Jonathan Corbet
Posts
493Following
36Followers
2165
Jonathan Corbet
corbet
@WesternInfidels I've seen stories of maintainers who have found themselves talking to a contributor who is just relaying questions to the LLM and feeding the answers back. Haven't been there myself, yet, so far as i know...
1
0
4
Jonathan Corbet
corbet
@jani People are clearly not using the Assisted-by tag; I've seen a lot of examples of that in recent days. In many cases people seem to be unaware of the rules. The human inclination to not read our documentation continues, but it appears that the LLMs don't bother to read it either.
3
6
16
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/
1
17
17
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.
21
286
334
Jonathan Corbet
corbet
re: Rant about people ranting about Wayland
Show content
@jzb One good thing about all this, of course, is that all the people who have long sworn that X is the worst thing to have ever happened have now gone quiet, or even changed their views... It's almost 23 years ago exactly that I wrote this little piece...
https://lwn.net/Articles/26608/
https://lwn.net/Articles/26608/
4
9
20
Jonathan Corbet
corbet
@carlrichell The record for earliest 90°F day here in Boulder is late May. They are saying it could happen tomorrow. In March. I'm surprised you found any snow at all...looks like fun, anyway!
1
0
0
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/
5
3
8
Jonathan Corbet
corbet
@mhoye @azonenberg That part is true. I would never ban an address just for a 404 (though we do track such things in other ways). But if somebody is going for, say, /wp-anything, that's not a typo, that is seeing if a random doorknob is unlocked. Not the sort of reader we are writing for.
1
1
1
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/
0
3
5
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.
3
3
16
Jonathan Corbet
repeated
repeated
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.
6
10
0
Jonathan Corbet
corbet
@carlrichell Nice work! I've been bugging my own reps, but haven't even gotten a response from them so far.
0
0
0
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"!
0
3
4
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.
1
1
8
Jonathan Corbet
repeated
repeated
The Penguin of Evil
etchedpixels@mastodon.socialRE: https://flipboard.social/@newsguyusa/116145194552591221
US government finally acts to pop AI bubble 🤣
3
2
0
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.
2
10
16