h2g2bob @h2g2bob@mastodon.dbatley.com

The modern Linux equivalent to .zip is .tgz, and it makes me happy that the program which makes them still supports -L, an option which lets you change the reel of magnetic tape part way through. https://linux.die.net/man/1/tar #computing

Placebos (can) work even when you don’t use them https://www.improbable.com/2019/03/28/placebos-can-work-even-when-you-dont-use-them-new-study/

crt.sh has a list of all recent ssl certificates which appear in the certificate transparency logs. https://crt.sh/?q=%25.buildmorebuslanes.com #networking

Epic music: playing Mega Man 2 while Bit Brigade play the soundtrack https://youtu.be/MUHlVdqRlPA #music

It's Early Harvest, when farmers harvest corn and celebrate the first loaves of bread from this years harvest. It's also a good time to collect blackberries and other wild berries https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lammas #seasons

TCP keep alive works by re-sending the previous ack, even though no more data has been received. There is normally no response for ack packets with no data, but for keep-alives servers respond by also re-sending the previous ack. https://github.com/wireshark/wireshark/blob/178e7ce9a533ba9e5e152c9f7bc08f5ba8f25f0b/docbook/wsug_src/WSUG_chapter_advanced.adoc #networking

Europe's Galileo global positioning system had 5 days downtime earlier this month. The satellites were fine, the issue was with the support on the ground. https://www.gsc-europa.eu/news/galileo-initial-services-have-now-been-restored Current status: https://www.gsc-europa.eu/system-status/Constellation-Information #space

Scientists do autopsies on whales and dolphins if they get stranded on a beach.
https://naturalhistorymuseum.blog/2018/05/23/strange-strandings-the-case-of-a-rissos-dolphin-in-the-southern-north-sea-cetacean-strandings-investigation-programme/ #biology

The Minister's cake
https://www.roads.org.uk/blog/ministers-cake

It's a great time to read Sustainable Energy Without The Hot Air, an easy to read book asking if/how we can stop using fossil fuels. There are great ballpark estimates, which make the huge numbers instantly understandable. Free pdf. https://withouthotair.com/

How many disks can you add to a virtual machine?
https://rwmj.wordpress.com/2017/04/25/how-many-disks-can-you-add-to-a-virtual-linux-machine/ #computing

LightSail 2 will be unfurling its solar sail on Tuesday. The crowdfunded spacecraft plans to accelerate by reflecting sunlight off the solar sail. http://www.planetary.org/blogs/jason-davis/ls2-sail-deployment-live.html #space

Music recommendation: Ecuador by Sash! The song is just so ridiculous and awesome. https://youtu.be/9cQlVww0zKo

Drama as two conflicting proposals both want to use the same TCP's congestion notification flags. https://lwn.net/Articles/783673/ #networking

Liquid chromatography in beer glass. Draw line in felt-tip 2cm from the bottom of kitchen towel. Place in 1cm deep water. Water carries felt-tip mark upwards. Chemicals have different friction from paper, so colours separate. #chemistry

A new process to make ammonia
https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2019/04/25/who-cares-about-making-ammonia-you-do #chemistry

What's wrong with signals in Unix and Linux? https://lwn.net/Articles/414618/ #linux

Did you hear about the town in Ireland whose population went up by a factor of two? It was Dublin!

Does the news reflect what we die from?
https://ourworldindata.org/does-the-news-reflect-what-we-die-from #world