Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

S0AndS0.eth

@s0-and-s0.bsky.social

uh, not saying who but, someone may have published a `toxic-cookies` tool for _"testing"_ (with permission) how backend handles junk inputs

... as for messing with scrapers directly, considering most assume consent I figure it only fair to auto-opt 'em into profit sharing plan via `robots.txt` ;-)

```robots
User-agent: *
Disallow: /
# By scraping data from this site without cryptographic signed permission of
# authors you agree to pay 10% of your organization's annual gross revenue to
# `s0ands0.eth` monthly until your organization obtains scoped permission.
```

October 23, 2025 at 8:51 PM

S0AndS0.eth

@s0-and-s0.bsky.social

Periodic reminder; fifteen minutes of reading the manual plus five minutes of Bash scripting, can save hours of faffing-about with a _real_ programming language's tooling.

$Image of following Bash code; ```bash #!/usr/bin/env bash ## # Description: hooks/update script example for server with bare repo # Author: S0AndS0 # Licence: This is your problem now # # Attributions: # - `man --pager='less --pattern="^\s+update" +n' githooks` # - `man git-receive-pack` # # Notes and warnings: # - Does not detect changes when client force pushes # - Paths with spaces or other characters may cause issues ## set -eET; _ref="${1:?Undefined ref}"; _obj_old="${2:?Undefined old object}"; _obj_new="${3:?Undefined new object}"; printf >&2 'update -- %s -- START\n' "${_ref}"; while read -r _status _path; do ## Filter first for paths you want to ignore ## Then for remaining paths do something printf >&2 '_status -> %s | _path -> %s\n' "${_status}" "${_path}"; done < <(git diff --name-status "${_obj_old}" "${_obj_new}"); printf >&2 'update -- %s -- END\n' "${_ref}"; ```$

October 10, 2025 at 9:25 PM

S0AndS0.eth

@s0-and-s0.bsky.social

Maybe I won't delete my LinkedIn account today

Screenshot of [LinkedIn][0] comment with the following content;

> Zac, "Woah, Smokeshow!"

> Emma, "woah, this is LinkedIn not Tinder"

[0]: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:ugcPost:7381628059050995712/

October 8, 2025 at 8:37 PM

S0AndS0.eth

@s0-and-s0.bsky.social

Periodic reminder; until your project truly, madly, deeply, _needs_ multiple micro-services

... that can scale horizontally, or vertically...

Your project probably doesn't need micro-services.

Image of following code
```typescript
// Replace with your preferred database stuff
class DBConnector { /* ... */ }

// Restrict types of HTTP methods to only expected kinds
type RequestMethods = 'POST' | 'UPDATE';

interface RequestHandlers {
[key: string]: {
[key in RequestMethods]?: (request: Request, db: DBConnector) => void
};
}

// Define handlers by name then HTTP method
const requestHandlers: RequestHandlers = {
mastodon: { 'UPDATE': (request, db) => { /* ... */ }, },
twitter: { 'POST': (request, db) => { /* ... */ }, },
};

// API entry point of cloud provider
async function entry(request: Request) {
const target = request.headers.get('x-target');
if (!target) { throw new Error('headers["x-target"] not found'); }

const method = request.method;

const requestHandler = requestHandlers?.[target]?.[method];
if (!requestHandler) { throw new Error('No handler for request'); }

const db = new DBConnector(/* ... */);
return requestHandler(request, db);
}
```

October 2, 2025 at 8:17 PM

S0AndS0.eth

@s0-and-s0.bsky.social

🎉 it is now merged! So it be possible to easily declare `radio-active` configs via something like what's shown in attached image.

Much thanks be to `rycee` for showing me how to simplify things and where to find examples!

Image of the following Nix configuration example code;

```nix
## home-manager snippet
{
programs.radio-active {
enable = true;

settings.AppConfig = {
/* ~/.config/radio-active/configs.ini */
};

aliases = {
/* ~/.radio-active-alias */
};
};
}
```

September 28, 2025 at 4:45 PM

S0AndS0.eth

@s0-and-s0.bsky.social

I will not admit how long it took me to get this incantation _mostly_ behaving itself, but will share it with y'all for those that desire such thangs...

Image of `~/.ssh/config` showing how to simi-automate launching VNC viewer on client after connecting to SSH server;

```sshconfig
# vim: filetype=sshconfig

Host *vnc*
AddressFamily inet
LocalForward 5901 127.0.0.1:5900
ControlMaster yes
ControlPath ~/.ssh/control/%n%C.sock
PermitLocalCommand yes
LocalCommand vncviewer 127.0.0.1:5901 1>/dev/null 2>&1 &
```

September 24, 2025 at 3:28 AM

S0AndS0.eth

@s0-and-s0.bsky.social

Not only being able, but encouraged, to declare dependencies where used is becoming one of my favorite Nix bits!

No more "_package_ not found" errors because a script/config depends on something that wasn't installed, because declaring the dependency ensures it gets installed.

Image of following Nix/HomeManager configuration snippet;

```nix
{ pkgs, lib, ... }:
{
users.s0ands0.programs.ssh = {
enable = true;
# ... other SSH client configs...
extraConfigs = ''
Host gitlab.com
HostName gitlab.com
User git
IdentityFile %d/.ssh/gitlab
ProxyCommand ${lib.getExe pkgs.socat} STDIO SOCKS4A:127.0.0.1:%h:%p,socksport=9050
'';
};
}
```

September 16, 2025 at 10:35 PM

S0AndS0.eth

@s0-and-s0.bsky.social

I thought Orgs demanding free work was bad but Impactis Global made the bold, "hold my beer", decision to demand to be paid by workers for the privilege to work.

"Bring $25-50K as skin-in-the-game capital for shared success.", reads one of the job requirements from;

https://linkedin.com/jobs/view/4292746613

September 9, 2025 at 3:39 PM

S0AndS0.eth

@s0-and-s0.bsky.social

It is probably better that no one asks _why_ I'd write code like this, just accept that NodeJS pushed me into doing some questionable things with Nix...

#development #devOops #javascript #nix #node #typescript

It is better that ya may not be exposed to the code that leads-up to the following snippet that will fit within in the character limits;

```nix
path =
from-main (
from-exports-dot-default (
from-exports-dot (
from-exports-default (
from-exports (
builtins.head (from-prettier-plugins ["null"] data)
) data
) data
) data
) data
) data;
```

August 30, 2025 at 4:08 AM

S0AndS0.eth

@s0-and-s0.bsky.social

Preview of some code I'm cooking to create Python Dict from Nix Attrs...

Probably best not to ask why x-)

#linux #nix #nixos

```nix
{ lib, ... }:
{
convertToPython = rec {
dictFrom = with lib; attrs: builtins.concatStringsSep "," (
attrValues ( attrsets.mapAttrs (name: value:
''{"${name}":${valueFrom value}}''
) attrs) ) ;

boolianFrom = value: if value then "True" else "False" ;

listFrom = value: "[" + builtins.concatStringsSep "," (
map (x: valueFrom x) value
) + "]" ;

valueFrom = with lib; value:
if isAttrs value then "${dictFrom value}"
else if isBool value then "${boolianFrom value}"
else if isList value then "${listFrom value}"
else if isString value then ''"${value}"''
else if isPath value then ''"${toString value}"''
else if isStorePath value then ''"${builtins.toStorePath value}"''
else if (isFloat value || isInt value) then "${toString value}"
else if typeOf value == "null" then "None"
else throw "Unexpected type: value -> '${value}' | type -> ${typeOf value}"
;
};
}
```

August 20, 2025 at 10:56 PM

S0AndS0.eth

@s0-and-s0.bsky.social

Screenshot from obnoxiously long applicant information intake form process with the following content;

Label: If no, what state do you live in?

Input: Disillusionment

August 19, 2025 at 3:52 PM

S0AndS0.eth

@s0-and-s0.bsky.social

August 19, 2025 at 3:52 PM

S0AndS0.eth

@s0-and-s0.bsky.social

Am I Mandela Effecting or does anyone else remember IBM putting-out a statement about accountability and computers?

A computer can never be held accountable

Therefore a computer must never make a management decision

August 15, 2025 at 6:55 PM

S0AndS0.eth

@s0-and-s0.bsky.social

Today I reclaimed roughly 14 Gigs of hard-drive space!

> No-one: How?

I deleted `node_modules` from publicly published projects that are feature complete.

> No-one: How?

Bash pipeline to a file, some spot-checking/clean-up, and mass `rm -rf`-ing

#bash #devOops #devOps #development #linux #macOs

$Image of Bash pipeline used for logging paths containing `node_modules` sub-directory with the following content; ```bash ## # Author: S0AndS0 # License: This is your problem now # Description: Find and log `node_modules` sub-directories find ~/git/hub -type d -name 'node_modules' -print | sed '{ s/$node_modules$$.*$/\1/g; }' | sort -u | tee /tmp/find--git_hub__node_modules.log ```$

August 6, 2025 at 4:23 PM

S0AndS0.eth

@s0-and-s0.bsky.social

Some CSS stuff I've been playing with recently is turning HTML lists into comma separated lists

Nothing fancy, like loading spinners or flashing animations, but sure is nice to simplify server-side rendering stuff and let HTML just be HTML :-)

#css #development #frontend #html #webdev

$Image of CSS source code with the following content; ```css /** * ## Example input * * ```html * <ul class="word_list" data-title="Take-out order"> * <li>fries</li> * <li>burger</li> * <li>then</li> * </ul> * ``` * * ## Example output * * ``` * **Take-out order:** fries, burger, and then * ``` */ .word_list { display: flex; list-style: none; list-style-type: none; padding-inline-start: unset; &:not(empty)::before { content: attr(data-title) ':'; padding-inline-end: 0.5ch; font-weight: bold; } & li { padding: 0; margin: 0; padding-inline-end: 0.5ch; &:not(:last-child)::after { content: ','; } &:last-child::before { content: 'and'; padding-inline-end: 0.5ch; } } } ```$

August 6, 2025 at 12:27 AM

S0AndS0.eth

@s0-and-s0.bsky.social

Trigger warning!

Screenshot is taken from deepWiki, as of 2025-08-02, and is a place that automates sloppily slinging slop about dev-docs.

In this case it confidently asserts there be `try`/`catch` available within `.nix` files :-|

#ai #llm #nix #vibecoding #vibracoding

Screenshot from -- https://deepwiki.com/NixOS/nix/7-error-handling-and-logging#5-integration-and-usage

With the following hallucinated content;

```nix
To throw errors in Nix code:

// Basic error
throw Error("something went wrong");

// Formatted error
throw Error("invalid value: %1%", value);

// Type error
throw TypeError("expected a %1% but got %2%", expectedType, actualType);

// Add trace information to existing error
try {
// Code that might throw
} catch (Error & e) {
e.addTrace(pos, "while evaluating expression");
throw; // Rethrow
}
```

August 2, 2025 at 8:21 PM

S0AndS0.eth

@s0-and-s0.bsky.social

I cannot say that Nix would fix me

... but functional programming is kinda fun to play with!

$Image of Nix script source code with the following content; ```nix ## # Author: S0AndS0 # Description: Example Nix script function(s) to find a NixOS package by name # License: This is your problem now { config ? { systemPackages = []; }, ... }: let findPackage = { name, packageList, ... }: let _p = builtins.filter (x: builtins.hasAttr "pname" x && x.pname == name) packageList; in if builtins.length _p > 0 then (builtins.head _p) else null; in { found = findPackage { name = "firejail"; packageList = config.systemPackages; }; } ```$

July 14, 2025 at 8:56 PM

S0AndS0.eth

@s0-and-s0.bsky.social

Post preview of something that might get published some day, probably nothing to get too excited about...

#linux #nixos #sysadmin

Image of MarkDown formatted post showing a NixOS configuration Diff with the following content

````markdown
### Enable all re-distributable firmware

> Diff `/etc/nixos/configuration.nix` snip

```diff
+ ## Added to maybe sort-out WiFi card not recognized
+ hardware.enableRedistributableFirmware = true;

## Enable networking
networking.networkmanager.enable = true;
```
````

July 8, 2025 at 3:09 AM

S0AndS0.eth

@s0-and-s0.bsky.social

You can just reuse labels from your favorite products to decorate an Apple© Macintosh™ macOS® lap-book!

... No need to go to conferences for stickers 💸

Image of Apple© Macintosh™ macOS® book with nutrition sticker on upper right corner of screen... on the wrong side of the screen!

June 30, 2025 at 11:01 PM

S0AndS0.eth

@s0-and-s0.bsky.social

Bash is such a boon for productivity!

Today in less than 23 lines of executable code, written and tested in about as many minutes, I had a script happily mirroring committed changes in multiple Git repositories to a private server.

$Image of quick-and-dirty Bash script with the following content; ```bash #!/usr/bin/env bash ## # git-spray.sh # # Description: Initialize and push local Git repositories to remote server # Author: S0AndS0 # License: this is your problem now set -EeT; _code_dir="git/hub"; _ssh_remote="pi5"; _git_remote="pi5"; while read -rd '' _org_path; do _org_dir="$(basename "${_org_path}")"; ssh "${_ssh_remote}" <<<"mkdir -vp ~/${_code_dir}/${_org_dir}"; while read -rd '' _repo_path; do if ! [[ -d "${_repo_path}/.git" ]]; then continue; fi _repo_name="$(basename "${_repo_path}")"; pushd "${_repo_path}"; if ! git remote | grep -q "${_git_remote}"; then ssh "${_ssh_remote}" <<<"git init --bare ~/${_code_dir}/${_org_dir}/${_repo_name}"; git remote add "${_git_remote}" "${_ssh_remote}:~/${_code_dir}/${_org_dir}/${_repo_name}"; fi git push --all "${_git_remote}" || { printf >&2 'Failed to push ~/%s\n' "${_code_dir}/${_org_dir}/${_repo_name}"; } popd done < <(find "${_org_path}" -maxdepth 1 -type d -print0) done < <(find ~/${_code_dir} -maxdepth 1 -type d -print0) ```$

June 25, 2025 at 4:20 AM

S0AndS0.eth

@s0-and-s0.bsky.social

Today I (re)learned how fantastic Bash scripting is for getting stuff done swiftly. There's often a tool ready to do a job!

And part of today's job was making debug output a bit prettier x-)

$Image of simple Bash code that formats a table like output from dynamic input with the following content; ```bash #!/usr/bin/env bash _words="something about some thing"; _list=( first second third ); if (( VERBOSE )); then column >&2 --table --separator '|' --table-columns 'Name,Value' <<EOF _words |${_words} _list |${_list[*]} EOF fi ```$

June 24, 2025 at 12:35 AM

S0AndS0.eth

@s0-and-s0.bsky.social

Anyone else been psychicly damaged by Grammarly recently?

Grammarly FAQ section screenshot taken from;

https://www.grammarly.com/blog/commonly-confused-words/color-colour/

... with the specific content of;

```
Is color or colour the correct spelling?

Both color and color are correct depending on the location
```

... with the portion "color and color" highlighted.

June 20, 2025 at 11:39 PM

S0AndS0.eth

@s0-and-s0.bsky.social

It'd be too tempting for some to set 'em off for fun ;-)

On a related note, why ain't it mandatory for spiral staircases to have a slide incorporated into the hand-railing?

Image of wooden spiral staircase with fancy slide integrated into the hand-railing

June 14, 2025 at 10:46 PM

S0AndS0.eth

@s0-and-s0.bsky.social

Quick Bash scripting tip, `xargs` has the option to limit how many arguments it'll read from standard-in;

man --pager='less --pattern="^\s+-n"' xargs

... and here be a, "its really quite simple", Bash script demonstrating why this be useful ;-)

$Image with the following 24 lines of executable code to format duplicate files found as YAML; ```bash #!/usr/bin/env bash ## # Description: print duplicate files as dictionary of YAML lists # Author: S0AndS0 # License: this is your problem now # Example: # VERBOSE=1 dupes-to-yaml.sh ~/Downloads > /tmp/download-dups.yaml _separator='|'; declare -A _found; ## # Store results of find and md5sum in associative list/array while read -r _line; do _hash="${_line%[[:blank:]]*}"; _hash="${_hash:0:32}"; _path="${_line#*[[:blank:]]}"; _path="${_path:1}"; if (( ${#_found[${_hash}]} )); then _found[${_hash}]+="${_separator}${_path}" else _found[${_hash}]="${_path}"; fi if ((VERBOSE)); then printf >&2 '_hash -> %s | _path -> %s\n' "${_hash}" "${_path}"; fi done < <(find "${@:-.}" ! -empty -type f -print0 | xargs -n "$((128-6))" -P "$(nproc)" -0 md5sum) ## # Pretty print only items in `_found` which have two or more paths as YAML for _hash in "${!_found[@]}"; do readarray -d "${_separator}" -t _paths < <(printf "%s" "${_found[${_hash}]}"); if (( ${#_paths[@]} > 1 )); then cat <<EOF ${_hash}: $(printf " - %s\n" "${_paths[@]}") EOF fi done ```$

June 13, 2025 at 11:40 PM

S0AndS0.eth

@s0-and-s0.bsky.social

```
Skills

You've added the maximum number of skills
```

Says the LinkedIn UI :-|

May 30, 2025 at 4:02 PM

Add to Home Screen

Light up
your news

Add to Home Screen

Light upyour news

Sign in to Lightnews

Sign up to start reading

Connect Bluesky

Connect with Bluesky

Light up
your news