports a wide range of image-manipulation functions, and has an interface that gets the job done quickly. I've sort of moved away from it over the years, but I still keep it around.
RIP, John, you made something good.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47534086
The real announcements, alas, come from sources that I am unwilling to link to.
Xv, an image viewer/editor, is one of those tools that hit a peak of usability that really hasn't been matched since. It supports a wide range of image-manipulation functions, and has an interface that gets the job done quickly. I've sort of moved away from it over the years, but I still keep it around.
RIP, John, you made something good.
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
Today I got an email from a local farm saying that they will not be doing a community supported agriculture (CSA) program this year because they don't think there will be enough water to grow food.
Need I say this is not a good sign?
Need I say this is not a good sign?
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
An interesting post on BLDGBLOG points out a problem with the US petroleum reserve that had never crossed my mind: this reserve was only designed to last through five empty-and-fill cycles.
"The Financial Times calculates that we are already at the cavern’s ninth historic drawdown, suggesting that 'catastrophic structural damage,' including dissolution of the salt caverns, is now a viable risk."
https://bldgblog.com/2026/03/contextual-collapse/
"The Financial Times calculates that we are already at the cavern’s ninth historic drawdown, suggesting that 'catastrophic structural damage,' including dissolution of the salt caverns, is now a viable risk."
https://bldgblog.com/2026/03/contextual-collapse/
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
As the number of LLM-generated patches in my inbox increases, I am starting to experience the sort of maintainer stress that has long been predicted. But there's another aspect of this that has recently crossed my mind.
Just over a week ago, a new personality showed up with a whole pile of machine-generated patches claiming to fill in our memory-management documentation. A few reviewers had some sharp questions, the response to which has been ... silence. This person doesn't seem to have cared enough about that work to make an effort to get past the initial resistance.
Once upon a time, somebody who had produced many pages of MM documentation would be invested enough in that work to make at least a minimal attempt to defend it.
Kernel developers often worry that a patch submitter will not stick around to maintain the code they are trying to push upstream. Part of the gauntlet of getting kernel patches accepted can be seen as a sort of "are you serious?" test.
When somebody submits a big pile of machine-generated code, though, will they be *able* to maintain it? And will they be sufficiently invested in this code, which they didn't write and probably don't understand, to stick around and fix the inevitable problems that will arise? I rather fear not, and that does not bode well for the long-term maintainability of our software.
Just over a week ago, a new personality showed up with a whole pile of machine-generated patches claiming to fill in our memory-management documentation. A few reviewers had some sharp questions, the response to which has been ... silence. This person doesn't seem to have cared enough about that work to make an effort to get past the initial resistance.
Once upon a time, somebody who had produced many pages of MM documentation would be invested enough in that work to make at least a minimal attempt to defend it.
Kernel developers often worry that a patch submitter will not stick around to maintain the code they are trying to push upstream. Part of the gauntlet of getting kernel patches accepted can be seen as a sort of "are you serious?" test.
When somebody submits a big pile of machine-generated code, though, will they be *able* to maintain it? And will they be sufficiently invested in this code, which they didn't write and probably don't understand, to stick around and fix the inevitable problems that will arise? I rather fear not, and that does not bode well for the long-term maintainability of our software.
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
According to the O'Reilly Radar blog, "code review is an expensive way to do something that may not be all that useful in the long run". We just have to get the specifications right in our vibe-coded future.
https://www.oreilly.com/radar/beyond-code-review/
https://www.oreilly.com/radar/beyond-code-review/
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
I've been in Boulder for a long time; I don't think I've ever seen this sort of mass closure of our open spaces. What a "winter" this is.
Be careful out there...
https://bouldercounty.gov/news/all-trails-closed-west-of-highway-36/
Be careful out there...
https://bouldercounty.gov/news/all-trails-closed-west-of-highway-36/
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
So somebody is really convinced that there is an SQL-injection vulnerability lurking in the LWN login form, and they have been employing a small botnet in a determined effort to find it. I'm not hugely worried about the attack, but I still find this kind of thing annoying.
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Jonathan Corbet
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Carl Richell
carlrichell@fosstodon.orgToday, I met with Colorado Senator Matt Ball, co-author of Colorado OS Age Attestation Bill SB26-051.
Sen. Ball suggested excluding open source software from the bill. This appears to be a real possibility.
Amendments are expected for the CA age attestation bill. It's my hope we can move fast enough to influence excluding open source in the CA bill amendments.
No illusions, it's an uphill battle, but we have an open door to advocate for the open source community.
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
RIP Country Joe McDonald.
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2026/mar/09/country-joe-mcdonald-woodstock-star-and-anti-war-singer-dies-aged-84
GIMME AN "F"!
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2026/mar/09/country-joe-mcdonald-woodstock-star-and-anti-war-singer-dies-aged-84
GIMME AN "F"!
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
The second fire in a week — in what is supposed to be our wettest season.
https://boulderreportinglab.org/2026/03/04/boulder-wildfire-crews-responding-to-vegetation-fire-at-heil-valley-ranch/
They seem to have a handle on it, but unless something changes this is going to be a long and brutal summer.
https://boulderreportinglab.org/2026/03/04/boulder-wildfire-crews-responding-to-vegetation-fire-at-heil-valley-ranch/
They seem to have a handle on it, but unless something changes this is going to be a long and brutal summer.
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The Penguin of Evil
etchedpixels@mastodon.socialRE: https://flipboard.social/@newsguyusa/116145194552591221
US government finally acts to pop AI bubble 🤣
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
Dan Simmons is gone.
https://arstechnica.com/culture/2026/02/hyperion-author-dan-simmons-dies-from-stroke-at-77/
There are people saying that he was not an entirely pleasant person. I know nothing about that. I do know that I found the Hyperion series to be mind-blowing; I wish I could write like that. May he rest in peace.
https://arstechnica.com/culture/2026/02/hyperion-author-dan-simmons-dies-from-stroke-at-77/
There are people saying that he was not an entirely pleasant person. I know nothing about that. I do know that I found the Hyperion series to be mind-blowing; I wish I could write like that. May he rest in peace.
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
I just stumbled across the "Open Source Endowment":
https://endowment.dev/
Seems like a good cause, but the page to nominate a project for funding requires a GitHub URL to identify that project. There are, I guess, no open-source projects outside of GitHub?
https://endowment.dev/
Seems like a good cause, but the page to nominate a project for funding requires a GitHub URL to identify that project. There are, I guess, no open-source projects outside of GitHub?
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
"This winter wasn’t just a bit warm or slightly unusual. It was a complete failure of the cold‑season that the West depends on, and the consequences will extend far beyond a lack of snow along Colorado’s Continental Divide. When winter fails this profoundly, the disruption radiates outward through every system that relies on the steady rhythm of cold, snow, and gradual melt. Water managers lose the natural reservoir that mountain snowpack is supposed to provide, leaving cities, farms, and entire states in the Colorado River Basin facing increasingly uncomfortable decisions about how to stretch a shrinking supply. Reservoirs that should be quietly refilling through winter will instead stumble into this spring underfilled, offering far less protection against the triple punch of summer heat, irrigation demand, and wildfire suppression. Millions of Americans who depend on the Colorado River will feel the consequences of this winter long after our snow-starved peaks fade from the headlines."
https://bouldercast.com/a-complete-failure-of-winter-across-the-west-and-what-it-means-for-the-rest-of-2026/
*sigh*
https://bouldercast.com/a-complete-failure-of-winter-across-the-west-and-what-it-means-for-the-rest-of-2026/
*sigh*
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
One of those little details that, probably, only I care about ... a year ago, when dealing with AI scraper problems, I observed that almost all of the traffic came from IPv4 addresses — millions of them. Use of IPv6 was a pretty strong indication that there was a human involved.
Now, when we get a heavy attack wave, it is strongly dominated by IPv6 addresses; the bots seem to actively prefer IPv6.
I wonder if it's because IPv6 addresses are more likely to remain unique through NAT boxes, giving these sleazy people yet more IP addresses to bring down web sites with?
Now, when we get a heavy attack wave, it is strongly dominated by IPv6 addresses; the bots seem to actively prefer IPv6.
I wonder if it's because IPv6 addresses are more likely to remain unique through NAT boxes, giving these sleazy people yet more IP addresses to bring down web sites with?
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
I was just informed that today is an important holiday; is it too early to start celebrating?
https://nationaltoday.com/national-drink-wine-day/
https://nationaltoday.com/national-drink-wine-day/
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
There is a phase of life where Valentine's Day brings images of flowers, fancy dinners, and romance.
There is another, later phase where one is informed that the best way to demonstrate the depth of one's affection would be to finally get around to re-caulking the shower.
There is another, later phase where one is informed that the best way to demonstrate the depth of one's affection would be to finally get around to re-caulking the shower.
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