All Entries (Page 30)

I feel like I'm wasting my life but when I ask myself what I really want in life, I want to waste it even more. Entry created on 2022-03-19 Authors: steeph (370) Categories: Life (5) Personal (13) Work (3) Languages used: en (255) edit

As an adolescent I always assumed I'd end up homeless and without a stable job. It was actually my goal to travel alone, interacting with society as little as necessary. I do have a need for interpersonal communication. But it's very small and I mostly wish I could be left alone more. But things turned out differently and although the boy who kind of captured me into society is long married and gone from my life, I'm still leading this life inside society that I never wanted. One thing lead to another and now I actually have a job that's not that bad (turns out I'm actually reasonably good at some things). I never tried to get a good job. But now that I already have this life, I'm wondering whether I want to keep living it.

People keep telling me being able to programme like I am is an outstanding skill and I could make double the money I'm making now if I'd get a job in IT. But I don't see it. I'm actually a pretty bad coder. I really struggle taking the time to write good code. I've never written anything worth publishing. I can write code that is working most of the time. But in professional standards, my code would not be taken seriously. As a professional skill it's more embarrassing than useful. It's just the fact that I was taught as a child that's unusual at my age. People didn't have computers at home at the time I started to use one. I've assisted at coding courses for children at a hackerspace a few times. There's never been an 8 year-old who didn't immedietly grasp what was necessary to write a useful computer programme. I wish people would stop acting as if it's so special that I know how to code anything. That alone won't give ne an automatic successful IT career.

So, now that my job stopped being fun (It really was, initially, even though I hardly remember it anymore.), what am I going to do? I still want to pack a bag and leave this society behind for a not pre-determinded period of time. That dream never completely vanished from my mind. When I ask myself what it is that I really want, that is now back at the top of my answer. So, try to get a better paying or otherwise more fun job to make this goal more viable through a genarous financial backup? Or live the dream as one should, according to famous proverbs?

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Sprache ist persönlich - auch auf Twitter -nur für Politiker nicht ?? Entry created on 2011-11-11 (edited 2022-04-30) Authors: Andrea Reinhardt (14) Categories: Language (7) Politics (6) Twitter (2) Languages used: de (88) edit

This blog entry was originally posted to mixlog.de.

Sprache ist etwas persönliches, in chat und auf twitter wird die persönliche Sprache erkennt - egal wie man sich nennt. Aber schreiben die twitternden Politiker wirklich alle selbst, oder lassen sie auch bei Twitter schreiben, bei einem Dialogmedium, was so dazu genutzt wird, den Bürger noch weiter für "dummen zu verkaufen" weil er eben gar nicht mit dem Politiker, sondern einer Angentur im Dialog steht. Wie werden Bürger reagieren ? Solche Parteien/Politiker nicht mehr wählen ?

SBWG 1.0.0 Delayed To Next Life Entry created on 2021-12-28 Authors: steeph (370) Categories: Bash (31) Code (31) Computer (78) Linux (35) Projects (41) SBWG (18) Scripts (28) Software (52) Languages used: en (255) Topics: Projects → Code → Bash Scripts → SBWG (16) edit

I've decided to not publish version 1.0.0 of SBWG.

Very early on I devided against a versioning approach that allowed me to stay below version 1.0 for a very long time by only incrementing the version number by 0.0.1 for important changes but rather chose to increment the version and publish a new version whenever. I stick to this approach because it allowes me to express felt overall progress in the version number. But now that the goals that I at some point set for version 1.0.0 are nearly reached (they pretty much are), this leaves me in a spot where publishing version 1.0.0 would be the next thing to do despite the fact that it's not actually really absolutely perfect, yet. Absolute perfection isn't really my approach. It's still more like a learning project.

So to avoid having published a version that looks perfect on the label but isn't inside, I will skip this version number. Don't get me wrong. My goals are. I've tested it more than I thought I would and thought of potential problems and fixed bugs that I'd argue are not something you'd expect most shell scripters to catch. It definitely works reliably for what it is intended and at least works well for much more than I thought it would in the first few months of starting this project.

So, there is no link in this entry. No new version published today. The next version will be 1.x.x something.

Alright. Now that that's done, I can start to implement new features again next year.

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Comparing apples and oranges: a randomised prospective study Entry created on 2021-12-26 Authors: steeph (370) Categories: Apples (1) Language (7) Oranges (1) Research (3) Science (6) Silly (32) Languages used: en (255) edit

There is a research paper that was published a year ago and hasn't gotton enough attention in my opinion. I wished many times that somebody attempted something line this scientifically.

There are several very basic things wrong with this paper. The results are pretty much useless apart from the overall success of the comparison itself. Ignore the details. I can finally say with confidence that comparing apples with oranges is not as outragiously impossible as it is usually made out to be.

Here's the link to the paper. And here it is on NCBI.

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The Web Sucks Entry created on 2021-12-25 Authors: steeph (370) Categories: Opinion (9) Rants (3) World Wide Web (10) Languages used: en (255) edit

Not all of it. But definitely most of the world wide web sucks. I recently stumbled upon a blog post that puts many of my thoughts about the modern web into words well and that I'd like to share:

The Web Sucks by Chucho.

25 years ago I imagined what would be possible if I had access to the internet. 20 years ago we were excited about and enjoyed the possibilities of the web It was better than imagined. 15 years ago we were excited about so much more interesting and useful content, "Web 2.0" and the new possibilities that really started to become useful tools in everyday life. 10 years ago pretty much everbody was online, it had become too crowded but we knew where to go, which browser extensions to install and what to filter for a good experience. 5 years ago I started to realise how fucked the web had actually become.

It happened so slowly that it felt normal. But eventually the vast vast majority of content on the web was and still is commercial websites that mainly serve a purpose other than educate the reader, share experience, knowledge or other content. Almost all of the sites that appear or claim to exist for spreading information contain more paid content than actual content. It has long become impossible to filter out the pieces of the web with a less-than-creditable intent. I think way back when you considered to install an ad blocker for the first time, that's when a major line was crossed. It became so much worse so quickly that I can hardly remember how benign a large potion of the web was years ealier.

More people than ever share content in good faith on the internet today. But even this urge to share experiences, be it for the gratification of an urge to present the author's thoughts and feelings (like this entry) or for altruistic reasons for a greater good, is commercialised and directed into channels optimised for profit maximisation. You can't even access most of it without signing a legal contract that you definitely don't understand (because specialised legal experts aren't even sure how to interpret many of the most important parts) with one of the subjectively most evil companies in the history of mankind.

No wonder many people try to abandon the web as much as it is still possible (which is becoming less and less). No wonder the Gemini project was founded with built in feature contraints and has their users argue and decide against implementing basic features into the protocol that would help make browsing the gemini space a more comfortable experience. From the technological view, openness to new festures, the extendibility of the protocol, has made the mess the web is today possible.

Of cource I'm ignoring many things here the modern web enables and that I use and choose to continue to use. I'm still wondering wether any of it is worth the trouble. From relatively small trouble, like megabytes of at best useless Javascript to larger trouble, like huge companies using AI-created algorithms that have never been evaluated for anything but how much money they potentially could produce when put to use, and intentional policy choices, pressing most of humankind to produce less helpful but more profiting content and, more and more commonly, intentionally harmful content on a scale science is starting to realise is impairing quality of life, empathy and may even have notable bad impacts on international politics.

Seriously, what are we ~~doing~~ allowing to be done with this technology?

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Film: Martian Child Entry created on 2021-12-24 Authors: steeph (370) Categories: Children (4) Films (22) Languages used: en (255) Topics: Films (15) edit

The Martian Child is one of those cute, emotional movies with a child in an important role that left an impression with me and is deemed very much worth watching but I'd have trouble explaining why. I'll push myself through this bit of trouble and try. I think I mostly like it because of the cute. I think of it as sort of like Big Daddy but more serious (and without Adam Sandler). Big Daddy isn't a bad movie overall. I've re-watched it so many times before I realised that movies can be a lot better than that, because it's just too cute not to. But it is a typical Adam Sandler movie with the depth and humor of a typical Adam Sandler movie (and with Adam Sandler).

The Martian Child is another foster child/adoption movie about a single, previously childless man. (Why are there so many movies about this, btw?) In comparison with other movies in this category the closeness to reality of its depiction of the circumstances, the process and the foster care system is probably above average. But I don't have any experience to judge that. That's not the focus of the story, anyway.

For me the story is about the child's unique and uncommon personality. I like how it's never really explained what events in the first five years of his life may explain what every grownup in the story sees as peculiar and concerning behaviour and every child in the story sees as weird and sometimes repellent. It may be important for the grownup's goal to enable him to grow into a normal enough person to function in society. (I assume that's their goal and why they are so concerned about his weirdness.) But it's addressed in the movie only as much as necessary.

For other viewers it may be just as much or more about the new father's development and the challange of and challanges that come with fostering a in general and this child in particular. It's about all of that. But ultimately, the reason I decided to watch it again was that it's an emotional story with a cute small child actor acting and speaking all timid while saying things normal people would find surprising, strange responses. So a good story well told is a great bonus, as it were.

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reden und streicheln Entry created on 2021-12-18 Authors: Andrea Reinhardt (14) Categories: Gedichte (10) Poetry (9) Languages used: de (88) Topics: Poetry (12) edit

reden trennt
und streicheln
überwindet die trennung
oder reden überwindet
damit wir streicheln können
oder überwinden wir uns
erst zum reden, dann zum streicheln
oder streicheln wir,
reden dann,
überwinden
das alles
und sind wieder
alleine

backup.sh Entry created on 2021-12-05 Authors: steeph (370) Categories: Backups (4) Bash (31) Code (31) Computer (78) Linux (35) Projects (41) Scripts (28) Software (52) Languages used: en (255) Topics: Projects → Code (26) edit

This entry is an update of the entry 'Backup Shell Script'.

I've updated/improved my backup script again.

Download


#!/bin/bash
#2021-11-03

budir="/mnt/backup"
num=8
list="/root/backup-list"
hostname=$(</etc/hostname)
srcdir="$1"
#NAME=${SRCDIR//\//--}
name="$2"

function usage () {
  echo "This script requires either one or two arguments."
  echo "Usage:"
  echo "$0 JOBLIST"
  echo "$0 SOURCE_DIRECTORY NAME"
  echo
  echo "JOBLIST File that contains one backup job per line in the format SOURCE_DIRECTORY NAME"
  echo "SOURCE_DIRECTORY Directory that should be backed up. Please, no trailing slash."
  echo "NAME A string that is used to name the backup in the destination."
  exit 1
}

function single() {
  if grep -qs "$budir " /proc/mounts
  then
    fullname="$budir/$hostname/$name"
    printf "\n"
    printf "Attempting backup of source directory '%s' to '%s'.\n" "$srcdir" "$fullname"
    printf "Number of differential backups to keep: %s\n" "$num"
    printf "Removing oldest backup... "
#    rm -rf "$fullname.$num"
    rsync --archive --delete "$budir/empty/" "$fullname.$num/"		# This is quicker than rm.
    printf "Done.\n"
    for ((i=$num; i>=2; i--)); do
      printf "Renaming '%s' to '%s' ... " "$fullname.$((i-1))" "$fullname.$i"
      mv "$fullname.$((i-1))" "$fullname.$i"
      printf "Done.\n"
    done
    printf "Duplicating last backup ('%s' to '%s')... " "$fullname.0" "$fullname.1"
    [[ -d $fullname.1 ]] && exit 1							# This directory should not exist at that point.
    cp -al "$fullname.0" "$fullname.1"
#    rsync --archive --acls --xattrs --hard-links "$fullname.0/" "$fullname.1/"
    printf "Done.\n"
    now=$(date)
    printf "\n\n\n" >> "$fullname.log"
    printf "STARTING INCREMENTAL BACKUP AT %s\n" "$now" >> "$fullname.log"
    printf "Starting new incremental backy uppy at '%s.0'..." "$fullname"
    if rsync --exclude ".cache" --archive --no-links --delete "$srcdir/" "$fullname.0/" 2>&1 | tee -a "$fullname.log"
    then
      printf " Done.\n"
      printf "Done.\n" >> "$fullname.log"
    else
      printf " Failed.\n"
      printf "Failed.\n" >> "$fullname.log"
    fi
    now=$(date)
    printf "\nIf this line is here the script finished (with or without errors) at %s\n" "$now" >> "$fullname.log"
  else
    printf "'%s' is not mounted. Aborting." "$budir"
    exit 1
  fi
}

function fromlist() {
  while read job; do
    if [ -n "$job" ]; then
      name="${job#* }"
      srcdir="${job% *}"
      single
    fi
  done < "$list"
}

mkdir "$budir/empty"									# Empty directory for a quicker method to delete a large directory.

case $# in
0)
  mount "$budir"
  printf "Reading backup jobs from list. Defaulting to %s.\n" "$list"
  fromlist
  ;;
1)
  mount "$budir"
  list="$1"
  printf "Reading backup jobs from %s." "$list"
  fromlist
  ;;
2)
  mount "$budir"
  single
  ;;
3)
#  I can't decide whether to make the third argument num or budir. I don't need it anyway.
#  num=$3
#  budir=$3
#  mount $budir
#  single
  usage
  ;;
*)
  usage
  ;;
esac

exit 0

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