Jonathan Corbet
Posts
212Following
23Followers
1042
Jonathan Corbet
corbet
On the radar: 874 gccrs patches pushed toward the GCC mainline:
https://lwn.net/ml/gcc-patches/298a50be-687c-444d-8fd6-656ccfb9f37d@embecosm.com/
Proc macros, closures, "the beginnings of a borrow checker framework", iterators, intrinsics, and more.
https://lwn.net/ml/gcc-patches/298a50be-687c-444d-8fd6-656ccfb9f37d@embecosm.com/
Proc macros, closures, "the beginnings of a borrow checker framework", iterators, intrinsics, and more.
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
It's acid-test time. Getting rid of the gas furnace and installing a #heatpump in Colorado was a bit of leap of faith, even though the consensus was that they are good enough to work in this environment now.
We're midway through a stretch of sustained sub-zero weather (as in, below 0°F, not that wimpy 0° used in other parts of the world), so we are definitely putting it to the test.
So far, so good. We did put in a backup 10KW resistance strip, that that has only come on once for a few minutes as far as I can tell. Even so, it's good that we like a cooler house than many; I think it would be hard-put to sustain the sorts of temperatures that a lot of people like to keep in their houses around here.
It *has* certainly burned through a lot of electricity; our summertime surplus from the solar panels is dwindling rapidly. The hope of getting all the way through the winter on our banked electricity seems to be falling by the wayside.
Still, the goal of turning off the fossil-fuel feed to the house remains on track.
We're midway through a stretch of sustained sub-zero weather (as in, below 0°F, not that wimpy 0° used in other parts of the world), so we are definitely putting it to the test.
So far, so good. We did put in a backup 10KW resistance strip, that that has only come on once for a few minutes as far as I can tell. Even so, it's good that we like a cooler house than many; I think it would be hard-put to sustain the sorts of temperatures that a lot of people like to keep in their houses around here.
It *has* certainly burned through a lot of electricity; our summertime surplus from the solar panels is dwindling rapidly. The hope of getting all the way through the winter on our banked electricity seems to be falling by the wayside.
Still, the goal of turning off the fossil-fuel feed to the house remains on track.
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
On the radar: the Git development community starts talking about incorporating Rust.
https://lwn.net/ml/git/ZZ77NQkSuiRxRDwt@nand.local/
https://lwn.net/ml/git/ZZ77NQkSuiRxRDwt@nand.local/
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
On the radar: a native OpenWrt system built right from the outset; I want one.
https://lwn.net/ml/openwrt-devel/a8aaa495-da0b-4ddc-8c4f-3e1192d8b012@phrozen.org/
https://lwn.net/ml/openwrt-devel/a8aaa495-da0b-4ddc-8c4f-3e1192d8b012@phrozen.org/
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
On the radar: debGPT — a large language model designed to help with Debian development.
https://lwn.net/ml/debian-devel/8e684936c9b419c8e5072b6543ee3b2e700ede40.camel@debian.org/
https://lwn.net/ml/debian-devel/8e684936c9b419c8e5072b6543ee3b2e700ede40.camel@debian.org/
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
On the radar: the 2023 year in review page (https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/t/2023-the-year-in-review/100689) on the Fedora discussion site ranks participants by the amount of time they spent reading on the site. Something there is tracking your behavior...does Fedora really need to do that?
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
Just checked my mail and found something straight out of McMansion Hell. This delightful little place will only cost you $12 million — and you get to live in Commerce City, which is even less of a garden spot than it sounds.
(Lest you wonder, I never asked to receive this rag; they figure that if you can manage to live in Boulder, you must be part of the market for this kind of atrocity so you get it whether you want it or not.)
(Lest you wonder, I never asked to receive this rag; they figure that if you can manage to live in Boulder, you must be part of the market for this kind of atrocity so you get it whether you want it or not.)
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
"Just store your data in the cloud" they said, "what could go wrong?"
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2023/12/dropbox-spooks-users-by-sending-data-to-openai-for-ai-search-features/
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2023/12/dropbox-spooks-users-by-sending-data-to-openai-for-ai-search-features/
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
If you think you got spam from me — it wasn't me, honest!
It would appear that the folks at belleclair.co.jp are running an open email relay (or have been compromised entirely). Some bright individual has been using it to send out massive volumes of spam and, for reasons known only to them, chose to put my return address on it. That has resulted in just short of 40,000 bounce messages landing in my inbox.
As a way to start your day, that just isn't as fun as it sounds.
A single notmuch command made the bounces go away; a couple of lines in header_checks has, so far, prevented the arrival of about 1,000 more. But spam with my email address on it, it seems, continues to flood the net.
Time to get serious about that DMARC setup in the hope that it might help, I guess. Email is so much fun.
It would appear that the folks at belleclair.co.jp are running an open email relay (or have been compromised entirely). Some bright individual has been using it to send out massive volumes of spam and, for reasons known only to them, chose to put my return address on it. That has resulted in just short of 40,000 bounce messages landing in my inbox.
As a way to start your day, that just isn't as fun as it sounds.
A single notmuch command made the bounces go away; a couple of lines in header_checks has, so far, prevented the arrival of about 1,000 more. But spam with my email address on it, it seems, continues to flood the net.
Time to get serious about that DMARC setup in the hope that it might help, I guess. Email is so much fun.
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
Ah...Sharper Image...where would we be without you...? The "precision of a chainsaw" indeed.
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
On the radar: !CVE
An alternate list of (alleged) vulnerability numbers for problems that the designated CNA refuses to issue a CVE for.
https://lwn.net/ml/oss-security/c01c1617-641d-4ec2-847f-2e85ea4676f7@notcve.org/
Perhaps this is an effort to identify vulnerabilities that, for whatever reason, the Powers That Be won't recognize. It also looks like a way to circumvent efforts to combat the growing bogus-CVE problem, though.
An alternate list of (alleged) vulnerability numbers for problems that the designated CNA refuses to issue a CVE for.
https://lwn.net/ml/oss-security/c01c1617-641d-4ec2-847f-2e85ea4676f7@notcve.org/
Perhaps this is an effort to identify vulnerabilities that, for whatever reason, the Powers That Be won't recognize. It also looks like a way to circumvent efforts to combat the growing bogus-CVE problem, though.
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
Aww...they deleted my old videobuf document:
https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=2a2fffb488a3c
I'd actually forgotten that I wrote that thing at all, evidently I did it back in 2010...
https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=4b586a38b04
Hopefully it was useful while it lasted.
https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=2a2fffb488a3c
I'd actually forgotten that I wrote that thing at all, evidently I did it back in 2010...
https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=4b586a38b04
Hopefully it was useful while it lasted.
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
On the radar: what is the linux-kernel mailing list for? @monsieuricon is suggesting that many or most patch postings be redirected to a separate list:
https://lwn.net/ml/ksummit-discuss/20231106-venomous-raccoon-of-wealth-acc57c@nitro/
I've not jumped into the conversation because I'm still trying to figure out what I think about it. I'm one of those people who actually reads over that list; the broad view it provides is helpful in both the LWN and documentation-maintainer roles. But it *is* painful to keep up with.
LKML has traditionally been the place you post patches to get them reviewed. If that's not its role anymore, what is it for?
https://lwn.net/ml/ksummit-discuss/20231106-venomous-raccoon-of-wealth-acc57c@nitro/
I've not jumped into the conversation because I'm still trying to figure out what I think about it. I'm one of those people who actually reads over that list; the broad view it provides is helpful in both the LWN and documentation-maintainer roles. But it *is* painful to keep up with.
LKML has traditionally been the place you post patches to get them reviewed. If that's not its role anymore, what is it for?
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
LWN is trying to hire a full-time writer/editor:
https://lwn.net/Articles/949461/
Please talk to us if you think you might be interested, and pass on a pointer to anybody else who might be a good fit.
https://lwn.net/Articles/949461/
Please talk to us if you think you might be interested, and pass on a pointer to anybody else who might be a good fit.
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
On the radar: who gets on the linux-distros mailing list?
linux-distros is where vulnerabilities and fixes are discussed prior to public disclosure. Given the nature of the material discussed, it is unsurprising that membership is limited. I seriously doubt they would let me on it...
CIQ (Rocky Linux) would like to join:
https://lwn.net/ml/oss-security/20231001130223.GA6586@openwall.com/
There has been some opposition to this membership, seemingly based on the ideas that (1) Rocky Linux isn't doing much of the way of original distribution work, and (2) as a (relatively) community-oriented project, it lacks a way to keep secrets. This view is not universally held, though.
Meanwhile, openEuler also wants in:
https://lwn.net/ml/oss-security/ZSyUUSF_-3YbT14k@workstation/
The concern here is potential legal issues related to openEuler's Chinese origins.
linux-distros is where vulnerabilities and fixes are discussed prior to public disclosure. Given the nature of the material discussed, it is unsurprising that membership is limited. I seriously doubt they would let me on it...
CIQ (Rocky Linux) would like to join:
https://lwn.net/ml/oss-security/20231001130223.GA6586@openwall.com/
There has been some opposition to this membership, seemingly based on the ideas that (1) Rocky Linux isn't doing much of the way of original distribution work, and (2) as a (relatively) community-oriented project, it lacks a way to keep secrets. This view is not universally held, though.
Meanwhile, openEuler also wants in:
https://lwn.net/ml/oss-security/ZSyUUSF_-3YbT14k@workstation/
The concern here is potential legal issues related to openEuler's Chinese origins.
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
Cool...there's now a archive of all the Whole Earth Catalogs and the various magazines that descended from it:
https://wholeearth.info/
https://wholeearth.info/
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
I'm currently dealing with a contractor to replace the gas furnace with a heat pump and actually use all that power that the rooftop panels are generating rather than burning gas. So far so good.
Today I got an email from a third-party site I'd never heard of with an invoice. To actually pay the invoice, the thing demands my login credentials for access to my bank account.
The contractor seemed surprised that I proved unwilling to do that. I guess I understand why phishing is such a lucrative exercise.
Today I got an email from a third-party site I'd never heard of with an invoice. To actually pay the invoice, the thing demands my login credentials for access to my bank account.
The contractor seemed surprised that I proved unwilling to do that. I guess I understand why phishing is such a lucrative exercise.
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
On the radar: the ongoing, slow-burning discussion over the sched_ext scheduling class (which allows the writing of complete CPU schedulers in BPF: https://lwn.net/Articles/922405/). This thread has been ongoing since July:
https://lwn.net/ml/linux-kernel/20230726091752.GA3802077@hirez.programming.kicks-ass.net/
with a new message showing up every few weeks. Regardless of how one feels about sched_ext, it is clear that quite a bit of thought has gone into the problem on both sides of the debate.
https://lwn.net/ml/linux-kernel/20230726091752.GA3802077@hirez.programming.kicks-ass.net/
with a new message showing up every few weeks. Regardless of how one feels about sched_ext, it is clear that quite a bit of thought has gone into the problem on both sides of the debate.
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
On the radar: improved tunable handling for glibc. The recent vulnerability has drawn their attention to this aspect of library behavior, and now they are trying to make some changes to prevent the next vulnerability before it happens (or at least before somebody finds it)
https://lwn.net/ml/libc-alpha/20231010180111.561793-1-adhemerval.zanella@linaro.org
https://lwn.net/ml/libc-alpha/20231010180111.561793-1-adhemerval.zanella@linaro.org
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