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corbet

4,109 karma · joined July 10, 2009

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corbet··on Linux 7.3
The documentation update has been applied, you'll see it in linux-next; it should move to the mainline in the next few days.
corbet··on A note on subscription prices from LWN
We can't email a PDF now, but it wouldn't be that hard of a feature to add; I've put it onto the list.
corbet··on A note on subscription prices from LWN
Nobody has ever asked us to do that; I take it you would prefer a larger line spacing?

If nothing else, we can easily add a customization option for that.

corbet··on A note on subscription prices from LWN
If we can grow the number of subscribers, we don't need to raise prices for the ones that have supported us all this time; I would find that preferable. Besides, who doesn't want a broader reach?
corbet··on Read this before you buy that TV streaming stick
https://lwn.net/Articles/1080822/ Do you really want to be a part of the scraper problem?
corbet··on So Reddit has decided that plain HTML is unsafe
I doubt it. The scraper botnets aren't going to bother with niceties like APIs, they just come in over HTTPS and grab anything they can.
corbet··on So Reddit has decided that plain HTML is unsafe
I am hard put to defend reddit and a lot of the things they do ... but I can attest, from personal experience, that scrapers are a huge problem for anybody trying to keep a complex site working. Withholding the display of the comments will significantly reduce the database traffic needed to satisfy a request; I can see why they would want to do that for anonymous readers.
corbet··on An update on residential proxies and the scraper situation
Very little of it. When you see a million IPs systematically working their way through your URL space, it's pretty clear that there's a central control node behind it all.
corbet··on Moving beyond fork() + exec()
It's an experiment. Compared to the text-obscuring popovers that are prevalent elsewhere on the net, it seems pretty low-key; as far as I know, this is the first complaint I've seen. I don't know if we will continue experimenting with those or not...better ideas for getting people to subscribe to the site would be more than welcome.
corbet··on Moving beyond fork() + exec()
The kernel does not copy every page, but it does have to copy all of the VMAs. Setting memory to COW (which can involve changing a lot of page-table-entries) is not free either. I guess I could have mentioned copy-on-write explicitly, but I do not believe that what I wrote was incorrect.
corbet··on AI assistance when contributing to the Linux kernel
Meeting minutes: https://lwn.net/Articles/1049830/
corbet··on I imported the full Linux kernel git history into pgit
I hate to blow our own horn, but I'm gonna...if you are interested in seeing this kind of kernel-development data mining, fully human-written, LWN posts it every development cycle. The 6.17 version (https://lwn.net/Articles/1038358/) included the buggiest commit and much surrounding material. See our kernel index (https://lwn.net/Kernel/Index/#Releases) for information on every kernel release since 2.6.20.

Or see LWN on Monday for the 7.0 version :)

corbet··on Subscription bombing and how to mitigate it
Being used to validate stolen card numbers has long been a problem; we've had to put in a number of defenses to fight our way off whatever list of "easy sites" these folks maintain. I hadn't thought about the "change card" path though...another bit of time spent away from what our business is really supposed to be doing...
corbet··on Vibe-Coded Ext4 for OpenBSD
I'm not sure what you're reading; there is a distinct lack of GPL advocates in that conversation.
corbet··on Ask HN: What are the best engineering blogs with real-world depth?
I feel obligated to mention LWN - https://lwn.net/ - since that is exactly what we aspire to.
corbet··on Guideline has been acquired by Gusto
Something broke down somewhere ... I got emails a while back about the acquisition and giving options about whether to go along with the move or not.

Since Gusto is our payroll provider, I didn't see a reason not to do that... hopefully there will be less finger pointing the next time something goes screwy with the 401k transfers.

corbet··on Aggressive bots ruined my weekend
The "compliance officer" at Bright Data, instead, offered me a special deal to protect my site from their bots ... they run a protection racket along with all the rest of their nastiness.
corbet··on Harnessing America's heat pump moment
My heat pump, in Colorado, kept the house warm at -18°F last winter. Without firing up the backup resistance heating strip. I think it works.

(It is more expensive to operate than the natural-gas furnace was, though).

corbet··on Next steps for BPF support in the GNU toolchain
We do try to spell things out and/or link them in LWN articles to make the context available, but some things we just have to assume.

Additionally, spelling out "Berkeley Packet Filter" is not going to help any readers here; BPF is far removed from the days when its sole job was filtering packets, and that name will not tell readers anything about why BPF is important in the Linux kernel.

corbet··on Upcoming Rust language features for kernel development
See, for example, the binder driver merged for 6.18. It's out there, and will land when it's ready.
corbet··on Arch shares its wiki strategy with Debian
The occasional sharing of subscriber links in this way only does us good. If you enjoy the content, please subscribe and help ensure that there will be more of it!
corbet··on QUIC for the kernel
Ossification does not come about from the decisions of "Linux maintainers". You need to look at the people who design, sell, and deploy middleboxes for that.
corbet··on Reports of widespread power cuts in Spain and Portugal
Many years ago I worked in a Safeway grocery store. We would have occasional power failures that would leave the entire store dark; we would all be given flashlights to help customers find their way out.

The cash registers, though, had backup power, so the store could still take their money.

corbet··on Reworking 30 lines of Linux code could cut power use by up to 30 percent
For a more detailed look at this change: https://lwn.net/Articles/1008399/
corbet··on Americans see their savings vanish in Synapse fintech crisis
Look up the Peerstreet bankruptcy for a variant of this story. "FDIC insurance" didn't help there either. That's all the fintech experience I ever intend to have...
corbet··on AI crawlers need to be more respectful
I think there are a thousand wannabe companies all trying to suck up as much data as they can; not a sustainable situation in any way.
corbet··on An open source initiative to share and compare heat pump performance data
-18°F here (-28°C) here this winter. The heat pump (Mitsubishi) definitely worked hard and burned through our net-metering credit, but it did what we needed it to do. -15°C is just not even remotely a problem.
corbet··on The Linux kernel project becomes a CVE numbering authority
Just in case anybody is wondering if this is significant...think about the implications of tens of thousands of CVE numbers being assigned for every stable kernel patch. There will have to be changes in the ways people are dealing with these.
corbet··on Zuckerberg's bunker plans fuel speculation on billionaires building bunkers
"The Future" by Naomi Alderman also explores this space, with some familiar-seeming characters; a good read.
corbet··on Fukuoka court rules ban on dual nationality is constitutional
Earlier this year I had to cancel a trip to the south Pacific because, it turns out, four months is no longer enough time for an "expedited" passport renewal. Appointments for urgent-travel renewals are not available in the US no matter how many hours you spend in the State Department phone system. It has gone downhill in a big way.

Bonus lesson that I learned too late: if you're in need of an urgent passport renewal, complain to your senator; I got an appointment within a week once I did that.

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