Jonathan Corbet
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
On the radar: file-based memory management
https://lwn.net/ml/all/20241122203830.2381905-1-btabatabai@wisc.edu
This looks like fairly wild stuff, haven't had a chance to figure out how it actually works yet.
https://lwn.net/ml/all/20241122203830.2381905-1-btabatabai@wisc.edu
This looks like fairly wild stuff, haven't had a chance to figure out how it actually works yet.
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
@larsmb @tante I think the point in question was highly visible enough.
Had that conversation been allowed to continue, it would have gone on for hundreds of posts, and brought people out of the woodwork that you really would rather not know even exist. We've been there in the past, and it threatened to kill the site at one point. Thus our "no personal attacks" policy, which we had to enforce here.
Should we, instead, have just pulled down the article, as some are saying? That would have "blocked the discussion" too, of course. We also try not to hide our mistakes.
Things like this make me wish I'd made a career in JavaScript framework development or some such. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some kernel drama to somehow deal with.
Had that conversation been allowed to continue, it would have gone on for hundreds of posts, and brought people out of the woodwork that you really would rather not know even exist. We've been there in the past, and it threatened to kill the site at one point. Thus our "no personal attacks" policy, which we had to enforce here.
Should we, instead, have just pulled down the article, as some are saying? That would have "blocked the discussion" too, of course. We also try not to hide our mistakes.
Things like this make me wish I'd made a career in JavaScript framework development or some such. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some kernel drama to somehow deal with.
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
@davidgerard First, what "mask" do you think has come off?
Second: if you look hard, you still will not find either of us "defending her honor". Please do not put words in our mouths.
We did do our best to close down the conversation; what good comes from hundreds of posts of people throwing names at each other? There are enough posts criticizing the person involved for anybody to get the point; there are almost none in the other direction. Trust me that this would not have been the case had we let the conversation run. *That*, perhaps, indicates an editorial bias, but it is not the one you are accusing us of.
Look, as I posted in the thread, had we known the backstory of the person involved, there is a good chance we would not have run that article. We are a small operation, we lack a biographical research unit, we will not have a background file on any of the hundreds of developers we write about over the course of a year.
Second: if you look hard, you still will not find either of us "defending her honor". Please do not put words in our mouths.
We did do our best to close down the conversation; what good comes from hundreds of posts of people throwing names at each other? There are enough posts criticizing the person involved for anybody to get the point; there are almost none in the other direction. Trust me that this would not have been the case had we let the conversation run. *That*, perhaps, indicates an editorial bias, but it is not the one you are accusing us of.
Look, as I posted in the thread, had we known the backstory of the person involved, there is a good chance we would not have run that article. We are a small operation, we lack a biographical research unit, we will not have a background file on any of the hundreds of developers we write about over the course of a year.
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
Maybe these AI models are onto something after all? https://fortune.com/2024/11/14/grok-musk-misinformation-spreader/
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
@kernellogger @torvalds I am almost certainly the person who wrote those words. Yes, they could be improved... but note that the text talks about failing to *respond* to the regression, not the revert. That was surely the intent there, and I think it remains true.
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
@kernellogger @jann It's not just "unusual" that a cycle takes longer than 70 days, it has only happened twice in the last 15 years: 3.1 (slowed by the kernel.org compromise) and 4.15 (the meltdown/spectre release). It takes an event of that magnitude to slow things down at this point.
I'm not sure if we can realistically make the cycle shorter - some problems just take time to turn up and to be fixed.
I'm not sure if we can realistically make the cycle shorter - some problems just take time to turn up and to be fixed.
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
For morbid reasons of my own I keep an eye on the Apache OpenOffice project's regular reports to the ASF board:
https://whimsy.apache.org/board/minutes/OpenOffice.html
As is normal, the September report says that all is great with the project - community health is always "improving". And they are clearly on top of upcoming problems: "Python 2 is unmaintained. We have in the development tree the external python3 support. Internal python 3 support is difficult. We are checking alternatives." They plan to fix it in "the next major release". The project hasn't made a major release in ten years, so I wouldn't hold my breath...
(OK, so I'm still clearly in a snarky mode, sorry.)
https://whimsy.apache.org/board/minutes/OpenOffice.html
As is normal, the September report says that all is great with the project - community health is always "improving". And they are clearly on top of upcoming problems: "Python 2 is unmaintained. We have in the development tree the external python3 support. Internal python 3 support is difficult. We are checking alternatives." They plan to fix it in "the next major release". The project hasn't made a major release in ten years, so I wouldn't hold my breath...
(OK, so I'm still clearly in a snarky mode, sorry.)
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
Perhaps I am the only one out there using the Python GnuCash bindings to load and manage accounting data, but just in case: the GnuCash 5.9 release has a bug that completely wipes out an accounting file when opened in a Python program. It's a good way to get an extreme adrenaline burst, but I really don't recommend it otherwise.
GnuCash fixed this upstream on October 26, but has not made a release with the fix, so my 5.9 Fedora version showed the bug in all its glory. I've submitted a bug there (https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2323303), hopefully they will include the fix soon. Meanwhile, I strongly recommend that anybody with GnuCash 5.9 installed be extra careful.
GnuCash fixed this upstream on October 26, but has not made a release with the fix, so my 5.9 Fedora version showed the bug in all its glory. I've submitted a bug there (https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2323303), hopefully they will include the fix soon. Meanwhile, I strongly recommend that anybody with GnuCash 5.9 installed be extra careful.
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
RIP Phil Lesh
https://www.npr.org/2024/10/25/1227749378/phil-lesh-grateful-dead-dies
He brought a lot of joy to a lot of people and will be deeply missed.
https://www.npr.org/2024/10/25/1227749378/phil-lesh-grateful-dead-dies
He brought a lot of joy to a lot of people and will be deeply missed.
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
Filled out my ballot over the weekend — a rather time-consuming task in Colorado, as we have a lot of things to vote.
Now I just have to endure a few more weeks while the rest of the country catches up. And hope I don't find myself living in a fascist nation...
Now I just have to endure a few more weeks while the rest of the country catches up. And hope I don't find myself living in a fascist nation...
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
So I am not quite sure what to make of this article. It is nice to see attention paid to documentation... but this is really about the man pages, and somehow the problem is Linus's fault...? The idea that we can solve it with some sort of editorial structure in the "post-Torvalds era" seems ... weird.
https://www.heise.de/en/news/Linux-No-money-for-documentation-9978257.html
https://www.heise.de/en/news/Linux-No-money-for-documentation-9978257.html
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
@djc Thanks for the heads-up. We were actually approached by the person placing those links there and asked for our thoughts; for the time being, we told them they could continue. The hope, of course, is that these links will help to bring in folks from the Rust community as subscribers — time will tell.
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
Nature's way of telling you you're hanging out in the wrong tree: https://coloradosun.com/2024/10/09/eagle-nest-lightning-strike-boulder-county/
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Jonathan Corbet
corbet
@kernellogger @LWN That guy in the red sweater sure knows how to stand out in a crowd :)
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