today's leftovers

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Jun 16, 2023

• chown: Changing File and Directory File in Linux

  The chown command, which stands for “change owner”, has been the de facto tool in the Unix operating system for changing the owner of a file or directory. During the 1990s, as Linux was being developed, many Unix commands were ported over to the new operating system, including chown.

  Understanding file and directory ownership is important for managing and securing a Linux system. Proper ownership ensures that only authorized users have access to sensitive files and directories, and can help prevent data breaches and security vulnerabilities.

• Tindall On Software Delays

  Now think about the date of that memo: 1966! This was before the nato Software Engineering conferences in 1968 and 1969, which means the term software engineering was not yet invented. Yet this person seemingly knew more about software development in 1966 than most managers of software product development companies do today.

  These are not new ideas, and sometimes it baffles me that they are not more widely known.

• Introduction to Linear Regression in R: Analyzing the mtcars Dataset with lm()

  The lm() function in R is used for fitting linear regression models. It stands for “linear model,” and it allows you to analyze the relationship between variables and make predictions based on the data.

  Let’s dive into the parameters of the lm() function: [...]

• Code Isn't Law: An Analogy

  Eisenberg claims that he found an open door, passed through, took valuable property that did not belong to him, and left. Arguing that because the door functioned as specified it was legal for him to take the property isn't going to be an effective defense.

• Open Access Makes Research More Widely Cited, Helping Spread Knowledge

  What this means in practice is that for the general public open access articles are even more beneficial than those published in traditional titles, since they frequently turn up as Wikipedia sources that can be consulted directly. They are also advantageous for the researchers who write them, since their work is more likely to be cited on the widely-read and influential Wikipedia than if the papers were not open access. As the research notes, this effect is even more pronounced for “articles with low citation counts” – basically, academic work that may be important but is rather obscure. This new paper provides yet another compelling reason why researchers should be publishing their work as open access as a matter of course: out of pure self interest.