Often heard wrt JSON but incorrect. It maps to the primitive types in JavaScript. But almost all programming languages treat floats and integers different, make distinction between char and strings and many have some form of date/time. JSON has neither.

In that direction, XML is much closer since every node is a triple (name, value, attributes) so can have type info, json is a tuple. And Protobuf, while not popular, gets this completely right.

That not only ends up larger than "just the binary", it also eats a lot of extra CPU to (de)compress AND encode-decode.

This idea is novel, but wasteful.

(edit: I thought you were serious, so I answered serious. You were not ;)

Which brings us back to why so many people dislike Gimp, and/or see it as a posterchild example of bad FOSS alternatives.

I agree, and Culture IS important. And I think the culture around many Open Source "Alternatives" is harming themselves and the overall FOSS community. From Mastodon via Gimp to Nextcloud.

I suddenly imagine a zip format with built-in git. Does this already exist?

Basically a file-format that has built-in history, rollback, logs etc. Enabling all these "zipped XML" formats to get this feature "for free".

Could be as simple as adding the .git to the zip and ensuring the software that writes the content to the zip also runs the correct git operations.

But could also be a simplified subset and adding git-ability to the (de)compress libs and bins, which can operate on the compressed .git. Simplified, because it won't need networking/remotes probably not even branches.

It worked most of the times, until in winter, twice, some chickens were locked out. First time I saw it in time. Second time I only found feathers the next morning and one chicken less in the coop.

While on an especially cloudy (snowy) evenings, the door would be open when it was almost pitch dark out there and I caught a fox near already.

"The Real World" is just messier than a mathematical representation can be. I use https://sunclock.net/ and have built a watchface like that for my fitbit like that. The mathematical model is perfect as guidance. But it's not reliable enough to bet the lives of my chickens on it.

Most commercial automated doors work on solar + a battery.

So not specifically at 5AM, but around twilight. In my area, and for my cats, that changes a lot between summer and winter.

Same for my chickens, which is why "automatic chicken doors" are difficult/impossible around here: It'd need to calculate sunset and sundown, and then also consider clouds and trees: in winter the sun sets around 16:30, but the low angle makes sunlight more blocked by clouds, particles and trees and such. My chickens often decide its bedtime before 16:00 already.

If "Map Notes clog the map" then there still is something needed in OSM to allow data that's not directly geographical, to be kept up to date, the POI data.

Aside from technicalities: if we want a free, open, etc etc alternative to Google Maps, we need to ensure POI data is of high quality, up to date, and comprehensive.

While it's very useful for many to have all traffic-lights, bike-lanes or waterways mapped, in practice, osmand, maps.me, organic-maps etc etc aren't used when Google maps shows accurate list of Bakeries (or campsites, or anything really) but the OSM-sourced ones don't.

Users, like me, only accept driving to e.g. a campsite that's been closed for over a year a very few times before grabbing Google Maps again. I'll edit OSM in these cases. Open Openingstijden was one of a few experiments where I researched "improving and maintaining POI data".

If we consider the amount of "alternatives to Google Maps" that now don't contribute back to OSM, because of technicalities, legal things etc etc, we miss a lot of good POI data that makes these alternatives viable in areas where Google Maps is the one and only king atm.

I worked on "openopeningstijden", where my aim was to improve the data for businesses in OSM and to disclose that in apis and uis.

There were other reasons why I had to pull the plug, but a big difficulty was the understandable conservatism of OSM. I didn't even want any tagging schemes changed, or the insane dsl for "opening hours" improved, at that time.

All I wanted was to allow obviously "wrong" data to be flagged with a note. Where "wrong" could easily be proven with links to other resources. "The shop is permanently closed. See this url at archive org about their announcement" or "contact details wrong. See their website at url and cross check with BigFoodDeliveryPlatform entry at ..."

Again. Reluctance for such automation is understandable wrt intelectual property rights. It becomes too easy for editors to copy in data that's not allowed.

But the result is that businesses on OSM are poorly represented, often many are missing. That data is hopelessly outdated. And that consumers use proprietary sources and apps to find e.g. a vegetarian restaurant in an unknown city, or to find out if the hairdresser is open at noon.

Energy prices, and electricity prices are rising, indexed for inflation. For households and for commerce.

E.g. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=UUeu

This isn't true. Certainly not globally. Because electricity in 2026 is converting finite and scares resources. Plants need fuel to burn, water to cool, material to build, land to sit on, etc. Yes, even Nuclear plants¹ need increasingly more scarce resources like "coolant".

What has been bringing electricity prices down is renewables: insane amounts of solar and wind being installed hourly. But even with that, we are still lagging, globally: energy prices are -on average- rising, projects halted or stalled because of lack of electrical capacity and ever increasing amounts of CO2 pumped into the atmosphere. Not less. Not cheaper. Not more supply.

¹ https://www.france24.com/en/france/20260712-france-temporari...

And it's not Linux' task to close that, even if it could, which it cannot. How is that disingenuous?

I agree that we should keep discussing the merits and dangers of AI-aided software development. Broad, so indeed also CO2 etc. But that discussion is not something that Linux should push forward. It's a discussion that should take place outside the context of specific projects and in the context of the AI tools and providers, IMO.

Because if so, please, please elaborate on

> I do not see how AI could be legally used on a GPL project.

Too many people "believe" or "are convinced" about matters with AI and Open Source without any backup or sources.

So I do the same as you. But I am quite sure e.g. The Great Musk In All His Wisdom will one day either find me annoying and hand over the now discontinued x.com/berkes to someone who agrees better whith His views. Or decides his politics are better served by raising accounts from the deaths and making some AI voice act like me, that spew political messages.

I own "berkes" about everywhere. But nowhere do I really own it. Not even the domain name. The only handle I truly own is some bc1q....... address. One that has -by design- no reputation and one that's impossible to write in pen on the back of a beermat after a nice discussion in a bar.

Edit: to clarify: You aren't your handle, because it can be taken away from you, can be injected, blocked, overridden, etc.

My technical rambling then went on about how or when we can make this "handle" decentralized so it cannot be taken away from you. Hard. As proven in practice. Almost impossible.

My name is maintained by a government. It is a "handle" that could be taken away too, but is governed in lots of rules, systems and regulations. My face (an extension of my DNA, I guess) is decentralized and owned by me: its the only handle that afaik no one can take from me.

So in social interactions, you're right: reputation, bound to "me", my face, my DNA is all that matters. But online we don't have this. The closest we can probably get is "my name", controlled by governments.

"Persistent" reputation won't change that. Because on the internet nothing is persistent, without a central party enforcing it to be so. And as said above, the ones in charge of it now, don't want to enforce it really. You don't own your domain, you don't own your IP, you don't own your feeds, "content" etc. The infrastructure that routes people to your correct "reputation", isn't yours, it's controlled and owned by Big Tech, governments, and some smaller companies. Your feed can be taken offline or away from you in a whim. Access to your blog isn't yours. Not even if you host it on a rasberry-pi in your cupboard.

Aside from maybe some blockchain shenanigans, that is. Bitcoin and maybe Ethereum are the only decentralized "pseudonymous" identity providers that could step into this, but both are ridiculously costly and complex. And wholly unsuited to route content. Systems designed for this, like Tor, aren't really up to the task either. Just look at how insanely hard it is for "Content" that governments oppose, to remain online (e.g. on the tor network). Possible, but so complex, so fragile, that it's not a practical system to use en masse. Yet it's the only working system that comes closest to really owning content in the broad sense.

So it makes perfect sense to turn to the systems that have done this "persistent reputation", aka "identity" for centuries now: Governments. Compared to Big Tech, they're more decentralized - there are far more governments worldwide "doing identities" than there are FAANG corporations. Hell, even within the US or within my country alone, there are more. Compared with all other systems, we can control them, push them into a direction we want them to go - democracy. Far from perfect. Bad even. But the least worst way to have some "persistent identity" we can get. Unfortunately.

But not all of it needs this level, quality or insurance. A factory, farm, supermarket, stage, etc, is filled with tech. Many of it critical for operation, but just as many is non-critical. And either this "non critical" must then be acquired with the same level of quality, insurance and costs as the critical. Or it's simply not available - likely because there's no demand for it at this price point.

you are right. But my point was that not all of needs to survive the same conditions.

E.g. in a theater, you want the high class industry grade rigs for the main lightning when you are running the shows. But during rehearsals, or during the development of the stage (which is somewhat iterative by nature), custom made stuff suffices.

And this is where currently, custom made stuff is deployed. Stage technicians use a remarkable lot of intermediate, custom made hard and software. Some 3d printed valve to find out if the idea of the valve works at all, before ordering a CNC aluminium version. Some arduino before ordering that €2k/month controller to find out if the separate controller is needed at all.

This allows a show to prototype and experiment before they order the €20k water-spraying system. Or allows them to rehearse for months without paying €5k a month for the high class lightning rigs and only rent those for the actual setup.

Its the same with my other examples. They fill a niche. They don't replace the entire existing market.

> the average farmer or show operator doesn't have the skill

Exactly! That's why there's an opportunity here. "We" software engineers tend to build a rediculous amount of SAAS that are aimed at other software-engineers, because that's were we notice the problems and opportunities. My advice always, is to look beyond your bubble. The examples above are real-life examples where currently "farmers", "show operators" and "fitter" already are cludging together solutions to solve their problems. IMO there's no better proof that this is a problem to research as potential tech startup, than non-techies cludging together tech to solve their problems.

I'd leave out the "old" there.

An example: Friends work(ed) as engineers in theaters and music-venues. The costs for (DMX) equipment is insane. Some lamps, rigs or controllers are so expensive that shows only rent them. While there's lots of cases where you don't want to cut costs¹, quite often a cheap variant cuts it just fine. So apparently there's a lot of Pie's, Arduinos, ESP32s and old androids used to handle stuff. Custom, hacked, duckt-taped solutions. All of them are certain a startup offering generic but cheap modules that engineers can customize, would be an instant hit. Especially if "service" can be bought with it.

Or a friend who installs (climate) control systems in (food)factories, who cludges together arduino's and some hacky web-interfaces, who is certain that the industry would love some "off the shelve" solutions that installers can build their own hardware- and user-interfaces on is a very much wanted product. The industry (in EU) is according to him, one built on "lock ins", where a factory starts off with AcmeInc controllers and then slowly Acme will start charging almost "extortion-fee" alike figures just to fix stuff on a sunday night.

Or, a friend who has a fruit farm with lot's of freezer-storage (running hundreds of KWs), whith whom I cludged together some Arduino's and home-automation to control the freezers to run when electricity is cheap or free. Stuff like this is available for consumers at reasonable prices, but the moment the Amperages go to industry-level, the costs explode. Where a simple remote controllable power-switch can cost €1000s. I'm certain that there's hundreds of thousands of small warehouses, supermarkets, traders, logistics that could save a few hundreds to thousands of €'s a year, by controlling their freezers, heaters, pumps, pressurizers, dryers and whatnots smarter with "turn key" modules built from generic low cost hardware.

--

¹ relevant: There's a lot of "Nobody Ever Got Fired for Buying IBM" behind it: if you go for the cheap €800 chinese knock-off and mid-show something starts failing, its your fault. But if that €10.000 controller starts failing, it's no-ones fault.