TRST_Blog

It's been a long time since I first came across “Why's (Poignant) Guide to Ruby” and I’d forgotten just how personable it is compared to standard programming documentation. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate clear, sober documentation but having a personality counts in a way I hadn't expected.

The love and affection Why the Luck Stiff has for the Ruby is palpable: it pours from every cartoon and zany example. It gets me excited about Ruby, a language I wanted to love but wasn't ready for, yet. I suggest reading the chapter I've linked to get your beak wet and see for yourself just how enjoyable it can be to learn about code. And, maybe I'll take another crack at Ruby, or at the very least, flick through another few chapters.

I read this piece by Pete Lambert and was surprised to learn (as I am every time I learn it) that many web people aren't concerned about learning the ins and outs of HTML. Doesn't everyone have a semi-spiritual relationship with HTML? Or is it just me?

While everyone in my Twitter feed is talking about the departure of Jony Ive from Apple (a big deal, for my future readers to remember, but one I am personally ambivalent about), another massive change dropped from a Red Hat employee's blog post: X.Org will be put in maintenance mode.

Given the crawling release cadence, it probably already has. Red Hat's announcement isn't a death knell, anyone is free to pick it up and contribute, but the current largest contributor is moving on. This is a move that I'm sure will draw some consternation, but Wayland's maturing (though not entirely for many use cases that we currently take for granted, screen recording, anyone?) and thick-heeled companies, like Nvidia need to be put on notice before they'll do anything whatsoever to contribute.

I've recently moved to Fedora, particularly for first-rate Wayland support (mixed DPI display environments are a travesty in Linux). And I suspect that many more will take the plunge after this news.

What an unexpected treat! I have a Raspberry Pi 3B+ that I've tineres with and enjoy immensely, but seeing updated I/O on this board, not to mention the increased power, makes me want this board all the more. USB 3 and gigabit Ethernet make me think I have an accessibly priced NAS in my future.

(H/T Phoronix)

A project to watch for aspiring tiling window manager snobs... like me.

I can't remember how this dropped on my lap but for those equally interested in a GitHub repo filled with colours derived from Chinese folklore, you're welcome.

A neat, open-source monospaced font with ligature support. I haven't cared for ligature support until recently and I've now come to realise how much nicer it can make a terminal feel. The caveat though, is whether your terminal supports them.^[1]

Like all open-source projects, remember to donate what you can (be it time or money) if it's a project you enjoy.

(H/T Wes Bos)

What an article: exploring an important and necessary concept through a personal journey. It didn't hurt that the whole piece was hysterical.

My favourite bit (emphasis my own):

When I built the project, I noticed something odd: the size of my CSS had gone up pretty significantly. My hand-crafted abomination was only 30KB gzipped and I was up to 260KB after the refactor.

And, to make matters worse, the Vue CLI was lecturing me about it...

Which, of course, I ignored. I don’t take instructions from robots.

Talk about dark magic. I feel like my dotfiles are becoming my life's greatest work and projects like this make me want to burn the whole thing down again.

Setting aside the strange Kickstarter campaign, the likelihood that this will be a (twice) forgotten gaming platform and an endlessly reaching release date, purchasing the Atari VCS—for less than $400 US dollars for an embedded AMD Ryzen APU, RAM, powersupply, etc.—is a great deal. Building a PC with similar hardware puts you well beyond that price and isn't likely going to be as nice as a final product.

I'm not holding my breath for this project. But if you are interested, Atari has lined up partners like Walmart, which means it has to come out at some point.

For we are mistaken when we look forward to death; the major portion of death has already passed. Whatever years lie behind us are in death’s hands.

Therefore, Lucilius, do as you write me that you are doing: hold every hour in your grasp. Lay hold of to-day’s task, and you will not need to depend so much upon to-morrow’s. While we are postponing, life speeds by. Nothing, Lucilius, is ours, except time.