Nostr notes by Nina Kalinina

> I wish I used 200% of my brain and brought it to Docomo ...

2026-03-24T01:01:04Z

In reply to nevent1q…2ach
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> I wish I used 200% of my brain and brought it to Docomo branch when I was in Japan to remove the simlock.

We got Softbank lock removed through pin-unlock codes bought online, it worked :o

Osaifu keitai T_T keitais are lovely....

When I first watched War Games (1983) I thought "wow, so ...

2026-03-20T21:41:55Z

When I first watched War Games (1983) I thought "wow, so weird, not only they had terrible password management, but their test 'AI' system was directly linked to the prod".

Ha-ha. :blobcat_thisisfine:

I just made a small batch, it's not half bad. Maybe a bit too ...

2026-03-20T15:07:12Z

In reply to nevent1q…gzzp
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I just made a small batch, it's not half bad. Maybe a bit too sweet.

now I want to try and make it with Pepsi...

2026-03-20T15:03:38Z

In reply to nevent1q…wasz
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now I want to try and make it with Pepsi...

I've made vegan okroshka for lunch and wrote down the recipe ...

2026-03-20T13:41:17Z

I've made vegan okroshka for lunch and wrote down the recipe (with the photos). Here it is: https://git.sr.ht/~nkali/cookbook/tree/main/cold/okroshka.md

As you can see, Okroshka soup is basically potato salad in sparkling - potentially mildly alcoholic -cream.

RE: https://social.treehouse.systems/@swags/116235865719541791 ...

2026-03-16T00:13:49Z

RE: https://social.treehouse.systems/@swags/116235865719541791

Today was the SuperTux 0.7.0 release (yay!), but some of us were alarmed by the "Claude contributed to this repo" message on GitHub (oh no!)

Well, I've learned a few things from the discussion about this topic.

A single PR "co-authored by Claude" has slipped through. The code was written by a human (according to the commit), then properly reviewed and eventually merged by a maintainer. The Claude contribution is attributed solely to the code comments added through a mid-PR-flow commit update.

And now the commit history will show Claude as a contributor. It might be impossible to rewrite it. Rewriting kind of goes against the idea of having the git history, too. Even if that was possible, it's an extra effort which not all maintainers can prioritise.

So: seeing "Claude was here" in a GitHub repo is a "red flag", but it shouldn't be "therefore guilty of slop and LLM proliferation by default"; please use your head/best judgement.

I guess it is a cautionary tale for the maintainers, too :tiredcat:

The hobby room at home has two crimes happening in parallel %) ...

2026-03-15T20:44:12Z

The hobby room at home has two crimes happening in parallel %)

While writing the alt text I realised that my partner is very organised (could it be she's neurodivergent???)

it seems to be, yeah! I'm sorry, I know almost nothing about ...

2026-03-15T01:22:09Z

In reply to nevent1q…rukx
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it seems to be, yeah! I'm sorry, I know almost nothing about computers made in this century

I guess not every pcie ssd is nvme, huh! It is Stout, according ...

2026-03-15T01:19:28Z

In reply to nevent1q…us40
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I guess not every pcie ssd is nvme, huh! It is Stout, according to dmesg. Both disks - the "clearly SATA" and the "pcb with the flash" - are detected as SATA by the system. I had no idea SATA had a slot version 🤯

this one boots from nvme, no idea what driver it uses, I can ...

2026-03-15T01:08:08Z

In reply to nevent1q…z0x9
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this one boots from nvme, no idea what driver it uses, I can check if you're interested

$ pwd /bin $ ls cat cat A cat is in the /bin, silly goober

2026-03-15T00:43:44Z

$ pwd
/bin
$ ls cat
cat

A cat is in the /bin, silly goober

OpenBSD adventures, day two. My MacBook with arm64 is running ...

2026-03-14T22:00:39Z

OpenBSD adventures, day two. My MacBook with arm64 is running fine under OpenBSD, but there is no video acceleration, so it can't play full-screen videos.

I started to think what I can do about it, and I realised that we had a few e-waste Chromebooks bought for $20 apiece. It's 1.5GHz Celeron, and it is as dodgy as laptops get: it is spray-painted, it is made of cheap plastic, and the keyboard and the touchpad are both kind of only look like real ThinkPad but there were so many corners cut making it that I can't type "root" without it missing a letter or two every other time. This is what kids apparently were using in schools ten years ago or so?

Some things are glacially slow, but Xfce4 is quite usable, and it can play YouTube in 720p. Everything the laptop has to offer seems to be working (even webcam).

It works incredible for an ultra-low-end device from 2013.

no, they allow it in the kernel too, now: ...

2026-03-13T19:49:26Z

In reply to nevent1q…d7hx
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no, they allow it in the kernel too, now: https://kernel.org/doc/html//next/process/coding-assistants.html

I mean, there's ubuntu-asahi flavour already, but Linux is ...

2026-03-13T19:45:45Z

In reply to nevent1q…rlrj
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I mean, there's ubuntu-asahi flavour already, but Linux is going to be dead to me soon :D

I'm tooting this from OpenBSD running XFCE on Apple Silicon. ...

2026-03-13T19:38:04Z

I'm tooting this from OpenBSD running XFCE on Apple Silicon. It was a bit of a learning curve, but it works better than my first Linux did. Display, keyboard, touchpad, Wi-Fi, even sound - they all work. Firefox is quite usable even without the video acceleration, but I'm not sure if I can daily-drive it if I'm not able to play videos on this machine.

hoomans love cats and will share their images with other hoomans ...

2026-03-08T12:52:19Z

In reply to nevent1q…n2cp
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hoomans love cats and will share their images with other hoomans while making silly comments about it. I bet this was the hobby even before cameras were invented

It is fascinating that people posted their cat photos for others ...

2026-03-08T12:49:28Z

In reply to nevent1q…xw26
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It is fascinating that people posted their cat photos for others to see even back in 1961, AND they didn't care about privacy at all and simply used their real home addresses when they did.

The world used to be a kinder place, it seems.

Happy valentine to your cat with a custom toy with a ...

2026-03-08T12:45:31Z

In reply to nevent1q…kea6
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Happy valentine to your cat with a custom toy with a furry-feeling mice dressed in custom-knitted coats (1961)

I'm not sure "TOM SCAT" is harmless, it surely ...

2026-03-08T12:43:42Z

In reply to nevent1q…k9vh
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I'm not sure "TOM SCAT" is harmless, it surely doesn't sound like it is...

I thought this magazine warrants a separate thread. ...

2026-03-08T12:42:27Z

I thought this magazine warrants a separate thread. "Cats", February 1961, lots of screenshots of the scan will follow. 🧵

I'm not sure if I should take advice from a 65-year-old ...

2026-03-08T12:11:34Z

In reply to nevent1q…nfr0
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I'm not sure if I should take advice from a 65-year-old magazine, but I feel like I might be inclined to, the messaging really resonates with me somehow.

A "Quickee" or a hand-held two-way radio? Why not both?! ...

2026-03-08T12:08:21Z

In reply to nevent1q…fh2z
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A "Quickee" or a hand-held two-way radio? Why not both?!

A toy house presumably large enough to fit two kids for $1? ...

2026-03-08T12:05:21Z

In reply to nevent1q…svh5
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A toy house presumably large enough to fit two kids for $1? What's the inflation-adjusted price.... $10? How did they make it work? There's no way in hell I could buy a mass-produced plastic thing like that for $10 today. What...

Oh, is it like, poles and cheap printed textile? I bet it was....

Or maybe it was $100? %) Not sure. It says it was $3.98 and now just $1...

I don't know what I like more: a DIY Shoji lamp or a Custom ...

2026-03-08T11:58:29Z

In reply to nevent1q…mrd3
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I don't know what I like more: a DIY Shoji lamp or a Custom TV Kit....

At least one mold sandwich is needed to build this ukulele. The ...

2026-03-08T11:55:14Z

In reply to nevent1q…pn9w
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At least one mold sandwich is needed to build this ukulele. The pattern is relatively simple.

Darn, I take my words about "fretboard is the most difficult ...

2026-03-08T11:51:48Z

In reply to nevent1q…pw6u
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Darn, I take my words about "fretboard is the most difficult part to make" back. They're making the ukulele body by steaming the wood and forming it in a mold.

Aha, they're using pre-made fretboard. I imagine making a ...

2026-03-08T11:48:17Z

In reply to nevent1q…3ht3
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Aha, they're using pre-made fretboard. I imagine making a decent fretboard is probably one of the biggest challenges in making an instrument like this?

Surprised that strings and pegs were considered "difficult to obtain"

We're back to the ukulele-making article! Now I know why ...

2026-03-08T11:46:07Z

In reply to nevent1q…ak7h
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We're back to the ukulele-making article! Now I know why I'd want to have a bandsaw in our local hackspace, huh.

After all, who wouldn't want a DIY transformer, right? ...

2026-03-08T11:43:32Z

In reply to nevent1q…uw7f
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After all, who wouldn't want a DIY transformer, right?

"Workbench" features a catalogue of patterns for sale, ...

2026-03-08T11:42:03Z

In reply to nevent1q…8uqy
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"Workbench" features a catalogue of patterns for sale, from "unusually cute designs" to "electroplating baby shoes" and a gun RACK (edit: it was a gun rack!). I wonder if baby shoes must be in a "never worn" condition for this to work.

I'm sick (again!), and so I'm reading old magazines as a ...

2026-03-08T11:37:05Z

I'm sick (again!), and so I'm reading old magazines as a comfy way to spend time. I have procured scans of 1961's magazines (that's 65 years ago!), and will share some interesting findings in this thread.

The Workbench magazine features a DIY ukulele on the cover, that sounds... incredible? I wonder if the instrument itself sounded good. We'll find out, I guess?

yep. I'm thinking of only doing minimum amount of work ...

2026-03-07T09:30:08Z

In reply to nevent1q…nyrf
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yep. I'm thinking of only doing minimum amount of work required to keep the majority of important websites working. It's a sad situation to be in, because W3C is largely controlled by big tech who push for features that will make them richer; whether it makes developers and users happier is not as important it seems :(

I kind of seriously doubt that :(

2026-03-06T09:29:13Z

In reply to nevent1q…7s5s
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I kind of seriously doubt that :(

correct, Rust relies on LLVM :<

2026-03-05T23:43:06Z

In reply to nevent1q…nj9h
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correct, Rust relies on LLVM :<

Please excuse me while I'm having a little existential ...

2026-03-05T23:10:28Z

Please excuse me while I'm having a little existential crisis, lol.

And if that wasn't bad enough, Mozilla has embraced AI (in its code, too), while Linux considers relaxing AI code policy and has some examples of patches co-authored by LLMs.

I am still yet to think hard about what I want to do about it. But the world I knew is no more.

Brain is meh; I just typed `cd -la` instead of `ls -la`. I think ...

2026-03-01T17:29:01Z

Brain is meh; I just typed `cd -la` instead of `ls -la`. I think I need to rest more :/

Cursor does, sometimes

2026-02-21T23:53:28Z

In reply to nevent1q…an27
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Cursor does, sometimes

I think it would be nice to have a way to filter out packages ...

2026-02-21T23:47:03Z

I think it would be nice to have a way to filter out packages available for installation on my OS by their use of generative AI.

E.g. I probably don't want a package if there are commits by copilot/claude/codex, or there's skills.md, or there's AGENTS.md/CLAUDE.md in the source (though some of it could be "dear bot, please go away", so idk about this one).

Obviously not a guarantee, but a signal of sorts. :tiredcat:

This post is "sponsored" by Bitwarden, Mozilla and tldr - and that's only today's crop for me. Lamentable, I know.

Weird business idea: get 5-10k USD a month to have 1.5 people ...

2026-02-21T17:42:57Z

Weird business idea: get 5-10k USD a month to have 1.5 people supporting a LTS fork of Mozilla addressing security and serious compatibility issues only :blobcat_thisisfine: I bet there are hundreds of people more suitable for that than I am. And I'm not even sure it's feasible, because for example Waterfox doesn't get that much in donations, AFAIK

Byte 1988-11 magazine offers new vocabulary for Discord-like ...

2026-02-21T12:35:05Z

Byte 1988-11 magazine offers new vocabulary for Discord-like services

Oh, Persona (used by Discord and OpenAI to verify age) has watch ...

2026-02-19T10:01:25Z

Oh, Persona (used by Discord and OpenAI to verify age) has watch lists and shares data with fed governments, it seems. I haven't finished reading yet: https://vmfunc.re/blog/persona/

Sorry you've experienced this :( I've seen the thread, it ...

2026-02-17T11:50:50Z

In reply to nevent1q…9laq
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Sorry you've experienced this :( I've seen the thread, it was really, really disappointing to see "hot take" responses aimed at hijacking the argument and ignoring the points you're making.

That being said, I feel like having downvotes will eventually result in dogpiling/brigading.

So, I think maybe there should be a way to block/mute polite assholes there, after all. I feel like the moderator team there is pretty receptive of feedback, so maybe it is worth creating a support ticket/issue to surface that there are multiple people agreeing with "this feature will improve our mental health and experience on the website"

Peter Bhat Harkins (npub1ewu…ktd2)

:blobfoxtableflip: that's not how gender works ...

2026-02-16T21:48:49Z

:blobfoxtableflip: that's not how gender works

It seems the time has come, huh. Is anyone looking for a senior ...

2026-02-16T17:02:47Z

It seems the time has come, huh. Is anyone looking for a senior SRE with deep Linux expertise and experience with infrastructure at massive scales (ex-Meta, ex-Apple)? UK, remote (happy to visit the office anywhere in the UK every month or so). I prefer working on the automation, CI/CD, load testing, or low level debugging. However, I will not work on anything related to generative AI.
#getfedihired

oh, but it absolutely does in regards to identity theft, online ...

2026-02-14T21:44:42Z

In reply to nevent1q…whdr
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oh, but it absolutely does in regards to identity theft, online bullying, doxxing, government surveillance...

well, it's less about this, and more about "there is no ...

2026-02-14T15:39:28Z

In reply to nevent1q…2ztc
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well, it's less about this, and more about "there is no internet unless you login with your account tied to your passport" which is pretty bad

normal public internet: ...

2026-02-14T15:32:08Z

In reply to nevent1q…2lcu
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normal public internet: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clearnet_(networking)

the answer, in case of the UK, lies in a 2000-page-long document. ...

2026-02-14T13:13:25Z

In reply to nevent1q…w0ns
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the answer, in case of the UK, lies in a 2000-page-long document. The topic is complicated, and I'm not qualified to talk about it in depth, unfortunately.

well, the answer is "maybe". Some countries, including ...

2026-02-14T13:04:19Z

In reply to nevent1q…seqh
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well, the answer is "maybe". Some countries, including UK, already require Mastodon servers to perform age checks for the visitors in some situations. It might be that some servers will be forced (by the governments) to either implement age verification or be shut down.

If you somehow still considered uploading your face/ID to ...

2026-02-14T10:34:24Z

If you somehow still considered uploading your face/ID to Discord, here's one more reason not to: Peter Thiel seems to be the lead investor in the service that implements the age check. And, oh, the service page says they will store our data on their side (at least for a little while).

https://www.pcgamer.com/software/platforms/oh-good-discords-age-verification-rollout-has-ties-to-palantir-co-founder-and-panopticon-architect-peter-thiel/

Did you know you can make programs without writing a single line ...

2026-02-14T00:04:41Z

Did you know you can make programs without writing a single line of code these days?

There are graphical programming languages, like Scratch. There are many examples of large-scale successful commercial projects made with such tools, just look at list of projects made with Gameboy Studio.

/ducks

Ikoku Nikki is awesome (judging by ep1) The Crunchyroll English ...

2026-02-13T23:50:25Z

Ikoku Nikki is awesome (judging by ep1)

The Crunchyroll English subtitles are pretty bad (judging by ep1). They probably were not (fully) machine-translated, but they miss so much nuance and poetry. In a show about a _writer_. :tiredcat:

Maybe I should go a galactic brain move and try to make my own subs for this show. Idk... It's not like I have good control of English _and_ Japanese to pull this off.

Til "library paste" and "photo paste". Paste. ...

2026-02-12T22:11:27Z

In reply to nevent1q…wrch
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Til "library paste" and "photo paste". Paste. Ctrl+V is paste... Oh...

Forbes, April 1930: stocks recover a little, and many analytics, ...

2026-02-12T22:09:13Z

In reply to nevent1q…myqq
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Forbes, April 1930: stocks recover a little, and many analytics, include Forbes himself, expect a happy second half of the year (but no, Great Depression has begun already)

Holy guacamole, I would never guessed it's a STAPLER ...

2026-02-12T21:50:44Z

In reply to nevent1q…8er5
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Holy guacamole, I would never guessed it's a STAPLER

Ayyyy, Forbes 1929, interview with Edison, saying solar is the ...

2026-02-12T21:30:51Z

In reply to nevent1q…maua
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Ayyyy, Forbes 1929, interview with Edison, saying solar is the future, and coal and oil suck:

"For one thing, Edison believes the time is coming when mankind will draw electrical energy on a large scale directly from the sun. Ever since the age of steam started the world to rolling at a heightened speed, so far as man is concerned, we have been drawing on the bank account of old sunlight. Coal is sun energy which was stored long ago in vegetation, petroleum is the same thing stored in low forms of animal life. But like all bank accounts they can be overdrawn."

Aaand we're back to Forbes June 1929, riiiight before the ...

2026-02-12T21:25:17Z

In reply to nevent1q…mv6w
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Aaand we're back to Forbes June 1929, riiiight before the Great Crash of 1929

Forbes, April 1930, the beginning of the Great Depression. The ...

2026-02-12T21:21:56Z

In reply to nevent1q…064r
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Forbes, April 1930, the beginning of the Great Depression. The topic of the issue is "Are U. S. Business Leaders Morons?" with the editorial written by Forbes himself.

Forbes says:
----
ARE our business leaders morons? A Are they incapable of meeting evils begotten by their own activities ?

Must they be regarded as irresponsible citizens, concerned only with money-making?

Have those playing a foremost part in revolutionizing modern industry no qualms about making such a confession as this:

“Business is business. The objective of industry is to make money. We are determined to make money. We concentrate solely on that aim. If we are satisfied that a billion-dollar merger will mean greater profits, we go ahead and engineer it."

...

The disturbing truth is that our economic revolution had released an abnormal number of workers even during our period of greatest prosperity.

Giving authority to a fool is like giving dynamite to a boy.

Betraying confidences doesn’t inspire confidence.

Forbes, June 1929. B.C. Forbes himself writes that "most ...

2026-02-12T21:14:29Z

In reply to nevent1q…maj7
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Forbes, June 1929. B.C. Forbes himself writes that "most business developments are favorable", but notices that "Wall Street continues to excite apprehension" and "recent events have proved that the warnings sounded here were not wholly unwarranted". The advice is cautious, but it completely fails to predict the Great Crash of October 1929.

The stock recovered by April 1930, only to start its decline that lasted many years. I wonder what Forbes advised in 1930...

Forbes 1926: No investor ever lost a dollar in Miller bonds. ...

2026-02-12T21:01:19Z

In reply to nevent1q…6a3s
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Forbes 1926: No investor ever lost a dollar in Miller bonds. "We reaffirm this opinion now. A bond which needs a guarantee to make it safe should not be offered."

New York Times 1929: BANKRUPT COMPANY TO PAY 100% ON DEBTS; G.L. Miller Bond and Mortgage Corp., Liquidated, Yields for Stockholders a Dividend of 62%.

Huh, it seems _this_ time investors didn't lose any dollars.

Mere months from a financial collapse caused by Florida land boom ...

2026-02-12T20:52:55Z

In reply to nevent1q…yxmf
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Mere months from a financial collapse caused by Florida land boom bursting

"No Violent Collapse Likely", said Forbes about the ...

2026-02-12T20:49:47Z

In reply to nevent1q…vsfg
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"No Violent Collapse Likely", said Forbes about the Florida land boom in February 1926. A single hurricane killed the boom in September, and a severe financial crisis has followed, including many unsecured bond defaults, and banks collapsing.

A 100 years ago, Forbes give an advice how to to avoid ...

2026-02-12T20:34:50Z

In reply to nevent1q…9ta2
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A 100 years ago, Forbes give an advice how to to avoid "Dollar Charmers", exposing how "the Smooth Gentry" work. Surprising that most fraud methods mentioned are still in use "as is" or with little changes, huh.

Being exhausted after a work day => reading vintage magazines ...

2026-02-12T20:27:06Z

Being exhausted after a work day => reading vintage magazines and posting funny things from them

but the blog post announcing the CCC quite literally says that ...

2026-02-12T12:53:27Z

In reply to nevent1q…6y7r
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but the blog post announcing the CCC quite literally says that the agents made the code base unmaintainable and cannot fix any more bugs without introducing new ones. So, that's a fail too.

And then looking at it from a practical perspective: if I want a C compiler, I can get one for free, and I have multiple options: clang, gcc, pcc, tcc, chibicc, and probably many more. If for some reason I want to add the support for a new platform in them, I can, too. It's been done too many times to count. Why would I want to spend merely 20 grand on building a thing that is, by all sensible benchmarks, at best is a toy?

I have an answer, and I don't like it. If I wanted to undermine labour, if I wanted to destroy FOSS, if I wanted to steal human work and resell it, that would've been exactly what I'd do. And I'm yet to be proven otherwise that there are other real motivations behind such projects.

2/2

like, I'll bait; great stuff, unsupervised agent produced ...

2026-02-12T12:47:45Z

In reply to nevent1q…dpsj
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like, I'll bait; great stuff, unsupervised agent produced something that can compile some C code that in a certain definition can be called "working", but absolutely not ready for any sort of production usage.
The agent has multiple reference implementations, extensive testing suite, and C is literally based on an extremely well defined standard. AI proponents claim that we're in an era where all we need is to provide a specification, and the agents will just implement the thing for us. This CCC thing is proof that they quite literally can't; it's difficult to think about a commercial software project that would have a specification better defined than the C standard. And a vanilla C compiler isn't all _that_ complicated, it's literally the kind of thing many undergrad SWE students build as a student project (yes yes lots of caveats and simplifications). You'd think Anthropic could improve on their CCC with the agents until they get the compiler working at least as well as the tcc would, but 1/2

makes two of us. The CCC isn't the flex AI proponents think ...

2026-02-12T12:40:07Z

In reply to nevent1q…h4q6
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makes two of us. The CCC isn't the flex AI proponents think it is, but there aren't enough people who can understand that it should have been a cautionary tale rather than a sensational headline. :(

We have reached a new era of civil engineering; now we can build ...

2026-02-08T15:14:51Z

We have reached a new era of civil engineering; now we can build bridges by simply dumping truckloads of shit into the river until the shit mountains are tall enough that some people and maybe cars can cross the river. Truly, it is a revolutionary technology that democraticizes access to bridges; now everyone can dump a truckload of shit over small rivers here and there and cross the rivers instead of asking an engineer to build the bridge for them. This approach completely removes all the bottlenecks in engineering, too: no need to navigate difficult legal frameworks or ethical concerns. The biggest players on the market are staring to replace their bridges with shit mountains, you'd better be catching up and learning how to use this new groundbreaking technology. Some of you have ethical concerns, but this is beyond of the scope of my post. I also recognise that some might notice fish in the rivers dying, or simply slip on the shit; just you wait, I bet it'll be fixed in ~6 months

I love fedi because every now and then some of the posts on my ...

2026-02-08T12:36:49Z

I love fedi because every now and then some of the posts on my feed are "hey look yet another seed has germinated!" or "ah what a nice cup of coffee I've had this morning". So I think I should post less about "hey this is really big!" and more about "this little thing makes me a tiny bit happier"

While I was playing with old Linux, Akko has fixed VGA output on ...

2026-02-07T22:16:47Z

While I was playing with old Linux, Akko has fixed VGA output on the Mac Perfoma 4000

most likely, yes. I've been pushing for FOSS at my school, ...

2026-02-07T21:49:08Z

In reply to nevent1q…2syh
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most likely, yes. I've been pushing for FOSS at my school, too, and so for some time it was running Edubuntu. Which was nice. Ah, the amount of influence a 14-year-old could sometimes have!

I did not expect a Linux system from 2001 to be that... ...

2026-02-07T21:35:01Z

In reply to nevent1q…3m4l
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I did not expect a Linux system from 2001 to be that... feature-rich. Bugs aside, it is pretty impressive. Not only Knoppix 2.0's KDE 2 is quite usable, it ships - again - with both KOffice and Open Office, and both Konqueror and Mozilla. There is XMMS, there is GNU IMP, there is even Acrobat Reader 4.0. There's even Python and Java.

Go on, give this ancient (25 years old!) Linux distro a go: https://archive.org/details/LinuxTag - the file you're looking for is linuxtag2001.iso

If you're using Qemu, make sure to set RAM to 256 megs or less, use cirrus VGA, and go through the "expert" mode to configure your keyboard and X11. On 86Box, I recommend emulating Pentium 2 and Cirrus 5446.

====

Phew, what a thread it was! I hope you liked it :) And if you liked it, please share the love.

I think my biggest motivation for this thread was:

- Hey, look, 25 year ago Linux was already pretty great and usable. Imagine what it can do now! The sky is the limit. -

P.S. If you find Knoppix 1.4, please let me know~

It is said that Knoppix 2.0 can boot on a i486 machine with 8 ...

2026-02-07T21:21:13Z

In reply to nevent1q…j5pr
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It is said that Knoppix 2.0 can boot on a i486 machine with 8 megs of RAM in the text mode, and for KDE it needs a Pentium-class machine with 80 megs of RAM.

What the documentation forgets to mention is that when you have 512 megs of RAM, your system will fail to boot fully with a cryptic KDE-related error (yes, even in Qemu). I found that the system boots with 256 megs of RAM by pure luck.

If you think that's all it takes to boot Knoppix 2, well, remember that X11 was still a piece of work back in 2001. So, uh, at first I only got two working video modes: super-tiny 320x200 and forking squished 800x32~ pixels mode.

Eventually I managed to get a working 86Box configuration, of course.

( screenshots 🧵 cont)

Okay, sorry, it took me a while to prepare the screenshots of ...

2026-02-07T21:11:18Z

In reply to nevent1q…d7ag
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Okay, sorry, it took me a while to prepare the screenshots of Knoppix 2.0 for you.

Knoppix, a Debian-based Live CD Linux distribution by Klaus Knopper that became highly influential due to being Live CD, was originally presented in 2000 during the ALS 2000 conference (https://www.usenix.org/legacy/publications/library/proceedings/als00/2000papers/papers/index.html)

The earliest version of Knoppix that _used to be available_ online was 1.4 ALS Beta. But it doesn't look like anyone has it (except for maybe Mr Knopper). As I mentioned in a previous toot, the earliest generally available version now is 3.2.

Except... Knoppix 2.0 (internally labelled as 1.99) was distributed among the visitors of the LinuxTag 2001 conference (July 2001).

And, luckily, it was preserved by someone on the Internet Archive.

It is NOT easy to run it, but I figured out how to ;)

( screenshots 🧵 cont)

I'm showing you images of Knoppix 3.2 because it is, ...

2026-02-07T20:33:43Z

In reply to nevent1q…6ysa
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I'm showing you images of Knoppix 3.2 because it is, generally, the oldest Knoppix you can find online. Most popular mirrors don't even have 3.2, and start with 3.4 (or even 7.0). But I have even an older version to share with you (patience, please).

Knoppix 3.2 Wine refuses to start out of the box because of some issue with the fonts, but it shows that Wine can emulate Windows 3.1 window style, and it has an adorable penguin opening a wine bottle.

Knoppix 3.2 doesn't have Firefox yet; instead, it has Mozilla. To my surprise, it loaded Knoppix home page just fine. It also can handle my home page just as easily. Reminder: we're running on Pentium 3 450 from a CD, folks.

( screenshots 🧵 cont)

Knoppix 3.2 from 2003 works great on this Pentium 3. But only ...

2026-02-07T20:27:01Z

In reply to nevent1q…lzqd
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Knoppix 3.2 from 2003 works great on this Pentium 3. But only when I can boot it; by default it tries to set the resolution to 1280x1024, and my CRT just cannot handle it. Going through the "expert mode" to select the resolution on each boot is such a pain.

This Knoppix comes with KDE, XFCE, and WindowMaker, but it boots into KDE 3 by default. It is quite an experience. The UI is a bit toy-like, but it is a fairly consistent experience.

The help page, among other things, has a "making of" article for the wallpaper.

( screenshots 🧵 cont)

So, in this thread I just must say a few words about Knoppix. ...

2026-02-07T20:19:59Z

In reply to nevent1q…yk66
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So, in this thread I just must say a few words about Knoppix. Back in the days, Knoppix was a ground-breaking Linux Live CD that spawned many other Linux Live CDs. It ended up being so influential that it is almost an expectation today for a Linux distribution to have a Live CD/DVD.

Of course, nothing ever stopped people from building a Linux system capable of using a CD disk as its root file system. In fact, one of the early Linux systems, Yggdrasil, did exactly that for the installer CD. So, how Knoppix was different from Yggdrasil or DemoLinux?

The secret sauce was in a special kernel module implementing CD-ROM friendly compressed block device. Without it, the Live CD experience was subpar, and the amount of software that was shipped on the LiveCD was minuscule. Compare 1999's DemoLinux 1.1 shipping Mandrake 6 with basically just Netscape and Gimp, and Knoppix 3.2 that comes with hundreds of tools, _two_ full office suites, and even WINE - all on one CD.

( screenshots 🧵 cont)

Morphix 0.4 doesn't even try to pretend it isn't Debian. ...

2026-02-07T20:09:04Z

In reply to nevent1q…3ltc
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Morphix 0.4 doesn't even try to pretend it isn't Debian. Debian's start page still works; XChat happily loads and connects us to FreeNode. Imagine this: you boot your 20+ year old computer, and it just connects to the Internet as normal, and the chat apps work as normal, and... uh... it just works.

Except for Google, Google doesn't work anymore, they broke the support for "old" browsers. Lame. Boooooo!

( screenshots 🧵 cont)

Well, let's check out the experience of the original Morphix ...

2026-02-07T20:03:15Z

In reply to nevent1q…9vsu
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Well, let's check out the experience of the original Morphix and compare it with Ubuntu, then?

I choose Morphix 0.4 instead of Morphix 0.5 so it'd be a bit more fun to see what we could have had, if Ubuntu became a thing a bit earlier, or relied on Morphix a bit more...

This version is a few months older than Ubuntu 4.10, so it has an older Gnome.

Looking at this splash screen, I wonder if THIS was the reason normies got Ubuntu instead of Morphix...

( screenshots 🧵 cont)

I guess one really cool thing about Ubuntu is that it comes with ...

2026-02-07T19:55:27Z

In reply to nevent1q…syrt
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I guess one really cool thing about Ubuntu is that it comes with Windows goodies on the CD: AbiWord, Audacity, Firefox (!!), GNU IMP, OpenOffice, GhostScript...

But because of this, it doesn't have nearly as many goodies _in the system_ itself.

( screenshots 🧵 cont)

I've been using Ubuntu since version 6.06, and I had the ...

2026-02-07T19:50:19Z

In reply to nevent1q…jsj0
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I've been using Ubuntu since version 6.06, and I had the impression that Ubuntu is fairly stable and versatile. I have been very surprised to discover today that Ubuntu 4.10 did not compare to other LiveCD Linuxes all that favourably.

Morphix 0.5 booted on my Pentium 3 machine just fine, and found the internets, and had OpenOffice working (a bit later on that). But Ubuntu required me to run DHCP client manually, and its OpenOffice never fully loaded, even after I played a long match in Solitaire.

( screenshots 🧵 cont)

So, if you boot Ubuntu 4.10 and will check out its CD, you will ...

2026-02-07T19:43:58Z

In reply to nevent1q…fq4z
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So, if you boot Ubuntu 4.10 and will check out its CD, you will find an interesting file /MorphixCD/morphix/mod.xml. The file is used to build the Morphix OS Live CD - actually Morphix 0.5 - but it uses archive.ubuntu instead of ftp.debian for its main repository. It also uses files from LaMont Jones'es personal repository :)

And then dpkg lists a few packages from Morphix were specifically modified for Ubuntu.

I don't think anyone ever tried to hide this. After all, all this information is pretty much in the open, from dmesg to the filesystem on the LiveCD. But it is interesting to see that it isn't mentioned anywhere, either. Not even by the Morphix's author.

So, here we go: Ubuntu 4.10 LiveCD is a Knoppix+debian derivative.

As far as I can tell, things have changed a lot in 5.04, so maybe this applies only to Ubuntu 4.10.

( screenshots 🧵 cont)

I made the discovery of Ubuntu 4.10 being based on Morphix by ...

2026-02-07T19:33:33Z

In reply to nevent1q…a3rf
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I made the discovery of Ubuntu 4.10 being based on Morphix by pure chance. The LiveCD didn't want to boot on my Pentium 3, so I restarted the system in the "expert mode". There I saw words "Morphix live CD". I would've completely ignored that if I didn't _just_ read that Morphix was one of the Knoppix forks from early 00s.

It is a bit difficult to see, but if you check the photo of the CRT, you'd see that there are words "morphix rc" and "warty" on the same screen.

Frankly, I was so surprised that I even thought, for a moment, that this Ubuntu 4.10 Live CD is a fake, a Morphix Live CD with Ubuntu skins and splash screen. But no, it is real Ubuntu Live CD, and you can download it too, right from the Ubuntu's website.

This is pretty damning, but I have even more damning evidence of Ubuntu 4.10 Live being based off Morphix.

( 🧵 cont)

I guess I'll start with the conclusion: Ubuntu Live CD, at ...

2026-02-07T19:26:40Z

In reply to nevent1q…mp64
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I guess I'll start with the conclusion: Ubuntu Live CD, at least 4.10, is a Knoppix derivative.

"No, that can't be right, Ubuntu is based on Debian!"

And so is Knoppix. And so is Knoppix fork called Morphix that was used as a LiveCD builder for Ubuntu 4.10. I have irrefutable evidence of this, and I am surprised that no one on the Internet seemingly never mentioned that before.

That is not to say that Ubuntu is not based on Debian - it is. I am not trying to say that it does not come with its own packages and kernel, either. But it is _also_ based on Morphix, at least in LiveCD 4.10.

First, I'll share a few screenshots hinting at the similarities. Then I'll show you the solid proof I'm talking about. And then I'll just share a bunch of screenshots of old Linuxes just for fun!

GRUB and splash screens are not a smoking gun, but consider how similar Ubuntu 4.10 Live and Morphix 0.5 boot experiences are (both circa October 2004).

( 🧵 cont)

Oh, serendipity! A few things line up together, creating ...

2026-02-07T19:07:12Z

Oh, serendipity! A few things line up together, creating opportunities for rare discoveries. This time it's a thing that probably will require someone to go and edit the Wikipedia page for Ubuntu...

How did we end up here? Well, first, I've been meaning to play with an old Ubuntu for a long time. Second, Atsuko unpacked out our Pentium III desktop last week. Third, Atsuko left me alone for half a day, and the only thing I could bring myself to do was trying out different Linuxes on this Pentium III machine.

Buckle up, I'm about to share many screenshots of old Live CDs, and some of them might surprise you (a little bit?).

Thread 🧵

DemoLinux 1.1 for Mandrake 6 (1999) comes with GNOME 1 and some ...

2026-02-07T17:33:27Z

DemoLinux 1.1 for Mandrake 6 (1999) comes with GNOME 1 and some serious vibes

This is the weirdest screen mode I've had so far with ...

2026-02-07T13:43:40Z

This is the weirdest screen mode I've had so far with automated modeline detection on vintage Linuxes. I'm glad it's Qemu and not an exploded CRT. Here's the same image but squeezed 48 times (!!) vertically (it looks like it's 800x32 pixels or something like that, lol)

Our 286 computer is so cool 😭 it might not be peak computing, ...

2026-02-04T21:21:28Z

Our 286 computer is so cool 😭 it might not be peak computing, but it's very close to it

Wow that's a nice pop up you have here in the keyboard ...

2026-02-04T10:56:57Z

Wow that's a nice pop up you have here in the keyboard applet, would be such a waste not to use it for advertisment. /s

But seriously, whomever decided to add a pop-up modal window in the keyboard should get some sort of UI prize.

I'm yet again reminded that accessibility technologies are ...

2026-02-02T01:00:51Z

I'm yet again reminded that accessibility technologies are priced unfairly. Did you know that a pair of hearing aids starts at roughly £500 but an average model can easily cost over £1500? And it's not like it's rocket science.
Similarly, Braille displays start at £1500, but can easily cost over £5000.
Similarly, the most popular and one of the most affordable Braille printers costs almost £3000.

Something can be said about special design requirements for such devices, or about the fact that there is no demand to make them at the scale that would allow to cut the costs ten times. And I can't even say that a high price is an excuse; if you'd try to build a Braille embosser that can operate at practical speeds with decent reliability using off the shelf components, you are likely to spend more money on it than you'd spend getting a commercial solution, even without R&D costs.

So, uh, folks, we can do better. I can't be the only one who keeps thinking about making such technologies cheaper, right?

What could be better than a calculator app? Well, of course, two ...

2026-02-01T17:47:32Z

In reply to nevent1q…dh0v
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What could be better than a calculator app? Well, of course, two calculator apps! Yes, Caleid has two built-in calculators: one is stand-alone and one is a pop-up calculator. Handy, eh?!

(cont)

Some more built-in apps in the Caleid OS: "easy sheet" is ...

2026-02-01T17:39:43Z

In reply to nevent1q…9d2j
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Some more built-in apps in the Caleid OS: "easy sheet" is a spreadsheet program with built-in templates (mortgage, currency converter, GOLF SCORE wtf) and the networking app (computer, electronic mail, FAX).

(cont)

CALEDATA.30 stores a different part of the Casio Caleid OS - the ...

2026-02-01T17:34:53Z

In reply to nevent1q…f4nj
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CALEDATA.30 stores a different part of the Casio Caleid OS - the applications. It also features the very same images we've seen in our BN-20 BIOS. I'm uploading them here upscaled and colour-corrected.

The "notes" application has lots of different categories of notes: cars, cards, CDs, books, films, and so on.

(cont)

What is the most optimal way to make a monthly calendar program? ...

2026-02-01T17:21:12Z

In reply to nevent1q…ymhl
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What is the most optimal way to make a monthly calendar program? Why, of course pre-render the calendar and store it is a bitmap in the ROM.

How ELSE are you going to use all this massive 2 megabyte ROM?

This operating system is something else.

(cont)

The contrast correction UI is something we've seen already, ...

2026-02-01T17:18:00Z

In reply to nevent1q…u4qm
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The contrast correction UI is something we've seen already, in both Casio BN and Casio PV, but this list of on-screen keyboards (including handwriting recognition keyboard) is something I personally have not seen before in this product series.

(cont)

I assumed that Caleid SDK didn't ship the full OS - because ...

2026-02-01T17:13:25Z

In reply to nevent1q…565x
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I assumed that Caleid SDK didn't ship the full OS - because the SIM3020 immediately boots into the Add-In program - but it seems I am wrong. CALEDATA.20 file has the launcher, coming with the full-sized bitmaps. So pretty T_T

There are place-holders for the pop-up windows, too. What a curious little operating system.

(cont)

The sysbin/data folder has multiple files CALEDATA.xx. Files ...

2026-02-01T17:06:43Z

In reply to nevent1q…gwg7
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The sysbin/data folder has multiple files CALEDATA.xx. Files 01-18 are font files. There are 8-pixel wide extended ASCII fonts (including symbols for musical notations - Casio is a musical instrument company!), 8 pixel-wide kanji, 1 pixel-wide kanji and 24 pixel-wide kanji. Some of the fonts are very pretty.

(cont)

Caleid.01 and .02 system files do not seem to feature anything ...

2026-02-01T16:55:41Z

In reply to nevent1q…2nl5
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Caleid.01 and .02 system files do not seem to feature anything interesting bitmap-wise at all, which is a major difference from how things are done on Casio BN-20 (that one was full of bitmaps). The Caleid SDK doesn't seem to ship with Caleid built-in software, either; there's no memo or spreadsheet in the OS files.

However, Caleid.03 and Caleid.04 system files hint that there is something called "LCD BIOS" and then there is a tool that asks the user to draw a kanji! Could it be that there's hand-written recognition tooling? In <256 KB of code? 🤔

I'm also extremely curious whether Caleid had a kanji font bank. I guess I might find out soon enough.

(cont)

CALEID.00 is the main entry point for the Caleid OS. Despite ...

2026-02-01T16:40:16Z

In reply to nevent1q…v3pv
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CALEID.00 is the main entry point for the Caleid OS. Despite being merely 14 KB in size, it stores a ginormous bitmap with the icon placeholders (taking 7 kB out of those 14).

Casio PVOS SDK ships with the OS in a single file, called BIOS. ...

2026-02-01T16:35:53Z

In reply to nevent1q…w9ec
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Casio PVOS SDK ships with the OS in a single file, called BIOS. Caleid SDK comes chunked into multiple segments, each under 64KB (totally normal thing for an x86 embedded device, I suppose).

CPU.00/01 have the initial BIOS/bootloader; I haven't diff'ed it with the code from NC3022, but I suppose it is going to be somewhat different. There's very little code in it, though.

Then there's LIBINT; probably library for internalisation. Could it be a file that is different between Japanese and Western models? It has huge tasty bitmaps of numbers and days of week.

(cont)