Hacker News: dima55

New comment by dima55 in "The Ubuntu 26.04 Rust sudo is not compatible with standard sudo"

dima55 — Fri, 06 Nov 2026 23:21:06 +0000

PLEASE don't spread misinformation. Debian releases every 2 years (usually summer of odd years). During the summer of even years, Ubuntu takes what is in debian, makes a copy, and calls it their release. Thus they leapfrog. For python specificall, the main maintainer is even the same person in both. It's not possible for Debian to "lag behind quite considerably". Here's the current situation:

  dima@shorty:~$ rmadison python3
  python3    | 3.9.2-3       | oldoldstable | amd64, arm64, armhf, i386
  python3    | 3.11.2-1+b1   | oldstable    | amd64, arm64, armel, armhf, i386, mips64el, mipsel, ppc64el, s390x
  python3    | 3.13.5-1      | stable       | amd64, arm64, armel, armhf, i386, ppc64el, riscv64, s390x
  python3    | 3.14.7-3      | testing      | amd64, arm64, armhf, i386, loong64, ppc64el, riscv64, s390x
  python3    | 3.14.8-1      | unstable     | amd64, arm64, armhf, i386, loong64, ppc64el, riscv64, s390x

  dima@shorty:~$ rmadison -u ubuntu python3
   python3 | 3.4.0-0ubuntu2    | trusty             | amd64, arm64, armhf, i386, powerpc, ppc64el
   python3 | 3.5.1-3           | xenial             | amd64, arm64, armhf, i386, powerpc, ppc64el, s390x
   python3 | 3.6.5-3           | bionic             | amd64, arm64, armhf, i386, ppc64el, s390x
   python3 | 3.6.7-1~18.04     | bionic-updates     | amd64, arm64, armhf, i386, ppc64el, s390x
   python3 | 3.8.2-0ubuntu2    | focal              | amd64, arm64, armhf, i386, ppc64el, riscv64, s390x
   python3 | 3.10.4-0ubuntu2   | jammy              | amd64, arm64, armhf, i386, ppc64el, riscv64, s390x
   python3 | 3.10.6-1~22.04    | jammy-security     | amd64, arm64, armhf, i386, ppc64el, riscv64, s390x
   python3 | 3.10.6-1~22.04.1  | jammy-updates      | amd64, arm64, armhf, i386, ppc64el, riscv64, s390x
   python3 | 3.10.6-1~22.04.2  | jammy-proposed     | amd64, arm64, armhf, i386, ppc64el, riscv64, s390x
   python3 | 3.12.3-0ubuntu1   | noble              | amd64, arm64, armhf, i386, ppc64el, riscv64, s390x
   python3 | 3.12.3-0ubuntu2.1 | noble-security     | amd64, arm64, armhf, i386, ppc64el, riscv64, s390x
   python3 | 3.12.3-0ubuntu2.1 | noble-updates      | amd64, arm64, armhf, i386, ppc64el, riscv64, s390x
   python3 | 3.12.3-0ubuntu2.2 | noble-proposed     | amd64, arm64, armhf, i386, ppc64el, riscv64, s390x
   python3 | 3.14.3-0ubuntu2   | resolute           | amd64, amd64v3, arm64, armhf, i386, ppc64el, riscv64, s390x
   python3 | 3.14.7-3          | stonking           | amd64, amd64v3, arm64, armhf, i386, ppc64el, riscv64, s390x
   python3 | 3.14.7-3          | tenacious          | amd64, amd64v3, arm64, armhf, i386, ppc64el, riscv64, s390x
   python3 | 3.14.8-1          | tenacious-proposed | amd64, amd64v3, arm64, armhf, i386, ppc64el, riscv64, s390x

The ubuntu server reporting this is super slow (one of a million paper cuts you suffer when you use ubuntu instead of debian). The latest Debian stable has 3.13.5 as you say. The latest ubuntu lts release (i.e. what anybody actually uses) was released a year later, and has 3.14.3. Next summer, Debian will be ahead. Also note that the current bleeding-edge ubuntu is 3.14.8-1, which is exactly the same as the bleeding-edge debian. Because they're copies of one another

New comment by dima55 in "WTF Ubuntu?"

dima55 — Mon, 02 Nov 2026 15:36:44 +0000

Exactly like with any Ubuntu release. Ubuntu is a clone of Debian.

New comment by dima55 in "WTF Ubuntu?"

dima55 — Mon, 02 Nov 2026 15:34:54 +0000

Ubuntu just copies Debian's packages. The release cadence is the same: 2 years. It really is just intertia at this point.

New comment by dima55 in "I Built a Stereo Vision Board for Hardware Hackers"

dima55 — Sun, 25 Oct 2026 17:07:22 +0000

Depends on how much accuracy you want in your results. You can do chessboardless calibration and stereo today, but you need lot of data and careful error propagation that nobody does. The mrcal project does does high-precision calibration and streo with boards. I've a boardless method mostly done now, and will run experiments soon. The conclusion might be that you need unreasonable input data to get good results :)

New comment by dima55 in "Keyboard differences between Windows and Macs"

dima55 — Fri, 09 Oct 2026 03:52:36 +0000

Of (home,end,pgup,pgdown,delete,backspace) the mac has just backspace. And they have just a single control key and such. Clearly the mac keyboard is designed by people that have no idea how to type. There's no "standard windows keyboard" anymore, but even the worst is still worlds better than whatever apple puts out.

New comment by dima55 in "Lunar Terminator Paradox"

dima55 — Mon, 28 Sep 2026 00:13:23 +0000

> And what on earth is the first plot? A moon that rises to its zenith doesn't become half lit

If it rose to the zenith, it would. This is the paradox.

New comment by dima55 in "Lunar Terminator Paradox"

dima55 — Sun, 27 Sep 2026 22:53:23 +0000

Well sure. Yeah. Do you find this explanation clear and satisfying though? Can you use it to answer a question like "at sunset, during a half-moon, can you see an upward-facing moon"? Maybe you're much smarter than me, but I had to write the simulator to figure out the answer. Claude and gemini never wrote the simulator, so they consistently answer that question incorrectly :)

New comment by dima55 in "Lunar Terminator Paradox"

dima55 — Sun, 27 Sep 2026 22:50:45 +0000

I think you're overstating your case. I never said this was novel. I didn't vibe code any of this. Two balls and a lamp were not sufficient to make this clear to me, but writing the simulator was.

The LLMs have read all of the internet, and are thus quite good at answering questions like this, and I have zero problems asking them about it. In THIS case, the answers available on the internet kinda suck, which made the LLM suck as well.

Lunar Terminator Paradox

dima55 — Sun, 27 Sep 2026 21:06:17 +0000

Article URL: https://notes.secretsauce.net/notes/2026/09/27_lunar-terminator-paradox.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49870837

Points: 104

# Comments: 69

New comment by dima55 in "On caring for user data: NeoVim caused Vim undo files to be deleted"

dima55 — Sun, 27 Sep 2026 15:37:47 +0000

Then you don't take the car. Why is this confusing?

New comment by dima55 in "Whoisinspace.com/"

dima55 — Thu, 17 Sep 2026 16:50:49 +0000

"Laika" is the generic dog name in Russian. Means "barker".

Least convenient location in Los Angeles

dima55 — Sat, 05 Sep 2026 18:27:22 +0000

Article URL: https://notes.secretsauce.net/notes/2015/08/16_least-convenient-location-in-los-angeles-from-koreatown.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49579283

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

New comment by dima55 in "A look under our trunk: what's in our compute"

dima55 — Fri, 21 Aug 2026 23:43:28 +0000

That's exactly what this is, a marketing blurb. Was this unclear?

New comment by dima55 in "OpenLogi"

dima55 — Wed, 19 Aug 2026 04:25:58 +0000

Not being open source is the thing that the program in the article fixes. You want the goal of the software-writer to be producing a good tool, not using the software as a means to turn a profit. That's how you get the turd being replaced by the tool in the article

New comment by dima55 in "Ask HN: Alternatives to GitHub"

dima55 — Mon, 17 Aug 2026 17:14:35 +0000

I want org-mode markup support for the wikis and readmes. Github supports this, and gitlab sorta does. You should hook up pandoc to it, and support everything it can handle.

New comment by dima55 in "The deep history behind the Road to Nowhere inside the Great Smoky Mountains"

dima55 — Sun, 16 Aug 2026 18:30:26 +0000

Great writeup. Along similar lines, the East fork of the San Gabriel river is a bit outside Los Angeles. It has a dead-end road with two tunnels to nowhere, abandoned in the 1960s. Below that is a massive bridge to nowhere that connected to an under-construction road that was abandoned in the 1930s, with all traces of the road largely gone; except the bridge, which is huge and is very much still there. Much more obscure is the PL&P trail, a bit above the bridge. Built and abandoned in the 1910s. All in the same canyon!

New comment by dima55 in "Poles of Inaccessibility in the San Gabriel Mountains"

dima55 — Thu, 06 Aug 2026 17:45:49 +0000

There's a link at the top of the article for that too: https://notes.secretsauce.net/notes/2017/09/25_pole-of-road-...

Poles of Inaccessibility in the San Gabriel Mountains (2015)

dima55 — Sun, 02 Aug 2026 17:03:06 +0000

Article URL: https://notes.secretsauce.net/notes/2015/05/06_poles-of-inaccessibility-in-the-san-gabriel-mountains.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49146240

Points: 36

# Comments: 21

New comment by dima55 in "Is it time for a new Embedded Linux build system?"

dima55 — Tue, 23 Jun 2026 03:22:25 +0000

ARM boards need a custom kernel and bootloader. These aren't things managed by the distro. The userspace IS managed by the distro and IS standard. Using yocto to manage userspace maybe made sense 15 years ago, but it has long since become far more trouble than its worth. Debian supports most architectures out of the box, has good cross-building infrastructure, many thousands of ready-to-use packages, and is non-weird.

New comment by dima55 in "Is it time for a new Embedded Linux build system?"

dima55 — Tue, 23 Jun 2026 00:22:25 +0000

Modern SBCs are just normal computers and not "embedded" in the traditional sense. You can generally just use Debian, and spend time on the actual project, instead of wrestling with the system