Julia Evans

programming and exclamation marks

I have DMs muted from people I don’t follow.

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npub1ym9ddu2qh7rda8pxklq4gxw2kxhtm4cgvdvdy64z6agwy88nhuhqcnlm9y

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b0rk_at_social.jvns.ca@mostr.pub

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Last Notes

2024-10-01 13:03:34

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all of the notes about people having problems with the contrast of blue & yellow in the terminal make me wonder how terminals choose their default ANSI colours. is there a standard?
definitely in wezterm (an arbitrarily chosen terminal) by default the bright yellow and blue are hard to read
https://cdn.masto.host/socialjvnsca/media_attachments/files/113/232/301/593/738/433/original/ecade9475215d610.png
https://cdn.masto.host/socialjvnsca/media_attachments/files/113/232/301/942/303/410/original/9e8032234fd7baf7.png

2024-09-19 17:08:28

PATH tips
https://cdn.masto.host/socialjvnsca/media_attachments/files/113/165/317/156/248/624/original/0055a72b6060cd44.png

2024-09-12 13:26:23

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@npub1eaz…y4dn huh interesting, I can only really reproduce this problem in `dash`, bash/zsh/fish all seem pretty resistant to it.
do you know what shell you've run into this in?

2024-09-11 18:47:54

writing about PATH is so funny, it's like
1. just add “PATH=$PATH:/my/dir" to your shell config, no big deal
2. ok but uh also you need to worry about path ordering, maybe it has to be `PATH=/my/dir:$PATH` instead
3. oh also bash sometimes caches PATH lookups, so if that happens then you need to run `rehash`
4. oh yeah and also if there are spaces in your PATH, then you need to quote it every time you add to it, like `PATH=/my/dir:”$PATH”`
5. also sometimes commands are aliases or builtins

2024-09-08 23:58:06

every so often I try to find a "better" system to configure my linux server to run web services and fail.
I'm not sure what I want really but I don't think it's any of ansible, puppet, chef, k8s, docker compose, nix, or sshing in and just editing files by hand.

2024-09-08 15:41:54

I think the reason I love writing websites in Go so much is how simple it is to use, i can just `apt-get install golang-go` or whatever and everything just works, `go build` will give me a binary that I can immediately copy to a server and run in production if I want
I work on a lot of small projects and being able to spend ~0 time setting up my development environment is worth a lot to me

2024-09-03 15:52:19

getting people to suggest solutions to lots of problems at once has been working really well, so: would love some ideas for solutions to these problems related to quitting in the terminal: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1HN1pd6fNphpJTD_lQYvy6YUmp67Gp1sjiX7HVmh-3xw/edit?usp=sharing
(please don't try to explain *why* these problems happen, just solutions or other problems related to quitting)

2024-09-02 19:10:48

continued spreadsheet experiment: would love ideas for solutions to these issues with filenames in the terminal if folks have them!
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1rnONPgybJBQifhg-eUWPfbW4fbMwobkwDkMw3KOSe3o/edit?usp=sharing
just reply in this thread with the row number & solution if you have a suggestion
(please don't try to explain to me *why* the problem happens, I'm only interested in solutions!)

2024-08-30 18:55:44

what problems have you run into with history in your shell? so far I have these, what am I missing?
- screwing up a command & getting that stuck in the history.
- history getting truncated (would love more details about why this happened to you! was it HISTSIZE? something else?)
- can't access history from other open terminals
- accidentally putting (or not putting!) a space at the beginning of a command
(please only problems related to history, and let me know which shell you're using!)

2024-08-30 14:32:58

here's an experiment: i'd love some suggestions for solutions to these 13 problems about redirects in the terminal, but there are a lot of them!
so here is a google sheet where you can comment. please be nice. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1XXfd5THrGEZ4AElwARMgk4j3BclbImdtWj90RO5Jktk/edit?usp=sharing
(you can also reply with solutions here if you'd prefer!)

2024-08-28 19:31:12

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@npub1hce…c5cz wait WHAT, TIL!

2024-08-28 19:27:33

what are some problems you've run into with filenames in the terminal?
so far I have:
- operating on filenames that start with `-` is hard
- spaces in filenames
- accidentally creating files named with special shell characters (~, *, ?)
- maybe non-ASCII / emoji filenames? (would love specific examples)
- (on Mac OS) filenames with uppercase letters can get weird sometimes (would love specific examples!)
what am I missing? (only problems related to filenames please)

2024-08-26 20:07:12

another terminal question: what problems have you run into with PATH? so far I have
- PATH lookups being cached by the shell (needing to rehash)
- how you need to restart the shell after updating PATH in your config file
- PATH ordering problems
what am i missing?

2024-08-26 19:08:11

what are some problems with quitting programs in the terminal you’ve run into? so far I have:
- not knowing how to quit vim (or some other program)
- programs not responding to ctrl c
- a background program being killed when you close your shell
what am i missing?

2024-08-23 23:02:21

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@npub1xz0…hzks obsessed with “inessential C syntax that textbooks spend a long time covering”

2024-08-20 15:07:31

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looks like the poster experiment is a success -- we've already sold 115 copies of this Debugging Manifesto poster (they should have almost all shipped already!), so I'll probably do another poster at some point!
https://store.wizardzines.com/products/poster-debugging-manifesto

2024-08-20 02:16:40

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someone asked me recently how long it took me to get used to the rhythm of working for myself and I said “uh, maybe 3 years?”. I thought working for myself would be hard to adjust to and it was, but I'm happy I did it anyway

2024-08-20 02:12:49

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@npub166j…vns0 ❤

2024-08-20 02:05:35

i quit my job just over 5 years ago to explain computer things (https://jvns.ca/blog/2019/09/13/a-year-explaining-computer-things/). I had no idea if I would like being my own boss but ultimately it's been really cool and I'm happy to have this weird job writing zines about computers.
("I’m not planning to hire employees or anything” turned out to not be an accurate prediction, now I work with 2 part-time employees who I don't know how I would manage without)

2024-08-19 20:56:29

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haha love to see some fun XSS attempts in the logs for mess with dns
https://cdn.masto.host/socialjvnsca/media_attachments/files/112/990/681/933/614/815/original/68193c9b6927bc19.png

2024-08-19 17:08:18

migrating Mess With DNS to use PowerDNS https://jvns.ca/blog/2024/08/19/migrating-mess-with-dns-to-use-powerdns/

2024-08-19 12:06:43

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@npub14uk…2erc this is awesome, really inspires me to work on my bench to get to a quarter of your numbers :)

2024-08-16 20:05:42

considering going to RustConf this year since it's in my city but I really don't write any Rust these days
but also sometimes my favourite conferences are conferences about things I don't do much of, like I had an amazing time at Open Hardware Summit this year (https://2024.oshwa.org/) even though I don't do much electronics because I could learn from every single person I talked to

2024-08-16 17:39:18

Just released a huge update to Mess With DNS (https://messwithdns.net) -- it looks the same, but now it's powered by a real DNS implementation on the backend (PowerDNS) and should be MUCH better at being standards compliant.
When we released Mess With DNS 3 years ago, the DNS implementation was pretty crappy and over the years I've gotten a lot of bug reports about it, so I’m very excited to replace my crappy implementation.
Would love to hear about any problems you run into!

2024-08-16 11:22:30

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@npub183p…jd98 oh yeah I remapped ctrl left/right away from the spaces shortcut so that I could use them in the terminal

2024-08-16 00:13:42

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@npub183p…jd98 thanks! I just realized that it’s a fish-specific keyboard shortcut, oops

2024-08-16 00:10:59

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@npub183p…jd98 interesting thanks! I'll try to figure out why it works in iTerm but not in Terminal.app

2024-08-15 18:32:27

thinking of writing a mini zine called "100 terminal problems" with problems and (sometimes) solutions
not sure if it will happen or if I'll actually get to 100 but I'm having fun so far
(not looking for more terminal problems in response to this specific post but I will be asking for more in the future!)
https://cdn.masto.host/socialjvnsca/media_attachments/files/112/967/466/294/595/315/original/5e40c52a4c14d06e.png

2024-08-14 22:45:47

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@npub15rp…wudh like this
https://cdn.masto.host/socialjvnsca/media_attachments/files/112/962/800/301/836/255/original/7f1a3da6a4cf4cc6.png

2024-08-14 22:37:45

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@npub15rp…wudh i’d probably buy this frame from ikea https://www.ikea.com/ca/en/p/roedalm-frame-oak-effect-80566400/ (though not in oak)

2024-08-14 15:09:35

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@npub1r52…jptq it’s an exception sadly because it ships separately from everything else

2024-08-14 14:01:15

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@npub1tnx…zyf4 there are free printable versions here! they look a little different though https://wizardzines.com/#posters

2024-08-14 13:38:32

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@npub1tvk…egdw awesome thanks!
it should ship within a week or so no matter what, we don’t have much control over that

2024-08-14 13:24:40

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@npub16kf…f4dm yeah international shipping is always rough, here are the UK shipping rates!
https://cdn.masto.host/socialjvnsca/media_attachments/files/112/960/593/903/076/507/original/21507df539904e68.png

2024-08-14 13:19:23

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selling these posters is really an experiment -- I don't know if we'll ever print another poster yet!
we printed 500 of this poster and I think if we sell 100-150 of them I’ll call it a success. so far we've sold 30 so it's looking good!
https://store.wizardzines.com/products/poster-debugging-manifesto

2024-08-13 22:31:32

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@npub1jtm…l72z here are the UK shipping rates!
https://cdn.masto.host/socialjvnsca/media_attachments/files/112/957/081/971/867/428/original/8c2e942c4841ecef.png

2024-08-13 15:33:37

the debugging manifesto poster I've been talking about is finally available for sale! You can get it here for $20: https://store.wizardzines.com/products/poster-debugging-manifesto
https://cdn.masto.host/socialjvnsca/media_attachments/files/112/955/438/752/330/995/original/b51e8e9f041a3a44.png

2024-08-13 15:16:23

it's been really fun to see zines in libraries -- the folks from Swarthmore (https://www.swarthmore.edu/news-events/diy-publications-find-a-home-mccabe-library) sent me this photo of How Git Works in their zine library
https://cdn.masto.host/socialjvnsca/media_attachments/files/112/955/371/027/544/970/original/b867d3016134b545.jpeg

2024-08-09 19:42:45

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@npub147u…dm5n no worries these things are so hard to track down!

2024-08-09 19:38:35

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I think I'm also going to open source the project, mostly by taking my checklist of all the things that I think I "should" do before open sourcing it and just making it open source without doing any of the things on the list
and also just leaving my terrible commit history the way it is
https://cdn.masto.host/socialjvnsca/media_attachments/files/112/933/752/701/080/685/original/be77349315771cf2.png

2024-08-09 19:29:03

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@npub147u…dm5n what shell / terminal do you use? i'm trying to get a sense for which shells / terminals this happens with

2024-08-09 19:28:36

getting close to being done refactoring https://messwithdns.net to use powerdns (https://www.powerdns.com/) as a backend instead of my custom dns code and I'm pretty excited
gonna get to remove all of the "RFC??? what RFC?" disclaimers and have a DNS implementation that is actually correct! And fix a lot of the bugs people have reported over the years that I've been ignoring!
https://cdn.masto.host/socialjvnsca/media_attachments/files/112/933/713/475/224/654/original/f403d46be8973abd.png

2024-08-09 18:55:05

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@npub1ay4…cgp5 can you say more? (do you mean when copying from the terminal or copying from a webpage?)

2024-08-09 17:56:46

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@npub1lwd…9y3p thanks!

2024-08-09 14:57:18

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@npub15ml…2w4s thanks!

2024-08-09 14:47:38

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@npub1ngm…8x2x can you say more?

2024-08-09 14:47:02

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@npub1pzy…pz3v thank you, I thought you'd know the answer :)

2024-08-09 14:46:17

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@npub15ml…2w4s that's such a great example thanks!
what shell are you using? trying to get a sense for which shells recognize that you're pasting (and will avoid running the command until you press enter) and which won't

2024-08-09 14:40:58

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@npub1pzy…pz3v that's a cool feature, I wonder how they identify pastes

2024-08-09 14:36:49

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@npub179x…sg8u huh I didn't realize that Wayland didn't have that, thanks! I guess I stopped using the middle click clipboard

2024-08-09 14:32:32

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@npub1ghk…8vfk can you say more?

2024-08-09 14:27:32

what some problems you've run into in the terminal with copy and paste? so far I have:
- pasting a URL with a `&` (or other character) in it without quotes
- pasting in many commands and one in the middle fails
- accidentally leaving in the '$'
- pasting in something with Fancy Quotes instead of normal quotes
- pasting a bash incantation into fish
- not knowing the keyboard shortcut to paste in a new terminal
- how Linux has two different clipboards

2024-08-08 22:09:14

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@npub17px…xxzw an eternal struggle

2024-08-08 19:21:36

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@npub1yc6…um5s thanks, updated the post to mention that!

2024-08-08 18:56:19

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trying to get back into writing little "here's a small thing I learned this week and wish I'd learned earlier” blog posts

2024-08-08 18:48:55

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@npub17ah…jny5 nice thank you!

2024-08-08 18:41:01

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@npub17ah…jny5 fixed thanks!

2024-08-08 18:34:05

Go structs are copied on assignment (and other things about Go I'd missed) https://jvns.ca/blog/2024/08/06/go-structs-copied-on-assignment/

2024-08-08 18:33:25

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@npub1fre…4szy do you remember what the magic config is?

2024-08-08 17:49:00

these debugging posters are in our warehouse now and we're almost ready to put them up for sale on the site! They're going to be $20/shipping (because they ship in a tube, shipping won't combine with anything else)
https://social.jvns.ca/@b0rk/112656662994903080
https://cdn.masto.host/socialjvnsca/media_attachments/files/112/927/659/555/925/516/original/718f9cae7d4f6927.png

2024-08-08 17:47:10

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@npub18qz…l3sd man i only learned about this PATH hashing problem recently and I find it really confusing that it never bit me, I used bash for so many years!

2024-08-08 17:38:53

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there are so many great responses about what problems people run into in the terminal environment
I think my favourite so far is how reading and writing to a file at the same file (like `grep blah file.txt > file.txt`) will just erase the file's contents (from https://cathode.church/@julia/112926974158575037)
such a great example of a behaviour that I'd guess most people only learn about by being burned by it

2024-08-08 16:20:41

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@npub1usf…a4ln thanks this is a great one

2024-08-08 15:12:10

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@npub1pvx…8k5k i’m asking for other problems you’ve run into, not solutions to these ones

2024-08-08 14:20:48

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@npub1uzg…ychd that's a great one, do you have a better solution than "restart your terminal”?

2024-08-08 14:18:09

trying to make a list of specific problems that people run into in the terminal (and their solutions), what are some problems you've run into?
here are 8 I've come with so far
https://cdn.masto.host/socialjvnsca/media_attachments/files/112/926/830/486/468/579/original/2164f6e379b98365.png

2024-08-06 19:31:18

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@npub1ccf…pxj4 I thiiink that's normal and hopefully it'll show up in the next week, but please let us know (support@wizardzines.com) if you think something has gone wrong!

2024-08-06 17:09:02

sorting out some zine shipping mishaps this week -- we incorrectly told everyone with a lettermail order that their zines shipped on July 12, but they actually may not have shipped until July 29

2024-08-02 21:23:56

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@npub19t5…qxj6 hooray!

2024-08-02 17:25:31

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@npub1vfe…v0qe aw awesome!!

2024-08-02 14:02:36

so many people are tagging me with pictures of their How Git Works zines arriving and I love it https://hachyderm.io/@robbkidd/112888385674616885

2024-08-01 22:50:58

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@npub1vr9…v74z thanks this is good

2024-08-01 20:11:07

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@npub1p56…nsnk yep!

2024-08-01 19:29:06

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@npub1pps…h3nw thanks for the example! way easier to understand that way

2024-08-01 19:27:42

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@npub1pps…h3nw oh yeah makes sense

2024-08-01 18:38:30

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@npub1pps…h3nw i mean feel free to run that code yourself and see what happens, no point arguing about it haha

2024-08-01 18:18:21

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@npub1pps…h3nw not true https://go.dev/play/p/bSLSqvlCYPw

2024-08-01 17:26:01

this is extremely silly but somehow I never noticed that `range` in Go makes a copy (https://go.dev/tour/moretypes/16) and I may or may not have spent 2 hours of my life debugging a bug caused by this
https://go.dev/play/p/tXGGz4syZ-f
https://cdn.masto.host/socialjvnsca/media_attachments/files/112/887/933/002/646/895/original/fc9d560cfd8eed9b.png

2024-07-27 21:28:30

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@npub1ec0…td73 thank you that was it! I had the word 'twitter' muted and it worked after I unmuted it haha

2024-07-23 16:26:49

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@npub1lln…gtaf thank you!

2024-07-23 15:04:54

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@npub16tj…q5dq thanks, I don't think I knew that!

2024-07-23 15:02:54

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@npub1ytq…9rrp well in `less` for example ctrl+C won't stop the program, it'll only stop a "task" like a search that less is running. Same for vim or `python3` and a lot of other programs

2024-07-23 14:55:58

does anyone know if there's a reason why, in the terminal, there's no keyboard shortcut for "close the current program"?
obviously there's Ctrl+C, but Ctrl+C doesn't mean "close the current program", it means something more like "stop the current task, which may be a subtask of the current program". I guess I'm imagining a keyboard shortcut that sends a SIGTERM or something.
(please only answers based on actual evidence if you have any, not speculation)

2024-07-22 13:14:23

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@npub1w5x…j36c do any of the options in the FAQ work? https://store.wizardzines.com/pages/faq (search for “gift" on the page)

2024-07-19 19:02:05

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@npub17ed…970x i’m not sure but my guess is that ctrl a does “select all” so it would be too weird for it to do something else

2024-07-16 23:25:30

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@npub1dsw…7s3y oh that makes sense! (though you can technically amend after pushing, you just have to force push which can mess things up badly)

2024-07-16 21:17:10

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@npub1dsw…7s3y interesting! by `git amend` do you mean `git commit --amend`?

2024-07-16 15:20:34

All of the preorder copies of How Git Works have been shipped! Now if you order one it'll ship within 7 days instead of "uh definitely before the end of July but we're not sure when exactly” https://wizardzines.com/zines/git/

2024-07-16 13:50:56

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@npub1hzg…9gtx congratulations! excited to hear what you do next

2024-07-15 16:54:41

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@npub1v78…we8c ahh so glad they got there!

2024-07-15 15:38:34

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@npub1wa4…x0kp thank you!

2024-07-15 15:38:32

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@npub1lkv…dau3 thank you!

2024-07-15 15:35:35

do you ever press Ctrl+C in `less`? in what situations, other than "trying to quit, unsuccessfully”?
(will probably delete this after I get an answer)

2024-07-13 02:01:43

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@npub16tn…ulsx I've been using paperjam for this recently (for example `paperjam 'book nup(2, paper=a4)’ input.pdf output.pdf`) https://mj.ucw.cz/sw/paperjam/

2024-07-12 16:42:08

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also if $12 is a lot of money for you -- we still have more free BUYONEGIVEONE copies available ❤
details here: https://social.jvns.ca/@b0rk/112552672907642693

2024-07-12 16:40:18

just checked and we’re 3 away from having sold 3500 copies of How Git Works!! https://wizardzines.com/zines/git
(if you're waiting for your print copy to be shipped -- it's coming!)
https://cdn.masto.host/socialjvnsca/media_attachments/files/112/774/506/975/625/549/original/917e25bfb0a69c99.png

2024-07-11 17:13:34

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@npub1qtr…3h8n thanks!

2024-07-11 13:48:06

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@npub1ewr…nzyd thank you this is so good! I should have known you already had a blog post about this :)

2024-07-11 01:46:17

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@npub1ajn…h50h this is what it looks like in the settings
https://cdn.masto.host/socialjvnsca/media_attachments/files/112/765/329/282/104/433/original/6c0e5862ac7bf343.png

2024-07-11 01:31:29

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@npub1ajn…h50h fastmail on the web (or in their app)