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kbr2000on TCL: The Tool Command Language – Lisp for the Masses [video]

Eggdrop [0] and BitchX [1] come to mind. Irssi [2] has a plugin that enables Tcl scripting.

I'm currently fiddling with TkCAD [3] in order to put a small CNC machine to use here, it needs some small adaptations to work on Linux, but I think it's a nice find!

[0] https://eggheads.org/

[1] http://bitchx.sourceforge.net/

[2] https://irssi.org/

[3] https://github.com/revarbat/TkCAD

kbr2000on TCL: The Tool Command Language – Lisp for the Masses [video]

On Debian GNU/Linux Tkinter is provided by the python-tk package (might differ in other distros).

kbr2000on Ligne Claire

Don't know if it helps, but the dutch [0] and french [1] versions of the page contain some more detail and sections on similar styles.

You could also try to inform yourself at the Belgian comic strip museum [2]

[0] https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klare_lijn

[1] https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ligne_claire

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belgian_Comic_Strip_Center

kbr2000on The Advantages of Flexible Typing

I'd say the idea is that the implementation of a command/procedure needs to do the checking. In your example, arithmetic addition is usually provided by expr [0], which checks the expression it is fed before trying to calculate anything.

When you would like to concatenate strings (including numbers), you would use quoting or commands/procs made for that purpose instead.

[0] https://tcl.tk/man/tcl/TclCmd/expr.htm

kbr2000on John Swartzwelder, Sage of “The Simpsons”

Where's the interview? I see just two paragraphs introduction, and then a list of links to (unrelated) books and articles.

kbr2000on The Nokia N900: the future that wasn’t

I thought long about buying another N9 second-hand, but in the meanwhile MeeGo/Harmattan has been abandoned, and I never succeeded with installing the Mer [0] project (revived Maemo/MeeGo successor). I'm using my phone regularly to program and run simple applications for my own use. For this I've used Tclkit [1] a lot on the N9 (and the N770).

I'm now more thinking about continuing that using AndroWish [2] instead (Tcl/Tk on Android).

My N9 in better times did exactly that when someone called, but now the screen stays black and nothing reacts (it still rings though). I don't know what causes this, because out of the sleep mode then touchscreen works fine. I have to pull out the SIM everytime as such, put it back in and log back into the network (and then often call back myself ofcourse ;)). Not going to bother anymore, but I suspect a software problem. It also started to crash/hang it's applications from time to time.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MeeGo#Mer

[1] https://www.equi4.com/tclkit/

[2] https://www.androwish.org/

kbr2000on Interview with CEO of rsync.net: “no firewalls and no routers”

Your reasoning could be applied when there is low number of users doing not-so-urgent-nor-important-things. However, the service is provided for a lot of users at the same time here, spread globally and all with their own applications and problems, and accordingly the total impact could potentially be much bigger.

Having the handicap of needing to wait 3-4 hours before being able to access your backups in an emergency, could make a day-and-night difference for continuity.

So I would argue it has nothing to do with "being a backup service", but rather that their users could afford a 3-4 hours of waiting. Or that they don't think like that.

kbr2000on The Nokia N900: the future that wasn’t

I'm still using my N9, and I'm holding my SIM card in place using a big rubber band wrapped twice along the longer side of the phone :)

Lately the "main" button has been failing, and since tapping the screen doesn't get it out of sleep anymore, I can't pick up calls anymore. So to access the phone, I get out the SIM and re-insert it.

It's time to abandon it here too, but it was an excellent phone in use for almost 10y.

kbr2000on Julia receives DARPA award to accelerate electronics simulation

Mmmn, HN stripped out the half of the double asterisks, now I made it confusing myself... Too late to edit my comment above, but it needs to be like this:

** stands for exponentiation: so [expr {-2**2}] results in 4

kbr2000on Julia receives DARPA award to accelerate electronics simulation

In Tcl's expr:

^ stands for bitwise XOR: so [expr {-2^2}] results in -4

* stands for exponentiation: so [expr {-2*2}] results in 4

Both seem correct to me, taking into account how integers are represented in binary (two's complement for the negative ones).

With regards to debugging dynamic programming languages, it is different as compared to their static counterparts, since much is delayed to happen at runtime (as opposed to at compilation time). But it also opens up possibilities (like introspection, ability to intervene in the scripts while they run, ...). It requires a different mindset.

kbr2000on Free Land – Living Off Grid With No Money

https://arachnoid.com/

kbr2000on How Vulnerable Is the World?

Here's some scenarios (2001, served with humor): https://web.archive.org/web/20120224142545/http://www.exitmu...

kbr2000on How to Destroy the Earth (2006)

Also, this classic 2001 website, for your entertainment:

Exit Mundi ... A collection of end-of-world scenarios [0]

[0] https://web.archive.org/web/20120918050149/http://www.exitmu...

kbr2000on Cyberpunk 2077 a 'warning' about the future

Heh, maybe you remember Syndicate (1993) [0], "set in a dystopian future in which corporations have replaced governments, Syndicate puts the player in control of a corporation vying for global dominance. "

Ironically, the creators themselves at Bullfrog Productions got a very bitter tasting cookie [1] around that time selling to EA, cut from the same dough...

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syndicate_(1993_video_game)

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullfrog_Productions#Acquisiti...

kbr2000on Ask HN: What's your favorite “forgotten” technology / software?

XyWrite, WordStar (word processing)

Forth, Tcl/Tk programming

ARCNET token-bus networking

Wire-wrap technique for electronic circuit boards

kbr2000on Developing with Squeak on a Cellphone

Androwish [0] is worthy of this, and has many batteries included!

[0] http://androwish.org/

kbr2000on A trip through the Graphics Pipeline (2011)

You could also check out James Bowman's "Gameduino" line of graphics boards [0:2] (which includes a Forth-programmable CPU, the J1 [3], implemented on FPGA)

[0] https://excamera.com/sphinx/gameduino/

[1] https://excamera.com/sphinx/gameduino2/

[2] https://excamera.com/sphinx/gameduino3/

[3] https://excamera.com/sphinx/fpga-j1.html

kbr2000on Boa: an experimental Javascript lexer, parser and compiler written in Rust

The older boa: http://www.boa.org/

kbr2000on Why Forth Isn't Slow (1985)

Indeed! Go wild: http://forth.org/fd/contents.html

kbr2000on Microsoft 365 Outage

Why are your software developers doing "network IT maintenance and infrastructure" in the first place? Is it because of "DevOps" maybe?

It's one thing to experience the sysadmin practise getting taken over by developers. The next thing is usually the latter needing to be "freed" from this burden... Seems like a big fad.

kbr2000on Use long flags when scripting (2013)

The real shortcut here is the next person wanting to google every answer (instead of taking the time to read part of a manpage).

kbr2000on It was more efficient to blow up a real 747 than to use miniatures or CGI

Indiana Jones special effects were pretty interesting too in that regard:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lN4weKvqmb8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YceegyOXzh0

kbr2000on Bubble barriers: a smart solution to plastic pollution in rivers

And as soon as the wind stops and the sun gets obscured by clouds or the earth, the bubbles stop, and off goes the plastic :) Apart from that, I'd think that the amount of energy required to move the air down is massive. Also, not sure wear and tear on the (plastic) structure can be handled in a sensible manner over the long-term...

kbr2000on Bullshitters: Who Are They and What Do We Know about Their Lives? (2019) [pdf]

You're right, but that doesn't take away your capability to say "NO" and go against that stream of bullshit. Caveat: you'll probably lose everything except your morality at that point. That's how it's all set up after all...

kbr2000on Sir David Attenborough makes stark warning about species extinction

Hey, you can be proud for having spent time thinking about it to start with. And for having tried! Feeling responsible for it yourself alone is not necessary, it's bigger than that.

Here's a thought or two by Attenborough on overpopulation, one of the drivers of these problems [0]

The problem will solve itself however (with certainty), and I cannot explain it better than George Carlin [1]. Enjoy!

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRPmLWYbUqA

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7W33HRc1A6c

kbr2000on Bootstrapping a Forth in 40 lines of Lua code (2008)

Agreed; also, this book is golden: Threaded Interpretive Languages (R. G. Loeliger)

kbr2000on The surreal art of ‘unnatural lighting’

Likely a web-server misconfiguration (check out name-based virtual hosting[0]). Adding a trailing dot after the TLD (this signifies the root of the DNS naming hierarchy) works fine, and you're referring now to an absolute name (FQDN). How this get handled afterwards at the webserver side, depends not just on the resolved IP, but on the name itself (which is passed from client to server in the HTTP Host: header). And that's where this might fall apart if the administrator didn't provide for this situation.

[0] https://httpd.apache.org/docs/current/vhosts/name-based.html

kbr2000on No Hello (2013)

  From: Pointy-haired Boss <boss@manag.dept>
  Subject:

  Are you in the office today to sit together?

  phb.

kbr2000on DIY Satellite Ground Station to Receive NOAA Images

Oops, lost my memory there for a bit: it was probably using the same DIY "Hamcomm modem", and using JVFAX (or similar) software running under DOS.

kbr2000on Canon's cloud platform has lost users' files and can't restore them

Best avoid putting all your eggs in the same basket (build in some degree of redundancy in storing information, dependant on how important that info is to you).