Tux Machines

today's leftovers

Posted by Roy Schestowitz on Jul 09, 2023

Today in Techrights

Linux, Graphics, and Games

Open sourcing the nginx playground

↺ Open sourcing the nginx playground

> This is an extremely short post to say that at the time I didn’t make it open source, but I am making it open source now. It’s not a lot of code but maybe it’ll be interesting to someone.

How I Went from Newbie to Linux System Administrator in Six Months [Ed: You cannot become a good sysadmin this fast. This just means the standards were massively lowered.]

↺ How I Went from Newbie to Linux System Administrator in Six Months

> Read how this tech enthusiast went from newbie to becoming a Linux System Administrator, Security Engineer, and even a mentor and trainer to upcoming techies, all in less than five years.

> [...]

> The Bincom Programme gives participants a sense of freedom to learn things that are even outside the scope of the chosen track. From my personal experience, I applied as an infrastructure engineer, but when I was at the training center, I saw that I needed to learn Python because as an infrastructure engineer, you’re required to do scripting which involves coding. Then, when I saw that the Python class was also ongoing at that time, I expressed my interest to the project manager and was allowed to join the Python program alongside.

Guest Post — Funding Open Access Book Publishing: A Different Approach

↺ Guest Post — Funding Open Access Book Publishing: A Different Approach

> Funding open access ebooks has advanced significantly in recent years beyond book processing charges (BPC) levied on authors. Originators of alternative funding models, such as crowdfunding from Knowledge Unlatched, have spurred an increase in innovative models that rely on a mix of grant funding, central university funding, and library funding or converting books to open access upon the realization of a revenue target. Examples include Direct to Open (2DO) from MIT Press and Fund to Mission from University of Michigan Press, which rely on a mix of funding participants, most prominently library supported membership or subscription commitments. Cambridge Flip it Open and Bloomsbury Open Collections convert pre-selected books to open access upon realization of a pre-set sales target.

The gentle art of making patches easier to review

↺ The gentle art of making patches easier to review

> I highly recommend reading the whole article, but my main takeaway is that when reviewing code, one should follow three phases:

> 1. Answer the question: "Good or bad idea?"

> 2. "Is this architecturally sound?": are the changes done in a way that makes sense given the existing project architecture?

> 3. only then, can you go all in on nitpicking on naming, spelling mistakes, or ask for the commit history to be cleaned.

Use case-driven standards development

↺ Use case-driven standards development

> Standards are at the heart of the web: from HTML to JavaScript all the way to ActivityPub, the standard that underlies Mastodon, and that Meta has said will be used in Threads by Instagram, their new social network. A change to a standard may solve a problem, but the question "for whom?" always exists. Standards must be technically excellent and use-case driven. They should solve the problem of real-world implementors, rather than hypotheticals.

ActivityPub, Decentralization - Do Users Care?

↺ ActivityPub, Decentralization - Do Users Care?

> Threads was initially conceived as a social network that supports ActivityPub, a protocol used by Mastodon, Lemmy (a Reddit-style aggregator), and WordPress. ActivityPub promises portability between applications — allowing users to interact or follow Threads users from other applications.

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