Daniel Stoddart

4 Sept 2025

Don't sleep on high quality programming books. O'Reilly. Wiley. Addison-Wesley. Manning. MIT. No Starch Press. &c... Avoid the publishers (not gonna name any names, but #IYKYK) that repackage questionable online content. #Books

31 Aug 2025

Cherry Mx brown still rules

If anyone has compared, I'd like to see a breakdown of Linux wifi card support in the range of Beelink and Minisforum PCs. I think Minisforum recently switched from Intel AX200 to MediaTek MT7921K wireless cards to "meet market demand" and support WiFi 6E.

IMHO, AX200 has better long-term support and is less flaky than the MediaTek cards.

After $44 billion in investment in only the first half of 2025, 95% of business AI projects fail to deliver any meaningful results. Don't believe the hype.

mlq.aimlq.ai

youtu.bePython: The Documentary | An origin storyYouTube video by CultRepo (formerly Honeypot)

There's a new documentary about #Python, and it's outstanding.

27 Aug 2025

TFW your solution is better than Claude's

27 Aug 2025

Hearing that the Arch Wiki is down again for US people and probably getting DDoS'd again. Up for me though, probably because I'm getting it from a different mirror

github.comRelease v2.0.0 · basecamp/omarchyWhat changed? Major additions Add new Omarchy ISO online installer using the Omarchy Configurator front-end to archinstall by @Torxed + @dhh + @ryanrhughes + @jardahrazdera + @tahayvr Add new Omar...

26 Aug 2025

In case you missed it, Omarchy is now a legit Linux distro. Congrats to all who made this happen!

26 Aug 2025

"Wanting to skip Linux and jump to Kubernetes is like trying to become a surgeon without learning anatomy." ~ @kubecraft.community

21 Aug 2025

Just installed GNU Chess for the first time in...forever

lastweekinaws.comAWS in 2025: The Stuff You Think You Know That's Now WrongOne of the neat things about AWS is that it's almost twenty years old. One of the unfortunate things about AWS is... that it's almost twenty years old

20 Aug 2025

A lot of blog posts about #AWS are incredibly outdated because it's almost 20 years old, so make sure you're up to date.

It seems obvious but it bears repeating in light of that last WSJ story: nothing replaces "show your work."

Be careful about choosing certifications and credentials. You should definitely be critical in assessing outcomes before signing up for a cert or credential.

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"These certificates, digital badges and other nondegree credentials have proliferated as more academic institutions and other providers spot a lucrative business." "Many credentials don’t provide a pay boost or lead to a career transition."

"Just one in eight nondegree credentials delivered notable pay gains within a year of completion." "A lot of credentials are being designed based on a loose understanding of what it takes for somebody to get hired in the field."

Be careful about choosing certifications and credentials. You should definitely be critical in assessing outcomes before signing up for a cert or credential.

wsj.comMore Workers Are Getting Job-Skill Certificates. They Often Don’t Pay Off.Many of the thousands of online courses and other credentials employees pursue to boost careers fall short in delivering, a new study finds.

"...most programs deliver few material returns, a new study finds."

edka.ioEdka Digital | Reduce Kubernetes Complexity | Deploy anythingEnterprise Kubernetes Management Platform - Simplify cloud operations and accelerate application delivery on Kubernetes

17 Aug 2025

A DevOps-oriented side project worth highlighting: run your workloads in your own Hetzner account. GitOps workflow and reduce infrastructure costs by up to 70%.

Someone asked if #Omarchy is a Linux distro b/c it's not on Distrowatch. So should projects like this be classified as a distro or a configuration layer of sorts?

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For instance, Manjaro is Arch-based but maintains its own repositories, has its own release cycle, and provides its own installation process. It's more of a derivative distro rather than just a configuration layer.

The line can be blurry, but generally if you need to install the upstream distribution first and then apply the project's configurations, it's typically considered a config layer rather than a distinct distro.

Someone asked if #Omarchy is a Linux distro b/c it's not on Distrowatch. So should projects like this be classified as a distro or a configuration layer of sorts?

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Does it make fundamental changes to how the system boots and runs, or just configure existing components? Also, does it have its own installer that creates a distinct system, or is it applied to an existing installation?

IMO, Omarchy falls into the "opinionated configuration" category rather than a true distro b/c it requires you to "install Arch Linux first btw."

Someone asked if #Omarchy is a Linux distro b/c it's not on Distrowatch. So should projects like this be classified as a distro or a configuration layer of sorts?

I think the question comes down to technical criteria: Does it maintain its own repositories and package manager, or rely entirely on an upstream distro's packages? (e.g. Arch, Debian)

15 Aug 2025

GPT-5: "I'm going to keep asking you to refine it until something breaks, and then you'll regret talking to me."

14 Aug 2025

I wasn't aware until today that there are more adults that play #Minecraft than kids.

How SSH handles output can sometimes be a little quirky. It's important to understand this when doing troubleshooting around issues of public keys and hostkeys files.

For instance, you could assume that a troubleshooting-oriented command like `ssh -vT git@github.com` could be piped into a UNIX command like `more`, but with SSH verbose output isn't designed to be piped in the traditional sense.

That's because SSH is typically directed to stderr, while more only reads from stdout. And that's why you can't page through the verbose output even though it was long. Better have scrolling enabled!

Yay, I can push to GitHub again

codefresh.ioLaser Focused Kubernetes Deployments Using Argo Rollouts and Header Based RoutingA Kubernetes cluster with default configuration has access to only two deployment strategies: To get access to more advanced deployment strategies such as blue/green and canaries you need to use a ded...

"A Kubernetes cluster with default configuration has access to only two deployment strategies: To get access to more advanced deployment strategies such as blue/green and canaries you need to use a dedicated Progressive Delivery controller such as Argo Rollouts."

philschmid.deThe New Skill in AI is Not Prompting, It's Context EngineeringContext Engineering is the new skill in AI. It is about providing the right information and tools, in the right format, at the right time.

"Context Engineering is new term gaining traction in the AI world. The conversation is shifting from 'prompt engineering' to a broader, more powerful concept: Context Engineering."

Recently I re-discovered the work of Vernor Vinge by finding his book, "Rainbows End." That was enough get me going down the rabbit hole.

a.coAmazon.com

edoras.sdsu.eduThe Coming Technological Singularity

Then I stumbled on his VISION-21 Symposium paper from 1993, "The Coming Technological Singularity: How to Survive in the Post-Human Era", which I had never read before and is fascinating for its commentary on the Singularity.

Sadly, Vinge died last year of Parkinson's Disease. I missed the news and only today discovered he's no longer with us.

22 June 2025

Firefox is officially pozzed

arstechnica.comFramework Laptop 12 review: I’m excited to see what the 2nd generation looks likeA sturdy, thoughtful, cute design that just can’t compete in its price range.

18 June 2025

I don't think I've ever clicked on anything as fast as this Framework Laptop 12 review. Not sure how I feel about a purple laptop tho, tbh

18 June 2025

Ehhh, "cute" is a bug not a feature

simonwillison.netThe last six months in LLMs, illustrated by pelicans on bicyclesI presented an invited keynote at the AI Engineer World’s Fair in San Francisco this week. This is my third time speaking at the event—here are my talks from October …

8 June 2025

A good "state of the last six months of LLMs" by @simonwillison.net

20 May 2025

When will the internet revolt against Corporate Memphis?

blogs.windows.comThe Windows Subsystem for Linux is now open sourceToday we’re very excited to announce the open-source release of the Windows Subsystem for Linux. This is the result of a multiyear effort to prepare for this, and a great closure to the first ever iss...

20 May 2025

WSL is now open source blogs.windows.com/windowsdevel...