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I actually use the touchpad for scrolling even when I’m using a mouse. It’s a much better interface for that purpose.

It’s not the end of the world, but not everyone who uses Linux enjoys tinkering, some just want solid out of the box support for Ubuntu, Fedora, etc.

Brakenshireon The Framework Laptop

Looks like there’s some good progress for touchpad support on Linux:

https://bill.harding.blog/2021/02/11/linux-touchpad-like-a-m...

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26102894

Many millions of people will benefit, but the project only has 129 supporters, if anyone wants to chip in!

Brakenshireon The Framework Laptop

I think the particular problem for devices based on ARM SoCs is they’re not on the mainline kernel, support for hardware and for upgrading software relies on a whole pile of hacks on top of an ancient kernel version, and that means that upgrading to a new Android version requires applying a pile of new hacks on top again, and can be very laborious to get a reasonable, stable result. So Fairphone used a chipset whose manufacturer quickly dropped support for upgrading beyond a certain Android version, and that made it difficult for Fairphone to support the upgrade themselves.

Whereas if x86 systems have support on the mainline kernel, future kernel upgrades will be supported.

Brakenshireon OpenStreetMap charts a controversial new direction

I don’t want to reinforce your feeling (I can imagine exactly the pain you’re talking about) but isn’t there a legal requirement for map corrections to be published? They don’t have to go back into OSM, but they do have to be made available because of the share—a-like concept of the license. At least, I thought so.

Brakenshireon OpenStreetMap charts a controversial new direction

I find the license very confusing - does any dataset generated from the database have to be released freely to anyone who asks? Or is it only a customer that purchases the dataset? Where is the distinction between a product of the db and the db, which are subject to different terms? For anything which isn’t displaying a standard base map it is confusing.

Brakenshireon Tauri: An Electron alternative written in Rust

Pity they can’t use Servo as the rendering engine, even if it only deals with a small subset of style/layout properties. That kind of parallel layout engine should make building fluid 60fps interfaces a lot easier.

Brakenshireon Dyson air purifier outperformed by cheap DIY box fan filter in Marketplace test

Do you sell them or give them away? Tell me how you haven’t thrown away a whole series of functional vacuum cleaners.

Brakenshireon OpenStreetMap proven to be a highly accurate map in top US cities

Thanks, that’s interesting, it doesn’t match with my reading of the guidelines, again, glad if I’m reading them wrong and you can correct me.

https://wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Licence/Community_Guidel...

It says clearly there that the underlying database for a produced work has to be published. So can a competitor not just request the derived database directly from a company selling the API?

Also, “ If the published result of your project is intended for the extraction of the original data, then it is a database and not a Produced Work” - does that not exactly describe an API? It talks about mugs, data visualisations, map images, physical maps and so on as produced works. I thought this meant you could protect (i.e. not release) essentially a styling of map data, but not the map data itself, which must be released.

Brakenshireon OpenStreetMap proven to be a highly accurate map in top US cities

I’ll give a contrived example, say you’re a property startup, and you want to produce a walkability rating for each house you sell. You might want to do a calculation on OSM for restaurants within 5 minutes walk, maybe a chef rating for whether there’s a greengrocer, fishmonger, delicatessen and butcher within walking distance, or you want to take into account a walk back from the train station and the opening times to see whether the shops are still open after someone comes back from their commute. This is the kind of thing which would be interesting for big cities with a lot of commuting by public transport.

My understanding is if you did this with OSM data you’d either have to make the algorithm that did the calculation public, or the output dataset (locations as keys and the final ratings for each as values).

OSM has exceptions for horizontal slicing (layer separate data on top of an OSM basemap), for vertical slicing (union OSM data with separate data) and for trivial manipulations, but it seems it doesn’t if you do this kind of non-trivial processing of OSM data.

So that means that it’s almost impossible for a company to find an interesting way of processing the data which can give them an advantage over a direct competitor, and there’s no real incentive to do so.

This is my reading of the terms from a few months back, hopefully I’m wrong about it. But I suspect this is why it’s rare to see the data being used like this.

Brakenshireon OpenStreetMap proven to be a highly accurate map in top US cities

The problem I have with OpenStreetMap is the license, it seems you can use an OSM derived base map and then layer anything else on top without problems, but you cannot process the data or mix in proprietary data without releasing the algorithm or the final dataset. So any competitive advantage derived from processing the data has to be immediately made open.

So you see a lot of use of OSM as a base map, but very little use as a mapping database for commercial applications. I see why they did this, to prevent companies taking their data to bootstrap a closed competitor, but the consequence is that the data is locked in and is getting much less use than you’d hope as a database.

Brakenshireon South Africa suspends rollout of Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine

That’s from two different producers, one is AZ in Europe, the other the Serum Institute in India. Maybe they just have different costs.

Brakenshireon Python’s tug of war between beginner-friendly and advanced features

If anyone has any recommendations for good ways to pick up this knowledge except by attrition, I’d be interested in hearing them!

Brakenshireon Rome in 3D

Would love for someone to buy up the rights to use the engine and models for Assassin’s Creed and develop stories which are historically realistic.

Brakenshireon Dasung just released a 25 inch eInk monitor

You might be interested in this:

https://www.pcmag.com/news/waveshares-e-paper-displays-work-...

Brakenshireon UK and EU agree Brexit trade deal

> The big non-EU headquartered institutions have had offices and branches in multiple non-UK EU jurisdictions dating back decades and have served eg local major corporates out of those offices this way for a long time.

How does this work out of interest? Could this office be very small, just with a presence and perhaps the capital to meet compliance, and then just refer onwards to staff outside the EU, or is there some expectation the work is done inside the territory?

Brakenshireon UK and EU agree Brexit trade deal

Ironically the widely proposed alternative to EU freedom of movement is freedom of movement within the CANZUK group of countries. It's got 70-80% popularity in all the proposed constituent countries.

Brakenshireon UK and EU agree Brexit trade deal

Good point, presumably the UK could just recognize qualifications unilaterally though. It's actually a situation on the import side has a clear an unequivocal incentive to recognize the standards of the other country, to draw in talent, and not lose it to the other party. It's the one case where each country wants as much of a trade deficit as possible!

Brakenshireon UK and EU agree Brexit trade deal

Surely Goldman Sachs already have an office in Frankfurt.

It's interesting to me what would fall foul of the new limitations. If the call is taken from someone in Frankfurt and they forward it on to someone in London, does that count? How about if they work in a team together? Or if the Frankfurt banker asks advice from someone in London. It seems difficult to draw a line there. I'm not really clear whether it's just about having a local subsidiary for compliance purposes, or whether it literally means no assistance at all, or what.

Brakenshireon UK and EU agree Brexit trade deal

That actually isn't true:

> As an EU member, the UK was automatically part of about 40 trade deals which the EU had with more than 70 countries. In 2018, these deals represented about 11% of total UK trade.

> So far, 29 of these existing deals, covering 58 countries or territories, have been rolled over and will start on 1 January 2021. The latest deal to be struck was with Mexico on 15 December.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-47213842

Brakenshireon UK and EU agree Brexit trade deal

"I submit that there is no such thing as an average guy who voted for Brexit because of 300MM per week more for the NHS."

It was the overwhelming centrepiece of the Leave campaign, are you really saying it had no effect?

Brakenshireon UK and EU agree Brexit trade deal

Priti Patel absolutely was. Rishi Sunak was a Leave supporter but not prominent because he was elected only a year or two before. Sajid Javid was Business Secretary in the Cameron government, supporter of a referendum, and a fairly reluctant Remain supporter. Nevertheless these are all prominent figures in the highest positions of power in governments enacting Brexit, and pursuing hard-Brexit options.

Brakenshireon UK and EU agree Brexit trade deal

I think the "not a bad deal, just a different set of terms" is key. This isn't or shouldn't be about trying to get one over on the other side, the UK and the EU are not in a zero sum game, clearly levels of trade integration require harmonization of regulation, some countries are going to be happy with that in particular areas, some aren't, and to decline to integrate has economic consequences within that local context. And similarly just because the UK doesn't want to be part of the EU political union, that's not some calculated insult, it's just something we aren't happy to do. Not every partner of the EU needs to be part of the EU.

Brakenshireon UK and EU agree Brexit trade deal

How about Priti Patel and Rishi Sunak, current holders of two of the great offices of state. And the previous chancellor Sajid Javid? Or the previous PM Theresa May, or the previous Home Secretary Amber Rudd? Or arch-Brexiteer Andrea Leadsom. The ERG does fit that caricature to a certain extent but the mainstream Conservative party and its leadership doesn't.

And whether they do or don't it doesn't mean their politics is any more or less enlightened. If we're going to pick an axis to complain about it should be quite clearly be class, not gender or race.

Or just judge people on their individual actions or position of privilege.

I don't suddenly feel all warm and fuzzy about Rishi Sunak, who made millions off subprime and is now richer than the Queen, or Sajid Javid who was at the heart of disastrous decision-making from Deutsche Bank before the 2008 crisis and now fabulously wealthy as a result, because they're from ethnic minorities.

Brakenshireon UK and EU agree Brexit trade deal

40% of UK to EU exports were services. Although how deep the actual single market in services was in reality, and what the cost is of losing that, is difficult for me to grasp.

Brakenshireon UK and EU agree Brexit trade deal

Oh, interesting, I hadn't considered how those territories worked. They're not in a customs union with the US then?

Brakenshireon UK and EU agree Brexit trade deal

you've got to get a visa to go over to the rest of the US now.

For business yes, for tourism no.

And you'll need to pay tariffs to get good in or out.

This is a zero tariff agreement.

And you'll need to abide by our laws on those import and exports, things like emissions for cars, pesticides, safety regulations, that stuff.

Yes, but that applies for all exports/imports under any circumstances.

Brakenshireon UK and EU agree Brexit trade deal

https://www.gov.uk/visit-europe-1-january-2021/business-trav...

As well as the actions all travellers need to take, there are extra actions if you’re travelling to the EU for business.

Business travel includes activities such as travelling for meetings and conferences, providing services (even with a charity), and touring art or music.

Entry requirements The country you’re travelling to might have its own entry requirements, or ask you to have certain documents.

Check the entry requirements for the country you’re visiting.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-24/johnson-i...

The deal doesn’t include any mutual recognition of conformity assessment [...] meaning firms will have to pay the regulatory cost of certification twice if they wish to sell their products in both the U.K. and the bloc

Brakenshireon UK and EU agree Brexit trade deal

It’s like saying to a US state, would you rather have seats in Congress, or would you rather federal law be optional.

Brakenshireon UK and EU agree Brexit trade deal

My understanding is Schengen is about physical infrastructure and managing visas for third parties, and the EU about the actual rights for member state citizens. The UK was never in Schengen, and that meant that a French person coming to the UK could be stopped at the border, but they would be let through on the basis of rights enshrined in the EU.