I still shutdown a Linux machine as if it's the Clinton administration, and I'm not sure I can stop:

$ sync
$ sync
$ shutdown -h now

#Linux #Greybeard

I remember when Alta Vista and Yahoo were first starting to index the web. People wanted to be on the web, but they were really worried when they found out that folks could for instance download their art.

Early in my career, in 1997, I built an application called Americash Mall ( https://web.archive.org/web/19970623193943/http://www.americashmall.com/director.htm ). Some of our first vendors were art dealers. They were mortified when they discovered you could right click and save an image. I spent so long writing JavaScript to prevent that. Then I realized you could just go pick it up from the caching. There was much wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth.

I wonder how much this is similar to the AI problem we're having now. Yes, it is different from search engine crawling. But it's really just kind of the next step. I'm not sure I like it, but I understand why it's headed that direction. Semantic web is something we've been looking at for a very long time. This is just forcing the issue with technology, rather than doing it manually with tags.

I don't know. I certainly don't think it's worth all the investment that's being poured into it. I have a hard time questioning that this isn't going to be what we're all dealing with in the future, whether we like it or not.

#ai #history #greybeard

The GreyBeard Life… you’ve been dragging ass all week at work. Checks the sleep CPAP app, mask is leaking and you’ve likely been getting crappy sleep. Changes mask, and feeling back to normal. #GreyBeard #graybeard #gettingolder

Tell people I’m old without telling them I’m old? Okay. My first Internet email address was uunet!geac!cabal!jody #BeforeTimes #Greybeard

new office is starting to come together

#sysadmin #linux #devops #greybeard #tech #selfemployed #office

As someone who joined #StoryGraph as a paying user back in September 2020, it's kinda fun to see all the "hey you guys should check out this alternative to Goodreads" toots over the last few months. #Greybeard

@aka_pugs Though the 11/780 was a few years later, I loved working as a developer on VAX/VMS. #greybeard

It begins.

#sysadmin #newoffice #linux #tech #officemove #greybeard

I pulled all 5 grey hairs from my beard this morning. I probably shouldn't have, but it felt like affirmative self care, and you need that kind of thing on a Monday.

#greybeard

#aiart #greybeard

@MsDropbear42 @LateNightLinux I meant metaphorically speaking of course :air_quote:

https://unixgreybeard.com/

#greybeard

@MartinGuay The more moving parts, the more likely there will be some difficult to figure out failure modes. #greybeard #sysadmin

My stock answer to all the oh-so-tired "how to exit vim(1)" schtick includes ref to https://nxdomain.no/~peter/ed_mastery_is_a_must_for_real_unix_person.html (alternatively https://bsdly.blogspot.com/2018/04/ed1-mastery-is-must-for-real-unix-person.html if you really don't mind being tracked) #vi #vim #howtoexitvim #ed #editors #standardeditor #unix #oldfart #greybeard

One thing puzzled me slightly over the last couple of days. Watching the auth logs I see login attempts with the following user IDs:

2024-11-30 SSH ALLIN1MAIL
2024-11-30 SSH PDP11
2024-11-30 SSH PDP8
2024-11-30 SSH TELEDEMO
2024-11-30 SSH DECMAIL
2024-11-30 SSH DECNET
2024-11-30 SSH SYSMAINT
2024-12-01 SSH SYSTEST_CLIG

which to this #oldfart #greybeard sounds very #DEC #VAX-like.

Anyone else seeing this? Or is somebody out there actually running an Internet-accessible VAX somewhere?

One of the true joys of being an IT #greybeard is getting to introduce people to the legends I grew up on – like, The Jargon File, and the Meaning of Hack. In particular, I got to tell someone about the Robin Hood/Friar Tuck #hack today.

http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/meaning-of-hack.html

Happy 30th Birthday, Netscape! I remember switching from NCSA Mosaic to Netscape. Inline JPEG support! #oldguy #greybeard #backinmyday
@mozilla
https://www.jwz.org/blog/2024/10/mosaic-netscape-0-9-was-released-30-years-ago-today/

I am so tired of having to deconstruct marketing language around technical products. In a lot of cases it turns me off from looking deeper into things.

#angryoldman #greybeard

@zkat not an "editor long gone" but...
In the Scite editor, new sets of search results get appended to to the same pane. I find this great when trying to understand code by hopping from function call site to definition to function call.
Can just scroll back to older searches and follow a different path...
#editors
#GreyBeard