Julia Evans+

RE: https://mastodon.green/@solar_chase/117416542106532198 after reading one of

RE: https://mastodon.green/@solar_chase/117416542106532198 after reading one of the previous threads I bought the author’s book and it was a super interesting way to learn about solar power

i saw in Community Contact a while back that a prof at McGill is studying Black

i saw in Community Contact a while back that a prof at McGill is studying Black teachers in Montreal in the 60s and I was so excited to see that someone at McGill was studying that history (since my grandmother was one of those teachers)

become a select star talks about window functions but definitely not those other

become a select star talks about window functions but definitely not those other topics! curious to see what replies you get :)

When you use Git to collaborate, how do you send other people your code changes?

When you use Git to collaborate, how do you send other people your code changes? you can pick more than one (just skip this one if you don’t use Git to collaborate) send a branch w/ a pull/merge request or similar send a patch set w/ phabricator/gerrit/??? send patches by email other

(this is the wizard zines version of that page I think) wizardzines.com/comics/m

(this is the wizard zines version of that page I think) wizardzines.com/comics/meet-...

explaining commits better is such a great idea!! i do feel like "commits are sn

explaining commits better is such a great idea!! i do feel like "commits are snapshots not diffs" has had its time in the sun and we can try a different approach

thanks that is such a great question! this description from the man page is defi

thanks that is such a great question! this description from the man page is definitely A Lot 😅

dumb git question: in a merge-based workflow, if you’re working on a branch, is

dumb git question: in a merge-based workflow, if you’re working on a branch, is there any reasonable way to integrate new changes from `main` back into your branch without using `git rebase`? I have this belief that there are people who only use merge commits and not rebase but I don’t understand how that works (do you just use `git merge main`? if so do you get confused by all the merge commits t

are you sure you don't want to hear the facts I learned about `git log --merge`

are you sure you don't want to hear the facts I learned about `git log --merge` (which is of course totally different from `git log --merges`)

have you switched to `git switch`? I hear from a lot of people that they're havi

have you switched to `git switch`? I hear from a lot of people that they're having trouble migrating their muscle memory even though they've heard of the new way.

i think no because they need to be readable in the terminal and comics are hard

i think no because they need to be readable in the terminal and comics are hard for the community to maintain :( been thinking about ways to make things friendly but it's tough, I'm just trying to add little jokes sometimes

oh yeah great topic! I took a stab at rewriting git-scm.com/docs/git-reset last

oh yeah great topic! I took a stab at rewriting git-scm.com/docs/git-reset last year to make the --hard/--mixed/--soft situation more clear but I think it's still kinda rough

oh good point about repeating newbranchname. I'm pretty sure you can actually ju

oh good point about repeating newbranchname. I'm pretty sure you can actually just run `git push --set-upstream origin` instead but need to check. `git branch newbranchname` creates the new branch but doesn't switch to it which IMO is less useful

for humans!

for humans!

thanks, this is such a great question. do you think this is the recipe you're ta

thanks, this is such a great question. do you think this is the recipe you're talking about to create a new branch? git switch -c newbranchname git push --set-upstream origin newbranchname (replacing `origin` with the appropriate remote name)

yea it's weird because it comes with Git but internally it's in a special "contr

yea it's weird because it comes with Git but internally it's in a special "contrib" directory and has a slightly different status which TBH I do not quite understand

yeah totally. Technically I think `git status` does tell you the `--abort` comma

yeah totally. Technically I think `git status` does tell you the `--abort` command to run but I think the way it's formatted is confusing. i've been thinking about the way it's laid out a bit.

thanks! I don't really know how to use submodules or subtrees either honestly bu

thanks! I don't really know how to use submodules or subtrees either honestly but I think it would be amazing. it's a bit weird because (inside baseball stuff) subtree is technically not part of "core" git and weirdly sometimes git doesn't even include `git help subtree`. should be a way tho!

thanks this is great! always here for git venting :) do you mean this sequencer

thanks this is great! always here for git venting :) do you mean this sequencer thing?

thanks! i don't know much about LFS tbh but appreciate the question

thanks! i don't know much about LFS tbh but appreciate the question

thanks! would love to hear more about the issues with managing merges if you can

thanks! would love to hear more about the issues with managing merges if you can, there are so many different ways to use merge & rebase

this week I learned that during a merge conflict, you can get a list of all comm

this week I learned that during a merge conflict, you can get a list of all commits involved in the conflict that touched a file with: $ git log --merge FILENAME Seems useful if there are a lot of commits being merged (like in a big rebase) but only a couple of them touched that file

also (genuinely) please reply to this post with your opinions about what the doc

also (genuinely) please reply to this post with your opinions about what the docs should explain even if you have never read the Git documentation thinking about writing little more help pages so we can say like "see `git help <topic>`" for more advice in tricky situtations

i'm working on some more updates to the official Git documentation so uh what is

i'm working on some more updates to the official Git documentation so uh what is one concept you wish the docs explained more clearly? right now I'm working on merge conflicts which I'm pretty excited about

Thinking this morning about how much of teaching is just taking the time to list

Thinking this morning about how much of teaching is just taking the time to listen. Hearing what someone’s actual computer problem is and then addressing it is so much harder than just telling them what I think is interesting or cool. And sometimes I don’t know the answer to their actual problem, and I might not even know how to find out, and that feels bad! But it’s okay to just say “I don’t know

been having a hard time with this in writing recently, like I just wrote "IDE" i

been having a hard time with this in writing recently, like I just wrote "IDE" in something and someone asked what an IDE is and what kind of text editor counts as an IDE which is a very fair and great question but I feel like I need to do much more than spell out what "IDE" stands for to answer

yeah that would help! could use the help getting feedback about the windows envi

yeah that would help! could use the help getting feedback about the windows environment from a couple people who understands the git aspects already

i'm looking for some Windows users to test a new tutorial about Git for beginner

i'm looking for some Windows users to test a new tutorial about Git for beginners! If you sign up here I'll send you an email next week or so with a link: forms.gle/69NgKWuqtEHU... (non-Windows users welcome too but I have a lot of linux & mac users already :))

has anyone written a man page SYNOPSIS parser that somehow (?? I have no idea wh

has anyone written a man page SYNOPSIS parser that somehow (?? I have no idea what I mean by this) helps folks understand what they mean? I was talking to a friend the other day who said they were having a hard time understanding the rules of the SYNOPSIS format and I realized I’d never even seen it explained anywhere. the main thing that comes to mind is https://explainshell.com/ (which is not al

RE: https://hachyderm.io/@molly0xfff/117374213919135553 finally signed up for a

RE: https://hachyderm.io/@molly0xfff/117374213919135553 finally signed up for a paid subscription to support Molly White’s cryptocurrency reporting loved her 2024 talk on the how building things on the web is magic too https://xoxofest.com/2024/videos/molly-white/

one of the many good things about asking people questions instead of LLMs is tha

one of the many good things about asking people questions instead of LLMs is that today i had a question about a project so i went to the discord to ask and the person said “oh no the software doesn’t do that but maybe we could change it so that it could” (obviously asking people doesn’t always go well too, i have had many bad experiences with this approach too! it’s very messy!)

I’m working on a list of questions you might want to ask about the Git workflow

I’m working on a list of questions you might want to ask about the Git workflow when joining a new team https://gist.github.com/jvns/600e510958c4b9444b93bec84fd1a5f3 Would love ideas for other questions that would be useful to know the answer to!

one thing about making a Django site is that dealing with these residential prox

one thing about making a Django site is that dealing with these residential proxy scrapers is tough. It’s definitely easier to handle with a Go server that’s faster or a static site. The site doesn’t even have anything useful to scrape! I don’t really want to use Anubis since it’s a bit annoying for users so I’ve been doing a lot of aggressive IP blocking but it doesn’t feel great. (not really loo

Is there a QR code generator that 1. is a website 2. is free, no account needed

Is there a QR code generator that 1. is a website 2. is free, no account needed 3. is not secretly also a link shortener (no “dynamic QR codes”) 4. does not look like a scam 5. does not include extra branding (the way the Chrome one does) a friend just asked me this and I really could not find one (edit: many people are recommending https://justaqrcode.com/ which looks great, gonna mute this conve

replacing the old battery on rechargeable bike lights https://jvns.ca/blog/2026/

replacing the old battery on rechargeable bike lights https://jvns.ca/blog/2026/09/27/replacing-the-old-battery-on-rechargeable-bike-lights/

another git push/pull questionl: how do you usually set an upstream for branches

another git push/pull questionl: how do you usually set an upstream for branches that you create? you can pick more than one (also I really appreciate everyone answering all these polls, I hope it is fun for you) With `git push -u` (aka --set-upstream) With the config option `push.autoSetupRemote=true` With `git branch --set-upstream-to=` Other

poll: when you run `git pull`, do you pass the name of the remote/branch (like `

poll: when you run `git pull`, do you pass the name of the remote/branch (like `git pull origin main`) or just `git pull`? (you can pick more than one) I use `git pull origin main` I just use `git pull` (maybe with —rebase etc) I don’t use `git pull`, I use `git fetch` instead Other

poll: in Git, do you ever use any of the references `MERGE_HEAD`, `REBASE_HEAD`,

poll: in Git, do you ever use any of the references `MERGE_HEAD`, `REBASE_HEAD`, `CHERRY_PICK_HEAD`, `ORIG_HEAD`, `FETCH_HEAD`, or `REVERT_HEAD` etc? (and if so, what do you use them for?) yes, every week or more yes, occasionally no, never no, and I have no idea what they are

periodic reminder that Wizard Zines has an educational use policy if you want to

periodic reminder that Wizard Zines has an educational use policy if you want to use them in your university courses! wizardzines.com/education/

periodic reminder that Wizard Zines has an educational use policy if you want to

periodic reminder that Wizard Zines has an educational use policy if you want to use them in your university courses! https://wizardzines.com/education/

poll: if you use Git, how do you set up Git to login to remote Git repos? (you c

poll: if you use Git, how do you set up Git to login to remote Git repos? (you can pick more than one) with an SSH key with username/password with a command like `gh auth login` to set creds other

i have gotten a lot of people on here yelling at me for using google forms and 0

i have gotten a lot of people on here yelling at me for using google forms and 0 people telling me that they want to participate but that they can't (or won't) use google forms if you want to participate but google forms is a barrier I'm open to figuring something out (2/?)

Are you interested in learning how to use Git for the first time? (or almost the

Are you interested in learning how to use Git for the first time? (or almost the first time) we're looking for Git beginners to give us feedback on a Git tutorial! The tutorial will be open source when it's released, so you'll be helping many future beginners! Sign up here: https://forms.gle/zgubUXvFZKRALefWA (i realize my Mastodon followers are pretty unlikely to be total Git beginners, but I'm p

RE: https://mastodon.social/@grimalkina/117295092454037261 this is so real

RE: https://mastodon.social/@grimalkina/117295092454037261 this is so real

in Lisbon for Git Merge / JJ Con this week

in Lisbon for Git Merge / JJ Con this week

poll: to look up the official documentation for "git pull", would you use: (you

poll: to look up the official documentation for "git pull", would you use: (you can pick more than one) `git help pull` `man git-pull` `git pull —help` https://git-scm.com/docs/git-pull

jvns pushed docs-feedback

jvns pushed docs-feedback

jvns pushed docs-feedback

jvns pushed docs-feedback

jvns pushed docs-feedback

jvns pushed docs-feedback

jvns pushed docs-feedback

jvns pushed docs-feedback

jvns pushed docs-feedback

jvns pushed docs-feedback

jvns pushed docs-feedback

jvns pushed docs-feedback

jvns pushed docs-feedback

jvns pushed docs-feedback

i've started getting a lot of emails (maybe one every few days) that appear to b

i've started getting a lot of emails (maybe one every few days) that appear to be LLM generated from people asking for some kind of feedback or collaboration on their LLM-generated app feels sad because I used to like it when people emailed me about something cool they made and now I just have to send it all straight to spam

sorry if this is turning into a novel but I really believe that the way we learn

sorry if this is turning into a novel but I really believe that the way we learn things in tech is a bit random, like there isn't much in the way of formal education and so what we know is based on whatever we happen to run into or what communities we're in. i really like the "says who?" :)

if I've misunderstood something fundamental (which happens!!) i try to reflect a

if I've misunderstood something fundamental (which happens!!) i try to reflect about what about my experiences led to that misunderstanding. Sometimes I can find a reason that that "fundamental" thing never really came up for me, or what it is about my experiences that's different from the norm

someone just emailed me yesterday to say that they think I might have made a mis

someone just emailed me yesterday to say that they think I might have made a mistake in explaining how `box-sizing: border-box` works on my blog! I don't know if it's a typo or mistake yet but if it's a mistake I think I'd try to remind myself that I love learning CSS and it's a great opportunity

if it’s something I do fairly often but can never remember then sometimes I hand

if it’s something I do fairly often but can never remember then sometimes I handle it by blaming the thing for being inherently impossible to remember or badly designed, sometimes i ask other people if they can remember it to try to get validation like i can’t learn jq and I blame jq for that :)

for me I think it depends on why I think I “should” know it? like if it’s a fac

for me I think it depends on why I think I “should” know it? like if it’s a fact i don’t use often (like “how to do depth first search”) i try to remind myself that it’s normal to forget things i use very rarely and that relearning it a second or third time is going to be really easy

aah congrats on the launch!! excited to read it, just saw my first copy in the w

aah congrats on the launch!! excited to read it, just saw my first copy in the wild

jvns pushed docs-feedback

RE: https://social.jvns.ca/@b0rk/117156827501888321 in case you missed it: wizar

RE: https://social.jvns.ca/@b0rk/117156827501888321 in case you missed it: wizard zines is now shipping European orders from Europe!

if you're dealing with a merge conflict in Git like this, how do you figure out

if you're dealing with a merge conflict in Git like this, how do you figure out which side the of the conflict comes from which branch? (you can pick more than one) FRUITS = [ "apple", >>>>>> add-fruit "orange", ] recognize the code you wrote look at the branch name (`add-fruit`) think about what “ours” and theirs” mean Other

jvns pushed docs-feedback

jvns pushed docs-feedback

jvns pushed docs-feedback

jvns pushed docs-feedback

jvns pushed docs-feedback

jvns pushed docs-feedback

poll: when you copy config files (or other important files) over SSH to a server

poll: when you copy config files (or other important files) over SSH to a server, do you: copy them directly to the intended place first put them in a staging location & move after it depends other

what's your favourite way to get a progress bar when copying a bunch of files ov

what's your favourite way to get a progress bar when copying a bunch of files over SSH? (tar/pv? rsync? something else?)

happy with fastmail.

happy with fastmail.

jvns pushed docs-feedback

I'm working on phase 2 of Project Improve Git's documentation and I need beta re

I'm working on phase 2 of Project Improve Git's documentation and I need beta readers! Here's a signup form: https://forms.gle/swn1jhCULndnCxG87 The first topic is going to the docs on merge conflicts. I'd love signups from anyone who uses Git on the command line and who would be interested in reading the current version of some man pages and leaving feedback about what's confusing. Especially if

interesting to read this article (in french) about how some movies are no longer

interesting to read this article (in french) about how some movies are no longer distributed https://www.lapresse.ca/cinema/chroniques/2024-04-26/repertoire-des-films-disparus.php the only way I could find one of the movies in this article was to borrow the DVD from the library, and then I bought a DVD player on fb marketplace to watch it (also the tray on the DVD player I got wouldn't open so I e

RE: https://social.jvns.ca/@b0rk_reruns/117163592714663123 this one has a PDF ve

RE: https://social.jvns.ca/@b0rk_reruns/117163592714663123 this one has a PDF version too at https://wizardzines.com/#posters

big news about the Wizard Zines store: print orders from Europe now ship from a

big news about the Wizard Zines store: print orders from Europe now ship from a European warehouse in Germany!!! We've been having a lot of issues with duties & fees for European customers because of shipping from the US so I'm very excited for this. get your zines here: https://wizardzines.com/ (and here's the shipping FAQ with all the details: https://store.wizardzines.com/pages/shipping-policy)

how do you think about how SSH public key authentication works (versus passwords

how do you think about how SSH public key authentication works (versus passwords) and what about your mental model makes you trust it? please only answer if you _don't_ understand the math of how RSA (or elliptic curves etc) works, I'm interested in exploring what it means to understand the interfaces around public key authentication without actually learning number theory (also obviously do not t

poll: do you prefer examples with: (you can pick more than one, trying to think

poll: do you prefer examples with: (you can pick more than one, trying to think about what my opinions are about the use of placeholders in examples) EDIT: please no more comments about the official recommended values for ip addresses and hostnames in documentation, try to think about that as a separate question a realistic/working value (`ping -c2 example.com`) a foobar-type placeholder (`ping -c

what are your favourite commands to run over ssh (like `ssh user@host "COMMAND"`

what are your favourite commands to run over ssh (like `ssh user@host "COMMAND"`)? the only thing I have in my history right now is: ssh user@host 'tcpdump -i any BPF_FILTER_GOES_HERE -w -' > out.pcap to quickly get a local pcap file

i'm contemplating writing something basic about copying files over ssh with rsyn

i'm contemplating writing something basic about copying files over ssh with rsync but the only thing I can think of is how I can never remember how the trailing slash works and it makes me avoid using rsync whenever possible

poll: when you first learned linux/unix, did you use (you can pick more than one

poll: when you first learned linux/unix, did you use (you can pick more than one): (not looking for extra details right now, I'm just reflecting on the role of "free internet resources" recently) a course (like a university course etc) free internet resources a book you bought informal mentorship (like a coworker etc)

wondering today about how people are intended to learn how to use openssh (as a

wondering today about how people are intended to learn how to use openssh (as a user, not as an administrator) https://www.openssh.org/ has the reference documentation, but I feel like there must be another document somewhere that's intended for use by beginners that I'm not finding i don't really know how various BSD projects think about documentation

jvns pushed mess-with-dns

jvns opened a pull request in docs

these SSH polls are reminding me that (though I'm not a security person) I'm a b

these SSH polls are reminding me that (though I'm not a security person) I'm a big believer that security systems should allow users to be inattentive and lazy and confused and to do the thing that seems the most convenient instead of the the thing that might be the most secure, and to still enable good security

another ssh poll: when SSHing to a new machine, have you ever checked that the k

another ssh poll: when SSHing to a new machine, have you ever checked that the key fingerprint is what it's supposed to be? the message: ------------------------------------------------ The authenticity of host 'ssh.nyc1.nearlyfreespeech.net (2607:ff18:1001:2::1:22)' can't be established. ED25519 key fingerprint is: SHA256:4ckOOn5g9ONLZ4M4LJo5VD4KkWaTNTMweFG1uHALdiQ This key is not known by any ot

another ssh poll: have you ever encountered a situation where this error message

another ssh poll: have you ever encountered a situation where this error message actually alerted you to an MITM attack? @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ @ WARNING: REMOTE HOST IDENTIFICATION HAS CHANGED! @ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ IT IS POSSIBLE THAT SOMEONE IS DOING SOMETHING NASTY! Someone could be eavesdropping on you right now (man-in-the-middle attack)! It is also possible that

been making a single-page app with https://pocketbase.io/ this week and it's bee

been making a single-page app with https://pocketbase.io/ this week and it's been a nice experience. I like making single-page JS apps with a Go backend API and this means that I don't have to write the Go backend. Really impressive project given that it's built by one person in their spare time.

jvns made this repository public