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kmacleod

69 karma · joined September 27, 2013

Ken (Bitsko) MacLeod

Jeeper. Tech enthusiast. Go-to expert for Automation, Cloud, AI, and DevOps.

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kmacleod··on Growing proof that autonomous cars save lives
The mass of unneeded cars will be at the periphery. The equivalent of taxi stands will have needed cars within reasonable distance.

Back in the PRT days we simply planned to store 1-2 vehicles in-station waiting for walk-ups, and if a drop-off comes in they just push out the waiting vehicles and they circle back. The efficiency remains crazy supportive of that model vs empty buses or trains.

kmacleod··on The Navier–Stokes Millennium Prize Problem
I work in software deployment for large orgs. I use this technique to optimize. "How can I provision or deploy this with one package install, and launch instance." Typically take multi-page or multi-step deployments down to fully automated.
kmacleod··on To save C, we must save ABI (2022)
I discovered this recently as I tested an old idea I had to allow a dynamic language to use a C++-like vtable instead of an inline cache (like Objective-C or JavaScript does). It turns out modern CPUs predict an inline cache hit/miss result much better than always incurring the cost of the fetch in a vtable lookup.
kmacleod··on Atom is better than RSS, in ways that matter
Atom kinda does. Atom is a paged format, so a publisher can publish their entire history in their Atom feed and only the most recent page gets redownloaded to see new entries as they are added.
kmacleod··on How should group chats work in decentralized systems?
Possibly very much like Usenet. In the 80s there was a distributed "Slack-like" (for lack of a better description) distributed BBS network called Citadel (still some sites around now Internet based).

I wrote a UUCP clone and UseNet gateway for CitNet and made it available through a Citadel BBS "newsreader" to callers.

"uccico unidel ken bitsko macleod" still brings up some results[0]

[0] https://groups.google.com/g/alt.bbs/c/QFvfoxxONGU

kmacleod··on Trump Fake Electors Plot
Small nit, as a legal vehicle, the constitution allows itself to be entirely replaced.
kmacleod··on How I use Obsidian (2023)
If your editor has a wiki mode (like Emacs' org mode) then maybe nothing. If not, then Obsidian is your browser and your editor is your editor. For example, git syncing between Android and desktop isn't working well for me, so I edit directly in github UI and browse in Obsidian. The fact that Obsidian works exactly like that is one of the biggest benefits of Obsidian.
kmacleod··on Microsoft's Azure Linux
I've created and managed five distributions for two companies. I've found RPM to have slightly easier tooling across the whole stack, from developers building individual RPMs/specs up through building and managing 1000s of RPMs across multiple releases. The Fedora build model makes a great reference and source of tools for spinning your own distributions.
kmacleod··on Waymo robotaxis are now giving rides on freeways in LA, SF and Phoenix
My Tesla FSD v14 will wait for any pedestrian stepping or approaching stepping into the road.
kmacleod··on A high schooler writes about AI tools in the classroom
As a district, aren't you also able to work with Google to enable research and educate modes in addition to the "give me the answer" modes?
kmacleod··on Are we Trek yet? – A guide for how close we are to Star Trek technology
The technologies I’d like to see tracked include post-scarcity economics, resource-based distribution, and needs-based allocation systems.
kmacleod··on How Tesla is proving doubters right on why its robotaxi service cannot scale
Not sure where you're getting your information from.

My FSD (v13.2) has driven unmapped roads, including gravel roads, hills, narrow roads, and switchbacks, in the backwoods of Tennessee. From watching the display, it clearly identifies the road features and navigates them.

kmacleod··on Debcraft – Easiest way to modify and build Debian packages
I'm building a community site DevOptimize.org: The Art of Packaging[0] for this type of content. Would be glad to host with an interested editor(s). Near-term roadmap includes wiki editing, currently in git.

[0] https://devoptimize.org/

kmacleod··on I used to prefer permissive licenses and now favor copyleft
The Free Software Foundation (FSF), as the author of the GPL and LGPL licenses, maintains that any software running in the same process space qualifies as "linked" under the terms of these licenses. This includes dynamic and static linking, plug-ins, loadable modules, and, in some cases, even interpreted code.

However, some developers who use GPL licenses interpret these requirements differently and permit certain uses that the FSF does not. A notable example is the Linux kernel, which allows proprietary kernel modules under specific conditions.

For proprietary software authors, the best-case scenario is having to convince a court that the license they accepted, by redistributing GPL-licensed software, permits linking without the obligation to disclose their own source code, as otherwise required by the license.

kmacleod··on I used to prefer permissive licenses and now favor copyleft
If it helps any, at two companies I was responsible for ensuring that all FOSS was made available to customers in an easily re-buildable, re-imageable way alongside our proprietary binaries.
kmacleod··on I used to prefer permissive licenses and now favor copyleft
Permissibly licensed software does not require you to provide sources or the changes to it.

Copyleft licenses require the source, including changes, to be provided.

The original purpose of copyleft is roughly the "right to repair". When you buy a product: you receive the necessary source, build instructions, and tools in some cases, to update and replace the software you received. The use of copyleft software passes those requirements on through proprietary users.

Note that one can still build a proprietary product as long as all the copyleft pass-through software can be modified and replaced on the product.

kmacleod··on I used to prefer permissive licenses and now favor copyleft
Red Hat, SUSE, Canonical, and myself, among many, "sell" GPL software that are used by others as part of their proprietary products.

Each of those, and the customers, are required to make the source they received (not their own proprietary source), including changes, available to those that receive the software (thus indirectly back to the public and the authors). AGPL is similar but includes the case of providing sources for products used in Internet services.

kmacleod··on Using Sun Ray thin clients in 2025
I may be misunderstanding, but I'm not sure I want a "remote desktop" where every process runs on the remote.

I want the original promise of X, where I choose where apps run and they are displayed locally:

• Run CAD circuit layout app on Pro server.

• Run Adobe Premiere on GPU server.

• Run distributed `make` on build cluster.

And of course, I want to be billed in resource-seconds, not per hour of a host made available to me.

kmacleod··on Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (June 2025)
https://DevOptimize.org - The Art of Packaging

There isn't a site that collects all packaging practices and how-tos in one organized collection. Now there is.

RPM, Deb, IaC, Chocolatey, optimizing packages, build tools, repo strategy, file system usage, and more.

kmacleod··on Tesla Robotaxi launch is a dangerous game of smoke and mirrors
Using the turn signal will nudge it to change lanes.
kmacleod··on Tesla blows past stopped school bus and hits kid-sized dummies in FSD tests
Just a data point, no argument:

My 2025 Tesla stops for road work flaggers spinning their signs from "Slow" to "Stop".

This issue here, correctly, is that it should come to a stop for 1) a bus flashing red, 2) with or without stop signs, 3) on an undivided road. Or, in our automated future, at least come to a crawl like FSD does now when entering a parking lot or pedestrian likely location.

kmacleod··on Tesla blows past stopped school bus and hits kid-sized dummies in FSD tests
Just for currency: I can't hop in the back of my 2025 Tesla while FSD drives. It has an interior camera now. It complains if I'm looking outside my window too long.
kmacleod··on A Fatal Tesla Crash Shows the Limits of Full Self-Driving
I'd prefer a blame-free NTSB investigation. It was a fault. Find the root cause, fix it, carry on.

You're correct, they can still ground a fleet, but there doesn't also need to be a prosecution.

kmacleod··on Driverless Semi Trucks Are Here, with Little Regulation and Big Promises
Not really. The rise in autonomous production is going to match a rise in autonomous repair and maintenance.
kmacleod··on Owen Le Blanc: creator of the first Linux distribution
The packaging model of distribution is ubiquitous. Every distribution does the same thing just using different control files and tools. The differentiation between distributions is all in their packaging policies and platform decisions. In a loose way Unix (SysV, HP, AIX) started packaging before Linux but Linux said "Every project is its own package" and ran with it. The de-facto "Download release; apply patches; configure; make; make install; collect files" is present in every distribution package. Everything up through deployment is the same pattern across all distributions.
kmacleod··on Waymos crash less than human drivers
How do you get yours to drive into a parking lot and park correctly? My HW4/v13.2.8 gets indecisive and ignores lines when getting to a destination. I always have to disengage before I can use parking mode.
kmacleod··on Philosophy of Coroutines (2023)
We implemented a low-power wireless sensing device on a microcontroller using asynchronous coroutines in C to replace eight state machines. It was a dream. Every operation process was clearly "linear" in readability while overlapping radio frequency hopping, sensor power-up/down sequencing, sense state, transmission, firmware update, etc. All while going into low-power mode until the next event to process.
kmacleod··on 100% Unemployment: on keeping busy when the robots take over (2013)
Voyage from Yesteryear (1982), James P. Hogan is my favorite. Essentially, yes, the robots can do better once shown but people create because it's enjoyable and, where desired, robots produce copies or maintain. The robots in this case have also been instructed to encourage human leadership and stay out of the way of it.
kmacleod··on Covid 5 years later: Learning from a pandemic many are forgetting
When I did the pre-2020 deep-dive I found the studies to be uniformly about the mechanics of the mask (hole size and particle size) and therefore the conclusions uniform on that front.

It was only after 2020 that any studies were done on effectiveness in use. The results are a lot more positive there. However, it was still difficult to do controlled studies so the results aren't as strong as one would like.

kmacleod··on Could DOGE cut $2T? The legal and practical reality of government reform
While true for the most part on spending, the deficit arises because we lack a rule requiring revenue to match spending, and we can't agree on what constitutes a fair balance of responsibility for that revenue.
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