Chris McDonough

Python hacker. Anti-whatever-you-think. Recent obsessions: NixOS. Virginia, US.

Public Key

npub1mzkxujz0j355ra8kmh3ftnr05evm5xh2g2gyqavwe3pg3qlr34jqpxlzj4

NIP-05 Address

chrism_at_chattingdarkly.org@mostr.pub

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsd3trwfp8eg62p7nmdmc54e3h6vkd6rt4y9yzqwk8vcs5gs03c6eqj7rwkt

Author Public Key

npub1mzkxujz0j355ra8kmh3ftnr05evm5xh2g2gyqavwe3pg3qlr34jqpxlzj4

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Last Notes

2024-08-17 16:04:18

My first true introduction to the culture was to ask my co-worker Ken Manheimer "do we need to wear a suit?" He looked at me with pity and said "no man, we're hackers."

2024-08-11 06:41:11

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@npub1tgk…4t9m I'm not falling for that! :)

2024-08-06 08:01:00

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@npub1tgk…4t9m i'm happy with any good whole bean with a decent grinder and a french press. but apparently only wawa can make a decent hoagie south of the mason dixon.

2024-08-06 07:57:05

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@npub1tgk…4t9m agreed, great coffee bar with good creamer. i also like the hoagies. i'm originally from south jersey, and i'm now in virginia, and i'm glad they made it down here.

2024-08-06 07:55:21

Wawa tries to tell me their Sizzlis are good but I've been to Italy.

2024-08-06 07:26:02

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@npub1tgk…4t9m not yet, expected soon since Qualcomm had it running a while back but support hasn't made it downstream yet.

2024-07-17 15:53:47

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@npub1tgk…4t9m are you trying to get my OnlyFans

2024-07-17 04:29:30

I lived at 16th and Q in DC in 1995. The whateveritis church was there, and that's where the Clintons attended every Sunday morning. I would always forget, and descend the elevator to remember that I would need to run a Secret Service gauntlet. One agent was omnipresent and we became colleagues at some point; he would smile and nod and call all the other goons off to let me exit and we both knew I would be killed if I did anything weird. I have a feeling that things have since gone slack.

2024-07-15 00:32:48

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@npub1e7v…flg9 dunno man I worked at a gas station for quite a long time before my so-called "career"

2024-07-03 11:58:34

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@npub1tgk…4t9m ok... i presume authentic judaism would have an army.

2024-07-03 10:33:03

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@npub1tgk…4t9m this might be more palatable to you (same lady):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTFV1t9_AuQ&pp=ygUTbWljaGFsIGNvdGxlci13dW5zaA%3D%3D

2024-07-02 21:43:56

I nominate this lady for clearest thinker, and her analysis most applicable to all modern conflict.
https://youtu.be/l4gX7XR0GW0?si=-GNa4OVNwJZAOPIN

2024-07-02 19:32:53

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@npub16mt…pnwy i fear it's not, at least on rpi. but you could use nix-the-package-manager on top of ubuntu and get some of the benefits.

2024-07-02 19:25:22

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@npub16mt…pnwy ubuntu should be fine too

2024-07-02 16:46:16

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@npub16mt…pnwy i made a series of 3 videos on this, and in the end i decided to stick with raspbian
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9W6znVpxn1c

2024-06-23 06:12:02

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@npub1avr…pnem oh don't worry, you won't have to find it, it will find you.

2024-06-23 06:06:04

When your interactions with humans are limited to the virtual, every emoticon becomes a prelude to violence, every disagreement a rationale to libel someone, any suggestion of self-betterment a mockery, every interaction a potential path for domination.
People are strange 2024.

2024-06-13 23:27:40

Now is that time. Say something.

2024-05-22 15:52:54

The best way to attract users and developers to your project is through continual exhibits of humorlessness. Nothing says "come hack with us" like a scolding email.

2024-05-16 03:14:41

Why a Generic Open Source Project Can't Also Be a Successful Civil Rights Project
https://chrismcdonough.substack.com/p/why-a-generic-open-source-project
#nix #nixos

2024-05-12 04:28:09

Report on NixOS Governance Discussions
https://chrismcdonough.substack.com/p/report-on-nixos-governance-discussions
#nix #nixos

2024-05-09 05:50:31

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@npub1tgk…4t9m pics or it didn't happen 😀

2024-05-08 21:04:31

My involvement in the #nixos governance discussions has (also) come to an end.
https://shealevy.com/blog/2024/05/08/broken-promises-the-nix-governance-discussions/

2024-05-08 16:17:31

@npub1g37…3act https://youtu.be/NDqJ93p-h7E?si=XJLzLYtrP0yKGgYJ

2024-05-03 01:20:01

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@npub1e7v…flg9 US is #5 in death penalty killings without conflating the two. What are we doing here, should I hate America or not?

2024-05-02 15:18:09

If you have skin in the game for #nix and #nixos you should participate in this.
https://discourse.nixos.org/t/zulip-for-governance-discussions/44684

2024-04-29 00:48:16

Apathy is underrated.

2024-04-23 13:19:19

This tactic of using the language of safetyism to achieve a hard-nosed technopolitical end is reprehensible. See if for what it is; a coup attempt.
https://save-nix-together.org/
#nix #nixos

2024-03-30 07:17:29

Yo nation-states, I got commit access to shit that will get you in anywhere. Let's talk.

2024-03-25 08:51:20

NixOS 83: NixOS as a Music Production System
I set up realtime audio using Musnix, Pipewire, Ardour, qjackctl and Audacity on NixOS.
https://youtu.be/_M_vSwGGVzY
#nix #nixos

2024-03-17 09:30:53

#NixOS is most useful to me after a couple years of using it not because of any of its fanciest features, but because it gives me a place to hang stuff like this that would get utterly lost in my usages of Unixes past. It's not a *good* reason, but it's true.
https://nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/chattingdarkly-files/media_attachments/files/112/110/324/335/892/019/original/4278cca4b5117617.png

2024-03-10 03:35:05

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@npub1sys…ckr3 we all get to the bottom eventually

2024-03-01 20:04:01

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@npub15x0…9dqj @npub1sys…ckr3 @npub1txc…ajj9 no half measures hynek, time to convert your channel into a drama channel. do it for the clicks.

2024-03-01 01:09:07

NixOS 74: Building a NixOS Image for Raspberry Pi, Part 3 (Hardware Support)
https://youtu.be/zPNgbLk4g14
#nix #nixos #raspberrypi #pi #rpi

2024-02-29 01:10:06

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@npub1j55…p4t9 was basically a docker image?

2024-02-28 15:08:56

I'm keen on seeing exactly what folks' Nix code that deploys production apps looks like. Are you making containers? Are you disusing the toolchain of the languages of the apps you're deploying in favor of #Nix? Are you using #nixos or just plain Nix? Does anyone have any code to share?

2024-02-22 22:02:23

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@npub1sys…ckr3 I am a horrific emacs user, but somehow it forgives me

2024-02-22 20:49:43

I've continually tried to get escape velocity from Emacs over the last decade because I'm not much of a Lisp weenie and I barely understand my own configuration files.
My latest try was to use only VSCode for a month. Sadly was foiled by crashes, sluggishness, inflexible word wrapping, the lack of dired, the focus on workspaces, and my distaste of how it handles editor tabs.
I then used emacs again and wow it's super nice.
So be it. Emacs it is for life. Meet the new boss...

2024-01-30 04:11:03

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@npub10sm…hjqm nah

2024-01-30 04:10:18

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@npub10sm…hjqm you have to pass in a list of flake8 exceptions e.g.
writePython3 "flattenreq" { flakeIgnore = [ "E501" ]; } ...

2024-01-30 02:44:04

What kind of totalitarian decided it would be a good idea for pkgs.writePython3 to do a flake8 check before allowing the script you're writing to be executed.
#nix #nixos

2023-12-31 22:00:35

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@npub10sm…hjqm i have 1gbps

2023-12-31 21:58:31

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@npub10sm…hjqm ok... kinda disagree, but no mas

2023-12-31 19:24:14

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@npub10sm…hjqm what is raw speed?

2023-12-31 18:20:23

One of the things I respect about Nix is that it takes advantage of modern network speeds and bandwidth.
You want to use 17 versions of nixpkgs in your Nix config? No problem, we will download 17 different versions of the big nixpkgs repo for you.
This makes real sense because you're going to be downloading *much* more in the big scheme of things.
But it must have been a bold choice back in the day, and I could imagine a much worse system engineered with a weaker choice.
#nix #nixos

2023-12-29 16:57:30

Pretty sure that the people that complain bitterly about Bitcoin mining as a singular source of wasted energy are also the people who have GitHub actions that recreate human civilization when a comma is added to a non-code file.

2023-12-11 02:08:26

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@npub1sys…ckr3 apologies for the aside but I just noticed that you're a double space after the period writer. Boomers and Gen Z represent.

2023-12-11 01:53:54

Write server side web apps in async code. Because nobody needs to use any libraries. Just write all that shit again. It all sucked anyway.
Then in five years after you've recreated operating system threads poorly through some absolutely fucked chain of promises and callbacks to make your code look synchronous again, you can stand proudly and say "Yes! It was me! I made a career out of that waste of time!"

2023-11-29 14:31:41

Twitter cost Elon Musk slightly more than the cost of the Manhattan Project (price adjusted), 44 billion vs 40 billion

2023-10-11 13:49:43

My company, Agendaless, has two people (myself and Tres Seaver) available for remote Python contracting within the next few weeks. We are based in the US, in the GMT -4 timezone (EST/EDT, US east coast). Each of us has been writing Python for over 20 years.
If you need help with a project, please let me know via a public message or a DM.

2023-09-24 09:16:36

Cliff from Cheers wants to kill himself and so do I watching this.
https://youtu.be/KKjqPWmyRcA?si=OTHXMpQzz93Ep0xd

2023-09-24 08:22:30

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@npub1sys…ckr3 I heard if you use enough types you don't need any tests. Downside: you never finish anything.

2023-09-24 04:35:42

Tests shouldn't need tests.

2023-09-02 08:04:44

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@npub1sys…ckr3 oh but they are David in somebody's mind

2023-09-01 22:10:41

It boggles my mind that Python 3 assert is still a statement and print isn't. What a decade-long fire drill.

2023-08-09 20:21:09

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@npub10sm…hjqm boy this seems like a lot of grafts for a new install of Guix...
https://nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/chattingdarkly-files/media_attachments/files/110/861/514/579/229/530/original/1bbbff020941497d.png

2023-08-09 17:24:59

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@npub10sm…hjqm I have no clue what grafting is

2023-08-09 05:20:07

This is an interesting set of mostly-negative observations from (presumably) a Guix user about Nix.
https://github.com/CuBeRJAN/nix-problems
I like these kinds of comparisons, because they really put into relief the different mindsets of the compared communities.
#nix #nixos

2023-08-06 13:57:42

Every time I grep a repository I'm not familiar with for something and some single-fucking-line-"compressed-"ten-megabyte Javascript bullshit gets spit out, I come near to losing my shit.

2023-08-02 12:36:39

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@npub1sys…ckr3 sorry what i was too busy adding type hints to all my software

2023-08-02 12:24:53

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@npub1sys…ckr3 heretic

2023-08-02 12:23:52

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@npub1sys…ckr3 all my defs are async David

2023-07-29 07:29:42

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@npub1gzl…kk4u did it sort itself out?

2023-07-29 01:37:37

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@npub1gzl…kk4u not here

2023-07-12 17:53:19

It seems counterintuitive that Nix -- a culture which values reproducibility of software builds much higher than packager and maintainer convenience -- is also the distribution with the highest number of maintained packages, and, of those, the most up to date ones.
But this echoes my experience with testing culture. If you set the bar high enough and the goal is worthy (e.g. "100% unit test coverage is necessary but not sufficient"), motivated people will come out of the woodwork.
#nix #nixos

2023-07-10 22:51:17

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@npub18hd…kf64 i fear there can be no timeline in which Oracle is the hero

2023-06-13 07:35:20

My first hard disk was a Seagate ST-225. It stored 20 megabytes. It cost a fortune.
I never was able to fill it up.

2023-05-21 22:37:13

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@npub1sys…ckr3 people manage it without even using the type system
https://nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/chattingdarkly-files/media_attachments/files/110/409/064/755/327/846/original/11c39f86fff8f5db.png

2023-05-21 22:07:32

You can write C++ in any language.

2023-05-11 11:48:13

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@npub1sys…ckr3 fuck i knew it

2023-05-11 11:46:39

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@npub1sys…ckr3 is it "look out here comes a closing paren"?

2023-05-11 11:28:19

Uh I feel dumb but what do these slashes mean in docs signatures?
https://nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/chattingdarkly-files/media_attachments/files/110/349/811/479/912/342/original/8991cbbfbad89202.png

2023-05-09 18:51:40

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@npub1sys…ckr3 do you give a class in this david

2023-05-09 13:58:09

Is this something anyone aspires to
https://nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/chattingdarkly-files/media_attachments/files/110/339/075/767/689/279/original/7d98bcecc67ba1ef.jpeg