Happy things thread!

[Linguoboy]

Spent my lunch hour marching with the graduate student workers' union at my university as they presented their petition for recognition to the provost. The university now has a couple working days to voluntarily certify the union, which has a supermajority of workers who have signed union cards. They won't, of course, but ultimately it won't matter since they have the votes to win an election.

As a bonus, you couldn't have asked for a lovelier day for a march across campus. A third of the way into November and it's 23°C outside!

[Travis B.]

I have substantially optimized compilation under zeptoforth and it shows the most on the RP2040 (i.e. the Raspberry Pi Pico), which now compiles code much faster than it used to (it used to compile code quite slowly and now it compiles pretty quickly despite the limitations of the RP2040).

[alice]

For reasons too boring and embarrassing to mention here, my backup hard disk went through a complete cycle in the washing machine inside my rucksack. After I realised what I'd done and dried it off, it still worked perfectly.

[Civil War Bugle]

Spent my lunch hour marching with the graduate student workers' union at my university as they presented their petition for recognition to the provost. The university now has a couple working days to voluntarily certify the union, which has a supermajority of workers who have signed union cards. They won't, of course, but ultimately it won't matter since they have the votes to win an election.

As a bonus, you couldn't have asked for a lovelier day for a march across campus. A third of the way into November and it's 23°C outside!

Do you know what union they will be a part of, or whether it would be a purely local union? I am always intrigued by the idea that all the grad student unions I hear about (at least in terms of knowing which larger organization they're in) are members of the United Auto Workers. If I didn't know that most unions have merged with each other, I would naively assume that people would join whichever union had the most appropriate name for their line of work and that grad students would join, I don't know, the American Federation of Teachers or something like that. I say this as a former member of the United Steelworkers for a long time although I did not work in the steel industry.

[foxcatdog]

My brother got a Wii

[Rounin Ryuuji]

I hear it's an underrated system.

[Linguoboy]

Do you know what union they will be a part of, or whether it would be a purely local union? I am always intrigued by the idea that all the grad student unions I hear about (at least in terms of knowing which larger organization they're in) are members of the United Auto Workers.

They recently voted to affiliate with United Electrical, as did the graduate student union at University of Chicago (which has also submitted its petition for voluntary recognition and filed with the NRLB).

If I didn't know that most unions have merged with each other, I would naively assume that people would join whichever union had the most appropriate name for their line of work and that grad students would join, I don't know, the American Federation of Teachers or something like that. I say this as a former member the United Steelworkers for a long time although I did not work in the steel industry.

When I was a library worker at the UofC, I was a Teamster. It was fun telling people that and seeing their reactions. I still regret not getting a jacket. (My current union is affiliated with SEIU, which makes a little more sense.)

[Travis B.]

I implemented and got working VALUE, 2VALUE, TO, and local variables in zeptoforth (they are not yet in a build though). While VALUE and 2VALUE mainly are to make other potential users happy, I see myself making significant use of local variables in the future, which should significantly simplify my code. (TO is for setting VALUEs, 2VALUEs, and local variables, I should note.)

[Travis B.]

And zeptoforth 0.48.0 is now out, including VALUE, 2VALUE, and local variables!

[foxcatdog]

I hear it's an underrated system.

Actually he says he has two so i will be getting one too.

[Travis B.]

A lot of progress has been made in zeptoforth land. For starters, zeptoforth 0.48.2 has been out for a bit, which adds full support for lexically-scoped local variables. Furthermore, not included in that build, I have done quite a bit of work on bitmaps, SSD1306-based OLED displays, fonts (and I have created a simple 7-bit ASCII monospace font), and demo programs illustrating those in action, including a version of Conway's Game of Life that displays graphics on SSD1306-based displays.

[Linguoboy]

For a couple months now I've been playing in a competitive daily trivia game. Everyone gets six questions and you're paired with another player. As well as answering the questions, you assign point values to each; these are the points that the other player will get for answering the questions correctly. So it's possible, for instance, for you to get 5/6 answers correct and still lose to someone who only got half of them.

In the last two rounds, I lost and tied in exactly this way. But today I got my first 6/6 and finished 1st in the rankings--a position I'll have for almost a week since we're taking a break for the Thanksgiving holiday.

[bradrn]

The other day I’ve finished what should with any luck be the last exam I ever have to do. After that, I have just one or two more classes left, and then I should be able to spend the whole of next year doing research! Meanwhile, my first research paper (with the same group) is inching closer to submission.

Also, a couple of weeks ago I installed Arch Linux on an old desktop machine formerly of my father’s. I’ve been using that to slowly switch over to Linux from Windows, and have just managed to get my Brassica SCA to build on it — two things I’ve been wanting to do for a long time now. I also have a new laptop on the way, to replace my ~7 year old one which is literally held together by tape; when it arrives I plan to install Debian on it, thus completing my transition to Linux and hopefully making my life considerably easier in the process. All in all, the year ahead is already looking exciting!

[Travis B.]

The other day I’ve finished what should with any luck be the last exam I ever have to do. After that, I have just one or two more classes left, and then I should be able to spend the whole of next year doing research! Meanwhile, my first research paper (with the same group) is inching closer to submission.

Also, a couple of weeks ago I installed Arch Linux on an old desktop machine formerly of my father’s. I’ve been using that to slowly switch over to Linux from Windows, and have just managed to get my Brassica SCA to build on it — two things I’ve been wanting to do for a long time now. I also have a new laptop on the way, to replace my ~7 year old one which is literally held together by tape; when it arrives I plan to install Debian on it, thus completing my transition to Linux and hopefully making my life considerably easier in the process. All in all, the year ahead is already looking exciting!

Good to hear! (Of course I know former Linux users who now use xBSD who think that the Linux userbase today has far too many former Windows users, bringing with them a "Windows mentality", which they blame for things like systemd, PulseAudio, and just about everything Lennart Poettering has touched...)

[Vardelm]

We just got back from getting a real tree for Christmas for the 1st time. We've always used an artificial tree before. Looking forward to pine smells and vacuuming!

[WeepingElf]

(Of course I know former Linux users who now use xBSD who think that the Linux userbase today has far too many former Windows users, bringing with them a "Windows mentality", which they blame for things like systemd, PulseAudio, and just about everything Lennart Poettering has touched...)

Dogmatists.

[bradrn]

(Of course I know former Linux users who now use xBSD who think that the Linux userbase today has far too many former Windows users, bringing with them a "Windows mentality", which they blame for things like systemd, PulseAudio, and just about everything Lennart Poettering has touched...)

There may be something in that… I’ve never really understood the opposition to systemd, and looking up Poettering his views seem to closely align with mine. I still see Linux and Windows as being pretty fundamentally different, though.

[Travis B.]

(Of course I know former Linux users who now use xBSD who think that the Linux userbase today has far too many former Windows users, bringing with them a "Windows mentality", which they blame for things like systemd, PulseAudio, and just about everything Lennart Poettering has touched...)

There may be something in that… I’ve never really understood the opposition to systemd, and looking up Poettering his views seem to closely align with mine. I still see Linux and Windows as being pretty fundamentally different, though.

I personally understand the anti-systemd people's position myself, but for myself my problems with Poettering stem more from his personality than what he has implemented. Just as much as Linus is known for not suffering fools, and expressing this very stridently at times, Poettering is known for being quite arrogant in his vision for Linux, with a "my way or the highway" view of things, having little consideration for that other people might not want what he wants.

[Linguoboy]

A friend of mine talked me into seeing Verdi's Don Carlos last night and it was fantastic. It was the first opera I've seen since the pandemic began (though I was in the same opera house a couple months ago for Fiddler on the Roof--also a fantastic production and one I had to be dragged to by a friend).

[Raphael]

I'm glad you enjoyed it!