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Software I’m thankful for (2021)

crawshaw.io

311–320 of 530 posts

Re: Software I’m thankful for (2021)

#311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess I really should just set one up shouldn't I...

I highly recommend it to anyone considering it. But, pro-tip, use a machine that has an ssd (or other real) drive. Having your network DNS go down because of a bad or corrupted sd card will drive you bonkers. Sincerely, Bonkers

That's not the only thing that can go wrong. It takes a properly babysat server in general. My end result with Pihole was, my wife occasionally asked why her internet wasn't working (for whatever reason of the day), and eventually I took it out.

Re: Software I’m thankful for (2021)

#312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a lifelong windows dev, what exactly makes linux worth moving to? I understand that coming from a linux world, doing what you like doing in linux isn't always possible on windows. But I've never really found a use for any of that console magic linux devs seem to love. Pipe this into that and through seven pieces of software that sound like glibgcd, add 8 arcane flags and in the end you have some kind of textfile t…

I'm not sure what a handmade program on windows looks like, so I could be wrong here, but writing shell scripts to do work takes a matter of minutes and creates composable, reliable stuff that vastly reduces the time to do other work. This means that as time goes on, more of my workflow becomes scripted and I very, very rarely work on the same problem twice. Then there's the filesystem. It just works. Permissions are…

I'd also add the "Googlability" factor to this. If you want to check how to do anything in bash, you will have your answer within seconds. Not so with PowerShell. It's a much newer system that doesn't have decades of history.

Re: Software I’m thankful for (2021)

#313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have advice how to replace the default Internet provider router? I have Xfinity's now and it terminates the coax, does switching, wifi, and does various firewall functions. I assume you have to buy a XXXX, disable everything on the Xfinity box and turn it into a passthrough switch. What is a good XXXX here?

You don't, really. You can (usually) change the DNS resolver your provided router uses to an internal IP, then statically assign that IP to your pi-hole. It's about 5 minutes in a GUI web panel, give or take the googling to find and navigate that GUI for your specific ISP-provided router. That said a better router is usually worth it, I like my Netgear Nighthawk because I'm a bit lazy, someone else probably has a bet…

You also have to ensure the Xfinity box's DHCP server doesn't lease the Pihole's IP address to a random device. Like set a 1-250 range for DHCP and give the Pi 251.

Re: Software I’m thankful for (2021)

#314
I really appreciate the Docker registry software.

It's wonderfully simple, yet really flexible. You can make a registry of registries, back it by object storage, and a whole bunch of other things.

I've had to manage these at work and I love the relatively simple yet useful reach of support.

There have been some strange bugs. Up until ~2.8.1 it was ignoring TLS cipher settings.

I believe still... getting consistent HSTS headers for it [in scanning] requires a real webserver.

Non-200-OK requests lack the header, leading to what I'd call false positives

If I can gush for a moment: the whole Linux/OSS ecosystem, really. So many giants depend on the work of not that many really clever groups

Re: Software I’m thankful for (2021)

#315
post #299
post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Windows is a very good operating system. Windows haters don't hate for technical reasons, but for religious or political reasons. And I like Microsoft. Microsoft makes some products, that's it. Not experiences, or promises of freedom. They are software products, with problems, qualities, end.

My previous laptop (until yesterday!) was a Thinkpad T460s. Not exactly an exotic model. It came with Windows, which I tried to use (with WSL) for more than two years before giving up. The fan turned on at random times in a way that was completely unrelated to what I was doing. WSL GUI apps (via VcXsrv) terminated on suspend, because the network stack is broken in Windows. At some point it started refusing to see wif…

Of course, there are technical reasons not to use Windows. But it's not the norm.

> Your comment assumes that political reasons are somehow less important than technical ones. This is not true.

If politics is important to you, good for you, but I don't discuss politics.

Re: Software I’m thankful for (2021)

#316

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> Linux is absolute freedom, but that comes with the cost of having to do much more than install, plug and play. You need to be a computer geek, or you need someone else to fix things for you. Hard disagree. Linux works extremely well for the person that only does basic computing. My mother, for instance, used Linux for years. Folks that need to do things like recompile a kernel in 2022 are way in the tail end of the…

My own experience with Linux is that it breaks from the most mundane of things, such that I wouldn't even dare suggest Linux to the average person because the tech support baggage that will ensue would be far more expensive to me than if they just used Windows.

Switch to Debian. They don't casually break things.

Re: Software I’m thankful for (2021)

#317
post #298

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Could you please stop posting unsubstantive comments to Hacker News? You've been doing it repeatedly, unfortunately, and we're trying for a different sort of forum here. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Quoted post unavailable.

Please stop. We want interesting new discussions, not boring old flamewars.

Re: Software I’m thankful for (2021)

#318

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pi-hole has been an absolutely life-saver to our household. It's typically blocking ~50% of traffic. Using someone else's device and off my network is entirely scary.

I guess I really should just set one up shouldn't I...

Haha yea, everytime i read about pihole i have these thoughts, but then i think to myself: “ah, one more thing i will have to admin…”.

But anyway, i still have a spare rasbpi lying around somewhere…

Re: Software I’m thankful for (2021)

#319

nobody said nodejs yet?

Not sure if anyone else has said it, but I sure will. I am the lone developer of my website, and it has been so wonderful to be able to remain in JavaScript for both front and back end development. Node also makes a fine scripting language, and the repl is where I normally go by default to practice/drill JS concepts so I won’t forget them. I’m incredibly grateful for NodeJS!

Re: Software I’m thankful for (2021)

#320
post #3

This reminds me of Steve Jobs' email to himself. In 2010 he wrote: I grow little of the food I eat, and of the little I do grow I did not breed or perfect the seeds. I do not make any of my own clothing. I speak a language I did not invent or refine. I did not discover the mathematics I use. I am protected by freedoms and laws I did not conceive of or legislate, and do not enforce or adjudicate. I am moved by music I…

Not "to himself", it was for a speech.

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