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Lazy Reading for 2013/10/20

Whee!

  • The Shady Characters blog talks about alternate phone dial layouts.  I’ve mentioned those here before, but Shady Characters links to this video describing the testing that went on for the keypads.  Check at about 2:40 for the story on how AT&T figured out the ‘correct’ length for the phone handset cable.
  • The Youtube channel for Numberphile, the source of that previous video link, has some pretty entertaining math videos…
  • The UNIX as a Second Language blog has an article up about using strace.
  • The Roland SP-808.  I didn’t know these had a built-in Zip drive.  (via)
  • The ICT 1301 runs again.  This is what big computers are supposed to look like, with large cabinets, and spinning tapes, and oversized operator consoles.  (via)
  • Cryptogeddon, a sort of augmented reality game where I think you sneak your way across real systems.  ‘Real’ as in not someone else’s computers, but real systems set up for this game.  (via)

Your unrelated link of the week: Here’s a weird coincidence.  I was looking at this list of pixelated iconic album covers.  The #3 item is “Trout Mask Replica”, from Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band.  I scanned that specific image back in 1994, on a Mac IIsi in my college lab.  For whatever reason, I’ve seen copies of my scan (color corrected much better than I did) many times since.  I know I’m not hallucinating because I still have the record, with the same wear pattern on the album cover.  It’s odd to see a 20-year-old copy of a 40-year-old album scan you did just pop up out of nowhere.

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In Other BSDs for 2013/10/19

I am doing this one at the last minute.  I had all the articles noted, but normally I build this post over the course of the week.

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Lazy Reading for 2013/10/13

This week just built up and built up.

Your unrelated comic link of the week: Nimona.

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In Other BSDs for 2013/10/12

I got some PC-BSD items this week, too.

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DragonFly pkgsrc repo is frozen

The pkgsrc repository in git for DragonFly is currently frozen.  This is because many people have switched over to dports, and also because it’s a lot of work to keep it functional.  If you do want to pull newer pkgsrc material, use cvs and grab it from a NetBSD server.

As the message notes, don’t go switching to DragonFly-current right now, cause there’s a lot of new material in there and it may not be quite safe.  (There’s an ABI change that will require all new builds of your ports, for instance.)

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Google Code-In 2013 and Summer of Code 2014 announced

Google has a post up about the 10th anniversary of Summer of Code, with next year’s version of the event getting some changes – an increase in the students allocated and in the student stipend, and more events.  I’m planning to apply for DragonFly, for 2014.

Google is also doing the Code-In, for 13 to 17-year-old students, again.  DragonFly participated in the first year (the only BSD to do so), but sat out last year.  I’m not currently anticipating DragonFly being involved for 2013, cause of reasons.  (It’s a lot of work!)