Robey ☠️ @robey@mastodon.technology

For most of this year, @zwol and I have been working on a pretty ambitious project:
* to make a fresh release of GNU Autoconf, a crucial #FLOSS build tool that hadn't had a new release since 2012
* to get paid for that
* to help put Autoconf on a more sustainable footing so it doesn't have to get rescued again a little while down the road

Autoconf 2.70 is due out next month, and you can read my fresh LWN story about the rejuvenation & what's next:

https://lwn.net/SubscriberLink/834682/a90b9cdbc37077f4/

@robey it's also a problem with the eng. architect role - my colleagues in the role describe it as 10% building things in the lab/proof of concept/etc, and 90% talking everyone else into it.
even as a senior eng, I can spend a lot of time talking people into things. imho interactive demos are the way to go for some concepts. as I'm sure you well know people can know something is bad intellectually, but not have the visceral "oh no this is BAD" reaction you need them to have for some designs. 😔

https://jacobinmag.com/2020/10/kim-stanley-robinson-ministry-future-science-fiction

what if eggnog cures covid but no one figured it out bc they dont sell eggnog until the end of the year

Goldman on regulation • Twitter / Obama product expert talks about regulation and tech https://postlight.com/podcast/regulating-product-decisions-with-jason-goldman #linkblog #techregulationobamapoliticsgoldmantootme

The web standards are far too complicated, it's practically impossible to write a browser today. I'm starting to agree with Drew that it's time to move on to something new.

https://drewdevault.com/2020/10/22/Firefox-the-embarassment-of-FOSS.html #web

"woaaahh-ho hohoho. You're makin all the money while we do all the work? Yeah yeah we're not doin that."

What SmallTalk Was Not: https://deprogrammaticaipsum.com/what-smalltalk-was-not/

what using imperative languages feels like

because light attracts bugs

oh my god this is hilarious

the wisconsin tavern league tried to stop the governor's order that bar capacity be reduced, because they were losing business

it didn't work, thankfully

the judges reasoning for not overturning the order? "you guys didn't comply with the orders anyway so you can't prove they harmed your business"

I'm losing my shit

used to be, before gutenberg, letters were a lot more expensive. punctuation, even more so. you'd have to trade a bushel of oats for the "a," etc. if you used the comma twice in once sentence, you were judged to have spent more lavishly than you could afford, such as foolishly trading your strongest livestock, which would have sustained the farm with its work, for an optional bit of punctuation, like a dandy. that's why they call it trading the "ox fer d'comma"