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@chrism Thanks - I'll be sure to let @jzb know you liked it! #LWN
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@monsieuricon @pdp7 @skobkin We (LWN) ended up at masto.host ... our experience is short, but it has been easy and seems to be working out well so far.
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Jonathan Corbet

For $REASONS, we ended up deciding to move the LWN.net Mastodon feed in a bit of a hurry. The good news is that we now are able to appear under our own domain as @LWN. It looks like the migration magic has dragged about half of our followers (so far) along with us; the ability to relocate like that is a nice feature.

We're still figuring out various details of how to make the new server work well; please pardon any rough edges.
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@stux I agree we should stop talking about it seriously, but for a different reason. *Nobody* believes that Canada will become part of the US, nobody. It's a distraction; as long as we're screaming about this idiocy, we're not paying attention to all the nasty shit that actually *is* happening. People need to stop chasing these squirrels.
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@Conan_Kudo @axboe @brauner Kfuncs are designed with the BPF verifier in mind. The verifier (it is hoped) ensures safe usage, that locks are released, resources returned, pointers used within bounds, etc. Exporting those kfuncs to ordinary modules shorts out that layer of protection, perhaps exposing things beyond what was intended. A move like that definitely needs to be thought through well, if it is done at all.
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Jonathan Corbet

The view from my office... Gotta love springtime...
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@linuxandyarn Welcome to the world of AI scraper bots ... https://lwn.net/Articles/1008897/

Looking at the web page of a company called "Bright Data" is informative too.
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Jonathan Corbet

20 Years ago: the BitKeeper license changed, making it unavailable for kernel development.

https://lwn.net/Articles/130746/

It drove home the perils of relying on proprietary software and spurred the creation of Git - a significant event, overall.
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@LWN See also: Vint Cerf's comments on Dave's passing: "I could not say better than Frank already has how much Dave's work has helped to improve our experience of the Internet. I can't think of anyone more dedicated to the proposition that performance counts and should be pursued with determination and vigor. I've known Dave for many years and greatly valued his counsel and technical skills - to say nothing of his healthy sense of humor. I will miss him but will be always grateful to have known him."

https://lwn.net/ml/all/CAHxHggemafY9UP6Zm3oXVWWX5Wd+ffauot5MCN-6Gv-pOx3=Sg@mail.gmail.com
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@rostedt Hey, be glad he didn't say "turd" or you'd be all over the news...:)
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@fenruspdx He actually had the gall to write back to me and, after some sanctimonious bullshit about keeping publicly available data available, offered: "If you can have both visibility and control about any bot coming to your domain, and the option to set sensitive end points,
wouldn't that be something worth exploring?"

So yes, you were right. They are selling protection schemes as a side gig.
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@jzb There is the old maxim about mud wrestling with pigs — you just get muddy and the pig enjoys it. These people have taken enough of my time as it is, and I doubt I have anything to tell them they haven't heard before.
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Jonathan Corbet

Today I got a cheery email from somebody who claims to be the "ethics and compliance" officer for a company called Bright Data. He wanted to have a "no pressure" conversation about the whole AI scraperbot problem. Looking at their web site, this company offers an API that, and I quote, "Bypasses anti-scraping mechanisms and solves CAPTCHAs, ensuring uninterrupted access to the most protected web sites".

After careful consideration for several milliseconds, I have concluded that I really don't have anything to discuss with this person.

But at least their claimed "100M+" of residential IP addresses that they use for their DDOS attacks are "ethically sourced".
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@ljs *Blush* thanks ... wrote up all three migration sessions on the airplane, we'll see if people still think I understand that stuff once they go out...:)
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@jejb I'm still disappointed that you're not still carrying the Nexus 1.... That was as much a part of your image as the bowtie...
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@impermanen_ @stefan_hessbrueggen The experience I can add is that we are using GnuCash exclusively for our business accounting. All is not perfect, but it is far better than its proprietary predecessor, and hasn't been a problem with the accountant at all.
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Jonathan Corbet

So my phone (a Pixel 7) has picked up the habit of randomly rebooting for unknown reasons. It seems to be getting worse.

Once upon a time, I used to look forward, at least a little bit, to getting a new phone. Shinier better hardware, a software update, there was something I got out of the deal, even when I wasn't really feeling that I wanted to buy another hunk of electronic stuff.

When I think of a new phone now, I think of fending of a bunch of new AI crap, of trying to track down and fix a hundred different privacy settings that, mysteriously, don't get copied from the old device, and generally just trying to get back to where I am now.

In other words, it's not that I'm not excited about getting a new phone; I actively don't want that new phone.

Maybe I'll just go back to the land line.
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@bkuhn @mxmehl That wasn't me who wrote that — credit goes to @jzb, who had been working on it for a while before anybody waved their wand :)

I will confess that I'd been slow to come around to the topic at least partly because it has been a decade or two since I felt I understood why the OSI still exists.
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@mxmehl It's written, going through review, no worries :)
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Jonathan Corbet

The current OSI fun reminds me of an article I wrote just under 20 years ago... https://lwn.net/Articles/148792/
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