Jens Finkhäuser

https://social.finkhaeuser.de/@jens

Touching computers for fun, since the profit part is getting ruined. Organically grown, LLM-free, hand-crafted opinions only. Mojo Jojo is my spirit animal. 337.40 ppm.

Into gardening MOSS [Mutual(ly supportive) Open Source Software].

:antifa: 🌻

Also: Interpeer Project (npub18zf…kd8r)

Languages: 🇩🇪 🇬🇧 🇮🇹 🇷🇴
Pronouns: your choice
IPA: jɛns ˈfɪŋkˌhɔʏzɐ

Apologies in advance, but I don't automatically follow back.

Web/Blog: https://finkhaeuser.de/2026-06-11-loss-and-moss/
Interpeer Project: Interpeer Project (npub18zf…kd8r)
BookWyrm: Jens Finkhäuser (npub15jp…l6tp)
License (no, your LLM isn't "sharing alike"): https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Public Key

npub1pyztfywn6ymx2qelqp7gtxc5qln0xm82n647exh8d27ntsw4dtcqgeew64

NIP-05 Address

jens_at_social.finkhaeuser.de@momostr.pink

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsqjp95j8fazdn9qvlsqly9nv2q0ehndn4fa2lvntnk40f4c82k4uqpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0ds09ukqy

Publishing to

relay.damus.io

nos.lol

Author Public Key

npub1pyztfywn6ymx2qelqp7gtxc5qln0xm82n647exh8d27ntsw4dtcqgeew64

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Published at

2026-07-02T01:46:38Z

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Event JSON

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Last Notes

2026-04-24 05:40:36 UTC

I absolutely love BookWyrm. I absolutely despair of it. I am caught in the dilemma of knowing how to "fix" it and not knowing how I can practically do so.
There exist open standards for book metadata. Some of them have great reach. BookWyrm does not use them.
There exist open standards for publishing library or collection content. They could be combined with the above book metadata standards. BookWyrm does not use them.
What we have instead is a system which implements a subset of these in...

2026-03-28 19:20:30 UTC

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...in public, well no, apparently.
Apparently I'm anthropomorphizing animals, which is a science no-no. I am assigning human-like qualities to them, based on the undeniable observation that they act similar to humans when placed into similar situations.
That's not how it's done! *tuts in science*
Clearly it is significantly more ethical to discard the evidence in front of us, so we can continue to abuse other creatures at will.
This is done ...

2026-03-28 19:17:46 UTC

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I'm reminded of this *intensely* unethical science paper I read some twenty years or so where scientists electrocuted fish.
Why? To find out whether fish felt pain.
Their conclusion? They exhibit some behaviour patterns that suggest they could, but more research (i.e. electrocution) is required. You can't be sure, after all.
If this seems particularly disturbing, as if it's just some psychopaths using science as an excuse to live out their sicko fantasies ...

2026-03-21 10:42:09 UTC

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... part is just what follows the block, and so is just as intuitive as if I/O was blocking.
My TL;DR is at any rate that there are a lot improvements to language UX that we need to experiment more with.

2026-03-21 10:39:06 UTC

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Some years ago, a friend of mine made a JavaScript based version of a language that had Orc's parallelization operations included. Your example reminds me of that a little.
Of course, the focus was different, but the UX nonetheless was better.
Imagine a block in which things get done in parallel, until the first one finishes. The others get cancelled. E.g.
firstOf {
Get(first_url);
Get(second_url);
Get(third_url);
}
The "then"...

2026-02-14 08:40:01 UTC

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Nicotine makes it worse, sure, but you can still see fluff without it.

2026-02-11 22:42:29 UTC

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this picture is totally unrealistic!
Computers are well known not to run without at least a cm of sticky fluff buildup on every surface.

2026-02-09 11:49:05 UTC

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Leftist purity wars have always been the Left's undoing. "Performative" is just the latest weapon in them.

2026-01-30 19:14:46 UTC

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Let's assume this isn't sarcastic, and that's a legitimate use of LLMs.
It presupposes that you have already achieved a level of understanding code that, to date, only years or decades of practical experience writing code provides.
In other words, investing into this as a strategy would still be an abysmally stupid decision.

2026-01-19 07:17:29 UTC

RE: https://infosec.exchange/@patrickcmiller/115918039973702110
Smarter than EU leadership.
#note1gnr…uhv7

2026-01-06 07:18:11 UTC

Fascinating morning reads.
I stumbled on a thread about ableistic behaviour this morning, which was, let's say, not awesome. In my (unsuccessful) attempt to find the post triggering the thread, I came across a paper on moderation issues on mastodon, which is undoubtedly correct, but... *le sigh*
It frames the problem as both technical and social, but it misses - as most such discourses seem to - a simple psychological root cause.
I'll explain. I keep explaining this.

2025-12-09 06:52:50 UTC

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define "recent". In living memory?

2025-11-29 16:52:46 UTC

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Honestly, no.
The way this tends to work is that protesters *will* get their right in court, after months and years of effort and cost. The police folk get paid leave for a few weeks, a mandatory sensitivity training, and the next time, nothing has changed.

2025-11-29 14:15:54 UTC

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Police violence against protesters https://don.linxx.net/@inkorrupt/115633320909717544

2025-11-29 14:12:51 UTC

A lot of Germans are posting in German about #Giessen today, and since many of our friends overseas may be confused, here's a summary:
The current iteration of the Nazi-Party, the AfD, is holding a summit in the town of Giessen today. They announced the formation of a youth org (Hitler-Jugend?). A ton of people came to protest. The police are busy protecting the Nazis, and politicians in the current government see fit to attack the protesters.
This needs international attention.
#depol

2025-10-30 09:03:01 UTC

Unsolicited advice: get rid of stuff.
The Marie Kondo method of "does it spark joy?" seems rather silly, yes. And of course sometimes joy isn't why you hold on to something.
But on the gripping hand, I can tell you with utmost sincerity that moving house when there are a ton of things you don't need, well, sucks.
This message is brought to you by someone planning a day trip to the charity shop, followed by the dump.

2025-10-21 05:28:26 UTC

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My wife works as Mission Director, and once wore some captain's pips to work, which is fairly unobtrusive really. She broke tradition and picked a command gold blouse with that.
But of course a coworker saw her enter the control room like that, jumped up, and called out "Captain on the bridge!"
That world is full of Star Trek nerds.
(Yeah, OK, I got the pips for her. I admit it.)

2025-08-03 08:43:33 UTC

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It *is* easier to just welcome our AI overlords. [@_elena](https://mastodon.social/@_elena ) @npub1ljm…w8tm

2025-07-31 03:34:05 UTC

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archive.org

2025-07-21 20:22:48 UTC

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I'm not religious, but...
https://cdn.masto.host/socialfinkhaeuserde/media_attachments/files/114/893/082/817/688/868/original/5a4bc6c42f133dce.mp4

2025-07-10 14:28:02 UTC

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One simple reason could be that meat production consumes a lot more water than that of crops.
https://foodprint.org/issues/the-water-footprint-of-food/
Yes, there is land that is not suitable for growing crops, but works for grazing animals. That is not so much the case when animals are fed on crops we could reasonably consume ourselves (at least in a variation), such as soy beans or corn.

2025-07-08 11:22:14 UTC

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But I would love to read this analysis :)

2025-06-27 05:12:28 UTC

Biblically accurate porridge.
https://cdn.masto.host/socialfinkhaeuserde/media_attachments/files/114/753/606/537/449/424/original/57cc4f77e8ea0723.png

2025-06-12 04:20:19 UTC

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https://localsend.org/
I'd much prefer a CLI tool, but stuff does exist.

2025-06-01 23:02:35 UTC

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They didn't, though? Hmm. Let's face it, it's been a long time since I saw it. I may be wrong. But I felt like it was just getting started.

2025-06-01 17:39:04 UTC

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Ah, hang on - The *series* was good! Got that confused.
Basically a mix of total recall and blade runner themes, done well for a 90s show. But cancelled before it went anywhere.

2025-06-01 17:05:14 UTC

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Maybe.
There was only one film that I *literally* fell asleep to (in the cinema!), and that was the Total Recall remake.

2025-06-01 08:52:30 UTC

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Simple test: can you still follow it?
If so, it's bad. It doesn't have plot as much as it has filler.
If not, do you care? Yes: it's bland. No: it makes no difference.

2025-06-01 08:44:20 UTC

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Shh, pessimist.
They might also cross the streams and be middling.

2025-06-01 08:27:08 UTC

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🤷‍♂️
A friend of my mum's fled North Korea as a young adult (and, uh, creatively interpreted her lack of papers to make herself younger). She introduced us to her family recipe from an early age. It's very, very nice.

2025-06-01 08:11:16 UTC

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It's good as a snack. Why add something to it?

2025-06-01 07:26:53 UTC

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OK, hear me out.
Odd-numbered Predator films: good.
Even-numbered Predator films: bad.
Even-numbered Star Trek films: good.
Odd-numbered Star Trek films: bad.
Conclusion: Predator/Star Trek crossovers will always be good.

2025-05-31 12:37:54 UTC

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I quite enjoyed Prey.

2025-05-31 11:30:56 UTC

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It was also used in that Predator film set in a city.

2025-05-24 11:16:56 UTC

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Mind you, it's difficult to decentralise when your tech stack begs for centralization 🤷‍♂️

2025-05-24 11:16:18 UTC

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I've limited it for a while, didn't hurt.

2025-04-03 06:25:01 UTC

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We don't need to move Let's Encrypt to the EU. We need to run a EU-based equivalent, and make it so that the infrastructure they run is easily replicated.
As this development clearly demonstrates, Let's Encrypt is a single point of failure. It was never a good idea. It was just a less bad idea than others.
And no, that's absolutely not suggesting they didn't do great work. This is about designing for resilience.
@npub1m96…ag4y @npub19zc…jfcm [@nlnet](https://social.nlnet.nl/@nlnet )

2025-04-03 04:52:43 UTC

Bad picture, but yay new T-shirt!
https://cdn.masto.host/socialfinkhaeuserde/media_attachments/files/114/272/236/122/947/171/original/279613e5e9dbd0de.png

2025-03-25 09:59:40 UTC

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... Teile ihrer Aufgaben Dienstleister hinzunehmen.
Das wuerde auch dabei helfen, die Machtverhaeltnisse etwas umzudrehen. "Im Prinzip" ist das ja jetzt schon so, nur dass die Dienstleister aktuell recht viel bestimmen koennen alleine daher, weil sie Geld vorschiessen.
*Das* Thema geht dann aber vielleicht etwas weit von Deiner Frage ab ;)
@npub1ny7…uv57

2025-03-25 09:57:39 UTC

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Das Problem kannst Du dann auch gerne auf die Musiker ausweiten, die ihre Werke im "Selbstverlag" bspw. auf Bandcamp o.ae. vertreiben, ohne einen Deal mit einem Label zu haben.
Ich bin ja ein Freund von Worten, weswegen ich mir durchaus auch hier Begriffe wuensche. Andererseits bin ich seit geraumer Zeit der Meinung (und der Trend wird deutlicher), dass das perspektivisch einfach "normal" ist, und die Leute Autor, Musiker, Band usw. sind, die eben fuer...
@npub1ny7…uv57

2025-03-25 04:28:16 UTC

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Naja, das Deutsche Wort für Publisher ist neben dem Verlag auch der Verleger, also Selbstverleger*in?

2025-03-15 18:32:08 UTC

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In this town, we've had the speed limit reduced to 30 for over a year now. Everyone respects it, except for two types of folk: those just driving through, because they live the next town over, and those living here all their lives. The latter argue it's always been 50, so why should they change?
I hate this place sometimes.

2025-03-15 08:42:49 UTC

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dragonlance jumped the shark. And people didn't seem to understand it that way.

2025-03-15 08:33:34 UTC

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yes, if it's very tightly scripted, absolutely

2025-03-15 08:29:01 UTC

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Sea Law is very similar, but includes having to deal with water currents and wind. So in addition to naval wargaming rules, it also makes navigation a challenge - and they can be mixed!

2025-03-15 08:27:37 UTC

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... this also when part of the drama stems from working against the clock somehow. You aren't forcing the players into doing a certain thing on a certain day (also the trigger can be a day change!), but react when they're ready.
Plus, it'll let you mix and match plot-like strings of events with more random, setting appropriate stuff.

2025-03-15 08:25:50 UTC

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I think this is also how adventures ought to be produced.
It's basically a detailed setting, which includes a situation setup and some dramatic events, like you say. I'm a little alienated by the more scripted style of others.
It's also worth thinking in triggers, I think, e.g. "if one of these things happen, dramatic event X gets triggered". That gives a lot of freedom for how to get there, and still allows you to plot loosely if you wish.
Some adventures benefit from...

2025-03-15 08:19:26 UTC

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Also, I'm intensely fascinated by the reverse evolution they made by retrofitting the rules back into wargaming with Sea Law and War Law. It actually works really well! I just never had much opportunity to play those seriously.

2025-03-15 08:14:09 UTC

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... some minor mods.
I think this contributed a lot to me treating game rules as something that lives and needs to change with the group and possibly campaign.
Not so much campaign modules, but I also enjoy how the system easily transfers to space master.

2025-03-15 08:12:53 UTC

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Yeah, I wasn't so much into MERP either, for much the same reason. It's also why I stick to 2nd ed, because RMSS made a bunch of simplifications I didn't love in MERP (but that were still better overall!)
Even though it's not particularly easy to use, I really like the "wiki" feel of 2nd ed with its various companions. Nothing quite fits, because it's all made by different people with different priorities, but it's close enough that you can pick and choose your system with...

2025-03-15 06:33:48 UTC

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no, they're levels, not XP. The term is "skill rank", which you progress by spending development points, which you gain after levelling (TL;DR).
You receive bonuses based on the rank.

2025-03-15 06:12:43 UTC

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I thought the canonical example were critical result tables for going to the bathroom in Rolemaster (which of course don't actually exist).

2025-02-21 05:53:14 UTC

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we need to get rid of Star Wars and its ilk.
That is, we need to stop telling stories about a small number of special people stopping evil.
It's an evil idea. Nobody feels special enough to stop an empire, so everybody sits down and waits for the special people to show up. If someone does step up, they're relieved, thank that somebody, and sit back down.
We need more stories of people realizing that they can be sand in the gears of injustice, and that collectively we fix shit.

2025-02-10 06:24:01 UTC

#FediBlock... picture says it all, mastodon.gtmastodon.online won't even get the benefit of doubt.
https://cdn.masto.host/socialfinkhaeuserde/media_attachments/files/113/978/152/025/649/433/original/ab80cb8c840e4901.png

2025-02-06 07:16:58 UTC

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Hey, my intro post warns folk that I *like* puns and dad jokes. I'm not ashamed of that, so I'm also not trying to shame you! The congratulations was earnest, as was my wincing.

2025-02-06 06:55:51 UTC

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Did you manage to turn this into a bad pun? Dad level 9000 unlocked, congratulations!
(Apropos of... well, this... are bad puns *really* just a dad thing? I know plenty of mums who excel at them... maybe we need a new name.)

2025-02-05 04:42:33 UTC

When thinking about DOGE, remember:
a) The medieval Italian title of doge comes from the Latin dux, which literally translates to "Führer".
b) Efficiency is what impressed Hitler about Henry Ford's assembly lines, which he translated into running death camps.
I mean, the guy is all but screaming out his intentions.

2025-01-26 04:43:40 UTC

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Thanks!
@npub10m3…v26s @npub1hc7…7yk4 I guess I don't mind that much. I'm frequently reminded that fantasy was invented as a marketing ploy to make scifi more palatable to women by adding romance. Knowing that seems to explain to me why so often I can't take it very seriously.
There are roughly four ways that make fantasy interesting to me, and they are a) do NOT regurgitate the Hero's Journey, b) use language extremely well, c) have great worldbuilding, and d) be SF with swords.
1/2

2025-01-26 04:18:07 UTC

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Uh, what's the TL;DW? [@beka_valentine](https://kolektiva.social/@beka_valentine ) @npub1hc7…7yk4

2025-01-26 03:14:35 UTC

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I don't know that it began with Star Wars, but that franchise has IMHO contributed to it. I used to get into arguments about whether it actually is scifi - to me, it's a fantasy film set in space. But people seem to understand genres mostly based on superficial markers.
At some point I encountered something about SF as an abbreviation that can mean "speculative fiction", which fits better what I am often interested in.
So I'd say the SF/scifi divide is widening.

2025-01-18 15:39:21 UTC

I had a scheduling conflict with #FOSDEM this year, which made me sad.
Then I read about Jack Dorsey speaking there. I wanted to post something about changing my mind, because boycotting @npub1yau…atjv would be the better response.
Then I realised that I have fosstodon.org blocked because of the fascist apologism of its founder.
Serendipity, I guess 🤷‍♂️

2025-01-05 09:00:48 UTC

I write about how, specifically, fosstodon mods defend fascist positions. A fosstodon mod chimes in with "not sure what this stuff is about".
I'm not going to engage with this, because the sealioning is strong with that response.
https://fosstodon.org/@mike/113774131092571924
https://cdn.masto.host/socialfinkhaeuserde/media_attachments/files/113/774/923/051/677/243/original/256604919926e89e.png

2025-01-03 19:22:26 UTC

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I keep getting back to that there are two kinds of liberals: those that primarily want liberties for themselves, and those that want to liberate others.
FOSS is essentially based on libertarian values. We tend to call the first kind of libertarian who is also into FOSS a fossbro.
🤷‍♂️ I don't think it's much more complicated than that.

2025-01-03 18:11:45 UTC

Hey, this is to let you know that I'm going to block fosstodon pretty soon. No exact timeline, but it'll be in January.
If you want to keep following this account/instance, I suggest you use an alt on some other instance I haven't already blocked.
Context: https://social.finkhaeuser.de/@jens/113765756511141919
I've been kind of stuck on "too big to block" thinking for too long. Time's up.
:boostRequest:

2025-01-03 18:08:01 UTC

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I was reprimanded by the fosstodon mods for calling a legally confirmed Nazi a Nazi, because that four letter word apparently is worse than the policies and value system it represents.
Tells you everything you need to know about the instance, and I've had it limited for a while.

2024-12-25 12:14:26 UTC

The perfect mug does not exis...
https://cdn.masto.host/socialfinkhaeuserde/media_attachments/files/113/713/398/543/380/172/original/314e9b3e15499c69.jpg

2024-12-22 22:36:10 UTC

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Well... I guess everybody is different 🤷‍♂️
Our kids basically don't let me sleep long past 6.

2024-12-22 18:52:06 UTC

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You just... age. Have kids. The rest comes naturally.

2024-12-19 20:40:41 UTC

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All I have on GH is a landing repo that sends people to @npub1fh7…ee83 .
That seems to be the appropriate use for it.

2024-12-17 07:04:43 UTC

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But why? At the time, it was the best choice.
But do you remember the time before that, when fvwm2 reigned supreme?

2024-12-15 21:26:52 UTC

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To finally conclude my rant/infodump, that's exactly what @npub18zf…kd8r is meant to build, though:
If you imagine human to human addressing, how would you do "data routing"? It leads to the question of "how do you chunk up and reassemble bigger data"? Then "what if we want to collaborate on the data?", closely related to "how do you do access control there?", culminating in "but isn't 1:1 comms just a special case of N:M?"
Then we have solved resilient human to human comms.

2024-12-15 21:22:10 UTC

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... usually talked a bit more about *why* the web is that way, and less about what else exists on other layers and what could be imagined.
I actually commented on Christine's mega thread something along those lines, namely that AP at the human-to- human layer *could* be more distributed, because the building blocks of addressing and message encapsulation are there.
What's missing is any notion of bundling destination address sets along one route or another.

2024-12-15 21:18:55 UTC

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This is one of the key concepts that folk don't easily see largely because near the application layer it's often this much more restricted (in fact, you pointed that out, indirectly!).
And since the web is built like that, anything built on top of the web also is. We've moved into a world where everything is, at best, decentralized, because we're no longer looking in earnest at other models.
It's been the subject of a bunch of talks I've given over the years, though I've...

2024-12-15 21:14:57 UTC

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... I simplify a little) one connection between any two instances, so you can approximate the number of connections as the same as the number of instances (because they're bidirectional, you don't need to count them twice), at least as an upper bound.
Given a core of user-free fedi routers with multiple connections, that'd increase just because you now can take different paths.
I'm deliberately avoiding the real maths here, but there's such a thing as a degree of distribution.

2024-12-15 21:08:54 UTC

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... to grow further. The fedi network is less distributed after the growth of the recent years than it used to be (I haven't looked at numbers, but I would swear by it).
The ratio of distribution even in an edge only topology is basically users/instances. If users growth doesn't trigger an equivalent instance growth, it becomes less distributed.
If you want to be more precise, multiply by the number of redundant paths between instances. In fedi as-is, it's practically (here...

2024-12-15 21:05:20 UTC

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... which push towards building more of a core-free, edge-only network, i.e. pile more users onto bigger instances.
That's not something fedi is escaping. Just because you *can* build more resilience into the network shape by running more, smaller instances doesn't mean that this is what's predominantly happening.
We already have mega instances that new folk gravitate to, and then they've started a foundation with a guy at the helm who is convinced mega instances are the way...

2024-12-15 21:02:51 UTC

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... about, well. What he was mostly concerned with is resilience.
It's totally fine if the packet switching layer has redundant paths, but if taking out one instance kills access to thousands of users, there is no resilience that would warrant comparing the human layer to a mesh.
It's this confusion of layers that I've been talking about for years, in one way or another.
Fedi is like that mostly because the web is like that. The web is like that for a bunch of reasons,...

2024-12-15 20:59:54 UTC

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Except this core does not exist.
There are no (kinda) "fedi routers" that forward all messages from one edge to the other.
All fedi instances are edge routers, instead.
The picture that fits best is that of the decentralized diagram.
To claim anything else is a confusion of layers. The human to human addressing layer is not very interested in the shape of the interface addressing underlay, but the shape of its own connections matters.
In terms of what Baran was talking...

2024-12-15 20:56:15 UTC

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... we're connecting people. That's what we're addressing, but it's also who (much of) the messages we're sending are consumed by.
On that layer of abstraction, instances are routers. Instances do form a mesh, more or less, so in a sense the fedi topology is very comparable to it's packet switching underlay, where instances are akin to edge routers that connect users in a star pattern to the mesh of the core fediverse.
Except.

2024-12-15 20:54:07 UTC

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...destination address, and routers forward the packet according to routing information they're matching against those addresses.
IP addresses are (typically) attached to interfaces, which are (typically) assigned to physical ports of a machine. Packet switching then is about routing chunks of data from an interface on one machine to an interface on another.
Fine.
At the fedi level, we aren't connecting machines. That's the layer below, we can forget about that. Instead,...

2024-12-15 20:51:30 UTC

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... is more complicated, because consolidation means there are not thousands but tens to hundreds of paths from one side of the world to another, but to be honest, that's not the most important part of this discussion.
The key, as Christine at some point mentioned but dismissed, is that this is the *packet switching* point of view.
But certain concepts are transferable between the various layers.
If you assume IP at the packet switching layer, you work with a source and...

2024-12-15 20:48:26 UTC

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That's exactly the kind of discussion we should be having!
Most ways of looking at the *Internet*, so the packet switching infrastructure, will come to the conclusion that it's a mixture of the distributed and decentralized models. The most common assumption you'll encounter is that the "core" Internet is a mesh, and the edge tends to have star patterns where edge routers connect individual devices, and the next hop or so makes the mesh's multiple paths available.
The truth...

2024-12-15 16:55:45 UTC

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But that's incorrect. Fedi is very clearly in the decentralized category here.
There is no way I can reach you *except* via our respective instance(s) in the middle.

2024-12-14 20:55:50 UTC

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The French have "bread"? Since when?
The have rolls, but elongated as if they're trying to compensate for something.
OK, OK, I joke.
Look, there are plenty of places that have delicious bread. I like the Turkish kind you get here, for example (which in my book beats baguette by a mile, and is similar enough in how I'd use it).
So I can't actually deny the French also have good bread!

2024-12-10 05:58:38 UTC

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Or, if you use C++, IMGUI

2024-12-10 05:58:01 UTC

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Have you considered the IMGUI approach?

2024-12-09 18:06:44 UTC

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When you say "Western bread", I feel culturally offended.
Because what they call "bread" in the UK, we call a flavourless sponge here in Germany. And what they call "bread" in the US is called a flavourless sponge in the UK.
But I guess I can't complain, since what we call "Chinese food" here, well... I guess it's a sufficiently similar relationship.

2024-12-06 06:02:32 UTC

I would like our sci-fi loving billionaires to take note that we have now entered that cyberpunk era in which street samurai execute corporates in the street.

2024-10-23 14:34:38 UTC

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So, uh...
This predates the web by some decades.
https://www.xanadu.com/HISTORY/

2024-09-28 21:07:35 UTC

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There are meanings that are expressed in my choice of words, and meanings you project onto them, and you're focusing too much on the latter.
I'm fine with questions, for what it's worth. I'm less of a fan of attempts to put words in my mouth.
Maybe read about how much I agree with Benji's talk before you go ahead, though.

2024-09-28 11:30:51 UTC

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I was very much like that, and see the same repeating with the kid(s).
Two things happened. One is constant analysis, pattern identification and a smattering or psychoanalysis knowledge meant I became accurate enough, enough of the time.
The other is that every time I tried a less "naive" approach, the result was worse... much worse.
I guess I learned to embrace how I am, and focus on damage control instead.

2024-09-28 04:11:01 UTC

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I also don't know what to say, because I don't think I wrote "the docs are terrible", though that appears to be what you are replying to 🤷‍♂️
[@mos_8502](https://studio8502.ca/@mos_8502 ) [@benno](https://eigenmagic.net/@benno )

2024-09-27 21:17:45 UTC

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... so many times that the dude with the diagrams in his head would have exasperatedly sighed "fine, I'll do THAT then so you stop whining". And maybe he may also have listened to suggestions.
That is IMHO the problem with a monolith project, that this doesn't happen because it doesn't need to.
Is it clearer now what bothers me? It's not that there isn't an API. It's that its grown around assumptions and understanding of interactions that are... occult.

2024-09-27 21:13:19 UTC

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And in itself, that's also fine IMHO, we're all busy and stuff.
Problem is, we now run critical infrastructure on systems where it's not clear whether a job to stop a part of it will actually do so.
Because the guy who has all the interactions neatly drawn up in his head doesn't need this.
If these different software packages were written by very different people, I would say - can't guarantee it, of course - that this conversation would have been had...

2024-09-27 21:10:32 UTC

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... remain, albeit in a failed state of sorts. Well, until it is removed from the run queue, which apparently has a size of 1. Why is it a queue? Who knows.
API design is hard. Really. I don't want to poke fun at this, because I've seen and written worse.
But, you know, at some point someone said "let's ship more stuff!" instead of saying "uh, should we not clean this up a bit?"
And that tends to happen because whoever wrote it doesn't need the cleaning up.

2024-09-27 21:05:54 UTC

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... but undocumented interactions.
There's also the notion of a control process, which is run (as a job) to control the main process. So if I cancel such a job, even if the associated process were to abort (which as per the above is unclear) it would likely not affect the main process, because that, well, is a different process altogether.
I can however send a kill signal to the control process, which would abort the control process. But the job would...

2024-09-27 21:02:14 UTC

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What I am lamenting is not that it's a collection of daemons, but that the API you mention quite clearly has grown with whatever people needed at any given time.
Like... the distinction between unit, job and processes. In principle, a unit should result in a running process if I schedule a job to start it. But cancelling that job doesn't necessarily abort the process if the job is underway.
The "not necessarily" part is worrying, suggesting there are hidden...

2024-09-27 19:06:14 UTC

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Who wants to run systemd-resolved?
Sorry, that's not fair. But it is actually one of the parts that screws me over most often. Coincide, I suppose 😊

2024-09-27 18:59:07 UTC

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... the same thing, i.e. arriving at convoluted systems without meaning to, I think I can say with a little bit of confidence that part of the problem is that it's more or less the same folk working on both sides of those boundaries.
Or, in other words, systemd pulls too many things into too large a project.

2024-09-27 18:56:04 UTC

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I've watched about a third (I will watch the rest), and I can see where it may be going.
It hasn't really changed my views, no.
There are basically two sensible ways IMHO:
1. Keep things simple. It won't be great for everything, but at least you'll understand it.
2. Define clear boundaries, and create well-defined interfaces between them. Then you can build complex systems.
Systemd somehow manages to do neither. And speaking from experience with doing...