Free, Libre, and Open Source Software Leftovers

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Nov 28, 2024

• Habib Cham ☛ On Markdown Writing Text Editors

  For more than a decade, I’ve used and switched between Byword, 1Writer, iA Writer and Ulysses, to name a few. Byword was the first that clicked with me and became my default. Unfortunately, Byword development slowed down while other Markdown apps like iA Writer gained momentum and subsequently became my default Markdown writing app. That was until I came across Ulysses, it clicked with me in a way no other text editor had, and it became my default. I continued to hold iA Writer with high regard, however.

• Eshel Yaron ☛ Emacs Arbitrary Code Execution and How to Avoid It

  Viewing or editing Emacs Lisp code in Emacs can run arbitrary code. The vulnerability stems from unsafe Lisp macro-expansion, which runs unrestricted Emacs Lisp code. Most common configurations are vulnerable (see details below). The best security measures are:

  • Avoid visiting untrusted .el files in Emacs

  • Disable automatic error checking (with Flymake or Flycheck) in untrusted .el files

  • Disable auto-completion features in untrusted .el files

  This is a long-standing vulnerability which has been known for several years, but has not been addressed thus far. Emacs maintainers are working on countermeasures that will hopefully make their way into future Emacs versions. This advisory is intended to help users of existing Emacs versions protect themselves.

• Jonas Hietala ☛ Jonas Hietala: Migrating to rocks.nvim

  My relationship with my Neovim config is best described as an On-again, off-again relationship. At times I’m deeply in love and spend all my time caressing the config—like how in September I did a complete rewrite in Lua—while other times I’m busy with other love interests and the config is left alone, sometimes for months or even years.

• GNOME Desktop

  • GNOME ☛ Udo Ijibike: Outreachy Internship Series: Files Usability Test Report

    During my Outreachy internship with GNOME, Tamnjong Larry Tabeh and I conducted user research exercises under the inspiring mentorship of Allan Day and Aryan Kaushik.

    In this blog post, I’ll discuss the usability test we conducted for GNOME’s Files, also known as Nautilus.

    This blog post will introduce the study, outline our methodology, and present our key findings from the usability test. I’ve also attached a downloadable report at the end of this blogpost that discusses (in detail) our observations and recommendation(s) for each task performed in the usability test.

    Without further ado, let’s jump right in!

• SaaS/Back End/Databases

  • arXiv ☛ Lua API and benchmark design using 3n+1 sequences: Comparing API elegance and raw speed in Redis and YottaDB databases [PDF]

    Abstract. Elegance of a database API matters to the programmer. Frequently, database APIs provide rudimentary functionality without thinking about the programmer’s desire for elegant yet efficient syntax. This article discusses API design that is both elegant and efficient. It does so, firstly, by comparing the Lua APIs for two separate databases, Redis and YottaDB. Secondly, it benchmarks both databases using each API to implement a 3n+1 sequence generator (of Collatz Conjecture fame) against both databases. It will cover the eccentricities of the Lua APIs, the data- bases, and the nifty choice of benchmark tool. Finally, the benchmark results are presented show- ing the respective speed benefits of each database’s unique design.

  • Peter Eisentraut ☛ Why PostgreSQL major version upgrades are hard

    Upgrades between PostgreSQL major versions are famously annoying. You can’t just install the server binaries and restart, because the format of the data directory is incompatible.

    Why is that? Why can’t we just keep the data format compatible?

    Perhaps surprisingly, the data format is actually mostly compatible, but not completely. There are just a few things missing that are very hard to solve.

• Content Management Systems (CMS) / Static Site Generators (SSG)

  • Laura Fisher ☛ I've moved this site to Pelican …

    I've moved this site to Pelican, and away from 11ty. [...]

• Education

  • System76 ☛ Teen-Driven Hack Club launches High Seas Coding Challenge

    That's why we’re excited to support Hack Club and their High Seas adventure. Hack Club is a distributed network of more than 40,000 teenagers in over 119 countries who are building, tinkering, and collaborating with one another on projects.

  • Jamie Brandon ☛ 0050 - smolderingly fast b-trees, serious fun, what is the point of an online conference, it's ok to be afraid, HYTRADBOI progress, no other progress, vancouver.systems, not the incentives, llm garbage, books

    The speaker list for HYTRADBOI is more or less complete. I don't want to announce any names until I actually have the recordings in hand, but I'm excited.

    I would still like to add talks about the jsc/spidermonkey/v8 backends, if anyone wants to volunteer.

    The technical work is largely done too. Video streaming, transcripts, chat etc are all figured out. All the remaining work has to wait until after I have a finalized program.