h2g2bob @h2g2bob@mastodon.dbatley.com

I've shared this before but it's been a while and probably was on twitter, so it's worth a re-share

A lot of people don't know that `diff` (and `git diff`) have a several algorithms to choose from

They have various tradeoffs, mostly around performance vs readability & semantic accuracy vs overall diff size

For manual/visual diffing, I generally prefer 'histogram’, as it tends to be a closer representation of what *actually changed*

Here's a nice writeup

https://luppeng.wordpress.com/2020/10/10/when-to-use-each-of-the-git-diff-algorithms/

(1/n)

The government are closing the most of the ticket offices at uk #train stations, seemingly regardless of how busy they are.

This probably includes your local station: https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/interactive-map-shows-station-ticket-30403930

This is bad for staff, who have a year before being sacked.

This is bad for customers, who are left on their own to navigate the UK's notoriously complex ticketing system.

There is a petition against this: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/636542 #railway #ukpol

Today in 'blast from the past' ... What's the Carbon Footprint of burning a cow in Minecraft?

https://boingboing.net/2011/11/29/hacking-carbon-emissions-into.html

(excellent work from @floppy back in 2011 that demonstrates the power of APIs, automatic carbon calculation and fun. Still as relevant today as it was then.)

Enjoyed this paean to Kolmogorov - https://bristoliver.substack.com/p/genius-in-turbulent-times

🚨🚨🚨 Exclusive report: the scheme that ripped off £50m in tax incentives, the people responsible, and the eminent tax KC who said it was just fine. 🚨🚨🚨

Part 1 - the outrageous scheme, involving splitting a business into 10,000 companies, and hiring 10,000 random Filipinos as "shareholders" and "directors" (when really they were just globe puppets) https://taxpolicy.org.uk/scheme

We've talked of booting Linux off of APFS some day, which would be cursed enough... but I raise you booting Windows off of btrfs.

https://www.lilysthings.org/blog/windows-on-btrfs/

Cursed.

New report: how the Post Office gagged postmasters by falsely claiming its settlement offers were confidential.

Our report here: https://www.taxpolicy.org.uk/2023/05/30/postoffice_silence/

TFW a file format is so old that it includes an "insert paper tape this way" arrow as part of the header: Looks like this traces back to the PDP-11.

I absolutely adore the whimsical #art of 3D sidewalk chalk artist David Zinn. https://zinnart.com

Zinn creates delightful “works of ephemeral pareidolic anamorphosis” inspired by weeds, sewer covers, traffic cones & nearly everything he encounters around his Ann Arbor community.

SFC's Policy Fellow, Bradley M. Kuhn, has written a comprehensive analysis of the situation with the #RHEL (#RedHat Enterprise #Linux) business model, and how it relates to the software rights & freedoms promised in the #GPL agreements.

https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2023/jun/23/rhel-gpl-analysis/

#CentOS #RedHat #OpenSource #copyleft #FOSS